>> This week’s first must see takes place tonight at Blues Alley as one of the area’s finest drummers, Nasar Abadey, takes the stage with SuperNova (pictured right), a local jazz supergroup. The band features Allyn Johnson on piano, Gary Thomas, Jazz Studies Chair at Peabody, altoist Joe Ford, and bassist James King. Sets are at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. $18 + $10 food/drink minimum. Tickets available here. >> Also tonight, Twins Jazz hosts…

At the heart, it’s about blood. With Cronenberg, it’s always about blood. No other director of his stature has built a career out of such a fascination with blood, and the other assorted slick bodily fluids that course through Cronenberg’s filmography. What makes him unique, and apart from the average gorehound, is his coldly clinical presentation of the warm organic matters that make up life, and the deeper truths he uses them, slyly, as an…

After letting us all enjoy a good summer break, next week the U.S. Senate will start debating legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives. And in preparing for what is sure to be a spirited battle, big-name voting rights activists have recently stepped up the pressure with two back-to-back op-eds in Washington papers. Yesterday Maryland’s former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and former Oklahoma Republican Rep. J.C. Watts penned…

>> In the early 1970s, Charles Burnett made a film called Killer of Sheep as his MFA thesis film at UCLA, and it became an instant landmark in American cinema. But few people ever got a chance to see it, because the stellar soundtrack included too many classic songs by the likes of Etta James and Dinah Washington to make it affordable to release it into theaters. This week, Washingtonians have a rare chance…

Today we mark four years since the war in Iraq began. Without debating the wisdom of the war itself (or lack thereof), the U.S. has suffered some 3,204 casualties to date. Among those casualties are residents from the District, Maryland and Virginia — 3, 60 and 91, respectively. DCist would like to recognize their service to their country in what little way we can — by printing their names and sending our condolences to their…

Mayor Adrian Fenty’s major campaign pledges mostly dealt with the District’s troubled schools and public safety departments, so it’s no surprise that changes in those departments get the headlines during this transition period. However, in the new administration, no struggling agency is spared, including the underachieving Administration for HIV Policy and Programs (AHPP). After officially being sworn in on Tuesday, the Mayor noted that AHPP director Marsha Martin – who had only been on the…

We are well into the season of seasonal concerts at this point. If you are looking for a performance of Handel’s Messiah or a Christmas or Holiday Concert, we’ve dealt with that. Here is what else is happening this week in classical music. NOT CHRISTMAS: >> Ironically, possibly the best performance this week also happens to be free, the latest concert in the excellent series at the Library of Congress. On Friday (December 15, 8…

When we last checked in on the state of HIV/AIDS in the District last August, things were looking rather grim. A report published by the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice lambasted the District’s efforts to deal with a severe HIV/AIDS crisis in the city, noting that the District remained some 10 to 15 years behind where it should be in mounting a defense against the disease. Shockingly, the report found that the District’s…

World AIDS Day, observed today, has particular relevance and importance for the District. The city has the distinction of suffering from one of the nation’s highest rates of HIV infection, afflicting 1 in 20 residents, ten times the national average, and 1 in 7 African-American men. The District’s response to the problem has been so ineffectual (some say the city is 10 to 15 years behind where it should be) that in August D.C. Mayor…

The Washington Business Journal broke the news late last night that the director of the District Department of Health, Gregg Pane, has chosen Marsha Martin, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist and director of the non-profit organization AIDS Action, to head up the city’s troubled HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA). Once the appointment is officially announced, Martin would take the helm of an understaffed government bureaucracy which has been accused of failing to adequately address the HIV/AIDS crisis in…