Barbados’ Holders Season gave its audience an extraordinary gift last evening: Rosey Chan, a young British woman who plays piano like a goddess. She’s called a classical pianist but she’s actually a performance artist whose rich fabric of classical music is woven in a tapestry of jazz...

On Sunday, the Anglican and Catholic churches of Barbados will be full of women dressed to the nines, men in suits, and children showing off their new shoes. It’s beautiful. I live next door to an Anglican church but witness Easter in Barbados as an outsider. Even as a child, raised with no religion,...

Wendy Kidd, soft-spoken doyenne and gracious hostess of Barbados’ Holders Season, scaled back her season of arts offerings beneath the stars this year. What’s not scaled back in the boutique arts festival are quality and the key to the magic of Holders: unexpected discoveries of amazing...

Barbados Jazz Festival at Farley Hill The Barbados Jazz Festival – the 17th annual – concluded yesterday at Farley Hill after three amazing days of terrific jazz in a beautiful Barbados setting overlooking the wild and free east coast. The thing about the Jazz Festival is that you can have a...

This is a story about Jill Walker’s beautiful artwork disappearing from and then reappearing in my life. A thief with good taste: One of two Jill Walker framed prints that were taken from my Barbados rental apartment. The Heist Renting out the pretty apartment Greg and I own to folks who travel to...

Yesterday morning 9 a.m., my husband Greg and I, cameras in hand (ahem, well, I had my camera; Greg came along for fun) met photographer Ronnie Carrington at Pelican Village for a day-long and most pleasurable photographic excursion through the lesser-known parts of Barbados.  Fifteen of us were on the van...

If I weren’t blessed to live in Barbados, I’d visit.  I’d visit in late March when I could attend the Holders arts season. This year’s season began March 14, 2009; it runs until April 4. Holders, known as “the West Indies’ premier performing arts event of the year,”...

An e-mail from photographer Keith Clarke arrived yesterday and I’m cheeky enough to use this as an excuse to post another of his beautiful photos of Barbados.  In return, he gets this plug.  Ah, I love the quid pro quo of the Internet world. Mr Clarke wrote to tell me where his gorgeous book,...

Thank you, Mr Marley Listen to Bob Marley’s “One Love” 2-09-shame-and-scandal Jamaican Bob Marley is the defacto ambassador of the Caribbean islands.  His image is ubiquitous on every island I’ve visited (t-shirts mostly, but other things as well), his music is played with joy and...

Many of the vendors on St Lawrence Gap have made street-selling their career.  Some have been selling their goods for a good decade or more.  I occasionally find an original and charmingly rough-hewn bauble I just can’t resist. Like Seth’s.  Seth is not only a street vendor. He’s also a...

2-09-shame-and-scandal2 Max Romeo sings “Shame & Scandal.”  If this doesn’t make you smile, then you need a holiday in...

My take-aways from Trinidad Carnival: First, the Trini people are as spirited a bunch as exist on this planet.  They’re also talented, friendly, and welcoming. Second, Carnival is primarily for the young – and not just because of the 24/7 adrenalin on tap.  More on this later. Trinidad...

Barbados' Drive-In Movie Theater "Australia" Hadn’t been to one since I was a kid in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado, where the drive-in movie theater was a place for teens to hang out.  The closest I’ve been to one since is my passionate reading of Joe Bob Briggs‘ drive-in...