Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Calyspo Rum Hut




It's much easier to have ideas than it is to follow through with them - to exist in the realm of the kinetic, the sphere of potential, the vortex of hope! Once you get past the inevitable disappointment of failing at a project, and come to terms with the fact that you're not going to get everything done, you're open to a world of satisfaction that you haven't experienced since your childhood. It's important you follow through with some things, but really, is anybody upset because da Vinci never got around to making that helicopter?

Such was it with my failed coming-of-age script about a Calypso singer prodigy at a beach resort in Trinidad in the early 1960's. (Okay, not anything like da Vinci's helicopter - only that it was unfinished.) It was to be the calypso world's The Harder They Come, but with a much younger kid, some shark-skin suits and an appearance by an actor playing Robert Mitchum. I did the research, hungered for bake and shark, listened to countless hours of calypso (and really got fixated on Lord Kitchener, specifically because of the lewdness and humour - qualities I wouldn't really appreciate in any other genre except maybe Bmore, and that didn't exist in the Muppets' Pig Calypso), but couldn't figure out anything to propel the plot along. Dead end.

So, in honour of another failure, here are some calypso songs, including a steelpan cover of the Gwen McCrae funk classic 90% Of Me Is You, and Lord Kitchener's thoughtful contribution to horoscopes, romance, and astrology. I can't say I agree entirely with His Highness, but nonetheless, the lyrics are excerpted below.

August September and October, it will be Virgo, Scorpio and Libra,
Well the girls that were born under these three signs,

They like they like the English weather fortune change their minds,

Especially those born under Scorpio,
They just tell you yes and then they change to no,

And that is why i would rather be,

In love with a girl born January.


Well November and December don't trust their sight,

They like angels in the day and devils at night,

And that is why I would rather be,

In love with a girl born January...

Lord Kitchener, January Girls


Unrelated, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the apparent trustworthiness of the bearded male. Word. Link courtesy of fellow barberousse Cameron Reed/Babe Rainbow.

No comments: