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After Thom picked me up at the Metro, we went to a restaurant we’ve been meaning to check out for a while, La Crêperie, at Pentagon Row. We sat at one of the tables outside, and after perusing the menu, which lists a total of at least 20 different kinds of crepes, all reasonably priced, I finally decided on one with mushrooms (mmm, it was tasty, though a bit too cheesy, and you know I love cheese), and Thom had one with salmon. For dessert we had a cinnamon apple crepe à la mode. All very good.

Afterwards, greeted by a sudden but quick downpour of rain, we dashed to the nearby Starbucks for some after-dinner coffee drinks, and then we stopped next door at As Kindred Spirits, a store which carries lots of cool, unique art, jewelry, and furnishings. We pored over colored glassware, card cases and mirrors with wood inlays, art-inspired rugs (especially a Miró-like one that is almost too nice to put on the floor and walk on), and hundreds of other interesting items. In all, a lovely evening.

And, oh yeah, afterwards we went to the supermarché. We all have to get groceries at some point. Well, until we hire our own Agador Spartacus to do it for us.

Have a great weekend, kids.

As part of its Conservatory Project, the Kennedy Center has been showcasing young artists this week at the Millennium Stage, and tonight’s performers are students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. So of course I went to support my fellow Bay Area folk. The two-part program featured clarinetist Edward Abrams (who happens to hail from Palo Alto, home of my alma mater, as you know) and South Africa-born mezzo-soprano Elza van den Heever. Both performances were fantastic–such musical proficiency is always exciting to watch–but it was Ms. van den Heever who really had me under a spell. She sang Handel, Ravel, and Richard Strauss, all with such ease and exuberance, and handled the especially roller-coaster-like passages from Ariodante (“Con l’ali di costanza”) beautifully. Definitely one to watch for in the years to come.

Lately I’ve gotten into the habit of reading the Post Express, the free, “lite”-version of the Post distributed at Metro stops. I usually give it a quick skim at the beginning of my commute each morning. On the back inside page, it has a small space for letters to the editor. Here are two from yesterday and today, respectively:

I am so sick of hearing people try to justify gay marriage. If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a hundred times: God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. God said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” At the rate things are going, there will be no more multiplying. I guess we’ll just resort to the babies derived from test-tubes. What a mess we have to look forward to.

Think about it, people: If we stop procreating, there will be no one here for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to procreate with. You’re fighting for gay marriage for your own selfish agenda. Think about looking into a future when families like yours no longer exist.

–Charlene Stewart
Severn, Md.

Where do I start? First of all, if she is sick of hearing people trying to justify gay marriage, then let me say I am sick of hearing people use the “Adam and Steve” argument. Please. She can have her religious beliefs, fine, but is it even possible for her and like-minded people to see outside their narrow, fundamentalist Christian worldview? Apparently not. And whoa: “no more multiplying”? The end of the human race? I can safely say that supporters of the so-called “gay agenda” are not advocating an end to procreation. What a load. No, Ms. Stewart, you and the rest of hetero-land are not required to have a gay wedding. You can go and carry on procreating now.

Regarding letter writer Charlene Stewart’s blaming gay marriage for the demise of the human race (Letters, May 25): Marriage is not a prerequisite for being fruitful and multiplying. And, not to worry, there are plenty of children in the world to keep the human race from going extinct, and even more people procreating. Anyone who professes to be concerned about preserving the family unit should embark on a crusade to minimize divorce among heterosexuals, instead of pushing their own agendas on those of us who are in loving, committed relationships and are fighting for equality, the right to be recognized under the law, and the right to adopt chidren.

–Daniel Hurtado
Washington, D.C.

Word.

Ideal Rhombus brings up the point that even the President isn’t quite sure how to pronounce “Abu Ghraib.” While I thought it might be pronounced “ghrah-EEB,” I was at least positive it “doesn’t rhyme with ‘babe'” (as Slate explains), which is what you hear most commonly in the media. Apparently both of those attempts are wrong.

The first word is easy: “ah-BOO.” The trouble is the second word, which begins with a phlegmy, guttural “gh” sound uncommon in American English–the sound is peculiar to the Arabic letter “ghayn.” The “r” is easy, but the “ai” is a bit confusing: The word doesn’t share the diphthong vowel sound of “grave” or “grape” as many newscasters seem to think; instead, the vowel is closer to that in “ebb,” but is slightly more extended. So the proper pronunciation sounds something like a French person using a rolling “r” to render “grehhb.”

You say “eye-RAK,” and I say “ih-RAHK”… tomato, tomahto, let’s call the whole thing (“whole thing” to be pronounced in this instance as “unjustified U. S. occupation”) off.

President Bush will give a speech tonight in the first of a series of addresses leading up to the scheduled June 30 transition in Iraq. I find it interesting (and telling) that none of the broadcast networks will be covering it. (Three cable news networks have said they would carry it live.) Apparently the White House didn’t formally request coverage. Maybe because it’s not one of these Oval Office or East Room dealies? He will be speaking from the Army War College in Pennsylvania. Will there be an on-site audience? I don’t know. However:

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, made the rounds of the morning shows today explaining that President Bush will not be stepping forward with new policy proposals for Iraq tonight so much as reiterating “what President Bush has been saying all along,” as he put it on NBC’s Today show.

In that case, perhaps the lack of TV coverage is just as well.

This whole weekend’s been nice and relaxing. Yesterday I spent the afternoon napping, and in the evening Thom and I went to a concert, part of a series of classical and traditional music performances held at various embassies and official residences in Washington. Last night’s concert of operetta arias took place at the Austrian embassy, located near Connecticut and Van Ness. It was a delightful program–with some familiar and not so familiar tunes from Franz Lehár, Johann Strauss, and others–if a bit stuffy, literally: the air conditioning was no match for the evening heat. During the intermission, we took a stroll about the main hall, which held an impressive collection of photos by Inge Morath, depicting timeless scenes from Austria from the 1950s into the 21st century. The upcoming concert season looks rather extensive; we’ll have to check some of those out.

Today was nice and lazy. I caught up on some TiVo watching, and also watched Croupier on DVD. Eh, it was okay. It’s just that the energy level of the whole movie is slightly too cold, too calm for me–and believe me, I don’t usually begrudge a film for being too subtle or nuanced–and it’s a shame, since it stars the excellent Clive Owen.

Afterwards I went out to the balcony to soak up some rays, and Alex the cat joined me. I felt rather decadent, sitting there with my feet up and reading GQ while alternately sipping iced tea and taking drags off my cigarette. I like it out there; it makes me feel like I’m on vacation. Alex enjoys lying out in sunshine, perhaps even more than I do, and he also received some amusement (or alarm, I can’t tell), toying with the occasional cicada that would make it onto the balcony.

Ahh. Life is good, eh?

Sonal is once again in town for the weekend, and since she’s spending most of it with her folks, we met for a quick lunch yesterday. (My friends and I seem to have a good understanding that if you’re going to be in town for whatever reason, we have to make time to meet up.) I left work early and went to the airport to meet her, and with perfect timing Thom came with the car and picked us up. The afternoon was sunny and balmy, and as Sonal noted, cicada-free. (You can hear the cicadas in the distance, though, which is perhaps just as eerie as seeing them.) We went to nearby Pentagon Row, which has a bunch of good restaurants all on one plaza. I suggested Lebanese Taverna; I hadn’t been there before, but had heard good things about it. Oh, it was excellent. We shared a whole bunch of dishes, including lamb kabob and falafel. Yum. We’ll have to make this one of our regular places.

Side note: Sonal came bearing gifts! For Thom and me, she brought L. A. Burdick hot chocolate (the package comes with a tiny whisk; how cute is that?), and as a belated birthday present, she got me a box of Italian soaps by Santa Maria Novella. Sweet! And speaking of gifts, thanks also go to Susan, who got me the Will & Grace season one DVDs! When the discs arrived, first I watched the interviews and then one of my favorite episodes, “Yours, Mine or Ours,” in which Peter, a cute new tenant, moves into the building, and Will and Grace, unable to figure out whose team he’s on, viciously compete for his affections. It has some of Rajani’s and my favorite lines:

Grace: I–I love–love–love–love that sculpture.
Peter: Oh, yeah! I got that in Africa. I found that trailing through Mombasa.
Will: Ah, yes, Mombasa.
Grace: Was it last week you were in Mombasa, Will, or… never?

Anytime I am caught up in some kind of artificial reverie (“Ah, yes, Vienna…”), now you know the appropriate response to snap me right out of it (“Was it last week you were in Vienna, Jeff… or never?”).

I’ve been reading a Times article on the new central library in Seattle, designed by Rem Koolhaas (“The Library That Puts on Fishnets and Hits the Disco,” includes slideshow of photos and other renderings). Look at the photo, right. I’m almost speechless. In a word: bold. I love reading about the thinking and re-thinking behind any kind of design.

One of the platforms, called the Books Spiral, epitomizes the Koolhaas approach. Designed to place roughly 75 percent of the library’s collection in accessible, open space, this is the largest of the five platforms. It is a continuous, square ramp, four levels in height, that provides ease and clarity of circulation as well as storage for books. Koolhaas fans will recognize this feature from an unbuilt library he designed in the early 1990s for the Jussieu campus of the University of Paris on the Left Bank. Some critics thought the spiral concept defied gravity, common sense and safety. As realized, it is an entirely pragmatic solution to a common institutional problem: how to accommodate an expanding collection of books without having to divide particular fields of information over more than one floor.

Another interesting bit is a project diagram that consolidates and redistributes the space according to function. Cool.

I hope to visit it someday. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to visit a library. More information and photos are available at the library website; grand opening events begin this Sunday.

In other news, speaking of public buildings: the new National Museum of the American Indian, located on the Mall in D.C., opens on Sept. 21; funding shortages are threatening the construction of two proposed museums in San Francisco, the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Mexican Museum.