A sampling of what I'm listening to now on Launchcast Plus: "That's All for Everyone" - Fleetwood Mac, Tusk (1979) "Official Colourbox Theme Song" - Colourbox, Best of '82-'82 (2001) "Let Forever Be" - Chemical Brothers, Surrender (1999)

I'm sad to report that Fenway the Wonder Dog passed away on April 7. She was 14 years old, and led a long and interesting life. She was an amazing Frisbee dog and long distance runner. She ran literally thousands of miles over the years, and walked miles of New York as she got older and had to slow down. Whether she was running at Town Lake or prancing down Park Avenue, she never failed to make people smile. We rarely took a walk where someone didn’t stop to pet her, and dozens of people we never even met knew her by name. Everyone who met her fell in love with her. She was always a gentle and loving friend, and she will be missed very much.

Some fascinating facts for Champagne lovers, from today's New York Times:

"Gérard Liger-Belair is a physicist at the University of Reims, where he trains a high-speed digital camera through a microscope onto glasses of wine from local cellars. His 2004 book, “Uncorked: The Science of Champagne,” revealed that most Champagne bubbles arise from something you might be tempted to scour from your flutes: dust.

Kitchen towels and the ambient air deposit tiny hollow cellulose fibers from cotton, paper and other plant products on the surface of a clean glass. The air pockets in those hollow fibers allow dissolved carbon dioxide molecules in the wine to collect and pop off in a bubble, which leaves a remnant behind to start the process all over again. As they rise in the glass, the bubbles gather more carbon dioxide, so they expand and accelerate. When they burst at the surface, they shoot tiny jets of liquid as much as an inch into the air, tickling the nose and delivering aroma.

In more recent work Professor Liger-Belair has shown just how lucky we are in the quality of our plant dust. It turns out that the cellulose fiber hollows are of just the right size — about a tenth the diameter of a human hair — to produce small, regularly spaced bubbles that keep coming for a long time. If they were much narrower, then the bubbles would be released faster and closer together, and the gas would be exhausted from the glass much sooner. If the fiber interior were as wide as a hair, then the bubbles would be more coarse, and we wouldn’t get as many of them.

Because the fibers and the gas pockets are scattered across the glass surface, each bubble train rises in undisturbed isolation. The result is a clockwork release of bubbles, evenly spaced and pleasing to the eye."

Decided I should update my blog today since it's been - hmmm, ages - since my last post. Was tooling around wasting time on this Saturday afternoon and found several things that made me smile, thanks to a Manhattan User's Guide email from December 13: bacon wallets (a great gift for any guy) and the Motel Hell Blogspot, a great collection of postcards from classic dive hotels and travel spots.

Happy New Year, y'all!

Last week was a banner week for entertainment in New York. Wednesday night we saw the stage version of Glengarry Glen Ross at the Royale Theatre. Liev Schrieber and Alan Alda were outstanding. Thursday night was New Order at Hammerstein Ballroom. The "best of" set list included some Joy Division songs, as expected based on other recent shows and the energy was fantastic: Love Vigilantes Crystal Regret Hey Now What You Doing Krafty Transmission True Faith Run Wild Jetstream (with Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters) Waiting For The Sirens Call Bizarre Love Triangle Love Will Tear Us Apart Temptation (My favorite!) ENCORE She's Lost Control Atmosphere Blue Monday

Inspirations for Memorial Day weekend:
Zero 7 - "Destiny" = Simply beautiful, no matter how many times I hear it. On the wedding DJ 'must play' list...and free MP3 download at Amazon.com.
Bajo Fondo Tango Club - Grammy-winning tango + electronica - simply mah-ve-lous and not overplayed. Yet.

Bumper sticker of the day:

"The Labor Movement: From the People Who Brought You the Weekend"

Happy New Year to my friends and family around the world.