I had an unreasonably good time New Year's Eve. I was pretty stressed out early in the evening, worried about various logistical details, but everything worked out pretty smoothly in the end (with the possible exception of not enough free hands to handle the free champagne pour, but Spesh and Jackie pitched in and saved the day with some Richard Branson style hospitality).

Music was great at Minna, esp. impressed with sets from Reza and Smoove. Spesh and I finished off the night with a tag-team set, then shuttled over to Paradise Lounge (thanks for the ride Derek!) and played some more over there. Not a whole lot of room to work behind those upstairs decks, and I was slightly distracted by 1) the right turntable which had a decidely inconsistent and independent rotational speed and 2) the smell of Tim, who was sitting near the right turntable and really needed a shower ... *but* still managed to play some of my favorite new records in a reasonable order and not totally out of whack with what Spesh was playing. Crowd was fun and seemed to be digging it. Ducked behind the curtain a few times while Spesh was playing and talked with Dawn and Jackie (who both looked great) and Hoj and Alberto and Dan (I think Alberto was wearing a tux). Said hi to Adam who seemed to be having an extremely good time at his own party, and to Annette who was wearing a great dress. Left my 1/4" headphone jack with Dragn'fly because she had lost hers. Mostly drank water because I had to drive. Slightly scattered in my own head but I didn't mind ... that's just kind of NYE for you. Was still wide awake at 5am but decided to go home and get warm next to Kia who only made it to party #1. A fun night, and I'm pretty optimistic about 2005, despite the fact that I've been thinking about natural resource depletion and the potential decline of modern technological civilization almost constantly for the past week.

A few pics below that I recently received via email:

me with a balloon flower and balloon artist(?) at freeform sf

spesh in balloon hat at freeform sf

these pics from karen, who was visiting a friend in atlanta and came to our gig there too - thanks karen!

karen and her friend whose name i can't remember

damn, i can't remember the name of the club we played at either ... something something lounge ... it was fun though

me and karen, spesh with patented deer in headlights look

a dancin' pic