my love/hate relationship with gayellethechannel

actually wrote this weeks ago as part1 for a project i'll call gayelletheblog, that gayellethechannel completely lapsing on. that, in+of itself, shoulda change this piece slightly because it removes the hopeful feelings for gayelle i had @ time of writing and lowers my opinion of gayelle considerably, but i doh waste my words+time so i'll still start here and post about my subsequent disappointment and their bad business practices as followup later...

gayelle is my station of choice. i leave my tv on gayelle when i turn it off so that when i turn back on gayelle is my homestation. but this is as symbolic of what i hate about gayelle as how much i love gayelle: leaving the tv on gayellethechannel is the only way to know wha’ d ass showing on gayellethechannel. and i doh appreciate being held hostage.
i love what gayelle stands for, the mission of documenting and showing us weself; we own television bringing local programming. plus training young people who wouldn’t otherwise be afforded such opportunity…with the downside of that contributing to one of my gripes about my favourite station: too often gayelle executing the mission poorly; low production values, no apparent proofreading or quality control (audio, anybody?) and lewwe not forget, not even accurate information in the tv guide in any of the available media so we can choose to tune in! allyuh want we to watch or wha’? ‘cause i trying hard but allyuh making it too damn difficult, man. why we imitating everything about the packaging of foreign television programming except standards? community doh hadda be synonymous with low quality; why old episodes of gayelle [the programme] look+sound better than some recent content?
and still, ah love eeet!
love to turn on my tv and see those old gayelle episodes and who the c.a.p. fit (regular scheduling, please!- not that gayelle would say if they did), to see this year’s best village finals and the 3canal show from a few years back and flims and chutney videos and this week’s hard local countdown (in spite of the stupid choice to promote a self-proclaimed local countdown with the guitar chords from not just a foreign rock song, but the police’s roxanne, one of the most recognisable…sigh…so many issues, so little sense applied). taking in the new programming too, gayelle have an air of “big tings a gwan” lately, which, thankfully, seem to include higher production values, so we monitoring the situation.
but when they showing something i already see and i flip away, when i remember to check back if channel-flip into the middle of something i wish i catch from start, i frustrated it have no way to find out when it showing again. you know how many different times i hadda randomly catch bits+pieces before i “see” the documentary on astor johnson and repertory dance theatre? and i still doh know wha’ it titled or if i actually see the whole thing yet, still tryna catch alla the rig (which i till hadda thank gayelle for introducing me to in the 1st place) and any string of subsequent episodes of who the c.a.p. fit. (as you can tell, i covet gayellethechannel/banyan archives) and if i miss dotcom or the box in the daytime slot, forget tryna time the latenight rerun. then if i actually catch wha’ i tryna see, the audio drop out in the middle and nobody in d gayelle doh seem to notice!
and still, wit’ alla dat, ah love eeet!
contemporary local artists, documentaries on those who gone before, local+regional news and current affairs 24/7, brilliant! and as i say, we monitoring changes; gayellethechannel seem to be pushing new programming with tighter production, and i have a vested interest.
my mission similar to gayelle’s. when i left trinbago for university i knew i was coming straight back ‘cause it have wuk to do home: documenting and archiving our cultural history, creating infrastructure and resources, and raising the standard and profile of the arts. i come home to create the kinna work i wanna see on our local stages+media, facilitate public art, to teach, and to help document any way i can. but while wukkin on my input for our combined mission, the only thing stopping me from pelting down to gayelle (2blocks from my flat) several times a week to cuss ‘bout varied arseness, is having to get dressed and interrupt my own creative process.
so yuhknow i cyah wait to see how good they come, how they balance the original mission with the need for a new approach to sustainability, and community-based production with international industry standards…
how you feel ‘bout wha’ you watching on gayelle?

walk good.