A few years ago, Jennifer Tobias, an associate librarian at the Museum of Modern Art, came to my college campus to speak about MoMA’s book collection. She said that the museum kept all the books that artists donated to the collection, and that artists often espoused quite expansive notions of what constitutes a book. One artist, she recalled, even sent in a chair, while another submitted a wooden duck and called it a book. The…

One could be excused for missing Joanna Newsom’s opening act, the forgettable and largely annoying P.G. Six, who seemed determined to fuse the 70’s hard-jam sensibilities of Neil Young with the more jazzy leanings of Tom Verlaine and Television. They largely failed to approach either of those heights, and for an audience that was primed for an evening of nouveau folk harp and sweet melodies, it was a mismatch to begin with. As it turned…

Already an author of five New York Times bestsellers and likely well on his way to a sixth, Brad Meltzer has honed his eye for the political thriller. He’s the kind of geek you want to be — part political junkie, part comic book guru (he also pens stories for The Justice League) — and his popular novels speak to this engaging combination. Meltzer appears tonight to talk about his new book, The Book of…

TUESDAY Dreckifying The Shop Around the Corner notwithstanding, Nora Ephron has a solid track record of bringing the funny. Why so wistful, then, Nora? Find out tonight at Politics and Prose as she discusses I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW., 7 p.m. If you can’t make it, she’ll be making another D.C. stop Wednesday at the District of Columbia Jewish Community Center, 16th &…

( From DCist contributor Amadie Hart) Local runner and Olympic marathon trials participant Michael Wardian broke the world record for the treadmill marathon this weekend. Wardian, 30, ran the 26.2 miles in 2:23:58, besting the previous record of 2:31:04 set by Josh Cox this past April. The record was timed and witnessed by staff of the Capital Running Company and will be certified with “The Book of Alternative Records.” In a post-race interview with WTTG/Fox…

We think everyone has caught on to our love for Jon Stewart’s irreverence here at DCist. We admit it, we have a crush. So, as we wipe the drool from our keyboards, we have an obligation to declare tomorrow a perfect day to play hookie from the office. Why? To catch the 1 p.m. Jon Stewart and Ben Karlin book signing at Politics and Prose, silly. Yes, we realize everyone probably knows this piece of…

DCist is on to you, Jon Stewart, et al. On last night’s show “Daily Show” correspondent Samantha Bee was “reporting” live from Cleveland after the vice presidential debate with a busy street scene behind her. We all know that “Daily Show” correspondents do their thing in front of a blue screen in New York, but Bee’s backdrop was not Cleveland, but Georgetown. If you spied the golden dome of the Riggs Bank at Wisconsin Avenue…