Come the end of summer, I’m hamburgered out. But after politely dodging five barbecue invitations (sorry, guys!), I realized the inevitability of smoked meat and end-of-summer beats on Labor Day. So I traded boring ol’ franks for spicy jerk chicken, cold brews for 60-ounce pina coladas, and that awful Kid Rock cover of Sweet Home Alabama (ick) for pulsing steel drums and dancehall. Yep, that’s right—I spent my holiday in Brooklyn, in the chaotic fray of the biggest Labor Day BBQ of all: The West Indian American Carnival Parade. Clearly, even my shortest jean skirt and blood-red tube top didn’t stand out in this crowd. The ornate costumes only got more flamboyant as the day went on, their wearers shakin’ their tailfeathers in ways that my genetics would not allow me to imitate. Some costumes were so enormous, they overflowed from bodies onto wheels, resulting in colorful, larger-than-life explosions of glitter and feathers. And more feathers.. The island nations represented are physically small—the most vocal participants included Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and (strangely?) Panama—but their presence overwhelmed Eastern Parkway for miles. Hundreds of dancers rolled by on rented and tricked-out double-decker buses, and on enormous floats, pulled by semi’s and loaded with enough audio firepower to blow out every eardrum in Brooklyn. Each float was themed—often by country. Though I may have been biased by my (Haitian-American) companion, the Haitian float bumped the hardest. Loaded with a major dance-club’s speaker supply (a 15-foot wall of loud stacked the back of the float), it pounded passers-by with lilting Caribbean tunes pulsated by heavy beats, and elicited feverish flag-waving and dancing in the streets.  The aural assault started early in the weekend—on Saturday evening—at the Steel Drum Panorama. Nine of the Caribbean’s best steel drum bands came together to compete, pelting it out to produce the rowdiest dance tune with the smoothest beats. Unlike other drum-offs, steel drum competitions are neither too loud or throbbing—they make smooth, sing-song sounds that carry both the beat and the tune. Translation: great for dancing, even if your rhythm extends no further than a two-step. Adlib Steel Orchestra emerged victorious from their intoxicating cover of popular steel drum ditty Heat, earning only one point over second-place Brooklyn natives, Casym.    Alas, even the music couldn’t compare to the turrets of smoke that curled the sweet and spicy aromas of jerk chicken and plantains into my face—the only clouds in the clear blue Brooklyn sky. What a day for a Labor Day Barbeque!   PS: Missed the carnival? Check back tomorrow for some ways to enjoy Caribbean beats and eats right here in the Best-Chester