| To give you an idea of my connection to Carnival | | | | "Moonwalk") depicting the various sections of a ship; |
| and what I would prefer L.A. or any other place to | | | | or having to avoid "Lucifer" and his Entourage From |
| experience, let me begin with the fact that when I | | | | Hell, to name just a few . . . All of whom were to be |
| began playing mass, "Invaders" steel band did not | | | | found not just in a few isolated places on Carnival |
| even yet exist; and when the band eventually came | | | | day, but in almost every district in the island. |
| on the scene, they were known, initially, as "Oval | | | | These traditional portrayals are now shunted, for the |
| Boys". You may therefore assume, and correctly so, | | | | most part, and replaced by nondescript fluff and |
| that I grew up in Wood brook. | | | | semi-nudity. Our Carnival has fallen so low, in my |
| Music of the steel bands - in addition to other LIVE | | | | humble, traditionalistic opinion, that it no longer |
| music played by LIVE musicians on conventional | | | | surpasses Brazil's but more resembles it, having fallen |
| instruments - used to be the backbone, the catalytic | | | | almost to the level of Las Vegas "Schmaltz". |
| driving force in our Carnival. It was a creative, artistic | | | | Traditional has become almost a dirty word. A word |
| pursuit; and pan was synonymous with our Carnival. | | | | to be ridiculed by a new generation of players |
| To play mass used to mean, literally, to portray a | | | | showing no interest in embracing the history of their |
| character. To tell a story. It was our own | | | | culture. Instead, they have been satisfied to emulate |
| expressionistic, local theatricality. Theatre of the | | | | and imitate "outsiders", either ignoring or not realizing |
| street. Or as the late Trinidadian auteur, Dr. Errol | | | | the fact that it is their own "culture", the very same, |
| Gaston Hill, termed it: a "Mandate For A National | | | | which has been taken, exploited, dumped down, |
| Theatre". Playing mass used to involve research. Who | | | | recycled and sold back to them. And they have |
| or whatever you played, you made a point of | | | | bought it. |
| learning, studying and practicing for the portrayal of | | | | As for the music - and I use the term advisedly - |
| that entity. But most of all, it required some amount | | | | first of all, FASTER and LOUDER is not necessarily |
| of talent and imagination and a certain desire to | | | | better. Especially with that sort of (synthesized) |
| "entertain" the spectators. | | | | music that doesn't "breathe"!! . . I never thought I |
| But in the early 1970s a "cultural sell-out" of "The | | | | would see the day when pan would lose its place in |
| World's Most Spectacular Festival" (as our Carnival | | | | our Carnival and we would be subjected to the |
| used to officially be called) began to prevail - for | | | | American Square Dance fashion of "crowd control"- - |
| monetary gain - and the integrity of our Carnival has | | | | When some guy, some person of no consequence |
| since then been progressively and shamefully | | | | whatsoever, and most likely from another island, |
| compromised. | | | | would be telling me when to "Lay down on the |
| No longer do we face the challenge of fending off | | | | ground' and wine". Or, to "Hold on to the big truck." |
| the threats of "Midnight Robbers", or witnessing the | | | | or to wave my hand in the air! Such utter nonsense. |
| hypnotic realism of a family of "Bats", or enjoying - | | | | This is by no means the Carnival atmosphere that I |
| which has always been my personal choice to play - | | | | have known and loved. Or as a journalist from "The |
| the fanciful movements and dancing of a "Fancy | | | | Trinidadian Guardian" succinctly summed it up a couple |
| Sailor" band (Michael Jackson's source of his | | | | of years ago, "Rhythmic rhetoric for dictation dancing. |