No pelau is cooking for a semi-final Panorama Sunday, in which we should be revelling today. No coolers and food baskets readied for the Savannah. The magic drums are silent. My soul’s feeling like it get planasse! The silence in the panyards sent me back to a brilliant Phase …
Read More »Terrible Thursday? Queen Terri tells old-stagers to share tricks of calypso trade
Calypso needs to get its act together! Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly did not think very much of TUCO’s handling of calypso in 2020 and she pulled no punches in letting the world know. Her unflattering comments on TV6 revealed disapproval of the decision to keep Kaisorama and the art form’s Carnival …
Read More »Best: What’s in a name? Calypso’s losing battle with the new identity normal
When Terri Lyons led Karene Asche and Heather Mac Intosh in a clean sweep for women in the National Calypso Monarch competition on Carnival Thursday, it may have reminded many of Denyse Plummer’s 1988 boast that woman is boss. However, for those willing to go back two more years to …
Read More »Live Wire for the Road: Iwer horns Machel with Kees, plus Nicki’s ‘Petty-man’ causes a stir
There was only ever going to be one winner in this Carnival’s much talked-about love triangle, which came to a head on top of Tribe’s music truck on Carnival Tuesday. And, no, we are not referring to Neil ‘Iwer’ George, Nicki Minaj and the elbow of Nicki’s aptly named husband, …
Read More »POS gets a Red wedding… in, uh, white; Live Wire gate-crashes Machel’s big day
Guess who just made it on to President Paula-Mae Weekes’ next Independence Day couples retreat? Hunnngh! Yes, Trinidad and Tobago soca star and Road March juggernaut Machel Montano is now a married man, after he tied the knot with long-time sweetheart Renee Butcher on Valentine’s Day at the Red House …
Read More »Live Wire Chronicles: Al-Masih appears in PoS with profound message; be still and know…
In the blistering heat and with dust everywhere, a mysterious figure trudges onward—followed by dozens of persons carrying knapsacks. One follower, petitioned by his companions, finds the gumption to politely question his leader. Follower: Al-Masih, why do you lead us through this desert? What is our purpose? Leader: What desert? …
Read More »Famalay for the Road! Machel nears record; here’s how he compares with Kitchener and Super Blue
Soca star Machel Montano is now just one hit away from the all-time record for Road March titles, as he was awarded his tenth crown today by TUCO for Famalay—a collaboration which includes Ian “Bunji Garlin” Alvarez and Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle. Famalay was played 346 times at the respective …
Read More »Daly Bread: Needing a new Kambule; why T&T Carnival requires a paradigm shift
At the Panorama semi-finals two weeks ago, I became involved in a discussion with Eintou Springer, her daughter Attilah and an official of Pan Trinbago. The discussion turned to how Pan Trinbago spent the taxpayers’ money it received from complicit governments in the past and apparently continues on the same path. …
Read More »Gibbons’ new calypso drama: Voices from the ghetto to sing de chorus?
What, I asked myself, might a Part IV of “Sing de Chorus” look and sound like if the dramatist decided to write one? What quality material would he have to draw on? Would any such production be what a recent Express story about an upcoming concert called “an ode to …
Read More »Kingdom come! Machel gets ninth Road March and clean bill of health from Guardian; Plus Rowley’s terror update
Soca star Machel Montano secured his ninth Road March title yesterday after his collaboration with Super Blue, “Soca Kingdom”—an okay song but a brilliant marketing slogan—beat Iwer George’s “Savannah” and Patrice Roberts “Carnival Sweet Fuh Days” into second and third place respectively. Even more important, Machel got a clean bill …
Read More »Time to scrap Dimanche Gras! Best suggests Culture Minister take page from Machel and Kees
An Open Letter to Culture Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly Dear Madam, It’s over, madam. Dimanche Gras is dead. Like the numerous, onerous pretty costumes the Pegasus Fancy Sailor and Tan Tan and Saga Boy relegated into irrelevance, the show is arguably now exposed as a creaking, antediluvian anachronism, not merely moribund …
Read More »Daly Bread: Reclaiming the Greatest Show tag, the Junior Panorama’s potential and that gross Paula-Mae headline
As is the norm in our Republic, when something outrageous happens, it is condemned only by whispers in cliques and in the chambers and domes of elites, except for a few brave souls who speak out. And so it was with last week’s front page banner headline, “I am not …
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