We're getting ready for our staff holiday party tonight, so GHA and AT are combined into one super post! Have fun, y'all. We certainly will be. >> Two more people, both longtime friends of Harriette Walters, were arrested in connection with the Office of Tax and Revenue scandal today. [WaPo] >> The Rock and Roll Hotel is hosting a Trailer Trash dance night. 8 p.m. to close, free. >> Sadly we weren't able to......

FRIDAY: >> Bay Area songstress Goapele’s (pictured) musical background is almost as diverse as her ethnic background. Born to a South African political exile father and a mother whose parents survived the Holocaust, she studied at the Berklee College of Music and later would form musical partnerships with the likes of hip-hop acts like the Hieroglyphics crew and E-40. However her 2005 release, Change It All, established her as especially talented when it comes to......

Good news in time for Christmas this year; the Warehouse Theater will continue to operate through next summer, according to the institution. The venue is currently hosting Scena Theater's The Maids and will have new shows in February and March. That also means it remains a venue for next year's Fringe Festival. The Warehouse is still looking for a new home. Despite the usual winter doldrums that December brings, there are still a number of......

>> There are so many festivals going on this weekend, we don't feel bad mentioning them a few times to make sure you get your butt off the couch to check out as many of them as you can. We'll have more on always anticipated Crafty Bastards later today, which is Sunday in Adams Morgan. The National Book Festival, where this writer is going to nerd it up, is Saturday on the Mall. Practice your......

FRIDAY: >> Starting tonight, George Mason Stadium plays host to the region's annual D.C . College Cup. The soccer teams of George Washington, American, Howard, and George Mason will square off in two rounds of games. Though the tournament is conspicuously missing national powerhouses UMD and UVA, the event will still showcase some of the best young talent around. GW and AU kick off tonight's slate (5:00 p.m.), with Howard and GMU rounding the night......

FRIDAY: >> Even though Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is an obvious choice for the movie-going crowd this weekend, the Avalon Theatre -- just north of the Potter madness at the Uptown -- is showing Talk to Me, the new biopic on the life of famed Washington, D.C., talk-show host and activist Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr. 5:50 and 8:30 p.m. >> Unbuckled alumni The Vita Ruins celebrate the release of their......

Washington Improv Theater knows that it's intern harvest season. By day, the twenty-somethings flip and flop in business casual around the Hill and by night, drunkenly attempt to figure out the Metro rail system. WIT has been studying the funny critters for their second (and final) installment of an intern-themed improv comedy night called “WIT Hot American Summer.” Ken Hays and Rich Nyman, the stars of the two-man show, aren’t actual interns, but they know......

>> Fort Reno soldiers on tonight, with Mess Up the Mess, Julie Ocean, and the final ever performance from Three Stars alums The Sentiment, who are calling it quits as a group after tonight. 7:15 p.m. >> Debuting tonight is "Bomb Shelter," a weekly stand-up showcase featuring five local improv personalities. Why the militaristic name? Because there is no "bombing" here. The comedians promise to stun weapons of mass hilarity, which means no random drunk......

>> D.C. Improv highlights students who spent a month at the Improv's Comedy School. The evening, lead by MC Matt Kazam, could be a great way to catch one of Washington's rising comics -- 17 trainees will take the stage. [1140 Connecticut Ave. NW, $10, 8:00 p.m.] >> Local techno rockers Trans Am can be counted on to deliver an eclectic mix of music and fans. See the trio, together for over 10 years,......

Kicking off Friday with a one-hundred and seventy-five person audience at George Mason University, the fourth annual DC Improv's Funniest College tourney has officially started. Whatever their US News and World Report rankings, the eight D.C.-area universities participating have the chance to out-smart each other in the subject of Laughter. Spanning over the next eight weeks, the competition allows individual students (grad and undergrad) to perform stand-up against fellow classmates inner-collegiately and against rivaling schools.......

We at DCist definitely think we are. But that’s after we check Thesaurus.com, go through the blogroll twice, and then decide how to make the snarkiest pun. We like the safety of our laptops. And we’re scared of bright lights (they reflect off our geek-chic glasses). Our readers, however, may be more fearless. And they have a chance to prove it. Washington Improv Theatre, the self-proclaimed “nucleus” of the maturing D.C. comedy scene, is hosting......

My mother has her own non-profit "recycling project." It's called the holiday gift closet, filled with girly lotion sets and hand-held electronic poker games, ready to re-gift. It's perfect for those fake friends who are clearly not worth the shopping trip. These are just the kind of age-old holiday traditions that Washington Improv Theater wants to know about for their annual show, Seasonal Disorder. Each December, Washington Improv Theater hosts the yuletide-themed spectacle Seasonal Disorder,......

Georgetown is all about traditions. And with two-hundred and seventeen years under its belt, it makes sense. The Blue and Grey. The Tombs. The lore of the 75 Exorcist stairs. But few Hoyas know about their annual ImprovFest. Hardly any realize that Georgetown has an improv troupe at all, though that's probably because it doesn’t hold many shows per year and the university, also traditionally, ignores the discipline of staged comedy. But the stone-faced International......

After the news of The Great Pumpkin Shortage and the one-month anniversary of Steve Irwin’s passing, you may need an excuse to laugh. We gots one. Washington Improv Theatre has two nights-worth of back-to-back improv comedy at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. Tonight’s 8 p.m. show includes two performances, one by the Daily Grind. Think Office Space on stage. In case you didn’t get enough Janet in HR at work today, Daily Grind will......

FRIDAY: >> Seems like everyone's talking about the new nightlife options on H Street NE these days, thanks almost entirely to local bar Tsar Joe Englert. Englert's latest creation, Showbar Presents the Palace of Wonders (though we hear a lot people refering to it simply as the Freak Show Bar) has been open for a few weeks already to mixed buzz — the decor is cool, the drinks are standard, and the food is......

FRIDAY: >> Here at DCist we like to pimp scrappy locals and industrious indies who are charging hard against the establishment. When it comes to stand-up comedy however, sometimes we have to make an exception. This isn't to say you shouldn't support up-and-coming local comedic talent. You should. But we'd be the first to admit that there's something particularly distasteful about amateur stand-up done badly -- when a comic punts on stage, you just have......

FRIDAY: Canadian supergroup Stars wowed Death Cab for Cutie fans when they opened their show last year at 9:30 Club, and now they return as headliners to set the Black Cat stage on fire. Of course, this concert has been sold out for ages, and the desperation for tickets on Craigslist is palpable. We'll see you fellow lucky bastards in what will no doubt be a breathtakingly long will-call line. For the rest of you,......

If you’ve ever spent a Saturday evening home alone watching a “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” marathon on ABC’s Family Channel (not..that...this DCist...has), you probably know that when it comes to improv theatre, it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen. Actors never know what kind of suggestions they’ll get from the audience, and how well their team will respond under pressure. This can make for exciting, if uneven, entertainment, and Washington Improv Theater......

FRIDAY: >> Get your read on at the DC Library Public Book Sale Friday & Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. You have a choice of paying $3 or less on Friday and getting access to the best selection, or $2 or less on Saturday for the leftovers. DCist has to work on Fridays, so we're planning on showing up at 10 a.m. on the dot Saturday......

Sexual intrigue, Hellen Keller and urine; that's what area theaters have to offer us during the slow month of August, the dead time between the close of the '04/'05 season and the beginning of the new one. In all seriousness, August still has plenty of offerings for D.C. theatergoers, as a bunch of well-received shows take final bows and a few exciting new productions make their debuts. People can't stop tinkering with Les Liasons......

FRIDAY: >> Capital Jazz Fest 2005 goes throughout the weekend at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The line up includes George Benson, Joe Sample, Chaka Khan (at right) Lalah Hathaway and more. Ticket information can be found here. >> The Capital Pride Festival, which runs through June 12, focuses on the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities in D.C. The festival includes panels, film screenings, and a street parade. >> Washington Improv Theater presents its Neutrino Video......

FRIDAY: >> The Depeche Mode Dance Party promises a wonderful new wave time at the Black Cat. 9:30 p.m., $7. >> St. Petersburg’s renowned Kirov Ballet presents the fairy-tale ballet "Cinderella" at the Kennedy Center Opera House. 7:30 p.m., $47-112. SATURDAY: >> Local favorites Juniper Lane, one of our music picks for January, make a return to the stage at Iota in Arlington. Lead singer Vivion Smith's voice is powerfully captivating, and they've been......

The folks at Gothamist recently dropped us a line urging us to check out New York comedian Todd Barry who will be performing at the D.C. Improv tomorrow through Sunday. To get to know Mr. Barry a bit better, check out his Gothamist interview, where you can read about an experience he had with a psycho cabbie and how he once saw Monica Lewinsky in Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Barry is a veteran of Comedy......

>> Flip Orley, self-proclaimed world's funniest comic hypnotist, brings his show to DC Improv tonight. He'll be here through Nov. 14. 8:30 p.m. >> The Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam makes a stop at the Lincoln Theater. Nine poets, melding hip hop and the spoken word, read from their works. 8 p.m., $36. >> Take your inner child out for a movie: The Polar Express, starring a vaguely creepy animated version of Tom Hanks, opens......

Punk rockers the Dresden Dolls hit the Black Cat. Count Zero opens. 8:30 p.m. $10. "Grace," a dark comedy from "Six Feet Under" writer Craig Wright, is now being performed by the Wooly Mammoth theater company at the Warehouse Theater on Seventh Street NW. 8 p.m. $24-32. Nick Swardson of "Reno 911" is at the DC Improv. 8:30 p.m. $15. The International Washington Horse Show has galloped into town. (Ha ha. Look at us. We......