ROBUST discussion

If you celebrate, I hope you had a good holiday. If you don't, I hope you, at least, had a good day off (here in the States, most get it off, or at least handsome holiday pay). If neither of the latter, well, I hope you had a good Wednesday at least. :)

The mighty New Year's is coming up. I've never been much of a NY guy given that, at least among most of the people I know, NY was just a big bacchanal and that's not really my scene, and my kids have trouble lasting long enough for fireworks and what not.

Which way to the bacchanal?

Actually, I hate the sort of party where people can't believe they're having a good time unless wretched pop blares out at top volume. Unless I can carry on a conversation in a normal tone, I'm just not interested any more.

Yes, Andre, I'm with you on that. We attended two family Christmas gatherings yesterday with no music at either. We met some of Julie's relatives for the first time and spent about 6 hours enjoying conversation, and then we were with my parents from which place we Skyped with some friends in Switzerland. Again, all conversation, even though my parents and those friends are all musicians!

Jeremy, Julie and I have lived in New York together for fifteen years and have never gone to watch the ball drop in Times Square. We can have a few drinks at home and watch it on TV with no crowding and no shivering. But maybe we will go New Year's Eve of 2014.

The one time I've really done the whole rockin' party thing was 1999/2000 in DC. It was kind of funny because they were off-schedule, so they kept shuffling up these pretty big names to play some compressed set then force them off.

I've also never been to any other such heavily defended party in my life (police+FBI+Secret Service+National Guard).