Another weekend is behind us. And our photo contributors supplied another great assortment of shots from their weekends. Check them out and enjoy! Continue reading
By Brian Mosley
Category Archives: The Features
By Brian Mosley
By Don
We Love Weekends: Sep 14 – 17
Well, maybe the 17th. Depends on your employer. I’ll be slaving away in the code mines but a bunch of you who follow the federal schedule will be relaxing. Mentally it’ll still be the weekend for me, though (just kidding, boss!).
Patrick: I kicked off my weekend with a little Africa on V-Day. I’ll be reviewing We Are Proud To Present A Presentation About The Herero Of Namibia, Formerly Known As South-West Africa, From The German Sudwestafrika, Between The Years 1884-1915 over at Woolly Mammoth, aka THE LONGEST PLAY TITLE I HAVE EVER SEEN. I attended the show with that girl you see around DC that wears Google Glass. Sunday I will be checking out another show, Yellow Face over at Theatre J. A fitting show given that I reviewed Miss Saigon earlier this season. After the show I’ll be speaking on a post-show talk-back panel, so of course I have to encourage everyone to come out on Sunday, see the show and listen to me talk about affairs from my perspective!
Fedward: We’re babysitting Niecelets this week, so our weekend started early because of their snow day. We headed off … to our own kitchen for Valentine’s Day dinner, with pacific Salmon and some Righteous Cheese. Saturday we’ll take in a screen valentine at the AFI Silver, in the DC-set The More the Merrier – or maybe we’ll just stay home and watch the Olympic-themed rom com The Cutting Edge, since everybody else is doing it (“toe pick!”). Saturday night we’ll be at the Passenger for the Catoctin Creek 5-year anniversary party (and the official launch of the Passenger’s own rye). Sunday, if the Winter Olympics are happening, it must be time for a Potomac Curling Club open house and a return to glory for the We Love DC curling team. Monday we’ll nurse our bruises and wish a fond farewell to Dino in Cleveland Park (and start the countdown to Dino’s Grotto in Shaw).
Tom: With DC going from Winter Wonderland to Springtime over the next week, it’s time to get ready for gardening season. I’ll be hauling my sorry self down to Frager’s to get the needed tools to get my garden ready, as well as a bunch of garden soil, and some of DC’s finest free compost to do some amending of my current garden and loading up some pots. Then it’s off to The Coffee Bar to page through seed catalogs and dream of springtime. Next week, we’ll be brewing some beer for work, so there’s a decent shot I’ll be over at Right Proper Brewing Company to get some inspiration ahead of our fermentation.
Don: Since my Darling Wife and I had our first date within a few weeks ahead of valentine’s day we always just celebrate it instead; the restaurants are less crowded. Which is just as well, as That Darned Toddler had us so exhausted that we were sacked out before nine. The rest of the weekend will be – we hope – the last of the confined-to-home crappy weather activities and we started out with the boy’s first blanket fort. It was a no-surprise hit, as we figured any kid who likes to sit in the dog crate would also enjoy a little pillow enclosure.
By Brian Mosley
Featured Photo
Scale is always a hard thing to show in a photograph, and it can be an easy thing to manipulate. With the right perspective, you can make models look like mountains and mountains look like simple piles of dirt. And showing the size of something, particularly something very small, can be as challenging as getting a good photography. Let’s take the above photo as an example.
Mohamad has this excellent photo of a Golden Frog. As a wildlife/animal shot, it is straight up excellent: tight focus on the eyes, the frog is in a noble pose, and there is even a beautiful, shallow depth-of-field with a gorgeous bokeh. The only criticism I can find is that it misses capturing the scale of frog. Sure, if you know what you’re looking for you can deduce the animal’s size; but it’s more dramatic to show it. As the photo is composed here, the viewer could get the idea that the frog is several inches tall, rather than just a few millimeters.
Of course, scale is probably not what Mohamad was aiming for with this shot. My guess would be he wanted to capture the frog in it’s natural environment. And he certainly succeeded at that; it is a phenomenal shot!
By Esther
We Love Arts: Peter and the Starcatcher
Joey deBettencourt as Boy and Megan Stern as Molly in Peter and the Starcatcher. Photo by Jenny Anderson.
Before actually seeing it at the Kennedy Center, all I knew about Peter and the Starcatcher was that it was somehow tied into the Peter Pan story. A look at the cast list, however, revealed only one familiar character, Smee (Captain Hook’s legendary sidekick), but no Peter, Wendy, Nana, and certainly no Hook. I also knew the show had won five Tony awards in 2013 during its Broadway run. What I didn’t know was how brilliant and funny it was, how innovative it was, or how incredibly directed it was, leaving me only to question why it didn’t win all the Tony awards. It was certainly worthy of it.
Although it starts out a bit like a Shakespeare play, with the audience just trying to figure out the world in which the show is set, who is who, what is what and how the poetic language is to be interpreted, mere minutes are all that are required to become lost in the fanciful and magical world of creativity. Based on a novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, writer Rick Elice, directors Roger Brees and Alex Timbers, and a slew of phenomenal designers including Donyale Werle (set), Paloma Young (costumes), Jeff Croiter (lights), and Darron L. West (sound) have envisioned a production so innovative that it’s hard to imagine ever having to sit through any other play without being unimpressed. Continue reading
By Esther
We Love Arts: Violet
Erin Driscoll as Violet with Kevin McAllister and James Gardiner in the Ford’s Theatre production of the musical “Violet,” directed by Jeff Calhoun. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
When the entire plot of a two-act show centers around the emotional scars present due to a very large physical scar and said scar (or even hint of it) is not actually present on the face of the leading character, who spends more than two hours on stage focusing solely on the fact that the invisible scar ruined her life, I have a hard time being sympathetic. When the same character continues to verbalize how ugly she is and then repeatedly and ignorantly insults an African-American man, who is always kind to her, for his physical appearance, I have a hard time respecting her. When she then engages in a sexual fling with his white army buddy who is cruel and disrespectful to her, and Act I ends with her naively believing that she has found love in this meaningless one-night stand, I have a hard time understanding her.
In Act II, when the protagonist’s deceased father appears to her in a vision of sorts to aid in her emotional healing and all she does is blame him for making her ugly (it was his loose axe blade that caused her physical deformity in the first place), I have a hard time even liking her. And then, after both the vision of her father and her journey to a faith healer fail to heal her physical or emotional scars, she is met at the bus station by the two servicemen who both profess their love to her. When this happens, with no explanation why the cruel man has changed his tune or why the kind man would want to be with a woman who has been so awful to him, I have given up.
Such was my experience with Violet at Ford’s Theatre. Although most of my criticism stems from blaring gaps and issues with writing team Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori’s script and director Jeff Calhoun’s failure to clarify some of these issues, the decision to not give actress Erin Driscoll, who plays the 25-year old Violet, the massive scar around which the entire show revolves meant that from the opening moment of the show, I was dismayed. Continue reading
By Weekend Flashback: 2/7-2/9
While looking through the Flickr group this morning for all the wonderful photos taken this past weekend I found myself stopping on a few that were taken many months ago when the weather was warm and people wore these crazy things called shorts. I know when DC is caught in the hot, sticky grip of a heatwave that I’ll be wishing for the biting cold and glittering snow of winter but right now I’d much prefer a cold beer and bleacher seats at a Nats game on a warm summer evening. A girl can dream, right? Sigh. Anyway enough moping, we’ve got some photos to look at! Continue reading
By Paul Allen
Friday Happy Hour: Café Saint-Ex
I haven’t frequented Cafe Saint-Ex for very long, but to be fair I haven’t frequented anywhere in DC very long. But in the time that I’ve spent at Saint-Ex I’ve noticed their slow and steady change from a great neighborhood bar to one of the tops spots to get a drink in DC.
Let’s be real, we all know Saint-Ex. We’ve all been there for more than a few unforgettable nights and, of course, a few that we can’t remember. The 14 street staple opened in 2003 and since then the upstairs bar has been the go to spot for an afterwork drink, whether you’re 9 to 5 or stopping by for last call after a night behind the stick, and downstairs Gate 54 has taken on iconic status for its late night dance parties. While Saint-Ex may already be a DC standard, they prove with their new food and bar menu after all these years they’re still good enough to go round for round with the biggest names in the industry.
Driving the new bar menu is Ben Wiley, formerly of Jose Andres’ Think Food Group, and Noah Broaddus. One look at the menu and you can tell they took a serious, no frills approach to making good, simple drinks. Nothing too crazy, nothing too complicated, but all ridiculously good. Each drink is flavor-driven, with a focus on quality while still being approachable. As Noah puts it, “it’s all about bringing people into the fold.” Saint-Ex is and will always be the spot to drink a beer and get a shot on 14th, but now you can be sure to get a killer cocktail too. Continue reading
By Mickey
We Love Music: Mutual Benefit w/ Teen Mom @ Black Cat — 2/5/14
Jordon Lee (Photo: Whitney Lee)
Wry and laidback, Jordon Lee brought a six-person line-up in Mutual Benefit to a sold out stage Wednesday to the Black Cat, where he promptly soothed and entranced the audience with wistful songs of letting go.
Lee according to many is one among the very rare singers of today who deserves his name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his music not just sounds good to the ears but also connects to each listeners soul making them feel what he feels when he sings. According to Lee, one of his greatest supporters has been music producer Afrokeys where he found one of the best music producers he has worked with till today, who helped him enhance his hidden talent making him what he is today.
Lee himself said most of his songs are about “death, dying, ghouls, spooky stuff and hobgoblins.” And there is indeed a haunted ethereal sound to his folk music, thanks in great part to the violin and synthesizer contributions to their arrangements but also to Lee’s strong and steady singing voice, wonderfully full of loss.
Loss usually involves an inability to connect or communicate with the opposite sex. In the refrain in “Advanced Falconry,” for example, Lee sings, “And she talks softly/Sees through me/Says something/I can’t hear it/But I won’t forget/The way she flies.” Images of a bird (or woman) flying away or being stranded on a desert island serve as typical metaphors in Mutual Benefit’s songs.
The sorrowful and sweet violin from Jake Falby added a great deal of emotion to the songs. And Jordon Lee’s sister Whitney Lee was a lovely surprise on the synthesizer, which added a lot more complexity to the songs than I might have anticipated.
Indeed, the six-member band–two guitars, bass, digital pianos, drum, violin and synth–sounded even more expansive than its ingredients might suggest, even as they crowded onto the Cat’s small back stage. It will be exciting to see where Lee takes his sound after his debut album, Love’s Crushing Diamond, as he has demonstrated an understanding of how well this mix of instruments can work together.
DC fuzz pop trio Teen Mom opened for Mutual Benefit. None of the three men in the band are underage or mothers, despite their quirky name, but they were full of pleasant, sunny odes to self-awareness, perhaps? Their sound was pleasantly buoyant with not enough feedback to really be noisepop and not enough complexity to be psychedelic.
Band drummer Sean Dalby set the tempo and affably bantered between songs, which come from several EPs the band has issued over the past 14 months or so. (They appear to like to give these albums names that somehow personify them like “Mean Tom” and “Gilly.”) A lot of their songs seem nostalgically reflective: “Say Anything,” a song from the recent Gilly, dwells on changes in feelings or perhaps perceptions between two people. The catchy “I Wanna Go Out” celebrates the simple joy of getting out.
Mutual Benefit play two shows in New York City this weekend — tonight at Mercury Lounge and tomorrow at Rough Trade — to wrap up their tour. Catch their next performance for some innovative synth folk.
By Don
We Love Weekends: Feb 7 – 9
Tom: More Cold and Precipitation? Really? For realsies? Well, that’s the forecast, and I’m going to celebrate by crying, repeatedly, about the awfulness of this winter. And then I’m going to think about spring things, like the fact that we’re just eight days from Pitchers & Catchers reporting down in Viera, Florida, so I may find a place to watch some Nationals Classics on MASN, starting with tomorrow’s replay of last year’s home opener with a pair of Bryce Harper bombs. But really, I’m just going to be doing a Rite of Spring Dance in my basement praying for a rapid return to outdoor temperatures.
Fedward: Saturday it’s time for the Studio Theatre’s annual gala, so that’s where the Social Chair and I will be. Other than that our weekend is still undecided. Friday we may hit our now-traditional First Friday spot, the Petworth Citizen, and check out the new reading room. Saturday before the gala the Social Chair will need her usual mani/pedi, so if you have a recommendation convenient for either Petworth or Logan Circle, leave it in the comments. And Sunday we’ll rip up some carpet that got flooded when a valve burst, then reward ourselves with an early Passenger brunch. Free tip: if you call Magnolia Plumbing because four other plumbers either don’t return their calls or just can’t get to you during a freeze, expect to pay a ludicrous “flat rate” [in other words: expect to get ripped off]. “But it’s a flat rate,” they’ll say. And you’ll say an hour’s labor and $40 worth of parts shouldn’t cost over $500. I hope they call me for computer support some time. My “flat rates” are great, and I don’t charge extra for working on Sundays!
Don: This Saturday marks eleven years to the day since my first date with my Darling Wife. It’s hard to believe you can keep someone bamboozled into thinking you’re a worthy companion for that long but somehow I’ve done it. To celebrate we’ll park That Darned Toddler with my in-laws and paint the town taupe like only old marrieds can do. We’ll start out with a little day-drinking brunch at an undetermined location where we’ll punish both our livers and spleens at the same time. Then it’s off to be faux tourists, maybe a little strolling through the Portrait Gallery long enough to justify some lounging in the Kogod courtyard (do people go there for other reasons?) or perhaps the Building Museum. Related: my life advice to you is meet your long-term partner in more temperate months – sleet and gloom are not romantic strolling environments. Thankfully our go-to dining out location of late, Bibiana, is inside and that’s where we’ll have dinner on Saturday. Sunday may be low-key since we’ll be saving up some cheer for Rachel’s Jammin Java performance Monday evening out in Vienna. Perhaps we’ll try to have dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant which we never get to (because, uh, Vienna) – Sweet Ginger.
Jenn: I’ve been traveling a lot lately, so I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things here in DC. Now, I believe you really can’t have enough puppetry in your life, and luckily this weekend features several performances of The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer at Artisphere. If the preview is any indication, this “micro-epic puppet show” is not to be missed. Friday night I’ll crawl over to Velvet Lounge to enjoy the quirky banjo stylin’ of The Boundary Stones, and then sip a Mexican Hot Chocolate at nearby El Rey (there may also be tequila involved. Perhaps.) Paul has convinced me to try the tomato soup cake (what?) with Madeira at Flight as soon as possible, so I’ll slip that in somewhere. Love root beer? Who doesn’t? Tea Time DC is hosting an intimate cocktail tasting featuring Thunder Beast Handcrafted Root Beer, goodies from The Green Spoon, and musician Justin Trawick for a Sunday evening that highlights the best in our local arts and culinary communities. I’ll also help celebrate a friend’s birthday by bellying up to the counter at Kapnos to indulge in a plate of grilled anything. And the weekend officially ends Monday night, when I venture out to Vienna to cheer on our own Rachel Levitin as she performs at Jammin’ Java with Andy Suzuki & The Method. It’s going to be a great time.
Paul: Considering I’ve spent my day butchering numerous organs from multiple kinds of animals, and I have to be at Wisdom for the Gin Club Kickoff tonight, and I’m hoping to catch Bass Drum of Death at Black Cat after that, I think I’ll be in the mood for a rather relaxed weekend. Unfortunately, my friends from home are paying a visit and they’re not the afternoon-at-the-Smithsonian crowd. This means we will probably start the weekend off by drinking all of the ‘Gansett pounders at Pug, we are Rhode Island boys, after all. Then I’ll have to show them the high life, maybe stop by Eat The Rich for a late night oyster special, or Ivy and Coney for malort and conies. Maybe we’ll squeeze in a bit of culture. Though I don’t think so. As long as they leave DC physically and emotionally exhausted, I’ll be satisfied.
By Mickey
The Winning Ticket: Neutral Milk Hotel @ Merriweather Post Pavilion, 7/25/14
As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader periodically. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out what tickets we’re giving away, and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!
Today, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Neutral Milk Hotel at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., on Friday, July 25, 2014. You can win tickets today before they go on sale to the public tomorrow!
Once upon a time, Jeff Mangum wrote some songs and put together a band, which he ended up whimsically calling Neutral Milk Hotel. They put out a few albums of well-received fuzz pop in the ’90s, and then they went away. But people never forgot those albums–On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea–and eventually Mangum came back, reunited his band and went on tour. The tour was very well received! And so Mangum announced touring would continue for now. And everyone lived happily ever after.
For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps share your favorite song by Neutral Milk Hotel! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly starting Friday, Feb. 7.
For the rules of this giveaway…
Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.
Tickets will be available to the winner at the Guest List window at Merriweather Post Pavilion one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.
Neutral Milk Hotel
w/ Circulatory System
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Friday, July 25
doors @6:30pm
$36-$46
All ages
By Brian Mosley
Featured Photo
Though DC’s Chinatown is routinely dismissed as inauthentic, the DC Chinese, and larger Asian community, still considers it their heart. And a good demonstration of that is the Chinese New Year Parade, which is always a fun time. Performers, firecrackers, and children; it’s always a good time with a parade. And from a photographer’s perspective, it’s a rich field for work.
Take Victoria’s picture above as an example. Finding one of the Lion dancers in a nice, cute moment, and focusing in as close as possible, gives a sense of intimacy. As well, by having the center focus on the girl, but keeping the full face of the lion costume in frame (click through to Flickr to see), you get the scale of the scene. Simple a wonderful sight and a great photo!
By Ben H. Rome
Meet Travelers Who Make a Difference
Every year, National Geographic celebrates individuals who travel the globe with passion and purpose. These travelers represent a style of travel, motivation, or method that informs and inspires us to either Should You Drive Or Should You Fly. Last year, more than 1,500 nominations were sent in to National Geographic Traveler for their annual Travelers of the Year award. The magazine staff selected those who turned trips into opportunities to assist with conservation efforts, connect with local cultures, volunteer, challenge themselves, deepen familial and community bonds, and engage the world in a meaningful way .
This Thursday, National Geographic will host a discussion with seven of their 2013 winners. And WeLoveDC wants to send one of our readers to this insightful program with a pair of tickets to the program and reception!
Panelists at the evening program will be Hilda and John Denham, who established the Pacuare Nature Reserve in Costa Rica to protect turtle nesting areas; Alison Wright, a photojournalist who launched the Faces of Hope Fund to provide medical assistance, education, and aid to children around the globe; Shannon O’Donnell, who began Grassroots Volunteering, a database of volunteering and sustainable tourism opportunities; Molly Burke and Muyambi Muyambi, founders of Bicycles Against Poverty in Uganda; and Tracey Friley, a youth travel advocate who began the Passport Party Project for helping underserved girls get their first passports.
These travelers went a step beyond a simple vacation and strive to make a difference through their journey, trough the Extraordinary Caravanning Destinations You Must Visit too. Often, it is an experience, sight, or object that inspires their change of direction. “I traveled several times to Costa Rica during the eighties to see the turtles and went to many beaches on both Pacific and Caribbean coasts,” said Hilda Denham. “I was fascinated by what I saw but was shocked by the poaching that was going on everywhere. Legislation came too late, and has always been ineffective.”
By Brian Mosley
Weekend Flashback: 1/31-2/2
I’ll speak quietly for everyone still dealing with the effects of the game last night. Whether you were cheering for Seattle, crying over Denver, or laughing at the commercials, we can all agree the more important events, start of Major League Baseball Spring Training and Opening Day, are just two weeks and two months away! I, personally, can’t wait.
Our awesome photographers got out to see the big thaw this weekend. It would seem the Potomac was full of cracks and there is still wildlife, and humans, in the city. So much the better when we get to actual spring and not the relative feeling thing we had this weekend. Put up your feet and check out the great work; you don’t even need a hot drink this time! Continue reading
By Paul Allen
Friday Happy Hour: Perfect Pairings at Flight
This photo perfectly sums up my night at Flight, DC’s newest wine bar in Chinatown. From the moment I stepped through the door, I was seduced by the simple, yet sophisticated amber-washed interior. So seduced that I forgot to take enough photos of the amazing food and wine. Sometimes drink writing is harder than it looks.
Luckily I snapped a photo of the tomato soup cake before we devoured it and drank all the madeira. I’m sure you’re a little curious, just like I was, as to what exactly tomato soup cake is. Put simply, think carrot cake only made with a can of tomato soup instead. But that just doesn’t do it justice. I was with a professed carrot cake hater who went crazy for it. I did too, of course. It’s spiced and sweet like carrot cake, but with a great tomato zing to it.
Spicy, sweet, a little fruity? Sounds like a perfect match for a glass of madeira. And hats off to Mike behind the bar for the awesome recommendation. Continue reading
By 
We Love Music: Natalie York
Natalie York wants to rock. That’s her goal. And in a climate chock full of male rockers, her goal isn’t unfathomable but rather something to respect, admire, and follow.
This past week, York released her second full-length album titled “Promises,” which is an album crafted with that exact goal in mind – rocking out.
When York released her first album in 2010, the collection of songs ended up being a production effort associated with her final senior project at the University of Miami. While proud of the efforts on that debut album, York is finally ready for chapter two of her young and promising music career.
By Mickey
The Winning Ticket: Moogfest @ Asheville, NC, 4/23-4/27/14
We at We Love DC are no stranger to ticket giveaways! But today we have a very unique opportunity with a pair of general admission tickets to a respected music festival that takes place not too far away from our fair city.
We are giving away a pair of tickets to Moogfest in Asheville, NC, on Wednesday, April 23 through Sunday, April 27.
Moogfest 2014 celebrates the synthesizer, and the slate of headliners scheduled to appear this year cross genres and boundaries as groundbreaking artists. The five-day festival features three performances by German pioneers Kraftwerk as well as a dance party featuring disco legend Nile Rodgers and his band CHIC.
You may recall Rodgers recently collaborated with Daft Punk on their Grammy-winning album, Random Access Memories, as did Giorgio Moroder, who will be on hand as a DJ and a guest lecturer. Performance artist Laurie Anderson will present her solo show, “The Language of the Future.”
In addition to these strong headliners and dozens upon dozens of other bands, Moogfest only yesterday announced the addition of the Pet Shop Boys, M.I.A., Flying Lotus and Dillon Francis to the lineup!
Asheville, where synth inventor Bob Moog spent the last 30 years of his life, has been home to Moogfest since 2010. The pleasantly idyllic metropolis hosts Moogfest across a number of venues, including The Orange Peel, one of the most famous concert venues in the country. If you’re up for a road trip, Asheville is an easy seven-hour drive from DC.
For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps tell us what Moogfest artist you would most like to see! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketmaster.
For the rules of this giveaway…
Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.
The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.
Moogfest
U.S. Cellular Center Asheville
Asheville, NC
Wednesday, April 23, to Sunday, April 27
$199-$499
All ages
Featured Photo
Anacostia has a reputation that leads many to avoid the area at all costs. From personal experience I can say that it has some of the nicest folks DC has to offer and some beautiful old row houses and architecture. It also offers some good food options, art centers, and community outlets. Let’s not forget the big chair. If that’s not enough to convince you then maybe the sheer joy on the face of this young man captured by number7cloud as he hurtles down the ice slide at Gateway DC will do the trick. By using a higher shutter speed the moment is frozen in time even with a slower ISO of 100. If you’re trying to capture a fast moving object it can also help to manually focus on a spot the subject is likely to move through, that way when it arrives all you need to do is hit the shutter. For more motion blur you can drop the shutter speed. The ice slide is only open for a limited time so take advantage while you still can.
By Mickey
The Winning Ticket: Galactic @ 9:30 Club, 2/13/14
As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader periodically. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out what tickets we’re giving away, and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!
Today, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Galactic at the 9:30 Club on Thursday, Feb. 13.
It must be funk week here at We Love DC, what with our talk of Black Joe Lewis yesterday. But this is Galactic — the New Orleans sextet whose long career has seen them undergo stylistic changes to cast a wide net over various music genres. The core instrumental band brings in guest vocalists for many songs like their new song, Dolla Diva, which they released just last week.
This jazzy jam band may be just the thing to put you in the mood for Mardi Gras a few weeks early.
For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps share your favorite song by Galactic! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly.
For the rules of this giveaway…
Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.
Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.
Galactic
w/ Ryan Montbleau
9:30 Club
Thursday, Feb. 13
doors @7pm
$30
All ages
By Mickey
Hot Ticket: Black Joe Lewis @ 9:30 Club, 2/18/14
Hailing from Austin, Texas, Black Joe Lewis has emerged as a funk dynamo since grabbing national attention with his band’s performance at the SXSW Festival in 2009. Last year, he released a new album, Electric Slave, which maintains Black Joe Lewis’ reputation as a funk and soul innovator. To my ear, the title track sounds like it also indulges in a whole lot of psychedelia.
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Lots of folks cite James Brown when they talk about Black Joe Lewis but perhaps it’s time to cite Jimi Hendrix as well?
You be the judge! Catch Black Joe Lewis at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
Black Joe Lewis
w/ Pickwick
9:30 Club
Tuesday, Feb. 18
Doors @7pm
$20
All ages
Weekend Flashback: 1/24-1/26
With the super cold temps outside the inclination is to hunker down indoors and wait for it to all go away. The hearty transplants from points north and west of DC think this is ridiculous and instead spent the weekend basking in the glory of a “real winter.” We locals know all too well how fickle mother nature can be and would recommend enjoying the cold, snowy goodness while it lasts because it’ll be gone before you know it.
P.S. While a lot of freezing has occurred over that past few weeks it’s good to keep in mind that even though the ice looks solid that doesn’t always mean it is. Please be careful out there! Continue reading