Christmastime: beloved by families, loathed by alternative-weekly arts editors. Why? It’s the time of year when pretentiousness grinds to a halt. It’s as though all the snobs temporarily bury their black clothing and begin singing along to that Mariah Carey Christmas album. Same goes for arts programming. Major arts organizations, motivated by revenue potential and, who [...]
We've left a present for you inside tomorrow's Washington City Paper. No, no, get your mind out of the gutter. Folded inside our dead-tree edition, you'll find this year's beautifully illustrated State of the Arts guide, containing a hefty 72 pages of arts listings, and our picks for the best events this fall. What'd we [...]
Morning, readers.
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*NPR lavishes much-deserved attention on Jeff Campbell, the man behind D.C.'s Hungry for Music, which supplies underprivileged kids with used instruments.
*The D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities today announced the audition schedule for the 2010-11 American Youth Chorus.
*In the Post, Jonathan Yardley [...]
For the last two weeks, you've read a lot about what we loved in 2009. But what about you? After the jump, you can get a sense of what our readers dug in 2009, or at least what they clicked on the most at Black Plastic Bag and the revamped Arts Desk—from John Waters and Twilight [...]
Some people just don't like Christmas. Baltimore Director John Waters knows this, and has taken it upon himself to help such people through the holiday season with his spoken-word performances, in which he elaborates on why you can love or hate–but can't possibly ignore–Christmas. In anticipation of his show at the Birchmere (which, sadly, is [...]
The Criterion Collection has been spoiling cinephiles for over 25 years with the bells and whistles that makes home viewing/collecting wonderful: exhaustive extras, nerdy liner notes, and an impeccable curatorial selection. But what happens when even they get it wrong? In honor of the release of its latest hiccup, the well-received but snoozy A Christmas [...]
