Posts Tagged ‘Entertainment’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, October 7th, 2011
Friday, Oct. 7, 2011
The Waterford Fair is a unique event, and I encourage all Northern Virginians to check it out. The fair is on display all three days this weekend, rain or shine, so don’t miss it.
But with that said, Fairfax provides loads of modern fall fun this Saturday, Oct. 8 at its 35th annual Fall Festival. Much like its summertime counterpart, Celebrate Fairfax, the Fall Festival is all about its host city–Fairfax, of course. Dozens of local vendors, restaurants and businesses will be on display in old town Fairfax.
Musical performances are plentiful, including a lengthy set by the legendary Gonzo’s Nose. And I’m particularly looking forward to the classic car show on North Street. Note: rain makeup day is Sunday, Oct. 9.
For mouthwatering mania, venture into the city for Taste of D.C. How does 60 area restaurants and craft beer tastings sound? Oh and general admission is totally free.
Live music from huge acts are set to pulse their tasty tunes to complement all the delicious eats–most notably Styx and Big & Rich, among other bands.
Pennsylvania Avenue is about to get a lot more delectable. Buy tickets here.
Waterford Fair: A Fair for the Ages
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011
One of Northern Virginia’s most beloved treasures, the Waterford Fair, flourishes yet again this weekend. Waterford is a National Historic Landmark, and its fair is one of the best fairs in the US.
Turns out you don’t have to go far to enjoy a day in the country. Northern Virginia has plenty of country to go around. Waterford’s streets swell with craftspeople, merchants, cooks and musicians for this annual fall festival.
Compelling scents, from steaming homemade stews to dried flowers to seasonal fruit muffins to campfires, drift at you from every direction. Musical notes swirl in the air with the autumn leaves, but the instruments don’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard–their tunes time travel out of the past to be heard once more in our community.
A harpist, just one of the many musicians at the Waterford Fair. Photo courtesy Mary Kenesson.
Over 150 traditional craftspeople show up to the fair each year to sell their wares and to demonstrate their historically accurate methods. Metal-working, basket-making, quilting and many other trades will be on hand.
A traditional broommaker. Photo courtesy Ron Hall.
Activities abound for all ages. Many craftspeople encourage children’s participation. Revolutionary War and Civil War re-enactors stage skirmishes and set up camp. Tour over a dozen historic houses throughout Waterford.
Food is plentiful and unbelievably delicious. Options include something for everyone. Vegetarian? No problem. Desserts? Take your pick. Not to mention many, many more. All homemade, and ready to eat on the spot or take home.
Don’t miss this magical opportunity. I try to go every possible year, and it’s always satisfying.
Tickets are $17 per person per day, but advance tickets for less are available and anyone 12 or under gets in free. The fair runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 7-9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Here are directions and more info.
Confederate band. Photo courtesy Miriam Westervelt.
–Matt Basheda
Snappy and Springy: Photo Walks and Gardening Classes
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, October 3rd, 2011
Monday, Oct. 3, 2011
Thumb still green? Knees still dirty? Not ready to accept the end of the 2011 gardening season? Good, because neither are we, and neither is Fairfax. They’ve supplied two new workshops for those already looking forward to spring and how to make their gardens even better next year.
First up is vine gardening. Add a completely new dimension to your garden by learning how to grow vertically with vines. I could personally benefit from this lesson–I tried growing cucumbers on a vertical trellis this summer and it was a complete failure.
The workshop is Friday, Oct. 7, 2011 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Go here to register and learn about even more classes.
A second class gives instruction on putting your garden to holiday use. Learn to make relish, chutney and potpourri. That one’s on Friday, Oct. 21 at the same time. Both classes take place at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria.
But if you’re feeling like a shutterbug, try going on a Photo Walk this weekend. The Photo Walk is actually a worldwide event occurring this weekend with over 1,100 participants across the globe.
There are a few associated walks in Northern Virginia. Professional photographers will lead the group through various area old towns–Leesburg, Fairfax, Alexandria, Occoquan, Winchester and Fredericksburg. Participation is free. Sign up on their website.
Each walk concludes at a local restaurant so the members can gather and compare results. Photo Walks include a global photo contest with a hefty prize. And proceeds from Photo Walk T-shirts go to Springs of Hope Kenya Orphanage.
–Matt Basheda
Most Valuable Place: CD Cellar
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, October 3rd, 2011
Monday, Oct. 3, 2011
If you like music, you’ll like CD Cellar. Take your pick from one of their two locations and get there now.
It’s hard to know where to start the first time you walk into the store. Music titles from every possible genre swim before your eyes. You may end up with an irresistible urge to scoop up whole shelves and take them to the cash register.
Their vast selection includes thousands of CDs and records, and even plenty of DVDs.
The Falls Church store. Photo courtesy Mimi Ratches.
Most of CD Cellar’s stock is used, but new vinyl has an abundant representation as well, with equal parts current, day-of releases and fresh reissues. New CDs are also stocked with the same categories in mind–new bands and reissued oldies.
The flagship store in Falls Church opened in 1992 and it hasn’t looked back. The Arlington location is about 10 years old.
Both are worth checking out on any given day. They are not clones of each other–each store has unique items that the other does not. However, the stores communicate regularly, and so employees typically know what both locations have on hand.
CD Cellar truly has every genre on its shelves. Indie bands play live at the Arlington location most weekends, which is a much-needed scene booster by the way, but indie is by no means CD Cellar’s dominant offering. From country to blues to classical to jazz, no classification is understocked.
DVDs have a healthy variety as well, ranging from new releases to the Criterion Collection, which specializes in re-releasing classic films.
The Arlington store. Photo courtesy Mimi Ratches.
And their prices? Used items are typically half the new price, if not even cheaper. You can easily walk away with a stack of CDs for the price of two new discs from a major retailer. Vinyl depends more heavily on the rarity of the item, but never gets higher than the eBay or Amazon price, plus you don’t have to pay for shipping.
As far as selling goes, CD Cellar accepts any quantity of records, CDs, and DVDs, and give any combination of cash and store credit. However, they prefer gently used items, which accounts for the superior quality of the store’s stock.
CD Cellar is definitely an essential destination for all Northern Virginians.
Locations:
Arlington:
703-248-0635
2607 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201
Falls Church:
703-534-6318
709-B West Broad St.
Falls Church, VA 22046
–Matt Basheda
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, September 30th, 2011
(Image: Kzenon/Shutterstock)
Guten Tag, Gut Checkers!
This weekend, don’t miss out on your chance to put on your lederhosen and polka your eyes out! Here’s a guide to all the Oktoberfest events going on:
Fort Belvoir Oktoberfest
September 29 – October 2 - Fremont Field, Fort Belvoir; (703)879.4088; Prices and hours vary
Octoberfest at Sweetwater Tavern in Sterling
October 1, Noon - 5 p.m. - Sweetwater Tavern, 45980 Waterview Plaza, Sterling; (571)434.6500; Free
Vienna Oktoberfest
October 1, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. - Historic Church Street in Vienna; (703)281.1333; Free
I am planning to head to the Vienna Oktoberfest myself, where I’m promised there will be lots of great German food, live music and beer gardens galore. I can’t wait to go get my bratwurst on!
I’ll see you there!
– Jennie Whistler
Support Local Art This Weekend
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, September 30th, 2011
Friday, Sept. 30, 2011
Need something to do this weekend, but can’t quite put your finger on what you want? The area is actually bursting with art festivals this weekend. Help foster Northern Virginia’s cultural identity and check them out.
ValeArts, a group of local artists, exhibits their colorful art in Oakton Friday, Sept. 30 through Sunday, Oct. 2. This show has been a fixture for 15 years now, and this year is no different. “Shared Passion, Different Strokes,” as the show is called, is at the historic Vale Schoolhouse.
Art on the Avenue in Alexandria is one of the biggest art festivals all year, and it will be held on Saturday, Oct. 1. This massive fair has it all–music, food, and hundreds of artists. The celebration draws tens of thousands to walk down Mt. Vernon Avenue every year, and this will be no different.
Oh yeah, and did I mention a pie baking contest? Sweet deliciousness.
Art on the Avenue. Courtesy Mark Blackden.
Art on the Avenue is rain or shine from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
While you’re there, make sure you check out The Art League’s gallery at Alexandria City Hall. The Art League is a nonprofit organization that directly connects art to our community, offering art classes and supplies to the public. Their special gallery, “Art in City Hall: Around Town,” is on display through Dec. 16, 2011.
–Matt Basheda
Fairfax Kidsfest! Finally, a Fall Festival Exclusively for Kids
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011
It looks like I spoke a bit too soon with my last post, because here’s yet another fantastic kids event this weekend. But the more fun, the better.
Besides, adults will have plenty to do over the next few weekends anyway, considering all of the local Oktoberfests.
So head over to the Fall for Fairfax Kidsfest this Saturday, Oct. 1. Kidsfest is fairly enormous. Three, count ‘em, three stages host entertainment every hour, including musical, theatrical, and science performances.
In addition to performances, hands-on activities are everywhere. Scarecrow making, pumpkin painting and train exhibits are some of the coolest offered activities. But there will be many more.
A festival isn’t proper without delicious festival foods. A dozen vendors will be there providing meals and snacks, including healthy options.
Admission is totally free. But be aware that some of the activities themselves cost money, though not much. We’re talkin’ $5 max. Here’s a list of what costs what. And fear not, Kidsfest is rain or shine.
–Matt Basheda
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
New all-female derby team takes root in NoVA
by Lorin Drinkard
courtesy of ‘Debbie Does Dulles’
One by one, cars turn into the parking lot of the Leesburg National Guard Armory, which serves as a flat-bank track for the newly formed Northern Virginia Roller Derby league.
“I skated in rinks as a kid,” says Cynthia Cashwell, better known as “Debbie Does Dulles,” one of the league’s co-founders. “But then I didn’t skate for at least 20 years.” After hearing about roller derby when she moved to NoVA in 2008, she decided to check it out. Then she, along with her co-founding partner Debb “Slade Ripfire” Chen, realized that Washington D.C. and Maryland had their own leagues, and NoVA needed one, too.
Women in the community responded overwhelmingly with interest in an all-female derby league. Karen Sandreczki, aka “Zsa Zsa Doom,” even traded in her knitting needles for quad skates. “‘Loudoun Dirty’ talked it up and said it was really fun,” says Sandreczski. “It’s surprising that I would like it so much. I don’t like team sports … but I like hitting people. It’s an activity that gets me out of the house, and it’s exercise I’m willing to do.”
When recruiting skaters, “Cinnamon Burns,” one of the league’s fiery redheads and a communication consultant by trade, made sure to ask the following: “Do you want to hit people?” The league isn’t all rough and tumble, though. “People are throwing shoulders on the track … but we all go out for beer afterward. It’s a sisterhood.”
The League also supports different charities each month, living by their motto: “Skate Hard, Give Hard.”
(September 2011)
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Virginia is for grape lovers—and if you don’t believe it, the Founding Fathers would like a word with you.
By Susan Anspach • Illustration by Matt Mignanelli
For all its faults—jigsaw-locked traffic, sprawl that reproduces faster than most breeds of mold, and a sometimes-Southern designation with which we’ll never really feel at home, will we?—Northern Virginia can hold up its head in the winemaking game.
It’s one subject surrounding which, geographic identity crisis aside, you won’t hear a peep from Fairfax, Arlington or Alexandria in dispute of whose borderlines encircle the “real” Northern Virginia. Our grape-laden anchors—not the least of which include the more southerly planted Fauquier and Rappahannock—do us consistently proud.
Sure, we’re no Napa, and we can’t hold a candle to Oregon. Or any West Coast state, for that matter. But rarely does this region give a hoot about how it stacks up to the West Coast. In the pertinent scheme of things (read: greater D.C.-Metro region), our production of grape-based booze products squelches the competition (read: D.C. and Maryland; but mostly Maryland).
And you’re darn right we’ll take the selling points where we can get ‘em.
Besides, there’s no time like the cusp of autumn—or, “harvest season,” for those in the know—for Northern Virginia to brag a little on its “oenophiles.”
Technical terms in your face, Maryland. Technical terms in your face.
That being said, I won’t bore you, Virginians, with the logistics, the ones that go to show us as closing in on 200 state wineries, as having six regions in the state designated as boasting “ideal” grape-growing conditions, or as having introduced to the wine-drinking populace more than a few varietals of award-winning Viogniers.
And all that’s according to our official wine marketing office, so you know it’s not only true but objective.
When it comes to matters of our wine, the beauty’s very much in the marketing, that function of communication, outreach, functionality, delivery and a handful more functions sprinkled in there somewhere. It’s all very important and shiny, and precisely how we get away with designating ourselves as bearers of the “true” wine experience, not only to more like us but tourists the nation over.
Who’s to say otherwise? Californians? Please, we can hardly hear them over the sound of our own, err, maceration.
Yes, with wine, it’s all about the angle from which you consider the condition of things. It’s how come the vino maker can instruct you to look for “a trace of leather” in your glass of merlot, and you’ll swear you’re swilling from the heel of an old shoe. In a good way, of course.
The same goes for our terroir: Perception is everything. Outside of Virginia, for instance, who ever heard of a wine trail? Ours is one of the few states where you can tipple and feel downright hearty about it. Last weekend, we hiked a trail! How many people can slip that into their water-cooler bragging rights? Granted, it was paved in cheese cubes, various chutneys and pre-sliced baguette—but the verbiage suggests a fait accompli.
In the sales department, however, it would be silly to just stop there. Around these parts, you can hardly recognize a selling point until it’s topped off with a dollop of state history—and don’t think for one second our local grape tenders haven’t caught on. As so-called luck would have it, our vineyards are inextricably (depending on who you ask) wrapped up in the bona fide essence of the Ghost of Commonwealth Past.
That’s right. Our wine industry lays claim to roots that extend all the way back to America’s “first distinguished viticulturist,” a Mr. T. Jefferson—and you can’t so much as pop a grape without hearing it. Never mind the fact that, back in the day, the guy couldn’t milk so much as a bottle from his estate. Or that a substantial amount of his “expert taste” in wine seems suspiciously tied up with, well, a healthy appetite for the stuff. With a name like that slapped on our Wikipedia page, you may as well be drinking the elixir of life.
No doubt about it: In some Richmond conference room, some marketing brainiacs are really cooking. Consider the not-so-likely coincidence that wine’s the perfect pairing for our state slogan—and the fact that, frankly, we could use it. In a whole lot of ways, Virginia is decidedly not for lovers.
Where is the love, say, in rush-hour traffic on Interstate 95? In the Fair Oaks Mall parking garage, any day the month of December? When scouting for happy hour seating at that too-dang-popular [insert name of any Northern Virginia dining establishment here; if we’re being honest, not a one of us is all that picky] resaurant/lounge?
Here’s a tip. If you need to recharge on tender sentiment, you go out and buy yourself a pretty little bottle of pinot, any color you like. Ruby’s nice. Give it half an hour. You’ll be feeling good and Virginian in no time.
As it happens, all those swirlin’, lovin’ feelings are exactly how come artists, groups and corporations are always pouring over themselves to host their next soiree, fundraising campaign or auction in a winery tasting room. Nothing greases the wheels like a little tannin residue and, these days, it’s not enough to simply offer wine at your function. To go that extra mile, you’ve got to steep your attendees in grape-stained ambiance.
The same goes for weddings, birthday parties and business retreats. Heck, before long, we’ll be looking to wineries to outfit our baptisms and monster-truck rally after-parties—since, if you want to ensure a crowd, you just pick up the tab for a barrel of Viognier. (You show me a monster-truck driver who turns down a glass of Blue Ridge-bred vintage, and I’ll show you a beer-swilling vulgarian who I’ll bet doesn’t love his mother.)
Not that you’ll hear the winemakers complain. These days, folks can’t get by on turning earth—they’ve got to turn a profit. It’s why, for the downtime, the vineyard owners have drummed up a plethora more ways—“French night,” “Italian night,” “Greek night,” or, sometimes, just “night”—to lure us to the ol’ tasting bar. Ostensibly, it’s a fine line these vineyard owners have to walk.
On the one hand, the thinking goes, winemaking is a business, because man cannot survive on wine alone (which is certainly not to suggest man cannot dream).
On the other, who wants their thimble-size sample of cabernet to smack of corporate America? (It’s a tricky business, wine. While leather is good and fine, cardstock is a serious offense.) That’s only what we’re willing to suck down the other 364 days a year from the mega-wine warehouses. On trailblazer day, there’s an illusory guise that we demand our wine come bottled with culture, history, leather and all the rest. That we demand nothing short of an aftertaste that evokes the registers of the Executive Branch.
Who do we, collectively, think we’re kidding? Let’s be very honest here. Virginia winemakers, we’ll come to you—sales pitch or no sales pitch.
For those of us looking to simply skip town and get loose in the name of juice, it’s tough to beat the convenience and viticulture of the fruit-bearers in our very own backyard.
So maybe our fine state’s wine marketing gurus aren’t to thank, after all. Maybe it all boils down to a healthy baseline, one that mixes extraordinarily well with a nice bottle of red. Star-studded Virginia skies. A low line of blue hills, plus plenty of acoustic guitar and laughter, both lovelies punctuated by the always-festive pop of a cork.
Tastes to me, Maryland, like it’s your move, dear friend.
Get your click on. Now you can get your funny fix in 140 characters or less when you follow @CitySprawlNVMag on Twitter.
(September 2011)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, September 26th, 2011
If you need something to do with the kids this week, look no further. Here are a couple of very different options. One will get you and your kids into exploration mode in the outdoors. The other will have you dancing like crazy!
Fairfax has stepped up the interactivity at one of its parks. The Walney Visitor Center at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly has two new interactive exhibits. Children have the chance to dress up like a farmer from the 1700s, and rummage through drawers filled with objects from the park’s history and the area’s natural resources.
Part of the new children's area at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park. Photo courtesy Fairfax County Park Authority.
The park has over 200 years of history behind it. The location was formerly Walney Farm, which ran from the 18th century to early 20th century. Walney Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. However, the park is closed on all Tuesdays.
The great outdoors can’t be beat, but sometimes everyone just needs to dance. And if it’s dancing you want, it’s dancing you’ll get, in boatloads when “Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!“ comes to the Patriot Center on Friday, Sept. 30. All your favorite characters will be there in person, and “Yo Gabba Gabba!” tours always include special celebrity guests at every show. There’s even an option for a party package, which includes a “Get the Sillies Out” afterparty with the Gabba Gang.
–Matt Basheda