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Metro Mess Results in Evening Walk

Metro was a mess yesterday, so I skipped the Orange Line and took a taxi to meet up with a friend in Arlington, but it turned out that said friend got stuck on a Blue just short of Rosslyn and eventually had to cancel because no Orange Line trains were coming. Generally, it seems that when any line outside of the Red has a major problem, the delays cascade to the other non-Reds, since Orange runs with Blue, Blue merges with Yellow, and Yellow joins with Green, so later that night it was with trepidation that I descended into the Southwest Waterfront Metro — in time to see my train pulling out of the station, with an indefinite wait for the next one. (The signs were just showing the time, no arrival info.)

So I walked home. Yeah, it was DC at 10pm, and I thought I would get mugged at least twice, but the path up to the National Mall was well lit, patrolled often by MPD, and I spotted a few other people out and about whom I wouldn’t have expected would be out. A jogger was doing jumping jacks outside the American Indian Museum. The Capitol Terrace and Grant Memorial were deserted, the Capitol Reflecting Pool thawed and populated by sleeping ducks, the normal traffic of DC quieted to a hiss, surprisingly devoid of firetruck sirens for the evening.

So thanks for FUBARing yesterday, DC Metro. I got a nice, relaxing evening walk, and I saved $1.35 which would otherwise have been spent deep underground in a station listening to over-loud Metro Transit Police security reminders while waiting for a train that could have taken longer to arrive than it took to go on foot.

What’s that, Metro? Another track fire near Farragut North and doors opening themselves mid-transit, you say? Well, maybe I’ll save another $1.35 and walk again, then.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Day late and a corset short

After looking at the entry for this thursday’s media maker happy hour event I surfed a little around Upcoming and came across this entry for yesterday’s today’s Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School at Showbar. Shoot! I’ve seen Molly Crabapple‘s work linked off Warren Ellis’ site in the past – an art class presented by her would be very interesting. Plus, any excuse to go to the Palace of Wonders is a good one in my book. And maybe that whole burlesque model thing might motivate me a little too, kinda

Did any of you make it out for this event?

UPDATE: Whoops! When I didn’t see it on the Dr Sketchy schedule of upcoming events listing my brain decided it must have already passed and today is Wednesday. Unfortunately I can’t make it tonight – anyone going and want to give us a review?

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Dove Love

This morning I woke up to an eerie sound outside the bedroom window.

“Twit-twooo-wooo-hooo”

Upon closer investigation, I was staring into the sad little eye of a dove, preening on the windowsill. Completely oblivious to my presence, it called and called, fluffing up its feathers, bowing.

My cat started to go wild, meowing and winding around my legs.

And then suddenly a second dove appeared, and the two did the most intricate dance of bobbing heads as if they were kissing each others’ cheeks. From my windowsill to the neighbors and back again, the courtship continued long after I finally had to break away and get ready for work.

I often wonder about wildlife in the city. I remember my junior year at CUA an eagle made a nest in the eaves of the Hartke Theatre. The doves are now making a home for themselves on my roof and windowsills. Maybe they’ll even make a nest outside my bedroom window. My home, their home.

One thing is for certain. Spring is coming…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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DC Online Dating Profile Stats: At Least 59 Options for “Couples (2 women) seeking Men”

dc fashion week

Have you every wondered how many online dating and hookup profiles are there in Washington DC? Back in my single days, it was a great guessing game that my crew and I would debate when not hunting.

Now that the clock-stopping hottie has my heart, I’m no longer in the game, but I do know exactly how many people are using Salon Personal Ads to look for love in the District of Columbia.

Thanks to their profile sorting system, we now know there are exactly 9,555 online profiles registered as DC residents.

Better yet, Salon Personals will even break them down into groups. There are the usual men seeking women or couples seeking a woman, but the stats get interesting as the kink factor increases.

Do you want to know exactly how many:

then take the jump to see the full list of who is seeking who in DC online personal ads.

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The Blue Cylon Tower


At Shirlington Library

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I pulled off 395 heading for the house the other night when I ran into the nigh-blinding glow of the blue light tower that’s attached to the new Shirlington Library. Even from the distance of a tenth of a mile or so, the glow coming off the light tower is just blinding. It dominates the entire Shirlington village, even drowning out the white lights in the naked trees.

What’s it for? What’s it supposed to be? Damned if I know. But, as it gently throbs, I’m calling it the Blue Cylon Tower until someone tells me its real name.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Downtown Lights Out

A good portion of Georgetown (or at least the eastern section of it) has no power whatsoever. The street lights are out, the traffic lights are out, the fire engines are going and all manner of havoc is going on downtown today. Between this, the Metro being all fucked up, this is going to be a nasty, nasty commute home.

What the hell happened, DC?!

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Orange Line SNAFU

The Metro appears to be broken, yet again. There’s a major service disruption between Smithsonian and Federal Triangle, essentially cutting the Orange and Blue lines in half. According to the Metro Delays site: “Station closed and bus shuttle service requested due to an emergency situation.. “ No idea yet if this will wreck your rush hour commute, but I’m guessing Metro’s gonna suck tonight.

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It’s DC Fashion Week 2007!

dc fashion week

Surprise, surprise! DC has fashion, and this is DC Fashion Week!

A partnership of independent fashion designers, producers and models, DC Fashion Week promotes the area’s fashion design, clothing merchandising and hot models.

It also has the dubious goal of enhancing the visibility of the nation’s capital as a center of international fashion.

While I wish them good luck in that, you should wish good luck to my hottie co-worker Chanelle.

In her fashion finest this week, she’ll be strutting down the runway on February 28th at the Fair Trade Collections, hosted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Drinks start at 6:00pm, Fashion Show at 7:00pm, and the chance to chat up smoking hot models lasts all night long!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Framing Fantastico

Here we go again, another snowstorm in the DC area. Or wait – is it rain? Either way, you may be getting sick of us talking about snow or restaurant bathrooms, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to show off what I think is a great photo by Linda O’Dell .

At first glance I thought this may have been taken using an antique camera that uses something called “film”. Alas, it’s not film, but merely a Photoshopped digital photo from a Sony DSLR-A100. The framing and composition of this shot is superb, and the grain and shading at the top and bottom add a nice effect. Overall this shot really captures one of my favorite places in this city, our beloved Mall. In the summer you can find free movies, kickball games, and swarms of tourists. In the winter you can find protests, people having snowball fights, and swarms of tourists. I just think it’s great that we have such a huge place set aside for us to keep ourselves entertained.

Good luck navigating that snowstorm DC. I hope your commute is as fun as mine is tomorrow morning.

PS – I’m sure if you’re a Canon enthusiast like I am, you’ve by now heard of their newly announced DSLR, the amazing 1D Mark III. Redesigned from the ground up, this thing shoots 10 frames per second (amazingly fast), has a Live View mode (like a point and shoot), sensor cleaner, all new menu system, custom lens focusing, amazing auto focus abilities, improved ISO range…the list goes on and on. They’ve really set the bar with this one. It will be interesting what Nikon and others do to catch up.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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A Possible Pre-Protest Conversation

“Honey, it’s a beautiful winter day in Washington DC. What do you want to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the usual: head down to the White House and put my hood on.”

white house protest

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“Really? But you’ve done that the last few warm weekends too”

“And I’m going to keep doing it until the illegal Guantanamo prison filled with Bush-declared “enemy combatants” is empty.”

“But that might be for years?”

“So?”

“At least take the knee pads I bought you for Christmas”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Fluffy Snow


Fluffy Snow

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

It’s a fluffy snow out there today, coming down in big, heavy flakes. I got up this morning expecting sleet and slush, and was greeted with this sight instead. I swept the walk at 11, but looking at it now and quarter past twelve, I think I only made the snow angry.

Judging from my discussions with a few people in varied parts of town, snow’s everywhere in DC, with even the treated streets amassing snow. If you’re on the roads today, be careful. If you’re wondering where the plows are, check the new snowplow tracking system, but from the looks of it, they’re salting, not plowing, at this point.

This is just about perfect snowball snow, though, so expect some quality snowball fights in your neighborhood today, and be prepared to make a nice fort. I expect tomorrow will be less than fun, though.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Over an inch already

Well, while Capital Weather says “1-3″ accumulation, esp southwest, west and northwest;” between 10a and 2p, I’d say we already have well over 1.5″. It’s picture-perfect, light and fluffy. Throw em if you roll em… snowballs, that is.

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Cafe Asia Unisex Bathroom Decision Time

It’s a Cafe Asia Downtown happy hour and you brought your passport to drink. You are bloated from cheap Kirin or $3 Japanese sake. You need to wiz. As you stumble into the bathroom, you’re present with a Washington DC first: a unisex bathroom:

café asia toilet

Which door are you going to choose? And if you are a guy, might you shut the door behind you? Thanks.

We need not see your toilet choice no matter if we stand or sit.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Fifty Thousand?!

George Washington University has the dubious honor of being the most expensive college in all of the United States, according to a study quoted on tonight’s All Things Considered. You can listen to Robert Siegel’s interview with GW’s President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. Noted for me is the weaselly sound of justification for their exhorbitant tuition. Personally, I don’t think any amount of education can possibly be worth $200,000 of debt racked up over a four year degree. More so, I think many high school kids would do well to catch Accepted, and think about the process of higher education as a whole. Hell, GW’s tuition on an annual basis is higher than the median household income in the United States.

So, GW alums, what do you think? $50k a year? Too Much? Too Little? Ridiculous? It seems to me that Fifty K a year ought to come with, ahem, some other benefits.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Dr Watson: a Dulles Arrival Error

Check out the digital arrival board at Dulles Airport, D Terminal.

Dr Watson was not able to attach to the process and now the arrivals screen is a wack.

When Windows 2000 returns error code 87 and the parameter is incorrert does that mean flights will be delayed?

Maybe Max knows the answer? I know Linux would attach the process right ever time.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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Hang ’em if you got ’em

To follow up on Mr. Whiteside’s post from the other day regarding stupid things on the road and the government’s reaction. It seems that when the Maryland legislature said they dedicate more time on transportation issues, the voting populous had no idea what they would actually do. Well, it seems the Washington Post has covered one of the more, appealing/apalling extras rednecks and truckers add to their vehicles. But really, do politicians have nothing else better to concentrate on?

Yes, we’re talking about novelty testicles for your trailer hitch. I prefer the old classic lady recline art on the mud flaps, but, obviously, the kind of folks that utilized them wanted to move up from the Ugly Kid Joe/Calvin peeing on said “brand” stickers, and go directly to anthropomorphizing their vehicles. I’ve seen these on just about most vehicles… except for low-riders, which, well…you get the picture. I just wished somebody would add fake hooters to the “headlights” on cars… at least they’d stick with the nickname.

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WMATA Green Line Rappers

The next time you are approaching Shaw/Howard University Metrorail station, put an ear out for these two WMATA Green Line Rappers.

Lyrical masters, with tongue twisting rhymes set to their own jams, the two wordsmiths are captured by Jkid4 in this video:

Not a rap aficionado, I don’t know if they’re throwing down their own routine, or if its stand-up karaoke, but either way, Metro should sign them up for the coming musician corners in Metro stations.

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So, what’s in a drink?

old Dominion Brewing
While inebriating ourselves during the DC Metblogs happy hour (more details to be released soon, if not already), we got to recapping some current news regarding our venue of choice, the newly opened Old Dominion Brewhouse at the DC Convention Center. Much fun was to be had and many beverages were consumed (as well as many plot conceived). I was also, with a heavy heart disclosed (as covered recently in the Washington post as well as the DC Beer List) that Old Dominion, one of the original “new brewers” of the D.C. beer Renaissance was sold to Anheuser-Bush and Fordham Brewing in a 49/51 split. What was more unconscionable in the discussion was the news disclosed that the old guard brewers were dismissed (as were many other staff) without as much as severance pay, let alone being kept on to familiarize the new owners with “how things worked” at Old Dominion. Do we want to drink beer (or root beer)`, now, from a company that behaves in such a fashion?

While this may be old news in the brewing community, the acts purported to have happened due the the relatively haphazard take-over of a local institution of brewing in the DC Metro area raises some alarm. Are we to loose such a unique fixture as Old Dominion to the faceless macro brewery conglomerate, known unaffectionably as A-B? Will the known Old Dominion Ale and other local favorites as Tupper’s Hop Pocket Ale go the way of the Do-Do (or at least the way of Foggy Bottom Brewing)? Voice your opinion here, on the possible overthrow of the evil overlords that may possibly erase a tradition in DC that has just celebrated it’s 15th Anniversary of life. Will D.C.’s brewing history start to fade away as many other traditions that are uniquely D.C. as globalization and big-business eat up countless local flavors?

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The windy city, at least for tonight

I hope Max will forgive me for treading on his usual domain, but when searching for an image on flickr to join my commenting on the gales outside I came across this shot. I expect that with gusts up to fifty mph we may see some shots tomorrow that look more like this, but I loved this shot from Aaron Edwards of a rippling flag around our monument.

A good friend of mine, when visiting DC, is always tickled by the sight of the Capitol dome. To her that’s the quintessential DC image. For me it’s the Washington Monument, and it’s hard for me not to smile when I catch sight of it, however distantly. Is there any one sight that, for you, is the epitome of DC?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs