Eric Althoff

CONCERT REVIEW: Aretha Franklin still has the voice, but forgets some lyrics in concert

Aretha Franklin performed for a rapturous audience at the Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia, Saturday, where the 75-year-old R&B legend ran through her greatest hits, some gospel tunes from her formative years and even an Adele cover. Backed by a fabulous 21-piece orchestra and chorus, Miss Franklin hasn't lost the edge in her vocals, even if, perhaps, the energy of her 90-minute show at times flagged.

July 30, 2017

Craft spirits to enjoy in the summer include watermelon vodka, Baltimore gin, Irish craft whiskey

It's been a helluva hot summer, and you need to make sure to stay hydrated. But in addition to life-giving water, here are some life-enriching craft spirits to keep an eye -- and a glass -- out for as you hit the firewater shops.

July 27, 2017

Museum of the American Revolution offers balanced look at both sides of conflict

The new Museum of the America Revolution in Philadelphia has done a beyond-admirable job of explicating how not just decades but in fact centuries of events were as crucial -- if not more so -- to America's fiery birth as the "Shot Heard Round the World" at the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts April 19, 1775, marking the "official" outbreak of armed hostilities between the Colonists and King George III's forces.

July 26, 2017

Bacon Brothers to play three nights at Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia

Michael and Kevin Bacon, plus their backup musicians, are rolling into The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, for a three-night stand, beginning Friday. The brothers will play both originals -- including their latest, "Broken Glass" -- as well as cover tunes during their weekend in Northern Virginia.

July 25, 2017

Watergate Hotel to host 50th anniversary celebration, dinner honoring Jean-Louis Palladin

The District's iconic Watergate Hotel will host an all-star chef dinner Tuesday to honor French culinary expert Jean-Louis Palladin, whose restaurant has been a staple of the hotel since 1979. Palladin ran the restaurant until his death in 2001 from lung cancer.

July 20, 2017

Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan discusses new album ‘Defying Gravity’ and ‘Sex and the City’ character

The band Mr. Big was at one time so popular that they managed to knock both Michael Jackson and Prince out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart thanks to power ballad "To Be With You." The song "1992" and 10 others comprise the tracks on Mr. Big's new album, "Defying Gravity," which will bow on Friday. It's the band's first disc since "Stories We Could Tell" from 2014 and their third since reforming in 2009 after a seven-year hiatus.

July 20, 2017

Walker & Royce, New York music writers, DJs, release single ‘Take Me to Your Leader’

Walker & Royce, the New York DJ duo, has unveiled the first single from their upcoming release, called "Take Me to Your Leader."

July 18, 2017

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Lady Macbeth’ shows a moral vacuum amid 19th century decorum

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the new film "Lady Macbeth" is that it leaves the audience almost entirely unsure of whom to root for. If this sounds like a complaint, it is anything but, as William Oldroyd's film, based on a Russian play "Lady Macbeth of Mtsenskof" by Nikolai Leskov, translates the bloodletting of "the Scottish play" into an anti-tragedy of utter moral vacancy.

July 18, 2017

Dry Creek Valley wines of Sonoma County offer complex tastes for various meals

California's Sonoma County certainly doesn't lack for wineries, and oenophiles are finding even more to love in the microclimate of Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley, where vintners are producing more and more complex vinos to add to the delicacy that is the Golden State's grape-based golden harvest. There are as many wines in Dry Creek Valley as there are ways to enjoy them, but here are a few to keep an eye out for.

July 17, 2017

Idina Menzel tour stops at Baltimore’s Modell Performing Arts Center

Idina Menzel will be coming to the Modell Performing Arts Center in Baltimore Tuesday evening, where the Tony-winning star of "Rent," "If/Then" and "Wicked" will perform tunes from her Broadway career, covers of other artists' songs as well as her megahit "Let It Go" from the Disney film "Frozen."

July 17, 2017

George Romero, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ director, dies at 77

George Romero, the filmmaker who made a cottage industry out of zombie films -- and all but defined the genre from its inception -- has died at his home, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was 77.

July 16, 2017

Corner Bakery Cafe Fresh Flavors summer menu entails farmers market ingredients

With the summer produce season in full swing, Corner Bakery Cafe is heading to the farmers market to spruce up its menu for the warm months. And for a limited time, customers can experience the new offerings conjured by the business' food design program.

July 14, 2017

Ryan Phillippe discusses how new film ‘Wish Upon’ can be enjoyed by teens and adults

Time was when Ryan Phillippe played a teenager being stalked by a masked killer in the likes of 1997's "I Know What You Did Last Summer." But the actor, now 42 years old and with teenage children of his own, is at a point in life when he needed to "grow up" a bit in order to come back to the horror genre. "I think that's just the natural progression of things," Mr. Phillippe told The Washington Times of playing the father in the new horror romp "Wish Upon," opening Friday.

July 13, 2017

Drambuie cocktails can bring out flavor of Scottish liqueur

I freely admit, I didn't know much about Drambuie, so when I was entreated to test out some cocktails by D.C. brand ambassador Vance Henderson, I was intrigued to learn, well, anything about this beverage, whose name I only knew once via a "Simpsons" reference.

July 12, 2017

TRAVEL: Congress Hall in Cape May, New Jersey, has hosted five presidents

She has hosted five presidents, all of whom came to Cape May, New Jersey, to escape the internecine screaming of Washington -- and all in the days before Twitter or even television could intrude upon a politician's seaside respite. Now celebrating its bicentennial, Congress Hall, on the absolute southernmost part of the Garden State, allows guests to "vacation like a president" in the year of the 45th chief executive's inauguration.

July 11, 2017

Iggy Pop final record, tour seen in documentary ‘American Valhalla’

Iggy Pop has declared he is done recording and touring, content to enjoy his golden years as punk's elder -- and somehow still-living -- elder statesman. The story of the recording of "Post Pop Depression," Mr. Pop's alleged swan song, is the subject of the new doc "American Valhalla," directed by Andreas Neumann and Queens of the Stone Age frontman Joshua Homme, who co-produced the album.

July 10, 2017

Islamic State’s terror tactics in Syria exposed in documentary ‘City of Ghosts’

"I can't deal with anything without smoking cigarettes. First thing I need to do before an interview, I need to smoke a cigarette to be able to focus." Given the dangerous, courageous life he has led, it is not surprising to hear such words from Abdul-Aziz al-Hamza -- known as "Aziz" -- one of the subjects of Matthew Heineman's shocking, bracing new documentary "City of Ghosts."

July 10, 2017

John Henson, ‘Talk Soup’ host, discusses new gameshow ‘iWitness’

John Henson is happy to take a trip down memory lane to discuss "Talk Soup," "Wipeout," his stand-up comedy career and various other hosting gigs from across the decades. In fact, memory and observation are the most important skills that contestants on his new gameshow, "iWitness" will be called upon to display when the show's test run on Fox commences Monday.

July 9, 2017

Glendalough Wild Botanical Gin comes from Ireland’s first craft distiller

Its name means "valley of two lakes" in Gaelic, and its label depicts St. Kevin, the sixth century monk who founded a monastery in the nearby glacial depression amid the Wicklow Mountains located south of Dublin. Glendalough is busy pouring its Wild Botanical Gin, a small-batch liquid that offers a truly botanical nose and a full taste that can be enjoyed neat, over rocks or even in a cocktail, as D.C. brand ambassador Brendan Crowley explained over drinks at Logan Tavern in Northwest.

July 5, 2017

‘The Journey’ film shows events leading up to Good Friday Agreement, end of IRA hostilities

A fictionalized account of the Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) chief Ian Paisley's history-making travels is the basis for the new film "The Journey," opening Friday in the District. Timothy Spall ("Harry Potter," "Denial") portrays U.K. loyalist Paisley to Colm Meaney's ("Star Trek: The Next Generation") take on Sinn Fein leader McGuinness, who, in real life, had also been in the IRA.

July 4, 2017