Avenue Q won the Tony Award for best musical (and best book and best score)! Yay!
By the way, how cute was Rod–and John Tartaglia–hitting on Hugh Jackman? Here’s a photo. “Okay, mate…” “Ooh, say it again.” “G’day, mate.” “Touch me.”
On Thursday former President Bill Clinton, whose memoir will be published later this month, gave a speech at BookExpo America in Chicago. The Times reports, “He joked that some of the Arkansas characters he describes might have come from a novel by Gabriel García Márquez.”
García Márquez! His El coronel no tiene quien le escriba was the first book we read in my Spanish literature class in high school way back when, so my eyes twinkled at the mention. Oh, Bill. We are of the same ilk, you and I. (If you start quoting Borges…) Let’s see our current president try to drop a foreign literary reference with similar aplomb.
Aside: I just found out that the Clinton library will open this November. Road trip! Kidding. Sort of.
Former President Ronald Reagan died today at the age of 93. Not long after I read about it, I called my mother.
“Did you hear the news?”
“What.”
Pause. “Ronald Reagan.”
That’s all I needed to say. She got it. “When did it happen?” She started to cry, and then apparently self-conscious, she laughed a little at herself. “I don’t know why I’m crying…”
“Yeah. I’m a little sad too.”
I didn’t offer up an explanation for her tearful reaction. I didn’t need to, because it was plain to both of us. Her father, who passed away several years ago, had Alzheimer’s disease, as Reagan did. I remember my grandfather, once so active and articulate, had slowly settled into a condition in which he stopped speaking or remembering who we were. It was a confusing and painful experience for all of us. Reagan’s death–the end of a “long twilight,” as the Post puts it–stirs up many of those memories and a sense of empathy for his family.
Politics aside: I was just three years old when Reagan was first elected president, and 11 at the end of his second term, so to be honest he is just background in the blur of my early childhood, a series of fleeting images. (I’m sure I will have ample opportunity to be enlightened on the highs and lows of his presidency in the days to come.) But still he is the president I first became aware of and grew up with. Again, politics aside, his public service defined an era in the United States, and in some small way, a period of my life as well.
Sort of as a follow-up to my post a few months ago about a shirt patterned with Pantone color chips (I still get periodic hits to that page; apparently Clinton Kelly had worn the shirt on What Not To Wear, as I see from one of various board and newsgroup threads where my post is linked but not attributed as such. You’re welcome!), I now link you to another Metro Weekly feature, this time on men’s swimwear, proof that I am not beneath linking to eye candy for its own sake. (I won’t kid myself into believing that I’m actually in the market for some new swim togs.) Warning: I’m thinking the photos aren’t work-safe, unless your employer doesn’t mind you looking at wet, nearly naked men on the Internet. And if that’s the case, are you hiring? I admit my setup here at work isn’t so bad; I have my own office, and my computer screen faces away from the door. Very key.
I’m not one to show as much skin at the beach as most of these models do (if I had to choose among them for actual wear, I’d maybe go with the last two in the series), but I do own a pair of blue square-cut Speedos that I bought a few years ago for Subarna’s and my trip to Europe. I had assumed that tighter swimwear is de mode among most European men, so I wanted to fit in, as it were. By the way, going to a public bath in Budapest: one of my most confusing (which line do I stand in? where’s the men’s locker room?) and relaxing (is it closing time already?) travel experiences thus far. And no, my Speedos will not be making another public appearance anytime soon.
[Update (5 June): In his comment, Brian links to the popular Australian swimwear brand, aussieBum (Flash required). Yum!]
I was just doing some idle Googling yesterday, and apparently there is (or was) a Scottish beer named Rebel Prince. There’s not much information on the web about it, but here’s one description I found:
Rebel Prince is a traditional Scotch ale created in honour of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the last Stuart to lay claim to the English throne in 1745, after defeating English forces at Prestonpans. Prince Charlie led his troops south to London, reaching Derby before turning back on the advice of his officers. The following spring at Culloden his army suffered a crushing defeat and Prince Charlie became a fugitive in the Highlands before escaping to France. The bold character of The Rebel Prince is echoed in the firm flavour of this Golden Ale.
Interesting. Mmm, beer. But back to Googling, it’s kind of cool (and/or creepy?) what blasts from the past you can find. Searching Google Groups, I found some newsgroup posts I had written as early as 1995. (That sounds about right; either that year or the previous one, I first dipped my toe into online waters, signing up with a San Francisco-based BBS called Nerdshack.) In one post, I had written looking for penpals with whom I could practice corresponding in Spanish. I see there were a few responses; did I ever get back to those people? In another group, one on musicals, I wrote about the mirrors we had built for my high-school production of A Chorus Line. I struggled to describe them–they were mounted on revolving three-sided structures–but later on in the thread someone helpfully posted, “My people call them periaktoi.” Heh, that’s exactly what I meant. Oh, the things (and people) you find online.
I now have a library card! Well, I did have two previously, one for the Peninsula and San Jose systems from when I lived in California, but I hadn’t gotten around to getting a new one when I moved to D.C. Yesterday I visited the newly renovated Bethesda branch, which is near my office. Being there really brought back childhood memories of the long afternoons I spent at the library at Gellert Park near our house in Daly City. Pardon me for waxing romantic about the library, but really, there is a feeling of discovery and even civic pride in browsing through the stacks and knowing that everything is freely available to you with your all-powerful card. Granted, such a place carries other associations: frantically running around a campus library gathering materials for your soon-to-be hastily written term paper–oh, I’ve been there–isn’t the most pleasurable use of such facilities and thus a slightly different experience, which is perhaps the reason my leisurely post-college re-discovery of the public library is now so welcome.
I checked out Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf; The Best American Travel Writing 2002, edited by Frances Mayes; and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I’ve started on the latter, which attempts to answer some of the most basic and profound questions of science in an accessible and entertaining way, and so far it succeeds. It’s a good read.
Another nice thing about going to the library is that hopefully it will curb my book buying and over-accumulation. I haven’t quit cold turkey just yet, though: yesterday morning I went online and bought the new David Sedaris collection, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors. (They’re expected to arrive tomorrow. Yay for Barnes & Noble.com’s “Faster Delivery.”) One last thing: David is on the road with bookstore appearances and will be in town at the Olsson’s at Courthouse (Arlington) on June 14. A full-fledged tour is scheduled for this fall. [Update (3 June): He was interviewed and read excerpts on NPR’s Morning Edition today.]
Some assorted notes: Rufus was on TV Sunday night! Trio showed excerpts from his San Francisco concert earlier this year at the Fillmore. (Me and the peeps saw him there back in ’02; has it really been that long ago?) The concert footage is sprinkled with location segments that followed Rufus around town (Chinatown, Coit Tower, etc.). It was pretty sweet. I assume a lot of the concert ended up on the cutting room floor; he usually rambles between songs (in that charming way of his), but not much of the banter shows up in this special. I don’t see a rerun listed on the Trio schedule, so if you missed it, you’re out of luck for now. However, word on the Rufus message board is that it may be part of a forthcoming DVD. Let’s hope.
Tonight’s episode of Queer Eye is a new one. With two straight guys: twins! Need I say more? [Update (2 June): During Queer Eye we saw commercials for a new series called Blow Out, “an unscripted series that follows renowned hairstylist Jonathan Antin on his quest to establish a new salon in chic Beverly Hills,” from the creators of, not surprisingly, The Restaurant. Well, at least they’re calling it an “unscripted series” and not a “reality show,” ’cause you know that like other shows of this genre, it’ll be short on reality and long on hysterics. By the way, if you’re looking for The Restaurant minus the melodrama, check out Opening Soon on Fine Living.]
The Sundance Channel goes gay for June: its festival of gay and lesbian programming, Out Loud, starts today. Trio will add a permanent block of queer programming, called OutZone, on Saturdays beginning Sept. 18. Speaking of Trio, yesterday they ran a marathon of Kath & Kim, an Australian sitcom about a mother and her grown daughter trying to live under the same roof… without killing each other. It’s taped in a kind of dry, dare I say “reality-show” style (roving camera, no laugh track), and described as “suburban nightmares living the suburban dream.” I TiVo-ed the first season (eight episodes), and what I’ve seen so far is pretty funny, although I admit half my amusement comes from the accents. Heh.
Sunday’s Times ran an article on the women of Six Feet Under (“Death Becomes Her, and Her, and Her“). I love them all, especially Frances Conroy as Ruth Fisher. Someone give that woman an Emmy already! And generally I love the whole show. When it all comes together–the chemistry among the actors, the strong, deliberate writing, etc.–it’s electric. The new season starts June 13. Yay!
Saturday evening we ventured out to the cineplex to see Shrek 2. Hilarious. Do yourself a favor and go see it. For one thing it has the benefit of a great cast: I mean, come on, John Cleese and Julie Andrews as king and queen of the kingdom? Inspired. And two notable scene-stealers are Antonio Banderas, as suave, swashbuckling Puss in Boots; and Jennifer Saunders, as a fairy godmother who has an agenda of her own (and can belt out a tune like nobody’s business). There are lots of quick jokes and sight gags (maybe we’ll just have to see it again, eh?), like their fairy-tale kingdom of Far Far Away as a kind of Beverly Hills and Hollywood for the Middle Ages, and the soundtrack is pretty good, too. Seriously, go. See. Now.