What a week this last one turned out to be! Thursday night a fellow blogger, Evil Squirrel’s Nest, gave me the 2012 Best Blog of the Year Award. And yesterday one of my posts, Day 120 I’m Afeared, was featured on FRESHLY PRESSED, right here, on WordPress. All that, on top of you stopping by, reading my blog and taking the time to ‘like’, comment and share. Thank you so much. This is one heck of a community we’re part of. I’m so enjoying getting to know you.
I love music. Growing up there was always music playing in our house. My mother had a beautiful voice. My dad? Not so much. Me? I had a boyfriend who said he was going to start a group called Fransi and the No Tones. That should tell you everything you need to know. He silenced me forever. I don’t even sing in the shower any more. We all loved listening, though.
And of course, I still do. How do your tastes run in music? Mine are pretty eclectic. Soul. R&B. Blues. Reggae. Cuban. Afro Cuban. Some rock. Some folk. Some pop. Some classical. Some opera. Some country. Some jazz. Doesn’t leave much I don’t like, does it? Ahh, heavy metal. Thanks, but no thanks. No interest in ‘listening’ to a migraine.
Oh, I forgot. I love soca. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s a style of Caribbean music (calypso), that originated in Trinidad and Tobago. T & T’s also famous for Carnival, an annual two-day long bacchanal held on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. People go from all over the world to
party, party, party.
As for soca music, don’t expect to sit still. It’s impossible. From the very young, to the very old, everyone jumps to their feet immediately. Toronto has a Carnival, too. ‘Caribana’ it’s called here. Held the first Monday in August, it also attracts about two million revellers from all over Canada, the U.S. and even the Islands. The first year I moved to Toronto a co-worker, whose wife was playing in a band at the upcoming Caribana festivities, convinced me to participate as well. He said he’d also be joining in.
Needless to say he was a no-show. I was there though, in all my feathered and sequinned glory. It was a blast, despite it starting more than three hours late. Despite having to stand there, in the BLAZING sun (90+ and humidity) in a costume made of garbage bags (our band’s theme was pollution). Did you know garbage bags stick to skin when it’s very hot? As in, you have to peel it off, taking a layer of skin with it. Well, now you know. Ouch!
Despite having hundreds of itsy bitsy, teeny tiny ‘sparkles’ added to the make up you wear, on your face, arms, hands, legs. Any exposed skin, actually. And during Carnival or Caribana, let me tell you, there’s a lot of exposed skin. And the hotter you get, the more the sparkles feel like shards of glass digging into your tender flesh. More ouch!
Doesn’t sound like much fun, but it is.
Of course, those in the crowd who’d been through it before, knew to bring flasks of rum or rum punch with them. And you know it was over-proof, direct from the Caribbean. Which they generously shared. I was a ‘newbie’, though. What did I know?
No surprise they didn’t mind the heat. Or the costumes and sparkles. Or the long long, long wait. No doubt the other things they brought along also helped to loosen them up’, helped them to ‘relax’ and ‘go with the flow’. Not that you couldn’t get high just breathing normally. There was enough ganja around to sink a ship. The air was heavy with it. “Hey, no problem. Is island time, know what I’m sayin’. Chill. No hurry. No worry.”
It’s a long, long route. Hours of ‘wining’ (traditional form of dancing), involved. No ‘whining’ though. I didn’t make it to the bitter end. I got most of the way, but finally dropped out (before I dropped dead) slightly more than two thirds of the way through. You should have seen the looks I got on the subway going home, still dressed in my regalia. With my hair wild and curly from the heat and my face so red (from the heat, the sun and the non-stop dancing) it was purple. And from my cleaning lady who spent weeks trying to vacuum up all the sparkles I’d shed all over my apartment. As I recall, I lost sparkles along the entire route home. I left a trail everywhere.
If you’ve never experienced it, you should go. Even as a spectator. It will lift your spirits like nothing else. No inhaling necessary.
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain”. Bob Marley
Reblogged this on sovannasuos.
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it.
🙂
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That’s what I call living! I think everyday should have a little soca! 🙂
They should! You’ve just got to smile. And get moving. It takes you to a very happy place!
Oh, CONGRATS on the Freshly Pressed, it really is quite a rush I know, I hadn’t really thought about it much for myself until it happened and was like what in the world? 🙂 Fun, fun!
I hadn’t thought about it either. But it’s mind boggling. I can’t believe all the visits my blog has had in the last two days. Going from litter box issues to the WordPress home page is quite bizarre. Great fun.
congratulations indeed!
Thank you! And thanks for ‘visiting’, reading and taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.
Hi! I have nominated you for Blog of the Year – read more here if you like: https://sunfieldart.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/award-nominations/
Congrats!
Ah.. but you were already awarded.. I see 🙂
Yes, but thank you anyway. I appreciate the thought. But there are so many wonderful blogs here, and so many talented writers and artists and photographers you will have no trouble finding someone else. Does this mean someone nominated you and now, you are passing it along? If so, congratulations!! And thank you again for thinking of me.
Thank you so much! Yes, I think you have a great blog and inspire lot’s of people. You do as you like 🙂
Thank you. So, congratulations to you! I very much enjoy your blog. I am inspired every day by things I see and read on WordPress blogs (including yous) so I am gratified if you feel I inspire others. Thank you for that.
Thank you so much again, much appreciated! Yes, I think you do a great job with your blog and it’s really inspiring. I write a little myself (and educated librarian) so I like to read about writing. Keep up the good work!
Thanks. You too.
Congratulations for being Freshly Pressed; what wonderful and deserved recognition.
Thanks! Honestly it was a surprise. But definitely a pleasant one. Thanks for the comment. Much appreciated.
now that sounded like fun!
It was!!
It was! Never ‘participated’ again but went for years. And I still love the music.
Freshly Pressed, now that’s the ultimate blogging honour, well-done you, deservedly so too! Thanks too for the nomination, just back from a trip to London, so still catching up, difficult to publish anything with the sombre mood out there, thank goodness for Wordsworth.
Thank you! Hope London was fun. Oh I know. This horror in Connecticut is just so, so awful. Impossible to believe anyone could be that inhuman to do such a thing. And I refuse to believe he never exhibited any signs of severe mental illness. Give me a break. You don’t go from perfectly normal to this.
You don’t, but it is true that some young men (including one I know of) can go from being a student at a prestigious school, to suffering from a serious mental/psychological disorder. In that case, he was rescued in time, but it is frightening what a crazed person is capable of in an impulsive moment. Sadly I do believe today’s media feeds into their imagination.
I agree. There’s also way too much violence in movies, on TV and those games that are all the rage. This is such a complex problem. It’s not just about guns. Guns are definitely a part of it, but there’s so much more.
It’s what feeds the imagination before they lay their hands on the tools. And today children are so much more advanced in gaining access to things that a generation ago would have been inconceivable. The rage and the mental instability have been and are always there, but the options for indulging it today are seriously scary. I was just as shocked to hear there is such a thing as a ‘lock-down’ in schools.
Yes, me too. I was also shocked to hear that they have practice drills to reherse what to do in such emergencies. Imagine having such conversations with 6 year olds. Having to explain what to do if a bad man with guns comes to school. That just made me heartsick. But there are some kids who escaped and they are saying that’s why. They knew what to do. God help us!
At 6 I didn’t know what a bad man was. I was playing with dolls.
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
Thanks so much!
Reading this post just made my night; I live in the Caribbean, and it’s great to read a point of view on Carnival from the outside. Thank you!
Wow! Thanks. I love all things Caribbean. I even cook West Indian food. Winter’s coming. Want to trade places? 🙂
Just got back from Michigan, so thanks, but no thanks! Feel free to visit, though – plenty of beach space here! 🙂
Will do 🙂
DJ’d on local radio for more years than I care to remember – musical all sorts, but country music is a real passion, any photographs to go with the last paragraph?
Chris.
LOL. No, but they would have been priceless.
Ah shucks, but at least you have the memories.
Chris.
Yeah. And they’re vivid. Trust me, I see myself very clearly. Cringe-making. But it was tons of fun.