If you really must attend a holiday concert, make it something musicologically interesting. In what has become an annual tradition (see the 2005 and 2006 installments), the Folger Consort is presenting the most appealing and satisfying Christmas concert in the city. More than just a concert, it is a staged production of the Second Shepherds' Play, an English mystery play from the Towneley cycle. Director Mary Hall Surface began by modernizing the play's Middle English......

As the region continues to mourn the loss of Sean Taylor, some hopeful news has come to light in the search for his killer. Over the course of the week, officials have stated that they have "no reason" to believe that Taylor was anything more than the random victim of a botched burglary. However, in a story broken by the Miami Herald, a relative of Taylor's has announced that three men have now been detained......

Authors Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith dug through a wealth of treasures at the Library of Congress and in the D.C. public libraries to produce Historic Photos of Washington, D.C.. Gilmore and Smith will be at Candida's World of Books tonight to sign their weighty book. Though certainly an attractive book for anyone with a coffee table, Historic Photos is also a gem for local history buffs, with nearly 200 photos that span......

Written by Morgan Hargrave It is usually not a good sign when a museum’s first display details how popular it used to be. It seems the National Museum of Health and Medicine is decades removed from its glory days, when it was called the Army Medical Museum and resided in a series of more prestigious locations around D.C. It attracted between 450,000 and 765,000 visitors per year during the 1960s before being moved away from......

TUESDAY: Tomorrow is a treasure trove for science and sci-fi junkies. Our reviewer raved about The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula. Hear author Eric Nuzum muse on the undead at Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St. NW, which will offer drink specials, while Olsson's will have books for sale at the bar. Fangs and capes encouraged. 7 p.m. Over at Politics and Prose, author Ira Flatow will discuss his lengthily titled......

DCist is proud to be the official media sponsor of Cultural Tourism DC's free event this Saturday, Sept. 29: WalkingTown DC offers a wealth of free walking tours all day long to get Washingtonians out and discovering new things about their city and neighborhoods. The Temperance Tour, hosted by volunteer Garrett Peck, author of The Prohibition Hangover, begins at the Cogswell Temperance Fountain at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW at 1 p.m. and wraps......

Renee Stout, a very cool D.C. resident and assemblage artist, has a new collection of works on view at Hemphill Fine Arts -- Journal: Book One. Walking into this cabinet of curiosity, you are greeted by a large, accurately painted advertisement for the corner psychic. By putting on the airs of alter ego Fatima Mayfield, Stout is able to role play as a fictitious herbalist/fortuneteller who enters the arena of the shadowy and strange.......

Ah, Wilderness! is the lone comedy in Eugene O'Neill's eye-gougingly tragic catalog. It works as a sort of photo-negative of his later, bleaker masterpiece A Long Day's Journey into Night, with which it shares the setting of a "large small town" in early 20th century New England. Written in the early years of the Great Depression but set in the happier days of 1906, it’s a deliberately idyllic take on the sweet miseries of......

One could say sitarist/composer Anoushka Shankar has music flowing through her veins. Daughter of Ravi Shankar, the most celebrated indian musician in the world, she grew up immersed in the ancient traditions of indian classical music. With her 2005 release, Rise, the 26-year old musician, who will be performing with her father at the Kennedy Center this fall, began a quest to merge her musical heritage with more contemporary sounds and influences. Thus, it comes......

It's not exactly breaking news, but the City Paper's cover story this week is about the George Washington University and its high tuition, tops in the nation. The somewhat basic article (at least to a GW grad and basketball blogger) talks to a few University officials and a couple of students, but seems a little thin. The article does make a good point (and one that we made months ago) — is it worth it?......

Looks like August won't be as slow in the art world as it will be in the business-suit-wearing part of city. Kick off the month of gallery openings at First Friday in Dupont. At the Hillyer Art Space, a gallery funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, get lost in Eve: A Series, a macro view of artist Mia Rollow's invented, video projected landscapes. First Friday runs 6 to 8......

I don't know about you folks, but this writer is getting the heck out of dodge to spend a nice 90 degree day on the sandy shores tomorrow. Even if you're not interested in putting a suit on, a short drive over to the Bay holds a wealth of treasures in the form of delicious, fresh crustaceans and frothy beer waiting for you. Flickr user Oblivious Dude took this shot of a perfectly relaxing......

Mayor Adrian Fenty held a press conference this morning to announce a slew of new cabinet-level nominations for his administration. Topping the list was his decision to go with current interim director of DCRA, Linda Argo, as his nominee to run the department. Argo was previously deputy director of DCRA, responsible for the agency’s public service enhancements. It's a somewhat uncharacteristic move from Fenty, who has tended to focus his hiring efforts on bringing in......

We like this photo by Flickr user outdoor_type because of the way it incorporates two of Washington, D.C.'s best known offerings: the wealth of national artifacts available to the public through the Smithsonian Institution and being a unique place for citizens to gather to speak with one voice (although, this isn't a protest but the Race for the Cure Walk from last weekend). Photo of the Day is about finding unique views of the......

Last Saturday morning, under grey skies and whipping winds, DCist rolled out of bed to take a walking tour of Embassy Row, one of the 60 free tours being offered in this weekend's WalkingTown DC, an event offered by Cultural Tourism DC. Like Sommer, I was initially sceptical that there was much to learn about the Dupont Circle neighborhood, a familiar stomping ground for many Washington young people. But on the Embassy Row tour,......

Have you been dying to get a few minutes to ask D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty questions about his controversial plan to take over the District's public schools? Washingtonpost.com will give you a chance this afternoon at 1 p.m., when they moderate an online chat with the Mayor about his proposal. You can submit your own questions for the Mayor here. We'd really like to know what the Mayor thinks about Colby King's idea to......

Via FreeRide, we read that WTOP's Mark Plotkin spent part of his live chat with washingtonpost.com yesterday afternoon to call out Ward 3 residents for not caring enough, if at all, about the District's lack of voting rights in Congress. Q: In your experience, do people from Ward 3 generally not support statehood/voting rights? I grew up in the ward - Forest Hills represent - and have found so many people on my parents block......

MONDAY: It's hard to think of a more appropriate person to have written On the Wealth of Nations, part of the new Grove Atlantic Great Books series where contemporary writers flesh out the work of humanity's most important thinkers, than P.J. O'Rourke. Harder still to imagine a time when everyone agreed that P.J. O'Rourke had a sense of humor. At Politics and Prose at 7 p.m., also Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Cato Institute,......

Mayor Adrian Fenty’s major campaign pledges mostly dealt with the District’s troubled schools and public safety departments, so it’s no surprise that changes in those departments get the headlines during this transition period. However, in the new administration, no struggling agency is spared, including the underachieving Administration for HIV Policy and Programs (AHPP). After officially being sworn in on Tuesday, the Mayor noted that AHPP director Marsha Martin – who had only been on the......

It looks like the event-planners for most of the District's book stores are still on vacation, so it's slim pickings for you bookworms out there. Fortunately, Politics and Prose is picking up the slack with a few notable author events. Chicklit-erati beware: this week's offerings tend more toward the academic set. THURSDAY Daniel Mendelsohn will be reading from his book, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, about his historical detective work retracing......

With its period costumes and lilting music, you might expect The Beaux Stratagem, now being staged at Shakespeare Theatre, to be a very civilized little British comedy, a kind of gently amusing work rather than anything particularly uproarious. It might earn a chuckle here or there, but didn't seem like the kind of work to have you doubling over in your seat at any of its antics. So much for expectations - Beaux is extremely......

Mayor-Elect Adrian Fenty’s most celebrated quality is his rigor for getting the small things done. Ward 4 supporters tell tales of the Councilman as Blackberry-brandishing musketeer, sweeping in to remedy urgent street repairs and the like. By contrast, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams’ supporters have always heralded his ability to dream big. Details be damned, he’s the guy with the grand vision: a growing, vibrant city; attractive to businesses and middle class residents, and with enough......

As Adrian Fenty spends the day getting elected, we're reminded that he'll be seeing some serious dosh soon. Last month, Mayor Williams proposed legislation that would give his successor a 32% pay raise. He cited the discrepancy in the administrative pay scale in which some of the Mayor's aides make more than the actual top dog. So today DCist asks: How will he be using his $200,000? (Also, does he remember that fiver we loaned......

There's more to this weekend than axe-wielding haunted house props and bars full of Sexy Nurses sexily vomiting from too many Jäger bombs. Those of you who feel pained at the thought of breaking out the zombie costume again have a wealth of options to satiate your creative side without resorting to make-up that'll make you break out like a 15 year-old for the next month. Now that I've completely earned the ire of half......

When the alarm clock goes off in one short week, the sleepy little galleries around the city will yawn and stretch and, after dressing in their finest contemporary gowns, open their doors for the 2006-2007 season. But while they're busy hitting the snooze for a few more days, we still have plenty of shows to keep us occupied. >>The National Gallery of Art just opened a new exhibit last Thursday, with 37 artworks from the......

Happy Wednesday, Washington. We don't know about you guys, but we feel strongly that last night was excessively hot. Especially if you were stupid enough to wear jeans while sitting outdoors drinking beer — as muggy as it was, just peeling those suckers off and managing to climb into bed with a fan pointed straight at your head was a minor miracle. So it is with great fanfare that DCist announces, starting today, three days......

It's going to be a bright and beautiful day here in Washington, and since we've had some less than sunny headlines so far this summer, we'd like to take a moment to point some good news. Believe it or not, your daily walks to work could actually begin getting easier. How, you say? Well we're just so glad you asked. It seems the city has begun spending money on rubberized sidewalks, which last longer than......

Some people in the D.C. area pride themselves on their ability to decode the wealth of acronyms that substitute for the English language in our nation's capital. Others have no tolerance for the labyrinth of words that make the underlying BS of corporate-speak sound sweet. And you know what? We love those people. Quote of the Week Meeting at the Pentagon, during slide number 36 of 51: Presenter: "At the end of the day, Lean......

It may not be possible to resolve the great Nearlington vs. Farlington debate. But there's a compromise available: apparently we can start calling both halves of the county Smartlington. If for some reason we wanted to. Via the Examiner, it seems that Money Magazine has named Arlington the most educated city in the country thanks to an impressive 35.7 percent of its citizens holding graduate degrees (apparently this was enough to make up for the......

As housing markets have exploded over the last several years, the pricey luxury condos springing up in many neighborhoods are seen as a sure sign that the city is on its way to a fully revitalized future. However, great as ultra-modern condos may be for developers and landlords, they don't exactly fit the requirements of aspiring young artists, chefs, actors, and entrepreneurs (much less students, teachers, and cops) who can bring a great deal of......