Our City Film Festival

WHAT: Our City Film Festival, a showcase of films about Washington's subcultures, history, social issues and personalities

WHEN: February 10, from 12-9

WHERE: Busboys and Poets

HOW MUCH: $6 per "block" (not sure how long each block is)

The festival is a project of Yachad, a non-profit focused on affordable housing and community development. Learn more about the films in the lineup, and buy tickets in advance, here (warning, their site tends to load pretty slowly).

(Update Feb. 3: read the Post's article about the festival)

Thanks to Letty for the heads up on this cool-sounding event! I of course love their tagline:

DC is more than just politicos and monuments

Amen.

Free Screening of Film on Hip-Hop Culture

I used to work at PBS, and I still freelance for them, so I'm always excited when films they've aired screen around town. The latest example is Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which aired last year as part of PBS' Independent Lens series. It's a documentary on hip-hop culture, and it's screening at American University's Wechsler Theater on February 6 at 5:30pm. Tickets are free. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Georgetown Assistant Professor Scott Heath, whose research has included African American literature and black public culture, including hip-hop studies.

Learn more about the film - and rate and review rap songs, and/or submit your own songs - here.

Me and Cosmo

Photo courtesy of Katie Jett of Red Turtle Photography. I love how we have the same facial expression...

"No Child" at Woolly Mammoth

I saw the one-woman play "No Child..." at Woolly Mammoth yesterday. Man do I love that theater. The space is gorgeous, and their mission - of "igniting" engagement between artists and the community - inspires me.

The play, about a high school classroom in the Bronx, was very well-done, but I was left feeling like it was a story I'd seen before: the extraordinary teacher who inspires a group of inner-city students. There's value in telling the story again, through a different artist's lens, in that it has a chance to reach different people, or the same people in different ways, and inspire action. And watching writer/performer Nilaja Sun slip in and out of a dozen or so different roles is a real treat. But I didn't feel like the play introduced me to any ideas or even any characters, really, that I hadn't seen before.

Still, I'm inspired that there are people out there, like Sun, who not only teach (and reach) troubled students, but also create art about their life experiences, and share that art with the world - instead of limiting it to private journal entries or conversations with friends. So thank you to Nilaja Sun, and to Woolly for giving artists like her a place to showcase their work.

P.S. There's another show playing there right now, The K of D, an urban legend, that looks very interesting - tickets are only $18...

I Heart Bumper Stickers

On Friday afternoon I spotted a car with an ART bumper sticker - a white oval with a black border and the word ART in all caps, just like one of those ubiquitous OBX stickers. To its right was a sticker that said "This car was a gift from Elvis." I was immediately interested in meeting the driver.

My own car is covered with stickers that display the following messages:

• 9/11 ("does not equal" sign) Iraq
• Cough if you like SUVs
  
• Bill Bradley 2000
• Kerry/Edwards 2004
• Carcetti 2007
  
• What Would Buffy Do?
• Duck, NC
• Radiohead
• HOWL if you (heart) City Lights Books
• The revolution will be improvised

I should note that these stickers cover my husband's and my "lovingly used" '97 Saturn. (It has been used most lovingly by me, in connection with columns in parking garages.) This, it seems, is my thing: old, raggedy cars, covered in messages that announce my hippie-dom (my first car was an '87 Cutlas Cruiser, vanity plates: FMLYCR). (One day I want vanity plates that say LCNSPL8. Get it?!)

What does your car, or other favored mode of transport, say about you?

Demo-licious

Everywhere I go, it seems, I run into someone obsessed with the Food Network. I don't see the appeal - I love food, sure, but watching people cook holds zero interest.

...Unless, it turns out, that person is someone I know. My friend Kristen recently posted a video demonstrating how to make cupcakes, namely, lemon cupcakes with toasted meringue frosting.

I like her recommended pairing with champagne in a can. I like that I feel like I'm hanging out in her kitchen with her. I like that this looks like something I could do, and like I might even enjoy doing it. And mostly I like watching an artisan at work.

What's something you love to make that you could demo for others?

Glad Tidings from New York

Greetings from a cold, cold New York, where I am currently feeling grateful for hot chocolate and hot toddies...

Warm Up to a Museum

Baby it's cold outside (it's snowing as I write this) - so why not Warm Up to a Museum?

WUTAM is based on a simple premise: it's cold outside, so stay warm and get your culture on at the same time. The organizers at Cultural Tourism DC have put together a packed schedule of film screenings, gallery talks, tours and more at museums and other organizations around town, throughout the month of February.

Get the schedule of events here.

[Sidebar: I noticed that one of the events features local artist Tim Tate, which made me think of this.]

Art and the "real world"

"Art frees you from the infuriating unfinishedness of the real world."

-Mark Bowden, in his great profile of David Simon, creator of The Wire (the article, in the Atlantic Monthly, also explores the differences between art and journalism - it's a good read, even if you don't watch the show)

Point of contention: art is part of the real world.

The Artist's Way or the Highway...

How has it been 10 days since I last posted!? Egads. I will be better, I will be better...

Some exciting news from the blogosphere: my friend Kimberly Wilson, founder of Tranquil Space Yoga and a great inspirer/facilitator of creative living, will be holding an online version of her popular "creativity circle" workshop series. Get the details here.

If you sign up, you'll be reading The Artist's Way and working through the book's exercises as a group. I've said it before and will say again that this book changed my life. I'm not exaggerating.

It's a hard book to read alone, because it stirs up a lot of emotions, and because it really does work best if you follow its schedule of daily and weekly exercises. So if you can't take Kimberly's class, I highly recommend forming your own Artist's Way group, even if it's just you and one other person. Here are some tips to help you get started.

You might also be interested in The Artist's Way at Work.

I'll leave you with this thought, which I found on the {my topography} blog (where, incidentally, (a) I found the collage image above, and (b) you can dig up an archive called Blogging the Artist's Way):

The other night I was talking to a friend. He said, “I don’t know, I guess I still feel like somewhere inside me is an inner superhero.”

Let him out, dude, let him out. No one else is going to do it for you.

If I had a hammer...

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.
- Vladimir Mayakovski (early 20th century Russian writer)

Agree? Disagree? Discuss. (And thanks, Dave, for sending this my way...)

Buy Indie: Top DC Songs of 2007

The folks over at BuyIndie tallied up the songs by DC bands that readers liked best in '07 - check out the winners, then tell me: what's your favorite local band? Name them, link to them, and describe them in 10 words or less.