Leisure

Kickin’ it with Cody ChesnuTT

Donray Von, the cousin-turned-manager of rocker Cody ChesnuTT, sat silently backstage at a table eating buffalo wings an hour before ChesnuTT was to perform at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va. earlier this month. The Birchmere’s promoter sat down on a couch next to the table and talked with Von for a few minutes.

By the Voice Staff February 20, 2003

Leisure

’80s bands, again

Bands from the ‘80s are pissed. Wouldn’t you be if a bunch of ex-hardcore and emo kids hijacked your sound and called it their own? Maybe that’s why such groups as Wire, Television and Mission of Burma are reuniting. It can’t be for the cash, right? In any case, this Friday all the kids under 30 who never got to see Mission of Burma in the band’s heyday can drag their young butts down to the 9:30 Club and watch the aging legends roll out some classic tunes.

By the Voice Staff February 20, 2003

Leisure

Mr. Lif gets political

Independent emcee Mr. Lif is an emerging underground rapper who is making a name for himself by incorporating political awareness with his purist hip-hop formula of rapid-fire, innovative lyrics and hard-hitting beats. His latest LP, I Phantom on Definitive Jux records, has received critical acclaim and is his best-selling to date.

By the Voice Staff February 20, 2003

Leisure

‘100th Window’ gives view of band’s decline

Pioneering British electronic act Massive Attack has finally released the follow-up to 1998’s critically acclaimed Mezzanine. The new album, 100th Window, is a disappointing record that tries in vain to recreate Mezzanine’s sound.

That sound was a sensual mix of slowed-down hip-hop beats, throbbing, insistent bass lines and the occasional foray into churning storms of guitar.

By the Voice Staff February 20, 2003

Leisure

Arcadia

Unbeknownst to most Georgetown students, the Leavey Center is good for more than just cursing at broken cash machines and stealing “chromies” from the wheels of cars parked in the garage. No, this building houses a leisure gold-mine, a little slice of blinking heaven known as the arcade.

By the Voice Staff February 13, 2003

Leisure

Music for singles

Valentine’s Day got you down? No date this year, again? No need to worry, there’s plenty going on in D.C. this weekend for singles like you! So grab some friends, get slizzard and head out on the town to beat these mid-February doldrums. On Friday, the Black Cat will be hosting its traditional Valentine’s Day Dance Night.

By the Voice Staff February 13, 2003

Leisure

‘Russian Ark’ stays afloat

St. Petersburg has some self-esteem issues. Perched precipitously between Russia and Europe both geographically and culturally, it has long wavered between the “civilized” yearnings of Peter the Great and the revolutionary tendencies that renamed it Leningrad.

By the Voice Staff February 13, 2003

Leisure

Poetry and politics at Uncommon Grounds

The kid looked like Eminem. Forearms flailing rhythmically yet with restraint. Steady wide-eyed gaze emphatic and penetrating. He had the flow, the excessive hyperactive energy, the uncanny sense for timing and shifting intonation, the brilliant lyrical subtlety .

By the Voice Staff February 13, 2003

Leisure

The definitive OK Go

OK Go’s hit single, “Get Over It,” is tearing up both alternative and mainstream radio nationwide. The band’s founding members, now in their late twenties, met at music camp when they were twelve and stayed in touch by exchanging mix-tapes through high school, reconvening after college to pursue rock-stardom.

By the Voice Staff February 13, 2003

Leisure

‘Piano Lesson’ needs practice

The Black Theatre Ensemble’s production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson is a drama that hits a couple of marvelous keys but fails to sustain a unified melody. While often fascinating and touching, the production comes off as lackluster, failing to live up to its full potential.

By the Voice Staff February 6, 2003

Leisure

Supergroup Zwan zwucks

The problem with supergroups constructed from bits and pieces of other bands is that they often end up with the least essential component of the original—bringing with them the name association, but rarely the creativity, of their former group. Zwan is a band in this vein, bringing Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins), Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle) and David Pajo (Slint/Tortoise) together with less than outstanding results.

By the Voice Staff February 6, 2003

Leisure

‘Darko’ at midnight

Everyone, at some point, has had a dream that they are certain is real. Recently re-popularized by The Matrix, the real world versus dream world discussion was old even when John Keats asked, “Was it a vision, or a waking dream … do I wake or sleep?” Written and directed by Richard Kelly, the movie Donnie Darko offers a highly original and challenging take on this age-old question.

By the Voice Staff February 6, 2003

Leisure

Funny sign

“It’s a funny sign, isn’t it?” said the GUTV kid with the shoulder-mounted video camera. He barreled down the hill from Leavey towards Lot T, calling attention to the large, electronic flip-sign at the entrance. It is 2:15 a.m. Tuesday and what normally should say “Road Closed” now reads “No War.

By the Voice Staff February 6, 2003

Leisure

Ride the no wave

Perhaps only a few of us remember the decadence of new wave in the ‘80s via the memorable Flock of Seagulls hairdos of our older siblings, and their moodiness that precipitated endless spins of Depeche Mode’s Violator. Maybe we relive the magic through Behind the Music’s profile of 1982.

By the Voice Staff February 6, 2003

Leisure

Bash delves, emotes, disturbs

For a campus where fraternities and sororities do not officially exist, there has been a recent influx of things Greek at Georgetown. Bash, Neil LaBute’s examination of psychology on the edge, is laden with allusions to ancient Greece: fate, mythology, classical tragedy and even a “Delphi University.

By the Voice Staff January 30, 2003

Leisure

Arena stages play gone Wilder

Some productions bear down on you with a fierce, unblinking eye. Others feel so lifeless, you find yourself wishing they’d blink, just once, to indicate that they haven’t totally expired. Theophilus North, the latest from Arena Stage, possesses flashes of the former category’s power but large doses of the latter’s docility. A jaunty tale of light angst, the play is adapted from the novel of the same name by Thornton Wilder.

By the Voice Staff January 30, 2003

Leisure

City of God–an evil god

After watching City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles, one leaves convinced that the scariest thing in the world is a child with a gun. “A kid? I smoke, I snort, I’ve killed and robbed a man,” says one anonymous character. Groups of single-digit-aged boys run rampant and buck the hell out of each other. With little remorse and fueled by pot-induced bravado, there’s no telling what these brats can do.

By the Voice Staff January 30, 2003

Leisure

Voice Leisure retro reads

Looking for something awesome and totally rocking to chase away those winter “blahs” and other emotions best expressed by non-words? Try a good book. Or, better yet, try the good book. Or just read the Bible. This “blast-from-the-past” has it all—action, adventure, betrayal, smiting, psalms, zombies, giants, Pharisees, morals and sects. Lots of hot, steamy sects.

By the Voice Staff January 30, 2003

Leisure

Find the fish

If you like seafood, gritty urban warehouses and legendary Washington traditions, then take some time this weekend to check out two of the more culturally diverse places to be found within the District’s auspicious confines—Maine Avenue Fish Market and Capital City Market, also known as the D.

By the Voice Staff January 30, 2003