Feeling the 'Pulse'

Chester Francis-Jackson, Gleaner Writer

In the hallowed halls of the all-important social pecking order, one's standing is measured in many different ways! One of the all-important yardsticks used is who makes what list, especially over the Christmas and New Year's holidays!

While the young and socially ignorant will queue to attend paying functions and later boast about how much of a good time they had (based on how much alcohol they consumed), for the socially aware, a good time is not measured by that, but starts at the very moment an invitation is received. Indeed, while it is not unheard of for the socially well-heeled to actually pay to attend a social event, this is done only when the event itself is one that is in support of a noble cause.

But the very notion of having to pay to enjoy oneself over the Christmas-New Year's period is not only anathema to the well-heeled, it is considered an affront to those in good standing and a total insult to their status!

A season clincher

Pay-for-access parties, if one can really call them that, rob these events of any semblance of exclusivity, as they allow for all and sundry who can afford it to gain access, and sometimes, this carries with it the uncouth party louts and brawlers; people to be avoided at all costs, but especially over the Yuletide holidays!

One party that has been and remains a societal staple for at least three decades, is the annual Kingsley Cooper-Pulse Christmas Eve celebration. Since its inception, when it first started out at the then Mount Joy, Old Stony Hill residence of Cooper, the founder and chairman of the Caribbean's largest and most successful talent and modelling agency to date, it has been a season clincher attended by the fashionable, the chic, hot personalities and of course, the up-and-coming, plus the movers and shakers.

The annual shindig, which was later moved to the fabulously exotic Villa Ronai and was hosted one year at the happening Studio 38, at the Pulse Complex, has been one of the most-anticipated events, the invitations treated by some like an all-important US visa. And returning to Villa Ronai this year only ratcheted up expectations and interest in the event. For those who missed it, they missed a social gem.

The portals to Villa Ronai were opened at 10 p.m., and guests began trickling in, but by 11, what was a trickle became a deluge, as fab society, the mavens, czars and czarinas of hot society and pop culture descended on the buzzing venue in fabulous numbers, sporting nothing but the latest and best in couture and or avant garde styling! Cooper and companion Romae Gordon proved the hosts with the most, and then some, as guests entered dancing and left doing so, as musicologist DJ Squeeze was the master at the musical controls and he channelled nothing but fabulous music, taking guests on a musical journey that satisfied the yen of all ages. Dears, it was way into Christmas morning before it was all over; but doves, what simply pulsating mode in which to celebrate!

Guests

Among those spotted were: Junior Minister Dr Laurie Broderick and his fabulous fiancée the smashing Sandy Gregory; Opposition MP and attorney Phillip Paulwell; Appeal Court Judge Hillary Phillips, QC; the esteemed physician Dr Michael Banbury and his companion Michelle Ching; style imprimatur Professor Dr Carolyn Cooper; esteemed banker, the fabulous Minna Israel and son Kris Anthony Turner; former cricketer and commentator Maurice Foster; film producer and media mogul Lennie Little-White; the fabulous Barbara Clarke; legal luminary Gordon Brown, in from Montego Bay; celebrated entrepreneur Ribbie Chung; the fabulous attorney, Kathryn Phipps; Lloyd Tomlinson; the engagingly fab Marilyn Bennett; Harry and Ann-Marie Smith; Alex Dropinski and his wife, the fab Dr Saphire Longmore-Dropinski; visiting noted trauma surgeon from Hagerstown, Maryland, Dr Mark Kross and his wife the fabulous Donna Marchese-Kross and their sons Sean and Max Kross; Mickey Hill; Oliver and Dale Holmes; the affable Ever Wilson, of La Roose fame; siblings Carol and Marcia Reid, the latter's daughter, the fab Safia Cooper, also out; Oliver Magnus; the fabulous Vivienne Lue-Tenn; Marshall Peterkin; the charming Dollis Campbell; John O'Donohue; the fab Debbie Morgan; Pat and Suzette Tomlinson; Al Johnson; Pat Daley-Smith and the happening Millicent Lynch.

Also out were former Olympic champion Donovan Bailey; radio personality Tomlin Ellis; TV star Anthony Miller and Alison Stuart; CVM's Winford Williams; comedian and actor Glen Campbell; Pulse supermodel Nell Robinson, and her brother, Jason Robinson; supermodel the oh-so-leggy Sedene Blake; model, actress and singer Nicole 'Sky' Grey; singer Andru Donalds; singer/songwriter David Minott and the fabulous Natalie Bravo; Dennis Lee and the lovely Ingrid Hamilton; model Miguel Bernard and his companion the lovely Nickesha Channer; the lovely Tracey Moses; attorney Seyon Hanson and his companion the fab Georgia Lumsden; Charl Baker; Robert Haughton; the lovely Marsha Maxwell; Lloyd Thomas; the lovely Tracey-Ann Menzies; the lovely Dawn McLean; Tracey Hamilton; Ai Arisawa; Red Stripe's Jomo Cato; Subadhra Bowman; Paula Pinnock-MacLeod of Digicel; and Pulse's 2010 CMS Male Face Seth Verly.

And dears, it was nippy in the hills, but nary a soul noticed due to the fab music!!