Alec Bryce (Jan. 31, 1917 - Dec. 4, 2006)

This photo shows how we will always be.

The iceskateer. The iceska-who?

(no, you're right, it's probably never a good idea to make Rocketeer allusions for humor)

Marie the Swede and some of her friends and I went ice skating at Bryant Park tonight. Now, you may have heard me mention before how totally inept New Yorkers are at walking in anything even vaguely resembling an orderly and considerate fashion, so to understand tonight, just apply that idea to ice, and speed it up. Yep. Ridiculous.

And yet, I had a really wonderful time. That's the thing I'm noticing more and more these days. As much as you might not want to, New York City will make you love the holiday season. It's crazy. I'll walk around thinking about how I don't really even like Christmas, I hate the throngs of tourists/holiday shoppers, and I don't like that it's getting cold. Then they'll go and put Christmas trees on the street corner so the air smells like pine, or they'll add decorations which, however cheesy, find some way to warm your heart. It's crazy, but it's New York in December and there's no place like it.

pARTy, or, As if I needed ANOTHER reason to love Brooklyn

Where else can you arrive at 9 p.m. to attend a dance party in the middle of a room full of expensive artwork, and take a break by heading downstairs to see the Ron Mueck exhibit? Or a huge selection of works by Walton Ford? Or a massive collection of photos by Annie Leibovitz? And all for free? The Brooklyn Museum is the place to be on the first saturday night of the month, and that's that.

Andrew, Rachel, Marie, Mingo, Brian, Brian's old college friend and I attended the festivities this weekend, and it was so much fun!

By the way, Ron Mueck's work (above is a picture I found online of one of his pieces being finished, and beneath that, a Walton Ford watercolor) is even more impressive (or creepy, depending on your style) as you think it might be. I found his strange-scale, perfect-replica people amazing.

Take THAT, corporate bookmobile!

Saturday was the Independent and Small Press Book fair. It was really interesting to see all the stuff that's being put out by these small companies, and I had to fight pretty hard to resist buying huge piles of the stuff. So many good books! I ended up buying just two: a collection of writings by Latin American Jews on Judaism in Latin America as a present for Andrew, and a book for myself about understanding Islam. I'm glad I got out of there when I did, though, or I'd have needed a wheelbarrow to get all my purchases home.

These, right here, are good people. And then I'm in there, too.

On thursday I was overjoyed to attend a soiree held by Annie, the sister of one Mango Pancakes, in honor of Ms. Pancakes' trip to NYC. The event afforded me the opportunity to catch up with some great people, three of whom are pictured here. I want to single two of them out, although, really, it's like singling out just one.

Margusie. Sugaret. Margaret and Susie, hetero life partners, have been an inspiration to those aspiring to friendship for as long as I have known them, lo these many years, and they are both such wonderful people in their own rights, too. Margaret does amazing things incorporating theatre into learning for children, and Susie teaches 2nd grade better and with more heart and dedication than anyone else, ever. These are two people who push the scales of the world balance back toward good while the rest of us jerks are out there screwing it up. Seriously, these two are so great and deserve such wonderful things. Which is also why I'm happy that susie has found herself engaged! Congrats, susie. And mingo, well, she's not engaged, but she's got herself someone who makes her very happy (and is so nice it almost creeps me out).

And as for Zack, pictured here, I think he'd appreciate being left undescribed. He knows what he did. It was great to see folks like these, as well as Annie, Brendan, the other Graham, Max, and Brian.

Freemasons (with purchase of regular masons)

This picture is of a large meeting room in the Grand Masonic Lodge of the Freemasons here in New York. All of the other meeting rooms are smaller, and have measurements determined to be of the same proportion to rooms within Solomon's Temple. The building is a very strange place, full of remarkable and mysterious history.

I met with the head of one freemasons' lodge this past wednesday for donuts. We'd been in contact since I first took a tour of the Lodge building during Open House New York (a yearly event where you get to go cool places you couldn't normally go). We met at the lodge, and talked for over 3 hours. He told me about his life, and about Freemasonry - well, except the stuff he couldn't talk about. That's the most entertaining part about these guys. They're great, and affable, and they continually drop hints of there being secrets they have which you can't know. It's kind of a lot of fun.

Now I have my reasons for considering getting involved, most of which stem from the idea of accomplishing more charity work in congress with one of the largest charity organizations around, and from what they have to say about self-improvement. But I'd be a liar - and you'd know I was - if I said I also didn't love the mysterious ways and history. I mean, c'mon. Name a major male figure in American history, and most likely that person was, or had ties to, freemasonry. Ben Franklin assisted in Voltaire's induction. These guys are old school.
We'll see what happens.