The first, instantly noticeable aspect of Fredericksburg, VA's Pash is the luminous voice of singer/guitarist Merideth Munoz. With a voice that partially recalls Rainer Maria's Caithlin de Marrais and has a rock edge reminiscent of Pretty Girls Make Graves' Andrea Zollo, Munoz has the vocal tenacity to halt anyone who may have stumbled across a track on their MySpace page. Munoz met guitarist Erik Bruner-Yang and his roommate, drummer John Bibb, when they all went......

After yesterday's preview of the endless list of holiday concerts in the area in December, it is time to discuss the piece that must not be named, Georg Friedrich Händel's Messiah (1742). Yes, it is a masterpiece of music history, but the lamentable annual round of weary performances at Christmas time (in spite of the fact that Messiah is an Easter work), makes me want to run screaming for anything else this time of......

December begins tomorrow, and that means only one thing: it's time to take that special person in your life to a holiday concert. Do you want to subject him or her to the same old carols, something historical, or something really weird? Here is a list of your options, not including the many performances of Handel's Messiah or The Nutcracker, to be previewed tomorrow. THE BEST OF THE BEST: >> For those who never want......

>> We would have liked to have read about "The Best Bars in DC For Ensuring That You Will Not Run Into a Single Person Even Vaguely Connected With Politics or Media (crossposted to Gridskipper)." Good luck to you, Pareene. [Wonkette] >> A fire will be set Saturday morning on Metrorail's bridge over the Potomac River as part of an emergency-response drill involving 100 firefighters from seven area jurisdictions. The Yellow line will be shut......

For anyone living in Washington who grew up in the West, the dearth of authentic Mexican food in this city is likely a constant complaint. D.C. is the home to several sizable ethnic groups, Salvadorans among them, and while we applaud the ready availability of authentic, and delicious, Salvadoran cuisine, the attempts by these same lovely folks to cook Mexican food is almost uniformly terrible. They use the wrong cheeses. They don't know how to......

>> Continuing their trend of showing only the weirdest awesome movies for free in this city, the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater will actually screen an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 tonight as part of their Screening Shakespeare series. Really. It's the episode of MST3K where the crew is forced to watch a laughably bad German made-for-TV adaptation of Hamlet -- as the press release rightly notes, "is that Ricardo Montalban as......

MONDAY: Author Julia Serano will be at Busboys and Poets to discuss and sign her new book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. 6 p.m. TUESDAY: The “Godfather behind creative nonfiction,” Lee Gutkind (as described by Vanity Fair), will be at Olsson's Books & Records in Dupont Circle to read from The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1, as well as a selection from his book, Almost Human: Making Robots......

On Sunday, with their 7-2 win over the Brewers, the Nats reached the All Star break and the season’s traditional halfway point. With the team on a not-quite-as-bad-as-expected 66-win pace, those of us who write about them are stuck somewhere between the building euphoria in Boston and the pitchfork and torches crowd in Cincinnati. One of the beautiful things about baseball, though, is that the long season generates plenty of moments, both incredible and pathetic,......

Sure, we told you about this last week, but we're telling you again because we are persistent and like helping local kids. We happen to think you should, too. Get your taste buds ready for the first annual Brainfood Grill-Off. This Iron Chef-like event will have teams, consisting of local chefs and Brainfood students, competing for the “Brainfood Skillet Award.” Marc Silverstein, of The Food Network’s The Best Of series, will be hosting the event......

'Tis the season for outdoor venues, and it just so happens the greater D.C. area has a plethora of them. Outside the confines of our beloved Fort Reno, Wolftrap, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Nissan Pavilion, and a few more decent venues all exist within an hour of the District. They might require a bit of a hike, and usually a car, but if you have the means, might as well pick up a cheap lawn seat......

> >UPDATE: As a commenter notes, The Dismemberment Plan tickets for the second show, Friday, April 27 are on sale NOW. Go, friends, go! > > Best birthday present ever? Hmmm. Submitted for your approval: How about booking the Thievery Corporation? To play the birthday boy's living room? Well played, ma'am. Well played. [The Upstate Life] > > Why isn't Butterstick playing in the snow like his parents? Maybe it's because he doesn't want to......

Best selling author of How to Cook Everything and the Minimalist cookbook series, Mark Bittman arrives in the District today to compete in D.C. Central Kitchen's Capital Food Fight and to promote his most recent book, The Best Recipes in the World: More Than 1001 International Dishes to Cook at Home at Best Cellars in Dupont Circle on Wednesday. Also the creator of the New York Times' column, "The Minimalist," Bittman is the author of......

MONDAY: >> We've been hearing an awful lot about certain journalists who've spent superfluous time in jail for ideals they supposedly believe in -- but, before you make any contributions to that gravy train, why not hear from Marie-Helene Carleton, who'll be in town discussing the travails of her filmmaker partner Micah Garen, who was taken hostage in Iraq in 2003. Even if you're an avid news junkie, there's still a lot you don't know......

While DCist was expecting the Post's editorial board to support bringing baseball into the District, their staff editorial brings up a few logical points that dispells Baltimore Orioles owner Bud Selig's concerns about the impact a potential move by the Montreal Expos to the Washington region. From the Post:THE BEST ARGUMENT for bringing major league baseball back to the nation's capital lies on the other side of the continent, in the San Francisco Bay area.......