By Tom Bridge
‘Savings bond with punchcard data’
courtesy of ‘ericskiff’
Michael Neibauer of the Business Journal has a good guide to the back and forth between the council and the mayor over the municipal bond tax that the Council wished to do away with, which has come to a head in the last 24 hours. The tax, which Councilmember Cheh had worked to delay until 2012, affects those who earn interest on out-of-state bonds, and will now be retroactive to the 1st of January this year.
By Tom Bridge
‘_MG_4345’
courtesy of ‘dbking’
Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander was fined $4,000 by the Office of Campaign Finance, related to the findings that “Councilmember Alexander’s Constituent Services Fund (CSF) made an expenditure for campaign activities; and that her Constituent Services Program (CSP) failed to report certain expenditures on required quarterly reports, both in violation of the D.C. Campaign Finance Reform and Conflict of Interest Act. A fine of $4,000 was imposed for these violations.”
It appears that Alexander was acquitted of responsibility for the most serious charges levied against her in the complaint, but some of the more minor charges, which include using $300 from her constituent services funds to pay for robocalls for her campaign, still cost the council member’s campaign $4,000 in fines.
Alexander joins several other members of the City Council on the wrong side of scandals this year.
By Alexia
courtesy of Marissa Nadler.
Last Friday night Boston chanteuse Marissa Nadler entranced the audience at DC’s Red Palace with her dreamy folk songscapes. On tour with her was fellow Bostonian singer/songwriter Mike Fiore, who performs as Faces On Film. It was a low-key evening of quiet, beautiful music for a small but attentive and appreciative audience.
‘Soft shell crab taco’
courtesy of ‘yostinator’
I see you guys have been adding some new pictures to the food truck tag on the We Love DC flickr pool. I like it! Even if those pictures make me start drooling so early in the day!
Continue reading
By Michael R
This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Return to Forever and Zappa Plays Zappa perform at the Merriweather Post Pavilion on August 9th at 5:30pm. Return to Forever has been redefining jazz fusion ever since frontman Chick Corea’s time playing with jazz Legend Miles Davis. They’re touring with Dweezil Zappa, who is playing the music of his father, the late musical eccentric Frank Zappa. Get your jazz on.
‘HR!’
courtesy of ‘oddlittlebird.’
A night after hitting two solo home runs in a series opening 5-3 win over the Atlanta Braves, Rick Ankiel struck an even bigger blow. His grand slam in the bottom of the fourth inning turned a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead, and the Washington Nationals went on to beat Atlanta 9-3 in front of 24,326 fans at Nationals Park Tuesday night.
The grand slam was Ankiel’s only hit of the night (he finished 1-for-5), but it was the perfect capstone to a torrid homestand for the veteran pitcher-turned-center fielder. Ankiel entered Tuesday’s game with a .421 on-base percentage in 19 plate appearances during the homestand, while his two Monday night home runs goosed his slugging percentage up to .750. In the short term, Ankiel’s hot streak has been a timely contribution to Washington’s firepower while others have struggled. Most notably, Danny Espinosa has fallen off sharply from the giddy heights of, say, mid-July. The rookie second baseman’s one-out double in the bottom of the third was his first extra-base hit since July 17 (which also, coincidentally, came against the Braves). Between the next day’s 0-for-4 performance against the Houston Astros and the start of Tuesday night’s game, Espinosa –who went 2-for-5 on Tuesday night– had reached base just nine times in 57 plate appearances on four singles, four walks, and once taking first after being hit by a pitch. That worked out to a .161 on-base percentage, while striking out 17 times.
Jayson Werth, who also went 2-for-5 Tuesday night has been hot as well (.440 on-base percentage and 1.011 OPS on the homestand entering the game), and it was he who scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning. Werth, showing the same aggressive baserunning that’s marked his game all season, led off the inning with a single to right and took off for second with Michael Morse at the plate. Morse struck out on a full count, but David Ross’ throw sailed into center field and Werth took third base before scoring on Ian Desmond’s sacrifice fly.
That lead only lasted until the top of the third inning, when John Lannan struggled for the only significant period in his 6.2 innings. Facing the bottom third of the Atlanta order, Lannan gave up singles to Ross and Jose Constanza. After Ross was retired on a failed sacrifice by starter Derek Lowe, Michael Bourn tied the game with a double down the right field line. Lowe himself came across when the next batter, Martin Prado, grounded out to Espinosa. The Braves increased their lead to 3-1 in the top of the fourth when Alex Gonzalez singled with one out, went to second on a single by Brooks Conrad, advanced to third on a deep fly ball by Ross, and scored when Constanzo drove a single over the leaping Ryan Zimmerman and into left field.
But in the fourth, it all fell apart for Lowe, who has been a consistent disappointment for Atlanta since signing a four-year, $60 million contract with the Braves after the 2008 season. On Tuesday night, his sinker wasn’t as effective as it should have been, and the Nats finally got the measure of him. After Jonny Gomes walked with one out, Desmond pulled a sinker into left field for a single. Wilson Ramos fouled off a changeup before lining a sinker the other way to load the bases. Lannan then chopped a ground ball to first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose throw home to force Gomes was much too high and forced Ross to come well in front of the plate to make the catch. Gomes finished the job by taking out Ross’ legs with his own. It was a violent, but legal, play by Gomes and it cut the margin to 3-2. Then Ankiel watched two cutters miss high and outside before driving a sinker into the storage area behind the center field wall. It happens that quickly sometimes.
Lowe made it out of the fourth without further damage to his ERA, but he only lasted two batters into the fifth. Left with no choice but to hope that his sinker would suddenly sink, Lowe kept throwing it, and the Nationals kept hitting. Specifically, Gomes lead off the fifth by tripling down the left field line and Desmond treated another thigh-high sinker with the contempt it deserved, lining it into the first row of the left field seats to make it 8-3.
Michael Morse rounded off the home run derby in style with a long home run into the first row of the right center field balcony off Christhian Martinez to provide the final margin of victory in the bottom of the sixth. But the story once again was Ankiel, who, while he is not likely to be back with the club in 2012, has given the club some very fine service in center field (a below-average bat, perhaps, but his defense has not been close to the disaster many feared it would be). On a team that is simultaneously building toward the future and struggling to put its offense together, performances like Ankiel’s on this homestand are so often the difference between winning and losing, progress and frustration.
By fedward
In February I posted a recipe and photographic step-by-step instructions for preserving your own cherries. In that post I noted, “supply is unpredictable and the cherry season is short.” If you’ve got the time, hie yourself to the supermarket, where Northwest sweet cherries are $1.99/lb through tonight (Safeway) or Thursday (Giant).
My local Safeway had Mason jars in stock the last time I looked, too. Target carries some attractive jars, but their supply can be unpredictable. I have also bought jars at Logan Hardware. What are you waiting for? Get preserving!
By Tom Bridge
‘Dan Snyder, Free Speech Crusader’
courtesy of ‘Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com’
Oh Dan Snyder.
Just when you thought the city’s most litigious owner of a sports team had given DC enough reasons to love him. His attorneys yesterday gave us one more reason to think this man a FINE UPSTANDING INDIVIDUAL OF MORAL STRENGTH AND CHARACTER, ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY DANIEL SNYDER, KING OF THE REDSKINS:
Just as sure as ‘Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the freedom of speech,’ so, too, the D.C. Council may make no law with respect to the manner in which the D.C. Superior Court conducts its affairs.
Erik Wemple from the Post quotes at length from the Snyder documents, specifically citing the sections where Snyder’s attorneys believe that DC’s Anti-SLAPP law is of no particular consequence and perhaps a violation of the first amendment and other constitutional protections. That the Anti-SLAPP measure in other jurisdictions have stood up to some scrutiny is, of course, irrelevant.
What a guy, that Snyder. What a guy.
By Don
‘Leisure in the Grass’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’
The Wolf Trap Foundation presented its employees with a new social media policy this year. Unless you happen to work for them this probably strikes you as about as interesting, news-wise, as the Pope continuing to be Catholic. Social media policies aren’t anything new or even necessarily anything to be concerned about. There’s something to be said for knowing where you stand and what standard you’ll be expected to meet.
When we spoke last year about this issue it was something brought on by Meg’s termination. We Love DC’s media law go-to Kevin Goldberg helped us understand the ins and outs of defamation suits and we more or less closed out by pointing you to his article on his firm’s blog about writing a social media policy for your organization. When I shared the details with him he said they probably represented “a step up from what is required” when it comes to the nature of the guidance.
What makes Wolf Trap somewhat interesting is that the people bound by this policy work side by side with people who are not bound by it. Foundation employees are working for a general non-profit but another sizable group at the park are federal employees of the National Park Service – folks who have sometimes better, sometimes just different free speech protections than the average employee. Like what? What’s Wolf Trap’s guidance? For that you’ve gotta read on…
By Tom Bridge
DC’s own DJ lil’e is playing the 9:30 club on Saturday night with her unique mashup dance party Lady Gaga vs Madonna vs Britney. Her shows are full of energy, not to mention confetti cannons and awesome on-stage dancers. Tickets are $15, and the show starts at 9.
Britney Spears was just at Verizon Center this past weekend, so if you’re a lover of the live pop music act, it’s hard not to love events like this one.
Get your dancing shoes on, DC, to support one of the city’s best DJs.
By Patrick Pho
Photo Stan Barouh
Before this weekend, I rarely used the word gentrify except when describing neighborhoods like Columbia Heights or H-Street NE.
“Yes I know it looks a little rough- but hey it’s gentrifying! Now let’s go hit up Wonderland Ballroom!”
This weekend brought two events that have given new meaning and significance to the word, first Washington Post columnist/grouchy old man Courtland Milloy decided to stereotype DC’s youth into hipsters out to improve property values and find great Happy Hour specials.
Second was a performance of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park over at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. I’m happy to report the latter had a deeper impact on my life.
Woolly Mammoth made a wise choice in restaging the production they first brought to life in the spring of 2010. Not only can DC relate to the theme of race and gentrification, but also the show is still buzzing after winning a Helen Hayes award for outstanding resident play and the Pulitzer in Drama. With local theatre taking a bit of a summer break, crowds have been beating the heat and taking advantage of this second chance to see what I think has been one of the best plays I’ve seen this year.
By Brian Mosley
‘National Air and Space Museum in HDR’
courtesy of ‘Matthew Straubmuller’
Let’s have the HDR Talk. Much like parents with the “Birds and the Bees Talk,” this is a talk that photographers don’t like to have. Why? Because photographers either love HDR photos or hate them with the heat of 1000 suns.
First things first, what is HDR? HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and, to put it simply, it is a way to create an image with a wide (or “dynamic”) range of lighting, much as the human eye sees different lighting. Some photographers like it because you can get amazingly colorful images that can just pop (much as we saw with this video). Other photographers also hate it because it can get overused easily, where colors become fictional and the image doesn’t look like it came from the real world. As a friends of mine likes to say: “HDR is easy. Good HDR is hard.” Don’t believe it? Look in the Flickr pool and you’ll see. Continue reading
‘Teddy Didn’t Win…’
courtesy of ‘Tony DeFilippo’
Since Rick Ankiel returned from the purgatory that his pitching career had become and made his debut as an outfielder in August of 2007, he has hit 56 home runs. Prior to Monday night’s 5-3 Washington Nationals win over the Atlanta Braves, Ankiel had hit two home runs in a game on four occasions. Facing right-hander Jair Jurrjens, Ankiel took his career home run total to an even 60, hitting two solo shots into the right field seats as the Nats notched their third win in a row against a division opponent.
Ankiel’s first home run, a solo cannon shot into the right-center field seats to lead off the bottom of the first inning, was impressive enough. But it paled in comparison to his second homer, another solo job that was blasted into the second deck down the right field line. As anyone who makes a habit of watching games at Nationals Park can tell you, those seats aren’t reached cheaply.
The pitching match-up certainly didn’t favor the home side. Jurrjens, a 25-year-old from Curacao, had not lost a start since June 14, and is surely on the watch list for the National League Cy Young Award. By contrast, Livan Hernandez had not won a start since June 26, and hadn’t even made it past the 4th inning in two of his previous three appearances. In the first inning, the Cuban looked to be continuing his poor run of form. After giving up a lead-off single to Michael Bourn on the second pitch of the game, Martin Prado turned on a curveball that missed the left field foul pole by, at most, a foot. The next pitch was scalded to Ryan Zimmerman, who snagged the line drive on the back hand and threw to first in plenty of time to double off Bourn, who was left standing at second wondering how on earth the ball hadn’t gone for extra bases.
The themes of danger and escape recurred throughout Hernandez’s six-inning, six-hit, one-run outing. In the third, he gave up a one-out single to Jose Constanza, who was promptly thrown out trying to steal second by Wilson Ramos. In the next inning, Hernandez allowed back-to-back one-out singles by Freddie Freeman and Dan Uggla before hitting Jason Heyward on the leg with a pitch to load the bases. The next batter, David Ross, grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Hernandez helped his own cause considerably on two occasions. In the second inning, Hernandez gave his team a lead that they never relinquished when his two-out single to right field scored Jayson Werth to put Washington on top 2-1. But his most spectacular moment came in the fifth. After a lead-off single by Alex Gonzalez, Jurrjens (batting in the 8th spot) dropped a very well-placed bunt in front of the plate. Springing off the mound with alacrity, Hernandez spun and fired a bullet to the covering Desmond at second to start the 1-6-3 twin killing, the third double play turned by the Nats on the evening.
The only mistake Hernandez made was in the second inning, when he left a sinking fastball up in the zone for Uggla to catapult into the right-center field bleachers to tie the game 1-1. But even in this, Hernandez could commiserate with closer Drew Storen, who gave up Uggla’s second home run of the night with one out in the ninth inning. That made the score 5-3, and when Heyward followed with a single to right, nerves were jangling in the crowd of 19,940. But Storen managed to blow a full-count fastball by Ross and induce Gonzalez to ground into a 5-4 force-out to end the game.
By fedward
You may recall from previous years that July is Rickey Month. July’s over, but tonight the DC Craft Bartenders Guild wraps things up for 2011 with its Rickey Month Party at Jack Rose.
Finalists, announced via email on Friday, are after the jump, along with a few tasting notes from our team on the ones we tried.
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‘Pickle and B&W Cookie’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’
Here’s to hoping this week is not as miserably hot as the last few. Go grab something tasty from a food truck. It might not make the weather any better, but research has shown that food trucks can improve your mood. I read that on the internet somewhere…
By Brian Mosley
‘When Alien bugs attack!’
courtesy of ‘yostinator’
Here comes August! I’ve got to say, where did July go…and June for that matter? But let’s forget about the unforgiving grinding of time, and focus on what really matters this week: Shark Week. I’m not really a devotee of this particular form of clever summer programming, but I do like to say this quote: “Live every week like it’s Shark Week” (Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock). On that particular piece of questionable advice, let’s see the sights of the Flickr pool from the weekend. Enjoy! Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
Courtland Milloy, coiner of the phrase “myopic little twits” is now on twitter, at @courtland51, and he really just wants to “track millenials & find out if they anything in dc other than party and gentrify.” That means he’s looking for you, DC twitterers, to point him toward Gen X and Millenials who are doing things in the city.
Drop him a line and tell him we said hi?
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