A Little Laughter Makes Everything Better: The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

When I decided to attend American University for college over six years ago, one of the first things my dad said to me was, "You'll get to see a Presidential Inauguration! How cool!"

As an individual who has never been too into politics and sees our democracy more as something that tears people apart than brings them together, the whole "seeing a Presidential Inauguration" didn't seem too cool at the time. The history nerd dwelling deep inside my cerebral cortex, however, was running rampant with eager excitement.

"A chance to see living history," my inner-self proclaimed, "sign me up!"

Unfortunately, my father passed away days before President Obama's inauguration during my senior year of college and his funeral was on Inauguration Day. I never saw the inauguration live like my dad said I would. Instead, I spent that special day in Chicago with the man who told me how cool my first presidential inauguration in DC was going to be -- while at his funeral.

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was my first foray into attending a major event on the National Mall. For several of my friends, this was far more fun than the historic inauguration due to miserably frigid winter temperatures during Obama's speech. For me, it was the perfect introduction to how many people in this country actually know how to chill out and have a good time.

And to think I almost didn't go because I was tired. That seems so silly in retrospect:

It took nearly an hour and a half to commute from Tenleytown in NW DC to reach the site of the rally. After three packed-to-capacity rail cars passed the hundreds of people impatiently waiting to step foot onto a train, my friends and I hopped on a train headed toward Maryland, got off four stops later, and then waited about another 20 minutes for a train back into the city. Along the way, we made a few “friends” from out of town. One even over heard me asking my friends for a piece of gum and a complete stranger asked me if I would like a piece. Everyone was in such high spirits. I think Jon Stewart’s goal of getting America to chill out a little was the tone set for all in attendance. I’ve never seen more people in one place in my entire life. The National Mall was a sea of people that felt like a never-ending mosh pit. There was an overall jolly atmosphere surrounding Washington. Everyone, as far as I could tell, was having fun. I think that’s the most important thing to take away from the rally itself — that we really can all get along sometimes if we just take a minute to chill out and have a good laugh.

-- Excerpt from "We Love Rallies: We Love DC Reactions to the Rally To Restore Sanity" on We Love DC.

After trying to push our way through the crowd for over an hour, my friends and I fled the mall and walked through the streets of Washington with wonder while people-watching for the rest of the day.

Thanks Comedy Central for entertaining District residents and the country this weekend, it was a nice reminder to relax and enjoy the fact that we can even host such rallies. The fact that our country and government allows for such a farce of a rally to even occur is living proof that we're pretty awesome here in America.

On Idina Menzel...

I had the privaledge of attending Tony award winner Idina Menzel's opening show of a three-day set worth of Pops performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall Thursday night.

For both Menzel and myself, it was our second time ever setting foot in the Kennedy Center ... well my second time as a patron and Menzel's second time as a performer. Her first time was to pay homage to her idol Barbra Stresisand when she was honored for her for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. My first time was for an opera during college as part of my music minor.

I've taken the liberty of reveiwing the evening on We Love DC and my full column can be found there, however, I wanted to take a moment to mention Ms. Menzel's greatest attribute -- her gratitude.

Her voice and stage presence speak for themselves. She is a musical force to be reckoned with and is one talented fire-cracker of a woman. She's funny. She seems slightly scattered brained but in a good way. And even with all of her professional success and good family life, she still manages to not only stay grounded but express her gratitude with sheer sincerity.

Musical performance aside, one memory I will always associate with the evening is her extending her deepest gratitude for showing up and supporting a girl whose life long dream was to sing.

She thanked her mom for playing babysitter for her while on this trip to D.C. Menzel and husband Taye Diggs have a 13-month-old son named Walker who accompanied mommy and grandma to the District this week. She even dedicated her encore performance of "Tomorrow" from Annie to dear old mom. If that's not saying "Thanks" then I don't know what else could.

She sang some of the songs written with Diggs while taking care of the baby as an "I love you" to Walker.

She credited her successful career to the late Jonathan Larson who wrote Rent (which was Menzel's professional debut on Broadway).

She spoke more than highly of her husband. It sounds like those two have something really special and she knows how lucky she is to have him in her life.

And she sang a rendition of "For Good" (from Wicked) that brought tears to my eyes:

The evening’s finest moment wasn’t an expected show-ending rendition of Wicked’s “Defying Gravity” or an encore performance of Annie’s “Tomorrow.” Both were fantastic routines with a genuine voice backing up the song’s sentiments, but Menzel took it upon herself to garnish the night with a spine-tingling surprise gift for her audience.

Before the orchestra started “Defying Gravity,” Menzel removed her in-ear monitors. “I think I can do this without these in,” she mumbled. Then she put her microphone down.

No one knew what she was trying to do. Conductor Marvin Hamlisch looked confused. Menzel appeared to be nervous. It looked like she was ready to exit the stage. Then, she opened her mouth and started singing.

“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason,” she began. Those are the opening lines to a song from Wicked titled “For Good.” It is a heart-wrenching song describing the relationship between the witches of Oz.

Never in my life have I heard such an organic performance from a singer of her caliber. Menzel, in that moment, was mesmerizing. Her voice filled the room without any assistance from a microphone. She’s that powerful of a musical force.

Some people say “Thank You” by filling out generic cards they bought at a CVS Pharmacy. Idina Menzel says “Thank You” by singing a song that means the world to her a Capaella at the Kennedy Center.

For that, Ms. Menzel, this singer/writer would like to say just one word: thanks.

-- Excerpt from "We Love Music: A Date with Idina Menzel & The NSO Pops" seen on We Love DC.

Idina Menzel strikes me as the kind of person I have always striven to be. Grateful, happy, stressed by work but all the better for it because hard work is always worth it, in love with what I do for a living, singing, surrounded by music, and always working on making myself a better person.

Based on her presence at the Kennedy Center Thursday I feel confident in saying Idina Menzel is a treasure in the musical community because she means every word she sings and is a model human being. I'm sure she's flawed, as are we all, but there's really just something special about Idina Menzel.

Now THAT'S Funny: How I'd Like To Commemorate My Summer As A Cub Reporter Following The Nats

As you might have noticed, I'm in my rookie season as a cub reporter on the Nats beat for We Love DC. It's pretty much the baseball equivalent of being the kid in Almost Famous, at least in my eyes. So I thought I'd have a little fun.

No -- I'm not actually going to BUY the jersey or t-shirt, but I did find it quite ironic that my attempt to commemorate my season as a cub reporter with the Nationals could make for quite a funny screen shot:






In either case, this Cubs fan turned MLB beat writer for the Nats has certainly enjoyed the humor produced from the pictures above.

Life Lessons From Matt Capps

[Portions of this post were mentioned in "Matt Capps: An All-Around All-Star" for We Love DC.]

Photo by Cheryl Nichols/Nationals News Network

It's easy to forget that professional athletes are regular people in disguise. In some ways, they get to have all the fun all for signing a contract stating: "You are now the best of the best in a particular crop of others who we've deemed worthy. For this we will provide you with a hefty salary. In return, all we ask is that you accept the fact that you are now, and forever, a public figure no matter if that is what you want or not."

Until this week, Lebron James was among the crop of individuals American's have deemed worthy of calling "the best" and worth spotlighting via every news outlet imaginable. Others before him include Michael Jordan, Ernie Banks, Nolan Ryan, Michael Phelps, Reggie Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Brett Favre, Walter Peyton, and many more.

There are lessons to be learned from the laundry list of professional athletes who make more money than most of us will ever accumulate in our lifetime all for being really really good at a sport that for the majority of American's remains something we did with our time after school as a kid. Extra curricular activities aside, the men (and women for that matter) who put themselves out there into the public sphere for the love of the game are still just as human as any one of us.

Matt Capps is a man we could all learn a lesson from.

And to think, just one year ago Capps was regarded by his team at the time as being on the outs of his favorite game to play.

Adam Kilgore's article in the Washington Post regarding Capps and his father.

There was a revealing piece, compliments of Nationals beat writer Adam Kilgore, in Sunday's Washington Post shedding light on the importance of Capps making his first All-Star Game appearance of his career this Tuesday.

Before this piece, it was a known fact that Capps lost his father whom he was very close with last October. To gloss over this part of Capps' life when thinking about the context in which it lies would be a mistake.

Capps continues to post stellar numbers as the Washington Nationals' closer, but it's the rough outings in which the game's outcome doesn't go his way where fans could easily get upset and begin raining on his parade.

A professional athlete's career depends on performance, but what happens when occurrences in one's personal life begin to take a slight toll on a players performance level.

For Matt Capps this is not the case. His personal life is at the core of his personal motivation no matter the outcome of the game on a daily basis.

This is why there are lessons to be learned from Capps.

So what's the lesson? As someone who lost their father a year and a half ago I can attest to the fact that all you want to do is break down. Your life feels stunted. To continue living your life without your go-to person available on the other end of a phone call leaves a hole in your heart. But no matter how big that hole is, you don't let it defeat you. In essence, you have to do that person's work for them now that they're no longer with you.

My father and myself, June 2005 at RFK Staidum for my first Nationals game.

I still hear my father's voice in my head on the daily even though we haven't had an actual conversation since about January 15, 2009. I didn't let his death defeat me, I utilized it as a tool and source of further motivation. So does Matt Capps.

Capps spoke to his father every day over the phone, often times more than once according to Kilgore's article "All that's missing is his father". His father's absence hits him the most at his most joyful moments Kilgore wrote. All Capps wanted to do after being named to the the first All-Star team in his professional career was call his dad, but he couldn't.

Capps will join baseballs biggest names of the modern era Tuesday for the mid-summer classic in Anaheim, California.

"You learn a lot about yourself as a person, as an athlete, through your failures," Capps told Kilgore. "It's easy to play this game when you're good, you're pitching well, you're playing well. You really learn about how much you love the game, how much it means to you, when you're fighting through those hard times."

"It's part of life," Capps said. "I'm moving forward and doing what I want to do. That would make him proud to know. By going out and playing and working hard off the field, preparing every day, that's the best way of remembering and representing the name that I carry."

Imagine going into a work each day with thousands of people watching, coaches breathing down your neck, and media outlets digging for quotes. None of these things are necessarily bad, but it sure doesn't make life much of a cake walk.

Matt Capps continues to go into work everyday, despite his heartbreak, and hones his pitching as best as he can. That's all he can do. He, like all of us, is human after all.

In this era of human self-involvement and narcissism seen in sports (cough cough ... LeBron James ... cough cough), a lot of these "feel-good" human interest life lessons get lost in the world of sports.

Here's to Matt Capps and his touching story behind why he plays the way he does for the Washington Nationals. Here, here.

Pictured: Matt Capps, myself, and Craig Stammen at Nats FanFest 2010 at Nationals Park.

Jazz Isn't A Genre, It's A Way Of Life

I learned a valuable lesson last night -- Jazz is more than a genre of music, it's a way of life.

Growing up, I took every Jazz history course I possibly could. I would stare as if into oblivion when our grade school music class got to watch a video about the Big Band era. Heck, I even spent four months of my life during high school devoted to studying Jazz and playing Jazz every waking moment at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Traverse City, Michigan.

College was no different. The reason I decided to attend American University is still one of the easiest choices I've ever made -- Jazz Director William E. Smith told me I could play trumpet in his Jazz band. How could I turn down the offer? I couldn't. I didn't. And as they say, the rest is history.

While I don't remember the exact stories, I do know that young players often got their start as one of the big names in the genre by the older players asking the rookies to take the stage. It was never pre-announced. The kids had their horns ready hoping for a shot to cause musical commotion with the players creating a new genre of American music, but the kids also knew that showing up with your horn or axe was no guarantee for playing time.

It's like riding the bench of a major league sport. You suit up, bring all your equipment, and then keep your fingers crossed that you get tapped on the shoulder by the manager to take the field ... or in this case the stage.

It's a right of passage for a Jazz musician to take the stage after being called up, just like when Stephen Strasburg will take the mound for the Washington Nationals next Tuesday for his Major League debut. That's how it's been since the early days of Jazz over a century ago, and lucky for me it hasn't changed.

Jazzer's take care of their own. It's a family within a community based off a sub-culture of American music. I wrote an article for We Love DC last week about Buddy Bolden's (one of the text book originators of Jazz as a genre) great-grandson who is now the leader of a Jazz-Funk-Rock fusion band called Big Sam's Funky Nation.

I interviewed Sam over the phone and instantly felt a connection for two very music related reasons:

1) He's a trombone player. Which means he's a brass player. As a trumpet player, I can dig it.
2) His family might be rooted in Jazz history, but he is definitely the future if he keeps tootin' his horn like he knows how to. I'm all for that.

At the end of our phone conversation, Sam told me to bring my horn to the band's gig in Annapolis, Maryland (which was last night). Of course, I said yes right away but I knew getting there would be a slight problem considering I live in DC without a car and there's no easy way of getting to Annapolis by foot.

The fates were in on this one -- my sorority sister and her fiance drove me to Annapolis out of the kindness of their heart as I toted my trumpet along hoping and wishing to get a big break and jam with some truly talented musicians.

I didn't see it coming, but in the middle of Big Sam's set their manager tapped me on the shoulder. "He's calling you up," he told me as I watched Big Sam gesture at us.

I was shaking (in a good way). I didn't let the nerves get to me. This was it. My big call-up. Now I know how rookies in the bullpen feel before their first big league outing in front of a sell-out crowd.

Was it my finest performance to date? Not by a long shot. I hadn't warmed up, I didn't do a sound check, it was really hard to figure out what key the song was in, but I stepped up to the plate and you better believe I knocked it out of the park.

And yes, it felt amazing.

The following is a video from last night's performance:



It's nice to see that Jazz is a community. We're all looking out for each other. You better believe I'll pay it forward the next time I have a show and a rookie is waiting in the wings. It's my responsibility to do so. After all, we're just one big Jazz-loving family.

Happy Memorial Day - Chicago to DC Updates

Some of you who consider yourself to be Chicago to DC faithful might have noticed the increase in video posts this month. It's true -- music is more than important to me. It's probably the most important thing to me, only to be followed by writing, baseball, and ...breathing.

Some of you might be asking, "Rachel, where has all the writing gone?" Well, the answer is simple. The writing has "gone" to We Love DC. Local and National music coverage, Nationals baseball beat, random news around the District -- if you're looking for it, I've got it covered.

That's why I'm writing this post.

If it's news related to something I'm passionate about, I'm all for it. Problem is I feel I'm lacking that "personal touch" I know I have the ability to bring to any piece of writing. I had been filling that void in my life through Chicago to DC before starting with We Love DC. While I don't feel I've "lost" the personal touch, I do think I need a reality check -- hence the increase in video posts this month.

My music is my lifeline. It brought me up when I was down, gave me solace at my loneliest, and has never left my side since I first picked up a trumpet and guitar at the age of 9.

If you're a fan of anything I've ever written, I beg you give a listen to my recent video uploads either here on this blog or on my YouTube Channel.

Enjoy your holiday weekend. Use it to relax. Maybe listen to a couple tracks while you're at it? Let me know what you think!

Best,

Rachel Levitin

Chicago to DC Shout-Outs: Greg Pincus

I have to take a moment to mention how awesome it felt the morning I woke up on April 4 to find that the writer of the children's baseball movie Little Big League gave me a shout out on his personal blog. Greg Pincus allowed me to live out a very strange yet much appreciated childhood fantasy of somehow becoming involved with Billy Heywood and this classic staple of my movie collection.

And it's all thanks to my little brain conjuring up the thought that Billy and his grandpa Thomas (both fictional characters, but that is of no consequence) sure did have some solid gems of wisdom to share for any baseball team to ever storm the diamond. In this particular case, I issued the advice to this year's Washington Nationals (who at this moment are tied for second place in the NL East and are definite contenders for the Wild Card ... if the Wild Card were to be decided in May).

I like to think the Nats Manager Jim Riggleman caught wind of my blog entry and took it into consideration when planning his management strategies for the regular season. Sure -- it's quite the day dream -- but that doesn't mean there's no chance that it's true.

Want to read the original post entitled "Five Baseball Lessons From Thomas & Billy Heywood"? Click here.

Want to read the shout-out from Pincus? Click here.

Six Months At "We Love DC"

April 13 marked the official six month "anniversary" of my joining the crew at We Love DC to start producing some qulaity, personality driven pieces of writing. So far so good. I've had quite an experience thus far, dabbling in everything ranging from special events around town, theater reviews, behind-the-music interviews with local/touring bands, and (my first love) Major League Baseball.

If I hadn't stumbled upon We Love DC, there's no telling what my next route would have been when it comes to penning words to a page. So, as a token of my thanks for everyone who's been involved with my We Love DC experience, here is a compilation of my favorite posts from the past six months:

Eats & Drinks

1. Scotch: Not Just Ron Burgundy's Drink of Choice
2. DC, A Foodie Town? American Way magazine Says So.
3. Dude, Where's My Taco Bell?
4. Mory Krupin Hangs Up His Apron

On the Funny Side

1. Cocaine Smuggled Inside A Chicken At Dulles
2. Fist Pump Along With Cast Members of MTV's Jersey Shore
3. No Pants Party On The Metro Scheduled For Sunday
4. Cupid's Undie Run: Another Excuse For DC To Go Pantless

Culture Features

1. We Love Arts: A Christmas Carol
2. We Love Arts: Fiddler on the Roof
3. Adams Morgan: The Movie
4. Meet Noah Baron from Adams Morgan The Movie

Lifestyle Features

1. Why I Love DC: Rachel
2. National Sculpture Garden: Skate At Your Own Risk
3. Behind Cupid's Undie Run

Music Features

1. Got A Song Request? Jacqui Naylor's Got You Covered. Literally.
2. We Love Music: The Very Small
3. Jammin' Java: More Than Meets The Eye
4. We Love Music: GroundScore
5. We Love Music: Here We Go Magic
6. We Love Music: Midnight Spin

Baseball Features

1. NatsFest 2010: If You Build It, They Will Come
2. What It Takes To Be An American President In NatsTown
3. The 2010 Washington Nationals: A Chance To Finish Above .500
4. Five Baseball Lessons From Thomas & Billy Heywood
5. Washington Hosts Boston in the Nationals Dream Foundation Classic

Moving On Up - R.H. Levitin Joins The "We Love DC" Team

Love D.C.? R.H. Levitin does and now there's proof. The Chicago to DC POV creator is now a contributing author for one of D.C.'s most-loved social/news blogs, We Love DC.

"We Love DC" was featured this past September in Washingtonian Magazine. Here's an excerpt from that article listed in "The Blogger Beat":

We Love DC was born in 2008 after ten bloggers from Metroblogging DC decided to start a new site. They wanted independence from the city-blog network—declaring it on July 4, naturally—and have since nearly doubled their volunteer writing team and, in the past six months, tripled their monthly readers.


For the rest of the article click here.

Check out Levitin's first post listed in today's Daily Feed here and be on the look out for more Daily Feed items and Features in the coming days/weeks/months!