By Chaos, Freelance WriterCARNIVAL IN Jamaica 2003 is a multimedia CD-Rom produced by the Kingston-based company Ricketts Productions as a celebration and commemoration of the recently-ended Carnival season here in the land of wood and water.
What immediately comes as a surprise is that the producers of the CD did not restrict themselves to one of either the two main organisers of Carnival in Jamaica this year, Byron Lee's Jamaica Carnival and Bacchanal Jamaica, groups which scrupulously kept their events apart. In fact, they often held parties head on within a mile of each other, as was the case with the J'ouvert fetes, or did not participate in the 'Road March', as was the case with Jamaica Carnival.
Carnival In Jamaica 2003 shows no such schism, at least when it comes to equal pictorial coverage.
The CD opens with an introductory segment, which is a little on the heavy side when it comes to kaleidoscope effects over soca music, is a tad long and commits the cardinal sin of not having a 'skip' option to bypass it. Why is this a sin? Put it this way, you might find it interesting the first time around, but it is not something you want to have to sit through every time you play the CD.
HORIZONTAL MENU
After the introduction, the user is presented with a horizontal menu, which offers the following options: Overview, Bacchanal Jamaica, Photo Gallery, Videos, Contact Us and Exit. The 'Overview', as can be expected, presents the rationale behind the CD's creation, a little about Carnival in Jamaica and about Ricketts Production. 'Contact Us' and 'Exit' are self-explanatory.
The 'Photo Gallery' presents quite a number of pictures from the Carnival events over the season and we had quite a bit of fun going through them looking for people we know. You would be surprised by how many we found. Taken at events such as 'Beach J'ouvert', which was held at the James Bond Beach in Oracabessa, St. Mary, 'Soca'cise' and the two 'J'ouvert' events among others, most of the pictures are quite good, some bordering on excellence. At first one might be tempted to think that there is a feeling of 'sameness' about the theme of the photographs, until you take into account that it is about Carnival and there is little more to that season that wine, 'wine', women and song.
They are fun to look at.
MADCAP
The videos go at little too fast a pace for yours truly, not allowing you to focus on any particular scene before running madcap to another. They are also easier to access by going to your media player and accessing them straight from the CD's 'Media' file folder.
The 'Bacchanal Jamaica' segment was a bit puzzling on two fronts. This was due firstly to the absence of a 'Jamaica Carnival' section, considering the non-bias evident throughout the rest of the CD. On the other hand, another look through the introduction shows the words 'in association with Bacchannal Jamaica 2003'.
Then, secondly, when browsing through the section, apart from an introduction of what Bacchanal Jamaica is there is a list of their events for the season, which is a bit like closing the stable doors after the horse as gone a dancing, got painted and got drunk.
On the technical side, to properly utilise the CD, you need to have the software 'Quicktime' installed on your home computer system, which conveniently comes pre-packaged on the CD and installs easily enough. One caveat, however - the liner notes on the CD's packaging suggests a system 350MHz or faster, which may be on the optimistic side. Put it this way, the faster your system is the better and I suggest at least 500MHz for decent performance.
A CD-Rom drive speed was not suggested, but anything under a 48X might not be advisable. I tried it on a 32X, it sounded like the system was having a heart attack and I could access nothing beyond the introduction. No videos, nothing. On a faster system everything was fine.
The packaging on the CD is merely average, a normal length of paper printed on one side and folded in two. The cover design is good looking enough and the information on the inside is kept to the basics - name, description, minimal technical requirements and the production company and how to contact it.
The CD is something of a first for Jamaica in terms of collating a multimedia memoir of a particular celebration in Jamaica, is proficiently put together and is entertaining.
Carnival In Jamaica 2003 retails for a $1,000 - a little more than I would be willing to pay, but then I'm not much of a socaphile. As a letter that came with the CD suggests, it would probably make a great gift for those who want a memento of the season or those Jamaicans who for some reason or another had to miss out.
For further information on how to acquire the CD, contact Ricketts Productions at (876) 927-5143 or by e-mail at rickets@kasnet.com.
