Latest News

Samantha Hungerford • July 26, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor, beloved Hollywood actress and icon, died Wednesday at age 79 of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.

Taylor was a blue-blooded Hollywood star, a darling of the silver screen since her breakout role in “National Velvet” (1944) at age 14. More than 70 years later, Taylor had appeared in 50 films and won two Academy Awards as Best Actress for her roles in “Butterfield 8” (1960) and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966) as well as being nominated for three others. Other films such as “A Place in the Sun,” (1951) “Giant,” (1956) and “Cleopatra” (1963) cemented Taylor’s fame. Upon her death, she hadn’t acted in several years.

Taylor was also heavily involved with various philanthropic efforts, raising support and awareness for AIDS since 1985, after the death of her close friend and fellow actor Rock Hudson. Her campaign to combat AIDS was monumental in the 1980s, as up until her involvement it was an issue largely ignored by the press and national government. Using her celebrity status, Taylor played a large role in bringing the AIDS epidemic to the forefront of America’s attention. She helped found the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

The dynamic celebrity was also known for her larger-than-life personality and tumultuous personal life, with her illnesses, addictions and string of failed marriages (two alone to Richard Burton, the Anthony to her Cleopatra) a constant source of media attention. It often became difficult to tell where her public life ended and her personal life began.

Taylor had three children: two sons with actor Michael Wilding and one daughter with producer Michael Todd, who died after one year of their marriage in 1958.

Her seventh and final marriage to John W. Warner, a Republican senator from Virginia, also ended in divorce. During the six years of their marriage, Taylor brought Hollywood glamour to politics, standing by Warner through his first U.S. Senate race in 1978.

In a statement released by Sally Morrison, Taylor’s publicist, Michael Howard Wilding, 58, remembered his mother:
“My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love,” he said. “We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts.”

Corrie Dyke •

Check out what’s happening around town this weekend with The Georgetowner’s interactive calendar. Looking for an excuse to get out of the house, or know of an event so exciting you just have to share? You can do both at the Georgetowner.com Calendar.

Hamtdaa: Together
April 1st, 2011
11:00 AM
703-875-1100

Hamtdaa: Together features the work of renowned visual artist and Arlingtonian Gankhuyag Natsag, whose Tsam dance masks, ceremonial costumes and paintings speak to Mongolia’s ancient traditions and contemporary experiences. Accompanied by a multi-faceted program of performances, workshops, films and community celebrations, this exhibition is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
March 3- May 1,2011

Address
Terrace Gallery
1101 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22209

Save Bristol Bay In Washington, D.C.
April 2nd, 2011 at 11:00 AM
Tel: 202.331.2120

Trout Unlimited with the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association is bringing Bristol Bay’s salmon and story to our nation’s capital for a delicious weeklong celebration of our nation’s last great wild salmon fishery. Over 20 DC-area restaurants will be featuring wild Bristol Bay salmon on their menus from March 27 – April 2 as a way of showing that they value Bristol Bay’s salmon fishery and want to see it protected from proposed mining development in the Bristol Bay watershed.

Artini 2011
April 2nd, 2011
08:30 PM

Celebrate with the 1869 Society at the culminating ARTINI benefit, where your votes for D.C.’s favorite artini will be revealed. Taste the 12 artinis crafted by the competing mixologists. View the Corcoran’s collection, including the works of art that provided the inspiration behind each artini. Enjoy dancing and music by DJ Neekola, a beer and wine bar, and a cocktail and dessert buffet. Tickets and pre-registration required.
Address

Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 Seventeenth Street NW
Washington, DC 20006

The Royal Wedding Breakfast & Viewing Party
April 28th, 2011
09:00 AM
$40.00
Tel: 202) 974-5566

In celebration of the upcoming marriage of His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales, K.G. to Miss Catherine Middleton, luxury bridal boutique Carine’s Bridal Atelier and The Ritz Carlton Washington D.C.will offer guests the opportunity to watch the “Wedding of the Century” in style at a Royal Wedding Breakfast & Viewing Party. Guests who wish to stay over, the night before can enjoy a Royal Wedding Overnight Package.
Address

The Lobby Café located in The Ritz-Carlton
1150 22nd Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20037

Corrie Dyke •

President Obama set ambitious goals for the future of America’s dependency on foreign supplies and moving the country in a more energy efficient direction. The President stated that the problem will not be solved with quick fixes, calling for a one-third reduction in U.S. oil imports by 2025.

Obama’s speech Wednesday at Georgetown University lasted nearly an hour as the President restated many energy solutions previously proposed.

President Obama looks to boost domestic oil production, noting his administration’s recent approval of both shallow and deep water drilling permits. Obama mentioned the ongoing effort of energy independency, which the country has struggled with for decades.

“Presidents and politicians of every stripe have promised energy independence but that promise has so far gone unmet,” Obama said. “That has to change. We cannot keep going from shock to trance on the issue of energy security, rushing to propose action when gas prices rise, then hitting the snooze button when they fall again.”

In his speech Obama set another dated goal, this time calling for government agencies to ensure that by 2015 all new vehicles purchased are alternative-fuel vehicles, including hybrid and electric. This accompanies Obama’s previously set a goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads in the same year.

Obama’s expansion of oil alternatives include natural gas and advanced biofuels, fuels made from non-food sources such as wood chips, switch grass or plant waste.

According to administration officials, Obama’s plans would require significant spending on research and development, though no cost estimates have been made.

Lisa Gillespie •

On Monday evening, March 28, Mayor Vincent Gray delivered his first State of the District speech after three months in office and weeks of stormy resignations, allegations and negative approval ratings.

His 8,000 word speech did not address the recent firing of former health administration employee Sulaimon Brown who accused Gray of a pay-to-play and nepotism and D.C. City Council’s probes into those allegations, nor did it address repercussions for City Council chairman Kwame Brown’s two fully-loaded SUVs that ended up being illegally procured.

However, after a reporter asked about the admittance in a press conference after the speech, Gray said, “I wanted to talk about the issues affecting the city. The reason I ran in the first place was to advance the educational outcome for children and provide opportunities for self improvement.”

He also mentioned that he had not wanted the main topic of headlines to be his troubles, but the “real” issues affecting the city, and that there would be accountability to those who violate the public trust: “If people violate the public trust they will be fired. There are missteps that have been made and at the end of the day I’ll take responsibility for them. And if I’m going to take the weight for them, I intend to bring the weights back to where it belongs.”

The speech, titled “One City…Rising to the Challenge,” did focus heavily on unifying the city, and Gray addressed the challenges that he’s faced since taking office. Last week, for instance, the Census released statistics that showed the District’s African American population down to 50 percent.

“The facts are troubling, but they bear acknowledging: there are parts of this city where over half of our high school students do not graduate. In some neighborhoods, one out of every three adults is unemployed.”

Tammy McKinney, 41, attended the speech and said she felt he’d addressed the issues facing her home in Ward 6.

“We’ve seen the development on H Street Northeast and a few good things come through, but we don’t hear as much about Wards 6, 7 or 8 than we do the others,” said McKinney, who was born in DC. “Why would people come out here? There are not restaurants and no shopping. I’m hopeful, but unsure.”

Gray spoke of the dividing line between the Anacostia River and the hope that it would one day resemble other notable rivers in the world: the Thames in London, the Charles River in Boston or the San Antonio River Walk in Texas.

“At its widest, the Anacostia River spans barely half a mile —but when you pass over it, it can feel like you’ve left one continent for another…it should be a unifying force between the east and west.”

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton praised the Mayor for not glossing over the $322 million budget gap that will lead to budget cuts, to be released on Friday.

“I appreciate that he didn’t gloss over the tough issues. People will be very disappointed when they see these cuts, though we’ve seen it come worse to other parts of the country.”

Gray delivered his speech at Eastern High School in Ward 5, where the poverty rate stood at 20 percent in 2009.

“If I have been repetitive on this topic, it’s because it is vitally important for us to be honest about how things will change,” Gray said. “Some of the agencies that we depend upon will be asked to make do with less. We cannot and will not use budget gimmicks to close the gap.”

He compared the city government after the cuts to, “a lean athlete after a period of intense training: with a government that is leaner, but also one that is stronger.”

Gary Tischler • July 19, 2011

The Kennedy Center is currently hosting two very different productions that nevertheless call themselves Broadway musicals.

There’s the big, splashy, big voice, big sets, big show, big bucks (theirs and yours) “Wicked” heading through August at the Opera House, with tickets as hard to come by as a debt ceiling solution. And then there’s “Next to Normal,” with big voices, but also with big ideas, a show horse of an entirely different color and progeny.

Both probably are indicators of where Broadway might be headed, a two-way street where there’s room for both.

“Next to Normal” is such a surprise in content, intent and intensity that to call it merely a “musical” would be a serious understatement. More of a rock opera—most of the dialogue is sung in one way or another—it deals with a dysfunctional, contemporary American family struggling with its bi-polar mom at the center of its universe.

With such an inferno of psychological stress to deal with, there’s not much room for fun and funnies, and only the barest of razor-sharp ironies and tight, to the point humor. But what you end up with is something entirely original and unlikely. A frayed Cinderella of a show which began as a one-song fragment, expanded to a full-blown show, had a difficult off-Broadway run and came to be part of an Arena Stage season two years ago. Returned to Broadway, won Tonys, and—a rarity—a Pulitzer Prize, and a Tony for its star, the amazing Alice Ripley.

Ripley is on hand for the road company now at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater and if you get a chance, (July 11 is closing time) go see “Next to Normal.” It’s heart-breaking, punch-in-the-mouth, astonishing theater.

Ripley plays Diana, a diagnosed bi-polar mom, former architect, and huge bundle of unpredictable and often destructive behavior which has the whole family on constant edge. This has been an over-a-decade life situation for this family—the infinitely patient husband, the gifted daughter who feels invisible, her astonishingly kind boyfriend, the son, and of course Diana, feverish, coltish, dramatic, desperate, sexy and fascinating in a glow-in-the-dark way that people with mental illness can sometimes be. She is the dark sun of the house, along with her dark son.

The folks who put this together have some experience with “serious” musical shows—Michael Greif directed the smash hit “Rent,” a rock musical with a La Boheme touch on urban artists and their lives.

“Next to Normal,” if it has antecedents, seems a stage cousin to “American Beauty,” the dark, bitter, funny cinematic riff on suburbanites. But “Normal,” with a book by Brian Yorkey and a rock score that’s more like a condition and state of mind than tuneful or lyrical, isn’t concerned with class, place or work. It’s about a family caught up in an iron, tension-stress filled issue of illness and emotional crisis that’s just plain ongoing. The solution is very American: medicate the patient and embrace denial like a fiend, and if that doesn’t work, there’s always electric shock therapy.

In the end, of course, this isn’t social criticism or even a heavy dose of profundity with music: It’s a show about emotional pain and secrets, and the cost in wear and tear over time. It’s a tight night where you can’t get away from the anguish that everyone’s feeling, anguish we’ve all felt at some point in our lives over something. In “Next to Normal,” we really feel their pain.

The music and Ripley are the keys here—it’s not your normal Broadway score with recognizable songs and borders and cutoffs, not even next to normal, so integrated is the music into the life of the characters. While there’s recognizable “songs”—“Just Another Day” sets the sparse stage and set, “I’m Alive” is a defiant lament by the son, “Hey” is a touching, very now love song for the daughter and her new friend – the score keeps insinuating itself like another character.

Ripley has pretty much owned the part of Diana since she took it over on Broadway, and it appears to have taken a toll on her voice, which is now rich with rasp, as well as a capability to hit long and high notes, she now seems to sing the way people talk under stress. Asa Somers as her husband Dan, Preston Sadler as Henry, Curt Hansen as Gabe and Jeremy Kushner as two different shrinks are all emotionally affecting, but that’s especially true of Emma Huton as the daughter, who gets richer and better through the course of the show.

You won’t be dancing when you come out, or defying gravity. You might be a little shaky in the knees after a night with “Next to Normal.” But that’s a good thing. It’s practically next to normal.

Robert Devaney • July 13, 2011

Board members, staff, friends and business leaders met June 9 for a lively annual meeting of the Georgetown Business Improvement District at the House of Sweden on the edge of the Potomac. The main event was the unveiling of the redesigned BID website and a new logo and tagline for the merchants of the town – “Come Out and Play” – as well as staff, safety and finance reports. Along with Design Cuisine finger food, guests later got those cool brown swag bags with the new logo and enjoyed desserts from Sprinkles Cupcakes on M Street and Georgetown Candy on Wisconsin Avenue. Sweet! [Editor’s Note: See GT Observer in this issue for news on the BID update.] [gallery ids="100065,106149,100066,100067,100068,100069" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

According to an article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Washington DC ranks 3rd in the nation as a city with the best opportunities for young people ages 20 through 30. The research methods looked at 65 metro cities (over 800,000 in population) and used a 10-part system to mark areas with large amounts of young people with careers, strong grow rates and a reasonable cost of living. The top ten for this year are:

1.Austin

2.Houston

3.Washington

4.Raleigh

5.Dallas-Fort Worth

6.Boston

7.Oklahoma City

8.Salt Lake City

9.Seattle

10.Baton Rouge, La

A fair guess to Washington’s success is all the internships available which can provide great networking opportunities, open doors and lead to employment offers. Politico estimates that DC had over 20,000 interns in 2009 and that the numbers are continuing to rise.

Cities that did not land high on the list include Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif, Detroit and Atlanta due mostly to the lack of employment opportunities.

Suzanna Nelson •

According to The Washington Examiner, and following blogs, the Brown Line proposal is getting more attention from Metro Officials. The Brown Line proposal would connect Georgetown to the rest of Washington via the Metro. The plan is to connect Friendship Heights to downtown, then to Silver Spring and White Oak.

While the plan has caught some officials’ eyes, nothing too serious has been planned: no funding, no engineering, no construction, yet. The goal is, by 2040, to have efficiently expanded the Metro to accommodate the vast growth of Washington and make travelling throughout the city much easier. Metro officials are not very interested in opening completely new lines; they would rather expand current ones in order to be more efficient and cost effective. Officials last Wednesday proposed the plane to regional officials, and are going to survey riders’ opinions during the month of July.

On estimation, the Brown Line would add about 20,000 more daily trips on the Metro, and increase Washington and Arlington residential travel from 70 percent to 74 percent, according to the Georgetown Metropolitan.

A different plan for adding Georgetown to the Metro map calls for splitting the Silver Line, another line that is in proposal status. Studies concluded that this proposal would have fewer riders than the Brown line, especially from Arlington residents because of the few stops that it would have in that area.

However, even with all this talk, there is no need to worry about up-coming delays; the goal deadline is 2040, so proposals are still in infancy. Metro officials are trying to consider every option possible first before beginning projects so that they will be cost efficient and least stressful for riders during construction.

Georgetowner •

Tudor Place Historic House and Garden’s expansion plans moved a step forward this week as new preliminary building plans were reviewed by ANC2E and the Old Georgetown Board.

At this Tuesday’s ANC2E meeting, Tudor Place Executive Leslie Buhler presented changes made to the site’s preliminary plans for expansion. These changes were made in response to recommendations made by the National Park Service, which holds an easement on the 5.5 acre property. First, the proposed education center on the North side of the property has been moved off of the easement line. Second, the proposed gatehouse to be built at the 31st Street entrance has been moved from the North side to the South side of the entrance.

Neighbors of Tudor Place, a group of about sixty neighboring homeowners, still oppose the current preliminary plans. One of these neighbors, Outerbridge Horsey, voiced a number of concerns at the meeting, including the height of the buildings and the number of trees that would be cut down in the construction process. The property is covered by 75 percent canopy.

The Neighbors have proposed alternative plans that would minimize the visual impact of the buildings.

On Thursday morning, the preliminary plans were reviewed by the Old Georgetown Board. Leslie Buhler says that the Board’s criticism was “very constructive,” and that Tudor Place is eager to move towards the design phase.