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At Monday night’s Black Cat show Thurston Moore  dished out jokes about Dischord house, stories about Black Flag, Jello Biafra, conspiracy theories about Jimmy Carter, credited Reagan for the birth of Hardcore, and had a gin & tonic chugging contest with his guitarist. Oh yeah, and played some amazing music too.

Moore, frontman of the iconic experimental/noise/post-punk band Sonic Youth is on tour in support of his latest solo album Demolished Thoughts, released in 2011 on Matador. He brought with him fellow Matador recording artist Kurt Vile, as well as a band on his own label, Ecstatic Peace Records – Hush Arbors, which features his touring guitarist, Keith Wood. Read the rest of this entry »

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Takoma 1791 Boundary Stone
courtesy of Mr. T in DC

Tom: I’ve got a wild weekend of work this weekend, but I’ll be continuing my quest for a new breakfast place. My trip to Boundary Stone last weekend, though, was very promising. This week, it’s over to Rustik for some biscuits. I’m also looking forward to putting together my new garden frames and getting my new seeds in from Burpee’s. The garden season is coming!

Marissa: In addition to the copious amounts of sleep I’ll be catching up on, this weekend I’m headed to the International Wine and Food Festival. Rows of food vendors and wine tastings–it’s pretty much the stuff of dreams. Saturday or Sunday morning I’ll head back to Taylor Gourmet to snag one of those breakfast sandwiches, since last weekend they had run out. Then Sunday afternoon I might head out to Old Town, since it’s been a while, and stroll in and out of some shops.

Fedward: This weekend is pretty much a replay of one last September, so I’ll just self-quote and annotate: The Social Chair and I will be visiting friends near Front Royal, which usually means a winery tour. Past favorites have included Linden Vineyards (a Virginia wine pioneer and consistent producer of high quality wine – last time we didn’t manage to get by), Glen Manor Vineyards (check the updated where to buy list for restaurants and retailers in the area – I personally recommend the Hodder Hill, an excellent Bordeaux-style blended red), and Chester Gap Cellars (a place I’d go just for the view from the tasting room, even without Bernd’s excellent wines – last time we were torn between three Viognier bottlings, one from the nearby Boisseau Vineyard and two from Bernd’s grapes, of which one was oaked, and ended up buying some of each). If we’re organized we might even squeeze in a visit to a distiller or two (but Addison has now beaten me to Catoctin Creek). I should try to remember to bring along some WLDC business cards, huh. And then on our way back we’ll stop at the Apple House in Linden for some donuts (the Social Chair swore I had never taken her there, but admitted after we sat down that it looked familiar after all).

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Le Soir courtesy of M.V. Jantzen

The French get it. At least when it comes to food and romance. Mix Paris with a little New York and you have yourself a seriously original duo. Enter L’Enfant Cafe, a tiny bistro in Adams Morgan, and you see that America à la France at its greatest. It boasts only 16 tables, but dishes out some serious french fare that transport you to a cafe in the center of Le Marais. On a weekend, it is a great spot to find a croque madame and espresso, and on a weeknight, a perfect date spot for intimate conversation and glasses of rouge. This place is just as one imagines a Parisian bistro to be: effortlessly fabulous.

But that’s just the half of it. L’Enfant is so much more than just a restaurant. Co-owned by Christopher Lynch and Jim Ball, two New Yorkers who wanted to bring the art-y to Party, L’Enfant has turned into an institution of fun fare. Known for their yearly Bastille Day French Maid Relay Race, as well as their infamous Saturday Le Boum brunches, these guys keep it coming. Now, they are making Sunday the new Funday with a one of a kind dining experience. What does that entail? One word: Cabaret.

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Photo Courtesy of The Grey Area

Happenstance is what brought The Grey Area together. It was March 2010 when Jason Steinhauer (vocals/guitar) stopped by Zoo Bar for an open blues jam. Drummer Timothy Jones (TJ) was playing with a few other guys on stage at the time, so Steinhauer sat at the bar and waited for his turn to join.

It didn’t take long for Steinhauer to get in on the action though. Instead of waiting for his name to be called, Steinhauer jumped on stage as soon as the song being played was finished. From there, he grabbed the mic, looked at TJ, and said, “‘You Shook Me,’ the Zeppelin version.”  TJ smiled, kicked the beat, and started the song. That’s all it took — an indie-rock band with the ability to write pop hooks and catchy choruses was born.

Steinhauer and TJ exchanged numbers that night, forged a friendship, and started writing music with each other. After toying around with the idea of adding a bass player, the duo made their official band debut eight months later at the Canal Room in New York City. Now they’re nominated for three 2012 Washington Area Music Association awards (including Best New Artist) and are playing an album release show at Strathmore this Friday.

Steinhauer took a few minutes to share The Grey Area’s story with We Love DC in anticipation of Friday night. Here’s what he had to say. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tomas Vokoun Makes a Pad Save
courtesy of clydeorama

The Caps scored early and often and rode a hot goaltender to a 4-0 win over the Florida Panthers last night at Verizon Center. With the win, the Caps vaulted past the Panthers into first place in the Southeast Division and a spot in the playoffs. Alex Ovechkin scored twice and Tomas Vokoun stopped 42 shots for his fourth shutout of the season.

The fans were barely in their seats when the Caps lit the red light for an early lead. Jason Chimera dug the puck out of the corner and fed a pass to Matthieu Perreault who slid the puck under Panthers’ goalie Scott Clemmensen just 13 seconds into the game. Read the rest of this entry »

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Portal to Virginia
courtesy of cruffo

Metro shots are always fun. The bright, colorful lights, combined with the blacks of the shadows, go together so well. Cruffo’s shot is unique because of the lens flare, a refraction of light in the lens of the camera which shows up in the image as multiple blue circles. Sometimes these flares can ruin a picture; other times they add a bit of wonder to an ordinary photo. This one is definitely a benefit, with the added bonus of adding color to the image. Quite the shot!

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Photo ©Carol Pratt/Folger Theatre

It’s a woman’s world out there. Now a days more women than men are attending college and these more educated females are putting off families and earning more money than men. As a late-20’s lost boy, I’m ok with saying that.  Folger Theatre’s production of The Gaming Table represents this new role of women well. In the show the women are empowered, smart, and clever while the males range from bumbling to sissy.

Amazing that the play the show was adapted from, The Basset Table, originally written in 18th century by playwright Susanna Centlivre. While additional material was added to modernize the piece, the play is still truly ahead of its time. Lady Reveller (Julie Jesneck) and her cousin Valeria (Emily Trask) are two different women who suffer from the same problem. Reveller would rather play cards at the Basset table she runs in her uncle’s (Michael Willis) house than put up with the affections of Lord Worthy (Marcus Kyd). Valeria isn’t much for cards, she is a woman of science. However her father would rather see her married to a Sea Captain (Michael Glenn) then dissecting frogs. Valeria doesn’t fancy Captain Hearty but does have an eye for his Ensign (Robbie Gay).

An 18th century play with a modern RomCom set-up. Doesn’t matter when the play was written though- you’ll be a laughing in the aisles all night.

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what remains
courtesy of ekelly80

Well, exciting weekend. And after all the activity at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, no mere game seemed able to compete. And from the sound of it, the commercials were much, much worse than the game. I decided to read a book instead last night and can tell you that Wall still stands. I’m not sure the same can be said of the New England half of my family…

Anyways, I’m sure many of you are shaking off either too much food, or too many adult beverages from last night. To that I say, take a load off and enjoy a slice from the weekend, in photo form. I can promise you there will be no barking dogs hoking cars; or sexist ads from crappy web hosting companies; or poorly made, jingoistic commercials from Belgian owned beer conglomerates. So enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »

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DSC_6231
courtesy of bhrome

Two weeks ago, the Capitals came into their game against the Boston Bruins on the hockey equivalent of fourth and long: reeling from consecutive losses and missing their captain, Alex Ovechkin. With the help of a hat trick from an unexpected source, diminutive Mathieu Perreault, the Caps hung on to beat the Bruins and set the stage for today’s Super Sunday rematch.
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Edwin Jackson
courtesy of Keith Allison

The question most often asked when people talk about Edwin Jackson is why has he been on so many teams. The Nats will be Jackson’s eighth team in his nine year career, and the reason is simple. Jackson has never cost much and always had top of the rotation stuff with back of the rotation results. Every new team that gets him believes they can be the ones that can finally unlock all that potential and the team getting rid of him was just tired of waiting.

The interesting thing about the one year $10 million contract that Jackson signed with the Nationals is that it is in line more with Jackson’s results than his potential, and Jackson was more than willing to take a one year deal in order to have a career year and cash in next off-season. The late Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson once said, “Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I’ll win a pennant every year.”

With Edwin Jackson the Nats get one highly motivated pitcher that can’t wait to prove his value to the world. The Nats rotation has a lot of ifs but those ifs have evolved a lot in the last few years. No longer are the Nats hoping for the health of John Patterson or Shawn Hill or that a surprise can be found among a bunch of minor league free agents. The Nats have a legitimate major league rotation, and perhaps something even better.

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