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Gary Tischler • January 20, 2016

He was born in 1947 in Brixton, England, as David Robert Jones, three single names so ordinary that they are held by themselves by millions of boys and men in the English-speaking world, hugging the anonymous, near invisible John Doe.

But when David Robert Jones became David Bowie, he became one-of-a-kind, singular, but also a musical shaman who became Ziggy Stardust and Major Tom and took on other personas and wrapped himself and his voice in cloaks of reinvention.

The world has lost David Bowie, and all of his edgy, generous, outward bound gifts went with him but also stayed behind.  Bowie died of liver cancer in New York on Jan. 10 after a long illness and courageous battle at the not-quite-old age of 69.

But Ziggy, and the music, and that voice, the makeup, the androgynous  look, the spiked red hair, the costumes,  the movies, the voice, the videos, the performances, all of that stuff remains—if not the same due to his absence, pieces of stardust, always hot to the touch.

Ziggy came out of his second album, full blown, a persona, a style, glam and punk and singularly him, looking not just to be heard, but to be fully seen: “Ziggy played guitar/jamming good with Weird and Gilly/and the Spiders from Mars/He played it left hand/but made it too far/Became the special man/Then we were Ziggy’s band.”

He could always sing the blues. In “Space Oddity,” Bowie turned to movement, to glitter, to folk-rock, to blues and something very special and different that lasted through the the Ziggy phase. And then he retired as Ziggy and became a host of other things, including for real (or unreal) a bona-fide movie star in cult movies like “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (he was that man) with Candy Clark, the Tony Scott erotic horror movie “The Hunger” with Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon.  

His life in the later years of the 20th century was erratic, but the music always bolstered by his ear for fine lyrics that he often wrote himself and a voice that was his alone, a pop voice, a screamy  voice, an anguished voice, especially “Heroes.” His second marriage to the model Iman steadied him, his life and his music. His last album, “Black Star”, released last week on his birthday, Jan. 8, was a collaboration, perhaps not surprisingly, with a jazz quartet. It was called by the New York Times “typically enigmatic and exploratory.”

His visionary spirit, his journeys in invention, his music inspired jazz players, Lou Reed, Kanye West, the hip and the hop.

Here’s one last look:

Go online.  Dig out “Heroes,” the version he sang at the Live Aid concert at Wembley in 1985.  Here’s Bowie, skinny light blue suit, thin yellow tie, rich flock of brown hair,  tireless, thin, elastic, the drummer shirtless, a girl sax player with short blonde hair, two backups, and a stadium of thousands of thousands swinging their hands in the air

They were singing—not “Bye, Bye, Miss America Pie”—but “We could be heroes, for just one day.”

Say hello and goodbye to David Robert Jones, Ziggy Stardust.

Here’s to David Bowie, singular man, singer and supernova.

Here’s to Major Tom:

“I’m stepping through the door

And I’m floating

In a most peculiar way

And the stars look very different today.”

They do. They do.

Robert Devaney • January 19, 2016

Saying goodbye to 2015 and welcoming 2016, the iconic sign for the former Georgetown Theater at Wisconsin Avenue and O Street NW was illuminated for several hours, Dec. 31 to Jan. 1.

The capital letters, “GEORGETOWN,” were aglow in neon-red at night and in the early morning light. The sign had not been lighted for more than 20 years.

Building owner and architect Robert Bell met with family and friends at the old theater on New Year’s Eve briefly for a champagne toast to the sign, the building and Bell’s years of work on the project.

The sign will be switched on for good sometime in the next few months. The official ceremony for the sign’s relighting has not happened because the main doors of the building are not ready, said Bell, who bought the old theater property in October 2013 and is still renovating the building at 1351 Wisconsin Ave. NW for retail and residential use.

Bell added that the glass-topped canopy at the building’s entrance will be trimmed with vintage marquee lights.

The original sign was hauled away in September 2014 and re-done at Jack Stone Signs, which originally manufactured it in 1950. It was reinstalled in July, but not lighted.

“Restoring the neon Georgetown sign has been a project of mine for seven years,” Bell told the Georgetowner previously. “The Georgetown Theater is the missing link to restoring Wisconsin Avenue from Book Hill to M Street as one of America’s best streets. Restoring the façade and vitality of this property will be a major improvement on the quality of Wisconsin Avenue and Georgetown.”

Architect Robert Bell and his plans for the rejuvenation of the old Georgetown Theater property were the subject of a Jan. 15, 2014, Georgetowner cover story.
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Robert Devaney •

After a seven-hour standoff on Jan. 4, a man who locked himself in an office at Washington Harbour at 3000 K St. NW surrendered to the Metropolitan Police Department. He reportedly had a gun. MPD received a call just before 3 p.m. that requested a check on a man in “crisis”—indicating a possible suicide situation.

According to those familiar with the incident, the individual may have gone to his office at Washington Harbour after a domestic dispute.

The afternoon call prompted an unusually large police, fire and emergency medical response that shut down streets along the Georgetown waterfront. SWAT tactical units were on the scene. Police cruisers, fire trucks and EMT vehicles clogged K Street, while police walked or stood along the streetwalks.

Wisconsin Avenue and 29th and 30th Streets were blocked at M Street going south to K Street as well as Rock Creek Parkway exiting into K Street. The street shutdown ended around 10 p.m.

According to police, the man—whose name was not released—was not charged with any crime. He is expected to undergo a mental health evaluation.?

Georgetowner • January 14, 2016

DC Shorts’s LAUGHS! 2016

January 8th, 2016 at 07:30 PM | Event Website

DC Shorts presents its favorite comedy films from 2015 paired with live performances by the area’s top stand-up comics.
Each 90-minute show combines film and live performance for a spectacular and lighthearted evening. Arrive early and enjoy the Laughs Bar in the Heritage Center lobby. And make sure to grab an extra drink for the show.

This is the perfect opportunity to catch films you might have missed from past years — and check out the best of DC’s stand-up circuit.

Address

U.S. Navy Memorial, Burke Theatre

Ella-Rue Basement Sale

January 8th, 2016 – January 10th 2016 | Free | Tel: (202) 333-1598| Event Website

The Basement Sale starts Friday, January 8 at upscale consignment boutique Ella-Rue (3231 P St. NW)! This weekend only, score 20-75% off select merchandise. Don’t miss this one!

Address

Ella-Rue; 3231 P St. NW

Leanne Marshall Trunk Show

January 8th 2016 – Sun, January 10th 2016 | Free | Event Website

Stop by Lovely Bride Salon on January 8-10 for a Leanne Marshalle Trunk Show. Browse the designer’s new bridal collection and enjoy 10% off select gowns. To make an appointment, click here.

Address

1632 Wisconsin Ave NW; 2nd Fl

History Talk – Lucretia Mott: Speaking Quaker Truth to “Slave Power”

January 9th 2016 | Free | Tel: 202-727-0233 | Event Website

The Peabody Room at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library is pleased to present a special history talk, “Lucretia Mott: Speaking Quaker Truth to Slave Power.” Jaimie Stiehm, a Creators Syndicate columnist and contributer to USNEWS.com, will discuss Lucretia Mott’s journey to Washington, D.C. to speak out against slavery … the “peculiar institution.”

The history talk will take place on Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 1 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Address

Georgetown Neighborhood Library; 3260 R St NW

NSO in Your Neighborhood: From the Strings, To Your Ears

January 10th, 2016 at 11:00 AM | Free

Acoustics are a natural part of the built environment and the quality of sound is affected by the materials that make up a building. Join us on an acoustic tour as a National Symphony Orchestra string quartet plays music in three different spaces inside the Museum. Registration is required.

Address

National Building Museum

401 F ST NW

Italian Cooking Class – Pasta and Sauces

January 10th 2016 | Free | events@viaumbria.com | Tel: 202-333-3904 | Event Website

Join Via Umbria’s Chef Jodie for an authentic Italian cooking class on January 10 at 7:30-9:30 p.m. Learn to make delicious homemade pasta and pasta sauce. The cost of the class is $50. To register, please click here.

Address

1525 Wisconsin Ave NW

Free Barre Class

January 11th 2016 | Free | Tel: (202) 333-1738 | Event Website

Stop by Lululemon on Monday, January 11 at 7-8 p.m. for a complimentary barre class hosted by Lava Barre. In this dynamic power hour you will use your own body weight to isolate, lift, tone and lengthen your muscles. Bring a mat & a friend!

Address

3265 M St NW

Gary Tischler • January 13, 2016

“When you’re the mayor, you know, that’s where the buck stops. There are a lot of big decisions I have to make every day. The thing about making decisions is that some people are going to be happy and some people aren’t. I feel very comfortable. I tell people, even in the most difficult, challenging times we’ve had, that I’m glad that I am the one sitting here making the decisions.”

That was Muriel Bowser, talking with The Georgetowner in her offices in the Wilson Building near the end of her first year as mayor of the District of Columbia. In a Dec. 21 interview with senior writer Gary Tischler and editor-in-chief Robert Devaney, part of a blitz of end-of-the-year interviews she did with various news outlets in the city, she spoke with a solid self-confidence. The singular impression was that there was no question in her tone or her answers to questions that she owned the office and the job.
The attitude and the confidence seem part of an evolutionary public process for Bowser, as well as Washington, D.C. She, and especially the city, have changed greatly since she first came into the political radar as a public figure.

Bowser’s time in the public eye in the District of Columbia has been relatively brief as political careers go. On paper — despite her climb from a serene Ward 4 upbringing, to a successful educational and professional life, to an advisory neighborhood commission seat, election and re-election, to the ward’s city council seat, to a successful run for mayor of the city — she is still at something of a getting to know you stage, a work in progress.

That impression may still exist for some District residents, but after a little over a year as D.C.’s mayor, you get the idea she knows exactly who she is and that she belongs where she is.

The confidence that you see and hear during the interview is the same that we’ve seen in her forays all over the city — because it’s an aspect of the job she loves and has grown into with enthusiasm.

If you check out her recent schedule, you get a good sense of her energy and visibility: on Dec. 29 she signs her body-worn camera legislation; on New Year’s Day she hosts the Second annual Fresh Start 5K Run/Walk; Jan. 4 she kicks off her Safer, Stronger DC Tour and pushes the District Council to act immediately; on Jan. 6 she launches a robbery intervention task force after a noticeable rise in robberies in the city; on Jan. 7 she announces the appointment of the Director of the Office of Unified Communications; Jan. 8 she makes a traditional wager with her counterpart in Green Bay, ahead of Sunday’s Redskins-Packers playoff game (Green Bay won, in case you missed it); and also on Jan. 8 she talks about the District’s anti-human trafficking efforts.

It’s a mix of motion, all over the city, a visible effort to show that things are getting done, that she’s responding to public safety needs, to crime and is initiating new policies — that she’s on the move. But it’s also something she clearly enjoys and handles deftly, as we’ve seen from her appearances in Georgetown Citizens and Business Association meetings and elsewhere. But it’s also something she’s grown at ease and comfortable with because she enjoys doing it.

“I do love that,” she told us. “I love community meetings, that’s where the rubber meets the road.”

She has, it’s been generally acknowledged, built a solid administration and team, and made allies out of one-time opponents. Both former Ward 6 Council Member Tommy Wells and prominent district restaurateur Andy Shallal are members of her administration, and Ward 2 councilman Jack Evans, who ran against her for mayor, are now key allies on the council.

“I’m a very hands-on person,” she said. “I have a great team, they’re very responsible for their areas of expertise.”

Her confidence has evolved from her first election to the Ward 4 Council seat, which she won with the strong support of then Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was a mentor to her. On the council, she was initially much less vocal. But she grew into that job also, and felt strong enough to take on incumbent Vincent Gray, who operated under a cloud after a lengthy investigation into his campaign that ran straight through the Democratic Primary. Even after winning the critical Democratic primary that had its share of controversy, and sweeping aside David Catania in the general election, there were still plenty of questions of the kind that surround a new mayor.

Since the U.S. Attorney for D.C. declined to indict Gray, it’s become apparent that Gray, who is seemingly not a big fan of Bowser’s, may run for office again — most likely for his old Ward 7, or possibly an at-large, seat. Asked about the possibility of Gray’s presence on the Council, Bowser said, “We’re all trying to work together here, with the council. I think if anyone is going to come in with an agenda to create gridlock at city hall, they are going to lose.”

She had a big year in many ways, as she tackled ongoing issues in sometimes surprising ways — working on the seemingly intractable issue of homelessness, which is linked to the issue of affordable housing; tackling the city’s undeniably dramatic and hopefully unsustainable homicide total for 2015 (162); and negotiating for a Pepco-Exelon merger after an initial deal was rejected by the Public Utilities Commission.

Energy

That deal, because of the way it happened, had its opponents — including some D.C. Council members — who said she had changed her mind about a deal. “I opposed the initial deal. I would say the deal first on the table was not good for the residents of the District of Columbia,” she said.

But she was emphatic that “I negotiated an excellent deal and that is the deal I support. … It secures the energy future for the city. … We now have a deal with that large company [Exelon] and if this doesn’t go through, I don’t think we’ll be in that position in the future.”

Housing and Homelessness

Washington is obviously a city in a state of flux and change and that’s affected the existing population. “Our focus on affordable housing has been robust — we have a $100 million program,” she said. “And we are definitely focused on ending homelessness — and it connects to affordable housing, to transition to affordable houses throughout the city. We’re closing D.C. General as a homeless shelter, and we have an eight-ward strategy to replace it.”

Development

Change has brought both prosperity and, well, change.

“On the business side, we are more attractive. We have a reserve that is the envy of the nation. Our bond status is good.” But with change, there’s a price. “We lost a chunk of our middle class and lost some diversity in our neighborhoods,” she said.
“I feel strongly that Washington is not just the monumental core … but nothing stays the same. That doesn’t mean you throw out the old for the new.”

She’s upbeat about the bigger changes — in Southwest, where “the biggest project on the East coast is the Wharf … The soccer stadium will deliver in 2016, and we’re connecting a missing link at St. Elizabeth’s in Southeast. We’ve got a jewel there with the Mystics (basketball team) practice court.”

Crime

The homicide rate is troubling the whole city — although the deaths have been mostly in Wards 7 and 8. “There’s no single issue and cause for this. We approach it as a comprehensive package, called ‘Safer, Stronger’. We have to deploy more police, have tougher sentences.”

New mayors always have agendas, exude confidence and enthusiasm at inauguration. “We had a lot of things we wanted to do,” she said. “But look what happened. We didn’t even have time to catch our breaths. It started snowing, and then there was the death and the fire at the Metro Station, and we had to deal with that right away.

“You learn,” she said. “I learned a lesson — that in big cities things are always going to happened. You need to be strong, communicate with the public and get back on your agenda.”

In the wake of the death of a black man in the custody of police in Baltimore and the resulting riots, the mayor doesn’t think something like that could happen here. “We need to do a lot of things, certainly, but our police department has a lot better relationship with the community than what existed in Baltimore,” she said. “The police force has earned a certain amount of calm, knowing we will be forthcoming with information to the public.”

Education

She touts the steady-as-you-go approach to school reform and a need to work closer with, and integrate with, charter schools, which are a hefty part of the public school system.

Progress comes in slow doses, over time, and rarely explodes all at once. The streetcar project, still not ready for prime time, is one example. The fight against homelessness remains a work in progress. Sometimes, it’s the little things that count.

Bowser said she was touched when she met a man who had gotten a job after 20 years of homelessness, who told her, “You don’t have to worry about me anymore.”

Georgetowner • January 12, 2016

Gary Tischler • January 11, 2016

Each year, we count up our losses — the passing of those who in the course or the whole of their lives were notable for their presence, for their achievements, for their personalities, for those moments when fame or something like it knighted or benighted them.

Memory and space are not democracies, of course, unlike the lengthy list that accumulates at Wikipedia every year, which appears to make an effort to circle the globe and search the nooks and crannies of accomplishment in every nation and municipality (which speaks well of the likelihood that even our own preordained passing might well be noticed by someone, somewhere).

So, we too choose to notice any number of people who have touched us, sometimes through specific, personal contact, sometimes for their impressive lives of achievement and contribution, sometimes for a singular kind of thing: a song, a book, a performance, a role in another singular life.

It is like an annual parade passing — full of leaders, writers, elected personages of high standing, singers of songs, poets, band leaders and band members, game players and athletes, more-than-average citizens, owners and inventors, people who encountered fame head on or were struck glancing blows by it.

Their proximity and contributions added to the richness of our own more humble lives. Take writers, for instance. When writers pass, they stop writing: books, essays, stories in the dwindling newspapers and magazines, poems, plays, words shaped to form a novel, a tale, six stanzas or librettos, the words spoken by actors on a stage.

Thusly, there will be no more words from the great, Nobel Prize-winning and complicated German writer Günter Grass, who spent his life writing novels that addressed the impossible 20th-century history of Germany through characters that included a boy who willed himself to stop growing in “The Tin Drum” and Hitler’s dog in “Dog Years.”

There will be no more thick, addictive books from Colleen McCullough, the Australian novelist who produced a melodramatic best seller called “The Thorn Birds,” then proceeded to delve into Roman history in a series of story-telling triumphs that began with the stories of Marius, Sulla and a young Julius Caesar and ended with Caesar and Cleopatra.

There will be no more elliptic, haunting novels by E. L. Doctorow, who chased American history as if it were an elusive heiress through “Ragtime,” “Billy Bathgate” and “The March,” among many books. There will be no more poems from Rod McKuen, who, for a time in the 1960s, was the hugely popular Pied Piper of quasi-lonely young men who, he wrote, “were left with the Saturday night consolation prize, the Sunday paper,” and no more poems from the much more respected and less best-selling Philip Levine.

For that matter, there will be no more true-crime books from Ann Rule, who knew Ted Bundy, and no more thick volumes on the history of Soviet horrors like “The Great Terror” by Robert Conquest. And no more of the elegant medical writings and books of Oliver Sacks, and the less elegant, but totally juicy novels of Jackie Collins, sister of Joan.

Actors from the silver screen and the small screen remain with us forever. There are no small roles in small or big movies or shows, and so we remember the rich face of Al Molinaro who played a guy named Delvecchio in “Happy Times” and Murray the cop in “The Odd Couple.” We remember Jack Larson, who spent part of his life as Jimmy Olsen on the 1950s “Superman” show, and Judy Carne, for being on “Laugh-In” (and being married to Burt Reynolds) and Gary Owens, who told us that “Laugh-In” was coming from “beautiful downtown Burbank,” and Alex Rocco, who got shot in the eye as Moe Greene in the climactic cleanup at the end of “The Godfather.”

We remember the shining old-movie beauty of Joan Leslie as Gary Cooper’s love in “Sergeant York” and the good girl in Bogart’s “High Sierra,” the boyish face of good man Martin Milner in “Route 66” on television and as the book-reading kid who got shot storming the beaches in “Sands of Iwo Jima.” We remember French suave personified in Louis Jordan, courting Leslie Caron in “Gigi,” and Rod Taylor, the hunky, not-quite-big-star in “The Time Machine” and “Young Cassidy.” Then there’s “Our Gang” member Dickie Moore, who gave Shirley Temple her first screen kiss. Trust me, it’s all there, somewhere, on celluloid, in digital, big screen, YouTube, the back of my mind.

Fred Thompson, who was a senator and once ran for president, straddles the line — he was a district attorney on “Law and Order,” where he can be seen any time you want, and appeared in any number of movies.

Leonard Nimoy and Christopher Lee were part of our fascination with space. Nimoy transcended the “Star Trek” series as Mr. Spock, becoming a kind of gentle philosopher. Lee was a villain in the second round of “Star Trek,” which — hold on to your hats — is back again, but touched pop culture over and over as the bad wizard in “Lord of the Rings” and the most memorable Dracula ever (excuse me Lugosi and Langella and all the rest). I did not see “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and so cannot comment how good Gunnar Hansen was as Leatherface.

Fame is funny — it’s almost like a pool table or six or two degrees of separation. Here’s one for you: Three Dog Night (“Joy To The World”) lost co-founder and lead vocalist Cory Wells and keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon, not to mention June Fairchild, an actress who was noticed in the Cheech and Chong get-high movie “Up in Smoke” and suggested the band’s name to her boyfriend, a band member. Her life is an abject lesson in what even a light touch of the spotlight can do to a vulnerable soul.

These annals of pop and rock and blues are full of one-hit wonders, but B.B. King wasn’t one of them; the king of the blues led a musical life that was one big hit. Not quite so big, but totally memorable, were the stylings of Ben E. King, with and without the Drifters: “Up On the Roof” and “Stand By Me.” And there were one-hitters — Billy Joe Royal with “Down in the Boondocks,” Frankie Ford with “Sea Cruise” — and multiple-memorable hitters, like Lesley Gore with “It’s My Party” and Lynn Anderson with “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” and Little Jimmie Dickens, a Grand Old Opry mainstay.

Ernie Banks (“Play Two,” Chicago Cubs), Minnie Miñoso (Chicago White Sox) and eternal Yankee Yogi Berra form many of our baseball memories, where it’s always déjà vu all over again.

Locally, the losses included, most notably and most recently, Austin Kiplinger, a forward-looking gentleman and publisher of the old school who treasured history enough to help in the creation of a museum of Washington history and serve as president of Tudor Place. He defined the idea of leading a full life in the midst of history.

You could find no one more helpful and kinder than Cherie Cannon.

Both Moses Malone, player, and Flip Saunders, coach, are fondly remembered by fans of the Washington Wizards (the Bullets in Malone’s time). And let’s throw in Dean Smith, the classy University of North Carolina basketball coach, for causing so much pain to the Georgetown Hoyas and the Maryland Terrapins.

We left people out. This happens — in life and in death. But imagine, for just a moment, all these people at a lawn party, say at Tudor Place or the Kennedy Center or your backyard. Who would be watching out for Uggie, the dog from “The Actor” and Jack the Bulldog Sr., the Hoya mascot?