Last night was an epic lovefest of celebration and food and music and performance and good friends at Madigan and Todd's Aries house party, celebrating the birthdays of Mads and Ashley and Jane and all Aries fire spirits everywhere.

It was an amazing creative abundance, smiles and easy conversation and everyone warming up to the coming spring, gathering energy for the awakening, travel, and organizing that are almost already here. Some moments: multigenerational participation, a wonderful performance circle, Neil of Icarus NYU playing Angeles and a wonderful song his friend wrote that begins 'It's not right/when your mom calls the cops on you/' and just in general being the fire circle emcee, Julianna giving us a Red Hook (un)real estate tour, Madigan sneak-previewing a resounding new track from her upcoming album that had a circle of us singing "we've found the way to make love stay," repeted requests for bottle rockets, Todd covering Prince, Ashley belting out an incredible rendition of "Me And Bobby McGhee" that had the whole room shouting and hollering, hardy sailors of the Miss Rockaway Armada sharing tales of the salty sea, shockingly lively discussions of Lost/24/Alias/Battlestar Galactica/Heroes that risked excommunication from the church of punk rock (yo Madigan I even heard you chiming in about Sayid's school buddy and the CIA), Alicia celebrating Ashley with a sweet poem, Madigan, Sascha hanging out with a high school sweetheart, Will only spending  a few minutes in state of desperate terror (yay!), store-bought chemical log in a fire pit that nonetheless enchanted us with warmth and timeless light, Zapatista and Oaxaca struggle songs, geeky conversations about the Iphone and digital camera ISO ratings, five-year old girl Alice stealing the show with her freestyle ballads ("I have another really great story to tell..."), yam sushi and pear vinaigrette, benevolent  herb and not too obnoxious alcohol, a waxing nearly full glorious spring moon, someone requesting Cole Porter and A'yen leaping at the chance with a whole show tune routine, and so much more more more more. I got dizzy with how much joy was all around, and went to bed early (2am).

The highlight for me was celebrating my mom's 70th (!) birthday. She's way across the country in Kansas City so I mobilized a roomful of people to cheer "Happy Birthday Marilyn Sue!" into her voice mail. Happy birthday Mom, happy birthday Aries!

-- will