Author Archive

Steve Bennett

PR guy by trade, West Indian by birth, Steve has been helping journalists tell stories about the Caribbean for nearly 20 years. As Uncommon Caribbean's editorial director, he finally gets a chance to spin a few yarns of his own. Steve's passport bears stamps from 29 Caribbean islands (and counting), many of which he's visited while leading media tours as the head of his PR firm, SBPR Corp. Steve resides in Fort Lauderdale, FL, though his heart remains in his home island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

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Steve

Music We Love: The Police – Ghost in the Machine

ghost

Remember when The Police were the biggest rock band in the world? I’m talking way before Sting started developing jazz scores around his blue turtle dreams, and probably well before he ever heard of tantric sex, much less became the face (albeit a farcical one) for it.
In the late-70′s and early-80′s, the 3-man British trio – Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar, vocals) and Stewart Copeland (drums, vocals, percussion) – topped the charts with a unique brand of rock combining punk, jazz and reggae influences.
I, like just about everyone else, was hooked. In particular, I was hooked on the group’s 1981 release, Ghost in the Machine.

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Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: Genips Add Flavor to Summer Vacation

genips

Of all the yummy things that grow on all the trees in the Caribbean, I’m not sure there’s anything that reflects the region’s broad diversity more than the sweet-’n’sour fruit treats pictured above. Growing up in St. Croix, I knew them as genips, though I could never understand why my Trini parents kept calling them chenets. Turns out these things go by nearly 20 different names depending on where you’re enjoying ‘em. Here’s the rundown according to Wikipedia:

*St. Lucia, Barbados - ackee (very different from the Jamaican version)
*Trinidad & Tobago – chenet
*Jamaica, St. Kitts - guaya, gnep, guinep, skinnip
*Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Belize, Bahamas, U.S.

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Steve

Wish You Were Here

delaphotography via flickr

Catching some rays at Baie Longue, St Martin.

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Steve

Saturday Video: Wishing we were at the 2010 BVI Music Festival

BVI

As our faithful readers already know, Uncommon Caribbean loves a great concert, so it’s little surprise that on this Saturday we’d rather be in Tortola for the annual BVI Music Festival. The 3-day party’s ideal location in Cane Garden Bay offers music lovers the option of groovin’ on the sand, in the water, or out on their boats, all the while enjoying fabulous local food and friendly faces. Headliners this year include Nina Sky, Fantasia and CoCo Tea, so you know this jam will be hot. The video above of Tanya Stephens performing her hit “It’s a Pity” at last year’s Festival provides a glimpse of what we’re missing…

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Steve

Friday Happy Hour: Raise a Glass to Jamaica

Bob Marley shot/SBPR

Anyone with any ties to Jamaica can surely use a drink right about now. Certainly things are not “irie” in Western Kingston where Jamaica’s military and police have been engaged in a highly-publicized struggle this week against thugs bent on preventing the extradition of alleged crime boss Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the U.S. As many of our Jamaican friends have noted, though, this type of corrective action has been a long time coming, and will no doubt result in a better Jamaica.
In the meantime, it’s business as usual in Jamaica’s resort areas – Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Negril, and Port Antonio.

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Steve

Guess Where Giveaway Winner: Congrats Kayte Cook Watts!

It’s all about you, Kayte Cook Watts! You’re the big winner of our latest Guess Where Giveaway!
Kayte, like just about everyone else who submitted a guess (we like to keep things simple), correctly identified our mystery attraction/location as part of the famed Underwater Sculpture Park in Moilinere Bay off the coast of Grenada.
The first such undersea artistic installation of its kind, the park features 65 sculptures by Jason de Caires Taylor spread over an area of 800 sq meters. All the sculptures are based in clear, shallow waters, providing easy access for snorkelers and divers alike. Moilinere Bay is about 2 miles north of Grenada’s capital city, St Georges.

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Steve

Uncommon Beauty: Wedded Bliss, Island Style

wedded-bliss

Tying the knot the traditional way – staid ceremony at your local place of worship followed by stale reception complete with cheesy wedding singer and regrettable speeches – is beyond blasé. Today’s brides and grooms want exotic. They want unique. They want a destination wedding in the Caribbean.
Lots of full-service and all-inclusive resorts offer destination wedding packages. Some, like the Free Caribbean Wedding program offered by Holiday Inn Resorts Caribbean, include just about everything, even the cake, at little or no cost above what you’d pay for a normal resort stay. Best of all, the resorts take care of all the paperwork and legal issues, making this the easiest, most stress-free option.

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