back in black. and blue, and silver...

yes, people, jouvay was the best.
i flew home for 3days worth of carnival because i knew jouvay would be worth it, and it was. yes, i know it's almost 2weeks late, but i've been sick, and stage managing. and washing the last of the paint out my locks.
i didn't see all of the 3canal show because i touched down on closing night and had to rush to the little carib theatre to catch the end of it, but made it in time for their tribute to the late great john isaacs, which (of course) reduced me to tears. what i saw (and heard) was as good as i knew it'd be, and the canals' being backed by a live band only makes a good thing better.
i was, however, a jouvay warrior (for those new to this blog, trini dictionary on sidebar) with 3canal on carnival monday morning, and that was my mas- until i got too sick and manwarren had to put me in the paint truck before the savannah dust rendered me completely unable to breathe. but it was more than worth it for my precious hours of riddim-section-and-body-paint-bliss; a delight that pretty mas just doesn't provide.
i unexpectedly saw sheldon blackman and the love circle (more of my amazing extended family) perform, through a wonderful coincidence of my sistren having to pick up her sister @ their gig that i knew nothing about, having just flown in outta nowhere. seeing them onstage again was more than i coulda hoped for on an unplanned carnival jaunt, and sheldon even sang my song, reducing me to tears for the 2nd time in 24hours back in sweet trini...
apparently, new band members were also moved to finally meet the person who 'inspired the song' so by the end of the show i was completely humbled by questions i had no words to answer, about what it was like to be that person. i still can't explain why it's humbling, but that's the closest i can come to a response anytime somebody asks me about it...
also ran into rentaempress @ their gig and ended up liming with her from that evening through jouvay, which was most cool, since i'd just been hunting her down and getting reacquainted before leaving d.c. and since she's better about these things than myself, i highly recommend checking out her carnival (and other) photos (4fingers+thumb, sidebar). actually, you should also check out caribbeanfreeradio's carnival coverage...i may not be good about these things, but i know people who are (sidebar).
also this carnival, my "little cousin" chad got married, prompting me to venerate him here, in the fashion to which we've made him accustomed: chad (who the girls apparently believe to be quite sexy) was a red sugarhead boy who had to grow into his nose. it's a family nose, but he definitely was the recipient of its definitive version. we affectionately called him "bignose" (among other names) as children in st.lucien gardens- it was his own fault for being the youngest of us.
chad was the kind of boy who, when he dropped his icecream from its cone onto the gravelly carpark, calmly squatted to lick it up. he ate many things that others would not.
needless to say, as he got big enough for his nose to work for him and girls to start throwing sexual favours in his lap (i mean that in every way possible- they looove our chaddy-boy) we made sure he could never forget that we know who he is, regardless of his newfound sexiness.
i don't know if this is a trinbago thing or if all children had this, but remember that 'toy' that was a tiny tube (like travel toothpaste) filled with colourful gooey stuff, with a small, red plastic straw taped to the side- you'd basically squeeze out a small amount of the gooey stuff onto one end of the red plastic straw and blow through the other, making a rubbery bubble...in retrospect, i'm not sure what the entertainment value of this was supposed to be- doesn't seem like much- but i guess enough people liked it...
anyway, when chad was small, he decided to experiment by shoving this gooey stuff up his nose. he pushed too far and naturally, it got stuck, and he became the only person we know who went to the hospital to have a self-inflicted gooey mass removed from his upper nasal cavity- he ended up in the bed next to randall (brother of dionne, of barbie-bathing, house-flooding fame) who had a real injury (hernia, i think).
so as i remember growing up with chad, on the occasion of his marriage, i wish him all good things, and remind him not to forget the boy who kept us constantly entertained in st.lucien gardens back in the day.
walk good.