3:00am: Plug it in and watch it work

Mike Money performing at PLUG
(Photo Gallery Pending Permissions)

If you were there, you know what it's about.
If not, two words, people: PLUG.
'Nuff said.

11:00am: Bob Duncan Plays the C-Note...

...and several others in a Friday night show at N.Y.C.'s C-Note: Click here for Bob Duncan's InnerGroove Website:

The Spirits of DUNCAN playing the C-Note:
CLICK FOR FULL PHOTO GALLERY

I've got a couple of Quick Time Videos of the gig, clips from two songs: House of Dreams and Overcome, but they're large files, so I'm putting them on a separate page (its a pop-up window). If you've got cable modem or DSL, check it out, make sure to set your browser preferences to accept pop-up windows. (If you're on dial-up access, you may want to sit this one out.)

Folks, if you haven't heard DUNCAN yet, you are missing out. You can find out more about the band, featuring singer/songwriter Bob Duncan, John Putnam on lead, Rob Glick on Bass, Alfredo Hidrovo on drums, and Eva Shampaert on percussion and audience hoots and hollers, every Friday in February (there's only one left, people, that's not my fault), 12 midnight at the C-Note, Ave. C and 10th Street. Do not miss this opportunity to see one of the premier performers in New York. This guy played KEYBOARDS and sang backup vocals in Billy Joel's band, so how good must he be! You will watch, you will listen, you will learn. (That's if you can take your eyes off Eva or your ears off John Putnam's unbelievable lead guitar, either of which is worth the price of admission, which by the way is free.) Tip your bartender, people, and I'm not kidding about that.

3:00pm: The Tree I Planted

Outside My Front Door Today

Here's the tree I planted with the block association around 1983. It was just a sapling, no taller than three feet, and needed a splint to keep it afoot. Now it stands three stories proud, it's branches billowing over my fire escape in springtime, brushing against the railing, like an old friend dropping in to say hello.

That's the firehouse to the left in the background, 44 Engine, and the best group of guys you could meet, living here on the block lo these many years, and saving lives, you know. To the right is the schoolyard, countless generations of teens have run the gauntlet of that yard, busting, finally, up the steps and onto the street, grown, and ready to take on the world. I have seen them all, I and my friend, the tree, right here on the block, outside my window.

I woke this morning to this picture postcard of a day, perfect for Christmas Morning in New York City. Of course, it snowed for us this past Christmas, too; so what shall we call this one, Festivus? Who's got the coat rack; get George in here, it's time to wrestle the old man...

3:52am: This Has Got To Feel Great

Dave Hansen of Grand Isle, Vt., surfs the ice
of Lake Champlain, near the New York border

"Dave Hansen of Grand Isle, Vt., iceboards below a solar halo on Lake Champlain, Vt., near the Vermont/New York border on Monday, Feb. 3, 2003. The ring around the sun known as a halo is a fairly common weather phenomenon caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. Hanson was iceboarding from Vermont to New York state and back again across the ice on Lake Champlain, which has only frozen over between New York and Vermont once in the last six winters. (AP Photo/Rob Swanson)"
from Yahoo.com