Inside D.C. entertainment

Archive for December 2011

TBD ArtsBook: Getting D.C. right, by way of Charlotte

December 14, 2011 - 10:08 AM
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charlotte nc
Charlotte: Could definitely pass for Rosslyn. (Photo: Associated Press)

• "Getting D.C. Right," Ellen McCarthy's story about Showtime's President of Entertainment, David Nevins, has a headline and dek that suggest Nevins' love of his hometown blasts through on every project.

>>"In all my shows, I'm not interested in the iconic shots of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial," Nevins tells McCarthy. "I'm always interested in trying to get the culture of the place -- trying to get it right."

>>McCarthy meets Nevins, decides he's for real. "[H]e prefers the Metro to rental cars when he's in town and joked easily with a fellow diner who interjected repeatedly throughout a 90-minute conversation," McCarthy writes. "'This is classic Tastee Diner,' he said."

>>SO I GUESS THE QUESTION HERE THEN is why this story gives such short shrift to the fact that "Homeland," a series Nevins championed and brought to the network, is shot in Charlotte, N.C. McCarthy mentions this fact in the very last paragraph of the piece, a grouping of words that again gives Nevins a chance to show off how committed he is to portraying D.C. well: "It shouldn't be a nameless neighborhood," Nevins told his writers when they were setting a scene. "It's called Adams Morgan." That commitment to accuracy might be a surprise to the people who get on the Metro at "Farragut Station." 

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D.C.'s best job: Buying books for Smithsonian gift shops

December 14, 2011 - 06:00 AM
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National Air and Space Museum. Photo: Chris Devers/flickr.

Does Joan Mayfield have the best job in D.C.? If you’re a nerd or have never figured out how to make a living with your degree in sculpture, you might think so. We interviewed the Smithsonian Institute's book curator about her too-good-to-be-true job.

Title: Senior book buyer for the Smithsonian Institute.

Duties: Choosing all the books and media for 19 Smithsonian museum gift shops.

Tenure at job: “I’ve been doing some version of this job for some 20 years.”

Colleagues: An assistant and “someone who does the financial end of things.”

How she got the job: “I have the wonderful and somewhat useless master’s degree in sculpture,” explains Mayfield. “As a way of making money after art school, I went to work at a bookstore. After the bookstore I went to work for the Smithsonian. I knew a lot about art and I knew a lot about books and publications. It stands me in good stead here.”

How she picks books: “There’s two things that have to happen. It has to relate to the collection. It can’t just be extraneous,” she says. “Two, we can look at it and go, ok, is it going to sell? Really, at the end of the day what we do is raise money for the institution.”

Other factors include the book’s description, price, number of pages, and author. And of course the cover: “I am making an entire career out of judging a book by its cover.”

Where she finds them: In catalogues during the two book-buying seasons (fall and spring), through university presses, and in other museum shops and bookstores she’s sniffed out. “I’m always on the lookout,” says Mayfield. “I go to a lot of bookstores. I hang out in them, I look at them. I look to see if someone’s got something I’ve never seen. I go to museums a lot.”

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The ABCs of breakfast with Cesar Millan

December 12, 2011 - 06:00 AM
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Describing breakfast with Cesar Millan defies traditional storytelling forms. The man best known for his role on National Geographic Channel's Dog Whisperer was in town last week to promote the next season of his show, but during a 90-minute meal at the Jefferson Hotel, Millan expended no more than seven minutes discussing TV. He spent the rest of the time sipping grapefruit juice and talking about breed popularity, men who don’t act like men, Oprah, discipline, dogs that live on military bases, dogs with irrational fears, excitable fans, and people who kiss their dogs. And he talked fast.

No sophisticated structure or narrative can be spun from this charming, peppy barrage, so this reporter reverts back to basics. Here are the ABCs of breakfast with Cesar Millan.

A
“Aggression”: The one-word answer Millan gives when asked to describe Oprah’s dog, Sophie, who bit other dogs for eleven years.

B
Beverly Hills dogs: “Most of them are not balanced. Most of them are on Prozac.”

C
Cats: “I don’t understand cats.”

D
Dressing like cats: “People dress like cats, but they want to behave like a dog. A lot of people like the prints, for scarves and purses. But they want to be like a dog. Sociable.”

E
Ex-favorite breeds: “Like pit bulls. Everything America falls in love [with], it eventually becomes afraid of.”

F
Fans: “They bring the iPhone and say, can you talk to my dog? It’s funny. I’m not a psychic. They want me to talk to their dog on the phone.”

G
Germany: Home of the world’s best-behaved dogs. “Structure to the max. It’s mandatory that you spay, neuter your dog. They don’t spend money euthanizing dogs. … you have to take classes before you can buy a dog. It’s like the DMV.”

H
Hayek, Selma: A favorite client. “She’s got a pack of dogs. Like 12 at once.”

I
Imitations: “I do a good cat. A bird, too. Especially a cockatoo.”

J
Japan: “Japan is actually the master of [using dogs as] accessories.”

K
Kissing: “I don’t kiss dogs. Because they lick butts. I would say millions, not hundreds but millions, of people kiss dogs on the mouth.”

L
Ladies: “Eighty percent of my clients are women. Charlize Theron, she just got a pit bull.”

M
Masculinity: When working with couples and their dog, Millan addresses the manliness of the man. “I help the guy bring his masculine side out of him. It was two girls living in the house.”

N
Number two: The rank of Millan’s magazine, Cesar’s Way, in the world of dog magazines. Number one: Dog Fancy.

O
Oprah: The most surprising celebrity phone call he’s ever gotten.

P
Presidential dogs: “For a long time, the White House has not had powerful breeds. I’d like to see a pack of dogs out of the White House.”

Q
Quarterback Tom Brady: A client.

R
Regional differences: “People say, my dog is afraid of a broom. My dog is afraid of thunderstorms. I never saw this in Mexico. … A farm dog is a very polite. A city dog is not.”

S
Smoking: “If dogs could smoke, there would be a lot of dogs smoking in America. They have nothing to do.”

T
Titles: “They really think ‘the whisperer’ [means] I’m going to whisper. I never whisper. It’s just a title.”

U
Ungulates: The family of two-hooved animals, which includes pigs. “If you condition them well, they can stay on your sofa. The pig is pack-oriented. You can find truffles with a pig. He can make you a lot of money.”

V
Very political dog shows: “Unfortunately, it’s very political.”

W
Wisdom: Great quality of his now deceased pit bull Daddy. “Daddy had a lot of wisdom. He has his own foundation. $150,000 was collected in Daddy’s name.”

X
Lists of these sorts never have real entries for X, so forget it.

Y
Young mind: All a dog, even the worst of dogs, needs to be trained. “As long as the mind is young, it’s not too late.”

Z
See entry for X.

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The exhibition 'The Blues and Other Colors' evokes jazz

December 9, 2011 - 01:03 PM
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The Dream Chamber: In Conversation (Jarvis Grant)

Tim Davis grew up in Chicago in the '60s and '70s, when the blues permeated local clubs and bars. "For me, as an artist, when I looked at my work I had no absence of blues," he says. "If you started to look at what's around us, it's blues everywhere...we don't think about how important that color is."

The photographer and gallery director is the curator of "The Blues and Other Colors," a show that shares its name with an album, recorded in 1968 and 1969, by the late jazz saxophonist James Moody.

The DC Arts Center's current exhibition features the works of nine artists' interpretation of the "blues." Davis left the parameters open-ended. "You see it, the ocean, the blue sky, it's like a natural thing that kind of just radiates within us, and I think that's why artists are drawn to use blues within their palettes. I wanted everybody to kind of recognize that," he says. "But it can also mean negative — that you're hurting, sadness, you got the blues,...the music genre."

Whether in realism, in abstraction or in digital, all 12 works in the show share a relationship.

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e-Geaux might be too smart for its own good

December 9, 2011 - 11:00 AM
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Joe Price and Amy Couchoud have a hard time explaining what it is that they do.

“We have a fake start-up called Pepys, Inc,” says Price.

“It’s named after Samuel Pepys, the diarist,” says Couchoud.

“It’s satire on technology and 21st century relationships,” says Price.

“The idea of how we record our lives online and also the idea of how our online relationships are as valid as offline relationships,” says Couchoud.

“Kind of a mash-up between theater, improv, and performance art,” says Price.

“The idea of calling ourselves an arts collective and web start-up, that’s the best we’ve come up with on that,” says Couchoud.

“We’ve struggled to describe the show in the past,” says Price.

“But that still doesn’t describe what the show’s about,” says Couchoud.

“The more we talk about the show, the more we do need to explain if after that,” says Price.

Indeed. e-Geaux, the show put on by Price and Couchoud’s fake tech start-up and arts collective Pepys, Inc., can be a little difficult to wrap your mind around. It’s a fake conference where fake apps are rolled out for an audience, whose real Facebook data is used throughout the show to comical effect. (Audience members are asked to opt in to a program on their smart phones that accesses their status updates, photos, and other Facebook information.)

Some guests arriving at the Artisphere’s performance of e-Geaux Thursday night already had a sense of what the show was about, having read reviews of its well-received run at Capital Fringe last summer.

Malisa says she read about the show and “I sort of think I do” understand what will happen. “But probably not,” she adds.

Part of what throws the audience is that the fake apps put out by Pepys are, well, kind of desirable. One of them, e-Breaux, promises to take care of your Facebook responsibilities: posting “happy birthday” on friends’ walls, commenting on friends’ photos, etc. A friend who accompanied me to the show leaned over and whispered, “That would be really helpful. Like a secretary.”

Price explains that the parody is sometimes “a little too good.”

While rolling out a fake app at the DC Week closing party that offered to tell you whom you should talk to at parties (it also offered conversation starters based on your mutual interests), Couchoud and Price were approached by investors who thought it was real. Plenty of partygoers also fell for it. (“You’d be surprised how many people want to use our apps,” Couchoud says.)

“The funny thing about it is that app actually was useful,” Price says. “It was not random. I wrote an algorithm that computed those relationships.

It’s not the first time that Pepys has been too convincing. Price says some people were upset at Capital Fringe that the festival was allowing a tech company to have a platform. “They didn’t understand that it was a theatrical experience,” he says. Also, that the company was fake, apparently.

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Weekend planner: Capital Irish Film Festival, Soapbox, Kathryn Calder

December 8, 2011 - 02:30 PM
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Buddy the Elf

A weekend of clear skies and chilly temps. It's finally feeling a bit like the holidays. Whether you fancy depressingly enthralling Irish films, a booze-fest holiday soirée or the nostalgia of A Charlie Brown Christmas, here are our weekend picks.

THURSDAY

• Ever wonder how the set design and wardrobe of Hollywood's greatest films come to life? Journalist and interior designer Cathy Whitlock, author of Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction, discusses the role production designers have played on films since the 1940s at Corcoran Gallery of Art. Followed by a book signing. 7 p.m. $12. $7.50 students.

• The 3rd Annual Turducken Feast! at Red Palace. A night of turducken and burlesque featuring the Blood Ballet Cabaret. 6:30 p.m. $15 advance. $20 door.

Bittersweet Zine Release Party + Pop-up Shop at The Dunes. A vintage-hipster affair celebrating the zine's next issue focused on economic empowerment with a holiday pop-up shop featuring local goods, plus free copies of the winter zine. 8 p.m.

As If I Am Not There film screening and Q&A with Juanita Wilson, director of this year's Irish Film and Television Awards 'Best Film' winner at Goethe-Institut. Wilson's debut feature film, based on Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulic's experiences at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague, tells the story of a young teacher from Sarajevo who travels to a remote village to teach at the beginning of the Bosnian War. Serbian soldiers raid the village, killing the men and taking the women captive. The film is an enthralling and moving examination into the lives of those who survived the war. Presented by the Capital Irish Film Festival. 8 p.m.

Theatre + Improv + Your Facebook Data = e-Geaux (beta) at Artisphere. What does your online social footprint say about you? 7 p.m. & 9 p.m. $15.

• Indie-rock singer and member of The New Pornographers, Kathryn Calder embarks on a tour of her new album, Bright and Vivid, at Iota. With Himalayan Bear. 8:30 p.m. $12.

Kathryn Calder - Who Are You? by nicklisboa

 

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Music this weekend: A foreign invasion!

December 8, 2011 - 01:30 PM
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It's not often that we're told to "buy foreign!", but there are a number of top-notch non-American bands coming through town this week. Take a little mini-vacation from all that holiday shopping with a trip to hear music from France, Japan, Mexico, or Norway at one of these area shows.

Les Nubians

Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Black Cat, $20 advance / $25 day of show

Sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart were born in France, moved to Chad as children, and then moved back to France, where they founded their R&B group Les Nubians. Since their 1998 debut album Princesses Nubiennes, they've collaborated with the Black Eyed Peas ("Completely Beloved" on the Love and Basketball soundtrack) and Talib Kweli ("Love Language"), performed "With Or Without You" on the Africa Celebrates U2 tribute album, and paid tribute to Fela Kuti. Their latest album, Nü Revolution, showcases their take on African soul with French and English vocals.

Les Nubians - Afrodance from Nice Dissolve on Vimeo.

 

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TBD ArtsBook: How to date a rock critic

December 8, 2011 - 10:03 AM
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jon fischer
Where were the tips from Jonathan Fischer? (Photo: Facebook)

Yesterday Project 29 published some dating advice from area writers; one of them was Post pop critic Chris Richards. Richards said he took to heart Raphael Saadiq's Lucy Pearl-era advice to "Make sure that I smell good" before setting out on conquests, and you know, OK, maybe that wasn't the best direction to go in, but anyone who knows this guy knows he is VERY straightforward and good on him, ArtsBook says. That didn't stop the Internet: City Paper immediately interviewed several other area critics for their dating advice, framing the questions in rock critic-ese: "How would you describe the perfect date: 1) seminal; 2) angular; 3) jangly; 4) plangent; or 5) iconic?" (Matt Siblo: "Proto-seminal." Benjamin R. Freed: "None of those. My perfect date would be trenchant.")

>>RELATED: Dating adviser Ryan Little is starting a little record label with a friend, and while his editor feels a little weird about plugging it, he feels one of the projects, a 7-inch by Travis Morrison Hellfighters, is too exciting to ignore.

>>ALSO RELATED: DCist commenters put a surprising amount of energy into making fun of Freed.

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Project Dispatch: 'Part and Parcel' opens at The Fridge

December 8, 2011 - 07:30 AM
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Project Dispatch: Part and Parcel

It's after 6 p.m. on a Saturday night at Sticky Fingers bakery in Columbia Heights, and Keli Anaya, a local artist, is telling me about his piece in Project Dispatch's Part and Parcel exhibit, which opens Saturday. So many pieces of art never make it to a gallery, he says. From rough drafts to works that are never sold — these are the pieces that are never seen.

Part and Parcel engages patrons in an exhibit that pairs an artists' substantial work next to their smaller wrapped counterpart. The "part" is the artist's larger work, made possible by subscribers of their smaller works, the "parcel."

The smaller packages, which gallerygoers will have to buy wrapped and unseen, are a way "for artists to create new small works and send out works they've had in their possession," he says. A street and installation artist, Anaya uses art as social commentary. His piece, which features the gay rainbow, is a comment on gay consumerism, he says.

"How gay men, specifically, spend a lot of time and money and effort consuming things to pursue sex," he says. "I've even found myself falling into that."

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The Fancy Feast: Glittarazzi shut out of the Post's D.C. Tweeps contest?!

December 8, 2011 - 06:00 AM
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The Washington Post has announced its slate for the 2011 Top Tweeps, a contest for local Twitter users, and the Fancy Feast has found a glaring omission. The nominees in most of the categories look pretty solid, but somehow “Favorite social butterfly” does not include the ladies of Glittarazzi.

No offense to the ladies and gentleman nominated, but seriously, how Kelly Ann Collins, Glittarazzi matriarch and tweeter to the stars, has not made this list is beyond me. In 24 hours, Collins tweeted at Justin Bieber, Alec Baldwin, Newt Gingrich, Snoop Dog, Vanilla Ice, the Redskins, and Occupy DC. What flurry of socially butterfly-like social media activity could top that day?

Collins took the news in stride, writing by email that she can’t be the social butterfly she once was. “It’s humanly impossible to be out every night when you are working hard,” she says. Fine. But she can still snag one of the Post’s wildcard spots in the competition through reader nominations.

Also: No Peter Corbett?

FANCY NOTES

D.C.’s latest young professional society, the Silk Road Society, hosted a night of Asian fashion and food at the Sackler Gallery. The Dress to Empress soiree featured the fall collection of designer Yeohlee Teng. The fashion “certainly made an impact on everyone in the audience.” (Ask Miss A)

Mixing woods among your dining table chairs can be challenging, but the key is contrast. (Apartment Therapy DC)

Belle has bought fake Uggs, but promises to only wear them around the house—“because the second those shearling boots cross the threshold of my front door, the Devil wins.” (Capitol Hill Style)

D.C. lawyer Bob Barnett has signed on to help Amanda Knox naviage the bidding war for an upcoming book. Previous clients include Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton. (Reliable Source)

Kelly Collis says holiday sweaters are making a fashion comeback. (94.7 Fresh) Tommy McFly is not pleased. (Twitter)

Vintage shop Meeps stays open under new ownership. (TBD)

Andrea Pippins, the woman behind blog Fly who's credited with coining the term “bohemianista,” is hosting a holiday party at Anthropologie on F Street tonight. (Refinery 29)

Not once, not twice, but thrice Pamela's Punch opens a story with notice that the holidays are upon us. We demand fancier ledes, Pamela! (Pamela's Punch)

DC Socialite’s Kimberly was able to enjoy Tarsier’s Masquerade Ball at the Dunes in Columbia Heights despite being “so not the demographic that this party was trying to reach.” Luckily, the hipsters and non-hipsters were united by a “deep love of food and fun.” (DC Socialite)

Newt Gingrich apparently kept to himself at the Kennedy Center Honors after-party. (Reliable Source) In other Newt news, he says if his wife Callista were to become First Lady, she’d be “a cross between Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush with just a slight bit of Jackie Kennedy tossed in.” Not even a hint of Mamie Eisenhower? (Yeas and Nays)

FANCY ROYAL NEWS
Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was in town last week to lay a wreath on the plaza outside the U.S. Navy Memorial. (Yeas and Nays)

FANCY DATING ADVICE

Hearing from an ex after many years of no communication can conjure Harry Potter metaphors, “like being transported by Portkey, only instead of the Quidditch Cup, the destination is the past.” (Capitol Hill Style)

Talking politics on a first date is far too acceptable; the Post’s Chris Richards just wants to go on an autumnal walk and see how you interact with the world around you; and MORE. (Refinery 29)

Jon Fischer has EVEN more on dating an eligible record critic. (Arts Desk)

If you’re unsure about exchanging gifts with a new beau, have a talk to make sure you are on the same page. You also might want to consider buying a new bra. (50 First (J)Dates)

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TBD ArtsBook: "Follies" takes its broke butt to L.A.

December 7, 2011 - 10:00 AM
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• "Follies" fever: Now the West Coast has caught it! The KenCen-produced revival closes on Broadway next month but is packing a grip and splitting for La-La-Land, reports Peter Marks. Interesting note in the article: On Broadway, the show's been losing money, which Michael Kaiser tells Marks is OK: "We will get not all of our money back, but a big chunk of our money back, and that’s a big surprise for us.” Good thing it cost so much to get into the Kennedy Center Honors, then!

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Beloved vintage shop Meeps changes hands

December 7, 2011 - 06:00 AM
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Meeps Vintage Fashionette debuted under new ownership at a packed party Tuesday night. After 10 years at the helm of the Adams Morgan shop, Danni Sharkey and Leann Trowbridge pass the Meeps reigns to Cathy Chung and Katerina Herodotou, owners of Treasury Vintage on 14th Street.

The amicable hand-off occurred after both Sharkey and Trowbridge found themselves in stages of life that didn’t allow them to devote the time they wanted to the store.

They had taken over Meeps, which has been open since 1992, in 2001, two days before Sept. 11. “It sounded like a fun opportunity, so we bought it,” Trowbridge says. Despite the shaky economy that followed, Meeps thrived under its new leadership, who added a local designer section. For a decade, Meeps continued to be a star local vintage shop and source of part-time work for “very underemployed” friends. (“They were all, like, PhD students,” Trowbridge says.)

But by 2011, Trowbridge, now a mother of two, was ready to get out. When she got up the nerve to bring it up to her friend and business partner, it turned out that Sharkey, also now a mom, felt the same. “I think our passion had waned,” says Trowbridge. “We couldn’t take care of the store the way we should have. Danni said at one point that Meeps was like her neglected stepchild.”

The women are happy to pass on the store.

“We cleaned the place up a bit,” explains Trowbridge. “And now Cathy and Katerina are cleaning up our mess, which is great!”

The timing of the sale worked well for the Treasury owners, who were interested in acquiring a second business and considered Meeps “a D.C. institution.” The stores differ in aesthetics—Treasury is tiny and highly curated compared to Meeps’ thrift-store vibe—but Herodotou has no plans to turn Meeps into Treasury part II.

“It’s still going to be a more casual vintage shopping experience,” she says. “The costumes and the wigs will stay. The price point will stay the same.” Local artists will still be featured, with a few changes, and the new owners do plan to renovate in 2012 and introduce more contemporary consigned items.

“It’s just going to be Meeps’ general kind of feel, but with our special curatorial vibe,” says Herodotou.

Tuesday night’s party is a parade of cool young women examining floral frocks and sipping bubbly. Long-time Meeps shoppers Erin Boland and Jenn Bress are glad to see the store still has its costume-y vibe but plenty of wearable stock. Bress is giddy over some ‘80s geometric print dresses, and Boland shows off a black dress from the 1940s that needs minor repairs.

She holds up a wild number. “I’m think about getting this dress to piss off my aunt at Christmas,” she explains.

Herodotou and Chung stay busy behind the counter, where the night’s “fill a bag for $20” sale is generating plenty of sales and hopefully setting them up to be the next generation of young women who run Meeps successfully.

Trowbridge would have liked to attend the party, but she doubts she’ll make it. “There’s a chance,” she says. “But my daughter has ballet.”

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TBD ArtsBook: The Kennedy Center Honorees of the future

December 6, 2011 - 10:00 AM
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neil diamond kennedy center
Neil Diamond at the Kennedy Center Honors (Photograph by Kevin Wolf/AP).

• Thirty. That's the average number of years Maura Judkis calculates separates the most recent pack of KenCenHonorees from their career peaks. Who will win in 2050? then, she wonders. She suggests Andy Samberg, but ArtsBook is sure that whoever graces the Google+ Stage at the venue, which will be owned by Live Nation at that point, there will be no shortage of coverage of the proceedings. MORE JUDKIS: She asks D.C. theater types what they think about "tweet seats" in theaters. Peter Marks thinks they might be OK, as long as theatergoers follow a bunch of rules that he sets.

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Craft fashion’s night out

December 5, 2011 - 11:18 AM
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Ok, so the Washington Craft Fashion Show didn’t take place under dramatic lighting on a catwalk in front of a sharply dressed fashion press. It rolled out on the geometric carpet of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center with no lights for one poorly attired reporter, and it was awesome.

Thirty-six designers sent pieces through room 154B at the convention center on Friday. The modestly sized audience, which skewed north of 60 and favored comfort shoes, murmured appreciatively at the handmade looks on display, including Amy Nguyen’s silk shirts dyed using shibori, an ancient art of resist dyeing, and a bag made of found leather watches and worked with hot stamp oil. Every cape, coat, and cashmere shawl in the show was designed and created by the artist, and many of the pieces will never be reproduced.

A handpainted blue raincoat from Jeffrey Weiss got a big reaction from the crowd, as did Cynthia Lamaide’s long, flowing knit dresses. The show’s host declared a blue fur-trimmed cape with hood to be “a piece you could wear to the tundra or right here in Washington D.C.”

A few pieces veered into Renaissance-festival territory, but the looks were artistic and accessible—not to be confused with “ready-to-wear.”

“Don’t use that word,” cautioned Bill Underwood, the show’s publicist. “They’ll shoot me. That’s like JCPenney.” These clothes and accessories, he explained, are art. Also, not cheap. Weiss raincoats can run from $800 to more than $2,000. One necklace that walked the geometric carpet cost $8,000.

At least two audience members declared the fashion show, a first in the Washington Fine Craft Show’s 24-year history, a success.

“I thought it was marvelous,” said Elizabeth Naramore, 73, dressed in black pants and a black turtleneck. “I loved everything I saw.” She was particularly struck by the raincoats.

Jane Arundel, 82, says she has been to fashion shows before but never a craft fashion show. She made the trip with Naramore from Rochester and donned a floral jacket and applique top for the occasion. How did a craft fashion show differ from couture? “There’s no comparison,” she declared. “These women and clothes are elegant.”

 

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Weekend planner: 'An Irish Carol', SpeakeasyDC, Talib Kweli

December 2, 2011 - 07:24 AM
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Idle Warship: Talib Kweli and Res (Facebook/Idle Warship)

Our weekend picks for an unseasonably warm late autumn weekend. Whether you fancy Irish bartenders, seasonal disorders or an exhibit made of legos, there's plenty around town. The world's probably going to end soon, so live while you can.

FRIDAY

We Fought the Big One, a monthly night of post-punk and 'DIY weirdness' sounds featuring the City Paper's own Arts Editor, DJ Jon Fischer at Marx Cafe

Labor Lab: Occupy D.C. Teach-In at Busboys and Poets/5th&K. If you still haven't pieced together why the non-homeless are living in tent cities in Freedom Plaza, McPherson Square and other spots, attend this event! A panel discussion hosted by Georgetown University's Kalamanovitz Initiative. 12:30 p.m.

• Neo-soul singer Erykah Badu performs at Rams Head Live with her new project, the Cannabinoids. Group member Jah Born describes the new sound to the Baltimore Sun as, "electronic, cerebral, digital, organic, rhythmic, funky, big beat, synchronized. Just big, big sound. There are lots of hip-hop sounds and elements. It's like crackish analogue on steroids." 8 p.m. $75.

Seasonal Disorder's month-long run at Source Theatre. Stop by for a smorgasbord of improvised comedy presented by the Washington Improv Theater — from laughter to nostalgia, the show imparts the wonder of the holiday season.

 

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Upcoming shows: Gimme indie rock!

December 1, 2011 - 01:05 PM
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Deidre Muro and Paul Hammer of Svaoir Adore.

Savoir Adore and St. Lucia

Thursday, Dec. 1 at the Gibson Showroom, $10

Brooklyn's Savoir Adore plays a bouncy, textured pop. With vocal duties shared by its two main members, Paul Hammer and Deidre Muro, the group conjures a sound that they call "adventure-pop" — we're not sure exactly what that means, but their upbeat, lively sound recalls bands like Animal Collective. Opening the show is St. Lucia, a New York–based solo artist whose layered pop music is influenced by a childhood spent in South Africa. As an extra bonus, this show is at the Gibson Showroom in Chinatown, which is not often open to the public.

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