Celebrating America with friends, fireworks and absinthe
OK, first off, what the hell is the deal with these ugly-ass waterfalls? There is one right outside my friends’ apartment and it looks like a water treatment facility made from the remnants of the scaffolding from Woodstock (circa 1969). Apparently it’s a large-scale piece of installation art meant as a tourist attraction. The problem of course is that they are quite hideous and located in areas where tourist would go anyway. All this for $15,000,000? So again, what’s the deal?
Anyway, all that aside, this was a fun night indeed. I was invited to be the de facto absinthe server at a Fourth of July party being thrown by the lovely Jennifer and Amanda of The Lost Girls. Hence the ‘Red, White, Blue and Green, theme. The night was filled with yummy food from a somewhat illegal grill (let’s leave it at that), Jell-O shots, music and a bottle of the green fairy courtesy of La Fée Absinthe.
I had a blast demonstrating the chemistry experiment that is serving the elixir. First, you pour a shot of absinthe into a glass. Then you balance a slotted spoon on the glass with a sugarcube on top. Finally, you slowly drip about 4 parts ice-cold water over the sugar, melting it into the glass. The resulting sweet yet spicy licorice concoction blended nicely with the burgers, pizza bagels, chips and dip.
Then came the traditional boom, boom, blast, bang. We all crowded onto the girls’ tiny balcony and watched, sheltered from the rain. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the fireworks from this East River vantage point. The display did seem smaller this year, but they introduced new shapes like cubes. Pretty impressive. You can see a blurry cube below. We then broke into impromptu patriotic singalongs that somehow devolved into a tribute to Garth Brooks.
After a round of applause–and a round of mocking all the poor slobs stuck in the rain on South Street–it was back inside for more absinthe induced revelry. Later it was off in a car service to the PATH. In Hoboken, I decided not to fight the drunk mob of cab seekers and I walked home. It turned out to be a nice night for it, now that the rain had stopped.
A note about the photos: Aside from the waterfalls and fireworks, I only took one other photo (my friend Dean serving absinthe). At some point, Amanda took over the photo taking duties. But then she was in some shots so I have no idea who took them. I’m not complaining. It gave me less to worry about all night.
