Pe­ter Ray Blood

Oh how I wish I could clone my­self, es­pe­cial­ly since New Year's Day. Last week­end for in­stance was es­pe­cial­ly crazy, be­gin­ning with Awe­some Fri­day-Fla­vorite Supreme Ice Cream Na­tion­al Schools 2012 Fi­nals, staged by Caribbean Pres­tige Foun­da­tion (CPF) in the morn­ing. Held at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, this fi­nal was won by Aaron Dun­can, win­ner of every ma­jor ju­nior ca­lyp­so monarch ti­tle this year. Hav­ing tak­en in a lit­tle piece of Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter at the lunchtime bmo­bile stages So­ca in bSquare, in Wood­ford Square, in the evening I at­tend­ed a re­cep­tion host­ed by Wit­co for new Des­per­a­does arranger An­dre White. I round­ed off the night with a vis­it to Kaiso House ca­lyp­so tent in the Sa­van­nah. All roads led to Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, on Sat­ur­day morn­ing for the 2012 Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta (Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch semi­fi­nal.) Forty bards faced the judges and, af­ter some very good per­for­mances, one ques­tion still re­mains up­per­most in my mind, "what must Mr Shak do for the judges to re­alise that this young man de­serves a place in the na­tion­al fi­nal?" Like last year's The Ma­gi­cian, Shak's of­fer­ing-The Blue­print-is one of the best and most orig­i­nal ca­lyp­so com­po­si­tions for 2012. Rush­ing from south it was off to the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain for the epic Lot­to Plus Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Fi­nal, hand­some­ly won by Kris "KI" Per­sad. This young man is full of tal­ent and we can ex­pect much from him in com­ing years. I was un­able to make it to Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um in Ari­ma on Sat­ur­day night for the Na­tion­al Panora­ma semi­fi­nals (Sin­gle Pan Bands), but every­one who was there has rinsed out my ears this whole week about what a bad venue this is for a steel­band com­pe­ti­tion. I hope Pan Trin­ba­go has tak­en no­tice of this crit­i­cism.

From the Oval, it was on to Fa­ti­ma Col­lege for its an­nu­al all-in­clu­sive fund-rais­ing fete. This was one of the best of these events I've at­tend­ed this year. The Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Past Stu­dents' Union de­serve to­tal marks for pulling off a pre­mi­um fete. Rain on Sun­day ran me from watch­ing ju­nior Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tions in St James and at Adam Smith Square, in Wood­brook. Ap­par­ent­ly in­clement weath­er al­so pre­vent­ed peo­ple from at­tend­ed the launch of Bro Valenti­no's CD at The Mas Camp. The event was even­tu­al­ly can­celled. For an­oth­er year I wasn't in­vit­ed to Friends to the Max, St George's Col­lege Geor­gians and Kairi Peo­ple all-in­clu­sive (Dif­fer­ent 10) par­ty. But, I did ac­cept the in­vite to the BELEX (Bel­mont In­ter­me­di­ate/Sec­ondary Ex-Pupils As­so­ci­a­tion) sev­enth all-in­clu­sive fete, at school, in Bel­mont, and it was a blast. Main act Dil-e-Nadan was on top of its game and those in at­ten­dance, in­clud­ing past Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mar­tin Joseph, cur­rent min­is­ter Brig John Sandy, and Port-of-Spain May­or Louis Lee Sing, had a ball. The Bel­mont lads al­so showed that you don't need to charge over US$100 ad­mis­sion for an all-in­clu­sive for peo­ple to en­joy them­selves.

With the week­end passed I wrong­ly as­sumed I'd get some rest but last Mon­day was worse than the week­end. Start­ing off with the ca­lyp­so tent clash in the Sa­van­nah, I went to the PNM Resur­gence Car­ni­val Fete, at Bal­isi­er House Carpark. Fol­low­ing an in­fec­tious per­for­mance by Ravi B, his sis­ter Nisha and Kar­ma, I fig­ured things could get no bet­ter, but I was wrong here again, as com­ing in their wake were De­stra and her band, Fay Ann, Bun­ji & Aslyum Band, and Roy Cape All Stars. Bad mind is a hel­lu­va thing. Mid­night had long gone, my bed wasn't wet, but some­how I found my­self from the PNM fete, down at The Har­vard Club and en­ter­ing the gate to Ice Picks Sports Club's Back With a Bang. There were no big bands or so­ca stars in this one, just DJ mu­sic, but it was the biggest Ice Picks par­ty I've ever at­tend­ed-and I have at­tend­ed many an Ice Picks fete. It seemed as if CAL had de­posit­ed every Fresh Wa­ter Yan­kee that land­ed at Pi­ar­co over the week­end in­side Har­vard. It was good to see so many peo­ple I had not seen or heard from for year and, of course, the false ac­cents and loud ban­ter added to the am­bi­ence. All that's left for me now is to at­tend tonight's So­ca Monarch fi­nals in the Sta­di­um; Panora­ma fi­nals to­mor­row and Di­manche Gras on Sun­day; take my ba­by daugh­ter and grands to play mas on Sat­ur­day morn­ing; and play mas on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day as I've done it all this sea­son-from vis­it­ing the tents and pa­n­yards, and myr­i­ad fetes. As I rem­i­nise this past month I've as­sem­bled jut a few of the many mem­o­rable mo­ments I've en­joyed.