Monthly Archives: June 2012

The Daily Feed
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The Derecho is Coming

Photo courtesy of tbridge
Brookland: 107F in the shade. FFFFFUUUUU
courtesy of tbridge

With heat breaking a 142-year old record in DC today at 104°F, and a high of 100°F due tomorrow, you’d think that we were heading for a hot uncomfortable night in DC. Instead, sometime tonight DC a unique weather phenomenon – a derecho – will cool down the District and bring with it some heavy rain and high winds. A derecho is long-lived severe thunderstorm that can travel over a thousand miles in a straight line with a very unique shape, a bow-shaped frontal line.

Photo courtesy of gainesp2003
Squall Line
courtesy of gainesp2003

50 knots of wind speed are not uncommon in these kinds of storms. As of 5:30, the storm’s bow was just east of Columbus, Ohio, and about 30 miles wide. You can follow it on the Weather Underground radar map for the region. It should hit DC sometime between 9pm and 3am. Tornadoes may spawn from the storm, but it’s often hard to tell the difference between the tornadic activity and the result of the straight-line winds.  Last Friday’s straight-line winds damaged numerous homes in Ward 5 and Ward 4 in DC as well as Montgomery and Prince George’s counties as large trees were downed by the storm and power was knocked out.

Tonight’s round of storms could be just as dangerous, so do be careful as the storm approaches. This one could have some real fireworks attached.

The Daily Feed
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Neighborhoods by Price in DC

Real Estate Prices in DC

Real estate site Trulia has released a new fun tool to look at zip code by zip code break downs of DC Real Estate including some spiffy sorting options that show that Capitol Hill has the highest “lowest” price, while Georgetown has the highest “median” price.  Georgetown also carries the largest disparity, with an 8.7x factor between high and low end. 20001 (containing Shaw) has the shallowest magnification factor at 2.8.

Now, there are problems with looking at real estate trends based just on zip codes instead of actual neighborhood boundaries, but that’s a harder database query, that’s for sure. As someone who lives in 20018, but whose neighborhood is mostly comprised of 20017, I suspect that there’s some better breakouts of this stuff available somehow.

History, The District
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McMillan Sand Filtration Site

Photo courtesy of mosley.brian
McMillan Sand Filtration Site – Walk By the Three Giants – 04-21-12
courtesy of mosley.brian

Crossposted on Got Nikon, Will Travel

The McMillan Park and Sand Filtration Site is a fascinating piece of DC history. In fact, to call the site fascinating really doesn’t do it justice; there’s nothing else like it in the area. Completed in 1905, it was part of the McMillan Plan to develop and beautify Washington. The site was used until 1985 to filter drinking water for the city. When the site was completed it was a state of the art water filtration system, using sand to filter water from the Washington Aqueduct (if you’re really interested, it used a slow sand filter system).

As I said, fascinating site: above ground are ivy covered water towers and open grass fields; below ground, twenty catacomb chambers, where the sand filtered water. As you can imagine, the only light that comes into the chambers is either from open man-mole covers in the chamber’s roof or the access doors at the front of the chambers. Photographically, it creates a fascinating play of light and shadows. And to break the monotony, there is even some damage from the 2011 earthquake (picture below), where part of the ceiling caved in. The site is similar to St. Elizabeths, with neglect and decay making some remarkable sights.

Photo courtesy of mosley.brian
McMillan Sand Filtration Site – Looking Down the Gallery – 04-21-12
courtesy of mosley.brian

As great as the site is, it was recently closed to future tours. I was lucky enough to go on the open houses, which the local ANC held, twice; once last October and another in April. The site is slated for development, but I’m not convinced it will happen anytime soon. Hopefully something can be worked out and the site can be reopened for tours. It truly is an amazing site and something every DC resident should see. It is a great part of the city’s history.

Photo courtesy of mosley.brian
McMillan Sand Filtration Site – Directions to the Well of Souls – 04-21-12
courtesy of mosley.brian

The park is located west of Catholic University, with by North Capitol Street on it’s east side, Channing Street NW to the south, 1st Street NW to the west, and Michigan Avenue NW on the north.  Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Foodie Roundup, The Features
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No Cooking Necessary Options for 4th of July

Photo courtesy of laura padgett
glover park farmers’ market 7.10.10 – 28
courtesy of laura padgett

Stop playing nose goes with your friends when trying to decide who’s going to host the cookout this Fourth of July. Instead, here are a couple of places that can supply the food platters so you can enjoy the party. So pick up some good eats, kick back, crack open a cold beer and toast to the birthday of the United States of America.

Red Apron Butchery – Fourth of July Packs
Feed the whole family with Red Apron’s swine-tastic pack. For $50 ($52 if you opt for the bacon bangers sausages), you get a rack of spice-rubbed baby back ribs, a pound of sandwich-ready smoked brisket, 1 package of five all pork hot dogs, four fresh sausages (choice of bratwurst, Italian or bacon bangers) and a pint of house-made Coca-Cola BBQ sauce. And it’s all nicely tucked into an insulated Red Apron bag, so you can just show up on a friend’s door step ready to commandeer their grill. Place your order online and pick it up at the DuPont Farmer’s Market on Sunday, July 1 from 10 AM to 1 PM.

Cork Market & Tasting Room – Patriotic Picnic Baskets
Pick a pic-a-nic basket, boo boo. The first option, the sandwich basket, has options such as sopressata with roasted peppers and tapenade on house-made focaccia or smoked ham with Nancy’s camembert and pickled onions. Or go with the second option, the chicken basket which has either a Peruvian grilled chicken or the garlic-herb marinated fried chicken. Both baskets come with side salads; either a farro salad with wild mushrooms, spring onions, preserved lemons or a Mediterranean cous cous salad and Italian sweet wines. The sandwich basket is $25 ($35 if you add in wine) and the chicken basket is $40 ($55 if you add in wine). To get your picnic basket, call 202-265-2674 or email info@CorkDC.com.
Continue reading →

capitals hockey, Sports Fix, The Features
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Capital Upgrade: Summer 2012 Edition

Photo courtesy of bhrome
2012Draft031
courtesy of bhrome
Typically, the period between the NHL Awards night and Unrestricted Free Agent day – known to non-hockey fans as July 1 – can be one of tumult, surprise, or downright boredom. It’s when the front office of every team takes the spotlight, working last-minute contract deals, shuffling trades for salary cap space, and executing the yearly NHL Draft. Year to year, it can be hot, cold, or lukewarm for any organization.

This year, the Washington Capitals have been hot. How hot? Enough that I’ve had to morph this article from a NHL Draft day summary into one that encompasses several changes from the Caps’ front office over the last few days. And the initial prognosis – such as these can be in the off season – is that the Caps may have finally found the last pieces of their playoff enigma.

A fast recap: in the last week, we have 10 new draft selections, a new coach, a new second-line center, and sayonara to two players (with a third possibly on the horizon). Shall we dive into the changes? Continue reading →

Entertainment, Essential DC, Music, The Daily Feed
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Fort Reno schedule update

Fort Reno

Fort Reno has announced more bands to grace the stage this summer! You can see the summer schedule here! TBD seems to be really popular…

Tonight, Thursday, June 28th:

Seamonsters

Treble Lifter

The Admins

Monday, July 2nd: Give, Coup Sauvage & the Snips, Boris Milic

Thursday, July 5th: Troll Tax, Big Mouth, Atoms Apart

Monday, July 9th: Mobius Strip, Hey Arbore, East Paw

Thursday, July 12th: Nunchucks, RCRDS, Satori Trova

Monday, July 16th: Cigarbox Planetarium, Alma Tropicalia, Nox

Thursday, July 19th: Deathfix, TBD, Hen of the Woods

Monday, July 23rd: Max Levine Ensemble, Flex Matthews, TBD

Thursday, July 26th: TBD, More Humans, Grammar

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends: Jun 29 – Jul 1

Photo courtesy of philliefan99
soaked duckling
courtesy of philliefan99

It’s weekends time, when your humble managing editor whips pleads with the We Love DC authors to submit their list of trouble they’ll be up to over the weekend. Addison, sadly, was overcome at the prospect of the impending 100 degree heat and only sent in “ERMAHGERD HEATWAVE!”

YouTube Preview Image
(Probably said in the voice from the video above)

We presume he’ll be in the news shortly after his arrest for trying to move into one of those coolers full of ice in front of a 7-11. Everyone else put down their super-soakers long enough to turn in the following.

Photo courtesy of ekelly80
rainbow umbrella
courtesy of ekelly80

Marissa: I’m kicking off my weekend with a show at the 9:30 Club Friday night. One of my favorite (and not just cause they’re also GWU alums) bands, Jukebox the Ghost is playing and I’ve been listening to their new album, Safe Travels, on repeat for the past two weeks in anticipation. Saturday it’s time to pack up the car and hit the road to Harper’s Ferry Adventure Center where some friends and I are going to go tubing. Can’t wait to kick back and enjoy the lazy river before we head back to DC and grill up a ton of food. Sunday will be spent catching up on errands and maybe I’ll take a trip out to the Baltimore Farmer’s Market, since I’ve heard some good things about the vendors in Charm City.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, People, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Jesse Malin

photo by Danny Clinch

New York rocker Jesse Malin has been playing in rock bands since the tender age of twelve, starting out onstage at New York’s legendary CBGBs, he went on to front the glam-punk band D Generation for years, touring with Green Day and others. He has performed as a solo artist for years now, as well as with his band St. Mark’s Social, and has released three solo records. He’s currently on a small solo tour, and is making a stop in DC this Saturday, June 30th, at The Hamilton. We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman got the chance to chat with Jesse recently, and here’s what he had to say.

Alexia: So you’ve been playing in bands since you were a kid, right?

Jesse: Yeah, I started when I was twelve years old, we did the audition night at CBGBs. Monday nights were the audition nights, and me and all my friends from Queens, New York drove in and piled up in cabs and cars and we did the audition showcase. We ended up starting a band called Heart Attack, doing a few records til I was sixteen, doing some touring, that kind of stuff. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, Night Life, People, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Vince Scheuerman

all photos courtesy of Vince Scheuerman

Vince Scheuerman has been a hard-working musician in the DC area for years. Not always part of the “scene”, he fronted the successful power-pop-rock band Army of Me for many years, riding a rocky road of successes and pitfalls, before starting the band River James in 2010. This spring after touring extensively with Nashville-based band Canon Blue, alongside MUTEMATH and The Boxer Rebellion, Vince decided to move to Nashville. He’ll be returning home on Saturday, June 30th to play a solo acoustic set at The Hamilton, opening for New York rocker Jesse Malin.

We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman got the very busy Vince on the phone for a chat, and he talked about how he got started, the rough road of an artist on the rise, his plans for a new album, and more! Continue reading →

The District
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We Love Meetups on the 4th!

Photo courtesy of mosley.brian
2011 – Fourth of July – Amber Waves
courtesy of mosley.brian

The Fourth of July is a week away, and I can’t wait! Baseball, grilling, and, best of all, fireworks. As I said last year, the Fourth of July fireworks along the Mall are one of the great things about living in the District and everyone should take advantage of it. To that end, I want to set up an official We Love DC Meetup for the fireworks.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a meetup to see the fireworks. I’m thinking this will mainly interested photographers, as I will gladly offer my services to assist people taking shots of the display. But you don’t have to be a photographer to take part; all you have to do is be interested in seeing the show with a group of people. So come one, come all!

The details: I’m interested in setting up on the south side of the Memorial Bridge, on Columbia Island, right along the river. That way the shots will get the bridge, the Potomac, and the fireworks. Also, it will be less crowded than along the Mall; we’ll still have to go through security, but not as bad. Check out this map for locations; note that Arlington Cemetery Metro station is very close. Getting across the Parkway is tricky, and a little dangerous, so I would prefer to do it as a group. I thinking meeting up at 6:30pm is best; not too early but not too late that we get crowded out.

Comment on this story if you want to get e-mail updates (such as if we have to cancel due to weather), or follow me on Twitter. All that’s need after that is to show up next Wednesday at 6:30pm. Hope to see you there. And if not, I hope you have a great 4th!

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Young Magic, Quilt, & The Tender Thrill @ Comet Ping Pong

Poster via Lindsay Johnson www.theLAjohnson.com

Today we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Young Magic, Quilt & The Tender Thrill at Comet Ping Pong, Friday, June 29th!

Young Magic played at Black Cat a few months ago, opening for Korallreven. Their performance was enthusiastic and energizing. The trio, currently based in New York City is comprised of Australian ex-pats Isaac Emmanuel, Michael Italia, and Indonesian-born Melati Malay. They mixed dreamy vocals and ambient guitar with tribal-sounding rhythyms and hypnotic, thumping beats.

The Tender Thrill are classic americana rock & roll, and their debut LP is out now on Cricket Cemetery.

Quilt are art school duo pop. Their self-titled debut LP is out now on Mexican Summer.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9:00am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email in 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

The winner will be on the guest list at Comet Ping Pong. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. This is an all-ages show!

Sasha Lord and Micah Greenberg Present…
Friday June 29th, Quilt, The Tender Thrill & Young Magic
$10, 10pm and All Ages at Comet Ping Pong

Food and Drink, The Features
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2012 RAMMY Awards Recap

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Jeff and Barbara Black at the RAMMYs
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

Sunday night some of the city’s big names and key players in the restaurant industry got glammed up and gathered for the 2012 RAMMY awards. After the jump, you’ll find the full list of winners, as well as a little recap and commentary from yours truly.
Continue reading →

Entertainment, Media, Night Life, The Features
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The Winning Ticket: Pauly Shore @ 930 Club, 6/30/2012

photo courtesy of Pauly Shore

Today we are giving away a pair of tickets to Pauly Shore‘s Pauly-tics, at 930 Club on Saturday, June 30th!

Pauly-tics is a Showtime special that will air in the fall, that stars Pauly Shore in a live stand-up performance with other political comedians and celebrities. The show will include a live DJ, Shore, & other comics performing political comedy.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. 

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email in 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of pablo.raw
Thirsty
courtesy of pablo.raw

Oh, look at the cute little baby! Seriously for a moment, look at the baby. Particularly his face. One of the best ways to have a dramatic picture of a person is to have a close up of their face. Pablo shows this to great effect. He does have the added assist of taking a picture of a cute baby; but even then he get the kid’s big eyes and a sense of contentment in his expression. In many ways this reminds me of a video essay I came across a few months ago which deconstructs the “Spielberg Face.” While Pablo doesn’t quite get to the level of Spielberg, he does show the technique very well.

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Merry Wives of Windsor

Caralyn Kozlowski as Alice Ford, Michael Mastro as Ford, Kurt Rhoads as Page and Veanne Cox as Margaret Page in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Stephen Rayne. Photo by Scott Suchman.

I’ve been putting off my review of Shakespeare Theater Company’s The Merry Wives of Windsor because there’s nothing less joyful than writing a mediocre review. But Director Stephen Rayne and the other folks involved clearly invested a full 20 or 30 minutes of thought into the production so I owe them as much of my time writing about it.

Snark aside, that’s the more generous reason I can come up with for this production, which opens dull and plods through the conflict between the men in the first half. By the time we get to the better second half and the actors seem engaged with the material – rather than feeling like they’re reciting it phonetically – we’re conditioned to be bored. Which in a frothy piece like Merry Wives is almost criminal. But to think this is the best efforts of everyone involved is even more depressing than thinking it was phoned in.

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Interviews, Media, Music, Night Life, People, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Blake Mills

photo courtesy of Blake Mills
You may not have heard the name Blake Mills before, but there’s a good chance you’ve hear his playing. As one of the most in-demand session guitarists in Los Angeles he has recorded with Weezer, Jakob Dylan, Danger Mouse, Rick Rubin, Norah Jones, Andrew Bird, and many others. He has toured with Cass McCombs, Lucinda Williams, Jenny Lewis, Band of Horses and Julian Casablancas. He recently contributed a cover of the song “Heart of Mine” for the Amnesty International tribute to Bob Dylan. He recorded a solo album Break Mirrors in 2010, and though it was never formally released, it gained a cult following among friends and people in the know.
He is currently on tour opening for Fiona Apple, as well as playing guitar in her set. He’ll be at the Warner Theater tomorrow night, so if you’re going to see Fiona Apple, make sure you get there early to catch Blake’s set!
We Love DC got the chance to chat with Blake during a break in his busy schedule, and here’s what he had to say. Continue reading →