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

This episode takes you behind the scenes of a music video shoot for rapso artist Ataklan’s “Shadow in the Dark”. Listen in as I rove the streets of Trinidad annoying the crew with endless queries as to “Where to next?” and “What’s the plan?”, talk to street vendors, babble on about various topics and basically get underfoot during this freewheeling exercise in budget-free filmmaking.

The background music for this episode was produced in record time by the versatile C*POP.

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

Links:
Vote for Caribbean Free Radio at Podcast Alley. Help us make the Top 50 this month! | Tortuga Rum Company - makers of the world-famous Tortuga Rum Cakes. Order yours online today! | Caribbean Free Photo - CFR’s photoblog | Treat yourself to a CFR t-shirt!

Technorati Tags: soundseeing, caribbean, podcast, rapso, caribbean+music, trinidad, street+life, filmmaking, video

In this special edition of Caribbean Free Radio, the intrepid and erudite Nicholas Laughlin, last heard on CFR’s soundseeing tour of Mount St Benedict, takes us on a visit to the burial site of poet W. B. Yeats in the village of Drumcliff in Sligo, Ireland.

As this isn’t a Caribbean subject, I didn’t want to risk upsetting subscribers by enclosing the audio file, so please listen instead via our Online Player or download/stream from this link. It should also be available soon at Soundseeingtours.com.

In this episode Bruno Gréaux, the Harbourmaster of Gustavia, the capital of St. Barts, takes me on a tour of his domain.

Photos from the tour are viewable here.

You can listen to this podcast in any of the following ways:
MP3 | Online Player | RSS Feed

Links:
Tortuga Rum Company - our sponsor and makers of the world-famous Tortuga Rum Cakes. Order yours online today! | St. Barth Film Festival | St. Barts Insider’s Guide | Vote for CFR at Podcast Alley

Music played in this podcast:
parlémusik.com - élan parlé’s web site |

Technorati Tags: stbarts, stbarth, harbour, harbor, sailing, podcast, caribbean, caribbeanfreeradio

In which I tour the section of Port of Spain destroyed by fire on April 9, 2005 in the company of architect Mark Franco, and ponder the past, present and future of Trinidad and Tobago’s capital city.

Click here to see photos of the area both during and after the incident. Thanks to Horace Ové for the “during” photos.

You can listen to this podcast in any of the following ways:

You can listen to this podcast in any of the following ways:
MP3 | Online Player | RSS Feed

Links:
Tortuga Rum Company - our sponsor and makers of the world-famous Tortuga Rum Cakes. Order yours online today! | map of Port of Spain | Wikipedia entry for Port of Spain | Vote for CFR at Podcast Alley

Music played in this podcast:
Growling’s Tiger’s “When I Dead Bury Me Clothes” - free download at Amazon.com, from the CD Knockdown Calypsos | Lionel Belasco’s “Roses of Caracas Waltz” - free download at Amazon.com, from the CD Goodnight Ladies and Gents: The Creole Music of Lionel Belasco | Johnny King’s “Wet Me Down” - free download at Amazon.com, from the CD Heat in De Place: Soca from Trinidad

Technorati Tags: Trinidad, cities, architecture, portofspain, podcast, soundseeing, soundeseeingtour, caribbean, caribbeanfreeradio, caribbeanhistory, history

I’ve re-encoded Podcast #6 to make it slightly leaner and easier on the bandwidth. It’s CFR’s first soundseeing tour, so do take a listen:

- as an MP3: simply click to stream in your browser, or right-click and save to download the file to your computer

- using our nifty Online Player, which allows you to play the latest podcast as well as several of the previous ones

And while you’re at it you’ll want to take a look at the blog of Nicholas, who was my erudite guest on this podcast.

It’s not only a film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren–it’s also CFR’s first soundseeing tour! A bit of a departure from previous ‘casts, in which I inveigle my pal Nicholas to join me on a Good Friday trip up to Mount St. Benedict for tea, and in the process showcase my ignorance of numerous things, including Catholicism, corbeaux and talipot palms. 42 minutes long, so do bear with us.

You can listen to it in any of the following ways:

- as an MP3: simply click to stream in your browser, or right-click and save to download the file to your computer

- using our nifty Online Player, which allows you to play the latest podcast as well as several of the previous ones

Subscribe to/syndicate this feed by copying this link or the link on the “XML” icon above. You’ll then need to paste the link into a software program called an RSS aggregator–iPodder is decent one, not to mention free. Once you subscribe, audio feeds can be downloaded automatically or according to a schedule determined by you. Read more about RSS syndication here.

Links:
Nicholas’s blog - A must-read, especially since he features an excerpt from the Evelyn Waugh book we mention in the podcast
Evelyn Waugh’s Ninety-two Days (Penguin Travel Library) at Amazon.com
Pax Guest House at Mount St. Benedict - where we had tea
The music featured in this podcast was composed by Elspeth Duncan and used with the permission of the artist

If you’ve enjoyed this or any of our other podcasts, please VOTE for CFR at Podcast Alley

Technorati Tags: caribbean, Trinidad, caribbeanfreeradio, soundseeing, soundseeingtour, podcast, monastery, mountstbenedict, paxguesthouse, nicholaslaughlin, evelynwaugh