India Olchefske • November 7, 2011

The brightly-colored mouths stained with frosting, whirling children and chatting adults told the story. Volta Park on Volta and 33rd Streets was an sight of candy corn balloons, spider webs, cuddly creatures and coordinated ensembles.

Exxon Mobile in Georgetown hosted the Halloween Party on Oct. 31 at Volta Park. Pumpkin decorating, candy apples, coloring sheets and face painting were in abundance at four activity tables as well as a spread of juice boxes, monster cupcakes, cookies, more cupcakes and more sugar. Neighbors chatted and admired the menagerie of costumes.

New York Life’s Child Identification table was also set up in order to register tykes and create identification cards. [gallery ids="100366,110357,110388,110362,110384,110367,110380,110372,110376" nav="thumbs"]

India Olchefske • November 3, 2011

The hidden Letelier Theater on Prospect Street will host the annual Home Movie Day on Saturday Oct. 15, 2011 from 12 to 4 p.m. to promote the craft and preservation of home movie making.

This event part of a larger worldwide day hosted by The Center for Home Movies in order to “provide the opportunity for individuals and families to see and share their own home movies with an audience of their community, and to see their neighbors’ in turn” according the website.

Caitlyn McGrath, a film historian, moved to D.C. and was surprised to see that Home Movie Day was not celebrated. She began calling different theaters and finally found Letelier Theater which was happy to host the event. The goal is to allow people to see their home video without buying a projector, she said. She expects event goers will “run the gamut.” The event is “flexible and open,” she said. One can “stay for a half an hour and leave.”

Neighbors will have the opportunity to not only show their home videos (8mm, Super8mm or 16mm films) but also learn how to preserve their film. There will be “silly” games like bingo to keep the visitors entertained.

The romanticism of 20th century home movies is what inspired this event. The Center for Home Movies dismisses any claims of “the mistaken idea that their new digital copies would last forever and the “obsolete” films could be discarded” the website said, “the original films are often carefully shot in beautiful, vibrant color—which may not be captured in a lower-resolution video transfer.”

India Olchefske •

Heavenly fumes, smoke and laughter filled lower Georgetown as tasters gathered in droves on Wisconsin Avenue between M and K Streets for the 18th Annual Taste of Georgetown on Oct. 15 benefiting the Georgetown Ministry Center’s services to support the homeless. Visitors bought tickets, each good for one sampling, and then clamored for plates from each of the 28 food-serving vendors who had more demand than expected. The Plates ranged from roasted chicken shawarma sliders at Neyla’s booth to pumpkin whoopie pies, bee sting almond honey shortbread bars and brownies from Baked and Wired. The celebration also featured live music, face painting and balloon sculptures. The Washington City Paper Pavilion served alcoholic beverages. Many non-consumable goods were also present including Long and Foster Realtors as well as HOK|BGA design clinic and PNC Bank. [gallery ids="100326,108482,108477,108472,108491,108467,108495,108462,108499,108457,108503,108452,108487" nav="thumbs"]