By DCist contributor Amy Monroe Today’s column will be about Champagne and sparkling wine. It will resemble Ben Giliberti’s wine column in yesterday’s Washington Post in that “It’s All About the Bubbles.” It will not resemble that column in any other way. If you’re looking for a laundry list of recommendations offset by non-specific tasting notes containing uselessly vague words such as “fresh” and “lively,” stop reading now and take a look at the Post’s…

FRIDAY: >> We interviewed Josh Lefkowitz when he was in town performing at the Fringe Festival, and now he’s bringing his thoughtful/hysterical monologue, Help Wanted: A Personal Search for Meaningful Employment at the Start of the 21st Century, to the Woolly Mammoth stage. Tickets are $15, and the show runs through Oct. 8. Details and showtimes are available here. >> Soft Complex has a debut EP, Barcelona, and it’s damn well time for them to…

In this oppressive heat, DCist has found it difficult to leave the house even for work, much less shopping. But this evening’s U Street Shopper Social, with area stores boasting savings on everything from designer denim to 19th century farm tables, might be incentive enough for us to leave our artificially-cooled abodes. Plus, there’s free cupcakes! The U Street Shopper Social, which is held on the third Thursday of every month, is an event to…