Monthly Archives: April 2012

The Daily Feed
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Welcome Home, Discovery

747 SCA, Discovery, Washington Monument, and Capitol

photo by Paulo Ordoveza

I was driving up Wilson Boulevard this morning, fairly convinced I’d missed the whole thing, and resigned to check it out on Flickr later today when I looked up and saw Discovery, the SCA, and two T-38s fly over Ballston at low altitude. I nearly drove right into the car in front of me. 

I found myself overcome with emotion at watching this incredible feat of engineering and humanity before my very eyes. Losing the shuttle program may be good for space exploration in the long run, but in this short run it feels very sad to see manned space exploration take a pause. We can do such amazing things when we make it a priority. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of programs like the STS.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo: Money

Photo courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

The esteemed Brian is slaving away in the salt mines, busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest, all because of today’s deadline: tax day. Two days later on the calendar than usual, thanks to the 15th falling on a Sunday and then D.C.’s celebration of one of Lincoln’s other infamous and divisive moves: freeing the District’s slaves.

So in honor of what tax day is all about I present to you this photo of money. It’s nicely sharp considering that it was shot at 1/40th of a second and without a flash, information you can find yourself on Flickr’s EXIF information page for the photo. The macro lens used provides the tiniest amount of depth of field; the part of the bill closest to the lens is in focus but the crinkled corner, probably less than 1/2 an inch farther away, is blurred. That’s with an aperture choice that isn’t even as fully open as it could have been.

If you want to experiment with extreme close-up yourself it doesn’t necessarily require special gear. A lot of zoom functionality has a very close focal distance; I have a zoom lens that when turned to 200mm has a focal distance of 18 inches – which is less than 5 inches off the end of the barrel when it’s fully extended like that. You can also try shooting through a $3 magnifying glass – it works better than you’d think.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of photopete
DSC_9178
courtesy of photopete

Who doesn’t love a parade? This weekend saw two separate parades through our city – one for the Cherry Blossom Festival, one for Emancipation Day – and our Flickr Pool was awash with the parade imagery. This shot from yesterday’s Emancipation Day parade by Pete Kuszmaul captured the balance between joy and professionalism in a parade and this young cheerleader has it perfectly balanced. 

The Daily Feed
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Strasburg Steady Against Houston, Nats Win 6-3

Photo courtesy of NDwas
IMG_8416
courtesy of NDwas

While most of DC was at the Verizon Center (or camping out in front of their television sets) watching game three of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Nationals fans turned up at ballpark for Stephen Strasburg’s 2012 home debut against the Houston Astros. The park wasn’t packed but that didn’t stop Strasburg from continuing to prove his worth as a young, reliable baseball talent. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Spidermusical

The production story of Broadway’s blockbuster musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark“, has more twists and turns than the actual musical. With a monster budget, superstar composers, and ambitious aerial stunts the show has been plagued with delays, technical mishaps, and harsh reviews. As a result the show has been the target of many late-night jokes and parodies. Leave it to Timothy Michael Drucker, creator of “Perez Hilton Saves The Universe“, to write his own Spider Man musical using a fraction of the budget of the Broadway production. Affectionately called “Spidemusical: A Second Chance For Awesome”, the show pokes fun at its blockbuster brother which boasts production costs upwards of a million dollars a week. After a New York run, the show arrives in D.C. where the daring folks at Landless Theatre Company take on the challenge of essentially making a sweded version of Turn Off the Dark.

Instead of high wire acrobatics, Landless employs an action figure tied to a stick. You won’t find fancy costumes in this show, instead actors don animal masks that look like they were plucked from the local Toys ‘R Us. The show is hilariously campy without going over the top. It is the perfect blend of humor and performance.

Continue reading →

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Ting Tings @ 9:30 Club — 4/12/12 (or “That’s Not the Same!”)

Photo courtesy of GabboT
Ting Tings 08
courtesy of GabboT

Although you couldn’t tell from the enthusiasm of the 9:30 Club’s sold out show last Thursday, I cannot escape the feeling that the Ting Tings have made a terrible misstep.

The show started off well enough. The vibrant MNDR (aka Amanda Warner) warmed up the gathering crowd with some nu disco selections from her upcoming full-length album Feed Me Diamonds. The lead single “#1 in Heaven” offered a good dance tune to get the audience started up. Although the video for said track features a full band, MNDR on tour is a solo act with only a light-up synth box accompanying her vocals as she does a kind of dancing strut across the stage. Her debut title track “Feed Me Diamonds” was pleasantly more of the same with a bit of a space rock atheistic to it. The audience was a bit restless at first but MNDR’s charm and earnestness won them over as they accepted her music as consistently pretty danceable.

Continue reading →

The Features
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Best places to watch the Shuttle flyover

Discovery Soft Mated to SCA (KSC-2012-2247)

Tomorrow, on its way to live at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Discovery will do a flyby atop the NASA SCA, which is a modified 747. The flyover is between 10am and 11am, and NASA has released a map of good places to watch for Discovery as she’s flown into Dulles. I would imagine that many of the places on this map will be packed with spectators as the Shuttle comes, so I would also recommend Oronoco Park in Alexandria, or Columbia Island Marina, or from a “conveniently disabled car” on the Wilson or 14th Street Bridges.

Get out the long glass, photographers, we’re betting there are some once-in-a-lifetime shots out there.


View Sites for Viewing Space Shuttle Discovery in a larger map

Music, The Daily Feed
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Happy Birthday, Ian MacKaye

Photo courtesy of yostinator
Ian MacKaye and Lamp
courtesy of yostinator

It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of DC music legend Ian MacKaye, who today celebrates his 50th birthday. MacKaye’s contributions to the world of music are myriad, from his days with Minor Threat and Fugazi, to his work with Dischord Records, the music scene has never been the same. 

Happy Birthday, Ian.

Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 4/13 – 4/15

Photo courtesy of Mr. T in DC
RMS Titanic Memorial Wreath
courtesy of Mr. T in DC

The weekend is gone, but the feeling remains this morning. Memories of laughter, of friends, of time spent at leisure are all still close about our faces, but not yet floating away as they do by mid-week. Some solid baseball, a historic pause for remembrance, beautiful parades, and a walk through nature, these were all part of our weekends, and we’ve got the images to bring those memories close enough to touch once more.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Nats Fall to Reds 8-5

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
36
courtesy of MudflapDC

Perhaps it was a harbinger of things to come when Tyler Clippard took the mound in the top of the 11th and then promptly fell down trying to deliver his first pitch. Clippard caught a spike and then spun to the ground without releasing the ball. On his next pitch he managed to release the pitch but it was a ball well off the plate. When everything was said and done Drew Stubbs stood on first after collecting a single off of Clippard. The next batter would pop a bunt into the air that Zimmerman would catch with an amazing diving play. One more batter would single before the Reds big threat, Joey Votto, would come to the plate with two on and one down with the score tied at 5-5 in the top of the 11th.

Votto who received a $200 million extension in the off-season demonstrated why he was worth it with a two RBI double to give the Reds the lead. Rolen would then single up the middle to give the Reds a final insurance run before handing the ball over to the shaky bullpen. Sean Marshall would allow the first two batters he faced in LaRoche and Werth to reach base via singles, but would retire the side to end the Nats threat and five game winning streak.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Edwin Jackson Goes the Distance in His Home Debut, Nats Win 4-1

Photo courtesy of
‘win’
courtesy of ‘oddlittlebird.’

Nationals fans have had plenty to be excited about to start the 2012 season. Nerve inducing one-run games, dazzling starting pitching, and players stepping up after weak 2011 performances (ex. Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche). Despite all of that, the real star of Saturday’s game was off-season pick-up right-handed pitcher Edwin Jackson.

Jackson went the distance in his home debut pitching a complete game, 4-1 victory against the Cincinnati Reds to lead the Nats to their fifth consecutive win. To make the day even better, he got a hit. Not too bad for a back of the rotation starter.

The win secured the Nats’ position atop the National League East standings. Continue reading →

capitals hockey, The Daily Feed
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Capitals Block Bruins in Beantown, 2-1 (2OT)

Photo courtesy of clydeorama
Backstrom Checks Stewart
courtesy of clydeorama

Well folks, it looks like we might just have a series on our hands. And if you are a hockey, what a series this is turning out to be. The Caps took on the Bruins in a Saturday matinee game that required five periods to complete, but in the end, the bonus hockey ended up being well worth the wait with the Caps securing a 2-1 win to bring a tied series back to Washington on Monday.
Continue reading →

Sports Fix
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On Friday the 13th Luck be a Nady

Photo courtesy of muohace_dc

courtesy of muohace_dc

When Xavier Nady entered in the 8th inning of Friday night’s contest between the Nats and Reds it looked like the hard luck loser of the Nationals pitching staff, Jordan Zimmermann, was headed for another hard luck loss. The Nationals had scored nothing for Zimmermann as he pitched seven strong innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks with 3 strike outs. Nady would have none of it however as he rocketed a pitch over the wall of the Reds bullpen 377 feet away.

Nady’s entrance into the game was a lesson in managing 101 from Davey Johnson to Dusty Baker. With 1 out in the 8th inning Davey inserted Chad Tracy to face Bronson Arroyo. Wary of the lefty on righty match-up Dusty lifted Arroyo for former Nat Billy Bray who wouldn’t throw a pitch to Tracy as Davey immediately countered with Nady who made Dusty pay for not keeping up with the thought process of Johnson.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Long Day’s Journey into Night

Peter Michael Goetz as James Tyrone, Sr. and Helen Carey as Mary Tyrone in Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater’s production of Long Day’s Journey into Night. Photo by Scott Suchman.

It’s hard not to feel hopeless while watching Eugene O’Neill’s Long Days Journey into Night. The day after I saw Arena Stage‘s production of this three hour masterpiece on how to tear your family apart, the headlines were full of stories proving the play’s relevancy to our times. Sales of the two most popular prescription painkillers (oxycodone and hydrocodone, of the opioid category) have risen dramatically in new areas of the US. Concurrent with the increase in sales is the increase in overdose deaths and pharmacy robberies. It’s an addiction problem that begins not with recreational use, but with using the medication initially for pain.

Just like poor Mary Tyrone, hooked on dope for decades following a difficult birth in a sordid hotel.

Played by the radiantly distraught Helen Carey, this long-suffering mother seems the proper focus for the play’s maelstrom of guilt and self-deceit. The whole family is caught in a continuous cycle of devastating returns to the past and an inability to escape. It’s a harrowing seesaw of emotions for an audience to endure. Luckily, director Robin Phillips introduces just enough laughter intermixed with the morbidity to allow us to hope.

But, it’s apparent as a society we have a long way to go to shake the yoke of the “poison” Mary takes. To call it a matter of willpower is a tragic misunderstanding. The Tyrones certainly aren’t able to exert any willpower about anything, as they repeatedly rip up each other in the present in an effort to win in the past.

Continue reading →

The Features
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Mock the “Dear Leader” with Song Byeok

Song Byeok - Take Off Your Clothes - acrylic on hanji; courtesy of www.songbyeok.com

When Korean contemporary artist Song Byeok exhibits his work, he uses a pseudonym. That’s because he’s actually North Korean: his satirical paintings of the “Dear Leader” could result in execution or lifelong sentences in a gulag for the relatives he’s left behind.

This weekend, “The Departure” – an exhibit of his work at The Dunes – brings that dangerous satire to DC.

North Korea selected Song to be a state propaganda artist when he was only 24. According to an interview with Reuters, Song practically worshiped Kim Jong-il at the time, although he never met the dictator during his duties. Instead, he was handed a sketch every morning of daily propaganda to paint.

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Homebrewing, The Features
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Homebrew DC: Bacon Beer, a Stout Lover’s Breakfast

Photo courtesy of Samer Farha
Black Thai
courtesy of Samer Farha

This is another in a series of articles about homebrewing in the DC area by Carl Weaver of RealHomebrew.com. Want to learn about making your own beer? Keep an eye out for Friday homebrew features.

Not so long ago, @brew_thusiast tweeted his disappointment with a particular homebrew bacon beer, saying that it was a decent enough brown ale but lacked the bacon flavor that would make it the draw it should have been. This got me thinking about bacon beer. Is it really good or too good to be true? The promise is great – a smoky, meaty, maybe salty brew that could be a good accompaniment for your eggs, rashers, and black pudding, or whatever you like to have for breakfast. You do like black pudding, don’t you?

It would have to be a stout or porter, is my guess. Bacon is a heavy meat, and most pairing guides suggest putting rich drinks with rich foods. A heavy beer would be best, for sure. Continue reading →