Sunday, February 12, 2006

Snow Day

Mother Nature finally woke up, looked at the East Coast and realized, "oh crap, it's winter - where's the snow?" We've been blanketed in, at least here in Da City, about 8-10 inches of the fresh white stuff. And I don't mean the stuff that gets shipped in daily from Columbia, *sniff sniff wink wink*.

Odds are good that we won't get another weekend like this, so - since I couldn't head north to the slopes, courtesy of a twisted ankle, I figured I'd dress in my snow fatigues and head out to the park instead. Now...I happen to live in Inwood, upper-upper Manhattan. An area most New Yorkers think is part of the Bronx, but that's okay with me because it keeps out those not "in the know". Why is this a good thing?

Because Inwood is all parkland. We have actual hills, in dem dere hills. No foolin'. It's at the very tip of the island, at the canal where the Harlem River crosses over to the Hudson River. It's picturesque, if you've had the pleasure. Isham Park, Inwood Hill Park, Fort Tryon Park, Riverside Park; they all blend together to make a hidden woodland tucked away in a corner of one of the biggest cities in the world.

So here it is snowing like mad, and where do you think the people all are? In the park, of course! Sleds, snowboards, tubes, plastic discs...whatever they can get their hands on. There's a nice slope at the top of a ridge that separates Isham Park from Inwood Hill Park, that's high with enough of an incline to make sledding fun but not too dangerous for the kiddies.

I thought about taking my board out there, but opted instead for the camcorder. I spent a good hour or so out there, capturing everyone slip-sliding down that hill any way they could. It wasn't just kids, a few adults were there too - all having a blast!

It didn't take long for them to catch on to me videotaping; at first I thought I'd catch hell for it. I mean not to be messed up about it, but let's face it - I'm a black man in New York, filming kids. Not exactly kosher. But a few smiles and laughs later and everyone was hamming it up for the camera; suddenly everyone wanted to be a star! I had one or two kids who wanted to be filmed so badly they'd aim themselves at me, hoping I'd ignore everyone else and focus on them - never realizing that I'd be too busy dodging them to film anything at all!

But it was all in fun, and well worth the effort. Hopefully there's enough decent film for me to put a music video together, just showing everyone having a blast.

Hope you all had a great snow day yourselves!

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