Happy Passover! This week’s theme: Legends. Not the Sasquatch/Grendel folk duo you’ve heard so much about, but living giants of their genre, era, or both. Several artists who have reached mythic status in popular culture are popping ‘round to say hello this week. Monday One of the best things about D.C. living is all the stuff there is to do for free. Tonight, the Kennedy Center offers some quality gratis jazz, presenting trumpeter Shunzu Ohno….

When they take the stage, it’s apparent that The Ambitions have their style component down pat. Gracefully walking that line between clever and costume, their 60s inspired threads give a naturally polished look. After a few songs it’s clear that the word “polished” extends to their sound, as well. It is impossible to listen to The Ambitions and stand still. This was the case at the band’s recent Black Cat show. An initially austere and…

Though a puzzling choice for director, Chris Columbus’ screen adaptation of Rent worked because it took a show that hadn’t aged well and set it firmly in the 80s, easing its audience from the outset through the parts that felt dated. The same trick works for Sherry Glaser’s one woman show, Family Secrets, now being staged at Theater J. In this production, in which the actress plays five members of a Jewish family in…

Veteran gossip columnist Michael Musto is in town today promoting his new book, La Dolce Musto, a collection from his columns of the same name (he’ll be at Nage Restaurant from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.). The bespectacled provocateur has spent 20 years at the Village Voice chronicling New York City’s gay life, nightlife and sex life, sometimes in terms that would make Candace Bushnell blush. Along with the tales of club kids, politics and sex…

Monopoly may be coming early to the budding satellite radio industry as XM Radio and Sirius attempt a marriage of convenience (with just a hint of desperation). A joint statement from the companies calls the move an “all-stock merger of equals.” Word on the street is that the companies would likely keep much of their offices both in New York (Sirius) and Washington (XM), but certainly some layoffs and job consolidation would follow. There have…

DCist was impressed by the Synetic Theater’s silent MacBeth, but a new production at the Studio Theater is attempting a similarly impressive feat. The stars not only remain silent, but their characters are performed with other people’s voices. Yes Washington, Lypsinka has returned, this time as Joan Crawford. Twenty-five years ago a star was born on Christopher Street as Creator/Performer John Epperson made his theatrical debut as an amalgam of the most glamorous leading ladies…

When thinking of Emily Dickinson, one might picture a kindly woman in a white dress who periodically took breaks from her gardening to write a little poetry. Oh, Em, we hardly knew ye. BosmaDance’s vibrant work, Violet in my Winter, moves far beyond the breezy misanthropy and chuckling morbidity we encountered from Dickinson in grade school. Choreographer Meisha Bosma reveals a striking passion that resided beneath Dickinson’s seemingly quiet life. Violet in my Winter does…

Jazz a la Count Basie seems an unlikely choice for the Black Cat. Yet, for more than a decade, Peaches O’Dell and her Orchestra have been swinging D.C. revelers into the next year. The bandleader is the subject of a special holiday edition of Three Stars. Even the most talented dance band can take a mental backseat to counting steps or following spins. The magnetic O’Dell is an exception to this rule — and several…

Despite a percieved rockist inclination, the generally philosophy of DCist Music is put best by Natasha Lyonne’s grammatically challenged disco queen in Detroit Rock City: “Good tunes is good tunes.” In that spirit this writer tests the waters of D.C.’s electronic music with Trifecta and their newest release: Laugh Now but One Day We’ll Be in Charge. The D.C. based trio creates jazz-tinged electronica somewhere between Soulive and Air . It’s music you’d expect to…

On paper, a Sunday night show seems more trouble than it’s worth. For the bridge and tunnel crowd there’s no metro, and for all a choice of three hours sleep or calling in sick. Yet, there was a palpable energy Sunday at the 9:30 club’s late show, due entirely to the night’s star attraction, Canadian provocateur Peaches. The city’s most bohemian — baristas, booksellers and burlesque performers — were in a collective good mood. They…