Hello.
My name is Jeff, and I live in Daly City, California. I work as an editor for an academic publisher based in Bethesda, Maryland.
On vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo by Thom Watson.
I went to Stanford (go Cardinal!), and my bachelor’s degree is in international relations. In college was also involved in several musicals by Ram’s Head Theatrical Society. In the summer of 2000 I moved from California to the Washington, D.C., area to start work with my current employer.
While living on the East Coast, I met Thom, and he and I have been together for about 16 years now. We lived in Arlington, Virginia, up until June 2006, when we (and our cat Alex) moved across the country, back to my hometown of Daly City, to start yet another chapter in our life together. We were featured in a San Francisco Chronicle article on people who have moved back to their childhood homes in the Bay Area: “Finding your way back home” (February 24, 2007).
On February 13, 2009, Thom and I registered as domestic partners in the state of California, and we held a commitment ceremony on September 26. In light of Proposition 8, we became activists for marriage equality, and when that right returned to California in 2013, we got legally married on our anniversary that year, September 26.
And this is my site.
My website went online as rebelprince.com on September 23, 2001, and I started blogging in January 2002. About seven years later, I migrated the content to its current domain, jefftabaco.com. It is hosted at DreamHost and powered by WordPress.
The site’s name (and previous URL), Rebel Prince, is inspired by the song by Rufus Wainwright:
Where is my master the rebel prince
Who will shut all of these windows
It’s these windows all around me
It’s these windows who are telling me
To rid my dirty mind of all of its preciousnessWhere is my master the rebel prince
Bet breaking everything trying to get to me
In this two-bit hotel
Just to me before this windowsill
Does rid my dirty mind of all of its preciousnessOh I can see him now
Though it’s so far away
Amongst the roving crowd
Going the other way
Confounded anger burning with love for meOù est mon maître le prince rebelle
Qui va fermer toutes ces fenêtres
Ce sont ces fenêtres autour de moi
Ce sont ces fenêtres qui m’appellent,
Qui m’appellentMarigold, Marigold, Marigold
I’m leaving the Roosevelt hotel
Marigold, Marigold, Marigold
I’m leaving the room we knew so wellMarigold, Marigold, Marigold