One can hardly visit the East Building of the National Gallery of Art without noticing the large mobile by Alexander Calder soaring over the atrium. The mobile, Untitled, was designed specifically for this space, and Calder utilized new materials and methods to make the piece, which is visually both powerful and delicate. In the early 1970s, the Board of Trustees at the National Gallery commissioned the East Building, which would be dedicated to modern art.......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Major Release: There Will Be Blood We should have held our tongues on our top 10 for the year until the actual end of the year. Paul Thomas Anderson's new film slipped in just under the 2007 wire in limited release last week, and the director channels John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, and his own wild-eyed imagination......

FRIDAY: >> The 18th Street Lounge's regular Wednesday night reggae stars SEE-I are at the Rock and Roll Hotel to celebrate the holidays with some friends who are sure to get you dancing too -- DJ Mat the Alien and remix artists Fort Knox Five. Tickets for the Happy FKX-XMas are $10. >> Rufus Wainwright begins a two-night stint at the 9:30 Club tonight with his sister, Lucy Wainwright Roche. Tickets are still available for......

As you might imagine, there's not a whole lot going on in the art world this week, and unlike the last holiday, even the Smithsonians close on Christmas Day. Nevertheless, we found a few exhibits for you to poke around this weekend. And if you're one of those last minute gift buyers and can't bear to wage war at the mall, don't forget our guide to art museum memberships for something a little more unique......

Over at Modern Art Notes, blogger Tyler Green has the (hilariously named) MANscoop that the National Gallery of Art is in negotiations to expand across the street from its current location on Constitution Avenue into the Federal Trade Commission building. The deal isn't sealed yet, but Green's sources sound pretty confident that the museum will be moving over to the space in time for a 2012 opening. MAN has a decent history of the two......

FRIDAY: >> Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are at the 9:30 Club with Kristeen Young and Partyline, $15, 9 p.m. Also Saturday with Kristeen Young and Ris Paul Ric. >> DC9's Liberation Dance Party hosts Brooklyn's Jaguar Club. $6, 9 p.m. SATURDAY: >> The Historic Sixth and I Synagogue hosts The Eight, D.C.'s part of a "worldwide Hannukah party" featuring the LeeVees, DeLeon and D.C.'s own Black and White JohnsonsJacksons. $12/$18, all ages, 9 p.m.......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Repertory: The 400 Blows Expect to see plenty of French New Wave retrospectives over the next year or so, as 2008 represents the movement's 50th anniversary. If Claude Chabrol's 1958 Le Beau Serge lit the fuse, François Truffaut's 400 Blows was the first in a subsequent series of cinematic explosions that announced France's new generation of......

FRIDAY: >>Great quadruple bill comes to the Rock and Roll Hotel: Three Stars alums Jukebox the Ghost (pictured right) and tour diarists These United States join DCist fave Ra Ra Riot and Sam Champion. All that for the low, low price of $10 before, $12 at the door. Show 9 p.m. >> The Black Cat once again hosts Cryfest, everyone's favorite dance party that pits The Smiths vs. The Cure, brought to you by DJs......

Most of this week looks sleepy as far as classical music goes. However, by the end of the week, there will be three events, all of which are high on our December list and all happening simultaneously. How to choose? SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY: >> Wagnerian tenor Ben Heppner is scheduled to give a recital on Sunday afternoon (December 2, 5:30 p.m.) at Baltimore's Shriver Hall. It will be Heppner's first appearance in Baltimore and his......

The world premiere of Sanctuary, a new work for amplified, computer-modified percussion ensemble by Roger Reynolds (b. 1934), took place at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday evening. It was an event, the sort of concert that gets noticed by Alex Ross: alas, the element that would have sealed its place in history, an angry riot by perturbed listeners, did not happen. The mistake that caused the failure to obtain a true succès de......

My mother and I used to think we were so clever sneaking out of the house after the post-pumpkin pie haze to spend our tryptophan relaxing time at the movie theater, while our extended family lay sprawled on the couches in front of the boob tube ... until a few years later when the entire world caught on and every theater had lines around the block on Turkey Day. Lucky for you, we're in Washington,......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Romance & Cigarettes John Turturro's third film as a director is the sort that seems tailor made to become a cult classic. Not nearly polished or glamorous enough to be the sort of Broadway to big screen musical hit that Chicago or Hairspray was, it was too oddball to fit into the heads of most......

After a weekend full of concerts, there is not much to mention this week, for obvious, turkey-related reasons. Still, if you find yourself in town this week, there will be a few things to hear, although tickets may be hard to find. >> On Monday (November 19, 7:30 p.m.), French violinist Nicolas Dautricourt will be hosted by his country's embassy, La Maison Française. The attractive, all-modern program is bookended by the Poulenc and Debussy violin......

FRIDAY: >> Local comic book store Fantom Comics is celebrating the grand opening of their new Union Station store tonight with a party from 6 to 10:30 p.m. They'll be serving up free pizza on the early side and the comedy stylings of the Geek Comedy Tour during the second half of the night. There will also be a trivia contest with $500 gift certificates up for grabs. The party is inside the Union......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: War/Dance Sometimes you need an antidote before the poison even arrives. Next week Hollywood releases yet another of those diabetic-shock-inducing films about musically gifted youngsters and how they can be an inspiration to us all, designed to make soccer moms everywhere weep into their hankies. One week prior to that, though, comes a documentary from......

If you are looking for a musical way to celebrate Veterans Day, the Washington Chorus will perform its annual Tribute and Reflection concert this afternoon (November 11, 3 p.m.), in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall (tickets: $15 to $55). Their program includes Joseph Haydn's martial Mass in Time of War. Although there are not that many classical music concerts in the early part of the week, the schedule for next weekend is about as full......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Control Live fast, die young. The two most important rules to follow for rock 'n' roll immortality. We suppose having great music probably helps, too. Ian Curtis followed those rules, and enjoys a massive cult following nearly three decades after his death. Maybe "enjoys" is the wrong word. As the years have passed and Joy......

It is always good to know how your concert schedule is going to play out, and this week things could not be any clearer (and none of these events has sold out). Here is your list of what's good, what's free, and even some of what's both. THE BIG GUNS: >> A couple years ago, soprano Anne Schwanewilms was in the news because she replaced Deborah Voigt, when the latter could not fit into a......

Last week a little dose of relief came to the city's art lovers and critics, as the National Gallery of Art announced they've filled the position to head up their department of modern art, vacant for around six months now. Harry Cooper comes to the NGA from the Harvard University Art Museums, and Washington City Paper's Jeffry Cudlin does a good job putting it in perspective. In other museum news, camera-in-cell-phone technology is officially history.......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Repertory: Halloween Screams at the AFI Perhaps my favorite part of this time of year is the fact that on any given night, you can turn on the television, and somewhere on the dial you can find a movie about things that go bump in the night, creatures from the depths of Hell, or your garden......

This is going to be an excellent week for serious listeners of classical music, with several major events headlining the agenda and some other good concerts on the sidelines. In the spotlight are a piano recital, a visiting orchestra, Russian music, and possibly the greatest opera ever composed. HEADLINES: >> Pianist Murray Perahia had to cancel his 2006 recital for Washington Performing Arts Society, because of renewed pain from a finger injury in the 1990s......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Lake of Fire Michael Moore may have grabbed all the press where high profile documentaries are concerned, but it's Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire that is being quietly talked about as the most powerful documentary of the year. Which is remarkable considering its subject is one of the most talked about and analyzed issues on......

Last week's battle of the orchestras may be eclipsed by this week's. Besides the local symphonic ensembles, there are some visitors in the ring, too. The common theme is the piano concerti of Johannes Brahms, both of them disarmingly beautiful pieces, and here is how we call it. THE ORCHESTRAS >> The week starts strong with the Cleveland Orchestra on Monday (October 15, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Washington Performing Arts Society......

Last week, the National Gallery of Art opened a career retrospective of British landscape artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) -- the largest ever assembled in the United States. The curators of the show have assembled a collection that demonstrates Turner's development as an artist, as well as his commitment to raising the status of landscape art in a time when the classical themes pervaded Europe's artistic community. A must see for anyone with even......

The high point of this week in classical music is surely the Lieder recital by the superlative German baritone Christian Gerhaher and his regular pianist collaborator, Gerold Huber, sponsored by the Vocal Arts Society at the Embassy of Austria (October 11, 7:30 p.m.). Gerhaher's most recent Lieder recording is a knockout, and his program for Thursday night is devoted entirely to songs by Robert Schumann. THE SYMPHONY: >> Riccardo Chailly brings his La Scala Philharmonic......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: The Darjeeling Limited By now, five features into his career, it's likely you already have a strong opinion on Wes Anderson. Despite his tendency to borrow liberally from his own film and literary heroes, from Kubrick to Fitzgerald to the entire French New Wave, a Wes Anderson film feels like a Wes Anderson film from......

Written by DCist Contributor Kate Mereand The scenes are always striking: women at night, mostly alone, and then buildings, mostly in daylight. Such is Edward Hopper’s art, finding voyeuristic fancy in two main types of subjects: ladies and places. The similarities he finds between the two are centered on the clear, stark contrast he favors in his style when painting most anything. You’ll recognize his work from the iconic painting, Nighthawks (pictured above-right). While that......

While no major event on the schedule this week trumps all others, there are several concerts that will merit your attention. Three of them are scheduled for Thursday night. If contemporary music was the headliner last week, this week it is early music. >> Opera Lafayette's bread and butter is in presenting obscure Baroque operas, usually French, sung by exceptional voices and with the help of their fine instrumental ensemble. The group opens its season......

Written by DCist Contributor Amy Cavenaugh Baltimore-bred artist Morris Louis, who lived in Washington in the 1950s, is the subject of a 28-work retrospective on display at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden through January 6. Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited, curated by Jeffrey Grove of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, is the first such consideration of Louis’ work in two decades — the previous retrospective was also at the Hirshhorn,......

Without a doubt, the most important event in classical music this week is the opening of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's season. It will be the occasion of the official installation of Marin Alsop as the group's music director, the first woman to hold that position with a major American symphony orchestra. A celebrated champion of contemporary music, particularly by American composers, Maestra Alsop has come into her new job with a full head of steam,......