Friday, March 29, 2019
art books film fashion music history animals puzzles food
Weekend
OUT TO BRUNCH Page 8 & 9
A touch of the feminine Women artists in the spotlight
pages 14 & 15
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Friday, March 29, 2019
music
An ‘edu-taining’ music lesson Pianist turns history into an adventure
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celebration of music, arts and “edu-tainment” was the result of Dion Cunningham’s “Adventures in the Arts: Act II” performance at Christ Community Church earlier this month. A doctoral candidate, Dion has travelled the world in his quest to master the art of performance piano. He debuted his “Adventures in the Arts” in 2016 as a solo performance, schoolonly event. This year, he decided to revamp the concept to also feature soprano singer Chara Miller, visual artist Allan Pachino Wallace, and international dancers Daphne Lee, of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Jared Brunson, of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. On Thursday, March 7, more than 300 students from both private and public schools attended the premiere of “Adventures in the Arts: Act II”, which included classical and Baroque music, as well as tunes from video games and movie favourites such as “Harry Potter” and Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” Then, March 8-9, the general public were given an entertaining musical history lesson with selections from Bach, Mozart and Kapustin, as well as Koji Kondo, who composed the soundtracks of popular video games such as Nintendo’s Zelda and Super Mario. The audience enjoyed a mix of piano music, dance, live art and song as they learned more about each composer and their musical era. “Adventures in the Arts” seeks to entertain and educate Bahamians interested in creating a future with in the arts both locally and internationally. It is Dion’s hope to use his career as a performer an educator to inspire those from “non-traditional” backgrounds to pursue careers in music. He believes that music has immense power to bring about the positive change we need in our communities by promoting mutual understanding of things that connect us as human beings.
Dion Cunningham gives a fun history lesson on famous composers.
Dion Cunningham performs selections from “Super Mario World” composed by Nintendo’s Koji Kondo.
School children are excited for “Adventures in the Arts: Act II”.
Allan Pachino Wallace’s live art Daphne Lee of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and Jared Brunson of Complexions Contemporary Ballet perform to Dion Cunningham’s live piano rendition of “Grand Pas De Deux” from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker”.
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Friday, March 29, 2019
Inside Weekend Interview 4-5 Opera singer JoAnn Callender celebrates life after breast cancer with a new inspirational book Entertainment 7 A comedic farewell to a valued St Andrew’s faculty member featuring “America’s Funniest Teacher” Food 8 - 9 The Cove’s Mosaic reimagines brunch with a revamped menu Music 10 Bahamian rapper on the verge of singing with major US music label Art 12 - 15 Zonta puts the spotlight on female artists, plus Doongalik prepares for Transforming Spaces 2019 Film 17 Disney’s ‘Dumbo’ remake takes flight on its own charms Gardening 19 Jack Hardy on peppers of all varieties Forgotten Facts 20 - 21 The truth behind a man named ‘Shirley’ Literary Lives 22 - 23 A mail girl works her way up to a filmmaker of beloved rom-coms Books 24 - 25 A thriller like a popcorn movie in print, plus new releases hitting shelves this week Puzzles 26 Animals 27 An early morning conversation, plus Pet of the Week
Cover photo | Art by Philece Roberts
My perfect Bahamian weekend Leola Williams Miss Bahamas Regency International 2019 Q: Saturday lunch or Sunday brunch? “Saturday brunch, because it is a great time to spend with the family. I especially love spending time with my sister and nephew.” Q: Wine, rum, cocktail or Kalik? “Mocktails. I don’t drink alcohol, but I love mixed fruit juices.” Q: Beach or sofa? “The beach. I think it is so peaceful and calming. I love the outdoors.”
Q: What is the one thing that you can’t live without? “My Bible. I am a Christian and I feel that reading my Bible brings me closer to understanding God’s purpose for all of our lives.” Q: Weekend away, where would you go? “This year I am travelling to Las Vegas for a work experience, which is much anticipated trip.”
Things 2 Do this weekend Friday
• Solomon’s Fresh Market Wine, Cheese and Specialty Foods Charity Event Time: 6pm - 9pm Venue: Harbour Bay For a donation of $25, enjoy specialty wines, cheeses and other foods. All proceeds go to the Zonta Club of Nassau. • QC High School presents “The Tempest” Time: 7.30pm (additional performance on Saturday) Venue: Geoffrey Brown Auditorium Queen’s College high schoolers present their take on Shakespeare’s comedy about a major act of betrayal, ill treatment, the development of magic arts and a plot of revenge. • Spoken Spectrums Time: 7.30pm - 10pm Venue: National Art Gallery Parents of students from the Centre for Autism at Garvin Tynes Primary School are hosting a night of poetry, music and art. Tickets are $20.
Saturday
• Fiesta 2019 Time: 11am - 6pm Venue: Kingsway Academy
Enjoy family time, with lots of fun, entertainment and food. Admission is $1. • The Wines of California Time: 11am - 2pm Venue: 1er Cru, Gladstone Road Join resident wine experts Rusty Scates and Kyle Stubbs as they explore the California wine country. Tickets are $50. • Rhythms and Brews – Beer Fest Bahamas 2019 Time: 12noon - 2am (continues on Sunday) Venue: Botanical Gardens Sample a large collection of beers from around the world and local brews. There will also be beer related competitions, games and even arts and crafts. Sing along with beer themed songs and enjoy live entertainment by bands and Junkanoo groups. • Buju Banton’s “Long Walk To Freedom” concert Time: 6pm - 3am Venue: Thomas A Robinson National Stadium Reggae’s superstar returns to Nassau for the next stop of his first tour in over a decade. • An Evening at the Races Time: 6pm Venue: Old Fort Bay
The Cancer Society of the Bahamas is hosting at special type of fundraiser. Cocktails start at 6pm, the horse races at 7.30pm. Smart attire and hats or fascinators are required. Tickets are $150. • Nassau Night Market Time: 6pm - midnight Venue: Market Slope (next to the Straw Market) A downtown street festival featuring food trucks, artisan crafts, specialty drinks and street performers. • The Kinky Project Time: 7pm Venue: Incudesk, Chesapeake Road T Glinton Photography has been highlighting the beauty of natural hair for several years now. Come and view the latest additions to the series.
Sunday
• The Geek Out: Movies and Video Games Time: 5pm - 9pm Venue: Incudesk, Chesapeake Road “Smash Bros Battle Royale”, “Let’s Talk Anime”, followed by “The Way of the Dragon” screening. Cosplay as your favourite character and meet like-minded people. Enjoy free popcorn and meet people who’ve travelled to Japan.
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Friday, March 29, 2019
interview
PHOTOS/BARRY WILLIAMS
With the help of poetry and music, this soprano singer not only survived, but triumphed over breast cancer. She tells CaraHuntwhy she kept her diagnosis a secret at first and what surprised her about the battle with the disease.
JoAnn Callender
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usic has always played a major role in JoAnn Callender’s life. As an opera singer she has performed on some of the world’s biggest and prestigious stages. However, music has also helped the soprano overcome one of the greatest challenges of her life – a breast cancer
diagnosis that would lead to a double mastectomy and the realisation that even the deepest scars can be beautiful. And now, JoAnn has released her new book, “Breastless Beauty”, a book of poetry, photos and prose. It includes her reflections on her battle with cancer, accepting her new body, and learning how to be at peace with a difficult situation.
The book is a tribute to all the amazing women who have fought this fight and survived – including her daughter Jody, a fellow breast cancer survivor – and the beautiful souls who have passed on to the sunset but still cheer on the survivors from beyond, she explained. In writing the book, JoAnn said that she also wanted to share a more
hopeful side of cancer, to encourage the warriors who continue their fight and to help their loved ones know what to say and how to help them. “Hope is a welcomed gift,” she said. “I don’t like calling it the ‘Big C’, to me it is a little ‘c’.” The book features professional shots of her body photographed by Barry
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Friday, March 29, 2019
Williams and her bald head painted by Italia Williams. JoAnn was diagnosed with breast cancer on January 11, 2014, and underwent a double mastectomy less than two months later on March 1, followed by four rounds of chemotherapy between June and August and radiation for five days a week for five weeks between October and November of that year. However, she never once let the diagnosis or treatment bring her down. Instead, she decided to remain hopeful and confident through it all. “When I was going through my chemotherapy I never reacted to my sickness in a negative way,” she said. “I didn’t read about statistics or prognoses. I only chose to tell a handful of persons that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer because I didn’t want to have any negativity surrounding me. I never acted like I was sick. In fact, when one of my friends came to visit me in hospital after my mastectomy she thought that I had not had the surgery yet, because I was sitting in bed with my lipstick and eyeliner on because I wanted to look a certain way,” she told Tribune Weekend. “When I went to pay for my port (the small disc inserted into a patient for chemotherapy treatment), Charlene McPhee of Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group prayed with me and then said, ‘I told an athlete with breast cancer to run your way through this and I am going to tell you to sing your way through this’.” It is advice Joanne listened to. Ten weeks after her surgery, she was back on stage, performing with the surgical pumps still in. “No one knew that I had had this surgery. I hid it by adding ruffles to my clothing,” she said. As she underwent the painful process of radiation, JoAnn realised that instead of focusing on the sounds of the machine that was killing her off cancer cells, she could use its beats to compose music in mind. “I would compose music during the treatment, and so instead of dreading going to radiation, I would look forward to what music I would create when I was there. I had heard that if you have a negative message, wrap it in art. Being positive is just as important as the medical treatment,” she explained. JoAnn also had to adjust to the changes in her body, namely the loss of two significant features that
“I would compose music during the treatment, and so instead of dreading going to radiation, I would look forward to what music I would create when I was there.”
The official cover of JoAnn Callender’s new book.
traditionally define womanhood – her hair and her breasts. “I knew that when I had chemotherapy that I would lose my hair. Every night I would plait my hair and cut some off. The sound of you hair popping out is something that you will never forget. I was prepared for that, I knew it was coming. What I was not prepared for was that you lose all of your hair – your eyelashes, even the hair in your nose, which was the bigger shock for me. The hair in your nose helps to keep bacteria and germs out, which is why they ask you to avoid going out without a mask so you don’t get sick. You think about the big things, but it’s the small things like losing the hair in your nose that you don’t think about.” In one section of the book JoAnn writes about living with baldness. In a selection called “Holding Two Bottles in My Hand”, she says: “My head is really bald… I am alone in the bathtub perplexed, I laugh at my self as I look down at the...two bottles I’m holding in my hand, waiting patiently for logic and the voice of reason to conclude their discussion: body wash or shampoo?” She also recalls the first time performing after her surgery as she continued to adjust to living without her breasts: “I’m used to having you on stage with me, filling me up, my beautiful dresses, and cooperating with each breath I take … song after song, you’ve always made the woman in me feel stronger and you’ve been more than just a nutritional aid for the child I bore and a soft spot for my lover...I sang well… but you were not with me and I missed you, really missed you – for the very first time.” The book chronicles how she learned to accept these losses; the realisation that a lack of breasts meant that her loved ones could lay their heads directly on her chest and be closer to her heart beat. After losing her hair, she also realised that, unlike her mother used to tease her, she did not have a big head. “Breastless Beauty” paints a picture of a woman who overcame a devastating diagnosis and learned just how strong and beautiful she was in the process. JoAnn will be signing copies of her book on Wednesday, 5pm-7pm, at the Aliv office at Old Fort Bay. $5 from every book sold will be donated to the Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group.
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Friday, March 29, 2019
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Friday, March 29, 2019
entertainment
A comedic farewell to valued St Andrew’s faculty member By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features Reporter | acadet@tribunemedia.net
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ll those in need of a good laugh are in luck, as the St Andrew’s International School’s Fundraising Committee is set to present “A Night of Comedy and Roast of Peter Wilson” next Saturday. This show is extra special for the school as they are bidding farewell – in the most comical way ever – to faculty member Peter Wilson, Director of Co-Curricular and Student Leadership, Physical Education at the St Andrew’s. “At St Andrew’s we’re always thinking of new ways to be creative, innovative, be risk takers and (take) a new approach to fundraising, as well as honour Mr Wilson and his farewell to the school. The proceeds from this event will be (go) to the construction of new bathrooms/changing rooms by the pool. This is quite fitting, as Mr Wilson has spent 24 years shaping our sporting programme into what it is today,” said Kaynell Ritchie, co-chair of the school’s fundraising committee. The comedy show will take place on Saturday, April 6, at 7pm on the school grounds. It will feature comedians Mike Rivera, Frankie Paul and St Andrew’s alumnus Naughty. Highlights will also include cocktails, food and music by deejay Baby D. Ms Ritchie said audiences may know Mike Rivera from the ABC talk show “The View”. The comedian has also been voted “America’s Funniest Teacher”, and has toured with Naughty, performing at Joker’s Wild in Nassau and abroad in the United States on numerous occasions. “He’s a very funny individual. Of course Naughty said, ‘If I’m coming back to my alma mater, I’m bringing best. Teachers need entertainment too, Mike can relate being a teacher himself, very topical,” said Ms Ritchie. Frankie Paul, she said, is one of Naughty’s closest friends in the comedy
Mike Rivera
Frankie Paul industry. He is always available for worthy gigs and fundraisers like this one. He’s also one of America’s premier touring comedians who has performed in clubs and colleges throughout America and Canada. He has performed on Comedy Central, Premium Blend, Spike TV, and his material usually deals with relationships, life itself and kids. “There’s definitely going to be something for everyone that night. They can get a good laugh, enjoy the drinks by Bacardi, and the more you drink the funnier we’re all going to be. Enjoy great food by Bertha’s and Tropical Gyros as well,” said Ms Ritchie. Naughty himself added that he is going to bring the heat and set Peter Wilson aflame. “We’re going to roast him and send him out with a good laugh. We’re going to poke fun. I’ve got the files, the dirt, the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.
Naughty said laughter cures the soul and relieves stress, which especially needed considering that the parents and teachers work so hard on a daily basis and deserve a “grown up night” to have a good laugh to rejuvenate and feel good about themselves. “We are so busy tending to the needs of our kids and/or others that we forget ‘me’. It’s good to laugh among friends. After 21 years in the business it will be my pleasure to return to my alma mater to show people I can actually entertain. They Naughty used to call me the class clown, but I always said I was the class entertainer. institution in the country, bar none. I will be there to prove I was right and to make sure everyone has a good What St Augustine’s College (SAC) is laugh on Mr Peter Wilson. I’ve heard to the track, St Andrew’s International his work permit number is in single School is to the pool, and we need to digits,” said Naughty. keep that legacy going.” Ms Ritchie added: “It’s all for a great Tickets for the show are available for cause, to raise funds to benefit my alma purchase from the school office, Multi mater, St Andrew’s, which I continue to brag is the best private learning Discount and Dairy Queen West.
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Friday, March 29, 2019
food
Out to brunch
Mosaic revamps menu, extends hours By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features Reporter | acadet@tribunemedia.net
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runch style events are becoming increasingly popular in the Bahamas among those looking for something different to do on Sundays, and many of Nassau’s leading restaurants have rolled out menus for this breakfast/lunch hybrid. Women can grab their gals and men can grab their pals to enjoy the special offerings, either in the late morning or in the early afternoon. One of the latest restaurants to put its own spin on the brunch trend is Mosaic at The Cove Atlantis. Calling it “Brunch Reimagined”, Mosaic’s is offering a buffet featuring everything from Belgian waffles and coconut pancakes to Chinese stir fry. Of course, there are also the Bahamian favourites like fried snapper, stuffed crab and boiled food. To top it all off, guests are given the option of bottomless mimosas at an additional cost. Whether you’re looking for somewhere to eat after church, celebrating a birthday with friends, or just enjoying a couple’s day out, the Mediterranean influenced restaurant strives to provide its guests with a relaxing ambiance with the help of its glass waterfalls and direct views of the greenery outside through tall windows. Sean O’Connell, general manager and vice president of Culinary Operations at Atlantis, said the Mosaic brunch has evolved to not only showcase Bahamian cuisine, but dishes from the Caribbean and Mediterranean as well. And it’s all prepared fresh focus at the many cook-to-order stations. They have also extended the brunch hours, which are now from 12:30pm to 3pm, to ensure guests can take their time and enjoy their visit to Mosaic in a leisurely manner. Revamped last November, Mr O’Connell said the Mosaic menu was fine-tuned during the festive season and was then officially launched with more options during in early February.
Friday, March 29, 2019
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PHOTOS/ALESHA CADET
“We have had a brunch for well over a decade, but realised we were not providing proper focus and resources, hence the evolution.” “We have had a brunch for well over a decade, but realised we were not providing proper focus and resources, hence the evolution,” he said. “Brunch Reimagined” at Mosaic is just one of many new culinary ventures to experience at Atlantis in 2019. Mr O’Connell said they have just “reinvented” the famous Café Martinique; there is a new fish fry on the pool deck; Poseidon’s Table has been transformed; Casa De Angelo boasts new menus, and both the Bahamian Club and Olive’s have undergone many changes. “We are currently working a new sunset happy hour at Sip Sip as well as ‘Flights and Bites’ at Fish,” he said.
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Friday, March 29, 2019
music
Bahamian rapper on verge of signing with major US label
By JEFFARAH GIBSON | Tribune Features Writer | jgibson@tribunemedia.net
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AHAMIAN rapper Vargo is on the brink of signing a record deal with a major US label that could launch his international music career. Vargo, who was born and grew up in the Grove, Nassau, said once the deal is sealed, he will be one step closer to seeing his dream of becoming a multi-platinum recording artist realised.
“We have been in meetings with Interscope Records and Universal Records. Because we are in active negotiation with lawyers involved I am not able to say exactly what is being negotiated at this time,” the artist told Tribune Weekend. “I am very close to seeing my dream become a reality. The producers I am working with in New York hosted a listening party in the city at the end of November of last year
BAHAMIAN rapper Vargo and it was a major success with great reviews. Everyone that attended the event was very impressed. I was invited for interviews at various radio stations in New York.” As a young boy growing in Nassau, Vargo was heavily influenced by the music of The Notorious BIG. “I fell in love with his flow of lyrics, and he was a big guy like me, so that made me feel like, wow that could be me. I would always pretend to be him, rapping in the mirror,” he said. The seed was sown and Vargo’s aspirations to become a world-famous musician grew. This dream meant so much to him the he saved up the money he earned while working with his father to pay for recording sessions. “I worked with my dad who was finally able to own his own heavy equipment business, consisting of two backhoes, a dump truck and a fork lift. I was his right-hand person. I saved my money to pay for studio sessions here in Nassau, where I started recording songs. So I would work as a heavy equipment operator in the day and I would go to the studio in the night to record songs; during that time I worked with producer Kendal Richardson,” he said. After being unsuccessful in his attempts to get his music heard in the US, Vargo’s sister Shenique Knowles connected the rapper with New York publicist Derrick Thaxton.
The publicist then made introductions between the rapper and several producers. “The rest is history,” he said. Vargo recently released his new single “Top of the World” that is gaining traction internationally. “The most challenging part of breaking into the international industry is with me being from the Bahamas and not knowing anyone in the international industry. But I have grown to know that what God has for you, you will always get it, in His time. I can proudly say that I am working with two of the best producers in New York – Buda the Future and Grandz. They have worked with artists such as Rick Ross, Dr Dre, 50 Cent, Bruno Mars, Cardi B,” he said. While he awaits word on negotiations with the record label, Vargo said he and his team are making plans for a world tour. “My ultimate goal is to become a multi-platinum recording artist, with my name being in conversations with the great Tupac, Notorious BIG, Jay Z, Nas and Rick Ross. Eventually I will have a label of my own to be in the position to give other brothers and sisters a record deal, to continue taking the Bahamas to the world, because we have a lot of talent here in the Bahamas.”
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Friday, March 29, 2019
community
A queen in the making: Bahamas Junior Debutantes crowns its second winner
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fter one year of planning and prepping, the Bahamas Debutante Foundation has crowned its second junior debutante winner, 10-year-old Kadrinique Burrows. The sixth-grade student of Gerald Cash Primary School was named Junior Debutante of 2019, succeeding Pa’Kesha Griffith, at the Foundation’s second annual ball, which was held last Saturday at the Meliá Nassau Beach resort under the theme “Yes I Can”. “I’m so happy”, said Kadrinique on winning the title. “I gave it my all and I succeeded.” Travis Robinson, Member of Parliament for Bain and Grants Town, served as this year’s guest speaker. Also imparting a few words of encouragement throughout the programme were Patricia Minnis, wife of the Prime Minister; Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Lanisha Rolle, and Director
for Women’s and Gender Affairs Dr Jacinta Higgs, as well as Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese Bishop Laish Boyd. Kadrinique, who aspires to be a performing arts/dance teacher, is a member of her church’s dance ministry, Awana, and volunteers at the Bahamas Red Cross. She also already has her eyes sights on enrolling in the senior debutantes programme, which she will be eligible to join upon entering the 12th grade. “We are so proud of Kadrinique and all that she has accomplished thus far,” said her parents. “It was such an overwhelming feeling to hear our daughter’s name called as this year’s winner. We were very excited!” With the junior debutante ball now over, planning for the senior debutante ball underway for the big event scheduled for April 27. The programme, which focuses on teaching young ladies the importance
of grace, poise, etiquette and education, is open to all sixth and 12th grade students in New Providence. The Foundation plans to expand to the rest of the Bahamas. “Our aim with the Foundation is to change the lives of the participants with the hope that the lives that we change will in turn change the lives of others,” said Cristina Johnson, president of the Bahamas Debutante Foundation. “It still warms my heart today to see just how many young ladies and young women of the Bahamas truly want to be a part of the programme and fully experience everything it has to offer. Even after 22 years, the steady membership is a testament to the Foundation’s positive effect, especially with the addition of the junior debutantes and plans to expand to the Family Islands.” Those students interested in joining for Fall 2019 can check with their school’s guidance counsellor for
Kadrinique Burrows, winner of the second annual Bahamas Junior Debutante programme. an application form or contact the Bahamas Debutante Foundation at debutantefoundation@yahoo.com.
The rosé life
By CARA HUNT | Tribune Features Writer | cbrennen@tribunemedia.net
ONE hundred hand-picked guests will have a chance to experience rosé wine in a new way at a brunch-inspired launch event courtesy of the Rosé Society on March 31. The event, which is the first of its kind for the brand, is invite-only and the location will be revealed 24 hours before the launch. Participating vendors include the Food & Culture Co, Hai Cha Bubble Tea, Papa’s Taqueria, Mojibros, Ready Set Go and Springbok Limited. The Rosé Society will also be debuting its signature boozy popsicle line. According to Dawn Demeritte, owner of Rosé Society, the aim of this event is to introduce the general public to rosé wine, the lifestyle, and more importantly, the brand.
“We’re trying to not only give people a new way to enjoy rosé wine, but also introduce them to the idea that drinking rosé is actually a lifestyle. Most people think that rosé is just red and white wine mixed together, which it isn’t. It can be enjoyed in a variety of ways and we intend to introduce all of that. But first we will be focusing on our signature popsicle line,” she said. Ms Demeritte said guests can expect the exclusive event to begin with drinks and end with a dessert. “The vendors all represent dishes that are typically served at brunch. Mojibros will be offering a full bar including their popular mojitos and possibly mimosas. The Food & Culture Co, which is a relatively new brand, will be introducing their newest product paired with grilled delights.
Ready Set Go will be serving up five flavours of Bubble Waffles, Hai Cha Bubble Tea will have bubble tea and crepes for sale. Papa’s Taqueria will have tacos and Springbok limited will have South African still and sparkling Rosé for sale. Brunch has become
such a popular trend and we wanted to capitalise on that while putting a Rosé twist on it,” she said. Music for the launch event will be provided by DJ Blueprint. For more information, visit http:// www.rosésociety.
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art
Doongalik to advance Jackson Burnside’s vision for 2020 Gallery to celebrate Bahamian straw industry for Transforming Spaces
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oongalik Studios is eagerly preparing for the 15th anniversary of the annual Transforming Spaces art tour taking place April 6-7. The gallery’s response to this year’s “SUSTAIN” theme is encapsulated in the African adinkra symbol of the sankofa bird that adorns its entry wall. Entitled “Embracing the Past to sustain the Future,” Doongalik’s exhibition will focus on Bahamian straw. Patrons will be treated to a journey that will take them back to the past and forward into the future via the present utilising a variety of mediums from multiple artists who will proudly highlight this important part of Bahamian heritage. Owner of the gallery, Pam Burnside, stated: “This year’s theme has so much significance for us, as it is advancing the story which my late husband, Jackson, and I envisioned for the Bahamian creative community all those years ago in the 1970s when we formed Doongalik Studios. Jackson predicted that by the year 2020 more visitors will come to the Bahamas for our art, culture and heritage, rather than merely for our sun, sand and sea, and we have been working for decades to ensure that this is indeed the case. “Not only has it been our pivotal focus, but it has also been our driving force; it has been our vision and our purpose, a goal and a process, a road and a destination that is fast approaching. All roads have been leading to this point, and we are elated because we have successfully laid down a path that is bringing us there, with invaluable help from our family, our colleagues, our friends, and even strangers.” Mrs Burnside said her husband was first and foremost a “true true” Bahamian who loved his country with a passion.
The African sankofa bird
Doongalik Studios on Village Road “He was a visionary, like his father before him, and recognised the untapped wealth that lay hidden within the rich potential of the Bahamas’ art, culture and heritage. His untimely death in May 2011 provided even greater impetus to expose this treasure,” she said. She explained how in 2008 she and her husband founded Creative Nassau along with a small group of passionate creatives to celebrate and promote
Bahamian art, culture and heritage from the inside out. “Creative Nassau, without any government assistance, was successful in obtaining a prestigious UNESCO designation for the city of Nassau to become a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art in 2014, one of the first for this region, with an emphasis on the Bahamian straw industry. This registered non-profit entity, which now consists of a mere handful of
persons who work assiduously towards its goals, is a shining example of the potential of Bahamian creativity,” she said. “Community, commitment, and collaboration are key traits for success, and these resonated in the Bahamas in days gone by, as epitomised by this once vibrant Bahamian industry. We hope that Doongalik’s exhibition will re-ignite this fervour for the benefit of us all.” In addition, Doongalik will be hosting the exciting “HEAT” evening event with Chef Horatio Alexander on Saturday, April 6. Billed as “a nostalgic evening of classic Bahamian cuisine and culture”, “HEAT” will bring together a fusion of Bahamian food, live music, rake n’ scrape, and fun, with ticketed Transforming Spaces patrons being offered a discount on their “HEAT” ticket. Transforming Spaces tickets are available at Doongalik, The Place for Art, and the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas. For more information on the Transforming Spaces 15th anniversary art tour, visit the website at www. tsbahamas.com.
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art
Footwear as a canvas Chan Pratt Foundation and Bahems collaborate for worthy cause
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he late Chan Pratt is entering a new realm, joining the ranks of a small number of local artists whose work has both been hung on a wall and worn on feet. His namesake foundation is teaming up with the footwear company Bahems to bring art to everyday life and fund a scholarship for a young artist attending the University of the Bahamas. “Ever since my dad passed I have tried to find a way to incorporate his artwork into everyday items more accessible to the general public,” said Dewitt Chan “D C” Pratt, the late artist’s son and the founder of the Chan Pratt Foundation established in 2014 as an organisation dedicated to keeping his father’s memory alive. The style and simplicity of Bahems shoes caught Mr Pratt’s eye, giving him an interesting idea. “I thought the shoes would be a great fit, a canvas for the artwork to introduce a wider audience to the Chan Pratt brand,” he explained. “Instead of using an actual painting I thought to use certain elements from my dad’s collection or things that (l-r) Dewitt C Pratt, founder of the Chan Pratt Foundation; Nathan Arnett, founder and CEO of Bahems and creative he’s known for to create a design that’s director and founder of Motionsmith Studios, and Lamaro Smith who was tapped to bring the two brands together. reminiscent of a Chan Pratt’s painting.” “It was an honour for me to pay tribis open to art majors in their final For Bahems founder, Nathan Arnett, ute to Chan Pratt with a design that’s year of study at the University of the it was something he didn’t have in his a nod to his aesthetics. The collabora(then) 10-strong collection of Bahamas Bahamas. tion provides a means for the masses designed, people inspired, espadrille The foundation is accepting applicato connect to the late artist through style footwear, thus, making it unique. tions from Bahamian art students with the quality footwear brand, that is “This partnership produces a new, a 3.0 GPA and an expansive portfolio. Bahems,” said Mr Smith, the creative creative channel to showcase art here It hopes to award its first scholarship director and founder of Motionsmith in the Bahamas. It shows that opportufor the upcoming Fall semester to one Studios, which has worked with the nities are endless once people put their outstanding student who meets all its Chan Pratt Foundation on other heads together and think outside the criteria. projects. box,” he said. “We believe the style is “It’s been a difficult search for the The Bahems limited edition Chan going to resonate with persons from all ideal candidate to become the scholarPratt espadrille is available for prewalks of life.” ship’s inaugural recipient,” said Mr order on Bahemsfootwear.com. Part The founders chose noted Grand Pratt. “We’re looking for a promisproceeds will go towards the Chan Bahamian digital artist Lamaro Smith ing artist who will be a credit to the Pratt Memorial Endowment Fund, to execute the pattern design concept for the shoes. established in 2018. The scholarship foundation.”
“Ever since my dad passed I have tried to find a way to incorporate his artwork into everyday items more accessible to the general public.”
16 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, March 29, 2019
celebrity
Fashion Report Kids’ Choice Awards
With Karin Herig and Cara Hunt
FAIL
SPLIT
FAIL
FAIL
SPLIT
Jennifer Hudson ”Cats”
Jodie Sweetin ”Fuller House”
Joey King ”The Kissing Booth”
Lilly Singh YouTube star
Skai Jackson ”Bunk’d”
Karin says: “It’s an event for kids and everyone wants to dress in a fun, whimsical way. That being said, that orange fur running down her right leg is still ugly as all get out. The rest of the outfit is fine, if a bit boring.” Cara says: “Jennifer is channelling her inner cowgirl in this outfit, and to be honest, I’m not that impressed. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just not something I particularly really like.”
Karin says: “Awful. This is an irreverent event; the orange carpet not to be taken too seriously. But here comes Jodie like she’s going to a tea party for women who have no sense of style.” Cara says: “OK, so this outfit is just fun enough to be a yes for me. I also love black and white combos, and the print on the dress with that pop of pink is...nice, I suppose? I’m not 100 percent sold on the choker, but overall I like it.”
Karin says: “I still can’t forgive for how awful ‘The Kissing Booth’ was, and I can’t forgive this outfit. Surely the pocket flap hanging out was enough. Did she really need that orange harness? And, oh God, she’s following that stupid tiny purse trend!” Cara says: “This outfit is trying too hard. The harness shirt could be called interesting, although why you want to wear a shirt that outlines your bra is weird to me, but anyhoo...Also, I feel that the reds don’t quite match.”
Karin says: “The 80s called; they want this hideous, oversized suit back...not really. Only certain people could pull this off, and Lilly is not one of them. Those black boots look awful with this outfit. And how vain do you have to be to have you’re own initials sewn on your lapel.” Cara says: “This is another outfit that I just don’t like. The red suit with black boots comes off a bit Santa Clausish to be honest especially since its so ill fitted.
Karin says: “The only cute-ish outfit of the week. At 16, Skai is experimenting a little with the sexy look. I’m not crazy about the multi-coloured feathers, but somehow the ensemble works. That hair, however, does not.” Cara says: “Oh, I am so on the fence with this. At first it was a resounding NO! Then I keep looking at it and the skirt is so pretty. I just don’t know about that top. It’s doesn’t seem to match the bottom part of the dress.”
PHOTOS BY RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP
The Weekend
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Friday, March 29, 2019
film
T
he original “Dumbo” was released in the summer of 1941 while Germany was spreading across Europe and war was breaking out in the Pacific. Crafted as a simpler Disney fable after the more extravagant “Fantasia” disappointed at the box office, “Dumbo” — only 64 minutes in length — took flight just as far more chilling creations were taking to the air. Almost eight decades later, “Dumbo” is alight again in Tim Burton’s sombre and sincere live-action remake of the animated classic. Burton has refashioned “Dumbo” as a sepiatoned show-business parable tailored to more animal rights-sensitive times. “Dumbo” is the latest in a circus parade of Disney remakes (”The Lion King” and “Aladdin” are due out later this year) that brings classic characters into seemingly more real worlds with the aid of digital wizardry. None of them will overwhelm anyone by their necessity. Movies, after all, aren’t smart phones that require software updates. That said, Burton’s “Dumbo,” while inevitably lacking much of the magic of the original, has charms and melancholies of its own, starting, naturally, with the elephant in the room. Of all the CGI make-overs, this Dumbo is the most textured, sweetest and most soulful of creatures. Like the original, he doesn’t speak and trips over his floppy ears. Whether cowering at a new height or finding astonishment as he, with a sneeze, is sent airborne, the digitally rendered Dumbo is one precious pachyderm. The film opens in 1919 on the heels of World War I. Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell, who has grown into the most sensitive and consistent of leading men) returns from war, minus an arm, to his two children, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins). Though Dumbo endures separation from his mother in Burton’s film, the deeper grief in “Dumbo” has been transferred to the humans: The children’s mother died while Holt was away at war from an influenza that, as one character says, “hit like a hurricane.” Other things have changed, too. The travelling circus where the Farriers make their home has fallen on hard times. Settling down in Joplin, Missouri, the camp is half its former size. Its owner, Max Medici (Danny DeVito, spectacular), has sold off the horses that Holt rode in his act. Medici sinks all his remaining money into an elephant that he hopes will revive the circus, only to feel swindled when she
Review:
‘Dumbo’ remake takes flight on its own charms dumbo | 112 minutes |
Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) are charged with caring for a newborn Dumbo. produces such a droopy-eared offspring, discovered at birth beneath a heap of hay. Of course, Dumbo’s stock rises once he does, too, and Medici’s suddenly sensational circus quickly attracts the interest of a much more big-league circus impresario, V A Vandevere (Michael Keaton, in a devilishly slick performance), who brings Medici’s whole circus to his Coney Island kingdom as a means, we immediately grasp, of luring Dumbo away and dispensing, like a vulture capitalist, with the rest. It’s a kind of reunion for Burton, Keaton and DeVito, who 27 years ago came together in “Batman Returns.”
The film, starring a bird that couldn’t fly in DeVito’s Penguin, was like a wicked version of “Dumbo,” and similarly full of misfits and so-called freaks. “Dumbo” is naturally lighter terrain for Burton but for the first time in years, the director — so long an expert at the proximity of fantasy and horror — seems at home. And he steers “Dumbo,” from a script by Ehren Kruger, toward a grand corporate satire as the big-city conglomerate tries to co-opt the genuine wonder of Dumbo and Medici’s travelling band. Greed and exploitation close in on them as the big-tent gets bigger. That such a story line should come in
the biggest big-tent of them all, Disney, is either an awkward or happy irony, depending on your level of cynicism. But it is wondrous when Dumbo takes flight. Burton’s camera feels genuinely mesmerised at his elephant’s magic act. The filmmaker’s recent films have been well outside his best work; it was his woeful “Alice in Wonderful” that kick-started much of the Disney live-action remakes. But when Dumbo soars, it’s clear that Burton is a believer, still, in the ability of a beautiful oddity to transcend. JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer
18 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, March 29, 2019
television
Anna Sorokin, on trial for grand larceny, fooled New York high society into believing she was a millionaire heiress. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) NEW YORK (AP) — Anna Sorokin travelled in celebrity circles and tossed $100 tips — all the more reason to believe she was the German heiress she said she was. But behind the jet-set lifestyle and pricey threads, prosecutors have said, was a fraudster who bilked friends, banks and hotels for a taste of the high life. Sorokin, 28, lived in luxury New York City hotel rooms she couldn’t afford, promised a friend an allexpenses paid trip to Morocco and then stuck her with the $62,000 bill, and peddled bogus bank statements in a quest for a $22 million loan, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has alleged. On Wednesday, the one-time darling of the Big Apple social scene went on trial on grand larceny and theft of services charges alleging she swindled various people and businesses out of $275,000 in a 10-month odyssey that saw her jetting to the Midwest and Marrakesh before landing in a cell at Rikers Island. “Her overall scheme has been to claim to be a wealthy German heiress with approximately $60 million in funds being held abroad,” prosecutor Catherine McCaw said after Sorokin’s October 2017 arrest. “She’s born in Russia and has not a cent to her name as far as we can determine.” Sorokin’s attorney said she never intended to commit a crime.
Lawyer Todd Spodek told jurors in an opening statement that Sorokin was exploiting a system that was “easily seduced by glamour and glitz” after she saw how the appearance of wealth opened doors. Spodek said she was merely buying time, so she could launch a business and repay her debts. “Anna had to fake it until she could make it,” Spodek said. Sorokin, jailed since her arrest, faces deportation to Germany regardless of the outcome of the trial because authorities say she overstayed her visa. Her story, however, may stick around. Shonda Rhimes, the force behind “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” is developing a show about Sorokin for Netflix. Lena Dunham, of “Girls” fame, is working on one for HBO. Sorokin arrived in the world of champagne wishes and caviar dreams in 2016 with a new name (Anna Delvey) and a wardrobe to match (Celine sunglasses, Gucci sandals and high-end buys from Net-a-Porter and Elyse Walker). She made a show of proving she belonged, passing crisp Benjamins to Uber drivers and hotel concierges, but she gave varying accounts for the source of her wealth, according to people who knew her. At different times, they said, she’d claim her father was a diplomat, an oil baron or a solar panel muckity-muck. In reality, her father told New York magazine, he’s a former trucker who runs a heating-and-cooling business.
Fake heiress’ life inspires new Shonda Rhimes show At first, people around Sorokin didn’t see a red flag when she asked them to put cabs and plane fares on their credit cards — she sometimes said she had trouble moving her assets from Europe, they said — and they laughed it off as forgetfulness when they had to hound her to pay them back. “It was a magic trick,” Rachel Williams, the friend from the Morocco trip, wrote in Vanity Fair. “I’m embarrassed to say that I was one of the props, and the audience, too. Anna’s was a beautiful dream of New York, like one of those nights that never seems to end. And then the bill arrives.” As she ingratiated herself into the New York party scene, prosecutors said, Sorokin started talking up plans to spend tens of millions of dollars building a private arts club with exhibitions, installations and pop-up shops. She thought about calling it the Anna Delvey Foundation. Sorokin kept up the heiress ruse as she went looking for a $22 million loan for the club in November 2016, prosecutors said. She claimed the loan would be secured by a letter of credit from UBS in Switzerland and showed statements purporting to substantiate her assets, according to an outline of the charges. One bank rejected Sorokin because she “did not have sufficient cash flow to make loan payments,” prosecutors said. She bailed on another firm when
it pressured her for a meeting with a UBS banker who could verify her assets, prosecutors said. At the same time, Spodek said, one of the firm’s executives sent Sorokin provocative texts, telling her she was “beautiful inside and out,” that he was “forcing myself not to kiss you” and asking to come up to her hotel room. While seeking the loan, prosecutors said, Sorokin convinced one bank to lend her $100,000 to cover due diligence costs. She ended up keeping $55,000 and “frittered away these funds on personal expenses in about one month’s time,” prosecutors said. A few months later, in May 2017, Sorokin allegedly chartered a plane to and from the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, but never paid the $35,400 bill. Broke and facing a big bill at a midtown Manhattan hotel in July 2017, Sorokin pleaded with a police officer that a bailout was on the way, prosecutors said. “I have no money and no credit cards. I’m waiting for my aunt from Germany. She’s going to pay,” Sorokin said, according to court documents. “I’m not trying to run. Why are you making a big deal about this? Give me five minutes, and I can get a friend to pay.” MICHAEL R SISAK Associated Press
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Friday, March 29, 2019
gardening
Peppers are some of the most valuable crops in the Bahamian garden, says Jack Hardy.
From sweet to spicy
and everything in between
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hey can be used in virtually every dish you can think of and are vitamin rich. From chunky bell peppers chopped into conch salad to tangy bird peppers mashed into boil fish, peppers are essential to Bahamian cuisine. Peppers are warm weather lovers and this is a good time of year to plant seeds. Bell peppers tend to get scorched in direct sun so you may wish to plant them in a fairly large container – at least four gallons – and drop two seeds into the hole. Although pepper plants in general do not like competition from other plants they grow quite happily with two plants grown as one. The additional foliage helps protect the fruits from scorching. Overwatering and lack of drainage is dangerous to pepper plants. Do not use a saucer at the bottom of your container. If you make your own potting mix add a little extra perlite to your pepper pots. If you grow your pepper plants in the open garden it would be wise to find a location that receives some shade in the early afternoon. It is much easier to move pots from sun to shade. Peppers offer a lot of variety. Sweet peppers come as bells or elongated fingers as in banana and Cubanelle.
There are also miniature sweet peppers that are useful as lunch box additions and have all their seeds packed tightly at the stem end. One little slice of the knife and you can plop the now seedless pods into soups and stews. Hot peppers vary in size from the tiny Birdseye to the impressive Poblano. They also vary in heat and this is the more important consideration. Unnecessary heat can ruin a dish so we must take care to use hot peppers with caution. If we use peppers raw on the side we can control what we add to our dishes to suit individual tastes. There is a third category of peppers: ornamentals. Most pepper plants tend to die if the fruits are not picked on a regular basis and care is not taken to remove the stems with the fruits. Ornamental peppers may be sweet or hot but are generally hot and showy. They do not die when flush with fruit and, contrary to some believers, are not poisonous. Walk around a supermarket and you will clearly see how popular hot pepper condiments have become. The liquid pepper sauces such as Tabasco and the milder and sweeter Crystal are handy standbys for livening up food on the plate. Tabasco used to produce a green
Jalapeno bottles sauce but I have not seen it for quite a while. Thicker sauces with added fillers are very popular. Matouk’s of Trinidad makes a fine collection with varying heat to suit your taste. I came across Matouk’s Scorpion pepper sauce a couple of years ago but have not seen it since. It was too hot for me but nice to have around for those who boast about their love of heat. Scorpion usually silences them. Paprika is mild pepper powder essential to the authenticity of many dishes. Hungarian paprika has a bit of a bite while Spanish paprika is notably sweet. I have also seen smoked paprika. Again on the mild side there are pepper flakes for shaking over pizzas. I do not care for it but pepper jelly seems to be inordinately popular. Some of the pepper jelly blends are made with Habanero peppers and are very hot. Pepper in one form or another is always in seasoned salt. I find that seasoned salt tends to muddy the taste foods. Years ago I started making pepper salt to season fish before cooking. I added fresh and juicy flayed hot peppers to sea salt and stirred the mix every few days until the pepper was dried out. The salt was infused with pepper flavour – I usually used Bird
or (of course) Fish pepper – and it was great for rubbing into raw fish. I later started to make peppered salt for table. A bamboo salt container keeps the salt dry and I find the hot salt almost addictive. Peppers are fast growers and are handsome plants when they are young. Once they have matured they are rather less handsome and sometimes downright ugly. Some hot peppers such as Habaneros can live and produce fruit for several years but the majority of peppers have a limited lifespan. Peppers are related to tomatoes and can be grown using a tomato fertilizer. Once a pepper plant flowers, it will benefit from an addition of superphosphate to the mix. If a pepper plant flowers too early the buds should be nipped off until the plant is large enough to handle a heavy crop. Pepper seeds lose their viability very quickly and should be stored under refrigeration if possible. Pepper plants are very sensitive to nicotine so if you are a cigarette smoker you should wear latex gloves while handling your plants or even weeding around them. • For questions and comments e-mail j.hardy@coralwave.com.
20 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, March 29, 2019
history
Even more facts: Just who was Shirley?
O
n January 25 this year, I used excerpts from Patrice Williams’ 56-page booklet “Chronological Highlights in the History of the Bahamas 600 to 1900”. Readers’ response was so positive that I am now offering more: In 1656, the Bahamas received its first black people when seven blacks were banished from Bermuda and taken to Eleuthera. In 1684, New Providence was invaded by Spaniards, who burned Charles Town (not yet called Nassau) to the ground before sailing away with $20,000 worth of loot. As a result, a large number of residents left the Bahamas, but two years later the island was resettled by people from Jamaica and, by 1701, the population had grown to 250 people Between 1684 and 1717, Spain invaded the Bahamas 47 times, even after Fort Nassau was built in 1695 (on the site where the British Colonial now stands). In 1720, Spain sent a fleet of four warships and eight sloops with 1,300 men to capture Nassau, but the invasion was repelled by Woodes Rogers and the inhabitants. In 1729, the House of Assembly met on September 29, establishing a continuous history of parliamentary democracy in the Bahamas. The Colony had progressed well under Woodes Rogers, but he died in Nassau on July 15, 1732. Strangely, nobody seems to know where he was buried. Do you? In January 17, 1834, Stephen Dillet became the first “coloured” man to be sworn in as a Member of the House of Assembly. He was followed by John Deane and Thomas Minns. In August 1834, they were joined by James Minns. In 1741, Captain Peter Henry Bruce became the first writer to mention conch as a native delicacy. In these days, the conch population was not yet threatened as it is now. I have often heard people discussing the naming of Shirley Street and
Forgotten facts | Paul C Aranha
“Prior to 1926, the name San Salvador was used for what we now know as Cat Island, which explains why the small island between Cat Island and Eleuthera is still called Little San Salvador.”
Sir Thomas Shirley (1727–1800) followed in his father’s footsteps and became Governor of the Bahamas.
Governor William Shirley (1694 - 1771), after whom Shirley Street, Shirley Slope etc are named.
wondering who the woman, Shirley, was, but Shirley Street, Shirley Slope, Shirley Heights, Shirley Park et cetera were named after Governor William Shirley, the first governor by this name. William came in 1758 and was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas Shirley. The American Revolution (which the British call the American War of Independence) had ended and the American Loyalists flooded into the Bahamas and, in 1784, the cultivation
of cotton began. Four years later, 8,000 acres of land was under cultivation when the chenille bug attacked the growing plants and the cotton industry began to decline. Salt was also important and in 1788 Exuma produced more than 100,000 bushels of salt. Cat Island produced 50,000 bushels and Rum Cay added 300,000 bushels. On Eleuthera, James Kelly began to cultivate coffee.
The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 and affected life in the Bahamas, so much so that, in 1795, French (Haitian) Negroes plotted to take over Nassau. Five of them were arrested, of whom three were hanged. In 1807, the British government abolished the slave trade and the Royal Navy was assigned the task of capturing any slave ship found in British territorial waters. Once a ship was captured, the would-be slaves
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Friday, March 29, 2019
The cornerstone of St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church was laid in 1885.
Peck’s Slope, Shirley Arch and Market Street. were freed and settled on the nearest British territory. Thousands were brought to Nassau, and the best remembered settlements are Adelaide, Carmichael and Gambier, but there were many of these settlements scattered around the Bahamas, and Charles Poitier, Collector of Customs, was given responsibility for liberated Africans. In 1840, the Bahamas Police Force was established, and 16 volunteers undertook to provide a 24-hour patrol of New Providence. In 1864, the force was “officially” established and over a century later it became “Royal”. In 1843, the sponge industry became one of the most important in the Bahamas. It lasted until 1938 when, like cotton before it, it was
attacked by a deadly enemy – disease. The following year, 1844, pineapples were exported to London for the first time. Thus began the lucrative pineapple industry, which lasted until the 20th century. Another event in that year occurred on December 23, when Edwin Moseley established The Guardian. Now Nassau’s oldest newspaper. Inter-island mail, by fast sailing vessels, was introduced in 1846, and three years later, the name of Pitman’s Cove in Eleuthera was changed to Gregory Town. The 1850s saw the great cholera epidemic, hurricanes and a yellow fever epidemic. Yellow fever took the life of Governor John Gregory. But not all news was bad. In
1863, the public debt was paid off. Wouldn’t we like that today? The following year, 34 lamp-posts with lanterns were installed in Nassau streets. In 1874, a new road connecting East Hill Street to Market and Prince(s) Streets was named Peck’s Slope, after Captain R E Peck, Surveyor General. Two years later, J S Johnson opened a pineapplecanning factory. It became a registered company in 1896. The cornerstone of St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church (the first in the Bahamas) was laid in 1885. Under it was placed a time capsule containing various artefacts, such as money, newspapers and a hand-written scroll. The following year, the first service in a Roman Catholic church
A ship’s letter written on November 4, 1829, by John Perkins of the Virgin Islands to William C Nairn of Great Harbour, Long Island, which was later renamed Clarence Town. The missive mentions salt. Mr Nairn was married to Mary Taylor, daughter of Major Archibald Taylor, whose family owned salt ponds. Ship’s letters preceded the postal service and were carried by the captain for hand-delivery to the addressee. William C Nairn is a great, great-grandfather’s of Paul C Aranha.
was held and in 1887 the church was consecrated. Three years later, the first fire engine was imported. Six Lebanese families – Ageeb, Amoury, Armaly and Moses – emigrated to the Bahamas, and the Curry House, a private hotel, was opened by R H Curry on Shirley Street, opposite the Library. The building is still there. Prior to 1926, the name San Salvador was used for what we now know as Cat Island, which explains why the small island between Cat Island and Eleuthera is still called Little
San Salvador. For the record, it can also be called Little Cat Island or Little Island. In 1926, the name San Salvador was officially transferred to the island that had been known as Watling’s Island – named after the 17th-century pirate George Watling, about whom relatively little is known – but Nassau boasts a distillery named after him, John Watling’s Distillery. • For questions and comments, e-mail islandairman@ gmail.com.
22 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, March 29, 2019
literary lives – nora ephron
From ‘mail girl’ to filmmaker Sir Christopher Ondaatje reminds us of the multi-talented American journalist, writer and filmmaker best known for her romantic comedy films. “My mother wanted us to understand that the tragedies of your life have the potential to be the corner stories of the next.” Nora Ephron (1941-2012) was the eldest of four daughters of Henry and Phoebe Ephron, both well-known playwrights and screen writers. She grew up in Beverly Hills, California and was named after the protagonist in the play “A Doll’s House” written by Henry Ibsen. Sadly both her parents became alcoholics in their last years. They based the character of the ingénue character in their play “Take Her, She’s Mine” on the young Nora and her letters from Wellesley College. Even before she left Beverly Hills High School in California, Nora Ephron dreamed of going to New York and following in the footsteps of the satirical poet and critic Dorothy Parker. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1962 with a degree in political science. “When I buy a new book I always read the last page first, that way in case
Nora Ephron (1941 – 2012) I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That my friend is a dark side.” After graduating, Ephron worked briefly as an intern in the White House when John F Kennedy was president. She applied for a job at Newsweek but was told that the magazine had a policy of not hiring women writers. She was given a job as a mail girl instead and, after leaving Newsweek, was involved in a class action suit against the magazine for sexual discrimination. Both the lawsuit and Ephron’s role were fictionalised many years later in Amazon’s “Good Girls Revolt” – a series about the book written at the time by Lynn Povich. She then worked for The New York Post for five years – once breaking the news that Bob Dylan had secretly married Sara Lownds. Later Ephron made a name for herself lampooning her former employer Betty Friedan – owner of The New York Post. Friedan was at the time pursuing a feud with Gloria Steinem. She played with fire and took on subjects that resulted in threats or actual lawsuits. “Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people
who are willing to admit that they are crazy.” Nora Ephron married the writer Dan Greenburg in the early 1960s, but the marriage ended in divorce after nine years. She next married the Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, who together with Bob Woodward did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal in 1972. They had two sons and their much publicised divorce and separation when she was pregnant with their second son raised eyebrows across the North American literary scene. She helped her husband write the script for “All the President’s Men” (about the Watergate scandal), then discovered that Bernstein was having an affair with the wife of the British Ambassador to the United States, Margaret Jay. “The desire to get married is a basic instinct in women. It’s followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again.” Her hilarious 1983 novel “Heartburn” about the marriage break-up became a best-seller. Her book accused
her husband of being able to have sex with a Venetian blind, and the object of his amorous attention of being similar to a giraffe with big feet. I met Baroness Jay later in London when she was a powerful figure in the House of Commons, and I have to admit – she was a tall and big woman. Carl Bernstein on the other hand is much, much shorter. He threatened to sue Ephron, her publishers and producers over the book and the film, but never did. “I married him against all evidence. I married him believing that marriage doesn’t work, that love dies, that passion fades, and in so doing I became the kind of romantic only a cynic is truly capable of being.” Ephron also made another important public disclosure. She reported that the true identity of the informer “Deep Throat” who provided important information for her ex-husband, Carl Bernstein, and Bob Woodward’s Washington Post articles during the Watergate scandal, was none other than the former associate director of the FBI Mark Felt. She commented that no one believed her or took her seriously.
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Friday, March 29, 2019 Nevertheless, the world took notice of Ephron’s satirical screenwriting talents and she was given the job of co-scripting “Silkwood” (1984) with Alice Arlen – a Mike Nichols/Meryl Streep film. Both Ephron and Arlen were nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Mike Nichols then made the film of Ephron’s “Heartburn” in 1986 starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Ephron adapted her own novel into the screenplay. It was another hit and she went on to write the script for the comedy “When Harry Met Sally” (1989). The film, directed by Rob Reiner, starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, and has become renowned for the scene in which Sally fakes an orgasm (Meg Ryan’s idea) in the middle of a delicatessen lunch. The additional comment by a lady at the next table, “I’ll have what she’s having” was Billy Crystal’s idea, but Ephron managed to mould it successfully into the script for which she was nominated for a 1990 Oscar for Best Writing for a film screenplay. It was clear she had a rare gift for comedy. “In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind.” In 1992, Nora Ephron directed her first film, “This is My Life”, for which she co-wrote the script with her sister Delia Ephron. It is based on the Meg Wolizer novel “This is Your Life” about a woman who embarks on a career in stand-up comedy after inheriting a large amount of money. Both Nora Ephron’s younger sisters, Delia and Amy, were also script writers, and her sister Hallie Ephron, a journalist, book reviewer and crime fiction novelist. In 1993, Nora Ephron directed and wrote the script for the romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle” which starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, who teamed up to make the first of two enormously popular and successful films. The first, loosely traced the story of “An Affair to Remember”, and the second, “You’ve Got Mail”, a remake of another popular early film, “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940), adapted from the Hungarian play by Nicolaus Lazlo, which had already been remade and re-named “In the Good Old Summertime” (1949), starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson. It was a brilliant idea. “You’ve Got Mail”, about a small independent bookstore in New York threatened by the mighty Fox Books, has become a perennial family favourite. “And then the dreams break into a million tiny pieces. Which leaves you with a choice: you can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream.” In 2009, Nora Ephron directed and co-wrote the screenplay for “Julie & Julia” – about the famous American
Ephron during her time at Wellesley College.
Ephron (background; centre) covered the 1964 Senate campaign of Robert F Kennedy’s (background; right) for The New York Post. (Photo/Arty Pomerantz)
Ephron with her first husband, Carl Bernstein, who is known for his reporting on the Watergate scandal.
cook Julia Child, played by Meryl Streep, and Julie Powell, a New Yorker attempting to blog her way through Child’s cookbook. The film was another success. Ephron also wrote and co-wrote plays. “Imaginary Friends” (2002) explored the rivalry of Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy; and she coauthored the “Love, Loss, and What I Wore”, based on Ilene Beckerman’s book of the same name, with her sister Delia Ephron. Nora Ephron’s third marriage to the screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, the author of “Goodfellas” and “Casino”, lasted more than 20 years until her death on June 26, 2012. They lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles and New York City. She died from pneumonia – a complication resulting from acute myeloid leukaemia, about which very few people knew. She kept it to herself although there were hints in her last book, “I Remember Nothing” (2010), where she listed the things that she would miss. Of course movies made her famous, but underneath it all she always remained a reporter – sarcastic and irreverent. The New York Times once said that Nora Ephron could write about anything better than anyone else could write about anything. They were right. And for her, reading was escape, and the opposite of escape. It was a way for her to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that was all too real. But it is her writing that lingers on with us today. She could self-deprecate, but never lose her sense of humour. Once, when she was asked why she wrote, she replied: “Because if I tell the story, I control the versions; Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me; Because if I tell the story, it doesn’t hurt as much; Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it.” The dark side of Nora Ephron’s life and how she dealt with it is a huge reason for her success. She had a genius for imagining how other women would feel, and men understood this. • Sir Christopher Ondaatje is the author of “The Last Colonial”. He acknowledges that he has quoted liberally from Wikipedia; Delia Ephron on “The Closeness and Compexity of Sisterhood” (2013); “Everything is Copy by Emma March” (2007); “Nora Ephron: From DC Intern to Hollywood Hit” from ABC News (2016); Richard Cohen, and “Nora Ephron: The Real-Life Harry and Sally” by Thea Glassman (2016).
24 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, March 29, 2019
books
Review: ‘The Last Second’ is a popcorn movie in print form
T
he launch of a corporate satellite covertly begins the countdown to the end of the world in Catherine Coulter and J T Ellison’s latest thriller featuring FBI Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine. The head of the tech company Galactus, Jean-Pierre Broussard, is on a treasure hunt to find the elusive Holy Grail, and he believes he’s found it. His second in command, Nevaeh Patel, is a former astronaut who lost her career when she supposedly lost her mind during a space walk outside the International Space Station. Nobody believes her when she says that aliens that call themselves the Numen saved her life, and that they still routinely communicate telepathically with her.
GALLERY BOOKS VIA AP
Barry Lopez looks for hope beyond the ‘Horizon’ Part travel journal, part history, part science lecture, part autobiography, and completely unique, “Horizon” feels like the crowning achievement of Barry Lopez’s illustrious career. Fans of his National Book Awardwinning “Arctic Dreams” (1986) and subsequent books about little understood landscapes, cultures and wildlife will find much to love here. Readers who have never read Lopez might be better served reading one of his singletopic tomes first. At 512 pages, this book is dense. It’s divided into six main parts based on the geography of Lopez’s lifelong travels — western Oregon, the High Arctic, the Galapagos, Kenya, Australia and Antarctica. There are maps that help readers visualise where our peripatetic narrator is at any given time, but not much else in the way of context. Lopez admits in the prologue that he consciously chose to simply tell stories, not explain any “juxtapositions in time,” but it would have provided
(KNOPF VIA AP)
readers with helpful perspective to know more about his life circumstances during any given trip. The resulting feel of the book is fragmented — perhaps intentionally mirroring the way memory works?
Broussard believed in her abilities, which is why he hired her. He has no idea that, when he’s on the verge of finding the Holy Grail, Patel has arranged for the retrieval of the artifact while also killing him so she can take over the company. The communications satellite that Galactus has just launched has also been manipulated by Patel, and when the countdown on board the craft reaches zero, it will release a nucleartriggered electromagnetic pulse that will throw Earth and the survivors back to the Stone Age. Patel believes that this will make her immortal, and she will become one with the aliens at that point. The FBI Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine are thrust into the chase to save the world — with passages about the power of music to “pry something ineluctable out of a particular landscape” (listening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on Skraeling Island, 660 nautical miles from the North Pole) just 20 pages removed from a technical explanation of how the Antarctic Moon and Neutrino Detector Array at the South Pole works. Each of the chapters is jammed with stories and personal reflections. Lopez, perhaps more than any other nature writer alive, is introspective to his core. Every experience, every sight, every person he meets, has made an impression on him and unlike most of us he kept notes. This book is his attempt to look back on it all and say something about the world we share. Here he is after looking at a piece of chalk white sandstone in his office, remembering the outrage he felt about acts of global genocide the day he picked it up on a beach in San Salvador: “What cataclysm, I often wonder, or better, what act of imagination will it finally require, for us to be able to speak meaningfully with one another about our cultural fate and about our shared biological fate?”
when one of their own is assigned to protect Broussard, and is almost killed in a bold attack. Now it’s a race against the clock to stop the impending destruction even as they battle a reluctant Broussard who cannot believe that Patel would want him dead and responsible for a trajectory change with the satellite launch. Coulter and Ellison’s series has locked itself into a wonderful groove. It is fun following these agents and their allies as they continue to experience chaos, mayhem, and ruthless villains that guarantee a fun time. “The Last Second” is a perfect example of a popcorn movie in print form, and their latest in this series arguably is the best one to date. By JEFF AYERS The Associated Press Yet despite all the injustice he’s seen in the world and the irrefutable science showing how humans are altering the climate, Lopez manages to convey in his prose a sense of hope. Have you ever had a moment in your life when everything seems right with the world, that you’ll be OK no matter how hard any given task might be? Lopez shares one walking through a park in Sydney, Australia: “The most fragmentary of breezes occasionally unsettled the leaves of gum trees. The delicacy of the weather reinforced a feeling I had in that moment of unfocused exuberance, a faith that no matter what people had to face in the world that is coming for us, they would fare well. Whatever the nightmare, some group of us would see a way through, for ourselves and others.” Whether you personally lean toward the cynical or hopeful, one thing is certain — we need adventurous, curious souls like Lopez to keep travelling and bringing back stories from beyond our particular horizon — in order to find our way forward as a species, together. By ROB MERRILL The Associated Press
The Tribune | Weekend | 25
Friday, March 29, 2019
books
Hitting shelves this week • The Path Made Clear by Oprah Winfrey In her latest book, Oprah shares what she sees as a guide for activating your deepest vision of yourself, offering the framework for creating not just a life of success, but one of significance. The book’s 10 chapters are organised to help you recognise the important milestones along the road to self-discovery, laying out what you really need in order to achieve personal contentment, and what life’s detours are there to teach us. Oprah opens each chapter by sharing her own key lessons and the personal stories that helped set the course for her best life. She then brings together wisdom and insights from luminaries in a wide array of fields, inspiring readers to consider what they’re meant to do in the world and how to pursue it with passion and focus. Renowned figures such as Eckhart Tolle, Brene Brown, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jay-Z, and Ellen DeGeneres share the greatest lessons from their own journeys toward a life filled with purpose. • My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing “Dexter” meets “Mr and Mrs Smith” in this wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose 15-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting: “Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored. We look like a normal couple. We’re your neighbours, the parents of your kid’s friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with. We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.” • The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick
Librarian Martha Storm has always found it easier to connect with books than people—though not for lack of trying. She keeps careful lists of how to help others in her superhero-themed notebook. And yet, sometimes it feels like she’s invisible. All of that changes when a book of fairy tales arrives on her doorstep. Inside, Martha finds a dedication written to her by her best friend—her grandmother Zelda—who died under mysterious circumstances years earlier. When Martha discovers a clue within the book that her grandmother may still be alive, she becomes determined to discover the truth. As she delves deeper into Zelda’s past, she unwittingly reveals a family secret that will change her life forever. • The Night Visitor by Carol Goodman Alice gets off a bus in the middle of a snowstorm in Delphi, New York. She
is fleeing an abusive relationship and desperate to protect Oren, 10 years old, a major “Star Wars” fan and wise beyond his years. Though Alice is wary, Oren bonds nearly instantly with Mattie, a social worker in her 50s who lives in an enormous run-down house in the middle of the woods. Mattie lives alone and is always available, and so she is the person the hotline always calls when they need a late-night pickup. And although according
to protocol Mattie should take Alice and Oren to a local shelter, instead she brings them home for the night. She has plenty of room, she says. What she doesn’t say is that Oren reminds her of her little brother, who died 30 years ago at the age of 10. But Mattie isn’t the only one withholding elements of the truth. Alice is keeping her own secrets. And as the snowstorm worsens around them, each woman’s past will prove itself unburied, stirring up threats both within and without.
Excellent: 10 mins Yesterday’s solution: sPies (across) fiGHT (down)
26 | The Tribune | Weekend
i t E r c i TarGeT THe aLPHa body of
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Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so the each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday
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I 40 27 JExtra lette K0907 34 181 17 (Deduct three m L extra clue le each M 26full solut 30 N0907 181 cost 80p p O*Calls 19 plus 8 your telephon network access P network access charge. Squelch, Embark, Q 21 15 Today’s TarGeT Crazed, Derive. R Good 19; very good 29; excellent *SP: Spoke – Helpline 202Shock, 3390 PLay Mor down: 0333 Adjunct, 38 (or more). solution tomorrow. Snug, Minutiae, Myself, S 11 21 Ibex, Odd, Swish, Gob, T yesTerday’s soLUTion Veer, Gateau, Worships, 10 U 7 Wade, Osier, Stalked. afoot fain faint fair farm faro fiat firm foam font foot footman V forint form formant format 16 Extra letter clues W 5 forMaTion fort frit from front X 0907 181 2560 info inform infra motif naif raft (Deduct three minutes for Y 39 27 rift roof each extra clue letter heard) Z forint form formant format
you turn the page upside HOW many words of four letters forMaTiondown. fortsolution frit from front tomorrow. or more can you make from the info inform infra motif naif raft riftaroof yesterday’s solution letters shown here? in making Black squares: 3, 7, 11, word, each letter may be used 15, 17, 19, 20, 24, 27, 28, once only. Each must contain the Yesterday’s Yesterday’s 32, 181 33, 35, 39. for call 2585 centre letter and there must be at0907 across: Onions, Sudoku Answer Kakuro Answer target Spring, solution least one nine-letter word. no today’s *Calls cost 80p perSmasher, minute plurals or verb forms ending in “s”.plus yourJounce, telephone company’s Comfy, Seize, Asset,
CRYPTIC PUZZLE Across 1 Off-putting food? (3,7) 6 A direction to lower a boat (4) 10 Heaven-sent sustenance for many a girl (5) 11 Bring mule that’s clumsy and awkward (9) 12 Drawn out in the wrong order - that’s awkward (8) 13 Frightfully large fairytale characters (5) 15 Sees trouble, grabs a hat and gets out (7) 17 If a man is willing, this may be added (7) 19 A murder suspect, one hears (7) 21 Disorderly crooner in court (7) 22 A classical type (5) 24 Countryman may help you when lost (8) 27 Realise it is translated into Hebrew (9) 28 Labour to replenish the dairy farmer’s stock (5) 29 Take it on holiday (4) 30 If one doesn’t enter it, one’s pulled through (6,4)
Down 1 Rising old city politician gets behind (4) 2 For those who like to travel, but not fast (6,3) 3 Bend an ear to the Muse of poetry (5) 4 Puts in charge again (7) 5 The sort of people who are always on the go (7) 7 He called to give the news (5) 8 Office worker who pays out much more than he earns (5,5) 9 Instrument used by one making an entry (8) 14 Speak about nothing in particular (10) 16 Shared in a perfect round of golf (8) 18 She’s a singer of low songs (9) 20 Sea mail going astray causes uneasiness (7) 21 Study the actual words, and whatever goes with them (7) 23 Breaks up the band (5) 25 May start with excellent cards in clubs (5) 26 Buck up at the back (4)
Yesterday’s Easy Solution Across: 1 Phantom, 5 Proof, 8 On the take, 9 Our, 10 Gift, 12 Prospect, 14 Duress, 15 Brainy, 17 Alfresco, 18 Idea, 21 Tie, 22 By no means, 24 Catty, 25 Contest. Down: 1 Prong, 2 Act, 3 Then, 4 Meagre, 5 Pleasure, 6 Of one mind, 7 Firstly, 11 For effect, 13 Assembly, 14 Drastic, 16 Scenic, 19 Asset, 20 Omen, 23 Ape.
Yesterday’s Cryptic Solution Across: 1 Hostage, 5 Locum, 8 White flag, 9 Odd, 10 Dali, 12 Describe, 14 Signet, 15 Tenths, 17 Restrain, 18 Grab, 21 Pea, 22 Eliminate, 24 Evens, 25 Guessed. Down: 1 Hewed, 2 Ski, 3 Aces, 4 Eileen, 5 Legacies, 6 Chorister, 7 Maddens, 11 Legislate, 13 Heartens, 14 Scruple, 16 Dining, 19 Breed, 20 Kite, 23 Ass.
EASY PUZZLE
Across 1 Likely for the future (2,8) 6 Part of the eye (4) 10 Strictly correct (5) 11 Canadian Pacific port (9) 12 Resort (8) 13 Overpowering fright (5) 15 Collection of reference material (7) 17 Meeting of legislature (7) 19 Make happier (5,2) 21 Mutually agreed deal (7) 22 Killed (5) 24 Swap (8) 27 Newspaper’s opinion column (9) 28 Teeming crowd (5) 29 Device for moving fluids (4) 30 In the beginning (10)
Down 1 Article (4) 2 Conciliatory (9) 3 Surpass (5) 4 Want (7) 5 Admit (7) 7 Split (5) 8 A strong poison (10) 9 Writer of music (8) 14 Nonconformist member (5,5) 16 In no particular order (2,6) 18 Introductory (9) 20 First in importance (7) 21 Accumulation of unfilled orders (7) 23 An established principle (5) 25 Deathly pale (5) 26 Oppose boldly (4)
call 0907 181 2585 for today’s target solution *Calls cost 80p per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge.
*SP: Spoke – Helpline 0333 202 3390
full solution
0907 181 2558
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*Calls cost 80p per minute 21 plus your telephone company’s network access charge.
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PLay More Crossword
The Tribune | Weekend | 27
Friday, March 29, 2019
animals
An early morning conversation Animal matters | KIM ARANHA
(In a bedroom in the western end of New Providence) “Good morning Mom.” “Huh?” “Good morning Mom!” (now much louder) “Oh Chiefie, it’s only four in the morning!!!” “Oh really? Well, there are these flowers I need to sniff.” Pacing to the bedroom door. “Ask Dad,” she says, snuggling into her pillows a bit deeper. “No Mom, he wont wake up, I tried him.” More pacing and the woofs are getting louder. “Shhhhh, you’ll wake up Dad”, she says. “Huh? I thought you just told me to ask Dad?” (Humans can be so very confusing.) “Ok, come on, Mom….” More pacing. They head for the landing, his tail is wagging a mile a minute and she swears he is smiling. “Go on then, go downstairs.” “What, without the light on? Are you crazy? I could trip, I could fall. I am not moving until you turn on that light!”
“Go on Chiefie, go on” She prods him with her toe. “Nope, not until you switch on that light!” She reaches out to turn on the light though the moon is so bright. He rushes down the stairs ahead of her and stands impatiently at the front door, tail thumping against the wood. “Come on, for goodness sake Mom, open the door for the love of…Yes, yes, you opened it, thank you!” He rushes out the door only to stop dead a few feet away. What is he doing? “Here is one flower.” Is he really sniffing flowers, she asks herself “Here is another flower, so one, two, three, four flowers..” “Chiefie, please be a good boy.” “Be a good boy? I am being a good boy! Am I barking at the moon? No! Am I digging holes? No! Silly Mom, now, where was I? Five flowers, six, seven, eight, nine, yes nine flowers, thought there were ten, hmmm, maybe not…” “Chiefie, please, it’s four in the morning, I am in my nightie, barefoot and it’s cold, be a good boy!” “There she goes again with that good boy nonsense.”
PET OF THE WEEK FIND A KEEPER IN KEVA
By THE BAHAMAS HUMANE SOCIETY
T
he Bahamas Humane Society has many cats and kittens available for adoption. Two-year-old Keva is but one of them. This young lady has been at the BHS for several months now, but is welcome to stay as long as need be since it is a no-kill shelter. Keva, though comfortable at the BHS, would really like to find a home and a human of her own. She’s friendly with humans and with most other cats,
Chief going upstairs. “I will take a little wonder over to the wall, look out through the gate! Good, all’s quiet! I will walk back to Mom and reassure her that all is quiet. She can get so stressed.” He walks aimlessly back to her, head down and tail waging back and forth as if they were on a Sunday outing, not in the middle of the garden, feet cold because of the dew, at four in the morning. She reaches down and pats his big head. “Chief baby, please go and be a good boy, go and do your thing.” “I look up at my human’s face, the moon lights her up quite well, she is clearly tired, maybe we should just go in, so I head for the door.” “Chief NO! Come back here, you got me up to come out, you can’t just go back to bed without doing anything.” She sounds exasperated. “Without doing anything? I came down to count the flowers, I have
so wouldn’t mind company in her new place. She’s still young enough to be playful but old enough to be past those kitten antics. Do you have a place for Keva? If so, come in to the BHS to meet her or call 323-5138 for more information. Adoption hours are 11am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am to 4pm on Saturday. Keva looks forward to meeting you! The BHS art sale will be held tomorrow, Saturday, March 30, at the Captain’s Table in Lyford Cay from 4pm to 8pm. Come out and check out the wide variety of pieces. All proceeds go to the BHS. Please call 676-5938 so your name can be left at the gate. See you there!
counted then, twice actually, there were nine before I went to bed and there are still nine so I can now go back to bed and don’t have to worry about them until morning when Dad will open the front door for me and I can count them again.” “Chief,” she says with quite a stern tone, “I mean it, you have to go and lift your leg. Now!” “Oh, that’s what she wants! Why didn’t she just say so. I guess I’ll make her happy and do that.” “Good boy, Chiefie,” she says. “Gosh, it doesn’t take much to make her happy does it?” “Come on Mom. For goodness sake, let’s get up to bed, it’s cold out here and the dew is making my paws wet.” He runs up the stairs impatiently ahead of her. When she gets to bed he is spread across her side, eyes closed. Is it really possible he has fallen asleep that quickly? “Chief,” she whispers, “Chief, can you move please?” Nothing, steady breathing. She creeps into bed shaping herself like a pretzel around him. “Goodnight Chief, sleep well.” “Hmmm, I wonder if I should reward her with a lick? She loves it when I do that, but then she’ll know I’m actually awake and will ask me to move, and I don’t want to do that!” Silence, no movement. “Chief, if you could just move a little bit.” He opens one eye. She can’t see because the room is dark. “Go to sleep Mom, you know you love to feel me snuggled near you.” She doesn’t say anything, then with a smile and a sigh, she says. “Good boy. Chief. I love to feel you safe and sound near me.” “Ach, I told you so!!!…Gotta love humans.”
•
(Photo/Patricia Vazquez)
28 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, March 29, 2019
music
All that brass Dem Island Boyz create new Bahamian sound By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features Reporter | acadet@tribunemedia.net
D
em Island Boyz are the newest band to hit the local entertainment scene and they officially made their debut last Saturday at the Philosophy Smokehouse, West Nassau. The members of the brass band are Lazano Rolle, Jeremy Lightbourne, Lamar Plohmus, Kenneth Josey, Lionel Ferguson Jr, Tabori Dean, John Evans and Trevor Hutcheson. In an interview with Tribune Weekend, Trevor said the group wants to showcase a new facet of Bahamian music. “Our genre is a fusion of Bahamian music with a New Orleans brass band sound. However, we play a blend of pop, rock, reggae, and of course good Bahamian music,” said Trevor, noting that they soon hope to perform original material as well. The idea for the Dem Island Boyz began to take shape last summer, explained Trevor. “At that time I reached out to other musicians who I thought would be receptive to the idea and a good fit as it relates to sound and personality wise,” he said. “So far, the journey has been incredible. We have learned so much in the few short months that we have been together, as we are creating a new concept and sound of music in the Bahamas. It has been both a challenge and a great learning experience.” And things have gone more smoothly than anticipated. “We are really all enjoying creating and innovating together. The key to keeping everyone focused is having fun and doing something you love,” said Trevor. And while they want to create something new, they also sought to pay
Jeremy Lightbourne
homage to those who came before them and put Bahamian music on the map. They did this with the choice of the band’s name. “ ‘Island Boy’ is a classic Bahamian song sung both by King Eric and Baha Men, true Bahamian musicians,” said Trevor. To find out what’s in store for Dem Island Boyz, follow the band’s Facebook page at ‘dem island boyz brass band’.
Lamar Plohmus
Lionel Ferguson Jr.
Tabori Dean
Lazano Rolle in the foreground
Trevor Hutcheson