Once upon a time, the airline map was divided up just like a political map: Germans had their Lufthansa, Brazilians their Varig, and every emerging postcolonial nation-state its own Cameroon Airlines or Biman Bangladesh to fly the new flag around the world. Only Americans, with our cacophony of private carriers, stood out. But today, the [...]
Friday's episode of Portlandia on IFC had no shortage of indie-rock cameos: Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock attempted to donate some bad records to an elite preschool (Talk Talk, Temple of the Dog); Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, did a runway walk in a proposed new cyperpunk uniform for the Portland Police Department.
The comedic duo of Carrie [...]
The Texting Epidemic?: In a lengthy essay, Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday says we're having a crisis of moviegoing manners, citing a couple of amusing news stories from last year—like Alamo Drafthouse's amusing "trailer" featuring a patron the theater kicked out for texting, and the Connecticut indie theater that had to post a sign [...]
If You Build It...: D.C. officials are trying to woo film-production companies with a Mount Vernon Square space they hope could become a soundstage—which is one solid way, the thinking goes, to attract more film productions to the District. At-large Councilmember Vincent Orange says he hopes the project can be a "public-private partnership."
A Man Must [...]
If my desk reflects my personality, then clearly I am a mess.
Yesterday, E. Brady Robinson, the photographer behind the ongoing project "Desks as Portraits: An Inside Look at the DC Art World," stopped by Washington City Paper to take a portrait of my workspace. Obviously, I did not clean up beforehand.
Well, OK, I made one change. When [...]
In the District, Aaron Thompson has made a small name for himself recording emotional, indoor-kid laptop folk, but over the last year—during which time he moved to New York City—the singer has stepped more and more outside. His strong 2010 full-length and instrumental commissions were mostly delicate and womblike, with lots of glitchy ambience gurgling [...]
Lindsay Zoladz has the cover with the look into the local kids-punk scene, which has benefited from a boom in after-school rock academies, and which blows all of our adult authenticity hangups to pieces. Chris Klimek leads the arts section with reviews of Folger's The Gaming Table—a resuscitated 300-year-old comedy involving lots of cards and [...]
Last summer, Chicago archival label Numero Group did God's work by shedding light on a forgotten D.C. soul outfit, Father's Children. The band recorded an album of cathartic, messianic soul music beginning in 1972 with the producer Robert Hosea Williams, who kept the tapes after the band's management failed to pay the bill. The sessions [...]
Just to add another talking point for the next round of Lana Del Rey think pieces: Maryland rapper Marky offers his tribute to "Blue Jeans."
Yeah, finding space to make and present art in this city can be a bitch. Ahem. Cough. Guh.
DC Space Finder, a Web tool managed by D.C.'s Cultural Development Corporation and coded by the New York nonprofit Fractured Atlas, hopes to give the local itinerant artist a hand. The website launched Monday, and contains a searchable database [...]
