Morgan Hungerford
Web sites: pandahead.blogspot.com; pandaheadmag.com
Lives: Adams Morgan
Likes: Dolly Parton, The Hills, the American flag (worn without irony)
Dislikes: Bronchitis, Gossip Girl, sunglasses worn indoors
1) “Contemporary Japanese Fashion: The Mary Baskett Collection” at the National Textile Museum, Oct. 17 to April 11. Hungerford appreciates a variety of fashion aesthetics: “Trampy 70s Teenage Hitchhiker,” and “the opulent woodsman,” to name a couple. So, she would likely get a kick out of these avant-garde fashions, which can be described only as Punky-80s-Village-Kids-Meet-Origami-Loving-Space-Seamstresses.
2) The Coathangers at the Black Cat, Sept. 28. Hungerford is a big fan/supporter of indie music venues such as Rock & Roll Hotel, Comet Ping Pong, and, of course, the Black Cat—concerts show up in her blog posts almost as frequently as fashion. She will likely enjoy the Coathangers show, as the members of this Atlanta group are adorably fly and take their name from an essential, if underappreciated, fashion essential. It could only be more perfect if they were called the Clotheshangers.
3) Bruce Springsteen, Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center, Dec. 6. Yes, this is an extremely hard ticket to score, but Hungerford is deserving. She has tirelessly worked to change D.C.’s reputation as New York for ugly people, so she should have an opportunity to see if the Washington establishment has gotten the message. Also, she’s a Boss fan. The blogger has written that her mom loves Bruce and, because of that, “the copies of backstreets, stone pony tees, and ticket stubs that filled our basement…worked their way into my subconscious.” Hungerford also digs the “early-era springsteen aesthetic,” which she describes as “anti-ralph lauren Americana,” and she should have a chance to view it up close.
4) D.C. Big Flea at Dulles Expo Center, Sept. 19 to 20. Hungerford is a big thrifter—her favorite thrift store is the Salvation Army on Little River Turnpike in Alexandria. But what if she’s tired of paying reasonable prices for vintage gear? This massive flea event will satisfy that urge, and it’s close to many postironic delights: Hooters, Red Robin, the Udvar-Hazy Center.
5) H Street Festival, Sept. 19. Earlier this year, Hungerford mourned the loss of Beauty Island, the fabulous Columbia Heights emporium where she once scored cheap hosiery, strawberry ChapStick, and gold-plated doorknocker earrings with 100% bitch scrolling across the center. Well, for one day only, she can get her ’80s Salt-N-Pepa-inspired jewelry fix, thanks to the event’s many, many vendors. Hungerford can also catch Laughing Man, a band oft-mentioned on her blog.
—Sarah Godfrey
Tim
Web site: the42bus.blogspot.com
Lives: Mount Pleasant
Likes: The Circulator, free stuff, Pan-Asian cuisine
Dislikes: Cars, bus bunching, bikini bars
1) Roofwalkers with Suzanne Frischkorn and Neil Smith at the Writer’s Center, Sept. 18. The StoryStereo concert series—which pairs local musicians and writers for a collaborative concert—should prove to be blogger catnip. The event boasts literature, music, and literature being read over music—kind of like a Belle and Sebastian song in 3D. Also, it’s free. And if there’s anything 42Bus likes, it’s a gratis arts event. Spacey indie-rock band the Roofwalkers will open the series alongside writers Suzanne Frischkorn and Neil Smith.
2) “House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage” at the National Building Museum, Oct. 17 to July 11. 42Bus already spends an inordinate amount of time blogging about vehicles in motion, so it’s a decent bet that he’ll appreciate some vehicles at rest. This upcoming exhibition aims to salvage the lousy public image of the parking garage by providing pictures of well-designed garages that “[a]dd a creative tapestry to our streetscapes.” If nothing else, it will be easy fodder for Tim’s “Reasons to Be Car Free in DC” feature.
3) An Albatross at the Black Cat, Oct. 27. Given that 42Bus shops at Smash and lamented the demise of underground concert venue Warehouse Next Door, it’s reasonable to assume that, at one point or another, he loved hardcore. So seeing An Albatross—who have been pushing screamo boundaries for nearly a decade now—will be a welcome flashback to the good old days of Marshall stacks and sweat that smells like onions.
4) D.C. Record Show at Comet Ping Pong, Oct. 4. This year’s D.C. Record Show is a triple header of sorts for 42Bus. There will be pizza, beer, and music—all in the same place. He can nosh a slice of the Margherita pizza, sip on a Hefeweizen, and dig through the vendors’ boxes in search of copies of old hardcore records, like Shelter’s Perfection of Desire. Better put that drink down first, though—Ray Cappo would probably not approve.
5) Skulduggery & Skin Show at Palace of Wonders, Nov. 7. When Splash, a bar featuring bikini-clad waitresses, attempted to open in Adams Morgan, 42Bus took umbrage. He’s right: There are classier ways to watch scantily clad females. Burlesque, for instance! Perhaps he’ll be more moved by the Skulduggery & Skin Show. If anything, it’s a tad more modest than Camelot, Archibald’s, or any of the other strip clubs more convenient to the 42 bus line’s route.
—Aaron Leitko
Matthew Yglesias
Web site: yglesias.thinkprogress.org
Lives: Shaw
Likes: Basketball, the Pixies, the finer points of the United States–Japan dynamic
Dislikes: Cars blocking bike lines, vegan banh mi, ESPN Zone
1) A Streetcar Named Desire at the Kennedy Center, Oct. 29 to Nov. 21. Yglesias’ dad wrote the screenplay for Les Misérables, so this show may touch him the way games of catch and campfire stories do others. This epic Australian import stars Cate Blanchett and is directed by Liv Ullmann. And it’s about the economic struggles of working people, a frequent concern of Yglesias’ blog.
2) David Bazan at the Black Cat, Oct. 16. People Who Look Like Bears Alert! David Bazan is a portly man with a beard. So’s Matthew Yglesias! David Bazan agonizes over relationships between man and God, between parent and child. Matthew Yglesias agonizes over relationships between Max Baucus and Senate Republicans, between the health-care systems of Switzerland and Massachusetts. This is practically the same shit!
3) George Scialabba at Busboys & Poets 5th & K, Oct. 14. Yglesias has taken issue with Scialabba before, famously writing that “‘Informed, discriminating political argument’ is never going to be popular ‘across large swaths of the electorate’ because most people simply don’t care very much about politics.” Watch the fur fly as Scialabba defends his new book, What Are Intellectuals Good For?
4) “The Darker Side of Light: The Art of Privacy, 1850–1900” at the National Gallery of Art, Oct. 1 to Jan. 18. The exhibit, which examines impressionist-era art that “encouraged the expression of darker thoughts and moody reflections,” sounds perfect for a blogger, especially one who is paid for his moody reflections on analytic philosophy, differential compensation in schools, and “the relative inefficacy of speechmaking.”
5) whisper & SHOUT at Goethe-Institut, Nov. 2. “I don’t see why we can’t become more like some European countries in some respects,” Yglesias wrote last June. So he’d be sure to enjoy a look at the last days of one of the continent’s weirdest epochs. This documentary chronicles the pre-fall music scene in the DDR and should be a great fit for the indie-rock-loving Yglesias, who really needs to start championing a different band than LoveLikeFire.
—Andrew Beaujon