Vapiano: Hopefully Better than the Name Sounds DCist swung by the opening dinner last night at Vapiano, now open at 1800 M Street NW. It’s a European-based pizza, pasta, and salad bar that claims to be leading a new trend in the restaurant industry deemed “Fresh Casual” (which was strange, given the greeters at the dinner were dressed to the nines). What does that mean? Vapiano explains it as “somewhere between the nicest of fast…
>> If you’ve ever thought about having a wedding of any kind, we’d recommend stopping by Olsson’s Courthouse store tonight to listen to The New Yorker’s Rebecca Mead, whose most recent work explores the sinister workings of the $160 billion wedding industry and has been the talk of the internets of late. Tomorrow we’ll dig up information on the best ways to elope for anyone who was in attendance. Mead reads from One Perfect Day:…
>> Celebrate the start of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with a discussion of Japanese cinema and culture at the Freer Gallery. Film scholar Tom Vick presents film clips illustrating changes in family dynamics and Japanese society throughout the 20th Century. [Jefferson Dr. at 12th St. SW, $18, 7 p.m.] >> Catch the latest installment of Geek Comedy Tour 3K at Riot Act Comedy Club (aka HR-57). This collection of nerds waxes poet on…
>> Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month with the Omar Sosa Quartet, who will play tonight at the Lincoln Theater in an evening of Afro-Cuban jazz cosponsored by the Smithsonian. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come first-serve basis, starting one hour before the concert. [1215 U St., NW, Free, 8 p.m] >> For those not content to just sit back and enjoy D.C.’s bevy of musical acts, Clarendon Ballroom offers swing dancing accompanied by a…
MONDAY At Chapters, they’re mad for mystery writers on Mondays in March, and for alliteration at all other times. Today, they have a fine guest: Laura Lippman, who’ll be reading from her latest, What the Dead Know. 445 11th Street, NW, 1 p.m. TUESDAY Tom Bissell and his father, an ex-Marine who served in the Vietnam War, travel back to Vietnam on a journey that retraces both national and personal history. He’ll be in town…
>> Mark this day, D.C. It took a full 37 days for us to use the “Marion Barry in trouble with the law again” keystroke in 2007. Federal prosecutors are asking that the Councilman’s probation in his tax-evasion case be revoked. They say Barry has failed to meet the terms of his plea agreement by not paying back taxes and not filing again in 2005. After being convicted on federal charges of not paying…
It’s that time of the year again, when people make resolutions they do not plan on keeping. Join DCist in resolving to see more art in 2007, but let’s mean it. You could get started this week. >> Studio Gallery will have an invitational show featuring artists from the greater D.C. metropolitan area (January 3 to 28). This will include Suzanne Quinlan, whose work is shown at right. Open Wednesdays to Sundays, 2108 R St….
MONDAY Gary D. Cole built a career thriving at the apex of contradiction—CIA lawyer turned theatre artist, staunch conservative at Cal-Berkeley, a Bush campaign supporter who never let his politics get in the way of producing vital art. Those worlds collided after a Presidential appointment to the NEA was withdrawn because he once produced Poona The Fuckdog (a funny, smutty little play local theatre-goers may remember being produced by Cherry Red Productions). Cole retraces his…
MONDAY When it comes to issues of globalization, nobody rocks the field like Joseph Stiglitz, whose last book, Globalization and its Discontents, should be a must-read for everyone who thinks they can change the world with a papier-mâché puppet. Now he’s back to discuss the ways of Making Globalization Work. Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, at 7 p.m. TUESDAY She’s short. She’s tenacious. She’s stalking Stephen Colbert. No, we’re not talking about Senator…
For citizens with a literary bent, this week’s major highlight is the Hyman S. and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival, running all week long, mainly at the Jewish Community Center at 1529 16th Street, NW. Highlights include Peter Beinart and Rebecca Goldstein, plenty of panel discussions, a poetry reading, and an appearance by Madeleine Albright, who makes some time while planning her forthcoming libel suit against ABC. A full schedule of this week’s Festival highlights…
