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Thursday, May 21: Poste’s delightful courtyard garden is now open for the summer, and there’s no better way to enjoy it than during the weekday happy hour. From 4 to 7, you can get $4 wine and select beers as well as $4 truffle fries.
Chef Victor Albisu, chef de cuisine at BLT Steak (who just filmed a how-to grilling video for us), will host a cooking class at Lebanese Taverna as part of its guest-chef series. Albisu will use traditional Lebanese ingredients to create modern dishes, including goat-cheese-stuffed grape leaves with bitter greens and pistachio-honey vinaigrette and zaatar-spiced baby octopus with warm white-bean salad. Light mezze and wine will be served during the class, which goes from 6:45 to 8 and costs $65 per person. For reservations, call 703-841-1562.
Friday, May 22: Tonight at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and continuing every Friday through August is the popular free series Jazz in the Garden. The concerts take place in front of the Pavilion Café, next to the grand fountain and reflecting pool. Tonight, Lady A, a jazz and R&B singer, will perform from 5 to 8.
For a long time, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark was in the background of other bands (Polyphonic Spree, Sufjan Stevens), but now she’s performing solo. Her striking, lush, and cinematic pop will make her a big name soon enough, mark our words. Check her out at the Black Cat tonight so you can say you saw her way back when. 9 PM; $15.
This weekend is your last chance to catch Synetic Theater’s A Swedish Tiger, a hilarious avant-garde play about Swedish culture. Through Sunday; 8 PM. Get tickets ($20) here.
Saturday, May 23: We love Jukebox the Ghost. You love Jukebox the Ghost. And now the rest of the country, after they toured with Ben Folds, is starting to love Jukebox the Ghost. The band brings its infectiously catchy piano pop-rock comes to the Rock and Roll Hotel tonight. 9:30; $14.
Take a trip back in time and, um, walk like an Egyptian by heading to the Bangles’ concert tonight at the State Theatre. Yes, they’re still around. Much like an eternal flame. Sorry, we’ll stop now. 7 PM; $30.
Sunday, May 24: Washington kicks off the summer season with a Memorial Day weekend packed with events. The annual Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally, which raises awareness about veteran benefits and POW issues, brings thousands of motorcyclists to Washington on May 24. The riders depart from the Pentagon at noon and arrive at the Reflecting Pool at 1:30 for a program with guest speakers and live music. That evening at 8, PBS will broadcast its Memorial Day concert from the west lawn of the Capitol. The concert, hosted by actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna, includes appearances by performers including Laurence Fishburne, Denyce Graves, Trace Adkins, and Brian Stokes Mitchell as well as music by the National Symphony Orchestra, military choruses and bands, and more. The parade is the next day, with marching bands, floats, and balloons. It starts at Constitution Avenue and Fifth Street, Northwest, at 2 PM.
The National Gallery of Art screens the Washington premiere of L’aimée in its East Building auditorium at 4:30. Arnaud Desplechin’s 2007 autobiographical film about life in the French/Belgian border town Roubaix centers around his father, who has just sold his family’s home, and the memories sparked by emptying the house.
Didn’t make it out of town this weekend? Don’t be sad—hit up the Staycation Sunday at Maté, a DC bar and lounge. Expects lots of summery cocktails and fun DJs. No cover; 8 PM.
Is it a holiday weekend with Monday off? Then you can count on a dance party at the Black Cat by DJ Dredd. He’ll be playing songs from Prince, Madonna, and Michael Jackson at the mainstage starting at 9 PM and going late into the night. $13.
