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What's cool in DC, and what's coming up

4/29/2015

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A whirl of guests has meant a whirl of activity for your trusty Brit About Town. 

There was of course theatre to enjoy. We went to Man of La Mancha at Sidney Harman Hall. It was good. I wouldn't say it was a masterpiece or anything, but enjoyable stuff. We returned to Sidney Harman Hall a few days later for A View from The Bridge, a filmed version of the show playing in London. It was outstanding and very much a masterpiece. These National Theatre Live events continue to bring some of the best theatre available probably in the world. And then for something different, we went to Story League at the DC Improv, which was most entertaining. 


Activities, you ask? I enjoyed both bowling and bocce at Pinstripes in Georgetown, despite not winning either. Grrr. I went to the Continental in Arlington and played ping pong and skee ball or some such crazy and addictive game. I adored paddleboarding on the Potomac - get down to Key Bridge Boathouse after work by 6:30 for a decadent and glorious end to the day. And I was even persuaded to run around Roosevelt Island - an exercise extravaganza this week! 

What have I been eating? Two superlative brunches. If you want excellent, unlimited food in an impressive assortment, supplemented by people coming past your table with random biscuits, Eggs Benedict, and sushi to supplement your buffet greed, I highly recommend Farmers Fishers Bakers. Probably the best brunch to be found in town. If, on the other hand, you're looking for gracious dining on a pretty patio, with expensive but beautifully prepared Greek-style brunch, check out Iron Gate. Both were delicious. Also on the superlative vibe, Sona was as delicious as ever - their eleven-cheese platter is a thing of beauty and delight. Entirely randomly, someone from another table overheard our delight and bought the cheeseplate for us, anonymously! That has never happened before but it certainly made us very happy. Coco Sala have improved their artichoke tart. And Beau Thai kept up its place in my heart as the best Thai restaurant in town. 


What's coming up


Wed 29th April - Goodbye Architecture Week party. 


Thu 30th April - Even though Architecture Week is over, why not go to the Building Museum and have a Built Environment Drawing Class anyway!


Fri 1st May - Go see author Neil Gaiman at DAR Constitution Hall. 


Sat 2nd May - It's Passport DC Embassies Day... you know you want to. 


Sun 3rd May - Gay Day at the zoo! Or head to the National Geographic for a storytelling show about motherhood called Listen to your Mother!


Mon 4th May - Sonoma is doing a cool-sounding screening of a film about people becoming sommeliers, with wine flights, popcorn, and blind tastings. Fun. 


Tue 5th May - Last Resort Comedy is on at the Bier Baron. 


Wed 6th May - It's Perfect Liars Club! There may still be advance tickets left. If not, come early or late and try your luck!
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What's cool in DC, and what's coming up

4/16/2015

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Hooray for the sun! I feared it may never come, but on Saturday we tossed a frisbee in the park (almost decapitating passers-by), then on Sunday morning, we stepped upon paddleboards at Key Bridge Boathouse and with that, our DC river season began. Paddling gently upstream, with rural scenery in one direction and the Washington Monument in the other is one of the things I love most about living in Washington. Hooray for Paddleboarding Season!


In terms of arts, we ventured to the Clarica Performing Arts Center to see Taylor Mac last weekend and he was unique and charming and wonderful and we all fell a little bit in love with him. I chuckled at Mortified last night, where people read embarrassing exerpts from their teenage diaries. Oh, and I started a ceramics class at CHAW which looks like it's going to be fun and produce multiple hideous items for my lovely wife to hide at the back of the cupboard... 


In terms of food we had really excellent vegetarian Indian food at Tiffin somewhere Takoma Park-ish, near the Clarice. I doubt I'll venture to that particular location again which is a shame as it's probably the best Indian food I've had in DC. Except for the palak chaat at Rasika, of course... It was an excellent week for best-of-DC foods as we also sampled Beau Thai. Not only do I love the Thai restaurant rule of having to have a pun in their names, the food was really delicious. Can't remember a better pad thai! 


And in terms of exercise, well vicarious, I watched my lovely wife run the cherry blossom 10-miler. For once the blossoms were out and it was a really lovely ambience. 


What's coming up in DC for the rest of April


My parents are coming to visit. The heat is on to find the coolest things possible for them to do while they're here on what must be their 6th visit! All suggestions in the comments please. In the meantime, I'll work on filling this in... 


Thu 16th April - It's the first night of Filmfest DC featuring the best in international cinema. 


Wed 22nd April - Watch Battle-capellas - the battle of GWU's acapella groups. It's free!


Thu 23rd April - Architecture Week kicks off tonight with a lego-themed launch party. This sounds potentially fab. 


Sat 25th April - It's World Book Day. Sounds like there will be a festival and fun involving books and roses at Dupont Circle to celebrate. Then pop into Politics and Prose at 6pm to be entertained by the discussions around Selfish, Shallow and Self-absorbed, about people's decisions not to have children. 


Sun 26th April - Get down to DC Improv for a stellar line-up at Story League with their contest for who can tell the funniest story!


Mon 27th April - Go learn the latest about black holes (and enjoy the beautiful lecture hall) at the Carnegie Science Institute. 


Wed 29th April - Head to the Arts Club of Washington for Kramer Books' celebration of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. There's a cash bar.


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Cool things in DC this week

4/8/2015

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We spent the weekend visiting an ex-DC friend who had decamped to West Virginia. Our first significant road trip, and I have to say, I don't really like road trips... however, it was great to see our friend, we went on three beautiful hikes, and we got a vision of what it would be like to live in a small town in the country. Mainly by watching our WV friend doing a dance of relief and delight as she realized we'd brought her the gift of a Thai takeaway from i-Thai in Georgetown, and a Baked and Wired cupcake...

Back in DC we haven't had time to do much. On Thursday we went to the National Geographic to hear two female explorers talk about their kayak expedition in Mongolia, but alas it wasn't one of National Geographic's finest events. On Friday we went up to Silver Spring to see Ninotchka at the AFI and drink cocktails at SideBar. And then on Monday we were perturbed by a nice bar next to Sidney Harman Hall that we'd never noticed before, Denson. I was frankly mortified to admit I'd never heard of it when a friend suggested it, but other than my snobbishness about their pre-mixed cocktails, it has a nice, almost steam punk decor and a cheery ambience. Their cheese was overpriced but also tasty. And I had a very nice glass of wine. Afterwards, we went to the Landmark to see While We're Young, about a 40-something New York couple with no children who try to understand their identity when all their friends have kids. This is being reviewed enthusiastically but I thought it was a bit rubbish. And I was appalled by the dreadful ending. Since my lovely wife has been out of town for the past couple of nights, I find myself pottering on the Netflix in a manner more shameful than blogworthy... and so to the coming week!

Brit About Town picks of the week: particularly cool things to do in DC this week

Thu 9th April - It's the launch night for the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival and also the annual Washington City Paper Best of DC party.

Fri 10th April -
Time for a civilized stroll around the art galleries of Georgetown tonight, on their spring art walk.

Sat 11th April -
One of the best, most innovative, most beautiful and weird and fascinating performances I've seen this year has been Taylor Mac, while I was in New York. He is coming to The Clarice in MD, but not that far away. I'd travel many miles for this. If you are at all interested in seeing an unusual and wonderful performance, get tickets fast. He's on both Saturday and Sunday, which means you could spend Saturday at the Countdown to Yuri's Night at Artisphere. The theme: space pirates. It sounds like quite an extravaganza. 

Sun 12th April -
If you didn't go last night, go see Taylor Mac tonight.

Mon 13th April -
Kramer Books is doing another evening of humorous readings. Beware: you probably need to go early. This is one of the only DC events I've ever attended where I had to leave because it was so full I couldn't hear the speakers! Or if you're in the east, Perfect Liars Club favorite Michelle has promised she'll be stripping out of a straitjacket and eating fire at Clown Cabaret...

Tue 14th April -
It's time for some storytelling fun with SpeakeasyDC. The theme this month: Handling (and mishandling) a crisis...

Wed 15 April - It's our favorite 'read embarrassing exerpts from your teenage diary on stage while we cringe and laugh' time - Mortified is back and it's hilarious!


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Cool things we've been up to in DC - and what's on this week

4/2/2015

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We've been having a very fun time as DC has graced us with a splash of sunshine and a whirl of activities. We've had Londoners staying with us and have nearly killed them with our ambitious schedule of fun. Over the weekend we marched them round Roosevelt Island, took them to Union Market (in fact made them cycle from Georgetown on Capital Bikeshare) for grilled cheese sandwiches and Korean tacos (delicious), embarked on a Free Tours By Foot food tour of U Street (rather slow without many sights, but quite interesting), sent them to the Catch Me magic duel (reportedly enjoyable), whizzed them round the Portrait Gallery, and summoned them to The Pigeoning, a Japanese-style puppet show at Artisphere, and frankly one of the coolest things I've seen since, well, Manual Cinema, also at Artisphere. That venue has a really visionary programmer! (Check out their Yuri's Night party on the 11th April). And we took them to a seminar in Politics and Prose about coming of age books... only to find that they were not just the only tourists, but the only people there. Nevertheless we were highly opinionated and it was fun - as was Comet afterwards for pizza.  

There's been an array of spoken word fun this month. I got to perform at the Angelika in Fairfax as part of a SpeakeasyDC show. My first excursion to Fairfax and I have to say, it was quite an expedition, especially the long and ominous walk down 'Gallows Road'... However, the Angelika was great, and our storytelling as part of a film festival was very cool - we performed in front of the cinema screen and played clips from movies mentioned in our stories! I enjoyed Science Comedy on Friday at the Bier Baron. And of course last night was Perfect Liars Club which was fab - pics and details here. Also, not sure I can call it spoken word as most of it was silent, but 

Sports rarely features in Brit About Town, but my lovely wife and I had our very first ice hockey experience on Thursday, and it was quite exciting! Also, there was a dessert buffet in the posh bit where we were sitting. Most of you by now know my very positive views about a dessert buffet.   

Cool things coming up in DC this week
Be warned - there's not much, probably because it's Easter. 

Thu 2nd - Four women went kayaking in remotest Asia and are coming to the National Geographic to tell us all about it. 

Otherwise, take advantage of the fact that there's not much specific extra-cool one-night-only stuff this weekend and instead check out... 

Laugh, a slapstick comedy at Studio Theatre
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Arena Stage
Man of La Mancha at Shakespeare Theatre
Dr Caligari at Mead Theatre Lab
Washington Improv Theatre's annual FIST improv tournament


Mon 5th - Go to the Jefferson lecture on the humanities at the Kennedy Center by Anna DeAvere Smith. 
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    What is this blog?

    Every Friday, Perfect Liars Club MC Layla laboriously curates a list of all the coolest English-accessible things happening in Tokyo for the next week for your delight and entertainment. If you live in Tokyo and like attending great events, you had better sign up.

    How to suggest an event to be included

    Tweet @perfectliarstky or email Layla with details and a link.

    What sort of events does this listings guide include?

    ​Recommendations are biased towards things Layla personally enjoys, like theatre, cinema, sciencey talks, book things, storytelling, comedy, art and random quirky activities.

    Come to my event, Layla!

    You can email Layla to invite her to something cool.

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