Showing posts with label washington dc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label washington dc. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

D.C. Jingle Ball 2021: Good show even without Doja Cat, AJR


When iHeartRadio announced the music acts for its 2021 Jingle Ball Tour, I was impressed with the lineup of artists. The tour is back this year with in-person shows after canceling its 2020 holiday tour and going virtual because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the 2021 Jingle Ball tour was rocked by high-profile cancellations by artists because of the disease. Coldplay, Lil Nas X, Doja Cat and AJR dropped out of the tour after they or members of their teams caught the coronavirus. Also, Dua Lipa canceled because of laryngitis.
Two of those acts, Doja Cat and AJR, had been scheduled to perform at the D.C. show at Capital One Arena on Dec. 14.
The Jonas Brothers headlined the D.C. tour stop. Other acts included Megan Thee Stallion, Black Eyed Peas, Saweetie, Tate McRae, Monsta X, Bazzi, Dixie D’Amelio and Tai Verdes.
The not-family-friendly show was good despite the absence of the two big artists. I particularly liked Saweetie, Monsta X and Tai Verdes. (See review by the Washington Post.)
Here are some tweets from me and others from the show:

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Saturday, April 17, 2021

Return of live events post Covid crisis still in question


Since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down public gatherings for live events such as concerts and sports in March 2020, the question everyone has been asking is when things will return to normal.
The time frame for the reopening of the economy in the U.S. keeps getting pushed back. It had been expected this summer but now it looks like this fall, given the slow rollout of vaccines.
Looking at concert venues in Northern Virginia and D.C., the earliest live performances are planned for late July and August for now.
The Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Va., canceled its 2020 summer performance season. And this year’s season looks to start in August with concerts by Goo Goo Dolls, Train, John Legend, Pitbull and others. Shows scheduled for this June and July at the venue already have been postponed or canceled.
Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., is hosting NBA basketball and NHL hockey games at limited capacity. The number of fans allowed to attend Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals games has been capped at 10% of capacity, or 2,100 fans per game. (See news release.)
As for concerts, the earliest scheduled performance is Justin Bieber on July 28 and Nickelodeon’s JoJo Siwa on July 31. Capital One Arena has no concerts planned for August. Harry Styles and Celine Dion have separate concerts scheduled for late September at the arena.
The outdoor venue Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, hopes to begin welcoming back music fans in July. It has a host of rescheduled concerts scheduled for that month including the Black Crowes, Megadeth, Backstreet Boys, Matchbox Twenty and the Doobie Brothers.
Elsewhere in the music world, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival were canceled for the second straight year because of Covid. They had been scheduled for this month.
Gatherings related to popular culture genres also have been impacted by the health crisis.
San Diego Comic-Con and Anime Expo both have canceled their in-person conferences for the second straight year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The events had been scheduled for July. (See article by the Verge.)
Meanwhile, VidCon plans to return with an in-person gathering this fall. The annual conference devoted to online video creators is set for Oct. 21-24 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. Organizers canceled last year’s in-person show because of the Covid-19 pandemic. (See article by the Hollywood Reporter.)
All I can say is, good luck.

Related articles:

How the conference industry sees the reopening of the economy post-Covid (Tech-media-tainment; April 14, 2021)

Love Comic-Con or E3? It may take a while for huge crowds to return to conventions (Los Angeles Times; April 8, 2021)

Photo: The Filene Center at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. (Wolf Trap)

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Thursday, May 26, 2016

A Single Flower

Here’s an eerie story.
The memorial mass for my mother-in-law, Moira (Conway) Eisele, was held today in Washington, D.C. It was a lovely service with a well-attended reception.
My wife tells me the Conways passed down some Irish folklore that said when someone died a single flower would bloom in an unusual location to let the survivors know that their loved one was looking out for them from heaven.
Well, today, in our overgrown, forested backyard a single large pink peony bloomed. We have peonies in the front yard, but they came and went three weeks ago.
We have never grown flowers out back. That area only has ground cover plants and weeds. We let it grow wild.
The pink flower stands out dramatically in a landscape of green. There are no other flowers there.
Oh, and one more thing, peonies were Moira’s favorite flower.


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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Washington Nationals batting music

When Major League Baseball players step up to bat, they usually get a signature piece of music to announce them. This entrance music is called walk-up music.
I attended the Washington Nationals home game against the Colorado Rockies today and kept track of Nationals players’ walk-up music using Shazam on my iPhone 4.
Here’s what I recorded for each player:

Roger Bernadina – “Take You Higher” by Goodwill & Hook N Sling
Ian Desmond – “Warriors” by Ky-Mani
Ian Desmond – “One Sixteen” by Trip Lee, featuring KB & Andy Mineo
Steve Lombardozzi – “Cinderella Man” by Eminem
Chris Marrero – “Don’t Stop the Party” by Pitbull, featuring TJR
Anthony Rendon – “Still D.R.E.” by Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre
Craig Stammen – “Pump It Up” by Joe Budden
Kurt Suzuki – “One Drop” by Bob Marley & the Wailers
Kurt Suzuki – “Night Nurse” by Gregory Isaacs
Chad Tracy – “Wagon Wheel” by Darius Rucker
Jayson Werth – “The Walking Dead Theme Song”
Jayson Werth – “Warehouse” by Dave Matthews Band
Ryan Zimmerman – “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons
Ryan Zimmerman – “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)” by Fall Out Boy
Ryan Zimmerman – “Whatever You Like” by T.I.

This lines up pretty well with earlier accounts of Nationals player walk-up music selections. See reports by District Sports Page, Washingtonian and MLBplatemusic.com.

Photo: Washington Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon at bat on June 23, 2013.

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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Rihanna thrills crowd at Washington, D.C., concert

Pop music sensation Rihanna brought her Diamonds World Tour to Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Monday and delivered the goods you’d expect from one of the most prominent music artists of her generation.
Reviewers, including the Washington Post, have noted that Rihanna, 25, can seem aloof or bored in live performances. She looks like she’s just going through the motions during certain dance segments or at times singing only half the lyrics and letting background singers or backing tracks pick up the rest.
I’ve come to accept that as her style. A native of Barbados, she’s got that laid-back, island-time manner. What’s undeniable about Rihanna is her charisma, beauty, sex appeal, fashion sense and vocal chops. She’s got the whole package.
She’s a great performer, even when she’s not trying very hard. That seemed to be the case early in the show Monday night, when she marched through some of her newer, lesser known material. But she cranked up the energy later in her 90-minute performance.
Highlights of the show for me included Rihanna performing “You Da One,” “Man Down,” “All of the Lights,” “We Found Love,” “Stay” and “Diamonds.” (See the set list at Setlist.fm.)
You also can check out photos of the show at Rihanna Daily (see above sample) and Voz de America.
I’m glad I got to see Rihanna at this point in her career, with her extensive catalog of hit songs. She’s definitely in her prime now. (See Wikipedia entry on her Diamonds World Tour, which runs for eight months through mid-November.)
However, I feel sorry for parents who let their teenage daughters go to the show (including President Barack Obama), because they had to sit through opening act ASAP Rocky. The farthest thing from a role model, Rocky rapped about the stereotypical thug life.
“Pussy, money, weed. That’s all a nigga need,” he rapped. Very inspiring.

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