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: April 20-22

Photo courtesy of caroline.angelo
Gingerbread pancakes
courtesy of caroline.angelo

It’s the weekend and it seems like every writer is planning to booze it up. Or in other words, business as usual. It’s hard to imagine that the weekend is going to live up to the week, what with most of the city getting dive-bombed on Tuesday by a 747 seemingly driven to insanity by the odd-shaped tumor on its back. But we’re willing to try.

Marissa: Lately it feels like I’m living for the weekends. Anyone else with me? Friday night, a friend and I are headed to check out the recently opened Maple in Columbia Heights. Saturday night I might mosey over to Georgetown to check out some local art and musicians at Listen Local First’s Record Store Day Showcase at The Water Street Project. If you don’t have any plans Sunday afternoon, I suggest you check out the second annual Food Experiment competition in DC from 12-3 PM. Last year’s competitors made tacos (yours truly having been one of them) and this year’s challenge is “the Chinese take-out experiment.” Word to the wise: buy your tickets in advance online since tickets at the door sold out quickly last year. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals drop laugher to Astros, lose 11-4

Photo courtesy of BrianMKA
Failure
courtesy of BrianMKA

The first-place Washington Nationals stumbled in the first inning on Thursday night, with Edwin Jackson giving up six hits – three of them triples – before the side was retired. The damage was done, and the Nats trailed 5-0 on the back of some shaky routes from their outfielders. A few of those triples might’ve been doubles from a more experienced and fielding-focused outfield, and might have saved a run. 

After the rough first inning, Jackson settled down to his previous self, retiring 12 of 13 in four additional innings, and notching 5 Ks on the night. After 89 pitches, he’d head for the showers just a run behind. The Nationals would score in the 2nd on a pair of singles and a wild pitch, and pick up three runs in the third on Ryan Zimmerman’s towering drive over the visiting bullpen – his first of the season, and a moon shot at 410 feet – but that wouldn’t be enough to stop the Astros.

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Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Dogugaeshi

Basil Twist's production of Dogugaeshi. Photo credit: Richard Termine.

The only reason I didn’t give Basil Twist’s hypnotic Dogugaeshi a standing ovation was that I was simply too stunned to rise from my seat.

Certainly I was prepared to be enchanted, after my last experience of the Basil Twist Festival – Petrushka at Shakespeare Theatre Company – but this was even more intense. Over the course of one hour I’d been transported, body and mind, to a theatrical state I had never experienced before.

There’s a haunting beauty to Dogugaeshi. As it’s a very brief run I urge you to catch it this week before closing on April 22. If it were just a presentation of Japanese folk puppet theater, that would still be reason to see it, but Twist takes this classic form and reframes it as a profound elegy on time and the ephemeral nature of beauty.

It’s the dogugaeshi itself, a “set change” stage mechanism, that tricks the eye until the viewer is almost in a trance. Or is it that strange, playful fox blowing out a candle? Continue reading →

Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Billy Klein of Café Saint-Ex (Part 2)

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Udon Carbonara at Cafe Saint-Ex
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

A good pasta carbonara separates the strong from the weak, the great from the average. Master that dish and you can certainly wow some dinner guests. The carbonara from Café Saint-Ex’s executive chef, Billy Klein, uses udon noodles and fresh pea shoots for a slightly different spin. The result? A pasta dish that remains light and fresh, even with a creamy sauce.

I can’t make any guarantees that yours will turn out as good as it does at Café Saint-Ex, so if I were you I’d head there first to check out the original with what was the best pork belly I’ve ever had (not an exaggeration)—crisp on the outside and not a bit of grizzly fat on the inside. And while you’re there the rest of this month, check out some of Billy’s creations for National Grilled Cheese month (read: grilled cheese on “potato bread”–gooey cheddar cheese and bacon in between slices of potatoes or the brioche encrusted with Fruity Pebbles and melted brie inside).

The full recipe, broken down by parts (roll up your sleeves and get ready for a little challenge!), is after the jump.

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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Billy Klein of Café Saint-Ex (Part 1)

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Chef Billy Klein of Cafe Saint-Ex
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

There’s something refreshing about a direct answer to a question these days. A simple statement that gets to the root of what you’re asking, that needs no follow-up question, leaves no confusion or wiggle room for ambiguity. And when I asked Billy Klein why he became a chef, I got a succinct, straightforward answer: “I love food. I love people. I love being artistic.”

The executive chef of Café Saint-Ex elaborates: “With cooking, there are no limits, no boundaries.” Growing up, Klein says that family meals were “always a big deal” in his household. Years later, that thread now carries over into his job as a chef where he says he loves bringing people together and that he enjoys making food that’s not “too cerebral—so that people don’t forget who they’re with.” Klein reminds you that yes, a meal is about the food, but it’s also about the experience and the people you share it with.

So unsurprisingly, after chatting with Klein it’s easy to see that he’s the type of down-to-earth person you’d not only want cooking your food, but that you’d also want to share said food with. He’s level-headed—which is not to say that he’s some vanilla shade of boring—you’ll see the flashes of badassery in tattoos peeking out from his shirt sleeves or when he and a few kitchen crew members slam a shot of whiskey before wrapping up a Saturday night shift. But for example, Klein explains that achieving balance in life is important as a chef. “I love what I do and I work my ass off. But you need balance in your life,” he says. “Being a successful chef is a sacrifice. You have to put in the work, the time and the training.” Part of that life balance is knowing that a chef can’t be at a restaurant all the time, obsessing over every detail and watching their kitchen staff like a hawk. Klein emphasizes that part of a chef’s job is teaching and trusting staff to turn out dishes that are as close to the original version from the chef.
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Featured Photo
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Featured Photo: Money

Photo courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

The esteemed Brian is slaving away in the salt mines, busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest, all because of today’s deadline: tax day. Two days later on the calendar than usual, thanks to the 15th falling on a Sunday and then D.C.’s celebration of one of Lincoln’s other infamous and divisive moves: freeing the District’s slaves.

So in honor of what tax day is all about I present to you this photo of money. It’s nicely sharp considering that it was shot at 1/40th of a second and without a flash, information you can find yourself on Flickr’s EXIF information page for the photo. The macro lens used provides the tiniest amount of depth of field; the part of the bill closest to the lens is in focus but the crinkled corner, probably less than 1/2 an inch farther away, is blurred. That’s with an aperture choice that isn’t even as fully open as it could have been.

If you want to experiment with extreme close-up yourself it doesn’t necessarily require special gear. A lot of zoom functionality has a very close focal distance; I have a zoom lens that when turned to 200mm has a focal distance of 18 inches – which is less than 5 inches off the end of the barrel when it’s fully extended like that. You can also try shooting through a $3 magnifying glass – it works better than you’d think.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of photopete
DSC_9178
courtesy of photopete

Who doesn’t love a parade? This weekend saw two separate parades through our city – one for the Cherry Blossom Festival, one for Emancipation Day – and our Flickr Pool was awash with the parade imagery. This shot from yesterday’s Emancipation Day parade by Pete Kuszmaul captured the balance between joy and professionalism in a parade and this young cheerleader has it perfectly balanced. 

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

The production story of Broadway’s blockbuster musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark“, has more twists and turns than the actual musical. With a monster budget, superstar composers, and ambitious aerial stunts the show has been plagued with delays, technical mishaps, and harsh reviews. As a result the show has been the target of many late-night jokes and parodies. Leave it to Timothy Michael Drucker, creator of “Perez Hilton Saves The Universe“, to write his own Spider Man musical using a fraction of the budget of the Broadway production. Affectionately called “Spidemusical: A Second Chance For Awesome”, the show pokes fun at its blockbuster brother which boasts production costs upwards of a million dollars a week. After a New York run, the show arrives in D.C. where the daring folks at Landless Theatre Company take on the challenge of essentially making a sweded version of Turn Off the Dark.

Instead of high wire acrobatics, Landless employs an action figure tied to a stick. You won’t find fancy costumes in this show, instead actors don animal masks that look like they were plucked from the local Toys ‘R Us. The show is hilariously campy without going over the top. It is the perfect blend of humor and performance.

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Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Ting Tings @ 9:30 Club — 4/12/12 (or “That’s Not the Same!”)

Photo courtesy of GabboT
Ting Tings 08
courtesy of GabboT

Although you couldn’t tell from the enthusiasm of the 9:30 Club’s sold out show last Thursday, I cannot escape the feeling that the Ting Tings have made a terrible misstep.

The show started off well enough. The vibrant MNDR (aka Amanda Warner) warmed up the gathering crowd with some nu disco selections from her upcoming full-length album Feed Me Diamonds. The lead single “#1 in Heaven” offered a good dance tune to get the audience started up. Although the video for said track features a full band, MNDR on tour is a solo act with only a light-up synth box accompanying her vocals as she does a kind of dancing strut across the stage. Her debut title track “Feed Me Diamonds” was pleasantly more of the same with a bit of a space rock atheistic to it. The audience was a bit restless at first but MNDR’s charm and earnestness won them over as they accepted her music as consistently pretty danceable.

Continue reading →

The Features
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Best places to watch the Shuttle flyover

Discovery Soft Mated to SCA (KSC-2012-2247)

Tomorrow, on its way to live at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Discovery will do a flyby atop the NASA SCA, which is a modified 747. The flyover is between 10am and 11am, and NASA has released a map of good places to watch for Discovery as she’s flown into Dulles. I would imagine that many of the places on this map will be packed with spectators as the Shuttle comes, so I would also recommend Oronoco Park in Alexandria, or Columbia Island Marina, or from a “conveniently disabled car” on the Wilson or 14th Street Bridges.

Get out the long glass, photographers, we’re betting there are some once-in-a-lifetime shots out there.


View Sites for Viewing Space Shuttle Discovery in a larger map

Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 4/13 – 4/15

Photo courtesy of Mr. T in DC
RMS Titanic Memorial Wreath
courtesy of Mr. T in DC

The weekend is gone, but the feeling remains this morning. Memories of laughter, of friends, of time spent at leisure are all still close about our faces, but not yet floating away as they do by mid-week. Some solid baseball, a historic pause for remembrance, beautiful parades, and a walk through nature, these were all part of our weekends, and we’ve got the images to bring those memories close enough to touch once more.

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Sports Fix
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On Friday the 13th Luck be a Nady

Photo courtesy of muohace_dc

courtesy of muohace_dc

When Xavier Nady entered in the 8th inning of Friday night’s contest between the Nats and Reds it looked like the hard luck loser of the Nationals pitching staff, Jordan Zimmermann, was headed for another hard luck loss. The Nationals had scored nothing for Zimmermann as he pitched seven strong innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks with 3 strike outs. Nady would have none of it however as he rocketed a pitch over the wall of the Reds bullpen 377 feet away.

Nady’s entrance into the game was a lesson in managing 101 from Davey Johnson to Dusty Baker. With 1 out in the 8th inning Davey inserted Chad Tracy to face Bronson Arroyo. Wary of the lefty on righty match-up Dusty lifted Arroyo for former Nat Billy Bray who wouldn’t throw a pitch to Tracy as Davey immediately countered with Nady who made Dusty pay for not keeping up with the thought process of Johnson.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Long Day’s Journey into Night

Peter Michael Goetz as James Tyrone, Sr. and Helen Carey as Mary Tyrone in Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater’s production of Long Day’s Journey into Night. Photo by Scott Suchman.

It’s hard not to feel hopeless while watching Eugene O’Neill’s Long Days Journey into Night. The day after I saw Arena Stage‘s production of this three hour masterpiece on how to tear your family apart, the headlines were full of stories proving the play’s relevancy to our times. Sales of the two most popular prescription painkillers (oxycodone and hydrocodone, of the opioid category) have risen dramatically in new areas of the US. Concurrent with the increase in sales is the increase in overdose deaths and pharmacy robberies. It’s an addiction problem that begins not with recreational use, but with using the medication initially for pain.

Just like poor Mary Tyrone, hooked on dope for decades following a difficult birth in a sordid hotel.

Played by the radiantly distraught Helen Carey, this long-suffering mother seems the proper focus for the play’s maelstrom of guilt and self-deceit. The whole family is caught in a continuous cycle of devastating returns to the past and an inability to escape. It’s a harrowing seesaw of emotions for an audience to endure. Luckily, director Robin Phillips introduces just enough laughter intermixed with the morbidity to allow us to hope.

But, it’s apparent as a society we have a long way to go to shake the yoke of the “poison” Mary takes. To call it a matter of willpower is a tragic misunderstanding. The Tyrones certainly aren’t able to exert any willpower about anything, as they repeatedly rip up each other in the present in an effort to win in the past.

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The Features
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Mock the “Dear Leader” with Song Byeok

Song Byeok - Take Off Your Clothes - acrylic on hanji; courtesy of www.songbyeok.com

When Korean contemporary artist Song Byeok exhibits his work, he uses a pseudonym. That’s because he’s actually North Korean: his satirical paintings of the “Dear Leader” could result in execution or lifelong sentences in a gulag for the relatives he’s left behind.

This weekend, “The Departure” – an exhibit of his work at The Dunes – brings that dangerous satire to DC.

North Korea selected Song to be a state propaganda artist when he was only 24. According to an interview with Reuters, Song practically worshiped Kim Jong-il at the time, although he never met the dictator during his duties. Instead, he was handed a sketch every morning of daily propaganda to paint.

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Food and Drink, Homebrewing, The Features
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Homebrew DC: Bacon Beer, a Stout Lover’s Breakfast

Photo courtesy of Samer Farha
Black Thai
courtesy of Samer Farha

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.

Not so long ago, @brew_thusiast tweeted his disappointment with a particular homebrew bacon beer, saying that it was a decent enough brown ale but lacked the bacon flavor that would make it the draw it should have been. This got me thinking about bacon beer. Is it really good or too good to be true? The promise is great – a smoky, meaty, maybe salty brew that could be a good accompaniment for your eggs, rashers, and black pudding, or whatever you like to have for breakfast. You do like black pudding, don’t you?

It would have to be a stout or porter, is my guess. Bacon is a heavy meat, and most pairing guides suggest putting rich drinks with rich foods. A heavy beer would be best, for sure. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals win 3-2 on a wild pitch

Nationals Park Scoreboard

The Nationals won in extra innings today, notching a 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in ten innings. Craig Stammen picked up his first win of the season, and Alfredo Simon for the Reds picked up the loss on a wild pitch that scored Ryan Zimmerman with two outs in the bottom of the 10th. 

The home opener is a beautiful thing. You know you’re going to get a primed crowd, you hope you’re going to get good weather, and just about everyone is happy to be there and full of hopes for the team. The Nationals had all of that going for them when stepped on the field amid the screams of F-18s overhead and a brass band playing in the infield. The last strains of the National Anthem shredded by so much jet noise, the Nationals took the field with high hopes off a 4-2 road trip and sitting atop the NL East early in the season.  On the mound for them, Gio Gonzalez, whose last outing had at least one member of the press corps wondering if he might not be the biggest question mar of the season.

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends: April 13 – 15

Photo courtesy of ajemm
It’s Almost Opening Day
courtesy of ajemm

Huzzard: Like the song goes it has been a long, cold, lonely winter, and while the sun might not be out in full force and heat today the boys of Summer will take the field at Nats Park. As for my weekend it all starts…RIGHT NOW!!! This afternoon I am headed down to Nats Park to enjoy the glories and traditions of Opening Day. But that is only the start. Tomorrow I get to head out on my first baseball assignment of the year for this very site to cover some of the new food offerings at the park and the Friday the 13th game of Jordan Zimmermann vs. Bronson Arroyo. Then Saturday I once again head out to the park back in fanmode to collect a Stephen Strasburg bobble head and enjoy the third game in the four game series between the Nats and Reds. As far as Sunday goes, this might be the week to use it as intended, a day of rest, or to head down to the farm and see what the P-Nats are up to.

Photo courtesy of pablo.raw
On the bridge III
courtesy of pablo.raw

Tom: This weekend we’re off to the second city to visit with some internet friends, but with weather like we’re expecting here, color me jealous of those of you who stay behind. I’d be riding the Beach Drive trail for its incredible scenic value in the Spring, or reliving 2002 with All-American Rejects at the 9:30 Club. Saturday also is Growler Hours day in Ward 5, as it is each week, and I’m sorta geeked out by the idea of Chocolate City’s First Coast Bohemian Pils. Sadly, that’ll have to wait a week.

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The Features
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Yuri’s Night is tonight!

Photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Science on a Sphere / Yuri’s Night at Goddard
courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

51 years ago tonight, not entirely knowing that he’d survive, Yuri Gagarin was strapped to the top of a rocket and went up in a capsule and orbited the Earth, the first man to do it. It was a pretty ballsy thing to do, both for the Russians, and for Gagarin. It changed the course of the space race, and as much as Sputnik kickstarted the rocket industry, Gagarin kickstarted the race to the moon.

That means it’s time to party, and Yuri’s Night in DC means a bunch of great events to celebrate the crazy dream to head outside the atmosphere. There are events at Continental in Rosslyn, Science Club downtown, The Dunes in Columbia Heights, Blue Banana in Petworth and Lucky Bar in Dupont. Events include a Lego spaceship contest at Science Club, space-themed video walls, and DJs at a number of the events.

Saturday, you can celebrate with the big bash at Artisphere, which will have live music, an art exhibition, and space burlesque. Because, really, what kind of awesome space-themed party would it be without Pinkie Special (site may be NSFW) and the Atomic Mosquitos? Don’t miss the art exhibit, 2012: Elevator to the Moon, which has work by Dana Ellyn, Scott Brooks, Todd Gardner, Emily Green Liddle and others, and looks phenomenal.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and don’t forget your deely bobbers.

Sports Fix
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What to look forward to at Nats Park

Photo courtesy of flipperman75
Nationals Park Sunset
courtesy of flipperman75

For baseball fans, the park is the compass that we orient ourselves with; it sets the stage, its orthogonal lines and sloping curves like a map before the spectator serving as guidepost and direction. As baseball returns to Nationals Park, some things are the same, some have changed, and we’re here to get you ready for Opening Day and beyond.  While much remains the same on South Capitol Street, there’ve been some changes that you should be ready for.

Half Street

First up is Half Street, most fans’ entrance to the park, and the home of the Metro. This winter, the western side of Half Street was revamped entirely and is now home to the Half Street Fairgrounds, which is patterned after Brooklyn’s Dekalb Market. The space that was formerly the Bullpen and Das Bullpen will be augmented by the presence of food trucks, beer stands, and places to congregate and relax ahead of, and following, each game. The industrial feel matches the construction that has languished in the area thanks to the economy’s slow recovery, and the decor includes shipping containers.  One friend said of the new architecture, though, that she was taking her evening job in the other direction, and on off-days I don’t expect this place looks quite the same. We’ll have to see what the season brings. You should also consider a longterm stay RV park when traveling long distances.

Photo courtesy of afagen
Nationals Park
courtesy of afagen

New Ticket Options

The Nationals have a couple new ticket options for fans this season. Weekends are big at Nats Park, and there are two options for weekend games to pique your interest.  Thursday and Fridays, Burger Pack tickets get you into the Upper Outfield Gallery and Outfield Reserve sections, as well as vouchers for a burger, some fries and a soda for $20-29 depending on where you seat and who’s in town.

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are Miller Light Party Nights in center field, with Scoreboard Pavilion seats running $25-27, but coming with a pair of drink coupons good for a soda, a bottled water, or a beer at the Scoreboard Walk bar.  Neither offer is good for games against the Yankees, but other than that the rest of the season is fair game.

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