By Tom Bridge
Tomorrow night, the DC area’s newest sports franchise takes to the court for the first time. The Washington Kastles (yes, with a K. Seriously, unless I found out that they’re sponsored by Kastle Key, I can’t explain the typo.) will take on the Boston Lobsters tomorrow night at the temporary facility at 11th & H, on the old Convention Center site.
Who’s on the team? Well, Serena Williams, for one. Tickets run upwards of $40 to $60, and premium seats are available for a good chunk of cash.
By Brittany
Photo courtesy of Hood Booking
My friend asks me if I am going to the No Age show then looks confused when I say I have never listened to them.
“They are really good; all swirly and noisy, but with really poppy hooks. They’re on Sub Pop,” he says.
Given the art-punk skater background of the duo, I think I expected Lightning Bolt and I will admit to you, at risk of any street cred I ever had, that I actually am not super in to Lighting Bolt. Take away my right to blog about music if you must, but that is the truth.
When I finally gave them a listen, I was surprised. First of all, the songs are short (under three minutes) but avoid feeling rushed. This is but one sign of the well-edited pop sensibilities that keep the layers of swirls, fuzz, and noise in check. Their recent release “Nouns” is the rare sort of record that rewards headphone listening but would not be out of place in the background of a (relatively hip) dinner party – simultaneously accessible and engaging.
To answer my friend’s question: I am definitely going.
No Age plays the Rock and Roll Hotel on Tuesday, July 8.
By brownpau
Smithsonian Station is closed for security and crowd control reasons every Fourth of July, so Orange and Blue Line trains pass right through it without stopping. Fuzzy mobile video shot from a train skipping through the station last Friday, with background tourist chatter:
By Don
Temple Ahead, courtesy of diskychick
No, not me (sorry) – the gun lawsuits. Now that the Heller battle is over (though it seems like the city is determined to get challenged as quickly as possible) the NRA has moved its focus on to Chicago. SCOTUSBlog has a roundup of the quintet of new suits, which I offer you a link to just in case you want to follow the traveling circus as it heads off to the north-west.
By Carl Weaver
Carl, screwing up a potentially nice picture
at Luray Caverns
Luray Caverns is a great little place to go and only about two hours away from DC. Here is how I recommend scheduling your time. You can drive to Luray, VA in about two hours if you go on I-66 to I-81. Tack on an extra hour if you opt to take the very beautiful Skyline Drive between Front Royal and Route 211, which will take you right into Luray. There is a $15 fee to take the Skyline Drive but it is worth every penny. Just do it.
The caverns themselves are beautiful, filled with stalactites, stalagmites, rocks and other things that are underground. The young woman behind us in line was scared of encountering bats but this is a squeaky-clean cavern, complete with lights, a paved walkway and tour guides who talk about the various things I would know more about, had I paid attention in my geology class. No bugs, from what I could tell, and thus no bats.
Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
This is the first of a series of posts from our authors, designed to give you a peek into who we are, beyond what you’ve read from us in the past. We’ll be featuring two authors a day for the next week in this space, as well as our usual features. We hope you enjoy!
I never intended to fall in love with DC.
Hell, I never intended to stay here so long. I got here in July of 2000, eight years ago this past weekend, after being offered a tech job in Courthouse. I was supposed to be working with a little startup, my own little piece of the dotconomy. Until they went broke. Before I even started. I asked the leasing office what my options were. The secretary snapped her gum, and said, “Well, there are provisions for death or bankruptcy.”
Neither was appealing.
By Don
If you think I’m wrong, say so, but I’d suggest that it’s a lot easier to talk about why you dislike something than why you hate something. Hate or simple dislike is easy. One or two things bug you enough that it outweighs your enjoyment, and identifying them is simple. After all, they’re eating at you. Love and like are harder. People, meals, paintings, songs, places… we love them not for that one trait, that particular spice, that bassline, but because they add up to something more.
I’m having that problem telling you what it is that I love about DC. I could fill your screen with all the things here that delight me, but I don’t think that would really answer the question. Besides, so many things you could respond by saying “you could have that lots of places.” For instance – having grown up in Miami, I can put seasons near the top of the list. I think those of you who grew up seeing fall colors don’t fully grasp the magic. There’s a subtlety to the change that sneaks up on me. Perhaps it’s different for some of you, but every April I have a moment where I suddenly realize I can’t see through that cluster of trees – where’d those leaves come from all of a sudden?
Some things are a little more specifically regional, like Maryland Blue Crab. More specific to us, I love the Smithsonian, not just because it’s wonderful, but because it has completely ruined me for museums everywhere else I travel in the world. Wait, I have to pay to get in? Are you nuts? The way I feel when I look down the mall and see the Washington Monument, which in my six years here I don’t think has ever failed to make me smile… can I even claim that a feeling is a reason? That’s like saying I love DC because I love DC.
Maybe that is the reason. I love it because it’s never stopped giving me things about it to love. Weather, museums, scenic vistas, music, theater, sports, events… Its no different than loving a person – you could certainly get some or all of those things elsewhere, but that entire package together in that ratio is unique, and it keeps giving. The most recent treasure DC gave me was that my darling girlfriend agreed to become my darling fiancée here – on the under-appreciated Roosevelt Island – and that’s going to be a hard one to top.
But I’ve got faith.
By Tom Bridge
Tiff mentioned in The Daily Feed that Michael Landrum has a new restaurant near Ray’s the Steaks called Butcher Burger, and tonight we gathered up a bunch of hungry folks and gave it a try. Seven of us descended on the Little Shopping Center of Big Eats(1) to try it out. The sign, in a simple picture frame in the window, reads Ray’s Hell Burger. There is no overhead sign, so look for it next to the pack-n-ship place on the DC side of the LSCoBE. We walked in for dinner around 7:30, and had only a little wait. Of course, as soon as we’d ordered the line had gotten quite long.
The wait is worth it. Sure, the burger’s $7 or so, but it’s huge at 10oz, and it’s the same beef that Landrum has made famous at his steakhouses in DC (which I consistently maintain are the best steaks within an hour of the Mall) which means you’re in for some absolutely top drawer burgers.
By Ben H. Rome
Abstract Jungle
Originally uploaded by Ghost_Bear
Coming up this Saturday, July 12, the Washington Photo Safari is having their next Monuments and Memorials event. Led by architectural photographer E. David Luria, it’s a great way to spend the morning shooting various landmarks in the city and learning some great photo tips and techniques along the way.
I’ve been on some of these and they’re fantastic. Mr. Luria is extremely personable and a great photo guide; he’s quite capable of enhancing your photography skills, regardless of whether you use a simple point-and-shoot or a complex SLR digital camera. It’s well worth the money spent. (Transportation for this one is provided and covered by the fee.)
There’s a lot of events by the WPS; check out their calendar for other possible ideas. And maybe I’ll see you there!
By Tom Bridge
When my friend Lisa tweeted the other day that Wagamama might be coming to Penn Quarter, I got really excited. Wagamama is a noodle house that originated in London. They generally serve ramen, but this isn’t the ramen you buy in bricks from the grocery store, or in freeze-dried cups from Cup O’Noodles. No, this is the real thing. Served with piles of edamame or some tasty duck gyoza, it’s the real deal.
Metrocurean says they’ll be in the heart of Penn Quarter at the old Olsson’s location. No dates are official yet, but I have a feeling I’ll have a place to go for ramen come the winter-time, when I’ll want it most. Eating at Wagamama in London was one of the highlights of my trip there (okay, so it wasn’t as good as Zaika, but still!) and we’re looking forward to having one right here in DC.
By brownpau
Walking around downtown after watching Up the Yangtze at E Street Cinema yesterday, we spied the Hotel Harrington sign, as many have, many times before, and thought, “That logo sure looks familiar…”
Oh my god. How is it possible that I missed the news about Butcher Burgers, the latest effort of Michael Landrum (of Ray’s the Steaks fame).
I’m going. Tomorrow. I shall report back with photos. Who’s coming with me? (Obligatory OMG NOM NOM NOM noise here.)
By Wayan
Washington DC has its official fireworks on the Mall, but forgive me I find them insignificant. For me, the formal symphony + lightshow is a distant second, if even ranked, when compared with the neighbourhood effort.
And that would be every neighbourhood in this city – from Congress Heights to Foggy Bottom, Park View to Palisades. On every block, on each street, we have an orgy of light and sound, all amateur, and therefore, so much more creative and intimate.
In Petworth, we had our own fireworks festival. With the full block party audience in attendance, we had all kinds of sparkling, shootings, and showers of crackling through the night. Even Taxi Dog got in on the show.
And this morning? Happiness with firework detritus strewn about.
By brownpau
So the weather tricked me into staying in, but I did get to view tonight’s pyrotechnics from a friend’s apartment with windows facing towards the Mall. My camera sat on a tripod, set to do a time lapse video at one-second intervals. Here is the result, consisting of 1,271 frames taken over a course of 21 minutes:
Thanks to the Internet Archive for the 1913 Edison cylinder recording of Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. Sped-up video plus tinny Sousa makes for a whimsical little piece.
By Tom Bridge
That was the message today to 250 DC teachers and 500 teachers’ aides who missed a certification deadline this week. Official termination letters go out on Monday. Chancellor Rhee thinks it won’t be a problem, as these were “expected” terminations, and none of the firees have classrooms assigned. Well, I guess it’s good we knew it was coming?
By Carl Weaver
A Toast to the Flag. This is one piece of poetry, though a bit syrupy for my usual taste, and more patriotic sounding than I am known to go for, that always makes me feel good to be here in this great country and gives me pride in the flag. I first heard it in a very moving public ceremony at the Alexandria Scottish Rite Temple about a year and a half ago.
What is a flag? What is this thing I don’t mind people burning in order to express themselves, yet gets me choked up when presented by a National Sojourner and toasted in public? I have a strong sense of patriotism and national pride, yet I have never thought of myself as a flag-waving jingoistic person. I guess when it comes to the flag, things get a bit complicated.
The flag is a symbol of many things – democracy, truth, freedom from oppression – and yet it is still a symbol, meaning that it represents an idea and possibly different ideas to different people. People talk of the flag as if it is sacred. How sacred can something be if it simply represents an idea? The destruction of the cloth is not a destruction of the idea, yet people get quite upset when the flag is burned for some reasons but not for others. When I was a child it was more or less common practice to burn the flag if it touched the ground. This seems okay to most people but burning it in protest is not okay. To me, it’s the same thing.
Anyway, we have a pretty cool flag, get it now at the link. But where did it come from? And is it really based on George Washington’s coat of arms, as the legend goes? Or is it the basis for the original United States ‘stars and stripes’? This week’s Mythbusting gets to the bottom of the DC flag.
As I think about the flag and the great meaning it has for me, I grow concerned about its use as a political tool, especially as election season is rearing its campaign-hatted head. Those of us in the DC area are no strangers to this. A common mistake is to assume that the guy with the flag is what we label “patriotic” and that patriotism has a standard, common definition we all agree with. Not much can be farther from the truth. Again, symbols have differing, even changing, meanings.
Let’s take a moment on this July 4th and consider what it means to revere a symbol as much as a lot of our culture respects the flag. What does it mean to you?
By brownpau
As often is the case for the Fourth of July in Washington, the weather has been largely unstable: heat and humidity mixing with occasional showers. We’re now just about a half-hour from the scheduled start of fireworks on the Mall at 9:10 AM, and another wave of showers with some lightning has just finished sweeping the area. Here’s a closeup of our weather radar as of 8:30 PM:
The system that brought us that surprise rain twenty minutes ago is leaving to the northeast, but another system is forming to the west, and seeing that and considering the instability in the local atmosphere, my instinct — coupled with a general disdain for sitting in mud — is to stay indoors rather than go out to join the crowd of fireworks-viewers. But hey, that’s just me. There’s also a chance that system will dissolve into vapor and leave the district dry at 9:10PM, in which case, the show goes on.
Watcha gonna do, DC? If you’re living downtown, you now have under thirty minutes — just enough time to hop on a Metro or dash out to the Mall and maybe make it to a good viewing spot amidst the mass of humanity already there. And hey, if you’re reading this on your mobile device from out on the scene, send us a status report.
Update: Thankfully for those out there, the rain held off! We watched from the safety of a friend’s apartment, and I’ll have a time lapse video ready soon.
By Amélie
Well, if you’ve lived here long enough, you’d know that Metro and traveling by foot or bike is probably the best way to get down to The National Mall on July 4th. For those of you who don’t and insist on motorized transport, D.C. DOT has issued the list of street closures for the rest of the day.
By Ben H. Rome
For all you locals who don’t want to fight the incoming crowds for the fireworks displays across the region today, take heart. Alexandria’s found another excuse to throw some more explosives into the air next weekend.
(photo originally uploaded by The Library of Congress)
By Tom Bridge
Welcome, everyone, to We Love DC!
We’re going to be doing this a little bit differently than other blogs have done it. We’re going to be focusing on feature length content for our site, with an emphasis also on the hyperlocal microblogging. You can see that we have two columns here. The column in which this post is listed will be for featured entries, many of which are in the style of a recurring column, but there will also be coverage of news & events as they happen here.
The second column, called the Daily Feed, will be more oriented around the little local things we see happening all the time. The great photos we capture on the street, the news stories that just need to be posted. But sometimes, that picture’s just worth all 1000 words, and we won’t go all James Joyce on some of those posts.
Who are we, exactly? Well, most of us have been DC Bloggers in one form or another for years. This blog is the result of some hard work by a lot of people. We’ll have full introduction posts for each author (we’ve got a special feature planned) in the next week, starting Monday. You’ll recognize a lot of familiar faces if you’ve been reading Metroblogging DC. Don, Tiff, Max, Wayan, Ben, Carl, and others. You’ll also get to meet some new folks, including Paulo (our awesome WordPress master) and John Athayde (whose design is represented here).
We’re not finished implementing features and design elements just yet, but we felt we have a pretty good start here already. If you’ve got suggestions, or, even better, want to join us, please put something in the comments. If something’s not working right for you, please let us know.
And Happy Independence Day, everyone!
Armed Freedom, courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol
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