News & Politics

Georgetowner • July 7, 2011

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Live Jazz at Historic Henley Park Hotel

JUNE 25TH, 2011 AT 07:30 PM

Nancy Scimone sings lively jazz and lush ballads by Mercer, Berlin, Jobim, Gershwin and Ellington. She’s sung at the Kennedy Center, Twins Jazz, Carlyle Club and sparkles on the intimate stage of Henley’s Blue Bar Lounge. Cozy tapestry seats and ambiance for conversation or listening. Classic cocktails, extensive wines, shareable small plates (tuna au poivre, pear bread pudding.) 7:30-11:30 pm Near Metro www.HenleyPark.com 202-638-5200 A prestigious member of Historic Hotels of America.

DC Caribbean Carnival

JUNE 25, 2011 AT 11:00 AM

The DC Caribbean Carnival is annual Caribbean style parade and festival that will help encourage cross-cultural programs within the DC community. The carnival’s colorful parade features 30 participating groups representing the Caribbean, Latin America and the Diaspora, and more than 3,000 masqueraders parade in colorful costumes portraying different themes. The DC Caribbean Carnival also includes a “Tropical Arena” with foods, games, and live performances.

200th Birthday of The Greenhouse at Oatlands

JUNE 26TH, 2011 AT 02:00 PM

The celebration will commemorate the 200th birthday of the greenhouse, built in 1810 by George Carter. The Loudoun Master Gardeners will be on hand to diagnose plant problems and provide gardening advice. Oatlands will offer half-price tours of the Mansion all day on the 26th.
The party is complete with cake and balloons.

Rammy’s 2011

JUNE 26TH, 2011 AT 05:30 PM

RAMMYS is an annual awards gala and fundraiser that recognizes the exceptional talent of the restaurant industry in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Celebrating the 29th annual event in 2011, a lively awards presentation precedes a bountiful dinner reception and dancing. Fifteen awards are given annually in categories such as: Fine Dining Restaurant of theYear, Rising Culinary Star, New Restaurant, Restaurant Employee, Beverage/Mixology Program.

Great Georgetown Water Balloon Battle

JUNE 26TH, 2011 AT 12-3:00 PM

The Washington Harbour will being hosting Georgetown’s first ever water balloon battle from 12 – 3 p.m. All are welcome to toss hundreds of pre-filled water balloons and compete to win prizes.
The festivities will occur at Georgetown Waterfront and Super Soakers or any other water toys are permitted.

Gary Tischler •

If you want to look at a show that’s a true picture of the creative and commercial engines that run mainstream Broadway, you don’t have to go any further than “Wicked,” the road show juggernaut now sitting pretty and green (in more ways than one) at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House.

That is, if you can get a ticket.

“Wicked,” the super-spectacular show, is a kind of adult-ish back story of what goes on in the wonderful world of Oz. The show is getting big audiences, a good chunk of them adolescent girls who imagine themselves with green skin putting on a black witch hat, holding a wizard’s wand, bonding with the popular girl.

How big is “Wicked?” It’s the main musical heavyweight on Broadway, there are currently seven world-wide touring companies, including two in North America, it sells out everywhere it lands. And you know what? It’s terrific entertainment. Big and splashy in sets and spectacle, but also heart, not to mention voice. It’s got music and lyrics by Broadway veteran Stephen Schwartz (“Godspell” and “Pippin”), it’s directed by veteran Joe Montello, and it has a wonderful seasoned cast who could probably do this in its sleep, but makes it seems as fresh as opening night on Broadway.

And it has the practically universal national memory of “The Wizard of Oz.” A memory, thanks to novelist Gregory Maguire, which it turns completely upside down and inside out in a way that doesn’t destroy the Judy, Dorothy, Toto MGM fable, but adds an adult and somewhat dark, contemporary edge and depth to it.

Even Dorothy might have enjoyed this tale, a kind of origin story of Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the outsider with emerald green skin and a secret power. As a story, its strongest element is its unlikely bonding story, as Elphaba, the ultimate outcast with her sickly green looks and monotone black and grey style ends up having to room at an Oz prep school with Glinda, the perfect popular posh girl, blonde, radiant, condescending, shallow and proud of it.

But this is a very strange Oz, where munchkins are a joke, animals talk, the wizard is a cynical manipulator who rules with the aid of Madame Morrible, a full-blown maliciously wonderful macabre personality played with unabashed high dudgeon by Randy Danson, the former Arena Stage star who’s making a triumphant homecoming.

In addition to flying monkeys, an Oz that looks more like a sometimes sinister, sometimes splendid New York club, there is tragedy aplenty, there’s Elphaba’s beautiful, wheelchair-bound sister, there is, of course a prince, for whose affections the witches vie, there’s a wonderful professor who’s a goat who becomes a scapegoat, there is revolution and conflict, as Elphaba becomes a very active protector of animals and foe of conformity.

I’ve seen this show in its first – and blockbuster – go around, and for the life of me, I didn’t remember much about it. This version, however, is, if not unforgettable, certainly a wowser, and a big Broadway show that manages to engage heart and mind, maybe not in a Shakespearean way, but in an old-fashioned way.

Some—heck a lot—of the credit goes to Dee Roscioli as Elphaba (she’s performed the role more than any other actress) who not only sings the part with a remarkable rangy and powerful voice, but plays the part in a way that’s engaging, tart, intelligent and entirely convincing. She’s well matched with Amanda Jane Copper as the bright-eyed, high-energy Glinda who becomes—ruefully—Glinda the Good Witch.

Schwartz’s songs and music—including “No One Mourns the Wicked,” “Popular” (which is a showcase for Glinda and which Cooper deftly knocks out of the park) and the signature “Defying Gravity,” the breath-taking act-one number which Roscioli owns, lock-stock-and-lungs—move the story along, without necessarily being the kinds of songs that will, decades later, find their way into a karaoke bar.
I have to say that I’m not that big a fan of songs like “Gravity,” which are showcases for lung power and sound awfully like an Olympic competition for So-You-Wanna-Be-an-Opera-Star or Who-Can-Hold-This-Impossible-Note-the-Longest rally. They’re becoming increasingly a part of Broadway musicals, it’s the kind of thing where the audience holds its breath for as long as the note holds, then jumps out of its collective seats.

That being said, it’s the whole package that counts here, and if you get to go, you get your money’s worth, which, we hear, is quite a bit of money for many of the seats.

“Wicked” is here for an extended run through August 21 at the Opera House.

Courtney Overcash •

Those who are lucky enough to reside so close to our nation’s “Front Yard” may not feel inclined to take a stroll down the National Mall regularly. However, if you did, you may notice russet lifeless grass, broken dilapidated sidewalks and dirty, green water in the once clear pools.

These conditions have raised many eyebrows as more than 30 million people come every year to visit the National Mall and its monuments.

To put it simply, the current cost of maintaining the Mall exceeds the existing budget. In order to help rectify this situation, Marriott hotels in the Washington, D.C. area are teaming up with the Trust for the National Mall to help preserve this national treasure.

Participating J.W. Marriott, Renaissance, and Marriott hotels in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland are sponsoring the Check In to Help Out Package. This voluntary package will take a $5 donation from every nightly stay and contribute it to the Trust for the National Mall towards restoration. The package is available now through Sept. 5, 2011. The rates range from $134 to $224 per room, per night, excluding tax and gratuities. Donators will receive a complimentary breakfast for two adults and all children under 12 along with a keepsake Trust for the National Mall viewbook.

The participating Marriott hotels combined with the ongoing efforts of The Trust for the National Mall aim to raise $350 million towards revitalization and preservation for future generations.

The Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit partner of the National Park Service, has already raised enough money to revitalize the Jefferson Memorial tidal basin and the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. The Trust has also raised over $2.2 million needed to introduce an interactive visitor signage to the Mall.

Suzanna Nelson •

July 1, 2011

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The Festival is held outdoors on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between the Smithsonian museums. There is no admission charge. At the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, you will find many exemplary practitioners of diverse, authentic, living traditions—both old and new. The goal of the Festival is to strengthen and preserve these traditions by presenting them on the National Mall. Tradition-bearers and the public can connect with and learn from one another and, in a respectful way, begin to understand cultural differences and similarities. Tel: 202.633.1000 http://www.festival.si.edu/

Address

National Mall

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum 35th Anniversary Celebration

To see more on this event, Click Here

July 2, 2011

National Harbor Plaza Stage and Waterfront

Kick-off Independence Day Weekend by celebrating on the waterfront at National Harbor for America’s best birthday party!
Enjoy five bands including The Wailers, Blind Melon and Pat McGee, three DJs, multiple stages & party areas, and a spectacular fireworks show while overlooking the Potomac River!
More information and tickets are available now at: www.TheUncleSamJam.com

July 4, 2011

Fireworks cruise on the Odyssey

07:30 am | $179.90 per adult | tel: 866.404.8439

Step aboard the Odyssey this Independence Day for front-row seats to one of the country’s most spectacular firework displays. On Monday, July 4, the Odyssey offers guests a romantic evening under an illuminated night sky, with a dinner cruise featuring live entertainment and dancing. Dinner is priced at $179.90 per adult and includes a premium open bar; sailing from 7:30pm – 11:30pm. All passengers must be 21 or older with ID. To book, call 866.404.8439 or reserve online.

Address

600 Water Street
Washington, DC 20024

Fireworks cruise on the Spirit of Washington

July 4th, 2011 at 07:30 am | $149.90 per adult | tel: 866.404.8439

Step aboard the Spirit of Washington this Independence Day for front-row seats to one of the country’s most spectacular firework displays on Monday, July 4. Guests can dance the night away with the Spirit’s playlist of top dance hits, enjoy a premium bar and the Spirit’s renowned Grande Buffet. Dinner is priced at $149.90 per adult; sailing from 7:30pm – 11:30pm. All passengers must be 21 or older with ID. To book, call 866.404.8439 or reserve online.

Address

Pier 4
Washington, DC

Atlantic City Commemorates Independence Day with the largest Continuous Fireworks Celebration

July 4th, 2011 at 09:20 pm | free

This 4th of July, one of America’s largest fireworks displays gets even bigger. This year, the Atlantic City Fireworks Spectacular will be even greater when two different fireworks displays will be set off within moments of each other for the first time in history. The illuminating display, which will be synced to music playing on 95.1 WAYV FM and inside all the casinos, will be visible from Atlantic City’s Marina and the Boardwalk districts.

Address

Atlantic City, NJ

Want to see more events? Click on The Georgetowner’s calendar

Courtney Overcash •

Prints In Pieces: Views of South County Opening
JULY 8TH, 2011 AT 10:00 AM
After capturing the people and places along Maryland’s Western Shore with her camera, Frances Borchadt puts her photographs into mosaic-like pieces to create an intriguing display of repetitions and patterns. Be sure to catch this exhibit at The League Gallery before it closes August 1.

6th Annual HERA Climb4Life
JULY 8TH, 2011 AT 06:00 PM
From July 8 to 10, HERA Climb4Life invites climbers and hikers of all abilities and ages to participate in the 6th Annual HERA Climb4LifeSM Metro DC weekend. For the first time ever, this event will be held outdoors among the crags of the Potomac River, namely Carderock, Maryland and Great Falls, Virginia. The registration fee is $50 per person which includes an event t-shirt and goodie bag as well as entrance to various social occasions. Event proceeds go to raise funds for ovarian cancer research.

Women by Women
JULY 8TH, 2011 AT 06:00 PM
Please join Heiner Contemporary for the opening reception of Women by Women, Friday, July 8th, 6-8 pm. Women by Women is a group exhibition of work by women portraying women. The exhibition runs from July 8th – August 20th 2011.

Art Deck-O: DC Playing Card Originals
JULY 8TH, 2011 AT 06:30 PM
Fifty-four of Washington DC’s finest artists created unusual designs to form a playing card deck exhibit unique to our area. The deck is composed of a fantastic array of genres and mediums, which are a big hit with artists, magicians, game players and art lovers everywhere. Exhibit runs from June 29 – July 29.

Havoc in the Harbor
JULY 9TH, 2011 AT 07:30 AM
M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, will be invaded by Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam® the world’s premier monster truck series, creating “havoc in the harbor” on Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Art & Live Jazz Saturday
JULY 9TH, 2011 AT 05:00 PM
Join us for an evening of live jazz, wine and the opening of Art-To-Wear Trunk Show by Peggy Russell of iro Design. Live Jazz starts at 5 PM with Ivor Heyman on keyboard, Nathan Garrett on bass and Richard Parrell on tenor sax. Wine tasting by Delaplane Cellars

The Quill Cocktail Competition
JULY 10TH, 2011 AT 02:00 PM
Its inspired mix of classic concoctions and signature drinks has made Quill, the elegant lounge at The Jefferson, Washington, DC, a treasured enclave for those in search of the enlightened cocktail. On July 10, 2011, six of the capital’s finest drink dons will prove their worth with Tequila Ocho Plata Single Estate at the third Quill Cocktail Competition. Tickets are $50 per person, which includes a sample from each competitor’s inspired libation (guests’ votes are tallied with the judges), tastings from Quill’s own signature cocktail menu and an assortment of canapés and cheeses.

Gary Tischler • June 30, 2011

When someone makes us laugh, when someone – as a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band said once – “sets your feet to tapping,” then the passing of that someone, famous, infamous, well-known or just a little known, is felt by strangers as a loss.

It’s a keen kind of feeling in celebrity-adoring, star-struck, time-tossed America where nostalgia does battle with a minute ago on a regular basis. With the passing of Clarence Clemons, the man responsible for Bruce Springsteen’s signature sound with his soaring sax, and Ryan Dunn, the insanely anarchic sidekick to Johnny Knoxville who together made up the spirit of “Jackass,” that dichotomy split apart.

Knoxville and a host of media types and buddies showed up at a memorial service for the 34-year-old Dunn who was killed (along with a buddy and passenger) when he lost control of his sports car on a road in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. Wikipedia says “he died after receiving injuries” in the crash, which doesn’t begin to imagine what could happen when a car blows up at over a hundred miles an hour. He was 34 years old.

Clemons died of complications from a stroke he had suffered. He was 69. There is a story that goes around—both the man known as The Boss and Clemons told it, apparently—that when they met, Clemons walked into a restaurant framed by storm and lightning. Musically and otherwise, it was deep friendship and love at first sight.

Clemons—who had a career separate from the inimitable E Street Band and Springsteen—provided something that most big and popular rock bands lacked, a signature character, a sax sound, a horn. You might have heard one every now and then—Sly and the Family Stone should have had one even if they didn’t since they had everything else and there was Bill Haley and the early tuxedo saxes of just-before Elvis rock and of course a guy named King Curtis who was with the Coasters and produced a record called “Yakety Sax.”

But the skinny kid named Bruce and the black guy from New Jersey—and former very large 6 foot 6 inch football player —made an odd match on the surface, but also a hopeful one because it was clear they had each other’s back. Springsteen acknowledged cheerfully that Clemons’ playing and his very presence gave the band’s music a deeper meaning, a kind of American potential story as rock and roll, high powered poem.

Dunn and the Jackass crew—they did other movies, had other ambitions—specialized in making film and video in which they jumped off bridges, got on skateboards, bycicles, golf carts and collided with things, to the sound of sometimes breaking bones. They were the gang that couldn’t fly straight, land safely, stand up move in a straight line and everything they did managed to produce some sort of physical pain. And everybody laughed: this is slapstick with real blood and scabs. Look at a collection of Jackass stunts and you will laugh and feel a little funny doing it.

I suspect there will be mourning for both, roses at the crash site, music and eloquent words and saxophone music played for keepsakes and memories. Clemons’ death is a loss like the last notes of a song. Dunn’s death is a tragedy that says too much about everybody. Born and died in the U.S.A.

Oh, there’s just one more thing.

That would be the death of Peter Falk, who had a rich and varied acting career on stage, screen and television, but who will always be “Columbo,” the stogie-chewing homicide detective who wore a rejected-by-Good-Will trench coat, and, with the murderer just about to let out a sigh of relief, would inevitably turn around and say:

“Oh, there’s just on more thing.”

That one more thing was the end for the killer, the man or woman who thought they’d committed the perfect crime, it was finis, stick a fork in them, the end of the end because:

There was just one more thing.

Falk’s Columbo became him—he won several Emmys for the role—and in the end, he became Columbo to anyone who had watched television the last three decades of the 20th century. It was an ingenious impersonation of a man who was a bag of ticks, that rumpled hair, the distracted manner, the endless curiosity about things that didn’t seem to manner, even the affection for some of the suspects, not to mention a Peugeot that barely made it out of the drive way.

There’s some irony in Falk’s enduring fame as a rumpled cop. He was always considered something of a serious actor and got a breakout Oscar nomination for playing a stone-cold killer in “Murder Inc.” about a much-feared mobster organization which specialized in killing.

There were also his great performances in the late director-actor John Cassavettes’ docu-style cinema verite in your-face dramas like “Husbands” and “Woman Under the Influence” opposite Gena Rowland, and numerous appearances in the live drama series that constituted television’s “golden age of drama.” He and Alan Arkin starred in “The In Laws,” a riotous comedy whose luster a remake starring Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks could not dim.

Mostly, this one-eyed son of Jewish New Yorkers, appealed not so much because he could play killers, but because he had a mensch quality about him that no matter what he showed on screen big and small, there was a generous soul inside.

One of his later films was “The Princess Bride,” in which Falk played a grandpa type reading to a reluctant boy the saga of a would-be prince, an avenging swordsman, a cruel tyrant and a princess in need of rescue. The boy finally was persuaded to listen to a story in which, also, there was always “just one more thing.”

Peter Falk was 83. He suffered from Alzheimer’s. [gallery ids="100160,100161,100162" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney • June 29, 2011

The Hays family — and their store, The Phoenix, on Wisconsin Avenue since 1955 — was given the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Georgetown Business Association at its Senior Advisory Luncheon on June 15. The business, founded by Bill and Betty Hays, has been continued by John and Sharon Hays — and now their Samantha. Presenters, including Brad Altman, Jim Wheeler and Sonya Bernhardt, publisher of the Georgetowner, speaking for last year’s awardee, retired publisher David Roffman, told stories about the Hays family, the neighborhood and the Phoenix, “more than a store.”

Robert Devaney •

First father, President Barack Obama, treated daughters Malia and Sasha, along with his niece and nephew, to ice cream at Georgetown’s Thomas Sweet Ice Cream at Wisconsin Avenue and P Street, N.W., June 19. (The first daughters will accompany the first lady on their trip to Africa.) Obama and his daughters had already visited Georgetown within the last two weeks: he, at 1789 restaurant; the girls, at Georgetown Cupcake.

Among the presidential gawkers along Wisconsin Avenue was chef Ris Lacoste on her day off — and Bridget Berry, a computer technician from Red Bay, Alabama, visiting D.C. with her husband Chris and their daughters Carlee and Mattee. (Berry provided one of the photos of the scene at Thomas Sweet.) She and her family, visiting friends Robert and Sharon Shoffner, have already been to the National Zoo, Cactus Cantina, Dean & Deluca and, of course, Georgetown Cupcake.

Shannon McGovern •

The Georgetown Waterfront continues to recover from its April 18 soaking, with both Tony and Joe’s and Nick’s outdoor dining reopening and the indoor restaurants continuing with renovations. Visitors to the area are trickling back, drawn in by events such as last weekend’s Dragon Boat Race and next Sunday’s Georgetown Waterfront Summer Celebration. The festival, hosted by the Georgetown BID and Washington Harbor, will feature a steel drum band, food catered by the area’s restaurants, face painting and a water balloon toss at 2 p.m. which is endorsed by the Washington Post’s “Going Out Guide.”

Despite all the revelry that is returning to the Georgetown Waterfront, it is difficult to ignore that fact that many windows are still boarded shut and employees who have been out of work since the flood are awaiting the outcome of a $5 million class action lawsuit against MRP Realty.

Why weren’t the floodwalls raised? This question appeared in almost all media coverage of the waterfront flooding which filled restaurants and businesses with as much as 12 feet of water. When the National Weather Service issues a flood warning, based on the water levels measured by a gauge at Harper’s Ferry, Washington Harbour and surrounding areas have about a day and a half to raise the floodwalls. This process takes about five hours to complete and costs approximately $15,000. The responsibility of this undertaking rests with the property owners.

MRP Realty bought the Washington Harbor from Prudential Real Estate Investors in June 2010 for about $240 million. MRP’s property management unit now oversees the waterfront area, a job previously managed for ten years by John Wilson until 1998, followed by Larry McCulley through Sept. 2010, neither of whom faced flooding problems of this scale. MRP has not provided explanation as to why the floodwalls were only partially raised or in some places, not raised at all.

A few days after the flood, Gary Mason of Mason LLP, a D.C. law firm, filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court on behalf of Charles Holcomb of Alexandria, a bartender at Farmers and Fishers. The federal court dismissed the initial complaint, but Mason filed a second complaint in the D.C. Superior Court on behalf of what is now 43 plaintiffs who are “persons and entities who have lost or will lose income as a result of the flooding.” The complaint alleges that MRP had sufficient time to raise the floodwalls and should have been aware of the risk posed to the Washington Harbour businesses, and was negligent in its failure to respond to that risk.

There have been no further developments in the case, but Mason hopes to settle with MRP and avoid a trial. A representative from MRP could not comment on the progression of the lawsuit.

The reconstruction of the affected establishments continues almost three months after the storm, but the National Flood Insurance generally covers property damage on the Washington Harbour. The claim could become complicated in light of the complaint filed against MRP, according to the Washington Business Journal, not to mention that the insurance does not account for the tens of thousands of dollars in revenue lost by those businesses each day or the loss of income for their employees.