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Georgetowner • January 23, 2014

Washington Winter Show 2014

January 10th, 2014 at 10:30 AM | General Admission $20 | Tel: 202-248-7159 | Event Website

The Washington Winter Show, a charity antiques show in Washington DC, will feature fine antiques, distinguished events, and a Loan Exhibition. The theme for the 2014 show is “Southern Celebrations: Traditions Handed Down.” Stratford Hall, home of the Lees in Virginia, has created a loan exhibit that will provide a glimpse of customs that are evocative of life in the 1800’s including items elated to entertaining, style and family life.

Address

The Katzen Arts Center American University; 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.

Gypsy Sally’s: Patty Larkin

January 10th, 2014 at 07:00 PM | $20-25 | Tel: (202) 333-7700 | Event Website

Patty Larkin has become renowned for her creative playing and writing as well as the often odd formatting of her music. To celebrate her twenty fifth year of recording, she recorded twenty five songs with twenty five different friends, giving each of them free reign over the track.

Address

Gypsy Sally’s; 3401 K St. NW

Beau Soir Ensemble

January 12th, 2014 at 04:00 PM | $20 | musicinmclean@gmail.com | Tel: 703-356-0670 | Event Website

Enjoy a celebration of music from around the world including Argentine-inspired tangos and music from France and Russia. The sound of flute, harp, and oboe combine in a unique instrumental performance delivered by three talented musicians who exude passion and individual expression, enhanced with flowing synergy.

Address

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

Brass-A-Holics at The Hamilton Live

January 12th, 2014 at 06:30 PM | 25.50 | Tel: 202 787 1000 | Event Website

The Brass-A-Holics Band and the Go-Go Brass Funk genre joined the ranks of the time honored traditions, culture and music that have come out of the great city of New Orleans, Louisiana. They will preforming live from 6:30- 11PM

Address

The Hamilton Live; 600 14th St NW

Gary Tischler •

Among the ever-growing array that comprises the awards season, the Golden Globes is unique for many reasons.

It’s the only awards show where the awards are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a largely unknown group of journalists who apparently report on all things Hollywood for a world-wide audience which now knows that Kevin Bacon, famous for “Footloose” and most recently a serial killer series on television, has a daughter named Sosie Bacon, who was this year’s Miss Golden Globes. The 21-year-old acquitted herself nicely by managing to steer often confused award winners on and off the stage through what was a long evening.

It’s also an awards show that hands out both film and television awards, which makes for class skirmishes here and there, and in two different categories for the major awards, i.e., musical or comedy and drama, although what constitutes comedy for the judges seems a mystery to me. My guess: it’s a fun thing to do, makes for more major awards and more stars in attendance. All of this goes out the window at the Oscars, but it makes for some odd choices, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” for instance, along with “Nebraska,” “American Hustle” and “August: Osage County,” comedies all, thus avoiding to have to compete with “12 Years a Slave.”

The GGs are also as far as we know the only awards presentation event at which dinner and drinks are served throughout the ceremonies, which allows for the observation that anything could happen. Even best actress in a drama (for Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine”) Cate Blanchett, smoothly graceful, elegant and sexy, allowed that she had fortified herself with a few martinis. Everyone sits at big tables with friends and cast members and wanders around catching up or lining up for drinks. I’ve never seen so much schmoozing and flesh pressing since the last time I saw Bill Clinton at a gathering of more than five persons.

The Golden Globes rest somewhere in significance between Fat Tuesday and the Oscars, and the atmosphere bears that out. It’s comedy tonight at the podium—where mistresses of ceremony Tina Faye and Amy Poehler reigned supreme and close sometimes to obscene but always funny—and the circus of the red carpet where the stars parade, stop and pose, get interviewed, pose for selfies, pose again, get interviewed by everyone from E! folks (not “E” for “elves,” although Orlando Bloom was there) but “E” for “entertainment”) to bloggers to the fawning fawns of Access Hollywood and the folks from the Today Show. (Matt Lauer in black wraparound glasses and Savannah Guthrie, who is even taller in real life.)

In between, there is the drama on the podium, the handing out of awards, and the long trips to the podium by the winners. Whoever did the layout and logistics for this show ought to be made to sit in Los Angeles traffic for hours on end as punishment. The route—depending where you were sitting—to the podium seemed to be so difficult as getting over Donner Pass, twisted and stops for kisses and attaboys and girls from the tables that the journey seemed to take forever. Former big movie star Jacqueline Bisset, who won an award for best supporting acting in a television mini-series, almost didn’t make it to the stage, where she stood speechless, gave us her grandmother’s favorite saying (“Go to hell, and don’t come back”), almost crashed the bleeping system, and generally won the highlights of the evening awards for drama hands down. She also managed to get the sh-t word for good measure and looked frazzled but lovely.

As for the awards, as the King of Siam might say, they were often a “puzzlement.” Best comedy “Brooklyn Nine Nine,” and best comedy actor Andy Samberg? Seriously? The Saturday Night Live vibe was strong throughout, what with that odd choice and Poehler’s win.

It wasn’t much of a hot night for Julia Louis-Dreyfus who’d been nominated for comedy actress in a movie (for “Enough Said” with the late James Gandolfini) and for best comedic actress (for “Veep”). She was shut out and had to endure jibbing from Fey and Poehler for sitting in the movie section. Plus, she lost to Poehler.

As for “12 Years a Slave,” the gripping, moving saga of the plight of a free man in pre-Civil War America, who endured 12 years of life and suffering as a slave, this best movie by far)managed to win best movie against weak competition–but was shut out in best actor (the splendid Chiewetel Ejiofor lost to Matthew McConaughey for “Dallas Buyers Club”), best director (Steve McQueen lost to Alfonso Cuaron for the space saga “Gravity”) and best support actress (the remarkable Lupita Nyong’o lost to everybody’s darling, Jennifer Lawrence, for “American Hustle”). Lawrence, complete with her pixie haircut and just plain goofy honesty, is now officially adorable.

“Hustle” did well for itself—the sharply written and performed hit based loosely on the Abscam scandal of the 1980s, also got a best actress award for Amy Adams and a best musical or comedy award award.

Woody Allen was given a life-time achievement prize, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, for a career filled with original, funny, serious, funny-serious movies and was also rewarded with a tribute from Diane Keaton, ex-girlfriend and Annie Hall. Allen, who won an Oscar for directing for “Annie Hall,” has been much honored and much loved by lady actresses for whom he writes wonderful parts, including Blanchett, who said “Thanks for finally calling me.” Almost every actress who’s worked with him is likely to forgive him for anything with the possible exception of ex-wife Mia Farrow, who nonetheless did her best work for him in “Hannah and Her Sisters” and “The Purple Rose of Cairo.” My personal favorite? “Midnight in Paris.”

Leonardo DiCaprio, alone, looking sharp and hot and very cool, won the award for best actor in a comedy or musical for his endlessly greedy and hedonistic star turn in Martin Scorcese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.” DiCaprio sometimes brings his mother to awards shows. Good thing he didn’t this time. She might have blanched at the fulsome introduction for him provided by Tina Fey, just before he presented the award for best film. “And now,” she offered, “like a supermodel’s vagina, let us give a warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio.”

Bet you won’t hear that at the Oscars.

Robert Devaney • January 21, 2014

The tragic story about a double stabbing on Sunday morning in a Q Street home has gotten worse.

Fifty-six-year-old Bradford Nelson Elliott suffered a heart attack and died at a hospital Jan. 20, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, before being formally charged with homicide.

Bradford Elliott was the only suspect in the stabbing death of his 88-year-old father, Le Roi Elliott, Jan. 19. The 81-year-old mother, Vaughn Elliott, was also injured during the same attack, which took place at the Elliotts’ home in the 3300 block of Q Street, NW, across from Volta Park. They had lived there since the mid-1980s.

Bradford Elliott was reportedly mentally ill and lived in the Q Street home with his parents. It was Vaughan Elliott, who called 9-1-1 around 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning and remains in stable condition. Bradford Elliott answered the door with blood-soaked hands when police arrived and was arrested, MPD told the Washington Post. He was being treated at a hospital, while in custody, and a Jan. 22 court appearance had been scheduled.

Georgetowner • January 17, 2014

The National Park Service reviewed its temporary halt to an eviction of Jack’s Boathouse and wrote to Jack’s on Jan. 18 that it has decided “to issue a new temporary concession contract for non-motorized boat rental and storage devices and to allow you to continue your operations until such time as the contract is awarded, provided that your occupancy comports with National Park Service standards . . .”

The Jan. 18 letter from NPS regional director Stephen Whitesell to Jack’s Boathouse owner Paul Simkin rescinds the Park Service’s Dec. 18 letter sent to the popular canoe and kayak renting facility on the Potomac River in the shadow of Key Bridge that first brought up the eviction — and howls of protest in late December from fans of Jack’s.

Nevertheless, the latest Park Service action on Jack’s makes the removal of the current owner from NPS land appear more likely.

The Park Service wrote in its Jan. 18 letter to Simkin that it “will release a Request for Qualification (RFQ) for non-motorized boat rental and storage devices at or near the location of the present operation. We will evaluate all responsive proposals, including yours should you wish to submit one . . . ” The deadline to respond is in two-and-a-half weeks, Feb. 6.

Understandably, Jack’s owner is clearly upset about this latest obstacle in his fight to remain on the shores of the Potomac and operate his business, a Georgetown tradition since the 1940s. Simkin has owned and run Jack’s since 2008. He has operated under a lease controlled by the Park Service that has not been updated since 1982; the monthly rent remained a little more than $350 for years. Simkin said he has made significant improvements to the property that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A few weeks ago, Simkin has retained attorney Charles Camp, who wrote to Park Service, citing a detail of September 1985 resolution by the District Council, concerning the transfer of D.C. public land in the area around Jack’s: “The National Park Service shall assume responsibility to repair, maintain, and protect all wharves, piers, bulkheads, and similar structures that are located on the transferred land or in the adjacent waters.”

Upon reading the Jan. 18 letter from NPS, Simkin issued this statement: “We thought we were doing the right thing. We thought by following the rules, making our customers happy, increasing our customer base . . . approximately 18-fold and creating a special environment that people from all around the world, not just D.C., wanted to be a part of, that we were doing things the right way. Without being too cliche, it’s the American way. We somehow failed. I think we’ve just been too naive. We are being steamrolled into oblivion by the National Park Service, and we still don’t know why.”

“If this were a simple rent matter, we would have been happy to pay what was asked. We were never asked. In addition, we have now learned that they [the National Park Service] should have been paying, all of these years, for dock maintenance — something that has cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket.”

“If something doesn’t change soon in the next few days, we are finished. Jack’s will be gone forever. The legal expenses here are killing us, as is the Park Service’s failure to respond to us in any meaningful way and leaving us absolutely in the dark. Its willingness to see a D.C. resource turned into a typical corporate entity will prevail. In fairness to my employees, I’ve had to tell them that the future at Jack’s appears bleak. That’s 27 persons. This latest message, dated January 18th, from the National Park Service, saying that we are allowed to bid to run our own business that the staff has worked so hard to build is heartbreaking. It should be clear to all that the NPS does not award contracts based on objective criteria. By its own admission, it is almost wholly subjective. We would have no chance of winning because we are obviously (and for no apparent reason) not wanted.”

“Out of necessity, we have retained an attorney whose investigation of the area has proved to be enormously insightful. It turns out that the land that Jack’s is on is, in fact, owned by the District of Columbia and is neither owned nor controlled by the National Park Service at all. Because of some past bureaucratic mismanagement on the part of the NPS, it has been able to act as if it is the landlord. It has taken our rent money, performed no maintenance tasks and is now acting as if we are the outsiders. It is my understanding from talking to District officials that the city is going to make an enormous push to set right what is a clear wrong.”

“I have been too embarrassed to ask the public for help previously. I’m old-school and a bit too small-town, but, frankly, this heavy-handed and hostile takeover by the Park Service is just kicking my butt. For those who love the place, for those who like the place, for those who want Jack’s to be a place where they can still go, I need help. Jack’s needs community support now. I cannot promise more than continuing to do what we do and working every day to make it better — and a promise that there is nothing more important to me than the river. Everyone can make a difference. If you haven’t yet, please sign the petition at change.org. If you know someone who knows ‘someone,’ this is the time. We are talking about days, not weeks or months before it is all over.”

Robert Devaney •

“At some point, you can’t fight the Feds,” said Jack’s Boathouse owner Paul Simkin. “We [Jack’s Boathouse] will not be there. We know when we’ve been beaten.”

Simkin responded to the Georgetowner, concerning the March 28 United States Court for the District of Columbia decision to dismiss Jack’s Boathouse case in which it claimed that the National Park Service did not have jurisdiction over the land where the boathouse sits. Jack’s Boathouse has been fighting its removal from the Potomac River shore at 3500 K St., NW, since December. The Good Friday decision seriously damaged Simkin’s legal challenge to the NPS eviction.

Nevertheless, Simkin seemed at peace with his own decision to withdraw from the fight and praised the new boat rental company that will work at the old Jack’s site. He also claimed a certain moral victory.

“Our objective was to stay there and keep working for another 70 years,” Simkin said. “If that were not possible, we intended to keep out the big corporate operators as well as a big collegiate boathouse. Neither will come to pass because of our fight, our supporters and the visibility of the assorted shenanigans.”

On March 4, the NPS awarded B&G Outdoor Recreation of Boston the contract to operate on the site of Jack’s Boathouse.

“For me, the next best solution is that the new folks coming have a philosophy like ours,” Simkin said. “If the boathouse space cannot be under our leadership, I cannot think of a better fit for Georgetown than B&G. They are good people and love the water, and we ask our supporters and customers to support them. B&G has assured me that it will hire all of Jack’s former employees. And that makes me rest easier.”

Jack’s Boathouse has been renting canoe and kayaks since 1945 when it was opened by Jack Baxter, a former police officer.

“You win some,” Simkin said. “You lose some. In the end, we believe we have come out ahead.”

Hayley Markovich •

The District of Columbia will resume its Breath Alcohol Testing Program on Friday, Sept. 28., after it was paused two years ago. Under the new program, a trained Metropolitan Police Department operator will administer tests to measure breath alcohol content when processing an arrest for impaired driving offenses.

“Ensuring we are doing everything possible to protect public safety is a priority for this administration,” Mayor Vincent Gray said Sept. 26 in a joint statement with the Metropolitan Police Department, the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner. Gray added that a $150,000 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration helped to bring back the program.

The MPD suspended the breath alcohol program in 2010 because incorrectly calibrated machines were found to be giving false readings. D.C. police then worked with the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to develop new software for Intoximeter Instruments. During the 20-month development process there was continued reliance on urine tests and vigorous prosecution for impaired driving. Standard field sobriety tests will still be conducted at the scene and urine-testing equipment will remain available at all patrol districts.

The District began to get tougher on drivers impaired by alcohol and drugs with the Comprehensive Impaired Driving Act of 2012. Under the new act, maximum incarceration periods and fines will increase. Among these increases are that first time offenders could be jailed up to 180 days and fined up to $1,000. Convicted first-time offenders with a blood alcohol concentration of .20 percent or higher, or repeat DUI offenders, have a mandatory minimum 10-day jail time.

Offenders with a minor child in the vehicle face a minimum five-day jail sentence for each child in a required child-restraint seat and 10 days if they are not. Blood alcohol limits for commercial vehicle operators, including those for hire are set at .04 percent. These drivers will be subject to a five-day mandatory minimum jail term in addition to any other penalty for which they qualify.

“It is an important tool in our joint efforts to combat impaired driving and maintain public safety in the District,” said D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan. “With the new statute and the new, state-of-the-art equipment, we are now well positioned to combat impaired driving.”

Robert Devaney •

The trial of Albrecht Gero Muth, accused of killing his 91-year-old wife Viola Herms Drath in August 2011, has begun at D.C. Superior Court.
Delays to the trial start date were due in part to Muth’s failing heath because of his decision to restrict his eating. Judge Russell Canan ruled that the trial start Jan. 6 and have the defendant participate from his hospital bed via video conferencing — and not be at the courthouse, a first for the D.C. court. The jury will hear Muth speak but not see him in his deteriorated condition.

During testimony this week, Drath’s daughers, Connie and Francesca, talked about Muth’s money arrangements with his wife and of his emails to them about items he wanted upon her death.

Claiming he is innocent, Muth faces a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Drath.

A veteran journalist and married previously to an Army colonel, Drath was found dead in a bathroom of her home on Q Street on Aug. 12, 2011, after being strangled and beaten. She and Muth were known around town for their dinner parties at her home with a mix of political, diplomatic, military and media VIPs. Drath was 44 years older than Muth.

Seen around Georgetown in faux military garb, Muth was perceived by neighbors and shopkeepers as, simply, a oddball. In recent years, he said that he was a member of the Iraqi Army — which the Iraqi government denied. He went so far as to have arranged a 2010 ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery for Iraqi Liberation Day. Muth was also known around government and foundation lobbying circles as Count Albi of the EPG (Eminent Persons Group).
Muth’s hunger strikes began in December 2012 after he was ruled competent to stand trial. In March 2013, a doctor deemed Muth too weak to stand trial. His fast continued, and a judge postponed the trial until Jan. 6.

Robert Devaney • January 15, 2014

Construction of a bike lane on M Street, NW, was to begin today, but cool weather has delayed the start of the project. When completed — in four to six weeks, “depending on weather conditions” — the protected lanes will stretch from 14th Street, NW, to 28th Street, NW, in Georgetown. Unlike the bike lanes on L Street, NW, there will be parking for cars next to the lane dividers.

Here are details from the District Department of Transportation:

“DDOT will be installing a protected bike lane (also known as a cycle track) on the north side of M Street between 14th and 28th Streets, NW. This will be the third of its kind in the District and will be the west-bound complement to the recently installed lane on L Street. The lane is designed to give bicyclists more protection from cars than a typical bike lane and to prevent delivery vehicles from illegally parking in the bike lane.

“Unlike on L Street, most parking and loading will remain adjacent to the bike lane. Like on 15th Street, NW, it will be shifted south to the outside of the bike lane. From 14th Street to 17th Street, rush-hour restrictions will be removed to allow full-time parking. From 17th Street to Connecticut Avenue, traffic volumes require removing some of the parking. From Connecticut Avenue to 26th Street, some parking will remain rush-hour restricted while other areas will change to full-time parking. Along the corridor, a few parking spaces will be removed at each intersection to accommodate turning lanes. There is no existing parking from 26th to 28th Streets. This will remain the same.

“Since 2008, DDOT has studied several alternatives for east-west bicycle facilities in this downtown corridor. It selected L and M Streets in part to minimize traffic impacts and conflicts with other plans — and because they are already convenient, popular routes for cyclists. The initial results from its evaluation of the L Street bike lane show a minimal change in the time it takes to drive from one end of the corridor to the other. Similarly, traffic modeling predicts minimal increase in delay on M Street after the bike lane is installed.”

For more information, visit www.ddot.dc.gov/bike — or contact Mike Goodno, DDOT Bicycle Program Specialist — mike.goodno@dc.gov.