Disoriented and Seeing Stars WaPo reviewer Tom Sietsema has released his 2007 Washington Post Dining Guide online. You can catch it on newsstands this weekend. At the top, Cathal Armstrong’s Restaurant Eve has broken through to the four-star category, and his revamped Majestic also made the list. Newcomers Central Michel Richard (3 stars), Proof (2.5), Farrah Olivia (2.5), and Hook (2.5) also made it onto the list. A surprising omission was Brasserie Beck, which Sietsema…

“Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don’t hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent — I don’t care which one — but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.” —Brodie, Mallrats I was conditioned perhaps a little too heavily to fear and respect the escalator. While I had no trouble riding up, getting on from the…

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Sometimes I imagine that the vicious territoriality residents of this or that place occasionally display when comparing their home enclave to another is a sign of something positive, a rootedness and sense of belonging, maybe, to the neighborhood or city or state one calls home. If that’s the case, then residents of the cities of Baltimore and Washington must be some rooted…

While I’m still not sure what to make of TV on the Radio, if the audience reaction to last night’s show is any indication, I’m in the minority. The best band in the country lived up the hype last night at the 9:30 Club and also managed to do something that I haven’t seen at a D.C. area show in quite some time; make the crowd move through their entire performance. Some people bobbed…

While I can’t say I’m sorry I didn’t get to see the Potomac freezing over earlier this week, I’m sure glad Flickr user Scott Ableman did. This view of the Kennedy Center over the icy river is beautiful, and even better, the rest of us can enjoy from the cozy indoors instead….

While I can’t yet rank it against the city’s other offerings, Bukom Café seems as good a place as any to acquaint yourself with West African cuisine. Despite its location below The Reef’s upper levels, it’s far from sceney as it offers refuge from the drunken mayhem lurking just outside its doors. The sunken dining area offers semi-seclusion in the rear, while the tables on the main floor provide a view of the house band….

Two years ago, I heard an interesting piece on public radio about a one-woman play that was in the middle of a critically successful run at Manhattan Ensemble Theater. I had missed the introduction of the segment but listened raptly as the author, whose voice sounded very familiar, described how she had come to write a show about the lives of Iraqi women during the American military occupations. My jaw hit the floor at the…

Soprano Cristina Nassif is a 20-something native of the Maryland suburbs. The daughter of an opera singer mother and a pianist father, Nassif received a music degree at the University of Maryland and got her start on the stage in the Virginia Opera Young Artist Program. Last season, she triumphed with Virginia Opera as Violetta in La Traviata, which brought her to the attention of the hungry eye of Plácido Domingo, ever watchful for…

With so many art galleries featuring recent graduate shows, we couldn’t resist scouring the walls for a few of our choice picks. Today we begin a brief series featuring local artists who look prepared to make some strong waves in the art world. Growing up in Annapolis, Maryland, Brian Twilley was always pulled towards the visual arts and, particularly, photography. “Miserable” as a business major, he quickly switched to fine arts and never looked back….

With the stadium set to be built and a large part of the surrounding area ready to be redeveloped, we’re bound to see a host of changes in the coming months. Of the businesses that have thrived in an otherwise desolate and industrial section of town, Nation nightclub is the first to go. Nation, located mere blocks from the Navy Yard Metrorail station, has come to be known both for its cavernous, spartan feel and…