Glass and music and friends — what better way to spend New Year’s Eve? I spent the afternoon with Julia of Art of the Firebird, teaching our friends Marcy Lamberson and Renee Taylor how to do Viking knit. We laughed a lot (and enjoyed Julia’s husband’s home-made cookies!).
Marcy had to leave early, but Renee stayed, and we tried Chad Trent’s inside-out boro bead tutorial. Our consensus was that we needed practice .. but that the bead had “character”–a polite way of saying it resembled a bead mainly in that it had 2 holes and was made of glass. On the other hand, someone might like it for a freeform sculpture!
Then I went to Jody Miller’s house and chatted with friends there, and spent time with Diamond and Milo, Jody’s dogs. Jody used to live across the street from me, and I miss him AND the dogs, both of whom attached themselves to my feet for most of the evening. We listened to music made by or suggestive of many of the major figures who died in 2009. Never listen to 50s lyrics with a bunch of highly intelligent musical gay men; you will never hear songs in quite the same way afterward. Finally, we serenaded the New Year with a very idiosyncratic rendition of Auld Lang Syne, fittingly titled Auld Lang Stank by Stephen, who captured it on his phone’s camera. You may listen, if you like, but I warn you — get your earplugs at the ready. We had five minutes’ rehearsal, and most people were playing unfamiliar instruments (Allison had never played horn before, for example, though she plays other isntruments very well.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZiBrEKzXY]