Screen on the Green: The Complete Schedule

Sorry I've disappeared for a bit (getting engaged is incredibly hard work, as it turns out!), but I had to let you all know the latest Screen on the Green news. Ladies and gentleman, for your summer viewing pleasure, I present to you the complete Screen on the Green schedule:

July 20th: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Sony/Columbia)

Watch the skies! Richard Dreyfuss embarks on an obsessive quest for answers after witnessing a low-flying UFO. Legendary French director Francois Truffaut plays a scientist seeking communication with the (friendly?) aliens. Stephen Spielberg takes us from Mexico to Mongolia, from India to Indiana to show that we earthlings are not alone. The majestic musical score was Oscar-nominated, but double nominee John Williams lost to himself for “Star Wars.” Pre CGI, “Encounters” is movie magic of the first kind. 132 Min. (1977)

July 27th: Dog Day Afternoon (Warner Bros.)

Sonny (Al Pacino) sets out to rob a Brooklyn bank to pay for his boyfriend’s sex change operation. The job doesn’t go as planned. Based on a true-life story, the screenplay won an Oscar and a Writer’s Guild award though reportedly much was improvised. No matter, “Dog” is great stuff. Director Sidney Lumet gets the New York flavor just right and Pacino is simply stupendous. Memorable support comes from Chris Sarandon and the late John Cazale. All together now…”At-ti-ca! At-ti-ca!” 125 Min. (1975)

August 3rd: On the Waterfront (Sony/Columbia)

Powerful, man-vs-union-racketeers drama set on the New Jersey docks remains a contenda. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Elia Kazan). Marlon Brando was named Best Actor after being shut out the 3 previous years. Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Rod Steiger were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor. All lost. A very pregnant Eva Marie Saint, however, picked up an Oscar for her effort. 108 Min. (1954)

August 10th: Rebel Without A Cause (Warner Bros.)

Landmark tale of teen angst is still disturbing today. Natalie Wood and James Dean star as the tragic lovers, while Sal Mineo provides sensitive support as the outcast, Plato. Direction by Nicholas Ray takes full advantage of the wide screen canvas. 111 Min. (1955)

All films begin at sunset and are located on the Mall between 4th and 7th St. Metro: L'Enfant Plaza or Archives. Getting your dancing shoes on, and your picnic spreads ready.

Related: Thing 58: Screen on the Green, Save Screen on the Green, Top 10 DC Things To Do Summer 2009

Things 146, 147, 148 and 20 Revisited

Well, it seems that it took ten weeks before I abandoned one of my new years resolution to blog more regularly.  But, it was in part because I was busy completing a different resolution that I didn't tell you about at the time (in case of utter failure).  And that resolution was to complete the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler.  Which I did.  

So, without further ado, a brief roundup of the Things I've been up to in my absence.

Thing 146: Run the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler

I've never been a runner in my life, so what possessed me to sign up for my very first race and have it be not just a 5k, or heck, even a 10k, but ten miles?  Apparently, I don't like to do anything half-assed.

So I started training in December, building up to three miles as a comfortable base distance.  Then I joined a running group that trains for this specific race.  We met on Saturday mornings going ever-further distances: three miles, then four, then six, then (I can't believe it still) eight, until I'd built up to 9.75 the week before the big race.  Eight miles really seems like a lot when you look at map to see that you've run from Foggy Bottom to Lincoln Park and back.  

Race Day was beautiful.  The weather was a warm, breezy 70 degrees, the sun was out and everyone was in great spirits.  The people cheering along the route helped to keep my spirits up as I ran from the Washington Monument, across the Memorial Bridge and back, down to the Kennedy Center, around the Tidal Basin, around Haines Point and back to the Memorial.  And I beat my goal time of two hours by a whopping eleven minutes!  Coming in at 1:48:59, I completed my first ten miler.

Thing 147: Founding Farmers

This restaurant has been buzzing since it opened, and I'm surprised it took me so long to make it over there, seeing as how their philosophy is very much in tune with mine. 

At Founding Farmers we believe that everyone benefits by knowing more about the source of the food they eat. We understand the journey of our products from seed to harvest, and from Farm-to-Table. Owned by a collective of American family farmers, Founding Farmers exists to promote the products and services of family farms, ranches, and fisheries.

Plus, the have a bacon-bourbon cocktail.  Bacon! And bourbon! In a cocktail!  

I went for a work lunch, and my guest and I had a really great experience.  I had heard mixed things about the service, but one time I was there our service was impeccable.  In fact, our waiter walked us through choices on the menu, specialty cocktails and why they were so special, and even shared a laugh with us about biodynamic wines.  And he read my mind when he asked if I was ready for the carrot cake I hadn't ordered yet but was so totally ready for.

The food was great, too.  I had a harvest salad with fresh spinach, hard-boiled eggs, blue cheese, thick cut cubes of bacon and caramelized onions.  My guest had fried chicken and waffles, which I stole a bite of in order to vouch that the fried chicken was juicy and crispy and all those things fried chicken really ought to be.  And the carrot cake was exactly what I wanted, with not-too-sweet cream cheese frosting and these ridiculously good candied pecans.

My bacon bourbon cocktail?  The biggest disappointment.  Perfect in theory, but in practice, you get a glass of cold, spicy bourbon and a hot bacon lollipop on the side, and consuming it in a way that makes sense is impossible.  Either you dunk the lolly, in which case the bacon gets cold and the fat congeals, or you drink and nibble, drink and nibble, which is simply too high maintenance for a cocktail.  

This place is not cheap, so save it for a special occasion.  But that said, I did have a good experience here.

Thing 148: The Shakespeare Theatre Company

Hey, remember when I saw The Heavens are Hung in Black and it was terrible?  Well, my recent experience at the Shakespeare Theatre was the exact opposite of that.

My friend Sam took me to see Ion, "the Greek tragedy with a happy ending", in the newly built theater in Chinatown.  The play has been updated in language and look, and I have to admit, I just loved the whole production.  The Greek chorus was recast to be a half-dozen modern-day tourists who attended to a royal power couple.  Apollo's temple was a tourist attraction, attended to by Ion, a boy born to Creusa after she was raped by Apollo.  (The back story recap was done with puppets and was both playful and effective).  Mistaken identities and hilarious hijinks ensued, but instead of a stage littered with dead bodies, this play ends in singing and uplift.  

Not every part of the update was a home run, but enough of it was, and it was playful and fun enough to keep everyone engaged and smiling.  

Thing 20, Revisited: Cherry Blossom Picnic

We inaugurated picnic season under the blossoms again this year, with an abundance of dips, deviled eggs, box wine, cookies and a gingerbread bundt cake.  Do not be dissuaded by the crowds, this yearly tradition is not to be missed.

If you do have a favorite picnic place, please leave it for me in the comments.  I want to fit in as many 'nics as possible before the humidity sets in. 

Thing 135: The United States Botanic Garden

January has been kind of rough, right?

It's not just me and my thin, grew-up-in-California skin is it? I mean, it's been COLD outside, right? That was a lot of snow and ice, right? And, if I recall the last ten winters I've spent in this District, February is always our coldest month. We always get our city-shuts-down snow storm in February, and it's always impossibly, bitterly cold in February which makes me mad every year because spring is in sight. So we're not even to the worst of it, despite how frozen my toes got on Inauguration Day.

But now, I have a plan for getting through it.

Because my most glorious, impromptu and inexpensive Saturday was not over yet, after the hairballs and the ackee. Oh, no. We then proceeded south, into the warm, tropical, humid embrace of the US Botanic Garden.

The Botanic Garden is free. And warm. And beautiful. And there are copious benches in all of these free, warm, beautiful rooms. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? Why am I not reading in the Botanic Garden all the time?!

I could peel off layers and be comfortable in a t-shirt. I could change into flip flops. I could spend the whole afternoon there and catch up on issues of the New Yorker and overdue library books. I could break a sweat. This is very exciting to me.

But don't tell anyone my secret, OK? I want to ensure that I have some bench space to myself once February hits.

The Boyfriend took some great pictures during our visit. Enjoy!


PS - I finally got around to updating the DC365 City Guide -- so check out the link on right to find something to do no matter what your mood or location!

Thing 128: The 13th Annual Iranian Film Festival

So, here's the thing when you open yourself up to new cultural experiences and your only criteria is that it be free:  sometimes, those experiences suck.

It was truly with an open mind and fairly high hopes that Good Friend David and I headed to the Freer Gallery on Friday night to take in Banana Skin, the film that would kick off the 13th Annual Iranian Film Festival.  Despite a degree in Middle Eastern Studies, I admit to being fairly ignorant about Iranian culture though I've heard rumors that it's vibrant, critical and exciting.

Unfortunately, the movie was none of those things.  It was an unfunny comedy, poorly acted and lacking a plot that -- how do I put this delicately -- made any sense.  The rough story is much like It's A Wonderful Life, except the opposite.  A business man so focused on making money that he has no personal life to speak of gets hit by a car and falls into a coma (are we laughing yet?).  While 'dead,' he falls in love with a beautiful woman in the afterlife.  When he wakes from the coma, he decides that the only way he can be happy is to be reunited with his love.  Which means he has to die.  Except that suicide is a sin.  So he has to die 'accidentally.'  So he hires a hit man to murder him, but the hit man is a heroin addict who forgets to kill him.  

Never have I been so nostalgic for George Bailey's rosy-cheeked children and their glee at bell-ringing.

I'd love to expound about how the different viewpoints (better off dead v. better off alive) is a metaphor for the hopeless situation in Iran whereas the American dream allows for hope and optimism.  I am sure that that would be woefully misguided.  Sometimes a bad movie is just a bad movie, and I'd sure hate for all of American culture to be judged on Sweet Home Alabama.  

I should also mention that it was pretty obvious that the subtitling was terrible.  If I spoke Farsi, this may have been an adequate movie rather than a poor one, but I can't imagine it transcending higher than that.  I'm puzzled by its inclusion in a festival designed to highlight the films of Iran, which have to get better than this.

The festival continues through February with five other films, all of which are shown free of charge at the Freer.  While I can't in good conscience recommend Banana Skin, I do urge you to cast the dice and check out one of the remaining films.  If you do, please report back in the comments and let me know your thoughts.

Thing 117: The Folklife Festival

"We FINALLY went to the Folklife Festival," I told my dinner companion as we sat over salsas and ceviches at Lauriol Plaza, in answer to the fairly innocuous question of what did you do today?

"You couldn't possibly have done that yet...isn't it always the tradition that they hold the Folklife Festival at the hottest, sweatiest time of year? Part of the tradition is melting into a pool of sweat!"

Oh, rest assured. It was plenty hot for the annual Folk Life Festival, which closed this past Sunday. GFD and I went on the very last day, and melt into a pool of dusty, Mall sweat we did.

We also housed a plate of ribs in about a minute and half, walked through an authentic Buddhist Temple from Bhutan, and scratched our heads and said "NASA?"

Let me go back for a second, for those of you who didn't make it to the festival this year. Every year, for two weeks around the 4th of July (when the mall is at its sweatiest and dustiest), the Smithsonian erects a great many tents and pavilions and picks three cultures from the world to showcase in all their native, folk glory. There's always food, music, dancing, arts and crafts, and educational demonstrations, lectures and performances. In other words, it's a good time, sweat and all.

This year, the cultures highlighted were Texas, Bhutan and...NASA. NASA was celebrating it's 50th anniversary, and I guess spent a bunch of dollars to be spotlit at the festival, but come on. A folk culture it is not. GFD and I kept wandering around it saying "but isn't there...oh, I don't know...a WHOLE museum dedicated to this?...Like, right over there on the Mall already?!"

But Bhutan and Texas were pretty cool. Mostly, GFD and I ate our way through both cultures. We went to the Texas BBQ house and ate ribs.

Then we went ate the national dish of Bhutan, ema datsi, which is chilies with cheese and potatoes, and white rice with some kind of red rice mixed in. To be honest, we were nervous. But it turns out, it tasted like queso with jalapenos. Not so weird or exotic. It actually might have come out of an industrial can of nacho-grade queso, so underwhelming overall. We did think it was funny that the same thing could have been purchased at the Tex Mex booth, and we probably wouldn't have noticed. We also ate pork dumplings (God I love dumplings) inexplicably served with salsa that also seemed to have borrowed from the Tex Mex booth.

The music part of the Texas exhibit was great, with an opry house tent, and a dance hall tent. We heard country music, two stepping, and mariachis in the course of the hour we were there. And the arts and crafts piece of the Bhutan exhibit was pretty good too. Their weaving and textiles are bright and fun, with Buddhas and dragons and bright pinks knit with reds and blues and greens in lively patterns. They even assembled a model Buddhist temple, the pieces of which were hand crafted in Bhutan and shipped to Washington, DC for assembly. And inside, there were live monks making music (and looking remarkably hot and bored)!

It's too late for this year if you missed it, but next year be sure to go, even though you are guaranteed to dissolve into a sweaty mess. There is great music, good food, and a lot to see and do. I imagine if you have children, it is an ideal place to let them run and see and touch and dance. And maybe next year, they will focus on three actual folk cultures. Or maybe they will highlight the Department of Homeland Security instead.

Coming up: SotG!!!!! See you there! HBO Dance-off promptly at dusk.

Join me over at the Cork & Knife, where I tackle jam-making.

Thing 108: The White House Gardens and Grounds

The thing I love about this blog, other than having done 108 new and unique-to-DC things, is the people I have met and the free stuff I’ve gotten. DC Sarah, who found me way back when, is now a staple in my life. And I’m such a big deal I got this book for free. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to come out of the shadows and enrich my life with your company, or free stuff.

And so it came to pass that a loyal reader contacted me out of the blue and invited me and five friends to the White House.

Yes, please.

Three times a year, this reader told me, they open the White House grounds to the public. Anyone can go, tickets are free and first come first serve. But through her work, she is able to bring up to six guests, no waiting in line, no tickets needed.

And so we found ourselves last Sunday, on the very same lawn that the Pope just visited. We got right up against the East Wing, under the balcony of the President’s bedroom. We gazed out, across the South Lawn, across the ellipse to the Washington and Jefferson memorials (Mason, sorry, you aren’t tall enough to compete).

We circled the South Lawn and listened to the Navy band play. We spied the presidential swimming pool through the bushes, passed the tennis court and the putting green. We walked on the runners track that Clinton had installed around the lawn. And just when we thought the presidency was just about a sweet home and abundand leisure activities, we were able to see the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office from the outside.

Of course, Sam and I were able to recognize the layout of the West Wing from our tour in December. We are getting to be experts.

We waited in line to see the Children’s Garden, which Mrs. Johnson had installed – a quiet, reflective area with a fish pool and the hand prints of all the presidential grandchildren. Seeing all those Bush grandkids (Barbara and Jenna are in there, as the grandkids of Bush the elder) it really starts to dawn on you – they’re not growing a dynasty, they’re creating an empire!

Truly, it was an honor and a privilege to see the White House from so close, and walk the garden paths that such powerful and important people have walked before us. I want to thank our patron, who suggested it and allowed us to cut the queue, and I want to encourage all of you to give me suggestions of other places to try out…and if you can throw in some free passes, all the better!

Thing 107: The George Mason Memorial

Poor George Mason. The forgotten founding father. Oh sure, he has a university in his name, but where oh where is his memorial? Lincoln sits stately in his marble palace. George Washington’s phallus towers over the skyline. Jefferson keeps watch over the Tidal Basin beneath his dome. Rappers lament their lack of “Benjamins, baby,” an homage to Franklin’s perch on the $100 bill.

Don’t fret, Mason lovers! Six years ago, your man Georgie got his due, with a small memorial tucked away near the Jefferson along the banks of the Tidal Basin. We stumbled upon it last weekend when were returning from a picnic beneath the blossoms.

It is a small and peaceful place. A small reflecting pool surrounded by flowers. Words from the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was used as the blueprint for the Bill of Rights, are carved into the marble walls. A large bronze statue shows Mason in contemplative relaxation. He sits under an awning, his cane resting on the bench, legs casually crossed, looking out into the distance with a finger holding the place in his book. He’s about twice the size of a real person, dressed in knickers and a cravat, looking like a person who is about to found a nation.

Thing 91: The National Christmas Tree

I have a pretty intense NaBloPoMo hangover. After 30 days, I feel like I never want to blog again, which is a shame because I took a really awesome tour of the West Wing last weekend and I have pictures of me in the press briefing room and everything. But there is only one thing that could pull me out of my funk, and it is the National Christmas Tree.

I love the National Tree!! Located on the Ellipse, behind the White House, it is one of my favorite things about Christmas time in the District. Sure there is the great big tree, but what people usually don't realize is that each U.S. state and territory has it's own little tree surrounding the big one. They are all decorated by some charitable organization from that state in a way that is symbolic of that state. Plus there is a giant yule log fire pit and Christmas carols and lots of electric trains.

If you are not yet in the holiday spirit, throw on your mittens and head down to the Ellipse. And when you get too darn cold, you can head over to the Willard for a sugar plum toddy!

Thing 86: The National Gallery, East Wing

It is way too soon after the feast to write a food related post, so Matchbox will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead, I am going to lay on the couch with this pot belly of mine, and ANTM on in the background, and tell you all about the really great Hopper exhibition at the East Wing of the National Gallery.


You haven't seen it yet? You must! A complete and all-encompassing retrospective of his very prolific career, this exhibition follows Hopper from his early etchings, through his watercolors in Glocester, Mass, his oils of lighthouses in Maine, and of course his most famous scenes of New York City. I didn't know much about Hopper going in -- his "Nighthawks" piece, sure, but not much else -- but I must say that after the exhibit, I have a huge appreciation for Hopper and his work.

He was a master of light and shadow. He understood the power of natural light and was able to really beautifully capture the purple shadows in unlikely ways. He also tended to paint unexpected subjects. For example, he painted a whole series of pictures of lighthouses in Maine, but rarely do we see what might be expected at a lighthouse. Namely, the sea. Instead, we see the lighthouse against the hills, the hills with a corner of the lighthouse, the base of the lighthouse with some bushes and trees creating shadows.

Likewise, his famous scenes of people in New York City. He captures unassuming moments, scenes between people or through windows that don't seem noteworthy at all, but instill a sense of isolation or longing in the viewer. In Hopper's world, the theater-goers are more interesting than the movie and each apartment window hides complex lives and ambiguous stories.

There's a brief documentary at the end of the exhibit, a short 15 minute film about Hopper and his work, narrated by Steve Martin. It provides a good narrative and perspective on the paintings you've just seen, and helps to put them into historical perspective. One of the artists interviewed in the film says "I've never met anyone who didn't like Hopper. His works appeal to everyone." I think he may be right, and I urge all of you to see the exhibit before it leaves in January.


We also checked out the bottom floor of the East Wing (and not just the gelato stand), enjoying the Liechtensteins, Warhols and Calders. Yes, there are blank white canvasses and cans of Campbell's soup cans and some weird stuff going on, but it's some of the best weird stuff you can find. And walking around the gallery might help burn off some of those turkey and cheesecake calories.

Thing 83: Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe

When you think cafeteria, you're probably thinking...what? Soggy egg salad sandwiches. Meatloaf in chafing dishes. Over salted frozen mixed vegetables. Jello cups. Right?

The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, the cafeteria at the National Museum of the American Indian, will completely dispel those negative ideas, proving that food you served on a tray need not be stale or of questionable nutritional value, but can actually be delicious, satisfying, healthy and adventurous cooking.

Since the Museum of the American Indian is a Smithsonian, admission is free and you can pop right back to the cafeteria. The actual museum is going to merit a really thorough post at some point in the future, with me spending a lot of time there and really thinking about the whole enterprise. That day was not yesterday. Yesterday I just wanted my lunch.


As one might expect from a museum about native cultures, the foods at the cafeteria are all native to the U.S. and the cooking techniques mimic those of the native tribes. The stations are divided by geography, so there is one for the Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Great Plains, etc. Each station serves a main dish, several sides, and usually a soup and a dessert. The wide geographic diversity means plenty to choose from -- buffalo burgers or carnitas tacos, pumpkin soup or seafood stew, salmon, elk, turkey, oysters, clams...Limiting oneself to foods native to this continent is hardly limiting at all.

I ended up eating from the Pacific Northwest, where the lure of cedar planked salmon cooked over an open flame (seriously, you could see the open flame) was too much for me resist. Cooked until moist and rich, it was then brushed with a sweet blueberry sauce, a nice contrast to the rich, dense fish. Although you can choose your side dishes from any station to create a trans-continental lunch, I stayed with the Northwest, getting corn pone with wild mushrooms and wild rice salad with dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and watercress. The corn pone was like extra smooth grits, and was so rich with mushrooms and (I'm guessing) butter it was all I could do keep from eating all of it at once. The wild rice salad was also good -- clean and light, with a nice sweetness from the cranberries.

My lunchtime companion went further East, to the Rocky Mountains, and had roasted elk which was really good. I'd never had elk -- it was rich and gamy had a great crust on the outside and tender chewiness on the inside. He also got grilled corn on the cob and green and yellow beans.

There's a variety of desserts available too, little pumpkin pies or brownies or key lime tarts, but the best is the Indian pudding -- that slow cooked cornmeal mush, sweetened with molasses or maple syrup. It is the very perfect dessert for a cold fall day, warm and sweet and satisfying.

The cafeteria itself is a beautiful space -- no plastic picnic tables and fluorescent lighting here. The lines all bend and curve, just like the architecture of the whole building, and the walls are painted a warm red color. Large windows look out onto the Mall and the Capitol, with tables and benches running along the windows and into a round open space with long wooden tables. The ambiance is a bit...hectic, what with the inevitable hordes of elementary school children on field trips and fanny-packed tourists. And the food isn't cheap -- my plate set me back $16, which seems pricey for a meal eaten on a yellow plastic tray, even if it is much better than the average cafeteria.

This remains a great and unexpected lunch spot, replete with interesting and delicious foods, and I urge you stop by and try it. Be warned though, you might be overwhelmed with the desire to just stay at the museum after lunch -- or maybe pop in next door for a cosmic show.

Thing 82: The Einstein Planetarium

Today I played tourist by hitting up the National Air and Space Museum on my lunch break and seeing galaxies collide at the Einstein Planetarium.

When was the last time you've been to a planetarium? For me, I haven't been since I was about eight years old at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. I recommend going back to the planetarium than it took me -- the show I saw today was great!

First of all, it's narrated by Robert Redford, who, it turns out, is not only easy on the eyes, but easy on the ears! Second of all, I learned a lot. The show I saw, "Cosmic Collisions," explained how collisions in the universe were responsible for such things as our moon, the Northern Lights, the extinction of the dinosaurs, and billions of years from now the joining of the Milky Way with the Andromeda Galaxy. All brought to you in swirling 3D, with meteorites orbiting above your head and stars twinkling brightly in the night sky.

Tickets for adults cost $8.50, though the museum's admission is, of course, free. Apparently, if you go in the middle of the day the week before Thanksgiving, you don't even have to wait in line! But I can't vouch for more crowded times of the day. I have seen the line stretch far, far back.

Just relax, recline, allow the darkness to envelope you and listen to Robert Redford's narration. Going to the moon and back on your lunch hour is so much more satisfying than another PBJ at your desk.

Thing 64: Opera on the Mall

In DC, opera is for the masses.

Last Sunday, the Washington National Opera telecast Puccini's La Boheme on the Mall, at the foot of the Washington Monument. Under a perfectly clear, sunny sky, a couple thousand people gathered with blankets and sunscreen to watch a free performance of the famous opera. A large screen was set up on the north side of the grass and we watched the performers as they performed the show on the Kennedy Center stage just down the road.

It's a really nice idea. Bringing opera outdoors, for free, at the foot of a national symbol like the monument. We all know that I'm a big proponent of outdoor movies and performances. But somehow, this idea falls flat when put into practice. For one, it loses a lot by being broadcast. A free live performance on the Mall might still capture the magic and sparkle of the opera, just by virtue of watching live artists and the give and take between performer and audience. The act of applauding performers who cannot hear you feels futile.

Second, it loses a lot by being outside. Opera is hard to sit through for many of us (as evidenced by the mass exodus of people at the intermission), and it is harder still to sit through when you're sitting on a blanket on the ground, squinting from the glare and afraid of getting sunburned. The mystique of opera is that it is a luxury, to be enjoyed in your finest dress clothes and followed by champagne. On this point however, I am torn. I like the idea of breaking down that mystique and presenting opera as an art form for everyone. I don't think this is the way to accomplish that though.

As for the opera itself, again I think it fell flat between the idea -- an update to the classic, allowing it to reach a larger audience by making it more accessible -- and the realization of that idea. Turn-of-the-19th-century Paris becomes a nondescript, modernish any-city, where the artists shoot footage on a cam corder, but write out their stories by hand, without backing them up on a PC. Mimi hand embroiders delicate flowers, but wears a vinyl trench coat. The Cafe Momus looks like Studio 54 and Mimi's tuberculosis becomes some modern, nondescript illness (AIDS? SARS?). While I understand the director's intention to re-make an opera that was once a near documentary of the time in which it was written back into a near documentary of artistic life today, it doesn't work.

I was also completely saddened to find out that the musical Rent has ruined my enjoyment of La Boheme. I can't help but compare the two as the opera progresses, playing Rent simultaneously in my head. This is no fault of the Washington National Opera's, and frankly, I'm pretty mad about it. La Boheme is an exquisite piece of music, and it does not deserve to have me thinking "this is the 'light my candle' song" as it unfolds.

At intermission, Placido Domingo, the General Director of the Washington Opera, made an appearance to speak to the crowd. He told us how happy he was to see so many people out to enjoy opera, and said he hoped that for some of us, this might be the first opera we've ever seen, and that it might inspire us to see more and learn more about the art form. It is a noble wish, and I hope it comes true, but from where I was sitting, I think it's doubtful.

Thing 58: Screen on the Green

Oh sweaty humidity! Oh warm red boxed wine! Oh bad movies, great friends, five kinds of cookies and cute puppies! Oh HBO dance!

It's only just ended, but I miss Screen on the Green already.

I've already written that this activity is my favorite thing to do in DC in the summer, and now with another season under my belt, I stand behind that statement more than ever.

Rather than write a summary of the last five Mondays, which would be rather tedious for me to write and for you to read, I will simply give you some suggestions for making your own SotG experience the best that it can be next summer (only 47 weeks away! But who's counting?).

1. Do the HBO dance. What is it? How do I do it? When do I do it? Why does everyone do it all at once like that? Well, I still don't know the mystery of its origin, but for those of you curious about technique, I have made this instructional video:
   
   
   
   See? Easy enough! Once you've gotten the hang of it, this is what it looks like in practice:
   
   
   
   
2. Invest in one of these chairs that support your back when you lean into it. I haven't yet, but I sure wish I had, every year.


3. Get there early for a good spot, especially if it's a really good movie, like Casablanca. The people who arrived later for Casablanca had to sit about three blocks away from the screen. The movie will actually start around 9pm, when it gets dark enough to see the movie projected on the screen.
   
   


4. Bring your dog! If your dog is relatively small and well-behaved, he or she is a welcome addition to the party.
   
   



5. Fried chicken makes an excellent picnic food.
   
   



6. Maybe don't bring your dog and fried chicken at the same time, unless you want to see a very sad looking dog.
   
   



7. Bring enough box wine that it doesn't matter when the movie turns out to be about a carnivorous carrot from another planet that drinks blood.
   
   



8. Wear light, comfortable clothes. We lucked out somehow and it was downright chilly for one of the movies, but for the most part it is very very hot and very very humid. I favor dresses or shorts and I pity those poor saps who wear jeans. Also, bring lots of water. Man cannot stay hydrated with box wine alone.


9. Bring your bug spray! I practically bathe in the stuff, and I still get a bite or two by the end of the evening, so be warned.


10. Enjoy the view. Other cities show outdoor movies, but we're the only one with a view of the Capitol and the Washington Monument as our backdrop.

Side note: In addition to the DC365 City Guide, keep an eye out for some more new features and changes coming to the site! Exciting changes are afoot!