Washington City Paper (October 9, 2015)

CITYPAPER WashiNgtoN

arts: meet the wpa’s new director 27

food: can a barrel be historic?

21

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how to fix metro 13 proposals from riders, advocates, and experts 14 Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

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INSIDE

14 how to fix metro We asked some people who might know.

PhotograPhs by darrow montgomery

4 Chatter DistriCt Line

7 9

10 11 12 13 33

Loose Lips: ANC versus PAC? City Desk: How does D.C.’s proposed family leave policy stack up?

Unobstructed View Gear Prudence Savage Love Straight Dope Buy D.C.

D.C. feeD

21 Young & Hungry: Is a concrete barrel a historic landmark?

23 Grazer: Sauce-O-Meter 23 Underserved: PX’s Feel Better and Get Well 23 The ’Wiching Hour: Beef ’n Bread’s The Chinatown

arts

27 Best Weighed Plans: Meet the WPA’s new director 29 Arts Desk: After ten years, the Spooky Movie Film Fest grows up—sort of.

29 One Track Mind: Governess’ sweet and haunting “Animals” 30 Short Subjects: Olszewski on Yakuza Apocalypse and Gittel on Freeheld 32 Theater: Klimek on Bad Dog and Alice In Wonderland

City List

35 City Lights: Daniel Bachman performs at Red Onion Records—again.

35 Music 40 Theater 44 Film

45 CLassifieDs Diversions 46 Dirt Farm 47 Crossword

“ ”

And this isn’t dispArAging, but they All Are very old. —pAge7

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 3

CHATTER Not Very Neighborly

In which readers debate Planned Parenthood

Darrow MoNtgoMery

When abortion is the topic at hand, as it

was in last week’s cover on D.C.’s under-construction Planned Parenthood facility (“Don’t You Be My Neighbor,” Oct. 2), you can expect a nuanced conversation devoid of ad hominem attacks—if you live in an alternate universe where civility is still cool. Masters N. Johnson focused on the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, the man behind the campaign to find a way to keep the facility from opening: “I hope they put in an abortion mill next to his house and/or office, to make him move. And then, if he moves to any other place in DC, let them move the abortion mill next to his new place. And do that either until he leaves DC or until his head explodes. Win-win.” Mahoney also had his fans, including Kimberly Wedel: “History will look back on Mahony as one of our nations greatest civil rights heroes. With the country steadily moving onto the pro-life side (more than 50% of the population considers themselves pro-life) years from now people will look back in horror at the atrocity of abortion. Just as we look back at slavery. Future generations will be appalled to know that this barbarity was once legal. To the pro-abortion people just know that history will call you monsters.”

Wedel was also curious to know why it took more than 20 hours for a certain moderator, who may or may not have been drinking to forget, to approve a comment left on a Friday night: “Are you silencing opposition? If you are so secure in your beliefs why not allow opposing views?”

The only thing this writer believes in, Ms. Wedel, is the right to a weekend away from Internet comments.

—Sarah Anne Hughes Department of Corrections: Last week’s cover incorrectly stated that Kathleen Burke has lived in the D.C. neighborhood where a Planned Parenthood facility is opening for all 36 years of her life. She has lived in D.C. for her entire life and the neighborhood for 8 combined years.

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

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DISTRICTLINE Loose Lips

New PAC aims to take on ANC commissioners Andy Shallal, at-large?

Orange Split

Darrow Montgomery/File

Adrian Jordan wants to shake up one of the most entrenched branches of the District government: Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.

While many members of the District’s 40 ANCs pull long hours for their constituents without pay, not every commissioner is so scrupulous. In recent years, ANC commissioners have figured into a phone sex scandal and a shoving fight. Sometimes, they manage to make it a paid position after all, by pilfering an ANC bank account. Less scandalously— although maybe more galling for their foes—they can use the ANC’s ability to issue recommendations on liquor license changes to hold up or quash new businesses.

Jordan, a former committee staffer for Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, saw firsthand the commissioners’ power in the developing, politically active ward. Now he wants to take them on, by using a political action committee to defeat “obstructionist” ANC commissioners.

Jordan, who says he’s working with other Ward 5 activists to get the PAC ready for 2016 ANC elections, plans to focus the group’s efforts in the ward first. He was inspired by recall efforts aimed at ANC 5D commissioners opposed to intrigue-prone Ward 5 ANC Commissioner Kathy Henderson—exactly the kind of commissioner who Jordan would likely want to oust.

Instead, Jordan is looking for ANC candidates who can bring the “Kenyan McDuffie brand” to their commissions.

“He definitely sold me on changing Ward 5 politics from basically being Thanksgiving turkey giveaways and going out to rec centers all the time to actually being legislation and doing quality things,” Jordan says of his old boss.

McDuffie isn’t currently involved in Jordan’s

washingtoncitypaper.com/go/bikeshare

continue to tolerate so much obstruction from these groups,” Lee says.

Jordan also wants to see changes at the District’s Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Rather than keeping ANC funds in vulnerable bank accounts, for example, Jordan wants to see the government hire an ANC procurement employee. Also on the agenda is updating technology at the office.

“Right now there’s three people,” Jordan says of the ANC office’s staff. “And this isn’t disparaging, but they all are very old.”

ANC You Later?

By Will Sommer

Capital Bikeshare may add up to 99 stations in the coming years.

PAC plans, although Jordan plans to focus much of his initial fundraising on McDuffie donors.

Jordan’s PAC sounds like good news for Mark Lee, a Washington Blade columnist whose liberal approach to nightlife laws leads him to advocate for abolishing ANCs entirely.

Lee points to the months-long wait new businesses often face for ANC approval as one reason for ANC reform.

“It just sort of begs the question why we

Loose Lips headed to Busboys and Poets’ Brookland location Friday night, and he’s not even into vegan food. Instead, LL was drawn by the possibility that Andy Shallal—mogul of the restaurant chain, failed 2014 mayoral candidate, and occasional muse for lefty artists—would announce his run for a D.C. Council at-large seat.

About a dozen people who understand campaign finance better than LL explained why Shallal’s announcing at his own business would be a bad idea. Shallal held off, even though some party attendees like former domestic bomber Bill Ayers thought a Shallal candidacy would be a great idea (fellow Weather Undergrounder Bernadine Dohrn isn’t so sure).

Shallal’s entry into the race may still be at least a little hypothetical—apparently, he’s telling people he plans to run—but it’s occasioned more of the usual complaints when it comes to campaigns against At-Large Councilmember Vincent Orange. The problem with people who want to unseat Orange, the councilmember’s foes gripe, is that there are too many of them.

In 2011, when Orange returned to the Council after losing the 2006 mayor’s race, he only won 29 percent of the special election. That was a heartbreaking figure for the kinds of voters who backed self-styled reform or progressive Orange rivals Sekou Biddle, Patrick Mara, and Bryan Weaver, who ended up splitting roughly 58 percent of the total vote between them. Republican Mara came the closest, getting within four percent of Orange’s total.

Orange had similar good fortune in the 2012 Democratic primary, where Biddle was foiled again by vote-splitting.

This time, the spoiler was recently arrived Marylander Peter Shapiro. Biddle was just

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 7

DL

DISTRICTLINE

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three percent away from Orange; Shapiro, meanwhile, picked up almost 11 percent of the vote. It was an outcome made more disappointing for their supporters because it was so obviously going to happen—ahead of the election, both sides angled to get the other to drop out to avoid another four-year term for Orange.

Now Orange’s term is coming to a close, and, thanks to a slam from the ethics board, a willingness to parlay with lobbyists, and a dismal mayoral campaign, he looks like exactly the kind of incumbent who’s vulnerable in District elections these days.

This is a guy who got busted helping out a food business caught with rat crap (to be fair, Orange’s version of that story is a little more flattering). Besides, his 2014 mayoral campaign antics—filing a lawsuit to get into a debate, getting eyeballed as the recipient of a Jeff Thompson shadow campaign—didn’t exactly suggest a golden political future.

The 2012 election saw At-Larger Michael Brown booted out for ethics candidate David Grosso; Brianne Nadeau beat Metro wheeler-dealer Jim Graham in Ward 1 last year, while Muriel Bowser did the same to scandal-plagued Vince Gray in the mayor’s race.

Orange could have been fated to join his ex-Council colleagues; instead, he looks set to win another term. You can thank his many challengers for that.

First in was smart-growth type David Garber, whose position as a white candidate beloved by the Greater Greater Washington set doesn’t promise to dent Orange’s black constituency in Ward 5. Robert White—a staffer for Attorney General Karl Racine— has his own plans to run again after a failed 2014 at-large bid, but hasn’t entered the race yet. With Shallal, that would split the antiOrange vote three-ways in the primary—and you know there are two or three other people who think this is their shot.

Garber’s campaign claims, not entirely convincingly, that they aren’t worried that Orange will squeak into office on another split vote.

“Folks are late to the game,” Garber campaign consultant John Rodriguez says of other Orange challengers. “And at this point, they are so far behind they don’t even matter.”

Whether Garber’s time advantage matters will be revealed next week, when the campaigns file their latest finance reports. In the meantime, LL would bet on Orange to win, if betting on Council races was a thing. Maybe DraftKings can do something here. CP Got a tip for LL? Send suggestions to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. Or call (202) 650-6925.

DISTRICTLINE City Desk

Tomorrow’s history today: This was the week that the “Vince Gray is returning” rumors started looking real, with Jack Evans calling the as-yet-unindicted former mayor a “formidable candidate.”

LiberaL Leave

This week, Councilmembers David Grosso and Elissa Silverman introduced a bill that would guarantee 16 weeks of paid leave to D.C. residents who work both in and outside the District, under certain circumstances. These include becoming parents of a newly born or adopted child, taking care of a sick parent, preparing for a relative’s military deployment, and undergoing major surgery.

“A lot of people can’t afford to take extended periods of time off without any income,” says Sarah Jane Glynn, director of women’s economic policy at the Center for American Progress. “And having a new baby is something that’s quite expensive as well: You have all these new costs and then your income drops to zero...That [setup] places people in a bind that is unnecessary.”

Still, the District’s business community has already voiced concerns over the bill, worried that it could reduce employers’ bottom lines and make D.C. less economically competitive. “What if this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back?” says Harry Wingo, president and CEO of the DC Chamber of Commerce. “Make no mistake: This is a tax on businesses. It sounds like a great deal but it’s not a good deal in that it could hurt businesses and drive jobs out of D.C.” So, if it passes the D.C. Council, is signed by the mayor, and survives a 30-day review period in Congress, the law would establish the most liberal paid family leave policy in the U.S. But who actually qualifies? And how does it stack up against similar paid-leave policies across the country? We examine those questions below.

—Andrew Giambrone

Jurisdiction

D.C.

RI

CA

NJ

Maximum Number of Weeks of Paid Leave Per Year

16 for family and/ or self-care

4 for family care 30 for self-care

6 for family care 52 for self-care

6 for family care 26 for self-care

Eligibility

Employee must have worked for 50 percent or more of the previous year for any covered employer (all District private companies, but not the federal government or out-of-state employers)

Employee must receive at least $10,800 during base period and contribute to temporary insurance fund

Employee must receive at least $300 in gross wages during the base period

Employee must work at least 20 calendar weeks and make at least $165 per week or $8,300 per base period

Benefit Amount

100 percent of pay for those making $52,000 or less; $1,000 per week plus half of extra income, up to $3,000 per week, for all others

Up to $770 per week

Up to $1,104 per week

Up to $604 per week

Who Pays?

Employer (up to 1 percent of payroll)

Employee

Employee

Employee and employer

Effective Date

If approved, the law could become effective by mid2016 at the earliest.

2014

2004

2009

Source: National Partnership of Women & Families

“[This deal amounts to] that paltry promise of beads and blankets that they give us for the island.”

—D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s settlement with Exelon, apparently referencing the sale of Manhattan Island for beads.

Bowser announced Tuesday that her administration had settled with Exelon to supports its merger with Pepco in exchange for $78 million in community benefits. While Bowser won over some holdouts—including Attorney General Karl Racine—not all merger opponents were convinced the deal will be good for D.C. Read more at washingtoncitypaper.com/ go/pepcodeal.

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UNOBSTRUCTEDVIEW Hope for Sale

By Matt Terl Max Scherzer pitched one of the greatest games in Major League history last weekend, his second no-hitter of the year. D.C. United snapped its losing streak and clinched a playoff berth. The Pigskins not only won, they came from behind, looked dominating on defense, and avoided (or at least overcame) their characteristic idiotic miscues.

The D.C. sports cynic might claim that this cluster of good news is just a malevolent universe ensuring that we understand joy so we can better plumb the depths of misery, but in reality events like these are the reasons we slog through the misery.

The whole point of watching sports is to experience these vicarious thrills, the moments that make you fistbump the stranger next to you at a bar or punch the roof of your car.

They’re also really important to ignore.

The Scherzer no-hitter is weirdly ignorable despite its greatness, because it’s a last twist of the knife of a lost Nats season.

D.C. United’s progress is ignorable because there’s still regular season games to play, and because (#realtalk) most people just ignore United anyhow.

The Pigskins win is trickier. From one perspective, it’s exactly the sort of win to like: They showed dominance in the first half and resilience in coming back from a blown lead. They overcame injuries to their defense, and they had unheralded young guys step up to make plays. This is the sort of win that you look at and think, “Man, maybe these guys have turned a corner, and maybe Jay Gruden isn’t totally in over his head.” It’s a win that stokes the dying embers of hope in even the longest-suffering Pigskins fan.

Problem is, if there’s one thing this team excels at, it’s selling hope. This is just them doing it in-season instead of out of season.

The players are espousing an internal mandate not to discuss the past, which sounds good in theory, and is probably best for the players (especially the new ones, who haven’t yet been poisoned by the sheer Eeyore-ness of this market). As a viewer, you would have to be delusional not to think about this team’s past almost constantly.

When I think of a Pigskins team “turning the corner” and winning a game that seemed like a franchise-changer, I think (as I so often do) of Jim Zorn. Specifically, I think of Jim Zorn’s 2008 team, which also won a big division game in Week 4—Dallas, that time, instead of Philadelphia.

10 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

It’s largely forgotten now, eradicated by the burning carnival that Zorn’s tenure became, but that win made Zorn’s team 3-1, and Zorn was being touted as a Coach of the Year candidate at the quarter pole of the season. The offense dominated on the ground, running over the Cowboys for 152 yards, which led to the most memorable image of that entire game: Owner Daniel Snyder greeting players in the locker room, screaming “WE PLAY PHYSICAL WE WIN,” captured on video for posterity. (Well, not posterity, as it seems to have been largely scrubbed from the Internet, but you can still find blog posts describing the incident around a busted video link all over the circa-2008 web.)

For all the criticism Snyder receives, one thing is largely undisputed: He is an enormous Pigskins fan, for good and for ill. (Well, not Pigskins. He would probably HAAAAAAAAAATE to be called a Pigskin fan—he hates the whole idea of not using the name. But you know what I mean.) And that moment is the apotheosis of that. It was one big win against a division rival and he’s bought in on the idea that the whole culture and identity of the team had shifted.

I believe that this moment is why Snyder wound up being so very disappointed when things went wrong with Zorn. I think that this moment underlies all the catastrophe that follows: the bingo caller calling plays and the barely-veiled pursuit of Mike Shanahan and even Zorn’s eventual firing, all seeded here. Because Snyder the fan believed too much in one Game 4 win over a division opponent and his team eked out a win of less than a touchdown.

It’s important to remember the past.

It’s important to be cautious, to think about the losing seasons back to 1993, the parade of coaches over the last decade, the apparent unwillingness to pick a direction and stick with it. And the off-the-field stuff, too: the bizarre, Orwellian insistence that people who claim that the team’s name belittles them and their culture are somehow not people who actually matter; the the fan experience at the stadium; the way the team repeatedly makes itself a public laughing stock on- and off of their torn-up, embarrassing field.

It’s important to keep those things in mind and be cautious while you enjoy the win. Because if you don’t, before too long you may find yourself on a Crown Royal-fueled flight to Denver, looking to hire someCP one else you’ll regret later.

Follow Matt Terl on Twitter @Matt_Terl.

Gear Prudence: Sometimes I’ll find myself first in line at a red light. If there’s not a bike lane, I usually take the lane so drivers don’t try to pass me unsafely when the light changes. Often (at least a couple of times a week), a driver behind me will honk because they want me to get out of their way so they can turn right on red. I just ignore it. But I’ve also encountered people who are not rude about it— they’ll lean out the window and say, “Hey could you scoot over a bit so I can turn?”

Sometimes they even say please! I don’t want to be rude, [but] I also don’t want to have a long conversation about safe bicycling practice, and I really don’t want to put myself in a position where I’m in danger of being right hooked or passed unsafely. What should I do?

—Should Cyclists Oblige Overt Turners?

Dear SCOOT: You’re in a tricky spot. On one hand, scooting seems like a reasonable ask, and you would seem like a rude jerk if you ignored it. On the other hand, it would be remarkably difficult to explain in a succinct way why you’re declining the request and furthermore why you shouldn’t be obliged to sublimate your safe travel to their desires for a quicker turn. On the third hand (this question has nearly as much complexity as Goro from Mortal Kombat), grabbing your leg, yelling “ah, my trick knee!”, and falling to the ground in fake agony would preclude any further expectation of action on your part. But writhing until the light changes and then suddenly hopping back up requires a level of gall and chicanery not even present in Serie A. If you feel obligated to respond to a direct question (and politesse suggests that you should) and you really don’t feel like trying to move out of the way, buy yourself some time by asking them to repeat the question. Nod along, and then say, “Oh yes, definitely. But I’m going straight, so I can’t.

Sorry.” Don’t be overly dramatic. The vast majority of drivers will understand, and if your demeanor is sufficiently pleasant, the chances of them escalating the situation are small. And then hope that the light changes soon thereafter. After all, right-on-red isn’t a constitutional right. It’s a thing that happens when the circumstances allow, and when they don’t, oh well.

If you do feel the desire to move out of the way, never put yourself between the car and the curb. If you scoot, scoot forward, but don’t block the crosswalk. Then again, you could save yourself this trouble if you never stop at red lights. GP wouldn’t recom—GP mend that though.

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Gear Prudence is Brian McEntee, who tweets @sharrowsDC. Got a question about bicycling?

Email gearprudence@washcp.com. washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 11

SAVAGELOVE I’m a gay man who is ready to start cheating on my boyfriend. We’ve had a wonderful 3.5-yearlong relationship full of respect, affection, support, and fun. I love everything about our relationship, and our sex life was great… until he moved in eight months into the relationship. At that point, he lost all interest. I’ve tried everything: asking what I can do differently, being more aggressive, being more passive, suggesting couples therapy, getting angry, crying, and breaking up twice. (Both breakups lasted only a few hours because I honestly don’t want to leave him.) When I bring up an open relationship, he just goes quiet. I’ve moved past most of the anger, frustration, hurt, embarrassment, and sadness. But I won’t accept a life of celibacy. I would like to get some discreet play on the side. My boyfriend is very perceptive, and I’m a bad liar. I don’t want to get caught—but how should the conversation go if (when) I do? I’m leaning toward something like this: “I’m sorry it came to this and I know we agreed on monogamy, and I gave you monogamy for 3.5 years, but part of agreeing to monogamy is the implicit promise to meet your partner’s sexual needs. Everything else about our relationship is wonderful, but we couldn’t fix this one thing, so instead of continuing to push the issue, this is what I decided to do.” Good enough?

—Can’t Help Exploring Another Tush The speech you’re planning to give after you get caught is lovely, CHEAT, but you should give it before you get caught. Tell your boyfriend you love him—you would have to, considering what you’ve put up with for nearly three years—and that you have no desire to leave him. But while your relationship is wonderful in many ways, it’s not sexual in any way. And while you’re willing to settle for a companionate relationship, you’re not willing to settle for a sexless existence.

Rather than being threatened by your occasional, discreet, and safe sexual adventures, CHEAT, your boyfriend should be grateful for them. Because those sexual adventures, and your boyfriend’s acceptance of them,

will make it possible for you to stay together. Hopefully he’ll see that the men you’ll be fucking on the side aren’t a threat to your relationship but its salvation.

If your boyfriend can’t see that, if he insists that your relationship remain monogamous and sexless (wouldn’t that technically mean he’s the only person you don’t have sex with?), give breaking up another try. The third time might be the charm.

—Dan Savage

I care about this guy, but I don’t want to come off as “mommy” or “creepy.”

I’m a woman in a hetero marriage. My husband and I enjoy skimming the Craigslist “casual encounters” section. It’s like people-watching, but NSFW. We recently stumbled on an ad posted by a male friend. The ad was soliciting gay mutual BJ/HJ, with the stipulation that the first one to come (the loser?) gets fucked in the ass by the other (the winner?). Other than the concept of winners and losers during sex, I’ve got no issues.

The thing that gnaws at my conscience is this: Our friend is a young guy, bi-curious, and impulsive. Once I got over the giggles of glimpsing a dick pic that was not intended for my eyes, I began to worry about our friend’s risky behavior. Do I say something? I care about this guy, but I don’t want to come off as “mommy” or “creepy.”

—Dude’s Extremely Risky Plan Elevates Stress

My first impulse was to tell you to mind your own business—or MYOB, as the late, great Ann Landers used to say (google her, kids)—because you don’t actually know if your friend is taking foolish risks. He could be using condoms, taking Truvada, and carefully vetting his play partners. But if I spotted a friend’s dick on Craigslist in an ad that left me the least bit concerned for his safety, I would say something. I don’t mind coming off as “mommy” (meddling mommy impulses are a requirement for this gig), and if looking out for your friends is “creepy,” then I’m a creep.

I’d go with something like this: “I spotted your ad—and your cock—on CL. What you’re looking for sounds hot. But I hope you’re being safe: using condoms, being choosy, taking Truvada. And speaking from experience, getting fucked right after you come sounds sexy in theory, but it’s not much fun in reality. So I hope you’re taking a refractory-period-length break—maybe for ice cream?—be—Dan fore the loser gets fucked.”

I’m a gay man in my late 20s, and I can’t get fucked. I have tried to train my ass, but the largest thing I can place inside remains a small butt plug. If I try anything bigger, the pain is unbearable. I’ve always been a very anxious person, and it’s clear my anxiety goes right to that area. Sometimes, after trying to place something larger inside me (using tons of lube, of course), I will get a hemorrhoid.

Since those are horrible to deal with, I think my mind has started to associate any type of anal play with getting hemorrhoids. The problem is that I feel like I’m a bottom. Yes, I will top guys, and I don’t mind it, but I find that the men to whom I’m most attracted want to fuck me, which is something I would like. I’m at my wit’s end because I feel like my relationships/hookups/FWB situations are all negatively affected by my inability to get fucked.

—Determined Efforts Fully Enrage Anal Tissues

“Anxiety and fear can definitely make those muscles tighten up. And unfortunately, worrying about pain during sex makes it worse,” said Charlie Glickman, sexuality educator and author of The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure (makesexeasy.com). “His hemorrhoids are probably caused by the anus squeezing really hard and trapping blood in the arteries inside the anus.”

So what can you do to alleviate your anxiety, fear, and squeezing? “The first thing for him to do is use a salve on the skin around and inside the anus,” said Glickman. “Apply it after washing, and it doesn’t take much. It’s like putting lip balm on dry lips. Cocoa butter or coconut oil work well. I also like the golden seal and myrrh formula by Country Comfort.

Apply it twice a day.”

Give those balms some time to work before you start exploring again. And once you start: breathe deeply, take it slow, and play with your cock too. “Arousal helps,” said Glickman, “so he should be sure to include cock pleasure before going near his anus. It’ll also help if he explores external anal massage without going inside. That can help his body unwind the tension and let go of the flinch response. There are lots of great external massage moves that can feel amazing on their own or as part of foreplay. Look for the anal massage how-to videos on eroticmassage.com.”

Enjoying a few dozen—or a few hundred— orgasms with your ass in play but not the focus, i.e., your ass is being stimulated but not penetrated, DEFEAT, and you’ll begin to associate anal stimulation with pleasure and victory, not pain and hemorrhoids. Then you can give penetration another go: taking time to warm up, using lots of lube, pivoting to something else if it’s too painful.

Follow Charlie Glickman on Twitter —Dan @charlieglickman.

Send your Savage Love questions to mail@savagelove.net

11/07/15 12 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

THESTRAIGHTDOPE There is, admittedly, something a little uncomfortable about a phrase like “cell death.”

Cells are what we’re made of; death is bad; etc.

So given certain facts, Maja, yours is a reasonable question: Walnut trees, along with other members of the Juglandaceae family (pecan, hickory), do produce a compound called juglone. And the 2005 study you linked to in your email, from the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, did indeed find that juglone induced death in the human cells researchers applied it to. The authors concluded their report with the suggestion that “since juglone is present in human health and beauty products, a further understanding of its effects on human cells is warranted.”

They weren’t the first to wonder about juglone’s potential effects on human well-being. Scientists before and since have explored that very question—but mainly what they’re looking at is whether a little juglone might actually be a good thing.

First, though, let’s back up. The various nonalimentary benefits of juglone, medicinal and otherwise, have been well-known for ages.

(And it’s nonfood uses I’m talking about exclusively here: Juglone, found in the walnut tree’s roots, bark, leaves, wood, and green nut-hulls, is unrelated to allergies triggered by eating the nuts themselves.) In the early 20th century, for instance, American doctors prescribed juglone to treat various skin conditions.

In addition to enumerating its long career as a natural medicine (as well as an ingredient in hair dye), a 2012 literature review suggests we haven’t yet tapped juglone’s full potential, including as an herbicide and biocide— the authors propose using it to rid ships’ ballast water of invasive marine species. These properties, too, are already folk knowledge.

Lazy fishermen used to dump unripe walnut hulls into ponds to take advantage of juglone’s toxic effects; the stunned fish would float to the surface, easily collectible. And as an herbicide, juglone will be familiar to backyard gardeners as the reason you don’t want to grow some vegetables too close to a black walnut tree, the richest source of juglone in the Juglandaceae family.

So far, so good: This is potent stuff, and humans have figured out some crafty ways to deploy it that, often as not, exploit its unique lethality. But inside the body? That 2005 paper you cite found two responses juglone produced in human cells: necrotic and apoptotic. Necrotic’s no good. That’s the capital-D death you’re worried about but scientists evidently aren’t—I wasn’t able to find much more research into juglone’s necrotic tenden-

Slug Signorino

If juglone can induce cell death in humans, how are walnuts good for us? Is it juglone in walnuts that causes walnut/pecan allergy?

—Maja Ramirez

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cies. They’re far more interested in getting juglone to induce apoptosis, which is the naturally occurring process, also known as “programmed cell death,” by which our bodies cycle out cells that are no longer wanted, or that present a threat to our health. Scientists’ thinking is this: Can juglone be used to produce an apoptotic response in something really nasty inside of us—say, cancer?

The research has certainly been promising. A 2009 study in Cell Biology International reported on exposing, in vitro, a chemotherapy-resistant line of melanoma cells to juglone; the juglone did enough of a number on the cells and their tendency to proliferate that the scientists suggested the compound might be characterized as an anticancer agent according to criteria put forth by the National Cancer Institute.

And we haven’t exhausted juglone’s medical possibilities even where cancer’s not concerned.

One recent study found that its antimicrobial properties prove effective against Acanthamoeba, a common protozoan that can cause granulomatous amebic encephalitis, a rare but highly unpleasant infection of the brain and spinal cord that affects people with compromised immune systems; researchers floated the idea of using juglone as a disinfectant in hospitals. It’s shown potential as an antiviral agent, too, as when it was recently pitted to salutary effect against the protein 1a8g, an enzyme in HIV. I’ll allow as to there being one distinct danger associated with a full-grown black walnut tree, as evidenced by the long-running saga of several Toronto residents trying to get permission to remove such a tree from their neighborhood. It seems the walnuts fall so hard and heavy that somebody getting seriously beaned is, to hear the locals tell it, practically inevitable. When in 2007 the city council considered their most recent anti-tree petition, one witness cited her 87-year-old mother as a potential victim: “A good whack from one of those fruits is probably going to see the end of her.”

“Walnuts do fall,” Toronto’s parks chief admitted, “and they could cause a little bruise.”

But the council still blocked the tree’s removal, deeming the hazards it posed to be, appar—Cecil Adams ently, quite negligible.

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Have something you need to get straight? Take it up with Cecil at straightdope.com washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 13

how to fi

14 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

ix metro

Thirteen proposals from riders, advocates, and experts PHOTOGRAPHS BY DARROW MONTGOMERY

Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board released “urgent safety recommendations” regarding the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Metrorail system. Finding the Tri-State Oversight Committee to be understaffed, under-resourced, and effectively impotent to ensure Metro improves, NTSB recommended the U.S. Department of Transportation ask Congress to “classify WMATA as a commuter authority,” placing it under the oversight of the Federal Railroad Administration. “Without adequate oversight, accidents and incidents will continue to place the riders of the WMATA system at risk,” NTSB Chairman Chris Hart said in a letter.

Dan Tangherlini Former WMATA interim general manager; city administrator under D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty; former United States General Services Administration administrator; chief operating officer Artemis Real Estate Partners I have the unique position of being someone who was actually responsible for answering this question—at least for nine months in 2006.

The problems of today are the same I dealt with nearly ten years ago. They are just ten years less resolved. Funding, governance, culture—yes, these need to be fixed. But you can’t do that in 200 to 400 words. What can be said quickly is that the leadership should re-adopt the one-point plan we proposed: “Put the customer first.” If you put the rider first you will make the system safe first and foremost. Riders should not be afraid to get on a train or a bus, and Metro should do everything it can, all the time, to make people feel safe. Putting the rider first will also prioritize making the system more reliable, cleaner, brighter, and even

more fun. Remind people that they are making a smart choice; a sustainable, socially-responsible decision to team up with their neighbors to make the DMV a better place to live, work, learn, and play.

Riders can help by recognizing the hard work and dedication of front-line Metro employees. Yes, you heard that right, thank a Metro employee for their service and commitment. By reestablishing a bond between those who actually run Metro and those who actually ride it, a common sense of purpose and resolve can make it better. In fact, together, riders and employees can show the authority and regional elected leaders how to recommit to Metro investment, performance, and results. To fix Metro, those who need and support it have to get involved and engaged, not just complain.

Oh, while we are at it: rip out those alwaysdirty carpets in the railcars; replace the burntout lights with LEDs; and let more people perform in the stations.

gabe Klein Former transportation director under D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Chicago

Indeed, as NTSB notes in its letter, Metrorail has been investigated 11 times in the past 33 years for incidents that killed 18 people, including nine in the 2009 Red Line crash. Instead of holding out hope that Metro will get better, safer, and more reliable, riders have begun to abandon the system; rail ridership is down five percent over the past five years, according to a recent Metro Finance and Administration Committee report. But for thousands of people in the D.C. area, despair is not an option. Instead, the region needs to figure out the million-dollar question: How exactly can we fix Metro? Washington City Paper asked a number of riders, advocates, and experts to answer that question by email or —Sarah Anne Hughes phone. Here are their responses.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel; special venture partner at Fontinalis Partners; author of forthcoming Start-Up City A “relentless” focus on the customer is the most important component of a strategy to reverse the current downward trajectory that Metro is on. Authenticity and honesty from leadership are the basis of a good customer relationship, and Metro’s admission this week that “there is preliminary evidence that these events are impacting ridership” is a good, albeit late start.

When we think about “customer focus,” often surveys, studies, and adding new features come to mind. I will talk about that, but I am also suggesting that internally a focus on lean, Six Sigma, and other management strategies to eliminate errors while continually improving processes towards a 99.999998-percent service level is of the utmost importance. The current mix of daily foul-ups being the norm combined with talk of increasing fares would be a death spiral in the private sector and does not bode well for public transit either.

Second, Metro needs an increased openness to technology and competition to fulfill its

commitment to customer service. (Full disclosure, I have worked with some of the firms I will reference in the innovative transportation technology space. Use them, don’t use them, I don’t care.) But Metro needs to recognize that a lot has changed since it opened its doors in 1976. In particular, today’s customer demands much more transparency about service delivery in real time. Oblique texts about service delays, or times until the next train on oldschool displays once you get to the platform, are no longer adequate. Metro needs to provide real-time system status like Lyft or Uber, showing where trains are on live maps. They should also utilize modern, interactive displays, such as those offered by TransitScreen, at the street-level entrance to each station. Let me decide whether to walk down the stairs, use Capital Bikeshare, or hail a cab.

Fundamentally, Metro should recognize that their regional role is to provide transportation mobility, connectivity, and access, not operate services. In lefty Europe, who operates the majority of transit service? The private sector does with unionized labor and to strict standards reporting to the transit authority (Circulator bus anyone?). Metro could be the regional clear-

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 15

inghouse for managing public and private mobility information, access, payments, and subsidies and not just one entrant in a subsidised market for transit. By instead prioritizing daily operations, finding funding, and negotiating labor contracts, Metro has risked its focus on customers, coordination, and ultimately service.

A collaborative regional approach to mobility that leverages public service provision, contract service, and the multitude of emerging private providers could reduce cost and expand service. In the process, let’s experiment: -Want more revenue, Metro? Test a $5-amonth unlimited Wi-Fi plan in partnership with a [telecommunications operator].

Maybe provide it free for a monthly bundled service commitment.

-Want to cut paratransit costs in half and provide real-time service versus 24-hour advance reservations? Outsource to taxis as D.C. is testing with vouchers (preferably in-app).

-Want to increase bus speeds? Come out and tell the public that removing stops every block is key and let them vote on what’s important to them.

-Want escalators to work? Study the feasibility of bidding out a design, build, finance, operate, and maintain contract for a replacement service to the private sector subsidized by advertising on those TransitScreen displays.

You get the idea: Start being creative and saying “yes” to non-traditional ideas even if they seem “crazy.” We need to be honest, get rid of the sacred cows, and focus on better service and lower costs. To meet our regional mobility challenges, we need to think as big as those who thought up Metro to begin with. I love Metro, and when I travel people constantly tell me how much they loved using Metro when they visited Washington. Now it’s time for local daily riders as well as Metro employees to feel the same.

Jeff larrimore Save The Blue Line co-founder Metro’s goal should be to provide efficient, reliable, comfortable, and safe transportation.

Lately they have failed on all four counts. The fact that more and more people would rather inch along in D.C. traffic than take Metro shows just how far off track the transit system has gotten. While it may not be as exciting as building the Silver Line, Metro must now focus on fixing the problems that they have created in the system core by expanding too fast.

Many of the vital fixes that Metro needs, such as adding more eight-car trains, completing a backlog of repairs, and adding a new Potomac crossing at Rosslyn, will take years to implement. These fixes must happen if Metro hopes to remain viable into the next generation, and WMATA should push to ensure that they happen as quickly as possible.

It does not mean, however, WMATA cannot begin repairing the damaged relationship that they have with riders now. This can start by creating accountability in their fare system.

In London, any subway ride delayed for over

ashley robbins WMATA Riders’ Union chair and director of development

15 minutes is eligible for a full refund. WMATA should make a similar commitment to their riders, thereby giving the system a direct financial incentive to provide the level of service that riders expect.

Additionally, even when trains run on time, WMATA has begun taking an extremely generous definition of what “rush hour” means.

Even before the Stadium-Armory problems, Metro defined a train arriving every 12 minutes on the Blue Line as “rush hour service,” warranting peak fares. This is among the longest wait time for any rush hour subway train in the country and it has resulted in thousands of Blue Line riders losing trust in the system. WMATA must either find ways to reduce these wait times or stop charging peak fares for this service.

JacK evans Ward 2 councilmember; WMATA board member Public transportation only works when it’s cheap and convenient. This is especially true in today’s world when anyone can press three buttons on their phone and order a clean, quick, and fairly inexpensive car service to pick them up within minutes.

Unfortunately, WMATA is struggling to be either right now, with constant service interruptions and delays making it unreliable for people and rising fares making it more expensive year after year. If you live near the end of one of the lines and have to park at the station to get in the system, you’re easily spending $15 a day to commute into D.C.

16 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

The system isn’t working well right now, but it can be fixed. It’s going to take immediate, serious action, but we can, to use the common expression, “unsuck” the Metro system.

In the short-term, we need to hire a general manager who can motivate the workforce to be proactive about improving the system and strike fear in his or her leadership team that if they don’t get things done or make this a system that works for riders, there will be consequences. We also need to continue to get the financial and operational house in order. We need to get an audit done quickly enough that it is actually helpful to improve our finances, we need to create enough maintenance time to keep the system running, and we need to have a sense of urgency to do these things now.

Longer-term, we need to decide as a region if we want an OK system that runs every eight to 12 minutes, has decent but not exemplary geographic coverage, and is one of the more expensive systems in the country. If we decide instead that we want a first-class system that is conveniently located with more stations, has reliable and short headways, and has a cheaper fare structure, then we as a region need to pay for it.

It’s going to take dedicated or at least increased funding—on the order of $25 billion over the next 10 years—to build a system that works for the Washington region in 2025, not 1975. Regional leaders and the public need to decide if that’s what they want, and then pay for it. Raising fares and being inconvenient is a recipe for obsolescence.

My ideal system has a single fare for all riders, never stops building or expanding stations, and is more convenient to use than a mobile car service.

No one will deny that WMATA needs reform on several fronts, but what matters most is finding the balance between safety repairs that must happen and the inconvenience that riders experience while maintenance continues.

Concerns over who provides the safety oversight of WMATA are not as crucial as ensuring both the safety of the riding public and the level of service they receive. The safety culture of WMATA must change as well as how it communicates with riders.

Metro should see every major service disruptions or instance of weekend track work as an opportunity to engage riders. We understand that these repairs are necessary, but WMATA should be transparent as to the extent of delays and the timeline for repairs. Customer service should be focused on addressing delays riders are exposed to while the system is brought to a state of good repair. Open communication should occur through all available channels, including timely and responsive social media.

WMATA must inform riders, but it must also listen and interact with them openly.

Metro should develop an approach to quickly handle service disruptions should they arise.

Having contingency plans in place for when events similar to the recent power substation fire [near Stadium-Armory] would allow the agency to respond immediately and to both inform riders of the issue and what alternate service options are available. Bus bridges and shuttle services should be implemented along with the immediate deployment of staff to talk with riders to ensure that these incidents are as painless as possible.

While Congress and regional leaders evaluate all of the possible solutions to ensure the future stability of WMATA, resources for the agency should not be held hostage. Riders and taxpayers have bought in to the system just as local jurisdictions and the federal government have, and withholding the necessary funds to repair and upgrade the system as a political tool will only make the situation worse.

WMATA belongs to all of us—the Board of Directors and local jurisdictions, but most importantly, the riders. Reforming the system is an opportunity to ensure that the agency provides safety, customer service, and communication to its most important stakeholders, those of us who use the system every day. Effective reforms will ensure a strong future for the agency and the vitality of the region.

Darrin norDahl Author of Making Transit Fun! and My Kind of Transit Transit planners note that transit has to be safe, clean, convenient, and reliable. And certainly D.C.’s Metro can improve in each of these areas. But there are other factors that

Metro—and transit agencies across America—need to consider if they are to be successful in the coming years.

When you examine the most livable cities in the world—Vancouver, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Portland—what you find are multiple modes of mobility, all seamlessly integrated.

Streets are chock-a-block with pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders, and straphangers. This isn’t by happenstance. It’s by design. The transportation network in these communities is not just an extension of great urban living, but a reflection of it. The streets are comfortable and compelling for strolling along, biking along, or even just wiling away a couple of hours. The design features that comprise the great streets in these cities—wide, comfortable sidewalks and bike lanes, trees, shade, places to sit so we can read the paper, sip a cup of coffee, or just watch others—need to be included in the overall transportation network. Why? Because every transit trip begins and ends with a short walk or a bicycle ride.

Metro’s Finance and Administration Committee reports that ridership has decreased recently, in part due to other modes of alternative mobility, like cycling. But this is a good thing.

Folks should be biking and walking more. It not only relieves congestion, but improves the well-being of us, the environment, and our pocketbook. The issue is when transit does not recognize people’s desire to walk and bike more and incorporate that into train and bus service.

Cities don’t win when straphangers compete with cyclists who then compete with motorists who compete with pedestrians—because they are all one and the same. Each citizen is each of these at any given time. Those cities that I mentioned, and others, like New York and San Francisco, recognize that sometimes we drive, sometimes we cycle, we take the bus on occasion, and we almost always walk.

Giving attention to all the environments that transit riders will occupy or pass through on their journey—the walk from their office to the train station; the streets they have to cross to get to the bus stop; the street corner itself where we will wait five or fifteen minutes (or more) for the bus; the bus and train itself—and asking questions—like what is the lighting like, are the seats comfortable, and can I sip a cup of coffee without being harassed by rule-mongers wagging their fingers about “no food or beverages onboard”—help create a transit network that lures even the most entrenched motorist from his or her car.

roger bowles WMATA Riders’ Union rail operations specialist; Discovery Performance Solutions president The recent urgent recommendation from the NTSB to transfer oversight of WMATA to the Federal Railroad Administration brings to question: Should WMATA be broken up? My opinion would be that it should, due to the unraveling of management command and control, ranging from general managers over the

management skills to run a large technologically complex organization, but also the leadership skills to inspire and to change organizational culture. Metro must become much more transparent, improve communications, and engage the public. It must become a customer-focused organization.

Metro planners recently determined that completing transit-oriented development at all existing Metro stations would increase the ridership and efficiency of the Metrorail system, eliminating the need for an operating subsidy and even generating an operating surplus. But we can’t get there without fixing the aging infrastructure; addressing management, communications, and safety issues; and investing in the capacity needed to handle future growth.

Let’s get on with it!

ranDal o’Toole Cato Institute senior fellow

past eight years as well as the mentality of the Board of Directors over more than 10 years.

Metro’s governance is a pure political machine and needs to be dissolved. If I was to recommend changes it would be the following: -Metrorail is the largest and most complex part of WMATA and should operate independently. As it operates across all three jurisdictions on fixed rail routes, and is in essence a hybrid commuter rail and subway, a new authority to manage Metrorail should be created with a board of directors consisting of five individuals (FRA, [the D.C. Department of Transportation] director, [Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Transit Administration] director, [Northern Virginia Transportation Commission] director and general manager).

-Completely revamp operations from the ground up. Current bus operations are both locally controlled and provided by Metrobus; either they all revert back to local jurisdictions or are all consolidated into one agency (my preference is back to local).

-Paratransit would remain third party with different dispatching procedures.

sTewarT schwarTz Coalition for Smarter Growth executive director Without Metro, our roads grind to a halt.

Without Metro, the federal government cannot function. Without Metro, we cannot support D.C.’s stunning recovery. Without Metro, our city and suburbs cannot attract next gener-

ation workers and companies. Without Metro, our air quality gets worse, harming our health.

Without Metro, we sprawl outward with abandon, losing farms and forests, killing our rivers and the Chesapeake Bay, and making today’s traffic look like child’s play.

Before Metro, the federal government had to work on a shift basis to deal with traffic.

Before Metro, the city and older inner suburbs were experiencing economic decline as we sprawled outward. With Metro, they boomed. Without Metro and continued transit expansion, we would need thousands of lane-miles of new highways, and tens of thousands of additional parking spaces, impacting homes and neighborhoods and taking the life out of communities.

Metro has fueled billions of dollars in real estate investment and the walkable, transitoriented centers that are so much in demand today. Recently, 84 percent of new office development in the pipeline has been within a quarter-mile of Metro. Marriott’s CEO says the company will move to a Metro station location, joining Hilton, Choice Hotels, Intelsat, and dozens of other companies seeking Metro station locations. Office parks are dead. No one wants to work there anymore.

We must unite in a commitment to fix Metro and expand regional transit service. This means that instead of pointing fingers and fighting over who pays what, every elected official—our governors, congressional delegation, mayors, councilmembers, and supervisors—must unite to provide the shared vision, the funding, and the oversight needed to put Metro back on track. They need to hire a new general manager who has the experience and

I love trains, and the first time I stepped into a Washington Metro station in 1977, it was like entering Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. Today, it’s like entering Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.

The problem is that rail lines are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain, especially after they reach 30 years of age. The federal government paid most of the cost of building Metrorail and local governments pay the subsidies required to operate it, but funds to rehabilitate the lines that are over 30 years old are sorely lacking, so the system is falling apart.

Rather than assist with rehabilitation, the federal government has a slush fund dedicated to new rail construction. This enticed the region to build the Silver and Purple lines, when the matching funds required to build those lines should have been spent rehabilitating Metrorail instead. One way the region can solve the problem is to kill the Purple Line and stop construction on the Silver Line and rededicate those funds to the existing system.

WMATA may also have to accept the painful reality that rail was probably the wrong choice for D.C. in the first place. Rail transit is both expensive and inflexible, while Curitiba, Brazil has shown that a well-designed bus corridor can actually move more people per hour than WMATA’s eight-car trains. Rather than rehabilitate the existing lines that are falling apart, WMATA should consider replacing them with bus-rapid transit lines.

Over the next ten years, shared, self-driving cars are going to replace most transit. WMATA’s cost of moving one passenger one mile by rail is more than twice as expensive as moving them by automobile today, and Uber (which recently hired 40 self-driving car engineers) has promised that its shared, self-driving cars will cost less than owning a car.

This means transit won’t be able to compete with self-driving car sharing. Until this becomes a reality, WMATA and other transit agencies should focus on low-cost bus service rather than expensive and clunky rail systems.

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 17

roD DiriDon Mineta Transportation Institute emeritus executive director; former chairman of the American Public Transportation Association Metro is not unique… It’s really a matter of not having adequate funding for transportation.

There was a tragedy recently when the members of Congress opposed a gas tax increase, and the bill didn’t go anywhere. Now it’s happening again, with a couple members of the Senate opposing a gas tax increase to fund the Highway Trust Fund… It’s time to recognize that if we want to have outstanding transportation systems, then we gotta pay for them.

You can’t privatize a program that doesn’t make money, and no mass transportation systems in the world—except for a line here and there and high-speed rail—make a profit. So you can’t privatize Washington Metro, unless you subsidize it and give that tax dollar subsidy to a private company… If you’re going to give a lot of money to a private company, why not give it to Washington Metro and let them rebuild their system and operate it properly? They have the ability.

You’ve got people like Mort Downey on that board who are outstanding managers, they just need the money to do the job.

First, you have to provide an outstanding transportation experience, and a lack of maintenance on Metro because of a lack of funding precludes you providing an outstanding experience. So you need to have, first of all, a superior product and you need to marry that with an outstanding management team.

Often times, when you have a lack of funding, those who are loathe to give you money because they don’t have it or because they’re cheap will pit the riders against the managers and against the unions in order to distract you from the fact that you don’t have enough money. The riders, the managers, and the unions need to get together here, realize you don’t have the money to operate an outstanding system, and go to your funding source and ask them, either politely or rudely, for adequate funding.

Tim Krepp Former Congressional candidate; tour guide Look Metro. I don’t like you, and by any measurable standard, you don’t seem to like me very much. But you need customers and what am I gonna do? Bike everywhere? So let’s make this work.

I’m not going to pretend to have the answers to busted transformers or governance structures or arcing conductors. These are tough problems, but they’re your problems. And they’re going to take a whole lot of effort and money to sort out. But there’s some rather inexpensive low-hanging fruit you could pick.

Let’s talk about how you communicate with

riders and the public. I’m not sure if you’re deliberately trying to piss us off, but it sure comes across that way. Here’s some quick and easy suggestions to fix that.

-Stop, and I mean stop, saying “we regret the inconvenience, thank you for your patience.” You don’t regret it, it’s more than an inconvenience to us, and there is no more patience. This is like when my kid doesn’t pick up her dirty laundry for the fifth day in a row. I don’t want to hear the fifth “I’m sorry.” Make a real apology and do better, or don’t bother, because the pro-forma ones make my ears bleed.

-On the topic of announcements, stop with the “is this your bag” until we get trains running, OK? We don’t need terrorists to shut this system down. Y’all are doing just fine.

These announcements aren’t informational; now they’re just background noise. We’ve learned to tune it out, and we need ears to perk up when the speakers come on.

-I wanna see some suits out there. You’re hanging your front-line employees out to dry. Sure, there are station managers and bus drivers that could use some polishing on customer service, but when shit goes down, you shouldn’t hide behind them. You need to hear, see, and feel firsthand how much this impacts customers. And be seen doing it. Leadership is visible or it isn’t leadership.

-Think through what a disruption means for riders. What’s the next step? Who will this impact? Take the recent decision to shut down rush hour service on the Orange and Silver lines at Stadium-Armory. OK, it has to be done. Who will be impacted? Several hundred students at Eastern HS, Eliot-

18 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

Hine MS, and other schools use the system.

Why weren’t the principals called? You can’t just fire off a press release and consider people informed.

-Finally, stop being terrible at Twitter.

Admittedly @metrorailinfo and @metrobusinfo have become more responsive lately, but they’re only “good” in relation to how bad the @wmata account is. I could go into detail about what we’d like to see, but let’s make it super easy. Walk on over to Blue Plains, sit down with the folks that run the DC Water and Sewer Authority Twitter feed, and ask them to show you how to Internet. Because what you’re doing now isn’t working.

Jim hall Managing partner of Hall & Associates LLC; former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board The recommendations that are presently out there from the NTSB, given the circumstances, are the best way for the [U.S.] Department of Transportation to proceed to try and ensure a safe system.

Regular inspections could help. This is something that’s being done now by the Federal Railroad Administration for seven other rail systems in the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, including Maryland’s MARC train, Virginia’s VRE, and PATH trains in New York and New Jersey. So you have a structure that provides independent oversight and independent investigation. I think that will certainly push the ball forward.

There was no structure in place in the Federal Transit Administration to ensure that the accountability and the system safety was being delivered by federal dollars. This is a structural problem that has been sitting, needing attention for years. It’s going to require public pressure and the type of visibility that your article’s going to provide to bring about change.

I haven’t had the time recently to study [alternatives to the NTSB’s recommendations], but that is a responsibility of the appropriate officials in the three-state area. What they have to do is not that difficult: to provide a structure that is focused on safety, that provides accountability, and has independent oversight. That’s not rocket science. That is something that should be in place. And how to go about doing that probably needs some individuals who are independent of the system to come in and restructure it. At the end of the day you’re going to have public officials stand up and make the changes necessary and have the Department of Transportation provide the types of oversight the federal investment demands.

Right now, [the Tri-State Oversight Committee has] no authority to hire staff, establish qualifications and training requirements, promulgate and enforce legislation, and issue contracts or independent actions—all things that [current NTSB Chairman] Chris Hart has pointed out. And it has no uniform standards or qualifications for [Metro’s] members. These are the ABCs of any good organization’s structure. So action is overdue and needed. We’ve had 11 NTSB investigations for accidents that have killed 18 people and injured hundreds, and the system needs an overhaul for the benefit of the safety and the benefit of the traveling public.

I think it’s proven—if there’s one fact we know now—that the current system doesn’t work.

harrieT Tregoning Head of the Office of Community Planning and Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; former D.C. Office of Planning director; WMATA board member The first thing that’s critical to us is to have permanent leadership in place for the agency. I think that’s incredibly important, but I do think, as many people have said, that we need a different kind of a leader. I don’t know if that leader needs to be someone necessarily outside the transit industry. But I do know that people at WMATA have really looked at our agency as the best in the country, and by some measures it was, and by some measures it might continue to be. But that has bred complacency that is not at all appropriate.

We have typically had general managers, it was their last stop before retirement. You’re not going to get the most innovation or commitment to changes when you’re thinking about retiring. I’ve suggested that our peer

group is not limited to the United States, to U.S. transit systems. Many, many other transit systems around the globe might be more comparable both in terms of the development patterns and the degree to which those cities are able to have the non-automobile mode-share that we have in the District.

The second thing: We benefited for 40 years from being one of the most recent heavy rail systems in the country. I think we haven’t really come to grips with what it requires to keep a clearly aging system like ours in a state of good repair. I don’t think we’ve been straight with anybody, including ourselves or our riders, about what it really takes to have that state of good repair, and it’s really hurt the reliability of the system. We need to be honest with ourselves and we need to have a straight-up discussion with our riders very explicitly about what the tradeoffs are and what the needs really are.

Speaking of our customers: We need to have a very different relationship with them than we do right now. We need to be much more transparent and open and communicative with them. We have more than a million riders daily; they are our eyes and ears in the system.

We should be creating all kinds of panels for them to give us feedback about how the system is working, what things aren’t working, what their priorities are… So, what do our customers say we should be paying attention to?

That’s really important.

If you go to other cities... the Tube in London is a part of the experience in living in and visiting the city. People have such a fondness for the system, even though it’s a very old system and it breaks down sometimes. It’s part

of their daily experience, and I don’t think we’ve really cultivated that kind of relationship around Metro. We’ve been kind of formal, standoffish, and bureaucratic as an organization, and I do think we need to talk more about what it means to have Metro choices.

I certainly hear tourists talk about how great it is, but boy, I see things every day that could be improved in terms of how easy it is to navigate the system, what we do to make it as user-friendly as possible, especially when there’s a disruption.

Part of having a better relationship and a more transparent relationship with our customers, I think we need to do more to innovate within the system. That means also being willing to try different approaches and occasionally to fail; but if we manage our customers’ expectations, we can study something for years or we can try something for a couple of months and see how it works, and use that as a way to make an adjustment to service and other things.

This is something I learned in the city government, that as long as you manage people’s expectations, people understand that it’s something that you’re trying as an experiment, and you want the customer’s feedback, if it’s better or worse than what the status quo has been.

That’s another way for us to try to be lighter on our feet and more flexible with respect to the service that we provide and the adjustments that we might make.

And of course, Metro needs a dedicated source of revenue so that we are not stuck with funding our system at the level the least of our CP jurisdictions is willing to provide.

OURB ON BAA CWHISKEY ON&BFESTIVAL Thursday, November 19 6:00 PM VIP 7:00 PM GA EastErn markEt north hall livE music $65 Ga $115 viP PricEs Go uP oct. 16

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Interviews conducted by Andrew Giambrone and Sarah Anne Hughes washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 19

AMPLE S .

P I S .

S H OP

October 24-25 Bryan Voltaggio

Michael Symon

Giada De Laurentiis

WALTER E. WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER

Join Giada De Laurentiis, Michael Symon and Bryan Voltaggio as they headline DC’s most delicious extravaganza! Enjoy local chef demos, bites from top restaurants, culinary classes, shopping from hundreds of specialty food vendors and much more!

Tickets on sale at www.MetroCookingDC.com 20 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

DCFEED

An American diner and an English pub with cask ales are coming to H Street NE. Read more at washingtoncitypaper.com/go/newonh.

YOUNG & HUNGRY

Fate and Barrel

Logan Circle’s kitschy liquor store façade could become a historic landmark.

Darrow Montgomery

By Tatiana Cirisano

Save Historic Concrete Barrel?

Walking through Logan Circle, it’s hard to miss Barrel House Liquor, a wine and spirits shop near the corner of 14th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW. An enormous concrete barrel roughly 8 feet wide and 12 feet high sits at the center of the storefront, large enough to encompass its entire door.

Constructed in 1945, the barrel has become an icon in the neighborhood. So much so that when the property’s current tenant, Mesfun Ghebrelul, announced plans this month to move the shop next door, a team of locals stepped in to ensure that the barrel would be preserved.

“Friends and neighbors from truly across the city uniformly felt the same, that it was something that we wanted to keep, that it added something really special to the neighborhood,” says Pepin Tuma, a commissioner for Logan Circle’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission. “It was exactly the kind of building that we’d want to preserve.”

That’s why Tuma, a 17-year patron of Barrel House Liquor, is leading an effort to grant the 70-year-old barrel historic landmark status in D.C. He says it exemplifies roadside architecture, a circa-1930s trend where buildings were constructed in novelty shapes to attract customers driving on the street.

But Barrel House’s history doesn’t end with the barrel itself. The property’s current landlord, Eric Meyers, says the building played a significant role in the rise of Logan Circle’s historic status as “automobile row.”

It begins with a businessman named Leslie E.F. Prince, who in 1925 demolished the existing property at 1341 14th St. NW and constructed the building known today as Barrel House Liquor. There, he built an auto showroom, a project that is estimated to have cost $12,000, Meyers says, equivalent to roughly $160,000 today. The building would go on to house a number of auto companies including Clark Motor Company, Fred L. Morgan Used Cars, and Jack Pry Used Cars, according to Meyers’ records.

So how did the Barrel House property go from selling four-wheeled vehicles to Four Loko?

The shift began in the ’40s. As residents migrated out of urban centers into the suburbs, automobile companies followed suit, leaving the property vacant. In 1945, Sam washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 21

DCFEED(cont.)

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and Dorothy Weinstein purchased the building, where they relocated their business—Sammy’s Barrel House—from next door. Shortly after, the couple added the barrel and the building’s distinctive neon sign, Meyers says.

“I’ve been lovingly keeping all this information forever,” Meyers says about the building’s history. “It’s a great story, isn’t it?”

Tuma says the barrel could also gain historic status as an example of the work of its architect— an identity in dispute.

While Tuma speculates that it may have been crafted by an architect named John J. Earley, Meyers says the barrel was constructed by Arthur Starr, who would go on to design the Woodward & Lothrop building in Friendship Heights.

While the aggregate concrete barrel resembles Earley’s work, a historic evaluation prepared by D.C .-based research firm Traceries in February found that “there is no evidence to suggest that Earley was involved in the design or construction of the barrel.”

Meyers shares Tuma’s goal to grant the barrel historic status. Even though the aging property is ripe for development, Meyers says he “couldn’t bear” to rip it down.

“That little business put food on my table when I needed it 44 years ago, and there’s a lot in my heart about that building,” he says. “Even though intellectually, the thing would be to demolish it, I can’t imagine ever demolishing the barrel.”

Meyers says the business has been witness to change in the neighborhood’s more recent history, too. Roughly a year before he purchased the property in 1971, Meyers says, the business struggled against violence across 14th Street. A 1970 article in the Washington Evening Star includes a photo of police standing guard as the liquor store is boarded up to protect against robbery. Another clipping from the Washington Post during D.C .’s 1968 riots blares the headline, “2 Bandits Flee with $8,619,” stolen from the Barrel House cashier.

When Ghebrelul, who goes by M.G., took ownership of the longstanding business in 1995, he says the street was known for sex workers, gangs, and drug dealing.

Now, he says young professionals make up the majority of his customers.

“I could write a book about what’s going on around here,” he says. “I had incidents sometimes, people would come, put me at gunpoint … My clientele is totally different now.”

M.G. plans to move his business to a smaller space next door at 1339 14th St. NW (previously Salon Blu) at the end of October, a change he credits to ris-

ing rental costs at the store’s current location. Meyers says he’s “doing the best [he] can” to keep M.G. as a tenant, though Charles Reed, the owner of the next door property, says M.G. has signed a lease on 1339.

Currently, Tuma is meeting with historic preservationists and architects to understand the applicability of landmark status for the Barrel House façade. The D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board “didn’t shoot the idea down,” he says.

The eight-block area surrounding Logan Circle was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972; the 14th Street corridor in 1994. Designated historic landmarks in the area include the National City Christian Church at 14th Street and Thomas Circle NW, the property at 1811 14th St. NW (currently Black Cat) which held Creel Brothers Motors in 1917, and the building at 1501 14th St. NW (currently Studio Theatre) that housed Peerless Motor Company in 1919.

But Tuma’s efforts took heat at a recent ANC meeting, where at-large representative Helen Kramer voiced concerns that if the Barrel House façade is granted historic status, the building’s only use in the future would be to sell liquor. Adding to the issue is the fact that M.G. is planning to move his business next door.

“If Barrel House is designated as a historic landmark, are we going to have two liquor stores side-by-side?” Kramer says at the meeting. “I don’t think it’s desirable.”

Kramer also speculated that the building may be too far “outside the period of significance” of 14th Street to be accepted by the Historic Preservation Board.

But Kim Williams, the national register coordinator for the Office of Historic Preservation, says the board usually gives “the benefit of the doubt” to buildings under consideration, adding that Barrel House is a “rarity.” The real obstacle, she says, is overcoming the office’s backlog of applications.

“If the building’s not threatened in any way,” she says, “it could be months and months and months before a hearing is held on the case.”

Still, Tuma is optimistic, mentioning that the historic preservationists he’s spoken to agree that there is a “very good rationale” for protecting the building. Meyers has similar thoughts, adding that before the effort began, he thought the building already had the historic designation.

“I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be [granted historic status],” he says. “Nobody should CP roll out that barrel.”

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

DCFEED

what we ate last week:

Gaeran jjim steamed egg custard, $9, Mandu. Satisfaction level: 4 out of 5 what we’ll eat next week:

The smokehouse bomb, $14, Wicked Bloom. Excitement level: 4 out of 5

LAME SAUCE

SAUCE-O-METER

Photo by Laura Hayes

Grazer

Underserved

MUMBO SAUCE

How the week’s food happenings measure up

The best cocktail you’re not ordering

What: Feel Better and Get Well with Rhum Barbancourt, Powers Irish whiskey, falernum, and lime bitters Where: PX, 728 King St., Alexandria Price: $14 Good Stuff Eatery robbed at gunpoint

Atlantic Plumbing Cinema will have a 40-seat bar.

McDonald’s now serves Egg McMuffins all day.

Pop-up social media restaurant offers “influencers” dinner for tweets.

Salmonella outbreak at Fig & Olive

BLT Prime coming to Trump’s D.C. hotel

The Source adds hot pot table with new renovation.

Instead of adding a buttery creaminess, the mushy avocado lacks flavor and oozes out of the bun onto the plate.

The Sandwich: The Chinatown Where: Beef ’n Bread, 750 6th St. NW Price: $8.99 Bread: Toasted sesame roll Stuffings: Rare roast beef, avocado, cilantro, basil, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, sriracha, hoisin sauce, housemade jalapeño sauce Pros: This new restaurant from the owner of Wiseguys, which models its offerings on the rare roast beef sandwiches popular in Boston and on Massachusetts’ North Shore, nails its namesake ingredient. Sliced tissue thin with a bright shade of pink, the beef remains juicy and just chewy enough to release its flavor. Combining three sauces on

“The lead singer, Jacob [Hemphill], liked to drink Irish whiskey, and I drink rum,” Thrasher says. That’s why Rhum Barbancourt and Powers Irish whiskey are the lead players in the cocktail. This unlikely combination of spirits, however, may conjure up the ghost of firewaters past, causing patrons to skip it. But they shouldn’t.

Australian restaurant in Clarendon serves kangaroo and emu.

THE’WICHINGHOUR

Thickness: 5 inches

Smoked and fried foods galore at Small Fry in Park View

top of the beef gives the sandwich a sour and spicy flavor that unfortunately doesn’t carry through every bite.

Cons: In addition to needing a heavy dose of salt, the sandwich suffers from vegetable overload. The shredded iceberg and sprouts, both of which are waterlogged, dull the tang that comes from the basil and cilantro.

What You Should Be Drinking Todd Thrasher, owner and bartender at PX, has been naming cocktails after his favorite tunes since he entered the industry 20 years ago, and the Feel Better and Get Well is no different. The name of the booze-forward drink is a lyric from “Here I Am” off SOJA’s Born in Babylon. The Grammy-nominated Arlington reggae band frequented Bar TNT, Thrasher’s now-closed cocktail bar.

Sloppiness level (1 to 5): 4. Again, the vegetables contribute most to the Chinatown’s messiness. Avocado, lettuce, and basil leaves escape the sandwich’s back end, and the slightly smaller bottom bun leaves you with uneven bites as you eat. Part of this problem could be alleviated if the sandwich was assembled with heavier ingredients on the bottom, as the construction issues contribute to the mess.

Overall score (1 to 5): 3. The lean, rich beef starts the sandwich off on the right track, but the complicated heap of toppings turns it into a sloppy mess. The next time you head to Beef ’n Bread, opt for one of the simpler sandwiches and just enjoy the meat. —Caroline Jones

Why You Should be Drinking It Thrasher’s house-made falernum syrup brings more character than Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul. The brown, murky Caribbean potion of rum infused with lime peels, star anise, almond slivers, almond extract, and brown sugar is aromatic and creates a warming sensation on the way down. Thrasher first lets the mixture sit in the sun to accelerate flavor development then ages it in a barrel for a month.

The lime bitters he makes for the drink are equally labor intensive.

After just a few sips, you may feel a twinge of a buzz, because as Thrasher reminds me, “there are no mixers. It’s just booze, booze, booze.” If you like what you’ve sipped, there’s good news. Despite the Feel Better and Get Well’s stymied popularity, boozeforward cocktails are on the rise. “More people are open to them now because of the quality of ingredients that are out there compared to 12 or 13 years ago when there wasn’t a lot,” he says. “The whole craft distillery movement has exploded over the past 10 years.” The golden-hued, velvety elixir is —Laura Hayes one you’ll remember.

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 23

24 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 25

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

CPARTS

The Middleburg Film Festival has announced its impressive lineup for this year’s fest.

washingtoncitypaper.com/go/middleburgfilm

Best Weighed Plans

Peter Nesbett—the Washington Project for the Arts’ new director—has big plans, but first he wants to hear from the city’s artists.

The Washington Project for the Arts—one of D.C.’s oldest artist organizations—has found its new executive director: Peter Nesbett, who comes to the organization from Philadelphia’s Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, will take up the helm on Nov. 2. He’s looking at a challenge that some other former directors never faced. Nesbett will be responsible for steering the storied organization through something it hasn’t seen in quite a while: stability.

In December, the WPA will move into its new home in the Atlantic Plumbing development, the project rising over the 9:30 Club north of the U Street Corridor. This will mark the first time that the organization has had anything like a permanent space to call home in years—since 1996, arguably, when it merged with the Corcoran Gallery of Art to keep from dissolving.

The worst may finally be behind the WPA. Just in time for its 40th anniversary this year, the nonprofit secured a long-term lease for some 1,500 feet of storefront space under former director Lisa Gold, who was recruited by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in September.

Gold’s WPA successor says that he senses the opportunity in front of him.

“I have a great respect for alternative spaces in this country, going back to that first wave in the 1970s, of which WPA was a part,” Nesbett says. “It’s a legendary organization. I jumped at it. Immediately.”

Even if the dog days are over for the WPA, which was launched in 1975 by Alice Denney—who today might still be the D.C. art scene’s greatest champion—the organization still has a lot of catching up to do. In recent years, the WPA has been forced to find space wherever it could in order to promote District artists, making for a pop-up model before pop-ups were cool.

Membership shows or curated invitationals at the old Staples store in Georgetown or the long-gone Warehouse space on 7th Street, among other temporary spaces, have been the rule of the day. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. But nomadic life has made it hard for the WPA to make a stand.

And over the last decade, the fundamental logic for the WPA has shifted. For example, it still publishes an Artists’ Directory, a biannual, fully illustrated guide to artist-mem-

Darrow Montgomery

By Kriston Capps

Nesbett plans to talk to 100 D.C. artists in his first 100 days. bers working in D.C. The directory was once a major plank in the group’s mission, but today it’s about as useful as the Yellow Pages. Of course, the WPA built out an online directory; a static repository for thumbnails and artists’ statements. In any case, the group’s membership is growing: The WPA boasts more than 800 truly active members (though the group’s official membership roll is even larger).

Nesbett arrives at the WPA after a lengthy rebuilding.

At least two directors, Gold and her predecessor, Kim Ward, focused on finding the financial footing to free the organization from the Corcoran in order to pursue its own programming and fundraising under a fully independent WPA board. Ward ended the 11-year Wash-

ington Project of the Arts/Corcoran partnership in 2007; Gold continued the push for greater legitimacy when she took over in 2009.

“Over the last decade, the organization has worked hard to stabilize itself,” Nesbett says. “The legacy Lisa left behind in terms of that, the board’s commitment, seems very, very real.”

Unlike other recent WPA directors, Nesbett will begin with a firm foundation. The WPA has a lease on its Morris Adjmi–designed storefront until at least 2022; the organization’s revenues jumped 50 percent between the fiscal years ending in 2013 and 2014. Hell, it even has a handsome new brand and website. Whatever Nesbett sees as the washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 27

CPARTS Continued

obvious next step, he isn’t saying—or rather, he isn’t committing to anything just yet.

Nesbett has only just this month moved to D.C. from Philly, so his first order of business here is meeting the city’s artists—literally. Nesbett is looking to get an audience with 100 artists over his first 100 days on the job. He has a ton of programming ideas, he says, but he doesn’t want to lead with any of them—not until he gauges what at least 100 artists want the WPA to be doing.

“It’s all got to come out of the artists,” Nesbett says.

Nevertheless, he has lots of opinions about where the WPA fits, historically, in the pantheon of alternative and nonprofit art spaces. He sounds like a crusty old-timer when he discusses the importance of the “Punk Art” festival that Denney, WPA’s founding director, hosted back in 1978. Or the time the organization wound its way into the art history books, when it saved a show of photos by Robert Mapplethorpe that the Corcoran, cowed by Congress, declined to exhibit in 1989.

Beyond the history of the Culture Wars, Nesbett knows the contemporary landscape of alternative and nonprofit art spaces, citing as potential models for the WPA an artist-run incubator in London (called Cubitt Artists) and a trans-European union of visual-art orga-

nizations (called Cluster).

These are just sketches of ideas, he says. However, Nesbett admits up front that the WPA could be better integrated with other arts organizations through partnerships, nationally and internationally. He may very well have the institutional experience to build those bridges.

At the Pew Center, Nesbett worked as a visual-arts specialist, overseeing $3 million for museums and galleries.

He comes from the other side of grant-writing—the part that sees the applications and gives out the grants—and is used to working with much larger purses than the WPA typically receives. “I don’t want to arrive with a bag of tricks,” he says—but “a sharpened sense of resource development,” as he puts it, is hardly going to be unwelcome in D.C. Since the downturn, the city has endured the failure of the Corcoran and Rosslyn’s Artisphere. Locally, commercial galleries have struggled. What used to be the epicenter of the art scene—14th Street NW—now serves as a barometer for how high cocktail prices are trending in the District.

The most visible local art-scene functions are the annual auctions, and those depend on artists donating artworks (which are sold to support organizations that support art-

Accordion cordion ordion Virtuosi of Russia Sun, Novv 8, 7pm Theatre The Lincoln oln Theatr Founded in Leningr Leningrad ad in 1943 and now boasting dozens of mas er accordionists and master an ace e rhythm section of per percussion, electric guitar, bass, and mor e, the Virtuosi amaze more, and delight their audienc es with daredevil audiences keyboar and button on prowess (as feats of keyboard in Khachaturian’ e” and Scott Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance” Joplin’s “Mapl e Leaf Rag”), Bizet’s Carmen “Maple overture, an enchanting medley medl y from West Side Story, and more.

Co-presented with Lincoln Theatre.

TICKETS:

WashingtonPerformingArts.org (202) 785-9727 28 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

ists). Nesbett really does have his work cut out for him: With the WPA, he has the structure in place to harness a sense of conviction that the art scene’s been lacking. And maybe even find ways to introduce that scene to the city.

In the past, the WPA has worked to stage shows across the city (in part because it had to, for lack of a true home).

Programs like the “Options” biennial, which has venuesurfed for years, won’t necessarily be staged at the WPA’s brick-and-mortar storefront. Those ventures may continue to be far flung. Nesbett says he’d like to complement these ongoing programs with something like a publishing opportunity for artists—a concept a little broader than a singleartist exhibit or a group show. Not necessarily a print journal, or even a website, but something else. It might wind up looking like The Thing Quarterly, a San Francisco “publication” that commissions artists to create and distribute special works on a quarterly basis. (“We publish objects,” reads the group’s tagline.) That could be a start.

“I almost have my blinders on,” Nesbett says. He isn’t spilling any specifics about what he has in store before he has those conversations. The WPA has programming in place from winter into the summer of 2016. “So that buys me some time to gauge the temperature of the city,” he says, “and how much it’s willing and wants to dream.” CP

CPARTS Arts Desk

One trAck MinD

The National Geographic Museum’s latest exhibit casts a wide net on the world’s oceans.

washingtoncitypaper.com/go/pristineseas

SCARed STRAighT

It’s that time of year: Pumpkin-spiced everything has snuck onto grocery store shelves; zeitgeisty costume-making is in full swing; and the Spooky Movie International Film Festival—the D.C. area’s annual celebration of horror—is back. Now in its 10th year, Spooky Movie seems to have grown up a bit. Whereas past years have been heavy on stomach-churning blood and guts, the films we previewed for this year’s fest are more highbrow horror than gore-filled camp. That’s not to say these films take themselves too seriously—far from it, especially considering the one in which a man’s dead girlfriend comes to life whenever he has sex—but that the quality of filmmaking is more Sundance and less late-night public access TV. That being said, this year’s fest does feature a film in which a woman’s breast implants turn into man-eating monsters, so perhaps Spooky Movie still has some growing up to do. Read more re—Matt Cohen views at washingtoncitypaper.com/go/spooky.

Governess

The Final Girls

At the time of their release, slasher classics like Friday the 13th and Halloween were considered pinnacles of horror. But after countless hackneyed sequels beat the formula—promiscuous teens are picked off one by one—to a bloody pulp, it’s hard to look back at any of these films without a lens of camp. Enter The Final Girls, a humorous riff on ’80s slasher films with a modern meta twist. On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Max and her friends are mysteriously transported into the ‘80s slasher film that her mom starred in. But the reunion is less than celebratory—the group quickly realize they’re going to meet the same ill fate by a deranged masked killer as the characters in the movie unless they act fast. The premise of The Final Girls is clever, but ultimately the jokes run dry and the film becomes nothing more than a one-trick pony.

Shows Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre

“Animals”

Standout Track: With a deluge of reverbheavy vocal harmonies, “Animals,” the first track released by newish D.C. trio Governess, is a droney surf-pop gem. The idea for the band was first conceived in the winter of 2014, says drummer/vocalist Erin McCarley (who also plays in Pygmy Lush and Hand Grenade Job), after the trio “met through our organizing efforts to start a DIY cooperative preschool in our neighborhood.” After it gained and lost a few members, Governess settled on its current lineup with Kieca Mahoney on bass and Kim Weeks on guitar.

Musical Motivation: Life and death, essentially. The music may sound sweet, but the lyrics are a heavy, sobering rumination on nature. “Animals walk among us / Animals eat their young / And now you’re no one and he is too,” the trio sings in sweet yet slightly melancholic unison. McCarley says that “the song is ultimately about the juxtaposition of beauty and destruction and how those things co-exist.”

The Circle of Life: McCarley says the group’s songwriting efforts are completely collaborative and, around the time the trio was writing the track, a mother sloth at the National Zoo ate two of her cubs. Zoo officials took her in for treatment and concluded she did it because she was in distress, but it “brings up questions about the nature of survival and loss.” The group wrote the lyrics together, which captures the “primitive, biological experience of life and death in the same body.”

—Matt Cohen Listen to “Animals” at washingtoncitypaper. com/go/governess.

The Invitation

Patience is a virtue when it comes to Karyn Kusama’s excellent slow-burn thriller, The Invitation. It’s been two years since Will has seen or heard from his ex-wife Eden, so it comes as quite a surprise when he and his girlfriend Kira get a fancy invitation to a dinner party hosted by Eden and her new husband, David. It’s a reunion of sorts with a bunch of Will and Eden’s old friends, but there’s an underlying sense of dread hanging in the air—there’s something off about the hosts and the nature of the dinner. Kusama’s mastery of pacing is on full display here as the dinner party progresses and subtle odd behavior Will notices slowly reveals Eden and Adam’s insidious agenda.

Shows Oct. 10 at 4:30 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre.

Nina Forever

Everyone has baggage. But for Rob, the baggage he carries when he strikes up a new relationship with his co-worker Holly is, well, unprecedented: Whenever they have sex, the corpse of his dead girlfriend Nina reanimates to sarcastically heckle them. At first, Holly is—understandably—horrified, but she soon learns to accept it and decides to pursue a relationship with Rob as they both work to find a way to let Nina’s soul rest in peace. Not an easy task, it turns out. With Nina Forever, writers/directors Ben and Chris Blaine create a truly melancholic black comedy that manages to convey a sweet message of coping with loss and learning to move on layered underneath a bloody and, uh, complex love triangle.

Shows Oct. 9 at 9:30 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre. washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 29

FilmShort SubjectS Hold on loosely

Freeheld

Freeheld Directed by Peter Sollett ‘Tis the season of the Important Film. It goes by other names—Oscar bait, issue movie, etc.—but the hallmarks of the Important Film are unmistakable. Often about a contemporary social issue such as racial justice or LGBTQ equality, the Important Film ostensibly exists to make an impact on society, but its real goal is to lure civic-minded audiences to the box office and win Academy Awards. It often features a lead character from a marginalized social group who takes a stand, suffers, and dies, but in death wins victories for others. It may or may not be based on a true story.

Freeheld may be the apotheosis of the genre. Peter Sollett’s LGBTQ drama checks every box on the Important Film list, while being dragged by the genre’s defining flaw: It works so hard to be important that it forgets to be good.

The film is based on a tragic yet uplifting true story: Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) is a gay New Jersey cop, who, for years, hid her sexual identity from friends and colleagues. But when she falls in love with Stacie (Ellen Page), Laurel comes out, prompting anger and consternation in her blue-collar community. Even her trusted partner Dane (Michael Shannon) is miffed at the long-standing deception.

It’s a little rote, but Freeheld is watchable in these early scenes, mostly due to the magnetism of its stars. Moore and Page have decent chemistry, with the former deftly capturing the emotional complexity of living a newly embraced identity.

Of course, the couple’s happiness is short-lived. Laurel is diagnosed with latestage lung cancer and tries to transfer her pension to Stacie, who has since become her domestic partner. The county executive boards (known as Freeholders) thwart her efforts, and a protracted battle ensues.

It’s here that the film should start tugging at the heartstrings—courtroom settings are a shortcut to drama—but Freeheld takes an odd, misguided turn. Laurel and Stacie fade into the background, and the film shifts focus on two male characters who are changed by their struggle.

Dane actually gets the biggest, most important arc of the film. The gentle giant not only rallies his fellow cops to support Laurel’s case but ends up making the film’s big, climactic speech while Laurel looks on helplessly.

Josh Charles as Bryan Kelder—the freeholder who eventually urges his colleagues to vote in favor of Hester—also gets a surprising amount of screen time. We learn all about his family and his social stand-

Yakuza Apocalypse

ing among his peers (which is more than we can say about Laurel) before he finally gets to do the heroic thing.

And that’s the film’s biggest failure: To put these periphery characters into focus rather than giving more screen time to Stacie or Laurel. The film zooms in on Dane and Brian not because of who they are but what they represent: Institutional American power. The police and the government have the power to protect members of the queer community, and Freeheld dramatizes the shift that, off-screen, culminated in this year’s Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage.

It’s hard enough to keep an audience’s attention, but when a film puts its politics first, it’s nearly impossible. As the film progresses, Laurel’s fight becomes a national one. An LGBTQ equality organizer (Steve Carell) shows up to run the media campaign, but both Laurel and Stacie object to his presence. They don’t want to see their private lives turned into a national debate. They

30 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

have a good point; I only wish the filmmakers of Freeheld had agreed with them.

—Noah Gittell Freeheld opens Friday at Landmark Bethesda Row.

ApocAlypse, now Yakuza Apocalypse Directed by Takashi Miike Takashi Miike’s Yakuza Apocalypse is part vampire tale, part yakuza lore, part strenuous comedy, and completely a bore. It’s little surprise that the director of 13 Assassins went completely apeshit in his kung-fu riff on Twilight, but it’s not just the action that’s over the top—unless talking, twisted-off heads, and beat-downs from a person (or is it?) in a frog suit, for example, are to your taste.

It must be stressed that the deadly frog— who thinks nothing of knocking aside women—appears near the end of two slapdash, practically incomprehensible hours that are more about group fights than storytelling.

Loosely, the film’s about a yakuza boss who’s worshipped in his town for seeming invincible. After his neck is cracked by a rival’s henchman—and then turned and turned again, until his head is easily popped off—he tells his own right-hand man, Akira Kageyama (Hayato Ichihara), that he’s a vampire and orders him to suck his blood to receive his powers. Afterward, Kageyama seeks to avenge his boss’s death.

If only it were that simple.

From the very beginning of Yakuza Apocalypse, there are an endless number of characters who endlessly battle each other. Though they appear frequently, the town’s other yakuza have the dimension of tissue paper and reappear even after it looks likely that they’ve been rubbed out.

Random citizens get vampirized by random people, leading to more fights and neck-sucking attacks.

Some kid in the early chapters of the film asks his father to kill him; we don’t know why. (Though Dad’s willing. World’s Best.) There’s a shady restaurateur who keeps a group of men chained in the basement, knitting, whom he occasionally visits to stomp on their bare feet with the pedi equivalent of brass knuckles. Again—who the hell knows why. At one point a reeking “kappa goblin” appears, announcing through its beak, “Gander all you want at my kappa-ness!”

This happens before not even a half-hour goes by. You’re lost and you’re restless; the film has chased its tail thus far, with no promise of moving forward soon.

Also seemingly important but never defined is the yakuza’s female “Captain,” who takes to staring into space and eventually tilts to the side to let white liquid drain from her head. She soon uses it—or at least she thinks she’s using it—to sprout “civvy” children from the ground so the yakuza vampires have a food supply. This seems to be a delusion, but it’s as clear as her fluid output.

Yakuza Apocalypse just gets weirder and weirder—including the appearance of the frog, whose “death stare” briefly turns people into metronomes—and more and more tiresome. It’s like Miike took a scrapbook of ideas that didn’t make it into his respectable films and dumped them all into this one, with no script, no editing, no point other than to be bonkers.

But in comedy, even randomness often has a touch of reason, and you can’t be successfully silly unless you’re smart about it.

—Tricia Olszewski Yakuza Apocalypse opens Friday at the Angelika Pop-Up.

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Mary’s Center presents

Noche Tropical Annual Gala

Mary’s Center invites you to celebrate its 2015 Annual Gala Noche Tropical

Friday, October 16, 2015, 6:30 pm Co-Chairs: Matthew Klinger and Nina Albert Four Seasons Hotel 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC Cocktail Reception, silent auction, dinner, live music, and ‘Hora Loca’

For more information and to buy tickets, call 202-420-7002

www.maryscenter.org washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 31

TheaTer

Under the Influence Bad Dog

By Jennifer Hoppe-House Directed by Jeremy B. Cohen At Olney Theatre Center to Oct. 25 Alice in Wonderland

By Lloyd Rose, based on the novel by Lewis Carroll Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili At Synetic Theater to Nov. 8

By Chris Klimek “I am rigorously inept,” protests Molly Drexler, the freshly relapsed alcoholic masterfully played by Holly Twyford in the acidic comedy Bad Dog. She’s being cute in response to her big sister Linda’s tough-love advice that she find a job, even if it isn’t screenwriting, her nominal profession. But Molly’s way with a quip has disguised the severity of her dysfunction for a long time. At 40, she’s been clean and sober for a decade, she protests—a decade that ended a day or two earlier, when she got blackout bombed and drove her Prius into the living room of the Sherman Oaks split-level she shares with her mental health-clinician girlfriend, Abby (Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan).

Molly’s relapse prompts the far-flung Drexler clan to circle the wagons: Both her sisters fly in, as do their parents, though Walter and Lois Drexler have barely spoken since his infidelity with his now-wife Sondra ended his marriage to Lois 30 years ago. What appears in its first half to be a sharply written and performed but thoroughly conventional family cage-match narrows its beam, in its harrowing second act, into an unflinching examination of how cruel a disease addiction can be. Molly is surrounded by the people who love her most in the world, and it still may not be enough to stop her from killing herself. Their presence might even accelerate the process.

That the ultimate effect of all this escalation and mutual recrimination is wrenching rather than maudlin is a testament to the specificity

of the writing and the strength of the company director Jeremy B. Cohen has assembled—particularly Twyford, sporting a cast and a faceful of stitches, and Emily Townley as Linda.

A political reporter busy covering midterm elections, Linda doesn’t try to hide her resentment that the family has been made to drop everything and rush to Molly’s aid yet again.

Abby, who has only known Molly during her long sobriety, feels compelled to keep the peace while the Drexlers are gathered under her roof, and to defend her partner against Linda’s invective. And no wonder: It almost seems like Linda is encouraging her to leave. Meanwhile, when gentler sister Becky (Amy McWilliams) urges Molly to seek help, Molly shrugs it off by singing Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab.”

“I love that song, too,” Becky tells her.

“But she died.”

Molly isn’t answering her sponsor’s calls, either—a fact conveyed to us through the ringtone Molly has assigned her, the Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch music cue from The Wizard of Oz. Again, Molly has gotten away with more than she ought to have by being white and upper middle class, as she acknowledges, but also by being sardonically funny.

(While everyone else gasps at the casual racism Sondra espouses, Molly just eggs her on.)

This insight into how humor—so often an effective bulwark against despair—can also prevent a sick person from confronting their illness is the play’s keenest.

A rolling world premiere that represents Olney Theatre Center in the ongoing Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Bad Dog is the first full-length play from Jennifer HoppeHouse, a screenwriter who has penned episodes of Nurse Jackie, Damages, and the Netflix series Grace and Frankie. While the language of addiction and treatment is modern, her sensibility is straight up Eugene O’Neill: buried family secrets, addiction, and attendant shame, ripples of psychic torment emanating from decades-old grievances. I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that this is the second show in as many years (after Signature Theatre’s marvelous 2014 production of Laura Eason’s Sex with

32 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

Handout photo by Nicholas Griner

A new play about the horrors of addiction, and a kids’ classic that isn’t nearly intoxicating enough

Bad Dog

Strangers) to hinge on Twyford’s ability to sell a moment of genuine, terrifying indecision.

She sells it, of course. The only thing Twyford seems incapable of is giving an uncommitted or unconvincing performance.

Tony Cisek’s two-story set is as naturalistic as the acting. The stainless steel appliances in the kitchen that occupies stage-left probably all work. Stage right is the living room with that plastic-sheeting-patched hole, while above the kitchen is the bedroom where Molly steals away to crawl into the bottle.

As Walter, Leo Erickson lets us see the guilt and self-doubt Walter is trying to keep buried under his swaggering bluster. He seems grateful to Naomi Jacobson’s visor-wearing, power-walking, fast-talking Lois—her unremitting hostility towards him lets him feel victimized, instead of contemplating how his failings as a father may have led his youngest daughter down this dark path. That’s a lot for one performance to convey, but then every one of these eight actors is playing more than one emotion at once. What results isn’t comforting, but they are honest and satisfying in their complexity.

Perhaps the most puzzling entry in the Women’s Voices Theater Festival is Synetic Theater’s weirdly muted new iteration of Alice in Wonderland. Yes, this new gloss on Lewis Carroll’s oft-adapted 150-year-old novel is by a woman—Lloyd Rose, the author of several Dr. Who novels and a former theater and film critic for the Washington Post. But nothing about Rose’s interpretation—which refashions the tale as a battle of wills between plucky Alice (Kathy Gordon) and her severe new governess (Renata Vebertye Loman), who wants to throw away all her plush toys— feels revelatory or even distinct, the way Synetic’s less faithful, more intriguing The Island of Dr. Moreau was at this time last year.

While that show, like many Synetic offerings, was clearly aimed at adults, it’s hard to tell who this Alice is for: Company co-founder Irina Tsikurishvili’s choreography is less sug-

gestive (and less thrillingly athletic) than usual, but the 95-minute, no-intermission performance is probably too frightening for very young children. Grownups, meanwhile, will likely be bored to tears. (Not the glowing blue LED tears Alice cries when her legs extend to stilt-like dimensions, in one of a few memorable moments of visual poetry.) Or maybe it was just the hard-working smoke machine that kept me bleary-eyed.

Carroll’s surreal imagery and characters would seem to give the design team plenty of fertile material, and he fits Synetic’s usual M.O.: Take a writer whose reputation rests heavily or wholly on verse and wordplay, then redact (most of) the words. There’s a neat plot device here, wherein Alice’s toys spring to life in the form of the familiar characters, most notably Alex Mills’ impish Cheshire Cat. Loman reappears as the Queen of Hearts, predictably, and the Lithuanian actresses’ awkward line readings—a giveaway square in any game of Synetic Theater Bingo—contribute to her air of menace.

But even among the elements that sort of work, there’s no alchemy. Daniel Pinha’s set design repurposes the same steel-tubing jungle gym familiar from other Synetic shows, and Kendra Rai’s vaguely punk-inspired costumes—lots of shredded leather, and matching red mohawks on Tweedledee and Tweedledum (who come not from Alice, but in its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, people)— try to gin up a bit of provocation. It plays like a collection of outtakes from Synetic’s triumphs. Even resident composer Konstantine Lortkipanidze’s score is more grating than whimsical or unsettling. One pill makes you taller and one pill makes you small, to cite another lady-penned rewrite of Alice. But this one is like the pill that mother gives you: It CP doesn’t do much of anything at all.

2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. $15– $60. (301) 924-3400. olneytheatre.org.

1800 South Bell St., Arlington. $15–$70. (703) 824-8060. synetictheater.org.

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Bambù cacao wafers, $3. Radici Market. 303 7th St. SE. (202) 758-0086

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RobeRt e. PaRilla PeRfoRming aRts CenteR 2015-2016 College Performing arts

goDsPell Conceived and originally directed by JoHn-miCHael tebelaK music and new lyrics by stePHen sCHWaRtZ

originally produced on the new York stage by eDgaR lanDsbURY/stUaRt DUnCan/JosePH beRUH

october 7-10, 2015, 8pm october 11, 2015, 2pm Tickets are $10 Regular, $8 Seniors & $5 Students w/ ID

Montgomery College • 51 Mannakee St., Rockville, Maryland 20850 www.montgomerycollege.edu/pac • Box Office: 240-567-5301

Do the Dammit Thing Next time your frustration boils over at work take out your Dammit doll. It’s built to be smacked around.

Dammit doll, $15. Chocolate Moose. 1743 L St. NW. (202) 463-0992

The Morrissey You The More I’m Smith-en Take down those cheesy animal posters and opt for this Morrissey-inspired print by local artistic team Liz and Jimmy Reed.

Morrissey cat, $10. Cuddles and Rage. cuddlesandrage.com

WASHINGTON CITY PAPER College Perfomring Arts Series GoDSpell Please run in the September 24th, October 1st and 8th edition The Frame Up Alexandria-based company Conflicted Pixie creates these clipboards out of maple. Use it to put up a picture, inspirational quote, or your to-do list.

Clipboard frame, $23. Conflicted Pixie. conflictedpixie.com

Cite Your Sources Write your coworkers formal warnings for excessive gossip, raging egotism, or eating tuna.

Office citation notes, $6.50. Tabletop. 1608 20th St. NW. (202) 387-7117

Call Angie Lockhart with any questions.

Angie Lockhart Publicist washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 33 Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center Montgomery College

34 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

INER

60S-INSPIRED D Serving

EVERYTHING from BURGERS to BOOZY SHAKES

HAPPY HOUR:

$2 Tuesday $3 Thursday $4 Friday (ALL DRAFTS AND RAIL)

BRING YOUR TICKET AFTER ANY SHOW AT

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FREE SHOT!

Friday Rock

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Owl City, Rozzi Crane. 6 p.m. $25. 930.com. Mew, The Dodos.

10 p.m. $25. 930.com.

Fillmore Silver Spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Korn, Suicide Silence, Islander. 7:30 p.m. $49.50. fillmoresilverspring.com.

ElEctRonic u Street muSiC Hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881880. Danny Howells, R&B. 10 p.m. $12. ustreetmusichall.com.

Jazz betHeSda blueS and Jazz 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. Larry Brown Quintet. 8 p.m. $20. bethesdabluesjazz.com.

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

blueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Roy Hargrove. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $40–$60. bluesalley.com.

LA ROSA DEL AZAFRáN

BluEs

My mother, like every Korean woman of a certain age, loves her Korean soap operas. I occasionally ask her what they’re about. “Oh, there is a boy, and he loves a girl, but the boy is from a poor family and the girl is from a rich family so their parents do not approve.”

“That’s what the last one was about,” I’ll say. “Oh no no no, last time the girl was from a poor family and the boy was from a rich family so their parents did not approve.” Some plots are timeless, and universal. Such is the plot for La Rosa del Azafrán (The Saffron Rose), a 1930 zarzuela (a half-sung, half-spoken form of Spanish musical theater) based on a 1618 play by Félix Lope de Vega, the great poet of Spain’s Golden Century. Teatro Lirico of D.C.—a small opera company devoted to Spanish and Italian vocal music—will stage this particular dramatization of forbidden cross-class romance. Until we achieve a truly egalitarian society, there will always be plenty of class prejudices to mine for dramatic purposes. The play runs Oct. 9 to 10 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. $50– —Mike Paarlberg $60. (202) 360-3514. teatroliricodc.com.

zoo bar 3000 Connecticut Ave. NW. (202) 2324225. Sookey Jump Blues Band. 9 p.m. Free. zoobardc.com.

Folk tHe Hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

19th Street Band. 10:30 p.m. Free. thehamiltondc.com.

classical Folger elizabetHan tHeatre 201 E. Capitol St. SE. (202) 544-7077. Folger Consort: Chanson Medieval. 8 p.m. $25–$40. folger.edu.

Kennedy Center ConCert Hall 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra: Ludovic Morlot, conductor: Sharon Isbin, guitar.

11:30 a.m. $15–$89. kennedy-center.org.

Kennedy Center terraCe tHeater 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Jeremy Denk, Jason Moran. 7 p.m. $55. kennedy-center.org.

saturday Rock

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

SearCh LISTIngS aT waShIngTonCITYpaper.Com

Music

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

Hoots and Hellmouth. 9 p.m. $12–$16. gypsysallys.com.

Club

Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 0 Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. The Growlers. 8 p.m. $20. 930.com. blaCK Cat 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490.

Futurebirds. 9 p.m. $15. blackcatdc.com. gypSy Sally’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700.

Marco Benevento. 9 p.m. $15–$17. gypsysallys.com.

u Street muSiC Hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881880. Lissie. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

Pizzarro. 7:30 p.m. $10. pyramidatlanticartcenter.org.

velvet lounge 915 U St. NW. (202) 462-3213.

Buhu, Social Station, Gender Studies, Time is Fire.

8:30 p.m. $8. velvetloungedc.com.

Jazz

Warner tHeatre 513 13th St. NW. (202) 7834000. Alvin and the Chipmunks. 1:30 p.m. & 5:30 p.m. $25.50–$72. warnertheatre.com.

Funk & R&B gW liSner auditorium 730 21st St. NW. (202) 994-6800. Chrisette Michelle, Chelsey Green. 7 p.m. $70–$120. lisner.org.

ElEctRonic pyramid atlantiC art Center 8230 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. (301) 608-9101. BLK w/ BEAR, Roger Beebe, David Armes, pater familias, Daniel Barbiero + JL Roth, STYLUS (petite), Sarah O’Halloran, CK Barlow, One Chord Ponies, Guillermo

blueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Roy Hargrove. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $40. bluesalley.com.

Kennedy Center terraCe gallery 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. E.J. and Marcus Strickland. 7 p.m. & 9 p.m. $26–$30. kennedy-center.org.

Hip-Hop Fillmore Silver Spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Joey Bada$$, Denzel Curry, Bishop Nehru, Nyck Caution. 8 p.m. $22. fillmoresilverspring.com.

classical Folger elizabetHan tHeatre 201 E. Capitol St. SE. (202) 544-7077. Folger Consort: Chanson Medieval. 5 p.m. & 8 p.m. $25–$40. folger.edu.

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 35

Kennedy Center ConCert Hall 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra: Ludovic Morlot, conductor; Miloš Karadaglic, classical guitar. 8 p.m. $15–$89. kennedy-center.org.

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Vocal muSiC Center at StratHmore 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Jackie Evancho. 8 p.m. $48–$115. strathmore.org.

sunday Rock

classical Folger elizabetHan tHeatre 201 E. Capitol St. SE. (202) 544-7077. Folger Consort: Chanson Medieval. 2 p.m. $25–$40. folger.edu.

Kennedy Center ConCert Hall 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra. 8 p.m. $29–$99. kennedy-center.org.

Monday Rock

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Lucero. 7 p.m. $25. 930.com.

barnS at WolF trap 1645 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. The Ann Wilson Thing. 8 p.m. $80–$85. wolftrap.org.

blaCK Cat 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Electric Six, Yip Deceiver. 7:30 p.m. $15. blackcatdc.com.

countRy

dC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. DRINKS, Droor.

9 p.m. $10–$12. dcnine.com.

tHe Hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Kinky Friedman. 7:30 p.m. $20–$30. thehamiltondc.com.

HoWard tHeatre 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Panteon Rococo. 8 p.m. $25. thehowardtheatre.com.

Funk & R&B birCHmere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. The Whispers. 7:30 p.m. $75. birchmere.com. gypSy Sally’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700. The California Honeydrops. 8 p.m. $10–$14. gypsysallys.com.

Jazz blueS alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Roy Hargrove. 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. $40–$60. bluesalley.com.

tuesday Rock

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Neon Indian. 7 p.m. $25. 930.com. barnS at WolF trap 1645 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. The Ann Wilson Thing. 8 p.m. $80–$85. wolftrap.org.

Comet ping pong 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. (202) 364-0404. Shannon & The Clams, Las Rosas. 9 p.m. $12. cometpingpong.com.

WoRld

Fillmore Silver Spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Collective Soul. 8 p.m. $29.50. fillmoresilverspring.com.

Kennedy Center millennium Stage 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Frog Hammer. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

roCK & roll Hotel 1353 H St. NE. (202) 388-ROCK. The Dear Hunter. 7:30 p.m. $20. rockandrollhoteldc.com.

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

THE MAGIC TREE

When the world feels like it’s crumbling around you, does love have the power to turn everything around? That’s the central question posed in Irish playwright Ursula Rani Sarma’s play The Magic Tree, making its U.S. debut at Keegan Theatre as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. The action revolves around two characters, a lonely man in search of any form of human connection and a woman so frustrated with the state of her life that she wants to disappear, who meet in an abandoned home. At first, they find themselves drawn together and slowly begin opening up to one another but soon enough, their dark sides are revealed and the attraction that once simmered goes away.

Its meet-cute opening might make it look like a romantic comedy but Sarma, a playwright celebrated in Ireland and the U.K. but little known in the U.S., forces her audience to look at the darker side of the human condition. The play runs Oct. 10 to Nov. 17 at Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW. $25–$36. (202) 265-3767. keegantheatre.com. —Diana Metzger

36 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

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

UPTOWN BLUES

HAPPY HOUR M-F • 4-8 1/2 Priced APPetizers Fri. Oct. 9 Sat. Oct. 10 Fri. Oct. 16 Sat. Oct. 17 Fri. Oct. 23 Sat. Oct. 24

Sookey Jump BlueS Band Smokin’ polecatS moonShine Society Stacy BrookS BlueS Band Swamp keeperS Band red Bruce ewan thhearmonica king

Sundays mike Flaherty’S

dixieland direct Jazz Band

3000 Connecticut Avenue, NW washingtoncitypaper.com

(across from the National Zoo)

202-232-4225 zoobardc.com

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 37

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

LUCERO

Bohemian Caverns Tuesdays Artist in Residency

Federico Peña T OC

Donald Harrison

DC’s Legendary Jazz Club

Established in 1926 2001 11th ST NW - (202)299-0800

rd

Oct 23 & 24

Fri & Sat

Ayanna Mark Meadows Gregory Fri & Sat Oct 30 & 31 Oct 9 Herb Scott @LivNightclub Fri

th

th

Sat Oct 10th

DJ Spinna

Pharoah Sanders

Jahsonic

Matt Lucian & Matt Maneri th

Sun Oct 11

presented in conjunction w/ Transparent Productions

Chad Carter Matvei Sigalov

Sun Nov 1st th

Thur Nov 5

Sat 0th 1 Oct

"This group is something special." ~ Mike West (CityPaper)

www.BohemianCaverns.com

Sun 8th 1 Oct

w/ Daru Jones

Sun Ra Arkestra under direction of

Marshall Allen th Fri Oct 30

Bohemian Caverns The Funky Jazz Orchestra Knuckles Mondays @ 8pm The Hello?! Tour

&

Key!

Special Guests

38 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

th

1

1 Nov

u Street muSiC Hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881880. Reptar, Young Empires, Breathers. 7 p.m. $18. ustreetmusichall.com.

u Street muSiC Hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881880. Joywave, Alpine. 6 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

WoRld

BluEs

HoWard tHeatre 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Dread Mar I. 8 p.m. $25. thehowardtheatre.com.

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. The Word, Amy Helm & The Handsome Strangers. 7 p.m. $35.

930.com.

classical Kennedy Center terraCe tHeater 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Seiya Ueno, Wendy Chen. 7 p.m. $35. kennedy-center.org.

Vocal muSiC Center at StratHmore 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Under the Streetlamp. 8 p.m. $28–$68. strathmore.org.

The Ruff Pack

Oct 16th - 18th

Fri - Sun

st

WonderFull™

Legends of Jazz Series

th

Over the course of ten albums, Lucero’s sound has morphed quite a bit. From the scrappy country-punk anthems on early albums like Tennessee and That Much Further West, to the more honkey-tonk tunes on 1372 Overton Park and Women & Work, the Memphis, Tenn. outfit has managed to become more commercially appealing without losing touch with its roots. That much is evident on its excellent new record, All a Man Should Do, which finds the band harkening back to its early sound with ten stripped-down tunes about life, love, and one’s own mortality. Singer/guitarist Ben Nichols’ deeply personal songs find him at a place of remorseful reflection and contemplation. Nichols’ lyrics in “The Man I Was” and “I Woke Up In New Orleans” may come off as quite a bummer, but backed by the rest of the band, they’re bonafide whiskey-tinged sing-a-longs. Lucero performs at 7 p.m. at 9:30 —Matt Cohen Club, 815 V St. NW. $25. (202) 265-0930. 930.com.

th

Nov 12

www.LivDC.com

tHe Hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

The Taj Mahal Trio. 7:30 p.m. $38–$55. thehamiltondc.com.

countRy gypSy Sally’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700. Lindi Ortega. 8:30 p.m. $14–$16. gypsysallys.com.

WoRld

Wednesday

manSion at StratHmore 10701 Rockville Pike, Rockville. (301) 581-5100. Piotr Pakhomkin, Amadou Kouyate. 7:30 p.m. $17. strathmore.org.

barnS at WolF trap 1645 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Benjamin Clementine. 8 p.m. $22–$25. wolftrap.org.

Rock

Rock

thursday

dC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Empress Of. 9 p.m. $10–$12. dcnine.com.

9:30 Club 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Cherub, Hippie Sabotage. 7 p.m. $20. 930.com.

HoWard tHeatre 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Mac DeMarco. 8 p.m. $25. thehowardtheatre.com.

blaCK Cat 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490.

Blitzen Trapper. 7:30 p.m. $20. blackcatdc.com.

muSiC Center at StratHmore 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Chris Cornell. 8 p.m.

(Sold out). strathmore.org.

Funk & R&B

roCK & roll Hotel 1353 H St. NE. (202) 388-ROCK. Matt Pond PA. 7:30 p.m. $16. rockandrollhoteldc.com.

tHe Hamilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Betty LaVette. 7:30 p.m. $28–$40. thehamiltondc.com.

1811 14TH ST NW

www.blackcatdc.com

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DANCE PARTY

FRI, OCT 9

MEGAN HILTY

TWO SHOWS! 7 + 9:30 PM

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A TRIBUTE TO RICK JAMES & TEENA MARIE

TUE 13

THU 15

FRI 16 FRI 16 SAT 17

BLITZEN TRAPPER

LITTLE WAR TWINS TWIN PEAKS BURLESQUE

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TELEKINESIS SAY HI TUE 20 BOYS LIFE MON 19

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1 STAR TREK:TNG EP. PER WEEK

ROMULAN ALE SPECIALS

1 EPISODE pER WEEK plus drink specials

NOW OPEN at 5pm M-F!

WED, OCT 14

BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

One of Rolling Stone’s 10 New Artists You Need to Know with an “expressionistic [and] bladelike tenor” (The New York Times) brings his piano-driven songs to the stage

TAKE METRO!

TO BUY TICKETS VISIT TICKETFLY.COM

FRI OCTOBER 23RD

BELL BIV DEVOE

THU, OCT 22

SAT OCT 24TH & SUN OCT 25TH

WHUR 96.3 FM PRESENTS:

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FRI, OCT 30

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

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TWO SHOWS! 7 + 9:30 PM

THU, OCT 29

AND MANY MORE!

SAT OCTOBER 17TH

MOTHER FALCON & BEN SOLLEE TUE OCTOBER 20TH

OLD DOMINION

JEFFERSON GRIZZARD

DREAD MAR-I

DAVE DAVIES

SAT, OCT 17

WILLIE NILE

SUN OCTOBER 11TH PANTEON ROCOCO TUE OCTOBER 13TH

THE FALL MIGRATION

FOLK DANCES OF INDIA

FRI, OCT 23

FT. ABSTRACT TRUTH

LIVE & DIRECT FROM ARGENTINA

D.C. AREA DEBUT!

CATHERINE RUSSELL RED ROOM & LUCKY CAT PINBALL

FRI OCTOBER 9TH

WHITE FORD BRONCO DC'S ALL 90’S BAND

MAL BLUM

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H O M E G A M E T I C K E T G I V E AW AY S !

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AN EVENING WITH DAVID DUCHOVNY TUE OCTOBER 27TH

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washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 39

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

washingtoncitypaper.com

PULP FUSION Friday, October 9 - KELLY BELL BAND

Thursday, October 8 -

Saturday, October 10 -

WICKED PAST

Tuesday, October 13

2ND TUESDAYS BLUES DAYS hosted by Moonshine Society

Thursday, October 15 Friday, October 16 -

FATSKEYS

CRAVIN’ DOGS

Saturday, October 17

DUKES OF DARTFORD

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

DANIEL BACHMAN

Daniel Bachman has played at Red Onion Records enough times now that he might as well take up residency there. Still, each and every performance he’s done at the small record store has felt like a special occasion. (This show marks an actual occasion: the first in-store performance at the shop’s new location on U Street NW.) Perhaps that’s just the type of performer he is. At just 25, Bachman’s sparse, haunting guitar picking suggests a wisdom well beyond his years. His particular blend of post-apocalyptic folk lands somewhere between an unhinged John Fahey and a more composed rendering of the elusive Jandek. In the liner notes of his latest record, River, Bachman explains the unifying theme guiding each and every carefully plucked chord; the Rappahanock River, which “divides north and south, mountain and bay and, at one point in time, it even separated two great armies.”

Though he may not be a vocalist, Bachman conveys more meaning with his guitar picking than most singer-songwriters. Don’t miss this—or else you’ll probably have to wait another full month, at least, before you have the chance to see Bachman at Red Onion again.

Daniel Bachman performs at 7 p.m. at Red Onion Records and Books, 1628 U St. NW. Free.

—Matt Cohen (202) 986-2718. redonionrecordsandbooks.com.

ElEctRonic u Street muSiC Hall 1115 U St. NW. (202) 5881880. Lane 8. 10 p.m. $12. ustreetmusichall.com.

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

Folk barnS at WolF trap 1645 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Sam Bush. 8 p.m. $35–$40. wolftrap.org. dC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. King Dude, Foie Gras. 8:30 p.m. $10–$12. dcnine.com.

Sunday, October 18

Vocal

Monday, October 19

Kennedy Center terraCe tHeater 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Jamie Barton, Bradley Moore. 7 p.m. $50. kennedy-center.org.

BIG BLACK WOLVES THE DAWN DRAPES

Tuesday, October 20

3RD TUESDAYS GROOVE JAM SESSION hosted by Stealing Liberty

W W W. V I L L A I N A N D SA I N T. C O M 40 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

theater

7 layerS Captive Performer Stacy Jewell Lewis tells the true story of her abduction from her D.C. home and her subsequent work as a street prostitute in this moving multimedia presentation that combines music, spoken word, and visual projections. Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. 2700 F St. NW. To Oct. 10. $39. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org. aliCe in Wonderland Follow Alice down the rabbit hole and experience this darker take on Lewis Carroll’s loopy tale featuring the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, and the Cheshire Cat. In true Synetic fash-

ion, the production, presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, is directed by Paata Tsikurishvili and choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili. Synetic Theater at Crystal City. 1800 South Bell St., Arlington. To Nov. 8. $15–$70. (800) 494-8497. synetictheater.org. animal Despite having a loving husband, comfortable home, and fulfilling career, Rachel still can’t seem to find contentment. When conventional wisdom can’t help her snap out of her funk and she starts having visions, she’s forced to confront the issues she’s ignored. Gaye Taylor Upchurch directs this dark comedy by Clare Lizzimore. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To Oct. 25. $20–$45. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org. beautiFul—tHe Carole King muSiCal Learn about the career of songwriter Carole King and her ascent from teenage prodigy to bestselling artist in this musical that uses King’s songs to tell the story of her life. Kennedy Center Opera House. 2700 F St. NW. To Oct. 25. $39–$150. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org. bHavi tHe avenger After slaying an elephant, a young man is haunted by the creature and forced to deal with the power of his actions. Convergence Theater presents this production of Tearrance Chisholm’s play about prejudice and consequences. Flashpoint Mead Theatre Lab. 916 G St. NW. To Oct. 11. $15–$25. (202) 315-1306. culturaldc.org.

CaKe oFF Sherri L. Edelen stars in this new play about a bake off with a one million dollar prize and the tough competitors aiming to take home the dough. Expect a production full of flour, sugar, and bitter batter battles.

Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To Nov. 22. $40–$101. (703) 820-9771. signature-theatre.org.

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

PAPERHAUS

Experimental local rock band Paperhaus has made its name in the District’s DIY music scene both as musicians and supporters of other emerging artists from around the nation. Since releasing its first self-titled EP in 2011, the group has toured with indie groups like the War on Drugs and Desert Noises, while also welcoming local and touring bands into frontman Alex Tebeleff ’s home, also called the Paperhaus, to perform intimate shows. The band’s newest album, a selftitled LP, was written over two years and explores themes of self-awareness and mind expansion. Describing itself as “not a band of hippies,” Paperhaus draws in elements from psychedelic rock and pop, bringing to mind Radiohead and Brian Eno. When they’re not hosting private concerts in their living room, the members continue to play gigs at clubs around town. At DC9, they debut a new, pared down lineup and a few new songs, as well.

Paperhaus performs with Santah and Stronger Sex at 8:30 p.m. at DC9, 1940 9th St. NW. $12. (202) 483-5000. dcnine.com.

—Tatiana Cirisano

$10 BURGER & BEER MON-FRI 4 P M -7 P M

TRIVIA EVERY M O N D AY & W E D N E S D AY

$3 PBR & NATTY BOH ALL DAY EVERY DAY

F9

600 beers from around the world

THE LARRY BROWN QUINTET FEATURING SHARÓN CLARK

SU 11 TOM PRINCIPATO BAND

Downstairs: good food, great beer: $3 PBR & Natty Boh’s all day every day *all shows 21+ THURS, OCTOBER 8TH

UNDERGROUND COMEDY

DOORS AT 8PM SHOW AT 830PM

MONDAY OCTOBER 12

S AT, O C T O B E R 3 R D

FRED WESLEY

VC VARIETY PRESENTS

& THE NEW JB’S

DOORS AT 8PM SHOW AT 10PM SUN, OCTOBER 11TH

HOPE OPERA PRESENTS A NEW HOPE

DOORS AT 7PM SHOW AT 8PM MON, OCTOBER 12TH

DISTRICT TRIVIA STARTS AT 730PM

TUES, OCTOBER 13TH

TUESDAY OCTOBER 13

LAST RESORT COMEDY

Can’t Complain An old woman confined to a hospital for a round of tests ordered by her daughter attempts an escape with the help of her roommate and granddaughter but a party gone awry waylays their plans. Instead, the woman is forced to confront her past in order to move forward in this new play by Christine Evans. Spooky Action Theater. 1810 16th St. NW. To Oct. 25. $15–$35. (301) 920-1414. spookyaction.org.

CHimeriCa Inspired by the Tiananmen Square protests on 1992, this play by Lucy Kirkwood focuses on a journalist who photographed the events and seeks out his subject years later. Two decades later, with ChineseAmerican relations dominating the election cycle, he’s approached by another Chinese acquaintance with a different proposal. David Muse directs this play about political correctness, change, and responsibility. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To Oct. 18. $20–$86. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org. deStiny oF deSire Drawing inspiration from Latin American telenovelas, this new play from local author Karen Zacarías focuses on the aftermath of a shocking baby swap. When one is raised by a rich family and and one is raised in poverty, the stage is set for an even more unbelievable reunion. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To Oct. 18. $50–$90. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org. erma bombeCK: at Wit’S end Dramatists Allison and Margaret Engel return to Arena Stage after pre-

THE JAM

DOORS AT 8PM SHOW AT 830PM

W 14 PAULA ATHERTON & DAVID BACH TH 15 THE FUNK ARK

WED, OCTOBER 14TH

DISTRICT TRIVIA STARTS AT 730PM

THURS, OCTOBER 15TH

SPECIFIC IGNORANCE

DOORS AT 5PM SHOW AT 6PM FRI, OCTOBER 16TH

ELLIE QUINN PRESENTS NUDETENDO POWER

F 16

BOBBY CALDWELL

SATURDAY OCTOBER 17 1AM MICHAEL LIVE PROJECT: MICHAEL JACKSON DANCE MASTER CLASS

DOORS AT 8PM SHOW AT 10PM 1523 22nd St NW – Washington, DC 20037 (202) 293-1887 - www.bierbarondc.com @bierbarondc.com for news and events

W/ GARY GRAINGER

7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, MD (240) 330-4500 Two Blocks from Bethesda Metro/Red Line Free Parking on Weekends

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 41

senting Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins in 2012 with this look at mid-20th century humorist, newspaper columnist, and feminist. David Esbjornson directs this one-woman show starring Barbara Chisholm. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To Nov. 8. $55–$90. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

FriendSHip betrayed WCS Avant Bard presents this 17th-century play by María de Zayas y Sotomayor, which, like Sex and the City, explores what happens to female friendships while women look for and find love.

Kari Ginsburg sets her production in the 1920s, a time when women were beginning to explore their sexual curiosities and passions. Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two. 2700 South Lang St., Arlington. To Oct. 11. $10–$35. (703) 418-4808. wscavantbard.org. girlStar Part reality competition, part fairy tale, this musical focuses on the lengths people will go to for fame. When a popular record producer transforms her long lost niece into an international pop star through some unconventional means, they’re forced to consider the limits of success and how far they’re both willing to go. Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To Nov. 15. $40–$96. (703) 820-9771. signature-theatre.org. good KidS Naomi Iizuka’s new play focuses on the new ways contemporary teenagers communicate during a shocking tragedy. When a young woman is sexually assaulted by members of the high school football team and her classmates find out on social media, the characters are forced to confront their lack of action and question how such things could happen. Kennedy Center Theater Lab. 2700 F St. NW. Oct. 12. Free. 202467-4600. kennedy-center.org. tHe guard Set in an art museum, this world premiere play by Jessica Dickey examines what happens when a guard dares to touch a famous painting and the fantastical journey through the ages that follows. Sharon Ott directs this production as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Ford’s Theatre. 511 10th St. NW. To Oct. 18. $20–$62. (202) 347-4833. fordstheatre.org. inHeritanCe Canyon In this dark new play, playwright Liz Maestri takes the characters from her play Owl Moon and sets them in an alternate reality where, after surviving a mysterious disaster, they’re left to fend for themselves while trapped in a canyon. Lise Bruneau

directs this production, presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Taffety Punk at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. 545 7th St. SE. To Oct. 10. $15. (202) 261-6612. taffetypunk.com. lady lay Scena Theater presents this play about a German woman who discovers the music of Bob Dylan and learns from it during a pivotal moment in her nation’s history. Presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Atlas Performing Arts Center.

1333 H St. NE. To Oct. 10. $25–$45. (202) 399-7993. atlasarts.org. tHe magiC tree A lonely man and an equally lonely woman meet on a stormy night in an abandoned home and immediately form a connection. But as soon as things take a turn for the romantic, other factors come in to drive them apart. Matthew J. Keenan and Colin Smith direct Ursula Rani Sharma’s play as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Keegan Theatre at Church Street Theater. 1742 Church St. NW. To Nov. 13. $25–$36. (703) 892-0202. keegantheatre.com. maytag virgin A recent widow living in rural Alabama connects with her new neighbor, a quiet observer who starts watching her and interpreting her behavior, and together they learn to repair their spirits in this quiet play by Audrey Cefaly. Presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Quotidian Theatre Company at The Writer’s Center. 4508 Walsh St., Bethesda. To Nov. 1. $15–$30. (301) 816-1023. quotidiantheatre.org.

QueenS girl in tHe World When she’s transferred from her familiar environment in Queens to a progressive school in Greenwich Village where she’s one of four black students, 12-year-old Jacqueline Marie Butler feels her world shrinking. In this world premiere play

by Caleen Sinnette Jennings, Jacqueline’s journey of understanding and growth comes to life. Presented as part of of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Theater J. 1529 16th St. NW. To Oct. 18. $17–$67. (202) 5189400. theaterj.org.

Salomé Adaptor and director Yaël Farber presents this new production chronicling the story of the princess who begged for the head of John the Baptist on a platter and takes back ownership of her body.

Presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Lansburgh Theatre. 450 7th St. NW. To Nov. 8. $20–$108. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

GIRLSTAR Magic and musical theater, when combined, generally earn great acclaim, whether the show in question is Wicked, Cinderella, or any of the many iterations of Peter Pan that have graced stages in recent years. Signature Theatre, purveyors of the more realistic musicals of Stephen Sondheim, hopes to cash in on this fantastical trend with its latest offering, the premiere of Anton Dudley and Brian Feinstein’s Girlstar. Tagged with the slightly unappealing line of “The Voice meets Maleficent,” the musical follows possessed record producer Daniella, who finds her next pop ingenue in a long-lost niece, Tina. Transforming Tina into the next Selena Gomez proves relatively easy from a physical standpoint, but the emotional transformation doesn’t go as well. Dudley and Feinstein encourage the audience to question the acceptable limits one should go to in order to become a star while keeping the subject matter light enough for the tween audiences Signature is hoping to court. Dubious theatergoers can rest assured that, while magical, the content is far from Disneyfied. The play runs Oct. 13 to Nov. 15 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. $40–$96. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org. —Caroline Jones

42 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

washingtoncitypaper.com OCTOBER 9, 2015 43

25 YEARS LOST

A LIFETIME FOUND

tiny iSland Two sisters growing up in the 1980s worry about their family’s movie theater as video rental stores expand and cable takes over their airwaves in this retro work by Michael Hollinger that nevertheless remains relevant in the 21st century. Washington Stage Guild at Undercroft Theatre. 900 Massachusetts Ave. NW. To Oct. 25. $40–$50. (240) 582-0050. stageguild.org. upriSing In this new musical set in the aftermath of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, a group of free black fall under the spell of Ossie, a revolutionary who aims to change the world around him. Thomas W. Jones II directs Gabrielle Fulton’s production, a world premiere. MetroStage. 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria.

To Oct. 25. $55–$60. (703) 548-9044. metrostage.org.

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44 OCTOBER 9, 2015 washingtoncitypaper.com

FilM

Stoned brilliant dead: tHe Story n drunK oF tHe national lampoon The comedic magazine that went on to launch films like Animal House, Vacation, and Van Wilder is remembered in this documentary that features commentary from John Goodman, Christopher Guest, and Kevin Bacon, among others. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) Julianne Moore and Ellen Page star n inFreeHeld this drama about a lesbian couple who fight for partner benefits when one of them is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Based on the true story of New Jersey police officer Laurel Hester, the film is directed by Peter Sollett. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) He named me malala Davis Guggenheim directs this documentary about Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani woman and education advocate who was attacked by the Taliban, nearly died, but went on to inspire people around the world and win the Nobel Piece Prize. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

n

tHe Keeping room Three Southern women must band together to save their property from rogue Union soldiers in this Civil War drama from director Daniel Barber. Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Brit Marling, and Sam Worthington. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) labyrintH oF lieS A German prosecutor is n determined to bring a former concentration camp commander to justice but in doing so, learns some ugly truths about his family’s past, in this German language drama directed by Giulio Ricciarelli. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) tHe martian An astronaut, assumed dead by his crew mates, is left on Mars and has to struggle for survival while letting those on Earth know he’s still alive.

Based on the novel by Andy Weir, the film stars Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, and Kristen Wiig. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) pan Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, and Garrett n Hedlund star in this prequel to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, which provides the origin stories for both Peter and Captain Hook. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) SiCario Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent tasked with taking down an anonymous drug lord in this thrilling crime drama from director Denis Villeneuve. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) tHe WalK Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Philippe Petit, the man determined to walk between the World Trade Center’s towers on a wire, in this thrilling drama from director Robert Zemeckis. (See washingtoncitypaper. com for venue information)

Film clips are written by Caroline Jones.

CITY LIGHTS: THURSDAY

ELVIS COSTELLO Elvis Costello the performer has been many things over the course of his career: an Attraction, an Imposter, a talk show host, and an icon of England’s new wave era, to list just a few. But when he appears at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Costello won’t serenade moon-eyed audiences with a few verses of “Alison” or “Every Day I Write the Book.”

Instead, he’ll reflect on the life of the man born Declan Patrick MacManus and share stories he’s previously kept private.

Like many musicians of a certain age, Costello has published an autobiography, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, in which he chronicles his four decades in music and the surprising twists that led him to his current position atop rock ‘n’ roll. From his experiments with classical and jazz compositions to his frequent TV guest spots and constant reinterpretation of work by other artists, the man’s done it all. He’ll discuss all this and more with Slate culture editor Dan Kois. If you ask nicely, maybe he’ll even sing just a bit. Elvis Costello reads at 7:30 p.m. at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW. $45.

(202) 408-3100. sixthandi.org.

—Caroline Jones