Walking Hard For The Money

Sweet talking you for a sale of his fresh a Current Roll which is flaked pastry with raisins

Winny Mandela came to Trinidad in 1998. She was at the SWWTU Hall Hall where she addressed women NGO's on 'the struggle' in South Africa. A nutsman was standing outside selling, when he saw her and could not resist saying the following,"O gorm, she's a nice woman, I could married she." - Adele


A folding table food vendor on the move, Port of Spain, Trinidad

Along the dusky sidewalks in Trinidad and Tobago, food vendors can be seen carrying their baskets and small folding tables. This is their morning run with a selections of beef, cheese and fish pies which are usually wrapped in greaseproof paper after a generous amount of pepper sauce is added to it to give it a zing or to kill the flavour of the mincemeat. All you taste is hot. When you're hungry, anything taste good until the oily pie begins to ride you much later.

Yet, these people do a brisk trade by providing a much needed service to all of us who are too busy to eat properly at certain times of day. They in turn are proving that hard work pays off in their daily exercise by canvassing door to door to earn enough money to have comfortable homes and to educate their children abroad.
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Meh hand slip - Adding too much of an ingredient to food, generally salt

What's old is new again - Mini Trinidad and Tobago

These cars are part of the Mini Club in Trinidad, which restores original Mini cars to their mint condition


A light blue Mini which took two years to restore

The owner of Mini says his car took two years to overhaul the body shell and engine parts were taken from two other cars he had purchased. Earlier that day, he was part of a convoy of forty Mini cars that traveled across the country to Grande Riviere as part of the Mini Club.


Two classic British Mini in the process of being restored at Aranguez, Eastern Main Road, Trinidad

The Bookman is documenting vintage cars in Trinidad and Tobago and this is a classic by all means. The Morris Mini Cooper was designed by Alec Issigonis as a affordable car which could seat four adults. Originally, the first cars were powered by 850cc 34bhp engine making the Mini in its purest form, simple, clean and agile.

Dirty Girl in a Blue Dress

Touch on a public Bus

Walking through dust and humidity

In Trinidad it is said that girls with powder on their chests are trying to say to the viewer that they have just had a bath. The latest product of seduction in America are washing machines, and this washing machine advertisement has managed to make me look at their meaning about hygiene. An attractive woman walks down what looks like a busy street in New York. She walks by dusty pavements and takes a crowded bus. Then she goes home and takes off the dress and puts it in the dryer.


Refreshed clothing

Ready to wear

The name of the dryer is shown and then we see her several minutes later, still in the slip, putting on the dress, ready to go out for the evening. This advertisement is supposed to make one feel that the product can bring back clothes to a first wearing newness, but the fact that our protagonist has chosen to NOT take a shower is very off putting, leading me to conclude that the audience for this product are not West Indians who pride themselves on cleanliness. But even worse, it fits into a terrible stereotype about Caucasian people, that they dislike bathing.


Prim and unwashed - LG Ad Brand Buzz (LG refresh)

Now come on, this is advertising at its worst while trying to show something at its best. it is one of those ticklers about perception. for example there is a local advertisement for the lottery with the football theme. Some men are watching the game and a series of marks are considered for betting. It is all meant in good fun, and the piece can be funny, but at the end when one of the AfroTrinbagonian men goes to collect his winnings at the betting shop, he says, 'Still hungry but ah can buy a big screen TV now." This leads into another bad stereotype about black people and money. In a way one can say that every advertisement can be dissected and pulled apart for such subtle and not so subtle bias. It is one of the risks of showing things for mass consumption in short time frames. I would conclude that in the effort to sell the product well, one must always consider every perspective. – Adele

thebookmann Trinidad LG TV Ad Brand Buzz (LG refresh) refresh) Adele Todd thebookmann

Bathed in Alcohol

A White Oak Rum Ad, laminated on the wall of the Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad, West Indies. The wall ad has been destroyed and is being replaced by a series of Vinyl billboards paintings which represent the work by Trinidad artists.

This nude woman is the focal point of Rum product. Its that smooth, portrayed by a clear swath of cloth that is wrapped over her silky skin. This gives the illusion of Rum being served with ice, and the woman to represent a red stirring stick.
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Man to the bar tender: Ah hope she free to twirl ***

The Uniting of Trinidad and Tobago

Chaconia Gold in merit awarded to the Soca Warrior Football Team for their achievement at the World cup which united the nation of Trinidad and Tobago


Flags fluttered in a semicircle around the National Stadium in tribute, pageantry and flare......Trinidad and Tobago style

A Soca Warrior player walking and bouncing along a red carpet covered with confetti. The carpet lead up to four wonky red steps and to the official platform where he received Trinidad and Tobago's second highest award, the Chaconia Gold (in order of the Trinity). The Prime Minster conceded that no Government could have united Trinidad and Tobago such as the Soca Warriors at a time of political wrangling which had polarized the nation.

Kings of Kings - Trinidad and Tobago

David Beckham relieved grin after England's first goal

So we didn’t win against Paraguay. It hurts like hell and we wish that Russell Latapy had been put in sooner. Never have I heard commentators bending over backwards to say nice things about Trinidad and Tobago. I know that we feel inconsolable, so now we need to look at the reality of football. Anyone can win Football at this level is about the highest possible standard of the games, and we have to admit that we saw more fight than we had seen for some time with our ‘Soca Warriors.” The World Cup is called such because it is hard, not because it is easy. The sort of hunger and fight that it takes to reach to professional level is very real and Trinidad and Tobago has nothing to be ashamed of because there is no compromise at this stage.


John and Yorke's last walk at the 2006 World Cup in Germany

"We worked really hard. We needed a bit of luck, which we didn’t get at the end. But we’ve shown that we deserve to be here and I hope we’ve surprised a few people. It was a massive compliment to us when Wayne Rooney came on, as it showed that things weren’t going England’s way. We kept them at bay for 83 minutes and we are proud of that. It’s a historical match for T&T and it was a great day for us".....Stern John remarks of England against his team.

The last Caribbean team to make it into the second round of the cup was in 1936 and it was Cuba! Think about it? Also more and more players are playing for European teams, everyone is playing at a very highpoint. Our players got very good experience.I am saddened however by the fact that I now wonder who will be the next group of warriors when this team retires soon? That fact should help all of those who are still smarting from the loss, and should help people to understand the kind of talent we sent to Germany. Let us hope that some of the younger players on the team are given even greater encouragement to take us to South Africa in 2010. - Adele

The Battle Of The Advertisers

Christopher Guiness animator 5 week project.

Between the World Cup matches there are a number of advertisements tailor made for the event. One is a very well drawn animation and the other is the typical over the top alcohol piece. The animation features a dreadlocked player aggressively going after a ball in a match. The dominant colours are red, white and black. The images move by as though on film as the vertical lines attest, and the wide format of the action frames are faced by two bands of green that goon to represent ‘B Mobile’ one of the telephone companies.

This advertisement is refreshing. The illustration is well rendered and the timing of the frames are well thought out and just enough to be impacting.The other advertisement features what is termed, ‘the young and the beautiful’ 18 to 24 age range, an attempt at a cross section of the population. These people are seen at a football match and then at an up scale, trendy bar with their faces painted in the national colours. Our local ‘Shakira” belly dancer features prominently.


Zapping into TV land

Angustura touts several of its products between the festivities. There is a public service AIDS advertisement featuring three local‘artists’ locally pronounced (art-easts) and as mattering of furniture and food ads using the football theme. The most creative being one where spectators at home are criticizing the game and end up in the television, on the field, scoring a goal. The advertisement is not as smooth as it should be, but it is one of the more memorable of this World Cup presentation and better of the cheaper and simpler ads. - Adele

Forged from the love of liberty - Trinidad & Tobago

Forged from the love of liberty


A resident of Woodbrook, Trinidad, West Indies

This is an example how Trinidadians and Tobagonians feel over the Soca Warrior's historic debut and stunning draw between Sweden at the World Cup Football in 2006. The owner of this home has propped the flag of Trinidad and Tobago between the window curtains and glass pane. The tasteful gesture says it all.


The National flag of Trinidad and Tobago

The Death Of A Confection-ist

A sweet vendor near Memorial Park, Trinidad, West Indies

Outside Holy Name Convent, Port of Spain and across the street at Memorial Park there stands a lady who sells snacks. She has corn curls and soft drinks and mango chow. But she is also knowledgeable about the traditional tuckshop sweets that are now a thing of the not too distant past. Remember the Tolom? Chili Bibi?Guava sweets?

You can still buy the first two, but the last is hardest to come by. It seems that the gentleman who used to make and prepare the sweet by hand, cutting the wooden sticks, boiling the guavas and creating the perfect little burgundy coloured confection, has died and his children and grandchildren have no desire to continue the tradition. So sadly it is a hazy memory, but not in the hearts of children who are now adults, who remember the brown paper wrapped confection that fit perfectly in the mouth, sucked down to the stick, the stick lingering until the guava taste dissipated, the cost of such joy, less than a quarter. - Adele

Bagging her chow

Preparing mango chow can make your mouth water. Half ripe mangoes are peeled and chopped into slices then seasoned with salt, pepper,vinegar and sliced cucumbers or pineapple with secret ingredient, Shadow Beni to give it its aromatic taste and smell. Shadow Beni is powerfully pungent Caribbean garden herb.


Mango Chow

Auntie Kay's Bermudez Biscuit jingle

Bermudez Biscuit Company's famous West Indian cracker called Crix shown here on a billboard, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Bermudez Biscuit Company jingle

On Sunday in the 1970's and1980's at lunchtime there used to be a show on the radio called Auntie Kay. It was a children’s show where recitations, singing and oration was encouraged. What was particularly striking about the show was the theme song. One of Auntie Kay's signature items was her eloquence in grammar, this always struck me as ironic because the theme song was filled with slang. I have tried to recall the words and know that I have muddle up some of Bermudez's range of products.


Bermudez Biscuit's logo on those large tins

But the jest of the song is as follows:

Bermudez Biscuit Company, In the island of Trinidad ,is a haven to everybody and it make the children so glad. At home at school or vacation, Biscuits to suit the occasion.I know you bound to agree They bake biscuits with varietyTell them Bermudez does bake Mopsie Bermudez does bake DicksieVanilla Cookie ( I took years to understand what thegirl who sang this part was saying, it used to sound garbled and I thought it sounded like funny mapopie!) Make some Crix sandwich for me please O Yes Bermudez does bake???Bermudez does bake??? For the big and small You can't stop Bermudez at all Bermudez! - Adele


Listen to an interpretation by Adele 347kb wav format



New Crix tins as drums