Reporting from 6th Street: there are more hip places there also, but the regular Bangladesh-Indian cheap food is still as bad as it was.

New York revisited: It's been about 8 months. For the most part it's the same. On the outside. The horrible healthfopd store on University, Healthy Pleasures, is now called Wholesome Foods, which is equally or more stupid sounding and the store is exactly the same. But there are more significant changes, especially in Chinatown. A ton of new hipster bars and entertainment establishments have opened there. That's my old neighborhood! It's not FOR hipsters! It's for workingclass Chinese people! And me!
Is that why they kicked me out? For gentrification????

I will have to say that traveling on New Years Eve with "Orange Alert" must be one of the smartest ideas ever. I think the year changed somewhere over the Rockies and most passengers were probably sleeping since they couldn't figure out when exactly it was occurring (flying towards the year and against the timezones). And pretty much everyone on the flight had a row to themselves. Still, arriving at 5:30 AM has some drawbacks, no matter what the day. Started the year with a cup of borschtsch. I think that might be high in "carbs".

Happy 2004 everybody!

If you haven't yet, check out R.W.Fassbinder's vision of the Wild West in Whity, a truly astonishing mixture of weird music and homoerotic/erotic/masochistic relations on the Nicholson ranch. I especially liked the retarded boy with the gray makeup, very charming.

By the way, did I remember to recommend this collection of Christian puppetplays?