City Lights: This Week's Best
Week of Nov. 18 - 24, 2009
Friday: The Wrens at the Black Cat
The Wrens have been through a lot since rolling out of New Jersey 20 years ago. They were fired from an early residency as the house band for the ferry between Cape May, N.J.,/Lewes, Del., after playing the Pixies’ “Debaser.” They survived an ill-fated deal with a major record label. They went almost a decade without putting out a formal album. But then in 2003, they released the close-to-perfect The Meadowlands and made something of a comeback. Sure, they haven’t put out so much as an EP since, but as the Wrens’ music has always suggested, no cause is too small for celebration.
THE WRENS PERFORM AT 9 P.M. AT THE BLACK CAT, 1811 14TH ST. NW, $15. (202) 667-4490.
Saturday: Laurel Lukazewski's "Once" at Project 4
At Project 4, Laurel Lukazewski’s Sakura is the signature piece of her new show, “Once.” It’s an installation of 3,020 delicate porcelain cherry blossoms—the number coincides with how many trees were given to our city by Japan—covering the two-story walls of the gallery. By the baseboards, petals are strewn about, for even though these flowers look newly blossomed, Lukazewski won’t let us forget that natural beauty is fleeting—a message that, when cemented in porcelain, seems somewhat contradictory, as delicate as its medium. It’s as though Lukazewski takes us through the seasons: flowers in summer, piles of leaves in fall, the swirls of snow in the winter, and a waterfall-like cascade of rain in the spring; all four a reminder to be more deliberate, thoughtful, and grateful.
THE EXHIBITION IS ON VIEW WEDNESDAY TO SATURDAY NOON-6 P.M. TO DEC. 18 AT PROJECT 4, 1353 U ST. NW. FREE. (202) 232-4340.
Sunday: The Vienna Chamber Orchestra at the Strathmore
If you wrote 106 books over your career, most of them would be forgotten, even suck. And if you wrote 106 symphonies in your career, most of them, too, would be forgotten. Not so with Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”), a work that proves that much, much practice makes perfect. After a brooding start, it moves straight into classical-era terrain with a roiling, string-heavy series of movements that make you ask yourself, Hey, isn’t this Mozart? No, but the other two works on the bill are: Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”) and Piano Concerto No. 20. The latter is just like any Mozart piano concerto in the 20s—light, brilliant, glorious, and performed live not nearly frequently enough. According to the program, Philippe Entremont will serve as “conductor & piano” for the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Perhaps the Austrians are doing more with less too!
THE VIENNA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PERFORMS AT 7 P.M. AT THE STRATHMORE MUSIC CENTER, 5301 TUCKERMAN LANE, N. BETHESDA, MD. $25–$75. (301) 581-5100.
Monday: "In the Darkroom" at the National Gallery of Art
If there’s a lesson from the National Gallery of Art’s exhibition “In the Darkroom”—an overview of photographic processes from 1839 to the present—it’s that the less common techniques often provide the most intriguing images. Ever hear of a Woodburytype? The laborious process largely disappeared after 1895, a shame given the fine detail and impressive range of tones in Etienne Carjat’s portrait of Charles Baudelaire. Another technique, the photogravure, is more familiar, but rarely has it looked as stunning as with Charles Negre’s large-scale photograph of Chartres Cathedral. Unexpectedly resonant is the oldest and simplest work in the show—a cameraless image on blue paper, made only by sunlight, of a piece of lace, rendered as meticulously as if it had been made yesterday.
THE EXHIBITION IS ON VIEW MONDAY TO SATURDAY 11 A.M. TO 5 P.M. AND SUNDAY 11 A.M. TO 6 P.M. TO MARCH 14, 2010, AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, 4TH STREET AND CONSTITUTION AVE NW. FREE. (202) 737-4215.
Tuesday: Eyedea & Abilities at the Rock & Roll Hotel
Stocked with the distinct brand of emo-kid rhymes and distorted guitars made popular by Def Jux rappers Cage Kennylz and El-P, By the Throat, the third full release from Rhymesayers duo Eyedea & Abilities, takes the rock-rap formula to its Zoloft-fueled zenith. The result isn’t dance music, and it’s certainly not poppy enough for a party. High-pitched and frenetic raps about failure—from relationships gone rotten to suicide—move at breakneck speed over molasses-slow synth beats and discomfiting background noise. “Burn Fetish,” “Time Flies When You Have a Gun,” and the title track will inspire you to bawl, not move. But Eyedea & Abilities have also made music that’s contemplative and relatable this time around, something bling-obsessed commercial rappers haven’t been able to say about their output in a long time. Still: It’s advisable to bring tissues to tonight’s show.
EYEDEA & ABILITIES PERFORM AT 9 P.M. AT THE ROCK & ROLL HOTEL, 1353 H ST. NE. $12. (202) 388-7625.
Wednesday: Ralph Nader at Borders L Street
Ralph Nader may be the most hated man in American politics, more so than even establishment types Sarah Palin and George W. Bush, or fellow outsiders Lyndon LaRouche and Louis Farrakhan. Nader, unlike other hated politicos, seems to genuinely enjoy his position as the unlanceable boil on America’s keister. He doesn’t give two shits about stealing blue votes—Democrats fly the jackass flag, after all—nor has he allowed his many, many electoral failures to dissuade him from running for president every four years since 1996. Who else could have written an incredibly sincere, borderline delusional book of public policy suggestions titled, “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us”?
NADER SPEAKS AT 6:30 P.M. AT BORDERS, 1801 K ST. NW. FREE. (202) 466-4999.
Thursday: The Shining at the American City Diner and Cafe
The image of Jack Nicholson sticking his grinning head through a smashed bathroom door remains frozen in time, the iconic still not just of Nicholson’s career, but also, arguably, of the horror genre. The Shining has since sired a library’s worth of cultural progeny. Without its reappearing creepy-as-hell dead twins, would we have The Sixth Sense? (Possibly not.) Without young Danny Torrance’s strange psychic abilities, would we have Bart Simpson’s “shinning”? (Can’t really imagine we would.) Without “redrum,” would we have Redman? (Almost certainly.) So maybe an apeshit Nicholson didn’t inspire every cultural phenomenon of the last three decades, but he blows just about every other Stephen King character–with a Shawshank exception–out of the water.
THE FILM SHOWS AT 8 P.M. AT AMERICAN CITY DINER AND CAFE, 5532 CONNECTICUT AVE. NW. FREE. (202) 244-1949.
