IslandMix - Soca, Reggae, Zouk and Caribbean Entertainment

What are your thoughts on this subject.. I mean to me the tru meaning of MAS is finding whatever you could get your hands on making up an nice outfit that would either make people laugh, stare, or clap and jumping down mad down the road similar to Jouvert in many islands...

Has pretty mas taken away the essence especially with exponential rising costs from year to year..

Tell me more..

yes

The greed, backstabbing, rivalry and sheer economics of 'pretty mas' detracts from both the spectacle and the enjoyment if you ask me...but the costumes themselves don't. Conventional masquerade is no longer about satire and parody, but now it's about fantasy...a two day escape into whatever world can be accessed by the particular array of beads and baubles that one happens to have hanging off one's derriere. Every form of masquerade has always been about fantasy to some extent...shedding/hiding one identity and taking on another. As such fantasy very much has a place in mas today.

Don't blame the costumes...blame the people behind them.

lol Care for a more in dept commentary..

Oh gorsh nah dont tell me you fall for dat line too..

I don't think so, its moreso the greed that people have to make a profit out of everything, like bakes said.

I think mas has evolved into bigger and better things, but back in the days of slavery where this originated, people has less to work with in terms of ideas and concepts as well as the resources to put a costume together, now as times change and we move into the future, so does mas and its evident in the elaborate fancy costumes that we have today. It still does what it did back then in terms of portraying something that you are not and having a good time doing it.

and there you have it....

yes indeed....

Ent fall fuh nutten dread...dai'z just my particular take on dat. De reality is that when you take off yuh costume, work/school, bills, stress...life, awaits. While you have on yuh costume and yuh on the road you are able to forget about 'life' for that period...that is the escape I talk about. For those couple of days you are living worry free and happy...that's a fantasy. So to me, those are the things that the costumes afford you. That isn't something printed on the back of some glossy mas camp brochure...that is reality for a lot of people...so what if I juss borrow de equivalent of two months salary to go jump wid 'X'...I ent go worry about that, I go study dat come Ash Wednesday. Fantasy living.

true talk, as you board the plane reality sets in.

Well said!

that is so , so TRUE ....this is one point in my life that i have not worries ...........

Alison Henessey (on air tv personality in T&T) said the same some years ago. She is a big supporter of Despers and used to play mas. She stated that the reason Trinidad don't have a bunch of mad people is because our carnival is our therapist. We have the two days to escape from all what troubles us. It's that time when old and young, black and white, rich and poor take to the streets and let loose.

I do believe there is a lack of creativity when it comes to the designing of costumes. All the bands pretty much look the same, with the exception of Brian McFarlane and Trinirevellers. They remind me of the days of Peter Minshall and Wayne Barkley, whom I believe were the creative geniuses of their time. The costumes are a reflection of what is going today. People (especially women) since they are the majority of masqueraders don't want a set of cloth to jump up in, I myself included. However, I'm sure that creativity doesn't have to be the sacrifical lamb because the masqueraders want less.

__________________
When two people cussin, they doh tell each other that they pretty or they nice.


-Meh Granny say so.

...and lawd knows all ah we need we therapy

How long ago she said this , is dateline still on?
damn she was so right, people wait months for this thing and its really one of the happiest times in life..: what would I do without carnival!