Teka Thomas
@ Tattoo
Q:How do you keep your life clean?
A:"Low alcohol intake. I never smoke and I've never done drugs."
IT'S BEEN 24 HOURS since Remy Munasifi uploaded his latest video on YouTube. And if you've got a Twitter feed or a Facebook page or a Gmail account, you've probably already seen it: It's a rap lauding the 28-year-old's Starbucks-laden, Whole Foods-hoppin' 'hood: Arlington, Virginia.
"Arlington: The Rap," which sings the praises of Crate & Barrel and notes the ubiquity of brown flip-flops, has jumped from 300 to 30,000 YouTube views in less than a day. We caught up with Munasifi to quiz him on his, uh, Clarendon street cred.
» EXPRESS: What makes Arlington so hardcore?
» MUNASIFI: It's populated by straight-up thugs. Really, seersucker is a fabric, but it's really a fabric that holds the town together. I was on the Metro and I saw a guy with brown flip-flops and seersucker shorts and I said, 'Yes! This is a video that needs to be made.'
It's a unique place — that's why I moved here. I like it a lot. There are a lot of individuals, unique personalities, creative people. It's kinda artsy. Everybody's real nice, too. It's not something that happens completely up and down the East Coast.
» EXPRESS: The video has gotten a lot of traffic in just 24 hours. Has response been crazy?
» MUNASIFI: That's cool. Now I'm just worried that folks are going to get sick of it; it's only been a day. I'm just happy that folks liked it. I put other videos out there — about something general. But this [song] was about a two-mile radius, so I didn't think it was really going to do [well].
» EXPRESS: Where did the idea come from?
» MUNASIFI: I live in Clarendon now, just a couple blocks from the Metro. I just moved here a few weeks ago and I thought that would be kinda cool to introduce everybody to my new 'hood. I really like Clarendon; I didn't land here by accident. It was like a celebration. I got a couple e-mails yesterday that folks liked it, and I was content with that. So far today it's been more of the same.
NOW THAT THE decade has been deemed nostalgia, '80s film festivals are catching on. AFI has one coming later this summer, but in the meantime, enjoy the I (Heart) the '80s Rosslyn Outdoor Film Festival every Friday at dusk through Labor Day. (Leg warmers not required, unless there's a cold snap.)
This is a public space, so expect teen comedies such as "Meatballs" (Aug. 28) and blockbusters like "Footloose" (June 26).
Aside from their popcorn value (it's BYOP), it's possible to enjoy these films as cultural touchstones, particularly now that the John Hughes/Gen-X crowd is approaching middle age. Instead of goodbye, "Big Chill," hello, "Breakfast Club" (June 12) it's goodbye, "Sixteen Candles" (May 22), hello, "Superbad."
Continue Reading "A Time to Remember: '80s Outdoor Film Fest" »
FRIDAY: It's summer, which always makes people want to go outside and play. We've got you covered with an outdoor return to childhood that won't make you sore the next day. Rosslyn's Gateway Park is showing some of the 1980s' best movies (and we're not talking about "Sophie's Choice" here) every Friday night all summer.
This week, you can watch Keanu Reeves before he was a star — well, before he was Neo — in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." If you've seen it, you know why it's awesome. If you've never had the chance, we won't waste your time discussing plot details. Just go see it, mind unfettered, and take in the brilliance of two young men and their never-ending excellence. Bonus: the late, great George Carlin is in it too.
» Gateway Park, 1300 Lee Hwy., Arlington; Fri., May 8, dusk, free; 703-247-9290. (Rosslyn)
Photo courtesy MGM
THIS WEEK: What happens when women in a patriarchal society realize the power they actually hold? Well, according to Aristophanes, they fix everything.
"Lysistrata" is the classic drama about Athenian women who withhold sex from their husbands until the men agree to end their perennial war against nearby Sparta.
Some of the performances will take place at Georgetown University, so check the schedule before you buy tickets.
Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre, 1611 N. Kent St., Arlington; through April 26, $15-$40; 800-494-8497. (Rosslyn)
Photo courtesy Toby Clark
SYNETIC THEATER'S UNUSUAL theater-dance adaptations move with more fire than most traditional plays involving talking heads. For that, we have to thank the acting-directing, husband-wife team of Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, who turn works of literature, myth and theater into sinuous, emotionally fervid visual spectacles, less about the lines and language than the bodies' expressiveness.
That approach works just fine for Dante Allighieri, whose "Divine Comedy" is a magnificent read but unadaptable to the sedulous. Instead, this production presents Hell as a writhing mass of figures that would not look unfamiliar to Heironymous Bosch, while the muscular script explains the underworld's levels, crimes and punishments.
Ben Cunis plays Dante, who is mourning the death of his beloved Beatrice as he's ushered through the demonic circles by Virgil, your cruise director (Greg Marzullo). Witnessing the torments of hell spark musings on justice and divine will in the poet, as well as admiration in the audience for the impressive feats of strength and contortion manifested by Synetic's crew of dancer-actors. They play not just the damned but also the punishments, becoming props (a naked human "tree") and tormentors (giant spiders!).
Continue Reading "Dance to 'Divine Comedy': Synetic Theater Adapts" »
THIS WEEK: Synetic Theater just loves the classics. OK, it loves to re-invent the classics, and it loves ambitious projects, and Dante's "Divine Comedy" is both a classic and perhaps the most ambitious literary work thus attempted by man. Sorry, David Foster Wallace.
Dante's wordy tale of his trip through hell and heaven places him squarely in the pantheon of humanity's great poets, so it might not seem a perfect fit for the intensely physical Synetic. But the "Comedy" is filled with incredible imagery (if you haven't read it, try the new translation by Robert and Jean Hollander) and no other D.C. company would be able to do Dante's imagination justice.
»Rosslyn Spectrum, 1611 N. Kent St., Arlington; through March 22, $15-$40; 703-824-8060. (Rosslyn)
Photo by Leah L. Jones/The Washington Post
AS THE BALL DROPS in Times Square, there are three facts you can count on: Ryan Seacrest is wearing too much makeup, a lot of the people in Times Square are screaming because they need to pee and, try as you might, there's a millisecond when you believe how you've spent the evening foreshadows what the next 365 days will bring. Never fear, dears: D.C.-area restaurants will help you fight this gut instinct by serving spectacular New Year's Eve menus. If anything, expect 2009 to be very — urp! — full.
Less Meat, More Fete
Holy (un)cow! Logan Circle's Vegetate serves its New Year's menu a la carte (6:30 to 7 p.m. seatings) and offers up the whole four-course shebang — including roasted beet carpaccio as well as sweet potato and wild mushroom ravioli — at later seatings (9:30 to 10 p.m., $50) as a DJ spins rare grooves and funk.
» 1414 9th St. NW; 202-232-4585. (Mount Vernon Square)
A Grape Night
Taberna del Alabardero's five-course Spanish meal (9 to 10:30 p.m. seatings, $98) is succulent enough with its foie gras terrine and roasted suckling pig, but what seals the deal is the restaurant's New Year's grape ceremony. Guests receive 12 grapes to pop one per each second for the last 12 of 2008. It brings good luck— and hilarity.
» 1776 I St. NW; 202-429-2200. (Farragut West)
Speaking of Good Fortune …
Up your karmic ante by dining at Oya — its street address is a fortuitous 777, after all. And if you're still concerned about, uh, getting lucky, Sex sparkling wine will be available for purchase by the glass or bottle. Of course, there are three-course (5 to 8 p.m., $28) and five-course seatings (8:30 to 10 p.m., $95) with the likes of tuna tempura rolls and grilled beef potato pot stickers.
» 777 9th St. NW; 202-393-1400. (Gallery Place-Chinatown)
Continue Reading "Ring in the New Year: D.C. Restaurant Deals" »
THE EXQUISITE ROOT BEER FLOAT might just be the Michelangelo's David among sweets: a mountain of creamy froth billowing out of a frosted mug atop slowly fizzing dark soda. It's dessert porn.
But let's revisit our casting: What if, alongside your float, you could get a triple-decker Angus beef burger and a choice of Old Bay fries or onion rings? At a swanky restaurant. For only $6. Could it be the Jenna Jameson of meal deals?
The Key Bridge Marriott in Rosslyn is offering just that in its Mighty Mo Monday Combo every Monday at the upscale Revival Restaurant -- part of a celebration of the hotel's 50th anniversary.
The deal, on offer through Dec. 31, comes with a tasty splash of nostalgia, too -- it pays homage to Marriott's former Hot Shoppe restaurants, fountain shops known for their cheap eats.
AU BON PAIN? POTBELLY? Subway? D.C.'s lunch options are sounding tired. But there's a new kid in town. Organic to Go, opening in the spots of lunchtime standby High Noon, is spreading the anti-pesticides gospel.
Between the soups, sandwiches and salad bar, Organic to Go looks like any other Golden Triangle cafeteria, but through its commitment to avoiding trans fats, partnering with family farms and using hybrid delivery vehicles, this "fast-casual café" operates on a different model. The menu has its quirks as well, with salad-bar options of curry chicken salad, Italian-dressing-spiked quinoa and wild salmon chunks.
Breakfast is served all day, featuring the naughty bacon, egg and salsa burrito to the nice spinach and egg white sandwich. For the true to-go crowd, international pre-made options abound: Thai-style veggie wrap, Greek orzo pasta and Mediterranean salad. The coffee is organic and free-trade certified. And environmentally speaking, the drink cups, containers and bags are made from corn and are biodegradable, sustainable and compostable.
If you can make full use of your lunch hour, there are seats outside while the weather is still accommodating, as well as couches and tables in the mock living room.
With locations in California and Washington State, Organic to Go looked to D.C. as its shining city upon a hill on this side of the country.
Michael Johnson, vice president of regional development, explains D.C.'s attractiveness: "The density and demographics are ideal: D.C. is a highly educated population who cares a lot about responsible, organic eating [and its] transient population from all over the world, [is] are more likely to embrace new concepts." (Feel free to interpret that marketing talk as, "Downtown workers have demonstrated a willingness to pay $8 for a sandwich.")
The organic paradigm can include additional tenets regarding sustainability. But fitting that philosophy into a bicoastal, multi-store front company can be a challenge. Organic to Go is "in the process of reaching out locally," explains Johnson, "specifically around produce. ... With local co-ops. I would love to say that we could get as focused as becoming completely seasonal and local, but the reality is that our customers are not there yet. They will still want tomatoes in the winter."
Johnson believes that in the spring and summer, more items will "help tell the story of organic and sustainability while putting some awesome farm fresh products out there."
» Organic to Go, 1311 F St. NW (Metro Center); 927 15th St. NW (McPherson Square); 1100 Wilson Blvd, Arlington; 800-304-4550, (Rosslyn)
Written by Stefanie Gans for Express
Photo by Freddie Lieberman for Express
SYNETIC THEATER is unique in Washington — or, indeed, anywhere. Its willingness to reinvent the classics through an amalgam of dance and theater is unmatched, and they've been very successful with stories everyone knows, like "Hamlet" and "Frankenstein."
But the best (and first) Synetic show I ever saw was "Host and Guest," a retelling of a Georgian legend about war, humanity, and the importance of hospitality to strangers. And it's back! Man, are you lucky they're revived it. Otherwise this just would have been me going on and on about this great show that was over and that you'd never have a chance to experience, but now everything's gonna be fine.
»Rosslyn Spectrum, 1611 N. Kent St., Arlington; 8 p.m. Thurs-Sat., 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 9, $15-$40; 703-824-8060. (Rosslyn)
Photo by Raymond Gniewek
Addison Road