Inside DC Jazz
• May 30, 2012

The first time I ever encountered jazz in the sense that somebody told me I was listening to jazz was in Times Square in New York when I was a callow 19-year-old youth fresh from small-town Ohio.

It was a place called the Metropol, and inside, you could stand and milk one drink for a couple of sets, listening to the great and legendary vibist Lionel Hampton. It was 1960, and it was love at first sound and sight, and not for the last time either.

Not bad occasion for a first encounter, and I was fortunate enough to have quite a few ever since—to see the best, the legends, the Ellingtons and Basies and Fitzgeralds.Perhaps predictably, I loved the sound of the saxophone, in flight or as solos in a late-night group set at Blues Alley or a bar that I can’t remember in San Francisco.

What you get over time is the diversity of jazz, and what you should get in a jazz festival is that rich texture, that sheer volume of playing, music, genres, and personalities. A festival embodies both the history of the music, and the sense of place where it’s played and the DC Jazz Festival which we’re about to enjoy once again has all of that in abundance.

While the legends—those vivid stars whose lives were as attractive and charismatic as their musical gifts like Basie, Ellington, Billie and Bird, Miles and Dizzie—are less evident in today’s jazz world, there’s no question that jazz is bigger than ever, that there more jazz musicians, and venues in more places all over the world. More people are listening, (but in ways less easy to measure given the explosions of easy delivery systems), and more people are playing the music or training to do so, one of the legacies of the reigning family of jazz, the Marsalis clans, who emphasize music education.

One of those incomparable memorable occasions for me was the 2009 DC Jazz Festival—then called the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival—where I had occasion to hear the great New Orleans style jazz player Buckwheat Zydeco (with a little help from Paquito D’Rivera on sax) keep people dancing and jumping and dancing on the mall, and later I was present at a gathering of the entire Marsalis clan to honor patriarch Ellis Marsalis, in the company of the late, great Billy Taylor.

That was also my first contact with the DC Jazz Festival, which embodies the virtues of any great jazz festival.

What a great jazz festival reminds of us—in addition to the legacy and history of jazz—is that jazz—like all sorts of music, like theater and dance—best consumed and experienced in a live setting. With jazz, that can be anything at all and anywhere.

We certainly have the names in this festival, the prestige events, the legends—this year it’s the masterful jazz piano Kenny Barron and the master of all music bassist, cellist composer educator and author Ron Carter receving the festival’s lifetime achievement award and gathering up with the Classical Jazz Quartet (Stefon Harris and Lewis Nash), to perform in Jazz Meets the Classics, at the Kennedy Center, the festival’s premier event, which will also feature Paquito D’Rivera, the saxaphone’s master internationalist.

At the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in DC’s downtown, you’ll find young jazz and virtuoso whiz rising star Anat Cohen, adept as a saxophonist but also playing the clarinet and leader of her group. Cohen is emblematic of the world –wide reach of jazz: the Israeli musician explores jazz through all the myriad gardens of music, from classic, to Brazilian choro, the Argentine tango and Afro-Cuban styles.

But festivals are all about place too, where stars and emerging stars, and local musicians, of which the city has a multitude and here the innovative Jazz in the Hoods program—growing by leaps and bounds—is at its richest, with a reach that stretches through every corner of the city.

The Jazz in the Hoods program includes 10 days of 80 performances. You’d expect to find some of this in jazz clubs like the thriving Bohemian Caverns on U Street or smaller clubs like Twins or Columbia Station in Adams Morgan. But Jazz in the Hoods also reaches into restaurants, hotels, galleries, and museums, most notably, but not exclusively like the now annual family oriented Jazz ‘n Familes Fundays which features free performances by on June 2 and 3 at the Phillips Collection.

Jazz in the Hoods has breadth, depth and focus—21 neighborhoods will take part, giving you a real sense not only of the popularity of jazz, but of the diversity of life in Washington DC beyond the monuments and the White House and Congress. Included are Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, the H Street Corridor, Southeast, Southwest, Takoma Park, Adams Morgan, the U Street Corridor and other places.

Everyone knows the stars at the festival, but if you make your way through the Jazz in the Hoods program, here’s some performers to look for—the Mark Turner Quartet, Rodney Richardson with Lena Seikaly, Marcus Strickland Quartet, the Randy Weston Trio, the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Octet, , the Kenny Rittenhouse Quintet, the John Scofield Trio, and at the Phillips the Paul Bailey Quaratet, theHerman Burney Trio, the Xavier Davis Duo, Janelle Gill, the Elijah Balbed Quartet and Michael Bowie and Sine Qua Non String Quartet, among others.

Author of ‘The Exorcist’ Threatens Suit Against His Alma Mater, Georgetown University
• May 29, 2012

But wait, there’s more, and it involves one of the most famous authors to graduate from Georgetown University. And you thought Father Damien had problems.

While Georgetown University was criticized for its invitation of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at one of its commencement events and the Archdiocese of Washington joined at least 40 Catholic dioceses, schools or groups in suing the federal government in several districts for its healthcare requirements, another suit involving the Catholic world was threatened last week.

Georgetown alumnus, William Peter Blatty, who penned the satanic blockbuster, “The Exorcist,” and put Georgetown into horror film history, accuses his alma mater of turning away from its Roman Catholic commitments.

“For 21 years now, Georgetown University has refused to comply with Ex corde Ecclesiaie (“From The Heart of the Church”), and, therefore, with canon law,” Blatty wrote in the letter. “And, it seems as if every month GU gives another scandal to the faithful! The most recent is Georgetown’s obtuse invitation to Secretary Sebelius to be a commencement speaker. Each of these scandals is proof of Georgetown’s non-compliance with Ex corde Ecclesiae and canon law. They are each inconsistent with a Catholic identity, and we all know it. A university in solidarity with the Church would not do these prideful things that do so much harm to our communion.”

Blatty cited the website, GUpetition.org, as the starting point for his complaint, where it calls for him to named “procurator” on behalf of those who agree with the petition to go before the Vatican. On the site, those joining the complaint are asked to fill in a form and agree to the following:

“Therefore, I do hereby designate and appoint WILLIAM PETER BLATTY as my lawful procurator to act for me, if necessary, in the protection of my rights in accord with the norms of canons 1481-1490 and 1738, to seek alternative forms of relief that may include a declaration by the appropriate ecclesiastical authority that Georgetown University is no longer entitled to call itself a Catholic or Jesuit university, or to order a Visitation, or to seek other remedies, and do expressly grant him a Mandate to appoint additional and substitute procurators, to submit a petition, to renounce an action, instance or judicial act, to make a settlement or strike a bargain, and to enter into arbitration in accord with canon 1435.”

Georgetown University has cited academic freedom in defending the selection of Sebelius as a commencement speaker. As for the Blatty complaint, university spokesperson Stacy Kerr repeated Georgetown president John DeGioia’s response: “We are a university, committed to the free exchange of ideas.”

Archdiocese of Washington, Catholic University, Others Sue Obama Administration
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Protests echo after graduation weekend at Georgetown University, and charges that religious freedom is under attack have entered a wider arena. These new protests may have an effect on the 2012 presidential campaign.

The criticism of Georgetown University’s invitation of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at its Public Policy Institute drew media attention and a small crowd of protesters at 37th and O Streets as well as a heckler during Sebelius’s speech May 18. The Archdiocese of Washington’s argument that the HHS secretary posed a threat to religious freedom was followed by a report that William Peter Blatty, author of “The Exorcist” and a 1950 Georgetown graduate, planned to sue the university in Catholic court for not adhering to Catholic dogma. The university had cited academic freedom in defending the selection of Sebelius as a commencement speaker.

Blatty, according to Religion News Service, “says that Georgetown has violated church teaching for decades by inviting speakers who support abortion rights and refusing to obey instructions the late Pope John Paul II issued in 1990 to church-affiliated colleges and universities. Georgetown should amend its ways or stop calling itself a Catholic or Jesuit institution, Blatty said.”

On Monday, it was announced that the Obama administration is being sued by the Archdioceses of New York and Washington, D.C., Catholic University, the University of Notre Dame and other Catholic dioceses and groups that are “filing 12 different lawsuits filed in federal courts around the country,” according to CNSNews.com.

A special website of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. — PreserveReligiousFreedom.org — explained the decision: “This lawsuit is about an unprecedented attack by the federal government on one of America’s most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one’s religion without government interference. It is not about whether people have access to certain services; it is about whether the government may force religious institutions and individuals to facilitate and fund services which violate their religious beliefs.”

The lawsuits, according to CNSNews.com, “focus on the regulation that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last August and finalized in January that requires virtually all health-care plans in the United States to cover sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions.” [gallery ids="100817,125074" nav="thumbs"]

Weekend Roundup May 24, 2012
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Unbuilt Washington

May 27th, 2012 at 11:00 AM | $8 | Tel: 401-258-3081 | 202-272-2448 Event Website

Unbuilt Washington reveals the Washington that could have been by presenting architectural and urban design projects that were proposed but, for widely varied reasons, never executed. Such projects often exercised a profound influence on what was built and may offer lessons that inform ongoing debates about the design and development of Washington and other cities.

Address

401 F St. NW

Washington, DC

Free Boot Camp Sundays

May 27th, 2012 at 08:00 AM | FREE | Event Website

Professional trainers lead boot camp sessions for free every Sunday at 33rd and Water Street on the Georgetown Waterfront. The exercises are adjusted to every fitness level and each workout is usually 60 minutes long. No work out is quite the same, each week the boot camp consists of many different types of exercises.

Address

Georgetown Waterfront Park,

3100 K St NW, Washington, DC

The National Memorial Day Parade

May 28th, 2012 at 09:00 AM | FREE | Tel: 401-258-3081 | Event Website

The 2012 National Memorial Day Parade will feature a tribute to the generation that served and sacrificed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, following the formal end of the war last December. ALL veterans of Iraq are invited to participate. The parade is partnering with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to organize any and all veterans who can be a part of this very special tribute. To register, please click here.

Address

Constitution Avenue between Seventh and 17th streets NW
Washington, DC

Ride 2 Recovery Memorial Day Challenge Presented By UnitedHealthcare

May 28th, 2012 at 09:00 AM | FREE | dspano@spanopr.com | Tel: 401-258-3081 | Event Website

The public is invited to cheer on more than 200 injured veterans as they take off for the five-day, 325-mile Ride 2 Recovery Memorial Challenge on Monday, May 28 from the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington to Virginia Beach.

Veterans, troops and supporters will ride hand cycles, recumbents, tandems and traditional road bikes through Virginia. The bicycle ride will begin Monday, May 28, at 9 a.m. at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington and end on Friday, June 1 in Virginia Beach.

Address

900 S. Orme Street

Arlington, Va. 22204

Join KC Café to Honor JFK

May 29th, 2012 at 11:30 AM | $16.50 | elyse@lindarothpr.com | Tel: 703-417-2709

The KC Café at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is offering a very special lunch-time dish on Tuesday, May 29 to celebrate the beloved John F. Kennedy on his 95th birthday.

As JFK was a Massachusetts native, the KC Café will be serving a New England favorite in his honor: the Lobster Roll. Chilled to perfection, the lobster is served in a traditional dressing on a warm New England roll, topped with Watercress.

Address

KC Café

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

2700 F Street

CAG Meeting

May 30th, 2012 at 07:00 PM | Free | Tel: (202) 337-7313 | Event Website

Mayor Gray and Councilman Jack Evans Speaks; CAG Awards and Election of Officers; reception 7pm, program at 7:30pm.

Address

Dumbarton House, 2715 Q Street NW

America Marks Vietnam War’s 50th Anniversary
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While Memorial Day weekend marks the start of summer, beach traffic and the Indianapolis 500, the federal holiday began as a commemoration of those killed in the Civil War. Today, Memorial Day honors all in the military who have fallen in the service of the United States. Remember that as you fire up the grill, and take time to honor them in your own way.

Friday May 25th 2012

9 p.m. Candlelight Vigil – Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Saturday May 26th 2012

9 a.m. Thunder Alley Opens-the official vendor site for Rolling Thunder is located at 22nd Street and Constitution Avenue across from The Wall. It will open at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and will be selling the official Rolling Thunder T-shirt, patches, pins, food, leather, and many other interesting goods. (For more information see Thunder Alley page)

11:45 a.m.-8:00 p.m. C.A.M.M.O. Presents a Tribute to Rolling Thunder XXV Musical guests and special guest speakers appearing on stage at the Henry Bacon ball field include: Ray Manzo-founder of Rolling Thunder Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band Other special guests to be announced

Also on stage: Unveiling of the Rolling Thunder XXV Tribute Bikes Custom-built in honor of each branch of the United States Armed Forces

Sunday May 27th 2012

6 a.m. Reveille – Wake up call for riders taking place in the Rolling Thunder XXV First Amendment Demonstration Run. Bikes begin rallying in the North and South Pentagon parking lots at 7 a.m. for a noon departure.

12 noon Rolling Thunder First Amendment Demonstration Run After the Run, riders are directed to West Potomac Park where they will convene in the Mall area to pay tribute to their fallen brothers and sisters

Monday May 28th 2012 Memorial Day

11 a.m. Wreath Laying Ceremony -Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery

2 p.m. Annual Memorial Day Observance at The Vietnam Veterans Memorial To the fallen service men and women of the Vietnam War. This year’s service by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will include a special Commencement Ceremony marking the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War.

2 p.m. National Memorial Day Parade

3 p.m. National Moment of Remembrance – one minute of silence in honor of those who have given their life for our country

The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration National Announcement & Proclamation Ceremony

(01:00 PM – 03:30 PM)

May 28, 2012

01:00 PM – 03:30 PM

The Memorial Day 2012 ceremony beginning at 1 p.m. at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall will begin the national commemoration of the Vietnam War’s 50th anniversary. The Department of Defense’s Office of Commemorations is working with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and National Park Service for a special and inspiring ceremony to thank and honor America’s Vietnam Veterans and their families for their service, valor and sacrifice.

Fiesta Asia Street Fair Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on Pennsylvania Ave. (photos)
• May 24, 2012

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the National Asian Heritage Festival’s Fiesta Asia held their 7th annual street fair covering three full blocks on Pennsylvania Ave. near the Capitol on May 19. The event displayed various aspects of Asian art and culture featuring over 90 acts and 600 performers including musicians and dancers, the martial arts and a lion dance demonstration.

View our photos from the cultural stage by clicking on the photo icons below.
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Summer and Gibb: the True Deaths of Disco
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There was a time in the 1970s when disco music was both king and queen of pop. It was also fashionable for hard rockers to “diss” disco and all of its accompanying frivolity of flared white pants and vests, dance floor posturing and glittering mirror balls hanging from the ceiling. Add to that the wretched excesses of New York’s Studio 54 and the West Coast glitz, glitter and glam and you’ve got yourself a cultural history.

In Georgetown, as we watched the lines snake outside Tramps discotheque at Billy Martin’s Carriage House on Wisconsin Avenue and other places, we said disco was just too theatrical. It was like some magic show that damped heavy duty guitar riffs and the grit and echo of Dylan, Credence and Joplin.

Some of those feelings probably stemmed from high schoolish resentments at not making the doorman’s cut at disco clubs around the country—and you had to know how to dance as opposed to just strike a pose. Knowing where your local coke dealer lived probably helped, but it had nothing to do with the music.

But the music, as it turns out, was pretty good.

The death of two disco legends this past week, just two days apart, reminded us that there were big talents in disco with voices and figures that transcended the glitz and made a lasting impression on our musical landscape, lending proof to disco’s anthem, Gloria Gaylor’s “I Will Survive.” Last week saw the passing of the chanteuse, rangy Donna Summer, and Robin Gibb, the clearest highest voice in the Bee Gees, which turned the soundtrack album to the iconic “Saturday Night Fever” into a worldwide sensation.

Robin Gibb, suffering from both pneumonia and cancer, managed to rise from a coma, only to succumb to his ailments at the age of 62. He and his brothers, Maurice, Barry and Andy, all collaborated at various times, broke up and hooked up again, the last time an occasion which produced the music of the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack. Success didn’t sit well with the group, though you’d never know it by their music: they produced hits like “Jive Talkin,” “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” “To Love Somebody,” “I Started a Joke,” “How Deep Is Your Love” and more.

The brothers, who had done Beatles-like music in the 1960s, followed “Saturday Night Fever” with the disastrous soundtrack to the 1978 film, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” loosely inspired by the 1967 album by The Beatles. From then on, they suffered a backlash, sort of like disco. Theirs was a strange and tragic career—young brother Andy died shockingly of myocarditis in 1988. Robin’s twin Maurice died of a heart attack in 2003. Now, Barry Gibb is the only surviving Bee Gee.

Summer had an equally huge disco career. Some called her the queen of disco, but she hardly cared about such notions. She was a terrific singer, by reputation both sweet and tough, as well as level headed. She was a woman who looked like a diva but didn’t act like one. Her voice had range, and it carried her material, which both defined and transcended the genre. While much of the content of her songs were erotically and sexually driven—it had the kind of longing and drive that you could do more than just dance to—her strength was strength itself. “She Works Hard for the Money” was a song, upbeat, but powerful, that paid tribute to working-class working women, while the hard-charging “Hot Stuff” was, well…hot stuff. She delivered hit after hit in the 1970s, like “The long “Last Dance,” “Dim All The Lights.”

Summer shone like a disco star—she was slender, with a big bouquet of black hair, leggy and beautiful. And she had the singing chops to match the image, which is why she continued to perform long after disco died.

Disco—of which Summer and the Bee Gees were two of its leading lights—didn’t last. But the songs do, and the power of the performers provide vivid memories. The Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Summer, as Elton John critically pointed out after her death of cancer last week, did not.

She deserved to be in there, to say the least. In that pop-rock-disco-all-genre-music hall of fame that swirls in our minds and memories, she’s already there and will never leave.

She worked hard for her fame: One last dance for Donna Summer.
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Next-Generation Georgetown on Display at Concerts in the Parks
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If you want to know what Georgetown is all about these days, come to the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s next performance of Concerts In the Parks series. That would be Father’s Day, June 17.

You might be surprised—it’s not about the newest businesses, the university, the waterfront, parking or the power brokers who live in our midst.

In a few words, it’s about little kids, dogs, families, rolling green grass, cotton candy, cupcakes, honky tonk music, spreading out picnic blankets, playing catch and catching up with neighbors. It’s about the real news of the day, which might be about how kids did in first grade at Hyde-Addison—or elsewhere—as summer approaches, or the latest multi-million-dollar house sale.

At Volta Park, hometown favorite Rebecca McCabe headlined the May 20 kick-off of CAG’s Concert In the Parks. She sang about broken hearts, sundry temptations, (“Don’t Do It”) and, yes, “Do You Want to Dance,” along with touches of Elvis and Shania, and Georgetown folks gave up a pretty good imitation of a small town, summer gathering, a real community-village feeling.

The Concert in the Parks series, co-chaired by Elizabeth Miller, is celebrating its 10th Anniversary as a CAG enterprise, and local merchants and folks where handing out free ice cream, cotton candy, cookies, cupcakes and lemonade. Parents spread blankets and tried to keep track of their small children—there seemed to be hundreds—while various pooches took things in stride and settled in. At the baseball field, fathers and sons and brothers and younger brothers were taking turns batting, catching and running around, while blue balloons escaped to the sky.

Georgetown is, of course, not a small town: it is its own special thing, and what you saw at Volta Park was a Georgetown now being a part of the future with young couples and professionals and lots of children. To that end McCabe led a group of little girls in dancing—boys remain resistant at this age—while a contest for who was wearing the best color combination of pink and green was won by one of the youngest entrants.

Volta Park and Sunday set the scene—clouds but no rain, a heavy hint of summer, blue skies on the whole, a place where the sound and the music and feelings carried—that made you believe for an hour or so that we live in less troubling times and that this was not a year where politicians had turned into professional naysayers.

McCabe, who was celebrating her birthday in fine voice and blonde form, remains a singer-songwriter of note, splitting her time between Washington and Nashville, where she works one week per month on her music, writing and recording. Her optimistic ways and love of family fit the concert bill and Georgetown perfectly. It brought everyone together; it showed the town simply enjoying the day.

The occasion asked for contributions to Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center. The concert’s theme was “Pink and Green” to raise awareness for breast cancer and highlight the importance of living green; Sherman Pickey gave out the prize for best color. AOL’s Patch held a raffle for a 50-dollar Sea Catch coupon; Elizabeth Miller win it. (Shaun Courtney simply happened to pick that ticket blindly, really.) Concert-goers got the opportunity to plant seedlings or decorate t-shirts. Ball or Nothing Food Truck, run by Miller’s brother, sold gourmet meatballs on 34th Street.

Some of contributors, as indicated by CAG, included: Sprinkles Cupcakes, Long & Foster Realtors, Nancy Taylor Bubes – Washington Fine Properties, Tutt, Taylor, Rankin/Sotheby’s International Realty (Lawrence Calvert baked the cookies), the Friends of Rose Park, the Friends of Volta Park and Haagen-Dazs.
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Godfather of Go-Go Passes Away at the Age of 76
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Live long enough in D.C. and you ended up hearing about, hearing and finally seeing Chuck Brown. If you didn’t live in the epicenter of Brown’s influence—where go-go music was as much a part of the culture as the air you inhaled—Chuck Brown and his marvelous musical invention was something of a rumor, a kind of urban legend in the outlying world, which sooner or later you would run across. And when you did, everything about him and the music turned out to be true.

Chuck Brown—the Godfather of Go-Go, the President, the Legend—passed away mid-week, and the city erupted. Not in tears, mind you, but in a kind of Bourbon Street and bar celebration, on the airwaves, in bars, outside the newly renovated Howard Theatre, in the U Street Corridor, around Ben’s Chili Bowl. It was a spontaneous, entirely appropriate reaction to sad news, like a call-and-response at a Baptist church, the kind that also permeated his music.

Brown was an inventor, and his invention was go-go music. Loud, endlessly energetic, full of drums, cymbals, clanging bells, brass, bongos, employing instruments that might be heard in Beirut or Africa, not Bayreuth. It made you want to, well, go-go. Go-go was the music of the city—not Capitol Hill, that white dome and pillars stuff, but the encompassing city of neighborhoods: the open-the-hydrants-in-summertime scene, the club on Saturday and church on Sunday neighborhood scene, where get-up-and-go dance is an urge.

Natty, sunglassed and hatted to a tee, Brown was a generous soul, always helping out up-and-comers from the next generation who spread the word and the music around the city. In some portions of my neighborhood in Adams Morgan he was a prophet. I knew this from my next-door-neighbor, Mickey Collins, who is three years gone now.

Still, in some ways, among the myriad neighborhoods of Washington, some each sporting their own history and culture, Brown and go-go might have been more like a legend or rumor, something not actually experienced in the age of disco, Michael Jackson, and Hall and Oates. Go-go was not exactly like jazz and its rich history in D.C. It wasn’t necessarily a fully shared experience.

Just ask Anthony Williams, Mayor of Washington, D.C., for eight years. He was a cerebral sort of man, famous for his bowtie, who tended toward jazz and classical music. When prompted, he had to admit he didn’t know what go-go was. A sort of mini-tempest emerged from this, culturally and politically, not long lasting but indicative of some of the divisions in the city.

Go-go and Brown, except for “Bustin’ Loose,” never exploded nationally the way it should have, but maybe that’s all right. Brown was ours, and so was go-go. It belonged to this city, and every year the Brown and go-go effect grew wider. It was a peculiar thing: even before his death at 75 from pneumonia brought on by blood clot issues, Brown and his music were becoming institutionalized into our culture, busting loose across all the neighborhoods and beyond.

Like I said, I’d heard the rumors, riffs and stories for years. But I never saw the man until I ventured out to Strathmore in Bethesda for one of its free summer outdoor music concerts.

It was Chuck Brown, and the night, blue skies, big stars, rolling grass, Rockville Pike strip mall lights, barbecues and such, rendered it a different Strathmore than it is today—more the dreams of one city every politician seems to share but never achieves, gathered in force together on the lawn.

He was 70 then, but you wouldn’t know it. What he and his band were doing was incorrigible. It was seductive, it was joyful, it was kickin’, it was holy happening, stomp your feet, clap your hands stuff, and not in a childish way. I guess go-go is as good a description as any because that’s what it made you want to do.

And Brown never stopped. He took a sip of water here and there, but, man, he played and could have played all night long. He kept going and shamed you into sharing the experience, like in James Brown’s music. You felt good.

At the end of the show, everybody was in the summer’s night place, sweating like a pack of dogs, shook it off and went on home, exhausted and more than a little exhilarated. We got home and my neighbor Mickey was outside. He asked where we’d been, because for all I know we glowed in the dark.

We told him.

He was impressed. “Chuck Brown?” he said, tinged with a little envy. “Wow. That’s something. That’s something, isn’t it?” We agreed.

If Chuck Brown was the Godfather of go-go, under my neighbor’s eye, I felt like a made man.

Somewhere else now, Chuck Brown is bustin’ out. I just hope they’re ready up there.

Commencement Schedules and Speakers for Georgetown and George Washington University
• May 21, 2012

This weekend sees the commencement weekend for both Georgetown University and George Washington University. There is controversy for Georgetown, which invited HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at its Public Policy Institute. The Archdiocese of Washington as well as the Cardinal Newman Society has criticized the university for allowing Sebelius to speak at a Catholic institution, viewing the Obama Administration’s healthcare directives as hostile to religious liberty. Georgetown University has defended its selection of Sebelius as a speaker in terms of academic freedom. Meanwhile, George Washington University will enjoy its main graduation speech at the National Mall with Brian Williams of NBC News, who studied at GWU.

The following information is from the website of the two neighborhood universities

From Georgetown University:

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS AND HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS

Helen Neville

Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Friday, May 18, Healy Lawn, 9 a.m.

Neville’s contributions to neuroscience have made her a leading figure in understanding the brain. She holds the Robert and Beverly Lewis Endowed Chair at the University of Oregon and is a professor of psychology and neuroscience as well as director of both the Brain Development Laboratory and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. Her major research interests involve the biological constraints and the role of experience on development in humans. She is particularly interested in the way that the human brain develops and its capacity to change in reaction to experience.

Barry Salzberg

Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa

McDonough School of Business, MBA Program

Friday, May 18, Healy Lawn, 12:30 p.m.

Salzberg is the global chief executive officer of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL). As CEO, he leads and manages the law firm and sets the strategic direction of the Deloitte global network. The network comprises 48 member firms operating in 150 countries, with approximately 182,000 people worldwide. Prior to his current position, Salzberg served as CEO of Deloitte LLP (United States) and as the U.S. managing partner. Salzberg has served in a variety of leadership roles since joining Deloitte in 1977.

Scott Case

School of Continuing Studies

Friday, May 18, Healy Lawn, 3:30 p.m.

Case is an entrepreneur and inventor who has put his talents to work pushing progress and innovation in both the private and nonprofit sectors. As the founding chief technology officer of Priceline, the “Name Your Own Price” company, he was responsible for building the technology that enabled Priceline’s rapid growth. Case is a named inventor on dozens of U.S. patents, including the underlying portfolio for Priceline. Case also co-founded Precision Training Software, a software company that developed the world’s first PC-based simulated flight instructor and photo-realistic flight simulator. Most recently, Case was named CEO of the Startup America Partnership, where he works to drive American entrepreneurship to create jobs and sustain our nation’s global leadership. Before joining the Startup America Partnership, Case was CEO of Malaria No More, where he worked to inspire individuals and institutions in the private sector to end deaths caused by malaria. Case also serves as chair of Network for Good, a national nonprofit that has distributed more than $475 million to 60,000 nonprofits and provides online fundraising and communications services to more than 5,000 nonprofit organizations.

David Simon

Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa

Georgetown College

Saturday, May 19, Healy Lawn, 9 a.m.

A former crime reporter at The Baltimore Sun, Simon is best known for his creation of the critically acclaimed television dramas “The Wire” and “Treme,” which explore the societal repercussions of the drug trade upon inner city Baltimore and a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. At The Baltimore Sun, Simon reported and wrote two works of narrative nonfiction, Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. The former is an account of a year spent with the city’s homicide squad and the latter represents a year he spent on a West Baltimore drug corner. Homicide became the basis for an NBC drama that aired from 1993 to 1999 and for which Simon became a writer and producer after leaving the newspaper in 1995. The Corner became an HBO miniseries and won three Emmy Awards in 2000. Simon also served as a writer and executive producer of HBO’s “Generation Kill,” a miniseries depicting U.S. Marines in the early days of the Iraq conflict. He is currently at work on the third season of “Treme.” Simon also writes for The New Yorker, Esquire and The Washington Post, among other publications.

Mark Green
Doctor of Science, honoris causa

School of Nursing & Health Studies

Saturday, May 19, Healy Lawn, 12 p.m.

Senior director of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Green is also a former ambassador to Tanzania and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin. While in Congress, Green helped craft a variety of foreign policy initiatives focused on issues of health, including the Global Access to HIV/AIDS Prevention, Awareness and Treatment Act of 2001 and the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act. Since March, Green has been a member of the Executive Council on Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. At the Center, he is exploring ways in which the federal government and the private sector can both independently and in partnership help alleviate poverty by fostering economic growth. The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition is a broad-based network of 400 businesses and NGOs, national security and foreign policy experts, and business, faith-based, academic and community leaders in all 50 states.

Ela R. Bhatt

Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa

Walsh School of Foreign Service

Saturday, May 19, Healy Lawn, 3 p.m.

Bhatt has defended the rights of poor and marginal women for more than 60 years. Through her early work with the Women’s Wing of the Textile Labor Association, Bhatt encountered firsthand the dire condition in her native India of self-employed women, who comprised 90 percent of the total labor force. These women had none of the legal protections extended to workers in the organized sector. To combat this injustice, Bhatt, in 1972, established the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), the largest union in India. SEWA formed a women’s cooperative bank, created a highly successful literacy program, offers child care centers and promotes low-cost housing and microfinance. Bhatt has also been a long-time consultant to UNICEF, and has served as a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation and received numerous awards.

Tim O’Shaughnessy (B’04)

McDonough School of Business

Saturday, May 19, Healy Lawn, 6 p.m.

O’Shaughnessy is the CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial, an online retailer of discounts to local businesses. He sets and communicates LivingSocial’s core strategy and oversees growth of the online business. Before LivingSocial, he led the consumer products team at Revolution Health and managed product launches at AOL. In 2010, O’Shaughnessy was named to Washington Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 and Inc.com’s 30 Under 30 list. LivingSocial earned the Hottest Venture Capital Deal award at the 2010 Northern Virginia Technology Council’s NVTC Hot Tickets Awards.

Dr. Michael Zasloff

Doctor of Science, honoris causa

Dr. Ross Fletcher

Doctor of Science, honoris causa (degree only)

School of Medicine

Sunday, May 20, Warner Theater, 11 a.m.

Zasloff is an internationally recognized immunologist and member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. Since 2004, he has been actively engaged in studies of innate immunity within the Surgical Immunology Transplant Institute at Georgetown’s department of surgery. He was named dean of Research and Translational Science at Georgetown in 2002, tasked with integrating basic science with the clinical environment of the Medical Center. Zasloff was chief of the human genetics branch at the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development in the 1980s. In 1988, he founded Magainin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a publicly traded biotechnology company. In July 1992, he joined Magainin on a full-time basis, serving as executive vice president and president of the Magainin Research Institute, a basic research division of the company. From July 1996 through November 2000, Zasloff was vice chairman of the board of Magainin Pharmaceuticals.

Fletcher created for the Veterans’ Administration the first successful, system-wide, paper free medical record, serving American service members across the nation and around the world. This electronic system now generates data available to both patient and physician in an integrated platform that has improved care with a rate of success unmatched in any other system. The Wall Street Journal credits Fletcher with leading the development of the most advanced medical record system in the nation. Since 2000, Fletcher has served as chief of staff at Washington DC VA Medical Center. He completed his M.D., medical house staff training and first-year fellowship at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He served two years with the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C., and received his cardiology fellowship training at Georgetown. Since 1972, he has been chief of cardiology at the Washington DC VA Medical Center. He has served on the faculty at Georgetown’s medical school since 1969 and is now a professor of medicine. Fletcher also directs the nationwide Veterans Affairs registry for the Pacemaker and Defibrillator Surveillance Center and the Core Holter Lab for cooperative studies in antiarrhythmic therapy in congestive heart failure and sudden death.

Arthur J. Gajarsa (L’67)

Doctor of Law, honoris causa (degree only)

Gay J. McDougall

Speaking and accepting Doctor of Law, honoris causa for her late husband, John A. Payton

Law Center

Sunday, May 20, Healy Lawn, 2 p.m.

Gajarsa has served as a judge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit since 1997. During law school at Georgetown, he worked as a patent advisor and later clerked for Judge Joseph McGarraghy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After that position, he served as special counsel and assistant to the commissioner at the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior. Prior to private practice, Gajarsa worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Defense. Gajarsa’s work in private practice spanned three decades with firms specializing in litigation of water rights, intellectual property, securities and international corporate matters. He received his bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree in economics from Catholic University.

Payton, who died this past March, served as president and director-counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund. While attending Harvard Law School, he served on its Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review and assisted with high-profile civil rights cases. These cases included the defense of a 1960s NAACP-led boycott of segregationist merchants in Mississippi. After graduating from law school, Payton served as a law clerk to Judge Cecil F. Poole of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco before joining the Washington, D.C., firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale). He chose the firm in order to continue working on NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware, the Mississippi boycott case that Wilmer lawyers argued successfully before the Supreme Court. He went on to lead the firm’s litigation department, simultaneously handling commercial matters and some of the most important civil rights cases of our time.

McDougall, formerly a United Nations Independent Expert on minorities, will accept an honorary degree on behalf of her late husband, John A. Payton. She is serving as the Robert Drinan Visiting Professor in Human Rights at the Law Center this academic year. McDougall was executive director of the international NGO Global Rights from 1994 through 2006. She has also served as an Independent Expert on the U.N. entity that oversees compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. During her time in that position, she negotiated the adoption of General Recommendation XXV on the Gender Dimensions of Racial Discrimination.

SPEAKERS AT OTHER EVENTS

James J. O’Donnell, provost

School of Foreign Service in Qatar Commencement

Saturday, May 12, Grand Hyatt Hotel in Doha, Qatar

O’Donnell has served as Georgetown’s provost since 2002. A distinguished scholar and recognized educational innovator, he has been recognized by his peers with election to the presidency of the American Philological Association and has been a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America since 2003. His scholarly work ranges widely in the cultural history of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the later Roman and early medieval periods. He is the author of seven books, including a three-volume edition of Augustine: Confessions, and a 2005 biography of Augustine. HarperCollins published his latest book, The Ruin of the Roman Empire, in 2008. In 1990, O’Donnell co-founded the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, the second online scholarly journal ever created in the humanities. He is secretary of the board of directors of the American Council of Learned Societies and chairs the board of directors of ResearchChannel. He also served two terms on the Board of Trustees of the National Humanities Center.

Helen O’Reilly (F’03)

Senior Convocation

Thursday, May 17, McDonough Arena, 2 p.m.

After graduating magna cum laude from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in 2003, O’Reilly spent three years at Advocates for Children of New York as an education advocate for detained and incarcerated youth with learning disabilities. In 2006, she was selected as a Luce Scholar and spent the next two years in the Philippines and Hong Kong working with local NGOs to advocate for fair working conditions for migrant domestic workers. She returned from Asia to start law school in 2008 and simultaneously served as a member of the Immigration and Legal Services Clinic and the Workers Rights Advocacy Clinic. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2011 and is currently working as a judicial clerk for Judge Barrington D. Parker on the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Next year, she will be working for Judge John Gleeson in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

Louis J. Freeh

ROTC Commissioning Ceremony

Friday, May 18, Gaston Hall, 7:30 a.m.

Before serving as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1993-2001, Freeh was the lead prosecutor in the so-called “Pizza Connection” case, the largest and most complex investigation undertaken at the time by the federal government. The case involved a drug-trafficking operation by organized crime members who used pizza joints as fronts. Freeh served as the federal government’s principal courtroom attorney in the 14-month trial of the criminals and won the conviction of 16 of 17 co-defendants in the case. He subsequently held positions in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as chief of the Organized Crime Unit, and as deputy and later associate U.S. attorney. He went on to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of New York before being nominated as FBI director by President Clinton. Following his many years of public service, Freeh accepted a position with MBNA America Bank, N.A., as vice chair, general counsel and ethics officer. In 2007, he founded the Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC, an independent global risk management firm.

Kathleen Sebelius

Georgetown Public Policy Institute Tropaia

Friday, May 18, Leavey Center Ballroom, 11 a.m.

Sebelius was sworn in as the 21st secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2009. Since taking office, she has led efforts to improve America’s health and enhance the delivery of human services to some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, including young children, those with disabilities and the elderly. As part of the historic Affordable Care Act, she is implementing reforms she says have ended many of the insurance industry’s most discriminatory practices and will help 34 million uninsured Americans get health coverage. She is also working with doctors, nurses, hospital leaders, employers and patients to implement policies aimed at slowing the growth of health care costs. Sebelius served as governor of Kansas from 2003 until her cabinet appointment and was named one of America’s Top Five Governors by Time magazine.

Sri Mulyani Indrawat

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (G’93)

Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) Tropaia

Friday, May 18, Gaston Hall, 7:45 p.m.

Indrawat, an Indonesian economist, served as the country’s finance minister from 2005 to 2010 and is credited with strengthening Indonesia’s economy and directing it through crises between 2007 and 2010. Indrawat also is said to have increased Indonesian investments, addressed issues of tax corruption by implementing financial reforms and decreased the country’s overall public debt. During her term as finance minister Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of $50 billion.

Lambsdorff (G’93) is a German politician and member of the European Parliament with the Free Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. This transnational alliance includes two European political parties, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and the European Democratic Party. Lambsdorff sits on the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, which manages the promotion and protection of consumer economic interests. He is also a member of the delegation for relations with the United States.

From George Washington University:

‘NBC Nightly News’ Anchor Brian Williams to Headline Weekend Celebration

“NBC Nightly News” anchor, members of Congress and the District’s deputy mayor of education will be among the speakers addressing graduates at George Washington University Commencement ceremonies May 18-20.

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News” and host of “Rock Center,” will deliver the keynote address to nearly 25,000 George Washington University graduates and guests and will receive an honorary doctorate degree, Sunday, May 20, on the National Mall. International businessman and philanthropic leader Carlos Slim, and internationally renowned artist Clarice Smith also will receive honorary degrees from the university.

At the Commencement ceremony, the Class of 2012 will be represented by graduating senior Noreen Kassam. Ms. Kassam was chosen to deliver a short speech during the ceremony by a panel of judges at the student speaker competition held Friday, April 18. She competed against 11 other students for the honor of addressing her fellow graduates. Ms. Kassam is expected to graduate from the Elliott School of International Affairs with a major in international affairs and political science.

Mr. Williams, one of the nation’s foremost television journalists, began his broadcasting career in 1981 at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kan. He worked at several local stations in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City before joining NBC News in 1993. Mr. Williams served as NBC’s chief White House correspondent and later assumed the role of anchor and managing editor of “The News With Brian Williams” on MSNBC and CNBC. Since taking over as anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News” in 2004, he has strengthened the broadcast’s position as the most-watched television newscast and has become the most highly decorated evening news anchor of the modern era. In 2007, “TIME” named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2011, NBC News launched “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” the network’s first new primetime newsmagazine in nearly two decades.

Mr. Williams attended GW for the fall semester of 1980.

Business leader and humanitarian Carlos Slim has made significant contributions to business and community development in Mexico and Latin America, and his extensive philanthropic work through his foundations has led to improvements and investments in education, health and the fine arts. Mr. Slim also was awarded the George Washington University President’s Medal in 2009.

Clarice Smith is a native of Washington, D.C., and a two-time George Washington alumna. Ms. Smith was also a member of GW’s art department faculty from 1980-1987. She has been painting professionally for 35 years and has had numerous solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in the United States and abroad. Ms. Smith presently serves on the Board of Commissioners at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
George Washington University’s Commencement activities will take place Sunday, May 8 – Sunday, May 15. The university-wide Commencement will be held the morning of Sunday, May 15, on the National Mall. A schedule of school and college celebrations, including keynote speakers, is below.

Friday, May 18

Edward “Skip” Gnehm, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to Jordan and GW alumnus, will speak to graduates at the Elliott School of International Affairs’ celebration at 11:30 a.m. at the Charles E. Smith Center.

Linda Rabbitt, founder, CEO and chairman of Rand Construction, and GW Board of Trustees member, will address graduates at the School of Business celebration at 3:30 p.m. at the Charles E. Smith Center.

Ron Ross, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will address graduates at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at 7:30 p.m. at the Charles E. Smith Center.

Saturday, May 19

De’Shawn Wright, D.C. Deputy Mayor for Education, will address graduates at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development celebration at 8 a.m. in the Charles E. Smith Center.

Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, will address graduates at the university’s Interfaith Baccalaureate service at 9:30 a.m. at Western Presbyterian Church.

David Rain, GW professor of geography, will address graduates at the noon Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Celebration at the Charles E. Smith Center

Diane Rehm, host of National Public Radio’s “The Diane Rehm Show,” will speak to graduates of the School of Public Health and Health Services at noon in Lisner Auditorium.

Heidi Bardot, GW professor of art therapy, will address graduates at the 3:30 p.m. Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Celebration at the Charles E. Smith Center.

GW students Maggie Richards and Mong Tuyen Tran will address health sciences graduates of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at 4 p.m. in Lisner Auditorium.

Congressman Rush Holt (D-N.J.) will address graduates of the College of Professional Studies at 7:30 p.m. in Lisner Auditorium.

Sunday, May 20

“NBC Nightly News” Anchor Brian Williams and GW student Noreen Kassam will deliver remarks during the university-wide Commencement ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on the National Mall.

Carmen M. Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, J.D. ’81, will speak at the Law School Celebration at 2:30 p.m. in the Charles E. Smith Center.

Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen, M.D. ’70, will address M.D. graduates of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at 2:30 p.m. in Lisner Auditorium.