It's summer, which means it's time for glossy, eye-popping, multi-million dollar blockbusters. And those aren't just limited to movie screens. The touring production of the wildly popular, multiple Tony-nominated musical adaptation of Alice Walker's now-classic novel The Color Purple is in D.C. for the next month, and is just as jaw-dropping a spectacle as anything Hollywood has in store.

FRIDAY:

*Toshio* took this shot of the Smithsonian Castle peeking out behind the Folklife Festival, continuing down on the Mall through the rest of the weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a few performances that begin around 5 and 6 p.m to round out the day. You can see the full daily schedule for the three exhibits, Wales, Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture, and Las Américas: Un Mundo Musical online here.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup - the bi-annual soccer tournament for the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean - kicks off Friday, but the festivities will through the District next week when RFK Stadium hosts a first round double-header on Wednesday July 8. The United States, fresh off that tremendous Confederations Cup run, will play the nightcap against Honduras, while Haiti and Grenada will duke it out in the early 7 p.m. match. Tickets are available here. Maybe you’re familiar with the U.S. team, but not so much the others? We figured as much, so here is your official DCist guide to the 2009 Gold Cup.

Planning on using your day off to make a stop at the Genius Bar or finally pick up that new iPhone? Might want to head to Pentagon City, instead. NBC4 is reporting some kind of armed robbery occurred at the Apple Store in Clarendon, located in the 2700 block of Clarendon Boulevard, this morning, though details are still scant. At least one person is reported to have been injured. We'll update when we hear more.

When a woman offers two strangers $20,000 to dine with her for an evening, there's naturally got to be a catch. But in Jose Rivera's , being given a thoughtful, intimate staging by Rorschach Theatre Company, none of the cliche scenarios and hypotheticals that may have popped into the mind apply to what's about to happen to this trio of women from disparate, if equally desperate backgrounds.

Writing the Morning Roundup is always something of a pleasure, because I know that I'll be the first one to get some of our legendary commenters riled up. (After the lost-dog post earlier this week, though, I don't know how much more riled up they could get.) But today is a federal holiday and the start of a long and glorious weekend, and even some of our more prolific comment scribes may be taking some time to spend with the family, pay some bills or bathe. Which means I can say anything without consequence. All you Real World haters should lay off. I actually like the D.C. cupcake fad. The idea of 24-hour Metro is ridiculous. Heller's Bakery in Mt. Pleasant needs to make something good that's not bagels and donuts. Radiohead is just an OK band. Wonderland is still a pretty fun neighborhood bar. What you got, commenters? Have a great Fourth of July, everyone.

       

As we noted in Go Home Already, the cast members of the Real World house officially made their way to their new Dupont Circle home today. And I was not the only "reporter" waiting for them on the corner of 20th and S Streets NW. There was videoblogger elizabethany and her friend, along with self-proclaimed soon-to-be blogger Martin, who was keeping us informed of all the latest RWDC news (presumably via tweets from #RealWorldDCNEWZ), and a couple of other random stalkers. They brought me up to speed on what I'd missed a couple of hours earlier, principally that six cast members had arrived, without much fuss at all, despite some reports to the contrary.

>> And I, for one, welcome our new Real World overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted DCist blogger, I can be helpful in rounding up others to be spoken about carelessly in their camera-laden confession caves.