Category Archives: The Features

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

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends, June 26-27

Photo courtesy of
‘Upshur Swimming Pool’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Carl: Friday night may see me going to hear some jazz at the sculpture garden, where I will no doubt enjoy a cooler of malt liquor with fellow writer Katie. Saturday I will be sleeping late (likely waking up around 7:30), possibly finishing some yard work for an elderly friend, and then going to my friend Don‘s birthday party. He’s not the elderly guy I do yard work for but I suppose I should offer. On Sunday I might meet a friend for brunch and later head off to a cookout in the Westover neighborhood. If I get there early, there’s always the Lost Dog Cafe, where I can cool off and sip some suds while I await the appointed hour.

Max: I’m headed up to Philly this weekend for a much needed escape from Dodge, but if I were sticking around the District I would hit up the not to be missed show at Flashpoint, Jeffry Cudlin: BY REQUEST – it’s going to be the off the hook.  I’d also check out the show opening at Conner Contemporary Saturday night, 32 Under 32, featuring 32 up and coming local artists that are under the age of 32.  Lastly, I’d stay indoors as much as possible because this lovely weather is supposed to continue throughout the weekend.  Fall can’t get here soon enough for me.   Continue reading →

Entertainment, Interviews, Media, People, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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DMVIFF: A Festival for Filmmakers

Tanecia Britt; photo courtesy DMVIFF

This weekend marks the start of the DMV International Film Festival, showcasing the talents of various artists in our area. (‘DMV’ stands for the District, Maryland, and Virginia, for those wondering.) By showcasing up and coming artists from around the world, the DMVIFF is a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding the area’s indie film market through the development and presentation of original stories for the screen. The DMVIFF hopes to educate about the business of film through workshops and panel discussions during the course of the festival. The festival – and organization – has been put together by Tanecia Britt, a DC native and a freelance director.

The festival, which runs Friday through Wednesday the 30th, was the brainchild of Britt after her return from London where she obtained her Masters in Film Video and New Screen Media. “After I got back and created my first feature, School Without Walls, I had trouble entering the film in various area film festivals,” she said. “School was selected in 3 international festivals, so I was confused as to why it wasn’t accepted here in the DC area. It was then I noticed a real lack of knowledge of film festivals, so I decided to do something about it.”

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats Fall to Royals, 1-0

stras.jpg
Photo by Ian Koski / Nationals Daily News

Looking for the sweep today, the Nationals brought out their ace, Stephen Strasburg, to cement a winning streak and build some momentum, going into the weekend series against Baltimore.  Sadly, the team’s offense couldn’t deliver, in a game fraught with mistakes and misplays, in some cases over-sliding bases, and in others sliding too early, and they fell without scoring, 1-0.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Goldfrapp @ 9:30 Club 6/21/10

Goldfrapp @ 9:30 Club 6/21/10
courtesy of Goldfrapp.

Allison Goldfrapp, the fairy godmother of electro-pop, descended from her pink-chiffon cloud to treat us mere mortals to one hell of a concert at the 9:30 Club on Monday night. The performance was one of the first dates on her U.S. tour in support of her fifth album, “Head First“, but the concert also served as a reminder to the pop-forgetful that she is the best in the biz when it comes to dreamy-vocals set to retro-chic, electro-beats. This summer is ridiculous with its schedule of electro-pop divas visiting DC. From The Golden Filter, to La Roux, to Robyn, and Dragonette each group owes a huge debt to Goldfrapp for putting the pop polish on the synth and keyboard sound that began its revival as the much harsher electro-clash in the late 90’s. Will Gregory and Allison Goldfrapp, the duo that compose Goldfrapp in the studio, have been cranking out great albums since 2000, while Allison and her live band have been putting on terrific live shows full of style and originality that will be hard to forget when seeing their electro-pop descendants perform over the next couple of months. Monday night’s Goldfrapp show took a few songs to really get going but once the band got into their groove it was pure escapist, retroactive, pseudo-futuristic bliss.

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Talkin' Transit
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Talkin’ Transit: An Uphill Battle For WMATA One Year After Crash

Photo courtesy of
‘Horton #23 (26/365)’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Earlier Samer wrote about how his commute changed when he was able to drive to work, for me it has been a luxury I’ve enjoyed for most of my time here in the DC area. I called it a luxury because I had a parking space at an office .7 miles away from my home in Clarendon. With a parking space waiting for me at work I freely drove that .7 miles to and from my home every day.

Call me lazy but I grew up in a Boston suburb where you needed a car in order to get anywhere around town. For me driving was always a necessity and a habit I didn’t give up til my car had an extended stay at the mechanic. Now I have the opposite of what Samer had: I took a new job in Rosslyn, where parking wasn’t provided and I went from a daily driver to a daily Metro commuter.

Even before I became a daily Metro customer I’ve been a big fan of the Metrorail system. When asked to compared Washington, DC with my hometown of Boston it is the Metro and the public transportation system that leads my argument for why I love DC a little bit more than beantown. Sure Boston has their legendary T system but WMATA did things that the MBTA never had.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Delta Spirit

The Delta Spirit @ 9:30 Club 7/3/10

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 Delta Spirit perform at the 9:30 Club on Saturday, July 3rd.

Delta Spirit are a tight group of multi-instrumentalists crafting up-tempo, Americana-inspired, indie-rock fronted by a spectacular vocalist. Delta Spirit somehow manage to sound very traditional while also bringing a unique instrumental approach to each and every song. Their music sounds timeless, as if it could have just as easily been produced in the 60’s or 00’s. In a way they make me think of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. Delta Spirit make pretty straight-forward soulful rockers but put just enough of a left-of-center spin on them to make for a sound that could be huge for fans of the WHFS-spirited, alternative music radio. Delta Spirit’s secret weapon is their lead singer, Matthew Vasquez. He has a great, unique voice that lends just the right amount of emotion and fun to their songs to keep the listener completely engaged. His crystal clear, articulate, vocal delivery makes for terrific sing-along potential; of which I am sure there will be plenty at the concert this weekend.

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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Nats With Bats Revive Stats

A humid Washington evening in the early days of summer is a bit of a difficult environment for baseball.  You never know when a storm will break out.  Tonight, the Royals were the recipients of a pair of storms: one from the Nationals’ bats, and the other from Mother Nature herself.  A 49-minute rain delay couldn’t shake Luis Atilano, who picked up his sixth win of the season in 5 1/3 innings.  Tyler Clippard and Matt Capps would do their eponymous routine on Clipp & Save T-shirt night here at Nats Park.

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

The cast of "Courage," a dog and pony dc production. Photo credit: C. Stanley Photography

The cast of "Courage," a dog & pony dc production. Photo credit: C. Stanley Photography

Entering the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop black box theater for a performance of Courage: A Political Theatre Revival is a bit like crashing your neighbor’s weekend-long house party. The place is a mess, you don’t know anyone, but everyone seems to be having crazy fun so you jump right in, why not? If you aren’t the sort who likes the fourth wall being broken repeatedly as actors address you directly and encourage you to participate, this isn’t the production for you. But if you love party-crashing, you’ll get along.

Maybe you shouldn’t trust my opinion, after all, I was handed a beer shortly upon arrival. It’s a new strategy, getting your reviewer tipsy, but everyone else was doing it too (so yes, I caved to peer pressure). In addition to free beer, you’ll be recruited into the army with a hilarious questionnaire. This raucous atmosphere before the show even begins puts you both at ease and on edge at the same time – the perfect mood for a work that’s actually based on Bertolt Brecht’s classic anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children.

This production by dog & pony dc uses the very colloquial David Hare version as a starting point, accented by a live band with original music by John Milosich and directed (or rather, “radically re-imagined”) by Rachel Grossman, who describes the action as “NASCAR punk political theatre mosh-pit.” Apt. It closes June 26, so race on over – performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30pm.

Now that you’re prepared for the preamble, what about the production itself? Continue reading →

Mythbusting DC, The Features
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DC Mythbusting: Highway to Heaven

Photo courtesy of
‘Three Churches, One Corner, Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C.’
courtesy of ‘adcristal’

I love that after several years of living here, I keep finding out new things about the District. Just last week while on a run with a friend along 16th Street, she told me that she had heard that 16th Street was known as the Highway to Heaven because of the concentration of churches, synagogues, and mosques along it. I had never heard of that, but it sounded like an interesting myth to investigate. Does 16th Street really have more religious institutions than any other corridor in the city? And is it called the Highway to Heaven?

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Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of
‘a summer romance’ by ‘Blinkofanaye’

At 5:00 on any given Friday afternoon in the summer, Jazz in the  Garden is just getting started, and space quickly becomes scarce as hundreds of worker bees flock for a little wine, maybe a pitcher of (surprisingly potent for what you pay) sangria, a picnic and some tunes. It’s a grand way to spend an evening, even if by hour two you’re hot, sticky and a little closer than you’d like to be to the sweaty stranger who drank too much of that sangria.

Or you could do what this couple did: carve out a nice, cool space for themselves where the crowd couldn’t get to them. Sure, the police will come along eventually and escort you away (to the boos of the crowd), but in this moment, for these two people, none of that matters. All they feel is that cool, forbidden water on their feet, and all they see is each other. It takes a certain kind of guts to walk into a fountain and, ahem, dance like nobody’s watching. That’s the kind of guts we could all use more of.

We’re lucky Flickr user Blinkofaneye caught the moment so perfectly, with the fountain water glistening and half the crowd in the background oblivious to the scene unfolding right in front of them. He also caught the pair a moment later, hands entwined, proud smiles on their faces, and really, can you blame them? (Hat tip to Tracy Clayton, who tweeted the incident as it happened and also captured it and posted a play-by-play of their dance.)

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals Stop Skid at Six, Squeak Out Win over Royals

avilescs.jpg
Photo by Ian Koski / Nationals Daily News

The Nationals’ losing streak stopped at six games tonight, as Livo outpitched Bruce Chen, and Mike Morse and Cristian Guzman each struck for solo homers in the 2-1 victory. Matt Capps, after surrendering two hits in the 9th, retired the side on three brutal called strikeouts to pick up his 21st save and cement Livo’s sixth win.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats Demote Lannan

Photo courtesy of
‘Lannan about to release’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

A day after manager Jim Riggleman said that struggling hurler John Lannan had “long leash” and would make his next start in Baltimore this weekend, the team sent him to AA Harrisburg. Lannan was sent down, and reliever Joel Peralta was retrieved from AAA Syracuse. The team will run with 4 starters for the next week or so, due to a Thursday off-day before the Baltimore series that allows for a bit more flexibility in the schedule.

The move comes as a bit of a shock, given Riggleman’s assurances yesterday that Lannan was a fixture of the club, and they’d stand by him through a rough spot. The team is hoping that Lannan can fix his mechanical issues with the pitching coach there, Randy Tomlin, that has helped John in the past.

This the first time that the team has been without Lannan for more than a day or two since he was called up in 2007.

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Golden Filter @ DC9 6/19/10

Photo courtesy of
‘The Golden Filter’
courtesy of ‘yousayyeah’

On Friday night, DC9 mainstay, Liberation Dance Party brought in New York’s The Golden Filter for a special appearance to amp up the already crazy dance party LDP hosts week after week. Unsurprisingly, the result was an even crazier dance party. The Golden Filter delivered a killer set of sexy electro-pop to a packed house eager to dance, dance, dance! And dance they did, taking to the riser boxes, standing on the booths, shaking and grinding while the band delivered on the promise of their amazing debut album, Voluspa, with a live performance that was a delight to watch through the filter of moving bodies.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Sports Fix: World Cup Edition

Photo courtesy of
’02_10′
courtesy of ‘m hoek’

World Cup Soccer
Record: 0-0-2, 2 points
Next Game: Wednesday 10am

Wednesday morning brings us the next chapter of the World Cup for Team USA, and they’ll be playing for their tournament life. USA will need a victory if they want to advance, but Algeria’s allowed just one goal so far in two games, so it’ll take a lot of doing. A tie would still allow the US to advance, but they stop being in control of their own destiny. If they were to tie, they would need England to lose against Slovenia, or tie, but score less than 2 more goals than we do against Algeria.

There are some outcomes that would require actual coin flips in order to determine the advancing team. Via ESPN: “If the U.S. draws with Algeria and England draws with Slovenia, and England scores exactly two more goals than the U.S., the U.S. and England would be even on all tiebreakers for second place. The tie would be broken by drawing lots … aka, a coin flip.” Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Lannan Struggles in 5-3 Loss to Chicago

Photo courtesy of
‘Teddy FAIL’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

After a 5-3 loss, manager Jim Riggleman said that the Nationals were “going to pass the character test.”  Last season’s team under Manny Acta never had that chance, and before the All-Star Break, they were 26-61.  The Nats this season, after starting 20-15, have dropped 24 of their last 35, including six straight.  They’d have to lose every game between now and the All Star Break to get anywhere close to as rough as last season was.  I don’t see that happening.

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Downtown, History, Special Events, We Love Arts
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NatGeo Opens Up Da Vinci’s Mind

DSC_6845

If I say the name “Leonardo da Vinci,” what’s the first thing to pop into your mind? Most likely, thoughts of paintings such as the Mona Lisa or the Last Supper, or perhaps illustrations of his flying machine concepts. Maybe in some cases, the idea of a “Renaissance Man.” And you’d be right with all of those answers – but you’d also only be scratching the surface.

The National Geographic Museum’s latest exhibit, “Da Vinci-The Genius,” attempts to broaden that answer for you. This comprehensive traveling exhibition details the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci and will be on display from June 18 through September 12, 2010 and is made available by Grande Exhibitions, Fondazione Anthropos of Italy, and the French engineer Pascal Cotte.

“We have all heard of Leonardo da Vinci; most people think of him as the artist that painted the Mona Lisa, or maybe they heard he did flying machine drawings,” said National Geographic Museum Director Susan Norton. “But here, you can come to see full-sized models of what he designed in the 15th Century to address what he thought of as challenges, issues, and problems, and I think people will be fascinated when they come.”

She’s not wrong. Continue reading →

Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, We Love Arts
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New Street Artist Wants to Punch You with Love

Over the past couple of years I’ve been keeping an eye on the local street art in my neighborhood, getting to know the artists, and matching their work to their name.  I love seeing pieces by DECOY, DIABETIK, Gaia and of course Shepard Fairey, pop up overnight along 14th Street NW and the surrounding area.  Aside from adding colorful character to our drab streets, one of the biggest reasons I love street art is the inherent mystery.  Who did this and why?  What’s the meaning behind their art?  Who are they?

Those questions arose again earlier this week as some new pieces went up by an artist unknown to me.  The pieces have similarities to work by other artists, but they don’t quite match up to anyone in particular.  At this point I can only guess what some of the work is, but so far I’ve seen a dead flower, what I think is the “belly badge” from a Care Bear (c’mon, we all watched strange shows as kids), and pink brass knuckles with heart-shaped finger holes – all signs of a truly twisted imagination (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Is this person a goody two-shoes having a bad day, or perhaps a Debbie Downer trying to turn that frown upside down?  It’s hard to say, but I’m loving these new pieces and can’t wait to see what else crops up during the middle of the night.  If you know who this artist is, leave it in the comments!

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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The True Meaning of Strasmas

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘muohace_dc’

Tonight is the Third Night of Strasmas, as he starts against the Chicago White Sox at Nats Park at 7:05pm. The flashbulbs with all go off again, the crowd will once again chant for strikeouts, and DC will be a baseball town, as it will be all summer, for one game out of each five.

The Nationals are in for a crucial stretch of games, nine against interleague teams with records worse than their own 31-36, and then a patch of 13 against division foes that are a significant hurdle for our boys in red. Their first 67 games have not gone as planned, but the team is still wins ahead over last year’s abysmal 59-102. So, what do the Nationals have to do to make every day into Strasmas? Continue reading →

Music, The Features
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We Love Pop Culture: The Blanks

Popular culture makes its way through the District usually on the back of a Bravo series or other cable favorites. Housewives, Top Chefs and Real Worlders, you have had more than your fair time to shine a light on DC in the most recent months. Those of us not of the reality type enjoy seeing other familiar faces appear in town. Sometimes it’s a favorite comedian making a run through one of the theatres, but on occasion, the more niche parts of pop culture make their appearances.

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