... the route of Earl ... hurricane watch ...

... the sound of the surf is louder than usual tonight ... it's been a calm-sea kind of year so far ... great for swimming ...

... when you live on an island you become attuned to the sea ... even if swimming is not actually your thing ... and the wind too, everyone develops a sixth-sense about the Atlantic storms and hurricanes that pick their way through here each year ... tracking one hundred and sixty years of storms on one map paints a wooly palimpsest over the whole region ... from Barbados to Biloxi and Panama to P.E.I. ... right now I'm located somewhere in the lower middle of that cartographic Don King do ...

















... the 2010 hurricane season is upon us now, but my instinctive sense of caution and writer's objectivity are compromised by the fact that I have not ... ever ... yet ... experienced true hurricane conditions ... there've been a few near misses, even some threatening last-hurrahs that made it as far as Metro Toronto, but I still cannot check that box on a bucket list ... I'm a virgin! ... that wasn't easy to say but there, I said it ...

... I'm told of 1995 in Antigua and Barbuda ... a serious year for storms, including the week-apart, one-two punch of Louis and Marilyn ... this season is getting rolling slightly slower than '95 but I see similarities in the patterns and trajectories already ... tropical storm Earl is heading this way following behind hurricane Danielle, now eyeing-up my friends in Bermuda ... the severe weather experts think Earl needs close watching but I'm thinkin' ... "hey weatherdude, what's with the initials?" ...















... if Earl were to become my hurricane tale ... would I come to reference it in the future like ol' time people name-check hurricanes from their past? ... the long remembered Charlie from 1951 ... Hattie which sacked Belize(then British Honduras) in '61 ... Gilbert, 1988 - immortalized in Jamaican song like Hattie before it ... Ivan, 2004 - that mash up Jamaica and all but sank The Cayman Islands ... the answer to that is, yeah probably ...

... having spent most of the day putting up hurricane shutters I suspect that would be one of my primary reminiscenses ... it's not a small job I assure you and there's a quixotic element to the task ... humility in the presence of indomitable nature ... brings to mind the weighty quote "when you think it's peace and safety, it's a sudden destruction" (Marley-"Rat Race"/Thessalonians 5:3) ...




















... collective wisdom cautions me against wishing on a storm ... violent weather can bring misery and inconvenience too, but until I've felt that barometric pressure yo-yo like a mo-fo, seen a coconut tree bend double and witnessed a few random objects or stray animals becoming projectiles, I may feel I haven't lived ...

... in these islands it can feel like dodging bullets on a frontline as cyclones sling off the broad Atlantic divide 'twixt old world and new ... those around me can rest easy though ... my other theory is that I repel these things with nascent serendipity ...

... watch, as Mr. T.S. Earl corrects course and veers away the second he sees me and those formidable shutters I put up ... hah!

... cornbread philosophy ...

... "life is like a batch of muffins" ... so Reverend Gump said ...

... or do I hear a Martha Stewart periphrase? ...

... "when the going gets rough the tough bake bread" ...

... either way ...

... course grind balances fine blend ... a little salt to our sweet ...

... let's stir it up ... dry parts prime to come wet ...

... light-beaten egg ... finger-greased pan ... high oven heat ...

... and ...

... if you've ever seen sunshine emerge from a stove ...

... or smelled wafting readiness from a cook's kitchen ...

... you've "been to the mountaintop" ... gazed out and beheld ...

... my golden cornbread ...

... just add butter...

... mystic revelation ...

... if you're a parent ... even if you're not ... it can be challenging to explain the concept of God to an eight year-old in a manner which will satisfy both the explainer and the explainee ...

... I find a good tool is an old-fashioned mother-nature watch ... the type science helps us to understand while often sidestepping the element of supernatural wonder that is empirically infinite and ultimately beyond the rational ken of a human brain ...

... sometimes ... like yesterday ... the heavens intervene with a practical lesson the like of which seems tailor-made for the purpose of amazing minds ... young and old ... the sort of thing for which the only answer is God ...

... the small storm cloud passed ... with its electricity and spilling greyness giving way to bleach-white puffiness and freshly showered clear blue sky ... the afternoon sun, low-set and partially obscured, provided the active ingredient for a prismatic display far more unusual than a comparatively mundane rainbow ... it looked like photoshop run amok in the sky ...

... I was transfixed ... bobbing in the same sea where it had just drizzled warm droplets ... muttering in dismay at not having my trusty Canon while at the same time trying to instill a sense of Creation in a young mind ...

... irony hit me square in the head after nearly ten minutes when the little voice ... God bless her soul ... announced excitedly that which had not occurred to me ... my mobile was ashore ... there was no time for sheepishness ... young ones do get some things quicker ... I swam back to the beach to capture what remained of the now fading phenomenon with my iPhone ...

















... gingerly holding the iPhone with dripping wet hands I hurriedly snapped away as the multi-colored spectrum retreated from the spectacular, to the merely beautiful ...

... when I look at the pictures I can see the whole scene as it was, in my mind's eye ... it includes the Rastaman bathing there too with his family of four ... when it came time to leave we did so all at once, wide-eyed and chattering of the remarkable vision ...

... "we got a blessing today," said I ...

... "yeh man," came the reply with a knowing flash of dreadlocks ...

... "mystic!"

... "somebody pass me the bullbud!" ...

... in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue ... so goes the enduring children's ditty ... and the rest is history, as they say, when it comes to the expansionary re-population of western lands known as The Americas and the Caribbean ...

... centuries of European-driven enterprise, enslaved African labour, indentured Asians and the inevitably cross-fertilizing populations of their descendants with more recent arrivals have evolved into societies that reflect blended identities jubilantly ... perhaps moreso than many an older culture ...

... this is a particularly identifiable feature of societies with numerically strong African bloodlines ...














... intra-regional variations abound of course, usually boasting contagious music designed primarily for partying and collective street celebrations ... from Rio de Janeiro to Toronto via The Caribbean and New Orleans, adapted African rhythms and body movement characterise carnivals, Mardi Gras style ...

... I got a taste of the recent Antigua Carnival festivities which were dominated by The Burning Flames ... part of the musical nucleus that supported Montserrat calypsonian Arrow on his huge "Hot Hot Hot" hit from 1983 ... this year's boom tune is the catchy "Bullbud" ... a coinage for a stiff homemade whipping implement fashioned from a dried donkey dong (no photo) ...














... people form themselves into tribe-like troupes for the week of ca na val ... they function like mini-economies crossed with all-inclusive clubs ... for a set participation tithe you get to wave your flag in community for the week-long party ... all day and all night, without worrying where your next drink is coming from ... sleep is the only casualty ...














... jump-up provides an annual opportunity to shuffle-bounce down high street as bare as you dare ... a stage on which a bureaucracy-bound civil servant or a by-rote clerk can release her inner virago ... where a post-partum silhouette cramps no style and reminds you that real-life ratios do not favour the svelte ... as pleasing to observe as the latter may be ...















... women of every description plot all year to assemble elaborate ensembles ... men too seize the opportunity to experience the glam thrill of face paint, glitter, lipgloss and leopard prints ...

... comfortable footwear, that will last the week but you are prepared to ruin, and bloodshot eyes complete the uniform ...














... some seize on the parade for an entirely different type of opportunity ... gettin' on bad ... this paradox of public anonimity provides a controlled outlet for the full range of our human expression ... including the eroto-sexuality which exists in all of us but still can shock and acquire taboo through denial in purportedly polite societies ...

... it's a family show for the people ... bring da kids, they're people too ... and sure as the sun shines, one day when they grow up they'll wanna let off some similar steam themselves ...














... call it Afro-Caribbean vaudeville if you like, musical street theatre ... or you could just regard it as island flava ... the essense of which is a hereditary override of an overseer's set of rules and mores ... a mindset of liberation ... in this case commemorating the original August 1st 1834 Emancipation Day in Antigua ...

... wha' you lookin' at? ... you don't like the holes in my hosiery? ... kiss mi backside! ... den come dance nuh ...













... the first week in August also sees Jamaicans celebrate the 1962 Independence from Britain with official fanfare ... in fact, all over the post-colonial world freedom triggers conscious revelry and unconscious sense-memory ... this is impetus for nation-building and fortification of cultural identity ...

... last lap, the summary parade on the final day makes for myriad photo-ops and embroiders the social fabric too ...














... of course these ain't the old days and somebody's gotta pay for all this ... corporate sponsors, like telecom player Digicel, prominent local and regional businesses from haberdasheries to motor dealerships find, in participation, a way to light up brand recognition and par-tay at the same time ...

... I suspect those that prosper most are the ones that quench the thirst and fuel the fun with spirits (rum) and beverage (beer) ...














... it would make sense that there's a certain amount of costume material re-cycling from year to year ... and ... I would like to believe that no actual peacocks, birds of paradise, or endangered species were harmed in pursuit of plumage ...













... with there being next to no trouble to speak of, it's clear a good time was had by all ...

... note to self ... wherever I'm at in a year's time I'm gonna find me some j'ouvert action ... an' get on bad!