Borderstan Weekend September 19/20

Here are my picks for things to do during the weekend in Borderstan, really close by or in the city… restaurants, galleries and theater.

Ulah Bistro, located at 1214 U Street NW, has become a destination place in the U street corridor… delicious food and great prices. If you go once, you are sure to return.

Vinoteca, Wine Bar & Bistro, 1940 11th St. NW. Jose Manuel (my wine expert) says it is the perfect place to learn about wines. Has a great menu with a nice selection of charcuterie and cheeses.

Nellie’s Sport Bar, 900 U Street NW. This is a mix of gay bar, sports bar and neighborhood restaurant. Nellie’s has TV screens everywhere so you can follow your favorite teams. During the weekends the rooftop terrace is the place to be: crowed, noisy and fun.

“Zero Hour” at the Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th Street NW: “Channeling Zero Mostel’s wild moods, crazy humor and righteous anger, Jim Brochu reintroduces us to this funny, fantastically contrary man whose penchant for truth-telling has been sorely missed.”

“Phèdre” is at the Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F Street NW. Helen Mirren stars in Phèdre, an adaptation of Racine’s tragedy.

“Dublin Carol” at the H Street Playhouse, 1365 H St. NE: “Set in present-day Dublin on Christmas Eve, Dublin Carol relates the story of John Plunkett, a funeral parlor worker. John recounts memories of the drinking and womanizing of his youth with his younger assistant Mark. However, when his estranged daughter Mary arrives with sobering news, he is forced to face the more disastrous side of his past. Dublin Carol is a dark Irish comedy that follows John as he takes stock of his choices and their consequences–leaving us all more aware of our own lives and mortality.” – H Street Playhouse

“Paintings by Kevin H. Adams,” is at Gallery plan b, 1530 14th Street NW: “I have always enjoyed painting and drawing…and have always loved the outdoors. The combination of being out in nature, and painting is a gift to my soul. The challenge is to capture the feeling and changing light and put them into an interesting and beautiful composition. Most of my paintings are landscapes or cityscapes but ultimately they are studies of shape, texture, and a balance within a composition of tonal values and color. I try to work on location as often as possible…the feeling of being there, the sounds and smells and the connection with a particular place makes plein-air painting very special to me. From a tree stump caught in a particular light; a forest raven moist with a morning dew; or a shadow cast across a busy city street…my interest is to capture what I see and share that on canvas. My goal is to suggest or capture the vibration of color as the sun and shadows shift; and how distance grays the colors and softens its edges. I love trying to capture the richness of a shadow and how its color and texture bend that changing light.” – Kevin H. Adams

“New Realisms” at Irvine Contemporary, 1412 14th Street NW with Bruno Perillo, Edward del Rosario, Adam Stennett, Barnaby Whitfield and Eric White: “The painters in New Realisms show their personal engagement with the multiple styles and codes in photography, film, video, digital imagery, and in the hyperreal images of advertising and recent movies. New Realisms opens up the question of the styles of image making at a time when we’ve come to see that “the real” is a bundle of visual codes with no necessary connection to ‘reality.’ The artists show that multiple “realisms” are continually being reinterpreted and redeployed to present, question, and challenge what we can, and desire to, visualize.” – Martin Irvine

“Bradley Chriss: Visions from the End of the World,” is at Flash Point Gallery, 916 G St NW: “Chriss creates a series of fantastical, apocalyptic watercolors in Visions from the End of the World. Intimately scaled (each work is approximately 10 x 4 inches) and vibrantly colored, the paintings seduce the viewer into confronting scenes that are at once grotesque and serene. Chriss comingles pastoral sun-dappled fields with disemboweled carcasses to confront the inability of humans to grasp a post-human reality.” – Flash Point Gallery

“Matthew Lawrence” at Gallery Neptune,” 5001 Wilson Lane, Bethesda: “Utilizing mountains of glitter, toys, beads and glass in his art, Lawrence’s paintings tell stories about the need to escape to a better place when life gets too crass, too distant from the safe world we believed in as children.” – Gallery Neptune

“Form and Movement: Photographs by Philip Trager,” is at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street NW: “The exhibition brings together his extraordinary depictions of architecture, from Italian Renaissance villas to views of Paris and New York City streetscapes, with his later explorations of dance and the body.” – National Building Museum

“Thirteen, A Series of Portraits by Janina Wick” is at the Goethe-Institut Washington, 812 7th Street NW: “Positioned against simple, out-of-focus backgrounds, the girls’ faces reveal the fine line between staging and insecurity. The contrast captures the excitement underlying this series of portraits.” – Goethe-Institut Washington

“Cavalia,” under the White Big Top, across from The Pentagon near Pentagon City Metro: “Homage to the poignant history and fascinating bond between human beings and horses, Cavalia is a poem written in the language of sound, image and extraordinary performance. Blending dramatic visual effects, live music, dance and acrobatics with the bold presence of over thirty magnificent horses-including the incredible Lusitanian stallions-Cavalia raises the bar for spectacular entertainment.” – Cavalia

“Walking with Dinosaurs,” is at the Verizon Center, 601 F Street NW: “It’s a dazzling 10 million pound arena spectacle of unprecedented size and quality set to captivate young and old alike. Marvel at the story of their 200 million year domination of life on earth. Watch them walk. Hear the roar. Be there as they fight for survival and supremacy. From the ripple of their skin to the glint in their eye, you will know the dinosaurs really have returned! So make sure you have your seat to see the return of the dinosaurs!” – Walking with Dinosaurs

International Children’s Festival is at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna: “An annual festival featuring international performers and fun for children of all ages! Plus local artists and performing groups, interactive arts, and education tents!” – Filene Center

“The Bootleg Festival: Mixtapes, Films and Hip-Hop’s Underground Economy,” at The Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U Street NW: “The Bootleg Festival will consist of film screenings, panel discussions, performances and a traveling art exhibition. This four-day festival shines light on contradictions in hip-hop and its contributions to the larger dialogue about popular culture, globalization, and how hip-hop reflects and resists both.” – Lincoln Theatre

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet is at The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage this weekend, 2700 F Street NW. Free performance… The Kennedy Center’s own ballet company provides a sneak peek of repertory being prepared for the 2009-2010 season.

Calder Quartet is Sunday at 3:00 p.m., at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in Suite 3800, Clarice Smith Center, College Park: “Inspired by innovative American visual artist Alexander Calder, the Calder Quartet challenges the conventions of chamber music. Their insightful pairings of the traditional and the contemporary are designed to foster a broad understanding of chamber music. Janá ek’s Quartet No. 2 (“Intimate Letters”) is an expression of the composer’s impassioned correspondence with his own “immortal beloved,” a young married woman named Kamila. Its phrases have a spoken quality, rendering Janá ek’s inner obsessions in unsparing, vivid detail. The program also will feature Stravinsky’s “Three Pieces” and Schubert’s Quartet in G Major.” – Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center