Category Archives: The Features

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

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals fall to Pirates on McCutchen’s big night

Photo courtesy of runneralan2004
Andrew McCutchen leads off second
courtesy of runneralan2004

Andrew McCutchen had Jordan Zimmermann’s number tonight, clubbing a pair of monster home runs off the Nationals’ #3 starter in tonight’s 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. McCutchen would also flash the leather in the field, stealing at least a double from Adam LaRoche eight feet up the center field wall in the fifth inning, preserving a coalescing no-hitter for Pirates’ starter James McDonald. 

McDonald was fairly stellar for the evening as well, sending 11 Nationals down on strikes in 5 and 2/3 innings. He had a perfect game going through four before walking Bryce Harper in the fifth, and then losing his no-hit bid in the sixth.  The Nationals would stage a rally in the sixth that would knock McDonald out after four hits scored three runs. 

Twice more the Nationals would attempt to rally, each time putting multiple men aboard with 1 out, and in both cases the Nationals couldn’t get the base hits they needed to push over the top. With a 7-0 Atlanta victory over Miami, the Nationals fell to second place in the NL East, a half game behind the Braves.

The team struggled at the plate tonight, and James McDonald’s off-speed mix of pitches were absolutely devastating to the nominally hot offense, often freezing them with the fastball when they were expecting the breaking stuff, and vice versa.

The Nats now take on the also-hot Orioles in the first Battle of the Beltways that will live up to the name. Saturday’s game is “Script Cap” night, with the first 30,000 fans receiving a Script Nationals logo, and Sunday nets kids 12 & under a cool t-shirt if they come in through the center field gate.

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: R. Ring @ DC9, 5/15/2012

R. Ring, photo by Jason Coile

We Love DC guest writer Jonathan Druy attended the R. Ring show at DC9 Tuesday night. Read his thoughts on it below! 

Tuesday night started with a fairly sparse DC9 room, but the evening opened with a sharp acoustic/punk set by Marc Ganancias, and then a soulfully beautiful set by Mean Season, who know how to intertwine chick vocals and guitar into a lean indie-rock gift. When Kelley Deal’s new project R.Ring took the stage, the room began to swell with fans of the Breeders guitarist, who got to see a warm set, highlighted by Deal’s sweet vocals and Mike Montgomery’s amplified acoustic interactions, as well as some really funny between-song convos.

 Kelley Deal uses that voice, imprinted on those of us who came of age when the Breeders reigned the alternawaves, as one of the band’s electric instruments, cranking up the reverb, or singing through an effects pedal. It provides a nice touch, so songs like “Fall Out and Fire” and “Hundred Dollar Heat”, which Deal sings from the floor, draw in the audience, resulting in an echo-embellished electric/acoustic lullaby. Deal accompanied Montgomery on guitar for a few numbers, and the electrics came out for their closer, a cover of Shellac’s “Ghost”, on which Montgomery also shared vocals.

 The DC9 crowd grew over the course of the set, so by the end there was no shortage of fans chatting with Deal after the show. Here’s hoping the rest of her tour generates as much goodwill as Tuesday night.

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends – May 18-20

Photo courtesy of kimberlyfaye
(153/365)
courtesy of kimberlyfaye

If you needed more evidence that the rain has stopped and people have bolted out into the sunshine you could base it on the dearth of weekends entries our authors have submitted. (I’m not counting the fat-fingered “M OUT IN SUN & NOT COMIN BACK SUCKER THERE’S UR WEEKEND ENTRY LOL” smartphone-submitted messages as entries.) Some of us are stuck in the office, though, and have penned these expansive wishes for the sweet release of death Friday. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Features
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We Love Food: Jaleo 2.0

You can in fact teach an old dog new tricks my friend. And very quickly at that. Jaleo, Jose Andres’ first ever restaurant in the District, has undergone a  makeover, and with its refreshed modern look comes a seriously delicious menu full of creative twists on Spanish classics. I went to Jaleo the day before it closed for renovations, and exactly a month following- the total time it took to revamp the place- I returned to a completely new experience. Hello Jaleo, Fully Loaded.

Jose Andres really had no idea that when he opened Jaleo in Chinatown as a mere 23 year old kid that he would be setting the foundation for an empire, one that would span across States and elevate tapas to the highest levels. With all of his success (such as making it to the shortlist of Time’s most influential people) Jose Andres continues to be an unofficial Ambassador of the District and of its culinary talent.  Right off the train from the James Beard Foundation Awards, Jose came straight to Jaleo and spoke with us extensively about the new restaurant, but furthermore, about our city, it’s food, and the people behind it. In his words, we need more “cheerleaders” – whether journalists, bloggers, or simply customers – that cheer on our chefs and those in the industry to build DC’s reputation as one of a food-town, and for its tasty offerings to no longer be an after-thought.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Spiritualized, Nikki Lane @ 930 Club, 5/10/2012

Spiritualized, all photos by Matthew Carroll

 British space-rockers Spiritualized delivered a soulful 2-hour long set to a packed house at DC’s 930 Club Thursday night. Nashville-based country songstress Nikki Lane opened. Spiritualized is on tour of the US now in support of their seventh studio album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light, released in April on Double Six Records.

Nikki Lane

Southern country singer Nikki Lane made toes tap and heads bounce with her smart, sassy tunes, bringing to mind at times a young Loretta Lynn. Originally from South Carolina, Lane ended up in Nashville by way of Los Angeles and New York. Though her album Walk of Shame features a full band, including twangy steel guitar, Lane’s songs still stood up when played solo on acoustic guitar. Highlights of her set included the runaway tale “Gone, Gone, Gone“, super-twangy “Western Bound”, and the bouncy “Walk of Shame.”
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Farm Fresh, Food and Drink, The Features
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We Love Doing Good: DC’s First Mobile Market

Courtesy of Megan Bailey

There is nothing more wonderful to see than when creativity and mission intersect. Case in point: the Mobile Market. The Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture, a nonprofit founded by the partners and chefs of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, is dedicated to growing an equitable and sustainable food system in DC. The group has come up with an innovative solution to overcome the challenges of food access: use the food truck model. The Mobile market will serve “food desert” neighborhoods around the area with fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat from Arcadia farms and other sustainable producers, at below market rates for those who need it most, bringing it to areas that do not have a bounty of fresh options.

A converted school bus, now bright green and adorned with art by local students,  serves as a visual representation of everything the Mobile Market aims to do, as Michael Babin, owner of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group explained, “Our hope is that the Mobile Market will not only serve as a physical link between farmers and the areas that lack food access, but as a visual representation of the better food and nutrition movement.”

Beyond that, the converted school bus is a moving educational market on wheels, providing information and cooking demonstrations, one-on-one engagement opportunities with the local community, nutritional information and recipes, and resources for how to get fresh, local produce elsewhere in the District. The moving Market is already up and running and will continue through October, with scheduled visits to a senior wellness center, low-income housing site, metro stop, health care provider, and city park and during the school year will also visit schools in DC.

The Mobile Market, the first of its kind in the city, is pioneering change, one stop at a time…

Sports Fix
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Nationals drop embarrassing game to Padres, 6-1, fall from first

Photo courtesy of dmc-flux
Hot Stuff!!!
courtesy of dmc-flux

The Nationals may be finding themselves in a bit of quandary: which is worse for your luck, not doing some sort of ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods, or doing the sacrifice wrong? While yesterday’s 6-1 loss to the Padres was the sort that makes you wonder if the latter is more likely the case. A day after newly-minted National Sandy Leon was sent to the DL with a high ankle strain suffered at the plate – becoming the Nats’ second catcher to go on the DL in as many games – the Nationals looked listless and deflated in the field, making several mistakes early that cost runs on the board.

The offense was similarly moribund on Tuesday afternoon, collecting just five hits, and scoring just the one run on a long drive to the center field stands by Bryce Harper for his second home run.  The Padres’ Anthony Bass was stellar against the Nats and often used his pitch-to-contact style to work over the NL East leaders.  Ryan Zimmerman continues to battle against opposing pitching, hitting just .230 since his return, and neither Rick Ankiel nor Jesus Flores could find themselves aboard as the lineup turned over.

A footnote to the loss yesterday became the story, when beat reporters discovered that Strasburg had been suffering some discomfort due to some Hot Stuff ointment that relocated from Strasburg’s shoulder, where it was applied, to an area that was undisclosed by implied to be south of the belt.  Rob Dibble, proving there’s no pitching event he won’t insert himself in, has criticized Strasburg for assigning blame to the oleoresin capsicum instead of his pitch command. 

To date, Strasburg has requested to not discuss the incident – saying only “I’m going to keep that in the clubhouse,” and talked only about his pitching performance before the media. It’s not exactly clear how Dibble drew the erroneous conclusion, but then again, Dibble wasn’t exactly known for his rocket scientist reasoning in his short tenure in the MASN Broadcast Booth.

Perhaps we could arrange for a jar of the ointment to arrive at his radio studio for some demonstration tests.

The Features
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The Ladder of Escape: Miró at the National Gallery of Art

Joan Miró - The Farm, 1921-1922 - oil on canvas / National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mary Hemingway / © 2012 Successió Miró/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

Whatever your preconceived notions of Miró might be, put them on hold and head to the National Gallery of Art.

The NGA is the sole U.S. venue for Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape. A massive exhibit, it highlights the artist’s political side and undying loyalty to Catalonia throughout a lifetime of hardship under two world wars, the Spanish Civil War, and the Franco dictatorship. I had the chance to visit when it opened on Sunday.

Entering the exhibit, quaint gently slips into surreal. Surrounding The Farm – one of Miró’s most celebrated pieces – we see the painter mature from a sentimental youth into the experimental adult artist Andre Bretón called “the most ‘surrealist’ of us all.”

Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of pablo.raw
Look Up!
courtesy of pablo.raw

This past Friday, DC was treated to a fascinating public performance called bound(less), put on by the group Project Bandaloop and sponsored by the Kennedy Center. Bound(less) is an aerial dance performed on the face of the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Ave, and it provide a number of wonderfully unique photographs for our contributors, like Pablo’s above. The dancers suspended in mid-air, the horn player in the window, and the blue light, all give the image an other-worldly feel. It’s almost as if the photo is from a dream.

The reason I’m pointing this out is to show how blessed DC is with public art. Almost every week there’s something going on for people to see. And starting this weekend is the big public art festival of Artomatic. Eleven floors of art; some very good, some very bad, but all up to the viewer to decide. I’m going to be there Friday night; I hope to see you all there.

The Daily Feed, Travel
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DCA gets expanded service from Virgin, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines

Photo courtesy of Jun Seita
Virgin America N623VA Airbus A320-214 (2006) “three if by air”
courtesy of Jun Seita

As someone with family along the left-coast, I always dread travel there a bit, mostly because it means flying out of far-flung IAD or painful-to-park BWI, instead super-convenient-and-right-on-the-metro DCA. The Department of Transportation announced today four new long-haul routes for National, with a DCA-SFO from Virgin America as the most interesting, followed by JetBlue’s new San Juan route, Alaska Airlines’ new Portland route and Southwest’s direct to Austin route. 

This adds to United’s direct route to SFO, Delta’s direct route to Salt Lake City, American’s direct route to LAX and US Airways’ direct route to San Diego.

Anything that means I can fly out of DCA instead of the burbclaves is just fine with me, thanks.

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, People, We Love Music
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Q&A with Kelley Deal

photo courtesy of the artist

We Love DC guest writer Jonathan Druy had the chance to interview Kelley Deal. Read his account of it all here!

Breeders guitarist Kelley Deal is touring with her beautiful new acoustic project R.Ring, and they’re stopping by DC9 on Tuesday night, in what may prove to be a truly talent-rich night of acoustic-based indie-folk-rock-thingies, with Mike Ganancias and Mean Season. A new release from Misra Records is on its way.

From Dayton, Ohio, R.Ring is Deal and Mike Montgomery of the band Ampline, performing acoustic, spare, melodic explorations led by Deal’s unique and sometimes distorted vocals, her voice familiar to those who remember the once-ubiquitous Breeders. If you were sentient 20 years ago, you probably owned “Last Splash”, with it’s beautiful singles “Cannonball” and “Divine Hammer”, and its surfy instrumentals, and the sweet chick-rock vocals led by twin sister and Pixie Kim, and harmonized sweetly by Kelley. You probably also loved the “Cannonball” video on early-90s MTV, an unimaginable pre-WWW/Youtube/Smartphone era when the cable network stumbled into post-Cobain indie-land, and played these things called music videos, because it was the only place you could see them, kiddies.

The lead-up to our interview lead me to revisit “Last Splash” and “Pod” and “Safari EP”, and well-up all nostalgic-like with my memories of seeing the Breeders ’92 show at the old 9:30 Club, which almost made me forget that Deal has had plenty to do since then; first with Kelley Deal 6000, then with the reformed and rejuvenated Breeders, first in ’02 then in ’08. And while I did just see a friend of mine sing “Cannonball” at karaoke, fear not, middle-aged geezers, the Breeders haven’t gone away, but the other day Kelley talked to me about her new project and about being among the current crop of veterans that are still doing it and doing it well.

She also got curious about the Ethiopian food I told her about on 9th St. You haven’t lived until you’ve explained Injera to a Breeder…

Jonathan Druy: Are there any memories or feelings about DC you have from past tours?

Kelley Deal: I do remember our ’92 show at the old 9:30 club – DC at the time was considered really hip and really happening, and I just remember being a rube from Dayton, and I didn’t know about any of this stuff and I remember thinking “wow, this is really cool!”. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: James Morrison @ 930 Club, 5/16/2012

Today we are giving away a pair of tickets to the sold-out James Morrison show at 930 Club on Wednesday, May 16th! The UK artist is on tour of the US in support of his third album, The Awakening, released in 2011 on Island Records. You can check out the video for his single “One Life” here, and follow James Morrison on twitter here.

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. This show is SOLD OUT!

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email in 24 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 he/she is under 18 years old.

Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 5/11-5/13

Photo courtesy of vpickering
Fire-eating
courtesy of vpickering

Ugh…another Monday. And with the weather finally staying nice, it makes going back to work all the more difficult. And, of course, right afte typing that, I check the weather report and there’s a 100% chance of rain for Monday. We just can’t win on Mondays, can we? Well, let’s be happy the weather was excellent for our time off and bad for the time we spend in the office. And fear not, only two more weeks till Memorial Day weekend.  Let’s get to these awesome pictures and then start our week! Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Homebrewing, The Features
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Homebrew DC: Dry Stout Recipe

Photo courtesy of Bernt Rostad
Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
courtesy of Bernt Rostad

This is another 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.

If you are like me and are a big Guinness fan, you may have toyed with the idea of trying to craft your own black brew. If you have, then good news: stouts are easy! This homebrew recipe is exactly what you are looking for.

Stouts are mostly associated with England and Ireland and are offshoots of Porters. As Porter styles evolved, the thicker and more robust Porters began to be referred to as “Stout Porters.” Eventually, the Stout developed into its own style and gained a devoted following.

In general, Stouts are very dark to black in color and have a roasty flavor. The hop flavor and aroma are minimal, though there are a few style exceptions with a pronounced hop presence such as the Imperial or Russian Stout. Stout styles can range from dry to sweet, relatively low to high alcohol content, vary from light to heavy bodied, and may have a hint of fruity esters.

Continue reading →

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends: May 11 – 13

Photo courtesy of tedeytan
Shaw’s Tavern DC 4170
courtesy of tedeytan

Tom: This weekend I’m headed to Atlanta to spend some time with extended family, but were I here, I’d be making the rounds of my usual haunts, including Shaw’s Tavern (whose cocktail lineup is taking shape!) and Boundary Stone (they’re serving 13th Street Meats’ Bratwurst poached in DC Brau, it’s worthy.) Before I go, though, I’ll be spending time with my friends on Thursday night at San Antonio Bar & Grill after casting my vote early for Kenyan McDuffie in the Ward 5 special election. If you live in Ward 5, consider this my firm endorsement: vote for the guy who’s not late on his debts, not taking thousands and thousands in shady bundled corporate donation, and not the former employee of Marion Barry, Michael Brown and Kwame Brown. That’s Kenyan. So vote up, Ward 5. Continue reading →

Downtown, Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Patrick Watson @ 930 Club, 5/8/2012

Patrick Watson, all photos by Matthew Carroll

Patrick Watson set an intimate mood in the 930 club Tuesday night, starting their set in the dark. Five players all together were onstage- Patrick Watson singing and on piano, Robbie Kuster on drums, Mishka Stein on bass, Simon Angell on guitar and Melanie Belair on violin.The Montreal-based band is on tour now opening for Andrew Bird, in support of their latest release Adventures in Your Own Backyard, which came out in Canada April 17th, on Secret City Records/Domino.

Patrick Watson
 Eventually the stage was lit, but softly, making it feel like you could be in the band’s living room, or back yard. Watson’s vocal delivery is delicate for the most part, lilting and floating amidst tinkling piano or softly strummed guitar, violin tremelos. In livelier moments the band had an almost circusy feel, like a gypsy carnival, though still subdued.  To take things to an even more intimate place, the band gathered around one mic in the middle of the stage and played a couple of songs in an old-timey radio way, including the sweet, tender “Words In A Fire.”
Highlights of the set included the spooky, ethereal “Quiet Crowd,” the bouncy “Into Giants,” with its lovely layered vocals, and the Spaghetti-Western feel of “Adventures in Your Own Backyard.”   The band closed their set with a dedication to the recently deceased Maurice Sendak, playing their song “Where The Wild Things Are,” ending with a jammed-out, dark-circus frenzy.
 
Patrick Watson

 

We Love Music
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We Love Music: Slash

Slash on stage at Ram's Head Live with Myles KennedyPhotos by author

If you grew up in the 80’s and early 90’s like I did, you might have been a fan of Guns N’ Roses. While they’re still around today, they hardly resemble the lineup that featured Slash, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin. The name might be the same but the band now seems to consist of Axl Rose and a group of randoms.

Continue reading →

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Bike Trip and We Are Serenades @ Black Cat — 5/7/12

Photo courtesy of tnarik
Adam Olenius
courtesy of tnarik

About 60 people or so turned up at the Black Cat backstage Monday night to see what two well regarded Swedish rockers had to offer in combining their talents as We Are Serenades as they kicked off a US tour in DC. It turned out that indie rockers Adam Olenius of the Shout Out Louds and Markus Krunegard of Laakso were interested in making fewer fuzzed out sounds with their guitars and instead seek to build sweet harmonies armed with a largely twee-pop repertoire of… well, serenades.

The five-piece band certainly did not abandon guitars, however, as Olenius and Krunegard demonstrated the strength of their concept by trading off vocals and sharing guitar duties. But they were augmented by a keyboard, a synthesizer and drums as they offered up about 10 songs largely about being in love and appreciating nature. The two vocalists looked comfortable with their material and the five-member band seems poised for larger spaces. Olenius and Krunegard were easygoing and earnest and their vocals were perhaps the most crystal clear I’ve ever heard in the back of the Cat, making for a wholly pleasant listening experience. While all quite twee, their songs ranged a bit from familiar guitar rock numbers to more dance pop selections.

For me in their better moments, We Are Serenades get a little new wavey, almost sounding a bit like their countrymen in The Mary Onettes, although without the urgency and full-throated crooning that characterize the older band. We Are Serenade’s full-on dance number “Weapons,” for example, has a bouncy new wave synthline that makes for a pleasant distraction but it still politely invites you to come dancing rather than forcefully compelling you to do so. Their latest single, “Criminal Heaven” (which is the title track from their debut record), provides more opportunities for the duo vocalists to harmonize, which they do surprisingly well, and to generate more guitar pop.

Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of philliefan99
fisheye nats park
courtesy of philliefan99

That is one great shot of Nationals Park! Phil employed his trusty fisheye lens to get nearly the entire seating bowl of the stadium into one shot. A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens which gives a 180 degree view. It’s a fairly specialized lens, and few photographers use them. This is mainly because the distortion that is created can become a tiresome effect and people lose interest in using it. Also, such a wide-angle lens is not useful in most situations. However, when employed properly, like the shot above, the results are outstanding!

Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 5/4-5/6

Photo courtesy of philliefan99
open for business
courtesy of philliefan99

Talk about a banner weekend for DC. Nationals go 2 for 3; Caps win the big game; DC United wins on the road; heck, even New York City got leveled in the Avengers! Everything seems to be turning up DC. We even had great weather; first hit of heat on Saturday and then a nice cool off for Sunday, and no rain. Let’s keep this going…by checking out some photos from the weekend. Enjoy!  Continue reading →