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Over a year ago Complex suggested we do a bikini party. Patricia and Maya agreed that it would attract a crowd, but as two women they were not thrilled. Undaunted things started to sizzle when he saw custom swimsuits made by Nicole Tripp, a regular Jouvay.com partygoer who wore her own stylish renditions of our T-shirts. Soon we discussed it and we were all excited and focused on marketing a Jouvay.com Swimsuit Collection made by her company Sexy Waters. We assembled a first class team to co-ordinate the fashion show and design a calendar featuring the models and providing the dates and information of Caribbean carnivals worldwide. Sexy Waters created over 15 designs for us to work with and we selected our colors, many of which reflect the colors of the Caribbean flags. Each of our 12 sexy and unique suits is made from high quality material and varies from "barely there" bikinis to "hold you in" one pieces. Models were chosen from bay area women and men (Patricia and Maya plugged for male display) who responded to our ads. John Bent introduced us to Donald from Abighouse.com, a professional photo studio perfect for our photoshoot, fashion show and party. We sat with photographer Adebo Thomas and art director Caiphus Moore to create the story boards for the calendar, all of which follow the theme of what one experiences at a jouvay.com event. Look out for our website dedicated to our swimsuit collection, calendar and models, all of whom have worked extremely hard.

SPONSORS NEEDED: This calendar will provide a great opportunity to achieve our goals of promoting the Caribbean, its culture, its businesses and artists and feel that a sponsor will gain tremendous exposure from this project. Please email us for a sponsorship package.

MIAMI CARNIVAL REVIEW

Miami carnival: Thank you to Francis Ragoo of the Miami Carnival Organization/Socafest, Michael from Friday's Glow, Miami Fly Girls, and Toni of Fantazia Promotions. Our bay area friends were the Blue Devil section of Caribcrew Entertainment and had a time. Some of our supporters from LA who jumped with us for our carnival this year played mud mas in Miami with Kaiso Boyz and also had a ball.

This was Complex's first Miami carnival, Patricia's third and it was the first one Maya had missed since 1998. So, this review is coming indirectly from Singapore where phone conversations and instant messenger kept the jouvay.com team in sync. Complex landed early Friday morning and was most pleased with the hotel deal he had gotten from Toni Lisa of Fantazia Promotions. At 3 am the next morning in a brief phone conversation from the Radisson Glow to Singapore he said, "We're at the Glow, Destra Garcia wants a jouvay shirt. Spoke with Machel and Sparrow and Bunji. Got here after Krosfyah performed unfortunately. Patricia missed her flight and is stuck in San Francisco. Wow, this is amazing...Yeah, I'll ask Rupee to big up jouvay.com." 2 pm on instant messenger the next day he said that there was a powder session in the parking lot after Glow with tons of New Yorkers and he left after 6 am eating a cold, but good curry and roti. Ragoo had given him our passes to his events, and he was getting ready to hit the Cooler fete, the Miami Fly Girls party, his dad's mate's party in Fort Lauderdale and then try to get Patricia from the airport. He got sucked into the South Beach madness and never made it to any of the above.

There was a total loss of connection and the next I heard about the Miami carnival was from Alesia, Joanne and Clennita who had just finished playing 'mas with Caribcrew's Blue Devil section at the Homestead carnival (3 competing carnivals occurred simultaneously). One of the Caribcrew bandleaders is none other than DJ Engineroom from the bay and this was his group's first Miami carnival. Through the noise and static phrases like "drink rum straight" and "so much fun" were barely audible. Then the pictures came that explained it all. Patricia and Complex were stuck in traffic to Homestead for a while and arrived late, but in time to jump behind the crowded Back to Basics truck, meet other promoters like wukupnuff.com, see friends and feast at the food stalls which were not that easy to find. I think they were the last to leave the Miami Socafest sometime after 10 am that morning. According to Patricia, the GT Ninja Band was reaaaaallly good. The Virginia Keys Beach fest on Monday attracted a crowd as early as 3 in the afternoon. We should have warned folks from the bay that the event is not quite on the beach as the name suggests. As usual, this was probably one of the best parties. As the event finished around 2am, folks headed to the crowded Mad House where Machel had to tell the soca'd out crowd that if they were not feeling the vibe he was leaving. After six days of non stop carnival fetes their vibe was excuseable.

WHAT's NEW on JOUVAY.COM

Lady Saw is the most popular female dancehall singer. With over Six albums, timeless hits like "Sycamore Tree", collaborations with all of dancehall's leading male singers, popular songs with hip-hop singer Foxy Brown and grammy winners No Doubt, she remains at the cutting edge of entertainment. We caught up with her backstage at the Caribbean Sea Breeze Festival, amongst the fans of all ages wishing for an autograph, picture or hug, and got this update. READ ON.

Calypso Rose, the legend, the first woman to win a road march in Trinidad and Tobago (1977 with Tempo) and the first person to win both the road and calypso titles simultaneously in Trinidad, has written over 800 songs to date and shows no signs of stopping what she has been doing for decades. After her performance at the Caribbean Summerfest, we found her drinking vodka with Calypso Dreams movie director Geoffrey Dunn and briefly chatted with her. READ ON.

Tanto Metro is that bonanza blazing DJ who started in Jamaica's Metromedia sound family around age 14. A senior member of the Shocking Vibes crew that includes his singing partner Devonte, and artists like Beenie Man, his versatility at mimicking any singer (afiwi.com video) is a staple during one of the duo's entertaining performances; so is their mega hit from 1999 "Everyone Falls in Love". We would have chatted forever with easy going Tanto Metro and then his partner Devonte were it not time for their performance at the Caribbean Sea Breeze Festival in LA. We still want to know more about that soca song they just recorded together. For now, enjoy this as they hit the San Francisco bay for the first time on Saturday November 1st, 2003 at the Avalon Ballroom. READ ON.

We've added a carnival page to our website. If you have links, corrections or additions please let us know. Over time we hope to add a personalized page for each island/country/state filled with things jouvay.com experiences. Barbados was first, now here's Guyana (and it's not the Jim Jones story): Jouvay.com is 2/3 Guyanese owned so you already know we have a special connection to this 83,000 square mile country, the only English speaking nation in South America with a history that is very similar to that of its Caribbean counterparts. Though Patricia left Guyana as a little girl, she can detail Berbician life for you and put you on the right track to finding anything Guyanese in New York, Washington or Northern California. Maya, as usual, can tell you the best rum shops from Bartica or Parika to New Amsterdam, or from Kitty to the Rupununi where you buy your XM or El Dorado by the bottle or half bottle and chase it only with a bowl of ice...after all it is Guyanese rum. When we think of Guyana we think of an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables when you walk through the Stabroek, Bourda, Kitty, or Parika market, we think of the pepperpot and metem, the curry and roti, dhal and rice, black pudding and souse, cook up and fried fish, the julie mango, long mango, buxton spice mango, Jomo from Byron Lee's frontline wining on his head, and the amazing hospitality of people. Read On.

Added to the photogallery: pictures from Miami carnival, pictures from our Square One show at Kimball's East.

Of Interest

The San Francisco Carnaval 2003 Awards ceremony was held on Sunday October 22nd. Each contingent from the 25th Anniversary celebration parade was given a beautifully wrapped carnival poster. The artist was Mark Rios, designer of album covers for famous musician Santana. The theme for the 2004 Carnaval is FIESTA DE TAMBORES: All Life Moves in Rhythm. The Festival of Drums was chosen because the drums are the heartbeat, the center, and the core of music around the world. What should be the jouvay.com 'mas in keeping with the Carnaval theme? We are currently researching the drums of and in the Caribbean diaspora from the tassa and dholak to the kata, the pandero, the conga and the pan (When Steel Talks). Your input and help is always welcome, especially in the early stages of planning and designing. If you are a teacher or are interested in working with a school to help us make the costumes please contact us. We would like to develop a multidisciplinary course that combines art, history, math and science for kids in the bay area for this year's 'mas.

Calypso Dreams Update: The Indiewire writes,"Music events were a
highlight in quaint and rural Mill Valley, a town that prides itself on its
local music roots. One big event at the festival included two nights of
calypso music tied to the new documentary "Calypso Dreams." Picture
is of Calypso Rose and Bonnie Raitt performing at the Mill Valley Film
festival. Photo by Lorin Schneider.

We are re-introducing our "community" pages which feature members of our email list from around the world who are raising money for charities through endeavours like walk-a-thons and marathons or work with a non-profit or school that needs assistance. The Life Learning Academy on Treasure Island, San Francisco CA is a charter school for high school kids who are either involved in or are at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system. Joanne, one of our biggest supporters has taught math from the school's inception and Justin, another big jouvay.com supporter teaches photography. Joanne's profile will soon be in our community section, but in the meantime you can support The Life Learning Academy by purchasing your own things through schoolpop.com. The Life Learning Academy is part of the Delancy Street Foundation, an organization committed to turning the lives of people who have served time in jail around through extensive job training and councilling programmes. Joanne is a 2004 Carneige Fellow and the students at the Life Learning Academy are lucky to have this jouvay.commer as an instructor for she is committed to her work and fun (her Miami carnival pictures in the blue devil costume proves that one). Many of her students live under circumstances where they are on the verge of being turned into prostitutes, gang members or drug dealers, and some die from some of the simplest things just because... You can help to keep her school running if you register your VISA card on www.schoolpop.com and designate Life Learning Academy as your beneficiary (code 0615795). The school earns 1% on each of your purchases. Also, many merchants set aside rebates and money for the school if you register before you shop online regardless of what credit card you use!

Some of the profiles that will be added:

Richard Gayle, a Jamaican bay area resident running the 2003 Honolulu marathon to raise money for HIV/AIDS treatment/awareness in the bay
Alesia Ferguson, Jouvay.com's ex Jamaican chef who runs 1/2 marathons
Lenny Singh, Guyanese NY resident who's like family to Rupee and who is constantly raising money for charities. Big supporter of Insomnia Bar in Queen's NY.

Our Sponsors:

Links/Announcements:

THISISRUPEE.COM has launched and is wicked.

Are you female and interested in singing professionally with a great reggae band? Can you move to Orlando, are you confident and can you travel? Your expenses will be covered. Contact Marty of Clearhaze if you are interested.

In Miami (or online) Ital-K, long time host of "Sounds of the Caribbean" on 91.3 FM (WLRN Radio) always sends greetings to jouvay.com. The station manager recently decided to replace this entertaining, informative and important show with the BBC News. Show support for Ital-K and demand the show again. Call, write or visit WLRN during business hours: 305-995-1717; 172 NE 15th
Street Miami, FL 33132; info@wlrn.org.

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