Monthly Archives: March 2012

Food and Drink, Foodie Roundup, The Features
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Cooking Classes Around DC

Photo courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie
Evening Star #9
courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

So you’re not exactly Martha Stewart or Jacques Pepin in the kitchen–you can’t make a perfect omelet and maybe you’ve set off the smoke detector once or twice. Lucky for you there are a bunch of chefs and cooking classes coming up around the city that can teach you how to properly slice, dice, sauté and maybe even en flambé without burning down the house or losing a finger. So don’t be timid about hosting the next dinner party or simple wine and cheese night–these classes (including a bunch coming up this weekend) have got you covered.
Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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2012: A Year of Growth for the Washington Nationals

Photo by Rachel Levitin

2012 is upon us – as is the start of the Major League Baseball season – and the Washington Nationals are a team on the minds of many.

Last week I found myself at Reagan National Airport talking baseball during the Harvard-Vanderbilt March Madness game. During that game, I discovered a strange truth: a DC-based Cardinals fan told me, flat-out, that he was more excited to watch the Nats this year than his beloved Midwestern red birds. At first I thought this guy was a fluke of nature but upon further review I realized he wasn’t.

There was a piece in Chicago Magazine this week that brought up the topic as well:

“I’d rather root for the Royals, Nationals, or Marlins this year than the Cubs or Sox. Those teams have new players worth watching, some works in progress that should be interesting to follow.”

While it’s important to remember how poor the Chicago baseball clubs are likely to perform this season, the quote also sheds light on how baseball fans outside of DC view the Nats. At the risk of sounding cliché, 2012 is a good year (if not the best thus far) to be a Nats fan.

That, of course, is the optimistic route to choose.  Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Tonight’s Pink Tie Party Kicks Off the Centennial National Cherry Blossom Festival

Photo courtesy of PrincessAshley
Thorne-298
courtesy of PrincessAshley

Chefs José Andrés and Roy Yamaguchi, innovators in the culinary community, will host tonight’s National Cherry Blossom Festival’s signature Pink Tie Party fundraiser, from 7:00 – 11:00 pm at the Mayflower Renaissance hotel. The Party kicks off the Festival’s Centennial Celebration (March 20 – April 27), commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the gift of trees from Tokyo to Washington, DC.

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We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Art of Video Games

Photo courtesy of mosley.brian
We Love DC – Art of Video Games – 03-15-12 07
courtesy of mosley.brian

I promise, once you’re done reading this article, you’re going to want to dust off your Atari 2600, or NES, or PS1, or whatever was your first video game system, and play all the games you grew up with. That was my reaction, and I have the couple of hours I lost playing The Legend of Zelda last Saturday to prove it.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum opened their new exhibit, the Art of Video Games, with a big festival this past weekend. If you missed it, don’t worry; the real festival, the exhibit itself, is far from over, as it is going to be running until September 30th. Employing some impressive, and modern, multi-media tools, the museum has put together a truly engaging art exhibit of some very influencial, but generally overlooked, modern art. Namely, video games.  Continue reading →

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

Basil Twist's production of Petrushka at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Richard Termine.

I’ve lost my heart to a clown.

It took less than an hour to be seduced by his madcap ways, his shining eyes like fiery coals, pleading for my adoration as he leapt over the stage – hovering magically, springing about with elastic grace.

Too bad he’s in love with someone else. She doesn’t deserve him. Oh, did I mention he’s a puppet? That’s probably a deal breaker too.

It’s a testament to the puppeteers’ skill that even during a post-performance demonstration of what goes on backstage, I still didn’t notice them. I tried, but they infuse the puppets themselves with so much life that it’s nearly impossible. That’s the power of Basil Twist‘s production of Petrushka. Words like joyful, exuberant, and humorous all spring about the mind like the puppets themselves, in perfect symbiosis with their masterful manipulators.

It’s inspired by the famous Ballet Russes production of Stravinsky’s score. That original clown was brought to life by the brilliant and damaged Vaslav Nijinsky, and this puppet Petrushka has enough nods to iconic images of Nijinksy’s performance and others in the Ballet Russes canon to please ardent balletomanes. Hauntingly beautiful from the beginning, it’s also a quick night of theater that enthralled the few children in the audience and took the rest of us back to those happy, pure days ruled by imagination.

Since this is a limited engagement at the Shakespeare Theatre Company (part of the Basil Twist Festival D.C.) closing on March 25, I’ll be blunt: go see it.  Continue reading →

Adventures, Cherry Blossom Festival, Downtown, Special Events, The Features
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Celebrating 100 Years of Blossoms

Photo courtesy of katieharbath
Cherry Blossoms
courtesy of katieharbath
It’s cherry blossom time! This year is the Centennial anniversary of Japan’s gifting of the cherry trees to the U.S. and the National Cherry Blossom Festival has planned a whopping five weeks of events to celebrate. While the festival officially kicks off this coming Sunday, some events are already unfolding this week – not to mention we’re smack in the middle of the peak bloom time of the trees.

We’ll provide you a weekly listing of events here on WeLoveDC so you can keep up with all the fantastic offerings. There’s so much going on for the Centennial that we can promise there’s something for everyone! (And don’t forget to drop your photos into our Flickr pool!)

Tonight is the sold-out 2012 Pink Tie Party at the Mayflower Renaissance. Chefs José Andrés and Roy Yamaguchi, innovators in the culinary community, will host the evening, exemplifying the international collaboration and creativity at the heart of the Festival. The sixth annual fundraiser and kick-off to the Centennial Celebration and the “season of the blossoms” will feature area chefs’ spring-, cherry- and blossom-inspired cuisine and cocktails. An auction contributes to the Festival’s fundraising efforts offering everything from weekend getaways and yacht charters to concert, sporting, dining, and theater experiences and blossom- and Japanese-themed jewelry and apparel. Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of theqspeaks
FDR Room Four
courtesy of theqspeaks

One of the benefits of doing a long exposure is that you are able to capture motion in a still photograph. Think about that for a moment; it sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t? But then you have pictures like the one above from theqspeaks, which is of one of the more dramatic fountains in the FDR Memorial along the Tidal Basin. The water is both frozen and moving within this two second exposure, giving a new perspective on the fountain, splashes and all. As well, the blacks of the rocks contrast well against the white of the water. All around an excellent photo!

The Daily Feed
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Metro releases new map, rush hour strategy

Metro Map excerpt
Map excerpt courtesy of Metro

Rush hour on Metro tends to be synonymous with things like “Orange Crush” and “Trains Offloaded” and “Why, oh why, did I try to take public transit today?!” While Metro can’t, it seems, fix things like intra-office corruption and driver mistakes, they are trying to do things to make it easier for the general commuter to suffer less. Starting in June, the Orange line will get 6 extra trains per hour (3 in each direction) which will run from Vienna to Largo Town Center, for an 18% capacity boost. The move forks the Orange line into traditional Blue line territory. In addition, the Yellow line will get forked at King Street to include some trains heading to Springfield to increase southbound capacity from the core.

Metro has also said that additional “transfer free” options will be coming, but failed to detail them in their press coverage. This would include something similar to the Farragut West/Farragut North walking transfer, but it’s hard to say until Metro makes it clearer.

With the Silver Line coming in 2014 (we hope), map changes that include the line out to Dulles Rail have begun in earnest, and a dashed-line extension now splits off from the Orange line to the northwest between West Falls Church and East Falls Church and bears several empty circles where stations will one day go. In addition, the market research that WMATA did has sprouted shoots, with new glyphs for buses to the airport, VRE, MARC and Amtrak, and parking options more deftly labeled. In addition, the secondary names of stations are given reduced emphasis in favor of the primary names. In addition, Forest Glen on the Red line gets a hospital glyph (but why not Medical Center?) which is new to the system.

The new map is available for public viewing on the WMATA website, and will be coming to a train car near you in the near term. We’ll see if we can get more information about the new transfer options.

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Daily Feed
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9 Reasons to See “The 9” at Iota Tonight – March 2012 Edition

Photo courtesy of tedeytan
Number 9 Sign
courtesy of tedeytan

About a month ago, I got a first-hand look at Justin Trawick’s local songwriter series “The 9” when I performed at Iota Club and Café with eight other DC-area artists. It was a unique experience both on stage and off.

Being a part of “The 9” is a collaborative effort. That’s what makes it interesting.

Tonight, “The 9” will be back at Iota. Though it’s common for “The 9” to perform at Iota (it’s a monthly affair at the Arlington rock club and café), there is no such thing as a standard set. Each show is different because the bill changes from venue to venue, month to month.

Here are a few reasons from tonight’s “9” as to why this particular show might be worth your Tuesday night:

Zia Hassan: It’s the first day of spring.  There’s no better way to come out of hibernation than to hear 9 different musical perspectives in one performance.  A new beginning for the trees, and a new beginning for your ears.

Maureen Andary: …because I’m gonna write a song about pie just for the show! Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Ah, Wilderness!


Photo: Scott Suchman

Nostalgia has been on the minds of Americans more than ever. Pop culture junkies are writing about it, those disillusioned by our current economic times are looking back to sunnier days, and Hollywood is playing to our nostalgic tastes more than ever with remakes and reboots of shows and films of yesteryear.

This isn’t a new phenomena, in 1932 Eugene O’Neill wrote “Ah, Wilderness!” as a fond look back to the mood and world he grew up in as a teenager. It is a certainly a world viewed with rose-colored lenses, O’Neill grew up in a less than perfect home full of alcoholism and philandering yet in Arena Stage’s production we are presented with a more idyllic vision: a warm, fuzzy home where the mood is relaxed like a night sitting on the porch sipping an iced tea.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Hank 3 @ 930 Club, 3/15/2012

all photos by Matthew Carroll unless otherwise noted

Hank 3  is a musical maniac. Last Thursday night at the 930 club he played over three and a half hours of music spanning four genres, with only one five-minute break. Hank 3 and his band tore the roof off of the club with their breakneck paced country and Hellbilly sets, and then he and his drummer charged on with the progressively darker and weirder sludge/doom/metal and Cattlecore sets, ending the show after midnight.

http://matthewthomascarroll.com/

With no opening act, Hank 3 and his crew of outlaws started off the night right on time, playing their rowdy, rough-and-tumble style of country music to a pretty full club. The audience was ready to get down, and band led the way on stage, beginning with the super-charged “Straight To Hell.” The song, a boot-stompin’, barroom sing-along stirred the crowd up and showcased the virtuosic playing of fiddle player Adam McOwen. The pace never really slowed down for the next hour and a half (or more), as they charged through twenty-six songs in the country set.

  Continue reading →

Entertainment, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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Ringling Bros. Is Fully Charged In DC

Photo courtesy of mosley.brian
2012 Elephant Parade – Capitol Fun – 03-13-12
courtesy of mosley.brian

If you didn’t realize from the giant Elephant Parade last week, the circus is in town. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Fully Charged Tour spent the weekend in Chinatown for a slate of shows at the Verizon Center. The circus will continue in Baltimore for the rest of the month and then head to Fairfax for a run of performances.

Ringling Bros.’ return to the DC-area wasn’t welcomed by all. PETA asked Mayor Gray to investigate claims of animal abuse and protesters were out in force outside the Verizon Center urging families not to see The Greatest Show on Earth. PETA has also recently released a new video starring Alec Baldwin pleading for a boycott of animal-featured circuses.

Regardless of the controversy, the show is a spectacle beyond any other where the best moments are found sans elephants, tigers, or other animals. An overwhelming mixture of human feats will surely draw the attention of any young child.

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Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 3/16-3/18

Photo courtesy of Columbia Heights Climber
spring
courtesy of Columbia Heights Climber

It was one of those great weekends that make it awesome to live in DC! Whether you were running a marathon, celebrating Irish Day, avoiding the people celebrating Irish Day, admiring the cherry blossom blooming, playing on an Atari 2600 in the Kogod Courtyard, or just going for a walk with the great weather, it was simply marvelous. Our photo contributors certainly found stuff to do, so check it out below.  Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Special Events, The Features
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ARTINI: Week Two Feature Nights

Ronald Flores of Art and Soul's cocktail for ARTINI 2012. Photo credit: Dan Swartz. Courtesy of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

ARTINI 2012 is underway! Twelve** Eleven talented bartenders have created cocktails inspired by works in the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Every Friday the We Love DC drinks team will wrap up the week’s feature nights with reviews of each artini entry, to culminate at the gala on March 31st. We kicked off Week One last Friday; let’s see what Week Two had at the bar.

ARTINI 4: Jon Arroyo, Founding Farmers
Inspiration: Behind Every Good Man, Nina Chanel Abney, 2010, acrylic on canvas
Reviewer: Moses

What kind of beverage can be inspired by one of the hottest young American artists, Nina Chanel Abney? Abney was named to Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” this year, and her work starred in the Corcoran’s “30 Americans” exhibit this past autumn. Abney’s Behind Every Good Man depicts her characteristic mask-like facial imagery and buzz of sexual energy, creating an unsettling scene, where one look captures both terror and resignation. Continue reading →

We Love Arts
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Mr Daisey and the Imperiled Woolly Mammoth Run?

That’s the bomb This American Life just dropped on the web, perhaps not so coincidentally the same day as the new iPad hits the streets. The impact for DC is a little farther out: specifically, July 17th when “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” is scheduled to return to Woolly Mammoth.

Agony is the source material for the TaL episode and it’s a powerful piece; I saw it in previews and Patrick reviewed it when it came back in full release. I don’t know what was in the piece in its final form, but when I saw it there was even an explicit statement as part of the dialog where Mike Daisey says “I am not a journalist.” A statement he’s repeated today as part of his response to this development.

Whether or not that’s enough, or baloney, or a completely reasonable response, I have no idea yet. I’m looking forward to hearing the TaL piece and a detail of what is and isn’t factual in regards to Daisey’s time in China. Personally I’m uncomfortable with any piece that presents something as fact when it may be an embellishment or a composite, but not everyone agrees. Plenty of biopics come out of Hollywood that do it every year and the conflict can be seen in stark black and white in the new book The Lifespan of a Fact. In it John D’Agata’s resistance to an article fact-checker who took issue with his playing fast and loose in his “lyrical essay” takes on comically excessive proportions.

I do know that the portions of Daisey’s show that detailed events I was very familiar with – the early days in Silicon Valley – were accurate in relating the stories behind the early days of Apple,  Micro-Soft (as they were then named) and others. They might have been “lyricized” but I couldn’t tell from my recollection – if they were, it was in the manner of Monet where the up-close details might not make sense but the picture from afar was perfectly representative of the truth.

I’m curious to see what the TaL revelations are and eager to hear what Woolly Mammoth has to say about it. As I finish this I haven’t heard back from them yet. I expect they’re huddled up trying to decide what to do, or perhaps waiting as the rest of us are for the TaL details. I’d wager the show will go on, with perhaps a statement on the matter.

Update: Woolly Mammoth stated to DCist’s Ben Freed on twitter that Daisey’s July appearance is still on. A certain chief editor here wryly commented “hell, if I were them I’d extend.”

Homebrewing
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The Environmental Impact of Kegging vs. Bottling

Vessels
Vessels by AdamLogan

This is the first in a series of articles about homebrewing in the DC area by Carl Weaver of RealHomebrew.com. Want to learn about making your own beer? Keep an eye out for Friday homebrew features.

I read on treehugger.com that a life cycle assessment study was done that showed that the environmental impact of kegged beer was 68% lower than that of bottled beer. Most of the impact is due to packaging differences and how people get their beer.

Kegging has much less environmental waste than bottling. Bottling beer requires heavy glass containers that only sometimes are returned for refill, bottle caps that are useless once removed, and lots of gas spent transporting everything both to the store and then to your home. Kegged beer has a lighter package per volume, which means less gas cost, and the keg is always returned for reuse. Really – when have you bought a keg of beer and decided to throw it away after it was empty? Bars and restaurants are the same way. They return those empty buggers to get their deposits back.

This study only looked at a commercially produced beer, and in part of Europe where people likely have more draft beer at bars than Americans tend to, with all of our bottled choices at the bars we frequent. While the disparity in environmental impact is likely still great here in the States, the differences in how we consume beer might have to be examined.

The environmental impact for kegged beer is probably pretty close to bottled beer for homebrewers, I would guess. We are almost fanatical about collecting and reusing bottles. It’s not that we are all tree huggers, but that bottles are expensive if you have to buy them. They are still heavier than kegs by volume, and require crown caps, which get discarded, but I suspect the difference in impact between the two methods is minimal for homebrewers.

On the other hand, if kegging is more environmentally friendly, maybe that is a good argument to invest in a kegging system. Do you like the beers you make? They will taste even better off the tap. Trust me – once you go keg, you never go back. First thing first, though — start brewing, then eventually work your way to a keg. Big Daddy will help you do it.

Originally published at RealHomebrew.com.

Beer Bottles by AdamLogan.

Downtown, Entertainment, Interviews, Music, People, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Celtic Air: Moya Brennan

Photo courtesy of Marvin (PA)
Moya Brennan – Triskell – Trieste
courtesy of Marvin (PA)

What better way to truly celebrate the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day than to join a céilidh? Since such intimate gatherings are a bit tough to come by here in the DC area, the next best thing would be going to National Geographic and immersing yourself into the music of Moya Brennan. On her last stop of a brief U.S. tour, Moya will be filling the air with her ethereal voice and Irish and Gaelic music tradition.

Known best as the front singer for Clannad, Moya’s solo career has flourished over the last two decades. (My wife – herself of strong Irish heritage – and I have been a fan of her music since Moya’s first solo album Máire, which came out in 1992.) Bono of U2 describes her as “one of the greatest voices the human ear has ever experienced.” Her seemingly otherworldly voice mixed with her mastery of Irish and Gaelic musical traditions have made her into a master of taking traditional, cultural music and making it “new” for the modern age.

I had the extremely blessed opportunity to chat with her about her life, traditions, music, and Saturday’s sold out concert. Continue reading →