Monday is the New Friday Cabaret

One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin (Image courtesy of Puppet Underground)

Puppet Underground wants to help you get off of the couch, away from the internet + tele for a few hours next Monday. And this just might do the trick. They've been a mainstay in the neighborhood and are once again hosting an innovative and engaging evening of music and puppetry.

From the organizers:

"MONDAY-IS-THE-NEW-FRIDAY CABARET!
Monday, June 17, 7:00 PM.
La Casa, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, WDC.
$5-10 sliding scale donation.

Featuring: *     *     *

Weed Tree // local experimental guitar& drums duo of Amanda Huron and Layne Garrett.

One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin // gorgeous puppetry from Erik Ruin and Maryann Colella

Katherine Fahey puppetry // hand-cranked puppet shows and song from Baltimore.

Mike Andre // local songs of dissonance and beauty.

More on the show: *     *     *

One Touch Of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin is a table-top toy theater show by Erik Ruin and Maryann Colella concerning disasters and the organic mutual aid efforts/networks which arise in their wake. Amongst other examples, we focus on the Halifax ship explosion of 1917, the largest man-made explosion before the invention of the atom bomb. The show incorporates sprawling silk-screened graphics come to life, toy instruments, tape-deck sound effects and text from Rebecca Solnit's book A Paradise Built In Hell.

Eric Ruin is a printmaker, shadow-puppeteer, founding member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, and co-creator of the recent book Paths Toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism (w/ Cindy Milstein, PM Press, 2012). For more on his work, seehttp://erikruin.tumblr.com/.

Maryann Colella is a puppeteer, dancer, mask-maker and street-theater instigator who has been working with The Bread & Puppet Theater for the past 7 years, and has also collaborated with All the Saints Theater Company, Royal Frog Ballet, the Boston Radical Arts Troupe, Deep In the Belly, the Puppeteers Cooperative and Agua Sol Y Soreno.

Katherine Fahey is a designer, performer and printmaker. She embodies a community of musicians, artists and writers where elegance and authenticity are signal virtues. Her cut paper and prints have become music posters, shadow puppets, portraits, set design and animation, including a lush music videos for musicians such as Wye Oak and ellen cherry."

Puppet Underground Returns

Photo courtesy of Puppet Underground

Our friends at the Puppet Underground are back, presenting the first Mount Pleasant show for 2013. It's next Thursday at La Casa. From the organizers:

"A POLICE STATE CABARET!

Thursday, Feb 7th - 7:30pm

La Casa Community of Christ: 3166 Mt Pleasant St NW

$10-$15 Sliding Scale Suggested Donation

Puppet-show! Epic tragedy! Real story!
Puppeteers are in town with a show about all times!
From ancient Rome to the skyscrapers of New York...
A lot has changed! Little has changed!
Toy theatre magic, puppets, cantastorias, tricks and trombones.
Lace!! (??)

Live music! Live puppets! All alive! Bring a friend!

The Police State Cabaret is a tour collaboration between the Flying Donkey Puppet Theatre, Sam Wilson from the office of Ned Lud, and Lindsay McCaw (Dolly Wagglers). Their All Alive tour in the fall entertained the citizens of the police state, and since the police state is still going strong, so are they. The Cabaret is a full evening of cardboard puppet shows, duct taped live string and brass music, cantastoria, and some old wise ventriloquism, for good measure.

This aging ragtag group of puppeteers have over a decade of show making and scheming under their belts, having all worked independently and with Bread & Puppet Theater (Glover, VT), BareBones Productions (Minneapolis, MN),  Paperhand Puppet Intervention (NC) In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre (Minneapolis, MN), RPM Puppet Conspiracy (NC, VT), El Circo de Carton (Mexico), Partòt Parata and Fest-Festival (Bologna, Italy), All the Saints Theatre Company (Richmond VA) & Great Small Works (NYC).  

The evening promises to be cheap, real, unrehearsed, completely imperfect and ridiculously live."

Radio CPR Music Showcase Tonight!

Happy Friday! Join Radio CPR and a bunch of other rad folks tonight at La Casa for a music showcase. This is part of the slate of events organized by the Mount Pleasant Temporium.

This time around the location is not the Temporium, but La Casa -- a few doors down at 3166 Mt Pleasant St NW. Live music and the renowned CPR DJs. 7pm. And only $3. More event listings at The42BusDC.

Crafts & Kisses Returns; at La Casa Tomorrow

Two years ago, the Josephine Bulter Center in Columbia Heights was home to Crafts & Kisses arts, fair. Unfortunately there was not a fair last year. This year the fair returns --to Mount Pleasant's very own La Casa community center.

Crafts & Kisses will feature 25 craft makers who will offer a wide variety of one-of-a-kind, handmade items. And it's all Valentine themed! We're talking apparel, Valentine cards, handmade books, pottery, clothing accessories, jewelery, and more. Radio CRP will be providing sweet tunes to shop to.

If it's anything like the 2009 event, it'll be well worth the trip, trust me. Crafts & Kisses is tomorrow, Saturday Feb 12. It's at La Casa, 3166 Mount Pleasant St NW. 12pm-6pm.

Cheap Art Sale Returns to Mount Pleasant

The Cheap Art Sale is back! It will be held at La Casa on Saturday December 11, 1:00-5:00pm.

Last year the Cheap Art Sale was envisioned as a way to raise funds for Neighbors Consejo while providing alternative, arty options for holiday shopping. It was a great success. The sale raised over $900 for the social services agency located right here in Mount Pleasant. Last year, cheap meant art under $100.

This year cheap means $50 and under. Artists will include Leslie Andrus, Lely Constantinople, Mike Ferguson, Sha Grogan-Brown, Floyd Knight, Tom LeGro, Gina Matchitt, Les Telusan, Lisa Marie Thalhammer, Frank Turner and more.

The beneficiary is Girls Rock! DC. GR!DC is a week long camp  whose instruction is music-based, but also grounded in helping girls grow skills in community building, self-confidence and interpersonal relationships. A great organization. And if you've been to the showcase, held yearly at the 9:30 club, you know they're pretty good at teaching music, too.

Girls Rock! DC is a volunteer run organization and gets larger by a few students each year, Any additional funds will allow the organizers to produce a bigger and better camp than before, for more girls. Half of the proceeds for each artist of the Cheap Art Sale will be donated to GR!DC. With any luck, they'll do as well as Neighbors Consejo did in 2009.

La Casa is located at 3166 Mount Pleasant St NW. 

S PRCSS, America Hearts Play at La Casa Saturday

Another great show at La Casa this weekend.  This is a benefit for Community Powered Radio, Radio CPR-97.5fm. La Casa is located at 3166 Mount Pleasant St NW. The show begins at 7:00pm, this Saturday November 13.

There are three five awesome bands and all the proceeds will go to Radio CPR, a community partner for many years here in Mount Pleasant.

The line up:
S PRCSS
America Hearts
Fell Types


UPDATE: Just added!
Cephalopod
The Eye the Ear the Arm

Free Nutrition Talk and Vegan Food at La Casa

DC Veg Fest (courtesy of COK)

One of DC's hardest working and most dedicated organizations, Compassion Over Killing, is hosting an event right here in Mount Pleasant, tonight. Among many other animal friendly campaigns, COK is the brains and effort behind many of the vegan menus in DC. The Founding Farmers vegan menu (PDF) is one of my personal favorites. They also help produce events like DC Veg Fest, pictured left

COK and DC's Positive Force are sponsoring a talk tonight in La Casa at 3166 Mount Pleasant St NW. From COK: Join Compassion Over Killing and Positive Force for free vegetarian food and to learn the latest in human nutrition in an engaging multimedia presentation from Michael Greger, M.D, the director of public health and animal agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. Using the latest published research in peer-reviewed scientific nutrition journals, Dr. Greger shows us how a humane diet is also the healthiest.

This event will include practical advice on how best to feed ourselves and our families to prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic disease in a fun, interactive quiz show format. The event is free and open to everyone!

The event is tonight from 6:30-8:30 pm.

If you have events or notes to pass, email the42bus@gmail.com. Keep up with it all and more on Twitter @The42BusDC

La Casa Update and More: Keeping Tabs

** The Washington City Paper has followed up on the La Casa/Highland Park situation. Over two posts, they've revealed more about the plans to to add an addition to Highland Park Apartments and build a new facility serving the District's homeless. 

The timing of the demolition of the existing La Casa and the rebuilding of the new facility is key. The developers want to build the Highland Park addition as soon they can. But questions remain regarding closing an emergency shelter just before winter and of course, the other elephant in the room, money. The new community based residential facility will cost $10 million to construct and only $6 million is secure at this point. Stay tuned for more updates and thanks to Ms. DePillis for digging a little deeper.

*     *     *     *     *

**I'm fascinated by this trend of large corporations pitting non profits against each other in the quest for decent, but one time monetary prizes via online voting. The Pepsi Refresh project comes to mind. And here's another; one that could potentially benefit a great DC organization, Miriam's Kitchen. 

The Sears Chef Challenge will award up to $20,000 to Miriam's Kitchen if chef John Murphy wins the whole contest. But, first he must be voted the best of DC, then go on to face other chefs from across the country. 

So, hit up the website and vote accordingly. The other two DC area charities who could win are Capital Area Food Bank and Maryland Food Bank. Either way, a great cause will benefit, so let's try and steer that money to the DC area.

*     *     *     *     *

**Just a reminder, the DC Asian Pacific American film festival starts this Thursday. This is is a ten day film fest screening films by and about Asian Americans. After the opening night film is screened at E Street Cinema at 7:00pm, there will be a festival reception at nearby Asia Nine restaurant. It's free if you attend the film and $10 otherwise. I just found out they're offering various discounts for groups, seniors and more, which is cool. They're a fairly small organization, so if you're at all interested, check out a film or two and support the arts in DC. 

Show at La Casa This Friday

More good music on the 42 bus line this week.

Seattle's Mostly Dimes played La Casa almost exactly a year ago this week.  Last August they played as part of a benefit show on behalf of We Are Family.  Well, they're playing another benefit this year.  On August 20th (that's Friday) they'll play with DC's American Hearts and Order from Charlottesville.  This time for DC's Radio CPR 97.5 who also had a movie benefit last week at La Casa (3166 Mt Pleasant Street NW).  Show starts this Friday at 7:00pm.  If you're feeling generous and care to donate, bring $5.00.

Cool night of music at Asylum this Wednesday as well.  Killing You With Kindness is a DJ night featuring a lot of my favorite music from the 90s and 00s.  As a matter of fact, it will be spun by yours truly.  Good and so-bad-its-good hardcore and melodic bands. This Wednesday at 8:00pm.  2471 18th Street NW.  See you there.

Thanks for the tips folks.  If you know of any other shows on the 42 bus line, let me know: the42bus@gmail.com.

Radio CPR Movie Benefit in Mount Pleasant

This weekend the movie's on Friday.  The MPMS Movies in the Park series in on a two week break, returning August 28th with Up!.  In the meantime, Radio CPR/CommunityPoweredRadio is hosting a benefit tonight at La Casa.  You'll get to see Tim Burton's "Pee Wee's Big Adventure."  A classic if there ever was one.  You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me.  I'm a loner, Dottie.  A rebel.  The $2.00 donation will go to Radio CPR.  La Casa is located at 3166 Mount Pleasant Street NW.  Movie starts at 8:00pm.

Las Posadas Puppet Performance in Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant attracts the most talented, motivated and creative people in Washington. DC's best neighborhood for lots of reasons, and here's another.

On December 19th the Puppet Underground (Mt P based) will present a "Puppetry Posada" of sorts starting at La Casa on Mount Pleasant Street.

Las Posadas (translation: the inns) are a traditional Christmas themed celebration which take place over a 9 day period beginning on December 16th. It's primarily practiced in Mexico. Las Posadas tell the Christian story of Mary, Joseph, and their search for shelter in the days before Mary gives birth. The story is told over the 9 days in 9 different houses within the community.

The Puppet Underground, partnering with Hear Mount Pleasant, will host a shortened, one night version of Las Posadas here in Mount Pleasant. on Saturday December 19th. It will be a more secular affair, including musical interludes, cantastoria (I had to look it up), folk telling and various other holiday themed performances, both religious and non-religious.

The evening begins at Casa, 3166 Mount Pleasant Street NW. The show will then literally go on the road, traveling to nearby neighborhood homes over the course of the next 120 minutes or so. You will have to go outside a few times during the performance, so dress accordingly. Bonus, though: at each stop snacks and a warm beverage will be available.

Expect a party-like atmosphere and family friendly, all ages puppetry.

So, again with the details:
What: A Mount Pleasant Puppetry Posada
When: 7:00 PM Saturday December 19th
Where: Begins at La Casa, 3166 Mount P St NW
Who: Puppet Underground + Hear Mount Pleasant + You
How (much): Suggested donation = $5+, but all are welcome and no one turned away
RSVP: Please email the organizers so they can plan accordingly at PuppetUndergroundDC@gmail.com

Benefit at La Casa This Weekend

La Casa, at 3166 Mt Pleasant Street NW, will host a benefit show this weekend for a local community outreach, service and advocacy organization. We are Family is a non-profit serving seniors in various neighborhoods in Washington DC. They provide services such as grocery home delivery, regular friendly and social visits, transportation to appointments and more.

Mount Peasant's own Radio CPR will present this benefit show, which will feature two bands. Mostly Dimes is from Seattle and Sweatpants is from just down the road in Baltimore. The show is this Saturday, August 29th at 8:00pm. Suggested donation to benefit We are Family is $5.

Girls Rock!DC Visits Mt Pleasant This Weekend

Girls Rock!DC, the rock and roll day camp for girls/grrrls, is having a recruitment party this Sunday in Mt Pleasant.

The open to the public event is an Instrument Show-n-Tell. You can also meet the organizers and some of the instructors. Play instruments (no experience necessary!). There will be live music and a bake sale. Girls Rock!DC is a non profit, so if you want to contribute some monetary support they won't turn you away. But the event this weekend is free. It's this Sunday, June 1, 2008 from 3pm till 7pm at La Casa. La Casa is in the heart of the Mt Pleasant commercial strip, at 3166 Mt Pleasant Street NW.

The actual camp will be held this August. Its for girls 8-18 years of age. Campers will get more than music instruction; camp activities and workshops will stress team building, self-empowerment, self-advocacy and leadership skills. Plus, the campers will get to play a showcase at the 9:30 Club. Bonus! If you know any young ones in the D-M-V area who fit the bill (no pun intended, j/k! pun intended!), bring them on down this Sunday. Should be fun.