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ONGOING: WOOOOO OLYMPICS! Wait ... they're over? Oh well.
Check out "Go for Gold!," a photo exhibition at Civilian Art Projects in which artist Gesche Wurfel chronicles the transformation of London as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics. Ahem. U.S.A.! U.S.A! Sorry. Habit.
» Civilian Art Projects, 1019 7th St. NW; through March 20, free; 202-607-3804. (Mount Vernon Square)
MONDAY: The Passenger's usual Monday happy hour will benefit FreshFarm Markets, a non-profit that sets up local farmer's markets, tonight.
Since you haven't actually made it to a farmer's market since it got really cold, you can assuage your buy-local guilt with $5 beer, wine and punch — 10 percent of it goes to FreshFarm.
» The Passenger, 1021 7th St. NW; Mon., Feb. 8, 5 p.m.-8p.m., free; 202-393-0220. (Mt. Vernon Square)
Photo by Bonnie Benwick/The Washington Post
ONGOING: Don't you wish you could take all the movies that shaped your childhood — "Back to the Future," "The Sound of Music," whatever — and turn them into edifying works of art? That's what artist George Jenne has done with "Don't Look Now," a clever, self-aware take on the cultural touchstones that shaped his life.
» Civilian Art Projects, 1019 7th St. NW; through Feb. 13, free; 202-607-3804. (Mount Vernon Square)
Photo courtesy the artist
THIS WEEKEND: Motorcycle manufacturers show off their bikes at the International Motorcycle Show, which starts Friday. Whether you're in the market to buy or just to drool over all the shiny metal toys, this is the place to see more motorcycles than you've ever seen in your life, not counting that day at the truck stop in Amish Country when the Hells Angels met the Buggy Whips on a field of battle.
» Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place; Fri.-Sun., Jan. 15-17, all day, $12-$30; 800-331-5706. (Mt. Vernon Square)
Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post
THURSDAY: Based on its divey ambiance, we'd say the Passenger's NYE party would be low-key and neighborhoodish, but honestly, the joint is hot. It'll probably be packed — people will almost certainly try to use the little floor for dancing — and we've been promised a fire-breathing bartender.
Does anything about this not sound awesome?
» The Passenger, 1021 7th St. NW; Thu., Dec. 31, 9 p.m., $15 cover; 202-393-0220. (Mt. Vernon Square)
WHEN GRANDMA SAID to take lemons and make lemonade, she probably didn't have synsepalum dulcificum fruit in mind.
But that's what the little berries, often known as "miracle fruit" do. One places a berry on the tongue and lets it disintegrate, so the glycoprotein inside coats the taste buds, and presto — for an hour or so, bitter fare tastes sweet.
Eliot Blume said he held tasting parties with the berries in college, and he's taken that tradition to the EFN Lounge. From 7 to 9 p.m. on the second Friday of every month, starting Dec. 11, EFN plans on hosting "Flavor Tripping" parties, where $12 will buy a berry and access to a buffet.
The berries are imported from West Africa, so Blume said EFN is using an online reservation system, although it will take a limited number of $15 admissions at the door.
DAVID HENRY STERRY describes that period in his life — back when he was a 17-year-old living in Hollywood and studying existentialism at Immaculate Heart College in Hollywood — as the time when he was "an industrial sex technician." And it's that experience — during which Sterry was paid to work mostly with women, but also to verbally and physically humiliate men — that inspired him, years later, to put together and edit his latest book, "Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent Boys: Professionals Writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex."
"This anthology, as it is, could only have happened because I used to be in the Life," Sterry said in an e-mail. "These are voices it would be virtually impossible to get if you were not ... someone who had been in the business. But I was determined to show America the human face of all the people in the sex business, to get people to understand that we are sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandmothers, dads and moms. ... And if I hadn't first done this myself, struggled for years to try to tell my story, then finally to come out of the sex-worker closet, I wouldn't have been able to help other people do it."
The collection, which has been praised by The New York Times Book Review ("brutally honest and frequently funny"), Publishers Weekly ("heavy with raw emotions") and the New York Press ("it's not just about sex"), runs the gamut from taking pride in the profession ("40 Reasons Why Whores Are My Heroes") to describing its horrifying moments ("Helping Daddy Pay the Rent").
There are pieces both from anonymous writers — with titles like "Boys Shouldn't Kiss Their Father on the Lips" and "Co-Co County Boy" — and established personalities, like porn star and educator Nina Hartley, who proclaims in her entry, "Playing in the Sandbox," that she "became a sex worker for narcissism, altruism, for voyeurism, for exhibitionism, and as a long-term field study." If "Boogie Nights" made you cover your eyes, then you should probably pass the book to a stronger-stomached friend.
But for Sterry, "Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys" is about more than just the ins-and-outs of the sex industry: It's a chance for the men and women involved to tell their stories.
Sterry — who has written a number of other books, such as "Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent" and "Unzipped: A True Story of Sex, Drugs, Rollerskates and Murder" — spoke with Express about his idea for the collection, America's most commonly held misconceptions about the sex industry and whether the book should go in the "entertainment" or the "educational" portion of your bookcase.
BEING DRIVEN UP THE WALL by work is no good, but driving yourself up the wall for a workout can have some real fitness benefits. That's what Sean Hannah, a trainer at the Sports Club/LA (1170 22nd St. NW; 202-974-6600; Mpsportsclub.com), learned after discovering parkour, a sport that looks like a chase sequence from an action movie.
The idea is to run in a straight line, overcoming any obstacles in your way by scaling, vaulting and leaping (and it already has a following in D.C., thanks to Primal Fitness in Mount Vernon Square, the first parkour-based gym in the world).
Acting like a stunt man might not sound like something for everyone. After all, as Hannah says, "Most people will never have to jump off a building." But working these skills at a basic level can still help you better navigate wherever you're going in life, which is why he's offering a parkour workshop at the club Thursday night (6 p.m.-7:30 p.m., contact Sean to register).
Continue Reading "Over-the-Top Exercise: Parkour Teaches You to Climb and Leap While On the Run" »
THE "PAPER SHROUD" of a patchwork girl has finally trod into town in platform heels. She is Hedwig, the handmade creation of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, from their groundbreaking musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," about a "slip of a girlyboy" from East Berlin who grew up to become an "internationally ignored song stylist" and, thanks to a botched sex-change operation, someone of unclassifiable gender. We spoke with the show's director and star, Joshua Morgan and Chris French, respectively.
» FRENCH: It's an epic story and it takes a lot of work to tell it.
» MORGAN: In order to do a good job as an actor, a writer, a director, this piece has to have a context, a reason to be done. We have every reason to do this show right now. When I talk about what "Hedwig" is, audiences are not turned off, but they tend to be a little wary. And they realize that it has nothing to do with what the show's about, but it has everything to do with who we are, how we decorate ourselves with B.S. and consumerism, with the need to impress. It's about fighting impulses, the things that hold us back every single day.
Continue Reading "Free To Be He and She: 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch'" »
OVER THE PAST couple years, in-the-know foodies have burrowed into underground dining at secret restaurants in New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
In Washington, though, it's drinking on the DL that's catching on. Since Todd Thrasher began shaking and stirring at the speakeasy-style Alexandria lounge PX in 2006, a wave of underground watering holes has surfaced. These bars are featured everywhere from local food blogs to the New York Times, and while some establishments are grateful for the attention, others have a more complicated relationship with the press. On one hand, mixologists want to share their craft with as many people as possible; but, they also want to encourage quality over quantity.
Continue Reading "Undercover Cocktails: DC's New Speakeasies" »
Addison Road