IF YOU'RE AN OYSTER-ORDERING NOVICE, flipping open a menu stocked with Blue Points, Wiannos, Kumamotos and an array of other confusing varieties can make you wish for a shell of your own to snap shut.
We're now in the thick of oyster season (they're edible all year but at their best when the water's cold, during months that have an "r" in them) but choosing a type can be as intimidating as ordering that first glass of wine.
The first step to picking the right one? Relax.
"In my opinion, they're all good," said Mallory Buford, executive chef at Kinkead's Restaurant in Foggy Bottom.
Buford said there's really only one key difference that diners have to keep in mind when ordering oysters: East Coast versus West Coast.
WITH HER FIRST major project, "The Hijabi Monologues," writer and performer Sahar Ullah has created a space in which Muslim women can share their lived experiences. She invites others into that space on Sunday at the Kennedy Center, where she'll perform the work and lead a post-performance discussion.
The South Florida native says such a forum is needed to help a post-9/11 American public see the humanity behind the hijab, or headscarf, worn by many U.S. Muslim women.
An episodic play styled after Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," "The Hijabi Monologues" uses 12 true-to-life stories.
"The project's purpose is to humanize one of the most viably noticeable minorities in America — women who wear the hijab," said Ullah.
LEIF OVE ANDSNES WAS winning piano competitions at an age when most of us were competing only in the confines of the school gym. The Grammy Award-nominated Norwegian classical pianist is no less ambitious now that he's 39. His latest project is a multi-media stage rendering of Modest Mussorgsky's notoriously difficult suite "Pictures at an Exhibition." For the production, titled "Pictures Reframed," Andsnes has partnered with South African visual artist Robin Rhode, who created a series of films to go along with Andsnes' live performances. "Pictures Reframed" premiered at New York's Lincoln Center last week and stops in D.C. on Friday.
» EXPRESS: How did the idea of a collaborative series of concerts come about?
» ANDSNES: I've had a wish for years to try to do a different kind of concert — and it was also partly inspired by the Lincoln Center having a program combining different art disciplines. They had talked with me for years about the possibility of doing something like this. I was playing Mussorgsky's piece a few years ago and I thought maybe this is something we could bring to visual art somehow. Then I met Robin three years ago and we decided to do this together.
Continue Reading "Old-Fashioned Modernity: Leif Ove Andsnes" »
THIS WEEKEND: We're tired of writing about Joshua Bell. He's a devastatingly handsome virtuoso violinist. Where's the drama in that? Doesn't he know that all truly great musicians are supposed to live in the basements of opera houses playing giant organs in subterranean lakes and kidnapping chorus girls?
Nonetheless, while it may be tiresome to write about perfection, it's certainly not tiresome to see it in action. So go see Joshua Bell! He's playing the Kennedy Center this weekend with the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Hugo Wolff.
» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; Thu., Nov. 19, 7 p.m., Sat., Nov. 21, 8 p.m., Sun., Nov. 22, 1:30 p.m., $20-$85; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom)
Photo by Timothy White
SATURDAY: Acclaimed operatic soprano Kiri Te Kanawa hits new heights at the Kennedy Center on Saturday. She'll perform arias and art songs by the likes of Handel, Vivaldi, Liszt, Debussy, Puccini and others with Brian Zeger on piano.
» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW, Sat., Nov. 14, 7 p.m., $35-$110; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom)
Photo courtesy of the Vancouver Recital
BROKEN LIZARD'S MOVIES work because they're rowdy, vulgar and instantly quotable. With modest big-screen success, "Super Troopers" and "Beerfest" have gone on to live cult-like lives on DVD. Its members — Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske — met at Colgate University in 1990, where the group formed.
During the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, the troupe revisited its indie roots, shooting "The Slammin' Salmon" (out Dec. 11) on its own. In it, the five work at a restaurant owned by a head-case former boxer (played masterfully by Michael Clarke Duncan).
On Thursday night, Broken Lizard returns to the stage with a performance at the Lisner Auditorium. We talked to all five members in a six-way phone interview.
» EXPRESS: Where did the idea for "The Slammin' Salmon" come from?
» HEFFERNAN: A couple of the guys — Jay, Steve and Erik — waited tables together in New York City on the Upper East Side. I think from there they started collecting funny stories while waiting on tables. … We ended up putting together this plot basically because we were writing "Beerfest" at the time and we wanted to put together an idea for a lower-budget alternative movie.
TUESDAY: To many people, the massively popular Kailash Kher and Kailasa make world music. But to millions of Indians, the Sufi-informed combination of Kher's soaring vocals and the techo-tinged sounds of Kailasa (brothers Naresh and Paresh Kamath) is simply modern folk with pop twists. Their first international CD, "Yatra (Nomadic Souls)," is what brings them to the U.S., but you can bet the place will be packed with Indians shouting requests for Kher's numerous Bollywood classics.
After the jump: Listen to all of "Yatra (Nomadic Souls)."
» Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW; Tue., Nov. 10, $25-$45; 800-551-7328. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)
Continue Reading "Sufi-ce to Sing: Kailash Kher and Kailasa" »
THURSDAY: You'd think Al Gore would be sick of Washington by now. Or maybe that Washington might be sick of him.
It appears that neither is true, though, since he'll be speaking at Lisner Auditorium tonight about his new book, "Our Choice," which details what his own press releases describe as his "years of experience as a student, policymaker, author, filmmaker, entrepreneur and activist to comprehensively describe the real solutions to global warming." Maybe he's counting on the District's college students to take up the torch of responsibility for saving the planet. Good luck with that, Mr. Vice President.
» George Washington University Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW; Thu., Nov. 5, 7 p.m., $10; 202-994-6800. (Foggy Bottom)
Written by Express' Anne Polsky
Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images
SUNDAY: Soul sister to Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Tom Ze, Gal Costa is a legend of Brazilian popular music, from bossa nova to psychedelia. Tom Jobim said, "Gal Costa's voice is the most perfect instrument on the planet," and who's going to argue with the "The Girl From Ipanema" guy?
See some Costa clips after the jump.
» Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW; Sun., Nov. 1, $15-$45; 800-551-7328. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)
Photo courtesy Lisner Auditorium
SATURDAY: There are plenty of things Europeans do better than us: soccer, accents, spelling words with too many letters. But they've absolutely bested us in trashy singing competitions.
Sure, "American Idol" is fine, it's even occasionally entertaining, but it's got nothing on the pure spectacle that is Eurovision. Which is why House of Sweden has devoted an entire evening to the Olympics of music (which, by the way, gave us ABBA and Celine Dion).
Take advantage of the appetizers and an open bar that last until 9 p.m. — you'll need them for the karaoke. Might we suggest starting off the night with Ukraine's 2007 submission, "Dancing Lasha Tumbai?"
The evening will also feature a performance by Eurovision artist Anna Sahlene, and DJ K-Tell will be playing Eurovision's greatest hits all night.
The dress code mandates a theme of "Schlager Glitz & Glamour," so make sure to dry-clean your best beaded onesie for the occasion.
» House of Sweden, 2900 K St. NW; Sat., Oct. 24, 7 p.m., $20; 202-333-3168. (Foggy Bottom)
Written by Express' Sarah Mimms
Photo by Alain Douit/EBU
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