All sorts of weeks coming up

Just to give you a small preview so that you can make your upcoming schedule accordingly…

Yoga week

You may want to leave a couple evening open the week of the 12-18th for free to $5 yoga classes at various yoga studios throughout the city. You can “stretch, strengthen, & transform your body & mind through yoga.” Yipee!

Spa week

It’s the 14-20th. $50 treatments at many different spas. You have to register to check out the spas offering services but it’s only takes a minute to fill out the page. Booking appointments now is recommended so you can get your preferred time and date. I am super psyched about getting some sort of fancy facial packed with vitamins to keep me youthful and some serious pedicure action to get these feet sandal ready.

Pay-What-You-Can

As someone broke, the Studio Theatre shows can often be out of my price range. SO...I like the ... Pay-What-You-Can shows. Pay what you can for Amnesia Curiosa on April 8th at Studio Theatre. The performance starts at 7:30 and tickets are available IN-PERSON 2 hours prior. It’s cash only. Try your damnedest to get there at 5:30, grab a ticket and then grab a quick bite (and cocktail) at Saint-Ex or Bar Pilar.

1501 14th St. NW

DC Rollergirls Spring Break

The DC Rollergirls are having what looks like the last home bout before the championships this Saturday at 5 in the Armory. We've posted about the DC Rollergirls earlier, if you want to watch a sporting event on Saturday that won't involve huddling outside in the rain (after you get in the door, at least), this is a good bet. As an added bonus, you can now buy tickets via Paypal from their website for pickup at will call. You can still buy them from Ticketmaster, but your money is better spent on beer at the afterparty.

Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for kids 6-11, and free for kids 5 and under. Afterparty at the Pour House in Eastern Market following the bout.

DC Rollergirls Spring Fling
DC Armory (Stadium/Armory stop)
Bout starts at 5, doors open at 4

Event cost:
Ticket $12
Metro from the Armory to Capitol South: $1.35
Drinks: The Saturday night special is $10 Bud Light pitchers and$2.50 Bud/Bud Light bottles

Wine Tasting at Tenleytown Whole Foods

A Whole Foods seems to magically appear whenever I need to kill ten or fifteen minutes, offering a chance to scoop up a few pieces of artisan olive bread and indulge in a little food porn. Now it may one day become my actual destination. The Whole Foods in Tenleytown is holding wine tasting classes on Fridays between 5 and 7. The class itself is free, the samples are $5 for 5. Cadge a cube or seven of fancy cheese from the sample trays and all you're missing is some art to ooooh and ahhhh at.

Whole Foods Wine Tastings
4530 40th St NW (behind Tenleytown Metro)
Fridays 5-7
$5 for 5 samples

Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse Newsletter

If you are as cheap as I am, you really need to join the Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse newsletter email list. They sporadically send out emails for free Admit Two for advance screenings. In line with all things free, you will have to get the Drafthouse EARLY to ensure you get in. On top of the invites to advanced screenings, upon signing up you get a complimentary Sunday "2 for 1" movie coupon emailed to you.

Botanical Garden

Last Saturday marked my (embarrasingly enough) FIRST trip EVER to the United States Botanical Garden. I have definitely been missing out. The purpose of the trip was to check out “An Alphabet Garden of Orchids” which only runs until APRIL 13 (you have 11 days left). Venturing to the National Mall on the weekend is, as a rule, never a sound move in spring but I was willing to take the risk. Yes, it was mobbed and people were very agitated trying get the perfect orchid picture but if you found a tucked away bench, it could be quite peaceful for moments at a time. The orchids were amazing (duh). But even if you miss this exhibit, the rest of the conservatory is more than worth checking out. There’s a jungle area (with a canopy you can walk on to get a bird’s eye view), desert area, and my personal favs- the medicinal plants and rare and endangered species. The Conservatory is open 10 AM - 5 PM everyday and it’s FREE. Plus you’ll be right by the American Indian Museum which has the best food on the Mall. The Conservatory main entrance is located at 100 Maryland Avenue, SW.

Headliners for 2008 Virgin Mobile Festival

The headliners for the 2008 Virgin Mobile Festival, scheduled for August 9 and 10 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, have been announced. The headliners- Stone Temple Pilots, Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, and Jack Johnson- skew pretty heavy towards the aging rocker variety so the other acts (still unannounced) will have to be pretty spectacular for me to consider it. Tickets for both days last year were $175 for general admission and getting to Pimlico without a car will be no small feat. But if the lineup is speaking to you and you'd just as well skip the mud and questionable toilets that seem to be a feature at other summer music festivals, or you'd like the chance to recoup what you paid for your ticket at the track, it could be a good bet.

Dreams at the Hirshhorn, Review

According to the little pamphlet that I picked up Dreams, the current exhibit at the Hirshhorn, is a collection of artists who "employ and evoke the technology and techniques of the cinema to recall the dream-like state induced by film viewing, transporting viewers out of their daily lives to a place where definitions and understandings of reality are questioned."

First of all, let me say, if you are thinking about being transported out of your daily life on a casual sunday and are ridiculously hungover, Dreams, may not be the exhibit for you. There were moments at which I thought some of the films were more like nightmares, and I almost fell over, from well, just standing....maybe it was just me. BUT...in an normal state, this has been one of the less cohesive, but more interesting exhibits that I have been to. All of the videos definitely fit into their description above, but, in my history of museum going, I haven't thought about the placement of pieces as much as I thought about it during this one. Seeing actual images is clearly a very powerful tool, and I often left one piece wondering "hmmm....I don't really know how that was supposed to make me feel" and before I had time to ponder that thought, the dark hallways led me to a piece that evoked an entirely different emotion than whatever it was that I was feeling before. However, I must admit, the installations that I found to be interesting, I thought were really, really cool. And the others, well, no dream is run-of-the-mill.

Dreams is the first part of "Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image" and runs until May 11, 2008. The second part (which I am definitely going to check out) Realisms will run June 19, 2008 - September 7, 2008.

Hirshhorn Museum

General Admission: ALWAYS FREE

Washington Capitals

It’s the last week of the regular season of the Washington Capitals (so the Express tells me). If you haven’t been to a game yet (like me!) and if you still have your student ID because your school wasn’t smart enough to put your graduation year on it (like me!) then think about attending the Student Rush Night. It’s only $10 for the upper level and $25 for lower level. You have to buy your tickets at the Verizon box office. But beware- I spoke with my office hockey guru who regularly goes to student night. Tickets go on sale at noon, and with only three games left, he warns that you really should get there at noon. Everyone in your party must be there with an ID and in order to get tickets together, only one ticket transaction can be processed (if you are buying four tickets, there will be one charge for $40- bring cash).

TONIGHT, MONDAY

The SAIS program at the Johns Hopkins University, DC campus offers multiple opportunities to learn more about various problems facing our globalizing world. Tonight they are hosting a screening and discussing of the recent PBS documentary "Child Lives: Stolen Bribes." Following the screening, the International Center for Research on Women and Tostan will host a panel discussion.

Wine and cheese will be served.

5pm-8pm
Kenney Auditorum
Johns Hopkins University
1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
RSVP: kecheve1@jhu.edu