Category Archives: The Features

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

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Featured Photo

Spring Mirage Navin Sarma

At first glance, you might mistake today’s featured photo for a painting, a moody impressionist work that invokes a Renoir or a Monet. A closer inspection reveals it’s actually a photograph of two trees reflected in the water — one that photographer Navin Sarma took along the C&O Canal.

Capturing reflections in water is a great way to add depth and drama to a landscape photograph. But you don’t need mountains towering over a lake to pull it off. In fact, if you’ve ever shot photos across any of the reflecting pools at the National Mall, then you’ve either consciously worked the reflection into your composition or snapped away without even thinking about it.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Cueto Can’t Stop The Nats, Washington Wins 9-4

Photo courtesy of philliefan99
kindling debut
courtesy of philliefan99

What the Washington Nationals lacked in offensive support on Monday night, they more than made up for on Tuesday during right-handed pitcher Doug Fister’s D.C. debut with the team. The Nats beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-4 while celebrating a note-worthy night for many of the team’s players, including outfielder Jayson Werth’s birthday.

Fister’s home field debut went better than his initial season debut. The Nats’ newest arm acquired this off-season from Detroit threw seven innings and gave up six hits and two runs while walking one and striking out five batters. Fister threw 109 pitches and 72 strikes. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Nats Fall 4-3 To Cincinnati in 15 Innings Played

Photo courtesy of Danny Dougherty
Werth strikes out
courtesy of Danny Dougherty

It was the first time the Washington Nationals’ right-handed starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg would face-off against his old Little League opponent and Cincinnati Reds right-handed pitcher Mike Leake, but at the end of the night that story wouldn’t be what folks remembered about Monday night. The Reds went on to beat the Nats 4-3 in a 4 hour 58 minute, 15-inning game that left all but four players on the two teams’ active rosters on the bench by the end.

The issue Strasburg faced in his seven innings pitched was a lack of run-support and lackluster defense from those backing him. Strasburg gave up six hits and two runs while striking out four and walking a batter on 96 pitches and 64 strikes. He also threw one wild pitch and hit two batters, which ended up hurting his performance the most.

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Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Tokyo Police Club @ Black Cat–5/13/14

Tokyo Police Club (Photo courtesy Sacks & Co.)

Tokyo Police Club (Photo courtesy Sacks & Co.)

I’ve been somewhat remiss in singing the praises of Tokyo Police Club.

The Ontario-based post-punk quartet played a show at the Black Cat on Tuesday, May 13, and an overly aggressive schedule on my part has thwarted my attempts to say a good word about a good show!

Well, allow me to correct that now. Although as the sold-out crowd at the Black Cat well knows, Tokyo Police Club do well enough without my praise. In March, the band released its fourth full-length album, Forcefield, and stopped in DC to promote it a month along in a tour that seems scheduled to go on for at least a few more weeks.

Forcefield demonstrates Tokyo Police Club’s terrific consistency, and a renewed focus on good dance numbers. The one exception to this might be the somewhat more methodical “Argentina, Pts. I, II, III,” a remembrance of lost love that sounds sunny and nostalgic but longer and more drawn out than other songs on the new album. By contrast, “Tunnel Vision,” a much more typical and danceable new song on the album, demonstrates the group’s emphasis on dance tunes with catchy hooks and memorable phrases–like the refrain, “I just want to make it through one more night.” It’s a perfect glam-pop moment that captures a 24-hour cycle in a 3-minute declaration of intent to keep on partying.

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Fashionable DC, Get Out & About, People, The Features
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Fashionable DC: Garden Party at the President’s House!

SAM_3506 decophile2

America’s 28th president made at least one fortuitous decision for the Washington, D.C. social scene–he retired locally, to a stately 1915 Georgian Revival residence in posh Kalorama, now what we think of as Embassy Row. Though Woodrow Wilson himself only lived there for three years (1921-1924) before he passed away, his well-preserved home is nowadays a museum owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It’s also a go-to place for fun and sophisticated events.

Fresh off a successful Mother’s Day Centennial brunch, the Woodrow Wilson House hosted its 26th annual garden party on May 14, where springtime hats were in full bloom.  (See: photos on flickr) The event was part of an effort to build a community of people who are interested in the neglected era of Woodrow Wilson, said the museum’s Executive Director, Robert Enholm, sporting a seersucker jacket, bow tie and straw hat.

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Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 5/16-5/18

Open door Victoria Pickering

Did you have a good weekend? Did you do anything fun? I ate some ribs, drank some really good beer, consumed mass quantities of ice cream, and discussed the merits of the Paleo diet. I’m still on the fence about whether it’s a lifestyle choice I could commit to seeing as it doesn’t allow beer OR ice cream. Anyhoodle, it looks like a lot people were out and about this weekend and took their cameras along for the ride, lucky for us. The rest of the Weekend Flashback is after the jump. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Gonzalez Lacks Command, Mets Beat Nats 5-2

JosephGruber_20140424_000587 Joseph Gruber

Inconsistency and lack of command haunted the Washington Nationals’ left-handed starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez on Saturday while they faced the New York Mets in D.C. Gonzalez gave up seven hits, five runs, two walks, and one homerun threw 84 pitches (48 strikes) while striking out four in the Nats’ 5-2 loss to New York. Continue reading →

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends – May 16 – 18

DC in Motion | Rushed! Danilo.Lewis|Fotography

Rachel: I’ve got a busy and fun weekend ahead of me. Friday night starts with a Buncearoo Presents show at Foundation Gallery & Liveroom featuring Michael Bernard Fitzgerald and Dave Farah. Depending on what time that show let’s out, I’ll probably head to The Hamilton to catch up with some friends after they wrap their show downstairs. If you can make it on Friday night, The Circus Life podcast is hosting a live show featuring The Morrison Brothers, The Beanstalk Library, Justin Trawick and the Common Good, and Louisa Hall. Then Saturday, I’ll be grabbing brunch with some friends at Alba Osteria before heading to the late-afternoon Nats game. Hopefully the Nats finish that game up at a reasonable evening hour because I’ve got a private rooftop concert to give! Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to singing some songs in such a special setting! Sunday will wrap up the weekend with a double-header of Glover Park Co-Ed Softball. Can’t beat that!

15/30/365 anokarina

Fedward: Friday night is the Phillips Collection’s annual Gala and its after party, so it’s time to get dolled up, 70s Glam style. Saturday we’ll do some much-needed garden improvements before heading to Hogo for some rum drinks and then we’re off to Alexandria for a colonial ghost and graveyard tour. Sunday we’ll catch the closing of Failure: A Love Story at the HUB Theatre before wrapping up our weekend with our usual Passenger brunch.

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Don: We’re going to be very Arlingtonian this weekend. But who can blame us? THEY HAVE TRUCKS. Yes, it’s Truck Day at central library. What’s that mean? Um, there will be truck there. *tap*tap* Is this thing on? How hard is this to understand?

  • trucks for construction
  • fire and rescue
  • trash pick-up
  • police cars
  • a commuter bus
  • a sewer truck
  • and more

I guess you had to end with “and more” after sewer truck. Don’t dismiss it – waste water processing is an interesting thing. The next day That Darned Toddler and I wave byebye to my Darling Wife as she heads to the windy city for work, then we’ll go to Taste of Arlington. He’ll enjoy looking at all the people – I think the kidzone stuff will still be a hint old for him – and I’ll enjoy grazing through the food.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Funk Parade pablo.raw

Many photographers find it difficult to take photos of people not because it’s physically hard but because the interaction required can be off-putting. It’s much easier to point your camera at a landscape or a building and push the shutter than it is to point it toward a person because that person might look at you or talk to you. Trees don’t look at you funny. Buildings don’t ask what you’re doing. But here’s the thing: a lot of those same photographers *want* to take photos of people but because it’s out of their comfort range they don’t. The challenge, then, is to do it anyway. Go take photos of people. Start with your friends and family. Begin by suggesting poses — “pretend you’re James Bond and model your finger guns!” or “everyone do the chin shelf!” Then once everyone is loosened up just start capturing the fun. Some of the best shots come when everyone is goofing around and not paying attention to the camera at all.

The most excellent photo above by pablo.raw is an example of what you can capture when people are relaxed and having fun. The subject isn’t shying away from or feeling intimidated by the camera, she’s interacting with it and being herself. These are the kinds of things you want to achieve and the best way to achieve them is to feel at ease behind the camera. And of course the only way to feel at ease is to practice. It may take you some time but in the end it’ll be worth the effort.

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Sweetlife Festival @ Merriweather Post Pavilion–5/10/14

St. Lucia's sunny clothes reflected their upbeat music. (Photo courtesy Sweetlife Festival.)

St. Lucia’s sunny clothes reflected their upbeat music. (Photo courtesy Sweetlife Festival.)

The Sweetlife Festival, celebrating its fifth year in the D.C. metropolitan area, brought an estimated 20,000 attendees to the Merriweather Post Pavilion for three stages of bands and several lots of food and beer. Presented by D.C. salad shop Sweetgreen, the festival stretched for about 11 hours, 20 musical acts and perhaps a combined 80 food vendors and retail stores on Saturday, May 10.

While the festival had a few repeat acts this year, I personally found the lineup a lot more to my musical tastes than last year’s festival.

I arrived in time to catch some of St. Lucia, the Brooklyn dreampop outfit headed by producer Jean-Philip Grobler. Dressed in Hawaiian shirts, Grobler and company gave a performance as bright as their clothing, showcasing songs from the band’s debut album, When the Night. I managed to catch St. Lucia’s best song, the new wave jam “Elevate,” a feel-good confidence booster of a song that certainly complemented the pleasant weather and beachware found at the Sweetlife Festival’s Treehouse Stage early in the day.

A short trip to the mainstage revealed one of the significant perks of being a Sweetlife VIP—free salads from Sweetgreen were available near the VIP bar to stage right. Friends and I took the opportunity to relax and check out some vendors before I hopped over the main stage to catch a bit of Bastille, the London synthpop quartet best known for their hit “Pompeii” from their debut album last year, Bad Blood. I caught an fun performance of the very wave “Of the Night,” a mash up of 1990s European dance hits “The Rhythm of the Night” by Italian group Corona and “Rhythm Is a Dancer” by German group Snap!. Bastille and singer Dan Smith brought a charm and energy all their own to the performance, however, and I made a mental note to look into their upcoming performance at the Patriot Center on Saturday, Oct. 11.

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Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: SAVOR Craft Beer Experience @ National Building Museum — 5/9/14

Jim Koch of Boston Beer Co. elaborates during his salon.

Jim Koch of Boston Beer Co. elaborates during his salon.

Jim Koch, the founder and brewer of the Boston Beer Co., led a room full of beer aficionados through describing the flavor notes in a batch of Sam Adams Triple Bock from 1994.

“It’s a beer that’s almost old enough to drink itself,” Koch quipped as he likened the taste of the sugary, complex beer to a port.

Koch regaled the audience with tales of his rare beers, including how the Triple Bock (which evolved into Sam Adams Utopia) became the first beer to break 14 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) due to an epiphany he had in a Home Depot. Basically, he thought, if the companies responsible for bourbon barrels were releasing the used barrels to garden stores for use as planters, why could his brewery not purchase them and use them for aging beer?

Previously, many brewers thought combining techniques for beer and liquor would prove to be illegal in the United States. But a quick trip to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in D.C. paved the way for that to happen, and a brewing revolution began. Have you heard of Booze Up that offers 24 Hour Cigarette delivery at your door within just 30 minutes.

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends – May 9-11

Casey in the grass Don Whiteside

Don: As it stands there’s some potential rain but I’m just going to try for some optimism and assume it’ll miss us. That means getting my Bond on over at the Union Market drive-in Friday night. Goldfinger won the three-way-vote because duh, Odd Job. Any other outcome would have been shocking. The man who throws a hat was a shoe-in. Saturday is the annual Walk for the Animals in Arlington, a charity to benefit the Arlington Animal Welfare League. You can make donations at their main page or via my pledge page here  which has the advantage of an adorable picture of my dog. Sunday is Mother’s Day, which means making arrangements to take out my Darling Wife. That Darned Toddler’s restaurant reservation skills blow and the deadbeat NEVER picks up a check. Well, he does sometimes, but then he throws it over on the floor and I have to pick it up AND pick it up… oh never mind. Before or after we’ll drop into the Passenger for brunch to commemorate our friend Clare’s last shift working there. Maybe we’ll take another picture of the boy with those crazy big bottles to compare to the one above from last year.

DSC_2762 bhrome

Tom: It’s Mother’s Day Weekend! That means avoiding every single crazy brunch place, because apparently everyone thinks that’s a thing still. We’ll be out at the National Arboretum taking in the sights with the Azaleas all in bloom. Before that, though, is the Great Brookland Yard Sale with 60-odd yard sales in the Brookland neighborhood. Sunday, it’s off to Ikea for meatballs and baby toys, and then home to plant the other part of my garden bed. Happy Spring!

�� LaTur

Fedward:  Friday we’re meeting some sort-of-out-of-town (it’s complicated) friends for drinks. Since we’ve taken them to the Passenger (whose closing is now officially delayed) a few times already I think that means we have to take them to the Partisan this time around.  Bonus: all the meat. Saturday means a trip to the Petworth Community Market to stock up, and then we’ll Celebrate Petworth before returning home to grill the stuff we bought at the market. Sunday is Mothers’ Day so we’ll call our moms before we head to the Passenger for our friend Clare’s last shift. Being at a bar from open to close is OK under those circumstances, right?

YouTube Preview Image

Rachel: It looks like the sun is back so I plan to savor it. I’ll likely take a walk in search of some iced coffee on Saturday and live a life of leisure before heading to Republic to see Don Kim + Friends perform that night. Otherwise, it’ll be a much needed quiet weekend since my mom lives all the way in Chicago. But, if anyone wants to adopt a full-grown child on Sunday for some Mother’s Day brunch action, I’m currently fielding offers. The rest of the weekend will be spent deciding what my next weekly YouTube video will be: a new original song, a song from my upcoming EP, an older song from “the vault,” or a cover. Ah, ’tis the life and times of an independent singer-songwriter.

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Featured Photo

Georgetown waterfront Victoria Pickering

Victoria was able to capture this shot at the perfect time! Choosing a high shutter speed enabled her to freeze the water in its arc; in fact, if you look closely, you’re able to see some fascinating shapes in the water. As well, the boy’s shirt really pops and draws the viewer’s eye; this is because it’s almost the only color in the shot and makes it seem like the photo was processed into selective color (it’s not). It’s just such a soothing scene and the viewer is reminded of being a child; very well done!

Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Owen Danoff

Photo courtesy of Owen Danoff

Photo courtesy of Owen Danoff

Owen Danoff is a singer-songwriter who has a roadmap laid out in front of him. He knows where he wants to go, has a plan of how he wants to get there, and has a support system ready to encourage him along the way.

With the impending release show for his first full-length album, “Twelve Stories,” at Jammin’ Java on May 4, Danoff is eager to use this collection of songs as a springboard to the next level of his musical career.

After a stint as a Strathmore Artist in Residence and a successful Kickstarter campaign in June 2013, Danoff exceeded his intended monetary goal and now finds himself overwhelmed by the support he’s received for not just “Twelve Stories” but for his songwriting endeavors as well.

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Danoff was brought up in a musical family. His dad is songwriter Bill Danoff of the Starland Vocal Band. So clearly, music runs in the kid’s blood. At the age of 15, Danoff wrote and self-produced his first original song and subsequent recording on the same day his dad first gave him an audio recorder. But he didn’t always know he wanted to pursue music as a career.

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends – May 2 – 4

Pedicabs waiting out the rain Joe in DC

Tom: Though right now it looks like we’ll all be washed away by the weekend, the forecast looks pretty amazing. I see brunch in my future, and preferably somewhere with a patio so we can show off Charlie’s new sunglasses. I’m also thinking a trip to the burbs is in the offing, which means the (unholy?) trinity of Wegmans, Costco and the Arlington Farmer’s Market. Why Arlington? They have the best rosemary seedlings. I can’t explain it, it’s just true. After that, it’s off to Bull Run to pick up some grass fed beef. How much? Half a cow. Come by my grill this weekend and I will show you the tasty deliciousness.

Rocket Bar Wine Mr.TinDC

Rebecca: Friday I’m be enjoying nice, sunny weather on the rooftop deck at Surfside before my friends and I hit the Poppy’s Suitcase show at Mason Inn. Saturday I’m up early for footie and then hitting the Taste of 8th Street. Sunday I’ll get to celebrating Cinco de Mayo early at El Rey with fighting luchadores, psychotroprical funk and tequila!

Mint Julep wfyurasko

Fedward:  This is another weekend where I need to be in three places at once.  Saturday is the Spring Fling at the Soldiers Home and as a homeowner I find an expert talk about native plants newly relevant.  It’s also Derby Day at Southern Efficiency, with mint juleps on tap and hot browns under the broiler. But it’s also also the third annual DC-Baltimore Perl Workshop and I plan to shake my money maker, by which I mean “sit my ass in a chair and upgrade my programming skills.” Maybe I’ll do that first and THEN go to Southern Efficiency. Sunday there’s more Perl to be hacked at the DCBPW Hackathon, and after that I’ll unwind with the usual brunch at the Passenger. And while Monday might be Drinko de Mayo for some people, between the limepocalypse and my general loathing for amateur nights, I might just sit at home and drink daisies instead of margaritas. Besides, the Social Chair doesn’t really care for tequila.

Behind the Branches Mondmann

Don: I’m so giddy to see the sun that I’m not sure I can have coherent plans other than walking around and marveling at not being soggy. I wish we’d had a few more days to dry off so we could do more strolling in our favorite outdoor locations, but as it stands I would expect a lot of mud in Rock Creek Park and Teddy Roosevelt Island. So we’ll stick to the more paved & drained outdoor fun, I think. We haven’t been to the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden since the rink came down so it and the Zoo top our list, I think. On the one hand the zoo’s hills and slopes mean a lot harder walking for That Darned Toddler. On the other hand that means a more tired and sleeping toddler.

So maybe we’ll just see you at the zoo, huh?

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Moogfest Pt. 3 (Asheville, NC–4/25/14)

Giorgio Moroder speaks at a panel (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

Giorgio Moroder speaks at a panel (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

Although Moogfest ran for five days, I only truly availed myself of three of them. Sunday’s program, it should be noted, did not run late into the night as did the other days.

On Friday, April 25, the big draw to the show as legendary producer Giorgo Moroder. The 74-year-old Italian synthgod is still working hard, and he was scheduled to make three appearances at Moogfest on Friday–on two panels and one performance.

Unfortunately for me, he didn’t make the panel I caught. It actually was a film and accompanying discussion. Moogfest has within in a small “film festival” as well, screening various Moog-related films around town, and Friday afternoon the Orange Peel screened Scarface. All of the songs sung by Debbie Harry or Elizabeth Daily or others in Scarface were written and produced by Moroder, and he was one of the musical arrangers as well. So the idea was to watch Scarface and then discuss the importance of the soundtrack and score to the film. We received a report, however, that Moroder wasn’t feeling well and skipped the panel in to keep up his strength for his DJ gig that night. So we’ll get back to him in a bit.

Other than Giorgio Moroder, the big draw for Friday was two performances by Kraftwerk. The German quartet put up two shows back to back at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, and they both went very well. I caught the first show, which was very good indeed. Doing so compensated somewhat for the fact that I had to miss them at the 9:30 Club two weeks earlier.

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Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Moogfest Pt. 2 (Asheville, NC—4/24/14)

Janelle Monae speaks (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

Janelle Monae speaks (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

Generally speaking, I’m a night owl, and when I travel I revel in my rare opportunities to own the night–even if owlishly.

That said, my capacity for enjoying the day programming offered by Moogfest was admittedly limited. Out of intense curiosity, however, I was able to rise early enough on Thursday, April 24, to catch some of a presentation by Janelle Monae and her collaborators Chuck Lightning and Nate Rocket Wonder.

The session, titled after Monae’s work “The Electric Lady,” took me to the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville’s Pack Place for the first time. The 500-capacity theatre is a great place to catch a chat or a performance of any sort, and I found myself comfortably listening to Monae recount her experiences on tour, creating a series of paintings on stage during performance depicting the self-titled “Electric Lady” in question.

Monae related some of her experiences around the art (music and painting), her feelings about it and her longing for some sort of perfection. She and her cohorts were humbled to report performing at the White House for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama a total of five times so far. It gave Monae perspective and inspiration to hear that the First Lady often listened to her music during workouts; she and the others agreed that it gave them an added depth of responsibility to consider the messages behind their music when they knew such influential people were listening to it.

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Featured Photo

Fire and ice Ian Livingston

Bokeh is something that you’ll hear a lot of photographers talking about. Photographs with good bokeh have an appealing aesthetic; a quality that is as much because of the photographer as it is because of the lens the photographer used. When you isolate the subject and create a small depth of field the background becomes blurred and and the subject stands out. Shallow focus is a good way to achieve this, just set your aperture to wide open. If the subject has a stark color contrast to the background the effect can be even more dramatic as is the case in this lovely photo by Ian Livingston. Not only does the white tulip stand out against the red ones but the blurring of the background tulips makes it even more of a focal point. The photo looks like a pastel painting and would certainly look great framed and hanging on a wall. Well done, Ian.