Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
SO WHEN I put in this glossy yellow DVD entitled 'Carnival In Jamaica 2006: The Bacchanal Jamaica Experience' in the PC (it also plays on Mac and, naturally, DVD players) I saw six categories, namely 'Friday Nites', 'Soca'cise', 'Beach Jouvert', 'De Sandbar', 'J'Ouvert' and 'Road March'. Since I like to get to the meat of this Carnival matter, I clicked 'Beach Jouvert', with thoughts of bikinis and the matters contained therein.
And saw flashes of people entering a venue, people eating chicken, people putting on armbands, people playing the steelpan, people drinking Appleton ... so where ... aha! Finally a butt (female, need I say) in short black shorts backing up on thecamera! Carnival! Carnival to rumpus!
TRIP BACK IN TIME
Seriously, though, the high image quality Bacchanal 2006 DVD, which runs just shy of 50 minutes and is accompanied by a CD-Rom of pictures from the same sequence of events, provides a comprehensive trip back in time for those who were there and to the parties missed by those who were not. Sure, there is lots of dancing and no shortage of delectable derrieres, but it does not go overboard into X or even R rated territory (after all, there's no shortage of tight clothed writhing in Catwoman, is there?) and all that steel panning and jerk fowling that postponed my 'butt-up' with that black clad butt is a part of the attention to setting that makes the DVD much more than a wine-up fiesta.
There are quite a few interviews by a pair of partying hostesses, done with performers such as Destra, musicians, organisers and, at the huge night concert of the Beach Jouvert, the co-fastest man in the world. And ain't nothing quick about his experience, as Asafa says "this is the longest I have ever partied, so it must be good".
So after that and a peek at 'De Sandbar', a trip to Lime Cay where bikini buffs 'rolled it' to Alison Hinds' hind friendly recording and one man flashed his finger in delight at one red bikini bottom (she had on a white shirt, naughty people) clad lass' gyrations, I did what I should have done in the first place; go to the start and press 'play feature', after looking at the rotating multiple images, presented a cube of sorts, with accompanying soca music. In stark white on black it says 'In Memory of Lloyd Phang' and then 'Friday Night Fetes' begins. Again there is the setting - entrance, food, a hottie Appleton bartender, a cellphone promo image - then the music changes and voila! A white clad butt (female, of course) shaking up. I should have started at the beginning!
GET-IN-SHAPE ROUTINES
Soca'cise shows the coordinated get in shape routines, there is paint galore (including on the window of a police car) and a wet station (that's where people get hose up to party) shot in 'Jouvert' and the DVD wraps up with the high-energy trip on the road. And LA Lewis turns up, saying "it's the Bacchanal DVD 2006, everything fix" (and I though the ghost of cyaan buss haunted only dancehall and Prince Charles' plane).
Oh, there is a last, long, slow motion shot of a young miss, her blue plumes over shorties clad butt flouncing with her movements, backing it up to the camera and smiling as she half-looks over her left shoulder. Meat of the matter indeed. Sting in the tail, eh.
The two-disc package's cover turns out to be the opening image from the CD-Rom, which offers high-quality stills lots of them - from the events in the same order.
'Carnival In Jamaica 2006: The Bacchanal Jamaica Experience' is done by Ricketts Productions and is available at its offices and Tropical Expressions in the Sovereign Centre.
