WEDNESDAY: New Yorker lit critic James Wood has quite a following in the world of people who follow specific book critics. His new book, "How Fiction Works," is a collection of essays about the essential elements that make a well-told, well-formed story. Normally we wouldn't stand for anyone making sweeping judgements on something as broad as "fiction," but we trust James Wood. See him speak tonight at Politics & Prose.
» Politics & Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW; Wed., Aug. 19, 7 p.m., free; 202-364-1919. (Van Ness)
TUESDAY: Blah blah outdoor film festival blah blah bring a blanket and your family.
It's August. You know how this works by now.
The Comcast Outdoor Film Festival lasts through Aug. 21, and we like tonight's screening of "Singin' in the Rain," maybe the best movie musical ever made, in which a silent film star struggles to adapt to talkies. But they'll be showing "Twilight" tomorrow if that's more your thing.
» Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda; Tues., Aug. 18, 8:15 p.m., free; 301-816-6958. (Grosvenor)
Photo courtesy Warner Home Video
WHETHER FOR HEALTHY, social status or just sheer taste, D.C. loves its veggies. The love may be there, but finding a new place to satisfy that herbivorous urge isn't always easy.
Katt Hull has been a vegetarian on and off for about five years; her teetering is because of "the lack of good food options." But she has taken a liking to Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant, which she first visited before going meatless.
"The menu is unbelievable," said Hull. "If you close your eyes you'd think [General Tso's Surprise] is the real thing. It's the most unique vegetarian restaurant."
Marissa Valeria of Rockville is also on the Chinese bandwagon because "they make it so easy." Valeria frequents the Vegetable Garden for its carved and curled shiitake mushrooms with asparagus. But according to Valeria, the "best vegetarian food in the universe is El Tamarindo." Growing up in Wheaton, Valeria became accustomed to eating pupusas and finds its bean-and-cheese version the best in the area.
Continue Reading "Still Searching for a Vegetarian Heaven: Go Veg in D.C." »
PARK CHAN-WOOK'S "Thirst" is the headiest vampire movie you'll see all year. Based loosely — very, very loosely — on "Therese Raquin," Emile Zola's bleak depiction of marriage and moral meltdown, the movie casts bloodsuckers as potent symbols of errant desire and spiritual compromise, following a Korean priest who has a crisis of faith in the form of fangs.
When he made his first two movies in the early 1990s, Park was better known as a film critic than as a filmmaker, but in 2000, "J.S.A." made him a celebrity in Korea and his ambitious Vengeance Trilogy — including 2003's stunning "Oldboy" — gained international acclaim.
In a vampire-saturated market, "Thirst" stands out for the gravity of its themes as much as for the bravado of its performances. Park favorite Song Kang-ho returns as the lead, marking their fourth collaboration. The biggest movie star in Korea, he mixes the pensive with the physical, wearing his inner conflict like a monk's robe even as he alternately indulges in sin and self-flagellation.
Continue Reading "The Claws That Refresh: Park Chan-Wook's 'Thirst'" »
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN couldn't protect Natasha Khan from the call of the American highway.
The ghost-voiced sprite who performs as Bat for Lashes may have been born in Wembley, England, spent her childhood summers in Pakistan, and traveled around the world with a squash-playing father, but when the visual-artist/musician turned 20, the siren call of Sal Paradise proved too strong, and Natasha Khan met America.
"I came out on a pilgrimage," said Khan. "I was reading Jack Kerouac and the Beat stuff, and I was like a young teenage poetic child wanting to discover all that."
SURE, THEY'RE CUTE. They seem to be smiling all the time. And, yeah, they'll do tricks if you bribe them with herring (but who wouldn't?). But the intelligent, sensitive dolphin is a creature in grave danger in Japanese waters.
Former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry (who worked on TV's "Flipper") took up the mission of saving as many of the mammals as he could. "The Cove," a documentary by Louis Psihoyos, follows O'Barry's efforts as he teams up with the Oceanic Preservation Society and some determined colleagues to stop the slaughter off Taiji, Japan.
O'Barry is known in the fishing village — and despised. His muckraking efforts threaten to slow or stop the multi-billion dollar industry from sources such as entertainment and a black market in mercury-tainted dolphin meat.
WHEN PULITZER PRIZE-winner Richard Russo ("Empire Falls") tours for his latest novel, "That Old Cape Magic," he'll be joined by his wife of 37 years, who'll attend a few weeks' worth of events throughout New England.
But rather than simply offering company or support, his wife will have a more critical role: She'll be on hand, he says, "to tell people unequivocally that this is not the story of our marriage."
"That Old Cape Magic" is a novel about many things — expensive Cape Cod houses, disgruntled academics, the pressures and rewards of creativity, the burdens of inheritance — but its primary subject is marriage. In addition to two weddings, there are three marriages in the novel, each of which has its own set of dynamics and succeeds or fails for its own reasons.
The main character, a former screenwriter turned writing professor named Jack Griffin, has been married to Joy for more than 30 years, and he has worked diligently to keep both sets of parents out of their relationship. His own were unhappy academics whose serial infidelity and decades of bickering instilled in him a distrust of happiness and a general disregard for, well, everybody else. His in-laws may have been happier, but for Jack their gated-community contentment shows just how mindlessly complacent they are.
Parallels between Russo and the hard-luck Jack are plentiful. At 60, the author is only a few years older than his creation, and both were born and now live in New England, where they teach writing courses. Russo and Jack also have many years' experience as screenwriters, although Russo obviously has had much more success than Jack, who spent most of his time in Hollywood scribbling away at made-for-TV movies, which have left him creatively unfulfilled.
And yet, "That Old Cape Magic" never reads like an autobiographical novel. Instead, it is an alternately humorous and poignant work of keen imagination, observation and empathy.
Express caught up with Russo just before his book tour begins and discovered the crucial difference between him and his character: While Jack comes across as profoundly unhappy throughout most of the novel, Russo proves not just at ease, but warmly personable discussing the allure of Cape Cod, short stories and his own daughters' weddings.
Continue Reading "Looking for a Finer Place: Richard Russo, 'That Old Cape Magic'" »
THURSDAY: The Washington Post's Going Out Gurus are throwing themselves (and you) a little party. Free cupcakes, a summer evening on an Arlington rooftop deck and a chance to win a trip to Rehoboth.
Really, it's Thursday. You got something better to do? Yeah, didn't think so. The Gurus can tell you just about anything you might want to know about Washington — and they're fun to eat cupcakes with too, we swear!
» Clarendon Ballroom, 3185 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; Thu., Aug. 13 6 p.m.-8 p.m., free; 703-469-2244. (Clarendon)
Photo by Michael DiBari Jr. for The Washington Post
WEDNESDAY: You couldn't have ladies' night without the quintessential girl who just wants to have fun.
Music and comedy collide as friends Cyndi Lauper and Rosie O'Donnell team up for their Girls Night Out! Tour, a hybrid stand-up act/concert that shows off each of their strengths.
Recently, Lauper showed a different side to her than just "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" performing alongside Lil' Kim for Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday celebration with a mashup of "Time After Time" and "Lighters Up."
It's not just all about good times, but giving: One dollar from each ticket sold goes to the True Colors Fund, and non-perishable food items will be accepted to support the Capital Area Food Bank.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Wed., Aug. 12, 7 p.m., $55; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Written by Express' Nicole Ocran
Photo by Rodney Smith
TUESDAY: Hip-hop legends De La Soul finally released a new album after a three-year break to tour and play pool or whatever they do. Anyway, their rhymes are as clever and their samples as cool as they ever were.
If you can't catch tonight's concert in D.C., they're playing tomorrow at the Rams Head in Baltimore.
Two chances, no excuses. Both shows are backed by the Rhythm Roots Allstars.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Tues., Aug. 11, 7 p.m., $25; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo by Mo Daoud
Addison Road