Category: uncategorized

Yesterday afternoon I took advantage of the tonsorial services at the Grooming Lounge, “Washington, D.C.’s premiere destination for fine men’s grooming services and products.” Usually I go to ten-dollar chain salons once or twice a year, point to my hair, and say, “chop it all off.” But I decided to go for something more subtle (and expensive) this time. The whole experience at the Grooming Lounge was very swank. (How else do I describe a place that plays Sinatra on the loudspeaker?) I highly recommend it. The little extra touches are nice: a beverage when you arrive, a hot towel for your face while your hair is being conditioned, etc.

My hair had been growing especially unruly these past few weeks, so I’m happy with how my cut turned out: long-ish on top, trimmed in back. Much easier to manage. I only got a haircut this time, but maybe I’ll really pamper myself and try out their other day-spa services next time around.

N.B. This entry’s handy-dandy vocabulary word, with which to impress and intimidate your friends (you know I love a man with a large… vocabulary), is “tonsorial” (adjective): of or relating to a barber or the work of a barber (Merriam-Webster). [See also, “sartorial”: of or relating to a tailor or tailored clothes; broadly: of or relating to clothes.]

On this summer’s eve (wait, isn’t that a line of feminine hygiene products?), I figured my website could use some new colors this season. For your continued visual pleasure, I’ve thrown a coat of bright, summery paint on the page, along with Georges Seurat’s Un dimanche après-midi à l’Ile de la Grande Jatte (“Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”). Enjoy.

Have a great weekend, kids.

NBC just finished rerunning the series of Will & Grace episodes featuring Dan Futterman. Who knew he was so sassy off-camera? Oh, to be a lollipop.

So I never got around to recounting the events of the fabulous impromptu mini-reunion that Subarna, Sonal, and I had a couple weekends ago, so here it is, in abridged format:

• Shopping at the new H&M in Georgetown. I have to say, unfortunately this location is rather small, and the menswear section takes up only half of the ground floor. (How else does one react when using the flagship Fifth Avenue H&M as a comparison?) Still, I was able to stock up on some nice short-sleeved shirts, a couple patterned, the rest solid, perfect for summer weather.
• Afternoon snack of sandwiches and coffee at Firehook Bakery, an oasis of calm amidst the shopping crowds.
• Gay pride parade. We headed to Dupont and caught the tail-end of it, following the crowd down 17th Street. It was pretty fun. This year I might end up going to two pride celebrations, since the San Francisco do takes place during my Bay Area vacation at the end of this month.
• Dinner at Luna Grill. Cafe Citron was our intended dinner destination, but upon arrival we discovered it was a bit too loud and lively for our chill kind of mood at the time. Instead we continued a couple doors down to Luna Grill, just south of the Circle on Connecticut Avenue. Great little place.
• Brunch the next day at Cafe Luna (P Street near 17th), not to be confused with the previous, similarly named restaurant. Eggs benedict, yum. I should make this my regular place for Sunday brunch. Now that the weather is warming up (though I could do without the recent storms), I can sit on the patio and lazily read the Times, people-watch, etc.
• And to cap off the weekend, sleep. Lots of it.

If you’re into ballet (note to potential suitors: a working knowledge, or at least appreciation, of the peforming arts is a major plus), do check out tonight’s Great Performances on PBS, Lar Lubovitch’s adaptation of Othello, performed by the San Francisco Ballet.

Speaking of classical dance, another selection for the Rebel Prince “required” (reading, viewing, etc.) list is Matthew Bourne’s reinvention of Swan Lake. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but come on, people. It’s fresh and inventive, and oh yeah, all the swans are played by half-naked men. (I didn’t want to pander, but there it is.) I’m getting tired of raving over it by myself. Find it on video or DVD.

Last weekend I rewatched my recording of the Tony Awards, and man, the scenes from the musicals, especially the “River of Dreams” medley from Movin’ Out, totally made me want to take up dance again. The Twyla Tharp choreography is amazing. The steps, both balletic and modern, have such a muscular energy. They hold their own yet interpret the music so well, to the point where you hear the Billy Joel lyrics, like “in the middle of the night / I go walking in my sleep,” and suddenly a few tour jetés or fouettés seem like the most natural thing to do.

You know that link Google gives you, offering pages “similar” to your search results? My website’s list of “similar pages” include, among other things, a whole bunch of musical artist sites: Rufus Wainwright, Fiona Apple, Coldplay, John Mayer, Elvis Costello, Weezer, and the White Stripes. Interesting. It’s begging me to figure out the degrees of separation. Well, let’s see, I’m set to open for Coldplay in Europe, and they… oh, wait, no. That can’t be right. I’ll have to start over. So, Rufus wrote a song for me, and I… oh, shush, you. Whose lazy-afternoon daydream is this, anyway?

At least some of the calculus must be based on the domain name. I tried feeding Google some blog pages hosted on LiveJournal and Xanga, and it just returned sites for other web publishing systems like Blogger and Diaryland.

Quick aside: I think the most underrated (and quietly unheralded) part of Google is the catalog search. I could look through those all day.

My TiVo keeps suggesting and insists on recording Dharma & Greg. I have no idea why. Does it see I adore Will & Grace, and think I like sitcoms with ampersands in the title? I should just give Dharma a thumbs down (TiVo lets you rate programs with multiple “thumbs up” or “down”s), just so it’ll stop recording it, but I haven’t the heart. I mean, I don’t hate the show, I just don’t like it enough to watch reruns.

Another lukewarm show the TiVo has been fetching lately is Two Guys and a Girl–hm, maybe it is the titular “and”–which airs on WE: Women’s Entertainment. Then again, the two guys in question, Richard Ruccolo and Ryan Reynolds, are pretty cute. Maybe my TiVo knows me better than I care to admit.

As for other suggestions, they’re pretty much on target (not that it auto-records many of them since I’m running out of disk space). Although, I once recorded Reading Rainbow and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for nostalgic value, and it started giving me stuff like Clifford the Big Red Dog. Close, but no cigar.

Which reminds me, there was a great bit on last night’s Family Guy rerun (“Mind over Murder”), which airs on Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” (bless them), spoofing both Sesame Street and crime TV:

Peter Griffin: I’ve been watching television so much the shows are starting to run together!
TV Announcer: And now, Homicide: Life on Sesame Street!
[on TV, Bert answers phone, and gets out of bed, naked; pan right to show Ernie on other side of bed]
Ernie: Bert, I wish you wouldn’t drink so much, Bert.
Bert: Well, Ernie, I wish you wouldn’t eat cookies in the DAMN BED!
Ernie: Bert, you’re shouting again, Bert.

Ha ha ha. (See also that one Simpsons episode, “Missionary: Impossible,” where an angry PBS posse, made up of Mister Rogers, assorted muppets, etc. go to Homer’s house to collect his bogus pledge. Hilarious.) Anyway. Thank goodness it’s Friday. And payday.

Eep, thunder and lightning. Just like last night. Sonal and I met up in Bethesda for dinner yesterday at La Madeleine, where I had my usual: petite caesar salad, cup of tomato basil soup, and quiche lorraine. Yum. Afterwards, we continued up Old Georgetown to Olsson’s, where I picked up an Arthur Conan Doyle anthology, The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; and finally getting to Proust, Swann’s Way, the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past, though there is a new translation I want to check out as well.

Olsson’s was closing, and we decided to brave the elements and walk the few blocks to Barnes & Noble. Bad timing. The storm hit us hard, and we arrived soaking wet. But once we got settled in the upstairs cafe, perusing a stack of magazines over a white chocolate mocha and a cinnamon scone made up for it.

TV notes: always on the W&G star watch, I see that tonight Megan Mullally will be on Primetime Glick, along with Elijah Wood. But it airs against The Amazing Race, which trumps it, I’m afraid. Oh, well. What I’ve come to love about cable: everything repeats. I’ll just catch this episode of Glick on Saturday.

Update: Okay, I’ve been sitting here at work, waiting out the latest bout of rain. It’s easing up. I’m making a break for it.