Did you get a taste of that lovely Monday outside? If not, Capital Weather’s got good news: it’ll be comfortably cool again today: breezy, dry, and only slightly warmer. Outdoor lunch suggestions welcome in the comments.
By brownpau
Monthly Archives: August 2008
By brownpau
By Carl Weaver
No Touchy at Murky Coffee
For those of you who haven’t seen previous posts about Murky Coffee, it does get mentioned here from time to time, as it turns out. The latest thing I can say I love about Murky is this sign I had probably seen a hundred times and not given any thought to. It both tickled and admonished me, delivering efficient coinciding messages. The biscotti are a favorite of my Lovely Wife and she claims they are right good. Me, I am not such a big fan of the hard anise-flavored breads. But my real question is whether I can get it iced. I thought about asking but then thought better of it.
By Throwdown: Gymnast vs. Breakdancer
Breakdance 2
Originally uploaded by starbuck77
I love the Summer Olympics, because I have an unrepentant love of watching gymnastics. The grace, the discipline, the fearlessness it takes to hurl yourself across a 4″ beam without falling, spin around bars several feet off the floor with only your armpits and fingertips to keep you from hitting the floor, or backflip off a raised pedestal with a deafening roar in your ears awes me.
But I have to say, in some ways, the finest Olympic gymnasts have nothin’ on a breakdancer. They get nice soft mats to break their falls. Let’s see you do those triple back-handsprings on concrete, sucker.
By Don
My Fringe boycott
Calling it a boycott is giving myself more credit for organization and indignation than I actually felt – not to mention the fact that you hope someone cares about a boycott, and I’m not sure anyone minded that I skipped everything this year. But I feel like it’s worth mentioning, if for no other reason than to explain why my darling fiancée (then-girlfriend) and I spent over $300 to see so many shows last year and ended up not going to a single “proper” Fringe show this year.
It was because of a button.
The picture above is from the lobby of Woolly Mammoth Theater, and I think there’s a pretty clear message there indicating just how people felt about the button. When Fringe director Julianne Brienza spoke to City Paper’s Trey Graham about the button, he gave her a pretty strong reaction to the fact that – on top of your $15 ticket – you’d have to shell out $5 to make sure you have one and buy another if you lose it or just leave it at home. She didn’t divert from the party line, however: We’re a business, you get discounts in shops with it, you show support for Fringe by wearing it, and it’s your responsibility to keep track of your button.
Well, more accurately, it’s my responsibility to have and hold my button if I want to get into Fringe venues. So in the end, every time I though about going out to catch a Fringe show, I made the decision that I wasn’t willing to support that button policy. My one exception of sorts was Mike Daisey’s “If you see something, say something,” an excellent show that was at Woolly rather than a proper Fringe venue, and therefor immune to the button nonsense.
Before Julianne or some other Fringe apologist shows up and makes the stock excuses, let me save you some time:
- It’s supporting the artists! I do when I buy a ticket and go to the show.
- You get discounts! You could have arranged that deal without making button-wearing mandatory.
- It increases the quantity of money to the artists! If you want and/or need to do that, be honest and increase the ticket price. This is in the vein of $5-to-check-your-bag airline sleaze.
- Other cities do it!
I’ll quote Fringe and Purge commenter Devil’s Advocate here for this last one: “most of the Festivals mentioned charge a lot less per ticket – even WITH the button, many are under $15. (Minnesota: $3 button/$12 ticket; Orlando: $6 button/tickets set by artist at $5-$10).” It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, and DA goes on to point out that other cities use the button to defray administrative costs so they can apportion 100% of ticket revenue to the artists.
The end financial result may or may not be the same doing it this way, but this system almost insures hard feelings. People buying a 10-pack to split among several people had to worry about getting the right number of buttons, eating into the savings, making going to shows more difficult, and giving the feeling – on purpose or not – that this is designed to impede savings through group purchasing. I didn’t put myself in the position where I’d have to spend $5 again because I’d forgotten my button at home but I can guarantee you how I’d have felt: pissed and ill-used.
So in the end, I voted with my dollars by keeping them to myself. I wonder how many other people did the same? Fringe and Purge’s wrapup quotes Julianne as saying attendance was up 10% from last year but it’s impossible to know if that number was impacted notably by the button. The only two facts about the button we can state are that each artist got $249 as their share of the 10,000 sold buttons and that I spent $300 less than I did in 2007.
By brownpau
MetroBra
Bra on Metro Elevator
Originally uploaded by brownpau
Someone must have partied especially hard in the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro elevator on Saturday afternoon, as evidenced by this bra left on the trash-strewn elevator floor. I’d have picked it up (hey, free bra) but it was a bit damp and muddy, and not my cup size anyway.
By brownpau
Plane Trails on DC Cam
I’m a big fan of the National Park Service’s webcams, especially the Washington DC cam viewing the Mall area from the Netherlands Carillon on the GW Parkway. Having a windowless inside office I like to keep this cam (among other outdoor DC cams) open in a separate browser window to provide an outside view through the course of the work day. I’ve also used it for at least one time lapse video.
Checking the cam tonight brought an especially cool treat: a long exposure shot catching a plane making the River Visual approach to landing at National:
Webcam captures plane
(Here’s how that approach looks from a pilot’s perspective aboard a small plane in daylight. More here.)
Update: Oh nice, check out brianmka’s incidental capture of a landing plane at night from right near the same webcam.
By Wayan
Expectant Mother Parking
Now here is a parking privilege I never expected to use: Expectant Mother Parking.
Yet when my baby’s mamma and I went shopping this weekend, we jumped at the convenient perk.
Baby’s mamma’s swelling feet say thanks to the progressive thinkers at Westfield Mall but no thanks to the two men who pulled into our space as we left.
By Brittany
District Mixtape: Will Sommer
Will Sommer
When blogger and W<3DC reader Will Sommer sent an email asking if he could contribute to our District Mixtape series, we instantly said yes. Will is a fun kid; I know because his Facebook profile photo (also above) shows him mugging with his Barnyard Friend, Colbert-style. We Love Silly. — Brittany
I’m an international politics junior at Georgetown, and the editor of Vox Populi, the blog division of the Voice, a student paper. This is my second term as blog editor, and as they say on Step by Step, “We’ll get it better the second time around.” This year, we’re taking aim at any student with computer access, but don’t think post-college DC will escape our blogging. We’ve got stuff for you too. There’s also one feature that hits the sweet spot between those two groups— Date Lab reviews.
Continue reading
By Wayan
Metrorail Routing Pop Quiz
So let us say you are somewhere on the Red Line north of Dupont Circle and are headed south of Pentagon City. Which is faster:
- Yellow Line via La Enfant Plaza, or
- Blue Line via Metro Center?
Today I went for the Yellow Line option because I wanted to see the Potomac and got a bonus: a singing trio on the Gallery Place platform.
Which choice do you make?
By Don
Check out those bugs
Yesterday’s WaPo article on bees was serendipitous for me. I’d recently seen a bee smaller than any other bee I had ever seen by far – much smaller than a pea – and it made me wonder how many varieties of bees there were. Growing up in Miami I’d only noticed one kind of bee, and it wasn’t till I moved up here that I saw my first bumblebee. I didn’t even realize it was a bee at first – the big fat thing that looked like a black and yellow flying jellybean did not resemble the bees I was used to in shape, size, color, or behavior. I can’t speak for anyone else, but their lollygagging pace makes me feel far more comfortable around them than other bees. It’s almost impossible to imagine those Orson Welles of the bee world attacking you.
Now, if you’re more insect-educated than I am – and it’s easy to imagine that – you scoffed when I said I’d only ever seen one type of bee. After all, there’s over 3,500 species of indigenous bees, a fact that Adrian Higgens’ article introduced me to, so the chances that I only ever saw one kind is unlikely. Since facts are, for me, like potato chips – you can’t consume just one – I looked up a few of the resources that Higgens provided, including the mention of the Xerces Society and the publication Farming for Bees, which can be downloaded in PDF form from that link. While I had better luck finding bee-attracting plants in the appendix of the UGA document “Bee Conservation in the Southeast,” I did find some other information about our area in the F4B document.
On page 19 is a case study of how Pepco has handled the land under some of their transmission lines. There’s more information on Pepco’s right of way program here but for my money you can’t beat a writeup about a power company program called the Butterfly Enhancement Project. I’m still trying to figure out where the devil that 5 acre stretch is, though I get the sense that it may not be accessible to the general public.
Until I figure that out and can take some shots there, why not content yourself with the collection of Flickr pictures tagged with ‘bee’ in our immediate area? And if you happen to know what that other bug is in my shot, sing out, would you? I’ve never seen a black and yellow beetle before.
Bug harmony, courtesy of Me
Restaurant Week Starts Monday!
Prime Rib
Originally uploaded by tbridge
DC Restaurant Week is nearly upon us. For the last three of you who are not yet familiar, Restaurant Week is when many of DC’s dining establishments offer a three-course, price-fixe menu for both lunch and dinner. Since a number of higher-end restaurants participate it’s a terrific way to experience DC’s best cuisine without constantly fearing for the moment the check arrives. It’s also a great excuse to go try out a new place- chefs often love the chance to show off for a new crowd.
The best Restaurant Week coverage I’ve seen so far is from the fine team at DC Foodies. They’ve got a comprehensive list of menus, with edits being made as each restaurant publicizes their offering.
Don’t forget to make reservations. What are you most looking forward to checking out?
By Tom Bridge
Monumental: DC War Memorial
World War I Memorial by oberonindc
Hidden away from the Reflecting Pool stands a Doric-columned white marble dome, inscribed with the names of 499 men and women from the District of Columbia who never made it home from fields of Ypres and the end of The Great War. The monument, dedicated on Armistice Day, 1931, by President Hoover, was built to fit The President’s Own, and John Philip Sousa lead the band on the occasion. Playing The Stars and Strips Forever, the Band dedicated the memorial to those lost in combat abroad.
The memorial, granted by Act of Congress in 1924, was built with $200,000 in private donations, given by citizens of the District. Architect Frederick H. Brooke designed the edifice to be built using Vermont Marble from the Danby quarry, and the committee planted a grove of hardwood trees to surround the memorial.
By Brittany
Social Calendar: August 7 – August 13
Evil Robot Staring Contest courtesy of Pianoman75
Once again, I am writing this column from somewhere other than Washington. This makes me sad because, even in the doldrums of August when it seems like little is going on, I would still rather be at home. In just a few more weeks, I will be leaving, and each time I go away for a few days, I miss DC a little more.
Thursday, August 7 Commonwealth opened yesterday. Go and tell me if it lives up to the hype.
Friday, August 8:A few weeks back, our chum DJ C played the LODA event up at Gallery in Silver Spring. Unfortunately, I was alerted too late to tell you that week, so I will tell you to go this week instead. The Nouveau Riche djs will be in one room and the Disco City djs in the other.
By Tom Bridge
Berwyn Heights Mayor (almost) Exonerated
So, the SWAT team broke down his door, shot his dogs, tied his family up, and it turns out it was all a giant mistake. Turns out, the Police were also missing the right kind of warrant for a no-knock execution of the search, which compounds the frustration. Two area men were arrested as part of a bizarre weed shipping ring, and over $1M in weed was confiscated by the PG County Police. While PG County Police Chief Melvin High won’t rule out the involvement of Mayor Calvo, we’ve promised we won’t rule out laughing hysterically at his name being associated with a pot scandal.
By dinghao
Beauty on Rockville Pike
I work in Twinbrook, just off Rockville Pike.
Rockville Pike and its general vicinity, if you don’t know it, is about as dense as suburban sprawl can get. It is a Mecca of strip malls, shopping centers, pavement, asphalt, traffic lights, and of course, traffic.
Today at lunch, I had an errand to run over at a nearby bank, in one of the strip shopping centers. I parked my car in shopping center lot (since the bank itself only has about five spaces, which are always in use), and walked over to the bank.
Continue reading
By Wayan
Warning: Summer Hailstorm Coming!
Up in Petworth we are getting serious wind gusts and light hail with the dark thunder cloud headed south.
I think I just lost a few tomato plants. Be sure to secure your outside crops and effects quick-like.
By Don
Look at the reality behind the news.
No matter how well written the news story, most of us know nothing more than what’s provided us on the page. Our emotional connection is limited to our ability to empathize with people we don’t know, and based on the limited picture of their life presented to us in that one cluster of paragraphs. For most of us the Post story on the tragic death of Marisol Caceres is no different.
Jeff gives us a window into their lives before this tragedy, both with his fresh recollections of his friendship with Marisol’s brother Jose and his two-year old interview with him about his immigration reform activities. It’s a valuable reminder that the people on the page had lives before they got six inches of newsprint devoted to their current tragedy. It’s also a reminder that their burdens won’t lessen just because they disappear from our notice because something bad happened to someone else the following day.
It’s not an enjoyable feeling, this reminder, but I think it’s a valuable and human one.
Lonely Hands, courtesy of Rickydavid
By Tom Bridge
Ride The Light Into the District?
FiOS may be coming into DC soon! The first hurdle, the Office of Cable Television, has been leapt. The OCT and Verizon came to an agreement to bring FiOS service into DC. This is just the first hurdle, next comes review by AG Nickles’ office, then approval by the City Council.
Of course, that’ll mean running fibre all over town, which means years of construction!
By Tom Bridge
DC’s Cocktail? The Gin Rickey?
IMG00056
Originally uploaded by Todd Kennedy
I didn’t know what a Gin Rickey was this morning, or ever where it’d come from, until I came across the story on WTOP about the DC Craft Bartenders Guild (who desperately need a website.) who had a Gin Rickey contest this week. What was fascinating wasn’t just the Rickey itself, it was the intense debate on the Yelp listing comments on the differences between the Rickey and a Gimlet, which are largely comprised of the same ingredients (Gin & Lime juice), but the differences lie in the subtletly of creation.
Turns out, the Gin Rickey is steeped in DC tradition, going back to 19th century lobbyist Colonel Joe Rickey. Once the owner of the Shoemaker Bar on Penn Ave here in DC, Rickey’s drink of choice was gin or whiskey, over ice, with the juice of half a lime, and, if he was feeling peckish, a little sugar, with soda water. The Post has the scoop on the winning entry, which is a black pepper Rickey. Read on for the video from the context.
By Tom Bridge
Getaways: Middleburg, VA
Middleburg Benches by compulsion
An hour outside DC, in the middle of hunt country, is a tiny little town called Middleburg. I’d been meaning to get out and explore it, and this summer’s CSAdventures have given us just the opportunity. Our farm, in Bluemont, and our friends’ dairy farm, encircle a 100-mile circuit with Middleburg at the dead center, perfect for a lunch. Driving the gently rolling hills and winding scenic byways has become a real joy for us each weekend. The ancient stone wall fences that surround so many of the country estates and farms of the hunt country are iconic, throwbacks to a time long passed.
The town itself sits on the John S. Mosby Highway (Route 50), halfway to the Blue Ridge. It’s only about a mile wide, and certainly no wider than a few blocks, but what’s contained therein is an impressive collection of prosperous businesses. Restaurants, Beds & Breakfast, Country Inns, this is the perfect little hamlet for escaping to the country for a quiet weekend away.