Arts & Entertainment

A winning combination

Classical vet Alber joins D.C.-based Goss for Sunday performance

Published

14 years ago

August 16, 2012

Erin Durkin

Matt Alber and Tom Goss
Sunday at 8 p.m.
Atlas (1333 H St., N.E.)
General Admission is $20; VIP $50

Matt Alber, who won fame for his barber shop-set video ‘End of the World,’ won two Grammys for his work in the classical ensemble Chanticleer. (Photo courtesy Alber)

When singer/songwriters Matt Alber and Tom Goss last performed together in Washington, the city was buried under 20-35 inches of snow. Despite the abnormally awful weather, people came out to hear their acoustic love songs.

Now the two are reuniting at Atlas (1333 H St., N.E.) on Sunday evening. Coming from opposite ends of the country, Alber brings his guitar from San Francisco to join the D.C.-based Goss to sing about finding love, losing love and starting anew.

Though the pair may sing about similar things, both say that their styles are very different.

“Matt has a flawless voice, his arrangements are beautiful,” Goss says. “Mine are a little more aggressive than his. People typically say that mine are working class love songs, a little grittier. It is not perfect.”

Alber, a two-time Grammy winner, began his musical career when he joined the group Chanticleer, a classical vocal group that performs baroque and renaissance music. When he first entered pop music, Alber and Goss admired each other’s music from afar.

“We met in San Francisco in 2009 and Tom showed me the ropes,” Alber says. “He encouraged me to take my guitar around as he does.”

Tom Goss (Photo by Michael Key)

Goss, a former Catholic seminarian-turned guitarist, began performing in D.C. coffeehouses in 2006 and has since released two albums and performed in about 100 cities nationwide. In 2011, Blade readers named him best musician. A shameless romantic, many of his songs are inspired by his husband.

“I think we write about what we know,” Goss says. “You have the ability to dream of the world as you would want it.”

Alber uses his music to express his wants and some problems he has faced.

“I use my guitar and my piano as my therapist,” he says. “I sing about things like looking for Mr. Right or working out personal demons.”

He says being gay definitely influences what he writes about and how he sings about love. His songs aren’t just for LGBT listeners, but being out gives them a level of unwritten honesty he says gay listeners appreciate.

“Most of our audience members are super cute gay couples, but straight couples can have just as good of a time. What I write about love can apply to all couples,” he says.

Mixed with his original songs, Alber also does what he describes as “unexpected covers” by artists such as Whitney Houston and Madonna.

While love is a major subject in their music, the artists often touch on challenges that face the LGBT community. Goss, especially, has sung about subjects such as the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law.

“In some of my songs I explored the lives of men in the military who have been affected by DADT,” he says. “Soldiers who had to hide their identities and who they loved.”

Goss says he and Alber work well together, yet only get to see each other a few days a year. This weekend’s performance will be the fourth they’ve done in the past two years.

“I just really admire his music,” Goss says. “I always learn a lot when I play.”

Alber is also looking forward to reuniting with Goss and is especially excited by the slim chance of extreme weather.

“There is absolutely no chance of snow and the Atlas is air conditioned,” he says.

At the end of the night, Alber and Goss will be sitting in the lobby to speak with audience members. They will also be offering a VIP private performance an hour before the doors open to the public.

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Books

New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex

‘Poking the Squid’ on homosexuality, gender swapping, and more

Published

3 hours ago

July 13, 2026

Terri Schlichenmeyer

(Book cover image courtesy W.W. Norton)

‘Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex’
By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
c.2026, W.W. Norton
$29.99 241 pages

Birds do it.

According to Cole Porter, bees do, too, but it’s not exactly what he imagined. Wild and tame, avians, insects, and mammals all have sex – although not always as you’ve been told or for reasons you might think. Even educated fleas do it and, as in the new book, “Poking the Squid” by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland, humans can learn from them all.

If you read through scientific papers on animal reproduction, you might notice something unusual: for scientists, the word “sex” means a lot of different things.

Says Ireland, “It’s used to describe behaviors, biology, life histories, and more.”

That might be because animals are not simply binary.

Take, for instance, hyenas. It’s easy for the casual observer to mistake a male hyena for a female and vice versa because of stereotypes of anatomy. Mating, for hyenas, requires subordination for the male and a nifty trick on the part of the female’s body to get things done.

Our feathered friends are no birdbrains, either: black-browed albatrosses were once thought to be monogamous but global warming seems to have changed their nesting habits sometimes. Male flamingos have sex with one another, as a territorial thing; other birds and animals form same-sex pairs for other reasons.

The Chinese mantis eats her mate after fertilization. Female snakes, alpacas, guinea pigs, and monkeys are anatomically able to enjoy sex. Genitalia between species varies quite a bit; in fact, the vaginas of ducks “are highly complex.” Lionesses will mate up to 100 times when in heat. Female damselflies will change into a “third sex” to avoid overly aggressive mating males. Bearded dragons can change their sex, if needed, as can yellow clown goby fish. And seahorse pregnancy and birth sparked a book banning in Tennessee.

So, asks Ireland, if animals, including us, vary so much in biology and life, “… why are we using the word sex like it means something, anything, consistent?!”

Pick up “Poking the Squid,” page through it a few seconds, and you’ll see that the information here is largely told through cartoon-like drawings mixed with captions. It seems to be something on the lighter side, but don’t let that artwork fool you.

Author Perrin Roosevelt Ireland offers readers solid information that cozies up to the scholarly, with hard science, philosophy, feminism, and quotations from researchers to support it, thus furthering the narrative and hitting the points squarely. If you see the art and expect something lighthearted, comic, and small-talk-worthy, you could be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you want solid, wryly serious facts, you’re in for a treat.

There’s lots of learning to be gleaned here, and some slight nudge-wink whimsy to emphasize the absurdity of wrong-headed thinking. This can make readers feel like they’re in-the-know on the jokes, and the playfulness balances the seriousness of the information well.

So, serious, scholarly, or slightly silly, none of these are negative but you’re going to know what you want from a book like this. For the right reader, someone in the mood, “Poking the Squid” is wild.

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