Aurora’s Dark Night: No Dawn for 12
• July 27, 2012

After all the shock, the videos of people running in panic, some of them with blood-spattered shirts out of a midnight screening of the Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” after all the loss and grief and tears and interviews and the pictures of the victims, after “Deadly rampage at Colorado theater: 12 moviegoers are killed, 58 others wounded in Aurora,” after the guns and the vigils, after all that:

There he was in court today, July 23, flanked by what was presumably a public defender, bright right bird-nest of hair, looking a little bewildered or solemn, take your pick, in a jailhouse jump suit.

James Holmes, 24. Alleged—because that will be the most used adjective describing him officially—killer, murderer, mass murder of 12 persons, mostly young people, the youngest Veronica Moser-Sullivan, age six.

Until then, Holmes, a post-graduate student and San Diego native, was apprehended by police in this Denver suburb outside in a mall parking lot after the shooting rampage, dressed up like a member of a SWAT team and heavily armed. He has been held in solitary confinement and lockup ever since in Centennial, Colorado.

He has said next to nothing since his arrest, and he said nothing in court. Reporters have pieced together his story, which seems like some blank, minimalist abstraction, a loner life with a normal childhood. Police found his apartment to be a booby-trapped arsenal of explosives. He was a member of a 35-student Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus.

According to reports, the local district attorney is considering the death penalty charge. The hearing for Holmes was held in the same complex that includes the facilities for his lockup and detention, at the Arapahoe County Justice Center.

An unidentified source has said that a Batman mask was found in his apartment.

An emotionally charged vigil, at which several thousand people gathered, was held Sunday night. President Barack Obama visited with families of the victims at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, where ten victims still remained, seven of them injured critically.

Court Ruling on Obamacare Gets Personal for This Father
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“Don’t worry, Dad. I’m OK,” my son slurred into my phone.

I was at lunch with a friend. It was THE call every parent fears.

“What’s wrong, Ari? Where are you?”

“I can’t talk,” he mumbled. “Here’s Mom. Your bike’s OK.”

“My bike?”

“Ari was hit by a car while riding his bike to work about two hours ago,” Fiona said. “We’re in the trauma unit at George Washington Hospital.”

“Huh?” I stammered.

“His helmet saved his life. There’s a spot on his brain. He’ll have another MRI in six hours. The doctors think it’s just a bruise and not brain damage. His upper jaw is crushed, and he lost all his front teeth. He’s got years of dental problems. But he’s alive.”

Ari was a hit and run victim on a street with a marked bike lane. He dragged himself onto grass, found his cell, called 911, and memorized the car’s tag as it drove away. A nearby taxi did the same.

A spot on his brain, a crushed jaw, four to six front teeth gone? I was numb.

I excused myself from lunch and headed to Washington.

For the next 375 miles, my mind was a jumble of thoughts. My son? What if the spot on his brain doesn’t go away? What if he’s brain damaged? Will he have headaches forever? What do you fix a crushed palate? Can he chew? How are teeth attached to a crushed palate? What else is broken? What’s he going to look like? What will he look like when it’s over? How much pain is he in? How is he going to eat? How long will he be in the hospital? Have the police been notified? Have they found the driver?

By the time I arrived, the second MRI showed no spot. No brain damage. He’s alive. All else was irrelevant. Either of those would have changed his life, and mine, irreparably worse forever.

Ari was released that night. Immediate attention by the trauma dentist was recommended. The next day, with incredible skill and an array of unimaginable technology, Dr. Singer reconstructed a temporary palate with bone tissue from a cow and six temporary teeth within two hours. It’s not as pretty as thousands of dollars of orthodontia, but it’s better than no front teeth.

The dental bill that day: $15,000. Cash. Money Ari didn’t have. (My bank floated me an immediate loan.) The estimated cost to finish his oral reconstruction: another $30,000 to $80,000.

I’ve not seen the bill for the ambulance, 14 hours in the trauma unit at George Washington University Hospital, two MRIs, several ER docs, X-rays, readings and exams by a radiologist, neurologist, orthopedist, and trauma dentist, and a gaggle of IVs, wires, and tubes.

Certainly, not cheap. Call his mom and me poor health care consumers, but it never occurred to us to enter “the market” to shop for the right—best or cheapest or most convenient or other market factor—hospital, ambulance, trauma unit, specialty doctors and so on.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court was preparing to issue its opinion on Obamacare. Ari will be 26 in a few months. Suddenly, Obamacare became very personal.

If the Court threw out Obamacare, would it be retroactive? Would Ari, who is on his mother’s health care plan, suddenly have no insurance?

Would Ari suddenly be saddled with more than a hundred thousand dollars of medical bills?
Is this now a pre-existing condition? When he turns 26 in a few months, would he be able to get health insurance? At what cost?

Will his insurance company be allowed to cancel his insurance? Will his insurance have a maximum coverage limit?

Ironically, opponents of Obamacare support those key provisions. A number of Congressmen who voted against and openly oppose Obamacare use it to cover their children between ages 21 and 26.

Obamacare was the brainchild of conservative Republicans who opposed President Clinton’s health care plan. Insurance companies bought in. Governor Romney proposed and adopted it in Massachusetts. President Obama decided that the only way to reform health care for the nation was to follow the Republican approach. Most parents embrace their children, but because Republicans oppose Obama, they now oppose the health care solution they conceived.

If the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, my son was OK. If it didn’t, he wasn’t.

Thank you, John Roberts. My son is covered. I have peace of mind.

No parent wants their child to be in my son’s situation without Obamacare. ?

NPS Looks at Boathouse Possibilities Across the Potomac for Arlington
• July 25, 2012

As with the northern banks of the Potomac, Arlington County could also be getting a boathouse in the years ahead—not a new idea—on the southern banks of the Potomac. Here’s a missive from the National Park Service’s Jon James, acting superintendent of George Washington Memorial Parkway:

“I am now pleased to announce the re-initiation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Arlington County and Vicinity Non-Motorized Boathouse Facility. The goal of the EIS is to study the sites identified in the 2002 feasibility study and determine a preferred alternative that is consistent with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidelines, and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) as well as NPS policies and mandates.

“This analysis was initiated specifically at the request of Congress to assess potential siting, or location, of a boathouse facility for non-motorized boats within Arlington County along the Potomac River on parkland administered by George Washington Memorial Parkway. The study examined building a facility, which included indoor storage space and floating docks at four possible locations—two on the waterfront near Key Bridge, one south of the CSX/14th Street Potomac River Bridges, and one on Daingerfield Island, south of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

“At this time, I invite your participation in the EIS effort. The scoping period will end on August 31. A public open house will be held on July 24. The purpose of this meeting is to provide you with an opportunity to contribute ideas and concerns about the proposed boathouse for non-motorized boats. At the open house, NPS staff will be on hand to answer questions and solicit written comments from all interested parties. Interested parties may also submit written comments online… When the draft EIS for Arlington County and Vicinity Non-Motorized Boathouse Facility is produced, you will be invited to review and comment on it.”

Georgetown University Expands to Downtown
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In step with its agreement with the neighborhood to lessen main campus expansion, Georgetown University announced July 19 that its School of Continuing Studies “will relocate to the heart of downtown Washington, D.C. Georgetown signed a lease agreement with Brookfield Office Properties for a new space to house SCS at 650 Massachusetts Ave. NW, at the intersection of 7th Street near the Gallery Place/Chinatown neighborhood. Located just eight blocks from the university’s Law Center campus, the move expands the university’s ‘Georgetown Downtown’ presence. It reflects Georgetown’s commitment to aligning itself with the growth and development goals of the city.”

The announcement came just days after the D.C. Zoning Commission approved the university’s campus plan, thus ending years of tense, sometimes hostile, debate over town-gown issues.

The university says, “1,100 students will take classes and study at the new campus. . . . There will be four levels of leased space that cover 91,000 square feet, allowing for future program growth. The school welcomes conversations with local community leaders about new ways to engage and collaborate at the new campus.”

Across from Mount Vernon Square, the continuing education school is one block from the Washington Convention Center at 7th Street and Massachusetts Avenue, and near Chinatown’s restaurants and shops and three blocks from the Verizon Center, home to the Georgetown men’s basketball team. Currently, the school holds its classes at the university’s main campus at 37th and O Streets, NW, as well as in Arlington, Va.

“This expansion of Georgetown Downtown is a defining moment for the university,” said John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. “Just as the construction of our Law Center did 30 years ago, this new home provides us with an opportunity to extend the impact of the university into new parts of the city and to broaden the reach of our work.”

According to the university, the school “offers graduate degrees in human resources management, journalism, liberal studies, public relations and corporate communications, real estate, sports industry management and technology management, as well as over 25 professional certificates, summer school and special programs. It also includes the university’s only part-time bachelor’s program. The school intends to launch several new master’s programs in the coming years. In fall 2013, for example, it will launch two of those programs – urban and regional planning as well as emergency and disaster management.”

GOVERNOR AND FIRST LADY O’MALLEY HOST FIFTH ANNUAL BUY LOCAL COOKOUT
• July 24, 2012

Governor Martin O’Malley and First Lady Katie O’Malley today hosted the fifth annual Buy Local Cookout at Government House and officially kicked-off Maryland’s Buy Local Challenge Week, which encourages Marylanders to incorporate at least one locally grown, produced or harvested product into their meals each day. Governor O’Malley designated July 21-29 as “Buy Local Challenge Week” to raise awareness about the benefits of local farms and food.

The Maryland’s Best Program which is run by the Maryland Department of Agriculture, Office of Marketing is in it’s 11th year promoting Maryland Agricultural Products. The goal of the program is to encourage consumers to buy locally produced/grown products in the Maryland and DC areas through advertising and marketing promotions. We also work closely with grocery retailers, restaurants, and institutional buyers to help them source locally and show them the benefits of carrying locally grown and produced food. In 2012, 78% of Marylanders said they would prefer to purchase and consume fruits and vegetables identified as having been grown in Maryland (Conducted by the University of Baltimore’s Schaefer Center). Our goal is to continue to increase consumer preference towards local and help to identify local products so that they may be easily sought after. We also look to continue and increase our partnership with restaurant and retailer buyers, so that they are aware of the great local options in Maryland when sourcing ingredients and food. This was our primary purpose for helping to sponsor this years Chefs Go Fresh tour. Another event which we put on to help restaurants and grocery retail buyers connect with local producers is our Buyer-Grower Event which is held every January in Annapolis. In addition we continue to build upon our web site, www.marylandsbest.net where consumers are able to search for locally produced agriculture products.

Georgetown Business Association Thais One On
• July 23, 2012

After the thunderstorm passed, the Georgetown Business Association met for “a taste of Thailand and an evening of networking” at Mai Thai of Georgetown July 18. As part of its summer series of get-togethers, the group enjoyed chicken satay, seafood lemon grass salad and spring rolls along cocktails, such as Thai Tiger and, of course, Mai Thais. Georgetown Spice & Tea Exchange provided specialty teas and Thai-inspired gifts. Rokas Beresniovas, president of the Georgetown Business Association, greeted members and guests around the room. The Mai Thai staff kept the sweet drinks coming and the buffet table full. GBA secretary Janine Schoonover said, “The excitement is back.” Schoonover praised the GBA’s new event organizer Adra Williams and her partner Joseph Otim, adding, “We’re solid and moving forward.” [gallery ids="100909,128509,128472,128502,128496,128481,128489" nav="thumbs"]

Weekend Roundup July 19, 2012
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Sounds of Hope Concert for Haiti

July 20th, 2012 at 06:30 PM | By donation | MAWestley@gmail.com | Tel: 347 886 0105 | Event Website

Sounds of Hope Concert for Haiti. By donation. Come blow off work week steam. The loss of my own leg (got hit by a bus 9 years ago & almost died) inspired me to take the support I got & pay it forward. Musical guests will open our hearts with uplifting beats. All ages! Food at extra cost. It’s inexpensive & delicious. Donations support relief efforts via the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (www.pofsea.org) and rehab for the 14,000 people who lost limbs due to the earthquake. Come have a ball!

Address

The Potters House, 1658 Columbia Road, NW

Overtures Summer Concert Series at Evermay Estate

July 20th, 2012 at 06:30 PM | $50 | Event Website

Relax and enjoy summer evenings listening to world-class performing artists at the gorgeous Evermay Estate. Overtures is a unique concert series that presents award-winning, world-class performing artists who are emerging in their musical career. Socihi Muraji on classic guitar will be performing. Tickets are $50 each and includes complimentary on-site valet parking.

Address

Evermay Estate 1623 28th Street, NW

Blues Alley: Shanice

July 20th, 2012 at 08:00 PM | $35 | Tel: 202-337-4141 | Event Website

On Friday, July 20 and Saturday, July 21, soul, pop and R&B singer Shanice Lorraine Wilson is performing live at Blues Alley. Remembered for the popular hit single I Love Your Smile, from her 1991 album Inner Child, Shanice’s career has spanned from a Soul Train Award nomination for Best New Artist in 1987 to a signed record deal with Motown Records in 1991. Her rare coloratura soprano talent remains a favorite in R&B. 202.337.4141

Address

Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Belgiam National Day : Stella Artois “Taste of Belgium” Celebration

July 21st, 2012 at 12:00 PM | Free | Lauren.zaner@mosaic.com | Tel: 312.526.3126 ext 3205 | Event Website

In celebration of Belgian National Day, Stella Artois is bringing classic Belgian culture to the people of Washington DC.

As a outdoor festival it will have the chance to enrich themselves in Belgian culture.

There will be Belgian food (mussels, fries and more) and Belgian beer for purchase, Boule (Belgium’s version of baseball), and Belgian music. There will also be Local restaurants and chefs that will compete in Stella Artois’ annual “Mussel’s Throwdown”.

Address

The Yards Park : at the East Lawn

10 Water Street SE

(Intersection of 3rd St SE and Water St SE; Three blocks from the Navy Yard Metro: New Jersey Ave Exit)

Gallery Showing: Kimberly Iles Multiverse

July 23rd, 2012 at 11:00 AM | Tel: 202-234-8344 | Event Website

Abstract/contemporary works. Mixed media used to prodice a range of effects on canvas and panel. This exhibition is availabe for viewing Monday through Saturday from 11am-7pm and Sundays from 12-5pm

Address

Vastu, 1829 14th Street, NW

TTR Sotheby’s International Realty Artist Showcase: Brian Petro

July 24th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | Free | media@artseedc.com | Tel: 703-216-7298 | Event Website

TTR Sotheby’s International Realty of Chevy Chase will open its doors on July 24th at 6pm to feature local DC artist, Brian Petro. The work that will be on display comes from two of his latest collections, Supermarket Series and Roman Series. Petro’s mixed media paintings and photographic thermal transfer monoprints will create a diverse and interesting show in the office space. We hope to see you all there! Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.

Address

5454 Wisconson Ave NW, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Outdoor Film Festival at Dumbarton House sponsored by Georgetown Long & Foster

July 25th, 2012 at 07:00 PM | FREE | Info@­Dumba­rtonHouse.­org | Tel: 202-337-2288 | Event Website

Movie for July, 25: “Pride & Prejudice”

Long & Foster’s Georgetown office, an Exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s International is proud to host Sandy Lerner at Dumbarton House as part of a Jane Austen Film Series.

Address

Dumbarton House, 2715 Q St NW, Washington, DC

Lawn and site space is limited by occupancy restrictions, which is why reservations are encouraged (reservations will receive priority entry until 7:30pm, at which time any available space will be released to at-the-door guests.

The film will start at sunset, approximately 8:30pm.
Lawn/blanket seating only, please (if you need to utilize a chair, please set it up at the back of the audience).

Gone but Not Gone, Their Music Plays on: Kitty Wells, Bob Babbitt
• July 20, 2012

Whenever a music maker—singer, player, twanger, jazz man, country star, doesn’t matter—passes on, the event has the odd effect of making their music rise up as memory, as vivid as ever, as suddenly as a stray thought.

Kitty Wells died at the age of 92 a few days ago, and Bob Babbitt died at the age of 74 this week. You couldn’t think of two more different people if you had to work at it. It’s hard to imagine the gap between the kind of music they made. And yet, the music is the bridge you want to cross, and go back and forth on.

Wells was a pioneer, a major star in the firmament of country music female stars, true blue and gritty, she was not only was the first major female country star, she practically invented a whole genre that swirls with a lot of tang and bite around the subject of husband and wives, faithless men, dangerous other women and booze, as in her greatest and most enduring hit single, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”

Babbitt was a bassist, one of the great accompanists to Motown music and stars, a member in very good standing of a group of musicians of Motown musicians who garnered the Funk Brothers nicknamed the Funk Brothers.

Wells rose to stardom in the 1950s, an era when country music was dominated by male stars, from Roy Acuff to the flame-out Hank Williams, who sang a lot about honky tonk women and booze (and spent a lot of time with both until he died of it all). Wells—her real name Muriel Ellen Deason from Nashville, Tenn.—got married at 18 to Johnny Wright, who had a duo named Johnny and Jack , but then worked with his wife and became Johnny Wright and the Harmony Girls. It was an enduring marriage that lasted until Wright died at the age of 97.

Wells’s ascendancy to stardom with “Honky Tonk Angels” inspired a host of later top stars like Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and, most notably, Tammy Wynette, all of whom were noted for their songs about adultery, heartbreak and can’t-help-loving-that-man-until-I-kick-him-out songs as in “”It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angel . . . too many times married men think they’re still single that has caused many a good girl to go wrong” or Lynn’s famous songs, “Don’t You Come Home From Drinkin’ With Lovin On Your Mind.”

With an authentic and straightforward voice, Wells could break a woman’s heart and shame a man’s. Her own life was as wholesome as a Betty Crocker cover story which made her songs all the more powerful. Her career lasted for a long time, and she still made public appearances late in her rich life. She had other hits, such as “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Making Believe,” “A Woman Half My Age” and the wonderfully titled “Will Your Lawyer Talk to God?”

I had my newspaper open to the obituary page, while riding the bus, and a woman tapped me on the shoulder. “That’s one of the Funk Brothers, there,” she said, pointing to the story on Bob Babbitt’s death. “Did you know him?” I allowed that I had never heard of him. “Well, him and the rest of the Funk Brothers they were on all the great Motown records, and they worked with all the Motown stars, like Smoky Robinson and Marvin Gaye. They made a movie about them.”

Babbitt—and the other Funk Brothers, guitarists Robert White and Joe Messina, keyboardists Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke and drummers Benny Benjamin, Richard Allen and Uriel Jones—was one of the members of a wide group of musicians, uncredited more often than not, that were a vital part of almost every single ever made. Listen to Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia” or Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears” or the Temptations or Stevie Wonder or Del Shannon’s “Little Town Flirt,” and you’ll hear Babbitt and the rest. Babbitt was one of the few white musicians backing up Motown musicians and in that sense he reflected the instrument he played, in blending in with the whole. His presence, and his talent, showed the durable power of music as bridge and respect builder.

Bass notes should be invisible, in a way. They make you remember just as Wells songs make you remember twang instead of twitter. Check YouTube—Wells is there and so are the Funk Brothers and the music lives again, rises up rough and scratchy

Paul Bakery & Café Celebrates Bastille Day with Baguette Relay Race (photos)
• July 19, 2012

Paul Bakery & Café, at 801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, held their second annual Bastille Day event in the District last Saturday, July 14. Waving French flags, children and adults of all ages participated in a relay race around the U.S. Navy Memorial, using baguettes as batons (it wasn’t exactly Olympics rules). The winning team received gift certificates to Paul.

Win or lose, a good time was had by all. The race, now in its second year, is intended to become an annual event.

Paul, a French bakery chain, continues to expand throughout Washington. It has followed its Penn Quarter location with one in Georgetown at 1078 Wisconsin Ave. NW (right by M Street), and at 1000 Connecticut Avenue NW. Established in Lille, France in 1889, Paul Bakery has nearly 500 stores in 25 countries

View our photos of this event by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="102466,120787,120832,120793,120807,120814,120826,120821,120800,120772,120779,120838,120741,120733,120749,120700,120709,120717,120725,120757,120764" nav="thumbs"]

Smithsonian Folklife Festival (photos)
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The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is an exposition of “living cultural heritage annually produced outdoors on the National Mall in Washington, DC, by the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.” This year’s event took place between June 27 and July 8.

View our photos by clicking on the photo icons below.

View additional photos by clicking here. [gallery ids="100892,128109,128117,128125,128134,128142,128150,128158,128166,128175,128183,128101,128093,128226,128039,128217,128049,128208,128057,128201,128067,128076,128085,128192" nav="thumbs"]