The infamous old Empire Theatre

If you are old enough you might remember the significance of the above times, 12.30, 4.30 and 8.30.
Years ago in the hey day of the cinemas In Barbados those were our standard movie  show times.  

Back when there was bare cinemas in Barbados, the Plaza Olympic empire and Roxy Cinemas in addition to the Globe and others. When you feel like “Gine in de theatre” there was a range of options to choose from.
Back when the only place you could see a movie was in the cinema so you had no freaking choice.
I remember standing in this incredibly long line outside the Olympic waiting to see the musical “Grease” back in 1978.
There were neither video tapes nor any DVD technology that we had access to back then.
You either got into the cinema and saw John Travolta and Olivia Newton John dancing on the big screen or you didn’t see them at all.

So to service the hungry throngs of Bajan movie goers, it would be a standard that from Wednesday to Saturday movie show times would be 12.30, 4.30 and 8.30.  So “theatres” would have generated quite a bit of revenue back then. Now cinemas has been impacted by several factors including technology.
So we no longer have the proliferation of cinemas which once dominated, gone are the days of the Plaza, Olympic, Empire,Vista and the Roxy is now a supermarket.
Gone are the days of 12.30, 4.30 and 8.30….!

Would you beleive the Roxy is now a super market?? Lord come fuh yuh world

This Morning Boyce Voice is educating your ass…

Here’s a free lecture thats on this morning that my friend and assoiciate Chris harper is staging….

It would be worth while attending from what I can see, if you are outside of Barbados its worth flying in for….read on

Notes to Notes Inc.

In collaboration with
The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination

Present the

2009 Summer Scholarship Audition preparation workshop
Delivered by Berklee’s
 Associate Professor John Pierce
 
Time:   Saturday October 4th 2008 10:30am -12:30pm

Location:  EBCCI- UWI Cave Hill Campus, Barbados

Admission:  FREE

For details call Chris Harper @ 427-2555 or email notestonote@caribsurf.com

This initiative sponsored by
The Peter Boos Foundation

Berklee preparation workshop October 4th 2008 Press release
         This Saturday between 10:30am -12:30pm at the EBCCI, UWI, Cave Hill campus, Notes to Note in collaboration with the Errol Barrow Center for Creative Imagination will be hosting a free workshop conducted by Berklee College of Music, Associate Professor John Pierce.
      The workshop will be geared towards musicians interested in taking part in the annual  Berklee Summer Scholarship auditions which are held in Barbados at the end February. Therefore the material will be primarily focused on preparation for the audition process as well as general methods for practicing improvisation and overall musical growth.
       Notes to Note Inc. for the past five years have facilitated the Annual Berklee Scholarship Tour and Barbados in now the official audition location for the southern Caribbean. This strategic alliance has lead to sixteen summer scholarship being awarded, ten of which were won by Barbadians.
      Winners of the Berklee Summer Scholarship 2009 will have the opportunity to spend five weeks at the Prestigious College in an exciting accelerated program and have the opportunity to re-audition for the full time degree program. For additional information on the workshop please contact Chris Harper at 427-2555 or email notestonote@caribsurf.com .

Then the place for you to be is at Braddies Bar in Dover Christ Church Barbados!
 Giving you a chance to be the star you always wanted to be but couldn’t because you didn’t get the opportunity.
You could be the next Shontelle or Rihanna (might be difficult if you are a man though)  Its time to step out of singing in the shower and step into Braddies Bars (put some clothes on first though).
They are giving you a chance to be the star you always wanted to be. whether you can sing do comedy or do spoken word you could be discovered.  take a read of below promo….

Pyramid Entertainment is pleased to announce the return of “Open Mic”. Given the tremendous response from the last series the company has decided to launch another intense eight week series every Thursday at Braddies Bar, Dover, Christ Church starting on the 9th of October, 2008.

Several of this year’s newcomers in the Crop Over festival began their musical journey after honing their skills on the stage at Braddies Bar. A significant number have also recorded singles which are currently on rotation on the island’s airwaves and one of the artistes is currently being shopped around in the reggae capital of the world, Jamaica.

Throughout the last series, performers explored several genres including pop, rock, spoken work and reggae. By the end of season 2, it was evident that reggae music had dominated the other genres and that there was an ever increasing sub-culture emerging in Barbados. The upcoming season will focus heavily on encouraging all genres but particular emphasis will be placed on the reggae art form. Pyramid’s vision to develop the reggae art form is shared by leading Jamaican producer Richard Shams Browne best known for his productions for Beenie Man, Macka Diamond, TOK and Lady Saw to name a few, who has undertaken to record a single for one of the top reggae acts at the end of this season’s Open Mic series.

Open Mic at Braddie’s Bar gives young talent a chance to showcase their talents infront of a live audience whilst also providing them with an opportunity network with some of the hottest producers and deejays.

Now that I think about it, when you step out of the shower to go singing at Braddies, maybe it might be a good idea not to put your clothes on…
Imagine turning up at Braddies and doing your bit TOTALLY NAKED !!Then you would really be exposing your talent. Think bout it, A naked you singing… that would definitely raise some eye brows and depending on the level of your physical attributes you might raise so much laughs you might realize your true calling is comedy… once that’s the only thing you raise…
See You at Braddies!

I was talking to 2 female friends recently, and they were lamenting the fact that in the average work place men are paid more money than women for doing the same job.
A woman doing a job with the same qualifications and experience as a man would take home less money, doesn’t that strike you as a tad unfair? Isn’t that like sexual discrimination?

Mention of sex brings me to my Boyce point for today, one profession for sure where women are paid more than men than men is the Porn industry.
Boyce sacrificed all one of his morals and did investigations for you on the subject of how much more women in the porn industry were paid in contrast to men and the difference was a astounding.
The average male porn star gets $300 to $400 a scene or $100 to $200 if he is new, it is even said there are some men who do it for free.
A woman on the other hand gets a whopping $100,000 to $250,000 a year which is pretty damn impressive.

So there are women like Jenna Jameson is a multi millionaire all from porn, Tera Patrick who now owns her own porn company which generates over 30 million dollars per year
Maria Takagi from Japan who makes $86,000 per film and the list of highly paid porn women go on.
And we men get a mere $400 per scene and some even do it FOR FREE. Men reading this should feel like dogs then. I think the fee that a porn man is paid is “hard on” a man considering that he has the “hard” job of maintaining one, and infront of hot lights and cameras, that can’t be easy.
I think the message being sent here is vaginas are worth more than penises so a man taking his clothes off ent saying nothing but a woman? now yuh talking!

I have noticed how ever that the fact that female porn stars are paid more than men is not herald with any great celebration by the feminists of this world, female porn stars have managed to “break the glass ceiling” as it relates to pay and it should be recognized.

Boyce Disclaimer; Do not feel that because I wrote about “be a whore” last week and now “Porn Star Pay” that I am encouraging persons to enter that industry, by all means stick to your 9 to 5  $2000 per month job. you might not be the richest person but a better person

I wanted to put up pictures of porn stars with this but Darron needs to fix my picture upload thing..

here comes the Bride

Here Comes the Bride…

Etc etc

You probably got scared when you read the above title, and thought Boyce voice was taking over from “Dear Christine” and becoming a marriage counselor.
But for the edification of readers female especially, I thought I would blog about the perceptions men have of marriage in contrast to women’s.

For women the entire concept of marriage is an event of great jollification and jubilation, for men its apprehension and uncertainty.

The difference starts from the engagement.
When a woman gets engaged its joy joy joy to the world for both her and her girlfriends are excited too “lemme see the ring” they exclaim “ooh that’s beautiful…it looks expensive!” and they say that like its a good thing.

When a man tells us buddies he is getting married the first response is”oh? are you sure?” and theres the tone of uncertaincy that dominates the conversation, we dont get excited and start jumping up and down.

We don’t view the expensive engagement ring with any great joy either because we have to buy it.
(Why do you need an engagement ring anyway why can’t you just give one wedding ring and call that a day?)

Men’s true perception of marriage is reflected in the nick names they have for the event , “getting hitched” that does not sound like a good thing. on the day of wedding we say our buddy “gine down” today, that term could also be used at a funeral like “gine down” in a hole. You see my point?
The last and most damming proof of a mans perception of marriage is the term his friend is going to get his “neck pop” today, I believe that is what happens when you are hung by the neck untill dead.
I could rest my case here but I wouldn’t.
(Whispering font) Boyce voice will continue more on marriage at a later date, wifey just came in so I must log off before she sees this……

Usain the Yam eater

What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
If you did not eat yams then you did not eat the breakfast of champions.
That’s what the fastest man in the world Jamaican Usain Bolt eats that according to him helped him to win the 100m race in 9.69 seconds in the Beijing.
Yams Dumplings and Green Bananas to be precise is the breakfast that Usain eats that gives him that incredible speed.
Usain’s secret is not Powerade, nor Gatorade nor Monsta nor Red Bull! He does not take Ginseng or no Vitamin B injections.
  Usain is proud and strong Jamaican YAM EATER.

So back to you, what did you eat for breakfast? Did you eat scrambled eggs, bacon and hot dogs?
You should be shame…… 
People like you make me sick; you have been ignoring good old fashion “ground provisions’ and eating all sorts of processed food.
When was the last time you eat piece of green bananas? When was the last time you eat a dumpling? Do you even know what a dumpling is?
Some of you have not eating been eating breakfast home but not waiting till u get work and having coffee and bagels and doughnuts and all sorts of igrunt food.
That why you can’t run to save your life… stop reading this now get up from your computer run out in the road and come back…..!

See how out of breath you are? That’s all the bagels, egg yolks and pork bacon keeping you back, choking your heart.
You need to start eating Yams, Dumplings and Green Bananas. You letting the Americans fool you into buying all their commercialized processed health products and ignoring our indigenous Caribbean roots. Its time to reverse that process, Eat a Yam today, Run fast tomorrow!
If it’s good enough for Usain Bolt it is good enough for you!

Picture of Yam and Sweet patato for people who play them aint know

Woman digging Yams, the exercise of harvesting them alone will make you fit….

Boyce Note: Be carefull with the Yam eating as it is not good to increase your speed at every thing… if you know what i mean… A word to the wise is enough

As a collector of movies I have became quite concerned with this new format I now hear about movies now available in Blu Ray. Let me expand.
I started collecting movies from back in the 80’s so I have quite a collection of movies on the old VHS video tape format. All legitimate mind you, there’s no place for pirate copies in my collection. For those of you who don’t know what a VHS tape looks like, look at this….

So on VHS I have titles like Terminator 1 & 2, First Blood, There’s Something About Mary, Bowfinger, Face Off, Blues Brothers and more, like over 30 movies which for Barbados is quite a collection.

Then in the 90’s something came along called DVD Format, so then I had to switch to movies in this new improved format, had to buy a DVD machine then starting with the “Matrix” some of the same movies I had on the old VHS I had to re-purchase on the improved digitized DVDs albeit with extra features.

            My “Matrix DVD

So now I have quite a collection of DVD movies and feeling good, now I hearing bout something called Blu Ray. What the ass is Blu Ray now?  Now do I have to get a new Blu Ray machine and change my movie format again? Cheese on Bread!
I went checking up on this new Blu Ray Crap and here’s what I found….

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

I think for the time being I will skip that new HD experience; you could go bankrupt trying to keep up with technology. I think we should all make a stand and stick with the DVD format till we die, it’s cheaper…

Boyce has always taken note of the liberal marketing which is utilized by our Barbados Turf Club as it relates to getting people to attend horse racing at the garrison savannah.
I use the word “liberal” deliberately, I have seen ads promoting “Family Day” inviting you to bring your entire house hold kids and all to enjoy a day of racing at the garrison.
No one seems cognizant of the fact that that at horse racing the primary activity is really gambling, so if it were accurate the marketing should be, “bring the whole family out for a day of gambling….”
I saw a horse racing program on TV just this week which ends with a cute five year old girl in arms saying “see u at the races”. Isn’t that like having a child in a beer ad?
While it starts out looking like a harmless activity watching men on horses racing around a track and what’s wrong with a little harmless bet, that first bet could be an opening to falling victim to a condition which is comparable to alcohol and drug additions.

Let’s look at a definition of gambling

Gambling addiction, also known as compulsive gambling, is a type of impulse-control disorder. Compulsive gamblers can’t control the impulse to gamble, even when they know their gambling is hurting themselves or their loved ones. Gambling is all they can think about and all they want to do, no matter the consequences. Compulsive gamblers keep gambling whether they’re up or down, broke or flush, happy or depressed. Even when they know the odds are against them, even when they can’t afford to lose, people with a gambling addiction can’t “stay off the bet.”

So when you look at the possible consequences is it responsible to be taking your whole family to a day of horse racing where gambling happens? Further less using a five year old girl in the advertising.
Maybe it something Joey Harper chairman of the childcare board needs to look into and get off harassing people about children at calypso tents and cavalcades.

Looking for a place to take your chile* this Saturday?
(*Chile is Bajan for Child)
Well Pyramid Entertainment has a special kids event on 19th July 2008 which you can read about below….If you notice how well it is written its because I didn’t write it, it’s a press release they sent Boyce Voice….

The spacious grounds of the Plantation Garden Theatre will be transformed into a fantasy playground with activities which include rock climbing, jumping tents, a petting zoo, train rides, face painting, balloon artistes, several games and special guest appearances throughout the evening by various children’s television characters. The evening will climax with a showdown of performances by some of the season’s hottest soca artistes – Lil Rick together with his son the Unda Dawg, Peter Ram, “Soca Queen” Alison Hinds, Mr. Dale, Biggie Irie, Philip 7 of the band Masala, Statement, William Watts, Buggy, the Fraud Squad, twin brothers Barry & Bruce Chandler of the Jabae band, Shanta Prince, Hypasounds, John Mahameed, Stabby the Guard and Nard to name a few.

CEO of Pyramid Entertainment, Santia Bradshaw

noted that, “the event was inspired by the participation of several of the artistes on the Pyramid roster at various children’s parties and children homes during Trinidad carnival to promote their music. During our last visit to Trinidad, Lil Rick, Peter Ram, Mr. Dale and Biggie Irie were so overwhelmed by the reaction of children to their music and the opportunity to meet and take photographs with them that they insisted that we not only host an event of this nature in Barbados but also to donate all profits to a children’s charity.”
Based on the overwhelming public response to this initiative by some of Barbados’ most loved entertainers, this event is likely to become an annual event during the Crop Over season. The demands of the entertainment industry often takes several of the artistes away from their families in order to make a living. Our intention is to create an event which allows the artistes to give back to the community and also to provide an outlet for the artistes to enjoy a fun filled day of activities with their families as well,” Bradshaw added.
Admission to the event is $20.00 per person and entitles all ticket holders (adults and children) to five (5) passes which can be redeemed for access to any of the activities, food and drinks. The event is slated to start at 1 pm and finish at 7pm.
All profits from the event will be donated to the Children’s Variety club,

 

The little Rick leadeth his son

I mentioned it in passing but I felt the need to go back and expand on it.
Blogging about the concept of the Hypa Dog and the Under Dog duet which consists of Little Rick inducting his real life son to the 2008 Crop Over stage.

I see this as a significant event and I will tell you why because I usually do. And you usually read it as you have nothing else to do.

Little Rick whether you like it or not, is looked up too as a role model by a majority of Barbadian youth.
His widespread popularity is evidenced by the huge listener ship of his Guinness radio rush hours and the dominance of his music among the youthful demographic speaks to this fact.
Often you hear Lil Rick’s influence mentioned in a negative light usually at government consultations where it is often stated he is leading the youth astray promoting alcohol and wuckless music.
How ever you must consider this.

There is a widely accepted practice among young Barbadian males of getting their girlfriends pregnant and then leaving them to raise the children alone with out living up to their responsibilities as fathers.

Lil Rick therefore by publicly acknowledging his role as a father is providing a positive role model to the misguided wuckless men out there who need to be shown the way.

So those Lil Rick detractors who are always pulling him down need to take note of that.

Son of Little Rick “the Under Dog”