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Barnes Raising: The Washington Post Magazine checks in with Marc Barnes—-the former owner of Love nightclub, the current owner of the Park at Fourteenth, and D.C.’s once (and future?) king of upscale nightlife aimed at young, hip African Americans. Barnes became known for his parties in rented spaces and later at Republic Gardens in the 1990s, and opened Dream (which later became Love) in 2001. These days, Barnes still owes millions to creditors and the IRS, but he’s hoping to claw back via the Park and a project called Step Forth that will raise money for charities. Pro tip: Just as a Politico reporter must win the morning, a successful promoter must win happy hour. So says Barnes.
Fresh for the Club I Just Took a Half-an-Hour Jog: In addition to DJing and producing tracks and co-owning U Street Music Hall, Jesse Tittsworth is a weight-loss pro. Dude lost 100 pounds in four years, and then he assembled some advice. (Sample tip: “if you go down a size or two, buy tighter fitting jeans.”) On his reliably entertaining blog, he’s posted an update. “Get tattooed!” goes one tip. “As odd as it sounds, doing little things like buying the occasional tank top or tattoo helps with pride in the body you have worked hard toward.” Got it: Tight jeans, tattoos. Weight loss! Also, one pair of Ray-Bans = three waist sizes.
Get Pumped: The Heights Life is excited that discount shoe monstrosity DSW is apparently coming to Columbia Heights. Now the only thing Columbia Heights needs to fully replicate my suburban Maryland childhood is, well, my parents. If that ever happens, I’m going back to Rockville, the sage advice of a famous college-rock anthem be damned.
Radio Daze: I’m pretty sure WaPo told us last year how cool and influential NPR Music is, but in case you forgot, here’s WaPo‘s NPR-Music-is-cool-and-influential update from South by Southwest. The big difference: Countering its stereotype as a home for lily-white singer/songwriters (as well as the fact that indie-rock acts “gobble up most of the site’s bandwidth”), NPR Music is now featuring a wider array of sounds, like R&B, dancehall, and extreme metal. It even had hoped to broadcast a Bun B performance at South by Southwest (it didn’t materialize). But has NPR Music overcome the DORF Matrix? Pro tip: Hardly.
Today on Arts Desk: South by Southwest post-mortem! Maximum India post-mortem!