Art is getting intimate. First there were house concerts, then public dance performances that take place inside people’s homes. Now there’s the home art show.

The first time I heard of it was Monday night. I’d met a woman at St. Ex who was planning to hold an art opening in her home to show off her collages, so I dropped by tonight. My friend and I got to her Columbia Heights house early, giving us a chance to ask a lot of questions. Turns out that the house’s main living spaces had recently been emptied—a roommate who’d owned most of the furniture had moved out—and that gave the artist in question an idea. She added that she’d looked into showing her work at a regular gallery, but many of them were located in old row houses like hers, and she thought, “Why go elsewhere?”

I was impressed with her moxie. The collages were arranged on walls throughout the dining and living rooms, and while each was accompanied by a short description about its meaning, the texts were covered with removable pieces of paper in case the viewer didn’t want her experience spoiled by an explanation. There were also Discmans placed here and there, for people to listen to the artist’s voice describing specific works of art.

It was quite lovely, and beautifully inventive.

Perennial promoter of the art as well as the business of standup comedy, the DC Improv is announcing a monthly “Pay What You Can” night, in which tickets at the door cost… what you can pay for them. The first “Pay What You Can” night is one week from tonight, April 30th, and will feature Marc Maron. Tickets purchased in advance will still be regular price, but you can show up the night of and score a deal if there are any seats left. Additionally, the Improv will not be enforcing its usual 2-item minimum, making it an excellent opportunity to see professional standup in a great club on a budget. It’s a nice break from the $70 including fees you can expect to pay to see Lewis Black at the Warner next month. (Though, who am I kidding, I bought tickets to that too.)

Of course, while the Improv is a high-quality venue with professional, touring comics, that’s certainly not the only way to see great comedy on the cheap in DC. The Improv rents out its smaller lounge area to local comics and improv troupes, and you can check out the lineup right from the Improv’s ticketing system. And need I remind you of the many fine opportunities to see comedy in and around DC, ranging from free for most open mics to $10 for some of the locally-booked shows. Tonight, for example, you can catch some of my favorite local comics at The Awesome Room at McGinty’s in Silver Spring ($4 cover), and tomorrow head over to the Hotel Topaz on N Street for the no-cover open mic night there.

Third Fridays at The Rock and Roll Hotel have been a nightlife staple of mine for the past year, as Metblogs own Michael Darpino (he of the perpetual tower of books) has been onboard as one half of Room 429’s Re:sonance DJs, along with Chris Diamond. These two tirelessly spin a relentless onslaught of shoegazer, brit-pop, 80’s/90’s underground, and whatever else the eclectic and diverse crowd cries out for…

My favorite thing about the Hotel is the unexpectedness of any given night’s events - one minute everyone’s chill, the next minute a girl is rocking out on the pool table, and then suddenly there’s a hula hoop dancer going wild in the corner. And yet it all manages to happen without any of the attitude that can plague other nightlife spots in the city - people are just happy, mingling and having a crazy fun time.

So join us this Friday, April 18th for the one year anniversary of Room 429, free upstairs from 9:30pm on. They’ll be giving away Screen Vinyl Image and Soundpool CDs. And don’t forget to say cheers to Darpino and Diamond for a job well done!

If you missed the final Pogues show this evening at the 9:30 Club, their astounding gypsy-surf-punk-rock opener, The Urban Voodoo Machine is playing at The Red & The Black at 9pm tonight ($8). This was one high energy act, and everybody in the place got into it. So if you think the opener gets the 9:30 “a rockin’”, catch them in a more intimate venue this evening, its truly something to behold. Just let you mind go and the rest will follow!

The Urban Voodoo Machine

Originally uploaded by webjedi

photo credit: sexyfitsum, from the Metroblogging DC pool

“Grime! In DC!”

Shortly before midnight Sunday night, that was the Twitter my boyfriend posted. About two hours later, as we were getting ready to leave Jimmy Valentines Lonely Hearts Club, he posted again.

“My hair is full of ceiling debris shaken loose by bass.” High praise, indeed.

While grime actually comprised only a small portion of the set performed by SF/UK based dj BreakBeatBuddha (I will forgive the silly, silly name only this once) - which also included plenty of dubstep, and noisy, distorted, sometimes glitchy, party music - it was still a bit of a surprise to hear the British sub-genre played in a DC club

The Dive and Lie Wrecked night - presented as the final event in a weekend-long “mini-festival” called Forward - actually followed through on the claim that the generally enthusiastic audience would get a variety of styles, unlike many a DC club night where one can generally expect to hear 90% drum and bass, even at nights like Modern’s which puts dubstep right on the flyer.

In addition to BreakBeatBuddha, the popular Baltimore dj Joe Nice was on the bill, and was really the name that drew us up to the club in the first place. While we have never actually seen him live, he is most cited as one of the first American djs to become keen on the developments in the English scene in recent years, and bringing those styles more to the mainstream.

Credit is certainly due to the 88 DC promotion group for throwing the event. They have earned some success for their recurring and one-off events around town, and hopefully will keep putting on nights like this one.

Having been to their monthly X at BeBar initially only because a friend was performing (the whole “art happening” thing was off-putting to me, I will admit), I found myself pleasantly surprised and have gone back. It is less of a dance-oriented event, to be sure, but that is alright - and it certainly seems to be just fine with the slightly-older crowd it seems to attract, who are as interested in seeing interesting things on the walls and chatting with friends as they are in the music.

Jimmy Valentines is a delightful place in itself. No sign on the door, and on a quiet block, so it gives off just a whiff of exclusivity, even if it really is no speakeasy at all. The smallish, long room is painted and lit all in rosy red, making the faces of the patrons glow attractively.

We were pretty surprised by the quality of the system for a room of its size, which was clear and intense. It was strong enough to jostle a few chunks plaster out of the ceiling, which fell on to Craig’s head and the bar area, and for hours after leaving the club I had such a ringing in my ears that I think I may finally have lost some hearing.

Having never been there prior, I did not really know what to expect from the crowd. It was somewhat more mixed in terms of age and “style” than I might have expected, seeming to skew from collegey to late-30s, with several groups coming in suits to mingle with the heads in hood-up-hoodies and the like. I should point out, though, that Jimmy Valentines is principally a bar and was, last night at least, decidedly not all-ages. The woman working the door was clearly quite serious about ID-taking, and even scolded me for still carrying my vertical minor’s license even though I have been of age for some time (it still has a year before it expires!) because they are easier to forge.

All of the staff seemed to be girls, in fact, which was kind of intriguing, including perhaps the coolest security-type I have seen lately, with her mohawk and DC pride tattoo. She was clearly a total sweetie if you were cool, but I suspect could turn bad-ass if things got rowdy. One of the bartenders was among the prettiest I have ever seen mixing drinks, and I genuinely pitied her when some low-life in a plaid shirt was clearly putting the sleaze on her, thinking that she probably gets that a lot.

In short: I think Jimmy Valentines is now my third-favorite bar in town. Good music, super-cool space, a beer selection that, while short, still finds room for Brooklyn, Delirium, and Youngs, mixed-drinks served with bendy-straws with paper decorations, and some cool kids. Awesome.

In DC!

Last Saturday the Mysterious M and I decided to eat downtown, since we were already down there. I hadn’t had Italian in quite a long while and was due for some gluttonous pleasure noshing on copious amounts of pasta, sauce, and cheese. So the Willard desk staff (so helpful!) suggested Finemondo, which was two blocks up F street NW.

We arrived right at 5 p.m. Unfortunately, the doors were locked. I remembered seeing the hours online (5-10 pm for dinner), but was amazed that despite a menu out front, no hours were posted on the doors. We did the ‘hangdog’ look to the two people cleaning tableware inside, but were ignored. Which, ok, I can’t complain - I’ve done the same thing when I was in their place.

Fortunately, the maitre de unlocked the door at 5:05, though he immediately disappeared before we even cleared the second set of doors. Now, granted, we were first, but… no hello? No “wait one second”? Seriously?
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Or should I say, “Kick ass concert venue versus a bar with a crappy stage?” Yes, I may indeed be comparing apples to oranges here, but they’re both fruit that I like to eat, so by God I’ll compare them if I want to.

OK, OK. I know I may be touching a raw nerve here, one that might get a pie thrown in my face. There are some of you who will probably agree with my assessment, while others may be deeply offended. However in my small concert-going world, these are basically my only two venue choices*, and I far prefer one over the other.

For me there are many factors that take an average concert venue and make it great, a few of them being as follows.
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If you missed last year’s Exposed show, then now’s the time to get planning! DCist today announced their plans for Exposed 2008, which will take place March 7th-15th at Civilian Art Projects in Penn Quarter. With a friendly $5 entry fee, and a request of only 25% of final sale profits, Exposed is a great way to get your photos seen without having to come up with a bundle in jury fees.

Check out their new Flickr Group for Entries, and make sure to fill out the entry form.

And remember: unless you can capture it on fire, the Washington Monument is a bad subject.

No, this isn’t really the next John Carpenter film with Snake Plissken taking aim at the White House and Congress (although, I wished it was). But it’s about mid-season for all the D.C. natives to head out of town just to catch a breather from the madness that is life in the Capitol Region.

While typically, some of these “escapes” are not traditionally vacations in the usual sense (usually only a few days), there are plenty of places both near and far to get away from it all, even if it is only for a short bit. Some folks head internally, staying at home, or spending entire days at the movie theater. Others head out past the potential “blast zone“, to places like Shenandoah, Ocean City, and even Philly (which has King Tut right now, BTW). Others will head further afield…

Tom and Tiff head to Pittsburgh, but have been heard to hit the Eastern Shore. Carl’s on leave of mind to head to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, while Doug slips off to the local mountains of the Shenandoah. Paulo has yet to have a real honeymoon, and feels a strong pull to Harpers Ferry and the John Brown Wax Museum. Jenn loves Cape May in New Jersey, even though another city such as Philly or New York could also top the bill for rapid exit from our fair city. I’m heading to Beantown (to visit the Samuel Adams Brewery as well) and Cape Cod. Even Stacey escapes… at home in Vienna… Virginia, not Austria… just by having moved there. And we all know, DC is good enough for Wayan!

Jenn did bring up a good observation about coming back from these “breathers” from DC; How do you feel about the city when you return? Better or worse than when you ‘escaped’? Have you noticed anything interesting upon your return that you may have not observed or felt being here 24/7?

Nothing livens up a party quite like showing off your way-cool cell phone. Wayan here is showing off his latest DC Metroblog post to his Clockstopping Hottie girlfriend, who is visibly impressed with his dashing genius and Wi-Fi enabled 5MP camera phone. Well, if she wasn’t, at least I was. That phone was sweeter than agave nectar. Oh, how I would love such a phone so I can post on the road, on the fly or however I am on the go.

Nokia - can you hook a brother up?

The other guys at the party looked on in envy, sure that it was the phone, not the cool shirt, that got him his gal. Truth be told, it was hanging out with guys like me that got him his love trophy. No doubt.