celebrities i did not see today:

ricky martin
rudy guiliani
hilary clinton
jennifer lopez
marc anthony

yes, today was the puerto rican pride parade (although who made hilary clinton puerto rican is anyone's guess) and we almost went. we went as far as madison avenue, one block from the party itself, but were blocked by the cops in the usual manner. everyone talks about the cool parades, but no one ever knows about the baricades, the thousands of cops, and the crowds attempting to get through, and the general chaos.

wait a minute. didn't i swear off activities like that one since our disastrous halloween parade and christmas tree lighting debacles? oh well, i guess i'll never learn.

what we did instead: go to brooklyn and walk down atlantic avenue. it was the annual art festival so lots of galleries were open and we took advantage of it. among other things, we saw a rusted "antique" card catalog going for $550, a chair painted with bugs made of dots that included windup bugs that spun around (these were on suction cups so you could stick them anywhere you wanted on the chair), and a gallery of pictures taken on a cell phone.

if only we had at least $300, we could have some great new art for our walls (like a red square painted on plywood and then smashed through the middle). maybe next time...