Dominoes forever🙃

 Only a domino lover can appreciate, not only the joy of the game, but also how much it keeps the brain active. 

Last night's game, organized by my bosom friend Carolyn to help me mark my 8th decade on this planet, was a timely reminder. 

Uncle Leslie bows, as his pleased partner Uncle Ruddy looks on.

For as I tried to follow 96 year old Uncle Leslie's strategic plays, it was so obvious that dominoes had played a major role in keeping him and even 90 year old Uncle Ruddy, young. 

Unfortunately, the game is only being kept prominent by us older folk, as the younger generation is showing little interest. 

 But it is what it is. 

Uncle Ruddy, Clover's widower.

It remains one of my favorite activities and everyone knows that.

Host Carolyn in background 

No one more than Carolyn,  the daughter of the late, great Jamaican, Doctor Clover Thompson,  an outstanding public servant and  educator, whose other life revolved around dominoes. 

So yes, it was a great night, and my fellow Taurean Horace and I kept our flag flying by dropping a six love.🙃

It was a wonderful way to spend a significant birthday.

Black Forrest, one of my favorites😋

Good friends, delicious fare, great brain activity and camaderie. 

Thanks guys.

Turning 80.

 Unbelievably, I made it to age 80!

It's been a hell of a journey filled with some sorrow but also great triumphs. 

My greatest sorrow was of course the murder of my son Thor, but the birth of his son Shadrach, six weeks before his untimely death, and the love of friends and family made it easier to endure. 

Yes, the road has been somewhat rocky but now I am good.

 Thanks to my loving family, Michele, Maddy, Shadrach and Bernie, my extended faily and all my friends who helped, encouraged and assisted me along the way.

On to the next milestone.😉

Link: LOOKING BACK......... Audiobook by Joan Williams

Our unbounded influencence

Very few people appreciate the role music played in lightening the load of our ancestors during slavery better than Colin Smith. 

Smith who was awarded a Badge of Honor by the Jamaican government in 2025 for his role in the preservation of Jamaican culture, is not only the Chairman of the Louise Bennett Heritage Council but is also founder/leader of  the Miami based Tallawah Mento Band. It's in that role that he was recently invited to Costa Rica in April 2026 to address the 2nd Marcus Garvey  Symposium on the topic "How enslaved Africans used music to lighten their burden."

The heart of Jamaican culture in Costa Rica is in the province of Limón where it is estimated that of the over 65,000 population there, 75% have Caribbean ancestry, and also in nearby Puerto Viejo (translation Old Harbour!) where Jamaican colors and food dominate. 

Some Tallawah band members pose beside the sign.

Like so many other places in Central America, thousands of Jamaicans moved there and settled after working on the Panama Canal and they retained their culture.

I first visited Limón decades ago after hitching a ride on a Jamaica Producers vessel which used to go there to fill up with bananas to meet its British quota.

What stood out in my mind then was not only how most people could switch from our patois to grammatical Spanish seamlessly but also how our favorite traditional dishes were easily available everywhere. 

On my second visit, I learned that Hon. PJ Patterson, Prime Minister was honored there in 2001. 

What I never knew then was that Garvey was held up in such high esteem there that each year on the 18th April, they put on activities to honor him. 

He had been working there as a timekeeper and between 1910-1911. When he saw the exploitation of the black workers on the banana plantations there, he not only established a branch of the UNIA but also a hub there for his Black Star Liner.

In 2023, Costa Rica declared Garvey an honorary citizen for his contributions to culture and human rights.

It was no doubt a great honor for the Tallawah Band, one of the last surviving mento bands, to be included in this year's festivities.  

They even performed on their first  night in Costa Rica at La Caribena in the Capital San Jose, before going  

on to Limón. 

The performance there  received overwhelming applause. 

I really don't know that too many of our countrymen really appreciate how our culture is revered in so many corners of the globe and the fact that we may even still have many relatives in diverse places that we know little about.

Below are snippets of Tallawah's performance in Costa Rica. 

Nb. Pics and videos contributed by Anette Smith.

That exhibition!

 I am sure happy that I took in the Sistine Chapel exhibition at La Galleria in Fort Lauderdale, as it made me appreciate all over again, the sheer genius of Michaelangelo.

I had actually visited the Sistine Chapel itself in the Vatican decades ago, when my children were just pre-teens but I don't think I appreciated what he had actually accomplished and gave the world. 

In fact the only thing I really remembered was the fact that he had painted the ceiling of the Chapel, lying on his back for the entire time.😊 

Random Old Testament prophets above.

It's only now since I have started to take art classes, that the depth of his ability, conquest of every detail and the general production really hit me. 

Remember, in the 1500's, artists had to make their own paints, (you couldnt walk into a store and pick the medium and your colors😁). His use of colors, tints and shades is therefore out of this world.

Further he had no pictures to guide him, so everything came from imagination. 

He got his inspiration from the Old Testament, but it's his interpretation of those texts that is so dynamic.

Noah drunk and naked.

The great flood.

Another angle of the great flood.

The Adam and Eve story.

Some aspects of the judgement.

The judgement en toto.

I am certainly not into religion, but his dynamic interpretation of some of those characters and events is phenomenal.

So happy I went down to Fort Lauderdale and enjoyed it with fellow student Helena.

Even happier that I have this blog so can turn to it from time to time to remind myself what real genius is!

Whoever can, should take it in.