A running conversation between DCist and the City Paper's Arts Desk about Veep, HBO's series about the vice presidency.
Veep, Week 3: Dogs and Divas
Veep, Week 2: Executive Indigestion and Yogurt Mishaps
In the second episode of Veep, Selina Meyer almost tasted power when the president fell ill, but it was she who wound up bearing the worst effects of a nasty stomach bug.
Veep, Week 1: Unseen Characters and Horny White House Goons
A running conversation between DCist and the City Paper's Arts Desk about Veep, HBO's new series about the vice presidency.
Reviewed: HBO's Veep
In Veep, a new comedy debuting Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO, Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as a vice president with nothing to do but suffer through the political cuckoldry of the job.
The Inherent Comedy of Being No. 2 With Veep Creator Armando Iannucci
The vice presidency is a funny business, says Armando Iannucci, writer and director of the 2009 film In the Loop and creator of the new HBO series Veep.
On the Red Carpet for the Premiere of HBO's Veep
Veep, a new HBO sitcom about the first female vice president of the United States, made its Washington premiere last night. We spoke with the show's cast, including its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Ben Stiller to Direct and Star in Comedy on D.C. Jewish Family
D.C. has landed an HBO comedy pilot on a D.C.-based Jewish family that will be directed by and star Ben Stiller.
This Contest Spits On Things We Consider Holy
Does the HBO Dance need to be tinkered with? No, it does not. But that's not going to stop people from encouraging such blasphemy!
Screen on the Green Is a Go
Washington's beloved Screen on the Green outdoor film festival on the National Mall will happen this year, Dan Zak is reporting in the Washington Post.
'HBO Cube' Coming to Adams Morgan
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.
Big Love Episodes Being Shot in D.C.
Thanks to DCist Flickr contributor AnyaLogic for sending in this shot of actor Chloë Sevigny on the set of the HBO drama Big Love, which was spotted shooting exterior scenes for its fourth season around Washington, D.C.'s Union Station over the weekend. There's a lot of Big Love fans on the DCist staff, so we're as excited as anyone to find out more about the show's upcoming story lines in the District. All we know for sure is that a) Nicki and her recently discovered daughter from her first marriage, Cara Lynn, will come to Washington, and b) a lobbyist played by Sissy Spacek is somehow involved. The next season doesn't debut until January, so we'll either have to wait until then or pray for script leaks.
The HBO Dance: You're Doin' It Wrong
This summer's resurrected, but truncated, Screen on the Green was by all accounts a big success, even if that final one last Monday happened to fall on the hottest, stickiest night of the year. So we can hardly blame SOTG co-saviors Comcast for going down to the National Mall with their cameras to capture some film goers giving them the love. But! At the end of the video below, the cameras are pointed toward a group of people purportedly doing "the HBO Dance" during the little musical interlude before the film begins, and there's maybe one person in there doing it correctly. People, people: the HBO Dance is not a freeform, wiggly enterprise comprised of flailing about however you feel like it. When done properly, the HBO Dance is more of a jazzercise move: you put your arms straight above your head, wave them back and forth to the beat of the music, and hop up and down with both feet. That's it. No spaghetti arms, no hip shaking, and for cryin' out loud, no twisting. Let's keep this sorry display in mind for next year, everyone.
Out of Frame: The Nine Lives of Marion Barry
Most of America only really knows two things about Marion Barry: he was once the District of Columbia's mayor, and he seemingly can't stay out of trouble with the law. With yesterday's HBO premiere of the new documentary, The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, it's likely that many people have gained a broader sense of who Barry was and what he once represented for the District. But even with the additional context provided by the film, it's less likely that all that many people will become more sympathetic to the aging local politico and his persistent troubles.
Marion Barry Documentary Premieres on HBO Tonight
The new documentary by Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer about D.C.'s own Mayor for Life, The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, premieres on HBO tonight at 9 p.m. DCist caught the film when it debuted at SILVERDOCS earlier this summer, and overall the reviews have been a mixed bag. Critics already familiar with Barry and his lengthy history wanted more, while others were pretty much satisfied. You can be the judge for yourself tonight, if you've got access to HBO.
HBO Cancels Screen on the Green
HBO has pulled out of its annual sponsorship of the popular Screen on the Green outdoor film festival on the National Mall.
Springsteen, Other Acts Confirmed for Inaugural Concert
The rumors were true: the Presidential Inaugural Committee has released the list of confirmed performers for what's being called We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, scheduled to air on HBO on Sunday, January 18 from 7-9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. There's no set start time for the concert itself yet, just a note that it will be taped on Sunday afternoon. (NB: We've updated this paragraph to clarify the concert schedule).
Springsteen Rumored to Perform Free Show During Inauguration
Yesterday, the Presidential Inaugural Committee sent out a release announcing that a deal had been struck with HBO that would allow the pay cable network to broadcast exclusively an event being called the "Opening Celebration for the 56th Presidential Inaugural," a free concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial planned for Sunday, January 18. The release boasted that event will feature "some of the biggest acts in the world of entertainment." Today, WTOP reported they've heard that Bruce Springsteen is expected to headline.
Yeah, Probably Not The Best Time and Place To Film
It seems as if the producers of the upcoming HBO series based on the Washingtonienne book by Jessica Cutler decided that the pilot really needed some authenticity - the show's crew was spotted by several DCist readers and contributors while shooting scenes last night in Adams Morgan. Apparently, the crew blocked lanes of traffic on 18th Street and a significant portion of the sidewalk.
HBO Resurrects Washingtonienne
You know, I canceled my HBO subscription when The Wire ended, and even though I was briefly regretting that decision when I started reading about Alan Ball's new vampire show, today's news makes me feel sure I did the right thing. Via Gawker, Variety is reporting that some four years after the Jessica Cutler/Washingtonienne Capitol Hill sex blog scandal first broke, the pay cable network is going ahead with a pilot for a TV series based on Cutler's book. Sex and the City's Sarah Jessica Parker is set to executive produce.
Post Reporter Tells Tale of Addiction to His Own Beat
Just a few days from now, the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire will kick off its fifth and final season. Considered one of the best and most realistic portrayals of crime and corruption in a struggling city (Baltimore, in this case), the show traces the thin line that divides the good guys from the bad. Whether cops stealing stacks of cash during drug busts or thieving dockworkers pooling together money for a stained-glass window at their local church, the distinction between law and lawlessness is often hard to find.
DCist Interview: Ted Leonsis
Recently we caught up with Washington Capitals owner and former Vice Chairman of America Online, Ted Leonsis, over email. Here's what Ted had to say about his role in the organization, his goals for the team, and his feelings toward the media. Please note that he uses emoticons without shame. DCist: Now that you're completely retired from AOL, how much fun is it to get up every morning and not have to go to work?...
CD Review: Terence Blanchard Remembers Katrina
This month marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's assault upon the city of New Orleans. The suffering and hardship of that city's citizens no longer makes headlines, but the havoc caused by the storm is something many people still live with on a daily basis. Jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is one of those people. A son of the Crescent City and musical descendant of fellow New Orleanians Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, and...
Popcorn & Candy: Love & War
DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Foreign: Ballad of a Soldier The AFI's great Janus Films retrospective continues, and there is probably no title on the schedule this writer is more eager to see on the big screen. Grigori Chukhrai's 1959 classic takes a simple concept — the tale of a Russian soldier making his way home to see his mother during...
Live-Blogging Voting Rights at YearlyKos
As Sommer mentioned earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to have been invited to speak on a panel on D.C. voting rights at the YearlyKos Convention, a huge gathering of progressive activists and bloggers in Chicago. This morning I will be sitting alongside D.C. Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta, Danny Rose from DC Vote and Kesh Luddewhetty of DC for Democracy, all of whom will detail the current fight for voting rights, where it stands...
Night of the Living Theater @ Fringe
Night of the Living Theater...by Dead Playwrights largely presents exactly what you'd expect to happen if notable writers from the ages were asked to take their scripts to modern-day producers and pitch them for Hollywood treatment. But while the five works highlighted in the piece may frequently lack surprises, the work as a whole still adds up to enjoyable, briefly-diverting entertainment. The best of the short skits is "A Lot of Talking", which smartly echoes...
Do You Do the HBO Dance?
This is my third year coming to SOTG, but I had to have someone explain to me the concept of the HBO Dance. When the HBO music comes on, scores of men and women are compelled into a dervish that looks like an aerobics move, waving their hands above their head while hopping. Or a 20 second rave, where everyone is high on Franzia.We're not sure exactly when or how this got started, but we've certainly seen it happen. This video is pretty darkly lit and hard to make out, but you'll get the idea. Do you do the HBO Dance?
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches...
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti...
About Tonight
>> As we mentioned earlier in Reader, Meet Author, Vanity Fair editor Cullen Murphy will be at Politics and Prose tonight to read from and sign copies of Are We Rome? As long as we can ruled by Simon Woods, I'm all for saying, yes, please, let's be Rome. 7 p.m. >> Tickets are still available for tonight's performance of Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa at Washington National Opera. Our critic called this production WNO's "best...

