Update, June 30: The festival is closed today due to damage from the storm last night. The Rinzler Memorial Concert has been moved to the Baird Auditorium in the National Museum of Natural History. The festival will reopen tomorrow, July 1. Original post below.
This weekend, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is rolling out a bunch of [...]
For the better part of five decades, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has spotlighted musicians and craftspeople from specific corners of the globe. This year’s event features three themes—Campus and Community, Creativity and Crisis, and Citified—with no particular international focus. But it’s still worth braving the heat. During the day, visitors can check out the AIDS [...]
Slow down the Eisenhower Memorial's approval process? That's what Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, wants. [Style Blog]
DCRA promises no enforcement while it re-examines its licensing of businesses selling used goods. [Jim Graham]
Politics & Prose's new owners, one year in. [American Booksellers Association]
Lenny Campello revisits Artomatic, encounters more theft. [Daily [...]
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival has been a fixture on Washington’s summer calendar for more than 40 years, and is arguably the most ambitious use of the National Mall each summer. For two weeks every year the Smithsonian brings in musicians, artists, storytellers, and craftsmen from around the world to put on a living exhibition. The festival [...]
Tonight: 12 Angry Men at the Artisphere
Cable news anchors smarting over yesterday's not-guilty verdict in the Florida trial of Casey Anthony would do well to sit down with Sidney Lumet's 1957 directorial debut. The dozen anonymous citizens chosen to deliberate over an unseen murder are far more than a "kooky jury." For 96 minutes, Lumet [...]
The 44th annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival came to a close yesterday. As I noted earlier, due to financial reasons, this was the smallest Folklife Fest ever, but it remains a well-curated, exciting event. It could be publicized better, but for those who did attend, there were unique things worth seeing.
I spent much of the final [...]
The birthday weekend of this immigrant-built country includes a number of gigs featuring immigrants and other international visitors. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival continues through Monday and spotlights a number of traditional Mexican groups as well as area-based Asian-Americans. The Mexican groups that may prove most interesting are Chinelos de Atlatlahucan, a costumed Mardi Gras/Indian-type ensemble [...]
For D.C.’s Caribbean community this is THE weekend—the loud, brash Saturday parade featuring participants in Technicolor costumes plus countless concerts and parties with sound systems turned up to 11. But if you don't like reggae and soca, this weekend offers numerous other international and roots music choices. Around this time every year, I run into [...]
Friday
Eric Felten Jazz Orchestra. Blues Alley. $25.
L.A. Guns w/ Mis-Fit, Tilt, Sinner’s Trail, Bitter Pill. Jaxx. $18/$20. +21.
Sheryl Crow, Ari Hest. Filene Center at Wolf Trap. $30-$48.
TheoryCast, ReVeL, Fight The Bear, Conshafter. Rock and Roll Hotel. $10. All ages.
DC Summer Extravaganza w/ Tittsworth, Nadastrom, Will Eastman, Bobby Jae & Ken Lazee, Dmerit. 9:30 club. [...]
Over the years at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, I have seen and heard lots of great music—zydeco, DC sounds from Rare Essence and Fugazi, weird Bhutan horns, the Cambodian Ray Charles, amazing Malian music, country blues, rockabilly, and numerous Latin styles. I have also seen many fascinating craftspeople and eaten a fair amount of exciting [...]
