And... Go.

Well, Lucas the Dumpling Man is at it again, with the seasonal variations on his logo. Also, he's launched a DumplingBlog . He's set up a DumplingCam so you can keep an eye on things. He's got incredibly sweet new Dumpling T-Shirts. And while he expands the Dumpling Empire in all directions, he's still producing the best affordable meal in the East Village. How does this man do it? -PAR

I got word from Waldo last night that Phil had passed away . And it really kinda shook me. Well, shook, but more saddened. I mean... Phil. Buddha Phil. Phil Gair. There's a whole bunch of us, kids who hung out (and grew up) downtown, for whom Phil was just... He was a constant reassuring presence. Always there, always would be. Those big iron and wood Mall benches were there for him, weren't they? He was an original Mallfellow , there long before any of us even coined the term. His thick glasses and suspenders and snap-down cap and his child-like smile and his turns of phrase that didn't usually make sense, but really didn't need to. Talking with Phil didn't fall under rules that you'd apply to conversations with anyone else. He said something to me once, I wish I could remember exactly... About how we had our own rainbows and didn't need to worry. From anyone else, it would've been laughable. But from him, there was a sincerity that ma...

As usual, I've been neglecting to keep up to date here. I expect both of you reading have probably noticed. So, let's see... There's been a LOT of snow. Obviously. Wintertime hitting hard, pausing for a day to psyche us all out... Letting everyone run around in the sun wearing t-shirts, then dropping a blizzard on our heads the next morning. Most of the above pictures were taken a couple weeks ago, on a night that I'd just gotten home from work and gotten settled in... And then the news of Hunter S. Thompson's death hit, and sent us all back outdoors, right as a nice gentle snow turned into all-out insanity. Rounds of free whiskey, snowball fights with random strangers, and much lunacy ensued. (My buddy Lamb recaps the entire evening here , and gets it all exactly right.) Other than that, it's been a string of crazy days and nights... A hip-hop concert here, a quick lighting gig there, a job interview that I never hear back about, an almost-constant re...

Had back-to-back days off, and spent them wandering around. Walking west, getting lost in the triangles of Greenwich Village, up to the edges of Chelsea, taking side-streets and alleyways, to the docks on the Hudson, reaquainting myself with the side of Manhattan I've not spent enough time in lately. And of course, taking pictures along the way. -PAR

Just finally getting around to sifting thru the pictures I snapped after the blizzard a couple weeks ago... I had a couple days off of work, designed lights for a play in SoHo , and enjoyed the snow. -PAR

-PAR

So, in the last few days of 2004, I: Went to Charlottesville for Christmas (there's a small gallery up of pics on Mallfellows . Saw a million old friends that I needed to catch up with. Had a nice time with the family. Drank LOTS of coffee at The Mudhouse . Set up and DJed a crazy-ass dance party for 150+ people on a Monday night. Had a conversation I'd been waiting to for twelve years or so. Kissed the girl. Got next to no sleep. Found a ride back to NYC. Had many tiki drinks (see the "Penultimate Night" pictures below). And I ended the year standing on a rooftop in Battery Park last night with a bunch of people, drinking wine, watching the fireworks go off over the Hudson River. See, somehow in the waning moments of the year, everything turned around. I found reserves of energy that weren't being used. Began to have lots of fun again. Rediscovered the Strummer Effect, stopped caring too much, and just DID. And '04 was saved, rig...