FOR SOME PEOPLE, writing is a hobby; for others it's an occupation. For Carrie Fisher, it was a lifesaver. She's performing her autobiography, "Wishful Drinking," at Lincoln Theatre starting Friday.
"Who could relate to my life?" sighed the actress who graced the silver screen (and many dorm room walls) as Princess Leia, one of the galaxy's saviors in George Lucas' space opera "Star Wars." "I can't even relate to my life."
Fisher is far, far away from that character and popular sci-fi series. Her personal story may be filled with stars, but they're of the celebrity variety, and the experience almost left her down and out in Beverly Hills.
It was less than four years ago that Fisher found the dead body of Gregory Stevens, a 42-year-old Republican operative, in her bedroom. It was attributed to an overdose. No stranger to past drug addiction (and a bipolar disorder), the actress reverted to substance abuse.
But she clawed her way back to a secure vantage point — that of an observer — and viewed her life with fresh eyes. "Writing forces you into a perspective. Writing about your own history in a detached way is a gift. It helped me maintain a distance from my life."
Continue Reading "Survivor's Guilt: Carrie Fisher's 'Wishful Drinking'" »
IT'S BEEN A ROCKY ROAD for the five D.C.-bred guys in the Walkmen since they decamped for New York City early in the decade.
Their 2002 indie debut, "Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone," met with a lukewarm reception. Yet their sophomore release, "Bows + Arrows," put the band's self-described "melodramatic popular songs" over the top. They were exalted by Pitchfork Media, had songs on Fox's "The O.C.," and played on "Late Show With David Letterman."
The band's way with melody was obvious, and singer Hamilton Leithauser could definitely get a song across. Still, success was fleeting.
"Our second record probably did the best of all our records," admits bassist Peter Bauer. "The last one, not so much."
AWHILE AGO, A GUY approached Tricky, the wiry English rhythm visionary, in Canada. He said his parents used to play Tricky's music for him when, earlier, he was in a coma. The comment left Tricky, rarely at a loss for words, speechless.
Later, in Philadelphia, a nurse in a children's burns unit told him his music was used in that hospital setting. He found this information equally revelatory.
"Kids who had been, like, 60, 70 percent burned," Tricky marvels. "And then I began receiving all these beautiful messages on my MySpace page, things like, 'You've changed my life,' stuff like that. So now, this is the first album I've made for the listeners. I never used to care. I was quite a selfish artist."
WITH ALL THE TOOTHY SMILES, pressed suits and tricks up political sleeves, some may say that the Democratic National Convention was a real circus.
But what if the vice presidential candidate was a grizzly bear and a main platform issue was to put a national park on top of the White House?
That's the case with the Washington Improv Theater's "POTUS Among Us," a show that puts the electoral process where it belongs — in the hands of an unsuspecting audience.
Five improvising presidential candidates receive suggestions for platform issues, and chaos ensues until one is chosen. At our viewing, a vice presidential bear ate most of the reporters (aside from the one who was in bed with the president), and a candidate gave his young son a one-way ticket to pedophile trucker country as a sacrificial gesture for America.
It couldn't happen here ... or could it?
We spoke with director Mark Chalfant about "POTUS Among Us."
» EXPRESS: Wait, so there won't be a bear in all the shows?
» CHALFANT: Definitely not, which is a shame, because it was nice to see a candidate we can all get behind.
Continue Reading "Party Vote: Washington Improv Theater's 'POTUS Among Us'" »
TALK ABOUT SUFFERING for art. The models — or should we call them art projects? — in "Living Sculpture" cover their bodies in clay and act as human sculptures, performing mundane tasks for an audience.
The work is beautiful and shows how versatile clay can be, but imagine the Craigslist ad that found those models.
» Project 4, 903 U St. NW; through Sept. 11, free; 202-232-4340. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy Project 4
THIEVERY CORPORATION has a record label appropriately titled Eighteenth Street Lounge Music, and when they received a demo from a young Argentine singer name Federico Aubele, they signed him immediately.
Why, you ask? Was it his ethereal guitar-playing (check out it here in his song "Easta Noche")? Was it his romantic vocals? Was it his giant head of hair (a Latin-fro, if you will)? Was it his uncanny ability to incorporate genre after genre into his sound, including reggae, hip-hop, tango and bolero ("Postales" is a great example). Whatever it was, it hooked them — and now the world is growing enthusiastic as well.
See him at the 9:30 Club tonight with Dawn Landes and Natalia Clavier.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Tue., Sept. 2, 7 p.m, $15; 202-265-0970. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy of Eighteenth Street Lounge Music
FACT: Viewers love tension. The Democratic Convention crackled with the possibility that at any moment the Clintons might decide not to endorse Obama, that Joe Biden might stumble over his (or someone else's) words, that the very fabric of the Democratic Party might be shredded in the industrial fan of egos and stress and red, white and blue streamers.
The tension at the Republican convention has a similarly primal, but less controllable, source: Hurricane Gustav, which raked the Gulf Coast on Monday. How much of a convention there will be and what form it will take is still up in the air. And the storm's similarity to Hurricane Katrina has meant that many voters have their eyes trained on New Orleans rather than the convention site in St. Paul.
But we're Washingtonians. When John McCain, Sarah Palin and the rest of the GOP team take to the cameras, we'll be poised to listen. Here are some spots where you can convention-watch with company.
Continue Reading "Grand Old Party Down: Where to Watch the GOP Convention" »
IT'S TOUGH TO know what to make of the fact that local rockers Len Bias named themselves after an athlete who overdosed in 1986. Perhaps they're the sort of band dedicated to the eradication of substance abuse. Does that kind of band exist? Am I over-analyzing this?
I'll switch to their music. It's of the rock persuasion with heavy percussion and interesting vocal arrangements being the highlights. You can catch them on the Black Cat's back stage tonight with the Poison Arrows.
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Tue., Sept. 2, 9 p.m., $8; 202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy of Len Bias
NOSTALGIC FOR A time before you were even born? Raphael Saadiq sounds like an artist from the '60s or '70s — you might start to bop to his music, thinking "I love this song! I haven't heard this in years!" before you realize that you've never heard it before and it just sounds like it dropped out of another time.
If he's atavistic, at least he's talented: his songs are great fun to dance to, or sit at a table and stir your drink to, as Washingtonians are wont to do.
See him at the Black Cat tonight.
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Mon., Sept. 1, 8 p.m., $25; 202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo by Will Blochinger
IF YOU'RE NOT a D.C. local, you might not be familiar with our claim to musical fame: go-go. Known for its intense drumbeats, go-go is the only genre of music guaranteed to make you "putcha one leg up and putcha booty on the floor." Also, it has a godfather, and his name is Chuck Brown. Check out his signature tune here.
Now that you're intrigued, come see him at a D.C. landmark — the 9:30 Club (if you haven't been there, you can't even be considered a temporary resident). It's his birthday — you must get down for this momentous occasion! And if you want to be corny about it, you can D.C.-out to the max and head to Ben's Chili Bowl or Florida Ave. Grill for some grub afterwards. Chopteeth opens.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Sat., Aug. 30; 8 p.m., $25; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy of Glenwood Jackson Studio
Addison Road