John Pruett's Blog

Slime in the Ice Machine

SoCapJohn — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:11:52 EDT

One minute you're riding high and the next thing you know the car's flipped and you're laying there upside-down in a ditch - figuratively of course. Consider that a metaphor for the weekend. The day at the office wraps up on Friday, I hit the bar for happy hour, then Black Cat for a night of sloshiness and Red Room-ery. It wasn't much, but when you know that the week's finally over and your out on the town with your partners-in-crime, you're riding awful high.

Enter Saturday, the day when I normally lounge around. Except this past Saturday I was feeling particularly inspired, so I managed to accomplish quite a bit. And looking forward to Nouveau Riche at DC9 later that night, I knew great times were just on the horizon.

Yet as fate would have it, DC9 was not the great times I had anticipated - maybe "okay" times at best. The music sounded all off and left a ringing of synthetic beats. That, coupled with a subpar crowd, created doubts in what was until then an enthusiastic regard for Nouveau Riche nights (see previous post).

So you count your losses, take your chances, and head to a Columbia Heights party at midnight. Maybe things will take a turn for the better. No such luck. The house party is inching towards over and I wasn't digging the beer pong. There's talk of a New Hamphire Ave. party, but in addition to its distance away, the talk says it's not worth the time.

With that Metro fare, I could buy half-smokes

SoCapJohn — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:54:54 EDT

Over the course of several beers yesterday evening, my friends and I somehow landed on the topic of "Metro fares." Virtually everyone knows that the typical fare is $1.35, and if you have a "Smartcard," then you probably don't notice the prices at all. Yet the question we pondered was, "At what point do the fares begin to increase? What's the metric there?"

One friend argued that fare increases were determined according to zones, similar to cab prices. Once you left the primary "DC zone," fares would increase accordingly. My other friend took another stance, contending that increased fares were determined solely by distance traveled. I sided with the latter.

Whenever friends find themselves in an alcohol-fueled (or otherwise) dispute such as this, the now-commonly accepted for of resolution is to consult the internet. It seems that, aside from the difference between regular and reduced fare hours, the number of stops determines the final price. Metro's website allows you to calculate the amount.

However the debate didn't end there but instead switched from the point-of-fact to the hypothetical, as in "What would constitute the fairest form of pricing for riding the subway?" Ridiculous waste of time you say? Yes, ridiculous indeed.

The thing (I went to watch)

SoCapJohn — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:46:51 EDT

Monday evening's second installment of the "Screen on the Green" series far surpassed the first. That's not to say that "The Thing (From Another World)" is somehow a better film than "Annie Hall" but in a way, that's exactly the point. When I'm sitting on blankets 100 yards from our nation's capitol, surrounded by 1000 other people, and downing booze-filled dixie cups, you can bet your ass that I'm not interested in Academy award-winning high-culture. And you'd win that bet.

Somewhat resembling a low-budget Ed Wood flick, "The Thing" is 1950s Cold War, UFO scare-culture in its purest form. There's the team of rowdy yet courageous Air Force men, the two sexy dames in charge of supplying coffee and any clerical work, the innovative scientists, the compliant journalist, and last but not least, that threatening, plant-like alien creature that crashlands its flying saucer in the Arctic. All the actors speak in monotone, and the dialogue sucks, not to mention the antiquated special effects.

It's films like these that need no built-in comedic relief for they are parodies of themselves. Think "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Monday evening did impart a few practical lessons however. First, Smirnoff and Red Bull is not the ideal choice of drink for an outdoor screening, especially without any ice on hand. Consider wine or possibly whiskey instead. And secondly, when you get up during the movie to take advantage of the porta-potties along the edge, be sure to locate several landmarks for finding your way back through the crowd. Otherwise you'll end up standing in front of the screen looking for familiar faces in the dark like a drunken fool.

Evil Disco II: The Return of Evil Disco

SoCapJohn — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:39:08 EDT

After her recent ousting from Wonderland Ballroom, DJ Hey Sailor! was back in action on Friday with DJ Joshua for their infamous "Evil Disco" night. The two turntableists are known for stearing clear of traditional DJ fare - 80s synthpop, britpop, new wave, electro-beats, and Williamsburg-esque "indie" rock, etc. - and instead opting for the "rock of ages" - 80s metal, glam rock, punk and anything else with heavy guitar riffs and smashing drums. DJ Hey Sailor adds to the high-energy jams by jumping onto the dancefloor and shouting the inevitable anthem chorus.

That said, my "A" plan was to make Party Bros. IV at Rock n Roll Hotel. That's right. In the hierarchy that is DJ nights in the District, one of my current top favorites is DJ Gavin Holland. You can find him on a regular basis manning the turntables at 18th St. Lounge and also the "Nouveau Riche" nights at DC9. His wide-ranging playlist never fails in the danceability department, and his ability to blend well-known tracks with the more obscure is superb.

So why "Evil Disco" instead? Two reasons. Anyone who goes to H Street, NE regularly is intimately aware of the pain in the ass that getting there entails. Throw in the fact that you've been drinking at a friend's 'til 11pm, and the choice becomes a no-brainer. Secondly, since Friday was "Evil Disco"'s debut at Black Cat, I was curious to see the turnout.

Synopsis:

- Attendance was less than outstanding, which can also be a positive considering that Black Cat often becomes too crowded to move.

- The two DJs didn't seem to be at their most evil and frequently surprised me with lighter-sounding 80s and 90s pop. Either they were rusty or they were letting too many lame requests slip through quality control.

- Rockin' like a hurricane. If you haven't been, it's worth the effort.

Fear & Loathing in DC

SoCapJohn — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:15:09 EDT

If the good Doctor had stuck around for a few more years, he would have turned 70 years old today. Instead, he opted for an exit of his own choosing shortly after Bush’s reelection to a second term. I remember the events well and recall my own feelings of trepidation and defeat after the events. It was if an old era had disappeared entirely and I found myself in a strange, new American landscape, where what Thompson referred to as the “Death of the American Dream” had finally come to pass.

Looking back now, I realize that my feelings were most likely premature. Times change unexpectedly and the narrative is never fully written. Nevertheless, this age of Fear continues, its most recent formulation being the release of an unclassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). Despite all signs that the Administration has in fact worsened the threat of terrorism, they have been quick to use this report as a promotion tool. Former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke has called it “pure pablum.” Scott Horton from Harper’s writes:

Ms. Townsend and her masters in the White House think the people of the United States are easily deluded fools. Their loyal supporters in the Senate have adopted obstruction and filibuster as their tools, blocking any vote on the issue. Against all of this, a harsh judgment on the part of the people is past due. It has been delivered once at the polls, and the second time is likely to be still more severe. But in the meantime the citizenry needs to take heart, steel its resolve, and see through Bush’s haze of fear.

Raising Arizona...Again

SoCapJohn — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:57:04 EDT

After being inundated over the past several days by media reports predicting the imminent implosion of a certain Arizona senator’s presidential campaign, my mind instinctively harks back to a time when this senator’s forecast was anything but gloomy. He was once the “war-hero,” the “maverick,” and the “straight talker,” never to be swayed by a radical conservative base or the Christian Right.

Truth be told, I myself voted for the man in the 2000 primaries despite being of a more lefty, progressive persuasion. His honesty and independence then seemed genuine, and at the time I reasoned, “Who can seriously question the integrity of a man who was tortured in a North Vietnamese prison camp for 5 and a half years?”

I must have reasoned wrongly because by the time 2004 rolled around, the Arizona senator was openly pandering to the very man who had so denigrated him in the 2000 primaries. Not only that, but also his half-hearted attempts since then to gain the support of the Christian Right only served to weaken his image as a “straight talker” whose position couldn’t be bought and sold for political gain.

A Penchant for Movies, Whores, & Killin'

SoCapJohn — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:42:29 EDT

(Warning - contains spoilers! Not that it really matters anyway.)

Like all bad movies that end with an anti-climactic plot twist, Paris Hilton has once again been unleashed on the world after serving only half of her 45-day prison sentence. Who would have known that she'd escape the full punishment of the law?

Yet with uncanny timing, tonight's installment of the Washington Psychotronic Film Society at Dr. Dremo's will reveal what might have been if Paris had been imprisoned in a futuristic dystopian B-movie. The '80s film Turkey Shoot (aka Escape 2000) by Australian director Brian Trenchard-Smith chronicles a time in the not-so-distant future when social deviants are locked up for rehabilitation. The worst of the prisoners are selected for a survival contest, where they are hunted down like animals - a la The Most Dangerous Game except campier. Overall, you may think that the movie's terrible, but don't forget that it includes plenty of comic book-style violence and co-stars an imprisoned prostitute named Rita.

Check out the trailer here:

And if that doesn't fill your appetite for bad movies, the Clint Eastwood Summer Film Festival Series will be screening Two Mules for Sister Sara this Friday in Rosslyn. For the record, I'm a huge fan of Eastwood's spaghetti westerns, but this has to be one of his weakest. The movie focuses too much on the unimpressive sexual tension and petty struggles between Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine (Sister Sara). And lo and behold, by the end of the film, we're told that Sister Sara wasn't quite the nun that we were initially made to believe. In fact, she's just a prostitute. Who could have possibly anticipated that turn of events?

In the final count though, despite all of our collective loathing for the likes of Paris Hilton and all of our incessant criticisms of terrible movies, there's something there that still keeps us watching. On the basest of levels, nothing titillates American audiences more than gratuitous violence and a good whore, even if we already know how the whole thing's going to end. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

Tonight's Happenings

SoCapJohn — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:07:25 EDT

In honor of it being Thursday - the day when everyone pretends that the weekend has already arrived - I've compiled a list of some of tonight's goings-on. So check it out:

Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt
7pm at the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium
National Portrait Gallery
Free

Vastu opening
Home furnishings and art gallery
Free wine
6pm-8pm

Book lauch party for Murray Waas and Jeff Lomonaco’s new book The United States v. I. Lewis Libby
6pm-9pm
Knew Gallery

Express Afterhours Summer Kick-off Party
Clarendon Grill
5pm-9pm
Free appetizers, prize packs for first 25 people, giveaways, and a raffle
No Cover

And I've also included a few drink specials below the fold.

The Freedom to Barbecue ... Competitively!

SoCapJohn — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 22:22:44 EDT

On Saturday evening, I strolled up to a friend's house toting a shopping bag full of hamburger patties and hotdogs, fully equipped for that most hallowed of outdoor cooking events - the barbecue. The very word sends waves of hunger, nostalgia, and even patriotism coursing through the veins of virtually every American. Barbecue. That's what we do. That's who we are.

When the weather gets hot and there's some national holiday to celebrate, we roll out the grill, fire it up, and throw on some raw animal flesh. Even vegetarians participate, throwing on Boca burgers and vegetables. The condiments and fixings are secondary. Meat and beer are what really make a successful barbecue, and these two ingredients are rarely divvied up in moderation. In fact, most barbecues worth their salt end with at least two burgers and two hotdogs each and enough beer to fuel an army.

Which brings us to Memorial Day weekend - the unofficial kickoff of the barbecue season. For whatever reason, grilling and honoring those who've given their lives for our country have become inextricably linked. For my part, I honored the occasion at multiple events, attending three barbecues in one weekend.

This could all be mere coincidence, yet on the heels of Memorial Day, we fire up the grill once again for that most patriotic of all American holidays - the Fourth of July. There's nothing that says "freedom" like a well-cooked steak, and if Francis Scott Key were around today, he'd throw in a line about New York strip.

But seriously folks, this is all very serious business. Having grown up in Texas, I should know. I can remember back to those sweltering college days when barbecuing was a way of life. My roommates, friends, and I would fire-up the grill on a daily basis, and we're not just talking about burgers. I mean serious grilling - T-bone, sirloin, ribeye, chicken, and ribs.

Yet this all seems like mere child's play in the face of Washington, DC's 2007 National Capital Barbecue Battle on June 23-24. Granted I haven't been to one of these, but this could be the motherload, arguably the most serious of all barbecue events to ever grace this nation. I'm withholding final judgement for now, but the competition looks to be fierce.

Whatever the outcome, I aim to see this grilling phenomenon through to its farthest extremes.