Editors' Picks

Best events this spring

• By Jess Righthand
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• Updated 05/31/2012

Our warmer-than-average winter has successfully called into question the gamut of spring cliches. In like a lion? Hardly. April showers? Not buying it. Even the cherry blossoms reached peak bloom a full two weeks earlier than average.

Yep, it appears that we may be on a one-way track straight to May flowers. So dust off those flippy floppies, get the grill fired up and pencil these spring events into your social calendar.

Best events this weekend

• By Going Out Guide staff
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• Updated 05/30/2012

Some of the Going Out Guide's favorites for the weekend: A chance to explore the museums off the Mall during the Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk Weekend, the first Brightest Young Things pool party of the summer and two jazz festivals.

Best karaoke

• By Stephanie Merry and Jess Righthand
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• Updated 11/14/2011

Washington is a serious town, and for good reason -- there are important decisions to be made and issues to lobby, laws to pass and bills to filibuster. But after a full day of taxing contemplation and staid conversation, Washingtonians are equally proficient in the art of unwinding. We don't always take ourselves so seriously, and that's especially obvious with the popularity of one self-deprecating pastime.

We sing, occasionally off-key. Sometimes even in costume.

Every night of the week, there are multiple options for karaoke, such as the karaoke nights with distinctive appeals that we write about below. Whether you like singing old-time tunes or channeling your inner rock star, performing for a small group or crooning to the masses, it's time to find your voice.

Best live jazz without crowds or cover charges

• By Fritz Hahn
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• Updated 02/23/2011

When you go out in the middle of the week, you can skip the cover charges and minimums that have become de rigeur on a Saturday night.

Best military events

• By Christina Barron
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• Updated 05/21/2012

Beyond the battlefield, the military also serves us -- with parades, concerts, air shows and exhibits, most of which are free. Make your way to the following places and events to appreciate the military on Veterans Day and beyond.

Best open mike sessions

• By Fritz Hahn
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• Updated 06/30/2011

Ever wish you could be the person in the spotlight? Here's your chance.

Best outdoor movie series

• By Fritz Hahn
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• Updated 05/17/2012

Summer is the perfect time to watch movies under the stars. Catch recent blockbusters and classic films at these free outdoor series.

Best quick trips

• By Weekend staff | The Washington Post
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• Updated 07/18/2011

Here are seven of our favorite excursions. They are urban and suburban, in museums and on footpaths, kid-friendly and date-friendly.

Best rainy-day diversions

• By Going Out Guide Staff
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• Updated 11/30/2011

You don't have to stay home under the covers. Beat cabin fever with these go-to spots that can make rainy days a little brighter.

Best trivia nights

• By Stephanie Merry, Fritz Hahn and Alex Baldinger
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• Updated 05/31/2012

Bar fights are nothing new. But disputes over what the colors of the Olympic rings represent while hanging out at a favorite watering hole? That's not exactly your typical beer-fueled brawl.

Call it what you will -- trivia night, pub quiz, smartypants smackdown -- it's a battle playing out at an ever-increasing legion of establishments across the area. True to the region's overachieving status, it appears that locals like to drink in knowledge while sipping on cocktails.

"It's a free night. It's a fun way to engage. It's a fun way to get to hang out with your friends and still be challenged," says Allison Jessing, who hosts the National Portrait Gallery's trivia night. "I think D.C. is a really precocious town, and people are always looking for challenges and ways to learn and get acquainted with new ideas."

But it's also an alternative to the passivity of lounging on the couch.

"It's something to do besides watching TV," says occasional Wonderland trivia host Alex Reish. "And it's a pretty laid-back activity that, while you're doing it, you can still talk to people. That's golden."

Since those "NCIS" reruns aren't going anywhere, maybe it's time to check out one of the trivia nights below. The spotlighted locales design their trivia in-house (as opposed to outsourcing the question-writing to trivia-specializing corporations), and all are worthy of your precious post-work hours.

Classical music highlights

• By Anne Midgette
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• Updated 02/13/2012

Classical music critic Anne Midgette spotlights the most promising performances during the months ahead.

Coolest summer ever

• By Weekend/Going Out Guide staff
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• Updated 05/25/2012

Even the suffocating humidity and tourists can't detract from our annual rituals of spreading out blankets and cheese boards in the park, wandering the farmers market, doing Bikram yoga outdoors and lounging at pool parties. And that's just the tip of the spiked snow cone. There are trips to the beach and trips to the country, too. Summer in Washington is a bounty, people. Here are the reasons -- in no particular order -- to love it.

Spring arts preview: Classical highlights

• By Anne Midgette
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• Updated 05/11/2012

For classical music programmers, fall is the time when you bring out the big guns, and spring is when you do more unusual programs or themed festivals. This season, this philosophy is making for a more interesting spring for Washington's classical music lovers. Whether your thing is the high classical tradition or living American composers, the area's musical offerings run the gamut -- with a particularly strong showing of exciting new-music concerts signaling that Washington may be awakening from its long sleep in the arms of musical tradition.

Spring arts preview: Dance highlights

• By Sarah Kaufman
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• Updated 05/07/2012

Welcome to good times: In the realm of dance, your spring is going to heat up early and stay hot. Or at least tingly warm. What follows are some of the more dramatic contours in a season running deep and wide.

Spring arts preview: Museum highlights

• By Jacqueline Trescott
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• Updated 04/20/2012

Even with the National Museum of American History shutting some of its exhibition halls for renovation, plenty of action of the history and science variety rolls out in the spring.

Spring arts preview: Pop highlights

• By Chris Richards
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• Updated 05/21/2012

Looking at this spring's concert calendar is a bit like staring off into a live music Twilight Zone. Big names are cautiously playing small rooms, while young rock bands are brazenly taking aim at the nosebleeds. The thread connecting this spring's concert season is that there is no thread. Our pop programming has rarely felt so all over the place. After combing the calendar and the map, here are the most promising gigs to jump out of this chaotic season.

Spring arts preview: Theater highlights

• By Peter Marks
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• Updated 04/23/2012

Even though two high-profile projects dropped out of Washington's spring theater season - the Kennedy Center's reworking of Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey" and Arena Stage's tryout of a musical version of "Like Water for Chocolate" - you can never count an active theater town out. The coming months remain chockablock with offerings to pique a playgoer's curiosity; they include such diverse happenings as a mini-festival devoted to innovative puppeteer Basil Twist, a punk musical about Andrew Jackson and a new streamlining of Eugene O'Neill's rarely produced "Strange Interlude." These examples give you a mere taste of what's to come. What follows is more evidence of how much bold dramatic thinking will be on display.

Spring arts preview: Visual arts highlights

• By Philip Kennicott
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• Updated 05/21/2012

Sometimes it seems like an enormous digestive tract that processes the data of culture in centuries-long cycles. And sometimes it is newer and more radical than anything one might find among the ephemera of television, film and pop culture. The world of art, as seen in the major Washington museums this spring, functions both ways. Photography looms large, with exhibitions exploring not just its impact on painting, but its historical role as documentary object, and its ongoing influence through the related media of video and virtual art. Looking farther back, important shows will also explore the politics underneath the whimsy of one of the great surrealists, and the role of women in fashioning culture during an era in which their contributions were not readily recognized.