Finally I`ve been published. After all these years I´m appreciated! Link to article…. http://www.festivalpreviews.com/blog/626/beyonce-at-the-2008-bermuda-music-festival-by-tim-minter/
OK going to do the next two posts as big ones. End of Bermuda and all of Cuba! (and no pics 
Got only a few mins before off to Ecuador after 18 hours of flights yesterday!
Hoobies
The standout thing about the Bermuda leg of our trip was the fact we found ourselves very much integrated into the whole local Bermuda thing pretty much as soon as we got there. With only 65,000 people, (a quarter of the population of Brighton which seems small enough) we were really bumping into people in the street we knew by the end of it. Some people we met couldn’t go more than a few streets without a wave or a hello.
Outside of Hamilton, the main town, the first few times a stranger said “hello”, I must have sounded like an idiot in response, muttering flustered gobbledygook! Everyone from the man digging up the street outside our little cottage to the old lady off to the shops would give a passing “how are you?”, to which I’d invariably return a startled something sounding like a cross between a grunt and a splutter. And if you ever go to the tiny (oh so English country village) post office at Bailey’s Bay you wont leave without knowing everything there is to know and telling everything there is to tell.
Hoobies was the point of this post! Hoobies is a Jazz Club, I doubt any tourist would ever get near which is all the shame.
The man in red is 85 and a bit of a ladies man, working his way though most of the ladies at our table!
Beaches
The image of Bermuda I think of is very much idyllic beaches and luxury pampering, and why not! Public transport is really good in Bermuda, there’s one transport company that runs all the (salmon pink) busses and all the ferries. As is the official Bermuda way.. everything is clear and organized (if only on the scale of a small village, but what’s wrong with that?)
In a single day we bussed up the northern coast taking in most of the bigger beaches, Horseshoe Bay, Elbow Bay and ….
St Georges
At the very east of the island is St Georges. A world heritage site and general lovely place. Like most of Bermuda, if it weren’t for the sun and heat it could easily be a little Cornish village in the UK. From the red telephone boxes, post boxes and road signs to the stone walls and brick houses. Here are some pics
Two things very strange things here; an internet café where I’m sure the bloke greeted me with a “Hello Tim” and said “goodbye Tim” too. And the other was finding Kath’s severed head on the floor at an old unused café…
It might not look like Kath immediately but if you ever get the chance you’ll see why I was concerned if you check out her old PADI ID card from her braided hippie days! That wouldn’t be the last time I’d experience some potential time line disturbance on this trip!
Dockyard
We got the ferry, which was great, up here to the north west point of the island. The old British fort here is worth a visit. We wanted to see the exhibit on slavery there and I wanted to see the big guns . Slavery is a huge part of Bermuda’s past and present really.
This was our last day and we were running out of time but there’s loads of stuff to see from Military stuff to coins and art and free Bermuda cake.
When we got here to the island, Bermuda seemed possibly like the ultimate integrated culture and colour seemed to play no part whatsoever in the jobs or positions people had. I really think that is case here more than most places in the world but, as we learned there are still problems.
One of the many little perks of the theatre stuff we got involved with were invites to a couple of gallery openings. One was a display of local and UK artists, sculptors and pottery people
The other was the opening of a gallery of Bill Brandt’s work. He was a pioneering photographer of people and things the 1930’s to 1960’s. Stunning photos in black and white including some of the coast just along from Brighton; a series called “Nude, East Sussex” and a famous pic in this series is one of an ear on the beach.
From this point on you might notice me taking some back and white pics! You could say I was inspired, particularly in the bar later.
[pic in bar]
People, in places, doing their things, was his specialty. It sparked a heated discussion on when\if it was OK to take pictures of people without them knowing or agreeing.
We were surrounded by a cacophony of sounds as soon as we got off the plane in Bermuda and like so many other places it’s the tree frogs causing all the commotion.
I kind of like to think of myself as knowing a bit about wildlife and being quite observant, in the wilderness anyway! (not being able to find anything and everything is standard practice at home and work of course) I felt quietly confident in tracking one of the little critters down. A life long Bermudian, who’s cottage we were staying in, and Cleo (semi professional Bermuda visitor) who we were staying with in the cottage had seen 8 and 0 respectively so I didn’t put too much hope in it though.
For whatever reason though, these little critters, this time were almost flinging themselves at us in the end. We even had one visit us in the cottage and we felt suitably honoured.
This is just a big toad I found in a tree stump.
The best drink encountered so far has to be Bermuda’s Dark and Stormy. You can get it in cans everywhere and all it is is Bermudan ginger beer and Black Seal rum. Easy Peasy. I’d recommend everyone goes and makes one right now in fact.
Smuggled in under overcoats, a version off this that might have been quite a bit more heavy on the rum than traditionalists would appreciate saw us through the Beyonce gig rather well! Shown here in the now legendary “Evian” bottle.
I’ll keep this short as, due to our group excitement at winning tickets the day before the gig by submitting a You Tube video to Evian mineral water I’ve already written a couple of posts.
The history is this:
• Plan world trip
• Find out Kath’s friend Cleo will be in Bermuda at the time
• Cleo finds out Beyonce is playing Bermuda Music Festival and really wants to go
• Change dates of whole trip to coincide
• Try and get tickets – find only all inclusive hotel\hospitality tickets are available at over US$1000 each
• Scrap that plan
• Come to Bermuda, and Cleo attempts to use contacts to get tickets
• Two days before gig, while drunk, hear about local Bermuda Evian competition where all you have to do is submit a video by mid day the next day to You Tube featuring Beyonce and an Evian product. Think we have a real chance due to small population
• On way home devise video but realise we have no Evian products
• Cunningly create Evian product using competitors water bottle and marker pen
• Create video after run through on first take (can you tell?)
• Desperately try and find an internet café in Bermuda the next day (not easy!!)
• Upload video and win!
Showing that someone is actually reading this blog too I was asked to write a review for festivalpreviews.com. That was quite a while ago so not sure if they want it anymore but we’ll see! Someone also wanted to see some pics so I’ve uploaded some here (click pic below).
Utilizing our new found Jedi mind tricks one night we went for the ultimate…. Moonlight hot tubs in the fanciest hotel on the island.
It happened to be the night before the Bermuda Music Festival too and Beyonce was staying there so security was tighter. We didn’t bump into her, but, past gate security, reception, through a maze of corridors, out into the garden while getting rather lost and back in past the pool reception to get our free towels we made it! I’m sure no one cared but we felt some satisfaction, sitting there bubbling away in the moonlight for free. This time those bubbles weren’t coming from Kath either! And what a swimming pool too, all very nice.
Well not quite! Getting something for nothing was a bit of a theme in Bermuda for us for two reasons, sometimes it was loads of fun and second it aint cheep there!
Crystal Caves are one of Bermuda’s most famous attractions aside from the amazing beaches and general luxury. There are other caves though and these alternative caves are just a bit away in the grounds of a hotel and are open to guests. As Cleo so rightly implied, the difference between a guest and someone who is not a guest is merely a state of mind. With our Jedi minds tuned we infiltrated the hotel and entered the caves. Far too cold and un-chlorinated for most hotel guests we pretty much had them to ourselves. Freezing like a new years day dip off Brighton beach but crystal clear!
While here in Bermuda we offered to help out making the set for the stage production of the Full Monty (Cleo’s day job). An hour or so would have done I’m sure but we got a bit carried away. I can’t claim ANY artistic input at all but there is some damn fine undercoat on some of those bricks and walls and can you tell how much love was put into jigsawing some of those bricks out? Maybe if you look very carefully?
After some pretty hectic days it was great to come back in the evening and watch the rehearsals in some lovely air-conditioning. We even got credits in the program, but they printed my name as “Tim Mintes”, hmmm!
We would be leaving before the opening night but got to see one of the final run throughs. We met so many lovely people in front and behind and around the stage thanks in no small part to Cleo. Great stuff.
Nudity is a deportable offence in Bermuda and, at the time of leaving, the decision on whether to go “full monty” or use rather fetching flesh coloured jock straps hadn’t been taken. The police wouldn’t commit one way or the other.
That’s what we were told anyway. Look at this cuddly thing!
That’s our lovely little Bermuda cottage in the background.
