FRIDAY:
>> New York’s Latin-funk collective Yerba Buena, the energetic offspring of Venezuelan-born producer Andrés Levin and his Cuban-born wife Ileana Padrón (aka Cucu Diamantes), is the only band touring the country today that could bring together a guest artist line-up for their latest album, Island Life, that includes M1 from Dead Prez, comedian and actor John Leguizamo, and gypsy punks Gogol Bordello. The combo may occasionally feel like its trying to be an Afro-Cuban version of an all-you-can-eat buffet, but hey, what’s wrong with that? At Black Cat, with Cordero. $18, 9:30 p.m.
>> Call on over to the Library of Congress’ Mary Pickford Theater to reserve some free seats for An Evening of Experimental Cinema, one of those rare chances to see some truly interesting and historically groundbreaking shorts here in D.C. The films include two from painter and Dada pioneer Hans Richter, Rhythmus 21 and Ghosts Before Breakfast, and both are required viewing for any aspiring abstractionist. Richter was probably the first filmmaker to apply a Dadaist approach to celluloid, and while the special effects he employed are extraordinarily simple, the effect on the viewer is quite the opposite. Richard Myers’ 1969 avante-garde classic Akran, and a bizarre-sounding treat from the LOC vault, Fugue in D Minor, will also be screened. 7 p.m.
SATURDAY:
>> Really, we’ve written enough about Greenland, The Lucky Bastards, and The Alphabetical Order as it is. You already know that this is a great line-up of local talent. So we’ll stop pestering you. With The Rachel Nevadas at DC9. $8.
>> Stock up on art books at Hemphill Fine Arts’ Holiday Book Sale, running Sat. and Sun. from noon to 6 p.m. They’ll be serving hot cider and cookies, and selling an array of great potential gifts from Nazraeli Press. Go on Sat. from noon to 2 p.m. and William Christenberry, Joseph Mills and Tanya Marcuse will be there to sign your purchases. If there’s a photography fan in your life, you will make their year.
SUNDAY:
>> Your last chance to check out Lisa Voss’ 2004 Next Generation Playwrights’ Contest winning A Little Rebellion Now is Sunday at 3 p.m. A dystopian drama about what might happen if D.C. statehood activists and IMF-Worldbank protestors joined forces, Voss is a local playwright who isn’t afraid to tackle timely issues, and we respect her all the more for it. At Warehouse Theater, $15 to $20.
>> Allow us to recommend the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic’s Season’s Greetings From Around the World program at the Rachel Schlesinger Concert Hall on NVCC’s Alexandria campus (a fantastic venue, if you’ve never been). Arguably one of the most enjoyable and least expensive local orchestras, they’ll be offering up Bach’s Magnificat in D, BWV 243, Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Kazik’s Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra, and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll. For only $10, you too can feel the holiday love.
