Arts and Events: October 2009 Archives

Washington National Opera's new production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos puts me in a bit of a quandary. It has a score and libretto of particular beauty and is produced rarely enough -- the last time WNO mounted it was in 1994 -- that I would always recommend that others see it, even if this particular production, heard on Wednesday night, is not an ideal one. It is a shame that this quirky opera, revised by Strauss and his brilliant librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, as a postmodern dissection of the perils and vanities of creating opera, returns to Washington National Opera at this time. The company's precarious financial situation has led to a season cobbled together to fulfill contracts, hardly a context for great Strauss to thrive. Even so, the production's party atmosphere and bright costumes could make tonight's performance (at 7 p.m.) an interesting alternative Halloween destination (see the notes at the end of this review for a possible discount opportunity).

Cast your eyes on this image, ye reader, and despair! Truly the most horrifying image poured into the DCist Photo Cauldron so far. Or at the very least, the most damning. Flickr user M.V. Jantzen actually captured these souls during (what else?) the annual drag race, but let it stand as a challenge: Can a costume come in a more terrifying form than floral? I submit not.

FRIDAY

Halloween isn't just pumpkins and candy corn. There's a darker side to the holiday and many things that go bump in the night. Marcelina. brings a bit of light to one of those things for this creepy Halloween eve photo.

From The Beatles and Ravi Shankar, to John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, to Mickey Hart's collaborations with Zakir Hussain, South Asian classical music has long influenced western musicians. In recent times, the reverse is also true, what with hip-hop loops underpinning the latest bhangra and Bollywood grooves. But this West to East influence was less prevalent in the mid-60s, especially in the more traditional parts of South India, where a young Kadri Gopalnath had a life changing encounter.

Once out of college, most of us find it rare to receive care packages. Remember having your day brightened after treking down to mail services to retrieve a package, tearing it open with anticipation of what might be inside? But gone are the days of mystery boxes packed with love and much needed supplies from mom.

Wow. Damn. And wow. It's hard to reconcile a concert like last night's exquisite set by Andrew Bird. As mentioned several times by the performers during the evening, Washington D.C. was witness to the final installment of Bird's tour with fellow genre-defier St. Vincent. The billing seems appropriate. Take one musically gifted, experimental, and odd male musician and combine with a female of the same description.

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

As the Montreal music scene has exploded with cathartic indie rock from the likes of Wolf Parade and the Arcade Fire, The High Dials have quietly spun some of the most well-crafted psych-rock of the new millennium. The group's breakthrough was 2005's War of the Wakening Phantoms, a sprawling near-masterpiece of orchestral swirl, guitar crunch, and Smiths-like delicate songwriting. Good press followed that release, and while its follow-up, the self-released Moon Country, hasn't quite gotten the same buzz, it's on par with its predecessor. Tracks like "Killer of Dragons" take cues from Yoshimi-era Flaming Lips, though with considerably more restraint, while "My Heart is Pinned to Your Sleeve" is a pure pop rush from start to finish. The band's now working on a new full-length, and on a short East Coast tour that brings them to D.C. and the Velvet Lounge tonight for their first District-area stop in several years. Lead-singer and songwriter Trevor Anderson took some time to answer our questions ahead of tonight's show.

ART: Head over to Art Klash at L'Enfant Moderne Gallery tonight for a "live art battle." Four artists will be given a theme at the start of the battle, and two local judges will declare a winner. Also catch DJs, spoken word performances and more. Sponsored by ReadysetDC and Purple Pork, $10, doors at 8 p.m.

O funnel cake, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Is it the crispy fried-but-not-exceedingly-greasy goodness? Is it the powdered sugar that coats the throat and occasionally induces a coughing fit? Whatever the reason, you and Flickr user lorigoldberg's goo-tagged capture will always have a place in and on my heart. EXIF.

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz honors its namesake by hosting its annual International Jazz Competition, which since 1987, has provided a springboard to some of the genre's brightest young stars. Past winners include Joshua Redman, Joey DeFrancesco, Chris Potter, and Jane Monheit, making the competition the most prestigious in the world. On Friday, as part of its Discovery Artist series, the Kennedy Center hosts 2008's winner, up-and-coming saxophonist Jon Irabagon, the first Filipino-American to win the award.

Perhaps best known throughout the nation for one of his works in Washington – the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, located along the Tidal Basin – Bay Area landscape architect Lawrence Halprin died on Sunday of natural causes. The FDR Memorial features one of Halprin's boldest waterfall elements, a major feature for which his work was known. Fittingly, Halprin also believed that the well-loved FDR Memorial best represented his accomplishments. For those who have never toured the plaza, the FDR Memorial is divided into sequential landscape arenas, which represent significant stages of the President's life using text, seats, statues, and segmented space. Though the Memorial is driven by narrative and experience, nothing is sacrificed in terms of form or composition.

Many times when we see that a band has more than five members, we predict certain combinations of instruments. But Gestures isn't your ordinary band, so they haven't tripled up on guitar players. They don't even have one guitar player. With two drummers (including Mark Cisneros from Medications), one clarinet, one trombone, one saxophone, and one tuba, Gestures has all the elements of a jazz band or a classical ensemble. Yet the driving rhythms and melodies clearly draw as much from punk rock as they do from jazz or classical music. You won't hear any vocals, but it's just as easy to imagine a guitar playing some of the parts that are instead played by trombonist Bob Chapman or saxophonist Kriston Capps (who is also DCist's weekend editor, so he did not participate in this interview). In fact, it's easy to hear some of the same psychedelia that permeates albums like Sookie Jump by The Rude Staircase (a band in which tuba player Jon Lebovitz was a member.) Yet, for the large variety of influences and their occasional tendency to go completely unhinged, all of their songs are actual songs, not extended jam sessions. Which is why we're eagerly anticipating their upcoming EP.

COMEDY: Sixth and I once again hosts Stella comedians Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter for a night of stand-up at 8 p.m. tonight. Read our interview with Black from one of their previous performances at the venue. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by calling the Sixth & I box office at 202.408.3100 (with no additional charges) or through Ticketmaster.

>> If you're looking for Halloween themed art this weekend, the place to go every year is Art Outlet's Ofrenda -- Art for the Dead exhibit at the Torpedo Factory. They'll have an all-day celebration starting at 3 p.m. that includes works by over 40 artists, a parade, activities for kids, music and dance performances and even a masked ball. Check the web site for the schedule of events. Free, cash bar.

Fall colors are fleeting, and a large part of why fall is my favorite season. Flickr user brents pix managed to capture this leaf on a bench at its most colorful. Here's hoping this weekend's weather will give us all a chance to see the colors before they are washed away.

Our apologies for missing Monday and Tuesday. Better late than never, here's your abbreviated music agenda.

>> Inner Loop is a collective of D.C.musicians blending the improvisation of jazz with the programming and looping of electronica. They'll be upstairs at the Bossa Bistro & Lounge tonight. 9 p.m. Call 202-667-0088 for cover information.

HIGH HEEL RACE: Tonight is the annual High Heel Race along 17th Street NW, between Church and R. The race itself starts at 9 p.m., but you should get there plenty early to claim your spot on the sidewalk: we recommend arriving two hours in advance, at a minimum. And dress appropriately, because it looks like this chilly rain is going to keep up all night.

This haunting shot of the Lord of the Miracles procession, captured by by yonas1, looks as though it could have been shot in Peru. This version of the event however took place along Columbia Road in Adams Morgan this past Sunday. (EXIF)

>> Quickly becoming a favorite spot for DJs, Litlle Miss Whiskey's Golden Dollar (1104 H Street NE) will be the venue for Adrian Loving and DJ Stylus as they host a pre-Halloween party, "A Funky Space Halloween." Space funk-themed costumes are highly encouraged. Free, 9 p.m.

              

In between her mix of song, snark and scatological jokes, Sarah Silverman did a bit at the 9:30 Club on Sunday night where she let audience members ask her for advice, entertaining questions on everything from getting out of credit card debt to making it as a stand-up comic. If we learned one thing from this weekend's impressive Bentzen Ball comedy festival, presented by Brightest Young Things and curated by fantastic stand-up Tig Notaro, it's that no member of the audience is safe from today's top comics. Notaro had an obliging 9:30 Club staffer hold up her mic stand for a good ten minutes. Sarah Silverman Program writer Chelsea Peretti handed out canned dialogue to three audience members and had them perform a skit with her. Three or four different comedians at one Studio Theatre show earlier in the weekend gave a drunken (and later, shoeless) heckler a hell of a time. And of course, no photographer was safe from ridicule.

          

Thursday night wasn’t the first time that the Dirty Projectors have ever played the Black Cat, but it was possibly the first time that a lot of those Black Cat patrons had seen the Dirty Projectors. That the band has raised its profile in the wake of album-of-the-year contender Bitte Orca was not lost on the musicians, as they alternately rose to the occasion and second guessed their decisions. Not two songs after singer/multi-instrumentalist Angel Deradoorian victoriously proclaimed, “We finally get to play upstairs,” singer/guitarist David Longstreth pondered aloud whether the group's mixture of acoustic and electric instrumentation on "The Bride" was actually working live. Despite audience assurances, he seemed unconvinced.

Looks like bad news on the possible Jawbox reunion show front. Sean Cannon over at Buzz Grinder checked back in with frontman J. Robbins after news broke earlier this month that the legendary '90s band will perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in December. The planned television appearance will coincide with the re-release of Jawbox's 1994 major label debut, For Your Own Special Sweetheart, which naturally led to speculation about whether they would also reunite for some local shows. Unfortunately, Robbins' comments make the outlook not so good:

It seems like if we were ever going to do it — now would be the time. We all put our heads together, and it just seemed like — with all of us in different cities and leading complicated and over-committed lives as we do — that it would be very, very difficult for us to to dedicate the time it would take for us to live up to the standards that we want to live up to.

Continue reading "Jawbox Reunion Concert Unlikely "

              

Based on DCist photography contributor Brian Knight's photographs, yesterday's Marine Corps Marathon was a passionate whirlwind of emotions: elation, sadness, struggle, and whimsy, all in a blur of movement and color. It's appropriate then, that such an exhausting event required an earlier-than-roosters wake-up call for our intrepid photographer -- of course, DCist managing and arts editor Heather Goss (who somehow escaped the reach of Brian's lens) just had to do him one better and actually run the 10K yesterday.

CLASSICAL: Pianist and composer Samuel Vriezen will play a free recital tonight at Catholic University's Ward Hall. The program includes music by Tom Johnson, Chopin, and Vriezen himself. 7:30 p.m.

The DCist flickr pool is full of great outdoor shots from this past weekend. Between the Marine Corps Marathon, the bright fall leaves, and some spectacular sunsets it is obvious that our contributing photographers were out enjoying the great fall weather. This image from the Perry Belmont Mansion by lightboxdc caught my eye because of the great use of the light. The strip of orange sun, contrasting with the deep blue sky, in a composition that makes good use of lines and shapes makes this shot worth highlighting.

When Afrobeat marvels Nomo came to DC9 two months ago, not many people had heard of their opener, Last Tide, and certainly nobody there expected a sound that drifted so far from jazzy horns and African percussion. Last Tide's atmospherics lay somewhere between shoegaze-inspired haze and dark new wave synths. This is especially noticeable when keyboardist Libby Dorot takes the vocals, recalling Tina Weymouth's Talking Heads tracks.

There's a cliché out there that an opening number can make or break a show. Unfortunately, the first song in , now being staged by Studio Theatre, contributes to the "break" side of the equation.

       

We were speaking with a couple of photographers recently, who claimed that this year's crop of changing leaves were particularly stunning, and yesterday, a short trip through a few of D.C.'s tree lined streets seemed to confirm that sentiment. So, perhaps it wasn't very surprising that a look through our DCist Flickr pool was full the same evidence of autumn's rise. Didn't get your fill of lovely fall color with today's photo of the day? Crack open a pumpkin beer, and take a break from that Halloween costume construction to enjoy some more.

>> We only recommend a trip to Baltimore for something extraordinary, and this week the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is not bringing a worthy program to Strathmore. Daring conductor Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, will conduct two Russian fairytale scores, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and the suite from Stravinsky's ballet score for The Firebird. (October 29 and 30, 8 p.m.) The concert will also feature Leila Josefowicz as the soloist in John Adams's violin concerto. If you want to learn more about how Rimsky-Korsakov tells a story in music in Scheherazade, there will be a special multimedia concert attempting to show just that (October 31, 7 p.m.).

Passing by market-goers this morning wrapped in scarves as they rummaged through bins of root vegetables, this writer felt like fall finally arrived. It's usually mid-October when the blazers and sweaters come out of the closet; this year, mid-October came late. After a week of unseasonal cold and a flood-y Saturday, it's nice to have a day of actual, honest-to-goodness autumn. Don't fall in love, though: Rain is likely over 4 of the next 7 days.

Just like George Costanza, I've got a bone to pick with the pigeons. My daily commute takes me through Dupont Circle, and every morning, the rats of the sky dive and soar much too close for my comfort as they bathe on the perch of the fountain. The unpredictability of their movements, combined with the fact that I've seen The Birds far too many times, provides just the right amount of jolt before I get to my desk and the large coffee mug which sits upon it.

With the endless parade of legal dramas, small claims reality shows, and an entire network devoted solely to the wheels of justice, it's understandable if you've hit the point of fatigue for any sort of filmed courtroom experience. Improbably, director Joe Berlinger actually brings something new to the table in Crude, which looks at a long-running, multi-billion dollar class action suit involving 30,000 residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon on one side, and oil giant Chevron on the other. The residents claim that Chevron (actually, Texaco, whose legal liability Chevron assumed when they purchased the company) left millions of barrels of oil sitting in pits all along the villages lining the Amazon, contaminating the land and the water, and causing outbreaks of cancer, birth defects, and horrific skin conditions. The environmental impact is estimated to be many times that of the Exxon Valdez spill.

FRIDAY:

This fuzzy caterpillar is on the move. No time for tea or other such pleasantries. He didn't even stop to say hello to nevermindtheend, who documented his intrepid journey.

It's almost been a year since we last touched base with Phonte and Nicolay, a.k.a. The Foreign Exchange. They'd just released their critically-acclaimed album, Leave It All Behind, and were looking forward to promoting it. Eleven months later, they're still touring and have added another record, Nicolay's City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya, to their repertoire.

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

COMEDY: The Bentzen Ball, a four-day comedy festival presented by Brightest Young Things, officially kicks off tonight. The festival is loaded with stand-up at venues all over town, including HR-57, Studio Theatre, Bohemian Caverns, Lincoln Theatre and Ben's Chili Bowl (where free impromptu stand-up sets are promised). Because there is so much going on, and so many names to mention, it's best to look at the schedule and see what fits you best. Part of the proceeds will benefit Walter Reed. Also note: festival passes are sold out, but individual tickets for the biggest events can still be had in advance, or at the door on a first-come, first-serve basis for the smaller ones.

             

On paper, a Lenny Kravitz show on the heels of the 20th anniversary re-release of his debut album, Let Love Rule, is an intriguing prospect. Add in a setlist that has but one song released after the year 2000 and I'm downright excited. So why was Tuesday's show at the Warner Theater a bit of a dud? Pacing, mostly. Kravitz managed just 13 songs in a two hour span in a set that started and finished strong but veered eerily into "Jazz Odyssey" territory in between.

That pain you're feeling is the toothache caused by all of the seasonal sweet treats in the DCist Flickr pool. Flickr user/street artist diabetik takes it one step farther by decorating traffic cones to resemble everyone's favorite triangular tri-colored waxy treat.

Our occasional series, "Secret History," features profiles of classic D.C. albums as a way of looking back at the District's contributions to music over time. This time around, we revisit Hoover's powerful debut LP, The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 (Dischord, 1994).

There are not many performance ensembles to which the word "institution" is applicable. And when it is, we are often discussing groups that rest on past accomplishments, preserve what has come before, and live on nostalgia. All of this could not be further from the truth when discussing Sweet Honey in the Rock, the colorful and world renowned African American women's a cappella ensemble that was founded here in the District, 35 years ago. Sweet Honey will celebrate this milestone with a special concert tomorrow night at the Warner Theatre, along with another artistic treasure, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Over 60 comics are about to descend on D.C. for the Bentzen Ball, a four day collection of comedy performances at venues ranging from the 9:30 Club and the Black Cat to the Studio and Lincoln Theatres, and even Ben's Chili Bowl. Presented by our friends over at Brightest Young Things, and curated by comic Tig Notaro, it surely must be the biggest comedy festival to ever hit the nation's capital.

>> The Industrial Jazz Group is an adventurous 17-piece band led by composer Andrew Durkin. Bored with the haughtyness of modern jazz, and the blandness of pop, the group describes its sound as "avant-garde party music," trying to introduce humor into its eclectic sound. The band will be playing tonight at Twins Jazz. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information.

MUSIC: Get "Up Close and Personal" with Daryl Hall and John Oates tonight at the 9:30 Club. Tickets are $55, doors 7 p.m.

>> This morning we showed you a preview of Long View Gallery's new venue. If you didn't RSVP for the opening party tomorrow night, stop by any time during their regular hours to check it out for yourself.

Sanjay Suchak has made, with this photograph, an image that could launch a thousand stories. There are many compositional elements that are great, like the stopped and blurred motion balancing out the frame, and the lines of the bench tying all of the characters together. But, it is the fun of trying to determine what on earth those people are talking about, and their bizarre dynamic, that makes this photo special. The crossed legs, the way they are all holding a cigarette with an outstretched left arm, how the couple on the left seem as if whatever the woman on the right is saying is about as interesting as US tax code, and the anonymous, Tour de France suited bicyclist speeding through Dupont Circle, could all be the spark for a story. Or, at least a cool caption contest.

Put "sex" and "drugs" in your title and you're sure to catch the attention of the young people. Say "gefilte fish" and you're adding a touch of Jewish kitsch. Sex, Drugs, and Gefilte Fish: The Heeb Storytelling Collection, a reading taking place tonight at Chief Ike’s, sits at the "edgy end" of the DCJCC’s 2009 Jewish Literary Festival. Heeb is a humor magazine targeted to the young and Jewish, and this reading aims to bring together the editor and three contributors to the story collection to "present an evening of funny, reflective, angst-ridden, angry and outrageous stories."

     

Long a fixture in the small Shaw rowhouse at the corner of 9th and N Streets NW across from the Convention Center, the Long View Gallery has moved a half block south to the larger-than-life, newly renovated 5000 square foot building owned by Douglas Development at 1234 9th Street NW. This Thursday, the gallery marks their grand opening with a celebratory gala and artists salon featuring many of the tried-and-true D.C. area artists who often populated the walls of the former venue, including Dana Ellyn, Matt Sesow, Drew Ernst, Scott Brooks, and Billy Colbert.

After countless adaptations and revisions, what does the story of Dracula continue to bring to the table? Is it a cautionary tale? Case study of a haunting figure? An excuse for oozing sexuality? An almost comical villain at this point?

              

When someone is so excited about forming a band that they write a song about the exuberance of that experience, it’s easy to see them putting on a great live show. Because let’s face it, anyone who proclaims, “Look at us! We formed a band!” is clearly the sort of pop culture loving being that would flaunt how happy they are to be in a band for as long as humanly possible. It also suggests that the person writing such a song is not necessarily someone who by conventional standards appears to be a person in a band.

MUSIC: Head to The Red & The Black for an inexpensive show (only $6) and catch Austin trio Ume, Louisville's The Fervor, and Greensboro's The Bronzed Circus. Doors 9 p.m.

At first glance, Ghost Bear's shot appears to consist of posed figurines and gummy candy. Upon further inspection, he's captured a perfect, slapstick moment from intermission at Saturday's Caps game.

>> Yacht Rockers Supreme, Daryl Hall & John Oates, will be at the 9:30 Club. $55, 7:30 p.m.

By now, the Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company is a familiar presence in the local arts scene, having won numerous awards, including Best Emerging Group and Best Costume design from Dance Metro DC in 2008. In addition to its dance performances, the organization has branched out to present live concerts, film screenings, and other endeavors designed to expose traditional and contemporary South Asian arts to a wider audience. But the highlight of Dakshina's calendar is its Fall Festival of Indian Arts, the annual dance production whose sixth iteration will take place this weekend at the historic Lincoln Theatre.

Nick Lowe titled the career-spanning compilation he released earlier this year Quiet Please, and it ain't false advertising. The softer, sadder, more introspective country-soul phase Lowe commenced with 1994’s The Impossible Bird now comprises the entire second half of his recording career, one that’s been decelerating (though not eroding in quality) for some time. 2007’s At My Age was his first disc in six years, and he’s released no new music since.

Whether you know him from Mr. Show, Bob and David, his stand up, Arrested Development or one of the million other beloved things he's done in his career, David Cross has whipped up a wide and rabid fan base. He released a book earlier this year, I Drink For A Reason, and is visiting the District this week. Cross recorded 2004's amazing It's Not Funny during a 4-night stint in D.C., so we can keep our fingers crossed for more comedic heights on Wednesday night at the Warner Theatre. Tickets are still available for $33.

MOVIE: And don't forget the Reel Affirmations Film Festival is still going strong. Consider the "Best of the Fest" shorts collection, tonight at 7 p.m. at Sidney Harman Hall.

Is there an invisible chess player in this photo? And if so, why is he standing? And where did he find invisible chess pieces? Photographer furcafe leaves us with many unanswered questions with this found object in Adams Morgan.

>> Japandroids and their new wave garage rock are at the Rock and Roll Hotel this evening, with New Jersey's Real Estate and Brooklyn's Neon Indian. $10/$12, 8:30 p.m.

You've probably seen them around, either practicing, performing at a community event, on local television, or marching down the street in a parade. They are hard to miss, after all. An infectious percussion ensemble comprised of a couple dozen or so colorfully dressed women isn't something one sees everyday. Of course, we're talking about Batala Washington, the all-women's drum corps that has brought smiles and the spirit of rhythm to the District since its formation in 2007.

                

It won't come as a shocker to people who follow green technology and architecture that Team Germany came away with top marks at the Solar Decathlon, a competition that invites universities from around the world to compete to design -- and build -- the best zero-energy home. What might have surprised even Team Germany was how the public responded to the open-house event.

Once again this week, there are so many free concerts on the schedule that we have to begin there.

For so many reasons, it's easy to associate with this photograph: one man, wandering out into the world with little but his trusty umbrella to shield him from the slings and arrows that surely await. Credit His Noodly Appendage with the excellent framing.

By DCist contributor Ryan Little

If you ever laughed uncontrollably while engaged in a childhood snowball fight, built intricate forts out of your grandmother's afghan blankets, or made up the rules to complex playground games while the game was still being played, then Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is for you. Actually, even if you never did those things, but still have a strong nostalgic attachment to Maurice Sendak's classic picture book, the movie is still yours. What's less clear is whether it is geared toward children still engaged in all that creative play and discovering the book for the first time. Regrettably, I'm no longer eight and can't say for sure what a child's reaction to this movie might be. I suspect — or maybe, rather, hope — that kids will respond to it despite the fact that it isn’t paced or presented like most children’s movies, and will grow to love it more and more as they grow older.

FRIDAY

National Design Week starts on Monday, and while a lot of the major events are in New York, designers and design-lovers can get their fill of events right here in D.C.—online, at our area museums, and at a week of social events organized to bring together designers of all disciplines.

As the week draws to a close, and the gray skies seem to be here to stay, we wanted to offer you a little bit of calm, quiet reflection to help smooth the way into your weekend. And Flickr user LaTur gets us in the right frame of mind with this photograph from the Swedish Embassy. EXIF.

              

The 9:30 Club was absolutely packed Wednesday night for the D.C. debut of Them Crooked Vultures, a recently-formed hard-rock “supergroup” featuring Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, and multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones, who formerly played bass in a little band called Led Zeppelin. Joined by touring guitarist Alain Johannes, the high-profile trio treated the crowd to an impressive 90-minute set, more than justifying the hype that made this one of the most highly-anticipated shows of the year.

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

On an up-and-coming section of H Street NE, tucked behind jersey barriers that surround the trolley line construction, is a nondescript building with a fitness center on the ground floor. On the second floor is the new home of Studio H Gallery and Workshop.

JAZZ: 2008 Latin Grammy Award winning ensemble The Afro Bop Alliance perform live tonight at the regular Take Five! jazz concert at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 5 - 7 p.m. in the Kogod Courtyard. Free.

For those of you about to enter midterm season at school, here's a multiple choice question to help you prepare: Flickr user shannonboom's half-eaten strawberry shortcake bar is Photo of the Day for which of the following reasons? a) The contrast between the colors of the melty novelty treat in the foreground and the drab sidewalk in the background. b) A recent discussion about the merits of Strawberry Shortcake vs. Chocolate Eclair. c) There are no merits to discuss...Strawberry Shortcake is the best Good Humor bar ever.

              

Last night D.C. wanted the best and they got the best, as the local faction of KISS Army invaded the Verizon Center to see Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and two other guys not named Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, slap on the makeup and rock 'n' roll all night.

Bassist Stanley Clarke was not long out of high school in 1971, when he moved to New York from his native Philadelphia. In the Big Apple, his virtuosic talent made an immediate splash and landed him stints with jazz legends such as Horace Silver and Joe Henderson. But it wasn't until the following year that Clarke's career really took off. He joined Return to Forever, the supergroup that included famed keyboardist Chick Corea and Lenny White, the drummer who got Clarke the gig with Henderson. RTF helped pioneer the fusion movement of the '70s, one of the most adventurous periods in jazz history, in which Clarke also recorded his own fusion classic, the seminal School Days (1976).

SPORTS: The U.S. Men's National Team confronts Costa Rica tonight at RFK, in a World Cup Qualifying match. The weather for tonight's game looks to be pretty bad, but it should also be an emotional match, with forward Charlie Davies out due to his terrible car accident early Tuesday morning. Fans attending tonight's game are being asked to stand and cheer for the entire 9th minute tonight in honor of #9 Davies. You can also print out a #9 to hold up during the tribute.

This week in Gallery Musical Chairs, Civilian Art Projects is moving to the Warehouse Arts Complex. We've known for awhile that Civilian (who hosted our second DCist Exposed Photography Show) was moving; indeed, all three venues at 406 7th Street NW have vacated the address. The art and design store Apartment Zero moved out a few months ago and still hasn't found a new location; same with Touchstone Gallery, which had its closing party on September 25. Not to mention nearby Zenith and Numark galleries, which closed up over the past couple of years. Penn Quarter isn't a total art wasteland yet, though. A few other galleries, Carroll Square, Caos on F, and Reyes + Davis, all buried in office buildings, are still active. And of course there's still the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and a little farther west, Flashpoint.

Digital meets analog in this shot of Union Station (reflected in the glass façade of the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Center). Flickr contributor lorigoldberg got herself a lens adapter that lets her use the plastic lenses from a Diana on her digital SLR, finally giving digital that je ne sais quoi that makes us love all those plastic camera shots. (EXIF)

Written by DCist contributor Daniel White

Tips started rolling in Tuesday afternoon: cast members of The Real World D.C. were spotted variously loading luggage into large SUVs and driving off, or being filmed slowly walking away in dramatic fashion from their Dupont neighborhood house. NBCWashington.com has since filed this interview with the show's executive producer, who confirmed that after four months, the Real Worlders have at last left the District.

>> Founded in Amsterdam back in 1980, Fra Fra Sound initially blended jazz with the indigenous music of Surinam. Since then, the group has incorporated music from the rest of the Caribbean, resulting in an infectious sound that has kept the group going for nearly 30 years. The band will play 8 and 10 p.m. sets at Blues Alley tonight. Tickets are $20 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge.

MOVIE: The Warehouse Theater hosts its regular Washington Psychotronic Film Society screening tonight. This week's selection is 1961's The Curse of the Doll People, which concerns a group of men who are cursed by a voodoo priest and subsequently hunted by a band of murderous "doll men." 8 p.m., $2 suggested donation.

The ongoing Maryland Renaissance Festival is always a good spot to create intriguing photographic portraits, especially when yospyn is behind the lens. Perhaps it's the anachronisms in his depiction of Elizabeth that make this shot irresistible.

>> Belgian group Zap Mama (pictured) brings European, American and African rhythms together for their unique sound. They'll be at the Black Cat. $25, 8 p.m.

Our occasional series, "Secret History," features profiles of classic D.C. albums as a way of looking back at the District's contributions to music over time. This installment finds DCist reminiscing over Unrest's final LP, Perfect Teeth (Teenbeat/4AD, 1993).

On Saturday night, Washington National Opera opened the second production of its downsized fall season, Verdi's Falstaff. The regrettable postponement of the company's American Ring Cycle led to a hasty but resourceful reconfiguration of this year's programming, quickly putting together a group of operas that could allow the company and the singers to honor their existing contracts. On one hand, these circumstances caused WNO to return to this masterpiece — Verdi's last and perhaps greatest opera — for the first time in over a quarter-century. On the other, it is lamentable to hear it performed in a musically uninspired way, with this magnificent score generally outclassing a cast that was vocally adequate at best.

MUSIC: Members of the U.S. Air Force Chamber Players (featuring violist Sgt. Tyler Sieh and pianist Jessica Stitt) appear for free tonight on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, playing sonatas for viola and piano by Johannes Brahms and Rebecca Clarke. 6 p.m.

              

When the Dodos last visited D.C., we were so impressed that we had considerable difficulties keeping our excitement down to one paragraph. The group's youthful exuberance was just barely outmatched by their technical skills, and they excelled at making surprisingly full-bodied sounds using primarily drums and guitar. But their flourishes with additional instruments (trumpet, vibraphone, extra percussion) pushed were what pushed that set over the edge, providing an accurate mirror to last year's excellent Visiter.

Today's photo of the day from Maxedaperture drew us in with the well framed lines, and strategically placed subject matter. This man could have been happily reading a Dr. Seuss book for all we know, but the exit-less, structured composition spurs feelings of entrapment and foreboding. The coffee shop setting and seemingly forlorn central character reminds us of the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

Home is in the District, so I'd rather these country roads took me somewhere else -- maybe just round and round the hilltop on a supreme fall-foliage tour. Here the roads look like a needle threading the hillside, a stitch in autumn. Courtesy of afagen, this shot from Shenandoah National Park finds the warm reds and ochres of Stony Man trail on a crisp day.

>> Of the many alluring keyboard concerts on the schedule this week, none is bigger than the next area recital of American pianist Murray Perahia, sponsored by WPAS in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Saturday afternoon (October 17, 4 p.m.). As I wrote of Perahia's 2007 recital at Strathmore, no real fan of the keyboard is likely to miss the opportunity to hear him play. The program includes the chance to hear one of the selections from his latest CD of Bach partitas.

Photographs by R. Samayoa brings us this strikingly geometrical composition from the entrance to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Religion, art, geometry, symbolism: there's got to be a Dan Brown joke in here somewhere, right?

"I didn't do anything!" is the repeated mantra of Larry Gopnik, a nebbishy professor of physics at a suburban Minneapolis community college, and the central character of the Coen brothers' A Serious Man. And if he didn't do anything, as he keeps suggesting, then why is it that so many awful things keep happening to him? How could Hashem (the Jewish word for God, one of a handful of Yiddish vocabulary words Goys are likely to learn from the movie) be so cruel? His wife is leaving him, he's broke, his kids are ungrateful brats whose only use for him is to steal money from his wallet and send him up to the roof to adjust the aerial so they can watch F-Troop, he's a victim of extortion and a plot to sabotage his bid for tenure, and his freeloading mental-case of a brother tends to hog the bathroom to suction fluid from a cyst on the back of his neck.

It's unlikely you've had a theater going experience in recent memory as uncomfortable as Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis. That might be a problem if it wasn't also likely one of the most rewarding. The play is the final one ever written by Kane, a British playwright who battled crippling depression for much of her short life, and committed suicide at the age of 28 after this work was completed.

FRIDAY

On their first full length album, local troubadours and former Three Stars subjects, The Moderate do exactly what a band should when expanding their recorded catalog: add other dimensions to their sound. All of the songs from their AM/FM EP appear on The Rest Is Up to You, but where sadness seemed to be the predominant emotion on the EP, the eight new tracks show that The Moderate are capable of fleshing out their emotional and musical palette. Not all of the love here is lost and not all of the influences are located below the Mason/Dixon line, making this an album that should raise The Moderate's profile, at least within the metro area, if not also beyond it.

Ingredients: County fair, carnival ride, people having fun, blue skies, plastic camera, and film. Directions: mix thoroughly until results capture giddiness of being there. Post to the DCist pool. Profit!

Jazz supergroups always make me nervous. A promoter or artist assembles an all-star cast of musicians in order to sell tickets, and they generally do, but the music is often lacking. Group improvisation requires everyone to be on the same page, listening to one another. If there are too many cooks in the kitchen, and too many oversized egos, the resulting music is often less than the sum of its parts. But bassist Dave Holland assures us this is not the case when it comes to his most recent collaboration, the Overtone Quartet, which will be performing on Saturday at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. While the members of Overtone convened for the first time as a band for a series of shows in New York last month, there are deep connections among its members.

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

Mike Birbiglia remembers when the room was a lot smaller. He's headlining Saturday night at the Warner Theatre, where he'll tell some stories he’s considering for inclusion in his next one-man show. But he cut his teeth at the DC Improv in the late 90s, while a student at Georgetown University. By the time he was 25, he'd done the The Late Show with David Letterman , released his first album, and had his own Comedy Central special.

LECTURES: Tonight we'll just direct you to this week's Talk To Me, Baby feature for all the details on an unusually large number of worthwhile talks and discussions. Choose from the likes of Ralph Nader, Wes Studi, or Project Runway's Tim Gunn. Details here.

Flickr user Jonathan Thorpe has a couple outstanding portraits in the pool, with doll narrowly edging out hitchhiker. The colors, patterns, and details are great, but mostly we couldn't resist continuing with our freaky doll theme of late. Good luck falling asleep tonight!

There aren't many examples of contemporary bluegrass bands crossing over into more widespread popularity. In fact, there might be only two: Allison Krauss and Union Station, and the Yonder Mountain String Band. But while AKUS tends to attract an older and more traditional crowd, Yonder Mountain has built a loyal following on college campuses, regularly plays mainstream venues, and was even on the bill at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which took place in the band's birth state of Colorado.

>> Part art exhibit, part scavenger hunt, Flashpoint Gallery opens Andrew Wodzianski: House. On Thursday, see Wodzianski's paintings of imagery from the 1959 horror film House on Haunted Hill and enter a scavenger hunt for a chance to win a painting from the gallery. 6 to 8 p.m.

If you've been up at the intersection of 18th Street and Columbia Road NW today, you've no doubt noticed the freestanding scaffolding and truck parked there on the plaza. No, it's not construction beginning on the controversial plaza sculpture (that's been tabled for the moment), but rather a temporary art installation — or advertisement, depending upon your level of cynicism — from HBO and their "Imagine" project.

TALKS: At the National Cathedral, Sen. John Kerry will be joined by a panel composed of Husain Haqqani, Pakistan ambassador to the U.S., journalist and author Rory Steward, and Adi Ignatius of the Harvard Business Review to discuss issues surrounding Afghanistan and Pakistan. 7:30 p.m., $4 (tickets can be purchased online or at the door).

"Look up," is the best bit of advice I give to budding photographers. There's sky and clouds, buildings and trees, and that fantastic twilight blue. That's exactly what Hoffmann did, setting up a 79 second exposure to capture the sky and stars. Who knew you could see so many stars in an urban environment? (DCist Heather did, actually) Get out there this evening and start snapping, and don't forget to put your best shots in the DCist pool. (EXIF)

>> Three Stars alum John Lee continues his series of Wednesday nights, leading his fusion quartet at Utopia. 9 p.m. No cover.

The cable network Bravo has gone ahead and ordered a full season of The Real Housewives of D.C., according to the Hollywood Reporter. The local iteration of the series marks the fifth locale for the Real Housewives franchise. Production is said to be already underway, with a series premiere slated for 2010.

MOVIES: Head to the Navy Memorial Theater tonight for short film screenings from the DC American Pacific Asian Film Festival at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door (cash only).

This weekend's glorious harvest moon was a popular subject among the DCist photogs. But it's first-time contributor maria jpeg izaurralde's eerie, abstract composition that managed to win out for today's selection. (EXIF)

>> Vocalist/bassist Meshell Ndegeocello comes back home for a performance at the Black Cat. The show will celebrate the release this week of her latest album, Devil's Halo. $25 in advance/$28 at the door, 8 p.m.

>> Something about Great Britain's rainy days and gray skies help produce more delightfully melancholy indie pop groups than anywhere else. And wouldn't you know it, the Black Cat bundled up three of them in a convenient little package for you, all for one convenient, low price ($12 in advance, $14 at the door). The Twilight Sad may be the most striking, but We Were Promised Jetpacks and Brighton four-some Brakes are nothing to sneeze at either. Doors at 8:30 p.m.

>> In a celebration of craft and art, the DAR Museum showcases Wedgwood china and ceramics. Over 200 pieces of work from the 250 years of the Wedgwood company are on display in Wedgwood: 250 Years of Innovation and Artistry. Opened October 3.

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

MUSIC: Those who weren't able to get tickets to U2 last week might enjoy seeing Glasgow's The Twilight Sad, who sound a bit like a more modern, Scottish version of the legendary Irish rockers. They're at the Black Cat tonight, with BrakesBrakesBrakes and We Were Promised Jetpacks. $12/advance, $14/door. 8:30 p.m.

Is there a new trend in the city that we should be worried about? Has spiggycat found proof that all types of dolls are taking up arms in the city? At least this marionette seems old enough to carry a weapon.

It would be my guess that, of all cities in the world, Washington has the greatest number of free concerts to hear most weeks of the year. If you want to hear some good music, you have no excuse other than finding time.