House of Gold @ Woolly Mammoth

Sam and I ushered this one together. It is a retelling of the Jon Benet Ramsay story with some added characters (I think) and a surreal setting. Many of the major characters are all given ghoulish motives and the play feels like the shadowed projections of those motives onto a big screen. Sometimes these stories overlap and conflict and do not make a lot of sense from a plot standpoint, but the overall affect is interesting in its successful portrait of the entire situation as being basically a clusterfuck. And if nothing else, it portrays a murky line between how messed up a world a writer can create compared to how messed up the world is we inhabit.

The real standout for me was the young bullied kid, Jon Benet befriends (not sure if he is a character in the real life drama). This show benefits a bit from some reflection as my impression while watching it was not especially favorable. But then I think it may be trying to communicate an ugly tale. I feel like I just ate a tray of eggplant. I suppose its good for me but only in an academic sort of way.

Ameriville @ Round House

This was a very innovative production, a fusion of cadence, poetry, drama and percussion. Four performers mostly alternating monologues breath life into stories of New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina hit, and now years later. The telling is an indictment of our nonchalance towards the victims there, and the story uses Katrina as a mechanism to point a spotlight at many of the ills of American society, and especially those related to it's class divide.

I think this piece was successful when it talked about Katrina directly. At times though, the shear volume of social ills it attempted to spotlight becomes overwhelming and numbing. Perhaps more focus on a smaller set of issues would have been more poignant.

From an artistic standpoint, this was very well done. The performers were all excellent, and this innovative drama provides a nice break from the formulas I am more accustomed to seeing.

October Restaurants

One of my favorite meta discoveries of how to explore the city this year are the various daily coupon emails I receive. They basically offer half off certificates to a different restaurant every day. I have email subscriptions to about six of them, so there is a pretty good chance I will see one for a place near by or someplace we have heard we need to try at least once a week. I'll summarize these by the month.

Oct 1 - Lupe Cantina - Not Bad. Sam had a salsa and eggs dish and I did the Chicken Mole. Good Marguritas and a good happy hour.
Oct 17 - Kinkeads - This place is amazing. Might be my favorite restaurant. Awesome and eclectic seafood dishes. Sam had a scallop dish with gnocchi and I had some seared tuna with guac
Oct 22 - The Fourth Estate - Pleasantly Surprised. Not much for atmosphere but the food was excellent if a bit on the rich and buttery side. I had scallops and Sam had rock fish.
Oct 24 - Floriana - Neighborhood Gem. Great ambiance in an old townhome. Food was decadent. Sam won with the carrot ginger soup.
Oct 29 - Pizzeria Paradiso - A regular, but with guests in town, a standby
Oct 31 - Penang - I did not win with my order by everyone else's entrees were pretty good.

Rally to Restore Fear/Sanity

I had been looking forward to attending this all month and went with a small group just in time to get situated as it got started. The crowd was immense, overwhelming. While the inauguration had more people, it was also much more spread out. This was more like being in a Rock concert. Sometimes we just had to let the crowd direct our movement. The signs were everywhere and they were hysterical. I felt I did my part by being a number here. I think the rally did a lot to undermine the pompous gravity of the Beck rally.

Anyway, we could only handle it for a little while. After about a half hour, we got some food truck food by the National Gallery and watched the crowd while we ate. Then we headed to a nearby bar to watch and listen to the rally on a big screen. We just beat the crowds as we scored a table before everyone else caught on to our idea.

Mary Stuart @ Artisphere

Artisphere is a new Venue that just opened in Rosslyn to house a community art exhibition space and a couple of Arlington based theatre companies. One of those companies is the Washington Shakespeare Company which I had heard about only in a guide book as having phenomenal to see Shakespeare on the cheap. And that part is definately true. All their saturday matinees are Pay-What-You-Can, but you can order the tix on line instead of having to wait in line for them. I suppose I had mentally set the bar pretty low as I had already seen productions at two other Shakespeare theatres in town (STC and Folgers) so I figured WSC would be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I was very wrong on that last point. This was an excellent production, well worth a full priced ticket (though I think I will stick to the cheaper ones given the number of shows I attend). The set was very spare and did some interesting things with chairs to make it quite a bit more than minimal. The actors were mostly phenomenal, and the pair of female leads were nothing short of outstanding.

I was not familiar with this story but it was very well told and interesting as a way to convey the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth, the virgin queen. It realistically explains the politics, legal drama, and power implications of all the maneuvering being done by the principals. Very well done.

Hair @ Kennedy Center

I have been hearing about this show for a couple of years as my mom reminisced about seeing it. So I entered with pretty high hopes about it capturing an era that I feel like I know something about, albeit secondhand. My impression after seeing it is that it left me thinking that era was... rather silly. Sort of in an American Monty Python sort of way. Don't get me wrong, the opening and closing numbers of Aquarius and Let the Sun Shine in were phenomenal. And I think the plot, when there was one, had potential. But in between all that, were some musical numbers that had no resonance for me and some scenes that made very little sense.

So I guess I wish there were more recognizable songs, and a little bit more tension building towards the climax. Otherwise, I feel a bit let down.

Songs of the Dragon Flying To Heaven @ Studio

This play was terrible. I am tempted to leave it at that but bad manifests itself in different ways so let me elaborate. The Importance of Being Ernest was bad because the actors were not very good. The director's choice to have opposite gender actors play all the characters made it far worse mainly because the actors were not able to pull it off. I suppose it is possible that if they were better, this choice wold not have been so bad. In Songs, I think the root problem is the script. The actors were mostly superb, in that they all seemed like real people in a shockingly odd situation. The play made me bored, confused, and yes uncomfortable throughout. Bored, as I was looking at my watch waiting for it to end, and was not not engaged enough with anything going on to take an interest. Confused because of the absence of any recognizable plot, and the placement of jarring characters and themes together. Uncomfortable because of the excessive length of certain gimmicks, and my empathy for everyone else in the theatre having to sit through it. I think I can say with certainty that the points made about being a minority in white America were not the source of my discomfort. In fact, I think if the playwright built more upon this theme it would have been a better piece. Reviews I have read give it far more stature than I.

Smithsonian Craft2Wear Festival

If my mom was rich, she would shop here. Beautiful clothing, jewelry, accessories, all hand made. I took some pictures but it does not really give it justice. The prices were a bit on the ridiculous side, with some scarves priced at $400 for instance. Some cool ideas though. There were some cool fabric necklaces, using multiple woven strands of fabric all bound at each end into two magnets which is the fastener. Also saw some beautiful brooches using paper mache new york times (those were priced at a mere $1200).

Wray Herbert - On Second Thought

We had not been to Politics and Prose in what felt like forever, but it has been in the news a lot lately between it being up for sale and the passing of one of the co owners. Sam was intrigued by this book as it purported to provide insight into how we make decisions and hoped we could glean some tips to apply to our own decision making process. It turned out that it was a somewhat disjointed discussion of the roots of moral decision making, as well as several traps our brains fall into. It was more about the science of conscious and sub conscious thought than about the process. Much of this was familiar territory from seeing the talk earlier this year from the author of The Hidden Brain.

Little Ethiopia Food Tour

Sam and I first heard of the idea of a food tour while watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on the Travel Channel when he went to the Philippines and did one. We both thought it was a great idea to try to do one when traveling as we love to try the food but it can sometimes be intimidating to know where to go for good food when looking for street food. Anyway we jumped at the opportunity to do it here at home. DC Food Tours is a relatively young company that does food tours in the DC Area and they sometimes have discounted tickets on Goldstar. The Little Ethiopia tour is one I see frequently on Goldstar, and apparently it typically gets more of a local following. The tour faound us walking the neighborhood between U and T Sts between 6th and 9th. We saw an Ethiopian coffee ceremony and had excellent coffee at Little Ethiopia; had brunch at a market, Habesha; and a great lunch including raw beef at a hole in the wall, Zenebech Injera. Along the way, we heard some colorful history of the neighborhood, how the Ethiopian community grew up here, and some of the main ingredients of their cooking.

Circle Mirror Transformation @ Studio

I am apparently now on the regular usher schedule for the Studio Theatre, which is how I caught Circle. This is a play that takes place inside an amateur acting class in Vermont. It seemed to me that there was a lot of inside baseball stuff that an Actor or aspiring actor would enjoy laughing at. Too bad my brother was not in town for this one. I sort of got most of it, but it loses some of its humor if you don't have the personal experience to go along with it. The actors were all very good though, and the tension between them felt very real. I walked away with a smile, albeit a half hearted one.

Blueridge Beer Dinner - Southampton

An old college buddy was in town for the week for work so the two of us met up in Dupont Circle and took the bus out to Glover Park to head to a beer dinner put on by Blueridge. The brewery was Southampton which was apparently a tavern out in Long Island, NY that started doing craft brews back in the 90s. This was their first beer dinner, but the chef seemed to indicate this was a pilot and I hope there are many more to come. It was an excellent deal, at $45 per person plus tax and tip. They were very generous with the pours and all the dishes were large.

All of the beers were good. But the standout here was the food. The first three courses get special props.

Sabrina Fair @ Ford's Theater

I vaguely recall seeing the 1995 remake of Sabrina with Harrison Ford, but other than that, did not know much going in. I was pleasantly surprised by this production. The dialogue and comic timing was excellent, especially from the supporting cast. Tom Story playing David stood out, as he did in STC's Twelth Night. As did the father played by John Dow and . The only weak spot for me was the lead, Todd Gearhart, who I sometimes thought strutted around the stage like a peacock. Craig Wallace, the chauffeur, was also pretty week.

Henry VIII @ Folgers

While the productions put on by the Shakespeare Theatre Company are unrivaled in professionalism, the Folgers Shakespeare Library puts on high quality productions that are cutting edge and intimate. The Elizabethan theatre outdid itself this time around with beautiful and intricate sets. Ian Peakes was amazing I thought. He seemed to exude a barely controlled excitement throughout the piece, breathing life into an admittedly stale script. This was my first "history" play and it was very different from his comedies and tragedies. While I thought the difference was just that, apparently the script is known for being inferior to the Bard's repertoire. Indeed, Henry VIII is one of the most interesting characters in British history and the play really only touches on one of his more infamous episodes (the throwing over of Catherine of Avignon for Anne Bolyn). Nevertheless, I feel like I could see this again just to see Peakes perform, perhaps after reading it first.

Taste of Dupont

Unlike your typical Taste Of... event, where the vendors all setup in a centralized location, this event had me going to each venue to trade in my tickets for a special sample. Just about every venue, all within about 5-6 blocks of Dupont Circle, put together a menu from which I could choose what to trade in a ticket for. There were often accompanying drink specials too. Sam could not make it so I did this one on my own and sent her text message updates so she could experience it as well. Here is the transcription:

6:43 Went to Urbana first. Mediterranean. Eggplant puree, lentils, and lamb shank. Amazing.
6:48 At Scion now. Szechuan beef slider and chocolate bacon smores. Slider is spicy. Had a Herculees IPA for happy hour. Great beer selection. As to the smores, I don't know where to begin. Amazing.
7:06 I am at Firefly now. Fries with trufffle sauce. Very Good. Heavy Seas ale. Their happy hour has $1 drinks from 3 to 4, then add a $1 per hour till 7. On Sunday, half price bottle of wine with entree purchase.
7:38 Now at the Carlisle Suites Hotel on New Hampshire and R. They have an excellent braised lamb shank over israeli couscous. Verrry good. They supposedly have a Sunday brunch here that is highly rated... at least that is what they say. $23 includes all u can drink champagne
7:51 Now at Levelone on R and Corcorran. Braised short rib with truffle mac n cheese. Comfort food with a twist.
7:56 Pretty Good. I think u would like it.
7:57 Final Rankings on food quality: Urbana, Scion, Carlyles, Firefly, Levelone
7:57 On atmosphere: Urbana, Firefly, Scion, levelone, Carlyles
7:59 On Value: Scion, Carlyles brunch, Urbana, Firefly

King Arthur by Synetic

I have come close once or twice to checking out a Synetic Theare production. What makes them unique is that their productions use no dialogue. So essentially, they tell a story using music and motion. I went to see King Arthur to see what it was all about. On top of their normal methodology, this production introduced us to a water stage as well. Essentially, the entire play was performed in about two inches of water. The water is meant to add to the experience of motion, and throwing in some symbology of water as life.

The production is interesting. It gets rave reviews, which I can sort of understand. It is admittedly fairly impressive that this company can tell such an intricate story without any dialogue. And the story is indeed conveyed. I feel like at the end of the day, this is more of a technical feat than a compelling one though. Sort of like being amazed that an artist can use water color to paint something that appears to be a photograph. But beyond being impressed by the accomplishment, I was not particularly moved by the event.

Something You Did @ Theatre J

Where to begin. I have yet to be disappointed with a work put on by Theatre J and Something You Did falls right in line with the rest. Theatre J consistently puts on plays that are intellectually challenging, stimulating the brain for the duration of the work. This story loosely based on the events of a parole hearing of a Weather Underground like participant 35 years later is so poignant because of its modern setting. It explores the subject of political terrorism by juxtaposing the events of the 60's with those we have experienced in the current decade. The acting and dialogue were simply superb

Chess @ Signature

Besides my love for 'So You Think You Can Dance' my other semi embarrassing fanboy status is for Mama Mia which I have now seen four times. But I did not know that the composers for that piece (of ABBA fame) had another musical under their belt, one which happened to be playing next door in Arlington... Chess. I got a rush ticket for the show, my first at this company and this venue in Shirlington (a neighborhood in Arlington). Great seat, despite being warned it would be obstructed view.

The music was very reminiscent of Mama Mia, having many of the same riffs. The real standout in this piece for me was Jeremy Kushnier, playing Freddy, who belted out his numbers. The story line managed not to be as tight as Mama Mia, which is sort of ironic considering that Mama Mia's storyline was essentially an afterthought to fit the pre made musical numbers. It is an interesting idea, comparing the drama of the cold war to that of a chess match. A strong theme was how the powers that be used its various people as mere pawns to be sacrificed for the needs of the game. In hindsight, this seems more true than it may have seemed at the time. Now that the cold war is over, I know I look back at what a colossal waste of time and energy much of it was. The piece I think captures the vibe that was the 80s and the cold war, but whether intentionally or not, also seems to capture how dated the whole thing seems now.

National Book Festival

There really is an event on the Mall almost every weekend and when the subject is Books, it seems obvious I should head down. It is one of those, "...well I like books" moments that drove me. I took some books for which the authors would be present. I got in line for Orphan Pamuk only to be told the session was over after waiting about 15 minutes. OK, well I had only gotten in line towards the end, so I was not terribly disappointed, plus I did not really like his book. So the next session was for Elizabeth Kostova who wrote one of my favorite books, The Historian. I waited in line for an hour and a half and did get a signature, but when all is said and done, what was the point really. I mean if I had known it wold take that long I certainly would not have bothered, but once I was in for a half hour and realized how long it would take, I just sucked it up and waited it out.

After the book signing, I decided I should listen to some authors speak about stuff. So I heard on mystery writer begin a talk and a non fiction writer end one on engineering risks, but walked away unfulfilled. The format was not terribly different than that at Politics and Prose which I love, the difference being that I get to choose the authors I go to see. Maybe if I could have planned out my day better to see the fiction authors I liked (Julia Glass, Diana Gabaldon, and Isabelle Allende were there too), I perhaps would have appreciated this more. Maybe next year I will do that.

Yankees @ Orioles

It has been a long time since I made it out to Camden Yards, probably close to 15 years. And Sam had never been. One of the first event tickets I purchased upon moving to DC was for when the Yankees would be in town against Baltimore on a weekend which it turned out did not fall until September. We drove out and parked in the stadium lot and walked over. We briefly walked around the stadium, seeing some of the bars in the area, which were all crazy packed. Headed inside and had the traditional bar-b-que beef sandwich, bucket of fries, and some craft beers. It helped out that Andy Petite returned from the DL and pitched a gem.

H Street Festival

The fall is a time for festivals. It seems that each neighborhood hosts one in September and October and since we love the H St area, we wanted to make to this one. Too bad we had to continue on to Baltimore later in the day as the food, drinks and music all appeared to be superb. We stopped for a beer at the H St Country Club, and the soon to open tavern, Smiths. We also tried some street food there. Only problem is that the lines for every food vendor were extraordinarily long.

In The Next Room - Woolly Mammoth Theatre

Sam and I ushered together at the Woolly Mammoth for the first time and what a great show to work at. This play by Sara Ruhl is a tale of gender norms, from the late Victorian era, but the stereotypes and emotions echo into the present day. Of course, the other device here is the story of how a vibrator was originally applied by medical science of the age and the sexual hilarity that ensued. One good way to tell the success of a play I think is to measure how long the discussion after wards lasts. Sam and I talked about the play the entire drive back and stayed up for a while discussing it too.

We came to the conclusion that the laughter generated by the sexual innuendo serves to break the ice in the audience, opening them up to receive some of the other messages. Because this play was far more than a sexual comedy. It was a play about the loneliness people experience even in their relationships, and how we can shut ourselves off from each other, how sometimes our spouse can be a complete stranger we share a home with.

The actors in the play were phenomenal. The actress that played Mrs Givings, Katie DeBuys, was especially brilliant in a difficult role as her character must come across as flighty, but with moments of emotional outbursts.

We also had a great time ushering, for I think the first time, ending up with great seats practically sitting on the stage. Some of the other ushers were enthusiastic about some of the other plays by Sara Ruhl which apparently Woolly Mammoth has put on, so we look forward to seeing others too.

All's Well That Ends Well - STC

Sam was upset she missed out on the best Shakespearean play ever made so was looking forward to going to the next one. While this was very good, it did not quite live up to the last. Our seats were in the very back row as I got the under 35 tickets so we had to do the bob and weave to see the performance. Also, there are just too many shuffles and whispers between us and the stage to not miss out on some of the lines. Also, just as Twelfth Night showed just how many tools an actor can bring to deliver their lines, this play showed a bit of their absence.

Which is not to say that their were not good performances, as their were. In fact I hate to use Twelfth night as the benchmark against which to judge that which follows. This was a high quality, enjoyable production... just a few notches below their last.

Russia House

I do not really get into the food critic posts but I have been taking advantage of the DC Daily Coupon trend and made reservations for a bunch of restaurants of late so will say a brief word about them.

Russia House we have been hearing about for a while as a trendy lounge destination so having dinner there seemed like a good introduction to it, especially after spending the previous week with several Russians at a wedding. The interior was cozy, a converted old town home with all the individual rooms still intact. The decor did not really do much with it though. I had an excellent Lithuanian Stout and Sam had a Russian wine that she said she liked. For dinner we shared a salad with roast duck and a salmon wrapped in phylo dough. Food was good, a bit heavy, kind of like comfort food. With our gift certificate we only paid a little more than half price so it was worth it, but I don't think I would ever come back to pay full price.

Passing Strange - Studio

Mom came into town to watch the pigs while Sam and I go away for a couple of weeks so I took her out to eat at Heritage India. Sam and I went to the one in Glover Park and were very impressed. This one, just south of Dupont Circle on Connecticut, emphasized their street food and tapas and we thought they were awesome.

From there we went to the Studio Theatre to see Passing Strange, a modern rock opera. This production blew us both away. It is a coming of age story that transpires race and time period, reaffirms the importance of family. It is the story of a quest to live a life of idealism and art for the sake of art and the realization that art is an ideal not meant to be lived.

There is just so much to say about this piece that was good. The characters, the vocals, the direction, the music. How did this musical fly under the radar?

DC Beer Week

Having this week follow right after DC Restaurant week has pushed us out to a lot of restaurants (and a major dent in the wallet) but it was worth it.

Rare Beer Brunch at Pizzeria Paradiso - This was an eclectic mix of brewer's but the real standout was the food. I love this place.

Three Course Beer & Food Pairing at Dino's - They were still offering their restaurant week menu which Sam ordered from and really enjoyed. I took on their beer week menu and was not quite as impressed.

Lagunitas Beer Dinner at DC Bread & Brew - For my birthday we went to this place for the first time with Steve and Deb. I was very impressed with Lagunitas, they have very good ales and eclectic brews. Their brewery rep was very good, telling a lot of good stories. Food was good, though not top notch. They had a good excuse for that as the chef apparently quit that morning and the cooking was done by a friend of the brewery rep.

DC Restaurant Week

We went a bit overboard and did something almost every night so let me group all these together:

• PS7 - Trendy New American in Penn Quarter. I had a really good branzino with leaks and cherry tomatoes.
• Bistro Francais - French bistro in Georgetown. Came with some good recommendations but just so so.
• Zola - Trendy southern cuisine in Penn Quarter. This one was a bit more bustling but then it was friday night. Lamb sliders were good to start. They were actually pretty good all around.
• Vidalia - Trendy southern cuising near Foggy Bottom. Verrrry Gooood. Sam skipped the restaurant week special and ordered four side dishes which I think were the highlight. They also have an amazing sweet potato pie.

Twelth Night - Sidney Harmon Hall

The Shakespeare Theatre Company does an annual program called the Free For All where they give away every ticket to a production to the community, and this year was Twelth Night. You login online during the day and enter your name in a daily drawing and you are notified later that afternoon. I am not sure really how many people sign up or what the odds are but I got tickets for Saturday night on my first attempt.

Sam was supoer busy at work so she could not join me. And boy what a show she missed. This was by far the best Shakespearean piece I have seen. The actors were phenomenal, really using every aspect they could, speech, tone, facial expression, gesture, to convey their lines and making a 500 year old language fresh and relevant. The direction was also spot on, for instance, using rose petals falling to signal a character falling in love. Standing ovation. Wow.

Annapolis Food & History Tour

I think this food tour idea is an absolutely awesome way to explore a city. I wish they had something like this in a lot of the cities we have visited abroad, though I did see an episode of Anthony Bourdain in Manilla. Anyway, Annapolis was really the first city outside of DC we decided to explore. We thought of doing a weekend trip there but settled for a couple of hours one Saturday afternoon. The food tour part was pretty good though the tour guide actually stuffed a lot of history into it. I think she could have made some better food selections as there was both an ice cream and a gelatto place on the tour, and another dessert like pastry later. Annapolis itself has a cool quaint downtown. Sam found some cool clothes at a Norwegian sailing shop near the port. I really liked the all natural arts and crafts from around the world at Resails-Holley of Annapolis (no website). We also met some interesting characters, specifically the proprietor of the Annapolis Inn.

Jonathan Weiner - Long For This World

Sam's obsession with not dying found immediate appeal in this book at Politics and Prose. It was a fun discussion from a science journalist about the real science of aging and the preventing of it. I added the book to my wishlist and will hopefully get around to buying it one of these days. He told the story of his main character, a kooky scientist from the UK who has some plausible theories about how to extend life.

Rob in Town

My brother was in town for the weekend so we wanted to show him what a typical weekend in DC consisted of... ok well a busy weekend in DC anyway.

Maroon 5 @ Jiffy Lube Live - Great concert, great seats. They really do not have any bad songs. All hits. Opening act was Owl City which I expect we will all remember as being a mediocre one hit wonder five years from now. Venue was a bit out of the way and leaving the parking lot was painful.

Capital Skyline Pool - same palce as SynchroSwim 2010, but this time for the pool and bar scene. Spent a couple of hours laying out poolside, drinking some beers. Ate sandwiches from Dupont Market which were awesome.

National Building Museum - went for the Lego exhibit but got there as it was closing and they wanted to charge us like $15 per person so we skipped it. There were some portholes into the exhibit room though so we actually got to see everything if at a bit of a distance. Looked cool. Walked around the museum and peeked in on a couple of others, though none really stood out.

Importance of Being Ernest - I really wanted to show Rob a play while in town as so much of my life is about going to the theatre nowadays. So my thinking was basically that we should se something that we had heard of before rather than risking something unknown. What a mistake. This show was a terrible. Easily the worst I have seen. Ever. Anywhere. The director had women playing the male parts and vice versa. And they were trying very hard to act like how they thought the opposite gender would act and all failed miserable.

H-Street - Luckily the night redeemed itself by bar hopping down H Street which is easily my favorite area to go out in DC... too bad it is so hard to get to. We hit Biergarden Haus (large outdoor beer garden and amazing warm pretzel rolls), H-Street Country Club (in door putt putt), Palace of Wonder (for a low quality if somewhat humorous for the experience burlesque show), and Granville Moore's (for some amazing late night mussels, fries and Belgian beer).

The Nationals vs someone - We're not Nationals fans so I won't pretend this game was interesting on a competitive level but we got to see the young phenom, Steven Strasbourg in his second start back from the DL. He was underwhelming but showed flashes of brilliance. We sat for a couple innings then roamed the stadium, ending up at the bar. I determined that was really not a bad way to watch a game if I ever wanted to come see them for real. $5 tix for the standing room area which includes the bar.

Pizzeria Paradiso - I love this place but I have to say this night was not one of their best showings. Beers were good, but the pizza with mussels Rob got and the one with eggplant we got were not too appealing. Oh well

Drove Rob to the airport monday and that was that.

Synchroswim

I heard about this from my old stalwart, the DCist. It is an amateur synchronized swimming competition held at the outdoor pool at the Capital Skyline Hotel. This is a hotel Sam had been hearing about for a while as it is open to the public and has a great pool and bar scene on weekend afternoons. Going to the competition was mainly on a lark... and what a lark it was. There were four entries and they basically came out in descending order of excellence. The first was a large group doing a rough dramatic story of Jason and the Argonauts. Next was a threesome doing a montage of Van Halen videos. After that... well let's just say they could have ended it after two acts and we would have all been better off. Good times.

Washington Rules - Andrew Bacevich

I have heard Andrew Bacevich speak in an interview on NPR and he seemed to come up with such spontaneously interesting observations in conversations that I had an immediate respect for his intellect. So when I heard that he was coming to Politics and Prose for a new book release I was thrilled. And apparently I was not the only one. I had not seen so may cars parked in the neighborhood since Michael Lewis was in town.

Unfortunately, his actual talk was not nearly as enlightening. It was not that he did not say anything that I did not agree with. It was just that perhaps by this point in my life of observing politics and Washington society, I no longer found it interesting. Perhaps following politics has finally inspired the cynicism it has inspired in so many others. His basic point is that the entire philosophy of the foreign policy establishment of power projection is one that no longer accomplishes its stated goals, is in fact more likely to cause problems then solve them, and that the tremendous cost of this ideology would be better applied elsewhere. I am simplifying a bit but that is the gist. And like I said, I agree. Nuff said.

Serenading Louie - Gunston Arts Center

Busy day today. Lunch at Tagolio pizzeria in Crystal City. This is a coal fired pizza place that ranks right up there with all the other good Neopolitan pizza we have found in DC. The coal oven gives a slightly smokier flavor to the crust. Their menu was far more interesting than Paradiso's with some eclectic mixes of fresh vegetables and meats.

From there we headed over to the Gunston Art's Center, a playhouse inside the auditorium of a local school complex. Serenading Louie is a lesser known work of Lanford Wilson, who to be honest is a lesser known playwright to me. But then that is part of my goal in seeing all of this theatre, to make the lesser known (to me), known. This play had a great first act, with a purposefully drab home of the 70s and wonderful actors. I say first act because there was a power outage during the intermission and they had to cancel the second act. So I read the rest on wikipedia. Real twist ending.

Dave Matthews - Nationals Park

We have and are planning on seeing a lot of live music this summer. Dave is always a safe bet for a good show, as I like pretty much everything and he tends to improvise a bit. I saw him once before at Jazz Fest in New Orleans. This one was at Nationals Park which was my first visit there. Beautiful stadium. The biggest downer for the night was the absolutely atrocious heat. Had to be in the high Nineties even after dark. We ended up staying for a bunch of his popular hits. Highlight for me was when he brought out the lead singer from the opening act, Zac Brown, and sang with him. Anyway, we left early to beat the traffic. I was doing calculations in my head about how many trains of 8 cars each it would take to empty a stadium that was holding about 40000 people.

Pandora's Seed

Politics and Prose had author Spencer Wells talk about his new book. Wells is a population geneticist and he discusses how we can explain major anthropological trends by looking at the historical markers in our DNA. From this, scientists have pieced together when humans first adopted agriculture, about 12ooo years ago, and that this adoption while making us expand quickly as a species, also made us less healthy than our hunter gatherer forebears. He can also see that at one point during the second ice age of about 10000 years ago, our population dipped to only about 2000 members and we were near extinction. This species stress caused us to begin a long trend of innovation, enabling us to survive and thrive.

The point of his book is to first show how much in common we all have, and to hope that the human species begins to draw from its common background to tackle the tough global, species level problems we have today such as resource constraint, overpopulation, and global warming.

An American Playlist Evening of Classical Works and Popular Song @ The Kennedy Center

This is the last night of the three night free concert series put on by the Kennedy Center in an effort to promote teaching the arts in school. Harolyn Blackwell sang opera, Branford Marsalis played Sax, we heard a youth chorus, and Smokey Robinson and John Mayer performed a couple of songs each. I was definitely impressed by Mayer who gives a great live performance, and is extremely charismatic and funny on stage. The National Symphony Orchestra played behind all the performers by a couple of different conductors.

Screen On The Green - The Goodbye Girl

This was a well conceived idea, poorly executed. I mean, I am sure the thousands of people who have been attending this event for the past seven summers had a great time, but our particular night turned out poorly executed. First the good part. We got their early, laid out our yoga mat in a good spot and read while waiting for dark. A brief ninja storm poured buckets on us and was gone in a moment. When when the opening credits for the feature presentation came on, about half the audience leaped up in their place and started waving their hands in the air in time with the music. It all seemed very coordinated and I have no idea what the motivation was but it was pretty funny. The movie started and we bore down to the story which rapidly became a bit confusing (to those of us who had never seen it). About half way through, an announcement came out that this particular film roll was out of sequence. It then proceeded to repeat about 30 minutes of film which we had seen earlier in the wrong order. While it started to make a bit more sense when the section came on the second time as to where it belonged in the movie, we were not ready to sit through 30 minutes of deja vu, so we headed home.

An American Playlist Evening of Lyrics and Verse @ The Kennedy Center

So this was the show we got the free tix too last week. We thought the Roots were headlining it, but it actually was was probably even better. The lead singer from the Roots was the host, along with his drummer. It was basically a showcase of young poets from across the country and the world reading their verse. Moving, funny, powerful. Mambo Sauce, a local DC Hip Hop band played sets between, and had some of the band members young kids break dancing in between. Awesome show.

Waffle Brunch @ Et Voila

Continuing on the Belgian National day celebration going on this week, we headed up to what I suppose are the Palisades in northwest DC to check out brunch at Et Voila. All three participating Belgian restaurants had a brunch going on but we figured we had just seen Belga, and would probably make our way to Brasserie Beck for a beer dinner some day soon, so that left an opportunity to see this slightly out of the way spot.

Breakfast was just OK. The waffle part was just a dessert, not the main dish. I had a stuffed savory crepe with spinach and salmon that was pretty good. Sam had an omelette that was more of a frittata, wih fries. Fries were good... The waffle dessert was excellent: we got ours with half fruit and half belgian dark chocolate sauce. Wow. Very dark. Yummy.

Jack Johnson @ Mt Airy

We drove out to this concert, about an hour outside DC, halfway to Baltimore, on Saturday afternoon with a cooler full of beer and a blanket with two friends. This is basically a partly covered amphitheatre in the woods, similar to Wolf Trap, but not really as elegant. We got there just as the first act was scheduled to come on, but opted to tailgate in the parking lot for an hour. When we got in, there was not much in the way of seating so we sat in the pavillion for the concession stand, which I thought was fine. The concert itself was kinda boring. Jack Johnson, is the music you listen too on the beach while drinking and doing other things. It is relaxing background music. Seeing it live does not really add to the experience in my opinion. Sam got up close one of their more popular songs and said it was better that way, but then, this one was not really for me to begin with.

Mussels Throwdown @ Belga Cafe

Apparently it is Belgian National Day this week and it is being celebrated all over DC with a series of events each day. I was alerted to this by the Young and Hungry blog's beer events calendar. Saturday's was a competition between the three chefs from Belga, Et Voila, and Brasserie Beck held in the alley behind Belga, over in Capital Hill. All three came up with very eclectic mussel combinations that were professionally judged. Hard to pick a winner as they were all truly amazing. We chowed down on multiple free samples from each along with Belga fries and a couple of Hoegardens.

One Man Lord of the Rings @ Woolly Mammoth

I got myself on the ushering list for Woolly Mammoth now too, which is probably my favorite company so far in DC, and this was my first assignment. Again, the ushering was a piece of cake so no worries there. The show itself was very funny. It is hard not to be impressed with the stamina of the lead. He basically paraphrases all three movies in about an hour and change, interjecting some original comedy, including saying outloud what many of us were thinking while reading/watching the movies. This show is really not for the unitiated though, as even I found myself lost at moments, not quite realizing where he was in the timeline. He sat down afterward and told us the history of how both this show, and his one man Star Wars, came to be.

Florida Days @ Capital Fringe Apothecary

This was a show written by one of Sam's residents. It is the kind of show that can give us all hope that we too can write theatre that will be put on during a Fringe Festival. We got to meet the actors afterwards and they all seemed pretty cool. The female lead was actually pretty excellent and I hope she see's some opportunities come out of this experience.

Lypsinka Legends @ Studio

I finally got around to getting Sam and I an opportunity to Usher. The show was for Lypsinka Legends, where the leads are dueling divas in drag. The ushering part was pretty easy, and I think a great way to see a lot of theatre on the cheap. The show was just so so. Had it's moments of hilarity, but there was not enough to pull it all together. Kinda felt like a modern movie comedy where all the funny lines are in the preview and the movie itself ends up being boring.

Mama Mia @ Wolf Trap

We had purchased lawn tickets to see Mama Mia a couple of months ago at Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center. This is my fourth time seeing this show, and Sam's third, so our relatively distant perspective of the action did not really bother us. What an awesome venue. If you are on the lawn, they let you bring in your own food and drinks, including alcohol. We realized though that we need to invest in lawn chairs. I am pretty certain some of the actors were the same from the last Orlando performance we saw. I thought it was all well delivered. The fun part about this performance was how much more the crowd was, with much of the audience getting up to dance when they sang Dancing Queen and other popular songs. Great time.

Free Tix @ The Kennedy Center

Went to Kennedy center at 7am to wait in line for free Tickets to a John Mayer concert there on the 20th that were being given away at 9am. There were about 500 people in line when I got there and a lot more showed up later, but I got the tickets. When I was done at about 9:30, I got in the line for a show on the 18th featuring The Roots and a night of verse which were being given away at 10am. This line was much shorter and I got excellent seats. More in a minute.

Embassy of Croatia party

It would probably be a bit much to call this a Gala, but it was put on in the same fashion as the Embassy of Ethiopia party we went to, organized by thingstododc. We got the tix from Goldstar a couple of weeks before at close to half price so this was a pretty affordable night out. The embassy is right around the corner from us on Massachusetts near S St NW, in one of those beauiful old mansions like so many of he lavish embassies in the area.

The lack of AC in this old building was the only real drawback to a good evening. The ambassado herself spoke at length about the country and answered everyone's questions extensively. The wine was good with a white bordeaux and a montepulciano being poured. The food though was amazing. I had no preconceived notions of Croation fare so this was all a pleasant surprise. There was a great baked lamb and eggplant dish, a baked rice, fish and tomato casserole, cold roasted peppers with feta and olives, cold shrimp and squid salad, a spinach quiche, and some wafer like deserts.

Fireworks on the Mall

Sam got us rooftop access to the Newseum where we enjoyed a great picnic dinner on china but we opted to head into the scrum to see the fireworks since this is our first year in town. We got out on 6th st and started walking west. When we got to the 15th, there were some police barriers we had to cross but luckily many before us had conveniently moved some aside. We got as far as just before the monument before the first burst. So we quickly laid out our blanket and enjoyed the show. I feel like a fireworks snob after the excellent (and close up) displays Orlando has put on the past few years but this one was pretty good, decent length. Not really any original moments other that a heart and the finale which was just an explosion of sound and color. Though I suppose that pretty much describes all such things.

After it was over, we remained to let the crowds dissipate for a while, then walked over to the White House and gave Brenda an improptu paraphrasing of our ghost tour of the area. Definately not as well delivered as the original. We took the metro from McPherson Square the one stop back to Dupont Circle. Went to Dolcezza's for a gelatto the the Darlington House Cantina for a Guinness and calling it a night.

Canoing on the Potomac

We discovered Jack's boat house a couple of weeks ago while researching things to do on the fourth. There are a handful of boathouses in Georgetown, providing canoes and kayaks. A couple of them also support the crew organizations and hobbyists of the area. These are mostly pretty staid affairs. Jack's, near the end of the K street under the Whitehurst freeway, long after the last sign indicating no other outlet, is not in that category. It is a vibrant, relaxed hideaway, filled with summer charm. The decor is festive, shaded, and comfortable. Grills and picnic tables are provided for customer picnicking. No hassles. First come first serve - stay as long as you like. Share with others.

We did just that. Packed a picnic and showed up at about 1pm. Parking was scarce, but the owner had just left so they let us use his personal spot. Even though it was the fourth and there was a good size crowd milling about, there were plenty of boats available. We got an available table, warmed up the grill, and cooked some hamburgers we had gotten at whole foods. We forgot the red cups, but luckily the adjacent table had a sleeve and welcomed us to some. Signs are posted to discourage alcohol but as long as you are discreet they do not seem to be overzealous about it.

We took an hour tour, about 30 minutes down to the Kennedy Center then back again. We made pretty good time, and an hour was just enough time to get some sun and not be too tired the next day. Plus there was a heat wave coming at us that had just arrived across the DC metro area.

The Brickskeller

This bar has apparently been a DC Beer destination for over 50 years. I have seen it on my beer calendar since moving in but had not managed to make it over until Saturday night. Our friend Brenda was in town, and she was meeting up with someone she had not seen since highschool who coincidentally was visiting DC with his family the same weekend. So after briefly rendezvousing at Lauriol Plaza for dinner and margaritas, we headed here for a few beers. Their beer menu runs into the hundreds with representatives from just about every beer producing nation. Not every beer is in stock, as we stumbled across a couple that were not, but considering the ones that were are impressive. I had a St Bernardus Tripel from Belgium followed by a Great Lakes IPA. Sam tried a Lime Shandy (Half Beer half soda with lime), a nice refreshing drink allowing you to endure a long day of drinking.

Phillips After 5

Our first week in our new diggs so we crossed the street to see the Philips Gallery for the first time since moving to DC. During the summer they do a networking event on the first thursday of every month called Philips After 5 where the museum is open late, food and a cash bar are provided, and various forms of live entertainment are on display along with the artwork. Rather than pay admission for two at an event we hope to be able to attend regularly, we opted instead for the annual membership.

We missed out on a dramatic reading of Yasmina Reza, but caught a local craft distillery tasting of their absinthe and Gin, the barbeque by Geppetto catering (which was excellent) and the jazz by Potomac Jazz Project. We only caught the end of the evening (about an hour) so briefly walked through some of the rooms to see the artwork on display. What a great eclectic collection complete with Van Gogh, Degas, and Picasso. In fact it is somewhat fascinating to be drinking a cocktail and eating dinner with a great master hanging a few feet away.

We look forward to attending regularly. In August, we have heard it moves to every thursday.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Black Swan

I don't even know where to begin with this event at Politics and Prose. Taleb and his book require little introduction at this point and I am looking forward to finally reading it. My impression of the man himself is that he is truly brilliant, quite witty, and while I try to hold back from describing people thus as it is an overused term, there is no other way of saying it: he is extremely arrogant. I suppose he has some right as one of the people who essentially predicted the global financial meltdown. Nevertheless he is completely dismissive of mainstream and progressive economists who do not see the world exactly as he does today.

His talk, and the additional chapter of the Black Swan updated for the second edition, was about attribute of national economies and systems that make them more fragile or more robust. Fragility is caused by specialization, optimization, globalization, basically all the buzzwords we have been engrained to think of as good things. Robustness (safety) is identified by redundancy basically. I have not read his book yet so I am not sure whether he means to apply these categoies only at the macro level or at the micro level as well. At the macro level, he is certainly correct. At the micro level, I think it is fair to say that while these concepts are in tension, and that operating at one extreme may indeed cause fragility, it does not mean we should not encourage people and companies to operate at those extremes. After all, it is specialization that has led to many of the comforts of the modern economy. I think the case for a social safety net for individuals that fail in this high risk/high reward micro economy is reinforced though.

I am skeptical Taleb would agree with that though as his own prescription national economic actors is fiscal austerity in the face of this recession. He seems to have pivoted from identifying the root cause as the absurd risks and fragility of the global financial system to identifying the solution as the elimination of debt. The world is complicated so I won't go so far as to say these things are not related, but it does not appear to be a direct causal link. And he seems to ignore a lot of other relevant research. This is also where his arrogance comes into play. He would probably be a fascinating person to have an open intellectual conversation with about different ideas, but he seems to have very little respect for the theories of very prominent thinkers such as Keynes and Paul Krugman, even belittling the Nobel committee's math skills for rewarding Krugman with the award.

The question and answer period was enlightening and comic as someone standing on the sidelines as he verbally sparred with several questioners, cutting people off, and insulting them to their face. The civility was somewhat lacking on both sides but his reputation precedes him as someone who will act this way so it is hard to say he does not bring this on himself. Anyway, interesting evening.

Pizzeria Paradiso & B-Days

Sam's birthday, and while we had reservations at the highly recommended Nora's around the corner, we opted for the local Pizzeria Paradiso and beer as a low prep break from the unpacking routine. It was as always excellent. The special this week was Hawaiian with prosciutto and we also got one with veggies and pesto. Yum

Eli Kintisch - Hack The Planet

Politics and Prose for a Sunday afternoon unpacking break. This book is from a science journalist covering the various forms of geoengineering. I have always found this topic fascinating, maybe from playing Sid Meier's Civilization once too many times. There are two major classes of geoengineering: taking carbon out of the atmosphere and preventing heat from entering the atmosphere. Examples of the former include inducing massive algae blooms in the arctic ocean. Examples of the latter include spraying particulates on clouds to reflect more sunlight and hence heat.

I think there is enormous potential in the private sphere for absorbing carbon dioxide through algae or other fast growing plant pulp. I say that because the CO2 should be pretty measurable and hence could fit into a global carbon pricing scheme. I actually asked the author about whether the current international laws accounted for geoengineering but he was unsure.

His book explains some of the known approaches and then talks about the politics and whether it is a good idea. This has been a fairly taboo subject among the serious set for quite some time, but some of those barriers are eroding because of the seriousness of the problem. Basically, people are opposed to it because it provides an excuse to those opposed to addressing climate change not to act, because if you have to stop whatever solution you come up with for some reason, the carbon problem would have been exacerbated in the interim, and because there is always the potential for something going wrong on a truly global scale. All that said, if we do nothing about climate change which looks more and more likely, the need for a drastic solution will be more critical. I look forward to reading this.

Base Camp Moves

Georgetown has been fun... a bit of a pain with the busses. Nevertheless, we move into our new place on Dupont Circle, so light posting until done.

Taking Economics Seriously

Dean Baker spoke at Politics & Prose about his new book. I have not dug into it but this book looks like it could be read in a day's commuting, sitting at about 80 pages. The point of the book as Baker explained it was to really use economics in the public sphere to make better policy. Essentially if the collective we talked about the world of economics and actually prioritized issues according to their economic consequence, we would all be better off.

Baker knows his material but is not a naturally gifted public speaker. I generally agree with everything he said but I do not think he is someone that would easily convince the uninitiated, which is too bad, because he has some really good ideas.

The interesting light bulb moment for me was illustrating the causal link between the excessive, patent protected monopoly profits of pharmaceuticals, and their overwhelming incentives to sell more drugs. This has some fairly obvious impacts, which while I had always been aware of them, failed to grasp this causality. Namely, of course drug companies are going to bribe doctos into prescribing their remedies, and of course drug companies are going to try to invent new conditions for which their drugs are needed, and of course, the fact that many drugs barely exceed placebo will be carefully hidden. When you are making hundred of percent if not thousands of percent of profit on a monopoly protected prescription, the cost of all these things (both actual and in goodwill) are all worth it.

CAP Debate - Debating Our Judiciary

The Center for American Progress, Politico, and American Action Forum sponsored this debate at George Washington University between former Clinton administration acting Solicitor General Walter Delinger and former Bush administration Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand. There was a cocktail reception beforehand with some pass arounds that was cool.

Debate was excellent. Delinger really expresses himself well, in my mind making a mockery of the idea that judges should be selected on principles divorced from their ideology. Essentially saying it is not possible, and even if it was, the point of leaving many passages of the constitution open to interpretation was so that modern judges could actually apply modern standards. Brand's attempt to discredit this approach did not really make any sense.

I was pretty tired when I was heading over to this event, but it was engaging and humorous. Delinger has a great zonger comparing a line in a Chief Justice John Robert's brief to an inability to learn the first lesson of Sesame Street, an inability to distinguish that one of these things is not like another.

Ballet Across America @ The Kennedy Center

Returned to the Kennedy Center on Saturday to see this eclectic Ballet revue. Each night involved a different set of companies from across the country, mostly the south and south west. Ours started out with Ballet Memphis. WOW. What a show. There were five dancers on stage most of the time keeping our eyes very focus on their movements. They were dressed in vaguely country western attire and dancing to the music of Roy Orbison. This performance was just amazing. Standing O.

The next act was Ballet Arizona . This was a much larger company and a longer performance. There were frequently many routines occuring simultaneously on stage, one flowing into the next. The music was more traditional classical. While it had it's moments (times when it seemed like one male dancer after another was simply floating they had such air in their jumps), there was so much going on we both found it hard to concentrate.

The last act was the Pacific Northwest Ballet, which we had seen while in Seattle on vacation last year. They also used a slightly larger set of dancers, though not as large as Arizona's. The music was frenetic, and could easily have been pulled from a Hitchcock film. The costumes were ultra mod, med in tight fitting button downs and slacks in neutral colors, women in simple skirts and dresses in the same neutral colors. This performance was also excellent, nearly comparable to the first. I did find though that by the time this one came on, I was a bot too tired to concentrate fully.

There are Little Kingdons @ Church Street

This was my first show at the Church Street theatre, put on by the Keegan Theatre company. I love the street this little theatre is on, very quiet and tree lined. The theatre's name comes from it occupying an old church. I also loved this intimate venue, with it's exposed brick walls and stained glass skylight. The seats are comfortable, looking straight onto the stage with no bad seats in the house.

The show itself reminded me of an Dark Our Town set in modern day Ireland. There is a narrator, also a resident of this small Irish town, who roams it describing the daily goings on. The plot is a day in the life in a large cast of characters, all played by just a handful of actors with much overlap. The quality of the acting was erratic, but with praise going to the narrator. Oftentimes, the accents were so strong I really could not understand the dialogue at all. I don't think there was any intent to say anything profound with this play, which can sometimes work ok, as in Our Town. But some of the plot lines did not even make any sense to me at all.

I only left at the intermission, but stuck it out. The second act did not really reard my decision.

Reel Journalism with Nick Clooney @ The Newseum

This was an event put on by the Newseum on Monday night that Sam got us tickets to through her "insider" connections. I really had no idea what to expect going in as I had not even looked it up online. I thought it was perhaps more of an insider networking event or seminar for newsy types. Luckily, it was not. The event started with Nick Clooney (yes, father of George) on stage in a laid back interview format with Betsy Fischer and David Gregory, both from Meet the Press. The discussion, open to Q&A, touched on a myriad of topics in a short amount of time about the different forms of media, new vs mainstream, how the next generation will reinvent journalism, and some of the tensions between journalists and the sources they cover as their social lives become intertwined.

They then showed the movie State of Play with Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams and Ben Afflect about a massive corporate conspiracy, a handful of murders, and the shoe leather reporting of an old school investigative reporter, and a new media blogger learning the ropes, and coming to appreciate, how the old guy does it. Writing this, it all seems even more cliche then when I watched it. This was an enjoyable film for what it was, well acted, decent story. It would have been a better story but the writer, instead of just ending it around a fairly plausible conspiracy that is not too far from what probably happens regularly on the hill, makes it into a far fetched whodunit. Oh well.

As a statement about the media, and about glorifying the golden era of journalism, I think this movie fails on many fronts. First, the simplification of the blogger as a young out of college novice who does not check facts and only interested in the lurid, with the shoe leather old schooler as the professional veteran, is a straw man which we really need to move beyond. Most importantly, the headline at the end of the movie gets it totally wrong, placing the lurid details of the congressman involved in a murder above the tampering of corporation undermining an elected official to secure the outsourcing of a $40 billion domestic security industry and undermining our democracy. Not that this is not what would happen in real life, but that is just the point. In real life, newspapers have the ability to drive the lead and they typically choose what sells copy over what is more important to our lives. The movie tries many times through the character of Crowe to critisize this dynamic as a product of blogging and corporate consolidation, but it sure makes it seem like the final story is what he would have desired, and if so, seems to really miss the point.

Another unfortuneate aspect: the story that was developing though much of the movie that someone like Ben Afflects character, while obviously flawed can still be a virtuous player in the process, was completely undermined, as we are basically told that we cannot trust this person at all. Once immoral, always immoral.

Mrs. Warrens Profession @ Sidney Harmon Hall

This was a show put on by the Shakespeare Theatre Company at Sidney Harmon Hall across from the Verizon Center. This was our first time at this large and apparently new venue, as our last show was around the corner at the Lansdowne Theatre. Our seats, purchased on tuesday under the $10 plan for 35 and under theatre goers were excellent, in the second row though on the far end of the aisle.

Elizabeth Ashley starred in the production along with several regulars of the company. Reading the resume's of these performers is pretty impressive as a who's who of Actors and shows through the end of the 20th century. We could see in watching this show the germ of the idea of the plot of Mama Mia, though the focus of George Bernard Shaw was definately in another direction. Shaw created an interesting snapshot of the tension between living a "proper" life and what it takes to build the wealth to do so. His particular vice was the sex trade but his point is to equivocate it with all other degradations of the worker's lot in life. Also present is the irony of raising a child to appreciate a life without these degradations necessarily predisposes her to be ashamed of the degradations of the mother that made that life possible.

While Shaw can sometimes be preachy in his dialogue, his own opinions on these issues quite evident, he nevertheless illustrates this theme well, leaving no real easy pat answers. Once again, this company puts on an excellent performance.

Fireflies

Been feeling a bit under the weather recently and had no events planned this week but last night, we saw our first fireflies of the season. This was Sam's first sighting while living in the Northeast (or at least on its periphery). As she said, one of the great things about living here is the constant barage of new experiences, both from our own event planning but also that the changing seasons bring us.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons @ Rosslyn Spectrum

No plans for Satturday night so checked out Ticketplace, one of my go to sites for events and picket up a ticket for Synectic Theatre's production of Othello. Wait you say, the post title says Vivaldi. Well a funny thing happened on the way to the Rosslyn Spectrum, where Ticketplace listed as the venue. They were playing Vivaldi and had no record of my ticket purchase. I shoudl probably but those things in the reverse order as I did not realize it was not my show until I sat down (they were flustered by a long line and everything running late so just gave me a ticket rather than digging into the details of my email confirmation). A very nice usher who I asked about the mixup told me she knew nothing about Othello but suggested I stay and watch the show and perhaps would enjoy it.

Chamber music has not been on my short list of events when moving to DC so this was probably about the only way I was going to see it. I must say, I am glad it worked out though. The production was excellent. Between each Season, the first violin explained how Vivaldi was attempting to mimic the sounds and emotions of each season and then they would play just a small piece, isolating just the relevant sounds so we could judge for ourselves their similarity. Vivaldi apparently also wrote poetry describing the scenes he was emoting and this was read as well. Finally the music for the season was played, bringing it all together. I have heard excerpts from the Four Seasons many times over the years but it really is beatiful heard live. I have always loved string instruments, especially the violin (more musicians should incorporate electric violins and their ilk into rock, I think) so this was probably the perfect piece for me to see live.

Dumbarton House and Rock Creek Park

On Saturday, nine museums in the Dupont circle area opened their doors for free. I decided to head over to the Dumbarton House, right here in Georgetown, so I can see it before I move out of the neighborhood. I knew I would probably not go out of my way to visit this museum, a sort of period piece, showing a home as it would be decorated in the Federal era. In fact, after having seen it, I wish I had saved myself the trouble. Not my thing I guess.

So I walked behind the museum and saw an absolutely amazing cemetery, which I figured out later is Oak Hill Cemetery. There was a path leading down along a chain link fence bordering the cemetery which I decided to follow, hoping to gain access. No luck getting in, but the path lead me down to the exercise trail along Rock Creek Park. So I walked along it for a bout a mile before crossing a pedestrian bridge over Rock Creek, and turning back to walk along a parallel path on the opposite side. This path was completely wooded and rose slowly into the park, before finally emptying out into Montrose Park. It was a beautiful walk and made me think it would be nice to kayak down Rock Creek on sunday when the road is closed to vehicle traffic and the noise level would be more natural. Would do this latter hal

Hamlet @ Kennedy Center Opera House

I imagine the Kennedy Center as the "National" theatre. So when it comes to a show in the US (not musical theatre for which I imagine broadway still rates numero uno), there is a certain prestige in attending it at the Kennedy Center. We made our first trip there Friday night to see the operatic version of Hamlet. The playbill informed us that this was a French opera written in the late 19th century and admits right off the bat that English audiences have had difficulty accepting it. I can understand the sentiment as what makes Shakespeare such an experience is the language, especially realizing it was written 500 years ago yet still resonates with wit and meaning today. With an operatic version, and especially one done in French, you really get none of that. So the piece is reduced to the story and the artistic quality of the musical experience. That is to say you need to actually like opera. And I am not sure that I do. I find opera in general to technical. It always seems that the vocalists, especially baritones and sopranos, are kind of faking it. I mean it is not natural to sing in those keys consistently so when they do, it just seems like they are trying too hard.

I should say something about the production more broadly. The set was cool. I liked the use of a very large cast, providing real depth to some of the crowd scenes. I liked the interpretation of the theft of the crown by using the usurping of power in the post WWII era. Loved the final scene that merged the funeral of Ophelia with the dual and used guns to be consistent with the era.

As for the characters, I thought Hamlet was pretty strong. I enjoyed the queen, whose matronly figure fit right into my idea of an operatic star. Ophelia is given a much more starring role in this production, making it much more of a romance, and I was ot thrilled with this approach.

Overall, I think going to the opera is an experience that mixes well with our nightlife repertoire... just so long as we only go every couple of years.

Gruesome Playground Injuries @ Wooly Mammoth

This week is apparently theatre week. Thursday was day 2, the venue was the Wooly Mammoth on D & 7th NW, the play was Gruesome Playground Injuries. Once again, I have to say the sets are very well done. They completely reconfigured the set from their last play to make this production in the round, the stage, the rounded rectangle of an old hockey rink.

The two actors did all their costume changes just off the stage at make shift lockers and a sink set up within the round, accompanied by scene shifting rock music, and occasional dancing and emotional outbursts. Each scene was introduced on the scoreboard over the rink with the age of the characters as this play jumps around in time. I thought the characters were pretty well acted, each having a chance to play themselves across a thirty year horizon starting in early childhood. These are definately extreme personalities, not really meant to be taken as realistic in that they hopefully will not remind you of your friend or neighbor. That said, I thought that I could identify with them so for me, it worked.

The story itself was a very uncharacteristic romantic dramedy where all cliches are thrown out the window. No spoilers here, but I think it is fair to say that the story here is about two people who are much healthier together, but are continuously challenged by the self-imposed obstacles of getting together. I think this is another winner from this company, fast becoming my favorite for their irreverence and originality.

Ramayana @ Source

I went to see this play at the Source Theatre, a fairly intimate theatre, over near U St. It is performed by the Constellation Theatre company. The theatre is small enough that the general admission seating pretty much gives you a good seat from anywhere.

As to the play itself, it is hard for me to rate. There is not a lot in the way of characterization as the characters are purposefully one dimensional. I understand that there is a theme and meaning to the text but I would not say that this comes across in a particularly poignant way. I would say that this is mostly a plot driven play attempting to convey as much of the story as possible in a short time. I suppose that it does this well, but even not knowing the original text, I would say that the use of the actors playing the animals borders on and crosses over into the annoying. But like I said, maybe it is like that in the text as well. I know a lot of bible stories when read are sort of silly, simlifying the actions and speech of a character to the point of stupidity. The animals characters REALLY want to convey to the audience that they are rather simple-minded. Ok. Message received. But I don't think I can completely hold the director harmless, as I think it is his job to modernize a dramatic rendering for a more sophisticated audience. Of course then he would receive criticism from the other side claiming he veered from simplistic single truth of the text (I have already read some comments to this affect on one website).

Oh well. I am not sure that I would give Constellation another shot, but we will see. At best, I will be a bit skeptical before purchasing a ticket.

Marrakesh

Holly's birthday was last week so in celebration I joined the girls night out at Marrakesh. This was our second time here, but we had not moved to town the first time around so this is my first opportunity to write about it. We went to the New York Ave location. I walk by the P street location regularly but there always seems to be a highschool prom waiting in line outside the door there. Phenomenal food, especially B'Stella, but here is the full fixed price menu:

The Three-Salad Platter
Cooked Eggplants in Tomato Sauce
Cucumbers and Bell Peppers in Mediterranean Seasoning
Oasis Carrots with Coriander

The B'Stella
Layered Pie with Chicken, assorted nuts, almonds, eggs, parsley, and onionsTopped with Confectioners sugar and traced with Cinnamon

First Main Course Choices
Chicken with Lemon and Olives
Spicy Chicken in Cumin Sauce
Chicken with Eggs and Parsley Sauce
Chicken with Dates

Second Course Choices
Marinated Berber Beef Shish Kebab
Tajine of Lamb with Almonds and Honey
Lamb with Chick Peas and Onions

Third Main Course
Couscous Grand Atlas Topped with Vegetables, Chick Peas, and Raisins

Desserts
Basket of Fresh Fruits
Hot Mint Tea with Moroccan Pastries

Yummy.

Theodore Roosevelt Island

First of all, getting there is not exactly painless. We drove to Rosslyn, parked and walked along trail heading south from Gateway park to GW Parkway parking lot, across walking bridge. The Google maps directions have you drive across the Route 66 bridge. I suppose it looks so convoluted because as the crow flies, we appear to be pretty close from Georgetown but in fact... we are not.

Anyway, park is heavily wooded, so if you are looking to sun yourself on a lawn, head elsewhere. There is basically just a circular hiking/biking trail around the interior of the island. For biking this might be interesting, but I was not fond of walking it. But then I don't really enjoy hiking in the wilderness.

The monument is interesting though I don't quite get why the large reflecting pool areas are drained of water. And besides, my recent reading makes me a bit more skeptical of Roosevelt, the man. I should add that Roosevelt, the president, still gets high marks.

Wine Pairing

Sam's won a wine and food pairing party for 10 that was donated by her boss' husband who does it for a living. So Sam invited her colleagues and their spouses to it and it was held in a furnished vacant penthouse in Crystal City. The unit was pretty cool with a view of the potomac, and Jefferson Memorial, right off the metro.

The event itself was interesting. Andy, who ran it, actually does not like the word "pairing" as many wines will go well with many foods. First he explained what many of the wine adjectives mean in more laymen's terminology. Then we took six wines, one at a time, and tasted them in combination with different foods that would stimulate different tastes: sip, bite, sip. The results were interesting in some cases, obvious in others. For instance, lemon went well with one of them which I have already forgotten (which I guess defeats the point), sauvignon Blanc perhaps.

Of more interest was the company which was excellent. Sam's coworkers are all very cool, professional, funny. And their spouses as well. Talked about gardening, food, music and of course, apartment leasing. Hope to be able to do similar events again in the future.

Hamlet @ Folgers

I went to see my first Shakespearean play since coming to DC last night at Folger's Shakespeare Library. This venue is behind the Library of Congress kinda near the Capital South stop. I got to walk around the exterior and see both the facade sculptures and English Garden with its metal sculptures; alas was not able to see the libraru itself. The theatre here is an intimate 250 seats in size and elizabethan in style. Very comfortable with good acoustics, small enough that there really is not a bad seat in the house.

For this production, the set was very spare and white, a reminiscently Scandinavian style, appropriate to a play about Danish monarchy. The dress was business formal, cutting edge in fashion (fitted, European style) and seemed completely appropriate for the Royal figurals portrayed. There was also excellent use of light to illuminate sections of stage and provide contrast for scene changes. Also loved the use of film as the medium by which the cast watches the play-within-a-play scene.

The play itself was very well directed and acted. I thought the cast was strongly emotive, with Hamlet conveying a lot of raw anguish. The character playing Hamlet Sr (and also the lead actor of the play-within-a-play) deserves special mention as his voice was so perfectly... I don't know. He just sounded really good. Ophelia was a bit weak though I do not really have much to compare her too and I will say that Hamlet's anguished dialogue sometimes made it difficult to understand his speach.

Overall, I have not seen Hamlet in a long time and will be seeing it in Opera form next week but this was an excellent production. It seems to me that with Shakespeare, understanding the play before you see it makes you appreciate it more so knowing the story or watching it multiple times and perhaps in different interpretations just gives you more appreciation.

Summer Lentil Salad

This is an interpretation of something I saw in the whole foods in Winter Park, FL while in town for the weekend. Very hardy, filling summer salad (or anytime of the year I guess).

Salad
1 c cooked and cooled lentils (cooked 20min in 2 c vegetable broth)
1 bunch steamed and cooled al dente brocolli
4-5 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 bell pepper roughly chopped
1 cucumber chopped
4-6 spring onions chopped

Dressing
1/8 c olive oil
1/8 c hemp oil
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 c cider vinegar
1/8 c red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs chopped fresh basil
2 cloves garlic finely chopped

Mix all ingredients, mix dressing and pour over. Mix salad well and refrigerate. tastes best on day two.

American Buffalo @ Studio

Last wednesday was Spanish night so I headed over to the Studio Theatre so see if any rush tix were available. Sure enough I landed one for American Buffalo. This is a play by David Mamet about three small time crooks planning a job and interacting with each other. The draw in this play is really characterization as plots and themes are pretty minimal. The dialogue is fantastic complete with accents, slang, cursing, etc.

The story lays bear the paranoia, greed, and ultimately friendship and stretched bonds of loyalty of these characters in a very realistic, and gritty way.

Mom in Town

I could probably get a whole lot of posts out of my mom coming into town for a long weekend as we packed the weekend full of things to do, all deserving a mention. But I will summarize them all into a single quick Itinerary with links:

Thursday PM -

Pizzeria Paradiso - Had the special, a mushroom and sausage pie, along with a four cheeses with fresh arugala on top. Mom and Sam had a flight of Belgian beers while I had a Dulk Milk Stout.

Dolcezza - Bought coffee for the week and a Hazelnut and Pistachio gellato

Friday AM -

National Gallery of Art - West Building - On the round level is the Chester Dale collection, a gift of mostly early 20th century art from the generous benefactor, including a good video of the same.

Friday Afternoon -

National Gallery of Art - East Building - After a quick lunch on the mall, visited the East Building for the first time. Beatiful scultures in the open main level, sort of misplaced Sacred Made Real exhibit about 16th century Spanish religious sculpture and painting, an interesting space, complete with choral music setup for Mark Rothko, Many mobiles from Alexander Calder, cutouts of Henri Matisse, beautiful photos of windows, and an eclectic colection of 20th Century art. Highlight was probably Dali's Sacrament of the Last Supper.

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art - Walked down the mall en route to the monuments, but the extreme heat pushed us into this museum behind the castle to cool off. Only saw the first level where there was an exhibit on the use of animals in African art, mostly archeological, but some modern pieces.

World War II Memorial - Many of the war monuments are relatively new since my mom moved from the area so we did a quick walking tour. The first is a bit overwhelming... in size, not in emotion. The WWII memorial in its attempt to honor the contributions of every state and to organize their contributions visibly in so egalitarian a way, it is hard to really focus on anything in particular so I guess, I don't really get much from this one.

Korean War Memorial - This one on the other hand, though I have no personal relationship to this conflict, is incredibly moving. The tableux, statues expressing very human emotion realistically moving through a jungle, combines the natural elements that were such a large part of that conflict with a monument wall, memorializing the faces of so many contributors.

Vietnam Veteran's Memorial - Only saw this from the periphery, but again this stark monument provides a powerful focul point, the memorializing wall of names, shaped as a "V".

Friday PM -

60 Miles to Silver Lake - After a light dinner of homemade salad, took the bus down to Logan Circle to meet mom and go to the Studio Theatre where Sam and I have seen two other productions. This was a relatively short no intermission play taking place completely in the front seat of a car consisting of the conversations between father and son over several years.

Saturday AM -

Patisserie Poupon - I was not in attendence but mom got to rendevous with her old friend Pat for a lovely breakfast on the back patio of this Georgetown eatery.

Saturday Afternoon -

Politics & Prose - Wanted to give my mom a taste of this DC institution at which Sam and I are regulars. On saturday afternoon, Nan Chase talked about her book, Eat Your Yard about planting and eating edidble plants in even a small yard across any climate.

Northern Virgina Fine Arts Festival - Took the drive out to Reston, near my office, to this very large festival where mom ran across a couple old friends quite by accident. Many of the vendors we have seen at the Winter Park festivals along with many new booths of very high quality and reasonable price. Hope to return next year. Highlites were Valerie Bunnell, Lenny Campello, Kina Crow, C.L. Cunningham, mom's friend Ellie Diez-Massaro, Glenna Evans, Marie Gruber, Aaron Hequembourg, Clare Malloy, Woodrow Nash, Ginny Ganong Nichols, Scott Olson, mom's Art Tribe friend's boy friend Steven Olszewski, and Rasa Pranckunaite.

Saturday PM -

Dukem - This Ethiopian restaurant is fairly well known in DC as the place to go when you want to sample this cuisine. It is located in the up and coming U Street coridor on the periphery of what is now known as Little Ethiopia.

Sunday AM -

Dupont Farmers Market - Wandered the market, sampling cheeses and fresh fruit. Bought some chocolate/almond croissants and apple pastry to eat on a bench in the circle. Wandered the streets of Dupont circle, saw mom's 21st St House, and her regular hangout, the Phillips Collection.

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian - This is a stunning building architecturally. Started at the top floor to view a cool short film in a circular amphitheater then walked through some historical exhibits. Saw an excellent exhibit by a current Canadian artist, Brian Jungen titled Strange Comfort, where he uses many common items from our lives including sports paraphenalia to sculpt items of Native American significance. Glanced at the cafeteria menu and decided we will definately return for that alone.

Sunday Afternoon -

Walking the Dogs - headed to Montrose Park, adjacent to Dumbarton Oaks for a walk with the dogs, and utterly exhausted them.

Art Studio Openhouse - I could not find any link for this but there was a cool openhouse at an artist cooperative at Avon and R St NW across from Montrose park. This was catered by Whole Foods and there were some interesting artists on exhibit.

Sunday Kind of Love - Busboys and Poets hosts a poetry open mic the third sunday of every month (in addition to their other open mic events). There were some phenomenal voices here, both on the established side (Aracelis Girmay and David Gewanter), students of the genre, and amateur.

Wow. Vacation from vacation time.

The War Lovers

Evan Thomas was at Politics & Prose on Wednesday night at 7 so after doing a bit of apartment hunting, I headed over. He is an editor at Newsweek and preceded his talk by admitting that he was a slight hawk on the Iraq war and wanted to explore his hawkishness by falling back on the general American Hawkishness that seems to date back at least 110 years. He wrote a book about five characters, three hawks and two doves, in the lead up to the Spanish American war. His book is descriptive, offering no pat solutions to prevent our culture's general hawkishness from leading us into the next war, but he was a great speaker and I hope a good author as I did end up purchasing the book.

The Question and Answer period was mostly interesting, including one guy who challenged Thomas's self description as only slightly hawkish, lumping him into the general category of journalist that was not only hawkish but was critical of criticism from the doubters. I do not really recall anything He specifically wrote so I am willing to believe his retort that if we were to go back and review the record, that he did not fall into that extreme category. The questioner's anger was palpable and the reality was that the category he refers too was not really that extreme. It was quite common for the media to be critical of the doubters. Even though I can say with pride that I fall squarely in the skeptics camp long before March 2003, it is interesting that I have mostly moved on. I can understand, even though I rarely think about it, the extreme frustration of those that were proven absolutely correct about the merits of that war be shunned while those that were proven absolutely incorrect keep their lofty and privilged positions as arbiters of the truth and of responsible opinion, Evan Thomas included.

Drumming in the Park

We try to take the dogs to a new park every weekend as a way of getting ourselves to a new park every weekend. We are not totally rigorous about the effort, having fallen back on good old neigboring Dumbarton last weekend, but with an increased toll of guilt on Sunday, Oscar leaping in the air every time we left the house in anticipation of accompanying us, we decided on Meridian Hill Park. We had driven by the park back on Easter Sunday and thought the imposing western facade was very unique and wanted to make sure we eventually checked it out. This park is also know for having a Drum Circle every Sunday afternoon, so we got to kill two birds with one stone.

The park is not too large, only about two city blocks, but does have some impressive city views as at it's southern end, it is raised a good 20-30 feet above the city. This is where the drum circle performs. There are about 20 drummers with all manner of percussion instruments, and a crowd of about a hundred or so looking on or just relaxing in the general vicinity. Not being an expert in these things, I won't offer a classification, though I will hazard a guess at it being Afro-Carribean in origin. Very cool, authentic, "only in..." type thing to do. The weather was cooling off though so we could not stay long. We walked the dogs around the park once to try to tire them out (it does not take much) before getting back in the car. We canvassed to the Columbia Heights, Mt Pleasant, Kalarama Mews, and Adams Morgan neighborhoods to get a feel for them in our ever expanding apartment search before heading home.

Mikveh @ Theatre J

Mikveh is a new Israeli play recently premiering at the Jewish Community Center's Theatre J over at 16th and Q NW. It deals with 8 women of varying ages dealing with life, community, and religion in an orthodox Jewish Mikveh, or ritual bath center. This play captures a momemnt in the lives of these women very well, showcasing the realizations they come to about themselves and their community, yet leaving larger issues very much unresolved and uncertain as trying to do so would definately lead into the trite.

While I enjoyed the play, and identified with its idealogical themes, I nevertheless felt a bit like an outsider passing judgement over a way of life I have very little standing in which to judge. At it's heart, this is a very patriarchal community, and I think the message here could be easily extended to Muslim and some Christian communities which have parallel traditions, yet the success of the play is having characters within the community come to realizations inspired by their own life stories. Presumably much of the audience in Israel and at a Jewish community center in DC will share at least some of that identification and hence some of the authenticity of those judgements. My self, not so much.

Dolcezza

I just wanted to do a short post affirming the excellence of Dolcezza. They recently opened a new location in Dupont Circle at Connecticut and R, though we have been up to now regular customers of their spot in Georgetown on Wisconsin and Q. They make amazing gelato, especially in the nut and coffee family. My favorites are their hazelnut and pistacio, while Sam really likes the peanut butter. They also make very good fruit flavors such as Mango and Avocado.

There coffee is amazing. Not much more to say on that front. Just thought they deserved a post of their own.

Hank's Oyster Bar

After the failure of our EU Open House tour, we needed some food. I have criss crossed the streets around Dupont Circle a lot in recent months, always envying the sidewalk cafe crowds enjoying the various fares in this bustling neighborhood, so we decided to sample a bit of it ourselves. After peeking at the menu's at a couple of these venues, we settled on Hank's Oyster Bar, whose name I had seen on the Commonwealth site several times and seemed very promising.


We ordered a couple of beers since they had Troegs on the menu, but since Sam did not like here Pilsner, ordered a bloody mary, leaving her beer for me. Bloody Mary's here are top notch. They brought out some goldfish crackers and some very fresh sour dough bread with butter and jam to snack on while we waited. The service was a bit slow when we arrived; they may have been a bit understaffed to handle the full table load. I ordered one of their specials, trout over a bed of escarole with a side of fries. Sam had a crab cake benedict. Mine was amazing and fries were very good to. Sam's... not so much. They brought out a bowl of dark chocalate chunks broken from a block with the check that were also of very high quality. Prices were moderate, $60 for the meal before tip.