Photo by Elvert Barnes.FRIDAY
PUNK ROCK KARAOKE: Look, karaoke is fun, but Black Cat’s punk rock karaoke is arguably better than any karaoke night you’ve been to. I mean, where else can you get up on stage to scream old Dead Kennedys songs while a sweaty mosh pit forms in front of you? (Wait, don’t answer that). Anyway, tonight’s punk rock karaoke is benefitting Girls Rock! DC, so that’s pretty rad. $8, backstage. Starts at 9:30 p.m.
JAZZ: Grab a pitcher of sangria and give an ear to guitarist Rick Whitehead’s trio on Friday at Jazz in the Garden. 5 to 8:30 p.m. Free. — Sriram Gopal
DISTRICTLAND: That play we wrote about once is making its Fringe Festival debut tonight at Fort Fringe at 10:30 p.m. You can get tickets here. What play am I referring to, you ask? Oh, this one:
DISTRICTLAND is about using people. It’s about about making contacts at a Happy Hour instead of enjoying the company. It’s about a series of one-night stands as a substitute for intimacy. It’s about engaging with people on Twitter instead of the people standing beside you. It’s about losing sleep over who has not endorsed you for a skill on LinkedIn. It’s about a city full of transplant activists who cannot name DC’s mayor. DISTRICTLAND is about yoga, slam poetry, your iPhone, your internship, your Mall kickball team, Law School, Rhodes Scholars, World Bankers, Peace Corps, getting high, first generation baggage, the lone DC native and how a cabbie from Kabul’s life is so much more interesting than yours. DISTRICTLAND is about how you may wake up one morning and find that you are married to someone with the perfect DC CV… but she is bad in bed and you are horny.
God help us all.
SATURDAY
COMEDY: In what’s perhaps the most ’90s comedy pairing since, well, the ’90s, The Kennedy Center is hosting a comedy event with Dana Carvey and Dennis Miller. Starts at 8 p.m. and tickets start at $39. You can buy them here.
POSSESSION: A young wife freaks out on the way home from the grocery store, exploding milk jugs in the process. This weekend, the AFI’s 8th annual Totally Awesome: Great Films of the 1980s series brings back a 35m print of an arthouse favorite. Anna (Ishtar’s Isabelle Adjani) and Mark (Sam Neill) have a marriage on the rocks in a divided Berlin. It sounds like a domestic drama, but its amour fou reaches supernatural extremes. Director Andrzej Zulawski was probably incapable of making a movie that wasn’t insanely melodramatic: casting Klaus Kinski as an actor playing Richard III in That Most Important Thing: Love is one of the more sensible things about that movie — and this film, presented in the director’s cut, is reportedly one of his most coherent and best films. Screens at 9 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theater (editor’s note: This is one of the craziest fucking films I’ve ever seen. —MC). — Pat Padua
ICE CREAM: Ice Cream Jubilee, an honest-to-goodness brick-and-mortar ice cream shop that’s not a chain opens today at Yards Park. Why should you go? Because everyone loves ice cream? Need further convincing? Read Sarah Anne Hughes’ article about the shop.
DOGGIE HAPPY HOUR: A Bar + Kitchen (2500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) is launching a quarterly doggie charity happy hour this Saturday from 5-7 p.m. Bring your pup and enjoy cocktails with appropriately silly names like The Hound’s Tooth and the Red Baron. There will also be dog treats for your four-legged friend. The happy hour will also feature some special guests: a group of seven beagles that were rescued from a nearby laboratory last year. A dollar from each drink will benefit the Beagle Freedom Project. — Alicia Mazzara
SUNDAY
OWLS: Braid just put out a new record, American Football is doing reunion shows around the reissue of their seminal self-titled LP, and Mineral is even reuniting for a tour. Yep, the emo revival is in full swing. If you need further proof, head to the Black Cat’s backstage Sunday night to catch one of second-wave emo’s most under-appreciated bands, Owls. Owls, basically the original Cap’n Jazz lineup, features the Kinsella brothers, along with Victor Villareal and Sam Zurick, playing a more math-rock take on the genre. Two excellent Philly bands, Glocca Morra and Hop Along open. $15, starts at 8 p.m. Tickets here.
WORLD CUP: Argentina takes on Germany in the World Cup final and if you’re looking for a place to watch it other than a bar, fear not, two Smithsonian museums have organized an official watch party. Head to the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum to watch the match in the air-conditioned Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard on a 21-foot LED video wall. More info here. Additionally, if you’re looking for something else to do before or after the game, the National Geographic Museum is offering free admission to anyone wearing a soccer jersey on Sunday.
JAZZ: CapitalBop’s monthly Jazz Loft takes place on Sunday at Union Arts. The night will begin with up-and-coming drummer Aaron Seeber and his band, continue with saxophonist Brad Linde’s new bass free ensemble, Team Players, and then conclude with vocalist Aaron Myers, who is being compared with Gregory Porter. 7 p.m. $15 suggested donation. — Sriram Gopal
