Slate music writer Jonah Weiner has been getting a tremendous amount of ribbing on the internet for his latest counter-intuitive pop rock piece, “Creed is Good: Scott Stapp’s nu-grunge foursome was seriously underrated.” Weiner penned a similar defense of Limp Bizkit earlier this year, in fitting with his publication’s overall reputation for being contrary just for the sake of it. For us, all of this is really just an excuse to link back to…

Your mission, should you choose to accept: With only one week, adapt a randomly-chosen Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale into a compelling stage production. Such was the challenge for the team over at Rorschach Theater, which will premiere its season-opening stunt on Saturday. Last Sunday, 40 D.C. artists, many of them company members, were charged with the responsibility of turning tales like “Hansel & Gretel” into something we’d like to see on stage. Norman Allen, Randy…

Written by Jason Linkins MONDAY Vertigo Books and the TransAfrica Forum’s Writers Corner are bringing three great authors together for a special reading event: Kwame Dawes (She’s Gone), Helon Habila (Measuring Time) and Dinaw Mengestu (The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears) come together at the Charles Sumner School, 1201 17th Street NW, 6:30 p.m. TUESDAY It’s a father and daughter fest at Politics and Prose tonight, as John McPhee, author of Uncommon Gardens joins Martha…

FRIDAY: >> Print out this PDF and take it to Local 16 between 6 to 9 p.m. tonight to receive a free drink, courtesy the Not For Tourists Guide to Washington, DC 2007. They’ll also be giving away free copies of the Guide. >> Local rockers The Pharmacy Prophets are brewing up a high-concept hootenanny at Iota tonight. When the band takes the stage, they’ll simultaneously be filming live concert footage for a multimedia project…

Editorial Disclosure: DCist contributor Jason Linkins has a supporting role in this production Take a little Neil Gaiman, add a healthy dose of Jasper Fforde, infuse with a serious shot of Shakespeare and pepper with clever literary references throughout (and a refreshing amount of silliness), and you have Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Rough Magic, now being showcased by Rorschach Theater as part of the Shakespeare in Washington festival. As a festival entry, this one’s a smart pick…

You have to give Steven Pearlstein credit. It’s easy to be wrong about stuff: to call Tysons Corner a choice address, to fault Reston for not having bums and graffiti, or to assert that building churches is a better use of public money than constructing a tunnel for the Orange Line extension. Anyone can pen those garden variety inanities. It takes balls to compare Route 7 to Midtown Manhattan. That’s some grade A crazy; we’re…

Editorial Disclosure: DCist Jason Linkins has a supporting role in this production Quite a few interpretations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein have been gracing the D.C. stages lately. Round House Silver Spring has a take, and we were impressed with the lyrical, atmospheric vibe that Synetic Theatre’s production captured in September. While Rorschach Theatre’s most recent effort may not have the same melancholy moodiness that Synetic achieved through striking set design and choreography, the work still…

FRIDAY: >> Seems like everyone’s talking about the new nightlife options on H Street NE these days, thanks almost entirely to local bar Tsar Joe Englert. Englert’s latest creation, Showbar Presents the Palace of Wonders (though we hear a lot people refering to it simply as the Freak Show Bar) has been open for a few weeks already to mixed buzz — the decor is cool, the drinks are standard, and the food is…

The summer concert season is well under way, and few surprises remain, which makes concert news that cuts through the humidity all the more exciting. Here are a few new blips on the radar that we noticed, despite our holding pattern as we await the official VFest announcements this weekend. >> We hope you all got your Sleater-Kinney tickets; they sold out so fast that even the formidible Internet prowess of our own Jason Linkins…

FRIDAY: >> There ain’t nothin’ remotely unfun about hanging out with North Carolina’s trailer park heroes, Southern Culture On The Skids, who will be playing the 9:30 Club — or as it’s more pretentiously known, “Nightclub 9:30” — tonight with Jumpin’ Jupiter. If you’re good enough to treat SCOTS to some fried chicken, maybe they’ll indulge us locals with a Link Wray cover or two. $15, doors at 9 p.m. (Jason Linkins) >> Do your…