Monthly Archives: July 2008

Music, Night Life, Penn Quarter, The Daily Feed
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Listen to the Summer Wind in the Kogod Courtyard Tonight

Feeling a little jazzy? Not sure where to head after work? In the mood for a little culture with your wine? Then head over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum on 8th and F Streets, NW.

The museum cafe offers a limited selection of bottled beer and wine in addition to sodas, water and coffee drinks. There are plenty of tables and seats throughout the glass enclosed courtyard with room to spare for dancing. The swing band, Joker’s Wild, will perform popular tunes by old blue eyes, his pal Dean Martin, jazz queen Ella Fitzgerald, and Bing Crosby.

While the band plays from 5-8:00pm, the museum exhibits are open to the public until 7pm. So take time to roam through the Kate Hepburn and HipHop Portraiture exhibits.

Featured Photo, Life in the Capital, Special Events, Sports Fix, The District
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Washington Kastles Stop ‘Big Mac’

Mashona Washington

Mashona Washington by Max Cook

In a dramatic come-from-behind victory, the Washington Kastles showed John McEnroe and the New York Sportimes that they are not to be messed with on their home court. What started out looking like an easy New York win, the match became a slug fest that came down to a women’s doubles “Supertiebreaker”. Mashona Washington and Sacha Jones out dueled Milagros Sequera and Hana Sromova, beating them 7 to 5 and giving the Kastles an 18-17 win.

Continue reading →

Sports Fix, Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed
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Open Top: Closed Shuttle

From WaPo: Open Top Sightseeing, purveyors of double-decker bus tours, has suspended its Nationals shuttle service after two people were killed standing on the upper deck as the bus went through an underpass.

Condolences go out to the families of those killed.

It’s unclear if there was sufficient clearance for the bus, or if the two guys who died were standing on the floor or on their seats, and the whole thing is being investigated; but I think we can all agree: don’t stand while riding the upper deck, and if you are standing, for heaven’s sake please sit down if you see a tunnel or bridge approaching.

Washing

Adventures, Downtown, Featured Photo, The District, The Mall
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Will They Ever Learn?


A watchful eye
Originally uploaded by afagen

I’m downtown DC this evening photographing some buildings as the sun sets. It’s a great night to shoot reflections on windows, something I enjoy in photographing buildings. And I’m making my way towards L’Enfant Plaza to begin heading home and there’s a perfect shot of the Dept. of Transportation building’s windows being intersected by its neighbor. A great mirroring image. So I stop, fiddle with my settings, set my stance, and begin photographing.

Well, it’s a long story but I’ll keep it short. Basically, one of the DoT security guys tells me in broken English that I cannot photograph the building unless I have a permit. I explain I’m on public property and can take pictures at will. I explained – repeatedly – that I’m an amateur photographer and take architectural photos. He says I can’t take the pictures. I ask to see where such a policy is written. He calls the supervisor.

Now, the supervisor was a nice guy. He seemed a bit confused as well, but I patiently explained that I didn’t need a permit to photograph. His counter? “Well, you know, terrorists walk around, taking pictures, plotting stuff. You could be one. So we can’t let you do that.”

Um, yeah, ok. Not. (I hardly look like a terrorist, people.) I explained the whole public property deal, told him I appreciated him doing his job – but that he was misinformed about photographing public buildings. There’s no permit required, nor do I need “permission.” Going inside? Different story. So we exchanged info – yeah, I cooperated because there’s no need to be a tool here – and then I went on my merry way after we shook hands. It certainly wasn’t a Union Station experience.

Unfortunately, the sun set and I lost the light. Oh well. At least someone got an education tonight.

Ain’t DC grand?

Comedy in DC, Entertainment
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Comedy in DC: Jon Mumma

I first saw Jon Mumma at the Laugh Riot at the Hyatt in Bethesda doing a featured set. I laughed all the way through, so I was delighted to see that he’s emceeing at the Improv this week- you should check him out there, appearing with headliner Kevin Pollak. I could spend rather a lot of time geeking out about his use of non-verbal communication to enhance the joke he’s telling, but it would probably only be interesting to me. The short version: He’s funny, and you should go see him. But don’t take my word for it… watch him online.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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The final word on the Coffee Kerfuffle


Coffee
Originally uploaded by tbridge

As Don mentioned earlier today, the Post has put up their article talking with Nick Cho and David Flynn from Murky who were involved in the incident. Largely, the Post is letting the story from Jeff Simmermon’s blog tell the series of events, but there’s also a conversation between the Post’s Joe Heim and Cho & Flynn.

The funny part, I guess, is that Flynn’s the one with the story, but he’s never gotten to tell it. Not even to the Post.

Foggy Bottom, The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors, WTF?!
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Press Button, Receive Mud

It’s usually pretty simple to get across Rock Creek Parkway when walking between Washington Harbour and Foggy Bottom near the Watergate (map) — the button to get a WALK light is actually responsive, and vehicular traffic at that particular location is unusually generous to pedestrians for a DC intersection.

But when it rains, then comes the challenge: the button lies behind a muddy moat (okay, puddle) through which one must wade and risk the wetting of feet and pants legs to get a WALK light.

Muddy Crossing Button

And it gets worse in winter, when the puddle freezes over. Can someone get that paved, please?

Arlington, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Peanuts in the Men’s Room

Peanuts in bathroom sink

I wish the title of this post were a metaphor for something instead of a real description. When I was at the Marymount University library yesterday, I found peanuts in the sink, on the lip of the sink and on the floor. They led in a haphazard way to one of the stalls, where apparently someone had been a bit hungry. Dear Toilet Muncher – bathroom eating is bad enough, but if you are going to snack in the loo, can you at least be clean about it?

Business and Money, The Daily Feed
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And the coffee kerfuffle heads to the big leagues…

Photo courtesy of mezzoblue

Well, big media anyway. Tom tells me that a reporter for the Washington Post was in Murky today talking to owner Nick Cho and barrista David about the recent tempest in a teapot coffee cup. The Murky staff was given the impression the story would run in tomorrow’s Metro section, but there’s always the possibility it’ll be up on washingtonpost.com before that point. Last I heard about it a year or two ago it was the decision of the writer whether they wanted to engage in advance web publication, don’t know if that’s still the case.

Newspaper article, courtesy of mezzoblue

The Daily Feed
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Spider Kelly’s: Take a Pass.


Spider Kelly’s
Originally uploaded by tbridge

Tiff and I met a friend for dinner at the newly-open Spider Kelly’s in Clarendon last night. We figured we’d take a flyer on the new location from the guys who brought the world Clarendon Ballroom.

Spider Kelly’s advertises that they will have no dress code, and no cover, ever, which is a cause that I can get behind. Basically, the short of our dinner was: The food’s mediocre, the prices are way too high ($8 for a burger? It better be Ray’s Hellburger.) and the service was tepid.

Might be worth a stop if you were craving some banana pudding, but for anything else, head to the other side of the Ballroom where Liberty Tavern has an incredible menu for the same price. Or, head around the corner to O’Sullivans for a burger that’s not nearly that ludicrously priced, and just as serviceable.

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed
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Fancy Red Digs for La Raza

National Council of La Raza

Now check out the hot red front door for the National Council of La Raza. Swank, eh?

Now when you see a nonprofit with an expensive office like this, what do you think? Congrats for them to have the funding to buy or lease such high-dollar digs. That the Class A office space denotes legitimacy and respectability for what was once an upstart organization.

Or do you wonder if their membership dues and charitable donations could be spent on less flash and more forward motion? You could argue that the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization int he USA could have higher priorities than a bright red entry way.

Life in the Capital, Media, The Daily Feed
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“Hottest Media Types” Nominations

Apparently, Media Bistro’s Fishbowl DC is holds an annual contest to determine the “hottest” media types in DC for 2008. Categories include women and men, who work on-air, off-air, and in PR.

I have pretty mixed feelings about contests like this. It all seems a bit bloggers-in-bikinis. That said, as long as they keep things reasonably appropriate and – very important – gender-balanced, I cannot get too upset.

Nominations are currently open. I think We Love DC’s Tom Bridge would be filed under “male, off-air” (not that I am just saying that because he is the boss, or anything…)

The Daily Feed
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Aspiring Filmmakers Given Leeway



Originally uploaded by vescudero00

The deadline for the Second Annual Film Festival in Alexandria has been extended to close of business on July 30. The theme this year is “Politics in the USA” and the festival runs from September 25-28. There’s also a youth division for aspiring filmmakers 18 and under.

For more information and a submission form, head over here.

Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The Hill, The Mall
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Hill Staffer Hate

Via DC Blogs, we have a WhatLizSaid rant on hill staffers: “This is what your Harvard education has gotten you. Rule your coffee getting domain with an iron fist! “ She’s nice enough to qualify that there are nice, normal staffers, and then there are those staffers, so puffed up by proximity to political power and prestige that they must try to vocally and bodily exert an imagined sense of superiority over DC’s lowly Capite Censi.

Honestly, I can’t recall any runs-in with such brutes, despite living right on the Hill, but then I don’t work in government or play softball/kickball on the Mall, nor do I frequent local bars much. Are the stories true? Is there really such a high population of boorish hill staffers?

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Stacy’s Coffee Parlor – Good Coffee, Good Folks and Good Books

Stacey's Coffee Parlor

I love coffee shops that encourage things like reading, sharing and creating community. After the recent tempest in a coffee pot I started, I was not sure whether I would be welcome back at Murky, so I went for a place I had not been to before. Stacy’s Coffee Parlor in Falls Church fit the bill. The folks who were here when my lovely wife and I arrived all apparently knew each other, as well as the guy behind the counter and I felt immediately welcomed.

Stacy’s has ice cream and food and truffles and pastries and other good stuff to eat, in addition to all the requisite coffee drinks a person could want. Art on the walls, open mic night, regularly scheduled music – it all got my attention. What really clinched it for me was the library, whose sign encouraged reading, taking and sharing. It’s not a huge library but it’s something. You don’t see that in a lot of places, and I was glad to find it so close to home.

Definitely check it out. It doesn’t have the same vibe as Murky but it has its own unique feeling. The best part? It is head and shoulders above Starbuck’s and has free Wi-Fi. Stacy, I am glad you are my new friend.

The Daily Feed
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A Dupont Circle Mid-day Nap

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

You know you are envious of these two young beauties, taking a mid-day nap in Dupont Circle.

More than you or I, they are enjoying the cool breeze and inviting shade of this National Park. I am walking by to a meeting, your reading this stuck inside, and both of us miss the days when we could spend lunch napping.

Or maybe just the social life that needs a mid-day nap.

Life in the Capital
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Completing the Trifecta


Four letter word
Originally uploaded by Justin Shearer

I know my news will be overshadowed by the coffee war currently swinging through the blogging community (which I find utterly hysterical), but I need to share!

Last night, my wife and I ended our six-month quest to find a home in the DC Metro area. We’d put out two other offers over the course of the last two months; both were foreclosures. The first one was beaten by another offer that came in right after ours, the second one the bank was countering with miniscule changes of which we got tired of and backed out.

Saturday, we hit square one again and went looking with our awesome Realtor. First house of the day was it. You know what I mean – that feeling you get when you see something and you just know. We put the offer in Sunday and yesterday we got the fabulous news that it was 100% accepted. This wasn’t a foreclosure, short sale or desperate buyer. Just a nice older lady looking to move after being in that house since the 1970s.

We still have to go through the hoops – inpsections, finalizing the loan, etc. But at this point, it’s all gravy. By the end of August, we will finally return to home ownership in the good ol’ U.S.A. I’m just happy we’ve returned to John Locke’s trifecta of rights: life, liberty and property!

Man, do I love this town.

Downtown, Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed
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Weinermobile on K Street

Random Washington DC

Since its invention in 1936 by Oscar’s nephew, Carl G. Mayer, the Weinermobile has been a marketing icon. And not for the first time, was it recently seen on Washington DC streets.

Here it is touring K Street, probably giving a Congressman a lift to a mid-day power lunch.

The question must be asked then: If you were in a position of power, and had the opportunity to take the Winermobile for a spin, would you? And where in DC would you go?

Crime & Punishment, Entertainment, The District, The Great Outdoors, The Mall
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The Cardboard Samurai are Coming

cardboard samurai.jpg

When the scroll arrived at my desk this morning, borne on the winds of change by a messenger falcon, I could not believe my eyes. The Cardboard Samurai were coming. Their likes have not been seen in Washington for some time, after they were driven back by the Army of the Paper Airplane back in ’99. I had feared that would one day return.

They fight without mercy, without cease, until their cardboard tubes lay in pulpy pieces upon the ground. The havoc…

On July the 26th, they shall return to Washington DC, their cardboard tubes at their side, their cardboard armor freshly carved and worn like the samurai of old. They will meet on the Mall, betwixt the Smithsonian and Natural History Museum at 3pm to display their ancient art.

The Washington War Dance. Upon us again. Perhaps, for the last time.

cardboard samurai2.png

Top photo: IMG_1075 by Hellathatguy
Bottom Illustration: Penny Arcade

Essential DC, Monumental, The Daily Feed, The Mall
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Schmap Guides

Schmap makes interactive map/tour-book hybrid guides that you can reach on the web or download to your computer or iphone. You can click on map-points to see places of interest (with photos solicited from local Flickr photographers), directions, and information.

The D.C. edition seems like a great choice for those going out on “local tourism” adventures, but trying to keep touristy image to a minimum.

Many editions exist for cities around the world and all are available for free. An updated version of the Washington guide will be published mid-August.