SO YOU'RE A SMARTY-PANTS. But do you know how to heal with crystals and stones? Or what to do when a cop pulls you over for emitting suspicious French-fried gases? An old dog simply can't learn enough new tricks, but one can try at Learnapalooza (Learnapaloozadc.com, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.) on Saturday.

Classes range from how to get out of a ticket to teaching philosophy to third-graders. The best part is each class is free. Thank goodness, because those "Everything you wanted to know about Giant Pandas" classes (yep, it's real) tend to be pricey.

Written by Express contributor Robyn Mincher

THERE'S AN OVERWHELMING ARRAY of activities planned for this Saturday's Arlington Neighborhood Day (Arlingtonva.us), from tree planting to a 10K race. For those with a simple urge to splurge (Don't forget: Mother's Day is Sunday!), there's the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market (10 a.m.-4 p.m., Ballstonarts-craftsmarket.blogspot.com).

While the market will run monthly on the second Saturday through October (N. Fairfax and Stuart Streets), this kick-off event will feature a free concert by Exit Clov at noon. Good tunes and eggs 'n' bacon cuff links by independent vendors like Inedible Jewelry? 'Nuff said!

NIPPON, "THE FLOATING ISLAND," has undergone innumerable changes over the course of the last 150 years. Overtures with the West and tremendous strides, both artistic and technological, are represented in "Japan! Culture + Hyperculture" at the Kennedy Center through Sunday in a series of theater, dance, music, fashion and film works.

"[The festival] presents Japanese artisans and culture, from the quirky to the traditional," said Alicia Adams, curator of this festival showcasing more than 450 artists' work, from bamboo art to postmodern origami to ballet, anime, photography, installation, butoh dance and performance art. The Millennium Stage offers free performances related to the festival every day through Sunday.

"The mix of events is reflective of Japan's variety, from Maywa Denki's 'nonsense machines' to Akira Kasai's Butoh-style 'Pollen Revolution,' a solo performance that embraces contemporary dance," she said.

Continue Reading "Welcome To Japan: 'Culture + Hyperculture'" »

NOT LONG AGO, OK Go was known primarily to power-poppers and public-radioheads. "This American Life" had made the energetic Chicago boys its house band.

Then they started homegrowing their videos.

More than 28 million views later, if you haven't seen the foursome bustin' a move on eight artfully arranged treadmills, you might want to get your grandkids to tell you about the YouTube.

To turn viral fame into meatspace success is no mean feat, requiring mammoth legwork. It was a tough, exhausting slog for OK Go, and frontman Damian Kulash's trip to New Orleans for a Future of Music Coalition retreat was a welcome respite. "I really fell in love with the city and had my faith in music revived," he says.

Continue Reading "Track Stars: OK Go" »

IT SEEMS AS IF WANEGECHI MUTU is the kind of artist who would hesitate to define herself based on a place — neither her birthplace of Nairobi, Kenya, nor Brooklyn, where she lives now. Instead, the provocative collage maker sees herself as a "contemporary, urban-raised woman." Maybe that's why she's able to pull off her creepy, grotesque images of women — constructed from glossy fashion magazines and books of African art — merging two sets of cultures into art both critical and sensuous. She'll talk on Thursday at the Hirshhorn as part of its "Meet the Artist" series.

» EXPRESS: What exactly do you do?
» MUTU: I take what seems like an image that is one particular way, and I switch it around and give it a new life. I use images from National Geographic, which still have a very colonial underpinning, and I turn them into, sort of, fantastical, titillating, critical subject matter. And I do that with bits and pieces from glossy magazines, fashion magazines, hunting magazines, motorbike magazines. ... I guess I'm an image optimist.

Continue Reading "Re-imagining Photographs: Wanegechi Mutu" »

ALTHOUGH ORGANIZERS of the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, which is set to open downtown in the spring, are aiming to showcase the real tools used to battle crime, they're still planning to put a few Hollywood artifacts on display. But they'll be there to prove a point: crime doesn't pay.

On Saturday, the "death car" from the movie "Bonnie and Clyde," starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, will be making its official entrance at the museum.

Getting the vehicle into the building will be a show unto itself. The iconic car will be lifted off the street by a crane and plunked into the museum's second-floor exhibition space at 575 7th Street NW. The move will start at around 8:30 a.m.; it's expected to take about 90 minutes.

Continue Reading "Arriving Saturday on 7th St.: Bonnie & Clyde Car" »

IF YOU'RE PART of an urban clue hunt in nation's capital, be sure to follow this advice: Don't run up to the State Department with a camera phone and attempt to snap a shot of a sculpture inside the building's courtyard. We know from a past experience participating in something called Urban Challenge, which had been sponsored by Verizon. Grumpy security guards will be none too pleased.

On Tuesday, there's another clue hunt around the city, this one crafted around the sequel to the movie "National Treasure." (There's Nicholas Cage and the Declaration of Independence, pictured at right.) Ten teams of four will compete, and then the top two teams from D.C. will take on finalists from San Francisco and Los Angeles in a massive search mission planned for New York City on Dec. 13-14.

Want to play? Show up at the Library of Congress between 9 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. to take a qualifying test. The fun begins at noon. Full details are available here. Happy hunting.

Photo by Robert Zuckerman/Buena Vista Pictures

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CAR, getting to Columbia Pike can sometimes be a pain. And that's too bad, because some of the area's best eats can be found along the busy strip in Arlington County.

One way to get there, though, is by hopping on Pike Ride, the partnership between Metrobus and Arlington County that provides frequent bus service along the corridor with stops at Metrorail's Pentagon and Pentagon City stations. And on Sunday, Metrobus routes 16B/16J and 16G will be free as a way to encourage people to attend the first Taste of the Pike International Food Festival.

According to the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, restaurants participating include "Middle Eastern delights from Atilla's Restaurant, Ethiopian cuisine from Dama's, Salvadoran and TexMex foods from San Vicente Restaurant, Italian dishes from Salvo's Pizza Pantry, the delicious Thai cooking of Krit Yampai, Southern American fare from Big Daddy's BBQ, and baked treats from Shoe Box Oven." Expect other food and drink offerings, plus music and other entertainment.

Admission is free.

» Taste of the Pike International Food Festival at the Arlington Mill Community Center, Columbia Pike at S. Dinwiddie St., Arlington; Sunday, noon-7 p.m.

UPON FIRST GLANCE at its new CD, Qui looks like any other loud, skronky, disaffected riff-slingers. Fashionless. Evidently hungover. Album art that would embarrass a black metal band. ("Love's Miracle" features a naked woman's corpse below the band name — in skywriting.) But then one notices David Yow, who wears an expression like a pit bull as he ponders whether to lick your face or chew it off.

After Yow's former band, the Jesus Lizard, broke up in 1999, he thought he was done with music. "With my limited vocal talents, I didn't want to just repeat myself," says Yow, who enjoys a particularly onomatopoeic surname. He got a job retouching photos.

"I was keeping real busy, then all of a sudden my work dropped off." And, he adds, "My wife and I split up." Like the sailor Ishmael knocking the hats off passers-by, facing a damp, drizzly November in his soul, he knew it was high time to get to sea. Or to join a band, which offers similar catharses.

Continue Reading "Music: The Tao of Qui" »

LATE SUMMER AND EARLY FALL is prime time for neighborhood day celebrations. In recent weeks, Adams Morgan, Brookland, Clarendon, Deanwood have all had neighborhood days or similar celebrations. Mount Pleasant had its Fiesta D.C. last weekend. Next up, on the other side of 16th Street NW is the first-ever Columbia Heights Day on Saturday.

If there's any neighborhood that needs a community gathering where neighbors can meet, it's Columbia Heights. Within the past year, new condo towers have risen above 14th Street NW, as the giant D.C. USA shopping complex has taken shape near the Metrorail station. New restaurants have opened. So much is new that Saturday's gathering is poised to be the neighborhood's reintroduction to itself and the rest of the city.

Continue Reading "Columbia Hts. Is Next Up for a Neighborhood Day" »