Leisure
Reviews and think pieces on music, movies, art, and theater.
Goes Down Easy: A Bi-Weekly Column on Drinking
Thinking about drinking means considering every aspect of the process, including how your drink is served, and perhaps more importantly, who served it. The art of bartending, passed on from father to son or gleaned from one of those bartending guides you never seem to have the right ingredients for—blue curacao? Chambord? Seriously?—is a critical one.
America according to Colbert
If I were to take the advice Stephen Colbert’s offers in his new book I Am America (And So Can You!), I wouldn’t stoop so low as to write about the hilarious and much-needed “Constitution for the Colbert Nation.” I would feel it with my gut.
Music for your mind
Based upon its premise alone, The Gunshy’s There’s No Love In This War stands as one of the best independent releases of 2007.
Turner exhibit takes on mythical proportions
The current exhibit at the National Gallery of Art boasts the “largest Turner retrospective ever in the United States.” Such a statement seems to add needless weight to the historical importance of the artist. This might be mere pandering to the eager tourist if it wasn’t for the surprising depth that a truly complete Turner show achieves.
YouTopia: World’s greatest freaks and geeks
World records tend to fall within three categories: impressive physical feats, biological abnormalities and arbitrary spectacle. While the majority of these achievements seem legitimate, some of the more random records negate being “the best” versus being “the only.” Sure, more people can make records this way, but often times the results become laughable. Here’s a taste of some of the more bizarre records featured on YouTube.
Do you believe In Rainbows?
Less than two months ago, rumors circulated that Radiohead would wait until 2008 to release their long-awaited seventh LP. Then, on Oct. 1st, a message appeared on the band’s official website detailing that the new record, entitled In Rainbows, would come out in 10 days. No promos, no publicity, no hype. The price? “Whatever you want.”
The Ceviche Concept
You can’t spell “Ceviche” without the word “chic” ... and rearranging a few letters. And that’s exactly what Ceviche restaurant is—chic. This second installment of a new restaurant chain of famed restaurateur Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld opened just two months ago. Though aiming to fill the Latin-cuisine need of the Glover Park/Georgetown area, “chic” doesn’t quite cover for inauthentic food.
Brotherly love, art and cereal
You’ve been counting down the hours until the upcoming three-day weekend, but you’re tired of the campus party routine. Why not treat yourself to a weekend in Philadelphia?
Penn’s Into the Wild finds its niche
The premise sounds straight out of the Darwin Awards: boy graduates from college, gives all his money to charity and goes out to “find himself,” only to starve to death alone in the Alaskan wilderness.
Gimme that Darjeelin’ feelin’
Wes Anderson is a director who makes fanatics, not fans. Fanatics are precarious; each well-received film increases the potential backlash should the next one fail to exceed such standards. For the same reason, one cannot view a Wes Anderson film as an isolated work of art. Rather, it is in conversation with everything he has previously made.
Eastern Promises bares heart, soul and Viggo
A man getting a haircut has his throat slit and a teenager hemorrhages as she gives birth. While the first five minutes of the film are intense, David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises is to Russian mob movies what Wes Anderson’s Royal Tenenbaums is to the family comedy: the emphasis is on character development, not genre tropes.
Echoes from the Melting Pot reverberates
Next week, Georgetown’s Davis Performing Arts Center will host two interactive installations, an unprecedented event for the venue. From the British Council U.S. comes the Black Atlantic Project (BAP), an experimental musical collaboration that evolved from seven British and American musician poets who sampled and re-mixed each others works to create a trans-Atlantic hip-hop conversation.
