Good morning! I guess there was an earthquake today!

The Paris Review’s blog runs cultural diaries from the periodical’s staff, as well as from other cultural journos like Richard Brody. Generally, these feature people with a) more free time than me; and b) arguably better taste. Now, I won’t subject you to a full cultural accounting of my week—-bullet points might include the concoction of semisatisfying puns, pirated comic books, and the poker game on my Blackberry. Still, there are a  few things worth noting, here at the end of all things the week.

• Saw One Man Lord of the Rings at Woolly Mammoth last night. Loved, loved, lurved Glen Weldon‘s take on it; mind wandered a few times during the production I saw. Possible explanation: I’ve only read the Silmarillion twice (to Weldon’s thrice ∞), both times during a frequently boring stay in northern France. More likely: The plot was condensed to the point that I lost track of it from time to time, and the show’s writer-performer Charles Ross drove me crazy with his mouth-brass performances of the score. His best weapon? When he jumped off the script but stayed in character, as when his Legolas trumpeted his lustrous hair, or his Gollum the play’s artistic license. Or when his Samwise asked his Frodo, perhaps a tad obviously: “Are we gay?”
• Saw Capital Fringe’s Horrible Child at Studio Theatre, although another Fringe & Purger was there, so I’m off the hook for a full review. In brief: Stylized black-comedic romp operating on exhilarating internal logic that could be a, um, counterfictional Batman Returns, only sans Batman and mostly starring the Penguin’s parents, who instead of jettisoning their deformed offspring from a bridge hire an assassin. I quite liked it. It plays three more times.
• I missed several Fringe shows by a minute or so (the festival has a strict don’t-be-late policy) and ended up drinking in the Fort Fringe bar instead.

Stuff from our writers: Andrew Noz has an awesome rant about a lazy Bun B/DJ Premier collab. At the Pink Line Project, John Anderson interviews Lenny Campello about the latter’s 100 Washington Artists book.

Sockets Records posts an update, noting loose dates for a number of upcoming releases (including from Hume, Laughing Man, and others). Nice interview with Unrest/Teenbeat’s Mark Robinson by Maura Johnston. The Shakespeare Theatre Company is giving Annette Bening a prize.

Remember that “Road Tattoo” show we wrote about? The artist is making one Vermont Ave. NW on July 24 and 25 and needs volunteers.

City Desk has had some incredible reporting on go-go—-and the difficulties of performing it in D.C.—-this week that you really oughta read.

Don’t fall into any chasms or gorges this weekend!