Winter is upon us but we’ve barely had cold days to prove it. I had to go up to the Canadian border just to convince myself the season was in full effect.

Even then it wasn’t really as cold as it seemed like it should be. On the other hand maybe it was never all that cold to begin with? Perhaps my tiny kid body was too sensitive to the arctic blasts off my native Lake Michigan rendering me incapable to judge proper weather? Nowadays I can’t be sure but everyone is talking about it, the weather, but no one seems alarmed enough to do anything about it. Not that there’s much we can do about it now, is there?

Whatever whacked out weather patterns arise in the very near future life will go on. We’ll still comment on it but we’ll also get used to it. Come hell and high water.

Environmental catastrophe or no we put together this edition for (barely a) Winter 2008. Not coincidentally the content of this edition reflect my concerns for the environment, well, my concerns for paradoxical seasons anyway. Artist in Residence Jay Carrier’s paintings are raw evocations of the decay of the Niagara River region-his childhood home-and the effects upon the community at large and specifically the Native people in the area. His paintings provoke in me paranoia mixed with whimsy. That’s why he’s our artist in residence-humor in the face of all kinds of obvious disasters. Check out A.I.R section for a large selection of his work and a video tour of his studio that is located in his old high school now converted into a cultural community center. When you’re done with that check out the photo tour of the haunted/mural art portions of the high school in People, Places, Things.

In an effort to avoid wholesale hysteria we plan to distract ourselves with the progressive sounds of the Dust Dive, a documentary by Gwendolen Cates, and future conversations with experimental directors Melissa Henry and Kevin Burton, and the continual amusement over the proliferation of Indian Kitsch generally not made by Indians. Check out our blog on wordpress called Longviews for updates and some other stuff too.

It’s a self-salving experience.
Oh yeah, Happy Holidays.

Maria Colòn
Editor