Cool off on the Mall With Screen on the Green
• July 11, 2012

Screen on the Green starts on July 16 and
goes through Aug. 6 on the National Mall. Films
are shown on Monday nights beginning at dusk,
around 8:30-9:00 p.m. People start to claim their
spots on the lawn as early as 5 p.m. Movies play
except in extreme weather, and there are no rain
days. This years films include “Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid,” “It Happened One
Night,” “From Here to Eternity” and “Psycho.”

Refined Bathroom Decor
•

Waterworks is a unique, family- owned business that — since its 1978 opening in Danbury, Conn. — has been selling everything for your bathroom — in all its decadence. The Georgetown location, now in its 15th year of operation, is one of 13 stores the company operates nationwide. “We sell bath fixtures, fittings, surfaces, and kitchen sinks,” said general manager Shanda Burk. “People come in for plumbing, tiles, and rugs — but it depends on what they’re looking for.”

The store’s appeal lies in the natural light reflected from its central skylight and the various windows located around the premises. “The natural light of the store is amazing. It’s so nice to see these products in a natural space, especially when picking surfaces,” Burk said.

Many products, including bath towels, bath accessories, bathtubs, and showers, are modeled within the store, providing customers with a picturesque image of what their future bathroom may look like. “It’s a bright, inviting and clean open space that showcases a distinct collection,” she added.

Waterworks’ style, Burk said, is: “Classic European traditional with high-end finishes, qualities, and focus on details.” It’s a style appealing to high-end clients in the Georgetown area.

Burk said the style is not for renters but homeowners. “When you walk into our store you’ll see that we have a certain look. The Waterworks look. It’s very distinct and people know it.”

If you’re looking to redesign, the consultants of Waterworks can assist you. “Our consultants have 40-plus years of experience in plumbing and tile,” Burk said. “They’re a very educated and knowledgeable staff.” If you want to check out more Waterworks work, visit the store at 3314 M Street, NW, or go online at www.Waterworks.com. ?

Weather or Not, Count Your Blessings
•

Throw in one heat wave that just went on and on and on, in the end resulting in a record-breaking four days of 100-plus-degrees temperatures. Throw in a sudden, swift line of storms on a hot June 29th night in the area which upended trees, resulted in power outages that left thousands in the city and area without electric power.

As time passed, people without power, people carefully making their way through streets blocked off by the presence of fallen trees, people waiting endlessly in lines at gasoline stations (many stations were closes due to electric outages), people and restaurant owners who had to throw away food going bad for lack of refrigeration, people unable to use their advanced fone and computer tools and toys, the elderly suffering in homes without air conditioning, all made their feelings known.

A great daily and plaintive note began to be heard in our area, over the airwaves, in tweets and toots and blogs and e-mails.

Most of us experienced the discomforts of the storm and the heat wave which have made their presence know all the way across the country, and we can be excused if things just got plain frustrating. The ongoing television commentary, often hysterical warnings and coverage from self-styled storm centers and watches didn’t help much: one weatherman kept telling us that such and such a place was getting “hammered” by hail and thunderstorms while another displayed his gift for making the word “huge”—as in huge storms, huge hail, huge heat—sound even, well, huger, than it was.

But as one local commentator says, “Folks, let’s get real.”

Things can always be worse. Can’t get your e-mails or tweet or text your friends: read a newspaper (ours, included), or, use the phone, if it works. If not, send a card. Did that falling tree across the street scare you? Be glad it didn’t hit the place where you live, and we can tell stories about that.

More important—like snowmageddon and other natural disasters that are increasingly more a part of our daily lives—you survived. Sure, times are a little more anxious, given that we’re only in early July with lots of good old summertime left with all its attendant climatic dangers. But you survived, and not so much worse for wear.

Some were not so lucky. The storm—and the heat—caused fatalities across the country, including in this region.

Two elderly women in the area were killed when trees struck their home. A man on his way home from school died when his car was struck by a tree.

Mohammad Ghafoorian who lived near Woodley Park died that Friday night. Power lines hit his Maserati, and it went up in flames. He ran out of his home to put the fire out but stepped on a live power line on the ground. The story, told in the Washington Post, was filled with irony. But his son summed all it up best, when he told the newspaper of his larger-than-life father who emigrated here from Iran: “He lived like a storm, and a storm took him. I think only a storm like that could take him.”

And then there’s Carolina Alcalde, a D.C. resident, native of Peru, office manager for a national consulting firm and avid motorcyclist who was struck by a tree on the night of the storm near Meridian Park. She suffered a severed spinal cord, broken rib and fractures and was paralyzed below the waist. A special fund has been set up for Alcade and her family by friends. We encourage our readers to help if they can. Visit their fundraising website: https://www.wepay.com/donations/camp-carolina.

Let us count our blessings.

Ins & OutsJuly 11, 2012
•

Massimo Dutti will open at 1220 Wisconsin Ave., NW, a space formerly occupied by American Eagle Outfitters. Although the date is still pending, this launch is part of the international company?s expansion into the U.S. and Canada. Offering top-notch fashions made of the finest quality materials, Massimo Duti will surely be welcomed into Georgetown with open arms. Call 202-965-5472 or contact massimodutti.com

The Scotch & Soda Amsterdam Couture is taking over the location of Betsey Johnson?s store at 3029 M St., NW. With collections already featured at Saks Fifth Ave in Friendship Heights and Universal Gear in the Logan Circle Historic District, Scotch & Soda in Georgetown will showcase the signature style of the Amsterdam-based brand. Call 202-338-4090 or scotch-soda.com.

Suitsupply at the Four Seasons Hotel at 2828 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., is currently under construction. The men?s apparel store should re-open within a month. Suitsupply.com

**ALSO OPENING SOON:** As previously reported, Fluevog Shoes, from that campy, funky Canadians, is coming to 1265 Wisconsin Avenue, next to the soon-to-open See Optical. The Jonathan Adler Store, next door at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and N Street, is still being working on.?

Weekend Roundup July 05, 2012
• July 9, 2012

Volta Park MPD Meet & Greet

July 7th, 2012 at 09:00- 10:00 AM | Free | Tel: (202) 282-0380 | Event Website

Come by this Saturday and meet Meet Officer Atkins and strengthen ties with the community & our local MPD representatives! Join us to share strategies to improve neighborhood safety! Sponsored by : CAG’s Public Safety Program. Meet at picnic tables on the lawn and in Case of Rain, meet at the Safeway Cafe.

Address

Volta Park Recreation Center and Pool

1555 34th St NW,

Quest: Road Signs

July 7th, 2012 at 09:30 AM | Free | information@nationaltheatre.org | Tel: (202) 783-3372 | Event Website

A talented cast of deaf, hard of hearing and hearing performers celebrates deaf culture in an entertaining performance featuring a mixture of story theatre, mime, A-B-C stories, poetry and songs- all performed in American Sign Language.

Address

The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Castleton Festival at the Hylton: Grand Opera in Concert: Puccini’s “La Bohème.”

July 7th, 2012 at 08:00 PM | $30, $45, $60 | hylton@gmu.edu | Tel: 888-945-2468 | Event Website

Unencumbered by sets and elaborate costuming, this spectacular concert version of Puccini’s “La Bohème” conducted by Maestro Lorin Maazel allows the audience to be mesmerized by the Castleton Festival Orchestra and singers performing the beloved music of this heartrending opera.
Address

Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas, VA 20110

CAPCS Online Summer Concert Series

July 11th, 2012 at 12:00 PM | free | Tel: (866) 339-9912 | Event Website

Online students don’t just hang out with their computers – they enjoy summer fun with their classmates, too. Students, families and staff from Community Academy Public Charter School Online (CAPCS Online) will be grooving to everything from funk rock to New Orleans jazz this summer during a series concerts throughout the summer. Interested families are also invited to see how the CAPCS Online community likes to have a good time and to get their questions answered by knowledgeable staff members.

Address

Woodrow Wilson Plaza
Washington, DC

NSLM Art Exhibit Chukkers: The Sport of Polo in Art

July 12th, 2012 at 10:00 AM | free | hreuter@nsl.org | Tel: 540-687-6542 | Event Website

Chukkers: The Sport of Polo in Art

July 12 – September 30, 2012

Museum Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.

Chukkers: the Sport of Polo in Art, curated by the NSLM and researched by H.A. Laffaye with loans from the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame, explores the game and its history with over fifty paintings and watercolors, twenty sculptures and medals, and a selection of antique trophies.

Address

National Sporting Library and Museum

102 The Plains Road

Middleburg, Virginia 20117

Georgetown BID’s Bracco Departs
•

The Georgetown Business Improvement District is looking for a new executive director. Less than three weeks after its annual upbeat meeting, the Georgetown BID unexpectedly announced the resignation of James Bracco, its executive director since 2009.

“Jim Bracco, has decided to leave the BID after an exemplary three-and-a-half years of service,” reported Georgetown BID’s board president, Crystal Sullivan in a July 3 e-mail to its members. “On behalf of the BID’s board of directors, we would like to thank Jim for his great efforts on making Georgetown a clean, safe and enticing community for our businesses to thrive and visitors to enjoy. He has been a steady presence in not only the Georgetown community but in representing our neighborhood amongst city agencies and initiatives. We greatly appreciate his time and level of service to Georgetown, and he will be missed.”

At the June 13 meeting at the House of Sweden, Bracco gave an update on projects and said he was especially proud of the clean-up crews, whose work he admired each morning when driving to work. Among other projects, he also showed images of the holiday plantings to come as well as a sketch of the holiday ornament to be dramatically suspended over the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, much like the lighted decoration that hangs each Christmastime at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan.

At its big meeting in 2011, the BID launched its new website and with its re-branding effort revealed the neighborhood’s latest retail motto: “Come out and play.”

No replacement for Bracco has been announced.

The next big BID event is Georgetown’s Fashion Night Out, Sept. 6. Its tagline is “Liberty and fashion for all.”

Carniverous Plants Featured at US Botanic Garden (photos)
• July 6, 2012

The United States Botanic Garden’s exhibit on carnivorous plants will run through October 8, 2012. Savage Gardens: The Real and Imaginary World of Carnivorous Plants “tells the story of carnivorous plants and their astounding adaptations to inhospitable habitats. Combining science, botany and hands-on activity, the exhibit demonstrates the wonders of these unique plants and the importance of preserving the delicate environments in which they live.”.

On Saturday June 16, the Botanic Garden hosted a family festival on the Conservatory Terrace featuring ativities designed to educate and investigate the amazing world of plants that need to eat bugs to survive.
The Garden is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, including all weekends and holidays. The Conservatory’s main entrance is located at 100 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20001, on the National Mall just a block from the Capitol.

View our photos from the US Botanic Garden by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="100862,126917,126925,126936,126944,126953,126961,126971,126979,126908,126900,126889,127011,126853,127006,126861,127000,126870,126995,126880,126987" nav="thumbs"]

Nora Ephron: We’ll Have What She Had
• July 2, 2012

In the wake of the death of Nora Ephron at the too-young age of 71 from a complication of acute myeloid leukemia June 26, they’ve been running the same clip from “When Harry Met Sally,” the great rom-com that starred Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal for which Ephron wrote the screenplay.

You know the one: Ryan explains and demonstrates to a skeptical Crystal that women do indeed fake orgasms, and here’s how we do it, to which a female diner at a nearby table says: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

It’s as if that line somehow defined Ephron’s life and career, but then, we’re in the let’s-go-to-the-video or YouTube era, so that accounts for it.

More difficult to account for and easier to admire is Ephron’s life and its attendant accomplishments. She was funny, smart, graceful, charming, loyal and always curious, with the gift of making the specifics of her life universal to ours. She had courage, sharp eyes and sometimes sharp words that hurt like pinpricks but opened our eyes. She had an eagerness to know, to share and to experience.

What I would say — and I’m a man (not that there’s anything wrong with that) — I wish I had what she had.

As it was, she left behind a lot of evidence of her qualities and her impact. She was a writer, after all, and writers never think to think they’ve written too much. Born of show business parents, she started out as a reporter, worked on now nearly extinct daily newspapers, wrote personal-styled essays for Ladies Home Journal and Esquire Magazine, a pairing you’re not likely to see in the same sentence again any time soon.

Ephron was keenly aware of who and what she was: a woman working in a man’s world, which was especially true when she turned her scribbling gifts to screenwriting, and seduced that Hollywood macho part of town into mush with her fierce friendliness, her interest in everything and everybody around her and an ability—very important in Hollywood—to turn out hits. So, there was “When Harry Met Sally,” about life-long friend who try to keep a friendship from turning into sex and love and romance; “You’ve Got Mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” two Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romances that charmed the country. She wrote “Silkwood,” a gritty movie about whistle blower Karen Silkwood, directed by Mike Nichols. She wrote, most recently, “Julie and Julia,” about Julia Child, starring Meryl Streep.

And perhaps most heartfelt and anger-felt was “Heartburn,” a very thinly disguised novel about her marriage to Watergate-famous reporter and writer Carl Bernstein, who had the caddish misfortune to conduct an affair with the wife of the British Ambassador to the United States, Margaret Jay.

This would become a movie with Streep playing the herself role and Jack Nicholson as the husband. Much of it was filmed in and around Georgetown in various locations, including a hair salon which made old Georgetown giddy as all get-out.

Efron was, by and large, of the species New Yorker even if she did spend time in La La Land. It didn’t matter what it was, she would turn everything into writing gold of the most appealing kind. Her inspiration and heroine was Dorothy Parker, the acidic, sharply funny, extremely smart writer, reporter, short story and fiction writer and wit of the 1920s and 1930s who held her own among the male verbal jousters of New York’s Algonquin Club. Famously, she wrote an abbreviated and to-the-point review of Katharine Hepburn’s first stage effort thusly: “Miss Hepburn ran the emotional gamut from A to B.”

The other day, we were walking in the neighborhood and saw a woman walking a little white maltese dog. She was wagging her tail in friendly fashion. “What’s her name?” we asked. “Dottie,” the woman replied. “I named her after Dorothy Parker.” Dottie eyed me skeptically. I fully expect to see a beautiful, skeptical, smart and funny little pooch, named Nora in neighborhoods across the country very soon. Or at least a statue. Or at least a movie. Starring Meryl Streep, saying, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Weekend Roundup June 28, 2012
•

Castleton Festival at the Hylton: Gershwin and Company: An All-American Evening

June 28th, 2012 at 08:00 PM | $30, $45, $60 | hylton@gmu.edu | Tel: 888-945-2468 | Event Website

The young artists of the Castleton Festival perform “Gershwin and Company: An All-American Evening,” a musical celebration of the American spirit, under the baton of world-renowned Maestro Lorin Maazel. Pianist Kevin Cole joins the orchestra for a riveting performance of George Gershwin’s most popular work, “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Address

Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas, VA 20110

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

June 28th, 2012 at 11:00 AM | Free | Tel: 202-633-1000 | Event Website

Wednesdays-Sundays, June 27-July 8

The Festival is held outdoors on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between the Smithsonian museums. Admission is free.

This year’s theme includes:

Citified: “Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River,” “Campus and Community” and “Creativity and Crisis.”

Address

The National Mall (Between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial) Washington, DC

Community Class at Down Dog Yoga

June 29th, 2012 at 04:00 PM | 6-10$ | Event Website

Every Friday, Down Dog Yoga offers a community class at a discounted rate to encourage new yogis to sweat it out. The reduced drop in rate is $10 per class or $6 for students. Register online beforehand to secure a spot!

Address

Down Dog Yoga, 1046 Potomac St NW

Georgetown Group Runs

June 30th, 2012 at 09:00 AM

Join Georgetown Running Company with a few friends a weekly weekend run. Every week, the community is welcome to join a group that leaves from the store.

Address

Georgetown Running Co., 3401 M St NW, Washington, DC

Penguin Bob Reading and Drawing

June 30th, 2012 at 09:30 AM | Free | information@nationaltheatre.org | Tel: (202) 783-3372 | Event Website

Artist, author and illustrator Joe Jamaldinian enthralls the kids with an exciting adventure featuring his children’s book character, Penguin Bob. With some help from the audience, Joe sketches a colorful story in which Bob follows his quest to teach children to pursue their dreams in a multi-cultural world of fascinating people.

Address

The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Great American Festival

June 30th, 2012 at 03:00 PM | $39.00-69.00 | Tel: 877-628-5427

Ozomatli and Eve 6 are among the dozen bands and DJs taking over National Harbor’s piers, pavilion and beach area for a day-long pre-July 4 blowout. Local acts the Dance Party, See-I and Hot 99.5 DJ Chris Styles are also featured. Expect the usual mix of food vendors, beer tents and games, capped with fireworks over the Potomac River. Special VIP tickets include unlimited beer and access to a private area with acoustic sets by Ozomatli, the Dance Party and See-I.

Address

National Harbor, 150 National Plaza, Fort Washington, MD

GUATEfest

July 1st, 2012 at 08:00 AM | $10 pre event, $15 at the door, Kids under 12 are free | guatefest2012@gmail.com | Tel: 703-587-2720 | Event Website

GUATEfest is a Guatemalan Festival featuring cultural activities, music, food, crafts for kids and much more. Featuring bands- Radio Viejo, Giovanny Pinzon, Osman Broody, Sonora Concepcion, Invasores Musical, Banda FM zacapa, Tormenta Musical, Raibales and more. Come and join us to support the Latin Community on July 1st 2012. 8am-8pm. Please purchase tickets from Megamart, RIA/Bancomerico, Ticketlatino.com

Address

Gunston Middle School, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206

Independence Day Ice Cream Social

July 3rd, 2012 at 01:00 PM | $5-10, Military Free | mkatz@tudorplace.org | Tel: (202) 965-0400 | Event Website

George Washington loved ice cream, and the founders of Tudor Place loved and revered their forebear George Washington. We’ll start with a special, family-friendly mansion tour focusing on its many George and Martha Washington connections. Then, make your own ice cream sundaes in the garden, and enjoy children’s games and crafts. All participants will receive a special copy of a rare, personal letter from Washington belonging to the Tudor Place archives.

Address

Tudor Place Historic House and Garden, 1644 31 Street NW

Mitt Romney Coming to Georgetown
• June 29, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be showing in Georgetown June 27 for an exclusive fundraising dinner party hosted by Bob and Suzy Pence.

Unlike Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Romney does not appear to scoff at “Georgetown cocktail parties.”

The invitation-only dinner will cost $50,000 per person and will be held in the Pences’ penthouse at 3030 K St., N.W. That is the address for the condominiums of Washington Harbour, where Nancy Pelosi also lives. The dinner is one of three fundraising events for Romney taking place this month in or near D.C.

On June 25, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), both potential vice-presidental running mates with Romney, will be at a reception geared toward young professionals. The reception will be held on a rooftop in downtown Washington. Tickets begin at $100 per person.

Ann Romney will headline a dinner fundraiser being hosted by former Maryland governor Bob Ehrlich and his wife, Kendel. The fundraiser will take place near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and tickets will begin at $1,000 with dinner costing $15,000 per person