amjamin

Carl Lauder started working when he was a teenager and has since kept going Carl Lauder gently pulls out a record from its cover, dusts it and places it on the turntable, gently placing the needle on the groove, and lets the player turn out the sounds of music. Lauder is not a fancy disc jockey, in Randy's Record Mart in Parade, downtown Kingston - a melting pot of the city - he is striving to preserve and keep a musical tradition alive. "I have been working here (at Randy's) since I was a teenager," said Lauder, as he meticulously wiped traces of dust from an LP (long play) record. "I love what I am doing and this gives me the motivation to carry on." Lauder is a lone soldier, treading the path to keep the romance of analogue tones alive in the 21st-century digital world. Randy's is testimonial to the crests of the island's musical history. Sounds of silence: A stack of vinyl in the recording studio Established by Vincent 'Randy...

Mobile Suit Gundam “Whenever there were problems that could not be solved at work, we always said if Doraemon could come and fix them,” said Mieko Araki, cultural officer, Embassy of Japan, pointing to the caricature of the robotic cat from the future. Doraemon may never have come to Araki’s rescue, but the unequivocal faith and she and almost all Japanese have on the manga, (translated “impromptu sketches”), makes them more than cutie pies with cutie smiles and more profound than mere figurines of a plasticated pop culture. integral part of culture “These cartoons and characters are an integral part of Japanese culture,” Hiromoto Oyama, first secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica, who grew up eptomising the gigantic robot Manziger Z. “Through them,” Oyama continued, “we get reinforced key and core values and customs.” Oyama said that through manga, every Japanese learns the way of life, how to make friends and learn basic human instincts. Aspects of manga in ...

Engine 54, which was built in 1944 at the Kingston Railway terminus What is romance, one might ask ... the sheer joy and rush of adrenalin, or as Oscar Wilde said, the very essence of romance is uncertainty. For all of us it is that human to human connection and can cold steel make you skip a heartbeat? The Georgian architecture facade of Kingston railway terminus epitomizes its grandiose demeanor. The cool blue painted walls and the silence along the corridors, oblivious of the blaring traffic zipping zapping and zooming by, just stand still. Even the air encasing the railway terminal seems to be of a different era - replete with hustle and bustle at the ticket counters; the impeccably uniformed railway staff stamping the tickets;, maintenance staff; the passengers, some in their finery and others lugging their wares, catching a breath as they wait for the announcement of the departure of the next train; the aroma of food cooking and the clanking of the co...

From concept to finish, a 3D pattern that forms the basis of the patterns transferred on fabric. Take a stroll, shoot random pictures, superimpose them, employ technology, pour tradition and create expressions - sounds like a heady concoction? This is what Rodell Warner is out to do, giving defined space to asymmetries. "Expressing myself in art has given me the opportunity to appreciate whatever we normally tend to overlook," says Warner, a Trinidad and Tobago-based photographer and graphic designer. Armed with an unconventional style, the self-taught artist is converging traditional traits with technology, creating myriad kaleidoscopic patterns. Sitting in a room at New Local Space (NLS), an art incubator in Kingston, Warner meticulously merged photographs that he had taken of foliage to form a pattern, the cool tropical breeze, and the chirping of the birds provided background score. The creator and his creation, reflection of Rodell Warner as he shows on...

A collage showcasing ArtUpDownTown, a collaboration between CARIMAC and Studio 174.  Think of downtown Kingston, and pictures of a sea of humanity traversing across alleys, vying for space in between handcarts, vendors on the pavements trying to outsell the other flash past. It might seem chaotic to many, but this is symbolic of vibrancy and, most important, life. This enigma, which unfolds like layers of mysteries being solved, has been captured by a group of youngsters, as they highlight ‘ArtUpDownTown’ For those familiar with political terminologies, Kingston can very well be defined as the proverbial north-south divide, the ‘sterile’ and the ‘unkempt’, ‘ArtUpDownTown’ is an attempt to converge those two distinct aspects of Jamaica’s capital city. Capturing downtown Kingston life on mix media, ArtUpDownTown highlights its sights, sounds and the vibrancy “Its aim is to empower more Jamaicans to tell their own stories through audio, video, and photography, whil...

"All the world's a stage ... ." The words echo from William Shakespeare's As You Like It. For the Ward Theatre, the stage is the world from which voices echoed, scenes were enacted, and emotions played out to a rousing audience. All that echoes now are sounds of silence, ricocheting from the dark and dim emptiness, and rays of sunlight that permeate the doors and dissipate into the opulent interiors. Charles James Ward built the present structure, its third avatar, in 1912, the theatre opened its doors on December 16 of the same year. Ward, who was the custos of Kingston, is the 'Nephew' in the rum manufacturing company J. Wray & Nephew, which provided the enabling funds. "The Ward Theatre is a magnificent structure, with history written deep into its fabric", said Doreen Thompson of the Ward Theatre Foundation. The Ward Theatre, over the decades, has had its share of anticlimaxes. Here once stood Kingston Theatre, built in 1775...

Mother nature’s wonders seldom cease, neither do they cease to awe and floor us ­ literally and figuratively. Tucked into the central region of the eastern Caribbean island is the lush green tropical expanse in “de heart uh Barbados” and in its sanctum sanctorum is embedded a limestone cavern, a marvel of nature’s beauty. Amid breathtakingly stunning tropical flora, sprayed by occasional showers, emit the aroma of the earth lies Harrison’s Caves, home to myriad stalactite and stalagmite formations that are nature’s living and ever-evolving work of art. A motorised tram awaits at the entrance known as the Boyce Tunnel, named after equipment operator Noel Boyce, who was the first member of the construction team to break through the bedrock. Subdued lights embedded in the rock formations welcome the visitors, it can be an adventurous ride into a theme park, only that instead of ‘monsters’ popping out from the crevasses, the myriad shapes soothe the eyes and leave the interpretati...