Friday, October 6, 2017
film books music travel history gardening television animals
Weekend Journey of hope Bahamian film tells trafficking story Interview, pages 4&5
ENHANCE YOUR FITNESS Page 16
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Friday, October 6, 2017
health
Survivor’s story brings beauty out of the darkness By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net
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REAST cancer survivor Rika Cargill was captivated when she saw for the first time an artwork that tells her story, through the eyes of its creator. Rika’s compelling survivorship tale was interpreted and translated into a “fascinating work of art” by a Chicagobased artist. She was among many others, including fellow Bahamian and bone cancer survivor Erin Brown, paired with international artists to have their story told as part of the ‘Brushes with Cancer’ initiative. The project is spearheaded by Twist Out Cancer, an organisation founded in Chicago by Jenna Benn Shersher. The aim is to provide psycho-social support to cancer survivors and their loved ones through creative arts. The initiative matches artists with those touched by cancer to create unique pieces of artwork reflective of their journey. Over a period of four months, 50 selected pairs of artists and survivors connect in person, via Skype, on the phone or by e-mail. Their relationships are guided and supported by Twist Out Cancer volunteers with the intention of creating a support system for both the artist and the subject. The programme finishes on a high note with a signature celebratory art exhibition, gala and auction where the artwork is revealed for the first time. Rika was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in August 2014. Since then she has demonstrated much courage
and openly shares her story in the hope it helps others who may be experiencing the same thing. It was for this reason she made the decision to participate in the ‘Brushes with Cancer’ initiative. She was paired with Hayley Serruya of Chicago who produced a mix media art rendering entitled “I Am the Cure”. Hayley said: “Rika is an explosion of positivity and beauty. She is a strong fighter who I was honoured to get to know. Listening to Rika’s perseverance was a refreshing
experience. She is a sage. The work expess the feeling that out of the void can come beauty and colour and sparkles.” As for Rika the entire experience left her feeling more empowered than ever. “This experience empowered me even more as a cancer survivor. It helps you to focus on the good that can come out of something that’s not so good. It was celebration of life with people who truly know the meaning of being alive. The moment captivated me in its entirety of beauty and happiness,” she said.
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Friday, October 6, 2017
Inside Weekend Interview 4-5 The film industry has its eyes on Cargo - an action-filled human drama shot exclu- sively in New Providence.
Television 7 It’s back, Happy Foods season seven
Travel 8-9 Ianthia Smith lives the high life in Napa Valley
Music 11 It’s not just men who can play the drums
Books 12 Reviews of some of the top new releases
History 13 The story of the slave who ran away from an American President
Charity 14-15 Behind the scenes at Paradise Plates
Health and Fitness 16-17 Regina Smith explains Pilates
Film 18 Blade Runner’s back but does it hit the mark?
Gardening 19 Jack Hardy explains what needs to be done in the garden this month
Music 20-21 Cool and contemporary - the Charlestown Boys
Literary Lives 22-24 Sir Christopher Ondaatje explores the life of jazz legend Louis Armstrong
Animals 27 Who are the deadliest creatures - that’ll be us
My perfect Bahamian weekend Láttia International singer Q. Saturday brunch or Sunday lunch? Even though I truly enjoy spending time with my friends on Saturdays when we get together and have brunch, I love being with my family for Sunday lunch more. They are the most important people in my life. They keep me grounded and Sunday seems like the only day of the week that we get to sit at the table and enjoy each others company. Q. Beach or sofa? I don’t get to sit down as much as I like and enjoy a nice movie or watch TV on the sofa. I always have time for the beach. I love the way the water makes me feel and the sand in my toes, and it’s a place my family and I get to be free, let go and just be crazy Q. Rum, wine, cocktail or Kalik? I prefer water or a soft drink, but if I have to choose one it would be wine. I love a good Moscato like Bera. After a great performance I may pick up a few bottles to celebrate with friends.
Q. What is the one thing you can’t live without? To be honest, there is more than one thing but I will narrow it down to three things - God, family and chap stick. I have it on all day and all night; I don’t exist without chap stick.
Q. Weekend away, where would you go and why? I enjoy making memories with my daughter at the Atlantis Resort. She is in love with the marine life and constantly learning about it. I go to Island House to watch a private movie or have dinner; I
love sushi so I definitely would go to Social House during my weekend away; I also love to visit Albany - it’s like being in New Providence but feeling like you are in a totally different place.
Things 2 Do this weekend Friday Pineapple Down Venue: Pirate Republic Time: 8pm Grab a brew and dance along to all your favourite covers and originals with Pineapple Down tonight at the Pirate Republic. • The Current Presents: Judith Papillon Venue: The Current Gallery at Baha Mar Time: 7pm Everyone is invited to attend the exhibition celebrating artworks by Judith Papillon. All pieces will be for sale.
Saturday
• Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk Bahamas Venue: Straw Market Time: 10am The walk will be exciting and begins at the iconic Pompey Art Museum. Walkers will make their way through the heart of Nassau, passing by cultural buildings and landmarks. • Cancer Society of the Bahamas Annual Bingo Night Venue: Superclub Breezes, Sea Breeze Ballroom Time: 7pm The event promises to be a night of fun for the whole family. Funds
raised will aid the Cancer Caring Center.
Sunday
• Issa Jouvert Venue: Botanical Gardens Time: 6pm-2am YBE Promotions presents the jouvert of all j’ouverts featuring paint, powder and water. • Cool Down Sundays Venue: Balmoral Club Time: 7pm You can either shake a leg or sit back and relax to the smooth sounds of Tingum Dem Band.
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Friday, October 6, 2017
interview
Seven year journey to tell story of hope and despair By FELICITY INGRAHAM
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he day has finally come when a million-dollar movie production is filmed right in The Bahamas by a Bahamian. And now the film industry has its eyes on Cargo - an action-filled human drama shot exclusively in New Providence. It’s been a seven year labour of love for Kareem J. Mortimer, who felt compelled to tell the the sort of human interest stories that would grab public attention and inspire them to make
a positive change for humanity. As a filmmaker he didn’t just want to just enjoy his art form. He wanted to create pieces which would compel people to stop, think and be proactive. Cargo was written and directed by 36-year-old Mortimer, already an acclaimed Bahamian filmmaker with a passion for his country. The film tells the story of Kevin, an exiled American with a gambling addiction now living in Nassau, who takes a job smuggling Haitians to Florida in a desperate bid to support his family. “Cargo was a long journey,” says Kareem.
“I began writing it in late 2009/ early 2010 after completing my first two feature films. It took nearly seven years to get all the financing together but in the meantime, I directed a short version inspired by the feature called Passage that took me around the world.” Passage won both an African Movie Academy Award and Bahamian Icon Award in 2015. In the Bahamas, people smuggling has resulted in the death of many who considered the disparaging conditions in their native land and felt compelled to risk their very lives in hopes of a new and brighter one. Children,
pregnant woman and the elderly are among the hopeless numbers who put their souls in the hands of human smugglers with unfit and overladen sea vessels, taking the journey through Bahamian waters. Our more than 100,000 square miles of ocean remains a vital link between the “hell” that so many call home and their insatiable desire to live the American dream. Cargo seeks to tap into the minds and hearts of the people who make this journey and of those who take their hard earned money without any surety or safety, breaking local and
Friday, October 6, 2017
international laws for the sake of getting rich. “To sustain a project for seven years,” Kareem says, “takes a strong belief and passion for the story, because the journey was not easy.” In 2013, Kareem received an offer of $1 million to produce Cargo with the caveat the film be produced in Puerto Rico. With no state subsidies for the local film industry in The Bahamas, producing the film in his native land meant much higher production costs. Yet despite higher costs, Kareem and his crew made the very important decision to shoot exclusively here instead of Puerto Rico. “This is a Bahamian film,” Kareem beamed. “We were resolute in producing it here, in The Bahamas, the place we call home, the place that inspired this film.” “My films are essentially my attempt to try and understand a world that sometimes can be confusing to me. I am interested in themes of identity and I am rooted in my Bahamian identity.” Kareem adds: “Nicolette Bethel once told me that Bahamians have a unique take on the world that people need to see - and I agree. With this project inparticular, it was important that I stay true to my Bahamian culture.” He grew up in New Providence and spent the long summers watching Supervideo VHS tapes and reading the Encyclopedia. “I also spent a great deal of time with my great-grandmother who would tell me these fantastic stories about her life that were incredibly visual and powerful. We only heard stories like these but never saw them in any cinema, which I would have loved to have seen.” In high school, Kareem began writing plays and poetry which laid the groundwork for him writing his own scripts. “I have always been in love with telling stories; my paternal grandmother and I would bond over watching movies. Movies and literature enabled me to escape into a world of fantasy and enforced the belief that anything is possible. I actually wrote it down in a journal what I wanted to do, prayed about it and waited for it to show up.” Today, those prayers are showing up in a big way for Kareem. On Thursday, October 19, CARGO will premier with a red carpet event at the Atlantis Resort’s Movie Theatre, sponsored by the resort along with Aliv, whose executives are excited to be a part of Bahamian film history in the making.
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CARGO, produced by Bahamian production company Best Ever Film Ltd., won a Bahamian Icon Award ahead of its release and stars Warren Brown, Gessica Geneus, Omar J. Dorsey, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Persia White and Sky Nicole Gray. Crew began filming in October 2015. More than 80 Bahamians worked on the film, serving as the heads of major parts of the production team including Locations, Production Design, Catering and Hair and Make-Up. Cargo stars talented Bahamian actors as well as established and recognisable British, American, Jamaican and Haitian actors. Kareem is an award-winning Bahamian filmmaker and video artist whose work has been distributed in more than 40 countries. Over his career, he has won more than 30 awards for his projects. His work has been reviewed by the New York Times, Variety, IndieWire and The Hollywood Reporter. While Cargo has screened to a sold-out audience at the Miami Film Festival, with a second-day encore due to high demand - Nassau marks the first commercial release of the film. The Cargo trailer, which has gone viral on social media receiving for more than 4,000 shares in just four days, can be viewed online and tickets to the premiere can be purchased at www.cargopremiere.com. Tickets are also available at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and Doongalik Studios. There will be an opportunity to engage with the film’s stars on the red carpet and meet crew, such as Cargo producer Alexander I. Younis. Warren Brown and Omar J. Dorsey will be in attendance.
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Friday, October 6, 2017
section
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Friday, October 6, 2017
television
Host of Happy Foods 242, Sasha L. Lightbourne
Lights, camera - cook By ALESHA CADET Tribune Features Writer acadet@tribunemedia.net
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T’S THAT time again - another year, another television series of Happy Foods 242. Season seven will feature ten new episodes airing weekly on Cable 12’s Channel 212 and opens up tomorrow at 6:30pm with the spotlight on The Ocean Club’s Dune Restaurant. Episodes will continue at 7pm on Saturdays and for viewers who’ve missed it the show is repeated on Tuesdays at 8pm. With host Sasha L Lightbourne centre stage viewers can look forward to the same enthusiasm, passion and drive this lively young Bahamian has given since the show’s
2014 inception. Highlighting both private and pastry chefs, bartenders and foodies throughout the country, the show will explore new venues and experiences. Describing the first episode as one that is near and dear to her heart, Sasha said the Ocean Club has always been one of her favourite places to eat and one of the most challenging to get on the show. “So many things happened: management changed, there were menu changes, timetables were bad, meetings upon meetings upon meetings and then we had a few hurricanes. I just thought it never was going to happen but I was persistent,” she said. Sasha gave special thanks to Cara Deveaux, Sales and PR Manager at the Ocean Club, for helping the episode happen.
“Seven is a special number to me. It’s the number of completion in the Bible, and I consider this a perfect season to be honest, so what better way than to have what I consider a perfect place in Ocean Club where you will get to see a day in the life at The Dune. Some major international shows don’t make it to seven seasons and this has been hard work, blood, sweat and tears, but this one feels different, it is special for sure,” Sasha told Tribune Weekend. For Sasha, this specific season is indeed considered a milestone in her career as an entrepreneur. She said the production team has come a long way from simply holding a mic and shooting basic camera footage behind the scenes. “We have also come a long way from borrowing clothes to shoot scenes to now having the opportunity to keep what I wear. We have come a long way
from no sponsors to major sponsorship through the ALIV team. We also have new equipment, something we try to have every season. This is definitely a milestone for not just me but the entire team, something we can tell our great grandchildren about,” said Sasha. On the journey thus far, Sasha has learned the importance of patience, business skills and the power of social media and branding. “I have cemented the teaching that God above all and everything else will fall into place. Besides, the show is fun. Who doesn’t want to get paid to eat? We do it for the fans and for the people who are dedicated to watching. I built this show from scratch with no money and no real plan, all God. To let it die, would be a shame. We have come this far by faith. I hate to sound so preachy but this show stands on the foundation of prayer and God,” said Sasha.
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Friday, October 6, 2017
travel
Navigating Napa - a Week in Wine Country
By IANTHIA SMITH Travel Blogger o-one tells you that you need to take more than just money (lots of it), fancy resort wear and… even more money to Napa Valley, California. Infact, I’d suggest you also tag along overactive taste buds, a high tolerance for wine and a designated driver when heading to this famous Wine Country. You see and read the stories about this luxurious slice of America in movies and books all the time, but visiting Napa Valley first hand is an experience like no other. The hilly and mountainous terrain with miles of freshly manicured farms and vineyards stretch along the lengthy windy roads. It’s a welcome change from the usual busy city centres that swallow me up when I usually travel to the United States. It’s not New York City, Miami Beach nor Atlanta. It’s California’s countryside. It’s quiet, slow paced and perfect for the adult who wants to enjoy a real vacation and a food and wine tour.
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In Napa Valley, it’s ok to wake up late and enjoy a mid-morning brunch in a little red barn that sits just off the highway. In Napa Valley, it’s absolutely normal to replace your morning coffee with wine or a mimosa and swap your 10am conference call for a wine tour.
Napa Valley is plush and settled. And if you’re scurrying around from mall to mall trying to find the latest buy, you’re sorely out of place and you feel it. Shopping comes in at a distant second, or third, to wine tasting and wine buying.
Napa’s vineyards are welcoming; their aromas, intoxicating. They sprawl along acres of healthy earth and boast of rows and rows of vines, laden down with ripe, sweet grapes. I arrived at the Kunde Family Winery around 1pm, full off of brunch but ready to wash it all down. I pulled up a table with my party and ordered the five-course wine tasting package. Five specialty wines pulled just for us, two whites and three reds, paired with expensive cheese and breadsticks. We spent the majority of the day there, learning about the pirate after whom one of the wines is named and another named after the Kunde German family who migrated to the United States some decades ago. It’s hard to keep up with the history lesson while drinking some of the finest wines in the world. Midway through the tasting, I missed much of what the sommelier was teaching us about the wines as my sister and I tipsily chatted away about nothing. We swirled, sniffed, swished, but opted to swallow rather than spit. The wines were way too good to go to waste.
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Before we knew it, the sun was setting on the lake in front of us. The smell of fermented grapes was trapped in the still evening air, further adding to our intoxication. Our wine tours were booked well before our arrival to Napa Valley. September is the busiest time of year there so it’s best to plan ahead. Robert Mondavi’s name is synonymous with Napa Valley and winemaking. We visited the Mondavi Estate, what is perhaps Napa Valley’s most renowned and revered winery. It’s beautiful. We booked a cellar wine tasting and tour, which took us in a fancy glass room in the corner of the distillery. We had to weave through rows of wooden barrels filled with wine ready to be shipped and sipped to get to our tasting session. We were treated to six of Mondavi’s finest wines, again paired with cheese and bread. While the wine was delightful, I found that the grapes they’re made from are even tastier. On our way into and out of each winery we visited, we stopped in the vineyards to pick grapes. I was blown away at how bright, bountiful and full they were! Purple and green grapes grew in thick bunches in their respective rows. They were so rich and sweet and free. The guilt that usually follows you around the grocery store while you shop and eat a whole bag of grapes, wasn’t there; though we weren’t so sure we should be picking the grapes in the first place. Some of the most highly rated restaurants reside in Napa Valley; Michelin star eateries require reservations be made a minimum of four months in advance if you want to get in. With wines this refined and rich on our palettes, the food options had to be the perfect complement, and everything we ate definitely was. Our days mostly started with dessert wine and pastries; like the English muffin from Model Bakery which made Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list in 2016. I had to have it. And when I did, I saw just why “Auntie Oprah” loved it. The buttery, crispy bite was coated with butter and homemade blackberry jam that melted on my lips. The line at Bouchon Bakery snaked along the sidewalk for what seemed like miles. But the popular Frenchstyled bake house famous for their
Servers who moved in sharp synchronization as if they’d been taught choreography; hostesses who knew my name and profession before I even arrived and a handwritten bill at the end of the night let me know exactly why the waiting list for a spot here extends to the end of January next year. We dined on caviar, oysters, foie gras and avocado, an eggplant dessert and so many other dishes; I ate myself to amnesia. This certainly set the tone for our other dinners for the entire trip. We were constantly on the hunt for gourmet food and we weren’t leaving Napa without it. Morimoto Sushi Restaurant certainly met the standards already set in place. The eclectic and chic spot made famous by Japanese chef and Iron Chef America TV show star Masaharu Morimoto, served me some of the best sushi I’ve ever had in my life. I took a break from wine that night and sipped on the restaurant’s cocktails. Tailored to perfection and spot on are the best ways to describe the drinks that, I dare say, rival Napa’s fine wines. And then there was Ad Hoc, the Bouchon Bistro, Grace’s Table, ABC Restaurant and The Boon Fly Café that served up the best breakfasts, lunches, brunches and dinners. A Napa Valley food and wine tour is perfect for anyone wanting to enjoy an adult vacation and indulge themselves on gourmet. Again, take a designated driver… they don’t call it wine country for nothing!
Where are you off to next?
Keep up with my travel adventures by visiting my website www. ianthia-smith.comand following me on Instagram and Twitter @iamianthia and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube page for my travel vlogs; youtube.com/c/ianthiasmith.
Napa Valley Facts: almond croissants and salted caramel latte is so worth the wait. French breads, more English muffin, cookies, caramel pop corn, macaroons, pies, cupcakes, quiches; Bouchon Bakery is, simultaneously a foodie’s paradise and nightmare. Our first night in Napa we dined at The Restaurant at Meadowood. It’s a super exclusive; invite only, reservation only Michelin Guide Three-Star restaurant which also received a Condé
Nast Traveler Readers Choice Award in 2016 and a Travel + Leisure, World’s Best Award that same year. I was still jet lagged from the sixhour flight so it never really dawned on me what it meant to take in a 15-course meal. And this wasn’t just any 15-course meal. It was gourmet, it was decadent and rich, it was fresh and my taste buds told me the entire meal was made with so much love.
How I got there: Round trip flight via Jet Blue. A short flight to Fort Lauderdale and then a six-hour flight to San Francisco How much it cost: Budget at least $3,000 for a party of two Best time to go: Late August to early October. The weather is so nice around this time and the place is buzzing with activity like outdoor concerts and events.
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Friday, October 6, 2017
fashion
Au revoir from an awe-struck Paris
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he Paris sun shone through the Grand Palais glass ceiling, past Chanel’s awestruck celebrity guests, until it formed a rainbow on a 50-foot waterfall at Paris Fashion Week. Showman designer Karl Lagerfeld outdid even himself this season, creating a lush indoor canyon replete with six spectacular waterfalls — all for a 20 minute show on Tuesday. It vied for attention on the final day of Paris Fashion Week with a stellar Louis Vuitton cast list that saw actresses Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander and Michelle Williams chatting together on the front row. “It’s just incredible,” exclaimed movie director Baz Luhrmann as he breathed in the fresh, moist air from his Chanel front row. He joined actress Monica Bellucci and supermodel Cindy Crawford at Lagerfeld’s latest spectacle, which paid homage to the Verdon Gorge, France’s answer to the Grand Canyon, at Chanel’s show. Artisans spent two months recreating a life-like replica of the French natural wonder located in Provence. The setting, with myriad mossy rocks and waving trees, left guests reaching for their cameras. It was also a welcome moment of tranquility away from the nearby Champs-Elysees avenue’s urban bustle. The falling water of the show’s decor filtered into Chanel’s spring-summer styles as gentle aquatic tones, playful waterproof garments and beautiful interlocking layers that cascaded down models’ torsos. Model-of-the-minute Kaia Gerber opened the show in a loose woven tweed jacket with strong ‘80s shoulders in pale blue, paired with sheer PVC boots and a waterproof hat. Her mother Cindy Crawford watched from the front row. Elsewhere, a hazy lacy outer layer on an oversize white chiffon blouse resembled a ripple of water. Lagerfeld delicately captured the waterfall backdrop motif in the
A model wears a creation for Louis Vuitton’s SpringSummer 2018 ready-to-wear fashion collection presented Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017 in Paris. AP PHOTO/KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU
A model wears a creation for Miu Miu Spring-Summer 2018 ready-towear fashion collection presented Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017 in Paris. AP PHOTO/FRANCOIS MORI
A model wears a creation for the Chanel Spring/Summer 2018 readyto-wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Oct., 2017. AP PHOTO/FRANCOIS MORI
strongest of the collection’s 88 pieces: a shaggy soft pink sweater whose threads hung down onto a limp ruffled skirt evoking underwater flora. “Moulin Rouge” director Baz Luhrmann said Lagerfeld is much more than a fashion designer. “I’ve always said if the day job doesn’t work out for Karl, he’d be the world’s greatest opera director. He does truly create opera,” said Luhrmann, who cut his cloth as an opera director before finding global renown with the breakout movie “Romeo and Juliet.” Luhrmann said Lagerfeld’s Grand Palais displays — which have included a reconstructed Eiffel Tower, an imported forest, a space ship and a supermarket — stand out for his sense of “exalting and heightening the spirit.” A royal setting spawned a regal show for Louis Vuitton. Designer Nicolas Ghesquiere clearly had an eye on the history of Paris’ Louvre, the Louis Vuitton show venue, in producing his accomplished spring collection that capped Fashion Week. Designs sparkled in gold, silver and pastel colors, mirroring the regal styles of the Bourbon King Louis XIV who moved the court from the Louvre to Versailles in the 1600s. Injected in that, of course, were flashes of the contemporary — sneakers and elasticated shorts — giving the historic musing a stylish streetwise kick. The Rococo, the epoch where fashions for embroideries reached their peak, was evoked in a silver-and-blue embroidered jacket that opened the show with its stiff period collar. An embroidered coat with square shoulders cut a fine silhouette in shimmering gold. Elsewhere, a sleek black leather knee-length dress with a sports collar had a regal presence with a tight bodice and large ruffles in the skirt. One historic-style dress sported a sweeping white flounce from the bust
that descended into thick black leather ruffles. It seemed to defy gravity. To an acid yellow backdrop, Miu Miu presented a study in colorful contrast. Miuccia Prada’s little sister brand has turned quirky into a global empire, and Tuesday’s show was a case in point. Opening the show, a masculine knitted retro tank top with taupe and Persian blue chevrons set the tone — paired with cropped pants and contrasting long salmon-colored stockings. This collection tried its hardest to be unsexy. Bright yellow socks were worn under leather sandals — served up against an oversize tuxedo jacket. The brand’s signature eccentric contrasts cropped up in the form of colorful check patterning and stylish floral embroideries on high-necked gowns. With great fanfare, Louis Vuitton hosted one of the biggest celebrityfilled soirees of the season Monday night to inaugurate its new store on the Place Vendome. The glitzy cocktail party drew stars including Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Michelle Williams, Jennifer Connelly, Lea Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve. They wandered, champagne in hand, around the sprawling multi-level store filled with clothing, jewelry, watches and perfumes as well as artisan workshops. The luxury powerhouse staged the party to reflect the symbolic importance of the chic Place Vendome, where a young Louis Vuitton created his firstever shop 160 years ago. The celebration continued well into the night with performances by Will Smith and his son Jaden. THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press
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Friday, October 6, 2017
music
Beating a path for women to follow By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer jgibson@tribunemedia.net
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Bahamian percussionist Gia Smith
ITH her upcoming showcase Bahamian percussionist Gia Smith is seeking to change the mindset that “women don’t beat drums”. It is a way of thinking she said that has stopped many women who have an interest in playing the instrument, dead in their tracks. But when her showcase “Beat Like a Girl” opens on Sunday, Gia will set out to prove the drums are not an instrument just for men, but something women can excel at it too. “Beat Like a Girl” will be held at Potential Church beginning at 7.30pm and proceeds from the event will go towards Gia’s continuing education at the University of the Bahamas where she majors in Music. However, she hopes to embark on studies abroad. Gia first started drumming when just seven-years-old. And the first song she played was “This is the Day.” “I have a saying that’s goes like this, ‘drums are the heart of music’ and that is what inspired me to beat. The rhythm of the drums kept me intrigued and wanting to know how I can make my own beat,” she said. As she developed as a musician, Gia found an inner satisfaction that she could release her own sound and inspire others. “I can be myself and follow the beat of God’s heart. And that I can even heal with my drums while also bringing life to things that may seem dead. My favourite style of music is both pop and contemporary/
gospel,” she said. Drumming has been dominated by males but Gia’s desire is to see more women embrace the instrument. “Today there are more women who play than before but still less than men. However, many men think I am not as strong or able to play the drums as well as they do. That can bring fear and doubt because there are no other female drummers to inspire you especially here in the Bahamas,” she said. Despite that, Gia believes when other women see her talent and success on stage more of them will be drawn to the instrument. “I’ve heard so may females say I want to learn or you make me want to learn, but their response after that is always ‘oh women don’t play drums or I won’t last long and make any money from it’ so now that I am showcasing that drumming is for women and that you can be utterly successful this should start a movement for life,” she said.
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Friday, October 6, 2017
books This image released by Da Capo Press shows “Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC,” by Reed Tucker.
review
How Marvel claimed the comic throne
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arvel is arguably king of the comics world now. But it used to be a bottom feeder, pumping out uninspired titles that exploited popular trends — romance, monsters, whatever. Rival DC, the home of Superman and Batman, was the clear leader in the field. That changed starting in 1961. A comic-biz lifer named Stan Lee took a different approach when coming up with an answer to DC’s popular Justice League superhero team. With the Fantastic Four, Lee began scripting characters for Marvel who had feet of clay in their thigh-high boots. Heroes like Spider Man, Iron Man and the Hulk worried about money, getting dates and being different. They talked like neurotics and wise guys. And they were drawn in a dramatically over-the-top style, most notably by Jack Kirby. Characters throwing a punch looked like they were hurling a javelin. Marvel’s ascendency started a decades-long battle with DC. “Slugfest” author Reed Tucker calls the
The flawed detective “THE Dark Lake” (Grand Central Publishing), by Sarah Bailey Some high school memories remain into adulthood, returning to haunt you about the person you used to be — a situation that Detective Sgt. Gemma Woodstock is uncomfortably reminded of in the enthralling “The Dark Lake.” Sarah Bailey’s debut delivers a multilayered police procedural with strong
DA CAPO PRESS VIA AP
competing companies “the Coke and Pepsi of Spandex,” and their long struggle for supremacy played out first in candy stores, then specialty comic shops and finally on the big screen.
In the early years, Marvel creators were like the cool kids to DC’s stuffy, establishment types. Marvel staffers would joke that DC heroes were so blandly similar that you could swap
characters whose emotions both assist and interfere with their work. “The Dark Lake” also balances an intricate story of a community with an intimate look at police detectives. Gemma investigates the murder of Rosalind “Rose” Ryan, found in the lake behind the private school the two had attended and where Rose taught. In high school, Gemma was a bit obsessed with Rose, a popular but private teenager from one of the wealthier families in Smithson, Australia. The case also makes Gemma remember her high school boyfriend, Jacob Mason,
who left her for Rose, and the secrets that swirled around his suicide. Gemma and her police partner, Detective Sgt. Felix McKinnon, delve into Rose’s fractured family, her seemingly adoring students and her aloof personality. Gemma’s insight as a detective directly conflicts with her messy personal life. She lives with her partner, Scott, and their two-year-old son, Ben. She wants to be a good mother and companion, but ennui roils off her. Her affair with Felix consumes her, although she knows it could ruin their careers as well as her life with Scott.
the word balloons among them and no one would notice. Executives at DC looked down their noses at the upstarts, until they couldn’t anymore because they were getting clobbered at the newsstand. Then they started copying their competitor. The intervening decades were marked by the two companies poaching artists and writers from each other, swiping comic concepts and often acting petty about the whole thing. When DC revived an old character named Captain Marvel in 1972, Marvel asserted its legal rights to that name based on its own character. DC had to call its new comic book “Shazam!” The story of Marvel’s David toppling DC’s Goliath is a fun one, and Tucker tells it well. He packs it with anecdotes and insights from the editors, writers, artists and assistants who were there. If the story loses its zing after a while, it’s only because the early buccaneer spirit was smothered by increasing corporatization. Today, Marvel Entertainment is part of the Walt Disney Co. and DC Entertainment is part of Warner Bros. Turns out, the greatest power comic heroes have is they are cash cows for movie and TV producers. Even a minor character like Ant Man can get his own movie. Tucker notes the genre took in $1.9 billion in 2016, almost 17 percent of the movie market share. With money from a global market at stake, movies with both DC and Marvel characters tend to be based on the hero archetypes perfected decades ago: the solemn one, the cheeky one, the internally tortured one. Sometimes, you could almost swap out script lines among the different studios’ heroes and no one would notice. Her sometimes reckless behavior also puts Felix’s marriage at risk and could turn his three daughters against him. Gemma’s flaws make her immensely human — and her struggles relatable. Readers may occasionally want to shake Gemma and tell her to get her life together, but they are always on her side. Bailey uses solid character development and superior storytelling, rather than violence, to fuel “The Dark Lake,” and she is off to an excellent start in this launch of a series. OLINE H. COGDILL Associated Press
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Friday, October 6, 2017
history
The slave who ran away from George Washington
S
tepping off a boat in a New Hampshire port in 1796, 22-year-old Ona Judge was on the run from the family of President George Washington. Judge, who was born into slavery and served Martha Washington for most of her young life, had slipped away from the president’s official residence when the capital was in Philadelphia and boarded a ship as the Washingtons prepared to return to their plantation house in Mount Vernon, Virginia. With a $10 reward posted for her capture, Judge knew she had to keep a low profile. She turned to the network of free blacks in Portsmouth for help. “She gets off the boat. She is in a strange place,” said JerriAnne Boggis, director of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail. “She comes to Portsmouth and there is a dearth of people of colour. So, she has got to be scared. She has been scared the whole time not knowing where she is going.” The story of Judge’s escape and life on the run in New Hampshire is the subject of Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s book “Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.” Dunbar was named this as a finalist for this year’s US National Book Awards. The book has sparked renewed interest in Judge’s life. The Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail is offering a tour of sites in the seacoast city associated with Judge and is looking to fund a trolley that would bring visitors to the site of Judge’s last home nearby in Greenland, New Hampshire. The tour in Portsmouth starts with the wharf near Prescott Park, the focal point of the slave trade for much of the 1700s in Portsmouth. Judge arrived on a ship called “Nancy” as the slave trade was in decline in New Hampshire. From there, visitors walk past several historic homes that played a critical role in the near-decade Judge spent in the city, the church where she was married and the market where she was spotted by a family friend of the Washingtons — an event that almost led to her being captured. “Her story, her life reflects this underdog story in the most underdoggish of
THIS photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017 in Portsmouth, N.H., shows the Macphaedris-Warner House which was home to at least eight slaves in the 1700s, including John Jack who would later offer shelter to Ona Judge, a George Washington family slave who escaped to New Hampshire. AP PHOTO/MICHAEL CASEY
ways,” said Dunbar, a Rutgers University history professor. “She was technically human property and was owned by the most important family in the new nation. Even with that being the case, she was able to carve out a life for herself. Ona’s story represents what many enslaved (individuals) wished, longed for and that was a chance to be an independent person.” Meaghan Dunn, a University of New Hampshire lecturer who had brought a group of students on a recent black history tour, said she was struck that Judge “was here, hiding here and there was a community that was hiding her.” “We don’t have a very in-depth history of slavery in our schools. But when we hear about slavery, it seems to be something that is just in the South,” she said. “We don’t think about the connection we have up here to slavery and the history of African-Americans.” Dunbar and others also said Judge’s story offers an opportunity to present a more complicated portrait of Washington — moving “beyond cherry trees and false teeth and to look at the George Washington who was sitting at the center of the biggest debate of what would become the new nation. That was the debate around slavery.” “Every reader who talks to me after they read the book says the same thing. They say, ‘I will never think about George and Martha Washington in
the same way,’” she said. “Washington was someone who had changing ideas about slavery but at the end of the day he was a slave holder.” Susan P. Schoelwer, the Robert H. Smith senior curator at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, agreed. “Did George Washington own slaves? Yes, he was human and he had flaws,” she said. “He changed his attitude during the course of his life. By freeing his slaves in his will, he definitely intended for that to be an example of what he saw as the future.” The Ona Judge tour ends in Portsmouth but Judge’s story continued on to the neighboring town of Greenland. Fearing that Washington’s men were closing in on her, Judge would flee in 1799 to the home of a free black family, Phillis and John Jacks, where she
remained until she died in 1848. Washington would die several months after Judge fled, followed several years after that by Martha Washington. No one else would come for Judge, but that didn’t mean life was easy. She was impoverished, often depended upon charity, and outlived her three children and husband. The site where Judge lived in a small house on a quarter acre of land has been given over to nature . Nothing is left of her house and the only sign that she was here is an unmarked burial site several hundred feet off a two-lane road, in which only the headstone of Phillis Jacks remains. Pottery shards have been found in a nearby creek as well as a horseshoe and some old nails. John Brackett, whose family has owned the land for generations, said he has seen more town residents knocking on his door curious about Judge. But he can’t say for sure where she is buried, although he is open to putting a marker near the site and even allowed researchers to use ground-penetrating radar to identify what they believe are several bodies there. “It’s quite likely she is buried out here with the Jacks family,” Brackett said, as he passed downed trees and a gurgling brook on the way to the burial site. MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press
IN this photo taken Friday, Sept. 29, 2017 in Greenland, N.H., John Brackett visits a burial site linked to a black family who offered shelter to Ona Judge, a slave who was owned by George Washington’s family and escaped to New Hampshire in 1796. The burial site is hidden in the woods on property owned by Brackett. AP PHOTO/MICHAEL CASEY
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fitness
Pilates: The Practice that Helps, Heals and Enhances Your Fitness Experience encouraging participants to lengthen the spine and sit on top of the sit bones (or tuberosity of the ischium, tuber ischiadicum).
By REGINA SMITH
T
he Pilates practice was founded by Joseph Pilates who was self-educated in anatomy, body building, dance, boxing, wrestling, martial arts, yoga and dance. During World War I British authorities placed him in an internment camp. It was there he created various mat exercises which he called “Contrology” to assist and rehabilitate wounded soldiers. Decades later contemporary instructors would use the term “Pilates” to describe his exercises and methodology. Joseph Pilates was quite the innovator and entrepreneur. His first pieces of equipment consisted of bedsprings rigged to headboards and foot boards of bed frames, transforming them into resistance types of equipment for disabled patients. The designs were early models of the Pilates Reformer and Pilates Cadillac. While it doesn’t seem like the most pulse pumping workout, contemporary Pilates styles have made the various exercises safer and more accessible to varying body types; and can work up quite the sweat! . Whether you’re a committed cross fitter or a professional sprinter there is an element of Pilates that can be beneficial to your fitness and athletic goals. Here are six reasons why you should make Pilates a regular part of your workout or training program.
Pilates corrects muscular imbalances.
Have you ever noticed that you can perform one exercise on one side of your body with ease, but you tend to struggle to complete that same exercise on the other side? The way in which Pilates exercises are structured, allows for the participant to develop equal strength in opposing muscle groups. Think about it, muscles work synergistically to produce movement. So they both have to be strong enough to produce the movement (or carry the load). If not, the stronger muscle in time will become over-worked. As a result injury will occur, not just to the series of muscles, but possibly to surrounding joints.
Pilates helps to increase core strength
In his teachings Joseph Pilates places special emphasis on the pelvic floor. A slight activation of the pelvic floor in turn activates the deepest layer of the abdominal muscles; the traversus abdominus. This deep layer of abdominals works with the spinal column rotators (multifidi) to stabilize the spinal column. Breathing is the first basic principle of the Pilates practice and instructors guide their students on the proper breath pattern and how to engage the pelvic floor. The Pilates three dimensional breathing is used throughout each exercise to instil effective muscle recruitment, balance and stability where necessary. Pilates helps to develop an awareness of where the body is in space. Each exercise requires effective muscle recruitment and a great deal of concentration.
Pilates Improves your Posture.
Studies have shown the average person spends nine hours a day sitting. You’re probably sitting as you read this. Don’t worry this is a no judging zone. Excessive time sitting has been linked to poor posture. Most often when we are sitting these days we are hunched over, intently staring into an electronic device. This repetitive action tends to lead to head forward, rounded shoulders and adaptive shortening of the hip flexors. The Pilates practice counteracts these poor biomechanics by
Pilates improves mental focus and mind body connection Regina Smith performs a contemporary Pilates style
As you continue to build on your practice and your instructor continues to add more exercises to keep the session challenging, you will find that the
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most difficult exercises in the Pilates repertoire require higher levels of concentration. Heavy emphasis is placed on the breath because anatomically the pattern of the breath directly affects the shape and the position of the spine. Pilates is definitely challenges your concentration and coordination . This may require a few extra brain synapses; but that’s what keeps our brain healthy, right?
Pilates enhances your mobility and flexibility
Pilates exercises encourage full range of motion through various joints. As humans we engage in dynamic movement patterns every day. We sit, stand, bend over, rotate backwards or rotate forward and upward. The contemporary Pilates methods has a plethora of exercises that cover all planes of movement. Pilates is a great practice in that the exercises, whether they be on the reformer, Cadillac, chair or barrel – allows for strength building movement to occur in all planes of movement. Pilates also enhances your dynamic flexibility. Pilates focuses more on dynamic flexibility as supposed to static stretching (holding a stretch for an extended period of time). This approach is high effective as we
Joseph Pilates, inventor of Pilates engage in dynamic movements on a daily basis.
Pilates can facilitate relief from chronic lower back pain
It is always recommended to get clearance from your physician before engaging in any form of exercise. Back pain can be disc related, a result of shortened QL muscles, stenosis, spondylolisthesis, back muscle strain or sprain. Still building up a stronger core? No sweat! Pilates helps to develop core muscles that can help participants avoid lower back pain or strain. Pilate’s studios also various apparatuses such as the spine supporter or spine corrector which offer support to the spine during exercises. It is not unusual for instructors to provide one of several modifications that will also help to avoid discomfort due to previous injury, improper movement or poor biomechanics. In short, a regular Pilates practice has proven to be beneficial to all athletes and fitness enthusiast along the spectrum. It is
recommended that you practice at least two times per week. A practice exclusively explored and practice by Hollywood has now become a practice available to all. This quote by Pilates himself says it all, “ Contrology (Pilates) develops the body uniformly, corrects wrong postures, restores vitality, invigorates the mind and elevates the spirit. In ten sessions you’ll feel the difference. In twenty you’ll see the difference, and in thirty you’ll have a whole new body.”
• Regina T Smith is a certified personal trainer. She also holds certifications in Pilates, Barre Fitness and TRX. She can be reached for consultations and appointments at 357-3561 or by email: regina. tonia.smith@gmail.com. Connect with her on Facebook: Regina Smith or follow her journey on instagram: ginag_cpt
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film WARNER BROS. PICTURES VIA AP
review
Bad habits break the Blade Runner spell BLADE RUNNER 2049 RUNNING TIME: 163 MINS
A scene from “Blade Runner 2049.”
“W
e’re all just looking out for something real,” says Robin Wright’s police captain in “Blade Runner 2049.” Wright, an icy, steely actress seemingly born for the world of “Blade Runner,” is speaking to her replicant detective whose name is his serial number: KDC-3-7 — or “K,” for short (Ryan Gosling). But it’s a line that resonates beyond the robotic reality of “Blade Runner.” What contemporary moviegoer won’t nod with understanding? Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi neo-noir original extracted the frightful premise of Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” — the horror of not knowing if you’re real or not — and overlaid it across an eerie and mesmerizing sci-fi void. Its slick surfaces and the radically atmospheric synthesizer score by Vangelis — not to mention Daryl Hannah’s hair and some serious shoulder pads — made “Blade Runner” an electric portrait of ‘80s soullessness. Its futuristic grandeur came with a cynical shrug. Denis Villeneuve’s impressively crafted and deeply respectful sequel, set 30 years later, has — more than most of its rebooting ilk — carefully preserved much of the original’s DNA. The photography, by Roger Deakins, is resolutely gorgeous, filled with stark perpendicular lines, glowing orange hazes and yellow pools of reflected light. Gosling, a worthy heir to Harrison Ford, shares his predecessor’s
Picture shows Ryan Gosling, left, and Harrison Ford in a scene from “Blade Runner 2049.” STEPHEN VAUGHAN/WARNER BROS. PICTURES VIA AP
inclination for both restraint and a smirk. But while “Blade Runner 2049” is always something to look at, an overly elaborate script and some other bad habits common to today’s sequel machinery — such as glaring product placement — have broken the “Blade Runner” spell. It may be too harsh to grade “2049” against the original, especially when so many copycats have since diluted its dystopian wonder. Yet while “2049” still stands out from the pack, it lacks the mystery of the original. (Or at least the director’s cut. The 1982 film was itself a replicant with too many versions to keep straight.) This latest updated model, less punk-rock in attitude, wants to connect the dots and illuminate backgrounds that stayed dark the first time around. There are hints, one fears watching “2049,” of a “cinematic universe”
scaffolding being erected. Scott is a producer this time around, but he had his hands in the film’s development, along with “Blade Runner” scribe Hampton Fancher (who co-writes here with Michael Green). Scott instead went off to make “Alien: Covenant” but there seems to be some growing connective tissue between the franchises. Certainly there’s much of the same tiresome creation mythology and Christ-imagery, along with the throat-clearing monologues about angels and demons (here delivered by Jared Leto’s crazy-eyed AI visionary). The larger apparatus detracts from what is, at heart, a detective story — and a fairly good one, at that. Like Ford’s Rick Deckard, K is a Blade Runner seeking out-modeled replicants to “retire.” But whereas Deckard’s identity was — depending on whom you ask — up for grabs, K is definitely a replicant. He undergoes “baseline” questioning after each mission to establish that he hasn’t started feeling emotions. (In this quiz, the correct answer to “How does it feel like to hold a baby in your arms?” is “Interlinked.”) Gosling has little about him that suggests android, unless future scientists are planning to work extremely hard on a “charmingly bemused” setting. I personally prefer his more alive and loose-limbed L.A. detective from “The Nice Guys,” but Gosling’s nature plays into the movie. We’re convinced K is more, especially after, while on a mission, he stumbles on to the remains of a replicant woman who apparently died in child birth. As Wright’s character puts it, replicant reproduction would “break the
world.” Humans would no longer hold dominion over their cheap, disposable work force; a rebellion would spark. If “Blade Runner” was the nightmare of being soulless, “2049” is the dream of being real, with a leather jacket-clad Pinocchio in a flying car. The search for the child from 20 years earlier sends K in strange places. Questions of authenticity are elsewhere, too. K’s lone companion is a digital woman named Joi (Ana de Armas), a holographic product advertised to be “whatever is your fancy.” He comes to believe in their relationship, only to look crestfallen at the billboard advertising Joi. K is reminded again and again that any feeling of uniqueness is imaginary, or a marketing gimmick. It’s a question Villeneuve’s movie asks itself, too. A hologram of Elvis plays while a fistfight careens through a Vegas lounge. The late-arriving Harrison Ford is there in the flesh, but he’s coming off a “Star Wars” franchise that reanimated actors, including a dead one, in younger digital facsimiles. “Blade Runner 2049” quietly ponders its own existence amid today’s blockbusters: Can a replicant movie be real? There is much to like here, but “2049,” like “Alien: Covenant,” feels too enraptured with its own headiness. Even Nabokov’s “Pale Fire” makes a cameo. Maybe “Blade Runner” wore its complexities on its sleeve, too. But it’s hard not to agree with the old blade runner who turns up late in the film and tells K: “I had your job once. It was simpler then.” JAKE COYLE Associated Press
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Friday, October 6, 2017
gardening
A time of promise for the things to come
O
ctober can lay claim to be the home gardener’s favourite month of the year. True, it is too early in the season to have much to show for your efforts; there are no tomatoes to pick, no lettuces to cull. The October garden is one of promise rather than harvest and as sentient beings we relish the delights of anticipation. But the main reason to love October is the distinct change in temperature towards the end of the month. Goodbye summer sun that tries to pin you to the ground, hello morning draughts that encourage the wearing of a sweater while you sip your morning coffee on the back porch. Some avid gardeners leave the beginning of their vegetable growing season until October. October is the month when we can sow seeds for salad crops, both lettuce and greens. Lettuces have compact root systems and grow very quickly so that means plenty of water. When we pick our first ripe tomatoes at the end of November or beginning of December the salad makings should be ready to join them. Just about any vegetable can be sown during October. Some gardeners sow onion seeds during the month and then transplant the seedlings during December. In theory this should give you earlier onion crops but I have found the maturing time between October and December sowings to be very short. You will be pulling your onions in May regardless. October is the month when we create our salad garden and plant the lettuces and greens that will sustain us for months. If your family is not large consider growing your salad makings in a bin with holes drilled for drainage. Endive frisee is a wonderful plant to have as you can cut the leaves you need and they will grow back (seemingly) overnight. The more you cut the more you get, and the leaves are always tender and young by doing this. One vegetable that requires a caveat is eggplant. If eggplants are started in August at the same time as tomatoes they often grow well and flower but resist producing fruits. I have made a habit of sowing eggplant seeds in January to be sure of a full cycle from my plants.
October is a good month to prune rose bushes. Their foliage tends to be denser in the cooler months so a little fertilizer will encourage plenty of green leaves and flowers. When we regularly snip at a rose bush we are merely deadheading. A pruning involves removing about one-third of the foliage of each plant and cutting away completely any diminutive lower branches. With the exception of papaya, bananas and residual June plums the only active fruit producing tree at this time of year is carambola. Make plenty of use of the fruits by cutting them into thin stars to toss into salads or thick stars to sauté in butter and add to a host of meals – even breakfast egg and bacon. If you are fertilizing your fruit trees in autumn I would tend to skip feeding carambola trees until January or February when the last fruits have been picked. At this same time you can treat the trees for any scale insect infestations and at the same time do some extensive pruning. Carambola trees respond well to winter pruning and enjoy a minor nutrient spray at the same time. Although we can grow virtually any flowering annuals during the
coolest months of the year the most popular will be impatiens and petunias. A disease has prevented the import of impatiens plants from the US over the past few years and if you want a good show you will have to grow your own from seed. I recommend starting the plants in seed trays and transplanting when the root systems are developed. A mass planting of multi-coloured impatiens is a joy to behold, hackneyed though the plants may be. Petunias are a little more work. There are types that trail and are fine for hanging baskets while others are upright and good for bedding. Smaller petunias with trailing growth can be used for ground cover. The larger flowering varieties do demand that we tend to them every day or two. The dead flowers need to be picked off to keep the eye’s attention on the fresh fullthroated ones. Once the plants grow leggy they will need to be pruned to maintain their shape. The branches are very brittle but remember that you can plant any broken portion to start a new entity. The dominant colours for petunia are red, pink, white and purple. Also available are pastel shades that are less showy but definitely classier. There are
multi-coloured and pinwheel varieties that really catch the eye but do not appeal to me personally. Check your local nursery for any interesting bulbs and perennials they may have. Any bulbs you plant do not have to be dug up and stored; once in the ground they keep themselves quite happy and bloom at their appointed time every year. The exception is when you first plant them. After being stored for sale out of ground they will tend to head towards flowering in our warm climate. Look upon this as a bonus. If you plant your bulbs in the new year they may flower very soon then run into their real appointed time. Even plants can become confused but after the first year they will settle down into their routine. It is likely that a bulb planted now will flower for Christmas and still flower again normally in late spring or early summer. A garden filled with dormant perennials is a delight. When the season for each comes around they are like old friends appearing for a visit.
• For questions and comments email j.hardy@coralwave.com
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Friday, October 6, 2017
music
Keeping it cool and current The Charlestown Boys
The Charles Town Boys band. Photo Shawn Hanna
By ALESHA CADET Tribune Features Writer acadet@tribunemedia.net
F
ORMED back in the early 80s with musicians Tim Deal and David Graham, The Charlestown Boys was then and remains up to this day a growing and inviting band. Whatever the season you’ll find the band every Thursday evening at Green Parrot East Bay Street, across the water on Paradise Island each Saturday at the Green Parrot, Hurricane Hole Marina or every Friday at The Captain’s Table Lyford Cay. Local musicians are welcomed to join in for a few songs in a performance or even for a few months. For the thousands of tourists wandering around Atlantis Marina on a Saturday night if only they knew they are missing a really great band just a few hundred yards away! The cool part about this band is the way it constantly evolves inviting other local musicians to join in for a
few songs or even for a few months. “We welcome anybody who can work a guitar or who is enthusiastic about music. Whoever comes in and joins us, they are not on a salary but we consider them a Charlestown Boy for the night and this keeps it interesting and diverse,” David told Tribune Weekend. Giving credit to those Bahamians who follow their dreams through music, David said music is a joy that has kept the group going and growing over the years. “I have been doing this for a while and I continue to do so for the love of music and the talent. If people have it in their heart
to play and the nerve, we like to back them the best we can to make them shine as a Charlestown Boy. Sometimes their style and songs are different but we incorporate our style with theirs and produce a sound. It never grows old,” said David. For Tim, it’s a joy to have youngsters take a liking to a band that started as early as the 80s. While times have changed, he said the love of good clean music still gathers the same energetic and mature crowd. “We also have a following of people that have known us from the
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80s and have stayed with us. Wherever we are playing they seem to patronize us. People drive as far as Lyford Cay to see and hear us play. This only means that the type of music that we play, the words mean a lot to our audience. They seem to be able to relate to it because the music has value,” said Tim. The group have always been a band celebrating music of Bahamian singersongwriters, many of whom are friends of the members. “We have in our current make up, six to seven musicians who regularly play. Each of us have our own repertoire, our own styles, our own strengths and we draw off those things with every song. The focusing point is that we all have the clientele in mind when we play. We each try to make the most of every song we play through our harmonies and instruments,” said Tim of The Charlestown Boys. Musicians of the 60s, 70s and 80s like Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, The Eagles, Elton John, and Jimmy Buffet influence the group in many ways. “It’s the music many of us born in those eras grew up with and it really creates a sing-along party atmosphere in the bar. We all have a few things in common: we share a love of performing this music, solid musical abilities and - most importantly - a great attitude without the egos. We know we’re
“We also have a following of people that have known us from the 80s and have stayed with us. Wherever we are playing they seem to patronize us. People drive as far as Lyford Cay to see and hear us play. This only means that the type of music that we play, the words mean a lot to our audience. They seem to be able to relate to it because the music has value,”
playing for the bar owners and their patrons, not for ourselves,” said David. He believes each band member brings some unique quality that tends to influence the way The Charlestown Boys play individually
and collectively and it’s this organic evolution which keeps the group fresh and relevant both with the songs they play and the way they perform them. “We made a name for ourselves with both our supporter base and bar
owners alike through our consistent, professional attitude, excellent musicianship, broad and huge repertoire and by paying attention to what the crowd in the venue want on any given night. We start playing when we’re asked to start by the bar owner but we finish playing when the crowd is ready for us finish. We don’t look at our watches while we’re performing. Even though we start a performance at 6 or 7pm, we routinely play until past 11pm. This is very well received by our supporters and venue owners,” said David. When it comes to the band’s name, it is pretty simple really. Since they began playing exclusively in Nassau when first formed, and Nassau was once originally called “Charles Town,” the group went with “Charlestown Boys,” as “Nassau Boys” didn’t exactly roll off the tongue. “We continue to grow our supporter base and we’ll be adding a few more venues to our regular appearances. We’re also looking at a few charity events to support with our music. In addition, a few of us have a big pile of original music that we’ll be introducing more and more. The timing for the original music is right now. We have the right support base and the right musicians to do a proper job of these songs and we look forward to releasing them in the coming months,” said Tim.
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literary lives - louis daniel armstrong
Hello Louis, the man who changed American music forever Sir Christopher Ondaatje recalls with awe the extraordinary life of the American trumpeter and jazz legend whose influential career spanned five decades from the 1920s to the 1960s.
L
ouis Daniel Armstrong was born on 4 July 1901 in New Orleans. His young unwed parents left him with his paternal grandmother Josephine Armstrong. He did not see much of his father William Armstrong, or his mother Mary “Mayann” Albert, who was only 15-years-old at the time, for the first five years of his life. He then joined his mother and baby sister Beatrice, and lived in a two-room house near Liberty and Perdido Street called “Battlefield” – a district which Armstrong described as “cheap Storyville” – a downscale legal prostitution district. It was also an area alive with African-American music. He went to the Fisk School for Boys and, a little later, made some money from street singing, selling newspapers and delivering coal, but it was not enough to keep his mother from prostitution. All around him he could hear bands playing in brothels and dance halls, and it was probably as a young ten-year-old that he first heard Joe “King” Oliver playing the cornet at Pete Lala’s.
Armstrong gives King Oliver credit for teaching him to play the cornet – but that was a few years later after he had been sent to the New Orleans Home for Coloured Waifs for firing a blank pistol in the air on New Year’s Eve 1912. He spent 18 months there and, thanks to a Professor Peter David, he emerged with a cornet and a rudimentary ability to play and impress his friends. He had a natural ear for music and a local honky-tonk owner hired him to play blues music into the early hours of the morning. Even as a 14-year-old he drew attention and encouragement for his cornet playing and brought in a little income for his mother who lived with a series of various “stepfathers”. He moved back to live with his father, and then back to his mother again and to all the temptations of street living in Storyville. He picked up odd musical jobs here and there and then got his first big break when King Oliver noticing something extraordinary in the young Armstrong, took him under his wing, and gave him lessons. He was the only person that Oliver ever helped in this way and he must have noticed the creative genius of the budding young musician. Armstrong hauled coal by day, and played his cornet at night – getting his first job at Henry Ponce’s club. He was 15-years-old. He also played in the city’s brass band parades, and listened and learned from the older musicians Bunk Johnson, Kid Ory and particularly King Oliver. He began to travel up and down the Mississippi River with the Fate Marablé Band gaining valuable experience with written arrangements. In 1918, when he was 17, Louis Armstrong married Daisy Parker – a New Orleans prostitute. This was the same year King Oliver decided to leave New Orleans for Chicago and left his position in the Kid Ory band. As Armstrong knew all the Oliver solos, Kid Ory decided to give him the job. It gave him a much wider exposure and he thrived with both Marablé’s river jobs in the summer and with Ory’s band in
the New Orleans winters. Then Armstrong too left New Orleans for Chicago in 1922. By then he had acquired a considerable reputation as a musician with a new and dynamic character. He was having trouble with his wife Daisy and, when King Oliver invited him to join his Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, Armstrong joined the exodus. Oliver’s band was one of the most influential in Chicago in the 1920s. Armstrong was in awe of King Oliver’s playing and did not mind in the least playing second cornet in his band. Later, Armstrong was to say, “The way I see it, the greatest musical creation came from his horn – and I’ve heard a lot of them play... Bunk Johnson didn’t have the get-up-and-go that Oliver did; he didn’t create a phrase that stays with you. But Joe Oliver created things.” He remembered a night in Chicago when some white musicians offered Oliver a dollar for every new break he could play. “Joe broke them that night; took all their money, and was still playing breaks afterwards.”
In those early jazz days there was a degree of creative tension between the arranged part of the music and improvisation. The melody always had to be played from some lead instrument like the trumpet, trombone, or clarinet, but in cutting contests improvisation often took centre stage with virtuosos like Oliver and Keppard spinning out ideas to which there was no end. Armstrong said of Oliver: “Nobody could touch him. He had the power, no one had the nerves to attack.” Though whites were often puzzled by the transformation of popular music material, African-American musicians held transformation in high regard. Armstrong excelled at creating the texture of collective improvisation, just as he excelled in blues. He learned a lot from King Oliver and his musical invention and was never afraid to bend music to new ground. It didn’t bother him when other musicians stole his music and took credit for his musical inventions. “… There will be other tunes …” he said. “There’s always another one coming along – like a streetcar.”
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Friday, October 6, 2017
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five , 1926 . Left to right : Louis Armstrong at piano holding trumpet , Johnny St . Cyr with banjo , Johnny Dodds , Kid Ory , Lil Hardin Armstrong . American jazz band . Louis Armstrong , jazz trumpeter , singer , born 4 August 1901 , died 6 July 1971 . Hardin Armstrong , jazz pianist , composer , arranger , singer , born 3 February 1898 , died 27 August 1971 . Jazz band .
Music to the black American musician was a useful vehicle for asserting status, and Armstrong had learned his trade well. He used music to establish himself and eventually to break barriers. It was also the first decent money that Armstrong made. He enjoyed the luxury, had his own apartment, and his first private bath. He started a relationship with the piano player Lil Hardin in the Oliver band. His turbulent marriage to Daisy Parker was over. Lil Hardin was to be Louis Armstrong’s second wife and a considerable influence in his career. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee and was proficient in reading music. She was playing with the Oliver band at Dreamlands in Chicago when he sent for the young Armstrong in 1921. She was also married to the young Washington D.C. singer Jimmie Johnson – but that marriage was short-lived. Many say that Oliver hired the young Armstrong because he saw him as a threat to his prominent position as a
cornet player, but this is not so. On listening to early recordings of Oliver in the 1920s one notices that he seldom went above the middle range of his cornet, while Armstrong became a spectacular high note player. The truth is that Oliver had been a high note player but by the early 1920s he was suffering from pyorrhoea and loss of strength in his gums, hampering his ability to play the high notes. This physical problem is probably why he hired Armstrong as a second cornet player – to help out. Armstrong remembers that when he arrived in Chicago Oliver’s teeth were so loose that he could move them back and forth. “Joe wasn’t in his prime like he was before he sent for me”, Armstrong wrote. By 1927 Oliver had lost all his teeth. King Oliver pioneered the use of mutes in jazz. He wrote Different Blues, Sweet Like This, and Carol Street Blues. Other members of his Creole Jazz Band were: Johnny Dodds (clarinet) Baby Dodds (drums),
Louis Armstrong (cornet), Lil Hardin (Piano), Honoré Dutrey (trombone), and William Manner Johnson (double bass) Recordings were made on Gennett, Okeh, Paramount and Columbia records, and were responsible for popularising jazz across America. Sadly, Oliver lost his life savings when a Chicago bank collapsed. By 1935 he could not play at all because of his diseased gums. He was reduced to running a fruit stall, and then working as a janitor. He died broke in a Savannah rooming house on 8 April 1938. His sister sacrificed her rent money to move his body to New York where he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Armstrong, Clarence Williams, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, W.C. Handy, and Milt Jackson were all at the funeral. Armstrong was later to say, “If it had not been for Joe Oliver, jazz would not be what it is today.” Armstrong enjoyed working with Oliver, but his wife Lil Hardin urged him to leave the Oliver band and look for more prominent billing away from the influence of Oliver. She made him play classical music in church concerts to broaden his playing ability and also made him dress better. Her influence undermined Armstrong’s relationship with his mentor, but they parted amicably in 1924 when Armstrong received an invitation to go to New York to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra – the most famous African-American band. He had difficulty fitting in with Henderson’s restrictive arrangements but Armstrong’s influence on the band, particularly with Henderson’s tenor saxophone soloist Coleman Hawkins, was pronounced. Armstrong also experimented with singing with the orchestra when the band played in the famous Roseland Ballroom. Duke Ellington was one of the great musicians of the time to go to Roseland to hear Armstrong’s performance. There was nobody who could match his
playing, and he was rumoured to be able to play two hundred high Cs on his cornet without stopping. He soon switched to the trumpet to fit in with the Henderson band’s smoother more controlled style. Armstrong made several recordings away from the Henderson band during those New York years at the urging of his friend pianist Clarence Williams. These famous but rare recordings sometimes included Sidney Bechet (soprano saxophone), and the blues singers Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Bertha “Chippie” Hill, and Alberta Hunter. At the forceful urgings of his wife Lil Hardin, Armstrong moved back to Chicago in 1925. She was anxious to promote his career and increase his earnings. For a while he actually worked for his wife in the Lil Hardin Armstrong Band, but he began recording the now famous Hot Five and Hot Seven groups with Okeh Records under his own name. These masterful recordings included Heebie Jeebies, Muskrat Ramble, Hotter Than That, and Struttin with Some Barbecue (Hot Five: 1925); and Willie The Weeper, Twelfth Street Rag, and Potato Head Blues (Hot Seven: 1927). They are uneven recordings with numerous blunders – but were the first show pieces for the genius of Armstrong’s cornet and trumpet playing solos. The solos of Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory, and Lil Hardin sound basic and pedestrian compared to Armstrong’s inventive phrasing. They are the most important masterpieces of early jazz, culminating in the masterful recording of West End Blues made by Armstrong and his Hot Five in 1928 backed by a band including pianist Earl Hines. Armstrong’s unaccompanied opening cadenza is considered to be the defining moment of early jazz incorporating a rhythmic freedom that anticipated later musical developments. Armstrong’s scat vocal chorus, and a piano solo by Hines, is followed by a dominant final chorus with a four-bar (12 second) long high Bᵇ note played by Armstrong. West End Blues was originally composed and recorded by King Oliver, but Armstrong established himself as a major influence of American music with the 1928 recording. It is perhaps the most creative jazz record ever made and is one of the hundred most influential musical works of the twentieth century. Lil Hardin Armstrong was clever, ambitious, and an enormous influence Continued on page 24
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Continued from page 23 in moulding and spurring the young Armstrong to new heights, but towards the late 1920s Hardin and Armstrong drifted apart. They separated in 1931 and divorced in 1938 when Armstrong married his long-time girlfriend Alpha Smith. This marriage lasted four years until 1942 when he married Lucille Wilson, a singer at the Cotton Club and stayed married to her until he died. After separating from Lil Hardin in 1931 Armstrong started to play for Al Capone’s partner Joe Glaser in the Carroll Dickerson orchestra – soon named Louis Armstrong and his Stompers. There he built a friendly relationship with Earl Hines, the pianist. He then returned to New York performing in Hot Chocolate written by Andy Razaf and Fats Waller – and got rave applause for singing Waller’s song Ain’t Misbehavin which also became a best-selling record. Armstrong’s singing was becoming an important part of his musical presentation. His musicianship began to mature and expand. He worked at Connie’s Inn in Harlem – a front for gangster Dutch Schultz, and made quite a success singing songs composed by his new friend Hoagy Carmichael – particularly Stardust and Lazy River. His unique vocal style seemed to fit in with the popular crooners and big bands of the 1930s. The depression years of the 1930s were hard times for jazz musicians. The Cotton Club in Harlem closed, Bix Beiderbecke – the legendary trumpeter – died of alcoholic poisoning, Fletcher Henderson’s band was abandoned, Sidney Bechet left for Paris finding no work in America, and Kid Ory gave up his trombone to raise chickens in New Orleans. Armstrong tried to find work in Los Angeles at the New Cotton Club, but had to pick up one-night stands touring the United States. Haunted and hounded by the gangsters who held a grip on night clubs and liquor distribution, Armstrong fled to Europe. Bad management left him penniless and disorganised. In desperation he sought help from Al Glaser, Al Capone’s former associate who had given him work in Chicago after he left Lil Hardin. Glaser, who retained his gangster connections, sorted out his legal troubles, debts, mob problems, and took over complete management of Armstrong’s business affairs and schedule. Attracted by the smoother sound of big bands like that of Guy Lombardo,
Friday, October 6, 2017
Armstrong broke away from his pure jazz roots and became a theatrical star. He appeared in movies, including Pennies from Heaven (1936) with Bing Crosby and became the first African-American to host a CBS national broadcast when he replaced Rudy Vallee as its host. Life was hard but busy for Armstrong who made well over 300 appearances in a single year. Exhausted, he settled in Queens, New York, with his fourth wife Lucille Wilson, but still had to battle the gangster-ridden music business and continuing black prejudice. However he continued to get work, increasing his popularity with American audiences, playing with his big band, which soon became impossible to finance because of its size. His manager Joe Glaser re-grouped a smaller band which he called Louis Armstrong and His All Stars and which included many of the big names in jazz including Earl “Fatha” Hines, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Cozy Cole, and others – but not all at the same time. This band continued to tour successfully giving Armstrong a platform for his showmanship. He was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine on 21 February 1949. By the 1950s Louis Armstrong had become a best-loved American musical icon and both white and black audiences accepted his Vaudevillian style. He never completely abandoned his New Orleans jazz roots and was beginning to be regarded as a giant of an emerging American culture. He maintained a busy touring schedule, but suffered a heart attack in Italy in 1959 and, on doctor’s orders, had to rest and lie low for a considerable time. He then continued his touring and in 1964 recorded Hello, Dolly! Which became his biggest-selling record, dislodging the Beatles from the No.1 position which they had held for 14 consecutive weeks. He kept touring well into his 60s visiting Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Communist bloc. By 1968 however his health began to deteriorate. He was approaching 67 and his manager Joe Glaser died. Kidney and heart problems forced him to stop touring and he did not perform at all in 1968. In the summer of 1970 he embarked on another tour but yet another heart attack forced him to stop. Against his doctor’s advice Armstrong played a two-week engagement at the WaldorfAstoria in March 1971. At the end of
“Nobody could touch him. He had the power, no one had the nerves to attack.”
Louis Armstrong, when he was a young boy.
Time Cover 21 February 1949
the engagement he was hospitalised again for a continuing dangerous heart condition. Released from hospital he began practising on his trumpet again, but died in his sleep on 6 July 1971. He was interred in Flushing Cemetery in New York. His honorary pallbearers were Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, and Johnny Carson. Peggy Lee sang The Lord’s Prayer. Armstrong was an inventive genius. As early as 1915 King Oliver had noticed in his young protégé an ambition for melodic invention. He constantly reprimanded him and urged him to reign in his bursting creativity and stay closer to the tune. But Armstrong couldn’t ever hold himself back. “I’d play eight bars and I was gone”, Armstrong remembered. He was always hearing something new in his mind and then reaching for it on his cornet. Armstrong admired King Oliver’s ability to “create a phrase that stayed with you.” He learned this basic principle and never forgot it, eventually discovering for himself how to mould the vigour and richness of collective improvisation. He carried this fundamental right throughout his musical career – eventually relying on his own ability to set the stage for a unique solo style – both in his playing and in his singing. Armstrong managed to define his identity and took the model he had learned in New Orleans to unprecedented levels of performance. His command of harmony was extraordinary and contributed to the sense of sophistication in everything he did. Without this command, and his ability to project his own unique character, he might have been a mere footnote in jazz history. As it is he changed American music forever. • Sir Christopher Ondaatje is an adventurer and writer resident in the Bahamas. A Sri Lankan-born
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Friday, October 6, 2017
history
To be frank, too many Franks Forgotten facts Paul C Aranha
O
f all my FORGOTTEN FACTS articles, the one which brought me the greatest number of responses was about my late father-in-law, with the unusual name of Francis Francis, and his halfsister, Marion Carstairs, often called “Joe”. I was told I failed to mention that Frank Francis was a great golfer and a close, golfing friend of Dr. Jan SteelePerkins’ – both of which he was. If you follow golf, you will have heard of the Hoerman Cup Tournament, which included the Francis Francis/ Jan Steele-Perkins Cup. Encouraged by Jan, he was the major contributor to the new Eye Wing at the Princess Margaret Hospital which, at that time, was state-of-the-art. I was asked why “Joe” called herself The Queen of Whale Cay and the truth is that she did not. That name was given to her after her death, by Kate Summerscale. Working at London’s Daily Telegraph, Kate had been assigned to write “Joe’s” obituary and could not believe what she discovered. Kate felt that “Joe” deserved more than an obituary and was the perfect subject for a book. She phoned from London to ask for my wife’s help in writing the book - The Queen of Whale Cay, a well-chosen title. People are often confused that brother and sister had different surnames, but that is easily explained. Their mother had four husbands. “Joe” was the daughter of her first husband. Frank was the son of her second, with whom she also produced a daughter. The mother’s maiden name was Frances Bostwick and, when she married her second husband, Francis Francis, she became Frances Francis. What else could they name their son, but Francis Francis? Her husband’s father was also named Francis Francis and his father was also Francis Francis. The situation would be less confusing had they called themselves Francis Francis I,
Twickenham Cemetery Francis Francis II, etc., but none of them did. Nor did my wife’s eldest brother, whose son is, of course, Francis Francis. How does the family differentiate between all those Franks? For my wife, it’s simple. Her father is Daddy (a
Winchester Cathedral great golfer), her grandfather is The Author and her great grandfather is The Fisherman (He created the second edition of The Compleat Angler). Her brother is Frankie and her nephew is Mecky, who took the precaution of naming his son, Francis Tim Francis.
This summer, while in England, with Kim and a cousin of hers, we visited Winchester Cathedral, to see The Fisherman’s memorial. • Email comments and responses to islandairman@gmail.com
Best described as a number crossword, the task in Kakuro is to fill all of the empty squares, using numbers 1 to 9, so the sum of each horizontal block equals the number to its left, and the sum of each vertical block equals the number on its top. No number may be used in the same block more than once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Kakuro increases from Monday to Sunday.
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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26 | The Tribune | Weekend
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The Tribune | Weekend | 27
Friday, October 6, 2017
animals
Who really is the most dangerous animal?
L
ast week sitting at my kitchen table I overheard a friend of my husband’s on the phone. He was giving instructions of things that needed to be done in his house and yard. At the very end of the conversation, thrown out almost as a after thought, he said: Oh yes, and kill that snake that is in my car wont you?” Both my husband and I yelled at the same time, “Don’t kill it, don’t kill it.” “Why not?”, was the response “it scared the living daylights out of me when I opened the car door this morning”. So I asked how big it was, about the thickness of my finger “So not very big, but enough to scare a big, brave, man.” Now let’s think why? The Bahamian snake is not poisonous, so strike that off the list. The Bahamian snake is a constrictor (squeezes the life out of its prey) but if it was the thickness of his finger there is not much to worry about there. The Bahamian snake actually does render us a great service: it kills and eats rats. Now there is something to be scared of: RATS. They carry leptospirosis, a disease that kills. I have heard stories of babies in poor neighbourhoods having a finger or toe chewed off by rats: now THAT is something to be afraid of. So let’s look at this snake situation. Lots of people fear snakes and in many countries with good cause. I remember when my son went to boarding school in Central Florida and the fist week he was there he called me and asked what to do as there was a rattle snake outside his door! That is a very different situation. I actually do not believe the snake was harmed, just relocated. In Africa there are many types of very deadly snakes that you have to be of upmost care with. Gosh, even in Europe (including the United Kingdom)
Why, why, why not adopt Delilah? By The Bahamas Humane Society
PET OF THE WEEK
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ometimes, an older dog is just what you need. Delilah is a very friendly older Cocker Spaniel cross. She’s about seven or eight-yearsold and is looking for a calm quiet home to spend her senior years. She’s a bit picky about her canine friends, preferring male kennel mates to female, but she’s welcoming with humans. This quiet older lady was surrendered to the Animal Control Unit and was fortunate the staff there saw her adoption potential and sent her over to the Bahamas Humane Society. Do you have the right environment to welcome Delilah? If so, come in to meet her or call the BHS at 323-5138 for more information. Adoption hours are 11am. to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm Saturday. Delilah and her kennel mate Hurricane look forward to meeting you. It’s the long weekend! If you’re boating with your pet(s), remember to bring fresh water along for them as well! I.D. tags are also a necessity as they’re the best way to reunite you if your pet should go missing. • The next Thrift Shop Jewellery Sale will be held Saturday, October 14, 10am. to 2pm on the Thrift Shop patio. Come and check it out! there is the viper or adder, that can cause death. They say that every year at least 30,000 people are bitten by snakes in Europe alone and 30 of them are fatal. Makes sharks seam pretty harmless, doesn’t it?. So where does this “bad rap” snakes have, come from? Is this because of the bible? Does this stem back to the snake and the apple? Because the snake persuaded Eve to bite the apple, every snake for the rest of time is going to have its head wacked off? Or is the simple slithering motion what freaks people out, the smooth glistening scales and the extraordinary way he can unhinge his jaw and consume a creature bigger than himself? We have literature to blame for a lot of this nonsense with various animals seen as “evil” and “wicked” when the most evil and wicked of all is: MAN. No animal premeditates torture, theft and cruelty like man does. No
PATRICIA VAZQUEZ
Animal matters Kim Aranha
other animal enjoys the suffering of others; no other animal intentionally maims, injures and kills each for the simple pleasure of it. Animals kill to eat, plain and simple. Man enjoys going out into the savannah or forest and finding a magnificent specimen of deer, lion, tiger, elephant, you name it, and for the simple pleasure of killing. They pull the trigger and bring that awesome animal down then pose for photographs holding the lolling head and smiling at it’s lifeless eyes. Is this a form of eroticism some of us are fortunate not to know or to have experienced? Take it one step further, and without getting graphic, remember the awful people who have tortured and killed for “fun and pleasure”. No animals except man behaves like that and yet we fear animals far more than our fellow human. The intriguing thing is not man is afraid of a snake, or a
shark or other animals, the interesting thing is the solution to this fear is to KILL, not remove, not relocate, not avoid but to kill even when we are in the animal’s territory. Go swimming, see a shark? “Oh we have to kill it”. A sad and sorry attitude! It brings to mind that magnificent hammerhead in Montagu Bay a couple of years ago, people who understood swam near him and saw his magnificence; the uninformed rushed out with spears to kill him. Did he get away? We will never know, but he has not been seen again. The snake? I called the Bahamas Humane Society and one of the inspectors went to deal with it, hopefully they found him. We release them or let them live at the shelter and they keep the rats down in the hayloft. Beware of man; for he is by far the most dangerous animal around, all you have to do is think of what just happened in Las Vegas.
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Friday, October 6, 2017
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