Entertainment, Essential DC, Special Events, The Features

Harvest Moon at the Textile Museum

Harvest Moon at Otsukimi event. Photo credit: LMorris.

The Japanese traditionally enjoy Otsukimi (moon-viewing) on the night of the full moon in autumn. Centuries ago, Otsukimi was introduced to Japan from China, though as it spread throughout the land it was modified to include native Japanese products. The Japanese typically make offerings to the moon of autumn fruits and vegetables, odango (rice dumplings) and susuki (Japanese pampas grass) to give thanks for the year’s harvest.

Approximately 125 people attended this year’s event, hosted by the Japan-America Society of Washington, DC and the Textile Museum earlier this month. Perfectly clear skies, comfortably cool temperatures, and an atmosphere of serene enjoyment were to be had in the Textile Museum’s lovely moonlit garden. Contributing to the ambience were calming traditional Japanese tunes of koto (Japanese stringed musical instruments), including an homage to the “round, round moon.” Continue reading

We Love Weekends

We Love Weekends – October 28 – 30

Photo courtesy of
‘NMAI Entrance #2’
courtesy of ‘andertho’

Ben: I’ll be gathering up friends and family this weekend to attend the opening of NMAI’s latest exhibition, “A Song for the Horse Nation.” The day promises to be full, with a visit to the museum’s Mitsitam Cafe, a full exhibit with artists giving demonstrations, and an exchange of colors between the Crow Nation and the DC Mounted Police. Sunday will be mostly prepping for a much-needed vacation overseas, though if the weather’s good we’ll be heading out to shoot the new MLK memorial during sunset, or possibly taking a nice stroll around the Tidal Basin.

Mosley: Halloween weekend!  You’ll have to forgive me, there’s still a part of me that’s ten years old and loves carving pumpkins and dressing up to go looking for candy.  While I can’t go trick-or-treating anymore, I’ll do the next best thing: go to H Street to check out the Thriller Flash Mob.  That’s on Saturday night.  Friday and Sunday are basically free, but I’m looking at doing the Most Haunted Houses Walking Tour on Friday night (gotta be spooked out some time this weekend). Hope you all have a spooky and fun filled weekend!
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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts

We Love Arts: Othello

(Center) Janie Brookshire as Desdemona and Owiso Odera as Othello with the cast of Shakespeare's Othello, on stage at Folger Theatre through December 4, 2011. Photo credit: Carol Pratt.

There’s a moment in Folger Theatre’s Othello that sums up director Robert Richmond’s insightful approach. Courtesan Bianca, transformed in this production into a saucy bellydancer played by Zehra Fazal, stands in the wind, staring at a small fluttering handkerchief. At the same time, Othello himself (a commanding Owiso Odera) struggles with the depths of jealous rage that will eventually destroy him. An innocuous piece of fabric has become a thing of horror for them both, a symbol of betrayal that will bring about murder. Something so simple, now so powerful.

That handkerchief gets talked about a lot in Othello, Shakespeare’s tragedy about the loss of reputation and love through envy and greed, but this is the first time I’ve seen it so clearly as a totem of evil. Othello’s father gave it to his mother as a magical charm with the power to possess, after all. You wish Bianca would just let the damn thing go, flying off into the wind. But she doesn’t.

None of us ever do.

Washington audiences have a chance to contrast two great productions of Othello – Synetic’s revival of their 2010 wordless version, and now Folger’s performance of the classic text, already extended through December 4. With both, though the racial divide does play a strong part, it’s the corrosive poison of jealousy that’s explored most fully. Continue reading

Downtown, Special Events, The District, We Love Arts

National Geographic Live: November 2011

Photo courtesy National Geographic

For November, the folks at the National Geographic Museum have put together some great programs before the holidays, including photographers, authors, and speakers. If you’d like to win a pair of tickets to an November program, simply list the two events you’d like to attend in comments before 2pm Friday, October 28. Make sure you use a legitimate email address and your first name. We’ll contact two winners (as determined by random.org) Friday afternoon.

If you’re interested in attending one of these events, visit NatGeo’s website or their box office (800-647-5463), located at 17th and M Street, NW. Keep in mind that parking in NatGeo’s underground lot is free for any programs beginning after 6 pm.

Lost Gold of the Dark Ages: The Mystery of the Saxon Hoard ($20)
Nov 1, 7:30 pm

In July 2009, amateur treasure hunters searching with metal detectors on a Staffordshire farm made an amazing discovery: hundreds of precious gold and silver objects from the seventh century. The trove of treasures and battlefield items remains England’s most important Anglo-Saxon archaeological find—a time capsule revealing new stories from when Germanic invaders were laying modern England’s ethnic foundations. Join us for a screening of the New National Geographic Channel film Secrets of the Lost Gold, followed by a panel discussion including Caroline Alexander, author of the new Nat Geo book and magazine article about the discovery, David Symons from the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, and Deb Klemperer from the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts

We Love Arts: Arms and the Man

Amy Quiggins and Michael John Casey in Constellation Theatre Company's production of Arms and the Man. Photo credit: Scott Suchman.

A play about the hypocrisy of war and romantic illusions set against the lunacy of class warfare seems like a perfect win for our Operation New Dawn, Occupy Wall Street days. No doubt G. Bernard Shaw, a playwright and critic of scathing intelligence, would’ve had something to say about these times of ours. As the International Shaw Society puts it, he was a "jesting juggler of ideas in a world of nothing but spin." Shaw (despite some wacky ideas about grammar) was devoted to the possibilities of changing society for the better, through the power of words. What would he have said about our own spin culture?

Constellation Theatre Company’s production of Arms and the Man plays up the funny frolic aspect of the satire, with bright costumes and a clever set, while missing the bitter pill hidden in the "chocolate-cream soldier" dream of its lead character. That isn’t to say it isn’t delightful, it just needs more Shavian snap.

But it does make for a charming night, in no small part due to the pairing of Amy Quiggins’ adorable Raina and Michael John Casey’s forthright Captain Bluntschli, characters whose unlikely love is guided with delicacy by director Allison Arkell Stockman.   Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Snow Saturday?

Photo courtesy of
‘Snowy Trunk’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

While we’re still on the edge of the solid forecasting period, Capital Weather Gang is suggesting that it’s possible the DC area will see snow on Saturday. While there are still a lot of uncertainties at play here, if the coastal system that’s slotted for the weekend brings moisture at the right time, we might see some light flurries on Friday night late as the temperatures dip into the 30s.

I know there are some winter-lovers out there in our readership, but I can’t say that I look forward to snow, as a summer child.

The Daily Feed

Metro’s terrible, awful, no good, very bad day.

Photo courtesy of
‘at least we’re not outside anymore!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

If you took the train to work this morning, most likely you had an awful time of it. Metro had a power interruption on the Eastern end of the Orange and Blue lines, thanks to commercial power failure due to PEPCO between Potomac Avenue and Cheverly/Benning Road. That meant that Metro had to operate at lower speeds to backfill their power supply up the line through the area that was underserved.  In addition, that meant no 8-car trains on the Orange line throughout the system.

Add to that a sick passenger on the Red Line at White Flint, which required single-tracking from Twinbrook and Grosvenor, and another one at Dupont Circle, which caused a short delay between Farragut North and Dupont, and also reports of a deer on the metro platform at Arlington Cemetery, and you’ve got a pretty bad morning.  Metro is reporting that power should be restored today at the broken site, but it’s not clear right now if that’s enough time to return 8-car trains to service this evening before rush.

 

Music

The Winning Ticket: MIYAVI

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Japanese pop/rock star MIYAVI at the 9:30 Club on November 2nd. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly or at the 9:30 Club box office.

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.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 5pm today. One entry per email address, please. Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within two hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if they are under 18 years old.

Downtown, Foggy Bottom

We Love Drinks: Wine Riot Comes to DC

Wine Riot DC 8

Big wine tasting events can have a couple of types of bad reputations. There are ones that are stuffy, pretentious, and full of sweater-around-the-shoulders snobs tooling around Napa Valley in their German convertibles. There are others where cackling middle-aged book-club members seem to arrive by the Range Rover load to get sauced in the mid-day sun. We can agree that those are all terrible.
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Featured Photo

Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of
‘The Confederate Advance’
courtesy of ‘Rob Shenk’

Let’s go back 150 years. DC, or the Federal City if you will, is under siege; and not that happy go lucky, Steven Seagal Under Siege. An up-start new country materializes across the Potomac; and the newly elected president, one Abraham Lincoln, isn’t going to let them leave the Union without a fight. This disagreement quickly escalates into the American Civil War. There’s a quick, but brutal, battle at a place called Bull Run. Not much else happened in 1861, except for the Battle of Ball’s Bluff.

Wait, we don’t have to imagine what happened at Ball’s Bluff. Rob Shenk beautifully captures the reenactment. Looking at his pictures, wonderfully smoke filled that they are, takes you back to October 21st 1861. Musket flashes; a rainbow of woolen uniforms; the Stars and Stripes and the Stars and Bars competing for the field. It is as if you could hear the Rebel Yell and the Battle Hymn of the Republic on the wind. Simply put: excellent photographs.

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music

We Love Music: Drop The Lime @ U Street Music Hall, 10/20/11


courtesy of Drop The Lime.

On Thursday night, I descended into U Street Music Hall to catch the choice underground double bill of The Japanese Popstars and Drop The Lime. Both were billed as performing live so with The J-Popstars being hailed as the best new live electronica act from Ireland and Drop The Lime finally unveiling his rockabilly-meets-electro project I was expecting a pretty great time. The Japanese Popstars however failed to perform live at all; instead they delivered the weakest DJ set I have personally experienced at U Street Music Hall. Rumor has it they refused to perform live because the crowd was too small. This was a major disappointment but the night was ultimately salvaged thanks to the combination of Drop The Lime ripping the roof off of the place and local spinner DJ Stereofaith closing out the night with a strong electro set.

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Weekend Flashback

Weekend Flashback: 10/21-10/23

Photo courtesy of
‘2011 Occupy DC 6316’
courtesy of ‘tedeytan’

The theme for this weekend’s flashback seems to be occupations and liberations. Not only the obvious ones, like Occupy DC and the local Libyan populations celebrations of the liberation of their homeland; but also some liberations from conventional forms of photography and our city’s ongoing occupation with enjoying this wonderful weather…yes, that last one is a stretch but please just go with it. Enjoy the Autumn bounty of wonderful photos. Get lost and enjoy yourself for a few minutes! Continue reading

The Daily Feed

A request for DC’s Occupiers

Photo courtesy of

courtesy of ‘Max Cook’

Whether you agree with the protestors occupying McPherson Square or not, you have to admit their staying power is impressive. Since the encampment began a few weeks ago, a 24/7 presence has been run in the park in the heart of downtown DC, a park that just underwent about half a million dollars in work, including about $200,000 in new sod for the park. The protestors are vowing to continue on through the winter.

The conditions with the rain and the occupation have gone downhill a bit, and it has been reported that later today the Park Service will be handing out flyers concerning the longterm future of the protests and the park. I have to hope that there is some kernel of care among the DC occupiers that will germinate in a plan to self-police the park and rotate the tent city at least a bit to prevent the destruction of hundreds of thousands of dollars of recent work to the park. Or, at a bare minimum, some commitment to cleaning up the park on the conclusion of the protest.

If you are a peoples’ movement, and I do believe that you are, have the decency to treat our public space with kindness when you’re done. We told the Tea Party the same thing.

Sports Fix

Panthers defeat Redskins 33-20

Photo courtesy of
‘Steve Smith’
courtesy of ‘PDA.POTO’

Every flaw the Redskins had coming into this season was on full display in their 33-20 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. The 3-4 defense was unable to stop the run, a banged up secondary wasn’t able to stop the pass, and the offense was hurt by its total lack of skill players.

Coming into the season these issues were known and if the Redskins were going to win games it was going to have to be by controlling the clock, running the ball, and getting pressure on the quarterback. Cam Newton and the Panthers offensive line made it hard for the Redskins to get any constant pressure and when they did Newton would either escape the pocket and create a play or stand tall in the pocket and deliever a sharp pass down field. 

The Redskins secondary is suddenly banged up and the lack of depth is all but too apparent. Steve Smith found himself in man on man coverage, due to the Redskins need to blitz, and had no problem beating whoever the Redskins put on him. Newton showed no fear of the pass rush and was more than willing to take a hit in order to get a pass off. The Redskins were able to hold the Panthers to three field goals in the first half, but the Panthers constant running attack wore down the defense and turned them from bend to don’t break into a sieve.

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