Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you a randomly crafted and beautifully articulated train of thought, straight from the desk of Jennifer Bilec:

"So what is it. What is it about waves and waves and waves of people. Waves of people. Well, maybe not waves OF people, but more so people who mimic Mavericks. Now Aharv, this might be a bit too nostalgic for the majority and quite a bit surprising coming from my mouth. But bear with me (and tell the others to do as well). People come and go and come and go every single year, to hear the same horns the same strings the same sticks the same rolling baselines the same man's voice, a man who once sounded like a boy, but only now acts like one. But that's exactly the point of it all. You can keep growing up growing old growing stubborn growing rich growing flowers growing book shelves growing babies growing debt growing cold growing angry growing in and out of jobs marriage company cars turned into pickups into saabs into volvos into BMWs into living with your parents. There is something, though. And keep your hipster jeans and black framed glasses in the drawer just for a moment. Because for god sakes, even the infamous Kimberly Ellek* would tell you to appreciate these guys. Forget their genre, forget all things material just for another moment. Please, don't forget what fuels you of course. Whether that's Gwar or My Morning Jacket or The Frames or even NKOTB. You are what you eat, I guess. And what I consume in the summers, well, it's certainly not money and it's not a fashion trend. What I really just wanted to tell you was how elated I am that another summer season is rolling around. And again, I find myself in a bigger city with bigger things and bigger selections of bigger things. I find I'm once again sitting at a desk, dreaming dreaming like a little boy about home. What makes me smile on these awfully windy cold dirty days in Midtown is not how much art fashion music food from Cambodia Greece South Africa Shanghai is so easily accessible to me. You know what does Aharv? That no matter who you are, no matter how you get there, no matter the sun the rain, no matter what Rolling Stone tells you, no matter what your little Lower East Side blog tells you, at least once a year you can run to those open bowls of grass to hear waves upon waves of people asking you to come dance with them."

The moral of this story, folks, (not only is Jen one of the funniest/coolest people I've ever met) is surround yourself with people who know you and understand what you are trying to do in the world, because when you unexpectedly receive emails such as I did above, you realize that you truly have something cool going on, that you are having more of an impact than you thought, that you have friendship.**

Photo: Wall decorations at Duke's. Had a dinner event there and couldn't walk out of the place without a shot of the colors and the lines... and those delicious, delicious Nabisco morsels.

*Infamous Kimberly Ellek: One of the many great characters, born and bred in West Virginia, of Star Lake Ampitheatre, in humble Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

** When asking if I could post this email, Jen said, "I would be honored, in fact. I'm the small voice, you're the big eyes." She probably should be guest-lecturing at colleges.