Yearly Archives: 2011

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

"To Go Against the Church is to Go Against God"
“To go against the church is to go against God” by andrade✖cobain

Every so often a camera phone can grab a truly stunning shot, as happened with andrade✖cobain‘s iPhone shot of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Dupont Circle. City lights shining into clouds light the church in the dead of night. The grain from the high sensitivity of the camera’s sensor shape it into a fantastic glimpse into space, with millions of stars backlighting the church. DC’s light pollution obviously prevents any such spectacular stargazing from ever actually happening, making andrade✖cobain‘s shot all that more unique. Well done.

Contribute your best photos from the DC area to WeLoveDC’s Flickr Pool!

The Daily Feed
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District Sports Pages launches

Photo courtesy of
‘Reading the Sports Page’
courtesy of ‘Photos by Chip Py’

My earliest memories of the sports pages are the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sporting Green, the pale green pages of newsprint with the box scores from around the country, my beloved 49ers, the Oakland A’s, Susan Slusser, Ray Ratto, and others. I’ve always loved sports journalism when it’s done well, and for a long time the pages of the Sporting Green were a part of that.

The Internet’s made possible a whole other world of sports journalism and commentary, and in many regards, DC is a fine example, blessed with some talented beat writers, and some equally talented interested independents. Looking at places like SB Nation’s local DC site, you can see that there’s a lot of good stuff happening. As of this afternoon, that scene just got more diverse.

Welcome to District Sports Page, the all-online sports effort from the folks that brought you Caps News Network and Nats News Network, both of which are being folded into the new site. We caught up with founder Dave Nichols this afternoon.

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Sports Fix
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Redskins defeat Rams 17-10

Photo courtesy of
‘Santana Moss’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

The feeling coming into this game was that the Redskins had to win by a wide margin to prove they were truly a new team after failing to close out the Cowboys on Monday night. With a 17-0 lead after their first possession of the second half it looked like the Redskins were going to win this one easily. That is not how it ended up as Grossman had one pass tick off the hands of Santana Moss into the arms of a Rams defender for a 51 yard return that resulted in a Rams field goal, then the Rams scored a touchdown after a Sav Rocca punt as the Redskins offense continued to stall, and then Grossman made an ill advised pass to James Laurinaitis of the Rams. The Redskins defense made sure the Rams were unable to capitalize on the Laurinaitis interception, but by that time the Rams had already pulled within seven.

The Rams touchdown drive was helped by what some might say is a Redskins mistake, but what might instead be a strange rule change that resulted from the lockout. Redskins defender Rob Jackson was called for roughing the passer that tacked ten yards onto Bradford’s eight yard completion to Austin Pettis. The problem with calling this roughing the passer is that when Jackson began his tackle Bradford still had the ball. Jackson only did what every other defensive football player should do and finished his tackle. It should not be a penalty to play hard until the whistle blows. The Rams might have still scored on the drive but the 10 extra yards cannot have hurt. Overall the Redskins defense deserves credit in this game as they were able to sack Sam Bradford six times and held Steven Jackson to 45 yards rushing.

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News, The Daily Feed
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Circulator moves East of the River

Photo courtesy of
‘Room & Board View Tilt-Shift’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Starting today, the Circulator bus will now have a line that starts east of the Anacostia, running between the Skyland shopping mall at 30th & Alabama Ave SE in Hillcrest to the Potomac Ave SE Metro station in Hill East, by way of the Anacostia Public Library, the Anacostia Metro, and Barracks Row.  The bus line will replace the Waterfront/Convention Center route that has seen decreased ridership.  The line will cost $1 and allow for free transfers throughout the Circulator bus lines for those using SmarTrip cards to pay.

The buses will run every ten minutes from 6am to 7pm, Monday through Friday. This is the first of the city’s new Circulator lines to run East of the River.

The full map of the route is available after the break.

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Downtown, News, The Features
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DC, Consider Yourself Occupied

Photo courtesy of
courtesy of ‘amreese13’

Since Occupy Wall Street has already inspired an Occupy Omaha and Occupy Ljlubljana, Slovenia, it should come as no surprise that a similar protest has arrived at the nation’s capital.

On Saturday, Occupy DC began its (potentially never-ending) takeover of McPherson Square.

Members hail from the District and, up until this past weekend, met mainly on the internet. Now they’re armed with a cross-street, social media and pizza slices.

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The Daily Feed
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Metro to shut three stations over Columbus Day weekend

Photo courtesy of
‘yellow lines’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

This Friday night at 10:00pm, WMATA is closing the Shaw, U Street and Columbia Heights metro stations on the Yellow and Green lines for a weekend-long work period that will run through Monday’s Columbus Day holiday. In addition, trains will be replaced with buses between East and West Falls Church for work related to the Dulles extension. Shuttle buses will be in operation between Georgia Avenue and Mt. Vernon Square stations, so plan on spending some extra time on the bus to maneuver around the construction.

U Street will be receiving a new “Guarded #8” switch, which should fix a problem with low-speed derailment across a switch boundary, which is one of the NTSB recommendations after the accident of July 2009.

In addition to the closures, the last train from Greenbelt will be leaving 30 minutes earlier than normal, which means at 2am on Friday and Saturday, and 11pm on Sunday and Monday. Adjust your schedules accordingly.

The Daily Feed
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Ben’s Chili Bowl temporarily shuttered to fix plumbing

Photo courtesy of

It was if the screams of dozens of half-smoke lovers went up as one, and were suddenly silent. News first went out on Twitter this morning, with the restaurants announcing their closure to cover “building damage” repairs that may “take a few days.”  NBC Washington has the word it’s a plumbing problem and they may be closed til the weekend.

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Ben’s Next Door, located, well, Next Door to the iconic eatery will be open for your half-smoke needs this week.

The Daily Feed
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Own a piece of the Hawk n Dove

Photo courtesy of
‘Club Hawk Birthday’
courtesy of ‘yostinator’

This weekend was the last hurrah of famed Capitol Hill dive bar, The Hawk n Dove, with the bar shutting its doors last night for good. If you’ve been inside the Hawk n Dove, or seen it on the likes of the West Wing, you can understand the enthusiasm about the place, and the sorrow of those regulars contained therein. Losing it is like losing a piece of the city. Now, though, you can own a piece of the Hawk n Dove yourself, as they’re auctioning off the bar’s contents.

You can have one of the decoy ducks, or the bear skin taxidermy, or even one of the wrought iron outside lamps or the Hawk n Dove flag if you’re fast enough on the bidding, or have deep enough a wallet.

The space will reopen in the spring with a pub run by Xavier Cervera, of Senart’s Oyster & Chop House fame.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Friday Happy Hour: Ginger Smash – Fall Version

This week has been busy, but just looking at my calendar for the next month or so is tiring. (Maybe the rest of the year, actually. I have already gotten enough holiday party invitations that I went ahead and scheduled my own before my guests booked up. Crazy.) In any event, I was grateful for a relaxed Thursday night to come along. To celebrate, I headed to an author reading at 826DC and then walked over to Room 11.

I do not write much about wine in this column, but that does not mean I do not drink the stuff in my “off-duty” time – and Room 11 is one of my favorite spots to sip on a glass of something, which had been my plan when I plopped down at a patio table. However, my friend Iris was working and it is hard to turn down cocktails whipped up by a girl who keeps a Facebook photo album called “Drinks as Friends” where she chronicles the creation of special cocktails to represent the people in her life.
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Sports Fix
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Redskins Preview Week Four: The St. Louis Rams

Photo courtesy of
‘Sam Bradford’
courtesy of ‘Jeffrey Beall’

By now you have heard this game called a must win for the Washington Redskins. I am not sure it is a must win with so many games left in the season, but it is a should win. The St. Louis Rams have been one of the worst teams in football over the first three weeks of the season. In three games they have been outscored 96-36 while the Redskins have outscored opponents 66-53.

The Redskins are coming off a short week and will be playing a second consecutive road game, but those two things should be the only disadvantages the Redskins face in this game. The Rams at 0-3 are desperate to get their season back on the right path and in a division like the NFC West they might be able to get back in the thick of a race if they can pull off a couple wins in a row.

Last weeks game against the Dallas Cowboys was a defensive struggle as both teams failed multiple times to score a touchdown in the red zone and Dallas ended up winning the game on the strength of their defensive play and by being able to capitalize on Redskins mistakes. The St. Louis Rams defense should not provide the same challenges as the Cowboys. The Rams defense is ranked 31st in total yards allowed, 31st in point allowed, 19th in passing yards allowed, and 32nd in rushing yards allowed.

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends: October 1-2, 2011

Photo courtesy of
‘Miss Pixie’s Balloons’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

Brittany: The weather is finally scheduled to drop down to “sweater” – and, accordingly, the busy autumn social calendar is getting into full swing. Friday night you will find me poolside (hopefully chilly!) for the “Rebirth of Cool” party hosted by art-star Kehinde Wiley, in association with the amazing 30 Americans exhibit. Saturday is Crafty Bastards, an annual must-shop and then the night eventually takes me to U Hall for Clicks & Whistles. Sunday I think I will do some more quality-assurance on the beer, bourbon, and tofu (yay!) at Smoke & Barrel.

Tom: Finally! A weekend without work! Just in time for the marvelous Crafty Bastards fair, where my friend Art will be plying a delicious art project involving maple syrup and a whiskey barrel. This weekend is also a friend’s blood drive, so I might be getting my donate on in Falls Church on Saturday from 8 to 12:30p with the Masons. With no baseball but the playoffs this weekend, it’s finally time to get my search on for a good 49ers bar to watch this weekend’s game in. Anyone got a good lead for me?

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The Daily Feed
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Onion plays ill-advised joke

Photo courtesy of
‘moldy onion’
courtesy of ‘scrapygraphics’

The Onion is a publication near and dear to my heart. They so often catch a good zeitgeist of humor in politics and news, but today’s #CongressHostage stunt is about as far from the usual material as to make me wonder who had taken leave of their senses.  They started with a faux-Breaking News tweet: “BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building.”

Yeah, it went downhill from there:

 

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Entertainment, The Features
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We Love Arts: Parade

The cast of the Ford’s Theatre Society production of the musical drama “Parade,” directed by Stephen Rayne. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

The hardest part of watching Parade at Ford’s Theatre is knowing that the story of Leo Frank’s trial and lynching in 20th century Atlanta is true. Tony award nominee Euan Morton (Leo Frank) sheds a light on the tragic tale of Mr. Frank and his struggle as a Jewish pencil factory worker ostracized for his faith and Brooklyn heritage.

Director Stephen Rayne’s adaptation of Parade, which is based on the book by Alfred Uhry with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, is a passionate musical production with an important message of what happens when people show intolerance for others based on religious faith or skin color.

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Food and Drink
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One Year Later: Estadio

Photo courtesy of
’14/365′
courtesy of ‘ekelly80’
Estadio celebrated its one year anniversary back in July (yes, I’m a little late), and 14 months after it opened, this restaurant continues to draw in the packed crowds.

The most important part of any restaurant is, of course, the food, and Estadio shines here. It’s a member of the tapas crowd serving Spanish small plates, but unlike some other tapas restaurants you will not leave the Logan Circle restaurant hungry.

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Downtown, Special Events, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: October 2011

Demon Fish; photo courtesy National Geographic

The National Geographic Live series is back for the fall and we here at WeLoveDC want to share their great lineup of programming with you once again. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at NatGeo, we’ll be again offering two pairs of tickets for our readers to go and experience some great talks, lectures, and programs over at the National Geographic Museum.

For October, there’s some amazing photography programs, authors, and speakers – some of whom you’ll see interviewed here on the site in the coming weeks. If you’d like to win a pair of tickets to an October program, simply list the two events you’d like to attend in comments before noon Friday, September 30. Make sure you use a legitimate email address and your first name. We’ll contact two winners (as determined by random.org) on Friday afternoon. Note that not all programs are eligible for the drawing.

If you’re interested in attending one of these events, visit NatGeo’s website or their box office (800-647-5463), located at 17th and M Street, NW. Keep in mind that parking in NatGeo’s underground lot is free for any programs beginning after 6 pm.

Here’s October’s offerings… Continue reading →