We’ve gotten reports (including some from our own David K) that there’s a bombscare on the western side of the White House (no, it wasn’t the ducks) which has Pennsylvania and 17th Street turned into a real mess. If you can avoid that area for a few hours while they figure out it’s a box of napkins, or something like that, you’d probably be doing yourself a favor.

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This video doesn’t make the day any warmer, but at least we can remember what warm sunshine is like. It’s on the way, for sure, but in the meantime, enjoy this video shot at Meridian Hill Park by Giganova. This is the type of thing that makes DC great.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Thanks much to Ben Stanfield for his awesome photos of yesterday’s game against the Fire. DC United showed off their brand new uniforms. We lost 2-0, which kinda sucks, but I’m rather impressed with how the VW logo looks on the unis, even if it is a bit large.

Big Time Tackle — Originally uploaded by acaben

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From Arlington Alert:

The Arlington County Police Department will close several streets in the Clarendon, Courthouse, and Rosslyn neighborhoods on Saturday, May 10, 2008, for the Battle of the Boulevard 10K Race and the annual Neighborhood Day Parade.

The Battle of the Boulevard Race and after-race activities will begin in Clarendon, at 9 am and finish at approximately noon.

The Neighborhood Day Parade will begin at Court House and proceed up Wilson Boulevard at 1 pm. It will end at Irving Street, at approximately 3:00 pm.

The streets that will be affected are listed below.

From 6 am to 3 pm:

*Clarendon Blvd. from Washington Blvd. to Highland Street
(Clarendon Blvd. will have a sound stage set up on it, from 7 am to 3 pm. The road will open when the stage is removed)

*Wilson Blvd. from Washington Blvd. to N. Highland Street

*N. Highland St. from Clarendon Blvd. to Wilson Blvd.

From 8 am to 11 am:

*Wilson Blvd. from Highland Street to Rt. 110 North @ I-395

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Today marks the opening of Artomatic 2008 or what should be called “More Art Than You Can Shake a Stick At 2008”. This annual show promises to be bigger and better than ever this year, taking over the empty ten story Capitol Plaza office building and housing the work of about 1,000 artists. Yes. 1,000 artists. Not exactly something you can see all of in a casual walk through. Something tells me I’m going to have to make multiple trips to the show and even then probably won’t catch everything.

So what is Artomatic you ask? Their website sums it up best by saying:

Artomatic is a month-long multimedia arts event that draws together visual artists, musicians and performers and brings their work to the community without charge.

I had toyed around with the idea of exhibiting in this year’s show but just couldn’t get my act together in time. Picking a series of photos, printing them (bleh), framing them (bleh and cha-ching!), printing business cards, painting the walls of my space, arranging lighting…way too much work for me to tackle. I am, however, excited to see the work of many of my friends at this year’s show including Marie Kwak, Eric Petersen, Kyle Gustafson, Angela Kleis, and Jason Colston.

The show opens at noon today and if you are planning on going tonight (like I am), be prepared for an insane amount of people and chaos. If you want to avoid tonight’s crowd, the show runs until June 15th so you have plenty of time to pay your respects to DC’s art community.

Artomatic
Opening Friday, May 9 – Closing June 15
1200 First St NE
Capital Plaza I – corner of First & M streets NE – NY Ave Metro
Wed-Thu: 5pm-10pm; Fri-Sat: noon-2am; Sun: noon-10pm; closed Mon-Tue
Free admission; donations welcome

Photo by Tracy Lee

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Those of you who know me and my drive to make Friday officially pants-optional may be surprised that I will not mention it this week because instead we have panda-optional Friday. I just opted in. Join me by watching what is possibly the cutest panda video ever. Many thanks to DC-based social media (and everything else) expert Andy Carvin for linking to this video.

Incidentally, this is the first video on the NPR YouTube channel. Keep your eyes peeled as they add new videos. It is a contribution by David Gilkey to the Chengdu Diary series. Read Gilkey’s notes here.

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It’s the time of roses. Washington is ablaze right now with these lovely roses in bright pinks and reds. They seem to flourish without any work at all–the bushes in my neighbor’s tiny yard are overwhelmed with blossoms, and I can’t imagine the residents put any work into those plants. What’s best is that these aren’t the big, pretentious roses you see at the flower shops; instead, they’re like wild roses–flatter, humbler, and, in my opinion, lovelier.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I was pretty sure that my good friend and colleague Jonny Goldstein (of Jonny’s Par-Tay) was never going to warm up to a city like Washington, DC. He moved here the same time I did, about two years ago, and I could tell that DC didn’t really have the spark he had come to love about the Big Apple after ten years there.

We met up at the Brickskeller with Andy Carvin one summer evening after the three of us had moved here independently within a month of each other and I sensed, from how Jonny described his DC experiences thus far, that he found the place serviceable but not necessarily interesting beyond the obvious tourist sites. I was excited to have moved somewhere with built-in friends and was a bit sad that Jonny may not be satisfied enough with the area to make it his home.

This is why I was happy to see the serene emotions in his post about five really cool things that happened to him in DC within about 90 minutes:

So, for all my griping, DC sometimes surprises me with little moments like these. And I appreciate that this former swamp has turned into a city that every once in a while even a jaded dude like me can appreciate.

Jonny, I know you won’t be here forever, but I am glad you have warmed up to the place a little. Hopefully when you go back to New York, whenever that may be, you will take positive memories with you, not just the occasional soullessness of the city and the bleak strip malls that pockmark the roads and highways. It’s a different kind of high here, but one definitely worth trying and I am glad you eventually inhaled deeply enough to get it.

To anyone lucky enough to have ended up here, like Jonny and me, I offer you this hope – give this city, in fact, the whole area, a fair chance. You’d be surprised how at home you can feel after just a short stay.

Readers, I would love to know what brought you here, what has kept you here and what do you find here in the DC area that you can’t get anywhere else. Please chime in.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Walking to work the other morning, I was struck by an amazing sight. A pinnacle of destruction piercing the downtown skyline, as another office building is deconstructed in the name of development.

This office building was special to me. Back when I first moved to DC, I worked at its sister building across Connecticut Avenue and the two were the only buildings around that had windows that could open. On beautiful spring days like today, I loved listening to the hustle of commuters exiting the Metro and melodies of the musicians singing for spare change.

Often, I would put signs in our office window to silently communicate with workers across the way – this was before IM made such actions quaint. They too loved their building’s special windows. Now, their home is gone and only 1001 Connecticut is left to feel a day’s breeze.

On moves progress, on moves modernization, and left behind is any connection to nature.

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I just got the most interesting email from VW of America, offering me 4 free tickets to a DC United Game this week. Four seats, and it ended up they were in Section 104, so it looks like they’re giving out some pretty darned good seats. If you are a VW owner with a vwcredit.com account (how they found me…) then you should’ve gotten the email today. Check to see if it got caught by your spam filter.

Otherwise, if you prove you own a VW, call up VW of America over in Herndon at 1-800-822-8987 and see if they’ll hook you up.

Also, parking for the game is free for VW owners, but get there early, I suspect there’s a limit on the number of spaces.

This is all part of the new promotional agreement between DC United and Volkswagen of America which gives the car company logo rights to the jerseys and to promotional space at RFK. The new United jersey will feature a VW logo dead center on the new jersey.

So, VW owners, get your free tickets!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

We’ve talked about meters before. You know the struggle. Sen. Levin (D-MI) pushes for meters, and they magically appear on the Mayor’s agenda, much to the delight of many of the riders-to-be. There’s something fair about time-and-distance meters that seems lacking from the Zones system.

My friend Ian took the train back from New Jersey where he’d been holed up for work for a couple days, and caught a cab home from Union Station so he could take his final exam. Here’s where it gets good. The cab’s not metered. Or, at least, that’s how it started. Being in the cab awhile, Ian noticed that his cabbie did, in fact, have a meter installed, it just wasn’t on.

When he asked the cabbie what the deal was, the cabbie said, “I’m not turning it on ’til June 1st.”

If you run into this, feel free to submit a complaint to the DC Taxi Commission, as they’re operating in violation of the law. Don’t know how to complain? This article from the Taxi Commission has all of the details. Get the cab number, the cabbie’s name, and the license plate of the cab, and then write it all out. Used to be you had to send a physical letter, but now you can email your complaint to dctc3@dc.gov.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

In the wonderful wisdom that is the D.C. Council taking their lead from the President in trying to *hush* dissent in the Capitol, preliminary approval was given to quiet noisy demonstrations within the city. As WTOP reports, that the measure is aimed at getting demonstrators away from residential neighborhoods and limit “non-commercial public speech” to 80 dB at a distance of 50 feet. The initial ordinance was proposed by Tommy Wells (Ward 6) and supported by Mary Cheh, Kwame Brown and David Catania in 2007, but was now just voted upon for enactment.

So what you’re saying, is that, while folks who decide to at least exercise their right to be heard in a public forum, “non-commercially”, must do so at a whisper, but some “commercial” entity, blaring music and using a loudspeaker, can do so wherever and whenever they want in D.C.? Let’s take a glance at what 80dB’s really gets you. [Note: Contrary to the “quick facts” posted on Councilmemeber Wells’ site, and increase in decibels is not a simple “doubling” but a logarithmic scale increase… which is a much different mathematical consideration… so much for politicians fact checking before trying to enact laws.]

10dBA – Normal Breathing
20dBA – Mosquito or Rustling Leaves
30dBA – A Whisper
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laugher
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower

So, what they are proposing, is that you can protest in D.C., as long as we can’t hear you above the din of the traffic in D.C.. WTF?! Ice Cream trucks are louder than that… granted other cities are cracking down on those too. Granted, I always wanted the ice cream truck in my neighborhood to play “Helter Skelter” or come around like L.A.’s ice cream truck of satan.

D.C. readers, what’s your view on this… pleasant relief or curb to your Constitutional rights to be a pain in the ass?

DSC_5644.jpg — Originally uploaded by rev_bri

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In tonight’s mail, I received a very interesting letter from “Mary Holder” – she and her husband want to buy my house. All I have to do is email her at mh.pronto@gmail.com or call her on (301) 841-7316 and she sounds like she’ll come running with a bucket of cash.

Sound too good to be true? Yep, sure ‘nuf does. Especially when a closer look at the handwritten-looking letter shows that its actually mass-printed, with only my name and address written by hand.

Then there is the matter of the reply address on the card. 611 Pennsylvania Avenue SE is a UPS Store, not an office, so dear mary is looking more suspect by the moment.

Last but not least, there is the problem (for her) that not only do I love my house, I can actually afford it too. So I’ll be trashing her letter and I suggest you do the same.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Come see a video from today’s Bethesda Market. The market goes on every Tuesday from 11-3 until October. There is food, baked goods, plants, produce and all sorts of other things at the market at Veteran’s Park. Come on down next week. Click the picture to the right to see the video.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Check out the cool short video from WTOP about the Water Mains:

This is from earlier, when it was still an “unknown origin” surge.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

You’d think after the big beating that the Republican party took over their moronic attempt at a loyalty oath that the Virginia Democrats would learn, but no. Marc Fisher writes here about the oath presented to caucus-goers at a recent event for selecting school board candidates. From the article:

But Arlington Democratic Committee chairman Peter Rousselot tells me that the loyalty pledge has been part of the caucus process for many years, and is in fact mandated by the state party.

You know, the state party. From the article in November, linked in this piece.

“It’s a slap in the face to voters, saying, ‘We don’t trust you,’ ” said C. Richard Cranwell, chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party. “It’s not surprising the Republican Party doesn’t trust the voters.”

I agree entirely, Mr Cranwell. A slap in the face.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I just got this from the Arlington Alert email system:

The USGS has confirmed a magnitude 1.8 “micro” earthquake occurred near Annandale, VA at 1:30pm.  There have been no reports of damage or injuries.

Anybody feel this? Any news to report from it?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Earlier today, we mentioned there were six major breaches in the Water Mains in Southeast, crippling most of the water network. Now, WTOP is reporting their cause is an unknown surge in water pressure from outside the system, which caused major disruption in service as the mains couldn’t handle the pressure and burst. The Post, however, says they’re related to the cleaning of a nearby reservoir last night.

The bursts are all currently being repaired by every crew that WASA can get their hands on. My email to WASA has not yet been returned, requesting a timeline for repairs. I suspect it may not be until tomorrow that the water pressure throughout the area south and east of the Anacostia is restored.

This does bring up an important problem, though, in that DC Fire & EMS depend on the availability of good water pressure to power their firefighting efforts. A good portion of the city, to the south of the Anacostia, is unprotected in case of a fire, as there’s nowhere to get water pressure to attach the fire hoses to. No statement from the Fire Department is available at this time.

bubbling up — Originally uploaded by JamesCalder

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I’ve been on Twitter for over a year now, and it never fails to amuse me, but today it did something new: it impressed me. In 30 minutes, a number of tweets from various people cropped up wondering what the explosion was, wondering where it was, how many it had affected, and generally spreading the news of the event. See this twitter search:

Click for larger

A number of people were immediately concerned, trying to find out information, trying to see what happened. People raised the alarm, and then just as quickly, found out what it was.

How awesome is that?

Sure, it’s still dependent on outlets that employ fulltime reporters like WTOP, and the various other mainstream news outlets, but that people could raise a number of individuals who are free and able to search for events like this, and report facts regarding them, it’s nothing short of outstanding and amazing. Thank you, intertubes, and thank you especially, Twitter.

Oh, the Explosion? Part of construction at Fort Belvoir, related to the new National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

[Update] Or maybe not! Via DCist:

I just wanted to let you know we at Fort Belvoir received a call from the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center indicating an earthquake had occurred about 1:30 p.m. today. Media reports circulating that Belvoir officials had confirmed blasting here caused the reported rumbles are inaccurate. No one from this office had any information to indicate that was the case. Our scheduled subterranean blasts were set for 4:30 p.m. today. There was no unscheduled blasting at the site.
Hope that helps.
Don Dees
Fort Belvoir Public Affairs

Huh! Earthquakes! In DC! What’s next?

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Don’s mention of Loving vs. Virginia reminded me to point out that Mrs. Loving, the remaining partner of the couple who ended anti-miscegenation laws, died on Friday at her home in Virginia.

Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving drove 90 miles from their home in rural Virginia to get married in Washington, DC. Mildred was pregnant, and the couple wanted to avoid the stigma and ostracism associated with out of wedlock pregnancy. It didn’t occur to her that interracial marriage was not only stigmatized but criminalized in Virginia.

It must have been terrifying to be awoken at 2AM by sheriff’s deputies, and then to be sentenced to prison- prison!– for marrying the person you loved, to have to move to a strange city in order to avoid prison, only to be arrested again for daring to travel with your husband to visit your mother. It was 9 years after their arrest that the Supreme Court issued the decision that allowed them to return home from DC to the quiet life they wanted together.

If there’s an afterlife, I hope Mr. and Mrs. Loving are enjoying a reunion.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs