So Lee calls me from the corner and has an hour to kill before going uptown to meet a client. He comes over and the lights go out and the pesky UPS's are screaming so I shut down the computers. The East Village substation had a fire a year ago, it must be the same nonsense. We chat for two hours into the late afternoon sun. Time for Lee to go, we open the door and the neighbor (X) tells us there is no power on the whole eastern seaboard, didn't we know?? Hmm. Anyway Lee leaves for his meeting. Lee comes back half an hour later with two bottles of wine, his clients are on the 17th floor and there is no way he is going there. So arms full with candles and wine and whatever is in the fridge we walk to the roof and set ourselves down. Half the building is already there. This is a New York Apartment building and I recognize many, we've been saying hello for a decade, I say hello again. And then, we all start talking to each other, we share wine and spirits and water and whatever anyone had in their fridge they feel nervous about. There is plenty of talking, there are dogs running around and children to introduce, jobs to define and building gossip to finally exhale. The East Village is dark, like a dark sea, with a few flickering lights here and there. It gets darker, later. The super comes up and wonders if we shouldn't go, its 2am. So slowly we descend back to our gloomy apartments, finding yet another enlightening use for those marvelous mobiles. roof, powercut