Latest News

Georgetowner • February 13, 2012

Shakespeare’s Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500- 1700

FEBRUARY 3RD, 2012 AT 10:00 AM | FREE | BEMELSON@FOLGER.EDU | TEL: (202) 675- 0342 | EVENT WEBSITE

Virginia Woolf famously evoked “Shakespeare’s sister” in A Room of One’s Own as she tried to imagine the difficulties women writers faced during the early modern period. In fact, Woolf was not aware of how many women actually were writing during that time, because many of their works were never published, and those that were, lay in relative critical neglect. This exhibition explores those women who were, in fact, writing during Shakespeare’s time.

February 3- May 20

Address

201 East Capitol Street SE

Washington, DC

20003

LOVE Show Reception

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2012 AT 06:00 PM

Celebrate that ultimate feeling between two people with the LOVE Show (poems, paintings and music)

Address

Mark Cottman Gallery

1014 S. Charles St

Baltimore, MD 21230

Fashion Takes Flight

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2012 AT 07:00 PM | $85 | EVENT WEBSITE

A ticket to this event includes cocktails, gourmet hors d’oeuvres, access to a fashion show with models and military service men and women sporting the District’s freshest new talent, a silent auction and an invitiation to the exclusive after-party at Lincoln. Come together to support an organization, Luke’s Wings, that aims to assist the families of those who serve.

Address

Washington Nationals Park

1500 South Capitol Street SE

Smithsonian at Little Washington

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2012 AT 08:00 PM | 10$-25$

Pièces de clavecin en concerts by Jean-Philippe Rameau, played by the Smithsonian Chamber Players. Rameau, the great French composer of the Baroque era, composed this music in 1741. This concert gives Theatre audiences the opportunity to hear some of the same concerts which are performed at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Address

The Theatre

291 Gay Street

Washington

VA 22747

Women On Stage: A Conversation about Susanna Centlivre

FEBRUARY 5TH, 2012 AT 02:00 PM | FREE | RESERVATIONS@NMWA.ORG | TEL: (202) 783- 5000

In conjunction with Folger Theatre’s production of Susanna Centlivre’s The Gaming Table, director Eleanor Holdridge, head of the MFA Directing program at Catholic University of America and Georgianna Ziegler, the Folger’s Head of Reference, discuss the 18th- century playwright’s theatrical legacy.

Address

National Museum of Women in the Arts

1250 New York Avenue NW

Washington DC

Robert Devaney •

The dead, stuffed Potomac Phil predicted six more weeks of winter and nine more months of gridlock in Congress, reports Patrick Ryan of SnarkInfested.com. The rodent-meteorologist event was held at Dupont Circle, Feb. 2. Potomac Phil’s message was made about an hour after the famous Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania saw his own shadow and foresaw six more weeks of winter.

This first-ever D.C. gathering for a groundhog earned a resolution from the D.C. Council and announced the even easier prediction of gridlock in Congress. Local Council member Jack Evans joined event coordinator Aaron DeNu and others, as they leaned over the stuffed groundhog. There were groundhog-shaped cookies for the group, and a rabbi offered a prayer about light.
[gallery ids="100483,117144,117138" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced motorists will encounter single lane conditions and traffic stoppages along segments of Canal Road between Foxhall Road and Arizona Avenue in northwest Washington starting this Friday.

Flagger-controlled alternating lane closures and five-minute traffic stoppages will be in effect between 10:30 am and 2 pm on Friday, February 4 and between 7 am and 7 pm on Saturday, February 5, weather permitting, to allow crews to resurface the roadway.

Motorists are advised to use an alternate route or add extra time for travel to avoid delays.

Temporary signs and traffic control measures will be in place to alert and guide the traveling public through this area.

For additional traffic advisories please visit DDOT’s Traffic Alerts page or visit GODCGO.com for more information on transportation options in the District

Gary Tischler •

During the course of our telephone conversation with Christopher Siebert, who has the flamboyant, star turn of Albin in the touring company of “La Cage Aux Folles,” winding up its Kennedy Center run at the Eisenhower Theater Feb. 12, we told him that he seemed to embody the essence of a Broadway pro.

Specifically, we said, “You’re a Broadway baby.” That means Siebert is never far from a rehearsal, a road trip, an audition, a star turn, a song in his heart in a musical, a night on the stage.

“Yup,” he said. “I believe that’s true.”

Of course, there’s a lot more to Siebert than show biz per se, in the sense that the business, a world which he inhabits as a genuine star, is never far from intersecting with real life, especially with “La Cage Aux Folles,” which first exploded on the Broadway scene in the 1980s. With music by Jerry Herman and a book by Harvey Fierstein, who also starred as Albin, it became an instant classic, spawning revivals and even a hit, non-musical film, “The Bird Cage” with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

Siebert was a teen in Minnesota when “La Cage” erupted on the scene. Nevertheless, he is keenly aware of its status and history in Broadway lore and feels closely connected to it on several level.

“That show meant a lot then, and it means a lot more now, in a different way,” he said. “Plus, Harvey has been a great friend of mine. So, there’s almost no way of avoiding it anyway.”

Siebert isn’t just alive in the lights of the Great White Way or on the road. He’s something of a pop culture icon with some of his Broadway roles as well as having starred in the television series, “Two of a Kind,” with The Olsen twins, and you don’t get anymore pop culture than that.

But on Broadway he made his real mark, initially playing in shows full of characters already embedded firmly in the buzz-and-cool minds of several generations of youth culture. He was Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast,” Rapunzel’s prince as well as the wolf in “Into the Woods” and Sir Dennis Galahad in “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

But Siebert really hit the jackpot when he got the role of Lord Farquaad in “Shrek, the Musical,” for which he was nominated for a Tony Award, an Outer Critics Award Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award and a Drama League Award.

He was playing the stylishly sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn in “Chicago,” when he got word that there was an opportunity to play Georges the other and much, much less flamboyant member of the couple in a road company of the successful revival of “La Cage.” And who was playing Albin? None other than the frog-voiced Fierstein who had originated the role and written the book for “La Cage.”

“Well, Harvey’s my friend, so in a way, playing Georges to his Albin let me see how the pair functioned as a couple, so it really gave me a heads-up on the role. There’s nobody like Harvey. He’s a true original,” Siebert said. “I don’t think anybody can make their voice go that low. So, I don’t try that much.”

Eventually, George Hamilton, the suavest movie star ever outside of Cary Grant, took over the role of Georges, and Siebert became Albin and his oft-altered ego Za Za. The crowds have come, and they have roared.

“Georges is, I think, fantastic, he gives a presence in the role you don’t often find, and he acts it in a subtle way that makes you understand the relationship between the two men,” Siebert said.

Still, it’s different now.

Watching the show, you can see that how much has happened historically. “You’ve got to remember back in those days, it was primarily about the glamour, the glitter, and gay men who had not come out would come see the show with women dates. We’ve come a long way. I think the show now is more about character, the relationship, the love story. It is about a married couple for all intents and purpose, to the point where Albin has to pretend to be a mother, wig and dresses and all.”

The plot’s emotional underpinnings, as well as those holding the costumes together, resonate differently in the age of the battle over gay marriage.

Siebert himself married his long-time partner Kevin Burrows, an actor and a chef, last Thanksgiving.

We asked him if Burrows cooks at home. “Never,” Siebert quipped. “Except at Thanksgiving. That’s his high holidays.”

Marit Fosso •

Do you need a perfect beginning to your St. Valentine’s Day celebration? Treat your better half to a romantic breakfast in bed! Pancakes are, of course, a safe bet for any special breakfast, and a portion of chocolate pear pancakes are sure to satisfy any chocolate lover.

Chocolate Pear Pancakes

Cook & Prep time: 35mins

Makes 6 x 20cm/8-inch pancakes (Serves 2)

Ingredients

For the batter

50g/2oz Plain Flour

½ – 1 tablespoon Pure Cocoa Powder

1 Egg

150ml/5fl.oz. Milk

For the pears

2 Pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/ ½ – inch pieces

About 4 tbsp Sugar

1 x 2.5cm/1-inch Cinnamon Stick

Cold water

For the Chocolate Sauce

50g/2oz good-quality dark Chocolate, broken into small pieces

25g/1oz Butter

3 tbsp Honey

Vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Place the flour and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl or large jug, mix well then add the egg and milk and mix until well blended and smooth using a balloon whisk or handheld electric. Set it aside whilst you prepare the pears.

2. Place the chopped pears in a small saucepan together with the cinnamon and sugar and enough cold water to come halfway up the fruit. Place over a medium heat and bring to simmering point, mixing well and continue to cook for about 5 minutes or until soft.

3. Meanwhile, put the chocolate, butter and honey in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water and leave until the chocolate starts to melt. Mix well until you have a smooth sauce. Remove the pan from the heat, cover the bowl with a lid or clingfilm but leave it in the pan and set aside.

4. Once the pears are tender, turn the heat off, drain any excess liquid, remove the cinnamon stick then crush the pears with a fork. Cover with a lid and set aside whilst you cook the pancakes.

5. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a small frying pan until very hot, swirling it around to coat the base of the pan. Pour off most of the oil then add one sixth of the batter to the hot pan, tilting the pan so the batter covers the base evenly. Cook for about 1 minute until just set then loosen the edges using a palette knife or fish slice, turn the pancake over and cook for a further 30 seconds or so until lightly browned. Repeat with the remaining batter, keeping the cooked pancakes warm under the grill or in a low oven.

To Serve fold each pancake into quarters, place three on a plate, place the pear mixture over the pancakes then drizzle with the chocolate sauce.

Maybe your soulmate is not into a major sugar kick early in the morning. Instead, treat her or him to a cup of delicious coffee with cute cookies on the side.

“I love you” Cookies

0.5 lb soft butter

0.5 lb powdered sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

4 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 lb. flour

0.1 lb vanilla pudding powder

Preheat the oven to 356F. Run the butter and sugar in a mixer, mix until it is fluffy. Add both eggs, and the sour cream, mix this for two minutes. Stir together baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour and vanilla pudding powder in another bowl. Add the vanilla extract to the butter mix. Mix everything until the dough is ready. Leave the dough in the fridge for at least an hour. Roll out the dough, use extra flour if it’s too sticky. Use heartshaped “Message in a cookie” cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma.

Bake for about ten minutes in the oven. Let the cookies cool before you decorate them. (Recipe from www.passion4baking.com)

Georgetowner •

Appalachian Spring Gift Wrap for Charity

February 10th, 2012 at 10:00 AM | info@appalachianspring.com | Tel: 202-337-5780 | Event Website

Appalachian Spring in Georgetown will be offering gift wrap of your Appalachian Spring Valentine’s Day purchases with a donation to Bread for the City from February 10-14. During store hours.

Bread for the City offers low-income residents of Washington, DC: food and clothing, primary medical care, legal advice and representation, and comprehensive social services.

Address

Appalachian Spring

1415 Wisconsin Ave

Washington, DC 20007

Spy at Night

February 10th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | 14.95-27.95 | vsmanagers@spymuseum.org | Tel: 202.393.7798 | Event Website

Next month, D.C.’s most mysterious museum debuts its revamped Spy at Night experience, providing area residents exclusive, after-hours access to its permanent collection and an evening full of intrigue, deception and cocktails. The first in the re-launched series is a James Bond-themed occasion on Friday, February 10, with future events occurring the second Friday of every month.

Address

International Spy Museum

800 F Street, NW

Washington, D.C.

Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station

Film Screening: HAPPY

February 11th, 2012 at 11:00 AM | $6.00

The film HAPPY is the latest from Academy Award-nominated director, Roko Belic, and is launching discussion about the state of our nation’s ‘happiness’ level in comparison with other countries, including Japan, Bhutan and Denmark. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the Arizona International Film Festival, the Best Feature Film Award at the Costa Rica International Film Festival, and numerous other similar awards.

Address

AMC Loews Georgetown 14

3111 K Street N.W.

Washington, DC 20007

One City Summit

February 11th, 2012 at 09:30 AM | Event Website

Join Mayor Gray at the One City Summit, “Let Your Voice Be Heard” to help the District become a more livable, vibrant and inclusive city for everyone.

Address

Washington Convention Center

801 Mount Vernon Place, NW

Washington, DC 20001

Woo at the Zoo

February 14th, 2012 at 04:30 PM | $11-$22 | Event Website

Woo at the Zoo, a fun-filled event for both singles, and couples, where they can learn about animal mating, dating and reproductive habits in a humorous way.

Address

Smithsonian National Zoo

Alan Caruba •

Back in the 1980s, I have worked professionally with elements of the pest control industry providing public relations services The process of educating the public is necessary because new generations must be informed of the threats pests pose to health and property.

Back when it was still known as the National Pest Control Association, I even received a beautiful certificate of appreciation that hangs in my office. At some point several years ago, it and state organizations changed their name to “Pest Management” presumably to divest themselves of the image of actually killing the creatures that annually spread disease and do millions in property damage.

In past years, environmental organizations devoted a lot of time and money to convince the public that the real problem was the pest controllers, not the pests. If they all changed their profession next Monday, the entire nation would be totally over-run with roaches, termites, rats and mice in a month. The work is not glamorous, but it is utterly essential to society.

A case in point is bed bugs that have emerged in a few short years into a full-fledged pest problem from coast to coast. Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency, the lack of pesticides registered to exterminate them has facilitated this new plague. There is, I believe, only one.

I have watched as the EPA has, since its founding, insanely strip pest control professionals and consumers of access to pesticides that formerly had protected their parents and grandparents, as well as their homes and businesses.

When you take away the pesticides, all you have left are the pests.

The modern pest control industry had its beginnings in the Middle Ages with the emergence of “rat catchers,” men who had developed a variety of poisons to rid homes and other properties of the ubiquitous rodent. Even the kings and queens of England had a royal rat catcher.

They were such a part of life in those times that the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin has been passed down to us. It was, of course, the combination of rats and fleas that spread the Black Plague in the Middle Ages, killing a third or more of the population of Europe.

So why, one must ask, have the burghers of Washington, D.C., responsible for passing the laws, passed the truly insane one titled the “Wildlife Protection Act” that requires pest control operators not only to capture rats in a fashion that does not harm them in any way but to transport them 25 miles away to be set free?

As Don Boys noted in a recent Canada Free Press article, “Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, said D.C.’s new rat law is ‘crazier than fiction’ because it requires vermin not be killed but rather captured, preferably in ‘families,’ and transferred to a ‘wildlife rehabilitator’ ” — presumably living in Virginia.

Here are a few facts about rats:

— Rats have a life span of approximately nine months.

— Rats are ready to breed within three months. Their gestation period is 22 days, and they have an average litter of eight. An average female rat will provide 20 offspring.

— A single pair of rats has the potential, mathematically, of producing 359 million descendents in three year’s time.

— The average overall length of a rat is 16 inches, with a body measuring 9 inches and a tail of 7 inches. The average weight of a rat is 1-1/4 pounds. Their color can range from reddish brown to black.

— A rat’s sense of smell is excellent, as is its sense of taste. They are particularly suspicious of food. This results often in “bait shyness.” Rats will leave a poisoned bait untouched for almost a week. Other members of the pack will avoid food not eaten by other members and often warn other rats away by sprinkling it with their urine or feces.

— Rats can gain access to virtually any structure. They can climb 15 feet up a rough, surfaced vertical wall. They can jump vertically one foot from a flat surface and they can easily traverse telephone wires and ropes. They are, in addition, good swimmers.

Virginia and other states near Washington, D.C., do not want the District’s rats. They have plenty of their own. They also have a complete host of other rodents and wildlife that require the ministrations of pest control professionals.

There are a host of very good reasons why every American city and town has extensive laws regarding the control of insect and rodent pests, as well as wildlife that includes raccoons, opossum, squirrels, turkeys, coyotes, deer and bears.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that rats must be killed to protect people and property, but not the members of the District Council who were more intent on protecting the rats than their constituents.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

A past contributor to these pages, Alan Caruba also posts daily commentaries at “Warning Signs” .

Michelle Kingston • February 8, 2012

Did you have any trouble accessing your favorite sites last Wednesday? Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, Wordpress.org, TwitPic, Good Old Games and a couple of handfuls more shut down on Jan. 18 to participate in the largest online protest in history.

You were unable to Google these guys as they blacked out to demonstrate what the future could hold for the internet world if SOPA and PIPA were to be passed.

No, we are not talking about the Middleton sisters, but in fact, two bills that could potentially change the way we surf the net. The Stop Online Piracy Act and its sister, the Protect IP [Intellectual Property] Act, are designed to secure the problem with foreign-based sites selling pirated movies, music and more.

Many have argued that the bills undermine free speech and make it possible for the government to take down any site that includes links to pirated content. They also give the Justice Department more authority to stop U.S. companies from providing funding to the foreign sites. It would also block access by making it impossible to type in web addresses to these sites or by requiring Google and other search engines to disable links to the pirated pages.

The way the House bill is written is so broad that SOPA and PIPA opponents fear that some of the most visited online sites, such as Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter that rely heavily on content uploaded by users which can then be pirated, could be targeted.

Thanks to our favorite pages turning their lights out, the public was alerted of the seriousness of the bill, showed us all how our lives could potentially be affected, and the bills were tossed to the trash — for now, anyway.

On Jan. 20, Congress shelved the bill. SOPA and PIPA were supposed to be debated and voted on, but after the protest, the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, released a statement explaining that they would be postponed. Pheeew.

Michelle Kingston •

Despite the Controlled Substances Act that makes cultivating, selling and distributing marijuana illegal, the nation’s capital will be welcoming weGrow, a full service hydroponic superstore, in March.
This place is a one-stop shop for everything necessary to start a garden. Commonly referred to as the “Wal-Mart of Weed,” weGrow has the largest showroom of hydroponic equipment sure to help medical marijuana cultivators and indoor harvesters but does not sell actual plants in stores.
“This is a great step forward for medical marijuana patients in Washington, D.C., and nearby states,” Wong said. “WeGrow will be here to work with medical marijuana growers to ensure the safest indoor growing practices are being followed to produce the best quality medicine for patients.”

Under a new D.C. law, doctors in the area can write medical marijuana prescriptions for patients with chronic ailments like cancer and HIV/AIDS. The law also lists 10 sites that will soon be authorized to grow the plant and five distribution centers where the medical marijuana can be picked up by patients.
The weGrow store is set to open its 2,500-square-foot store at 1522 Rhode Island Ave., N.E., near the only Home Depot in D.C. and just a few blocks from the Rhode Island Avenue Metro stop.