Ins & OutsNovember 1, 2012
• November 1, 2012

**Bowling, Bocce Coming to Georgetown Park**
That bowling might be going to Georgetown Park was first reported at a meeting of the Citizens Association of Georgetown and DCist.com two weeks. There is more to the story.

*Here is how the Washington Business Journal reported on the situation:*

Another piece of the Shops at Georgetown Park puzzle is falling into place. Vornado Realty Trust has an all-but-done deal to lease roughly 30,000 square feet to Chicago-area entertainment-restaurant chain Pinstripes. The chain, which features indoor bowling and bocce courts, hopes to open by the third quarter of 2013, Pinstripes founder Dale Schwartz said. Pinstripes plans to sign a formal lease with Vornado once it gets zoning approval. It is scheduled to plead its case at a zoning hearing in January, Schwartz said.

The chain, which opened its first location in the Chicago area about five years ago, put D.C. on a list of top markets across the country as part of a nationwide expansion. The restaurant would be its fifth, with three in Illinois and one in Minneapolis. Schwartz said Georgetown Park met the criteria Pinstripes is seeking out.

?We?ve been looking all over the country for high-quality, select-communities,? Schwartz said. ?The D.C. market, it?s just a very, very attractive market, and also a market that we would envision over time doing two or three locations.?

Pinstripes is the latest of several new tenants Vornado is lining up at Georgetown Park, with other recent additions including a combined T.J. Maxx-HomeGoods and an expanded J. Crew.

Ultimately, Pinstripes envisions adding at least two other locations in the metro area, including in northern Virginia and suburban Maryland. Schwartz put Rockville among the likely expansion towns in Maryland. It is also planning restaurants in Kansas, California and Texas, Schwartz said.
For those struggling to envision how fine dining, bowling and bocce intersect, Schwartz describes it more along the lines of fine dining than bowling and bocce. ?We?ve really redefined entertainment dining in a very high-quality, sophisticated way,? Schwartz said.

Pinstripes has retained KLNB Retail as its local brokerage firm and RDL Architects to plan out its space at Georgetown Park.

**Coach John Thompson, Jr., Honored at Nike Store Debut**

Sports legends were on hand to open the new Nike store in Georgetown Oct 25. The Vornado-owned building that formerly housed Barnes & Noble is now a three-story, 31,000-square-foot store that carries a wide range of Nike?s athletic gear at 3040 M St., NW.

Homages to Georgetown University athletics are present in numerous areas of the store. Displays include gear from Georgetown?s track & field team and a display case of Georgetown University Air Jordans.

In the entrance of the building is a commemorative display honoring former Georgetown University men?s basketball head coach John Thompson, Jr., who coached at the school from 1972 to 1999. A neon-sign quotation by Thompson reminds athletes not to ignore life beyond the court. ?Don?t let the sum total of your existence be 8-10 pounds of air.?

Tim Hershey, head of North American retail for Nike opened the ceremony. Hershey manages Nike?s 202 stores in North America. He explained how the store received 4,500 applications to work there, which were eventually whittled down to 500 interviews, and finally, to 171 employees working in the store today. One employee said he was in three weeks of training for his sales position.

Michael Jackson, who played point guard on Georgetown?s 1984 NCAA championship team, is now Vice President and General Manager of Basketball in North America at Nike. Jackson remarked on the new store and presented Thompson with a one-of-a-kind, commemorative jacket honoring his career in the basketball. Also at the event was Georgetown great and former New York Knicks star Patrick Ewing.

Thompson, who is on the board of directors at Nike, was characteristically to-the-point. ?I?d rather eat a bug than what I?m doing right now,? he said.
Thompson spoke about Nike?s commitment to Georgetown University?s basketball program when the team needed support. ?Nike was one of the few corporations who jumped in when we needed help,? he said.

On his quote in the store, Thompson explained how he convinced his former player, Jackson, to leave the NBA to pursue a career off the court. He emphasized that there is more to life than basketball. ?If that?s what defines you totally, you?re a damn fool,? Thompson said.

Current Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson III also spoke about the new store.

After the ceremony, Thompson, Jr., was joined by his son, his two grandchildren, Michael Jackson, Tim Hershey and Jack the Bulldog for the ribbon cutting. Afterwards, eager shoppers poured in to see the new store for themselves. Along with sports gear in other sports, such as that of the Washington Redskins, the store will manage a running club.

**EastBanc West End Library Project Delayed**

A D.C. nonprofit is delaying the construction of a new library in the West End, according to the Washington Business Journal. The D.C. Library Renaissance Project wants to end a deal between the District government and developer EastBanc that would result in a new West End Library at 23rd and L streets NW. The nonprofit has appealed the decision of a Zoning Commission order, which is now before the D.C. Court of Appeals.

**In: Buffalo Exchange Opens on M Street**

The empty store at 3279 M St., NW, once a Annie Creamcheese retro clothing store, is set to be re-born as a Buffalo Exchange, a resale chain with more than 40 thrift stores through the U.S. that focuses on style trends for its customers who can buy or trade clothing. Buffalo Exchange was founded in Tucson, Ariz., in 1974. Another Buffalo Exchange is already on 14th Street.

Here is how the store explains itself: ?Buffalo Exchange is unique because clothing and accessories are bought, sold and traded locally with store customers. You?ll also find brand new merchandise and accessories.?

**Economic Forum Highlights ?Fiscal Cliff,? Dynamic D.C.**

The Georgetown Business Association joined with the New York-based Financial Policy Council to produce the first-ever D.C. Financial Policy Economic Forum at the City Tavern Club Oct. 18. It was the FPC?s first-ever event in Washington, D.C.

The forum, introduced by GBA?s Janine Schoonover and moderated by Davis Kennedy of the Current Newspapers, enlisted the advice of former Rep. Jim Moody, D-Wisc., high-tech consultant Ray Regan, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and tax lawyer Payson Peabody.

The surprisingly lively wonkfest ranged in topics from the global and national econony to parking in Georgetown. Moody, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from Berkeley, said he was ?very worried about direction country is taking.? Evans, who went to the Wharton Business School, said, ?Now, D.C. is the most dynamic city,? and then called for a way to make many immigrants — and who are not — legal. He got the most applause of the evening. Pollster Ronald Faucheaux of the Clarus Research Group highlighted the main take-away from the forum, as he spoke about the consequences of Congress and the president not dealing with automatic budget cuts, also known as ?fiscal cliff?: ?In December, there will be the most important decision in U.S. history.??

Pollster John Zogby Shares Insight
•

Pollsters—who have proliferated with every
presidential election—are funny people. It
turns people just don’t understand them, or
rather what they do.

We hadn’t talked with Pollster John Zogby,
then of John Zogby International, since the last
presidential election campaign in 2008, right
after the New Hampshire primary which produced
some interesting results then.

Back then we caught up with him on his cell
phone. He was enroute—we forget to where—
and he was on a train.

Four years later, after some digging around
on the net, we found him again last Wednesday—
heading toward an airport. We finally talked last
Friday—and indicative of what’s been going
on the polling arena, things had changed in the
interim.

“Yes, last night (Thursday, October 26), I
thought I detected a little bit of a surge towards
Obama, but by the time I got back, we saw a
dead heat in Virginia—48/48.”

That was an indication of how tight this election
has become—depending on the pollster and
polls you look at, there are national deadlocks
among likely and/or general voters, and many
but not all of the battleground states are heading
towards: you guessed, it deadlocks, depending
on what polls you read, study or believe.

Of course, for Zogby, since we talked to him
last in 2008, there have been a lot of changes,
too. Back then, he was (and continues to be) one
of the most respect pollsters in the country. He
had gained some fame back in the 1990s, after
founding his firm Zogby International in 1984,
after one of his polls showed that New York
State Governor Mario Cuomo would lose to then
president George. H.W. Bush in his home state.
Later, in an astonishing feat giving the outcome,
he polled ahead of the result the final numbers
of the 2000 presidential election within a tenth
of the actual result.

In 2008, just to show the vitality of things
even then, Hilary Clinton—after showing
what was detected to be some teary emotion—
had won the New Hampshire Primary stalling
Barack Obama’s impending victory parade.
Zogby’s rolling polling had apparently missed
that development. Back then, he said “Look,
we got everything else right—we got McCain,
we had Obama’s almost exact numbers, but we
had stopped before the effects of the “moment”.”

Since then, after years of heading Zogby
International, he sold his controlling shares to
the Brazilian company IBOPE. “That was a
big thing, sure,” he said. But Zogby is still a
major force in polling—the recent Virginia tie
for instance was part of polling he is doing for
and in conjunction with the Washington Times.
In addition, he polls with Forbes Magazine and
others, and most important of all, he’s joined
JZ Analytics, a Polling Firm run by his son,
Jonathan, in the role of Senior Adviser.

“Nope, I haven’t retired,” Zogby, 63, said.
“But working with my son, that’s very, very nice,
sure, that’s very special, of course it is. It’s a
very major thing.”

Other things have changed, too, not so much
for him, as in the world of polls and pollsters.
“Sure, sure, there’s more of them, the tools have
changed, and the techniques have changed—the
robo calls, for instance are still there, but that’s a very difficult thing to bring off in depth when
you have so many people using cell phones, it’s
harder to get the numbers.”

Zogby did not agree, and he did not agree
then that voters are heavily influenced by polls.
“I honestly can’t say that I have ever met anybody
that voted because of a poll.

“What I do believe is the media makes more
use of polls now than they did four years ago,”
he said. “And they create story lines from polls,
they look at certain things and emphasize them,
sometimes even if they’re not important, or just
to frame their stories And now, today, in the
debates for instance. There is no question that
Obama’s debate performance in the first one was
a big deal, it changed things altogether. I had
him running ahead by as much as eight points in
Ohio before that debate. That changed things,
no doubt. But all those subsequent polls, that’s a
little different. The media continues to compare
current polls in terms of Obama to where he was
before that debate. That makes things look much
more dramatic than they are.”

Zogby remains unafraid to say three words
that many pollsters would rather avoid. He’s
been often asked this time around as he was back
then to predict the outcome of the election. We
gave it a try just in case he’d changed. “Who’s
going to win?” we asked him. “I don’t know. I
just don’t know” he said.

And right now, he says, there’s no way of
knowing. “Look, every sign is heading towards
a deadlock, like the Virginia thing,” he said. “It’s
volatile. I can’t say that if some big deal happens
that it couldn’t change everything. It might.

“Here’s the thing about this election as things
stand right now,” he said. (This was October 26).
“Anything can happen. That talk about Obama
winning the electoral vote and losing the popular
vote? That could happen. But it could happen
for Romney too. Can Romney win without
Ohio? Maybe, but he’d have to sweep just about
everything else. You could have one of them
win all the key states by less than a percentage
point and create an electoral rout, and still lose
the popular vote.”

“What’s worth looking are the things you
find when you dig deeper in your polling,” he
said. “That gender gap. Well, it was there, but
you’ll find that married women are more concerned
about jobs and the economy than single
women. That youth vote—it might not show up
for Obama or some of it might go the other way
again because of jobs. Or ask if Romney is making
a dent in the Latino vote? See how the turnout
might be in the Evangelic vote—six months
ago, a long time ago, understandably, it was still
iffy . Will they show up? Turnout is key. The
early voting, that’s a thing to watch out for.”

“Anything can happen.”

“I’ve been doing this a long time, I can
remember making calls and a woman would answer and say, I’ll have to check and see what
my husband thinks,” he said. “The tools have
changed. The social media has been become
very important, or at least more important. This
instant feedback on the debates for instance. But
the instant polling, trying to gauge the immediate
effect, sometimes that’s not worth much because
you don’t know how deep the polling has gone,
who they’ve talked with.”

Zogby’s mantra is worth remembering in
terms of polling. “A poll is a snapshot in time.
It’s not a prediction. It says here is where we are,
right now, not yesterday, not tomorrow. That’s
real information, but it can change.”

Zogby and talked before the beginning of
a different sort of storm—Sandy, the so-called
perfect storm. It’s already caused candidates to
cancel appearance, to re-direct their efforts, and
its effects are still not known. For Obama, he
has to more president than candidate.

Like Zogby said: “Anyting can happen.” ?

The Jack Evans Report: This Is Getting Old
•

It seems like not a week goes by
without another news story about an
irregularity in the office of our Chief
Financial Officer. The latest revelation
was last Tuesday morning, in which news
outlets reported a criminal indictment of a
CFO employee accused of assisting with
more than $300,000 in fraudulent District
tax refunds (and more than $3 million in
federal taxes). I remain very concerned
that we don’t have the types of controls
that prevent fraud before it takes place.
I believe the District stands a chance of
receiving restitution for these amounts and
will follow up to ensure it is done.

Then, later the same day, I was told
that the CFO received a letter from the
Securities and Exchange Commission
asking for copies of audits, document
retention policies and other information
that were the subject of my hearing earlier
this month. I am a former Securities and
Exchange Commission Enforcement
Division lawyer, myself, and I believe
that the goal of the inquiry is to determine
whether the city’s bond offering documents
contained any material omissions about the
state of our tax office that should have
been disclosed to investors prior to selling
our bonds.

As a practical matter, the number of
recent news stories on the audits prior to
the bond sale most likely ensures that all
potential bond purchasers were aware of
the information prior to purchase. The
interest of the SEC, even in the form of
an informal inquiry rather than a formal
investigation and subpoena, is of great
concern to me. I have asked for regular
briefings from the CFO on these matters
and will continue to conduct regular
oversight over Gandhi’s office. I have
been a consistent defender of Gandhi, but
the constant drum beat of negative news
from that office is a problem that must be
addressed.

On a lighter note, I wanted to write at
least one more article about the Washington
Nationals this year – is it too soon? I made
a point of purchasing tickets to all the
playoff games to support our team and
our city, and while I am so proud of our
historic season, I am also disappointed that
our playoff run got cut short. Anyone who
was at the game for the Thursday night
win, though, will tell you that there was an
electric feeling in the stadium and a real
sense of community.

When I last wrote about our team, in
August, the Washington Nationals had the
best record in Major League Baseball. It
was then widely reported that you have to
look back to 1945 to find the last time our
team was 20 games above .500. This whole
season has been an experience in uncharted
territory. Not only did the team perform so
well, but the area around the ballpark is
now beginning to develop rapidly. I cannot
begin to tell you the number of articles I
read about the failure of this concept. With
a little patience, I knew the investment
would pay off.

As we move squarely into fall, I hope
everyone has a safe Halloween. Please
keep in touch with my office, and let me
know what issues are of interest to you. ?

The No-Cut, No-Color Drybar Opens Near Safeway
• October 31, 2012

“Peace, Love & Blowouts” is emblazoned above the reception desk at Georgetown’s newest salon, Drybar. The upscale salon opened Oct. 19 at 1825 Wisconsin Ave., NW, and offers its unique service of a blow dry bar. Its slogan is “No Cuts. No Color. Just Blowouts: Only $40.”

The concept, created by founder Alli Webb, was begun in Los Angeles, when Webb’s at-home blow-out service called for expansion. The Georgetown salon is the 18th Drybar location in the United States with others in several states, including California, Texas and New York. This is the second location in the D.C. area; a Drybar also opened in Bethesda Oct. 19.

The chic space is the same in every Drybar: white with bright yellow accents all around. Its iconic upside-down, yellow blow dryer, Buttercup, can be seen throughout the salon as an artsy chandelier. (There was also a giant version of the blower, driven around town to promote the two new stores, announcing chances to win a free blowout.) The walls are adorned with black-and-white glamour shots of Hollywood movie stars, and customers are treated to chick flicks on television, while getting their hair done. Fruit-infused water is served, and small packs of assorted snacks are available for $4.

Each style of blow-out is $40 and listed on the large chalkboard in the entrance. Customers can pick from the “Straight Up: simple and straight,” the “Manhattan: sleek and smooth,” the “Southern Comfort: big hair with volume,” the “Cosmopolitan: lots of loose curls,” or the “Mai Tai: messy and beachy.” “Shirley Temple’s” are offered at $28 to children, aged ten and under.
For an appointment, call 202-609-8644, visit TheDryBar.com or get the Drybar app for iPhone.
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George McGovern: Unabashed Liberal and Patriot
•

George McGovern died Sunday at the age of 90 as the 2012 presidential race rapidly approached its climax. It has been a campaign that has been one of the most contentious campaigns since, well, 1972, when McGovern and his followers took the Democratic Party on a rambunctious, liberally liberal and ultimately disastrous crusade against incumbent President Richard Nixon and the incumbent Vietnam War.

McGovern was an unabashed liberal, and an unabashed patriot, a war hero who bled for the blood of young American men in an unpopular war, a man who led a sometimes stolid, stoic American life coming out of a small-time upbringing on the flat plains of South Dakota to rise to the U.S. Senate for three terms, the pure head of the liberal wing of the Democratic party and his party’s standard bearer in 1972.

The result—a campaign that featured an assassination attempt that knocked Alabama governor George Wallace out of another third-party run, a not-always-hidden dirty tricks campaign by the president’s forces, the demise of centrist Maine Senator Edmund Muskie’s campaign amidst tears in New Hampshire and McGovern, seen as the anti-war heir of the slain Robert F. Kennedy, taking the helm of the party.

That campaign and the man are worth remembering today: his was a life that was marked by decency, sacrifice, the triumphs inevitably accompanied by defeats and tragedies almost as much as the Kennedy clan’s. McGovern’s unrepentant, uncompromising challenge to the nation was to defeat Nixon and end the war. Coming from a man who had flown terrifying bomber missions over Nazi Germany during World War II and was decorated for his heroics. This message should have echoed with great effect throughout the land, but McGovern became the victim of being swept away with the spirit of the party at the time, which, if you listen to commentators of the time, or saw any part of the convention, was an outburst of left-wing, counter-culture ebullience, an in-your-face cultural challenge of rock and roll music, tie dyed t-shirts, afros, beards, mini-skirts, drugs and license which made Middle America shake in its boots.

McGovern’s quite idealistic, resounding, powerfully affecting “Come Home, America” acceptance speech might have made some dent in the final result had it been heard by most of the nation. But with battles and celebrations over all sorts of speeches and issues dragging things out, it wasn’t heard until 2 a.m. As McGovern said then, “Welcome to my sunrise service speech,” an hour when most Americans had indeed gone home.

More trouble followed from the get-go. It was discovered that Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton, his choice for running mate, had electric shock treatments, and was eventually forced from the ticket even after McGovern unwisely had said he backed Eagleton “one-thousand percent.” Few takers for the job could be found, until Sargent Shriver, Kennedy family icon and former head of the Peace Corps, accepted like the good and loyal soldier he had been all of his life.

The Watergate break-in occurred at the time, and while it was being reported, McGovern railed against it, suggesting deeper, darker doings from an unscrupulous Nixon administration. He turned out to be a prophet, a fact which gave him no solace “You know, when somebody says you’re ahead of your time, it just means you have a terrible sense of timing.”

His opposition to the war was honorable, and almost visceral, coming as it did from the experience of war. “I am fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in,” McGovern said.

His convictions, his campaign convinced few and ended up in a historic defeat, getting only 38 percent of the nation’s vote—and carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, losing his own state.

The defeat stung, and lingered, as it might have done with any person in a quest for the most powerful job in the world. In 2008, McGovern was in Washington at the National Press Club participating a panel on the media and elections. A 20-something woman asked him how long it takes getting over losing a presidential election. “I’ll let you know when it happens,” McGovern quipped, 36 years after the 1972 election.

McGovern was not done with suffering—he lost his U.S. Senate seat in the Reagan Republican sea change, and two of his five children died young after battling alcoholism.

Personal tragedy, even of the Shakespearean or Greek kind, does not add up to a legacy, of course; it is a part of the river of life’s stories. McGovern’s legacy remains his steadfast principles, his almost quixotic run against Nixon who himself was forced to resign the presidency, his honest opposition to the Vietnam War and his leadership on fighting world hunger, a passion and cause he shared with Republican Bob Dole, who shared with him a lost presidential campaign and World War II heroism.

President Bill Clinton, who worked on his 1972 campaign in Arkansas, honored him with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called him “always a gentleman and an outstanding member of the greatest generation.”

As a political figure, McGovern was transcendent, with the result that the party, after his devastating defeat started to move more to the center. He was principled—a rare quality today when many politicians, of both parties, seem to have few positions which they are not willing to discard for a sign of movement in the polls. As a man, he never lost touch with the many multitudes and factions that make up our country.

The late journalist Tom Wicker once described McGovern’s antagonist Richard Nixon as “One of Us,” meaning he was the sometimes dark, uncertain face we sometimes saw in the mirror. If that is indeed the case, then George McGovern was the best in us—that which flickers sometimes in our own mirrors.

Weekend Roundup October 25, 2012
•

Napoleon Bistro Celebrates National Champagne Day

October 26th, 2012 at 09:00 PM | Event Website

A Champagne Flight will be offered from 9pm-11pm highlighting non-vintage, rose, and brut champagnes. Champagne cocktails will be offered at half-price throughout the evening. Napoleon’s Last Tango Crepe will be paired with a champagne for $20.

Address

1847 Columbia Road NW Washington DC 20009

Everard’s Clothing | All-American Trunk Show

October 26th, 2012 at 09:00 AM | Free Admission! | admin@otimwilliams.com | Tel: 202-298-7464 | Event Website

Enjoy cocktails while perusing through the latest Fall collections from featured American designers Hickey Freeman and Allen Edmonds.

Address

1802 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington, DC 20007

Thanksgiving Voilà! Hallah Baking Demo & Tasting at Rodman’s

October 26th, 2012 at 12:00 PM | Free! | info@tribesadozen.com | Tel: (202) 684-8256 | Event Website

Join Leah Hadad, owner of Tribes-A-Dozen, as she demonstrates the art of baking Voilà! Hallah Egg Bread Mixes. As a special treat for Thanksgiving, you will have the opportunity to taste Leah’s sweet Cranberry-Almond Hallah and savory mushroom pastry roll.

A woman-owned DC based company, Tribes-A-Dozen offers a unique line of all-natural, kosher certified (OU) hallah bread mixes in three varieties: Traditional, Wholey Wheat, and Simply Spelt.

12pm – 4pm

“Break Bread, Not Tradition”
Address

Rodman’s Tenleytown; 5100 Wisconsin Avenue NW

The Smithsonian Craft2Wear Show

October 27th, 2012 at 10:00 AM | $5 | Sfawcett46@gmail.com | Tel: 888.832.9554 | Event Website

The Smithsonian Craft2Wear show will take place the weekend of Oct. 26-28 at the National Building Museum. Representing the finest of American wearable-craft artists, all 45 exhibitors have been juried into previous Smithsonian Craft Shows.

Address

National Building Museum; 401 F Street, NW

Middleburg Scavenger Hunt

October 27th, 2012 at 10:00 AM | registration for the Scavenger Hunt is free | Tel: 540-687-8888 | Event Website

Scavenger Hunt participants must be 21 years of age or older. Visit wine tastings, shops, art galleries, libraries, restaurants and local historians to help answer the Scavenger Hunt questions. The participant with a correctly completed card, will receive the grand prize of a Middleburg Gift Basket containing a certificate for an overnight stay at the Middleburg Country Inn, local goods and coupons worth over $1,000.

Address

Pink Box; 12 North Madison St; Middleburg, VA

Halloween in Georgetown

October 27th, 2012 at 08:00 PM | Free | Tel: 703-271-7700 | Event Website

Please join us as actors from The Georgetown Theatre Company communicate with the spirits and read a witches’ brew of poems and short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, including The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, Annabel Lee and others.

We also guarantee a “supernatural” surprise!

A Horrors d’oeuvre Reception will follow the reading with goodies and coffee.

A $10 donation to The Georgetown Theatre Company is requested.

Address

Grace Church Georgetown; 1041 Wisconsin Avenue, NW (One block south of M Street)

Halloween Bike Party

October 27th, 2012 at 09:00 PM | dcbikeparty@gmail.com

Grab a costume and your bike to be a part of the DC Bike Party. Everyone will meet at the Dupont Circle Fountain and leave at 9pm. There will be a stop at Oak Hill Cemetery, heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to Chinatown. Then the group will head to Duffy’s Irish Pub.

Address

Dupont Circle Fountain

The Ripple Effect Artist Talk

October 27th, 2012 at 02:00 PM | Tel: 202-458-6016 | Event Website

Join Ripple Effect curator Raquel de Anda as well as a few of the artists from the exhibit for a discussion about the exhibit and possible social implications from art and art projects such as those seen in Ripple Effect.

Address

Art Museum of the Americas; 201 18th Street NW

Family Festival at the Marine Corps Marathon

October 28th, 2012 at 09:30 AM | Free | JStinnett@scottcircle.com | Event Website

Watch your runners while your kids have a ball at miles 22 and 23 of the Marine Corps Marathon Course in Crystal City. Kids will enjoy arts and crafts with the National Children’s Musuem, face painting, moon bounces, balloon animals, obstacle courses, circus activities and more!

Address

241 18th Street, Arlington, VA, 22202.

Music of Heaven and Earth

October 28th, 2012 at 05:00 PM | $20 | ChurchOffice@uccdc.org | Tel: 202-628-4317 | Event Website

The Thomas Circle Singers’ “Music of Heaven and Earth” explores scenes of heaven and earth through a diverse program of music in a variety of languages. Highlights include Blake Henson’s The Good Fence, Alice Parker’s An American Kedushah, and Lee Hoiby’s Last Letter Home.

Address

First Congregational United Church of Christ; 945 G St, NW (10th and G Street NW — Metro Center)

Billy Collins: Where Everyday Things Meet Poetry
•

Billy Collins. As you’re talking to the two-time U.S. Poet Laureate—and once New York’s as well—you kind of want to stick out your hand and say hello, even though he’s in Florida, and you’re here, where you are at home in Adams Morgan. The name has a rock-solid feeling to it, a reality you cannot deny, as real as someone standing next to you waiting for the light to change. You wonder, too, how his fortunes might have fared had he been born in a different place with a different name, say Thaddeus Slowisky, would people even approach him in such familiar ways.

Talking with Collins—I won’t presume the “Billy,” although he doesn’t mind being called that—is an oddly familiar experience, like meeting an Irishman in an Irish bar, where the spoken word will surely ensue. Collins, by heritage and background, is Irish—big and happy surprise, that—and he writes poetry that thousands, maybe millions, of people read and have read. They have also downloaded, heard in the flesh, so to speak, or spoken out loud themselves, or listened to on National Public Radio, or stumbled across like a grand field of verse and video on YouTube, where he is as omni-present as a Taylor Swift song, but not nearly so irritating.

I bring this up not because Collins’ poems are like a Taylor Swift song—although it’s likely he will one day suddenly write a poem about the comparison and it will be pointed, mysterious and funny all at the same time—but because in that rarefied, often academic, will-o’-the-wisp world of literature, of which poetry is its most literary branch, Collins is an odd duck. He is hugely popular, maybe, as the New York Time noted and more than one commentator noted, the “most popular poet in America.” By poetic standards, Collins has made quite a bit of money plying his art, once getting an astounding (for poetry) six-figure advance for three books not yet written.

Of course, that kind of success—popularity plus money—are the whipping sticks used by less fortunate and more obscure poets, not to mention lean and thinly high priests of literature, to try to dismiss the worth of the work. Collins, in turn, dismisses the success while not shunning it. “These things are nice, no question,” he said. “But they have little to do with the writing and creation or value of poetry.” As for those honors, he said, “I was dumbfounded being named laureate. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do besides give a talk.” These honors were bestowed in 2001 and 2002, but Collins did do things. He created a special program to teach poetry in high schools called “Poetry 180,” using 180 poems he selected, as well as coming up with a sequel for 180 more.

“I’m proud of that, sure,” he said. “I think young people today are very susceptible to poetry, not perhaps in its formal processes, but there you are. It’s an exciting time for poetry, I think.” Collins can make you laugh or smile. Each of his poems, you suspect, involves serious business, and Collins is serious about the craft, art and worth of poetry. It may have something to do with the Irish background—or the fact that his mother recited poems to him regularly. It is a truism that in the company of that tribe, which can be magical, joyous and musical, there always comes a moment spent in encountering and discussing God, the bitter end, matters of the universal universe. This happens all the time in poetry.

As a poet and a human being, Collins is not one for living in a cave. He splits his time between homes in New York and Florida, does readings, gives talks, and teaches and continues to write poems that ambush poetry readers.

We got to talking about the Irish a little, about dogs, about process, about the puzzle of his popularity. “I’m said to write about everyday life or the stuff of everyday life,” he said. “That’s true enough, I suppose, but it’s not that simple. There’s the surface, there’s what lies beneath, so to speak, and perhaps things I haven’t thought about. Ideas, images, they do come up sometimes without being sent for.”

He came to being a poet a little late in life—influenced by professors, by other poets like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the beats, when he was, admittedly, young. But Collins and his poetry are like nothing and nobody, influences be damned. For one thing, we had this little chat about dogs, because I mentioned that I missed walking my dog who had passed away earlier this year. He sympathized—he had lost his dog the year before. And perhaps not surprisingly, some of his poems are about dogs. He believes, as many dog owners do, that we try to live up to what our dogs think of us. Then again, there’s “The Revenant,” a poem by Collins which suggests an altogether different, sly, counter-sentimental view that perhaps dogs know us too well and carry an honest grudge to the grave.

Collins’s poems—often funny, hence a literary prize for a Mark Twain Humor category—are rooted in classicism—in terms of referencing—in jazz—in terms of an often improvisational style—and, yes, in the commonplace, which he manages to make most uncommon and in a formalism that isn’t Victorian or iambic. They seem more like haiku, although not as short.

As for myself, I think Collins is constantly awake in the world, sometimes buffeted, sometimes embracing the wind and the trash it leaves behind. His imagery comes from music and dreams and the stuff of daily breathing, as fanciful as a baby, as real as a cold call. He inspires, and he puts solid words out there that make you think about real time, not virtual time. Recently, a minister at a Georgetown church invoked Collins in a sermon, read and used his wondrous poem, “When I Was Ten,” in a sermon on “Everyday Miracles.” That’s what Collins does, he makes for all time everyday miracles called poems.

Coldwell Banker and Operation Paws Sponsor Pet Adoption
•

October has been a good month for homeless animals in and around D.C.

Earlier this month, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Georgetown office partnered with Operation Paws to sponsor a dog adoption event. An estimated 150 people came to Washington Harbour on the Oct. 13 event, and seven furry, barking friends were adopted.

Coldwell Banker Georgetown became involved with Operation Paws through several of its employees who volunteer and foster animals there. Oct. 13 was the third time that these two organizations joined forced for this cause. Previous adoption events took place during October 2011 and June 2012; these two efforts saw a total of 27 dogs adopted. The next adoption event is scheduled for May 2013.

Also, now through Oct. 30, the Washington Humane Society is charging no adoption fees on black or orange animals. More information can be found by calling the Humane Society at 202-723-5730.
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War Horse’s Puppetry Plays Leading Role
• October 26, 2012

Let’s be straight about this: “War Horse” is not the best play ever written. It’s not Shakespeare, but the touring version of the Tony Award-winning play now at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House through Nov. 11 may be one of the best staged theatrical productions you will likely to encounter. That’s saying something in our digital, tech-savy world that includes the performing arts.

“War Horse”, at its heart, is a deeply-rooted, deeply felt old story: boy meets horse, boy and horse fall in love, boy trains horse, boy loses horses, to the vast killing fields of World War I France no less, boy enlists in the English army to find horse, while horse tries to survive as a cavalry mount, horse falls into the hands of a sympathetic German officer, while boy searches, through barbed wire and ferocious combat, for his horse. The rest is for you to find out and for me not to tell you, although if you’ve seen Steven Spielberg’s film version, you probably know how it ends, and if you can’t figure it out , well, it’s almost Christmas.

It’s the journey, or, rather, the context, the sets and setting, and most importantly, the horse, that matters in “War Horse.” This production uses everything that’s available to contemporary stagecraft-a skrim that fills up the back of the stage as a kind of moving narrative of video, film and special effects, music both live and otherwise that moves the narrative and is moving itself, light, noise and contraptions-notably a World War I tank, bigger than it should that makes an overpowering, frightening appearance on the stage.

Most of all, there is the magic work of the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, which brings to life a birds, vultures and a fussy duck, who sometimes terrorizes the denizens of an entire English farm of the period. Mostly it creates horses, lean, worn out work horses, Topthorn, a gleaming black and powerful steed and competitive comrade.

And there’s Joey, the War Horse, the star, the hero and heart of this play, a giant, bigger than life puppet version, gleaming with the contraptions that make for a beautiful horse, embodied-literally by three actors who manipulate-again, literally-the movements and emotions of Joey. Here’s the thing – when it comes to feelings and the human heart, it’s Joey who exhibits most of them in ways that can make you dream about them.

There are of course, other, dare we say, “real” actors on the scene, the stalwart young Michael Wyatt Cox as Albert Naracott, who’s smitten from the first time he sees Joey as a snorting, nervous foal Albert’s father, a struggling farmer who drinks too often and is resentful of his well-off brother, engages in a duel for the purchase of the hunting horse and spends the mortgage on him to get the best of his brother.

In the course of things, after Albert and Joey bond through music and a mutual affinity – “we’ll be together forever”, the boy insists – his father sells him to the British army for a hundred pounds, a big sum in those pre-Romney days and off Joey goes as a war steed.

The stage then fills with the wasteful fury of World War I, the British and their officers leading a bloody cavalry charge against barbed wire and German machine guns, the Germans capturing both Joey and Thopthorn. The war is evoking with horrific imagery – bombs, shells, noise, the horses gleaming in mid-stride, this is a horses and bayonet war, after all. Among the other actors, Angela Reed shines as Albert’s frustrated mom (the way she says “Men” pretty much encapsulates the worst qualities of the gender that drive women crazy) and Andrew May as the conflicted German Captain Friedrich Muller are particularly effective, and managed to stand out amidst the towering presence and magic of the horse(s).

Puppetry has by now become an integral part of many theatrical production – remember “The Lion King” – as well as stand-alone productions from the fertile imagination of Basil Swift. You can see how revolutionary the art of puppetry has become when Joey, the War Horse displays the most vivid emotions and emoting on the stage.

When he first makes his appearance as a foal, whinning, skittish, small (it’s a different kind of puppet in construction and manipulation), you begin to go all in almost immediately. Later, in spite of the fact that you can see the actors “inside” the horse, they seem to disappear and Joey the War Horse, sometimes rearing up like a unicorn without the horn, all gleaming, running, pulling, nudging Albert’s face, alert as he senses his presence or hears someone call his name becomes as real as you and I.

No one in the audience would have been surprised if he had spoken words. It’s not that horses can’t talk. This one spoke volumes, the way at bottom we communicate away from our gadgets, heart to heart.

Obama Charms George Mason
• October 25, 2012

The line wound around George Mason University’s athletic field, filled with people eager to see President Barack Obama speak. They sat with energy drinks and made trips to the nearby Starbucks as they waited for the Oct. 19 event to start. Many were there as early as 3 a.m., but most agreed that lack of sleep was well worth it in exchange to see the president firsthand.

The wait was certainly worth it for Nicole Berg, a student from Germany at American University for the fall semester, who said, “Especially for an international student, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was either grasp it or never have it again.”

People were able to enter the field at 8:45 a.m. Tickets were available for free online but did not guarantee admission, which was why many arrived early.

The excitement was palpable. Chants of “four more years” could be heard throughout the event. Obama took the stage around noon. It took him little time to increase the already high levels of enthusiasm that were present.

A crowd favorite – and a phrase that has quickly found its way online – was “Romnesia.”

“I mean, [Mitt Romney]’s changing up so much and backtracking and sidestepping, we’ve got to name this condition that he’s going through. I think it’s called “Romnesia,’” Obama quipped.

Throughout the morning, volunteers with Obama for America were emphasizing the importance of the days remaining before the election and encouraging people to sign up to participate in neighborhood canvassing or the phone banks.

This event was an important one for Obama, as Virginia is considered a swing state. Fortunately for the president, if those in attendance on Friday are any indication, many are skeptical of Romney and the profound case of “Romnesia” with which Obama has diagnosed him.
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