Also, check out STRONG!, a film by Julie Wyman about the Olympian weighlifting Bronze medalist Cheryl Haworth. Today at brunch, Cheryl referred to her “bigness” — I call it her “awsomeness.” [And I’ve never used that word before in public.] That Cheryl is and so is fellow Olympian Cara Heads who also appears in the film. WHEN/WHERE etc. Saturday, June 30 at Busboys and Poets (2021 14th Street, NW), 5 PM. Cheryl Heads will be a guest speaker. It’s the final ITVS Community Cinema [DC] event for the season and it’s FREE. More information and reservations available at www.communitycinema-dc.org.
STRONG! is wrapping up SilverDocs in a sold out screening tonight at the AFI Silver theater in Silver Spring, MD.
ITVS Community Cinema is presenting preview screenings of the documentary DIRT! The Movie during the month of March. If you’re reading this from outside Washington, DC, you can find a screening near you at www.pbs.org/independentlens/getinvolved.
Actually, we’re talking about soil when we’re talking about sustainability and life. But “dirt” seems to give the title a little edge. Perhaps “Soil! The Movie” would’ve been a little…soily.”
If you’re in the DC area, you have two opportunities to attend a “Dirt!” event: Sunday, March 21 at 3 PM Washington DC Jewish Community Center (1529 16th Street, NW) Sunday, March 28 at 5 PM at Busboys and Poets (2021 14th Street, NW)
DC’s Dirt! events will have some great panelists thanks to Marsha Weiner of FoodMuse Media (a community partner for the DC presentations of Dirt! The Movie:
March 28 – Allan Baliett (see above); Kim Rush, Backyard Gardner/Educator; Kristen Santucci (see above).
There is a great discussion guide put together by ITVS (Independent Television Service). You can download a copy from this link. It includes filmmaker bios, resources, information, and question to explore. Gotta stop treating dirt like….dirt!
Community Cinema is FREE (no admission fee). Reservations highly recommended. Email dirt[at]communitycinema-dc.org or call 202-939-0794.
For me origami has been more than just paper folding. Once you get the hang of the basic folds, it’s pretty calming for the head and the hands. I’ve used origami to center myself, to step away from the multi-tasked brain. I’ve also used it to calm tweeners. As I said, once you get the hang of the basic folds, the room gets pretty Zen like. I’ve introduced origami to counsel grief. Again, it’s about the focus with a logical and aesthetically pleasing outcome. Very helpful when life isn’t making much sense. And finally, origami when you’re strapped for decorations. I’ve shared my college tree trimming story before.
This month, Community Cinema presents another dimension to origami – as science as art – both and separate. BETWEEN THE FOLDS is a film by Vanessa Gould. Here’s the blurb: Blurring the mysterious lines between art, science, sculpture and math, the film is an exhilarating adventure into origami, or paperfolding, featuring works of art whose emotional expressiveness and engineering complexity defy logic.
TOWARDS A MORE CIVIL UNION – JIM LEACH, CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
“In our society we rightly identify hate words with racial, ethnic, and gender slurs. What are we therefore to make of the usage or what more aptly might be described as misusage of words like “communism” and “fascism”? In 1938, we now understand, it would have been the height of irresponsibility not to shout from the rafters the dangers implicit in the demagoguery of Hitler and his S.S. But if we fought a war to defeat Nazi Germany and manned the barricades to hold communism at bay, isn’t it logical to assume that if a citizen were to believe that a government official is a fascist or communist, that official’s personal safety, as well as our social cohesion, could be in jeopardy?
That is why it is so important for Americans to think through the meaning of words and the meaning of history, our own as well as others’.”
Jacqueline Trescott’s article on the NEH can be found here in today’s Washington Post. Jim Leach was formerlly a Republican member of Congress from Iowa.
BUSING POETS WITH KIM ROBERTS
Initially Kim Roberts and I were going to have coffee at Busboys and Poets, but decided to take the plunge and order some scrambled eggs for catching up and other true confessions. Kim has been writing the literary walking tours for the Big Read – D.C. since “Zora Neale Hurston’s Washington.” Kim is also editor of Beltway: The Online Poetry Journalwhich turns 10 years old in 2010. Kim is working on a schedule of activities to celebrate including a special 10th anniversary edition of Beltway. Beltway has a solid reputation in poetry circles. Some of my favorite issues explore Washington DC writer history.
Kim is also completing an anthology of poems about Washington, DC. This should be a great companion to George Pelecanos’ DC Noir anthologies (short fiction – 2nd volume is the best). The title is Full Moon On K Street: Poems About Washington, DC. The 100 poems that make up the anthology were written between 1950 and the present by writers who have lived or are currently living in DC. Our friend Thomas Sayers Ellis is included as well as Holly Bass, Grace Cavalieri (who gave me a copy of her Langston Hughes interview for her radio show “The Poet and the Poem” – I’ve got to listen to that), Sarah Browning, Essex Hemphill, Naomi Ayala, E-Notes E. Ethelbert Miller, Tony Medina, and many, many more.
The anthology is being published by Plan B Press. It will be available in January.
HEALTH CARE REFORM PAPER TRAIL – THE BAUCUS BILL
I guess “health insurance reform” didn’t stick. Nevertheless, the Baucus Bill known as the “America’s Health Future Act of 2009” coming out of the Senate Finance Committee has been designated the pony to watch, perhaps because the Senate will probably move on their bill before the House on their version. There is no public option in the Baucus bill. Senator Max Baucus, the friendless Democratic Senator from Montana, authored the bill which received no support from Democrats or Republicans. It is being used now as a draft to retool for a final Senate bill. The complete version is over 1000 pages; but there’s a 223 page over view available here.
Open Congress has a decent site for tracking and understanding the Baucus Bill here. You can add your two cents or more. You can also follow the money trail for big Pharm, insurance, and other medical business interests on Open Congress here. Unlike the health care debate, OpenCongress.org is non-partisan. Oh, come to think of it, so was the initial Hill hate on the Baucus bill.
THE FUTURE OF MUSIC COALITION POLICY SUMMIT (October 4 -6)
Health care for musicians is one of the scheduled sessions at the upcoming Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit October 4 – 6 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
FMC has a program called HINT (Health Insurance Navigation Tool) to help uninsured musicians navigate the health insurance maze and find an affordable plan.
The Policy Summit focuses on music, technology, policy and law. Basically the new business of music distribution (and the old recorded tunes as well). Speakers at the summit include Senator Al Franken (D-MN), FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski , Mike Mills of r.e.m., and Daniel Ek, founder of the music service Spotify.
I’m working with FMC to present a special screening of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS as part of ITVS Community Cinema (October 4 at 5 PM – Georgetown University Intercultural Center Auditorium). The film’s exeuctive producer, Kimbrew McLeod, will be there for the Q&A. COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS looks at the evolution, use, profits, and legal madness of sampling in hip hop music. “Who owns the notes and who gets paid?” The screening is FREE. Additional Community Cinema screenings of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS are scheduled for October 25 and 28. Go here for more information.
Here’s a trailer:
Each year Community Cinema Regional Outreach Coordinators and Producing Partners get together for our annual retreat here in San Francisco. It’s the big check in before we launch the new season of free documentary screenings in our cities and communities. This year, Nashville, TN and Little Rock, AR join the family. And we have a new national website www.communitycinema.org. I’ll be updating our local DC site soon.
Yesterday we met filmmaker Jim Granato and Pat Spurgeon, the subject of Jim’s film “D Tour” which is Community Cinema’s first film for the 2009 – 2010 season. “D Tour” is a rock and roll film that takes a turn down the road of life and death.
Pat was born with one kidney. He needed a transplant which sent him on a search for a living donor. Pat is the drummer for the band Rogue Wave. How does a drummer afford dialysis? Medicare. Needless to say with Pat in the room, health care reform was the topic du jour.
There’s an excellent article – “Who Donates a Kidney to a Stranger” – about kidney transplant donors by Larissa MacFarquhar in the July 27th issues of “The New Yorker Magazine”. And abstract is posted here on TNY website.
DC Dates for D Tour are September 13 at 3 PM (Washington DCJCC) and September 27 at 5 PMUpdate: Date TBA (Busboys and Poets). Reservations requested at dtour@communitycinema-dc.org. “D-Tour” will air on “Independent Lens” in the fall. Check local listings.
With the opening of “Julie & Julia” today, I just coudn’t help but go back to one of my and Julia Child’s favorite restaurants, Tu Lan located at 6th Street between Market and Mission in the Tenderloin. Julia’s face is still on the goldenrod yellow menus. It’s still a dive, but that doesn’t deter me one bit. The food and the portions you get for $6 – $7 can’t be beat. Service is very casual and friendly. The restaurant’s been around since 1977. On the menu cover, it sites Julia enjoying the Imperial Rolls, a large, crispy, spring roll appetizer. A little too much deep fry for my taste. I always enjoy the simple pork kebabs and rice noodles. Imported beers are $2.50. Anyone who knows me, knows I eat blue collar regional on the road.
There is a great discussion guide put together by 
