Author: Jeff Tabaco

Rufus Wainwright’s creativity continues to amaze me. On Sunday we saw the the Stephen Petronio Company perform a selection of dance pieces at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, which we were especially excited to see since Rufus was involved in a couple of them. I like to say I knew Rufus when, back when a bunch of us followed his tour to venues big and small, and it’s been great to see him on the rise and branching out into all sorts of projects.

For Bloom, he composed music for selected poems of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, along with “Lux aeterna” from the Latin Mass; the music is mostly Rufus’s recorded overdubbed voice, and also calls for live choral accompaniment. The performance we saw included the participation of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, who sang from the box seats. Bud Suite is set to four Rufus songs (“Oh What a World,” “Vibrate,” “This Love Affair,” and “Agnus Dei”).

All of the pieces were really great (the dancing is energetic, and made me experience Rufus’s music in a new way, as did Matthew Neenan’s suite 11:11 a few years ago). I think my favorite is the final part of Bloom, a bright and lovely burst of antiphony set to Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers”:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Here is a WNYC recording of it with Rufus and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City:

Saturday Night Live‘s digital short from last week is a parody of an exercise show, with Drew Barrymore and the SNL women: Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig. It’s hilarious.

Ha, the hair and leotards, the rad fonts, the low videotape quality. Love it. It sort of reminds me that in my sophomore year of college a few people in my dorm would get together in the lounge every now and then to workout to exercise videos. Half the fun was watching those cheesy, dated tapes (and making up backstories for the people in them).

Last Sunday Thom and I went to San Francisco to watch the arrival of the luxury ocean liner Queen Mary 2. The only thing was the crowds and the lack of parking, so Thom dropped me off near the Palace of Fine Arts, and he drove to his office at Laurel Heights where there was sure to be open parking. I walked towards the water and staked out a spot among the spectators at the beach at Crissy Field.

When the ship first appeared in the distance, I didn’t think it looked unusually large, but when it barely slipped under the Golden Gate Bridge, I realized, that’s one big ship! It was surrounded by several small boats in the bay, and helicopters were flying overhead. It was quite a sight. (More photos.)

Last week it occurred to me that I hadn’t been to Trader Joe’s in a long while, so when I went on my periodic supermarket run at Westlake, instead of going to Safeway, I went to the Trader Joe’s located just on the other side of the shopping area. Parking is a pain over there, but at that end you can combine your trip with a leisurely browse at Cost Plus World Market upstairs, the new Linens ‘n Things next door, or Starbucks across the street, which I was almost tempted to visit. (Momentary reverie: Westlake has changed so much since I was a kid! While I have fond memories of the Woolworth’s and J. C. Penney there — oh, and going to Straw Hat Pizza with my grandparents — the whole place used to be a bit sleepy and rundown.)

Before I set out, I browsed the Trader Joe’s website and found a quick recipe for pizza, which we made that night. Granted, most of the ingredients are pre-processed and packaged, but it was fast and easy to make and very yummy. Here’s the recipe (PDF), which makes four individual pizzas:

1 package frozen tandoori naan (regular or garlic flavor)
1 jar vegetable tapenade
1 package chevre
fresh cilantro (chopped)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place frozen naan on cookie sheets and warm in oven for 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven and spread a thin layer of chevre on each naan. Next, spread a light layer of tapenade over the chevre. Sprinkle with cilantro and place back in oven for 5-10 more minutes or until chevre is softened and pizza is hot. Cut into finger-friendly slices and enjoy!

The tapenade I found at the store was roasted red pepper and artichoke; I bet pesto would be great too. You know I love pesto.

I’d forgotten the quirky delight of shopping at Trader Joe’s. I’ll have to go back more often!

I got back Sunday night from ALA in Seattle. It was a good mix of conference meetings and exhibits, and free time for seeing a few of the sights. Here’s a recap (I’ll go easy on the work stuff and heavy on the travel stuff):

My home for the weekend was the Westin (if you’re familiar with the Seattle skyline, it’s the pair of cylindrical towers). It’s a pretty nice hotel. My advice is to ask for a high floor if available; I hadn’t thought about it beforehand, and my room was only on the tenth floor, its view being mostly other buildings and the roof of the lobby. I checked in Friday evening, quickly perused some of the exhibits at the convention center, and came back to the hotel lobby for drinks and appetizers with co-workers.

On Saturday morning I attended the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) update, which had a couple of interesting speakers, and then Tina, Danielle, and I walked down to Pike Place Market in search of lunch and had some good sushi at Japanese Gourmet. Later back at the convention center, we perused the exhibits some more, and I picked up a lot of swag: uncorrected proofs and advance copies of books that publishers give away for free. As if I don’t already have enough to read! We went to another meeting (GODORT International Documents Task Force) in the afternoon, and that rounded out the work day.

With some time to kill before drinks and dinner, we went to the Space Needle and tried to go to the observation deck, but it was closed for a private party. Boo! Still we walked around and took photos. Danielle has Space Needle hair!

After that detour we had a round of beers at Kells, a lively Irish pub (we were there around 8 o’clock, before it got really crowded), and then met up with more co-workers for dinner at Etta’s, an excellent seafood restaurant just north of Pike Place Market.

Pike Place was within walking distance of the hotel, so it seemed to be our go-to place for food. On Sunday morning we wandered around the market, stopping in at various places, including the very first Starbucks location. We got a bite to eat at Piroshky-Piroshky, wandered around some more, and then split up for more meetings. We regrouped for lunch at La Crêperie Voilà just outside the convention center; then Danielle and I, avenging the previous night’s shutout, monorailed to Seattle Center and went to the top of the Space Needle. Lastly as we walked through Westlake Center I saw a Dilettante cafe, and remembering the chocolatey goodness of their Broadway location from my last Seattle trip, I had to stop in and have a piece of cake.

Whew! Pretty soon I was back at the airport for my Alaska Airlines flight home. It was an exhausting but very well-spent weekend. I’m glad I went. (Oh, I have to also mention that a lot of coffee was consumed that weekend. I don’t think I’ve had so much Starbucks in so little time!)

My photos are up on Flickr (more in my Seattle set).

So I’m here in Seattle. On the way from the airport to the hotel, I saw a guy on the street holding a sign that said something like “MY FATHER WAS KILLED BY A NINJA / NEED MONEY FOR KARATE LESSONS.” (Perhaps, in fact, this guy.)

Heh. How can you argue with that?

Tomorrow I’m off to Seattle for a conference, the ALA Midwinter Meeting. (ALA, as in American Library Association. I know, exciting stuff.) Our company usually has a big presence at these things, as many of its products, like the one I work on, are research tools marketed to college libraries. I don’t travel much for business, much less go to trade shows in general, so I’m looking forward to it. Also some of my co-workers from the Bethesda office will be there, and I’ll get to see them again. (As you may know, although I work from home in California, the company is based in Maryland.) Bring on the bibliophilic geekery!

» Previously: Thom’s and my trip to Seattle in May 2005.

A couple of my Flickr photos have been included in a Yahoo! News audio slideshow on “Faces of the Fallen,” an art exhibit at Arlington National Cemetery that consists of individual portraits of about 1,300 American service men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thom and I visited the exhibit in September 2005, and it was a moving experience. Check out the feature; my photos are the third and sixth in the series. (My thanks go to Yahoo! producer Nova Safo.)

As I noted in my earlier blog entry about the exhibit, in addition to thinking about the human toll of the war, I was amazed at the beauty of the portraits themselves (created by more than 200 artists) and moved by the many mementos that loved ones had left. For example, one note reads,

My son,
I love you so much! You have made me the “proudest” dad in the world. I wish you were home with me — I am so alone with just memories!
Love you forever
Dad

» Previously: Last year the Schmap travel guide for Philadelphia used a skyscraper photo of mine; other Creative Commons applications of my Flickr photos include a survey poster for University of Victoria Libraries and an audio slideshow on WNYC’s New Deal murals.