Washington City Paper (March 9, 2018)

CITYPAPER Washington

Free Volume 38, no. 10 washingtoncitypaper.com march 9-15, 2018

BOWSER HISTORY Scandals and missteps fill Mayor Muriel Bowser’s record.

But she’s about to get a free pass to re-election. P. 12

By Andrew Giambrone Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

Politics: meet the lesser-known mayoral candidates 6 food: that’s trucked up! 17 Arts: ’80s commercial art retains influence 19

2 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 3

Do You Worry A Lot?

Public Meeting The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) invites you to review the Washington Union Station Expansion project alternatives that will be advanced for further study in the Environmental Impact Statement and to provide feedback.

NIH RESEARCH STUDY This study seeks to better understand anxiety.

Join A Study on Anxiety Participants must be: •ages 18 to 50 with anxiety • free of certain medical conditions Research will include: • 1-2 outpatient visits • computer tasks • exposure to unpleasant stimuli

FRA will share information on program elements, including rail, bus, vehicle transportation, pedestrian, and bicycle planning at the meeting. This meeting is also part of concurrent National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 consultation.

Studies are conducted at the NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD. Compensation is provided.

To find out if you qualify, call...

1-888-644-2694

(TTY:1-866-411-1010) anxiety@mail.nih.gov Refer to study no. 03-M-0093

PUBLIC MEETING Thursday, March 22, 2018 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Formal presentations (same presentation at both times): 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Washington Union Station’s Presidential Room (Located in the East Hall, in the former B. Smith’s restaurant space) 50 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002

Visit www.WUSstationexpansion.com for more project information.

Public participation is solicited without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability or family status. Persons who require special accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act or persons who require translation services (free of charge) should contact the project team at info@WUSstationexpansion.com at least seven days prior to the meeting.

www.clinicaltrials.gov

www.nimh.nih.gov/JoinAStudy

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3/6/18 2:52 PM

INSIDE on tHe CoVer: BowSer HIStory

12 Without a serious challenger, Mayor Muriel Bowser has a clear path to re-election.

DIStrICt LIne 6 Mayor Maynots: Meet the lesser-known candidates in this year’s mayoral race.

8 hair force: A Congress Heights barber freshens the looks of servicemembers and civilians.

10 unobstructed view 11 savage love

FooD 17 pay to park: Price hikes force food trucks out of festivals.

19 sauce-o-Meter: Ranking new developments in the world of food

artS 21 galleries: Rudig on Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s at the Hirshhorn 22 the scene report: New music from D.C.’s rock and international music scenes 23 short subjects: Zilberman on A Wrinkle in Time and Olszewski on Submisson 24 opera: Paarlberg on Washington National Opera’s Don Carlo 25 curtain calls: Kurzius on Becoming Dr. Ruth at Theater J 25 crescendo in blue

CIty LISt 27 32 32 32 34

Music Books Dance Theater Film

DIVerSIonS 34 Crossword 35 Classifieds

Darrow MontgoMery 800 Block of H Street NW, MarcH 5

EDITORIAL

editor: AlexA mills Managing editor: cAroline jones arts editor: mAtt cohen food editor: lAurA hAyes city lights editor: kAylA rAndAll loose lips reporter: Andrew giAmbrone housing coMplex reporter: morgAn bAskin staff photographer: dArrow montgomery MultiMedia and copy editor: will wArren creative director: stephAnie rudig contributing writers: john Anderson, morgAn bAskin, VAnce brinkley, kriston cApps, chAd clArk, rAchel m. cohen, riley croghAn, jeffry cudlin, eddie deAn, erin deVine, tim ebner, cAsey embert, jAke emen, jonAthAn l. fischer, noAh gittell, lAurA irene, AmAndA kolson hurley, louis jAcobson, rAchAel johnson, chris kelly, steVe kiViAt, chris klimek, priyA konings, julyssA lopez, Amy lyons, neVin mArtell, keith mAthiAs, j.f. meils, triciA olszewski, eVe ottenberg, mike pAArlberg, pAt pAduA, justin peters, rebeccA j. ritzel, Abid shAh, tom sherwood, Quintin simmons, mAtt terl, dAn trombly, kAArin VembAr, emily wAlz, joe wArminsky, AlonA wArtofsky, justin weber, michAel j. west, diAnA yAp, AlAn zilbermAn

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LELAnD InvEsTmEnT cORp. owner: mArk d. ein

local advertising: (202) 650-6937 fax: (202) 650-6970, Ads@wAshingtoncitypAper.com fiNd a Staff directory WitH coNtact iNforMatioN at WaSHiNgtoNcitypaper.coM vol. 38, no. 10 March 9–15, 2018 wAshington city pAper is published eVery week And is locAted At 734 15th st. nw, suite 400, wAshington, d.c. 20005. cAlendAr submissions Are welcomed; they must be receiVed 10 dAys before publicAtion. u.s. subscriptions Are AVAilAble for $250 per yeAr. issue will ArriVe seVerAl dAys After publicAtion. bAck issues of the pAst fiVe weeks Are AVAilAble At the office for $1 ($5 for older issues). bAck issues Are AVAilAble by mAil for $5. mAke checks pAyAble to wAshington city pAper or cAll for more options. © 2018 All rights reserVed. no pArt of this publicAtion mAy be reproduced without the written permission of the editor.

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DistrictLine Mayor Maynots

Contrary to popular belief, Bowser has challengers. They’re just unknown.

There’s a PercePTion that Mayor Muriel Bowser is running for reelection unopposed.

That is false. In fact, about a dozen people have filed paperwork with the Board of Elections to run for the Democratic nominee for mayor thus far. Of course, whether or not they’re formidable opponents to Bowser, with her reelection bid war chest of nearly $2 million, is another story.

But that’s not stopping these folks from running: James Q. Butler, Quincy D. Carter, Manley M. Collins, Edward Dixon, Victoria Gordon, Ernest E. Johnson, Art Lloyd, Ben Nadler, Fidelis Malachi Pietrocina, Jeremiah D. Stanback, and Michael Christian Woods. Dustin “DC” Canter is running as in Independent in the general election.

Who the hell are they?

City Paper reached out to these candidates to find out. Only four candidates responded to discuss their campaign and what they want to do for D.C.

“I really enjoy D.C., oh man,” says the 19-yearold when I ask him why he’s running for mayor. “You’re making me digress talking about how much I love D.C.” But beyond his love affair with the District, Woods says he wants to run for mayor to be a role model for his peers.

“You know how millennials are stigmatized for not being active, not really caring about anything? What I really want to do is break that stigma,” he says.

Woods may not have much in the way of experience when it comes to holding the highest seat of power in a city of about 700,000 people, but that doesn’t faze him. “During high school, my parents always had me active in a lot of organizations,” he says when asked about his lack of formal political experience.

“So this actually relates to my campaign. I’ve always had to balance between schoolwork and outside activities.”

In Texas—where he grew up—and at GW, Woods has been involved with the local NAACP, which is one of the organizations that inspired him to get involved in public service.

But though he’s learned a lot about the District

“I try to find the origin of where it stems from,” he says when asked how he would address the affordable housing crisis. “And I think it’s not affordable because of lack of access to resources. I feel that if we were to bring more jobs and, like, pay better—for lack of a better phrase—then we could fix, well, alleviate the affordable housing crisis by allowing the residents to be able to afford housing.”

On homelessness he’s even less assured: “When I heard that DC General was to close … I couldn’t agree with that,” he says, referring to Bowser’s plan to close D.C.’s largest family homeless shelter and open new, smaller ones in all eight wards. “It would be easier if we had everyone in one place. We could more efficiently serve them and provide social services.”

Michael Christian Woods

Darrow Montgomery

James Q. Butler

Michael Christian Woods George Washington University junior Michael Christian Woods has developed a deep fondness for D.C. in the two years he’s lived here.

in a short time, he still has a lot to learn. He fumbles to articulate his ideas for addressing two of the biggest issues in D.C.—affordable housing and homelessness.

6 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

Courtesy of James Q. Butler

By Matt Cohen

James Q. Butler James Q. Butler, the current ANC Commissioner for 5D3, is campaigning on a simple premise: “My message is ‘people first,’” he says. “And distilled in that message is a very simple message: We preface people over profit and big development.”

Asked how he would address the affordable housing issue, Butler says, “The way I look at it is, if you were here during the bad times, you get to be here during the good times.” For Butler that opinion distills into two action steps: an emphasis on incomebased housing and “strict, strict rent control laws,” Butler says. “We need to stop handing out these tax breaks until we find some socially conscious developers to come into this

city,” he adds. “And we can make them become socially conscious by holding the money. Simple as that.”

Another big part of Butler’s platform is a plan to improve relations between the Metropolitan Police Department and neighborhood communities: “I have an initiative that I will put on the ground, and it’s called Stop and Shake a Hand. This is so police officers will begin engaging people on a day-to-day basis.

Shaking their hands and getting to know police officers in the community.”

A former attorney, Butler has at least one ethics problem in his past. In 2009 he consented to his disbarment following numerous serious accusations of malpractice.

According to D.C. Court of Appeals documents, Butler faced “more than one hundred complaints of misconduct involving allegations of multiple Rule violations—including the violation of the most serious rules prohibiting fraud, dishonesty, misappropriation, commingling funds, rampant neglect, and a pattern of aggressive marketing to, and taking money from, vulnerable incarcerated clients without providing meaningful services.” The D.C. Bar Clients’ Security Fund had to pay out more than $650,000 to Butler’s former clients, which the Blog of Legal Times reported in 2011 was a “historic” number.

Butler is frank when addressing this. “At the age of 27 years old, I started a very significant law practice,” he says. “We were doing millions of dollars in business … and did very successful work. What I didn’t do was have some close internal controls.”

Butler says one of his lawyers turned out to not be a lawyer at all, and “wreaked a lot of havoc” in Butler’s practice, so he fired him. “A very, kind of, snowball effect occurred from there after I terminated him,” Butler recalls.

“The day I fired him, I contacted the FBI. But still, me as managing partner, the buck stopped with me. And I understand that.”

Dustin “DC” Canter Dustin “DC” Canter says he received his first campaign contribution on March 1, 2017. That same day in 1961, President John F. Kennedy formed the Peace Corps. So Canter, 32, was trying to do decide what he could do to give back to his city.

“I thought ‘What’s something similar in nature to forming the Peace Corps that I can do here in present day?’ And that’s being a volunteer leader for the city,” he says. “Is it serendipity that that first campaign contribution was the same day?” he asks rhetorically.

Canter, who grew up in Rockville, de-

Dustin Canter

Renée Fleming

Manley M. Collins A native Washingtonian born in Southeast and currently living in Ward 6, Manley Collins says he’s running for mayor to “bring new leadership and fresh takes on all the issues— issues that the incumbent seems to be rushing to fix.”

Though Collins, 42, hasn’t held office in D.C. before, he has big political ambitions; he says he wants to run for President one day. But first: Mayor of D.C.

Collins is running on three big issues: affordable housing, education, and “to continue to uplift the city’s morale.” He says he wants to address the affordable housing crisis by trying to decrease the market rate for apartments and condos by 20 percent and increase incentives for D.C. homeownership.

On education, Collins wants to “have a double accountability system so we’re not fabricating the numbers of … graduation rates or the grades that we give the students,” and implement new ways to hold administrators, teachers, and elected officials accountable.

On other issues, his ideas are more radical. A pro-life advocate, an early version of his campaign website stated that he supported a woman’s first abortion, but a second abortion would be punishable by death. Collins has since changed his view and updated his website accordingly. “I know it’s a bit extreme, but it’s currently being polished,” he says. “No, I do not think that women should get the death penalty for any second abortion, but we just need to look at … how the birds and the bees go: If a life is created, I think it should be continued to be brought in the world.”

CP Manley Collins

Ute Lemper’s Paris Days, Berlin Nights Internationally renowned German cabaret artist Ute Lemper is joined by the Vogler String Quartet for a collection of songs that journey through Europe and Argentina, as well as music inspired by the cultural melting pot of Berlin and Paris in the 1920s.

March 16 at 8 p.m.

Eisenhower Theater Courtesy of Jack Cook Photography

scribed himself as a “fourth-generation Washingtonian” in an interview last fall.

He wants to change the course of development in the city to help its most disenfranchised residents, which is why he’s running for mayor instead of a Council seat.

“It’s the only position that you can make a difference immediately with the situation of developing the city,” he says. “And to take a look at the Council, you have one of 13 votes when it comes to changing the direction of how we develop land in the city.

If you’re in the executive office of the mayor, then you have management of the Department of General Services, the ability to appoint DCRA commissioners, things that make a difference immediately.”

On other issues, Canter sees a need for a radical shake up in the status quo. When asked about how he would address the myriad education scandals currently plaguing the Bowser administration, he says “give autonomy to the State Board of Education.

The mayor’s office doesn’t need to run the whole show.”

And when it comes to homelessness, Canter sees Bowser’s push for housing rather than job security as a failure: “The way that the Executive Office of the Mayor has been pushing forth on solving homelessness for a while has been ‘Housing, housing, housing, housing, housing.’ Housing is a part of the solution,” he says. “And the part that we are not doing a good job of is getting people jobs immediately with a safe place for them to live and sleep at the end of the day.”

Photo by Lucas Allen

Darrow Montgomery/File

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Renée Fleming VOICES is made possible through the extraordinary generosity of the Charles E. Smith Family Foundation.

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washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 7

DistrictLinE

Hair Force

A barber in Congress Heights loves to serve those who serve.

By Victoria Chamberlin Ask Any mAn in the military and you’ll get the same advice: If you don’t want to look like you’re fresh out of boot camp, find a good barber away from the base.

Haircuts in the military aren’t just about fashion. To promote uniformity, Army regulation 670-1 prohibits hair from touching men’s ears and the back of their collar. Soldiers are expected to maintain a professional appearance at all times. To comply with the standard, men in particular are required to get frequent haircuts, sometimes even once a week.

That can pose a problem for minority servicemembers.

Most bases have a barbershop on post to provide access to frequent and affordable haircuts. Those barbers are trained to cut all hair types, but when it comes to African-American and Latinx hair, they often aren’t that great.

“Black folks can’t get their hair cut at any old place,” says Virginia-based U.S. Army Master Sgt. Harold Summey. “I’m an older man with life experience. I don’t want to look like a new recruit.”

Though the force is more diverse than at any point in its history, the majority of active-duty service members in the military are white, according to a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center. Minority servicemen are left with fewer options in the barber’s chair, and that can be a big problem when haircuts are a condition of satisfactory employment.

There are several large bases in Maryland, Virginia, and the District. Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling is located adjacent to Congress Heights, a majority black community east of the Potomac River in D.C. The massive military installation formed when a Naval support facility and an Air Force base were merged in 2010 as part of a reorganization of military facilities mandated by Congress. With over 17,000 service members and civilians working at Joint Base-Anacostia-Bolling, a lot of people need a good haircut.

Enter Mr. Ray. Ray Kibler, known as “Mr. Ray,” has filled that void in the Congress Heights neighborhood for 26 years. As minority servicemembers in the Washington metropolitan area struggled to find barbers who fit their needs, word about the quality cuts from My 3 Sons Unisex spread quickly. Limited access to

transportation before the Metro extended east of the river didn’t stop service members from hitching a ride to Congress Heights for a haircut.

“We’re serious about our fades,” Kibler says. A fade is a short men’s haircut that fades from the ears to the top of the head, so that skin shows on the sides at the top of the ears, but the hair gradually gets longer toward the top.

It’s very hard to do well without making a clear line where the longer hair starts.

“Guys come in here all the time, looking for something a little more nuanced than what they can get on the base. We give them a better look,” he says.

The transient nature of life in the military means servicemembers have to start over when they move duty stations, and that includes finding a new barber. Kibler credits the internet for bringing a constant stream of customers who may otherwise not be aware of the shop. In just over a month, My 3 Sons Unisex now has more than 100 glowing reviews on Google alone.

My 3 Sons has modest beginnings. After being exposed to barbering by several family members, Kibler began charging for cuts in his mother’s basement around the corner from the shop at a young age. He learned the finer points of the trade as an apprentice with an established local barber, and went into business with one of his brothers in 1986 with a small loan from their father. All they needed was a name.

“We were on the porch one day brainstorming and my brother wanted to call it Trend Setters, but that didn’t feel personal,” he says.

“Then I thought, ‘There’s three of us brothers. Why not call it My 3 Sons?’”

For Kibler, the business was a way to be part of his neighborhood. “I grew up here, and I raised my children here. That’s why my customers continue to support me,” he says. “I never turned my back on this neighborhood.”

Even when the crack epidemic hit Congress Heights hard in the 1980s, Kibler maintained his belief that local barbers could be a positive force within the community.

Barbers have provided a space for black servicemen to openly discuss questions of race and inequality for over a century. Quincy T. Mills, associate professor of history at Vassar College, wrote in his book Cutting Along the Color Line that black World War II veterans played a huge role in barbershops fol-

8 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

lowing the war. As both barbers and customers, they needed a place to talk. Shop owners knew the importance of providing a space for

black men to gather and to organize.

In the early 1990s Gary Powell served in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Division, “The Old

Suzanne Ciani

Victoria Chamberlin

Guard,” a prestigious Army ceremonial infantry unit based just outside of D.C. With high-profile missions at The White House nearly every day, “The Old Guard” takes Army appearance standards even higher. When Powell was in the unit, soldiers were required to wear a “high and tight” haircut at all times.

Powell complied with the standard, but such a close cut irritated the skin on the back of his neck and head.

The condition was painful, and required a doctor’s validation that allowed him to wear a more tapered fade. To help soldiers meet appearance standards, each company of men had a barber who provided free haircuts every week. But the nuance necessary for Powell’s sensitive skin was outside of the company barber’s expertise.

“One of my comrades told me about Mr. Ray over in Congress Heights and I checked him out,” he says. “He tapered that fade so well that I would pay $12 for a haircut every week instead of getting a free one from our barber,” says Powell. “He was that good, and $12 was a lot for a men’s haircut in 1993.”

The shop made a lasting impression on Powell. After serving 10 years on active duty with the U.S. Army, Powell left the area in 1996, but he returned a few years later and knew exactly who to call for that famous fade. Powell has visited My 3 Sons for a haircut every other week for the last 17 years.

“Why go anywhere else?

I knew the quality would be there, and Ray is a stand-up citizen,” he says.

Residents of Congress Heights, black and white, have had a tense relationship with the United States military, and in some cases with each other, for the better part of a century.

In the years following World War I, the area east of the Anacostia River was a workingclass white enclave, and many blue-collar Virginians commuted to work at the Naval Air Station and Bolling Field. White residents were openly hostile to their black

neighbors, and restrictive covenants kept black residents from purchasing property throughout the city.

Senior Master Sgt. Jake McCray, a white senior non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force, remembers early in his career being urged by other airmen not to visit neighborhoods just outside the base. “Unfortunately, it was more or less implied not to go up the hill on Malcolm X Avenue SE because people thought there was nothing up there for us.”

Despite the community’s historical lack of relationship with the base, My 3 Sons Unisex continued to thrive by developing a dedicated customer base. Today, the sunny yellow house on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE looks inviting, with a traditional red and blue barber shop pole in the front yard. Professionally dressed barbers in collared shirts, bow ties, and aprons greet their customers.

Kibler had a vision to create a professional environment and to cultivate a sense of community in his barber shop. But growing up cutting African-American hair left a gap in Kibler’s skill set that he wanted to address.

To learn how to cut straight hair, he enrolled in classes at the National Institute of Cosmetology and became a member of the National Beauty Culturists’ League, an organization that provides professional training and raises the image of beauty and culture as an industry.

In his book, Mills writes that white barbers hid behind unfamiliar hair types as an excuse for discrimination.

“In refusing to cut African American’s hair, white barbers had the convenient excuse that they lacked the training to cut ‘kinky’ hair,” he writes. “They relied on biological racism, drawing on ways of seeing race through hair type, to turn customers away.”

Kibler didn’t want his shop to be exclusionary. “I wanted to create a business where anyone will feel welcome and cared for,” he says.

“It’s been my great pleasure to serve these guys over the years.”

Mike Cemprola, an Italian-American saxophonist in the U.S. Air Force Band at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling got a bad haircut on base. It only took a few days before he looked for a barber to fix him up. “We get calls all the time from guys on the base asking if we fix haircuts,” says Ty Powell, a barber at My 3 Sons. That’s exactly what Cemprola was looking for.

“Within 15 minutes, Ty fixed all of the major mistakes and made sure to ask before fading certain parts,” he says. “The guy is a serious barber.”

Kibler is particular about his brand. “Sometimes it’s difficult to bring barbers in because of my high standards,” he says. “But the ones who do come want to be part of this environment.”

CP

PRESENTS

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washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 9

UNOBSTRUCTED

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By Matt Terl Since the blogging heyday of the midaughts, it feels like there’s been no shortage of people filling up the internet with sports (or sports-adjacent) content.

The Sports Capitol is, or would like to be, different.

First, this is not random dudes making draftday bingo cards in their basements (that was me, more than a decade ago). It’s also not just enthusiastic fans hoping to find a bigger audience than the team message board. These are experienced local journalists—managing editor Todd Dybas, host/writer Ben Standig, and senior staff writer Brian McNally—with connections, sources, and all that other good stuff.

Second, the site is ad-free. Third, the site will be operating on a fee-based subscription model, $5.99 a month to access to all the site’s content.

The follow-up question is obvious: What does The Sports Capitol give fans for their money that they can’t already get elsewhere?

“They have to like YOU,” McNally says.

“They’re paying to hear your voice, to a certain extent. I’ve covered the Caps and the Nats for a long time. I’ve covered the Redskins … you’re hoping that people buy into that.”

McNally also makes the point that very little useful content is truly free. “You don’t get John Keim’s full coverage without paying ESPN [Insider] whatever X dollars a month,” he says.

“Same with the Post. You’re already paying for those things. [NBC Washington’s] website is free, but you put up with a lot of ads and a lot of nonsense when you go those sites.”

That last point is true—I’ve generated entire columns out of the awful user experience on some local sports sites. But I wonder if ad-free is really a significant differentiator.

Paying for people’s voices sounds good in theory, and the crew at The Sports Capitol is solid and professional. But what are they going to be writing about that makes their voices worth the money?

Talking to McNally and scrolling through the site during its free trial period, it’s clear that the site is focused on D.C.’s big four major league teams. That’s the paradox of any sports site. You can write all the clever pieces you want about the local Air Sex champion or the play-by-play guy for the new Arena League team and it’s never going to draw half the audience of the 800th column about Kirk Cousins.

Practice updates and game analysis aren’t

going to command money; any halfway decently curated Twitter feed can get you those.

Coverage of the ultra-local, street-level sports scene would sell to a small (if passionate) audience, but you can’t build a site on that. You have to cover the big teams to get a big enough audience to live on.

The Sports Capitol’s staff is currently capped at three, McNally says, for several reasons, not least because keeping the staff small sets the lowest benchmark for a livable profit. There are a lot of experienced free-agent sports voices in the D.C. market, several of whom have similarly tried to monetize their content—Andy Pollin comes to mind for podcasts; David Elfin for football writing—but the cost-benefit analysis for The Sports Capitol right now demands smallness.

Will their particular voices draw eyeballs?

I don’t know, and neither do the guys in The Sports Capitol. “There’s a lot of reasons NOT to do a site like this,” McNally says, “but I think that we were at point—all of us—where we could do it, and see where it takes us.”

FOX 5 is also piloting a new show this month.

Like It Or Not brings together former ESPNers Britt McHenry (also ex-WJLA) and Bram Weinstein (also ex-ESPN980), with WPGC news director Guy Lambert. The intended draw seems clear from the pugnacious name: McHenry, following her dismissal from ESPN, has positioned herself as an aspiring conservative voice, triggering the libs (or whatever) on Twitter. Many people don’t, in fact, like this, largely because McHenry’s opinions tend toward amateurishly half-baked provocations.

FOX 5, in other words, is selling this show on almost exactly the same “It’s about the specific voices” platform that The Sports Capitol is using.

Which raises the grim possibility that the addition of a distinct (if, hopefully, less awful) voice like McHenry’s to The Sports Capitol might be exactly the kind of differentiator that would open up wallets that solid content, impeccable sourcing, and an ad-free experience might not.

McNally knows that the site is in some ways yet another experiment in the changing world of sportswriting. “People are rooting for us,” he says, “but whatever happens, it’s another data point.” It’s true for both these ventures— and how they’re received will tell a lot about what consumers actually want.

CP

SAVAGELOVE I’m an 18-year-old cis hetero girl from Australia and I’ve been listening to your podcast and reading your column since I was 13. Thanks to you, I’m pretty open minded about my sexuality and body.

Having said that, I do have a few questions. I started watching porn from a youngish age with no real shame attached but I have some concerns.

1. I get off really quickly to lesbian porn but it never feels like a “good” orgasm. My guess is that subconsciously I think it’s inauthentic and therefore degrading.

2. I really enjoy and have the best orgasms to vintage gay male porn and trans FTM porn, which seems odd to me because I’m so far removed from the sexual acts that these kind of porn movies portray but I always feel satisfied after getting off to them.

3. I get off to tit slapping videos but it screws with me morally. I understand why I like these kinds of videos. I have quite large breasts and I feel resentment towards them. It seems both morally wrong towards the progress I’ve made towards accepting my body and also to the message being sent about violence towards women.

Care to weigh in?

—Concerned About Porn Preferences 1. There are gay men who watch straight porn, lesbians who watch gay porn, and 18-yearold hetero girls in Australia who watch lesbian porn and vintage gay porn and trans FTM porn. So many people get off watching porn that isn’t supposed to be for them—so many people fantasize about, watch, and sometimes do things that aren’t supposed to be for them—that we have to view these quote/unquote transgressions as a feature of human sexuality, not a bug.

2. Lesbian porn gets you off, vintage gay porn and trans FTM gets you off, but you feel conflicted after watching lesbian porn because it seems inauthentic. That’s understandable—a lot of so-called lesbian porn is inauthentic, in that it’s made by and for straight men and features non-lesbian women going through the lesbian motions (often with long and triggering-for-actual-lesbian fingernails). Some gay porn features gay-for-pay straight male actors, of course, but most gay porn features gay actors doing what they love; the same goes for most trans FTM porn, which is a small and mostly indie niche. I suspect your orgasms are just as good when you watch lesbian porn, CAPP, but the sense—suppressed when you were turned on, surfacing once you’re not—that the performers weren’t really enjoying themselves taints your lesbian-porn-enhanced orgasms in retrospect. The solution? Seek out lesbian porn featuring actual lesbians—authentic lesbian porn is out there. (I found a bunch with a quick Google search.)

3. Sometimes we overcome the negative messaging our culture sends us about our

identities or bodies only after our erotic imaginations have seized on the fears or self-loathing induced by those messages and turned them into kinks. Take small-penis humiliation (SPH). Before a guy can ask a partner to indulge him in SPH, CAPP, he has to accept (and kind of dig) his small cock. So the acceptance is there, bu the kink—a turn-on rooted in a resolved conflict—remains. It can be freeing to regard a kink like SPH or your thing for tit slapping as a reward—as the only good thing to come out of the shitty zap the culture put on the head of a guy with a small cock or, in your case, a young woman with large breasts.

So long as we seek out other consenting adults who respect us and our bodies, we can have our kinks—even those that took root in the manure of negative cultural messaging—and our self-acceptance and self-esteem, too.

—Dan Savage

There’s nothing feminist about slagging off younger women to justify your attraction to older women.

I have a deepthroating fetish. All the porn I watch is nothing but rough, sloppy blowjobs.

I would love nothing more than to watch this kind of porn with my boyfriend, so we can add it to the bedroom excitement, but I’m embarrassed to share this as a straight female. How do I go about sharing a fetish I have? Do I tell him over a candlelit dinner? Do I just turn some deepthroating porn on and see what happens? Help!

—Deepthroat Queen There’s never really a bad time to tell someone they won the lottery, DQ. Over a candlelit dinner, pop in some porn, send him a singing telegram—however you decide to tell him, DQ, the odds that he’ll react negatively are pretty low.

Of course, watching someone deep throat and doing it yourself are two different things, DQ. You won’t be able to go from disclosing your kink to realizing it during that candlelit dinner.

Take it slow, maybe watch a few how-to videos in addition to the porn, find the positions and angles that work for you, etc., and work your way up to taking him all the way down. —DS I’m a 32-year-old male. I recently met a hot older woman, age 46, who has told me she finds me equally hot. I’ve always preferred older women. I just love their confidence and their comfort in their own skin. They’re just so much sexier than my age cohort. The problem is that I take a serious interest in feminism. I think I do pretty well with the overt stuff: I don’t mansplain, I

call out peers who ignore sexism, and I don’t objectify women, even when I do find them attractive. (Small steps, but steps nonetheless.) But when I see this woman and we flirt like mad, my brain just shuts off and all I can think about is her hot bod and the many hours I want to spend with it. However, I worry that she’s spent her whole life relying on her looks to gain validation from men, and that my brain-dead, loins-alive attraction is only perpetuating her objectification. Is that so? Or am I just overthinking things?

—Man, I Love Feminism At the risk of dansplaining…

There’s nothing feminist about slagging off younger women to justify your attraction to older women. You like what you like, and you can own that without implying that younger women lack confidence and aren’t comfortable in their own skins. The same culture that put the zap on CAPP’s head for having large breasts—her breasts attracted unwanted attention and she resented her breasts and now gets off on erotic images of breasts being punished (even though she now knows her breasts weren’t the problem)—put the zap on your head. Men, young and old, are supposed to be attracted to younger women. You’re not attracted to younger women, you’re attracted to older women; instead of accepting that, you feel compelled to justify it by comparing younger women to older women and declaring—again, by implication— that there’s something wrong with younger women. You sound like one of those gay men who can’t tell you why he’s attracted to dudes without also (or only) telling you what he dislikes about women.

As for objectification, MILF, the problem with objectification is when the person doing the objectifying isn’t capable of simultaneously seeing the object of their affections as a three-dimensional human being with desires, fears, and agency of their own. Technically, MILF, we are all objects—“a material thing that can be seen and touched”—but unlike, say, Fleshlights or vibrators, we feel joy and pain and have wants and needs. You can’t help being drawn to this woman’s externals; there’s a huge visual component to human attraction and, as your thing for older women demonstrates, there isn’t one universal standard of beauty. So long as you can objectify someone while at the same time appreciating their full humanity—so long as you can walk that walk and chew that gum— you don’t have to feel like a bad feminist for objectifying someone. (Particularly when that someone is clearly objectifying you!)

—DS Email your Savage Love questions to mail@savagelove.net.

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washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 11

Cora Masters Barry and Muriel Bowser

12 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

BOWSER HISTORY FreshPAC. Shelter sites. Contracting shakeup. Public hospital mess.

Failing schools. The case a challenger could make against Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is set for four more years at D.C.’s helm.

By Andrew Giambrone Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

Muriel Bowser has been thinking about re-election since 2015, her first year as mayor.

On the bitter cold night of Jan. 8, Bowser was feeling hot. The week before, she’d thrown herself three days of inauguration events. One was an inaugural ball at the Convention Center featuring a performance by D.C. rapper Wale. The series cost more than $1.1 million in private money that came mostly from corporate sponsors.

The next week, Bowser found herself in a less festive setting. She was speaking to a crowd of 900 people gathered for an “inaugural action” at St. Augustine Catholic Church near Malcolm X Park. The Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), a nonprofit membership group that can mobilize thousands of voters, organized the event.

It was standing-room only. Bowser promised to invest in affordable housing, create job programs for struggling residents, and reduce homelessness. She said she would “listen, learn, and act.”

“I didn’t get elected to warm the seat. And I only got elected for four years—though I’m going to run again,” Bowser added, amusing the crowd. “But I know this: I can’t make decisions thinking about the next election. I have to make decisions that I think are right.”

Around the same time, the @TeamMuriel Twitter account, which Bowser’s office uses for official government business, tweeted: “I’m gonna run again. #win4dc.”

Someone deleted that message 13 minutes later, according to archives kept by ProPublica, the investigative journalism outfit. Other sources confirm the tweet. “#win4dc” was the hashtag-pun WIN members deployed to promote the forum.

Why delete a tweet of confident commitment on the heels of a solid victory? Months before her inauguration, Bowser routed incumbent Vince Gray, whose hopes of a twoterm tenure were dashed by a widely publicized, protracted federal investigation into his 2010 campaign finances.

In part, Bowser’s victory was a matter of ex-

cellent timing. She won the 2014 Democratic primary with more than 10 percentage points over Gray just three weeks after Gray’s campaign supporter Jeffrey Thompson pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.

It was also a testament to Bowser’s abilities as a candidate. An energetic door-knocker and hardworking pavement-pounder, according to those who know her, she has not lost a race since first being elected as a councilmember for Ward 4 in a 2007 special election.

right now, having other priorities.

Gray, though, hasn’t ruled out the possibility, telling City Paper contributor Tom Sherwood last Saturday that he could gather the required signatures within “48 hours.” He is currently the Ward 7 councilmember.

Meanwhile donations and other support have flown to Bowser like metal to a magnet. She has amassed a hefty war chest worth roughly $2 million for her 2018 campaign. That sum would daunt most rivals, especially this

“Elections should be about big ideas and holding elected officials accountable. And that’s hard to make happen when you don’t have a challenger.”

It looks like Bowser is about to win again.

But in this race, voters don’t have a point of contrast.

At least not yet. No other elected official in D.C. with a shot has pitched themselves as an alternative to Bowser. The dozen-or-so candidates opposing her are little known.

The March 21 deadline for declaring to compete in the June primary is less than two weeks away. With that window of opportunity closing, any opponent would have to make up their mind to challenge Bowser soon. But toppling her wouldn’t be unattainable, political observers say.

The politicos who might have a chance against her are either running for re-election to their own seats or not ready for a mayoral bid, save for a few. Some have privately and publicly expressed disinterest in being mayor

late in the local elections process.

Someone could run against Bowser as an Independent in the November general election. But in Democratic D.C., such a candidate would have long odds, both because 2018 is not a presidential election year, when turnout increases, and D.C. has never had an Independent (or Republican) mayor in the history of Home Rule.

In some corners—including inside the Wilson Building—frustration over the lack of a competitive mayoral race is palpable. Those most invested in local democracy say it is suffering as a result, regardless of Bowser’s merits and flaws.

“Elections should be about big ideas and holding elected officials accountable,” says Ed Lazere, a candidate for D.C. Council chairman and longtime policy advocate. “And that’s

hard to make happen when you don’t have a challenger. … Without a challenger, [Bowser] doesn’t have to have a bold vision for the next four years, and clearly the city needs one.”

She and her backers insist that she does.

“We are making tremendous progress, but we have more work to do,” Bowser has said, in one phrasing or another, across recent statements and media appearances. In her campaign kickoff video last September, she took a more boosterish tack: “To put it bluntly, D.C. is winning,” she proclaimed.

For a long time, Bowser has been winning, too. She was the protégé of former Mayor Adrian Fenty’s and his successor to the Ward 4 seat on the 13-member D.C. Council. That ward is a largely residential voting district at the northern end of the District with diverse demographics and neighborhoods on both sides of Rock Creek Park.

She won the Ward 4 seat in 2007, again in 2008, and again in 2012, each time by large margins. Her seven years on the Council were relatively unrocky. During that period, she chaired the legislature’s economic development committee and honed her constituent services.

She declared her run for mayor in March 2013—before Gray announced his re-election bid—and stumped on future-focused rhetoric about education and ethics reform. As a legislator, she had championed the latter through a comprehensive 2011 bill.

To many, Bowser’s vanquishing of Gray in the 2014 primary symbolized a new chapter— if not wholesale revenge—for Fenty’s Green Team, a cadre of well-heeled Democratic professionals who often dress in green for political events.

In the general election, she beat David Catania, a former at-large councilmember and Independent who had given up his seat to oppose Gray. Bowser earned more than half of the votes cast and trounced Catania by 20 percentage points. At last, her 19-month campaign ended.

It was a marquee moment for Bowser, then

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 13

42 and D.C.’s first female mayor in two decades. At the Howard Theatre for her victory speech, which several local politicians old and new attended, she urged her supporters “we must move faster.”

“Some call you a machine,” Bowser told the crowd. “I just call you Team Muriel.”

Which brings us back to the deleted tweet.

It might have been a bad look for a fresh mayor only a week into her position. But the message was the same as the one Bowser delivered in person to the interfaith audience: She wanted to be boss for eight years.

At the moment, that reality is almost in Bowser’s grasp—despite a string of road bumps and scandals over the past three-plus years that have muddied her record.

The most damaging among them may be the most recent. In February, Bowser’s appointed public schools chancellor, Antwan Wilson, resigned after it was revealed that he broke the very rules he created by circumventing the competitive school lottery process for his daughter, transferring her from one desirable high school to another.

Now the former chancellor says Bowser knew about this transfer because he informed her of it. The mayor has continued to deny knowledge of Wilson’s purported notice. On Tuesday she told the Washington Post editorial board that she won’t testify at a yet-unscheduled emergency Council hearing on the matter because it will probably be a “political circus.”

Welcome to election year. Wilson Building watchers say a viable opponent—if one were to emerge—would do well to point back to the beginning of Bowser’s tenure and draw a line to her current missteps. This is a story of the major blunders on her watch, and why no one seemingly wants to hold Bowser to account.

In the 2016 elections, Bowser lost three reliable votes on the Council.

Give Them Shelters

Though FreshPAC wilted, the kind of influence it represented didn’t. In early 2016, after years of chaos for the families living there, Bowser announced a plan to close DC General, the District’s largest family homeless shelter, and replace it with smaller facilities in each ward. Many activists and residents hailed the effort as humane and long overdue. Terrible conditions persist at DC General.

But to some, Bowser’s plan smacked of some of the same favoritism as FreshPAC. Major donors to Bowser’s campaigns would have profited handsomely through land leases and her selection of sites for the new facilities. Altogether, the payments would have cost up to $300 million.

Citing the costs of the proposed land leases, the Council amended Bowser’s plan in May 2016 so the replacement shelters would all be built on D.C.-owned sites. Chairman Phil Mendelson spearheaded the changes and marshalled a unanimous vote.

He also criticized the administration for “obfuscation and misinformation” surrounding the plan, saying the process could have gone better “if there had been more collaboration.”

Bowser shot back with her own choice words, vexed over how the changes might have delayed the closure of DC General. “You’re a fucking liar!” she screamed at Mendelson—within earshot of reporters in a Wilson Building hallway. “You know it can’t close in 2018.”

In January, Bowser recommitted to shuttering the former hospital “this fall,” even though some of the replacement shelters won’t be

From #FreshStart to FreshPAC

Bowser entered the mayor’s office with pledges of a “#FreshStart” for a city tainted by misconduct. But within months, a well-connected, pro-Bowser political action committee called FreshPAC arose and stirred controversy. The PAC exploited a loophole in campaign finance law that let donors in Bowser’s orbit contribute unlimited amounts during a year when the PAC was not supporting candidates. It stockpiled more than $330,000 to aid the D.C. Council bids of Bowser allies.

Then the PAC fell. In late 2015, FreshPAC shut down under scrutiny about pay-to-play politics.

Former Bowser campaign treasurer Ben Soto and attorney-lobbyist Earle “Chico” Horton III ran the PAC. Two of its donors traveled with Bowser to China for an economic development trip and enjoyed direct access to the mayor, and some joined her on a trip to Cuba three months later. When the PAC closed, it returned the unspent funds to contributors.

“I do agree that FreshPAC had become a distraction, and I very much support their decision to move on,” Bowser told reporters on a conference call while in China. Earlier, Soto had disputed “the notion that contributors gave because they expected something in return or that the Mayor would ever even entertain such thought.”

14 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

open yet. The city says it’s making appropriate accommodations to house families. In a statement, Bowser said, “We believe that this citywide challenge demands a citywide solution.”

Contractual Fracas

Later in 2016, a sudden personnel change in the mayor’s Cabinet morphed into a slowburning contracting scandal. The saga involved one of D.C.’s most dominant contractors, Fort Myer Construction.

That August, ex-D.C. Department of General Services Director Christopher Weaver—a Navy veteran—resigned. DGS manages the District’s real estate portfolio and the construction of public projects like the D.C. General replacement shelters.

In an outgoing memo to the agency’s staff, Weaver wrote that his motivations for leaving were “personal” and did “not reflect in any way dissatisfaction with the work of this department.”

“I wish each of you ‘Fair Winds and Following Seas,’” he wrote, borrowing an old Navy phrase.

There was more to it than that. As WAMU first reported, Weaver’s departure followed a dispute over two lucrative infrastructure contracts for the St. Elizabeths East Campus in Southeast and the D.C. United stadium in Southwest. Fort Myer bid on both contracts, but did not win them.

That’s when Rashad Young, Bowser’s city administrator, intervened at DGS, reportedly asking Weaver to fire two senior staffers involved with the contracts. Weaver didn’t do that, but he did step down. The District placed the staffers on administrative leave. “A fundamental change in rules without discussion

with the mayor or with me is not something we take lightly,” Young said at the time.

Young and the administration denied any favoritism toward Fort Myer, which has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Bowser campaigns and is linked to a firm that donated to FreshPAC. He said DGS had altered the scoring system for contracts and weakened the usual preference given to local businesses like Fort Myer.

As chair of the committee that oversees DGS, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh launched an inquiry into the shakeup. As it was pending, a lawyer for one of the canned staffers claimed that the Bowser administration had ousted his client “to appease a campaign contributor that lost out on city contracts.” (The former employees also pursued legal action.)

Cheh is a not-infrequent critic of Bowser. In June 2017, she reported that the administration had taken steps, many technical, to favor Fort Myer in the bid process. She also found circumstantial evidence indicating that a D.C. government employee had leaked confidential information about a competitor’s bid to the company, but no smoking gun.

Bowser declined to further investigate that finding, calling it “a wild accusation.” “We don’t have any reason to think that it’s true,” she said. (Fort Myer maintains that it did nothing improper.)

Emergency Room

Another contracting problem emerged on Bowser’s watch toward the end of last year— this time, around D.C.’s only public hospital, United Medical Center. It serves many low-income residents.

The hospital is in such a state of disarray

that, in August, a patient living with AIDS had a heart attack and died—but not before he laid for 20 minutes on the floor in his own waste, according to a Post report. UMC’s obstetrics ward shut down that month. In December, its board decided to permanently close the ward, leaving no hospital east of the river for women to deliver their babies.

The board is chaired by LaRuby May, a former Ward 8 councilmember and an ally of Bowser’s. The mayor nominated May to the board in February 2017, less than two months after May had packed up her Wilson Building office. Following a contentious race, May lost to current Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White, a protégé of Marion Barry’s, in the 2016 Democratic primary.

“If confirmed, I will roll up my sleeves and get to work helping to make UMC a shining example of community partnerships,” May testified to the Council’s health committee, chaired by former Mayor Gray, at a hearing on her nomination. Gray became the Ward 7 councilmember and received the committee after a 2016 comeback win against then-Bowser ally Yvette Alexander.

Gray didn’t resist May’s appointment to the UMC board. But he did rally the Council to boot the consultancy managing the hospital from a D.C. contract in a 7-6 vote last November. The firm is called Veritas, and its executive chairman Corbett Price is a major Bowser donor whom the mayor also appointed to the board of Metro.

Veritas had helped run UMC into a “functionally” bankrupt state, D.C.’s chief financial officer told the board in January. Now, Gray is poised to use his health committee to contin-

ue an inquisition into the board, in part by examining its decision to shield from public view the meeting where it voted to shutter the obstetrics ward.

May stated that she could not remember the vote count at a recent Council hearing. “Maybe I had too much fun in college, and, you know, my brain cells are gone,” she said. Afterward, the UMC board secretary told Gray’s committee the vote was 6-2.

Late last month, the Council greenlighted the contract for a new hospital operator, Mazars USA. That consultancy is working to turn around UMC. The past mismanagement of UMC could harm Bowser’s shaky support east of the Anacostia River. In the 2014 Democratic primary, she lost Wards 7 and 8 to Gray by double-digit percentages.

But as the pressure on the UMC board was building up, Bowser also gestured toward a future east-of-the-river hospital at the St. Elizabeths East Campus in Ward 8. She released the results of a site-selection study for the prospective hospital in September, saying it “move[d] the District closer” to ensuring residents “in every ward” have access to high-quality, affordable health care.

Schools Daze

Earlier this week, At-large Councilmember David Grosso called for an “emergency hearing” on the circumstances surrounding former public schools chancellor Wilson’s departure. Grosso chairs the legislature’s education committee.

First Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles, and then Wilson, resigned after news broke that Wilson’s daughter had transferred

high schools outside of the mandatory lottery process for out-of-bounds schools. Bowser denied any involvement, but days after his dismissal, Wilson claimed that she’d known about it for months.

Grosso had said he planned to ask Bowser, Wilson, and Niles to testify under oath. The mayor told FOX 5 that she would talk to Grosso and that D.C.’s Inspector General would review the circumstances, but didn’t commit to testifying. On air she said, “At no time was I told there was a discretionary transfer, and I am pretty disappointed that we are kind of talking about one child instead of all the children in DCPS.” Thousands of children are on waitlists for high-performing D.C. schools.

Even the original scandal of Wilson violating his own DCPS policies appears to have damaged Bowser’s support among residents.

In a February poll administered via Public Policy Polling by What’s Going On PAC, a political action committee founded by Gray’s close associate Chuck Thies, about one-third of likely Democratic voters said they were “less likely” to vote for Bowser’s re-election due to Wilson’s “rigging the school lottery.”

Wilson was Bowser’s most significant recruit, whose hire followed a national search for a new chancellor that some education advocates criticized for a lack of transparency. He moved from California with his family.

Although his ousting was rare for a Bowser appointee, his transgression was like déjà vu for close observers. Last year, revelations that former DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson had given special school placements to the children of Rashad Young and of Courtney Snowden, Bowser’s city administrator and

deputy mayor for greater economic opportunity, respectively, angered parents. Unlike Wilson and Niles, both Snowden and Young remained in their jobs.

In that context, Wilson’s actions stunned some residents all the more. Bowser quickly appointed an interim chancellor and an interim deputy mayor, seeking to shift the conversation forward. The chancellor, Amanda Alexander, has said she foremost wants to finish this school year strong.

Alexander now sits at the helm of a school system where successively unearthed failures are fueling a crisis of confidence. The flood that broke the dam came in November, when NPR and WAMU found that more than half of Ballou Senior High School’s 2017 graduates missed over three months of school and received diplomas anyway.

This sparked an official review of DCPS graduation and attendance data. It determined that one-third of all 2017 graduates did not meet graduation requirements.

Before February was over, though, news of a quiet audit of student residency at the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts showed that over half of roughly 100 students sampled may live outside the District though their families claimed residency, thus avoiding out-of-jurisdiction tuition.

Worse for Bowser, an attorney within the state superintendent of education’s office allegedly told investigators to slow-walk the audit because 2018 is an election year. Hanseul Kang, the state superintendent, said she had “no knowledge” of such a directive and would get to the bottom of things.

Bowser said she had only learned of the investigation the day the story broke. Of the allegation, she told reporters “people say all kinds of crazy things.”

The deeper structural issues plaguing DCPS took root long before Bowser took mayoral office. But as the incumbent in charge of the city, her supporters realize these issues could make her vulnerable: Within the past several weeks, Bowser’s campaign removed language about growing graduation from its website.

Bowser’s office referred comment for this story to her campaign team. In an interview, her campaign chairman Bill Lightfoot, an attorney who chaired Bowser’s first as well as both of Fenty’s mayoral campaigns, defended the mayor’s record.

He said she has “moved to address and correct” problems when they have arisen. He added that Bowser’s “goal is that everyone participate and share in the opportunities in the city”—an admittedly “difficult” one.

“Sometimes what the media calls a scandal is an overstatement, when in fact what the media should be reporting is the solution proposed by the mayor,” Lightfoot said. “But the media attracts more followers by scandal than they do by objective reporting.”

In her time in office, her economic development team has closed on major deals for new fire stations, libraries, and school buildings, thousands of units of affordable housing across mixed-use projects, and sports facilities. She’s

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 15

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poised to tear down the decrepit D.C. General shelter as new, more-dignified shelters go up around the city. She’s presided over significant overall declines in homelessness and violent crime as well as a downtick in unemployment.

She was even able to get the much-maligned, long-delayed streetcar up and running.

If she continues skating to victory, Bowser would become the first D.C. mayor to win reelection since Anthony Williams won a second term in 2002. She would earn four more years at the helm of a booming city whose population unofficially reached 700,000 residents last month and that currently has a $13.9 billion budget. But it is also a city that confronts a troubled public education system, a housing crunch, a stubborn homelessness crisis, and a higher level of income inequality than any American state.

Bowser’s September campaign kickoff followed welcome news for her prospects. A Post poll last summer determined that 67 percent of residents surveyed approved of her record, up from 58 percent in 2015.

The poll also found that Bowser would garner almost double the support of Gray in a theoretical three-way match, and that D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, a rising Democratic Party star, would get one-tenth of the votes.

Racine is running for re-election as the District’s top lawyer this year instead. Gray, who some councilmembers and observers speculate is mulling a bid, would face steep odds because of the investigation into his 2010 campaign. He was not indicted, but several of his associates pleaded guilty to crimes.

That makes it difficult, but not impossible, for Gray to mount a significant challenge against Bowser. None of her ethical lapses has risen to the level of, say, a federal investigation where the mayor or one of her associates is a known target.

“To take down an incumbent, the scandals have to be really overwhelming—and not just inside baseball,” explains one Wilson Building expat who has worked on several D.C. campaigns and requested anonymity to speak freely. “Ethical issues are always going to be tough. Unless you have a U.S. Attorney with a plea agreement or an indictment … you’re going to move forward.”

The source also notes that key election constituencies such as unions and business and trade associations typically get behind the incumbent in city elections because “they have to kiss the ring.” (That took place when Gray was running for re-election in 2014.) Add to this the fact that Bowser’s Green Team is an intensely loyal group with a far-reaching fundraising network, the source says, and she has a reliable— if not always foolproof— “retail-politics” recipe for success.

Indeed, the Green Team turns out in droves for public events like parades and Bowser forums. They do so wearing green scarves, green jackets, and green t-shirts and beanies with Bowser’s name emblazoned in white letters.

“These folks know at the end of the day [Bowser] is loyal,” the source continues. “It’s a mafiosa thing: ‘Show me undying loyalty and we’ll sur-

vive this—as long as you continue to pledge your loyalty to me. Scandals will come and go.’”

And in large part, the meat-and-potatoes functions of local government that the average voter cares about are running normally under Bowser. The trash is still getting picked up.

This is not to say there aren’t entrenched problems, or that the District’s 21st-century prosperity is shared equitably among all four of D.C.’s quadrants.

“Some say the District of Columbia is doing well, but the residents across the city who are less affluent aren’t seeing it,” argues Trayon White, the councilmember who represents D.C.’s poorest voting district and filled Marion Barry’s former Council seat. “In fact, it is getting harder for everyday working people. I hear and feel their burden every day.”

Asked at a legislative press conference this week about the mayor’s apparent glide to a second term, Mendelson, the Council chairman, initially deflected. “You know, elections are an opportunity for elected officials to face the public, and where there’s competition, to defend their record or put forward why their record has been very positive,” he said.

“So you can look at races where there’s little opposition and say it’d be great if there was more robust discussion, or races where there is competition and say this is exactly what the democratic process is about,” he continued, smirking slightly. “That’s my answer.” last saturday, the mayor cut a confident figure at a ceremony unveiling the new bronze statue of Barry outside the Wilson Building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. “‘I will never forget where I came from,’” said Bowser, a native Washingtonian who was raised in North Michigan Park, quoting Barry.

Growing animated, the mayor also said Barry accomplished something “no man had ever done, and no woman or man will ever do again— four times elected mayor in this town.”

Is Bowser already considering her plans for 2022 and beyond? Where does she go from here?

Daniel Ridge, an advisory neighborhood commissioner for Hill East and a vocal critic of Bowser, says one reason no viable challenger has declared to run against her is because being mayor is yeoman’s work. “I don’t think any of our councilmembers have to work anything like as hard as the mayor does,” Ridge says. Being D.C.’s boss, he explains, requires major “lifestyle” changes.

“My biggest concern is that if a late challenger does emerge, if we try to make this a referendum on transparency and they lose, what does that mean?” he notes. “Then she realizes she has a blank check.”

The Wilson Building expat and campaign veteran has a different take. “At this point, there’s no one who will really be able to compete,” they said last week. “And that’s a shame.

What does it say about us as a city that no one will be able to hold the most powerful person in office accountable?”

CP Cuneyt Dil and Tom Sherwood contributed reporting.

DCFEED

The owners of Drafting Table, Red Light, and Bakers & Baristas are opening an all-day cafe and wood-fired pizza restaurant in Chevy Chase. Little Beast should open this summer at 5600 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Darrow Montgomery

event’s take-home was closer to 10 percent.

Francis and other operators confirm fee hikes are happening in D.C. “There have always been festivals and charges to participate,” he says. Among the first festivals were Curbside Cookoff in 2010 and Truckeroo in 2011.

“Where you used to pay $200 to $300 for a day or 5 to 10 percent of your sales, you’re now paying 25 to 40 percent of sales, or an enormous upfront sum.”

Big Cheese owner Patrick Rathbone and Francis say Truckeroo’s asking price climbed to $500 in 2017. “But it’s one third of the size that it used to be—attendance decreased about 60 percent,” Francis says. “That one has gradually gone downhill,” Rathbone adds. “Last year they raised it to $500, that’s why we dropped out. Part of the problem is you can’t sell drinks.”

Like restaurants, trucks benefit from selling beverages because the profit margin is much wider. “I got an exception to sell milk with cookies, but otherwise Truckeroo sells all alcoholic or refreshing-type beverages,” Francis says.

Jeff Kelley, who has booked trucks for Truckeroo since the beginning, declined to comment on fees, only stating that he works with operators one-on-one and has a roster of 150 food trucks itching to get involved.

“We try to make sure that it’s fair and trucks have a great opportunity to earn money and also that we give customers a great variety of trucks,” Kelley says. “Fairness is what drives me. I don’t want to peel back the layers on the onion … angst around pricing doesn’t do any good.”

Smoking Kow BBQ owner Dylan Kough has dialed back his festival involvement. “My first year I got burned by a lot of them, so I’m a lot pickier now,” he says. Kough and others call out Snallygaster and Broccoli City as good opportunities. Drink the District, conversely, is not one of Kough’s favorite organizers. He last participated in a brunch-themed event in 2016.

“They started realizing that if they invited

Pay to Park

Price hikes are forcing food trucks out of festivals throughout the region.

By Laura Hayes To parTicipaTe in May’s Taste of Arlington festival, put on by the Ballston Business Improvement District, food trucks must pay a flat fee of between $400 and $500. Festival attendees purchase tickets worth $5 each that can be redeemed at food trucks for a few bites. When the gates close, event organizers reimburse the food truck between 25 and 75 cents per ticket. Pricing varies depending on when a truck signs up. Would you sign this contract?

“I couldn’t even comprehend it,” says Kirk Francis. He co-owns the Captain Cookie and the Milkman food truck, as well as the Tastemakers food hall in Brookland. “I assumed the tickets were being sold for a dollar. Even that would be bad, but this is just laughable.”

In 2017, Taste of Arlington food truck ven-

Young & hungrY

dors paid a flat fee of $750 and got to keep 100 percent of their revenue. “It was a hefty fee but we felt the combination of revenue and exposure was worth it,” Francis says. He’s not participating in the 2018 event and named three other trucks that also pulled out after trying to negotiate the fee.

Organizers collect money from food trucks at events in three ways. Some charge a flat fee up front, some take a percentage of revenue at the end, and others combine the two into a hybrid model.

“These people are being treated like dogs,” says Matt Geller, the founding president of the National Food Truck Association. “Organizers are essentially saying, ‘You shouldn’t make a profit. We’re doing you a favor.’ It’s insulting and kind of fraudulent.”

In a February blog post, “The $25 Food Truck Meal,” Geller explains how event fees have shot up nationwide. Organizers now charge up to 40 percent of gross sales, when in the past the

more vendors, customers would be happier because they wouldn’t have to wait in line,” he says. “But vendors are getting burned. Why am I paying $400 to sell $2,000 worth of food that costs me $700?” He barely breaks even once labor and other costs factor in. “It’s more than a 12-hour day, with at least three staff working overtime on a weekend.”

The Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle was also a bust. “That was the worst of all time,” Kough says. He says he paid $1,500 for two days and was told there would only be four trucks. “They were right about the four food trucks, but there was a mile of free samples.”

Why would attendees pay for barbecue from his truck? Even when organizers deliver on crowd size, other variables can make an event a bad business move.

“You need to become a sleuth and ask very thorough questions,” says DC Slices owner Zack Graybill. He always slashes 25 percent off the crowd size an organizer touts because it behooves them to embellish.

In 2016, DC Slices spent $8,000 on event fees compared to $18,000 in 2017. “I view it as a good thing because our numbers were the same,” Graybill says. “We didn’t see a loss in revenue. We saw a loss in profit for me and the other owners, but we were able to keep things going.” Graybill is currently applying to participate in an event that costs $600 down and 35 percent of revenue for the day.

“It’s not great.”

Inflating participation fees, fibbing about crowd size, and over-saturating an event with competing vendors creates a long-term situation in which festival organizers, food trucks, and the public all lose.

When fees skyrocket, food trucks are forced to raise their prices to make pulling into an event worthwhile. Others change up their regular menu to serve dishes that are cheaper to produce. Instead of selling gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, for example, Rathbone swaps in a festival-only menu of fried mac and cheese balls and fried cheese curds.

The customer doesn’t know what’s happening behind the scenes and could assume the food truck they’re used to frequenting got greedy overnight. That’s why Geller is calling for greater transparency.

“If I have a pet store and I’m charging 40 percent more for a dog, everyone sees what’s happening,” he says. “In this, food trucks are being blamed. The organizers are businessto-business and food trucks are business-tocustomer.”

“Customers don’t see it’s a result of the event charging you,” Francis adds. “They see, Captain Cookie is gouging me at Truckeroo.

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 17

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DCFEED You get negative reviews. It’s not something I enjoy doing at all.”

That’s not to say incremental increases aren’t to be expected. Matt Hussmann from the Clarendon Alliance, which puts on a number of festivals, explains that permit and police fees are on the rise. “The level of security is up, everybody is aware of it,” he says.

“There are more staff than there used to be.”

A rep from the Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation says getting a special event permit is free, but there are charges to use county services such as trash pick-up and policing if there are road closures. Serving alcohol can also incur fees.

But as more trucks become disillusioned, the overall experience will suffer. “Quality is going to drop if the best in the game don’t want to deal with you anymore,” Geller says.

“Food trucks are like any business, they get better with time.” Rookies may not be able to maintain consistency throughout the fastpaced service that festivals demand, Geller theorizes.

“There’s a sucker born every minute,” Francis says. “There are food trucks launching all of the time with new operators because you can start up with less capital and experience [than a restaurant]. The caveat is you get more naive operators who are swayed by promises of great exposure.”

Exposure is precisely how some organizers explain their pricing strategies. Kelley of Truckeroo suggests that many festival-goers are test-driving food trucks for potential catering gigs like weddings. “Those opportunities have been generated at the event for many years,” he says.

Tyler Roper is the events coordinator for the Ballston BID. He says he’s booked eight food trucks for 2018’s Taste of Arlington so far. “We’ve had a lot of recurring trucks here last year and the year before,” he says. “It gets their brand out there to the public.”

Roper holds Timber Pizza Co. up as a success story. They signed up to serve pizza again this year. Roper argues that through participating in Taste of Arlington and similar events, they were able to get enough exposure to open a brick and mortar restaurant.

“It certainly did not launch our brick and mortar,” says Timber co-owner Andrew Dana. “If anything, the farmers markets were way more valuable.” He adds that he wouldn’t be able to make 25 cents on $5 if he didn’t have a restaurant to lean on.

Roper says attendees don’t think twice about paying $5 for a ticket that they redeem for a snack because the event is for charity. It benefits The Arlington Arts Center, Animal Welfare League of Arlington, Arlington Food Assistance Center, and other organizations.

He wants food truck operators to embrace the giving spirit.

“Taste of Arlington is a fantastic way to

market their food truck and show that they support charities,” he says. “Knowing that contribution to the event is going to help feed a family, help dogs that need a meal.”

Francis says it shouldn’t be on the food trucks to “contribute” by operating at a loss. “If organizers are running an event, it should be profitable and they should donate those proceeds,” he says. “Most of us already have robust charitable programs.

We donate tens of thousands a year to D.C. causes like the Capital Area Food Bank and DC Central Kitchen.”

Captain Cookie puts on its own charitable event called Truck & Toss. Participating food trucks get paid a minimum of $1,000 for a set number of tastings.

With the 2018 festival season in view, trucks will have to decide which events to sit out. Since food trucks are not as trendy as they were when they first came on the scene, many can’t stay in the black on their roving lunch business alone. Many D.C. food trucks report a 30 to 50 percent decline in business throughout 2017.

Geller suggests food trucks fight back by demanding fairness. In Los Angeles, where he’s based, there was an event that wanted 38 percent of revenue. A few food trucks led the charge to demand a smaller fee, and were told their invitation to participate was revoked. The event was being put on by the city and a councilmember’s name was listed on the event website.

“I called and asked why a councilman would attach himself to an event that charged such a high price to Los Angeles small business owners,” Geller says. “We also let them know we would tell all of our followers why food prices were going to be so high.” Organizers responded by reducing the fee and reinviting the banished trucks.

Geller says he’s working on a review platform where operators can rate organizers and events. It will launch in Southern California before going nationwide. “My job is to provide really good information, but also hold organizers accountable to the point where customers know what the hell is going on.”

He encourages people to tweet organizers and ask how much they’re taking from food trucks. “That’s the only thing that’s going to do it.”

Francis isn’t optimistic that everyday citizens will turn up the heat, so he hopes organizers will consider the long game and ask themselves which trucks they want down the road.

“The association hasn’t banded together to blackball events,” Francis says. “Hopefully it won’t come to that. But food trucks have organized before when there’s been a need to do so.”

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

DCFEED Grazer

Sauce-O-Meter How recent food happenings measure up

By Laura Hayes

Mark Morris Dance Group Mark Morris, Artistic Director

LAME SAUCE

The Mason Dixie Biscuit Co. drive-thru called it quits on Bladensburg Road NE. They hope to reopen somewhere more Metro accessible.

Silkroad Ensemble

Chef Sasha Felikson is out at Doi Moi. The Southeast Asian restaurant got a Bib Gourmand nod from Michelin under his tenure. He says he’ll stay in D.C. for the right opportunity.

Darrow Montgomery

The Meatball Shop is the latest out-of-town chain to plant roots on 14th Street NW, joining JINYA Ramen Bar and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.

Layla and Majnun D.C. premiere (Hajibeyli, arr. by Gandelsman, Jacobsen, and Qasimov/Morris)

Photo by Susana Millman

MUMBO SAUCE Qasimova with Alim Qasimov and Fargana

Out goes Ardeo + Bardeo in Cleveland Park to make room for Ashok Bajaj’s next restaurant, Sababa, starring Israeli cuisine.

D.C.’s busiest restaurateur, Mike Isabella, is putting his chef coat back on this month and reclaiming the executive chef title at his first restaurant, Graffiato.

MUMBO SAUCE

You can get bao buns, dumplings, and Chinese burgers at Shop Made in DC this month courtesy of Erik Bruner-Yang’s grocery store line, Paper Horse.

“Beautiful! Distills the poetic legend with charm and taste” —The New York Times

March 22–24 | Opera House Laura Hayes

Restaurant Ellē is finally serving dinner.

The grilled kimchi toast on country loaf with labneh and XO sauce is emerging as a signature dish.

Bluejacket beer is now in cans. The brewery’s popular citra-hopped IPA “Lost Weekend” is the first brew to touch aluminum.

Jackie Lee’s has a $15 Sunday special called “Family Dinner” that comes with ribs or chicken and waffles, a shot of Old Overholt, and a can of PBR or a rail drink.

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The presentation of Layla and Majnun was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 19

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CPArts

The Funk Parade will probably be canceled this year. washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

Immaterial World

The works in this collection are, by definition, high-value luxury items, and it’s worth wondering whether the artists in Brand New are actually radically re-contextualizing marketing schemes, as some of the wall text claims, or merely embracing them for the same profit-minded ends that corporations do. The most successful endeavors here are the pieces that don’t just parrot consumerism but also pack a political punch. Erika Rothenberg’s “Freedom of Expression Drugs” is a biting piece of satire, playfully marketing subversive behavior like protesting or offending the powers that be, as opposed to traditional advertising that encouraged assimilation and compliance.

The AIDS crisis also provided interesting fodder for artists with a social bent. Gran Fury, the art collective embedded in the activist group ACT UP, provided one of the most indelible messages of the era in “SILENCE = DEATH.” Shown in Brand New in neon sign form and hung to face out at street level, the slogan was slapped on everything from posters to buttons to encourage actively discussing AIDS and spreading awareness of the disease.

Donald Moffett’s “He Kills Me” is a particularly damning critique of political apathy toward people suffering from AIDS during the time. In Moffett’s original, an image of a Day-Glo target is paired with an image of Ronald Reagan stamped with the titular words. Here it’s been installed as a step and repeat wallpaper, at once both amplifying its message and all but guaranteeing that numerous selfies will be taken in front of it.

Barbara Kruger was particularly adept at lifting the language of advertising, having started her career as a graphic designer for Condé Nast, and going on to develop a signature fine art style that served as anti-advertising. In her works, bolded copy atop surreal black and white photos broadcasts grim anti-establishment slogans, such as “You rule by pathetic display” stamped over an image of a knife being rinsed in a glistening jet of water in her “Untitled (You Rule By Pathetic Display).” Kruger is one of the marquee names in this exhibit, and as such her works that co-opt advertising have in turn been co-opted for the signs and materials advertising Brand New. Ultimately, the exhibit returns full circle.

“Tormented Self-Portrait (Susie at Arles)” by Ashley Bickerton (1988) Visitors are deposited back at the start of the show, perhaps a bit deafer from the numerous televisions blarmythic and more outlandish. It would be easy to declare that ing video works throughout, and a bit dazed from the nearly 150 Koons is lambasting celebrity culture or the urge to buy, but he works on display in the showroom-esque gallery.

On the final wall, a timeline depicts the rise and fall of the GDP also holds the distinction of creating the most expensive work alongside crucial events of the decade, underscoring the inextriby a living artist to sell at auction.

Ashley Bickerton took the idea of the self as brand a step fur- cable link of the market and artmaking. As a final farewell, Apther, creating a persona called “Susie.” It began as a painting of a ple’s acclaimed 1984 commercial (an ad that was hailed for tranlogotype, and ended up becoming a sort of signature or trademark scending advertising to become something akin to art) plays on a that the artist used for a time. This culminated in “Tormented Self- small monitor in the lobby. Now, given an unironic place among Portrait (Susie at Arles),” a sculpture that resembles a vending ma- some boundary-defying enterprising artists, perhaps it is. CP chine emblazoned with logos of brands that Bickerton used. By calling it a self-portrait, he displays a very ’80s penchant for con- Independence Avenue and 7th Street SW. Free. (202) 633-1000. structing an identity based on the products one buys. hirshhorn.si.edu.

A new survey at the Hirshhorn captures how the commercially driven art world of the 1980s shaped today’s scene.

Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s

At the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden to May 13

By Stephanie Rudig As visitors step off the second-floor escalators of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, they’re greeted on the left by Haim Steinbach’s “on vend du vent,” in which the title is spelled out in billboard-sized vinyl letters. Roughly translating to “we sell air,” the piece has a clever double meaning: that anything at all, including the air around us, can be marketed and sold, and that everything sold is fleeting and ephemeral, no more than air. Though some of the works represented in Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s feel a bit weightless, content to embrace rather than challenge this growing consumerism, a number of them manage to legitimately provoke and intrigue.

Remember the ’80s? As consumer culture took hold across America, a range of artists mostly working in New York City lifted the trappings of advertising and business as a reflection of the times. Logo design and branding became their own selfcontained disciplines, and sloganeering crept into every area of life, from “just doing it” to “just saying no.”

The price of artworks sold at auction soared, with a Vincent van Gogh painting selling for what was a record $5.7 million at the start of the decade; seven years later, his “Sunflowers” sold for an unheard of $39.85 million. It was a simple product of supply and demand: Businesses as well as fine artists charged more simply because they could.

But the decade kicked off in a more collaborative and publicfacing spirit—many of the works selected for Brand New come from artists collectives, or were exhibited in several pivotal group shows of the time. As the ’70s gave way to the ’80s, artists set up galleries of their own design and published written works, toying with the idea that art could be designed by committee.

General Idea was one of these pioneering groups, and they manifested the era’s obsession with obtaining physical objects with “The Boutique from the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion,” a kiosk shaped like a dollar sign, selling prints and magazines published by group members. It functioned both as a handy piece of self-promotion, as well as a legitimate attempt to move merchandise in a product-driven era.

While some artists were hustling like Wall Street bankers to sell their works, others were in the business of selling themselves. No artist in Brand New manifests this quite as well as Jeff Koons, who’s also one of the most heavily cited in this survey. In his “Art Magazine Ads” series, he staged himself in surreal photoshoots and turned them into advertisements for himself, which he ran in respected art publications. Here, they’re blown up to movie poster size, making them look both more

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 21

CPArts Arts Desk

At the Ballston Center Gallery, two Baltimore artists explore the limits of mixed media. washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

The Scene RepoRT Check out some new tunes from D.C.’s international and rock music scenes.

—Steve Kiviat

ly on opener “The South Will Never Rise Again.” Although some cuts on this debut effort aren’t as tuneful, the powerful roar of the instrumentation, led by guitarist Mark Cisneros, keeps most of the album interesting.

RiYL: The Sonics, The Make-Up, The Fall

Dogo du Togo, “Soké Wo” Tetouda Records

Dupont Brass, Eclectic Soul Self-released

Led by former Howard University music majors, this ensemble first attracted attention playing straight-up jazz and jazzy hip-hop covers outside—you guessed it—the Dupont Circle Metro station. But they’ve since graduated to club and university gigs, too. On their third album, the ensemble boosts the tempo but keeps the lushness of Miles Davis’ “So What” and Tadd Dameron’s “On a Misty Night.” Some cuts add vocals: Their jazz-hop take on Jay-Z’s “Girls Girls Girls,” starts with flugelhorn player Jared Bailey’s smooth, Common-esque flow.

“We Major” includes both old-school vocal rhyming and even older-school scatting over the unit’s polished and tight

brass arrangements.

RiYL: Rebirth Brass Band; Guru; Donald Byrd

Des Demonas, Des Demonas In The Red Records

From the get-go, this local combo of garage and punk regulars establishes their modus operandi: fast-tempoed drums, buzzing guitar, and bubbly farfisa organ riding underneath singer Jacky Cougar Abok’s roughly spoken and chanted vocals. So what makes their three-chord ramalama different from others? Kenyan-born Abok, who has drummed with fellow scuzz-rockers Foul Swoops, stretches out the intonation of his words like The Fall’s Mark E. Smith while venting in a catchy manner, especial-

22 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

Massama Dogo is known for singing in the local Afro-pop band Elikeh but he’s been releasing solo singles as Dogo du Togo since late 2016. His singles are largely aimed at folks back in his native homeland of Togo, and his latest, “Soké Wo,” is no exception. Recorded in Togo, the song adroitly layers a mournful calland-response vocal duet between Dogo and the Association Mokpokpo chorus overtop a stripped-down groove based on a traditional rhythm of the Ewe people. This isn’t a boisterous party number; it’s a soulful lyrical plea for forgiveness.

RiYL: King Mensah; Bobo Yéyé: Belle Époque in Upper Volta compilation; Highlife music

Veronneau, Love and Surrender Self-released

Veronneau, a self-proclaimed “acoustic world-jazz,” band is back with their third album. French Canadian vocalist Lynn Véronneau sings in multiple languages as her group quietly accompanies her on delicate bossa nova, light French chanson, and swinging jazz ballads. On both covers of Serge Gains-

bourg and original ballads, Veronneau’s instrumentation is largely led by guitarists Ken Avis and David Rosenblatt, and they’re supported by guest musicians on drums, violin, bass, and kora.

RiYL: Eva Cassidy; Astrud Gilberto; Django Reinhardt

FilmShort SubjectS A Wrinkle in Time

Time and Grace A Wrinkle in Time

Directed by Ava DuVernay The besT Thing about A Wrinkle in Time is its uncompromising weirdness. Director Ava DuVernay has taken Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved coming-of-age novel—one that weaves science fiction and new age fantasy into a message of self-assurance and universal harmony—and preserved its otherworldly psychedelia. The imagery and ideas are out there, especially for a children’s film from a major film studio, and so her challenge is to make the adaptation palatable. DuVernay does not always succeed: Some characters veer from sincere to corny, and dialogue that reads forcefully sounds clunky when spoken aloud. This can happen when an ambitious director swings for the fences, as DuVernay does, and her successes mostly eclipse the occasional folly.

The Murrys are a family of brilliant scientific minds. Alexander Murry (Chris Pine) believes that faster-than-light travel is possible, though his wife Kate (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) worries his ideas will alienate the scientific community. That tension is an apt metaphor for the film itself: DuVernay dares you to accept her vision, even if it means embracing the kind of sincere writing and acting that has been outof-fashion for decades. In an attempt to prove his theory, Alexander travels via tesseract—he “wrinkles” space-time so different areas of the galaxy can be close together—and gets lost in another world. His disappearance takes its toll on Meg (Storm Reid), his oldest, by exacerbating her sense of sullen alienation in a school where cliques reign supreme.

Meg and her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) get an unexpected visitor one day. Her name is Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), who speaks in an obtuse way even if she has a sunny disposition. Charles Wallace explains that Mrs. Whatsit—along with Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling)—will help Meg find her father. The un-

likely group, including Meg’s classmate Calvin (Levi Miller) who is along for the ride, use the tesseract to wrinkle from one planet to another. As they get closer, they encounter “The IT,” a force of evil energy that has the ability to warp minds into self-absorbed negativity. The film’s central tension is whether Meg can put aside her crippling self-doubt and overcome The IT long enough to rescue her family.

In her personalized introduction to the press screening, Ava DuVernay explains how she wanted to make a film “full of light” after Selma and 13th, two challenging films that unearth systemic racism in America. Indeed, A Wrinkle in Time brims with positivity, to the point where cynical viewers may sneer at it. The three “Mrs.”—the film never explains to whom they are married— are chipper spiritual guides with bizarre affectations. Mrs. Which first appears like a giant, and the image of Oprah at 30 feet tall is more jarring than delightful. Similarly, Mrs. Who expresses herself in quotations, drawing from religious proverbs and even Lin-Manuel Miranda (he will probably think a Hamilton reference here lays it on a little too thick). As a medium, film has a way of literalizing what is abstract on the page. A giant Mrs. Which and a name-dropping Mrs. Who exist easier in the imagination than on the screen, so there is something admirable about DuVernay and her team just going for it.

A Wrinkle in Time has a surrealist streak, with multiple hallucinatory sequences that sometimes tilt toward existential horror. At one point, Meg and Calvin must outrun The IT, which has taken the form of a tornado that vacuums reality as we know it. There is another darkly comic sequence where Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace find themselves in a suburban dystopia straight out of The Stepford Wives, and DuVernay uses a simple tool to advance the perils on conformity.

This is heady stuff, and the script by Jennifer Lee trusts that children can intuit visual metaphors better than what they represent. You may have guessed that all the planets and action sequences have an episodic nature. This is the nature of the book, too, and if this pacing does not always work in the immediate moment, at least the film lingers more positively in the mind. In other words, you’ll forget the clumsy dialogue and remember Reid’s fearless performance

when, after a long journey, she sees her father and is overcome with emotion.

This film carries in the tradition of The Neverending Story and Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, two trippy children’s fantasies that probably resonated more with their intended audiences than the adults who accompanied them.

There are also echoes of The Fountain and What Dreams May Come, particularly when they explore how love is the universe’s strongest bond.

All those influences converge on a film that is important for what it includes, as well as what it leaves out. This is a multi-cultural cast, for example, with a cute boy who has a crush on a cute girl because she remains tougher and smarter than he is. DuVernay’s adaptation jettisons entire sub-plots from the book, including scenes, characters, and its more overt references to Christianity. This may upset longtime fans, and yet DuVernay created a film celebrating intelligence, courage, and self-worth for a target audience who probably questions their own.

—Alan Zilberman A Wrinkle in Time opens Friday in theaters everywhere.

tear him down should the need arise, lying that their tryst was born not of mutual consent but misconduct. And Angela finds reason to strike soon enough. Professor Ted Swenson (Stanley Tucci) has been reading her erotic prose after hours and encouraging her, so she suggests that he give his editor a few chapters. What, the editor is busy and uninterested in reading some kid’s book? Sexual harassment!

Written and directed by Richard Levine, Submission is based on the Francine Prose novel Blue Angel, which itself is based on the 1930 Marlene Dietrich film about a professor who comes undone after falling for a nightclub singer. It can’t be said that the same happens to Tucci’s Swenson: From his finding out that the charge has been filed to his informal hearing and beyond, Ted approaches the situation with a smirk, at times arguing his case but mostly looking amused by it all.

Angela doesn’t seem all that traumatized, either. At the hearing, she smilingly accepts her parents’ petting and comes forward to testify with lips slightly upturned. It’s not even an evil, I-got-you grin. She may as well be giving a presentation in front of a class.

Submission

Teacher’s reGreT Submission

Directed by Richard Levine “so if i tell you something, do you promise not to be mad at me no matter what?” In Submission, it’s not a 5-year-old who says this but a middle-aged man with about the same level of maturity. The professor has taken his wife to a fancy restaurant to confess that he’s slept with one of his students—not because he feels guilty, but because it’s likely he’ll lose his job.

She’s charging him with sexual harassment, but the accusation is baseless because she seduced him. So we’re cool, right?

Angela Argo (Addison Timlin) is the #MeToo movement’s worse nightmare: A young woman who manipulates a man so she can

It’s this lack of seriousness that keeps Submission from ever feeling newsworthy or even worthwhile as a film. Angela’s moves come too easily; she goes from Will you read my novel? to You intimidated me until I had sex with you without breaking a sweat. We don’t see the act she might have put on when leveling this accusation, just Ted’s reaction to hearing the recording she made on a clunky ’90s tape recorder. (One word: pantomime.) In fact, the whole pas de deux is simply Levine ticking off some boxes: approach (check), engagement (check), rift (check), accusation (check). Despite the smarminess that Tucci oozes, it never feels organic.

Any dramatic tension that is built vanishes at the end, with Levine again taking a ludicrous shortcut. Throughout, this charge, Angela’s lie, and Ted’s complicitness are treated as little more than a student contesting her grades. And for this, Submission gets an F. —Tricia Olszewski Submission opens Friday at West End Cinema.

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THEATERopera

The LiTTLe Prince Don Carlo

Music by Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle Directed by Tim Albery At the Kennedy Center Opera House to March 17 To appreciaTe The fucked-upness of Verdi’s beautiful tragedy Don Carlo, one would have to get into the head of Friedrich Schiller, who wrote the dramatic poem on which it was based. Clearly, he thought he had hit on the perfect setting for a historical romance: the Spanish Inquisition. But there was something missing.

“What could I add to heighten the passion?” he must have thought. “I know. Incest.”

If that would not have been your first impulse, you might not be a fan of opera, or German Romanticism: Incest also plays a key role in Wagner’s Ring Cycle, which the Washington National Opera staged in 2016. Unlike that later epic, Schiller’s play and Verdi’s opera revolved around a somewhat less gross relationship, between stepmom and stepson, an acceptable enough taboo to be a modern-day porn motif.

Consider yourself lucky to be spared The Ring’s hot sister-on-brother action on which Wagner chose to base his Teutonic origin myth, something the Nazis, who so loved both racial origin myths and Wagner, seemed to have missed.

That this incestuous romance isn’t real only adds to the absurdity of Don Carlo: There’s no record of the titular character, the son of Spain’s King Philip II, having an affair with Queen Elisabeth of Valois. Yet if Schiller or Verdi had bothered to look for real examples of inappropriate relationships in the House of Habsburg, they wouldn’t have had to invent one. The whole dynasty was inbred to the point that it died out because of it. At the height of their sordid reign, which at one time covered most of Europe, its members were beset by mental illness, and so deformed that they were unable to chew their own food, constantly drooling due to their tongues being so abnormally large. Imprisoned by his father until his death, the real Don Carlo’s problem had nothing to do with sex: He was, by all accounts, simply insane.

Verdi sets his not particularly accurate nor scintillating love triangle in Counter-Reforma24 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

tion Spain, and throws a gratuitous autoda-fé torture scene in for good measure.

In this revisionist history, Prince Carlos, a real-life sadist who liked to cook animals alive and once forced a cobbler to eat boots he deemed unsuitable, is a heroic figure, a champion of liberty for the oppressed subjects of his father’s empire.

His affections for his stepmom are merely a manifestation of his sensitive nature.

And she reciprocates in explicitly Freudian terms: “Kill your father and lead me to the altar,” she implores. But first, he must lead the Flemish to independence in the Dutch revolt, which was actually led by William of Orange and happened after Carlos died. Director Tim Albery further confuses the story by adding his own abrupt and implausible ending.

This isn’t to say Don Carlo is bad. It’s quite nice by the standards of conventional opera, if not those of conventional morality or good taste.

Verdi’s opera was a flop when it opened; originally clocking in at four hours and including a ballet, critics judged it too long. Verdi agreed and cut it considerably. But it went on to a central place in the canon for its dramatic music, particularly duets between conflicting characters. Philippe Auguin’s careful conducting captures all the suspense and anguish of Verdi’s composition, with ethereal presence by the strings and harp. His final opera as the company’s music director proves yet again WNO’s mistake in letting him go after his masterful handling of The Ring.

Auguin alone is worth the ticket, but there is solid singing all around from a cast of WNO’s best regulars. Playing the king is the always impressive Eric Owens, a sonorous bass-baritone who has anchored many of the company’s weightiest productions. Russell Thomas is capable in the title role, though often upstaged by his duet partner, Quinn Kelsey as the Marquis of Posa, with a high register, resonant baritone full of vibrato. As Queen Elisabeth, Leah Crocetto, a dominating soprano, is bright and clear, while standout mezzo Jamie Barton manages to inspire the most empathy in a clichéd woman-scorned role as Princess Eboli. And bass Andrea Silvestrelli is terrifically creepy as a hooded, Emperor Palpatine-like Grand Inquisitor.

Don Carlo is an expansive and expensive opera to put on, requiring a full orchestra and dozens of performers. It’s also still too long, even this whittled-down, four act version. There are subplots that are unnecessary or never get resolved—a stock Orientalist side story about a Moorish king, a protracted dispute over Elisabeth’s servant which never gets mentioned again. Costume designer Constance Hoffman has a dark, stylish take on the period dress, though Andrew Lieberman’s sets simply continue WNO’s “giant hole in the wall” philosophy of stage design.

Overall, it’s an impressive production that hits all the questionable marks Verdi set for it. Don Carlo is a spectacle for sure, albeit one that may make you a little queasy.

—Mike Paarlberg 2700 F St. NW. $45–$300. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

TheaTerCurtain Calls

CrescendoInBlue Lessons From the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival

Ruth oR DaRe Becoming Dr. Ruth

By Mark St. Germain Directed by Holly Twyford At Theater J to March 18 “When a rocket like the SpaceX takes off, does it remind most men of an explosive orgasm?” Dr. Ruth Westheimer tweeted to her 90,000 followers last month.

The tweet is characteristic of Westheimer’s style on the social media platform, where she finds a way to tie just about everything to sex, offering helpful tips like “If you’re celebrating #NationalPeanutButterDay the Dr. Ruth way, just make sure female partners don’t get any up into their vaginas as it could cause an infection. Otherwise, enjoy!”

Why is the nearly 90-year-old Westheimer a go-to source for saucy sensuality? Theater J’s one-woman play Becoming Dr. Ruth charts her development from a Jewish child in Frankfurt sent on the Kindertransport at age 10 to flee the Nazis, through her time as an Israeli sniper, to her ultimate breakthrough as a sex therapist and educator on radio and television, with plenty of time devoted to her romantic life.

Her world view, through which she finds wonder in the face of life’s evils and unpleasantries, can be summarized by her recollection of her pregnancy—“I threw up every morning for three months with a smile on my face.” She tackles tough situations with what she calls “Westheimer Maneuvers,” which refers not to a Kama Sutra pose but instead a way of getting what she wants outside the bedroom.

Westheimer, played with humor and verve by Naomi Jacobson, begins the play on stage surrounded by towers of white boxes. She’s moving apartments. This thematic device provides a neat way for playwright Mark St. Germain to bring together the many chapters of her life, even though it leads to a pat conclusion.

Director Holly Twyford, set designer Paige Hathaway, and props designer Mollie Singer find more ways to use those boxes than most imaginative kids might. Jacobson climbs and sits on them. They serve as viewing surfaces for projected images. Some of them hold props and, in a few delightful cases, intricate dioramas that show some of Westheimer’s previous living spaces.

Much like the boxes, the character of Westheimer contains a number of surprises.

Chief among them is that her drive to please and entertain people comes from her family, who died in the Holocaust. This knowledge adds a tinge of tragedy to the show’s many laugh lines, and over the course of the show’s 75 minutes, the giggles grow more bittersweet.

Westheimer is clearly the kind of person who tells a lot of stories, especially about her own life. That’s why the moments where Jacobson conveys that she’s said more than she’d like or broken her natural rhythm are the show’s most compelling. In a play that’s ostensibly about sex and relationships, those times actually feel intimate.

After all, you don’t need Theater J to find Westheimer’s prolific musings on sex. What Becoming Dr. Ruth provides instead is a layered look at a woman who fought for comfort—for her own family and for strangers who needed to hear that their desires matter.

—Rachel Kurzius 1529 16th St. NW. $30–$69. (202) 777-3210. theaterj.org.

The DC Jazz Festival is rightly the major local jazz event of the year—but if you’re focused on the local players, it’s the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival that rises to the top of the agenda.

That’s not meant as a slight to what DCJF organizers Willard Jenkins, Sunny Sumter et al. are doing; it’s an important showcase for our hometown scene. But Paul Carr (a prominent member of that scene, not to mention mentor to half of it) puts local players front and center. Sure, Wycliffe Gordon—one of the world’s most celebrated living trombonists— is a headliner, but what he actually headlines is an 18-piece big band drawn from around town. The Vibes Summit, another headline event, includes (OK, fine, Baltimorean) Warren Wolf and a D.C. rhythm section.

And so: Each year, President’s Day weekend is literally your jam, D.C. It’s also your professional development workshop. The MAJF— held annually at the conference venue that is the Hilton Rockville—is structured like a conference. Concerts are scheduled and ticketed in “sessions.” Ancillary events include lectures, panels, Q&A fora, and master classes.

My own experience of this year’s secondday schedule had as its first highlight a class with saxophonist Joel Frahm. Put bluntly, Frahm is an unsung badass. That morning great buzz was trailing his appearance the night before behind singer Jazzmeia Horn.

Frahm was ready to talk tech, but couldn’t do so without another display of bravura: an unaccompanied, paint-peeling “Rhythm-a-Ning” that certified his chops.

Then came good advice for the aspirants young and old, in repeatable tidbits: “Steal, steal, steal. It’s all about stealing.” “Show up on time.” “Be in the service of whatever music you’re playing.” “Ears open mouth shut.”

Later in the day, saxophonist Elijah Balbed put in a surprise appearance at a Michael Bowie-led bass master class, throwing in another epigram: “You gotta chase the music down. It’s not gonna come to you.” On the other hand, in the festival’s Billy Taylor Room (think of it as the Humanities Department) came what we might call anti-advice: a story, wrung from bass titan Buster Williams

by WPFW’s Rusty Hassan, involving Sarah Vaughan and marijuana. Hilarity ensued.

The rest was music.

If the MAJF is a conference, its plenary sessions come in the form of the college ensembles who play in the hotel’s (massively renovated) atrium. Here were two revelations. The first, Boston College’s BC bOp!, contained a harmony vocal section that was so magnificent that we’ll forgive their status being decidedly un-Mid Atlantic.

To that end, though, came the GW Jazz Orchestra, an entirely student-organized

ensemble out of Foggy Bottom. This writer chooses to blame the lack of institutional involvement for my never hearing them before— but that was an unfortunate oversight no matter the reason. The ensemble is solid, and the rhythm section crackerjack. Keep your eye out for drummer Jordan Giacoma in particular.

I will take full responsibility for my late coming to another revelation: I have seen gigs advertised here, there, and everywhere for Baltimore alto saxophonist Terry Koger and began kicking myself for missing them with his first notes in the festival’s Club Stage (a small room behind the lobby restaurant). I’m still kicking myself. Koger is an economist. Soloing on “Invitation,” he played with a clear, but not loud, tone and left perhaps more space than he occupied—tinting rather than coloring the tune.

He was capable of maximizing, and did so on a jackrabbit take on “Rhythm-a-Ning” (yes, the day’s second version, and also the second altoist of the day to quote “Meet the Flintstones”).

But it still managed to attenuate the volume and keep to lyrical ideas. Koger creates an intriguing bubble of hush around him when he plays, perhaps a side effect of his softer sound and the suspense he generates in his spaciousness.

There were more positive experiences than can fit in this space, from altoist Justin Jones (one of Paul’s “Discovery Acts” and the day’s other Flintstones fan) to vocalist Samantha Powell (the made-of-talent vocalist for the high school band competition winner, Newark Academy) to the splendid-as-always work of the aforementioned Vibe Summit rhythm section, pianist Allyn Johnson, bassist Herman Burney, and drummer Lenny Robinson (not to mention the division-of-labor approach taken by the vibists themselves, Wolf, Joe Locke, and Joseph Doubleday). But two more saxophonists deserve special mention, in both cases rediscoveries rather than discoveries. Braxton Cook is no stranger to anyone who’s followed D.C. jazz for the last decade: He’s been wowing us all since he was a teen, and his quartet performance demonstrated a stunning maturation and thoughtfulness.

The other, Tedd Baker, likewise needs no introduction. I heard him take a solo with the Airmen of Note in the atrium during the afternoon. Late at night, he took another as part of the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Orchestra (the ensemble that worked with Gordon). The tunes he soloed on are beside the point: In both cases, he burned like nobody’s business, roaring forth like a dragon with flames of music and leaving you few options but to get out of the way.

It was a powerful reminder that Baker is one of the best—in a seemingly bottomless well of great musicians. Call the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival a strictly regional festival (and since it’s named for a region, you’ll find little argument) but doubt not its value.

—Michael J. West

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CITYLIST

KAY ADAMS

Music 27 Books 32 Dance 32 Theater 32 Film 34

Music

FRI. MAR. 16 ~ 8:30PM TIX: $12-$15

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

FRIDAY Blues

The hamilTon 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000. Kat Wright. 8 p.m. $12–$17. thehamiltondc.com.

ClAssICAl

Barns aT Wolf Trap 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. John Eaton. 8 p.m. $25–$27. wolftrap.org.

COuntRY

H

Birchmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Newmyer Flyer Presents Laurel Canyon: Golden Songs of Los Angeles 1966–73. 7:30 p.m. $29.50. birchmere.com.

THU 3.8 FRI 3.9 SAT 3.10 SUN 3.11

eleCtROnIC

echosTage 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Excision. 9 p.m. $35–$55. echostage.com.

U sTreeT mUsic hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Stanton Warriors. 10 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

JAzz

TUE 3.13 WED 3.14

BlUes alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. The Bad Plus. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $45–$50. bluesalley.com.

VOCAl

Kennedy cenTer Terrace TheaTer 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Laura and Linda Benanti. 7:30 p.m. $69–$99. kennedy-center.org.

WORlD

THU 3.15 FRI 3.16 SAT 3.17

sAtuRDAY

TUE 3.20 THU 3.22

hoWard TheaTre 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899. El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico. 8 p.m. $59.50–$100. thehowardtheatre.com.

Blues

The hamilTon 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Roomful Of Blues. 8 p.m. $17.25–$27.75. thehamiltondc.com.

ClAssICAl

Kennedy cenTer millenniUm sTage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Gamer Symphony Orchestra at the University of Maryland. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

eleCtROnIC

U sTreeT mUsic hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Crooked Colours. 10 p.m. $10. ustreetmusichall.com.

FOlk

Birchmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. The Four Bitchin’ Babes. 7:30 p.m. $35. birchmere.com. songByrd mUsic hoUse and record cafe 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Jessica Lea Mayfield. 8 p.m. $15–$17. songbyrddc.com.

Union sTage 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. The Low Anthem. 7 p.m. $17–$25. unionstage.com.

GO-GO

fillmore silver spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. The Junkyard Band. 9 p.m. $25. fillmoresilverspring.com.

HIp-HOp

echosTage 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. PNB Rock & Lil Baby. 9 p.m. $30–$100. echostage.com.

MOM BABY GOD

FRI 3.23

There’s an uneasiness to Mom Baby God, the new solo show by local actor Madeline Joey Rose.

It’s a similar kind of uneasiness I felt when I first saw Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing’s 2006 documentary Jesus Camp, which traces the indoctrination of evangelical values into kids at a Christian summer camp. It’s that intersection between teenage innocence with far-right religious values that’s at the center of Mom Baby God. But let me be clear: Mom Baby God is a funny, sharp satire. Written and performed by Rose, one of D.C.’s most reliable and talented actors, the show’s setting is a not-too-distant future in which the anti-abortion movement is mobilizing its youth for a big political battle. Fourteen-year-old Destinee (Rose) is something of a poster child for the movement: a chatty, bubbly teen who’s anti-abortion video blogging has gained a big following in far-right circles. But Destinee’s values are challenged as she struggles to confront her crush on another rising Christian vlogger, John Paul. Rose’s sharp writing and indelible charisma, along with direction from Taffety Punk company member Lise Bruneau, makes Mom Baby God a necessary show for our times. The show runs through March 10 at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th St. SE. $15. (202) 415-4838. taffetypunk.com.

—Matt Cohen

SAT 3.24 TUE 3.27 THU 3.29 FRI 3.30 SAT 3.31 SAT 3.31 TUE 4.3

H

HOLLERTOWN CHAMOMILE + WHISKEY VANESSA COLLIER $12/$15 C2 + THE BROTHERS REED LEXI JACKSON GANGSTAGRASS W/ DIRTY GRASS $15/$18 SIX STRING DRAG KAY ADAMS $12/$15 BARRENCE WHITFIELD + THE SAVAGES $17/$20 KAREN JONAS COLD HARD CASH SHOW (JOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE) $10/$12 HUMAN COUNTRY JUKEBOX CORY MORROW $20/$25 SHANNON MCNALLY + ERIN COSTELO $17/$20 SARAH POTENZA THE MAMMOTHS JOE ROBINSON $14/$16 HIGHBALLERS SCOTT KURT (SOLO)

HILL COUNTRY BARBECUE MARKET

JAzz

ROCk

410 Seventh St, NW • 202.556.2050 HillCountry.com/DC • Twitter @hillcountrylive

BlUes alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. The Bad Plus. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $45–$50. bluesalley.com.

The anThem 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020.

Dropkick Murphys. 7:30 p.m. $35–$55. theanthemdc.com.

Near Archives/Navy Memorial [G, Y] and Gallery PI/Chinatown [R] Metro washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 27

thh

NEW MUSIC VENUE

NOW OPEN THE WHARF, SW DC

DINER & BAR OPEN LATE!

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

CITY LIGHTS: sAtuRDAY

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

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com 800-745-3000

Mar 8

An Evening of

EDWIN McCAIN Newmyer Flyer Presents

9

LAUREL CANYON:

Golden Songs of Los Angeles 1966-73 10

THE FOUR BITCHIN’ BABES

Christine Lavin, Debi Smith, Sally Fingerett, Deirdre Flint

WATCH Awards Ceremony -7pmEd 13 THE ZOMBIES Rogers 11

14

The Very Best of

DAVE MASON Gretchen Rhodes 15 TAB BENOIT's Whiskey Bayou Records Revue

MARCH CONCERTS SA 10

CRYS MATTHEWS w/ ECHO BLOOM

SU 11

CURLEY TAYLOR & ZYDECO TROUBLE

TU 13 W 14 F 16 SA 17

ZYDECO DANCE PARTY 3PM DOORS ZYDECO DANCE LESSON INCLUDED!

FY5 w/ THE HIGH AND WIDES SHERMAN EWING WITH SPECIAL GUEST JOHN JO JO HERMANN w/ JAMIE MCLEAN BAND AN EVENING WITH

KRISTIN HERSH & GRANT LEE PHILLIPS THE BEAT HOTEL FREE SHOW!

TU 20

WAREHOUSE WEST PRESENTS TOSHA HILL w/ SCOTT KURT

W 21

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS FEAT. KIM WILSON w/ SOLOMON HICKS MARTY O’REILLY AND THE OLD SOUL ORCHESTRA SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS PRESENTS THE REVELERS

TH 22 F 23

ZYDECO DANCE LESSON INCLUDED!

SA 24

KYLE CRAFT

F 30 SA 31

BLAIR CRIMMINS AND THE HOOKERS REVELATOR HILL w/ KAREN JONAS

APRIL CONCERTS SU 1 TU 3

CASEY NEILL AND THE NORWAY RATS JEN HARTSWICK & NICK CASSARINO

W4

SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS PRESENTS DOM FLEMONS CD RELEASE

TH 5

FORLORN STRANGERS

SA 7

JACK INGRAM w/ TRAVIS MEADOWS

SU 8

DWIGHT “BLACK CAT” CARRIER AND THE ZYDECO RO DOGGS

ZYDECO DANCE PARTY 3PM DOORS ZYDECO DANCE LESSON INCLUDED!

W 11

DELLA MAE w/ ONLY LONESOME

TICKETS ON SALE! pearlstreetwarehouse.com

16

THE OAK RIDGE BOYS “Shine The Light Tour”

17

THE MANHATTANS featuring GERALD

ALSTON

AVERY*SUNSHINE Pet 20 MARC BROUSSARD Fangs 21 ROBIN TROWER 22 SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS 23 LEE ANN WOMACK Matt 24 TOM RUSH Nakoa 25 RIDERS IN THE SKY '40th Anniversary!'

19

26

JAMES McMURTRY & JOHN MORELAND

27

MIKE + THE MECHANICS

28

An Intimate Evening with

LANGHORNE SLIM 29 CRIS WILLIAMSON, BARBARA HIGBIE, TERESA TRULL 30 MARSHALL CRENSHAW & THE BOTTLE ROCKETS 31 CLEVE FRANCIS Apr 2 BILLY COBHAM’S Crosswind Project 3

STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES ‘30th Anniversary of Copperhead Road!’ with The Mastersons

RONNIE MILSAP 6&7 MARTY STUART & His Fabulous Superlatives

5

28 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

Clueless

If you have never seen this movie you are less a “Betty” and much more of a “virgin who can’t drive.” Clueless is Amy Heckerling’s 1995 spin on Jane Austen’s Emma, and though it feels wildly trendy, Austen historians give it props for being one of the most accurate adaptations of any of her novels. It’s the story of wealthy Beverly Hills teen queen Cher (played endearingly by Alicia Silverstone) who loves to meddle in her friends’ and teachers’ romantic entanglements (she loves a good makeover) while being utterly, well, clueless about her own heart. It was a breakout film for Paul Rudd as Cher’s dreamy, uber liberal ex-stepbrother and dearly departed Brittany Murphy as the goofy transfer student Tai. The film also introduced the world to the unfortunate political hopeful Stacey Dash as Cher’s best friend Dionne. While Dash’s portrayal of Dionne is charming, her presence on screen at Suns Cinema should be as close as she should get to the U.S. Capitol building. Clueless is a delightful time capsule of the best parts of the ’90s, and still relatable to anyone who’s ever navigated the cliques and confusion of high school. Get in your car with your bestie, blast The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and get to this screening. Just don’t forget to totally pause at that stop sign. The screening begins at 8 p.m. at Suns Cinema, 3107 Mt. Pleasant St. NW. $5. sunscinema.com.

—Diana Metzger

WORlD aTlas performing arTs cenTer 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Cheick Hamala Diabate. 1 p.m. $25. atlasarts.org. eagleBanK arena 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax.

(703) 993-3000. Romeo Santos. 8 p.m. $89.50– $99.50. eaglebankarena.com.

sunDAY Funk & R&B

U sTreeT mUsic hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Trouble Funk. 7 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

JAzz BeThesda BlUes & Jazz 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. A Tribute To The Music of Phyllis Hyman. 8 p.m. $35. bethesdabluesjazz.com.

BlUes alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. The Bad Plus. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $45–$50. bluesalley.com.

OpeRA Kennedy cenTer opera hoUse 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Washington National Opera: Verdi’s Don Carlo. 2 p.m. $45–$300. kennedy-center.org.

ROCk BlacK caT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. High Up. 7:30 p.m. $12–$15. blackcatdc.com.

MOnDAY pOp

U sTreeT mUsic hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Amy Shark. 7 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

ROCk

9:30 clUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. K.Flay. 7:30 p.m. $20. 930.com. dc9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Agar Agar. 8 p.m. $10–$12. dcnine.com.

VOCAl

BlUes alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Alicia Olatuja. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25. bluesalley.com.

WORlD

Kennedy cenTer millenniUm sTage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. PunjabTronix. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

tuesDAY ClAssICAl

Kennedy cenTer Terrace TheaTer 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Bang on a Can All-Stars, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and Julian Wachner. 7:30 p.m. $29. kennedy-center.org.

FOlk

9:30 clUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. I’m With Her. 7 p.m. $32.50. 930.com.

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 29

Pearl Street WarehouSe 33 Pearl Street SW. (202) 380-9620. FY5. 8 p.m. $10. pearlstreetwarehouse.com. union Stage 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Justin Nozuka. 7:30 p.m. $20–$30. unionstage.com.

Funk & R&B

u Street MuSic hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Craig David. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

Jazz

MARCH

BlueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Dwayne Adell Trio. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $22. bluesalley.com.

F9

CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF NOTORIOUS B.I.G FEAT. SECRET SOCIETY SU 11 A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF PHYLLIS HYMAN TH 15 JANE BUNNETT & MAQUEQUE F 16 TONY CRADDOCK, JR. & COLD FRONT ALBUM RELEASE CONCERT S 17 CELEBRATE ST. PATRICK’S DAY WITH “O’MALLEY’S MARCH” SU 18 WILSON PICKETT’S MIDNIGHT MOVERS FEATURING CURTIS POPE & WINFIELD PARKER W 21 EARTH WIND & FIRE TRIBUTE “LADIES NIGHT ($1) AND 1/2 OFF BOTTLES OF WINE”

TH 22 RONNIE LAWS F 23 STONE SOUL PICNIC W SOUL CRACKERS & THE TEXAS CHAINSAW HORNS S 24 BE’LA DONA’S SPRING JAM SU 25 NORMAN CONNORS & STARSHIP ORCHESTRA PRESENTS SUNDAY BRUNCH SU 25 PHAZE II WITH MATTHEW WHITAKER CELEBRATING 20 YEARS W 28 BRUBECK BROS TRIO TH 29 CORCORAN HOLT CD RELEASE CONCERT F 30 J U SALGEBRA T A N NBLESSET OUNCED SOUL-BLUES SUMMIT: BILLY PRICE BAND W/SPECIAL GUEST JOHNNY RAWLS FRI, APR 13 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT FRI, APR 27 CONYA DOSS FEAT. LIN ROUNTREE SUN, APR 29 MELBA MOORE THU, MAY 3 JODY WATLEY & SRL FRI, APR 6

http://igg.me/at/bethesdablues 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, MD

Rock

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

Skinny Lister. 8 p.m. $15–$17. rockandrollhoteldc.com.

WoRld FRI, MAR 9

JOHN EATON

INDIANA ON OUR MINDS: THE MUSIC OF COLE PORTER & HOAGY CARMICHAEL

BARRY FLANAGAN OF HAPA

Wednesday Folk

FRI, MAR 16

State theatre 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church.

(703) 237-0300. Head for the Hills. 8 p.m. $10–$13. thestatetheatre.com.

SPHINXtravaganza

Hip-Hop

DEBUT ARTISTS

CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE BARNS

SUN, MAR 18

ALTAN

WED, MAR 21

THE SECOND CITY

u Street MuSic hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Oddisee. 9 p.m. $30. ustreetmusichall.com.

Rock

BirchMere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Dave Mason. 7:30 p.m. $55. birchmere.com.

LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE TALKING THU, MAR 22 - SUN, MAR 25

kennedy center MillenniuM Stage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Horse Lords. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

SAN FERMIN

WoRld

PETER OREN

GENERAL ADMISSION

FRI, MAR 30

BlueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Pedrito Martinez Group. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $35. bluesalley.com.

classical

catholic univerSity of aMerica 620 Michigan Ave. NE. (202) 319-5000. Sophia Pileggi. 8 p.m. Free. cua.edu.

counTRy BirchMere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Tab Benoit’s Whiskey Bayou Records Revue featuring Jeff McCarty and Eric Johanson. 7:30 p.m. $29.50. birchmere.com.

elecTRonic fillMore Silver SPring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. WMZQ Presents: Morgan Wallen with Ray Fulcher. 8 p.m. $15. fillmoresilverspring.com.

Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW. (202) 789-5429. Jonas Blue. 10 p.m. $15–$20. soundcheckdc.com. u Street MuSic hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Autograf. 9 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com. union Stage 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Random Rab. 8 p.m. $15–$25. unionstage.com.

Hip-Hop kennedy center MillenniuM Stage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Jamal Gray & Uptown Arts Showcase. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

Jazz BetheSda BlueS & Jazz 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. Jane Bunnett & Maqueque. 8 p.m. $25. bethesdabluesjazz.com.

BlueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Kevin Eubanks. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $35–$40. bluesalley.com.

Rock the antheM 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020.

MGMT. 8 p.m. $45–$75. theanthemdc.com.

BirchMere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. The Zombies with Ed Rogers. 7:30 p.m. $55. birchmere.com.

ANA MOURA WED, APR 4

AND MANY MORE! 1 6 3 5 T R A P R D, V I E N N A , VA 2 2 1 8 2

D.C.’s awesomest events calendar. washingtoncitypaper.com/ calendar

(240) 330-4500 www. BethesdaBluesJazz.com

Two Blocks from Bethesda Metro/Red Line Free Parking on Weekends

BoSSa BiStro 2463 18th St NW. 202-667-0088.

Cheick Hamala’s Griot Street. 9:30 p.m. No cover. bossadc.com.

THuRsday

washingtoncitypaper.com

30 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS: sunday

sHosTakoVicH and THe Black Monk: a Russian FanTasy

Not many string quartets can get their calls returned by Hollywood stars, but in the chamber music world, the Emerson String Quartet is as Hollywood as it gets. The celebrated, Grammywinning New York ensemble has been around for four decades, pushing the envelope in what you can do with a cello, viola, and a couple violins way beyond Brandenburg Concerto fare, all while—per their signature—standing up. So when they pitched to actors a crazy sounding mixed media project, an exploration of Dmitri Shostakovich’s obsession with The Black Monk, a nightmarish short story by Anton Chekhov that the Soviet composer tried and failed to turn into an opera, they actually got some takers. Playing Shostakovich will be David Strathairn, the masterful world-weary, laconic character actor and frequent collaborator with world-weary, laconic director John Sayles. But the bigger surprise will be a more counterintuitive choice of casting: Sean Astin, aka Lord of the Rings’ Samwise and Stranger Things’ Bob, as Stalin. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. at The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. $60. (703) 255-1868. wolftrap.org.

—Mike Paarlberg

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 31

Books AN EVENING WITH

& the

JIM BELUSHI

BOARD OF COMEDY

THURSDAY MAR

8

KAT WRIGHT

Jomny Sun The humorist and author chats about his latest, Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too, the illustrated story of a lonely alien sent to Earth. Politics & Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. March 10. 6 p.m.

Free. (202) 364-1919.

Junot Díaz The Pulitzer Prize winner and National Book Award finalist enters the world of children’d books with Islandborn, about a child whose family teaches her about her homeland for a school project. Quaker Meeting House at Sidwell Friends School. 3825 Wisconsin Ave. NW. March 15. 6:30 p.m. $20–$30. noVa teen Book FeStiVal This year’s 5th annual festival celebrates young adult fiction with a day-long event featuring books, authors, including Kwame Alexander and Tomi Adeyemi, and activities. Washington-Lee High School. 1301 N. Stafford St., Arlington. March 10. 9:30 a.m. Free. (703) 228-6200.

W/ ALLTHEBESTKIDS FRIDAY MAR

9

Dance

SAT, MAR 10

ROOMFUL OF BLUES

W/ VINTAGE #18

WED, MAR 14

SOLD OUT A BENEFIT CONCERT IN SUPPORT OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS

MASTERS OF AMERICAN MUSIC FEATURING JERRY DOUGLAS, AMANDA SHIRES, JASON ISBELL, & MORE THURS, MAR 15

THE EMBASSY OF HUNGARY PRESENTS A BENEFIT CONCERT IN SUPPORT OF THE MARTIN COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

HUNGARIAN HERITAGE BLUES FESTIVAL FEATURING LITTLE G. WEEVIL, JOHN NEMETH, & JOHN POPPER FRI, MAR 16

ClouD Gate DanCe theatre oF taiwan Pioneering choreographer Lin Hwai-min leads dancers from Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in this latest evening-length work “Formosa,” using luminous projected images of Chinese characters as a visual backdrop and music by award-winning indigenous singer Sangpuy. George Mason University Center for the Arts. 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. March 9. 8 p.m. $30–$50. (888) 945-2468. cfa.gmu.edu.

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

AMY SHARK

Australian singer-songwriter Amy Shark might be in her early thirties, but her music speaks more to the quotidian moments of young love, whether teenaged or twenty-something. Over reverb-heavy guitars and electronic whir and buzz, Shark sings slow-burning ballads full of reflections and realizations about relationships that could have been and never were. While she hasn’t garnered the stateside recognition of a contemporary like Lorde, she’s a hit in her home country: Her dreamy single “Adore” notched second place on the triple j Hottest 100 in 2016. The song is a perfect example of her clever lyricism, in which she reinvents low stakes drama in diaristic detail. Listen to her sing “I kick the gutter in tight shorts, basketball courts. Watch me, watch him talk to girls. I’m known as a right-hand slugger. Anybody else wanna touch my lover?” and try not to imagine the gym class heroes and villains in the teen movie she’s scripting. Amy Shark performs at 7 p.m. at U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St. NW. $15. (202) 5881889. ustreetmusichall.com.

—Chris Kelly

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

“S” By CirCa Australia’s Circa ensemble performs daring acrobatics and bold storytelling, and its latest showcase “S” combines the acrobatics that Circa is known for with a score from the Grammy Awardwinning Kronos Quartet. Music Center at Strathmore.

5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. March 12.

7:30 p.m. $28–$68. (301) 581-5100. strathmore.org. three worlD PremiereS Emerging choreographers Clifton Brown, Gemma Bond, and Marcelo Gomes present three newly commissioned works for The Washington Ballet that support both the evolution of ballet and the dancer. Sidney Harman Hall.

610 F St. NW. March 14. 7:30 p.m.; March 15. 7:30 p.m. $25–$118. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

ANDERS OSBORNE

Theater

W/ RYAN MONTBLEAU WED, MAR 21

AN EVENING WITH

GOLDEN GATE WINGMEN FRI, MAR 23

NIGHT I

SAT, MAR 24

NIGHT II

RED BARAAT FESTIVAL OF COLORS W/ ZESHAN B

RED BARAAT FESTIVAL OF COLORS W/ WOMEN’S RAGA MASSIVE WED, MAR 28

LIVE NATION & THE HAMILTON LIVE PRESENT

THE STEEL WOODS W/ THE TRONGONE BAND FRI, MAR 30

THE BLACK LILLIES

W/ THE BROTHER BROTHERS

THEHAMILTONDC.COM

BeCominG Dr. ruth Theater J presents the story of America’s favorite sex therapist, Dr. Ruth. She Karola Ruth Siegel had to flee Germany in the Kindertransport, become a sniper in Jerusalem, and survive as a single mother in America. Directed by Holly Twyford and starring Naomi Jacobson, Becoming Dr. Ruth is written by the author of Theater J’s Freud’s Last Session. This one-woman show is infused with humor and honesty, showcasing the life-affirming tale of a girl who created a special place for herself in the world. Theater J. 1529 16th St. NW. To March 18. $24–$69. (202) 777-3210. theaterj.org.

ChiCaGo A Susan Marie Rhea and Mark A. Rhea-directed incarnation of the well-known stage musical with classic songs from composer John Kander hits the Keegan Theatre stage. Convicted and sent to death row, Roxie Hart vies for the spotlight and the headlines, in search of fame, fortune and acquittal. Keegan Theatre. 1742 Church St. NW. To April 7. $45–$55. (202) 265-3767. keegantheatre.com. eVery Brilliant thinG Written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, this Jason Loewith-directed production is about a 7-year-old who makes a list of things to live for—from ice cream to the alphabet—after his mother’s attempted suicide that grows from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Every Brilliant Thing is a one-person show that invites its audience to become a custodian of the all-important list. Olney Theatre Center. 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. To March 25. $49–$74. (301) 924-3400. olneytheatre.org.

32 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

CRAIG DAVID

Craig David first captured hearts with his 2000 singles, the smooth “Fill Me In” and play-by-play serenade “7 Days,” from his debut album Born To Do It. The album, released when he was only 19, went on to sell more than 7.5 million copies worldwide and received multi-platinum certification in more than 12 countries. But David never planned on fading into total obscurity, remembered only as that one R&B guy from the early aughts. So, he created TS5, a performance series in which he plays more like a wedding DJ than a former star. It began a few years ago as a pre-party hosted at his Miami penthouse home, Tower Suite 5. Now, he takes his show on the road, performing sets as a DJ that feature everything from old school R&B anthems to house music, all while serving as the MC, singing and working the crowd. It’s a party you don’t want to miss. Craig David performs at 7 p.m. at U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St. NW. $20. (202) 588-1889. ustreetmusichall.com.

—Jazmin Goodwin

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

MOTOWN: HITSVILLE U.S.A.

There has never been a time when my childhood home wasn’t awash in the sweet sounds of Motown. On Sundays especially, the music was nonstop: That was house cleaning day. At the crack of dawn, my mother would rise, get her CD case out, pop in any number of Motown artists, and start mopping. As soon as I heard the opening notes of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up,” I knew it was time to get to work—I usually faked sleep to get out of it. I used to get so annoyed when my mom would turn on the oldies. I wanted to listen to Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child, and pretty much anything else topping early aughts radio charts. Now, those songs mean the world to me.

They remind me of my mother, my father, my home. This is the experience of so many others.

Not many things can convey a sense of place and take you to cherished memories, particularly for black families like mine, as easily as listening to magical black music like “Stop! In the Name of Love” or “My Girl.” Outside of nostalgia, the music is just damn good. So groove with Signature favorites Nova Y. Payton, Mark G. Meadows, and Felicia Curry as they perform selections from the Motown library, from Smokey Robinson to Stevie Wonder. The show runs from March 13 to March 25 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. $35–$70. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

—Kayla Randall

The FarnsworTh InvenTIon This regional premiere production is directed by Alex Levy and written by Aaron Sorkin, writer of The West Wing and The Social Network. Set in 1929, it centers on two ambitious visionaries who race against each other to invent a device called television. 1st Stage. 1524 Spring Hill Road, McLean. To March 11. $15–$33. (703) 854-1856. 1ststagetysons.org.

The GreaT socIeTy As civil rights protests and the horrors of the Vietnam War divide the country, President Lyndon B. Johnson struggles to maintain his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stave off his political opponents, and put forth ambitious social policy projects. Playwright Robert Schenkkan’s lauded production makes its highly-anticipated D.C. premiere. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To March 11. $56–$111. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org. hobson’s choIce Harold Brighouse’s comedy of turn-of-the-century Lancashire manners comes to Quotidian Theatre. Curmudgeonly cobbler Henry Hobson faces his ultimate choice: Take a life with three daughters in his shop forever unmarried or let them wed their sweethearts and leave him all alone.

Quotidian Theatre Company at The Writer’s Center.

4508 Walsh St., Bethesda. To March 11. $15–$30. (301) 816-1023. quotidiantheatre.org. hold These TruThs From playwright Jeanne Sakata and director Jessica Kubzansky comes the true story of Gordon Hirabayashi, the American son of Japanese immigrants who defied judicial injustice to uphold the ideals and values on which America was founded during a time of fear and rage. Hold These Truths presents an America reeling from the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and, driven by prejudice, placing its own citizens of Japanese ancestry in internment camps. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To April 8. $81–$111. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

MoTown: hITsvIlle u.s.a. No other record company has had as enormous an impact on music’s history as Motown, producing artists like Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and The Supremes, to name a few. Groove to years worth of Motown hits, from “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” to “My Girl” to “Stop! In the Name of Love.” Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To March 18. $35–$70. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org. naT Turner In JerusaleM Written by Nathan Alan Davis, this production, making it’s D.C. premiere, imagines Nat Turner’s final night in a jail cell in Jerusalem, Virginia. As Turner reckons with what the dawn will bring, the story examines the power of an individual’s convictions. Forum Theatre at Silver Spring Black Box Theatre. 8641 Colesville Road, Silver Spring.

To April 7. $18–$38. (301) 588-8279. forum-theatre.org. noura Part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Noura challenges our notions of modern marriage, the idea of home, and motherhood from the perspective of Iraqi immigrants living in New York preparing to celebrate their first Christmas as American citizens. Lansburgh Theatre. 450 7th St. NW. To March 11. $44–$118. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org. shear Madness A famed concert pianist who lives above the Shear Madness unisex hair salon dies in a scissor-stabbing murder. Set in modern day Georgetown, this interactive comedy whodunit lets its audience solve the crime. Kennedy Center Theater Lab. 2700 F St. NW. To June 10. $54. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org. speech and debaTe This black comedy with music from the acclaimed Stephen Karam (The Humans) is about outcasts in a puritanical town in Salem, Oregon. Linked by a local sex scandal, this unlikely trio of outsiders joins forces to expose the truth. Theatre

washingtoncitypaper.com march 9, 2018 33

Puzzle

CITY LIGHTS: tHuRsDAY

THE NOSE KNOWS

By Brendan Emmett Quigley

1 Like a churchgoing VIP 6 Go like Mikaela Shiffrin 9 The Raiders home, in 2019 14 Oscarnominated director for Get Out 15 Punk rock icon Gordon 16 Show jubilation 17 Start of a one-liner by 23-Across 19 Bad feeling 20 Not forthcoming 21 Preposition that comes in handy in palindromes 22 Lacking direction, electrically 23 Comic with the TV show Important Things 27 Goes downhill fast 29 Conde ___ 30 Irreplaceable string 31 It has a campus in Kingston: Abbr.

32 Snapdragon, e.g.

35 One-liner, part 2 40 Knot things up

Across

41 42 43 45 47 51 52 53 56 57 60 61 62 63 64 65

Namely, in Latin T-shirt order “Oh fuuuuu...�

Tennessee range, briefly One-liner, part 3 Some brothers Smack Indian rule Bubbe’s pancake End of the one-liner Suffered humiliation Hill tender Post-war agreements Points in 62-Across “Yoo-hoo!�

Zoo regulars (presumably if the nanny can’t think of anywhere else to take them)

5 Swimsuit model Alexis 6 Hula outfits 7 Passer of bad checks 8 Sends a quick word 9 Italian scooters 10 Ship overseas 11 Catholic ___ 12 Asian mountain range 13 Rear end 18 Rather interested 22 Vigorously, poetically

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24 Direction that becomes its opposite when an â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oâ&#x20AC;? is added to its front 25 Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Golda 26 Sign on the cross 27 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Stop everythingâ&#x20AC;?

28 Big name in hotels 31 Pretzel brand 32 Comic with the 2018 standup special Tamborine 33 Notepad part 34 Rugged vehicles 36 Ones against all odds?

37 42-Across, e.g.

38 Attach (onto) 39 Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s captured on a lot 43 Noah on the Knicks 44 Regal birds 45 Not that good, tbh 46 Thing debunked on Snopes 47 B equivalent 48 Say a few words in public 49 Coke purchase 50 Bonn river 54 Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s down when the chips are down 55 New Girl girl 57 Faux cry 58 Right on the money 59 Not of the cloth

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34 march 9, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

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With hits like â&#x20AC;&#x153;Electric Feel,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kids,â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Time To Pretend,â&#x20AC;? MGMT has electrified the hearts and minds of people across the world for more than a decade. But the release of their fourth album, Little Dark Age, represents an abandonment of the psych-pop sound of their last two albums and a segue into synth popâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;infusing electronic sounds with dark lyrics. Fitting of the albumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name, the subject matter of the album delves into the dark side of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technological landscape and the crippling effects of falling out of lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secure grasp. In an interview with EW, lead singer Andrew VanWyngarden says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This one was more having fun with how shitty things can be. Its [title is] negative, but the fact that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diminutiveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the little dark ageâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is helpful.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not permanent dark age!â&#x20AC;? Through it all, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve remained authentic in their ability to reinvent their sound, straying from being held hostage by their hits and differentiating themselves from all the rest. MGMT perform at 8 p.m. at The Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW. $45â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$75. (202) 8880020. theanthemdc.com. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Jazmin Goodwin

on the Run. 3700 S. Four Mile Run Drive, Arlington. To March 18. $20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$30. (703) 228-1850. arlingtonarts.org.

The TaroT reading A variety show like no other, The Tarot Reading presents a group of eclectic artists creating singular Tarot card-inspired acts for one.

Part vaudeville, part carnival show, and part mystical ritual, each act is interactive, performed for and with one adventurous consenting audience member. Anacostia Arts Center. 1231 Good Hope Road SE. To March 11. $5. anacostiaartscenter.com.

in a fight for survival. Co-starring Charlize Theron and Joel Edgerton. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) The leisUre seeKer Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland star as a couple traveling on an unforgettable journey in the RV they call The Leisure Seeker.

Co-starring Janel Moloney. (See washingtoncitypa-

The WinTerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tale Aaron Posner directs this classic William Shakespeare play about jealousy, prophecy, and redemption in Sicilia and Bohemia. Folger Elizabethan Theatre. 201 E. Capitol St. SE. To April 22. $35â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$79. (202) 544-7077. folger.edu.

per.com for venue information)

The Wiz This Tony-winning musical, famed for its soul-pop reimagining of the classic novel and movieThe Wizard of Oz, comes to Fordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theatre. Fordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theatre. 511 10th St. NW. To May 12. $27â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$71. (202) 347-4833. fords.org.

as a weapon. Co-starring Joel Edgerton and Matthias

The Wolves From writer Sarah DeLappe, The Wolves explores the violence and teamwork of sports and adolescence, following a group of 16-year-old girls who become warriors on the field with an ear for the empathy of the teenage years. Studio Theatre.

1501 14th St. NW. To March 11. $20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$106. (202) 3323300. studiotheatre.org.

red sparroW Jennifer Lawrence stars as a Russian ballerina who becomes a spy forced to use her body Schoenaerts. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) The sTrangers: prey aT nighT Three masked assailants terrorize a family staying in a mobile home park. Starring Christina Hendricks, Bailee Madison, and Martin Henderson. (See washingtoncitypaper. com for venue information) ThoroUghBreds Two rich teenage girls hatch crackpot plans to solve both of their problems, taking

Film

deaTh Wish Bruce Willis is a family man who, after an attack on his family, becomes a vengeance-fueled killing machine. Co-starring Vincent Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Onofrio and Elisabeth Shue. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) gringo David Oyelowo stars as a law-biding businessman who finds himself becoming a wanted man

matters into their own hands. Starring Anya TaylorJoy, Olivia Cooke, and Anton Yelchin. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) a WrinKle in Time Young girl Meg gets sent on a journey to different worlds to find her missing father.

Starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, and Reese Witherspoon. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

version of your proposal must be received by the school no later Adult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Livelinks - Chat Lines. than 4:00 p.m. EST on Flirt, chat and date! Talk March Auto/Wheels/Boat . . .20, . . 2018 . . . . unless . . 42 to sexy real singles in otherwise stated in asBuy, Call Sell, Trade . . sociated . . . . . . RFP’s. . . . . .Propos . . . . . your area. now!

(844) 359-5773 to Marketplace . . . . als .bids@washingtonglobal. . should . . . . . be . . emailed . . . . 42 WorkCommunity in Adult Films . . . . . org. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 No experience, all types, No phone call submis . . . . sion . . . or . . late . . . responses . . . . . 42 sizes, Employment races, & ages (18+). Work in films, please. Interviews, Health/Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . magazines, or from samples, demonstrahomeBody on live & streaming Spirit . . . . tions . . . .will . . be . . .scheduled . . . . 42 websites. Call United at our request after the Housing/Rentals . . . . .of . .the . . proposals . . . . 42 Casting NOW: 212-726review 2100 only.

Contents:

Legal Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Music/Music Row .Request . . . . . .for . . Proposals . . . . 42 Finance and AccountPets+ Prep . . . . PCS . . . . . . . ing . . .Services . . . . . . . . . . 42 City Arts solicits proposals for the Real Estate . . . . . LAYC . . . .Career . . . . .Academy . . . . 42 following: • Public Relations Editor Shared Housing . LAYC . . . .Career . . . . .Academy . . . . 42is Proposals and requests advertising the opporServices . . . . . . . . tunity . . . . to . . bid . . .on . .Finance . . 42 for the full RFP should be emailed to bids@ cityartspcs.org no later than 5:00 P.M., Tuesday, March 20, 2018.

and Accounting Services for one (1) year starting July 1, 2018 with possibility of renewal.

Additional specifications outlined in the Request for Proposals (RFP) such as; school information, and service needs may be obtained beginning on March 5, 2018 from Jeremy Vera at (202) 319-2244 or jeremy@ laycca.org Proposals will be accepted at until April 27, 2018 at 12 PM. All bids not addressing all areas as outlined in the RFP will not be considered.

Search classifieds at KIPP DC PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS washingtoncitypaper.com REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Landscaping: KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for Landscaping. The RFP can be found on KIPP DC’s website at http://www.kippdc.org/ procurement. Proposals should be uploaded to the website no later than 5:00 P.M., EST, on March 30, 2018. Questions can be addressed to denocencia.wade@ kippdc.org.

Interior Renovations & Locker Room Conversion: KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for 2 RFPs: Interior Renovations and Locker Room Conversion Project. These RFPs can be found on KIPP DC’s website at http://www. kippdc.org/procurement.

Proposals should be uploaded to the website no later than 5:00 P.M., EST, on April 5, 2018.

Questions can be addressed to denocencia. wade@kippdc.org.

WASHINGTON GLOBAL PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL NOTICE: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

NE DC room for rent. $700/mo. utils included.

Security deposit required Close to Metro and parking available.

Use of kitchen, very clean. Seeking Professional. Call 240-71578742.

Capitol Hill Living: Furnished room for rent in townhouse. Amenities include: W/D, WiFi, Kitchen use, and shared bathroom. All utilities included. Close to X2 Bus, Trolley, and Union Station subway. Cost $1100/month visit TheCurryEstate.com for more details or Call Eddie-202-744-9811.

Washington Global Public Charter School in accordance with section 2204(c) of the District of Columbia School Reform Act of 1995 solicits proposals for the following services:

Brookland - Spacious one bdrm for rent Open living space w/ updated galley kitchen & W/D in unit. Good closets. $1,469 + util Call Joel Martin @ 202-274-1882 or email is jn1martin@aol.com

•Spanish Instruction Services Proposal Submission A Portable Document Format (pdf) election

ROOM FOR RENT: $500.00 ALL UTILITIES INCLUDED, AROUND FLORIDA AVE AND 12TH ST NE DC. CALL OR

TEXT 202 368 2628/ Adult Phone Email: telebiz@aol.com

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Garage271941) parking.

DISSOLVED EFFECTIVE NOVEMLocated in Mt Pleasant BER 27, 2017 AND HAS FILED near Rock Park, OF ARTICLES OF Creek DISSOLUTION the Zoo, and public CORDOMESTIC FOR-PROFIT transportation.

PORATION WITH THEListed DISTRICT at Text or OF $1,395,000.

COLUMBIA CORPORATIONS DIVISION call for more information 202 999 5197.

A CLAIM AGAINST TRAVISA OUTSOURCING, INC. MUST INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE DISSOLVED CORPORATION, Computer/IT: INCLUDE THE NAMEAsOF THE sociation of American CLAIMANT, INCLUDE A SUMMAMedical seeks RY OF THEColleges FACTS SUPPORTING f/t Research andTO THE Senior CLAIM, AND BE MAILED 1600 INTERNATIONAL DRIVE, Data Analyst in WashSUITE 600, MCLEAN, VA 22102 ington DC to design, develop & maintain of ALL WILL &BEreportBARRED dataCLAIMS collection UNLESS ing appsA & PROCEEDING underlying TO ENFORCE THE CLAIM IS COMdatabase structures.

MENCED WITH IN 3 YEARS OF Req’s Master’s degree PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE or frgn equiv WITH in IT,SECTION Info IN ACCORDANCE Sys, Math, Stats, CompOF 29-312.07 OF THE DISTRICT Engg, Elec Engg, or rel COLUMBIA ORGANIZATIONS ACT. fld +3 yrs exp in data analysis, quant analysis, Two Rivers PCS is soliciting comp programming, proposals to provide project mandatabase management agement services for a small conor enggproject.

OR Bach’s struction For a copy of the RFP, please degree oremail frgnprocurement@ equiv +5 tworiverspcs.org. for yrs exp. Refs &Deadline portfolio submissions is December 6, 2017. of programming, writing & graphic display samples req’d. Eligible for p/t telecommuting benefits. Email resume to: irecruitment@aamc. org & ref 14-421.

Jobs (WashingtonDC) Compensantion: U$ 44,400.00 Annual (USD 3,700.00/month) BRAZILIAN NAVAL COMMISSION (BNC)

PUBLIC NOTICE # Legals 01/2018 - BNC Locally-hired employee DC SCHOLARS PCS REQUEST to work for the BrazilFOR PROPOSALS – Moduian Naval Commission, lar Contractor Services - DC Washington, office, Scholars Public DC Charter School supporting administrasolicits proposals for a modular tive tasks.

This professional is a FT contractor to provide position managementwith andbenefits. construction services to construct a modular Requires HS education, building to house four classrooms fluent Portuguese, Engand one offi ce suite. The lish, ID,faculty Social Security Request for Proposals and minimun age of (RFP) 18, specifi cations can be obtained on among others. American and after Monday, November 27, citizen Brazilian 2017 fromorEmily Stone via comlegal resident. Further munityschools@dcscholars.org. requirements, documenAll questions should be sent in tation submission writing byand e-mail.

No phone calls regarding this RFP at willBNC’s be acof applications cepted.Page Bids must be received by Web www.cnbw.

5:00 PM on Thursday, December mar.mil.br. Submission 14, applications 2017 at DC Scholars of from Public Charter School, Sharonda March 05 to ATTN: 15, 2018.

Mann, 5601 E. Capitol St. SE, Any questions at Tel: Washington, DC 20019. Any bids 202-244-3950 Ext 121. not addressing all areas as outlined in the RFP specifi cations will Professional Stylists not be considered. wanted for a unisex salonApartments on Florida Avenue for Rent Cap. Hill and H. Street Corridor NE-- get 50% off your first month booth rental . Plenty of off street parking and public transportation to shop location. Please send your resume wreasley29@aol.com and/or call 202-3091277.

Must see! Spacious semi-furEXPERIENCED nished 1 BR/1 BA basement IRONWORKERS/ apt, Deanwood, $1200. Sep. enWELDERS trance, W/W carpet, ONLY W/D, kitchDC RESIDENTS en, fireplace near Blue Line/X9/ V2/V4. Shawnn 240-343-7173.

To install steel stairs, rails And other miscelRooms for Rent laneous metals For commercial Holiday Special- Two furconstruction DC,or long nished rooms forinshort Maryland and Northern term rental ($900 and $800 per Virginia. provide month) withWe access to W/D, WiFi, Kitchen, and Den. Utiliall equipment required, ties included.

Best N.E. safety glasses, andlocation along H St. Corridor.

Call Eddie assistance with safety 202-744-9811 for info. or visit shoes. www.TheCurryEstate.com Miscellaneous Metals, Inc., An award winning sub contractor, offers an excellent benefit package including company paid health, prescription, life, and disability

insurance plans.

Construction/Labor Paid Time Off and Paid Holidays.

Check out our website at: www.miscmet.com Send resume: ddurgan@miscmet.com OrPOWER call Dave Simmons DESIGN NOW HIR-@ 240-674-0259 ING ELECTRICALor APPRENTICES1-240-223-4769 OF ALL SKILL LEVFax: ELS! Miscellaneous Metals, Inc. about the position…

Walkersville, MD Do you love working with your hands? Are you interFlyer ested Distributors in construction and Needed Monday-Friday in becoming an electrician? and weekends.

We drop Then the electrical apprentice you off to distribute position could be perfectthe for flyers.

NW, Bethesda, you! Electrical apprentices are able to earn Wheaton. a paycheck Silver Spring, and full240-715-7874 benefi ts while learn$9/hr. ing the trade through firsthand experience. and Overworked underpaid? what we’re looking for…

Highest part-who Motivatedpaying D.C. residents time and the how to want job to learn electrical get it.

FREE Details. trade and have a high school RUSH a self addressed, diploma or GED as well as reliable transportation. stamped, envelope to EdFenwick a little bit about us…

Box 3123 Power DesignMD is one of the Hyattsville, 20784 top electrical contractors in the U.S., committed to our AIRLINE CAREERS bevalues, to training and to givgin Get started ing here back to– the communities byin training asand FAA which we live work. certified Aviation Technimore Financial details… aid for cian.

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Home Services Dish Network-Satellite TelePOWER DESIGN NOW vision Services. Now Over 190 HIRING ELECTRICAL channels for ONLY $49.99/mo!

APPRENTICES OF FREE HBO-FREE for one year, ALL SKILLFREE LEVELS! Installation, Streaming, about the position…

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Whole Foodslooking Commissary Auction D.C. residents Motivated DC Metro Area who want to learn the Dec. 5 at 10:30AM electrical trade and have S/S Tables, Cartsor a 1000s high school diploma & Trays, 2016 Kettles up GED as well as reliable to 200 Gallons, Urschel transportation. a littleinCutters & Shredders bitcluding about 2016 us… Power Diversacut Design is one of the top 2110 Dicer, 6 Chill/Freeze electrical contractors in Cabs, Double Rack Ovens & U.S., Ranges, (12) Braising the committed to Tables, 2016to (3+) Stephan our values, training VCMs, 30+ backScales, and to giving to Hobart 80 qt the communities Mixers, in Complete Machine Shop, which we live and work. and much more! View the more details…

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Can buy Now Over 190202-355-2068 channels in bulk.

Contact for ONLY $49.99/mo! or 301-772-3341 for details or if intrested in being HBO-FREE fora vendor. one year, FREE Installation, FREE Streaming, FREE HD. Add Internet for $14.95 a month. 1-800-3736508 Woman available, offering elderly care.

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Denied Credit?? Work NEW COOPERATIVE SHOP! to Repair Your Credit Report With The Trusted FROM EGPYT THINGS Leader in Credit Repair.

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C. Heath, SOUTH John AFRICAN BAZAAR Craft Cooperative Attorney at Law, PLLC, 202-341-0209 dba Lexington Law Firm. www.southafricanbazaarcraftcoo perative.com Looking for full time southafricanba z a ar @hotmail.

Elderly Care job, flexcom ible hours. I have experience, good references, WEST FARM WOODWORKS CPR/first aide certified.

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Mon-Sat 11am-7pm, Sun 10am-6pm

Motorcycles/Scooters

New band starting to form - We are looking 2016 Suzuki TU250X for sale.

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CLEAN.band Just serto start a go-go viced. Comes bikeHipcover playing R&B,with some and $3000 Hopsaddlebags. and someAsking original Cash only. music. We are looking Call 202-417-1870 M-F between for all positions - 2nd 6-9PM, or weekends.

Keyboard player, Bass and Lead Guitar, Male Bands/DJs for Hire and Female Singer, Rapper, Drummer, and a Percussionist. Looking for serious and dedicated people to make great music with. If interested or know someone drop me an email.

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Jan. 1966. Make ofEvents fer. Email George at gcecch3458@aol.com Christmas in Silver Spring Saturday, December 2, 2017 NEW COOPERATIVE Veteran’s SHOP! Plaza 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

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