Carnival Tuesday - even more pictures

This was another band, waiting at an intersection for us to pass.

Carnival Tuesday - Watch We Palancing

Playing mas is a walking dance party. These pictures give you a sense of how many people there are and the range of costumes. At the end I have included the lyrics for this year's "Road March" aka the most-played song "Watch We Palancing". We assumed palancing (pronounced "pah-LAN-sing") simply meant "to dance" but a website I just Googled said it means "to wander around aimlessly looking for a lime" (lime is a Trini noun and verb for party)

Just look at these mixed sections! This would give some band leaders a heart attack.

Click if you want to hear the song, this year's Road March. This high-energy up-tempo song played non-stop all day Tuesday in front of the judges.

Palancing when we on the road,
Watch we palancing, watch we palancing,
Yes we toting any load,
Watch we palancing, watch we palancing,
Jump up, Jump up, (I say) jump and put your hands up,
Jump up, Jump up, (I say) jump and put your hands up,
Jump up, Jump up, (I say) jump and put your hands up,
Jump up, Jump up

One, two, three, four

PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, throw your rag in they face,
PALANCE, shake up the place

We don’t care about the recession,
All we want to do is have fun,
Jumping up in the blazing sun,
Blazing sun, blazing sun
Some have energy, some have none,
Wham to you, don’t tell me you bun,
We ent leaving until the ting done

Done, done, done, done, done

This year we palancing,
And everybody joining in,
No time for sleeping,
I drinking anything you bring,
Sexy girls in the lime,
Come on fellas, take a wine,
We eh leaving nothing behind,
Cause we come to jump we don't make up we mind to

Jump up, Jump up, (I say) jump and put your hands up,
(I say) Jump up, Jump up, (I say) jump and put your hands up,
(I say) Jump up, Jump up, (I say) jump and put your hands up,
(I say) Jump up, Jump up

One, two, three, four

PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, throw your rag in they face,
PALANCE, shake up the place

Palance in the savannah,
Jumping up in panorama,
Girl just wave up your bandana,
Bandana, bandana

Jumping up in the Mardi Gras,
Drinking everything by the bar,
Show them girls you have the stamina,
Stamina, stamina

Don’t ever want to be late,
Sexy girls them outside the gate,
Badman yuh wasting my time,
If yuh sticking, stay behind,
Man ready to bump and grind,
So much sexy girls in the lime,
We not leaving none behind,
Cause we come to jump we don't make up we mind to

Jump up, Jump up, Jump and put your hands up,
(Let we take a) Jump up, Jump up, Jump up and put your hands up,
(Let we take a) Jump up, Jump up, Jump up and put your hands up,
(Let we take a) Jump up, Jump up

One two three four

PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, throw your rag in they face,
PALANCE, shake up the place

Palancing when we on the road,
Watch we palancing, watch we palancing,
Yes we toting any load,
Watch we palancing, watch we palancing,

Take a jump jump jump, take a jump up by the truck,
Take a jump jump jump, let we jump and mash it up,
Take a jump jump jump, take a jump up by the truck,
Take a jump jump jump, let we jump and mash it up

Don’t ever want to be late,
Sexy girls them outside the gate,
Badman yuh wasting my time,
If yuh sticking, stay behind,
Man ready to bump and grind,
So much sexy girls in the lime,
We not leaving none behind,
Cause we come to jump we don't make up we mind to

Jump up, Jump up, Jump and put your hands up,
(We say) Jump up, Jump up, Jump up and put your hands up,
(We say) Jump up, Jump up, (I say jump) Jump up and put your hands up,
(We say) Jump up, Jump up

Aye yay aye

PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, jump up and mash up the place,
PALANCE, shake up the place,
PALANCE, throw your rag in they face,
PALANCE, shake up the place

Palancing when we on the road,
Watch we palancing, watch we palancing,
Yes we toting any load,
Watch we palancing, watch we palancing,

Want more? For a slower groove, try Dan's favorite Carnival song: Thiefin' by Machel Montano

Carnival Tuesday - Our Section

Each band is divided into sections. Our band had 25 or 26 sections each with a unique theme - one was Robin Hood, one was native american indians, one was butterflys. Our theme was "Happy Hour/Helluva Good Time" which mostly translated into - our costumes were the white and gold ones.

Our band is known for its casual attitude about sections. Intermingling is not discouraged, except for the parade in front of the judges. Other bands try harder to enforce uniform sections. Here are the photos of our section, shortly before passing by the judges. This was the only time of the day we were all together.


Dan is second from left, in back. He's the one not texting. Note the mixed results of the bicep band. The cup-wielding guy in front has the bicep to keep it in place. Dan abandoned his because, like the texting fellow, his just slid down his arm.

Big Costumes from Other Bands

Each band has two or three big costumes at the head of their group. These are some of the costumes from some of the other bands.

Dancing in Front of the Embassy

In Jordan, security around the embassy was extensive - with many signs warning "do not take pictures" - here in Trinidad - the U.S. Embassy is on the Carnival parade route. Here you can see dancers making their way past the Embassy. Today is the "dress rehearsal" day so most people are only wearing part of their costume. Tomorrow there will be more headdresses and glitter.





This beautiful house is a few doors down from the Embassy and is for sale. It was profiled in the NYTimes because it is so lovely but its sale is tied up in historic preservation vs. developers.

Carnival Monday - Playing Mas with Harts

Today is Carnival Monday and it is the dress rehearsal for tomorrow when the real judging occurs. Here in Trinidad - Carnival is a participatory activity. I haven't been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans but I think there are big floats and lots of people watching the parades. Here there are very, very few spectators because nearly everyone is a participant. Participating is called "playing mas" (mas is short for masquerade). You join a "band" and buy a costume. We are in Harts - which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Each band dances around the city accompanied by music trucks with enormous speakers, some live music, trucks dispensing drinks and lots of security. At various points the trucks stop but the dancing continues.



The bands vary in size from a hundred to fifteen hundred. Harts is one of larger bands and so it comes with "wee wee trucks" as well - port-a-potties on a flat bed truck.



One of Trinidad's security feature is a blimp which flies over the city. We've been told it has some kind of infrared feature - but we still don't understand how it fights crime.



Music truck. Each year, several songs compete for the "song of Carnival" - and these dozen or so songs are played throughout the day - repeated. My current ear worm is the "You're out all day; every night you're out" and Dan's is "Who's playing mas - everyone's playing mas." Or at least we think these are the lyrics. We were awoken in the middle of the night with a song that we thought was about pieces of pie but today we realized today the lyrics are in fact "Right now I selling pipe. How much inches of pipe yuh want?"

The Lead Up to Carnival

Carnival season in Trinidad starts on December 26 - this is when the radio stations change from parang (ballads inexplicably sung in Spanish) to all soca all the time. Soca is the music of carnival - it is really up-tempo, major key music, often with lyrics related to carnival and is designed as music that you can dance to in a parade.

The arrival of soca is the first change; the next change is an increase in the number of billboards and banners around town "Carib - the beer of Carnival" or "KFC's Palance Pack." But Carnival really gets started in early February with lots of music festivals featuring soca stars. There are also contests to crown calypso kings; soca monarchs; steel pan orchestras; and contests for the best costumes. Last week, we went to the finals for the Junior Queen Monarchs for costumes. Many of these were sponsored by schools and others were sponsored by specific carnival groups "bands." Most of these costumes were probably 12 feet tall and 12 to 20 feet wide. They are made of aluminum frames; decorated with feathers, sequins, lame', and cost an estimated $15,000.

This first one, is one of the smaller ones but is cleverly shaped like a steel pan.





This black and white costume - won second place. Most of the costumes had complicated back stories to go with the designers overall costume theme. This black one was "Mother Goddess of Bakuba Warrior"



This last one was actually my favorite (unfortunately the picture didn't turn out well). Can you guess the name? It's "Black Gold - Trinidad's Treasure" - a tribute to petroleum. The bottom was gold wings and the head dress was a 15 foot fountain of black feathers. It unfortunately did not win.