Teka Thomas
@ Tattoo
Q:How do you keep your life clean?
A:"Low alcohol intake. I never smoke and I've never done drugs."
PETER MURPHY'S GRAVELY resonant voice and gauntly androgynous appearance made him an iconic presence in the influential goth bands Bauhaus and Love & Rockets, earning him the nickname the Godfather of Goth.
In recent years, however, he seemed intent on overturning any expectations raised by his gloomy reputation. While he rarely tours America as a headliner, he has launched the Secret Cover Tour, playing more intimate venues and highlighting material from his upcoming solo album.
In between new songs, he runs through old hits like "Cuts You Up" and the evergreen "Bela Lugosi's Dead," fan favorites like "Marlene Dietrich's Favourite Poem" and "Deep Ocean, Vast Sea."
Continue Reading "Vibrant Godfather of Goth: Peter Murphy" »
TUESDAY: From Celeste Starchild's name, you might be expecting hippie folk, fueled by patchouli and a love of all animals, even the gross ones.
Instead, you'll get an eclectic rock-blues-folk mix backed by a synthesizer. The electronic element is a bit jarring at first, but Starchild's music is intriguing and soulful. You'll get caught up in the rhythms before you catch the lyrics, but those are skillful too.
» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; Tues., June 30, 8:30 p.m., $10; 703-522-8340, Iotaclubandcafe.com. (Clarendon)
Photo by Shelly Ha
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.
THIS WEEKEND: Lucy Bowen McCauley of Bowen McCauley Dance, recently named Arlington community hero for her outreach programs, is back onstage with "Lucy's Playlist." This edgy and entertaining show blends contemporary dance with great rock and pop tracks, and will surely come alive with McCauley's imagination and personality.
» Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington; through Sun., $20-$37, $150 for performance and gala; 703-820-9771.
Written by Express' Catherine Ahearn
Photo courtesy BMD
AN ANTIWAR PLAY about profiteering, staged at a playhouse that sits practically in the Pentagon's shadow, seems like a bold prospect.
But that was kind of the idea, according to Scena Theatre's artistic director, Robert McNamara, who talked about the company's production of Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage and Her Children." "We're in Washington, D.C. We like to think we're the good guys," he said. "Maybe we are, but munitions are sold around the world."
Set during the Thirty Years' War, the play centers on "Mother Courage" (Nancy Robinette), a woman who, with her three children, pulls a cart full of merchandise through war-torn Europe. Even as the war separates and eventually destroys her family, she lives by one principle: Conflict is good for business.
WE STOOD AT the Home Depot paint-mixing counter in an exasperated stalemate, paper samples of "Village Square" and "Toffee Crunch" shades clenched in our fists.
Then she said it. "I ... hate ... you." Her voice was flat and even, as frustration culminated in those three words. Then, to the horror of the salesman helping us, Tracey burst into tears.
Uh-oh. Maybe living with my sister wasn't such an inspired idea.
It was May 2008 and we were two weeks away from moving into the two-bedroom condo we'd bought together in Clarendon. How was I going to survive living with my younger sibling of three and a half years if we couldn't agree on how many gallons of paint we needed for our pad? But the contracts were signed, the mortgage loan ratified — I looked at Tracey and knew there was no turning back.
Of course, if I'd consulted roommate and sibling relationship experts before signing the lease, they would've predicted potential disaster.
"Our relationships with our siblings are very passionate ones," says Dorothy Rowe, a psychologist whose book, "My Dearest Enemy, My Dangerous Friend" ($18, Routledge), focuses on the dynamics of sibling relationships. "We care enormously about what our siblings think of us: their praise, their approval," Rowe says. "At the same time, we're scared of their criticism. If you've grown up together, your sibling knows just what to say to upset you, tease you or really hurt you. It's a very complicated relationship that doesn't get simpler as you get older."
Continue Reading "Roomies? Oh, Brother: Why Some Siblings Are Opting to Live Together" »
HAVE YOU SEEN my stapler? A common question for sure, but said in the helpless, plaintive style of one Milton (Stephen Root) about his red Swingline, it takes on a whole new — and extremely quotable — meaning.
Join fellow followers of the 1999 cult classic "Office Space" and celebrate the mundanity of the cubicle brotherhood at the Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse's Bi-Annual TPS Report Managers Meeting. In addition to raffle prizes, there's a costume contest — and yes, we've seen a guy show up in the Post-it note suit featured on the DVD's cover.
Sure, you've seen this flick more than a dozen times, but it's more fun to watch it with other schmucks who get as giddy about it as you do.
We checked out this event two years ago and saw this added touch of realism: Some guys had smuggled in a printer, and during the film's printer-bashing scene, they whacked away at it in time with the action on the big screen. It was simultaneously creepy and cool.
» Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington; Thu., May 21, 7 p.m., $8; 703-486-2345.
Photo courtesy Fox Home Entertainment
BRITISH FOLK-ROCKER John Wesley Harding has always been known for having too much wit, brains and talent to confine himself to music. That's why he's a best-selling author under his given name, Wesley Stace, and why he and his band, the Minus Five, are teaming up with equally ironic and absurdist comedian Eugene Mirman for Wes & Eugene's Cabinet of Wonders. The traveling variety show features a rotating group of performers and musicians; we're getting a stripped-down version at Iota on Saturday.
» EXPRESS: How did you come to do tours with comedians and such?
» HARDING: Well, we've done it around America, so I know exactly how this works now. Started off, I was in New York and I did these three shows called the Cabinet of Wonders, and the idea was to bring together my writer friends and my music friends, because my writer friends all want to be rock stars, and my music friends want their words listened to. It's a really cool tour because you get to hang out with your friends, but you also get to see what your friends do, and you get to see how each city reflects the show.
» EXPRESS: Speaking of variety, your Web site noted you're a fan of both Henry Purcell and Cat Stevens.
» HARDING: Purcell is kind of a bit of an obsession of mine, and my third novel [coming out this year] is about a composer who writes the first great English opera since "Dido and Aeneas." … Singers like myself — folk singers or pop singers or whatever — there's a real kinship with the baroque because it's based on the same song structures as I use.
As for Cat Stevens, I just think he's — despite some occasionally overly optimistic and rather empty lyrics — I just think he was the great voice of the singer-songwriter movement. Which was a very interesting moment, after Bob Dylan, when people said, "We don't want to reach for the stars like Bob Dylan; we want to write about our lives." A lot of that music was about approaching maturity.
Continue Reading "Brains and Talent: Performer John Wesley Harding" »
MONDAY: Arena Stage's free play-reading series starts off again tonight with "Harlan at the Rockpile," a historical drama about a 19th century explorer, Josiah Harlan, who was the first American in Afghanistan.
Oh, and he wanted to make himself king, in case you were confused about our illustrious foreign policy history in that region.
» Arena Stage at Crystal City, 1800 S. Bell St., Arlington; Mon., May 18, 7 p.m., free but reservations required; 202-488-3300. (Crystal City)
MIKE KOCH HAS ALWAYS had a thing for cheese. (His motto: "The stinkier and moldier, the better.") So, when his neighbors in Garrett County, Md., had some goats left over from a 4-H project (don't ask), he and his partner, Pablo Solanet, begged for a few gallons of milk. With a kit from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company (see info below), they thought they'd try a tasty experiment.
It turned out to be a pretty good one. Less than a decade later, the result is Firefly Farms, an award-winning line of chevres and other cheeses now sold at Whole Foods and farmers markets across the region.
While the duo had some uncommon advantages — such as a farmhouse built in 1856 with a cellar designed for cheese aging — home cheese making doesn't require all that much, explains Ed Hamann, who runs seminars on the topic as the culinary director for Sur La Table in Arlington (next class is Mon. at 6:30 p.m., $69, 1101 S. Joyce St.; 703-414-3580).
Continue Reading "The Secret Life of Cheese: Making Your Own Mozzarella and More" »
Addison Road