Mary Borowiec

Leisure

Keep away from Playing for Keeps: A romcom gone wrong

At first glance, Playing for Keeps seems to have all the substance required of a winning romcom; the story of a hot former soccer star with a Scottish accent (Gerard Butler) who is trying to do right by his son and ex-wife (Jessica Biel), while clichéd, at the very least offers a few hours of mindless entertainment.

By December 6, 2012

Leisure

It’s beginning to look at lot like Xmas

When joking about Christmas in the District, a city ruled by politics, Jay Leno quipped, “The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C.. This wasn’t for any religious reasons; they couldn’t find three wise men and a virgin.”

By November 29, 2012

Leisure

A Blue and Gray X-mas

While Daniel Day Lewis’s eerily precise embodiment of the 16th president in Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated Lincoln will go down as one of the Great Emancipator’s finest portrayals, another layer of Lincoln his yet to be discovered in Georgetown’s A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration.

By November 15, 2012

Leisure

Conference of the Birds soars to great heights at Folger

In the director’s notes for The Conference of the Birds, Aaron Posner describes his latest production at the Folger Elizabethean Theatre and his expectation for audience members: “It is an astonishing work, and, hopefully, unlike anything you have likely ever seen before.”

By October 31, 2012

Leisure

Lichtenstein: A Retrospective redefines pop art at the NGA

In 1964, Life Magazine inquired of pop art icon Roy Lichtenstein, “Is he the worst artist in the U.S.?” While this question might seem both ironic and a moot point in the face of Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, the 15,000-square-foot exhibition now on display at the National Gallery, this query illuminates an important characteristic of Lichtenstein’s work: his uncanny ability to simultaneously “delight and outrage” in his mastery and innovation in the pop art genre.

By October 25, 2012

Leisure

Artists retell history at National Gallery’s Shock of the News

“Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray / South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio.”

By October 11, 2012

Leisure

Growing pains become pleasures in Chobsky’s Perks

The transition from book to the big screen is one widely feared by authors and audiences, as movies almost universally fail to live up to their printed predecessors. Proving the exception to this rule, The Perks of Being a Wallflower shines in the film adaptation of this coming-of-age tale, bringing heart and a star-studded cast together to capture the emotional roller coaster that is growing up.

By September 27, 2012

Leisure

From Billie Holiday to Lady Gaga, Women Rock the NMWA

Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion and Power was born out of an oft-asked question in American cultural history: “Where are the women?” While this query may seem largely irrelevant to a generation that grew up with Madonna and Beyoncé, Women Who Rock, the newest exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, reminds audiences of the long struggle female artists have endured while seeking to break the barriers of the boys’ club that is rock and roll.

By September 13, 2012

Leisure

Del Frisco’s Grille overdoes its NY strips and its service

Adjacent to the Mall, the White House, and Pennsylvania Avenue’s countless white-marble federal edifices, Del Frisco’s Grille is everything you would expect of a corporate-esque steakhouse that lives by the maxim “Meat Up. Drink Up.”

By September 6, 2012

Leisure

Luke’s Lobster claws its way to the top of Potomac St.

In just three years, Luke Holden (MSB ’07) has shaken up the seafood scene in New York and Washington, D.C., bringing a bit of fresh and affordable Maine down the coast with the widely acclaimed Luke’s Lobster.

By August 30, 2012