Eustace wins!

Curtis Eustace is King of Carnival! Yet again. This is the seventh time he has won.  Eustace won in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and now 2005. And this year saw the irony of Eustace, who normally wins by overpowering viewers with the impact of the sheer huge size of his mas, beat his much bigger rival Roland St George and thereby prove that size isn’t everything. What a show Eustace gave! Eustace played “War Chant, d’ rise of Tatanka.” It showed a scream emanate from the mouth of an African deity, spread out to the whole face, the head-dress, and then his two huge wings. The zig-zag streaks of colour in the wings evoked ferocity and fear, reminiscent of the expressionist painting by Eduard Munch, The Scream. Eustace came on stage in medium light and slowly made his way to the front of the stage.

The mind of the veteran viewer predicted that the lights would dim and then suddenly hit him full glare with a blast of music and he would come alive, in his usual exciting choreography. But this time Eustace had something unexpected. He stood in half-light. Suddenly, behind his costume, out blasted fireworks. The eruption of flame abruptly lifted from hiding, a huge mask to take central place in the mas. Fantastic! Amazing! Wow! Some onlookers, in full awe, could only murmur: “He win already.” Instead of adding pyrotechnics just to glamorise the design of the mas, Eustace had this time used the fireworks as an integral part of the mechanics of the costume.  Wow. Is this a new evolution of mas? Curtis scored 426 points, far ahead of the field of his rivals.

Roland St George came second with “Caryba” getting 406 points. This vast float had a fierce witch-doctor dancing in flames amid demons and skulls. It was all so huge and so detailed as to be almost a miniature theatre set. Fareid Carvalho took third place with “Prince of Deliverance.” Kudos to him for totally carrying his costume without support wheels. It was like a huge skeletal chicken, suddenly come back to life like the living dead. It was grotesque. But it was “different”. He got 401 points. Congrats. Fourth was Hilton De Couteau’s “Mystical skull throne of Attila” (380) whose black and white showed the starkness of skull , while the silver showed the royalty of the “throne.” 

Wade Madray was fifth with “Behold” (378) , a huge screen of silver sequins flanked by two huge purple wings, the whole gleaming in the lights to evoke spirituality. Sixth was Leroy Prieto with “Magazany, the bizarre buffoon king of the clowns” (376). This small mas used little material but to great effect! Prieto’s relaxed chip-chipping was able to make the mas rock and sway from side to side. Then he made it both swirl to and fro, and bob up and down, at the same time. Amazing! This mas purist deserved to place higher. Innocent Cedeno’s dragon “Zeus, king of the gods” (370) was seventh. Errol Phillips’ “Invokement of Carnival” (308) came eighth, surely losing points for falling over.

In the Queen of Carnival, Pamela Gordon edged out Inez Gould who had won the preliminaries and semi-finals. Gordon played the multi-coloured “Fly High Pretty Butterfly” to earn 418 points. Inez Gould was the vast “Hispaniola” scoring 416 points. Anra Bobb was third with “Boadicea, queen of d’ barbarians” getting 415 points. Susan Low’s “Lady of the Night” (402) was fourth. Fifth was Rosemarie Kuru-Jagessar with “Zanaru, lady of the plains” (391). Sixth came Leslie-Ann Boiselle with “The Rebirth, a tribal celebration” (376). Seventh was Gloria Dallsingh’s “Brazilian Dancer” (367). Deborah Nandah was eighth with “Pride of the Nation, we pan” (358).

CHALKIE RETAINS MONARCH TITLE

By DAVID CUFFY

CHALKDUST (Dr Hollis Liverpool) won his seventh National Calypso Monarch title on Carnival Sunday night. The defending Monarch gave a polished and confident performance of his two selections, “I In Town Too Long” and “Ah Doh Rhyme” to retain the title he won for the sixth time last year, in the final of the competition staged during the Dimanche Gras programme at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain. Appearing among the 12 finalists in the sixth spot, Chalkdust was easily a cut above the rest in terms of lyrical content, diction and stage presentation.

Indeed, after rendition of his second song, many in the large audience responded with the steady hand-clapping that indicates, outside of competition, approval of the work and the wish to hear more. Placing second was the diminutive Cro Cro (Weston Rawlins) with strong challenges in “Oh Grenada” and “Chop Off They Hand.” He went on to win the People’s Choice Award. In third position was Singing Sandra (Sandra De Vignes-Millington) offering powerful renditions of “Judge Me Not” and “Clean Heart.” Sugar Aloes (Michael Osouna) took fourth spot with his choices “Heaven and Hell” and “Jazzy’s Instructions.”

Other placings were as follows:
 5 The Original De Fosto Himself (Winston Scarborough) — “His Excellency” and “From Beyond.”
 6 Lesley Ann Ellis — “Who Am I” and “Tonight.” (She was the first person from Tobago to qualify for the national final.)
 7 Skatie (Carlos James) — “Mirror Mirror” and “De US In We.”
 8 Brother Mudada (Alan Fortune) - “Good Time Pioneers” and “Leave People Thing Alone.”
 9 Devon Seale — “Mr Pan” and “Ivan The Terrible.”
10 Brian London — “We Shall Overcome” and “Tsunami.”
11 Delamo (Franz Lambkin) - “Woe Unto Them” and “Let The Children Play.”
12 Bodyguard (Roger Mohammed) “This World Doh Like Nothing Black” and “The Age Of Specialists.”

As has been occurring with increasing frequency over the years, the majority of contestants opted for use of elaborate props, which in most instances only managed to serve as distractions rather than enhancements of their presentations.