RDGLDGRN’s virtual concert

Hip-hop-meets-indie-rock trio RDGLDGRN (pronounced Red, Gold, Green) from Reston were recently on tour in support of their new single “Danger,” with guest vocalist Nitty Scott, and upcoming “episodic film” Something About Danger. Coronavirus ended that, but now the group will be joining the long roster of other musicians doing live video streams on social media. RRDGLDGRN, who first got attention in 2011 with their self-released song “I Love Lamp,” include African American guitarist Marcus Parham (the titular Red), Romanian American bassist Andrei Busuioceanu (Gold), and Haitian American vocalist Pierre Desrosiers (Green)—and yes, the three are always seen in their respective colors. RDGLDGRN’s polished and bouncy studio products, with sung pop choruses and sing-songy rap verses, have included drumming by former Northern Virginia resident and longtime Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, and production on one track by Virginia Beach’s Pharrell Williams. Their suburban multiculturalism draws from the Beastie Boys, Bob Marley, and Brazilian and Caribbean pop, while containing lyrical references to D.C. staples including go-go, Bad Brains, and Minor Threat. Drawing from their 2019 song “Karnival,” the group is billing the two virtual shows they’ll do as “Koronival.” RDGLDGRN will also be sending a portion of donations to the Capital Area Food Bank—maybe they can get Mark Zuckerberg to pitch in some spare change. The performances will be streamed at 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Facebook Live. —Steve Kiviat

I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone

Coronavirus concerns forced The National Museum of Asian Art to scrap its Tsai Ming-liang series, which was to feature 35mm prints of several films from the prolific Taiwanese director. Tsai’s patient, alienated work is perfect for the time of social distancing; in Vive L’Amour (streaming on Kanopy), three lonely strangers in Taipei share a duplex apartment and manage to stay out of each other’s way for the better part of two hours. In the 2006 feature I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Tsai, who grew up in Malaysia, immerses the viewer in working class Kuala Lumpur, where people live in hovels that look like the ruins of civilization. An immigrant worker is robbed and beaten and left for dead while a Good Samaritan takes him in and nurses him to health; a mother tends to her paralyzed son, cleaning him diligently every day. These lost, lonely figures, who resort to wearing face masks when a fire rages across the land, are desperate for touch and connection, their dire straits looking like what our own world might descend into. What gets them through life? Affection, of course, and a tender compassion that asks for nothing in return. With long sequences short on dialogue and long on human touch, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone may seem the antithesis of our historic moment, but it’s a reminder that even under the worst conditions, the human urge to take care of each other is strong. Catch it on The Criterion Channel—if you’re the type of moviegoer who seeks out a slow Taiwanese drama, you should already have a subscription, right? The film is available to stream on The Criterion Channel. Free with subscription. —Pat Padua

Sans Souci in The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington

If you’re hunkering down and forget what it looks like inside a restaurant, the terrible and dated 1977 drama The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington features a prominent reminder of Washington’s culinary past: Sans Souci, the fabled French restaurant that operated on 17th Street NW until 1983. 1970s TV icon Joey Heatherton stars as Xaviera Hollander, and can be seen dining at one of the city’s finest with another mainstay of the era, George Hamilton. The vinyl booths and elegant décor may have better acting chops than the cast, but there’s at least one line of apt dialogue: “We gotta look out for each other, because no one else will.” You only get to bask in local history for a few minutes, but the scene doesn’t stop giving; watching over this power lunch is veteran 3 ft. 9 in. character actor Billy Barty, another name that us old people will immediately recognize. Washington Post columnist Art Buchwald once wrote that before Sans Souci, “there was no power lunch.” While the restaurant is long gone, you can still dine where presidents and power couples ate beef tartare and sole amandine. But today, you’ll have to settle for the Big Mac; it’s a McDonald’s now. The movie is streaming, which may be as close as you can get until social distancing ends. The film is available to stream or rent on Amazon Prime. $3.99. —Pat Padua

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