The Birth of the Computer, in Georgetown
• November 3, 2011

Washingtonians may be surprised to know that the first computers were invented right here in Georgetown, and if you go to 1054 31st Street (now Canal Square), you will find a plaque marking the place where Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine Company was located at the turn of the last century.

It all started when the federal government ran into problems taking the national census in 1880. The process took too long and was full of mistakes. So in 1886, the U.S. Census Office decided to hold a contest to see who could come up with a better system.

Herman Hollerith would have seemed an unlikely winner of such a contest when he was in grade school in Buffalo, NY. He had such a hard time in school that he used to hide from his teacher. His German immigrant parents took him out of school and got him a tutor, and this helped him realize his amazing potential. He entered college at the age of 15 and got a degree in mining engineering at the age of 19. Eventually, he got a doctorate from Columbia University, where he wrote his thesis about a very special invention of his, an electric tabulating machine. He got the idea from his girlfriend’s father, who told him about the French jacquard weaving machines which were set up with punch cards to automatically weave intricate repetitive patterns. Hollerith created his own punch card system of tabulation, and got a patent for the invention in 1889. When he entered the census office contest, his sample census took a fraction of the time of his nearest competitor. So instead of seven and a half years to do the U.S. census, Hollerith finished the initial count in six weeks, with the final tabulations completed in two and a half years. Better yet, he saved the government $5,000,000, which was a huge sum at that time.

In 1896, Hollerith started the Tabulating Machine Company. The first factory employed mostly women, who worked on their individual tabulators in a large open room. These women were called “computers,” because that was their job description. Hollerith’s business thrived, and his machines were sold to countries around the world for census taking. His fortunes grew, too, and he built a grand mansion in Georgetown at 1617 29th Street, overlooking the Potomac River. By the way, the home, which stayed in the family for 80 years, was on the market recently for $22,000,000.

While his magical machine was a big success, other innovators came up with similar inventions. He merged his company to diversify and broaden its hold on a diminishing market. When Herman retired in 1921, his successor, who happened to be a marketing ace, merged the company again and changed its name to International Business Machines. Yes, that’s IBM, otherwise known as Big Blue. And so, our own Herman Hollerith, the child who couldn’t spell in elementary school, went on to become the father of the modern computer, an invention that has made a revolutionary impact on the way we live and work.

The Player: Richard Goldberg
• August 8, 2011

Dr. Richard Goldberg is a 21st Century Renaissance Man. The Georgetown University Hospital President explores next-generation technology and psychiatry by day, rides motorbikes on his vacations, and reads the classics for fun. At RIS last week, he shared insights that he has gained during 42 years at Georgetown.

From Psychiatrist to President

When asked about his career path, going from mind doctor to hospital president, he gave a sigh of appreciation. “It’s an interesting journey because psychiatry is frequently at the bottom of the food chain,” he said.

His choice of a psychosomatic specialty brought him to other hospital physicians and their patients, aiding a progression from resident to faculty member to department chair. And in the financially challenging times of late 1990s he became (simultaneously and for the same salary) dean of clinical affairs, dean of graduate medical education, chair of psychiatry, and president of the 450-doctor faculty practice group, the last that lay the groundwork for promotion.

His practice area may not have the reputation as a hospital power broker, but it often confers leadership ability. “As a psychiatrist—as long as you don’t behave like a psychiatrist—you have a certain degree of emotional intelligence about people and how they best work together…It’s very helpful in managing a hospital, managing a physician, managing people.”

In 2000, Medstar bought the Georgetown University Hospital and faculty practice, and Goldberg began overseeing hospital quality and safety as vice president of medical affairs, a position he jokingly compares with serving as an assistant principal in a high school with wayward physicians. He’s held the hospital presidency for two years.

Over the last decade the hospital has changed deficits into surpluses, gained leverage with equipment suppliers through Medstar, and earned the number 3 ranking among the 57 DC Metropolitan hospitals, as well as the only “Magnet” status (for nursing excellence).

Goldberg’s DC life is a far cry from his childhood along the New York shore. The Long Beach resident played basketball and baseball with Billy Crystal (who showed Oscar promise even as high school variety show MC) and frolicked by the bay, but according to him the island life was insular. “I thought everyone was from Brooklyn. It turns out that’s not the case.”

Along with his worldview, this city and hospital have transformed over several decades. Visiting DC in the 1950s, he admits being shocked by the Washington Monument’s separate restrooms and water fountains for blacks and whites. Georgetown Medical School in the late 1960s was likewise wholly different from today: 98 men were paired with two women per class, there were no CAT scans and head scans, doctors mixed their own IVs, and psychiatry focused on psychotherapy. He relishes many of the changes, describing 50/50 student ratio as “humanizing” and new technology and drugs as “outstanding” in their potential impact.

The Future of Health Care

Goldberg believes computers will shape our future through nanotechnology, robotics and genetics, trends emerging in medicine. In a new era of personalized medicine, he explains, doctors will use genetics to identify the likelihood of developing a disease and the best medications for an individual. It will be possible to inject patients with nanorobot sensors, which will float around the blood system and organs, giving feedback to detection devices to indicate if an illness has occurred or tell about a treatment’s progression.

Robots like the da Vinci Surgical System will allow doctors to operate easily and intuitively for prostrate and thoracic cancer, and other ailments treated at the Lombardi Cancer Center.

Viruses packed with chemotherapy will use receptors to find and join cancer cells and release the chemotherapy while sparing normal tissue, increasing the survivability for a broad range of cancer disorders.

Yet there is a huge paradox in health care. The underserved population and Jesuit traditions contrast with a depersonalized and potentially costly high-tech future.

The hospital relies on its heritage for guidance. While Jesuits, a Catholic order that stresses lifelong education, are less visible than in the past, they guided the mission adopted in 2007. “Cura personalis” (meaning care of the whole person) is a reminder that pills and technology must serve the broader goal of satisfying emotional, spiritual and physical needs.

The giving nature of the order also prompts charity care for the poor. A children’s van goes out to the most underserved areas of Washington DC, treating kids who wouldn’t ordinarily get medical care, and the hospital offers free cancer screenings to adults.

Goldberg sees many gaps in the health care system but says he is optimistic that a country as great as ours can meet them.

“We need to have more accessible care for individuals,” he says. “We need to cover more individuals. We need to have more emphasis on wellness than sickness.

“We need to be more aware of care as not just a single episode, but a continuity of care. We need to be safer and higher quality in terms of or care.”

But as with most things, he understands that progress will be incremental. “I don’t think can be created de novo out of somebody’s head. It has to, like any good system, evolve.”

From Motorcycles to Mahatma Gandhi

One way he deals with work pressure is to exit his element. For 25 years—starting with a Harley Sportster, now on a BMW 3 Touring Bike—he has cycled the country. His fascination with human narrative is given broader play, meeting people like those recently out of prison that would otherwise be unlikely confidantes. He also enjoys communing with the environment, whether the national parks of the Southwest or the seascape of Key West.

“There’s something about being on a motorcycle that is relaxed concentration,” he says. “You have to concentrate all the time, but you’re in this zone, you’re participating with the road and nature rather than observing it.”

If motorcycling is a social and spiritual quest, his literary projects are an intellectual journey. His free time is not occupied by friends, restaurants and movies. Rather, he has taken on a sort of literary project. He reads classics and listens to biographies (currently Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography) while he exercises on his Octane seated elliptical machine. The biographies have provided personal instruction, including two major life lessons.

“Every person no matter how successful or how much we idealize them has incredible unevenness. They can have great contributions in some areas and weaknesses in other areas,” he says.

“And they have been down and out at various times in their life,” he adds. “The path to greatness is not a straight line. Its really enduring and learning how to get out of those troughs in your life, whatever they are.”

“Aging well is about being adaptable, learning how to find meaning in activities that you might not have been interested in before, but that you can now do.”

He summarizes with a common phrase given deeper resonance by his inspiring example in psychiatry, literature, and leadership. “That’s what life is about – meaning.”

To Listen to interview, click here

National Portrait Gallery Commissioner Resigns
• July 26, 2011

 

-National Portrait Gallery Commissioner James T. Bartlett resigned Thursday, December 9, in protest of the museum’s censorship of a 30-minute video, “A Fire in My Belly,” by David Wajnarowicz. The piece was initially a part of the gallery’s “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” exhibit, but was removed when conservative groups began protesting a brief segment of the film, in which ants are seen crawling over an image of Jesus.
Since the video was taken out of the exhibit, Transformer Gallery installed a four-minute clip from it in their storefront and arranged for a silent march to the National Portrait Gallery December 2.
Complicating matters further, local artists Matt Blasenstein and Michael Dax Iacovone were detained at the National Portrait Gallery this weekend, after screening the video on an iPad in front of the exhibit entrance. Currently, the two are attempting to procure a permit that will enable them to play the video through February, in a temporary structure directly outside the gallery.
The National Portrait Gallery’s commission functions as a board of directors, making Bartlett’s resignation the most consequential protest of the gallery’s decision to date.

Baseball Springs to Life With Nationals’ Optimism
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On baseball’s raw Opening Day, March 31, the Washington Nationals ran onto the field amid celebration, the roar of the crowd and unbending optimism.

In his press conference during NatsFest, the day before opening, manager Jim Riggleman said that it was strange not to be managing against the Atlanta Braves’ retired manager Bobby Cox. For him, Ryan Zimmerman has had “a great start.”

“And expectations for the team?” asked Lindsay Czarniak of NBC 4.

The Nationals must “play good, fundamentally sound baseball,” Riggleman said. “And give up less runs.” As for the new Nat and former Phillie Jayson Werth, he added, “Jayson speaks up. It carries clout when you’ve won.”

The Nationals have yet to have a winning season, and attendance on this drizzly afternoon was the lowest ever for a Nationals’ Opening Day.

But fans were not thinking about that on this day. You know it’s a good day when you walk out to the street looking for a cab and find neighbors—yourself included—jumping into a station wagon bound for Nationals Park. Our driver Ken Dreyfuss, who coaches the freshman crew at Georgetown University, recalled the days when DC school kids could submit notes from their parents to be excused from school because they were attending Opening Day. It was a given, and baseball retains that natural, neighborhood ease of inclusion and serendipity.

A renewed DC Hall of Fame began the show: CBS sportscaster James Brown, Olympic gold medal gymnast Dominique Dawes, former Washington Redskins running back Brian Mitchell, former Anacostia High head football coach Willie Stewart, former Post columnist Michael Wilbon and former DeMatha High head basketball coach Morgan Wootten. (Dawes could not attend.)

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung to a giant flag on the field. Then, a unique, slightly awkward set-up: the first pitches by five generals to five catchers. And then, Mayor Vincent Gray, cried out: “Play ball!” And he was booed. Loudly.

Happy regulars were seen around the stadium: former Mayor Adrian Fenty with his children going to the Stars and Stripes suites, as PR legend Charlie Brotman walks by and says hello; councilman Jack Evans in a parka cabitzing with friends; neighborhood commissioner Bill Starrels leaning on the rail; publicist Victoria Michael looking pretty in pink.

You see, baseball reserves its power to take it all in—win or lose—and make it all right, even if the Nats did lose, 2-0, to the Braves. A half smoke and a cold beer ain’t so bad, either. [gallery ids="99219,103520,103516,103513" nav="thumbs"]

Moms Like Us
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It is the quintessential question for many young women today, how to balance a career and have a family. And though child rearing years may be a few years off, it’s still in the back of our minds: Will I have to sacrifice one for the other?

Angie Goff provides an answer to that question: Yes. Yes, you can.

Goff has a five-month-old, Adora, a long-distance marriage, an active social life and, on top of it all, a career in television as entertainment and traffic anchor at WUSA-TV in Washington, DC.

Though she’s doing it all, she admits that at times she has moments when she’s not sure if she CAN do it all.

When I spoke to Angie over the phone on a Saturday afternoon, she was standing inside the Lincoln Memorial with her husband and baby, taking in the sights while she took the time to connect with the community, essential to her job as a journalist. Later that evening, she would eat dinner with her parents, go home, throw on a ball gown and rush to the Washington Hilton for the White House Correspondents dinner. She spends two to three evenings a week out at events, either shooting or growing her audience. It’s half of what she would do pre-motherhood, but she says she’s more of a homebody than a socialite.

“When I go to a party, I’m in and I’m out. Sometimes I show up in my workout clothes,” says Goff, who is sometimes in her pajamas by 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. “ I’m kind of a homebody. I want to drink coke, watch American Idol and fall asleep. I work hard during the week at social events, but on the weekend it’s off limits.”

Born and bred up in Seoul, South Korea as a self-proclaimed military brat, she had lunch with Hillary Clinton in the eighth grade because her father was invited to a luncheon. She still has the picture they took together.

She attributes her ability to move around and adapt to different places, an essential part of her early career, to her childhood experiences. “I learned to leave a place where I was comfortable and go somewhere where I was uncomfortable.”

Goff grew up on an American military base and didn’t move to Virginia until high school. “ I experienced the customs of Korea and had the ideas of service to country ingrained in me at a very early age.” Goff says the Fourth of July was always the biggest holiday on the base, something that has spilled into her career as a journalist, where she covers military issues and frequents Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Her career started as a child in Korea, when her father would turn on the only English channel each morning and night for the news. The local broadcasts were produced on the base, and in the fifth grade she befriended the daughter of the station’s anchor. After taking a tour, “I was totally captivated and I became obsessed,” Goff says. She auditioned for the Audio-Visual club at school and became part of the school broadcast each morning. She eventually persuaded her teacher to let her interview students on various topics. But she never seriously considered a career in journalism until she was rejected from the United States Military Academy at West Point. “ I thought I would be a general or some rocket scientist in the military. I was only able to follow my passion and my dream when that door closed.”

Goff, who now lives 10 minutes away from her parents in Herndon, Va., says they are proud of her career thus far.

After college, Goff worked for Mark Steines, now a friend and mentor, at Entertainment Tonight in Los Angeles. “He was the one that believed in me in the beginning,” Goff says. “The deal was that I’d go out there and he’d help me out and mentor me.”

Within two years she had her first job as a reporter in Iowa. “We had lunch before I left,” she says, “and he said, ‘the thing that sucks is that you’ve already had a taste of the dessert.’ And he was right. The fact that I got to go out to LA, and meeting Harrison Ford and John Travolta, it was a gear shift and move to Nowhere, Iowa where I worked harder than I had in my entire life.”

Goff now takes interns of her own, one of which just took a job with Mark Steines after Goff connected the two.

Goff met her husband a few years later while working in Columbia, South Carolina at WIS-TV.
“We got engaged six months prior to her moving to NOVA,” says her husband, Robert Ellis, a pediatric dentist with a growing practice. “And I must admit, at the beginning it was unusual that we lived in different states. But I can be up there for long weekends, and after doing it for a while, it’s all I know. It’s not ideal and we make it work.”

They would see each other every two to three weeks, with plenty of phone calls and Skype sessions in between. But in March of last year, things took a sharp turn. Goff found out she was pregnant.

“It made it complicated,” Ellis says. “I felt bad because I wanted to be there for everything. I wanted to make sure she was okay.” A big factor in Goff deciding to move to northern Virginia instead of DC was the proximity to her parents, which alleviated the trials of a pregnancy with a husband hundreds of miles away. And since their daughter, Adora Kate, was born last December, they all see each other every weekend.

Though they don’t have immediate plans to live in the same city, it is a long-term goal. “It’s a question that remains unanswered, because we’re in love with our careers and it makes us happy people. And it makes us happy people to be each other. We have down to a science. The formula is working.”

At the beginning of her pregnancy, Channel 9 approached Goff with the idea of a blog following her pregnancy. After a discussion with her husband that took some negotiating, Goff was signed up for an experience that ended up equally beneficial to her. The blog, DC Moms Like Me, is a community forum for Metropolitan mothers to exchange their trials, triumphs, shared experiences and advice. “I had a new community to tap into,” she says of her new following. “I got support that I wouldn’t have otherwise. And now we’re grateful to have this video diary.”

Goff now has a blog for baby Adora that follows everything from her clothing choices to attended events. In question of her privacy, Goff says: “I do put a lot out there, but there’s definitely more that I keep in. Just like any other hardworking mom out there, there are challenges and problems.”

Goff leaves her house every morning at 3 a.m., when the nanny arrives, and returns around noon. But sometimes that schedule doesn’t always work out. The day of the royal wedding, for instance, she worked her normal morning shift, but had to anchor the mid-day show as well, and didn’t get home until 3 p.m.

“It’s a tough balancing act,” says Andrea Roane, Goff’s Channel 9 co-anchor, who has two grown children of her own. “It’s hard when you have to look good, no matter what time you’re on the air. And then there are things in the community that she has to do because it helps gain an audience for the show. But like a lot of moms, she brings Adora with her. That’s what you have to do. You take your baby with you.”

Alex Naini is a cosmetic dentist and close friend of Goff’s, who she met while doing a segment on dentistry for Goff’s show. “I’m sure it’s not easy,” Naini says of Goff’s seemingly frenetic lifestyle. “But she makes it work in a positive way. She’s a mother and she’s a good mother, she’s a wife and she’s a good wife, she’s an anchor and she’s a good anchor.”

Though Naini, along with many others, calls Goff a role model, Goff doesn’t see herself that way.

“I don’t see myself as a role model. I see myself as a hard worker and hopefully a good mother who wants to find the delicate balance that so many women are forced to find.”

Nor does she consider herself a feminist: “I’m all about girl power and women succeeding in the work force, but I’m not burning my bra.”

When asked if she ever gets tired, she answered immediately, “Having a child brought me to that point. I remember sitting down and breast feeding my baby and thinking of all the things I had to do. And I realized I was letting this moment pass me by.” She says Adora has made her realize she cannot do it all.

“I had a lot of anxiety leading up to her birth, but it’s amazing how she made it black and white. Suddenly, saying ‘No’ became so easy. I don’t have to do it all. I don’t have to be a super hero.”

Visit Goff’s blog at DC.MomsLikeMe.com, her WUSA website, OhMyGoff.TV, or watch her morning broadcast on WUSA, Channel 9.

Cherry Blossom Festival Events
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As the dreary winter weather bids Washington its final adieu, the Cherry Blossom Festival lifts the spirits of residents and visitors who come to enjoy the official bloom of spring.

The first day of the festival, March 26, features a number of events and celebrations around town.

Go on a three-mile Cherry Chit-Chat Run around the mall, starting at the Washington Monument, 8 a.m.

Family Day at the National Building Museum is a festival in itself for “kids of all ages.” A number of hands-on activities as well as live music will celebrate and explore Japanese arts and design.

Taking sail at three times throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, Cherry Blossom River Teas features a full service English ‘high tea’ aboard a classic yacht while cruising by the blossoms. Serving soups, tea sandwiches, scones and teas, the cruise sets off at Washington Maria.

Hear the music of spring floating through the air at Eastern Market as the sounds of springtime jazz, world-beat, Americana, classical, and spoken word accompany Eastern Market’s foods, arts and crafts.

From Eastern Market, jump on the metro and head over to the Smithsonian for the Blossoms Secrets Stroll taking place from 2 – 4 p.m. The walking tour recounts the story and sites of how the Japanese cherry trees came to Washington.

The Opening Ceremony, officially kicking off the Festival, will take place at the Building Museum immediately following Family Day at 4 p.m. A number of performances, including Takehiro Ueyama’s TAKE dance company will start the 16-day citywide celebration.

Monuments-by-Moonlight River Cruises close out the opening day celebrations from the Washington Marina at 7:30 – 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 – 11:15 p.m.

But the Festival continues. Travel to Japan Saturday and Sunday at the Freer Gallery of Art and learn about the art’s importance in Japanese culture past and present. 1 p.m.

The Blossom Kite Festival on the Washington Monument Grounds takes flight March 27, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Enjoy the cool spring air at night with a Lantern Walk guided by the light of festive lanterns as rangers guide an evening stroll around the Tidal Basin. The walks take place Saturday and Sunday from 8 – 10 p.m. at the Paddle Boat Station.

Starting on the 26 and continuing through the end of the festival, a number of farms and gardens open their doors for visitors to encounter the beauty of nature in full bloom. River Farm and Green Spring Garden in Alexandria along with Meadowlark Gardens in Vienna all welcome Festival visitors with a free memento.

An array of diverse talent takes the stage at Sylvan Theater throughout the Festival. Varied genres of music and dance, martial arts exhibitions and marching bands will be featured from 12 – 5 p.m. on weekdays, and 12 – 6 p.m. on the weekends.

Macy’s Metro Center Cherry Blossom Show will host two weeks of in-store special events, including musical and dance performances, fashion presentations and cooking demonstrations.

The Hillwood Museum Estate and Gardens hosts Paul MacLardy, co-author of “Kimono, Vanishing Tradition” and owner of Arise Bazaar, as he presents a brief overview of Japanese kimono traditions, history, textiles, and symbolism. Followed by a trunk show in Hillwood’s Museum Shop. April 2, 2 – 3:30 p.m.

Silver Springs’s Big Cherry Block Party, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. in downtown Silver Spring features a number of art and craft booths, entertainment, food and karaoke.

If you cant make it to Silver Spring, hang around the Potomac and Anacostia rivers for DISC Cherry Blossom Regatta. The sailboat races can be viewed from the water aboard the M/V Patriot II, which will be offering a Cherry Blossom Regatta cruise.

Head down to Gangplank Marina at 2 and 4 p.m. everyday throughout the Festival for a relaxing cruise down the Potomac around Hains Point for a fantastic view of the trees. Then on April 2 jump on board for a dinner cruise where you can catch the fireworks.

The Festival Fireworks Show will light up the sky on April 2 from Waterfront Park. Best viewing of the show can be found at Southwest Waterfront promenade or East Potomac Park. 8:30 – 9 p.m.

The Parade, which runs down Constitution Ave from 7th to 17th Streets, closes out the festival April 9, 10 a.m. – noon. Catch a glimpse of lavish floats, giant helium balloons, marching bands and performers as they make their way down the route.

With a number of other events going on throughout the festival (March 26 – April 10 in its entirety) it is hard to not catch the blossom bug.

Visit NationalCherryBlossomFestival.org for more information on all the festivities.
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The Life of a Clown
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When I was a kid I wanted to run away with the circus.

I would meet the boss clown, I would walk with the ringmaster, be buddies with the guy who trains the big cats, and I would date the girl who gets shot out of a cannon.

I became a journalist instead. Same thing, except for the cannon girl, the big cat guy, the ringmaster, and the boss clown, although I may have spent some time with a contortionist once.

These days, at my age, it’s no good trying to run away with the circus. And “walking away with the circus” doesn’t have that zip thing going for it.

But yesterday I saw pachyderms marching down Washington streets.

And yesterday I talked with the ringmaster and met the boss clown.

They tell me that ladies are no longer shot out of cannons.

Two out of three isn’t bad.

The ringmaster is Jonathan Lee Iverson, and the boss clown is Sandor Eke, and they’re at the head of the pack when the circus come to town. That would be the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey’s 2011 show, “Barnum’s FUNundrum!” celebrating the life and legacy of the founder, P.T. Barnum. The circus is camped at the Verizon Center through March 27, then moves to Baltimore and Fairfax, Virginia.

As always, it’s the greatest show on earth, sparkling like a firecracker with hyperbole: come see 230 performers from six continents, watch the 100,000 pounds of elephants perform, see the cowboys, the pirates, the mermaids, the tigers, the Flying Caceres with their quadruple somersault on the flying trapeze. Watch the Puyan Troupe from China do their bouncy stuff on a two-tiered trampoline, and, there’s the body benders and the Mighty Meetal, the strongest man in the world. And don’t forget Duo Fusion, the married couple of hand balancers, in which the wife does the heavy lifting. Just like in real life.

The elephants and clowns and ponies and performers marched through parts of Washington yesterday for an annual parade that signals the arrival of the circus in town and delights hundreds of children and tourist along the road.

Leading the way was Iverson, decked out in red-white-and-blue and top hat—the man who gets to say the iconic words at the start of each show: “Welcome Children of All Ages to the Greatest Show on Earth.”

Iverson, who started out wanting to be an opera singer but sort of ran away with the circus instead, holds some firsts for the circus: he’s the first African American ringmaster and the youngest ever to hold that high-stepping, master–of-charisma, beguiling cheerleader of all cheerleader jobs.

A New Yorker now in his thirties, he’s performed (at age 11) with the Boys Choir of Harlem and got a degree in voice from Hartford’s Hart School. Shortly after graduating, he was offered a job with the circus.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I know I saw myself as a singer, but to be able to perform in the circus in that kind of role, well, who’s going to say no to something like that.” Not Iverson, that’s for sure. “They kidnapped me,” he quipped.

Watch him work the crowd, picking up little kids, posing with moms, his voice clear over the noises of the downtown city. For a while he left to broaden his horizons, performing off-Broadway and in productions of “The Magic Flute” and “Showboat,” sang with the USO and did some freelance writing as J. Frederick Baptiste.

But now he’s back, this time hitting the rails with family—wife Priscilla and children Matthew Felipe and Lila Simone—in tow.

He’s got the charisma of a ringmaster, a compelling stance and lively face. We asked him if he did anything special to create a persona for the ringmaster. “Are you kidding?” he said. “Look at me—In this outfit, folks are going to pay attention to you.”

That’s true, but he fills the outfit with his persona, as if born to the circus. “You look pretty,” a woman tells him. “I do, don’t I?” he says and preens. Welcome to the circus in Washington. “Great to be in this city,” he says. “I’m sort of like Henry Kissinger with a personality.”

Sandor Eke, on the other hand, looks a little like a crash dummy.

That’s his outfit, his persona, a puff of tomahawk hair on his head, spots of color, loose, colorful, dummy clothing and big, sometimes sad eyes. “I’m a white clown,” he says, explaining clown etiquette. “Like a black clown would be the guy that plays tricks on the white clown.”

But he’s also the circus boss clown.

“Makes me the guy who takes care of the other guys,” he says. “You know, who bunks with whom, dressing rooms, schedules, food, problems, the guy who talks to management on behalf of the other clowns…You wouldn’t believe how important dressing rooms are.”

Eke who is 35, lives in Budapest on the Danube River in Hungary, but doesn’t get to go home much. His parents, both circus folks, live there. “With this schedule, it’s a little crazy. My father was a tentmaker, my mother was a ringmaster.”

Clowns and circuses are time-honored professions and institutions in Europe. It’s where the best of them came from, and it’s why most circuses have an international flavor to them. Eke attended the Hungarian State Circus School—can you imagine that in an American state budget?—and started with a Swedish circus, but eventually made his way to the Ringling Brothers as part of a Hungarian teeterboard act

“Everything that circus performers do is difficult and takes so much practice,” he said. “But it is not very useful on the outside. Imagine explaining your job resume: I was teeterboarder.

“I love this life. I am an acrobat, a clown, I am totally a circus person,” he said. “I would not do anything else. My life is here. My friends are here. They are my best friends, people you can call in the middle of the night.

“I can say I have 50 real friends in the circus. They are not on Facebook.”

Asked about his future plans, he quipped “I have no future.”

“Actually, what I want to do is teach, teach other young people how to be clowns,” he said. “That is my hope, my future.”

Japan Relief in Washington: Get Involved
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Washington’s relationship with Japan is exemplified in the National Cherry Blossom Festival. With the recent Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami devastating Japan, Washington is offering support to the country that planted the seeds for the festival, and the culture that is honored throughout the celebration. Below is a list of things you can do around town to help out and donate to Japan relief efforts.

Red Cross Online Donation
The Festival has joined the Red Cross in supporting the nation of Japan. Online donations can be made at NationalCherryBlossomFestival.org.

Stand With Japan
March 24 6:30 p.m.
Beginning at the Sylvan Theater, walkers will make their way to the Tidal Basin. All donations received during the fundraising effort will go to the National Cherry Blossom Red Cross Online Donation Site.

The walk around the tidal basin will be a time of reflection in midst of the Cherry Blossom trees gifted to Washington by the Japanese in 1912. The evening of hope and perseverance inaugurates the Festival, celebrating the friendship between the two countries.

Online Auction
The National Cherry Blossom Festival Online Auction is open through March 27. Proceeds from the auction will be split between the Red Cross and the Festival’s year-round programs. Items in the auction include, two tickets to OpenSkies Business Airlines to Paris, dining certificate for Buddha Bar, a Weekend Getaway to the Normandy Hotel, dining certificate to II Canale, Georgetown and a number of others.

DC Help Japan Now Auction
A number of DC restaurants are joining the cause in an eBay auction with proceeds benefiting Red Cross. Restaurants include KAZ Sushi Bistro, Perry’s, The Tabard Inn, Oyamel Cocina Mexicana, Passion Food, Masa 14, The Source by Wolfgang Puck, Restaurant Nora, Peacock Café, Marcels, Brasserie Beck/Mussel Bar, and Café Atlantico. More restaurants are joining in to support so check eBay frequently.

Kaz Sushi Bistro Raises Funds
In addition to the eBay Auction, Kaz is supporting Japan with various fundraising events. The restaurant is currently holding a raffle through April 16. Kaz is located between 19th and 20th on I Street NW.

Capital Hearts for Japan
Capital Hearts for Japan will be holding a fundraising night at The Park at Fourteenth (920 14th St. NW) March 26. Doors open at 6 p.m. The night will include a silent auction, performances from local artists and drink specials. All donations will be given to Save the Children, an international aid organization that provides emergency relief for children affected by disaster and devastation. The Park is donating $3 per person that comes to the event. Capital Hearts for Japan is a coalition of diverse organizations in the DC metro area and was formed to help provide immediate and long-term relief for Japan.

DC CityCenter Construction Begins at Former Convention Center Site
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On Monday April 4, Hines|Archstone’s CityCenter broke ground at the site of the former DC convention center, with the simultaneous announcement of a full equity investment from Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. (QatariDiar), reports Real Estate Bisnow and The Washington Post. Mayor Vincent Gray and members of the DC City Council met at the area, currently a parking lot, to celebrate the beginning of the site’s construction.

Gray called CityCenter, “one of the most important projects in the history of the District of Columbia,” in a lavish tent where reporters, developers, neighbors, businesspeople and District officials gathered for the celebration.

CityCenter DC is a 10-acre, mixed-use development, located in the heart of downtown Washington on a 4.5-block parcel bounded by New York Avenue, 9th, H and 11th Streets NW. A total of six buildings are to be put up over the next three years as phase 1 of the project, according to the Washington Post, split between apartments, condos and office space, all connected by a public courtyard. Shops and restaurants will line the street level with four levels of underground parking, and 10th and I Streets will be reopened to reconnect the city’s street grid. A second phase of the project is planned to include an upscale hotel, along with additional square feet of retail.

The project is an enormous undertaking for the city, and promises to transform the east end of Downtown, however its history of development troubled financing and development has kept that area of the town in limbo for years. According to the Washington Business Journal, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans joked about meeting to discuss the project years ago with Bill Alsup (of Hines, based in Houston), George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant.

But with financing plans now in place, Gray is already touting the achievement of CityCenter as “the last piece of the puzzle for downtown Washington.” If successful, CityCenter would accordingly transform Downtown into a more substantial neighborhood, where citizens don’t only work and go out, but live.

Anchor investor QatariDiar is the real estate investment arm of the Qatari Investment Authority. Barwa Bank’s investment banking subsidiary, The First Investor (TFI), financed the project. TFI will co-invest in and manage the dedicated TFI U.S. Real Estate Fund.

“This effort has been almost a decade in the making, and we look forward to the progress that will be made on the site of the old convention center as this last missing piece of our downtown is redeveloped,” Mayor Gray said. “I am excited about the more than 190 District Certified Business Entities that are involved in the planning, design and construction of this project, and the thousands of construction and permanent jobs that it will create. This is a huge development for the residents of and visitors to our city.”

According to the Washington Post, construction is not scheduled to finish until 2014, and phase 2 will not be done until late 2015 (though it is probably fair to assume unexpected delays and hurdles, as par for the course).

Gray, touting the job opportunities within the project, expects it to create 1,700 construction jobs and almost 4,000 permanent jobs. Nearly 100 local companies have already secured contracts with the development team. [gallery ids="99644,105274" nav="thumbs"]

Passport DC Comes Back to Town
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On any given Sunday, there’s always some foot traffic on Massachusetts Avenue along Embassy Row, especially if the weather is ideal and spring-sunny as it was on May 7.

But hey, what was this: crowds pouring into the British Embassy and coming out with tote bags emblazoned with the flag of England? What were the lines of people snaking around the block, making their way to the Embassy of Greece, the Embassy of Ireland, or the Latvian Embassy? And just what was going on at the Embassy of Finland?

It was the beginning of the fourth annual Passport DC celebration, an ever-increasingly popular city-wide event produced by Cultural Tourism DC, with the participation of over 60 embassies, which fling open their doors to the general public in a wildly successful annual event that celebrates the international presence of world embassies in our city.

Looking at the crowds, you could well agree with Cultural Tourism DC Director Linda Harper, who said: “Passport DC is a chance to honor and explore the many cultures that are represented in Washington, DC. There is no better place to have this grand celebration…a truly global city.”

This all began four years ago when member embassies representing the European Union decided, without out much elaborate planning, to hold open houses for most of their embassies, allowing tourists and residents to come in and visit, meet embassy officials, and share in the cultural offerings and history of the respective countries. Some 70,000 people showed up.

The European Union folks knew they were on to something and joined up with Cultural Tourism DC to produce what is now a month-long celebration of international culture and conviviality. Last year, around 160,000 people participated in the events that make up Passport DC.

Round one was another edition spearheaded by the European Unions called Shortcut to Europe, and the British effort looked to be the splashiest affair, like a sweet hangover from the recent nuptials of Prince William and his Katherine. You could tour the English gardens, which included an impressive, essence-of-horse-nobility sculpture of a horse reputed to be a famous British racehorse whose kidnapping was never solved.

British soldiers, real ones and dressed up ones were there. There was whiskey tasting, music and a bit of English pudding, and it was all very English—proving once again that we may have rebelled against the king to form a more perfect union, but we still love our cousins across the pond.

The embassies were far flung: Ireland, the Brits, Iceland, Latvia, Greece, Luxembourg, Portugal, Finland (all along Mass Ave.), and the Embassy of Austria and Slovakia at International Square, France and Germany on MacArthur Boulevard, and the list goes on. From the looks of it, the celebration will probably exceed last year’s crowds, the weather gods permitting.

This weekend, it’s the All Around the World Embassy Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all over the city, featuring 35 embassies from six continents. Needless to say, the embassies won’t just be from all over the world, but will be located all over the city. They included the Bahamas—a very popular destination last year where the annual festivities of Juckanoo will play a key part; Australia where you can hear the didgeridoo, an Aboriginal musical instrument, among other activities; Bolivia, which is now called the Plurinational State of Bolivia; Ghana, with a splendid display of its unique arts and crafts; and the Republic of Iraq, a free democracy. In fact, you can blaze a trail through the countries most affected by recent upheavals from Egypt to Bahrain. History in this city is alive and moving full steam ahead.

There will be shuttles available and special bus stops to the various embassies and residences which are scattered throughout the city

Other upcoming events in May include the National Asian Heritage Festival and the Fiesta Asia Street Fair, May 21 at Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd and 6th Streets, which also celebrates Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Live music, dancing, Pan-Asian Cuisine

May 21 will also feature the annual Meridian International Children’s Festival, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

There will also be special events on a daily basis at embassies, museums, and international cultural centers like the Goethe Institute and the Mexican Cultural Center, including jazz concerts, Kids World Cinema, Embassy Series concerts, the Eurovision Song Contest, workshop and classical music, film and so on.

For a complete list of all the events, times, schedules and locations for Passport DC, go to the Passport DC section of the Cultural Tourism website at www.culturaltourismdc.org