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    Aftershocks

    From closet wars to Michaele Salahi's breakdown, Real Housewives of D.C. turnsthe trivial tragic

    Theodore Bale
    Joseph Campana
    Sep 17, 2010 | 10:19 am
    • Lolly and her mother Mary have an interesting closet relationship on RealHousewives of DC.
    • Cat may be the best mom in the history of the Real Housewives franchise. OK, thecompetition isn't great ... but still.
    • The tension is already high on the Real Housewives of DC.

    The gulf between the trivial and the tragic is growing on the Real Housewives of D.C.One minute the Salahis hire a white stretch-limo to browse for houses they likely can’t afford, and the next minute they’re fending off a civil suit.

    Cat struggles to deal with the shocking suicide of a close friend, and Mary just can’t keep her 23-year-old daughter Lolly out of the closet.

    We can’t help but think that the sheer amount of delusion and frivolity in D.C. must make it hard for some of these women to tell the difference. Since CultureMap takes an in-depth look at fashion this month, we’d like to start with Mary’s closet.

    In her neutral, I-bought-this-entire-look-from-Restoration-Hardware-home, Mary has a maze-like closet that seems larger than our entire condo.

    “I purposely made it a place where I could hang out,” she explains in a voiceover as the camera pans her perfectly organized gowns, shoes, handbags and yes, fresh-cut flowers. Her “haven” looks and feels more like a museum, or the kind of austere store where there’s only one of each item and no one is ever allowed to touch anything. This isn’t the first episode where we’ve heard about the biometric lock on the door, which yields only to Mary’s ice-cold fingerprint.

    For whatever reason, Mary seems to “forget” to close up now and then, at which point light-fingered Lolly trespasses and helps herself to mom’s wardrobe and accessories. How cat-and-mouse!

    Mary’s glad to lend her clothes to Lolly, of course, something she says only a few hundred times during this episode. But that wouldn’t be any fun, would it, Mary?

    Lolly likes stealing your clothes, and you seem to really get off on “catching” her dressed in your things. During an intimate kitchen wine-guzzling session with Cat, Mary admits that she’s been in therapy for seven years exploring this issue. Later, Cat suggests a refund from the therapist and a new lock. Oh, Cat, it is possible to be too sensible.

    While it’s hard to understand the mysterious appeal of Mary’s luxurious closet, Lynda’s sons and Ebong look irresistible as they suit up for the Men Against Breast Cancer gala and fashion show. Cat and Mary tag along, and yet again the trivial and the tragic collide. Mary hoots and hollers at the models like she’s at a Chippendale’s revue. Suddenly, she notices Lolly wearing her clothes and flies into a rage. Uh-oh, Mary, better call your therapist.

    Cat laughs at the petty drama of it all, but her mind is elsewhere until Lynda’s ex-boyfriend Chris appears in a pinstripe suit and a smart cravat. Cat bursts into tears. Her friend Phil, who recently took his own life, wore them all the time. Later at home, Cat’s daughters are a huge comfort as she explains her decision not to attend his funeral.

    What a relief to see Cat emotionally open with her daughters without using them as counselors, life coaches, or free sources of endless affirmation, like the other housewives often do. Last week we were won over by her surprisingly strong ethical sense. This week she shares fears of being a terrible mother and then proves she isn’t by being honest with her kids about the difficulty of grief. Cat’s become our favorite character.

    And if anyone else on the show is willing to be this real, please show yourself now.

    Sweet and sincere Stacie is helping the nouvelle-dull Tareq and Michaele look at digs in D.C. She’s wary of the duo after their recent party disaster, but Stacie isn’t so noble as to turn down a potentially big, easy commission. She visits the crazy-eyed couple in their multi-level suite at The Four Seasons, their “home away from home” as they call it.

    But when the conversation turns to real dollars, Stacie has a hard time getting a straight answer out of the shifty pair. Michaele says their dream home could come in at $100,000 or even $12 million. Tareq looks at the floor nervously and caps it off at $8 million. Later, as they cruise around D.C. in a white stretch-limo looking at potential homes, Stacie tries to put the "real" in real estate, explaining that they’ll need to get pre-approved before she can actually take them inside any of the properties.

    Michaele has her eye on what looks like a 50-room private school, which Stacie estimates at $20-25 million. Darn, it isn’t on the market!

    Later, Michaele and Tareq arrive at their winery to celebrate “over-the-top” design plans for massive renovations. What triumphs await!

    Tareq exits their modest SUV (so much for the stretch-limo) near the scruffy edge of the road to straighten a dumpy-looking barrel with “Oasis” written in crude, fading white paint. Next to it, a sad stone lion has seen one too many coats of sunny-yellow paint followed by rain. To us, it’s looking more like The Grapes of Wrath than the Dordogne. The Bravo editors splice together a haunting montage: shriveled grapes, rotting boards, dead leaves, and cheap white plastic chairs.

    Like the return of the repressed, Tareq’s mother Corrine rains on the Salahis parade without even putting in an appearance. She’s called the sheriff to have them removed from the property. As Tareq tries to handle the officers and vans and dogs, Michaele’s perfect Stepford-smile cracks, and she sobs.

    It’s her Blanche Dubois moment in the harsh light of reality, and we’re not sure she can take it.

    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    howling for you

    Houston's interdimensional art exhibit books 4 local acts for summer concerts

    Jef Rouner
    May 12, 2025 | 5:37 pm
    The four members of Swimwear Department hugging
    Photo provided by Meow Wolf
    Swimwear Department is heading to Meow Wolf

    Things are heating up this summer at Meow Wolf as they host their first ever summer concert series. Four hometown bands will take the stage at the immersive art complex for a series of shows in June and July.

    “Houston’s music scene has always been bold, genre-defying, and deeply original, so it felt natural to bring that same energy into our Radio Tave world,” said Aaron Johnson, general manager of Meow Wolf Houston. “This concert series is about celebrating the artists who define Texas' sound and give guests a new reason to experience Meow Wolf in a whole new way.”

    Ever since Meow Wolf first opened during Halloween last year in Fifth Ward, the collection of artistic spaces has wowed, delighted, and sometimes confused audiences. Cowboix Hevvven, the venue's "dive bar" with possible links to extraterrestrials, was designed by fifth generation Texan Cole Wilson and features a jukebox of 30 original songs Wilson created in collaboration with other Texas artists. Radio Tave, Meow Wolf's name for the exhibit as a whole, has been a huge critical and popular hit for Meow Wolf, winning two Webby Awards last month.

    It's also the perfect place to show off some of the more esoteric bands that make up the Houston sound. The odd four-piece rock band Swimwear Department burst onto the scene in 2023, winning over audiences with their songs about pools and malls as well as a series of stellar music videos shot around the city. Their potent mix of quirk and early-alternative music has made them one of the best novelty acts in Houston.

    Meanwhile, The Mighty Orq and Mango Punch have been mainstays for more than a decade. Orq is swamp blues royalty, and always adds a sense of the strange to his concerts thanks to his near-mystical aura. Mango Punch is almost custom built for Meow Wolf thanks to a hectic swirl of Top 40, disco and cumbia.

    The schedule for the concerts is below with links to tickets.

    • Swimwear Department, June 6, 8 pm
    • Night Drive, June 20, 8 pm
    • The Mighty Orq, July 11, 8 p.m.
    • Mango Punch, July 25, 8 p.m.

    Though Houston has never hurt for places weird bands can play, wedding the popular immersive art space at Meow Wolf with concerts is an opportunity to reframe music as performance art rather than just something to listen to while having a drink (though you can still do that at Meow Wolf). Should the summer concert series prove a success, it could quickly become one of the prime venues in the city, at least for groups looking to be a little out there.

    meow wolfconcerts
    news/entertainment

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