 |
| Masquerader crossing the stage with Vulgar Fraction. The presentation was “Coalition” This was an independent mas band. |
no one has to tell me what’s going on. carnival is over. auf wiedersehen. until next year love. there is dub blasting from the neighborhood watering holes. no other signs necessary. that fat woman sang ages ago. for those of us who wish to, this is the time to reflect. and for others this is simply a time to “move on.” conversation was a large part of this year’s carnival experience for me. tuesday night after that final grain, chippin’ with phase II, we talked. we talked about the season, the bacchanal, our convictions, we laughed, we shared ideas. a few things that came up:
-would it be possible for the government to give funding to the arts that is sustainable rather than throwing prize money at the national competitions. for example, some of the $7 million spent on prize money for panorama could’ve gone to research methods of recording the instrument; an area seriously ignored and painfully noticeable when the cd comes out on ash wednesday.
–de people’s band was a good idea (although there are people who have been congregating freely in the same fashion outside of the all-inclusive megalomania since the beginning of time) but wouldn’t it be an even better idea to allow people to register free of charge or cheap for workshops and training before carnival where they can learn to bend wire, embellish and other useful mas-making skills?
-another example of good ways to spend $7 million might’ve been to subsidize the cost of tickets for national competitions such as panorama, dimanche gras, etc. so that each citizen starting at age 16 or 18 or whatever has the right to a free ticket per event on a first come first serve basis keeping in line with fire hazard capacity and keeping space for tourists and so on which can be picked up at their local warden office…
-there is semi-general consensus that macfarlane is great. but do people really like him (do they really get it?) or are people just glad to see something besides bikini and beads on such a large scale?
-why can’t carnival last forever?
Zahra Gordon 
Leave a comment