Well, parts of May were a quite noisy... Noisy Le Grand, to be exact! Not only the name of a quaint town in France, this band featured sexy birthday-boy Steve Masur, who didn't look a day over 39, for a special show at Siberia.
Before the band got started, and we could all still hear, I got to chat for a bit with Mission Assurance Corporation's Henry Bar-levav and Michael Tiffany. Meanwhile, Steve Filler was filling the time talking with attorney Deborah Newman as Bonnie Halper was hanging out with other old-timer, old-school new media people.
I briefly spotted Mark Palermo and he wrote me the next day telling me about his friend Michele Cortese (cor-tay-see), a graduate of Columbia Law school who has spent the last 20+ years in public interest law, is now Deputy Director at the Center for Family Representation, Inc. This very worthy organization speaks to a cause close to my heart. He writes, "They provide legal and other support to families at risk when a government agency is investigating possible removal of children to foster care. Too many children get stuck in the foster care system, indefinitely, which isn't good for a child's development. This can be avoided by intervention before crisis point. That's where CFR steps in with parent advocates, social workers and legal help, to ensure that a family that's able to stay together has the chance to. Even the city agencies that CFR sometimes has to litigate against recognize that CFR is addressing a real problem in an innovative and effective way." I felt it was important enough to even mention here.
Otheriwse, it was like "the gang's all here," just a darker version of it! Happy Birthday Steve!