Pe­ter Ray Blood

You can say that Car­ni­val 2013 has of­fi­cial­ly start­ed. On the eve of the Ar­rival Day hol­i­day, Pa­parazzi Car­ni­val, the newest mas band, host­ed the pre­miere of its pro­duc­tion-A Red Car­pet Af­fair-on Mur­ray Street, Wood­brook. Led by Tracey An­dre, the peo­ple be­hind Pa­parazzi Car­ni­val are no strangers to Car­ni­val, as this all-in­clu­sive band was con­ceived from Pulse8 and brings with it all the ex­pe­ri­ence and ser­vice that Pulse8, led by Megueli­na Cheekes, was known for. Al­so among the band's or­gan­is­ers is Ho­race Abra­ham. An­dre told Pulse on Wednes­day night that Pa­parazzi Car­ni­val will con­sist of a dozen sec­tions and will in­clude cre­ations by some of this coun­try's top de­sign­ers, in­clud­ing Leasel Rovedas and Kar­lene Bal­lah. Three sec­tions dis­played at the pre­miere were Red Car­pet Ready, French Con­nec­tion and Op­u­lence. Pa­parazzi Car­ni­val has sched­uled its C2K13 launch for the evening of Sun­day, Ju­ly 8, on The Greens of the Queen's Park Oval, Have­lock Street, St Clair.

O'Con­nor gives thanks

Last Sun­day evening, Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2012 Du­ane O'Con­nor did some­thing very few ca­lyp­so­ni­ans do when they win this coun­try's pre­mier ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion. The young po­lice of­fi­cer held a thanks­giv­ing and ap­pre­ci­a­tion evening, themed "A Touch of Blue," at Port-of-Spain City Hall. Among O'Con­nor's spe­cial guests were am­bas­sador Makan­dal Daa­ga, Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing, TU­CO chair­man Lu­ta­lo Masim­ba (Bro Re­sis­tance), 2011 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Karene As­che, Baron, Ex­plain­er, Con­tender, Mar­va Mc Ken­zie and oth­er ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, song­writer Lar­ry Hare­wood and O'Con­nor's ail­ing moth­er. The spir­i­tu­al side of the evening was con­duct­ed by RC priest Fr Hen­ry Charles. The en­tire pro­gramme was ex­pert­ly host­ed by O'Con­nor's ten-year-old son Du­ane Ta'zyah O'Con­nor and reign­ing Na­tion­al Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch Aaron Dun­can.

In his ad­dress, Daa­ga, leader of the Na­tion­al Joint Ac­tion Com­mit­tee, the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship en­ti­ty which is al­so a pi­o­neer in ca­lyp­so and com­pe­ti­tions, said O'Con­nor was a tena­cious ca­lyp­so com­peti­tor, who "doesn't like to lose." He was al­so high in praise of O'Con­nor's tal­ents, pre­dict­ing that, once O'Con­nor has a song as good as this year's, it will take some do­ing for him to lose the 2013 fi­nal. Al­ready a fan­tas­tic evening, the oc­ca­sion was en­hanced by live per­for­mances from As­che, De­von Seales, Bri­an Lon­don, Kare­ga Man­dela, and To­ba­go's Hap­py & The Plea­sure Pi­rates.

Di­vine Echoes si­lenced

I am sad­dened to­day on learn­ing of the im­pend­ing demise of Di­vine Echoes or­ches­tra. The prover­bial nail in the cof­fin for this ag­gre­ga­tion of young tal­ent­ed mu­si­cians, as­sem­bled by for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning in 2007, came this week when box­es were de­liv­ered to its re­hearsal premis­es to pack all files. A band mem­ber told Pulse on Wednes­day that re­new­al of con­tracts for the mu­si­cians, which come due on Au­gust 23, to be signed by the prime min­is­ter, have not been signed. In­stead, au­di­tors have been as­signed to go through the com­pa­ny's books.

The mu­si­cian added: "It is very hard for many of the mu­si­cians, some with spous­es, chil­dren and mort­gages, who have re­lied on Di­vine Echoes for a liv­ing. Some of us are try­ing to get em­ploy­ment in oth­er bands but in Trinidad there aren't that many mu­sic bands look­ing for qual­i­fied mu­si­cians." So, as our my­opic lead­ers con­tin­ue to re­ly on oil, gas and en­er­gy as our na­tion's main source of GDP, yet an­oth­er cul­tur­al en­ti­ty has been dealt a hard slap by the pow­ers that be, join­ing the Pan in Schools pro­gramme as an­oth­er cul­tur­al icon to bite the dust.

Pan goes to the beach

Pan Trin­ba­go con­tin­ues its Pan in de Coun­try­side se­ries on Sun­day at the Man­zanil­la Beach Fa­cil­i­ty. The eighth in the se­ries of open-air con­certs be­gins at 1 pm and will fea­ture PCS Ni­tro­gen Sil­ver Stars, Ju­nior Sam­my Group of Com­pa­nies Skif­fle, Curepe Scherzan­do, San­gre Grande Cordettes, La Famille Unit­ed and Pan Jam­mers. There will be a lim­it­ed num­ber of seats on des­ig­nat­ed maxi taxis that will de­part Pan Trin­ba­go Head Of­fice, Park Street, Port-of-Spain at 11 am.

Ad­mis­sion is free.

In­ter­est­ed peo­ple can call 623-4486 or 625-3556, and pa­trons are ad­vised to walk with your beach chairs and cool­ers.