The 'Art Beat of Humanity - REGGAE

Reggae is the greatest thing to have happened to music. The beauty and magnificence of this art form is unrivaled by any other creation, whether audio or visual.

Since the beginning of time there was art. When God created the masterpiece that is earth, He referred to it as good and was pleased. Since then a large number of artist who are nothing short of genius have walked the earth leaving behind pieces that are absolutely magnificent. But none as brilliant as Reggae.

The music has the ability to reach persons from every culture and background. It not only captivates the ear, but the mind, body and enchants your very soul. The brilliant works of great reggae composers such as; the bizarre Lee Scratch Perry; Winston Holness ; the gifted Sly and Robbie; and the godfather of it all Donovan "Don Corleone" Bennett have all immortalize the music.

The greatest reggae producer/composer of all times, Don Corleone, with his slew of simply magical 'riddims', has taken reggae to a divine level. His music is worthy of the gods' audience and is earthly incomparable.

The brilliance, sophistication, talent and relevance of the King himself, Robert (Bob) Nester Marley, is the greatest the world has ever seen. Despite the millions of dollars in the marketing of artist from richer countries and decades, they have been incapable of surpassing, The Legend that is Bob Marley.

The defiance of superstars such a the Gargamel- Mark 'Buju Banton ' Myrie, and the unnatural talent of Miguel "Sizzla Kalonji" Collins captures and creates new fans almost daily across the globe. Contemporary female vocalists such as; the angelic Alaine Laughton; the lovely Tami and her soulful sister Tessanne Chin; the brilliant Tanya Stevens and the refreshing Cherine Anderson adds diversity and heart to the music.

Reggae is the heart beat of our society today. It is currently attracting artist from varying cultures and countries. Three of the most famous being Tilmann 'Gentleman' Otto from Germany, Lucky Philip Dube from South Africa and Delyno 'Pressure' Brown from the Virgin Islands.

Despite this, reggae will never be taken away from its Jamaican roots. Reggae is synonymous with Jamaica. It is the sentiments of some Jamaicans that we are allowing foreigners to take the music from us, but like Bob once said, the music is for everyone to enjoy. It is our gift to the world and we should never be worried when the begin to accept it.

The fact is, nobody can make reggae like Jamaicans. This is reinforced by the emergence of artist such as Cliffroy 'IWayne' Taylor, Siccature 'Jah Cure' Alcock, Omar 'Tarrus' Riley and rising star's Christopher Martin. Further to this are the veterans amongst us today too much and too great in their own rights to single out any one.

Bill Laswell once said, "Reggae has a kind of floating and trance quality which lends itself to being expanded more than a lot of other music." but to really understand how great Reggae really is, I'll close with a quote from His Royal Highness Robert Nester Marley:

" My music will go on forever. Maybe it's a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever."

WE ARE TOO TRIGGER HAPPY Pt. 1

trig·ger-hap·py (trig'er-hap'e)

adj. Slang'

1. Having a tendency or desire to shoot a firearm before adequately identifying the target.

2. Inclined to react violently at the slightest provocation. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trigger-happy)

Having adequately defined the term trigger happy i will now give an example NOEL HUNTER, 50, building contractor of Portmore, St. Catherine.

For those of you who a among the majority who refuse to listen the news, or the even greater majority who refuse to (or are unable to) read anything sold for $25 and printed in black and white, I will start with a debrief.

"The allegations are that last week Saturday, Hunter was driving along Chisolm Avenue when a man of unsound mind threw a stone at his motor car.

It is further alleged that during a between Hunter and the man of unsound mind, Hunter fired a shot from his licensed firearm which struck Brown who was nearby." (http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070726/news/news10.html)

It is beyond my obviously insufficient comprehension why on earth some firearm holders feel the intense urge to respond to the simplest of incidents by exposing their weapons. I was deeply upset and saddened at the story above, to the point where it took me a few news reports to believe it.

But as usually before you throw a stone, lets examine ourselves. We as Jamaicans are clearly too easily angered and TRIGGER HAPPY. And I said 'we' deliberately as I believe so am I.

Having heard the story, I immediately hurled my condemnation on the shooter (and I still do). Over the last few days, however, I realize that we all suffer from a serious level of 'Trigger-happy-ism'. We retaliate for the simplest of reasons and would use any available weapon to show our disgust at individuals. How many times have we been "bad drive-n" by a 'man pon di road' and given the opportunity we 'bad drive him back'. Or, how many times have someone stepped on our toe and instead of a peaceful response, we slap then as hard as we can with whatever object we can find. Most footballers in Jamaica would savagely tackle another player who he (or she) believes has just 'tackled him too hard.

Personally, I hate went people step 'pon' my shoes without apologizing. I believe even Hitler would be amazed and the things I would have done to the culprit given the chance.

The sad truth is, on many occasions, most of us would have shot at the man for less than what Mr. Hunter did. In our retaliations, we may have been fortunate enough to either have hit our target, or missed all together. But while we are hurling our attacks at Mr. Hunter (and justifiably so), let us use this as a lesson to put the safety on our weapons and remember that "a soft answer turneth away rath..."

FIWI TOP 5 REGGAE ARTIST OF THE MONTH

1. ALAINE


2. TARUS RILEY

3. TAMI CHIN

4. PRESSURE

5. CHRISTOPHER MARTIN

FIWI TOP 10 REGGAE MUSIC

1. She's Royal - Tarrus Riley
2.Over and Over Again- Tami Chin
3. Stab Vampire - I Octane
4. Sacrifice- Alaine
5. Love and Affection- Pressure
6. Take my wings - Christopher Martin
7. (left blank on special request of the Prime Minister)
8. Rise- Alaine
9. Missing you a lot - Vybz Kartel
10. Mind Control- Stephen Marley

IS IT REALY PORTIA'S HOLE HIM A TALK?

OK, once again I have failed to keep politics off my blog but this is hilarious.

Having arrived home from a long day of work on Wednesday (these damn Wednesday's-read American Embassy) I was shocked to hear politicians talking about our "silent sleeping" Prime Minster's "HOLE."

To my amazement, I saw a veteran MP, defending what in my opinion was anything but an innocent statement made about PORTIA'S HOLE.

But I will curb my opinions and leave it to you. Please take two minutes (and no more cause mi blog have limited space) to let me know what you think about Pernell Charles's statement about PORTIA'S HOLE.

I however request that you keep it clean and Old time Jamaican (dat mean u must make it PG 13)

THE AMERICAN EMBASSY-Serves us right

First off let me say the following is based purely on an emotional point of view and not on anything legal, constitutional or anything that is to be interpreted as terrorism or treason.

On one gloriously sunny Monday morning I was passing by Liguanea when I noticed a huge development underway. Subsequent investigations, indicated that the building being erected was to be the home of the new United States of America's Embassy. Now, having been a long time activist for some decent treatment of hard working Jamaicans attempting to obtain a visa for entry in the great USA, I was proud to see a building of this size being constructed. Finally, we can wait inside like respectable people waiting to go to a respectable country.

The days flew by so quickly and the ravishingly exquisite building was finally opened for , well, applications.

Then one not so glorious Wednesday morning, I passed this over sized, shocking colour place wid some people standing outside like them in welfare line in front of a massive wall with two little holes apparently the gates. I stopped. After fifteen seconds it hit me. This was the same building I passed a few months before. My initial reaction was, disbelief, but then I decided you know what serves us RIGHT.

It pains me to know that Jamaicans get treated like animals or beggars when we want to go to the US and we still subject ourself to the torture of standing in these welfare lines and being properly burnt by the sun, then being placed through a painfully insulting and condescending interview for what really boils down to a coins flip chance of us getting a VISA.

I sometimes laugh my heart out when folks try to put on an American accent to pretend to be better off in the vain attempt to equate the fact that they have traveled to a higher social echelon. However, when I hear someone "erring" and "oh man-ing" I feel a deep sense of apathy and pity. I even cannot bring my self to laugh at some. I know the pain they must have felt in their attempt to travel. Standing there staring a white man/woman in the eyes who asks you the most ridiculous of questions and expects you to answer with some level of intelligence. And then there are those sadistic persons who repeatedly visit after being told, sorry we cant grant you a visa - come again next month where we do it all over again....lol and bring a friend.

Seriously, while the land of opportunity is so alluring and captivating to the masses, and seem to be the backyard of every uptown Jamaican, can we stop for a second and consider "is it worth it?". Is it worth been dehumanized and treated like "crebe crebe" in order to to board a plane to be further strip searched and labeled as a weed smoking native of the crime capital?

Did Portia Talk in her sleep?

It was actually my brethren Blairafon who encourage me to do this blog ting as a idle hobby. I decided that I will stay our of Religion and Politics and try not to make this anything pornographic. I mean I am too talented for that, and you're looking for something mentally stimulating and intelligent (if not I suggest you visit another blog.)

However, the other night when I listened to our esteemed Prime Minster deliver her speech, I was rolling flat on the ground and by the time she reached the part about not talking in her sleep I swear I nearly dead. The things our Politicians say on stage are mind boggling. If i were a foreigner, I would think we are a bunch of comedians. I mean, on one hand we have a self proclaimed bus driver who wants to be the head of government and on the other hand we have a woman who claims to be good at keep a secret by not talking in her sleep.

Now, its been a while since Dan Brown wrote a book. But I am sure if he is following our election we are bound to have a sequel to the Da Vinci Code and I bet you the next lotto Jack Pot that he would call it "Portia's Code". Maybe he is waiting on it to be his seventh book lol.

Do you think he talks in his sleep?

BUS AND TAXI DRIVAS pt. 1

Let me begin by noting that as a commuter who in the not so distant past was heavily dependent on our 'public transport system', the following can be considered factual and based on first hand experience.

There clearly is something unnaturally amazing and exciting about our bus and taxi 'drivas'. On a daily basis they never fail to amaze the ignorant law abiding driver who unwittingly adhere to the comically simple road codes. The bus drivers repeatably remind us that stopping at a stop sign is a luxury for those who have too much time on their hands and clearly 'no have no whey ago'.

The out of this world skill and clairvoyance of our drives would stun even the most sacrilegious obeah man as our drivers have the unparalleled ability to not only see around a blind corner, but masterfully overtake around one. The dexterity displayed in the middle of what in other countries would be termed a 'traffic Jam', is literally mind blowing. Its always 'jaw dropping" to see a red plate oozing through a packed Main street or Hope Road at peak hours or properly packed minibus gliding through the traffic on Mandela.

And if that doesn't convince you of the incomparable talent of our 'drivas' wait till him comment on your driving. They have the nicest way of reminding you that having taken the driving test and pasted was a waste of time and energy.

A word of caution, if you see a red plate pull up beside you, SLOW DOWN.