Weekend Roundup August 2, 2012
• August 6, 2012

Old Fashion, New Look

August 8th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | rsvp@streetsclotheir.com

Streets Of Georgetown cordially invite you to “Old Fashion, New Look” on Wednesday, August 8, 2012.

Join us for a distinguished evening of bourbon, antiques, and shopping- along with a fine tailoring, timeless style, and the finer things in life. To RSVP, email rsvp@streetsclothier.com

Cocktails and Hor d’ oeures will be served.

30% Discount on Made to Measure Tailored Clothing Additional 10% Discount on Sale Merchandise.

Address

1254 Wisconsin Ave, NW (Georgetown)

Blues Alley: Freddy Cole

August 2nd, 2012 at 08:00 PM | Tel: 202.337.4141

This week at Blues Alley (1073 Wisconsin Avenue, NW), from Thursday, August 2 through Saturday, August 4, jazz and music lovers alike are in for a treat with performances by Freddy Cole.

Address

Blues Alley (1073 Wisconsin Avenue, NW)

BrickFair – Family fun at the largest LEGO fan festival in the United States

August 4th, 2012 at 11:00 AM | $10 | Event Website

Be inspired by original LEGO creations covering 100,000 square feet! Sat & Sun, August 4-5, 2012 11:00 am – 4:00 pm. Get creative yourself in the Stay & Play area. Vote for your favorite creations.
Play LEGO-themed games and win prizes. Check out some of the newest LEGO sets! Shop for unique souvenirs and original LEGO artwork and collectables. $10 at the door. Cash is recommended. Advance tickets are not available. Sorry, strollers are not permitted inside BrickFair.

Address

Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA

Signature Open House

August 4th, 2012 at 12:00 PM | Tel: 703-820-9771 | Event Website

Free shows every 15 minutes on 4 signature stages! Featuring the best of DC and broadway. Including SIGNATURE IDOL, FAMILY CABARETS, BROADWAY ON THE PLAZA, and ALL THAT JAZZ. One day ticket sale! 50% off select shows for next season. Available at the box office only.

Address

Shirlington Village Plaza, 4200 Campbell Ave. Arlington, VA

“Go for the Gold” celebrates competition, history surrounding the Olympics

August 4th, 2012 at 01:00 PM | abibb-carson@ncm.museum | Tel: 216-926-3911 | Event Website

National Children’s Museum Teams Up With Former Olympian To Get Opportunity in the Summer Games Spirit. Olympic athlete and local resident Tiombe Hurd will join the National Children’s Museum in celebrating the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Address

National Children’s Museum’s Launch Zone
112 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD 20745
(street and garage parking available)

Sports Zone: Meeting Jessica Brown

August 4th, 2012 at 07:00 PM | Tel: 240.277.0620

On Saturday, August 4th, from 8 p.m. until midnight, join Sports Zone (3140 M Street, NW) for an all-in-one night event. From 7 to 9 p.m., come out and meet Jessica Brown (MTV’s Daddy’s Girl), buy a pair of her new Piro TabloidKiss shoes and get them autographed. At 10 p.m., the store will reopen for a BTS Fashion Show with terrific models and great musical and comedian performances. You will not want to miss this fantabulous event!

Address

Sports Zone (3140 M Street, NW)

The Dandelion Patch: Summer Soiree

August 5th, 2012 at 12:00 PM | Tel: 202.333.8803

Please join The Dandelion Patch for their Summer Soiree in their new Georgetown location. Joining to help cut the ribbon will be Page Stationery for a special stationery trunk show. While mingling with fellow Georgetown neighbors, sip sparkling beverages, sample tasty treats, and shop with a 20% discount store-wide. Enter to win a $200 shopping spree and receive a swag bag full of coupons, samples and goodies from fellow Book Hill retailers: Sassanova, Urban Chic, Sherman Pickey and more.

Address

The Dandelion Patch 1663 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

The Bump Bring Your Baby Matinee

August 7th, 2012 at 12:00 PM | Event Website

The first Tuesday of each month, parents can enjoy movies in a baby friendly environment without worrying about baby making too much noise, no place to breastfeed or room to park the stroller. The featured movie is The Amazing Spider-Man. This month, we’re giving away a Little Pim Spanish Playtime DVD to the first 10 moms or dads in the theater!

Address

AMC Theatres across the country

U.S. NAVY MEMORIAL CELEBRATES THE U.S. COAST GUARD’S 222ND BIRTHDAY

August 7th, 2012 at 08:00 PM | Free | mweber@navymemorial.org | Tel: (202) 380-0723 | Event Website

In celebration of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 222nd birthday, the U.S. Navy Memorial will host the United States Coast Guard Dixieland Jazz Band for a special birthday performance during the 2012 Concerts on the Avenue series. The five-member group was organized in 1970 to perform classic jazz, blues and rags with a “New Orleans” flavor and has since entertained audiences across the globe.

Address

United States Navy Memorial
Naval Heritage Center
701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004
www.navymemorial.org

Concert
Outdoor Plaza
Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at 8:00pm

Imagining a Better Olympics Opener, Despite NBC
• August 2, 2012

Every four years, I turn into a mushy little kid when the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics are broadcast, be it from Beijing, Sidney, Athens or even Atlanta. Ditto for the Winter Olympics, although those games tend to be a little monochromatic.

And every four years, I get a little ticked that I have to listen to the folks at NBC: to have Matt Lauer go through his little book of fun facts when the parade of nations with its many athletes commences or watch interviews of only American athletes, or get a parade of commercials during the parade of nations, letting little countries without a major arsenal pass by during said ads.

I’m as a patriotic as the next immigrant citizen, but do we really have to watch Ryan Seacrest continue NBC’s Phelps gush-a-ton in lieu of more “Rule, Britannia”? Ryan Seacrest? Seriously?

Speaking of ads, was that a Batman ad I spied, and was that maybe a little soon to ca-ching for that movie? And by the looks of all the Cadillacs and Chevies—at what cost per second we can only imagine—General Motors seems to be doing just fine. I so hope we’ve gotten all that bailout money back.

Still, you gotta love it all, even with the presence of Lauer, the too-soon return of Meredith Viera who apparently has Johnny Rotten in the songbook of her life, and even sad to say, the veteran Bob Costas, a shrewd, often witty and eloquent announcer, who lulled himself into clichés sitting besides the droning Lauer. Costas noted that the International Olympic Committee had chosen not to have a moment of silence in honor of the Israeli athletes slain at the 1972 Munich Olympics but offered no opinion on that choice—perhaps because the IOC gets to select recipients of broadcast rights to the Olympics? He also churlishly quipped, after citing a glowing description of Uganda by Winston Churchill, “He probably didn’t know Idi Amin” or some such tripe. And when in the odd segment in honor of Britain’s national health system and children’s literature, we saw a sweeping view of children and hospital beds, Lauer gasped, “It’s bedlam out there.” Perhaps not.

Opening ceremony director, Academy Award winner Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”), hooked into the vibrancy of London and the mashier aspects of British history to put on a show that was at once stupendous fireworks, smokestacks rising out of the green soil of England, a quick and smart appreciation of the United Kingdom’s contribution to rock and pop music and a starring role for Queen Elizabeth II, who just got through celebrating 60 years of her reign, outpomping and outcircumstancing Queen Victoria.

Bet you never thought you would see (even if only in a film clip) the queen herself (as opposed to Helen Mirren or Judy Dench as M) greet James Bond (Daniel Craig) in person, while her corgies rolled on the carpet or watched mournfully as mums lifted off in a helicopter. While the queen rarely smiles, as rudely pointed out by our announcers, she appears to know how to laugh at herself, even parachuting out of a helicopter. Or not. It was a splendidly cheeky.

There was a lot of speculation about who would light the Olympic Cauldron. No soccer superstar: neither Roger Bannister nor Ringo Starr. Turned out to be a bunch of young budding Olympians in training, lighting up the future, which was touching.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney played his heart out on “Hey Jude.” Although if you watched NBC, only our American Olympians, completely preppy in Ralph Lauren, and our British hosts heard it, even if none of them had been born when the Beatles ruled the world. Or as a friend’s daughter once said when she was 11 years old: “Did you know that Paul McCartney used to be in a band?”

Here’s what I would have liked to have seen: shots of all those majesties, rulers, kings, queens, prime ministers, presidents or potentates and potato heads that were watching their country’s athletes march jubilantly by—not just first lady Michelle Obama, the unsmiling queen, the splendid Kate and her sleepy husband, the queen of Spain, the once again prime minister of Russia.

Likewise, I’d like to see more of the athletes competing for other nations, because we do live in a global village these days. The Olympics always represent one of the best opportunities for the athletic citizens of that world to interact and present. If we have athletes with the hearts of lions, the looks of models, the courage of tireless heroes, why surely there must be similar types on other teams: archers we have not seen, rowers from Finland, shot putters from one of the former Soviet Union–stan countries, the marathoners from small villages in new countries, the first women athletes from the Middle East. We never or rarely see that on television where the pool tends to be full of Americans, which has a two-man team of Phelps and Lochte, as opposed to the female Chinese swimmer who set a world record.

“Hey Jude” is a wonderful song. But imagine for a moment if the song had been, well, “Imagine,” and the cameras had scanned all the teams, all the faces and you could hear John Lennon singing, “Imagine there’s no countries . . . and no religion too. Imagine all the people…”

Weekend Roundup July 27, 2012
• July 30, 2012

L2 Lounge: Let the Games Begin

July 27 at 9 p.m. | events@l2lounge.com | Tel: 202-965-2001

In celebration of the London Olympics Opening Ceremony, L2 invites you to its opening ceremony party, “Let the Games Begin,” on Friday, July 27 at 9 p.m.

Address

L2 Lounge, 3315 Cady’s Alley, NW

Drink the District: Beer Edition

July 28 at noon | $30 | ilovebeer@drinkthedistrict.com |Event Website

An outdoor craft-beer event with unlimited tastings of more than 40 craft beers. Featuring ten of DC’s best food trucks and live entertainment all day. Tickets are available for one of two four-hour tasting sessions (noon to 4 p.m. or 5 to 9 p.m.); tickets are limited.

Address

500 New York Ave., NW

CAPCS Online Summer Concert Series

July 30 at noon | free | Tel: (866) 339-9912 | Event Website

Online students don’t just hang out with their computers. They enjoy summer fun with their classmates, too. Students, families and staff from Community Academy Public Charter School Online (CAPCS Online) will be grooving to everything from funk rock to New Orleans jazz this summer during a series concerts throughout the summer. Interested families are also invited to see how the CAPCS Online community likes to have a good time and to get their questions answered by knowledgeable staff members.

Address

Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Urban Chic: An Afternoon Tea with Author Emily Giffin

July 30 at noon | katherine@urbanchiconline.com

Join Urban Chic for an afternoon of tea and book signing celebrating the release of favorite author Emily Giffin’s latest novel, “Where We Belong.” Guests who purchase the book at the event can also take 20 percent off all Urban Chic merchandise. The first ten guests to make a $100 purchase during the event will receive a print of Inslee by Design’s custom Emily Giffin/Urban Chic illustration.

Address

Urban Chic, 1626 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

The Bitter

July 31 at 07:15 p.m. | $37 | Info@LibationsBarSchool.com | Tel: 2026421256 | Event Website

Libations Bar School owner Jesse Dean teaches participants to blend their own cocktail bitters from various spices, herbs, barks, and roots available at The Spice & Tea Exchange, where classes are held. After tasting their concoctions, participants leave with their own recipe book so that they can make their own digestifs at home.

Address

1069 Wisconsin Ave., NW

Blues Alley: Freddy Cole

August 2 at 8 p.m. | Tel: 202.337.4141

This week at Blues Alley (1073 Wisconsin Ave., NW), from Thursday, Aug. 2, through Saturday, Aug. 4, jazz and music lovers alike are in for a treat with performances by Freddy Cole.

Address

Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Old Fashion, New Look

August 8 at 6 p.m. | rsvp@streetsclotheir.com

Streets Of Georgetown cordially invite you to “Old Fashion, New Look” on Wednesday, August 8.

Join us for a distinguished evening of bourbon, antiques, and shopping — along with a fine tailoring, timeless style, and the finer things in life.

RSVP to rsvp@streetsclothier.com

Cocktails and hor d’ oeures will be served.

30-percent Discount on Made to Measure Tailored Clothing; Additional 10-percent Discount on Sale Merchandise.

Address

1254 Wisconsin Ave, NW
Georgetown

AIDS Conference, First Held in U.S. in 22 Years, Kicks Off
• July 27, 2012

Thousands of AIDS activists gathered on the National Mall July 22, looked at the unfurled AIDS quilt there, listen to a concert by Wyclef Jean and heard speeches in a huge rally on the mall called “Keep the Promise on HIV/AIDS.”

The rally, sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, helped kick off the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012), the first held in the United States in 22 years, around the theme of “Turning the Tide Together” at a time which organizers have called a “defining moment in the history of the AIDS epidemic.”

The conference, which kicked off Sunday and will see sessions, speeches and activities — primarily in the Washington Convention Center — runs through July 27, with the expectation of some 25,000 persons attending the conference and activities throughout Washington.

“Our return to the United States after a 22-year absence comes at a time of extraordinary hope, a time when we believe that the end of the AIDS epidemic is possible,” said Elly Katabira, chair of AIDS 2012 and president of the International AIDS Society. “My message to policy makers around the entire world watching us here in DC is this—invest in science, invest in the epidemic—you will save lives,” said Diane Havlir of AIDS 2012 and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said, “In the 22 years since this conference was held on American soil, we have made long-awaited breakthroughs in science and treatment. Today, someone diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can have a nearly normal life expectancy. Now is not the time for easing up, slowing down or shifting our focus. If we are going to reach our ultimate goal of an AIDS-free generation, we must all challenge ourselves to do more-to reach even more people, to make programs even more effective and accountable, to push the boundaries of science even further.”

The previous international AIDS conference held in the U.S. was in San Francisco in 1990. It could not return because of travel restrictions to the U. S. for persons with HIV-AIDS. Since then, in a process initiated by President George W. Bush and completed by President Barack Obama, the U.S. restrictions have been lifted, paving the way for the conference in D.C.

At Sunday’s opening session, which featured a welcoming address by Mayor Vincent Gray, actress Sharon Stone presented the IAS/amfAR Elizabeth Taylor Award in recognition of efforts to advocate for human rights in the field of HIV.

Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton was the keynote speaker at the July 23 plenary session on “Ending the Epidemic: Turning the Tide Together.” It also included remarks by Senators John Kerry and Lindsey Graham, Bill Gates, Jim Young Kim of the World Bank and Ambassador Eric Goosby, U.S. Global AIDS coordinator. The special session “Can Public-Private Partnership Help Those Who Think Globally, Act Locally?” featured a keynote speech by Elton John.

Other major speakers throughout the week will include former President Bill Clinton, former first lady Laura Bush, South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, and French cabinet ministers Marisol Touraine and Genevieve Fioraso among others.

For all activities, plenary sessions, speakers and online video and streaming availabilities for the conference, go to the AIDS2012 website.

Aurora’s Dark Night: No Dawn for 12
•

After all the shock, the videos of people running in panic, some of them with blood-spattered shirts out of a midnight screening of the Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” after all the loss and grief and tears and interviews and the pictures of the victims, after “Deadly rampage at Colorado theater: 12 moviegoers are killed, 58 others wounded in Aurora,” after the guns and the vigils, after all that:

There he was in court today, July 23, flanked by what was presumably a public defender, bright right bird-nest of hair, looking a little bewildered or solemn, take your pick, in a jailhouse jump suit.

James Holmes, 24. Alleged—because that will be the most used adjective describing him officially—killer, murderer, mass murder of 12 persons, mostly young people, the youngest Veronica Moser-Sullivan, age six.

Until then, Holmes, a post-graduate student and San Diego native, was apprehended by police in this Denver suburb outside in a mall parking lot after the shooting rampage, dressed up like a member of a SWAT team and heavily armed. He has been held in solitary confinement and lockup ever since in Centennial, Colorado.

He has said next to nothing since his arrest, and he said nothing in court. Reporters have pieced together his story, which seems like some blank, minimalist abstraction, a loner life with a normal childhood. Police found his apartment to be a booby-trapped arsenal of explosives. He was a member of a 35-student Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus.

According to reports, the local district attorney is considering the death penalty charge. The hearing for Holmes was held in the same complex that includes the facilities for his lockup and detention, at the Arapahoe County Justice Center.

An unidentified source has said that a Batman mask was found in his apartment.

An emotionally charged vigil, at which several thousand people gathered, was held Sunday night. President Barack Obama visited with families of the victims at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, where ten victims still remained, seven of them injured critically.

GOVERNOR AND FIRST LADY O’MALLEY HOST FIFTH ANNUAL BUY LOCAL COOKOUT
• July 24, 2012

Governor Martin O’Malley and First Lady Katie O’Malley today hosted the fifth annual Buy Local Cookout at Government House and officially kicked-off Maryland’s Buy Local Challenge Week, which encourages Marylanders to incorporate at least one locally grown, produced or harvested product into their meals each day. Governor O’Malley designated July 21-29 as “Buy Local Challenge Week” to raise awareness about the benefits of local farms and food.

The Maryland’s Best Program which is run by the Maryland Department of Agriculture, Office of Marketing is in it’s 11th year promoting Maryland Agricultural Products. The goal of the program is to encourage consumers to buy locally produced/grown products in the Maryland and DC areas through advertising and marketing promotions. We also work closely with grocery retailers, restaurants, and institutional buyers to help them source locally and show them the benefits of carrying locally grown and produced food. In 2012, 78% of Marylanders said they would prefer to purchase and consume fruits and vegetables identified as having been grown in Maryland (Conducted by the University of Baltimore’s Schaefer Center). Our goal is to continue to increase consumer preference towards local and help to identify local products so that they may be easily sought after. We also look to continue and increase our partnership with restaurant and retailer buyers, so that they are aware of the great local options in Maryland when sourcing ingredients and food. This was our primary purpose for helping to sponsor this years Chefs Go Fresh tour. Another event which we put on to help restaurants and grocery retail buyers connect with local producers is our Buyer-Grower Event which is held every January in Annapolis. In addition we continue to build upon our web site, www.marylandsbest.net where consumers are able to search for locally produced agriculture products.

Georgetown Business Association Thais One On
• July 23, 2012

After the thunderstorm passed, the Georgetown Business Association met for “a taste of Thailand and an evening of networking” at Mai Thai of Georgetown July 18. As part of its summer series of get-togethers, the group enjoyed chicken satay, seafood lemon grass salad and spring rolls along cocktails, such as Thai Tiger and, of course, Mai Thais. Georgetown Spice & Tea Exchange provided specialty teas and Thai-inspired gifts. Rokas Beresniovas, president of the Georgetown Business Association, greeted members and guests around the room. The Mai Thai staff kept the sweet drinks coming and the buffet table full. GBA secretary Janine Schoonover said, “The excitement is back.” Schoonover praised the GBA’s new event organizer Adra Williams and her partner Joseph Otim, adding, “We’re solid and moving forward.” [gallery ids="100909,128509,128472,128502,128496,128481,128489" nav="thumbs"]

Weekend Roundup July 19, 2012
•

Sounds of Hope Concert for Haiti

July 20th, 2012 at 06:30 PM | By donation | MAWestley@gmail.com | Tel: 347 886 0105 | Event Website

Sounds of Hope Concert for Haiti. By donation. Come blow off work week steam. The loss of my own leg (got hit by a bus 9 years ago & almost died) inspired me to take the support I got & pay it forward. Musical guests will open our hearts with uplifting beats. All ages! Food at extra cost. It’s inexpensive & delicious. Donations support relief efforts via the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (www.pofsea.org) and rehab for the 14,000 people who lost limbs due to the earthquake. Come have a ball!

Address

The Potters House, 1658 Columbia Road, NW

Overtures Summer Concert Series at Evermay Estate

July 20th, 2012 at 06:30 PM | $50 | Event Website

Relax and enjoy summer evenings listening to world-class performing artists at the gorgeous Evermay Estate. Overtures is a unique concert series that presents award-winning, world-class performing artists who are emerging in their musical career. Socihi Muraji on classic guitar will be performing. Tickets are $50 each and includes complimentary on-site valet parking.

Address

Evermay Estate 1623 28th Street, NW

Blues Alley: Shanice

July 20th, 2012 at 08:00 PM | $35 | Tel: 202-337-4141 | Event Website

On Friday, July 20 and Saturday, July 21, soul, pop and R&B singer Shanice Lorraine Wilson is performing live at Blues Alley. Remembered for the popular hit single I Love Your Smile, from her 1991 album Inner Child, Shanice’s career has spanned from a Soul Train Award nomination for Best New Artist in 1987 to a signed record deal with Motown Records in 1991. Her rare coloratura soprano talent remains a favorite in R&B. 202.337.4141

Address

Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Belgiam National Day : Stella Artois “Taste of Belgium” Celebration

July 21st, 2012 at 12:00 PM | Free | Lauren.zaner@mosaic.com | Tel: 312.526.3126 ext 3205 | Event Website

In celebration of Belgian National Day, Stella Artois is bringing classic Belgian culture to the people of Washington DC.

As a outdoor festival it will have the chance to enrich themselves in Belgian culture.

There will be Belgian food (mussels, fries and more) and Belgian beer for purchase, Boule (Belgium’s version of baseball), and Belgian music. There will also be Local restaurants and chefs that will compete in Stella Artois’ annual “Mussel’s Throwdown”.

Address

The Yards Park : at the East Lawn

10 Water Street SE

(Intersection of 3rd St SE and Water St SE; Three blocks from the Navy Yard Metro: New Jersey Ave Exit)

Gallery Showing: Kimberly Iles Multiverse

July 23rd, 2012 at 11:00 AM | Tel: 202-234-8344 | Event Website

Abstract/contemporary works. Mixed media used to prodice a range of effects on canvas and panel. This exhibition is availabe for viewing Monday through Saturday from 11am-7pm and Sundays from 12-5pm

Address

Vastu, 1829 14th Street, NW

TTR Sotheby’s International Realty Artist Showcase: Brian Petro

July 24th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | Free | media@artseedc.com | Tel: 703-216-7298 | Event Website

TTR Sotheby’s International Realty of Chevy Chase will open its doors on July 24th at 6pm to feature local DC artist, Brian Petro. The work that will be on display comes from two of his latest collections, Supermarket Series and Roman Series. Petro’s mixed media paintings and photographic thermal transfer monoprints will create a diverse and interesting show in the office space. We hope to see you all there! Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.

Address

5454 Wisconson Ave NW, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Outdoor Film Festival at Dumbarton House sponsored by Georgetown Long & Foster

July 25th, 2012 at 07:00 PM | FREE | Info@­Dumba­rtonHouse.­org | Tel: 202-337-2288 | Event Website

Movie for July, 25: “Pride & Prejudice”

Long & Foster’s Georgetown office, an Exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s International is proud to host Sandy Lerner at Dumbarton House as part of a Jane Austen Film Series.

Address

Dumbarton House, 2715 Q St NW, Washington, DC

Lawn and site space is limited by occupancy restrictions, which is why reservations are encouraged (reservations will receive priority entry until 7:30pm, at which time any available space will be released to at-the-door guests.

The film will start at sunset, approximately 8:30pm.
Lawn/blanket seating only, please (if you need to utilize a chair, please set it up at the back of the audience).

Gone but Not Gone, Their Music Plays on: Kitty Wells, Bob Babbitt
• July 20, 2012

Whenever a music maker—singer, player, twanger, jazz man, country star, doesn’t matter—passes on, the event has the odd effect of making their music rise up as memory, as vivid as ever, as suddenly as a stray thought.

Kitty Wells died at the age of 92 a few days ago, and Bob Babbitt died at the age of 74 this week. You couldn’t think of two more different people if you had to work at it. It’s hard to imagine the gap between the kind of music they made. And yet, the music is the bridge you want to cross, and go back and forth on.

Wells was a pioneer, a major star in the firmament of country music female stars, true blue and gritty, she was not only was the first major female country star, she practically invented a whole genre that swirls with a lot of tang and bite around the subject of husband and wives, faithless men, dangerous other women and booze, as in her greatest and most enduring hit single, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”

Babbitt was a bassist, one of the great accompanists to Motown music and stars, a member in very good standing of a group of musicians of Motown musicians who garnered the Funk Brothers nicknamed the Funk Brothers.

Wells rose to stardom in the 1950s, an era when country music was dominated by male stars, from Roy Acuff to the flame-out Hank Williams, who sang a lot about honky tonk women and booze (and spent a lot of time with both until he died of it all). Wells—her real name Muriel Ellen Deason from Nashville, Tenn.—got married at 18 to Johnny Wright, who had a duo named Johnny and Jack , but then worked with his wife and became Johnny Wright and the Harmony Girls. It was an enduring marriage that lasted until Wright died at the age of 97.

Wells’s ascendancy to stardom with “Honky Tonk Angels” inspired a host of later top stars like Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and, most notably, Tammy Wynette, all of whom were noted for their songs about adultery, heartbreak and can’t-help-loving-that-man-until-I-kick-him-out songs as in “”It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angel . . . too many times married men think they’re still single that has caused many a good girl to go wrong” or Lynn’s famous songs, “Don’t You Come Home From Drinkin’ With Lovin On Your Mind.”

With an authentic and straightforward voice, Wells could break a woman’s heart and shame a man’s. Her own life was as wholesome as a Betty Crocker cover story which made her songs all the more powerful. Her career lasted for a long time, and she still made public appearances late in her rich life. She had other hits, such as “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Making Believe,” “A Woman Half My Age” and the wonderfully titled “Will Your Lawyer Talk to God?”

I had my newspaper open to the obituary page, while riding the bus, and a woman tapped me on the shoulder. “That’s one of the Funk Brothers, there,” she said, pointing to the story on Bob Babbitt’s death. “Did you know him?” I allowed that I had never heard of him. “Well, him and the rest of the Funk Brothers they were on all the great Motown records, and they worked with all the Motown stars, like Smoky Robinson and Marvin Gaye. They made a movie about them.”

Babbitt—and the other Funk Brothers, guitarists Robert White and Joe Messina, keyboardists Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke and drummers Benny Benjamin, Richard Allen and Uriel Jones—was one of the members of a wide group of musicians, uncredited more often than not, that were a vital part of almost every single ever made. Listen to Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia” or Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears” or the Temptations or Stevie Wonder or Del Shannon’s “Little Town Flirt,” and you’ll hear Babbitt and the rest. Babbitt was one of the few white musicians backing up Motown musicians and in that sense he reflected the instrument he played, in blending in with the whole. His presence, and his talent, showed the durable power of music as bridge and respect builder.

Bass notes should be invisible, in a way. They make you remember just as Wells songs make you remember twang instead of twitter. Check YouTube—Wells is there and so are the Funk Brothers and the music lives again, rises up rough and scratchy

Ernest Borgnine: More Than a Lifetime of Roles
• July 19, 2012

In Hollywood, where looks are, if not everything, almost everything, Ernest Borgnine proved that you don’t have to be pretty to succeed.

Borgnine—in his most benign, audience-friendly roles—had the appeal of a chubby, jolly uncle, with a big smile accentuating his toothy gap and size. Most of the time he was a killer, a bad, very bad guy in war films, westerns and crime dramas, menacing, scary, loud, rambunctious and deadly. See “Jubal,” “Vera Cruz,” “The Mob” and “From Here to Eternity.”

There was an exception to the Borgnine rule, though. In 1955, when he played the lead role of a lonely, lovelorn Bronx butcher, shyly courting an equally shy school teacher played by Betsy Blair in “Marty,” he won an Oscar and became a star—or at least a high-grade character actor who had a long career which never really stopped until recently.

Borgnine, who died at the age of 95 on July 8, proved to be versatile, going on to appear in 75 movies, starring in at least two television series and working steadily almost right up to his death in a role in this year’s “The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vincente Fernandez.”

Borgnine’s great gift was that he was almost always unforgettable, even in forgettable movies and projects. “Marty,” for instance, was a fellow who called himself—affectionately—a dog, a regular guy, awkward in romance and matters of the heart. But he was eloquent in presence, thanks to the dialogue given to him by Paddy Chayefsky, arguably one of the finest television and screen writers of all time, who would go on to write screenplays for the legendary “Network” and “The Hospital.” “Marty” was originally a television play during the golden age of television live drama (Rod Steiger played the role on television). Borgnine, in fact, followed “Marty” with the film version of another Chayefsky television play, “The Catered Affair,” in which he co-starred as a fretting father with Bette Davis and Debby Reynolds, the latter playing his daughter about to be married.

As a bad guy, he was imposing, scary and unforgettable, sometimes managing to mix pathos with violent, heartless aggression as he did in “From Here to Eternity,” when he played Fatso Judson, a stockade guard who murders Frank Sinatra, playing a GI named Maggio. In the film—and in James Jones’s best-selling novel—Maggio’s friend Prewitt (played by Montgomery Clift) kills Fatso in a knife fight. To this day, it’s hard to forget Borgnine’s bewildered cry: “You killed me. Why’d you have to go and kill me?” Sinatra, incidentally, won a Supporting Actor Oscar for Maggio, reviving a flounder career that would turn into legend.

Borgnine was memorable, too, as one of “The Wild Bunch,” starring William Holden as the leader of a band of aging bank robbers and killers in the west in a movie directed by Sam Peckinpah, delivering one of the more facile comments on moral relativity ever written, as in “At least we ain’t never hung nobody.”

Borgnine also succeeded on television in the military sitcom “McHale’s Navy,” which ran for four years in the early 1960s.

What he was not so hot—at least until late in his life— was marriage. He married and was divorced four times, three times, including combustible rounds with Mexican actress Katy Jurado and Broadway star and legend Ethel Merman. The marriage to Merman lasted a Kim Kardashian-style 32 days.

But his last marriage to Tova Traesnaes endured for 39 years.

What also endures in the Borgnine Hollywood saga is that the character actor also rises and remains long after the last act and unforgettable. [gallery ids="100893,128210" nav="thumbs"]