I'm looking forward to this performance with my musical mates and its for a good cause too! Hope you can join me as we support children living with Cystic Fibrosis. This fund
raising gala dinner will assist kids with their medical and
travel expenses. Tickets are available at all Wine World locations and
online at www.tixprocaribbean.com.
The Concorde experience is very cool and much cheaper than a ticket in the bad old days....this boring web page here really doesn't do the Concorde experience justice...you'll just have to come and see for yourself :)
Much has been written about how so called smart devices such as iPhones and iPads have interfered with our social and family interactions.
On occasion I myself have been guilty of allowing my mind to wander away from a conversation in order to check something on my latest smart addiction.
In contrast to this, once in a while we get it right, and the worlds of the internet and smart phone create a magical tool for building unique life experiences that can be shared.
I've always been curious about space and technology, but recently my interest was piqued after downloading the NASA app for iPhone, which in turn led me to download an app for locating the International Space Station in real time.
The ISS coming over a backyard near you!
The app, called ISS spotter not only shows the position of the ISS but it will also let you know in advance when you will be able to see it over your earthly location and from what direction it will appear.
Catching a glimpse of the ISS is not as straightforward as it sounds. During the day, the reflection of sunlight from the station is not bright enough for us to see down here in daylight and in the middle of the night there is no sunlight reflecting from the station back down to earth. To be seen from the earth's surface, the ISS has to pass overhead at dawn or dusk when the suns rays still catch the station and the earth below is in shadow.
A few weeks ago the ISS spotter App predicted that the station would be passing over Barbados in the early evening. My youngest son and I shared a magical moment on our back patio, tracking the ISS on my iPhone as it passed over Canada then the United states and finally made it's way over to our corner of the world. As it's orbit brought it closer, we looked up in the direction the app indicated and there, passing over us, was the most amazing man made achievement silently sweeping through our tropical sky.
The somewhat geeky fun didn't end there. On April 30th NASA made the video feeds from four cameras attached to the outside of the ISS available to any earthling with an internet connection. The link to the website and video feed is here. I hooked up my computer and TV via an HDMI cable while my family gathered around to see our beautiful planet filmed from space in real time.
Using the ISS spotter we were able to see its position and figure out what part of the world we were looking at. The icing on the cake came when the ISS passed over the Caribbean and in the comfort of our living room we caught a glimpse of our beautiful island home from the edge of space.
Two fund raising concerts in tribute to the late Harrison College headmaster Albert Williams and music education icon Janice Millington will be held at the Frank Collymore Hall on March 7th and 8th 2014.
Proceeds from the concert will be in aid of the HC music department which I understand is running dangerously low on quarter notes and sharps after recent funding cuts.
Students tell me they can only play pieces in flat keys and are having to tie eighth notes together in order to perform certain passages. The cost of music notes has been badly hit by the global recession, clefs can be expensive to ship and a recent tax on repeat signs are adding to the challenges faced by today's young Barbadian musicians.
Here is a promo clip for the event;
We had a wonderful rehearsal on Saturday, no temper tantrums or ego trips, just lots of great music and poor jokes.
I hope we can raise enough money for those notes.....
Last Sunday, the Original Unit and I spent a wonderful evening at the Water's Edge restaurant performing our original music to a capacity crowd of enthusiastic jazz fans.
My eldest son Liam took charge of the camcorder and filmed our performance of a new song I wrote called "On the edge".
A big thank you to the management and staff of the Bougainvillea Beach Resort for making the event special and of course thanks to the Barbados Jazz Society and all the jazz lovers who came out to support the music!
Here is a scan of a page from the first financial accounts I ever kept. The year was 1988, Keyboardist Roger Gittens and I worked together in a duo called Double Exposure. In that year I had been out of music school for 2 years or so, Roger and I were relatively new to the scene.
I find it interesting to note that nearly 25 years have passed since I wrote these accounts.
Today's pay on the local Barbadian restaurant/hotel circuit has seen some changes - but have these changes followed rises in the cost of living? What would the $300 pay of 1988 be worth in today's economy? The following year, (1989) my duo was earning Bds $400.00 at the Kings Beach Hotel, and in
2001 my duo regularly earned $500/night in hotels around the island.
In the past year I've heard of local musicians earning Bds.$100.00 to play in a quartet!! There is a well known jazz venue in Barbados that offers $400.00 for a duo and $500.00 for a trio!
A music degree from an American university or college can now cost as much as BDS$200,000, what is the financial sense in pursuing a music career as a local musician? Can local instrumental performers really expect to make a living playing music locally under these conditions?
I made an appearance on episode 27 of "Freethinking Island" a podcast committed to promoting the virtue of reason over faith. Below is an introduction written by the podcast co-creator David Ince.
"Episode 27 of 'Freethinking Island' is up and ready for download. This week it
was jazz and freethinking, as we had the pleasure of welcoming Andre Woodvine, leading
Barbados and Caribbean jazz saxophonist to the 'island'.
It was
fascinating to sit with Joy and listen to a
person whose music we grew up hearing in Barbados, talk about his atheism and
his personal background. Interestingly, Andre was also our first Barbadian guest
to 'Freethinking Island' and he give us some details about his experience in
Barbados surrounded by Christianity of all types.
Andre spent time
talking about his family and gave some entertaining stories of how he has been
able to get his children to think critically about the religious beliefs so
prevalent around them. He also went on to reflect on the various reactions he
has received in Barbados both personally and professionally as a result of being
public about his atheism.
Andre as a guest, is every bit as 'cool' as the
jazz he seems to play so effortlessly on his instrument. Listening to his
personal story and his outlook on life is a great illustration of how a person
can live an enormously happy and fulfilled life without belief in any God or
higher power.
From a personal perspective, it was a thrill to have
someone who I admired as a musician and who gave me so much inspiration to
become a saxophonist myself, now giving support to myself and others in our
efforts to promote freethinking in the Caribbean.
Hope you enjoy both the
discussion and the music on this Episode. We open with a taste of 'Fix it on
Monday' which is a sweet jazz track with a distinct Caribbean flavour. Make sure
you listen right to the end of the episode as you get to hear the extent of
Andre's musical range, with one of his most popular tracks,
'Citronella'.
You can download Episode 27 and all previous episodes from
www.freethinkingisland.com,
through iTunes or from the Blackberry podcast system. Don't forget to check out
all of Andre's music on iTunes as well."
My eldest son is currently enrolled in one of the best (If not THE best :) ) secondary schools in Barbados. He worked incredibly hard to get there, we are very proud of him and we are also very happy with the school to which he gained entrance.
One of the joys of parenting is collecting your child from school on an afternoon, and hearing the news of the day. Last week my son said, "Dad, today we were encouraged to celebrate 'Black history month'."
"That's good" I replied. He continued by describing how in morning assembly, a head-teacher told them that even the students who are not black should celebrate black history month since "As we all know, the garden of Eden was in Africa, and that's where we all came from".
Well, I somehow managed to keep the car on the road as I laughed and tried to digest that little gem. I can think of many really good reasons why we all should study black history and any other kind of history in our fascinating world culture, but justifying it's celebration by using a myth? In a place of learning? Little did I know that more of this irrationality was around the corner.
Two days later, my son related to me an incident that occurred during his integrated science class. The day's topic was about the sound frequencies that various mammals can hear. My son was curious as to why humans have a different range of hearing to other mammals and asked his science teacher to explain why humans don't hear as well as some other species, his teacher replied "Because god made us that way".
As an atheist, one of my main arguments against religion is that it extinguishes mankind's natural curiosity and desire to explore the cosmos. The basis of science and all our scientific and technological advancements are made possible by simply asking a question, thinking of a potential answer to that question and then testing that answer by experiment and observation. Religion on the other hand demands that we accept dogma, and rewards unquestioning faith. If we accept "Because god made us that way" why should we progress any further?
I explained to my son that humans hear the way we do because we have evolved. If having the ability to hear higher frequencies was crucial to our survival then those tendencies would surface through the process of natural selection.
I went on to suggest (tongue in cheek) that the next time he is unable to answer a question on his science test he should simply write "Because god made it that way" and let's see the reaction of his teacher...
"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence" - Richard Dawkins
The title of this post is inspired by the famous quote from the film "Clash of the Titans" where Liam Neeson, acting as the God Zeus dramatically announces "Release... the Kraken"...
Well, sea turtles in Barbados are a long way a way from Kraken, they are under threat and need our protection. Fortunately we have The Barbados sea turtle project an organization based at the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill Campus). For more than
25 years, they have been involved in conservation of the endangered marine
turtle species that forage around and nest on Barbados, through
research, education and public outreach as well as monitoring of nesting
females, juveniles and hatch-lings.
Our family was introduced to the turtle project two years ago when my wife Louise dragged us all off to the Hilton beach in the middle of the night to follow members of the Barbados Turtle project as they hosted a turtle watch. At first I was not particularly enthused, although on the bright side I had zero chance of getting sunburn. As we learned more about these fascinating, ancient and vulnerable creatures we became hooked. The highlight of our evening arrived when the sand beneath our guide's feet started to erupt with hatch-lings. He had unknowingly been standing on a nest site and was forced to remain absolutely still as they crawled over his feet and 'flippered' towards the sea!
Since then we have been attending turtle watches whenever we are able.
Sometimes a nest of sea turtle hatch-lings may get confused, and instead of hatching at night they will hatch during the day. In these cases, the BSTP will carefully collect the hatch-lings, place them in a dark moist container, and then release them that same night.
If you are interested, you can sign up to be notified when the BSTP
are having a "turtle release", or you can check their Facebook page.
During the release, in support of their efforts, the BSTP staff also have some very cool t-shirts and pins for sale.
Interestingly, the sea turtles that tourists swim with while on various west coast catamaran cruises are in fact themselves tourists! They are green turtles which have probably hatched in Costa Rica. They spend their days hanging out on our shores, feeding and having their pictures taken by visiting paparazzi - what a life! they are stars on the west coast of Barbados and don't even know it.
Our family's most recent participation in a turtle release was a few weeks ago at the Drill Hall beach next to the Barbados Hilton Hotel. Earlier in the day a nest had unusually and unexpectedly hatched in the morning during daylight hours. The BSTP were called, they collected the hatchlings and kept them safe until they could be released at night.
A large crowd of us gathered in the dark with three buckets of energetic hatchlings ready to go, and I mean ready, those little things were moving! As we made our way to the launch site one of our party noticed a baby turtle in the sand. Our first thought was that it had accidentally fallen out of the bucket, we quickly found more and realized that a nest had hatched nearby. There were many red land crabs in the area who were actively pursuing and hunting the turtles. Several small skirmishes developed as we separated crabs from their turtle meal. I managed to rescue two turtles from certain digestion by tapping the crabs on their back causing them to drop their meal and defend themselves. The turtles were o.k. and we added them to the growing collection about to be released on the beach.
The BSTP staff had carved a wide smooth channel in the sand leading to the sea and at launch time, to the delight of onlookers, the turtles were gently taken out of the buckets and placed on the sandy runway where they enthusiastically flippered their way to the surf. Immediately after hatching in the dark, sea turtles will look for the brightest point which is usually the horizon, unless of course they are distracted by bright lights on shore. Turtles are unable to sense red light so while releasing them we make sure to use red light on the land side and stand by the surf shining a white light back towards them, encouraging them to make their way towards the water.
If you wish to report sea turtle activity or if you see a turtle in trouble, call the Turtle Hotline: (246) 230-0142.
Check out the BSTP's Faq for more fascinating sea turtle facts...
Only one in a 1000 turtles makes it back to nest in the area near where they hatched, with any luck it will be one of the turtles I prevented from becoming a crab's dinner!
Sunday morning around 9:30am, in the area of the now demolished Ocean view hotel, my wife witnessed a young Brazilian tourist woman running down the boardwalk after having been held up at knife point. As the lady ran past my wife she was thoughtful enough to warn her that there was a man with a knife further along the path. The manager of the hotel where she is staying came to her assistance along with 5 construction workers who were working in the area. Fortunately the victim was not physically harmed yet she was obviously traumatized.
We have thousands and thousands of people working so hard to develop and sustain tourism in this Island and then a handful who are so desperate and unimaginative, that in a single action they can negate all of our efforts. We can't stay silent, we can't pretend it doesn't happen and hope it will go away, it's not right, it's not fair, it must change.
Every now and again, in our sometimes sleepy island routine, the door of opportunity opens wide and a fresh new experience drifts in on the breeze. In this case it was the Barbados open badminton tournament. But first, a little background.
You only won two games Dad?
About a year or so ago my eldest son Liam started taking badminton lessons with Barbados junior national badminton coach Athelstone (Ali) Forde. My son Aiden watched the lessons for a week or two and asked to join in. Then on a whim, after seeing how much fun my kids were having, I asked Ali if I could have lessons with my sons. To my surprise he said yes, and the rest is the continuing true story of a dad hopelessly addicted to badminton. Fast forward to last week when my sons and I had the wonderful opportunity to take part in the Barbados Open.
I know if I look hard enough I might be able to find the shuttle!
We arrived at the Gymnasium early and were warming up on court when the competitors and support staff arrived by bus from their hotel.
Liam to serve!
As we watched everyone get acquainted with their surroundings, a tall, very fit and friendly looking player asked if he could warm up with us, and remarked that he hadn't played much badminton. Of course we said yes and I could tell immediately that he was a very good player and that he also had a fine sense of humour. What I didn't know then, and only found out later was that my sons and I were warming up with British Olympic silver medalist, Nathan Robertson!
Nathan Robertson and Dave Forde
Soon the Gym was full of players from all over the world warming up. Many players were from England, while others were from Germany or Holland. At least one had traveled from as far away as Singapore to participate! After warming up, we were organized into groups for a round robin type of tournament.
In the past, if anyone would have told me that at 50 years of age I would be chasing a
feathered shuttlecock around the Gymnasium, I would have laughed my head
off in disbelief. Yet there we were, team Woodvine, ready to do battle. I also have to say that as I served in the first doubles game of the tournament I actually felt quite nervous!
I needn't have been apprehensive, this was about the nicest group of people that you could meet. Many seemed to know each other from previous tournaments and although I played my fair share of errors and more, they were quite positive with their comments and encouragement. They were also very kind to my children, often holding back on some of their smashes so as not to take my kids heads off. I was a bit worried that the adults might object to having to play against young kids, but everyone seemed to get along o.k. The atmosphere was amazing.
"Christ Church" team posing with their certificates
On the second day the Barbados Junior national team and various other young players including my sons were invited to a training session with Nathan Robertson. What a treat. Nathan is one of those highly successful people who is gracious, charming, down to earth and fun to be around (not at all stuck up as the Australians might say :) He was particularly good with kids, always offering the most positive encouragement. We were very grateful that he was there - my kids spoke of nothing else for a few days after!
The Barbados Open is the brainchild of Mark Philips, an Englishman with very strong Bajan roots and associations. The tournament is structured as a part of a holiday package that includes accommodation and activities such as island tours and a catamaran cruise. Mark and his sister Michelle's relaxed and cheerful enthusiasm permeated the occasion, though they had obviously worked very hard to make the tournament and the holiday a success for the visiting players.
Posing with a champion! Nathan, Aiden, proud father and Liam!
On the Saturday following the two tournament days, the boys and I, along with my wife Louise, spent a great evening at the tournament's gala, where we got to spend more time chatting with the players and learning about their home countries and experiences.
From a tourism perspective this is just the kind of thing that Barbados needs, we hope that our new friends may get the opportunity to return soon!
The standard tour through Harrison's Cave in Barbados takes you underground in an electric car/train consisting of a drive vehicle towing additional passenger sections. We've done it several times over the years but over the summer I noticed an advertisement for a walking tour through the cave. I jumped at the opportunity and boy am I glad I did.
This is not water! it's a beautiful rock formation
Being able to walk through the cave was such a rewarding experience, you could take your time and look around without feeling rushed. We had an excellent guide, Jamal, who enthusiastically answered all our questions and was full of interesting information. Our kids brought one of their friends and together we had a ball learning about the cave, it's discovery, and development. We were allowed to hold a stalactite that had been removed from the ceiling (very heavy) and we tasted the water.
We all wore sneakers or good walking shoes and carried flashlights. The lighting in the cave is excellent but the flashlights were fun to shine around during our walk. The walking tours are for a limited time, every Saturday from August 11 - September 22, 2012.
Just in case you were wondering...
Stalactites hang down from the roof (they hold on tight), stalagmites grow up from the ground.
Harrison’s Cave is named for Thomas Harrison, who owned much of the land
in the area in the early 1700s. In 1733, Harrison established a school
that is today’s Harrison College. It’s not clear whether Mr. Harrison
ever entered the cave that bears his name — but others certainly did.
During
the 18th and 19th centuries, several expeditions ventured into
Harrison’s Cave, none of which got very far. Because the natural
entrances to Harrison’s Cave were hard to get to, and the cave’s inside
passages presented many challenges, the cave remained an unexplored
mystery until 1970.
Rediscovered and mapped in 1974 by Ole
Sorensen, an engineer and cave adventurer from Denmark. He was assisted
by Tony Mason and Allison Thornhill, two young men from Barbados.
After
1974 the Barbados government started developing Harrison’s Cave as a
show cave and attraction, by excavating shafts and tunnels that could
accommodate trams. The cave was opened to the public in 1981.
The
entrance to the cave is through the Boyce Tunnel, named in honour of
equipment operator Noel Boyce, the first member of the construction team
to break through the bedrock and into the natural passageways of
Harrison’s Cave.
Harrison’s Cave is a massive stream cave system at least 2.3 kilometres long.
The interior temperature is an average 27 degrees Celsius
Its largest cavern, the Great Hall measures 15 metres/ 50 feet high.
It is an active cave as it carries water. The stalagmites in the cave
are growing by less than the thickness of a piece of paper each year —
but that’s very fast in geological terms!
Maybe in the future we will try the eco-adventure tour where you crawl through parts of the cave not usually available to tourists!
Well now, what would a blog be without a fishy story? Especially a story with several possible morals...
Last week, armed with fishing rods and bait, my two sons and I spent a lovely afternoon at the Barbados Hilton beach. It's a beautiful spot, complete with a long stretch of rocks that is very inviting for young fishermen. I should explain that although I bought rods for my kids, I don't fish myself, preferring instead to enjoy the atmosphere and keep an eye on my young men as they explore nature and learn about patience.
As I was floating in the sea doing my best impersonation of a pale aging jellyfish, my reverie was interrupted by an eruption of excitement from the fishing camp. My eldest son liam had caught a fish and not just any fish, oh no! Liam had caught one of these...
(photos courtesy of Janice Cumberbatch - Campbell)
Fortunately, Liam, having spent a good portion of his life watching nature programs on the TV, recognized that he had caught a stonefish!
According to Wikipedia, the highly dangerous stonefish is one of the most venomous fishes in the world and can be fatal to humans! Doesn't every parent want to see one of these dangling from their child's fishing rod? The venom is secreted from glands at the base of their needle-like dorsal fin spines which stick up when disturbed or threatened.
Needless to say this was not a happy fish. The stonefish, derives it's name from the ability to camouflage
itself with a grey and mottled color similar to the color of a stone. Swimmers may not notice them, and may inadvertently step on them, triggering a sting.
Treatments for a Stonefish sting include the application of hot water to the affected area (over 45 degrees Celsius), anti-venom and morphine for the pain.
Here's a happy tourist's account of an encounter with one of these spiny faux rocks.
The good news was that Liam had the great sense not to touch it and we delicately tossed it back to it's watery home.
The moral of this story could be - let your kids watch lots of TV! especially nature programs.
The following week we went back to the same beach and all Liam caught was a baseball cap (XL, full of seaweed). I couldn't decide if I was relieved or disappointed.
