It would be a better world if we all could make music like Marin Alsop. Would that we all could move house like her, too.
The BSO conductor was off touring in Spain with the London Philharmonic. Then she was out in San Francisco, planning for a summer festival. All the while, back at the Mount Vernon condo she was soon to call home, painters painted, designers designed and movers moved.
Straight off the red-eye from San Francisco on Monday morning, Alsop got her first look at the place since mid-January, when it was still half-painted. All the furniture was arranged, the beds made, the towels and toiletries in place. Even the fridge was stocked with staples, which for Alsop includes Diet Coke with Lime and low-fat mayo.
Designer Steve Appel of Nouveau Contemporary Goods, who oversaw the move, even did the maestra the favor of replacing her pepper grinder. (Alsop's Bed, Bath & Beyond model wasn't doing it for him. He got her a hand-painted grinder befitting a hipster paradise.)
Alsop was more than pleased.
"Oh, it's just beyond words," Alsop said yesterday. "It's like living in a work of art."
Looking for the pot of gold
Maybe Michael Phelps isn't the biggest dope around.
The owner of the bong Phelps was photographed using tried selling the pipe for as much as $100,000 on eBay, WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C., reported yesterday.
The station also reported that the Richland County Sheriff's Department had confiscated the bong. The station attributed that information to unidentified "sources."
The sheriff's department wasn't confirming the story.
"The reporter who released that story is claiming that he has sources, but we're not the source of that information," Lt. Chris Cowan, the department's public information officer, told the Los Angeles Times. "We're not releasing any additional information."
No sign of the bong on eBay yesterday afternoon. But someone out there was offering the domain name Phelpsbongs.com. Bidding starts at $9,500.
Curt speaks; Curt doesn't
Michael Steele, the RNC chairman accused by his felon ex-finance committee chairman of misusing campaign funds, is trying to clear his name. A spokesman named Curt Anderson is helping him. And Del. Curt Anderson wants no part of it.
"People are calling me and saying, 'How can you be working for Michael Steele?' " said the delegate. "My own aide called me and said, 'Why are you commenting on Michael Steele?' "
