One Georgetown Student’s View of His Neighbors
• May 30, 2012

I will remember my graduation day as one of the happiest of my life. Receiving my diploma onstage in front of classmates, family and faculty was one of my proudest moments ever. Saturday, May 19, was a beautiful day that will not be topped anytime soon. There was, though, one group absent from Healy Lawn that played an important role during my four years on the Hilltop. Besides faculty and fellow students, my neighbors in Georgetown had a big part in molding my undergraduate experience, for better or for worse.

One thing guides do not tell aspiring students during Georgetown University’s campus tour is that most neighbors are not fans of the university or its students. During my first few weeks as a freshman, I would be disheartened as a party was stopped by the university’s Department of Public Safety or the Metropolitan Police Department. By my senior year, it felt like almost any gathering inevitably ended in flashlights and firm words from a staffer of the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program, better known as S.N.A.P. Students cannot even be sure if they’re not on camera, thanks to Stephen R. Brown’s DrunkenGeorgetownStudents.com, Burleith’s version of TMZ.

Besides dipping their fingers in students’ private activities, neighbors have also effected the university’s relationship with its own students. Georgetown’s 10-year campus plan has been a point of contention since my sophomore year. I have sat in on numerous advisory neighborhood commission meetings and one D.C. Zoning Commission hearing to listen to horror stories about my classmates from exasperated neighbors.

This firm resistance to the university’s growth has affected student life as administrators scramble to appeal to the neighbors, while protecting their own interests. This was clearest in the university’s scaling back of this year’s Georgetown Day celebration on April 27, three days before what could have been the Zoning Commission’s final hearing on the 2010-2020 Campus Plan. Held at the end of the spring semester, Georgetown Day was legendary and fun, even if in the words of Georgetown’s associate vice president for student affairs, Jeanne Lord — for being a “celebration by the campus community,” rather than a “celebration of the campus community.” Inflatables and a beer garden were cut from the day’s programs, and this year’s celebration was a shadow of what it used to be.
There has been a lot of squabbling over four years, but I will say that my personal interactions with my Georgetown neighbors have been nothing but gracious and courteous. Whether in Volta Park or at an ANC meeting, Georgetown residents were always interested in who I was and what I was doing as a student at the nearby university. Georgetown is a beautiful neighborhood, and I am grateful to have been able to share it with neighbors who care deeply about it.

It is a shame that students and Georgetown residents can rarely reach common ground. Georgetown is a lot of things, and — whether the neighbors like it not — it is also a college town. Although many residents fear that unbridled growth by the university will lower the quality of life in the surrounding area, they could work more directly with students to ensure that it is maintained.

Nico Dodd, who earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Georgetown College, was an editorial intern at the Georgetowner in the summer of 2011.

Mr. Mayor, It’s Time to Talk to Us
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Talk to almost anybody about recent revelations, charges and events surrounding Mayor Vincent Gray’s election campaign, especially folks who supported him, and the result is not so much shock as a deep sense of frustration and disappointment.

Two operatives in the campaign—long time ally and friend Thomas W. Gore, who was the assistant treasurer for the Gray’s victorious 2010 campaign, and mystery man and campaign operative Howard Brooks, in guilty pleas to federal prosecutors, admitted that money had been given to fringe candidate Sulaimon Brown to keep his anti-Adrian Fenty campaign alive.

Gore had major roles in Gray’s successful campaigns for a Ward 7 Council seat and for the city council chairmanship. Brooks had been specifically hired for the 2010 campaign. Gore admitted that he and unnamed (so far) others had come up with a plan to pay Brown hundreds of dollars to keep him in the race, where his appearances were noted for their vitriolic attacks on Fenty. Brown had also said that he had been promised a job in the Gray administration. After the election, he did get a job but was fired shortly thereafter.

Other accusations have emerged since, including the possibility of a shadow of a “shadow campaign,” involving developer and Gray supporter Jeffrey Thompson. Gore admitted to shredding the contents of a notebook detailing the payments to Brown, and Brooks admitted lying to the FBI.

The two convictions were the proverbial shoes to drop in the long-standing investigatory cloud hanging over the Gray Administration, a cloud that seemed to wound his mayoralty seriously, almost from the get-go. Most observers believe that this is not the end but perhaps only the beginning of more charges which could lead to the mayor himself.

From the beginning of March (when Brown’s story first emerged), and all the subsequent hearings, investigations and revelations, the mayor has remained steadfastly silent, refusing to talk to the press or the public, other than to maintain his innocence of any wrong-doing and his disbelief that anyone in his campaign would do such things.

Yet at least two of his campaign workers did do such things and more. There is something stark and unequivocal about the admissions of Gore and Brooks—there is no getting around them. They are not rumors, speculations, wild charges, political rants or media exaggerations. They are what they are: facts. Gore did order payments, and Brooks did give money to Brown, in the form of cash and money orders. Gore did shred records. Brooks did lie to the FBI.

There is a real cover-up here. There is a real plan which can easily be construed as a conspiracy. And the political process — the 2010 mayoral election campaign — was tainted by the mayor’s campaign staff if not the mayor himself. That is a legally and morally serious matter.

Gray has even stopped giving his usual denials. He has simply refused to talk about the whole mess on the advice of his attorney, he says.

But he should, and, really, he must. His silence is becoming deafening.

Because silence festers, it keeps the public from imaging the best outcomes. It, inevitably, as one Washington Post columnist bluntly stated, leads you to the conclusion that the mayor was either a fool or a liar.

If the mayor was a part of this—if he sat in on and gave approval to a plan to pay Brown—then, he lied since about the time of the first payment to Brown. He protested too much when he expressed disapproval of Brown’s more loose-cannon invectives against Fenty on the campaign trail
The entire reign of Gray as mayor, during which, oddly enough, the city appears to have actually prospered and remain on a steady course, has been conducted in an atmosphere that is surreal. The mayor remained under an ever-darkening cloud, and the public’s trust in him as well as the District Council—which was also plagued by major ethical issues on the part of some of its members—was as low as it can possibly get.

But the strangest thing of all to some was Gray’s silence. Most politicians, faced with an ongoing political scandal, try to get out in front of it, not simply by making brusque denials, but by grabbing the story by the neck and killing it. Instead, Gray has simply ignored it.

This seems to be a politically and ethically suicidal approach. It does a grave disservice to the city, and to the voters who elected Gray, to all voters, many of whom had been impressed by his conduct as council chairman, by his approachability, by his candor, his then unsullied claims of honesty as a politician. He has now an obligation to explain himself, to tell the story, whether his lawyer says otherwise or not.

It doesn’t really matter that there (as far as we know) were small amounts of money involved, or that the whole plan did not affect the outcome. What matters is that the fringe candidate who was dismissed by many appears to have been telling the truth, at least in terms of the information that was verified recently. What matters is that the process itself was sullied.

Speculation has already started about potential mayoral candidates for 2014. That’s political noodling. With each passing day, and no word from the mayor, district residents might not want to wait that long.

So far, the mayor hasn’t told us anything.

He has to start now.

He owes it to everyone.

Inside DC Jazz
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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.

Archdiocese of Washington, Catholic University, Others Sue Obama Administration
• May 29, 2012

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.

Author of ‘The Exorcist’ Threatens Suit Against His Alma Mater, Georgetown University
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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.”

Next-Generation Georgetown on Display at Concerts in the Parks
• May 24, 2012

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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Fiesta Asia Street Fair Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on Pennsylvania Ave. (photos)
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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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