An Open Letter to the Five Star General- Bounty Killer

Greetings to Jamaica and the Five Star General Rodney Basil Pryce in particular,

 I remember somewhere back in 1993, I had held this notion that Reggae was the God and Dancehall was the bastard demi-god who had inane chatter gibberish and nonsensical if not simply whimsical lyrics and rhyme schemes like "zungy zungy a zunga zeng"! ABC 123... nothing too intellectually challenging or vocabulary expanding... zeen come again, wah di clock inna London name big ben, missa chin money name yen! Shabba and Super Cat weren't so bad but Dancehall as genre lacked definition and umph! Then comes PEEEEEEEEEEEOPLE DEAD! A man who would become the archetype of what a DJ and social commentator in the Dancehall should be.

I remember in 9 grade at the esteemed Cornwall College in 9-1 to be "pre-xact" every session a teacher missed was an opportunity for aspiring musicians. Long before the age of rising star, the class would be a riot of drummers banging desks and chairs as we cued up the main acts, those days the class was divided in two, the school of Beenie-ites, and the House of Bounty. The best representatives from the competing sides the likes of class mates named Clive Lawrence, Romaine McIntosh, Winston Brown... they would represent the factions and vocalize the discographies of Bounty which would be pitted against the catalogue of Beenie ballads. I happened to be in the Bounty camp.

Why some may ask? At the time I was a comic book junkie, whose favourite hero was Spider-man, but in terms of social development and coping with the teen world, and the Jamaican social context... well "with great power comes great responsibility" as a mantra wasn't cutting it all the way. And Spider-man a teen with superpowers and a horrendous social life and the guy that everybody hated wasn't gonna save my psyche through to 10 grade. So when you need a local Superhero, and a most verbose character, fearless, Jamaican, garbed in all black like Blade, Punisher or the Black Panther... A man the people dubbed "the poor people's governor" "the ghetto gladiator"... Titles not unlike "The Uncanny X-men" or "The Spectacular Spiderman." Bounty Killer became to me the very first Jamaican Super Hero, equipped with grand titles, monikers and mantras, secret identity Rodney Pryce, with his Justice League or Avengers, known as The Alliance. "Yeah Yeah Yeah" "Huh!" Bounty was the Jamaican icon from he became one of the local champions of that Patrick Ewing 33 sneaker, Jamaicans at home supporting Jamaicans abroad!

It is no coincidence then that his 1996 album My Xperience impacted fans at home and abroad spending six months on the Billboard reggae chart. Personally that was my favourite album, and I didn't even realize it till one day when a friend of mine Gavin Carey called me at home... yeah back in the land line era... and when he called he said... "my yute a one cd you have, and a one song deh pon di cd, caah everyday mi call you, all mi here is 'dem get gun dung inna miggle of guntown, well mi silent gun will emit no soun'" I then realized I had to rotate my musical diet... not that it wasn't varied... I grew up on Bob Dylan, Melanie Safka, Sam Cooke, Beres Hammond, Simon and Garfunkel... in he 90's I met Alanis Morrisette, Sarah Mclachan, Goo Goo Dolls, Alternative Music from D. Shadow and Rick Dee's Top 40, interspersed with Jungle, Techno World Beat... so my diet wasn't bad but in Jamaica Bounty was my boss. At the same time he also expanded my musical ear... The My Xperience album would introduce me to The Fugees, Busta Rhymes, Wu-Tang and many others... subsequent albums in the 90's would introduce me early to Kardinal Official on "The Bacardi Slang."

Bounty's career too has been as layered and textured and storied just like a comic book series, with arch-nemesis manifesting in Beenie Man and eventually Vybz Kartel, clashes as epic as any Ridley Scott film, feat and accomplishment that echo on in the perpetual street dancehall discourse. I can only imagine the day when teens and adults read a Bounty Killer comic book or graphic novel. Maybe when Ziggy Marley gets time away from Marijuana Man he can bust me on the job fi draw and write a Bounty Killer Comic. Once somewhere in 2005 I had wanted to write a Bounty Killer Biography titled: Badman Bible! Even when close friends debated that Bounty's Tale is not best seller material, I have absolute faith to this day that it would be a mega success, accompanied by like a documentary... the legend of Bounty would be immortalized.

Anyway... this ratings of mine for Bounty Killer progressed as I entered into academia, when while I was in KGN, Bounty was in my backyard in Mobay donating computers to Albion All Age, giving public lectures at Mobay's Civic Centre and generally impacting the youth of Jamaica in a major way. His prolific work would not be forgotten by youth of Norwood, Paradise, Albion, Glendevon even unto this day. I remembered when Carolyn Cooper had held her usual Friday Dancehall Artiste lecture up by UWI, Mona... I will never forget the particular Friday when Bounty Killer lectured... as a Bounty fan since his career started... I would be present at that lecture with my placard and signs BOUNTY FOR PRIME MINISTER! A memorable biographical tale, topped off by a fan request performance, nothing beats that.

Now flash forward to current day Jamaica... 2016... Dancehall ain't what it used to be! Today we watch the acidic career of Alkaline as he spits nasal inflections of mundane lyrics on the hottest dancehall and pop chart rhythms. There is even today an analogy in the dancehall that I think originates with Aidonia... "mi bad like 90's dancehall," which to me Ithink is testament to the current state of dancehall. The only saving grace for Jamaican music is reggae revival as Kartel tries to holler from his cell "Dancehall can't stall, woaheee dancehall can't dead yet"

But there are some critical things I have been waiting to see in the dancehall still... Maybe I am idealistic and a dreamer... but I had imagined Bounty Killer having many more years... I was waiting on Bounty Killer and Linkin Park, an era where Bounty's social commentary taps into global youth angst and pain. Bounty and Eminem, Bounty and P.O.D. (remix Youth of the Nation), Bounty and the Trini version of Bounty... Bunji Garlin, I think they would make a booming earthquake combination that would shake from both sides of the Caribbean and quake the world. The romantic version of Rodney Pryce that was on "It's Ok and It's Alright!" with the like of Emily Sande. Bounty from those 90's Jungle Cd's on rhythms that Major Lazer builds, Bounty with Calvin Harris, Bounty with those European producers... dubstep Bounty, Bounty on some Ancient Tomorrow rhythms like Protoje, as a matter of fact mi a wait pon Bounty-Chronixx, mi await pon Bounty and Kabaka...

I am not from that school that says Bounty's days are over, I believe those that say that have a failure of imagination. I see much more work to be done by Bounty, Beenie, Sizzla, Capleton, Buju and the entire generation that made the 90's great.

Reflections on Summer, Youth and Community

I-sah, summer draws to a close and there is much to reflect upon for the summer that is 2013! It's been hectic and I am certainly a different man. U-nah-mean so much in my meditations now. Firstly, I spent an immense and intense amount of time with Keekee in Paradise... our relationship is on another level right now... I feel a tighter bond. She all make me proud since this past week, when friends come to link mi fi mek a small check on a (problematic CQ61 HP Compaq) laptop headed to the pawn shop at City Centre, anyway... out comes Keekee out the house into the garage... "I'M YOUNGGG, GIFTED AAAND BLACK!" Mi breddrin dem look in amazement then pop up and seh "Coulda only fi yuh pickney Rasta!" But sitting a 3 year old while you have signs to paint, brochures to design, t-shirt fi design, your own newspaper to try and start, your blogs to write, articles, drawings to finish, paintings to be finish, Artistes biography, PR for Artistes/Breddrin, moeny to try make, bills to pay, Cashpot fi study and try ketch... It can be heavy and cumbersome sometimes, when every 15 minutes, Daddy I'm hungry, Daddy I want juice, Daddy tie this for me please, Daddy I want to go to the bathroom (All when she a do this by herself now), Daddy can I get a paper, Daddy can help me draw this, Daddy I want to go to the shop, Daddy I want to go by Jayla. YOW! More time mi feel mi brain go sprain... but a so it go. Daddy love you.

My Grrrl Boss: Ms. Young Gifted & Black!

Then there is the added task of trying to be a good son, assist Mommy with her burdens, as they are many, do the little I can, drop the goods to the hospital etc. That wobbled some here in the summer owing to all the constant things, things, things happening.

For one their is the Youth Club as well. AH BWOY! A real story and saga, and partially the inspiration for this article... for other than the intense Keekee hours, alot of the other hours were spent throwing mental and physical powers to the Youth Club and general community matters. And can you imagine after all that effort, in the Youth Club, it went up in flames I-YAH! Jah know! You can read the Observers small take on the matter at this link: Paradise Fire! Youth Club went in the Blaze!

Just to attend is a great effort on my part to, sit, stay, pay attention. But I did... eventually now I operate as PRO. But to imagine... the Kid's Treat today and stuff gone up in flames, free food, free slippers, second hand text books etc etc etc. And granted the media says fire of unknown origin, I suspect arson.

Anyway how all this ties with summer and youth, is because between having to be constantly around my 3 yr old daughter, and her 5 and 10 year old cousins, who host tea parties and stage shows ("Paradise Sumfest" with a painted sign included) outside my un-closed door and interacting with the communities tweens and teenie boppers and teenager cockroaches more than normal, with back-to-school here and ll this youth energy, it gave me a chance to remember a lot of my youth and mildly relive and remember what those youthful days of girls boys and summer adventure and the hassle and havoc and turmoil that, that social period and various stages and cycles of development are like... Do you remember what they were like?

We live in an age today, where President Obama Nobel Peace Prize winner will trumpet his second officil war, Libya being the first, now we see the trumped up charges with no UN proof for a Syrian War. Yes come September Obama and World War 3 will be in the backdrop of the children and the youths lives and TVs. Occupy this and that and 99%ers will probably be protesting. And just like when I came into to Earth, a war was in full swing on JBC... I would grow up in the ending years of the cold war and would hear Mikhail Gorbachov and Yitzak Rabin and Yessar Arafat, Gaddafi etc... constantly in the back drop of my life.

But what about the foreground... do you remember those Calvin and Hobbes-esque summers of immortality, infinite energy and endless hours. The more well endowed among us will remember there first cars, some the first job, or even the first summer job, most will remember that first kiss! Don't! Nuff a unnu must remember when it seemed like the whole world was exploding with new ideas and you were searching and reaching out for new experiences, wanting to see and know this world. Seeing through new eyes. Youth, Puberty, Adolescence, Growth, Change. It's a bitter sweet journey and beautiful sight.

But this article has to be continued as Keekee's pressing need to watch TEAM UMIZUMI (did I spell that right) oh well... youth.... gwaan listen this Avicii till when next I write

P.S. Youth(Dax) Happy B-day! To days of summer and youth, cricket and basketball!

Bulla Tun Bully: The Bad-man-ification of Homosexuality and The Dawn of Heterophobia

Is it just me... but I have thought for along time now that there is an agenda apparently to evangelize homosexuality, the movement towards morbid asexuality or heterophobia... and the new bullyism by gays where they make it seem like one has no right to decent or dissent and no right to say or express his or her belief that homosexuality is not right or that you don't approve of it... I am not saying anyone should light anybody at the stake or go about making hate crimes or speech... But I have to ask "Is freedom of speech being impeached?" Can anyone disagree with homosexuality without it being politically incorrect? Why are homosexuals so sensitive to any form of criticism? Is homosexuality above and beyond criticism?

Huffingtonpost and Global Voices for all their citizen journalism, all the moral high ground, all the insightful commentary, they never examined once the tyranny of terror that was Bebe and Jasper and how they were the origins of scamming in Montego Bay... a pair of maniacal cross dressing gun wielding homosexual scammers, parading with "straps" and thongs from Fairview's Texaco to KFC downtown to Baywest to Pier 1. How they rooted themselves in Granville is fairly common knowledge in the city. But the darker sides of scamming money and murders, poverty and gay pedophilia in Jamaica are swept under the rug for this untruthful campaign against Jamaica and what is perceived as its attitude to homosexuality. NO ONE investigated the serious link with homosexuality and scamming.

I would also like people to stop comparing BLACK and civil rights to gay rights, I think it is also a poor analogy (anal-ogy) and beyond that analogy  is the weakest form of argument as no two situations are parallel or exactly alike ... as a black man, I simply find it an offense and it simply is not the same thing... and why is every gay poster guy black or some house cleaning O.C.D. Chinese/Ethnic minority guy??? And what is this movement to shut up dialogue about sex, sexuality especially if it isn't profoundly and "enlightening-ly" pro-gay...

Why is that so many are unwilling to accept the truth or speak to the darker realities of homosexuality? The promiscuity poverty and exploitation that was possibly apart of his life... he was living in a house filled with homosexuals partying and dancing... go view his YouTube channel... let us examine sexual health hygiene... how homosexuals are not GAY for gay denotes HAPPY... and gayness carries with it the implied niceness that gays are rich happy wealthy wine sipping cheese biting limp wrist-ed glamorous folks. But most homosexuals live with some level of alienation and isolation, for they probably the product of SAD realities growing up in garrison... without a solid father figure... poor, feeling insecure different and awkward absorbing all the female dance-hall energy around him and the open sexuality and sex energy that is easily and readily available in peep hole filled zinc fence close quarters communities, which shanty town and garrison "livity" and lifestyles carry with it, they probably grew up in the malnourished spiritually and mentally, if not just physically, and mutated by ill informed messages and wrong signals, by secret perverts hiding in garrisons... rich men passing in Benz(es) and Beamers, by old men, the screwy quirky cousin... and many of the monsters that come with urban life and urban poverty in the human metropolitan condition...

The community member who creeps into the yard and puts his penis into a little boys mouth at age 12... and after sometime he acquires a liking for the attention it gets him from this male of the adult world... he forms ill informed notions of psycho-sexual relations.

No one wants to look that deep at all these ills the sad places, both internally and externally, the mal formed social relations that births homosexuals... the sad realities that mutate them..

To oppose the homosexual lobby is to be unpopular and court the life of a pariah.

I am pro-tolerance and never promote harm to humanity, but I disapprove of homosexuality and feel a sincere attempt to shut up, lock off, label, libel and slander any intelligent opinion that does not agree with homosexuality as antiquated, draconian, non-progressive or not with the progressive liberal agenda... dunce... outdated and overly or unnecessarily militant. Is there a polite way to just say no to homosexuality! Once you show any dissent on homosexuality you are branded ’homophobic.’ While these accusation do not fill me with indignation, I know they are an inaccurate description of what I do, who I am, or how I think. This sudden groundswell of Anti-heterosexuality, Anti-hetero-pathy, Heterophobia, Anti-hetero-philia... would seem as if they are in the process of being consecrated into an ideology. If your straight shut up. Our have no right to free speech straight people... shut up... u can have no legitimate grouse against homosexuals! The terms “homophobic” and "homophobia" are usually used by the Gay Activists and Lobby Group to discredit and inaccurately define its critics. Once someone is branded homophobic, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they are heard, and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised gay pride and ego.>>> But what do the terms “homophobic” and "homophobia" mean? Do they mean you are anti-music or Elton John or Luther Vandross? Or that you’re opposed to freedom of choice? That you don’t delight in listening to Diana King (whom I love dearly, I listen to her version of "Say a Little Prayer" ritually) or Freddie Mercury (everyone in Jamaica sings "Another one bites the dust)? That you have a quarrel with Shebada? Does it mean that you don’t admire the positive work of hundreds of thousands of possibly and notably gay persons who have contributed positively to the advance of humanity? Does it mean that you hate gay people? Truth be told it does not. One can disapprove of smoking and not hate the smoker, one can disapprove of homosexuality and not hate a homosexual and not be homophobic.

It is without adoubt a conflation to try and say that every time someone disapproves of homosexuality or every act or event that went unfavorably for the homosexual community was or is based in homophobia. It is not just a conflation but borders on intellectual dishonesty. It is also most crucially a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other than those the group mind, the institutionalized Gay Lobby, international establishment has set out. If you’re not homosexual you’re a homophobic. If you don’t love us, you hate us. If you’re not Good, you’re Evil. If you’re not with us, you’re against us.

I say right now, bun GAY BULLYISM and GAY badness that acts as if, straight people must not say anything! BUN a Bully in General... funny though that "Bulla tun Bully: The Badmanification of Homosexuality and Dawn of Heterophobia"

My Current Playlist

1. Mavado - On the rock
2. Jr. Gong - The Mission
3. Mykal Rose ft. Jr. Gong - Shoot Out
4. Mykal Rose ft. Busy Signal - Real Jamaicans
5. Regina Spektor - Samson
6. Regina Spektor - Hotel Song
7. I-Octane - Poverty
8. Black Judah ft. Warrior King - Mercy Please
9. Busy Signal - Pon the Edge
10. Demarco - Duppy know who fi frighten
11. Serani ft. Bugle - Doh
12. Erup - Click My Fingers
13.Busy Signal - Unknown Number
14. Royksoop - Remind Me (Geico ADV. theme song)
15. Sean Kingston - Take you there
16. Kanye West ft. Chris Martin (Coldplay) - Homecoming
17. Alaine - Sacrifice
18. Alaine - Sincerely
19. Alaine - Prayer
20. Etana - Roots
21. Etana - I am not afraid
22. Shaggy ft. Sizzla - Mad Mad World
23. Sizzla - Take myself away
24. Twins of Twins - How come (How come Natty an 3 gyal inna room, so wah, Babylon nuh badda doom???)
25. Lupe Fiasco - Superstar

Writing on...

Well this silly season will soon be upon us and "here we are princes of the universe, here we are fighting for survival(9to5:pon the slave) in a war with the darkest powers(Babylon & Rome: The system)"... So all you happy troopers who will be looking forward to X-mas bonus and Pardna draws, all who ketch the red ball inna Cashpot... don't forget the friendly neighborhood Rasta Man...

Haven't you noticed as of late... the ants are still out... when it should be cold season, butterflies are less, flies are in while the fruit seasons are out, hmmmm nature may have gone haywire, maybe this the global disaster our last warnings. Global warming is upon us!!! Yup, the meek shall inherit the Earth... gee I feel so heartened to know its this big toxic dump that we are inheriting meekly from our predecessors. Oil junkies... Aye check it seen. My granny was born in 1921 seen and she had only seen two hurricanes from then till 2000, those were Charley and Gilbert... after that Emily, Dennis, Ivan, Dean and a string of close encounters. Hmmmm something seems odd wouldn't you say. Ding ding ding... you guessed it right Global Warming... and you can see it live here in the Caribbean twenty four seven... just watch the world.

Aye shudder to think... does the government have plans to address the drastic changes to life that Global warming will bring. We see the sudden rapid and expansive road deterioration... extended rain seasons and hurricane seasons, can our economy manage this... dom dom duuuuuuum (u know that mystery show scary puzzling question sound)... Anyway enough of my anecdotes lez just see wah mi write seh this month... aye a buildback mi gwaan build back the blog vibes and energy suh whapp'm unnu support mi nuh... leff a comment or post nuh... Chu!

“What!” he said. “Do you not realize that there are souls
in endless torment? They are craving for dreams and
action, the purest passions, the wildest pleasures, and
thus they cast into all kinds of fantasies, and foolishness.”
Then she looked at him just as you gaze upon a
traveler come from a far-away land…
“Look at us, for instance,” he said, “why did we
meet? By what decree of Fate? It must be because,
across the void, like two rivers irresistibly converging, our unique inclinations are pushing us towards one another.” And now he took her hand; she didn’t take it back again. --Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

I shut my eyes so I can see. --artist Paul Gauguin

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life. --Burton Hills



GRAND POETRY FIESTA

First I'd like to kick off this poetry cue that I have here with a poem a young Miss Shannon Smith did in response to a poem of mine published in the Bookends Segment of the Sunday Observer... called The Whore... its posted in the post before this one I think so check it out an get up to speed after you read hers below eh... the others are all mine so feast and dine...




Tonight I Whore
by Shannon Smith

Tonight i strip of
ribbons and lace
of lipgloss and makeup
my second face

for tonight
for him once more
tonight i am his dream
his whore

Tonight i lose all gentile demeanor no remnants of the Lady the daywalker For tonight i am for him not his lady but creature of the night tonight the apple is in reach for him, my Tantalus which was once only in sight Tonight he finds a warm embrace not in my arms but where my labia part ways So tonight no giggles no girlish guise just the raunch of a woman with fire between her thighs For his feindish desires I am the cure and so tonight once more for him tonight I whore.



Christmas

I had dream where Jesus turned in his grave,
Christmas consumes the souls he came to save,
Money and mammon are masters and many are slave,
Picking up their crosses and forgetting his cross and all he gave,
Neon signs on the road to future we pave,
Commerce and WWJD is all the rave.

The cock crows thrice on Christ's mas Eve,
Many celebrate not knowing what they believe,
Content with meager salaries and bonus the receive,
Merchants peddle and use fat red saints to deceive,
Tell strange and compelling stories about how a virgin did conceive,
Always forgetting the truth of how the King does grieve.

One Night In December

The sky is in her deepest blue,
While stars glow bold in the cool of night,
Ackee trees rock as the breeze comes through,
All is peace even the mongrels cease to fight.

Children frolic through the street with sparkles in hand,
And old reggae rhythms softly and wistfully scampers across the air,
The spirit... no ghost of nativity captures the land,
The weary soul can rest without fear.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

She's Gone

She left me,
For the beast, for mammon and his money,
I laugh myself to sleep at night,
But really... it isn't funny.

She left me,
Headed to Virginia and Cleveland,
While I'll try to nobly toil,
In my hectic homeland.

She left me,
Not to follow a dream,
But for the coveted green dollar,
And a white collar H2Worker scheme.



MY LOLITA

So, so, so...
I've be lulled by the way you loll,
By big bottoms and dimpled thighs,
Imperfect skin like mine and coy smile,
Unrevealing eyes.

Here I am in my secret place,
Cursed in the strangest of ways,
By you my Delores Haze,
Captivated, I simply look and gaze,
...And view,
You.

Sixteen,
Young fresh and not so green,
Black velveteen,
And me the Natty libertine.

Bubbler bubbling in...
Her Rapunzel room,
Her Board House Bordeaux,
Secret smiles,
With secrets in eyes,
Do you realize,
You are my Lolita.


Left Over Wine

I must have been forgot,
In his Majesty's schemes and plot,
For I am king too...
Am I not?

It seems in the grand design,
I was left behind,
For after lesser mortals do dine,
It is I who must suffer sipping the left over wine.



She Greaves

Some how...
I failed to expect such vulgar and hostile silence,
An uncommonly profound and intangible sort of violence.

She left and still leaves,
She grieves,
Because I deceive,
She couldn't believe,
In the web of lives and lies this dreamer weaves.

Was my presence so bitter and so vile...
Such a nuisance all the while,
That now...
Not even a smile.

And has my doubtful path,
My unwavering course of majestic disasters,
My penchant for being the dirtiest of pretty things...
Caused this harsh and parched and caustic... exile,
To the periphery of your embattled existence,
Have I compounded the blighted years,
Add green bottles of tears.

I don't know...
But I do understand...
That though she ...
I'll never See Moan or mourn,
I now know she Greaves.



Rahab: Into An Harlot's House

She has eyes like fire,
That dance and flitter with desire,
She had harlequin lips,
Soft subtle hips,
Coy postures and quirky quips,
She shimmers with the danger and legacy of hollow tips,
Black and comely,
She is a lovely... thing,
And oh how the crescent is alive with whispering,
Rumouring... that you might be inviting,
The neo libertine... The Herlequin King... in,
And oh isn't he tempted to prolong this legacy of sin.

Seekers of Dreams

Across the blank, white landscapes,
We battle the vapid and mundane,
Lexical mancing and lexical graphing,
To paint images to bland minds,
To link soul to art,
We make works of heart,
Searching the caverns of the brain,
Ever yearning for the pinnacle of the mind,
We battle on a deep, silent plain of white,
Spilling ink with ever slash,
We tie yesterday with memories,
Bound to honour beauty,
Love and art are our duty,
We are the seekers of dreams.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

Untitled

Immersion,
How I would like to be in you.

Emulsion,
How it is that I would like to cover you.

Emission,
The star that radiates from the mind of such a wunderkind.

Emersion,
Your reappearance after many moons.

Eversion,
How I undo your soul.

Aversion,
How you cast your gaze when mine becomes intent.

Revision,
How I try to recast this love.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa


Monochrome/MonaKhroma

She looks out the window,
She is monochrome true.
Her speech is song,
Her soul glows blue.

Her hair frizzles and it frazzles,
She knows and I don't know.
As the sun burns the morning cold,
I must come and I must go.

Zygote of a pregnant miracle
Was, is, she will always be.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

Turquoise Sea

…And I see it clear,
It’s fluid,
somewhere in here,
whispering of something,
I should know out there.

It’s the world I want,
it’s mellow,
With the girl I want,
supple and spirited,
I need to reach yet I can’t.

My eyes burn with clarity,
As I am immersed in briny waters,
Sky blue and teal,
Colour the world I can feel...

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

Silence On All Frequencies

I won't speak,
For to speak is to lie,
I won't listen,
For to listen is to be deceived,
I won't think,
For to think is to make belief,
I won't be touched,
For to be touched is to hurt,
I won't smell and taste,
For to smell and taste is to remember.

AM, FM, I'm dead on all frequencies,
I'll take it on mono,
I'll take radio silence,
Fly solo,
Its hard to determine,
Did I dream a belief,
Or was it that I believed a dream.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

Middle of Nowhere Restaurant

…I sit amongst devils and a whore,
Exactly where I’m not sure,
The Middle of Nowhere Restaurant most certainly.
The children of the damned scamper here at dawn,
The wretched of the earth stumble in,
Here is home and haven to sin,
The elderly are imps of darkness,
Bent and crooked and thin.

I’ve heard it said,
That the rapture must come,
The good ones must go,
While the rest will reap,
Hell in the evils we used to sow.

The light shines here,
But it’s still dark,
It mourns of a yesterday with a hope and spark,
But its all gone now,
The Beast has left its mark.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

The Wandering Jew

I wash the dried saliva from my face,
I hope the scent of sin will wash away too,
I look out the window and see the world by night,
Pastel designed in mellow moods and tragedies,
While stars, watchers, sing melodies of memories and maladies,
I search the sky for David's star on my way to my very own beloved Bethlehem,
And I wonder...
Are the stories true...
Is there really a long lost wandering Jew.

Ode to Idle Thinkers

For all those who stare out the window,
Beyond the mountain and beyond the tree,
This poem connects all those who think like me.

Holding on to all those... though,
Shackled by people's alleged reality,
Still manage to look pass the ocean and deep into the see.

Unleaded

The sunsets and the evening sky is period red,
Simon Garfunkel's Cecelia is playing in my head,
I unhear all the things she said,
I only wish the succubus were dead,
She said she liked me cause I was unleaded.















Mr. Marley wid the toolie...(Above)

Yannick Nesta Pessoa
(Writer / Graphic Designer / Cartoonist / Entrepeneur)

The Resume: http://www.geocities.com/cyber_yan/yannickresumeV2.htm

In defense of Munga... Debating RASTA and Jah Cure returns

Rastas blast Munga's 'Gangsta Ras' image

A group of Rastafarians who feel that dancehall artiste Munga's promotion of himself as "the Gangsta Ras" with attendant image, is a perversion of the integrity of Rastafari, say they intend to pursue the use of intellectual property protocols to protect and preserve the culture and symbols from misuse.

JAMAICA OBSERVER the official article


Really and truly I find this line of argument distasteful. Rasta a cuss and a quarrel and washing the proverbial dirty linens in public. For someime I have seen this sort of thing brewing, it was bound to happen. Especially with a agenerational baton pass at hand, even in the Rasta community we see a generational ideological battle, with what maybe called or what I call the Rasta IDEOLOGUES, you know them, the brand of excessively, overly intellectual Rastas, the ones that continue to invent and re-invent terms like socio-politico-econo-enviro-psycho (yuh know the type that continue to invent So-Sci terms) that are the 'blackest," most vegan/vegetarian, most conscious, most holy, sexless, most fire burning, most overly intellectual... that seem to think they make up a grand council of Rastafari, that seem to me, a sort of ras-neo-nicaea council. When did one group become the guardians and gatekeepers of Rasta, who chose them? Are they elect of the King? Are they fit to be a council or governing body, are they objective? Are they the vanguard? Do they represent a particular house or one house? Do they represent the young or the old? Are they for this generation or just the last?

For a long time though, these issues have been on the back burner simmering and now are seemingly close to the forefront. These are volatile times, with lots of social upheaval and change. Not only is society changing but the so are the concerns and issues of the people as does society contend with the rise of rampant homosexuality, blatant sexuality, guns, violence, crime, poverty, health, governance, self reliance, so too must Rastafari. However I don't think the answer lies in the suspicious auspices, vague authority and grand decrees of a central organization, that seemingly hasn't substantiated their authority. Does this group represent just the ideologues or does it represent or is it representatiive of every Rasta, the ones inna bush, the ones inna country, the ones most people despise the carnal kind in Negril, the ones with guns waiting on revolution, the binghi house, david house, the coptics, the bobos, etc? I doubt.

It seems odd to me that Rasta, a system of commune, community and common goals and such, would begin to speak of intellectual property, copyright and ownership, a very western notion, an idea that pins and hinges the globalisation process together, that furthers the imperialist agenda. No one has copyrights, or ownership of Rasta. Did this group invent Rasta, muchless to claim ownership? And are we to stay stagnant? No Rasta will evolve, does evolve and has evolved and will not remain what confined to anyone individuals ideas or and one group.

On the matter of Gangster Ras. Weren't Coptic Rastas one of the most armed and militant sets. Has Rasta always and only held the peaceful image, haven't we been revolutionaries at times, warlike... long before the advent of MUNGA? The petty argument and debate needs to stop.

It is these same petulant pedantic, me/we own Rasta Ideologue vibes that have certain Rastas under LUTAN FYAH skin just because him seh "Big up Bounty caah him buss artist, and Rasta need fi do more fi buss the yutes caah a dem a carry the fire" You can believe big man like Luciano and Capleton BEX ova dat. A pickney vibes that. Caah he is a Ras he can't make any critique of Rasta. And it wasn't them he was refering to literally or individually. BBwoy that look like backra master business, tryiung to cow down yutes and tell we in essence "hush your mouth nigga." By the way nuh Capleton buss Munga, where is his defens... is he defending Munga any.. haven't heard, but then again, a this man seh "we nuh trust dem, even if we buss dem"

ANY WAY BIG UP IYAH-CURE... dem free up the boss since week and MoBAY happy. I wonder if I can get an interview. Then again mi might nuh have a life if enuff Rasta read this...

My Letter to The Editor - Trinidad Express: CSME

Bring ordinary folk into CSME foldTuesday
October 24th 2006

I am a concerned Jamaican. I am concerned that with the advent of the Caribbean Single Market Economy (CSME) the governments of the Caribbean have failed to plan our way forward, glossing over the details and intricacies that the merger of Caribbean will bring. This initiative is the only way forward for the region but, we must examine its social ramifications. The governments have only examined the CSME and Caricom in terms of economies and broad macro policies that don't exactly reach to the average Joe, and don't exactly have clear manifestations in everyday life and reality.

This has occurred mostly because of the lack of media attention and government initiatives to stimulate awareness in the broader cross-section of society. Such an awareness can generate ideas for opportunities in business and education, opportunities for individuals to explore and generate ideas beyond those that propagate the myth that USA is the land of opportunity and the only option for feasible living and generation of wealth.

Integration can only become sustainable if individuals see benefit to it; it can only function if we capture the imagination of individuals whom the society and government rely on to keep the wheels turning - John Public.

Most members of the public know very little, if any, about the societies, the mores, the norms, the values, ideas and cultures we are about to meld and mesh with.

We are more exposed to North American media than we are to Caribbean media; we need regional newspapers that come out regularly and frequently, we need TV (beyond the efforts of HYPETV and Tempo) to carry messages and ideas from around the Caribbean to us, to expose us to the variations in terms of language, ideology and ethos. We need to see more of our Caribbean neighbours in order to awaken us to the new possibilities, cultures and opportunities that lie before us. We need to also explore Caribbean radio, a vector that can ignite or further ignite the musical interactions occurring across the region. We also need further interaction in sports, not just cricket and football.

Governments need to set up cultural exchange programmes for everyday people, not diplomats and such - exchange programmes like sending students, both rural and urban, prep and primary, to other islands to experience schooling there. Children are the future, and if we are to have a joint Caribbean future, we ought to start with the children.

The need to energise the social dimensions of Caribbean integration must come soon or we may fail economically, because at the end of the day an economy, for all the maths and models, can't exist without the human factor.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa
via email

TRINIDAD EXPRESS

Current mood: busy
Category: Music

Tanya Stephens VS Lil'kim

Thief or Loan ?

Lil Kim faces again the court ! After her stay in prison where she was imprisoned for perjury. Here she is again facing justice as the rapper is accused of stealing a song of Tanya Stephens.

Indeed, Durty, extract of Naked Truth would be a copy of Tanya Stephens track "Mi and Mi God" released in 1997.

The lawyer of the former convict declared that it was not a thief as the song was modified. The lawyer also added that it would be something usual in the hip hop industry.

Tanya Stephens demanded the entire passed and future royalties that were gained from the exploitation of the song Durty.

TAKEN FROM TRACE TV now my fave Magazine and TV station since they now offer TraceTv on Cable in Mobay...