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San Francisco Carnaval 2004!!!

What a blast we had. Maybe the one good thing about climate change is a shift to sunny carnival mornings in San Francisco for it was blazing. "Tamboo Fevah" was on the road and ready by 8:30 am, our revelers fed, glittered and ornamented by 9 am and buzzing by 10 am: rum punch bar restocked by 10:30 am. As contingent #58 we did not actually push off until after 11, giving the late risers enough time to find us on the road. It was our third San Francisco Carnaval and the first time we used a "pretty costume" and no paint. Our DJ tent located on 19th and Harrison with DJs Engineroom and Trinidad's Dawg E. Slaughter of Xcaliber International really rocked. WE want to say thank you to all of the people who jumped with Jouvay.com this year and had a good time. More thanks to:

Angela Samibe. Our fairy costume Godmother whose clothing line will swing heads across the world. Using the original design of Lee Pasha in Singapore, Angela hooked us up with two days notice after our costumes arrived not resembling the original sample. So much for out sourcing to Asia. We'll save the photos and story for "The Making of Jouvay.com."
DJ Engineroom. What a dependable trooper who played in our tent on both Saturday and Sunday and then at our after party on Sunday. He even made our music for the road. As we came off the parade at 2:30 pm and approached our tent to see him holding down a session with a mass of people in front dancing to soca, it made it all worth it. "The Making of Jouvay.com" will tell you about the rented generators that did not work or filing of a police report at 3:30 am Sunday morning when we arrived to decorate our tent and found our 300 pound generator missing along with the guard we paid to watch it. Muchas Gracias to Roberto and Bernie of the San Francisco Carnaval who swooped it to safety when they saw it guard less.
Dawg E. Slaughter, John Bent, HA Productions, Kim Enzensperger, Amira Jackmon, Michael, Ewon, Ganesh Restaurant and Bar, Joanne Daluz, Crystal, Franco, Holly, Adebo and Louis, DJ Polo and the KPOO staff, DJ Sake One (as you said, "what would jouvay.com do wthout you"), DJ Rudebwoy Ali and Wayne, Nadia Edwards, Desa Philadelphia, Chante and Shakira....thank you all so much for everything.

Links to Pictures:
Carnaval Parade 1
Carnaval Parade and DJ Tent 2
Carnaval After Party

What's New With Jouvay.com?

Maya's heading to Florida after ten years in Northern California. One TOK line comes to my head, "It's About Time." Don't get me wrong, the bay is just about one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen with a really unique personality. It's just a hard place to live when all of ones family either lives in the Caribbean or the East Coast and one has the carnival bug year round. With Patricia and Complex still in the San Francisco bay, we will continue to do our thing. With me in Florida.....let's just say that if the soca scene in Tampa is quiet we might have to do something about that. Last June our original chef Alesia left for Miami and this January our graphic designer Caiphus also moved there.....

So, the "farewell" party where bar top dancing is allowed and mojito ODs are expected is on Friday July 16th at Jelly's (Pier 50, right next to Pac Bell Park. Cross the 3rd street bridge and take an immediate left and follow road around to Jelly's) from 10 pm to ?? We are teaming up with Jonathan Mack's Ignite (also promotes AngelMagik) to bring a night of revelry with DJs Engineroom and Complex who will take us back to the eighties when we started to party to Yellowman and Arrow, all the way up to these days when we're thunder clapping the night away. Each woman who dances on the bar will receive free Rupee CDs compliments of jouvay.com and free D' Soca Zone and Reggae CDs compliments of VP Records. Wear your jouvay.com T-shirts for a group picture, bring your whistles...we need to fete and fete hard. info@jouvay.com or (510) 459-3513. Before 11 pm: ladies are free; men are $5. After 11 pm, $10 for everyone.

We are teaming up with more promoters this summer. On July 30th put on your white clothes and come out to another GLOW party presented by Jouvay.com and Local 1200. Pictures from Glow 2003 and Glow 2002 at the Shattuck Down Low. Read about the history of this party in our 2003 May newsletter.

On Saturday August 14th we team up with Local 1200 and the Reggae Gold crew of Polo and Rolo to bring a hot number at Club Six in San Francisco. Details soon come. Get excited.

Miami Carnival on South Beach

Complex: Good mawning. This is Complex with Jouvay.com's taxi service. What's your pick up location and where are you going?

Caribcrew lady Reveller: Hi. I'm at June's restaurant finishing up some ackee and saltfish and need to get to South Beach to find the Miami carnival and more importantly caribcrew.com's band with their all inclusive bar so I can be INEBRIATED all day!!

Complex: All of my taxi drivers are out for a while taking people to that carnival. For the past two hours they have been stuck in traffic. The best I can do is take you there myself on my bike.

..... 30 minutes later

Caribcrew lady Reveler: Wow, thanks for the ride. Think you can stay on and be my designated driver home? You sure seem like the wuk up, bumpa catch a fire kind of guy who'd enjoy the parade.

Complex: Hmmmm. And you said they have a full bar plus serve food and it might be flying fish since the owner's husband is Bajan?

Caribcrew lady Reveler: All of the above.....and if I am not mistaken those people carrying on back there must be working with your company for their uniforms have that lady logo on it.

...... and that's why no one could find an On Duty Jouvay.com taxi on October 10th in Miami. All of caribcrew's revelers ended up sleeping on the beach until Taxi driver #1 through 50 sobered up. If only Angela and Patricia had not made their uniforms so damn sexy not a reveler would have asked them to be their designated driver!!!

Costumes are $130 for female and $110 for male. Our full Miami page will be up in August. Email us now if you are interested.

Of Interest

Rupee, Rupee and More Rupee!! After recently signing with Atlantic Records, Rupee now has his own band complete with three back up singers. Their first concert was held on June 10th at New York's S.O.B's where both shows were well appreciated by the sold out crowds. He has already finished working on his next album which will include a Tempted To Touch remix. Thisisrupee.com will be the first place for you to hear them, so log on and sign his guest book.

Have you registered to vote? Jamaican born Marlon Hill just launched this website to encourage Caribbean American citizens to vote this year. The site opens with a catchy soca song, "Soca the Vote" and users can find voter registration forms for the states with large Caribbean populations. He hopes to have radio stations play the song and will soon meet with VP Records representatives about promoting the campaign. Listen to MP3 here.

Give Haiti a Chance. The founder of Mini Records recently organized and produced a compilation of Haitian songs featuring the thought provoking hit, "Bay Ayiti Yon Chans". Twenty four musicians assembled in Miami to record and make the video. The project website is available in creole and in english. Log on to listen to the music, read the lyrics and see the video.

Both of these sites were designed by inasite multimedia and we need to thank the designer Tafa for keeping us informed and more so for our recent Tanya Stephens drop.

Cropover in Barbados is three weeks away and Double Xplojun is on fire. Their newly released album DETANATE features the hit song Just Wanna Dance. Log onto their site now to listen. Cropover sites: Baje International, Power By Four.

Caribbean magazines are on the rise and with the internet it makes it easier to find out about them and order them. This year alone there are three new magazines:

West Indian Soul, launched in New York in February
SOCA, Souls of Caribbean Americans, based in Atlanta
CMQ, Caribbean Men's Quarterly launches soon

We've only had a chance to read through SOCA's first magazine. The editor is Nigel Kilkelly who hails from South Rumvieldt in Guyana. Small Caribbean world indeed. It's a mixture of fashion, entertainment, culture and politics. From one of Trinidad's leading clothing designers to snippets on movies like One Love and The Agronomist. Whilst the layout could be busy and the photograph quality a bit poor at times, it promises to be a start to something good. Very cool link to top quality Guyanese furniture: Timehristudios.com.

" The Roots of Calypso" by George Maharaj. 104 pages with vintage photographs and a 14 track calypso compact disc of Calypsoes. Content:

The various versions of the history of calypso
The history of the calypso monarchs from 1897 to present
The history of the road marches from 1900 to present
True names of over 500 calypsonians
The 1962 independence calypso competition
Lord Kitchener career highlights
The top 100 calypsoes of the 20th century survey results.

The cost of the book with the cd, is $25.00US plus postage. Money orders or paypal accepted. Email George.
Jamaican born bay area entreprenuer Shawn Hopwood recently launched an online T-shirt trend at Saywear.com. It's a really simple concept. One T-shirt, one saying, your original. Shirts cost $30, sayings are endless like Carnival Baby or Carnival Baby! or Carnival Baby!!.

The Caribbean Studies Association conference is held the first week of June, each year in a different Caribbean island. St. Kitts was the destination this year and I jumped on a plane the day after San Francisco Carnival to be there to present on PHIVA.NET, a Caribbean Publicity Project for HIV/AIDS Awareness. Held at the humongous, Vegas style Marriott in Friggate Bay, the conference lasted from Tuesday June 1st through Friday June 4th. Whilst my presentation went well and I was able to connect with close friends and family in a "work environment", something went really wrong in St. Kitts that I think blocked me from finishing this newsletter earlier. It's one thing to be so excited about the Caribbean and write about our culture from afar, it's another thing to be living there, in it along with all of it's inexcusable laws and behaviours. The police picked up one of the foreign presenters at the conference on Friday morning and jailed him over the weekend, accusing him of a crime that they said he committed between 8 and 9 pm on Wednesday June 2nd. It just so happened that he was at dinner for a while before and after that time with myself and thirteen other people, all of whom had flown in to St. Kitts for the conference. Those who were at dinner and still on the island filed police reports on that Saturday and those of us who had left faxed in our statements to his lawyer. His first court appearance occurred on Monday June 7th and his trial was set for June 25th. Between that time he had to report to the police every Monday and in his defense witnesses had to return to St. Kitts to give testimony in court. It was not until today, July 11th, some 5 weeks after arriving in St. Kitts that the magistrate dismissed the case and he can return to Canada. That said, I wish there were something good I could say about the place, but I won't advise anyone to visit. And if you stay at the Marriott be careful when you place overseas calls....if you are charged $100 US for 14 minutes, call the company to dispute it and you will be fully refunded provided you've never used their service before. And if you are Guyanese don't be surprised if a Kittitian tells you, "the Guyanese are our cane cutters." Given that the presenter was an Indo Guyanese, one can just imagine how much worse he would have been treated had he not had the support of the Canadian representative on the island and 14 witnesses who had a Dr. infront of their names.

Some things that are reportedly fun in St. Kitts include:

The St. Kitts Music Festival held in June
Chef Blyden from the 21st Amendment in San Francisco swears that Sunrise in Nevis is a great restaurant
The St. Kitts Carnival in December

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