It's gonna be a long, long winter, for me.

Up around the bend.

Before snow settles on Great White North,

a sunny day pictured, may flatter warm. 

Bright perspective. Ambitious roadside grass,

could too, in the heat of your car,

trade winter-weary wonderment for arrid solstice.

It's good to throw evocative image at the soul,

keep blood flow to tropics of imagination.

Temperate lobes need massage too.  

Leaves on the ground.

Spent verdancy. Can't see forest for bare trees.

Carpet-floor, mossy-rock green. Anticipate a layering blanket.

Then. Remembrance Day scene. Normandy newsreel.

Alice In Wonderland snowball bauble.

Foreboding, even to look outside.

It's gonna be a long, long winter, you see,

as Wailers homage Impressions in

select soundtrack this season. Cold, and dreary, and blue.

 

A longer longtime coming. Simply safe and secure.

Roofs cave in winter without a strong heart.

But turnaround is still fair play,

and full lives continue to grow,

through rotating deep freeze. Long.

Just long enough, 'til time for Tamarack to rewake. 

... paradise by the dashboard light ...

... cross country bladers, recreational boarders and avowed winter buffs will take issue with the cliche of paradise as a sunny hotspot, but this year, 2011, found Ontario's Muskoka region atop National Geographic's touted list of summer destinations ...

... even though "paradise" sorta rhymes with "snow and ice," the comparisons end there if you are hot-blooded, thin-skinned or partial to polar fleece and fur ... left unheralded is the under-appreciated, out-of-season visceral beauty to be experienced when Arctic perimeter expands through the area ...

... allow yourself to picture that chilled winter wonderland, warmed by in-seat heating and auto climate-control, dusk and nightfall suggesting the urgent carnal condition Meat Loaf sings of on 1977's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light"... my best guess is - your imagination excludes freezing rain, sludge and road-salt ...

... that said, and in the interest of honoring the grandeur of the universe, I can still make a case for low-temp surrealism ... in this instance, tab snapshots taken in the same evening by you and I, lovers driving separately through unconnected weather systems, hint at a synchronous spark across time and space ...

... inside-out, eerie eye-views speak of the driving conditions ... please note telltale tachometers, indicating the foolish needn't also be foolhardy ...

... almost artificial android autumn ...

... it sure is gettin' tres chilly 'round here ... watch the squirrels, bear and deer,

an' forget undressing bare as you dare ... dip in a lake now, privates disappear,

but, nature's concession thru powers that be ... is color-change on each deciduous tree,

a timely reminder to you 'n' me ... the best things in life are still wild and free ...

... leaves warm the cold,

... rich landscapes, behold,

... my android-tab snaps, to have and to hold ... flash-frozen, in vivid reds, greens and gold ...
magic Muskoka moments inspiring to share ... constant as time, year after year,
the cycle of life goes on ev'rywhere ... reassurance there's really nothing to fear ...

... random riddim, Powa to the people ...

... walked into a Big Smoke burger joint the other day, having seen their sign nestled along the King Street stroll ... there's just something about the association of grilling and smoke that sells a Wimpy ... while ordering my avocado-gorgonzola topped burger, a lunching cabbie asked me to suggest one track for a random playlist in his ride (I must have that kind of face) ... so, "that's a cool idea" said I, before proffering the hottest hoodoo on youtube these days ... "Nobody Canna Cross It" , via DJ Powa ...

... DJ Powa's resourceful use of free time, turning an earnest news-report on rural flooding into a hot-pop media-byte, promptly rewarded with its own dance, is some clever-ass trickery ... but beyond that, he's created a flashpoint piece of cultural art possibly inspired by a hip-hop model which, when Jamaicanized, becomes its own stylee, strong enough to bend two branches of digi-driven modern music into a fusion ... explaining this to a stranger might seem a little ( ... that word again) random, but sheer randomness is a big part of this cross-over ...

... a self-identified Christian, Powa slays all secular competition with a dexterity that is driven by the riddim-of-life rather than any particular agenda ... the inherent musicality of Jamaican voice and expression is finely nuanced, tonal interpretations are numerous and his Fruity Loops mix of atmospheric beats complement this perfectly, serving up a piece of audio-candy ...

... the other star in this scenario is Clifton Brown ... a Jamaican everyman in the Chauncey Gardner sense, who unknowingly adds philosophical high-ground to the actual high ground he touts in the video ... being interviewed on television is enough to trigger a default twang in his natural delivery, setting up the humorous inspiration for the video, while his overwrought sincerity (try to say that Cliff) attests to the reality of the circumstance ... the truth of the matter is, this community needs a municipal solution to the very real problem of being swept away into St. Thomas Pond ... in a fascinating turn of events "Cliff-Twong" Brown is now a televisual personality and an oft-quoted spokesperson ...

... you might even say Jamaicans have a new cause celebre ... a kind of patriotic filip for a national identity drawn by distractions yet still in touch with the common strands of human need and nature as they exist for everyone, even in this cyber-age ... some get embarassed by honesty of spirit when it is exposed unselfconsciously and giggle hyperactively in its presence, as evidenced by some subsequent mainstream media attention, but the rest of us giggle 'cos we get it ... and it continues to go viral ...

... this sort of phenomenon not only heralds a potential shift in the sound-of-the-day but also adds to the ultra-dynamic street lexicon ... woe betide he or she who "canna cross it" ... jackpot too for Powa on other levels, as he gets to cross it, be it with the Cross of Jesus or Bounty Killer's sampled trademark yelp, "Cross!" ... don't tell me it's just a video 'cos, all over the world we jus' a siddung 'pon di replay button ... smiling ...

... my new cabbie friend works the Metro Toronto area, he took to the idea immediately and is presumably crossin' it right now, spreading Yallahs river lore all over the 416 ... while I head for Lake Muskoka ("... we lock away in the wilderness!") to show the younger ones how a kayak can "monidge the waughter" ...