Timing the riddem
20/02/07 17:07 Filed in: Carnival
This is what the Grand Road
looked like on Carnival Tuesday afternoon looking west from
Charlotte Street. This is the prime time of light for a "Savannah"
crossing, one that no band would willingly ignore.
I've got another photo looking South from the same spot, but it's more of the same, streets full of people liming, drinking and staring down the street, wondering where the Carnival went.
Well, Carnival went exactly where the Ministry of Culture hoped it would go, out onto the streets and mas took to the route like a thoroughbred.
I have no doubt that this was a great Carnival for masqueraders, who would have nursed considerable agonies when they stopped for lunch. These bands took off and never stopped.
For the audiences that distributed themselves along the parade route, it was a far less fulfilling experience, long periods of stillness punctuated by blasts of soca and a fast wine before they were looking at the rear end of another band, normally punctuated by a line of fluorescent vests labelled "Security".
Now that the road rhythm has been introduced, it might be a good idea to start figuring out ways of organising the band appearances so that there is a real flow, not the squirts of mas that audiences had to satisfy themselves with.
Maybe we can follow the rhythm of the road with the metronome of the mas.
I've got another photo looking South from the same spot, but it's more of the same, streets full of people liming, drinking and staring down the street, wondering where the Carnival went.
Well, Carnival went exactly where the Ministry of Culture hoped it would go, out onto the streets and mas took to the route like a thoroughbred.
I have no doubt that this was a great Carnival for masqueraders, who would have nursed considerable agonies when they stopped for lunch. These bands took off and never stopped.
For the audiences that distributed themselves along the parade route, it was a far less fulfilling experience, long periods of stillness punctuated by blasts of soca and a fast wine before they were looking at the rear end of another band, normally punctuated by a line of fluorescent vests labelled "Security".
Now that the road rhythm has been introduced, it might be a good idea to start figuring out ways of organising the band appearances so that there is a real flow, not the squirts of mas that audiences had to satisfy themselves with.
Maybe we can follow the rhythm of the road with the metronome of the mas.
|
