Arts
Weekend Roundup: Feb. 6-9
Weekend Round Up September 19, 2013
• September 27, 2013
SAVE THE DATE
3rd Annual Chefs Go Fresh and Seafood, Sept. 30
September 30th, 2013 at 09:00 AM | Individual tickets are $75.00 | chefsgofresh@georgetowner.com | Tel: 202 338 4833 | Event Website
For the 3rd year, Georgetown Media Group continues the popular event, Chefs Go Fresh, while highlighting seafood this year. Local chefs rev up for a motorcycle tour of farms near Annapolis, sponsored by the Maryland Department of Agriculture and Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries, in an effort to introduce D.C. area chefs to purveyors of produce, meats, seafood and other local products.
DC Shorts Film Festival Office
September 19th, 2013 at 06:30 PM | Free-$100 | info@dcshorts.com | Event Website
For 10 years, the DC Shorts Film Festival and Screenplay Competition has screened the world’s top short films to audiences throughout the region. This year, we will showcase over 153 films from 23 nations at 6 venues — including the country’s largest collection of short films by emerging Russian filmmakers. Hundreds of filmmakers and thousands of audience members will gather to mix, mingle and explore the art of short cinema.
Address
E Street Cinema: 555 11th Street NW
11th Annual Michael Wilbon & James Brown Celebrity Roast & Golf Classic
September 20th, 2013 at 07:30 AM | $250-$650 | dccapgolf@sorellegroup.com | Tel: 202-248-1930 | Event Website
Join us on Lansdowne’s Greg Norman championship course to benefit DC College Access Program and the thousands of students DC-CAP serves. Registration/breakfast is at 7:30 a.m., then tee off at 9:30 with dozens of sports, broadcasting and political celebrities and compete for prizes. The day of golf is part of a 2-day event featuring a Celebrity Roast/Auction on Thursday, Sept. 19. Play golf, attend the roast/auction or both. See website for details and sponsorship packages. RSVP by Sept. 6.
Address
Lansdowne Golf Resort; 44050 Woodridge Parkway
Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Annual Fall Festival of Indian Dance and Arts
September 20th, 2013 at 06:00 PM | $27.50-$125.00 | esaluke@dakshina.org | Event Website
Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company celebrate 10 years of excellence with its annual fall festival of Indian Arts and Dance. The festival features award winning artists who have been pioneers in the arts of classical to modern Indian dance, music, theater, and spoken word.
Address
Shakespeare Theatre; 610 F Street NW
Rachel Farbiarz: Take Me With You
September 20th, 2013 at 06:00 PM | Free | info@heinercontemporary.com | Tel: 202.338.0072 | Event Website
Heiner Contemporary is thrilled to present Rachel Farbiarz: Take Me With You, an exhibition featuring new drawing, collage and installation by the DC-based artist.
Address
Heiner Contemporary; 1675 Wisconsin Ave NW
Library of Congress National Book Festival
September 21st, 2013 at 10:00 AM | Event Website
Come to the 13th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are honorary chairs for the event. 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Address
The National Mall, between 7th & 14th Streets
D.C. Green Festival
September 21st, 2013 at 10:00 AM | $10.00 Day Pass, Discounted tickets available online | jackelin@greenfestivals.org | Tel: 828-333-9432 | Event Website
Come to Green Festival D.C. on September 21st and 22nd and participate in an annual celebration of sustainability and ecological balance at the nation’s largest green living event. Enjoy cooking demos, environmental films, keynote speakers, kids activities, fashion, beer & wine, and a marketplace with hundreds of local and national green businesses at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Hall A. Discounted tickets are available online- Visit Greenfestivals.org for more information!
Address
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Hall A
Fashion 360 Conference
September 22nd, 2013 at 10:00 AM | $75-$125 | Event Website
District Fete brings the fashion industry to our nation’s capitol with The Fashion 360 Conference (“Fashion 360”). Fashion 360 was created to provide industry insights and participate in engaging skill-building workshops that aid in the proficiency of core areas. It’s where industry leaders and influencers collide with interactive experiences and challenge themselves to increase their performance.
Address
District Architecture Conference Center; 421 7th Street NW
A Terror-filled Week, Saved by Life’s Little Things
• September 25, 2013
Were it not for last Monday, the week that just passed from Sunday to yesterday, would have been newsy enough, and even in its cultural and we-are-New-York and world-class way, a pleasant and rich harbinger of a fall to be enjoyed.
On Monday last week, the thorn of Syria was still in the news, and there was turmoil in that region as always. During that week, the House of Representatives passed its own version of a budget bill which, among other things, would cause huge cuts in the Food Stamp program and was hitched to a measure that would either defund Obamacare or lay the ground work defunding it, a prospect that could cause a government shutdown. Locally, the D.C. Council could not muster enough votes to override Mayor Vincent Gray’s veto of its Living Wage bill, a bill some thought was aimed squarely at the powers that be at Walmart, which had initiated plans for several of its low-wage, low-prices super stores in the District of Columbia. On the same day of that vote, Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry—once the Mayor of Washington, D.C., who was once called mayor-for-life routinely—was censured (for the second time in three years) by the council for taking money from contractors, which he had already admitted. They also stripped him of his only committee chairmanship.
These things alone were big news—an ongoing foreign policy crisis in the Middle East, actions by Congress that threatened a government shutdown amid the usual partisan blame game and paralysis, major political and policy issues in Council actions. But this was Monday’s week and none of it, not even in the midst of gala season, the floundering Redskins and triumphant-sad plight of our baseball team or the thriving panda much mattered.
On Monday, a lone gunman made his way into the Washington Navy Yard and Building 197, which housed the Naval Sea Systems Command, and shot and killed 12 employees and workers there in a spree that ended with his own death at the hands of police. His name was Aaron Alexis, an apparently mentally disturbed man who only recently called police in Rhode Island to tell them that he was hearing voices, a former member of the Navy Reserve, with a checkered, but apparently not alarming enough, past of gun incidents and reported incidents with the law that stopped just short of being criminal.
Alexis and his killing spree blotted out the media sun Monday and for a good part of the rest of the week here. He brought “This Town,” back to the status of “Our Town”, in the sense that everybody was consumed, shocked, floored, and eaten up by the news, as the District of Columbia joined other cities and places like Aurora, Newtown, Virginia Tech and the list-goes-on-places in being overwhelmed by the senseless and the random, humanity’s version of nature’s disasters.
“Rampage at the Navy Yard” was the big Washington Post headline across the top beneath the familiar mast-head with a bone sharp photograph of a police officer with short-cropped to the skin hair with a fierce expression on his face, holding a gun that looked like it could kill dozens in seconds. The rest of the page was filled with categories: the victims, the suspect, the scene , a picture of the suspect staring into a camera, a map of the Navy Yard, a time line, and various columns and stories on the inside, including one that asked “How Much is Enough?” It suggested that maybe these shootings were the ones that would lead to better gun laws.
As to that, fat chance. Only Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and a few other officials raised the question, and even President Barack Obama, in his eulogy for the victims on Sunday, worried that these shootings, like others had become “the new normal.”
“Checks failed to flag gunman’s past,” was the second day across the front page, underneath a list of the names of the victims, which we can repeat here, lest we forget so soon or sooner:
Michael Arnold, 59; Martin Bodrog, 54; Arthur Daniels, 51; Sylvia Frasier, 53; Kathleen Gaarde, 62; John Roger Johnson, 73; Mary Frances DeLorenzo Knight, 51; Frank Kohler, 50; Vishnu Pandit, 61; Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46; Gerald Read, 58; Richard Michael Ridgell, 52.
The week was dotted with videos from funerals, people in line at churches, memorials, memories told like stories. And yet, as noted elsewhere, including by the president in his eulogy, more, and, arguably worse horrors awaited during the week: shootings at a basketball court in Chicago— the kind of gang violence that is a major plague in Chicago and which continued through the weekend —a murderous assault on the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, by members of al-Shabab, a terrorist group associated with al Qaida, in which nearly 70 shoppers were killed and in Peshawar, Pakistan, the All Saints Church was hit by suicide bombers, killing more than 80, the single worst-ever attack on Christians in Pakistan.
In his eulogy at the navy yard, President Obama said he felt a “creeping resignation” in the country about gun violence, that it had become the new normal. “There is nothing normal about innocent men and women being gunned down where they work.”
But by Monday, while the world absorbed the news of the Navy Yard, Kenya or Chicago, other talk floated through the year, including the dread of going over the cliff, urged on by congressional Tea Party members, and the prospect of a government shutdown, a prospect that sent a rush of anxiety through this city as well as our town.
In times like these, you take a deeper interest in the visit of the President of Iran to the United Nations where he is scheduled to speak as is President Obama. You take hope from the ongoing ability of Pope Francis to surprise with his gentle, expansive vision, which includes chiding the church for its obsessive attention to gay marriage and abortion.
In these times, you take solace where you may—the way the sun lit up and made almost holy the colors of apples and peaches in brown boxes at the Dupont Sunday market, the sight of six or fawns and does on a visit to Olney, the modulated, almost musical voice of National Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as she read from her poetry in a crowded tent, men, women and children, old and young, black and white, and all the rainbows, listened raptly at the National Book Festival. Even with a heavy rain storm, it was attended, according to reports, by some 200,000 people over two days — more than those who attended the Redskins’ or Nationals’ games this weekend.
Now, it is a new week, and the headlines are thankfully small, making room even for the status of that sorry race for Governor of Virginia.
The Autumn of the Equestrian
•
Dry stacked stones run in walls along twisting roads that separate the chewed up asphalt from the rolling hillsides. Whitewashed fences cut through pastures of grazing horses, and their strong and slender bodies trot languorously, unconcerned with the raw power bubbling beneath their surfaces.
While this may sound like a scene from a 19th century English countryside, it is in fact present-day Middleburg, Virginia and its surrounding Loudoun County, the heart of America’s Horse Country.
Just an hour’s drive beyond Washington’s city limits, it can be hard to believe how quickly the neon cluster of the city falls away to sprawling farmland in the Middleburg area. And equestrian culture is the heartbeat of the community, replete with specialty horse shops along the main street, like the Middleburg Tack Exchange, which has an extensive inventory of saddles, riding boots, apparel and riding gear. The Journeyman Saddler is another tack store and workshop that makes custom-made leather goods such as chaps and saddles, where local riders frequently get repairs and adjustments for their gear.
Equestrian culture is not just a gimmick in Middleburg, but a way of life. And fall is the premier season in which to experience all the life it has to offer.
The colorful history and legendary stories of Loudoun’s long, rich equestrian history are housed in the National Sporting Library and Museum, where over 17,000 books dating back to the 16th century, as well as cycles of exhibitions and their permanent art collection, chart the county’s sporting traditions back to their roots.
The International Gold Cup
There are a great many seasonal equestrian events in the coming months, including a few highlights. The 76th annual Gold Cup on Saturday, Oct. 19 is the season highlight, and its world famous steeplechase races are not to be missed.
The first International Gold Cup was held in 1930 at Grasslands Downs, Tennessee, where the King of Spain placed a spectacularly beautiful gold trophy—the same one still awarded annually to the winner in competition that year. The location of the Cup moved around a bit, until 1984 when the International Gold Cup race and trophy were moved to Virginia, where they enjoy large crowds and international attendants to this day.
The 2013 International Gold Cup marks the 76th running of this prestigious race and maintains international interest both in the spectator venues as well as on course. Riders from across Europe and members of the International Federation of Amateur Riders compete with U.S. jockeys for the World Cup of Nations. The event is well attended by Washington’s diplomatic community as well as ambassadors and representatives from many nations, providing a unique venue for social entertaining and a great place to network in the midst of spectacular scenery.
The Greater Equestrian World
From Friday to Sunday, Oct. 4 through 6, Morven Park will host its annual Fall Horse Trials, a great place to kick off your experience of Virginia’s equestrian tradition. This free event provides the optimal spectator experience, offering opportunities to observe top riders from around the country perform in three major disciplines: dressage, show jumping, and cross country riding. This show traditionally attracts the top riders in the country, often including members of the U.S. Olympic Team.
The Morven Park Equestrian Center at Historic Morven Park in Leesburg, Va., holds a special place in the hearts of the equestrian community. Home to local, regional, national, and world-class equestrian events, Morven Park is built on 1,000 acres of open space and continues to operate as a multifaceted events facility that includes indoor and outdoor arenas, a beautiful series of cross-country courses, and sports fields that are utilized by more than 100,000 enthusiasts each year. For more information visit www.MorvenPark.org
That same weekend, Oct. 5 and 6, the Virginia Fall Races will host the Field Hunter Championships of America. Founded in 1989, this event brings together fox hunting enthusiasts from all across the U.S. and Canada to participate in the week-long trial. Mounted judges ride alongside the numbered contestants as they hunt with four area fox Hunts over a five-day period. At the end of each day’s hunting, the judges announce the horse and rider combinations selected to compete in the finals held Sunday at Glenwood Park. The finals are held prior to the start of the first race.
The Sunday finals of the Field Hunter Championship (Oct. 6) give racing spectators a unique opportunity to watch a mock fox hunt. The finalists then follow the Field Master and are judged on how their horse performs.
After this “mock” hunt, the finalists are narrowed down once again and asked to negotiate a handy hunter course in the center of the racecourse, one at a time, for the championship title. The judges ask the riders to show each horse’s different hunting skills, and after these individual tasks are completed, a champion is chosen. Trophies are awarded to the Champion, Reserve Champion as well as Best Turned Out and Most Suitable Pair. For more information visit www.VaFallRaces.com.
Further events include the 7th annual Blue Ridge Fall Races at Woodley Farm in Berryville, Va. on Saturday October 12 (www.BlueRidgeFallRaces.com), The Jumper Show at Fox Chase Farms in Middleburg on October 26 (www.FoxChaseFarms.net), as well as the Montpelier Hunt Races hosted by the Blue Ridge Valley Foundation on November 2 in Montpelier Station, Va. (www.MontpelierRaces.org).
As you can see, there is a lot riding on this year’s equestrian season around Middleburg. Don’t miss this year in horse country.
Weekend Roundup September 12, 2013
• September 23, 2013
Mark your calendars for The Third Annual
St. Jude Heart of Fashion Benefit
September 28, 2013 at 11:30 AM | Individual: $150, Friend of St. Jude: $300 | Tel: 703-351-5171 | Event Website
St Jude Heart of Fashion: “Join Neiman Marcus and Armani Collezioni at Mazza Gallerie in Washington, D.C., for a fabulous morning of fashion benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Featuring the Fall 2013 Ready-to-Wear Collection by Armani Collezioni, the event will include brunch bites and cocktails, followed by a seated fashion presentation.”
Address
Neiman Marcus at Mazza Gallerie, Washington, DC
ACTIVATED! Art4All DC Social Media Launch Party
September 13th, 2013 at 06:00 PM | Event Website
The Cultural Tourism DC and Pepco Edison Place Gallery are holding a social media launch party to get everyone ready for the unveiling of new art activities, performances, workshops, open houses, and more.
Address
702 Eighth Street, NW, Washington, DC
DC Wine Week Wine Tours: Plainly Perfect
September 14th, 2013 at 10:00 AM | $95 | emily@pivotpointcom.com | Event Website
For the next few months leading up to DC Wine Week, we have partnered with DiVine Wine Tours of Virginia to offer a series of wine tours to various Virginia wineries.
Stops included: Grey Ghost Winery, Aspen Dale Winery at the Barn, Vintage Ridge Winery
The Plainly Perfect tour takes you to Delaplane, Va., where the scenery is simple and beautiful. With gorgeous backdrops, a friendly community and rich wine history, these wineries capture the essence of what Virginia wine is all about.
Address
Please see website for details
Hovercraft by American River Taxi
September 14th, 2013 at 02:00 PM | Event Website
From Georgetowndc: “Hosted by American River Taxi and Universal Hovercraft of America, catch the waves during a two day event… on the scenic Potomac River at Washington Harbour… Experience the transitional capability of a hovercraft from water to land and witness the new quiet fan in action as well as its versatility. The event will feature both on water and floor displays of the Renegade hovercraft.”
Address
Georgetown Washington Harbour; 3000 K Street, NW
NUMARI Fall Fashion Preview at The Graham Georgetown
September 14th, 2013 at 02:00 PM | Event Website
From Georgetowndc: “Catch a glimpse of NUMARI’s newest silhouette debuting at NUMARI’s Fall Fashion Preview… at one of Forbes’ “must visit rooftops”… Experience an afternoon out with the who’s who of DC, a fall fashion show featuring models from T.H.E. Artist Agency, and complimentary early tastings of French 75… Send your RSVP for NUMARI’s Fall Fashion Preview to events@numari.com. Dress to impress!”
Address
Observatory Rooftop of the Graham Georgetown; 1075 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW
Friends of McMillan Park Town Hall Meeting
September 14th, 2013 at 03:00 PM | free | estoremcmillan@gmail.com | Tel: 202-234-0427 | Event Website
The City’s plan to privatize and demolish historic McMillan Park as well as creative alternatives will be discussed. To familiarize yourself with the issues or to sign the petition to save the park, please visit www.friendsofmcmillan.org. We are also seeking volunteers. Please contact Kirby Vining at restoremcmillan@gmail.com or 202-234-0427 to learn more.
Address
St. Martin’s Pioneer Room, 1908 North Capitol Street NW (@ T)
Frederic Yonnet Performs
September 14th, 2013 at 08:00 PM | $25.00 | Event Website
From Blues Alley: “Called ‘the Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica,’ Frédéric Yonnet brings the humble harmonica front and center, defying expectations and coaxing contemporary jazz, R&B, and a rainbow of genres from this versatile instrument. He’s performed with Stevie Wonder, John Legend, and Erykah Badu; recorded with the Jonas Brothers, toured with Prince — and won the respect of audiences everywhere.”
Address
Blues Alley; 1073 Wisconsin Ave NW
An Afternoon of the Arts
September 15th, 2013 at 04:00 PM | $40 | aginsberg@sjcs.org | Tel: 202-274-3460 | Event Website
Please join us in an afternoon of musical talent by violin/piano duo Holly Hamilton, the National Symphony Orchestra, and Carol Barth, DC Board of Directors and Founders Board member, with solo piano Sara Daneshpour, Master’s of Music graduate from the Juilliard School. An art auction will feature the artistic talents of artists in the ART Options program.
Donations fund the advancement of community support and opportunities for people living with disabilities in Washington, DC.
Address
Hearst Auditorium; National Cathedral School; 3612 Woodley Road NW
‘Other Desert Cities’: Family Secrets in Palm Springs
• September 12, 2013
If you go to Arena Stage to see the compelling production of Jon Robin Baltz’s Tony Award-nominated play “Other Desert Cities”—and you really should, despite its occasional frustrations—check out some of your fellow audience members to see how and what they’re doing.
I went to a matinee performance recently and the house was filled with student groups—from high schools from around the area—as well as long-time patrons and season ticket holders and members in good standing of that generation which the stridently wounded and angry Brooke Wyeth rails against in a battle with her Southern California affluent parents, especially her mother Polly, close friend of Nancy Reagan’s back in the day.
“Other Desert Cities”—the reference is a dry, melancholy riff on California road signs directing you southward once you get past Palm Springs—is something of a familiar staple of a play. It’s a generational war pay in which the liberal novelist daughter Brooke, visiting her parents during Christmas in 2004 when the Iraq war was at its height, squares off against her parents with news that she’s written a memoir which focuses on the suicide of her beloved (by her) older brother, who was part of a group of left-wing radicals who ended up bombing a recruiting center which resulted in the death of a homeless janitor in the 1970s.
This kind of situation is a classic one in the theater—the revealing of family secrets long hidden or forgotten or still festering like an odious cancer with all the attendant grudges, resentments and unspoken feelings that come along for a catastrophic ride. Almost all family dramas from Ibsen to Miller, and especially O’Neill burn with secrets—just try to walk away from “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” or “The Iceman Cometh,” for that matter (a family play and a bar play), unscathed.
This comparison is not to suggest that Baltz is in that league yet. “Other Desert Cities” is more like a long weekend in the Palm Springs desert hideaway home of Polly and Lyman Wyeth who are hosting Brooke, a one-book novelist who spiraled into depression and now brings her memoir as a kind of brick of coal for Santa’s stocking, her surviving young brother Trip and aunt Silda Grauman, Polly’s sister and former screen-writing partner in house for another bout of staying off the sauce.
These are not by any means your typical American family. Polly—something of a socialite—and Lyman were shining figures in the Reagan GOP circles of Southern California, and Lyman was once a well known movie actor who played cops and cowboys, before being named an ambassador to somewhere by Reagan. Brother Trip is a television producer, his latest being one of those daytime judge shows in which amateurs decided the fate of cases. Brooke talks like a GOP-dreaded East Coast lefty and literati and lives in a cottage on the New England coast, her older British husband having left her.
The early rounds of this battle—and it is a battle set in a house featuring one of those white plastic Christmas trees, with a trip to the country club for dinner on the agenda—are frequently funny, smart and very cool and on the money, with most of the jabbing going on between mom and daughter along political and cultural lines while brother and dad act as referees. Lyman, famous for his death scenes as an actor, plays ones out for the family, and Larry Bryggman, a veteran theater and big and little screen character, turns the effort into a barrel of laughs.
These early goings are abetted triumphantly by a strong cast, ably and unobtrusively directed by Kyle Donnelly who has worked with most of the actors before. There are—blessedly—no heroes and heroines here, just deeply troubled souls having the usual amount of agonizing difficulty showing their love for each other, which nevertheless is very evident as are the resentments, those never-healed wounds.
Bryggman and Helen Carey—who starred in “Long Day’s Journey” at Arena—are the crown jewels in a pretty heady cast.
Bryggman is one of those actors we know by face instantly—we’ve seen him on this show or in this move and on daytime soap opera, but here he is a lion, a giant of a character, he’s so full of the burden of the pains he’s carried around for decades that he finally burst with pieces of heart and soul, like the blood spatter in one of those CSI shows.
Carey, who looks small and thinly elegant but is steely and regal, is one of the area’s acting treasures, not credited as much as she should have been. Until the free-for-all explosion of “the truth,” she dominates every scene she’s in just like her character. There’s love for Polly there, but, boy, it’s true tough love. In this atmosphere of two really great performances, Martha Hackett as sister Silda survives with perfectly placed irony and sarcasm, Scott Drummond as Trip with a long-suffering warmth, while Emily Donahoe has the thankless task of humanizing Brooke, who threatens to become a merciless true believer and whiner. She is the apparent victim here, but she’s also the accuser.
In this two-hour play, there’s one more cat to come out of the bag. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve been hearing soft meows all along. It’s a manipulative kind of plotting—smart by way too much, and it could have derailed the play. But by that time, Bryggman, Carey, Donahoe, Drummond and Hackett have given you too many reasons to give a damn about the people on stage.
Baltz saves things with a kind of epilogue, a nine-years-later summation that remains resolutely ambiguous.
“I wanted more,” a woman told me as we left. In this, Baltz took the side of reality. Life just isn’t that tidy, or, as Sister Mary Ignatius once said in another play, “Of course, God answers all your prayers. It’s just that most of the time the answer is no.”
“Other Desert Cities” runs through May 26 in the Fichandler at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SW — ArenaStage.org. [gallery ids="101287,149571" nav="thumbs"]
Weekend Round Up July 25, 2013
• September 9, 2013
Smithsonian After-Hours
July 25th, 2013 at 08:00 PM | $15-25 | Event Website
Introducing the Smithsonian’s premier 21+ after-hours event series: a unique mix of culture, art, history and science that also includes music, a cash bar, and special access to Smithsonian exhibits, collections, and experts.
Address
Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center; 1100 Jefferson Drive SW
Union Market Drive-In: The American President
July 26th, 2013 at 09:00 PM | Event Website
Union Market will host Washington D.C.’s first drive-in movie experience, which will screen on Fridays. Watch classic Washington D.C.- centric films on Union Market’s 3-story wall. Pre-show festivities will include music, contests and special giveaways. A variety of Union Market vendors will also participate, serving food, drinks and fun snacks.
The DC Drive-In is free to attend, however reservations are suggested for cars. Don’t have a car? There will be a picnic area in the parking lot for bikers and walkers – no reservations are required for the picnic area.
Address
Union Market; 1309 5th Street NE
Drink the District: Beer Edition
July 27th, 2013 at 11:00 AM | $30 | media@drinkthedistrict.com | Tel: 304 280 6530 | Event Website
Drink the District is back and better than ever with our second annual Beer Edition. Come celebrate our one-year anniversary on July 27th and 28th at Mount Vernon Triangle, with unlimited tastings of 50+ craft beers and full pours available to all attendees. Ten of the District’s most popular food trucks will also be joining us, as well as live music and brew-tastic backyard games. So grab your friends and put on your party hat, and revel in the best birthday beer bash DC has to offer.
Address
500 New York Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20532
Elizabeth Huey: Hydrotherapy at Heiner Contemporary
July 27th, 2013 at 11:00 AM | 0 | info@heinercontemporary.com | Tel: 202-338-0072 | Event Website](http://heinercontemporary.com/exhibitions/elizabeth-huey-hydrotherapy)
Heiner Contemporary is delighted to present Hydrotherapy, an arrangement of new, small paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Elizabeth Huey. The history of psychology and human attempts at manufacturing happiness have long informed Elizabeth Huey’s practice. This new work exchanges sanitariums and institutions for resort spas, treatment centers and secluded getaways.
We are here most days in August, but please call in advance to be certain: 202-338-0072
Address
1675 Wisconsin Ave NW
Arts, Culture & All Things Pink!
July 27th, 2013 at 05:00 PM | $125 | Event Website](http://vippinkparty.eventbrite.com/)
CharityChicks US and We Will Survive Cancer are co-hosting a garden party for The Children’s Inn at NIH in the urban garden of the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown. We will be creating a whimsical garden party honoring several little girls who are currently battling rare cancer. Our theme this year is “Art, Culture & All Things Pink”!
Address
Ritz Carlton Georgetown; 3100 South Street NW
15th Annual Opera Gala Concert
July 28th, 2013 at 05:00 PM | The admission is $25 | Tel: 202-723-1659 | Event Website](http://theariaclub.homestead.com/)
The Aria Club of Greater Washington, a 501 C 3 nonprofit organization for classical and opera singers, presents its 15th Annual Opera Gala Concert . This celebration will feature national and local professional and aspiring opera singers: Jennifer Hosmer, Adrienne Neal, Samantha McElhaney, Jing Chang, John White, Malaika Alvaro, Hillery Tsumba, Yubin Hung, Rose Sims, Paul McIlvaine, Reafealito Ross among others. Hear selections from Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Don Pasquale, La Boheme, Manon, Otello, Porgy & Bess, Rigoletto, Romeo & Juliette and many others. English Surtitles. Ample seating and free Sunday parking on 16th Street NW and side streets.
Please come as you are and bring family and friends for an enjoyable evening ! For more information call 202-723-1659 and visit www.theariaclub.homestead.com
Address
Tifereth-Israel Congregation; 7701 16th Street NW
South Capitol Street Corridor Project Informational Update Meeting
July 30th, 2013 at 06:30 PM
The DDOT will hold an informational meeting to update the public about the design, phasing and schedule of the largest project in its history- the South Capitol Street Corridor Project- which includes replacing the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and transforming the city’s southernmost entrance into a grand urban boulevard.
Address
Capitol Skyline Hotel; 10 I (Eye) Street SW
Weekend Round Up August 29, 2013
•
Fourth Annual Monty Alexander Jazz Festival to Deliver Lineup of Acclaimed Artists
August 29th, 2013 at 03:00 PM | Please Visit ChesapeakeJazz.org for pricing | info@chesapeakechambermusic.org | Tel: (410) 819-0380 | Event Website
The Monty Alexander Jazz Festival will take place in Easton on Labor Day weekend from August 29 -September 1st. This year, legendary jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli will open with an intimate night club-style concert at Easton’s Academy Art Museum. The Festival will continue through the weekend with performances at Easton’s historic Avalon Theatre with returning jazz and gospel vocalist, Dee Daniels.
For further information on the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival,visit ChesapeakeJazz.org.
Address
Easton’s Academy Art Museum; 106 South St, Easton, MD 21601
Cyber In Securities
August 30th, 2013 at 06:00 PM | free entry, cash bar | bmurphy@wpadc.org | Tel: 202-234-7103 | Event Website
Washington Project for the Arts presents CYBER IN SECURITIES, an exhibition exploring contemporary data collection and imaging surveillance practices, highlighting artists whose work makes visible experiences of tracking and being tracked in a digital age. The exhibition is part of WPA’s Experimental Media 2013, the eighth installment of WPA’s Experimental Media program.
Address
Pepco Edison Place Gallery; 702 8th St, NW
Paddle for Humanity at the Washington Harbour
August 31st, 2013 at 07:00 AM | Prices start at $50.00 | Tel: (202)333-9749 | Event Website](http://www.paddleforhumanity.org/html/Events-WashingtonDC.html)
3rd Annual Paddle for Humanity and you are invited to join in the paddle sports community and festivities. Founded in 2009, the Paddle for Humanity (PFH) is a grass root paddling event series with the stated purpose to bring the paddling community together to support a common cause. It’s easy, fun and accessible to all ages and skill levels and you can compete against friends or simply paddle for the pleasure of it. You may register online or in person by Friday night on August 30th at Sequoia. While this is a mainly a SUP (Stand Up Paddle) event, all paddle sports are welcome. No rowing, sailing or non-human motors, but the rest is fair game.
Pre-registration is $50/one event or $80/two events. Add $15 for event day sign-up. Online registration is closed.
Register in-person at our Pre-Party at Sequoia on Fri, 8/30 from 6pm to 8pm OR on event day near Sequoia (on the boardwalk in front of Washington Harbour) from 7am to 8:45am. Credit card, cash or check payable to SUP ATX.
Pre-party Check-in and Bag Pickup at Sequoia
6:00- 8:00 PM Friday, August 30th, 2013: Come enjoy a cold beverage, check-in for the event or just hang out and talk story with others from the paddling world.
Address
Washington Canoe Club (WCC); 3700 Water Street NW
Pray. Eat. Love.
September 1st, 2013 at 10:30 AM | FREE | communications@nationalpres.org | Tel: 202-537-7494 | Event Website](http://www.nationalpres.org/PrayEatLove)
All are welcome to a morning of worship, fun, and service! A casual, music-filled worship service kicks off the morning at 10:30 a.m. Stay after the service for a complimentary buffet lunch with games and activities for all ages. There will also be family-friendly service projects to help those in need in our community. Ample free parking is available, or take a short walk from the red line metro.
Address
The National Presbyterian Church;4101 Nebraska Ave. NW
Mystique Pop-Up Store on Capitol Hill
September 5th, 2013 at 05:00 PM | free | emandros@mystiquejewelers.com | Tel: 703 | [Event Website](http://www.mystiquejewelers.com/)
Mystique Jewelers is bringing its sophisticated and chic fine jewelry to Capitol Hill. The Old Town Alexandria based jewelry store will host a three day pop-up store on Capitol Hill Thursday, September 5th through Saturday, September 7th.
Guests will enjoy champagne and a private showing of bridal designs from Andrew Meyer, as well as, every day wearable jewelry designs. Free pearl earrings with any purchase.
Thursday Cocktail Party from 5-7pm
Friday & Saturday open 10am to 5pm
Address
Tabula Rasa | event and meeting space; 731 8th Street SE
Vintage Poster Sale
September 6th, 2013 at 10:00 AM | FREE | GALLERY@CALLOWAYART.COM | Tel: 202-965-4601 | [Event Website](http://www.callowayart.com/)
Vintage Poster Trunk Sale with Mark J. Weinbaum Fine Posters and Prints, who works out of New York City, will exhibit up to 100 works over the September weekend. The collection focuses on decorative and rare historical posters, with a wide variety of categories and time periods available. All of his posters and prints represent the best quality available on the market place.
Address
Susan Calloway Fine Arts; 1643 Wisconsin Ave NW
Weekend Round Up Septemeber 5, 2013
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Australia Home Land
September 6th, 2013 at 06:00 PM | Free to The Public | Event Website
CityDance resident artist, Sarah J. Ewing, is premiering her dance work, Australia Home Land, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Millennium Stage on September 5 & 6 at 6:00PM. The performance is free to the public!
Australia Home Land, Ewing’s first full-length piece, was selected as one of two works commissioned in this year’s Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project. Five dancers struggle to co-exist on a dual-level set featuring a cross-section of Australia’s red earth. This unusual set uses the Millenium stage in a fresh and unexpected way. The tension created by the space is integral to the dancers interactions adding dimension to an already strong story.
Address
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage; 2700 F St NW, Washington
Vintage Poster Sale
September 6th, 2013 at 10:00 AM | FREE | GALLERY@CALLOWAYART.COM | Tel: 202-965-4601 | Event Website
Vintage Poster Trunk Sale with Mark J. Weinbaum Fine Posters and Prints, who works out of New York City, will exhibit up to 100 works over the September weekend. The collection focuses on decorative and rare historical posters, with a wide variety of categories and time periods available. All of his posters and prints represent the best quality available on the market place.
Address
Susan Calloway Fine Arts; 1643 Wisconsin Ave NW
Local 11th Street Bridge Celebration
September 7th, 2013 at 12:00 PM | 11thstreet@eventsmanagementdc.com | Tel: 202-558-6545 | Event Website
Free and open to all, this festive community event will commemorate the completion and full opening of the new local bridge portion of the larger 11th Street Bridge Project — which is the largest project in the District Department of Transportation’s history – and also again honor fallen Metropolitan Police Officer Kevin J. Welsh.
Address
Local 11th Street Bridge
“Al Gray, Marine… The Early Years 1950-1967” Book Signing
September 7th, 2013 at 12:00 PM | Free | dgregory@susandavis.com | Tel: 202-414-0785
Retired General Alfred M. Gray, Jr., the 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps, will be signing his book “Al Gray, Marine… The Early Years 1950-1967.”
Address
Museum Store at the National Museum of the Marine Corps 18900 Jefferson Davis Highway Triangle, VA 22172
8th Annual Events DC Nation’s Triathlon
September 8th, 2013 at 07:00 AM | Registration for 2013 Nation’s Triathlon is currently closed | Event Website
The 8th Annual Events DC Nation’s Triathlon to Benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society will take place Sunday, September 8, 2013 in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. It features a course that winds through Washington, DC’s monument corridor in the shadow of the nation’s best known memorials and national treasures. This International Distance triathlon, sanctioned by the USAT, includes a 1.5k swim in the Potomac River, 40k bike course through DC, and a 10k run through Washington, DC’s historical landmarks with a spectacular finish!
Address
West Potomac Park near West Potomac Park, West Basin Dr SW,
Opening Reception: Frank Day & Allison Hardy
September 10th, 2013 at 05:30 PM | Free | info@efronart.com | Tel: 2022231626 | Event Website
Boston Properties is pleased to open on September 10th at The Heurich Gallery an exhibition featuring photography by Frank Hallam Day and the drawings of Allison Long Hardy.
Address
The Heurich Gallery; 505 Ninth Street NW
‘It’s a Girl!’: a Panda Amid D.C.’s News and History
•
“It’s a girl!”
Living in Washington, it’s always difficult and tantalizing to juggle personal history with the kind that goes on right outside: a bus ride from the National Mall, a Metro ride to the Pentagon, a bracing walk to the White House, a jaunt along Embassy Row.
The world is with us always here in Washington in its various monumental manifestations, in the buzz that buzzes from the White House lawns, or those just walking by holding up signs. In Washington, we always live in several places at once—we live in our domicile, our hearth, heart and home, our block and neighborhood, where we work and how we work, in that great place just around the corner where the news always happen—world news, political news, foreign news, and news that seems foreign.
We recognize this more than ever during the course of a long, not-so-hot-around-here summer and its end” how the international, the national, the local and colloquial mash up.
So—“it’s a boy” was the long awaited news from London that Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, had a baby, heir to the British throne, which we all duly watched on the telly, read about—and continue to do avidly—in People and their ilk.
“It’s a girl” was a cry that echoed from a few blocks away the same time as it did over the air waves and the internet. It revealed the sex of the new panda cub, whose birth only a few days ago was met with universal jubilation that seemed every bit as precious as the news of the new prince. It was also related that Tian Tian was the father, and so the new cub is the daughter of Tian Tian (by way of artificial insemination) and Mei Xiang, and not Gao Gao, the wild boy from the San Diego Zoo who had been rescued from the wild by the Chinese.
The birth and identification of the new cub—may she live long and prosper—was an example of how big news here can be international. The Chinese, for sure, care about it, as do the thousands of visitors to the National Zoo who will have to content themselves with eyeing the “Panda Cam,” like the rest of us. But we who live in the city, and we who live just around the corner from the Panda domain, care a little more. It is, after all, a new kid in the neighborhood.
We, as does the rest of the world, receive this wee bit of news fully aware that people lately have been talking mostly about war, Syria, war crimes and air strikes—along with their efficacy, moral and practical. A lot of that talk is coming from right down the street on Pennsylvania Avenue, such that you think you can hear it echo sometimes. But a lot of that talk about Syria is also on the lips of Main Streeters all across the country, who are distressed about the pictures of dead children and who are less hungry to get into another mess in the region where we fought two long, costly and not all that fruitful wars.
We know where we live all the time—the city of monuments, memorials and momentous times and events where ripples from elsewhere—the not-guilty verdict in the Zimmerman-Martin case this summer—soon find their way into the halls of government, or are expressed in the remembrance and celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr., and his “I have a Dream” speech. Thousands of us went to the National Mall and others watched on television or saw or talked with the celebrants in our neighborhoods. Often, softly, and carefully, except perhaps at home, we talked about race, but rarely with people of different races than our own. In this city, which still has no voting representation in Congress, we are keenly aware of the echoes that we hear.
People—members of our elected government in the city council, our cultural and economic boosters and leaders—tell us we are living in a world-class city full of world class opportunities and life styles. We could be Parisians or New Yorkers, for all we know. I suspect, though, that we’re Washingtonians and the people that surround us in our neighborhoods, wondering if we could ever eat at all the new restaurants in our lifetimes, see all the new plays, hear all the new songs at both the 9:30 Club, Blues Alley and the Hamilton and drive out to Wolf Trap, too. We love the new bike racks, and curse the bikers, sometimes all at once. In our neighborhood in Lanier Heights, we are saddened about the disappearance of Romeo, the gray and white house cat at Joseph’s House.
Then, there are days or weekends, when we would rather be here than any place else in the world, real or imagined. To me, it was the weekend of the beginning of the celebration of the March, which was history up close and personal, once (or twice) as was the case for some, in a lifetime. The history-remembered songs and memories from that march weekend mixed in with the regular Sunday visit to the Dupont Circle market, for the pies, the crab cake man, the bouquet of flowers, the blueberry scone, and the couple from Virginia who make soup that flavor country with Asian tang and taste. I remember finding a CD at Second Story Books across the circle on P Street: “Eric Clapton: Me and Mr. Johnson,” the great blues player’s salute to the great blues man Robert Johnson. We came home and saw the grandfather across the street holding his son’s baby in his lap and waved.
The panda cub had just been born a day or so before.
And today: “It’s a girl!”
According to the National Zoo, the female cub “has a fat little belly.” Oh, happy day.
Weekend Round Up August 22, 2013
• August 26, 2013
End of Summer Party with Chance Encounters
August 23rd, 2013 at 06:00 PM | gallery@callowayart.com | Tel: 202.965.4601 | [Event Website](http://pinterest.com/callowayart/current-exhibit-chance-encounters/
On View: August 6 – 31
Susan Calloway Fine Arts ends the summer with Chance Encounters, curated by talented summer interns Ben Slyngstad and Sara Erickson. The exhibit highlights the unlimited conversations amongst the gallery’s collection. On exhibit are 13 groupings each a harmonious mixture of styles, media and eras, chosen more for their formal aesthetics – composition, color and strong opposition – rather than for subject matter.
Address
1643 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington DC 20007
DC Wine Week Wine Tours: The Storybook Tour
August 24th, 2013 at 10:00 AM | $95 | emily@pivotpointcom.com | [Event Website](http://divinewineva.com/wine-tours/wine-tour-2-the-storybook-tour/
For the next few months leading up to DC Wine Week, we have partnered with DiVine Wine Tours of Virginia to offer a series of wine tours to various Virginia wineries.
Stops included: Zephaniah Farm Vineyard, Casanel Winery, North Gate Vineyard
Everyone loves a good story, and this tour is full of them. The wines are delicious on their own, but the stories behind these family-owned wineries will make the wine and your experience that much better.
Address
Please see website for details
Beasley Real Estate Presents “The Incredibles”
August 25th, 2013 at 07:30 PM
Join Beasley Real Estate on Sunday night for a free community movie night!
Now in it’s second year, the “Best of Summer” series is a great opportunity for new and old neighbors to get together and enjoy a great night under the stars. A two-story screen, free popcorn and other goodies too!
Address
Palisades Park; 5200 Sherier Pl NW
Technology for Older Adults
August 26th, 2013 at 03:30 PM | $0-$10 | lindajkh@mac.com | Tel: 202-234-2567
Many questions will be addressed at the next Dupont Circle Village Live and Learn seminar. Dr. Majd Alwan, senior vice president and executive director at the LeadingAge Center for Aging Services and Technologies, will explain new developments in fall detection and prevention, telehealth and remote patient monitoring and electronic health records.
Address
General Federation of Women’s Clubs; 1734 N Street NW
TECRO to sponsor free screenings of “Go Grandriders” on Aug. 26 and 27
August 26th, 2013 at 10:30 AM | Free | lishanlorenzo@gmail.com | Tel: (202) 895-1853 | [Event Website](http://gograndridersdc.eventbrite.com/)
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States is sponsoring two free screenings of “Go Grandriders,” the highest-grossing documentary in Taiwanese history. The screenings will be shown at the Avalon Theatre in Washington, DC, on Monday, August 26, at 10:30 a.m. Following the showing of the film, grandrider Chang Hon-dao and his wife (and fellow grandrider) Chang Chen Ying-mei will lead a discussion about their experiences and answer questions.
Address
Avalon Theatre: 5612 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20015
