Arts and Events: July 2009 Archives

Editor’s Note: We realize this show wasn't in, or really anywhere near, D.C. But as it was My Bloody Valentine's only show anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic region, and lots of D.C. area folks traveled down for the show, we thought we'd share the experience for those who, sadly, couldn't make it.

              

Written by DCist Contributor Matthew Siblo

We've been back and forth between this shot and the one above by sally henny penny. Taken at the same event, the lighting and color in each frame is equally beautiful. But the healthy distortion complete with 3-D glasses is what finally won us over to make this shot Photo of the Day.

August is notoriously the slowest month on the D.C. theater scene, and this year isn't an exception. But there's still a little Shakespeare, a little Mae West -- even a little bit of zombies to get you through the month.

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

FILM: See a Japanese film the Freer+ Sackler Gallery is calling a “must-see for connoisseurs of good trashy fun.” As part of the Freer + Sackler’s Asia Trash! Series, Versus is playing tonight at 7 p.m. for $4 at the Meyer Auditorium (1050 Independence Avenue SW). NB: Versus is not The Notebook. Ryuhei Kitamura's gorefest features Yakuza gangsters, zombies, and an escaped convict who happens to be shackled to a severed hand.

Tyrannous captures an important tenet of parenting: Only the world's best dad does all of the work at a shaved ice stand and lets the little girl look like she's the one in charge. EXIF.

>> Connor Contemporary Art opens Academy 2009 this Saturday. This 9th annual MFA/BFA survey showcases the talent and work of recent fine art graduates of regional college art programs. Start the evening off with the No Artist Left Behind series: The Top 10 Things Every Artist Should Know, a panel discussion co-hosted by Washington Project for the Arts at 4 p.m. Opening reception for Academy 2009 starts at 6 p.m. and at 7 p.m. PULSE Contemporary Art Fair will award one of this year's Academy exhibiting artists an exhibition space at PULSE Miami 2009.

              

With over a quarter century having passed since its earliest hits, Depeche Mode is an act with cross-generational appeal. So when the houselights dimmed to signal the start of last night's show at Nissan Pavilion, fortysomethings, college students, and 10-year olds alike rose to their feet. A band doesn't achieve that kind of staying power on luck alone, it has to be doing something right. In this latest iteration of Depeche Mode's Tour of the Universe, the electro-pop icons marched through a set list that mixed new material with decades old classics, and pulsating electronic beats with gentle ballads. Yes, the boys from across the pond still have it.

>> Tonight, recently profiled saxophonist Bobby Muncy leads a fine band at Utopia. The ensemble will feature some of the city's most promising talent, including trumpeter Joe Herrera, guitarist Rodney Richardson, drummer Dave McDonald, and bassist Andrew Cox. 9 p.m. No cover

MOVIE: If it doesn’t rain tonight, consider heading over to Stead Park Field (1625 P Street, NW) for a free screening of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The movie is part of Summer Movie Mania, a series of free outdoor movies sponsored by Lindsay Reishman, a Dupont resident and local real estate agent. The movie starts at 8:30 p.m., but arrive early to claim your spot.

This brightly colored wall and door caught my eye this morning. There's no Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa behind the façade, but coming to school has never been so inviting. Or bright, for that matter. Flickr user lovedc captured this school wall in Southeast D.C. (EXIF)

This was the Three Stars interview that we thought wouldn't happen. Initially, The Fordists balked at the idea of having their thoughts and opinions in print for the District (and the DCist staff) to take the wrong way. And while the philosophy of Lee Elmore, George Weissgerber and Jason Lobe toward music and what it means to be a musician might run slightly against the prevailing grain, these opinions aren't anything new or dangerous. The dream that they're living is being able to play music that they feel good about for their friends. It's the sheer passion for the work that really defines the Fordists, and their apprehension stemmed from whether they'd be seen as anything besides people who clearly put a lot of thought into everything they do. It's hardly a new outlook on music, but it's always a good one.

MUSIC: While best known as a member of the New Pornographers, Dan Bejar will take the lead tonight with his thorny, cerebral indie rock outfit Destroyer. The second act features another giant of the indie rock world: Iran, whose lineup includes TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone. At the Black Cat , 8 p.m., $13. UPDATE 4:50 p.m.: Maegan over at the Black Cat tells us that Iran showed up at the venue a little while ago, sans Kyp Malone. So don't be too disappointed that he's not part of the show tonight - the Cat says they had no warning that he wouldn't be there.

You are well aware of our liking for feet photos here at PotD. But during our latest therapy session, we uncovered a somewhat related fetish: images with the subject's head cut off. DCist Flickr contributor yospyn has caught our attention before with his penchant for partial or full decapitation. Fortunately for us (and you), he continues to feed our newly acknowledged craving with this amusing shot, part of his wonderful Anonymous series. (No EXIF data as the image was shot on film.)

>> Local rapper Kingpen Slim is throwing a CD release party for his new album, The Beam Up, at Eyebar. Free, 10 p.m.

>> Folky balladeers and three stars alums Pree make tonight's Fort Reno show easy to recommend. Le Loup fans in particular should take note: while May Tabol's latest project occupies a different niche in the indie-folk spectrum, her songs are still some of the most distinctive you'll find in the District today. With North America and Stoney Lonesome, 7:15 p.m., Free.

MUSIC: There's only two more nights left of Fort Reno this season, so make 'em count. Tonight enjoy Three Stars alums Pree (featuring May Taybol, formerly of Le Loup), North America, and the rootsy sounding Stoney Lonesome. 7:15-9:30 p.m.

Flickr user Shaun Barrows made great use of the lines outside of National Geographic headquarters for this throwback to the 1970s image titled Interupted. We particularly like the way the anonymous man's face is obstructed by the barriers.

DCist's guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area

                   

ABC 7 reported on the United 4 Iran protest and rally in Washington, though you can read about it anywhere. The official Twitter feed reports coverage from rallies in major metropolises around the world and various reports on the event. A couple of Flickr users submitted photos to the DCist pool featuring Iran American protesters and other supporters expressing, variously, support for Iranian opposition figurehead Mir Hossein Mousavi, dismay over the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and disgust over the treatment of civilian protesters in Tehran.

Most people will see this image from Mr. T in DC and move on to the next clickworthy thing on the webs. But a select few may experience anxiousness, hives, cold sweats, migraines, temporary blindness, inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, seizures, and a sense of imminent doom. To those I say: The bar exam is just two days away!

And in the end, Darkseid turned his morbid attention toward K Street; and with his dismissive gesture he razed mighty Washington to salt; and all feared the disaffected glare of Uxas, Lord of Apokolips! Markus Krisetya is his prophet! That's totally the Omega Effect reflecting off the back of that bus stop.

FRIDAY

Twisted. A twisted plot and twisted characters. Vile characters. Yale gender studies professor Darryl Lewis (Marisa Mickel) has been cheating on her husband, a less than successful academic, since before their 17 year old daughter Gwen (Natalia Emanuel) was born. Darryl's not so secret lover, Geoffrey Warshawski (Graham Stevens) is a renowned professor and longtime friend of the Lewises that shares her ultra leftist politics and arrives for the evening as a houseguest. But, as her cuckolded husband sleeps in their bedroom above, she doesn’t get any action from her libertine. That’s because G.W. is tired out from boning a fellow houseguest. So they fight instead. Then he beds the daughter. Who may actually be his. Did we mention this is a play about peace in the Middle East?

Flickr user jasonepowell gives us another glimpse of the District from a bygone era. This particular setup shows much has changed around Thomas Circle. Be sure to check out the entire series and one of the first that originally piqued our interest. EXIF.

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

We know the Capital Fringe Festival can be overwhelming (and that our steady assault of reviews over the past few weeks can be, well, assaulting). So DCist's Fringe team decided to put together an easier to digest roundup of the shows we've reviewed so far as we enter into the final weekend of the festival.

On July 12, Cyrus Katzen passed away at the age of 91. He was a major benefactor for many D.C. institutions, not the least of which was American University's Katzen Art Center. Pay tribute to this arts patron by checking out the ongoing exhibits at his eponymous gallery; on Saturday you can hear amazing local sculptor Margaret Boozer talk about her installations of unfired local clays in Dirt Drawings. 2 p.m.

Bluebrain is the brainchild (rim shot!) of Ryan and Hays Holladay. The brothers grew up in D.C., but left the city in their teens for the Big Apple. There they were in a solid band called The Epochs. Recently, they returned home to pursue a new direction for their songwriting. When asked about their recent emigration from New York to The District, Ryan said, "Brooklyn is a fantastic place but eventually it just becomes unsustainable. We grew up here in DC and it feels like we're back home. That said, this city has changed so much since we left ten years ago. Right now, especially, it feels like an exciting time to be here."

Things weren't going so well for GL Mitchell, the hero of August Schulenburg's sharp, exceedingly odd and genuinely funny play, Riding the Bull, currently being presented by the Riot Actors of Washington as part of the Capital Fringe Festival. The unlikeliest of rodeo clowns, GL's a simple Catholic boy living in a small town in Texas who just wants his poor, crazy, Elvis-loving mother to be happy. But the guy doesn't really have a clue, and his penchant for the ladies of the Sears catalog have made him so randy he's actually lost his job and been ex-communicated from the Church. But everything starts to change when he hooks up with Lyza, the buxom town troublemaker. Thanks to some "magic" that seems to result from their oft-angry lovemaking, the two become wealthy overnight — and that's when it all predictably starts to go from bad to slightly better to much, much worse.

MUSIC: The weather's looking a little iffy for Fort Reno tonight, which is a shame, because it's one of the most intriguing line-ups so far: Mary Timony's newish band, Soft Power, headlines with opening duties by the hardworking Benjy Ferree, plus a "TBA" special guest. And this is the Night of a Thousand Cakes! So, keep checking the rain info hotline: 202-355-6356. We're keeping our fingers crossed this one still happens.

The DCist Flickr pool is filled with sporty action shots, from countryside bike rides to pickup basketball games. Kevin H. supplied some shots from a rec league kickball match, demonstrating the skill and grace required to play a kindergartner's game that's generally followed by group binge drinking. EXIF.

A few American orchestras have been experimenting with ways to engage the digital generation during their concerts, with interactive program notes that appear in real time through the hand-held or seat-back devices normally used for showing translations of foreign-language operas. As related by Baltimore Sun classical music critic Tim Smith over at his blog, the National Symphony Orchestra will be attempting something along those lines during its concert at Wolf Trap on July 30.

There's just something endearing about watching two earnest college a cappella groups vie to win the big competition, squabbling and smooching their way through school in the process.

Now here's some Christian rock we can get behind.

>> Local guitarist Rodney Richardson is a product of the jazz programs at Ellington and Howard University. Catch his classic sound tonight at Twins Jazz, where he'll lead a trio featuring Three Stars alum Will Rast on organ. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information.

MOVIE: If you feel like hanging out outside and participating in water bowling, a costume contest, and other activities over a White Russian, head to the Capitol Skyline’s pool for a screening of a the oft-quoted cult classic, The Big Lebowski, starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12, must be over 21 to attend.

Upon first glance, an everyday scene: a man sitting in a booth at the Rock and Roll Hotel, on his iPhone, engrossed in something. Then the light catches your eye, and you wonder about the string of pearls on the table. For a moment, intrigue takes over from ordinary, until you turn back to the bar and order another drink. Furcafe captures the scene nicely. (EXIF)

HAPPY HOUR: Today is Belgium's Independence Day. Belga Cafe (514 8th Street SE) is celebrating by offering half-priced drafts all day until 10:30 p.m., and after 10:30, enjoy a DJ and beers on the house at their annual party (with a suggested $10 donation to a local children's charity).

Just when we thought Meaghan Gay had snapped an unbeatable gallery of the WPA SynchroSwim yesterday, we noticed maxedaperture's perfectly composed shot from the same event. Oh, it has feet in it? We hadn't really noticed. (No EXIF data.)

To be, or not to be. That is the . . . point?

>> Phil Ade will be releasing his mixtape, Starting on JV, at Eye Bar. Free, 9 p.m.

>> If ever a band has distilled the essential elements of heartbreak and loneliness into song form, it's Jason Molina's consistently excellent Magnolia Electric Co. The band is on the eve of a brand new album release tomorrow, so expect plenty of new songs tonight on the Black Cat backstage. Just bring someone who doesn't mind if you cry on their shoulder during the show. The Donkeys will open. $13, 9 p.m.

              

The Washington Project for the Arts held a synchronized swimming showcase and competition, dubbed WPA SynchroSwim, at the Capitol Skyline Hotel pool on Sunday, and DCist photographer Meaghan Gay stopped by to take in the action.

DCist's guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area

If you’re a sucker for rainbow headscarves, insistent beats, and sequins, you’ll be instantly charmed by this enthusiastic Fringe Festival contribution from D.C.'s Ancient Rhythms Dance Company. The costumes are dazzling and the performers are all great showmen, though the choreography doesn’t always take advantage of the dancers' energy. When the narrator promises at the show’s opening to dive into “the transcendent and the mundane,” she delivers.

              

Just like the biggest summer movie blockbusters tend to be mindless affairs full of car chases and loud explosions, summer concerts are sometimes best enjoyed with big, dumb rock songs being played at high volume with thousands of people singing along. That was certainly the case last night as Stone Temple Pilots closed out their short July tour under the stars at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The crowd was far from a sell out, likely owing to the band's appearance at last year's Virgin Festival, but what those in attendance lacked in numbers they made up for in volume and sheer fanaticism.

FILM: Finally! Tonight is the first night of the resurrected Screen on the Green. Pack up those picnic dinners and blankets and head down to catch Close Encounters of the Third Kind at 8 p.m. Remember, many people get there as early as 5 p.m. to stake out their territory, so plan accordingly. And if you bring a folding chair, make sure it sits very low to the ground. The viewing space is on the National Mall between between 4th and 7th Streets.

Based on all of the great outdoor photos in the DCist pool, we can tell that our contributors were out enjoying the great weather this weekend. There are boat photos, Nats photos, rowing photos, and even a half-naked painter hanging out in DuPont Circle photo. This crisp black and white water droplet on a nasturtium plant from Flickr user Amberture really caught our eye. The shallow depth of field makes us want to reach out and touch the plant, and that perfect water droplet is just begging to be smudged. Her photo helps show why the painter Matisse was so inspired by the nasturtium plant.

This year's Capital Fringe Festival includes three productions of new chamber operas by local composers. After Michael Oberhauser's Magnum Opus, reviewed last week, there is Life in Death, a new opera by Gregg Martin, a former graduate student at Catholic University. It is a one-act adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1850 short story The Oval Portrait, in which a story is uncovered about a disturbing portrait, painted obsessively by an artist infatuated with the image of his new wife, unaware that by locking her up for endless sittings he is killing her.

Sound the alarm, DCist historians: The DC Fire Department needs your help.

bSmithPhotoBlogDotOrg enjoyed a truly enviable yesterday at the McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Potomac. The set from the lovely sunflower fields is here.

Now this guy's got it down -- beating the crowds who have been flocking en masse to the new Harry Potter flick by showing up wicked early to an early matinee. Obviously erin_m subscribed to a similar strategy, snapping this striking profile from the balcony of a shockingly empty Uptown Theatre.

Everyone has those favorite records that simply demand to be listened to from start to finish, where almost every song is fantastic, each one an individual slice of near perfection that works even better within the whole of the album. John Morogiello's Irish Authors Held Hostage is the dramatic equivalent.

Séraphine Louis (1864-1942, dite Séraphine de Senlis), the subject of the recent film Séraphine, is not exactly an unknown painter. Her work is found in only a few museums now, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Les Pommes and Tree of Paradise). She was a naive painter, an ultimately unsatisfactory but unavoidable term indicating that although she was untrained, she painted as a sort of compulsion, what now is sometimes called visionary art. Director and screenwriter Martin Provost drew most of the material for his film from the work of Françoise Cloarec, who has also just published a version of her thesis on the painter with Editions Phébus. Provost has come out of practically nowhere as a director, his last film Le ventre de Juliette having won a prize at the 2003 Avignon Festival, to come close to a clean sweep of this year's César Awards, the French Oscars, with this beautifully crafted movie.

Somewhere amid the lunacy of Hiawatha Lopez's Murth, there runs a thin thread of logic. Maybe logic is the wrong word. Coherence. No, it's not that, either. Sense? I'm having trouble here, because while the play does have a plot that, against all odds, does end up tying itself together in the end, the entire thing is an illogical, incoherent, nonsensical exercise in batty wordplay. Imagine Tom Stoppard had written the Airplane movies on a bad mescaline trip, and you're getting the image. Unfortunately, unlike the Stoppard-esque heights of linguistic gymnastics to which it aspires, all of the puns, repurposed figures of speech, and tongue-twisting dialog fall flat.

It’s Not Easy Being Green presents a pleasant series of sketches about sustainability. Over the course of little over an hour, Green finds the right balance of humor and environmental messaging.

FRIDAY

We've been wholly impressed by all of the spectacular portraits that have infiltrated the DCist Flickr pool of late. But pets need love, too. Thankfully Aziz Y. has come to our rescue and presents us with Chiquita.

Immoral Combat takes place in and around a fast paced newsroom, but it is quickly apparent that the Fringe entry will be going nowhere fast. We follow the tribulations of the staff of Worldwide Broadcasting, a satire presumably of Voice of America, the federal broadcasting service and previous place of employment of the playwright, Rachael Bail. But the satire, a parody of Bail’s real life experiences as a journalist, offers few actual laughs. The short scenes cut in and out, every one punctuated by a full fade to black, aiming to impart a gravity to the story that’s not quite there.

"Stop the whining. Start stripping," reads the first post from dog & pony's blog documenting the development and rehearsals for Lorraine Ressegger's Bare Breasted Women Sword Fighting, currently running at Source as part of the Capital Fringe Festival. Reading the blog shows both the hang-ups felt by the actresses and the motivations for staging a show with the titular premise. The promise of skin and swordplay should be suitable impetus to attend, and patrons will be rewarded with just such brainless, if uneven entertainment.

I came to Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby - the husband/wife rock troubadour duo who played the Black Cat backstage Wednesday night - separately, in very different ways. I caught Rigby as a surprise opening act for Steve Earle at an old theater in my hometown more than half a decade ago in a performance so witty and funny that it inspired my dad's band to go out and record one of her tunes, the sly “Keep It To Yourself.” Meanwhile, English punk-rocker Wreckless Eric (born Eric Goulden) had a minor hit, “Whole Wide World”, that was reverently covered by the beloved, now-defunct Philly band The Bigger Lovers and received some minor notoriety in power-pop circles.

Do you remember ads in old '60s comic books urging you to purchase a mail order monkey? The team behind does, and figured the premise was bizarre enough to build a musical around.

Drop Electric has long been committed to social issues, performing regularly at benefit events and donating their proceeds to local charities. While the band has been concentrating on out-of-town and festival dates in recent months, on Saturday they will return to the Rock and Roll Hotel to headline an eclectic bill. True to form, the night's proceeds will benefit Empower DC, a community organizing group that works to improve and promote self-advocacy among the District's low and moderate income residents.

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

Sari to Skin is local actor/poet Neelam Patel's third solo show, currently running at the spartan Apothecary in this year's Capital Fringe Festival. The tastefully staged production is without a clear storyline. Rather, it is set as a series of biographical poems and monologues through which Patel communicates her struggles with her identity as someone who is "too Indian to be American, and too American to be Indian."

>> Forty years ago today, Apollo 11 launched to take the first manned mission to the Moon. Included in the celebrations at the National Air & Space Museum is an exhibition of paintings by Alan Bean, a former NASA astronaut and the fourth person to walk on the Moon, with the Apollo 12 mission. After resigning from NASA in 1981, he became a full-time artist, using an eye that's seen parts of the universe most of us will never see to create reams of space-themed paintings. His work is on display though next January. Space enthusiasts should check the museum's calendar for Apollo 11 events all through July, and be sure to check out the web site We Choose the Moon to watch Eagle and Columbia travel to the Moon in real time with some impressive animation and the archived audio tapes between Mission Control and the astronauts playing continuously.

Woolly Mammoth shouldn’t have trouble selling tickets to its current show, ; the reputation of Chicago’s Second City comedy group will do most of the work. The legendary improv school fostered the careers of entertainers like Stephen Colbert and Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson), and regularly supplies members for the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” from Tina Fey to Bill Murray. Given their impressive past, the question is not whether their new show, exclusive to Woolly, is funny, but rather, “how funny is it?”

MUSIC: Head to DC9 tonight to dance to a blend of Chicago and West Africa sound from the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. The show starts at 9:30 p.m.; tickets are $10 at the door.

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with Metro. On the one hand, it's clean, visually stunning, and a good way to cut down on our carbon foot print. On the other hand, there's the waiting, the delays, and the crowded trains. Flickr user Matt.Dunn's portrait of two riders on the Red Line perfectly captures the boredom and bleary-eyed ride that's a part of many of our weekend evening commutes. No EXIF today on account of film.

Those evil-natured robots, they’re programmed to destory us. But some of them want to evolve beyond their initial programming, like, say, a puny human raised in a dysfunctional family.

Eewwwwwwwwwww.

MUSIC: Hear some percussion, banjo, cello, mandolin, piano, and bass come together tonight at 9 p.m. at Busboys and Poets on 14th Street. As part of BB&P’s Hump Day Groovez, Ashes, an acoustic/progressive folk band will play to help you ease into mid-day week. Admission is $10 and available at the door only.

There is something ironic about using a cheap plastic "toy" camera and professional film together. Flickr user His Noodly Appendage loaded up his Holga with Kodak's Portra Professional 400VC film and went for a stroll on the C&O Canal. The lower contrast and higher color vibrancy match up pretty well with the Holga's low fidelity lens in this picture of a lock house on the canal.

The title says it all -- well, maybe the "fabulous" is open to interpretation. Solo performer Brent Standstell set out to document his sexual adventures in the city as a young gay man. He proves an engaging host for the evening, and involves his audience as well, through methods such as an anonymous sex quiz (where's the weirdest place you've done it?) and vocabulary questions related to sexually-explicit terms (if you know what a "glory hole" is, you can get a pretty good feel of what the topics of the evening will be).

>> The Next Generation Jazz Orchestra was assembled for the 2009 Monterrey Jazz Festival and features 22 all-star players from 13 U.S. high schools. They will perform tonight on the Millennium Stage. 6 p.m. Free

BASTILLE DAY: Skip your freedom fries tonight and head to the Adams Morgan Bastille Day Events, beginning at 4 p.m. at the Marie Reed Learning Center (2200 18th Street NW). Start the evening off by watching National Capital Club de Pétanque play a French Pétanque (similar to Bocce Ball). Then from 6-8 p.m., you’ll be able to hear French and world music performed by the Kamel Zennia Band, and over at L'Enfant Cafe at 8 p.m., you can mourn the passing of Les Halles by enjoying 18th Street's own version of the French Maid Relay Race. The race includes free cake, food and drink specials, music, and door prizes. While in the neighborhood, stop by the French restaurant Napoleon Bistro (1847 Columbia Rd NW), where anyone dressed in blue, white, and red can indulge in free champagne. With that offer, Napoleon is bound to be crowded, so make a plan B for food and wine at other Adams Morgan French restaurants such as La Fourchette or Bardia's New Orleans Café.

There are always plenty of stunning nature shots in the DCist Flickr pool at this time of year. Photographer HoiPolloi eschews more conventional subject matter with this graphic but still seasonally appropriate image. (EXIF)

>> With two shows at Bohemian Caverns, locally-based artist Fatso will be performing along with Jesse Boykins III, LB and W. Ellington Felton. $10 in advance, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.

On Saturday, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, acting in conjunction with Baltimore's Artscape festival, hosted an opening at the Baltimore Museum of Art to announce the Sondheim Artscape Prize -- the Mid-Atlantic region's most prestigious art awards. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was on hand to announce the winner of the prize: the three-artist-team known as the Baltimore Development Cooperative.

>> In case you were wondering why all those tweens are around he Verizon Center tonight, it's because the Jonas Brothers are there. They'll perform tonight with Jordin Sparks and Honor Society, who left a very special message on their MySpace page just for D.C!!!!1! 7 p.m., looks to be predictably sold-out.

Are you a sucker for Trivia Night at your local bar? You might find yourself drawn to , playing the Warehouse Next Door as part of the Fringe Festival.

is so earnest and so consciously stylized that at some key moments, there's a temptation to stop taking it seriously and instead succumb to laughter.

              

Another year, and another "Rock The Bells" went off at Merriweather Post Pavilion over the weekend.

This year's Capital Fringe Festival features three chamber operas, including Michael Oberhauser's Magnum Opus, heard yesterday afternoon. This one-act chamber opera premiered in February, with a slightly different cast, at Catholic University's Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, where Oberhauser and most of the founders and performers of the small company Opera Alterna cut their teeth as students. The company's artistic director, Jay D. Brock, who directed the staging of this production, and several of the artists spoke about their work last week on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi Show.

The Pointer Sisters? House of Pain? Van Halen? We're not sure which jumping-themed song Flickr user maxedaperture was channeling while capturing this leap on the golf course, but it makes us want to jump around.

Written by DCist contributor Monica Shores

MUSIC: Fort Reno's got D.C.'s indie rock answer to lounge-style island jams, Poor But Sexy, plus Laura Zax and mittenfields. Free, 7:15 p.m.

       

DCist flickr contributor Brian Oh attended Friday evening's Jazz In The Garden, where he captured these deliciously summery images. Jazz In The Garden occurs every Friday night in the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden through September 11 -- you can even preorder a picnic basket to enjoy while you relax under the setting sun.

quigley_brown brings us this colorful image from Saturday's Civil War reenactment at Fort Stevens near the northern tip of the District. The reenactment -- not the only one in the area this weekend -- honored the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Stevens, in which Union soldiers defeated Confederate forces who were looking to wrest control of Washington, D.C. President Abraham Lincoln personally viewed the battle on horseback, and was almost hit by Confederate fire -- after they retreated across the Potomac, Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early claimed a moral victory: "We didn't take Washington but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell."

      

East Vancouver’s latest buzzed about export, Japandroids, were determined to have a good time in D.C. The first (and second and fifth, etc.) thing they said to the audience was how much their short set in Philly had sucked the night before and how tonight they were determined to play better and play for longer.

"If he wasn't an insurgent, he sure as hell is now." So quips Staff Sergeant William James after shooting out a Baghdad cabbie's windshield with his sidearm, and then pressing the muzzle in the center of the man's forehead in an effort to get him to move his car out of a dangerous area. The line is delivered with a wry smirk as the driver is subsequently being hauled roughly from his car by a nearby squad of heavily armed American soldiers. The clever dual-purpose nature of the line — equal parts bravado-fueled action hero witticism and pointed political statement — is at the heart of what makes The Hurt Locker the best film yet made about the Iraq War, and the best American film about war since Platoon.

As demonstrated by so many remakes, often it is best to let a film remain in its genre or language of origin. Blood: The Last Vampire was apparently a pretty good, if somewhat short, manga film about a human-vampire half-breed who turns against her evil kind while working for a secret agency. Action flick director Chris Nahon, who made Kiss of the Dragon with Jet Li and the marginally better L'empire des loups, could not leave well enough alone and has made it into a live-action film. (Nahon reportedly replaced Hong Kong-born director Ronny Yu when the French independent studio Pathé took responsibility for co-production.) Screenwriter Chris Chow, who has also worked as an assistant cameraman, helped adapt the anime storyline created by Kenji Kamiyama from the comic book characters of Katsuya Terada. Manga fans will surely enjoy seeing a cult favorite come to life, as will anyone who has ever wondered if a film could satisfy an Asian school-uniform fetish and a love of martial arts violence at the same time. Everyone else, even those like me obsessed with vampire flicks, is advised to wait for DVD.

FRIDAY:

All That Was Left of Them, which premiered last night at the Goethe Institute as part of the Fringe Festival, is a product of the Yellow Chair Theater Company of Wesleyan University. Despite all three actors and the rest of the crew being busy students or recent graduates of the university, the company managed to pull off an entertaining 55 minute performance, full of wit, intellect, a bit of dark humor, and even a touching moment or two.

One of the best things about Summer is getting to eat strawberry-rhubarb pie. But with strawberries almost past season, we'll just have to settle for southpaw20's rhubarb to make into a tart crumble. EXIF.

>> Saturday night, head over to the vacant lot at 1st and K Streets SE to see over 20 artists perform some live street art for Breaking Wave: Mural Jam. Presented by the Capital Riverfront BID and Artomatic, they'll also have music, food and drink from 5 to 11 p.m. This event has been postponed.

MUSIC: It's looking like a nice night for Fort Reno, with the always inspiring Imperial China and FFFever, who are gaining more buzz than we can even keep up with. The Key Blanks will get things started at 7:15 p.m. Free.

     

Last night Liv played host to some of D.C.'s hip-hop luminaries as they paid homage to producer/rapper James "J Dilla" Yancey, in what's become an annual event, and raise awareness about the condition that cut his life short. The Detroit native died in 2006 from complications of Lupus.

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

In 2007's Capital Fringe Festival, local actress Zehra Fazal mounted an impressive and potentially controversial staging of My Friend Hitler, a solo show depicting the internal tension the dictator might have felt during his rise to power. Fazal returns to this year's Fringe with another solo production that has been gaining some buzz. Headscarf and the Angry Bitch centers around Zed Headscarf, a character who is trying to be a professional folk-rocker. Using songs and parody, Fazal's original play explores what it means to be a contemporary Muslim-American woman.

A sunny day...a man in a suit with his back to us ready to sell newspapers to passing motorists...a beaten path...an even-further beaten spot to stand on. Thanks to the perspective and subject of ::-::'s shot, my head fills with a low, haunting, jangly guitar score the more I stare. EXIF.

The performance places heavy emphasis on all five of the senses, and produces a plethora of texture to be consumed by each one. For touch, the audience is outfitted with "pajamas" and are instructed multiple times to "feast on your neighbor's pajamas." This involves touching and fondling of the various fabrics, feathers and objects that adorn the costumes given to audience members.

MUSIC: Held in conjunction with the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, some of D.C.'s finest hip-hop artists will be at Liv tonight to celebrate the life and musical legacy of Detroit-born emcee/producer James "J. Dilla" Yancey, who died from complications of Lupus. Slated to appear are Kev Brown, Kaimbr, and Three Stars alum Wayna, among others. Phife from A Tribe Called Quest and Grap Luva (Pete Rock's brother) will play host while J. Dilla's mother (Maureen Yancey) and younger brother (Illa J) will be in attendance. Free (donation to Maureen Yancey Fund suggested), 9 p.m.

Earlier this year we pointed out that DaVinci Code author Dan Brown's newest book, The Lost Symbol, is set here in Washington, concerns itself with the mysteries of the Masons, and is due out in September. Now via The New York Times' Arts Beat blog, we finally get a look at the cover of the book, which depicts "a shadowy skyline of the Capitol."

Summer: A time for walking along the Mall, enjoying our national monuments, eating, drinking, and generally having a good time. At the end of the day, tired and laden with all our trash, we seek out one of the few trash cans on the Mall. And, being good citizens, we proceed to stack our styrofoam containers and patriotic cups as high as they'll go. Yospyn captured the scene with a trusty Mamiya RZ67 Pro II. That's film, kids, so no EXIF.

>>Vocalist Diana Rodriguez is a relative new comer to the local scene, but this NYU grad shows promise. She will be playing Twins Jazz tonight in a guitar/bass/vocal trio. Call. 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information.

The recently reinstated 2009 edition of Screen on the Green, now a joint production of HBO, Comcast, and the Trust for the National Mall, has announced the programming for the remainder of the summer's dates. When it was revealed that the series had been rescued from extinction earlier this summer, organizers only announced the first title on the schedule, a July 20 screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Titles for the remaining three dates — SotG was shortened to only four weeks this year from the normal five due to the last minute planning — were released this morning.

Flickr contributor m hoek encapsulates the urban bicyclist's experience with this dramatic image shot from a unique perspective. We can only hope that he was wearing a helmet. (No EXIF data -- it's on film.)

>> French sister act Les Nubians made a name for themselves several years ago with songs like "Makeda" and "Temperature's Rising" will be at the Birchmere. $29.50, 7:30 p.m.

It's July in D.C., and you know what that means -- you'll have your fill of festivals and musicals to choose from (if not necessarily much else) in the theater world. Here's what's on the horizon.

>> Those revered veterans of indie rock, Sonic Youth, begin their two-night stand at the 9:30 Club tonight. They're on the road in support of their sixteenth studio album, The Eternal, just released on Matador last month. And while the Yoof may be the elder statesmen on the scene these days and that once-raw noise seems just a tad more sterile, their late-period catalog has shown remarkable consistency, guaranteeing at least one or two gems per release. 'Course, their 9:30 shows have been sold out for a good while now. Maybe some luck here? Doors 7 p.m., with openers Endless Boogie.

We hope you get a chance to check out our slideshow of photos from the Fourth. Gdudg's photo, taken during Jazz in the Garden at the National Gallery of Art, is a subtle celebration of the holiday weekend. The bright red of the sculpture against the backdrop of blue sky and white clouds creates an abstract version of the American flag.

DCist's guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area

                 

The District: Hands down the best place on the planet to celebrate the Fourth. This writer spent the holiday eating and drinking too much with half the neighborhood before climbing on the roof to watch a 360-degree panoramic fireworks show from all across the city. No doubt, your holiday was pretty similar. Here are some photos of some things you might have missed if you didn't brave the Mall for the official celebration -- plus some summertime looks for kicks.