(It goes without saying, of course, that John Lennon and the Beatles were considerably more popular than Jesus.)
Lennon and Kemp Muhl will be performing at Iota Club in Clarendon (2832 Wilson Blvd) tonight with their band, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.
Uncompensated Care Costs Local Hospitals $102 Million — While discussing health care on a local TV interview show earlier this week, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) cited a figure that seemed unbelievable. Moran said that in our congressional district alone, hospitals spend more than $100 million per year paying for those who don’t have insurance or can’t pay the bills. That figure appears to be accurate, says TBD’s Facts Machine.
Lawmakers Outline Priorities — Arlington’s state lawmakers discussed their priorities for the 2011 legislative session earlier this week. Proposals include eliminating the sales tax on food and replacing it with a higher income tax for the wealthy, increasing the state’s low cigarette tax and setting more stringent requirements on petition drives. More from the Sun Gazette.
The event will feature a music performance by local band Fools & Horses, photo booth, stilt walker, magician, juggler, ice princess and refreshments.
Pentagon Row stores will be offering specials and conducting giveaways during the event.
If you’re looking to get in the Christmas spirit, good news: there are holiday events aplenty around Arlington. There are so many events, in fact, that one is bound to bring a smile to the face of even the most ardent Grinch.
A few of the entries in our recently-updated Events Calendar:
MacDonald, who is playing IOTA Club (2832 Wilson Blvd) tonight with two fellow Strathmore Artists in Residence, seems destined for bigger things. A five-time Washington Area Music Award winner, MacDonald received “a little bit” of national recognition in the past year, when her self-funded album, Walls, made a list of possible GRAMMY nominees for Best Album of the Year.
Walls was actually the teen’s third album. Her first came out when she was 12, about three years after she started classic opera training. During her young career, MacDonald has veered from very folk-oriented to “completely hard rock” to what she now describes as “pop acoustic rock with a bit of a world influence.”
How there is only one domestic band that combines North Indian Bhangra and brass band funk is beyond us, especially considering the infectious energy that the culture-melding band brings to their shows.
New York-based Red Baraat features a rapping sousaphone player, three percussionists (counting the guy on cow bell), and a band leader whose collaborations have included performing with rapper Q-Tip and a fitness instructor known as “the Indian Jane Fonda.” That, combined with a five-piece horn section, produces a group that, in the words of the PR department, “plays fresh originals and Bollywood classics with an explosive stage performance and presence.”
Sushi Rock volunteered for most of the provisions sought by residents of the high-end condos above the restaurant: keeping doors and windows closed during live entertainment, using sound-dampening materials, testing decibel levels in condos, designating a “neigborhood liason,” prohibiting loitering outside the business, picking up trash outside, and so forth.
Owners did not agree, however, to restricting the use of outdoor speakers on the restaurant’s patio. But that’s exactly what happened last night. The board approved the live entertainment permit with a provision that the outdoor speakers be shut off after 10:00 p.m. on weekdays and 11:00 p.m. on weekends.
Earmark Could Save Planetarium — Rep. Jim Moran says he’s going to try to dig up $400,000 in federal funds to help renovate and save Arlington’s David M. Brown Planetarium. But even if he’s successful, Moran’s press secretary says the money would not be available until late next year — past the fundraising deadline the school board set for the non-profit Friends of the Planetarium group. More from the Sun Gazette.
Golf Farce Premieres at Signature Theater — Now playing at Shirlington’s Signature Theater: A Fox on the Fairway. The show, which is making its world premiere at Signature, is a “screwball comedy” and “a tribute… to the great English farces of the 1930s and 1940s.” Starring Jeff McCarthy, Holly Twyford and Andrew Long, A Fox on the Fairway is “about love, life, and man’s eternal love affair with… golf.” See a video promo here.
Don’t tell your boss, but the jazz in particular may be something you could listen to while whittling away the hours at work.
See the Jazz Fest video here, and the Clarendon Day video here.
From noon to 6:00 on Saturday, thousands of beer drinkers will jam Campbell Avenue in Shirlington Village for the 10th annual Mid-Atlantic Oktoberfest. Wear your best lederhosen and bring extra cash for bratwurst. Oh, and bring a non-drinking friend who can help you get home safely AND provide a few extra sample tickets to your group (for $25, each attendee gets 10 tickets good for one 4 oz. beer sample each).
Dog lovers skipping the Oktoberfest may want to check out Dogtober Day and Barker’s Bash, a dog show and festival full of fun and games. It’s taking place at Lacey Woods Park (1200 N. George Mason Dr.) from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Things will kick off Saturday at 8:20 a.m. with a 5K race, followed by a 10K and a Kids Dash.
Then at 11:00 a.m., the main festivities get underway.
As soon as next weekend, Clarendon Grill will reopen after nearly two months of renovations. Walking through the doors, the long-time C-Grill fans will see a space both familiar and completely different at the same time.
Nearly every surface in the bar has been changed, says owner Peter Pflug. From the long cast-in-place concrete bar to the large-tiled bathrooms to the new dance floor, what was once old and beat up and is now clean and new. That old Clarendon Grill musk, from 14 straight years of eating, drinking, smoking and dancing since the last renovation, has been replaced with the smell of fresh lacquer.
