An annual fundraiser for DC Central Kitchen, Sound Bites took over the 9:30 Club – and V Street outside in block party style – on Sunday evening. The event featured music from a variety of local performers, a cocktail-mixing competition among some of the city’s top bartenders, and samples of fare by many local restaurants.

The event, now in its third year, is a different take on the many fancy charity galas that have been all over town the last few weeks. DC Central Kitchen wanted to do something casual, accessible, and lighthearted to raise funds for their vital projects. All of the restaurants involved donated their food and staff time to the cause. Attendees were able to stroll around the outdoor area tasting samples or duck out of the sun into the club to listen to a band or DJ between bites.

The weather was spectacular during the event with the drizzle holding off until after the festivities concluded and a spirited – but pleasantly not over-packed – crowd enjoyed bites from local favorites like Room 11, Cork, and Mandu, as well as trying new things like cupcakes from a bakery called Taste. Bartenders from four bars vied to impress a panel of judges with cocktails whipped up using “secret ingredients” sprung upon them – with The Gibson ultimately taking the title.

A diverse line-up of musical entertainment took the stage, from an all-female Brazilian drum corps to indie bands to a headlining DJ set from Thievery Corporation’s Rob Garza. All together, Sound Bites delivered a celebration of the DC food and music communities, united to do good for our less-fortunate neighbors.

photo courtesy of Black Hills

We Love DC Music Editor Alexia Kauffman had the chance to chat with DC-based musical mastermind Aaron Estes recently. Estes previously fronted the indie band Bellman Barker, but is now focusing on going solo with his dreamy-synth-pop project Black Hills. 

Alexia Kauffman: So I never got to see Bellman Barker, but I became aware of you as a performer when I saw you at Run for Cover*, as part of my favorite acts, two years in a row.

Aaron Estes: Oh cool, which acts?

AK: In 2010 it was the C&C Music Factory cover group, and then in 2011 it was the Daft Punk group.

AE: Yeah, those were pretty fun shows. (laughing)

AK: They were so above and beyond awesome, not just the theatrics and visuals that went into them (which were both hilarious and spectacular) but really the music- it was so well done. Plus I’m a fan of anything that glows in the dark. So once I found out who you were I filed it in my mind that I needed to see what music you were doing. And time passed, and I just saw your picture up on the Black Cat website recently, that you’re performing as Black Hills, and I knew I had to check it out. I really dig the tracks you have up on Bandcamp.

AE: Oh awesome, thank you!

AK: Is that all you have recorded right now?

AE: Those are the only things that are mastered and officially released.It’s like still kind of a new project, so I kind of… it was a side project to Bellman Barker for a while, and then when that band broke up I just kind of decided to make it my main thing. And so I’ve been sort of slowly working on those for a while, and just decided oh, I’ll just put out this EP, and just see what happens. So there’s a handful of more songs, some of them are recorded, some of them are halfway recorded.

AK: So the Black Hills stuff- do you produce that on your own, or do you collaborate with anyone?

AE: Um, it’s all just me, and I do pretty much just make everything at my house, and then my friend mixes and does some additional production. Like I bring in a song, basically a finished song, and we just mix it and maybe redo the vocals at his place.

AK: Was it challenging translating the music you wrote/produced into a live show with a full band?

AE:  So live I really wanted to like not do backing tracks, and not have a computer onstage, so right now it’s a five-piece band live. Some of the guys, like the drummer and the other keyboard player were in Bellman Barker, and then the other two guys are just people I knew from around.

It didn’t really end up being that difficult. All the guys who are in the live version of the band are super-talented at what they’re doing, their instruments. I would basically come in and say “Alright, here’s these eight synth parts, we need to figure out how to play all these things on these other instruments”, and make it sound cohesive, you know, make it into an exciting live show rather than be with a couple samplers and a laptop. I mean it was definitely kind of weird at first trying to figure out how to do it, but we’ve kind of settled into a method of how we play now.

AK: You mentioned that you are in another band now too?

AE: I am playing keyboards in a band called Bone Fur and Feathers. And that’s a really new band, I’m not one of the main people, that’s a six-piece band.

AK: So are you a native of the DC area?

AE: No, I moved here after college, I’m from South Dakota originally. I lived in Alexandria for a year, back in, like, ’03, and then I moved into DC in I guess ’04. I’ve been in lots of bands, and I kind of decided it’s more fun for me to do it solo. You know bands, I’ve been in so many bands that have broken up, and then you just, like, lost all of that creative effort that you put in, and you have to start over, and I just didn’t want to do that anymore. So that’s why I decided to do the solo thing.  

AK: How did you start playing music?

AE: Well I played classical piano for several years, I started when I was six, and I did, like, the piano competitions, and things like that. And then I played jazz saxaphone for a while, which was pretty fun. And then you know, you get into high school, and stop playing those things, and play guitar and play in bands, and that’s it.

AK: Is there one album or artist that you can remember that first made you really excited about music?

AE: You know, there isn’t really anyone that I can say just for music in general. I mean, for the stuff that I’m doing now the biggest inspiration was Air. Just ’cause I really liked how they would use sounds and styles that a lot of people would consider cheesy. And they definitely can get more into the cheesy territory with some of their stuff, but that’s something that I always really admired. So I started with a similar idea, and a lot of the earlier stuff that I worked on for Black Hills sounded just horrible! (laughs) Really cheesy stuff, and then I eventually was like “Alright, I gotta find a way to make this sound cool” while using, y’know, vocal patches and synth strings sounds that don’t sound cool, and try to come up with something.

AK: Well I love Air too, and I can definitely hear some of the influence, and I think you definitely pulled off whatever you were going for!

AE: (laughs) Thanks!

AK: What’s coming up in the near future for Black Hills?

AE: Well, after this show we don’t have any shows planned, except I think we might be doing something with Alliance Francaise, like maybe doing something for Bastille day. I did a collaboration with this German producer named Kris Menace, so we did a couple songs that are coming out on his album. I don’t think that comes out ’til like October though. It was pretty cool, though, I’d never done anything like that before, so it’s like this super-German club-techno music. Really cool.

See Black Hills live, Wednesday night at Black Cat.

Black Hills

w/Raindeer, The Fire Tapes

Wednesday, May 23

$8/backstage/Doors at 8pm

*Run for Cover was a yearly benefit show held at the Black Cat that featured one-off cover bands or mash-up bands made up of people from DC bands.

Jesse J. Perez as Florindo and Steven Epp as Truffaldino in Yale Repertory Theatre’s 2010 production of The Servant of Two Masters, directed by Christopher Bayes. Photo by Richard Termine.

When the lights at the Lansburgh Theatre go down and The Servant of Two Masters begins, you know within seconds you’re at a play. Gone is the predictable 9-5 workday, the awkwardness of happy hour networking, the pressures of politics and power struggles. It’s play time, and as such you are invited to loosen your tie, let your hair down, and prepare for an ab workout only laughter can provide.

As a classic example of commedia dell’arte by Italy’s beloved Carlo Goldoni, The Servant of Two Masters relies on only the basic outline of a plot: a young couple wants to get married, but complications arise that prevent them from tying the knot. When a servant arrives to help sort out the problem, he inevitably makes everything worse by attempting to work two jobs at once.

The production arrives at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC after a sold out run at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Under the imaginative direction of Christopher Bayes, the show combines every element you could hope for from a night at the theater. It spans the gamut from breathtaking theatricality and poetic abandon to musical numbers and crass improv comedy.

An incredibly physical show, The Servant of Two Masters is not a relaxing affair. Actors end scenes drenched in sweat, and jokes happen so quickly you sometimes have to hold on for dear life. The night I attended, a wardrobe malfunction split Pantalone’s pants. Allen Gilmore, in and out of character as Pantalone, used the moment to show off his improv chops. As the audience wailed with laughter, the other performers on stage, including the musicians, took a moment to figure out how they could possibly get back into character and end the scene. The moment served as a reminder of how physically demanding the show really is, and thus how unpredictable too.

The staging requires intense control over one’s movement, and most of the performers have it in droves. In particular Steven Epp, in the lead role of Truffaldino the servant, shows great body control in his very physical role and uses such a range of comedy throughout the night that at some points he plays the standup comedian and at others the slapstick buffoon. As Beatrice – a woman in disguise searching for her lost love – Rachel Spencer Hewitt also shows tremendous control and has a commanding presence as a result. It was hard not to watch her every moment she was on stage. In the role of her flamboyant lover, Jesse Perez masters Florindo with hilarious and absurd heights of passion.

Any show with this many attempts at comedy would be unbearable if done poorly. Fortunately for us, the cast’s timing is impeccable. They play with expectations so well and so constantly that you’re forever on your toes wondering what will come next. Their use of DC-relevant comedy particularly stands out, and two the onstage musicians have a few scene-stealing moments as well.

By the end of The Servant of Two Masters, most everyone is exhausted. The cast runs out for the curtain call with a large sigh while beads of sweat shine off their faces; but it’s the good kind of tired. For a few hours, nothing else matters but the wondrous distraction on stage. Sure your abs hurt and the jokes, which entranced you moments before, have already been lost in a sea of memories and other concerns; but for that short time in the Lansburgh Theatre, you get to join in the chaos and be reminded that love, as in life, is best when unpredictable.

The Servant of Two Masters runs through June 24, 2012 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre. The Lansburgh Theatre is located at 450 7th St. NW. Closest Metro: Archives (Green/Yellow). For more information, call 202-547-1122.

Maybe we’ll luck out today with slightly better weather? If not, you should still head out there for some food truck lunch.

photo by Jason Coile

Last week We Love DC guest writer Jonathan Druy interviewed Chris Glover of Penguin Prison, and Saturday night he attended the Penguin Prison show at Rock & Roll Hotel. Check out his review of the show below!

By the time the unabashedly glamorous electro-pop opener Class Actress had finished, the packed, rowdy house at Rock & Roll Hotel late Saturday night was ready for Penguin Prison to come out and give them more. When Chris Glover and his three bandmates took the stage, they looked more like an indie-rock band – besides the two rows of keys, Glover sports a guitar and a leather jacket. Their brand of infectious, melodic electro-dance-pop can’t be as easy to swing as they made it look, but having been on tour as long as they have, it’s no wonder they delivered a slick, flawless, crowd-pleasing show. Once they opened with “Golden Train”, one of his best songs, Glover’s skilled voice didn’t falter throughout the set, and most of the show was a faithful live version of songs from their self-titled album. In addition, he sang the breezy new “Hollywood”, a collaboration with the remix artist RAC, and peaked with a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Blue Jeans”, in which Glover, who’d been using his guitar mostly as a rhythm backup the entire night, busted out with a confident guitar solo. Since the dancing had been pretty much non-stop for the last hour, the crowd had probably earned the encore, as Penguin Prison closed the night with “Multi-Millionaire”.

A little bit of mystery for the day. A self portrait is just what it sounds like, a photo of the photographer taken by the photographer. Some people find this type of photography to be empty or egotistical. Others (like myself) think that, when done well, it can give you an amazing insight into the person taking the photograph. Like any other portrait photo it can convey an amazing amount of emotion. Now yostinator SP above isn’t a full on self portrait, but it still does a great job of capturing the mystery of the scene. We’ve all had moments where we catch our reflection in a window or a mirror and, if the light is just right, get intrigued by what is looking back at us. Yostinator catches her hand’s reflection, along with that of her camera, and along the way gets some beautiful colors and bokeh in the background, all while waiting for a Metro train. This could just as easily been an abstract painting, rather than a self portrait.

Just one more week until Memorial Day; we can make…I think. Why is it the week before Memorial Day always drags by, with everyone trying to work, but instead everyone has their minds on the nice, long weekend? Mysteries of the world. Anyways, take your mind off your work, or your coming vacation, and check out the photos from our skilled photographers. 

IMG_3911
courtesy of BrianMKA

peep memorial
courtesy of philliefan99

Balloon art
courtesy of vpickering

McMillan
courtesy of Chris Wieland

McLean Day 2012
courtesy of kimberlyfaye

Untitled
courtesy of zo-boat

it never ends
courtesy of philliefan99

IMG_7820
courtesy of jsmjr

Spring Flowers in SE DC
courtesy of dcscorpio

It is a time of feast and famine from the Nationals’ offense, with half of their last ten games over six runs, and the other half under three. Sunday was a welcome feast for Nationals fans, with a triumphant 9-3 victory over the troublesome Orioles, and an end to a three-game slide that saw the Nationals drop out of first place in the NL East. The Nationals took their lead on the power of their battery – an unlikely source if ever there was one. 

In the fourth inning, tied up at three apiece, Jesus Flores stepped in against Wei-Yin Chin and sent an 81mph change up into the second row of the stands in right center.  Three pitches later, Stephen Strasburg would join the home run club, sitting and waiting for a curveball, and launching it into the Orioles’ bullpen. Strasburg’s first career home run ran about 398 feet according to ESPN, and he had just about the slowest home run trot I’ve ever seen, though, according to the Tater Trot Tracker, he didn’t even make the ten slowest list of the year.

After a struggle to find situational hitting, the Nationals seemed to find it all at once on Sunday against Chen and the Orioles’ bullpen. In the third, a hard fought triple out of the glove of Nick Markakis by Bryce Harper scored Strasburg (2-2, 2 runs) and Espinosa (2-5 5, 2 RBI) put the Nationals even. In the eighth, they repeated the performance, scoring twice more on Danny Espinosa’s 4th home run of the year and a sac fly from Adam LaRoche (0-1, 3BB, RBI).

With everything said about the offense, the Nationals also benefitted from 5 innings, and 8 strikeouts, from Stephen Strasburg (4-1), though he was a bit worse for wear afterwards. Strasburg was pulled for fatigue after just five innings. The removal was a cautionary measure, according to manager Davey Johnson, and should not affect his next start, but the concern is clear that the hurler might be suffering a bit. So far, Strasburg’s reaction has been to shut down any doubt and assign it to recovering from his 2010 Tommy John surgery, but it’s difficult to put those concerns to rest, given the seriousness of the operation.

As bad as the injury bug has been, the Nationals still sit a game and a half back of the NL East lead and seven games above .500. The Nationals head to the road for ten days on their biggest test so far this season. They’ll head to Philadelphia first to take on the surging Phillies, then three against first place Atlanta, and then three against the Marlins. Should the Nationals come out with a 6-3 or 5-4 trip, there’s a good chance they’ll reclaim the lead in the East. Should they fall to 4-5 or worse, there’s a good chance they’ll be much lower on the table. Where do you think they’re going to be on June 1st?

Nationals starting pitcher Ross Detwiler went into Saturday night’s game with a 2.63 ERA and came out of it with a 3.65. Long story short – Detwiler didn’t have a good night against the first place Baltimore Orioles.

As the newest member of Steve McCatty’s rotation, having landed the fifth spot just before the start of the season, Detwiler’s had a good couple months with Washington. The Orioles found a way around that with their bats, though, and that’s all it took to secure an early lead and eventual 6-5 victory over Washington.

Detwiler gave up nine hits, six runs – two of which were homeruns, while walking a batter and striking out three. It took the Nats offense five innings to warm up, as they fell behind in the second and third innings.

It took a couple of sacrifice bunts from Steve Tolleson and starting pitcher Jason Hammel to set it up, but the Orioles scored twice in the second. Center fielder Adam Jones followed that performance in the third inning with a two-run homer to left field on a 1-0 pitch.

The Orioles offense stayed hot enough to coax a couple more runs off Detwiler in the fifth when right fielder Adam Jones hit a two-run homer to right-center on a 1-1 pitch.

Up until the fifth inning, the Nats had only managed to get two base runners and had struck out four times. They could barely get the ball to the outfield, having just three fly outs through four innings.

A tiny spark turned up in the fifth when Nats outfielder Roger Bernadina, pinch hitter Tyler Moore, and the night’s lead-off man – Steve Lombardozzi (2-for-5), hit three consecutive singles from. Bernadina scored on Lombardozzi’s single but Bryce Harper (0-for-5, with two strikeouts) grounded out to end the potential rally.

The Nats kept the momentum going through the sixth inning, coming within two runs of the Orioles. They scored three runs after third baseman Ryan Zimmerman hit a lead-off double off Hammel. First baseman Adam LaRoche scored on a two out single from the Nats fourth-string catcher Carlos Maldonado. Outfielder Rick Ankiel followed suit by scoring on a Berndina single up the middle making the game 6-4 in favor of the Orioles.

Washington’s bullpen – including Craig Stammen, Ryan Perry, and Henry Rodriguez – held the Orioles and didn’t allow any runs in four innings of work. But even a last-minute heroic, two-out homerun to left field on a 2-2 pitch from Ryan Zimmerman off Jim Johnson couldn’t salvage the game. The 6-5 loss is the Nationals’ seventeenth one-run game this season.

The Nationals offense has struggled to score runs all season and it is starting to look like it is getting the manager Davey Johnson. With the Nationals trailing by the score of 1-0 in the fourth inning Bryce Harper tried to steal second after drawing a one out walk and was thrown out easily by Matt Wieters. Danny Espinosa then struck out looking to end the inning. One inning later Jesus Flores would single with one out before being caught stealing on a botched hit and run with the pitcher, Edwin Jackson, batting.

As puzzling as the second of those moves was nothing would beat what happened in the bottom of the eleventh inning after Nick Markakis hit a go ahead homer for the Orioles in the top half of the inning on a cookie served to him by Ryan Mattheus. After Steve Lombardozzi led off the inning being hit by pitch Ian Desmond was looking to bunt him to second in order to stay out of the double play and give Zimmerman a chance to bat as the winning run. Desmond would pull back on his first attempt which was a ball before fouling off his next two bunt attempts on balls out of the strike zone. With the bunt sign off Desmond would proceed to ground into the double play Davey was looking to avoid.

It is understandable that Davey would want to give Zimmerman a chance to bat as the lead run, but with Strop having missed badly with his first two pitches. One of which hit Lombardozzi. It would have been understandable if he had Desmond taking early in the at bat to see if he could get ahead before attempting to settle for advancing the runner. Not to mention the fact that the Nats one run this evening came on an Ian Desmond homerun.

Zimmerman would end up getting a chance after Roger Bernadina reached on a third strike wild pitch. Zimmerman would single up the middle before LaRoche grounded out to end the game and send the Orioles fans in attendance home happy and the Nationals fans home disappointed. The Orioles are now 6-2 in extra innings game and have the early advantage in the battle of the beltways, but it didn’t have to come down to this.

Davey Johnson’s frustration is understandable and if a manager can press he was doing so tonight. After watching Edwin Jackson struggle in the first only to right the ship and end up pitching eight innings of one run ball on five hits with one walk and eight strike outs; Davey must have felt the pitcher deserved better than to watch the Nats fall to 2-6 in games he starts.

Jake Arrieta’s final line of one run in seven innings on six hits with one walk and nine strikeouts looks good, but the way Arrieta pitched was not. Arrieta left a number of fastballs up in the zone and a few were tagged by the Nats, but found their way into the gloves of Orioles fielders. The Nats also struck out looking on a number of pitches right over the heart of the plate. It is tough to say what is going on with the Orioles offense. It is hard to tell if they are simply guessing wrong and looking for the wrong pitch or if they are having trouble seeing the ball. Arrieta gave the Nats a number of chances but they either were unable to capitalize or ran themselves out of the innings.

The series continues tomorrow from Nats Park with Ross Detwiler taking on Jason Hammel before concluding on Sunday as Stephen Strasburg looks to put the hot stuff incident behind him when he takes on Wei-Yin Chen.

POV at the W always launches their seasonal cocktail menus with great flare. This time the cocktail party was summer boardwalk carnival themed with tickets sold to the public through Gilt City and gave attendees a chance to sample the drinks while indulging in some fancy takes on carnival-themed snacks – herbed popcorn, churros with strawberry-rhubarb compote – playing games and even getting bright summer-colored manicures from Bliss Spa.

Ultimately, the drinks are the stars, though – and remain available to purchase at POV throughout the season. These drinks may be the best batch of seasonal cocktails offered by the bar in some time. While they mostly share a pink color palette and general inclination towards the sweet, they are fun, great summer drinks that do not disappoint.

Pictured above is the Luchador Rosa, which seemed to be the favorite among people I asked at the event – and was my strong favorite as well. Silver tequila, fresh squeezed lime, and juicy raspberries make for a classic summertime flavor combo – but the drink is elevated by spicy hellfire bitters and a garden of green, aromatic cilantro. This concoction is awesome and I cannot wait to head back to the roof lounge on a hot summer day to tipple several.

Also great was the Bourbon Summer Sour. Bartender Meghan told me that, in the week or so before the launch event that they have been offering this drink menu, she has made the most of these – and warned me it might be because the cocktail is a bit too easy to drink. After that, I expected something weak and sugary – that watermelon is a major ingredient lead to this assumption – but in fact it was simply light and fun to drink. Mingled with the watermelon was Makers Mark bourbon, mint, lemon, and a touch of sugar. Though it was, in fact, dangerously quaffable (indeed, even as someone who rarely finishes a drink at a tasting, this one disappeared from my glass before I even noticed) it was not sticky or overly “fruit flavored.” Instead, it takes the essential summertime formula of bourbon-plus-mint and just adds a bit of bright, natural fruit juiciness.

The Raspberry Sour was the weakest entry in the bunch. While passable – and, by the looks of things at the event, popular – it was a bit candy-cloying with raspberry simple syrup that largely overpowered the gin base. The French Reception was better, with tons of muddled fresh blackberries floating in the glass with gin, St-Germain, lemon juice, and a fizzy pour of Champagne.

Expect to find me at POV’s roof lounge all summer long. Drinking cocktails under a permanent roof canopy is, after all, about as close as I get to “sunshine” or the “outdoors.”

photo courtesy of Penguin Prison

We Love DC’s guest writer Jonathan Druy had a chance to talk to Chris Glover, who records under the name Penguin Prison. Check out his interview below!

While multi-instrumentalist Chris Glover has been remixing under the name Penguin Prison for a few years now, playing with the music of Lana Del Rey, Kylie Minogue, Kimbra, Marina and the Diamonds, and Goldfrapp, it is also the name of his electronic-pop outfit, hailing from the Brooklyn that gave us LCD Soundsystem, DFA records, bands like Holy Ghost!, Light Asylum and a host of others. Glover sings catchy, infectious, and lyrical pop songs over his own production, which draws inspiration from classic and Nu Disco as well as the French House of the last ten years. It falls squarely into the kind of indie-dance territory fans of Friendly Fires, Miike Snow, LCD, Hot Chip, Cut Copy, and Junior Boys are going to immediately recognize.

Penguin Prison is sort of a next phase in this realm, flirting with mainstream, and not in a bad way. The music is not compromised by its catchiness, because the hooks are good and the grooves are deep. Glover’s a straightforward and stylish vocalist and a sometimes expressionistic lyricist, but has the looks and charisma to pull off a kind of indie-dance Timberlake vibe. The video for one of his album’s several great singles, “Don’t Fuck With My Money”, shot in gritty black and white last year, shows Glover singing against the backdrop of New York City’s Occupy protest. It’s an odd juxtaposition – pretty-boy crooner, electro-pop, citizen activism – he pulls it off with a coolness and unique spirit.

Although he says his remixing days are definitely not over with, Glover now tours with a full band, and brings Penguin Prison to Rock & Roll Hotel on Saturday night, along with fellow Brooklynites Class Actress.

Jonathan Druy: How do you like playing DC?

Chris Glover: I’ve played DC many times. I think DC is one of the best places to play actually, yeah some of our best shows we’ve played have been in DC, like at U Street Music Hall a couple times, and 930 club a couple times, other places as well.

JD: While you’re mainly an electronic artist, you play with a full band, right?

CG: Yeah, I play guitar and sing, we have a bass player, a keyboard player, and a drummer. We were always a full band, I never wanted to play without a full band, because if I go to a show, and it’s just like a guy on stage with a keyboard or drum machine, it doesn’t really move me, I never wanted to do that. Especially without a live drummer, I think the audience doesn’t know what to do exactly, there’s like tracks playing, there’s no drummer, no anything, there’s like one or two people, the audience is kind of confused, even if it’s music that’s loud and dancey they still aren’t gonna dance because they’re confused about where the sounds are coming from, they don’t see human beings making things on stage.

JD: Where have been some of your best shows?

CG: My favorite crowds are the ones that are really rowdy, and the rowdiest crowds were actually at U St Music Hall, in Brooklyn, Austin, Los Angeles, places like that.

JD: Are there any particular songs that get a surprising reaction?

CG: Honestly, standup comedians will say that everywhere they go, no matter who the audience is, if a joke is good, people will laugh, it doesn’t even matter – the audience could be from completely different backgrounds, but the material should be hitting the same way everywhere they go. If it’s not, it’s not a good joke.

So it’s the same thing with music, whenever we play the same song, pretty much universally the audience reacts kind of similarly, like “Don’t Fuck With My Money”, that one live elicits one of the bigger responses from the audience no matter where we are.

JD: Do you have any bands you consider your colleagues, contemporaries, or maybe competition?

CG: I’m friends with Holy Ghost!, and I was kind of inspired by them, influenced by them, and I made a song with Alex Frankel from Holy Ghost! called “Golden Train”, which is on my album, Penguin Prison, and we finished it, and then I decided I wanted to make more songs like that – that was the first song I made as Penguin Prison, and then from there I wanted to make a whole album that would fit together with that song.

I don’t see other people as competition really, I like to collaborate with a lot of people, I’m friends with lots of musicians, I don’t know if anyone really sees other people as competition, you know it just feels good to become friends with other people that make music that is similar, in the same world.

JD: You just finished shooting a video for the song “Hollywood”, which you did in collaboration with a guy called RAC…

CG: He is someone that I met through the internet, really, I didn’t even meet him in person for a very long time, after we had just been corresponding through email, and he made a couple remixes of my songs, then we were talking about collaborating, and we wrote that song together through the internet.

JD: How has the online world affected what you do?

CG: You can see someone that you like on the internet, and be like “I wonder if I should write to them”, and you write to them, and you’ll be surprised by how they respond to you and they’re like “oh yeah I really like your music too”, and then you’re like “oh ok we should try to make something together”, and then you send each other files, and you work on stuff and send it back to them, and after awhile you’ve made a song together, and you haven’t even met each other.

Sometimes on Twitter, someone will write something about me, and I’m like “what? I really like your music too, we should collaborate!”

JD: Is there anyone else that you’ve done that with?

CG: Yeah this guy Goldroom, he’s got a song called “Fifteen”, and he made a remix of one of my songs. I’ve been talking to him about collaborating. I’m friends with Classixxx, and these people Oliver. Holy Ghost! I’ve collaborated with. It’s hard with peoples schedules and people living in different parts of the country or parts of the world, so the internet helps.

JD: Are you still doing remixes when you find the time?

CG: Whenever I’m not touring and I’m home, I’m usually doing a remix or two. I really like doing remixes for female voices, I like working with female singers more-so than male singers. If I got to choose who to remix, I would really like to remix Lykke Li. I like her voice a lot, and there’s a remix of her by the Magicians, for “I Follow Rivers”, which is, I think, one of the best remixes of the past couple years.

JD: Do you have a way to describe your aesthetic, what you think of when you’re making music? Is it retro-80s? Indie-dance-pop? Nu Disco-influenced pop?

CG: I think my music is essentially pop music, I’m trying to write pop songs that have good melodies. In terms of the production, I don’t really think of it as 80s, I don’t, like, listen to 80s music all day long, or ever really. I’m influenced by the whole Nu Disco movement, which I guess LCD Soundsystem, James Murphy is a big part of. I’m really into disco edits, and the whole DJ culture of editing old obscure disco songs, and adding stuff to them, and the whole DFA kind of sound. I also like to use different influences, different genres of music and try and come up with something new.

JD: I’ve seen you talk elsewhere about Prince and Michael Jackson. How have they played into your music, and your life?

CG: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was the first album that I had, the vinyl, on a Fisher Price record player, and I had a Michael Jackson doll, the little action figure. I think a lot of people like Michael Jackson – it’s just something you don’t really understand, even people that might dislike him as a person or think he’s crazy, they definitely like his music, especially the heyday, “Thriller”, all those hits, it’s hard to not like that music. I just use it as the ultimate template for what are the ultimate pop songs. “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” is one of the best songs ever made, it doesn’t feel cheesy, like a lot of the mainstream disco at the time. So him and Prince, the best songs that they made in their prime, in the 80s, those to me are the ultimate pop music that I use to judge what I’m doing.

JD: What do you think of the music Prince has been doing in the last few years?

CG: Well obviously he’s a good musician, and he likes to show off his skills, and he likes to surround himself which a huge band, where everyone is a really good musician, I guess I can appreciate that, but I’m really more into his minimalist kind of stuff, like now he’s kind of going crazy showing off and throwing in too much stuff.

JD: The other day was Brian Eno’s birthday, is he particularly important to you?

CG: Brian Eno must be one of the best producers ever, because Coldplay – I’m not much of a fan, and he produced one of their albums, and he did a good job with a band that I don’t really like; he must know what he’s doing.

JD: Do you pay attention to mainstream pop? Justin Bieber has a new song out…

CG: I heard that song and I didn’t really think much of it, and it didn’t get stuck in my head, and I don’t have any desire to listen to it again. I guess some people like that, but I don’t have any interest.

JD: Is there any mainstream pop songs that you do like?

CG: There’s certain songs that come out, there’s that one Miley Cyrus song I like, what’s it called? [JD: “Party in the USA”?] Yeah, that’s a great song. I don’t like Miley Cyrus, but there’s just certain songs where I really say I like that song, it doesn’t matter who makes it. “Toxic” by Britney Spears – it’s a great song. The guys from Miike Snow actually produced that song.

JD: For your own songs, do you sort of know it when you get it, does it come pretty quickly, or do you work pretty hard to arrive at something?

CG: Yeah the best things happen naturally, and then you have to work from there. Like with my song “Don’t Fuck With My Money”, all of a sudden – I was just saying that, out of nowhere, it had that melody, and that lyric. That just came out of nowhere, and then I just had to figure out what to do with it. I sleep with a tape recorder next to my bed, and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, and have a melody in my head and I sing it into the tape recorder and fall asleep, and wake up in the morning and listen to it, and try to make a song out of it.  There’s an art that goes into making a good pop song, and when it happens it’s pretty clear.

See Penguin Prison live this weekend at Rock & Roll Hotel.

Penguin Prison

w/Class Actress, Outputmessage

Doors 8:30/Show 9:30/$15

Saturday, May 19

Rock & Roll Hotel

The upcoming Poseurs club reunion set for Saturday, Aug. 4, at the Rock and Roll Hotel got me thinking that it’s a pretty good time around DC for dance parties featuring 80s music.

As a diehard new waver, I actually dislike the term “80s music,” because my genre is a growing one that started up around 1976 and continues to see new bands and innovations until this day. (New wave is indeed enjoying a major renaissance now.) Thaaaaaaaat said, everyone knows what I mean when I use the term and these parties build their set lists based on the idea that you know what they mean when *they* use it as well.

So without further ado, here is a brief tour of the major 80s parties going on in the District right now with an emphasis on what you can catch next.

Party: Kids in America

The Scene: Bill Mallison named his irregular bi-monthly party Kids in America at Dahlak (1771 U St NW), the boxlike Eritrean restaurant at 18th and U Sts. NW, after the popular Kim Wilde tune. The party name however really serves as more of a rallying cry than an indication of what you’ll hear there, as Mallison loves pure electronic dance music and harbors affection for the New Romantics that rivals my own. His personal favorites tend toward obscure groups like Play, the November Group, and Lori and the Chameleons. But Kids in America features plenty of favorites from the Human League, the Clash, Duran Duran, David Bowie, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, and more. As Mallison himself might say, “Expect to hear all of the tunes that hit #23 in Belgium in 1982 plus a few you might actually know!”

Drawbacks: Dahlak is in an extremely convenient location in Adams Morgan but the beer selection is quite limited and the acoustics leave a bit to be desired.

A personal favorite song I’m likely to hear: “Working with Fire and Steel,” China Crisis

Your next chance to go: Saturday, May 19, at 10pm. Although KIA usually occurs on a Friday, it’s on a Saturday this month with a tribute to synthmaster Vince Clarke from Depeche Mode to Yazoo to Erasure and beyond.

Party: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

The Scene: A few years back, industrial hostess Lori Beth attempted to put up a party every night everywhere in a bid for total domination of the DC nightlife scene! (The forces of good barely stopped the darkwave onslaught.) Seriously though, in addition to longstanding fixture Spellbound on Saturdays, one of the parties that stuck and stuck well was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at Little Miss Whiskey’s Golden Dollar (1104 H St. NE) on Wednesdays. KKBB, named for a glammy goth song by UK band Specimen, specializes mostly in post-punk crowd-pleasers like the Psychedelic Furs, Modern English, Echo and the Bunnymen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and of course The Cure. Regular DJs The Machine and Devolutionary perhaps have the most consistently good taste in music in the entire DC metropolitan area. They make a straight-up appeal to folks of a certain age by describing their night as “Propaganda Magazine meets 120 Minutes” and inviting people to recall clubs that existed “once upon a time” like Poseurs, Cagney’s, and Back Alley Café.

Drawbacks: KKBB can sometimes feel like someone’s private living room party, particularly when the DJs go off script and play crap like John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

A personal favorite song I’m likely to hear: “Friend or Foe” by Adam Ant

Your next chance to go: Wednesday, May 23, at 9pm. KKBB happens every month on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month. Free admission.

Party: 80s Dance Party

The Scene: Not too long after the actual 1980s were over, a couple of gents in a New Romantic band called Romania started up the unfortunately named 80s Dance Party at Club Heaven and Hell in Adams Morgan. The party was ably supported and eventually DJ’ed by the hardworking and talented Neal Keller (aka The Angel or DJ Neal), a great friend and a damn good person all around. The party celebrated its last night at the “old location” some years ago, but Keller kept the party going at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room (1725 Columbia Rd. NW) every Thursday. 80s Dance Party consistently remains a crowd-pleaser, spinning anything and everything from Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, A-ha, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Berlin, and even Rick Astley. Keller has stepped away from the DJ deck for the most part except for special occasions, leaving dancefloor duties to gothy gal London Shadows, who has a surprising affinity for radio-friendly hits by everyone from REM to Whitney Houston.

Drawbacks: The long-standing Chief Ike’s is the local pub for a very specific neighborhood, which turns out largely because it’s their local watering hole and not for 80s music specifically. This makes for a hit-or-miss crowd. Plus, the party’s generic name leaves many people with no clue that it’s technically the same very long-running party that started up in the mid-1990s, perhaps *technically* making it the city’s longest running dance night.

A personal favorite song I’m likely to hear: “Into the Groove” by Madonna (when London Shadows spins); “Reap the Wild Wind” by Ultravox (when DJ Neal spins).

Your next chance to go: Thursday, May 24, at 9pm. Free admission.

Party: Synth Thursday

The Scene: A few years ago, DJ Michael Scruggs popped into the relatively new Lyon Hall (3100 N. Washington Blvd, Arlington, Va.), a French bistro in the Clarendon neighborhood, on a Sunday night and starting spinning some of his favorite tunes by bands like New Order, Depeche Mode, the Book of Love, The Damned, English Beat, Bronski Beat, Minor Threat, Fine Young Cannibals, and The Clash. Scruggs quickly moved to Thursday nights once a month and branded the resulting night, which became heavy on synthpop, as Synth Thursday. The stark white and metallic look and feel of the restaurant suit the ambiance of Scruggs’ sets well, and Lyon Hall has a damn good beer selection.

Drawbacks: Well, it’s in Arlington. Honestly, despite being only a block off the well-trafficked Wilson Blvd. corridor, Lyon Hall can feel like a very lonely place indeed at night.

A personal favorite song I’m likely to hear: “Everything’s Gone Green” by New Order

Your next chance to go: Scruggs actually is doing a special night of KLMR and SYNTH Collide on Saturday, May 19, at 10pm if you would rather check him out on a weekend. Otherwise, look for the next Thursday night announcement on Facebook. Free admission.

Party: Eighties Mayhem

The Scene: Straight-edge cool dude Steve EP brings his mega party to mainstage at the Black Cat (1811 14th NW) every six months or so. Joined by his partners in crime at FYM Productions, Steve EP is well known for such big affairs like the Depeche Mode Dance Party and Cryfest, a night of The Cure versus The Smiths. For Eighties Mayhem, Steve EP, DJ Missguided, Killa K, and Krasty McNasty aren’t afraid to throw in everything *plus* the kitchen sink in a big pot of punk, post-punk, new wave, new romantic, hi-NRG, rock, hair metal, and ska. The overall atmosphere receives a boost from Steve EP’s taste in video game aesthetics from the Atari era, which usually result in some impressive decorative stage pieces.

Drawbacks: The Black Cat is perhaps the most awesome place on Planet Earth, but they let underage kids in to dance, which makes old men like me feel even older, particularly when those kids have no idea what they are listening to.

A personal favorite song I’m likely to hear: “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure

Your next chance to go: Friday, May 25, at 9:30pm. Buy a ticket in advance because it will sell out on a Memorial Day weekend! $10 admission.

Party: Right Round

The Scene: Let me be clear: If you like a DJ who honestly mixes and beat matches like no one else, then you have no better option than DJ lil’ e, who has been running Right Round monthly for 11 years now at the Black Cat (1811 14th NW). Lil’ e is the real deal, and she’s a genuine pleasure to watch as she frenetically mixes and matches and dances to her own beat. And her beat is likely to be your beat at the monthly backstage sweatbox named after the popular song by Dead or Alive with such other groups as A-ha, The Go-Go’s, The Cars, When In Rome, Animotion, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gary Numan, Billy Idol, and more more more!

Drawbacks: Right Round is more popular than ever, which makes the tiny backstage at the Black Cat waaaaaaaaaaay too crowded to enter between 10:30pm and midnight-thirty some nights IMO unless you really want to appreciate what it feels like to be a sardine. That, and lil’ e likes the song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers much too much.

A personal favorite song I’m likely to hear: “Obsession” by Animotion (or maybe even “Mickey” by Toni Basil — you know I had to go there)

Your next chance to go: Saturday, June 16, at 9:30pm. Right Round typically happens the third or fourth Saturday of every month backstage at the Black Cat. It sometimes falls on Fridays as well. (It already happened oddly early this month on Friday, May 11.) And twice a year, it goes big upstairs on the mainstage for its anniversary party and a prom-themed event. $7 admission ($10 when on mainstage).

At long last, it’s Friday! Maybe you deserve a treat. To my fellow colonials (lookin’ at you, GWU), you’re all graduating so you deeefinitely deserve a treat. Go get yourself one from a food truck and throw that cap in the air!

This is another in a series of articles about homebrewing in the DC area by Carl Weaver of RealHomebrew.com. Want to learn about making your own beer? Keep an eye out for Friday homebrew features.

I wrote about cream ale before. It is a good beer for the coming summer, light and refreshing, not too bitter, and easy-drinking – a perfect companion to while away the time with as you enjoy the evening whir of insects or traffic, whichever is more pervasive in your neighborhood.

The American Homebrewers Association recently had what they call $12 Cream Ale as a homebrew recipe of the week. I just about howled at the moon, I was so excited. $12 for a whole batch of beer? Sign me up! It sounded almost too good to be true. I looked at the recipe, and I am sure it would produce a fine brew, but the only way this is a $12 recipe is if you get half the stuff for free. The grain alone, 11 pounds of it, will cost nearly $2 per pound at Northern Brewer. Even if you buy a giant sack of it at 50 Pound Sack, it is slightly more than $1 per pound. That’s almost $12 right there.

Maybe if you are buying in bulk at wholesale prices, you can get down to almost $12. I priced it at my local-ish homebrew store (yes, they ship too, and have great prices, as does Derek at My Local Homebrew Shop) and it is a little more than $30 before tax. Northern Brewer could get me everything for more than $40. Even if I malted my own regular supermarket barley, that is $1 per pound at the cheapest. No way this whole brew is $12.

In short, unless you rob someone, I have no idea how you can make this homebrew recipe for $12. All the same, it looks like a good recipe. Nothing complicated, just good, honest beer. I bet it tastes great. It won an award, so I am guessing the judges know what they are talking about. Honestly, I can’t wait to try this.

Here is the recipe, copied from the AHA website. Do you know how to make this for the amount in the title? Please share the secret if you do.

11.0 lb (4.99 kg) Briess two-row malt
0.75 oz (21 g) Willamette pellet hops, 4.7% a.a. (60 min)
0.5 oz (14 g) Willamette pellet hops, 4.7% a.a. (30 min)
0.25 oz (7 g) Willamette pellet hops, 4.7% a.a. (0 min)
White Labs WLP051 California Ale V yeast
2.6 volumes forced CO₂ to carbonate

Directions
Mash grains at 154° F (68° C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 168° F (76° C) for 10 minutes.

I recommend a 60-minute boil, following the hop schedule. If you are not force-carbonating the brew, use about 5 ounces of priming sugar at bottling time.

As my friend Reggie would say, “Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” I am not sure exactly what that refers to, but this is not a complicated recipe. Sometimes the simple ones produce the best results, though. Let me know what you think when you try this.

This post first appeared at RealHomebrew.com.

Andrew McCutchen had Jordan Zimmermann’s number tonight, clubbing a pair of monster home runs off the Nationals’ #3 starter in tonight’s 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. McCutchen would also flash the leather in the field, stealing at least a double from Adam LaRoche eight feet up the center field wall in the fifth inning, preserving a coalescing no-hitter for Pirates’ starter James McDonald. 

McDonald was fairly stellar for the evening as well, sending 11 Nationals down on strikes in 5 and 2/3 innings. He had a perfect game going through four before walking Bryce Harper in the fifth, and then losing his no-hit bid in the sixth.  The Nationals would stage a rally in the sixth that would knock McDonald out after four hits scored three runs. 

Twice more the Nationals would attempt to rally, each time putting multiple men aboard with 1 out, and in both cases the Nationals couldn’t get the base hits they needed to push over the top. With a 7-0 Atlanta victory over Miami, the Nationals fell to second place in the NL East, a half game behind the Braves.

The team struggled at the plate tonight, and James McDonald’s off-speed mix of pitches were absolutely devastating to the nominally hot offense, often freezing them with the fastball when they were expecting the breaking stuff, and vice versa.

The Nats now take on the also-hot Orioles in the first Battle of the Beltways that will live up to the name. Saturday’s game is “Script Cap” night, with the first 30,000 fans receiving a Script Nationals logo, and Sunday nets kids 12 & under a cool t-shirt if they come in through the center field gate.

The RAMMY Awards are an annual celebration of members of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (thus the clever name) – and the gala is one of the biggest food-industry parties of the year in DC. If that event, coming up on June 24, sounds like something you would want to peek inside, the RAMW is offering a fun way to get involved and maybe win some tickets: Drinking at the establishments nominated in the “beverage/mixology program” category.

At each of the five restaurants, a signature cocktail has been created. When diners order one of them, they will be entered to win a pair of tickets. Just ask for the RAMMY card to fill out when you place your order.

The five nominees are BourbonSteak, ChurchKey (on behalf of Neighborhood Restaurant Group), Estadio, Virtue Feed & Grain (on behalf of EatGoodFood Group), and Room 11.

Having sampled four of the five drinks at a press kick-off to the promotion, Room 11′s Chaos Theory and Estadio’s Día de Descanso were my strong favorites among the drinks (though, it is important to note, the RAMMY award is for complete bar programs and they are not being judged on these drinks alone).

R. Ring, photo by Jason Coile

We Love DC guest writer Jonathan Druy attended the R. Ring show at DC9 Tuesday night. Read his thoughts on it below! 

Tuesday night started with a fairly sparse DC9 room, but the evening opened with a sharp acoustic/punk set by Marc Ganancias, and then a soulfully beautiful set by Mean Season, who know how to intertwine chick vocals and guitar into a lean indie-rock gift. When Kelley Deal’s new project R.Ring took the stage, the room began to swell with fans of the Breeders guitarist, who got to see a warm set, highlighted by Deal’s sweet vocals and Mike Montgomery’s amplified acoustic interactions, as well as some really funny between-song convos.

 Kelley Deal uses that voice, imprinted on those of us who came of age when the Breeders reigned the alternawaves, as one of the band’s electric instruments, cranking up the reverb, or singing through an effects pedal. It provides a nice touch, so songs like “Fall Out and Fire” and “Hundred Dollar Heat”, which Deal sings from the floor, draw in the audience, resulting in an echo-embellished electric/acoustic lullaby. Deal accompanied Montgomery on guitar for a few numbers, and the electrics came out for their closer, a cover of Shellac’s “Ghost”, on which Montgomery also shared vocals.

 The DC9 crowd grew over the course of the set, so by the end there was no shortage of fans chatting with Deal after the show. Here’s hoping the rest of her tour generates as much goodwill as Tuesday night.

courtesy JCM - joannacastlemiller.com

If you happened to visit the Czech Republic last Saturday during the EU Open House, you may have seen a few cases with books and other odd items inside, unmarked and unexplained. Those actually belong to an art show called Samizdat: The Czech Art of Resistance 1968-1989, which opened on Tuesday at the Embassy of the Czech Republic

Samizdat means “self-published.” A Russian term, it refers to any underground publication banned during Communist rule in the USSR and Soviet bloc. It includes essays, books, art, and poems. From Sex Pistols lyrics to indie rock, it was all illegal.

The exhibit is part of a broader project at the embassy called Freedom of Expression in the Contemporary World that focuses on the fight for democracy and freedom in modern-day Burma, Belarus, and Cuba.

I recently reviewed the show and encourage anyone interested in art, activism, or Eastern Europe to check it out. Visits are by appointment only, but the staff is extremely friendly and will provide you with a guide to the exhibit if you ask.

Samizdat: The Czech Art of Resistance 1968-1989 runs through June 8 at the Embassy of the Czech Republic. Address: 3900 Spring of Freedom Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008. Nearest Metro: Cleveland Park and Van Ness (both Red). Open Monday-Thursday 10 am-4pm and Friday (10 am to 2 pm). Call 202/274-9105 to schedule an appointment and ask for the exhibit guide.

If you needed more evidence that the rain has stopped and people have bolted out into the sunshine you could base it on the dearth of weekends entries our authors have submitted. (I’m not counting the fat-fingered “M OUT IN SUN & NOT COMIN BACK SUCKER THERE’S UR WEEKEND ENTRY LOL” smartphone-submitted messages as entries.) Some of us are stuck in the office, though, and have penned these expansive wishes for the sweet release of death Friday.

Sangria
courtesy of ampenagos

JCM: My parents and in-laws are in town this weekend, which means an obligatory trip to Shelly’s for whiskey and cigars. My husband and I are also throwing a belated Mother’s Day cookout for them, which will probably lead to shopping the Arlington Farmers’ Market at Courthouse and making sangria (recipes ideas welcome). It’ll be fun, but I have to admit, even though I’m getting too old for this #%$^, I’m envious of the folks partying at the Spanish Embassy on Saturday night. On Sunday I’ll bike over to join the fam at Eastern Market for some coffee and a stroll before the goodbyes start. And for some late weekend fun we’ll be seeing The Servant of Two Masters at STC.

Bloomingdale
courtesy of Pappa91

Tom: I feel like I’m being pulled in about twenty million directions this weekend. The Orioles are down from Baltimore for the Battle of the Beltways that starts on Friday night and runs through the weekend; Baltimore Rock Opera Society‘s Valhella is playing at the Autograph and is begging for me to headband; it’s a Strawberry weekend at our CSA farm, Great Country Farms in Bluemont; I’m desperately behind on my cycling goal with a week to go, and a long ride down to Mount Vernon or National Harbor sounds like a great idea; the choices are starting to get pretty overwhelming, frankly. I also need to hit the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market to get my garden act in high gear. Whew. Fortunately the weather looks awesome.

Baltimore Orioles Steal Second Base contest
courtesy of Keith Allison

Rachel: Friday’s a day I’ve been waiting for — it’s BAND PRACTICE DAY! My excitement for this day draws mostly from the fact that it’s band practice for my DC9 debut on Saturday May 26 with Filligar (featuring DC’s own The Grey Area). This is Filligar’s last tour stop before heading out on the road with the Counting Crows in June (they’ll be at Wolf Trap on June 20, FYI), so it’s going to be a helluva rock show. Saturday I’m off to Nationals Park to catch part of the Battle of the Beltways series. Then I’ve got a double header with the Glover Park Co-Ed Softball League on Sunday. All in all, it’s the makings for a good weekend I think.

Fountain of Light
courtesy of Michael T. Ruhl

Don: We’ve got some company in from out of town on Saturday so Friday night is the flurry of cleaning and organizing designed to convince our friends we don’t live in disorganized squalor. Saturday means outings with them, though, so sky’s the limit. But they have kids so let’s stop kidding ourselves: it’ll be the zoo. Sunday is liver punishment day, both because we’ll have spent a day in close proximity to small children and because it’s Kate’s birthday festivities. After that I’m off to wild and not-Woolly Shirlington (see what I did there?) for press night at Signature’s Xanadu. I’m torn between ironic amusement and wide-eyed Gen-Xer glee to see this adaptation of the movie musical I adored at age 10.