Dr. Funkenstein. The Godfather of Funk. The cool ghoul with the funk transplant. Whatever name you know George Clinton by, when he and the massive collective that makes up Parliment Funkadelic come to town, especially to Washington, D.C., "One Nation Under a Groove" takes on a higher meaning. And on Tuesday, the 71-year-old Clinton and [...]
Israeli-style gaga, a 20th-century classic by choreographer Paul Taylor, and Philadelphia hip-hop. Which is more surprising: That one dance company would perform all three? Or that the troupe in question is Alvin Ailey Dance Theater? The predominately African-American company comes to the Kennedy Center each year, but this 2012 visit is the troupe’s first under [...]
With its leader, George Clinton, sidelined with a staph infection, Parliament-Funkadelic won't be performing for free this Sunday in Rockville, which is too bad. But! The City of Rockville has found a replacement in bluesman Taj Mahal, according to a press release. A decent sweetener, but we still want the funk.
The Mothership Has Landed: Well, a mothership has landed. Chris Richards reports that the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, set to open in 2015, has acquired the prop space ship that Parliament-Funkadelic used in its live shows. This isn't the original mothership, which was dumped in a Prince Georges County scrap [...]
Mornin' folks!
Film criticism is dead! Brandeis professor Thomas Doherty has the scoop in the Chronicle Review. Whodunit? Doherty's theory: Blogs, on the Internet, with the Endless Waves of Unlearned Ranting. To illustrate this, Doherty points us to an example of a fan/critic site that apparently has not been redesigned since 1996. The rhetoric of blog-based [...]
Channeling late '70s bands like the Jam and the Beat, D.C.'s Modest Proposal was a fixture of the city's early-'80s mod and ska scenes, and the group performed for several years before disbanding in 1986. The few songs it committed to vinyl, on several singles and compilations, are charming, catchy examples of a movement that—with [...]
I saw Original P with openers Ken Staton and his James Brown Revue for free at Fort Dupont Park in Anacostia Saturday night July 18. I was not intending to write it up, but it was such an exciting and interesting event that I gotta share. Yes, it was just an oldies tribute show, but [...]
Andrew over on City Desk posted a smart critique of the Lincoln Memorial concert. The show's lineup, he wrote, was way too boomercentric. Of course, he's right. Garth Brooks singing "American Pie" had nothing to do with the future of the American economy, Obama, netroots, etc. It was just Hollywood's outdated response to the failing [...]
