DC Rocks This Weekend

This year, mostly due to last winter's exasperating government shut down, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival will be Really Short and Very Local. The festival runs just two days this weekend with a go-go concert featuring activists from the Don't Mute DC movement on the docket as well as a punk rock "story time" given by a DC librarian.  A music market Saturday afternoon provides an unusual  chance to shop home grown labels from the well known Dischord to This Could Go Boom!  Hit the link for the full schedule.

Coincidently, another Smithsonian event goes native on Sunday with the "Space Was the Place" lecture at the National Gallery of Art at 2 pm. Seating is a first come first served kind of affair.

(Maybe the ever swelling tourist population will learn a thing or two about our fair city this weekend.)

Also lots of musical choices on the DC ROCKS calendar as June sneaks on out of here:

27

Dave Chappell Band @ JV

28

King Soul @ Mason District Park

Billy Coulter @ Rockville Town Square

29

Punk the Capitol @ AFI

Beanstalk Library/Nitepool @ Pie Shop

Laurel Canyon Tribute @ Birchmere

Ruthie and the Wranglers @ Soundry

30

Fuzz Queen/ Kosari @ Galaxy Hut

The Innermost Ear

Once upon a time in a studio far away from things afloat in the main stream, a man named Don Zientara worked his magic with the outliers and the mavericks that were bouncing around our Beltway. He recorded bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Government Issue, Fugazi and more.

From Mark Noone of the Slickee Boys:

"In 1979 I found myself in the basement of a modest house in Arlington Va. This was the world renowned recording studio known as Inner Ear. Slickee Boys were recording the first record that I would  be on. I wrote one song, "Gotta Tell Me Why" and co-wrote "Forbidden Alliance" with Kim Kane. At the helm were Skip Groff and Don Zientara; two men who changed my life. 

I'll admit I never heard the great Skip sing, but Don does a darn good job of it. His singing and his songs are very much like him straight up and honest."


Don Zientara will be performing at one of my all time favorite watering holes- the Galaxy Hut this Monday June 24 with Dougie.

Summer Solstice Solace

The longest day is here. Here are a few thoughts for how to spend that extra day light:
                                     
Read a book just for fun hopefully in hammock. I recommend "The Man Who Came Uptown" by George Pelecanos

Sleep late on Sunday with impunity, then wander down to Fletcher's for river gazing or perhaps rent a row boat.

Find a bar without a TV like Lyman's Tavern, Jack Rose or Galaxy Hut and hoist a very local beer.
Raised By Wolves comes to mind...
or
plan an early evening picnic in Rock Creek Park and watch the local firefly show.

Mystical Marathons

James Joyce once wrote such a weirdly wonderful book that people still feel compelled to read it out loud every year, especially in Dublin, where they celebrate Bloomsday with Joycean costumes and specials on gorgonzola sandwiches and a glass of burgundy. "Not logwood that." (Right, Hugh?)
Joyce gives us the story of one day in the life of Leopold Bloom, June 16th, 1904 to be exact, encapsulated... or perhaps I should say elongated... into one long-ass Irish tome.  It begins with the line: "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed, and, some seven hundred pages later, ends (spoiler alert) with the word "Yes." 

My friend Hugh urged me to tackle Ulysses once, several years ago, and it was like hearing everything in a man's head erupt out of a tinny speaker on a street corner. A teacher friend of mine gave me the best advice on wading through the experience. She said just keep reading the words.  Never mind what they mean.

Yes.

This Saturday,  the Bloomsday Marathon Reading begins at noon at Loyalty Books in Petworth and continues on at Petworth Citizen where Bloomsday inspired cocktails will help numb or enhance the experience which continues through the night and all day Sunday.

Another enigmatic marathon, the third annual Seventh Stanine Festival, also kicks off on Saturday starting at 2 pm at the house of Rhizome in Takoma DC, and will include our friends in Tone hitting the stage about five hours later.  From Norm Veenstra: "This festival will take place rain or shine -- the Rhizome house can be both shelter and source of sound."

And:
Little Red and the Renegades will be  testing out a new to them venue at Celtic House in Arlington and Valentine Slim will be hold forth at Rockville Moose Lodge. All on Saturday.

This week's alert: call before you go to any show happening at Villain and Saint.... The kitchen has closed, and things are going South in a hand basket over there.



get your joyce

Sign Me Up Chuck

CVS just ate the friendly little independent pharmacy in my neighborhood. Again. When the Company of Tyranny first arrived in our neck of the woods in 1997, it swallowed the MacArthur Theater whole, then slowly squeezed MacArthur Drugs until it was out of business. I'm sure this is all fine and dandy in the world of commerce, but chalk up another loss for things human. 

However, I am glad to see that our mayor, Muriel Bowser, is putting some effort towards preserving the arts in this town even as we vie with the rest of the U.S. for Number One in Gentrification according to a recent article in the Washington Post.  Mayor Bowser seems to understand that many artists qualify for that low income bracket, and thus a nose count was born.  The DC Music Census is open to all musicians and those related to the music industry who live in the area, not just within the borders of DC.  Submissions are accepted until June 25. Step up and be counted while you can. (God knows usually nobody asks.)

"Simply put, music matters in the District of Columbia,” said Mayor Bowser. “The musicians, the venue owners, the educators, the technicians, all areas of the music economy are important to who we are as a city. As the underlying component of my 202Creates initiative, supporting the DC creative community and economy is vital and the DC Music Census augments those efforts.” 

The census takes about 12 minutes. For the rest of your weekend, I'm eyeballing Billy Price at Jammin Java or the euphon-X extravaganza at Slash Run-both on Friday. No jerks allowed. 

Old School Things

June brings the end of the school year which reminds me of my own high school graduation and long ago salad days from the 1970s. Fortunately I have journals to refresh my memory and tell me that  I called my boyfriend from pay phones outside of Little Tavern or Tastee Diner.  I saw people getting arrested at a smoke-in in Georgetown. I watched Harbison, Bond and Goddard play at Babe's on Wisconsin Avenue and went across the street to the Pour House Pub to play pinball.

That year graduation dinners happened at Martin's or Luigi's and live bands like Reunion and Fancy Colours played our dances. Carousel played my prom, but I didn't get there until midnight because I was going out with a guitar player which was a truly a dumbass thing to do in high school. I should have gone out with that nice kid, the one who was my own age and wouldn't leave me home watching Saturday Night Live on the weekends

I got over that guitar player eons ago,  but never the music. Here's a few things to think about for June 2019 and please write with more suggestions if you've got 'em:

JUNE BUG DAYS

1

Apollo 66/ Tru Fax/Sister Ex @ Silver Spring American Legion

6

Thrillbillys @ JV

7

Billy Price Band @ Jammin Java

Euphonx @ Slash Run

9

Johnny Neel / Dave Chappell @ JV

Suga Grits @ Villain and Saint

13

Rhodes Tavern Troubadours @ Takoma VFW

15 

Valentine Slim @ Rockville Moose Lodge

20

Skydiver/ Collider/ Duskwhales @ Pie Shop

David Kitchen @ JV

21

Teen Mortgage/ Menage a Garage/ Liquid TV @ Comet Ping Pong

22

Goin Goin Gone @ Villain and Saint 4 pm

24

Don Zientara @ Galaxy Hut

25

Sol Roots @ JV

27

Dave Chappell  Band @ JV

29

Punk the Capitol @ AFI

Beanstalk Library/Nitepool @ Pie Shop

Laurel Canyon Tribute @ Birchmere

30 

dc space lecture @ National Gallery of Art 2 pm

Fuzz Queen/ Kosari @ Galaxy Hut