While WFY is getting BoingBoing-ed for his Barryversary, DC’s own Mark Jenkins got BoingBoing-ed a few minutes before for his Meter Pops street installation. Now while a double DC entry on BoingBoing is reason for DC to celebrate, I wonder if Boing Boing noticed one small little detail:

Marks’ Meter Pop’s installation date of January 17, 2005.

Check your dates next time BoingBoing. His current work is in Fairfax parks.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

You think you know concrete? You think that hard stuff around your office building is the only way it comes? Did you know it can be so light that it floats in water, or so translucent you can see shadows through it? How about come in colors like bright white, or like in the National Gallery of Art East Wing, pink like marble?

This is the ability of concrete, and over at the National Building Museum, one of my favorites, they have a very cool exhibition of concrete and its many forms – Liquid Stone. Unlike concrete, which heats up for the first 24 hours, and then cools for the next 24 years, this exhibition is hot until January 29, then gone for good.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Poem to Wednesday
By Poet Lawyerette

sad wednesday.
you make me so blue.

the pinnacle
of work-week despair,
not able to look ahead,
yet…

not yet clear of my case
of the mondays.

somebody’s got a case of the mondays…
on wednesday.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now here is a hand Google Mashup for those in the real estate biz – DCHomePrices.com. They list all the public record home sales in DC on a Google Map of the city so you can what’s sold in your hood, when, and for how much.

They have sales data for the last 12 months, 1000,000 sales they claim, which makes for a very interesting read. Or a shocking one. I looked at sales in the last 12 months in my zip code: 233 in 20010.

Yikes! Anyone not sell a place last year?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, we thought they’d been sold already. Apparently not.

If you’ve got $20-some-odd million dollars just sitting around doing nothing, you could own your own soccer franchise. The United have been pretty damn good of late, winning more championships in the last decade than any of the other franchises for the last quarter century. Combined.

So, yeah, soccer team, for sale, all serious offers considered.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, if you’re a burger flipper in Maryland, then life gets a lot better for you right about now. A Dollar an Hour better, if that can really be considered all that better to begin with. The Maryland Senate overrode Governor Ehrlich’s veto for the second time in the last seven days.

So, to recap, DC’s minimum wage is $7. Maryland’s is $6.15. Virginia is $5.15. Lesson to all? Minimum wage sucks least in DC.

Technorati Tags: DC, Maryland, local politics

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Although I’ve never trotted out to wave a banner on the steps of the Supreme Court, I take a slightly greater than average interest in their goings-ons. For example, I’m pleased today to see a ruling from them barring the Federal government from interfering in State law on doctor-assisted suicide on the obviously disingenuous basis of controlling the use of legal drugs.

Okay, I can see your eyes glazing over from here, sorry.

My personal obsessions aside, I keep up on this news via the excellent SCOTUSBlog, SCOTUS being Supreme Court Of The United States. It’s run by the lawfirm Goldstein and Howe based in the District, whose web page claims they are “the nation’s only Supreme Court litigation boutique.” I’m going to let you make your own snark over that bit of PR pontification.

If you’re at all a law nerd you’ll find SCOTUSBlog’s coverage of the goings-on of the Roberts’ Bunch to be worthwhile, if sometimes a little too dense for us non-lawyers to comprehend.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Oh my gosh… Carvel is coming to DC.

Those of us who grew up in the immediate environs of New York City and the “tri-state area” should now instantly have a flashback to those crazy commercials of our youth and the sugary ice cream cakes of childhood birthday parties (and of course, “Carvel ice cream cakes” has to be pronounced like you have a huge mouthful of cookie dough, a la Tom Carvel himself). So excited!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I used to be a member of the Mafia. The “Catholic Mafia,” that is. Still confusing this with a small town in Sicilia known as Corleone? Really, it’s not like that at all. This is a term used by alumni of the Catholic University of America’s small but illustrious drama department to explain the phenom of CUA graduates constantly bumping into each other throughout their theater careers. Though I’ve long left that world behind, I still try and keep up with my alma mater, especially now that two of my fantastic mentors when I was in school are currently running the department.

So I thought I’d alert you to a fundraising event they are having February 3 ($30), 4 and 5 ($25). Billed as a “Reunion” of four distinguished alumni – Philip Bosco, David Sabin, Robert Mili, and Barbara Andres – it’s a staged reading of George Bernard Shaw’s “Don Juan in Hell” at the Hartke Theater.

Many years ago at the beginnings of the Washington theater scene, CUA’s drama department was the only gig in town. It should be a real treat to see actors from that generation together and then be able to mingle with them and other members of the “Mafia” afterwards at a post-show reception (that’s only on the night of 2/3, unfortunately my birthday so I’ll have to miss it).

All proceeds will go to the Dean’s Scholarship Endowment, providing financial assistance for Drama Department undergraduates. People would be mistaken to think that Catholic has a large endowment. And the proud history of the Drama Department, intertwined with the history of Washington theater, shouldn’t be ignored. For more on that legacy, check out a biography of the founder, Father Hartke.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Aww yeah, what’s better than one blog-based happy hour this week? How about two blog-based happy hours!

• The first one, started by the unbeknownst-to-me-till-now United Weblogger Meetup Day group looks like it’s gonna be an assembly of random DC “bloggers, commenters, readers, linkers, lurkers, and what have you” so far 30 RSVPs strong for a par-tay on Wednesday in Mackeys @ 1828 L Street.
• Next up we have those crazy kids over at DCist throwing a happy hour to prove “we’re not just Internet dorks, speaking in binary as we hatch nefarious blogger plans in smoke-filled rooms.” Well that remains to be seen, but they did score seemingly cooler digs, Cue Bar @ the north side of U Street, between 11th and 12th Streets for Thursday. Just one question DCist – why you pick a bar w/o a website?

Oh and yes, DCMB will be at both, in style. Good times? Of course. Photos? You bet. Babbling about both on DCMB? Expect nothing less.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While Tom is mixing up his holidays and there are memorials all across DC I’m home doing my own MLK Day vigil.

While not as significant as anything related to Dr. King, I know it’s a vigil that you can personally relate to. I’m doing the UPS Guy vigil. Yes, I am an American consumer, I shop online, and therefore I am beholden to Mr. UPS and Mr. FedEx for my goodies.

Usually I have them sent to work, where the office secretary gives me a shout-out when my loot arrives, but recently online merchants that specialize in electronics, my weakness, have started shipping only to the address associated with your credit card. This means I have to do a timing dance with the building manager of my apartment, timing my departures or arrivals to her inconvenient 8-5 office hours. Who is home at those times, I ask you? But I digress.

Because she has the day off, and my smoking hot grapics card is on a UPS truck somewhere in DC, I’m home awaiting the UPS Guy. If I miss him, he’ll deliver it tomorrow to the building manager and it will be Wednesday morning before I can grab he card from her and Wednesday night before I can break the seal on Age of Empires III, and GTA San Andreas, among other graphic-intensive games Santa brought this Xmas.

So here I wait, looking out my window every few minutes, hoping to catch him in action. Hoping to see that brown truck pull up, stop, and out jump the man with the part in the box dear to my heart. Hoping also to be free of the wait, to get outside today, once at least, and enjoy my day off.

Mid-post update: As I am writing this I saw a UPS truck pull up to the intersection in front of my apartment building, and then keep going. Agh! What a way to teas a man. Mr. UPS Guy, where are you? My mouse trigger finger is getting twitchy with rendered pixel withdrawals!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Thought it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

Not in Virginia, where it’s Lee-Jackson Day. That will take you to Gov. Warner’s 2004 proclamation celebrating Lee-Jackson Day.

Unreal. I didn’t realize it was all that contentious to name a holiday for a civil rights leader who was later shot in the head for standing up for what he believed in. Apparently, it’s a giant deal to Virginia, who chose to name the day for Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, prominent figures in the Civil War, er, War of Northern Aggression…

Pardon me for saying, but this is fucked up. Sure we don’t have the parade for Martin today, we’re having it in April instead, but instead of honoring the memory of a man who sought to equalized rights between the races, we’re honoring generals who fought to protect the difference between them.

That’s fucked up.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Okay, so I am a little late on the review of Fat Pig that I promised you. So sue me.

In a nutshell, I recommend it. If you want a comparison to the other LaBute works I’ve seen – the film version of In the Company of Men and Studio’s 2002 production of The Shape of Things – it’s funnier, but every bit as brutal. Possibly more so, since I think this script makes the lead characters more likeable but just as flawed as the leads in Company and Shape.

If you don’t want any of the story spoiled for you, don’t read any farther.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

So my upstairs neighbour tosses a flyer under my door today telling me he’s having a party tonight, and if he gets too loud, I should let him know.

Funny enough, this building is so old and solid, I don’t hear a thing, I didn’t know if the party was last night or this night. At 10-ish, I went upstairs to see if it was, in fact, tonight, and whaddya know – it was and it was rocking too! This fulfilled my ultimate goal for the day – to not leave my building.

Hey, as the weather service said, it was an wind advisory: gusts up to 60MPH likely. Who wants to be out in that? And why, when @ the Majestic, the party comes to you! Or in my case, a string of supermodels.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now here’s a great way to put a face to all the names that you see posting on DC Metblogs. Instead of hunting around the site to find our own web pages, Tom made a handy, dandy electronic face check. Just click on the photo to the left and you’ll be magically transported to a full size photo where our names will appear when you do a mouse-over.

Hmm… “do a mouse-over”. I think I want that from one of my string of supermodels!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you’re a librarian looking for a sweet gig, the Naval Obsevatory (home to the VP’s residence, by the by) is looking for a new librarian to manage their copious number of books. They’re paying good money, too, between $77k and $100k. From the job description:

As the principal expert in astronomical information and literature for the USNO and the DoD, the incumbent must maintain an extensive knowledge of astronomical literature including USNO programs and other astronomical advances worldwide, including forthcoming major research results, information sources, current research information needs and future requirements in order to have the broad-based knowledge and judgment required to meet the astronomical research needs of the DoD in general and of the USNO in particular with this knowledge, makes acquisition decisions for books, journals (printed and electronic).

Well, that rules me out… but if you want the job, feel free to check it out.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I just got an “emergency alert” from CNN that Rep. Bob Ney is in “talks” to leave his leadership position.

It’s never simple in this town, is it? Ever? Instead of just resigning in disgrace, you have to make a negotiated retreat after taking a shitload of cash from a K St. lobbyist in exchange for favors. How is that someone like that can be in “talks”? That suggests that in exchange for stepping down from the chairman’s position, he’ll get less time in prison, or perhaps a cushier cell at Club Fed.

Mayors-for-life get to make deals with prosecutors for Tax Evasion when if they were just some normal schmoe, they’d be thrown in prison and the key tossed into the Anacostia. Marcus Vick gets in his 9th traffic incident of the year, and instead of getting thrown in jail, he’s getting promoted to the NFL.

Nothing about this town, this life, is ever as simple as a resignation. It’s always a tactical retreat.

Technorati Tags: DC, lawyers, Marion Barry

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Earlier today I wrote a bit about the Council’s demands of the Mayor in order to get the stadium approved. Now, Chris Needham at Capitol Punishment has posted them for everyone to see. The only real stickler at this point is #4: “The commitment from baseball for local ownership of the team, and, for tax purposes, that the team will be based in the District.”

It’s not unreasonable, it’s just that Baseball hates restrictions they don’t inflict…

Technorati Tags: baseball, DC, Nationals

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The saga of the new stadium seems to be absolutely never-ending. It’s on. It’s off. It’s on, kinda. It may be on. It may be off. It is on, but only on alternating Wednesdays in months with six or fewer letters.

But for now, it’s back on again after a deal between the Council, the Mayor, and Major League Baseball. Council Chair Cropp sent a letter to the Mayor yesterday detailing 10 criteria that, if met, would lead to a council approval of the deal. Included in that deal are a cap on stadium costs at $535 million, free tickets for disadvantaged youth, and a promise for a local ownership group.

Mayor Williams also asked MLB and private developer groups to purchase a $500,000 ad buy in local radio and newspaper ads to try to convince the populace of the merits of a new stadium built with public money in Southeast.

These new developments look good for the area: the City gets a cap on stadium expenses, and still gets much of the stadium revenue, and MLB has to deal with the fact that the new owner will have to foot overruns. Not shabby.

Technorati Tags: baseball, DC, Nationals

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I had planned to write a humorous post yesterday about Wednesday night’s happy hour/liquid dinner, including a rant on RFD’s Communist Cafeteria decor (complete with insanely uncomfortable seats). Or on the continuation that night of an utterly fascinating conversation with Darpino on the nature of cities. But I find I’m completely unable to muster any type of enthusiasm. The reason being I had to leave my cat Jules at Friendship Hospital for Animals yesterday morning, where he spent the night under observation and may have to stay another night. He’s been diagnosed with feline diabetes.

I’m not one of those who regard their cats as their children. I’m fully aware that I am attached to them as relational objects, that I project an anthropomorphic relationship onto our dealings. I’m not overly sentimental about them. And yet… and yet…

It was the fall of 1995 and I was on my own in DC. I had a great apartment in Adams Morgan and I was embarking on a promising career as an actor. At last, I was able to fulfill my lifelong wish to have a cat. Off I went to the Washington Humane Society and promptly adopted a longhaired white Maine Coon, with one green eye and one blue. He turned out to be deaf, loudly vocalizing that long first night, scratching me for months and rebuffing all attempts at cuddling. But one night when I was in a drunken heap on the floor, sobbing my heart out about some ridiculous boy, he crept up and licked the tears from my eyes. Ten years later – he is my devoted cat, following me around the house, staring at me incessantly (the quickest way to a narcissist’s heart) and meowing that odd little “chirrup” sound he only uses with me. He’s pugnacious, destructive, and adorable. Now he’s sick and I’m faced with giving him two insulin shots every day for the rest of his life – if he’s easily regulated. The prospect of what happens if he’s a “brittle diabetic” and the choice I may have to make is what’s keeping me from being able to focus and concentrate on normal daily activities. I visited him last night and can’t get the image of the catheter sticking out of his leg or the way he buried his face in the crook of my arm.

So a big thanks to the folks at Friendship Hospital, who are really top-notch in the way they’re taking care of him, and helping me understand the issues of this disease. And to the Humane Society where I first got my Washingtonian cat.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs