YUMA 2014 Launch 'Cirque' - The Review

Coming out from the slumber...a brief review.
Rating Scale 1 to 5. 1 absolute crud, 5 fabulous

The Event: YUMA Launch of their 2014 presentation "Cirque"
Venue: Hasley Crawford National Stadium
Date: August 10th 2013
Time: 10:30pm to 5am (I think)
Price: $300 per person

The Review:
Bar -  shit! Yes drinks were free, but...The bar served White Oak rum, Black Label rum, Forres Park Puncheon, Correira's Hard Wine and Skyy Vodka. Utter shite!!! Thank goodness for the BrewHouse with Stag/Carib/Carib Pilsner/Heinekin on tap. There was a Cafe Patron booth for shots, as well as a booth serving what looked like a 'punch', but the signage had Skyyy vodka so I steered clear. There were also Angostura Rum Cocktails bar, and a Chivas bar which was solely for those with 'special bands'. Rating - 2.5 

Food - Wendy's and Macco Taco's were the options. Partook of Wendy's (yess it is unhealthy!!) Rating - 3

Amenities - porta-potties of the basic type, they were kept relatively clean. Running water and soap provided. Lighting was not the best, and no mirrors available. Female patrons however were not very dignified and discarded paper towels in the sinks even though a garbage bin was within 5 ft. Rating - 3

Layout and ambiance - decent. It was very different and innovative I guess, of Yuma to utilise outside the covered stands area on a straight stretch. It allowed visibility of the stage from almost any vantage point within the area. Stage was a long wide stretch, decorated in white, with YUMA banner stretched across the back. Lots of screens to aid in visual. Ambiance was kind of bleh and generic. Rating - 3

Presentation - Good that it was introduced by a Cirque-inspired dance performance. Did not like that section names were not announced. Only realised half-way through the second section parade on stage that section names were being displayed on the screens...not cool, since keeping track of names and matching to costumes was thus a bit difficult. Rating - 3

Music -  ok I guess. They played a good mix and had the crowd moving and involved, then lost me completely with the rap session. Rating - 4

Costumes - not bad at all. The designs were pretty decent. Some were a bit 'out of the box ' (ohhh how I loathe that cliche!!) Some strong backlines, and some notable frontlines...a brazilian wax is required for some of those frontlines ladies! (Ohhh and the model for one of the FLs gave us stage-side a show we did NOT need) Rating - 3.5

Overall - 3

Checking in

May 31st 2013 marked the end of my 1st year of a 2 year programme M.Sc. in Project Management.
It was a rough year...the 1st semester wasn't as horrible as I anticipated, but the 2nd semester more than made up for it. I mean, exams finished May 16th and I was STILL working on assignments...le sigh.
But...i have completed the 1st year.
And now patiently await exam and coursework results, so I'll know how year 2 will go.
Will I be able to proceed straight onto the elective course? Will I have to repeat any of these courses? What electives am I gonna do? What am I gonna do for my final project report?
Soo many questions...June is gonna have my brain in overload, cause I am going to have funky dreams...I know it!!

Anyways, what else has been going on.
Not that much actually.
Have a niece that turned one in April. A new baby cousin born last month and another baby cousin who will be 2 in the next couple weeks. All soo cute!

Pondering when I'm gonna start back working though...cause this no income thing is beginning to bother me...meh!

Band launches start in the next few weeks...may not attend any, but God spare life I wanna play next year :-)

The 'Greens' Monster

Hi all...I've come out of under the rock I've been hiding under to repost a blog entry that I soooo completely agree with. I could not have said it any better.

"So its the day after Pan Semis or the Semi final round of the Panorama competition and my facebook news feed is buzzing with posts and pictures from the event. Its no surprise that the posts about the lime and how much alcohol was consumed and how much pretty women were there, grossly outnumbers the amount of posts about the actual competition. Let’s face it… a huge part of that crowd, which unfortunately makes up a great majority of my facebook friend list, did not go there to hear pan.

I was fortunate enough to be down on the drag on Saturday and was able to get some video footage as well as pictures of some of the medium sized bands. It was a very visual reminder of what I already knew; this national instrument of ours, this past time of playing pan for panorama, something deep seated within our heritage and identity with participants that span age barriers, gender barriers, ethnic barriers and socioeconomic barriers was something important, something essential to a social cohesiveness that survives within this tradition.

Seeing this and knowing fully well that it was up against a monster that would rear its ugly head on the Greens the following day made me angry. I could overcome the anger I felt when I thought about the fact that the effort and dedication that these people put into perfecting the rendition of the song they chose to play would be ignored by the Greens monster. I could overcome the anger I felt when I thought about how cavalier and callous the Greens monster is toward itself. But the anger I could not overcome is the fact that there are a multitude of events for the carnival period that cater to the needs of the Greens monster… why did the monster need to come and feed here? Here in this place where people spent months dedicated to doing something of cultural significance that in itself is defiance against subversive forces in this land. That is the anger I could not overcome. That is the insatiable appetite for debauchery that I could not comprehend.

As the Saber song goes… maybe “i’m too decent to understand” the nature of the Greens monster."

The original blogpost is at: The Monster that ate culture