Mid-June Event Roundup
A pamphleteer themed Substack party, Will Diana's The Lovers, and bipartisan panic at the Embassy of Italy
Hi Balloters,
It’s HOT in Washington. We hope everyone is drinking enough water. The editors are still in recess for June, but we wanted to send you a quick event roundup from the week. It was a festive one as we all gear up for the 250th American Summer. The FIFA World Cup is also full swing and a great reminder that DC is a global city.
Substack party featuring Thomas Paine. History, hello! Plenty of us love the stuff. Guests gathered at City Tavern Club in Georgetown to drink Bourbon 76s and listen to speeches from Catherine Valentine, Thomas Paine himself, and former Archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan. The event was held in partnership with More Perfect’s In Pursuit, a civics project publishing essays on American presidents by the likes of President Obama and President George W. Bush.
Congressional Baseball game: “The Congressional Baseball Game: Democrats v. Republicans. It’s a time-honored Hill tradition, and the first time many Dem staffers hang out in Navy Yard.
My co-workers and I sat close to the field. We cheered loudly for the Democrats, booed at Republicans, and heckled other Democrats we didn’t like. We drank $20 beers to wash down the humidity, trading gossip while sweating through our shirts.
In the middle of the game, I got a call from an old friend, who can be roughly described as a GOP playboy and the only man I know who wears mascara: “I’ll get you up to the club suites, the drinks are free”. Republicans were winning the game anyway so I left my co-workers for a better view.
He then snuck me into the air-conditioned club suite of some faceless lobbying group where booze and business cards flowed freely. My friend soon got caught up with a wine glass and “diplomatic stuff” so I slipped away to the balcony with my cocktail alone. No one else was outside watching the game and the view from above wasn’t that different.” — Loren Anton
Left, right, and center at the Italian Embassy. The Italian Embassy is making a point to cultivate relationships with online creators with a political focus. They hosted a packed event this past week, featuring Zoomers with platforms on the right and left, and a centrist moderator who identified as an “elder millennial.” Towards the end, during a conversation about political violence and free-speech, the moderator asked whoever had just laughed to leave, and a Democrat panelist sitting in the audience got up and walked out.
Will Diana Film Debut: “On a Tuesday night, I wandered down an alleyway off U Street looking for the Temperance Alley Garden. Despite the name, I didn’t realize until I’d arrived that the venue for @Will Diana’s short film “THE LOVERS” was a community garden, set up with outdoor furniture, a fold-up table, and a white tent with a projector screen.
The crowd was a mix of friends of the filmmakers, curious yuppies, and young, vaguely arty people, all chatting contentedly. The questions during the brief Q&A were remarkably rigorous (What were the visual and literary points of reference for the film?). As dusk weakened, the director tooled around on his laptop and charged up a speaker (after a few minutes, he waded into the crowd and placed it on a spare stool, which worked surprisingly well as surround-sound).
The fifteen-minute “psychological horror” film had no spoken dialogue—the soundtrack was Vivaldi’s Winter Concerto, which mirrored the plot surprisingly well—and text appeared along the bottom of the screen. The audience laughed when the otherworldly actors swayed like choose-your-character avatars, and again when a lingering shot of Donald Trump’s portrait was accompanied by a booming crescendo of Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor.
The film’s content is familiar to Diana’s stories, which feature high priestesses, oracles, sirens, fate. Diana himself played the character “Satan.” If this mythological richness is more difficult to develop visually than in the imagination (the film’s actors a touch too clean, the vistas a touch too tame), the surreal plot and visual language were genuinely new and interesting. Most exciting was the opening shot: an ominous pan into the lit windows of a red-brick apartment, the title card appearing in a shock of red gothic caps.
After the film, I learned that the writer is moving to New York City. It will be a shame to lose DC’s resident self-mythologizer and one of its more original writers.” — Greta Dieck
The FIFA World Cup 2026 Fan Zone on the National Mall kicked off yesterday. The Fan Zone includes a massive projector-screen set up in front of the Capitol, a mini soccer field, and a Michelob Ultra stand selling “beer and water.” Mexico won the first game. The USA game will be on at 9 PM tonight. This text one of us got from a friend sums it up well:
Don’t miss:
DC-based fashionista, Morgan Vogel’s first party for her popular newsletter, Gatekept, this coming Tuesday. It will be “an evening of private designer consignment shopping, conversation, and meeting your fellow Gatekeepers.” The event is open to all, but space is limited, so RSVP here.
Wondering where to watch the World Cup? Cockburn | The Spectator put together a list of bars and restaurants that will be showing the different games and running specials.
DJ My Friend Jack is throwing a disco day party called “Pronto!” on the Yours Truly patio, June 14th from 4-9. Flag Day!
JOIN OR DIE. Emma Camp is hosting a second installment of her House Party reading series on July 4 at 3:00 PM in Brooklyn. It will include readings from Dylan Partner, Alex Bronzini-Vender, Audrey Horne, Coldhealing, and Emma. RSVP here.
“We Still Hold These Truths: America at 250,” hosted by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters on June 16 at 7 p.m. at Anderson House, featuring Akhil Amar, Harvey Mansfield, Julia Mahoney, and Robert P. George. Free and open to the public, though RSVP is required via KarenTaliaferro.
Founding Fathers… Reason is hosting a boozy debate on June 18 at Pubkey DC to determine America’s best founder — heavily biased opinions from their staff included. $10 to get in the room. Details here.
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