Eye Unit: Happy Birthday Scarface

Nurse Karen and Scarface in Barbados, July 2009

I had a brief chat with Scar last weekend.  We were talking about Halloween plans.  He was busy organizing himself to leave Trinidad to celebrate a special occasion....his 31st birthday.  The energetic dreadlocked member of the Asylum family is yet ANOTHER Scorpio.  He's spending his day in Brooklyn ringing in the occasion on US soil for the first time.

Apart from being featured on Benjai's huge tune on the La Douma Riddim, "Tanty Say", Scarface also had a real fun tune called "Rock Dat Waist" that he released for 2009.  Instead of attaching a video, why not take a listen?  I know a lot of you never got to hear this one at all last February. So...fix up!



Happy Birthday Scar!  Enjoy your trip!



Love and Soca,

Nurse Karen

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The Rounds: Shurwayne Winchester and Y.O.U celebrated 1 year, etc!

Originally aired on Flow 93.5 FM in Toronto "Soca Therapy"

In this edition:

- Shurwayne and Y.O.U. celebrate one year (Trinidad and Tobago)
- SVG goverment promises money to artists (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
- Problem Child's Mad House Tour Reality Show (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
- December carnivals: St. Kitts, St. Croix, Montserrat
- Soca or Die (Canada)
- This week's soca birthdays: B.V.I, St. Kitts and Nevis

Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Last Tuesday, Shurwayne Winchester and YOU celebrated their 1st anniversary together as a band. The event took place at Woodford Cafe in Trinidad, the same place they held their very first performance just one year before. Since then, they have the have grown as a cohesive unit, opened their own band room, produced the ABX Riddim for Carnival 2k10, and recorded 18 of their own songs. Shurwayne announced that Y.O.U. would be releasing a new album on the 1st of December.
The very same date marked the 30th anniversary of independence for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. There’s all kinds of reasons why something like that is important news for the rounds, but allow me to give you one more. To mark the occasion, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves announced the government’s plans for an economic stimulus package that includes 1 million dollars in grant money to be doled out to its cultural entrepreneurs. It plain English, the soca artists are getting cheques in the mail just for being creative. Boyyyy, nothing says happy Indy like free money.

Speaking of SVG, I’m not sure how many of you knew that St. Vincent’s Roadmarch king, Problem Child has his very own reality show. It’s called the Madhouse Tour and it launched on St. Vincent’s K45, Iktv channel in the fall. I never mentioned it to you before, because there were no videos online. Well now there are. If you surf over to youtube, You can see funny clips of the artist’s adventures all over the place, including....TORONTO.
We all know that Trinidad Carnival is coming in February. But there are actually several other Carnivals before then. In December three other Caribbean Islands will heat up with the sounds of soca, and theatre of mas; St. Kitts, St. Croix (USVI), and Montserrat. The 2009 Montserrat Festival calendar was just released this past week, with a packed agenda of activities from December 4th through January 1st.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today is only November 1st. So, happy birthday goes out to soca artist, Lincoln Ward in the British Virgin Island. Then on Saturday, the Parade of Scorpio b-days continues. That night will be the 1st ever Soca or Die Surprise Birthday party for Dr. Jay and friends. Hope you got your tickets! But it’s also the birthday of Juliette Mills from St. Kitts, Tabia from St. Vincent, and Scarface from Trinidad. Don’t look surprised, we already told you November is the month of the Soca Baby!

Before I go...good news. Knycky Cordner performed again with her band Ventures for the 1st time since her hip surgery earlier this year. Happy to see the girl back in action!
I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. To get the news first, be sure to visit nurse dash Karen dot com or follow me, nursekaren on Twitter. Now back to de Docta!

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Eye Unit: Asylum and Friends at Tribe Fete (video)

Carnival Thursday is a great night to party.  I tagged along with the Asylum Family for a behind the scenes look at a day in the life of a top soca band.  Tribe Fete was stop number 2 that evening.  I got you a couple of clips from the stage.
You'll see:  Bunji Garlin, Scarface, Edwin Yearwood, Fay-Ann Lyons and Skinny Fabulous.
Enjoy!




Need a little more?

Suss my wee review here:

http://mustardseedmedia.blogspot.com/2009/02/nurses-lounge-asylum-and-friends-at.html

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Nurse's Lounge: UWI Fete Miami 2008

Today was greeeeeeeeeeaaat!

Took another short dip in the water outside my front door. The sun is hot, and so far...dis carnival hotter! While I was swimming about, I noticed the sky getting dark. So, in for me! On the bright side, the early return to my room bought me a couple extra hours in the day.

My girl The Split and I rolled down to South Beach to pass the time with a few friends. Respect to the guys from South Beach Shutdown. They were on their hustle getting ready for their All White Affair with Mr. Vegas. So sorry we didn't make it back for that. Also, big up to Mr. Slaughter. That macaroni pie was sweeeeeeeeeet! I still don't really believe you made it, but no matter. You have no idea how hungry I was.

As the sun began to set, we blazed up the I-75 back to Grand Palms Golf Resort for UWI Fete 2008. So this event is a big time all-inclusive. Every space on the main floor of the building was teeming with people. Then outside WATCH PEOPLE...like ants. On the hills and valleys, in the bars a food stalls...PEOPLE!

So, yesterday I gave major kudos to the bar staff at this very same venue for being so well organized. Tonight was a different story all together.

Bar Going Crazy at UWI Fete

That picture can't even begin to descibe the bacchannal they had going on there. Needless to say, one visit was more than enough.

I was there to see a stellar show from Machel Montano HD. First time seeing them since Trinidad. Somehow I had managed to miss them everywhere else I have visited this year. I finally got to meet Lady Elizabeth Montano in de flesh. Yup, we talking about Machel's mommy - the woman responsible for handling the artist's business matters.

Meeting Elizabeth Montano for the first time

The entire crew was there. Special shout to Farmer Nappy. I feel like this man is getting younger every time we meet.

Farmer Nappy and Nurse Karen

The Machel posse had to run off pretty quick. They had another show downtown at 90 degrees. Next up was Bunji Garlin and Asylum. I watched that set from the stage.

Faye-Ann and Bunji satisfying the crowd

I'm not sure if Bunji and Faye-Ann realized what was going on behind their backs, but I wasn't JUST protecting your water bottles from stage stormers...Scarface actually let The Split and me sing backup into his mic during Party Animal. Doh vex, kay?!?!

Don't we look like we were up to something?

Scarface, walk tall. Looking forward to hearing you on a very special top-secret riddim for Vincy Mas 2009 (hee hee)

Original Godfather's Asylum Fam, Scarface

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