If there was ever a day to skip out of work after lunch, this is it. Between the nice weather, the start of the NCAA basketball tournament and — of course — the fact that it’s St. Patrick’s Day, this is not a day that should be spent cooped up in an office filing TPS reports.
Here are a few places you can go to wear the green, watch the game or otherwise have a good time.
Ragtime (1345 North Courthouse Road) — Ragtime is holding its 10th annual Mardi Gras party tonight. The restaurant is serving a special Cajun menu all day, Hurricanes and Cyclones are on special, and the Le Bon Temps Krew will be playing New Orleans jazz music from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. And yes, there will be beads.
Iota Club & Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd) — Iota is hosting a parade viewing party on its front porch. After the parade, local southern acoustic rock outfit Brother Shamus will take the stage. Admission is $5 after the parade, free before.
Bill Would Increase Handicap Parking Fine — Del. David Englin (D) — a prolific proposer of legislation — has introduced a bill that would increase the maximum fine for illegally parking in a handicapped parking space from $500 to $750. The minimum fine would remain $100. [Sun Gazette]
Blog Conducts Cupcake Taste Test — Which has the better cupcake, the new Crumbs Bake Shop (2839 Clarendon Blvd) or Bakeshop (1025 N Fillmore St)? A local blog conducted a taste test and produced an exhaustive a 1,100+ word comparison. [Clarendon Culture]
Despite the weather and the fact it was Tuesday, a decent-sized crowd jammed into Clarendon’s Iota Club last night to see Sean Lennon perform with girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl.
Together, Lennon and Kemp Muhl comprise The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger. Under low lights, the band performed their dreamy, acoustic folk rock as snowflakes fell outside — a fitting backdrop.
(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.
