Bats are back. The whole family can enjoy learning about the winged mammals at the Arlington Bat Festival this Saturday (August 16).
From 6:00-9:00 p.m., attendees can take part in bat-centric habitat walks, games and crafts at Gulf Branch Nature Center (3608 Military Road). There also will be three live bat shows. The show schedule and which age group each is aimed at can be found online.
There is an $8 fee to attend the event and online registration is recommended to guarantee a spot.
Arlington’s Got Talent, the annual talent show hosted by Leadership Arlington, is now accepting applications to perform.
Applicants need to “like” the event’s Facebook page, fill out an online application and submit a video link along with it. Competitors have to be at least 13 years old, audition videos must be no more than three minutes long — performances during the competition can be up to five minutes — and be free of “nudity or obscene language/gestures.” The deadline for applying is Sept. 11.
The competition itself will be on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at Clarendon Ballroom (3185 Wilson Blvd), with a social starting at 6:30 p.m. before the show begins at 7:30 p.m. Last year’s show had more than 200 people in attendance, Leadership Arlington said in a press release. Tickets for the show are $30 online and $40 at the door. Hors d’oeuvres will be served and there will be a cash bar.
This is the third annual Arlington’s Got Talent, and competitors across the D.C. area are allowed to participate. The first ever winner, Margot McDonald, toured Europe and played at Artisphere and the Lubber Run Amphiteatre this summer.
Arlington Agenda is a listing of interesting events for the week ahead in Arlington County.
If you’d like to see your event featured, fill out the event submission form. Also, be sure to check out our event calendar.
Roundtable with John Vihstadt
Hard Times Cafe (3028 Wilson Blvd)
Time: 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s junior members group, the Jaycees, host their monthly forum with Arlington’s newest County Board member, John Vihstadt.
Job Fair for Veterans
Sheraton Pentagon City (900 S. Orme Street)
Time: 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Job listings website CivilianJobs.com is hosting a job fair for veterans looking for work outside the military. More than 40 companies will be attending. Registration is available online.
Brewery Exhibit Opening
Arlington Historical Museum at the Hume School (1805 S. Arlington Ridge Road)
Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Arlington Historical Society presents a new exhibit, “Arlington’s Brewery and Cherry Smash,” detailing the history of Arlington Brewery, which became a soda factory in Rosslyn in the early 20th century.
Live Comedy: Jon Lovitz
Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse (2903 Columbia Pike)
Time: 7:30 and 10:00 p.m.
SNL alumnus and ubiquitous comedy legend Jon Lovitz takes the stage for four shows this weekend at the Drafthouse. Shows at 7:30 and 10:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets are $30.
Maserati Ride & Drive Event
Maserati of Arlington (2710 S. Glebe Road)
Time: 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Commemorating its new showroom, Maserati of Arlington is hosting a test-drive event, in which those 25 years and older can come in and test drive one of three Maserati models. Walk-ins accepted.
AGLA Summer Cookout
Virginia Highlands Park (1600 S. Hayes Street)
Time: 1:00-5:00 p.m.
The Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance hosts its annual summer cookout, open to members and nonmembers alike. Nonmembers are encouraged to donate, and everyone can bring whatever they want to grill.
The Arlington County Fair is going on now and continues through this weekend, giving residents plenty of chances to ride ponies, catch some racing piglets and check out hundreds of locally produced goods.
Friday afternoon, thousands of people piled into the fairgrounds next to the Thomas Jefferson Community Center (125 S. Old Glebe Road), taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Arlington’s annual reminder that the county wasn’t always an urban center.
The fairgrounds are covered in rides, arcade games and food vendors, with demonstrations happening all day and all night for the rest of the weekend. Activities include tomorrow’s 5k, performances by the Harlem Wizards and “Cows-N-Corn milking demos.”
The fair runs through Sunday at 10:00 p.m.
Tomorrow (August 9) marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s resignation from office in light of the Watergate scandal, and Central Library is marking the historic anniversary with a display of memorabilia and an author visit.
The library has a temporary display of Nixon-related items that visitors can check out through the end of the month. A private, local collector allowed the library to borrow the pieces of memorabilia covering the decades from Nixon’s 1950s vice-presidential campaign through his death in 1994. The display includes a couple dozen items including newspapers, masks and even a section of carpet from the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate — the target of the 1972 break-in that sparked a larger investigation.
The collector is particularly proud of a t-shirt from the late 1970s prompting readers to “Don’t Buy Books By Crooks.” It was part of a national campaign, started in Arlington, to encourage people not to buy Nixon’s memoirs. The headquarters for that campaign was located close to where the Ballston Metro station currently exists.
“We live in this incredibly fascinating capital area, and our national history often is also our local Arlington history in a lot of ways,” said library spokesman Peter Golkin.
On Tuesday (August 12), author Elizabeth Drew will visit the library to talk about covering the events surrounding the Watergate scandal, and about the reissue of her book “Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s Downfall.” She will reflect on Nixon’s ability to make a comeback and discuss what the scandal means in the 21st century. Copies of Drew’s book will be available for sale and signing during the event, which runs from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
“It’s a rare opportunity to hear one of the major journalists to cover Watergate speak,” said Golkin. He notes that although many Americans were focused on newspaper coverage of the scandal, Drew’s reporting was a major contribution because “her coverage in The New Yorker gave it a context you can only get from that kind of long-form journalism.”
Artists with disabilities have their own show at the Gallery Underground in Crystal City.
The show is called “Making Their Mark: Art Brut,” and highlights pieces from artists with disabilities from ServiceSource day centers, a non-profit disability resource organization. It is put on in partnership with Purple Art, an art therapy program that works with individuals with disabilities and with military members and their families.
“Sometimes, I feel like Van Gogh,” artist Andrew Ross told ARLnow.com. “Music and art go together with me. I enjoy making both of them, they are big part of me”.
“Art Brut” translates to “raw art” and describes works created without classical art training. It’s an opportunity for the artists to overcome challenges and to express themselves in different ways. Some of the artists created pieces with little or no assistance for the first time.
“It’s good, I did a lot of work on the art,” artist Robert “Bobby” Hoffer told ARLnow.com
Volunteers donated many of the framing materials for the exhibition, in addition to volunteering to frame, mount and curate the show pieces.
“Making Their Mark: Art Brut” runs through August 23. More information can be found on the Gallery Underground website.
Tonight, the residents of the Hall’s Hill neighborhood will hold a “peace walk” in memory of two residents who were killed two years ago in a double homicide.
From 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., starting at 1945 N. Dinwiddie Street, members of the community will gather to remember Carl Moten and Keefe Spriggs, who were found murdered in an apartment on the 1900 block of N. Culpeper Street on Aug. 7, 2012. The crime is still unsolved, but according to Arlington County Police Department spokesman Dustin Sternbeck, it’s still an active investigation.
Moten, known as “Pooh Bear,” and Spriggs, known as “Kee Kee” to friends and family, were born and raised in Hall’s Hill. Moten worked as a cook in Falls Church and was 31 years old at the time of the incident. Spriggs, 59 when he was killed, worked at a body shop. This is the second annual walk to raise awareness of the crimes.
ACPD will have a presence during the walk, Sternbeck said, and continues to encourage anyone who has information about the crime to come forward.
“It’s important to get this back out there and visible to the public because the smallest piece of new information given to the detectives could be the big break in the case,” Sternbeck said. He added the department “has been working with both families throughout this whole thing in an attempt to find the killer.”
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Outdoor movies in Crystal City in 2015 will be shaken, not stirred.
Crystal Screen, the Crystal City Business Improvement District’s annual outdoor movie festival, will be showing 14 James Bond movies under the theme Bond is Back. One movie will run every Monday next summer from June through August.
“Crystal City broke the outdoor movie festival mold by launching the very first Bond-themed series back in 2008 and we are excited for the triumphant return of everyone’s favorite super-spy,” Crystal City BID President and CEO Angela Fox said in a press release. “There are so many great Bond films that we wanted to give the fans a chance to see their favorite ones all summer.”
Anyone can vote online for their favorite Bond flicks to be shown, from the catalog of 23. They range from “Dr. No” in 1962 to “Skyfall” in 2012 — yes, even the two Timothy Dalton films. The 14 films that win the online vote will be announced on August 25 at the final movie of this summer’s “In Flight” program, “Snakes on Plane.”
File photo. Disclosure: Crystal City BID is an ARLnow.com advertiser
Arlington residents will join others across the country on Tuesday night (August 5) in coming together to take a stand against crime in their communities.
Residents and business owners are encouraged to spend the evening getting out of the house and meeting their neighbors for National Night Out. Police officers and community leaders also will make the rounds to chat with residents.
The nationwide event happens the first Tuesday of every August and is sponsored by the non-profit organization National Association of Town Watch. It raises safety awareness and gives residents the opportunity to get better acquainted with the officers who patrol their neighborhoods.
Everyone is welcome to attend the family friendly events at the following locations:
Arlington Agenda is a listing of interesting events for the week ahead in Arlington County.
If you’d like to see your event featured, fill out the event submission form. Also, be sure to check out our event calendar.
Outdoor Movie: Red Tails
1851 S. Bell Street
Time: Sundown
Crystal City hosts another in its summer movie lineup. This Monday night, for fee admission, visitors can picnic and watch the Spike Lee World War II movie, “Red Tails.”
LGBT and Straight Friends Social
IOTA Club & Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd)
Time: 7:00 p.m.
The first in a weekly special night designed to promote community among LGBT individuals and their straight associates. No cover charge and “Mikey’s ‘Bar A’ Video Wall” will be the entertainment.
Mosaic-making Class
Barstons Child’s Play Stores (4510 Lee Highway)
Time: 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Parents can pay $5 to let their children “peel and stick plastic squares to create a no-mess, fantastic, hang-it-in-your-window mosaic.” Walk-ins and registration accepted.
Public Art Unveiling
Welburn Square (901 N. Taylor Street)
Time: 6:00 p.m.
The Ballston BID will unveil two public art installations — one displaying Craigslist missed connections and one on rising sea levels — during its farmers market Thursday evening.
Live Comedy: Moshe Kasher
Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse (2903 Columbia Pike)
Time: 10:00 p.m.
Moshe Kasher, a comic who has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as has a special on Netflix, performs at the Drafthouse. Tickets are $20.
Summer Safari
Potomac Overlook Regional Park (2845 N. Marcey Road)
Time: 1:00-2:00 p.m.
This free program allows participants to go on a mini safari of the “vernal pools and frog pond” in Potomac Overlook park. Call 703-528-5406 to reserve a spot.
IOTA Club & Cafe, a music venue and restaurant at 2832 Wilson Blvd in Clarendon, will begin hosting “LGBT and Straight Friends Social Night” every Tuesday.
Starting next week on Aug. 5, patrons 21 and over, gay or straight, are encouraged to come to the cafe for a night of unity. There’s no cover charge — IOTA frequently requires tickets purchased at the door for its Tuesday night shows — and IOTA says it will stay open until 1:00 a.m. or later.
“We’re making a commitment to the LGBT community by making our Tuesdays a weekly social for LGBTs and their straight friends at IOTA,” co-owner Stephen Negrey said in a press release. “Why not? This will be great fun and maybe even productive.”
Negrey and his sister Jane Negrey Inge have co-owned IOTA since they opened it in 1994 as a music venue. Since then, they’ve expanded to serve coffee and espresso during the day and “smasher” sandwiches. The club also announced there would be “Mikey’s ‘Bar A’ Video Wall” to entertain guests during the socials.
“In planning this new weekly event at IOTA,” Inge said, “I’m trying to lighten up and not imagine arty or intellectual rumination, cultural connection and the like.”
Inge said in the announcement that she hopes local LGBT advocacy groups will partner with them in the future.
“It seems the LGBT community and their straight friends might benefit from a reliable place and a routine time to cross-pollinate,” Inge said. “We hope people will come IOTA on Tuesdays to party and meet people working on LGBT events.”
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