MAS ASSASSIN
Showing posts with label Arts and Entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arts and Entertainment. Show all posts
Monday, December 31, 2012
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
MAS ASSASSIN
Monday, October 29, 2012
K2K THE HUMAN RACE DECODED.
Last year I called K2K the new leaders of the new school because they dared to look outside the little box that is the creativity of contemporary Trinidad Carnival and bring a fresh new, highly stylized look to 21st Century mas. My only real critique of the band however was that the designers took too much from the world of fashion and cinema, that identifying the source was easy and this somehow...devalued the authenticity of the mas, and the creativity of the designers.
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This year K2K has gained a rave reviews for the 2013 offering of ‘The Human Race’ and while many admire the craftsmanship in the design there are those who wonder where exactly did they get these concepts from, and there are those who had an idea a long time ago where the whole concept came from but could not identify the designer or designers.
The release of the Nicki Minaj video ‘Va Va Voom’ over the weekend had bloggers and carnivalist alike asking if K2K‘s mas had somehow been ‘copied’or replicated for the video like the ‘Merry Monarch was for Janet Jackson's 'Escapade' video back in the 80’s. Or were such costumes and headpieces already out there?
As a fan of the group ‘Swedish house Mafia’ I am subscribed to their, youtube channel and knew of the 'Greyhound' video long before K2K launched ‘The Human race’, in the video you can see not only the inspiration for the designs but probably the theme too. Once again the twins have not only in my opinion drew too much from a well of inspiration but have taken so much from one source that in my opinion the thin line between inspiration and plagiarism may have been crossed. Not a good look for those who wish to somehow copyright the intellectual property of Mas in Trinidad.
Anyway my investigations came up with the name of costume designer and stylist Andrea de Araujo and short tour of her web site and resume reveals a good bit of her work has inspired K2K, thus far.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Nicki Minaj - Pound The Alarm
Nicki Minaj has released her new video made in Trinidad 'Pound the Alarm', and it is intense, I think director Benny Boom did some good work on this one and the thousands of extras who made it possible, nuff respect to them. Its a carnival atmosphere and the people made it so!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Carnival And Christianity - No Longer In Conflict
Carnival has two 'pulls' on the heartstrings of the Trinidadian. It is an expression of their cultural arts that defies comparison. In carnival, all at once, one saw the best of Trinidadian creative genius.
On the streets were the fabulous costumed creations, the 'mobile street art', the street theatre of the carnival bands, some of which has its origins in African 'masking'.
In the calypso tents one heard the passion and pain, the humour, the inventiveness of the calypso - an art form evolved through the need of the poor and downtrodden to express their soul, their wit and their amazing ability to survive and remain whole.
One also heard, in the pan yards of the ghettos and rural peasant lands the amazing sound of that musical wonder of the world called the steel band. These bands were made up of instruments forged out of the waste material of the cold industrial world that had come to Trinidad because oil had been discovered there, tuned and crafted to eventually emit some truly marvellous sounds.
Part of that 'pull' is also a deep understanding that carnival has evolved from a history of resistance, an insistence on humanness, on wholeness through systems of survival employed by the slaves and ex-slaves. In the music of the tamboo-bamboo and the subsequent steel bands were the ancient rhythms and melodies of their African ancestors; rhythms and melodies that harked back to their homeland and gave them sustenance during the dehumanising experience of slavery and colonialism, and helped to keep them whole and human. It fostered the 'in your face' declaration to the world that "we are alive - see we yah!"
It is true that, over the past few decades much of carnival has been sold out to rampant capitalism and to the desire for quick gratification in the baring of flesh in skimpy costumes. Mark you, sexuality and sensuousness is an integral part of some aspects of carnival - as is so much of what is seen as black culture. But carnival is now marketed so much as pure 'wine and jump' and nothing else that the younger generation in Trinidad seems to have started to believe that and the older artistes of the carnival, like Peter Minshall, have begun to despair.
But the spirit of carnival is still alive and well.
And this is another part of the 'problem'. The source of the other 'pull' on our heartstrings.
Trinidad carnival has, from its birth, been fuelled by the spirits of the Orisha. The belief in the power of the African deities to sustain them through all hardship lurks somewhere in the souls of those who give the carnival movement its energy. This has been a conflict in the minds of the people of this highly religious country.
The problem lay in the fact that those who Christianised us taught us to reject anything that was connected to ancestral African religion as 'devil worship' and to be rejected.
Negative expression
So there was this ambiguity. How were we, as black people, to respond negatively to this expression of all that has sustained us through our darkest times? But then, how were we, as Christians, to embrace that which we knew had its roots in African tribalism and 'devil worship'?
Eventually, we grew to accept the idea that Orisha was just a religion which some of us no longer accepted, and carnival was not, in itself, sinful.
So, by the turn of the century, attitudes had changed to the point where David Rudder could have a hit calypso called High Mas in which he prayed to the father who had "given us this art" and who knew "the pain we're feeling", in his mercy, to "Send a little music, to make the vibration raise".
This would have been unheard of 50 years ago.
But Rudder, like most thinking people, also realises the excesses that take place at carnival time and the abuse of the spirit of the thing. This is why, in his calypso, he admits that " in this bacchanal season some men will lose their reason", and asks God to "Forgive us, this day, our daily weaknesses".
Monday, March 19, 2012
Notting Hill Mas Bands start launching.
On the 24th of March Masquerade 2000 launch and celebrate their 20 year presence in Notting Hill Carnival with 'REWIND'.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Carnival Monday 2012 with K2K “The Waters – Seas of Consciousness”
Friday, November 11, 2011
When Darkness Falls is LIVE
The Mas Jumbies website is live !
This year the bandpays tribute to the 6 main types of Devil mas that ruled the streets of Port Of Spain in Trinidad's early carnival.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Bacchanalia Launch: Alter Ego Through the looking glass: for N.H.C 2011
So Bacchanalia has drawn first blood for Notting hill carnival 2011 with their band launch at the Imbibe bar Saturday night.It’s been a long time in London since I’ve been to a band launch I have enjoyed, if I had to be precise the last band launch I enjoyed was south connections about 4 years ago (and that’s because I found a nice woman to wine on...the mas was cool too).
So on Saturday, I (or we depending on who reading this lol) decided to attend the band launch of Bacchanalia to witness the revealing of their Notting hill Carnival 2011 presentations of ‘Wotless’ for Sunday and ‘Alter Ego Through the looking glass’ for bank holiday Monday.
The crowd was a good one; convert this crowd and the energy it possessed into a strong 4 section band and the folks at Bacchanalia will surely be a force to reckon with in the Notting Hill Carnival.Bacchanalia’s theme of choice, ‘Alter ego-Through the looking glass’ is a simple but effective one, in short the alter ego is that spirit of carnival that takes over when you hit the road on carnival day in costume, and become someone your mother does not know, and while at the launch I could not guess what costume was Bold and Beautiful or Mirror Mirror by looking at them, under the lights of the venue the costumes, (or was it the ladies in them?) did have me Spellbound for the 20 minutes it took to present them. Good show Bacchanalia, I enjoyed it!
However, looking critically at the presentation Alter ego looks like some of the new bands in Trinidad , i.e. a head piece band, it seems that now the emphasis is on the larger (almost individual sized ) headpiece that with luck , will draw away from the fact that design wise the mas says absolutely nothing.
As a mas man I saw Alter Ego as one of those dream themes that you could take in one thousand directions and produce some sexy and meaningful portrayals with. Unfortunately it seems that those that came up with the vision did not (or could not?) connect this inspiring concept to the imaginations of the design team of Bacchanalia...
Maybe the designer/s could not find a medium or motif to assist in the depiction of the theme, or it might be that they simply did not do the research, but if team Rajpaulsing with 18 years experience in carnival are truly dedicated to not only keeping the carnival culture in the UK alive but also improving it, they have to understand there is so much more to mas than sparkly things and pretty plumes.
Much much more.
As a medium band looking for a minimum of 160 and a maximum of 200 masqueraders, Bacchanalia may be shooting themselves in the foot with section prices of £225.00 for their premium female sections and £195.00 for the males. Boldly challenging their punters not only to release their courageous Alter-ego’s but also release their common sense and part with so much money for sparkly bikinis in this present unstable economic climate.
Overall the Bacchanalia vibe is a good vibe, the energy at the launch was positive and the presentation professional. As they now cross the bridge from T-shirt, to full costumed band I can only hope that they can in time evolve from the generic fun band approach to mas without meaning, to one that visually and philosophically demands the world not to simply look at us, but sit up and pay serious attention, for this too is a fundamental aspect of what mas is about.
Please note: Massassination must say a special thank you to band leaders Kelly and Andrew Rajpaulsingh for inviting Massassination to their band launch (a first) and the warm welcome on introduction. This was done with the full knowledge of the blogs nature and in my opinion showed a supreme confidence, in their product, a desire to progress, and a mature understanding that the opinions expressed in my posts are constructive (most times) in intention, and done with an undying love for the art form that is MAS.
here's a 5 min clip...
a video clip of the bacchanalia band launch. held on the 16/04/11
Sunday, February 06, 2011
National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Kenny de Silva said yesterday any band found breaking the Parade of the Bands route on Carnival Monday and Tuesday will have to pay a stiff penalty.
Image via WikipediaHe said the route remains the same as last year where Mas bands enter the Queen’s Park Savannah via Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain adding the bands can only proceed to Charlotte Street from Park or Piccadilly Streets, and if they break that route they would be penalised.He did not say what would be the penalties.
Mindful of reports that a number of bands broke the route by going on Frederick Street and entering Charlotte Street from Oxford and Gordon Streets, he stressed, “We hope they let good sense prevail and adhere to the parade route in the best interest of the festival.”
NCC is also reverting to a plan where they will send clusters of small, medium and large bands to start their procession at each competition venue simultaneously, thus allowing for the free flow of bands as had been done several years ago and worked in the past.
With respect to the children’s Parade of the Bands on Carnival Saturday, the NCC will make an application to the police to have the young masqueraders proceed up Frederick Street to enter the Savannah for the competition. De Silva said, “That way, the parade will end in good time for Panorama Finals to start on time.”
SOURCE
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Blacks and White's Carnival 2011: Pasto Colombia
Between January 4th and 6th the people of the Colombian city of Pasto celebrate the Blacks and Whites carnival said to be one of the oldest in the Americas. The festivities date back to the 1600's and commemorate a date when the enslaved Africans were given a day of for a taste of freedom and they partied all day.
here is an interesting quote from Wikipedia ...
" Some historians refer that in 1607, there was a slave rebellion in the town of Remedios, Antioquia that made the authorities panic. The event was remembered by the black population of Popayán, Cauca, who demanded a day off, in which they were really free. The King of Spainconceded January 5. It is said that when the news reached home the African population flock to the streets and danced at the rhythm of African music and started to blacken with coal all the white walls of the city.
The enthusiastic celebration was brought to Pasto by the Ayerbe family around 1854. By 1887, the celebration had reached to certain social spheres and acquired a high level of refinement, and people started using costumes and masks. The Castaneda family recreated by the January 4 crewes could be a characterization of the Ayerbe Family."
It amuses me that while in Trinidad the roots of carnival are given to the French and the Catholics and someone at my university argued that Trinidad's carnival came from the Greeks...almost every country in the Americas that has a Carnival has a direct link to African celebrations of freedom...
For a little more info on Colombia's carnivals
and MAS REPUBLIC
or check google.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Taking back Carnival for 'ordinary' people
 |
Minister Winston Peters |
CARNIVAL is being taken away from the ordinary man and Minster of Arts and Multiculturalism Winston Peters wants to reverse this.
Peters was speaking yesterday during a press conference prior to a tour of the construction of the Grand Stand at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain.
Peters said the availability of the "ordinary man" like himself, to benefit from Carnival by selling items at the side of the road during the Parade of the Bands was being taken away and he would not allow it.
"These bands now advertising everything, drinks, premium drinks, premium toilets and leave out the other people from Carnival," Peters said, adding that the ordinary man could no longer "make a little money to mind his children" for a few weeks from what he sold during Carnival.
He said the North and Grand stands will be completed "way before Carnival".
Peters said Carnival must become a better product to promote the country and there were plans to make it bigger and better.
Peters said after Carnival next year, a competition will begin for local contractors to design a permanent structure to house Carnival.
He said the "Carnival Village" will be designed and built by locals and would be a tourist attraction with constant cultural activities taking place.
Next Carnival there will be the People's Band where anyone can join and as for security "the people are going to police themselves".
He added that the "unsanitary" "wee wee trucks" would be flushed out of Carnival 2011.
"I don't want it and we're not having it," Peters said.
As for the incorporation of steelband within mas Peters reiterated that Panorama had killed pan, and that steelbands should make themselves more viable.
Earlier in the day Derek Hamilton, project manager for the construction of the Grand Stand said the construction of the stand, which will house VIP and concession booths along with toilets for both general and VIP customers will be completed by the February 10 due date.
Though work has begun, a budget will not be ready for another two weeks for the construction, Peters said.
Hamilton added that the erection of the Grand Stand will begin on January 3, 2011 as "50 to 60 per cent" of the foundation work had already been done.
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