Sidelines
Pouring across the sidelines Followers of any colors “join the fray” Carnival is the battle for culture and acceptance We come here to rub our beautiful differences At the beat of the drums and the sounds of Soca Photo Hugh Ardoin The Notting Hill 2019 Carnival Gallery
What happens on the Carnival sidelines stays on the sidelines Under the close and personal guard of Her Majesty’s Constabulary Young girls go wild for a moment, but “Honni soit qui mal y pense” There is more than meets the eye as the times they have been a changin’ for awhile Woodstock is now vintage, […]
Commandeering a doorstep as a substitute for a Spanish galleon Two aspiring Pirates of the Caribbean quaff a few warm beers Under the sarcastic watch of a real African-Caribbean There is no desert island at the Carnival, no white beach with parasols Under the litter, the sidelines are made of cold tarmac and paving stones […]
The crowd is like the sea in its changing tides The sidelines of the show are like the shores Where jetsam and flotsam meet in their haphazard destiny Whales and whitebait become beached at some point in time Photo Hugh Ardoin The Notting Hill 2019 Carnival Gallery
Perched on the sidelines like a flock of hummingbirds Performers take a short rest before restarting the show Ruffling their feathers, polishing the rhinestones of their crowns Bodies oiled like sleek machines waiting for the action Photo Hugh Ardoin The Notting Hill 2018 Carnival Gallery
Music and joy are highly contagious in Notting Hill The sidelines catch the fever and become the centre of attraction Let the music play every one will find the beat and his own rhythm And all the colors spilled in the streets, they broke away like Humpty-Dumpty And all the Queens’ men and all the […]
Done away the horns, chains and molasses of the past masquerades Meet the cyberpunk cosplay S&M ladies in leather nails and latex outfits New trends take over the sidelines the iconoclastic icons of tomorrow The virtual reality and the violent video games foretell the next revolutions The voodoo tradition is temporarily eclipsed by the virtual […]
At the far end of the sidelines of masquerade under the awnings Spectators hide and seek their desires behind their personal masks A young couple share the different levels of their own emotions An older man stands stone-faced and unmoved like a sculpture Like many, he came here with a heart-load of memories Photo Hugh […]
Life is a spinning wheel of fortune on fire We sit on the sidelines and watch the spanish armada rocking itself We see Kublai Khan and his giant fleet defeated by a divine wind Watching in awe our own life playing like a movie before our very eyes Until the last film spool is spent […]
While the noise and the glee spread through the streets A young expectant black beauty waits on the sidelines A peaceful, almost remote expression in her vague gaze Something like a deep connection with her inner future The quiet Black Madonna standing still on the Hill Her eyes see us all, her lips say nothing […]