On Wednesday night, Washington Performing Arts Society opened its fall classical music season with a spectacular concert by the La Scala Philharmonic. Notably it did so not at the Kennedy Center, which has long been the organization’s main venue, but at the newer and growing Music Center at Strathmore. In spite of the suburban location, which doubled this disgruntled city dweller’s car trip, a VIP box at house left held such distinguished guests as First…
In case you missed it in the briefly noted in this morning’s news round-up, someone has been setting garbage can fires in Senate bathrooms for a few days now. On Wednesday there were four such fires between 10:45 a.m. and 2 p.m., thankfully quickly extinguished. Police say Wednesdays’ fires are connected (duh). And it turns out that similar fires were lit last week. From (subscription-only) Roll Call:Three of the fires set Wednesday took place in…
While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton’s San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan’s cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a…
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes), the long-running signature show of Chicago’s the Neo-Futurists that we reviewed yesterday, requires each of its performers to be a hybrid of improv artist, actor, athlete, and polemicist. Notwishstanding the fact that the team currently performing the show in the Fringe Festival is 40% female, it also takes some serious balls. Because although you can rest assured that if a “play”…
New music is often created through the collision of hitherto disparate styles. Immigrating to the U.S. from Ukraine in the 1990s, Eugene Hutz (pictured), the driving force behind Gogol Bordello, grew up on his native music but also caught the tail end of the American hardcore scene, most notably D.C. legends Bad Brains and Fugazi. Hutz does not recognize any disparities between the two. “I see the punk and hardcore scene as an anthropological study….
Memorial Day has come and gone, and we are now officially in the summer hiatus of the Classical Music Agenda. Here are some highlights for this week: in a week or two, this feature will take a well-deserved rest until Labor Day, when the classical concert schedule returns to full power. TOPS THIS WEEK: >> On Wednesday night, the excellent NPR radio program From the Top will be recorded in front of a live audience…
This is another one of those weeks, when devoted classical listeners could be in one hall or another every night of the week. Enjoy it while you can, as the summer is almost here and with it far fewer concerts to hear. ESSENTIAL: >> A concert by French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is an event to be cherished, and this week he will play twice in Washington. The first occasion is a solo recital at the…
Whether we make the mental connections or not, everything about our city is interrelated: • The health of the Anacostia and Potomac watersheds is directly affected by runoff from roads; • Our roads are designed and routed to ease our daily commute to get to and from jobs created by regional economic growth policy; • Growth is dependent on a reliable and expanding base of skilled workers; • Workers attracted by lively mixes of shops,…
We’ll do anything to serve our readership here at DCist, including taking up valuable Internet real estate to inform you of yet another free coffee giveaway from a giant national chain. This time up, it’s Dunkin’ Donuts, the corporate force behind an inexplicable love and devotion for so-so baked goods and decent-if-not-amazing coffee that is buried deep inside the heart of every Bostonian. No one understands why, but those wacky New Englanders, especially the ones…
On Wednesday night, Middle Distance Runner (one of DCist’s favorite bands) played a successful show at Arlene’s in Brooklyn with The Sketches, Fools & Horses, and Justin Jones. The show only happened by the grace of The Sketches and their borrowed equipment, because earlier that day MDR was greeted by a very unpleasant scene: While parked in front of an elementary school in Brooklyn, sometime between 1:00pm and 5:00pm (the middle of the day), someone…