Docs In Progress Documentary Appreciation Salon

Tuesday, Feb. 23rd

7:30pm

This free salon series brings together documentary film aficionados to discuss and debate issues, elements and genres of documentary cinema. This month's topic will focus on personal documentaries. First-person films have become more and more common in the past 30 years. We will look at several different approaches to personal films and discuss what they say about the filmmaker, his or her world, the larger society, and the voyeuristic role of the audience.

The Documentary Appreciation Salon is organized by the non-profit arts organization Docs In Progress and takes place in odd months at their headquarters in downtown Silver Spring and in even months at the Modern Times Coffeehouse at Politics and Prose. RSVP through the Docs In Progress website (www.docsinprogress.org) is highly recommended.

For more information, email Kramer.Lance [at] gmail.com

Friday: back to normal

Normal hours on Friday!

Here's a few photos from wind gust Wednesday:

Thursday hours UPDATED

Snowpocalypse 2010 update:

Coffeehouse hours
10a - 6p

Bookstore hours
12p - 6p

Until the bookstore opens its front doors, please use the parking lot entrance to the coffeehouse. Be careful out there.

Let's all think warm thoughts and look forward to a return to regular schedule and functioning.

Feb 21: Reception with featured artist Halcy Bohen

Despite the chill outside, the walls of the coffeehouse will rollick with warmth and action through February and March as they are filled with Halcy Bohen's paintings and drawings of dancers, musicians, chefs, and food.

The show, called Eat, Play, Dance! displays Bohen's range of styles and media, including oil, ink, watercolor, and acrylics. Describing her work as "filled with lightness and movement, fluid lines and color," critics praise her use of "the slightest line and action to capture the subject, revealing the essence of the being itself."

Halcy's work has been juried into shows at the Smithsonian, the Yellow Barn Gallery and the Caladan Gallery. She has also exhibited locally at the American Painting Gallery, the Watergate Gallery, the Bethesda Library and the Starfish Cafe.

Her affinity for art is allied to her career as a psychologist, each role requiring both close observation and a creative response from her.

A reception with the artist will take place on Sunday, Feb 21st from 6-8 pm in the coffeehouse. Please note that there will be no wi-fi available and the furniture will be rearranged to accommodate the event.

She can be contacted at 202-364-0962 or at halcybohen@aol.com.

coffee snow cream cones?

Found, in a Mennonite cookbook from 1976:

Snow Ice Cream

2 1/2 quarts of clean snow

1/2 c. milk or cream

1 t. vanilla

1 c. sugar

new tea choice

In addition to our jasmine and gunpowder teas we have a new organic green tea named Yun Wu Cha. Loosely translated by our resident Chinese-speaking barista Kurt, that means "Cloud Fog Tea", as it's grown in the mountains of Jiangxi Province. It is lightly colored and delicately flavored, so you'll want to avoid over-steeping-- no more than 3 minutes.

Photography Exhibit CLOSING

The current exhibit featuring photographs of architecture and landscapes from around the world by Larry Ponsford will close at the end of January. Several have sold, but many are still available for very reasonable prices. Can you guess which structure this is?

Doc screening + POTUS speech in the coffeehouse!

Join us in the coffeehouse for a screening and discussion of the environmental documentary Hope in a Changing Climate (see more info below); immediately followed by President Obama's State of the Union address. Please note there will be no wi-fi access after 7pm and seating will be re-arranged to accommodate viewers.

Local filmmaker series in the Coffeehouse begins Jan. 27

On Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 8 pm, we will screen the new environmental documentary “Hope in a Changing Climate,” as the first film in our new local filmmakers’ series. Produced by the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP) in Friendship Heights, the documentary was just aired on BBC World, shown in Copenhagen during the COP15 Summit and was the subject of a recent op-ed in The New York Times.

“Hope in a Changing Climate” tells the story of how large-scale ecosystem restoration projects in China, Ethiopia and Rwanda have rehabilitated damaged ecosystems, lifted local people out of endemic poverty and simultaneously sequestered carbon naturally. Following the film, join EEMP executive director Jonathan J. Halperin and the Politics & Prose Climate Action Project for a discussion on ecosystem restoration and the outcome of December’s COP15 summit.

This event is free and open to the public. Please note there will be no wireless internet available in the coffeehouse during the event.

The new Modern Times Coffeehouse Screening & Discussion series will offer an opportunity for local filmmakers young and old, professional and amateur, to show and share their work in a creative, supportive and engaging atmosphere. Click here for more information on the series or for information on how to submit, please contact Lance Kramer at Kramer.Lance [at] gmail.com.

New DC "Bag Tax"

In an effort to curb plastic bag use and subsequent disposal entering into the Anacostia, DC's "Skip the bag, Save the river" policy goes into effect this month. Certain food establishments and retail businesses that sell food items are now required to charge the customer 5 cents for each plastic or paper bag that is used to carry out multiple items from that store. There are tons of exemptions and you can read about them here. Long story short, MTC is exempt because we only give out paper bags for carry-out items AND have seating.

We've recently made some changes to help reduce the trash being generated from our store, including getting rid of disposable wooden coffee stirrers and offering reusable water cups. You can help us further by doing the following:

• We recycle: newspapers, cardboard, glass, aluminum, plastic bottles, and plastic cold drink to-go cups. Just place them in or near the bus bin on the bar.
• Use a "real" cup if you are staying inside the coffeehouse. If you are taking it to go, bring your own mug or use a MTC coffeemug (currently out of stock).