tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31423629871318784522024-02-19T01:46:20.769+00:00MAS REPUBLICSince MASSASSINATION is a blog that reflects the personal views and opinions of the MAS ASSASSIN on Carnival and Masbands, through MAS REPUBLIC the MAS ASSASSIN hopes to highlight all things Carnival and Carnival like without the bias of opinion, MAS REPUBLIC is for your information...until I otherwise see it fit.MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.comBlogger375125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-76014848184129522392019-06-19T21:39:00.001+01:002019-06-19T21:42:22.943+01:00MASSASSINATION.: Rapture 2019: ADDICTED Theme pictures and Syno...<a href="https://massassination.blogspot.com/2019/06/rapture-2019-addicted-theme-pictures.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: Rapture 2019: ADDICTED Theme pictures and Syno...</a>: In 2019, Addicted Mas will be celebrating 10 years of existence at Notting Hill Carnival, whilst tapping into the energies that ...<br />
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<br />MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-43553862533826462542018-09-15T23:30:00.001+01:002018-09-15T23:30:53.869+01:00MASSASSINATION.: NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 2018 ADDICTED MAS ZENITH<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2018/09/notting-hill-carnival-2018-addicted-mas.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 2018 ADDICTED MAS ZENITH</a>: Monday August 27th 2018. Addicted Mas took to the streets of Notting hill with 'Zenith'. A great time was had by all, here's ...MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-5021293910471595812018-06-29T05:37:00.001+01:002018-06-29T05:40:14.479+01:00MASSASSINATION.: ADDICTED MAS 2018: ZENITH : Synopsis and costumes....<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2018/06/addicted-mas-2018-zenith-synopsis-and.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: ADDICTED MAS 2018: ZENITH : Synopsis and costumes....</a>: Zenith: The time in which something is at its most powerful or successful. It is also a point of time when the sun is at its highes...<br />
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MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-85921088233081647252018-06-29T04:44:00.001+01:002018-06-29T04:44:07.627+01:00Bacchannal brewing over Harts Carnival band | Local News | trinidadexpress.com<a href="https://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/local/bacchannal-brewing-over-harts-carnival-band/article_4d3d86d0-794c-11e8-811b-57dbb61e36a9.html">Bacchannal brewing over Harts Carnival band | Local News | trinidadexpress.com</a>MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-16839995083001204752018-03-11T19:23:00.003+00:002018-03-11T19:23:47.755+00:00MASSASSINATION.: NCC hat-trick for Ronnie & Caro<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2018/02/ncc-hat-trick-for-ronnie-caro.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: NCC hat-trick for Ronnie & Caro</a>: Ronnie and Caro Mas Band have retained their National Carnival Commission (NCC) Band of the Year title for their 2018 presentation of Lif...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11532681828021620553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-66300271785523696682018-03-11T19:23:00.001+00:002018-03-11T19:23:04.009+00:00MASSASSINATION.: 2018 Queen and King of Carnival<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2018/02/2018-queen-and-king-of-carnival.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: 2018 Queen and King of Carnival</a>: Roxanne Omalo achieved her goal earlier today, when at about 1.45 am, she was declared the 2018 Queen of Carnival while veteran masquerad...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11532681828021620553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-27683100717667349092018-03-11T19:21:00.001+00:002018-03-11T19:21:39.539+00:00MASSASSINATION.: Pretty mas killing ancestral mas in Carnival<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2018/03/pretty-mas-killing-ancestral-mas-in.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: Pretty mas killing ancestral mas in Carnival</a>: What traditions are we losing in our Carnival, how can we bring them back and what have we not yet explored? This was the main theme of...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11532681828021620553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-14367384953948744422018-03-11T12:57:00.000+00:002018-03-11T12:57:38.929+00:00Champion mas designer Caroline Mc Intosh<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdheGybkuvcWN-wpeHIgLJv44w2NM9Th407_7xAu3PRM-8udGhQhEWZM8WLO5xHbCPkPFcqJoeyfb8eay-rPDZCdhm3PQKy8SkuDHzBzrTVWOm5a8U0XAisA3Cfm4OAvrD3TfHxhvIpPO/s1600/Ronnie+and+Caro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="400" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdheGybkuvcWN-wpeHIgLJv44w2NM9Th407_7xAu3PRM-8udGhQhEWZM8WLO5xHbCPkPFcqJoeyfb8eay-rPDZCdhm3PQKy8SkuDHzBzrTVWOm5a8U0XAisA3Cfm4OAvrD3TfHxhvIpPO/s400/Ronnie+and+Caro.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Georgia, Tahoma; font-size: 14.4px; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.48px;">.the quiet fire that fuels Ronnie & Caro</span></div>
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Ronnie & Caro have won Band of the Year titles as medium and large band, in competitions in the Queen’s Park Savannah and Downtown Port-of- Spain at least a dozen times. While bandleader Ronnie Mc Intosh is easily recognised as a frontline vocalist for some top music bands as a past Soca Monarch but not many people know the silent force behind Mc Intosh, not just as an entertainer but as a success mas band leader and winning Band of the Year figure.</div>
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T&T Guardian Features/ Arts & Entertainment Editor Peter Ray Blood located Mc Intosh’s wife, Caroline, designer of the mas presentations of Ronnie & Caro, the band everyone wants to beat in mas for Carnival 2018, and asked her the following ten questions.</div>
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Q: How long have you been designing costumes / clothing? Who was your inspiration?</div>
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A: I have been designing costumes / clothing around the same time; since I was eight.</div>
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My mother was my inspiration. She was such a fashionable woman.</div>
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Did you do art at school? If so, what school did you attend?</div>
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I attended Providence Girls. No, I did not do art at school. I enjoyed making dolls clothing though.</div>
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What do you think of Carnival today, compared to yesteryear? What do you think of the portrayals of today?</div>
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Yesteryear masqueraders drove around in trucks with rope all around their bands for their safety. Now masqueraders parade on the streets with rope around their= bands, still for their safety. Same but different; portrayals. To my mind designers then and now have the same ambition, “that is to create costumes that their masqueraders are happy and comfortable with.” Some like a lot of fabric others don’t so I design for both.</div>
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Do you think the Government should invest more into culture, ie Carnival, ie mas, calypso, pan, chutney soca, stickfighting etc?</div>
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Absolutely. Trinidad Carnival, named ‘The greatest show on Earth,” is a great tourist attraction this assists with revenue that comes into the country, and enriches the state. Pre-Carnival activities calypso, pan chutney soca, stick fighting etc create jobs, showcases our talent and provides employment.</div>
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How do you combine being a mother, wife, designer, mas band leader?</div>
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Ronnie and I, we have a good relationship. We take turns in doing stuff. He cooks, I clean and so on; that takes care of being a wife and mother.</div>
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While I enjoy designing and buying for the band, Ronnie does the PRO and handles the road.|</div>
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If you were not designing for Ronnie & Caro, which mas designer / band would you want to I give play mas with? Why?</div>
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That’s a tough one. Lol. I will pass on that one.</div>
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How have your parents inspired / motivated you into becoming a designer / bandleader?</div>
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My mother loved carnival. I remember coming home from school and seeing the house full with macrame costumes for Peter Minshall’s band Dance Macabre.</div>
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I played my first big people mas when I was eight. I started showing mummy my ideas. It’s in my blood.</div>
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Do you think we are losing the traditional way of making mas, bending wire etc?</div>
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Not really. Wire bending is a skill. Wire bras are in demand. There aren’t enough wire benders to supply. Most of our shoulder pieces/ headpieces are done by wire benders.</div>
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Do you think that we are losing our creativity in mas?</div>
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Absolutely not. So many more people are designing and creating different aspects of the mas. There is change in every thing we do.</div>
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What have you designed for C2K18? What is your goal for C2K18? What are your future plans in mas / design?</div>
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The name of our C2K18 presentation is Life’s Checkered Board. My goal is to create the best band ever. My future plan for mas/ design is to rock the carnival scene in 2019.</div>
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<a datatype="" href="http://www.guardian.co.tt/byline-authors/paula-lindo" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" style="color: red; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: 0.48px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" typeof="skos:Concept">Paula Lindo</a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.tt/life-lead/2018-02-10/champion-mas-designer-caroline-mc-intosh" target="_blank">trinidadguardian</a></div>
MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-13192630310615465622017-10-06T07:06:00.003+01:002017-10-06T07:09:15.793+01:00Gombey Festival expanded<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRnY8DUtnpvNiyTj0wOEVmwIy363FvmG-iYlnZk9PWDoz2SrIGpx2baqg-j0zba2OMtUbbZjwiEpeQ1TUODx_uxyJ5PMrpEFr5RqeaoY39JEv48d6iCIcFQV7bYlNzPkkYUv5o5hCFg08/s1600/gomby.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="483" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRnY8DUtnpvNiyTj0wOEVmwIy363FvmG-iYlnZk9PWDoz2SrIGpx2baqg-j0zba2OMtUbbZjwiEpeQ1TUODx_uxyJ5PMrpEFr5RqeaoY39JEv48d6iCIcFQV7bYlNzPkkYUv5o5hCFg08/s320/gomby.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Gombey Warriors at the 2016 festival (File photograph by Akil Simmons)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The 2017 Bermuda International Gombey Festival has been expanded from a one-day event to an entire weekend, beginning tomorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Social development minister Zane DeSilva said: “I want to encourage the public to come out and enjoy this dazzling, energetic, cultural display.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">“To have so many of the troupes gather together in celebration of our proud heritage is an opportunity not to be missed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">“I am particularly excited about the expansion of the festival this year to include several events over four days; rather than just one event on one day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">“The event was so popular last year that we have had to move the main event, on Saturday, to a larger venue to accommodate more spectators.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The Gombey Festival is held annually to provide continued exposure to the folk art traditions of this important cultural heritage. The late Terry “Termite” Simmons will be honoured at this year’s festival.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Events include:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">• Thursday: MASKulinity: traditions of the Bermuda Gombey. Art showcase mingle at Bermuda Society of Arts, from 5pm to 7pm.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">• Friday: The Persistence of Tradition: Masking in West Africa, Haiti and Bermuda. Dr Kenneth E. Robinson/Cyril Outerbridge Packwood Memorial Lecture, with Chika Okeke-Agulu, associate professor at Department of African American Studies, Princeton University, at Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, from 7pm. Tickets at Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">• Saturday: Bermuda International Gombey Festival Showcase at Botanical Gardens, main show ring, from 5pm to 9pm.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">• Sunday: Gombey Festival Weekend Sundowner at Tobacco Bay, from 4pm to 9pm.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">• Sunday: Trust Talk, The Bermuda Gombey, Origins and Evolution at Verdmont, 6 Verdmont Lane, off Collectors Hill, Smith’s, from 1.30pm. Cost $20 to members, $25 for non-members.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> source: <a href="http://www.royalgazette.com/news/article/20171004/gombey-festival-expanded">the royal gazette</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.royalgazette.com/assets/pdf/RG374030103.pdf">pdf</a> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11532681828021620553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-71373758351224892102017-10-06T03:19:00.001+01:002017-10-06T03:21:21.847+01:00MASSASSINATION.: AFRO DOMINI; THE ADDICTED SYNOPSIS AND THEME FOR N...<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2017/07/afro-domini-addicted-synopsis-and-theme.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: AFRO DOMINI; THE ADDICTED SYNOPSIS AND THEME FOR N...</a>: The year is A.D. 2017 and the Addicted Mas section invites you to join us on a journey of realisation, revelation, enlightenment and ne...<br />
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MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-9584996581622307872016-08-02T00:59:00.001+01:002016-08-02T01:35:08.072+01:00MASSASSINATION.: 7th HEAVEN: THE ADDICTED SYNOPSIS FOR N.H.C 2016<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2016/08/7th-heaven-addicted-synopsis-for-nhc.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: 7th HEAVEN: THE ADDICTED SYNOPSIS FOR N.H.C 2016</a>: In 2010 ADDICTED exploded on to the streets of Notting Hill carnival with our presentation “ Chaos ” Seven years later Addicted invites...<br />
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<br />MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-27430021623331541712015-11-22T00:10:00.001+00:002015-11-22T00:10:55.226+00:00MASSASSINATION.: Mas Man’ Film on Peter Minshall Continues Awards S...<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2015/11/mas-man-film-on-peter-minshall.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: Mas Man’ Film on Peter Minshall Continues Awards S...</a>: Mas Man, a film about artist-designer Peter Minshall, produced and directed by Dalton Narine, won the Long Beach International Film Fes...<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhBQt6vnKAAV8sGjFI1pgzBH_o9GZ3fgtsB7JsX9Nlpv6rK2uaHCTmTx92En5_t2phPOGFKnS8N_Lo2nxx90ADH0yBlRHuwAWItZaLcjDIXEoHP2GPStlRWysRycmQPbppLb5UU9vjoXOF/s1600/MasManPoster-TIF+%25281%2529.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhBQt6vnKAAV8sGjFI1pgzBH_o9GZ3fgtsB7JsX9Nlpv6rK2uaHCTmTx92En5_t2phPOGFKnS8N_Lo2nxx90ADH0yBlRHuwAWItZaLcjDIXEoHP2GPStlRWysRycmQPbppLb5UU9vjoXOF/s1600/MasManPoster-TIF+%25281%2529.tif" height="400" width="287" /></a></div>MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-51808455225327941942015-06-09T05:19:00.000+01:002015-06-09T06:21:43.100+01:00Telling the Difference: Junkanoo vs Carnival By Dr. Nicolette Bethel <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">What follows is an abridged version of what I published on my blog this week. Grateful if you would consider publishing it for a wider audience.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">One of the most infuriating and insidious ideas that I have heard bandied about in the wake of this weekend's mega-party aka Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival is the idea that carnival is the natural evolution of Junkanoo. It's the kind of statement that reveals the depth of the ignorance about ourselves that we as a society have cultivated; and the general (could it be stunned?) silence on the part of the Junkanoo community suggests to me that even the junkanoos themselves don't know the difference. People are happily burbling on about carnival being Junkanoo's next incarnation, about us "all being Africans, right?", about how carnival is the next stage in the development of Bahamian culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">They couldn’t be more wrong.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Nicolette Bethel</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">First, a little history. We all know the story of Columbus. But we may not all still be so aware of consequences of the engine he set in motion: the expansion of Europe into all of the spaces of the world, the depopulation of the islands of the Caribbean, the repopulation of them with a motley crew of Europeans in the first instance, Africans in the second, and after the enslavement of those Africans, East Indians and people of Chinese descent. The age of European empires changed the population and the cultures of our region in ways we need to understand if we want to talk about Junkanoo and Carnival in the same breath.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Just about one hundred and fifty years after Columbus came to the Bahamas, the islands were settled by a different set of Europeans. These people called themselves the Eleutherian Adventurers; they were republican, Protestant and British. There are few other Caribbean islands which have this distinction. Most of the other islands now part of the formerly British West Indies have a Catholic influence in their histories, as many English-speaking Caribbean countries (including Trinidad) changed hands from the French and/or the Spanish to the British. This part of our imperial history is critical to understanding where the differences between Junkanoo and Carnival lie.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">We live in a post colonial world, and so we may no longer be aware of the critical impressions made on our territories by the European powers of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries; but those impressions, established over four hundred years, resonate today and cannot be overlooked. There were three major imperial powers that held control over the Caribbean region, and their influence continues even today in the languages we speak, the social structures we inherit, and—importantly—in the cultural practices we celebrate. The major ones were Spain, France, and Great Britain. Spain and France both held indigenous celebrations that they identified as carnivals. These celebrations had pagan roots, and they were linked with the spring and with Easter or Lent, and they were all practised in a similar way: they celebrated fertility, sexuality and the disruption of the regular social order by dancing in the streets for several days at a time, by putting on masks and costumes, and by turning society upside down. These were <span style="font-style: italic;">European</span>celebrations, and the French and Spanish settlers took them with them to their Caribbean colonies. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">For those who are interested, this is where the Catholic carnivalsgot their names. Most of these festivals arelinked with the weekend directly preceding Lent (the forty days of fasting that leads up to Easter). The Catholic method of preparing for Lent, during which meat was not eaten, sex was shunned, and parties were cancelled in preparation for the death and resurrection of Christ, was to indulge in all of those sins and vices they would not be having for the next six weeks. This in itself traces back to earlier Roman and Greek spring festivals, and it is from these that the Trini term “bacchanal” comes; it refers to the Roman name for their god of parties and wine, Bacchus. The word "carnival" also comes from the Latin <span style="font-style: italic;">carne</span>(meat) and <span style="font-style: italic;">vale</span>(farewell); and the other name given to this time, <span style="font-style: italic;">Mardi Gras</span>, is the French for "Fat Tuesday", indicating that on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the tradition was to indulge in as many sweet things as one could.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The British, on the other hand, having broken with the Catholic Church some time before they began to assemble their overseas empire, had done away with this habit. By the time they became an imperial power, the British were focussing their attention on Christmas as the main holiday in their Christian calendar. Easter was celebrated, and Lent observed, but the revelry associated with the pre-Lenten season was not a central part of the British customs by the time they moved into the Caribbean. The settlers' great feast took place at Christmas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As the European empires grew—as they began to build them, let us be frank, on the backs of the forced labour of millions of kidnapped and enslaved Africans—these differences became entrenched. What was more, they were passed onto the people they enslaved. The Africans, too, had festivals and rituals that did similar things with costumes and role reversals that the Europeans did. They were able to recognize an opportunity to celebrate them in the Carnivals of the Catholic New World. Because the Africans came from many different places and because they were stripped of their languages and most of their cultural heritage by the systematic cruelties of the new slave societies, it is not as easy for us to identify what those rituals were as it is for us to name the practices of the Europeans. Still; even the enslaved Africans were given one or two days off a year. But with a difference.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the Catholic empire, the masters celebrated their carnivals as they had done in their homes in Europe. The Africans were given the same holidays as the masters took, and because the carnival traditions, especially those in France and Spain, involved servants playing masters and masters playing servants, those Africans may have even been encouraged to take part in the carnivals. Carnival as we know it today grew out of these cross-participations, out of this joining together of the Africans and the Europeans for these few days. Throughout the period of slavery, Carnival was celebrated by both groups, often together. In the Americas, the carnivals that grew and flourished—those that took place in New Orleans, in Rio de Janeiro, and in Port of Spain, Trinidad—were influenced in music, dance and costuming by the Africans, but cannot be called African in origin. Rather, they became what anthropologists and folklorists refer to </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">as <span style="font-style: italic;">syncretistic</span> celebrations. Syncretism is the word we give to an activity that combines African and European elements, often in such a way that the African is hidden, but still influential. Carnival / carnaval / Mardi Gras are syncretic festivals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the British empire, however, things were different. The enslaved people were given three days' holiday at Christmas. Rather than joining the masters in a big <span style="font-style: italic;">fete </span>(the word is French, and it means <span style="font-style: italic;">festival </span>or <span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">party</span>), the enslaved celebrated in their own, African-based way. For whatever reason (we do not know the origin of the word, but the myth of the slave who started the festival is almost certainly a fabrication) these celebrations, which appeared across the British Americas, were called <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu—</span>or, to use the British spelling which was used until the end of the twentieth century, John Canoe. They were also called masqueraders and gombeys. They came out at Christmas; they had very particular characters and dances; and they were performed almost exclusively to percussive instruments—drums, bells, and scrapers. Whistles and shells added different levels to the rhythms, but the masquerades are almost always percussive. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu</span> festivals of the New World, then, are <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> syncretic festivals, as was Carnival. They are African in character; they are linked with Christmas, not with Lent, and they are products of the British presence in the Caribbean. They also tend to be far more serious, even frightening, events than Carnival tends to be. There are definite similarities between the <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu </span>festivals and the carnivals: the masks, the costumes and the dancing are among them, and are all linked to a strong African aesthetic. But there the similarity stops. In almost every case, Carnival took place in conjunction with the European masters, and <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu</span> took place in isolation from them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The one exception during slavery was Jamaica, the richest sugar colony, where the Europeans splurged at Christmas and mounted a series of events as part of their <span style="font-style: italic;">jonkonnu</span> festivals that suggested that the Jamaican planters were familiar with the Mardi Gras balls of New Orleans. It is partly because of Jamaica's centrality as a sugar island that <span style="font-style: italic;">j onkonnu </span>was first described there; but the fact that it was first recorded in writing in Jamaica should not be assumed to mean that what we called Junkanoo began there and travelled to the rest of the Caribbean. It makes more sense to see Junkanoo as a simultaneous resurrection of West African <span style="font-style: italic;">kono </span>(harvest) festivals across the Americas, and this would help to explain the occurrence throughout the <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu</span>new world of figures of animals, cowbells, and the like, while in Carnival many of the carnival characters have connections with European figures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">What is also important to recognize is that in almost every territory where <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu</span> was celebrated—except The Bahamas and Belize— <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu</span> has all but disappeared. The John Kuners of the Carolinas are gone altogether. The Gombeys of Bermuda are struggling to survive. In Jamaica, the <span style="font-style: italic;">jonkonnu</span>figures appear at Christmas but they do not attract a whole lot of attention. In the southern Caribbean, the Christmas masqueraders appear, but they do not get the same focus or merit the same admiration as the carnivals that take place in those same territories. Only in Belize, where what we call <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu</span> is practised as a central part of being Garifuna (indigenous Belizean), is it flourishing. And in The Bahamas, of course, where its evolution into a major street festival that can rival and even out-perform Carnival has yet to be wholly explained.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And so: our Junkanoo may not be indigenous, but it is certainly unique. It alone of all the <span style="font-style: italic;">jankunu</span> festivals has not only survived, but grown, and moreover has become a fundamental marker of Bahamian identity. For some scholars, like Ken Bilby who gave what we used to call John Canoe the name that I've been using throughout, what we have done to Junkanoo is to move it from its core roots in African spiritual ancestral connections by engaging in a conscious hybridization of our own. But the fact remains that our Junkanoo is the one of all the John Canoes in the Americas to have grown stronger and to flourish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Until now, perhaps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So where do we get the idea that there is no difference between Junkanoo and Carnival, that Carnival is an "evolution" of Junkanoo? The late twentieth century, which is the period of independence, has been a time in which Junkanoo artists and practitioners sought eagerly to make connections with others who were doing similar things throughout the Americas. Because of the African contributions to all these festivals, the <span style="font-style: italic;">visual</span> aspects of Mardi Gras, Trinidad Carnival and Junkanoo have many connections, and during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Junkanoo leaders and participants travelled throughout the Catholic world learning and borrowing and adopting and fuelling innovation in our Junkanoo parade. But until now, we never mixed up the two festivals. Until now we understood that we could borrow aesthetic and structural elements, we could learn from one another, but we did not have to think that one was the junior of the other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Until now, we have understood what Vola Francis himself has always observed, that Junkanoo is a spirit. There is more truth in that statement than perhaps even he understood; for the John Canoe festivals are almost certainly derived from the African practices of connecting with the ancestors. This is why our festival is linked with the nighttime, and why severing that link must be considered with caution. Rather than coming from the European habit of saying goodbye to the flesh, our tradition comes from the African practice of honouring the ancestors. And so there is still something transformative and spiritual in the Junkanoo that we practice. (People will argue with me that there is something transformative about Carnival too, and they will be right, but bear with me here.) As Gus Cooper was always fond of saying, there were two fundamental and critical elements that separated Carnival and Junkanoo. The first was that Junkanoo participants <span style="font-style: italic;">make their own costumes</span>. They do not buy them. The process of making them is a critical one, and one that is linked deeply and ancestrally with this invocation of a spirit. It is an African spirit, and it is something that has nourished us from our beginnings. It cannot be replaced by the purchasing of a feathered costume, a commodity. That is play-acting; what our Junkanoo still does is akin to worship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And the second one is that Junkanoo performers play their own music, live, on their feet, and dance while they do so. They do not have canned music played for them; they <span style="font-style: italic;">make their own music</span>. This custom, that of making one's own costume and playing one's own music, is fundamental to the Junkanoo world; it is part, too, of what links Junkanoo to its African, rather than its European, roots. And Junkanoo music is a serious thing. Traditional Junkanoo instruments (which do NOT include horns, sorry) have always been both musical instruments <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span>weapons of war. Before there was a competition there were physical confrontations on the street. That these confrontations were ritualized, often musicalized, is immaterial.Carnival today privileges its elements of play.Junkanoo still, as always, privileges the rhetoric of war.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Now we may not like these differences. We may want to ignore them, or to downplay them, or to wish them away. Nevertheless, they are there. Junkanoo and Carnival are <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> the same thing. One is <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> an evolution of the other. They come from different roots, although they look similar on the surface, and they convey different meanings. Our society may well have room for both of them. But let us have no more discussions that try to pretend that they are one and the same. They are, most emphatically, not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nicolette Bethel</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/arts-and-culture/Telling_the_Difference_Junkanoo_vs_Carnival41880.shtml" target="_blank">source</a></span></div>
MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-62196578136817699842015-06-07T14:30:00.000+01:002015-06-07T14:30:53.936+01:00ADDICTED MAS LAUNCH 'ATOMIC' TODAY <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;">Atomic is you: An energized individual in a larger environment of
energy.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;">Atomic is your energy: that energy that enables action, that
creates, that affects change, but never dies..</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;">Atomic is Fusion. Ideas shared, goals collected, talents
amalgamated, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;"> Energies combined, and
goals achieved. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;">We are Atomic</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;">Our energies have combined </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt;">And we're about to explode. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ic-F_usiLDkXU7Df-p-8JGgbV39LSiNjmr-8EyJwPEOK0bmqbAe3gQPjATINu4kvNY_Go5XaQktc4mYP3qS-Zk9APXnqng84tD1RKbFkG_RCcNIsKnSEVe3u7D9xuwKXbgQk8CZVlvYd/s1600/11270383_10206999438688315_3171131053982243288_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ic-F_usiLDkXU7Df-p-8JGgbV39LSiNjmr-8EyJwPEOK0bmqbAe3gQPjATINu4kvNY_Go5XaQktc4mYP3qS-Zk9APXnqng84tD1RKbFkG_RCcNIsKnSEVe3u7D9xuwKXbgQk8CZVlvYd/s640/11270383_10206999438688315_3171131053982243288_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-68017011736032978392015-03-08T18:20:00.003+00:002015-03-08T18:20:46.128+00:00Mama, what is mas? | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper<a href="http://www.guardian.co.tt/arts/2015-02-28/mama-what-mas">Mama, what is mas? | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper</a>MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-24420216627325757482015-03-08T18:20:00.001+00:002015-03-08T18:20:45.024+00:00Mama, what is mas? | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper<a href="http://www.guardian.co.tt/arts/2015-02-28/mama-what-mas">Mama, what is mas? | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper</a>MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-30366728164293364382015-03-06T19:42:00.000+00:002015-03-06T19:42:01.522+00:00Farewell to the flesh<div class="field field-name-field-authors field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="color: #024d76; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3999996185303px; letter-spacing: 0.479999989271164px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 600px;">
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<a datatype="" href="http://www.guardian.co.tt/byline-authors/dalton-narine" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" style="color: #024d76; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" typeof="skos:Concept">Dalton Narine</a></div>
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<span class="date-display-single" content="2015-03-05T00:00:00-04:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime" property="dc:date" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Thursday, March 5, 2015</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVc9UlEih0ZmdwhvpStOftuL0-GXZLFmg-Jx-7vk2wkMiC8G2Tfksqqu8JIfX9jUzXeUQHuV4afzToMcLM9Mf-1nqI02MIbZBQujS5B-4nOYNEjq5waPBYHpjwH2agXPRK0loqT00-6PmE/s1600/Pestilence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVc9UlEih0ZmdwhvpStOftuL0-GXZLFmg-Jx-7vk2wkMiC8G2Tfksqqu8JIfX9jUzXeUQHuV4afzToMcLM9Mf-1nqI02MIbZBQujS5B-4nOYNEjq5waPBYHpjwH2agXPRK0loqT00-6PmE/s1600/Pestilence.jpg" height="435" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.479999989271164px; text-align: start;">Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation, presents a chilling spectre on the streets of Port of Spain in Peter Minshall’s 1980 band Danse Macabre. PHOTO: DALTON NARINE</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.479999989271164px;">Wine, women and song</span></div>
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That was the theme of the day when the Romans were introduced to the debauchery of Bacchanalia a few millennia before Christ himself was ushered in with pride, pomp and His own cultish circumstance.</div>
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Mystic as well as mythic, the explicit celebrations conjured up nude men and maidens, accompanied by masqueraders dressed in animal skins, and soused to the ears as they belted out bawdy lyrics. Theatre in the extreme, indeed.</div>
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They crowned a mock king but even he couldn’t control the euphoria. Later, early Christianity would blast Carnival as a despicable event. How times have changed!</div>
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Today, the tradition continues to celebrate its resurrection as mas, or masquerade, in T&T’s annual big do. At least what registers as mas. (Well, such interpretation certainly won’t leave conservatives in a wining mood). </div>
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A good thing, though, happened during the mas some fat years ago. </div>
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I chanced upon the Ghost of Carnival Past, who seemed to be disoriented by a strangeness in the bacchanal. For whatever reason, the Muse of mas had been sidetracked since Mancrab violated the Washerwoman, the theatrical ‘uptick’ in a sense bringing a downturn to the celebrations. Much of mas and its derivatives had become generic. Notwithstanding Minshall, Berkeley, Derek and a resurgence of traditional characters, the mas had gone mouldy. Turns out that the freshest path it had taken has been the fleshiest. A pervert’s view that, as artist Christopher Cozier hinted, curved away from the trajectory of the Mancrab/Washerwoman tra la la. The song, not the singer, having changed. Look how it come a lyricist’s dream—oil wealth anew, and wanton women by the grappe. Yeah, like Yankees gone and Sparrow takeover.</div>
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Anyway, our curiosity to justify relevance and integrity on hold, it behooved the Muse to take your humbled one back in time when mas lovers swore by the encyclopedia, the new Good Book—for it became a repository of thematic ideas. Even the library lured and lulled potential history buffs.</div>
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Off we went, then, through three side streets and around two corners, where we bounced up Nirvana. Who awaited us inside a small office at the Film Department of the Information Division. No, no! Ministry of Publicity and Propaganda? Ah-yah-yie-ah-yie! Don’t go there! Come with us as we peruse ancient clips of George Bailey and Harold Saldenha and Desperadoes’ Leo Warner and Wilfred “Speaker” Harrison, et al. Frame upon frame of pageantry, colours accentuating each other in Van Goghian bold, and daubing images of hordes of revellers as they magically transform National Geographic, Britannica itself and many a brave designer’s fancy into a mobile playhouse.</div>
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Here the dance of Sally’s Cree Indians of Canada as it snakes along the Circular to the Belmont competition; and, in a Bailey triad of historical significance, there the mystery of the Relics of Egypt, replete with chariots and Sphinxes; over by so, Somewhere in New Guinea beckons; and coming down Cipriani Boulevard Saga of Merrie England titillates.</div>
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To Hell and Back and Back to Africa; Primitive Man and Extracts from the Animal Kingdom; Imperial Rome; The Glory that was Greece; and a whole mess of sailor bands putting on a show, their risqué and comedic acts mimed to the rawness of steelband music, the only Nativity in our multi-culture, blessed and cursed alike, just like the mas. And fancy sailors, too. Fascinators, Syncopators and Desperadoes, jitterbugs all, strutting and peacock-ing headgear, such as clocks and cameras and sharks and elephants, and crabs from the Mangue, leaving Cito Velasquez up front to bogart attention with his Gulliverous Fruits and Flowers. </div>
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Not to forget the real Mc Coy traditional mas, like the Dragon.</div>
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Restrained by imps, and brandishing a satanic sceptre that features a polished wooden snake (with marble eyes), wrapped around – as if copulating – a piece of bois rubbed down with coconut oil, this once-upon-a-time stick fighter turned ballet dancer, who just can’t resist crossing canal water just so without making histrionics, operating largely Behind the Bridge before taking his act downtown and to the Savannah, to preen and/or expatiate upon Beelzebub’s prance. It’s a routine as fiendish as that of the robber barons, who leave little children tethered to the hearts of their mothers, themselves palming off biscuits to shush a brokered peace with the bad man spitting robber talk mined from Shakespeare and Melody and the gang at the Calypso tent. Better to stuff his sow’s ear purse than have the young ones traumatised for the remains of the day. </div>
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Not to forget, too, the traditional/original beads and feathers mas. Yes, ah Indian was ah Red Indian. Fashioned from Hollywood, though more illustrative than Tinsel Town’s treatment of the Native American. Here he comes, roaming through the gloaming, beads jingling and voice hoarse to a whisper. An ensemble that will move you like a classic Ruso, for its trey of disguise, dialect and dance. </div>
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In olden times, the mas was all over the place because it felt free to play yourself, not free up, or wine down like rats in the sewer. Ha! God knows the rodents wouldn’t have tolerated such slackness. Indeed, thousands of them, unnerved by the mere notion, haul they tail and scurried across to French Street to sign up with Rat Race, Peter Minshall’s purview of the land and its lubbers. Lubbers, not lovers. Keep up with your humbled one or lose yourself in translation.</div>
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And nobody - no one - had ever translated stilled art like Wilfred Strasser, famous for The Penny and Simon Bolivar costumes, such verisimilitude eliciting oohs and aahs from the Carnival Sunday night congregation of mas worshippers [though Minshall’s La Pietà (Tapestry), Michelangelo’s 15th-century work depicting the body of Jesus on Mary’s lap after his Crucifixion, would later vivify Strasser’s ghost.]</div>
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Yet one shouldn’t dismiss East Dry River’s Worrell - as I, a young Casablanca masquerader, knew him in the late ‘50s - who paraded as an inky likeness of the symbolic soldier in Memorial Park, the selfsame cenotaph that ole mas-ters like Belmont’s Sheppy danced past on the way toward satirising (S)hitty Council and The Seven Ages of Man, everybody laughing at themselves, gil gil gil. Donkey years before Minshall danced the streets with his own mirror, for sure.</div>
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Yeah, the Sixties crowd would recall the identical statue that, in 1959, was moved to shout from its platform, “Oh, God!” to Desperadoes’ Noah’s Ark and Velasquez’s Fruits and Flowers as they limped to the Savannah following an attack on Charlotte Street by San Juan All Stars, whose war mas banner screamed Battle Cry, of course. And, in 1963, the soldier in the Park raving, “Oh tool, boy,” over Bats and Clowns, colour by Bailey, singular precursors, all, to the new phase in the Carnival that perhaps engineered the “Look at me” arty mode of mas. But Minshall’s time would come, and not a moment too soon, because the truth was ready to turn the corner, any corner. Just turn and it right dey.</div>
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Ah, The Ghost. </div>
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In such company, how sated was your humbled one? Does guava cork?</div>
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A chant of “We want more” was floated by the dragonflies of yesteryear buzzing around our heads. So the Ghost of Carnival Past and I crossed town to a popular photo studio where Stephen Lee Heung’s Paradise Lost was museumed.</div>
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Milton’s legendary poem served as designer Minshall’s big-big-big-time launch on the road. It was 1976, mas in Panavision, a technique of cinematography that afforded the band a wide-angled view of a brand new Eden of costumery and storytelling. I remember jabbing at the old muse’s elbow. “This band was the best I’d watched in all my born days.” Hardly surprised, was he. </div>
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Back on the pavement, we reached Maraval Road in two-twos. Less than a blink and we were combing TTT’s copious (in those days, yes) files for Callaloo Company classics, such as Jungle Fever; Danse Macabre (including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – the finest collection of characters, my heart tells me); Carnival of the Sea (Devil Ray, Splash, Oil Slick…), Papillon, River, Callaloo and The Golden Calabash.</div>
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Fully arrayed were other spectacular presentations, like most of Edmond and Lil Hart’s bands, especially Flag Wavers of Siena, some Raoul Garib gems and Wonders of Buccoo Reef, a depiction by Irwin McWilliams that still mystifies for its pre-Cousteau ecology theme.</div>
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Fast track to the general mas in the post-Mancrab era. It’s Saturday. Time to catch the Children’s Carnival celebrations. Show off the new kids on the block to the Muse. Even boast about the cleverness of the generation for perpetuating the art form through the youth movement. Carnival Past embracing Carnival Future.</div>
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By dawn the following morning, though, the old fella looked drawn out and withdrawn. Hours earlier, he’d struggled to bring himself to fathom Panorama, to little avail. He’d scoped out supporters of various steelbands who thought theirs had won. </div>
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As we drove past the hospital on the way to champion Renegades Pan Theatre, a weak lamp-post bulb barely picked up a shell-shocked figure bearing the cross of defeat as he stumbled to his own panyard down the street. It was All Stars’ flag man.</div>
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As we drove past the hospital on the way to champion Renegades Pan Theatre, a weak lamp-post bulb barely picked up a shell-shocked figure bearing the cross of defeat as he stumbled to his own panyard down the street. It was All Stars’ flag man.</div>
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The Muse sighed, then unravelled his emotions about a competition that had become so grand, its scale of importance left so much melancholy for the losers.</div>
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But, there it was in the rearview, larger than life, bigger than the imagination—the crowds, the psychedelia, myriad drums, a million notes, stellar egos, stylish arrangements, tongues tripping like trapped mice. How to regard the breadth of this Trini cacophony—this post-modern circus for the Pontius Pilate in all ah we?</div>
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Yet, if it’s in we blood, as composer/arranger Ray Holman believes the man in the street believes, who am I to equivocate?</div>
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Back in the car, we had a good laugh, the Muse and I, when a soul man DJ popped up on the radio to bray: “In a competition like this there are no losers. It’s a victory for culture.”</div>
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What??? </div>
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Speaking of which, Dimanche Gras, a well-intentioned, though most boring Carnival event performed on a titanic stage situated between parallel streams of pappyshow and we-culture, an iceberg audience bobbing and weaving like flotsam and jetsam pushing south, past the abattoir (no metaphorical offence given) near the estuary of the Dry River - well that show came and went like death on a slow boat to China. Wouldn’t you know that the Kings and Queens packed sparklers to doll up their acts like cheap lipstick, and the Calypso contest left even the house lights on doze? A collective nod-off it was. We got the hell out of there, sanity intact, and waited for tomorrow, please God.</div>
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The intent was to lime till J’Ouvert woke up, though she never really sleeps as much as recover from a pre-party buzz, hit, whatever; drink-ah-rum, even. So we had was to put that event in a nutshell, as well. The mudders and painters coming down like the ol’ Dry River in heat and no bands such as Sheppy’s or Carl Blackman’s to love up. No Blackman ole mas trilogy of The Wedding, The Christening and The Funeral coming out from Darceuil Lane, Belmont. No pan to rev the engine. No Bomb classic to explo. Ay, man, the DJs with their big trucks had hoarded all the dynamite. They’d sucked the energy out of the room. Out of Carnival Monday, too. Dem and the masmen.</div>
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And so we broke “biche” that dreary day. Twas the T-shirt and no bra(ss) festival, you hear me.</div>
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Tuesday jumped up early, and I took the Ghost of Carnival Past to Woodbrook to view the mas, gay nineties in style. He took it all in snide: how noisy the soca, how pelvic its mind; so ear-splitting the jam, so head-spinning the wine; how lissome the women, how tight their gear; how few the man tribe, how light their care. </div>
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The Muse watched as one largely pawpaw-skin mas follow another pawpaw-skin mas, leaving him depressed over the schlock - and concerned about the future. </div>
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Brothers and sisters of the soca road march era, the Ghost of Carnival Past swore up and down, like Britain, a cuss-bud ol’ lady from the 50s forever uniformed in a tattered Union Jack smock, that it was the same band passing and passing and passing. In his day, he said, his brow furrowing like the graveyard, masqueraders achieved more with less.</div>
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By noon, we’d seen enough waylay waylay. But at nightfall we returned for las’ lap. Even that was out of step and character.</div>
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Wading through the frenzy, we met a journalist from Singapore. His views of Trinidad in the Carnival?</div>
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The Good (and raunchy): “Rich, poor, black, white and people of colour all go down on the ground to party. That’s where they show their equality.”</div>
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The Bad: “Too much liming.”</div>
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The Ugly: The Ghost of Carnival Past put up his palm to the visitor’s face, interrupting him. There was a sense of staleness, he said. Ideas and themes brought off too much static. Maybe, he brain-farted, a pause to reflect on Carnival history might help alter direction. He cited the Bailey era when masqueraders participated in the production of mas, organising and choreographing their own colour plate. When lil boys would flock Samaroo’s on Observatory Street, Behind the Bridge, for swansdown to trim Native American costumes and diamond-shaped miniature cuts of looking glass to add decorative art. And a Callaloo stew turning its nose up at the stench next door - the faux-mas, the cook brewing the best the world would come to appreciate; when .... And the old muse paused, looking for the appropriate words to boil it down like bagee. </div>
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“The most frightful thing about Carnival,” he said, taking the shortcut, “is the Carnival machinery.”</div>
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The Carnival machinery. Government, masmen, PanTrinbago, The Savannah Stage. Why not parade the mas and pan around the Savannah? Which, by the way, was an idea I floated in 1970 in a newspaper piece.</div>
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Anyway, the Muse was dead serious. Like a heart attack.</div>
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Because, just so, Boop! the apparition drop down, like Kaisoman Spoilo had bragged about himself all his life in his songs.</div>
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Look ah want to fall, the Ghost. Dead as a herring. Piss and vinegar leaching out. All the flesh in the mas running from the Muse’s brain like maggots. The maggots turning away from all that flesh, bath suits, bikinis, baubles, bangles, beads, and faux feathers and trinkets, to boot. Was as if, like speed, flesh really kills.</div>
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You ever see more? Flesh had callously victimised Old Carnival. The brain could take it no longer, the rudeness. The slackness. And yet, that’s how the ting began – well before the manger materialised into carol. Bacchanalia was cool then, but bacchanal? </div>
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Ha! Till death do us part, pardner. We’re in the moment.</div>
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Farewell, then.</div>
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To the flesh dem. </div>
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And so it hang, so it swing, brothers and sisters in the Carnival. Yuh could blame yuhself. </div>
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Or the business. But don’t blame mas. Eh-eh. </div>
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Even though all mas is devil mas. </div>
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See?</div>
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Thank you.</div>
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source: Trinidad Guardian</div>
MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-16913627571039321022015-03-02T21:25:00.000+00:002015-03-02T21:27:36.598+00:00Arts-in-Action makes Mas with the Environment 2015<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0.479999989271164px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
“I can’t believe what my eyes just see,</div>
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A blanket of smog all over the city.</div>
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The humans are destroying our planet.</div>
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Forgetting that they have to live in it.</div>
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But Papa GD, what are we going to do?”</div>
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While adult masqueraders spent the 2015 Carnival singing and dancing to the music of Machel Montano’s Like Ah Boss, scores of primary school aged pupils were making and playing mas to Papa GD’s I Can’t Believe My Eyes. So who is Papa GD? He is Papa Green Definition; a 21st-century re-imagining of the Papa Bois folklore character, who in his capacity as “protector of the environment” was sent to ten primary schools across the East West corridor by Arts-in-Action, as part of a Carnival arts environmental awareness project titled Mas Movement for the Environment. </div>
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A release from Arts-in-Action said in Mas Movement, which is funded by the German Embassy and produced by the Cropper Foundation, Arts-in-Action presents Papa GD and his masked ally Eco Girl, who battle the evil forces of Kaptain Korporate (KK), an industrialist who seeks to build a Fun Zone which allows children to do and have whatever they want, while polluting their environment. The characters embodied traditional Carnival forms for example, Pierrot Grenade and stick-fighting. The performance-workshop catered to pupils from Standards One to Three, and dealt with climate change issues through mas. It is the conflict between Papa GD and Kaptain K which stimulates the children’s participation and involvement in the conflict resolution process; they must choose to either destroy or preserve the environment.</div>
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The teachers of these schools were also engaged in AiA workshops. These focused on applied creative arts strategies that they can use in lesson planning with a climate change focus, while exploring how to create their own environmentally conscious mas presentations with their pupils. The most outstanding mas, would be awarded prizes for their environmentally themed portrayals.</div>
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The schools that took part were St Joseph Government Primary, Mt D’or Government Primary, Diego Martin Girls’ RC, St Joseph Girls’ RC, Rosary Boys’ RC, Nelson St Boys’ RC, Nelson St Girls’ RC, Arima Boys’ RC and Laventille Girls’ RC.</div>
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MORE INFO:</div>
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• For more information on Arts-in-Action’s programmes call 289-4AiA, or e-mail </div>
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<a href="mailto:e-mail@artsinaction.org" style="color: #024d76; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">e-mail@artsinaction.org</a></div>
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Source: guardian.co.tt/lifestyle</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11532681828021620553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-19331751831075817942015-02-27T20:48:00.000+00:002015-02-27T20:48:38.242+00:00The Epic of Monk Monte<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
The reigning seven-time National Road March Monarch and five-time International Power Soca Monarch, Machel “Monk Monte” Montano on Ash Wednesday in Tobago presented a sneak peek of his Epic Mas band’s 2015 presentation. This is Montano’s global mas production entity.</div>
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Local promotions outfit, Candy Coated Events hosted the Wine Down Cruise and the EPIC team, where<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; text-align: left;">SIMPILY EPIC: Caesar’s Army will host a section in EPIC MAS Band.<br /> The costume is designed by Janelle Forde aka designer J Angelique,<br /> second from left, with models Kandi King, <br />Soowan Bramble and Leah Marville</span></td></tr>
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Montano treated guests to a presentation of costumes and music set against the sunset backdrop.</div>
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Scores of patrons showed up to the event ready to lime and unwind after Carnival, but had no idea that they would be treated to a show with the reigning Soca Monarch himself. Montano treated them to a surprise performance that sent the crowd into a frenzy.</div>
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As Montano worked the audience, several models debuted the costume designs for the Caesar’s Army (another local event production outfit) section in the Epic mas band. Needless to say it was quite an impressive display that left everyone talking about the upcoming Hollywood carnival out in Los Angeles in June later this year.</div>
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Epic began as a section of 80 masqueraders at The Los Angeles Culture Festival’s Hollywood carnival in 2014. The presence of legendary masman Peter Minshall’s world famous puppets, Tan Tan and Saga Boy along with celebrity masqueraders such as Anya Ayoung Chee, Leah Marville, Damien Dante Wayans, Eva Marcille, and promotional group Caesar’s Army, Epic left an unforgettable mark on the three-year-old Hollywood carnival.</div>
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For 2015, Epic is expanding its footprint in Hollywood by becoming a full-fledged mas band with four sections.</div>
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They are aiming towards 300 masqueraders, more celebrity guests and the inclusion of popular section partners from Trinbago and Los Angeles. Epic Mas Band will have a full premiere at the launch of the Los Angeles Culture Festival on March 13, while the Hollywood carnival officially takes place on Saturday June 27.</div>
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Even as they are set to expand, the Epic team has already set their sights beyond LA, committing to participate in Saldenah’s Mas Band presentation “The Chronicles of Machel Montano” at Toronto’s Caribana festival in August 2015. The section will be titled “Like Ah Boss.”</div>
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Central to the success and impact of Epic is the involvement of international Montano as the band’s ambassador. Montano spends part of the year in Los Angeles and through Epic and Hollywood carnival, he is committed to exposing the West Coast of the US and the world at large to Caribbean culture and music.</div>
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Said Montano: “Hollywood carnival 2014 was a dream come true for me. I was inspired by its potential in 2013 and began working with the LACF to spread the word on a global scale about the infectious feeling we’ve created by lighting up Hollywood Boulevard.”</div>
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Early supporters of Epic and the Hollywood carnival, Jules Sobion of Caesar’s Army and designer Anya Ayoung Chee were also full of praise for the T&T invasion on Hollywood carnival.</div>
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“From chipping down the Hollywood Boulevard alongside Tan Tan & Saga Boy to the showcasing of our amazing culture to the throngs of spectators that lined the streets, the overall experience was amazing… The Romans will definitely be there in full force for 2015,” Sobian said. Ayoung Chee added, “LA Carnival and the entire Epic weekend were fantastic... It is a great honour to be part of a movement bringing Trinidad Carnival to the world.”</div>
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The Epic costumes are being designed to be reused as club wear, beach wear and even for other carnivals.</div>
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This duality of purpose of the products is key to the new approach to mas.</div>
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The costume designers are all from Trinidad and Tobago and includes, Anya Ayoung Chee, Janelle Forde, Sandra Hordatt and Marie Collette.</div>
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source:<a href="http://www.trinidadexpress.com/featured-news/The-Epic-of-Monk-Monte-294309311.html" target="_blank">Express</a></div>
MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-71080351412864510362015-01-12T14:07:00.001+00:002015-01-12T14:07:43.235+00:00Krewe of Harambee preps for Mardi Gras parade, creates masks to - KTBS.com - Shreveport, LA News, Weather and Sports<a href="http://www.ktbs.com/story/27819853/krewe-of-harambee-preps-for-mardi-gras-parade-creates-masks-to-share#.VLPU-eceAF4.blogger">Krewe of Harambee preps for Mardi Gras parade, creates masks to - KTBS.com - Shreveport, LA News, Weather and Sports</a>MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-66627456876097030782014-12-02T19:47:00.000+00:002014-12-02T19:47:47.116+00:00Creative Mas outside PoS<div class="article" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, verdana, serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 2px; text-align: justify;">
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By LAUREL V WILLIAMS</div>
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<b>MASQUERADERS took to the streets of Barrackpore, on Saturday, portraying traditional characters in true Trini style — wining and chipping to the sounds of music — at the launch of Regional Carnival 2015.</b></div>
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The event, hosted by the National Carnival Commission (NCC), transformed the southern community into a sea of revellers in a parade which ended at Cumuto Recreation Ground on Rochard Douglas Road.<br />
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Arts and Multiculturalism Minister Dr Lincoln Douglas, addressing the gathering, noted Regional Carnival represents the “birthplace of creativity” that ushers in the season of revelry before the period of Lent.<br />
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On the lament Carnival lacks creativity and no longer attracts spectators, Douglas said there is to much focus on portrayals in Port-of-Spain and mas in communities outside of the capital is now a top draw.<br />
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“So when people in Port-of-Spain complain that they do not have an audience, I asked them to go to the regional carnivals, like in Toco, in Paramin to see the blue devils, in Gasparillo or even Cedros. That is where a lot of the action is happening,” Douglas said.<br />
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He added there are 52 regional celebrations and which are growing and getting better, and referred to Carnival as a significant force for unifying people, creating an industry to support the economy and the development of Trinidad and Tobago.<br />
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“We are working very hard on our Carnival development projects to make the transitions, not only from being one of the greatest festivals in the world, but also an industry to support all the artistes who participate in this industry,” Douglas said.<br />
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The launch featured several groups among them the Whip Masters of Couva, Blue Devils of Paramin, the Tamboo Bamboo of Gasparillo, Chatham Old Boys Rhythm Section and the Siparia Rhythm Posses. There were also several Carnival characters among them the pierrot grenades, dame lorraines, fancy Indians and sailors.<br />
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NCC deputy chairman Don Sylvester noted each year regional Carnival is launched in a different community, and the residents of Barrackpore and environs were “very excited” as it was the first time they had seen such an event.<br />
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He shared some plans to promote Carnival. “I was recently at Nottinghill’s Carnival ( London) and persons approached me for Carnival traditions from Trinidad like moko jumbies. I am also organising that. That is what people want, they want the traditions of their culture. There is a TV station in the US that is interested in visiting the island to sponsor and support stick fighting as the news sports.”</div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,203660.html" target="_blank">Newsday</a></div>
MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-47606032215802101512014-11-20T05:25:00.000+00:002014-11-20T05:25:50.678+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBZFXYW18rELpLcbqi0IyHn3RMEE6nixomZ_UxRaiAa1rC5jBgUtlWRRJIdzKgMSj4ymGcbdTmEDwLFzXtFBsASmWbSW6TnVhdETxdpcnraILvNpO8SdE_EW8oz_-zXSMyg4cavoKlP-wg/s1600/MOX_1811.2_t670.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBZFXYW18rELpLcbqi0IyHn3RMEE6nixomZ_UxRaiAa1rC5jBgUtlWRRJIdzKgMSj4ymGcbdTmEDwLFzXtFBsASmWbSW6TnVhdETxdpcnraILvNpO8SdE_EW8oz_-zXSMyg4cavoKlP-wg/s1600/MOX_1811.2_t670.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
BAHAMAS Telecommunications Company’s community support in youth, sports and culture is continuing with its $1m title sponsorship of Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival as it becomes the first corporate partner to join the new tourism initiative.</div>
<div class="permalinkable permalinking" id="h70693-p2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p2" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: -32px; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9999px; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: 1000;">#</a>CEO Leon Williams said last week BTC had been in discussions with the Carnival and a split between cash and in-kind services for a mutually beneficial $1m sponsorship had been agreed.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p3" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“$750,000 will be in cash and $250,000 will be in-kind services to consist of joint marketing and branding opportunities,” Mr Williams said.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p4" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p4" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“The Junkanoo Carnival will feature on the cover of the BTC’s 2015 telephone directories, which include white and yellow pages for Nassau, Grand Bahama and Abaco. The Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival will also have articles within the directories. Furthermore, Carnival will feature on BTC pre-paid phone cards and buildings.”</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p5" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p5" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival Chairman Paul Major emphasised that the event is strategic to the development of Bahamian cultural tourism.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p6" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p6" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“For BTC to step up to the plate to the extent that they have speaks volume about the company’s belief in our culture and in the Bahamas,” he said.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p7" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p7" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“The Prime Minister made it clear that he wanted this to be a primer for a more culture-driven economy.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p8" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p8" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“Most other tourist destinations are using culture to catapult them ahead in a very competitive environment.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p9" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p9" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“Sun, sand and sea has become old. We need something that sets us apart and I think we are well on the way to making that happen.”</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p10" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p10" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>Mr Major also said that the festival presents opportunities for local artisans.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p11" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p11" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“We hope to bring some economic relief to those who have laboured long and hard in Junkanoo and other forms of culture and yet have little to show for it materially.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p12" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p12" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“In Trinidad, there are multiple millionaires from Carnival. I do not know of millionaires from Junkanoo, but with this festival there will be thousands of people buying thousands of costumes and putting thousands of Bahamians to work.”</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p13" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p13" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>The Carnival will be a series of events starting on Easter Monday in Nassau and ending on May 7 with the “Road Fever” parade. Anchor events include “Junkamania,” a concert of Bahamian orchestras featuring Junkanoo musicians in collaboration with philharmonic musicians; and “Music Masters,” a major concert featuring a Grammy-award winning artist and ten finalists from 172 entries in a related song competition.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p14" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p14" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival CEO Roscoe Dames said that in the proposed Carnival Cultural Village – an enclosed festival space at the Western Esplanade featuring food stalls and three entertainment stages – each Family Island will be allotted a pavilion to represent its local culture.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p15" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p15" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>Many of the island regattas will become involved and Grand Bahama will have its own celebratory weekend in April, including a concert featuring the song competition semi-finalists, a Junkanoo Carnival beach party and a midnight rush.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p16" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p16" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>Mr Williams said BTC is no stranger to supporting Bahamian culture, citing a long relationship with youth, sports and culture and high prioritisation of corporate citizenship.</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p17" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p17" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“We have been primary sponsors for the CAC games, CARIFTA track and swimming – the events and the travelling teams – the Golden Knights, several individual track stars, championship winning swimmer Arianna Vanderpool Wallace, volleyball and basketball tournaments throughout the Bahamas, and the IAAF World Relays, which we will partner with again for 2015,” he said.</div>
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<a class="permalink" href="http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/nov/18/btc-be-1m-title-sponsor-bahamas-junkanoo-carnival/#h70693-p18" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(http://thetribune.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ellington_defaults/2.3.0/images/buttons/innerlink_button.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #18629d; display: inline-block; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in, left 0.2s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: -1000;">#</a>“We are large proponents of Bahamian cultural activities and continue with annual sponsorship of Junkanoo at Christmas and New Year to the tune of $850,000 through 2016.”</div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h70693-p18" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
SOURCE:http://www.tribune242.com/news</div>
MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-86857672676069992612014-11-09T03:36:00.000+00:002014-11-09T03:36:09.987+00:00Moving Carnival forward EXPRESS EDITORIAL<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">T marks an advance of some historic importance when the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce recognises in the field of Carnival an achievement worthy of its Emerging Entrepreneur Award.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">At the Chamber’s inaugural “Champions of Business” presentation last month Dean Ackin, the emerging entrepreneur, has earned acclaim as bandleader of Tribe, but more so as innovator over such a range of management capacity and improved arrangements as to transform the “Carnival experience”.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">More than just a mas maker and provider of costumes, sections, and music, Mr Ackin made it easier for masqueraders to register online, and more comfortable and enjoyable to play.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Introducing the all-inclusive facilities, he made possible the real-time supply of mas players’ wants and needs, right there, on the road, including cool-down air to beat the heat. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The original Tribe itself has now begotten a second Carnival band, Bliss, and created support business in Ultimate Events.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Mr Ackin’s pathway, including gaining a BSc management degree, has not been exactly typical of bandleaders. But at least T&T’s primary business group has acknowledged his contribution, and that of other nominees, as the entrepreneurial way forward for Carnival, and other areas of culture, not traditionally considered as jump-off points for business development.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">As the Chamber’s citation put it: “By expanding its horizons of experience and earnings, and deepening its linkages with the rest of the economy, Dean Ackin’s Ultimate Group is the industry’s first conglomerate.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Congratulations are in order for the Ackin approach, even as other aspects of Carnival await similar vision, and relevant management and entrepreneurial inputs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">For the thousands of masqueraders who play with Tribe and Bliss continue to endorse the product produced by Mr Ackin and his support team, being repeat customers because they are getting good service and value for their money.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Ultimate Events also puts on pre-Carnival fetes that are well-organised, backed up by tight security that leaves partygoers in a good frame of mind.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">So with the Tribe and Bliss supporters being mostly young, upwardly mobile citizens—joined in those bands by the many visitors from abroad who are also so inclined—there is hope the innovative attractions introduced by Mr Ackin and company will continue to make a mark on the national festival.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">And this generation of masqueraders, and those to come, will insist on higher standards, so ensuring that Trinidad and Tobago Carnival can continue to boast of being the “Greatest Show On Earth”, at least in this part of the world.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">We can only trust that the government of the day, through the National Carnival Commission, will nominate like-minded forward thinkers who—in conjunction with T&T’s youthful entrepreneurs—will attempt to make it better and better in the years ahead.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Story Created: Nov 8, 2014 at 3:01 AM EC</span>MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-26424636401663280602014-10-30T05:43:00.001+00:002014-10-30T05:43:18.237+00:00MASSASSINATION.: WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS NOTTING HILL ...<a href="http://massassination.blogspot.com/2014/10/we-stand-on-shoulders-of-giants-notting.html?spref=bl">MASSASSINATION.: WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS NOTTING HILL ...</a>: 5th Biannual Steelpan Conference University of East London Cass School of Education Stratford Campus 11 th - 12th October 2014 ...MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3142362987131878452.post-77819691924540642392014-10-28T17:05:00.002+00:002014-10-28T17:05:58.857+00:00Stephen Lee Heung laid to rest<h3 class="author" style="clear: none; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Five-time Carnival Band of the Year winner Stephen Lee Heung was cremated on Wednesday following a funeral service at St Theresa’s RC Church in Woodbrook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">There was a surprisingly small turnout at the church for the bandleader who had devoted most of his life to producing mas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Among the few fellow mas makers that did come out to pay their respects to Lee Heung were Brian MacFarlane, Rosalind Gabriel and David Cameron, leader of the band Trini Revellers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Also present was National Carnival Bands Association president David Lopez and NCBA secretary Renwick Brown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Officiating was Fr Gervais Girod, who said Lee Heung was as dedicated to his faith as he was to the mas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The eulogy was presented by Lynn Tang, who also spoke of Lee Heung’s passion for mas and for people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lee Heung spent his childhood at Piccadilly Street, Port of Spain then moved to Duncan and then Nelson streets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lee Heung got involved in mas in 1942, having been encouraged by his uncle to do so. Together with his wife, Elsie, who passed away some years ago, Lee Heung, who was not a designer, produced bands working with designers such as Harold Saldenah, Carlisle Chang, Peter Minshall, Wayne Berkley, Follette Eustace and Brian MacFarlane.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lee Heung, who was 93 years old, succumbed to pneumonia on Monday at St Clair Medical Centre.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">He died only days after the launch of a book celebrating his work in mas. The book, which is titled, We Kind ah People, was written by cultural researcher Ray Funk from the United States and features the photography of George Tang.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The book was launched on October 7 at the National Library.</span></div>
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By Wayne Bowman</h3>
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wayne.bowman@trinidadexpress.com</h3>
MAS ASSASSINhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350138834023026363noreply@blogger.com0