Author: Jeff Tabaco

Yesterday Thom and I had brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, David Greggory, whose Easter buffet has become sort of a tradition for us, three years running. It was a great meal (three kinds of bacon!), and they had the polenta that Thom loves so much. Mimosa? Don’t mind if I do! This is a photo of some of the desserts. Mmm, crème brûlée.

Afterwards we headed towards the National Gallery, and on the short walk from our parking spot, we noticed a building on Indiana Ave. (between 6th and 7th Sts.) that had stonework on three of the façades, but trompe l’oeil on the side that faced an alley. Neat. I did some web searching, and apparently the building was built in 1889, and the trompe l’oeil mural was painted in 1990 for what was at the time a branch of Riggs Bank. (Of course we stopped to take pictures.)

At the National Gallery we took a look at a number of exhibits: “Photographic Discoveries” (early photos from the 1840s to the 1940s), “Cezanne in Provence,” and “Dada.” One of the pieces in the latter exhibit is a re-creation of George Antheil’s eccentric score for the 1924 film Le Ballet mécanique; it calls for several player pianos and other mechanical devices. It has only recently been fully realized thanks to digital technology, which controls all the instruments. A portion of the score is played live twice each weekday, and once on Saturdays and Sundays, through May 9.

I liked a number of pieces in the exhibit. One of the motifs in Dadaism is the use of everyday things, and it makes me want to create some collages, maybe with all the theater and concert ticket stubs I’ve collected over the years or the Express papers I pick up every day.

Before finishing the day at the National Gallery sculpture garden (and Starbucks for a much-needed Frappucino), we stopped outside, in front of Marcel Duchamp’s mustachioed Mona Lisa, L.H.O.O.Q. As noted in the comments, we’re all goateed!

In all, a grand day out. Thom‘s and my photos from the day are up on Flickr.

I’ve been checking out the new Google Calendar, which seems pretty slick (or I’m just seduced by the pretty colors and rounded corners, which is likely). Thom and I are continually looking at various calendar applications to help organize and integrate our individual schedules. Most recently we’ve been kicking the tires at 30 Boxes.

But getting back to Google, I remembered that I’ve been meaning to ask: anyone want a Gmail invitation? (Signing up for Gmail involves using a code obtained either from a current user or from Google via your cell phone.) Seriously, I have loads of them. I suppose they’re a dime a dozen these days, but I might as well put them up for grabs. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you’re interested. I used to use my ISP’s web interface to manage my e-mail, but I migrated to Gmail sometime last year and haven’t looked back.

A few weeks ago at Ford’s Theatre we saw Shenandoah, starring Scott Bakula as the patriarch of a Virginia family reluctantly drawn into the Civil War. I thought it was well done and entertaining, and Scott Bakula was perfect in the role. It even had me swelling with pride, momentarily, for my adopted state of Vuh-gin-ya (which of course I had to pronounce with a Southern accent for days after, mimicking the characters in the show). I hadn’t known anything about Shenandoah (or the movie it’s based on) going in, so the book and score were new to me; my only quibble is with the plot: a couple of points in the second act seemed a bit forced or uneven. Still, it’s an engaging show–and eerily reflective of America’s contemporary wartime situation, as it probably was when it originally appeared on Broadway in 1975–and what better place to have it than Ford’s Theatre? The set is dominated by a huge picture frame with the inscription “The Nation Mourns,” and you can’t help but look up to the right and see the box where President Abraham Lincoln was shot on this day in 1865, as if it were an extension of the set.

Scott Bakula appears in the lead role through Apr. 30; Brian Sutherland then takes over through the end of the run, May 21.

» Previously: Last year we went to Ford’s Theatre to see the excellent Deaf West Theatre production of Big River. Both Shenandoah and Big River were directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun.

Last night on the Metro, in the tunnel between Metro Center and Gallery Place I caught a glimpse of the recently installed “moving” ads, developed by Submedia. They’re made up of a long series of backlit photos that seem to come to life as you speed past them on the train. The ad I saw was for Travel Channel (but on the crowded Metro car I only saw a corner of one of the ads and at the time thought it was for clothing); it’s due to be changed out in a month.

My inclination is usually against more advertising, and actually it might be nicer to have art in the tunnels instead of ads, but I have to admit the zoetropishness of it all is cool in a retrofuturistic kind of way. “Ooh, look at the moving pictures!”

I almost hesitate to write this lest I jinx it, but let’s try this again: we’re going to London! Thom and I had been thinking of destinations for a possible vacation in April (like a cruise or a road trip), and we finally thought, why not revive our previously thwarted trip to London? We’d done all that research on sights and so forth; why not get back up on that horse and have another go?

Our plan is to be there the last few days of April and the first couple days of May (which incidentally makes it sort of a pre-birthday trip). We’re taking a different tack on arrangements this time: I’ve reserved a couple of business-class tickets (or “BusinessFirst,” in Continental Airlines parlance) using some of the frequent flyer miles I’d been hoarding. Might as well redeem those miles and travel in style, right? And Thom has made a reservation at the City Inn Westminster, a chic and well-reviewed hotel that today came through on a promise to beat a lower rate we found on Expedia and other sites. So we’re right chuffed.

» See also: Thom, back in blogging business, beats me to the scoop.

The New York Times has redesigned its website. It’s a bit cleaner, but my one peeve is this: they’ve “expanded the page to take advantage of the larger monitors now used by the vast majority of our readers.” I guess I’m in the minority, then, because I prefer 1024-by-768 resolution on my modestly sized home and work computer screens, and the layout of the new Times site is too wide to be completely visible, unless the window is maximized, which I don’t tend to do. (The Washington Post site is similarly wide.) Oh, well. The most important content is on the left, anyway. I’ll get used to it. (Via NewsDesigner.com.)

Aside: As a typophile, I’ll mention that the main nytimes.com text font has changed from Times New Roman (or Times) to Georgia. You know I do love old-style numerals. Another computer font that has them is Hoefler Text, which I used on my blog a while back.

I love Kathy Griffin. If you haven’t seen her TV series or stand-up comedy specials on Bravo (Allegedly is also on DVD), you’re missing out on some hilarious stuff. Now and then I would check her website to see if she’s coming to town, but lately she kind of dropped off my radar. (Sorry, Kathy!) And wouldn’t you know just when I let my guard down, today Thom saw an ad in the Blade for an upcoming D.C. appearance and tickets went on sale yesterday! I hied myself over to Ticketmaster and took care of that immediately. The details: Warner Theatre on Sunday, June 4, at 8 p.m.

Shall we make buttons that say “honorary main gays“?

Monday was a beautiful but brisk day, and after work Thom and I met up at the Tidal Basin for a little photowalk among the cherry blossoms. It had been early in the blooming period, so most of the trees weren’t completely in bloom. (Right now is the peak time, I think.)

One thing I like about my new digital camera is its ability to get a shallow depth of field (where only a small bit of distance is in focus), something I couldn’t control on my older, more basic camera. The photo above has the Jefferson Memorial in the background. The sun was near setting, so we had precious little light to work with, but the sunset did make for some nice shots. The rest of my photos are up on Flickr.

Afterwards we walked through the new-ish World War II Memorial, but unfortunately none of my photos there came out very well. By then it was very dark with little ambient light on the Mall, and I was having trouble changing the settings to get the proper exposure. (Thom has some neat photos of it in his batch.) I like that memorial; with its open space and fountain surrounded by columns and arches, it has the feel of an old-world town square, like an Italian piazza.

By the way, after a lengthy hiatus from blogging, Thom has relaunched his website. It’s minty fresh!