Mythomorphic Play: Everyone’s talking about Red, Arena Stage’s mounting of the John Logan play about Mark Rothko. The theater announced yesterday that the production’s preview shows are sold out, and that its run has been extended to March 11—-all of this before a single performance. Feh! says the Washington Post‘s visual art critic Philip Kennicott, who in a close reading concludes that Red‘s text seriously misunderstands Rothko’s artistic concerns and the generation of artists that followed him.

Line in the Sand: Terroreyes delivers a lengthy interview with the far-flung former members of Q & Not U about the making of No Kill No Beep Beep, the D.C. art-punk group’s fondly remembered Dischord debut. The group discusses writing the album in a pair of basements, the recording sessions with Ian MacKaye, as well as each individual song. At the end of the interview, John Davis casts doubt on the possibility of, say, an expanded reissue of the album. But! “One thing that we may do is to create a digital archive online of all of the various concert footage we have of the band,” Davis says. “There’s some from that era, so that may happen at some point. I know I’d like to see that happen and I would work on it whenever I had a chance.”

A New Hope: The Hope Diamond has been returned to its original Cartier setting. Phew, you guys.

Today on Arts Desk: All yr weekend plans