Ria Bacon: editor & writer

Linguist with wanderlust,
From the hills of New Guinea to the halls of the Sorbonne,
From the beaches of Bassam to the fields of Friesland,
From the catacombs of Rome to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.
From the heather of the Veluwe to the dust of Dakar ...

Currently resident in the Land of Sea with a small tribe of kids and Mr B.

FYI

Stet means "Let it stand" and is used by editors to indicate that the original text should be left untouched.

...in Arcadia ego is a pun on a painting by Poussin.

Contact

Ria[dot]Bacon[at]gmail.com

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Big up yu batty, gyal II

Constant Spring Road runs north-south, from green-leaved uptown to Halfway Tree. No one knows what the tree was halfway between, and there is no longer a tree to be seen amid the exhaust fumes from the bus terminal and the chronic traffic congestion as the uptowners stream towards their offices in New Kingston and others head

Continue reading Big up yu batty, gyal II

8 comments to Big up yu batty, gyal II

  • Sometimes curlers can qualify as hair ornaments, if you do it right.

  • I’m certainly not noticing the curlers.

  • delicious! With without curlers – here am I all myself jamming an’ ting. Thanks

  • How you mean, no one remembers what the tree was halfway between?

    “Throughout Jamaican history, other cotton trees have given their names to places, including Spur Tree Hill and Half-Way-Tree (the latter named by the English for the tree’s location half way between Kingston Harbour and Spanish Town; the tree, which no longer stands, was used as a marker between the three plantations once owned by the wealthy Spaniards, Liguaney, de Yalis and Lizama. It was also used as a resting place by slaves and English soldiers on long marches.”

    The above was taken from the Gleaners “Pieces of the Past” series, in particular, the story about Tom Cringle’s cotton Tree

    Bwoy, its been awhile since I last heard that song! Memories…. Re the picture, that girl needs to exercise that butt, man! It looks like it wants to take over her entire body! I wonder if theres and alien in there?

  • Poppin style, Ria. I too, did not notice the curlers. It aint possible for the weak.

  • I linked to a BBC archive clip of Althea and Donna singing Uptown Top Ranking and to a recording of the Canadian singer Scout Niblett singing a very odd cover version (check it out if you can find it online, otherwise I’ll mail you the mp3) almost two years ago – and I still get two or three people a week coming by on Google queries like “Althea Donna one hit wonders” or “Uptown Top Ranking what it mean?” – Now I know where to direct them. Thanks so much for posting the lyrics. Though I must admit the first time I read them I misunderstood the line “True you see me inna pants” and got lost in some very weird pseudo-philosophical conjecture about just what “inner pants” might be and why I wasn’t in touch with mine…

  • Ria

    Mad Bull: If Half Way Tree was between Kingston harbour and Spanish Town, it would mean the harbour was somewhere near the peaks of the Blue Mountains! Think about it. So stet my statement about no one remembers what the tree was halfway between.

    All that is known is that the tree marked an important crossroads, as it does today. “In its shade stood a tavern”, adds the Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage and continues: “The first written record that we have of Half Way Tree is dated 1696 and notes the behaviour of some men who were drinking in this tavern.”

    Seventeenth century rudies!

  • Daps ah say:

    later after she tek out har curler, ah murda

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Video: Barbican Road

Tech note

Reload page if video thumbnail does not appear. From experimenting with various online video hosts, YouTube seems to be the most efficient. Blip.tv gave me some problems uploading and with playback, and as for Google video, I’m still waiting for their broadcast approval, three days after uploading the clip.

My heart sank when I saw the

Continue reading Video: Barbican Road

5 comments to Video: Barbican Road

  • Fyr

    :-) I really like – nice shots. Have to go home and play it there cos I can’t listen the background music at work…

    Gonna link you in on my blog too – widen de exposure :D

  • [...] But, before I bore y’all to death, go check out Ria’s post today…  It RAWKS SAWKS!!! [...]

  • CGCOLLINS

    Have spent many an afternoon trapped along this route. I was expecting to see me in my car on my phone

  • I haven’t been back to JA in many, many years and that video brought back memories! See, I grew up in Barbican and remember riding my bicycle on those roads. Especially the road at the end of the video right in front of the church. Traffic was never that bad back in the day tho. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

  • rory

    i remember those roads well too, i grew up in the lane beside the church, called (ford pen lane or castle heights), especially when passing my old school, sanders, if you from barbican you know where mia talk

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King Merc meets higglers uptown

Shopping from the comfort of your car in uptown Kingston.

Although the resolution is too low to read here, I’ve changed the licence plate to [BUSHA 2].

For an explanation of the title Busha, read the following extract from Anthony C. Winkler’s hilarious novel, The Lunatic.

The Busha was the richest man in the parish. His land splashed over

Continue reading King Merc meets higglers uptown

4 comments to King Merc meets higglers uptown

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