Anne Hilton reports in T&T's Newsday:

WITHOUT DOUBT the talking point of the Cross Cultural Experience with the Carsten Daerr Trio and Michael Boothman and Friends, under the aegis of German Ambassador Dr Ernst Martens in the Simon Bolivar Auditorium, Venezuelan Embassy last Wednesday, was the debut of the Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI), the gleaming, black and white Steinway of Pan — or so the spanking new instrument appears to one who prefers classics to jazz.

The PHI (pronounced, so the website www.panadigm.com informs us, “Fie” — as in Fee Fie Fo Fum) was developed in the Steelpan Research Laboratory in UWI. The Cross Cultural Night was the new instrument’s first official outing. Readers who wish to know more about PHI can check out chapter and verse on the website.

Following the successful cooperation of last year’s Kite Duo Franz Bauer and Dirk Strakhof from Germany with renowned local artists like Clive Zanda, Mikhail Salcedo, Donald Jnr. Noel and many others, the German Embassy is proud to be able to host another cross cultural experience in Port of Spain.

Trinidad will be the last stop of the successful German Carsten Daerr Trio on their tour through the Caribbean and Central America.

The Carsten Daerr Trio will perform at the Simon Bolivar Auditorium of the Venezuelan Embassy on 11 March, 2009 at 7 p.m., also featuring local Jazz icon Michael Boothman.

From the Trinidad Guardian by Indra Dwarka-Koch:

Long worn Trinidad costumes made their revival at a famous and historical German Carnival Fancy Dress Ball last month, coinciding with T&T Carnival. These costumes may have been old for a Trini to wear for C2K9 but not so for Alexandra Carolin Koch and her friends. With much hard work new costumes were created and designed, old ones repaired. These costume pieces, were either collected on the streets or handed down from masquerades from award winning bands in earlier Trinidad Carnivals.

Alexandra and her fun-loving “posse” ventured into the cold and wintry February evening and attended the Prinzengarde Fancy Dress Ball in the city of Mainz, one of the strongholds of the German Carnival. The Mainzer Prinzengarde guild has a tradition of 125 years and they gave Mainz the fame of being an El Dorado for the big carnival ballroom dance with fancy dress. With this year’s event marking its 125th anniversary, the organisers went out their way to make 2009 a special one.

The inaugural edition of 'Caribbean Summer' took place in Dortmund this past weekend. Several thousands showed up in Westfalenpark to enjoy the festivities on Saturday evening. There were a number of steel bands on hand comprised of 180 musicians including a local band from Dortmund's Pan Kultur, Bäng Bäng, also Delaware Steel from the USA, and Ebony from London.

On Sunday there were workshops for kids and a carnival style parade through the park. Steely Wonder, another steel band from Finland also made an appearance.

This edition of Caribbean Summer was sponsored by the tourist board of the Bahamas. It is hoped that this festival will become an annual event.

A full report in German from Ruhr Nachrichten follows after the YouTube clip. Go directly to their website for promotional photos and pictures from the event itself.

Here's a clip of a performance by PanGang, the youth pan orchestra of Pan Kultur:

Lord Melody's Mama Look A Booboo is perhaps one of the most recorded calypsos ever. One version was even recorded in German by Swedish singer Alice Babs. The lyrics, however, have been changed to protect the ugly daddy. Instead, the song's more innocuous wording written by Hans Bradke tells of a happy Caribbean family whose mother is Cuban and father is Jamaican, and who sing cheerful music together as father sails off in his banana boat. It is rather typical of the popularized calypso genre of 1957 and even references Belafonte's singing voice.

To have a listen pop over to the the music page. (Also recently added is another football classic: Lancelot Layne's Target from 1989.)

The lyrics follow below:

The Trinidad Express Women's Magazine profiles a German jewelry designer who landed in Tobago.

Some Girls Have Other Best Friends
By Cedriann J Martin

Show me your accessories and I'll tell who you are.

Monika Schenkel isn't your delicate gold necklace or diamond solitaire type. As a girl she was fixated with stones on beaches and river banks. A fashion design degree notwithstanding, she made an early exit from the cut-throat industry. ("I didn't like the competitiveness," she drawls. "And money was not my main interest.") Though originally from Germany, she detests the cold. She was once a global nomad, chasing sunshine and culture everywhere from Africa to the Arab word. The steel pan lured her to Trinidad.

18 years ago, when her three-year-old flopped onto a bed in a Tobago fishing village and declared 'mummy, this feels like home' Schenkel readily agreed.

The twelfth annual Carnival der Kulturen in Bielefeld takes place on June 6 and 7. This year's theme is "Call of Nature". The parade will take place on at 3pm on Sunday the 7th beginning on Schloßhofstraße and ending in Ravensburger Park. At 5:30pm the parade participants will present themselves on the stage in the park. All other parties and activities surrounding the carnival are listed at carnival-bielefeld.de.



Some of the participants slated for this year include:

Caribbean Heatwave, a carnival band based in Germany participates in the Karneval Der Kulturen every year. Here is a peak at members Gail Edmund and Barbara Saltmann as they prepared for this year's parade, from Tagesspiegel:

Anprobe für die Parade
Von Annette Kögel

Vorbereitungen für den Umzug: Gail Edmund und Barbara Saltmann aus der Karibik sind zwei der 4500 Akteure, die beim Karnevalsumzug am Sonntag mittanzen.

Es lohnt sich doch immer wieder, hinter die Fassade zu schauen. Zum Beispiel in Nord-Neukölln, Rütlikiez, Weserstraße. Kaum öffnet Gail Edmund die Tür, tritt man ein in eine karibische Welt: Fotos von Palmen hängen an der Wand, im Hintergrund Soca-Musik und überall leuchten orangerote Flammen aus Stoff. Drei Monate lang designt und schneidert, klebt und verdrahtet die 42-jährige Schneiderin schon an den Kostümen zum Karneval. „Wir Ausländer bringen ein bisschen Salz und Pfeffer ins deutsche Leben“, sagt Konstümmodel Barbara Saltmann lachend. Vielleicht sieht man ihr deshalb ihre 55 Jahre nicht an.

Peter Doig, a contemporary Scottish painter who resides in Trinidad has won the annual Wolgang Hahn Prize from the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany. Doig originally moved to Trinidad in 1962 for several years and later returned in 2002, when he set up a studio at the Caribbean Contemporary Arts centre near Port of Spain, and also became professor at the internationally renowned fine arts academy in Düsseldorf, Germany.

From artinfo.com:

British painter Peter Doig is the winner of the fifteenth annual Wolfgang Hahn Prize, awarded each year to a contemporary artist by the Society for Modern Art at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, reports the Deutsche Presse Agentur. Doig will be presented with the €100,000 ($158,000) prize at a ceremony at the museum on April 14. The museum also acquires a work from each prizewinner.

Doig was recognized as one of the most important painters of our time by the prize's jury, which also called attention to the "mysterious, explosive density" of his populated landscapes. "Doig's painterly realism leads painting to unexplored territory," said juror Iwona Blazwick from London's Whitechapel gallery.

Doig has a traveling retrospective currently on view at Tate Britain through April 27 . It will open next at the ARC/Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris on May 29 and then the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt on October 9.

In Germany 3sat is showing a repeat of a travel show today, "Simply Luxurious", which features two women traveling to different destinations, one on the cheap, the other in luxurious style. Today's episode is on Trinidad and Tobago:

16:15 Uhr einfachluxuriös - zwei Frauen unterwegs

Trinidad/Tobago
Mit Monika Schärer und Fiona Hefti
(Erstsendung 24.2.2005)

Für die Reisesendung "einfachluxuriös" reisen jeweils zwei Frauen zu beliebten Tourismusdestinationen weltweit. Während eine der beiden im Luxus schwelgt, reist die andere auf einfache Weise ohne großen Komfort.
Trinidad, die größte Insel der südlichen Karibik, liegt direkt vor Venezuela. Wer tropische Landschaften, Regenwälder, Wasserfälle oder seltene Vogelarten kennen lernen möchte, kommt dort auf seine Kosten. Die viel kleinere Schwesterinsel Tobago ist eine typische Urlaubsinsel mit idyllischen Dörfern, unberührten Sandstränden und vielen Sportmöglichkeiten. Monika Schärer reist mit dem Maxitaxi durch Trinidad und Tobago. Sie lernt einen Fischer kennen, der ihr seine Lebensphilosophie erklärt, besucht eine Steeldrumband, bei der sie mitspielen darf, und wird von einem Medizinmann in die Geheimnisse der Kräuterkunde eingeführt. Fiona Hefti ist bequem im Auto mit Guide unterwegs. Sie begleitet die Miss Universe von 1998 in ein von ihr gegründetes Kinderheim, lernt einen Musiker kennen, der eine spezielle Beziehung zur Schweiz hat, und kocht zusammen mit einer Spitzenköchin ein einheimisches Menü. Gemeinsam bekommen Monika Schärer und Fiona Hefti von einer Kennerin eine erste Lektion im Limbo-Tanzen.