September 2010 is Alice Yard's fourth anniversary as an independent space for creative experiment. This year, Alice Yard marks the occasion with "4x4", a programme of events focusing on Alice Yard's regional network, and our creative collaborators in four specific Caribbean locations: the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, and Suriname. The events will be hosted from Friday September 24 to October 1, 2010.

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Are you an actor or actress who just also happens to be a 'Carnival baby'?  Then a role in the screenplay "Queen of Soca" written by local son Kevin Adams might be for you. Casting for "Queen of Soca" will take place on Saturday September 11 at Brown Cotton Theater on Ana Street, Woodbrook between the hours of 11 am - 6 pm.

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It’s Erotic Art Week here in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean’s first ever Erotic Art Week, and there’s lots to do.

According to its blog, Erotic Art week is a unique annual art festival that was conceived by a collective of visual, graphic and performing artists living in Trinidad and Tobago. This is the second year of the event, which is themed "Wider". Expanding on last year's theme "Open", the Artweek committee is aiming to make the event bigger and better. 

The committee comprises choreographer – Dave Williams, Soft Box Gallery Curator – Nisha Hosein, Artist Christian Alexis, architect – Terry Smith, photographer – Rodell Warner, writer – Darryn Boodan, and designers Richard Rawlins and Marlon Darbeau.

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Social network giant Facebook will roll out a new set of privacy settings to all its users starting on 26 May.

The company said it will post the details on its blog.

Facebook faced a barrage of criticism from users over a series of tweaks that left its members unsure about how public their information had become.

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The Caribbean has no scarcity of musical talent. Few, however, make it “international”. From Sean Paul to Heather Headley, Rihanna, Hal Linton, and Shontelle, we’re grown accustomed to seeing Caribbean youths rocket to stardom at intervals. Since Rihanna’s meteoric rise to international celebrity, we’ve been looking to see who’s set to make it big next.

Aaron Fresh, a protégé of Nick Cannon, has stepped up to the plate. Although he was born in the States, he was raised in Trinidad, eventually returning to the States in his teen years. Repping Trini hard, he’s the newest thing to hit the pop/ R&B scene. Now 17, he’s credited as bringing “a fresh sound to the music world”. Kidult interviewed him recently. Check out some soundbites from the interview.

What was it like growing up in Trinidad?

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As Jamaica goes through turmoil, one of the striking things coming out of it has been the defence of drug lord Dudus. Photos of women defending him, and likening him to a god, as he provides for their children, has caused some to question the mentality that would cause such actions. Islandista ponders:

“Islandistas are the leaders and future leaders of the Caribbean and Jamaica’s crisis is all our business, particularly the pivotal role that women are playing in defending Dudus.

The cries of the women as reported by the papers were striking – and horrifying too. Claims that Dudus feeds them and sends to school their children. Shouts that he is “next to God.

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The hangover…

A headache, sweat and a dose of guilt. It’s not that I partook in the victorious People’s Partnership’s alcoholic charity this morning, nor do I feel I made the wrong decision yesterday. Sure, Jack Warner did his level best to convince me of that with a cringe-worthy “thanks be to God” speech, perhaps to distract from his own God-king reputation. But I’m pretty sure that this grogginess comes down to lethargy, because there’s still a lot of work for Trinidad and Tobago to do.

The more things change…

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From Knowtnt.com - There is a wonderful lobby underway for a televised Election Debate in T&T involving the candidates applying to become our next Prime Minister.  In my view, I don't think T&T is ready for it at this time, and realistically, I don't think there is enough time to organise a proper debate.  However, I wish to propose a solution.

Election debates are meant to help voters learn more about the candidates and the policies they stand for, hopefully leading to an informed voting decision.  It requires candidates to be practiced in defending their policies, track records and promises in a manner that none of them have been subjected to in T&T so far.  Not even by the media.  Parliamentary 'debate' is not good practice because members, lately, read out lengthy contributions from pre-written scripts (which is actually against the rules, but no-one seems to care).  No MP knows how to give a proper response to very challenging questions in under three minutes - just read any of the Q&A articles published in the Sunday newspapers.  If any of the candidates go into a proper election debate with only Parliament as practice, they would be woefully unprepared to respond quickly and cogently to statements made by their competitors.  Result: the debate would collapse into a glorified platform for unhelpful rhetoric and voters would mistakenly conclude that all our candidates are incapable of running a country (when really they're only incapable of handling or communicating effectively during a debate).

Read more at Knowtnt.com.

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Alright. So we all know by now that general elections scheduled for May 24th. Facebook, Twitter, d rumshop, and yuh mammy porch buzzin' with talk of who yuh votin' for, not votin' for, which politician should get out of the race, or whether Kamla should really be entering rallies to the sound of Celine Dion.

Thing is, though, that elections always bring an air of excitement, and as much as you try, you can't help but be sucked into it in some way. This leads to analogies that are sometimes exaggerated comparisons of the Trini political system with say the UK and US system.

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