Leisure

Liquor lit

On Saturday, legions of writers will descend on the Mall for the National Book Festival, the country’s annual celebration of, by, and for bibliophiles of all stripes.

Authors will sit in the crisp fall air, arrayed in all manner of worn cardigans and tortoise-shell glasses, signing autographs for eager book-lovers in Tevas and socks, for batty school librarians, and for scarf-draped “aspiring playwrights,” and they will all be yearning for a strong drink.

By admin September 25, 2008

Leisure

The premier premieres of fall

With temperatures below 90 degrees, your increasing workload, and a plethora of russet-hued clothes on M street, it seems as though fall is finally here. Fall brings plenty of opportunities to try new things, from doing your reading this semester, to new fashions, to new TV shows, and see what sticks. Fortunately for you, we’ve scouted out all the newly-premiered shows and can tell you what’s worthy of a time commitment.

By Vivian Chen September 18, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Astronautilus, “Pomegranate”

At first listen, Pomegranate, Astronautalis’ third full-length album, is underwhelming to say the least. But the record’s subtle inner workings become apparent on the second or third listen. On Pomegranate, Astronautalis (née Andy Bothwell), weaves stories of love, betrayal, loss, lust, and rabble-rousing. Throughout the album, Bothwell mixes together his obsession with historical tidbits, his own family heritage, and his Walt Whitman-esque love for the hard-working man into a conglomerate of stories, sagas, and adventures that span several generations and locales.

By Scott Munro September 18, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Young Jeezy, “The Recession”

Three years ago, Young Jeezy’s album Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation went largely unnoticed aside from the Akon collaboration “Soul Survivor,” which dominated radio waves for most of the summer. According to Young Jeezy, his new album “is like Thug Motivation on steroids.”

By Caroline Klibanoff September 18, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Mogwai, “The Hawk is Howling”

Mogwai’s 1997 debut, Young Team, featured songs that alternated between long tranquil stretches and equally lengthy, face-melting, pummeling hard rock. It won them a lot of fans, but over the years, as they added minor electronic touches and adopted more conventional song structures, those fans begged for a return to their more dynamic early work. Unlike 2006’s Mr. Beast, which largely did away with their vaunted quiet/loud dynamic and stuck with a whole bunch of loud, The Hawk is Howling returns to that template, and longtime Mogwai fans will likely be pleased.

By Justin Hunter Scott September 18, 2008

Leisure

Chinese triathlon

Two years ago, I conducted a historic competition that took place among three giants of the Georgetown Chinese delivery circuit: Kitchen No. 1, Best Hunan, and Hunan Peking. Scored on price, delivery time, taste, and texture, the judges based their decisions on three dishes: Orange Beef, General Tso’s Chicken, and Chicken Fried Rice. The winner? Hunan Peking, hands down, with Best Hunan a close second and Kitchen No. 1 more like Kitchen No. 3.

But these times, they are a-changin’. Hunan Peking has since closed its doors, and Best Hunan has changed its name and image to the posh Banana Leaves and Asian Restaurant. It was time for a do-over.

By Michael Keller September 18, 2008

Leisure

Righteous Kill retread

I have never seen a movie that adheres to the typical cop-movie formula as strictly as Righteous Kill does. Director Jon Avnet fails to build suspense and ends up producing an overdone story, drenched in lukewarm predictability. The plot, themes, and characters are simply too recognizable to be exciting.

By Elena Solli September 18, 2008

Leisure

D.C.: Drab City

This past Sunday, New York Times photojournalist Bill Cunningham chronicled the close of Fashion Week with a study on the shoes about town. While hanging out on 5th Avenue taking pictures for his weekly “On the Street” feature, Mr. Cunningham ran across studded stilettos and snakeskin stacked heels paired with super-high hemlines. Three hundred miles south, I observed a very different scene in Columbia Heights.

By Katherine Norton September 18, 2008

Leisure

Burn After Reading: very un-Dude

Who didn’t see this one coming? In their twenty-four years of screenwriting and directing, Joel and Ethan Coen have bounced between dark plunges into a killer’s abysmal psyche and zany tales of boneheaded crime schemes gone awry. After last year’s bloodthirsty adaptation, No Country for Old Men, the brothers’ oeuvre seemed ripe for a few giggles, and Burn After Reading presumes to deliver the goods.

By Traviss Cassidy September 18, 2008

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 Colleen Kearns September 18, 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 Will Sommer 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 Scott Munro 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 admin September 11, 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 Vivian Chen 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 Alexa Defazio 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 James McGrory 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 Matthew Collins 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 Katherine Norton 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 Justin Hunter Scott September 11, 2008