Cropover Soca

Just a post to share some of my fave cropover tunes thus far. Some or most of these names will not familiar. Most people only know about Lil Rick, Stabby, Skinny Fabulous, Alison Hinds, Krosfyah etc...Well there's also Hypa Dog, Hypa Kids, Blood and Mikey to name a few. Will never forget this year watching Intl Soca Monarch and when Blood came on I jumped up and start singing along and doing the dance for the song. *cue side eye from all my friends* Not one of them knew the song or who he was and this man beat Lil Rick for the road march. So get familiar!

Yes I included 'd sheep song'. I couldnt resist, its so silly I crack up everytime I hear it!

BONUS TRACK

The song everyone loves to hate

Power X 4 2011 CropOver Presentation

Earlier tonight Power x 4 emailed their 'special mailing list' which consists of their version of 'TLC Cardholders' (back when TLC meant something), a sneak preview of their 2011 presentation. When I first saw this email I did a double take, checked the date on the email, asked my Bajan friends if there was some mistake, because surely Px4 was not doing the same theme again. And of course even if they did more effort would be put into designing, rather than just putting different color beading on the same bra styles etc. But no...sadly this is the real 2011 presentation. Just to highlight the similarities I included some of the 2010 designs. Although the link did include pics of the headpieces, which are a step up from last year and the bikini bottoms, it was in flash player and I was unable to download the actual pics.




P.S. Early registration for PX4 starts on Monday May 16th.

2011 COSTUMES

2010 COSTUMES (Sample)

To say I am disappointed would be putting it mildly, I can't believe in this day and age when everyone else is trying to step their costume game up Power X 4 would engage in such lackadaisical designing. I mean how is it that St Lucia has a smaller Carnival yet the costumes from Red and Just 4 fun are far better than anything I've seen Power x 4 put out over the last three years?? Couple this with my less than stellar experience with them last year and I think I'm going to have to pass on playing with them again this year.

O The Uncertainty! (and tonight's disappointment)

Doing some deeeep digging in an effort to determine whether or not the 2011 Crop Over parade will be a two day or one day affair. The Trinijunglejuice calendar says 2 days but the official Crop Over calendar that I previously posted said one. Today i found out that last year the government of Barbados actually switched their emancipation holiday to the Tuesday after Kadooment Day but...there was still only a one day jump up so thats apparently irrelevant. I sure wish they would issue something official sometime soon so I could start looking at dates and tickets.

**UPDATE: Trinijunglejuice is of the opinion that despite last year's announcement of a 2 day parade (and the dates on their calendar) there will be a one day jump up this year.

SIDENOTE: According to the Honorable Minister of Planning, Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs, Mary King tonight, costumes pieces should not be imported because they can be produced cheaper in trinidad. O really now? Now quality questions aside, if that was the case wouldn't the bands have been producing these pieces locally to save themselves some production costs? I was honestly looking forward to speaking with Mr. Winston Peters tonight, assuming that this forum would be similar to the one I attended last year. Turns out it wasn't and Mr. Peters didn't even show. So my questions on the logistics of where the manpower for this proposal will come from, the issue of the likelihood that any additional costs incurred will be passed on to the masqueraders etc will go unanswered, for now.

Cropover plannings

so here I was dilly-dallying on booking my ticket..waiting with bated breath in the hopes that Bdos would really have a two day Kadooment this year and then yesterday I come across the official schedule and Kadooment day is listed as only August 1st :( . I was really looking forward to another two day festival but...o well. It makes St Lucia Carnival all the more appealing though, as they have a 2 day jump up.I included the official crop over calendar below, as taken from the website http://www.barbadoscropoverfestival.com/.




In other news this is a whole world of planning that I need to get done, tickets, accomodation (there is talk of renting a beachhouse) and who I'm going to drag along with me as I am determined to get at least two of my trini friends to participate this year! Also I need to decide on whether or not I will make the move from PowerX4 to Baje International as honestly while I enjoyed myself last year there was definitely room for improvement. My main concerns were that we started hours later than we should have, resulting in our band being the last on the road. Then we had a lot of stormers and a lot of ppl chippin with the band and half my time was spent outside the rope as I felt seriously clustrophobic when i was actually in the band. Also when I took a good look at Baje's costumes it is obvious that they put more effort into actually following the theme and being creative in their costume design and execution, at least more so that PowerX4. Switching bands is all dependent on getting trinis to play with me as all my bajan friends play with PowerX4 so hopefully I can convince them to jump and keep me company.

Bask in d Glowww!

Innovative Parking

Krosfyah!

Edwin Yearwood :)

So Glow fete was sorta worth the $30 USD/ $60 BD price tag. Not being a fan of parties that are not all-inclusive I had some apprehension about this but I am sooo glad I chose this over Frazzled, which was about the same price but as far as I know had no performances and finished waay before Glow. We left Glow around 5am and the party was still goin...whereas only silence was coming from the Frazzled venue.

VENUE: The venue was well decorated, with great placement of the bars and bathrooms relative to the stage and main dancing floor so there was a smooth flow of foot traffic. The bar had a chit system which didnt really make sense to me as you could literally buy the chits from one woman and then take one step to the right and buy your drink with the chits...seemed unnecesary. Parking was terrible! People parked all up on the pavement, on the nearby roundabout, etc. To be fair though some of the cars may have belonged to the Frazzled Mug Fete which was held across the street.

VIBE: The vibe was good as well, not tooo hype but you could tell everyone was enjoying themselves, so much so that not even a lil rain cud spoil that fete, ppl just kept right on jammin and wukkin up.

PERFORMANCES: Too many to even remember them all. Krosfyah to Alison Hinds to the reigning soca monarch Blood to my personal fave Stabby and more! P.S. I got to meet Stabby :D #groupielove lol The Hypa Kids also came out and performed their hit 'Happy Feet' and swear they get more forward than some of the soca veterans. Doh talk for when small man took charge and started issuing directions, it was too cute, especially when he told the band to wheel n come again lol

What struck me most about this party was that not having been to trini carnival in so long (5 years) I got accustomed to only seeing big headliners like Machel and Bunji perform at the intl carnivals. So it was a welcome change to see all my faves performed live ESPECIALLY Krosfyah's set as they performed nuff oldies...sigh...it was like Private Ryan's groovy soca mix come to life.