It may come as a shock, but Dionne Warwick balks at the idea of playing massive venues.
“I’ve basically refused to perform in arenas and coliseums,” says the 76-year-old legend. “Those things are for basketball and hockey and soccer. And I am a singer.” She prefers intimate rooms where she can connect with her audience, rooms like Bethesda Blues & Jazz, where she’ll appear next week to help the venue celebrate its 4th Anniversary.
Over the course of two nights, she’ll be performing from a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hits, in particular those from her extraordinary collaboration with composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, songs that have become so iconic, it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing them, including “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” Warwick’s success extended beyond her Bacharach collaborations and songs like the soaring, Barry Manilow-produced “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and the Bee Gees-penned “Heartbreaker.” Among her most cherished achievements was performing alongside Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder on “That’s What Friends Are For.” The song shot to #1 on the R&B, Adult Contemporary and Billboard Hot 100 charts and raised nearly $3 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
Warwick felt a deep obligation to be a part of the project. “We were losing so many people [to AIDS], in my industry particularly,” she says, adding, “My grandfather, who was a minister, taught me at a very tender age that we’re all put on this earth to be of service to each other, and that we all need healthy people around us. And if there’s anything we can do to ensure that…it’s part of what we’re supposed to do.”
Inevitably, as with almost any conversation these days, talk turns to Donald Trump. Warwick gets audibly riled up when speaking of the new President with a penchant for childish Tweets.
“We can’t sit around and twiddle our thumbs, you know?
We need to take the initiative to be the actual citizens of these United States of America and demand the things that we know we’re entitled to and how they ought to be done,” she insists. “He has no choice but to listen. He’s not our boss. We’re his boss. He’s got to listen to us.”
Dionne Warwick appears Tuesday, Feb. 28 and Wednesday, March 1 at Bethesda Blues & Jazz, 7719 Wisconsin Ave., in Bethesda. Doors at 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $115 to $150. Call 240-330-4500 or visit bethesdabluesjazz.com.
California Democrat says House Oversight Chair James Comer made a "homophobic" remark after Democrats challenged his handling of the Epstein investigation.
U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, fired back at Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) after Comer dismissed him as a "real big drama queen."
Comer's jab came after Democrats released a sexually suggestive letter allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The letter, featuring a drawing of a curvaceous woman used as the backdrop for birthday wishes, was allegedly signed by Donald Trump and included in a 2003 album celebrating Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump had been friendly with Epstein during the 1980s and 1990s.
"I was really into politics at a very young age," says Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and an MSNBC political analyst. "I can't remember what they were called, but you'd get those kid magazines about politics that would come to your school, and I remember always really being drawn to them, and reading them and wanting to know more. I always knew lots of weird facts about politics and geography as a little middle school nerd."
Raised in St. Louis until fourth grade, when his family relocated to Littleton, Colorado, Miller became enmeshed in conservative politics at a young age, taking various campaign jobs throughout his career as a former Republican strategist. He jokes that his success at handicapping political races dates back to the 1992 election, when he won a $1 wager after betting his grandmother that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton would unseat sitting president George H.W. Bush.
Justice Department had demanded Boston Children's Hospital hand over patients' and employees' personal information under the guise of combating medical "fraud."
A federal judge has quashed a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice demanding that Boston Children’s Hospital turn over private medical information on youth receiving gender-affirming care, blasting the request as a “fishing expedition” aimed at prosecuting doctors under the guise of investigating health care fraud.
In his ruling, Judge Myong Joun, a Biden appointee, said the Justice Department sought an “astonishingly broad array of documents and information that are virtually unlimited in scope,” including patients’ Social Security numbers, home addresses, and personal details, as well as the complete personnel files of all 2,000 Boston Children’s Hospital employees, regardless of whether they had any involvement in providing gender-affirming care to minors.
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