Carnival

It's Carnival season! You know what that means! Wild parties, lots of drinking, half naked women (or the occasional half naked man :P) dancing through the streets and sex.

Fun huh?

Carnival's not really my thing... at all. It's a bit too crazy and it's nothing like it originally was (before my time). Apparently there used to be this funny little thing involved in Carnival, a long time ago. It's called...hmm... ah yes... CULTURE. Buy hey, who am I to complain right? I mean Carnival it what puts Trinidad and Tobago n the map! Plane-loads of insane foreigners eager for the wildness. What happens in Trinidad, stays in Trinidad after all.

Components of Carnival:

- Parade costumes (no not the fun cute marching band parades) - As prices go up materials go down, to the point where you're paying thousands of dollars to dance in the streets wearing nothing but a sparkly version of a bra and panties or a pair of shorts for the guys. These are usually picked up by the vagrants around the capital who seem to have their own parade  going on after Carnival. Don't ask me how those get on the streets - you'd think with that little clothing you'd at least try to keep it on :P

-Music - The traditional Calypso music has in recent times ben replaced by the fast paced, jumbled nonsense called Soca. I mean why would you listen to social commentary in the form of song when you can listen to the nonsensical ramblings of 'singers' who seem to have nothing in their vocabulary except - bumper, whine, flag, wave, jump and 'hand in de' air!'
But we can't forget the Chutney Music. Don't ask me what the  indian community was thinking when they invented this - probably about rum, seeing as it's the main focus of most of the songs. And there is almost always a subtextual meaning to the songs. Here is one that is not about rum but definitely has a subtextual meaning.

So my plan for this Carnival is to hide away in Freeport with some relatives. We'll just hang out and tell jokes etc. We always have a good time...