Leisure

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

In the District

National Gallery of Art’s New Exhibit Demonstrates the Versatility of Pastels Throughout Time

The Touch of Color exhibit at the National Gallery of Art opens with a simple image of pastel sticks, in a range of colors and shades, tightly packed together. Aside... Read more

By October 21, 2019

In the District

D.C. Fashion Week is Cloaked in Stories and Topped Off with a Glitter Crown

When it comes to fashion, it’s hard to think of D.C. as anything more than a sea of suits. However, during the last week of September, politicians and primadonnas run... Read more

By October 19, 2019

Performance

J.B. is a Biblical Retelling with Modern Sensibilities

Serving as a mostly faithful retelling that is still able to feel like a unique story, J.B. is a riveting adaptation of the Book of Job, one of the more... Read more

By October 18, 2019

Movies

Inane and Insane, Lucy in the Sky Isn’t as Empathetic as It Thinks It Is

The year is 2007: between Lindsey Lohan’s 84-minute stint in a California jail and Britney Spears’ yearlong breakdown of shaved heads and smashed umbrellas, media sympathies for female celebrities and... Read more

By October 17, 2019

Movies

The Lighthouse Masters Madness

Max and Robert Eggers’ film The Lighthouse (2019), although described as a horror movie, is more disturbing than frightful. Set in the nineteenth century, the film features Robert Pattinson as... Read more

By October 17, 2019

Movies

Joker‘s Great Presentation Doesn’t Excuse its Abhorrent Message

Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) has a bad life. His rent-a-clown job doesn’t pay enough for him to afford a nice apartment, his therapist can’t get funding to prescribe him enough... Read more

By October 11, 2019

Leisure

Man Man and GRLwood Bring Energy and Oddity to the Black Cat

Picture six men in sparkling purple cloaks playing various obscure instruments beside a disembodied deer head enshrined in flowers. This image perfectly captures the mood of indie rock group Man... Read more

By October 11, 2019

Leisure

Critical Voices: Ode to Joy, Wilco

With Wilco’s new album Ode to Joy, the alt-rock band explores the relationship between love and pain with hazy vocals, wandering lyrics, and eclectic instrumentals. Although never explicitly political, Ode... Read more

By October 8, 2019

News

Georgetown Art gallery features trash turned art

Georgetown’s Maria and Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery unveiled a new exhibition, Design Transfigured/Waste Reimagined, on Oct. 2. The exhibition, curated by the firm CuratorSquared, explores the ways in... Read more

By October 7, 2019

Leisure

Georgetown Student Jabari Butler’s Concert Dirty Skin Draws Large Crowd

On Sunday, September 22nd, Jabari Butler (MSB ‘22) debuted his first album, Dirty Skin, at Mystery Inc, an underground music venue right by campus. The sweaty, intimate atmosphere of the... Read more

By October 5, 2019

Leisure

Critical Voices: NINE, blink-182

Fart jokes have long been a part of blink-182’s persona, a juvenile yet iconic mechanism for assuring that even when they convey heartfelt emotion, the band can’t quite take themselves... Read more

By October 5, 2019

Leisure

The Death of Dick Long Glimpses Into the Irrevocability and Stupidity of Crime

Watching The Death of Dick Long (2019) is like looking both ways before crossing the street and then getting run over by a Lime scooter. To an outsider, it’s hilarious.... Read more

By October 4, 2019

Leisure

Critical Voices: III, The Lumineers

Meditative at times and raw at others, the Lumineers’ minimalistically-titled third studio album III is perhaps the band’s most cohesive narrative in record form. Told in three chapters, III painstakingly... Read more

By October 4, 2019

Leisure

Concert Preview: GRLwood, Oct. 2, Black Cat

Louisville punk duo GRLwood will open for indie rock group Man Man at the Black Cat on October 2nd. The duo, made up of guitarist/vocalist Rej Forester and drummer Karen... Read more

By October 1, 2019

Leisure

The Phillips Collection’s Newest Exhibit Poignantly Portrays the Stories of Migrants

In 1945 Richard Wright wrote a poem influenced by his experience of being a part of the Great Migration, the movement of around 6 million African Americans from the rural... Read more

By September 27, 2019

Leisure

Ad Astra is Both Alienating and Deeply Human

Bathed in the orange planetary glow of a Martian recording booth, astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) goes off-script. Roy, far from home on the Red Planet colony, is being used... Read more

By September 27, 2019

Leisure

Identity, Violence, and Change Clash at the MEI Modern Art Gallery

In the Middle East Institute’s debut art gallery, conflict, both internal and external, rages around the room, enveloping every piece. The works in this collection perfectly display the complexities of... Read more

By September 27, 2019

Leisure

Critical Voices: Charli, Charli XCX

Charli XCX  has emerged again. It’s been five years since her last studio album, two since her last mixtape, and she grounds herself with her new record Charli (2019). Through... Read more

By September 26, 2019

Leisure

Concert Review: Vampire Weekend, Aug. 29, Merriweather Post Pavilion

On a pleasantly warm, late-summer evening in Columbia, Maryland, Vampire Weekend proved they had not lost their “step” during a  five-year hiatus. The New York City-based indie rock band performed... Read more

By and September 23, 2019

Leisure

Concert Preview: Mallrat, Sept. 26, DC9

Australian singer songwriter Grace Shaw, known by her stage name Mallrat, is bringing her eclecticism to DC9 on Thursday, September 26th. Characterized by her surprisingly blunt vulnerability, the 20 year... Read more

By September 22, 2019