Leisure

Reviews and think pieces on music, movies, art, and theater.

Leisure

Avedon: power and politics in portraiture

“Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power,” a comprehensive collection of 200 images of iconic figures of the past and present spanning five decades, presents interesting ideas about who qualifies as a political figure, and what constitutes a person in power.

By September 18, 2008

Leisure

A side of this, a side of that

With its bright cerulean walls and lemon trim, Glover Park’s Surfside is an oasis in a desert of gray concrete buildings. Which is fitting, because the month-old Surfside is attempting to pass as a transplant straight from the West Coast. While the decorating scheme (complete with colorful chalk boards, a butcher-block counter, rooftop seating, and a mural of the beach) looks like it was lifted from the boardwalk, the food is far from sandy hot dogs and cherry slushie.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Frustrated by faith, a labor of love

Two women holding hands, deep in prayer, their faces digitally blurred, star in the opening scene of A Jihad for Love. Filmmaker Parvez Sharma’s documentary gives these and other gay and lesbian Muslims a chance to tell their stories, though a majority of their faces remain covered out of fear for themselves and their families. This gripping film takes place in twelve different countries and nine different languages. From drag queens in North India to a young Egyptian refugee in France, the stories are all different, but none can avoid the grief and frustration that arises from the conflict between sexual orientation and religion.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Okkervil River, “The Stand Ins”

Will Sheff of Okkervil River has nearly perfected the pop song. His melodies, which underlie the strength of his heartfelt crooning voice, are immediately noticeable on The Stand Ins, the sequel to 2007’s acclaimed The Stage Names, which was originally planned to be a double album. While still displaying Sheff’s distaste for pop culture, The Stand Ins also deals with the ideas of both conceit and faltering love in great detail, while simultaneously orchestrating memorable moments of pop bliss.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Brian Wilson, “That Lucky Old Sun”

It’s fitting that Wilson is now mixing the style he perfected with the group’s early lyrical themes. His latest release, That Lucky Old Sun, features lush symphonics, another well-developed song cycle, and a nostalgic view on Wilson’s long-time home of California.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Water Polo? Seriously?

The Georgetown gallery scene doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but gems are ready and waiting to be unearthed for those industrious enough to pick up a few brochures. But first, a brief lesson in jock culture: because the bodies of water polo players are submerged in water, the helmets players wear serve the same identifying function as jerseys do in other sports. John Trevino, a D.C. based artist and Howard University professor, has taken this idea and run with it in “What Comes Next,” an exhibit of portrait photography at District Fine Arts (DFA) on Wisconsin Avenue. The portraits, photos of black men and women in cartoon water polo helmets, ultimately fall short of their aim to “examine dreams and memory created as the residual of human interaction.”

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

By any means necessary

In case you didn’t know, the Internet is a remarkable source for learning about music and finding that music for free. While many collectors are in the habit of finding full albums to add to their libraries, casual downloaders are often in search of single songs.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Just one more night in Bangkok

“The work is steady, the money’s good, but it’s not for everyone,” says Nicolas Cage’s assassin Joe at the beginning of Bangkok Dangerous. He’s describing his globe-trotting, gangster-murdering job, but he could just as easily be describing Cage’s career. The actor has delivered reliably decent performances in action movies for years, sometimes giving the impression that he worked harder on a single scene than the screenwriter did for the whole movie.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

The shorter the better

It’s that time of year again! No, not “International Housekeeper’s Week,” although I’m sure everyone’s super excited about that. This bit of news is just as good; District’s very own DC Shorts Film Festival is back for the fifth year in a row, starting on Thursday, September 11th.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Doomsday drinks

If you’re reading this, then you know that the world did not come to an end on September 10, 2008 at 4: 27 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. At that moment, a group of European scientists under the city of Geneva, Switzerland, flipped the “on” switch of the Large Hadron Collider, a massive proton accelerator whose essential purpose is to recreate the Big Bang on a miniature scale.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Burger out of Hell: Ray’s raises the stakes

My meal, the Soul Burger Number One, was a small skyscraper, consisting of two fluffy toasted Brioche buns, a large leaf of romaine lettuce, a thick slice of tomato, three slices of Applewood smoked bacon, grilled rings of red onions, a pile of Cognac and sherry sautéed mushrooms, a half melted slice of Swiss cheese and, sandwiched in between it all, a 10 ounce patty of hand trimmed, freshly ground, premium aged beef.

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Ra Ra Riot, “The Rhumb Line”

Ra Ra Riot is an enigmatic band. A mere six months after their formation, this Syracuse sextet worked their way to the stage of the CMJ Music Marathon and shortly thereafter played esteemed festivals like South by Southwest and the South Street Music Festival. The group’s defiance of the standard slow stagger towards acclaim is even more admirable when you take their genre into consideration. Ra Ra Riot’s indie pop niche is usually flooded with ambiguous, recycled material, but The Rhumb Line mixes the instrumental bounciness with the vocal serenity of a Belle and Sebastian ballad. The product can only be described as a tranquil yet danceable medley of sounds.

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Fujiya & Miyagi, “Lightbulbs”

The opening of Lightbulbs, the third LP from Brighton, UK, quartet Fujiya & Miyagi, is uncomfortably similar to the beginning of the band’s 2006 Transparent Things: singer and guitarist David Best chants, “Vanilla, strawberry, knickerbocker glory” much like he intones “Fujiya, Miyagi” in the song “Ankle Injuries,” as a drum beat replicates the earlier song’s bassline. “I saw the ghost of Lena Zavaroni,” Best whispers, like a harbinger of tragedy. (Zavaroni was a child star that died at 35 due to complications from anorexia.) The album only gets worse from there.

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

Sweet cuppin’ cakes

From an etymological perspective, a cupcake is a cake, but in a cup. A name as commonplace as cupcake, like any word said too many times, loses the emotional connection to its referent, and many have forgotten just how marvelous cupcakes can be.

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

Mourning the demise of DIY fashion

It’s obvious that times have changed, but in past decades, people held on to vestiges of the do-it-yourself spirit. Groovy 70s gals routinely crocheted vests, and jeans of the 1980s were bathed in sinks full of bleach. No such trends exist today, though.

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

Muppets take over the International Gallery of Art

Jim Henson’s Fantastical World lies three levels below the unassuming dome of the Smithsonian’s International Gallery of Art. To enter the exhibit, you must walk past two or three dimly lit galleries and through a colored hall, its walls embossed with phrases like, “The only rule is that there are no rules.”

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

Fame, fashion, fads and fantasy: posters as portraits

College students know that posters have the power to transform a space, often choosing to adorn their walls with depictions of favorite bands or the obligatory “I Heart Beer” slogan. The National Portrait Gallery has caught onto this phenomenon with an exhibit entitled “Ballyhoo: Posters as Portraiture.”

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

There are much better ways to go to College than this

There is something amazing about Deb Hagan’s late summer comedy, College: the fact that such an unoriginal theme was combined with a practically plagiarized story to produce a movie that has earned only a little over two and a half million dollars.

By September 4, 2008

Leisure

Martin Puryear at the National Gallery of Art

Minimalism is not easy to get into. Even if you can appreciate beauty in simplicity and purity of form, it’s hard not to be skeptical when you read that a big black rectangle is really a reflection on the nature of our inner and outer selves. The National Gallery’s retrospective of sculptor Martin Puryear’s work, though, woos visitors with displays of graceful shapes and clean lines, without hitting them over the head with lofty, obtuse meanings.

By August 28, 2008

Leisure

Get Your Groove on in the Jazzy District

Fortunately for me, D.C. has plenty of stellar jazz, blues, funk, and R&B shows, and the next six weeks are the best time of the year to be a jazz aficionado in the District. Here are three events that you absolutely won’t want to miss.

By August 28, 2008