photo courtesy of GiraMondo

The day has arrived – an evening out for myself and my darling girlfriend where we’ll sip a half-dozen varieties of champagne and learn more about the bubbly than we ever thought we’d know. Tickets are still available on their website for fellow fans of sparkling wine (*ahem* Jenn) if you want to come join us at the Woman’s National Democratic Club tonight from 7pm to 9pm.

Whittemore House (WNDC) – Dupont Circle
Woman’s National Democratic Club
1526 New Hampshire Av. NW
Washington, DC 20036

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Eddie Lounge

My Fringe outing last night was stag – I couldn’t convince my darling girlfriend that three shows in thirty hours was a good plan. But how could I, a stout Richard Cheese fan, miss The Eddie Lounge Show?

The show’s a good, simple time, a dozen or so song performances loosely bound together by a a lightweight love triangle. The shape of a martini glass viewed from the side – surely no coincidence. The singers range from okay – Rocco – to good – Eddie – to pretty amazing – Brandy Alexander. It’s perfectly appropriate for Brandy to outshine Eddie and Rocco – she’s performing below her station both artistically and as a beauty who could do way better than Eddie and Rocco combined.

There’s a little audience participation in the show, beyond the audience playing the part of the lounge act’s, well, audience. Rocco’s interaction with the crowd is particularly funny, as well as his tendency to offer advice ranging from simple to pure lunacy by prefacing it with “You know, in my experience…” All in all an enjoyable hour of entertainment worth you $15.

Remaining shows are 8pm every night from tonight, Wednesday, July 25, through Saturday, July 28th. Two additional shows are scheduled for Friday, July 27 and Saturday, July 28 at 10:00pm. Don’t be fooled by the Arena Stage name – this is their ‘black box’ theater on 14th St NW, just a block up from Source and a few from Studio, not the main Arena Stage location in SW.

Arena Stage – Black Box Theater
14th St. NW & T St. NW
Washington DC, DC 20009

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Everyone and their grandma is always giving Microsoft a hard time about their security (or lack thereof). Why? Because their software is used across the globe more than any other software, making it a prime target for hackers. I mean why would you try to hack Linux when only a handful of people are using it? Might as well get more bang for your buck by writing a virus that targets Windows users right?

Lookout Apple. Your success might just give you a taste of Microsoft’s medicine.

It was recently discovered that the beloved iPhone (the overpriced piece of plastic that makes you feel cool when others gawk at it) isn’t quite as secure as people thought. What? An Apple product isn’t secure? Nonsense! Steve Jobs would never allow that!

Believe it sister. It appears that someone can hack in via wi-fi, e-mail/text message, or malicious web pages allowing full access to your pretty little phone. Watch those nude photos of your girlfriend get swiped and uploaded to the web. Whoops! Sorry honey!

The way I see it, if you’re one of those in DC who owns an iPhone, you have three options:

1) Don’t keep any sensitive material on your iProduct.
2) Be careful of the websites you’re browsing as well as the wireless access points you’re connecting to. Use your best judgement on this one as to what “secure” and “safe” mean.
3) Do this.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Metro’s unveiled new online maps for their stations, which include local business listings, all powered by Google Maps (It’s the best. True that, Double True.) Now you can see restaurants, banks, grocery stores, hotels, and museums near any metro station in the system, which can be mighty handy for printing out before you head to a part of town you’ve never been to before. Nicely done, WMATA.

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Creepy-ass Flying Monkey

For three Fridays in August, the City of Falls Church will host their 4th Annual Sunset Cinema, a free movie shown at Cherry Hill Park, located at 312 Park Avenue. This year’s series is entitled “Cutesy Shit and Flying Monkeys.” Well, maybe not, but that’s what I would call it.

Here is the lineup:
Friday, Aug. 10, 8:30 p.m. – “Happy Feet”
Friday, Aug. 17, 8:30 p.m. – “The Wizard of Oz”
Friday, Aug. 24, 8:30 p.m. – “Charlotte’s Web”

In case of inclement weather, the movies will be shown in the Falls Church Community Center at 223 Little Falls Street.

Just be sure to cover your eyes during the scenes with flying monkeys. Those things scared the mess out of me when I was a tyke!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Anybody here into ancient Japanese theatre arts and music?… C’mon, raise your hand, I see you.

So Heisei Nakamura-Za Kabuki is in DC this Thursday at the Warner Theatre downtown (as if it was anywhere else). I’ve kind of been enchanted with, at least, the music that could be heard, since it’s not ethnically from my “eastern heritage”, namely Russian and German. I’m pretty much am looking for a visual expansion of what is the only traditional Japanese music I have in my collection (and now, dull my ignorance of the genre.. thank you Blade Runner).

Good tickets are still available, although a little pricey, but the cool factor outweighs price at this point. The performance website describes the event thusly:

“The Japan-America Society of Washington DC proudly presents two performances of Japan’s most famous theatre—-Kabuki. Join us on Thursday, July 26 as one of Japan’s greatest actors, Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII and over 80 members of the Heisei Nakamura-za Kabuki troupe of Tokyo come to the Warner Theatre. On the playbill are Kanjincho, one of Kabuki’s most famous dramatic works, and Migawari Zazen, a more light-hearted play with a universal theme.”

“All balcony seats for this performance will have an obstructed view of the hanamichi”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s Washington DC Photos

Do you like some Trader Joe’s tasty treats? Do you live in the District? Then do you wait in this long-ass line for your love?

I was shocked, no appalled, that any sane human, much less time-starved Washingtonians would stand for the three curves deep, twenty minute long line at Trader Joe’s in Georgetown.

Yes, I know I too waited in said line, but only because I was late for picnic date. Other times, I have better uses for daylight than burning it for Three Buck Chuck.

Don’t you?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

At right, the scene at Metro Center, Red Line to Shady Grove, Monday night. On the PID screens, train arrival times were blank, alternating with the message:

RESIDUAL DELAYS, RED LINE Minor delays on Red Line to Shady Grove due to an earlier train malfunction which has now been resloved.

That crowd didn’t look too resloved, or too happy, but the typo was worth a chuckle. Seen any other good Metro PID typos lately?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now, this is one of the times where I wished I had my camera out upon first viewing, but on my return trip (I had forgotten my building pass and wallet at home) the flash mob of painters vans, gardening and landscape trucks, and contractors pick-ups were long gone. However, the sight was one to make all the folks who get their panties in a bind over immigrant workers have a heart attack (even without the Cheez Whiz-like sauce and chili).

So what was one to behold for the small Kwik-E-Mart flash mob of, Mike Rowe’s words, “people who do the jobs that keeps civil society running“, no less than 25 vehicles in spots made for less than 10. If this same parking nightmare was to appear at say, Tysons Corner or Landmark Mall, all the business suited suburbanites and soccer moms would have toiled for hours trying to untangle who would exit first. But in this case, even those who were parked illegally on the street blocking traffic on University Boulevard in Kensington, exited in a orderly fashion in under a few minutes.

Now if only everybody was that efficient in getting their breakfast/lunch, I’d have 55 more minutes left for my lunch hour!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Coming from an extensive IT background, and now, in the position of supporting a company’s 365/24/7 environment, I see now “what not to do”. Now, many of you may be jonesing to order Netflix (supposedly down due to a software upgrade) or trying to blog your way to heaven (LiveJournal or TypePad), buy or trade crap you don’t want or buy stuff you do (CraigsList), or maybe just buy one of those servers that’s not supposed to go down (Sun Microsystems). Now we can’t even find out what news is cool either, since Technocrati is also serviced by 365 Main in San Fran.

Now stories aside, the data center folks say it was due to a drunk employee within a facility, but it seems all of San Francisco is having a major power event, so stay chill folks, and maybe step into the analog world for a few hours and talk to people person to person… or at least, use you BlackBerry, they have their stuff in Canada, eh?!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Jonny Goldstein from
a recent shoot I did with him

Local video deity Jonny Goldstein is doing something really cool on his blog. Jonny is the type of guy who isn’t satisfied with things working okay the way they are and is always pushing the envelope to see what’s next.

His latest thing is doing live webcasts of a talk show he has been producing on and off for at least a year. Jonny and I worked together briefly for a company doing this, but it quickly became apparent that the money and technology had not yet converged to make the enterprise successful enough to sustain our employment.

Me, I went on to developing other things. Jonny continued to pursue the live webcast route and has been testing a number of different platforms. Now he has a pretty regular talk show going, streaming live from East Hyattsville.

This Wednesday you can catch Jonny interviewing Beth Kanter, who will be joining the show from Lowell, MA. In addition, if the gods allow a reliable connection, Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson will be on the show live from Thailand, where they are working to help an NGO do some video production to prevent human trafficking.

I think this will be quite an interesting show. Please come check it out if you have time.

When: Wednesday, 9:00 p.m.
Where: www.jonnygoldstein.com
What you need: Viewers just need a computer connected to broadband.
Interaction: During the show, you can participate in the group text chat, and if you have a webcam, he may be able to put you on air.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Twenty days ago, over 140 photographers gathered in Downtown Silver Spring, motivated to declare photographic freedom, the visualization of their First Amendment rights on Ellsworth Drive.

This public street, leased to PFA Silver Spring LC and the Peterson Companies for $1 per year, and according to those very same developers, restricted to approved actions and activities, was off-limits to casual photographers like Chip Py.

On July 4th, 2007, it became free for all to digitize, even Flickr-ize when the developers changed their policy to reduce photographic restrictions. On July 5th, real change, not a policy statement, came to the Ellsworth Drive debate. First the Press got involved and then, just last week, the bomb dropped.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett wrote to PFA Silver Spring and Peterson Companies to express his opinion on the matter. An opinion that perfectly mirrors the Free Our Streets goal:

“The county considers Ellsworth [Drive] to be a public forum permitting the free and unfettered exercise of First Amendment rights by residents of the county and its visitors to the same extent as those rights are exercisable by residents and visitors to the county on any public sidewalk or public street within the county,”

No word yet on PFA Silver Spring’s reaction, but both Chip Py and I bet there’s freedom of speech at Peterson Companies headquarters this week!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you aren’t reading the new Harry Potter book, you might want to question whether you are Metro Chic. This morning as I was riding to work, I couldn’t even count the number of people who had likely lifted the book from the kids for the morning commute.

The train was almost completely devoid of human chatter as people flipped pages with rapt attention, and had little time or energy for small talk and other social behaviors.

One fellow, an awkward lad, got on the red line heading toward Shady Grove. He walked down the aisle of the car and craned his neck to see what everyone was reading. I was glad that he decided to sit somewhere before reaching where I was standing because, deep into my own morning commute reading, I wanted to be left alone as well. I felt bad for the young woman with whom he sat, though, because she looked as if she were forced into polite conversation rather than remaining absorbed in her book.

So who’s reading the new Harry Potter book? And if not, what are you reading during your commute?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Megadem

While some of us were fringe-a-paloozing others were dressing up as their favorite animated character and prowling the inner harbor. Another July, another Otakon in Baltimore. If you’ve never heard of it that’s not too surprising – not being a Japanese animation fan myself the only reason I know of it is through Megatokyo and our occasional commenter, Evilmoo.

Just because it’s not your bag, however, doesn’t mean looking at the pictures isn’t fascinating. Flickr is filled with them – just check out the items tagged with otakon or otakon2007 in particular. The amount of effort and skill that goes into some of these costumes is just amazing. Others are just, uh, enjoyable to look at.

Lastly… Ru Paul? You got nothing on Queen Amadala. You might consider a wax next time, though, dude.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Arlington is sponsoring a volunteer fair for Baby Boomers and other experienced adults. Are you a 50+ person who wants to give back to society somehow? Go check this out.

When; Wednesday, July 25 from 10am to 12 noon
Where: Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy Street in Ballston

From the Arlington DHS site:

As the first wave of the Baby Boomer generation starts to retire, the possibilities for their increased community involvement are endless. There are more than 60 million Americans over age 50 today — a number that will increase by more than 50% in the next 25 years. Never before have so many people had so much knowledge–and so much time to use it.

The Arlington Volunteer Office is partnering with RSVP, AARP, and the Department of Libraries in presenting the “Sail into Service” Volunteer Expo, where more than 20 local nonprofit agencies will be on hand to encourage people over 50 to “get engaged all over again” through volunteerism.

There is no charge for the Volunteer Fair on July 25. Refreshments will be served. For further information, please contact the Volunteer Office at 703-228-1760.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Post has finally picked up on the homeless protesters racket, focusing on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters and Joiners, who pay a group of homeless folks $8/hr to make a racket outside of various buildings with suites under construction by non-union shops. They show up, bang on buckets, shout about fair wages, and then pack up and leave for another site.

I applaud the council for supporting local homeless shelters, and there’s even a great success story in the Post article about a guy who now has a job driving a truck for National Geographic, but guys, if you’re going to pay people to shout about fair wages, at least pay them more than the average Wal-mart employee. Seriously.

The whole thing just reeks stupidity, corruption, and well, pretty much everything else labor unions stand for, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but seriously, pay your temps better than Wal-mart. It’s the least you can do.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Much to my surprise at the other DC Metblog authors, very few of them have admittedly visited the Birchmere for concerts. However, the groups and other artists that tend to float through their roster are either for an older set or are not usually mainstream music genres. But, the venue remains one of the few places in the area where you can take in bigger name genre acts in a more intimate setting, such as Lyle Lovett and others.

Last nights performance by former front-man of the 80’s band, Men At Work, Colin Hay expanded upon his all acoustic performance last year by bringing a full band with him, including his ever hyper and entertaining wife, Cecilia Noel. While obviously (and I do mean “obvious”) plugging the release of his new album, “Are You Looking At Me?“, the set lasted a full two hours, interspersing some of his previous band’s hits as well as a few of his own originals. While, I think “Overkill” was the highlight of the evening, the best resurrection of one of his better solo songs, “Looking For Jack” appeared just before the encore, much to the gasps of the audience, who haven’t heard it trotted out in a while (including last year’s stop). Overall, Colin’s performance was just as good, and just a bit less funny, than last years, with his very raspy but distinguished voice bringing just the right edge to his music (besides the lazy eye).

The opening act was “The Green Cards“, an appropriately titled band composing of one American guitarist, a Brit, and two Australian ex-patriots covering fiddle, mandolin and bass. The sound ranged from neo-adult contemporary ballads to a rather unique Australian take on bluegrass sounds. The instrumental pieces were much better than those interjected with vocals, but remained a pleasant intro to Colin and his band.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While I did a little eye-rolling waiting for the show to start, once “Cautionary Tales for Adults and the Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles” got going I didn’t have time to do much of anything but laugh. The long name is reflective of the fact that this is really two shows back to back. The first, Cautionary Tales, is presented as a sort of odd storytime for adults. The not-so-well-meaning librarian brings four stories to life with the not entirely willing assistance of her audience of four. A transparency projector provides us a view of some of the pages as her charges act out the scenarios.

Being subversive is easy – it doesn’t take much talent to thumb your nose at The Man. The trick is making it interesting, as anyone who’s ever had to listen to the ravings of a patchouli -stinking longhair with a bullhorn can tell you. Cautionary Tales manages it handily and is funny not just in the punchlines but in the moments in between.

After an interstitial song/spoken word performance, presumably to provide time for the actors to change costumes while providing the audience a cleansing few minutes of complete confusion, we launch into the Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles, a children’s show gone insane. If someone were to re-animate Hunter S Thompson and task him with creating an amalgam of Dora the Explorer and The Wiggles this is probably what you’d get.

The two shows make a fun pairing. Cautionary Tales riffs on the fact that life is often unfair and sometimes miserable, in complete opposition of what we tell kids in their stories. Trixie flirts with this, particularly in the hysterically funny scene in which the kindergarten teacher asks her kids what they want to be when they grow up, only to inform them that things rarely work out how you want and that they’ll probably only manage these things in their dreams.

Most of the rest, however, is given over to turning the children’s show on its head and teaching all the wrong lessons with the standard kid’s show messages. You should make friends with new people… and that stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet, so why not take that candy he’s offering? Imagination is your key to grand adventures… why not play pretend with daddy’s gun?

You’ve got one more shot to get out and see it and I highly recommend it. Have a cup of coffee, pop a few no-doz, and head out on Saturday, July 28 @ midnight.

Source Theatre
1835 14th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I was driving to an appointment on Sunday when I noticed a placard attached to a phone pole advertising the web site www.nudezines.com. No wonder, I thought, since I was right by Falls Church’s premiere porn palace. Then I noticed the rest of the ad – business cards, custom printing, brochures. Talk about cognitive dissonance – here I was imagining all sorts of interesting naughty, tingly human bits and the ad was for printing.

I couldn’t quite figure out the connection so I looked it up online. Turns out the business is Nu Dezines, not Nude Zines. A tip to our fine printing friends – a simple spelling tutor or copy editor could have helped you out on this one so you could more easily reach your target market.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs