Leisure

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

Leisure

Talkie Walkie, Air, Astralwerks

Lounge music ain’t dead yet. Just ask Air, the French-duo (Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin) that composes atmospheric landscapes using quirky synths, string ensembles and pulsating yet subtle electronic beats in a style akin to musician Brian Eno. Their debut Moon Safari showcased the duo’s ability to carefully teeter on the line between kitsch and cool and was released just at the right time when martinis and late-1960s lounge cool had their cachet with the yuppies.

By the February 5, 2004

Leisure

Breast assured

didn’t even watch the Super Bowl. Though an Alabama Crimson Tide fan by birthright, pro-football is of no interest to me. And since this isn’t the sports section, I’ll address a SuperBowl issue more pertinent to the mandate of my leisure column—-Janet Jackson’s breast.

By the February 5, 2004

Leisure

‘Beyond Therapy’ digs deeper

LEISURE BY JENNY MATTHEWS Beyond Therapy is a cynical comedy that tells the story of a man and a woman who meet through a personal ad. Playwright Christopher Durang uses the relationship between Bruce and Prudence and their respective therapists to offer a mean but comedic perspective on the limited usefulness of therapy.

By the January 29, 2004

Leisure

The Unicorns are people too

February and March are shaping up to be a couple of excellent months for concerts in D.C. The Shins are playing two shows at the Black Cat, Super Furry Animals have an evening at the 9:30 Club, Atmosphere is coming back and there are a few band-packed weekends in March that will make indie-rock fans go crazy.

By the January 29, 2004

Leisure

Daniel Wallace–catch of the day

Daniel Wallace, author of the New York Times best-seller Big Fish, the inspiration for the recent film starring Ewan McGregor, is neither a Southern writer nor a Playboy bunny: “the two titles are similar in that they are more limiting than anything-automatically as a Southern writer, and as a Playboy bunny, there are certain expectations of you,” said Wallace.

By the January 29, 2004

Leisure

Travel ‘Through the Lens’

It’s never easy to summarize one hundred years. For National Geographic, a magazine translated into 20 languages and read by over 40 million yearly, this task involved paring down the 10.5 million published and unpublished images in the society’s archive-a priceless record of world history-into 250 images.

By the January 29, 2004

Leisure

Get Lost

This past Saturday, three friends and I set out on a quest to find the District’s best record stores. By “quest” I mean we had a list of five shops located on various state, numbered and lettered streets. By “best” I mean establishments other than national chains such as FYE.

By the January 29, 2004

Leisure

Nothing Shrouds ‘The Fog of War’

LEISURE BY LAUREN GASKILL Robert McNamara playing himself, outbursts of the director’s voice off-screen and montages that blend historical and artistic images make “The Fog of War” different from other, dry documentaries. Accompanied by the urgent and innovative score of Philip Glass (“The Hours”), McNamara recalls his wartime exploits with prompts from director Errol Morris.

By the January 22, 2004

Leisure

‘Station Agent’ has unusual charm

The film “The Embalmer,” 2002’s stand-out dwarf movie, stars a middle-aged dwarf who lures a tall, youthful cook into helping with his seemingly innocent taxidermy business. What begins as a innocuous business deal balloons into orgy, intrigue and murder. This dwarf defines campy.

By the January 22, 2004

Leisure

Old 97’s finally on the road again

Across the country, the announcement of concert dates caused patient fans to snatch up tickets. No, the frenzy was not the usual clamoring, but rather the result of three years of anticipation. Out of a seeming hibernation, alt-country sensations the Old 97’s are returning to the stage to give fans a taste of old and new, likely hits.

By the January 22, 2004

Leisure

Critical Voices

For a band on their 17th album in the last 20 years, one would expect The Church to spark some recognition in the cluttered minds of indie rock aficionados. Despite their consistently solid output, however, these Australian veterans have escaped widespread notice even in the world of underground rock.

By the January 22, 2004

Leisure

Critical Voices

Appreciating Charizma requires historical background. A few years after Straight Outta Compton and at the same time as A Tribe Called Quest’s masterful The Low End Theory, a young MC by the name of Charizma was on the rise in L.A. While clearly showing influence from both of the aforementioned albums, especially the jazz beats of Tribe and the quick-fire delivery of Eazy-E or Ice Cube, his flow was so far advanced that many predicted he would be the ‘90s dominant hip-hop force.

By the January 22, 2004

Leisure

Sleep When You’re Dead

A resident of Georgetown for decades, Mrs. Colette English returns to Richmond every other month to visit the community of friends and acquaintances she left behind there and to comment on the city’s creeping southernness and decay. The traffic is “interminable,” she broods, now accustomed to the assertive driving of Washington.

By the January 22, 2004

Leisure

We do like them apples

LEISURE BY PRIYA BAPAT Mask and Bauble’s third production of the season, The Apple Cart, is an updated take on playwright George Bernard Shaw’s vision of the future.

By the January 15, 2004

Leisure

Visions screens political film

Over the summer, my hometown newspaper ran an article about the lack of evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The report that Bush’s constant message of Saddam Hussein’s threat to the U.S. and the world was essentially fabricated outraged me, but I was more upset by the story’s placement.

By the January 15, 2004

Leisure

Eleven reasons to remember ’03

1. The Meadowlands, The Wrens, Absolutely Kosher New Jersey based indie rockers return from seven years of silence with a masterpiece proving that the guitar is alive and kicking. Complex melodies ranging from quiet, intricate beauty to sublime hurricanes of overdriven six-string glory flow together into a single, cohesive opus of the slow decay of suburban nine to five life.

By the January 15, 2004

Leisure

Mary Kate, Ashley

Attention all males! Only 150 days, 3 hours, and 29 seconds ‘til the Olsen twins are legal! Since this changes very little for the majority of your sex lives, I’d like to make a proposition: stop coveting the bodies of small children and look at yourselves! Fantasizing about legally unattainable girls is preventing you from any hope you ever had for a real relationship.

By the January 15, 2004

Leisure

‘Camelot’: King Arthur, again

LEISURE BY KATHYRN BRAND When one thinks of King Arthur, dueling and damsels, rather than singing and dancing, are among the first things that come to mind. Immortalized as old texts, a bedtime story and even a Disney animated cartoon, the Knights of the Round Table meet the stage in the musical Camelot.

By the December 4, 2003

Leisure

The Atmosphere encounter

Picture this: you suddenly find yourself sitting on a couch next to your all-time favorite musician, whom you never imagined you would get to meet. You’ve been listening to his albums for years, and suddenly you’re having a conversation with him. He’s calling you by your name: “Hey Abby, pass me another Corona?” I am hanging out with Slug, also known as Sean Daley, before his Atmosphere show at the Black Cat.

By the December 4, 2003

Leisure

Ted Leo needs the Pharmacists

Before the well dressed, skinny tie-wearing mod rock and power pop revivalists of the last few years, there was Ted Leo. One of today’s indie rock elder statesmen, Leo has been getting attention since playing New York’s hardcore scene in the late ‘80s. Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead, the recent EP from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, his current band, reflects Leo’s constantly expanding ability to write complex, catchy, affecting songs.

By the December 4, 2003