Yearly Archives: 2009

Entertainment, Life in the Capital, The District
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SynchroSwim @ Capitol Skyline Pool


DC Synchromasters by Max Cook

One of DC’s hottest scenes this summer has been the Capitol Skyline Hotel pool.  Like spring break on steroids, you’ll find all of the cool kids drinking, smoking, drinking and splashing around in the warm summer sun.  A DJ spins tunes, inflatable pool toys fly through the air, and six packs flex in hopes of a post pool hookup.  This is where real people hang out.  Real cool people.  This is the real world, or at least the real DC.

Despite not having a six pack, when I heard that the Washington Project for the Arts was holding a synchronized swimming contest at the pool in addition to experimental video projections by Connor Contemporary Art, I knew it was something I couldn’t pass up.  The contest, SynchroSwim, featured five teams competing in an unorthodox display of aquatic acrobatics.  Prizes were awarded for best performance, best visual spectacle, and crowd favorite.

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The Daily Feed
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Goodbye Fun Store


Fun window
Originally uploaded by tbridge

I was walking on E street yesterday, and I noticed that my most favorite store was now a hollowed-out shell. No longer can you get Marital Aids, Martial Arts Equipment and Stun Guns in the same place. Sigh, whatever shall we do?!

The Daily Feed
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Don’t get shocked

Photo courtesy of
‘Crecent Lightning’
courtesy of ‘Cazimiro’

It looks cool but it’s less pleasant to get hit by it. According to Pepco lightning strikes kill 400 people in the US every year – most of them in June, July, and August. So they’ve offered up this selection of tips for how to stay safer in a storm.

They don’t offer any tips for keeping your stuff safe, so let me drop some knowledge on you here: there is no consumer protection gadget out there that will protect your computer/DVD/tv/whatever safe against a close lightning strike. So-called “surge protectors” are typically one-use components (an MOV, to be precise) that may marginally protect against dirty power – but probably not. Lightning travels through the air so I assure you: it will have no problem jumping a nanometer distance or even across a power switch on a strip if the strike was close enough.

For 100% protection in an ugly storm, unplug.

[edit: accidentally left in ‘kill’ from a previous edit – Pepco claims approximately 60 fatalities out of those 400 who are struck]

The Daily Feed
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No More Tax-Free

Photo courtesy of
‘Packaging their Tomica’
courtesy of ’emrank’

Wondering when the summertime DC ‘sales-tax free’ week is?

Don’t bother. The District repealed legislation today back in May that allowed for the tax-break week, usually in time for back-to-school shopping. A victim of the economy, the city will save nearly $650,000 in revenue.

No word on if it will return.

(Corrected, since I only briefly read the press release today – more of a reminder – and forgot this was repealed back before summertime.)

We Love Arts
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Fringe: “Freakshow” and “Bare Breasted Women Swordfighting”

show

Over the weekend I caught three shows; One was Riding the Bull, which Jenn already reviewed. The other two were Freakshow and Bare Breasted Women Swordfighting. I enjoyed both overall, but both had some issues.

Freakshow’s problems were 100% venue-related. If you haven’t partaken of a Fringe show or just haven’t been over to Fort Fringe, the Fringe powers that be have set up a large tent in the outdoor area next to the former AV Restaurant. It’s a colorful and fun space and a neat idea.

Except.

The tent also houses the bar; in fact you pass through it to enter the performance space. Like most bars, keeping the noise level consistently down below a dull roar requires divine intervention. Fringe’s direct line to the almighty is just as flawed as anyone’s, and consequently the noise spills through at random points. At several points I found myself leaning forward and straining to hear. Freakshow’s last performance is this Thursday at 6:30pm, meaning most of the 80 minute performance will overlap with the last hour of Fringe’s happy hour.

Unfortunate, because the show is worth your time. Andrew Mitakides has an intense stare that makes you instantly believe he could be the barker and head for a traveling freakshow around the turn of the century and Allyson Harkey wonderfully inhabits the armless and legless Amalia, only out of our sight briefly during the entire show. Personally I’d have had to itch my nose long before the hour and a half had passed by. Everyone else is similarly good, though poor Edward Daniels doesn’t get much to do as the feeble-minded “Pinhead” character. If the end falls down at all it’s in trying a little too hard to create some sense of closure. We come in with a situation already set, albiet in transition – I wish the playright had trusted us to walk out with the same sense of continuinty.

Bare Breasted Women Swordfighting, on the other hand, had a fine venue but I had some serious problems with the content.

Continue reading →

Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: Almost Dog Days Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘DC United vs Rapids’
courtesy of ‘veni markovski’

D.C. United
Record: 6-3-9
Last Two Weeks: 2-0-0
Place: 2nd in the East

Just two games for United these past two weeks, an MLS win against the Colorado Rapids and an Open Cup win against the Harrisburg City Islanders. Sure, Brian Namoff put one in his own net against the Rapids, but overall, it’s looking better and better for United. They’re headed to the Open Cup quarterfinals this Tuesday night against the Rochester Rhino at the SoccerPlex, then it’s out west against the Quakes in San Jose, then a CONCACAF Champions League game against the C.D L.A. Firpo. Three leagues, four games, two weeks. Here’s hoping that Namoff can keep up his scoring streak, and not just on his own goal…

Kastles
Record: 5-6
Last Two Weeks: 5-4
Place: 2nd in the East by a half match

There are just three matches left in the swift 2009 World TeamTennis league: one on the road versus the undefeated Springfield Lasers, and a pair at home against the Lasers and the New York Buzz. On the line? A playoff spot and a winning record for the season. While the Kastles are in 2nd place in the East, it’s a precarious position just a half match ahead of the Boston Lobsters, and a game and a half in front of the Freedoms and Buzz. It’s going to take some “Refuse to Lose,” to make sure they make it to the Playoffs.

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The Daily Feed
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Kastles Hit Homestretch


DC Tennis by Max Cook

The Washington Kastles, now 5-6, head into the end of their season this week.  Currently in second place in the Eastern Conference, they have their work cut out for them to maintain their position.  They’ve got three tough matches coming up, two of which are against the undefeated Springfield Lasers.  To help their playoff chances the Kastles have signed Nadia Petrova, currently ranked #10 in the world.  It remains to be seen who she will replace or if she will have doubles chemistry with either Rennae Stubbs or Olga Puchkova.

Securing wins in two of the final three matches will earn them a spot in the Eastern Conference Final against the 9-3 Sportimes who they played last week.  Should they lose two matches they will need the help from the Boston Lobsters and the Philadelphia Freedoms.  If the Kastles advance to the finals it will be played here in DC, a rematch you surely won’t want to miss.

While Washington clearly has the best fans in World TeamTennis, seats are still available for this week’s matches so buy your tickets now.

The Daily Feed
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Not actually a small plane, a crash, or experimental

Photo courtesy of
‘Taxi back after landing’
courtesy of ‘jitze’

WTOP reports here that the pilot of an ultralight was unharmed – and presumably nobody else was either – after he set his vehicle down on a road median in Maryland. Unfortunately the article fudges a few terms and exhibits the ususal problems the media has when reporting on general aviation.

It’s an accurate statement, but WTOP tosses in that this is an “experimental plane” which makes it sound like something the pilot cobbled together out of junkyard parts. What the FAA calls planes in the “experimental” category is just a grouping most of us would think of as small planes flown by hobbyist pilots. There’s some restrictions on flying passengers and other commercial actions but in general there’s no reason to single these out to sound like they’re iffy in any way.

The use of the term “crash” is also problematic, since most of us would think of a crash as a fairly uncontrolled landing. The pilot here might simply have had to engage in a forced landing outside of a proper landing zone – which would require involving the FAA – but was able to do so in a controlled manner.

If the media is going to report on these things I wish they’d make up their mind whether they’re going to go balls-to-the-wall on the technical terms or simply report things in plain english. This term mixing seems to only happen when they are salacious official words.

Downtown, Entertainment, Essential DC, Media, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The Mall
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Screen on the Green Returns Tonight!

Photo courtesy of
‘Screen on the Green’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

In case you didn’t already have this marked down on your calendar, Screen on the Green makes its triumphant return tonight with a showing of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The screen will be set up on the Mall between 4th and 7th streets (you can’t miss it) and the showing will start at sunset. There is a 30% chance of rain, so pray that it holds off till after the movie.

The Daily Feed
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40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing


Neil Armstrong
Originally uploaded by Samer Farha

That’s Neil Armstrong there, pointing skyward, standing with fellow astronauts Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. The three of them represent the crowning achievement of NASA’s space flight program: a successful trip to lunar orbit, and from there, the lunar surface. Forty years ago today, two men decamped from that lander, and they walked the surface of another world. They left behind a flag and a plaque that said “we came in peace for all mankind.”

I might be a bit of a nerd for saying this, and it’s just fine if you mock me, but this is the kind of stuff that gets me all misty. Today, if you see them around town (they’ll be at the White House today), ask them about the view from the moon to the Earth. You’ve seen the pictures, but they saw it live, through their own faceplates.

Their command module sits in the Air and Space Museum on the Mall, to remind us what we could do just 66 years after inventing human flight: land on another world. Take a look at Samer Farha’s set from yesterday’s event at NASM, and wonder: Will we go further than that day 40 years ago?

I do hope so.

The Daily Feed
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Vonage and Mix 107.3

Photo courtesy of
‘Wait! Say you’ll stay, spend a lazy Sunday.’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’

While the sourcing on the story is a little shaky, it appears that Mix 107.3 is denying a prize to a listener who tried to call in when they called her name, but found their cellphone and Vonage home phone blocked. The station was accepting only local calls to their 800 number. While the caller’s Vonage number is indeed within the DC area, Vonage directs all 800 calls through their New York gateway, making her local call a “non-local” call. So, is the caller a winner? Or a loser because she didn’t knock on her neighbor’s door?

The Daily Feed
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Metro iPhone app, with bus times

Photo courtesy of Me

Find a Metro DC

When I wrote about WaPo’s questionable iPhone app choice earlier, reader JW said he’d like to see Nextbus functionality incorporated into an app. Ask and ye shall receive – John popped up to say that he’d added exactly that into his app, Find a Metro DC, and it was just waiting on Apple’s approval.

Well, Apple has now approved it so you can go grab it now. I haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet but the bus times is a nice feature that my current metro app doesn’t offer. John also said that he’s got support for you to pick your 3 favorite spots for quick access, a feature I wouldn’t want to give up from my current app.

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Fringe picking 101

Photo courtesy of

‘Noir City’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

I know some of our readers are regular and devoted Fringe-goers (as well as some performers). Those of you who are have no doubt already dug through the marginally painful Fringe Festival online database of shows, read every description, plotted out what you want to see and when you can see it, and come up with a schedule allowing you to fit in as many of your desired shows as possible.

This is not for you.

This is my reaching out to those of you who are sitting between “well, I’d kinda like to see what this is all about but I’m not sure…” and “huh?”

If you’re on the fence or not normally someone who takes in live performances I say this to you: Go. Take a shot. Live performance – whether it be theater, dance, or music – has a quality all its own and when it works it’s better than anything you can get recorded. The nice thing about Fringe is that, for the most part, even when it blows it’s still usually different and interesting. The fact that attending helps us keep a more vibrant local arts culture is icing on the cake.

I’ll do my best to point you at the resources to let you pick something that’s not a stinker. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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A Fringe suggestion – you know, for the kids

capital-fringe-gilbert-and-sullivan-gilbertandsullivan

I skipped it last year, but two years ago I had the pleasure of seeing the Gilbert and Sullivan Youth Company perform at Fringe. They’re back again this year and I have no doubt they’ll be just as enjoyable. You’ve only got a couple of hours to get to the Mt Vernon Place United Methodist Church if  you want to hit their 5:30p show today but they’ll be there tomorrow at 2:45p and Sunday at 6:45p. It’s a good show and helps support and encourage some talented youngsters – the 2007 show featured players as young as 12.

All Politics is Local, The District, The Features
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Project Nur – “In Solidarity With Iran”

Project Nur

Project Nur Flashmobber

We got the alert about the roving Iran flashmob yesterday mostly from our various day job employers. Property management companies were sounding the alarm with their tenants- oh noes! Flash mobs have turned violent in other cities!

Their concern was, shall we say, overstated. I had to look hard for the Project Nur group at the Lincoln memorial- it was about 6 people; a few twenty-somethings, and one person who appeared to be a bit older. At a signal, the flashmobbers ran to positions on lower staircase in front of the Memorial, and stood silently, holding up their printed handbills so that people could both see and take them, but not engaging in any interaction with the assortment of sightseers who walked by. Which was kind of unfortunate, because they were largely ignored that way, and what’s happening in Iran is important not only to Iran, but the whole Middle East as well as the world.

The whole thing was a little anticlimactic, honestly, after the talk of an “agitprop” demonstration in solidarity with Iranians. That said, it’s hard to come up with a noticeable group activity with 5 (I hear there were about a dozen at Federal Triangle), and I did appreciate their respect for people who were just there to check out the memorial.

At the end of their prescribed silent demonstration time, the protesters walked around, quietly offering leaflets to passerby. Speaking of the leaflets- I have to say I’m impressed- I wish I could get a good photo to show you. The text was well-written, and cogently lays out the basic facts about what’s happening in Iran and how interested people can get involved. Which include, in addition to writing to your Member of Congress (for those who actually have representation, hmm…), pressuring Nokia to stop providing and supporting the surveillance technology the Iranian regime is using to crack down on the protesters, which surprised me. I learned something I didn’t know today through the protest, so it was effective in that regard.

Click through for more photos of the protest. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Clothing Swap Tomorrow

Photo courtesy of
‘Fashion in Motion’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

Got cute things that you just don’t (or can’t) wear anymore? Fashion Fights Poverty, an organization dedicated to spreading awareness about poverty and the environment, will host a clothing swap tomorrow afternoon at the Mayflower Hotel. At some predetermined (and undisclosed) time between 12pm and 5pm, all the clothes people bring will be put in one big pile on the table and then you’re invited to go for it. There is a time limit, though, and all the stuff left over will be donated to charity. Besides the swap, you can bring your stuff for consignment at Current Boutique or donate your items to Covenant House Washington.

Sports Fix
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McEnroe Brings Controversy and Defeat


photography by Max Cook

In the press conference prior to last night’s World TeamTennis match between the Washington Kastles and the New York Sportimes, John McEnroe was calm, cool, and collected.  Some might say he even seemed bored.  The fifty year old retired tennis legend, once ranked number one in the world and known for his fiery temper, sat emotionless as he answered questions he’s no doubt heard countless times before.  When asked whether he now considers himself an entertainer or an athlete he said, “A little bit of both.  I think people come here expecting me to get angry and yell at someone.”  You think?  The Kastles banked on it and played a video compilation of vintage McEnroe outbursts (“You have GOT to be kidding me!”) on the big screen no less than ten times throughout the evening.  Would McEnroe remain emotionless or would the crowd see the explosion they were hoping for?  With the Sportimes leading the Kastles by two games in the Eastern Conference, there was a lot riding on the line for the night’s match. Continue reading →