AUTHOR BILL BRYSON WAS ON a plane when he realized he didn't know the first thing about Earth. You can read about it in "A Short History of Nearly Everything," Bryson's book on the natural sciences and what makes the planet tick. Rob Sorey, U.S. Patent and Trademark officer, was doing exactly that — reading the book — when he realized he didn't know the first thing about planet Earth, either.
The 28-year-old Mt. Pleasant resident, a former accountant and Peace Corps worker, found himself discovering the National Zoo, volunteering in the Small Mammal House on weekends and using the experience not just to teach visitors about golden lion tamarins but to learn more himself.
Then he found the classes.
"They're one of Washington's best-kept secrets," says Posie Beam, 67, who's been taking classes at the zoo for a few years. Indeed, only about 20 to 25 people take the natural science classes offered about every quarter by the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ).
Sorey's first class this spring was on coral reefs, taught by experts Mary Hagedorn and Mike Henley (the latter is a keeper in the invertebrates exhibit). Though most of the courses are lecture-style and held in classrooms, in the coral reef class, Sorey and his classmates participated in a hands-on session based on Hagedorn and Henley's research in coral reproduction. "We got to frag coral — that's short for 'fragment' — and break it apart and start new coral." He's not quite grinning as he says it, but the "kid on Christmas Day" look is definitely rising to the surface.
And, yeah, it is pretty cool. Who but these students can say they spent a weekend afternoon tying animals to rocks? Seriously. "You cut them with scissors," says Henley, 31, "and secure them with a piece of fishing line or rubber band to a rock."
HUMPHREY BOGART never goes out of style, and his most famous film noir (no, "Casablanca" is not film noir), "The Maltese Falcon," is showing at the Portrait Gallery tonight.
Bogart plays a hard-bitten detective drawn into a world of mobsters and modern-day damsels in distress, all chasing after a mysterious (and priceless) figurine of a bird.
This screening is part of the "Ballyhoo!" exhibit, and the Gallery will be showing "On the Waterfront" next week, so mark your calendars to watch Marlon Brando whine about his wasted potential or whatever.
» National Portrait Gallery; 8th and F streets NW; Wed., Oct. 8, 7 p.m., free; 202-633-1000. (Gallery Place)
Photo courtesy Warner Brothers
ONCE UPON a time, an actor decided to do a one-man-show enacting Shakespeare's "Macbeth" as performed by characters from "The Simpsons." We won't be speculating as to just what he was on, but this time "it's crazy but it's just might work" seems to work just fine.
Rick Miller's "MacHomer" has been massively successful and is closing its run at Woolly Mammoth this weekend.
» Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St. NW; 8 p.m., $40; 202-393-3939. (Gallery Place)
Photo by Michael Cooper
IN THE PAST, it was hard to know how to react to a Growing concert. Were you supposed to stand up or sit down?
Up until recently the Olympia, Wash., turned Brooklyn, N.Y., drummerless duo performed music so soothing and tranquil that the natural impulse was to lie down on the ground, close your eyes and think deeply about episodes of "Planet Earth." But the places Growing used to play — art spaces, lofts, rock-clubs — were not particularly conducive to such meditation, unless you wanted to be doing lotus pose in a puddle of stale beer and cold cigarette ashes.
But with "All the Way" (The Social Registry), Growing has finally embraced rhythm, or at least made rhythm a more overt force within its pleasantly droney compositions.
At the very least, the driving pulses, abstract beats, and minimalist momentum will give you a reason to stay on your feet when the band performs with Hot Chip on Oct. 8 at the 9:30 Club.
Guitarist Kevin Doria recently spoke with Express about Growing's newfound not-quite-dance-ability, not knowing anything about "intelligent dance music" (IDM) and hecklers.
WE ALL NEED a place to watch the debates. Sure, your living room will do, but you live in the beating heart of the political world and don't you want to be surrounded by like-minded, smart Washingtonians who can laugh at the little jokes you make? Of course you do. That's why debate-watching parties exist at places like Busboys and Poets.
Here's the problem, though: last Thursday, I went to Busboys and Poets around 7:30 to watch the 9 p.m. vice presidential debate. They'd scheduled a concert that let out around 9 for the same room in which they were holding the debate party, and telling people that to get a good seat for the debate they'd have to buy a ticket to the concert. Some would call it clever marketing. I call it bull ... puckey. It was also, at 7:30, impossible to get a table before 9 p.m., according to the hostess.
In conclusion, get there early or stick to your living room couch.
» Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St. NW; Tue., Oct. 7, 9 p.m., free; 202-387-7638. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
PEGGY NOONAN began her political life as a Reagan speechwriter and now makes her living as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. Her work is always imbued with a classical femininity and gentleness — which is rare and not necessarily desirable in a political columnist.
Noonan's new book, "Patriotic Grace," decries the current political climate and encourages everyone to come together in a mannered way. She was a foot solider in the Reagan revolution once upon a time (maybe she stood next to John McCain!), so if that's your thing, you should go. Bring any friends of yours who need lessons on how to play nice in politics.
» Borders,1801 K Street NW; Mon., Oct. 6, 6:30 p.m., free; 202-466-4999. (Farragut West)
Photo courtesy NBC
"DONNIE WAHLBERG, Donnie Wahlberg?" said a man hawking tickets on the corner of F and 7th Streets, adapting his usual "Got tickets, got tickets?" catch phrase for the hordes of twenty- and thirtysomething women pouring into the Verizon Center last night.
To a non-New Kids on the Block fan, this fella wouldn't make a lot of sense. But if you asked, say, a 27-year-old girl whose parents didn't let her go to a NKOTB show when she was eight-years-old ... uh ... for instance ... she'd know this living Stub Hub was referring to the New Kid responsible for getting the guys together for this reunion tour.
A chance for unclaimed childhood nostalgia — and this time with beer!
Thanks but no thanks we told the guy; we had our tickets — the cheapest seats, which set us back $52 each to sit in the nosebleeds. Riding the Verizon Center escalator to the 400 level, the excitement was palpable. But at 9:15 p.m. the show had already started, with "You've Got It (The Right Stuff)" reverberating throughout the now empty stadium hallways.
"We're missing it!"
"First let's get beer!"
Continue Reading "Hangin' Tough Hangover: New Kids on the Block" »
LYNDA BARRY is that rare thing: a woman who's managed to make it in the world of comics. It's hard enough to come up against the comedy glass ceiling, but comic books are even more of a boys club than the Straight Talk Express. (Zing! Score one for Maureen Dowd and all women everywhere.)
Anyway, Lynda Barry has written "What It Is," a book about creativity that seeks to offer the average book reading American citizen a gateway to artistic and literary creativity. The book includes exercises, a "method" to reach your inner creative self and of course cartoons. lf Barry herself weren't so awesome, this kind of thing would be insipid.
Express contributor spoke to Barry; read it here.
» Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW; Fri., Oct. 3, 7 p.m., free; 202-364-1919. (Van Ness)
Photo courtesy Politics and Prose
MATMOS IS KNOWN for glitch-pop albums that are heavy on concept and loaded with musique concrete samples of real-world things: cut hair, body fat, a cow's uterus.
The electronica duo's latest record is called "Supreme Balloon" (Matador) so you might guess the entire work is made up of inflatable-rubber samples and chopped up Diana Ross LPs. Nope. It's a lovely all-synthesizer record, with the only other restriction being that the duo couldn't use microphones.
"It's such a dumb, simple concept that we tried to avoid calling it conceptual, though I suppose technically it is," said Martin Schmidt from the Baltimore home he shares with his musical and romantic partner, Drew Daniel.
The twosome takes turns shepherding its albums, and this one was Schmidt's li'l lamb.
IT IS A CLICHE, and too often a lie, to say that an artist repays endless contemplation. However, for the work of Lynda Barry, the hoary workhorse is wholly apt. (Barry will join fellow alt-comic star Tom Tomorrow at Politics & Prose on Friday)
Barry has several claims to fame, but is known best as the creator of the newspaper staple "Ernie Pook's Comeek." Her latest book, "What It Is," allows Barry to use a much bigger, more colorful canvas, offering a wealth of subtle visual details a newspaper strip can't match.
"What It Is" is a work of mixed media, fusing painting, portraiture, sketches, collage, text, narrative, comics, humor, creepiness, timeless wisdom and endless questions. The book switches between open-ended ruminations on the nature of creativity and art, and more familiar approximations of comics and graphic novels. As is often the case with Barry's work, her stories may seem highly personal and potentially embarrassing. However, in revealing essential oddness, the author strikes a universal chord.
Addison Road