DJ LALO DIES IN CRASH.

POPULAR disc jockey Kewal “DJ Lalo” Ragbir was one of two people killed on the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway yesterday during a three-car smash up.
The crash happened shortly after noon near the traffic light intersection at Trincity Mall.
The other victim was Jacqueline King, of Arima. Their deaths pushed roads fatalities to 17, up to late yesterday.
King’s son Ancy was up to late yesterday listed in critical condition at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
Police said Ragbir was driving his truck east along the highway when King, the driver of a Nissan Almera, heading west, got a bad drive from another car, which subsequently stopped.
King’s car crossed the median and collided with Ragbir who also struck a light post. There were two other occupants in Ragbir’s truck, police said.
Police and firefighters had to cut through the wrecked vehicles to remove Ragbir and King who were rushed to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, where they both succumbed.
The passengers of Ragbir’s truck were also hospitalised.
Ragbir was among the DJs expected to provide music for the band Legacy on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
He also provided sound systems, DJ services for parties, Carnival bands, as well as political meetings.
He also participated in music tours, provided DJ services for Miami Carnival and also rented an apartment building adjoining his home, in St Augustine, to students of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
Despite Ragbir’s passing, an official at the Legacy Mas Camp said the show would go on.
Shortly after his death, the National Chutney Foundation of T&T, in a release, appealed to drivers to be extra cautious on the roads during the Carnival period. The organisation also extended condolences to Ragbir family. (RHD)
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news10.html


It seems like every Season the Carnival world has to loose some of its legends before Ash Wednesday. While most of us are swept up with the sights, and sounds, of this celebration of life, liberty, and creativity, we often forget that this sweet life can vanish in a blink of an eye.
Sometimes it seems to me that we are in fact living memories, for when death comes it’s so sudden at times that our existence comes to an end it’s hard to think that people existed at all except for in our minds…

On the radio in T&T at you always hear about arrive alive but on the roads drivers have a different plan…

Seeing the headlines this morning that DJ LALO died in a car crash, brought a flash of boyhood memories to me, growing up in Tunapuna Carnival did not really kick off until the LALO sound system returned from P.O.S. to every young boy interested in DJ-ing LALO was to sounds systems what Callaloo is to MAS, i.e. legendary

In the capital LALO must have supplied music to almost every big band there is, the last being Legacy. When it came to fetes the LALO SOUND SYSTEM played at the biggest if not the best from BRASS, to WASA, and in between LALO was the biggest and the best.

A lot of you out there might have never heard the name saw the face, or danced to the music his system provided, some of you might have, I did.
So I must say fare well to DJ LALO and thank you for the music, as he takes his place in the passing parade.

Mas Assassin.

Mas maker unleashes the Beast

Monster beast maker Bevil Phillip creates Nimrah the Mighty Hunter of the Galaxy Planet Urea.

Photos: O Merrique Jr



BY O MERRIQUE JR

ON AN average Carnival Monday and Tuesday, as is the case with most days in these tropics, temperatures soar to a scorching 30 something degrees celsius of brow wiping, pore-gushing heat.

Now imagine walking (with some chipping, jumping and dancing!) with a ten-pound headpiece of mud and clay, and an even heavier full body suit weighed down with bag, contact cement, various bits of palm, torshaw and other forest materials and then painted over with a heavy coat of spray paint. For Bevil Phillip, or should I say “Nimrah the Mighty Hunter of the Galaxy Planet Urea,” the joy of this annual portrayal makes it an experience that lifts him up as opposed to weighing him down.

For the last 17 years, Bevil has spent many long nights carefully putting together his Beast costume hoping to catch the eyes of the spectators and the judges, while sending a chill down the spine of a child or two, or a few faint hearted adults.

Asked if his beast costume still has the ability to scare when so many have become numbed and desensitised due to the real beast of crime and violence that plays mas with us everyday of the year, he admits that children are much more fearless now. “But is still about the way you play it that creates the reaction,” he says.

Making of a monster beast

“I try to make it visually imposing as well as physically working the parts to add to the presentation.”

In a process that is more akin to the construction of a machine than a garment, skills and knowledge meet innovation and even a bit of recycling. Nimrah, like the monster in the Frankenstein tales, is created, constructed, assembled and then magically (scientifically?) brought to life.

Sponge is used to wash dirty wares or to sleep on. Correct? Well not for Bevil/Nimrah. Sponge is carefully molded to form enormous feet complete with claws and other accents made of torshaw which also covers most of the monster suit, providing dimension and texture.

Torshaw grows wildly and is usually used as an exfoliating bath scrub. What would be referred to as a “loofah” in your beauty magazine or at Pennywise.

Used bleach bottles are converted into a mouthful of pearly white incisors, tennis balls are suspended on wires and made to bounce and roll outside the sockets in a grisly dance in time with rise and fall of the oversized lips.

“I put a ball bearing on the bottom lip that bounces of a piece of rubber on the top lip so that when I do the beast dance it moves on its own,” he explains. “The dance is what brings it to life.”


The dance

The beast dance is an art form in itself. A kind of step and shuffle that is as graceful as the movements of the fancy sailor but with much more dread and intimidation.

Arms loose at your side halfway between your hip and shoulder, slightly crouched and hunched over with an erratic bouncing movement accentuated with lunging and threatening gestures followed by swift serpent like recoils.

The beast dance has its own rhythm and timing whatever pace the road music may be dictating.

Like a dragon who walks instead of crawls, this mas is more fluid than frenzy and those who continue to make and play this mas, (small roving bands of less than 20 jostling with the rampaging hordes moving past them at 160 bpm) would have it no other way.

Nimrah is the bounty hunter, charged by the tribunal of the galaxy planet of Urea with chasing down and returning escaped convicts and other fugitives to face judgment and justice within the walls of the main city compound.

However Nimrah is not alone. With names like “Kozak The Great,” “King Gasuma The Defender” and a female Urean called “Nuparoo The Guardian of The Deep Foggy Parts,” the beasts that make up the band Something’s Out There, seem out of a Sci-Fi channel B-movie instead of Mon Repos, San Fernando.

Led by Errol Scott, this unit has been living the legacy of the craft, creativity, portrayal and the resultant feelings of pride and accomplishment.

Just like those felt by Aldrick in Earl Lovelace’s classic The Dragon Can’t Dance. But even this Living Dragon/Man felt the betrayal of the evolutionary gods and like the last few prehistoric creatures...glanced around and realised that the dwindling head count meant one thing...Extinction.

What does Nimrah see for his future? “I don’t worry. Cause when I see the fascination on my son’s face I know that the old is new to those who experience for the first time,” ended Scott.

©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited

A WONDERFUL LOOK INTO THE MAGIC THAT IS TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CARNIVAL.

Making mas is a project that Mark Lyndersay has been commissioned by the Trinidad Guardian to do for Carnival 2008. I think it’s a most informative and educational project, and a great Idea. I encourage all of you to take a look inside the mas, one aspect of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival in the 21st Century.

Lots to read great downloads too check it out!

here's the link. MAKING MAS

ANOTHER

A Manifesto for Carnival

Akeil Corrigan puts fine spray paint touches on plastic headpieces in the engine room of the Harts mas camp in St Clair.
Photo:
Mark Lyndersay

Just consider what Carnival might have become if oil dividends hadn’t polluted the waters of what was once, legitimately, the greatest show on Earth.

Imagine a Carnival that earned its own keep, a celebration that depended on creativity to draw crowds, business savvy to manage its resources and keenly honed talent to grow the lure of the show for its audiences here and abroad.

In a Carnival that had continued to evolve along the lines that prevailed between 1940 and 1970, the festival that crescendos in the week before Ash Wednesday would have been the springboard for world tours.

Global ambassadors, the best of the best, selected from definitive competitions held throughout the season, would reap their just rewards on the stages of international venues and bring an uncontestable message about the wealth of talent and breadth of intellectual capacity that grows so abundantly on these shores.

Being a panman for a successful steelband would carry the elite brand of a Carnegie Hall musician, mas designers would be in demand around the world to bring a little of the colour and imagination that we flood T&T with for two days to shows and events around the world, and the maestros of soca and calypso, well their brilliance would have commanded a separate category of the Billboard charts.

Killing Carnival with love

I know this for sure because it’s happened before and continues to happen in sporadic fits and starts as the native talent of this country occasionally manages to evade the wilful, if ignorant sabotage that’s being perpetrated on it for almost a decade now.

Carnival 2008 is a watershed point for Carnival and its talent, I think. With money flooding the festival to pump it up as more potent morphine for a nation outraged by savage crime and hapless policing, it’s time for bandleaders, calypsonians and panmen to decide once and for all whose festival this really is, because they are on the verge of ceding Carnival to the government.

For it’s part, the government is doing, I’m sure, what it thinks is best. With more money than strategy, more wallet than sense, the Culture Ministry has embarked for years now on a heavy handed effort to spend Carnival into improvement.

But like a bad drunk with more booze than he can handle, those invitations to take a swig from the bottle just get everybody bazodee and lead to very bad hangover realities. The inexplicable inability of the Ministry to make good on its promises of payment a year after winners have been announced and congratulated are the kind of thing you want to slap out of yourself as you try to wake up from a stale drunk.

Time to grow up and leave home

Carnival is just going to keep getting worse if the Minister of Culture continues to play mommy and her spoil children keep getting away with whatever they wish by bawling loud, loud.

The only sensible way forward from this deepening morass of confusion is defined accountability and clarity of roles.

The government has a role to play in Carnival, but it isn’t in the commissioning of it.

In much the same way that the country invests in developing industrial parks and training people to work in them for more corporate business opportunities, there is a desperate need for an appropriate infrastructure for Carnival.

The only thing that government intervention has delivered so far is the complete destruction of the evolved home of the festival in the Savannah, the desecration of the Jean Pierre Complex, the collapse of the calypso tent as a meaningful venue and a scrappy route along the streets.

Investments in the stakeholder institutions of Carnival are shoddily monitored, arbitrarily disbursed and conspicuously unaudited.

New role for Carnival’s

stakeholders

Of the four tentpoles supporting Carnival, only bandleaders and fete promoters remain financially independent, calypso and pan having long been absorbed into the government cultural payroll. Bandleaders look to be wavering, with protest demonstrations outside the culture ministry looking more like philosphical tyres burning in the road than mature discussions of shared responsibility.

Carnival does not belong in the custodial care of the government, and it’s a default that has lingered on for far too long. Anyone who thinks otherwise should consider the two day symposium on Carnival held in the wake of last year’s changes.

To date, the only evidence that people gathered to think through last year’s harrowing experience is a short summary of the deliberations that captures none of the richness of the discussions and suggestions.

If the planning for this year’s Carnival is any indication, nobody in Government was listening to any of the contributions either.

Tuco, Pan Trinbago and the NCBA/F teams need to grow up and leave home. Mommy’s teat has soured and it’s time to start working for a living.

These three organisations, currently organised along lines that seem more like trade unions than corporate entities need to reconstitute themselves as the managers that Carnival desperately needs.
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited

http://www.guardian.co.tt/bitdepth.html
AUTHOR
Mark Lyndersay

South making mas for C2K8

The models come together for a grand finale at the launch of Lionel Jagessar & Associates’ Dakota People.

By Innis Francis

CARNIVAL celebrations in south Trinidad has taken on a new spirit for C2K8. Apart from the fact that the national Panorama finals return to Skinner Park this year, and the anticipation of the King and Queen of The Bands semi-finals is in tow, special interest groups of the festival seem to be invigorated, committed to making it the best Carnival celebration in years.

With all the masquerade bands of the south in high gear, south is also lending support to the success of the mas in north Trinidad and other areas.

South’s son of the soil Kirby Mohammed feels that it is a shame that south’s Carnival over the years still has not received the patronage and participation it deserves.

Mohammed said that south has a wealth of talented people, but this talent has not been developed like that in the capital, Port-of-Spain.

Mohammed, who has produced mas with different bands for the past 10 years, co-operated for the second time with Trini Revellers of Woodbrook to produce two all-inclusive sections—El Dia De Los Muertos and Nolkfored De Papantla. Both sections depict the people of Nolkfored, Mexico.

Trini Revellers’ presentation for C2K8—Que Viva Mexico—is led by David Cameron and will consist of 21 sections.

Mohammed said: “My idea for the sections came when the band leader explained the concept they had for Carnival.

“Que Viva Mexico, basically highlights the various attractions that make Mexico one of the more diverse cultural regions of the world.

“I realised they had covered all areas except this group of people, so I did my research and realised that I could show a portrayal of the day of the dead and their lives and the celebration of the lives passed.”

Mohammed continued: “It is a shame though, that south (Carnival) has not developed as it could be. However, being able to work with Trini Revellers, the band which won Band of the Year on many occasions, is an accomplishment.

“It shows that we as southerners can get to showcase our talents on the international level, and that is the level of exposure T&T gets out of Port-of-Spain.”

Using basic cotton, glass beads, beaded applique, feathers and coins, Mohammed said they are catering for 150 persons in each section, for manageability and for the comfort of the revellers.

Mohammed said that persons can register for the band online, or at the mas camp on Gallus Street, Woodbrook; or, for Mohammed’s sections El Dia De Los Muertos and Nolkfored De Papantla, at De Nu Pub (The Mas Camp) on French Street, Woodbrook.

Dakota People, the largest of the remaining tribes from North America, will be celebrated for C2K8 by south mas icon Lionel Jagessar and Associates. The portrayal of the native tribe is also symbolic in many ways to the Jagessar family, who launched their presentation last month at their mas camp, located on the corner of Sutton and Gransaul Street, San Fernando.

The eight sections that form the presentation incorporates a variety of designs and colours of the native American Indian traditional attire. Over the years, the Jagessars have built a name for themselves in the cultural arena. For the past 15 years in south, they have participated in the Fancy Indian category, placing first almost every year. Before the category was converted to Fancy Indian, the Jagessar’s portrayed authentic Indian and held the title for 13 consecutive years.

"This year we plan to compete again with the band Dakota People, but in Trini style," Lionel explained.

He said: "Our presentation will feature the chiefs and their squaws (women) and dancers of the tribe.

"There is also a section by my wife, the peace dancers, which shows the religious side of the band."

Lionel is no stranger to Carnival arts as he’s been playing mas since he was nine-years-old.

With experience on his side, Lionel and his wife, Rosemarie, have been producing the band as a team for the past 29 years in San Fernando.

Rosemarie has played mas for three decades and has been the band’s queen for 26 years, winning the Queen of Carnival (South) title on three occasions.

The couple's son, Lionel Jr won the King of Carnival title this year in south, portraying Wa Chink Sapa Native Healer, from his father’s presentation titled A Tribal Council. In the Band of the Year race, A Tribal Council was adjudged third.

The mother and son were also finalists in the National King and Queen competitions last year.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/entertain1.html

Farewell, my brother Cultural send-off for 'TJ'

SAD TO SEE YOU GO: Dr Laini Gilliam-Joseph, window of cultural aficionado Terry Joseph, wipes his coffin during his farewell yesterday at Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya.

THE CELEBRATION of the life of cultural icon and journalist extraordinaire Terry Joseph yesterday was as he would have wanted it, with the sounds of the local music he loved and championed, and the voices of the people he loved and cherished.

Express Editor-at-Large Keith Smith, in his tribute, noted that Joseph's life in journalism was not as long as people think, but that he had mastered it and was one of the greatest headline writers in this country.

He recalled that Joseph was such an expert on steelband, mas and calypso, that people from all corners of the world would be referred to him for information on the art forms.

"It is not an easy task for me to stand up and talk about the departure of my best friend," said Smith, his voice breaking and tears filling his eyes.

Smith recalled that as he was approached by people on the street or in Laventille, where Joseph is originally from, the majority would imitate his deep voice as they reminisced about him.

About 300 mourners attended the service held at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macoya, and in the stands and under three large white tents on the field decorated with patriotic streamers.

Joseph, 60, died on January 2 at his home in Douglasville, Georgia, US, following a long battle with cancer. He travelled many miles unwell on December 23, 2007, to spend his final days with his wife Dr Laini Gilliam-Joseph.

In an impromptu eulogy, Gilliam-Joseph noted that it had been a privilege to marry him twice, quipping that she was either "a fool or really in love".

She pointed out that for him to make the journey to see her last month in all his pain confirmed that he truly loved her.

She noted that she brought his body back to Trinidad despite the expense because "my husband loved his country and his countrymen. He had to come back home in the end".

Gilliam-Joseph was dressed in a bright peach and green dress and explained that her husband celebrated life and liked his wife "in living colour" and not the traditional widow black.

FIFA vice president and Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner, who Joseph was known for spending hours with chatting about football, said he had lost one of his greatest friends with Joseph's death and described him as one of the "most wonderful human beings he had ever met".

Also bringing memorials were Garth Giuseppi, of Carnival band Rabs Immortelle, of which Joseph was a founder, National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) secretary Wrenwrick Brown, president of Pan Trinbago Patrick Arnold, National Carnival Commission chairman Keston Nancoo and Harvard club vice president William Pierre.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Calysponians' Organisation, Michael Leggerton, recalled that Joseph had written several articles about calysponians, some with a lot of venom.

But he noted that after meeting the writer they initially wanted to hate, they would instead admire, respect and "if you stayed around him long enough, to love him".

Minister of State in the Ministry of Community Development, Donna Cox, said Joseph would be remembered for his dedicated service and passionate contribution to the local art form.

"The nation as a whole would be poorer without Terry Joseph," she said.

Joseph was remembered for his warmth, spontaneity, biting sense of humour, sarcastic wit, as a great drinker, cultured style and class, fairness, brutal honesty, strength and courage, and for being an indefatigable worker, "a giant of a man and a cultural warrior".

During the celebration there were performances by the Laventille Rhythm Section, Lord Superior, Lydian Singers, Brother Resistance, singer Mavis John accompanied by Grammy-award winning percussionist Ralph MacDonald and veteran steelband arranger Pelham Goddard.

Among those who attended were Senator Wade Mark, Opposition Senator Tim Gopeesingh, former Trade and Industry Minister Kenneth Valley, Mayaro MP and ex-calysponian Winston "Gypsy" Peters, former Minister in the Culture Ministry Eddie Hart and Parang impresario Holly Betaudier.

For the final tribute, Roy Cape All Stars and steelband Sagicor Exodus performed "Memories" by The Mighty Sparrow.

As Joseph's casket was being carried into the hearse, the pall bearers danced and sang to the calypso music and some beat a tune on the casket. His body was then removed for a private cremation.

Terry Joseph funeral today

The Late Terry Joseph



The funeral of cultural aficionado and writer Terry Joseph is scheduled to take place today at the Centre of Excellence in Macoya.

The 60-year-old who had been battling with prostate cancer for the past year, passed away around last Wednesday at the home of his wife Laini Gilliam-Joseph in Douglasville, Georgia, USA.

Viewing of Joseph's body will take place between 1 - 2 p.m. while the funeral service, officiated by Fr Clyde Harvey, is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

Joseph will receive a cultural send off with performances by the Laventille Rhythm Section, Superior, Stalin, Lydian Singers, Roy Cape All Stars, Brother Resistance and DJ Crosby.

Express Editor-at-Large Keith Smith will pay tribute to Joseph, while UNC-A co-leader Jack Warner is also scheduled to speak.

Representatives from the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs; National Carnival Commission (NCC), Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Association (TUCO) and Pan Trinbago are expected to deliver greetings.

Joseph will be cremated in a private ceremony following the funeral service.

MASMEN GET MORE MONEY!

Anna Ramdass aramdass@trinidadexpress.com
Friday, January 11th 2008


HARD AT WORK: Ming Yee Foon, production assistant of the Evolution carnival band, puts the finishing touches on a head piece at the mas camp on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook. -Photo: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK



Masmen will be taking home big money this year for their creativity which breathes life into the spirit of Carnival.

And Cabinet has also agreed that pannists registered with Pan Trinbago would also get an increase stipend from $400 to $1,000.

Culture Minister Marlene McDonald announced yesterday that Cabinet agreed that $4.1 million will be injected into prizes for the large, medium and small band categories.

She said pannists deserved an increase since they are mostly drawn from the disadvantaged sectors of society and made sacrifices to attend nightly rehearsals.

However, there is still some contention as the winner who cops the band of the year title will take home $300,000, a $150,000 decrease from last year.

McDonald speaking at the post-Cabinet press conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain said that the band of the year will receive a 200 per cent increase in prize money from $100,000 to $300,000.

The prize for the best medium band jumped from $10,000 to $175,000 and the small band category increased from $6,000 to $90,000.

There is also a new category for mini bands with a $40,000 first prize which will have a trickle down effect.

McDonald said a total of $4,133, 800 has been approved by Cabinet for the revised prize structure an increase of $1,037,000 over 2007.

Winner of last year's "Band of the Year" large band category Brian Mac Farlane told the Express yesterday that while he was happy there has been increase for the medium and small band categories, he cannot comprehend how there can be a decrease in the prize money for the large band.

"That's very strange and odd, I got $450,000 last year," said Mac Farlane. He explained that at the prize giving ceremony last year he was only given $100,000 and there was controversy with respect to the remaining $350,000.

He said he and his team went on the internet and found the media report where then Culture Minister Joan Yuille-Williams stated that the large band winner would receive $450,000. Mac Farlane said the balance was eventually paid to him. The prize increase then was from $100,000 to $450,000.

McDonald said yesterday that as far as she knows that was a "one off payment", and what Cabinet had approved yesterday was a 200 per cent increase to the first place prize of $100,000 which was part of the previous prize structure.

"That $350,000 payment to the first prize winner, it was intended to be a one off payment...we never discussed retaining the $450,000," said McDonald.

She said what she presented to Cabinet was the recommendations of the National Carnival Commission (NCC) which she endorsed and which Cabinet accepted.

Cabinet also approved a total of $1 million to be given to the National Carnival Commission (NCC) for the presentation, restoration and development of traditional mas in areas outside of Port of Spain.

CARNIVAL NEWS

Happy new year people, i hope the season was all you wished it to be, and your preperation for the Ultimate Festival is well under way.

I saw the papers today, and read some sad stuff... well read for your self.

By Mac Farlane the previous evening, I was simply astounded to learn that a
No love for Mother Earth

Caked in mud, models display the sections, from left, Floods of Terror, Demise of the Ocean and Famine, from Brian Mac Farlane’s C2K8 presentation Earth, at the band’s launch last September on the San Fernando Hill. Photo: David Wears
reigning Band of the Year could be experiencing problems attracting sponsorship from corporate T&T while many a fledging entity in mas can’t find room to place branding for those sponsors rushing to invest tens of thousands of dollars. What particularly irked me is that Mac Farlane’s C2K8 presentation—Earth—is a timely, topical and opportune statement on the environment and global warming; a platform one would think that corporate T&T would jump at the opportunity to endorse.
The United Nation’s has identified, and endorsed, Mac Farlane’s statement, with National Geographic waiting in the wings, yet we are blind to the profound and poignant message this artist and his people are endeavouring to give to the world. But then again, this is Trinidad, where strange is the norm, and mediocrity and lack of creativity are exhalted and rewarded.

My people never undrestand what they have.

Memories
OVER the holidays I lost two cherished friends in Terry Joseph and Dexter Peters. The latter was a gifted graphic artist and pan jumbie. In fact he was the founder of Pan Maestros and played before with T&TEC Power Stars. Dexter was also a lecturer at John Donaldson Technical Institute and was one of the valued personnel behind the scenes for the annual WeBeat Festival in St James.
I would require a space much larger than this to speak about my childhood friend Terry Joseph, aka “TJ,” who succumbed to cancer on Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia. A jack of all trades, Terry’s most significant contribution was his work as a media practitioner at both the Guardian and Express. In fact, with David Cuffy, he was the other person who encouraged me to make the switch from the Express 13 years ago.
It’s a gross understatement to say that Terry will be missed tremendously by those who were close to him, people like Jack Warner, Black Stalin, Roy Augustus, Ainsworth Mohammed, Curtis Pierre, Ibn Llama de Leon, Mervyn Telfer, Angela Fox, Gary Cardinez, David Cuffy, Earl Crosby, Ingrid Lashley, Dune Ali and Sinclair Thompson.
I most remember Terry for his sardonic wit; his intolerance for mediocrity; his passion for music, especially jazz, and the indigenous arts; his appreciation of good food and drink, and a good lime; and, his love for entertaining. He hosted his birthday lime religiously each year and any invitee not attending was reminded of this harshly at every subsequent encounter until the next birthday.
Today marks one year since the passing of producer extraordinaire Ellis Chow Lin On. The founder of the defunct pioneer soca band Charlie’s Roots, “Chow Li,” as he was fondly called, was the manager of Shurwayne Winchester and uncle of radio/showbiz mogul Tony “Chinese Laundry” Chow Lin On.
It’s also one year today that media practitioner/councillor Bert Allette was buried after he was murdered in Belmont.
Both are missed by musicians and media practitioners alike.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/pulse.html

Regrello to mediate in mas feud

Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
Friday, January 4th 2008
Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Junia Regrello will now mediate in the growing dispute between the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA), National Carnival Development Foundation (NCDF) and the more recently formed Bandleaders Association.
Culture Minister Marlene Mc Donald made the disclosure yesterday during the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain, as she described mas in Trinidad and Tobago as being divided just weeks before the 2008 Parade of the Bands on February 4 and 5.
Mc Donald said a ministerial team had appointed Regrello on Monday to end the feud.
"So mas is really fragmented. This is the best word I can use," she said, adding that Regrello "has powers to co-opt whoever is necessary to bring the mas fraternity together". She said he would start this task after Carnival.
Mc Donald did so even though she said she had not yet seen the report of the Parliament Special Select Committee (SSC), which, last July, strongly recommended that the accounts of the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) must be audited by the Auditor General's Department during the next three years.
The SCC report, which can be viewed on the Parliament's web site, also recommended that the NCDF sit on the National Carnival Commission (NCC) board "to ensure equal representation until the existing conflict is resolved" between the foundation and the NCBA.
"I have not seen the actual report sir. What I do know is that the NCDF, they have approached me with respect to a place on the board with NCC. Now, try to understand that each of the stakeholders have one place on the board of the NCC," McDonald said.
When pressed by the Express about the SSC report's recommendations about the auditing of the NCBA, Information Minister Neil Parsenlal intervened.
"The Minister indicated she has not read the report so I don't know if we can pursue that line of argument. Again, she has not seen the report as yet," Parsanlal said.
Last week, NCDF secretary Peter "Blues" Reynald told the Express that the majority of the recommendations in the SSC's report, of which he had a copy, were not yet implemented.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161258928