Yes, I'm alive, Ms. Bond. Sorry for the absence. The holidays took me far far away, to Manhattan actually, where I spent the past week visiting my friend Rick. Saw some amazing shows there. The Def Jam Poets were absolutely wonderful!!!! I want to see them again already. And Caryl Churchill's play "Far Away", was incredible. I saw the Modern Museum of Art for the first time in my life, with all those incredible paintings. It was a shock to my aesthetic system (a cousin to the nervous and circulatory systems) because it's one famous painting after another. Incredible. Also saw the film, The Hours, which I really liked a whole lot, even though it's depressing. So was the book, which I liked a whole lot too. Nicole Kidman does a great Virginia Woolf. All the acting was good, for the most part. They stayed mostly true to the book, too, and translated most of its feel to the screen.

I'm home again, and recovering from travel and from ringing in the New Year. I hope everyone has a good one. The day itself isn't as important as what we make of the ones that come after it for the next twelve months.

See you all on the flipside.