Angie Pontani, holder of the Miss Exotic World 2008 title and the New York Burlesque Festival’s Best Body 2007 award, wants to give you a very special Christmas gift. With h...

To me, Christmastime is a pan-denominational opportunity to hope for things — peace on earth, a better new year, seeing people I miss. Here, I made you a mixtape about it: "...

I was walking toward 14th and U last month wearing a dead relative’s fur stole and dangling off the arm of my girlfriend, who looks like Johnny Cash crossed with a circus be...

Patti Smith’s music has been with me since my teens, when I also dutifully consumed Camus and Rimbaud in the classic moody-teen-girl search for meaning. Until Saturday, I’...

I recently Tumbld toward Downed City Rise, where John Davis of Title Tracks (and sundry other great bands) lets you root through his personal shoebox of D.C.-scene memorabilia...

When we left R. Kelly’s sprawling, 22-chapter hip-hopera “Trapped in the Closet,” it was 2007. Main man Sylvester (Kelly) and a dozen other shady characters were trackin...

In another era, they’d have been called “touched”: musicians who have channeled the pain and confusion of severe mental illness into a certain kind of genius. Austin alt...

Poet Mary Oliver speaks in much the same way that she writes. Which is to say that the 77-year-old Pulitzer and National Book Award winner drops phrases in casual conversation...

Road Trip: Shenandoah National Park Pure driving pleasure awaits those who fight their way beyond 495 and onto Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. The 105-mile drive ...

You probably know her name, if not quite how to pronounce it. You know her look, the close-cropped hair or shaved head, the bare arms that look like arms should look after sli...

Nick Markoff is the oldest of three brothers who help run Calleva Farm in Dickerson, Md., home of Markoff’s Haunted Forest — itself the home of the scariest bunch of chain...

A.M. Homes’ writing — fiction and non — is daring and dangerous: Like Raymond Carver (the early ’80s king of irredeemable characters), Homes, 50, brings readers inside...

The Smithereens’ 1986 hit “Behind the Wall of Sleep” nailed the seductive power of the bassist: “She stood just like Bill Wyman, now I am her biggest fan.” Michelle ...

Marjane Satrapi has a way with difficult characters and difficult circumstances. Her first book, the acclaimed 2000 graphic novel “Persepolis” — which she and co-directo...

The Small Press Expo is more than an annual gathering of legendary comic artists, aspiring cartoonists and rabid fans. It’s a place where comics get the respect they deserve...