Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Daily Feed
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National Zoo’s pride. Of lions.

Photo courtesy of
‘Gazing out’
courtesy of ‘brianmka’

I was at the National Zoo a couple of weeks ago and noted that the male lion and the two females were kept in separate enclosures, which seemed kind of sad to me. Apparently the Zoo staff agrees, because they’re working through a plan that will allow the male lion Luke (4 years old) to live in the same enclosure with the two females, 6 year old sisters Nababiep and Shera.

What struck me is how the process of acclimating the lions to each other is more or less exactly like introducing a new housecat to your current cat.   Continue reading →

Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Artist Anne Marchand’s Luminous

Photo courtesy of
‘Walkthrough Art’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

The Crystal City BID’s ARTFUL Program, which hopes to share with people the influence that art can have over public spaces, is currently exhibiting Lumnious by Washington, DC -based artist Anne Marchand.  Marchand’s Luminous exhibition features eight large, mixed media canvases inspired by a combination of mystical poetry and images taken from the Hubble Space Telescope – where “art and the universe merge”.

Luminous is open until April 26 and is supported by The Crystal City Business Improvement District (BID) in partnership with Vornado/Charles E. Smith.

The exhibition is located at 2231 Crystal Drive.

There is also an opening reception for the exhibit tomorrow, March 24th – Please RSVP at rsvp[at]crystalcity.org.

News, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Local Business Owner Strong-Arming Bloggers?

Photo courtesy of
‘Soda jerker flipping ice cream into malted milk shakes. Corpus Christi, Texas (LOC)’
courtesy of ‘The Library of Congress’

News came in overnight that David Shott, the owner of yet-to-open Du Vin Osteria at 14th & Florida, had threatened two local bloggers – Prince of Petworth and U-Street Girl – with legal action unless they removed comments from their blog entries concerning his new establishment.  The strong-arming appears related to comments made by a former Union Row Resident, who was reminding readers of a 2008 interaction with the Union Row community by Mr. Shott. Mr. Shott’s threat of legal action is an empty one, as comment forums provide the blog owner, but not the commenter, safe harbor under the Communications Decency Act.

We have requested comment from Mr. Shott by email, but have not received one.

Generally, we consider it in poor form to strong-arm bloggers concerning the comments that are posted on their site, as it stifles an open community.  This is a place to engage your customers, not threaten them.

As a precaution, I would point everyone to our comment policy before they decide to write in below. We will also note that the comments are the property of their author, and not of We Love DC.

The Daily Feed
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The Heads of State DC Poster

Washington DC Poster, courtesy of theheadsofstate.com

Washington DC Poster, courtesy of theheadsofstate.com

I am drooling over the awesomeness of this Washington, DC travel poster by The Heads of State.  The red, white and blue motif is totally appropriate for the nation’s capital city and I’m totally digging the subtle Old Glory layout.

The font and stylized clouds also have me harking back to the post-War days, and for some reason images of Howard Hughes “Spruce Goose” and an airline pilot uniform clad Leonardo DiCaprio in “Catch Me If You Can.”

This limited edition, 14″ x 24″ screenprint is a sweet way to decorate your pad and for $30 bucks it’s also a fantastic way to show some DC love. Continue reading →

Essential DC, Food and Drink, Fun & Games, Technology, The Daily Feed
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Ben’s Chilli Bowl, There’s An App For That … On The Way

Photo courtesy of
‘Just what I wanted’

Can I get an iPhone App with my half-smoke? Pretty soon you can.

Son of the late Ben of Ben’s Chili Bowl, Nizam Ali, is looking for you tech-savvy DC residents to develop the latest in Chilli eating technology.

The Washington Examiner reports that Ali hopes that the contest designed for people who know and love Ben’s will encourage them to share their good ideas for what the app should be.

Final contest rules and guidelines aren’t set in stone, but the date is – April 5.

If you want to be the one to create an iPhone app for a 50-year-old business, get to thinking! Opportunity is a-knockin’.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Get A Buzz At Northside Social Coffee & Wine, Opening Monday

Photo courtesy of ‘SOVA Coffee Shop and Wine Bar’ courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

If you like a good buzz (alcoholic, non, or both), look no further than Northside Social Coffee & Wine. Its Clarendon location opens next Monday due to some hard work by the Liberty Tavern Group, according to Thrillist DC.

The menu features all the greatest legal buzz creators including espresso and vino from inside the comfortable confines of a residential, “window-/wood-lined double decker house” which, according to Thrillist DC, was previously everything from a home to a fire station and even the Clarendon Citizens Hall in its past lives.

There is also food on the menu for the imminent moment you should decide, “Gee, I’m hungry.” Classy sandwiches that aren’t a simple deli meat meets cheese combo make for an edible experience instead of the standard coffee shop food affair. This stuff’s got foodie flair written all over it – a herb butter/Gruyere/marble rye Westphalian Ham, a mache/onion marmalade smoked salmon salad, poached gulf shrip – sounds delicious to me.

20 wines or so are scheduled to be on the opening menu. I do however beg you beer drinkers to fear not, there’s a microbrew list on tap with three draft beers and bottles as well. Click here for a complete menu.

Northside Social Coffee & Wine is located at 3211 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo


Pizza Bagel by Chris DiGiamo

Ah, times sure have changed haven’t they?  This photo immediately reminded me of a modern day Normal Rockwell painting.  Rockwell often based his historic paintings on photographs, manipulating the scene with his brush however he saw fit.  So I wonder, how would he have treated this subject?  Surely the boy’s checkered shirt and overalls would stay, but how about the ugly American cars in the background?  I’m guessing those would be replaced by classic buggies or removed altogether.  The three dollar yuppie juice would likely have its place taken by an old fashioned bottle of Coca-Cola or perhaps a cherry-topped chocolate malt.  And the vegan pizza bagel?  Well I don’t think vegans existed back in Rockwell’s day, so instead I’d guess the boy’s face would shine with grease from a delicious burger.  Alas, for better or for worse, America as we once knew it is long gone.

News, The Daily Feed
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MPD Cancels Expansion Plans

Photo courtesy of
‘The Line Up’
courtesy of ‘jacobpstein’

Chief Cathy Lanier announced yesterday that the MPD’s plan to expand the force by 5% has been put on hold due to budget pressures. 5% may not sound like a lot, but it would have meant an extra 200 police officers for the District. Instead, MPD will remain at its current level for the foreseeable future while the budgets return to normal. Recruiting officers and training officers are back to walking the beat and working desks until things pick up again. The good news is, there’s always the Capitol Police, the Federal Protective Service, and the dozens of other policing agencies that exist in DC for specific departments, to back up the MPD in case of any major emergency situation.

The Daily Feed
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Free Food Alert: Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day is Today!

Photo courtesy of
‘a free scoop can gather a crowd’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

You know that spring has arrived when Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day is here!  Today from noon to 8 PM, stop by a participating Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop to get a free ice cream cone in your favorite flavor.  All four of DC’s Ben & Jerry’s stores are participating, so head out to one of these locations:

Keep in mind that lines may be long, but that free scoop of Phish Food or Peanut Butter Cookie Dough will be totally worth it!  Let us know in the comments how long you had to wait for your scoop.

The Daily Feed
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Starbucks is Buying Breakfast

Photo courtesy of
‘Starbucks’
courtesy of ‘SWP Moblog’

Tomorrow as you rise, weary and bedheaded, know that you have something waiting for you. Before 10:30am tomorrow, if you buy a Starbucks drink (barista-made, brewed or iced), you’re getting one of their tasty pastries for free. So rise early, knowing that an apple fritter, or a bran muffin, or an iced scone, are yours for the asking with that printed coupon, so long as you make it in before 10:30. Do not fret, little one, your day shall start right.

The Daily Feed
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Architect Paul Devrouax Passes

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington, D.C. Convention Center’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’

Architect Paul S. Devrouax, JR., FAIA passed away earlier today of causes not yet known.

Devrouax was the founding principal of Devrouax and Purnell Architects, a DC-based architecture firm that was established in 1978 and was the creative genius behind well-known city projects such as Nationals Park, the Convention Center, and the City Museum.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Morty Krupin Hangs Up His Apron

Photo courtesy of
‘lox sandwich’
courtesy of ‘stu_spivack’

Owner of Morty’s Delicatessen in Tenleytown, Morty Krupin, 71, hangs up his metaphorical apron today. This is his first official day of retirement. Morty’s, a staple in DC dining, will continue to severe up some of the finest New York deli eats in town despite Krupin’s retirement.

Whether you had the white fish salad, a bagel and lox, matzo ball soup, or even the pickles they place upon your your table at arrival, Morty’s is a place where us transplanted DC residents who just so happen to be of the Jewish persuasion (and even if you’re not, you still love the food and atmosphere) go for the comfort-food our Bubbe’s (Yiddish for Grandma) would serve at all the biggest holidays. These foods include: gefilte fish, challah, potato pancakes, and hot pastrami sandwiches.

Krupin and his wife Diane will be moving to Florida and told WTOP, “Maybe I’ll pick up a hobby. I never had time for one. I don’t have the patience for bridge or chess. We’ll see what happens when we get down south.”

Morty’s Delicatessen, located at 4620 Wisconsin Avenue NW, will stay open even without Krupin’s daily presence.

We’ll miss you, Morty. Come back and visit. Thanks for keeping your doors open and, most of all, thanks for the eats.

News, The Daily Feed
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Rainbow Media buys DCist Parent Company?

Photo courtesy of
‘$10,000 in cash’
courtesy of ‘NickStarr’

In a deal said to be worth approximately $5-6M, it is rumored that Rainbow Media, a wholly-owned subisidiary of New York’s Cablevision system, has purchased Gothamist LLC which owns the DCist blog here in DC. When asked for comment, DCist Editor Sommer Mathis said she had seen the story, but hadn’t received any information from Gothamist concerning the disposition of any deal.

The story remains unconfirmed, and could be incorrect, but the idea of large media outlet systems like Cablevision purchasing up medium- and large-sized blogs has all kinds of far-reaching consequences. The parallels between websites and radio stations is one that we would do well to remember in this particular situation.

More as the details unfold.

Business Insider says talks are still going on, and Jake Dobkin, despite repeated attempts to get anything else, just said, “No Comment.”

Alexandria, Entertainment
By

Requiem for a Video Store*

Photo by author.

On April 30th the DC metropolitan area loses one of its truly unique businesses when Video Vault in Old Town closes the door on its astonishing collection of movie rental rarities for the last time. Like so many long-running, specialty businesses in the area, Video Vault has finally succumbed to the perfect storm of online competitors and the economic downturn. Add to that Video Vault’s main business being the renting of out-of-print movies on VHS in an age when VCRs are quickly becoming collectors’ items in their own right, and their closing seems almost inevitable.

Like so many of their incredibly rare movies, after April 30th, Video Vault will soon be impossible to find. For the next month however, Video Vault is still open, still renting, and is now selling off their inventory of thousands of ultra-rare movies. If you are a movie fan and have never experienced Video Vault, I highly encourage you to go before the store is gone. Browsing Video Vault is entertainment in itself. They feature specialty sections full of eye-catching oddities, themed displays that are movie-geek mana such as Extreme Asian Horror or the Blind Dead collection, and of course the infamous Cult room; a vault within the Vault that features the titillating and taboo, a wonderful tribute to shock and schlock cinema that is unlike anything DC will ever see again.
Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Relax, This is Just a Test

Photo courtesy of
‘DSCF5781’
courtesy of ‘joelogon’

Metro announced today that two emergency response exercises will be happening Sunday and Monday next week, so here’s a heads up not to panic when you see “numerous police, fire and emergency response vehicles, first responders and volunteer ‘victims'” in the middle of the night this weekend.  One drill will simulate an explosion on a Metro train in the tunnel between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom at 1 AM on Sunday morning, and trains will single-track around the ‘accident’ from 11 PM Saturday night to closing at 3 AM on Sunday morning.  The second drill, which will simulate a Metrobus explosion with multiple injuries, will happen on Monday morning at 10 AM at the RFK Parking lot.

These drills are meant to test Metro emergency management and regional emergency response crews.  Here’s hoping they pass!

Life in the Capital, Media, The Daily Feed
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Law & Order’s Mariska Hargitay Talks Hollywood, Global Health

Photo courtesy of
‘Library of Congress Reading Room’
courtesy of ‘tzk333’

Can’t get enough Law & Order even though it’s on every single hour of every day? Mariska Hargitay, of the procedural’s Special Victims Unit series, will be in the District this week to talk about Hollywood’s portrayal of global health issues. Hargitay is joined by the show’s executive producer Neal Baer,  as well as representatives of both the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Hollywood, Health & Society (the sponsoring organization).

The group’s focus will be a discussion on how entertainment can play a role in support for global initiatives around developing healthcare. Fishbowl DC has more details on the event, which will be held this Wednesday night from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Library of Congress in the Mumford Room (6th floor) of the Madison Building.

Food and Drink, The DC 100, The Features
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DC Omnivore 100: #23, Foie Gras

Photo courtesy of
‘Seared duck foie gras’
courtesy of ‘yosoynuts’

It’s time for another item on the DC Omnivore 100 list of the top one hundred foods every good omnivore should try at least once in their lives.

Since the launch of this feature back in 2008, there have been a few items on the list that we knew could be controversial – horse, for example, is one of the more obvious ones (and I plan to write about it soon). Foie gras is another, falling in and out of favor depending on whether taste trumps compassion. Some seasons it seems like every restaurant in the city is serving it, others not so much. What’s the deal?

Foie gras is the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened, either force-fed through a traditional French method known as “gavage” or naturally overfed in say, the American method known as “double bacon cheeseburger with fries.” Kidding. It’s an ancient practice going back to the Egyptians and is protected under French law as part of their cultural heritage. The U.S. is actually the something like the fourth-largest producer of foie gras in the world. Basically the fattening process is exploiting a physiological capacity of migratory birds to store large amounts of food in their expansive throats, to sustain them over long journeys. The birds are fed larger and larger amounts of food until their livers are roughly ten times their ordinary size. With gavage, in the last phase they are force-fed through a pneumatic pump.

Grossed out yet? Morally appalled? If you are, you should read about abattoirs and where burgers come from as well. Personally, I’m with Bourdain. There are humane ways for us to get our guilty pleasures.

The reason so many people are willing to overlook the process is the result, one of the most luxuriant tastes on earth. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Constitutional Challenge to the Health Care Bill?

Photo courtesy of
‘Constitution in the National Archives’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Virginia could be the first state to issue a Constitutional challenge to the Health Care legislation passed by the House yesterday. Last Thursday, before the bill had passed, Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli announced that he would bring suit, stating that the legislation “violate[s] the plain text of both the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.” Presumably, he’s referring to the insurance mandate that would require eligible Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or face fines, something the Va. Legislature determined would be illegal several weeks ago. Will this happen? Probably. Cucinelli is, to say the least, a staunch conservative and has the energy to pursue this. Does he have a case? Actually, maybe.  If history has shown anything it’s that the “plain text” of the Constitution is anything but. Still, the 10th Amendment states that powers not specifically enumerated to the Fed by the Constitution belong to the states and the people. The trick is showing that the Fed has overstepped its bounds in this instance. Typically, courts rule in favor of the Federal government in 10th Amendment cases, but they do occasionally swing towards the states’ rights side. With the Supreme Court being fairly conservative, at the moment, anything is possible.

The Daily Feed
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Cherry Blossoms to Bloom a Little Earlier

Photo courtesy of
‘Early Cherry Blossoms 2010’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Because of this totally gorgeous and amazing weather we’re having, the cherry blossom blooming process has accelerated a little bit. Peak bloom is now expected to be March 28-April 9, rather than March 31-April 11 as originally predicted. Yes, it’s only 3 days earlier, but after this godawful winter we’ve just had,  will take what I can get.

Special Events, The Features
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WeLoveDC Presents: Let Teddy Win @ Nationals Park

This guy cannot, does not or will not win. Nevertheless, he’s the DC mascot that we most want to see succeed. And just like his indisputably big head, our desire to see him win won’t ever deflate. Let’s cheer him on at WeLoveDC’s second event of the year, WeLoveDC SPORTS: Let Teddy Win @ Nationals Park. This could finally be his big night.

On Wednesday, April 21, just two weeks after opening day, the Nats are playing the Rockies at 7:05 p.m. We’re teaming up with the Nats and the founder of LetTeddyWin.com to go behind the scenes of the stadium and to root for DC’s least-successful mascot.

We’ve got group tickets by the scoreboard bar in section 237, strategically located to have lots of opportunities for socializing — in the seats, at the bar or overlooking the game at the Miller Lite Beer Pen. (Seats in this section are covered in case of inclement weather, but you can still see the scoreboard.)

Let Teddy Win! Get your tickets now! There are a limited number, and they will sell out in advance.

As you would expect, this event is about more than just a baseball game. Meet up with us as early as 5:30 p.m. to tour the stadium and prepare for Teddy’s race. Click through to read more about what we have in store for you:

Continue reading →