A Glimpse of DC Nightlife

This week, aside from working, I spent quite a few hours drinking around town.

Thursday was a goodbye party for one of my co-workers. The crew headed over to a dive/pub called Fox and Hounds. The vodka tonics came as a glass filled to the brim with vodka and a bottle of tonic on the side. Needless to say, I was feeling it by the time somebody decided to play Pat Benatar on the cyber jukebox. I managed to keep my dignity and avoid air guitar. Wouldn’t have mattered in DC anyway. This is, after all, the city of nerds. Evening conversations covered non-profit administration, graduate degrees in public policy and exciting forays onto ancestry.com.

Saturday night, I headed over to a house party of Barack Obama supporters. He won so early in South Carolina that I got there after the results were in. No matter. The party was in a classic Georgetown townhouse inhabited by several grad students. It was dorm-room chic packed with a, mostly young, but diverse group of red wine swilling political junkies. Guests watched the MSNBC ticker like some people watch a basketball game. All quieted down for Obama’s (incredible, as usual) speech. They also got quite excited about the Caroline Kennedy endorsement.

Later on Saturday night, I met Chris at a tiny bar in Cleveland Park called Aroma. The DJ was spinning everything from A Tribe Called Quest to Billy Joel. I was spinning from several strong cosmos. The crowd was decidedly younger, hipper, and hip hoppier. Yet, being DC, they still had CNN going above the bar and quite a few of the could-have-appeared-in-the-dance-scene-in-Matrix-Reloaded hipsters were watching it as they waited (and waited...) for their drinks.

DC, gotta love it.

This week's movie recommendations:

In December, the modern art museum had a Romanian film festival. I caught two of the movies, both of which were great:

C Block Story is a short film with charming characters (especially the women). It is hard to describe the movie without ruining some of the surprises. I’ll just say that it revolves around an elevator and sex. If that doesn’t make you want to see it, I don’t know what will.

Occident is a feature film that weaves together three different narratives about Romanian families and friends. The movie is thoughtful and sometimes deadpan hilarious. “Occident” refers to the west. Many of the characters are trying to get to Western Europe where they think their opportunities will be better. It also appropriately rhymes with accident. Serendipity plays a major role in the story. It touches on issues of race, gender, wealth, and values in sometimes surprising ways. Definitely worth a look.