Sport: Chris Gayle's first love is still cricket....for now

It often seems that Chris Gayle is tone between actually playing cricket and being a celebrity who plays cricket.

His exploits on the cricket pitch are fast entering the realm of legend, much like that other famous Jamaican athlete, - you know, the guy who runs? But, along the way, just like his track star compatriot, Gayle has had his share of publicity flaps and flops. Arguably, none will live longer in infamy (or maybe now in hashtag-land) than "Don't blush baby" the casual cap to a seemingly awkward attempt to coax Australian TV journalist Mel McLaughlin to join him post-game for dinner and a few drinks, during an on-air interview.

The incident made international headlines beyond the cricketing world and cost Gayle a fairly hefty $10,000 in fines from his local Aussie t20 club, the Renegades.

he has since shrugged off the whole brouhaha (the latest in a line which included him reportedly dropping his towel in a dressing room before another female reporter and boasting about his "big bat").

The West Indies batting star is apparently comfortable to move into another sphere of public life: memoirist. His life tome had its Jamaican launch at the expected place - his Triple Century Sports bar and Grill in the heart of the New Kingston business district.

The title?: "Six Machine" (clearly with apologies to the late James Brown, and the declaratory sub-title, "I Don't Like Cricket...I Love It".

Clearly not as much as having a party - and the man of the hour was suitably outstanding in white wihte shirt with black trim, tomato-red trousers and black shoeswith matching red trim. try ignoring him.

of course media reps ran through the expected raft of interviews and some got their books signed (distributor Novelty Trading, which runs the venerable Bookland store a few doors up the road, was on hand to handle the supply and sales, and patrons hungry for the sports highlights of the day could feat their eyes on the lounges multiple screen - that is, after the big man got through with his presentation.

Gayle, who spenthte summer playing T20 in the UK, among other things, is apparently in recuperation mode at present, but expects to beck on the pitch to put his big bat (and useful spin) into play, what with a number of international cricket engagements on his ever-expanding plate.

Business: Joe's Holdings, Bogdanovich partners with Evan Williams to build Renfrew in New Kingston

Entertainment mogul Joe Bogdanovich may not speak much, but when he does, he certainly gets attention.

And so it was yesterday evening that the DownSound Records founder-CEO, who's recently added Usain Bolt's Tracks and Records and the Reggae Sumfest brand to his growing portfolio, pulled Government ministers, business interests and the merely curious to his latest foray,

poised to rise on one of the last undeveloped tracts of land in New Kingston   (it formerly housed the street art collective Trafalgar Artists), the Renfrew (see model photo) is being pitched as Kingston's first true Extended stay hotel.

Bogdnaovich and the equally reticent Evan Williams, design chief and project partner took guests, including Tourist Board Director Paul Pennicooke and commercial security trail blazer Kenny Benjamin, as well as Ministers Vaz, Shaw and Chuck through the nuts and bolts of the development.

Expected completion date of October 2017 puts the Renfrew right a the crest of the winter tourist season, although their clientele won't in the main be recreational.

Ching Pow: A [Cunning] Dancehall movie in "kickaz" guise

Ching Pow is a dancehall movie.

I find it important to start with that bit of overstatement,as there are some, well-intentioned and otherwise, who easily fall for the bait of writing it off based on the profanity and seeming crassness as well as the soft-core sex and other elements that contribute tot he producers' self-styled "NP" (No Pickney) rating.

Bruce Hart (right) with Twin of Twins

Those seeing the movie, which ended what is presumably a preliminary run Sunday night last at the "off-Palace" location of New Kingston's Theatre Place, will actually find a cunning mash-up of classic R-rated martial arts and contemporary dancehall expression, with thinly veiled (and sometimes not) social commentary that has a lot in common with the vintage National Gas magazine of the 1970s, just peppered with expletives - without which, I hasten to add, Ching Pow would STILL be funny.It is, in other words, a roundhouse kick to the gut of the falsely conservative.

Of vital importance to the full appreciation of what producer-director Bruce Hart and provocateurs Twin of Twins have wrought with Ching Pow, are the prologue and epilogue that bookend the main story.

And that main story centres around the kung fu staple of royal succession -this time with a Japanese as well as Chinese twist. The king is dead, the queen is presumed dead (though actually in exile), and their first-born son,(the character is actually given that name in the film, First Born) is working as a tout and pimp outsidea whorehouse, er that should be house of heavenly delights.

"First Born"

There is an honourable sensei, Master Bob (the Marley reference is, of course, obvious),  villain, Bad Muta (also obvious) an inscrutable blind prophet-teacher ad, naturally, a love interest, as well as the assorted expendables who provide fodder for the jokes and contribute to the body count.


Family, betrayal, megalomania and love - yes love in all its varied stripes are part and parcel of the narrative, but it is in the imposition of contemporary Jamaican dialogue, that Ching Pow really succeeds. Sound and visuals are so expertly melded, and the Twins - who provide the bulk (if not all) the voicings are so on-point with their expressions, that the film's conceit of disillusioned yardies transplanted to the Orient becomes not merely plausible, but readily acceptable. People all over this planet are ultimately motivated by and react to, the same things, regardless of the varied brushstrokes of culture and language: the guy wants to get the girl (and vice versa), the bad guy wants to run the world, and good somehow always conquers evil - even if "good" starts out as a egotistical, whoremongering "gyallis".

None of the above is even necessary to having a good time with this movie, provided your sensibilities are sufficiently fortified.  Ching Pow is just the kind of subversion that the country at large ought to be exposed to right now. It may not come to a cinema (God knows there are too few of those left anyhow) but here's hoping it comes near you....soon

"Blind Shottas" will have its big night

Still from "Blind Shottas"

Ok, so its not the Carib, or any of the other Palace cinemas, but the Jamaican comedy Blind Shottas will have its Jamaican premiere, at the recently established Stages Theatre in the heart of New Kingston.it will run throughout this weekend (Jun1-3) with a strong possibility of an extended run.

Director Diavallan Fearon

Director Diavallan Fearon is making good on a previous assurance that the posted that the film will have a Jamaican premiere run following the decision by Palace Amusement not to accept the film for screening at it's locations.

That decision led the director and cast members to picket the gates of the Carib  Cineplex, attracting local media attention, with the claim that the exhibitor is biased against the production because its stars and crew originate from the innercity.

given the nature of the controversy, the first run is likely to attract significant public attention, regardless of how the film itself (which copped the top prize at the Reggae Film Festival earlier this year) fares.