Jamaica # 1 cranberry consumer

Jamaica Gleaner News - Jamaica number one cranberry consumer - Friday September 22, 2006:

"Nutritious cranberry drink flooded the Jamaican market 10 years ago and, since July of this year, the country has surpassed the United States as its number one consumer per capita based on sales of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice. Ocean Spray is a 100-year-old brand in the U.S., but Jamaica is ahead by 10 per cent in sales. "
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Now that has got to be one of the strangest facts I have read about in years! Lets think about this: There are 270 million people in the U.S, there are 2.7 million people in Jamaica. That means for every 1 person in Jamaica there exists the equivalent of 100 people in America. How could we consume 110% of anything (non-Caribbean),.. anything at all...., that the U.S. consumes?? Okay I am not being totally fair, I know they said "per capita" but still that is a lot of Cranberry Juice drinking. Is there a glut of bottled Cranberry Juice on the U. S. market that is being exported very cheaply to the third world?
Lets look at this closer still. The Jamaican population is pretty much dominated by a large poor under class. Anything that is heavily consumed has to very cheap and readily available. Ocean Spray products are not bottled in Jamaica and therefore have to be imported. Yes I am sure Mr Mahfood brings it in via multiple trailer loads, but there is no way the price of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice can compare and compete with our local Bigga and other such syrupy sweet stuff that are made to pass for quenching beverages. I won't even go into to fact that Ocean Spray products are LOADED with excess sugar that does no good for anybody young or old. They make two types; the 100% pure juice and then the juice from concentrate. The latter is pictured in the Gleaner article and is, by Ocean Spray's own admission, watered down along with nuff added sugar. Pure Cranberry juice now is a whole different story.
Is that Jamaicans consume a normal amount of this product and the Americans know something that we don't and are staying clear of it?
Is there some local myth associated with Cranberry that makes everyone want to quickly gobble it up in Jamaica?
Can anybody shed any light on this? Really strange.

For Us Married Guys........

A man took his wife to the rodeo and one of the first exhibits they stopped at covered breeding bulls. They went up to the first pen and there was a sign attached that said, "This bull mated 50 times last year." The wife playfully nudged her husband in the ribs and said, "He mated 50 times last year."

They walked to the second pen which had a sign attached that said, "This bull mated 120 times last year." The wife gave her husband a healthy jab and said, "That's more than twice a week! You could learn a lot from him."

They walked to the third pen and it had a sign attached that said, in capital letters, "This bull mated 365 times last year." The wife, so excited that her elbow nearly broke her husband's ribs, said, "That's once a day. You could REALLY learn something from this one."
The husband looked at her and said, "Go up and ask him if it was with the same old cow."

"Out Of Many One"

The Tami Chynn album “Out Of Many One” is out at last,…well sort of. Seems to be some sort of distribution problem here in the U.S. It is available now in Europe but hasn’t “officially” been launched on this side of the pond. Strange? Universal couldn’t be crazy enough to not release it here. I know they have been disappointed with the lack of excitement for the single releases generated over the past 10 months, but to cut their losses and move on now would be very cruel to Tami’s camp. But then again such is the music business, they love you then abandon you. Maybe they will just push back the real U.S. release another few weeks, hoping some sort of buzz will pick up between now and then.

Anyway back to the album; I got to hear a copy from England last night and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I thought that given the height of the bar that Tanya Stephens just set last week with her Rebelution release that this listen would be a waste of time. But no, it wasn’t bad at all. Light,fluffy material yes, but still quite impressive. Yes 6 out of the 17 tracks have already been released and just put out there for John Public to hitch on to (that never quite happened), but as is the norm with Jamaican debut albums, half of the material is past singles that we the local audience have already proven as road worthy. That is an accepted practice and is expected as our music basically thrives on a singles-based market.

Besides the fact that Tami is very easy on the eyes (and photographs very well), the album is well composed and written. Time was put into this production. It still does sound quite Pro Tools ish, meaning it sounds somewhat like a mic and a Mac production. Anyway still a good effort by new production duo South Soul and Tami’s sister Tesanne. “Hyperventilating”, “Looky Looky”, “Hot!”, “Tell mi Seh” we all know and are decent songs. The first should have been a real hit for her. Universal’s tight pockets are to blame for that. The latest single 1-2-3-4 also has hit potential, but they will probably put a minimum effort behind that also, only depending on the Tami camp to beat the street and b-grade concert circuit to death. Either the big five companies don’t know how to or simply don’t want to market Caribbean music, and I think it is a combination of both. They just prefer to piggy back on an obvious hit that needs no real money to push it forward. That is what they were hoping to get from Tami during the past year. There is also an album “Intro” that really is slick in a good way and reminiscent of 70’s soul album instrumental themes. “Bliss Is” is a good laid back track, “Can U Feel Me” is good easy reggae and so is “Till U Come”. There are two remixes that of course sound much catchier than their originals: Looky, Looky (Tony Kelly remix) that has to be released on a single, that will sell!! And then there is Hyperventilating (TOK remix) that sounds pretty good too, but I think it might be too late to try and resurrect that one..

Overall we all know her voice is not anything to write home about. But the good thing about that is they have sort of produced and written “around” that fact and made her vocals sound good enough for the given task. It is a fairly good debut. Unless a single really takes off from this CD though it will only be known to us in reggae circles. Universal is looking for another Rihanna or a female Sean Paul from from Tami, but she is cutting another path. If they start acting as though she can walk on water again, like they were doing 18 months ago, AND put some real funds behind her release, that path can become very lucrative for them.

Broward Carnival 2K6 !!

Broward Caribbean Carnival

Massive don't forget to check out the Broward Caribbean Carnival , there is still time to plan for the trip. You have a good three weeks left. Miami Carnival is now way too expensive ($45) and over-crowded. Check out Broward's just 30 minutes upstate. It is at the stage now where it is just the right size, reasonably priced, and safe, with all the West Indian entertainment and food you could ever desire. Once again I have nothing to do with the production. I just want to spread the good news so you can come and enjoy the good vibes. SEE YU THERE!!

What the??

Funny how sometimes you just can’t see the forest for the trees. Went on a photo shoot last Sunday afternoon. This young lady (Tonya) hired me to shoot some pictures, both formal and candid, at her mother’s 65th birthday party. No problem, got there at about 3:30 set up some lights even though the shots were all outside on the front lawn. She had previously made a fuss about seeing some of my past work that she thought were a little too dark. I wasn’t taking any chances, that complaint she would not be able to level on this go around. There were about 35 people at the house, mostly the birthday lady’s grown children with their young children and some neighbours. I readied the equipment and kind of observed the folks at the same time. Watching groups of associated people has always interested me.

Anyway I am now ready to shoot, I shoot all the grandkids together in one big group first, different poses and lots of kidding around. Then I shoot Tonya’s Mom and sister, Tonya’s aunt. Take a few formal portraits of the mom, then I am shooting and shooting different groups that present themselves in fron of the lighting setup. I don’t know the details of the different family units so I am just shooting whoever wants pics and portraits. Usually couples and kids, moms and kids, dads and sons, etc. No problem I shoot as needed, they pay for the ones they want to keep when they see the product.

During the shooting session Tonya comes up with two boys (teen & pre teen), I shoot them. A little later Tonya comes up with another young (HOT!!) lady, I shoot them. I casually ask: “Sisters?” , no just a girl friend Tonya says. A little later Tonya, “girlfriend”, and the two boys come to pose for a couple shots. I take them, think nothing of it, just shoot away.

Now Monday night I am home going thru and editing and generally cleaning up the shots on photoshop. I start to notice Tonya’s two boys look just like her girlfriend. Tonya , girlfriend, and boys are posing like a close family unit. Tonya (a nice looking black girl in her early 30’s) dresses rather masculine, hair obviously a male cut (sort of a straightened Fonz look). I also notice Tonya’s girlfriend has breast implants, WOW they look good! But that is another story, couldn’t keep my eyes off of her that Sunday.
I also notice that in all the huge group pictures of 30+ people Tonya’s girlfriend is always right up against her. I also notice they left together with the boys in tow. I would not have noticed them leaving but there was this nice black H3 Humvee parked there and I wanted to see which one of the siblings owned it. Guys are just like that, all attention is on the nice gyal dem and sweet vehicles. They left in the H3 and I didn’t really think anything it at the time. But now I am looking back at all the photos and thinking “What the??”. Not that there is anything wrong with it (well really there is), but its just that I have never come across a”family” like that before. You see two guys or two women every now and then, but a seemingly happy family? What do the two boys think? How do they explain mom and “dad” to their peers? How will they be when they grow up? A wha de r*ss really a gwan in dis yah world now??

The Rebelution has Begun

Drop what you are doing (after reading my blog) and go and get the new Tanya Stephens CD “Rebelution” . If you know little or nothing of Reggae this is a good place to start. If you are into Reggae this CD is an ESSENTIAL addition to your collection. No it didn’t open in the Billboard top ten like Junior Gong, Sean Paul or Shaggy, but it is just as good and in some cases better than them. In fact to be honest Sean Paul ‘s latest production is GARBAGE compared to this Tanya Stephens release (and the last one, come to think of it). She actually topped 2004’s “Gangsta Blues” which many say was the best DJ album ever out of Jamaica. Lady Saw time to hang it up.

The release is actually a double disc, the second being a 45 minute DVD of interviews, music videos and a long acoustic (unplugged) set. The actual audio CD is 20 tracks strong with at least 15 of them being very strong, the type you will want to listen to again 20 years from now. Put together by Tanya and just two other obscure producers this easily is up there with Buju’s “Til Siloh” and Damien Marley’s “Jamrock” as the best DJ albums ever to come out of Jamaica. But I kind of said that already, so you now go and get the CD, don’t burn it, get it from a legit established music outlet so the sale can be counted for charting and radio rotation potential. I hope VP doesn't put this one on the back burner like they did in 2004, betting on Lady Saw's flop of a CD and Elephant Man's ranting. They really need to put some cash behind Tanya's marketing this time.
I have absolutely nothing to do with the Tanya Stephens camp or VP Records, but a solid album out of JA is rare these days so I have to gwarn and big it up all I can.