OUT & ABOUT

Best Friends: A Beacon of Hop

If Washington is just one big high school, then the Best Friends gala is the class sock hop complete with jocks, cheerleaders, homecoming queens and cool kids.

Susan Allen, Phil Norton, Lin Phelps and George Allen. (Rebecca D'Angelo - For The Washington Post)

The draw of the annual rock-and-roll party is the lighthearted mood that allows VIPs to exchange black tie for jeans, T-shirts, ponytails and other blasts from their pasts. D.C. Council member Jack Evans wore his letter jacket, while date Marsha Ralls proved she could still fit into her vintage cheerleader uniform. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez lent his letter jacket to his wife, Rebecca. Washington Ballet President Kay Kendall raided her closet for a circle pin, charm bracelet, bobby sox, shirtwaist dress with Peter Pan collar, and pearls. "In 'Grease,' I'm Olivia Newton-John," she sighed -- the sigh of a woman who will never be the Bad Girl.

Mayor Tony Williams sported a Washington Nationals jacket and cap. Former secretary of state Colin Powell and Sen. Mel Martinez opted for denim; a grinning Sen. George Allen chose jeans, cowboy boots and a Ronald Reagan Stetson. "I had an excuse to dress the way I wanted to," he said.

Alma Powell at the Best Friends Ball. (Rebecca D'Angelo - For The Washington Post)

The evening raised $600,000 for Best Friends teenage outreach programs, but Saturday's crowd of 600 at the Marriott Wardman Park was a restless bunch -- impatient with the live auction despite sweet-talking by gala co-founder Elayne Bennett, and eager to dance to Bobby Vee, Al Wilson, the Chiffons and Little Anthony and theImperials. And who could blame them, really? When the music started, everyone hit the dance floor like . . . well, like the 17-year-old inside us all. As Wilson sang, "Do What You Gotta Do."

Progressive Party Animals

Members of the New Leaders Council celebrate its inception with a party at Uzo Asonye's apartment. (Lauren Victoria Burke - For The Washington Post)

Determined not to be November fools, a group of young progressives (the hip new name for electable Democrats) gathered Friday night for an April Fool's party at the expense of conservatives.

The Logan Circle apartment of host Uzo Asonye was a sarcastic homage to all things uber-right -- from Ann Coulter and Donald Rumsfeld "inspirational" quotes pasted on the walls to chairs "reserved" for Enron executives. "People walked in and said, 'This is a joke, right?' " said Asonye, who volunteered his pad for the party, which coincided with the New Leaders Council's first conference over the weekend. "I'm all about the social aspect of it," he said.

The NLC was started for left-leaning students with political aspirations beyond college. "We want to be a farm system for Democrats like the farm system in baseball," explained 23-year-old Executive Director Patrick Ottenhoff. The room was packed with 50 practical jokesters laughing at the Republican decorations and sipping no-name vodka from red plastic cups.

Next time we're betting the cups will be biodegradable and blue.

William Christenberry's Southern Sensibility

Washington artist William Christenberry greets Nancy Tartt at his show's opening. (Rebecca D'Angelo - For The Washington Post)

"Always. It's always the South. My heart's in the South," artist William Christenberry says about a new exhibit of his work. The Alabama-born and -bred photographer-painter-sculptor, 68, has lived in Washington for 37 years and teaches drawing at the Corcoran, but his art is inspired by his roots.

Friends and fans packed into Hemphill Fine Arts' new space near Logan Circle Thursday to survey some of Christenberry's signature "Brownies" -- photographs taken on a camera from his boyhood -- plus some new expressionist paintings. "This is the lighter side of my work," he said of the show, which runs through May 14. "It's very celebratory."

With Laura Thomas