“See the Bedouin fires at night”

At the apex of a bitter wind overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge, distant fireworks, the clink of a wineglass, the digitized sound of a camera shutter and the company of friends- that is how the New Year came in for me.

Not a bad start, me thinks…

Before hand, we were sharing in a most awesome meal of salmon, asparagus, basmati rice and mesculin greens. Damn! Elana can cook! Jai was our gracious host. Mara lent her smile. Matt showed me some amazing pictures of peace in wartime and the city we love. Ray provided the dry wit and Elaine was the anchor that kept him tied back to earth.

Me, I was just trying to be the quiet Oscar- Listening, observing, noticing lines in people’s smile that I may not have seen before, catching side glances to private moments and generally, happy to be in a different type of New Year celebration.

Ray recounts today’s subway story as a general passerby stumbles in to the train in the middle of the afternoon-

“You see this red collar?

You aint ever seen a red collar like this.

This is a whole new type of sexiness.

See, these?

Not kicks… sneakers!”

(The train starts to mumble and giggle at the general air of vanity.)

“Oh, what do all of you know about sexiness?

You know what?

Assholes… stay in asshole town.

Teachers… stay in teacher town.”

(And he gets out at the next stop.)

–The real funny thing was that Ray transcribed the entire monologue on a brown paper bag in fear that the world may lose the words of the prophet. ;-)

2004, hhmmm… not bad… I may stick around and see what happens next…

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