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Georgetowner • 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.

Gary Tischler •

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.

Robert Devaney • 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"]

Georgetowner •

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).

Gary Tischler • 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

Gary Tischler • 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"]

Georgetowner • July 17, 2012

Independence Day has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of things to do in D.C. this weekend.

No one can resist a thriller. Marvel at the dancing machines of Circue du Soleil as they perform its adaptation of Michael Jackson’s greatest songs at “The Immortal World Tour.” For $53 a ticket, grab your fedora, loafers and glittery glove to dance the night away this Friday or Saturday, June 13-14, 8 p.m., at the Verizon Center. On Sunday, June 15, the show starts at 4 p.m. For more information, visit verizoncenter.com.

This Friday and Saturday, June 14 and 15, are the last days to view the Sculpture Now 2012, a juried exhibition that is hosted annually by the Washington Sculptors Group. Here, you can view the different forms and transformations featured in this gallery, including shapes, textures, materials, and contrasts. This exhibition is located on 702 8th St., NW, at Edison Place Gallery. For more details, call 202-872-3396.

Interested in a free mash-up dedicated to the art of hip-hop? Join the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival in its celebration of hip-hop with its premiere of “Fat Boy,” a D-Project’s breaking/dubstep dance theater mash-up, July 13 and 14 at 8 p.m., at Dance Place, 3225 8th St., NE. Written and directed by Teo Castellanos, this mash-up portrays the variety of rice rituals in contrast with a variety of art performances to portray conflicts such as scarcity within the world. This event is free to the public and is on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information, visit www.hhtf.org.

If philanthropy is more your style, then you’ll love the “DC Cruise For A Cause.” Sip on delicious wine and snack on delectable hors d’oeuvres as you voyage along the Potomac. At just $65 a ticket, all proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. With live entertainment and a silent auction, you’re in for a night of elegance, while giving to a great cause. Find out more at dccruiseforacause.webconnex.com

Looking for a laugh? Check out The Capital City Showcase this Saturday at The D.C. Arts Center in Adams-Morgan at 10 p.m. Featuring comedian Adam Dodd (of MTV and VH1 fame) and D.C. comedy venue veterans Jeff Hysen, KD the Comic and Tom Myers, you are in for a gaggle of giggles. D.C. native René Moffatt will also provide a musical interlude amidst the hilarity. Tickets are $15 at the door and $10 online. More details about the show are available at capitalcityshowcase.com.

This Saturday, July 14, the United States Marine Chamber Orchestra will be hosting a summer concert series at 7:30 p.m. This concert, great for music lovers around the area, will be conducted by Capt. Michelle A. Rakers and take place at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall at Northern Virginia Community College — 3001 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, Va. 22311. Admission is free; no tickets required. For more information, visit www.marineband.usmc.mil.

Here are some other events to check out this weekend:

Nritya: Rhythms of India

July 14th, 2012 at 09:30 AM | Free | information@nationaltheatre.org | Tel: (202) 783-3372 | Event Website

The legends and folktales of India are exposed through classical dance featuring rich imagery and stunning costumes. Intricate choreography, facial expressions and movement tell fascinating stories that bring to life the dynamic culture of this magical land.

Address

The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Corcoran Presents Anima: Charlotte Dumas

July 14th, 2012 at 10:00 AM | rcothran@corcoran.org | Tel: 202- 639- 1833 | Event Website

For the first one-person museum exhibition in the US by Dutch artist, Charlotte Dumas, she displays portraits centered on the majestic burial horses of Arlington National Cemetery. These Army horses, which belong to the Old Guard, carry soldiers to their final resting place in traditional military funerals.

Dumas recently received widespread acclaim for her photographs of the surviving search and recovery dogs of 9/11.

Address

Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St NW

WHUR 96.3-FM’s All-White Dinner Dance Party Cruise

July 15th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | $96.30 | Tel: 866-302-2469 | Event Website

Join WHUR and Spirit Cruises on the Spirit of Washington for a special All-White Dinner Dance Party cruise. In partnership with the National Hand Dance Association and the Metropolitan Steppers Association, Spirit Cruises is hosting a dinner cruise featuring great music, delicious food and, of course, lots of dancing. DJs Lady JC and Dr. Nick will be spinning all the best tunes for Hand Dancing and Stepping, and guests can learn the hottest new Step and Hand Dancing moves on all decks.

Address

Spirit of Washington, 600 Water Street SW

Georgetowner • July 13, 2012

On Monday, July 16, for the second year, the Georgetown Media Group continues the popular summer event, Chefs Go Fresh. Local chefs will rev up for a motorcycle tour of local farms, sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Agriculture, in an effort to build relationships with area purveyors of produce, meats and other farm-raised products.

Chefs and others will start the day with breakfast at Brasserie Beck Restaurant, hosted by chef Robert Wiedmaier, co-founder of the original “Chefs on Bikes,” and owner of Marcel’s, Brasserie Beck, Brabo, Mussel Bar and the new Mussel Bar Atlantic City. Participating chefs will ride their motorcycles through the scenic Maryland countryside, stopping at select Maryland farms for presentations by farmers and highlights of Maryland’s Best products. The day will conclude with a pig roast lunch, hosted by “Top Chef” finalist, James Beard nominee and local agriculture supporter Bryan Voltaggio at his much-anticipated and soon-to-open restaurant, Family Meal.

The following are the three stops along the motorcycle tour:

The Maryland Department of Agriculture is focused on public service, education and promotion of agriculture and its importance and impact on the economy of Maryland. Its goal is to identify and develop profitable marketing local, national and international opportunities for Maryland farmers and agricultural producers as well as the state’s brand; Maryland’s Best.

The Georgetown Media Group publishes The Georgetowner and Downtowner Newspapers. The Georgetowner is a bi-weekly, tabloid-style publication in its 58th year which reaches the affluent community in Georgetown and surrounding areas of metropolitan D.C., with a circulation of 40,000. The Downtowner, a sister publication, has a distribution of 10,000 papers in the heart of downtown D.C.

For more information email ChefsGoFresh@georgetowner.com

For Restaurant Professionals and Media Only

1. Chose T-Shirt Size

2. Click Buy to then purchase ticket

Gary Tischler • July 12, 2012

There was always more to Andy Griffith than meets the eye, or at least that part of his legacy which consists of the self-contained world of Mayberry, the small North Carolina town in which he starred as Andy Taylor, the town sheriff who didn’t pack a gun and raised his son Opie to grow up normal.

That was the world of “The Andy Griffith Show,” a hugely successful television sitcom which ran for eight-years into the teeth of the 1960s, extolling classic, small-town values and virtues in a United States that was rapidly changing in its cultural mores. Mayberry existed fictionally in a country where the birth control pill sparked a sexual revolution, where the war over civil rights was entering its most dramatic, violent and transformative phase in the South and all over the country, where America’s war in Viet Nam would expand until it began to tear the country’s politics into pieces. Still popular, the show ended in 1968, the year both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, Richard Nixon elected president and the Black Panthers became a political force. Need we add the surprise of the Tet Offense and the power of the “Silent Majority”? In Mayberry, the 1960s stopped just outside the town limits, or stayed on a train that never whizzed by and never stopped.

In Mayberry, the talk was often led by Aunt Bea, or about finding a mother for Opie, gossiping on the town’s only phone line, father-and-son doings between Andy Taylor and Opie, Deputy Barney Fife’s hysterical doings and the occasional speeding ticket or moonshining trouble. The whistling theme which announced the opening theme of “The Andy Griffith Show” was every bit as familiar to Americans as Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changing,” which had long ago become a battle hymn of the counter-culture republic. In Mayberry, the times were not a changing, which might account for its audience appeal in a country constantly in mounting turmoil.

When some of us who grew up in small towns watched this show—however, we might not admit it to our long-haired hippie friends—we were drawn back into our school days, in the town we ran away from screaming. It was one of those strange constants in America’s popular culture life where both Andy Griffith and the music of Andy Williams would co-exist with the Byrds and eventually, yes, Meathead from Archie Bunker’s TV world.

Because the show was so well-acted, especially by Griffith, who underacted American decency to the point of authenticity, and so heavily populated by outrageously eccentric characters, it became an enduring part of our life, unforgettable in its own way. The only pot prevalent in Mayberry was the pot containing Aunt Bea’s latest cooking miracle.

Griffith, who died at the age of 86 this week, would be the first to tell you that he was hardly as saintly virtuous and common-sense steady as the part he played on the show. “He was the best part of me,” he said. “But he wasn’t the only part.” In fact, Griffith said his personality contained chunks of the character he played in “A Face in the Crowd,” a dark film about American politics directed by Elia Kazan in which he played, to chilling effect, a malevolent country drifter and television host who used his position and everybody around him to become a highly popular and despotic politician.

Griffith came from a town similar in size and ambiance to Mayberry: Mount Airy, N.C., which today has its own Andy Griffith Parkway. He had hard-scrabble beginnings but was encouraged by teachers in his interests in music and drama. He tried his hand at acting and being a stand-up comedian, with a bit that included trying to explain football to a non-gridiron fan. He became noticed in a hit live drama performance of “No Time For Sergeants” during television’s golden age of live drama. The show was eventually turned into a hit Broadway production and included a cast member named Don Knotts, who became a close friend of Griffith.

In 1960, “The Andy Griffith Show” debuted, and nothing Griffith did after that—and he did a lot—quite registered so perfectly in the popular mind, heart and memory. Griffith was the driving force behind the show—but it was also memorably for being so densely full of characters with a capital C, and that rhymes with Bea, that it was practically an anthropological merry-go-round of American and Southern types, a wished-for bucolic place where broken hearts go to mend. We do not know what the unemployment figures are or were for Mayberry, but it was obvious that most everybody made it to the town diner and Aunt Bea made cookies and pies to spare.

Knotts played Barney Fife the irrepressibly near-psychotic, bumbling deputy, and he wore his uniform as if it was infested by ants. At the time, Ronnie Howard played Opie, the sheriff’s son. He would become a television star in his own right with “Happy Days,” a movie star with “American Graffiti” and a Hollywood mogul as a director (he won an Oscar for “A Beautiful Mind”). Gomer Pyle got his start here as an inept mechanic, played by Jim Nabors, who played the same character in the hit television series “Gomer Pyle USMC.” The great western character actor Denver Pyle—he played the Texas Ranger who did in Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in “Bonnie and Clyde”—was the head of the Darlings, moonshiners and bluegrassers. An actress namned Aneta Corsaut played Helen Crump, Opie’s teacher and Andy’s girlfriend. Francis Bavier was the sweet-hearted Aunt Bee who raises Opie as her own.

From 1986 to 1995, Griffith also starred in “Matlock” and acted throughout the rest of his life on television series, made-for-tv movies and movies in general. In 2005, he was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and you can bet that it’s a Mayberry medal.

Mayberry exists—like a brigadoon with a twang, with pies, with fishing poles and no power outages. It’s hard not to think it rose up again just the other day on the Fourth of July, somewhere in a place where there’s nothing but a gas station, two roads intersecting, a pond nearby and a diner where someone starts singing and the coffee is the best and not latte.

It’s hard to put a whistle into words. So we won’t.