grafiti

comida

One of the great things about Peru is the fantastic cuisine. We had an amazing dinner for Jers birthday Wednesday evening and yesterday we had lunch at this place in the neighborhood where they serve a tasty vegetarian buffet inside an old railroad car from 1920 - apparently one of the first the British brought to the country. We ate in the garden and it was lovely. I am expecting wonderful seafood at the beach. We head out today. Stay tuned next week for the beach pics.

lima de noche

40

Today is the day Jer reaches that milestone birthday and I came down to help him usher it in. After a lovely lunch in Miraflores we took a walk along the ocean back to Barranco. It got warm today!

departure

Today I head south. Blog posts may become sporadic in the Southern Hemisphere.

on the set

Yesterday was spent on the set of the Project Link video at a public health clinic in Chelsea. Maybe not the most glamorous location to shoot, but still a warm place to stay out of the cold.

sky III

sky II

sky I

Yesterday I had one of those New York City moments. It's random. I'm walking along 14th Street on my way in to work and the joy of walking in this city just flows over me. I feel the energy. I'm happy to be alive and I realize that, yes, this is why I live here. The frustrations of work ebb away and the worries about the economy and for that block and actually for some time after I enjoy that feeling.

hope

But like Foner said on Fresh Air on Tuesday, keep the pressure on too as that will help move things in the right direction.

day one

Taken from the big screen at the Center. Where were you when history happened?

gen 0

Day 1. What are you most looking forward to in the new administration?

obamaconomy

On the eve of the inauguration every other storefront has something Obama-related in the shop window. New York City is excited to be part of the country again, even if we're not 'real' Americans.

Bye bye

One of the gang who went to PA held a Bye Bye Bush party on Friday evening. There was plenty of art up, including a poster complete with shoes to throw.

lights, camera...

Yesterday we taped the final podcast in the first series of widgets for St Vincent's. That isn't going to make sense to anyone. But Tony, aka Dr Urbina, was great and everything went smoothly.

report

One man's miraculous recovery from near tragedy is another man's simple frustration. As the US Airways jet made a crash landing into the Hudson River beside Manhattan yesterday afternoon I was attempting to tape the host for our January show (my own attempt at salvage as the original host I tried to tape on Tuesday lost her voice). We did repeated takes attempting to finish the recording, but the constant sound of sirens and helicopters kept bleeding in to our drafty 3rd floor studio. Little did we know what was going down at the time, but we knew it was big.

A little later that afternoon I had a walk through for a taping I'm doing today at a clinic at St. Vincent Hospital, our next door neighbor, which apparently received some of the survivors from the crash, or at least was ready to. A New York 1 reporter tries to do his job across from the ER as a homeless lady sings quite loudly.

projects III

Somehow the cold weather is making the world seem so much sharper and crisper as I walk around these days, even if that doesn't always translate in the photo - as my fingers lose all sense of touch.

canaan

Harlem on a Sunday afternoon.

tree

bridge

A view of the George Washington Bridge through a dirty window at the Columbia University medical campus uptown. Basil's friend and mentor Laura Dean cleaned out her office after decades. It was a final salute to the view as she reminisced about the work she did - a longitudinal study of the health of gay men from 1985 - 1992 at the height of the AIDS crisis - and the colleagues and subjects she lost in the course of her work.

snow

It's cold in NYC again. The first real snow of 2009 accumulated yesterday and is melting away today.

de vuelta

Andres is back. I'm very happy about that.

oscar & pete

winter park II

curbside

valentine

My old friend Keith at Fred Flare has come up with a creative campaign to benefit a local organization. Keith has always been an inspiration in the area of following your dream. His company seems to grow and grow and he really has fun with it.

peligro

Have you kept your resolutions so far or are you walking on thin ice?

prosperous

Did you eat your lentils, your black-eye peas, your grapes, or whatever is supposed to bring you prosperity in 2009? Let me know if it works and then send a little love my way.

whodonit

The first cultural excursion of 2009 was a successful attempt to see the Catherine Opie exhibit at the Guggenheim before it closes on the 7th. I'll still think twice before attempting the Friday evening pay-what-you-want crowds. How many more tourists can fit into this town?

perla

Out with the old, in with the new. Toys abandoned in warmer days wait patiently in La Perla, the community garden on my block.

happy 2009!

What better place to lose your first resolution of the new year than a bar called Nowhere?