Oh, wow. RufusWainwright.com has been totally redesigned for Want. It’s bee-yoo-tiful. And now there’s a multimedia section, with videos, photos (rawr), desktop wallpapers (I think my desktop is due for a change; sorry, Eric McCormack), and AIM icons. I love it. The Dreamworks folks finally have their act together.
Now to get my hands on the new album! According to the website, selected stores will be giving away a Rufus poster with purchase of Want One, while supplies last. I am so there.
I returned to my apartment this afternoon for the first time since the storm, and as I had expected, there is no damage to speak of. Thank goodness. Although, with my place as messy and cluttered as it usually is, it only looks like I’ve been in the direct path of a hurricane.
Anyway. Some of you (okay, two of you) had asked for a photo when I mentioned I got my hair cut recently, and here it is. You ask. I deliver. Compared to my current “About” photo, which was taken a long while ago, this hair cut isn’t much of a change, but you should’ve seen me in the intervening months. I was getting kind of shaggy.
What else. Last weekend Thom and I did some shopping, and at Nordstrom I bought another Custo shirt (not bad at 30% off). I was also tempted to indulge in some Ben Sherman, but I didn’t find anything in my size on sale.
One item I must get this fall is a dark brown jacket, either in corduroy (a shorter version of one I have now), or if I’m feeling especially luxurious, something in suede. For someone who likes to think of himself as style-conscious, I’m actually rather blah when it comes to work clothes. My company’s dress code is really casual, and especially during the summer I get all lazy and just go with the minimum, for example, jeans and a polo shirt. I could use some variety–just because I can wear jeans everyday, doesn’t necessarily mean I should. My wardrobe is fall/winter-heavy, so thankfully once the weather cools down, I can bring out all the sweaters and such. I had fun cutting a dash at the Gap (Thom can attest to this), trying on all the jackets and scarves. Mmm.
Other interesting finds: Storehouse, aside from carrying cool furniture, also provides a huge selection of refreshments to enhance your browsing experience (at least the Pentagon City location does). Seriously, the spread looked like a movie-theater concession counter. Also, I found out that World Market–which reminded me of the old Cost Plus store back home, and whaddya know, it’s the same chain–carries one of my favorite (and up to now, unsuccessfully sought after) wines, Niebaum-Coppola Bianco, from the Francis Coppola Presents label. I’ll have to go back there to stock up on wine, along with Baci chocolates and all the other good stuff they have.
Okay, now I’m rambling. Time for some TiVo and then sleep.
This is an otherwise ordinary cautionary tale of driving hazards, but made amusing only by the musical factor:
A Winston [Ore.] man told police he crashed his car after a bee flew into his mouth while he was singing along with Justin Timberlake’s song Rock Your Body on the radio.
Douglas County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Pam Frank said John L. Nunes, 19, was trying to get rid of the bee or yellowjacket when his car hit a tree.
Okay, I’m pretty much indifferent to Mr. Timberlake’s music–I’ll groove to it if it happens to be playing, however I don’t actively seek it out–but I’ll just say this to the hapless victim: dude, you didn’t have to tell the truth about what song you were singing, you know. (It’s not like there’s a black box in the car, recording your driver’s-seat song stylings. Hm, if there were, I think we’d all be more responsible in our automotive karaoke behavior.) Heh.
I kid, of course. Hopefully, he’s doing okay. And has learned his lesson: singing said artist’s music–okay, any singing so spirited so as to invite a bee to fly into one’s mouth–is best done not while operating a motor vehicle.
Hurricane Isabel has come and gone, and Thom and I are okay.
Last night while we listened to the winds gusting through the trees, I, not one to let an opportunity for superfluous literary allusion go unseized, recalled the following bit of Shakespeare–not verbatim, alas; in fact at the time I only remembered the first line–from appropriately enough, The Tempest:
Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had wak’d after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I wak’d,
I cried to dream again. (III.ii)
Mmm. (Okay, so maybe Isabel was a bit less delightful.) And then Thom suggested we listen to Holst’s The Planets or Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. I added some Orff, namely Carmina Burana, to the hypothetical storm-soundtrack. Yeah, we’re nerds.
Basically everything in the area is closed today. So Thom and I are hunkered down with plenty of TiVo and other entertainments to keep us busy while waiting for the storm. Right now it’s just raining.
Okay, Isabel, we’re ready. Bring it.
Well, it turns out that my otherwise irrepresible wanderlust knows some bounds, and one of them is named Isabel. Earlier today I felt the time crunch as I read the reports, trying to make a decision on whether to cancel my weekend travel plans to Boston. Even if I were to push my flight plan to Saturday, presumably after the storm will have passed, there still would be a big flight backup from the previous days’ delays and cancellations. So Sonal and I finally did decide to postpone to next month. Hopefully the weather will be decent.
And now I read that Metro is expected to shut down the entire bus and subway system at some point tomorrow. Jeez. Previous reports had mentioned above-ground Metro stations only. Well, hey, if I can’t get to work tomorrow, and have to sit at home watching DVDs, I ain’t complaining.
[Update (22:23): The Metro system will in fact close tomorrow at 11 a.m.]
Quick thoughts from HBO’s Sunday night line-up… Sex and the City: wow. New love interest for Carrie? Mikhail Baryshnikov, no less. Miranda and Steve back together, good. Though I’ll miss the hottie factor provided by Robert (Blair Underwood); there’s still Smith, I suppose. Yum. (Forgive me for using the word “hottie” in an otherwise respectable blog.) Interesting twist for Charlotte, with her miscarriage and all. I felt so bad for her. Oh, and there’s Samantha and her bush, oh my. (What was that about respectability?) So yeah, now we wait until January for the next new episodes. Grr. By the way, when is Six Feet Under coming back? Anyone?
I passed on Carnivàle, but will be TiVo-ing the premiere when it repeats. Any thoughts out there from those who caught it? K Street: eh. Just not compelling. It’s supposed to have a documentary feel, but it just felt like watching so many reels of investigative reporting footage. Boring. I guess there’s a niche for this stuff; I’m not just in it.
In other programming, from last night’s Queer Eye, our grooming guru, Kyan, is rummaging through the bathroom and seems to take issue with straight guy Tom’s blow dryer. Tom gets playfully defensive: “It blows good.”
Kyan doesn’t miss a beat. “Listen, I know all about good blow jobs. This isn’t it.” (Okay, fine, the aforementioned blog respectability is out the window.)
Later on, as the Fab Five are watching from their loft lair, Carson says, “He looks like a poor man’s David Hasselhoff. Not that that’s bad, because before he looked like a poor man’s Charo.” Ha. And oh my god, that shirt that Jai is wearing–sleeveless with the orange and gray “coiffeur” design on the front, and patchwork on the back–I have that! It’s by Custo Barcelona.
Speaking of design cuties, Nate Berkus–the search string which still provides the majority of Google referrals to this website, by the way–will be on today’s Oprah show, to redecorate Oprah’s office. Judging from the photos on the website, it looks amazing. Her wardrobe area looks like a store. I want that!
Lastly, the Emmys will be telecast this Sunday night. I was just looking over some of the nominees, and I’m wondering, is there any logic to the “Reality/Competition” category? They have two documentaries (both centennial in nature, it seems: AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Passions and 100 Years of Hope and Humor) grouped together with three game shows (The Amazing Race, American Idol, and Survivor). Why the former didn’t belong in the clearly designated “non-fiction” categories, I have no idea. Let’s go to the rules, a 111-page document that I would warn against reading unless one has nothing better to do. Apparently, I do not.
Reality/Competition Program includes all game shows or any program that gives a prize or is itself a contest and/or competition. Additionally, this area includes so-called special class programming, e.g., programming that does not fit into any other category or area and programming that has potential eligibility in more than one category or area.
Huh? Yeah, it’s as convoluted as I’d imagined.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Seriously. Not a cloud in the sky. It’s gorgeous. Must be the calm before the storm:
Yikes. And I have plans to fly to Boston on Friday. I guess I’ll wait and see.
[Addendum (17:42): Is it just me, or do the colors of that hurricane map totally fit with my website design? The slate blue of the ocean complements the borders and sidebar titles nicely, and the red line marking the storm path picks up the maroon in the banner and date headers. Ha. Oh, wait, it’s an actual hurricane, huh.]
