This weekend is jam-packed with eclectic artsy extravaganzas. The best part is that they are all free! If you were ever going to ask someone out on a date, this is the weekend to do it. Let's have all of those welcome week hook-ups amount to something more. Here are three dates under $35. This weekend is just that fantastic.
"Arts on Foot" is a showcase of D.C.'s finest artists and performers, including wine tasting and food sampling. The art market features ceramics, jewelry, paintings, photographs, sculptures and much more, all from local D.C. artists.
After browsing the wonderful wearable art table, head over to the performance stage and check out one of the many ongoing routines at F and Sixth streets. Some of these include Metro Youth Tap Ensemble, Dhoonya Dance Bollywood/Indian and CityDance Ensemble.
The festival will be in D.C.'s Penn Quarter. The most convenient spot to enter this fest is to take Metrorail to the Gallery Place-Chinatown station. It will take place on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
After having a lovely stroll through a variety of art, I highly recommend eating dinner at one of my favorite D.C. restaurants. Zaytinya, a wonderfully chic modern Greek restaurant, is the spot to spend your $35. You'll be sorry if you don't try it!
I recommend getting these delectable items off of the menu: two glasses of lemonatha ($2.50 each), the classic hummus spread ($6.50), a spinach and feta cheese dish, called spanokopita, ($7.50), a red wine braised rabbit stifado ($8.50), and patates tiganites ($5.50). The best part about Zaytinya is that you share all of the food, making it the perfect setting for a date! This meal is a total of $33.
Another option for Saturday is an open house arts festival at the Kennedy Center. The evening lineup at the Kennedy Center will be extraordinarily fun and groovy. At 6 p.m., Step Afrika! will perform in the concert hall. The group is the first professional company which performs solely stepping, according to the group's Web site. They will definitely make you want to get up and dance, which is perfect because after Step Afrika! you can bust out your own moves to the beats of DJ Rahsaan.
Luckily, if you need to pick up some new steps, hip-hop dance lessons with goLo LLC are happening right after DJ Rahsaan, between 8:30 and 9 p.m. From 7 to 11 p.m. you can just hang out at the South Plaza at the Kennedy Center, because it's going to be a total dance party all night. Then, after you've found your inner hip-hop groove, boogie down at the Go-Go dance party with Chuck Brown from 9 to 11 p.m. I'm telling you, the Kennedy Center definitely knows how to party!
Now let's say you really don't want the night to end because your date is going so well. I'd suggest a more cozy setting. What is better than the movies?
The D.C. Shorts Film Festival runs from today to Sept. 18. Saturday night at midnight, one of the showcases is playing at Landmark Theatres' E Street Cinema. Not only do you get to see these fabulous shorts, but a question and answer session is noted on the schedule as well.
Showcase Four has 11 different shorts. It seems as if there is an underlying theme of lust and love that runs throughout seven of these 11 shorts. What a perfect mood-setter! Honestly, this could be a fabulous late night date in itself. If you do that, I suggest going to Cosi for s'mores and then over to E Street for the flicks. Check out these films in more detail at dcshorts.com, and find out more about the festival in this issue.
I hope that you seize this opportunity to expand your cultural horizons, explore D.C. and ask out that girl or guy you've had your eye on! Keep splurging your sex problems to Mia.Libido@gmail.com, or drop them in the box outside of Mary Graydon Center 252.
