Love is Green

People who have never been to 'The Yard' are not sure how to get there. It's easy. If coming from Ariapita, head northward up Murray Street, Woodbrook (landmark: Jacqueline's Bakery at the corner) until you get to the park on your right. At top of park, Roberts intersects Murray. Turn left and 'The Yard' is about the second on the left from the corner. You can't miss it. Parking on both sides of road.

If coming from Tragarete Road side, head southward down Murray and take first right at corner of park.

The Dream House and the film will be happening under the umbrella of Greenlight Network's 'Love is Green' event. Even though the two are 'separate' they fit together for various reasons.

See you later (those who are coming).

Close ... yet far

Well ... the two guesses from Karen and Kelly were close ... and yet so far. I am not back in TO yet ... but rather went to TObago for the second day of the Muhtadi Drum Festival. (Place beginning with T = Tobago, familiar faces = Muhtadi and some of the people who drum, festivities = drum festival)
This troupe from Toronto had the crowd mesmerised. The female MC (who was very amusing) bawled out to TT women: "Allyuh feel you could wine? Well look what real wine is!"

*

Unlike the festival in TO which was in a park, this stage was near to the beach. There were local players as well as those from TO and other parts of the world. The entire festival ended with a blessing of the drums - a passionate and rhythmic procession from the performance area to the beach, with drums playing, everyone dancing and (in one case literally) catching the spirit. Unfortunately I only took one or two shots with my still camera because I was too busy trying to deal with my video camera which, after years of trusted hard work, is seeing its last days.

All of the performances were enjoyable, but this one from India was my personal favourite (the MC announced him as Mr. Channa) . To his side you will see the hang, a Swiss instrument which many people had not seen before. It sounds like a pan but he played it like a tabla. Hypnotic. (See and hear it in the video below, shot on my digital still camera).


The sequence just after the hang shows him on some drums in the middle of a jam session which followed the drum blessing and ended the festivities.

$2 and four hours well spent

(Canada Chronicles continued ...)

While walking with a friend on Sunday evening I noticed a building (which was closed) and wondered what was inside. Yesterday I went back to investigate and discovered it was the NFB (National Film Board of Canada).

When I asked the girl at the reception desk for information, she gave me a rundown of their offerings to the public. One of the things is a whole set of movies (in a range of genres) which are shown in a room with comfortable personal viewing stations. Pay $2 and you can watch your choice of movies all day long. When I heard that, I thought I would return the next day (today) and do a film-watching marathon ... but the woman offered me 15 free minutes to try it out ... and, after watching 2 short films, I thought "Why wait until tomorrow when I'm free now?"

So I paid $2 and stayed on for a few hours (they close at 7 p.m.), watching various experimental shorts, documentaries, animated shorts, etc. I will definitely be going back when I have time, as there are enough films to last for days (or possibly even weeks if you want to look at every single thing).

I saw quite a few good ones, but my three favourite were:

I'M SORRY (Director: MarkMcKinney)
(About 5 mins long) I found this one emotionally moving and thought provoking. "Is there anyone you owe an apology to?" Several people on the street were asked this question and subsequently described their 'incidents' and made their apologies to their loved ones on camera. It was simple and powerful. Apologies were made to an ex girlfriend, a grandmother, Jews/Blacks/the historically persecuted, parents, friends, etc. A great sense of release and closure seemed to come from each person through the camera/screen. The final one was a young girl who apologised to her mother for 'wrecking' their relationship, as they had once been the best of friends. When she was finished, the director (off camera) asked her:

"You think she'd accept the apology?"

Girl: Yes ...

Dir: You feel better saying it?

Girl: Yeah.

Dir: Good!

(I found that was good closure not only for the girl, but also for the other apologisers within the 5 min doc).

*

RYAN (13 mins 53 secs)
Dir: Chris Landreth
This was a very interestingly-done documentary on the animator Ryan Larkin. Rather than showing the real people talking, animated versions of them were used (the animation style eflecting the work of Larkin). This animation was mindblowing ... resulting in a quirkily beautiful yet tragic piece. Ryan Larkin was an Oscar nominee and one of the world's most celebrated animators. There came a time when he was living the results of gradual self-destruction and the worst nightmare of the artist ... losing the ability to create and provide for himself.

*

TWO SISTERS (1991, 10 min 26 sec)
Animated, experimental
This one was an intriguing story with simple, captivating animation. Two sisters, Viola Ge (accent on the 'e') and Marie are living in a dark house on an island. Viola writes novels in a dark room and her sister, Marie, fulfills her every need, whilst seemingly keeping her in an emotional prison. They are like recluses, living in a dark world of their own 'tenuous order'. One day a stranger (a man) swims over to the island, bursts into the house disrupting their 'tenuous order' and wants to see Viola Ge, as he has read every word of her books and is enthralled by her. Marie tries to dissuade him, but he eventually gets to Viola ... only to discover that she is disfigured ('a freak' according to the sister). To cut a short story short, he does not see her ugliness, she feels appreciated and autographs one of the novels for him: "To a stranger who sees me in sunlight ..." etc etc. In the end she tells him to leave, he swims off and she returns to her 'prison' with her sister.

Elton vs Akon

The Editor:

Where were all the pastors and their vociferous supporters when 'Prince' Akon conned those women into wining on stage (so they could win a trip to 'Africa') and filmed the entire scenario for the world to see on YouTube? Can we now expect a large paid advertisement from Pastor Cuffie ranting and raving against the fact that this 'international superstar' (not knighted, but 'royal') viciously wiped the stage floor and the speakers with the defenseless body of the young woman who had 'won' the first stage of the wining competition?

My sister sent me the link to that YouTube video. It is disgusting and degrading, to say the least. To think that this 'superstar' is allowed to come here and freely film this piece of 'entertainment' which looks like a violent rape being committed in time to music. He treats the young woman like a lifeless ragdoll, flinging her body around the stage, onto speakers and all over the floor with clearly no regard whatsoever for anything about her as a human being. Meanwhile, the crowd is heard laughing and cheering him on. (After all, wining and laughing at things that are not funny are part of 'we culture'). Perhaps those who were cheering were pleased to have an international superstar 'wining' to a soca beat and promoting 'we culture' over the internet, where it will get millions of hits and draw people to Trinidad, increasing tourist traffic for our new five-star hotels.

Rollerdisco fun!

The other day a friend of mine from Miami was spending a week with me. One evening we were looking for something to do/somewhere to go out ... and could think of nothing other than the 'typical' which we didn't feel for (bars, clubs, cinema). I said (and she agreed with me): "You know what would be fun? If there was a rollerdisco!"

Some days later, when she had left, I was going for my usual morning walk and saw some large flyers emblazoned all over the walls by the busroute. They were advertising "Hy Voltage" ... a new rollerdisco above Pizza Boys in Arima! It was as if the genie in the bottle had heard me ask for a rollerdisco.

I called the number and a woman told me it's $40 to enter and rent a pair of skates ("you must wear clean tube socks") and $30 if you have your own skates (I have my own). She said they are open from 4 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. for children and from thereafter to 5 a.m. for adults. But from what she said, I got the feeling the grownups weren't as into it - they tend to stand around looking on at the children (chaperones) or, later on, stand about having drinks and observing a handfull of skaters.

I understand that skating is not everyone's cup of tea, but for me it raises the question again: why do some (most?) 'grownups' here lose that sense of simple fun?