McCulture...

So the big news for the Carnival is the great Superblue is back and I wonder how he feels to find them (all the others) exactly where he left them since 'Get Something and Wave?' Machel's intermittent 'Huuuys' and Bunji's insistence on adding 'Fiiiirrrrreee' to every song is not the answer but asks the question, where soca gone? The few bright sparks that have come along over the years, people like Shurwayne Winchester (who I swore was going to take the thing further) and Kernel and Patrice (whose brief glimpse of talent with Stamp Your Name seems to have opted for cashing out over creativity instead) broke hearts more than barriers. Precision Wine and everything else Kes sings is excellent 'groping' music but it is not soca, and while it delivers profit to its investors it does nothing for the people nor the culture. The rest, well they are at best cover bands.

No, the development of the soca art-form that began with Shorty, Merchant, Maestro, Nelson and those few others peaked on top a speaker box sending a 'Signal' but has stopped there since. The musical 'crack' being peddled to the masses for profit is not art and no amount of screaming that it could be doesn't make it so. Listen to the lyrics of Soca Baptist or Caribbean Man and tell me how those come to be in the same genre with 'Han Han Han Han Han Han Han?' Explainer's Lorraine was so powerful even King David had to have a go at it. I remember the night David Rudder became King of Carnival after winning Young King on his way to winning everything else that could be won that year. I remember the North Stand and the Grand Stand 'freeze' as one as he invoked the spirit of Rudolph Charles to a drum beat - i could still hear him chant ' Chalo was right here in Panorama, right here in de savannah.' The judges knew right then what every other artiste that night knew as well, that we were watching royalty. That he went on to bridge Kitchener with Sparrow by taking the Road March too was almost poetic, but had we known then that it was the start of the end we might have paid better attention. We've learnt to appreciate mediocrity and crap since because that is all we've been given for years. Poison/Savage/Second Imij/Xtatic ushered in a new era of 'instant-gratification-carnival, and while it looked and sounded like the real thing it never really was. We took brass out of the mas because brass required musicians, but no keyboard will ever punch a note like brass could. Panorama survives but it has nothing to do with pan and the savvy folks at Pantrinbago knows this only too well. It is a money spinner and a big one at that, but it does nothing for pan because ninety per cent of the people going there have no interest in the pan. Is that money used for the development of the instrument we claim?

The old people have a saying when pleasure is all that remains it will cease to remain a pleasure. Carnival used to be an expression of a people, a 'leh go' that culminated in a joyous party that Denyse Plummer said 'overflowed into the street.' Sadly everything of value has been stripped away and only the noisy street party is left, like going to a macabre wedding devoid of a bride or groom. What replaced our culture is now made in China and everything else wants a sponsor and is chasing dollars. The residents that used to line the pavements to watch the mas have all shut their doors tight against the noise and those who can move away for the week usually do. Outside of the gyrating feather wearers carnival has become a bother and a nuisance, but perhaps his song (Superblue's) is aptly named, because even if he half way delivers the carnival going to sing Hallelujah...We had some of the richest culture in the world and we threw it away for 'Huuuuuuy' and a thong...you want fries with that?