Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

                 Rated R!!! Section Thinks So   by Stephen Weir It is not as though section leader Thea Jackson didn’t warn people who attended the weekend Revellers Costume launch that her section was going to be an “adults only” catwalk show. In the days leading up to the Park View Manor fete she sent social media notices saying that “When you just know you are everything I will be presenting to you the Rated R!!!! (section),” she wrote. “For 2023 my section is NOT for the weak!”   It turns out she wasn’t kidding! Picture four models snapping whips as they came onto the stage. Black and purple skimpy S&M inspired fish net costumes with black taped breasts, and small silver codpieces to keep it all legal, they put on quite the full contact performance. “The 500+ crowd went crazy when my section came out on stage,  it Is not seen in Toronto  so they loved it,” reported Jackson, “ It was well received, I...

                                                T h e Parade Is A Go In 2022   Jamaal’s Revellers the First Band To Announce Launch   By Stephen Weir   Dust off your pans, tune up your singing voice, break out your costume. It is going to happen (probably).    Laverne Garcia the chair of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival confirmed to the Caribbean Camera that it is full speed ahead for the 55 th Toronto Caribbean Carnival's Grand Parade on July 31 st along the Lakeshore.  It was probably the worst kept secret at City Hall. The major events in the city from Pride to the Toronto Film Festival have all been given permission by Toronto and the Province to stage their annual events -- provided of course that Canada does not get hit by another wave of Covid.    “We will ensure compliance with all public health and safety precauti...

Two Different Approaches For The Saturday night Battle of the Bands By Stephen Weir  Photographs by Stephen Weir  Jully Black from reggae singer to Soca sailor Two Mas Men went head-to-head on Saturday night and both came out winners, each in their own way.   A pair of Caribbean Carnival Band launches were held on the same night – one in North Toronto and the other in Malvern.    The two band leaders   - Raptor celeb Jamaal Magloire (Toronto Revellers) and Will Morton (Fantazia) took two different approaches to showing off the costumes that their bands will be wearing on the road this summer. In the business of Mas, the winners and losers of a Battle of the Bands, is ultimately not determined by the number of people that attended (in which case Jamaal won hands down) but rather by the number of costume buyers who decide to sign on the bottom line as a result of the fashion show.   The Revellers won at the gate, and Fantazia had th...