THE BUZZ REPORT (11/28): What’s new, what’s next, what’s trending in Jamaican pop culture
Where do Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce find adequate space to store all those plaques, trophies and medals? The sprinting aces continued their fierce winning streak this week, announced as top honorees, unsurprisingly, at the 2015 Caribbean Sports Awards, for Male and Female Athlete of the Year respectively. With the Rio Olympics looming large on the horizon – not to mention the numerous Diamond League meets and other track events in the run-up to the Games – we predict that they’ll be swimming in lots more medals, like record-smashing compatriot Alia Atkinson, who continues to shake things up in women’s swimming. Meanwhile, kudos are due to young Danielle Williams for copping Female Rising Star honours at the awards, which are facilitated annually by the Caribbean Sports Journalists Association….. Still on the track, reports have surfaced that the world’s greatest living sprint coach, Glen Mills, is about to serve his final year as Director of Boys & Girls Champs, while veteran sprinter-turned sports administrator Michael Frater has been appointed to the IAAF Athletes Commission to serve until 2019….. Sadly, Jamaica Jazz & Blues 2016 has been cancelled but, on the upside, Kingston Music Week is about to rock the capital all of next week,
with a host of top-flight reggae stars confirmed to headline concerts from Bull Bay to Redbones. While the likes of Richie Spice will grace the stage at New Kingston’s Café Delite (Dec. 3), One Third will do their thing at Redbones on Dec. 4 and Raging Fyah and an army of conscious reggae hitmakers will draw large crowds to the Wickie Wackie Festival on Dec. 5 and 6….. A brilliant move that will see them serving a larger chunk of the tourist market, the owners of the Spanish Court Hotel are opening a brand-new branch in the Second City in December, just in time for the height of the winter tourist season, which could pull in record numbers, we hear….. And speaking of movements, after getting her feet wet in broadcasting at Love FM, the charming and talented Basillia Barnaby-Cuffe has brought a breath of fresh air to the NCU FM airwaves. This phase is just the beginning for Basillia, and we expect big things from her in the
years to come….. These days there is no shortage of inspiring young achievers who are making their presence felt in the public spotlight. Everybody is talking about Rhodes Scholar Sherona Forrester and Manning Cup star Alex Marshall (above right), the subject of a kind of adulation we haven’t witnessed since Michael O’Hara and Jaheel Hyde burst onto the scene a couple of years ago. But the future Reggae Boy is taking it all in stride. “I wouldn’t say I am above everybody else,” he recently told an interviewer, “but I just go out there and play with a lot of confidence and ask God for his guidance and protection, and smile and have fun.”….. One who is certainly having tonnes of fun as we speak is our girl in China, Sanneta Myrie, who has that whole Miss Congeniality thing going on. We absolutely love the photo-ops she’s been displaying via social media, allowing us all to share in her Miss World journey, as the countdown to Dec. 19 heats up. From bonding with her fellow queens to addressing the recent opening ceremony, the young ambassador is a star in Sanya….. Chinese and Jamaican relations are about to enter a promising new chapter, with the appointment of the estimable Fay Pickersgill as the new Jamaican Ambassador to China, replacing Ralph Thomas, who succeeded Stephen Vasciannie as our man in Washington….. And, finally, heartiest congrats to Miss Nickashie Hardware (York Castle High), the 2015/16 LASCO Teacher of the Year and Allman Town Primary’s Kandi-Lee Crooks, the Principal of the Year. For devoted teachers everywhere, the work continues. Stay tuned.
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