There will come a time when the life of Patron Saint Sarah Palin will be turned into a full length feature film that everyone will have to see. And before this happens, we can expect someone will produce artsy films about Our First Black President, how the Teabaggers killed the motorized scooter, et cetera and so forth. But films like these — films that make their audiences angry enough to write op-eds and donate to their favorite think-tank — can only really be enjoyed under certain conditions. With baklava and martinis, of course!
Strangely, D.C. is not currently overrun with independent, artsy movie theaters that screen “Fahrenheit 9/11” on loop. Why? We do not know. But the city now has West End Cinema, a small, independent movie theater that features independent (duh), foreign, documentary and classic films that you can watch while eating baklava or pita and hummus and drinking a martini or glass of red wine. They do sell candy, but that’s probably some nice act of bipartisanship, because if you don’t like to eat Greek pastry while watching a documentary film about gerrymandering, we’re surprised they’ll even consider letting you in the theater in the first place.
Even though Washington is full of educated, literate, political-minded people, independent theaters haven’t survived in D.C. Will this theater be any different? Well, if you judge your independent theater house by its ratio of films about Israel and Palestine to films by Woody Allen, West End Cinema should very well survive. FOR NOW.
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A pita and a martini? Unless they are bar-b-quing a goat in lobby, I'm not going. I expect a bit more from my entertainment. We intelligent, artsy, political people need hot flesh to munch while being exposed to gerrymandering,
First Jewish delis, now independent theaters; it seems Washington has been missing a lot of institutions that I had thought every major American city had, at least on the East Coast.
Off topic but:
Does anyone want to join me in setting up a relief fund for the passengers of the Carnival Splendor, who just docked in San Diego after days spent in what can only be described as "deplorable conditions"? These people were forced to subsist on mayonnaise sandwiches, cold showers, spam (no jokes, please) and booze without ice for at least the last three months. The telethon begins on HBO tonight with Bono, George Clooney, Sheryl Crowe
I donate all the baklava in the world – I hate that stuff. But I do like Spam.
There's no Sonic drive-in.
Where do you go to get tater-tot filled burritos?
Baltimore or Vagina.
I don't Sonic actually exists; I'm often seeing their ads on some basic cable stations, and yet have never seen one in real life. White Castle also.
Sonic is some good shit, my friend. None of it is HEALTHY or NUTRITIOUS, but it's pretty damn tasty. There is one in Jacksonville, NC if you happen to pass through that area…
I live in a Dallas suburb of about 35K and we have SEVEN Sonic drive-in's – I shit you not!
You know, we saw Sonic ads for a good two or three years, and there were none in our area whatsoever. Then, BAM, two of them pop up (right near my house, no less), and the openings were heralded as some sort of Messianic blessing.
In other words, the "bombard people with ads for something they don't have, and then suddenly bring it to them" marketing scheme is BRILLIANT.
That happened around my part with Krispy Kreme. Then they all closed down after about two years; somehow opening a dozen or more of the same stores in one area in a short period was not a good sales strategy.
Though there seems to be a giant In-N-Out up on Capitol Hill.
dc needs a place where you can drink and watch kung fu triple features instead of midnight screenings of babies.
Way to get with the times D.C. I have been drinkin' in the theater for years!
How about a theater that uses Lazy Boys for seating and has several beer taps within reach with some choice brews like Two Hearted Ale, Oberon and Delirium Tremens? They should play movies like Eraser Head, Brazil, A Clockwork Orange, Dr Strangelove, Mothra vs. Godzilla
and some old politically incorrect Bugs Bunny cartoons in between.
About freaking time DC has one of these theaters. When I first moved here, back in the heyday of the Clinton administration, there were a handful of them. Yes, you may have had to make sure you got to the show early enough that you could avoid sitting behind a pillar (because all well-designed movie theaters have pillars running down the middle), but still, they showed some interesting movies. Then, under the Bush administration, they all dried up (not sure that there is a relation, but hey, I'll blame this on him too). Now, we have an independent theater AND martinis – yes we can indeed!
AFI Silver in Silver Spring says, "What!?"
I go to movies as an excuse to eat junk food. Bad movie and good food is not a bad combo.
Bad movie and bad food? In 6 months this place will be a Starbucks.
Shoot, this ain't nothin! Back in the day, you could go to the Circle Theater a couple of blocks from the White House and watch Potemkin and smoke Gauloises and eat damn near anything you wanted — which, during screenings of Mondo Kane, could include your date. Especially if you were sitting behind a pillar.
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