Washington City Paper: Contents for May. 16

Air Sick
Michael Jordan was a champion. The District was a basketball hellhole. Something had to give.

Cover Story

Michael Jordan went out as a Bullet. Thanks to the magic of sports marketing, the hero of the Chicago Bulls played his last NBA home games in a red-and-white-striped No. 23 retro jersey. For a moment, that shirt--BULLETS, JORDAN--seemed an artifact from some other universe, one in which the Bullets had moved up three spots in the 1984 draft to take Jordan, while Chicago settled for Mel Turpin.

Then the truth sank in: The jersey was there to mark the fact it's been 25 years since Washington won an NBA championship. Jordan was wearing it as the inheritor of a quarter-century tradition of losing.

It was easy to conjure illusions in the District's Jordan Era, right up to the end. Jordan was going to turn the Wizards franchise around as an executive. He was going to carry them to the playoffs as a player. He was going to lead them to the winner's circle through tireless work and indomitable will. He was going to make this city the hub of the great Jordan galaxy.

But Jordan the Wizard wasn't the Prime Mover anymore, bending the universe to his aims. On the court, he was creaky and old; in the executive suite, he was cranky and unseasoned. He could pack the house; he could score 40 sometimes, if he felt right. It didn't help.

Celebrity may be today's substitute for nobility, but it lacks the same staying power. Outside a particular time and place, a celebrity stops being inspiring and starts to be dead weight. That goes double or triple for celebrity athletes, once the jump shot starts hitting the front rim and the crafty dribble starts skipping the wrong way. ... Continued

Issue of May. 16 - 22, 2003

News and Features

Air Sick
Michael Jordan was a champion. The District was a basketball hellhole. Something had to give.
Cover Story By Tom ScoccaJason CherkisDavid Morton, Greg Seigle and Josh Levin
Island of Tranquility
What can D.C. learn from the no-murder capital?
The City By Felix Gillette
Stand and Deliver
Ritz-Carlton residents get their own personal loading zones.
The City By Sarah Godfrey
Course Correction
The Mail By Michael Paranzino
Block That Metaphor
The Mail By Rod Morgan
Urban Outliers
The Mail By Susan Hutchison
Tax and Pretend
The Mail By David J. Edmondson
Diamond Dog
The Mail By Ed Grier
Care First!
The Mail By Jack Ay
Diss Agreement
The Mail By Rick Massumi
Correction
Correction

Columns

A Democratic Process
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Bare Essentials
City Desk By Chris Shott
Go With the Flow
City Desk By Joe Dempsey
Snap Out Of It
Loose Lips By Elissa Silverman

Eats

Movies

Men of Character
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Tin Machine
Film Review By Sean Daly
The Bread, My Sweet
Film Review By Tricia Olszewski
Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary
Film Review By Mark Jenkins

Music

Work Experience
Music Review By Joe Banno
A New Light
Music Review By Joe Warminsky
Away With Words
Music Review By Ta-Nehisi Coates
A Beautiful World
Music Review By Tricia Olszewski
Black Cherry
Music Review By Andrew Beaujon
Music Through Heartsongs: Songs Based on the Poems of Mattie J.T. Stepanek
Music Review By Glenn Dixon
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Dave Nuttycombe
Live at the Academy NYC 12.4.92
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Pamela Murray Winters
Soul Food Taqueria
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Joe Warminsky
Speed the Road, Rush the Lights
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Leonard Roberge
Propaganda
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Michael Little
The Best of Warrant
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Sean Daly
Aether
A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
Music Review By Brent Burton

Theater

An American Family
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
Against the Flow
Theater Review By Trey Graham
Watching Left
Theater Review By Pamela Murray Winters
White Biting Dog
Theater Review By Janet Hopf

Arts and Events

World Without End
For more than 30 years, Percy Martin has lived in a place full of crystal eggs, shape-shifting elephants, and Tongue Books. And in Mount Pleasant.
Arts By John Metcalfe
The Fandom Menace
Thanks to the Internet, TV's most obsessive viewers have become more vocal than ever. Pretty soon, they might even have some say in what you get to watch.
Arts Feature By Arion Berger
Light and Place
Art Review By Glenn Dixon
Rain Dance
Artifacts By Annys Shin
Address Forwarding
Artifacts By Louis Jacobson