Objet-d'art: I took this picture of the ice rink in Central Park last February. It presents itself like a Brueghel painting, full of a life that goes on as other life goes on elsewhere. Amidst the metropolis of New York and a world of banks and deals taking place high in the air, this little oasis in the park allows us to glide across frozen water. Don't you just love the juxtaposition: the fact that you can walk from here to the Metropolitan and Guggenheim, down Broadway, onto the NASDAQ in Lower Manhattan and then across the Brooklyn Bridge in less time than it takes to pull your ice skates on. This is the city I would most like to live in in the whole world. But its getting to the festive time of year and if we are talking about coming on Christmas and cutting down tree and skating over rivers, there is only one song (for me). I like to play this on guitar but also on mandolin on dark nights in front of the fire, when the house is asleep:
