Tag Archives: Chalkdust

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 …

The return of the Kings and Queens to Sunday’s Dimanche Gras made for a good show. Calypso won as, although there were too many props, there was no excess of lame melodies, thank God, and no overdose of prosaic lyrics. It was refreshing to hear music back in our calypso; …

The 2018 Calypso Monarch Finals promise to be the best in about 20 years. This is so although the judges only got about 70% of the selections correct. The mix will be excellent, not simply in terms of musical variety and lyrical content and style and pace but also in …

“In a market economy, prices indicate demand which, in turn, affects supply—falling prices indicate lower demand, higher prices reveal shortages and, generally, supply adjusts to meet demand. “[…] The trouble was that State subsidies distorted the market for calypso. So government funding, especially over the past 25 years, concealed preferences—or, …

More or less 20%. That is the share of the newspaper market that the Guardian has enjoyed (if that is the right verb) for several years now.  It is also the figure that, according to a former Guardian editor of fairly recent vintage, is more than adequate provided that that …

The Mighty Chalkdust has no more than one month to make a public announcement that that’s it, he’s calling it a day at last. In February, in his 50th year in the business, the former schoolteacher who celebrated his 76th birthday in early March sang “Learn from Arithmetic” to beat out 16 others …

Some people will stop at nothing to bring a good man down; many of them are in the media. Ask soon-to-be former NCC chairman Kenny De Silva who decided to resign after reading an editorial in the Express. Or current Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz who has decided NOT to …

A litany of whoa! But we jamming still! Bacchanal, synonym of and the default rhyme for Carnival, has been part and parcel of the national festival for donkey’s years and controversy and comess have been its consistent companions. But this year was ‘diss’ year; everywhere you looked in 2017, it was disaffection, …

“I was surprised, though not very, when Hindu leaders sought to criticise the outfit worn by the President during the Carnival revelry. It is my opinion that such instances actually normalise and homogenise the Indian wear in our culture. “While most of the criticism was focused on the Rudraksha mala …

“Uncles, check allyuh bits and pieces and then see about pulling off this one for me. For all of us. Allyuh need to turn up the natural moxie allyuh have and teach them. Doh hold dem and wuk dem, Uncles, just teach dem. Teach them before they start thinking that sex in marriage is just some scriptural routine for procreation and that fulfilment …

My friend AJ is not a trained calypso judge, the only ones able, according to now nine-time Calypso Monarch Chalkdust, to judge the annual calypso competition fairly. So I really don’t know if AJ’s view that “Chalkdust should be somewhere in the middle of the field”—shared with us on our …

Not to take anything away from the 2017 winner, Dr Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, the now record nine-time champion, the results of last night’s Calypso Monarch competition simply do not add up. And as the dissatisfaction with the organisers and complaints about the quality of the show multiply—as they are almost …