In Utah’s arid clime, where I used to spend my time, a-servin’ of ‘Er Majesty the Queen, my favorite season was “anything but summer”. Come summer, Momma Nature was severely sere and cantankerous, and I would get depleted when her temper overheated. But I’d survive-with a thousand books packed away in cool nooks.
The winter I loved. We would mark the equinoxes and solstices every year, but the winter solstice was the one I really celebrated. I remember winter being the most vividly colored season of my childhood: coruscated prisms glinting off of the snow, red sweaters every day, Christmas all winter long.
After I moved to the inversion-caked filth of Utah Valley, it slowly dawned on me that my epithalamus was exhibiting an aversion to winter. What was it? The cold, the dark, the grimy pallor of the sun as it struggled to penetrate the film of the bubble? I was ready to get out.
I worried that it might be worse in northern latitudes, but I actually noticed improvement-probably because it is not as cold here and so it’s easier for me to go out into our chilly coniferous green. I relish getting out into the winter, in constant touch with nature, her gories and her glories.
But still after a winter while, I crane toward the light like a desperate flower. That’s just how it works:
Four seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man
So, to add more hues to winter blacks and blues, I made two winter mixes, Pinecone Chapel and Shadow Play, stocked with a short stout supply of songs like so many fat acorns for when there’s a rumbly in my winter tumbly. When the time comes, I can give ol’ man winter the bluebird.
Much has been written about Paul Newman since his passing this past weekend. Many of the newspaper biographies I’ve read focused on his love of racing, his charity work, and his compassion. Some even suggested that he loved those other things more than acting. Well, this Top 10 list is about his enormous contribution to movies.
Another one from Nick, he’s on fire (though he listens to primarily black metal, he knows what I like.)
