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Charlene Louis • July 26, 2011

Each year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates spring in Washington, DC, the gift of the cherry blossom trees and the enduring friendship between the people of the United States and Japan (something exceedingly important in Japan’s current crisis). The Festival produces and coordinates 16 days and three spectacular weekends of festivities, primarily free and open to the public.

One the best features during the Cherry Blossom season are the “Cherry Picks,” area restaurants offering savory menus items inspired by the cherry blossoms. Now in its ninth year, Cherry Picks has over 70 participating restaurants serve creative cherry-flavored, cherry-infused, or blossom-inspired entrées, appetizers, desserts, cocktails, or multi-course menus throughout the Festival. Check out this list of participating restaurants!

Mar 26, 2011 – Mar 26, 2011
Family festival featuring hands-on activities, interactive art exhibits, and exciting indoor and outdoor youth performances. Presented by Safeway and Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States Region.

April 9
National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade

Apr 09, 2011 – Apr 09, 2011
Enjoy this long-standing Washington tradition featuring lavish floats, giant helium balloons, marching bands, and other family entertainment.

Mar 23 2011
2011 Pink Tie Party

Mar 23, 2011
Kick off the “Season of the Blossoms” in style at the Festival’s Pink Tie Party fundraiser and auction, presented by Macy’s and Open Skies – The Unique All Business Airline. Tickets now on sale!

Mar 22 2011
Community Cherry Blossom Art Show at Union Station

Mar 22, 2011 – Apr 10, 2011
Blossom inspiration comes to life through the imagination of DC public and charter school students. Public exhibition presented by Sodexo.

Mar 26 2011
Music of Spring

Mar 26, 2011 – Mar 27, 2011
Alongside Eastern Market’s foods, arts and crafts, enjoy music throughout the grounds.

Mar 26 2011
Glorious Gardens Self-Guided Tour

Mar 26, 2011 – Apr 10, 2011
Experience nature’s beauty through a series of visits to several splendid gardens in Fairfax County.

Mar 26 2011
Cherry Blossom River Teas

Mar 26, 2011 – Mar 27, 2011
Enjoy a charming, full-service English ‘High Tea’ aboard a classic yacht while cruising along the blossoms.

Mar 26 2011
Lantern Walks

Mar 26, 2011 – Mar 27, 2011
Guided by the light of festive lanterns, rangers will guide you on an evening walk around the Tidal Basin.

Mar 26 2011
National Cherry Blossom Festival Opening Ceremony

Mar 26, 2011 – Mar 26, 2011
Official kick-off to the Festival features a dazzling line-up of classic and contemporary performances, with welcoming remarks by Washington dignitaries. Presented by Open Skies – The Unique All Business Airline.

Mar 26 2011
Performance Stage at Sylvan Theater

Mar 26, 2011 – Apr 10, 2011
The Festival’s primary stage features daily performances by recognized and diverse talent from around the region, country, and world.

Mar 26 2011
The Blossom Secrets Stroll

Mar 26, 2011
A walking tour recounting the story and sites of how the Japanese cherry trees came to Washington, D.C.

Mar 26 2011
Photo Safaris Around the Tidal Basin at Cherry Blossom Time

Mar 26, 2011 – Apr 10, 2011
Instructional workshops in cherry blossom and travel photography conducted around the Tidal Basin at sunrise and in late afternoon.

Mar 26 2011
Beyond the Tidal Basin: Introducing Other Great Flowering Cherries

Mar 26, 2011 – Apr 10, 2011
Enjoy a self-guided tour of different species and cultivars of flowering cherries. [gallery ids="99621,105126,105119,105123" nav="thumbs"]

Samantha Hungerford •

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.”

Gary Tischler •

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.

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.

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.

Suzanna Nelson •

Need something more exotic in your meat life? Tired of the same old, steak, ribs, hamburgers, and chicken breasts? How about half-pound ostrich burger with figs and elderflower jam or rattlesnake fritters? Have some kangaroo slider hop right in your mouth because every Wednesday at Georgetown’s rock-n-roll burger joint, Thunder Burger and Bar is offering some avante-guard options for the meat-adventurer.

“Wild Wednesdays at Thunder Burger and Bar” has officially started and taking burgers to new and exotic places by offering a new meat-opening items each Wednesday to try. Rumors of kangaroo, rattlesnake, and antelope will grace Wednesday menu each week, changing up the status-quo burgers and fries combo.

Don’t worry Georgetown, they are not letting the wild animals loose on M Street; chefs have found specialized exotic animal food farms to get their meat from. Excited about the variety, Thunder Burger and Bar keep pushing diners to try something new.

So no more 50’s roller-skating waitresses and double-straw milkshakes. Burgers are now about hardcore rock-n-roll: black leather, studs and exotic meats. No fear in Thunder Burger and Bar about but, still they have some of the best tasting burger in Georgetown… Just with a more wild side.

Robert Devaney • July 11, 2011

Whether you attended the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives or the parade along Constitution Avenue, the hometown parade along MacArthur Boulevard is also a favorite of Georgetowners. Add to that list the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s July 4th celebration at Rose Park, kicked by a sidewalk parade of toddlers around the block. The Image Band provided music and opened with a reggae “Star-Spangled Banner.” Sprinkles cupcakes, Häagen Dazs ice cream, a pie-eating contest and tug-o-war: what’s not to like? Later, many a Georgetown rooftop held groups cheered by the fireworks from the National Mall for America’s 235th birthday. [gallery ids="100224,106399,106425,106421,106404,106417,106413,106409" nav="thumbs"]