Saturday. In The Park.

Yesterday’s glorious sunshine allowed us to renew our favorite warm weather tradition, lazy Saturday afternoons spent sprawled above Central Park’s roller disco. The DJ starts up around 2PM, beaming old school disco and R&B classics to a wireless speaker system, while a crazy group of show-offs and eccentrics perform tricks and roller-boogie around. We spotted most of our favorites yesterday: Bottlehead, Bladey Flowness, Energizer Bunny, and Disco Grandma.

By the end of last summer, we were having 20 or more friends show up for our lazy picnics, smuggling white wine in Sprite bottles and usually getting slightly loaded before the DJ packs it in around 6pm. (OK, sometimes more than “slightly” loaded. The boys are still telling the story of when your humble narrator drunkenly climbed on the statue of Balto and shouted, “The dingo ate my baby!” My life, lived in quiet dignity.)

There are no leaves on the trees yet, so our usually shady spot on Bear Hill actually got us a bit sunburned. (Father Tony insists that we call our spot “Blogger Hill”, but that just doesn’t have as nice a ring.) The Central Park Dance Skaters Association sets up every weekend day, weather permitting. Some of the best things in NYC are free. Embiggen for the proof.