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

9/16/2014

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It's suddenly fall here, or 'autumn', as any good Brit would say! Which has made me hungry - hence the copious restaurant reviews this week! Not to mention our visits to Story League, SpeakeasyDC, Second City, and the DC Shorts Film Festival.

In DC dining, Cork Wine Bar, Sona Creamery and the Bombay Club are a triumvirate of delight. First Cork. The ambience is a delight of cool lighting, exposed brick, and trendy wine-sippers - the sort of place you'd suggest if you wanted to make out of towners think you're cool. The avocado dish is perfection. The other dishes are pretty uniformly good too... 

Sona Creamery was a brand new discovery, perched on Pennsylvania Avenue near Eastern Market. I was overcome with delight by Sona - the ambience is cosy and stylish and comfortable and occasion-ish, all at once. The wine and cheese are the stars of the show - and ever since I tasted their mac and cheese, I have been lusting for a second visit. Every small dish I had was glorious. Their cheese was amazing. Their wine and cocktails were lovely. And the price wasn't too bad at all. It's a shame it's all the way across town from my house, because I'm adopting it as my new local anyway!

And the Bombay Club, the white tableclothed, older brother of my beloved Rasika, delivered all of Rasika's pleasure this weekend - and maybe even a tiny bit more. The live piano was a treat. The crispy kale was just as glorious as Rasika's famed palak chaat. The service was attentive. The menu more innovative than I'd remembered (I'm talking about you, brussel sprouts dish!). It feels a little formal, perhaps, but the food is truly excellent. 

So yes, I probably should go on a diet after this week's dining... particularly as, aside from a delightful session paddleboarding and a stroll round Roosevelt Island, my focus was on watching things and eating popcorn. During the day it was TEDMED, a giant health and medicine conference - with the added benefit of getting to wander in the beautiful Library of Congress. 

And then, to the movies! DC Shorts, probably my favorite DC film festival, has been going swimmingly - I've been to two of their showcases so far, and they're always eclectic and thought provoking. The voting's finished now but there are tons more shows, including free ones at lunchtime at Landmark E St Cinema... what an excellent way to spend lunch, you lucky downtown workers! I also went to The One I Love, and was horrified to have failed to read the plot description carefully and find myself quite terrified... It was quite good, though not a film that excelled at wrapping itself up properly at the end. 
 
Any live performances, I hear you ask? Why of course. Second City are, in my opinion, the best improv/comedy troupe in America right now (though I'm happy to be proven wrong!). Their visits to DC are always a bit subterfuge, through the Smithsonian Associates and tucked into a museum theatre, in this case the Museum of the American Indian. And they were hilarious. What an excellent evening. Also hilarious were the competitors at Story League's grand DC/Philly/NY story showdown. These shows are fantastic, except for early-to-bed girls like me. I knew it wasn't starting til 9:30pm. I braced myself. I drank. I laughed. I appreciated the cool format. And then my eyes started to droop. I was relieved to see I wasn't the only one. I had to slip off home at 11:10, which was when they had their first break. I was exhausted! Am clearly an early-night story girl. Less hilarious but very compelling was Speakeasy DC's special Atonement show at Theatre J - I shed a tear. Fantastic to see these storytelling events completely packed. This is the moment for DC storytelling!


What sounds cool for next week

Well, DC Shorts is all week, and you can still catch the fab Yentl at Theatre J... More date-specifically:


Tue 16th - If you like Upright Citizens Brigade, check out Ronna and Beverly, a comedy show featuring pseudo-Jewish mothers delivering a self-help chatshow, conceived by UCB. It's at Sixth and I and will likely be hilarious.


Wed 17th - Story League brings you their latest funny story contest - the theme is 'Testy Testy'. It starts at 9pm, late birds! Er, night owls... 


Thu 18th - It's DASER! This unexpectedly cool free art and science mash-up (why unexpected? Now I think about it, of course it's cool!) focuses this month on deep time. Be cool and clever.


Fri 19th - Two excellent literary options of you this evening - very poor timing for me to be out of town! If you like your literary event British and sit-down, with a touch of lesbianism, Sarah Waters is reading at Politics and Prose. I already read her new book, The Paying Guests, and it was addictively good. Or splash out $50 on the kick off party for Banned Books Week - provocative art and live music abound!


Sat 20th - Spend the afternoon drawing, dancing, learning about museums, music, Shakespeare, public speaking, songwriting, and that sort of thing, all for $25 at Fall for the Arts.


Mon 22nd - Free comedy from Aparna Nancherla at the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center at 6 - but try to be there at 5:30 to get tickets (2 per person max). 


Tue 23rd - Kramer Books has started doing author readings - have you noticed? Tonight they have Peter Mehlman who wrote for Seinfeld. (you can see the whole list for September at the link)


Wed 24th - There are still tickets left for Mortified, where performers read aloud their most embarrassing diary entries and other musings from the tumult of their long ago youth. The last time I went to this it was hilarious.

Fri 26th - It's the Art4All launch party, kicking off a 3-week art festival around the city, and an participatory art and craft extravaganza in DC all weekend! If you like art, brace yourself... 

Sat 27th - We clearly think we're in Paris! It's DC's version of Nuit Blanche, named Art All Night. Go enjoy art events from 7pm til 3am all over town! There's the 'Top Chef of Crafting', SCRAP DC, which also amusingly seems to be called Rebel Craft Rumble. Plus on both the 27th and 28th we have Figment DC, which is a festival all about building the arts community in DC. Here's their Facebook page. Oh, and the annual craft fair to buy pretty crafty things at Union Market, Crafty Bastards. This weekend is art-tastic!


First week of October - get your tickets now:

- Perfect Liars Club - Tickets are on sale now for our next amazing show on October 1st.


- Bentzen Ball - October 1st - 4th is DC's top comedy festival, Brightest Young Things' Bentzen Ball. Get tickets! If you must go on the 1st instead of Perfect Liars Club, email me as I accidentally bought 2 tickets... but I might be busy emceeing... so I can sell them to you at face value.

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

9/9/2014

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It's lovely to be back in DC, and we had a brilliant Perfect Liars Club debut at our new home, the Bier Baron (complete with surprise lapdance...). And then, wielding my Goldstar app for cheap theatre tickets, I went to two shows: Yentl at Theatre J, and Belleville at the Studio Theatre.


I feel like the only person in the world who has never seen Yentl, the movie with Barbara Streisand. Which made it all the more of a delightful surprise to see the brilliant production of Yentl at Theatre J on Saturday, complete with music, aptly by Jill Sobule who wrote the song 'I kissed a girl'. Yentl is the best show I've ever seen at Theatre J, and with the possible exception of Grounded (which is coming to Baltimore from 15th October), one of the best shows I've seen in DC this year. Yentl is about a Jewish girl in Israel who dreams of studying the Talmud, but can't because she's a girl - so she finds a solution. The story is absolutely gripping. The performances are subtle and complex and and spot-on. The set is cool. The staging is brilliant, with a sort of Greek chorus perfectly delivering the music. Theatre J's Yentl is excitingly good - highly recommended. 


Belleville at Studio Theatre delivered the quality I've come to expect from the Studio Theatre... but somehow, it failed to inspire. Amy Herzog is of course an exciting playwright, and the script here is sharp - but somehow the topic just bored me. 'Whatever can you mean', I hear you cry: 'It's about relationships and love and human cruelty and whether you can ever really know someone - all worthy themes!' Perhaps... 'And the performances were pretty pitch perfect.' Sure. But you know, to me, it just wasn't that interesting. My eyes slid repeatedly to my watch as the cast stormed over the stage in high drama angst wielding knives, vomiting, hunting for drugs. Either you find someone's dysfunctional marriage interesting, or you don't. I left unconvinced that the play was about very much more. 


But speaking of marriages, I really enjoyed Love is Strange, at the Landmark E Street Cinema. It's about two gay men in New York who get married after being together for 39 years - which brings their relationship to the attention of religious leaders responsible for one of their jobs. Newly unemployed, they end up having to live apart with friends and family til they can afford an apartment. It was just a bit too sad for my Sunday night taste - but this film was also funny and charming  and had lots of nice things to say about love. And the performances were stellar. Though I found it hard not to see the High Commander from Third Rock from the Sun when I looked at John Lithgow... 


Restaurant of the week was Teddy and the Bully Bar, the brother restaurant of my beloved Lincoln. I hadn't been for ages as their menu didn't have many things that tempted me on it. That has now changed. Check out their current menu - it was delicious. They do a mean Rickey too... 


Finally, a special shout out to The Plains - having recently visited Harper's Ferry after many promises about how charming a village it is, I found The Plains trumped it in charm - a lovely day out. Especially if you're lucky enough to know someone with a farm with a swimming lake... 


If you like this blog, could you possibly take 30 seconds to vote for it in Washington Post's 'Best of' - we've been shortlisted in DC area life as best neighborhood blog and while this is very cool, it would be even cooler to win!


But in the meantime... what sounds cool in DC this week?

Yentl is the go-to theatre show this week. But what else?

Tue 9th Sept - SpeakeasyDC have their monthly storytelling show. The theme this month: hazed.

Thu 11th Sept - It's the start of my very favorite DC film festival of the year, DC Shorts! Here's the schedule. It might be worth thinking about the all-access pass for $100... it includes the parties which are $20 each... or buy tickets individually, of course. 

Fri 12th Sept - Second City is probably the most famous improv troupe in the country. They have an early and a late show at the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian. The early show is sold out... but the late show still has tickets! Get them now! If not, there's a DC Shorts party. 

Sat 13th Sept - It's Story League's grand championship - the search for the funniest story on the East Coast. That's at Black Cat. Or try your chances at Chinese Menu Comedy, if you can stay awake for a 10pm free show (NB: I cannot). If not, there's another DC Shorts party. Or if you want to learn while you drink, check out Nerd Nite at DC9, which is about neuroscience... 

Mon 14th Sept - It's a storytelling extravaganza this week! Check out SpeakeasyDC's Atonement-themed show at Theatre J. I'm looking forward to it.


Oh, and don't forget to buy Perfect Liars Club tickets for 1st October!
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Some cool things to do this week

9/3/2014

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I've just returned from a 2 week trip so I haven't being up to anything fabulous in DC since we last spoke... but here's what's I think sounds cool this week. 

Oh, and by the way, this blog has been nominated for the 'Best of list' in the Washington Post, in the neighborhood blog category. This would be so brilliant to win. Please vote for us! (It's a 30 second job, but why not vote for other cool DC stuff too while you're there!)


Wed 3rd Sept - Tonight is of course all about Perfect Liars Club in our shiny new venue, the Bier Baron. Which means that even if you don't have tickets, there will be some on the door as the venue is bigger! Doors at 6pm, show at 7:30pm. See you there!

Thu 4th Sept - Diner en Blanc is the latest word in DC hipster. Dress all in white, meet in a secret location with tables, chairs, food and champagne, and launch into a flashmob 'chic picnic'. As you do. Or else go to the Phillips after 5 for a celebration of 'slowing down'. This includes learning to pickle while listening to a quartet... Or if you're feeling crafty with a comic book penchant, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has a 'Handi hour' for you.

Thu 4th - Sun 7th Sept - Recent film festivals not quirky enough for you? It's the DC Chinese Film Festival all weekend! AND an outdoor mini-French film festival at American University.

Sat 6th Sept - The city-wide 5x5 public art exhibition launches today. To celebrate there are bus tours, receptions, poetry, and a print workshop. Or if you're feeling like learning something, for $15 you can head to Gallaudet University for a 'Day of Learning' - this sounds really cool, and gives you the option of 6 different classes every hour from 11-5, on all sorts of subjects from local DC stuff to choreography, arts, science, and storytelling!

Mon 8th Sept - It's been a while since we went to La Ti Do - where musical theatre and comedy collide in the basement of the Black Cat. Though Sistine Robot's Appletini improv night is always good fun too. 

Tue 9th Sept - SpeakeasyDC's storytelling show tonight is on the theme 'hazed'... It should be good!


Things you might want to get tickets for in advance:

If you like short films, my favorite DC film festival, DC Shorts, starts on September 11th. 

And if you like comedy, Bentzen Ball, DC's comedy festival of the year, run by Brightest Young Things, kicks off on October 1st. 
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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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