De mas done till nex year when de bacchanal go be where dey havin' de ting...but dat is a whole different setta commess. It hard enough to try an' deal wid dis year confusion as it is widout tryin' to predict jes what kinda discombobulation we go have nex year.

I did see a most interesting article in de T&T Review by Orville Wright on what Pantrinbago does try to pass orf as a Judging System. He point out dat some bright spark in de organisation decide dat nevermind de (then) current system wasn' broke an' wasn' needin' no fixin'- dey had was to change de rules...an' kinda almost by-de-way let de panmen an' dem in on it a couple weeks before panorama semis. An' if dat wasn' bad enough, he still tryin' to unnerstan' de terminology dey come up wid to describe said new system - because he ent never come across dem in he 30+ years career as musician an' teacher!

Of course nobody ent sayin' who it is give dem de terminology, but as de ole folks always say, time longer than rope. It go all come out in de end, along wid where all de money TSTT an' Digicel did pelt behin' carnival really endup. One setta banner an' bunting an' flag all over de place, both sides givin' way car an' bandanna an' t-shirt, but at de end of de day, dey shoulda really spend dat money on de Carnival Institute so dat future generations could be able to know what T&T mas really was like. Is when las' yuh see people playin' Police an' Tief, wid de Police rainin' licks wid a bootoo on de pillow dat stuff down de tief back? I suppose dey mus be had Jab-jab somewhere dis year, but I know I ent see dem...an' as far as I could tell, de bats was as scarce as de real ting. I mus' say dat I was pleasantly surprised to see some youths playing Dragon an' Beast, but de high point was de Red Indian mas...from 2-3 year old all de way to what was lookin' like granny an' grandad an' dey was havin' a ball. A nex setta longtime characters dat lookin' in good shape was de Midnight Robbers. When Brian Honore did pass on las year is because everybody thought dat was de end of de line fuh Robbers, but I did see some youths in a small (big fuh Robbers) band dat did gimme hope.

If de Institute could get some serious financial backin' dey would ensure dat at least someting Trini get preserve fuh de up an' comin'
generations. I ent takin' on TUCO, because dem cyant seem to unnerstan' dat it jes plain wrong to use somebody Intellectual Property widout arksin' dem an' gettin' dey permission in WRITING...but nah fuh worry, comprehension go set in de instant somebody drop a multimillion US$ lawsuit in dey pueffin. All I see TUCO doin' is presidin' over de deathbed of true calypso/kaiso...is true dat de artform was always adaptin' an' adoptin''outside' influences, but wid all dat yuh always had a basic someting dat had real lyrics (wid more than 3-4 words) an' music. What passin' dese days as Soca is nuttin' more than a hook line shouted over a couple piece of somebody else music dat get kinda massage into a "Party Song". I only hope dat de Institue manage to get hold of some of dem records dat Rhyners' had when dey close down, so dey could get all dem Soca Artistes to lissen to where dey come from. All dey need to do is play Blue Boy records to see de drastic change dat happen to he music - all de Han' in de Air an' Jump an' Wave setta fast, fast pace dat dey still followin' blindly an' doh know why.

But wid all de commess, we did still manage to have a good time fuh de most part (some damn fool go always have to play deyself an' cause people grief) is to hope dat we could be sayin' de same ting on Feb. 21st 2007.


 

BACKCHAT: Issue 09

Good day Tants ... How are things and carnival? Hope you are fasting for lent. Anyhow just a quick comment for the carnival and pan people. Some of us here in the Middle East were thinking of having a pan side over next year. However a quick search on the internet showed that most T&T bands do not have an email or website presence! We were able to link up to a few European based bands. At least Pantrinbago have an updated site.
http://www.pantrinbago.com It would be nice if more bands in Trinbago started using the internet to promote themselves. As a matter of fact more of Trinbago should be using the available technology to promote ourselves.
Anyhow hope to get this idea of Desert Pan off. Some of us who cannot be home are trying to get home to meet us. Take care.
//Trini in Oman


Ah like Canada's response tuh de bredren/sistren re de language. Remind meh of when I was in university in canada an' was roomin' wit' a canuck for meh firs' year. It have a ting called "Use of English" dat yuh had tuh pass in order tuh graduate. Dey give de tes' (basically ah essay yuh have tuh write) every semester, so it mean dat yuh have 12 chances tuh pass. I lick up mine in meh firs' semester - no big ting, ah say tuh mehself - yuh know de canadian boy eh pass dat 'til he final year.....after 9 tries!!!!

I went tuh de college - for de uninitiated, dat is QRC if yuh please - an'
was taught by masters of de linguistic arts like Errol Sitahal, Winston Douglas etc. an' we had tuh do books by udder masters, like Sam Selvon (De Lonely Londoners), Naipaul, etc. dem boys taught us dat dere was no such ting as perfect English. Oh chris'...yuh cyah even understan' de cockney brits when dem start tuh talk. Ah wonder if de bredren/sistren could understan' somebody from New Orleans or Texas or Alaska when dey usin' dey own dialec'. Doh fuhget whey yuh come from breds/sistah!
//Trinidad