Monthly Archives: June 2011

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Dylan Koehler of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society

From Terrible Secret of Lunastus
All photos by Heather Keating, courtesy of Baltimore Rock Opera Society

At last summer’s H Street Festival just beyond the hand dancing demonstration, and right before the zoot-suited swing band, lay the Brothership, an art-car manned by a half dozen members of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society (BROS). With their ornate hats, righteous shredding techniques, devilish good looks, they won my heart.

The Baltimore Rock Opera Society took Baltimore by storm in 2009 with their original rock opera Gründlehammer, and after a year of toil, they debuted their new double feature of original works two weekends ago at the renovated Autograph Playhouse in the Charles Village in Baltimore.

We caught up with Grand Viceroy of Harmonious Operations (aka Musical Director) Dylan Koehler this week to talk about the BROS, their latest production, the renovation of the Autograph, and all things rock opera. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: This Will Destroy You @ Rock and Roll Hotel, 6/5/11

This Will Destroy You - press photo
All photos courtesy of This Will Destroy You

This Will Destroy You is one of my favorite groups in the post-rock scene right now. I feel like they’re creating music specifically for me. It has the pleasant, sometimes melancholy soft-loud dynamic of bands like Mogwai or Jakob. Yet they’ve taken a turn for the dark side lately. Their new material is ominous, ambient, less guitar-oriented yet still just as destructive. It’s the kind of music you can lose yourself in.

There were a couple great moments at their show at the Rock and Roll Hotel this Sunday, where I could feel the full power of their noise assault. But the show just wasn’t mixed right. For an instrumental rock band, nothing is more important than the sound; I was left underwhelmed. This was pretty disappointing, considering their show last year at DC9 was one of my favorites of the year, and I love the material they’ve written since then.
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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music
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The Winning Ticket: Daniel Lanois’ Black Dub

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of concert tickets to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see uber-producer Daniel Lanois’ latest jam band project Black Dub perform at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, June 14th. When I call Lanois an uber-producer, I’m not joking. The guy has produced albums for Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Sinead O’Conner, Ron Sexsmith, Brian Eno, and a little known band called U2. His current band is dedicated to live recording all done in one take, with no over-dubs. What that means is that they are one tight live unit and I am sure this will translate into an excellent performance for whoever wins these tickets. (PS- If I won these, I would also be totally freaking out to hear what a sound-master like Lanois will do with the 9:30 Club’s premier sound system.)

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this event are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Don Quixote

Ryan Sellers as Sancho Panza and Dan Istrate as Don Quixote, with Natalie Berk as Aldonza, in Synetic Theater's production of Don Quixote. Photo credit: Graeme B. Shaw.

There is nothing on stage in Synetic Theater‘s Don Quixote more expressive than Dan Istrate’s eyes. Which is odd, because they are actually anything but – wide, unseeing, unblinking eyes focused anywhere else except on reality. Matched by his frozen arms in an almost wooden stance, his mad foolhardy knight is like a marionette or a religious icon paraded in a pageant.

That last is an apt metaphor when you consider the pace of this production seems to mimic a Catholic saint’s day pageant, as the icons slowly shake their way down the street. At 100 minutes, Dr. Roland Reed’s adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ famous novel felt much, much longer. Though the usual high level of physical daring and command we’ve come to expect (and demand) from Synetic’s extremely talented ensemble was on display opening night, the overall effect was somehow muddy.

After several productions featuring expansively creative set design (such as the water stage for King Arthur), director Paata Tsikurishvili has chosen to tone things down and present a minimalist experience. After all, Synetic built its well-deserved reputation by using actors’ bodies to suggest environments to stunning effect. So why doesn’t it quite work with Don Quixote? Certainly this play about a dreamer is full of action, but that action is in the form of multiple vignettes hanging together incohesively, with a dreary sigh.

The fault may lie in the adaptation itself. Though the moments of Istrate’s keen sightliness are riveting when allowed to take focus, the production commits the cardinal sin of feeling joyless, through dialogue that simply fails to engage or enlighten.  Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals add three in Amateur Draft

Photo courtesy of
‘The team’
courtesy of ‘fishhawk’

While the Nationals toiled in San Francisco (a game they would lose 5-4 in 13 innings), the front office staff and general manager Mike Rizzo were busy in the war rooms at Nationals Park working out who they would take in the MLB Entry Draft yesterday.

The Nationals have enjoyed the first pick in each of the last two drafts, putting them in the position to take Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg, two of the strongest draft picks that the sport has had to offer in a generation. The Nationals added 3B Anthony Rendon with the sixth pick in the draft after three years at Rice University where he hit .371 with 46 doubles, 52 homers and just under 200 RBI in 187 games. Rendon, whose 21st birthday was yesterday, is 6′, 190lbs and was considered to be a plus defender at third, though was quick to tell reporters he’d be happy to play anywhere, so long as it meant playing.
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Entertainment, People, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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DC Street Art Scene: G40 Summit is Just the Beginning

When I first introduced myself as the newest We Love DC arts writer to Lauren Gentile, Director at Irvine Contemporary art gallery on 14th Street, she warned me that I would struggle to find works that would meet my “street art” beat. At the time, I was researching the P Street Shepard Fairey mural, and she was quick to point out that neither he, nor any of the other artists represented in that tiny gem of an alleyway, were DC-based.

This was true, of course; but as it turns out, maybe not for long.

The DC blogosphere has been buzzing lately over “vitaminwater uncapped LIVE’s” month-long takeover of 1213-1217 14th Street. In a last hoorah before its scheduled demolishment later this year, the multi-story building has played host to a “cultural extravaganza” of musical performances, fashion shows, and Art Whino gallery’s second annual G40 Summit.

Playfully (or something like that) named after the G20 Summit that unites political heavyweights, the exhibit unites leaders in “New Brow”—contemporary underground art that draws from graffiti and skater culture—with thousands of pieces from New York, California, DC and around the world on display. While DC is no stranger to galleries and art shows, the truly unique nature of underground art literally exploded onto the street last Saturday, when Art Whino hosted its “Artapalooza” live painting session in the parking lot adjacent to the venue.

Open to the public, Art Whino Executive Director Shane Pomajambo offered curious visitors old disc covers, paints, and Sharpies (and screws, to attach the ‘canvasses’ to the side of the building) to create their own street art. Continue reading →

Special Events, We Love Arts
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June Happenings at SAAM

Photo courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum

Looking for some great things to do over the summer while the tourists flood in? There are several great programs (free!) being hosted by the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Penn Quarter this month. Take some time to check them out!

Opening Night of the IV BrazilDocs Documentary Film Week: Santiago
June 9, 7 p.m.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery host the opening-night film, “Santiago,” of the IV BrazilDocs Documentary Film Week, sponsored by the Cultural Section of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, DC. In 1992, João Moreira Salles, one of Brazil’s foremost documentary filmmakers, began shooting a film about Santiago, the butler in his childhood home, who had lived a rich and vivid life. Through the film’s personal narrative, Salles addresses the elements of memory and identity that are crucial to the documentary genre.

The House I Live In
June 11, 4 p.m.
A theatrical presentation by Catherine Ladnier chronicles life in America from New Year’s Eve in 1939 through the end of World War II. Music underscores dramatic readings of letters written by servicemen and their loved ones, which recount the lingering effects of the Great Depression, America’s involvement in World War II, life on the home front, the bravery of soldiers, and gratitude for peace. In conjunction with “To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America.”

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Featured Photo
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Featured Photo


‘US Capitol Dome’
courtesy of ‘ep_jhu’

Photography is such a versatile art form. Not only is there a wealth of subjects and topics to shoot, but the way the image is exposed, manipulated, or processed can give an otherwise plain image an amazing life. And then there is the color to play around with: do you choose realistic color or extra saturated? Or even black and white? The options for expression are endless.

Take ep_jhu’s shot of the Capitol Building. On a pure composition level, this shot has been taken a million times. But by changing the coloring to black and white, and maximizing the contrast, this is suddenly a shot worth taking the time to see. It is now eye catchingly stark and looks more like a computer generated rendering than a photograph.

To end this post on an interactive note: Anyone know what direction ep_jhu was standing, in relation to the Capitol, to get this shot?

History, The Daily Feed
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Smithsonian Snapshot: Parachute Wedding Dress

The parachute wedding dress (120mm ektachrome); photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution

This week, in honor of the 67th anniversary of the D-Day landings AND the onset of wedding season, the Smithsonian Snapshot brings you an interesting artifact that ties both World War II and weddings that is currently not on display. This wedding dress was made from a nylon parachute that saved Maj. Claude Hensinger during the Pacific campaign.

In August 1944, Hensinger, a B-29 pilot and his crew were returning from a bombing raid over Yowata, Japan, when their engine caught fire. The crew was forced to bail out. Suffering from only minor injuries, Hensinger used the parachute as a pillow and blanket as he waited to be rescued. He kept the parachute that had saved his life. He later proposed to his girlfriend Ruth in 1947, offering her the material for a gown.

Ruth wanted to create a dress similar to one in the movie Gone with the Wind. She hired a local seamstress, Hilda Buck, to make the bodice and veil. Ruth made the skirt herself; she pulled up the strings on the parachute so that the dress would be shorter in the front and have a train in the back. The couple married July 19, 1947. The dress was also worn by the their daughter and by their son’s bride before being gifted to the Smithsonian.

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Bootycandy

Photo by Stan Barouh

Bootycandy playwright Robert O’Hara breaks it down in a vignette in the middle of the show entitled, “Conference”. The skit presents a moderator questioning the four “playwrights” that wrote the previously presented vignettes in the show. The moderator cross-examines each author, trying to pigeon hole his or her work into his stereotype. The illustration is a  meta-point in the play that a statement that this piece provokes more than placates:

Moderator (to Playwright): What would you like the audience to take-away after seeing this show?

Playwright 1: I would like them to choke.

Moderator: Choke?

Playwright 2: After you choke and struggle, what goes down your throat isn’t easy- you know that it’s there.

O’Hara acknowledges that what you are witnessing may not be comfortable at times. Woolly Mammoth Theatre’s Bootycandy is like an Atomic Warhead Candy turned inside out.  The series of 10 short plays start out sweet, funny, and entertaining but the show will have moments that will make you pucker as a complex portrait of the author is created through exploration of various issues including sex, family, and homo-phobia.

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Food and Drink, Special Events, The Features, We Love Drinks
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Drinks Special: SAVOR

SAVOR 2011. Photo courtesy of the Brewers Association. Photo credit: Eddie Arrossi.

Greetings from the morning treadmill, where I get to recover from the decadence that was this weekend’s “SAVOR – American Craft Beer & Food Experience” event. With 144 different brews from 72 craft breweries, the extravaganza put smiles on 2,000 very happy visitors to the spaciously inviting National Building Museum in downtown Washington, DC on June 3 & 4, 2011.

Each of the star-spangled craft brews – from pilsner to stout, singles to quads – were paired with a delectable selection of culinary creations to complement each work of liquid art.  The food pairings on Friday night were succulent enough to almost steal the show (strangely, Saturday’s food wasn’t as well done and disappeared early), but undoubtedly the stars of the night shined brightly in their gently swirled tasting glasses.

Some guests performed some advance research, like Brian from Washington.  In addition to a checklist of his previous favorites, he came prepared with a list of must try selections, especially a host of India Pale Ales. “I checked a few local blogs and went to a few of the brewer sites,” he said.  Amanda from Ballston also visited some of the brewery web sites when she bought her ticket, “but it was a long time ago, and the actual beers weren’t known then, so it was like a surprise tonight.”  My bet is that most guests were like Shawn from Bethesda, who was “just here for a great time!”

Fortunately, for the first time, this year’s 4th annual event added a second night to create even more first impressions.  Unfortunately, the over 1,700 gallons of brews on display could only be sampled with an advance purchase ticket – offered months ago. No wonder the event sold out in less than a day!  Before heading out the door, I signed up for the mailing list to be notified of advance sales for next year’s event.  I’d suggest the same for you.

Some of my observations (with some actual quotes heard around the venue):
“This pilsner tastes nothing like Miller Lite, Toto.”
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News, The Daily Feed
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Harry Thomas referred to the US Attorney

Photo courtesy of
‘Councilman Harry Thomas and BNCA President Caroline Petti’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’

The District’s Attorney General Irv Nathan revealed a report this morning that alleges significant malfeasance on the part of sitting Ward 5 councilmember Harry “Tommy” Thomas Jr.  The report alleges that Councilman Thomas “converted” $300,000 in taxpayer funds to funds for personal use, and the complaint has been subject to a civil suit for more than $1M in damages, the legal limit for the statutes.

In addition, the AG referred the matter to the office of the US Attorney for investigation, which would add criminal prosecution to the civil action.  Councilman Thomas has announced a 3pm Press Conference on the steps of the Wilson Building. Details forthcoming.

A recall of Thomas, just elected in November, would require 10% of the registered voters in Ward 5, or approximately 6,100 valid signatures.

The Daily Feed
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The Winning Ticket: Glee Live! 2011

Photo courtesy of
‘glee live! at the Honda Center in Anaheim’
courtesy of ‘Loren Javier’

If you’re a Gleek in DC then you know the live show is coming to the Verizon Center THIS Thursday. Thanks to our friends at Chevrolet, we have a couple tickets to giveaway to our fine readers this week!

All we need from you for your chance to win is a name and valid e-mail address in the comments section of this post.

Here are the rules …

Comments will be closed at 4 p.m. on Tuesday and a winner will be randomly selected at that time. The winner will be notified by e-mail. The winner must respond to our e-mail by 10 p.m. on Tuesday night or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Good luck to everybody!

Entertainment, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, Music, Night Life, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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Saturday Memorial Concert for Adam Hosinski and Rory Weichbrod

On October 9th, 2010, Adam Hosinski and Rory Weichbrod, were crossing Rockville Pike in North Bethesda, when they were struck and killed by a driver who was later arrested on DUI charges and convicted of manslaughter.

This Saturday, from 2-7pm, friends and family will gather at The Bullpen, across from Nationals Stadium, to celebrate the lives of these two men, with a memorial concert and fundraiser for two charities (The Special Olympics and Operation Once in a Lifetime) the two were closely involved with. The event was conceived and planned by several of Adam and Rory’s closest friends, specifically the band members of Midnight Spin, close childhood friends and classmates of Hosinski and Weichbrod. According to the victims’ close friend, Kevin Boyle, “The concert is a memorial, a charity fund raiser, and most of all a celebration of the lives of two of the best guys I was lucky enough to have as a part of my life.”

The weather for tomorrow will provide the perfect day to head over to The Bullpen for tons of fun, live music, cornhole, a fast pitch baseball machine, food and drink, but most importantly to remember two DCers taken far too soon.

The event will not require a cover charge.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Friday Happy Hour: 3 Stars Syndicate

With all the excitement about the recent launch of DC Brau you could be forgiven for missing the slightly-quieter drop of a second DC based beer company, Three Stars Brewing – but, if so, it is high time you found out.

Debuting with their Syndicate saison, brewed in collaboration with Evolution in Delaware, the seasonally-appropriate style is infused with red, white, and black peppercorns to create a spicy, floral, summer beer. It is quaffable and tasty, without being overbearing. (If you have tried the Green Peppercorn Tripel from Baltimore’s Brewer’s Art, this is a far lighter, more subtle pepper quality.)

If pressed, I would pick 3 Stars’ Syndicate over the DC Brau Public Ale – but they really are very different styles, so the comparison means little. The principal things they share are natures well-suited to drinking on the warm patios of their home city as the season carries on and a hint of more great things to come from both local breweries.

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA

(L-R) Michael Dove, Chelsey Christensen, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, and Cliff Williams in Forum Theatre’s Bobrauschenbergamerica (photo Melissa Blackall)

Chelsey Christensen, friend and new head of Marketing/PR for Forum Theatre, wanted me to make sure that I disclose that the performance I attended last night of Bobrauschenbergamerica was the opening night preview.

What she didn’t tell me was that she was also in the cast of the show.

Last night I walked into the Round House Theatre in Silver Spring and experienced quite the scene: a three-man woodwind/brass marching band practicing in one corner, a man dressed as a hobo clutching a small megaphone in another. A small crowd patiently waited for the house to open but there was something off. Among the normal looking audience members were individuals dressed in a style that was a blend of 50’s southern and gypsy. Chelsey spotted me and ran over and gave me a big hug. She wore a pinkish tie-dyed dress and offered me candy. She introduced herself as Phil’s girl and I just stared with a blank expression on my face until I realized she was a IN the show.

I walked to the concession stand, stepping out of the way of a roller-skating child with rainbow-striped socks. A cast member who called herself Susan struck up a conversation with me as I bought a bottle of water.

“You’re just in time for the party- have you eaten dinner yet,” she asked.

I replied that I had already ate but I will warn you that if you do attend this show hungry- you might be able to snag some free snacks but I’ll get to that later.

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