Response from Island People

Remember my "Dear Island People" letter? Well I did mail it to them and they responded ( I am yet to hear from the other bands I emailed) and this was their response:

Hi Saucy Diva,

On behalf of all of us at Island People Mas, please accept our
humblest apologies for all the ways in which we failed to live up to
your expectations.

We appreciate you taking the time to detail your negative experiences
for us as we will use them in our attempt to improve our service next
year.

Thank you so much for choosing to jump with us in 2007. We do hope to
have you with us again.

Island People Mas
'the fun has just begun'



Thanks,

Island People Mas
'the fun has just begun'

It was pretty nice of them to respond, however someone did not read my letter properly as I specifically stated that I did not play with them in 2007! At least they have promised to use the feedback to improve the band next year, one can hope ent?!

Triniscene updated..........

I am quite surprised to not only see galleries of TRIBE and Island People on triniscene.com but also of Pulse 8 and Trini Revellers. In the past only the first two aforementioned bands were featured in the galleries so kudos to triniscene.com!

Check out the galleries here:

Pulse 8
Island People
TRIBE 1
TRIBE 2
Trini Revellers

Island People Review

Now before all the anonymous posters come out of the woodworks attacking me, please note that the request for this review came from "jamette" and cb who played with Island People gladly obliged by emailing me the review to post here. I would love to get a review from masqueraders who played with Island People as well, I think it is nice to give others an idea of what we might be missing from other bands. And I have to say cb I loved Sacred Sand and you looked great in your costume! I made you out because of the comment you left on Carnival Jumbie's blog

As requested by Jamette, here's my recount of my Carnival in IP. I'd already told of my walk-thrus with TRIBE in the comments of a previous post, so didn't include that here. But, here's my take on IP:

Registration:
Really bumpy. As I didn’t register myself, I didn’t have to go through the stress, but apparently, it was really tiresome for most. Online registration system really needs to be redesigned. Not even going to touch on the bias against potential masqueraders who didn’t fit into the ideal mould for IP.

Collection:
Madness. Now, I know that it’s always a mad rush doing last-minute adjustments making sure the costumes are all ready. There will be the inevitable hiccup where some part of the costume is late, or not in the right colour and has to be redone, or the glue was defective and all your decorations ending up on the floor… Every potential mishap seems to happen a few days before they post those collection dates. But, for the goody bags to be messed up to the degree that people had to go back another day (the last day for collection and the day allllll the international masqueraders were scheduled for pick-up) was really inexcusable.

Again, I asked someone to collect on my behalf, so I can’t comment on Hooters and the layout of the place, but from all the reports of lines curving around corners and getting longer by the minute, obviously, the place was way too small and in terrible need of some feng shui, or something.

BUT, I must say that my costume (Sacred Sand) was so, so, so sweeeeeeet!!!!! I was telling somebody that it even made ME look good (and I’m 34 and really shouldn’t be running around half-nekked—already apologised for that on Carnival Jumbie’s blog). I saw plenty, plenty people losing pieces, but mine held up with no extra attention or adjustments. Oh, and the hot shorts for Monday were a godsend! I got so grimy on Monday, I couldn't imagine ANYBODY putting on the same clothes again for Tuesday pretty mas. I know people did it, but I have to give them their respec'. Not me at allllll!

On De Road:
Now, all the drama and commess that does be taking place leading up to the actual mas is completely swept to the back of my mind once the music trucks start up and the speakers start jammin’ de soca. For me, IP does win hands down for their road experience. So caught up was I, I had no clue there was all this drama with the big bands being at “war” with each other. In fact, all the favours I received from the TRIBE security, was apparently reciprocal with the IP security. I saw two TRIBE-ers waiting to cross the stage downtown with, I think, Sahara Jumbie section. I thought it was cool that they were being tolerant of masqueraders from other bands coming to get a likkle wine here and there. I didn’t realise that the spirit of co-operation only extended to the security team and not the road management personnel. That cutting-off thing real petty, boy, not to mention unnecessary.

This year, IP implemented a chit system for food. I didn’t hear anybody complain about this new organisation, so I’m guessing it was a better plan than just showing up at the back of a truck and bellowing out the number of meals you desired. It was meals on the go, which suits me fine because I cyah be sitting down to eat no big set of food when I have to be spending the rest of the day on my feet. In fact, I gave away my meal chits and just ate their snacks on both days—burgers, wings, corn soup, oranges, etc. They were supposed to have sno cones and lollies, but didn’t see any.

I think the bars fared much, much better this rounds. I know one truck ran out of ice for a while, but soon after I saw the fellas climbing on the truck with more. The drinks were generally replenished on a regular basis, and up til late they were still serving drinks.

There was the traditional wee-wee truck at the back of the band, but I feel they should have been like TRIBE and had two. There was always a line, and at a pre-judging point, when you’d expect people to be getting in their sections and not only now looking to pee, the line was long. I really wasn’t going to stick around to properly monitor the pee lines, but I could imagine that after crossing the “stage” and after lunch, those lines must have been nasty.

The DJs were good, but I just wasn’t feeling the vibe from the first truck (steups, the one that was assigned to my section, too!). Not a problem, because I was moving through the entire band. Now, I know that IP tends to attract real stormers and wil’ness, but I really liked the vibez this year, boy. I think it was the security team that had a lot to do with that. They didn’t rough up nobody (that I saw), but rather did their job without having to prove to nobody that they were bigger, louder, stronger and had the authority.

Now, after the Savannah on Tuesday, I have no idea what the IP road plan was. We don’t normally have a rest stop, and for the life of me I can’t understand exactly what happened where I found myself in Jenny’s car park listening to a rhythm section while the trucks went ahead (silent, yet at a healthy pace), but there it was. Now that really killed the vibe. It was just sheer confusion as to what was going on. And now, in hindsight, that I’m hearing of all the madness that move created for TRIBE and I’m sure other bands, it makes even less sense, but I realise that logic does be scarce come Carnival time. Left the rest stop, and met the band again on Tragarete Road and it became evident that we were heading to the Foreshore.

Mucurapo Road was sheer madness as we bounced up Harts coming in the opposite direction. How fun was that, hearing the music from about 4 trucks at the same time, and trying to squeeze two whole bands on that small stretch of road? Special! It was not all bad because we ended up losing most of the stormers as they had to be manoeuvring dem huge drains and rusty iron at the side of the road. Sorry for TRIBE who picked up our disgruntleds. Now, the Foreshore run was supposed to be the lead-up to the Las’ Lap at the Stadium where, if the theme were similar to last year’s, IP would have launched next year’s presentation. Well, there was traffic, traffic and then some more traffic. I walked ahead to the Stadium, and leaned up on a car for about 45 mins watching the same music truck in the same position on the Foreshore and showing almost zero sign of moving anytime soon. Well, that was the end of my wait and my Carnival.

Had a marvellous time, but really missed the stage. I knew the whole Savannah thing was going to be a waste of time, since even my 4-year old was dissatisfied with his Kiddies Carnival crossing. He kept asking me where the judges were, so he could know when he had to jump up and show off, poor heart. After only 3 years of having a stage, he really got programmed to expect that euphoric feel when you finally get to the open space and have the wood under your feet that almost propels you higher as you jump. My mother, whom I’m sure never played mas, was commenting that we only missed posing for the cameras, but we bloggers know better.

Well, that was my IP experience. Don’t know what 2008 will hold for me, but I’m already excited and planning my next Carnival adventure.

Cheers,
-:¦:-·:*''''*:·.-:¦:-·* cb *·-:¦:-·:*''''*:·-:¦:-

Costume Review............

When you are in one band for Carnival the disadvantage is that you do not get to see others. From my vantage point I saw several Island People masqueraders as well as a few from Brian Mc Farlane (saw the entire band on Monday doing their phagwa portrayal), Legacy, Pulse 8, Trini Revellers and Genesis.

Of the costumes I saw from Island People Sacred Sand looked beautiful! I really liked that costume at the mas camp and it looked the same on the road. Sahara Jumbie also looked great, the actual costume was of an iridescent material and only the headpiece had the black feathers. Jewel of the Nile, Oasis, Goddess and Nubians failed to live up to the hype for me. Jewel looked cheap; there some girls from that section in Tribe so I inspected the costume up close. My hubby even got some girl’s arm band from Jewel of the Nile and half the stones were missing already! Nubians looked okay, the frontline headpiece was a slightly smaller one than the prototype, now that is another thing I take issues with, and not only with Island People. Why do they advertise one costume and when you eventually get it they cheat you out of feathers or beads making the costume with fewer materials than what were displayed? Anyway, Nubians needed to be a more vibrant red and many masqueraders got rid of the fabric.

Island People


Oasis which was another one of my favourites looked quite “normal” on the road, nothing outstanding, and that headpiece looked like chicken wire! Goddess was one of those costumes that looked better on some people and not all. You simply had to be of the right complexion to pull off the costume, but overall it looked okay. Being the “hot” section I expected much more. As for Sirrocco Winds I finally saw what was reported before and I have to say the fabric used was not what was on the original costume at the launch! The new fabric was more of a hand painted print with shades of orange and brown while the costume displayed at the mas camp was gold/bronze, russet brown, orange and tan; I thought the gold added some much needed sparkle to the costume and without it the fabric looked dead. Raiders of the Desert looked cute, the girls I saw had more of a camouflage print going on than just plain kahki. I also saw Arabian Nights, which looked just like on the website, Cacti which was not so bad in the sunlight, Taureg looking good and Sahara Sunset which to me looked cute, except for the headpiece. The section that I thought looked really good was Le Soleil Brule, one thing about the majority of Sonia’s masqueraders is that they have the body to pull off the costume and the ladies I saw in the bronze costume looked really good.

For 2008 it would be nice if Mc Farlane could use real costumes instead of drawings , reason being that I had a somewhat difficult time identifying the sections except for Kaal (looked great) and Royalty (lovely decorations). Being the theme “India” my expectations were that all of the sections would have used fabrics that were light or silky, yet some of the ones I saw were cotton. The ladies dressed like villagers with the water pot, looked nice though the colours varied from the website and the jewelry they wore did not look very “Indian” to me. I guess I had one picture in my head of how the sections would look, and in reality they looked a bit different. All in all, Mc Farlane looked great from the little I saw and he took the Band of the Year title to kudos to him!

Mc Farlane



Harts as usual looked very pretty. They always use the most vibrant shades for their plumes and beads and the costumes are always well decorated. I saw many of the costumes and Atlantis looked gorgeous as well as Aztlan, Oceana and Shangri-la.

Legacy’s costumes looked really nice, I saw Kiowa which has been a favourite from the beginning with me and a few masqueraders in other sections. Of Trini Revellers I saw D Krewe’s entire section, and they looked really good as well as House of Hapsburg which looked great! I only saw a few girls from the section Mai Tai in Pulse 8, costumes looked ok and I saw one guy in Mojito and I liked how that looked. Genesis costumes, well the ones I saw, looked good. I saw Helen of Troy and Briseis which both looked quite good on the ladies I saw wearing them. The one band I did not see at all was Dream Team, though I saw a few photos of one section on trinisoca.com.

Hopefully I can get to see more bands through photos; I know trinisoca.com is first on the ball with Carnival photos and triniscene.com, carnivalscene.com, islandevents.com as well as other online photo websites were all on hand taking lots of photos!


All photos from www.trinisoca.com

Island People Costume Collection

VENUE: #17 Rust Street St.Clair (HOOTERS)
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 5.00pm - 9.30pm; Saturday 12.00 noon - 6.00pm
PAYMENTS: Only CASH and LINX payments will be accepted.
ID: Masquerader MUST present both Registration Stub and ID at the Distribution Venue
FAS TRACK costume collection will only be available on the date of specific chapter collection.

COSTUMES NOT COLLECTED BY STIPULATED DATE WILL BE SOLD FROM SATURDAY 17TH

Distribution Schedule

Friday 9th - Jewel of the Nile/Sahara Jumbie
Saturday 10th - Raiders of the Desert/Cacti
Monday 12th - Tuareg/Arabian Nights/Sirocco Winds/Le Soleil Brule
(ALL LE SOLEIL BRULE COSTUMES NOT COLLECTED ON THIS DATE WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AT #16 DEHLI ST. - ST JAMES)
Tuesday 13th - Goddess & Defenders/Sahara Sunset/Mirage
Wednesday 14th - Sacred Sand/Oasis/Nubians

INTERNATIONAL MASQUERADERS
You must send an email to us if you will not be in Trinidad during these dates and need us to hold your costume for you. (info@islandpeoplemas.com).

Please put OVERSEAS COSTUME COLLECTION in the subject heading of the email. Include in the email your full name, costume chapter, and when you can collect your costume.

SATURDAY 17th FEBRUARY IS YOUR LAST DAY.

Island People and TRIBE update.

TRIBE is now closed for registration; no word on if Bat eventually sold out or not, but that is it for TRIBE. If you are still looking for costumes, check Carnival Junction, LOTS of TRIBE costumes for sale or barter. Guess the cost of the costumes finally resonated with some people, either that or they cannot get flights to Trinidad for a reasonable price; I am hearing from Trinidad to Barbados it is now $800.00US for Carnival week! Madness I tell you.

Island People still has a few costumes available in the following sections: Nubians, Mirage and Jewel of the Nile, that's right the section that sold out first! Apparently people are selling off costumes so Jewel of the Nile is back on the market. I was also informed that there might be a few costumes available for sale in other sections as well, however, you need to go to the mas camp, get measured and see if they have your size in costumes for sale.

Now doesn't that just give hope to all those still placing ad's on Carnival Junction for "costume wanted"?

Does skimpy equal sexy?

I have been looking at Brian Mc Farlane’s costumes for India quite often and I have to say I hope to see the band on the road as I am absolutely in love with several of his sections! Take for instance Royalty or Caribbean Sea; I love the fabric, the colours and the ornate decoration on the former costume. Last year I toyed with the idea of selling my TRIBE costume and playing with Mc Farlane, since I had fallen in love with two of his costumes then as well, but popular opinion swayed the decision otherwise. In fact, many people who knew me and heard me say that I loved Mc Farlane’s costumes wondered why I would even entertain the thought knowing that for years I have been playing in “bikini and beads”. Someone even went so far as to ask me if I though all that cloth was sexy. My response to that was, so a skimpy costume is automatically sexy?

After giving it some thought I realize that many people buy into the idea that the less costume there is the “hotter” the costume will look on the wearer. Maybe it’s the “perfect” models that display the costumes at band launches and websites that sell the idea that if you buy the costume that’s how it will fit you. This sometimes leads to persons choosing costumes that are not suited to their body type simply because the costume is hot. For instance, if you have large breasts a halter top will not give you enough support, Nylon Pool was not an option for me last year for that very same reason.Which leads me to my point, a skimpy costume might have all the elements to be considered sexy but on someone who frankly does not have the body to wear it, it will not look sexy! And, it is not only about that person not looking the part but also about their self confidence.

I have a friend who is a slightly larger than average girl, and every year she chooses a two piece costume then starts worrying about how the costume looks when she eventually tries it on. Without fail, every Carnival Tuesday morning she is upset and sour about how she looks in her costume. And that attitude carries over throughout the day, with her either looking for a bandana to cover her stomach or obsessing over how her butt looks from behind! Lacking that self confidence to wear a skimpy costume is never sexy. I think she would be happier choosing a costume that is either more covered, like Jamette this year or simply accepting that she is not 120 pounds and love herself regardless, I have seen her on the beach many times in a two piece, there she is quite comfortable and looks good. My theory is that the added pressure on Carnival day of being surrounded by other women she perceives as skinner and sexier does in her self confidence

Similarly, if you have the confidence to rock a costume that might be considered having a bit too much clothing you can still look hot! One does not need their behind on display in a thong to look fabulous. The women who play with Mc Farlane, for instance, are not all older, plumper ladies, I have seen quite a few young women wearing a costume with fabric and looking quite sexy!

Ladies of Mc Farlane 2006


Mc Farlane 2005


This year I have noticed a few of the more popular bands offering costumes that went beyond the two piece; TRIBE has a few “covered” costumes this year with the traditional Dame Lorraine, traditional and regular Jamette and Jean and Dinah which offers a long skirt and corsette as one of the options. Trini Revellers has several sections with corsettes and more fabric than beads, notably House of Hapsburg which I adore and Les Aristocrats which are two of my favourites. Even Island People has Raiders of the Desert and Arabian Princess which I like a lot. I think the idea of offering a costume with the option to be more covered should be embraced more, even in the “bikini and beads” bands. There should be options beyond either a whole suit or tankini, for those looking for a sexy costume that is not skimpy. If the bands take the challenge we should start seeing more and more costumes that break the formula of just a decorated bikini and might just open the door to more creativity in costumes.

Island People's Arabian Princess


TRIBE's Jean and Dinah


So to answer my question, the costume does not make the wearer sexy. Sexiness is all about self confidence and that ability to wear even a paper bag and still make it look smoking hot! Wear the costume, don't make it wear you!

Girl Power

Do you have the power to "do it"...



On Carnival Friday Nite

at the

Carnival Court

Cipriani Blvd

GIRL POWER



the biggest bands

sexiest male artiste in T&T

10 hottest girls of Carnival

Are you part of the hottest ISLANDpeople in the universe?

Limited Advance tickets

available from Feb. 06th

If House, Tragarete Road

If you think you have what it takes to "do it" yourself

628-WISH or email us at ipeople@tstt.net.tt

Majorette gone... One more section left in TRIBE

Well finally, Majorette is sold out, only Bat backline remains as both the frontline and male section is sold out. That's right folks, three weeks before Carnival and we are now on the cusp of TRIBE being completely sold out. Seems like the new headpiece for Majorette worked, pity they did not do the same for Bat backline because that is a cute costume though the headpiece killed it for me.



On the other hand there seems to be a "costume exodus" on Carnival Junction! If you are still looking for costumes in both Island People or TRIBE there are more and more listings popping up every day. My girl friend sold her Soleil Brule costume and is now in her "dream" section of Sacred Sand (bought the costume through Carnival Junction) lots of costume bartering, switching and selling going on through Carnival Junction. So there is still hope that you can get a costume in that special section even though it might be sold out!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

One thing that always amuses me is reading the online West Indian centric Carnival forums predicting doom and gloom for Carnival 2007. I see a big part of that forecasting is based on the fact that bands are yet to “sell out” and we are five weeks away from the greatest show on earth.

Well, from where I stand I can see a few of the big bands have yet to have a section completely sold out namely Pulse 8, Dream Team and Trini Revellers. However, trends seem to be changing as I know many people are only now registering to play mas, and I am speaking about persons that I know personally. Just yesterday my neighbor told me he registered with Trini Revellers in the section “Les Fetes”; he also went Soca in Moka and is going to QRC next week followed by Bishops. I have three friends looking for costumes in Fireman and I know a group who registered last week with Pulse 8, point being that I cannot speak for the overseas masqueraders but local Trinis are getting ready for Carnival!

In spite of all the negative predictions for Carnival 2007 by the forum experts, I see Harts has sold out two more sections! Does anyone else think that they will be the band to completely sell out before all others? Of the remaining five sections all have only female costumes available, yet again these men are not sticking when it comes to mas!

And over at TRIBE nothing has changed, Bat and Majorette are still open for females only and last I checked Island People only had Nubians, Mirage and Cacti available at the mas camp. I don’t think they have updated their website either, a cursory check would show that most, if not all, sections are showing up as unavailable when trying to register.

It remains to be seen if the forecasters are right, that Carnival 2007 will not see as many masqueraders compared to years gone by and with all the confusion surrounding the Savannah and high prices people are turning their backs on the festival.

All I can say is that I have noticed a marked increase in the number of visitors to this blog; yesterday there were over 1050 hits! If that is any indication that Carnival 2007 is in serious jeopardy, well I should just make this my last post, shut down the blog and call it a day! I don’t know about the naysayers, Carnival experts and “insiders” but I have caught the Carnival fever, it is infectious and I am ready to make Carnival 2007 MY best Carnival ever.

edited at 1:17PM; Benin in Harts Sold out!