A film documentary in theaters this season looks at the underbelly of the food industry. We've all heard about food recalls because of E-coli and salmonella contamination. There was peanut butter, hamburger, spinach - the list goes on. The movie, 'Food, Inc.', looks at why food gets contaminated and reveals a lot more about our industrial approach to producing food. Lester Graham reports

Our piece was produced by the Environment Report.

Dick's Wine Picks:

MD - Elk Run Chardonnay

VA - Barbersville Chardonnay OR Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

Pennsylvania - Chaddsford Pinot Grigio

Oregon - Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

Oregon - Ponzi Pinot Noir

California - Seghesio, Chianti Station

California - Foppiano, Petite Syrah

California - Preston Vineyards, all varieties

Meg Roggensack is a writer who divides her time between the District and the Eastern Shore.

Homemade Ice Cream Recipe - Margaret's Best:

4 eggs - beat slightly 2 cups sugar 1 Tablespoon vanilla 1 quart cream 1 cup whole milk

Beat eggs, then add sugar and rest of ingredients, and continue beating until sugar is incorporated, about 1 minute. Pour into ice cream maker and follow directions (typically takes 20 minutes to turn thick). Chill in freezer for at least 4 hours.

Elsewhere in the news, the headlines from the District are nearly as WTF:

>> How do you say Creigh Deeds's name? How could the answer be anything other than "crawdads"?
>> This violinist made a violin out of a baseball bat! That's so America. America, and a little bit Austria.
>> Tomato flu, suck.
>> "Dumpster Diver Snoozes, Gets Hauled to Landfill" -- no improving on that. Freedom's just another word for freegan hauled to the landfill.

There's never going to be a more appropriate day to expand upon today's news in DC barbecue: Washington Business Journal reporter and DCist theater critic Missy Frederick reports that Chelsea-based Hill Country is opening a second location in the District. And I'll tell you what -- it's not bad. Must've gone by the weekend it opened in Chelsea, and I definitely detected the theme -- the Two Towers of Texas, Austin and Lockhart, easily my favorite eating destinations in the Lone Star State, or the world. The only question that still sits with me is: Why offer "lean" and "moist" brisket? What does that even mean? Fans of Texas barbecue know that brisket is slow-smoked with an inch-thick layer of fat on top; it is as God intended it to be. Does "lean" mean that they (God forbid) trim the fat before smoking? I can only assume that it means a half-pound portion instead of a full pound. In any event, this Fourth means freedom, liberty, fireworks -- but next year we get all that with a side of Elgin sausage.

Could super agent Scott Boras choose Japan over Washington for phenom Stephen Strasburg?

It's on the table, according to a report from Washington Post sports writer Dave Sheinin. Shenin offers up this tidy piece of reportage about how Boras is trying to blow up the whole damn Major League system. I mean, again:

Even before talks began with the Washington Nationals, who made Strasburg the first overall pick June 9, Boras was dropping hints privately that he is preparing to explore a new frontier in his ongoing draft-busting crusade: Japan.

Such a ploy, were Boras to go in that direction, could involve a variety of issues, from the complex relationship between Major League Baseball and Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, the residency requirements of both countries and, of course, the Major League Rules.

If anything, the Nationals won't be getting any help in this scenario from Major League Baseball, who really don't seem to mind either way that the notorious agent for a pitcher who may be the next coming of Nolan Ryan is, for all intents and purposes, holding up the Nationals for ransom:

"Our view is simple: Until [Strasburg] signs a professional contract within our system, he is eligible for our draft and remains subject to our draft," said Rob Manfred, MLB's executive vice president for labor relations. "He can play wherever he wants. But if he doesn't sign with Washington, he goes back into the draft, and if he doesn't sign with that team [in 2010], he goes back in again."

Gee, thanks guys.

Strasburg -- who's been hyped so much that I'm almost waiting for him to collapse in upon himself in some kind of baseball supernova which would drag every attendee and player in the stadium into a black hole, never to bee seen again -- would probably be foolish to sign in Japan, where contracts for rookie players are incredibly restrictive, often times requiring nine-year terms.

Additionally, as Sheinin notes, no one can be really sure whether the any team in Japan would want Strasburg. After all, most are still smarting over MLB teams' newfound tendencies to pluck Japanese players by just throwing insane amounts of cash at them -- of course, it doesn't help that the transfer system between the two counties nearly requires an advanced degree in economics to understand. The whole "using the country's baseball league as a tool to make some 20-year-old a few million dollars richer" thing isn't settling very well with the Japanese either.

Because really, who would have thought that using a whole country for leverage would be such an issue?

Of course, this whole situation would be rendered moot if the Nationals decide to just pony up the cash to sign the ex-San Diego State phenom. But if you're longing to see Strasburg in a Nats uniform this fall, it's likely time to temper the expectations a bit. Until then, someone might want to get this kid a copy of Mr. Baseball.

Happy Fourth of July, Washington. As you might imagine, we're all looking forward to celebrating American independence by eating charred food, kicking back with a cold beer near a pool, and, of course, watching things blow up. Due to the incredible effort involved in participating in such strenuous activities, DCist will be operating on a slightly reduced schedule today.

Remember: festivities on the Mall -- if you dare to brave the crowds -- begin at 10 a.m., including the Independence Day parade on Independence Avenue at noon, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival all day, lots of music starting at 6, and of course, fireworks around 9:30. (Check out our suggestions for alternate firework viewing locations.) Those crazy enough to be driving anywhere near there will want to take note of the extensive road closures which will make getting anywhere via car a nightmare. And, of course, enjoy in moderation and stay safe out there -- as usual, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program will be offering free cab rides throughout the region this evening.

If, though, for reasons passing understanding, you're stuck in front of a monitor on this absolutely glorious Independence Day, here's a few items of interest to start your day:

>> In the Post, Lena Sun examines the possible answers to six important questions about last week's Metro crash.

>> Yesterday, a jury convicted Melvin Jackson Jr. in the 1983 rape and murder of a French woman who was visiting her daughter in Glover Park. The case was solved after DNA evidence collected from the scene -- which had been simply sitting in a box in a police warehouse until 2004 -- was matched to Jackson's DNA profile with the FBI.

>> The Takoma Park Metro station will be open all day today after closing early last night to allow continued investigative work at the Metro crash site. The station will also close early tomorrow night.

Overheard of the Week

At Murphy's Grand Irish Pub in Old Town:

A waitress takes the order of a table.

Waitress to table: "What can I get for you guys?"
Table orders Harp, a water, Sam Adams, Bud Light.
Waitress to bartender: "Hey, I need a Harp, a Sam Adams and a Bud Light."
Bartender mutters to himself: "Bud Light? Who the fuck orders a Bud Light?!"

After the jump, kids, romance, and other stuff.

Send in your overheards! overheardindc(at)gmail(dot)com

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And this one street goes to Pennsylvania!

Flustered elderly tourist couple at 19th and M NW:

Husband: "North! We need to walk north!"
Wife: "Every street sign points towards Northwest! Northwest, northwest, northwest, northwest. I don't get it!"

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Ooooh, yeahh

In the office:

Engineer on the phone: "When you do take it out, take it out slowly so that when it starts vibrating you can tighten it back up."

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Mom 1, Kid 0

At the H&M store in White Flint:

Small boy holding up a necklace: "But Mom, it says MEN's accessory!"
Mom: "Well, you are not a man."

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Stereotypes are fun

At the Spy Museum:

In a display case showing examples of spy disguises there is a turban and thick beard.

10-year-old boy: "Hey Mom, look. Isn't that what the bad guys look like?"
Everyone around them rolls eyes and glares at mom.

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Sexy!

On a hot and crowded Red line train during rush hour:

Girl to friend: "We have to get off at the next stop! My weave is going to melt out."

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This date is going AWESOME!

Walking down King Street in Old Town Alexandria:

A woman walking is with her boyfriend/husband.

Woman: "So, did you go back to see your little French whore again?"

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The endless car vs pedestrian struggle

Outside Booeymongers in Georgetown:

A driver on a cell phone fails to stop at the stop sign before turning, almost hitting a pedestrian. The pedestrian slaps the back seat window.

Driver: "I didn't even hit you! Don't assault my car...bitch!"
Onlooker: "I don't think you can assault a car."

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Maybe?

On U Street, Sunday night:

A man in his 30s is talking, presumably to himself: "I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm a lesbian."

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Where are we again??

At the Small Mammal House at the Zoo a few Sundays ago:

Teenage girl #1: "Look, there's a mouse in this cage!"
Teenage girl #2: "Do you think it just got in there, or is it food for something?"

Not that Hollywood doesn't play its part here. The musical is as much an adaptation of Steven Spielberg's 1985 film as Walker's novel, taking its cues from that movie for what plot points to cut, de-emphasize, or change. The result is, even moreso than the film, a brief overview of the novel, Cliff Notes set to music. And no wonder: the story covers 40 years in the life of Celie Harris, a poor African American girl born into poverty, grown into incestuously-conceived teen pregnancy, and sold to an abusive husband, before finally finding herself and her power in middle age. This epic sweep, with multiple storylines taking place on two continents, must be condensed to fewer than three hours. And being that we have millions of dollars in production costs to recoup for those gorgeous sets, and the hugely talented cast of actors, singers, and dancers, the raw, rough, and at sometimes shocking events of the source material need to be cleaned and buffed for a little greater audience appeal.

As a result, fans of the book may find themselves disappointed at what's missing, and even more at the lack of time to reflect on events that the book provides. As the lights dim in the Kennedy Center Opera House, every person there is strapped onto the nose of a rocket and hurtled headlong through those 40 years. If your attention slips, or you miss a lyric, you may find yourself a little lost. Even in a survey of the material, there's a lot of story points to hit, and the plot speeds along fast and furious. The ride is so thrilling, it's easy to forget what's been left behind. It's disappeared in the rearview before you can even glance back, so best just to keep eyes forward and let the production rush at you.

It's easy to do. The cast is without a single weak leak, starting at the top with American Idol-alum Fantasia Barrino in the role of Celie. Barrino boasts a powerful and distinctive voice, which is mostly kept hidden through the film's first act, as Celie is meek and restrained, and the singer's vocal performance reflects her character's withdrawn personality. As she gradually grows empowered through the second act, though, she's allowed to unleash fully that instrument in some truly show-stopping numbers. Even more of a joy to watch, though, is Felicia Fields as Sofia, the brash, brassy wife of Celie's step-son Harpo. The role is made for scene-stealing, and Fields takes full advantage, just as Oprah Winfrey did in the film version. Her "Hell No!", a defiant number that foreshadows the trouble that phrase will eventually get her into, is the show's highpoint, distilling the attitude and humor that typify some of the show's best moments into a single crowd-pleasing song.

Similarly, the sets are beautifully constructed, evoking the earthy feel of rural Georgia with weathered wood, twisted roots, and Spanish Moss-hung tree canopies. These sets reach down into the earth just as surely as Celie casts her voice and her prayers to the heavens. Scenes change and years pass fluidly as facades and rooms glide on and off stage in a carefully choreographed dance that is subtle and effortless. Such is also the case with the actual dance choreography, whether it's dirty dancing in a raucous juke-joint or a more modern and impressionistic imagination sequence of African tribespeople as Celie reads through the letters her sister sends back from her missionary work.

The Color Purple succeeds at just what it sets out to do: carry us on a breakneck emotional ride through the life of a poor African American woman who finds richness in her life despite a laundry list of adversities. The songs are distinctive and tuneful, a blend of R&B, jazz, blues, and gospel that, while unmistakably modern, are never too far from the source material to seem out of place. And, just like a summer blockbuster, it gives audiences exactly what they want: a non stop thrill ride that makes nearly three hours pass effortlessly, and emotion high enough to bring out the tissues for tears of happiness as the music swells and the curtain comes down.

The Color Purple is at the Kennedy Center Opera House until August 9. Tickets are $25-$95.

>> Not working today? Suit up and head over to the Skyline Pool at the Capitol Skyline Hotel for their Adult Swim Party. It's $10 at the door for pool access from noon to 8 p.m.

>> It's First Friday in Dupont Circle tonight. Head to Hillyer for the opening of Six in the Mix, an exhibit of D.C. and Baltimore artists. For a $5 donation you'll get food, refreshments, and music from DJ Deep Sang. 6 to 9 p.m. Studio Gallery and Foundry Gallery will also have openings.

>> Don't miss our film picks of the week, including a special 50th anniversary screening of François Truffaut's French New Wave classic The 400 Blows, with a special introduction by Cahiers du cinema editor Jean-Philippe Tessé. At the AFI Silver, 7 p.m. Also Sunday at 5:20 p.m.

>> Relatively new local indie outfit Frau Eva, whose folk-influenced sound relies on intricate arrangements of rarely used instruments, celebrates the release of an EP tonight at the Velvet Lounge. 10 p.m., $8, 21+.

>> Tonight's Blisspop-hosted D.C. Summer Extravaganza at the 9:30 Club looks like a solid way to ring in Independence Day. DJs Tittsworth, Nadastrom, Will Eastman, Bobby Jae & Ken Lazee, and Dmerit are banding together for an all-star, all-ages dance night that only costs $10. 9 p.m.

>> DJ Nitekrawler celebrates the first anniversary of the excellent "Moneytown" soul and R&B dance night at Dahlak (1771 U Street NW) with special guest Chris “Iceburg” Burgan. Free, 10 p.m.

SATURDAY:

>> The annual Independence Day organ recital at Washington National Cathedral will feature the cathedral's organists, Scott Dettra and Christopher Jacobson. 11 a.m.

>> It's the last weekend of Artomatic, so if you still haven't made it down there, make a point to do so. Things close earlier tonight, at 10:30 p.m., for the holiday, and wrap up completely on Sunday.

>> Duh, you're looking for a place to watch the fireworks! Should you choose to brave the crowds on the National Mall, we highly recommend walking or getting their by bike - WABA will once again be hosting a free bike valet service. For those who go by Metro, note that the Smithsonian station will be open this year, unlike previous years. The Capitol Fourth concert starts at 8 p.m., with the fireworks scheduled to start sometime after 9:30 p.m. Always good for alternative viewing spots: Cardozo High School, the Key Bridge, the Iwo Jima Memorial in Rosslyn, Washington National Cathedral, the plaza at the Kennedy Center, Gravelly Point, and the top of Malcolm X Park. Or, start calling your friends with roof access.

>> Fort Knox Five highlight a July 4th show with DJ Regal, All Good Funk Alliance, Asheru and Mustafa Akbar at the Black Cat. $10, 10 p.m.

SUNDAY:

>> The legendary Gladys Knight is at Wolf Trap. She'll be Pip-less, but she'll surely be bringing the hits like "Midnight Train to Georgia" and "Heard It Through the Grapevine." 8 p.m., $45 in house, $25 lawn.

>> Memphis punk Jay Reatard brings his onstage antics and short, loud songs to the Black Cat. 8 p.m., $12.

*Toshio* took this shot of the Smithsonian Castle peeking out behind the Folklife Festival, continuing down on the Mall through the rest of the weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a few performances that begin around 5 and 6 p.m to round out the day. You can see the full daily schedule for the three exhibits, Wales, Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture, and Las Américas: Un Mundo Musical online here.

United States
If ESPN hasn't convinced you that this American team is ready for the world stage, then you're either a cold, hard cynic or have been asleep for two weeks. After shocking Spain 2-0 in the Confederations Cup semifinals last week, the world-beater Yanks nearly went one better -- taking an early 2-0 lead on Brazil, before running out of steam and falling 3-2 in the final. It was arguably the first time in a long time that our supposed "best players" -- Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey -- looked the part, and the team's commitment in the defensive third is better than it has been for a decade. This American Gold Cup squad is a different one, however, featuring a mostly MLS-based team with a lot of international greenhorns. One of those will be D.C. United's own Santino Quaranta, who returns to the national team after a long and difficult absence. Quaranta's club form this year has been superb, and he should get a look even with several established attackers ahead of him in the pecking order. Perhaps the sentimentalist in coach Bob Bradley will see fit to give Santino a run on his home turf when the U.S. takes on Honduras next week at RFK. Regardless, the U.S. was boosted by a CONCACAF ruling that will allow the team to bring an extra seven players to help combat the fatigue of their lengthy Confederations Cup run in South Africa last week. Among those named are striker Jozy Altidore and midfielder Ricardo Clark, who both logged serious minutes throughout the South African campaign.

What to expect: Anything less than an appearance in the final will be considered a disappointment. Even without many key players, this team has the depth to compete against this level of competition. But watch out for Honduras -- they could pip the Americans and claim first spot in the group, especially after they gave the States a scare less than one month ago.

Why a neutral should root for them: A moot point. One suspects few, if any, neutrals will be rooting for the Americans. Fortunately, we're the ones hosting the tournament, so it should be less of an issue.

Haiti
Seen as something of a johnny-come-lately by qualifying for the tournament after Cuba -- who has a raft of players defect after each trip to the U.S. -- dropped out, Haitian expectations are predictably low. This is their fourth trip to the Cup, and they even picked up two credible draws with Costa Rica and Guadeloupe in the previous tournament. They've got a little footballing history of their own: Haiti is one of only three Caribbean nations to ever qualify for the World Cup (1974, an era known as the "Golden Age" of Haitian soccer) and recently lifted the 2007 Caribbean Cup. The vast majority of the squad plays professionally in Haiti, but there's a smattering of guys on the squad playing for jerkwater clubs all over the place. Leonel Saint-Preux and Jean Alexandre both make their living stateside (with USL-1's Minnesota Thunder and MLS's Real Salt Lake, respectively), while defender Judelin Aveska plays with storied Argentine side Independiente.

What to expect: The second round would be a shock result. If they can keep it close with Honduras and dispatch Grenada (Haiti, ironically enough, is known as "Les Grenadiers") in their second game, they could catch the U.S. fielding a second-tier squad and sneak a draw. That would probably be enough to see them into the next round -- a major success.

Why a neutral should root for them: Humanitarian reasons.

Grenada
D.C. United fans get a healthy dose of one Grenadian each season in the form of New England Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph. Once among MLS's top players, the tough-tackling Joseph has started to wear down and his passing isn't what it once was. Still, he's a player who routinely inspires the Revs to great things -- if Grenada are to do anything at all, he will be the man pulling the strings. Joseph will look to keep the supply lines open to Blackburn Rovers wrecking ball forward Jason Roberts. Roberts is strong in the air and regularly muscles his way past the best defenders in England and has scored 12 goals in 22 games for his country. Grenada will be playing in their first ever Gold Cup.

What to expect: The Spice Boyz (we couldn't make that up) will head home early. The two best third-place squads after group play make the knockout stages, and, as with Haiti, this would be a rousing success. But they have two bona-fide stars, the kind of game-changers that could snatch a positive result against Honduras.

Why a neutral should root for them: You work for Penzey's and see tremendous cross-marketing potential for the Boyz.

Honduras
Plenty of political turmoil back home, but it might just give this Honduras team the impetus it needs to make a serious run at the Gold Cup. The Americans barely squeaked past Los Catrachos in their previous World Cup qualifier, and there is plenty of firepower for this side to win Group B and make a run to the final. MLS fans will recognize their captain, Amado Guevara, from his time with numerous clubs; EPL fans are no doubt familiar with the midfield exploits of Tottenham's Wilson Palacios. Formerly of Wigan Athletic where up-and-coming defender Maynor Figueroa currently plies his trade, Palacios will try to supply Mexican-based striker Carlos Pavon, who struck an impressive early goal against the U.S. last month.

What to expect: A deep run. With the States' fielding a below-strength roster, the Hondurans will hope to boost confidence for their surging World Cup qualifying bid and are perfectly capable of beating the Americans. Expect them to at least make the semifinals.

Why a neutral should root for them: You have a serious hankering for some catrachitas.

Other Gold Cup Notes of Interest:
D.C. United Dejan Jakovic is having something of a breakout season, and it has earned him a spot on the Canadian team. Canada struggled mightily in World Cup qualifying and couldn't even make it to the hexagonal round, but there is enough talent there to repeat their semifinal run in the 2007 Gold Cup. The Canucks face El Salvador, red-hot Costa Rica, and Jamaica in Group A. ... Reeling Mexico got the gift of the draw in Group C, where they'll have minnows Guadeloupe, Panama, and Nicaragua. The seven-time Gold Cup champs have a relatively new coach in Javier Aguirre who will try desperately to get this team back in gear after a stuttering start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, which currently has El Tri on the outside looking in. ... For whatever reason, organizers decided to use 13 stadiums to host a 12-team tournament. This means the U.S. plays in Seattle, D.C., and Boston in the first round. The final will be played July 26 in the Jersey Meadowlands, the surface of which will be mercifully switched to natural grass just for the final.

One source tells us that a robber or robbers entered the store through the back of the store and shot an Apple Store employee in the shoulder. The employee's injury is not believed to be life threatening.

UPDATE: The Post has a story up now: a 26-year-old female Apple Store employee was shot in wounded in the shoulder.

Our host for the evening is Mayannah (Regina Aquino), a statuesque, wild-eyed heiress who has hired Rosemary (Monalisa Arias) and Ani (Amanda Thickpenny) as her companions for the night. It's clear from her first few lines that Rosemary has brought more than one guest with her for the evening (per the play's title), while Ani's own demons are bottled up a little more deeply - at least at first. There's more mystery to Mayannah as well, and it goes beyond exactly what meat is being used in those kabobs she's serving.

Rivera's a contemplative, poetic playwright who clearly has found his way into the Rorschach company's heart - the company first introduced audiences to him with 2007's References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. He's a talky writer, too, and his words here fly by so quickly, and on so many different tangents, it's easy to feel like one's missing some of his nuances.

But while Brainpeople starts off a little sluggish, it quickly falls into a satisfying rhythm as the three women begin to open up to each other. Mystical circumstances fit comfortably into the mechanisms of Brainpeople and happen so naturally that questioning their probability doesn't really come into play.

Watching Arias' violent personality swings accounts for much of Brainpeople's tension, and the actress proves quite the heavyweight juggling the contrasting roles. Thickpenny's performance is by contrast admirably restrained but wholly convincing. She connects almost hypnotically with the self-possessed Aquino, whose composure always seems on the verge of collapsing as the night's events wear on.

Rorschach is limited to a tiny classroom space (finding it's a journey in itself) within Georgetown's Davis Performing Arts Center complex to stage Brainpeople, but it doesn't take much more than a spare, gothic set to transport the audience to Mayannah's mansion. And once we've gotten there, the magnetism of these three women is comfort (and discomfort) enough to get us through the evening.

Brainpeople runs through July 19 at the Davis Theatre Lab. Tickets are available online.

Fenty Not Looking So Hot These Days: The Post reports that Mayor Adrian Fenty's once bright start isn't shining as much nowadays, having been dulled by a number of missteps and mini-crises that have provoked residents to wonder whether he's still in touch with voter needs and concerns. On top of persistent fights with the D.C. Council and is secret trip to the United Arab Emirates, various residents have expressed frustration with Fenty's handling of the deadly Metro crash that left nine people dead. Fenty is up for re-election in 2010; no serious contender has yet stepped up to the plate to challenge him.

Awkward Walk-Back for Post Publisher on Salons: Yesterday wasn't what one would call a banner day for the city's paper of record. First former Post reporter and current Politico scribe Mike Allen broke the story of a flyer circulated at the paper advertising salon-style gathering at publisher Katharine Weymouth's house where anyone paying $25,000 to $250,000 could discuss the issues of the day with reporters, editors, members of Congress and Obama administration officials. By the end of the day, Weymouth had canceled the gatherings and issued a public apology for an event that seemed to be selling access to the highest bidder, a big no-no for newspapers trying to remain objective. The Post's Howard Kurtz has something on the scandal today; Politico follows up with a story of its own.

Briefly Noted: Maryland looks to crack down on cellphone use in state prisons ... D.C. officials to crack down on Fourth of July tradition -- the impromptu street fireworks shows ... How did we miss a hamburger-eating contest in the District?

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008 we learned that journalist and friend Brian Beutler had been shot in Adams Morgan and we read a hilarious press release from Council Chair Vincent Gray. In 2007 we got a whiff of the "Corpse Plant" at the U.S. Botanical Garden.

Around 4 p.m., Martin alerted us of the impending arrival of the two final cast members. Soon enough, the two remaining noobs were spotted at the corner of S and Connecticut.

A guy sitting across the street at the Safeway shouted "GO HOME!" several times as the pair of new arrivals walked along the opposite side of S Street with their accompanying TV crew. My fellow reporters countered with "Welcome to D.C.!" and one even asked "Do you think you'll be welcome here?" to which the male cast member responded "I don't think so..."

As a budding paparazzo, I tried to remain respectful, using my telephoto lens to give the nouveau celebs breathing room. Unlike a dude in a white t-shirt with a very high end camera and accompanying flash, who got much closer to the new arrivals than seemed appropriate.

Security didn't seem to mind us gawkers being there at all -- no hassles, no questions, nada. But if people start to get as pushy as the photog in the white t-shirt, I can see that changing pretty quickly.

>> And I, for one, welcome our new Real World overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted DCist blogger, I can be helpful in rounding up others to be spoken about carelessly in their camera-laden confession caves.

>> Cleveland Park: where you can trust no one, especially "African-American men engaged in conversation" who happen to be "carrying a magazine labeled ‘The Advocate.’". Or at least that's according to some posters on the neighborhood's influential listserv.

>> Now that's a sinkhole -- best to avoid the 2600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW with vehicles for a bit.

>> Sure, the lede is that rates for Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission customers are headed up -- but the real story is found in the ridiculously high numbers of crumbling or misinstalled infrastructure. To wit: WSSC recorded 1,972 breaks between July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, including 611 breaks and leaks in January 2009 alone -- 400 of which occurred around Inauguration weekend.

>> It's mighty impressive that Dr. Lawren Smithline was able to crack a cryptogram sent to President Thomas Jefferson in 1801. But one would have to assume that Smithline was slightly dissappointed that the secret message contained within was something most of us know by heart. (But hey, lots of nerd points awarded to the good doctor for the achievement.)

>> Couch potatoes in eastern Columbia Heights rejoice! Pete's Apizza is broadening the easternmost boundary of their delivery service (beginning on July 7th) out to Georgia Avenue. Previously, the delivery area ended at Sherman Avenue.

Herb and Dorothy

Think you have to have lots of money to be a serious art collector? Or lots of space? Or maybe some training? Megumi Sasaki's documentary proves that with none of those things you can not only be a serious collector, but one of the most well-known and celebrated in the country. Sasaki profiles the titular Herb and Dorothy Vogel, postal clerk and librarian, respectively by trade, who spent the majority of their marriage amassing one of the most impressive collections of Minimalist and Conceptual art ever assembled. And they did it in a rent-controlled one bedroom Manhattan apartment. And all they had going for them was a genuine love of the art and their personal taste to guide them. Sasaki takes up the story as the Vogels were in talks with the National Gallery of Art to take their collection off their hands. Which were successful, as much of the work that once resided in their living quarters is now housed right here in D.C. Using this as her starting point, the director charts the course of their years of collecting, ending up with a warm profile of the unassuming pair.

View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street for one week only.

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A Whole Bunch of Great New AFI series

There's a slew of new series kicking off this weekend at the AFI, most of which will carry the theatre through the rest of the summer. First up, there's their celebration of day-glo clothing and Aqua-Netted hair, with the third annual summer installment of their Totally Awesome: Films of the 80s series. To borrow a phrase, it's a totally awesome lineup that beats out any of the programming at the 80s themed outdoor film series around town, even taking the more "adult" themed programming that you can't show at family events out of the mix. With over two dozen titles, from classic to cultish, it's the best 80s popular film retrospective they've put on yet. This weekend they get started on the classic end with two movies celebrating their 25th anniversaries: Ghostbusters and Gremlins. The theatre also begins a second look back at Spielberg this weekend, this one concentrating on the most recent part of his career, from Hook through Munich. This weekend it's Saving Private Ryan.

Also up for retrospective is Michael Douglas, who is receiving the AFI's lifetime achievement award this year; but rather than just concentrate on his acting, they're also looking back at Douglas' career as a producer, and have put together a career spanning nine-film series that looks at Douglas as producer, and actor in comedic, action, and dramatic roles. This weekend features the Douglas-produced classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Then there's the first of what will presumably be a two-part François Truffaut retrospective, covering the bulk of his work from his auspicious 1959 debut, The 400 Blows (screening this weekend), through 1970. This includes the next two installments of the Antoine Doinel series that followed Blows.

Still not enough for you? Fine. This weekend also marks the start of a series that includes all six of the Thin Man movies, which offer some of the funniest detective comedy ever seen on screen. The series, based on a Dashiell Hammet novel about a hard-drinking, wisecracking husband and wife detective team, is hugely entertaining. And while the quality dropped off a little by the end of the run, the early films, the first particularly, stand, even 75 years later, as some of the funniest movies Hollywood has ever produced.

Starting this weekend at the AFI.

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Public Enemies

Sick of robots and explosions? Michael Mann looks to slip into the space left by The Dark Knight for serious-minded, adult-oriented summer blockbuster with his historical crime thriller about the 1930s organized crime wave led by John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. Christian Bale, who just can't stay away from the opportunity to fight crime onscreen, stars as the FBI agent looking to speak gruffly and bring the baddies down, starting with the baddest of them all, the roguishly handsome bankjob puller Johnny Depp Dillinger. Michael Mann can be wildly uneven as a director: after all, the same man who brought us Heat and The Insider also directed the big screen debacle that was Miami Vice. But his ability to weave complex and taut crime narratives in combination with an excellent cast portended good things for this, and a lot of the reviews so far (the film actually premiered last night) have been some of the best for any movie so far this year.

View the trailer.
Now playing all over town.

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Taking Off

This seems, on the surface, an odd choice for the lovably trashy aesthetic normally espoused by the Washington Psychotronic Film Society. An award winning film by a prestigious, and multiply Oscar-winning director? Is an air of respectability creeping into WFPS's programming? Maybe a little, but not so much that anyone is going to accuse them of forsaking their mission for the sake of artistic pretension. Taking Off is the first American film made by Miloš Forman after a decade making movies in his native Czechoslovakia throughout the sixties. Putting its awards (Grand Prix at Cannes, a raft of BAFTA nods), it's just the sort of celebration of sex, drugs, and general off-kilter weirdness that is WPFS's stock in trade, albeit with somewhat better production values. The film tells the story of a group of parents who go on voyages of youthful self discovery while in search of their own children who have run away. Buck Henry stars, and Carly Simon and Kathy Bates can be seen in brief early-career turns, as well as cameos by Ike and Tina Turner.

View a (very NSFW, at least as far as sound goes) clip from the film.
Presented by WPFS at The Warehouse at 8 p.m on Tuesday. Free, $2 donation suggested.

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I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

Snooze on getting tickets to Wilco's Wednesday night show at Wolf Trap next week? Yeah, me too. The NOMA outdoor film series has an excellent consolation prize though, with a screening of Sam Jones' 2002 doc about the band's difficult road recording their landmark Yankee Hotel Foxtrot record. Jones had one of those happy documentarian's accidents where the subjects of his documentary suddenly provided much more drama than the material would have initially indicated, both in the unceremonious dropping of the band from their label in the midst of recording, and in the internal tensions that resulted in Jay Bennett's ouster from the group. With the sudden and untimely death of Bennett just six weeks ago of an accidental pain killer overdose, the film now takes on new facets, as it represents the beginnings of the acrimonious relationship between Bennett and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy that culminated in Bennett suing the band for breach of contract not long before his death. What one thinks of Bennett after watching the film seems pretty subjective: I was new to the band when I watched it and came away thinking of him as an egomaniacal bastard, but I've known longtime fans who never felt the film was edited to present him in a bad light; that it was presented as just the normal tensions of differences between strong-willed artists. Regardless, the film serves as a remarkable inside look at how the creative process can be as destructive as it is constructive.

View the trailer.
Wednesday at NOMA Summer Screen, 7 p.m. at the New York Avenue metro station.

Where to visit them: http://www.myspace.com/rararawks

Where to see them next: Friday, July 10th @ 9:30 Club.

What are some of your favorite local acts?

Ken: I like True Womanhood a lot. Our friends fffever (***), who are playing Fort Reno with Imperial China (***), another cool band, the night before we're playing at 9:30. Laughing Man, don't forget Laughing Man. Patrick did a show for them, played bass for their last song. Nouveau Riche. Actually, Brock and I met at a Nouveau Riche show back when they were at Wonderland. I went to high school with Gavin (Holland).

Patrick: Lode Runner (a band that features both Brock and Ken). US Royalty (***) are really good. I was skeptical at first because they're so well-dressed, but they're a great live band. Spiritual Machine is good. Mittenfields are quite good, too.

Brock: Wild Fictions

Anna: Dance Party, definitely. There are a lot of new bands too...Solar Powered Sun Destroyer (***). I like Greenland (***)

Ken: D.C.'s pretty friendly. Every band we play with, we become friends with.

What are your day jobs?

Patrick: Ok, full time job is I work for an anti-sweatshop non-profit called the Fair Labor Association. I'm a monitoring program assistant. That's my 9 to 5. I do a little bit of blogging. Music, mostly obscure stuff from the 80's and 90's. And I occasionally contribute to Brightest Young Things and a couple political blogs.

Ken: I work for a technology company called buySAFE. We certify online stores.

Anna: I'm a middle school science teacher at Sidwell. It's awesome. I just finished my first year.

Brock: I'm unemployed. It sucks. I had some money saved up but that's basically gone now. Hopefully I'll get a job soon.

What are your favorite D.C. venues?

Ken: D.C. is totally blessed with some great venues.

Brock: People here are really willing to get into shows, too. Especially on the weekends.

Patrick: I think we've played almost every venue of note, except 9:30.

So are you guys a little nervous about that?

Patrick: Of course.

Ken: Totally excited.

Anna: Super excited. Sure it can be a little nerve-wracking but not nervous, more like anxious and ready to play.

Ken: I've been going to 9:30 Club since I was 12 years old. I saw Silverchair in 1995 with a band called Handsome...not Hanson. I've probably been to 50 or 60 shows at the 9:30 Club so it's really exciting.

Patrick: I got to see Fugazi there in 2001. They did two shows that week and it was absolutely phenomenal. Probably the cheapest 9:30 show I went to because they insisted tickets were only $6 or something. We all went to see LCD Soundsystem there, too.

Anna: I got whiplash at that show.

Patrick: It's nice too, because the bill for July 10th is three-quarters local bands. And Tigercity is coming in from New York.

Ken: Yeah, Tigercity is one of my favorite bands.

And The Dance Party is sort of blowing up right now...

Patrick: Yeah, they're what they call "all-in." Really putting a lot of time and a lot of effort into recording, writing, and playing as much as possible. They played a Club NME show on Thrusday night up in New York. Apparently, it was a huge success.

Are you guys trying to record right now?

Ken: We're working on some recording of our own. We have limited equipment. But we're starting to figure out how to do things ourselves. We've always focuses on playing live and writing new songs and better songs, and I think we've waited to have something we feel is worth recording. I think we're finally at that point.

Anna: And often what happens is we will record, and because we're so meticulous about it, that by the time we've finished we've changed our sound so much that the song doesn't work for us anymore. So we have to go back and kind of start over. And I feel like since February, we've made some big changes so people who haven't seen us play for a while might be surprised.

Ken: Well, I wouldn't say big changes...

Brock: Some pre-programmed stuff.

Ken: We've always talked about how we wished we each had three or four arms because our music is so layered. But with only four of us there are only so many layers you can add. So we've come up with a pretty good way to do things, where we'll put on some of the foundational elements of the songs and we'll loop them. That also allows us to do more live sound manipulation. And it kind of frees us up to play some of the less repetitive elements live. That's worked really well and filled out our sound.

Patrick: One of the things that helps too is you start listening to your songs more closely and you start to figure out how other bands will do this stuff live. Youtube is very good for that. We'll watch old footage of bands like New Order or Depeche Mode and try to figure out how they pulled off some of these complicated recordings live.

Where do you rehearse?

Ken: We rehearse in Brock's basement.

Brock: We used to rehearse at a capoeira studio. We'd walk into this studio after a class and it would be a huge sweaty mess. There was a storage area in the back where they let us keep our stuff.

Patrick: It gave us a lot of stamina and it taught us how to set up and tear down quickly.

Ken: It was a huge pain in the ass, though. We'd get there at 10 p.m. and spend thirty minutes setting up our gear, stop playing at 3 a.m. and spend another thirty minutes tearing down. I wouldn't get home until 4:30. I consistently showed up late for work for probably about six months.

Anna: But now we're in the basement where we can leave everything set up.

What is the origin of your band name?

Patrick: It's a Boney M song, actually.

So Patrick picked the name?

Ken: No, we had like a run-off voting system where we picked names and then voted on them. That's the great thing about gmail is we have all the records of all the emails that we've sent back and forth from years ago, and I was recently looking at the chain about picking names. There were like a dozen or more names we threw out there.

Do you remember any of the other finalists?

Ken: Coups and Earthquakes was a finalist. The idea came from a book that said the news only reports coups and earthquakes from other countries. The other stuff doesn't make it to our shores. One of the others was Good Danny's.

Patrick: I don't think that would have made it. It doesn't roll off the tongue very well. It sounds like the name of a hopeless ska band.

Ken: Yeah, so the name, Ra Ra Rasputin, we picked it and then about a month later we heard about this band called Ra Ra Riot. And then a few months after that they got a lot of publicity, their drummer passed away. And since then, we'll see things like us at DC9 and Ra Ra Riot at Blackcat during the same week.

Patrick: Yeah we actually played a warehouse party, which was out of control, wall-to-wall sweat, and they were at Rock & Roll Hotel the same night. We got in touch with them and asked if they wanted to hang out after the show but they said they had to get back to New York.

Ken: Open invitation, next time they're in D.C., we'll do a Ra Ra show together. Oh, I think there's a band from Baltimore called Ra Ra Replica.

Patrick: There's a band called Ra Ra Rabbit that ducked out and changed their name.

But you guys are holding firm?

Patrick: Damn straight.

When does a local band start to really become local? When does it cease to be local? Is Laughing Man considered local even though they only recently moved to D.C. from Philly? Are Jukebox the Ghost or Thao Nguyen still local artists even though they no longer live here? Can D.C. claim Animal Collective at all since Geologist lives somewhere within city limits? For several months, I wrestled with this question, and as such hesitated to interview Farley Miller, the brains behind local avant-garde project Cannot Be Stopped. By the time I’d really gotten a chance to check out his brand of drum-initiated electronics, I’d found out that he’d be moving to California upon graduation from American University (which happened in May.)

The impetus for doing this interview is not that D.C. residents will only get two more chances to see Cannot Be Stopped before Miller relocates to the left coast. It's that the complex electronic tunes that he has constructed were the result of being a recently transplanted musician in D.C. (and what's more, a drummer) with nobody to play with. The music is interesting and Miller, equally so. We sat down with him over coffee to talk about his foray into booking local bands at American University, his future plans for Cannot Be Stopped and what he thinks it'll take for D.C. to care about avant-garde music.

Find him online at: myspace.com/cannotbestopped

See him next: On July 4th at the Kansas House. Also at DC Mini Gallery on July 31st.

It sounds like you play multiple instruments.

Mostly drums and guitar. I played for awhile with another band in DC called Four Fins of a Rocket which was sort of like a fake metal band. It was like three guys, two guitars, drums. Do you know the Baltimore band Oxes?

Vaguely.

They’re sort of like overly technical instrumental metal. Not all sorts of Dragonforce style shredding and stuff since I’m not really on that level with my guitar skills anyway. But it was sort of like that kind of music. I played guitar in that band and wrote most of the songs. That was with two other guys Bobby Allen and James Magnum. Bobby was a guy I met through school at AU and James...I think Bobby met him at Saxby’s? I think it’s a coffee joint somewhere in DC. So that’s how he met him. James is like an ultimate spaz on drums. Way way better than I am.

It’s hard enough trying to get a drummer. Especially when you are a drummer because you sort of don’t register, like when you meet people you sort of make an inventory of people you can play with. So when you’re a drummer, you’re not like, stocking your drummers so that you can ask other drummers to play, because, you play drums. So it’s hard enough to find a drummer, but then to find a drummer who’s exponentially better than you? Really really lucky.

So that was cool but short-lived. Bobby’s in New York now interning for the New York Times and James is kind of back and forth. He does male modeling actually, which is so funny because it totally doesn’t match his personality, so he’s been back and forth. So we kind of disbanded this summer. The death knell was struck when Bobby sold his guitar, but we played around in DC a little bit. We played up in New York for one show. But that was fun. So mostly guitar and drums. But drums, definitely the primary instrument.

Listening to Cannot Be Stopped it sounds like you have a very layered sound. You have the drums, the vocals, what sounds like a lot of electronic sounds going on.

For pretty much all the stuff that I’ve done so far, all of the electronic parts were done with this rack mounted board synthesizer. It’s sort of like they took the brains of the keyboard models that they put out and then took away the keyboard part and had to feed it some other kind of control information. So, hitting the snare drum, hitting the bass drum is what makes it generate the notes. So that’s kind of how that whole thing works. But it’s just, I don’t know, I like those synthesizers just because you can get them to sound very easily like 8-bit. Which is sort of the sound set that I like to use. So the setup is just a drum set, a laptop which controls the synthesizer and then some microphones on the drums which send information to the computer to tell it what to do.

Is it difficult to translate something that involves a lot of electronics and computers into an effective live show? I think it’s just you, right?

It is just me. It’s sort of like it’s a two part process. One is, you spend a lot of time programming something. I look at it as coming up with a system to work within. You spend the time developing the system that you use. The most important thing to do, when you’re doing that is to think, well how do I work when I write music and when I play it because I want it to be a sort of, as much technology as is involved with it, I want it to be a very organic thing. Which is why I play an acoustic drum set instead of an electronic drum set. So I set it up and then I just go and I play. And that’s the writing process. When I’m playing, I want to be interacting with the computer as little as possible so it’s like this two part thing.

I’d missed your set at the Aural States Festival, but if I remember hearing correctly, didn’t somebody from NPR contact you after that show?

I think WYPR is the name of the station. That actually never went anywhere. I was really stoked, actually, at that show. This girl came up to me after my set and was like, I’m from the Baltimore NPR station, I really want you to come on and do something for our morning show. And then I gave them all my contact information and never heard back from them again. So. Ya know. Happens. I mean it was cool.

Barring that, the response from people there was incredible. DC sort of gets a bad rap these days for not being a hotbed of musical exploration. I think Baltimore, Philly, Providence, all these places where bands are getting a little more out there these days. Pushing boundaries because they can. People with less money can live there. I’m pretty sure that’s the way that it works. Yeah, Baltimore was great. People there are just so receptive. And there’s a lot of bands, Dan Deacon obviously being the poster child, Animal Collective sort of got their start there, although they’re all over the place now.

Did you grow up here in DC?

No, I only went to school here. I’ve lived in DC for three years. But the whole Cannot Be Stopped project was essentially born and raised in DC. It wasn’t even, as they say, a twinkle in my eye before I got here. The funny thing is, Ryan, the guy in the chair over there, he and I played in a band a little while back called Red Skeletons and that was sort of my first band when I got to DC.

We actually met each other through Chris DeWitt, cause right when I got to AU, I met Chris DeWitt. He was like a Resident Assistant for one of the halls there. There’s sort of like this big complex where there are three residence halls that are all connected to each other. And, ya know, I went on facebook and searched for all the people who had similar taste in music as me and found Chris. And I think it was maybe my second night on campus or something but he just came over and we talked at length about what are sort of the musical options in DC, catching me up to speed, like, who do I talk to about playing shows, who do I talk to about finding bands. So we talked for awhile and I played him some of the stuff that I did in high school and kind of got a feel for what he was doing. So I told him that I play drums and he ran into Ryan who was at a party at some point. And I guess Ryan asked him, “Do you know any drummers?” And he was like, “Oh yeah, I just met this guy the other day.”

So we hooked up through Chris DeWitt and we had this band for awhile. It was kind of like Sonic Youth-like Captain Jazz kind of thing. For awhile it was just me and him and then we went through a couple of bassists and then our bassist moved to BU and Ryan moved out of Tenleytown so that was when it split up and then I was in this sort of lull where it’s like, “Crap, I play drums and I can’t find anybody to play with.”

How does that happen?

I know, right! It’s like, everyone’s always looking for a drummer. I even had a drum set in DC, which, when you’re in college is like the catching point ‘cause most people are like “Yeah, I play drums, I don’t have a drum set, though.” So I was like, okay, you can play guitar, you can go to a coffee house, be a weekend warrior, lay down some songs on your own or whatever. But when you play drums, what do you do? So that’s kind of where the whole Cannot Be Stopped thing came from is sort of, how do you play by yourself when you’re a drummer. I guess if Red Skeletons had stayed together, Cannot Be Stopped probably wouldn’t exist! So, uh, (laughs), thanks for moving, Ryan!

I hear that you’re moving to California soon.

That’s true. End of the summer.

What’s out there? 


What’s out there is a Masters program at Mills College in Oakland, California. The full, long title is Electronic Music and Recording Media. So this is a school where various famous people like Steve Reich have gone. It’s been at the forefront of avant-garde music. Especially avant-garde electronic classical music in the 20th century. A lot of really important have been there. A lot of people that have been very influential on me have been there and are still teaching there, too. So, I’m really looking forward to being there and I’ll be doing a little bit of teaching while I’m there, for undergraduate, so, it’s one of the places I might see myself going, is into teaching music and recording and electronic-y stuff to people. So I’m going there to do a two year program for my MFA in that. And Cannot Be Stopped is actually what launched me into thinking about doing that as my major area of focus. Like I plan on getting my Ph.D at some point. It’ll probably be in some super-micro-niche esoteric thing that the way I’ll be immortalized some day is somebody else’s thesis. I’ll immortalize one person in my thesis and then in sixty years somebody else will. So I’ll be remembered in a sixty page binder in a school library somewhere.

But it’s something that I’m really passionate about so I want to go out there. My brother lives in Berkeley. I was actually born in the Bay Area. I was born in Berkeley, California. So, I’m really looking forward to getting out there, and sort of, I guess, getting in touch with my roots. I moved when I was really young so I can’t claim that I’m like a California...I didn’t grow up there.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Connecticut. My dad works for a magazine called Fine Home Building. Taunton Press is this company that owns all these magazines like Fine Cooking, Fine Home Building, if it’s got “Fine” in the name, it’s probably one of their magazines. I mean, it’s a magazine about houses; really cool houses. So, okay, the print journalism industry is suffering, so is the housing industry, so imagine the print journalism for housing industry. It’s been a little dicey for them. So he moved out there, like, early ‘90s to do that. But it’s cool. Public education’s really good in Connecticut. Certainly better than it is in the Bay Area, so I’d say I was certainly lucky for that. But, you know, Connecticut was cool. I sort of grew up in the woods, so I like trees which is why I like DC so much more than New York.

Because there are trees here.

I know, right? And not every building is like, a square.

One thing that I remember hearing about you is that you set up a bunch of shows at AU. Did you have a philosophy for what you were looking for? Were you trying to give exposure to student bands? Were you trying to get avant-garde artists to play?

Through my work at WVAU, which is American University’s student radio station...AU owns two radio stations, WVAU and WAMU and I worked for both. I edit bluegrass programs for WAMU and do engineering when bands come in and play on the air. So I’ve met some interesting people, Bela Fleck came through. Actually, funny story, me and Bela Fleck had the same backpack and we put them down in the studio next to each other and we immediately said, “Mine’s the one that’s more beat up.” So we both said that, then we’re like... “Crap.” But, really cool guy. Slays at the banjo. That goes without saying. So that’s a cool job.

Anyway, WVAU. Got involved there through a friend of mine that I met right when I got to AU. So I’ve been there pretty much the whole time. I was the music director for one year and then the program manager for a year. And one of the things that we were really griping about was the fact that there’s one big group on campus called SUB, the Student Union Board that books all the really big shows. They have a big budget, like over a hundred thousand dollars for bringing bands in. They would bring in Jimmy Eat World or like, T-Pain, who cancelled on us for laryngitis. We were all joking that how does the guy whose career is built on using the vocoder cancel cause his throat hurts? Can anybody even tell? So that was all pretty funny. So they bring the really big bands and periodically they will book student bands to open for them, or bands from the DC community.

But not enough for our tastes, we want more local bands, so me and the general manager of the station at the time, Lindsay Zoladz, were like, we need to start a concert series at AU. AU is so far removed from the rest of DC where shows are happening and stuff that we sort of need to bridge the gap between students there who want to be involved in the DC music scene and the DC music scene who’d like to get involved with students at AU. So we kinda wanted to do this thing. And we had one kind of amazing success story which I’ll get to in a second. So, my whole philosophy with that was when I got to AU, I didn’t like having to open the door to get into the music community. Like I said, Chris DeWitt was sort of the person that I talked to to figure out how to get involved. We wanted to have the DC bands coming to AU so that the students there could meet them if they wanted to play in bands or go see more shows, so that they’d meet people and start networking.

So there’s a really cool facility on campus called the Kay Spiritual Life Center. They’ve done some really cool stuff there. They’ve actually had a lot of shows and Lindsay had booked shows there in the past. She booked a show in the basement with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Harry and the Potters and then another one later on with Mika Miko and Pre and The Subjects and The Apes. That was a good bill. So what we wanted to do was have a free show series because we have a decent sized budget. But most of the time, truth be told, DC bands will always play for free. Which is really cool.

So we wanted to do four shows a semester. This started fall of last year. I think actually I played the first show because one of our bands cancelled or something. It was like Laughing Man, True Womanhood, Cannot Be Stopped and someone else. We usually had four bands play. We had New Rock Church of Fire play one. Imperial China, Caverns. We had Bellflur for one. We had Black and White Jacksons. But a lot of cool bands. We had some touring bands come through. We had Hammer No More the Fingers come through. I met them through Caverns.

I actually just met the drummer from Hammer No More the Fingers’ older brother. This guy named John Stickley, who’s this really good bluegrass guitar player. He actually came through WAMU and Shannon Whitworth who is kind of an emerging bluegrass country artist came through WAMU and I did the engineering for them and then I went to lunch with them at this Japanese restaurant up in Tenleytown and I’m like, “Oh, you’re wearing a Hammer No More the Fingers shirt. That’s kind of wild. We just had them play a show at my school,” and he’s like, “Yeah, the drummer’s my younger brother.” So that was like, small world, one of those moments.

So we did a lot of different shows. A lot of different bands came through. In playing DC I’ve met lots of people so we had a lot of those bands. We had Bellman Barker. Bellman Barker was the other band that played on September 6th. So a lot of bands came through. Pretty diverse bills. We wanted to be really sort of mixed up. But I think the best success story that we ever had with this series that really illustrated our mission with it was Laughing Man’s bass player is an AU student who met them via the show that they played at AU. This guy named Luke Stewart. Really amazing bass player. Also a really amazing saxophone player. I went to his senior recital at AU. Oh my god, he slayed. So he’s an incredibly good musician. He met up with them at that show and now plays with them as a permanent member of the band. They sound good. Honestly, they sound a lot better as a three piece. I played with them right when they moved into DC. They came from Philly. They played a show in the Kansas House. I played with Imperial China and Laughing Man. They were a two piece, they’d just gotten to DC. And then I saw them again recently and they’ve just exploded as a three piece. They’re one of my favorite bands in DC now. And the drummer, Michael just opened that venue, DC Mini Gallery, which is where I’ll be doing my last show.

I’m curious, what do you think you’ll miss the most about this area?

Probably what I’m going to miss the most is just all the friends and contacts I’ve made while I’ve been here. You know, DC is a strange music scene I think. I don’t really think that DC is a place where a project like Cannot Be Stopped can really explode. I just don’t think there’s the fuel for that here.

But I’ve met a lot of people here who have been super super supportive. I see all the same people at all of the shows that I play. Mostly other bands in DC. By far, Imperial China has been the number one band in terms of believing in what I’ve been doing. So I can never really thank those guys enough. Those guys have really done more than I can really ever repay them for i terms of helping me out. Caverns is another band that I’m really really going to sorely miss. They’ve all been super super supportive. B&W Jacksons, all the people in that band, especially Tim George. Tim George and Chris Dewitt...I don’t have a car, I don’t even have a drum set in DC anymore. I sent it back to Connecticut with my parents cause I’m moving. And those guys have let me borrow drum sets and help me get my gear to shows more times than I can really ever repay them for. So those guys have been hugely supportive. And Laughing Man has been huge for me. The folks in True Womanhood...you know...Melissa and Tom came to just about every single Capitol Punishment show that we did. So, I really think I’m going to miss having those people around. I made some really good friends. But they’re going to stay my friends, I hope.

What do you think it’s going to take for DC to grow as a scene that would be accepting of avant-garde music?

It’s getting better. In the 80s and 90s there was a big DIY punk movement that everybody knows about. Really what it takes is just people supporting the music that they like. I think really the only way for a band to grow and get better is for people to come and support them. And I’d like to see more people turn out for shows where people are trying something new rather than come out and dance but I understand that people like to dance. I’m not really sure. Have you ever heard of the group Sonic Circuits?

No I haven’t.

They’re an experimental sort of music...I’m not really sure how to describe them. They’re a group, they put on a lot of shows, they’re all sort of experimental music people. I played a show for them once at an art space in Silver Spring called Pyramid Atlantic. It’s a pretty cool space. It’s a pretty weird, diverse thing. It was like one project that’s like an hour of noise and then me and then this group from West Virginia called Second Land which was sort of like Godspeed! You Black Emperor but less orchestral and more atmospheric. So they do some cool stuff. They have a Sonic Circuits festival. I’m not sure what the official title of it is. Really cool noise festival and not just noise, but experimental music that happens in fall, maybe September, which is going to be really really cool. I’m pretty sure HEALTH is playing this year. So they’re getting some really good people for it. For that it’s not all DC, of course. HEALTH is definitely not from DC. But that should be really cool. They’re doing some really good stuff.

It’s funny, there was actually a piece on NPR a little while about about the experimental music scene in DC. Velvet Lounge books some pretty interesting stuff sometimes. I saw a really good show there with Hans Bennink* who’s this really strange virtuoso drummer who’s doing experimental stuff. And this guy that used to book at the Velvet Lounge named Scott Verastro, he played there with this three drum set band. It was a very drum intensive night. But they do some cool experimental stuff. The bottom line is for DC to have a good experimental music scene, more people need to go to shows. I guess that’s really all there is to it. If people go to shows, people will keep playing them.

Chief among those improvements: Geographic harmony. The five locations that will host Fringe performances this year are all within a few blocks of one another. Here's a map. So if you’re settling in for an afternoon and/or evening of experimental theater, you can spend your ‘tween-show breaks at what’s now being called the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar rather than on the Metro.

Yes, like the Batmobile, the Festival’s permanent “Fort” at the corner of 6th St. and New York Ave. NW has undergone manifold enhancements for its second tour of duty, including the addition of six taps stocked with brews ranging from $3 PBR to $6 fancy-pants beers. There will also be sandwiches for carnivores and vegetarians alike. More importantly, the Fort has three performance spaces now (four, if you count the bar itself) instead of one: The Shop, The Bedroom, and Redrum will all host concurrent shows within The Fort, making it the Studio Theatre of Fringe venues.

Organizers also trumpeted the Festival's Green Plan, which encourages attendees to take public transit, pass on or recycle your programs, dispose of bottles and cans in the receptacles provided, and lots else.

As before, tickets are priced to encourage you to see more: $15 a head for all shows ($10 for the concerts at the Fort), but with volume discounts ranging from 4-for-$50 to the $300 All Access Pass. And yes, you need that $5 Fringe button again for admission to any venue except the gypsy bar, though if you buy a multi-show pass, they’ll throw in the button gratis.

We’ll (mostly) refrain from remarking upon the show previews, which ranged from inspired to wish-I-could-unsee-that awful. That’s Fringe, Baby. There were plenty of things that appeared quite worthy, if ill-suited to being excerpted and/or performed in a loud bar. It’s worth noting, however, that whole subversive, Fringey affair began with some sangin’ for the savior, with Rosita Mathews of Let’s Sing Gospel 101! leading the packed saloon in “King Jesus Is All.” It takes all kinds, does the Fringe.

The 2009 Capital Fringe Festival runs July 9-26.

On Friday, Mayor Fenty and representatives from the September 11 Memorial & Museum will gather at the Newseum at 10 a.m. to invite citizens to sign steel beams that will be used in the building's construction. First responders and members of the Pentagon Memorial Fund and the Flight 93 National Memorial will be on hand as well.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has trucked its steel to 27 cities in 27 states, gathering tens of thousands of signatures. Participants are also invited to draft "Notes of Hope," which will be included in the museum.

Is it wrong to expect an innovative brewery to have equally forward thinking alehouses? Because heading to the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Gaithersburg, MD, I was trying to think what kind of otherworldly experience it would be, coming from folks who turn out great beer like the 60-Minute IPA as well as interesting mixes like the Midas Touch. Would the menu continue fusions where the beer left off? Would the atmosphere push together styles that have never met?

If you’ve had Dogfish Head beer, you know that they don’t mess around. As the slogan says “Off-centered ales, for off-centered people.” Even their standard line of beers (60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA, Indian Brown, et al) are all known for having bold flavors and just about lead the pack for east coast “big” beers. At the same time, their more experimental flavors like the Midas Touch (with Muscat grapes, saffron and honey) or the Palo Santo Marron (aged in a specific Paraguayan wood) push the limits of what Americans will call beer. But it seems like Dogfish Head used all of their originality in the brewing.

The eating at their alehouse is not bad per se, as we noted in our visit to the Falls Church location in 2007. But how many more restaurants do we need with the same bacon cheeseburger, blackened chicken sandwich and wings? It’ll soak up the high ABV beer that you’re enjoying, but not much more than that. It’s like they consulted with the same chefs that designed Friday’s or Tuesday’s or Hooters. And the décor of old black and whites with random knick-knacks on the walls makes that suggestion all the more plausible. Having the beer at home is much more appealing.

Now I realize that criticizing a great brewer for bad food is like criticizing Michael Jackson for being such a public weirdo (“But he made ‘Off the Wall’ and ‘Thriller,’ who cares what he does off the mic!”), so let’s get to the beer:

60 Minute IPA - A classic in the world of IPAs. The continual feeding of hops stopped at 60 minutes (unlike its 90 and 120 minute brethren) brings out the citrus and sweetness in the blend of three hops without crossing the line into bitterness or extreme ABV. Nice gold color, easy to drink and possibly the best East Coast IPA.

SAH’ TEA - Christmas in July! Dogfish Head again digs up a beer recipe from centuries back and twists it into something new. The aroma was similar to chai (thus the name) and the coloring like a karmeliet. To taste, the sugars matched the karmaliet coloring, but with some cloves, cinnamon and ginger mixed in. Beautifully complex, almost tasting of bitters (the digestif, not the taste of dry hopping), this new release is sure to make waves.

Festina Peche - some Dogfish Head beers are more interesting or clever than great, and this one walks the line. We only had a sample (at the waitress' suggestion) and it’s hard to say how a whole pint would go down. A mix of tart and sour peach flavors, as if they mainly used peach skin and not nectar in the process. Sparkling wine lovers could really fall for this as a summer alternative as its crispness and carbonation come off like a flavored Prosecco. Best of all, it’s around 4 percent ABV, which means all of the implied sugar should not necessarily mean a headache in the morning. Good enough that I’m going to buy some for the porch and give it a second go.

Indian Brown Ale - a mash up of different styles and a great choice for when you can’t decide on what to drink. A hop flavor dialed back a bit from the 60 Minute, with the nuttiness of a brown and a strong malt character. Better in a pint glass where it has a chance to breathe.

Some of these were part of the “Sampler,” which I got to see how the beer differed on tap from my usual bottle experience. For the record, it’s just as great. This also included the 90 Minute IPA, Shelter Pale Ale, and Raison d’Etre. So if you haven’t had much Dogfish Head, this is a good start.

If you love the typical chain-food fare with baseball on big-screen TVs, you could do much worse than the Dogfish Head Alehouse. At least you know the beer will be fantastic.

MUSIC: More Fort Reno action will be going on tonight, this time with heavy piano/guitar/drums instrumental power trio Caverns and Aerialist. If instrumental heavyweights aren’t your thing, the mysterious TBA has finally been announced: rappers The Eubonics will also perform, who claim on their MySpace page that they "want punks and hipsters to put their motherfuckin' hands in the air," and list influences ranging from Trapped in the Closet to Joni Mitchell. Sign us up. 7:15 p.m., Free.

MOVIE: Riverfront Reel is serving up '80s teen classic The Breakfast Club. It's hard to go wrong here, especially when there's mention of a Slap Bracelet giveaway! At Tingey Plaza near the Navy Yard Metro, film starts at 8:45 p.m., but get there a little early for your Slap Bracelet. Free.

MUSIC: If you're up for the trip out to Falls Church’s State Theatre, local favorites Middle Distance Runner and New Rock Church of Fire always put on a good show, no matter the setting. 8 p.m., $12 in advance, $14 day of show.

DANCE NIGHT: The long running '80s Dance Party moved from Heaven & Hell to 18th and Red a while back, and if you're feeling the need to groove to some MJ tunes tonight, it's the place to be. They've planned a tribute to Michael Jackson tonight as part of their annual "Kids in America" Independence Day party (no British tunes allowed). $5 cover, drink specials.

ART: Artomatic's winding down this weekend, and given that most folks don't have to work tomorrow, we expect there to be a fun crowd there tonight for the 10th Anniversary Party on the 3rd Floor. 6 to 9 p.m., featuring hors d'oeuvres by Molly Malones.

Looking to set off a few sparklers this Independence Day weekend? The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has put together a Google map displaying the locations of all the licensed, legal fireworks stands inside the city. The effort is clearly designed to discourage people from buying any firecrackers from illegal fireworks dealers, as the map comes with this plea to start snitchin':

To report a suspected illegal firework vendor or a licensed vendor suspected of selling illegal fireworks, please call 911 immediately. Residents can also provide tips to the Metropolitan Police Department by calling Anonymous Tip Line: 1-888-919-CRIME or sending a text message to 50-411.

It took a while to figure out just what this is. After giving up and looking at Spodie Odie's helpfully detailed tags, it still took a minute or two before, "Oh NOW I see it!!" rang out down the halls. EXIF.

The Washington Post ran a brief story today detailing the difficulties some users are having with the voice recognition software in the phone-based arm of Next Bus, for example, something that isn't too surprising given the relative inadequacies of other voice recognition-based tools across the spectrum. We've heard from readers who say that road noise at their bus stops appears to be impeding their ability to get the system to recognize their queries.

We've also noticed that some bus lines aren't providing very accurate arrival information just yet. Next Bus results in some instances are showing 70+ minutes before the next bus arrival, when in fact the bus is supposed to be arriving at regular 25 minute intervals. Those kinds of kinks could be due to issues with equipment on the buses, according to Metro spokesperson Candace Smith - drivers need to log onto the system in order to be detected along their routes, so if that wasn't done properly or isn't working, that could be one explanation for the discrepancy. WMATA plans to continue to test and look to improve the accuracy of information provided by Next Bus, and if you have specific questions about a problem you're encountering, the first place to start is their Next Bus FAQ.

But completely outside of the technology behind the system, DCist has found that WMATA has accidentally placed the wrong Next Bus signs - signs which are supposed to provide the relevant bus stop number in order to look up arrival information in the system easily - at stops around the city.

DCist tested every Next Bus stop sign within one small cross section of the city, composed of the greater Logan Circle area. In an area bounded by 9th Street NW to east, 16th Street NW to the west, P Street NW to the south, and R Street NW to the north - which includes several north-south bus lines (the 60 buses, 50 buses and S buses) as well as a couple of cross-town lines (the G2 and the G8) - at least six bus stops have the incorrect Next Bus number posted on their signs.

The first stop we noticed that was incorrectly marked was the eastbound G2 stop at 14th and P Streets NW. The Next Bus number marked at that stop was #1002913. But when that number is entered into the Next Bus system, it returns results for the northbound S bus lines stop at 16th and R Streets NW. That S bus stop at 16th and R was not marked with a Next Bus sign when we checked it.

We gave information about this discrepancy to Smith, who confirmed that the sign had been posted at the wrong location, and that WMATA will be sending workers out to fix it.

But other stops are also marked with the wrong Next Bus number, or marked with no number at all.

At 9th and P Streets NW, the westbound G8 stop is marked with #1001442 - which returns results for the eastbound G2 stop across the street. That G2 stop is marked with #1001466, which returns results for the same G8 stop, suggesting that the signs were inadvertently switched.

At 14th Street NW and Logan Circle, the eastbound G2 is marked with #1001446, which provides information for a westbound stop on the same line.

Similarly, at 16th and P Streets NW, the eastbound G2 is marked with #1001457, which provides information for the westbound stop on the same line at the same location. The westbound G2 stop at 16th and P does not have a Next Bus sign posted.

DCist staffer Rachael Brown reports that she encountered a similar switcheroo on her H1 bus line commute. She says the Next Bus number marked at the northbound stop at 23rd and G Streets NW returned results for an 80 bus which stops at the opposite corner of that intersection.

It's too early to tell how widespread the mislabeled bus stop problem might be, as Metro didn't seem to be aware of the problem when we alerted them to it. Of course, Next Bus users trying to access arrival information on a smartphone at a mislabeled stop can still find that information by selecting the stop manually, first choosing the route, direction and stop location within the mobile application. But it's not hard to imagine a scenario where a user might not notice at first that their results are really for a stop across the street, for a bus that's traveling in the opposite direction.

What should you do if you discover that your bus stop is incorrectly labeled? First, go ahead and find the correct bus stop information manually in the system. Then, call Metro at 202-637-7000 and report the issue so they can investigate and fix it.

While Proof contained lush ballads broken up by the occasional up-tempo alt-country song, Keep Talking immediately breaks into three-chord rock and spacey synthesizers with the opening track, "Warning Signs". You could say it's Tsaggaris' warning that you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting more of the same. The piano and acoustic guitars still make an appearance, but the level of energy is generally kept at a seven or eight on the Spinal Tap scale. The upside with Keep Talking's new direction is that Tsaggaris displays a knack for crafting catchy pop songs, and she definitely has the chops to pull off rock vocals. The downside, however, is that the end result often verges on prosaic. There's very little to distinguish it from countless other artists. "Go and Do Everything (Again)" and "The Politician" could be Kelly Clarkson covers, with their fist-pumping choruses and call-and-response backing vocals.

That's not to say Keep Talking is unremarkable. Not at all. The album's slower numbers expand upon the talent Tsaggaris displayed on Proof, revealing her growth as a musician and a songwriter. "Catastrophic", one of the album's best tracks, is hauntingly beautiful in its simplicity. Tsaggaris' hushed vocals are pushed aside halfway through the song by a combination of swelling keyboard lines, a French horn and clarinets. The title track, "Keep Talking", ambles along like a true New Orleans-style jazz number, with a horn section accompanying Tsaggaris. Co-produced with Ian Schreier — who produced Proof and has worked with artists like Velvet Revolver and Clay Aiken — the production on the more rock-inspired numbers may be a little too clean at times, but it's pitch-perfect on tracks like "Keep Talking" and "Get Yourself Right". Of course, we're a sucker for a good pedal steel guitar.

If anything, Keep Talking is a great example of an artist comfortable with pushing herself in new directions, and we fully support that. Hopefully it doesn't take another four years to hear what she has to offer next.

>> It's been 40 years since man walked on the moon. To commemorate this great achievement, the Newseum hosts a panel discussion called The Apollo Legacy: The Moon and Beyond. Nick Clooney will moderate the discussion featuring some heavy hitters from three Apollo missions including Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 11, Alan L. Bean, Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 12, Charles M. Duke, Jr., Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 16 as well as John Grunsfeld, mission specialist, STS-125 Atlantis and Laurie Leshin, Ph.D., deputy director for Science and Technology, Goddard Space Flight Center. The panel will take place July 20 at 2 p.m. and seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

>> On July 11, the Corcoran digs deep into their collection and presents an intimate look at John Singer Sargent in the Corcoran Collection. This small exhibit will be hung in the Rotunda and feature many works given to the Museum from Singer's sisters.

>> The Ford's Theatre Museum will reopen after almost two years of renovations on July 15. New exhibits in the museum will feature information about Lincoln’s cabinet and Civil War milestones as well as recreations of a theatre box, Lincoln’s White House office, and Mary Surratt’s boarding house. See the deringer that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot the president and the suit and boots worn by Lincoln the night of his assassination.

>> The National Gallery of Art opens An Antiquity of Imagination: Tullio Lombardo and Venetian High Renaissance Sculpture on July 4. This exhibit encompasses new ideals of beauty captured in sculpture during the High Renaissance by Tullio. See his double portraits and explore the closest followers of his style.

>> Form and Movement: Photographs by Philip Trager opens at the National Building Museum on July 11. The show seeks to highlight Trager's interest in symmetry and geometry by presenting large scale black and white photographs of architecture and dancers.

>> The National Museum of the American Indian continues there Indian Summer Showcase with concerts the second and fourth Saturday of the month at 5 p.m. On July 11 hear Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers and on July 25 experience traditional kuna music with The Banana Project.

>> For more free concerts, head to the National Zoo and partake in their Sunset Serenades. Shows start at 6 p.m. and run July 9, 16 and 23 on Lion/Tiger Hill.

>> At the National Museum of American History, learn all about Earl Shaffer and the Appalachian Trail. Shaffer was the first person to hike the entire 2,000 mile trail. Explore his diary, photographs and maps that he used during the trek. Opening July 10.

>> The Fourteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival kicks off on July 10 at the Freer. View a selection of films that highlight Hong Kong’s cinematic achievements through August 23.

Tax Office Sent Mistaken Refunds: It just wouldn't be summer in D.C. if there wasn't a new problem to report coming out of the Office of Tax and Revenue. WTOP's Mark Segraves first had the story yesterday, and now the Post follows up: a bunch of income tax refunds were mistakenly sent to residents who actually owed taxes, not the other way around. And how did the mistake first get discovered? At-large D.C. Council member David Catania's partner, Brian, received one of the checks. How many such checks were mailed out? And how many were cashed? No one seems to know just yet.

Cabbie Caps in the News: The Examiner and the Post have got more stories up about how Ward 1's Jim Graham has introduced legislation that would place a cap on the number of taxicab drivers licensed in the city. Of note: Graham doesn't have a specific plan in mind on how to do this, he's more or less just opening the topic up for debate. He's suggested D.C. adopt either a medallion system, like ones used in New York City and Chicago, or a certification system.

Briefly Noted: Mom of girls found in freezer heads to court ... Man found killed in the 2300 block of Hartford Street SE ... Man fatally shot in the Langley Park area of PG County ... Los Angeles outfit might take over one low performing D.C. public high school.

This Day in DCist: Last year, the Council endorsed the notion of placing a pro-voting rights sign on Nationals Park. The year before that, we paid a visit to the local "Kwik-E-Mart."

• 75-year-old Geraldine Marshall ain't afraid of no pot-smoking, vandalizing teens. [WUSA9]
• A set of quadruplets - three boys and one girl - were born at Howard University Hospital this morning. [NBC4]
• The Montgomery County council has approved funds for 30 additional speed cameras to be placed around the county, doubling the jurisdiction's current number of cameras to 60. [Silver Spring Penguin]
• The Georgetown ANC is seeking to place a moratorium on outdoor seating at Georgetown Court. [The Georgetown Metropolitan]
• The Wagtime Pet Spa and Boutique in Shaw recently celebrated the completion of its major renovations. [Renew Shaw]
• Some reports of a man who is kicking random women in the shins outside the Columbia Heights Metro. WTF? [Prince of Petworth]

Knuble is a big, tough forward who goes to the net and puts the puck there -- sort of like a Brooks Laich with proven hands, or a Chris Clark who can still play 80 games per season. Knuble has scored more than 20 goals in each of the last six seasons, averaging 27 in that span. With enough time on the Caps power play, he has the potential to light the lamp 30 times again, which would certainly make up for Kozlov's quiet production. His defensive numbers haven't looked like Kozlov's in his last couple of campaigns -- but if he can remain planted in opposing goal creases, he might help Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom reach new levels of production.

Of course, he's not the same kind of tough guy as Donald Brashear, who will be sorely missed after signing with the New York Rangers. It's bad enough the Rangers have Sean Avery; now, they'll really be a pain to play against. Hopefully, the Caps will find someone to defend Alex Ovechkin before the summer is over. It would also be great to see them add a veteran defensive defenseman to clear out their own crease.

What the Caps can do with the rest of this summer will largely depend on the salary cap. Knuble's signing brings them within a few million of it (even after it was raised again this year), and they will most likely have to deal with salary arbitration for regulars Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon, Milan Jurcina and Shaone Morrisonn. Morrisonn and Gordon would be especially hard to walk away from. It's lucky for the Caps that hockey's arbiters don't tend to pay much for defensive skills.

The best rumors circling the web have the Caps trying to trade away center Michael Nylander and goalie Jose Theodore. While Theodore still plays a large role for the Caps, he's certainly not irreplaceable. Nylander developed into a healthy scratch last season, and figures to occupy 8 percent of the team's salary cap space for the coming season; a significant amount of space for a player who doesn't earn a spot on the ice every night.

We're not sure who would take Nylander off the Caps' hands right now, but we do believe that under a different coach and a different system with less emphasis on speed and more emphasis on strategy, he could still be a dominant power play performer, a first line center and a team leader like he was for the New York Rangers. Maybe now that they've traded Scott Gomez, they'll take him back? (Please?)

Of course, if he stays with the Caps, Nylander can continue to mentor fellow Swedes like Backstrom, last year's first round pick Anton Gustafsson, and perhaps even this year's first round pick, Marcus Johansson. If Backstrom's rapid adjustment to the NHL is any indication, Nylander is certainly a great coach and mentor. What the Caps really need from him, though, is a return to form as a top-tier second-line center to replace the departing Sergei Fedorov.

If Nylander is still here and playing like he did last year, the Caps will rely heavily on new talent from their Calder Cup champion AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears. Veteran Bear forwards Keith Aucoin and Alexandre Giroux could each see significant time in the NHL this year. Prospects Chris Bourque, Francois Bouchard, Oskar Osala and Mathieu Perreault can each expect at least a few games with the big club this year -- and more time down the road. With Hershey's head coach Bob Woods joining the Caps as an assistant, we can expect the team to continue to utilize all of the players at its disposal.

Which, while not the splashiest thing in the world, is just fine.