To play Mas, or not to play Mas?

Trinidad Carnival is upon us. And yes, ladies and gents…i am going. Finally! I have wanted to go to Trinidad Carnival ever since I went to my very first carnival back in 1994 on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. My dear friend Tamara, a Trini, was the first to tell me that Trinidad’s Carnival is THE BEST Carnival in the world. 16 years later, I’ve received nothing but confirmation about this fact. My appetite for baccanal came in 2007 when I made my first visit to Trinidad. I rung in the new year on the streets of Marabella, where Mango fell from the tree in front of the house where I was staying on Jack street. After soaking up the sun in Tobago,and eating nuff doubles, I spent my last night at Fire Fete – one of the early pre-carnival celebrations. And … W-o-W! Hands down THE BEST party I have ever been to in my life. Ever. The spirit of carnival – the pride and honor of unity – and mind you, the party was thrown by the national fire department. The police department has its party, as does EMS. Can you imagine getting down with the NYPD? I most definitely cannot. That was my official introduction to “love for country”.

But more importantly, there are fabulous costumes:

So many options. So much freedom, flyness and sexuality. I’m all the way in. But i need a little help getting my ish together. Most bloggers say I’m way late in my preparations. They must not know how efficient a producer I am.

I found a great site to help me prepare for Trinidad Carnival. It’s a science. It’s a culture. It’s very serious.
AfroBella also has some great resources on how to do Carnival properly – which I have every intention of doing.

I will be showing off.

Stay tuned…

Yinka Shonibare, MBE

I had the pleasure of viewing the Yinka Shonibare exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum before the exhibit’s closing. A truly multi-media artist he is. Painting, sculpture, video, fashion, photography, dance…he’s not afraid to express freely, not allowing limitations of any noticeable kind. Mostly, the thing that impressed me was that he treated each work of video art with as much care and consideration one would give to a traditional painting. He inspired me and made me laugh hysterically.

For all my Beyonce fans and my Sims fans out there…this one is only for you

Flying

so, wack wordpress won’t allow me to embedd this vimeo. but you should click the link and watch this. trust me.

Wingsuit loic jean albert and friends , Amazing flight… from Xmicky on Vimeo.

wingsuits. i want one. i need one. i got next.

Kids, sing along!

It’s a beautiful day to be Allison!
It’s a wonderful day to be Allison!
I just LOVE being Allison!
And I hope you love being YOU!

The 6

Just now coming home from the Boogie-down-Bronx, on the 6 – I was sitting amidst a group of teenagers who had apparently just come from some type of formalized dance-off activity, as they kept commenting about how they “smoked ‘im” and replayed the sit-down versions of some of the nice moves they saw involving sneakers and swift leg movements and humor, joking about music selections and giving lots of honors to “that Connecticut shit” (whatever that means).

For those of you who haven’t experienced the 6 train in the Bronx, let me break down the dynamics: it’s a very communal ride. Any and everyone can easily slip in and out of conversation with other passengers whether or not there is any relation. Case in point, after enough time passed, I gave up pretending not to be entertained by the conversation these teens were having as I chomped on my Hershey’s bar with almonds (they were all out of symphony). One of the more animated of the bunch pulled out a snack from his pocket, chewed it for a couple of seconds, then walked to the opening subway car door to spit this snack inbetween the train and the platform (that dangerous zone – pointy-toed shoe wearers beware!)
The snack, it turns out, was chocolate flavored gum. According to the look of putrid disgust on the faces of these youngsters, it is pretty damn gross. I won’t be trying it. The farthest chewy-chocolatey goodness I’ll be indulging in is a tootsie-roll. They’ve been up there on my candy hierarchy since the 80s.
Anyway, shorty must’ve peeped my look of confusion after witnessing him spit out something brown. He shows me the packaging, telling me “it’s chocolate gum”. He points to my Hershey’s bar and says “it’s kinda like that, but then the after taste (ewww face)”!

We exchanged a few more words and smiles and laughter. Even a raised eyebrow at some inappropriate behavior at the other end of the car. We all got of at 125th street. No goodbyes necessary – the embrace is in spirit form. The 6.