Monthly Archives: July 2011

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
By

Jaleo’s 9th Annual Paella Festival

Photo courtesy of
‘Paella at Jaleo’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

We all know it’s been pretty hot out there, so tear yourself away from your kitchen and take advantage of Jaleo’s ninth annual paella festival.

Until the end of July, Jaleo’s paella festival has a variety of paellas made from recipes from Chef Rafael Vidal from Restaurante Levante in Benisanó, Spain. Vidal, for those of you who don’t know, is legendary in the world of paella and his family has served paella to the royal family in Spain for three generations. There’s no cutting corners with Vidal–he makes his paella over a wood fire in Spain and uses recipes that honor the traditions of Spanish cuisine.

A few of the paellas being featured include paella de verduras (vegetables), paella de Iberico de bellota (paella with Iberico pork belly and cauliflower), lobster paella, paella with octopus and garlic scapes and the traditional Valenciana paella with chicken and rabbit. Personally, I’d recommend the Valenciana and the “Fideo Negro con pulpo y ajetes” paella. The Valenciana is a classic, while the Fideo Negro paella might be right for those of you whose taste buds are a little more adventurous. The Fideo Negro paella has pieces of meaty octopus and is a deep, rich black from the octopus ink, topped off with that refreshing bite from garlic scapes.

For more information and the paella menu, click here.

Sports Fix
By

Homestand Preview: Late July – Early August

Welcome to the dog days of summer in Nats Town. The Nationals start a nine-game homestand tonight; they’ll play three series against NL East foes, and they’ll need to come out 6-3 if they want any shot at making a run at the Wild Card. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening, but there’s a good solid chance at 5-4, if they play their cards right. Here’s the full preview of the homestand that brings us fish, the Braves, the first start of the season for one Washington pitcher, and a Jayson Werth Bobblehead doll.

Continue reading →

History, The Daily Feed
By

Smithsonian Snapshot: Owney the Mail Dog

Photo courtesy National Postal Museum

Tomorrow, one of the National Postal Museum’s most interesting objects is being commemorated with a U.S. postage stamp. During his lifetime, a scruffy mutt named Owney was the nation’s most famous canine. From 1888 until his death in 1897, Owney rode with Railway Mail Service clerks and mailbags all across the nation.

The Railway Mail Service clerks adopted Owney as their unofficial mascot, marking his travels by placing medals and tags from his stops on his collar. By the early 1890s, the traveling postal dog was a regular feature in newspapers across the country as Owney visited town after town. Owney’s unusual life and wide-spread travels have inspired several children’s books. Elementary schools across the United States continue to use the story of Owney as a way to connect their students with those in other states by sending stuffed toy dogs from school to school through the mail accompanied by messages from students to one another.

When he died in 1897, the postal clerks refused to bury their beloved mascot. Clerks across the country asked that the dog receive the honor they considered he was due by being preserved and presented to the Post Office Department’s headquarters. Owney was kept on display there and then sent to the Smithsonian Institution in 1911.

Featured Photo
By

Featured Photo

Little guy
‘Little Guy’ by Allee574

It’s been a while since I’ve just stopped and said, “Wow!” to a photograph, but this gem broke that trend. Allee574‘s capture at the Kennilworth Aquatic Garden this past weekend brings together two completely different worlds – the micro and the macro. Macro photography often lacks scale, but in bringing a human hand into the composition, she provides us a frame of reference omnipresent in all of our lives. The stunning, intricate details on the frog’s back are paired with the simple details of an everyday surface we take for granted – our fingerprints. Through a strong composition she brings you into the world of a tiny being confronting a giant. The finger and hand serve to guide one’s eye across the screen, like an arrow pointing directly to the subject. The narrow perch on which it sits, in this case a finger, serves to place emphasis on the frog, as does the blurred, green background. I’m left to wonder if the frog soon sprung back to nature, or felt content to be admired by a larger world.

The Features, We Love Arts
By

We Love Arts: Oklahoma! at Arena Stage

Ensemble of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Photo by Suzanne Bluestar Boy.

Arena Stage’s 2010 production of Oklahoma! has been revived for another run. Don reviewed the original production in November of last year. Here’s Rachel’s take on the current remount.

Modern America is riddled with stress. This stress is self-inflicted. 40-hour work weeks, a 24-hour news cycle, social media overload – these are all characteristics that personify our society. America wasn’t always the go-go-go place that it is now. There was a simpler time when people couldn’t be bothered by a phone call in the middle of the night or a flashing red light on a mobile device telling them that they’ve got e-mail to check and tweets to read.

Oklahoma! is a reminder of those days gone by. Continue reading →

The Features
By

Blaming the Capital instead of the Capitol

Photo courtesy of
‘Capitol in selenium’
courtesy of ‘Joe in DC’

One of the things you learn early on in DC is the difference between the Capitol and the Capital.

One’s the building, with all the trappings of government: politicians, lobbyists, fundraisers, campaigners, PACs, Super PACs, Super de Duper PACs, officials, administrators, agencies, etc.

One is the city, with all the trappings of urbanity: monuments, federal buildings, sure, but also neighborhood bars, victorian homes, housing projects, small businesses, grocery stores, and hundreds of thousands of people.

Continue reading →

The District
By

Why I Love DC: Michael T. Ruhl

Birds of a Feather
‘Birds of a Feather’

You want to know why I love DC? Well, take a look through my lens and see how I view this beautiful city. I don’t claim to be a great photographer – I’m just a guy who likes to shoot. Washington is my arena, my subject, and my muse. DC, my darling, smile for the camera.

I first came to DC to report on Congress. That was kind of like drinking from a fire hose, and the Capitol building quickly became my favorite place in the world. This shot elicits the collectivism of the House of Representatives, a subject of endless fascination for me.

Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
By

Kastles win another WTT Championship

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington Kastles vs New York Sportimes | Bobby Reynolds’
courtesy of ‘Paul Frederiksen’

If you’ve never heard of the Washington Kastles, or World TeamTennis, we’ll forgive you. The unique format for a tennis match is certainly no Wimbledon or US Open, but it is nothing short of fantastic. And, as of late last night, the Kastles are DC’s winningest franchise over the last three years.

The Kastles took the league title last night and completed a 16-0 undefeated season, dispatching the St. Louis Aces in Overtime, 23-19.  The undefeated season was the first in the league’s history, dating back to the 1970s.  The King Trophy will rest in Washington for the second season in the last three. The Kastles do have a way to go before they reach Sacramento’s strong record of five titles in six years, but if they can continue their winning ways, they may well be the best sports team in DC, and they’ve certainly won more championships than any team in the last decade.

Congratulations, Coach Jenson, Mark Ein, and all the Kastles players!

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
By

We Love Music: Cibo Matto @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 7/19/11


photos by Santiago Gamboa.

New York based duo Cibo Matto  brought girl-powered grooves to a full house at the Rock & Roll Hotel last Tuesday night. After a ten year hiatus Japanese ex-pats Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori reunited earlier this year to play a benefit show alongside Yoko Ono, Sonic Youth and Mike Patton for the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Soon after they announced their US reunion tour, “Yeah Basically Cibo Matto”, as well as plans for a new album.

Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori came onstage to a room full of cheering fans and looked happy to be there. They started their set off with the dreamy/funky/jazzy “Beef Jerky,” from their debut album “Viva La Woman”. The duo had the audience jumping and shouting along right away to the quirky chorus “Who cares? I don’t care! A horse’s ass is better than yours!” The mood of fun and funk was set and remained throughout the show.

Continue reading →

News, The Daily Feed
By

Harry Thomas agrees to repay $300,000

Photo courtesy of
‘PRE_1226’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

Late Friday, the story broke that Councilman Harry Thomas had agreed to repay $300,000 to the city as part of a settlement with Attorney General Irv Nathan regarding monies spent by Team Thomas. The repayment, made without interest or penalties, will be made in six payments of $50,000 over the next two years, with the first payment made on Friday.

Not included in the statement is any admission of guilt in spending those monies inappropriately, and Thomas has come out to strongly defend himself in spite of the payments. It’s not clear if the Council has decided that’s enough. Councilmembers Catania and Cheh have called publicly for his resignation, and at least one other councilmember has doubts about Thomas’ purported innocence, saying “Personally, I would never agree to repay money if I did not wrongfully spend it.”

The matter is still under investigation by the US Attorney’s Office, and they have yet to make a decision concerning prosecution.

The Daily Feed
By

Friday Happy Hour: De La Sour

On a hot late-afternoon this week, just settling down at the long, cool, marble bar in (very air conditioned) Blackbyrd Warehouse was a pleasure. Having a tasty, interesting drink to sip on made it even better.

Blackbyrd Warehouse opened last week to a fair amount of buzz – without even doing too much to promote. Everybody in town had been eagerly awaiting the new Hilton Brothers project for over a year, though several considerable delays and even concept changes. At one point in the process, Blackbyrd was seen as an all-day place, more like Tryst, with a specialty coffee program for day time, transitioning to more of a nightspot in the evening. As it has been realized, though, it is primarily a lounge with a seafood-focused menu of dinner options. (As with American Ice Company and Patty Boom Boom, with whom Blackbyrd shares owners, food is principally prepared in the kitchen at Marvin, next door.)
Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
By

Fringe 2011: hookups

I’m reviewing seven plays over the course of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene. Get your Fringe button and join me!

hookups is about as naked as it can get at Fringe. A quintet of engaging actors make use of an air mattress and the barest essentials to create a series of vignettes covering every imaginable hookup through history and literature, all with a wry wink and a twist. It’s both cute and crass, like that girl dancing on the pool table you just can’t help but smile at even though you think she’s a drunken idiot. She is, but so are you, so get it on.

Starting off with the classic creeping-out-at-dawn hookup, writer Alexandra Petri’s scenes all have an undercurrent of dissatisfaction – there’s always one partner who either needs or wants to get disentangled quickly and painlessly. Even the Virgin Mary isn’t too thrilled with her situation, in one of the more subversive and very funny scenes led by director Laura Hirschberg.

The couplings get more bizarre as the play progresses, from the Frog Prince to an Arthurian menage a trois, even jumping into the Lincoln: Gay or Straight? debate. But it’s the pandas that steal the show, of course, in a hysterical scene detailing their woeful attempts to get the mechanics of sex right while being cheered on by obnoxious onlookers. Continue reading →

Business and Money
By

Borders liquidations start today. Don’t be a sucker.

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Borders closing their doors has been widely reported in the news this week and today’s the start of their complete liquidation. There’s a number of stores to choose from in our area, though none remain within the city itself.

If you decide to go looking for bargains you need to be cautious, at least here in the beginning. It’s no coincidence that the signs say EVERYTHING up to 40% OFF original price. Much stuff isn’t going to be any better than a sale at Barnes&Noble or regular price at Amazon. This is a liquidation being run by a court-approved operation – in this case Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners – with the goal of squeezing as much money out of the shutdown for the creditors as possible.

If you need proof, consider – this is a course of action being taken after an equity firm offered $450,000,000 total to take over Borders and the creditors rejected it. They wouldn’t have done that if they didn’t think they stood a better chance of recouping that much or more from this shutdown.

Personally I’ve stopped going to these sorts of closeouts because they never seem to have good deals. If you do I’d suggest double-checking your assumption that you’re getting a good deal. If you have the right sort of smartphone you can use the Amazon app which will scan barcodes via the camera and show you what they’re going for there.

Music, Night Life, The Daily Feed, We Love Music, We Love Weekends
By

Hot Ticket: Hayes Carll @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 7/23/2011

Texas native Hayes Carll brings his special blend of folk-tinged, quirky, alt-country/rock to the Rock & Roll Hotel this Saturday night. Carll’s laid-back southern drawl pairs well with quick-witted lyrics and an upbeat country sound. His songs range from banjo-pickin’ twangy ballads like “Bottle in My Hand” to the quick-fire lyrical rocking assault of “KMAG YOYO“, which sounds like an updated version of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues“. 

He is on US tour now in support of his fourth studio album, “KMAG YOYO” which was released by Lost Highway Records in February of this year. 

Hayes Carll
w/Scott Miller
@Rock & Roll Hotel
7/23 – 7pm
$16

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
By

We Love Music: Soundgarden @ Patriot Center, Fairfax 7/12/11 & Festival Pier (Philadelphia) 7/13/11


photos by Santiago Gamboa.

Last week, in the midst of their US summer tour, Seattle-sound vanguards Soundgarden proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they still rock…hard. The band reunited last year after a 13-year hiatus and I was super-bummed to miss their first show back together at Lollapalooza in Chicago. But I waited, patiently, hanging on any of the few and far-between missives they sent to their fanclub members for news of a tour. Finally they announced their US summer 2011 tour, along with plans for recording a new album.

First of all, to lay some foundation down, I will disclose that I am a huge Soundgarden fan. I have been a devout follower since I heard their song “Somewhere” (from their 1991 album ‘Badmotorfinger’) on a mix-tape my friend gave me in 7th grade. I was lucky enough to see them three times before they broke up in 1997. Time has only made me appreciate their music more.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Daily Feed
By

Fringe Beats the Heat

Photo courtesy of
‘morning water’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Starting at 10am today, Fringe tickets will be cut from the usual $17 to $12 the whole weekend long, as a sweet special to help beat the excruciating heatwave our sins have brought down upon us. Promo code is BEATTHEHEAT, of course. It’s closing weekend and there are a lot of great shows still playing, so please help those performers out and go see the shows regardless of the sweat pouring down. Many of the venues are air conditioned, and those that aren’t, well, think of it as a communal steam bath of love.

In addition, the real heatwave banisher is the bottled water and vitaminwater now free at the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent to patrons as long as the temperature is over 100 degrees, which I hate to say looks like both Friday and Saturday. That free water saved my life last night. So go see some experimental theater, and don’t forget to hydrate!