I’m loving this, um, holiday oriented high key shot by Flickrite flickr-rickr. First off, clone out the black spot in the lower left corner, but moving along – I love this alternative shot of dear old St. Nick. This could be the artwork for say, Green Day’s Christmas Album. The lesson here though is that you shouldn’t be afraid to blow out your highlights if it fits the shot and I think it really adds to this photo in particular. Ho, ho, *cough*, ho!

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… but anyone looking at these auctions already wants a Wii for themselves or someone else. Apparently jmontalvo7881 of Fairfax didn’t want to risk anything however, and stuck in a gratuitous cleavage shot.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

photo courtesy of jmontalvo7881

Sadly there’s no picture included for the vibrating remote.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Are you hungry right now? Might you want a salad for lunch? Maybe at Cosi? Maybe the one at 15th and K Streets NW?

If so, be careful. This is the view at the lunch rush last week – four lines all the way to the door.

Apparently its training week at this downtown Cosi, a training week for the cashiers and the food preps.

Not a training week like at Corner Bakery, that would be rough, but still a challenge.

A challenge my cashier didn’t handle too well, handing me my salad without fork, napkin, or bread.

Still, I give her credit, the line was long, people were hungry, and she was trying her best.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I have to meet some folks for dinner tonight near Wisconsin and M Street. Are there any places folks know to park that are:
a. cheap
b. close
c. free

or possibly some combination of any two of those above requirements? Usually I find myself just driving through on my way somewhere so I am not too familiar with parking in the area, except that I know it’s difficult and/or expensive. Thanks for your help!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Honor By August 4

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Saturday evening brought two great things together at least: good gumbo and good rock music. I found myself with a dilemma: with just an hour before showtimes, our usual standby restaurants in Clarendon were quoting 30-45 minute wait times. Stunned and disappointed, we gave the Iota Cafe a try before the concert.

The Iota Cafe, part of the ever famous Iota Club and Cafe, serves light fare, and a mean seafood gumbo, in a small space with about 10-15 tables. Prices are reasonable, and I was actually really impressed with the seafood gumbo I had. Their wine list is pretty good as well, with a nice bottle of red wine running around $30, dinner for two with wine and dessert can run less than $100 with tip, which isn’t shabby with alcohol and service included.

The opening band for the evening was Color Side, which took advantage of pretty much every modern rock cliche: stylish guitar player hides behind his hair and rocks while staring at his feet, lead singer gives up on the microphone and turns his back to the audience to rock with the keyboard player because it’s all about the muuuuuusic, man! They were solid, but cliched.

Elevator to Space (whose website I love its unix geekery) was the middle band, serving as an excellent bridge from the cliched-but-good Color Side and the very excellent Honor By August. Their mixture of Doves-inspired jam rock and good ol’fashioned rock and roll kept the crowd’s attention and inspired some dancing, but it was clear that this was a crowd for Honor By August alone.

As soon as Elevator to Space was done with their set, the crowd moved en masse to fill the small gap between the front of the stage and the patrons already there. They played a rousing set, closing out with several new songs from the upcoming album. Evan Fields can really wail on guitar, and Michael Pearsall’s vocals are topnotch. The lightshow, put on by the guys who do the lights for Widespread Panic, was excellent and added to the incredible instrumentals for the evening.

Going out to Iota reminded me how much I love good live music, and I think I’ll have to start heading out there more often.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I bet you were sad to hear that Pluto was downgraded from the ninth planet to dwarf planet number 134340.

Photo by DC Metroblogger

But I bet you’re not as sad as the American Geophysical Union.

Their very cool headquarters on Florida Avenue has all nine planets embedded in the sidewalk around the building. Each positioned at its relative distance from the sun.

Now they’re gonna need a jackhammer and concrete filler to remove this little guy – Pluto – from their sidewalk.

That or start adding a whole other range of dwarves.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Santa couldn’t get it all done every year without the reindeer. These were just a few of the ones who joined the bevy of Santas for Santarchy this year. I’ll tell you all about it later when I’m less tired and drunk. Suffice to say it was a blast, up till the second my darling girlfriend and I had to bail out and go to a friend’s christmas party. I suspect many of our fellow Santas are still out tearing it up, but after the first few hundred years of Santa-dom you realize there’s all tomorrow’s parties to stay fresh for and sometimes you just gotta pack it in.

Ho Ho Ho.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This past week I had to get something down at the Container Store in Clarendon. Normally I don’t like the idea of a store that sells things like boxes to store your boxes in but I had a particular need I was pretty well stymied by. But when I got to the Clarendon shopping area I found myself circling around three times, trying all the side streets within a reasonable walking distance and still not finding a spot to park in.

Sure, I could have used the parking garage there but I don’t feel right about paying to park so I can give more of my money away. The meters don’t bother me so much, being able to take as little as a quarter, but the garages do. I needed a spot for about ten minutes. That doesn’t justify parking in the $2 garage.

So are there any secret parking spots folks know around that area that maybe I just missed?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

What might this be? Is this an eviction or a house cleaning? The couch, it’s definitely ready to go. The clothes less so.

Looking closer, that would look good in my house. Oh where is a pick-up truck when you need one. If only I had Don’s cell phone number.

Then again, this will not last long and Don lives far, far away. The urban rats will cart off the couch, by hand if need be.

The clothes, I went through them by hand. Not much. Not like the sweet leather jacket I found once. That street find kept me warm, all the way to Peace Corps Russia.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Can you tell I’m a little excited? Santarchy 06 is tomorrow!

photo courtesy of The Opus

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship has monthly peace walks around the White House on the second Sunday of the month. This month it is the 10th at 1:00 p.m. From their online flier:

“Join us as we walk in silence for peace around the White House. We will gather at 1:00 p.m. in Lafayette Park for a brief welcome and short readings from different faith traditions and then walk in silence for about an hour around the White House. We will close with a short meditation and reflection. No signs or banners are needed, but wear a white shirt if you have one.”

Buddhist or non-Buddhist, all are welcome.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Do you think you’re brave? Do you scoff at fear? Can you tell really bad racist jokes too? Then this is your twin.

This crazy homeless guy was straddling a lane divider in Friday morning 16th Street NW rush hour traffic, screaming racist jokes at oncoming cars as he professed his fearlessness.

Oh and don’t think it was a momentary loss of insanity, he was going all bravado long enough for me to make an entire Flicker set of his antics.

Later, after he successfully navigated his way, Frogger style, to the curb, he reaffirmed his invincibility to me several times before, overwhelmed by his spittle, I dove into a waiting supermodel’s car for a ride to work.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Here’s visual proof that we live in a diverse city. Or at least have an enlightened WMATA: the reader poetry up on Metrobuses – its in Spanish as much as English.

This little ditty came from Kiara Garcia. She’s in 4th grade at Key Elementary School, and already a poet.

While my Spanish is crap, it seems like she’s writing about the good things in life: family and food. No argument there.

But I can hear the chorus warming up to speak out against her, with many voices from Herndon. About how this is yet another erosion of “American” life. How WMATA should only have English poetry.

To quote another: can’t we all just get along?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Woohoo! DC it is snowing! Winter is here and that means only one thing (besides bad cell phone photos that fail to capture snow): Ben’s Chili Bowl to heat you up!

You know you want it right about now, late, cold, and tipsy on a Thursday night.

That is if you are brave enough to challenge tonight’s snow flurries.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Tree 3

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Look at that lovely tree. It’s the National Christmas Tree as part of the Annual Pageant of Peace, featuring 56 smaller trees representing the 50 states and 6 associated territories (including our own District of Columbia). The tree was lit tonight as part of an incredibly shlocky 90 minute program featuring John Conlee, Cathy Rigby, Eartha Kitt, and B.J. Thomas. If you’ve only heard of one of those performers, you’re doing about as well as I am.

Eartha Kitt was the only name I recognized, and her rendition of “Santa Baby” was pretty darn impressive. Her “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” though, wasn’t so good. What John Conlee did to “O Holy Night” is actually a crime in six southern states. And can someone please tell me why Cathy Rigby sang something from Peter Pan on stage?

The whole thing is certainly an American Tradition, but I can’t decide if it’s one that needs some quality time being reformed.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I went to the DC Media Makers group at Biddy Mulligan’s on Tuesday night. Great turnout – about double the number of people I had expected.

A little background on the group: DC Media Makers is a group of local videobloggers who want to get together to learn from each other and enjoy each others’ company and friendship. Andy Carvin, Jonny Goldstein and I all moved here over the summer within a few weeks of each other and had known each other from a larger videoblogging community online. Why not start a local group, we figured.

We will meet on Tuesday evenings from 7-9 every other week. Anyone interested in joining us, please check out the site and subscribe to the RSS feed. We are not restricting this to videobloggers but are open to anyone interested in blogging at all or even just likeminded folks who are interested in video.

Come one, come all.

We are also in search of a meeting space. What we want is a place where we can talk, share our projects, plug in laptops and get onto a WiFi connection. We prefer a place where we could eat or have sodas or something. Any ideas? Please let me know!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I know it’s cold tonight, and I know you’re the leader of the free world, but would it have killed you to walk from the White House to the Ellipse for the Christmas Tree Lighting instead of taking your whole motorcade the sum total of one block?

I know, I know, you’re hiding behind the Secret Service. I respect that, I suppose, they’re just doing their job, but there’s got to be a way to avoid this kind of stuff, no? It’s silly that you can’t walk one block, from the White House (one of the most heavily guarded fortresses in the world), to the Ellipse, one of the most heavily surveilled places in this city. The President is supposed to be a man of the people, not a hidden figured shushed away by private car.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There’s something to be said for consistency. Consistency shows that a business has a model for its operations and that the employees do things the same way every time. Unfortunately, the whole concept breaks down when it is all done badly. That’s the problem with Chesapeake Bagel Bakery on Harrison Ave. in Arlington.

Everything I have had there is terrible. About once a month I trick myself into thinking maybe it wasn’t really that bad. After all, how can you screw up a bagel that bad? I must be misremembering, I tell myself.

Then my memory is refreshed by a new experience. Yes, it really was that bad. The food, customer service, even the coffee.

I really wish I had a more positive posting about this place. The line gets amazingly long there and I wonder if it’s just my bad luck or if everyone is in the same boat as I am, figuring they misremembered how bad it was? I don’t have high standards or a very discriminating palate and I am not a bagel snob at all. I have tried many times and have finally decided that the food there sucks.

So where are the good bagels in Arlington?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Only in DC, with its f~*ked taxi zone system would I have a taxi day like today.

First it was training day on a drive to NoVA. The driver could not find 1100 Wilson and ignored my clear directions.

He then refused to use the mileage method required of interstate drives, asking for a flat $20. Only at $10 did I agree.

On my way to a second meeting at Dupont Circle, I asked the driver to change destinations from the Circle itself to 19th and Connecticut, in the middle of the ride.

This taxi driver demanded that I pay double, as if for two trips. When I quoted the taxi rules to him, that its not additional unless we actually arrive at the first stop and I make him wait, he got all pissy. Rather than argue more with him, I got out.

Now tell me. Would I have either of those fare arguements if DC taxis had meters?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I love my Moleskine notebooks. I use one for client notes, one for class notes, and hell, even one for pubquiz. The hardbound cover, the ribbon for keeping your place, the eminently touchable page, it’s a paper-fanatic’s dream. What’s this got to do with DC? Well, Moleskine has announced City Notebooks, featuring maps and metro directions, they’ll be available in the Spring. Want to start a restaurant guide to keep around the house for when friends visit? Perfect. Want to give your tourist freeloader friends a good guide to town in your own hand? Perfect.

At $24, it’s not an instant buy, but when you think of the possibilities….oh, sign me up for five or six!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs