Category Archives: The Features

These are our features. They come back either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

Adventures, Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: MoogFest 2010 (Night Three)

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All photos by the author.

Also check out my MoogFest 2010 (Night One) coverage.
Also check out my MoogFest 2010 (Night Two) coverage.

Night three of MoogFest 2010 quickly flew by in a festival fatigue blur of Halloween costumes and great preformances. I slept right through the Sunday afternoon panels and slowly made my way downtown intending to let the festival take me where it may rather than over thinking the schedule as I normally would. My one constant was that I would be closing out MoogFest at The Orange Peel with El-P. A good judge of a festival line-up is that it should offer you a good time no matter what sets you end up at. Schedule conflicts are par for the course with big festivals, a stress free way to avoid them is to float from stage to stage taking in whatever performance presents itself. After two nights of attacking the festival with the precision planning of a bank heist, I enjoyed a care-free closing night that presented some real surprises that I might have otherwise missed.
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Five Favorites, Media
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Five Favorites: Bookshops

Photo courtesy of
‘browsing’
courtesy of ‘(afm)’

This may mark me as woefully out of touch with the kids today, but I do adore books – and charming little independent bookshops which sell them. I have no interest in a Kindle or what have you, and I just got back from a vacation where browsing beautiful bookstores was a major activity.

While the founders of Politics & Prose and Olsson’s have recently passed away, there remains a vibrant community of book retailing in the Washington area. It may help that we are a very educated, literate group of people, of course.

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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Singing Capital Chorus

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It was just after five on a Monday afternoon and Jim Cullen decided to lay down for a little nap. It felt so good to rest his eyes, he recalled, that he let them stay shut until eight. That’s when he woke up in a hurry.

“Oh my god,” he said. “I’m missing my Monday night.”

Over a decade earlier, Cullen started a new Monday night tradition in his own life thanks to a suggestion from his sister. “[I have a friend who’s] having a great time [singing in a barbershop chorus]. Why don’t you go,” she recommended.

So Cullen went. He’s been going ever since.

The Singing Capital Chorus is a unique fraternity of men. They range in age from 24 to 93 and come from over the greater Washington region. What brings them together is that they love to sing.  But it isn’t just singing that they love, it’s the “lock and ring” of Barbershop harmony. Continue reading →

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends, November 6-7

Photo courtesy of
‘blue wagon wheel’
courtesy of ‘ekelly80’

Rachel: Friday night I’ll join a few friends for a little while at the Green Turtle (near the Verizon Center) to catch the action of the Caps vs the Boston Bruins. Saturday’s a big day. I’ll be watching a wonderful matinee performance of the Harvest of Harmony at AU’s Greenberg Theatre featuring the incredibly talented Barbershop group the Singing Capital Chorus and a few other Barbershop groups from the greater D.C. area. Saturday night I have my own gig at Tonic Lounge (2036 G Street NW, near GW Law School). The cover is $5 for the night and I’m the first of 5 acts. I’ll take the stage at 8 p.m. if you’re interested! Then, Sunday …. which in my world equals Brunch Day. A friend and I pick random neighborhoods and walk into a place hoping it’s good. This week’s neighborhood: Dupont Circle. Got any suggestions? Leave them in the comments!

Max: This weekend is jam packed with some interesting art events.  On Friday at the Phillips Collection, I’ll be going to “Urban Code: New Categories of Art”, a discussion with several of the street artists who are showing their work in the new “Street/Studio 2.0” exhibit at Irvine Contemporary (opening Saturday night including work by Shepard Fairey).  Following that I’ll be heading up to BloomBars in Columbia Heights to hear local arts patron and collector Henry Thaggert in his discussion, “Was Andy Warhol Black?”  Well was he?  Once I’m done using my brain for the evening, I’ll be heading down to the Corcoran for theFotoWeek Launch Party to drink and hang out with fellow photography lovers.  At some point this weekend I’ll be heading up to Silver Spring to check out the Book Arts Fair at Pyramid Atlantic because, well, I’ve never heard of such a thing. Continue reading →

Adventures, Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: MoogFest 2010 (Night Two)

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All photos by the author.

Also check out my MoogFest 2010 (Night One) coverage.
Also check out my MoogFest 2010 (Night Three) coverage.

My second day of MoogFest began with an afternoon trip to the Moogaplex, to fiddle around with some Moog instruments first-hand and to attend one of the many afternoon discussion panels about the history of Moog instruments. I finally fulfilled a life-long dream of playing a Theremin. I played three different Moog Theremins actually, as well as a few different models of Moog synthesizers. I was not the only one in attendance having fun with the instrument petting zoo. There were about 30 or 40 people anxiously waiting in line to get their paws on a Moog. I can not think of another music festival where the fans get a chance to play with high-tech gear such as this. A very special treat provided by Moog Music.

The panel I attended was a narrated, power-point presentation about the treasure trove of Moog artifacts discovered in Moog’s country workshop and garage after he passed away. Thanks to a Grammy Foundation grant and countless hours of volunteer effort hundreds of documents, artifacts, and recordings have been cataloged and preserved. The panel made it very clear that this is an ongoing preservation effort and that donations would be helpful in saving all of this music history. Within this mountain of Moog documents all sorts of tidbits and trivia are being discovered. One example is that Moog’s first synthesizer prototypes were capable of polyphonic sound.* This was unknown to Moog historians until just a few years ago. The panel was the first time this information was made public; in a most spectacular way. By playing a recording of it.

For about ten minutes, Moog’s sound archivist played selections from rare recordings discovered in Moog’s workshop. These were some of the earliest synth recordings and proved fascinating listens. Two notable recordings were a riotous synth solo by Sun Ra and the earliest known recording by master synthesist Wendy Carlos. I’ll admit it was pretty mind-blowing to hear a recording of Wendy Carlos noodling around with a synthesizer for the very first time!** Hearing some of the earliest synthesizer demo recordings ever made was the perfect way to get psyched up for the performances ahead.

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All Politics is Local, The District, The Features
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DCision 2010: The New ANCs

Photo courtesy of
‘11.2.10’
courtesy of ‘Paige Weaver’

While Tuesday’s general election was devoid of city-wide news of any note, it did mark the changing of the guard for the District’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.  The 286 seats split across the 8 wards work as an advisory council for various city programs and city agencies, as we explained in our ABCs of ANCs guide from earlier this year.  Various stories out of the ANCs, including some controversy about local liquor licensing, lead to a lot of discussions online about running for ANC. Something sure happened, because in Tuesday’s election 114 of the 286 seats changed hands, a 40% turnover rate.

More interesting than just the turnover, is that the number of seats in which there were 3 candidates or more doubled, and the number of seats that were uncontested went down by 5%.  In addition, there are 9 fewer empty seats on the Commissions than there were after the 2008 election. Take into account controversial ANCs like ANC 5C saw 50% turnover, and you’ve got a recipe for some interesting action over the next two years a bunch of new commissioners get their feet wet.

Good luck, new Commissioners, you’ve got a big load on your shoulders.  Click through for some of the interesting breakdowns from the DCBOEE results.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Odd Couple

Before Harold & Kumar, Bill & Ted, Larry & Balki, there was Felix & Oscar. The pairing of two seemingly incompatible characters has been a classic storyline that is still in use today. However Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple has been long considered the definitive example of an unlikely couple who struggle to get along.

The play’s success has created an Odd Couple franchise that has resulted in two films and a notable TV series. Theater J pays homage to Simon’s comedy with the original version of the show that results in a trip back in time. The entertaining romp still makes audiences laugh today as it did back in 1965. At the center of it all are stars Rick Foucheux and J Fred Shiffman whose performances as Oscar and Felix are a must-see.

The show starts and takes place within the apartment of Oscar (Foucheux), a New York sportswriter. His friend Felix (Shiffman) is left down and out after his wife leaves him and Oscar comes to the rescue offering Felix a place to stay. The fact that the two are divorcees are the only thing they have in common. Oscar and Felix are complete opposites: Oscar a gambling, womanizing, slob and Felix a sensitive, neurotic, neat-freak. The calamity ensues as the two struggle to have their own way under the same roof. Continue reading →

Comedy in DC
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Comedy in DC: Memorial Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘268|365’
courtesy of ‘Danilo.Lewis|Fotography’

I frequently joke about how dysfunctional and antisocial a lot of standup comedians are. It’s an incredibly isolating medium; Steve Martin says, “Doing comedy alone onstage is the ego’s last stand.” Developing an art form that is almost universally performed solo, where success is determined entirely by whether roomful after roomful of strangers laugh, takes a particular kind of personality that is simultaneously indifferent to company but thrives on approval. That comedians tend to spend time with other comedians isn’t just an accident of who their coworkers are; it’s a community made up of people who get it.

So when local open mic regular Shane Artim died unexpectedly in August, the local comedy community was pretty shaken. The comedians who frequent the Eleventh Street Lounge open mic in Clarendon are holding their showcase in Artim’s memory next Thursday, November 11th, at 8:30PM. The show is free, but the organizers will be accepting donations in Artim’s memory for his alma mater, Temple University. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Andy Najar, Rookie of the Year

Andy Najar
Photo by D.C. United

The only good thing to happen to D.C. United this season was Andy Najar. The 17-year-old midfielder came up from their Academy team at the beginning of the season and lit up Major League Soccer with seven goals and two assists, as he became a mainstay in the center of United’s XI. Today, he reaped the just rewards and picked up Rookie of the Year honors, becoming the youngest player in the MLS ever to do so, and just the second ever as part of a last place team.

Najar became the first member of United to win the award since interim coach Ben Olsen did it in 1998. Congrats, Andy, and we hope that you have a long and storied career here in DC.

Adventures, Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: MoogFest 2010 (Night One)

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all photos by the author except where noted.

Also check out my MoogFest 2010 (Night Two) coverage.
Also check out my MoogFest 2010 (Night Three) coverage.

Last weekend, in scenic Asheville North Carolina, AC Entertainment and Moog Music teamed up to present a revamped and relocated version of the annual MoogFest; a festival celebrating inventor Robert Moog’s massive influence on the world of music. The festival spanned Halloween weekend offering three spectacular nights of music and two days of informative panel discussions and Moog instrument demonstrations. The music schedule offered a perfect blend of sonic innovators, high-energy dance DJs, and envelope pushing Pop acts that showcased the wide-ranging world of electronic music.

The festival took over five music venues in downtown Asheville ranging from a makeshift nightclub in a gallery space, to a dive bar, to the Orange Peel (Asheville’s 9:30 Club equivalent), to the classy Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, all the way up to the cavernous Asheville Civic Center. At times MoogFest felt like two festivals in one; the first, a large-scale non-stop dance party for the party hearty; the second, an equally entertaining but more cerebral music geek nirvana of Moog instrument-fueled performances. The beauty of MoogFest 2010 was watching and listening to these two different worlds of performers and audiences cross-pollinate all weekend long.

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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Black Mountain w/ The Black Angels

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert 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 a pair of modern psychedelic rockers. Enter to win a pair of tickets to see The Black Angels and Black Mountain perform at 9:30 Club on Sunday November 7th!

I have seen The Black Angels in concert a couple of times (most recently at All Tomorrow’s Parties NY 2010) and I can vouch for their all-encompassing, heavy, psych-rock sound. They can be absolutely mesmerizing when witnessed live. Their music is a drug in itself. Having never seen them, Black Mountain are the unknown element of this double-bill for me. I hear great things about their live shows, including tales of epic-length extensions of their album tracks when played in concert. It sounds to me like this is a double-bill of kindred spirits; throw-back psych rockers who will stack up to provide one far-out night of tunes, man.

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. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly 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 the rules of this giveaway…
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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Wall Goes Double-Double, Leads Wiz To First Victory In Home Opener

A view of the Verizon Center prior to the game. (photo by Patrick Pho)

The Wizards fans arrived to the Verizon Center for their home opener eager for a win. After starting the season with losses to Orlando and Atlanta, the crowd was ready for 2010’s first overall pick John Wall to go toe-to-toe with the second overall pick Evan Turner.

That didn’t exactly happen.

While The Wizards finally earned their first W in the home opener, they did so in a nail biting overtime thriller that tested the team’s depth and will to succeed. The evening’s storyline of Wall vs. Turner was soon replaced with Nick Young’s 23 points off the bench, Wall’s double-double that was one steal short of a triple-double, and Cartier Martin’s game tying buzzer-beater to send the game in overtime and allow the Wizards to close out a strong performance that suffered a fourth quarter meltdown.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Robert Randolph and The Family Band @ 9:30 Club 10/29/10

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Photos and words by guest reviewer Andrew Markowitz.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard about Robert Randolph and the Family Band: I was at my grandmother’s retirement home reading a People Magazine while waiting to take her out for brunch. The magazine had a section dedicated to up and coming music stars and Robert Randolph was one of those listed. I can’t find the specific quote from the magazine but someone had asked Randolph -who had been trained on the pedal steel guitar as a member of a Pentecostal church- what it felt like to have the Lord in one hand and the Devil in the other when playing his instrument. Definitely intrigued, I went back to my dorm later that day and hopped on my computer to see what I could find.

I came away with a few live songs, some of which were featured on Randolph’s first CD “Live at the Wetlands” and an instrumental version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” that absolutely blew my mind. Jimi Hendrix still remains my favorite musical artist of all time, however Randolph definitely inspired a sense of awe that I felt when I first heard Hendrix. Randolph leads “The Family Band” and together they play a powerful combination of funk, blues, soul, and gospel music. I couldn’t stop listening to that Voodoo Chile mp3 for weeks and the other songs remained in my rotation for a long, long time.

I’ve never been able to see him in concert, however. Every time he’s been through the DC area, I’ve always had something else going on and been unable to see him. The thing that bothers me the most is that I don’t remember what else I had to do, but I definitely would have remembered seeing Robert Randolph in concert. So when I was offered photo pass and a chance to write a concert review of Robert Randolph’s October 29th show at the 9:30 Club, I jumped at the chance to go.

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Dupont Circle, Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Food
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We Love Food: Agora

Photo Credit: Kim Maxwell Vu

A very good friend (and frequent dinner date) lived on 17th St. and P St. for a long time before moving to New York earlier this year. At least once a month we would meet at her house with no real dinner plan, walk out the front door and…stand. There were plenty of restaurants on 17th St., but none of them ever really struck us as compelling. It was all very poetic – restaurants, restaurants everywhere but not a bite to eat. There was Komi (too expensive), Sushi Taro (too long of a wait), and the slew of restaurant slash bar establishments that I could never really tell apart. Enter Agora to solve all my problems.

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All Politics is Local, Life in the Capital, News, Special Events, The District, The Features, The Hill
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Get Your Vote On 2010

Photo courtesy of
‘VOTE’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

Unless you’ve been hiding in a hole for the last few weeks, then you’re well aware that today is Election Day 2010!!! If you’ve indeed been in a cave of darkness, then you can find your polling place courtesy of this DCBOEE map. The DCBOEE also has complete lists of the candidates in Ballot Order and ANC candidates.

In addition to casting your vote for specific candidates, DC is also voting on Charter Amendment IV (aka “The Elected Attorney General Charter Amendment”). Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of
Enlightened by pablo.raw

With FotoWeek quickly approaching, photography lovers should be bracing themselves for an inundation of gallery shows, slideshows, artist talks, and all-around geekery (not to mention plenty of spam in your inbox).  When you look at hundreds of photos in a short period of time it’s easy to overload your brain.  Before you know it, all photos will begin to either look “good” or you just won’t know what you’re looking at anymore.  When you reach that point, try to keep in mind some of the basic rules that make up a “good” photograph: composition, content, and lighting.

This photo has them all, but the lighting is what makes the shot.  The sunlight streaming in from the top corner naturally leads the viewer’s eye to the subject at the center of the frame.  The contrast between the lion’s glowing face and his bleak surroundings lead you to believe that he has found a ray of hope from above.  Is he simply looking for some warmth from the sun or has he found respite from his existence as a caged zoo animal?

Eat Like Me, Food and Drink, The Features
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Eat Like Me: October’s Best Dishes

Photo courtesy of
‘at vace in northwest d.c.’
courtesy of ‘staceyviera’

October wasn’t exactly a regular eating month for me. I was in China for two weeks (where I dined on delicious, delicious things that I won’t even try to identify), I spent a few days eating every random thing in my fridge to clean it out before my trip, and the rest of the month was spent mostly dedicated to Vegan Week. By all accounts it shouldn’t have been a hallmark eating month, at least not in any D.C. locations, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well I did eat.

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The Features, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: A Q&A With Dawes

The “next big thing” is thrown around a lot in music culture. What you hear about less often is the next great thing, the next band that’ll knock your socks off not just because all the cool kids love them but because they are just that good. If there is a musical god out there doling out success to those most deserving, Dawes, a rock and roll quartet from Los Angeles who will be appearing at the Rock & Roll Hotel on Wednesday, will be just one such band. Their 2009 debut, “North Hills,” was praised by critics as wide-ranging as Rolling Stone and the Wall Street Journal (!); Daytrotter’s Sean Moeller calls lyricist Taylor Goldsmith “as magnificent of a songwriter as there is currently creating.” Goldsmith has a knack for crafting beautiful lyrics that make order out of the chaos of our lives, and the men sharing the stage with him — his brother, drummer Griffin Goldsmith; Wylie Gelber on bass; and Alex Casnoff on keyboards — excel at setting those lyrics to music. On stage, the result is an improbable blend of melodic folk and high-energy rock and roll.

And they need that energy to get through a tour schedule that seems endless. In the last year and a half, the band has appeared at such festivals as South By Southwest, Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza, and opened for artists including (deep breath here): Josh Ritter, Corey Chisel and the Wandering Sons, Edward Sharpe, Langhorne Slim, She and Him, Jason Boesel, Deer Tick and Delta Spirit. Dawes has hit the road hard in support of “North Hills,” and the legwork has paid off. The tour that brings them back to D.C. for their fourth show in the area in a year is their first as headliners.

As a special thanks to We Love DC readers, we’re giving away a pair of tickets to Wednesday’s show. See the bottom of this post for rules of the giveaway.

I talked with Taylor Goldsmith about the band’s rising star, musical influences and future plans:

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Sports Fix
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Week 8 Recap – Skins vs. Lions

Photo courtesy of
‘Purple Redskins cap’
courtesy of ‘wfyurasko’

For the second straight season, the Redskins went to Detroit and lost. That by itself would have been reason enough to question the team heading into their bye week but this loss came with something extra. With the Skins trailing 31-26 and just less than 2 minutes remaining, Mike Shanahan benched Donovan McNabb and replaced him with Rex Grossman. It was a curious move because McNabb was not injured and hadn’t played poorly. On Grossman’s first play, he was sacked and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Ndomukong Suh for a touchdown. So instead of just making adjustments and getting players healthy, Shanahan will be bombarded with questions about the McNabb benching for the next two weeks.

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