Author: Jeff Tabaco

Are we all ready for the Oscars? One hour to showtime! (Though seriously, I usually can’t stand the inane pre-show red-carpet coverage–can someone get me Kathy Griffin instead?–so I’m stepping away from the TV for now.) To be honest I’ve seen only about a handful of the nominated movies (in any category), and only one of the best picture nominees (Brokeback Mountain), which means I’m pretty clueless about most of the contenders. Mostly I’ll be watching for host Jon Stewart’s spiel and also waiting to see how Brokeback does.

By the way, lately Thom and I periodically amuse ourselves by inserting random names into Michelle Williams’ masterfully delivered “Jack Twist? Jack Nasty” line from Brokeback. “Santa Claus? Santa Nasty!” “Rebel Prince? Rebel Nasty.” Yeah, it doesn’t take much to amuse.

As the Rufus Wainwright fans among you probably already know, he will be putting on a concert at Carnegie Hall this June, performing the entire set that Judy Garland sang at her classic concert there in 1961. It’s audacious and perfect. Tickets went on sale yesterday morning, and I snagged us a pair of seats. We haven’t made concrete plans to go yet, but my MO (heh, “‘mo”) with Rufus has been to “book now, plan later.” I tell myself I can always sell the tickets later on if I don’t go, but in the end, it seems I always do go. I wasn’t too keen on it when the original concert date was announced for a Wednesday (June 14), but a second show has been added for the next day, which potentially makes it easier for us to get off work and turn it into a long weekend in New York.

“Gay Woodstock,” here we come.

» Previously: The only other time I’ve been to Carnegie Hall was in fact to see Rufus (and others, not the least of whom was David Bowie) at the annual Tibet House benefit concert two years ago.

I just want to say that both Thom and I appreciate all your kind words of support. It’s certainly been an emotional week, as I mentioned in my previous entry. We spent part of last week with Thom’s family in Covington, Va.; the funeral for his grandmother was on Tuesday. I’ve gotten to know Thom’s family a bit more each time I’ve visited, and while no one likes to meet under these circumstances, I’m glad I came along to lend whatever support I could. On Wednesday we drove back up to Arlington (where our well-traveled bags were waiting, thank goodness), and took the remainder of the week off to rest up.

So things are more or less back to normal. Although, I did re-watch Bridget Jones’s Diary on DVD yesterday and cried. Twice. That can’t be normal.

The long story short: This London trip was not meant to be, not this time.

The long story, though still abridged: On Friday, after lengthy weather delays, a heart-pounding run between terminals at JFK, a missed connection, futile standby lists on oversold flights, and unbelievably frayed nerves, we were rebooked by American Airlines on a flight to London for Sunday night, two days after our originally scheduled departure. What’s more was that our baggage did make the connection and had flown to London without us. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we would lose two days of our vacation, stranded at an airport hotel in New York without our bags.

However, Saturday morning Thom found out that his grandmother had died the night before. She had been seriously ailing for some time, and earlier this week her condition took a turn for the worse, and so it was then only a matter of days. He planned to forgo the trip and go see his family for the funeral, and he encouraged me to go on to London without him. I was at a loss. I went back and forth between not wanting to go alone versus feeling like I could or should go through with it. I didn’t know what to do. We agonized over it all afternoon, often tearfully, each of us blaming ourselves for the seemingly desperate situation and for the disappointment of our canceled trip.

In the end I decided not to go to London; in the next few days Thom and I will go to Covington for his grandmother’s funeral. We put it in perspective: there will be plenty of time for other trips. London will always be there. Anything we lost is not worth the anguish, and the important thing right now is that we be together.

So we checked out of the hotel, and went to the baggage office at JFK, where we asked them to recall our bags from Heathrow and deliver them to our home address. We took the subway to Penn Station, Amtrak to Washington, D.C., metro to Arlington, and a taxi back to the condo, where we are glad to be home. It feels like two of the longest days of my life.

Thom and I are off to London! Our first leg is a short flight this afternoon to JFK (I think the last time I’ve been to JFK itself was when my parents and I visited New York when I was a kid), and from there we’re on an overnight transatlantic flight to Heathrow.

As you can see, my website banner is all Union Jacked up for the occasion. I’ll try to write here and post photos on Flickr while we’re on holiday, as they say.

See you across the pond!

The Mac version of Google Earth had previously required OS X Tiger (10.4), but now the minimum requirement is 10.3.9. Sweet! I had been living vicariously through Thom’s installation of Google Earth on his PC, but now I can explore the earth on my iBook, which is still on 10.3.9. (Thanks to The Map Room for the heads-up.) I downloaded it the other night, and had to tear myself away after a while lest I stay up to the wee hours.

If you haven’t used Google Earth before, you really have to check it out. Aside from the amazing (often startingly clear) satellite photography, part of the beauty lies in the ability to save and share points of interest using its proprietary file format. In preparation for our London trip, Thom plotted out various sights we want to visit; I loaded that file onto my iBook with no problem, so we’re good to go.

Aside: Speaking of the UK, a couple of British-related documentaries premiered last night on PBS. One is a three-part series entitled Windsor Castle: A Royal Year, and the other is The Blitz: London’s Longest Night. I watched part of the Windsor Castle one, in which the staff prepares for a state dinner; I love all that pomp and circumstance. Just to bring this full circle, here is the Google Maps view of the castle.

Happy Valentine’s Day! This is a photo of the miniature rose plant that Thom got me a few days ago as an early present. Tonight we’re going to have dinner in Shirlington (at Carlyle if it’s not too crowded) and then see the new musical Nevermore at Signature Theatre, which we’ve been looking forward to for a long while now.

Aside: There’s this recurring (okay, twice so far) Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Kristen Wiig, who plays a chatty Target cashier with a funny accent who takes so much interest in her customers’ items that she invariably asks, “Do we have more of these?” and runs off to find one in the middle of the transaction. The sketch’s latest appearance (Jan. 21) had to do with Valentine’s Day. “It’s just around the kerner!” “I’m sorry, the what?” Anyway, Thom and I think she’s hilarious. Generally her characters and impressions are spot on. (I was able to find the earlier Target sketch on YouTube. See also this sketch, “Vincent Price’s Thanksgiving Special,” in which she plays Judy Garland.)

The other day I forgot to mention that one of the most beautiful bits of artistry last Friday night was not in the Olympic ceremony itself, but during the commercial breaks! There was a gorgeous United Airlines ad (“Dragon”), done in a paper cutout animation style, following a father on a business trip, as seen through his son’s vivid dream. (It actually premiered during the Superbowl, but I hadn’t been watching.) If you haven’t seen it, check it out at the United commercials page, which has an interesting “making of” feature as well. The commercial was designed by Jamie Caliri; he also did the excellent end titles for the movie Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.