Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro concluded the performing portion of their musical partnership of more than 25 years this weekend with concerts in Annapolis and Alexandria. Lowen was diagnosed with ALS five years ago and this year he decided the disease had compromised his ability to sing and play too much to want to continue.

This is the encore at the Ram’s Head Friday night, Lowen and Navarro‘s penultimate performance. You might recognize the song, “We Belong,” which they wrote and which Pat Benatar made a hit (and a Grammy nominee) of in 1984:

Even though Navarro will continue to tour solo, the loss of their fine harmonies when performed together will be felt across the musical community.

Thank you, Lowen and Navarro. We have enjoyed your music immensely.

Can someone please explain to me the evolutionary purpose of PMS?

I understand childbirth pain and cramps from a biological perspective, even if I fail to appreciate the latter on a personal level. But what, oh what, could be the point of making me sad and cranky and paranoid and generally down in the dumps on a monthly basis? I mean there has to be some hormonal justification for this, right?

Here’s the lemonade version of my weekend:

• Jazz being cancelled allowed Rudi and me to have a lovely Friday dinner out with Michael and Julia at a British pub we’ve been meaning to try for more than a year.
• My Saturday bike ride not happening meant that my knee did not scream with pain for the whole day. And biking to and from the ball game (which I wouldn’t have been able to do with the gimpy knee) was pleasant and quick and allowed us to miss the Red Line delays and the crowds and to stop by the World War II Memorial on the 65th anniversary of D Day on a beautiful moonlit night.
• The Mets being blown out of the water at the one game in the series we saw in person meant the Nats won a game in front of a large crowd. And it gave John Lannan the first complete game of his career.
• Not successfully finding a vegetarian-friendly dinner at the ballpark (okay, I could have had pizza, but that’s really just overpriced cardboard and there’s no shiny way of rethinking it) meant that I found a $2 juice made with real fruit (it had strawberry bits in it!) at the coffee stand just above our seats. Cheap deals (particularly for something healthy) are hard to come by at the ballpark.
• Going back to bed this morning instead of getting dressed and heading to the farmers’ market might have resulted in us missing the milk supply and shelling peas, but it netted me three more hours of sleep, which I clearly needed.
• A lazy but enjoyable evening of Tony’s watching (even with its abysmal sound and video work) submarined my plan to make strawberry shortcake but it meant I had only half the dishes to wash and that we had strawberry-laden ice cream sundaes instead.

Okay, okay. I admit that Pollyanna may have had something here. I do feel better thinking about the positives that came out of this weekend rather than the things that didn’t end up working out. Normally I can do this automatically, but, as I wrote above, PMS makes me a little crazier than normal.

Which brings us back to my original question: What’s the point for PMS? Anyone?

Another step toward clearing the backlog of unreviewed books. I read this back in January:

Late Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan

From the jacket: “Perched in the far corner of a run-down New England mall, the Red Lobster hasn’t been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift. With only four shopping days left until Christmas, Manny must convince his near-mutinous staff to hunker down and serve the final onslaught of hungry retirees, lunatics, and holiday office parties. All the while, he’s wondering how to handle the waitress he’s still in love with, his pregnant girlfriend at home, and where to find the present that will make everything better.”

My take: I first read about this book from Maggie more than a year ago. Learning that it was set a few towns over from where I used to live in Connecticut, just up Route 9, immediately earned it a place on my To Be Read list. So when I finally remembered to request it from the library, I was hoping for a nostalgic look at my home state through the eyes of a peer — even if that peer was the pot-smoking manager of a chain restaurant.

What I got, though, was a novella so depressing that I still can’t believe I actually finished it. It is, I would assume, an accurate portrayal of blue-collar workers being downsized at the holidays, many without prospects of attaining new employment quickly. The main characters (including Manny, who cheated on his girlfriend with one of the waitresses, who agonized over which of his employees he could take with him to the Olive Garden in the next town when the corporate office let him “save” five employees, and who is particularly kind and gentle to his old high school basketball coach and to a developmentally disabled employee) were well-crafted and well-rounded (as were several of the secondaries), but, although likable, I’m not sure I’d actually want to know them in real life. The fact that this tale is set in a familiar locale and that I could actually envision this happening there did not serve to make the story seem less bleak.

Well-written, but a true downer. Avoid if you want to be able to hold out hope for a better future for the characters you read about.

Pages: 146 pages

One day last year, I was out for a walk along Connecticut Avenue. This building, 2101 Connecticut Avenue, is a mile or so from my house. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve passed it in the six years I’ve lived in the area.

Developed by Harry Bralove (who also built D.C.’s Omni Shoreham Hotel) and Edward Ernst and designed by George T. Santmyers, it’s a large, fancy, old apartment building built in 1927. So the building’s been there a good, long time. I’d seen it. But I’d never seen it. Until that day…

…when I looked up.

Since it’s June, I thought it high time I join some book-themed challenges. Unfortunately, the one I need most, which is to review all the books you’ve read to date this year, seems not to be offered anywhere. In the meantime, I’ll just add some new books to the pile.

Last year, I signed up for Maggie’s summer reading challenge and failed miserably — I neglected to read any of the three books I’d planned on. This year I plan to succeed in my goal of reading three Southern books before August 15 for the Southern Reading Challenge Three.

(Maggie’s challenge does have some possibility of getting me to review the books in a timely fashion, as she has deadlines for posting each review.)

My intention will be to read:

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
• Flush by Carl Hiaasen

But I admit I may substitute based on library availability and sustained interest levels once I start.

If you have any Southern-themed suggestions, I’m open to them.

From today’s Booking through Thursday:

“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

1. Horton Hears a Who
2. Little Women
3. Richard Scarry’s Please and Thank You Book
4. Women in the Global Factory
5. Anne of Green Gables
6. Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone
7. Pride and Prejudice
8. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
9. A Tale of Two Cities
10. To Kill a Mockingbird
11. Jane Eyre
12. The Eyre Affair
13. The Bean Trees
14. The Secret Garden
15. Heidi

What would yours be?