Weekend Picks (From Emails)

The owners, Meaka and Phil, of Jam Down restaurant on Georgia Avenue asked me to share with you and your readers information about an event they will be hosting this Saturday, November 21 from 9pm until the last jerk chicken is eaten and the last reggae jam is danced!

As you know, Jam Down restaurant has been open now for a few months. Word is spreading in the neighborhood about their authentically delicious Jamaican food and their friendly service. They are having this event on Saturday to raise funds for their private liquor license so they may be able to establish a social club that will offer extra perks to customers who chose to be members. The social club will offer privileges including delicious libations, no cover charge for special music events, and credit points for food purchases. In this way, Jam Down will be able to create a comfortable ambiance for all who want to enjoy good food and good drinks. During the event, customers will be invited to sign up for the social club.

Details about the event:

What: Jam Down “Irie Jambo” Fundraiser/Membership Drive
Music by DJ Soul Doctor
When: Saturday, November 21, 9:00pm until ??
Where: Jam Down Jamaican restaurant
3303 Georgia Ave., NW (at Lamont St., NW), Washington, DC 20010
202-450-2408
Who: All are welcome!!

Continues after the jump.

From an email:

Mt P. Farmers’ Market: Nov 21 – Last Day of 2009 Market

“What a great season! Seven months of fresh food, friendly farmers, music, free bike clinic, face painting, gorillas, and beautiful weather. This Saturday will be our last day: pick up your turkey, get veggies for the Big Dinner, stock up on meat and vegetables that will freeze well, snag some end-of-season bargains, give well wishes to your favorite vendors, enjoy some FREE hot cider and hot chocolate (bring your own mug or thermos!), get some last minute advice on winterizing your bike, and take a hard look around so you can submit comments and suggestions for an even better market in 2010.

We’ve got some sales this weekend!

* Painted Hand Farm is slashing the price on goat and veal bones to $2/lb. Make your own stock! It’s stupid easy and it makes all your winter soups richer and warmer and healthier. The goat bones are extra meaty and the veal stock makes a lighter, silkier broth than regular old big beef bones. Sandy Miller will be on hand to answer all your questions about stocking up on meat and making stock.
* Panorama is bringing $2/lb bags of toasted bread cubes for stuffing.
* Panorama Bakery is selling sliced deli loaves 3 for $15 – put them in the freezer!
* Discounted cases of that warm weather sparkle locked inside Quaker Valley Orchard’s tomato sauce and strawberry jam.

Noteworthy Event:
What do you think of a Columbia Heights Farmers’ Market over at that fancy new fountain plaza thing? Not to replace MtPFM, of course, different day. Join the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace Committee on Saturday from 10-12 (I know, right during market) at 3233 14th St NW for a Planning Workshop to give your input! Get more information from [email protected].”

Please join Transformer (1404 P Street NW) this Saturday, November 21 as we proudly present our 7th Annual DC Artist Solo Exhibition

Geoffrey Aldridge: Hole in the Wall

November 21 – December 26, 2009

ARTIST TALK: Saturday, November 21, 2009; 4pm

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, November 21, 2009; 5 – 8pm

Referencing cultural history and the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Geoffrey Aldridge: Hole in the Wall at Transformer will feature a series of art interventions within our 14th Street, NW project space. DC-based artist Geoffrey Aldridge utilizes video, sculpture, and spatial interventions to create metaphorical moments of reflection that position relationships between identity construction and gay rights activism. Associating memory, perception, and identity, this installation of works at Transformer creates moments of reflection on the continuing struggle of the gay community for recognition and acceptance.

Transformer began working with Geoffrey Aldridge in spring 2009, presenting his brick project as part of Transformer’s participation in NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival Of Independents (June 24-28, 2009), hosted by X-initiative at the former Dia Center for the Arts in Chelsea, New York, NY. The brick project was an interactive work that explored the creative and intellectual process of planning, fabricating, and executing an artistic concept from beginning to an unknown outcome.

Timed to take place during Pride Weekend and in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Geoffrey transformed the Transformer space at X-initiative into a working studio, encouraging the public to engage with his process. Using video, drawing, and sculpture, Geoffrey detailed the process of fabricating yellow brick strap-on shoes, and a plan to place them in the public realm. He then placed the shoes throughout the Greenwich Village neighborhood where the Stonewall Inn is located. Much like the unpredictability of social, cultural and legal processes that gay men and women encounter daily, the brick project raised questions about futility and efficacy.

With Hole in the Wall at Transformer, Geoffrey treats the gallery space like a piece of drawing paper where he plots, positions, designs, and articulates the work to create a relationship between the objects and the space in which they occupy. Considering these spaces as ‘site-aware’, he is constantly assessing the architectural features as dismissive or affirming. Geoffrey states: “I don’t rely on the architecture to provide resolutions, per se; my interest rests in the ability to create concomitant moments between the objects.”

Investigating identity construction within his work, Geoffrey’s artistic interventions speak to the institutional defining of “identity art” throughout the late ’80’s and early ’90’s. Often promoting a stereotypical expectation about artists and their work, Geoffrey positions his work as a continuation of “identity art,” yet specifically from the perspective of a “queer artist,” (a term placed onto him) as conceptually larger than himself. Geoffrey states: “We all possess gender and sexuality. My interest is within the paradoxical moments between the objects and the viewer-it’s implicative-disrupting, or complicating the space. I want these interactions to work with an in-between-ness sensibility, like a pendulum swinging with two absolutions at either end. I position myself in the center of the swing, a place where I can question.”

Using accessible materials that can be found in any hardware, craft supply, or fabric store, Geoffrey’s intention is to provide the viewer a familiarity or a formal way to access the work. Pendulum, a sculpture consisting of yellow glittered faux bricks, encapsulates Geoffrey’s questioning of ideas on identity in a way that allows the viewer to connect with familiar visual references: “I wanted to formally create an implied swoop or curve. The contrast between a pendulum swinging and the yellow brick road, with parallel implications as a journey or timekeeper, made sense specifically to gay rights activism, past, present, and future. I wasn’t born when Stonewall happened, but I am aware of its importance and my relationship with current gay right activism only because of the pre-existing histories that I believe we have to understand in order to keep building. I don’t want to be redundant.”

Originally from the Midwest, Geoffrey Aldridge received an MFA from American University in 2008. He has been included in national exhibitions such as New American Talent, curated by Nato Thompson, Pulse Miami, and Pulse New York. He is represented by *gogo art projects, Conner Contemporary, in Washington DC where he also lives and works.