This week’s Metro Weekly reports some disturbing news that a gay couple was kicked out of a local Rite Aid pharmacy without reason. Jay Hill and Mike Browne went into the store at 13th and U streets NW last Friday to make a purchase, and they embraced as they browsed an aisle. Hill told MW the manager walked by, saw them and did a double take. The manager then asked the security guard on duty…

It’s been proven again and again: Art thrives on restriction. And kitschy art demands it the way even the most genteel of man-bat hybrids demand hot, fresh blood. So it’s no surprise that the best thing about Landless Theatre Company’s current revival of Bat Boy: The Musical is its audacious modesty. That’s not an oxymoron: Their production is low-budget, low-tech, low-brow, and high camp. One wishes it was a bit more high-efficiency: No show…

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it’s important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the…

>> There’s a lot going on tonight in our Weekly Music Agenda, but we’d especially recommend making the trip to Iota for Exit Clov’s show with The Eames Era, who play easily digestible indie-pop without being annoying about it. Also The Beanstalk Library. 8:30 p.m. $10. >> Tickets are still available to see Skinny Puppy at the 9:30 Club tonight. It could be just like when you used to hang out with your older…

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big — really freaking big — so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city’s San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA…

For the last few weeks you couldn’t read any D.C.-area food publication without seeing something about Robert Wiedmaier’s Brasserie Beck. And all before it even opened. From Wiedmaier guest hosting Todd Kliman’s chog, two pre-opening mentions in DCist’s Weekly Feed, and frequent but casual mentions by The Washington Post and the blogosphere. And here Beck’s is being written about yet again. Whoever the restaurant’s publicist is, she’s sure earning her keep. The best way to…

Last night Fairfax’s Rep. Tom Davis (R) sat down with Stephen Colbert to better know Virginia’s “Fighting” 11th District. While it was great to see another local politician step up to the plate, Davis seemed a little befuddled by Colbert’s style. For example he likes the Doobie Brothers, but has no idea what a “doobie” is, and probably won’t be participating in any program to tag and track Republicans. Whew! Maybe Davis’s performance just…

Written by DCist contributor Maria Flores Sometime in the early 1970s, when the photographs in Melody Maker, NME, and Rolling Stone were no longer enough to satiate his appetite, Claude Gassian swapped his guitar for a 35mm camera and took to the road with his finger on the shutter button. So began his photographic conquest to document the lives of some of his favorite musical artists. Over three decades later, his photographs stand alone as…

The Weekly Feed was pushed back this week because its regular author was tied up with another task. Thanks to DCist Food staffer Jamie Liu for picking up the column last minute. The Proof is in the Pinot Coming up in May, wine enthusiast Mark Kuller is bringing out some fun little tricks with his wine-centric restaurant, Proof, in Gallery Place. The sexy little enomatic from Italy will be dispensing tasting and full pours of…

If we could honestly see any down side to the sudden rise of spring in Washington (and really, I sat outside last night in a friend’s backyard — is there anything better than that?), we suppose the sudden return of parking tickets for three hour intervals on alternate sides of the street would be it. And obviously, regarding the accompanying photo, it’s not that kind of sweeping. But it’s tough not to have a cheery…