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GILBERTO GIL'S MUSIC has transcended government and language barriers. It also got him thrown in jail.
Back in the 1960s, the radical lyrics and new music being pioneered by the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist disturbed the authorities of his country's military dictatorship government so badly that they locked him up. The style Gil was helping to create became known as tropicalismo, an eclectic blend of bossa nova and samba that Gil overlaid with political lyrics.
After jail, Gil avoided worse punishments and hightailed it to England, where he became a peripheral part of the progressive rock scene. His self-titled 1968 album earned high marks in the world music community, and started a career that saw Gil become part of the international jazz scene, releasing 52 albums and winning seven Grammy Awards.
THE PATIENT WAS scheduled to begin radiation treatment for endometrial cancer, but was consistently a no-show. Something was going on, but the doctor didn't know what.
That's when the physician enlisted Chelsea Phelps, 25, a patient navigator with the American Cancer Society and George Washington University Medical Center. Phelps tried a simple fix: She called the woman and asked what was wrong.
The only reason she wasn't coming in," says Phelps, "was because she was terrified." After her initial surgery, the patient "just couldn't bring herself to start this again." Over several phone calls they discussed her concerns and, with Phelps' offer to keep her company in the waiting room, she got the patient to come in — and to keep coming in — for her treatment.
Patient navigators have emerged in recent years as a potential lifeline for people who are thrust into a complex and harried healthcare structure. Combine that with problems such as lack of insurance or education or emotional support, and the mind arrives at a word that navigators seem to use a lot to describe the patient experience: overwhelming.
Continue Reading "To Guide and to Protect: Patient Navigators" »
DREAM-JOURNALING SHOULD come with a warning.
For Freelance Whales founder Judah Dadone, charting his slumbering conscious led to awkward Craigslist encounters — including a 50-year-old man posing as a 23-year-old girl — busking in New York City train stations, the creation of feathery pop music and a record deal. Not the typical route to success, but who's complaining?
The George Washington University, grad brought along his dream logs when he moved to New York to write music.
"I used the dreams as a starting point, this one of walking around in my childhood home" said Dadone. "The biggest theme on the record is this idea of the movement and motion of energy from one body to another."
ONGOING: Clothes make the decade, and "Clothing the Rebellious Soul," an exhibit of hippie garb, makes a case for fringe and peace buttons as the symbols of the 1960s. It's a little disconcerting not being able to tell an art gallery from a Free People catalog, but we'll blame that on derivative fashion designers and not on the Luther Brady Gallery.
» Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, 805 21st St. NW; through Jan. 22, free; 202-994-1525. (Foggy Bottom)
Photo by Ryder Haske
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.
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
FRIDAY: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon has been plastered with just about every laudatory phrase there is. But we're gonna call "copycat" on this one — months after his wife Ayelet Waldman comes out with a book on her life as a parent, Chabon does exactly the same thing. Wonder where he got that idea.
Nonetheless, we're excited to see Chabon's musings on fatherhood — his new book is called "Manhood for Amateurs" — at Lisner on Friday. No hard feelings, Mike. Shakespeare totally stole the plot for "Romeo and Juliet," and look how well that turned out.
» Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW; Fri., Oct. 9, 7 p.m., $7 or get two free tickets when you buy the book; 202-364-1919. (Foggy Bottom)
Photo courtesy Harper Collins
FATHER, HUSBAND, PARTNER, even grown son — it's not easy being a man. That's part of the reason former boy and current beloved author Michael Chabon wrote "Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son."
Chabon — who signs, reads from and discusses the new book at Lisner Auditorium in a Politics & Prose-sponsored event on Friday — is known for his novels, from "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and "The Wonder Boys" to "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" and "The Yiddish Policeman's Union," but he is equally at home with autobiographical fiction, which he's tackled before in short essays. "Manhood for Amateurs" concentrates on one thorny subject, that of how to be a man in the world.
Continue Reading "Notes From a Work in Progress: Michael Chabon" »
AUTHOR APPEARANCES CAN be staid affairs, typically involving a short reading and a Q&A session followed by a long line to get just a few words with the writer. Margaret Atwood is upending that expectation on the tour for her latest novel, which incorporates music and drama into her readings. It's not simply an appearance, but a real literary event.
"Year of the Flood," Atwood explains, lends itself to such treatment. It follows a sect called God's Gardeners, who grow crops on abandoned rooftops, have canonized Al Gore and Rachel Carson, and "are trying to join religion, science and nature back together the way they once were," Atwood explains before adding an ominous qualifier: "The results are somewhat mixed."
SATURDAY: Maybe you've seen "Ratatouille." Y'know, that sweet rat-turned-chef movie that won an Academy Award? No? Well, you must have caught an episode of "Seinfeld," "King of Queens" or "Reno 911" then, right?
Actor and comedian, Patton Oswalt, who's appeared on all those shows and starred as the voice of Remy the rat in Pixar's smash hit, will be at Lisner Auditorium spewing out some not-so-sweet comedy. Apparently this Virginia native is a fan of not-so-family-friendly topics, such as booze, pot and porn — so maybe you should leave the kids at home.
So, get a babysitter if you have to, but just make you go because we hear Oswalt is planning on recording his third comedy album at the Lisner.
» George Washington University, Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW; Sat., Feb. 26, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., $20; 202-397-7328. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)
Written by Express contributor Nicole Ocran
Photo by Matt Carr/Getty Images
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