Photos by Akil Simmons

The post Gallery: Bermuda International Gombey Festival appeared first on RG Magazines.

It’s not overly original, the mains of this delicious holiday. We do the same candy eggs and chocolate bunnies as the rest of the world and our Easter evening or afternoon family set is chock full of the staples of a big family meal with ham, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. I mean, we do have the usual bbq chicken and paw paw casserole if your family likes to go old skool Bermudian but that’s pretty much a given for any weekend meal at most Bermudian houses. And the hot cross buns of course, whilst being made with someone’s grandma’s handed down recipe from the first shipwreck on the island,  they are still by no means unique to Bermuda.

However, where we shine as a country is our fishcakes. I mean, you might call it Good Friday but at my house, it’s simply known as the day that breakfast, lunch and dinner meld into one long fishcake pon bun eating festival sporadically interspersed with naps, kites , swizzle and the requisite ice cold 12 noon (on the dot!) Heineken. It’s uniquely Bermudian, not only the recipe and the accompaniments but the tradition in and of itself.

Now, the tradition may have food as its center but the true heart of it is in the collectiveness. It’s in the knowledge that that you are celebrating not only spring and rebirth of the year after what we Bermudians call a long winter (effectively anything colder than 70 for basically longer than two weeks) but also the Easter holiday itself, whether it has a religious or secular meaning for you.

It’s hearing the hummers for the first time this year and not thinking, seriously, do they have to make that noise all day AND all night, and actually smiling instead. It’s watching your cousin try to put his “prize” kite featuring a montage of Bob Marley pictures in tissue up in the air and inevitably watching it bean its way head first into someone’s tree. It’s standing in front of your son flicking his plastic Spiderman kite into the air and yelling at him to run to keep it up and being frustrated by watching him stand there as it falls repeatedly to the ground as apparently he forgot how to speak English or follow directions so you take it away from him, get it up to the end of the string and then tie it to the nearest tree because now you totally deserve another Swizzle…. Wait, just me? Uh huh, you’ve totally been there.

It’s heading to St David’s to watch the annual Go Kart race which coincides with the annual “have to park a mile away and walk in” tradition and immediately followed by the “watch the largest kite in Bermuda not get air… again…” tradition.

But more than that, it’s about inhaling copious well fishcakes made by my mom because I’ve yet to figure how to make them correctly and knowing that I’m one of many Bermudians doing the exact same thing at the same time and feeling the same feeling of family, love and history.

Or is that heartburn…

The post Nothing says Easter like fishcake friday appeared first on RG Magazines.

Art and culture

The St. George’s Foundation has a permanent exhibit of Bermuda landscape murals painted in the 1930’s by Emile Antoine Verpilleux for the Anderson family of Ford Motor Company.

These large paintings depict an era long ago and are not only of value as works of art, but are of historical and education interest.  These murals have been restored and are exhibited at The World Heritage Centre, St George. This exhibit will be ongoing until further notice. Opening hours will be from 10am until 4pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Admission is free, but donations are welcome. For more information, contact The World Heritage Centre on 297-5791.

Books

We’ve started a new review section on rgmags.com, with Robyn Bardgett our reader-in-chief.

So far she’s given The Music Shop, by Rachel Joyce, three out of five stars, and The Pictures, by Guy Bolton four out of five. Other titles worth a look include Munich, by Robert Harris, and The Last Black Unicorn, by Tiffany Haddish.

Read Robyn’s in-depth reviews here. All books are supplied by the Bermuda Bookstore.

Films

April isn’t always a great month for movie releases, but there are a couple due out that should be worth seeing. If not, you can always wait for May, when the latest Star Wars spin-off comes out.

Amy Schumer returns to the big screen as Renee Bennet in, I Feel Pretty (April 27). Schumer’s character is an ordinary woman who struggles with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy on a daily basis wakes from a fall believing she is suddenly the most beautiful and capable woman on the planet. With this newfound confidence she is empowered to live her life fearlessly and flawlessly, but what will happen when she realizes her appearance never changed?

For something a little more adult, Blockers (April 6) will give parents and their older children a laugh, although it will be awkward if you watch the film together. John Cena, of WWE fame, is one of a group of parents who discover their daughters have a pact to lose their virginity on prom night. Cue a one-night operation to stop the teens sealing the deal.

Things get better in May with the release of the latest Marvel installment as Avengers: Infinity War (May 4) hits the big screen, while the month ends with Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25). Surely that should have been the other way around?

[dzs_videogallery id=”playlist_wave_simple” db=”main”]

Bermuda Food Tours

A new way for visitors to explore the island’s culinary delights, Bermuda Food Tours is a new way for small groups to eat, drink and explore Hamilton.  Local tour guides will take you to some of the city’s most interesting attractions and eateries. www.bermudafoodtour.com

The post Spring hyperlinks appeared first on RG Magazines.

Bermudians love a good countdown. Right now in the spring, in the middle of the after-winter doldrums, we are more than likely counting down to summer, vacation (because you know the fever got you), kids out of school, kids back into school, Cup Match… Fast and Furious 8 (oh don’t act like you aren’t, I mean, JASON STATHAM! Nuff said.).

I’m personally counting down to my favourite holiday, Cadbury Crème Egg Day. Some people like to call it the day after Easter but hey, each to their own. That’s the wondrously Willy Wonka-like holiday where Crème Eggs are 50% off at the Phoenix. The day I can buy them in bulk and don’t have to feel bad about hiding them from the kids. I mean, I always hide them from the kids but after their Easter Egg hunt  I don’t have to feel bad about it. Makes a huge difference. It’s the last gorge before pretending that, I promise, tomorrow I really will start getting fit so I can rock my bikini body. In truth I will never truly start on the whole fitness thing, not formally. I have kids and I like wine. When am I supposed to find the time? I walk to and from Bull’s Head every day. What more do you want from me?!

The main countdown for most Bermudians at any time of the year is usually one of two holidays, a toss-up between Cup Match and Christmas. It’s very easy to understand why those two. They are both long holidays, with Cup Match leaning out as a guaranteed long weekend. They are both amazingly fun family and/or friend filled holidays. They both involve copious amounts of ‘so good you’ll slap your momma’ food and drink (Swizzle anyone?). And they both leave you amazingly broke by the end. I think the music selection is slightly better at Cup Match though. Wait, no, I’m lying. There is one Bermudian holiday that beats all others for our loyalty in celebrating it. That is, of course, a Bermudian’s birthday. Yup, we will work double shifts, we will even grudgingly work weekends, but ask a Bermudian to work on their birthday? “Oh, the looks they will look.” We don’t work birthdays, we celebrate birthdays. And if ya boy is celebrating his, you will gladly take the hit of a hangover at work to make sure he celebrates in style.

The post 5..4..3..2..1 appeared first on RG Magazines.

It’s funny how it happens in every normally warm place in the world. When you are used to a certain thing, when it changes, it can actually be quite confusing. Remember, a couple of years ago, when it snowed like an inch or two in Atlanta? The whole state practically closed up shop! In a way, it is understandable. That town was so not prepared for the extreme of snow.

Bermuda, however, Bermuda is a whole ‘nother story. We really should expect the weather change. We really should expect ants marching two by two into our houses with metaphorical pitchforks. We really should expect the freezing rain. I mean, it happens EVERY year. And we simply don’t. To be fair, we don’t expect the hot weather either. “How is it this hot?!? I swear it’s hotter this year than it was last year!” Yeah right. We just don’t like change. Even expected change.

With the weather, Bermudians usually go one of two ways. There’s the move into boots, down jackets and scarves the minute the temperature drops five degrees. And then there are the ‘I love cold weather’ nuts (can you guess which group I might be in?). I totally get the whole bundle thyself up and wait out the winter people. I sleep with a large flannel blanket in the middle of summer. During the winter? Oh, I sleep so ensconced in blankets that all you can see is the top of my head. I started wearing my onesie mid-October. Cold is so NOT my natural state of being. If I could figure out how to walk around with a personal space heater, yeah, that’ll work. It’s the skip merrily into the freeze with a maniacal grin on their faces people I don’t get. I get that we are a sub-tropical island but jeez, I kinda thought the ‘sub’ was a suggestion. We have palm trees. No place with palm trees should have cold weather. Why would anyone think that is a preferable state to the sun shining its heat over your skin? Cold weather fans start murmuring how happy they are that summer is over and I thought it was going to be hot forever (yes, please!). But I suppose if me and those like me get our favourite, so should they. I just wish it was a lot shorter. A week should do it…

With the ants, well, we never really win that battle, do we? They let us think we do but we don’t. When you least expect it, you come into your living room to find that a crumb your children dropped the night before being swarmed by like 800 million ants. I’m not sure how they manage to mobilize 800 million ants in the space of a couple of hours but it happens. I can’t mobilize two children in the morning without copious bribes and at least one spate of crying (obviously, that would be me). I’ve seen ants carry other ants like soldiers piggyback riding. I can’t get my son to carry one Matchbox car to the box he took it out of hours earlier. Now that I think about it, the ants probably deserve the house. They are better men than we ever will be…

The seasons change. The weather changes. The whole world changes from day to day. But Bermudians? The one thing that we can be assured of is the fact that what never really changes is our ability to go through life’s many changes with a skip in our step and a smile on our faces (if you could see my face under the scarf).

The post How are we surprised by the cold? appeared first on RG Magazines.

When talking to Alshante Foggo you begin wondering what might happen if she were to ever embrace the dark side of art. It is a difficult concept to come to terms with given her boundless energy, most, if not all of which, seems to be positive.

It is an energy that is immediately noticeable when we sit down and chat at her office in Hamilton one morning, after she has returned from an earlier meeting in St George’s.

The happy place from which she produces her work is there for all to see; it is in the murals that decorate the city and some of the island’s schools, it is in her paintings, and her clothing designs. In fact, we are unlikely to ever see the dark side from Ms Foggo because she denies it the oxygen that would allow it to become a living, breathing entity.

“My art is happy energy, good energy, peaceful, it’s bold. I try to incorporate stuff that looks happy and fun, and youthful in some way. I don’t want it to be dark and sad in a sense,” she says.

“I try to explore more the warmer side of arts and colours, rather than the darker, deeper sort of things.

Artists are driven by their emotions, sometimes I’m not in the [right] mood to be creative, and if I’m not in a good space I will get up and leave it [the piece] alone.

There is an almost child-like naivety in an approach where stopping is preferable to exploring something difficult inside us; the darker elements of art that speak to a harsh place we would often prefer to ignore.

Which is not to say that Ms Foggo does not challenge herself as an artist, she does, but not necessarily emotionally. She pushes boundaries when it comes to using different mediums, which is how she ended up doing body painting.

Body art is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Ms Foggo, who is more famous for decorating the clothes and shoes that people wear than using skin as her canvas.

Still, she has been dabbling more and more with the medium since being asked to get involved in a project for the City of Hamilton and the Bermuda Fashion Festival a couple of years ago. Since then she has explored the medium more and more, usually helping people with costumes around Bermuda Heroes Weekend, or with one of the several glow parties that take place on the island.

“I don’t think it [body painting] changes [my approach],” she says. “The model has to keep still of course. The first time it was a matter of seeing how it came out, how it lasted, trial and error – using some of the paints I use for walls or shoes, and seeing how it can work on the body.

“What I usually use is acrylic paint, so it’s very vivid and it comes out nice and bright on the body but then the duration of it, it cracks if it’s on too long, so you have to figure out what to use.”

Much like her personality, Ms Foggo’s approach to art is largely carefree, and by her own admission her best work comes “when I am not given structure, I personally feel it works out better when I [go with the] flow”.

She hopes that soon she will be able to show the island that carefree approach in her first solo exhibition which is coming “before the year is out”.

“I want the whole island to attend,” she says. “It is going to be my heart and soul put into this project. I have been developing this for a few years. I am just trying to take my time with it, so that I love it and I am completely satisfied with what I put out.

“It’s going to be a story. I like to paint faces and things like that, so I think it’s going to be a story of things I have explored.”

The post In Profile: Alshante Foggo appeared first on RG Magazines.

It happens every year. Summer approaches and as the temperatures rise so does the realization that summer clothes are also approaching. You might think I’m referring to the commonly known and feared bikini season. Hah. You apparently must not have thighs.  No, I’m talking about short sleeves, shorts, even capris (if you obsess about your calves like I do), the list goes on.  For us of the larger than a stick persuasion, bikinis so aren’t the first stress point, more like just the most. In fact, by the time we reach the level of bikini, my stress is nuclear.

This year, however, I determined that I would break the cycle of hope, delusions and that eventual moment when I realise I actually am that lazy. That and that it’s all good since hubby loves me just the way I am. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean that sentiment to encourage me to slack on getting fit, but whatev, he really should have been clearer. He says passive encouragement, I say implicit approval of my hard-earned sedentary lifestyle; you say tomato *music notes*… But I digress.

Knowing myself, I figured that just the want to be fit wouldn’t work so I decided instead to throw myself all butt cheeks in and sign up for Bermuda Heroes Weekend/Carnival. Yeah, I totally don’t do anything by halves. Not even, by quarters to be fair. I’m pretty much going for abject failure or DE ABS O’STEEL! No, I don’t have unrealistic expectations, why’d you ask?

Now, you might be wondering how I came up with the obviously fantabulous idea of using the possible end result of abject embarrassment to force myself to break out of my very rarely-ending cycle of keenness and then giving up for another year? Because I’m a masochist, of course!

So here I am with my ”jiggle even when the song ends” syndrome and less than two months. ..

I’m a huge fan of yoga but since I never really get past the deep breathing and neck rolls before I succumb to a well-earned nap or am rudely interrupted by the little monkey who figures that if my lap is near enough to be sat on, it must therefore be sat upon, I’m not sure that will help.

Then there’s barre, which I love. For about a minute until I remember I hate barre. Whereas apparently, it’s the idea of ballet I like more than the actual doing of it. (Totally explains me dropping out at 5 1/2 and then blaming my parents for the next ten years every time I fancied myself a dancer…)

I do like to lift weights but as I have children and a job and my couch really hates to be neglected, joining the gym kinda isn’t in my wheelhouse. Yes, I know I could buy free weights and lift at home but…la la la, I’m not listening to you…

Where was I? AH yes, so what is my plan, you ask? Well, joining my company’s fitness challenge of course. Because having the whole of Bermy see my failure to eradicate probably even a lone fat cell isn’t bad enough, let’s let my whole company witness my inability to, well, fitness.

And then I remembered why I even had the thought of the BHW idea in the first place. I have friends who I adore do it last year. They are more fit than me (obvs this isn’t hard) but they aren’t supermodels. Courageous as they come but not models. And then I also remember seeing the videos from last year and seeing the many shapes and sizes and costumes and I remember not thinking about any of that because I saw the joy and fun in each person’s eyes. I saw the dancing and the camaraderie and I didn’t think, hey, I want to be fit to do this… I thought I want to do this so I can have THAT. Carnival is less about the bodies and much more about the spirit.

And hey, if I do just happen to lose a pound or two getting all fit, well, let’s just consider that a bonus…

The post Are you ready for summer? appeared first on RG Magazines.