Pe­ter Ray Blood

Fre­net­ic. That's the most apt way to de­scribe last week­end's 50th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence ac­tiv­i­ties of a cul­tur­al na­ture. It all be­gan as ear­ly as the Thurs­day night when Ice Picks host­ed its an­nu­al In­de­pen­dence par­ty at The Har­vard Club in St James. A lot of peo­ple who at­tend­ed this par­ty were all droopy-eyed for the mil­i­tary pa­rade on In­de­pen­dence morn­ing, but they not on­ly cheered the march­ing troops along Tra­garete Road to King George V Park, but still had enough in re­serve to at­tend one of five af­ter-pa­rade brunch­es host­ed by steel­bands. Of the lot, the Carib Wood­brook Play­boyz event was the largest, with hun­dreds of peo­ple spilling on­to Tra­garete Road, block­ing traf­fic, in spite of some very heavy rain.

Soaked and par­ty­ing in the show­ers, pan en­thu­si­asts were en­ter­tained by Wit­co Des­per­a­does, Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus, Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove, and D'Tu­na­puna Vi­bra­tions En­gine Room. Turn­ing in an ex­hil­a­rat­ing per­for­mance was for­mer Road March cham­pi­on and So­ca Monarch Su­perBlue, thrilling guests with his win­ning so­ca items. Af­ter some much need­ed sleep, it was on to the Queen's Park Oval in the evening where the Prime Min­is­ter's of­fice staged the im­pres­sive Jour­ney to Ju­bilee con­cert, pro­duced by Bri­an Mac Far­lane. For two sol­id hours the ca­pac­i­ty filled venue was en­ter­tained by some of the na­tion's best per­form­ers, some of them be­ing Neval Chate­lal, PCS Sil­ver Stars, Sig­nal Hill Alum­ni Choir, Tony Prescott, Rik­ki Jai, de Mighty Tri­ni, KI & JMC?3Veni, De Orig­i­nal De Fos­to Him­self and Aaron Dun­can.

Sat­ur­day's ros­ter of events was just as packed with Play­boyz's 50th An­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence Fi­es­ta be­ing one of the best at­tend­ed with thou­sands jammed be­tween French and Colville Streets, along Tra­garete Road. Star­ring from mul­ti­ple stages un­til mid­night were Spar­row, Phase II Pan Groove, Rene­gades, Sil­ver Stars, Star­lift, Ex­o­dus, Des­per­a­does, Steve Sealy, Su­perBlue, Scrunter, Ron­nie Mc In­tosh, Pel­ham God­dard & Roots, Los Alum­nos De San Juan Parang Band and Old Time Mas Char­ac­ters. And so, as we march on to T&T's 36th an­niver­sary as a Re­pub­lic state, on Sep­tem­ber 24, cul­ture will again be very much in the fore­front. The agen­da in­cludes on Sep­tem­ber 23, An­gos­tu­ra Rum­fes­ti­val 2012; One Re­pub­lik show and fete; ReTheP­ub­lic...The Con­cert, fea­tur­ing Black Stal­in, Roy Cape All Stars, 3Canal & the cut + clear crew, and Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus; and, the ea­ger­ly await­ed launch of Tri­ni Rev­ellers' C2K13 mas-Brazil. On the top­ic of C2K13, next year, avant garde mas band Im­age Na­tion, led by artist Patrick Roberts, will be por­tray­ing Green Cor­ner. Al­so, red-cir­cle Sep­tem­ber 22 as the date Gen­e­sis, led by Ian and Ni­na McKen­zie, launch­es its C2K13 mas band-Mir­ror-at Cha­co­nia Ho­tel, Sad­dle Road, Mar­aval.

Car­ni­val Faces mas­ter class

For­mer pop­u­lar House of Jacqui mod­el Trudy Young is com­ing home this month to pre­view 'a new face' to Car­ni­val.

Young is the own­er of Car­ni­val Faces, a leader in the Car­ni­val Make Up Artistry in­dus­try, in An­tigua, Bar­ba­dos, Grena­da, Mi­a­mi and Or­lan­do, and de­but its first Car­ni­val Faces Artists Mas­ter Class on Sep­tem­ber 22, at Crowne Plaza, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, from 8 am. Dab­bling in the mas make up whirl these past cou­ple years in T&T, the Mi­a­mi domi­ciled artistes has giv­en in to nu­mer­ous re­quests to share the ex­pe­ri­ence and ex­per­tise with the tal­ent­ed and as­pir­ing artists of T&T.

Young ex­plained that her Sep­tem­ber 22 mas­ter class will be an in­ter­ac­tive work­shop, and will be en­cour­ag­ing artists to learn new and ef­fec­tive make up artistry tips and tech­niques. With more than 22 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the beau­ty busi­ness, Young's work con­sists of fash­ion, beau­ty and bridal. Young's port­fo­lio is an im­pres­sive one as she has worked with Bob­bi Brown, Smash­box, Tr­ish Mc Evoy, Lancôme, Dior, and Sasha USA. She has al­so worked run­way shows and pho­to shoots for Es­ca­da, Mi­a­mi Fash­ion Week, Miss Mi­a­mi/Broward Car­ni­val Pageant, Miss Mas­tana Ba­har USA, Gen­er­a­tion X, Big & Strong One Is­land Body Paint Band, Is­land Gems and nu­mer­ous glam­our and car­ni­val re­lat­ed events. Lunch and light re­fresh­ments will be served at the mas­ter class.

For ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion and reg­is­tra­tion call An­i­ca (473 8747) or Ni­ki (468 8135), e-mail car­ni­val­faces@gmail.com or Car­ni­val­Faces.net

Five In­de­pen­dence ca­lyp­so mon­archs since 1962

Sev­er­al read­ers con­tact­ed me over last week­end, en­quir­ing about my list­ing just three In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tions since 1962. Al­low me to clar­i­fy. In all, eight In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tions have been held since 1962, pro­duc­ing five win­ners-Lord Bryn­ner, Chalk­dust, Cro Cro, Watch­man and Chucky. How­ev­er, on­ly three were sanc­tion-1962, 1987 and 2012,-won by Lord Bryn­ner, Cro Cro and Chucky.

In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Mon­archs – 1962-2012

1962: Lord Bryn­ner - Trinidad & To­ba­go

1972: Chalk­dust - We Are Ten Years Old

1987: Cro Cro - Hap­py An­niver­sary

1988: Watch­man - Boots and Brains, Gun Re­li­gion

1991: Cro Cro – Rise African Rise, Get Some­thing and Wave

1993: Watch­man - How Low, Once Yuh Black

2005: Cro Cro - In­de­pen­dence Gone, They Love Me Now

2012: Chucky - Bear With Me

Birch cel­e­brates

pho­to/cap­tion: birch.jpg: He wasn't home to ac­cept his Hum­ming Bird (Gold) na­tion­al award but pan sci­en­tist Bertram "Birch" Kell­man cel­e­brat­ed his recog­ni­tion in the Unit­ed States with friends, in­clud­ing So­lo Har­monites el­der and Pan Trin­ba­go awardee Hu Loy. In pho­to, Kell­man cel­e­brates with Hu Loy's nieces, To­bag­on­ian New York res­i­dents Wendy, left, and Tri­cia Mc Neil. The on­ly tuner ever used by BP Rene­gades, this mul­ti-tal­ent­ed mu­si­cian has suc­ceed­ed in giv­ing the Char­lotte Street steel or­ches­tra its unique sound, the sound which earned it nine Na­tion­al Panora­ma ti­tles, a feat bet­tered on­ly by Wit­co Des­per­a­does. A most de­serv­ing na­tion­al medal awardee, be­fore be­gin­ning to tune pans, Birch was an ac­com­plished dou­ble-sec­ond pan­nist, play­ing with the na­tion­al steel or­ches­tra of the 60s. In ad­di­tion to Rene­gades he has al­so tuned for Des­per­a­does, So­lo Har­monites and host of oth­er pres­tige steel­bands.

The Out­side Woman comes to town

The bane of mar­ried women and women in com­mit­ted re­la­tion­ships, the "out­side woman" is be­ing glo­ri­fied by en­tre­pre­neur Glen­roy Wat­son. The Outs­de Woman is the name of Wat­son's new­ly opened eatery and open air pub on Phillip Street in Port-of-Spain. I have tast­ed the food there and the cook re­al­ly has "sweet han."

Car­ni­val Faces shares make-up ex­per­tise

For­mer pop­u­lar House of Jacqui mod­el Trudy Young is com­ing home this month to pre­view "a new face" to Car­ni­val.

Young is the own­er of Car­ni­val Faces, a leader in the Car­ni­val make-up artistry in­dus­try in An­tigua, Bar­ba­dos, Grena­da, Mi­a­mi and Or­lan­do, and will de­but its first Car­ni­val Faces Artists Mas­ter Class on Sep­tem­ber 22, at Crowne Plaza, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, from 8 am. Dab­bling in the mas make-up whirl these past cou­ple years in T&T, the Mi­a­mi-domi­ciled artist has giv­en in to nu­mer­ous re­quests to share the ex­pe­ri­ence and ex­per­tise with the tal­ent­ed and as­pir­ing artists of T&T.

Young ex­plained that her Sep­tem­ber 22 mas­ter class will be an in­ter­ac­tive work­shop, and will be en­cour­ag­ing artists to learn new and ef­fec­tive make-up artistry tips and tech­niques.

With more than 22 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the beau­ty busi­ness, Young's work con­sists of fash­ion, beau­ty and bridal.

Young's port­fo­lio is an im­pres­sive one as she has worked with Bob­bi Brown, Smash­box, Tr­ish Mc Evoy, Lancôme, Dior and Sasha USA. She has al­so worked run­way shows and pho­to shoots for Es­ca­da, Mi­a­mi Fash­ion Week, Miss Mi­a­mi/Broward Car­ni­val Pageant, Miss Mas­tana Ba­har USA, Gen­er­a­tion X, Big & Strong One Is­land Body Paint Band, Is­land Gems and nu­mer­ous glam­our and car­ni­val-re­lat­ed events. Lunch and light re­fresh­ments will be served at the mas­ter class.

For ad­di­tion­al in­fo and reg­is­tra­tion, call An­i­ca (473 8747) or Ni­ki (468 8135), e-mail car­ni­val­faces@gmail.com or Car­ni­val­Faces.net

In­de­pen­dence mon­archs since 1962

Sev­er­al read­ers con­tact­ed me over last week­end, en­quir­ing about my list­ing just three In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tions since 1962.

Al­low me to clar­i­fy. In all, eight In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tions have been held since 1962, pro­duc­ing five win­ners-Lord Bryn­ner, Chalk­dust, Cro Cro, Watch­man and Chucky.

How­ev­er, on­ly three were sanc­tioned-1962, 1987 and 2012,-won by Lord Bryn­ner, Cro Cro and Chucky.

In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Mon­archs-1962-2012

1962: Lord Bryn­ner-Trinidad & To­ba­go

1972: Chalk­dust-We Are Ten Years Old

1987: Cro Cro-Hap­py An­niver­sary

1988: Watch­man-Boots and Brains, Gun Re­li­gion

1991: Cro Cro-Rise African Rise, Get Some­thing and Wave

1993: Watch­man-How Low, Once Yuh Black

2005: Cro Cro-In­de­pen­dence Gone, They Love Me Now

2012: Chucky-Bear With Me

Birch cel­e­brates

He wasn't home to ac­cept his Hum­ming Bird (Gold) na­tion­al award but pan sci­en­tist Bertram "Birch" Kell­man cel­e­brat­ed his recog­ni­tion in the Unit­ed States with friends, in­clud­ing So­lo Har­monites el­der and Pan Trin­ba­go awardee Hu Loy. In pho­to, Kell­man cel­e­brates with Hu Loy's nieces, To­bag­on­ian New York res­i­dents Wendy, left, and Tri­cia Mc Neil. The on­ly tuner ever used by BP Rene­gades, this mul­ti-tal­ent­ed mu­si­cian has suc­ceed­ed in giv­ing the Char­lotte Street steel or­ches­tra its unique sound, the sound which earned it nine Na­tion­al Panora­ma ti­tles, a feat bet­tered on­ly by Wit­co Des­per­a­does. A most de­serv­ing na­tion­al medal awardee, be­fore be­gin­ning to tune pans Birch was an ac­com­plished dou­ble-sec­ond pan­nist, play­ing with the na­tion­al steel or­ches­tra of the 60s. In ad­di­tion to Rene­gades he has al­so tuned for Des­per­a­does, So­lo Har­monites and host of oth­er pres­tige steel­bands.

The Out­side Woman comes to town

The bane of mar­ried women and women in com­mit­ted re­la­tion­ships, the "out­side woman" is be­ing glo­ri­fied by en­tre­pre­neur Glen­roy Wat­son. The Out­side Woman is the name of Wat­son's new­ly opened eatery and open-air pub on Phillip Street in Port-of-Spain. I have tast­ed the food there and the cook re­al­ly has "sweet han."