CITY LIGHTS

Comedian Sarah Cooper captured lightning in a bottle with her lip-syncing TikToks poking fun at President Trump. By swapping the podiums and press conferences that offer him a veneer of dignity for a roster of wigs and homemade props, Cooper unveiled a new shade of absurdity in Trump’s erratic soundbites. But Cooper’s apparent overnight success has been years in the making. As a way to escape the stifling corporate atmosphere of jobs at Yahoo and Google, the Montgomery County-raised Cooper started a humor blog that went viral for satirizing productivity culture and “girlboss” feminism. After striking comedy gold again with her Trump bits, Cooper landed a mid-pandemic Netflix deal for her debut special Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine. The special places the dumpster fire of 2020 in a blender, adds a wild mix of guest stars like Jon Hamm, Megan Thee Stallion, and Maya Rudolph, then stuffs it all into the format of a morning news show. Everything’s Fine contains staples of sketch comedy like bizarre infomercials and fake movie trailers while offering original bits and a new song from Fred Armisen. But the highlight of the show is a delirious peek inside the infamous Access Hollywood bus starring Helen Mirren as Billy Bush. The special also serves as a fine showcase for director Natasha staffing an all-female writer’s room for her series Russian Doll, and producing Jacqueline Novak’s off-Broadway show Get On Your Knees, Lyonne has positioned herself as the salmon cannon that shoots female comics upstream. With Cooper as Lyonne’s latest protégé, the future of women-led comedy is bright—we just have to get through 2020 first. The special is available to stream on Netflix. Free with subscription. —Mercedes Hesselroth

City Lights

Dash & Lily There are some classic signs that Christmas is right around the corner: Carols play on the radio, snow settles on the ground, and a deluge of holiday romance plots hit the screen. Dash & tradition, adapted from the YA novel Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Silver Spring-born author Rachel Cohn and her writing partner, David Levithan. In search of a special someone with whom to share the holidays, the sentimental Lily hides a notebook in the J. D. Salinger section of the Strand Bookstore. The misanthropic Dash discovers her message, and an anonymous correspondence between the two begins. There’s just one catch: Lily loves Christmas, while Dash’s skepticism toward yuletide cheer makes him a bit of a Scrooge. To overcome this dealbreaker, the two bookish teens spend the holiday season sending each other on a series of dares throughout New York City, coming out of their shells along the way. But when the time comes to meet face-to-face, the pair must decide whether they’re meant to be or if they just got swept away in the holiday magic. Given that Dash & Lily was filmed in 2019, the series may well be one of television’s last portrayals of Christmastime in preCOVID New York. The series’ festive crowds, concerts, and parties serve up a dose of sweet winter escapism needed at the end of a long year. Dash & Lily is available to stream on Netflix. Free with subscription. —Mercedes Hesselroth

City Lights

“Instant Night” How do you make the perfect single for Election Day? Start by warping a February 2017 speech from White House senior adviser Stephen Miller that declares the powers of President Donald Trump are “very substantial” and “will not be questioned.” Then, weave in the hauntingly smooth sound of Beauty Pill vocalist Erin Nelson. As the surprise track “Instant Night” builds, Miller’s jarring words blend into Nelson’s plea for some empathy. Not only was the new release a welltimed message, it perfectly aligns with Beauty Pill’s identity as a band “born in the mouth of the 21st century.” Chad Clark, the D.C. rock band’s frontman, says “Instant Night” was a plea for listeners to have empathy for one another, to understand the seriousness of the crises at hand, and to vote Trump out of office. The official music video features former band member and artist Ryan Nelson painting satirized portraits of Trump and other political figures. Beauty Pill members also navigated pandemic restrictions by recording the song on a rooftop while adhering to social distancing guidelines. In the wake of a drawn-out, bitter presidential election, the message of “Instant Night” continues to resonate. The track is available to stream or purchase through

City Lights

Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine

Lyonne. Between directing Everything’s Fine,

Lily is Netflix’s latest entry into this annual TV

Bandcamp. $1. —Sarah Smith

City Lights

Yi Yi

The late Taiwanese director Edward Yang only managed to make eight features before he died of colon cancer in 2007 at the age of 59. But his work includes some of the most celebrated—and most moving—arthouse films of the era. His final feature, the 2000 drama Yi Yi, is the epic story of a middle-class Taipei family. Beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral, the film documents a year with the Jians, whose heartbreaks and triumphs span three generations. The emotional action focuses on two male figures: NJ (Wu Nien-jen) is the middle-aged father who is unsatisfied with his corporate job and tempted to stray from his stagnant marriage with an old girlfriend. His young son YangYang (Jonathan Chang) is navigating the anxiety of childhood, teased by classmates but curious about the world. Throughout the course of the film, the boy takes up photography, capturing elusive images of mosquitoes and the backs of people’s heads as he tries to make sense of the world. Meanwhile, the director, with the help of cinematographer Wei-han Yang, captures exquisitely composed images of adult strife, domestic arguments carefully framed in windows through which his characters become overwhelmed by reflections of the big city. For three hours, the film observes its sprawling family with a quiet tenderness. Yi Yi is part of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center’s virtual “Taiwanese Cinema Rediscovered” series, which includes 10 films that can be viewed throughout the U.S. and U.S. territories. The film is available to stream from Nov. 7 to 29. Tickets are available at newfilmstaiwan.eventive.org. $12. —Pat Padua

City Lights

Jurassic Quest Drive-Thru Experience

Election hysteria, violence, vanishing environmental protections, endless doomscrolling: Some days, you wish you could tell the fish who walked out of the primordial soup to turn around and head back in. Instead, try making time to unplug and embrace tradition with a throwback to the Mesozoic era. Pile some friends and family members into a motor vehicle and head to RFK Stadium for a fun-filled prehistoric dissociative episode. Adapted from their enormous, precisely designed touring show, Jurassic Quest Drive-Thru features more than 70 animatronic dinosaurs and an audio tour, all accessible from the inside of your car. Enhance your tickets with bundled addons including dinosaur “surprises” and takehome crafts perfect for keeping your pointed rejection of modernity going into the evening. If you’re hankering for more gear, the FAQ section of the JQ website reassures explorers that “limited quantities of additional Dino-rrific souvenirs” will be available for purchase. I can almost hear John Williams’ gentle crescendo in the distance. The drive-thru runs until Nov. 15 on the RFK Stadium Festival Grounds, 2408 Independence Ave. SE. Tickets are available at jurassicquest.com. $49. —Amy Guay

City Lights

Ifaan

In 2014, a group of D.C. musicians played together for the first time at a musician’s potluck organized by saxophonist Regan Carver. Those instrumentalists and singers soon formed the group Kino Musica. (“Kino” is the nickname of

a band member’s cousin, and became part of the group’s moniker when the members could not agree on another name.) They began performing Ethiopian-rooted sounds with tinges of other African and American styles at various D.C. clubs. Now, six years later, the outfit has released its debut EP Ifaan, which means “the light of the sun” in Oromo. While the band’s membership has changed over time, the EP includes contributions from former members, including Carver, and original members Kumera Zekarias on guitar and vocals and Besufekad Tadesse on saxophone, both of whom are multi-ethnic Ethiopians of Oromo and Amhara heritage. Zekarias, who arranges or writes most of their songs, was born and raised in Texas, where he started playing blues and rock, in addition to listening to both historic and contemporary Ethiopian music alongside American rap. Ifaan starts with the Kino Musica take on Wegayehu Degenetu’s love song “Arke Yehuma,” with Zekarias’ melancholy voice drifting over instrumentation featuring classic Ethiopian horn lines and clever guitar chords that organically combine Ethiopian scales and North African desert rock. The band’s video for the song conveys the lyrics, with Zekarias ceremoniously tossing flowers in a pond and a café owner wooing a customer. D.C. has the largest population of Ethiopians in the U.S., and Zekarias proudly describes his band’s effort as a community project that carries on the legacy of 1980s D.C. Ethiopian diaspora musical offerings, like Admas’ recently reissued album Sons of Ethiopia. The EP is available on Spotify and Bandcamp. Free–$4. —Steve Kiviat

City Lights

Songbyrd Radio

In March, Joe Lapan and Alisha Edmonson recorded what, until an early November set, looked like their last two episodes for Songbyrd Radio. Together, the pair runs Songbyrd Record Cafe and Music House, and Songbyrd Radio was a weekly radio show Lapan hosted Sundays at the Line Hotel, just blocks away in Adams Morgan. The last two episodes capture the awful uncertainty of the early spring. But musically, they’re palliative, joyful, and apt for the moment. As lockdown measures return across the world and cases rise locally, they’re worth revisiting. Episode 94 was actually recorded on the eve of lockdown in D.C., March 15, and Lapan takes nearly 20 minutes to talk about the mood in Washington that night before playing any music. His words are off the cuff, but his shaky tone is familiar from conversations with friends and family—you remember how quickly things changed. When the music starts, the mood calms down. The set is a mix of tracks off of The Avalanches’ Since I Left You and then a few of the original samples, from soul to thematic music. By episode 95, Lapan is recording from home, and Edmonson joins him. The set this time is deliberately therapeutic, and they waste no time getting to it, starting off with Bob Marley’s “Positive Vibration” and other classics. The second half of the set moves into hip-hop, featuring A Tribe Called Quest and then a standout track that samples Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” Lapan closes with the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.” It’s about what we need right now, and as a sign of the times getting a little better, episode 96 just dropped. The episodes are available at songbyrddc.com/radio. Free. —Michael Loria

City Lights Residue

D.C. remains one of the “most rapidly gentrified cities” in the country, so Residue couldn’t be more timely. Merawi Gerima, son of legendary filmmaker and Sankofa Video, Books & Cafe co-founder Haile Gerima, makes his directorial debut with a semi-autobiographical take on a disappearing D.C.: When the film’s protagonist, Jay (Obinna Nwachukwu), returns home to the District after attending school at USC, he finds that the neighborhood he knew has quickly gentrified. The film goes on to explore both the racial hostilities and sense of loss that arise from gentrification. “I spent a whole year away and I came back to D.C. with all these emotions kind of swirling,” Gerima told Slamdance of his own time away at USC. “Then I saw that the city that I had not really appreciated, you appreciate it more when it’s leaving you.” The film took a year to write, but it was released in the wake of an uprising—an echo of his father’s renowned film Bush Mama, which partially arose as a response to the Watts Rebellion over a decade prior. The film is now streaming on Netflix. Free with subscription. —Kaila Philo

City Lights

Art in Isolation

In one of Rania Matar’s images, friends Minty, Kayla, Leyah and Layla pose within the frame of a large window. The Beirut-born, Bostonbased photographer took this shielded shot during a socially distanced visit. The photo is also part of Art in Isolation: Creativity in the Time of COVID-19, a new exhibit from the Middle East Institute. Art in Isolation speaks for itself. Around the world, artists turned to their creations to navigate days, weeks, or months of lockdown. Many turned to new mediums, unable to access traditional studios or materials. Recognizing this reality, MEI put out a call for art made by Middle Eastern artists in response to the pandemic. After receiving more than 200 submissions, local curator and arts professional Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah selected 54 works from 39 artists, all in different stages of their careers. Matar’s socially distanced photos are on display alongside various other photographs, paintings, and video diaries; sculptor Athar Jaber contributed “A Mask for Life,” a marble sculpture of a gas mask. Together, these artists represent 15 countries of the Middle East, including Algeria, Palestine, Sudan and Yemen. The exhibition also captures the various ways creatives experienced the challenges of COVID-19. The online exhibition is available at mei.edu/art-gallery through Jan. 29. Free. —Sarah Smith