King Jesse & the Junkanoo
I got wind.
I got wind real bad.
I guess I’ve been lucky the past 5 days, but my ‘one week’ anniversary was greeted by the gift of easterly winds rushing in off the Gulf Stream, so audio has been my main concern today.
I met with ‘King Jesse’ to do an interview, and we talked about Bimini history, as well as his past as a boxer, and managed to find a sheltered spot in the local baseball ground.
Then for the first time on my trip, I scheduled in 30 mins of nothing. Seeing as the sun was occasionally peeking through the speeding clouds, I thought it’d be an idea to relax on the beach. As beautiful as it was, I just got sandblasted, so I headed back with grit in my eyes to organise myself for an afternoon jaunt to the remote North of the island.
I parked where the road ends, then carried my camera round to the top of the island. As far as the eye can see, there was empty beaches, and no sign of human activity – not that Bimini has a large population anyway, but this felt like I was the last man on earth. Whilst shooting a timelapse, I decide to scavenge through the flotsam and jetsam, and alongside some american detergent bottles and the odd shoe, I happened to notice a solitary ping-pong ball. All alone, I felt like a castaway… so I drew a face on him, and called him ‘Artengo 40’. Someone should make a film like that?
In the evening I headed into town, as I’d been invited to a birthday celebration, and was promised junkanoo…. I had no idea what that was, but it sure sounded good. Whatever it was, I wanted some of that junkanoo. Before junkanoo (whoo… can’t wait!), I stood and watched a band… who were very good! Bob Marley covers, Black Eyed Peas… ‘I gotta feelin’… (whoo hooo)… that too-nytes gonna be a good night… Only to be ruined by a cover of the best ‘worst’ song ever… We are the World.
Eventually we got to Junkanoo… and although initially upset that it wasn’t the 40 foot tall pink cuddly dinosaur I was expecting, I’d soon forgotten about my disappointment, as I witnessed an amazing street drum and dance that shook the foundations. Thankfully I remembered to take my ‘top light’ with me as it was pitch black, and there were people in the street dancing, kids playing drums, rum flowing… amazing, amazing, amazing. No pictures to show you, sorry… I was hypnotised.