Arts & Society

Robert Devaney • December 31, 2011

The 12 Days of Merriment kicked off Dec. 10 at the PNC bank parking lot around the intersection of Wisconsin & M — karaoke for anybody willing to jump on stage with the HariKaraoke Band, fruitcake eating contest (Jay Gorman won), a gingerbread house making contest by The Georgetowner Newspaper and silly sweater contest. Also heard were Georgetown University’s a capella group, the Phantoms as well as dogs visiting the Lucky Dogs table. The crowd enjoyed hot cocoa and sweets, as Kelly Collis and Tommy McFly from 94.7 Fresh FM emceed. The Saturday party and the 12-day shopping promotion with parking and store discounts was organized by the Georgetown Business Improvement District; it continues through Dec. 20. [gallery ids="100438,114388,114380,114357,114372,114365" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird • December 20, 2011

National Rehabilitation Hospital held the 25th Anniversary Gala Victory Awards at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on Dec. 1. It was victorious in celebrating individuals who best exemplify exceptional strength and courage in the face of physical adversity. The cocktail reception was followed by a multi-course repast and live auction presided over by Kip Toner of Seattle. The evening’s honorees were Edward A. Eckenhoff, President Emeritus of NRH; entertainer Mickey Gilley, who cautioned “stay off the bull”; Robert David Hall, aka “Dr. Albert Robbins” on CBS TV’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; Kevin Pearce, who suffered a traumatic brain injury while training for the Olympics, and opera diva Marquita Lister, who was treated at NRH for a critical inflammation of the lungs and muscles. One must not omit the equally stellar presenters headed by Dancing with the Stars and All My Children phenomenon J. R. Martinez and including Grammy Award winning singer Yolanda Adams and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. All of the evening’s proceeds will support NRH’s five-year, $25-million fundraising effort to retain medical rehabilitation leadership in the next quarter century.
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Gary Tischler • December 19, 2011

Near the end of his “Classic Conversations” visit with Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Michael Kahn, actor and sometime movie star Kevin Kline noted that he loved the big parts, the scary parts.

“Why are we here if not to do the hard parts?” he asked.

Why indeed. Kline, who is a gifted Shakespearean actor and a fair-sized movie star, has done his share of the hard parts, done them more than well and risen more often than not to the challenge of being Cyrano, Falstaff, Hamlet, Richard II and Richard III, Henry V and, in his first movie role no less, the quicksilver, charismatic and doomed Nathan opposite Meryl Streep in “Sophie’s Choice” among other roles.

His old Juilliard compatriot introduced him as the actor who has been called “the American Olivier,” high praise in indeed, once issued by New York Times Drama Critic Frank Rich.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” he said. “I mean, Olivier, good God.”

“And remember, when I was a kid, I hated Shakespeare,” he said.

But then, when he was a kid in a Catholic private school which included corporal punishment, he didn’t like a lot of the things he grew to love. “Actually, I wanted to study music. I had a rock band, if you can believe that.”

He probably didn’t imagine himself to be a movie star, either, or traveling the country with the Acting Company, the creation of John (“We make money the old fashioned way. We earn it”) Houseman, a stern original from film and theater times past. “That was the best experience you could possibly have, doing the different plays in different places, small towns one night, big city the next, a college campus, and so forth. I loved that. And you learn from that.”

Kline has always returned to the stage—it’s his main love, it’s where the biggest tasks, those Moby Dick-size challenges await him.

Kahn and Kline are obvious old friends. “Remember, next year you’re going into, I don’t know what decade in theater and acting. Maybe you could do something special. Maybe we’ll give you another Will Award.”

“It has been a long time,” Kline noted. “I like always going back to the stage. But the movie industry—I have to say I don’t understand it. I don’t understand the audience. It’s teenage boys. I mean I have a reputation as being very, very careful in the roles I choose. I have a nickname to uphold. They call me Kevin Decline. Or Doctor No. I’m known for turning down roles. I even turned down Nathan at first, not to mention Dave.”

“Dave” was one of his more popular movie roles, in which he played a man who is forced to impersonate a president. He worked with director Lawrence Kasdan on “Grand Canyon” and something he thoroughly enjoyed, the star studded improbable western “Silverado” and the iconic “The Big Chill.”

That’s when he was bonafide catnip for the ladies, a movie star as well as a grounded, gifted, talented actor. “I was scared to death on “Sophie’s Choice,” he said. “But Meryl was so generous. She said don’t be intimidated. Improve. Don’t be scared to throw me around.”

Kline got an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the cultish “A Fish Called Wanda.”

Kline these days seems to lead the most normal of lives, married to actress Phoebe Cates for over 20 years with a grown son, Owen Joseph Kline, who had a major role in “The Squid and the Whale.” “Time Magazine called it one the best performances of the year and he was a teenager. But he said he didn’t care to become an actor. Can you believe it?”

He always comes back to Shakespeare, to the parts that are big and scary, including his embrace of Cyrano, which is French, but still big and scary.

When Kline, still boyishly and elegantly handsome, walked into the room, a woman in front of me whispered: “His hair is white.”

Samantha Hungerford • December 8, 2011

Deborah Kalkstein, with her dark hair and eyes, looks just as sleek as her modern, designer furniture, architecture and home décor store, Contemporaria in Georgetown. She sat down with The Downtowner to talk about holiday shopping and to recommend some of her favorite gift-able items in her chic boutique. As the days left to finish your holiday shopping tick away, don’t forget to slow down and enjoy taking in all that the D.C. retail has to offer. At Contemporaria, Kalkstein and her staff will be holding open houses where shoppers can peruse the store’s beautiful pieces with a champagne toast. “People come to browse our new collection and enjoy a bit of the holiday cheer,” Kalkstein says, a scene which sounds even more appealing when described in her lilting Peruvian accent.

The Downtowner: What’s your favorite gift you’ve ever received?

Kalkstein: Oh my God, that’s nice and simple. I just got, from my husband, a week in a spa Sedona by myself. So, I tell you, it was the most thoughtful and amazing gift that somebody could have given me because I would have not ever bought it by myself.

DT: How about the worst gift?

K: Also from my husband. He gave me this beautiful gardening James Bond suitcase. And I hate gardening. So, I was like, after being married for 20-something years don’t you know? It’s sitting in my house unopened and unused. It was not awful, but it was really not for me. But I’ll never forget it.

DT: How about your favorite gift that you’ve ever had a chance to give to someone?

K: I’ve given some really nice gifts; I have to think about it! I think one of the best things, for me, was to give my mother the watch that she always wanted and to be able to buy it for her. It gave me a lot of satisfaction.

DT: What are your three favorite gift-able items that you have in the store right now?

K: Right now we are doing, which I love, we have these Missoni throws that are very cozy and plush. You can give it to anybody from older to younger to men or women to use on your bed or couch or anything like that. They come beautifully boxed and they’re a gorgeous gift. Then we have, since we are a design-oriented store, we have the miniatures by Vitra that are all the little miniatures of all their museum-quality pieces. They’re really beautiful to have around because they remind you of design and they remind you of a beautiful thing every day. And the third, I love this new lamp we have by Floss. It has the technology of a LED light, and it’s so cool to put on your desk or a night table or anywhere.

DT: Is there anything that you’d like to say to holiday shoppers who come to Georgetown?

K: Support Georgetown! It’s a beautiful part of town. We are here for a cause because we love it here, and we all want to be here to stay. We all need the support of Georgetowners and the support they can bring to bring people from out of town, and I mean out of town like Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Arlington, to come by Georgetown and support business here . . . There’s this misconception that coming to Georgetown there’s only expensive things, but it’s not. You can find everything from all lines of work. It’s one of the only places in town that you can walk around and feel a very European mood and enjoy it and share it.
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Mary Bird •

The Links, Incorporated, an international nonprofit service organization of professional women of color, recently hosted its 65th Anniversary in Washington, D.C. Events included a rededication and ribbon cutting ceremony of Links’ newly renovated National Headquarters, a state of the art LEED certified building. At a black-tie gala at the Marriott Wardman Park, for the first time the organization’s highest honor was bestowed upon an organization. The Links Medal was presented to Johnson Publishing Company Chairman Linda Johnson Rice on behalf of Ebony magazine. The recipient must have significantly impacted the lives and culture of African-Americans and other persons of African ancestry. Links brings together more than 12,000 distinguished women who are individual achievers and have made a difference in their communities and the world.

Mary Bird •

WTOP’s “Man About Town” Bob Madigan announced the much awaited arrival of Santa and Rudolph for the 8th Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Fairmont Washington, D.C., on Nov. 30. The annual event, which benefits Toys for Tots, opened with a raffle drawing, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves’ Color Guard and entertainment by the Georgetown Visitation Madrigals. Santa and Rudolph descended the stairs to pose for photos in front of the Grinch-themed Gingerbread Village created by the hotel’s gifted pastry team. The tree was lit and children decorated holiday cards as everyone enjoyed complimentary hot chocolate, mulled wine and cookies. [gallery ids="100420,113618,113609,113557,113600,113592,113567,113584,113576" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • December 7, 2011

I got a confession to make.

I’m a huge fan of the long-running CBS crime show “CSI” (for “Crime Scene Investigation”), the pioneering (first seen in October 2000) series set in Las Vegas, which spawned “CSI: Miami” and “CSI: New York.” I’ve always watched the original, mainly because I figured anything with Bill Peterson in it couldn’t be all bad, it had a cool theme song by The Who and it was set in Las Vegas.
Turns out that Robert David Hall is a big fan, too. The actor who has played Doctor Al Robbins, the chief medical examiner and king of the morgue on the show talks a little like a fan about the show, not even close to getting tired of the part, or the show, which has undergone numerous cast changes, top to bottom, over the years.

As these things often happen, he looks just like Doc Robbins, casually dressed, in a room at the Marriott in Woodley Park. There’s the doc’s characteristic white beard, the shiny top, compelling blue eyes, making him look younger than the 65 years he carries well. There’s a walking stick lying on the floor by the table we’re sitting at, the only immediate evidence that he’s also an actor with disabilities. In 1978, Hall, at the age of 30, lost both his legs and suffered major burns when his car was struck and crushed by a tractor trailer.

The good — and gruff, dark-humor loving, eccentric and not entirely PC—Doctor Robbins is also disabled and walks with the aid of a crutch and uses prosthetics, like Hall. Sometimes, Robbins has been seen in the show using a crutch like an air guitar and even singing with Bill Peterson, the original star of the show who played Grissom.

All of this, of course, speaks to his presence in Washington, a place he’s pretty familiar with. This time, he’s here as one of the recipients of the 25th Anniversary Victory Awards, given by the National Rehabilitation Hospital to individuals “who best exemplify exceptional strength and courage in the face of physical adversity.” He was among five honorees that include country singer Mickey Gilley, U.S. snowboarding champion Kevin Pearce, opera star Marqita Lister and NRH founder Edward Eckenhoff.
Hall has been a tireless advocate for job equality and his fellow actors with disability. As he says, “If you support diversity and thinks shows should give a portrayal of what America truly looks like, then performers with disabilities must be included in the equation. People have been very good at being politically correct. But there has been an assumption that disabled actors could slow down production, can’t do this or that, or that people won’t want to see them on screen.”

Hall, of course, goes beyond that. He’s visited Walter Reed Hospital many times and talked with veterans of America’s Middle Eastern wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who have suffered disproportionately with loss of limb wounds.

“I don’t try to preach or tell them what to do,” he said. “What you’re there for as far as I’m concerned is to listen. And I think that’s what they want more than anything. They can see I know what it’s like. They’re not moping. And all I can say is that they will get over it, working every day, if they don’t give in to despair, if they have hope.”

Honored by the award, he’s also a little uncomfortable with the nation of “being some kind of brave and courageous hero.”

“I don’t see myself that way,” he said. “It’s a process. I like to think in all that time I’ve moved on quite a bit. Not entirely. Nobody does.”

“But what I am is Irish and that makes me stubborn. So, I’d say I’m stubborn and tough — not in a tough-guy sense, but hard and persistent, yeah, that’s okay. I got from my father and his father, Naval Academy guys.

He’s not a dweller on the past. What he is — and you sense this just walking into the room — is a guy looking for the next thing, the next word, the challenge. His eyes, a hypnotic blue, are alert-looking, interested and curious. He’s a talker, a story-teller. “Do something you’re afraid to do,” he said. “Accept challenges. Do something new, risky.”

“You know, you go to certain places from where you’re at, you know going to your job or the store, that kind of thing,” he says. “It drives my wife nuts. I don’t like routines, so I go a different way every time.”

Hall wanted to be a musician—“I played in bands, rock and roll folk.” He just cut an album. He has a voice made for acting, and for radio, and certainly music. If you don’t believe it, check out the YouTube clip from a “CSI” show in which Grissom and Robbins are cutting up a body and singing, and Hall sings the cause of death. It’s funny, but the voice carries and is grand, and could maybe wake the dead.

“CSI,” you can tell, has been a gift for him. He’s worked with everyone, those who starred and left, and those who stayed. No bad words here from him, not even about the other “CSI” shows. “You can say that, I won’t stop you,” he said. “I can’t. But we’re very competitive about status.”

“I got to be a regular halfway through the first season,” Hall said. “You know you’re doing good there when your face is on the opening credits.”

His character is kind of crotchety, off the wall, authoritative and funny. “I modeled him after my dad a little and a track coach in high school,” he said. “My dad was, well, okay, tough. Sometimes, I thought he was even mean. But I always knew he loved us, all of us. He just didn’t know how to do that touchy feely stuff.”

“You know, I’ve always got sort of back story in mind for the doctor,” he says. “It doesn’t matter to anybody. But on the Dec. 14 episode, just so you know, he’s going to take center stage. You’re going to meet the wife Judy (Wendy Drewson), and there’s a body at his house and a CSI investigation.”
It’s not hard to imagine Hall at the center of one or many of “CSI” episodes; what’s hard to imagine is this CSI without Hall.

“You know I look at days in terms of percentages, starting with 100 percent,” he said. “Today, it started out 100 percent because our plane landed safely and my wife is scared of flying. I got some aches and pains during the day, so it dipped a little but that’s all right. I like talking to people. It goes up.” [gallery ids="100416,113417" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

Needless to say, the holidays are upon us?the season of giving. And to declare that a work of art makes a nice gift is an almost banal platitude. Yes, art is pretty; it decorates our walls, enlivens our homes and adds flourish to our lives. But with a wounded economy that focuses our fiscal energies on more clearly practical priorities, art is frankly a dismissible commodity.

Art, however, has a stronger memory than almost any other possession and a presence that will outlast the times in which it was bought.

My grandmother recently passed away, and what I took to remember her by is a small painting she kept by her desk. It is not a very good painting?it?s a strange, miniature reproduction of a lesser-known Picasso from the artist?s blue period. She saw it every day and was fleetingly reminded of some small detail of her life, as I see it now and am reminded of her, typing feverishly away with a phone wedged in the crook of her neck against her ear.

Over the years, she gave me more gifts than I can recount?pencil sets and pocketknives when I was younger, clothes and books when I was older. None of those things are with me anymore, save perhaps a paperback or two. Her memory lives on through me, manifested in this silly little painting.
This is the value of a work of art. It carries with it an innate history, story and feeling that few other objects can. A work is brought into existence by the artist, but it is not brought to life until it is displayed and appreciated by its owner.

Washington has a remarkable gallery scene, many showcasing local artists, and all with quality work worthy of a city of this stature. While often dwarfed by the ostentation of the museums, they are vital to the culture and community of our neighborhoods. Even if it?s just to look and chat with the gallery directors, go enjoy them. There is much to admire. The galleries featured below represent just a fraction of what is out there.

**A Local Treasure: David Suter at Gallery A**
As an illustrator, David Suter has been on the D.C. scene for a while. A longtime op-ed illustrator for the Washington Post, among other national and regional publications, he was also a courtroom artist who sketched the Watergate trials in the 70s. His illustrations are immediately iconic, among the best examples of those lightly surreal, morally political, wonk-pop New Yorker-style ink drawings that us urbanites get such a kick out of. Suter is inherently attuned to the sentiment of his time and place, a mark of any great illustrator, from John Held?s lionized depictions of flappers and the jazz age of the 1920s, to the nostalgia of Norman Rockwell.

Suter has since moved on from his illustration work, and now works as a painter and sculptor. And while his subjects are more ambiguous and his mediums more expansive, the artist?s wit, humor, wonder and small-scale grandness remain ever present. His latest exhibition at Gallery A, ?Outside the Box,? offers a lens into what seems like the subconscious of a wholly and uniquely visual thinker.
His quirky craftsmanship and use of line carries over to sculpture remarkably, and in many cases the works look like highly technical 3D collages of driftwood and found objectry. The concision and clarity of the works again belie the outright intelligence, intellectual curiosity and effort it took to create them, like the work of architect I.M. Pei (who designed, among infinite examples, the East wing of the National Gallery), whose designs reference a larger context of its own space.

The sculptures are in an eternal relationship with its space and dimension, the visual information carefully?and in some cases sparingly?chosen for each piece. More so than many sculptures, the angle and distance from which you view them entirely alters your perception, lending the works a mathematical, MC Escher-like curiosity. ?Seated Person with Dog,? if viewed from a certain vantage point, looks like a tastefully arranged stack of carved wood and aluminum. But as you come around the sculpture, the splayed legs of the canine and erect posture of the seated owner slowly reveal themselves.

His paintings carry a hazy, nebulous quality, exploring the space of light and the repetition of shapes within scenes that are reminiscent of the dignified and near-detachment of Diego Rivera. They are paintings of glances, memories of a collective cultural subconscious that Suter forms just concretely enough to be able to make out its image. A woman sits by the bed of a small, sickly elder; a rooftop church bell; a nude woman dancing while a man plays piano, a seated skeleton watches on, and a windmill looms in the background.

This show is a tremendous gallery experience. Fun, unique, engaging and smart, Suter?s work will stick with you, follow you around. I found myself thinking about it for days afterward.
David Suter?s work will be on view at Gallery A, 2106 R Street, NW, through Dec. 31. For more information visit [AlexGalleries.com](http://alexgalleries.com).

**Welcome Back, Cross Mackenzie Gallery**
Rebecca Cross, gallery director of Cross Mackenzie, has opened the doors of her gallery?s new location in Dupont Circle. Her current offerings, featuring the work of local painter Tati Kaupp and sculptor Charles Birnbaum, bring exuberance and taste together for a vibrant but peaceful exhibition that deserves to be seen.

In her earlier work, the intense color palette of Kaupp reflected the light from her childhood years in Mexico and the southwest. And while her recent paintings are considerably darker?they look like the skies just before the storm breaks?they still look celebratory. There is a sense of lightness and air here: circles, floating shapes, dots and squiggles, which rise to the top of her canvases with weightless effervescence.

The paintings are layered with quilt-like patterns that dance across the surface of the canvas?compositions in some cases literally jump over onto adjacent canvases, creating an unusual and wonderful diptych effect. While at first they may seem almost too free, perhaps even childlike, it is soon replaced by a wonder that is likely shared by the artist. I warmed up to the paintings quickly, feeling simultaneously calmed and electrified, like watching a summer thunderstorm through the window.

The extravagant sculptures of Charles Birnbaum are made up of undulating and intertwined shapes that resemble deep sea coral and anemones, but with curiously sensual undercurrents. Patterned elements are stacked and layered, with protruding, tapered appendages and sensuous tendrils reaching dangerously away from the safety of the massed center.

Birnbaum uses paper in his clay to give the porcelain more tensile strength and flexibility to hold up to the delicate and taxing methods employed by the artist. He presses the clay into surface textures, then folds, bends, pulls and twists the elements into expressive forms that even those studied in the techniques of ceramics are unable to understand or replicate. With no reflective clear glaze, the white porcelain sculptures take on a bone-like quality, absorbing light as opposed to reflecting it. The final result is a body of work that reflects a beautiful struggle of abandon and control, the unrestrained indulgence of the undulating forms versus the technical discipline of working and taming the material.
The works of Tati Kauppi and Charles Birnbaum will be on display at Cross Mackenzie Gallery, 2026 R Street, NW, through Jan. 5, 2012. For more information visit [CrossMackenzie.com](http://www.crossmackenzie.com)

Robert Devaney • December 2, 2011

If one could have spied on a singular event illuminating America’s awesome firepower in intelligence, surely it was the OSS Society’s annual awards dinner last month. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel was electric with civilian and military leaders, young soldiers, sailors and marines, old spies, patriots and a trace of media. The main event: The 50th anniversary presentation of the William J. Donovan Award to Adm. Eric Olson and an off-the-record speech by CIA Director David Petraeus.

Olson, retired commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, whose last big mission was taking out Osama bin Laden, and the popular Gen. Petraeus, newly appointed U.S. spymaster, joined 600 others and the likes of such soldiers as the Masson brothers, Sgt. Thomas Costello, wounded in Afghanistan, and his wife Jennifer. Led by Maj. Gen. Victor Hugo, the night’s master of ceremonies, they saluted those who hold and have held America’s tip of the spear against her enemies. All rose to toast the U.S.A., the commander-in-chief, allies, the OSS, Bill Donovan, lost and missing comrades — and the ladies.

Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, who received the Donovan award in 2007, presented it to Olson, who spoke of the “OSS Simple Sabotage Manual” (Good read; check it out). The man of the night — who had been the longest serving SEAL on active duty, “a bull frog” — took part in Desert Storm and Somalia. His actions during the Battle of Mogadishu, recounted in “Black Hawk Down,” earned Olson a Silver Star. The admiral said the “New Normal” required clever people and solutions. He certainly was in the right place to find them.

The OSS Society is dedicated to those who served during World War II in the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations and honors the memory of legendary Gen. “Wild Bill” Donovan, OSS founder. Tributes to Donovan are not overstated: “What a man! We have lost the last hero,” said President Dwight Eisenhower. Donovan’s OSS men have been described as “PhDs who could win a bar fight.” The OSS’s influence on today’s spies and special ops also cannot be overstated. Others awarded the Donovan prize include Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and George H.W. Bush as well as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Lord Mountbatten, William Casey, William Colby, William Webster, Ross Perot — and Petraeus two years ago.

The society works to continue that influence, as it educates the public on “the continuing importance of strategic intelligence and special operations to the preservation of freedom in this country and around the world.” During the Oct. 15 gala, the non-profit debuted designs for the National OSS Museum — “telling America’s greatest untold story.” The OSS Society is hunting for locations — especially in Northern Virginia. Says its serious president Charles Pinck, tongue not entirely in cheek: “I’m responsible for a group of very dangerous senior citizens.”

Oh, and Petraeus’s speech? Not to worry: he basically thanked everyone and . . . well, the rest is off the record. [gallery ids="100407,113338,113330,113307,113322,113315" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird • December 1, 2011

On Nov. 14, Vice Skracic, Acting Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia, hosted a reception for invited guests, donors and sponsors of the 2011 Capital City Ball, which is held the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Board member Liz Sara thanked supporters. The Capital City Ball raises funds to combat human trafficking. In his remarks, the acting ambassador said that Croatia is a transit country for trafficking and is working with various groups to raise awareness of this scourge. Beneficiary organizations in and around D.C. are seeking to “bridge the gaps” by providing counseling, therapy and legal services to victims of trafficking. Capital City Ball founder and co-chair Bruce Freis said that the ball, now in its fifth year, is a “great party” that supports and creates synergy among its charity partners. [gallery ids="100411,113347,113398,113389,113380,113372,113357,113365" nav="thumbs"]