Author: Jeff Tabaco

I just read about this Mac application called Delicious Library (link via Amanita.net):

Run your very own library from your home or office using our impossibly simple interface. Delicious Library’s digital shelves act as a visual card-catalog of your books, movies, music and video games. A scan of a barcode is all Delicious Library needs to add an item to your digital shelves, downloading tons of info from the internet like the author, release date, current value, description, and even a high-resolution picture of the cover. Import your entire library using our exclusive full-speed iSight video barcode scanner, our Flic® Wireless Laser Bar Code Scanner, or (the slow way) entering the titles by hand. Once you have all of your items in your Mac, you can browse though your digital shelves, check stuff out to friends using Apple’s built-in Address Book and calendar, and find new items to read, watch, and play using Library’s recommendations.

Cool! This would totally satisfy my library fascination.

Today is Remembrance Day (Veterans Day here in the States).

Woke up this morning at 11:11
Wasn’t in Portland and I wasn’t in heaven
Could have been either by the way I was feeling
But I was alive, I was alive
Woke up this morning at 11:11
John was half-naked and Lulu was crying
Over a baby that will never go crazy
But I was alive
And kicking through this cruel world
Holding a notion of you at 11:11
Tell me what else can I do
What else can I do
Woke up this morning and something was burning
Realized that everything really does
Happen in Manhattan
Thoughts were of characters and afternoons lying
And you, you were alive
Oh the hours we are separate
11:11 is just precious time we’ve wasted
So patch up your bleeding hearts
And put away your posies
I’m gonna have a drink
Before we ring around the rosies with you

» “11:11,” Want One, Rufus Wainwright.

Words you never thought you’d read in a national review for a family holiday movie (in this case, The Polar Express):

Tots surely won’t recognize that Santa’s big entrance in front of the throngs of frenzied elves and awe-struck children directly evokes, however unconsciously, one of Hitler’s Nuremberg rally entrances in Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. But their parents may marvel that when Santa’s big red sack of toys is hoisted from factory floor to sleigh it resembles nothing so much as an airborne scrotum.

Must scrub brain…

» “Do You Hear Sleigh Bells? Nah, Just Tom Hanks and Some Train,” New York Times, 10 Nov. 2004 (via Naked Came I).
» Speaking of which, “The Uncanny Valley, or why Polar Express is so creepy” (via kottke.org).

Let’s play catch-up, shall we? So, on Sunday we saw The Incredibles. It rocks. Go read Thom’s review, then run out and see this movie. By the way, if I ever accumulate enough resources to have a professional design my dream home, my first question to him or her will be, “Have you seen The Incredibles?” Seriously, I want a tiki dining room with freakin’ lava flowing down one wall.

After the movie we went to Target, where one moment we were lamenting the creeping of the holidays earlier and earlier into the year, and the next moment we were buying Christmas stockings with classic Pooh and Piglet on them. Aww.

While at Target we went through the toy section, and I couldn’t tear myself away from the Bratz dolls, especially the “boyz.” Have you seen these? I suppose they’re marketed to pre-teen girls, but as a gay man Barbie-deprived as a child, I’m totally going to buy myself one for Christmas. (Watch, next thing you know I’ll be making clothes for them.) In all, I guess it was a day to be a kid.

Late Sunday night, however, I got sick with some stomach-related something (man, it was a bad scene), and stayed home the next day. By Tuesday I was feeling better, but even now I’m still a bit tired, which is why I haven’t been writing this week.

Tomorrow night–Thom has the day off, grr–we’re going to the Kennedy Center for Washington National Opera’s production of Il Trovatore. It’s the first outing, if you will, of their GLBT program, Out @ the Opera. Should be fun.

Whew. And last but not least: happy birthday, Dad!

Rufus’ cover of “Across the Universe” is being used in a couple of TV commercials for Canon digital cameras. A hat tip goes to Kesha for pointing it out on the Rufus message board. The commercials, created by New York-based design studio Suspect, can be viewed on its website: “Color Montage–Elph” and “Color Montage–A Series” (Quicktime). Cool! In some way I’m now a little prouder of my Canon A20. (The advertising endorphins are working.)

Last night Thom and I met up at Best Cellars in Dupont for a wine tasting held in conjunction with Washington National Opera. One of their current productions is Luisa Fernanda, a zarzuela, so the featured wines for the evening were from Spain. After having been delayed on the Metro getting there, I was glad to just chill and take it easy, sipping wine. Then we checked out some of the art galleries in the area. On the first Friday of each month, a consortium of Dupont galleries holds receptions from 6-8 p.m. It can get kind of crowded, but it’s a lively way to take in a lot of art (and people-watching) in an evening. One place I especially enjoyed was Burdick Gallery, which specializes in Inuit (Canadian Eskimo) art. They have some really great prints and sculpture.

For dinner we went to Thai Chef on Connecticut Avenue. We’ve passed this place a few times and have been meaning to try it. To start we had chive dumplings, and for the entrée I had cashew chicken and fried rice: all very tasty. The chicken was slightly spicy, just right for me. (I have a low tolerance for spicy foods, whereas Thom likes it hot.) When we had arrived, there were only a few other diners on the top floor where we were, but by the time we finished our meal, the room was so crowded and it took a long while to flag down a waiter for our check.

Afterwards we made a stop at Starbucks. I’m big on their seasonal items, so I got a pumpkin spice latte. Yum.

Have a great weekend, kids.

» Previously: we had a similar evening of art and dining in May.

You know I love maps. Here’s one I’ve been waiting to see for the past couple of days. Created by Robert J. Vanderbei of Princeton, it’s a county-by-county election map, shaded in gradations of red (Republican) and blue (Democrat), which ends up rendering much of the U.S. in purple, rather than just the two familiar, stark colors. (Link via Glen Engel-Cox.)

Another map, which appeared in the Post, combines a bar chart and a map to display the margin of victory in each county. The higher the bar, the more decisive the outcome. It shows that Bush’s winning counties were spread out across the country; while Kerry won in fewer counties, his margin of victory was sometimes much greater. (Link via genehack‘s comment on Now This.)

Yet another kind of map I like scales geographic areas to population, or in this case, votes. The Times has one like this in its election results (requires Flash; under “view map according to:” click on “electoral votes”). See also a couple of features on Jonathan Corum’s style.org, where he maps out the Iowa caucuses and last year’s special gubernatorial election in California, scaling counties according to votes and shading according to candidate.

Geeks unite!

Partly because I don’t want my bleak entries on Kerry’s concession and the Metro crash to sit at the top of the homepage for too long, I’ll cheer myself up by posting one of my favorite photos from Thom’s and my trip to the Bay Area a couple of weeks ago. Here he is at Stanford, which we visited for my college reunion.

I know, I haven’t gotten around to writing a trip report yet. Thom has done an awesome job recapping days one and two, so maybe it’s up to me to write up the rest?