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How to make yourself happier using your own strengths

On a scale of one to 10, how happy are you? Ever wonder if maybe you aren’t as happy as you could be?

SNL's Sudeikus, Forte bring laughs to sports fans

Sports stars’ endorsements provided a springboard for many of the sketches. While mentoring inner-city children, Super Bowl-bound quarterback Peyton Manning showed them how to “get ahead” in life — by keying into cars, hitting on beautiful women and successfully running from the police.

Bethesda tapas restaurant modernizes Spanish cuisine

For Bethesda-Chevy Chase Restaurant Week, trendy tapas restaurant Jaleo whittled its detailed menu down to a five-course meal featuring the best of its traditional and modern Spanish fare. For a mere $30, diners were able to share generous portions of Jaleo’s most popular dishes, served on modern white flatware at a relatively speedy pace.

Upright Citizens Brigade set troupe on D.C.

Chances are, when you flip on your favorite sitcom or sketch comedy show, the people you’re watching and the people behind the scenes have some kind of formal comedy training. That doesn’t necessarily mean sitting in college lecture halls deconstructing what makes a joke funny. Often, it means an ...

Beyoncé sets record with eight Grammys

When you put the biggest names in music under one roof, you’re bound to make history. That’s what this year’s 52nd Grammy Awards set out to do. No expenses were spared and the stars came out in their finest. Never one to disappoint the fashion world, Lady Gaga wore a glitzy purple and silver ...

Rude Mechanicals 'Lear' in audience

D.C.'s 'Fridge' workshops offer secrets behind graffiti art

With a name like The Fridge, one would assume a cold, uninviting vibe from the events held at the venue. However, this Capitol Hill art space is quite the opposite. After visiting the gallery to attend their Sunday workshops, it is easy to warm up to The Fridge.

Band brawls take fight to new venue: the Web

In middle school, many students learn that a fight can take place without any face-to-face confrontation. It becomes a war of words, snide comments and notes passed to others. Now some members of the music industry have taken passive-aggressive fights to a whole new level with the help of the Internet.

Miss D.C. Jen Corey takes top 10 in Miss America pageant

AU alumna Jen Corey swept the stage in gowns of blue and black and made it to the top 10 in the Miss America Pageant.

Fans await return of Conan O'Brien to late night TV

The battle for “The Tonight Show” host spot is far more entertaining than any VH1 reality series. Jay Leno became host of “The Tonight Show” 17 years ago, succeeding Johnny Carson. Last May, Conan O’Brien took Leno’s spot as late-night funny man. Initially, Conan’s ratings were below Leno’s. When a new host takes over a show, ratings are expected to be low for the first year and a half. Conan was taken off air after seven months.

'Last Station' highlights love old and new

With an all-star cast featuring the likes of Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy, “The Last Station” was bound to be the stuff of indie film magic. Directed by Michael Hoffman (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), “The Last Station” focuses on the final year in the life of famed Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. Based on the Jay Parini novel of the same name, “Station” takes on the most difficult aspect in Tolstoy’s life at the time: his relationship with his erratic wife, Sofya (Mirren).

National Gallery of Art shows off French art with 'Chester Dale Collection'

The National Gallery of Art’s latest exhibit, “Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection,” sounds like the title of an art history survey course. In contrast to a typical exhibit that showcases the work of a single artist or movement, the NGA’s undertaking sweeps through periods, artists and styles of French art from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Salinger's death leaves behind "Catcher in the Rye' legacy

J.D. Salinger, master of the short story and patron saint of disaffected teenagers, passed away last week at the age of 91. From the time he published the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” he was almost instantly added to the canon of American literature — a new, distinct voice that ...

Cultural bias colors lens of Turk history

Once upon a time, a man named Mustafa Kemal decided to make his people westernized. After winning a war of independence, driving out foreign invaders and abolishing a corrupt sultanate and outdated Caliphate, he went further. Using his position as head of the army, as well as his personal popularity stemming from his military victories, he began transforming every aspect of his country’s society.

'Edge of Darkness' loses plot lines, audience

His status as a human notwithstanding, a Mel Gibson-helmed thriller about a father seeking justice for the daughter who died in his arms sounds like an exciting idea. In practice, however, “Edge Of Darkness” is a middling and fruitless mystery that takes itself far too seriously.

'Of Montreal' bring 'False Priest' to 9:30 club

Of Montreal are actually not from Montreal, but that’s the least shocking thing about them. Of Montreal are also not a band comprised of leotard-clad men in farm animal masks, but anyone who watched them take the stage at the 9:30 club on Thursday, Jan. 28 could have been fooled. In what their set ...

Beyoncé, Swift rake in Grammy nominations

The Grammys go to the girls this year. Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga all received six or more nominations for the coveted awards. But we bet you’ll tune to see if The Lonely Island can beat out Jay-Z and Kanye for “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration” with their YouTube sensation, “I’m On a Boat.”