2 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 3 Publisher Randy Shulman

Editorial JUNE 19, 2014 Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Volume 21 / Issue 8 Art Director Todd Franson Political Editor NEWS 6 Obama’s LGBT Executive Order Justin Snow by Justin Snow Assistant editor John Riley 8 Congressional Momentum Contributing Editors by Justin Snow Rhuaridh Marr, Doug Rule

Senior Photographer 10 Lanier Hosts Town Hall Meeting Ward Morrison by John Riley Contributing Photographers Christopher Cunetto, Julian Vankim 14 Community Calendar Contributing Illustrators Scott G. Brooks, Christopher Cunetto SCENE 18 Chef Art Smith’s PowerBear Party Contributing Writers Photography by Ward Morrison Daniel Burnett, Christian Gerard, Brandon Harrison, Chris Heller, Will O’Bryan Troy Petenbrink, Richard Rosendall, FEATURES 20 American Waters Kate Wingfield Interview by Justin Snow editor emeritus Sean Bugg 25 Baltimore Pride Webmaster Photography by Ward Morrison and David Uy Aram Vartian Multimedia Aram Vartian 28 An LGBT Traveller’s Guide to Administrative / Production Assistant Charm City Julian Vankim by Troy Petenbrink Advertising & Sales OUT ON THE TOWN 30 Happy Times Director of Sales by Doug Rule Randy Shulman

National Advertising Representative 32 The Singing Nurse Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 by Doug Rule Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla 34 Such Pushovers by Doug Rule

Patron Saint STAGE 36 Patricia W. Waters Unhappy Days by Doug Rule

Cover Photography GAMES 38 Waiting Games Greg Gorman by Rhuaridh Marr

PETS 41 Interpets by Rhuaridh Marr

Metro Weekly 1425 K St. NW, Suite 350 NIGHTLIFE 45 Club Hippo’s Post-Pride Party Washington, DC 20005 Photography by Ward Morrison 202-638-6830 MetroWeekly.com SCENE 53 The Stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no season 6 at Town responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims Photography by Ward Morrison made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization. 54 Last Word © 2014 Jansi LLC.

4 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 5 Now online at MetroWeekly.com Senate Confirms Two Gay Black Judicial Nominees NewsLGBT 25 Favorite Shots from the Capital Pride Fest Obama Acts After years of delay, Obama moves to prohibit federal contractors from LGBT discrimination

by Justin Snow

resident Barack Obama will take executive action to pro- hibit federal contractors from LGBT workplace discrimination. PAccording to a White House official, Obama has directed his staff to prepare an executive order for his signature prohib- uza o

iting federal contractors from discrimina- S tion on the basis of sexual orientation or Pete

gender identity — a move long sought by y o b

LGBT-rights advocates that builds upon t ho P Obama’s legacy as the strongest LGBT e s ally to ever occupy the White House. u o H “The action would build upon exist- ite ing protections, which generally prohibit h W federal contractors and subcontractors l from discriminating in employment deci- icia ff sions on the basis of race, color, religion, O President Barack Obama meets with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough in the Oval Office sex, or national origin,” the White House official told Metro Weekly. “This is con- legislation in the form of the Employment an executive order raising the minimum sistent with the President’s views that Non-Discrimination act (ENDA) that wage for federal contractors if the strat- all americans, LGBT or not, should be would protect nearly all workers, rather egy is comprehensive federal legislation, treated with dignity and respect.” than just employees of federal contrac- White House press secretary Jay Carney For more than two years, Obama’s tors. That argument hasn’t sat well with responded simply, “I take your point.” White House has been forced to de- LGBT activists, who have been some of That puzzling position grew more fend a broken campaign promise made the president’s most passionate defend- complicated last month after Vice Presi- by Obama when he was a candidate for ers. they too support enda, but argue dent Joe Biden said in an interview with president in February 2008. It was then signing an executive order is necessary The Huffington Post said he did not see that Obama filled out a presidential- and a tangible step forward the president “any downside” to signing such an order, candidate questionnaire for the Hous- could take now. but reiterated the need to pass enda. ton GLBT Political Caucus indicating he At the beginning of this year, Obama The Senate approved enda 64-32 last would support a nondiscrimination pol- announced a shifting strategy to use his November, but the bill has languished in icy that includes sexual orientation and pen to take executive action when Con- the Republican-controlled House of Rep- gender identity for federal contractors. gress won’t act. While that strategy has resentatives where Speaker John Boehner In April 2012, White House senior advis- been applied to minimum wage, with has voiced his opposition to the bill and er Valerie Jarrett told leaders from some Obama signing an executive order to raise refused to allow it to come up for a vote, of the nation’s largest LGBT-rights orga- minimum wage for federal contractors although the bill has continued to gain bi- nizations that Obama would not sign an while the White House still pushes for partisan support as recently as last week. executive order prohibiting federal con- federal legislation raising the minimum “Countless LGBT workers across the tractors from discrimination on the ba- wage for all americans, and to narrow- country will be able to rest easier once sis of sexual orientation or gender iden- ing the income gap between genders, the a strong executive order is in place, but tity. Since that meeting, the White House White House has found itself in a con- there is no denying that the time has has sought to defend its decision by tell- tradictory position on the executive or- come to do even more,” HRC President ing supporters and the press that Obama der for LGBT federal contractors. Asked Chad Griffin said in a statement. “The favors passage of comprehensive federal in February by Metro Weekly why sign House of Representatives must seize this

6 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com S o uza Pete P ho t o b y H o u s e W h ite O ff icia l

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 7 LGBTNews

opportunity to immediately pass the Em- When Obama does attach his signature Care Act, from reauthorizing the Violence ployment non-Discrimination act, and to that executive order, it will further ce- Against Women act with provisions to we will continue to fight for the greatest ment his legacy on LGBT rights. The first protect LGBT victims to ensuring equal- number of civil rights protections for the sitting American president to openly en- ity in federal housing, we have taken many greatest number of LGBT people around dorse same-sex marriage, he has all but important steps forward. While work re- the country.” ensured that a Democrat will never again mains to ensure that all americans, re- In 29 states it is legal to fire or refuse be able to run for the White House without gardless of sexual orientation or gender employment to someone based on their supporting marriage equality. under his identity, are equal under the law, we look sexual orientation, and in 32 states it is direction, attorney General eric Holder, forward to continuing to make progress in legal to do so based on their gender iden- the nation’s first African-American attor- the months and years ahead.” tity. about 20 percent of the american ney general, and the Justice Department During a June 17 appearance at the workforce, amounting to around 28 mil- ceased defending the defense of mar- Democratic National Committee’s LGBT lion workers, is employed by federal con- riage Act (DOMA) in federal court. When Gala in New York City, Obama addressed tractors. the Supreme court heard arguments in his decision to sign the executive order “The President has declared 2014 a same-sex marriage cases for the first time and was greeted with a roar of applause year of action – vowing to use the power in March 2013, Obama’s solicitor general, from supporters. of his pen and phone to take action on be- Donald Verrilli, urged the Supreme Court “Because in the united States of half of the American people to strengthen justices to strike down DOMA as well as America who you are and who you love the economy and the middle class,” the California’s same-sex marriage ban. the shouldn’t be a fireable offense,” Obama White House official said. “His actions repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” bears his said in explaining his decision to take ex- have been driven by the core american signature, and the White House has indi- ecutive action. Looking forward, Obama principle that if you work hard and play cated his openness to at least a review of said that ultimately it would be better if by the rules, you should have the oppor- the military’s existing ban on transgender Congress passed a more comprehensive tunity to succeed, and that your ability to service. and early on Obama endorsed law in the form of ENDA. get ahead should be determined by your ENDA and promised to sign it into law “Don’t take the pressure off con- hard work, ambition, and goals – not by when it reaches his desk. gress,” Obama continued. “This seems the circumstances of your birth, your sex- “President Obama is proud of the ac- to be a pattern these days. everybody’s ual orientation or gender identity.” complishments he and his Administration just given up so much on congress that It is not yet clear when Obama will have made to advance and promote equal- we end up doing something through ex- sign the executive order, but with the ity, justice, and dignity for all members of ecutive order, and that’s helpful, but it White House’s annual LGBT Pride the LGBT community,” the White House doesn’t reach everybody that needs to be Month reception set for June 30, such an official said. “From signing an inclusive reached. Congress needs to start working event could provide an opportune setting. Hate Crimes law to passing the Affordable again.” l

Representatives where Speaker John Boehner has voiced his opposition to the Congressional Momentum bill and refused to allow it to come up for Bipartisan support for ENDA grows in the House a vote. (ENDA supporters inside and out- side Congress have insisted that if Repub- protections for transgender Americans. licans allowed ENDA to come to the floor by Justin Snow “The growing bipartisan support for for a vote, it would have the votes to pass.) ENDA in the House continues to put Following the surprising primary de- he number OF House more and more pressure on Speaker feat of House Majority Leader Eric Can- Democrats who are not co- Boehner to act, and it’s never been clearer tor (R-Va.) last week by a tea party chal- sponsors of the employment to the LGBT community that only the lenger, the prospect of progressive legis- Non-Discrimination act Speaker stands in the way,” drew Ham- lation advancing this congress became drTopped to eight May 12 as Rep. Jim Costa mill, spokesperson for House minority even more unlikely. Although Cantor was became the latest member of congress Leader Nancy Pelosi, told Metro Weekly. not a supporter of ENDA, according to a to attach his name to the piece of LGBT- With Costa’s support, only eight Dem- political operative close to ENDA strategy rights legislation. ocrats still do not cosponsor ENDA: Reps. in the House, many members are in the The California Democrat’s support for Dan Lipinksi (Ill.), John Barrow (Ga.), process of making personal calculations ENDA, which would prohibit most em- Bennie thompson (Miss.), mike mc- on whether to attach their names to the ployers from discrimination on the basis Intyre (N.C.), Pete Gallego (Texas), Henry bill as cosponsors, which in some cases of sexual orientation and gender iden- Cuellar (Texas), Gene Green (Texas) and could mean putting their heads on the tity, came one day after the bill gained Nick Rahall (W.Va.). chopping block. its eighth republican cosponsor in the But while ENDA continues to gain sup- “Cantor’s loss has complicated the House of Representatives. port in the House, with its number of co- landscape and definitely put progressive As first reported by The Advocate, GOP sponsors up to 206, there remains no clear issues in peril,” the operative said. Rep. Frank LoBiondo of new Jersey at- path forward for its passage. Indeed, since While the chances of progressive leg- tached his name to ENDA on May 11. Lo- ENDA passed the Senate last november islation advancing in the current con- Biondo voted for ENDA in 2007, although with a 64-32 vote, the bill has languished gress continue to dwindle, a debate has that version of the bill did not contain in the republican-controlled House of reemerged among activists over the scope

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of ENDA’s religious exemption — a point tion. But while they argue enda’s reli- piece of LGBT-rights legislation — in part of contention that has long plagued the gious exemption as written is broader due to the religious exemption. When the bill as currently written. than it is under Title VII of the 1964 Civil religious exemption was adopted with The american civil Liberties union Rights Act for other minority groups and a 402-25 vote in 2007 as an amendment (ACLU), Lambda Legal, the national would open the door to LGBT discrimi- in the House proposed by rep. George Center for Lesbian rights (NCLR) and nation in places far beyond churches and Miller (D-Calif.), it received the backing the transgender Law center released a synagogues, narrowing ENDA’s religious of not only Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, joint statement in April 2013 “expressing exemption could also cause shaky Repub- Barney Frank and tammy Baldwin, but very grave concerns with the religious ex- lican support to collapse entirely. Republicans like John Boehner, Eric Can- emption in ENDA.” “For me, my job is I’m a mathematician tor and Paul Ryan. “It could provide religiously affili- trying to get to 218 votes,” out Rep. Mark “ENDA in its current form is a biparti- ated organizations – far beyond houses of Pocan (D-Wisc.) told Metro Weekly. “And san compromise and one that passed the worship – with a blank check to engage if that’s the issue then we need to figure United States Senate with a strong bipar- in employment discrimination against out how to get something done in this tisan vote,” said drew Hammill, Pelosi’s LGBT people,” the statement continued. current environment. Either you change spokesperson. “It gives a stamp of legitimacy to LGBT who is in those seats, which is something Regardless of the growing debate over discrimination that our civil rights laws I’m working on for this fall, or we at least ENDA’s religious exemption, advocates have never given to discrimination based try to get something done as broad as pos- say it is imperative to continue to gather on an individual’s race, sex, national ori- sible, which can then be improved in the cosponsors so as to put members of Con- gin, age, or disability. This sweeping, un- future when we have those opportunities. gress on the record absent a House vote precedented exemption undermines the But certainly sitting back isn’t an option.” on ENDA this session. core goal of enda by leaving too many According to Pocan, the discussion “The increasing support is in part due jobs, and LGBT workers, outside the taking place over the religious exemption to all of the huge momentum we’re see- scope of its protections.” is important, but that plank of ENDA has ing across the country for LGBT equal- They argued, for example, that the proven just as important during his dis- ity overall,” Fred Sainz, vice president of religious exemption as written could al- cussions with potential Republican sup- the Human Rights Campaign, told Metro low for a Catholic hospital that employs porters like Rep. Paul Ryan (Wisc.). “My Weekly. “Members see this as the moral people of other faiths to still be able to fire particular role and those in congress is thing to do and the politically advanta- or refuse to hire an LGBT person. getting to that magic 218,” Pocan said. geous thing to do as well to sign up as a The legal groups ncLR and the The religious exemption as written supporter of this bill. and that’s some- Transgender Law center, which both also has a track record of success. Indeed, thing we should continue to take advan- lauded ENDA’s passage in the Senate last last November ENDA passed the Senate tage of so by the end of this session we year, have since rescinded their support with the support of 10 Republicans — the can have as many cosponsors on the re- for the bill due to the religious exemp- most Senate Republicans to ever vote for a cord as possible.” l Lanier Hosts Town Hall Meeting MPD chief meets with community activists to discuss LGBT issues, police procedure

Lanier fielded many questions related eyewitnesses...?" by John Riley to violent incidents, particularly those Lanier also tackled the issue of police committed against members of the dis- conduct, urging members of the LGBT etropolitan Police trict's transgender community, noting that community to file complaints against offi- Department chief cathy there had been twelve prominent trans- cers who either refuse to take action when Lanier, several depart- gender murders in the past decade, five of a crime is committed, or who mistreat or ment heads within mPD, which were closed with an arrest of a sus- use anti-LGBT language against victims goMvernment leaders and community ac- pect. Lanier said that the remaining cases of crimes. Lanier said that, in either case, tivists from within the LGBT community remain "active and open," but cautioned penalties can range from a significant sus- came together on Tuesday, June 10 at the that while police have some strong leads pension to termination. those who feel Department of employment Services in those cases, they do not have enough they have been mistreated have the option headquarters for the first-of-its-kind evidence needed to make an arrest. of reporting to MPD within 90 days, or to meeting to discuss issues related to polic- "We really live in a CSI generation the Office of Police Complaints, an external ing and the department's interaction with now," Lanier said, referring to a popular office within district government tasked LGBT people. TV drama. "But there a just a few things with receiving, investigating and mediating The meeting, which was moderated that will determine whether we can close various complaints involving MPD officers, by local radio host Sheila Alexander-Reid, a homicide: Is there a witness? Did some- within 45 days of the incident. served as an open forum for a number of body see what happened? ...Is there physi- The biggest task for Lanier and many activists who had long raised concerns cal evidence? is there some other infor- of the officers in attendance at the com- about police treatment of LGBT people, mation that people in the community can munity meeting was addressing how particularly LGBT victims of crime. give us that will lead to information or they seek to implement the recommen-

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dations made by the anti-Defamation "You can't listen to a story like that of their routine policing. League (ADL) Hate crimes assessment and not be affected if you have a heart," Lanier also told the audience that Task Force, which, at Lanier's behest, Lanier said. "You want cops to hear com- MPD realized that some of the officers conducted an external review of mPD's pelling stories." in its GLLU-affiliate program - meaning responses to crimes involving members Lanier also made news when she those who have undergone LGBT-sen- of the LGBT community that may be mo- agreed to attend the Nov. 20 Day of Trans- sitivity training and are stationed in in- tivated by bias. Sgt. Matthew Mahl, head gender remembrance in person, as part dividual police districts but who are not of the mPD's Gay and Lesbian Liaison of an effort to make herself more visible part of the GLLU core staff - were not a Unit (GLLU), told those attending the and accessible to the community. And she good fit for the program, and cut those meeting that the department is looking told the audience that MPD is no longer individuals from the affiliate program. at best practices and incorporating those standing behind legislation that allowed She said MPD is hoping to find newer af- into its LGBT-related sensitivity training the creation of "prostitution-free zones," filiates who are a better match as a way of for new officer recruits. While in previ- (PFZs) which allow police to declare cer- finding officers who will be able to build ous years, sensitivity training was carried tain areas as PFZs in order to force people relationships with community members out by an all-volunteer squad comprised to disperse from an area. and earn their trust over time. of civilians at personal cost, Lanier said "We don't use them anymore anyway, Most activists in attendance, includ- the department is going to shoulder more so they can get rid of them," Lanier said, ing several from organizations like Help- of the responsibility for carrying out such referring to the d.C. council, which is ing individual People Survive (HIPS), trainings, though she did say that there slated to hear a bill aimed at repealing the dc trans coalition (DCTC), and was a possibility that they might ask com- PFZs. That bill, co-introduced by Coun- Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence munity activists to develop pre-recorded cilmembers david Grosso (I-At-Large), (GLOV), seemed to view the meeting and trainings to assist in this effort. David catania (I-At-Large) and mary the interaction with law enforcement of- But Lanier added that she wants train- Cheh (D-Ward 3), could still face an up- ficers as a positive. ees to hear personal stories from people hill battle, as council chairman Phil “I think it was a great first step to who have experienced violence, discrimi- Mendelson has previously indicated he bridge the gap between mPD and the nation, or police mistreatment in order believes PFZs are useful in disrupting transgender community, to build trust for them to understand how best to deal the sex trade by forcing people to dis- between the two,” Paul Tupper, chair of with the community, recalling how she perse, even though high-ranking officials GLOV, said following the meeting “...I was personally moved by a story told by in MPD have testified before the Council think the conversation was candid, and I local transgender activist Ruby Corado. that MPD is no longer using PFZs as part walked away learning a lot.” l

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Metro Weekly’s Community Calendar highlights important events in the D.C.-area LGBT community, from alternative social events to Sunday, June 22 volunteer opportunities. Event information should be sent by email to Chick Chat, a lesbian, age 50+ singles group, [email protected]. Deadline for inclusion is noon takes a trip to the Maryland Institute College of Art. of the Friday before Thursday’s publication. Questions about Admission is free. Meet at 1301 W. Mt. Royal Ave., the calendar may be directed to the Metro Weekly office at Baltimore, Md. 2-3 p.m. Rain or shine. RSVP by emailing [email protected]. 202-638-6830 or the calendar email address. Weekly Events

LGBT-inclusive All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church celebrates Low Mass at 8:30 a.m., High Mass at 11 a.m. 2300 Cathedral Ave. NW. 202-232-4244, allsoulsdc.org.

First Congregational United Church of Project STRIPES hosts LGBT-affirming social Christ welcomes all to 10:30 a.m. service, 945 G Thursday, June 19 group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road St. NW. firstuccdc.org or 202-628-4317. NW. Contact Tamara, 202-319-0422, layc-dc.org. SMYAL Allies hosts second annual SMYAL for Hope United Church of Christ welcomes Summer fundraiser. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Josephine SMYAL’s Rec Night provides a social GLBT community for worship. 10:30 a.m., 6130 Old Butler Parks Center, 2437 15th St. NW. 202-567- atmosphere for GLBT and questioning youth, Telegraph Road, Alexandria. hopeucc.org. 3156. smyal.org featuring dance parties, vogue nights, movies and games. More info, [email protected]. Join Lincoln Congregational Temple – Weekly Events United Church of Christ for an inclusive, loving and progressive faith community every DC Lambda Squares gay and lesbian square- Saturday, June 21 Sunday. 11 a.m. 1701 11th Street NW, near R in dancing group features mainstream through Shaw/Logan neighborhood. lincolntemple.org. advanced square dancing at the National City The DC Center hosts its LGBT Asylum Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW, 7-9:30 p.m. Seekers/Asylees Forum for asylum seekers National City Christian Church, inclusive Casual dress. 301-257-0517, dclambdasquares.org. and refugees. The DC Center. 2000 14th St. NW, church with GLBT fellowship, offers gospel worship, Suite 105. 7-9 p.m. thedccenter.org. 8:30 a.m., and traditional worship, 11 a.m. 5 Thomas The Dulles Triangles Northern Virginia social Circle NW. 202-232-0323, nationalcitycc.org. group meets for happy hour at Sheraton in Reston, 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor bar, 7-9 Weekly Events St. Stephen and the Incarnation, an p.m. All welcome. dullestriangles.com. “interracial, multi-ethnic Christian Community” Bet Mishpachah, founded by members of the offers services in English, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5 p.m., by LGBT community, holds Saturday morning Shabbat in Spanish at 5:15 p.m. 1525 Newton St. NW. 202- appointment and walk-in, for youth 21 and younger. services, 10 a.m., followed by kiddush luncheon. 232-0900, saintstephensdc.org. 202-567-3155 or [email protected]. Services in DCJCC Community Room, 1529 16th St. NW. betmish.org. Unitarian Universalist Church of Us Helping Us hosts a Narcotics Anonymous Silver Spring invites LGBTQ families and Meeting, 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. Brazilian GLBT Group, including others individuals of all creeds and cultures to join the The group is independent of UHU. 202-446-1100. interested in Brazilian culture, meets. For location/ church. Services 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. 10309 New time, email [email protected]. Hampshire Ave. uucss.org. Women’s Leadership Institute for young LBTQ women, 13-21, interested in leadership DC Front Runners running/walking/social development. 5-6:30 p.m. SMYAL Youth Center, 410 club welcomes all levels for exercise in a fun and 7th St. SE. 202-567-3163, [email protected]. supportive environment, socializing afterward. Monday, June 23 Meet 9:30 a.m., 23rd & P Streets NW, for a walk; or 10 a.m. for fun run. dcfrontrunners.org. Weekly Events Friday, June 20 DC Sentinels basketball team meets at Turkey Michael Brazell teaches Bears do Yoga, a Thicket Recreation Center, 1100 Michigan Ave. NE, program of The DC Center. 6:30 p.m., Green Weekly Events 2-4 p.m. For players of all levels, gay or straight. Lantern, 1335 Green Court NW. No cost, newcomers teamdcbasketball.org. welcome. 202-682-2245, thedccenter.org. Andromeda Transcultural Health offers free HIV testing, 9-5 p.m., and HIV Dignity Northern Virginia sponsors Mass DC Scandals Rugby holds practice, 6:30- services (by appointment). 202-291-4707, for LGBT community, family and friends. 6:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. Garrison Elementary, 1200 S St. NW. andromedatransculturalhealth.org. Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, 3606 Seminary dcscandals.wordpress.com. Road, Alexandria. All welcome. dignitynova.org. DC Aquatics Club (DCAC) practice session GetEqual meets 6:30-8 p.m. at Quaker House, at Hains Point, 927 Ohio Dr. SW. 6:30-8 p.m. Visit Gay Language Club discusses critical 2111 Florida Ave. NW. [email protected]. swimdcac.org. languages and foreign languages. 7 p.m. Nellie’s, 900 U St. NW. RVSP preferred. brendandarcy@ Karing with Individuality (K.I.) Services, gmail.com. Gay District holds facilitated discussion for 3333 Duke St., Alexandria, offers free “rapid” HIV GBTQ men, 18-35, first and third Fridays. 8:30 p.m. testing and counseling, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 703-823-4401. The DC Center, 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. 202- Identity offers free and confidential HIV testing 682-2245, gaydistrict.org. in Takoma Park, 7676 New Hampshire Ave., Suite 411. Walk-ins 12-3 p.m. For appointments other MetroHealth Center offers free, rapid HIV testing. No appointment needed. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. 1012 MetroHealth Center offers free, rapid HIV hours, call 301-422-2398. testing. Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, 14th St. NW, Suite 700. 202-638-0750. Suite 700. 202-638-0750.

14 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com NovaSalud offers free HIV testing. 5-7 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite 200, Arlington. Appointments: 703-789-4467.

SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5 p.m., by appointment and walk-in, for youth 21 and younger. Youth Center, 410 7th St. SE. 202-567-3155 or [email protected].

The DC Center hosts Coffee Drop-In for the Senior LGBT Community. 10 a.m.-noon. 2000 14th St. NW. 202-682-2245, thedccenter.org.

Us Helping Us hosts a black gay men’s evening affinity group. 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.

Washington Wetskins Water Polo Team practices 7-9 p.m. Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome. Tom, 703-299- 0504, [email protected], wetskins.org.

Whitman-Walker Health HIV/AIDS Support Group for newly diagnosed individuals, meets 7 p.m. Registration required. 202-939-7671, [email protected]. Tuesday, June 24

Weekly Events

A Company of Strangers, a theater chorus, meets 7:30-9:30 p.m. A GLBTA and SATB looking for actors, singers, crew. Open Hearth Foundation, 1502 Massachusetts Ave. SE. Charles, 240-764- 5748. sites.google.com/site/charlesbutler333/ acompanyofstrangers

Andromeda Transcultural Health offers free HIV testing, 9-5 p.m., and HIV services (by appointment). 202-291-4707, andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 15 LGBTCommunityCalendar

Asians and Friends weekly dinner in Dupont/ Whitman-Walker Health’s Gay Men’s Health Historic Christ Church offers Wednesday Logan Circle area, 6:30 p.m. [email protected], and Wellness/STD Clinic opens at 6 p.m., worship 7:15 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. All welcome. afwashington.net. 1701 14th St. NW. Patients are seen on walk-in basis. 118 N. Washington St., Alexandria. 703-549-1450, No-cost screening for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and historicchristchurch.org. DC Front Runners running/walking/social club chlamydia. Hepatitis and herpes testing available serving greater D.C.’s LGBT community and allies for fee. whitman-walker.org. Identity offers free and confidential HIV testing hosts an evening run/walk. dcfrontrunners.org. in Gaithersburg, 414 East Diamond Ave. Walk- ins 2-7 p.m. For appointments other hours, call The Gay Men’s Health Collaborative Gaithersburg at 301-300-9978. offers free HIV/STI screening every 2nd and 4th Wednesday, June 25 Tuesday. 5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday LGBT Job Club, a weekly support program for job The HIV Working Group of The DC Center Clinic, Alexandria Health Department, 4480 King entrants and seekers, meets at The DC Center. 2000 holds monthly meeting. The DC Center. 2000 14th St. 703-321-2511, [email protected]. 14th St. NW, Suite 105. 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. More info, St. NW, Suite 105. 6-7 p.m. thedccenter.org. www.centercareers.org. of The HIV Working Group The DC Center Center Faith and Center Global, programs of The hosts “Packing Party,” where volunteers assemble DC Center, present LGBT Asylum: How Faith MetroHealth Center offers free, rapid HIV safe-sex kits of condoms and lube. 7 p.m., Green testing. No appointment needed. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. 1012 Lantern, 1335 Green Court NW. thedccenter.org. Communities Can Respond. 2000 14th St. NW, 2nd floor Community Room. 7-8:30 p.m. 14th St. NW, Suite 700. 202-638-0750. thedccenter.org. Karing with Individuality (K.I.) Services, offers free HIV testing. 11 a.m.- at 3333 Duke St., Alexandria, offers free “rapid” HIV NovaSalud 2 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite 200, Arlington. testing and counseling, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 703-823-4401. Weekly Events Appointments: 703-789-4467. MetroHealth Center offers free, rapid HIV Ad Lib, a group for freestyle conversation, meets testing. Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, about 7:45 p.m., covered-patio area of Cosi, 1647 Prime Timers of DC, social club for mature gay men, hosts weekly happy hour/dinner. 6:30 p.m., Suite 700. 202-638-0750. 20th St. NW. All welcome. Jamie, 703-892-8567. Windows Bar above Dupont Italian Kitchen, 1637 17th St. NW. Carl, 703-573-8316. l Support group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-21 DC Aquatics Club (DCAC) practice session meets at SMYAL, 410 7th St. SE, 5-6:30 p.m. Cathy at Hains Point, 927 Ohio Dr. SW. 7-8:30 p.m. Visit Chu, 202-567-3163, [email protected]. swimdcac.org.

Us Helping Us hosts a support group for black DC Scandals Rugby holds practice, 6:30- gay men 40 and older. 7-9 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. 8:30 p.m. Garrison Elementary, 1200 S St. NW. For more calendar listings NW. 202-446-1100. dcscandals.wordpress.com. please visit www.metroweekly.com

16 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com marketplace

METROWEEKLY.cOM JUNE 19, 2014 17 scene

Chef Art Smith’s PowerBear Party Thursday, June 5 Liaison Capitol Hill

scan this tag with your smartphone for bonus scene pics online!

Photography by Ward Morrison

18 See more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 19 20 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com American Waters 7 After a cross county hitchhiking adventure, cult filmmaker and author John Waters pays homage to a lost American pastime Interview by Justin Snow

It started with a tweet. At 11:18 a.m. on May 16, 2012, the indie rock band Here We Go Magic announced on Twitter that they had picked up a hitchhiker somewhere in eastern Ohio. “Just picked up John Waters hitchhiking in the middle of Ohio. No joke. Waters in the van,” the band tweeted. Photos of Waters, with his signature pencil-thin mustache, soon followed. It wouldn’t take long for the news that cult filmmaker and renaissance man John Waters, perhaps best known for his movies Hairspray and Pink Flamingos, was hundreds of miles from his Baltimore home, holding a piece of cardboard with “End of 70 West” scrawled on it and apparently hitchhiking cross country, to go viral. For those familiar with Waters, who has been affectionately dubbed “The Pope of Trash,” ”The Sultan of Sleaze” and “The Baron of Bad Taste” during his nearly five-decades long career, the news was greeted with puzzlement, but also an apparent sense of understanding. “Director John Waters hitchhiking in Ohio… why?” The Baltimore Sun asked. “It’s so weird, it can only be true.” Waters was at the start of a journey across America. Days earlier, he had walked out of his home in Baltimore at the crack of dawn and set out for his apartment in San Francisco — some 2,850 miles away. although no stranger to hitchhiking, Waters didn’t know how long it would take or when he would see the city he has come to be so synonymous with again. “I thought it might take a month or two, which was really discouraging because in the beginning it was much harder the second and third day in Ohio, and through Kansas and Missouri,” says Waters. “It got really tough.” Instead, it took him nine days and 21 rides to reach San Francisco, with some of his generous drivers posting photos of Waters along the way, and others never having a clue who he was. Two years after his trip west, Waters has published Carsick, chronicling what he calls his “hobo-homo jour- ney.” Part fiction, as Waters offers readers an outlandish glimpse into his mind in vintage Waters fashion, detail- ing his best and worst case scenarios (we’ll get to the part about his magic asshole shortly), the book is also an homage to a lost American pastime of getting into cars with strangers. And with the 68-year-old Baltimore legend seemingly as ready for an adventure as ever (and annoyed with a culture overdosing on political correctness), Waters hopes others will stick out their thumbs and share in the fun this summer — even if it’s just for a trip down the street to Whole Foods.

METRO WEEKLY: What possessed you to hitchhike across of fact, maybe I’ll try that this summer. I usually took America and write a book about it? friends. Once i took Patricia Hearst with me. But i JOHN WATERS: I have a soft spot for hitchhiking. I did think it would be a romantic first date to take someone a lot when I was young. I did it in Provincetown way hitchhiking. Most definitely. And it would be different, later in life as an adventure and as a date — i’d ask it would be a different first date. people to go hitchhiking with me. And then I thought MW: It definitely would be different. of the idea of really having the nerve to try it again and WATERS: Especially if something terrible happened and to hitchhike across the whole country. I’ve had a life you rescued them. of hitchhiking. I’ve always liked it. I’ve always found MW: That could be a moment for some real heroism. it sexy, romantic, even dangerous and adventurous. A When you went to your publisher with this idea, you

rman reality show before there was such a thing. write in the book that it was a very short pitch. What

g go MW: Did you ever take a first date out hitchhiking? was their reaction? re g WATERS: No, but I’m not saying I wouldn’t. As a matter WATERS: Their reaction was “Yes.” And that’s one thing

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 21 I learned a long time ago. I had a movie producer who once said hitchhiker. It’s an easy villain, it’s an easy drama, and it’s an easy to me, “Whenever they say yes, never ask one question and get danger to imagine. i don’t think it’s really probably any more away before they can say no.” unsafe than it ever was. MW: The beginning of the book is fiction, with your best and worst I’ve been doing this book tour where I do lots of radio, and expectations. How did the actual experience live up to those expec- many people have called in with their hitchhiking experiences. tations? And most everybody has great ones. Once a couple even met WATERS: Like all things, fantasies are better left undone. you hitchhiking and got married. But then there’s scary ones, too, need to save one fantasy. You should die with one fantasy left every once and awhile. Nothing bad ever happened to me hitch- that you didn’t do. But fantasies are extreme, especially when hiking. Once somebody pulled a gun and shot it out the window, you ask me to think up the worst. but I just thought, “Oh this is so Joan Didion.” People came onto That’s a challenge — the worst and the best are tough. it’s me when I was young — and sometimes I said yes. like when people ask about the ten best films ever. It’s a tough MW: Did you have any gay experiences on this hitchhiking trip? choice. So I had to go through a lot of thinking to think what WATERS: Not one. and as far as i know, not one gay per- would be the most interesting to me and be a varied thing so it son picked me up on this trip. a single woman did, a black wasn’t all the same. I also tried to make it funny. The person did, a cop did, a trucker. But no gay brothers. sex in the book is, I think, funny. The best is I have MW: What do you think that says about gay people? a sex in a car in a demolition derby, i’m with WATERS: They’re pussies! [Laughs.] I don’t know, it’s just maybe an exhibitionist bank robber and i get anally luck, but I was surprised in a way. Not that I thought some- raped by a spaceman and have a magic ass- body was going to pick me up and come onto me, I wasn’t hole and my magic asshole later sings a “I’ve expecting that, but i imagined in one of the [book’s duet with Connie Francis. Do I really fictional] parts that I fall in love with a door-to-door expect that to happen in real life? had a life knife salesman. i don’t know what the answer to No, I don’t. But it’s a fantasy. of hitchhiking. that question is though. And how do I know if And the worst would be I’ve always liked it. they were gay or not, but I pretty much never having diarrhea when felt that they were. you’re hitchhiking. That I’ve always found MW: Tell me about the morning where would be really ter- it sexy, romantic, even you woke up and said, “This is the rible. and getting day,” and walked out of your Balti- picked up by sports dangerous and more home. fanatics or getting WATERS: Well I felt like a fool, actually. trapped in Kansas, a state I adventurous. I was so afraid the neighbors would see really like but sodomy for men A reality show before there me. It was six in the morning, it was incred- and women or any couples is still was such a ibly quiet and there was no one on the street. illegal there. thing.” I walked to the corner and there were no cars. i All of the stuff in the fiction was had to stand there for 15 minutes before a car came true as far as the location and how long by. And then no cars stopped. I was two blocks from my it would take me to get there. We spent a house at that point because I had walked to another corner lot of time researching it so the timing would and I thought it would be a little busier and it wasn’t. All of the be accurate. I did do a lot of research for the fic- cars were coming into the city, not leaving it because it was so tional parts. early in the morning. And then I just stood there and it started to MW: What was the reaction from your family and friends rain and I thought, “I never imagined this.” or staff to you doing this? But I couldn’t go home. I said I was doing it. So I just stood WATERS: The staff was opposed to me doing this, but what could there. It took me an hour maybe before the first ride. But it never they say? they work for me. i didn’t tell my family until just seemed real until the end of the second ride because i really before, but they are so used to anything really. I didn’t tell my didn’t know where i was when i got dropped off, and that’s mother until it had broken in the press and I kind of had to. She when you’re really hitchhiking. Because you know the streets wasn’t upset because hitchhiking was not bad to her. When i and everything but then you really realize you’re on a long jour- went to private school all the kids hitchhiked home. it was a ney cross country when you know you’re on Route 70 but you normal thing to do then. don’t know where you are really. Now, reading the book, nothing is more mortifying than MW: Would you do it all over again? having your employees read your insane sexual fantasies. my WATERS: There’s no reason to do it all over again. There couldn’t mother unfortunately died this year — she was 91, she had a be a sequel to this book because it would be the same thing. But great life. But the only good thing I can think about my mother I know I can hitchhike and I do know I would again if I had to if dying is she wasn’t meant to read this book. She would be proud, something weird happened. But I knew that even before I wrote though, because i just found out today it’s number 12 on The the book. Now, I think if I went hitchhiking, people would think New York Times Best Seller list, which really startled me. my I’m just promoting the book, so I can’t do it anymore. mother would be really happy, and my dad, too. MW: When was the last time you yourself picked up a hitchhiker? MW: It seems hitchhiking has become rather taboo. What do you WATERS: That’s a good question. It was in Provincetown and it think happened? was, i assume, a lesbian who looked great. She was just going WATERS: What happened is there are serial killers that pick up home from the beach. And I saw her other days so I saw that she women who are hitchhiking alone, who are sometimes hookers. did do this. and there’s another woman in Provincetown and There’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Even in my own movies, she is Forrest Gump. All she does is walk from Truro to Prov- in the hitchhiking scenes, something horrible happens to the incetown and back. And that’s a far distance but she really is like

22 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com Forrest Gump and I picked her up once. MW: What makes you pick up or not pick up a hitchhiker? WATERS: First thing, if they’re cute that helps. Second- ly, if they look like you’d like them, that you’d want to be their friend, that helps. The third one is the surprise of it. If it’s somebody you figure could really use your help and doesn’t look scary — if they’re not escapees. And that’s the thing, if you just saw someone on the interstate walking around with no luggage or anything, I wouldn’t pull over, either. The main thing is not to scare people, basically. Look interesting. MW: This is your seventh book. Your last book, role Models, came out four years ago. WATERS: And it’s in its eighth printing. And Carsick has had three printings and it has only been out a week. It’s exciting. MW: It seems you’re very much becoming John Waters the author. WATERS: But wasn’t I always? I wrote all my movies. MW: I was going to ask, should we expect another John Waters film one day? WATERS: Who knows, you probably have a better chance of getting another John Waters book, but i have meetings about movies still, and I have meetings about TV shows. So I hope so, but I have other ways to tell stories. I do my spoken word show, I have photog- raphy shows. I have lots of ways to tell my stories and I always think you need to have many careers because the business in each one of them changes and you’ve got to be ready to go the next week, which luckily i have been. And, you know, I was a journalist for a long time. And if worst came to worst, if everything fails, I’d go work in a bookshop again. If I could find one that’s still open. MW: Is there any one of those vocations you enjoy more sh

than anything else? ar WATERS: The writing. I wrote my movies, I wrote my M

books. it’s the one thing all of them share. But with auta h writing i have to think up stuff every day. it doesn’t S matter which career I’m in, I’ve got to think up stuff. I have great memories here of Howard Street with Pencil and MW: I think it was Dorothy Parker who said she loved having writ- Cleopatra and all the street queens I wrote about in Role Models. ten but wasn’t exactly a fan of the writing process. So, I like neighborhood gay bars. There’s one in Highlandtown, WATERS: Every morning I go into my room and write. It doesn’t I forget the name, and if i had to pick my favorite gay bar in matter if i’m writing a book or a movie, i’ve got to think up Baltimore I would pick that one. And I do miss the Port in the something every morning. I’ve got to think of something. So I do Storm, which used to be the scariest lesbian bar, but no longer write every morning and to me it’s not harder to write a book or is really like that. I miss the old school hustler bars. Now every- a movie, they’re the same. thing is more generic, it’s safe, it’s nice, it’s politically correct and MW: I wanted to talk to you a bit about Baltimore. What’s your everything. take on how the gay community in Baltimore evolved since you MW: You mention how everything is politically correct — were a kid? WATERS: And gayly correct. WATERS: I’m not the person to ask because I don’t go to gay bars MW: Right. And it seems that things have gotten very mainstream. much. All the gay people I like go to mixed bars. They go to hip- Last time you spoke to Metro Weekly in 2009 you were asked ster bars. The young people today divide going to straight and about the marriage equality movement and you said it was being gay bars, which I think is healthy. I like redneck bars here. In fought badly because the movement kept losing. Provincetown, I go to the straight bars because I like minorities. WATERS: But then I went with [Gov. Martin] O’Malley and cam- I’m not the person to ask about the gay community, which paigned and we won, which was great. I’m certainly for and they’ve been incredibly supportive and MW: And marriage equality is winning all over the place now. So everything. i miss the gay bookshop that isn’t here anymore. I’m curious what your thoughts are on the state of LGBT rights? Certainly I’ve been to The Hippo. I miss going to Leon’s, the old- WATERS: Well, of course I’m for gay marriage. Straight and gay est gay bar in the world — there’s still people in there I knew 50 people both understand how hard it is to find someone to fall in years ago, still sitting on the same stool having the same drink. love with. Why would anyone’s love threaten someone? That is I’m for that. I always wanted the Leon’s sign that was out front. a mystery to me. But at the same time, because we can now get I wanted to give it to Pat Moran for her birthday. married, doesn’t mean we have to. I know so many people who

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 23 have known someone a week and they’re rushing out to get gay MW: Baltimore kind of has the reputation as D.C.’s ugly little married. Well, in california, we have no-fault divorce. it is a brother. hustler’s feeding frenzy of gold-digging. Be careful, there’s gay WATERS: I’ve always said that everybody in Washington thinks divorce, there’s gay alimony now. You don’t have to get married. Baltimore is hillbillies and everybody in Baltimore thinks Wash- I always joke that the new minority that’s going to be the ington is square. And they’re both right. They don’t mix. It’s too most hated, besides transsexuals who feel they made an irra- scary, that Baltimore-Washington expressway. There’s too many tional decision and want to reverse the operation, are gay men drunken drivers. who can be married but don’t want to. So I think we might have It is odd how little they mix. They mix with the museums, to team up here and fight against a new kind of discrimination. they mix with the art world, but as far as I know — and I think I find it delightful, I love weird strips within the gay commu- this is true — is if anybody is going to go away from Washington nity. This to me is great, the obscure battle of minority culture. they go to new york and if anybody is going away from Bal- timore they go to new york. they don’t really go back and forth that much. MW: Why do you think that is? “I’ve always thought WATERS: Maybe it’s the same way L.A. and San Francisco don’t like each other. and Baltimore is the best place to be, it might not be that they don’t like each other, but I still get lost in Washington and gay or straight. I think in both cities you’ve got to watch your back. But that’s not it. Both cities can The boys are the cutest here, be dangerous. I like Washington. i go there, but you they’re the most open-minded, see, I always used have to go there to go to and everyone’s not so defined.” the movies because you couldn’t see a lot of movies here. But everywhere now is cool. You don’t have to leave wherever you live to catch up with art or movies because of I find great interest in it, the same way all the radical feminists the Internet and the global community, so in a way everywhere were my favorite. I loved all that kind of writing and I still love it. is being reinvented now. MW: Being gay no longer seems like the subversive lifestyle it once I was just there in Washington yesterday driving around in was. We’ve talked about marriage equality, and now we have neighborhoods I remember as being scary neighborhoods and, three gay Republicans running for Congress. Has the movement like everywhere else, they’re fancy now. that’s good in some lost its edge a bit? ways because if that didn’t happen, it’d be Detroit — and I under- WATERS: In some ways it was fun when it was illegal and we’d stand it probably is really fun to live in Detroit now if you’re not have police battles and stuff, but it’s progress and I am for every poor, because there has to be an artist community there that’s bit of progress. i think it’s making everything better. it might thriving, there has to be people who moved there looking to do make it duller sometimes, but it’s still better. That’s what always something new, whereas it’s pretty hard to want to do something happens with success. The punch is gone, the newness of it is new and move to New York with how much it costs. I have an gone, but it’s assimilated and eventually there might not even be apartment there and I love it but I couldn’t afford to move there gay bars anymore. It’s like having a black bar. Do they have them today for what it costs. now? I’ve always hated segregation and been radically against it. MW: Working in the arts and entertainment industry, has it become MW: You’ve lived in Baltimore, New York, San Francisco and more difficult to surprise people and maintain that reputation? you’ve mentioned Provincetown. And now you’ve hitchhiked WATERS: i don’t even ever try. But, to be honest, if you read across middle America. Where do you think the best place to be gay Carsick there are scenes in there — I do have a magic anus that is and how did the middle of the country compare with those east sings connie Francis — i don’t think i’ve exactly gone fully and west coast cities? mainstream. But the fact that that could be a New York Times WATERS: I’ve always thought Baltimore is the best place to be, best-seller is startling. And I haven’t changed. gay or straight. Gay because the boys are the cutest here, they’re MW: What surprises you? the most open-minded and everyone’s not so defined. It’s also WATERS: Only bad things surprise me. Stupid things. Romantic the only city in the country that’s still cheap — and it’s conve- comedies, racism, people who could possibly be against gay niently located. adoption. How could you be against that? A child is better in an The difference in middle America was that everybody was as orphanage? progressive and open-minded, although in a very different way, But you don’t preach — you make people laugh and they listen than any radical, sexual fighters that I know on both the east and to you. Nobody gets mad at me anymore. I can go on these talk west coasts. People were incredibly open-minded, they just did shows and say the most ludicrous things — nobody gets mad, not like freeloaders, which is odd because hitchhiking is free- because I’m not mean. loading. As long as you worked and believed in something and MW: Is that the key, just being good to people? stuck up for it, they might not even believe in what you believe WATERS: It is. And making fun of things you love. There’s enough in, but they wanted you to define yourself. The only thing they things to hate. all bitched about was people who didn’t work. MW: You’ve decided to stick around Baltimore your whole life, Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America (Farrar, Straus whereas a lot of people seem to get up and move. and Giroux) sells for $26 and is available at Amazon.com, Barne- WATERS: Yeah but they all come back. sandNoble.com and other online retailers. l

24 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com Saturday, June 14 Photography by Ward Morrison BaltimorePride and Aram Vartian

See more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene 25 26 See photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene BaltimorePride

See more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene 27 Good Evening, Baltimore Charm City has been courting LGBT travelers for years By Troy Petenbrink

ours after Marylanders voted for the mammals all residing in award-winning, naturalistic habitats. legalization of same-sex marriage in November 2012, The aquarium is an anchor attraction for downtown Baltimore’s Baltimore’s tourism officials announced the launch Inner Harbor, where visitors can also explore the Maryland Sci- Hof a special website — baltimore.org/lgbt-weddings ence Center, tour the USS Constellation (the only civil War — to provide information for same-sex couples seeking to marry ship still afloat), and catch a water taxi to historic Fort McHenry. and also promote the state’s largest city as a venue for their weddings. Eat While the LGBT marriage marketing effort was viewed as a groundbreaking campaign to some, Baltimore has been actively You can’t even think about dining in Baltimore without the pursuing gay travelers for a number of years – touting its cultur- thought of crab cakes popping into your head. Faidley Seafood’s al attractions, restaurants, nightlife and accommodations. and lump meat Maryland style crab cakes are among the best you’ll the best way to learn about Baltimore and to gauge its “LGBT- find in the city. a family-owned and operated business since friendliness” is to visit. 1886, it’s located in downtown Baltimore’s Lexington Market. Just north of the Inner Harbor area is Baltimore’s Midtown See district and where visitors will find City Café on cathedral Street. Serving contemporary American cuisine, the gay-owned With more than 20 museums and galleries located in the heart cafe always draws a crowd. Another Midtown option is Sasha’s of Baltimore, arts and culture lovers can find plenty of ways to on N. Charles Street. Sasha’s, too, has a creative American menu spend their time in Charm City. Two world-class museums, the that counts John Waters among its fans. In addition to its full- Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum, have service restaurant, Sasha’s also operates a café at Center Stage, permanently eliminated admission fees, so that the treasures the state theater of maryland and Baltimore’s largest profes- inside can be enjoyed by everyone. Visitors can also explore the sional producing theater. history of pop culture at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, which Café Hon, in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood, gives includes a section on gay Baltimorean filmmaker John Waters, a campy nod to the historic local culture and dialect of or view nontraditional, original works by self-taught artists at “Bawlmer.” in addition to serving up good american comfort the American Visionary Art Museum. food, the restaurant started Honfest, now a nationally recog- Baltimore’s most popular attraction is the National Aquar- nized annual weekend street festival that includes a Best Hon ium. its living collection includes over 17,000 animals from pageant (picture the women from Hairspray) and attracts plenty more than 750 species of fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and of attention from the drag queen community.

28 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com Good Evening, Baltimore Charm City has been courting LGBT travelers for years

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D.C. has Dupont Circle, San Francisco has the Castro and Bal- As part of Baltimore’s effort to attract LGBT visitors, the timore has Mount Vernon. Part of the Midtown district, Mount city’s tourism officials made a concerted effort to ensure that Vernon is ground zero for Baltimore LGBT nightlife. it’s here its hotels would be welcoming. the result is more than 30 of you’ll find Grand Central on N. Charles Street, the city’s largest the city’s hotels are taG approved, a designation offered by gay bar with multiple bar areas, a dance floor and sidewalk seat- Community marketing inc. to officially recognize hotels that ing. Upstairs, in what is dubbed “The Loft,” Grand Central offers are committed to equal treatment of their guests regardless of an outdoor deck, pool tables and a swanky lounge. sexual orientation. Across the street is The Hippo. drawing a large mix of gay Among the city’s many LGBT welcoming properties is the men, lesbians and open-minded heteros, it has a street-front Hotel Monaco Baltimore, a kimpton Hotel, which is located saloon with outdoor seating as well as a large dance club that downtown in the historic Baltimore & Ohio Railroad headquar- is extremely popular on Friday and Saturday nights. About four ters on N. Charles Street, built in 1906. The original marble floor blocks away on W. Read Street is the casual neighborhood bar, and Tiffany stained-glass windows were retained as part of the The Drinkery. conversion. Also housed in a historic downtown building, is the For the “leather and Levi” crowd, Mount Vernon’s Triple L Lord Baltimore Hotel on W. Baltimore Street. Owned by Rubell (Leon’s Leather Lounge) on W. chase Street recently opened Hotels, which also owns the Albion Hotel in Miami Beach and and quickly gaining fans. and located in the Seton Hill area, the Capitol Skyline Hotel in D.C., the hotel recently completed a southeast of mount Vernon, is Club Bunns on W. Lexington multimillion-dollar renovation. Street, a dance club popular with Baltimore’s large african- In the Mount Vernon area, visitors who want to be close to American LGBT community. the city’s LGBT nightlife will find the Wyndham Baltimore Pea- If the timing is right, visitors might be lucky enough to catch a body Court on cathedral Street and Braxton Hotel on Park performance by Charm City Kitty Club at The Baltimore Theatre Avenue. For LGBT travelers who prefer the larger full service Project on W. Preston Street. Charm Kitty Club describes itself hotels, the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor Hotel at Camden as a group of cabaret performers who have come together “to Yards and the Hilton Baltimore are good choices. foster, showcase and celebrate creative expression among les- bian, dyke, bisexual, transgender, transsexual and genderqueer More information on visiting Baltimore is available at individuals as well as our allies.” baltimore.org. l

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 29 Compiled by doug rule JUNE 19 - 26, 2014 Happy Times Colman Domingo’s proud career as actor, budding playwright

aya anGeLOu WaS an innOVatOr and WaS SucH an inspiration to me,” colman domingo says, refl ecting on the sto- m ried author’s recent death. “We stand on her shoulders, since we’re the next generation.” years ago, as part of the cast on Logo’s The Big Gay Sketch Show, one of domingo’s recurring skits was impersonating ange- lou. He portrayed her reading sexually explicit posts from craigslist. But domingo’s work in television comedy is a side note to more notable stage and fi lm work. He played a supporting role in Passing Strange both on Broadway and in Spike Lee’s 2009 fi lm adaptation. He was also in The Scottsboro Boys, one of the last collaborative musicals from John kander and the late Fred ebb that earned domingo a 2011 tony nomination as featured actor. “i’m very proud to be part of these historical, passionate projects,” he says. “things that actually have importance and meaning and hope in mak- ing some change in the world.” the 44-year-old Philadelphia native, who’s been openly gay his entire career — “i’ve always been comfortable with who i am” — also has a budding career as a playwright. in 2010 he won a GLaad media award and a Lucile Lortel award for his Off-Broadway one-man show A Boy and His Soul. and right now center Stage, Baltimore’s premier theater company, offers Wild With Happy, fi rst staged by new york’s Public theater in 2012. domingo cOurteSy center StaGe describes the play as “a dark comedy about faith” and “my fi rst piece that i was really writing for other actors to do.” Forrest mcclendon, a longtime friend and colleague, stars in the Baltimore produc- tion, directed by Jeremy B. cohen. “it’s about an african-american gay man who loses his mother and he’s sort-of stuck in his life,” he says. “and the thrust of the play is moving him to believe in something again.” Speaking of infl uential motherly types, domingo never did get a chance to meet the legend he impersonated all those years ago — though he takes heart in the secondhand knowledge that he did, in fact, make her laugh. “maya angelou was aware that i portrayed her and apparently she got a real tickle out of it.” — Doug Rule Wild With Happy runs to June 29 at Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St., in Baltimore. Tickets are $19 to $62. Call 410-986-4000 or visit centerstage.org.

hosts not one but two shows this weekend. Friday, Call 202-547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org or SPotLiGht June 20, and Saturday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. and The buyerandcellar.com Howard Theatre, 620 T St. NW. Tickets are $25 to AliCe smith $60. Call 202-588-5595 or visit thehowardtheatre. ChAmber dAnCe ProjeCt Soul-pop singer-songwriter Alice Smith is as com or alicesmith.com. Contemporary Ballet with an Edge is the inaugural understated and sophisticated as Christina Aguilera Kennedy Center appearance by this former New is crassly exaggerated, and every bit as vocally buyer And CellAr York-based ballet company, now a Washington- talented. Her music, including her astonishingly Actor Michael Urie is best known from ABC’s based ensemble. Artistic director Diane Coburn superb and long-overdue sophomore set She, is Ugly Betty, where he played Vanessa Williams’s Bruning leads six principal dancers from major ballet better, too. Released last year She charts the ups fl amboyant, conniving assistant. But in the Barbra companies along with a string quartet performing live and downs and ins and outs of love, even just Streisand-themed play Buyer and Cellar, the 33-year- accompaniment. The program includes: Bruning’s friendship, with musical twists and lyrical turns as old is not just playing another diva’s assistant, he Exit Wounds: and then they came home, a powerful sharp and surprising as they come. This weekend the actually portrays the diva in a few scenes. Urie, who male duet exploring memory and loss; plus a tango- Brooklyn-based Smith returns to her hometown of has been playing Alex, Streisand and a handful of infused ballet, a world premiere from Argentina’s D.C. “You want to do good at home,” she told Metro other characters in Jonathan Tolins’s play for over acclaimed choreographer Jorge Amarante in his fi rst Weekly in 2012. “Whenever I go [to D.C.], and there’s a year now, appears at Harman Hall in a short run work for an American company. Thursday, June people there, somehow it’s always a little surprising, of the show presented by the Shakespeare Theatre 26, through Saturday, June 28, at 7:30 p.m. Also but it’s also always really exciting.” In fact, there’s Company. Opening night is Friday, June 20, at 8 Saturday, June 28, at 2 p.m. Kennedy Center Terrace enough demand at home that the Howard Theatre p.m. To June 29. Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW. Theater. Tickets are $40 to $50. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org. 30 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.cOM METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 31 The Singing Nurse Renowned for her stint on E.R., Gloria Reuben brings her chanteuse side to Blues Alley

was 100 percent emotionally exhausted from portray- ing that role, as much as I loved it,” says Gloria Reuben, who, starting in I 1995, spent five seasons portraying Jeanie Boulet, the HIV-positive nurse on NBC’s mega-hit show E.R. “I know the message carried a great deal of strength and hope to people around the world,” she says. But she had no intention of becoming an activist on the issue until years later, after learning that AIDS had become the leading cause of death among young black women in the U.S. This despite the great ey strides in both public awareness and medical advances allowing people with ll a s HIV “to literally get their lives back.” ue “I felt I had to use the platform of what I had done,” she says. “I started going bl y s into communities and I started talking about protection, testing, awareness. Cultural

urte issues that were really exacerbating the problem, the whole thing.” These days the o c Canadian-born U.S. citizen is still advocating on the issue — as well as pointing out o t “disturbing” realities, such as the fact that “to this day there hasn’t been another one pho on network television” — another character living with HIV, that is. In between acting and activism, Reuben has a side career in music. For example, did you know she was Tina Turner’s backup singer and dancer on her 2000 tour? “’Please forgive me’,” Reuben recites what Turner said to her during a chance meeting after the VH1 Divas Live/99 con- cert, “’but you’re so pretty. Can you sing and dance? … You should come on tour with me next year.’” Reuben, who studied music and ballet at the Canadian Royal Conservatory, thought that would be the end of it, until she got the call to audition in Turner’s hotel room. “I’ve had some nerve-wracking auditions,” she says. Next week Reuben will perform at Blues Alley, offering two shows of “standards and songs that people are familiar with,” mostly jazz and cabaret tunes, with a special emphasis on the late, great D.C. native Shirley Horn. But no Tina Turner. “Why? When the first was so amazing, there’s no way you’re going to be able to do it better.” – Doug Rule

Gloria Reuben performs Tuesday, June 24, at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Tickets are $25, plus $10 minimum purchase. Call 202-337-4141 or visit bluesalley.com.

from circus attraction to famous stage performers. Saturday, June 21, at 8:30 p.m. The Filene Center at LYNDA CARTER This potentially Broadway-bound production was Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $25 The Virginia-based Wonder Woman and staunch developed in association with the La Jolla Playhouse. to $38. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org. supporter of the LGBT community returns to the Now to July 13. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Kennedy Center for an annual cabaret, this time with Tickets are $45 to $130. Call 202-467-4600 or visit the new show, “This Time of My Life,” presented by kennedy-center.org. STAGE Potomac Productions. Saturday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. THANK YOU FESTIVAL: Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Tickets are $25 to AVENUE Q $65. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org. TIESTO, ABOVE & BEYOND, KREWALLA Despite the time that’s passed since Robert Lopez, Global Citizen and World Childhood Foundation Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty first sent their profanity- present this concert featuring several of the biggest NSO POPS spewing puppets on stage to deliver such toe-tappers names in today’s EDM scene, from Tiesto to Above Steven Reineke closes out the NSO Pops season for as “The Internet is for Porn,” “Everyone’s a Little Bit & Beyond to Krewella to Cedric Gervais to Alvin a program perfectly timed with the new film Jersey Racist” and that ode to loud sex “You Can Be as Loud Risk. It’s all meant to raise money and awareness for Boys. In fact, “The Midtown Men” features four as the Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love),” organizations and activists fighting in various ways performers from the original Broadway musical Avenue Q is just as funny, surprising and good- to help save children around the world from disease, that begat the film. The foursome showcase their naturedly shocking as ever. Olney Theatre presents violence, abuse, and poverty. Thursday, June 26, trademark sounds and moves next weekend, in a a production of the show directed by its own artistic starting at 4 p.m. Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 show with the orchestra featuring renditions of director Jason Loewith and choreographed by Bobby Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md. Tickets are songs by the Beatles, the Drifters — and of course the Smith. To July 6. Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney- $45 to $99 for all but VIP tickets. Call 800-551-SEAT Four Seasons, Frankie Valli’s group which inspired Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md. Tickets are $43.50 to or visit merriweathermusic.com or globalcitizen.org. this whole shebang. Friday, June 27, and Saturday, $63.50. Call 301-924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org. June 28, at 7:30 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $20 to $85. Call 202-467-4600 or visit BOEING BOEING kennedy-center.org. FILM No Rules Theatre Company offers a production of this French farce by Marc Camoletti, as translated SIDE SHOW SING-A-LONG GREASE by Beverley Cross and Francis Evans, focused on a Oscar-winner Bill Condon (Chicago, Dreamgirls) Wolf Trap offers the chance to sing-a-long to the ’60s-era playboy successfully juggling affairs with helms a new Kennedy Center reimagining of this hits from the 1978 Olivia Newton-John and John three fiancées, all flight attendants — until weather and 1997 musical by writer Bill Russell and composer Travolta flick, aided by animated subtitles on screen. technological advances get in the way. Matt Cowart Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls) about conjoined twins You know the ones, from “You’re The One That I directs the No Rules show featuring Nick Kowalczyk, Daisy and Violet Hilton, tracing their growth Want” to “Greased Lightning” to “Summer Nights.” Jamie Smithson, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Sherry

32 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com Berg, Jenna Berk and Helen Hedman. To June 29. HAPPY DAYS the overwhelming hubbub and pace of urban life. Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Scena Theater presents Samuel Beckett’s darkly Erin Weaver, Will Gartshore, Samule Edgerly and Call 703-820-9771 or visit norulestheatre.org. comic classic starring multi-time Helen Hayes Janine DiVita star. Extended to June 29. Round Award winner Nancy Robinette as the happy- House Theatre, 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda. CABARET go-lucky Winnie struggling to uncover meaning Tickets are $35 to $50. Call 240-644-1100 or visit If you can’t make it up to Broadway to see the revival in her static, lonely life. Stephen Lorne Williams roundhousetheatre.org. of the revival of the popular Kander & Ebb original, stars as Winnie’s totally aloof husband, who hasn’t the queer-identified theater company Richmond helped her existential crisis one bit. To July 5. Atlas PURO TANGO 2 Triangle Players offers its own production of the Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are GALA Theatre offers a sequel to a 2012 hit tango show throughout the month of Pride. The show $35 to $40. Call 202-399-7993 or visit atlasarts.org musical revue, with singers and dancers from focuses on the decadent and sexually liberating era of or scenatheater.org. Argentina and Uruguay — where the stirring musical 1930s Berlin and how the Nazis killed off the culture genre was born. Conceived and directed by GALA and many of its most creative and forward-thinking HEALING WARS favorite Hugo Medrano, Puro Tango 2 features leaders, both Jews and gays alike. Penny Ayn Maas Arena Stage presents a world-premiere theatrical vocalists Nelson Pino, Maria de los Angeles and directs and choreographs RTP’s production, staged dance piece from celebrated choreographer Liz Elisa Cordova, with the dance duo Jeremias Massera in an intimate cabaret style. To June 28. Richmond Lerman exploring the experiences of the healers and Mariela Barufaldi, and Cecilia de Feo as emcee. Triangle Players, 1300 Altamont Ave. Richmond. tasked with treating the physical and psychic wounds Pianist Alvaro Hagopian offers musical direction, Tickets are $32 to $35, or $18 for the preview. Call of battle. Bill Pullman stars among an ensemble of with Nario Recoba on the bandoneon and Dominic 804-346-8113 or visit rtriangle.org. dancers representing medics and soldiers from the Martinez on bass. Closes this Sunday, June 22. Civil War to today. To June 29. The Mead Center GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW. CLOAK AND DAGGER for American Theater, 1101 6th St. SW. Call 202-488- Tickets are $38 to $42. Call 202-234-7174 or visit Signature Theatre closes out its season with a 3300 or visit arenastage.org. galatheatre.org. world premiere musical comedy by actor Ed Dixon (Signature’s Sunset Boulevard). A screwball send-up JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG SOME GIRL(S) of the 1950s film noir and mile-a-minute whodunit, The American Century Theater offers a production Unquiet Theatre Company presents the latest from Cloak and Dagger features four actors — Dixon, of Abby Mann’s riveting play about the World War the American theater provocateur Neil LaBute, Christopher Bloch, Erin Driscoll, Doug Carpenter II war crime trials that raises important moral focused on one single man’s panicked rush to — playing nearly 20 roles as directed by Signature’s issues still relevant and controversial today. Joe reconnect with any of his old girlfriends — anything Eric Schaeffer. Pride performance is Friday, June Banno directs this rarely produced but critically but settle for the one woman who actually wants to 20, at 8 p.m. To July 6. Signature Theatre, 4200 praised courtroom drama starring a large cast of marry him. Remaining performances Friday, June Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets are $40 to $95. TACT veterans, including Craig Miller, Bruce Alan 20, and Saturday, June 21, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Call 703-820-9771 or visit signature-theatre.org. Rauscher, Steve Lebens, Mary Beth Luckenbaugh, June 22, at 2 p.m. W-3 Theatre at Workhorse Arts Karin Rosnizeck — and Christopher Henley of WSC Center in the former DC Prison, 9601 Ox Rd. Lorton, DISNEY’S THE LION KING Avant Bard making his TACT debut in a role played Va. Tickets are $20. Call 703-584-2900 or visit The Kennedy Center welcomes another two-month by Montgomery Clift in the 1961 Oscar-winning film workhorsearts.org. run of the 16-year-old Tony-winning musical version that also starred Judy Garland. To June featuring music by Elton John and Tim Rice and 28. Gunston Theater Two, 2700 South Lang St. SOURCE FESTIVAL directed and designed by Julie Taymor, complete Arlington. Tickets are $32 to $40. Call 703-998-4555 Throughout June, Cultural DC presents its annual with puppetry. Can you feel the love this summer? or visit americancentury.org. theater festival dedicated to the up-and-coming and Now to Aug. 17. Kennedy Center Opera House. named after its black box theater in the heart of Tickets are $40 to $195. Call 202-467-4600 or visit KILLER JOE bustling 14th Street. This year’s Source Festival kennedy-center.org. A four-year-old theater company, See No Sun On features three full-length plays, 18 10-minute plays Stage presents this play from the author of August: and three “artistic blind dates” built on themes of ENTER OPHELIA, DISTRACTED Osage County, exploring stereotypes in a withering, mortality, revenge and quests. To June 29. Source, Taffety Punk Theater Company, whose tagline is “We rustic outlook on America’s disenfranchised and 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $10 to $20 for each Will Rock You” and styles itself as a sort of theatrical focused on a family who hires a man to do away show, $45 for a three-play package or $100 for rock band, presents an original work created by one with their mother to collect on her insurance an all-access pass. Call 202-204-7760 or visit of D.C.’s most expressive actors, Kimberly Gilbert, policy. To June 29. District of Columbia Arts Center sourcefestival.org. in collaboration with choreographer Erin Mitchell (DCAC), 2438 18th St. NW. Tickets are $22 to and musician Amy Domingues. Enter Ophelia, $25. Call 202-462-7833 or visit dcartscenter.org or SWING TIME! THE MUSICAL Distracted is a feminist twist on Shakespeare’s seenosunonstage.com. Mike Thornton, an actor who has worked with Hamlet. Performances Friday, June 20, Saturday, the satire group the Capital Steps, and his wife June 21, Friday, 27, and Saturday, June 28, at 8 p.m. ORDINARY DAYS Cecelia Fex have teamed up as co-producers for June Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th St. SE. Signature Theatre’s Matthew Gardiner, who this new band-era musical revue about a group Tickets $15. Call 202-547-6839 or visit chaw.org or must be the busiest working director all around of performers putting together a wartime radio taffetypunk.com. D.C., helms a Round House Theatre production broadcast. Featuring film clips plus a live jazz band, and the area premiere of up-and-coming gay the show features tunes made popular by Duke FREUD’S LAST SESSION composer Adam Gwon’s musical Ordinary Days. Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Theater J stages a production of Mark St. Germain’s Touted as a refreshingly honest, funny musical Dorsey and Cab Calloway. Now to July 31. U.S. Navy brainy play about a clash between intellectual giants about the difficulty of making real connections in Memorial’s Burke Theater, 701 Pennsylvania Ave. Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis during World War II, when Lewis was as-yet unknown. Serge Seiden directs Rick Foucheux and Todd Scofield. Extended to July 6. The Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater, Washington, D.C.’s Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $30 to $55. Call 202-518- 9400 or visit washingtondcjcc.org.

GROUNDED Through its Studio Special Events series, Studio Theatre welcomes London’s Gate Theatre and its visceral production of George Brant’s gripping solo show about the world of remote warfare — aka the use of drones — which was a sold-out hit at the Edinburgh Fringe. Christopher Haydon directs Lucy Ellinson, who plays a pregnant hotshot military pilot who flies drones in Afghanistan from a trailer outside Las Vegas. To June 29. Studio Theatre, 14th & P Streets NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit studiotheatre.org.

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 33 Such Pushovers It’s easy to fall for this catchy folk/pop lesbian trio

ookinG FOr a neW Summer Jam? cOnsider “XOXO,” the last track on the debut album Falling For It Lfrom the lesbian folk/pop trio The Pushovers. Featuring edgy, slow-burning verses that melt into a bright girly chorus, the ‘80s-stamped, edm-esque song stands out from contemporary pop radio by virtue of the Pushovers’ signature three-part harmony — which factors into even the rap from Liz deRoche. “It’s a harmony rap, which is kind of amazing,” mara Levi says. a high school music teacher, Levi initiated forming the band nearly six years ago at D.C.’s Phase s a 1, recruiting first vocalist/guitarist Nancy Eddy and then DeR- l oche, who also plays keyboards and drums. deRoche, known uca

Ts as “the Singing Lizard” for her work as an “electro-kindie” act tin s making music for kids, is also a member of the band supporting Ju local musician Tom Goss. Falling For It was years in the making, in large part because the women are an “LDB,” or “long-distance band.” Only DeRoche remains in D.C., as Levi has uprooted to Brooklyn and Eddy to Baltimore. But the final product proves it was worth the wait, and worth the more than $10,000 that fans contributed via Kickstarter, a website that helps artists fundraise in order to launch vari- ous creative projects. In addition to hiring designers for high-quality t-shirts and posters, the upfront funds from fans allowed the band to record with a D.C. hardcore punk scene pioneer, rocker/producer J. Robbins — “an incredible musician whose tal- ents are all over this record,” as DeRoche puts it. The strong, wide-ranging debut album includes the first song the band wrote together. The catchy, punchy It Gets Better-themed anthem “Boy or Girl” finds the women chanting “Step off” to the naysayers and bullies who ask, “Are you a boy or a girl? Why don’t you fix up your hair?” This weekend the band stops in D.C. for a CD Release Concert. “Corner Store is a really awesome place and a really great listening room,” Eddy says. Adds Levi, “Expect silliness and harmonies. Maybe a fun cover.” – Doug Rule

The Pushovers perform Saturday, June 21, at 6 p.m., at Corner Store Arts, 900 South Carolina Ave. SE. Tickets are $15. Call 202-544-5807 or visit cornerstorearts.org.

NW. Tickets are $19 or $49. Call 202-393-4266 or Ijames, Chivas Michael and Stephanie Berry. To June with singer/songwriter Aloe Blacc. These days the visit swingtimethemusical.com. 29. Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St., Baltimore. 24-year-old superstar DJ is gaining attention for “A Tickets are $19 to $62. Call 410-986-4000 or visit Sky Full of Stars,” his stirring single with Coldplay — THE TOTALITARIANS centerstage.org. and for buzz that he’s worked on new material with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is the local Madonna. Sunday, June 29, at 8 p.m. Jiffy Lube Live, stop on a National New Play Rolling World Premiere 7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow, Va. Tickets are $31 of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s The Totalitarians. Robert to $81. Call 703-754-6400 or visit livenation.com. O’Hara directs this high-energy farce focused on COMMUNITY THEATER the absurdity of the current state of politics and CYRUS CHESTNUT QUARTET campaigning — specifically the secret lies told in PLAZA SUITE “Brubeck Reimagined” is a special concert by the bedroom and the public lies told on the stump. The Little Theatre of Alexandria offers a community this internationally renowned pianist in tribute The focus is on an ambitious speechwriter who has production of Neil Simon’s three-act comedy to another renowned pianist Dave Brubeck, who stumbled on a perfectly patriotic — and perfectly exploring the bargains involved in love and marriage, helped popularize jazz worldwide more than a half- meaningless — slogan that she hopes can advance all set at New York’s Plaza Hotel. Remaining shows century ago and died in 2012. Chestnut and his her unpredictable, gaffe-prone candidate, seemingly Thursday, June 19, at 8 p.m., and Friday, June 20, at quartet debuted this tribute show to rave reviews in modeled, at least indirectly, on Sarah Palin. To 8 p.m. The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Philadelphia last year. Wednesday, June 25, at 8 p.m. June 29. Woolly Mammoth, 641 D St. NW. Tickets St., Alexandria. Tickets are $20. Call 703-683-0496 or Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. 600 I St. NW. Tickets range from $35 to $72.50. Call 202-393-3939 or visit visit thelittletheater.com. are $25 in advance, or $30 day of. Call 202-408-3100 woollymammoth.net. or visit sixthandi.org

WILD WITH HAPPY MUSIC DEBO BAND Center Stage presents this new comedy by Rolling Stone refers to this 11-piece Ethiopian- playwright/actor Colman Domingo focused on the AVICII American group’s sound as “a Red Bull-ed marching struggles of a gay man whose acting career is going Tim Bergling wasn’t even passed college age when band.” The Boston-based brassy funk group is led nowhere, and now his personal life is in shambles he started his music career, and within a year he by saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and fronted by too — his boyfriend leaves him and his mother dies was already a superstar. As sick of it as you may charismatic vocalist Bruck Tesfaye. D.C.’s Feedel in quick succession. But he does have a boisterous be, it’s still hard to believe it’s been three years Band, billed as an “EthioJazz” group, joins for a aunt, and an extroverted best friend, who take up already since his Etta James-sampling breakthrough performance in the Artisphere Ballroom with the challenge to cheer him up. Jeremy B. Cohen hit “Levels,” and nearly a year since his debut album additional music spun by D.C. Afrobeat DJ Underdog. directs a cast featuring Forrest McClendon, James True featuring his great megahit “Wake Me Up!” Friday, June 27, at 8 p.m. Artisphere, 1101 Wilson

34 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com Blvd., Arlington. Tickets are $15 in advance, or $18 Pixar films, from Finding Nemo to Up to Monsters, two percussionists, Chris Fryar and Daniel de los day-of. Call 703-875-1100 or visit artisphere.com or Inc. Friday, June 20, at 8:30 p.m. The Filene Center at Reyes. They make a local stop on its Great American deboband.com. Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $30 to Road Trip Tour. Sunday, June 22, at 7 p.m. Jiffy Lube $58. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org. Live, 7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow, Va. Tickets are DIANA ROSS $29.50 to $102. Call 703-754-6400 or visit livenation. The Supreme diva returns for a second year in a row PEACHES & HERB com and zacbrownband.com. at Wolf Trap, but if you don’t already have tickets, The original Peaches, Francine Hurd Barker, died in you’ll have to make due with lawn seats if you’re 2005, but by then D.C.-born Herb Fame was already coming out. That is, if even those remain by the on his fifth Peaches in touring around his hit-making time you try to order tickets. You can’t hurry love, duo, known for the late-70s pop/R&B hit “Reunited” DANCE tis true, but you can and must hurry ticket-buying. and the disco great “Shake Your Groove Thing.” This concert is sure to sell out. At least this year’s (Barker didn’t like the rigors of touring, so she was K-ARTS DANCE COMPANY Korea National University of Arts presents this concert features an opening act, Diana’s daughter out early.) Fame returns for a hometown show with student troupe in a mixed repertory program (with Berry Gordy) Rhonda Ross, and it is also on a his current Peaches, Wanda Mackle. Friday, June featuring: Mi Sook Jeon’s Nothing to Say, a modern weekend: Ms. Ross was punctual to a fault last year, 27, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon dance piece about the lethargic, nihilistic lifestyle when a fair number of fans were tied up in traffic Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $45. Call 703-549-7500 of so many of today’s youth; Inside of Truth, a ballet at the prompt 8 p.m. start time. So get there early. or visit birchmere.com or peachesandherb.com by YoungGeol Kim; and three traditional Korean Sunday, June 29, at 8 p.m. The Filene Center at Wolf dances directed by Sung Ok Yang. Friday, June 20, Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Only $35 lawn seats THE INSERIES: LA TRAVIATA at 7:30 p.m. Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Free, remain for the show. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit After 25 years of producing pocket opera, and in but tickets required and available beginning at 5:30 wolftrap.org. honor of the composer’s 200th anniversary, the p.m. day-of the show. Call 202-467-4600 or visit InSeries presents the full-length Verdi masterpiece kennedy-center.org. KATY PERRY La Traviata — in English “The Fallen Woman” — The superstar stops by for two nights on her about a socially unacceptable love affair. Nick Olcott Prismatic World Tour featuring Capital Cities as directs a production featuring acclaimed tenor Jesus RICHMOND BALLET Billed as “a funny and magical performance for the opening act. Tuesday, June 24, and Wednesday, Hernandez and Randa Rouweyha in the lead roles, entire family,” this celebrated Virginia dance troupe June 25, at 7 p.m. Verizon Center, 601 F St. NW. plus a cast of eight others. Remaining shows are offers Cinderella’s Sister, featuring Prokofiev’s Tickets are $29.50 to $153.50. Call 202-628-3200 or Saturday, June 21, at 3 p.m., Monday, June 23, at 7:30 enchanting score, dazzling young dancers and visit verizoncenter.com. p.m., and Saturday, June 28, at 8 p.m. GALA Theatre lessons on the history of ballet. Wednesday, June at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets are $21 to 25, and Thursday, June 26, at 10:30 a.m. Theatre-in- $44. Call 202-234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org and LIRA the-Woods at Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. A star in her native post-apartheid South Africa, the inseries.org. Tickets are $10 to $48. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit mono-named singer/model/actress Lira is working wolftrap.org. to break into the American market with an Sade- THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA esque blend of R&B, jazz and Afropop. She stops by Wolf Trap presents the only area performance of the Howard Theatre on a tour to support her U.S. the Philadelphia Orchestra, regarded as one of the debut album Rise Again featuring charming first world’s leading orchestras, here performing one COMEDY single “Feel Good.” Monday, June 23, at 8 p.m. The of the world’s greatest orchestral compositions, Howard Theatre, 620 T St. NW. Tickets are $17.50 in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Bramwell Tovey HAL SPARKS advance or $22.50 day-of. Call 202-588-5595 or visit conducts the orchestra as well as the Choral Arts Best known as Michael from Showtime’s Queer as thehowardtheatre.com or alicesmith.com. Society of Washington and Wolf Trap Opera soloists, Folk, these days the Los Angeles-based Hal Sparks who will join to sing the piece’s triumphant finale dabbles in various media, from starring on the MICHELLE RAYMOND BAND “Ode to Joy.” Saturday, June 28, at 8:15 p.m. The Disney XD cable channel’s hit series Lab Rats, to Bassist Dan Shorstein, electric guitarist Giorgio Filene Center at Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. performing as lead singer and guitarist for rock trio Carvallo and drummer Lance LaRue will support Tickets are $25 to $65. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit Zero 1, to guest-hosting and starring on progressive local lesbian singer/songwriter/guitarist Michelle wolftrap.org. radio stations nationwide. This weekend Sparks Raymond in her namesake band, which performs returns to the Arlington Drafthouse for two nights another free concert at Columbia Heights restaurant/ THE SELDOM SCENE of stand-up comedy. “I can’t think of a time,” the music venue Acre 121. Friday, June 20, at 10 p.m. Acre Formed over 40 years ago in Bethesda, the straight Sparks told Metro Weekly in 2012, “when 121, 1400 Irving St. NW. Free. Call 202-328-0121 or progressive bluegrass band Seldom Scene remains I was against gays being married, women voting visit acre121.com or michelleraymondband.com. especially popular in its hometown region. The and having the right to choose, and every minority group returns to Alexandria’s seated show palace having protection under the law.” Friday, June 27, NATIONAL ORCHESTRAL INSTITUTE the Birchmere for another Saturday night show, this at 10 p.m., and Saturday, June 28, at 7:30 p.m. and AND FESTIVAL time with special guests John Starling, Tom Gray 10 p.m., at Arlington Cinema N’ Drafthouse, 2903 and Rickie Simpkins to celebrate Long Time…Seldom The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the Columbia Pike, Arlington. Tickets are $20. Call 703- Scene, a new Smithsonian Folkways Recording. University of Maryland presents this 27th month- 486-2345 or visit arlingtondrafthouse.com. Saturday, June 28, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, long festival pairing outstanding young classical 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are musicians with world-renowned conductors, MICHAEL CHE $29.50. Call 703-549-7500 or visit birchmere.com or including James Ross, Christopher Seaman and As part of its free nightly Millennium Stage seldomscene.com. Leonard Slatkin. The festival continues this weekend programming the Kennedy Center welcomes the with: standup comedian Michael Che, who is also the Seaman conducting the musicians in a program WOLF TRAP OPERA: HANDEL’S GIULIO CESARE newest cast member of Comedy Central’s The Daily headlined by Holst’s The Planets on Saturday, June Handel’s most popular opera, Giulio Cesare focuses Show with John Stewart. One of Rolling Stone’s “50 21, at 8 p.m.; and a free Family Concert featuring on Julius Caesar’s visit to Egypt in 48 B.C. and Funniest People” and Variety’s “Top 10 Comics to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and musicians his encounter with the exotic Cleopatra. Anthony Watch,” Che has spent the past year writing for offering their own interpretations on children’s Walker conducts a new Wolf Trap Opera Company Saturday Night Live. Tyler Richardson offers an books, on Sunday, June 22, at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. production performed in Italian with English opening set. Thursday, June 26, at 6 p.m. Kennedy The festival concludes with Leonard Slatkin supertitles and featuring John Holiday in the title Center Family Theater. Free. Call 202-467-4600 or leading a performance of Shostakovich’s powerful role and Ying Fang as Cleopatra. Friday, June 27, at visit kennedy-center.org. l Fifth Symphony on Saturday, June 28, at 8 p.m. 7:30 p.m., Sunday, June 29, at 3 p.m., and Tuesday, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University July 1, at 7:30 p.m. The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 of Maryland, University Boulevard and Stadium Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $36 to $88. Call Drive. College Park. Tickets are $25, and free for 877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org. the Family Concert. Call 301-405-ARTS or visit For more out on the town listings claricesmithcenter.umd.edu. ZAC BROWN BAND please visit An eight-piece band from Georgia straddling the www.metroweekly.com NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Southern rock/country divide, the Zac Brown Band is AT WOLF TRAP led by its namesake vocalist/guitarist but also includes Jimmy De Martini, who doubles as a violinist/fiddler, Emil du Cou leads the NSO@Wolf Trap program John Driskell Hopkins, a bassist/ukulele player, and Pixar in Concert, featuring scenes and songs from

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 35 stage by DOUG RULE Jr s Summer

n

Robinette (R) and Williams Do Unhappy Days

trouble to see. But even if you know what it’s about — or sup- Scena stages Beckett’s posed to be about — going into it, chances are you’ll still leave feeling at least a little bewildered by the whole affair. Or even a absurdist classic little disgruntled, especially once you learn that was, in fact, the Irish playwright’s intent all along. Beckett was celebrated in the post-world war period of the mid-20th century for his work in helping pioneer what came to be known as the “Theatre of the absurd.” a branch of the modernist movement in art, this absurdist style is essentially the opposite of the traditional, satisfying method of storytelling, ancy rOBinette is currently PLaying in which things actually happen, meaning gets imparted and a part that a knighted British actress once touted there’s a sense of resolution about it all. There’s none of the sort as a pinnacle role for actresses, akin to Hamlet for in Happy Days. Winnie is buried waist-deep in a mound of dirt at N male actors. And in that sense, Robinette playing the play’s start, and by its end, about 100 long minutes later, only Winnie in Happy Days makes a kind of sense. Robinette is, after her head remains exposed on a sunbaked, barren beach. There’s all, the reigning grande dame of D.C. theater. no explanation for how she got there, or why her companion If only the role of Winnie made a kind of sense. If only Happy Willie (Stephen Lorne Williams) won’t help her out, instead Days, the Samuel Beckett tragicomedy that Scena theater is leaving her mostly alone. producing at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, was worth the Of course it’s all meant to be a metaphor. Winnie is living

36 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com an ordinary, lonely life, taking increasing pleasure — and pain Doug Carpenter, a third-rate detective in New York, who battles — in the most routine of occurrences, existential trappings and the mob and other assorted characters in his quest to find a material goods, the latter of which can be easily tucked away missing golden statue, a Golden Venus seemingly modeled after in her oversized handbag. eventually she’ll sink and become Helena troy, a blonde bombshell who becomes his client and consumed by the great big world that surrounds her — as will love interest. Stunning Signature star erin driscoll plays troy we all. In Winnie’s relentless optimism and loquacious nattering in full girly glory in this world premiere production directed by — and Willie’s contrasting dour detachment and laconic com- Signature’s Eric Schaeffer. munication — Beckett seems to be offering dated commentary on Cloak and Dagger will ultimately win you over, especially gender. (And it has been suggested that this play was Beckett’s with its touching and particularly funny finale, which only retort to his wife’s request for a happy play.) But he also seems comes after a whole series of madcap shenanigans — plus the to be commenting on the absurdity of life and the different ways great mid-show number “Shake your maracas.” dixon and people cope. Christopher Bloch both assume multiple roles, many of them in Ultimately, you may cope with the absurdity of this play bet- questionable taste — stereotypes of first-generation Americans ter than I did. You may even forgive some of the oversights of of Chinese, Indian, Cuban and Italian descent. But most of the this production, directed by Scena’s robert mcNamara. Why, jokes are with the characters, and not at their portrayal. and for instance, did designer Michael C. Stepowany use stretched the funniest moments are of dixon in drag, portraying, ahem, beige fabric to evoke sand on a beach, rather than actual sand or “A Real Woman.” Some of the jokes are forced or familiar, but dirt? But you certainly won’t leave with anything but apprecia- nothing egregious. tion for Robinette’s work. No doubt she’s far from the pinnacle The music is perfectly pleasant and hummable, and the of her career. Signature team of designers, led on sets by Daniel Conway, has done its typical up-to-snuff job in allowing you to escape Happy Days ( ) runs to July 5 at Atlas Performing Arts into a world of exaggerated reality much as if watching a Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $35 to $40. Call 202-399-7993 black-and-white detective movie — with the occasional pop or visit atlasarts.org or scenatheater.org. of color from the golden statue and the blonde-haired and red-dressed Driscoll (costumes by Kathleen Geldard). With- ED DIXON WON A HELEN HAYES AWARD the last time he out giving anything away, there’s thankfully not much inno- appeared on Signature theatre’s stage, portraying max in the cent about the whole shebang. musical Sunset Boulevard. now he returns to the Shirlington showplace to play a dozen characters — in his very own musical, Cloak and Dagger (HHHHH) runs to June 22 at Signature The- Cloak and Dagger, a spoof of whodunit mysteries from the mid- atre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets are $40 to $95. Call 20th century. The focus is on Nick, played by the overly polished 703-820-9771 or visit signature-theatre.org. l Jr Summer s Do n

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 37 games by RhUaRiDh maRR

No Man’s Sky Waiting Games

last couple of years, where kinect-based titles and entertain- It was look now, play (much) ment superseded gameplay and fresh iPs. Last year, the xbox One debuted with much fanfare over its dVr abilities and voice- later at this year’s E3 Expo activated controls, but few real games to tempt those from their xbox 360s and PlayStations 3s. no matter, as this year all was mostly forgiven. microsoft’s 90-minute presentation was noth- ing short of a master class in tight editing, with game announce- ments coming thick and fast. CAll of duty: AdvAnCed WArfAre got things running, showcasing its futuristic setting and new additions to a franchise that has become increasingly stale over nOtHer year, anOtHer e3. tHe eLec- the years, before microsoft shoveled coal into the engines and tronic entertainment expo once again took over really got things moving. downtown Los angeles, bursting at the seams forzA horizon 2 is launching Sep. 30, which should appease A with tidbits and details of the games we can look those hungry for more of its open-road driving action, while forward to playing in the near and distant future. compared those who picked up Forza 5 at the One’s launch (which, accord- with last year, where the xbox One and PlayStation 4 had their ing to microsoft, is over half of all One owners) will fi nally be coming out parties, publishers focused heavily on what every getting Germany’s legendary nürburgring racetrack – consid- gamer yearns for most: games. yes, it seems everyone doubled ered a must-have for any serious racing game – in a free update down this time, to push as much content as possible, after 2013’s some seven months after the game launched. Better late than rather software-starved approach. unfortunately, those hoping never, we suppose. evolve, from the makers of zombie co-op to have a wealth of fresh gameplay in their hands over the com- shoot-em-up L eft 4 Dead, put a tempting spin on traditional ing months were left somewhat unsatisfi ed – there were still far co-op gameplay — four players face off against giant monsters, too many games announced for 2015 – but what was on show with the twist being that said monster is controlled by a fi fth was still pretty spectacular. even nintendo managed to buck player, not computer ai. xbox One owners can enjoy exclusive expectations and showcase some pretty compelling reasons to access to its beta ahead of an October release. pick up a Wii u, which is certainly saying something given cur- indeed, cooperative play seemed to be a big focus of e3. rent sales. Fable, microsoft’s much-loved fantasy rPG franchise, returned microsoft, as is tradition, was fi rst out of the gate with its as fAble legends, which debuts four player co-op and some conference. redmond’s team sorely needed to make up for the stunning new visuals, though footage of the game seems to

38 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.cOM lack some of the wit and unique quality that has accompanied previous entries in the series. Countering that was Microsoft’s end-of-conference tease, its “one more thing” announcement. Crackdown — yes, the franchise that became popular due to its inclusion of a Halo 3 beta but transpired to be a pretty decent game in its own right, returns on Xbox One following a lacklus- ter sequel on 360. Judging by the reaction of the crowd, it was a popular decision, as four player co-op (yes, again) was dem- onstrated alongside new, shiny graphics and some impressive environment destruction abilities. If you’re in the mood for something over-the-top and wacky, though, Sunset Overdrive could be just what you’re looking for. Threatening to upstage everything else on show, its bright, colorful graphics and tongue-in-cheek references look set to put Sunset Overdrive an amusing spin on the grossly overused “kill all the zombies/ mutants/whatevers” trope that has affected (infected?) far too many games of late. Here, the general populous has become mutated as a result of drinking a new energy drink, and it’s up to you (and your friends) to take them down with a variety of fantastic, fantastical weaponry. While Sunset was one of the biggest games on show, Microsoft also showed a lot of love to gaming’s smaller creators. Indie developers, who’ve received a lot of love from Sony recently, are being given renewed focus by Microsoft to ensure they aren’t left behind in the battle to recruit excellent indie PC developers to create content for consoles. One such example came from the developers of acclaimed indie game Limbo, who debuted their new game Inside, which looks to be just as simple yet emotional as its black and white predecessor, but with a colorful, Orwellian dystopia to wander through. Legend of Zelda Wii U Of course, it’s important to remember why microsoft is so important to gaming in the first place: Master Chief. The main least five minutes on stage is anyone’s guess. character of the Halo franchise has become a mascot for Xbox Perhaps Sony has earned the right to consume two hours fanboys everywhere, touted as the influence behind many of and gloat about its successes. The PS4 has now topped Ameri- the mechanics of the majority of first-person shooters available can sales charts for five straight months, and is the undisputed today. Halos 1 and 2 were masterpieces of gameplay, multiplayer leader of this current generation. Microsoft failed to announce and storytelling on the original Xbox (though 3 and 4, at least in any sales figures – they didn’t even touch upon a new Kinect-less this reporter’s opinion, were somewhat less compelling). that bundle for the One which retails at the same price as the PS4 in made Microsoft’s announcement of the Master Chief Collection an attempt to boost sales. Sony reveled in taking a break from one of the greatest “greatest-hits” compilations of our time. games to discuss Project Morpheus, a highly-anticipated virtual Consisting of all four main games in the franchise, all run- reality headset which they claim will come to market some time ning at 1080p and 60fps on xbox One, with over 100 multi- in 2015, while PlayStation TV was announced, a $99 device akin player maps from every game and every piece of dLC, it puts to Apple TV that can stream movies and TV shows, as well as every other HD collection remake to shame. Gamers can jump PlayStation games through Sony’s PS Now streaming service. between every story mission and every multiplayer map – with That’s not to say that there weren’t plenty of games, though. friends in tow – letting gamers relive the glory days of Halo 2 The creators of Dark Souls announced Bloodborne, a violent, (one of the greatest multiplayer games in history) back when horror adventure which tasks players with exploring a city Xbox Live was in its infancy. For $60, it’ll be an absolute steal cursed with an endemic illness. Like Dark Souls, expect to die. when it launches Nov. 11. A lot. keeping with the gruesome, The Order 1886 showcased Really, it was microsoft’s main rival that had everything some more of its horror side, with another violent trailer giv- to lose. Sony unofficially “won” 2013’s e3 with a presentation ing gamers a deeper glimpse into what they can expect. Initial that saw the eagerly awaited reveal of the PS4, as well as its media reactions to the game were mixed, but the team behind $399 starting price – $100 lower than the price Redmond had it are said to have made a lot of improvements to the gameplay. announced for the xbox One earlier that day. Some amus- Here’s hoping it pays off when the game launches in February. ing barbs at their rival’s flip-flopping over the One’s features Sony offered another look at The Last of Us, which has been and price, and a worked-up crowd created an energy that was buffed from its already-beautiful PS3 version for a PS4 release, undeniably powerful. this year? everything kind of fell apart. though those that have already played through the incredible Perhaps it was the absence of Jack Tretton, who stepped down game will find little new to enjoy here. If you need something a as President and CEO of Sony’s American operations. Perhaps little more… horrendously violent? Enter Let It Die, from Suda 51. it was the apparent absence of any kind of editing. Sony’s two- Not a great deal is known, but the trailer and subsequent chatter hour conference dragged, particularly during a middle segment detail a free-to-play, asynchronous online game, which will fea- focused on facts and figures and a presentation about an upcom- ture brutal combat. Should a person die in game, their soul will ing tV show exclusive to PlayStation that offered absolutely be uploaded to the game’s servers and used as enemies in other nothing beyond a premise and some concept art. Why it got at players’ games. Expect more details on the PS4 exclusive at the

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 39 Tokyo Game Show. people, is an incredibly ambitious sci-fi game. dropping play- If you’re not one for horror or zombies – yours truly included ers onto their own unique planet, it gives them the tools to take in that group – then Sony had you catered for with LittleBig- their adventure into space, where a procedurally generated open Planet 3. the latest installment in the series sees adorable universe offers potentially unlimited gameplay and exploration. protagonist Sackboy joined by three friends, Swoop, Toggle and With dreamy visuals and gameplay that includes deep explora- Oddcloth, to add greater depth to an already stellar platformer. tion and altercations with planet-based predators and other What’s more, any user-created levels from the first two games spaceships, its sheer scope is reason enough to be excited. will work here, so it’ll launch with thousands of additional Nintendo once again eschewed the “big conference” mental- levels out of the box (and via the Interwebs). Abzu, meanwhile, ity of its competitors, opting for another digital event, with a pre- is a spiritual successor to Sony’s beautifully ethereal Journey, recorded broadcast featuring a highlights reel of what Nintendo created by the art director of that game and featuring music fans can expect over coming year. unfortunately, while Super by austin Wintory, who gave Journey its incredible score. it Smash Bros. should offer some compelling party action when offers a similarly striking art style and setting — an underwater it launches later this year, nintendo failed to offer any other world ripe for exploration – and should offer more mellow-yet- compelling reasons to buy a Wii U now, which is what it really engrossingly emotional gameplay. Fans of ‘90s cult classic Grim needs. Sales are in the toilet and consumers are apathetic at best. Fandango were offered a surprise when Sony announced a re- However, hold off until next year to buy a Wii U and you’re mastered edition for PS4 and PS Vita, bringing the acclaimed in for a treat. First up is Hyrule Warriors, a game combining the dark-comedy adventure game into the modern era. lore of the Legend of Zelda series with the frenzied, massive-scale Two announcements, arguably, stole Sony’s show – though combat of the Dynasty Warriors franchise. Expect over-the-top both were far from surprises. Sony’s “and one more thing” game special moves, hoards of zelda enemies and playable charac- was the highly anticipated Uncharted 4, the first edition of the ters including Link, zelda, midna and impa, with more to be franchise on PS4. Set to launch at the end of next year, little is announced. Continuing with the Zelda franchise, The Legend of known about what adventures Nathan Drake will be undertak- Zelda Wii U is an all-new Zelda game for, well, the Wii U. Kind of ing, though he will be on the hunt for pirate treasure this time obvious, really. Hyrule was the main focus of Nintendo’s presen- around. Rumored to be Drake’s final outing, the gorgeous trailer tation, with beautiful graphics and an impressive sense of scale was confirmed after its debut to be running in-game – a clear to world. this new game seeks to break from the constraints sign that this latest game will continue its predecessors’ claims of recent zelda games, removing the strict dungeon-crawling Br os c h

as some of the most beautiful games ever made. Even with big- nature of past titles and moving to an open, freely traversable Ja v ier budget sequels and fresh IP, though, there was one game that world. Even Link has been overhauled, eschewing his green tunic generated more buzz than any other, at any other conference. for a new blue number. Expect to see both Zelda games next year. No Man’s Sky, an indie game developed by a studio of just ten One surprise from nintendo’s camp was Splatoon, a fun twist on the competitive shooter that removes the violence and gore and pumps in heavy doses of fun and color. Players take part in 4v4 matches, armed with paint guns and tasked with coating as much of the world in their team’s color before the round is up. Want to take out a member of the opposing team? Shoot them and they’ll pop like a paint-filled balloon, which means this is one shooter playable by both adults and kids alike. A unique twist is the ability to transform into a squid at any time, using the paint to scale objects and offer new vantage points on combat. Expect it to launch… well, next year. Just like every other game you want to play now. Nintendo rounded out its presentation with a surprise announcement: Star Fox. the 3D scrolling classic gets a gorgeous update, with the GamePad’s motion sensor used to steer the Arwing fighter, Landmaster tank and a new helicopter vehicle. Shigeru miyamoto is directly in charge of the project and it’s assured to be everything fans of the series expect it to be. Sadly, it won’t drop until 2015. C’est la vie. E3 is always a case of looking to the future of gaming, but this year’s conference seemed all too focused on games releasing in 2015 as opposed to this year. The new generation of consoles has been criticized for a lack of content to justify upgrading from the PS3 and 360, while the Wii U continues to struggle to offer any compelling reasons at all for jumping ship. Next year is shaping up to be a great year for gaming, though, with games from third- party manufacturers including Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed Unity and Rise of the Tomb Raider all expected to launch alongside the first party titles announced at the various hardware manufactur- ers’ conferences. That’s not to say that it wasn’t an impressive show. There really was something for everyone on display, span- ning all genres and running the gamut from mainstream to indie. It’s just a shame that so much teased to those in attendance was a case of: look, but don’t touch. At least for another year, that is. l

40 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com pets by Rhuaridh marr h c os Br ier v Ja Interpets

public awareness of the availability of high-quality adoptable Six websites where pets. updated daily, the site also contains numerous forums, discussions and articles to help get you set-up for adopting and pet lovers should flock to assist potential owners in making their homes as welcoming and pet-ready as possible. Should you give one of the thousands of homeless animals their “forever home,” you’re going to need supplies. Food, bed- ding, collars, harnesses, tanks, cages, medicine and hygiene care — whatever your pet needs, you can find it at Doctors Foster elcoming a pet into your home isn’t and Smith (drsfostersmith.com). the good doctors have been just an easy way to gain instagram follow- in operation since 1983, when they opened their first animal ers – because who doesn’t love a cute puppy hospital. Their aim? Make your pet’s life happier and healthier W picture? – it’s also a full-time commitment to – and who can argue with an end goal like that? Of course, as make sure the animal receives the best care and training pos- primary caregiver, it’s you who will have the greatest impact sible. Whereas owners, both current and prospective, used to on your pet’s health, so they’ve distilled a wealth of information rely on their vets or self-help books, nowadays seeking advice and products to help keep your pet at their best into one website. for something pet-related is as simple as using your smartphone. Healthcare, particularly prescriptions, can be expensive, but We’ve found six websites that’ll make the entire experience of Doctors Foster and Smith attempts to make it as easy as possible having a pet infinitely more rewarding and enjoyable. with low prices, 12-hour shipping and owner support available Petfinder.com is one of the best ways to search for your via email, phone or instant messaging. Need further help? User perfect pet. at the time of writing, they have over 300,000 forums offer guidance and advice on virtually every topic and animals available to adopt, sourced from over 13,000 adoption question imaginable. groups throughout North America. From dogs to cats, horses to Of course, there’s one key ingredient every dog owner needs hamsters, snakes to pigs, they have a wide variety of creatures in order to enjoy their pet: training. more often than not, any and critters to suit every taste. Petfinder serves as a database, problems caused by an unruly pup are a result of poor training by pooling data from the thousands of organizations that contribute its owner – fail to keep your energetic friend under control and it their animal listings to it – indeed, their main aim is to increase can cause all manner of headaches down the line. Not everyone

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 41 can afford to hire trainers, or attend specialized classes, though, which makes Cesar’s Way (cesarsway.com) the perfect pit stop en route to adopting a dog. With a multitude of free advice from renowned TV dog trainer Cesar Milan and the website’s PetPetUpload yours atPix PixMetroWeekly.com/pets curators, including articles and videos, it’s easy to learn the simple tools and tricks needed to make sure your new best friend doesn’t destroy your favorite couch or urinate all over that expensive rug you just bought. If you need further help, Cesar’s books and dVDs are available to purchase, but with so much free information available they’re almost superfluous – just don’t say that to his (very handsome) face. Even with the best training and healthcare, there’s always the chance that something outside of your control could go wrong. A big concern for pet owners? Poison. We’re not just talking the bubbling liquid in the bottle with a skull on it: prescription medication, household products, human food and chocolate are all potentially poisonous to animals. For instance, lots of owners still like to give their pets chocolate (dogs, in particular, have an affinity for the heavenly substance). However, it can cause vom- iting, diarrhea, raised heart rate, and even seizures. The ASPCA reportedly receives, on average, 26 calls a day relating to pets ingesting chocolate, so it’s clearly still something owners aren’t doing enough to prevent. Luckily, the ASPCA’s website, aspca. org, has everything you need to avoid accidentally poisoning the family pet. As well as lists of the most common toxic substances for animals – which include certain plants, lawn products and household cleaning items – the ASPCA also provides invaluable Kayla advice on how to poison-proof your home. However, should Dennis’s 2 1/2 year-old BeshaPoo the worst happen, there’s also information on spotting the “She loves people watching and playing at the dog park. symptoms of poisoning and what steps owners can take to help She also is a water rat! Loves swimming. Just the biggest joy of my life.” a poisoned animal. It’s definitely worth a read, as it could save

42 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com your pet’s life. Owning a pet can be stressful and requires a lot of time and effort, but it also reaps its own rewards. the bond between humans and their animals is incredibly strong, which is what makes The Dodo (thedodo.com) such great reading. Think of it as Tumblr for animal-lovers. With content curated from across the Internet, you’ll have a wide variety of animal-related articles to peruse. An average trip to the site could include an article full of GIFs of cows really enjoying a good scratch, or a story about a trainee fireman saving a kitten from a canal. I practically over- dosed on cuteness at the sight of a sea lion pup that had rolled in sand to protect itself from sunburn. There are some particularly sobering articles as well. Pugs may be an Internet sensation and a highly coveted companion pet, but one article highlighted the breeding practices that have led to their flat-faced, chubby appearance and the numerous health-problems it causes. Think videos of pugs snoring are adorable? it’s because they can’t breathe properly. if you’re truly an animal lover, the dodo is definitely worthy of inclusion in your daily reading. If, however, all you want is to see adorable pictures, videos and GIFs of creatures, great and small, head straight over to Cute Overload (cuteoverload.com). If you can ignore the occasionally idiotic captions and descriptions attached to content – do we really think dogs call us “hoomins”? – there’s a wealth of stuff guaranteed to make you smile. If cute kittens, precious pups and quirky Quokkas (look them up, they’re ridiculously cute) are all you want from the Internet, Cute Overload is the place for you. Plus, if you think your pet is worthy of global fame, they accept submissions from readers, so that picture you snapped of your cat sleeping awkwardly could soon brighten the day on the other side of the world. How’s that for reaping the rewards of ownership? l

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 43 night life listings

Thurs., 06.19.14

9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • No Cover

Annie’s/Annie’s Upstairs 4@4 Happy Hour, 4pm-7pm • $4 Small Plates, $4 Stella Artois, $4 House Wines, $4 Stolichnaya Cocktails, $4 Manhattans and Vodka Martinis

Freddie’s Beach Bar Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Karaoke, 9pm

Green Lantern Shirtless Men Drink Free, 10-11pm

JR.’s $3 Rail Vodka Highballs, $2 JR.’s drafts, 8pm to close • Top Pop Night

Nellie’s Sports Bar Beat The Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo

Number Nine Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

Ziegfeld’s/Secrets All male, nude dancers • Shirtless Thursday • DJ Tim E in Secrets • 9pm • Cover 21+

Fri., 06.20.14

9 1/2 Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Friday Night

Videos with resident t

METROWEEKLY.com 45 46 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com scene

Club Hippo Post-Pride Party with DJ Susan Morabito Saturday, June 14

scan this tag with your smartphone for bonus scene pics online!

Photography by Ward Morrison

t DJ Shea Van Horn • VJ JR.’s Town Freddie’s Beach Bar Phase 1 Ziegfeld’s/Secrets • Expanded craft beer Buy 1, Get 1, Drag Show starts at Diner Brunch, 10am-3pm Dancing, 9pm-close All nude male dancers, selection • No cover 11pm-midnight • Happy 10:30pm • Hosted by • Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • 9pm • Ladies of Illusion Hour: 2-for-1, 4-9pm • $5 Lena Lett and featuring Freddie’s Follies Drag PW’s Sports Bar with host Ella Fitzgerald, Annie’s Coronas, $8 Vodka Red Tatianna, Shi-Queeta- Show 8 pm-10pm, 9855 Washington Blvd. N 9pm • DJ Steve 4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm • Bulls, 9pm-close Lee, Jessica Spaulding 10pm-1am Karaoke Laurel, Md. Henderson in Secrets • DJ $4 Small Plates, $4 Stella Deverreoux and Ba’Naka 301-498-4840 Spyke in Ziegfelds • Doors Artois, $4 House Wines, Nellie’s Sports Bar • DJ Wess upstairs, Green Lantern Karaoke in the lounge • 8pm • Cover • 21+ $4 Stolichnaya Cocktails, DJ Matt Bailer • Videos, BacK2bACk downstairs • 495 Bears presents Bears Charity Bingo with Cash $4 Manhattans and Vodka Dancing • Beat The Clock Doors open at 10pm • For Can Dance • Featuring DJ Prizes 3rd Sat. of Every Martinis • Upstairs open Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), those 21 and over, $5 from Jeff Eletto of Bears Can Month Sun., 06.22.14 5-11pm $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • 10-11pm and $10 after Party • Doors open 9pm • Buckets of Beer $15 11pm • For those 18-20, No Cover Town 9 1/2 DC Bear Crue Featuring dj TWiN • Drag Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any @Town • Bear Happy Number Nine $10 all night • 18+ JR.’s Show starts at 10:30pm drink, 5-9pm • Multiple Hour, 6-11pm • $3 Rail, Open 5pm • Happy Hour: $4 Coors, $5 Vodka • Hosted by Lena Lett TVs showing movies, Ziegfeld’s/Secrets $3 Draft, $3 Bud Bottles • 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm highballs, $7 Vodka Red and featuring Tatianna, shows, sports • Expanded Free Pizza, 7pm • Hosted • No Cover All male, nude dancers Bulls Shi-Queeta-Lee, Jessica craft beer selection • No by Charger Stone • No • Ladies of Illusion with Spaulding Deverreoux Cover cover before 9:30pm • 21+ Phase 1 host Kristina Kelly, 9pm • Nellie’s and Ba’Naka • DJ Wess DJ Styalo • Dancing • Cover 21+ Guest DJs • Zing Zang downstairs • Doors open Freddie’s Beach Bar Freddie’s Beach Bar $5 cover Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer, 10pm • Cover $8 from Champagne Brunch Buffet, 10am-3pm • Crazy Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Sat., 06.21.14 House Rail Drinks and 10-11pm, $12 after 11pm Karaoke, 9pm PW’s Sports Bar Mimosas, $4, 11am-5pm • Hour, 4-7pm • Karaoke • 21+ 8pm-1am 9855 Washington Blvd. N 9 1/2 Buckets of Beer, $15 Green Lantern Laurel, Md. Open at 5pm • Happy JR.’s The Boys of Hump, 301-498-4840 Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, Number Nine 9pm-2am • VJ Tre and Drag Show in lounge • Doors 5pm • Happy Hour: Sunday Funday • Liquid 5-9pm • $5 Absolut & Brunch • Doors open at Friday night videos • Half-price burgers and Tito’s, $3 Miller Lite after 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm $5 Cover • 1 Free Rail/ fries • No Cover 1pm • $2 Coors Lights & 9pm • Expanded craft $3 Skyy (all flavors), all Domestic Drink from beer selection • No Cover 9pm-10pm • $5 Smirnoff day and night flavors all night

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 47 Nellie’s Mon., 06.23.14 Nellie’s Sports Bar Drag Brunch, hosted by Beat The Clock Happy Shi-Queeta-Lee, 11am-3pm 9 1/2 Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 • $20 Brunch Buffet • Open at 5pm • Happy (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • House Rail Drinks, Zing Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, Buckets of Beer $15 • Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie 5-9pm • Multiple TVs Poker Texas Hold’em, 8pm Beer and Mimosas, $4, showing movies, shows, 11am-close • Buckets of sports • Expanded craft Number Nine Beer, $15 beer selection • No Cover Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm Number Nine Annie’s • No Cover Pop Goes the World with 4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm • Wes Della Volla at 9:30 $4 Small Plates, $4 Stella PW’s Sports Bar pm • Happy Hour: 2 for Artois, $4 House Wines, 9855 Washington Blvd. N 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • $4 Stolichnaya Cocktails, Laurel, Md. No Cover $4 Manhattans and Vodka 301-498-4840 Martinis Buzztime Trivia PW’s Sports Bar competition • 75 cents off 9855 Washington Blvd. N Freddie’s bottles and drafts Laurel, Md. Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • 301-498-4840 Karaoke, 9pm Sunday Brunch, 11am-3pm • Bottomless Mimosas • JR.’s $15 per person Happy Hour: 2-for-1, 4-9pm • Showtunes Songs & Ziegfeld’s/Secrets Singalongs, 9pm-close • All male, nude dancers • DJ Jamez • $3 Drafts Decades of Dance • DJ Tim-e in Secrets • Doors 8pm • Cover 21+

48 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com Tues., 06.24.14 Nellie’s Sports Bar Wed., 06.25.14 Nellie’s Sports Bar Thurs., 06.26.14 JR.’s Beat The Clock Happy Beat The Clock Happy $3 Rail Vodka Highballs, 9 1/2 Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 9 1/2 Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 9 1/2 $2 JR.’s drafts, 8pm to Open at 5pm • Happy (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Open at 5pm • Happy (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any close • Top Pop Night Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, Buckets of Beer $15 • Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, Half-Price Burger Night drink, 5-9pm • Multiple 5-9pm • Multiple TVs Karaoke 5-9pm • Multiple TVs • Buckets of Beer $15 • TVs showing movies, Nellie’s Sports Bar showing movies, shows, showing movies, shows, SmartAss Trivia, 8pm shows, sports • Expanded Beat The Clock Happy sports • Expanded craft Number Nine sports • Expanded craft craft beer selection • No Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 beer selection • No Cover Open 5pm • Happy Hour: beer selection • No Cover Number Nine Cover (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • 2 for 1 on any drink, Open 5pm • Happy Hour: Buckets of Beer $15 • Annie’s 5-9pm • No Cover • Safe Annie’s 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm Annie’s/Annie’s Drag Bingo Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $4 Word: A Gay Spelling Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $4 • No Cover Upstairs Stella Artois, $4 House Bee, 8-11pm • Prizes to Stella Artois, $4 House 4@4 Happy Hour, Number Nine Wines, $4 Stolichnaya top three spellers • After Wines, $4 Stolichnaya PW’s Sports Bar 4pm-7pm • $4 Small Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any Cocktails, $4 Manhattans 9pm, $3 Absolut, Bulleit Cocktails, $4 Manhattans 9855 Washington Blvd. N Plates, $4 Stella Artois, drink, 5-9pm • No Cover and Vodka Martinis & Stella and Vodka Martinis Laurel, Md. $4 House Wines, $4 301-498-4840 Stolichnaya Cocktails, $4 Ziegfeld’s/Secrets Freddie’s Beach Bar PW’s Sports Bar Freddie’s Beach Bar Free Pool • 75 cents off Manhattans and Vodka All male, nude dancers • Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • 9855 Washington Blvd. N Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Drag Bottles and Drafts Martinis Shirtless Thursday • DJ Karaoke, 9pm Laurel, Md. Bingo, 8pm • Karaoke, Tim E in Secrets • 9pm • 301-498-4840 10pm Ziegfeld’s/Secrets Freddie’s Beach Bar Cover 21+ JR.’s 75 cents off bottles and All male, nude dancers • Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Underground (Indie Pop/ drafts • Movie Night Green Lantern New Meat Wednesday DJ Karaoke, 9pm Fri., 06.27.14 Alt/Brit Rock), 9pm-close Happy Hour Prices, Don T • 9pm • Cover 21+ • DJ Wes Della Volla • 4pm-Close Green Lantern 9 1/2 2-for-1, all day and night Shirtless Men Drink Free, Open at 5pm • Happy JR.’s 10-11pm Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, Trivia with MC Jay 5-9pm • Friday Night Ray, 8pm • The Queen, Videos with resident 10-11pm • $2 JR’s Drafts DJ Shea Van Horn • VJ & $4 Vodka ($2 with • Expanded craft beer College I.D./JR’s Team selection • No cover Shirt)

METROWEEKLY.com JUNE 19, 2014 49 Annie’s JR.’s Town 4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm • Buy 1, Get 1, Drag Show starts at $4 Small Plates, $4 Stella 11pm-midnight • Happy 10:30pm • Hosted by Artois, $4 House Wines, Hour: 2-for-1, 4-9pm • $5 Lena Lett and featuring $4 Stolichnaya Cocktails, Coronas, $8 Vodka Red Tatianna, Shi-Queeta- $4 Manhattans and Vodka Bulls, 9pm-close Lee, Jessica Spaulding Martinis • Upstairs open Deverreoux and Ba’Naka 5-11pm Nellie’s Sports Bar • DJ Wess upstairs, DJ Matt Bailer • Videos, BacK2bACk downstairs • DC Bear Crue Dancing • Beat The Clock Doors open at 10pm • For @Town • Bear Happy Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), those 21 and over, $5 from Hour, 6-11pm • $3 Rail, $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • 10-11pm and $10 after $3 Draft, $3 Bud Bottles • Buckets of Beer $15 11pm • For those 18-20, Free Pizza, 7pm • Hosted by Charger Stone • No Number Nine $10 all night • 18+ cover before 9:30pm • 21+ Open 5pm • Happy Hour: Ziegfeld’s/Secrets 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm Freddie’s Beach Bar • No Cover All male, nude dancers Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • • Ladies of Illusion with Karaoke, 9pm Phase 1 host Kristina Kelly, 9pm • l DJ Styalo • Dancing • Cover 21+ Green Lantern $5 cover BOOM: Shirtless Bears Dancing hosted by DJ PW’s Sports Bar Boom • Music by DJ 9855 Washington Blvd. N Onyx Theo Storm • Doors Laurel, Md. open 9pm • $5 Cover 301-498-4840 after 10pm • $5 Smirnoff Drag Show in lounge • flavors all night Half-price burgers and fries

50 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com See more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene 51 52 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com scene

The Stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6 Saturday, June 7 Town

scan this tag with your smartphone for bonus scene pics online!

Photography by Ward Morrison

See more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene 53 The AMA seeks to ensure that transgender patients always receive“ appropriate preventive care regardless of whether or not it matches with the gender on the birth certificate.”

— American Medical Association President Ardis Dee Hoven in a statement imploring states to end requirements that transgender individuals undergo surgery before their legal gender can be recognized. (AMA)

“Obviously, homosexual attractions are not a ‘choice’ in the vast majority of cases.” — Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, in a statement posted to the FRC’s website. Perkins made the statement in response to Texas Governor Rick Perry’s declaration that homosexuality was akin to alcoholism. (FRC)

“I encourage players, sports people to declare their sexual orientation without fear. That’s the only way they will find the right to sexual orientation accepted.” — Navi Pillay, UN Human Rights Commissioner, in a statement during a UN sports equality event. Pillay’s comments were aimed at the World Cup, though soccer has been resistant to embrace openly gay players. Pillay stated that it was “a shame, in this day and age” that gay soccer players “had to hide who they really are.” (Reuters)

“This is consistent with the President’s views that all Americans, LGBT or not, should be treated with dignity and respect.”

— A White House official on President Obama’s intentions to sign an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from LGBT workplace discrimination. (Metro Weekly)

“You are my daughter — you deserve the same love and acceptance and to share in the same freedoms to marry the person you love.”

— An excerpt from a letter penned by Texas State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-Mission) to his openly gay daughter on Father’s Day. Hinojosa previously sponsored a bill aimed at legalizing civil unions in Texas, but has now confirmed that he supports full equal marriage. (Waco-Tribune Herald)

54 JUNE 19, 2014 METROWEEKLY.com