Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday
Monday, June 11: Crystal City turns into the wild West with a weekly screening of Clint Eastwood films. Tonight you get Hang ’Em High at 8 pm. The films are screened at the park at 18th and South Bell streets, near the Crystal City stop on the Yellow or Blue Lines. Free.
It’s only June, but I feel like I can say this definitively: The Eames Era have put out my favorite album of the summer. Heroes and Sheroes is a light, playful, and incredibly catchy piece of work that you’ll be bopping along all summer long. The Louisiana-based group brings its pure pop to Iota in Arlington (2832 Wilson Boulevard) at 8:30 pm. It’s opening for local doom-popsters Exit Clov. $10.
Tuesday, June 12: Shakespeare’s Hamlet gets a decidedly modern spin in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of one of the Bard’s most famous plays. Italian-cut suits, swanky living room sets, and more are part of this fresh interpretation of a classic. Shakespeare Theatre, 7:30 pm. Tickets available here.
If you’re in the mood for some Shakespeare but are looking for something slightly more offbeat, try the hilarious Tiny Ninja Theater’s productions of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. The cast is populated with… inch-high plastic ninjas and dime-store toys. No, seriously. But give it a chance; in addition to being the funniest production of a tragedy that you’ll ever see, it’s skillful and often poignant. 6 pm at Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Free.
Wednesday, June 13: Austin-based indie rockers Voxtrot are rocking some of the catchiest pop music out there; and to boot, they put on a high-energy and refreshingly fun live performance. They’re at the Black Cat (1811 14th Street, NW) with Au Revoir Simone, which mixes breathy vocals and ethereal melodies. 8 pm; $12.
It’s a bit pricey, but the Corcoran’s organized bus tour of architecturally important homes in the area is a revealing and educational (plus fun!) event. The tour, guided by Isabelle Gournay, an architecture professor at the University of Maryland, takes you through homes designed by architects Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, and Charles Moore. With a lunch stop and an evening reception at modern furniture store Design Within Reach in Bethesda, you’ll be well-versed in modern architecture by the end of the day. $175; $155 for Corcoran members. Details can be found here. Though I haven't been lucky enough to go on a bus tour of the museum's, their events are always informational and well put together.
Thursday, June 14: Bring a sandwich or assemble a picnic to nibble on by the Hirshhorn’s Plaza Fountain before catching the first in a series of films exploring sci-fi femme fatales in the Hirshhorn’s Summer Camp Film Series. Tonight film scholar David Wilt chats about the phenomenon and screens 1958, starring Zsa Zsa Gabor as a Venus “space babe” who encounters an Earth astronaut when his spaceship crashes on to the planet. 8 pm. Free.
