Used that title to grab your attention but it also epitomizes exactly what I want to blog about.

I’m sure you’re aware of the photos in the Nation of August 10th that highlighted the “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” of Kadooment day? The Photos showed revelers doing various sexually suggestive dances. So what’s strange about that? Well the majority of the pictures were girls dancing with other girls.

Use of the word “dancing” here is an understatement. There was one photo of a woman “vigorously” grinding another woman flat down on the stadium track.(see above) Cheese don bread, don’t women dance with men any more? From the look of these pictures it does not appear so. Those women putting men to shame. After seeing how them women does got other women lock down I don’t feel it is no use men going out on Kadooment day any more.

A note to all those women who engage in that “Girl on Girl” action for free in public. People pay to watch that activity on the net, you could be missing out on a revenue generating opportunity. I wrote earlier that women seem to be taking over all the big positions in society, well it seems like women are taking ALL of the mens “positions” literally.

Heres an email I thought I would share with you. Came all the way from the Big Apple, New York City. I’m not releasing the name of the writer but I just thought you should get another view other than mines sometimes.

Hi Peter,

In my news paper I notice that you are close to the PM. Did they finally see the light? After 33 years NCF still got it all wrong. The way Crop Over was done this year was like a child who does not know what he/she wants. You mean to tell me that they did not know that they could not use Kensington Oval? And all the other blunders they made. What’s the real story on Mr. Vegas? Where did they eventually put him after he refused the hotel they booked him in after he checked in? I live in NY but I know the answer. How much was he paid and how much was Sherwin paid. Don’t know the answers to those but I know it is far more than any Bajan artiste. I think….no I know it is an affront to Bajan artistes and the day that all of you get fed up and say enough is enough and get the backing of the people to go on strike then NCF and whoever would understand what culture really is and who really drive the CropOver wagon.

Ah gone. Catch you later.

Have you ever had one of those gut wrenching pukes where you feel you are going to bring your whole stomach up?

Well that happened to me at the Barbados Hilton on 21st August when the Government announced their plans about establishing a Festival Events Bureau (FEB) to run Crop Over. I got as sick as a dog and had to leave the event early. It was not that announcement that made me sick, even though I have some serious concerns about this FEB, what made me sick was CEO of NCF Ian Estwick.

In fact I would rephrase that, it was what Ian Estwick SAID that made me sick.. When the NCF CEO had the guts to get up on a stage an announce the Government’s intention to release another Crop Over DVD I just started to feel queasy in my stomach. Up to now NCF has not compensated some artistes including Madd for the unauthorized DVD they released two years ago.

Well they paid out monies to their favorite people but you know we would be never on that list. It’s the standard victimization treatment we have become accustomed to. But when the CEO Estwick had the big guts to announce the authorities are again planning not only releasing DVDs but cds as well I started to feel sick to my stomach. I tried to control it but eventually I ended up running to the bathroom and puking like a dog.

Even the sight of pretty NCF Communications lady Penny Gomez waving at me from across the room at one point could not sway me from my sickality* I was so repulsed then. When my friend Santia asked why I had left the Government meeting early I did not have the guts to tell her the truth. Well at the time I had no guts as I had left it in the Hilton’s bathroom. I lied and told her I had to leave for business reasons, I can lie quite well now I learnt it from the NCF.

I would advise the government next time they are going to drop any revolting news tell us in advance so we can bring barf bags.

One of the points that Starcom Network announcer Dennis Johnson made in his presentation was that the same hundred and fifty million dollar Hilton we were meeting in had only been recently built and it yet had no entertainment facilities. Well that might be true Dennis, but I can tell you for sure, they have some nice bathrooms!

*Sickality; I mek up that word yuh idiot, and you looking to see wha it means too…? stupes

Because we sing about eating “conch” does not mean we are conchs! Government needs to understand that.

I am referring to the proposed formation of the Festival Events Bureau (FEB) which Minister of Culture Owen Arthur presented at the Government/Cultural Industries consultation on August 21st. FEB in reality is another form of the Cultural Masturbation which has become the norm of government.

For those of you who do not know (and there are many), Festival Events is a private public sector company that is to be set up by government to engage in commercial entertainment activities. According to the Government, FEB is to be so good for us in the entertainment industry. “It would be the greatest thing since slice bread and would include cheese” they said, but lets look at this thing closely shall we?

Of course looking at this new FEB is going to be pretty hard because being mere entertainers we have not been included in the process. This Festival Events Bureau is being drafted to be put in place and no one in cultural industries has being consulted about it. Not Batman, not United Artistes, not Krosfyah, not Dance Machine, not Entertainment Network, not Madd, not Malik, Nobody! Do you get my drift?

Here are some questions we need to ask the Government!

Why is the government seeking to develop an events promotion company to compete against the already existing promoters Floyd, Adrian Agard, Chris Harper, Freddie Hill, All Stars and Bacchanal Time? Why is the government not encourging calyponians to diversify and take advantage of the merchandising opportunities they identify (selling T-shirts etc.)

Why is the government looking to release CDS to compete against RPB, Mac Fingall, Lil Rick, Kidsite, Monsta Piece, Alison Hinds, Underground, Mr Dale, Madd,etc.

”But wait” government says “you will be able to buy shares in this FEB”! OK then, that means we would be able to buy shares in the company that would be shutting us down. Well praise the lord! (Put your hands in the air here). The truth is that the only entity that will benefit from FEB is the government; they will be pleasuring them selves at the expense of cultural industries.

That is why they are called Cultural Masturbators, it is a nasty habit and they need to stop it!

It pains me to write about the latest act of government sponsored victimization which is taking place against members of our Barbadian entertainment industry.

The latest despicable act consists the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) making a decision not to put top band Krosfyah or our reigning 2007 Party Monarch, Lil Rick on the BTA truck for the New York Labour Day Parade. NCF has also refused to include popular band Jabae which features our 2006 Party Monarch Barry Chandler even though they stated they would have performed for a mere honorarium.

Could you imagine, the Barbados Government sponsoring a truck on Labour Day and not including 2007 Party Monarch Li’l Rick? Rick, who placed 2nd and 3rd in the Tune of the Crop Competition and who also dominated the airwaves with his Conch song. Single handly the man has increased eating of conch in Barbados and made a lot of women happy. Just for that alone the man should be on the truck!

Could you imagine the Government putting a truck on the road for Labour Day and not including our international band Krosfyah who had some of the biggest hits for 2007 Crop Over? A band which includes renowned artistes like Khiomal and Edwin Yearwood?
(more…)

In the above picture you can see a 101 year old man getting down with backing vocalist Mary, his name is Pa Jones and he performed in Bacchanal Time 2007.

Some people thinks he looks a lot like Mac Fingall
Some people are wrong!

See Elvis the Bass player looking at Pa Jones getting down..He hopes he would be able to get down like that when he reaches that age..

Right now the only “getting down” Elvis gets is with the Bass guitar he is holding…

What helps a 101 year old man get down like that? Mary can hardly keep up thats why she is hiding her face,

Pa Jones drinks Guinness and it is working for him!
All I can say is “Wuh Loss Wuh Loss Wuh Loss”

Cheese on bread, bread on cheese!

Did you hear the Police response to the Barbados Association of Masqueraders’ (BAM) threat not to put their Kadoment bands on the road next year unless they are guaranteed greater police security. Amanda Forde from the band Radikal spoke on behalf of BAM. President Hartley Reid spokesman for the Police Association went in on BAM fairly acid then.

”If they bring no bands next year the better for us, we will smile and stay home with our families” Hartley said. Whoa, those are some strong dismissive words. That is like saying “wha somebody care if you bring a band or not, you feel I care bout yuh, yuh idiot!” I am not saying he said that, that’s the Boyce Voice translation.

While it is good to hear the police busing… we know that if the masqueraders don’t put bands on the road for Kadoment this would impact significantly on the spectacle and climax of our Crop Over festival. And as you would know anything that affects “the climax’ is not good. We depend on Crop Over to attract visitors and needed foreign exchange. Any threat from Crop Over stake holders whether tents, calypsonians or masqueraders, could upset the delicate financial balance of Crop Over.

So it is not so simple to dismiss the threat as Reid is doing. When the economy is down another situation occurs where you get to spend a lot of time with your family. It is called being “laid off.” nobody wants that. Reid is indicating that if bands want more police protection they would have to pay for it. Entertainment promoters have been paying for police security services for years. While it sounds like an extra expense it might be the solution for BAM if they can afford it.

I still think that Hartley Reid was too hard on Amanda. She was speaking on behalf of bands whose members were harassed and attacked on Kadoment. I know at least one person who was in a band that was harassed so much they gave up and went home early. I also saw a bloodied band person in the newspaper. So when the police officer Hartley Reid responds harshly with tough words saying that if some bands had one police they had too much. That is like saying you don’t give a rats ass about the Barbadians and visitors who were in bands and were attacked.

What do you think?

Did you hear the CEO of the NCF on the radio the other day? He was trying to convince the public some how that local acts cost more than the foreign acts the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) bring in. I am becoming tired with writing blogs posts calling NCF liars and I am sure by now you should be bored reading them. When you try to give the impression that local artistes could cost more than Trini and Jamaican acts, that is such a asinine* statement that I do not even feel like addressing it. (*Word should be ass-inine with emphasis on ass).

I want to focus on how pathetic it is when the NCF CEO could be heard on radio at the end of a Crop Over Festival attacking the same cultural stake holders he is supposed to be working with. The CEO has been dropping remarks against Lil Rick’s management. Krosfah had to defend themselves from remarks he made, and he had it ding dong with band Jabae over fees at the start of Crop Over.

One of the remarks the CEO dropped on the radio was that Batman¹ has just two tent members, just mentioned that point for no reason at all.
Allow me to send him a Boyce response: “Who gives a rat’s ass!” Two tents which speak make more noise than ten who are silent. I am only one man and look how much trouble I cause your ass so what’s the point?

It is becoming embarrassing for the government to have a NCF CEO that instead of fostering good relations with stake holders, spends time engaged in squabbles and dropping nasty remarks on radio. The NCF CEO needs to elevate himself and leave the harlot bombastic behavior to whores like me and Archiebull Cox. When the NCF CEO speaks, the government speaks! And according to what we are hearing right now the government wants war with cultural industries, which I find to be interesting considering that this is a year they are expecting the same entertainers to vote for them.
Enuff said (got that from the bounce a fire person)

Did you find that I dropped remarks in the writing of this blog post? Like I said in the title, “I am a whore!”

¹ Barbados Association of Tent Managers

Congrats to Red plastic Bag (RPB) in winning the Pic O De Crop calypso competition title for 2007. By now you should know that RPB judged with Bacchanal Time this year so that makes it a win for us.

Some time ago I promised you a proper profile of RPB from when he received the achievement award from the Barbados Association of Tent Managers in June. Well I am still trying to get that from my Keisha, who put that together, in the mean time I will present you with this short Boyce style improper one.

RPB is celebrating 25 years in calypso this year and so is Madd. The difference is RPB seems to have been talented enough to start at the top while we were struggling at the bottom. In 1982 just out of Combermere School, I was employed at Shamrock Supermarket as a check out boy and Madd was just a little unsociable group meeting for fun at the Y.M.C.A. RPB at that time was already dominating the radio airwaves with the songs Sugar Made us Free and Mr Harding Can’t Die. I remembered pushing out supermarket groceries as a youngster, listening to RPB and being influenced by his music. I remember being impressed with those dramatic stage presentations staged by RPB and his manager Mac Fingall when they were shown on CBC TV.

When Bag got involved in calypso he took it to another level. Bajan calypso was more seen as a “fun thing” before. When bag came on the scene, local calypso was more seen as an art form to be taken more seriously. A lot of people do not know that I was personally involved in the success of RPB in the earlier years; I notice he does not mention it in his interviews.you see I was employed as a cashier at Cave Shepherd back in 1985 and during that time I personally rang into the cash register and sold thousands of RPB records and cassettes. You would think he would mention that sometimes.

In the eighties I remember the solidarity of the St Philip people backing Bag at the finals and all the “untouchable” people that would go to the stadium on finals night waving those damn red bags. It would be the town tents Battleground, House of Soca etc vs. the country tents Untouchables and Conquerors and it was a friendly rivalry that helped generate classic calypsos that have withstood the test of time and an icon that has also withstood the test of time. R.P.B!
Celebrating 25 years in 2007 and showing his enduring consistency by winning the Pic O De Crop in 2007.

Congrats to the Bag!

I know what you are thinking, who gives a rat’s ass about you having a cold? You think that some body care bout you? Yuh idiot”! Well let me tell you why I am proud of having a cold at this time, so proud that I am writing about it in my blog.

For all Crop Over I was busy as heck pushing my self to the max. I was getting up at 2 and 3 in the morning and working straight through until the next day, organizing Bacchanal Time shows, recording radio and TV ads and meeting government on UAB & BATMAN business. And I still had to go to the supermarket and drop my sons to the cinema. My body went through all of that plus controversy and waited until the end of Crop Over exactly right after Kadoment to come down with a cold. That is what you call a corporate minded body, I am so proud of it that it doesn’t get sick when revenue is being generated, it waits until after.

Some times I have to remind our employees of the Madd Company Policy. You are not allowed to get sick during Crop Over. Just last week I noticed our Akila in the office with a cold and I sent her a memo instructing her to turn up next week with out it and then resume it after Kadoment. Akila did not comply and I am looking to terminate her ass next time she sneezes. Instead of “bless you” it will be “you are fired”!

I believe in leading by example that’s why as managing director of Madd I have caught a cold only now I can afford to, at the end of Crop Over.

P.S; It was Lee who gave every body at the Madd Office a cold; stay away from her she is lee-thal!