Category Archives: The Features

These are our features. They come back either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

Monumental
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Memorial 2.0 Map from NCPC & NPS

NCPC/NPS Map Tom Bridge

There are so many monuments in DC it’s hard to keep track of them all. No, really, it’s kind of ridiculous how many statues there are in this city, not even including Statuary Hall at the Capitol or any of the interior objet d’art at various national organizations who make their home in the District. Fortunately, the Park Service and the National Capital Planning Commission have your back, and their latest effort was published today.

This google map is annotated with literally hundreds of the various statues and markers that dot our local landscape. Some of the more obscure include the Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain (on the Ellipse), Nuns of the Battlefield (at St. Matthew’s on M Street), and Jules Jusserand (Rock Creek Park). There are detailed entries on a number of the statues and markers, the result of the collaboration between the two entities. It’s worth a look if you’re going to be playing tour guide any time soon, and perhaps it’s a chance to create a cool scavenger hunt for yourself this weekend.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Starling Blossom CuriousTripod

I’ve taken quite a few bird photos in my day, but I don’t think I’ve ever been able to get a shot like this one. Not only was Dan able to get a Starling inside a cherry tree nook, but he got it while holding a cherry blossom in its beak. That’s some skill right there. And the qualities of this photo don’t end there. Look at the bird and you’ll see the wonderful color variation in its chest plume. Also, the depth of field, or fuzzy, background is perfect for giving color to shot while not distracting from the main subject matter. This is a top notch wildlife photo!

Entertainment, Music, People, She/He Loves DC, The Features
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He Loves DC: Ted Garber

Photo for Patch--Ted Garber

Photo Courtesy of Ted Garber

She/He Loves DC is a series highlighting the people who love this city just as much as we do.

Ted Garber is a DC native. These days, he’s an award-winning “BluesAmericanaRock” singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentatlist. Ted’s also a perpetual student who frequently travels the globe in an attempt to absorb as much about the world’s cultures as he can. His curiosity is contagious.

What is it about DC that makes it home to you?  

That’s an easy one.  I was born in DC at Washington, DC hospital.  My late father made his living all his too-short life playing music in and around DC. I grew up in and around DC. My mother worked at the Justice Department. In spite of a few fascinating years in New Orleans, West Virginia, and L.A., DC will always be the place where both my family and I are from. I mean, my Dad sang on the now-defunct official Redskins Singers choir. It was commensurate to blasphemy to take the ‘Skins name in vain or to disparage them in any way, especially during a losing game. That particular violation usually resulted in a grounding or a night spent taking dinner alone in my room. To be fair though, I am an Orioles fan. The Nats did not exist when I was growing up here, so we drove to Memorial Stadium and later Camden Yards for games. (That’s probably going to bring me grief for admitting, I know).

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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Grace Pettis

Photo by Rodney Bursiel

Photo by Rodney Bursiel

When I first met singer-songwriter Grace Pettis this past October, I was standing outside The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. The airline had left my bags in D.C. so I was on the phone with them for a good hour while soaking up the southern sunshine in my cowboy boots. It was my first time at the legendary Bluebird. It’s a special place to the songwriting a community. It’s a place where some of the finest songwriting talent in this country has played at least a song or two. And that’s also the night I learned that “timing is everything.”

While on the phone with the airline, a car pulled into the lot and a group got out to start loading in for the night. That was Grace Pettis and her band. It was the night of a CD release show for her most recent album “Two Birds.” Like I said, timing is everything.

As they unloaded for the gig, I held the door open for them a few times. What else did I have to do? I was on hold without any of my luggage in Music City, USA with just my phone and wallet. After load-in, they sound checked and what I heard was worth getting to the Bluebird early for.

Grace returns to Washington for a set at Ebenezers Coffeehouse this Friday and took some time over e-mail to answer a few of our questions. Here’s what she had to say. Continue reading →

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Andy and the Shadows

Jennifer Mendenhall & Alexander Strain in Andy and the Shadows at Theater J / Photo by Stan Barouh

Jennifer Mendenhall & Alexander Strain in Andy and the Shadows at Theater J / Photo by Stan Barouh

Memories lost and found, tragedy and forgetting, fact and fiction, dreams and reality: it all comes to a head in Andy and the Shadows at Theater J.

Written by Theater J artistic director Ari Roth and directed by Daniella Topol, Andy and the Shadows is part of Theater J’s second annual Locally Grown Festival, which brings to the stage new works by local playwrights.

The story centers around the Glickstein family from the perspective of neurotic, angst-ridden Andy – the middle child of his Holocaust survivor parents. Each of the three children choose to deal with their parents’ dark history in different ways. Andy chooses to wrestle with his family’s ghosts at home.

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Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 4/12-4/14

Sunset as viewed from DC looking over Arlington wolfkann

That’s it, the Cherry Blossom Festival is over. And hopefully the masses of tourists will taper off for a few weeks before the brunt of summer starts. At least, one could hope that happens. Other than that, us Washingtonians simply continue our day-to-day norm. And to make that norm a little bit easier, check out and enjoy this installment of Weekend Flashback. Continue reading →

Fitness District
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A perfect April Sunday. Well, for some.

Sunday Ballpark Pano Tom Bridge

This is the sort of weather baseball is meant to be played in.  

A gentle breeze sweeps through the outfield, the sun is pleasantly beaming, and some high clouds trundle across the sky far to the north. This is the sort of weekend you long to spend at the ballpark. You want a hotdog in the sun, and a cold beer to go with it. These are the dreams of a winter sleeper, these perfect days.

Unless that was this weekend, and you were a Nationals fan.

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We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Spamalot

(L to R) Kasidy Devlin (Sir Robin), Adam Grabau (Sir Lancelot), Joshua Taylor Hamilton (Sir Dennis Galahad), Thomas DeMarcus (Sir Bedevere), and Arthur Rowan (King Arthur). Photo credit: Courtesy of Monty Python’s Spamalot.

(L to R) Kasidy Devlin (Sir Robin), Adam Grabau (Sir Lancelot), Joshua Taylor Hamilton (Sir Dennis Galahad), Thomas DeMarcus (Sir Bedevere), and Arthur Rowan (King Arthur). Photo credit: Courtesy of Monty Python’s Spamalot.

It never hurts your anticipation to wait in a humming crowd behind closed theater doors on opening night. Ah, the sheer grandeur of a stage that hosted the world premieres of Showboat, of West Side Story. “What more could you ask for, really?” I thought as I took my seat at the National Theatre.

Fart jokes, obviously.

Yes, Spamalot – the hit show based on the cult film Monty Python and the Holy Grail – is back, this time at the National Theatre. Patrick reviewed it last year when it delighted audiences at the Warner Theatre. A quick recap:

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: A Man, His Wife, and His Hat

HUB 16_Sasha Olinick and Kerri Rambow_Photo by Melissa Blackall_1600x1066

(Photo: Melissa Blackall)

The setting of Lauren Yee’s A Man, His Wife, and His Hat is unknown. Looking at the actual set of The Hub Theatre production, one might guess that it takes place in the 80s based upon the telephone and television. The dialects and accents hint that it takes place somewhere in old Europe where hat-making is still a feasible profession. The overall feel of the show reminds me of the fictional land of Mypos from Perfect Strangers. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Balki Bartokomous burst through the door to the tunes of Jesse Frederick’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now.

The foreign land, the somewhat distant past, and the physics that are meta in both scientific and poetic terms come together to form a fairy-tale world. In Yee’s universe golems live underneath your floorboards, memories are kept in glass jars, and all-knowing walls possess the secrets of the world on printed pages.

Yee’s story, with direction from Shirley Serotsky, is a whimsical one — with a message of love that’s heartwarming yet not too sugar-coated.

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends – April 12-14

erin m

Mosley: Fun filled weekend!  First, Friday night I’m checking out Inglourious Basterds at the AFI in Silver Spring; I’m not normally a Tarantino fan but I’ve been interested in seeing this movie for awhile.  And seeing a movie at the AFI is always a blast.  Saturday is the annual Sakura Matsuri Street Festival; while I know it gets very, very crowded, it’s still a great event with a ton of sights.  After all that fun, Sunday is almost certainly going to be a relax day but I hope to get out of the house.  The nice weather we are having only lasts so long, so we should soak it up while we can!

Joanna: My weekend starts early with Andy and the Shadows at Theater J, where I’ll be finding out what a “comedy about family with Freudian hallucinations and pre-marital angst” looks like. It continues Friday seeing our very own Rachel Levitin rock out at Ebenezers Coffee House. On Saturday I’ll be darting tourists at the National Gallery of Art while trying out the museum’s new mobile app. Then I close out the weekend with private ordeals at Clyde’s and Redline. I haven’t used a table tap before, but the whole thing sounds like a terrible premise for my type…

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Talkin' Transit, WMATA
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Metro Goes Metal?

Metro announced this morning that they are working to redesign the underground stations of its system. They are considering multiple new concepts, and have made a video to highlight a few options they’re considering for Bethesda station. The options include an anti-slip zone at the bottom of the escalators, and replacement of the traditional “Metro Brown” with sleek metal panels. Concrete barriers will be replaced with glass ones in the mezzanine section, and the standalone pylon lights will be replaced with taller winged standards that will include PID displays.

The concepts they’re playing with are still virtual, but it will not stay that way. Look for Bethesda station to get a few of these new concepts over the next few years, with the renovations being completed in 2015. The station will also be getting new escalators during the process, so if this is a regular spot for you, it’s probably going to get delightfully inconvenient (which is not WMATA’s new slogan, even if maybe it should be.) over the next few years.

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Brendan Canty of Deathfix (Catch Them at Coachella!)

deathfix

Three DC-based bands on Ian MacKaye’s Dischord Records travel to Indio, Calif., for the next two weekends to play at one of the largest and most exciting music festivals — the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Deathfix, The Make-Up and The Evens, featuring MacKaye, play the Gobi Stage. Deathfix appear on Friday at 1:10-1:40pm, The Evens on Saturday at 2:35-3:15pm and the Make-Up on Saturday at 7:05-7:55pm.

Deathfix, a relatively new band consisting of veteran musicians Brendan Canty, former drummer of Fugazi, and producer Rich Morel, recently put out their first album on Dischord. I caught up with the talented and gracious Mr. Canty to ask him about playing Coachella and what’s next for his band.

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Sports Fix
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Nationals top White Sox 5-2

White Sox vs Nationals 4-10-13 24401966@N02

Adam Kilgore is right, the ball does sound different off the bat of the 20-year old, and that sonic assault was particularly sweet last night as Bryce Harper crushed a ball into the second deck of the right field stands on Wednesday night. The solo home run in the fourth tied the game for the Nats, and they wouldn’t look back from there. Ian Desmond went 3-4 with a pair of doubles and a triple, Jordan Zimmermann cruised through seven innings on just 90 pitches, and Raphael Soriano put together his fourth save as the Nationals claimed their second series at home for the season.

Like the future, the Nationals offense just isn’t evenly distributed yet. Bryce Harper (2-4, HR), Danny Espinosa (2-4, 2B, RBI) and Ian Desmond (3-4, 2 2B, 3B, 2 R) lead the squad, while Adam LaRoche (0-4, GIDP, 2 K) Ryan Zimmerman (1-4, 2 K) and Jayson Werth (1-4, 2 K) were struggling with Gavin Floyd’s pitch selection. The plate discipline from the core of the lineup was at times on Wednesday night pretty execrable. As one columnist remarked, it wasn’t until Jordan Zimmermann batted in the 3rd that the Nats had a good plate appearance.

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Cherry Blossom Festival, Essential DC
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The Insider’s Guide: Cherry Blossom Bliss

IMG_5130

All photos by the author

There are a handful of great places to seek out Washington’s cherry blossoms but my favorite by far is Kenwood. The neighborhood, just around the corner from downtown Bethesda, is the insider’s paradise for a stroll through the flowers. I’d reckon that a visit on a spring day like the one I took this week could fill any hardened urbanite with suburban dreams.

Every year, a few days after their more famous siblings at the Tidal Basin start to show off, Kenwood’s cherry blossoms explode into life. With only three hundred some odd homes the densely packed twelve hundred Yoshino cherry trees blanket the neighborhood in stunning fashion. Weekend days during peak bloom can generate a crowd, but it’s nothing compared to the tidal basin’s overwhelming swell, and this is one of the best reasons to go to Kenwood. I think the place is also aesthetically more spectacular. The cherry trees in Kenwood are inescapable and encompassing, lining nearly every street and dotting nearly every front yard. They blanket the place in color, and in the neighborhood’s most magical spots the branches on each side of the road meet above your head forming tunnels of pink and white.
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Entertainment, Get Out & About, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Paint The Music at The Dunes 4/13/13

Photo Courtesy of Paint The Music

Photo Courtesy of Paint The Music

Today We Love DC is giving away a pair of tickets to Paint The Music, a live art series bringing together local musicians and area painters for a showcase where visual artists paint an entirely new piece —  on stage — inspired by the first song of a singer-songwriter’s set in real-time. Paint The Music will be at The Dunes this Saturday night April 13th and features music from event creator and singer-songwriter Dan Fisk as well as Nita Chawla and Zahra Universe with artwork by Sardar, Nadia Janjua, and Margret Kroyer.

For your chance to win a pair of tickets to Paint The Music at The Dunes, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address until 6pm today. One entry per email address, please.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 6pm 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 Dunes on the day of the event. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID.

Comment away!

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Mountaintop

The Mountaintop
(Photo: Scott Suchman)

On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, less than two miles from a new monument erected in honor of the late civil rights leader, Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop opened at Arena Stage. The show is a bold imagining of the last night of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life that not only takes us inside Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel where he stayed, but into the mind, heart, and soul of the great man.

However in Hall’s vision, we do not see an infallible leader, the perfect picture of leadership and integrity that we like to bestow upon the great leaders of our time. Instead we see MLK as a man with real weaknesses, vulnerabilities, hopes, and fears.

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Entertainment, History, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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The Real Pirates of National Geographic

National Geographic - Real Pirates - 03-07-13 04 mosley.brian

There are pirates in Washington.

If you doubt, head over to the National Geographic Museum between now and September 2; the Jolly Roger flag hanging from the flagpole should convince you. If you need more persuasive evidence, head inside and wander through the museum’s latest exhibit Real Pirates.

From fore to aft, this exhibit rolls up the past, present, and future of the pirate vessel Whydah. Originally designed and used as a slave ship along the American-African slave routes, the Whydah was captured by pirate captain Sam Bellamy and used in his fleet to pillage more than fifty prizes across the Carribean. On a course for a New England harbor, the Whydah, her captain, and her crew ran into a violent nor’easter near Cape Cod and sank beneath the waves. With it went a hold full of pirate treasure and most of the men on board.

National Geographic chose to feature the Whydah exhibit for a number of reasons. According to Richard McWalters, Director of Museum Operations, the story of the Whydah crosses three seafaring trades: slavery, piracy, and recovery. Through the shipwreck’s history, visitors are exposed to the realities of the slave trade and its vessels, the life of a pirate crew during the eighteenth century, and the technology, dedication, and innovation of today’s salvage explorers. Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Infrared cherry blossoms cruffo

Infrared photography, or photography using film or a sensor which is sensitive to the near-infrared part of the light spectrum, is an interesting technique for photographers to use. While not the thermal imaging most people would think, infrared photography strips out the visible spectrum (remember “ROYGBIV” from elementary school science class?) and leaves a ghostly image which is reminiscent of a dreamscape.

Let’s look at cruffo’s shot. If shot as a normal image, the picture would be nice but rather plain; how many shots of tree, even cherry blossom trees, have we seen in our lives? But using IR photography, the viewer is forced to look at the composition of the shot, and see the trees stretching every which way. As well, the coloring of the photo makes it look like this was shot in the depths of an ice age, not on a 80 degree day. A great shot; I hope to see more in the future!

Entertainment, Get Out & About, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Soundbites 2013

soundbites 2013 email flyer

Today We Love DC is giving away a pair of tickets to Soundbites 2013, a benefit for DC Central Kitchen, at the 930 Club on Sunday, May 19th. This event features music from Deathfix (Brendan Canty of Fugazi, Richard Morel, Devin Ocampo of Faraquet & Mark Cisneros of Medications), DJ WIll Eastman, Batala, Kid Congo Power Hour and more. In addition to the music there will be free food tastings from dozens of area restaurants and food trucks, plus a mixologist competition.

For your chance to win a pair of tickets to Soundbites 2013, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address until 4pm today. One entry per email address, please.

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 930 Club on the day of the event. 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.

Comment away!

Sports Fix, The Features
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Washington Squeaks By Chicago with an 8-7 Win

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courtesy of MissChatter

What started out as a game wrought with baserunning mishaps and high pitch counts ended in favor of the Washington Nationals who squeaked by the Chicago White Sox in interleague play with an 8-7 victory. The game’s starters – left-hander Gio Gonzalez for Washington and right-hander Jake Peavy – combined to throw 59 pitches in the first inning alone. That inning lasted 28 minutes and produced just one run for the White Sox.

Chicago’s early run came as a result of a balk, Gonzalez’s fourth career balk in 129 games, with the bases loaded, two out, a full-count, and White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko at the plate. Third baseman Jeff Keppinger scored on that play after snapping his 0-for-19 stretch to start the season with a single off Gonzalez.

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