Monthly Archives: June 2009

Music, We Love Arts
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This Week in Music: Play it Loud: The Antlers/Cotton Jones @ IOTA


DSC08369 by musicalhedonist

Love can’t buy a full room, no matter what the prophets of new media might say. Even when the gushing adoration gets issued from the fast-typing manicured fingers of a name-checking rock critic, it’s not enough to ensure that there will actually be warm-drinking bodies filling the club when the band finally walks out — at least not at Iota.

The Antlers shuffled into Iota on the last languid Thursday night, dragging the sonic fruits of an inaugural album, “Hospice,” and the slow-snowball of a slew of positive reviews and early “best in 2009” lists, stretching from Pitchfork to NPR. It’s the type of trilling whisp-heavy work, managing to build and stretch droning little pop songs into eerily depressing, slow building atmospheric foothills. The dark little missive may enchant and bewitch, but make it through the ten tracks, and a very strong chance that you probably won’t be in the state of mind known as happy.

It’s an album that plays better in the headphones than the speakers — the canvasses quaver but rarely overwhelm — but on Thursday when I sat down with front man Peter Silberman, drummer Michael Lerner and keyboard stroking effects-slathering master Darby Cicci, the trio promised that the sound would be brought.

“We try to make each song as dense and expansive as we can,” said Silberman. “I don’t always know who’s making each sound or where it’s coming from, but we try to build each song as full as we can.”

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Green Line Rail Cracked, Metro Delays


Holding Pattern
Originally uploaded by Samer Farha

Metro discovered a cracked rail on the Green Line near the West Hyattsville station, which is going to result in single tracking around the exposed area until they can repair it. Metro will also be inspecting all 3,000 signaling relays as part of their crash response, which may contribute to system slowness. Until all the relays have been checked, the system will continue to operate in the slower Manual mode.

Update [2:37pm]Metro has announced a second rail crack this time on the Red Line at Medical Center. The Red Line will now be single-tracking between Grosvenor/Strathmore and Friendship Heights.

The Daily Feed
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Metro crash lawsuit #1

Photo courtesy of
‘Supreme Columns’
courtesy of ‘Carla Jones (Gen-esis Photography)’

WTOP reports that the first lawsuit has been filed by a crash victim. Davonne Flanagan, 15, received a broken leg in the crash, where he was riding in the rear of the first car of the striking train. The family is seeking $950,000 in pain and suffering as well as actual injury and expected rehabilitation. The victim’s family hired this subway accident lawyer in new york to handle the case.

A personal injury lawyer knows your rights and also knows how much your claim is worth. They also know that their success determines how much money you will pay them. Insurance claims come with so many uncertainties, and most times, insurers always try to find a way of denying claims. They keep tabs on timing and procedures to make sure things happen within the stipulated time limits. This will help keep your compensation claim on the right track. According to the San Bernardino accident lawyer, this is vital for ensuring fast settlement of your claim.

Personal injury lawyers tend to charge on a contingency basis. This means they receive a percentage of the settlement if and when a settlement is reached. A client does not pay out of pocket. Personal injury lawyers‘ fees can range from 33 to 45%.

Attorney Lawrence Lapidus explains the prompt filing with the statement “My clients wanted to file early because the Transit Authority is known not to settle cases without filing suit.” Lapidus has apprently been a plantiff’s attorney against WMATA several times in the past.

The Features
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We Love Weekends: June 27-28

Photo courtesy of
‘A step back in time’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

We asked on Twitter last week if you wanted to see a weekend feature, and the response was overwhelmingly and unequivocally YES! We wanted, though, to differentiate ourselves from all the other blogs by actually telling you what we’re doing this weekend. This isn’t us combing through all the event listings looking for stuff, this is us doing what we love to do on the weekends. Think we’re missing something? Tell us what you’re up to in the comments.

Katie: I do believe that this weekend calls for the pool. I could be seen at a number of area pools, but most likely, I’ll be hanging out at the Capitol Skyline Hotel rocking out at the space-camp themed Brightest Young Things Saturday pool party. I hear there will be astronaut ice cream and a moon bounce. Jasmine and I are hoping to hold down the “hot girl” contingency at space camp, sans fanny packs and tevas plus bathing suit and fabulous sunglasses. If that’s a little much for me, I could be spotted downing dippin’ dots and going down the slide at the Upton Hill public pool in Arlington.

Ben S.: Screw DC. I’m heading to the big city with a DC-envy problem in the great old state of New York. The weekend is all about sight-seeing and touristy stuff: a show on Broadway perhaps, a visit to Ellis Island, a stroll through Central Park. But the real reason I’m heading north is to be there Monday and Tuesday for the Personal
Democracy Forum.

Tom: Friday night I’ll be singing the Bach B Minor Mass at Schlesinger Hall in Alexandria with Choralis. It’s a phenomenal piece of music, especially with full orchestra and a choir of nearly 90 voices. Saturday, after I take my tux back, I’ll be hitting the Courthouse Farmer’s Market for some produce & cheese, and then it’s off to Bluemont to Great Country Farms for pea-picking and grabbing our share of produce. Sunday, though, I think will be hitting the neighborhood pools after brunch, or perhaps a trip out for Gelato in Clarendon, and cooking with fire at the hacienda.

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Crime & Punishment, The Daily Feed
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Stumble Safely

stumble.png

I’m not one to harp on crime statistics as a governing behavior for where I do my socializing, but this one’s too beautiful not to share. Check out Stumble Safely, which maps together a street map of DC, some delightful night spots, DC Metro station maps, and DC Crime Data. It even has settings so that you can filter by time of day or evening. It’s a gorgeous part of Apps for Democracy, a locally-organized contest for putting together a bunch of publicly available data into useful applications for the public.

The Daily Feed
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Jackassery in the Wake of Tragedy

Photo courtesy of
‘Underground’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

I know that most of you are burnt out by all the reporting on the metro crash, but this is something that I just couldn’t let lie.  The family of one of the victims, Ana Fernandez, a Salvadorian immigrant and mother of six, has received calls from “concerned citizens” questioning the legality of their residence.  Apparently, upon hearing of Ms. Fernandez nationality, these people took it upon themselves to leave her grieving family hateful telephone messages giving their thoughts on illegal immigration (there is nothing suggesting that Ana Fernandez was in the country illegally, by the way).  As much as I would love to rant, I think that the shear callousness of these fearless border protectors speaks for itself.  Jackasses.

Business and Money
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Thrifty District: Getcha Groupon!

groupon
For this, my first contribution to We Love DC, I want to talk about a company new to the DC area that is leveraging collective buying power to offer fantastic discounts at local retailers and service providers. “Groupon”, which launched its DC operation on May 26th, is a catchy play on the word “Coupon” (I know this seems plainly obvious, but I’m just playing it safe) and a division of Chicago-based parent company The Point, which harnesses the power of individual contribution to generate large scale impact in a social capacity. The Point’s company slogan is “Make Something Happen,” which is pretty kickass because after all, who doesn’t want to make shit happen?

Anyways, the idea behind Groupon came about from a basic problem that many of us busy urbanites suffer from: so much cool stuff to do, but almost too many choices, which means I keep returning to my “usual” spots, only to leave thinking, “man, I really gotta try some new places/things.” But I never did. That is, until I signed up to receive Groupon’s daily deal here in the District. Actually, the first thing I did was buy the hardworking lady friend in my life an hour long massage at Lunar Massage worth $75 for a mere $30 (brownie points on the cheap!). That’s a deal that can’t be beat! Oh wait, sure it can – perhaps by the 60% off Groupon for pilates classes at Mind-BodyFitness, the 71% off at Miracle’s in the City men’s salon, or the 57% off at Posh restaurant. Are you gettin’ what I’m puttin’ down here? Groupon = bigtime savings for patrons + bigtime exposure for businesses, which in turn = win/win for all! Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Fedorov Signs With Metallurg

Photo courtesy of
‘Fedorov’ courtesy of ‘borman818’

Russian news outlets are reporting that Caps forward Sergei Fedorov has signed a two-year contract with the Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Continental Hockey League (KHL). There, he’ll be reunited with his younger brother Fedor.

Fedorov, 39, was reportedly negotiating with several NHL teams besides the Caps but decided in the end to return to his native Russia. His decision ends an 18-year career in the NHL, including three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings.

Fellow Russian Viktor Kozlov left the Caps last month and signed on with this year’s KHL champs Salavat Yulaev Ufa in May. With the two forwards now having moved on and relieving some salary cap space, tomorrow’s NHL Draft and the upcoming July 1 UFA “open season” will prove most interesting for the team. We’ll have a Draft roundup on Monday.

The Daily Feed, The District, WMATA, WTF?!
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Fenty on the Death Toll Count Problems

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/video.

Mayor Fenty, in the Tuesday morning news conference at the site of the Metro crash, cited a figure of 7 dead, a number that had been reported by all the media earlier in the morning as 9 dead. Now, we have an explanation from the mouth of the Mayor, saying that all of the media was wrong, and that only he could’ve known the truth. I’m not sure that I believe him here. If the media had been reporting 10 dead, and only 7 ever died in the incident, perhaps, but with 9 being the final death toll, and the media got 9 from somewhere, this seems a little odd to me.

The Daily Feed
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Zagat talks to Roberto Donna about Galileo

Photo courtesy of
‘Fixed with duct tape’
courtesy of ‘nicolasnova’

Zagat has a little interview with Roberto Donna about his plan to finally re-open Galileo this fall. It’ll be in the old Butterfield 9 spot.

Interesting questions about his plans for the layout and events, though nothing about whether the black duct tape on the front doors will return. I’m guessing “not right away, but eventually.”

The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Faulty Computer Circuit May Be Cause

Photo courtesy of
’emergency only – push to talk’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

Preliminary reports coming from the NTSB investigation of Monday’s Metrorail crash are indicating they’ve located a faulty computer circuit along that particular stretch of track. While the officials are reluctant to say it’s broken, they have indicated there were several “anomalies” coming from one particular circuit. According to a WTOP report on the air this morning, an internal WMATA memo indicated that the computer system may have sent the “all clear” signal instead of a “train ahead, all stop” one. An “all clear” signal would accelerate the train to the track’s top speed; in this area, it’s 59 mph.

When at that speed, the operator may not have seen the stopped train ahead in time for the emergency brakes to stop the six-car train. Fully loaded trains of that length weigh around 300 tons and need a good distance to brake.

Metro is still running trains on manual control, which gives the operators greater control over their cars. They will be working in such a mode for the foreseeable future.

The NTSB continues to stress their investigation may take over a year before arriving at a conclusive result and that the anomalies are only one discovery so far in their preliminary work.

The Daily Feed
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DC Freaking <3s Top Gun

Photo courtesy of
‘TOP GUN (Blu-ray)’
courtesy of ‘cinz’

Seriously, it has become clear that this town can’t get enough of Top Gun. I’m being bombarded with requests to love Goose and Maverick and say douchebaggy things such as “I feel the need…. for speed.” If you love Top Gun, you best flee your cubicle RIGHT NOW and head to one or both of the following:

Summer Movies at Stead Park, Dupont: Top Gun
Movies every Wednesday under the stars. 1625 P St, NW., starts at 8:30 p.m.

Polyester Totally 80s Top Gun Night
Starting at 9, get your 80s on at Tattoo Bar, 1413 K St. NW. Open bar for the ladies between 10 and 11.

And for those of you who are, like, totally the Ice Man but can’t make it tonight zomg you have to work/have dinner with your parents/have invasive surgery, there’s more!

Capitol Riverfront Presents: The Best of the 80s
Top Gun will be screened on July 23. “Wear your Sunglasses at Night.” Off of New Jersey, near Navy Yard Metro. Between now and then, Riverfront will screen classics Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Caddyshack and The Breakfast Club.

The Daily Feed
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Panic and vigilante behavior now easier than ever

Photo courtesy of
‘spooky execution room shadows’
courtesy of ‘Jeremy Burgin’

WaPo reports that the D.C. police department has pushed out an upgrade to the online tool for scrutinizing the sex offender database. Now the tool has even greater granularity, allowing people to search for every single registered offender within a 0.25 mile radius of a given address, an upgrade from the previous system which required someone searching to know what police service area they were in.

WaPo erroneously claims that the database does not list what crime they were convicted of, but clicking through to the “more details” page includes that information. That page also states “Abuse of this information to threaten, intimidate, harass, or harm registered sex offenders, their families, or their property will not be tolerated and is subject to prosecution” which no doubt explains why the offender’s picture and work address is prominently displayed in the main grid but not their offense or how long ago it was.

Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Steny Hoyer Asks for $3B for Metro

Photo courtesy of
‘House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Failed Conservative Policies’
courtesy of ‘Center for American Progress Action Fund’

If Metro wants to live up to their responsibilities, Councilman and Metro Chairman Jim Graham says Metro will need approximately $1 Billion to do it. Today, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has petitioned Congress for $3 Billion. I’m not sure why the figure mis-match, perhaps it’s to negotiate down from, perhaps it’s to replace every 1000-, 2000- and 3000-series cars, but there it is, clear as day.

Will WMATA get the money? I don’t know. If there was a way to make sure that it was spent properly, I’d endorse that, since I trust Metro to manage its money about as much I trust your average quasi-governmental organization to spend its money well: Not. At. All.

So, will this help? Or will Senator Coburn strike it down, yet again?

Music, The Features
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Concert: Vieux Farka Touré

Photo courtesy of
‘Vieux Farka Toure at Rock and Roll Hotel’
courtesy of ‘dcjasmine’

You may not have heard of Vieux Farka Toure, but perhaps you should. NPR knows about him. The New York Times knows about him. The dirty hippies who were standing next to me and went to Bonnaroo do, too. If you have admiration for (or skill of your own at) guitar, it’s easy to appreciate the kind of talent it takes to make his guitar sound the way he does. Vieux is from Mali (in West Africa), the son of the famous Ali Farka Touré, and he visited our own Rock and Roll Hotel Monday night. Continue reading →

Downtown, Fun & Games, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Slam Dunk Contest

Photo courtesy of
‘Slam dunk’
courtesy of ‘cruffo’

DC basketball is like a wave rising and falling.  Teams like the  ’07 Hoyas raise our hopes, while the Wizards make a yearly attempt at breaking our spirits. On Saturday, Sprite and the NBA will give locals a chance to show what DC is really about.  The Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown, an amateur dunk competition, will be held on that day at 4pm at an outdoor court between 9th and 10th streets on Pennsylvania Ave NW.  Admission is $10 and attendees will be able to vote on their favorite dunks via text messaging. Thanks to Wendy for giving us the heads up!

The Daily Feed
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ESPN notices DC

Photo courtesy of
‘we feel fine’
courtesy of ‘brains the head’

Or maybe we finally bought enough chicken wings at the ESPN Zone. Something, I dunno. I’ll confess that my interaction with ESPN is pretty much limited to watching the crawl when I’m at the bar – I get my updates straight from NHL.com or the iPhone SportsTap application.

However Ric tells us that the ESPN instant poll results used to lack any sort of breakout for the DC area but he’s started seeing results from the District and the map has been updated to allow for displaying them. Older polls use the new map with DC but don’t have any results, like this Blazers-Rockets poll.

For non-DC-related fun, plug random numbers into the poll results link. Here’s one that apparently never ran… for good reason. Looks like a test setup of a tv show bracket: Project Runway vs Dancing with the Stars. Weird.

News, Talkin' Transit, The Features, WMATA, WTF?!
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Talkin’ Transit: Hard Questions

Photo courtesy of
‘Franconia-Springfield metro station’ courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

So Metro, now what?

That’s the question in the back of everyone’s minds here in the District after Monday’s tragic Metro accident. It’s not an easy question to ask and in the coming days, how John Catoe and WMATA answers it may well make or break the transit agency.

It will certainly redefine it, for good or ill.

One of the biggest issues I’m seeing so far is the continued lack of communication from WMATA. From the top down, Metro needs a serious reworking of how it communicates with the public, emergency personnel and with itself. Catoe’s shameful performance on WTOP yesterday morning is just one poor example; his response was a canned one, not addressing the reporter’s question but instead rambling into an answer I’d heard verbatim elsewhere. The response was so off the mark that WTOP had to interrupt him twice to try bringing him back to focus.

But more damning is the failure of Metro to let emergency responders know what the magnitude of the situation was in the first critical minutes after the collision. DCFD officials have been critical of how understated the accident was described; fortunately, rescuers realized the magnitude of the incident upon arrival and summoned additional help. But the question remains – what if the proper amount of help had arrived at the start? Would some of the victims be alive today?

Continue reading →