It’s that time of the year again, with all those construction workers making us think there’s been a popularity surge for the Village People. This time it’s a lane closure along Wilson Ave. that will tie up your traffic.

From the Arlington County Web site:

4200 Wilson Blvd. (at Ballston Mall entrance) between N. Stuart St. and N. Randolph St.:One of four lanes will be closed at a time beginning July 16 between the hours of 8:00pm and 5:00am to allow for the installation of a new pedestrian traffic signal. Anticipated completion date is July 20th. Work will be performed during off-peak hours to minimize the impact on traffic, to ensure pedestrian safety, and to avoid the need for detours. Area residents may experience an increase in noise levels during this time; however every effort will be made to keep the disruption at a minimum.

Traffic can be hairy anyway, so be sure to give yourself some extra time going through that area. And if you see a biker, Indian chief and sailor hanging out together, be sure to buy them a beer and keep them company. They’re just waiting for the construction project to be done so they can get back to the concert.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Spotted this afternoon on Independence Avenue SW. What kind of freaking idiot do you have to be to take your bike for a spin and not wear a helmet?

But helmets are required in all states surrounding the District, including the District itself. ALL riders, regardless of age, are required to wear safety helmets.

If you’re interested, here’s DC’s Helmet Restrictions, Virginia’s Helmet Restrictions, and Maryland’s Helmet Restrictions.

Personally, I think if you want to bike without your helmet, you ought to leave a bond on file with the state to cover your entire medical bill when you get hit and become a vegetable.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

God bless people with way, way, way too much time on their hands. Consumerist has found which hotels in DC are most frequently on the DC Madam’s telephone records. Turns out, all the perverts stay at Marriott, though Hyatt, Hilton and Holiday Inn put up good numbers, too.

Better yet, check out the google maps mashup they made to show you where all the perverts stayed near your place. So much Web 2.0 goodness here, I hardly know what to do with myself.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Most of the vanity plates I see are from Virginia, both because I do more driving out here and because it’s a cheaper thing to do here than in DC. But I caught this one (barely – sorry for the blur but not crashing is higher on my priority list than getting a good picture) today after realizing what it was as he zoomed by. I certainly hope he picked this because he amused himself with it and not because he thought the gene codes made it any less eye-rolling macho posturing.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Mayor Fenty this morning announced his intention for the city to appeal the recent loss to the Supreme Court, hoping to uphold the 30-year old ban on handguns in the city. The appeals court ruled in March that the ban was unconstitutional, and should be struck down. It wasn’t the final word, the Supreme Court remains in control of the fate of would-be handgun owners in DC.

DC’s ban on handguns is so strict, you cannot merely carry an assembled, unloaded firearm between rooms of your own home without being subject to the penalties put in place in the 1970s. Meanwhile, gun crimes in the District seem to range independent of the law, peaking back in the 1990s, with over 400 murders in a single year. The MPD doesn’t differentiate between murders with firearms versus murder by other means, and gun crime now is largely less than it was ten years ago, but since the law went into effect 30 years ago, other factors seem to be at play. Why continue to defend this unconstitutional law?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’m pretty big on farmers markets. They’re common, they’re worthwhile, they’re tasty, and best of all: they’re totally local. You get produce grown and picked in the area, reducing your carbon footprint, and supporting local business. Saturday morning, we ended up grabbing two pints of blackberries, two pints of blueberries and two pints of cherries, which ended up going into a batch of white sangria on Sunday night.

Now is the prime season if you’re looking for peaches and nectarines, and of course blackberries will only be amazing for the next few weeks, but then we get raspberries….look behind the cut here for an awesome white sangria recipe.

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

….in the World Series of Pop Culture, duh! What, you don’t watch VH1, the channel that brings you the best half hour on television? Without VH1 we’d never have discovered the wonder that is Zarf!

Anyway, Baltimore-based team “Fragilay” (named after the Old Man’s assumption that his classy new leg-lamp came in from Italy) defeated the defending champs to make it into the second round. Other local team The Lucky Stars (which includes recent GW law grad Brad Hudgins) got bounced in round one, sadly, so we’re gonna have to root for B’more on tonight’s episode. Good luck, Sherits, Shalonda, and Tomi!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Easterns Car Ads. Defense Contractor Metro Ads. Political Slogans everywhere you look. They’re all the heart of the DC Advertising Market. But then, on top of it all, there’s Matthew Lesko, whose trademark question-mark coat and wacky glasses have told us that there’s a ton of federal money just waiting for us, those are the crown jewel of DC’s ads.

Check out his latest, courtesy of the Post:

Nice to see he’s staying with the culture.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Yesterday, Tiffany brought you information about the David Albo Employment Act, which assesses serious fines over three years for various traffic infractions as part of the omnibus VA HB 3202 Roads bill. Today, the Post brings us the tale of the public backlash about it, including the grassroots efforts by several members of the VA Legislature who want to reconvene the legislature to change the law to affect only felony violations of traffic laws (which include DUI), and to include assessment of fines on all drives, not just those who bear VA Drivers Licenses.

The whole thing is honestly asinine, as in its current form, several misdemeanor offenses will trigger the fine, which is paid in three installments. In addition, the fines are only assessed by the VA DMV as part of the renewal of your car registration. Besides, let’s look at who this law really benefits, and that’s the DUI Defense Lawyers. With mandatory jail time for first time offenders and all manner of fines and fees, this is a place where the lawyers benefit from the number of people who will fight ticket after ticket to avoid paying that $1,050 fine. Bad law. Fix it, folks.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Smithsonian Metro, weekend afternoon
Guy in wheelchair, late middle age, long graying hair tied back, carrying a green ID with the word “guest” on it. Rolls up to me, showing the “guest” ID. “Excuse me, sir, my daughter and I are Katrina refugees and we need some help.” I tell him no, sorry, and he goes on to someone else.

Union Station Metro, Monday morning
“Hey man, change these to a twenty?” guy holds out a fistful of fives. Being too nice, and without pausing to wonder why a guy would want to change to a bigger bill, I hand him a loose twenty. He gives me the fives. There are, of course, only three bills. “Hey, hey,” I say loudly. He still holds the twenty in his hand, and I quickly grab it back and give him back his fives. “Dude, nice try,” I say with a smirk.

Mr. Fifteen sighs and grins back, “This town’s changed, man,” he says. “But I can tell you’re from around here.” Whatever that means.

Pentagon City Metro, weekend afternoon
It’s Katrina Refugee Wheelchair guy again. He passes by me, but instead of launching into the expected “my daughter and I are refugees” spiel, he simply says, “Can I have a dollar to get something to eat?” Pleased by this simple honesty, I give him a dollar.

Waterfront area near Safeway, weekday night
White guy, early 20s, spiky hair and earring, walks with a bit of swagger. “Excuse me, sir, I need some help. I’m from around here,” he points at a building behind the Safeway which I thought was abandoned, “and my Dad’s in Columbia, Maryland, and I just found out he’s very sick and might be dying. I’m out of cash but I need $20 to get on a bus to see him. Can you help out?”

I pause for a bit, smile, and say, “No.” Then I keep walking.

“NO?” he yells after me. You’d think he’d never been brushed off by a mark before. “Whaddaya mean ‘NO?!'”

“What, do I look like a tourist or something?” I toss back over my shoulder as I head for the Metro.

“Well, that’s real nice,” he calls from across the street. “GOD BLESS YOU, MAN.”

Same area, six months later
The same kid comes up to me in front of Safeway, this time carrying what looks like an empty gas can. “Excuse me, sir,” he starts, “I’m out of gas and I forgot my wallet, do you think you could-”

“Hi there!” I cry out to him, real friendly-like, “hey, how’s your Dad?”

“My…huh? Oh, my Dad, he’s uh-”

“Nice prop! A gas can! No, I’m not giving you anything!” But by now he is heading off to find another mark.

Capitol South Metro, Saturday morning
“I need some help, sir,” says the guy pacing the platform, “I just locked myself out of my car, and I need twenty dollars to-”

“No.”

“Aw c’mon man-”

“No.”

Union Station Metro, Monday afternoon

Guy pushing EIR in my face. “Want to help impeach Cheney and overthrow the British monarchy’s worldwide drug cartel?”

“Hey wow, so LaRouche is out of jail now?”

“Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet just because you can google LaRouche, man! I can google for brain surgery and find stuff, man! Haw haw haw!” (He seriously said that, then made a very fake sounding laugh.)

“No fascist demagoguery for me, please. Enjoy the cult.”

“LaRouche is the new FDR! Economic disaster is coming! Impeach Cheney and stop Gore’s global warming scam!” (Okay, he didn’t really say all that, it’s just the standard slogans sung or yelled from their card table shrines.)

Farragut North Metro, yesterday
It’s Katrina Refugee Wheelchair guy again. I recognize him but apparently he doesn’t recognize me. The spiel begins, “Sir, me and my daughter are Katrina refugees and we’ve been living in a FEMA trailer-”

“You’re still refugees?”

“Well, you know-”

“No. Play your grift elsewhere. Why are you at Farragut North, anyway? There are hardly any gullible tourists here.”

Katrina Refugee Wheelchair guy makes a face, then rolls off to some other mark.

(Someone out there, please tell me, am I being too mean? Somehow, I doubt a Katrina refugee with a daughter would insist on living around one of the most expensive cities in America, even to panhandle, so I lean more towards thinking of this guy as a fraudster.)

Seriously, I don’t know why I keep getting these guys. Are there just that many in DC, or do I just look like a real rube and an ideal mark? Thank goodness I watch LOST.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

All hail the internet. I didn’t get an attendee review of the GiraMondo events like I asked for but I got the next best thing – some clarification from the coordinator. Laurent Guinand commented on the post (I didn’t REALLY think there would be $7 cava, Laurent… allow me some poetic license) and listed off last year’s selection:

Prosecco Zardetto (Italy)
Gruet Rose (New Mexico)
Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noir (Sonoma)
Champagne Nicolas Feuillate (France)
Ferrari Spumante Brut (Italy)
Champagne Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label (France)

(Mr Guinand clarified that this was a smaller selection and therefor a slightly lower admission price)

This year’s won’t be the same, but should be similar and a little larger. Okay, I’m convinced – I bought tickets five minutes ago and my darling girlfriend and I will be there on the 25th. See you then, Mr Guinand!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A Gate Crasher’s Change of Heart. Armed robber breaks into Capitol Hill home during a small summer party, points a gun at your 14 year old daughter’s head, and demands money. What do you do? What do you do?

Why, offer wine and cheese before ending with a group hug, of course. A taste of the Chateau Malescot St-Exupéry and Camembert, coupled with some good old-fashioned D.C. hospitality, and the would-be perp goes from Thug to Hug in ten minutes. Party guest Michael Rabdau described it as a “love fest”:

“I was definitely expecting there would be some kind of casualty. He was very aggressive at first; then it turned into a love fest. I don’t know what it was …. There was this degree of disbelief and terror at the same time,” Rabdau said. “Then it miraculously just changed. His whole emotional tone turned — like, we’re one big happy family now. I thought: Was it the wine? Was it the cheese?”

Bizarre story, happy ending. Hurrah for overcoming evil with good. I still hope they can find and arrest the guy, of course. Maybe he’ll get even more sweet lovin’ in Corrections.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Alexandria-Washington chapter of DeMolay International is having a car wash to raise money for the group. This is a good group of kids and an organization worthy of support, in my opinion.

When: Saturday, July 14th, 2007, 9-2
Where: Springfield Lodge #217 7001 Backlick Road, Springfield, VA
Cost: Donations accepted – you choose how much to give.

Here is some information on what DeMolay is, for those of you who are curious:

DeMolay is an organization dedicated to preparing young men to lead successful, happy, and productive lives. Basing its approach on timeless principles and practical, hands-on experience, DeMolay opens doors for young men aged 12 to 21 by developing the civic awareness, personal responsibility and leadership skills so vitally needed in society today. DeMolay combines this serious mission with a fun approach that builds important bonds of friendship among members in more than 1,000 chapters worldwide.

Come check it out, help the young folks there with their organization and get your car sudsied up. Everyone is a winner!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve run though about a dozen openings to this review and rejected all of them for being insulting, inaccurate, or at the least damning with faint praise. None of those are fair, as Daniel Beaty achieves something worthwhile in Emergence-SEE! The problem for me – and perhaps it would not be one for you – is that this isn’t peanut butter and chocolate, two tastes that are great individually and even better together. This is more caviar and half smoke – two great tastes that just taste weird together.

Or to be more highbrow, Emergence-SEE is less than the sum of its parts. Beaty is clearly a talented writer with many voices. His thirty plus different characters (I didn’t count to verify the much-stated 43 number) include several performing poets, each of which has his or her own sound and tone. This is no small achievement, to write and be these people in the course of an hour. Over and over again I enjoyed six minutes at a time, and I’d be happy to hear some of them again.

As a whole, however, I found Beaty’s physical mannerisms off-putting. His extreme transitions among speaking and singing voices never bothered me, though I could have lived without several versions of the same lisping and verbal flouncing he uses for his two homosexual characters. His gestures and physical movements from character to character were all radically different and always very broad in scope. It’s a perfectly legitimate style choice, and perhaps well in keeping with the poetry slam roots of the piece, but I found myself constantly comparing it unfavorably to other one-man performers like John Leguizamo, whose transitions are much more subtle but indicate different characters just as unmistakably.

So if we cut to the chase of “should I go or not?” I’d say that if you think you would enjoy a one-hour poetry & song slam with an over-arching storyline to loosely tie it together, absolutely. As a play, one man or not, the work doesn’t tie together well enough to give it a firm thumbs up. There’s just too many vignettes that don’t tie together well enough to qualify it as a great play, though all the bits themselves are fin and well done.

But hey, the glory of the modern age is that you can find out for yourself how you like him. You can view video clips of his performance over on Daniel Beaty’s myspace page. Decide for yourself and if you like him, please go see the show. Our town could use more unusual theater and supporting it is the way to get more.

Emergence-SEE! runs at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater through July 22, 2007
Sundays through Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets range from $38 to $50

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

For more on the caffeine front: Sparky’s Espresso Cafe is no more. This is actually old news, but I was reminded of it last night when I picked up some cat food at Green Pets next door, seeing the cafe shuttered and chained. One of the first businesses to lead the charge of a clump of cool shops at 14th & S, the grungy little coffeeshop has finally fizzled out. I remembered when it opened how excited I was and later on how the promise of a chocolate chai or cappucino made my early morning crawl to One World Fitness more motivating. But then I’d noticed a steady decline in quality, service, and general atmosphere for a while, culminating in a night I was snarled at for incorrectly busing my cup and thought to myself “Ah, next time, I’ll head to 14U.”

There’s been a lot of speculation about the reasons for the closing – higher rent being a suspected culprit – so I asked the most reliable informants – their neighbors – if they knew what was up. Apparently it was taking a long time to get the alcohol license renewed, so they had to cut back on hours, which made them lose business, so they decided to pack it up and close for good. Who knows, the real reasons could be myriad. Suffice to say it’s gone for good, and a license application for a new place called “Cork” is up. My informant says this is rumoured to be a wine bar/cafe.

So from espresso to vino. Caffeinated grungy hipsters to – who? Social implications here? Or is it all economics – alcohol makes more $$ than caffeine? Interesting. In any case, I’m very curious to see how this wine bar pans out. It’s only a two block crawl home…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you’ve ever been to El Pollo Rico, you know how good the chicken is. The yucca is tender and crisp, and they’ve got a fridge full of bubblegum-flavored Inca Cola just waiting for you. And chances are, the whole meal wouldn’t cost more than a Hamilton. But, for as good as the food is, their hiring policies and sketchy cash management has landed their owners in jail tonight for harboring illegal immigrants, knowingly employing illegal immigrants and money laundering.

The bust took place recently at the Wheaton location of the chain, and four members of the Solano family were arrested for these charges, and 9 more of their employees were arrested and placed under deportation proceedings. Their cash business amounted to over $6 million over the last five years, and was deposited to avoid being noticed by banking regulations that require more stringent tracking practices. Shady, shady stuff is being alleged here.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I realize this is kind of old news, but the outrage is still pretty fresh to me the more I think about it. Remember the giant new fines imposed on Virginia residents for certain traffic violations? The self-proclaimed architect of the new law, Delegate David Albo is known for being a champion of harsher and harsher penalties for driving-related infractions, including DUI.

What’s Delegate Albo’s day job? He’s a defense attorney whose firm specializes in traffic and DUI offenses.

So let me get this straight. With one hand, Delegate Albo is voting for higher traffic violation penalties and incentivizing defendants to fight charges, and with the other, Counselor Albo is bragging about the guy with the 0.33 BAC his firm got acquitted.

I love the smell of conflict of interest in the morning. Smells like… corruption and lack of accountability.

Hat tip to Radley Balko at Reason Magazine, who gave this law my favorite nickname so far: The David Albo Employment Act.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While California may dominate the list of cities affected by increasing foreclosure rates, Maryland and Virginia are certainly seeing a major increase in the number of foreclosures. In June of 2007, there was one foreclosure for every 989 households in Maryland and one for every 1,678 households in Virginia. Worse still, the rates are growing in each state, with a 600% increase in the number of foreclosures in Virginia, and a 340% increase in Maryland. Granted, these numbers are still small compared to the higher-incidence states, but it’s troubling that it’s growing. There were 4,000 foreclosures last month between Maryland and Virginia, as compared to 38,000 in California.

More troubling is that Virginia and Maryland are listed as problem areas for higher incidences of mortgage fraud, where false appraisals end up costing banks and the government serious cash.

The District has a much lower incidence of foreclosure, only 1 for every 16,000 or so homes, with only 17 homes entering the multi-stage process in June.

So, what’s this all mean? Good question. If someone could point me at a historical chart of the number of foreclosures related to the number of households over the last ten years, that would rock. I’m not sure how much of this rate increase year-over-year is related to market correction with regard to real estate, or how much is related to other factors.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Bethesda over the past month (rather equivalent to falling off the face of the earth for me), working on the costume design for a student production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Imagination Stage. As this is in addition to my full-time job downtown, it’s involved a fair amount of caffeine as well…

My current downtown purveyor of the greatest legal stimulant is the cheerful fellow at The Coffee Espress, whom I’ve praised before. But however much I love that little place, I’m beginning to be seduced over to the charms of Cornucopia, a skip away from the theater at 8102 Norfolk Avenue. It’s the sort of shop I could drop a lot of dough in, filled with a (yes) cornucopia of culinary delights – chocolates, nougat, olive oil, preserves, sauces, a tempting cookie spread, vats of gelato, crostini, on and on.

Though my stress level is at a hideous height, owner Ibo Selmy never ceases to put me at ease and create the most exquisite espresso I’ve had outside of Sicily (and being as he is part Sicilian, this makes perfect sense). I don’t know what I’ll do when the show is finally up and my journeys to Bethesda cease. I may actually have to make the pilgrimage for porcini and prosciutto.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs