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Georgetowner • October 3, 2011

As you pay low prices for your favorite end-of-season pieces and some upcoming season looks at the District Samples Sale, you help Washington Empowered Against Violence.

Sept. 26, M Street will fill up with bargain hunters as DSS arranges its semi-annual charity event. DSS features over 20 top designer clothing and shoe boutiques, according to DistrictSampleSale.com. They also entice Georgetown shoppers with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres from participating restaurants. At this event, designer pieces are sold at liquidation-level prices. Though you can often find good prices at online retailers, “what is unique about the DSS is the experience that we offer. People can actually try on the clothes and interact with the boutique owners…” said DSS co-founder Jayne Sandman in a news release, as quoted in the Georgetown Patch.

DSS is an all-volunteer organization, and 100 percent of its profits go to charity. This fall’s charity event will benefit WEAVE, an organization that works to eliminate partner abuse and gender-based violence through holistic service and empowerment. It offers legal representation, counseling and case management among other services, according to WeaveInCorp.com, which also states that its empowerment model emphasizes the clients’ ownership of their own cases.

WEAVE recently changed its name from “Women Empowered Against Violence” to “Washington Empowered Against Violence” in an effort to eliminate any possible barriers between genders, according to WeaveInCorp.com. Also, there are no income restrictions on clients, making its services available to more people. The organization was founded in 1996 and will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, which makes this the perfect time “for DSS to select us as their charity,” said executive director for WEAVE, Jeni Gamble, to the Georgetown Patch. She furthers explains that this event might benefit between 50 and 200 victims, depending on the turnout they get.

Tickets for the event are available at DistrictSampleSale.com.

Zachariah Weaver • September 26, 2011

Approximately 45 minutes after the convicted cop killer, Troy Davis, was executed, protestors outside the Supreme Court were already speaking out about what’s next to come in their battle against the Death Penalty.

At 11:08 p.m. Wednesday night, Troy Davis was executed for the murder of a Savannah off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail, in 1989.

Protestors stood at the bottom of the steps of the Supreme Court even into the early minutes of Thursday morning, Sept. 22. They had been out front nearly all Wednesday giving their support to Davis’ case, according to Jack Payden-Travers, one of the protestors wearing a blue shirt that read “I am Troy Davis.”

“I think what’s happened tonight and today, in the whole Troy Davis affair, has been years in the making,” Payden-Travers said as he reflected on his time spent there in front of the Supreme Court building. “I think that tonight’s execution may be the end of the death penalty.”

Many protestors have argued that there was simply not enough evidence to be sure Davis was guilty and many of them bring up the fact that seven of the nine witnesses against him had recanted their stories, according to sources in a CNN report.

However, the MacPhail family feels quite opposite about the innocence of Davis.

The Associated Press talked with MacPhail’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, after the execution was complete. She dismissed Davis’ claims of innocence and said that the family feels that justice had finally been served.

Demonstrators outside the prison where Davis was to be executed began hugging, crying, praying and gathering around Davis’ family after the Supreme Court commented on their decision to not free him of the execution, the Associated Press wrote.

Davis claimed that he was innocent during the moments leading up to his execution and also made a statement, according to the Washington Post, that “the incident that happened that night is not my fault.” He left his supporters with the words “continue to fight the fight,” referring to the fight against the Death Penalty the Washington Post also wrote.

For protestors such as Jack Payden-Travers, “The Death Penalty will end,” he said, “it’s just a matter of when.” Payden-Travers hopes that for the people that turned out for Troy, the Death Penalty ended tonight.”

Late on Wednesday evening in front of the Supreme Court, Payden-Travers led the crowd of people in what he described as a custom that is used in Latin America when someone dies. The crowd shouted in the silence, “Troy Davis! Presente! Troy Davis! Presente! Troy Davis! Presente!”
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Georgetowner •

Every Sept. 22 on World Car-Free Day, the world is supposed to be a little bit cleaner. “We don’t have to accept our car-dominated society,” according to WorldCarFree.net, the organizers behind this annual event.

The local organizer, Car Free Day Metro D.C., gives you tips on how to be car free or car-light in the Washington Metropolitan Area, listing several optional recourses like Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on their website CarFreeMetroDC.com.

Organizers in the Washington area say that more than 9,000 people have pledged to participate in World Car-Free Day on Thursday, according to Associated Press, published in The Washington Post. On CarFreeMetroDC.com, everyone, including those who never use a car, can pledge to be car free by submitting a form. By pledging, you get a chance to win prizes like an Apple iPad. Pledging deadline is 5 p.m.

This annual event, which started in 2000, builds on the tradition of ad hoc car free days organized around the world since the 1970s. The World Carfree Network is now a global organization, encouraging and helping local organizations organize car free activities.

Robert Devaney •

It’s never a good thing, especially in our post-9/11 world, to be accused of threatening to “kill all Americans” and “bomb Georgetown.” So continues the weird tale of the alleged killer of Viola Drath, who lived on Q Street.

Albrecht Gero Muth, 47, charged with the second-degree murder of his 91-year-old wife Viola Drath, was ordered to remain in prison by D.C. Superior Court Judge Gerald Fisher during a Sept. 9 hearing. Muth’s next hearing is set for Nov. 18.

There was “ample circumstantial evidence” which connected Muth to Drath’s Aug. 11 death, reported The Washington Post, which also cited the judge’s observation that Muth held “prior animosity toward his wife of 22 years and would benefit financially from her death.” The judge also concluded the the murder suspect was dangerous and likely a flight risk. Muth was arrested Aug. 16 by Metropolitan Police.

Muth protested during the hearing, claiming that he was a officer in the Iraqi Army and that his imprisonment was a violation of the Geneva Convention. The Embassy of Iraq has stated that Muth is in no way associated with any governmental agencies of Iraq.

Then, a new twist was revealed, as reported in the Washington Post: “The new allegations against Muth came from James Wilson, one of the lead homicide detectives investigating the case. Wilson said that Drath spoke with a lawyer about having Muth removed from her will about nine months before her death. She also solicited help from various people to have Muth deported because he repeatedly threatened and abused her and had threatened to ‘kill all Americans,’ Wilson said. In April, Wilson said, Drath told a witness that her husband had planned to ‘bomb Georgetown.'”

During the hearing, Muth’s defense lawyer Dana Page argued that there was no hard evidence against her client. The motives of witnesses were questioned as well as those of neighbors who had heard of domestic abuse and did not call police.

Georgetowner •

Toni Morrison at Hay-Adams Author Series

September 23rd, 2011 at 12:00 PM

$85 includes 3-course lunch, wine, tax and gratuity

rsvp@hayadams.com | Tel: 202-220-4844 | Event Website

Join the Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author for a three-course lunch, talk, and book signing in celebration of her receipt of the Library of Congress’ 2011 National Book Festival Award for Creative Achievement.

The event will co-hosted by Hay-Adams President Kay Enokido and Marie Arana, Writer at Large for The Washington Post and a member of the Scholars’ Council at the Library of Congress.

Morrison’s books BELOVED and A MERCY will be available for purchase.

Address

The Hay-Adams

Sixteenth & H Streets, NW

Washington, DC

New Student Showcase: Almost Me and Outta Here

September 23rd, 2011 at 08:00 PM | $10 regular admission, $5 AU community and seniors |

auarts@american.edu | Tel: 202-885-2787 | Event Website

American University’s Department of Performing Arts showcases the talents of new students.

Follow the lives of incoming freshman students as the face the trials and tribulations of their first year in a higher education institution. Experience the “drama” that happens on and off stage as a group of freshman theatre and music theatre majors not only get acclimated to their new surroundings but prepare for the season’s big musical.

Book by Caleen Sinnette Jennings and Javier Rivera

Featuring music by Rob Rokicki

Lyrics by Rob Rokicki and Michael Ruby

Cara Gabriel and Carl Menninger, co-directors

Kristen Lee Rosenfeld, music director

Address

Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre

4200 Wisconsin Ave. NW

18th Annual Fall Pumpkin Harvest Festival

September 24th, 2011 at 11:00 AM | lisa@tuckerpr.com | Tel: (214) 252-0900 | Event Website

This month-long festival begins Saturday, September 24 and will be open until Monday, October 31. After you pick your pumpkin off the vine, cheer on the swine at the Oinkintucky Derby Pig Races. Check out P-Rex – the pumpkin crunching dinosaur – and take in the panoramic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains as you zip down the 60-foot Saddlehorn slide. Other family-friendly activities include a farm animal barnyard, shopping at the ‘Roosteraunté’, hay mazes, and new giant rope swings. For times and more information visit www.greatcountryfarms.com.

Address

Great Country Farms

18780 Foggy Bottom Road

Bluemont, VA 20135

Andy Warhol: Shadows

September 25th, 2011 at 12:00 PM | Event Website

This fall, the Hirshhorn will present Shadows (1978–79), the monumental painting installation by Andy Warhol (American, b. Pittsburgh, 1928; d. New York, 1987), marking the first time all 102 canvases have been shown at once. Installed edge-to-edge as the artist intended, Shadows will extend nearly 450 linear feet around the outer perimeter of the museum’s curved second-level galleries, offering the public a unique opportunity to view the work in its entirety. Associate curator Evelyn Hankins is coordinating the Hirshhorn’s presentation of Andy Warhol: Shadows, which is organized by Dia Art Foundation. The foundation acquired the work in 1979. Through Jan. 15, 2012.

Address

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Show Up and Count for the Georgetown Ministry Center

September 25th, 2011 at 12:00 PM | $20 to $30 | info@gmcgt.org | Tel: (202) 338-8301 | Event Website

SHOW UP AND COUNT on Sunday, September 25, 2011 at Grace Church from 12:00-3:30 p.m. for Georgetown Ministries Community Mini-walk in conjunction with Fannie Mae’s Help the Homeless. Georgetown Ministries hopes to reach a goal of 350 participants so Fannie Mae will donate more money to help the homeless of Georgetown. To register for this event, go to www.helpthehomelessdc.org or call (202) 338-8301. To learn more about the Help the Homeless Program, please visit www.helpthehomelessdc.org.

Address

1041 Wisconsin Avenue

NW Washington, DC 20007

Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier Speaks

September 26th, 2011 at 07:30 PM | rachel@trentandcompany.com | Tel: 212-966-0124

Join Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier, author author of diet and fitness books Thrive, Thrive Fitness and Thrive Foods, for a discussion about his unique approach to nutrition and exercise, including a lecture on Vega, his own line of plant-based foods.

Address

Georgetown University Law Center, Hart Auditorium

Georgetowner •

The Royal Thai Embassy will be bringing a Thai village to the center of Georgetown on Oct. 1, from noon to 5 p.m. There will be performances and exhibits of Thai regional demonstrations and traditional food and drink for the attendees. Admission is free, while food and drink will be for sale. All are invited to attend.

There will be various performances, such as a Muay Thai demonstration, long drum dance, Thai musical tunes using traditional instruments and a Thai fencing baton dance. These performances will be held on Grace Church’s front lawn, which is across the street from the embassy.

Nipatsorn Kampa, a first secretary at the Thai Embassy, said there are going to be two types of Thai traditional performances available to see. One will be from the more mainstream style, originating in central Thailand, and the other one will represent the northeast region of Thailand.

“One of our purposes of holding this event is for cultural promotion. We want to reach out to the community, and that’s why we are hosting the performances at Grace Church,” said Kampa. “They are our neighbor, and we want to let the community know we are here.”

While Grace Church will be hosting the performances on its front lawn, the embassy will be opening its first floor to present the various dishes. They have gathered the Northern Thai Association, the Thai Isan (north east) Association, Washington, D.C., the Southern Thailand Association, Washington, D.C., and the Thai Ambassador’s Kitchen to provide the food dishes from the four respective regions of Thailand — North, Northeastern, Central and South.

Other activities will be taking place inside the embassy to acknowledge the ongoing relationship between Thailand and the U.S. There will be a drawing exhibit to show how American children look at Thailand, and their completed drawings and paintings will appear on display in the embassy. Chitaphan Barnes, a cultural project assistant working at the embassy, said there are many entries of drawings and paintings, and they have appointed judges to select the best content to display.

“They are still in the process of selecting the drawings, but they will be ready for the event,” Barnes said.

Georgetowner •

Learn how to download free eBooks, audiobooks, music and video when D.C.-area libraries and the National Book Festival host Digital Bookmobile National Tour Event Sept. 20 through 21 and 24 through 25.

According to The Digital Bookmobile’s website, DigitalBookMobile.com, the Bookmobile is a 74-foot, 18-wheel tractor-trailer which tours the country to promote public libraries’ digital download services. The high-tech update of the traditional bookmobile offers an engaging experience with the host library’s digital download service, said a press release from OverDrive, which operates Digital Bookmobile and powers download websites at more that 15,000 libraries worldwide.

If you own an iPhone, an Android, a tablet or any other similar gadget, this is the time for you to explore digital download possibilities. According to the press release, the Digital Bookmobile holds a gadget gallery featuring different devices, which will help visitors discover portable devices that are compatible with the digital download service.

The Digital Bookmobile will visit George Mason University Tuesday, Sept. 20 from 1 to 7 p.m. and the Arlington Public Library on Wednesday, Sept. 21 from 1 to 7 p.m. During the weekend, you will find the Digital Bookmobile at The National Mall visiting the National Book Festival, Saturday, Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 25 from 1 to 5:30 p.m.

These free events will offer interactive demonstrations to readers of all ages, showing how to use the digital download service from your local library. The same press release states that the download service is available 24/7 on the library’s website. From there, you can browse and download digital titles, transfer them between your mobile devices and enjoy. At the end of the lending period, the titles will automatically expire without any late fees. Anyone with a library card can find a digital library by visiting Digital Bookmobiles’ website, DigitalBookMobile.com, and typing in a local zip code.

Georgetowner •

Saturday, Sept. 24, Everard’s Clothing on Wisconsin Avenue will be hosting a trunk show for men and women featuring Romanian-gone-New-York-designer Yoana Baraschi and Italian designer Daniel Dolce. 10 percent of the proceeds from the event will be donated to the USO, a non-profit organization dedicated to “lifting the spirits of America’s troops and their families.”

Everard’s Clothing is an upscale, full boutique, serving both women and men with designers from all over the world. According to his website, Louis Everard has 15 years of experience in the clothing industry and has won numerous industry awards for his work.

Daniel Dolce, according to his website, aims to design timeless and unique pieces that complement the well-dressed gentlemen. His latest campaign features model Shane Duffy, a U.S. military veteran. Duffy was scouted by a model agency in New York and quickly signed to work for Daniel Dolce. At the trunk show, both Dolce and Duffy will make an appearance.

Yoana Baraschi has been in the industry for 20 years working for designers like Betsey Johnson, and for the last nine years she has been designing her own line of women’s wear including dresses and jackets. Baraschi’s New York Fashion Week show featured androgynous Serbian-Australian model Andrej Pejik, famous for his feminine looks. Representatives from Yoana Baraschi will also be at the trunk show to showcase her Fall 2011 and Holiday 2011 collections.

The trunk show will take place on Sept. 24 at Everard’s Clothing on 1802 Wisconsin Ave., NW, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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Gary Tischler •

The children of American politicians — especially those politicians who loom large in the public imagination and history books — are always bathed in a kind of reflective light that lasts longer than perhaps it should and is more intense than it might be for the children of less famous parents.

When those children pass away unexpectedly and too soon, memories are recalled. When we lose two in the space of a weekend, the memories are larger and thicker. The deaths of Kara Kennedy, oldest child of Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Eleanor Mondale, daughter of former vice president and presidential aspirant Walter Mondale, both at the age of 51, come as a shock and invoke memories of their families, historical and political times, and most of all each of the women’s singular spirits.

Kara Kennedy, who had apparently beaten back the threat of lung cancer with tough, draining treatments, reportedly died after working out at a health club. Her brother, Patrick, acting as the family’s spokesman, was quoted as saying “her heart gave out.” She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003.

Kara Kennedy was a filmmaker, a video and television producer, a board member of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, and a director and national trustee of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

She is survived by her brothers Patrick and Edward Kennedy, Jr., her mother Joan Kennedy, her husband Michael Allen and two teenage children, Grace and Max, and the rest of the extended Kennedy family.

There is no escaping that part of her story — she was born in 1960 when her father was campaigning for his brother John F. Kennedy in his heated race against Richard Nixon for the U.S. Presidency, and not too long thereafter her father won a tough Senate race. She was born to a life where politics and history were only a breath away. She and her brother Edward helped run her father’s senate campaign in 1988.

Her battle with illness and her deep interest in Very Special Arts, which was founded by her aunt Jean Kennedy Smith, speak to the Kennedy name and its triumphs, tragedies and compassionate efforts.

Ted Kennedy, who had a failed presidential run but was deemed the “Lion of the Senate,” was the last of the four great brothers – Joe, John, and Robert. Joe was killed in World War II, and John and Robert were assassinated while Ted died of a brain tumor. Kara Kennedy accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her father in 2009, shortly before he passed away.

Those facts don’t begin to tell the Kennedy saga: They’re like its sharpened, jagged outline. It seems every time we lose a Kennedy, we mourn them all again and reflect on their achievements and lives as individuals and as part of the family.

Eleanor Mondale was in her twenties, vivid and as sparkling as a glass of champagne when her father, a huge political figure in Minnesota and former vice president under Jimmy Carter, decided to challenge Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Mondale won the nomination and made Geraldine Ferraro his running mate, the first time a woman had been so picked. The choice was a ground breaking event, and enlivened what sometimes seemed like a doomed result, which was a crushing defeat for Mondale.

Eleanor Mondale, blonde, smart, charming and lively, gamely campaigned for her father and in the aftermath carved out her own career in the media as a radio show host and entertainment writer. She also did some acting including small parts in “Dynasty” and “Three’s Company” as well as being a constant focus for paparazzi. She was one of those people who seemed to attract the light without trying too hard — she was witty and photogenic, and more than one media type had dubbed her a “wild child.”

That may have had something to do with her personal life. She was married three times and tended to be attracted to athletes and rock stars, marrying Chicago Bears lineman Keith Van Horne, DJ Greg Thunder and Chan Poling of the rock group The Suburbs. She and Poling, whom she married in 2005, lived on a farm in Prior Lake, Minn.

Eleanor Mondale was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in 2005.

Gary Tischler • September 22, 2011

There are at least three good reasons to see the Washington National Opera Company’s production of “Tosca” at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House.

They are Patricia Racette, Alan Held and Frank Paretta, the principals in this hugely popular and classically melodramatic opera. The fourth is Giacamo Puccini once again displaying all the reasons why he’s up there with Wagner, Verdi and even Mozart as composers of enduring operas.

“Tosca”— one of Pucinni’s three great operas that includes “La Boeheme” and “Madame Butterfly”—is probably the least familiar among his works, maybe because of its less comfortable setting (Rome in the time of the Naoleonic forays into Italy in the early 19th century) and because it isn’t stuffed with long arias or overly crowded with secondary characters. It’s Tosca, her boyfriend and her nemesis, and the rest are window dressings with lesser functions.
But Tosca, an almost feverishly passionate and direct woman, volatile as a volcano, is the main show.

She is an artist, a renowned singer (from whence we get the word diva, apparently), who’s in love with another artist, the appealing painter Cavaradossi, who sings like an angel on top of everything else. But then there’s Count Scarpia (a villain by any other name, but especially this one), the chief of the secret police, relentless, cruel, completely amoral, who’ll torture and kill anyone who gets in the way of what he wants. In this case, he wants Tosca and he’s got Cavaradossi, who’s hiding a rebel in his estate.

Scarpia puts Tosca in an impossible situation—he promises to let Cavaradossi go—staging a “fake” execution” if she succumbs to his advances, although he’s already come closing to raping her. But Scarpia has underestimated his prey even as she’s appearing to agree to the devil’s bargain.

And so it goes—love, murder, passion, betrayal and it all ends very badly, about as badly for all concerned as you get. “Tosca” puts the T into operatic tragedy to say the least. But this is what we want in tragedy—the fun and the kind of feeling and music can you get out of a happily-ever-after. Imagine if Romeo and Juliet had lived and gotten married. Not so much.

Puccini is every the innovator here: the arias—including the famous duet in the last act—are nothing less that focused, concise and powerful, not leaving room for anything less than powerful emotions. “Tosca,” like the upcoming “Lucia di Lammermoor,” is of course in the grand tradition of high dudgeon melodrama, full of improbabilities not the least of which was someone charging on stage announcing that “we’ve lost the battle.” “What battle?” you might ask, but never mind. A little thing like that never stopped lust, lost love and mayhem.

And Racette—who’s known far and wide for her “Tosca”—justifies the acclaim with her beautiful soprano voice, singing strongly and clearly, with very little, if any, showboating and a consistent acting performance that makes Tosca a full-bodied, full-blooded character.

Held, a bass—baritone who’s building a solid resume with Wagnerian performances, makes an imposing Scarpia, a man with giant appetites and a fierce, dangerous quality. He’s bigger than life and casts a huge presence. He’s answerable to no one, and you get a good idea of that when he sings of his plans and desires for Tosca wile a “Te Deum” can be heard in the background.

Tenor Frank Paretta, mainly through his gorgeous singing and his chin-out stances of bravery makes Cavaradocci a heroic, romantic figure.

You can also get a glimpse of opera legend Placido Domingo, no longer the man in charge at the WNO, but conducting for this production.

“Tosca” is the first WNO production in its new affiliation with the Kennedy Center and it’s a popular choice and a focused execution that delivers the considerable virtues of the work, it roars with melodrama, and affecting singing and performances.