Author: Jeff Tabaco

Yay, yesterday we got some snow! It wasn’t much, just a light dusting, but I’ll take any snow I can get.

Here’s a photo I took this morning from our balcony, looking out onto the pool area. If you squint (or just click the photo to enlarge), you can see the lifeguard chair, off to the right, seeming out of place in the snow.

So the gift wrapping for charity at Barnes & Noble, which I mentioned the other day, was pretty fun. I didn’t think there would be many customers at all, but enough people came by the table to balance out the lulls and keep me and my co-worker busy, and we got a decent amount of donations for Hospice Caring. I enjoy wrapping presents so it was a good time. (And each time I tore a new sheet of paper from the paper dispensers, I thought, I totally have to get one of these. I’m such a paperphile.) But anyway we wrapped all sorts of things. One guy had me wrap a DVD of Home Movies, and I couldn’t help saying, “I love Home Movies!”

By the way, Christmas music was playing over the loudspeaker in the store, and I have to give kudos to whoever programs the music for including The McGarrigle Christmas Hour in the mix. All of a sudden, I was like, “Whoa, it’s Rufus!” (Come to think of it, it was at that very Barnes & Noble a few years ago that I bought Poses, while the album was playing over the speakers. Ah, buying CDs in a store. How quaint.)

Here I am! I got back to D.C. late Monday night, but even later than expected, more like 2 a.m. And I’ve spent all week in a sleepy jetlagged haze, made worse by the remnants of a sore throat/cold-like thing I caught last week. I’m so glad it’s the weekend.

I’ve been uploading my photos from the trip that my parents, my aunt, and I took to Las Vegas last week. Here are a few: me at Hoover Dam, which we drove to on our second day there; and the fountains at Bellagio, dancing to “All That Jazz.” The photos don’t do them justice, but those fountains really are impressive in person. Other photos are in my Las Vegas set on Flickr, with more to come when I get around to it.

Like I said, this week has been a sleepy haze, especially at the office, where I’ve been catching up on stuff for looming year-end deadlines. By the way, speaking of work, one of the many volunteer projects that our company does is holiday gift wrapping for charity. So if any of you D.C.-area locals are in Bethesda, stop by Barnes & Noble (on the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues); gift wrapping of your store-bought items is free, but donations are appreciated and will benefit Hospice Caring, Inc., a hospice organization serving Montgomery County, Md. I’ll be wrapping this Monday afternoon between 1 and 4 p.m. (I know, my timeslot isn’t exactly prime shopping time); come say hello!

It was nice to end the work week yesterday and go to Dupont to visit John at Studio 2000 for my periodic haircut; thus I’m no longer as shaggy as shown here. (Thom also got his hair cut there later that evening.) As much as I like having long hair, once it reaches a certain length, it’s frustrating to deal with and I’m so glad to get rid of it.

This afternoon we got in the seasonal mood at the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington‘s holiday concert, “FabYULEus!” Afterwards we came back to Pentagon City for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, then window shopping at the mall followed by hot drinks at Starbucks. Mmm.

Hope everyone’s having a great weekend!

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT — So after numerous tries, I finally got my iBook to access the T-Mobile wi-fi here at SFO. I’m on my way back to D.C. on American Airlines, but my first flight is delayed, cutting down my connection time in Dallas to 30 minutes. (And here I thought I was smart in choosing a Dallas connection over one in Chicago, which is experiencing weather delays.) The airline agent I talked to seemed to think I’d be okay on my scheduled flights, so we’ll see.

It’s been a fun week; stories and photos are forthcoming when I get back. And sleep.

[Update: DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT — Well. I guess I needn’t have worried. My connecting flight is delayed as well (there’s definitely some kind of ripple effect going on), so it’s not quite the time crunch I expected. But this means I won’t get to D.C. until around 1 a.m. Sigh, almost there.]

A recap of the last few days:

Thursday was our company Thanksgiving potluck; oh my, there was a lot of food. I brought pumpkin-apple muffins, made from a recipe I’ve tried a few times before (Epicurious.com). After work, I went with some co-workers to happy hour at Mon Ami Gabi; they have a selection of $5 appetizers and half-price wines. I had a generous portion of salmon burger with frites, along with some pinot noir, all for under $10. And a small jazz band started playing at 7 p.m., making it a perfect place for dinner and music. Afterwards we met up with Adam and some other folks at Union Jack’s, a British pub, for a few rounds of pool. I merely watched the game and drank my Boddington’s; I suck at pool.

On Friday night, Thom and I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I tell you, I’ve been so out of the Harry Potter loop, that afterwards I had to ask Thom a whole bunch of questions about the characters and the story. The movie was pretty good, but I realized: Harry, I’m just not that into you. Maybe if I actually read the books (I’ve only read the first two), I’d be more engaged with the characters. (By the way, in this movie there seems to be a tendency among the main male characters towards shaggy hair; I myself have grown mine long out of laziness. I think I can now just say I have “Weasley hair.”)

On Saturday night we went to see public-radio star Ira Glass. He gave a great talk about storytelling and the power of radio. He had his soundboard with him, and highlighted his talk with music and taped quotes, just like he does on This American Life. As always, the man is awesome and his enthusiasm is inspirational. (Previously: “Lost in America.”) And hello to PJ, whom I met before the show started. It’s great meeting bloggers in the “real world”!

Today I’m off to the west coast for the next week. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll be visiting my folks in Daly City, Calif., and my parents and I will be on a side trip in Las Vegas for the few days before Thanksgiving. Blogging here may be light this week (depending on how their dial-up connection decides to behave). Have a great week, and a happy Thanksgiving!

Thom and I had a lovely day out last Saturday. In the afternoon we went to Finland… well, just the embassy, to see “Sauma,” an exhibit on contemporary Finnish design. Located on Massachusetts Avenue across the street from the U.S. Naval Observatory and the Vice President’s residence, the embassy itself is a great work of modern design, with its industrial look set against the surrounding forest. “Sauma” is made up of 15 innovative installations. Pictured below are the Kuutio futon (a cube-shaped mattress with a zipper running along the edges, which can be opened up and configured into a chair, a bench, etc.) and “Air,” an “urban olfactory installation” (three bubbles that evoke the identity of three different cities through sight and smell).

The weather was pleasant, so afterwards we took a walk around the area and looked at the stately embassies and houses. We came across a lightly forested area and took the road down into it (Fulton Avenue), which turned out to be Normanstone Park (the back of the Finnish Embassy looks out onto it).

The rest of my photos are up on Flickr.

We drove to Dupont Circle and had an early dinner of lamb dishes at Skewers (a great Middle Eastern restaurant on P Street), then had drinks at Starbucks, and finally we walked over to our main event of the evening, The Kinsey Sicks, “America’s favorite dragapella beautyshop quartet,” at the Carnegie Institution (which is a lovely, but unlikely venue for the group; the auditorium, with its art-deco cartographic murals and phases-of-the-moon lighting fixtures, seems like the perfect place to instead hear a lecture on geographic expeditions). The Kinsey Sicks were hilarious as always, and have a special place in our hearts, as Thom and I first met at their gig at the Birchmere in 2003. Their current show, which was presented by One in Ten’s “Laugh Out Loud,” centers on politics and takes the guise of a Republican Party function. We also got to see and hear the “new” Trixie, and she is fabulous.

It was a grand day out!

Although I use the Pentagon City metro station every weekday, it’s been a while since I’ve actually gone up into the adjacent shopping mall. Tonight I decided to do some window shopping, and upon entering, this is what I saw:

It’s Christmas! There must be some kind of retail arms race every year to see who can get their decorations up first. Has Halloween become the new start of the Christmas season? Outside leaves are still falling from the trees, but inside it’s all yuletide and ringing of the (cash register) bells. I mean, I love the winter holidays, but I’d like to enjoy at least some autumn first!

Just a quick rundown of some of this month’s events:

• Nov. 1: Chicken Little. I had won tickets for an advance screening in D.C. The movie has its moments (supported by a great cast, including the lovable Zach Braff), but I think the writing lacks the depth that helps other animated features be more than just kids’ movies.
• Nov. 6: Porgy and Bess at the National Mall. The Washington National Opera’s matinee performance at the Kennedy Center was broadcast live to a giant screen on the Mall, where thousands of people (including me) sat on the lawn and enjoyed the show. Other than a few of the more popular songs like “Summertime,” I didn’t know Porgy and Bess at all beforehand, so it was great to finally see it. I nearly got all teary at the end. Oh, Bess, why you done him wrong?
• Nov. 8: Election Day. To get informed about the candidates and the issues, I watched the televised debate on Sunday night. Oh wait, no. That was The West Wing. Seriously, I stopped watching the show years ago, but this season it’s sucked me back in.
• Nov. 12: The Kinsey Sicks, performing as part of One in Ten’s Laugh Out Loud series, at the Carnegie Institution.
• Nov. 19: Ira Glass, host of This American Life, at Lisner Auditorium.
• Thanksgiving week: I’ll be visiting my folks in the Bay Area, and taking a side trip with them to Las Vegas for a few days. My high-school reunion also takes place that week in San Francisco (two words: open bar).

Thom and I may try and catch Cavalia, an equestrian-inspired show produced by one of the founders of Cirque du Soleil. The show has set up camp near Pentagon City and runs through Nov. 23.

Last week, I was contacted by the Archives and Preservation unit of public radio station WNYC, asking permission to use a photo of mine (showing the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which they had found on Flickr. (With many people on Flickr licensing their photos through Creative Commons, Flickr is not just a photo album, but also becoming a rich and rapidly expanding repository of stock photography.) They wanted to include my photo as a context shot in a multimedia slideshow about a series of WPA murals painted for the station in the 1930s; one of the murals, by Stuart Davis, is now housed at the Met. I just received word that the slideshow is now complete and on the web. Cool! It’s some really interesting stuff. Check it out (requires Flash).

Below are the original photo and a screenshot of the slideshow; my photo appears briefly near the end of the first chapter.