image courtesy of
The Shakespeare Theatre Company

Well here’s something I didn’t think I’d ever find myself saying. Peter Marks is far more generous in his remarks than I.

Not to say he isn’t right, and not that there aren’t a few things that I was more impressed by than him. But to lead with the negative, I’m flat-out astonished that the limit of his remarks on Avery Brooks’ performance amount to commenting on his excellent voice – “sonorous basso” and “honeyed tongue,” and “The role is huge, speech-packed and positively exhausting; that he gets through it at all is an achievement.” I’m reminded of the old quote, “It’s not amazing how well the bear dances, but that he dances at all.” The fact that Brooks gets through the role is about the extent of his achievement in Tamburlaine. Well, that and putting teeth marks on every piece of scenery in the place. I was starting to worry I’d be next to be chewed on – and I was up in the balcony.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

image courtesy of theamericanroadside

Either the world is more connected than I thought or I spend too much damned time on the web. (Why can’t it be both?) This might have slipped my notice if I hadn’t come across the blog of Kate Michaels, Ms DC 2006 earlier this week (she’s in Bobbitt’s production of The Secret Garden at Adventure Thearter, which I wrote about the other day) and noticed the banner for the National Marathon in this post. “The Wirefly National Marathon” boasts the website.

Unfortunately it seems that InPhonic, Wirefly’s parent company, is flagging well before the 26th mile marker. They’re seeking chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as they try to sell off their assets after a fairly unpleasant downward spiral over the last few years. Companies come and go and, quite frankly, under normal circumstances the demise of any organization in the cellphone business is more likely to make me cackle than cringe. I hate cellphone companies.

However InPhonic is a local and an employer of over 1,000 people. So aside from wondering how much the bankruptcy judge will let them off the hook for their sponsorship of the 2008 marathon, I wonder how many people are going to be looking for work here in town when the post-sale gutting is complete?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve just read the news that the lovely Noi Chudnoff, owner of one of my absolute favorite neighborhood stores, passed away on Tuesday.

Her cheerfully incandescent presence at Go Mama Go, her exquisite taste in art and artifacts, and her unwavering community spirit, will be very much missed. Over the years since she opened the shop, I’ve often browsed through its wonderland of goods to lift my mood. Many times she helped me out of a jam with gift suggestions, always bright.

I’m so sad I don’t know what else to say.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you’re looking for something to do this Saturday night, look no further. If you already have plans, cancel them. Trentalange, the Seattle-based singer, artist, and multi-instrumentalist is coming to town and will be performing at The Red and The Black. Formerly a member of the bands Crooked Fingers and Spyglass, her music can be described as “bridging the gap between Portishead’s Dummy in 1995 and a post-meltdown sound of the future”. I wouldn’t lie to you – she’s amazing.

To promote her latest album Photo Album of Complex Relationships, Trentalange kicked off her US fall tour in October with a collective show and auction to highlight paintings from artists across the country in an effort to raise money and awareness for local Seattle non-profit, Powerful Voices. The video backdrop of the tour will showcase twelve fine artists across the country. Each artist will interpret one song visually, to a total of twelve songs. All artwork involved in the visual backdrop of the show will be put up for auction at the end of the tour and half of the proceeds of each painting will be donated to Powerful Voices.

If you love the DC concert scene as much as I do, this is a show you won’t want to miss. Here are the details:

Trentalange
Saturday, November 10th, 8:00PM
The Red and The Black
1212 H Street NE, Washington, DC 20002
$8 cover

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

image courtesy of Mayzsoul

If children’s theater and crafts aren’t your thing, how about some dance? Watching, not doing – Darpino’s got you covered on the BYOB (bring your own booty) on Friday night.

Saturday and Sunday at the Jack Guidone theater in Friendship Heights there’s an event that purports to put on a show with “ballet, modern, jazz and hip-hop dance.” There’s apparently a connecting thread in the form of an actor-narrator, played by Michael Wiener, who will be a part of all eleven vignettes. Sounds interesting, and seems to have some talented people attached.

Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 7pm
The Joy of Motion Dance Center
5207 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington DC 20015

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’m now receiving unsolicited emails from The DC Republican Committee, each message arriving twice because two of my email addresses (which both forward to the same location) appear to have been subscribed. Here’s their newest “action alert” which just plopped into my inbox:

DC Needs More then (sic) Hearings

Washington, DC: The DC Republican Committee made the following statement in response to the City’s workers accused of corruption:

“When you have two city employees from the District’s Office of Tax and Revenue who alledgedly were so brazen in their corruption scheme as to have bought a 2005 Benty and spent over $1.4 million dollars from Neiman Marcus, the bottom line is the citizens of DC have to police their public officials,” stated DC Republican Chair Robert Kabel.

“Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, chairman of the finance and revenue committee, said he and Council Chairman Vincent Gray will hold oversight hearings. This is a start but not a solution. Reform must take place and the first step is to set up an independent office with subpoena power to root out waste, fraud, frills and abuse within DC Government,” concluded Kabel.

I have no comment on their suggestions for DC government — I’ll leave that to more savvy political commentators — but I do vehemently disagree with the text that follows at the bottom of the email:

You have received this message because you have subscribed to a mailing list of District of Columbia Republican Committee. If you do not wish to receive periodic emails from this source, please click below to unsubscribe.

No, I have not subscribed to any mailing list of DCGOP, and no way am I clicking on an “unsubscribe” link. Into the “Report Spam” bin this message goes.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

The 2008 elections are a year away, right? In November 2008. Then why is this Kwame Brown 2008 election sign up already?

The DC Council elections are not Presidental level contested. There are not a dozen contenders per slot who need to get name recognition by January.

In fact, Kwame will probably not even have competition. So my kind and gentle neighbor, thanks for the thought and activism, but chill the f**k out.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Trabant

Originally uploaded by James UK.

The Trabant (or Trabi) is a cold war relic of East German automotive engineering. Famously unreliable, incapable and notorious for being a death trap, the Trabant was not a good car. It does, however, have a total cult following. Tomorrow morning at 10am, 18 of them will be in front of the Spy Museum at 9th and F Streets in Northwest. Easily walkable from the Gallery Place Metro, this is a site you should not miss.

Besides, how often can you see a car that had more problems than the Pinto?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Are you a MARC commuter using the Brunswick Line? Get set for what might be some serious delays tonight: MARC Train 871 hit a tractor carrying a bulldozer in Gaithersburg at 2:30 PM, blocking both tracks. Of thirty-five passengers, one was treated on the scene and another brought to a hospital with neck pain, while the two train engineers were treated on-site.

The 884 and 881 have been canceled, 879 is holding till 6PM and will make all local stops, and Frederick riders are being advised to take the 991 Commuter Bus from Shady Grove Metro. As of 4:22 PM MTA said earliest estimate for open track was 5 PM, but the page hasn’t been updated yet.

More reports:

• MTA MARC service updates
• WJLA
• NBC4
• WTOP

Any on-the-spot updates from MARC Brunswick riders?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Jonny Goldstein, by Carl Weaver

Tonight, DC media guru Jonny Goldstein interviews Lux Nightmare of boinkology.com and DC’s own Gerry T. of gerryt.com about their video blogs which delve into the complexities of sex in the digital age.

Join us to find out the ins and outs (so to speak) of making media about sex and sexuality with these two provocative yet grounded media makers.

As always, you direct the conversation via live text chat.

When: 9PM Eastern
Where: jonnygoldstein.com

If you have a free account from Operator 11 you may be able to get in on the video discussion as well.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve never been big on Halloween Costume Parties at the Office. It smacks of forced camaraderie and some sort of faux-pride-in-the-workplace that was more of my grandfather’s generation and not of the modern era. Of course, the guys at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement took the party to a new level:

The employee wore a striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and darkened skin make-up to the party hosted by Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Myers was on a three-judge panel that originally praised the prisoner costume for “originality.”

C’mon dude. Say it with me. Blackface isn’t ever acceptable. Not even mock-blackface. Just a bad idea, kids. Bad idea.

Course he got suspended from work, so I suppose that’s not awful.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Today’s WaPo has an article mentioning Michael Bobbitt’s helming the Adventure Theater in Glen Echo Park as artistic director. The theater’s been newly renovated and is kicking off this Saturday. It’s a pretty fair value at $12 a seat, I think, but you can come enjoy some of the festivities for free, including crafts for the kids, a storyteller at 12:30 and 3p, and tours and a chance to watch some of the rehersal for their upcoming “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” show. If you’re willing to part with some coin the The Secret Garden is at 1:30p

As Micheal is quoted in the Post story, “Where else can you go and see a play and then ride a carousel?” Capitol Weather predicts clear skies and temps in the 50s – not great carousel weather but hey, it’s November.

I’m looking forward to seeing what they do and hope they’re roaringly successful. I’ve met Micheal a few times, most recently at Fringe when attending the show he directed, Queen of the Bohemian Dream. I’m hesitant to mention this, given that it’s one of the couple of shows I never got around to writing up, despite being one of the ones my darling girlfriend and I enjoyed the most.

Of course the real reason I’m ashamed is that I failed to do the writeup after he was so gracious to us personally. We came in having hustled over from another show and found ourselves taking a couple of the last few seats. They were at the top corner of the bleachers…. right under a positively roaring air conditioning vent. When he was walking by I recognized him and waved at him to ask him if I had time to dash out to the car for a coat for my shivering darling girlfriend. He said no, they were about to start… and doffed his own jacket and handed it over. A nice thing to do for anyone, but particularly thoughtful for someone he’d only ever been introduced to in passing. That same generosity comes across on the blog where he writes about some of the goings-ons at Adventure and solicits feedback and suggestions for future shows. Give it a look.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So, yesterday was election day in a few states, and Virginia was one of them. The entirety of the House of Delegates and State Senate was on the block. The Democrats captured the State Senate, while the Republicans maintained control of the House of Delegates. What my cohort Don pointed out to me was disturbing: 77 of the 140 seats were not contested. Meaning, they ran unopposed. Meaning, they raised a bunch of money ($95k+ in some cases…) to win an election they were going to win anyway.

When you look at what it takes to run for state office here, coffers of $200k+ (more in many cases), a tolerance of a media that’s bent on crucifying that which is nuanced or complex instead of merely black & white, not to mention a two-party system that’s predicated on revenge and scoring points with the tip of the sword. I guess it’s really not all that surprising that half the seats weren’t contested. Is it?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

image courtesy of kiss kiss bang bang

Well, okay, it won’t be that cold but Capitol Weather reports we’re going to dip to or below freezing tonight. So if you’re like me and have been putting off turning off outside faucets and things, today’s the day to get on the stick.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So remember that All Hands on Deck weekend that was supposed to help deter crime around the DC area?

Yeah. Not so much.

From the Washington Post:

Most available officers were working the streets Friday to Sunday, making 481 arrests, many for minor offenses. Yet the city recorded two homicides, three sexual abuse cases, 31 robberies and 26 assaults over the three days — a total of 62 violent crimes, compared with 34 for the same three-day stretch last year.

…

Of the 481 arrests, made between 12:01 a.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Sunday — the time period for the “All Hands on Deck” effort — 119 arrests involved drug offenses, 101 were for traffic violations, 58 for disorderly conduct and 43 for prostitution. There was one arrest after a homicide, four in connection with robberies or carjackings, and 15 involving assaults.

Glad to see DC’s Finest out there protecting us from traffic violators. Makes the streets much safer to try to get away from all the murderers, rapists, and armed muggers.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I can’t really afford to go out for lunch here in Bethesda because I don’t make nearly as much money as almost anyone else in town. Instead, I eat at my desk while working and reserve my actual lunch break for doing errands. Yesterday was no different. My first stop was to Michael’s Barber Shop on St. Elmo Ave., where I got my mop chopped to an appropriate length. The barbers there are very nice folks, always happy to chat or allow customers to be quiet, taking their cues appropriately and thus guaranteeing a good tip. Haircut: $14, including a $2 tip.

Next I got a cup of coffee at the convenience store at the corner of Norfolk and Woodmont. You know the place, where the construction workers from nearby building projects spend their lunch hours betting on horses and playing the numbers. The cute Philippine lady at the counter always gives me a nice smile and wishes me a nice day. So much better than Starbucks next door, where all you are likely to get is fed through the cattle chute and spit out a door to again mix with society. 20 ounce coffee: $1.40.

My last stop on the lunch break express was to the CVS to pick up some unlubricated rubbers. Not for any sort of traditional use, mind you, but to use as airlocks for the hard cider I am making. I don’t have a fancy recipe like Derek Terrell probably does but will share it with you anyway. You take a jug of apple cider from the store (no preservatives, mind you – just straight juice), sprinkle in a teaspoon of bread yeast and attach a jimmy hat to keep bacteria-laden air from coming in. After the woody wrap is unrolled and affixed, simply wait until it stops inflating. Then you have some good, old-fashioned hard cider. Rubbers: $4.19

Total cost of my lunch break: $19.59

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Local illustrator Steve Conley has started a project that will run to the next election day. It’s called Socks and Barney and features the adventures of the Clintons’ cat Socks and George W. Bush’s dog Barney, and in the inaugural edition, Rudy Giuliani’s pet rat. So much of politics these days is vitriol, sarcasm and rancor, and it’s nice to see a bit of a change in pace in a local comic strip. The strip will run from today until next election day. Put it on your list and give it a read!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

image courtesy of duesentrieb

Normally this is where I’d encourage you to go make your voice heard and head to the polls, but jeez, why bother? In the Arlington area where I live, at least, the ballot is almost 50% uncontested seats. The only sections up for grabs are Sheriff and County Board, two slots I don’t have any strong opinion about. I’m not sure I’m even comfortable with the fact that Sheriff is an elected position – enforcing the law should be non-denominational, in my opinion.

If you’re in my area and strongly partisan, I’d advise you to print out the ballot from the above link. The evil electronic vote-eating machine we Arlingtonites use doesn’t identify party affiliation for County Board or Clerk.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Comic from the excellent Married to the Sea

My first thought was a big sandwich board signs erected on the mall but it occurs to me this might be a good use for those lighted signs over 66. Not like they ever put useful traffic information on the goddamned things.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The only person on the planet who can possibly kick more ass than Jack Bauer is Chuck Norris, but unlike Chuck, Jack is smart enough to never venture into Texas. He prefers to use brains over brawn but isn’t afraid to bust out his glock if one of his hot girlfriends is being kidnapped by terrorists, if his dumb, hot daughter has gotten herself into trouble, or if POTUS asks for him by name in desperate time of need. Jack Bauer is perhaps the most dedicated US citizen to ever serve this great country, and it’s been rumored that he is walking amongst us.

In an effort to add some legitimacy to the show, the producers of “24” have decided to actually film some scenes in DC. After all, the show is centered around the President (who for some reason seems to spend a lot of time in L.A.), so it makes sense to start integrating some DC scenes into the show. I only hope that they don’t try to pull some TV trickery by having Jack run into the Georgetown Metro stop and somehow pop up inside of the White House. DC is watching you, “24”. Let’s try to make this season better than the last or you may be losing your viewership to “Heroes”.

Photo by kmf164.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs