Obama Touts Jobs Bill, Scolds Congress at Georgetown Waterfront Park
• May 28, 2013

Just ahead of a probably doomed Senate vote on his infrastructure bill, President Barack Obama popped into Georgetown today before a friendly audience of hard-hatters, dignitaries and pols to tout the need to pass his infrastructure bill.

The president, who’s been in high dudgeon campaign mode ever since he proposed his jobs bill weeks ago, all but bounced onto a podium at the the newly dedicated Georgetown Waterfront Park, where he used a huge, billowing American flag and a small audience of perhaps 150 to 200 selected guests as a backdrop, highlighted by sunlight bouncing off yellow hard hats.

Right behind him: Key Bridge, one of five major bridges that connect Virginia to Washington, D.C.

“Two of these five bridges are rated ‘structurally deficient,’ ” President Obama said, “which is a fancy way of saying that you can drive on them but they need repair. Nearly 120,000 vehicles cross these two bridges every single day, carrying hundreds of thousands of commuters and families and children.”

As union workers and locals, including construction workers looking on from above on the Whitehurst Freeway, listened and applauded, the president touted the need for infrastructure repair programs and jobs while painting a bleak picture of weakened highways, congested traffic, slow trains and unsafe bridges.

As is his wont, the president combined his considerable, high-energy charisma with a reliable wonkishness, tweaking Congress, providing urgency and armed with a truck-load, if you will, of statistics.

“All told, our aging transportation infrastructure cost American businesses and families about $130 billion a year,” he said. “That’s a tax on our businesses, that’s a tax on our consumers. It is coming out of your pockets.”

This being a political year, like every year these days, the president, who has indicated that he’s going to get things going with or without congress, chided the Republicans in Congress. “Last month, Republicans in the Senate blocked a jobs bill that would mean hundreds of thousands of private sector construction jobs repairing bridges like this one,” he said. “It was supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people. It was paid for. And yet, they said no.”

He enlisted the help of workers in the audience, the congressmen and women in the audience, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray—all of whom “get it,” according to the president. Obama even cited a Republican president for support. “The bridges and highways we fail to repair today will have to be rebuilt tomorrow at many times the cost,” he said, quoting none other than GOP and patron saint of fiscal conservatism, President Ronald Reagan. “We just put up a statue of him at the airport. Since when do we have Republicans voting against Ronald Reagan?”

If quoting a legitimate GOP deity wasn’t enough, the president went even higher for support. He noted that the House of Representatives have been debating a commemorative coin for baseball and legislation reaffirming that “In God We Trust” is our motto.

“That’s not putting people back to work,” he said. “I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work”.

And on that note, like a magician, he swept away. “God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.”

There was the rope line, there were handshakes, and then he was gone. It was like one of those television commercials for new Ford cars in which a news crew pops up magically, anchors announce the virtues of cars, a mike is thrust out for a quote, and they fold up their tents and disappear.

Obama’s speech was a bit longer that that kind of scene, but it was just as brisk, just as sharp and clear. It was a salvo, cleanly delivered with kinetic energy, one of many that probably won’t stop until election eve 2012.

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Weekend Round Up May 23, 2013
•

Potomac River Waterfowl Show Dinner and Reception

May 24th, 2013 at 06:00 PM | $50 | gretchen@cfsomd.com | Tel: 301-885-0108 | Event Website

All exhibits open at 6 p.m.; Mingle with acclaimed artists from the region as they show off their fine art photography, wildfowl carvings, hand carved decoys, oil paintings, beach glass jewelry, reclaimed birdhouses, miscellaneous wood carvings, sculptures, antique and collectible decoys, driftwood sculptures and more. Bring your decoys in from home and get free decoy appraisals and identifications. See antique display of decoys, water fowling artifacts, and more.

Address

St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds; 42455 Fairgrounds Rd; Leonardtown, MD 20650

Rolling Thunder, Veteran Author Readings and Wreath-Layings

May 25th, 2013 at 11:00 AM | Event Website

Rolling Thunder Rolls onto Pennsylvania Avenue! Rolling Thunder National’s commemorative wreath-laying with guest speaker Active Duty Marine Captain Martha McPhee. The Pickering (Ohio) High School Band will perform before and after the ceremony. Monday, May 27- 10:00 a.m. Fleet Reserve Association wreath-laying. 1:00 p.m. Naval District Washington wreath-laying with US Navy Band and Ceremonial Guard with guest speaker Rear Admiral (Ret.) Deborah Loewer. 2:00 p.m.

Address

United States Navy Memorial- Naval Heritage Center; 701 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Celebrate Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia

May 25th, 2013 at 04:00 PM | In advance, $20 for adults, $10 for ages 13-18, free for children ages 12 and under. | Event Website](http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/343837)

Kyrgyz Children’s Future is pleased to announce this fundraising event on Memorial Day Weekend.

This will include:

Dancers from the Silk Road Dance Company

Kyrgyz musicians playing traditional Kyrgyz instruments

Kyrgyz fashion designer showing her unique collection (invited — not confirmed)

A slideshow to showcase the beauty, history, and life in Kyrgyzstan

Light refreshments prepared by visiting Kyrgyz chef

Address

Saint Mark’s Presbyterian Church; 10701 Old Georgetown Road; North Bethesda, MD, 20852

Washington Sound Museum at BloomBars

May 25th, 2013 at 07:00 PM | Tel: 202-567-7713 | Event Website](http://www.bloombars.com/)

Washington Sound Museum is a cross-cultural collaborative music experience, a monthly intimate celebration of music and beverage, in partnership with Christlez Bacon & BloomBars. The purpose of the event is to introduce audiences to a variety of musical genres while bringing them together each month through collaboration. At 7pm, prior to the performance, patrons can enjoy a tea reception on the upper level of Bloombars.

Address

BloomBars; 3222 11th Street NW

Memorial Day Concert

May 26th, 2013 at 05:00 PM | $20, under 18 admitted free | musicinmlean@gmail.com | Tel: 202 244 7191 | [Event Website](http://www.nationalmenschorus.org/)

Memorial Day weekend provides the opportunity to celebrate the contributions and sacrifices of our men and women in the armed forces. The National Men’s Chorus, founded in 1999, will be led by Artistic Director Thomas Beveridge in a rousing program of patriotic music in honor of those who have served.

Address

Saint Luke Catholic Church; 7001 Georgetown Pike McLean, VA 22101

Right Time, Right Place for Memorial Day Reflections
•

I went to the National Memorial Parade and got there a little late. So, I missed a few things.

I missed seeing Redskins quarterback and super-celebrity Robert Griffin III, who was honorary grand marshal of the parade and thrilled his fans. One woman said Griffin was the reason she came to the parade. I didn’t see parade grand marshal J.R. Martinez, the motivational speaker and Iraq veteran who was wounded there. I missed television star of “CSI: New York” and movie star of Lieutenant Dan fame in “Forrest Gump” Gary Sinise. I didn’t get to hear former American Idol winner Taylor Hicks belt out one tune.

But I did get to see George Washington, hailing a cab outside the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Who wouldn’t pick him up? A man walking behind me said: “You don’t see that every day.”

Griffin and Lieutenant Dan and Hicks and all those guys got big cheers on Memorial Day. But on Memorial Day, people remember. The people gathered in different places in the city over the long weekend, signaling the beginning of summer, and didn’t forget why, what and who they remembered. They cheered the loudest for the guys driving jeeps from World War II, or waving white-haired and sunny on a cloudy day, the real veterans, and those marching them, the women dressed like red-lipsticked nurses, or the Nam vets hanging from Hueys, and the men and kids dressed up in the red and blues of the Revolutionary War or carrying the banners that identified the next group from just about every engagement, battle or wars fought by members of our armed services. Operation Desert Storm, armed forces in Lebanon, the Civil War, the Korean War, Iraq and Afghanistan and children and youngster came marching at the end of Constitution Avenue bearing giant photographs of soldiers from the wars, fighting or fallen.

Up and down the avenue, you saw visitors, and locals, people from the surrounding conclaves of Maryland and Virginia, tourists from oversees, young parents with their baby-carrying carriages, the hot dogs, the dads, the kids on top of shoulders and the little dark-haired girl waving a flag at every group and everybody from the sidelines.

They heard all the anthems, the John Philip Sousa songs, the over-theres—and those caissons keep rolling our eyes have seen the glory—off we go into the wild blue yonder—from the halls of Montezuma—anchors aweigh—and heard the cadence of the three striper marching alongside the company of men marching to a different tune: “your left, your left, your right, your left”.

People will tell you that the marines, the army guys, the sailors, the flyers, the artillerymen, the slogging infantry, the musket holders and cavalry men fought for this thing and that thing and that cause and that reason, for freedom and liberty and the union, and that this would never happen again and always would. This is true, but other things are, too. I’ve never fired a shot in anger although I’ve worn the uniform for three years. A British poet thought he had it summed up: “Theirs [is] not to reason why, theirs [is] but to do or die.”

Maybe. I think they fought and died for country which means among many things all those people gathered on the avenue cheering them as they, or facsimiles thereof, marched by beaming among the flags, the heavy armored vehicle tires, the martial sounds and looked at pretty faces and beautiful faces of families. Wars are about neighborhoods and towns as much as reasons—or, rather, they’re the reason. They fought next to each other, for unit and home and country as well as what they believed in and dreamed about.

What I saw was a guy from Lebanon—isn’t that in Ohio, somebody asked and it is, but not that one—who raised his sons here in Maryland but still had family in that country whose capital Beirut was once called the Paris of the Middle East, and which is squarely within sounds of guns and rockets flying overhead or next door. I saw a man with a flag in his hat, and couples clutching each other, watching the marchers intently.

They cheered the bands from everywhere here and out there, the tubas shining without sunlight, the cheerleaders and twirlers, the baton throwers and drummers and the boys in the big hats from places American: kids from Beaverton, Oregon; Hillsborough, North Carolina; Schenectady, New York; Bayonne, New Jersey; Cache, Oklahoma; Ford Wayne, Indiana; Farmington, Missouri; Huntsville, Alabama; and Hope, Arkansas, where Bill Clinton grew up more or less.

They commemorated the 70th anniversary of World War II, the 50th anniversary of the Korean War and the 60th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Tattooed riders with white beards roared by, rolling thunderously.

A high school kid heard a high school band tune up to “Louie, Louie” and asked if that was an army song. I said, “Nope, that was a high school song. A rock and roll song.”

I didn’t see J.R., Gary, RG III or Taylor.

But resting at the World War II Memorial, I saw a man in a black jacket walking lightly with a cane, his white hair visible from a distance. I met Herman Zeitchik, the 89-year-old Army veteran who had landed on Utah Beach on D-Day and went all the way up France and Luxembourg and Belgium in the Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany and came out the other side at the end of World War II.

He told stories: “I was in Patton’s army, artillery, and I was at the Bulge in the Huertgen Forest.” Somebody talked about the German 88s, a fearsome artillery that bludgeoned American GIs. “Don’t mention that number to me,” he said. He was clear eyed. “I’m Jewish, but we couldn’t be identified as such, in case we got captured by our dog tags.” He showed us his dog tags. Zeitchik helped to liberate a concentration camp at the end. He recently was at the Holocaust Commemoration at the Holocaust Museum. He was awarded the Chevalier French Legion of Honor. “In France, and in Belgium and Luxembourg, they just treated us like kings and heroes.” He described General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the son of the American president, marching visibly on the beach at Utah. “People thought he would get killed,” he said. Roosevelt died of a heart attack, later in the war.

He wore his medals, his rifleman badge, his hat, he looked not like a survivor but like someone who had done honorable service in the greatest of all the wars. Now, he was telling stories and answering questions and shaking hands with another army man who had served in Cairo during the war.

They were making memories on Memorial Day, all the things worth remembering and keeping alive and passing on. Beyond “Louie, Louie.” We gotta go.

Annette Funicello: ‘America’s Sweetheart’
• May 23, 2013

There are some news items that just stop you short and take you back.

Annette Funicello has died at the age of 70 from complications of multiple sclerosis. That just doesn’t seem right. Who knew Annette Funicello was 70?

Who knew Mouseketeers could pass away?

Annette Funicello was, it’s fair to say the most famous of all the Mouseketeers, which included Cheryl and Cubby and Karen and Doreen and head Mouse man Jimmy. For a generation of people who were adolescents in the mid-1950s, a time when Walt Disney had ventured into television with his own nighttime show, he invented the Mickey Mouse Club which aired right before supper (and probably put a dent into “It’s Howdy Doody Time” for younger children) in American households all across the land.

Funicello had talent—she took lessons in everything, including singing, dancing and acting. Her appeal was to look very pretty and remain wholesome at the same because the show’s and her audience was pre-teeners to early teens which were nothing like the know-about-everything counterparts today. They had fan magazines, they had television and movies. They had the beginnings of rock and roll.

Girls and young boys watched the shows—but the minute you went out for football, you stopped watching because, well, it was “The Mickey Mouse Cub” for God’s sake. How weenie can you get? You watched “American Bandstand” instead where you could learn the hand jive or jitterbug and the girls from Philly looked a lot older than the girls in your small town home room.

Funicello had a number of hit singles, including “Tall Paul,” “O Dio Mio,” “First Name Initial” and “Blame It on the Bossa Nova,” and starred in a number of Disney vehicles including “Babes in Toyland.” Her career took a step toward iconic when she and Frankie Avalon starred in as series of serenely innocent beach movies in which her navel—show it, not show it—became an object of much fan discussion. The films, made by Roger Corman at low budget American International, nevertheless stayed in the public memory: “Beach Party,” “Beach Blanket Bingo” and “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.” It was innocent and very entertaining stuff by any standard.

She had been suffering from MS at a debilitating pace and, according to reports, had been in a MS coma for some time.

Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka, who wrote some of her songs, mourned her passing as did Britney Spears, also an alum of the Disney factory.

We’re going to miss you, Annette. Why? Because we liked you.

Weekend Round Up May 16, 2013
•

Capital Collections Estate Auction

May 17th, 2013 at 10:00 AM | Free | info@weschlers.com | Tel: 202-628-1281 | Event Website

Capital Collections Estate Auctions are held approximately six times a year and combine American & European furniture & decorations, Asian works of art, jewelry, coins & watches, paintings, prints, drawings & sculpture and 20th century decorative arts. The auctions are held on Fridays and are available for exhibit the Saturday prior to the sale through Thursday.

An illustrated catalogue accompanies each sale and is available for purchase and online viewing at www.weschlers.com

Address

909 E Street NW

Concert for Life

May 17th, 2013 at 08:00 PM | $25.00 | carderdp@aol.com | Tel: 703-915-1889 | Event Website](http://www.concertforlife.org/)

The 20th Concert for Life AIDS benefit will be held at 8:00 PM on Friday, May 17, at Foundry United Methodist Church, 1500 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. This year’s theme will be “Looking Back, Living Forward.”

100% of the proceeds from this all-volunteer, non-sectarian concert will go to beneficiary organizations that help people living with HIV/AIDS. Tickets are available at the door or online at www.concertforlife.org – Concert $25, Concert/Reception $75.

Address

Foundry United Methodist Church; 1500 16th Street NW

DC Shorts Laughs – Short Comedy Films and Stand-Up Comedy All in One Night

May 17th, 2013 at 07:00 PM | $15-$25 | lgross@scottcircle.com | Tel: 202-393-4266 | [Event Website](http://laughs.dcshorts.com/)

Summer is so close – so get ready for the giddy times ahead with some of the DC Short’s favorite comedy films – and live performances by the area’s top stand-up comedians from the famed Funniest Feds competition.

Address

U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center – Burke Theater, 701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW; Washington, DC 20001

Coldwell Banker & Operation Paws for Homes to Host a Pet Adoption Event

May 18th, 2013 at 12:00 PM | mnute@cbmove.com | Tel: 202-333-6100 | [Event Website](http://w.ophrescue.com/#ld)

OPH anticipates bringing a wide variety of dog breeds and ages… even puppies. Visit OPH’s “Adoptable Dogs” section on their website www.ophrescue.org . During our last three events a total of over 35 dogs were placed in their forever homes. With your help we can make this event even more successful.
We hope that you will come to our meet and greet with the pets and visit with volunteers from Operation Paws for Homes and a group of Coldwell Banker’s very own pet friendly agents.
Address

Georgetown Washington Harbour, 3000 K Street, NW, Suite 101

Music on the Lawn – Whitsunday

May 19th, 2013 at 12:00 PM | Free | office@gracedc.org | Tel: 202-333-7100 | Event Website](http://gracedc.org/news/upcoming.php)

Local musicians Herman Burney and Marshall Keys will be entertaining us with their bluesy jazz! Please join us and feel free to bring a picnic lunch. We’ll also have cake and festive drinks to help celebrate Whitsunday, which is considered to the birthday of the church.

Address

Grace Episcopal Church, Georgetown; 1041 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Seven Hills Wine Dinner at Blue Duck Tavern

May 20th, 2013 at 07:30 PM | $145, plus tax & gratuity | marvina.williams@hyatt.com | Tel: 2024196755 | Event Website](http://www.blueducktavern.com/gallery/blueduck/index.html?icamp=blueducktavernredirect)

Join Executive Chef Sebastien Archambault & Chef de Cuisine John Melfi for an intimate, four-course dinner with Erik McLaughlin of Seven Hills Winery, one of the pioneering wineries in Washington State.

Wines to be poured include:

Seven Hills Riesling

Seven Hills Merlot

Seven Hills Cabernet

Plus, two single-varietal library selections

Address

Blue Duck Tavern; 1201 24th Street NW

Another Commencement Weekend in Washington
•

It’s another commencement weekend in Washington which may (or may not) supply some relief from the scandals–the IRS, Benghazi, the AP–and sports woes–the Caps, the sliding Nationals, not living up to expectations. As for extra neighborhood traffic, we can’t help you with that.

At Georgetown University, a host of distinguished speakers—from Nobel Prize winners, to heads of state to high government officials, will send graduates from the various schools—from college to foreign service and graduate school—off to a brighter future over a four-day series of commencement events that ends Sunday.

George Washington University may not a host of speakers but does have one who’s got a little bit of star power and dazzle. That would be one Kerry Washington, B. A., GWU class of ’98, who graduated from the university magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and has previously served as on the university’s board of trustees. Washington will be the main speaker at GWU commencement ceremonies on the National Mall on Sunday.

Lest we forget Washington’s acting career has gone into the kind of warp drive which has become both ubiquitous and deserved. In films, she recently starred as Broomhilda von Schaft in Quentin Tarrentino’s unique take on slavery “Djano Unchained,” with Jamie Foxx, with whom she performed with in “Ray,” for which she won an NAACP image award. She is also currently wowing network television in the Washington-based series “Scandal,” in which she is the first African American woman to headline a network TV show since 1974.

Georgetown University holds graduation ceremonies for each of its undergraduate and professional schools as well as award celebrations on campus, beginning today and ending Sunday.

“Our commencement speakers this year are extraordinary individuals, representing the highest levels of excellence in a diverse array of fields—from public service to public health, education, economics and humanitarian endeavors,” said Georgetown University president John DeGioia. “By sharing their experience and wisdom, they offer inspirations to our students who are themselves at this moment in their lives, envisioning the impact they can make in our world.

Here’s a list of speakesr at the various events and schools:

Lt. General David H. Huntoon Jr, Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, at the Army ROTC Commissioning Ceremony, Friday at Gaston Hall.

Eric Maskin, Adams University Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and Nobel Memorial Prize winner in Economics, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Healy Lawn Friday, .

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, Georgetown Public Policy Institute Awards Ceremony, Friday at the Leavey Center Ballroom.

Mauro L. I. Viera, Ambassador of Brazil to the U.S., McDonough School of Business at Healy Lawn, Friday.

Gerald M. “Jerry” DeFrancisco, President of Humanitarian Services for the American Red Cross, for School of Continuing Studies at Healy Lawn, Friday.

Marc Grossman, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Master of Science in Foreign Service Awards Ceremony, Gaston Hall, Friday.

Lisa J. Shannon, Founder of Run for Congo Women and a Thousand Sisters Campaign, , Saturday, Healy Lawn for Doctor of Human Letters, College of Arts and Science.

Dir. Lisa Simpson, President and CEO, Academy Health , School of Nursing and Health Studies, Healy Lawn, Saturday.

Dalia Grybauskaite, President of the Republic of Lithuania, School of Foreign Service, Saturday, Healy Lawn.

William M. Cowan, U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts, McDonough School of Business, Saturday,

(For all George Washington University and Georgetown University activities, times and details go to the schools’ websites — gwu.edu and georgetown.edu.l)

Washington Cathedral Wins Preservation Vote
• May 22, 2013

The Washington National Cathedral was the top vote-getter in the Partners in Preservation contest, sponsored by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It won a $100,000 grant. Coming in a close second, George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate will also receive $100,000. Partners in Preservation will issue grants to other historic places in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

“We are overjoyed by this vote of support for our restoration efforts,” said the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral. “This money will be put to good use restoring this incredible structure that has been entrusted to us by the American people. The generosity that American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have shown is equaled only by the remarkable work they have done calling attention to the critical preservation projects that are in need of support across the region. Our success is made greater by the knowledge that many other competitors will also be able to move forward with their projects.”

The cathedral will use the money to repair the vault of the nave, which is now shrouded with netting to catch any fragments loosened by the August 2011 earthquake. Mount Vernon plans to use the grant to restore George Washington’s large dining room.

“The National Cathedral is one of the most prominent landmarks in a city full of iconic buildings, and it is a huge contributor to our crucial tourism industry,” said Mayor Vincent Gray. “Moreover, the building is not only historic and beautiful but a gathering place for people of all races, backgrounds and faiths and a setting for scores of concerts, speeches and dozens of other cultural events throughout the year. I’m thankful to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, American Express and the voting public for the funding to help restore this gorgeous space to its pre-earthquake grandeur.”

Other grant winners in the District — with prizes ranging from $90,000 to $50,000 — included Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Congressional Cemetery, All Souls Church Unitarian, the Carter G. Woodson National Historic Site, the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue and Meridian Hill Park and the Gala Hispanic Theatre at the Tivoli.

While Georgetown’s Heyden Observatory at Georgetown University and Abner Cloud House at the C&O Canal got consolation prizes of $5,000, its Dumbarton Oaks Park on R Street will receive $50,000, which the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy plans to use to repair the garden’s original built structures including viewing platform, stone houses and retaining wall.
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Record-Breaking Georgetown Garden Tour Sells Out
• May 16, 2013

We know Georgetown loves its homes and trees. Now, we know for sure that it loves its gardens just as much, if not more.

The 85th annual Georgetown Garden Tour began to run out of tickets May 11 as neighbors and visitors kept up a steady stream as they went to Christ Church to check in and then to Georgetown back and side yards. Tour volunteers had to write on some tour tickers, “admission for two.”

Although the weather forecast was mixed, the day got busier and warmer with more than 700 tickets sold, a record for the garden tour.

Lovers of horticulture and design had the chance to see seven unique private gardens as well as 27-acre Dumbarton Oaks Park — “America’s Secret Garden” — on R Street.

On Monday, May 13, it was announced by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation that the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy would receive a $50,000 grant to repair the garden’s original built structures including viewing platform, stone houses and retaining wall, as part of Partners in Preservation’s multi-million-dollar commitment to preservation.

The tour included gardens that featured spring foliage and a palette of flowering trees, shrubs and perennials as well as the contemporary sculptures in a garden of an R Street home. Aligned with Georgetown’s history and the neighborhood’s close quarters, each garden displayed its own sense of privacy and peace.

All proceeds from the Georgetown Garden Tour will go to the preservation of the historic parks, public spaces, and tree-lined streets of Georgetown, the garden club said.

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Weekend Round Up May 9, 2013
• May 13, 2013

Opening Reception: Poetic Visions artworks by Brenda Kingery

May 10, 6 p.m. | FREE | gallery@callowayart.com | Tel: 202-965-4601 | Event Website

Kingery’s paintings have been described as Narrative Symbolism. Her work depicts a shared history of indigenous cultures, filled with life, movement and memories in a series of patterns that can almost be described as visual tapestries. Kingery was appointed in 2007 by the President of the United States to board of trustees of the Institute of American Indian and Native Alaskans in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Address

1643 Wisconsin Ave NW

85th Annual Georgetown Garden Tour

May 11, 10 a.m. | 35 | Event Website

Georgetown’s most intriguing gardens, open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. The tour is presented each year by the Georgetown Garden Club. It is supported by the generous contributions of neighbors and local merchants and benefits local environmental and beautification projects. Christ Church, 31st and O Streets NW, will serve as headquarters for the tour. Included in the $35 ticket price is an afternoon tea served, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Keith Hall, Christ Church.

Address

Christ Church, 31st and O Streets NW

Copperthite Donation at Library

May 11, 2 p.m. | Event Website](http://www.cocopieco.com/)

Pie reception and donation of 1913 landmark photograph to Georgetown Public Library’s Peabody Collection on the occasion the 125th anniversary of the Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Baking Company; 3260 R St., N.W.

Address

Georgetown Library, 3260 R St., N.W.

The Castleton Festival’s Annual Viva La Musica Gala

May 11, 6:30 p.m. | $500 | BoxOffice@castletonfestival.org | Tel: 1-866-974-0767 | [Event Website](http://www.castletonfestival.org/)

The Castleton Festival’s annual Viva La Musica Gala, a benefit performance, silent auction and dinner, supports Maestro Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Artists Training Seminar (C.A.T.S.), a rigorous, credit-earning, eight-week program where promising young artists attend classes and coaching with professional artists, gaining invaluable artistic experience. This year’s gala will feature Grammy winner Susan Graham, accomplished pianist Alessandro Taverna and a special appearance by the US Army Chorus.

Address

Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington, 1700 H Street NW

Shortcut to Europe: European Union Embassies’ Open House

May 11, 10 a.m. | Free | emily@pivotpointcom.com | [Event Website](http://passportdc.org/)

Enjoy authentic music, dance, food, film, and art from 28 distinctive nations along with a rare behind-the-scenes look into the European Union embassies. Complimentary shuttle buses transport visitors along the embassy routes. Participating embassies include: Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Slovakia, and Sweden. Admission is free, no reservations required, and complimentary shuttle service is provided.

Washington, DC and surrounding neighborhoods

Dumbarton House: An Ice Cream Sunday

May 12, 1 p.m. | $6 per child or adult and free for NSCDA and Dumbarton House members | education@DumbartonHouse.org | Tel: 202.337.2288 | [Event Website](http://icecreamsundaymay.eventbrite.com/#)

From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m, bring the family to make your own ice cream treats as well as sample an ice cream flavor popular during the Federal period at Dumbarton House. End your visit with a tour of Dumbarton House to learn about the history of early Georgetown First Lady Dolley Madison, a visitor to the historic home, who first popularized ice cream in America when she served it at the White House. Admission is $6 per child or adult and free for NSCDA and Dumbarton House members.

Address

2715 Q Street, NW

Armed Robbery Outside CVS; ‘Robbery Snatch’ on M Street
• May 9, 2013

An armed robbery occurred in the CVS parking lot at 1403 Wisconsin Ave., NW, April 30 before 5 p.m. The D.C. text alert indicated that the armed suspect was wearing a black mask and jeans; seen leaving in white car, going north on Wisconsin Avenue. On May 2, another crime alert just after noon: robbery snatch on the 3000 block of M Street at 11:52 a.m.; “wearing a green jacket, blue jacket,” if that helps.