Rhymes with Blog

Q: What do Caribbean Free Radio, Jamie Foxx and Andrea Arnold have in common?

A: In the past 24 hours they’ve all won awards.

CFR’s weighs several pounds less than than Jamie’s or Andrea’s, however, nor is it something the housemate will be displaying on the mantlepiece any time soon (.gif files don’t lend themselves to that kind of treatment–and maybe I should add that we don’t have a mantlepiece).

But in the podcasting world, a Podcast Bunker audio quality award does count for something (or so we believe), and the housemate is over the moon.

Technorati Tags: caribbeanfreeradio, oscars, jamiefoxx, andreaarnold, podcast, podcastbunker, audio, podcasting, caribbean, trinidad

The housemate’s been busy–Caribbean Free Radio’s third podcast is now online. This one even includes a plug for this blog!

Technorati Tags: podcast, caribbean, caribbeanpodcast, caribbeanfreeradio

We have a bunch of GMail invites to give away. Drop us a line to delphine@georgiapopplewell.info and we’ll send one your way–while supplies last, of course.

Technorati Tags: gmail, gmailinvite, gmailinvites

Caribbean Free Radio, which nothing leads us to believe is not the Caribbean’s first podcasting site, has posted its second podcast.

Technorati Tags: caribbeanfreeradio, caribbean, podcast, music, trinidad

Brit blogger Woebot coined the witty term ’shanty house’ as a catchall for all these world-is-a-ghetto musics: impurist genres (see also: kwaito, desi) that typically suture bastardized vestiges of indigenous folk forms to pirated elements of rap, rave, and bass ‘n’ booty. Locally rooted but plugged into the global media sphere, these scenes don’t bother overmuch with sample clearances, and vibe-wise they typically project ruffneck raucousness leavened with party-up calls to shake dat ass.

From a review of M.I.A.’s Arular in the Village Voice by Simon Reynolds, who’s clearly some sort of escapee from a Cultural Studies program at some university. We don’t know M.I.A., but we’re still pretty intrigued (especially since she sounds like a fellow mongrel). SR adds this:

She’s a veritable vortex of discourse, catalyzing fevered debate around most likely irresolvable questions concerning authenticity, postcolonialism, cultural tourism, appropriation, and dilettantism. She’s a dissertation (”Riddims of Resistance: Sub-Bass and Sub-altern Pressure”) given fine fleshly form.

But you have to love the term “shanty house”.

Technorati Tags: music, worldmusic, transnationalism, housesmusic, hiphop

I’m not a coffee drinker but I don’t mess with the housemate on a morning until she’s had her fix.

Not sure she’s ever tried Haitian Bleu, but if it’s anything like the Caribbean’s other great Blue coffee–which is apparently in short supply since last year’s hurricane–feel free to send us a pound or two. (Beans, please).

Technorati Tags: coffee, haitianbleu, haiti, jamaica, bluemountain, caribbean, beverages

Is this site for real?

Happy to report that–at least up to the point I last looked–no member of my community had volunteered his or her body, though there is a category called “Pet Advertising”.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term “branding”.

Technorati Tags: branding, marketing, advertising, skin, body

It’s probably the Caribbean’s first podcast, and you can experience it here.

For a direct link to the blog/podcast page, click here, and here’s the syndication feed.

Technorati Tags: caribbean, podcast, newpodcast, music, blog

Today in the Guardian: an obit for Haitian dandy Aubelin Jolicoeur and Blake Morrison draws parallels between Proust and P Diddy (who knew Proust had a clothing line??!!).

Technorati Tags: aubelinjolicoeur, haiti, proust, pdiddy, guardian.co.uk

Elena Oumano gives some important context to the Jamaican dancehall-and-homophobia issue in a piece in this week’s edition of The Village Voice.

While I myself cannot fathom why anybody could possibly feel that it’s their business what consenting adults of whatever sex do in the privacy of their own space, I’ve felt that some of the previous coverage of the topic–perhaps understandably, since much of it came from interest groups–ignored the particular circumstances in which the situation has developed.

Technorati Tags: jamaica, dancehall, homophobia, humanrights, humanrightswatch, caribbeanmusic, caribbean, reggae