Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Photography's Godfather of Costume Launches Don Moreland lives to take Mas pictures By Stephen Weir Caribbean Carnival There are two written-in-stone constants at  all  Toronto Mas Band costume launches.    Law number 1? The costume designs will always radically change from one season to the next. Law number 2? Photographer Don Moreland will be at every launch photographing the models in their costumes and recording the elaborate fashion shows.  “ WOW the people who put on these shows are amazing!” Moreland told the Caribbean Camera. “ My first carnival was in 1987 and I started taking pictures of the launches back in 1997. Since then I have taken over 60,000 photos and have over 300 hour of video tape in my studio warehouse (In Toronto’s Junction District)”. “I am the owner of  Ontario Portable Display Systems,” he continued. “We set up displays at trade shows, galleries and private functions in Canada and the United States.    I am 58 and I have had a camera in

Alana Bridgewater Is Singing The Blues with the Soulpepper Theatre  Review By Stephen Weir - Caribbean Camera Way back in time, Singing the Blues was a cultural statement for embattled Black Americans. The sad truth, at least, according to a 36-year old award winning play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom that just opened in Toronto, living the Blues doesn’t usually end well.  The play which tells a story of  race, and exploitation of Black recording artists in Chicago in the twenties   is getting a much deserved revival at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre this month. The award winning American classic by August Wilson is a fictional account of the day the “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey (aka Gertrude Pridgett) recorded her 1927 hit record, Black Bottom, at a white owned studio in the Windy City. Ma Rainey is on a roll – and today she is going to cut a song she has written about dancing the Black Bottom  (a popular African American dance in the 20s. It is a cross between tap dancin

Pop-up Concert at the Canadian Music Week Conference By Stephen Weir Grammy-nominated Panamanian American singer Aloe Blacc was in Toronto last week at the Canadian Music Week conference.    He performed on stage at the Sheraton Centre conference and met with the media. Blacc was here at the request of the US Consulate who were at the music conference to promote the Toronto premier of a new IMAX movie which stars Aloe Blacc.  America’s Musical Journey  opens next month at the Ontario Science Centre and at other museum and science centre IMAX theatres across Canada. The 40-minute large format film follows Blacc as he travels to New Orleans, Chicago, Nashville, Miami, New York and California to explore the roots of American music. It is all about making music and sharing music and how the influence of the greats like Louis Armstrong and Elvis Presley helped shape today’s sounds. Aloe Blacc is best known for his chart-topping “ I Need a Dollar ” and his vocals on Avicii’s “

FM Belfast Teaches Canadians How To Run Around Iceland In Our Underwear When It Is 20 Below.  Singer Lóa Hjálmtýsdottir in a mound of ribbons By Stephen Weir written for my Huffington Post blog Published in the Travel Section Caribbean Camera newspaper May 2018 Two men in front tried the impossible, putting on their pants while stumbling to the exit. There was    an urgency – it was 2 am and we were being herded out the concert doors into a normal Icelandic night. Black. Windy. Sub-Zero temperature. It didn’t take a detective to figure out that the laundry droppers were Canadians – the Roots labels gave ‘em away.    Not that anyone in the crowded Reykjavik art gallery cared about their lack of  trous . Blame the lack of clothes on the band that 600 of us had just seen. It was FM Belfast, one of Canada’s most favoured Icelandic bands. The veteran electro-pop group closed out the Airwaves music festival concert with a group participation song called Underwear.   Lóa

New Play by Blakka’s Son is Fun, Mystical and True By Stephen Weir,   for Caribbean Camera   Daniel Jelani Ellis in Speaking of Sneakers It was a rare experience for me to attend live theatre and have the writer and star of the play I am about to see check my ticket, escort me to my seat and suggest I read the programme because I will probably have trouble with the dialect!  It was opening night for Speaking of Sneaking and the room was packed with people wanting to see what the buzz about Daniel Jelani Ellis, (the son of famed Jamaican comedian Owen Blakka Ellis), is all about. The 28-year old Jamaican Canadian actor has been working since 2010 on a one-man play that he describes as being “a mash-up of dance, poetry and pantomime”, Last week the theatre world got to see how the project is progressing; based on the audience response at Opening Night, this is a winner.   Speaking of Sneaking has a limited run at the Theatre Centre on Queen Street West; it will be closing

Creators Cultural Arts  and  De New Regulars and  Foreva Carnival 2018  hold their launches in Toronto By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera Photographs by Don Moreland (Belasco at lunch) and Anthony Berot (model in blue) photo by Anthony Berot Toronto Doubles.    Two Mas Camps hold costume launches on the same Saturday night the second weekend in a row!    This past weekend it was a pair of long established Mas Camps - the  Costume Creators Cultural Arts  and  De New Regulars and Foreva Carnival 2018  holding their launches on the same night. Both events were successful, probably because each launch appealed to different sections of the city. Costume Creators Cultural Arts with Freedom Carnival  is the oldest mas band in the festival and the only that can lay claim to being part of the first parade in 1967.   Founders  Wilfred  and  Calvin Belasco  have turned over the camp (formerly known as Costume Concept )  to Melissa Ramlochan, a model and cuttin

Two Brothers Grow Up Rough In Scarborough By Stephen Weir - Caribbean Camera It is another win for Brother and its author Trinidad Canadian author David Chariandy.  Over the weekend The West Coast Book Prize Society honoured him when he was presented with the 2018 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for writing the best work of fiction in the province! The $2,000 Ethel Wilson Prize was one of several prizes. The Society award honours the achievements of British Columbia’s writers and publishers.   David Chariandy, formerly of Scarborough, now lives and works in Vancouver.    In Brothe r, Chariandy tells the story of two brothers, the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, who confront violence and prejudice in a Toronto housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 199 1. The BC win is the second major prize that the book and the author has picked up. Last fall Brother won the $50,000 Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Like the brothers in t