Giving Thanks

Sometimes, it just takes inviting some people over for dinner to realize how hard it is to actually throw a dinner party together. The best advise given for preparing one's home for Thanksgiving dinner is to plan ahead, prepare everything in advance and most certainly set the table the night before. Forgive me, but New Yorkers can have no such rule to follow. Prep was ON the dining room table and cleaning was done WHILE cooking. More and more I realize that we as a society need to have community and require the steady comfort of others around us. It stimulates us, expands our take on not only the lives of others but ourselves.

We covered the widest of topics: taxes, religion, art, marriage and food. Mom took over the kitchen and I handled the house.

Giving thanks around the table is something mom lives for every year. I dread it every year, but this year has brought a lot for which to be thankful. There's the wonderful person with whom I share my life, the great job I cherish and enjoy, the loving parent that has supported every one of my crazy actions, and the few but wonderful people that surround me and whom I call friends. They are all a part of me, and for all of them I am most thankful. These small parts of me complete me and make me strong. They push me and keep me pensive and forthcoming towards whatever next adventure might lie ahead.

Neuroscience2008

My latest project took me back to DC, this time to Neuroscience2008. The Society for Neuroscience's annual week for members and their guests is one of the convention circuit's largest contenders. Scientists of the mind convene to share their latest findings or gather notes from others. All areas of science related to the brain come together for open (and sometimes closed) sessions given by colleagues and vendors to anyone interested. 32,000 registrants will come this year and 2008 brought the conference back to our nation's capital. The look and mood there was fantastic, just a week after election day; monumental buildings wet and clean, accentuating the city's glow. It's not something yet describable, but it's certainly in the air. The end of autumn, with its yellow and gold turning brown, is when DC looks best. Yesterday was rainy all day so the city this morning, which started early and fast for me, was soaked but lush. Hope was definitely still in the air.

The Washington Convention Center's openness offered sky views of massive puffy clouds throughout the day as they parted ways gracefully in the afternoon to let some of sun finally shine in. Sculptures adorned the building, works by artists like Stephen Hendee (above) and the incomparable Sol LeWitt. By the time the post-main event's reception came around, a magical, killer rain storm blew threw town and we watched and enjoyed our success. The producers of this event are in-house and they do it well, absolute pros in their planning and so open to the outsider's perspective (us from the non-scientific world - the arts). Genius subjects getting along not despite the differences but because of them. When the pairing of a stranger is so right-on such as was the case this year in their choice of Mark Morris for a Dialogues forum to open discussions of creators and their minds, everyone can relish in the success afterwards.

It was a wonderful day for dance, elevating it to a new standard where the unknowing got a little closer to the believers of the form - and him - and liked what they saw. 4,500 people showed up to listen to Morris speak, and he was genius.