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California steel pan tuner Dave Beery poses for a video op at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where he dropped in earlier this month to tune the pans belonging to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Steel Drum Band (”the northernmost steel drum band in the world”). And who can blame him for choosing that song!

See a photo of Dave and his pans at Caribbean Free Photo.

Technorati Tags: alaska, music, dave beery, university of fairbanks, steel drum, steel pan

This week my Global Voices post takes the form of a chat with Haitian-American blogger Alice Eddie Backer.

And when you get a moment, do put yourself on CFR’s Frappr map.

You’ll recall I said I’d shot some bad video last Wednesday during the street celebrations in Port of Spain following Trinidad & Tobago’s qualifications. What I shot was such a pile, in fact, that I was able to salvage only one clip, which you can view by clicking here.

A thousand pardons to CFR listeners (and WNYC) for wasting your bandwidth with my indavertent inclusion of the audio file of Leonard Lopate’s Derek Walcott interview in my syndication feed. It’s fixed now.

Which is not to say that the interview isn’t extremely interesting. It’s just that it had no right being in my feed.

The November 22 edition of the Leonard Lopate Show on New York public radio station WNYC features an interview with Derek Walcott, on the occasion of the exhibition of his paintings at the June Kelly Gallery in Soho.

The segment is currently downloadable from the WNYC site and also available as a podcast, but you’ll want to grab it quickly as WNYC replaces the downloadable files with streamable audio after a few days. Accompanying the audio is a slide show of selected works from the show.

Technorati Tags: art, caribbean, derek walcott, literature, painting, poetry, watercolours, WNYC

Here, at last, is CFR’s new promo. (In fact, it’s part PSA-part promo).

Play it using this link:

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Or subscribe to CFR using any of these methods:
RSS | Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Let me know what you think, and by all means, heed its message.

Global Voices has won a Best of the Blogs award. I’m a GV newbie, so can’t take any of the credit, but I’m extremely proud to be a part of this.

Here’s a word about the award from GV co-founder Ethan Zuckerman.

Technorati Tags: 2005 Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards, blog, global voices

“Who will devise a programme for the nation over the next six months which will ask every man and woman to become a person of skill (whatever your skill may be), discipline and hard work? Who will think out of the current box of money and fete and seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to really turn this country around? Who will look beyond political mileage and rise to the non-partisan requirements of the moment? What images will the media offer us? Will we demand certain standards of those who proudly wear a jersey proclaiming “I am a Soca Warrior!”? Right now as I type the words, it is the jump-up tune that echoes in my head. Can that be tied to something more and made to work for the upliftment of the country?”

In today’s Trinidad Express, Fr. Clyde Harvey asks some crucial questions about Trinidad & Tobago’s ability to derive real benefits from its football team’s participation in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Technorati Tags: caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, trinidad + tobago, world cup 2006

In prepping for my TV appearance tonight on blogging in the Caribbean, I came across this posting by Amy Gahran, which I think gives the clearest explanation of blogging I’ve seen to date. I’d read it before, but I’d forgotten how good it was.

I posted at Global Voices this afternoon, and now I’m about to prepare for a television appearance: tonight at 9:30 I’ll be on Lennox Grant’s show on CNC TV talking about blogging in the Caribbean. The one who should really be doing this is Nicholas, who was in fact the one originally asked but who managed to head the ball very slickly over to me (all that blogging about football is giving that fella some dangerous skills).

Can we all agree that Nicholas needs to harness some of the boldness he demonstrates so frequently on his blog and overcome his fear of appearing in front of the camera?

“I’m sitting outside Sunderland Uni’ on the river Wear, Northumberland”

writes CFR listener Justin Benn, who lives in Alnwick (home of Harry Potter’s castle) in Northumberland and is completing his MA in Media Production, Film and Video at Sunderland University. Through CFR, Justin and I also discovered that we have mutual first cousins!

And have you put yourself on CFR’s Frappr map?

Technorati Tags: podcast, t-shirt

A tiny Caribbean nation momentarily forgets its woes as it celebrates its football team’s ascension to the World Cup 2006. In episode #36 Nicholas Laughlin and I go in search of the euphoria–which, as it turns out, isn’t too hard to find. If you’re a fan of blaring car horns, rhythm sections, stream of consciousness, slightly distorted audio and the sounds of a country in the throes of ecstacy, this one’s for you.

Update (7:24pm): I seem to be living a day ahead of myself. Just realised I said in the podcast that the match took place on November 17 and that today is November 18. The match in fact took place on November 16, and today is of course November 17. This means I also mislabelled the audio file, but too late to change that now. Having your national team reach the World Cup can addle your brain.

Update (8:50pm): Did not want to be responsible for any confusion down the road as to the date of the match which took T&T to the World Cup (you never know if this will be the one episode of CFR that gets chosen for inclusion in a time capsule), so I’ve re-recorded the intro with the correct dates. My apologies to early downloaders.

You can listen to this podcast in any of the following ways:
MP3 | Online Player | RSS | Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Links:
Soca Warriors web site | Nicholas’s eyewitness account of yesterday evening | great Flickr photoset by Sanjiva on the happenings in T&T | on the article on Caribbean particpation in the World Cup

Music played on this show:
“Good News” by 3canal from The Best of 3canal

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt or by initiating your Amazon.com purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, Caribbean Free Video, our vidcast, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

Technorati Tags: caribbean, football, music, podcast, soca warriors, soccer, trinidad, trinidad tobago, world cup 2006

Cars went past with their horns blaring, headlights on in broad daylight, flags streaming from windows. People stood on the side of the road waving flags at passing cards, matador style. Little knots of people had formed outside bars or rumshops. And everywhere: smiles.

From Nicholas’s very comprehensive eyewitness account of the post-match revelry in northern Trinidad yesterday. Taran says it was more or less the same in the south, and offers an overview of the buzz in the T&T blogosphere which saves me from having to (thanks, Taran!).

I also have some very bad video which might not even be worth the bandwidth, but I may try and upload the least awful of it after I’m done editing CFR #36.

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago, trinidad + tobago

. . . but was “Tobago” not “fit to print”? Shame that the paper of record couldn’t find the space to include this nation’s actual name in the headline, especially since Dwight Yorke, the captain of the Trinidad & Tobago football team is Tobago-born (not to mention instrumental in the scoring of the only goal in the match that decided it all).

Thanks to Nicholas, football blogger extraordinaire, for the link.

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, new york times, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago

It’s stale news by now, but Trinidad & Tobago is going to the World Cup in Germany next year, the smallest (least populated) country ever to do so (and expect to become really tired of hearing that bit of info repeated over the next several months).

We were all on tenterhooks towards the finish, especially with the chaos at the end. When it was all over I tried to get the three members of my Skype conference radio broadcast — Christiana and Dylan from Washington DC and Ryan from New York, plus Andreas, who joined us at the end from Stockholm (how’s that for Web 2.0?) — to say a few words for the podcast, but people were either speechless or emitting cries of disbelief, and of course Ryan was blogging away.

And if you haven’t yet added yourself to CFR’s Frappr map, please do!

Nicholas, who posted about the match 32 freakin’ times, just called, so I’m stepping out shortly to take it all in.

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago, trinidad + tobago

“Trinidad & Tobago is on the fringe of history. . . “

says one of the television commentators, with only minutes to go before the end of the match. Read more about the history here.

Nicholas is up to post #20!

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago, trinidad + tobago

Ryan Naraine has joined the Skypecast. . .

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago, trinidad + tobago

“did you know that nicholas’s updates are faster than ESPNs, they may try to shut him down soon”

says Dylan Kerrigan via Skype IM.

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago, trinidad + tobago

Just had a request from my buddy Dylan Kerrigan in Washington DC to join my Skype radio broadcast conference, so now he’s on as well.

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago, trinidad + tobago

“. . . . offices across the country have closed so staff can watch the match, & even the Senate has adjourned early today for the sake of senatorial football fans.”

writes Nicholas in a post where he also discusses some of the T&T contingent’s experiences in Bahrain.

And still no sign of him on Skype. . . .

Update (12:30pm): Seems Nicholas won’t be joining the Skype radio broadcast conference after all, since his obviously failing hard drive is giving him beans. Anyone care to donate to Nicholas’s 12″ PowerBook fund? Feel free to click on the Pay Pal Donate button in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: Bahrain, caribbean, football, soca warriors, soccer, sport, trinidad tobago, trinidad + tobago