Photo by Michael Stahl.
Photo of First Night Montclair by Chanda Hall.
Staying up late. Putting on the bling. Wearing funny glasses. Watching the Bubble Guy at First Night. Eating too much. Drinking too much. Watching the ball drop at Times Square. Kissing at midnight.
Or, like photographer Michael Stahl, watching the Dark Star Orchestra at the Wellmont.
Dark Star Orchestra took the Wellmont theater audience on a trip through the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s with a three set show featuring a set of music from each decade. Our group of deadheads and “Not deadheads” loved the show. The band amazingly captures the spirit of the Grateful Dead from the various decades and they uncannily recreate the music–without seeming like cheesy copy cats.
The show ran from 8 until 1 with only 2 short breaks between the “decades.” All three sets were full of energy but the first, from 1969, was killer, especially for the more hard core among us. I never got the Fillmore East (too young) but that first set seemed to transport me back to that time and space.
Wherever you were, whatever you did, Happy New Year 2012!
Happy new year! The holidays are over! Yeeeeeeehhaaaawwwwwww!
I stay at home to work like a pathetic drone while the wife goes out to be in the presence of other people, something I understand the humans tend to do on such occasions (but I wouldn’t know, the memories are dim). Then late into the evening a pack of teenagers who had been out lord knows where come through the front door. I hear the sound of a cork popping and a few minutes later my daughter, god bless her, hands me a flute of shampanya. I spend a few lovely minutes clinking glasses with her and her friends, some of the most wonderful young people in the world, and the perfect antidote to old-age grumpiness. We talk about Lady Gaga and what Dick Clark would look like without makeup and other important issues of the day. That is enough for me. Honestly, who could ask for more? I go back to work and by 1:30 am my brain is fried. I notice the wife isn’t home yet, so I call her. She is shouting into her blackberry that the party is still going on and that I should high-tail it down, which I do, and for the next few hours dance and sing and forget what year it is.
Sounds like a very nice life walleroo! Treasure all those moments. It goes so very fast. I’m excited now when I get a Happy New Year text from my granddaughter. Although I did enjoy the grown up festivities in the city last night. Happy New Year one and all.
I spent my New Year’s Eve sick and in bed by 8 pm. My oldest daughter is sick too, which really stinks because today is her birthday — she’s 8.
But, we’re all still in PJs, had a big pancake and bacon breakfast and we’re together. I shouldn’t complain. And, we have tomorrow to celebrate as we intended.
It is, Dag, it is. But it’s the kind of thing you see most clearly in your peripheral vision. And those moments, no matter how much you treasure them, still pass.
I’ve just found a pair of glasses online with the 2012 celebratory design as pictured above, life is good.
GP220…..Are they peripheral vision glasses?
While we were all partying, our POTUS was hard are work for the Oligarchy.
Happy New Year!
http://theopenglobe.org/wiki/Obama_signs_controversial_NDAA_bill_into_law
PAZ, you’re a stitch. Happy new year. Why didn’t you join us the other night, you wanker? And where is croi? I hope he made it home alive.
I’m fine with POTUS working hard, PAZ.
If I were as blind as a bat and relied on FoxNews for my access to truthfulness, I’d be convinced POTUS plays golf day and night, in between Mao and Stalin revival meetings, and, that POTUS is astoundingly and simultaneously a Moslem and a Rev. Wright Christian, and, all the while, someone who avoids Christian imagery in his White House Christmas greeting, sending us ‘mericans an internet photo of a dog by a roaring fireplace, bathed in deceptively golden tones of warmth and assurance. I might even think that Osama bin Laden is still alive, the moon walk is forgery, and Paul is dead.
Wishing you all a happy & helthy 2012.
STQ….Not against the POTUS working hard but he might be heading down a slippery slope with the military.
Walleroo….I was hard at it at the Polish piano cranking out some retouching for the amazing world of corporate America. Didn’t know you guys met up, I thought it was just a virtual.
Sounds like we missed a party, too, Roo. But you would not want to see Dick Clark without makeup. I am not sure I would like to see Lady Gaga without makeup. Is Gaga from New Jersey or New York? The NY TV news said she was invited to do the countdown with Mayor Bloomberg because she is a New Yorker. I think it might have been that politicians are notorious for screwing up the count, so she might have been there to make sure they got from ten to zero without a toll increase. Oh, wait a minute: when they got to zero there was a toll increase.