Blogging in the Caribbean
I love the concept of blogging and I love the reality of blogging. I love reading blogs, sifting through different styles of writing, differing subject matter, differing points of view, sifting, stirring, shaking and crushing ice until you get that perfect mix of daily reading material. One of these good days I'll post up my RSS OPML file for any interested persons. I'm still adding to/deleting from it daily, but it's got some great feeds in it.
OK, to the point: Of particular interest to me are Caribbean bloggers, specifically Caribbean-
based bloggers. We, as a people, have never been particularly into to self-exposure, particularly the type of public, open-to-all comments, wide-spread exposure that blogging is. Even if we aren't discussing our personal lives, we have a general reluctance to discuss our personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and sentiments. It's almost like a regional fright of having "outside" people all up in our business, of being shown up, being examined, poked, prodded, of being.. exposed.
So this is why, when I come across blogs written by West Indians (usually young and tech-savvy), I get so excited. Not all of the writing is Pulitzer-prize worthy (YY sure ain't!), some of the structure and syntax leaves a lot to be desired, and some of the blogs are just plain hard to read and difficult to enjoy. But the most important thing is that they are OUT THERE, that there are Caribbean people discussing their lives, communities, fetes, thoughts, feelings, angst, joys, their work, international affairs, the people next door, even poor, cursed LIAT (allyuh leave LIAT alone!).
Blogging is such a new concept in the Caribbean that - even though it's yesterday's news in the most of the world - there is still the opportunity for West Indian blogging pioneers! So........ to cut to the chase, ole YingityYangity is going to try to start up a lil informal-ish Caribbean webring, linking to blogs and bloggers from across the region. I'll be hunting down as many Cari-blogs as I can find, adding and trading links, and I'm hoping that any of you out there reading this will get on board with me (I know I only have about 2 readers to my blog and one of dem is mi hubby, but say what). Send me your link, share mine if you wish. Leh we see where dis social web-xperiment go go.
Posted by YingYang at 11:01 AM
I can't HELP MYSELF!
It's official. I am freaking
obsessed with Tom Cruise's
KraZee Show!I want MORE! I want to see Brooke Shields' bitch slap him! I want to see Brooke Shields' husband bitch slap him! Oh lawd, I am obsessed, I tell ya!
Posted by Moi at 12:52 PM
... and he mad LONG time!
Whoo boy! There are some
pissed-off mamas on some PPD (post-partum depression) message boards today. Poor Uncle Tommy Cruise. The
bullshit seems to flow freely from his mouth, doesn't it? Can this man even string two words together in a coherent sentence?
Posted by YingYang at 2:36 PM
I am a Good Friend
Amusingly stoopid things on the net....
You Are A Good Friend
|
You're always willing to listen
Or lend a shoulder to cry on
You're there through thick and thin
Many people consider you their 'best friend'! |
Many people consider me their "best friend"? Who ARE these people?
Posted by YingYang at 12:35 PM
The World States
Yay! We will now live in
England II. Along with Puerto Rico. And the Ukraine.
Feel sorry for the Guyanese though.
Posted by Moi at 4:00 PM
... Before I forget
Congratulations to Kioka Cruickshank on her [unsurprising] win on Digicel's Rising Stars on Sunday last. I won't deny her talent, but I also can't deny that I feel Kimberly, my pick, is a better singer and performer.
Admiral dropped a little clue about why Kimberly didn't win when he mentionned that Bajans were not voting for her. How f*cked-up is that?!? It is exactly that "
I doh like she" behaviour that stops us Caribbean people from moving forward.
I tell you, when you see I become prime minister........
Posted by Moi at 2:47 PM
He mad!
By now you must know that Tom Cruise is
in luurrvvvee with D-list actress Katie
"Cold Sore" Holmes.
And now, as if we needed
more proof that Tom Cruise is totally, absolutely nuts, how's about his
Scientology-fuelled
rant against Brooke Shields?
He
MAD ah tell yuh!
Posted by Moi at 1:46 PM
Ordinarily I wouldn't go there but...
I read
this today and it upset me to no end.
I don't care whether the Iraq war is right or wrong. I don't care if the Afghanistan war is right or wrong. I don't care if you hate Bush. I don't care if you love him. I pride myself on being fairly tolerant of others (well, as tolerant as a West Indian can be. Lord knows we are an intolerant, albeit
friendly bunch). But frankly, this
Islam vs Everyone Else shite is really f*cking annoying. To all those Muslims who get hot under the collar at the very thought of someone assaulting the Koran..... a big, sucky STEEUPPSS! All's fair in love and war. Suck it up and deal with it.
After all we don't hear
Christians in the UK rioting and threatening to blow up ... oh.... say... President Musharref in response to those Muslim a-holes who keep kidnapping and beheading people left, right and center in Iraq. Or who keep blowing up nightclubs. Or schools full of children. I dare any Islamic fundamentalist to tell me that they have never desecrated a Bible, or some other Christian (or Hindu, or Jewish, or Hare Krishna) symbol of faith, and done it proudly too. For the cause, y'know.
I'm not going to pontificate on Muslim/Judeo-Christian, Mid-East issues - mainly because I haven't got the time, the inclination, or the writing skills - but crap like this demonstration really annoys the hell out of me. I throw in another
Steeupps and a loud "Bitches, Pulease!" Get a life. Get a mortgage. Get a couple of kids in school. And get a grip.
Posted by Moi at 2:21 PM
Change is good
Just changed around the furniture a little bit.
Oh, and yes I changed the blog's name too.
Posted by Moi at 2:29 PM
Bananarama II
A concise and well-written
look at the ongoing Banana Saga.
QUOTE: Because large companies like Chiquita are able to advance their company’s
prospects at the world policy level, the implications for the small vulnerable
economies are ominous. The only possible solution to this problem is to
establish protective measures and exemptions through the WTO.
____
QUOTE: One of the primary reasons that the Caribbean islands will soon experience
stepped-up suffering is because the U.S. allowed domestic electoral politics and
a dispute with the EU to influence trade policy.
The actors of this dispute did not even allow the Caribbean to enter the theater – much less onto
the stage. How is it possible that small farmers can compete with enormous private corporations? And why would the U.S. have caused such an international ruckus, considering that the Caribbean only constitutes one percent of banana trade worldwide?
Clearly, the U.S. legally got away with launching a unilateral attack on behalf of Chiquita against the EU’s trade policies – all under the guise of bringing its displeasure to a WTO dispute settlement panel.
Posted by YingYang at 10:18 AM
Famous blog writers
I'm always on the look out for blogs written by well-known authors or personalities. As a pop culture junkie I find it fascinating to have that little insight into the mind/thought process of a famous (or infamous) person. After all, as most bloggers will agree, blogs afford their writers the sense of freedom to write and express thoughts that might not see the light of day otherwise. No matter how hard one tries, being totally p.c. is not always the blogger's way. Likewise, we the readers get the opportunity to interact with these folks in a way totally not possible in the "real" world. Where else but online could you literally chat with the most amazing people? Wow!
Some goodies:
Adriana Huffington's much-hyped, much-maligned, communal blog (comblog? multiblog?)
The Huffington Post. I recently subscribed and am still getting used to it. Lots, lots, lots of different styles and contributors.
Mark Cuban - The original
maverick!. Ever wondered what a billionaire blogs about?
RuPaul. The
sexist woman alive!
Actor Jeff Bridges - He is also an artist and his blog is really,
really different. But in a cool way.
Check it out.
Actor Zach Braff (from SCRUBS).
Funny, but in a "real person"-ish way.
Actor Bruce Willis's
web site. Again, surprisingly interesting and varied.
More links when I find them.
________
Oh! Let me not be remiss in congratulating the Caribbean public for finally voting off the CowboyBoy in Digicel's Riding Stars. Predictions for next week? In the YY world, Kimberly wins. The Reality? Kioka snags a recoring contract.
Toodles!
ps: Whoops. Someone remind me to spell check before posting in the future.
Posted by YingYang at 1:53 PM
Rising Stars Pt 2
And to all of you people in the Caribbean who voted, and keep voting for the Droning, Whining Cowboy, a big, fat
EFF YOU!.
I can't believe that we Caribbean people really,
really think this guy sings better than Kellis. Allyuh ent shame allyuh sen' home Kellis? Even Maxi Priest had to say he can't see why Cowboy reach so far in the competition. Of course, that was before the powers-that-be OBVIOUSLY whispered in his ear about how he not supposed to say anything bad about CowboyBoy - by the second round, Maxi was toeing the party line too.
And a bigger, fatter
EFF YOU! to those judges for not having the balls to call the Cowboy out on his horrible, terrible, downright ridiculous, mamaguising howling. Admiral redeems himself a little in my book only because he seemed like it was a herculean effort to keep his thoughts about CowboyBoy to himself.
And furthermore when did Maxi Priest start looking like old, bloated shite? DahAMM! Eurkk.
Posted by YingYang at 11:06 PM
The stars. They are rising. Or setting as the case may be.
I present to you Digicel's
Rising Star Finalists.
Amusingly enough, Digicel's web site has Keva still listed as a finalist even though she was voted off last weekend! IIRC, it's supposed to be Kioka listed there instead. Hey Digicel Webmaster - get it right!
Now, this may be an unpopular opinion but I think
Mr St-Lucia-Cowboy need to go home. Soon. I don't care how many grannies in Choiseil (sp?) or country fans in Petite Martinique like him - he CANNOT SING. At all! Forget that country music is not a West Indian genre. Yes I know a lot of West Indians like country & western, but
really! If the Rising Stars judges can diss our home grown Psycho Bob (wannabe hip-hopper) by telling him that rap is not West Indian (which they did - see the Grenada footage for that embarassing episode), then Mr Sealey needs to cut that stoopid Kenny Rogers imitation crap. He literally makes me cringe with horror everytime I see him with that "lid". *shudder*
Must admit that I'Jeal, the last Grenadian standing, will also have to go. Good effort, but he is simply outclassed by the rest - except the Warbling Cowboy of course. And while we are here, someone's got to tell me what it is with
Admiral and the Grenadian contestants.
Leaving Kellis, Kioka and Kimberly.
Kellis is great. The first song he ever sang, his own original I believe, was the best he ever sounded though. But he has been choosing awfully monotonous songs since then and these have done nothing to highlight his voice, or his style (which is a contemporary reggae-bluesy... sorta...Tracy Chapman-ish...thing).
Kioka is a stunning singer. Whether she wins or not, she will definetly have a future in the industry. One drawback? I think her "style" is R&B-ish, more Mariah Carey meets Whitney Houston type thingy. I am not sure of her abilty to handle a different type of music, but we'll see this Sunday, as they are supposed to be singing outside of their genre. Whoo.. should be good.
Kimberly. My girl. I love this girl's voice, despite Judge Admiral's repeated complaints about her voice theatrics (isn't that what singing is about?
Whatever, Admiral). And her choice of songs has shown that she can handle different types of music and different styles. But, and there is a terrible but.... I think she is not attractive. I'm not being looks-intolerant, it's just that she has the type of features that, if not kept immaculately groomed, can start down the slippery slope to untold butt-uglyness. If she wins, and I really think she will, she's got to have a great stylist. Apart from that looks-ism, I love the way she performs, I love the way she sounds, and she nearly, nearly,
nearly, managed to unblock my blocked ear. Mah Girl!
FYI, Ayana and Keva, both since voted off, were always my favorites. The uniqueness of Keva's voice is exciting and I hope she does continue singing. Ayana benefits from my neverending soft spot for Short-Hair, Half-Coolie Girls (being one myself). And I thought she wasn't half bad either; she performed well.
As for dem judges.... Gruv Master is cool. I like that he isn't rude and nasty, but he does need to be a bit more, how shall we say, critical. Admiral? Hmmph. Well. He has some of the oddest comments and his attitude to certain contestants is downright offputting. As I said before,
Whatever, Admiral! Madam TC now - hah! I hadn't put 2 and 2 together to figure out who she was until GBN, showing off their total lack of filler programming one day, featured a clip of some concert in Barbados with none other than TC singing. You could have knocked me over with a feather. The most outspoken critic of those poor young rising stars, who always seemed to reserve a special vitriol for the better female singers, is none other than Ms
Who-de-Hell-Is-Kim? What-Stupidness-You-Talking? WTF? Any credibility she might have had in my eyes went swirling down the drain once I realised who she was. Bitch, puleeez! I don't care how many times you sang with Dionne Warwick or whoever, you are still responsible for that idiot song
Kim. Bleurrk.
So folks, tune in on Saturday when I'Jeal is voted off and Admiral gets zapped by a ray of united hate beamed in from Grenada.
Toodles!
Posted by YingYang at 12:59 PM
Touching Base
I am still sick. Yes, I am. A week and a 1/2 later I am battling an adult version of an ear infection. Well, I
think it is an ear infection..... My right ear has been blocked up for a week; I can't hear anything with it and so help me I can't get it unblocked. No amount of faux-yawning, holding my nose and blowing so hard that my OTHER ear drum nearly ruptures, nor even some left-over from 6 months ago meds seem to be working.
Mr YY says go to the doctor. Rigghhhtt... I'll pass on that for now. My last visit to the doctor with Toddler YY resulted in a
$300 pharmacy bill. Talk about nearly having heart failure... I thought I had heard wrong. Hence my question of the pharmacist "Three hundred what?"
Pharmacist: "Three hundred dollars."
YY: "For what?"
Pharmacist: *sigh* "For the prescription."
YY: *reeling/ears buzzing* "Prescription? Wha?
Three hundred? Three
hundred?"
Of course I had to buy Toddler YY's drugs, otherwise what kind of mother would I be. But holy crap!
....Come to think of it, that's probably when my ear first blocked up.
Posted by YingYang at 12:39 PM
