...that's one them Trini words, and it pretty much sums up my j'ouvert morning experience. So, you can go back to whatever you were doing now. I'm done.
Silly me, I didn't bring a camera to protect if from the paint. We're gonna have to wait a few days till I get some pic from my buddies. Before that, Rochelle would hit you up with the details on J'ouvert and the after lime in St. James, cuz that girl had a time! Carnival is off to a fantastic start!
Love and Soca,
(Nurse) Karen
P.S. Large up Bandit, Hoppie, DJ Dane and any other fine brothers I forgot to mention who had a hand in helping us paint the town yellow. TV personality AJ Calloway, was jumping in the band, and so was St. Vincent's soca sweetie, Tabia. And yes my Toronto crew, I saw you too!
Where US-based West Indian events are concerned, Miami is carnival on crack. After the party is the afterparty, after the afterparty, is the after-the-afterparty party...and so on. So, on we go!
UWI fete was a blast in spite of scatterred rain showers...and scattered bar staff.
Then we made a beeline across Pines to Hollywood Blvd. Sosta Lounge was already bumping with a fete called F.R.I.E.N.D.S (a fitting name after we just saw Zan give the cutest ever performance of Out on de Road)
It was definitely nice to check out a smaller venue, packed to the brim with positive vibes and great people.
TriniJungleJuice dot com was there in numbers. When they get their content online, get over there to read their reviews, see the pics, interviews...and you could skip the video. LOL...tell them I say so.
This is Andre, the man behind TriniJungleJuice. Remember Cool & Dre? This is a different Dre...but they resemble, no?
The party was HOT...as in temperature. Let's be real. How often do I attempt to wear my hair straight? Most of the night, I kept to the patio. I wasn't gonna fight up with that sauna.
Inside there were brief performances from Iwer George and Skhi. OUTSIDE...the patio lime. As my Toronto posse can attest, no good soca fete is complete without a guest appearance from our very own hometown hero NBA Center, Jamaal Magloire. The Toronto-native was recently traded to the Miami Heat. Unfortunately, he managed to royally mess up his left hand in an exhibition game in Paris. He's out for 4 to 6 weeks.
Jamaal, and his CLUB. It's so not funny....but boooooyyyyy dah real funny jed!
Thanks to Radioactive Sound System, the night ended on a high note. Hyper Hopper and DJ Dane brought F.R.I.E.N.D.S. to a full boil. I went in for a serious workout....and prolly lost about 5 lbs of water.
After Dawn...the party that is, I was "knackered". I had been jumping and waving myself into a sleepy stupor. Little did I know, our morning had just begun. We proceeded to the bat mobile and rode west to Diego Martin. I caught a glimpse of Rain-o-rama. If you follow the Rounds, you would know that is the home of the late Aldwyn "Lord Kitchener" Roberts. I was a lil slow with my camera, so it only snapped it from the side.
No time to stop, we were about to try our luck at getting our hands on the hottest tickets in town: D'Vale Breakfast Fete. For all who don't know, this party takes place down in a picturesque valley in very posh neighbourhood. Well it's known that Trini's love a good party. So, I GUESS the neighbours didn't mind having a killer sound system wake them up for a street blocko.
We didn't reach till mussee 9 am. The sun was high and hot. We parked, and loitered by the gate hoping someone would give 3 sexy ladies a lil bligh. It was so pathetic standing on the outside looking in. Hoppie, and D'Bandit were up on the roof entertaining the crowd. Meantime, I dey looking schupid begging tickets on the outside looking in. Ah mean, we just wanted a lil food, a lil music, a lil more fun. Two two's and we were in. The saada roti was calling my name. I probably still have pumpkin hangin from my teeth all now.
Boy, was it ever hot. I pushed through the crowd craving water...but not quite bold enough to jump under the spray of the hoses. Not yet, anyway. So to the bar i went. Water for my friends, water for me...and water for my hair. I made a Trini friend called ray who was all too pleased to wet me down with the ice cold bottle of Dasani.
Now, this was a great fete. As pooped as I was, I don't regret it all. This was the first party where I got a chance to lime with de Toronto crew, including Dr. Jay. I found out we had all been at the same fetes throughout the week...but we kept missing each other. Toronto held it down by the speaker boxes....and showed Trinidad how we wikked.
I won't call any names for now. But stay tuned for my Trinidad Carnival video. Some these people have no behaviour at all! Mingling in the crowd was Nicky Cordner and St. Vincent's own Kevin Lyttle. True to form, Kevin wasn't TURNED ON to small talk. He just wanted to take a wine. And who am I not to oblige?
Crab and dumplin in my belly and surrounded by friends, I totally forgot about the time. Somewhere around 11:30 am my phone rings. It was my cousin wondering what time I was planning to come by and visit. Uh geez. Dat is today, right? OK...We could barely hear each other for the music, but I heard my bed steupsing for leaving him alone for the whole night..and now day.
We partied in de Vale untill after noon, then it was time to start the day. Party Animal, no sleep at all!
I'm Nurse Karen and that's your Booster Shot. But it's just the beginning. We're getting awful close to the heart of carnival. It's Sunday....time to organize my mas costume, then "I out on de road, I dey wit my friends, if you looking for me, you'll find me and dem, we right round de bend"...or something like that. If I make it through today. I'll let you know how it turned out!
Good Evening Soca Lovers…I’m Nurse Karen and ah finally back with Doctor Jay’s Rounds. Long time nuh talk Toronto. If you missed me over the last two weeks…I was busy administering a little soca therapy to the people of London England and Brooklyn, New York. I packed up my bag with rags and flags and short pants and took the pulse of soca city overseas. First stop Notting Hill…a decidedly affluent section of west London that was transformed into party central two weekends ago. Sunday morning was an event called chocolate mas which is a j’ouvert like no other. It real dutty…and plenty sweet. No mud, no paint, no powder just sticky wet chocolate syrup. All in yuh hair, in yuh clothes and on de street. Later on is what they calling Children’s day. I’m still trying to figure out why! The area is packed up with sound systems in every corner. I was hearing everything from Dancehall, to Hip Hop, funk, disco, house, and techno…but if you think sumting missing you RIGHT. Two things actually - Soca and well, Children! Big people took over the streets very early on - Getting drunk and belligerent de lil pickney were nowhere to be seen. Tisk tisk England…whappen tuh yuh?! Well, our bri-ish cousins made up for their folly on Monday with the 43rd annual grand parade. I played mas with Poison UK…and dat was bacchanal. Dr. Jay…I was missing you bad, ya kna. Even though DJ Spice was doing a great job handling de music on the road, It was easy to see that the crowds in England eh quite up to de time when it comes to soca music. So I found myself MOVIN TO DE LEFT and FOLLOWING DE LEADER more often than I’d like to admit. None de less….it was pressure. Hypa Hoppa was looking mischievous in his school uniform…Umba de Shepherd was wining pon speaker box. And de rest o’ we were in Malibu Paradise under a Pinapple Sun! Nurse Karen had to leave the band around 6 o’clock for a live carnival broadcast on BBC 1xtra. That’s London’s home of New Black Music. I got a chance to big up Toronto’s impressive cast of DJ’s, promoters and bandleaders for making Caribana one of the best Caribbean carnivals outside of the West Indies. The beautiful bajan host of international sounds of soca, Miss Alex Jordan say to tell allyuh hello.
Click below to suss out my edited video from London England and Notting Hill Carnival.
I getting to New York just now…but I would be amiss not to mention some exiting things happening this weekend. Besides the fact that it’s carnival weekend in Baltimore Maryland, Soca history was made in Cuba on Friday. Machel Montano took the HD show to the communist nation, packing out the Karl Marx theatre in Havana. Last Weekend I was jet setting from heath row to JFK. 5 hours time difference fast forwarded me directly into the New York carnival action. My usual labor day limes consist of boat rides and block parties, but I kept it real simple this time. Last Sunday, I was rocking a pair of 4 inch raspberry stilettos for the 5th annual SAO international soca awards. Kudos…to CJ and the organizing committee for making an effort to recognize the breadth of talent across this art form, but it’s obvious the event lost some credibility after the 11th hour venue change fiasco last year. The event that had been scheduled for the Apollo theatre, got shuffled all the way to club Tobago in queens…a place with plenty vibes, but not what I would call Black Tie sophistication. So RUM JUNGLE was the spot this year, with the likes of Tizzy and EL A CREW, Biggie Irie, Lil Rick and Peter Ram gracing the white carpet. Inside Ajamu, Crazy, Nnika Francis and Skarpyon all took home hardware. But…most of the de trini artistes and dem were noticeably absent. Special congratulations go out to Toronto-Lime dot COM for winning best soca info website two years straight. I took to the stage to pick up the hardware on they behalf. And Toronto-Lime is exactly where you need to go to check out the complete list of winners. After the show, I got all oiled down to jump up with the wildest j’ouvert band in New York. You better believe I dey with my Greenz crew. I love how allyuh bazodee. There was one guy who kept pulling down he boxer briefs as he chippin’…I was having trouble following the political commentary in dat! I closed out the weekend on the parkway running up and down to catch every band. Nice to see Allison Hinds roll it as she gets ready to drop her first solo album in November. The Haiti crew was unstoppable with the loudest trucks on the road. I, was on the last of 3 vincy trucks, enjoying the view. Big up to Soca Jones and Vincy foreign based for giving me a front row seat to see Bomani, Jamesy P and Problem Child perform for the estimated 3 milion people at the parade.
And with that, I kissed the summer vacation behind…and hauled MY behind back to Toronto. I’m nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Please send text me your comments to 9-3-5-9-3-5, now back to de Docta!
Click below to see my edited video from the SAO Soca Awards and the Brooklyn West Indian Day Parade.
I’m nurse Karen and these are Doctor Jay’s Rounds. Hear nah, we’ve now passed the half way point in November and everywhere you go…it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Today, de people and dem done block of de whole of downtown so all the little children could gather to catch a quick glimpse of Santa. All now, I still didn’t see the man, but whenever he makes his official visit to the city of Toronto, I can’t help but look forward to the holidays.
Next weekend…it’s off to the Big People Parang Show and dance, for a helping of holiday music and fun -- Trinidadian style. Think about it… If Santa Claus doesn’t get you in that holiday kinda mood, then you probably need people like Marcia Miranda, Scrunter, Kenny J and Leon Coldero to do it for you. None of them would be riding in on a sleigh next Sunday…but de vibes and ting might send YOU riding home in a taxi.
Mista Vybe flew home from Toronto a couple of weeks ago and landed straight into the sound booth. After the amazing success of “Ting fuh de Road” this year, earning him the title of first ever Caribbean Soca Monarch, the pressure is on for Carnival 2007. But first, Vybe is working on some Parang he-self. It surprised me to learn that he wrote a soca parang for Hypa Hoppa…and took to the studio last week to add his high energy background vocals to the mix. For those of you who don’t know…Hypa hoppa is what you would get if you took FLOW’s own Wayne Williams, Ian Andre Espinet and de one called SPEX, and threw dem into a blender. He’s the Program Director at Trinidad’s RED 96.7. He’s a top event promoter and the force behind the unrivaled Radio Active Sound System in TnT. Now that’s what I would call a one-man entertainment callaloo…who happens to have a degree in Mechanical Engineering too. So, just maybe he could actually design a blender big enough to fit all dem boys dey. All that being said, Ah can’t wait to tek a taste of de song, once it’s done.
You know what else I can’t wait for? I can’t wait for Canadian Cable companies to start broadcasting Caribbean TV shows. If you’re listening, Santa…I think that’s what I want you to bring me. Tonight, in just a few minutes….all the TV sets in the Eastern Caribbean States will be tuned in to the final showdown for the Digicel Rising Star Competition. The finalists have been widdled down to two. Only Antigua’s Omar Rathurin and St. Vincent’s Kyron Baptiste remain. Now, it’s no secret that I wave my Vincy flag high and proud…but if I still had minutes on my digi-sim card, I’d be texting a vote for the Antiguan with the winning smile. He became my favourite after teenage soca songstress Danielle Veira left the show. Plus, I heard that tonight he’ll be singing “Hot and Groovy”…one of my all-time favourite songs.
Make no mistake….Rising Stars is an important competition. It’s the one that landed Barbados’ Kimberly Inniss smack dab in the middle of the soca limelight with last year’s second place finish. Down in Trinidad Synergy TV’s Soca Star is getting the same kind of attention…especially now that the winner for season two will receive a recording contract with hot boy producer Shawn Mastamind Noel. And if you ask me, dah is money in de bank. Which would sure come in handy for the holidays!
I’m Nurse Karen and those were Doctor Jay’s Rounds. Please send your comments to SOCA at FLOW 935 DOT COM. Now back to de docta!
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