Trinidad Carnival Diary

Trinidad Carnival Diary
Disclaimer: This blog is not intended to influence anyone to play with any one Carnival band over the other. Even though I may be privy to information from many sources this does not influence my views and opinions;the views expressed are solely mine.This is a place to come and get a little carnival info (how ah buy it is how ah selling it), look at some costume pics, "listen" to me talk about mas and occasionally vent or speak my mind.Use with caution!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

More Theme 2011..

It seems like September is going to be a slow Band Launch month with just two carded thus far, Gems on September 18th and Genesis on September 26th.

But October is a super busy month with Pulse 8 (October 1st), Trini Revellers, (October 3rd) Brian Mc Farlane (October 8th) D Krewe (October 23rd) and Legacy all launching in what is now considered "late" in the season.

Image Nation and Wee International have not announced a launch date as yet nor have I heard if Jhalwa, Scorpion Mas, Harvard Revelers, D Harvard Boys and Kaotic will be returning for another season.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Carnival 2010 Reviews - A Compilation

With so many bands to choose from, new and old, some of you have been asking my opinions on the alternatives to the popular bands such as TRIBE.

Since my experience has only been with Harts and TRIBE (of the bands still in existence) I decided to compile all the reviews sent in post Carnival 2010 so that you can read and form your own opinion, hopefully this helps in the decision making process. If I do not have a review of a particular band that means one was not sent in.

You can also check out my post "Blogging the Carnival Experience" for personal reviews of Carnival 2010 as well as Afro Chic, Wining Criminals, Haitian Queen and Carnival Addicts.

Roam Mas The Review

Many thanks to Trinidad Events for attending the Roam Mas Launch of their Carnival 2011 presentation "Wo-Man-Ish" last night on my behalf (still ill!). Roam Mas is another new band, band leader is Roger Hicks. Roam Mas can be found on Facebook, Fan Page for Womanish HERE.

You can visit Trinidad Events for a review of the launch and all photos were taken by Trinidad Events, hope you enjoy the costumes!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

How to Respond When Social Media Attacks Your Brand... Excellent Tips!

Thanks to Afro Chic for highlighting this article, "How to Respond When Social Media Attacks Your Brand", by Stephanie Marcus.

In an era where people have been accusing bloggers of making AND breaking Carnival bands I think this is SPOT ON advice for the bandleaders to read, especially the ones saying certain bands are kissing the bloggers asses!

For all the praise that brand advertisers have for social media, they must be aware that it's very much a double-edged sword. And for all the free marketing, advertising and brand promotion via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and other platforms used to help build an identity and relationship with your customers, it can just as quickly turn on you and your brand.

Social media disasters occur for a number of reasons, the first being that your company probably messed up. It may not have been intentional, but something, somewhere down the line, went wrong enough for someone to complain and was wrong enough for others to vocalizing that complaint en masse. One mistake is all it takes for social media to turn against your brand.

No one is perfect and you can't expect to please everyone all the time, so the best trick is to be prepared for how to handle things if your company finds itself under attack in the social realm. Here are three examples of companies who were attacked by social media and how they handled, or should have handled the situation. Learn from their mistakes or successes so you can stay on social media's good side.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Ronnie And Caro Band Launch Pics

Carnival Jumbie was invited to the launch of Ronnie and Caro's Band Launch of their Carnival 2011 presentation "Survivors" and she extended the invitation to Afro Chic and myself. Seeing as I am still not recovered from the flu I skipped this one, but both of them had this launched covered and I look forward to their reviews.

You can view Carnival Jumbie's photos HERE , Afro Chic's photos HERE as well as Trinidad Events has a really good gallery of photos HERE.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

TRIBE Is Sold out..

The Usual TRIBE Post Registration.. Post!

It is one hour, approximately, after the start of TRIBE's registration for TLC holders which for the first time took place ONLY online. At this time only two female costumes remain, Artic Warriors and Sashura. If you want to amuse yourself you can check out the TRIBE Facebook Fanpage where people are slowly dying over not getting into TRIBE or you can scurry over to Carnival Junction where incredibly costumes are already up for sale and swap!

There must be some TRIBE fairy sitting on my shoulder because every year for online registration I can not only get into the system, I can also go right through to the point of paying , getting my costume and last year when the system crashed I was able to stay inside for hours watching them juggle costumes around.

I follow the same advice that I dole out to everyone, and yes I know sometimes things happen like with credit cards not going through and the like, but most of the people who I know that get through online each year also follow these steps, which is really pure common sense.

You cannot wait until registration has started to ask for a link to the page, you should have that page open along with the word document where you have already typed up your billing information, email and telephone number to cut and paste in the required fields. Also remember to choose the down payment figure if that is all you are paying or else the default option is FULL PAYMENT and your Credit Card May not have the required funds. It is also important to know your 3 digit security code on your credit card, enter the expiry date and year in the EXACT format and billing address must be the same address listed on the credit card; oh the perks of being a rabid online shopper!

So with that said this was me 5 minutes before registration began, my login info already saved on the page so all I had to do was click for username and paste my password:

And when I got into TRIBE's registration page this is what I saw, all sections except the Gladiator Male Individual were showing as available.