Washington City Paper (February 26, 2016)

CITYPAPER WashiNgtoN

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food: thinking about your backside 21

Free Volume 36, No. 9 WashiNgtoNCityPaPer.Com February 26–marCh 3, 2016

Best seats in the house

Our critics show you which spots to grab for concerts, performances, dinners, and more. 12

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INSIDE

12 best seats Where to sit at the Kennedy Center, Nationals Park, and other D.C.-area venues and restaurants cover illustration by Michael hirshon

inside illustrations by lauren heneghan

4 Chatter DistriCt Line

7 Concrete Details: D.C.’s proposed WWI memorial design is well calibrated but misguided.

9 Unobstructed View 10 Savage Love 11 Gear Prudence 19 Buy D.C.

D.C. FeeD

21 Young & Hungry: The design of where you put your behind 23 Food Grazer: One-of-a-kind seats 23 The ’Wiching Hour: BOE’s Coca-Cola Meatloaf Sandwich 23 Underserved: Brabo’s Sherbet

arts

25 Galleries: Capps on “Suspended Animation” at the Hirshhorn 27 Arts Desk: What to see at the Washington Jewish Film Festival 28 Curtain Calls: Paarlberg on Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, Walker on Collaborators, and Croghan on Constellations 30 Sketches: Carrigan on “Seeing Nature” and “Cosmic Modules” 31 Short Subjects: Gittell on Triple 9

City List

33 City Lights: Shakespeare Theatre Company emphasizes religion in its new production of Othello.

33 Music 39 Theater 41 Film

42 CLassiFieDs Diversion 43 Crossword

“

tomorrow exchange buy * *sell*trade sell*trade

You walk into a space, You’re like, ‘oh this restaurant’s cool, it has an old church pew.’ —page 21

”

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CHATTER Fishy Feelings

In which readers remorselessly tell each other what to do

Darrow MontgoMery

In response to last week’s cover stories about the proposed D.C. General replacement shelter locations (“General Idea,” Feb. 19), reader captainsmoothie jumped into the comments section to recommend you get off your ass and do some legwork before complaining about the city’s handling of the shelters. “God, if there’s one thing I’m sick of, its the complaining about a lack of outreach. The city shouldn’t need to come to your damn door to get your opinion on something. Come to the ANC meetings, they are often boring but also informative. And if you’re upset about outreach, there’s a community outreach committee you can work with!

I’d hope someone who’s been here 38 years would know all that.” Point of clarity here: We’ve actually published several stories in the past few years highlighting how not-boring your local ANC meetings can be (name calling, the hurling of insults and heated accusations, and the like aren’t guaranteed but they are completely possible). Furthermore, never accuse our readers of proposing solutions in half-measures. Case in point: the entirely level-headed, calm reaction to Jessica Sidman’s reporting on potentially toxic local rockfish (“Careful What You Fish For”). impeachemall came right out with a modest proposal: “NOBODY should ever eat fish, crabs or anything else from the Chesapeake Bay or the Potomac River! Those water bodies -- and the fish and crustaceans that dwell in them -- are highly contaminated with toxic chemicals and other industrial waste procucts.” Editor’s note: This is silly. Don’t follow this advice. But that’s a really great, totally relevant way to segue into a vegan taking an opportunity to tell you how great it is to be vegan. As MaryFinelli gently suggested: “All of the nutrients we need to thrive can be obtained more healthfully, humanely, and environmentally responsibly from plant sources. There are marvelous vegan versions of virtually every type of food (including seafood) imaginable. They’re better for us, for the other animals, and for the environment. They’re also delicious! If you eat seafood, Google: vegan seafood resources.” Top results for “vegan seafood resources” are primarily from fishfeel.org, which I didn’t click on but based on the URL I assume it’s like Tum—Emily Q. Hazzard blr but for sea animals.

Want to see your name in bold on this page? Send letters, gripes, clarifications, or praise to editor@washingtoncitypaper.com.

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DISTRICTLINE

Tomorrow’s History Today: This was the week that Mayor Bowser, in response to public pressure and FOIA requests, released a list of the other sites considered for replacing D.C. General.

ConCrete details

Carry That Wait

The winning WWI memorial designer did just what the commission asked.

And that’s the problem.

By Amanda Kolson Hurley

Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

Joseph Weishaar, a 25year-old junior architect from Chicago, performed an architectural balancing act to win the competition to design a new national World War I memorial in Pershing Park.

His design “The Weight of Sacrifice,” with low walls around a rectangular lawn and a minimalist plaza, is clean enough to feel contemporary.

But the walls will be made of bronze, carved by the sculptor Sabin Howard into classical bas-reliefs and etched with quotations—a move that has won over traditionalists.

Chosen from more than 350 entries, Weishaar’s scheme unites a celebration of victory with mourning the fallen. The raised central lawn and heroic “Brothers in Arms” bas-relief ease the The District of Columbia War Memorial (left) was restored several years ago while Pershing Park (right) has languished. weight of dark, downward-sloping walls, reminiscent of Maya Lin’s Vietnam it an attractive urban oasis again. And they The brief asked entrants to both “honor the [John J.] Pershing.”

Veterans Memorial. In other words, this is a heroism and valor” of those who served and The current park was designed in the ear- point out that the park already commemorates very well-calibrated design. “commemorate the tragedy and magnitude ly 1980s by the acclaimed modernist landscape World War I. But the commission regards the Whether equipoise should be the main of loss suffered.” More to the point, it speci- architect M. Paul Friedberg, with plantings Pershing memorial as inadequate, and finalists virtue of a war memorial, though, is anoth- fied that to be “timeless,” the winning design by the equally acclaimed firm of Oehme, van in the design contest treated the park basically er matter. should have “appropriate interpretive elements Sweden & Associates. It used to be a lovely pla- as a tabula rasa.

In 2014, Congress authorized the U.S. World including (but not limited to) figurative or oth- za that stepped down to a sunken pool, which Weishaar’s design, coherent but wan, is War I Centennial Commission to build a na- er sculpture, traditional monument forms, and served as an ice-skating rink in winter. A stat- the best option from a disappointing shortue of the war’s greatest U.S. commander, Gen- list. One runner-up was a mass of land-form tional memorial at Pershing Park, on Pennsyl- relevant quotations or other texts.” vania Avenue and 15th Street NW. (D.C. alAnother thing the commission wanted eral Pershing, stands in the southwest corner, squiggles, far too busy for the 1.8-acre site. ready has its own memorial to the war, a small was to remake the entire park into a new me- flanked by carved stone walls.

Another proposed embedding dozens of large Today, the park is a mess, and preservation- photo display-boxes in the ground, an admarble rotunda on the west side of the Mall morial, rather than place a new memorial in that was restored several years ago.) Read- it. The refashioned Pershing Park, they said, ists at The Cultural Landscape Foundation mittedly innovative idea that would have no ing the competition brief makes it clear that “will be a national World War I Memorial, are rallying to save it. They blame its sad state doubt turned into a maintenance nightmare Weishaar delivered exactly what the commis- in contrast to today’s park that only inciden- on years of deferred maintenance. They be- and liability issue as people tripped over the sion wanted. tally includes a small memorial to General lieve that rehabilitating the park would make metal frames. A neoclassical scheme was suwashingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 7

DISTRICTLINE per-sized and seemed to fight against the axis of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Jurors pointed out many of these problems, making you wonder how some of the entries even got to the finalist stage.

Only one shortlisted design had a strong and resonant concept, and that was “Plaza to the Forgotten War” by the Wisconsin architects Andrew Cesarz, Brian Johnsen, and Sebastian Schmaling. (Note: I served on an architectural jury with Johnsen several years ago.) The initial idea called for a grid of bronze markers that suggested the rows of crosses in American military cemeteries in France, like Meuse-Argonne. But changes made in the second stage of the competition diluted the concept beyond recognition.

That design at least grappled with a question the other entries on the shortlist didn’t: What kind of memorial is appropriate for World War I? It’s not an easy question to answer, and not just because of how much time has passed since the war ended. When an ArchDaily writer asked what made Weishaar’s design fitting as a World War I memorial, the designer cited the period text and images that

will appear on the walls. of silence, they lay poppy wreaths at the monThe Great War was caused by unstable dip- ument’s base. lomatic alliances and a naval arms race. It inThe Cenotaph was designed in 1919 by the volved a bewildering number of powers and great British architect Edwin Lutyens. It is simfronts; many key battles, like the Battle of the ple: a broad shaft of white stone lifting an empty Somme, happened before the U.S. entered the tomb, unadorned except for wreaths carved into fray. The war’s American legacy is significant, its top and sides. It hardly has a site, standing in complex, and not easily reducible to stirring the middle of a city street. Its inscription is three words long: “The Glorious Dead.” images or phrases.

The understated eloquence of the form— It is true that World War I is our forgotWashington City Paper suggesting nobility as it steps up to the sky, ten war. More American combatants—some 116,000—were killedWed, in 1917 and 1918 Feb. 24, than 2016in holding a container for the collective sense of the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined. Yet loss—makes the Cenotaph profoundly mov(4.666” x 1.603”) and it has been reproduced countless times other countries bore1/12 muchHheavier losses: the ing,Non-SAU United Kingdom, 800,000; France, 1.3 milLandmark Theatres/BP around the world.

Designers entering the Pershing Park compelion. In the U.K., there is no question about what the Great War represents. It stands for tition were encouraged to study the Cenotaph, Arlington’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and tragedy on a terrible scale, and the collision of modern horrors like trench warfare and poison other memorials from the interwar years, including the hundreds of small ones that dot the gas with old notions of valor.

In Britain, millions of people wear poppy United States. Often consisting of a single statue lapel pins in the weeks leading up to Remem- or column rising from a patch of ground, these brance Sunday in November. On that day, dig- local memorials are also charged with emotion. nitaries and veterans assemble at the Cenotaph, Unfortunately, they were ignored in a contest close to Downing Street in central London. Af- that prioritized spatial reach and copious hister Big Ben chimes 11, beginning two minutes torical interpretation over simplicity.

At this point, it looks doubtful whether the memorial will proceed as designed. The National Park Service has signaled that Pershing Park meets the criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. A historic designation would put the park’s key design elements off limits. As they should be: Friedberg’s Pershing Park is an important and successful cultural landscape. With adequate care, it could be the modernist jewel of a revived original file: Adobe Pennsylvania Avenue.

Once the commission and regulatory bodies have gone a few rounds, the scope of Weishaar’s design will change and very possibly shrink. The chances of a memorial opening by 2018 seem slim. That’s inconvenient for the commission’s fundraising—it still needs to raise at least $20 million—but some breathing room will be a good thing.

The goals and parameters of this project need a rethink. There is ample room in Pershing Park for a new memorial and a thoughtful restoration of Friedberg’s design. More time could also yield a memorial that transcends generic tropes.

Weishaar has proved he can design to a brief. He CP just needs a new, narrower one.

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In

UNOBSTRUCTEDVIEW One Day Chicken, Next Day Feathers

By Matt Terl The Wizards did two reasonably ordinary, otherwise-unrelated things last week: a trade and an in-game promotion. For some reason, the reactions they both elicited struck me as totally bizarre.

First, the Wizards traded for Markieff Morris, giving up two role players and a topnine protected draft pick. It’s clear what the Wizards are trying to do here: buy low on a potentially valuable asset (Morris has had issues both legal and motivational) and improve in the very short-term to make a late push for a playoff slot this year.

Reaction to the trade was mixed—very mixed, really—but one common refrain was that giving up the players was fine but that giving up the draft pick was mortgaging the future for a good-but-not-great player.

This always perplexes me. Morris, in fact, was the 12th overall pick back in 2011. He is quite literally the sort of player you are very likely to get in the draft spot the Wizards traded from—and that’s if you draft reasonably

I’ve got kids to feed. I’ll cheer more for a free sandwich than a win any day of the week. well. You could also draft a European guy who never plays, or an out-and-out bust, both of which Ernie Grunfeld and the Wizards have done more than once.

But people love draft picks. They love the unknown, the potential of what could be, regardless of what is likely to be, and so the lateround draft pick you give up is always going to be imagined to be a hidden gem.

The trade that brought Robert Griffin III to town was similar; giving up three first- and one second-round draft picks for one guy was met with enormous scorn. Local fans who hated the trade with St. Louis felt sure the team was giving up the next Brian Orakpo, Trent Williams, and Ryan Kerrigan plus a secondround pick.

Instead, once the Rams finished trading and drafting the picks, they wound up with eight

guys, some of whom are solid contributors.

Griffin, despite his ultimately disappointing tenure here, has been to more Pro Bowls than all of them combined. Three of them are no longer with the Rams at all. That’s what happens with draft picks.

The Wizards gave up a mid-to-late first round pick that might have become something in a year or more for a mid-first-rounder who can at least contribute now. It might not work, but it’s far from indefensible.

But if that seems ridiculous, let’s talk chicken: If the opposing team misses two free throws in the fourth quarter of a Wizards home game, the fans in attendance win a free chicken sandwich.

People like free chicken—reasonable enough—and they cheer for it when the misses happen. It has been observed, however, that they often cheer for it even more enthusiastically than they cheer for the Wizards. This causes naysayers to intimate that, perhaps, Wizards fans are not very good at rooting for basketball games and instead are more interested in things like free food.

It’s a criticism that bubbles up, and the first game after the trade provided the latest excuse—this time with John Wall telling CSN Mid-Atlantic after the game that the fans are “more excited for a free chicken sandwich than a win. That’s what it looked like.”

Let’s first be very clear about this: If you watch the video, Wall is clearly not angry about it—he’s joking, maybe teasing a little.

But even so: Why wouldn’t fans be more excited about a free chicken sandwich than a win?

This is the “win at fantasy or have your favorite team win” debate writ small, deep-fried, and put on a bun: a question of genuine personal gain (in this case free, delicious, poultry-based sustenance) versus the amorphous, intangible concept of a regular-season team victory.

I think this also speaks to the bizarre nature of longer sports seasons (MLB, NBA, NHL).

It’s hard to think that one game matters out of so many; even at a potentially crucial moment of improvement in the middle of a disappointing season. But chicken—that’s calories. That’s a thing you can hold, and eat, and not pay for.

If this happens in the playoffs, or even a more crucial game, then I’ll complain. But in the meantime… man, I’ve got kids to feed. I’ll cheer more for a free sandwich than a win any day of the week. It might be the only thing CP Wizards fans get out of this season.

Follow Matt Terl on Twitter @matt_terl.

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SAVAGELOVE Gay, thirtysomething male in D.C. My boyfriend of three years has been acting strange— not taking his antidepression meds, says he’s feeling weird. He has withdrawn from me, sleeps 15 hours a day, and has been canceling on commitments to socialize with friends. That I am fine with—he’s blue and I get it. Here’s why I’m writing: He was doing an online crossword, and when he got up, I was going to write a message in it—to be funny and sweet. What I saw messed me up. There was a browser window open about meth and depression. He is 48 and successful, and isn’t a clubber or party-going type. METH? What the hell? I snooped further, and there was a detailed search history on meth, meth and depression, meth and sex. He doesn’t seem to have been high around me—and I would never use meth, it’s not my thing and I have a security clearance (no drugs for me, ever)—but I don’t want to date an addict. I don’t want to be with someone who would take such a dumb risk. And for what? Dude! You’re 48, you have a career, a business, and a guy who cares for you! WTF?!?

I know what you’ll say: Use your words—and, trust me, I will. But am I totally crazy? I feel shitty for having snooped, but it started innocently enough with me wanting to write a goofy note on his crossword puzzle.

—Snoop Now All Fucked Up Meth addicts aren’t known for sleeping 15 hours a day, SNAFU. Meth addicts aren’t known for sleeping at all. So perhaps your boyfriend abused meth before you met—and there’s no using meth, only abusing meth— and conquered his addiction and/or stopped abusing meth years ago. And now he’s depressed and off his meds, and he went online to investigate whether his past meth abuse could be contributing to his current depression.

As for the snooping angle…

When we snoop, we sometimes find out things we don’t want to know, don’t need to know, and don’t need to do anything about.

For example, the new boyfriend has a few sexts from his ex tucked away on his computer, your dad is cheating on his third wife, your adult daughter is selling her used panties online. But sometimes we find out things we needed to know and have to do something about. For example, your 14-year-old daughter is planning to meet up with a 35-year-old man she met on Instagram, your “straight” boyfriend is having unsafe sex with dozens of men behind your back, your spouse is planning to vote for Ted Cruz—in those cases, you have to intervene, break up, and file for civil commitment, respectively.

Learning your depressed-and-off-hismeds boyfriend may have—or may have had—a meth problem falls into the needed to know/have to do something about category.

So, yeah, SNAFU, you gotta use your words.

10 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

Go to your boyfriend, tell him what you discovered and how you discovered it, and demand an explanation while offering to help.

Urge him to see his doctor—whoever prescribed the antidepressants he stopped taking—and go into the convo armed with a list of the resources available to him.

“We’re lucky to have a lot of great resources in D.C.,” said David Mariner, executive director of the DC Center for the LGBT Community (thedccenter.org). “The Triangle Club (triangleclub.org) is an LGBT recovery house, and they host all sorts of 12-step meetings. Crystal Meth Anonymous is really active here. And we’re just kicking off a harm-reduction group here at the DC Center.”

I asked Mariner if your boyfriend sounded to him like someone currently abusing meth.

“I’m not an expert,” Mariner replied, “but he doesn’t sound like it to me. He may be having a hard time talking to his boyfriend about this because for folks who have a history of meth use, sex can be tricky. Meth use and sexual activity are often so intertwined that it can make it hard to talk to a partner.”

Finally, SNAFU, don’t make it harder for your partner to be honest with you by threatening to break up with him. You don’t have to remain in a relationship with an addict, if indeed he is an addict, forever. But start by showing him compassion and offering support. You can make up your mind about your future— whether you have one together—during a sub—Dan Savage sequent conversation.

I’m a 36-year-old hetero male, into BDSM and polyamory. I’ve been drinking deep from the bowels of the internet lately, getting laid more than I ever thought was possible. I’m open about the fact that I fuck around a lot and that monogamy would never work for me. I use condoms with everyone except my primary partner, and I abide by your campsite rule. I don’t want to be anyone’s wonderful husband; I want to be the Casanova who climbs in through the window. Last week, the internet was good at delivering. Usually I can talk to 10 women who all seem interested, but in the end, only one or two want to actually meet. But last week, I had sex five times in five days with five different women.

And that just made me feel awesome, turned on, and wonderful. Is there a term for someone who gets turned on by finding new people to have sex with? Have I discovered a new kink? Is there a name for people like me? If there is, I couldn’t find it. Google failed me. Can a person have a kink for finding new sex partners? What would it be called? Or am I just a slutty man-whore?

—Dude Drinking Deep I don’t think “drinking deep from the bowels of [blank]” is a good way to describe something you enjoy, DDD. Watching a GOP de-

I don’t think “drinking deep from the bowels of [blank]” is a good way to describe something you enjoy, DDD. bate? Perhaps best described as drinking deep from the bowels of the terrifying American id. Enjoying consensual sex with people you’re into? Better described as “drinking deep from Aphrodite’s honeyed mouth” or “licking Adonis’ jizz off Antinous’ tits” or simply “killing it”—really, anything would be an improvement.

As for what your kink is called…

“What DDD describes is consistent with a motivational style once called Don Juan syndrome,” said Dr. David Ley, author and clinical psychologist. “It has also been called Casanova or James Bond syndrome. Essentially, these are folks most excited by the quest/hunt for novelty in sex partners. This was once viewed as deeply dysfunctional from a heteronormative, monogamy-idealizing therapeutic culture. What I appreciate about DDD is that, even though he uses sex-addiction language, it’s clear he has accepted himself and his desire. I’d say he has adapted fairly well, and responsibly, to that tendency in himself.”—Dan I just posted a new word on the Physician Moms Facebook group and was told that I should send it to you. I got tired of hearing “She’s got balls,” so I made up a new word, clitzpah (klit-spe) noun: a woman with guts!

Origin of clitzpah: clitoris (kli-te-res) noun: an organ of the female genitalia, the purpose of which is purely to bring women pleasure, and chutzpah (hut-spe) noun: a Yiddish term for courage bordering on arrogance.

I hope this is useful!

—Jill Becker, clitzpah.com It’s a lovely word, Jill—and I’m happy to help —Dan you roll it out!

Send your Savage Love questions to mail@savagelove.net

Adopt a friend Adopt a friend today!today!

FACTS ABOUT CHRISTINE FACTS ABOUT OWEN

Gear Prudence: Like a lot of people my age, I have a lot of my stuff (including my old bike) at my parents’ house, even though I haven’t lived there in years. My mom said they’re cleaning out the garage and that they want to me to take the bike or they’ll get rid of it. I have a new bike here and I don’t really have room for the old one. But I also don’t want them to get rid of it since I might want to ride it again someday.

How do I handle this?

—Kin Evicting Esteemed Possession Dear KEEP: This is the millennial-est of dilemmas. You want this bike for some undetermined future use, but neither need it now nor have any place to store it. The “Bank of Mom and Dad” in this case is more like a vault than a line of credit, but it’s 2008 all over and the bank is shutting down. There is virtue to sending the bike along to a new owner (and cash returns if you sell it), but GP gets that sentimentality might preclude that.

If you absolutely can’t fit it and absolutely must keep it, GP’s advice is this: pay your parents for storage. Figure out a fair market value and offer them money. And then hope that they’ll be so impressed by your mature and businesslike approach that they don’t bother collecting. Better have money in the —GP checking account just in case.

Gear Prudence: I’ve noticed something during my bike commute lately and it really bothers me.

Pedestrians, especially downtown, will begin to cross the street before it’s their turn and don’t seem to care that I still have the green light. It’s like I’m totally invisible because I’m not in a car.

I don’t really have a question, I’m just so mad —Judging All You about it!

Dear JAY: Great non-question! Here’s some non-advice: Barring your possession of a magic ring, it’s highly unlikely that you’re invisible.

It’s just that the people crossing the street have assessed the situation and (rightly or wrongly) decided that your presence isn’t much of an impediment. Bikes are pretty narrow, not that heavy, and don’t travel especially fast, so in the cost-benefit analysis of stay or go, the cost (the likelihood and potential severity of getting hit) isn’t very high. So they go.

Is it worth getting mad about? I don’t know.

It’s frustrating, but it’s hardly the most dangerous thing you’re likely to deal with on your commute. Ding a bell or say “heads up!” but, really, the best thing you can do is slow down a little and make sure you don’t hit anyone. Legal rectitude in this situation neither protects you from physical harm nor justifies it. —GP Gear Prudence is Brian McEntee, who tweets at @sharrowsDC. Got a questions about bicycling?

Email gearprudence@washcp.com

Breed:Breed: Chihuahua/Jack Russell Terrier Mix • Color: Tricolor (Tan/Brown & Black & White) • Hound (Unknown Type)/Beagle Mix • Color: Tricolor (Tan/Brown Age: Adult ~6 years • Size: Small ~12 lbs • Sex: Female • Location Saved Rutherford County, NC & Black & White) • Age: Adult ~5 years • Size: Med. ~33 lbs • From: Sex: Male

Christine’s Story...

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CHRISTINE! MEET OWEN!

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washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 11

best seats

in the

house Seating is everything. It can make or break an experience for you, whether it’s at a restaurant, at a game, at a concert, or at the movies.

Let’s face it, nothing can spoil your appetite more than a little waft of bathroom odor when your main dish arrives. And even the best films can be ruined if you’re stuck in the first row, craning your neck just so you can see what the hell is going on.

So while it may seem like a simple question—“What’s the best seat in the house?”—it’s actually one that elicits some complicated answers. From the Kennedy Center to Verizon Center, D.C. has no shortage of great, cherished venues, and when you’re planning a visit to one of them, you should take careful consideration of which seats you choose. Sitting, for example, in a chorister seat at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall for an orchestral performance can give you a bird’s– eye view down onto the stage from behind the performers, allowing you to experience the performance from a unique vantage point. Verizon Center hosts a number of the District’s professional sports teams, but the best seats from which to catch a Wizards or Mystics game isn’t necessarily the best spot for the Capitals (spoiler alert: seats right behind the glass aren’t always great!).

So, I ask again: What’s the best seat in the house? It’s complicated, but lucky for you, Washington City Paper’s editors, writers, and critics have spent a lot of time thinking about it. We’ve got some recommendations for theater, music, sports, and movie venues. We’ve even added a few of the more popular restaurants, too. Consider this week’s issue a handy guide for the next time you’re headed to one of these places, so you’ll never again have to ask yourself that question.

—Matt Cohen

Illustrations by Lauren Heneghan 12 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

Kennedy Center For sheer cool factor and exclusivity, the presidential boxes are the most-envied seats in all three of the Kennedy Center’s main theaters.

But if you don’t have friends on Pennsylvania Avenue, you might have to aim a little lower.

The Concert Hall is the Kennedy Center’s largest performance space, with nearly 2,500 seats. Its 1997 overhaul included the addition of onstage boxes, a chorister section, and parterre seats, which ring the ground level. But rather than sit in the parterre rows in the back, be in the middle of it all: Snag a chorister seat.

Looking down onto the stage from behind the performers, you might even be able to read the sheet music over their shoulders. These seats aren’t available for all performances (rumor is they aren’t released unless the show is about to sell out, out of fear that a half-full section behind the performers looks depressing). If there are none to be had, go for the onstage boxes, which will still give you a side view of the conductor’s expressions.

Designed for unamplified sound to reverberate throughout the hall, the acoustics of the Opera House can make it hard for touring companies to calibrate their sound equipment (beware the risky Broadway musical tour). While a default emphasis on the visual elements of a show often means that closer is better, that doesn’t hold true for the best au-

dio. In many venues, sound travels past the orchestra section and floats up to the higher levels with pleasing clarity. Stick close to center to avoid any muddling that can come from being too far to either side, and look for a seat that lets you feel most immersed in the action. The center seats in Tier 1, Row A provide a good chance of crisp sound without anyone’s head intruding on your sightlines, reminding you that you’re in an opera house instead of 19thcentury Spain.

The Eisenhower Theater comes in at around half the size of its larger siblings, with a capacity of slightly more than a thousand.

Redone in 2008, the theater shed its asbestos and gained new seats. The American Seating Company’s Stellar 216 model wood-backed seats, to be precise—the same company that provided the seating for Fenway Park and the Crystal Cathedral.

“My favorite seat to watch ballet is center orchestra,” says The Washington Ballet’s Gian Carlo Perez. “At that vantage point, I am able to best experience the magic between the artist and the public.” For ballet, an ideal seat is close enough to see the smaller details of the dancers’ movements but far enough away to appreciate the broader strokes of the choreography. Aim for the center back-half of the first orchestra block: rows J and O, seat numbers in the low hundreds.

—Emily Walz

Kennedy Center, Concert Hall

STAGE

Atlas Performing Arts Center, Lang Theatre

stage. If you’re in one of the back five rows, you’ll be looking down on it at a severe angle.

Most rows have 20 seats. Seats D11 and D12 will give you and your date a superb fourthrow-center vantage point. There are also 20 balcony seats (10 on each side of the house) that I can recommend only if you think you may need or want to leave mid-performance: These are the only places from which you can slip out discreetly via the back of the house without disturbing your fellow patrons. Walkouts may be less likely nowadays: Theater J’s longtime Artistic Director Ari Roth was fired at the end of 2014, reportedly because of a pattern of sympathetic-to-Palestine programming choices that angered the leadership and some constituents of the Washington DC Jewish Community Center, Theater J’s parent organization. Theater J’s fare in the 14 months since Roth’s departure has been relatively free —Chris Klimek of geopolitics.

Warner Theatre

STAGE

Atlas Performing Arts Center The Lang is the Atlas Performing Arts Center’s proscenium theater, the only stage there with fixed rows of seating. Dale Stewart, founder and principal at CORE, the D.C. architecture and design firm responsible for the earlyaughts Atlas redesign, says “I prefer aisle seats so I can easily hop out to the Atlas Café during intermission. I really like the seating in the Lang Theatre because we designed the seats to be wide enough to be comfortable and the rows far enough apart so patrons don’t have to clamber over other guests’ knees.” Its steeper tiers increase the likelihood that your sightlines will remain unbroken, letting you peer over other patrons’ heads instead of through them. To avoid peeking past the side curtains and catching performers in their off-stage moments, go for the center aisle seats. Midway back ensures that you’ll have a steady picture of the whole stage without needing to pan back and forth.

—Emily Walz

Arena Stage, Fichandler Stage

Theater J

STAGE

STAGE

STAGE

Constellation Theatre Company Constellation Theatre Company plies its trade at the Source Theatre, a 140-seat black box space that predates, by about a year, the venerable Studio Theatre’s arrival on the then-riot-scarred 14th Street corridor. While financial woes forced Source to cease operations about a decade ago, Constellation has been performing in the company’s old building at 1835 14th St. NW since its 2007 inception, delivering ambitious, visually rich adaptations of everything from The Oresteia and Chekhov to contemporary fare like The Lieutenant of Inishmore or its recent production of Avenue Q, which snagged more Helen Hayes Award nominations than any other show. Because Constellation frequently reconfigures the Source’s interior to accommodate a unique scenic design for each production (usually by A.J. Gruban, who also serves as the company’s managing director), the best seat necessarily varies. But the room is cozy enough that find—Chris Klimek ing a bad seat is unlikely.

Theater J Theater J’s 240-seat Goldman Theater is a steep, traditional rake design, so unless you’re in the front row, you’ll be looking down at the

Constellation at Source Theatre

STAGE

Arena Stage Where do you sit when a stage has four sides? Front row, any side if you’re Melissa Romain, who has been a subscriber at Arena Stage for three years and a donor for two years before that. Musicals are her favorite, and when she saw Oklahoma! in the A section of the 680-seat Fichandler Stage, she was so close to the action that actors would make eye contact during scenes. It’s not uncomfortable for her, since the seats are slightly lower than the stage, but she recognizes not everyone goes to plays to be a part of the action. “It’s not a place to fall asleep. Their eyes are on you and even the lights are on you… It makes you feel like part of the cast,” she says.

—Allison Kowalski

Warner Theatre Without hesitation, Warner Theatre Operations Manager Victoria Shamas can name her favorite place to sit—Row C, Seat 104. Her selection is specific: The position is center but not too close to the stage, and just far enough away to avoid straining your neck. Shamas says the placement helps you feel like part of the crowd, cozied up to the people around you, but not too claustrophobic. But her position on best seat changes when the theater host dancers or plays. For those, she prefers the front row of the balcony, where you can see the performers from an aerial view and take in the whole interior of the 90-year-old theater. Plus, there’s the fact you can also glitz it up with VIP treatment and splurge on your own personal cocktail waiter while gazing out at the elaborate chandelier.

—Allison Kowalski

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 13

Round House Theatre

STAGE

Round House Theatre Round House Theatre’s 400-seat venue, half a block away from the Bethesda station on the Red Line, clumps the audience into six sections. The layout isn’t quite a “thrust stage” arrangement wherein the audience is on three sides of a square occupied by the stage, but there are winged orchestra sections that overlook the stage at a slight angle. While anything in the center orchestra section will afford you an unobstructed view of the stage, only the seats on the very margins of the house are at risk of not being able to see everything. Anything in the front half of the center orchestra would be considered enviable. In the years since Ryan Rilette took over as producing artistic director, Round House’s programming has grown more adventurous, boasting more work by contemporary female playwrights like Gina Gionfriddo and Lucy Kirkwood, and its hit rate—aesthetically anyway—has —Chris Klimek ticked up.

Anacostia Playhouse The mother-and-daughter duo of Adele Robey and Julia Robey Christian purchased the 5,000-square-foot space at 2020 Shannon Place SE that is now the Anacostia Playhouse in 2012. A wave of gentrification had priced them out of H Street NE, where Adele and her husband Bruce had operated the H Street Playhouse since 2002. (Bruce Robey died in 2009; the former theater he and Adele had operated together at 1365 H St. NE is now a CrossFit gym.) In the two-and-a-half years since the Anacostia Playhouse opened for business, the space has been Theater Alliance’s home base while also hosting shows by smaller companies like Pinky Swear Productions and the Washington Rogues. Both Theater Alliance and the playhouse have embraced the community in which they reside, programming more work by artists of color than they had prior to their relocation.

The black box space can seat up to 150 but is

Black Cat If you’re like me and enjoy having a drink at crowded shows, the best “seat” at the Black Cat is by the bar. Exactly where by the bar you choose to stand (don’t sit on the barstools, unless you want people ramming into you all night) depends on a number of factors. If getting drinks quickly is more important to you than seeing the band, the bar on the left-hand side when you walk in is often inexplicably less crowded than the one on the right. If you’re not very tall and want to see the band while staying close to the bar, there’s a spot between the right-hand bar and the backstage door that’s slightly elevated, so you can see better. However, you’re so close to the speaker at that point that the acoustics aren’t the best. For taller people who want better acoustics (please stay away from the raised platform, tall people!), the beams at the sides are really nice, so you can put your drink down. Finally, for less crowded and calmer shows, the tables at the very back are probably your best bet.

—Elena Goukassian

Studio Theatre, Mead Theatre

STAGE

usually set up for a more intimate crowd, so which seats afford you the best view will vary —Chris Klimek from show to show.

Studio Theatre In order to keep track of what’s going on in whatever stage production you see, securing a seat in the center of a row 20 to 30 feet from the stage is ideal. This is particularly important at Studio Theatre, which seats audiences around three sides of the stage in its Mead and Metheny theaters. I know this from

14 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

personal experience: In 2006, I saw Adam Rapp’s drama Red Light Winter in the Mead with my mom. We were seated directly facing stage right. When the first act culminated in a sex scene, the lead actor undressed. Entirely. Had we sat in front of the stage, we’d only have seen him in profile, but from the side, we saw it all. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with onstage nudity, but when attending a show in mixed company, you’re better served by sitting out a couple yards.

—Caroline Jones

STAGE

Black Cat

9:30 Club

The Fillmore The Fillmore Silver Spring is a space that attempts to blend a modern look with a classic feel.

It’s when you’re on the main floor and standing by the bar on either the left or right wing—and you can stand removed from the raucous action on the floor during a top-40 pop event or seeing a classic rock or local artist showcase—that you can actually best soak in the ambiance that the venue attempts to convey. Eating Fillmore’s duck fat–infused french fries and drinking a libation from the bar while people watching is one of the area’s lesserappreciated joys. An uninhibited sightline that doesn’t feel miles separated from the artist, or plagued by craning your neck upward, or too far removed from what often feels like a party happening below— the best seat in Fillmore’s house is actually standing by its bar.

—Marcus Dowling

Verizon Center—Concerts

STAGE

STAGE

9:30 Club Having spent many years right next to the 9:30 Club’s stage in the photo pit, I can tell you the best spot to watch a show at this standing-room-only club, is, in fact, at the back of the main floor. While the front row gets you up close and personal with the band, it also puts you parallel to the enormous speakers that flank each side of the stage, and directly below the speakers above the stage, which can muddy the sound. If you want to hear the music in its purest form, go to the back of the floor—this is where the sound guy is listening, making the band’s magical sound happen. I will clarify, though, that how tall you are dictates the best sound and vision in the back. If you’re six feet tall and above, right in front of the soundboard is great. If you’re like me and only reach five foot five in heels, along the back half of the bar diagonal from the merch booth allows for both even sound and sightlines. And there’s the added bonus of always —Erica Bruce being able to get a drink.

Verizon Center Intimacy can be hard to find at some of D.C.’s larger venues, like the Lincoln Theatre and Echostage, but Verizon Center’s 20,000-capacity room takes the concert-going experience to an entirely different, and often distant, level. People tend to go to shows at Verizon Center to be close to greatness—or at least celebrities. Rihanna, The Who, and Adele (whose two October shows sold out almost immediately) will be headlining in 2016, giving diehard fans a shot at singing along with their musical idols. A lot of seating areas in the venue, however, can lead to fans watching popstars bust moves on a big screen while squinting at the stage. Theatrics like extensive light shows can help, but at the end of the day, the best seats in Verizon Center are the ones that put you as close to the artist as possible: general admission floor or standing —Quinn Myers room tickets.

The Lincoln Theatre At a general-admission venue like the Lincoln, when doors open hours before showtime, you’ve got to arrive early in order to access the

best seat.

Order a sandwich from Taylor Gourmet, eat it in line, and once you enter the theater, immediately proceed through the lobby and down the left side of the orchestra until you reach rows G, H, or I, where you’ll be able to see the whole stage but still feel close enough to the action. Take a seat in the center section on the aisle—in the hour before the band starts, people will come and go from the bar and the bathroom, and aisle seats are the easiest to get out of when strangers

inevitably try to climb over you. They also give you the fastest access to the exit when the concert ends and everyone spills out onto U Street NW. —Caroline Jones

The Lincoln Theatre

STAGE STAGE

The Howard Theatre Part of what’s made the Howard Theatre a beloved venue for two generations of Washingtonians is just how much of an ornate throwback it appears when you’re able to take in its full size and scope. It’s always advisable to watch a show at the Howard from the middle of the lower deck of the upper balcony.

Not only do you get a full and unobstructed view of the stage, but this particular viewpoint allows for the scope of a performance to shift between seeing the full stage, patrons sitting and standing below, and being able to take in just how high the building’s ceiling is. From this vantage point, a great performance by a lesserknown artist can feel like a show by a superstar in an iconic space.

But when a superstar knocks it out of the park, the venue’s history as the one-time home of James Brown shows and Motown’s Chitlin Circuit Motortown Revue comes into play, transforming an excellent show into an epic one.

—Marcus Dowling

The Fillmore

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 15

that actually require a good vantage point.

Echostage owner Antonis Karagounis recommends you skip the rush to the front of the stage and hang by the back—or head upstairs. “The best view at Echostage is further back by the front of the house, near the light and video control booth,” he says.

“Another really great spot to view a show is from the center or the mezzanine area.”

At least you’ll be standing close to the bar.

—Maeve McDermott

Howard Theatre

STAGE

Echostage

STAGE

When going to the movies, it’s important to keep one thing in mind— it’s easy not to be an asshole: Do not talk. When the movie starts, nothing you say is more important than the film people are paying to see. The theater is not a comedy club.

Do not eat anything crunchy. Yes, that includes popcorn for quieter films.

Do not bring your kiD to a film clearly intended for adults. If you can’t hire a sitter, stay home. turn off your cell phone.

It doesn’t matter if it’s on silent or vibrate. If you take it out, your screen is a torch for everyone behind you.

Start in the center of the theater, then fill out the corners. If you arrive early and sit in an aisle seat, everyone will (rightfully) hate you.

DAR Constitution Hall

STAGE

have fun. Laugh, cry, gasp, and applaud. Going to the movies is a communal experience.

—Alan Zilberman

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center Forget the Landmark theaters where you can choose your own seat, the AFI Silver is the most luxurious cinema in the D.C. area.

Aside from the comfort of the seats themselves, the theater’s atmosphere is the reason for its luxury. Its handsome, art-deco style reminds us there once was a time where people would dress up for the movies. The best seats in AFI Silver are in the “box” area, dead center, just above the rows of regular seating.

Although you’re further from the screen, the box gives you the full opportunity to see how the theater is constructed to celebrate cinema. Just don’t kick your feet up; it wouldn’t —Alan Zilberman be proper.

DAR Constitution Hall From its inception, DAR Constitution Hall has existed to feel massive. Way back in 1929, the Daughters of the American Revolution got tired of squeezing their annual conventions in a smaller building and erected the stately new venue next to it, and thus, one of D.C’s largest concert halls was born. Everything from comedy acts to big-name rock tours pass through the U-shaped auditorium.

Since the space can feel woefully vast when you’re back in the orchestra seating, head toward the tiered balcony instead. Aim for one of the lower sections diagonal from the stage,

snag an aisle seat, and if you’re lucky, you may even have some room to jump to your —Maeve McDermott feet and dance.

Echostage If you’ve spent an evening at Echostage stretching your neck to see the stage, you’re not alone. The cavernous, 30,000-plussquare-foot Langdon venue advertises itself as D.C.’s “largest dedicated concert venue,” and most of its patrons are eager to be as close to the action as possible. While its roster leans toward EDM, the club has started booking increasingly high-profile acts

16 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

IMAX—Natural History, Air and Space The best seats in any IMAX theater are in the last, top row, in the dead center. The most noteworthy thing about IMAX screens is not their size, but their screen ratio: Unlike a standard letterbox cinema screen, an IMAX screen is almost square. That means if you’re too close, your eyes will have to dart up and down in order to follow the action. An inability to see the whole screen is incredibly unpleasant, and may even create headaches or a sense of vertigo. I should add an important caveat—the rows in IMAX are about as narrow as you’ll find in D.C. movie theaters, so if you’re going to commit to the middle of the row, make sure your bladder can handle it.

—Alan Zilberman

Typical Theaters In a typical movie theater, particularly those with stadium-style seating, you generally want to sit as close to the center as possible. That’s where most people gravitate, anyway, so the center is where you’ll experience the optimum picture and sound. But if you’re reading this, you probably want to get a more specific recommendation: The best row in which to sit is the one where the edges of the screen are also just inside the edges of your peripheral vision. This can be difficult to gauge, particularly since films come in many different aspect ratios, but if you get it right, the reward is absolute immersion.

—Alan Zilberman

choose to sit in this room, so it’s a good spot to potentially spy on some boldfaced names.

—Jessica Sidman Barmini It’s not just where you sit at Barmini, but what you sit on. There’s the deceivingly plush cactus sofa with photorealistic fabric from Spanish designer Cerruti Baleri that costs more than a (nice) car. There’s the hanging bird’s nest chair that envelops you in an egg-shaped cocoon. And then there’s the curvy corner booth with multicolored mosaic fabric and an enormous umbrella lamp overhead. But ultimately, Barmini is a bar; accordingly, the best place to sit is at the bar. The sleek ivory counter is broken into three sections with a grouping of three seats on one end, four seats on the other, and two in the middle. Since Barmini is a great spot to come with a date, you’ll want the private island in the middle. With antique coupe glass in hand, you’ll have the perfect perch from which to watch the bartender play with a smoke gun or garnish drinks using tweezers.

—Jessica Sidman

Le Diplomate

Le Diplomate Depending on what you’re looking for, there are a few particularly prized tables at D.C.’s buzziest French restaurant. Starr Restaurants Regional Wine Director Erik Segelbaum, who works at Le Diplomate, suggests Table 56—tucked into the far right corner of the main dining room, away from the windows facing 14th Street NW—for a romantic date or anyone seeking privacy. “Quiet is not really something Le Diplomate does,” Segelbaum admits. But Table 56 and its neighboring tables against the wall are as close as it gets. Those who’d rather see and be seen might choose Table 121, a round table for four or five close to the entrance. “You even get a bit of spillover of the bar energy and vibe,” Segelbaum says.

But Le Diplomate’s best kept secret? The two stools at the service bar in the greentiled garden room (known as l’orangerie).

You and your dining companion get your own bartender and can still order from the full menu. “It’s your own private oasis in one of the busiest restaurants in the nation’s capital,” Segelbaum says of the first-come, firstserved stools. Plus, high-profile VIPs often

The Source Wolfg ang Puck’s moder n Asian restaurant was renovated last year with new decor and a new menu. One of the best additions? Hot pot. Chef Scott Drewno enlisted the help of local woodworker Art Drauglis to design a four-person hot pot table with a built-in induction burner.

Rather than dumping everything into the pot at once, Drewno has designed a $65-per-person, five-course hot pot tasting menu where each ingredient builds on the last and contributes to the broth’s flavor. The parade of proteins includes Wagyu beef short ribs, pork belly, and Gulf shrimp skewers—each with their own unique sauces—plus noodles, dumplings, and poached egg. An amuse bouche and dessert are also included in the prix-fixe meal.

The upstairs table takes one to two reservations per night and must be booked at least 24 hours in advance (although you’d be wise to call at least a few days ahead of time).

If you can’t snag the hot pot table, another one-of-a-kind seating option is the twoperson chef’s counter overlooking the newly added open wok kitchen. A nightly-changing, 16-course menu is offered exclusively to that party of two for $95 per person.

—Jessica Sidman Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab When diners request a table at this 500-seat downtown restaurant, it’s usually because they want something quiet. The most pri-

vate option is Table 10, a corner booth in the main dining room with floor-to-ceiling white curtains that can be pulled around it.

Marketing Manager Amy Ingraham says the brown leather banquette, which seats two to four, is the go-to spot for any VIPs “who might cause a little bit of commotion in the dining room… politicians, maybe a super megastar singer.” (Yes, they’ve had those. No, Ingraham won’t name names.)

Table 10 is the only curtained table in any of Joe’s restaurants from Chicago to Las —Jessica Sidman Vegas to D.C.

Rasika West End The three most popular tables at Rasika West End are built to look like palanquin or doli— the Indian vehicles that royalty or a bride might be carried in. The design, however, is much more modern than the highly adorned traditional doli; teal cushions seat up to four under a sleek black, curved roof. Aside from just looking cool, General Manager Atul Narain says the structures help insulate noise. The windowside seats are also prime for people watching both inside and outside the restaurant. “There’s probably at least more than a few requests on a daily basis for the booths,” Narain says.

—Jessica Sidman

Nationals Park

Nationals Park—Nationals The newest, and arguably finest, sports facility in the District, Nationals Park benefitted from the construction boom of good stadium design begun with Camden Yards in Baltimore. The sightlines are good everywhere and the amenities are great (not a small consideration for a game which aver-

ages three hours). But for the best game experience, there are two solid options. The cheapest route is to grab the most inexpensive ticket possible (maybe even a standing room ticket) and stand in the outfield behind the 100-level seats. You get a great view of the park and easy access to Red Porch, which has an excellent beer selection if you’re not

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 17

Robert F. Kennedy Stadium— D.C. United United games are divided into two equal, completely different fan experiences. On the bench side, you’ll get some shade in the summer and a very polite, knowledgeable crowd who may bitch about Coach Ben Olsen’s formation, but they will largely sit and cheer the action. Because the seating is relatively flat and not near the field, there’s a tradeoff between being close and being able to see the play develop (something the more vertical, compact new stadium will address). For that reason, the seats in sections 301 to 312 offer a good balance (and some protection from the elements at the back). But if you want the singing, chanting, bouncing seats experience, you’ve got to be with the supporters sections among the Screaming Eagles and La Barra Brava. Sure, you may end up wearing a little bit of beer, but buy a ticket on the east side (your seat is irrelevant as you’ll be standing the entire game) and join in.

—Steve Cavendish

Verizon Center—Capitals

Verizon Center— Mystics, Wizards

into Bud products. But if you need a seat, look for something on the third base side in the top of the 100 section even with the base: You’ll be shielded from the late-afternoon sun, and those back rows are covered in case of rain. Plus, you’ll be able to see in the Nationals dugout the next time Jonathan Papelbon tries to choke another teammate.

—Steve Cavendish Verizon Center—Capitals The secret to watching hockey is that the seats down on the glass—the ones people might take out a second mortgage to sit in—are really terrible. Sure, there’s the odd crash into the boards or, if you’re lucky, a bone-crunching hit. But most of the time you’re stretching your neck back to see around the action and losing the puck in a wash of players. And if you can’t be behind the benches to see the wonderful chaos of line changes up close, then get up to the (relatively) cheap seats.

To be able to see everything, you want to be up high, so try to snag something in sections 408 or 409, preferably on the first row. From that perch, you’ll be able to witness the entire game, seeing rushes develop and the fluid movement that only hockey has. And on that end, you’ll get the Caps shooting at you twice.

—Steve Cavendish

Verizon Center—Mystics, Wizards Much like hockey, being too low for an NBA or WNBA game can be a bad experience.

Don’t envy people sitting in those rows right on the court. They’re missing John Wall in traffic as he drives the length of the floor through a forest of tall players. And face it, seeing Wall’s magic is about the only reason to see the Wizards this season. But unlike hockey, with a playing surface that’s 100 feet longer, going up high behind the baskets means getting far, far away from the action. Even sitting lower is no good, as the basket blocks sightlines. Basketball is best viewed on the side, preferably between the baskets, about halfway up. An ideal value— assuming you can’t get those prime, center court tickets—would be near the top of Section 110, with a view of the whole court and facing the Wizards bench. It would be the perfect place to see Kevin Durant launching threes from the sideline (please, o merciful lord, give us KD in free agency, even if he has to re-sign with Oklahoma City for another year to maximize his value).

—Steve Cavendish

18 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

tween replays and commercial breaks, there’s precious little action inside the stadium; it’s all just a stage for the cameras. Add to that Beltway congestion, terrible transit options, skyhigh concession costs, and interminable waits getting in and out of the FedEx parking lots, and, well, just stay home. Or go to your favorite bar if you’re in need of a more communal experience; the beer will be cheaper and likely better. Indeed, the best moment of the season happened not on the field, but in front of cameras just off of it (“You like that? YOU LIKE THAT!”), so why not watch the games where the league has designed it to be enjoyed best— —Steve Cavendish in front of a screen.

Robert F. Kennedy Stadium—D.C. United

FedExField—Washington NFL Team The best seat for any Pigskins game is cheap, convenient, and likely comes with a cushioned seat. It’s in your living room and frankly, it’s something that the NFL should be concerned about. Of all the major sports, professional football is the one where the TV viewing experience has completely outstripped the stadium experience. BeFedExField—Washington NFL Team

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Goodbye, Ristorante Posto.

The 14th Street stalwart closed last weekend.

Read more at washingtoncitypaper.com/go/posto

YOUNG & HUNGRY

Chair Necessities A lot of thought went into your restaurant seat.

There are no barstools at Derek Brown’s newest bar.

In the original Columbia Room—actually a converted closet—10 elevated seats were crammed together in front of the bar. “We had this one friend who’s just literally a giant,” Brown says. “He sat down and I just felt bad every time watching him crunch in.”

And occasionally, if someone hung a purse on the back of one of the wooden, partially upholstered barstools, the whole chair would tip over.

In the new Columbia Room, which opened in Blagden Alley earlier this month, the difference is like being upgraded from coach to first class. The 14 fully upholstered leather armchairs are extra wide with plenty of elbow room on each side—more like a board room than a bar. Your feet remain planted on the ground, while a sunken bar brings the bartender to your level.

“There is maybe some psychology behind it in the sense that what we’re going for is a very different experience than what most people expect out of a bar,” Brown says. “Most places, they’re looking for an hour-and-ahalf seat. That means that your butt hurts after an hour and a half of sitting there. It’s very convenient for most restaurant and bars to have that because without you having to be prompted, you are going to leave… With the Columbia Room, it’s the opposite.”

Like Brown, a lot more restaurateurs are thinking about the “psychology” behind their furniture these days. As restaurant design and ambiance become as important to a dining experience as the food, establishments are putting an increasing amount of thought and money into their tables and chairs. Edit Lab at Streetsense Senior Project Designer Brian Miller, who helped design Columbia Room, says restaurateurs are also growing more savvy about what the competition is doing with

Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

By Jessica Sidman

The Dabney’s tables resemble the floor pattern that Thomas Jefferson designed for Monticello’s parlor. their furnishings. In the past, they might not care that five other places had the same chair.

Now, many are looking to set their restaurants apart with custom furniture.

“They’re getting really picky,” concurs Brooke Loewen, a senior interior designer for GrizForm Design Architects, which has worked with Doi Moi, Estadio, Fiola, and others. Five years ago, she says the only questions restaurateurs really had about chairs

were “Can I afford it?” and “Is it comfortable?” Now, they’re concerned with all manner of things from height to design to whether the material feels too cold.

At the new Founding Farmers in Tysons Corner, all of the furniture is custom-made.

To complete the “modern farmhouse” look, Loewen worked with fabricators to build furniture that looked residential, but could endure thousands of diners a week. Loewen

tried to mimic the sofas or comfy chairs you might find in a living room or sunroom, but all of it had to be mounted in place with no removable cushions. And in order to attract diners to what might otherwise be the least desirable area in the floor plan, Loewen commissioned big circular “bedroom booths” that would feel cozy and exclusive.

Aside from booths and banquettes which often have to be custom, Edit Lab’s Miller says roughly a quarter of his clients are commissioning their own specialty furniture.

Five to 10 years ago, none of his clients were doing that.

While budgets vary from project to project, Miller says restaurants are also generally spending more on furniture than they used to.

And often, the pieces are not cheap. A single barstool, for example, may range from $100 for something backless made of wood or metal to $600 or more for a leather seat with fully upholstered back that you’d find in a four-star hotel or high-end steakhouse.

Custom pieces appeal to restaurateurs who “want to be able to tell stories about the furniture,” Miller says. “It’s the same way people want to connect with ingredients.” For example, a Maryland millworker custombuilt The Dabney’s tables to resemble the floor pattern that Thomas Jefferson designed for the parlor at Monticello. Meanwhile, the Windsor-style chairs are modeled after those that were popular in the mid-Atlantic in the 18th century.

“The same way his food speaks to the traditions and roots of cooking in the area, we kind of wanted to do some things with the furniture that spoke to that as well,” Miller says.

“If you’ve got values you want to express, you want to express those throughout.”

Restaurant designer Allison Cooke of Core is also seeing custom furniture in restaurants where she previously might not have expected to, like in fast-casual eateries. Both Cava Grill and Sweetgreen, for example, have commis-

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 21

D.C.’s awesomest events calendar.

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Voted Best Restaurant 2015 — WASHINGTON CITY PAPER READERS POLL

The bar at The Dabney

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sioned their own tables and chairs rather than ordering them out of a catalog.

With the mounting pressure to offer something new and cool, Cooke says furniture manufacturers are getting more competitive by offering custom prices. “Where clients before would think, ‘Oh, I could never afford a custom chair,’ well, now manufacturers are more willing to do that,” she says.

Many restaurant designers are also hearing concerns over the comfort of barstools, especially as diners increasingly use bars as a place to eat a full meal rather than grab a drink while waiting for a table. That means less metal seating, especially as the “industrial chic” trend begins to wane. “People realized that metal-legged furniture on concrete floors is just not a welcoming thing,” Miller says.

At The Dabney, Miller says the owners initially were looking at less-cushy bar stools.

But as they thought more about the experience of eating at the bar, they upgraded to upholstered, cushioned seats with backs.

(The dining room chairs are unpadded wood.)

22 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

Miller says sitting in barstools with your feet dangling is inherently less comfortable than sitting in a dining chair for longer periods.

To have an equal amount of comfort in a barstool, you have to make it cushier and bigger than a dining chair.

Then again, not every bar is after the same kind of seats. For every new plush armchair, there’s still a hard wooden chair. “I go to Momofuku and it’s not like, ‘Wow, I’m glad furniture is getting more comfortable,’” Miller says. “But they seem to be doing just fine.”

In a more social, crowded bar, larger chairs with backs can act as a barrier; people can’t easily swivel around to talk to friends who are standing. Miller intentionally put backless bar stools in The Riggsby because it’s a hotel bar.

“It’s a place where people come and go a little bit more. You don’t know the size of the groups, how crowded it’s going to be. Are they going to be two, three deep during happy hour?”

One typically less comfortable seating trend that persists: reclaimed church pews. Left Door, Kangaroo Boxing

Club, Smith Public Trust, and The Royal are among the many restaurants and bars that have incorporated them into their decor.

Pews are readily available because so many churches have closed over the last decade or so.

And restaurateurs like them because they’re able to get a long bench seat for as little as $60 to $75, says SwatchRoom designer Maggie O’Neill. Second Chance, which sells used furniture and antiques in Baltimore, will even slice off the arm and modify it to the length needed.

“It satisfies the quirk factor,” O’Neill says. “When in doubt, grab a church pew.”

Not everyone is a fan though: “You walk into a space, you’re like, ‘Oh this restaurant’s cool, it has an old church pew.’ But then it’s really bad if you have to sit in them,” Miller says. “No one ever says, ‘You know where I was really comfortable? Church.’”

Ultimately, though, many new restaurants and bars aren’t going with a single type of furniture. Instead, they’re trying to create various “microclimates” in the dining room. “It’s so rare now that we’re picking one chair and one table for the whole restaurant,” says Cooke. “Everybody wants to create these minienvironments.”

At Centrolina in CityCenterDC, for example, Cooke points out the mix of banquettes, tables, a booth that overlooks the open kitchen, bar seating, plus the adjoining market—each with its own vibe. Ten years ago, she says, there was a lot more uniformity in seating.

Loewen adds that restaurateurs are becoming more accommodating to the idea that the same guest might go to the same restaurant for different reasons.

“You go with your girlfriends for catch-up night. You go on date night with your significant other. You go with your parents when they’re in town. Each of those times you want to sit in a different type of environment,” Loewen says. “Everyone is trying to be aware and make sure we’ve got those areas: the quieter areas, the more lively and happening areas. And the seats help to dictate that’s what CP this area is.”

Eatery tips? Food pursuits? Send suggestions to jsidman@washingtoncitypaper.com.

DCFEED

what we ate last week:

Khao soi with beef rib, $14, Alfie’s. Satisfaction level: 4 out of 5

what we’ll eat next week:

Singapore chili crab potstickers, $8, Palette 22. Excitement level: 3 out of 5

Grazer

Hot Seat

Not all chairs are created equal. As custom furniture becomes increasingly popular in D.C.’s restaurants and bars, some places are taking a more whimsical approach to their booths and barstools. Here are six one-of-a—Jessica Sidman kind seats in the area.

Underserved The best cocktail you’re not ordering

What: Brabo’s Sherbet with green tea–infused Beefeater gin, salted pistachio orgeat, Absente absinthe, and cucumber-lime sherbet Where: Brabo by Robert Wiedmaier, 1600 King St., Alexandria Price: $14

Lincoln Restaurant fashioned a white tufted booth to look like the 16th president’s chair at Lincoln Memorial.

The stools at whiskey bar Southern Efficiency are made of old tractor seats.

This “Louis XV Goes to Sparta” armchair from Spanish designer Cerruti Baleri in the lounge at Minibar may look like it’s made of marble, but the photo-realistic fabric cushions are actually super comfy.

Jaleo locations in D.C. and Bethesda both have functional foosball tables you can eat on. Some of the stools are made from Vespa scooter seats.

THE’WICHINGHOUR

China Chilcano highlights the Japanese influence on Peru both through its menu and in its decor with this tatami table. No need to take off your shoes, as is customary in Japan.

thick, sludgy texture and brown color is visually off-putting, so don’t look at it too hard. The meatloaf extends beyond the confines of the toast and feels a little too soft without the crunch of the bread to mask it.

The Sandwich: Coca-Cola Meatloaf Sandwich Where: BOE, 777 9th St. NW Price: $16

Sloppiness level (1 to 5): 1. This sandwich contains only gravy and a slice of meatloaf, and the bread absorbs much of the liquid. Mess, in this case, is minimal.

Bread: Texas toast Stuffings: Meatloaf and onion mushroom gravy Thickness: 2 inches Pros: Every messy sandwich should be served on this white toast. Crisp and buttery, it doesn’t yield many crumbs and remains intact even when topped with dripping meat and a ladle of gravy. The warm meatloaf, which looks and smells nothing like the mysterious brown stuff in school

Founding Farmers in Tysons Corner has three circular “bedroom booths” framed by canopy curtains in the boudoir-inspired section of its dining room.

cafeterias, tastes slightly sweet and peppery from the soda and retains lots of moisture, making it the perfect thing to eat on a chilly winter afternoon.

Cons: Although the gravy adds a bit of welcome saltiness to the sandwich, its

Overall score (1 to 5): 4. Although it feels slightly strange to eat a humble meatloaf sandwich in a fancily decorated downtown restaurant, this simple, strongly flavored offering is fine comfort food.

A less muddy gravy would make it taste even more like home cooking.

—Caroline Jones

What You Should Be Drinking A hump of green sherbet rises, Loch Ness Monster–style, from this pearl-colored cocktail. Head bartender Phil Clark explains that his sherbet cocktail is a riff on a drink served at The Dead Rabbit in New York. “When I was there, they used what they called sherbet, but it wasn’t frozen—it was heated citrus, oils, and sugar,” he explains. “I thought, ‘We have an awesome pastry chef. Why don’t we use frozen sherbet?’” Pastry chef Larry Queen created a refreshing cucumber-lime flavor that lends acidity to the cocktail as it melts. Clark explains there are three ways to enjoy the punchstyle drink: Drink it fast and it’ll be sweet; drink it slow and it’ll change over time; and if you want to balance it out right away, stir in the sherbet to create a thick, slushy drink. Servers will provide a spoon to aid you, but don’t ask for a straw. “Ahh, nope,” says Clark.

Why You Should Be Drinking It Sip the cocktail straightaway and it tastes like liquid baklava thanks to the salted pistachio orgeat and grated nutmeg. It’s fun to take a swig then dig into the sherbet with a spoon as a palate cleanser between each sip.

But the idea of an iced dessert in a cocktail is keeping many people away from the drink.

“There’s a whole segment of people who won’t order a drink with ice cream, but they should,” Clark says. “It’s a good setup for a fine dining establishment, because it’s about the experience of the food itself, and the drinks should be the same way.” The drink also exemplifies the trend of mixologists pulling more inspiration from the kitchen.

Clark says he enjoys accessing the “back of the house,” so he can play with more than just citrus, sugar, and spirits. —Laura Hayes

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 23

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CPARTS

Is go-go in trouble?

At a recent panel, the city’s go-go leaders pondered its future. washingtoncitypaper.com/go/gogopanel

GALLERIES

Reanimator

The Hirshhorn’s latest exhibition explores the sometimes profound, sometimes obnoxious medium of digital animation.

“Suspended Animation” At the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden to March 12, 2017

By Kriston Capps “I cannot describe what I see at the bottom of the sea,” says a pair of lips floating in tranquil waters. The sublime visual in Agnieszka Polska’s “I Am the Mouth” (2014), a digital video installation, dispatches these recursive puzzles like a disembodied oracle trying to describe herself to her petitioner. It’s a kind of minimalist exercise in which the artwork sorts itself out through puns, tautologies, and misdirection. “My words are the variations in pressure,” purrs the pursed mouth, which might be John Pasche’s notorious Rolling Stones logo— if it weren’t whispering mysteries.

This ominous opener to “Suspended Animation” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden sets the stage for a show that is at turns profound and obnoxious. Bringing together the work of just six artists, “Suspended Animation” is small for a survey of a genre: more like a sampling, occupying the museum’s basement level, with each video installation in a standalone sealed room. Even so, curator Gianni Jetzer makes a convincing case that digital animation, a newish vogue in contemporary art, follows the same paradoxical patterns as other watershed moments for new technologies in art history.

“Imagine the most common, inanimate, inert thing,” says the narrator in Helen Marten’s “Orchids, or a Hemispherical Bottom” (2013), a digital work that throws everything and the kitchen sink at the viewer. A CGI graphic of a cat floats across the video as the British voice speaks, some stray fields of color suspended behind it. At first glance, there’s no rhyme or reason to the work. An origami toad materializes, rotates in place, and disappears. Musical notes appear in a cluster, then rearrange themselves in the shape of letterforms and words: SEX ME/ FUCK ME/ BITCH. All the while, the imperious narrator drones on and on, in an absurdist stream-of-conscience monologue. “Ongoing patches of wetness. Continual wetness.

Continual sweeping toweling resupplying, or, fingers hooked into crotches like palm trees bent in irresponsibly impossible poses. Ongoing patches of wetness”—all this, as the camera zooms in on a bunch of pears assembled like a still life on the marble buttocks of a statue in repose.

Start with what Marten’s piece isn’t: It isn’t abstract. While the

Still from “Hope and Change” by Josh Kline (2015) video may juxtapose discordant objects and ideas, all of them are concrete and representational—they’ve got that much in common. And “Orchids” isn’t narrative. It’s a collage of images, a parade of things that indulge in a particular thinginess but don’t belong to a greater whole. Yet the piece is also assured and assertive.

The crisp narration and brisk march of objects implies a logic and orderliness that isn’t available to the viewer, but seems storylike.

Frustrating, maybe, but familiar, too. The work unfolds like a persistent dream. Ed Atkins’ “Warm, Warm, Warm Spring Mouths” (2013) also shares this quality, a nagging feeling that it should make sense even when it doesn’t. The protagonist of “Warm Spring Mouths” seems to dwell in some fluid space, perhaps a thinly disguised metaphor for the subconscious mind.

The character’s long, digitally animated hair sweeps like a camera wipe between scenes. An uncertain narrator (who is sometimes the protagonist) relates a vision of gods with 12-inch pupils, 12-ton jaws, and 12-year metabolisms (among a lot of other inchoate transhuman babbling). The artwork reads like

a metaphor for digital animation itself. Atkins focuses on hair, one of the more difficult features of a person’s face to capture in digital form. By magnifying the irrealism of the imitation hair, the artist hacks the so-called uncanny valley, embracing a conspicuously inhuman facial feature as, well, a feature, not a flaw.

Antoine Catala’s “The Pleasure of Being Sad” (2016) is the lone work to approach digital animation as a mechanical question. His work projects different crying faces onto a screen that changes shape. Embossed, teardrop-shaped panels emerge periodically inside the screen, which distort the faces of the portraits in the projections—a hypnotic inversion of the uncanny valley. There’s a sculpture in the room alongside Catala’s projection, but it’s pretty much irrelevant to the larger piece: Focus on the mesmerizing projection.It may come as no surprise that Catala made the piece specifically for this show, a counterpoint that offers up digital animation as a subset of portraiture, not a category or medium all its own.

Josh Kline’s “Hope and Change” (2015) is the culmination of washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 25

CPARTS an art exhibit that asks the same kinds of questions Still from “Warm, of viewers as a Turing test might. In Kline’s piece, Warm, Warm Spring President Barack Obama delivers an inaugural adMouths” by Ed dress—but through a glass, darkly. The president’s Atkins (2013) face has been digitally mapped, crudely, onto video of an impersonator giving the speech; the speech itself, written by a former (real-world) Obama speechwriter, is an alt-universe 2009 address in which Obama Prime condemns his obstructionist enemies for their various shortcomings.

As a political animal, I found my own feelings about the artwork colored by my feelings about the president. It would take some searching to find the viewer who simply sees the text as disturbing on its face, and not also soothing (or enraging) because it sort of stars Obama—if such a moderate unicorn even exists.

Had Jetzer stopped with those five artists, he would have delivered a tight survey about the conscious and subconscious minds, about imitation and replication, about the test limits between what we know to be real and what we cannot perceive as fake. a visual fit for “Suspended Animation,” but it reads like a nonIan Cheng’s “Emissary in the Squat of Gods,” a pair of live sequitur. As a simulation, not an animation, Cheng’s work feasimulations—at least I think that’s what’s going on—looks like tures a level of structural sophistication lacking in a show oth-

erwise focused on depicting or relaying intensely personal, private, insular experiences.

“Suspended Animation” runs close on the heels of “Surround Audience,” the New Museum’s latest triennial, which opened this time last year. Three of the artists in “Suspended Animation” appeared in the sprawling New York survey, curated by Lauren Cornell and Ryan Trecartin, big names in the field of post-Internet art.

Anyone interested in the questions raised by “Suspended Animation” may already know all the work that Jetzer brings to bear.

Still, even the initiated might find something new in “Suspended Animation.” The show represents a Freudian effort to classify the digital dreamscape, to give it some sense of order. Digital animation remains the unruly province of laptop studios. But here, a sense emerges of how digital text and object mediate a subverbal psychic plane—and then it’s gone. As with a dream, it’s the impression of each artwork, the residue, CP that stays with the viewer.

700 Independence Ave. SW. Free. hirshhorn.si.edu.

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT MASON VISIT US AT CFA.GMU.EDU

Disney Fantasia

Walnut Street Theatre

featuring Czech National Symphony Orchestra; Ted Sperling, conductor

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28 AT 7 P.M. A prequel to Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill’s only true love story remains one of his most definitive works.

“O’Neill at the height of his powers–masterfully employing classical fundamentals to wring hauntingly poetic truths about love and self-delusion from gritty everyday experience.”

(Los Angeles Times) $44, $37, $26

Live in Concert

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27 AT 8 P.M. Dancing hippos, frolicking unicorns, one famous mouse dabbling in magic…all come to life with live music! The Czech National Symphony Orchestra accompanies scenes from the original Fantasia (1940) and from the popular Fantasia 2000.

“Fantasia…reminds us of the emotional storytelling power of classical music.” (Spinningplatters.com) $60, $51, $36 ff

A Moon for the Misbegotten

Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra Caribbean Rhythms – Journey to the Islands

Jim Carroll, Artistic Director; Victor Provost, Steel Pan SATURDAY, MARCH 5 AT 8 P.M. Sway to island rhythms, and imagine a warm breeze beneath the palm trees with the sounds of steel pans floating by, as Met Jazz and steel pan virtuoso Victor Provost (Washington City Paper’s “Jazz Percussionist of the Year” for the past five years) transport you to the Caribbean shores. $44, $37, $26

ff = Family Friendly performances that are most suitable for families with younger children

TICKETS

888-945-2468 OR CFA.GMU.EDU

26 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

Located on the Fairfax campus, six miles west of Beltway exit 54 at the intersection of Braddock Road and Rt. 123.

CPARTS Arts Desk

Damaged City Fest expands lineup, announces venues: washingtoncitypaper.com/go/damagedcity2016

Only Have Eyes for Jew

Selected reviews from this year’s Washington Jewish Film Festival

Blush

Michael Vinik’s Blush tells of a relationship between a rebellious teenage girl and her more experienced female lover. Yes, comparisons to 2013’s Blue is the Warmest Color are inevitable, and while Blush doesn’t achieve the same depth of feeling, it succeeds as a different, far less insular story. Naama’s relationship could be explained away as teenage experimentation, but Vinik also frames it as an effort to fill the emotional void left by her older sister, an Army soldier who disappears days before the story begins. Still, the film never judges its heroine or lingers on dubious psycho-analysis. Instead, Blush is content to tell a simple story without embellishment. It’s a naturalistic, low-stakes affair, with not much pleasure to be gained from watching it, but —Noah Gittell certainly no pain either.

Raise the Roof

Natasha

The first half of Natasha suggests that the film will be about cultural immersion, the difficulty of being ripped from your home, the loneliness of middle-aged singlehood, and, in contrast, the connection and lust of youth. Really, though, Natasha’s story is about Natasha, a 14-year-old Toronto transplant fresh from Moscow who hates her gaudy mother—a woman who married a lifelong outcast, the beer-bellied Canadian uncle of 16-year-old Mark. Natasha is practically mute when the two families gather for the wedding celebration, and Mark—who speaks English and prefers to read and deal weed rather than get a job—is tasked by his Russian-born mother to help acclimate the girl to her new city. His reluctance, Natasha’s churlishness, and the fact that they are now cousins doesn’t stop them from hooking up. Sasha K. Gordon is great at projecting a character who’s seriously detestable yet achingly sympathetic; Natasha’s backstory, if true, makes you want to hug her while wearing a hazmat suit. Mark, though, is pretty boring, and his dullness trumps both Natasha’s troubles and —Tricia Olszewski Natasha’s appeal.

A documentary about a non-Jewish, non-Polish couple who reconstructed a ceiling from an 18th-century wooden Polish synagogue, may not make you go on a Home Depot shopping spree to resurrect a house of worship, but Raise the Roof will likely give you the itch to run outdoors and trade your screens for some Lincoln Logs. Rick and Laura Brown’s dedication to replicating the roof’s intricate construction and artwork is as awe-inspiring as the murals themselves, which they had to recreate from archival photos because all of the synagogues in Poland were destroyed during WWII. The processes and explanations eventually become yawn-inducing, but if you can forgive the doldrums, cliches, and ear-piercing segments of klezmer that make these 85 minutes drag, your spirits will be undoubtedly be raised along with said roof when you see the stunning finished product.

—Tricia Olszewski

Fire Birds

Read more reviews at washingtoncitypaper. com/go/wjewishfilmfest2016.

The Israeli film Fire Birds suffers from an identity crisis. Directed by Amir Wolf without much precision, it cannot decide whether it wants to be a moralistic procedural or a more gentle comedy of manners. The plot involves Amnon, an ill-tempered Tel Aviv homicide detective who must solve the murder of an unidentified old man. There are few clues, except for a numbered tattoo on his forearm. The trouble is that Wolf includes meandering subplots, such as Amnon’s troubled marriage. There’s no urgency to the action, so any sense of reckoning falls flat. In fact, Fire Birds is so languid that few characters, even those being scammed, have an interest in the mystery. That ambivalence extends to the audience, and never recovers.

—Alan Zilberman

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 27

TheaTerCurtain Calls Russian into a BaD Relationship

Dance, Dance Revolution Carmen: An AfroCuban Jazz Musical

By Moisés Kaufman, Eduardo Machado, and Arturo O’Farrill; based on the opera by Georges Bizet Directed by Moisés Kaufman At Olney Theatre through March 6

A reimagination of classic Carmen soars in a throwback Cuban setting. of his authoritarian tendencies intact. Kaufman’s Carmen also works to flatter Americans’ peculiar sensibilities about Cuba, which haven’t really changed in a hundred years. Thus Batista is bad, but the rebels, Carmen warns us (and José shows us), might be worse. Carmen is a smuggler who helps the rebels, but not for the cause: “I’m a businesswoman,” she declares. “I’m in it for the money.” When one rebel promises her the Revolution will end the racial caste system that makes her a second-class citizen, she shoots back, “Who’s second class? I’m richer than you.”

But you don’t have to be a Cold Warrior to enjoy Carmen, which above all works thanks to superb performances. While Washington National Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen last fall brought on a pair of flamenco dancers to distract the audience during set changes, this Carmen brings a bevy of talented dancers to center stage, doing a mix of salsa, tango, cha-cha, and rueda throughout the play, expertly choreographed by Sergio Trujillo. At one point, a male dancer pirouettes on the neck of a rum bottle. Ouch.

It’s one of the rare musicals where the en-

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semble outshines the main cast. And that’s no knock on the cast. Christina Sajous, in the title role, has an appropriately deep register, smoky intonation, and withering sideeye. Caesar Samayoa is also terrific, and underutilized, as the jovial boxer Camilo; he would have been better in the role of José, played by Brandon Andrus, who underemotes and under-acts as a third part in the love triangle.

Holding it all together is an 11-piece jazz ensemble led by Christopher Youstra, performing Arturo O’Farrill’s Cuban jazz score that riffs on Bizet’s original in a fun way. The themes from the big arias like “Habanera” and the “Toreador Song” are immediately recognizable, but swinging and more upbeat. It’s a credit to a small community theater like Olney to not only stage a new work like Carmen, but invest in the music and dance talent to pull it off properly.

It’s a stage show worthy of Meyer Lansky’s Hotel Habana Riviera in all its debauched glory, before Castro came down from the moun—Mike Paarlberg tains and shut it down.

2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. $38– $75. (301) 924-3400. olneytheatre.org.

Handout photo by Stan Barouh

If there’s one thing we learned from Paris Hilton’s visit to Cuba last year, which entailed a selfie with Fidel Castro DiazBalart, son of the former head of state, it was that Americans hoping to visit the island “before everything changes” are already too late. Even before normalization began, Cuba had been undergoing rapid economic reforms dubbed “the Sino-Vietnamese model”—maintaining one-party rule while pursuing market liberalization with tourism as its engine of growth. Tourism, Cuba’s only real industry since the government shut down most of its sugar mills a decade ago, has brought back ghosts of the pre-Revolution bad old days, when much of the island was a mafia-run playground for decadent foreigners. The result—shiny new hotels, a dual-currency system, sex tourism, and no-go areas for ordinary Cubans—is a “tourist apartheid.”

So if director/lyricist Moisés Kaufman wanted to cash in on the current spike in interest in Cuba, it was smart to set his new musical not in the present day, when any depiction would soon be dated, but in the 1950s under the Batista dictatorship, when dated depictions are surprisingly relevant again.

When Carmen’s suitor invites her to visit Varadero, Cuba’s famous beach resort, she scoffs “they don’t let black people into Varadero.” Today, it’s once more a foreign tourist enclave, and they don’t let Cubans—black, white, or otherwise—into Varadero unless they work there.

Carmen works on many levels but primarily as an engaging adaptation of Bizet’s opera of the same name. Playwrights Kaufman, best known for The Laramie Project, and Cuban-American Eduardo Machado, made just enough changes to wink at fans of the opera while standing on its own. Escamillo, the bullfighter, becomes Camilo, the boxer; the gypsy camp becomes a guerrilla hideout; instead of tarot, Carmen practices Santería. The adaptation even resolves one of the hardest-to-swallow problems of Bizet’s original: a largely sympathetic portrayal of José, the lover-turned-murderer, and the creepy suggestion that Carmen kinda deserved a tragic ending for leading him on. Here, rather than an infatuated naif, José is a seriously scary dude, a soldier in Batista’s army who defects to the rebels with all

Collaborators

By John Hodge Directed by Richard Henrich At Spooky Action Theater to March 6 How does a man become a dictator?

Simple: Anyone can be broken, given the right cocktail of bribery and coercion, and that was probably never truer than in the young USSR. Spooky Action Theater explores the thin line between power and corruption in Soviet Russia with their latest production of John Hodge’s Olivier Award– winning play Collaborators.

The play begins with a dream: Joseph Stalin (Joe Duquette), laughing maniacally, chases a man and threatens to kill to him with a typewriter. This heavy-handed bit of symbolism becomes more interesting when we learn the man in question is author Mikhail Bulgakov (Paul Reisman), best known for his satirical novel The Master and Margarita. In 1938 Moscow, Bulgakov and his intellectual circle are constantly persecuted by Stalin’s secret police, personified

by Vladimir (G. Michael Harris) and Stepan (Sha Golanski). Stalin’s thugs pay Bulgakov and his wife Yelena (MacKenzie Beyer) a visit to make the author an offer he should not refuse: If he writes a propaganda play in honor of Stalin’s 60th birthday, his new play Molière can be performed again. While Bulgakov initially sets out, begrudgingly, to write the play alone, eventually he receives help from an unlikely collaborator (get it?)— Stalin himself. While Stalin helps with the play, he asks for Bulgakov’s help with running the Motherland, asking the playwright to forge his signature on political orders. Cue a Dostoyevsky-esque moral struggle.

While some members of the cast were apparently under the weather—coughs could be heard both onstage and off—the acting in Collaborators is uniformly solid. Reisman and Duquette have great chemistry as the author and the dictator, respectively. Duquette in particular has a natural, commanding presence on stage which lends itself to portraying the Russian despot. Beyer’s performance as Bulgakov’s wife is similarly weightless, even while navigating the heavier moments that come with struggles under a totalitarian government. Beyer and Reisman together portray a palpable love, which will send you to Wikipedia wondering about the real Mr. and Mrs. Bulgakov. The ensemble, too, has some great comedic moments, particularly from Kim Curtis as the Bulgakov’s fallen bourgeois roommate Vasilly, as well as from Willem Krumich and Matthew Marcus who are

hilarious in scenes from the imaginary propaganda play Young Joseph.

The scenery, from set designer Giorgos Tsappas and scenic artist Mariana Fernandez, takes a geometric aesthetic reminiscent of silent film classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The set is deceptively simple; a set of pocket doors alternatively serve as kitchen cupboard and the dream realm of Stalin. With its heavy wooden doors and stone walls, Spooky Action’s space—the Universalist National Memorial Church—already gives the audience that Russian chill before they even get inside, while the design elements on the set transport the audience to an expressionist version of 1938 Moscow. But despite Director Richard Henrich’s smooth transitions and the largely good acting, the performance still feels longer than the two-and-a-half hour runtime. Perhaps it’s the Russian setting—lengthiness is somewhat expected from a Russian story— but it seems more likely that John Hodge’s scenes repeating themselves are the culprit.

Spooky Action turns in a fine production with Collaborators. While the play will certainly resonate more with audiences familiar with Russian history and the work of Bulgakov, our upcoming election should provide some meaningful parallels—did someone say something about the banality of evil and the depressing futility of fighting corruption? While those parallels will not send you from the theater laughing, Collaborators will give you plenty of moments —Jonelle Walker for contemplation.

1810 16th St. NW. $25–$35. (202) 248-0301. spookyaction.org.

Star-CroSS’d LoverS Constellations

By Nick Payne Directed by David Muse At Studio Theatre to March 6 The course of true love never did run smooth: Romeo and Juliet had their feuding families to worry about; Jack and Ennis faced an entire hateful society; and Jack and Rose found their short romance thwarted by class strife and a giant sinking ship. But few star-cross’d lovers have ever had to overcome the entirety of the cosmos conspiring to keep them apart, as Roland and Marianne do in Studio Theatre’s multiverse-bending, mindexpanding Constellations.

Playwright Nick Payne’s tidy two-hander turns a laser focus on the (many) lives of beekeeper Roland (Tom Patterson) and theoretical physicist Marianne (Lily Balatincz), using the latter’s quantum mechanics background as a springboard for examining not just one lifetime between these two lovers, but all possible lifetimes. The actors reproduce each piv-

otal moment in the lovers’ relationship several times, starting with Marianne’s disaster of a nerdy, elbow-licking pickup line, stumbling over the many ways each moment could go wrong (Roland’s not available, Marianne’s not available, Roland’s just flat out not interested) before finally landing, à la Groundhog Day, on the one way of doing it all just right: The stars align, and Marianne’s line somehow, against all odds, works.

This all unfolds beneath twinkling, multicolored LED tubes suspended in a jumble above set designer Debra Booth’s intimate, cozy coliseum. The audience is invited to lounge from the stands on pillows that are provided just outside the small arena; the overall effect is of eavesdropping on a relationship from a comfortable (if you arrive early and stake out enough space to not be forced to sit pretzel-legged for an hour) perch on a hillside over a warm, clear summer night. These tubular stars do a lot of the heavy work of connecting the disparate themes of the play—the characters are more inclined to talk about stuff on the quantum level (or the bee-colony level, in Roland’s case). Although for my money, it’d be hard to beat the original West End (or, later, Jake Gyllenhaal on Broadway) staging, which consisted of a multitude of lit-up balloons that deliver an emotional gut punch once their plot significance is finally revealed.

The thing about Roland and Marianne’s relationship, as expertly and painstakingly crafted as it is by the two winsome young leads, is that the playwright has spent so much time showing the many ways they might never meet, or might fall apart, or might never ever get back together, that we’re left with almost no scenes showing why we’re meant to root for the relationship in the first place. Arguably—unless Roland and Marianne harbor a secret desire to live out a Nicholas Sparks plot—the ideal versions of themselves exist in those universes where they don’t get tied, improbably and ill-fatedly, together.

Still, as emotionally wrenching as their final destination may be, seeing the multitude of ways their lives could fall apart emphasizes how special and rare it is to find love with anyone at all. There are so many different versions of Roland and Marianne that it’s impossible not to encounter one that could remind someone of their own past loves. There’s a strong invitation to fill in the gaps between their most turbulent moments with personal memories of happier times.

Roland and Marianne manage to veer, improbably, toward each other, even while the multiverse seems destined to tear them apart.

The only thing more unlikely than their relationship is how this play, magically, endearingly, manages to turn what could easily be an evening of emotional masochism into a beautiful night —Riley Croghan of theater.

1501 14th St. NW. $20–$60. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org. washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 29

GalleriesSketcheS UnnatUral Selection “Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection” At the Phillips Collection to May 8 Great tales of human struggle and redemption have always been set against epic natural landscapes, ranging from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to, most recently, Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. So it’s disappointing that “Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection,” now on view at the Phillips Collection, isn’t more, well, epic.

The Phillips is the exhibition’s second venue—and only East Coast stop—out of a fivemuseum national tour that began in Portland last fall and will end in Seattle in 2017.

Gleaned from the collection of Microsoft mega-millionaire Paul G. Allen, “Seeing Nature” features 39 paintings generally about nature by lots of big-name artists from the last 400 years. Though touted in the press release as a potential crash course on the development of landscape painting, don’t expect to learn anything new about the genre—like most Art History 101 classes, the show is excessively broad, very Western, and a mostly white male-centric survey.

“Seeing Nature” showcases the commodification of landscape painting more so than its historical development. Chronologically, it begins with allegorical scenes of the five senses created in 1617-1618 for rich patrons

by Dutch master Jan Brueghel the Younger. The most recent work in the show is a 2008 lake scene by contemporary artist April Gornik that looks like something from Room & Board. These two artists, separated by four centuries, prove one thing: Figurative landscape is always in style for wealthy collectors.

The obvious (and intended) headliners of the exhibition are the well-known Impressionist artists: Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Paul Signac. Two very recognizable Monets—guaranteed crowd-drawers—greet visitors as they enter the exhibition. (In total, there are five works by Monet, the most of any one artist in the show besides Brueghel’s five-part sense series.) To the Phillips’ credit, the gallery’s limited sightlines are put to excellent use in the show’s opening, presumably to draw visitors away from the Monet flame— Gustav Klimt’s mesmerizing “Birch Forest” (1903) beckons from the left, Milton Avery’s whimsical blue “Dancing Trees” (1960) tango enticingly straight ahead in the next room, and David Hockney’s punchy “The Grand Canyon” (1998) pulsates with color to the right.

If the 19th-century French tableaus are a tad too basic for your taste, there are some

stand-out works in the show that haven’t yet been mainstreamed into magnets and mugs.

It’s worth the Phillips’ entry fee just to bask in the sumptuous splendor of Henri Le Sidaner’s moody yet luminescent “La Serenade, Venice” (1920) and the alien terrain of Arthur Wesley Dow’s “Cosmic Cities, Grand Canyon of Arizona” (1912).

Plenty of works included in “Seeing Nature” aren’t necessarily landscapes, which raises questions about what exactly constitutes a landscape painting. Paintings that stand out as liberal interpretations of the word include Georgia O’Keefe’s macro floral illustration “Black Iris VI” (1936), René Magritte’s surrealist tree “The Voice of Blood” (1959), and Ed Ruscha’s “Untitled” (1989)—a planar, close-up view of a desolate gas station. Additionally, John Singer Sargent’s “The Chess Game” (1907), Thomas Hart Benton’s “Spring Plowing” (1940), and Edward Hopper’s “Clamdigger” (1935) are more genre paintings—simple depictions of everyday life—than they are landscapes; they just happen to be set outside.

But “Seeing Nature” can’t really be faulted for this: it’s less a survey of landscape art than it is one person’s grandiose collection. The show lacks any kind of informed critical inquiry beyond the flabby introductory wall text that hurriedly historicizes the roster of artists on view.

The rest of the text panels throughout the show are mere descriptions and anecdotes.

What “Seeing Nature” does offer, if not depth and diverse discourse, is a perfectly palatable smattering of mostly conventional, idealized, figurative landscapes. And how one, very blessed man chooses to see nature.

—Margaret Carrigan 1600 21st St. NW. $12. phillipscollection.org

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keeps it earthbound.

The installation’s “The Grand Canal, Venice, Looking biomorphic forms, all Southeast from San Stae to the hues of purple, orFabbriche Nuove di Rialto” by ange, and teal, are as Giovanni Antonio Canal (1738) cartoonish as they are otherworldly. It’s as if the backdrops from Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty were rendered in 3-D. Additionally, neither the light fixtures nor their cords are hidden, lending the gallery a film-set feel.

Just like a movie, these vistas seem intended for a screen—their vibrant incandescence is only amplified when captured on an iPhone.

Under a camera lens, the tangle of electrical cords and plugs disappear, allowing the fantasy landscapes to be fully realized.

Further strengthening the cinematic vibe of PLAKOOKEE’s installation is its retailready corner real estate. Complete with wraparound floor-to-ceiling windows, Hemphill’s “Cosmic Modules: Rachel L Street space has an undeniable air of voyDebuque & Justin Plakas as euristic consumerism. In a way, the glass barPLAKOOKEE” rier of the gallery’s windows serves as the deAt Hemphill Fine Arts to March 31 finitive viewing screen. Because the gallery doesn’t have regular hours, they advertise the “Astronomy compels the soul to look show as a dynamic diorama, where it can be upwards and leads us from this world to an- looked at from various angles (but not enother,” or so says Plato in The Republic. But tered) around the clock. luckily for our winter-weary souls, we have Most visitors will have to settle for seeing only to look to downtown D.C. The latest “Cosmic Modules” from the street, a vantage installation at Hemphill Fine Arts’ satellite point from which its landscape components project space near Farragut Square, “Cosmic are decidedly less modular. Instead, they form Modules,” is already, er, out of this world. a collective topography—woodlands to the Drawn from the kitschy extraterrestri- east, a sea to the west, rainforests toward the al realms of sci-fi B-movies, the installa- south, and a mountain range down the midtion features small-scale neon landscapes by dle. The gallery has effectively rendered its D.C.-based artists Rachel Debuque and Jus- own self-contained alien world. tin Plakas, who make up PLAKOOKEE. DeWhat beings inhabit this mysterious planbuque and Plakas have previously worked to- et? There are no signs of life evident in the gether on a handful of projects, but “Cosmic landscapes themselves, but the shrunken proModules” marks their introduction under the portions of the installation make humans feel shared moniker. Like their other collabora- like intergalactic invaders. The average visitions, this installation is rife with color, light, tor dwarfs the installation’s structures, which and whimsy. range in height from about five feet to unIt’s fairly easy to spot the gallery, whose der 12 inches. Indeed, on opening night, it windows blush demurely with color, if you’re took a small child a few seconds to decimate walking down L Street. The brightly painted a bridge that spanned a yard-long river. The land masses of “Cosmic Modules” cast enig- tried-and-true sci-fi storyline may be rooted matic shadows against the walls under a for- in our own fears of annihilation, but PLAKeign sun. Many of the miniature vistas have OOKEE’s installation reveals that the capactheir own built-in lighting element, and indus- ity for devastation is relative. Perhaps it is we trial work lights shine through large swatch- who are the destroyers.

—Margaret Carrigan es of tinted, transparent plastic film, bathing everything in an ethereal warm glow that at 1700 L St. NW. Free. By appointment. night spills onto the sidewalk outside.

But there’s a staginess to the exhibition that hemphillfinearts.com.

doUbt of thiS world

FilmShort SubjectS

“THE WIZARDRY ON DISPLAY STAMPS THIS EVENING BELONGING IN THE TOP DRAWER OF POSNER’S THEATRE AS WORK FOR FOLGER…FUNNY ACROSS THE BOARD.”

FOLGER

2015/16 SEASON

A CriminAl WAste Triple 9 Directed by John Hillcoat Remember when movie villains used to rob banks? It’s been a while since we saw a good, old-fashioned bank job, not one with a team of nerds who hack into a bank’s database without firing a single bullet. More like the one in Heat or the opening scene of The Dark Knight—swift, methodical, and necessarily brutal. Triple 9 opens with one of those bank robberies, and it sets the stage for a decidedly old-school action flick. Politically incorrect at its core, it’s a film in which the men curse, drink Jack Daniel’s, and hang out in strip clubs, and the women all have long legs and no brains.

That doesn’t mean Triple 9 is bad by definition, although the description above will surely keep some viewers away. It’s just that Bmovies like it don’t get made much anymore, and when they do, they rarely lure prestige actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Woody Harrelson, and Kate Winslet. It’s often a challenge to figure out exactly what Triple 9 is, a problem exacerbated by a script that packs in far too much plot and not nearly enough guidance in figuring it out.

One thing is clear: Triple 9 is a true ensemble piece, with a dozen or so characters taking center stage, each one more corrupt than the last.

The bank robbers are a team composed of cops gone bad (Clifton Collins Jr., Anthony Mackie) and criminals with heart, including devoted father Michael (Ejiofor) and sensitive, loose cannon Gabe (Aaron Paul). They work for Irina Vlaslov (Winslet), a Russian-Jewish gangster trying to spring her powerful husband from

the Gulag. To do this, she has to steal something from the Department of Homeland Security (don’t ask what—I couldn’t tell you), so she convinces our team to take the job that, as one character inevitably puts it, “can’t be done.” Shockingly, they come up with a novel way to do it: Kill a cop across town, and when every officer on the force rushes to the scene, they’ll pull off the heist on the other side of the city. They call it a “triple 9,” the police code for an “officer down.”

And who is the unlucky mark for their scheme? It has to be Chris Allen (Casey Affleck), a recent transfer to the precinct and a big-hearted family man who also happens to be the nephew of the precinct’s strung-out sergeant (Harrelson). It’s a lot of balls to juggle, and as the plot lurches toward its inevitably bloody conclusion, the script by Matt Cook can’t quite keep up. Plot elements are introduced and then discarded. Allen is initially brought in to work on the bank robbery case, but we rarely see him on it.

Perhaps the biggest error is the glut of characters. A version that focused on the two flawed fathers (Affleck and Ejiofor), one on either side of the law, would have been worth watching, but the script spreads its plot so thin that none of the characters are onscreen enough to feel relevant. Furthermore, the actors do the film no favors. Collins and Mackie can’t bring any tortured gravitas to their roles as corrupt cops, and even Winslet is surprisingly flat. Only Harrelson stands out from the pack, mostly by providing comic relief. Seeing the famous stoner play a pot-smoking cop makes for a cheap but effective laugh, but it’s also the only time the film ever comes alive.

The rest of the time, Triple 9 feels more like an embodiment of its cliched central plot de—Noah Gittell vice: a job gone wrong.

—Peter Marks, Washington Post

EXTENDED THRU MARCH 13! www.folger.edu/theatre | 202.544.7077

Photo of Holly Twyford and Caroline Stefanie Clay by Teresa Wood.

16-FT-0119_CityPaper.indd 1

2/17/16 10:43 AM

Triple 9 opens in theaters everywhere Friday. washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 31

I.M.P. PRESENTS Merriweather Post Pavilion • Columbia, MD

JUST ANNOUNCED!

2016 SWEETLIFE FESTIVAL FEATURING

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS

Ty Segall and The Muggers w/ CFM & AXIS: SOVA ................................ Th FEB 25 ALL GOOD AND DALE’S PALE ALE PRESENT

Steep Canyon Rangers w/ Only Lonesome Early Show! 6pm Doors............. F 26

The 1975 / Halsey / Flume / Grimes / PARTYNEXTDOOR Blondie / Eagles of Death Metal / Mac DeMarcO / Thundercat

Shamir / Wolf Alice / DIIV / Prinze George .............................................. SAT MAY 14 On Sale Friday, February 26 at 10am

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

BoomBox w/ Ben Silver (Orchard Lounge) Late Show! 10pm Doors ............... F 26 STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS

The Floozies w/ Russ Liquid & Sunsquabi ..........................................................Sa 27

BRANDI CARLILE & OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW w/ Dawes ..................................................................................................................JULY 23 On Sale Saturday, February 27 at 10am

Johnnyswim w/ SUNBEARS! .................................................................................... M 29 Wolfmother w/ Deap Vally ............................................................................... W MAR 2

Tesla • Vince Neil • Kix and more! ................ APRIL 29 & 30

feat.

MARCH Pat Green & Randy Rogers Band w/ Wade Bowen

All 3/3 Lincoln Theatre tickets will be honored. ...............................................Th 3 Drive-By Truckers w/ Thayer Sarrano ...................................................F 4 & Sa 5 Ra Ra Riot w/ Sun Club & PWR BTTM .............................................................. Su 6 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Twiddle w/ LITZ.............................................................................................Th 10 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Railroad Earth .................................................................................. F 11 & Sa 12

Brian Fallon and The Crowes w/ Austin Plaine...........................................Tu 15 GoldLink w/ Esta & Chris McClenney ...............................................................W 16 Cowboy Mouth w/ Dingleberry Dynasty .........................................................Th 17 Galactic w/ The Bright Light Social Hour ............................................. F 18 & Sa 19 AEG LIVE PRESENTS

Pusha T w/ Lil Bibby & G Herbo ......................................................................W 23

G. Love and Special Sauce w/ Ripe & The Bones of J.R. Jones ....................Th 24 Savages ..........................................................................................................Su 27 Dubioza Kolektiv ...........................................................................................Th 31

Jason Aldean w/ Thomas Rhett • A Thousand Horses • Dee Jay Silver ............. MAY 7 I.M.P. & AEG LIVE PRESENT

Pentatonix w/ Us the Duo ............................................................................... MAY 12 Kenny Chesney w/ Old Dominion ................................................................. MAY 19 Twenty One Pilots .....................................................................................JUNE 10 Ellie Goulding ........................................................................................................ JUNE 13 Tame Impala w/ M83 ......................................................................................... JUNE 16 Chris Stapleton & Jason Isbell w/ Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls .......................................................... JUNE 18 The Cure w/ The Twilight Sad .................................................................................. JUNE 22 Modest Mouse / Brand New ................................................................... JULY 12 Miranda Lambert w/ Kip Moore & Brothers Osborne .............................AUGUST 25 • For full lineups and more info, visit merriweathermusic.com • 930.com

APRIL

Echostage • Washington, D.C.

THE BLUEGRASS SITUATION AND ALL GOOD PRESENT

THIS WEDNESDAY!

The Infamous Stringdusters feat. Nicki Bluhm

(F 1 - w/ Della Mae • Sa 2 - w/ Paper Bird) ...............................................F 1 & Sa 2 Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals w/ Christopher Paul Stelling .. Su 3 & M 4 Jonathan Richman featuring Tommy Larkins Early Show! 6pm Doors ...........Th 7 U STREET MUSIC HALL PRESENTS

Baauer Late Show! 10pm Doors ......................................................................Th 7

Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors w/ Jill Andrews .....................................Sa 9 Magic Man & The Griswolds w/ Panama Wedding .......................................Su 10 Napalm Death & Melvins w/ Melt Banana....................................................Tu 12 The Joy Formidable w/ Everything Everything ..............................................W 13 Lissie w/ Skrizzly Adams ................................................................................Th 14 Thao and the Get Down Stay Down w/ Saintseneca & Little Scream ............F 15 The Feelies ....................................................................................................Sa 16 The Dandy Warhols ......................................................................................Su 17 Esperanza Spalding presents: Emily’s D+Evolution ......................................Tu 19

MANY MORE SHOWS ON SALE!

9:30 CUPCAKES

930.com

Coheed and Cambria w/ Glassjaw • I the Mighty • Silver Snakes ...... MARCH 2 I.M.P. & STEEZ PROMO PRESENT

Big Gigantic w/ Mija & Louis the Child .............................................................. APRIL 8

X Ambassadors w/ Robert DeLong & Sara Hartman ..................................... MAY 12 Bloc Party w/ The Vaccines .................................................................................... MAY 19 2135 Queens Chapel Rd. NE • Ticketmaster

1215 U Street NW Washington, D.C. JUST ANNOUNCED! JUSTICEAID PRESENTS

OZOMATLI

plus BIG TONY & TROUBLE FUNK ... MAY 15 On Sale Friday, February 26 at 10am

The best thing you could possibly put in your mouth Cupcakes by BUZZ... your neighborhood bakery in Alexandria, VA. | www.buzzonslaters.com

THIS SUNDAY!

Laurie Berkner Band ...............................................................................FEBRUARY 28 Vicente Amigo .................................................................................................... MARCH 6 Yamato - The Drummers of Japan ........................................................... MARCH 16 Citizen Cope (An Intimate Solo / Acoustic Performance) ....................................APRIL 1 Joe Satriani ............................................................................................................APRIL 2 Jewel (solo acoustic) w/ JD and The Straight Shot .............................................APRIL 7 AEG LIVE PRESENTS

9:30 CLUB PRESENTS AT U STREET MUSIC HALL Moon Hooch Hinds w/ Goodbye Honolulu ................ Th 10 w/ Box Era & Nature Boi ................W FEB 24 9:30 CLUB & SIRIUS XM PRESENT ALT NATION ADVANCED PLACEMENT TOUR FEAT. A Great Big World w/ Secret Weapons ..........................F MAR 4 Banners • The Moth and The Flame • Bag Raiders (Live) w/ Plastic Plates ..... Tu 8 POP ETC ............................................... F 11 • Buy advance tickets at the 9:30 Club box office

Welcome to Night Vale ........................................................................... APRIL 18 & 19 Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop w/ Marlon Williams .............................................. MAY 21 93.9 WKYS AND MAJIC 102.3 PRESENT

Plastic Cup Boyz.................................................................................................. MAY 29 John Carpenter: Live Retrospective

Performing themes from his classic films and new compositions ............................. JULY 12 T ADDED!

JUL 23 SOLD OUT! SECOND NIGH

Bryan Ferry ........................................................................................................... JULY 25 • thelincolndc.com • U Street (Green/Yellow) stop across the street!

Tickets for 9:30 Club shows are available through TicketFly.com, by phone at 1-877-4FLY-TIX, and at the 9:30 Club box office.

9:30 CLUB BOX OFFICE HOURS are 12-7PM Weekdays & Until 11PM on show nights. 6-11PM on Sat & 6-10:30PM on Sun on show nights.

9:30 CUPCAKES The best thing you could possibly put in your mouth.

Cupcakes by BUZZ... your neighborhood bakery in Alexandria, VA. www.buzzbakery.com

32 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

PARKING: THE OFFICIAL 9:30 parking lot entrance is on 9th Street, directly behind the 9:30 club. Buy your advance parking tickets at the same time as your concert tickets!

HAPPY HOUR DRINK PRICES

AFTER THE SHOW AT THE BACK BAR!

930.com

INER 60S-INSPIRED D Serving

EVERYTHING from BURGERS to BOOZY SHAKES

HAPPY HOUR:

$2 TUESDAY $3 THURSDAY $4 FRIDAY (ALL DRAFTS AND RAIL)

BRING YOUR TICKET

AFTER ANY SHOW AT

Club

TO GET A

CITYLIST Music

Friday Rock

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. BoomBox. 10 p.m. $18. 930.com. blaCk Cat 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Pissed Jeans, Downtown Boys. 9 p.m. $15. blackcatdc.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Potty Mouth, Stove. 7 p.m. $10. dcnine.com.

Fillmore Silver Spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Led Zeppelin 2. 8 p.m. $16. fillmoresilverspring.com. the hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

The Black Lillies, Sam Quinn. 8:30 p.m. $20–$25. thehamiltondc.com. u Street muSiC hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881889. White Ford Bronco. 7 p.m. (Sold out). ustreetmusichall.com.

Warner theatre 513 13th St. NW. (202) 783-4000.

Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Honeycutters. 8 p.m. $54.50–$82.50. warnertheatre.com.

Funk & R&B betheSDa blueS anD Jazz 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. Rahsaan Patterson. 7 p.m. & 10 p.m. $50–$65. bethesdabluesjazz.com. boSSa biStro 2463 18th St NW. (202)667-0088.

Selassie i Sound. 10 p.m. $5. bossadc.com.

FREE SHOT!

ElEctRonic

MARION BARRY’S BIRTHDAY BLOCK PARTY

u Street muSiC hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881889. Mathias Kaden, Benoit. 10:30 p.m. $10. ustreetmusichall.com.

w/ DJ CrushingBoo

Sun. March 6th 10:30 pm-Close $5 Draft Beers & Rail Liquors

eChoStage 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Oliver Heldens. 9 p.m. $30. echostage.com.

Jazz amp by Strathmore 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Requinte Trio with Janis Siegel. 8 p.m. $35–$45. ampbystrathmore.com. atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. District Saxophone Quartet. 9 p.m. $15. Amadou Kouyate. 9 p.m. $15. atlasarts.org. blueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Roy Ayers. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $43–$48. bluesalley.com. bohemian CavernS 2001 11th St. NW. (202) 2990800. Kenny Rittenhouse. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $18–$23. bohemiancaverns.com.

2047 9th Street NW located next door to 9:30 club

Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

SearCh LISTIngS aT waShIngTonCITYpaper.Com

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

POTTY MOUTH

Last summer’s self-titled EP put Northampton, Mass.–based rock trio Potty Mouth back in the ears and collective consciousness of fans who have eagerly waited for new music since the band released its first full-length album, Hell Bent, in 2013. Standout tracks on this record include “Cherry Picking,” which highlights distorted guitars and muted, choppy vocals with coy yet fitting chants of “fresh, sweet, cool, sleek” on repeat. Even without delivering much new music in the past several years, Potty Mouth’s following has grown slowly, fueled by national tours with bands like Perfect Pussy. Catchy songs about gender, Internet humor, and more elusive topics like “Creeper Weed” draw the interest of even casual listeners. At DC9, Potty Mouth appears with Stove, who write songs that sound like drunker versions of Dinosaur Jr.’s best work. Bethesda’s Bleary Eyed, featuring members of The Black Sparks and Big Moth, open the show with its latest take on emotional, jangly punk.

Potty Mouth performs with Stove and Bleary Eyed at 7 p.m. at DC9, 1940 9th St. NW. $10.

—Quinn Myers (202) 483-5000. dcnine.com. tWinS Jazz 1344 U St. NW. (202) 234-0072. Cheyney Thomas. 9 p.m. & 11 p.m. $15. twinsjazz.com.

countRy 9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Steep Canyon Rangers. 6 p.m. $25. 930.com. birChmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Pure Prairie League, Firefall.

7:30 p.m. (Sold out). birchmere.com. hill Country live 410 7th St. NW. (202) 556-2050.

Roger Creager. 9 p.m. $15–$20. hillcountrywdc.com.

Folk gW liSner auDitorium 730 21st St. NW. (202) 9946800. Swimming in Dark Waters: Other Voices of the American Experience featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Bhi Bhiman, and Leyla McCalla. 8 p.m. $35. lisner.gwu.edu.

Hip-Hop hoWarD theatre 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Morgan Heritage, Blackalicious. 11 p.m. $25–$60. thehowardtheatre.com.

kenneDy Center ConCert hall 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra Pops: Broadway Today with Darren Criss & Betsy Wolfe.

8 p.m. $25–$99. kennedy-center.org. muSiC Center at Strathmore 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Off the Cuff with Marin Alsop, conductor. 8:15 p.m. $35–$99. strathmore.org.

Vocal atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Cantigas. 7 p.m. $20. atlasarts.org.

saturday Rock

Comet ping pong 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. (202) 364-0404. LVL UP, Bad Moves, Princess Reason.

10 p.m. $12. cometpingpong.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Emmy The Great. 9 p.m. $12–$14. dcnine.com.

ClariCe Smith perForming artS Center Stadium Drive and Route 193, College Park. (301) 4052787. The Kenny Garrett Quintet. 7 p.m. & 9 p.m. $10–$25. theclarice.umd.edu.

roCk & roll hotel 1353 H St. NE. (202) 388-7625.

Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti. 8 p.m. and 11:55 p.m.

(Sold out). rockandrollhoteldc.com.

gypSy Sally’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700.

Silver Line Station. 8 p.m. Free. Larry Keel Experience.

9 p.m. $16–$18. The Bumperyachts. 10:30 p.m. Free. gypsysallys.com.

kenneDy Center millennium Stage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Alexander Claffy. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

classical

the hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Jonathan Sloane Trio. 10:30 p.m. Free. thehamiltondc.com.

barnS at WolF trap 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Itamar Zorman, violin; Kwan Yi, piano.

7:30 p.m. $35. wolftrap.org.

velvet lounge 915 U St. NW. (202) 462-3213. 3rd Grade Friends, Penny Pistolero, Heartside. 8:30 p.m. $8. velvetloungedc.com.

mr. henry’S 601 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. (202) 5468412. Aaron L. Myers II. 8 p.m. Free. mrhenrysdc.com.

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 33

---------3701 Mount Vernon Ave. Alexandria, VA • 703-549-7500

1811 14 ST NW TH

www.blackcatdc.com @blackcatdc

FEB / MAR SHOWS FRI 26

PISSED JEANS DOWNTOWN BOYS

HOMOSUPERIOR

For entire schedule go to Birchmere.com Find us on Facebook/Twitter!

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com 800-745-3000

ALTAN 27 THE FOUR BITCHIN’ BABES

Feb 25

Debi Smith, Sally Fingerett, Megon McDonough, Deirdre Flint 28 An Evening of Musical & Political Humor with MARK RUSSELL Feb29 Mar 1

GAELIC STORM RACHELLE FERRELL

FRI 26

DARK & STORMY

SAT 27

JUNGLE / FEVER

5 HARMONY

DANCE PARTY / DRAG SHOW

6

DANCE / ELECTRO / RETRO

SAT 27

GAY//BASH!

TUE 1

HIGHLY SUSPECT / SOLD OUT

WED 2 THU 3 FRI 4

SWMRS

WE WERE PIRATES

(RECORD RELEASE)

1958

DANCE PARTY FEAT. MUSIC OF:

MADONNA/PRINCE/MICHAEL JACKSON

SAT 5

STORY / COMEDY SHOW WITH

ANTHONY DEVTIO & JEFF SIMMERMON

DOUGIE POOLE WED 8 ROB CROW’S GLOOMY PLACE WED 9 DES DEMONAS THU 10 MASS GOTHIC SUNFLOWER BEAN MON 7

FRI 11 BLUR V OASIS V PULP V SUEDE BRITPOP DANCE PARTY

3&4

SWEEPSTAKES A CAPELLA FESTIVAL 2016

WATCH Awards 2016 7pm JESSE COOK 8 LEO KOTTKE 10 KATHY MATTEA 11 12 WMAL FREE SPEECH FORUM 5:30 pm Chris Plante, Brian Wilson, Larry O’Connor w/Mark Levin,

Jerry Douglas Presents

13

EARLS OF LEICESTER

LIZZ WRIGHT

14

Bass Player Extraordinaire!

15

TAL WILKENFELD DWELE

17 18

Maia Sharp

MARSHALL CRENSHAW ROCKETS BOTTLE & THE(All 1/22 tix honored)

Chapman Larry Burnett AMERICA &Don 22 BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY EMILY WEST 24 (All 10/9/15 & 1/23/16 tix honored)

20

Comic KINDRED THE FAMILY SOUL theMoses CLEVE FRANCIS 26 28&29 MUSIQ SOULCHILD GOAPELE 30 KEB’ MO’ BAND 31

25

PISSED JEANS FRI FEB 26

with special in-band guest GERALD ALBRIGHT

BOB SCHNEIDER (Solo) Karen Jonas TOM RUSH 2 RIDERS IN THE SKY 3 6&7 RY COODER, SHARON WHITE, RICKY SKAGGS DON McLEAN 8 KEIKO MATSUI 9

Apr 1

TORTOISE SAT MAR 19

TAKE METRO!

WE ARE LOCATED 3 BLOCKS FROM THE U STREET/CARDOZO STATION

TO BUY TICKETS VISIT TICKETFLY.COM

34 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

Warner theatre 513 13th St. NW. (202) 783-4000.

Tedeschi Trucks Band. 8 p.m. (Sold out). warnertheatre.com.

Funk & R&B atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Black Masala. 10 p.m. $15. atlasarts.org. kenneDy Center millennium Stage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Son Little. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

ElEctRonic 9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. The Floozies, Russ Liquid, Sunsquabi. 8 p.m. $17. 930.com. eChoStage 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Gramatik. 9 p.m. $30. echostage.com.

FlaSh 645 Florida Ave. NW. (202) 827-8791. Behrouz. 8 p.m. $10. flashdc.com.

SongbyrD muSiC houSe anD reCorD CaFe 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. DJ Ayescold, Ace Cosgrove, Redline Graffiti. 8:30 p.m. $10. songbyrddc.com. u Street muSiC hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881889. Will Clarke, Billy Kenny, Shawn Q. 10 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

Jazz barnS at WolF trap 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. John Eaton. 8 p.m. $25–$27. wolftrap.org. blueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Roy Ayers. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $43–$48. bluesalley.com. bohemian CavernS 2001 11th St. NW. (202) 2990800. Akua Allrich. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $20–$25. bohemiancaverns.com. mr. henry’S 601 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. (202) 5468412. Coniece Washington. 8 p.m. Free. mrhenrysdc.com. tWinS Jazz 1344 U St. NW. (202) 234-0072. Cheyney Thomas. 9 p.m. & 11 p.m. $15. twinsjazz.com.

countRy the hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000. The Gibson Brothers, Jimmy Gaudreau & Moondi Klein.

8:30 p.m. $16.25–$24.75. thehamiltondc.com.

WoRld atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Conflux: Where Indian Classical, Jazz and Classical Music Meet. 4 p.m. $15. atlasarts.org. muSiC Center at Strathmore 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Dariush. 9 p.m. (Sold out). strathmore.org.

Hip-Hop Fillmore Silver Spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Awthentik, Aye Yo Smiley, Supa Kool Kat, Loud Cru. 7:30 p.m. $12. fillmoresilverspring.com.

classical kenneDy Center ConCert hall 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra Pops: Broadway Today with Darren Criss & Betsy Wolfe.

8 p.m. $25–$99. kennedy-center.org.

sunday Rock

the hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

The Shadowboxers, The Rooks. 7:30 p.m. $10–$15. thehamiltondc.com. roCk & roll hotel 1353 H St. NE. (202) 388-7625.

Great Good Fine OK, Handsome Ghost. 8 p.m. $12. rockandrollhoteldc.com.

Funk & R&B mr. henry’S 601 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. (202) 5468412. The Legendary Orioles with special guest Ron “Posie” Miles of The Rainbows. 5 p.m. $22–$25. mrhenrysdc.com.

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

LVL UP Dinosaur Jr.’s distinct sound—J Mascis’ mumble-singing layered over walls of fuzzed-out guitar distortion—is often imitated but rarely replicated. But if there’s one band that damn near pulls it off, it’s LVL UP. The Brooklyn quartet certainly sound like it was cooked up in a ’90s slacker-rock lab—a dash of Pavement here, a hint of Superchunk there, a few tablespoons of Sebadoh for good measure; combine and stir— but these songs transcend the band’s obvious and unabashed influences. That’s because there are three chefs working on LVL UP’s burners: guitarists Dave Benton and Mike Caridi, and bassist Nick Corbo each contribute their own distinct songwriting. Benton and Corbo’s nonchalant mumbling may make it sound like there’s not a lot of emotion in compositions, but there’s some real earnest, if not completely melancholy, poetry in the lyrics, no matter who’s singing them. “I think I need a soda and an order of fries to get by,” Benton mumbles self-defeatedly on “Hoodwink’d.” Yeah, me too. LVL UP performs with Bad Moves and Princess Reason at 10 p.m. at Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut —Matt Cohen Ave. NW. $12. (202) 364-0404. cometpingpong.com.

THE 1975 GRIMES

HALSEY

+ +

BLONDIE

+

FLUME

PART YNEXTDOOR +

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL

MAC DEMARCO WOLF ALICE

+

+

THUNDERCAT

DIIV

+

+

SHAMIR

PRINZE GEORGE

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 35

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

THE LEGENDARY ORIOLES

COMPETITION ROOMS

CORPORATE TEAM BUILDING

DuPont Circle

Teams of 2 up to 35

with one goal - getting out!

Find out what ToDo Today online.

In 1955, Baltimore-based R&B singer Sonny Til recruited D.C. vocalist Diz Russell and his outfit The Regals to become his backing group, aptly called The Orioles. For five years Russell and his colleagues harmonized and crooned behind Til in a doo-wop and early rock ’n’ roll sound. Frustrated with the band’s financial struggles, Russell left the band in 1960 and mostly stuck to his day job as an optician until 1977, when he reunited with Til for another version of The Orioles. After Til’s death in 1981, Russell took over leadership of the ensemble, renamed The Legendary Orioles.

Now 81, Russell and the current version of The Legendary Orioles still blend their vocals suavely on the group’s signature ballads like “Cryin’ in the Chapel” and “It’s Too Soon to Know.” They’ll be joined on Capitol Hill by guest vocalist Ronald “Posie” Miles of D.C.’s The Rainbows, who had a regional hit in 1955 with “Mary Lee,” an upbeat doo-wop track.

Decades after their prime, these skilled and soulful musicians will still be sure to charm.

The Legendary Orioles perform with Ron “Posie” Miles at 5 p.m. at Mr. Henry’s, 601 Pennsyl—Steve Kiviat vania Ave. SE. $22–$25. (202) 546-8412. mrhenrysdc.com.

ElEctRonic

countRy

atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Amy Domingues and Dennis Kane.

4:30 p.m. $15. atlasarts.org.

kenneDy Center millennium Stage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Spencer Branch. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

Jazz

WoRld

blueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Roy Ayers. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $43–$48. bluesalley.com.

Folk kenneDy Center millennium Stage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. The Clara Barton Sessions. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

birChmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Gaelic Storm. 7:30 p.m. $35. birchmere.com.

WoRld

tuesday

atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. John Kocur. 5 p.m. $15. atlasarts.org.

Rock

boSSa biStro 2463 18th St NW. (202)667-0088.

Mogollar. 8 p.m. $25–$35. bossadc.com.

Fillmore Silver Spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Bullet for My Valentine, Asking Alexandria, While She Sleeps. 7:30 p.m. $25.50. fillmoresilverspring.com.

opERa atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Opera on Tap. 6:30 p.m. $15. atlasarts.org.

classical atlaS perForming artS Center 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Matthew Burner and Rita Dove. 7 p.m. $15. atlasarts.org.

Funk & R&B hoWarD theatre 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

CeeLo Green, Escort. 9:30 p.m. $34.50–$75. thehowardtheatre.com.

BluEs

kenneDy Center terraCe theater 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Calder Quartet. 2 p.m. $50. kennedy-center.org.

the hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Luther Dickinson and the Cooperators, Amy LaVere & Will Sexton. 7:30 p.m. $20–$30. thehamiltondc.com.

Monday

Folk

Rock

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Radiation City, Deep Sea Diver. 9 p.m. $12. dcnine.com.

36 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

barnS at WolF trap 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Herb Alpert and Lani Hall. 8 p.m. $55–$65. wolftrap.org.

muSiC Center at Strathmore 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Patty Griffin, Sara Watkins, and Anais Mitchell. 8 p.m. $38–$48. strathmore.org.

washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 37

WoRld barnS at WolF trap 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Herb Alpert and Lani Hall. 8 p.m. $55–$65. wolftrap.org. birChmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Gaelic Storm. 7:30 p.m. $35. birchmere.com.

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38 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

ChurCh oF the epiphany 1317 G St. NW. (202) 347-2635. Washington Bach Consort Noontime Cantata Series. 12 p.m. Free. epiphanydc.org.

Wednesday Rock

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Wolfmother, Deap Vally. 7 p.m. $35. 930.com. blaCk Cat baCkStage 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. SWMRS, The Frights. 7:30 p.m. $10–$12. blackcatdc.com. eChoStage 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Coheed and Cambria, Glassjaw, I the Mighty, Silver Snakes. 7 p.m. $37. echostage.com. gypSy Sally’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700. Taylor George Moreland Beard. 7:30 p.m. Free. gypsysallys.com.

Jazz tWinS Jazz 1344 U St. NW. (202) 234-0072. Joe Vetter Quartet. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $10. twinsjazz.com.

BluEs the hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, Vintage #18. 7:30 p.m. $12.25–$17.25. thehamiltondc.com.

countRy birChmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Wynona & The Big Noise with Tim & Myles Thompson. 7:30 p.m. $55. birchmere.com.

gypSy Sally’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700. Peter Rowan, Grand Ole’ Ditch. 8 p.m. $23–$25. gypsysallys.com.

thursday Rock DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. The Weeks, Tristen. 9 p.m. $10–$12. dcnine.com. gypSy Sally’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700. Ed Balduzzi. 7:30 p.m. Free. Nicholas David Band, Backbeat Underground. 8 p.m. $18–$22. gypsysallys.com.

ElEctRonic u Street muSiC hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881889. Tale Of Us, Rush Plus. 10 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

Jazz betheSDa blueS anD Jazz 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. Cory Henry. 8 p.m. $20. bethesdabluesjazz.com. birChmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Rachelle Ferrell. 7:30 p.m. $59.50. birchmere.com. blueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Stanley Jordan. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $25–$30. bluesalley.com.

countRy 9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Pat Green, Randy Rogers Band. 7 p.m. $40. 930.com.

Hip-Hop Fillmore Silver Spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Jack & Jack, Daya, Gavin Becker. 6:30 p.m. $25. fillmoresilverspring.com.

classical kenneDy Center ConCert hall 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra:

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

OTHELLO When it comes to casting Othello, one of the few characters for whom Shakespeare specified a race, directors have relied on actors of a multitude of racial identities to play the Moorish general. Sir Laurence Olivier donned blackface to play the role in a 1965 film adaptation, while Sir Patrick Stewart played the role as white, with an otherwise entirely African-American cast, in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 1997 production. In Shakespeare Theatre’s latest presentation of the great tragedy, director Ron Daniels emphasizes the play’s religious themes, presenting Othello as a Muslim living in a restrictive Christian society. Pakistani-American actor Faran Tahir, seen widely in Iron Man and on American Crime, portrays the man driven mad by jealousy. At 400 years old, that the tension between Iago, Desdemona, and Othello can be represented in so many different ways speaks both to Shakespeare’s enduring legacy as well as the evolving nature of race relations around the world. Centuries later, the conflict remains searingly brutal. The play runs Feb. 23 to March 27 at Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW. $20–$118. (202) 547—Caroline Jones 1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

Christoph Eschenbach, conductor, Ray Chen, violin, Adriana Horne, harp. 7 p.m. $15–$89. kennedy-center.org.

caBaREt amp by Strathmore 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. The Eddie Lounge Reunion Tour. 8 p.m. (Sold out). ampbystrathmore.com.

theater

betWeen riverSiDe anD Crazy A disgruntled ex-cop battles to keep an enormous rent-controlled apartment and put down his demons in this dark, Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy from author Stephen Adly Guirgis, whose previous play, The Motherfucker with the Hat, played to acclaim at Studio three seasons ago. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To Feb. 28. $20–$86. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org. the City oF ConverSation In this play tailor fit for D.C., a Georgetown hostess crafts political alliances and faces off with foes from the comforts of her living room, only to have her world rocked by the arrival of her son’s conservative wife. Doug Hughes directs the area premiere of Anthony Giardina’s comedy. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To March 6. $40–$100. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

CollaboratorS John Hodge’s dark comedy imagines a conversation and relationship between Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov and Joseph Stalin. Spooky Action’s production features a variety of local actors, including Joe Duquette and Paul Reisman. Spooky Action Theater. 1810 16th St. NW. To March 6. $25–$35. (202) 248-0301. spookyaction.org.

ConStellationS A theoretical physicist and a beekeeper might not fall in love in a typical environment but in this play by Nick Payne, they find themselves drawn to each other. David Muse directs this show as part of the StudioX series. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To March 6. $20–$60. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org.

eretz ChaDaSha: the promiSeD lanD This documentary-style play looks at the many Sudanese refugees who fled their country and took up residence in Israel. Told from the perspective of young Israeli actors, the production is directed by Michael Bloom, former artistic director of the Cleveland Playhouse.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Melton Rehearsal Hall.

641 D St. NW. To Feb. 28. $20–$50. (202) 393-3939. woollymammoth.net.

Father ComeS home From the WarS (partS i, ii, anD iii) Suzan-Lori Parks’ play follows a slave from his West Texas home to the Confederate battlefields.

To deepen the emotion of the work, Parks incorporates plot elements from ancient Greek dramas into this powerful work. Round House Theatre Bethesda.

4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda. To Feb. 28. $35–$60. (240) 644-1100. roundhousetheatre.org. the FliCk Three minimum-wage workers do their best to keep a small-town movie theater running and along the way, form tenuous connections with one another, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Annie Baker. Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To April 17. $40–$94. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

For ColoreD girlS Who have ConSiDereD SuiCiDe/When the rainboW iS enuF Ntozake Shange’s classic work about the struggles and triumphs of seven African-American women blends 20 poems with music and movement. Performed in repertory with Word Becomes Flesh. Anacostia Playhouse. 2020 Shannon Place SE. To March 26. $25–$35. (202) 290-2328. anacostiaplayhouse.com. a FreSh oF breath air Dale Stein portrays all the characters in this lively one-woman satirical show set within the fictional Fifi’s Cafe. George Mason University Center for the Arts. 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. To March 3. $10–$15. (888) 945-2468. cfa.gmu.edu. guarDS at the taJ Two guards tasked with overseeing the completion of the Taj Mahal are ordered to do something so gruesome that it will alter their lives and relationship for years to come in this tragicomedy from playwright Rajiv Joseph. Woolly Mam-

FEBRUARY F 26 S 27

RAHSAAN PATTERSON JOE CLAIR & FRIENDS COMEDY SHOW

SU 28 BBJ 3RD ANNIVERSARY

THE DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA + SHARóN CLARK BRUNCH & EVENING SHOWS

MARCH

KEITH BUSEY & THE UNIT BAND TH 3 CORY HENRY W2

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JUST ANNOUNCED APRIL

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

FRIDAY APRIL 22

PATTY GRIFFIN, SARA WATKINS, AND ANAÏS MITCHELL Listen to the music of Patty Griffin, Sara Watkins, or Anaïs Mitchell on its own and you’re likely to be moved by its emotional heft at least once. Put all three women on stage together and you might as well jam your pockets full of tissues now. Acoustic musicians whose work descends from American folk traditions, each approaches her compositions differently.

Griffin, who alternates between guitar-heavy rock anthems and delicate piano ballads, has recently explored gospel influences; Watkins, a founding member of “newgrass” act Nickel Creek, tilts toward country and pop; and Mitchell mines literature and music of the past to create her sonic portraits. At this performance, they’ll play each other’s songs.

This isn’t the second coming of Lilith Fair so much as it’s a collection of voices joining together to document contemporary life. You still might cry if Griffin starts playing “My Dear Old Friend.” Patty Griffin, Sara Watkins, and Anaïs Mitchell perform at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. $38–$48. (301) 581-5100. strathmore.org. —Caroline Jones

CAMEO

M AY MONDAY MAY 2

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CITY LIGHTS:

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WEDNESDAY

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PETER ROWAN

In a debate about who belongs on a modern bluegrass Mount Rushmore, Peter Rowan’s career would merit a strong argument for inclusion alongside Del McCoury, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and Doc Watson, even if he would narrowly miss the cut. Over the course of a five-decade career, Rowan has collaborated with just about every bluegrass artist of note, but he was also influenced by the folk, rock, and blues of the ’60s which led to collaborations with, among others, Jerry Garcia and John Kahn of The Grateful Dead. Coupled with his Buddhist faith, this makes him bluegrass’ lovable hippie uncle. Never has that designation been more apparent than on his latest release, Dharma Blues. Rowan colors his country and bluegrass with a shade of psychedelic tambura, mantric rhythms, and flute. “Ain’t no God up in heaven. Ain’t no devil down below,” he sings on the title track, another clear signal that he’s moving beyond the traditional trappings of the genre. At 73, he’s separated himself from his contemporaries and found a sound that’s his own. In a genre so tied to its roots, it’s quite the accomplishment to get to the point where folks might say, “Peter Rowan? Oh yeah, he sounds like Peter Rowan.” Peter Rowan performs with Grand Ole’ Ditch at 8 p.m. at Gypsy Sally’s, 3401 K St. NW. $23–$25. (202) 3337700. gypsysallys.com. —Justin Weber

moth Theatre. 641 D St. NW. To Feb. 28. $43–$83.

(202) 393-3939. woollymammoth.net. the lion Benjamin Scheuer tells his life story with the help of six guitars in this original one-man show that incorporates original rock songs and personal pain.

Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To April 10. $40–$70.

(202) 488-3300. arenastage.org. a miDSummer night’S Dream Favorite local actors, including Holly Twyford and Erin Weaver, appear in Aaron Posner’s new staging of Shakespeare’s magical comedy about changed lovers, fairies, and donkeys. Folger Elizabethan Theatre. 201 E. Capitol St. SE. To March 13. $35–$75. (202) 544-7077. folger.edu.

othello Acclaimed director Ron Daniels leads this classic tale of jealousy and scheming about the Moorish general whose imagination leads him to turn against those who care about him while the duplicitous Iago benefits. Sidney Harman Hall. 610 F St. NW. To March 27. $20–$118. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org. roaD ShoW Signature presents its 26th Sondheim musical, this time taking on the story of two brothers who spend their days traveling around the world, from Alaska to India to Boca Raton. Gary Griffin directs this production, which he originally created at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To March 13. $40–$101. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org. romeo anD Juliet Synetic Theater brings back its popular silent production of the classic tale of young love and tragic loss seven years after it debuted.

Synetic Theater at Crystal City. 1800 South Bell St., Arlington. To March 27. $20–$60. (866) 811-4111. synetictheater.org.

Señorita y maDame: the SeCret War oF elizabeth arDen anD helena rubinStein Gustavo Ott’s comedy about dueling women at the heads of the marketing and cosmetics world and the conflicts that impact their careers is brought to life by Consuelo Trum. GALA Hispanic Theatre. 3333 14th St. NW. To Feb. 28. $20–$42. (202) 234-7174. galatheatre.org.

Shake looSe: a muSiCal night oF blueS, mooDS, anD iConS This new revue pays tribute to Thomas W. Jones II, William Knowles, and William Hubbard, the composers of popular musicals, like Three Sistahs, Bessie’s Blues, and Harlem Rose, that have previously been hits at MetroStage. MetroStage. 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria. To March 6. $55–$60. (703) 548-9044. metrostage.org.

When the rain StopS Falling Michael Dove directs this production of Andrew Bovell’s family drama that spans multiple generations and locations to tell the story of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and the events that happen over the course of 80 years. 1st Stage. 1524 Spring Hill Road, McLean. To Feb. 28. $15–$30. (703) 854-1856.

1ststagetysons.org.

WorD beComeS FleSh A father reads a series of letters to his unborn child, conveying his love and fear, in this emotional work by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, which combines music, spoken word, and visual images. Anacostia Playhouse. 2020 Shannon Place SE. To March 26. $25–$35. (202) 290-2328. anacostiaplayhouse.com.

FilM

the eagle Based on the true story of neDDie British ski jumper Michael “Eddie” Edwards, this film follows his journey from a small English town to the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. Starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) goDS oF egypt A mortal partners with the Egyptian god Horus to fight the god of darkness, who has taken over the kingdom’s throne, in this thrilling tale from director Alex Proyas. Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gerard Butler. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

n

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NO COLLECTION TOO SMALL or LARGE rolling paperS This comedic documentary follows the work of the Denver Post staff tasked with coverWE BUY AE: (circle one:) Artist: (circle one:) ing the marijuana industry following its legalization EVERYTHING! in Colorado. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for Emmett Heather Carrie Jane venue information)

Ronnie triple 9 Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, and Casey Affleck star in this crime thriller about a #: gang of crooks and corrupt copsConfirmation who aim to murder a police officer in order to pull off a heist. Directed by John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless). (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

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Guessing what region of the country The Weeks hail from is not what you’d call a difficult task. The Jackson garage-rock band’s albums are loaded with multiple references to Mississippi mud and the heavy Southern hearts it drags through the pits. It’s almost as if the whiskeyinfused vocals and vocabulary ripped from a Flannery O’Connor story are just attempts to get the ghost of Johnny Cash to smile down upon them. The group’s most recent record, Dear Bo Jackson, was released in 2013 on Serpents and Snakes Records, a label owned by members of Kings of Leon. It’s an apt pairing considering that The Weeks sound like a tighter, more Southern version of the popular arena rock act. Perhaps the band aligned best with its Southern boys-next-door brand in 2012, when it hosted a block party in its neighborhood for a literal interpretation of its “House We Grew Up In” video. If you’re fighting off the cold by imagining mosquito-thick bayous far below the Mason-Dixon line, The Weeks are a band worth checking out. The Weeks perform with Tristen at 9 p.m. at DC9, 1940 9th St. NW. $10–$12. (202) 483-5000. dcnine.com.

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MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA and SPIRITED AWAY from the creators of

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aFerim! A policeman is hired to find a Gypsy slave who has run away after having an affair with his master’s wife in this comedy adventure set in 19th century Romania. Written and directed by Radu Jude. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

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Washington City Paperwashingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 41 Wednesday, 2/24 1/8Pg(2.25x5.1455)

Contents:

Adult ..............................................42 Auto/Wheels/Boat .....................43 Buy, Sell, Trade, Marketplace.................................43 Community...................................43 Employment.................................43 Health/Mind, Body & Spirit ...............................43 Housing/Rentals .........................42 Legals Notices.............................42 Music/Music Row ......................43 Real Estate...................................43 Services........................................43

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WASHINGTON LATIN PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Briya/Bridges Public Charter Schools Request for Proposals

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Issued: February 26, 2016 Washington Latin is soliciting proposals from qualifi ed vendors to provide repair/replacement of HVAC cooling tower of school building.

Medical Equipment and Refrigerators Bridges Public Charter School and Briya Public Charter School, through the Mamie D. Lee, LLC partnership herewith invite all interested parties to submit proposals to provide Medical Equipment and Medical Refrigerators for the proposed Medical Clinic in a permanent facility for its subtenant Mary’s Center. The required substantial completion date for the project September 15, 2016. The complete RFP can be obtained by contacting Bob Waechter at bw@cpmfirm.com . RFP’s will be distributed starting on Monday, February 29nd, and are due by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 7th.

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Legals William E. Doar solicits proposals for the following: •Heat and Air conditioning •Special Education Proposals should be emailed to bids@wedjschool.us by Friday, February 26, 2016.

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HVAC

Questions and proposals may be e-mailed directly to Washington Latin PCS (mfl eming@latinpcs. org) with the subject line as the type of service, Repair/Replacement of HVAC Cooling Tower.

Deadline for submission is 12 noon on Friday, March 4, 2016.

E-mail is the preferred method for responding, but you may also mail proposals and supporting documents to the address below. All materials for proposals must be in our offi ce by the above deadline.

Washington Latin Public Charter School Attn: Business Offi ce 5200 2nd Street, NW Washington, DC 20011 Somerset Preparatory DC Public Charter School is advertising the opportunity to bid on staffing services. Please submit a proposal by Monday, March 7, 2016 by emailing sspdc_bids@ somersetprepdc.org.

The Maya Angelou Young Adult Learning Center would like to engage a partner to implement a construction trades program beginning July 2016. The contract may be renewable for a total of three years, from 2016-17 to 2018-19. Services will include implementation of construction trades, apprenticeship, and landscaping programs. Entities may choose to bid on any or all of the above programmatic elements and should provide a separate plan and budget for each element.

Proposals must be submitted no later than March 26, 2016

Legals BRIDGES/BRIYA PCS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FURNITURE CONSULTANT AND MOVING VENDOR SERVICES Bridges Public Charter School and Briya Public Charter School, through the Mamie D. Lee, LLC partnership, are seeking competitive proposals for Furniture Consultant and Moving vendors for a public charter school facility project. For a copy of the RFP, please contact Ms. Jasmine Jones of Building Hope at jjones@ bhope.org. All proposals must be submitted by 12:00 pm on Friday, March 4, 2016.

Subcontracting opportunity for certifi ed DBEs, MBEs, & WBEs with Fort Myer Construction for DC Water Project, Contract No: 150020: NE Boundary Tunnel Utility Relocations - Division U. Work includes Verizon line relocation and water and sewer underground utilities. Subcontracting Quotes Due: 2/23/16. Mandatory: Submit Subcontractor Approval Request form w/ quote. For more info, contact P. Batista: pbatista@ fortmyer.com or 202.636.9535.

Visit fortmyer.com for upcoming solicitations.

Mechanics’ Lien: 2010 Chevy VIN# 1G1AF5F56A7168407. Sale to be held 3/12/16 at 10 a.m. on the premises of D&T AUTO REPAIR, 5601 Martin Luther King Jr. HWY, Seat Pleasant, MD 20743.

Classified Ads Commercial Ads rates start at $20 for up to 6 lines in print and online; additional print lines start at $2.50/line (vary by section).

Your print ad placement will include web placement plus up to 10 photos online.

Premium options available for both print and web may vary.

Print Deadline The deadline for submission and payment of classified ads for print is each Monday, 5 pm.

You may contact the Classifieds Rep by e-mailing classifieds@washingtoncitypaper.com or calling 202-650-6926.

For more information please visit www.washingtoncitypaper.com

42 february 26, 2016 washingtoncitypaper.com

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION -2015 ADM 1310 Name of Decedent: Nathaniel Clark Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs: Heather Brown, whose address is 17808 Grener Cove Pflugerville TX 78660 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Nathaniel Clark who died on October 25, 2015 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., - Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 8/11/16. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 8/11/16 or be forever barred.

Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: Feb. 11, 2016 /s/ Heather Brown.

TRUE TEST COPY /s/ ANNE MEISTER Register of Wills. Name of Newspapers: DWLR, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER. Pub Dates: Feb. 11, 18, 25, 2016.

Maya Angelou Public Charter School is soliciting for procurement of network infrastructure and technology support services.

More details about this announcement: w w w. s e e f o r e v e r. o r g / g e t - i n volved/careers.

Proposals must be submitted no later than 8:00am on April 4, 2016.

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The William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School solicits proposals for staffing services. Proposals should be emailed to bids@ wedjschool.us, no later than on Monday, March 7, 2016.

Office/Commercial For Sale Offices For Rent, DC Petworth & Cheverly, MD (parking in MD) for church services, recording studio /rehearsal space, etc. Wide range of uses. $600-$1600 rent. Call 202-355-2068 or 301-772-3341.

Apartments for Rent

Adams Morgan, Two Bedroom one bath Ground floor apt. Renovated, central AC, Washer/Dryer, DW, Microwave. Backyard. $1800 per month, water included. Text 202255-7898, or email gmehrdad@ verizon.net

AU/TEnleytown basement apartement for rent,comes with separate entrence,bathroom and full kitchen walk to metro and AU campus,$995 call Ezzat2023297857,or Genina 2407439779 DUPONT 1 BR, 750 SQ FT SUBLET: MAY 1 $2,400/MO GREAT LOCATION/VIEW, PETS OK 1ST/LAST MO. RENT + DEPOSIT 202-580-5605 Furnished Eng Basement apt in Cleveland Park, sep entrance, onstreet parking, nr pub transport, shops,park,tennis courts $1,350 incl utils and Wi-Fi Call 202 244 4259 Ledroit Park, 2 BR, 1 BA, W/D, Patio. No Pets. Available Mar 1st.

Call 202-329-0801.

Duplexes/Townhouses For Rent Shaw-TOWNHOUSE $4400/ utils incl. Huge townhouse 3BR, 3.5 BA, Gourmet Kitchen 2 W/D Near Howard/Shaw Metro, Bus restaurants 4400 including utilities. Travis 240-888-9867.

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Shared bath. Private entrance.

W/D. $700-$750/mo. including utilities, security deposit required. Two Blocks from Cheverly Metro. 202-355-2068, 301-7723341.

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LAST WEEK: ROCK CLIMBING E B B S

T A L E

D E F E A T

P R A Y T O

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C H O C O L A T E M O U S S E

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washingtoncitypaper.com february 26, 2016 43

FIN OU RE UN RE CL HE MI &

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