Arts and Events: July 2008 Archives

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

FASHION: Head over to the trunk show for the launch of artist and designer Billy Colbert's new line of "urban pop" men's and women's wear, Policy. Union Row at 2125 14th Street NW, 6 to 8 p.m., sponsored by The Pink Line Project.

>> Project 4 presents to you the childhood of Gina Tibott. She dug up the backyard of the home she grew up in, for a (gruesome?) rediscovery of her deceased pets. Using her archeology training, she carefully retrieved the bones and proceeded to photograph this lost culture. No opening reception, so see the remnants for yourself at during regular gallery hours, Wed. - Fri. 2 - 6 p.m., Sat. 12 - 6 p.m. and by appointment.

Who needs real game pieces when you have enough black and white rocks laying around?  Flickr user static-photo captures an intense bit of strategizing during a makeshift checkers game in Oxford, MD.  Only a few moves into the game, it's time to decide whether to play defense against the encroaching enemy or launch a full-scale offensive maneuver.  If you have the itch for some indoor 8x8-board action this weekend, head to the U.S. Chess Center on Sunday for for the Sunday quad tournament.  EXIF.

A few months ago we profiled the Black and White Jacksons, who may have been our first Three Stars profile with a member from a former (and defunct) Three Stars subject. Now we bring you another DCist first: a band with members from not one, but three former Three Stars veterans. Cobra Collective may have only come into existence in late 2007, but if something about their sound is just a wee bit familiar, it's because they've picked up a few members of The Bonapartes (including the distinctive voice), The Third Programme, and Death By Sexy.

READING: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue tonight to talk about her book, Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters. 7 p.m. Admission is $23.95, which includes the book and 2 tickets to the book talk. Call co-sponsor Politics & Prose at 202-364-1919 to see if any tickets remain.

Our Nation’s Capitol has seen a lot more of the emancipated Rhett Miller in recent years than it has of his band, Old 97s. Miller may write most of the songs for the hard-charging country-pop-punkabilly quartet, but somehow he’s only about one–eleventh as interesting when he doesn’t have Murry Hammond singing harmony and Ken Bethea blasting out those vibrato flurries of surf licks. The pretty boy with the eyelashes really needs his grayer, gruffer bandmates to toughen him up.

Though we'll have a real review of the Old 97's for you later today, we're happy to feature this photograph for today's PotD. Flickr user erin m brought her point-and-shoot to take this image that gives a good vantage point of the sold-out crowd at the 9:30 Club. EXIF.

>> Local saxophonist Stan Killian will be performing at Twins Jazz tonight and tomorrow. His group features Harry Appleman, one of the finest pianists in the area, and the Thursday night show will double as a fundraiser for Barack Obama's presidential bid. Call 202-234-0072 or visit the campaign web site for more information.

>> Charlotte native Calvin Richardson will be at the Birchmere in Alexandria. $35, 7 p.m.

MUSIC: Bottles/Cans have earned headliner status after countless opening gigs. They'll be on the Black Cat's backstage, with Hello Society and The Ivorys. $8, 8:30 p.m.

My ears are still ringing. Why? Well, because 12 hours ago MGMT finished their sold out show at 9:30 Club. Overall, it was great; the kind of show that D.C. needs to see on a more frequent basis. Before we get into the particulars, let's talk about some numbers. A sold out show at 9:30 Club is 1,200 people, times $15 a ticket, is $18,000. Not a bad haul for MGMT, the openers and the club. But they were not the only ones who profited from the gig. While the tickets originally sold for $15, on the night of the show they were selling on Craigslist for asking prices of up to $150. A memorable ticket request for the concert read, "Wanted-2 MGMT tix-Won't pay more than $60. Don't be a greedy prick-$60." Sadly, the logic of that plea was lost on the majority of latecomers, and many Greedy Pricks got their way.

Flickr user rockcreek took a photo of this interesting house on Fourth Street NW, aptly comparing it to Edward Hopper's The Lonely House. The commenters discuss what could have led to the house being left all by itself in the middle of the block, so we'll inquire to our readers: what's going on here? Did the other houses fall down? Was Lonely House built by an eccentric who preferred traveling vertically rather than horizontally? Perhaps the first owner just smelled really bad?

The afternoon got off to an ominous start with the skies opening and rain pouring down, eerily reminiscent of an earlier concert going debacle. Thankfully, the rain stopped, as if coaxed by the uplifting music of the Bob Marley Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival, held this past Sunday at Wolf Trap. But let's face it, even if the rain had continued, it would have had little effect on those at the show, because no one could feel down while listening to music that exudes such joy and sunshine. Unfortunately, the deluge did prevent us from seeing the festival's opening act, local reggae outfit Soldiers of Jah Army, but the remainder of the concert had everyone singing along to some of the most well-known songs ever written.

>> If you haven't heard them by now, you should; MGMT plays 9:30 Club with the enigmatic openers Violens and Kuroma. Sadly the show has been sold out for weeks, but if you're independently wealthy you can still go. Look for a crowd composed of everyone from hipsters to Gossip Girl fans. Their big singles, "Time to Pretend" and "Electric Feel", are sure to have everyone singing along. Doors at 7, MGMT at 10.

If there's a singular take-away point from Sunday's Rock the Bells show, it's that hip-hop has built up enough cache over the years to warrant a day-long concert attended by folks ranging from their teens to those with gray hairs in their goatees, at near capacity levels. That's impressive.

MOVIE: The weather should be really lovely tonight for outdoor activities, so expect Screen on the Green to be well attended. Tonight's feature is Arsenic and Old Lace, Frank Capra's terrific 1944 thriller starring Cary Grant as a newlywed writer who discovers that his aunts have been killing off older bachelors in their town, and that another member of the family may be even more insane. At sunset on the National Mall.

Flickr user esshots took the chance this weekend to capture three kayakers enjoying their Sunday on the Potomac River. The red and yellow contrast brilliantly -- as if the yellows are on the lam from the red. We hope your weekend was full of similarly pleasurable activities. (Not running from authority figures, of course.) EXIF.

Michaele Weissman will be at Politics and Prose to talk about God in a Cup, Weissman’s investigation of coffee at every stage of its production, marketing and consumption. 7 p.m.

Jordan's performance was in support of his latest album, State of Nature, his first major label release in over a decade. Always a thinker's musician, the album contains a mix of original compositions and standards, with each song reflecting a different aspect of Jordan's commentary on the state of the natural world and our place in it. He performed solo for much of the concert, but for several tunes his rhythm section was comprised of slick bassist Charnett Moffet and muscular drummer Kenwood Dennard.

This year’s Wall Mountables at the DC Arts Center holds some true surprises. At first glance, this annual fundraising show looks like round two of Artomatic—with less walking, fewer bands, and of course, much less space. Stick around awhile though, and you start to appreciate the wealth of talent hanging side-by-side salon-style: some new faces, some familiar, and some touching and brilliant work.

FRIDAY:

Over the past several years, there has been an explosion of local dance companies specializing in South Asian dance. Organizations like SAPAN, Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh, Natyam, Dhoonya, and others are not only presenting the gamut of Indian dance, from the popular Bollywood to traditional forms, but are also looking to break new ground by fusing the classical styles of South Asia and the West. The Tehreema Mitha Dance Company is one such ensemble and is presenting its latest effort to cross boundaries with South Asian American Dance, a show currently running at The Capital Fringe Festival.

Such is the famous Chinese-boxes construction of Peter Weiss's The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, mercifully abbreviated as Marat/Sade.

Have plans for the weekend? How about taking advantage of one of D.C.'s public swimming pools? (Free for residents!) This swimming pool, captured by Flickr user akkleis is too serious. It's just begging for someone to come along and break the calm surface with a huge cannon ball. Last one in's a rotten egg!

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

Not many exhibit openings this week, but that doesn't stop the galleries from throwing big parties for any reason they can find. Keep reading for derby arm wrestling, two concerts from our three star alums, DJs, poetry readings, and of course, tons of (mostly) free alcohol.

MUSIC: It's the best night of the Fort Reno season: the Night of 1,000 Cakes! Bring a cake to share or eat a cake someone else brought; there's usually plenty of cake to go around. Also, Statehood, Imperial China, and Tsarina. 7:15 p.m.

Some bands are just better than others at reducing the barrier between band and audience. Sometimes it’s by engaging specific audience members in conversation, like Ted Leo, or actually playing in the middle of the floor, like Dan Deacon and a couple of his other F Yeah compatriots. The Mae Shi, who actually played alongside Dan Deacon for Whartscape Festival this past weekend, share that same philosophy of engaging the audience by moving amongst them. They do this better than most, and before the end of their set, they had brought the audience, literally, to their knees.

Should we talk about the weather?  Flickr user brandonwu captures an unfortunate soul dealing with a flooded basement resulting from last night's storm.  Does the sweeper wonder if the storm could have been prevented if the global emission decline curve had a slightly steeper slope? Or maybe he just found a cool T-shirt.  EXIF.

Slash Coleman Has Big Matzo Balls is weird. Weird. But that’s because Slashtipher J. Coleman is weird.

MUSIC: Local MC Christylez Bacon performs at Strathmore's outdoor summer concert series. The first hip-hop artist to be featured as a Strathmore Artist-in-Residence, Christylez's backing band includes some of the area's top young jazz and classical musicians. 7 p.m. Free.

         

Written by DCist contributor Nathaniel Poteet. Photos by Ryan Holloway for DCist.

, despite having won a Pulitzer, is a play that's hard to appreciate on anything more than an intellectual level. It's clear the author's intent (mostly a commentary on the devastation of war and how we're destined to repeat our mistakes). There are more than a few clever literary allusions, many of them Biblical. The play's dour, end-of-the-world message certainly resonates in contemporary times. And you have to give the playwright credit for being "meta" long before the term was popularized, as he teasingly toys with narration, setting the show in a play within a play where it's easy to forget he's doing so until we're abruptly interrupted by the musings of a histrionic actress.

"Porky, The Litter Eater" here was captured by Flickr user Kyle Walton, during a trip to Cabin John Park. If you haven't been to this regional park in Montgomery County, maybe you should stop by this summer to take advantage of the hiking trails, outdoor concerts, numerous athletic fields, classes galore, and even ice skating. In July! Porky here keeps the grounds clean, and I have to wonder if setting up a couple Porkies around D.C. might nip our litter problem in the bud. Who'd rather throw their soda can on the ground when they can stuff it in a nice fat pig? EXIF.

>> Local jazz/soul singer Kenny Wesley will be performing Thursday night at Twins Jazz. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information.

, a smart offering from this year's Capital Fringe Festival, takes such sentiments to heart, and presents a meditation on the power of pictures through a theatrical lens.

MUSIC: I like to listen to the The Ting Tings while I fold my laundry, because I hate folding laundry, and The Tings Tings have a way of making sad rooms just a little bit happier. The UK indie pop duo are at the 9:30 Club tonight, with local DJ par excellence Will Eastman. $15, doors at 7 p.m., and tickets are still available.

Hey, David Gaines! It's not you, Baby. It's me.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund exists to help comics artists and merchants who fall victim to dubious obscenity law prosecutions, like the one that anchors the premise of David Johnson's Busted Jesus Comics. While the Fringe Festival isn't supposed to have an ethos, really, Busted Jesus still feels like an ideal piece of material for it: The show is initially abrasive, almost daring you to form an lazy judgment of both the playwright and his central character. Stick with it, however, and Busted Jesus eventually shows its hand as a classic specimen of redemptive human drama.

Flickr user c00lmarie found this interesting angle at Union Station, capturing the awesome ceiling architecture behind the people eating "2 x 2 x 2." The live webcast of the Congressional hearing on the state of Union Station is still going on, though our Flickr contributor Erin McCann already did a fantastic job speaking about photographers' rights early in hearing. Keep your eye on the DC Photo Rights group and LightboxDC's blog for a recap. EXIF.

>> Following in her father's footsteps, Lalah Hathaway is a singer with a great deal of soul. She'll be at Wolf Trap's Filene Center in Vienna. $25-$40, 8 p.m.

MONDAY

A blaring fire alarm across the street, loss of power, and brief visit from MPD all preceded Kissey Asplund's performance at the newly opened Columbia Heights art/community space, BloomBars, Saturday night. Despite these potential setbacks, in addition to high humidity, Asplund held her own during her short set, where she was aided by DJ Apex and visual artist Shantell Martin.

MUSIC: Fort Reno has Ra Ra Rasputin, Pup Tent and North of Canada. 7:15 sharp, free.

at the Capital Fringe Festival, is a fascinating story performed by a compelling performer.

Can you guess where this is? No, it's not the German countryside - it's our very own District of Columbia. Flickr user philliefan99 caught this spectacular overhead of the Beach Drive tunnel through Rock Creek Park from the heights of the Duke Ellington Bridge. What, you mean you've never stopped to take a peek while rushing over to Adams Morgan for your Sunday morning hangover-cure of choice? (We have a feeling that this shot's accompanying contrast might be a view of the tunnel which many of you have seen more often.) EXIF.

Karen Dawn will be Thanking the Monkey at the Olsson's in Dupont Circle. No, that doesn't mean what you think. Dawn, who founded the animal advocacy media group DawnWatch.com, merely wants us to rethink the way we treat animals. For starters, chimpanzees want all you horrible sitcom and commercial writers out there to stop calling them monkeys. They're apes, dorks. 7 p.m.

, playing at Studio Theatre for the Capital Fringe Festival.

FRIDAY:

Unlike, for example, Art Enables, the gallery doesn't feature work by those who fall within their mission. Instead it plans to feature fine art by (mostly) established local artists, and has started things off nicely -- Tai Hwa Goh, who recently had a show at Flashpoint, was part of their inaugural show in May, while their current exhibition includes Michael Janis and Billy Colbert (we'll get to them in a minute). The "healing" part comes from the process of enjoying the art itself, supplemented with a full calendar of events, discussions, and workshops. When I stopped by on Wednesday, I interrupted a lecture for photographers on how to market their work and display in galleries, a workshop the gallery generously hosted for the Hamiltonian Gallery down the street, whose construction snags have their delayed opening for another month.

Flickr user LaTur shot an-otherwise mundane coffee shop scene and made it spectacular by capturing the afternoon light. The composition draws emphasis to the tiled floor. We love the yellow tones and long shadows that stretch across the vast white space of the floor. EXIF.

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

MOVIE: The James Bond Film Festival continues in NoMa tonight with Moonraker, one of the cheesiest of the Roger Moore Bond flicks. The plot finds 007 investigating the mid-air theft of a space shuttle and uncovering a plot to destroy all human life on Earth. Films are shown outdoors at the intersection of Florida and New York Avenues NE. 8 p.m.

>> 1460 Wall Mountables at the DCAC is a fun break from the standard gallery show. The walls are divided floor to ceiling in 2' x 2' squares, with first-come, first-served artists hanging whatever they can dream up to fill in the space. While the opening is this Friday, 7 to 9 p.m., hanging is going on right now. DCAC members got first pick, but open hanging started yesterday and goes right through tomorrow, until an hour before the reception (or until all the spaces are filled). Each square is $15, so grab your stuff and get down there between 3 and 8 p.m. today or 3 and 6 p.m. tomorrow.

can answer the hypothetical with a resounding, "Yes!"

The Revolution March over the weekend was billed as a "peaceful, non-violent march," and Flickr user afagan captures this Capitol Police officer on the hunt for potential rabble-rowsers.  What has he spotted amidst the sea of demonstrators?  More importantly, what's the over/under on the time it will take to ready the heavy artillery casually strewn along the ledge?  EXIF.

On April 20, 1939, Billie Holiday recorded the song Strange Fruit. Written by a Jewish schoolteacher, Abel Meeropol, it became an instant hit and to this day serves as a poignant protest song against injustice. It is also an example—along with images of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walking arm in arm with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma—of one of the more celebrated characteristics of the peculiar African-American/Jewish-American relationship: that of two groups bonded by a history of persecution working together to fight injustice.

       

The longrunning science fiction television phenomenon The X-Files will reappear after a six-year hiatus in a second film to be released in theaters next week. But the show that brought to life Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully and added "The Truth Is out There" and "I Want to Believe" to pop lexicon is also finally showing its age.

ART: The Katzen Arts Center has an opening reception tonight for the 2009 Visual Arts Applicants' Showcase. These artists are competing for $5000 Fellowships in the media and visual arts from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. 6:30 p.m.

>> Fiery trumpeter and Latin jazz legend Arturo Sandoval begins a four night stint at Blues Alley on Thursday. Few instrumentalists can claim his level of technical mastery and its sure to be on display all weekend. Tickets to the daily 8 and 10 p.m. sets are $43 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. Advance purchase required.

Okay, so this is the second "under bridge" PotD this week, but this image by Flickr user volcanojw was too good to pass up. The architecture of the Wilson Bridge creates bold lines as the construction crew works underneath. She took a landscape version that emphasizes the great curves of the pillars, but I like this one for its strong path to a vanishing point.

Editor's Note: An editorial mishap led to this week's music agenda being thrown together haphazardly this afternoon. Please add suggestions for things we missed in the comments.

MUSIC: Detroit-based Afro-funk ensemble Nomo play the Rock and Roll Hotel. Openers are Funk Ark and Deep Sang, with DJ Meistro. 8 p.m., $12.

At the intersection of today's American realities and mindboggling fictional dystopia sits Mike Daisey, at a table with a glass of water and a metal briefcase (yes, the one filled with irony). His monologue performance for the Fringe Festival at Woolly Mammoth Theatre is a stellar showcase of storytelling skills, bringing the audience along a trip through the desert to Trinity, the site of the first nuclear bomb test in Los Alamos, with a narrative woven around the history and build-up of today's massive "homeland security" system.

>> Ann Arbor, Michigan-based band Nomo will bring their highly regarded Afrobeat-influenced sound to the Rock and Roll Hotel. Opening for them will be Funk Ark, Deep Sang and DJ Meistro. $12, 8 p.m.

Sometimes it's hard to resist a good flower shot. Especially when it's brilliantly make-you-smile yellow that includes a drunk bee rolling around in his private cup o' pollen. Flickr user jbhaber caught this guy before he flew off to make our city a more colorful place (and to be honest, we just like checking up on them now and again.) EXIF.

The first two photographers, Kyoko Hamada and Tema Stauffer, will be on display until July 26. Hamada’s soft, still, white-framed images appear to be telling a story, and left us curious to see the full exhibition. Two of her images featured a contemplative character, still among his and her environs. In Teacup (pictured right), a middle-aged woman in enviable sunglasses and mother-like business attire holds a beige teacup and sits centered on a similarly beige couch, framed by translucent yellow window coverings. Hamada's work left us wondering if the additional photographs in her repertoire will tell us more about these characters, or are they simply portraits? Hamada’s counterpart, Tema Stauffer, displayed three beautiful nighttime gas station landscapes which, while lovely, don’t leave us quite as curious as Hamada’s.

MOVIE: Screen on the Green kicks off its 2008 season tonight! If you've never gone before, we recommend getting there about 60 to 90 minutes before the movie starts (which is usually at 8:30, though technically it starts "at sundown.") Tonight's film is the 1962 James Bond classic Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as the man himself, and Ursula Andress as arguably the hottest of all the Bond Girls, playing Honey Ryder. Bring blankets, picnics, wine, and don't forget to do the HBO Dance. Free.

The National Book Festival, which has become a flagship event for area bibliophiles, just announced its 2008 author line-up.

You know John Hefner, even if you don’t know him. He’s a total geek — a costume-dressing, trivia-spouting, shows-Ravenous-to-all-his-first-dates geek.

Flickr user Kevin H. contributed this fantastic shot of the 14th Street Bridge's steely underbelly, full of geometric goodness. It's a reminder in drabby green and grey that even the most everyday of objects have a innate complexity underneath. EXIF.

Ethan Canin, bestselling author of the The Palace Thief, will make an appearance at Politics and Prose to discuss America, America, a novel about America as it was and is. Or as Sam the Eagle would say, "It's a tribute to all nations, but mostly America." 7 p.m.

In sweltering humidity, Paul Taylor Dance Company took the stage at Wolf Trap’s open air theater on Tuesday night for an evening of modern dance. The only thing unpleasant about the two hour performance was the temperature, and even that was easy to ignore as Taylor’s dancers took to the stage.

FRIDAY:

Wednesday afternoon, the Smithsonian announced a call for architects to design the upcoming National Museum of African American History and Culture, to be erected in the five-acre space on Constitution Avenue between the Washington Monument and the Museum of American History. The building, which will occupy approximately 350,000 square feet, is expected to take three years to complete and cost $500 million. The full announcement is posted on FedBizOpps.gov.

Music that attempts to fuse traditional and contemporary forms always draws some trepidation. Sometimes it works. After all, one of this year's best shows combined Indian classical music with electronic grooves. Many times, however, the results are just schmaltzy dreck, devoid of any emotion or integrity.

Tim Russert's unexpected death touched many of us here in Washington. Flickr user Mr. T in DC captured this reverent shot of Russert's final resting place in Rock Creek Cemetery. The temporary marker and wilted flowers are small and inconsequential in comparison to the media giant's life. EXIF.

It's tempting to call Austin, Texas country-rocker Alejandro Escovedo the Forrest Gump of indie rock, but he deserves to be associated with a much better movie. In 1978, his first band, San Francisco punkers The Nuns, opened the last-ever Sex Pistols show prior to the Pistols' brief mid-90s reunion. He was living in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City when the Pistol's' Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen checked in; Spungen would soon die under mysterious circumstances. Escovedo's new song "Chelsea" tells the tale, also the subject of Alex Cox's 1986 film Sid & Nancy. There we go: Much, much better than Forrest Gump.

As illegal graffiti continues to appear on D.C.'s streets, the D.C. Council sought a way to do more than paint over it and send the taggers to jail, only to repeat the process again and again. Council member Jim Graham's office contacted The Midnight Forum, a non-profit with a mission to empower youth through hip-hop, through both the entertainment side as well as teaching business and life skills.

MOVIE: The James Bond Film Festival continues in NoMa, with tonight featuring the Roger Moore Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me. Watch Bond take on Jaws as he investigates the hijacking of British and Russian submarines alongside the beautiful Barbara Bach. The film is screening outdoors at the intersection of Florida and New York Avenues NE, across the street from the New York Avenue Metro station. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association has also sponsored this screening as the festival's first Bike-In Movie Night, with WABA volunteer bike valets parking filmgoers’ bikes for free. The film starts at sundown.

>> It may just be that we're in Conner Contemporary withdrawal, since they shuttered up their Dupont space last year and won't open in their new Atlas neighborhood venue until December, but our pick of the week has to be Academy 2008. With a temporary space at 1341 H Street NE, donated by Taurus Development, Conner's annual student show won't miss a beat while venues are in limbo. Check out the work of 21 artists from local colleges during the opening reception on Friday, 6 to 8 p.m. Afterward, head down the street to SOVA, where one Academy artist, Diane F. Ramos, curated her own show of five GWU first-year MFA students in Definition.

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

How many stories can be told in a single photo?  Amidst the excitement of projectiles colorfully exploding in the sky, Flickr user dullshick captures a crowd congregated behind a fence along 13th Street NW taking in the firework festivities.  Despite the graininess of the photo, the bare light provided by the traffic signals illuminates both the facial expressions and body language of the assembled crowd.  EXIF.

              

Regrettably, the Washington Kastles, the city's new World TeamTennis franchise, did not solicit our help in choosing their team name. Apparently wanting to make things right, the team is asking the public to suggest a name for one of their slightly creepy mascots, a dopey-eyed, cap-sporting tennis ball (the other one, a guy in a knight costume, is presumably, uh, Mr. Kastle? Sir Kastle?). The lucky person whose name is chosen will receive two free tickets to the Kastles' July 15 game against John McEnroe and the New York Sportimes. Go, DCists, enter now and enter often: have your entry sent by this Friday, July 11, at 6 p.m. Let us know what name you think should win. We are counting on you, commentariat.

There's something endearing about gratitude, and Seattle's Fleet Foxes were nothing if not grateful on Monday night. They were grateful to NPR for broadcasting their show, they were grateful to the perennially overlooked Black Cat sound technicians and they were especially grateful that singer Robin Pecknold's health had taken an upward turn. Apparently the singer had been truly sick for the previous five shows or so, saying that ever since L.A. the shows had been "wholesale deception and disappointment." An ironic concertgoer quipped, "That never happens in Washington," but health problems notwithstanding, Fleet Foxes put on a show completely devoid of either deception or disappointment.

SPORTS: The Nats are at home again tonight, taking on Arizona (after losing to them 0-2 last night) at 7:10 p.m. Plenty of advance tickets are still available, or head down to Nationals Park and snag some of those game day $5 tickets at the box office.

Did anyone catch the Boris show on the main stage of the Black Cat last night? From the looks of this photo by flickr contributor brandonwu, it was quite an experience. The Black Cat promised this band from Japan would be "rocking us like a hurricane" with Boris as "the eye of the storm." Seems a bit extreme, but after looking at this winning photo, shot at ISO 6400 with an 18-70 lens, that might be an accurate description. EXIF.

>> Tonight, legendary bluesman David "Honeyboy" Edwards pays a visit to Blues Alley to perform 8 and 10 p.m. sets. His latest album, Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas! won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording. Tickets are $25 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. Advance purchase required.

MUSIC: Tickets are still available to see RZA perform as Bobby Digital tonight at the 9:30 Club, featuring Stone Mecca. 8:30 p.m., $25.

I think everyone who contributes to the DCist Flickr pool knows mosley.brian put this shot in there just for me. He took this realistic looking shot of the Discovery space shuttle model that was out for display during the Smithsonian Folk Life festival. I'm a little bummed I never made it down there to talk with the rocket scientists. What did you all think of this year's festival? And is anyone else planning a trip down to Florida, now that NASA has confirmed today we're truly looking at the end of an era? EXIF.

>> Today kicks off the Hip-Hop Theater Festival's seventh year in D.C. The opening "Brave New Voices" event will take place at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage and feature Sonia Sanchez along with the D.C. WritersCorps Slam Team. Free, 6 p.m. For more information about Festival events and ticket availability, visit their calendar.

If you haven’t made the trek out to Wolf Trap lately, consider heading down to Vienna tomorrow night to see the modern dance performed by Paul Taylor Dance Company.