A million and more words have been written about the festival season of Carnival, so bringing something new to the page could be tricky, but sometimes the brevity of space and a straight to the point type of style can enlighten a few of the wondrous blog readers out there who have never been to a street party.

Carnival literally means ‘farewell to the flesh’ but the origin of the word is still disputed. Some believe it comes from the Latin carrus navalis (“ship cart”) or a float in a religious parade. Others proffer that it comes from the Italian carne levare or similar, meaning to “remove meat” as meat is prohibited through Lent. If the event is linked to a church belief or gathering the scheduled time of the year is pre-Lenten, usually through February and March leading up to Ash Wednesday. But there are other times within the year that are used as a landmark, such as the completion of a local harvest or a centuries old paganish rite that has been revived for the sake of a community knees-up that may lighten up a gloomy winter time in the more northern countries.

When Carnival is mentioned globally, people invariably think of the excitement, colour and party hi-jinx that is Mardi Gras – known as Shrove Tuesday in some Catholic countries, or the last day of a carnival – taking place in Rio, New Orleans and Trinidad & Tobago. Indeed, these are in the big league when it comes to a ‘money no object’ mix of glitz and spectacle that takes over the respective day to day happenings for at least three weeks, sometimes a month.

Continue reading "Carnival in the Caribees"

Weather is here, winds are slight, guess the promised strong winds are still yet to arrive. Maybe late today, the seas and winds will be up. But it's the Caribbean, they'll probably arrive late. Nothing starts on time here anyhow.

Like the Music Fest, they lay out this elaborate schedule, then they throw the clocks away. The main attraction is put on late, say 10pm, but rarely gets going before 2am, kind of frustrating. Of course each band starts later and later, for some reason they think it fashionable to be late, but it's unprofessional. In certain circles, you would be banned. Try playing a gig an hour or two late in Vegas, you'll be run out of town.

Years back, a friend of mine was lucky enough to finally achieve status quo and be offered a month long gig in Las Vegas. His band pooled every cent they could, pawned and sold everything they didn't need, begged, borrowed, stole, you name it, to buy the band a bus. They loaded up the bus with their clothes, and their equipment, and headed cross country for what they thought would be their limelight, the gig that would launch them, put them on the map, get them in the recording studios and so on.

They planned to take turns driving and sleeping on the bus. Occasionally they would stop at a rest area and let the bus engine take a break. They had no money for hotels, and they mostly made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to save money. But it was worth it, as soon they would be living in a nice hotel, playing a steady gig for a solid month and it came with perks, like free buffets and discounted drinks. Late at night, the pools and Jacuzzi's are often full of the musicians and showgirls, a fun late night, wind down party.

I know because once while in Las Vegas, I had grown tired of gambling (imagine that!) and it was 3am and I was wide awake. I put on my bathing suit, tossed on the hotel robe and headed 34 floors down, for the outdoor Jacuzzi. I was all alone. Every few minutes, I had to hop out and push the button to make the Jacuzzi run again, it had this annoyingly short timer on it and you couldn't reach it from the tub.

About the 4th time out to hit the timer, I had just settled back down, when this backdoor burst open and about two dozen drop dead gorgeous bodies came out in teeny tiny G-strings and the women in itsy bitsy tops. Most crowded into the Jacuzzi with me and a few dove into the pool and swam. I found out they had just completed the last show for the night and wanted to work off their aches in the water.

They were as surprised to find me alone in the Jacuzzi, as I was to meet them at this odd hour. Most people are either in bed or gambling at that hour, not sitting in the dark in a Jacuzzi. A half hour later, and several bands showed up, they too having finished their last gig for th enight, and were headed for the water. My room overlooked the pool, and it sat empty all day, but late at night, in the wee hours, it came alive.

Well, back to the band bus...

Right in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles from nowhere, the old bus caught on fire in the middle of the night, and the band barely escaped with their lives. So there stood the band next to the ruins of their bus, even the tires had melted from the extreme heat, all their instruments and sound equipment just burnt to a crisp and reduced to unrecognizable rubble. Their clothes gone, the cooler of food destroyed, even the peanut butter jar was shattered and black.

It was hours before a car came along, going the wrong way (east) and offered a ride, but he only had room for ONE. So that is how the band split up. They each caught a ride one by one every few hours, some heading west, others heading back east. My friend tells me he was the last to leave, has never seen any of the guys since, has no idea whatever happened to them. But that was the end of that band.


written by Miss Mermaid

The whoosh! And thwack! Of leather upon willow ‘could very well be a cricket phrase attributed to Somerset Maugham many years ago; a little twee perhaps, but I wonder if he could have envisaged the path that the game - enjoyed by so many English speaking countries and fanatically followed in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – would take early into the new millennium. From the traditional 5 day Test Match format, through the introduction of the One Day/Limited Overs set-up, a la Australian entrepeneur Kerry Packer, arriving at the present day and the emergence of the short - game 20/20 spectacle.

In the Caribbean, the recently concluded R. Allen Stanford 20/20 tournament played in Antigua, has set the region alight with a passion and patriotic fervour not often seen in inter island cricket sorties. For the Antiguan economy, it is becoming an important money-spinner; for West Indian cricket, the vast prizes – a million $US for the winning team, $500,000US for the runner up and financial sweetners for outstanding players through the tournament – will ensure that the very best local athletic talent finds its way back into cricket, rather than following the lucrative soccer and basketball route that has seemed to be the norm of late.

Of course, besides the pay outs, another reason for the huge success of 20/20 – i.e. twenty overs of bowling per team for conclusion – is the brevity of the match. 3 to 4 hours usually secures a result and if this is played in an evening session, our hardy supporter does not have to broker a day off work or miss out on mowing the lawn at the weekend. Most of all, it’s obviously action, action, action from the first ball, so the players and spectators get revved up in tandem – from the TV cameraman’s viewpoint, the national flags of each team often block out the vibrant costumes of avid visitors from exotic locations such as Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad to name a few, but nothing can diminish the party atmosphere that remains long after the final run has been logged.

On the downside, the cricket purist will wax lyrically about the lack of batting strategy employed in a ‘go for everything’ attitude; it’s a very valid point. Some gifted young ones in the sport and on the way up, but not taking onboard the subtleties and nuances of the 5 day match, could find themselves boxed into the ‘slug it and see’ side of the game; notwithstanding, never achieving the Test stamina required for hours at the crease facing fast, medium pace and spin bowling.

From this, it’s quite possible to conclude that international cricket will be made up of Test and One Day teams plus an alternative 20/20 squad that specialize in agility and a quasi baseball mentality. What do you think?