Arts and Events: June 2008 Archives

Photo by volcanojw

If you made it out to Mission of Burma's show at the Black Cat on Saturday night, it's likely you're still hearing those songs running through your head. If that's the case, it's probably because you can hear little else. The band may now be firmly entrenched in middle age, but don't tell them that there's a mellowing process that's supposed to go along with reaching your 50s. Saturday's show was quite possibly the loudest we've ever heard at the Black Cat, as Burma showed all the young 'uns just how to blow the roof off a venue. Fans close to the stage would have done well to ask guitarist Roger Miller to borrow an extra set of earplugs.

>> Provided any passing storms don't interfere, Fort Reno is back tonight. Indie rockers and Three Stars alums Bellman Barker are playing in the top slot, with the countryish The Moderate and jazz-punk experimentalists Gestures kicking things off. Free, 7:15 p.m.

Those of you interested in questions of population growth and its relationship to female sexual autonomy will want to catch Robert Engelman, vice president for programs at the Worldwatch Institute, as he discusses his new book, More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want, at Busboys and Poets. 6:30 p.m.

There's a slight chance of showers in today's forecast. But hopefully, it won't be anything like the downpour that Flickr user c00lmarie caught on Saturday. This Frank Miller-esque shot was enough to get us to neurotically obsess about whether or not to tote an umbrella this morning. EXIF.

>> Civilian Art Projects opens two group shows focused on screen printing. Prints found in Screams & Screens will show vibrant colors and bold contrasts with multiple layers of patterns and screens intending to "pop" and "scream" at you. Process & Alchemy: New Directions and Alternative Processes in Screen-printing will show work from the Hand Print Workshop International based in Alexandria, VA. Look for pieces that experiment with different water based screen printing. Opening reception is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. with an after party at Comet from 10 until close.

When The City Veins first started in early 2007, they were a good band. A four piece with sincere musical ability, we took notice (and not just because one of them is also our Nats columnist). But after Adam Bayes exited the group, and left the remaining members, Aaron Tarr, Charles Gray and Spencer Vliet, to figure out how to turn themselves into an operative three piece, The City Veins became a really great band. It was in that transition that they started messing with time signatures and looking at things from a different perspective. They went from merely talented to really interesting. The three-man line up remains today; the band recently recorded a second EP and has booked a slew of shows for the next couple of months. At their recent CD release show at Iota, they even experimented a little more -- bringing on additional players to suddenly bump the trio up to a seven piece wall of sound. They're testing the waters and sticking to what they know best. And it's working for them.

"But wait...there's a second act?"

Sorry, Flickr users, today's Photo of the Day comes from a local whose achievement in the field of biological, if not photographic, excellence dusts all y'all suckers.

When Martin Puryear visited the National Gallery of Art last week for the press opening of his retrospective show, he spoke about how he grew up in Washington, and as a child would often visit the gallery. He didn’t imagine that one day the museum would host a large exhibition of his sculptures, but the works seem made for the space: the 36-foot-tall Ladder for Booker T. Washington reaches up into the rotunda of the West Building, and six sculptures in the East Building look as though they've been sitting there forever. Forty other works are located in the West Building.

It's not really a documentary. It's not exactly a memoir. It is ingenious and poetic. Frequently it's apeshit hilarious. But, like, what the hell is this thing?

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.

Editor's note: Have you missed our regular About Tonight feature over the last three days? Me too! I've been compiling our weekend and daily event picks for three years now, and am now looking for someone with a fresh take and a lot of enthusiasm to assist with these features. Are you the kind of person your friends always ask first to find out what's going on around town? Would you like to put that expertise to use as the Calendar Editor for DCist? Email sommer @ dcist.com.

>> Saturday, the Bobby Fisher Memorial Building, opens Girlish Ways: The Next Generation of Female Artists, a selection of twelve artists under the age of 35 who investigate how contemporary lifestyles affect and re-define the women of this generation. The exhibit explores youthful and mature concerns of the women involved, as well as how these women respond to their changing environments. See local graduates from American University, the Corcoran, and Towson graduate Lauren Bender, who will perform opening night. Sponsored by ArtCadeForum.com and the Pink Line Project, this is the last exhibit in the building. Opening reception from 7 to 10 p.m.

Today's photo of some passing traffic "across from the gallery" is brought to you by mzv with one of my favorite cameras, the Holga. It's the kind of camera that you never quite know what you're going to get when you take the image, and made of pretty much all plastic -- you can get them pretty cheap.

"I wanted to do a tribute to Shirley Scott, my mentor and a good friend who was very generous with me in my younger years."

Home to guerrilla art exhibits as well as the city's most famous art guerrilla, the Bobby Fisher Memorial Building at 1644 North Capitol Street NW is coming to a close, after tenants and landlord failed to renegotiate a lease.

The Smithsonian's annual Folk Life Festival begins today on the National Mall. It runs from June 25 to June 29, as well as July 2 to 6. Daytime events are open from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; special evening events begin at 6 p.m. when scheduled. Below are some of the highlights we've picked out, and we encourage you to check their full online schedule and map.

All three of the songs on The Moderate's release, AM/FM, show a very strong imprint from singer/guitarist Jim Dempsey and drummer Drew Marks' home state of North Carolina. From Dempsey's twangy drawl to the songs' seemingly heat and humidity laden relaxed tempo, there's no question where this band's roots lie. The blues that they evoke on "Lost Boy", "Rock and Roll" and "Blue Eyes and Barflies" could make your puppy cry.

Today's awesome catch by Flickr contributor Bullneck was taken during the Presidents Race at the Nationals game against the Angels last night. Looks like someone needs to school those guys on how to run standing up. EXIF

>> Local mainstays The Redd Brothers, led by vibist Chuck Redd and pianist Robert Redd, celebrate the release of their latest album tonight at Blues Alley. Tickets to the 8 and 10 p.m. sets are $18 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge.

Back in March we wrote about how the literary web site Hitotoki (pronounced hee toe toe key) was seeking submissions to launch a D.C. edition. Sadly it appears our post wasn't enough to give the site enough momentum.

There are documentaries that entertain and many more that educate, and there are plenty that grab you by the lapels and spout hummus-breath in your face about how you need to stop eating meat and trade your vulgar, barbarous combustion-powered vehicle in for a bike — today! Then there are the rare documentaries that prod you, subtly but insistently, to reexamine the way you’re living.

>> This edition of "The Beatdown" will be held at Geisha and feature the production prowess of Justus League member Khrysis (pictured). Joining him will be his Away Team compatriot, Sean Boog, as well as Kount Fif, Nick Da 1Da, Midas and DJ Nfinit. $10, 8 p.m.

It seems that yesterday's double rainbow was even more popular with our Flickr contributors than last week's double rainbow. But today's photo of Thomas Circle by Flickr contributor lehnermd gives us this great color (and the assurance that no enhancements have been done to this photo). EXIF

Those of you who caught Motel's performance at Unbuckled 7 will no doubt remember the scorching axe work of John Lee. The self-described "Chinese-Irishman" is a fixture on the local music scene, playing with a multitude of bands around town.

There has been no shortage of filmed analysis of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath during the last three years. And much of it has been quite good, particularly Spike Lee's sprawling (and riveting) four-hour documentary, When the Levees Broke, which also screened at SILVERDOCS this year. But one doesn't really realize what's missing from these other films until watching Trouble the Water, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin's take on the material, which is both harrowing and inspiring. And while it's Deal and Lessin's film, the special ingredient isn't something that the pair brought to the project themselves: footage from the ground and on the rising waters from the heart of New Orleans' Ninth Ward in the midst of the catastrophe.

New York's The Flail is a rarity in today's world in that they are an actual jazz band. While most ensembles are collections of musicians under the direction of a leader, or a group given a name solely for marketing purposes, the five members of this group have been a tight unit since their days as students at the Big Apple's New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music. This leads to another rarity in today's jazz world, a truly identifiable group sound, which will be on display tomorrow night at Blues Alley.

Middle Distance Runner has long been one of DCist's favorite local bands. They've been a Three Stars subject, an Unbuckled band, Unbuckled DJs, interview subjects countless times, recipe contributors and more to the site. And our main source of blog-space enjoyment always came from the wacky and wonderful Mr. Ian Glinka, the band's bassist. Through a note on MySpace this weekend, he announced that he's leaving the band.

>> If you happened to join us for Unbuckled 7, you're already familiar with v:shal kanwar, a local fixture in the burgeoning global electronica scene. He'll be joining the kindred spirits in Hypnotic Gurus for a decidedly South Asian-centric night of local music at the Black Cat's backstage. $10, 8 p.m.

The first full length album and follow up to Wake Up, Wake Up from D.C. foursome Red Racer covers a wide spectrum of sounds from early '80s ballads and '90s tunes of Tom Petty to radio-friendly post-punk outfits like Interpol. Front man Tom Townshend is a dead ringer for Paul Banks, and his unique and unusual vocals contribute to making this self-titled disc a complete polished pop package with no skipping necessary.

John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC and a political writer for The New York Times, will be at the Busboys and Poets in D.C. to discuss and sign copies of his new book, Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power. 7:30 p.m.

No roads may lead to Antarctica, but all longitude lines do. It's these lines that the continent's few residents have followed, from wherever they started, to their shared terminus at the bottom of the planet, stepping, as one resident puts it, "off the edge of the map." Werner Herzog has made a career out of films based on characters on the margins. Some are real, some are imagined, but nearly all of them are obsessives with tenuous grips on sanity and singular fascinations with often fantastical quests. It is inevitable, then, that Herzog's career would end up taking him to a continent where nearly every inhabitant is the potential star of a Herzog film. Where every character has quite intentionally gone to the margins and then over it.

It sounds like — if you’ll pardon the expression — something out of a movie: Junior Middleweight Champion fighter Kassim “The Dream” Ouma escapes the darkest of pasts to find his way from Africa to America, arrives penniless and unable to speak English, and within a year he’s a professional fighter with a surrogate family, money in his pockets, and a smile on his face that makes you like him before you know anything about him.

If the measure of a good film is that you're still thinking about it days later, then In the Family is the best movie I've seen all year. But in no small way was this documentary, directed by filmmaker Joanna Rudnick, more or less tailor made to hit someone like me square in the jaw. Rudnick, all of 27 when she first began this film five years ago, chronicles her own personal decision making process after testing positive for one of the BRCA gene mutations -- the genes that predict an excessively high risk of developing hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer. Rudnick's mother had ovarian cancer, her grandmother had breast cancer, and thanks to advances in medical science, she now knows she's more than likely to get one or both of those over the course of her lifetime. Many women who have tested positive for the mutation have opted to have their breasts and ovaries removed to eliminate the risk of cancer. But when you're still young, unmarried and want to have children one day, what do you do?

The four guys in Sloan have always seemed like affable, well-adjusted fellows, which is a good thing, because if I were in that band, keeping my resentment at bay would probably be a full-time job. Canadian bands, even ones that share Sloan's affinity for 70s A.M. gold, are all the rage now, but in the mid-90s, when this Halifax, Nova Scotia quartet was trying to get their bright, hooky power-pop heard south of the border, post-Neil Young Canadian music in the U.S. had a name, and it was Alanis. Sloan had the misfortune to be an upbeat band that emerged right around the time grunge was insisting to everyone in earshot that rock and roll was a grim, serious business. But anybody who likes bright melodies, sing-songy choruses, and insistent power chords is a strong candidate for the Cult of Sloan.

FRIDAY:

Flickr user mosley.brian had several strong contenders for today's PotD (especially this one and this one), but we're going with his "Well Placed Duck" because despite the durability of the simile "like water off a duck's back," these wily waterfowl just don't get the credit they deserve for their casual, unrelenting badassitude. Gaze at this fella and rest assured, Kimosabe, that like the abyss, he's gazing right back into you. EXIF.

At the outset of Lost Holiday, a charming, funny, and almost unintentionally political documentary out of the Czech Republic, director Lucie Králová rather cheekily declares the film, via the opening credits, to be a "detective documentary." It's a touch that borders on precious, and a tone that continues in the often wry intertitles that mark time throughout the "investigation" that is the film's subject. What they're trying to detect are the identities of six men who they know only through photographs. A man that Králová meets through an art project in which she was involved happened upon a suitcase in a dumpster in a run-down neighborhood near Sweden's Göteberg airport. Inside there was nothing but a plastic bag containing 22 rolls of undeveloped film. He had them processed, and found himself with over 700 photos of six Asian men on what appeared to be a holiday throughout Scandinavia. What Králová wanted to know is if it's possible, in the interconnected world we now live in, to track down these men based solely on what they can glean from their photographs.

“I want war. I don’t want peace,” says German armored-car merchant Fidelis Cloer at the beginning of Bulletproof Salesman. An hour later, in the doc’s final moments, he offers a slightly more nuanced view, pointing out that he did nothing at all to instigate or sustain the protracted conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan than have proved such a windfall for his company. As he puts it, Coca-Cola and Burger King have been doing good business in Iraq, too. “The difference is, we do not have to create demand for our product,” he observes.

Artomatic is over, and the summer art season is settling in. While now is usually the time when most galleries close their doors or throw together a two-month group exhibition, there are surprisingly still a number of openings and events on the horizon in the coming weeks.

When the biggest names in jazz come to D.C., they generally play Blues Alley or the Kennedy Center, choosing the sterility of Georgetown or the concert hall setting and thereby only increasing the separation between jazz and the community from which it originated. But back in jazz's heyday, if you wanted to hear the best jazz in the District, you had to go to U Street. Unfortunately, with the death of Dr. King and the riots that followed, U Street's jazz scene burned along with the rest of the once vibrant community. Over the past decade, things have changed and U Street is once again abuzz with the sound of live jazz. One club above all reflects the ups and downs of U Street as a whole, and that club is Bohemian Caverns.

The F Yeah Tour began as a music, comedy, and arts fest held in L.A. every summer, and this year it's going on tour, on a bus run by vegetable oil. Seven bands, mostly sharing a cut-and-paste DIY sensibility, played at the Black Cat last night: DCist fave Dan Deacon, Matt and Kim, The Death Set, Team Robespierre, Monotonix, Mannequin Men, and comedian Josh Fadem. The event also featured a table with voter registration, information about Burma, zines and graphic novels. Before it was over, the crowd was carrying drummers and drums, running around in circles, and moving through a snake made out of their outstretched arms.

In case you hadn't noticed, SILVERDOCS is in full swing now, and it's been occupying all of our film-going attention this week. While D.C. has no shortage of film festivals throughout the year, there is none as good as SILVERDOCS, so we have trouble thinking of movies in any other terms while the festival is occupying Silver Spring. It's also an endurance test just trying to see all the films one wants to in the one week festival window. We've found ourselves in crowded theaters writing reviews or watching screeners on our laptops while in between films. We've made the Sophie's Choice between seeing a movie we've really been looking forward to and actually going home to get some sleep. We've also experienced the lonely harsh flourescents of the post-midnight S2 bus back into D.C. Amid growing fatigue from all the movie watching, wondered what any quasi-journalist in an event setting would: WWHTD? (What would Hunter S. Thompson do?) And, faced with the obvious answer, we've lamented the lack of a ready source for mescaline on the streets of downtown Silver Spring.

Director Alex Gibney (who we interviewed earlier this year) is making a mounting case for a future legacy as the first great documentarian of the 21st century. Hot on the heels of his incisive investigations into the collapse of a major corporation and the collapse of America's wartime moral compass, Gibney has switched gears. Rather than going after an entity whose misdeeds he feels are in dire need of being exposed, he has made what will likely be seen as the definitive filmed biography of the life of someone who was similarly dedicated to exposing the sleaze of the evildoers: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.

If you were not lucky enough to see the wonderful rainbow(s) yesterday, have no fear Flickr contributor brandonwu managed to get this fantastic shot from the artomatic building. It also seems like a few other DC photographers had their cameras with them too. Check out the pool for even more rainbow photos. EXIF

It takes a nerd showing up for things to really get going in Shakespeare Theater's production of .

With the recent cinematic dramatizations of the life of Che Guevara, from his early days as a road tripping med student in the excellent The Motorcycle Diaries to Steven Soderbergh's lengthy version of his revolutionary years in the four and a half hour biopic that just premiered at Cannes, an unusual perspective was obviously necessary to any documentary version of his story to keep it from seeming stale or overly academic in comparison. And the makers of Chevolution have done just that, constructing a history of the man that not only succeeds in avoiding either blind lionization or reactionary condemnation, but also looks at him with the lens through which we most often see him. Literally.

Laura Burhenn has a beautiful voice. Pure, strong, clear, emotive. I've heard her live many times before, both as part of Georgie James and in solo performances, but her voice may never have sounded so astoundingly lovely as it did inside the acoustically perfect Sixth & I Historic Synagogue last night. And when Adele took the stage after her opener, she put the talented Burhenn to shame.

Little people have been a comedy staple for years. Most humor in the area tends to stem from the disconnect between the psychological desire of bigger people to in some ways infantilize little people, and the reality of their being just like anyone else, only smaller. The theory goes, you show a little person who might involuntarily make the brain's "cute" receptors fire, and then show them swearing, smoking cigars, or being embarrassingly libidinous, and you've struck comedy gold. Their association with circuses and carnivals is longstanding as well, though before circuses realized their comedic potential they were mostly relegated to "freak" status in the sideshow.

MOVIE: SILVERDOCS, night 2. We're particularly intrigued by My Life Inside (7:30 p.m.), a story about one woman's experiences with bigotry within the legal system in Texas, and the different sides of our country's culture that it reveals. We're willing to bet, however, that the evening's big draw will be Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (9:30 p.m.), "a fitting testament to the controlled chaos of its larger-than-life subject." Check out our guide to SILVERDOCS for some tips on how to get into the movies you want to see.

Oh, snap. cstein96 reminds us all that bathing suit season has arrived. If you haven't yet shed those winter pounds and ounces, you better grab an extra t-shirt on the way to the beaches and swimming pools. And while you're at it, stear clear of Q Street as well, because there is a weight limit in effect. Ouch. EXIF.

>> Tenor saxophonist and local native Elijah Balbed leads a group tonight at Twins Jazz. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information.

As you probably noticed from our first review this morning, the SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival is now underway in Silver Spring, Md. The festival runs beginning today through Monday, June 23, and presents 108 documentary films over the course of the week. Now in its sixth year, SILVERDOCS is by far and away the classiest and best run film festival the D.C. metro area has to offer, and DCist will be crawling all over the Downtown Silver Spring complex over the next several days to bring you our best bets for what you shouldn't miss.

MUSIC: Adele's got talent that betrays her years. Check out Svetlana over at BYT's interview with the young Brit, and get yourself to the 6th & I Synagogue this evening. 8:30 p.m.

Brad Oscar and J. Fred Shiffman are the newest odd couple to hit the D.C. stage in Arena’s The Mystery of Irma Vep. And they pull it off twice in one night, first matching wits as a pursed-lipped housekeeper and a gauche stableman, then as a histrionic former actress and her brooding Egyptologist husband. Along the way, they don the roles of tomb guide, ancient mummy and mysterious intruder to boot.

>> Bobbito Garcia's last time in town was a beautiful exploration of Stevie Wonder's catalog. Today, he'll be teaming up with locally-based rapper/producer/DJ, Roddy Rod at Liv for "Sole(ism)", a launch party for the Artistic-Sole shoe design outfit. $8 in advance/$12 at the door, 8 p.m.

Flickr user andertho gives us this very moody image of the air force memorial close up. While it's being debated on his page if the sky is real, I'm going to have to say with the weather that the District has been having as of late that this is indeed a real sky. EXIF

Combining the music of the most beloved band in the world with the most visually arresting live performance troupe working today seems like a surefire recipe for a hit. That's probably what the late George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté thought when they first dreamed up the concept for Love, the Beatles-themed show that premiered in Las Vegas in 2006; and it's surely what director Adrian Wills imagined when he signed up to make All Together Now, a feature length documentary about the making of the show. You mean I get to use a soundtrack by The Beatles and film talented acrobats performing amid elaborate, colorful stage decorations? Wills must have thought. Where do I sign?

Let the joyous news be spread, the wicked old arsenic is finally dead. It's been a trying year for Fort Reno's summer concert series; from the initial panic to the slow realization that there was nothing actually to worry about, it's time to "dust off the arsenic," as Fort Reno's organizer Amanda MacKaye put it. The 2008 schedule has been officially announced, and it's looking like a great summer.

Even though it literally rained on our Capital Pride parade this year, the spirit of celebration certainly wasn't dampened. Here's just a few of our favorite shots from the DCist Flickr pool.

Firewater was birthed in a Brooklyn basement in the long, hot summer of 1997. Depressed, broke, and desperate, ex-Cop Shoot Cop leader Tod A tossed away a major label deal and a free meal ticket to launch what - at the time - was a crazy proposition: a punk band fueled by gypsy and klezmer tunes. He wanted to combine the mystery and melodrama of these tragic-comic sounds with the energy of his first love: punk rock. Ten years later, Tod left everything he knew behind and hit the road. Recording with just a single microphone and a laptop, he captured performances with a vast array of musicians across India, Pakistan, Turkey and Israel. Bhangra and sufi percussion would form the basis for a new batch of songs he wrote along the way, and the result is The Golden Hour and the return of one of punk's most interesting bands.

With Frog Eyes and Evangelicals, both of whom have impressed DCist reviewers in the recent past. $12, 8 p.m.

With long horizontal strides, wide smiles that reached the upper tier of Strathmore’s grand 2,000-seat concert hall, and arms fully outstretched at an angle to either side, the CityDance Ensemble began , the final performance of their 2007-2008 season. Farmer boys were clad in jeans and flannel shirts; farmers’ daughters sported flowing frocks. Moving briskly in rows from stage right to stage left, they resembled the moving targets of one of those amusement park midway games in their passing uniformity.

After enjoying a sea of colorful photos of this weekend's Pride Parade, something about this solitary, black and white shot of the Euclid Market struck us. User Sanjay Suchak positions the market set apart from everything else, the light above calling extra attention to the structure. EXIF

Jonathan Miles will be at the Olsson's in Dupont Circle to talk about his novel, Dear American Airlines, the story of a man stuck at Chicago's O’Hare airport with thousands of other passengers who decides to write a complaint letter. 7 p.m.

>> If you're going to spend some of your hard-earned money out at a bar or music venue tonight, why not make it in support of a good cause? Check out our interview with Deleted Scenes and Caverns ahead of tonight's Callum Robbins benefit at the Black Cat.

Area dance company CityDance Ensemble wraps up a busy season tonight with The Songwriters, a tribute to some of America’s greatest songwriters including Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, and Bruce Springsteen.

The local music community has come together several times over the past year and a half to support Callum Robbins, the son of local music mainstay J. Robbins and Janet Morgan. Cal was diagnosed with a genetic motor neuron disease called Type 1 SMA, or Spinal Muscular Atrophy. As explained on the DeSoto records page supporting Cal,

The disease affects the brain's ability to communicate with the voluntary muscles that are used for activities such as crawling, walking, head and neck control, breathing, and swallowing. Type 1 SMA is usually fatal; most Type 1 babies will die before their second birthday. Those infants who survive into childhood are in for a long road of occupational therapy, wheelchairs, and assistive devices. Despite years of work on its treatment and "ongoing promising research," it has no cure.

In addition to being incredibly difficult to deal with, it's also an incredibly expensive condition to treat and manage. Cal has surpassed the odds and is past the two year mark, which is amazing news. But he still needs some help! Deleted Scenes (former Three Stars subject and Unbuckled band), Caverns, The Bakerton Group and Hammer No More the Fingers are getting together tonight to hold another benefit show at the Black Cat to raise money for Cal's continued care. Here's what Kevin from Caverns had to say about Cal's current condition:

Cal is doing very well for the moment. J., like any proud parent, is always relating stories of amazing things Cal does and how resilient he has been throughout his young life. According to the literature on SMA, a huge milestone for an afflicted child is his or her second birthday. The mortality rate is very high prior to that time, so the fact that Cal has passed that age is a huge deal. However, even during relative "good times" life with SMA is extremely difficult due to the limited mobility it creates, the need for constant assistance supervision for the child, and the amount of physical therapy involved to keep the child's muscle strength and motor skills from declining. This is why doing a benefit show like the one on Friday can actually make a difference, because the day to day cost of care for a child like Cal really piles on top the normal expenses any family must endure. Every little bit friends can do to help offset that expense helps Cal lead a healthier and happier life.

Because you all have hearts, you're probably convinced at this point to come to the Black Cat tonight, or at least to make a donation. But if you're not, a lighthearted band-on-band interview between a couple guys from Deleted Scenes and Caverns is after the jump.

In case you haven't noticed, it's Capital Pride week here in D.C. The 33rd annual celebration of all things LGBT in the nation's capital culminates in a parade tomorrow and the street festival on Sunday.

Friday the 13th is day when everything goes all rubbery. Flickr user spinfly shows us this building on the Georgetown waterfront -- one that's never leaped out at us as being particularly arresting -- in a way that makes it look like an H.R. Giger-designed spaceship.EXIF.

With June inevitably comes summer music. We're not just talking about the catchy pop singles you blast on your car radio with the windows rolled down, but also the songs that seem to drift from the speakers during those late-night talks with your friends on somebody's porch. Washington D.C.'s The Fairline Parkway exists in that dreamy space inhabited by bands such as Yo La Tengo and Grizzly Bear, where slide guitars mingle with the occasional horn section. If you know exactly what we're talking about, The Fairline Parkway's new album, A Memory of Open Spaces, should be your summer soundtrack.

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.

This week, some of the D.C. area’s best nonprofit and alternative art spaces push their boundaries in ways that commercial spaces often don’t. Get out your thinking caps and your love for interesting discussion, and mark these dates, times and locations in that day planner of yours.

READING: Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, will make an appearance at Politics and Prose to talk about his latest novel, The Garden of Last Days. 7 p.m.

So you were at the big R.E.M. show last night?

It's not everyday that The Sugarhill Gang, Sisqo, and Dru Hill are hanging around a party at a house in D.C.'s Chinatown. The artists were in town yesterday to lobby, not for thongs or hip hopping to hippie, but for the Performance Rights Act, which would give terrestrial broadcast royalties to performers of songs. Currently songwriters and composers get royalties.

Today's photo, brought to you by Flickr contributor sally henny penny, was taken out on Fletcher's boathouse dock with all of their kayaks out under the moonlight. While the EXIF Data says it was taken it 4:31 p.m., it looks like it was taken much later in the evening.

National Geographic is kicking China Revealed this week, a series that centers around two museum exhibitions which run from today through September 7, and a film program paired to each exhibit. Tonight, there's a presentation to introduce the museum's exhibit on the early 15th century Chinese explorer Zheng He; Friday at noon, the museum screens a documentary following National Geographic photographer Mike Yamashida as he retraces many of Zheng's travels. And tomorrow, there's a presentation to introduce an exhibit featuring unprecedented photographs and video of the famed Shaolin Temple. The film program to accompany the Shaolin Temple exhibit is truly a treat, as National Geographic will screen a triple feature of three of the most famous films inspired by the temple.

MUSIC: There's still plenty of tickets available to see R.E.M., Modest Mouse and The National at Merriweather tonight. So many, in fact, that it's pretty easy to scare up some below market prices for them on Craigslist. Regular tickets cost $40-$75, but we're seeing half-priced resale in many listings. We know the venue is far away, but these are three fantastic bands, so take advantage. 6:30 p.m.

>> Peter Hadar's skills and versatility as an artist have caused a lot of people to take notice, especially his peers. He's on the road in support of his sophomore release, Fresh Attire. His set will take place at Bohemian Caverns. $TBA, 8 p.m.

READING: Sure to be a hot ticket tonight: former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s appearance at Politics and Prose, where he'll read from What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, his new tell-all that's chapped a lot of hides in the Bush administration over the last few weeks. McClellan will read and discuss his book at 7 p.m. Knowing how many political junkies usually show up for readings at P&P, we'd suggest a very early arrival.

While the Nationals may not be having the most stellar season in their new home, Flickr contributor michael starghill gets this great image of Garrett Mock in his major league debut. The Nationals went on to drop this game to the San Fransisco Giants 6-3. EXIF

>> One of the freshest jazz drummers to emerge in the past decade, Ari Hoenig leads a burnin' trio through 8 and 10 p.m. sets on Wednesday at Blues Alley. Tickets are $20 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge.

Local actress/poet/dancer Neelam Patel’s first foray into the arts was through the world of dance, training and performing in the classical Indian styles of Bharatanatyam and Odissi. An injury forced her to take a hiatus from dancing and in order to feed her creative hunger, she began taking acting classes at Studio Theater, Dody Desanto's movement-based classes at The Center, as well as classes in New York. Patel also became a regular at the numerous open mics that take place throughout the city, at venues such as Bar Nun and Bohemian Caverns. These experiences led to performances in The Vagina Monologues, a television pilot, and several short films.

Robert Scheer will be at Politics and Prose to discuss his book, The Pornography of Power. If you swapped those words around, you'd have an entirely different book. 7 p.m.

>> Their Narrow Stairs album made its debut at No. 1 in the SoundScan chart a few weeks back, but are they No. 1 in our hearts? Eventually, the Death Cab comes for us all, but tonight it's just for Cutie. Bay-area Sub Pop alums Rogue Wave open the big show at Merriweather. Stay hydrated; it's gonna be hot out there. $25-$40, 7:30 p.m.

When a band is finishing up their tour, one of two things tend to happen. The band will either completely cash in the performance due to exhaustion or really give the audience a set to remember. Honestly, Brooklyn's White Rabbits probably could've phoned in the performance and due to the strength of the material on last year's breakout album Fort Nightly and nobody would've been able to tell. However, when they started the set with their percussion-heavy and unreleased track "Sea of Rome," and singer/keyboardist Stephen Patterson, picked up the drumsticks, his face read that there was nothing he'd rather be doing.

at Woolly Mammoth will largely be dictated by your tolerance of puns.

FRIDAY:

What better way to celebrate the release of your band's new album than by taking the stage at Iota? How about sharing that celebration with two other local bands who are doing the very same thing. Tonight, Arlington's great little venue is hosting the CD release parties for three very talented local bands — The City Veins, Julie Ocean and Yell County. We asked each of the bands a few questions about their albums. See what they had to say and get an idea of what you can expect tonight.

The Harlem Renaissance comes alive in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s newest show, Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist. The exhibit consists of eighty works including paintings, murals, prints and book illustrations that are a testament to Douglas’s range of talent and his contributions to modern American art.

It's gonna be a hot one today, kids, and a hotter one tomorrow. Sounds like a great weekend to go to the movies -- or perhaps to stay in for some DIY fun with projected light. Shutterbug c00lmarie shows us how it's done. EXIF.

Just in time for D.C.'s hot, humid weather, Randall Scott Gallery presents photographs by Sarah Wilmer, who's work offers a cool, dewy refuge from the heat and humidity found on the city's streets.