8 Things You Need to Know: DC Turkish Fetival, UNC Volleyball and Sen. Ted Cruz

1. The 11th Annual Washington D.C. Turkish Festival will be happening on Sunday. It will take place between 12th and 14th Street, two blocks from the White House. The event will feature folk dancing, musical performances, coffee fortune reading and (of course) very authentic ethnic cuisine (pictured top).

2. The University of North Carolina Tarheels' women's volleyball team will face ACC rival North Carolina on their home gym floor in Chapel Hill, NC, at Carmichael Arena, but the game, which starts at 8:00 p.m. tonight (eastern time) will also be televised on ESPN-U. Victoria McPherson (Number Seven, pictured center) was named ACC Player of the Week. The Tarheels are undefeated so far.

3) Though the game will not be nationally televised, the Yale Bulldogs will be facing their first Ivy League opponent when the Brown U Bears come to New Haven, Conn., on Sat. @ 5:00 p.m. Jesse Ebner of Yale was named co-Ivy League Player of the week.

4) In tragic news, Elif Yavuz, 33, a Dutch citizen of Turkish heritage was gunned down along with her Aussie boyfriend Ross Langdon, 33, at the Westgate Shopping Center in a violence rampage in Nairobi, Kenya, that has claimed at least 62 lives. The massacre/hostage situation started on Saturday. Yavuz was eight and a half months pregnant. She had performed work on behalf on the Clinton Foundation. Former president Bill Clinton praised Yavuz, who was also a Harvard alum.

5) The Salem Red Sox, the single-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, won its first Carolina League title since 2001, and the first since the team joined the Red Sox family. The defeated the Potomac Nationals to win the title. Mugsy (pictured bottom) is the team mascot.

6) One of the most fun bands in the word the Red Elvises are on tour. On Thursday night, the band performs at Moe's (yes that is the actual name of the venue, we were thinking about "The Simpsons" too) in Englewood, Colo., on Thursday night. The venue's phone number is 303.781.0414

7) Along with Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx) stands out among the Tea Party crazies who are gradually hijacking the Republican Party. Just a few hours ago, Cruz wrapped on his 21-hour speech, which included a reading of the Dr. Seuss classic "Green Eggs and Ham" (?!). He now gives new meaning to the term Ted Talks (TED Talks is a series of talks given about technology and socially relevant issues, such as education).

8) Teasers: In the coming days, we hope to have tweets about tweets relating to all things Washington, DC, which includes not just Congress, but the National Zoo. In addition, we are hoping to post some entries related to both Book Week and Banned Week (we believe both are going on this week). Stay tuned..............

http://www.turkishfestival.org

https://www.facebook.com/washingtondcturkishfestival

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/

http://www.redelvises.com/

http://www.ted.com/talks

http://www.goheels.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&SPID=12977&SPSID=668175

http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-volley/index

The Last 10 CDs I've Listened To- Lots of New Wave

Normally, we use this blog to post entries pertaining to the last ten films we've seen, and we post the entry dedicated to the last ten cds we've listened to on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." Yes, I am aware that using the pronoun we to describe may make folks wonder if I have a multiple-personality disorder, but we can assure you that's not the case.

There are several New Wave selections here, inclduing The Go-Gos, The Psychedelic Furs and The Pretenders, amazingly enough two of those three bands were on tour this summer. And, Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders (the one band which wasn't on tour this summer), has been performing with other musicians as of late.

Ok, here is the list. I suppose I could arbitrarily mention Amanda Knox here to boost ratings, but we are above such things:

1. Sonic Youth "Dirty." 1992. Key Tracks: "100 %," "Youth Against Facism" and "Chapel Hill."

2. Arcade Fire. "The Suburbs." 2010. Key Tracks: "The Suburbs," "Ready to Start" and "City with No Children."

3. Interpol. "Antics." 2004. Key Tracks: "Evil" and "Slow Hands."

4. Rush "Signals." 1982. Key Tracks: "Subdivisions" and "New World Man."

5. The Go-Go's "Vacation" (pictured) 1982. Key Tracks: "Vacation" and "Cool Jerk."

6. REM "Murmur." 1983. Key Tracks: "Radio Free Europe" and "Perfect Circle," the band recently called it quits after 31 years.

7. Psychedelic Furs. "Mirror Moves" (pictured) 1984. Key Traks: "The Ghost in You," "Heaven" and "Heartbeat."

8. The Cranberries "Everyone Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" Key Tracks: "Dreams," "Sunday" and "Linger," the band will be releasing its first recording in many years on Feb. 14, 2012.

9. Red Elvises "Better Than Sex." (pictured) 1999. Key Tracks: "Wonderful Night" and "Closet Disco Dancer," the Russian-emigre band plays in Moscow, Russia, (yes That Moscow, not the one in Idaho) on Oct. 13th.

10. Pretenders. "Pretenders." 1980. Key Tracks: "Kid," "Private Life" and "Brass in Pocket."

Quote of the Week- Lou Reed

Today we continue to quote famous singers with a quip from New York artsy rocker legend Lou Reed, who is also well-known for his work in the '60s as the lead singer of Velvet Underground.

Since we are way behind in our High Schools of the Week, we will dedicate this entry to students at Provo High School in Provo, Utah, where Reed's landmark album "Transformer" with the suggestive hit song "Walk on the Wild Side" is probably banned (this is just a joke!).

But, we do know that Provo High School returns to class on Aug. 24 (yay! well, maybe not??!). The school's nickname is The Bulldogs. Sam Ray is the principal at Bulldog High, which is also where famed chemist Paul Boyer went to school.

Here is our quote from Reed:

"How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality."

SIDEBAR_ Fellow fans of the Russian-emigre rock band The Red Elvises who happen to live near Bethlehem, Pa., will be happy to know they are performing there tonight. The band will also be at The Gogol Club in Moscow, Russia (not Moscow, Idaho!) on Sept. 10. While many bands, like Los Lobos, are boycotting Arizona because of their highly-controversial immigration bill, which we here highly oppose (but I'm not a fan of boycotts unless there is a very valid reason for them), The Red Elvises are performing in Phoenix at The Rhythm Room, which we understand to be quite a jazzy place, on Sept. 23. The Red Elvises, which became popular in the late 1990s, are based in Santa Monica, Calif.

Happy Birthday Amerika Birlesik Devletleri * from Daffy Duck!

I realize that since it's gradually approaching midnight here on the east coast of les etats unis** the only folk still watching fireworks might be in Reston, Wash. (a 'burb of Seattle), nevertheless we wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Fourth of July.

My favorite Russian emgire rock band (well, we love Gogol Bordello too!) The Red Elvises tweeted the following message even though it appears they are in Moscow, and we don't mean the college town of Moscow, Idaho:

"We my be Russia now but any excuse to celebrate is good! Happy 4th of July America."

Meanwhile, our beloved Durham Bulls*** defeated the Gwinnett Braves from Georgia 6-4 in front of a record-breaking crowd of 11,674 fans in Durham, NC, tonight.

*-How you say USA in Turkish

**-How you say USA in French

***-Yeah, I know I should perhaps be more loyal to the Salem RedSox since I'm from Salem, Va., and the Greensboro Grasshoppers since I am a resident of the Triad (Greensboro, NC-area) as opposed to the Raleigh-Durham area, but hey none of those teams had a movie made after them! (I'm of course referring to "Bull Durham" with Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon which first came out in 1988). I will say for my hometown that the Salem Fair is going on right now, and apparently some people drive from Fairbanks, Alaska, to enjoy the smell of (how should we put this?!)_ the bull---t!