Sure, you picked up a book or two last year. You tore through God Is Not Great, nodding in agreement along the way. You read Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows on the Metro, brandishing the cover proudly and caring little that anyone saw you. You read a lot of graphic novels. And, then, just for grins and giggles, you picked up The Divine Comedy in the original Italian. Okay, maybe you read this version......

As you might imagine, there's not a whole lot going on in the art world this week, and unlike the last holiday, even the Smithsonians close on Christmas Day. Nevertheless, we found a few exhibits for you to poke around this weekend. And if you're one of those last minute gift buyers and can't bear to wage war at the mall, don't forget our guide to art museum memberships for something a little more unique......

Harry Potter’s Aunt Petunia is half-buried in the Earth. But hey, who isn’t? That, I’d say, is a fair reduction of Samuel Beckett’s 1961 Happy Days, a not-quite-monologue for a middle aged woman who is stuck in a rut, though really it seems to be more of a pool of slow-acting quicksand. And the woman playing The Woman — actually, she has a name; it’s Winnie — in the National Theatre of Great Britain......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Sunshine A group of astronauts are on a suicide mission to save a dying Sun, lest the earth perish as well. While it may sound like a plot suitable for Michael Bay's Armageddon 2: Bigger and Hotter, in the hands of director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) and his 28 Days Later screenwriter, Alex Garland, it may......

But this photo, taken in Old Town on Friday night by zenisfrisbee just before the final Harry Potter book was released, is too funny not to post. I honestly honestly honestly have no idea if this is true, I'm still reading The Half-Blood Prince, and I'm choosing to believe this guy is just trying to rile people up. For now, PLEASE DO NOT POST SPOILERS in the comments. I will remove them. That said,......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

If you look at Flickr user philliefan_99's freeze-frame of a fountain long enough, it begins to look as if the droplets of water caught in free-fall may actually be drifting upwards instead of falling down. It's almost, dare we say, just like magic. Have a happy Harry Potter weekend, and remember: sorcery is best left to witches, wizards, and photographers. EXIF......

The day has finally arrived -- the official release of J.K. Rowling's final installment in her Harry Potter book series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is scheduled for midnight tonight (unless of course you received one of those magical early copies that have been floating around). For all you D.C. area Potter nerds out there (and as we already know, there are a whole lot of you) looking to celebrate tonight, here's some area......

Merlin's Beard! Via the Examiner, it turns out that Falls Church, VA has been awarded the distinction of being the "Harry-est Town In America" by Amazon.com -- meaning the city pre-sold the most copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows through a competition on the web site. Amazon didn't release the number of copies sold in Falls Church, but more than 1.3 million copies have already been sold in total. Amazon donated a $5,000......

>> Fort Reno has The Caribbean, Len Bias and The Ardennes. But the National Weather Service has a Severe Thunder Storm Watch from 2 to 9 p.m., so you might want to hedge your bets and make a back-up plan. >> Ohio's alt-country rawkers Two Cow Garage stop by the Red and the Black tonight, with Minneapolis' Birthday Suits and Richmond's Clint Maul for what should be a loud, fun show all around. $8,......

FRIDAY: >> Even though Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is an obvious choice for the movie-going crowd this weekend, the Avalon Theatre -- just north of the Potter madness at the Uptown -- is showing Talk to Me, the new biopic on the life of famed Washington, D.C., talk-show host and activist Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr. 5:50 and 8:30 p.m. >> Unbuckled alumni The Vita Ruins celebrate the release of their......

Thank god for the Capital Fringe Festival. The event, now in its second year, makes sure that our July isn’t totally barren when it comes to edgy, exciting theater. We’ll be giving you a more detailed report on what the Fringe has to offer this year (hint: Avenue Q and Harry Potter parodies, Chocolate Jesuses and an operatic Lysistrata are among the choices), but here’s what the less fringified theaters around here will be up......

It's time to dig your stakes out from under your beds, Buffy fans. Those of you who thought deep love for the series was dead should have known better. After all, Buffy creator Joss Whedon is the man who turned a beloved but hastily canceled TV sci-fi western into a feature length sci-fi film. As we learned in the fifth season, Buffy never really dies. Throughout the country, fans of the Scooby gang will......

MONDAY: Gorky Park author Martin Cruz Smith will be at the Penn Quarter Olsson's to read from his latest, Stalin's Ghost. In the book, Moscow subway riders see the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station. Here in Washington, we settle for George Stephanopoulos. What a country! 7 p.m. Susan L. Shirk will be at Politics and Prose to discuss her book China: Fragile Superpower. Of course in China......

Three cheetah brothers, named Draco, Granger and Zabini after the Harry Potter characters, have arrived at the National Zoo to help add genetic diversity to its breeding program. The new cheetahs go on public display Friday. Zoo reproduction specialist JoGayle Howard explained to WTOP that the new cheetahs are vital because their genetic line is not represented in North America. Cheetahs are both critically endangered and very difficult to breed, so the introduction of a......

Those who showed up at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night with any doubts about The Kooks' talent were certainly persuaded, and maybe even wooed into super-fan territory. The four lads from Brighton played a pitch-perfect set that had all the classic elements of an epic rock show, including crowdsurfing and a young woman who threw her underwear up on stage. The Kooks have been on the fast track to superstardom since forming in 2004,......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

TUESDAY: You probably know Cynthia Rowley's clothing, but do you know her writing? Following the success of her Swell books Rowley's new book recounts her personal coming-of-age lessons – from humorous childhood memories to fantastical experiences. Rowley will read from Slim: A Fantasy Memoir at the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Hammer Auditorium, 7 p.m. $25 WEDNESDAY: Zachary Leader will appear in a discussion with Christopher Hitchens about Leader's new book, The Life of Kingsley Amis,......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not......

>>It's 5:00 and already time to set our Snowpocalypse meters to "high." Some schools are closing early with the mere mention of precipitation. [NBC] >> In reality, this whole event looks like a dud to us. NWS has moved the winter weather advisory up to end at 5 a.m. tomorrow and place accumulation of 1 inch as an outside chance at the best. All we can really expect at this point is a "light wintry......

What are you willing to stand in line for hours on end for? Tickets to a Star Wars prequel? A copy of Harry Potter #7? A really awesome roller coaster? To some members of the D.C. community, the answer is free tickets to a sing-along performance of Handel's Messiah at the Kennedy Center, accompanied by the Kennedy Center Opera House orchestra, a large-scale choir, and renowned soloists. The event is one of the most popular......

Washington parents owe a word of thanks to the members of the National Symphony Orchestra, who took the stage of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Sunday afternoon to play a short program of spooky music for Halloween and to do so (mostly) in costumes. An impressive crowd of Harry Potters, princesses, devils, lions, ninjas, ghosts, and goblins, with their parents, filled the house. To the bass-heavy introduction of "In the Hall of the Mountain......

Sure, with Free Night of Theater on the horizon, it may be hard to justify shelling out for a ticket to a stage show, but trust us — with all the intriguing offerings that local companies have in store, you'll want to see more than one show this month. Previously at the Fringe Festival, Round House Silver Spring presents Bushwa: A Modern Ubu, about an intellectually-challenged king. Hmm. Wonder what it's like to have your......

Like it or not, the details of the personal lives of the rich and famous intrigue us. We like to know what exists behind that public facade, what quirks make the celebrity, pol, athlete or rock-star just a little more human. And just as we once found out that mayoral candidate Linda Cropp owns an iPod and stocks it with audio books and that D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams enjoys bird watching, today the Examiner brings......

Written by DCist contributor Matt Bourque. Agent Zero strikes back. In response to this week's reports regarding his Saturday night arrest, Gilbert Arenas is disputing the circumstances of the incident and the suddenly infamous quote attributed to him. Arenas was quoted as telling the arresting officer, "You can't arrest me. I'm a basketball player. I play for the Washington Wizards and I'm not going to leave my teammate," but he has vehemently denied making such......

Do you know the way to 9 1/2 Street NW? A disturbing story popped up on the Public Safety Area 305 listserve earlier suggesting that District police and emergency services do not. The following story was reported Monday by a 9 1/2 Street NW resident: As some of you already know, yesterday was a big day on 9 1/2 Street, crime-wise at least. Yesterday afternoon a man was beaten and robbed in front of......

Yes, bloggers have families too. DCist will be publishing on a lighter schedule for the next few days as we tear ourselves away from our T1 lines and wireless connections to spend some quality face time with our loved ones and of course, stuff ourselves silly. For our part, DCist staff will be scattered all across the country, from rural Tennessee to sunny LA via some time spent in North Carolina, Toledo, Ohio (think there......

Sommer Mathis contributed to these picks FRIDAY: >> DCist likes to stay up late on Sundays and watch Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry". We enjoy the variety of viewpoints it always includes, and really truly, at least one poet each episode knocks our socks right off our collective feet. DCist also likes to stay up late and watch "The Cosby Show" on Nick at Nite. It makes us feel all warm and fuzzy, like we......

This photo was taken by DCist reader Ben Bochnowski in the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Anacostia. Check his Flickr account for more photos. The park is the "the only National Park Service site devoted to the propagation and display of aquatic plants." Today will be partly sunny to start but become cloudy with a chance of showers in the afternoon. With highs in the lower 90s, the National Weather Service has issued a......