Monthly Archives: August 2012

The Daily Feed
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Nats Don’t Rally, Fall to Atlanta 5-1

Photo courtesy of oddlittlebird.
Zimmerman
courtesy of oddlittlebird.

In comparison to the rest of this week’s three-game series against the Atlanta Braves, the Washington Nationals played poor defense and dropped a winnable game 5-1 after a ninth inning collapse. It didn’t help much that the offense struggled with runners on-base either.

Atlanta started to tack on their runs in the fifth inning. Starting pitcher Ross Detwiler issued a walk to Braves starter Kyle Medlen that served as a catalyst for the two-run rally. Second baseman Tyler Pastoricky and Medlen scored on a double to right-center field hit by outfielder Martin Prado putting the Nats in a 2-0 hole.

Washington stuck it out until the ninth, initiating what could have been a comeback in the eigth inning when the game was still within their reach. Atlanta only managed to score two runs before their three-run rally in the top of the ninth against reliever Tom Gorzelanny, but the Nats could only manage one run the whole game.

Outfielder Bryce Harper scored the Nats only run in eighth on a single hit to left field by outfielder Michael Morse  off Braves reliever Eric O’Flaherty, making it a 2-1 game. But that was before a ninth inning got away from Washington.

While some of the evening’s missteps should be attributed to the fact that Detwiler didn’t make it long enough for a quality start, it didn’t start out that way. Detwiler cruised through the first four innings, having given up just three hits in that time, with two of the runners making it scoring position without making it home. His fast ball was absolutely dominated.

So what was his biggest weakness? According to Manager Davey Johnson, Detwiler didn’t mix in enough off-speed pitches to get the job done. Because, no matter how great his fast ball is — and it was great for the first half of the game — Johnson says you still need to mix in the off-speed stuff.

Detwiler only made it 5 and 1/3 innings, having given up seven hits, two earned runs, and one walk. He threw 78 pitches, 51 strikes, and struck out four. That’s when Craig Stammen entered the game for 1 and 2/3 innings of no-hit ball.

The ninth is where it got messy. It was Gorzelanny’s second inning of work. He managed to get through the eigth having faced just three batters, but as previously indicated, the Nats offense seemed to lose their footing and couldn’t muster a reaction.

Three runs home, two errors, a wild pitch, two hits, and a stolen base later, the Nats fell from a 2-1 deficit to a 5-1 deficit and couldn’t overcome that fact in the end. As it stands, though, Washington is still 30 games above .500 and maintains first place in the National League East with their closest competition – the Braves – still 6 games behind. So at the end of the day, all is not lost.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Montgomery County Agricultural Fair - Wave Rider
Montgomery County Agricultural Fair – Wave Rider
courtesy of Glyn Lowe Photoworks

Something a little different today. Glyn Lowe’s photo is more of a painting, with blown out highlights and over saturated colors. While it’s easy to go overboard with both those techniques, she’s able to balance them nicely to create a fascinating stylized image. It looks more like a impressionist painting rather than a modern photograph.

Quick note: this will be my last post for a while. I’m heading off on a mini-sabbatical to Europe for the next few months and won’t be around DC. If you’ve liked my writing, please follow me while I traipse across the Continent; I promise it will be fun, with many, many great photos. And don’t worry DC: I’ll be back (but not in the T-1000 way).

The Daily Feed
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Nats Beat Braves 5-4 in Thirteen Innings

Photo courtesy of oddlittlebird.
1st Place!
courtesy of oddlittlebird.

What started as Dan Uggla hesitating to make a routine play at second base turned into a 5-4 Nationals victory in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. It took four hours, twenty seven minutes, thirteen innings, and a fifty six minute rain delay, but Washington beat the Atlanta Braves and are now 30 games over .500.

Jordan Zimmermann started the night and went on to pitch five innings and 102 pitches (68 strikes) against Atlanta. The Nats offense started early behind Zimmermann with a four-hit, four-run rally in the first innings off of Braves veteran starter Tim Hudson. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Features
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Willow Creek Farm Hosts 10th Annual Slow Food Event

Photo courtesy of bonappetitfoodie
Clydes willow creek farm dinner august 2012 (2)
courtesy of bonappetitfoodie

Sure, Clyde’s might be your choice for a fast bite to eat in Georgetown or before a Caps game at the Verizon Center. But out at their Willow Creek Farm, they’ve been slowing things down every year with the Slow Food movement.

Slow Food DC strives to instill a certain way of living and eating in the U.S. that honors cultures, community and “promotes ecologically sound food production,” according to the organization. And to support Slow Food’s mission, Clyde’s has hosted a slow food dinner ever year for the past 10 years. Fresh produce from Clyde’s farm such as fairy tale eggplant, pea shoots, zebra tomatoes and more are featured along with produce from other nearby farms. For a little bit after listening to Slow Food members talk about starting farmers markets or bringing fresh fruits and vegetables into Fairfax County schools, you might forget that you spend most of your days living in a hustling and bustling city.

After the jump, you’ll find photos from the Slow Food DC 10th Annual Farm Dinner. Take a minute this Monday morning to slow down and look through the photo slideshow.
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Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 8/17-8/19

Photo courtesy of ameschen
rain delay
courtesy of ameschen

A half and half weekend: half amazingly nice, but still August hot; and the other half rainy, but refreshingly cool.  I told a friend that rainy days in August, like Sunday, are like 50 degree days in January; you enjoy the relief. And besides, from the look of the Flickr pool, the rainy Sunday didn’t put a damper on anyone’s weekend plans. So, without further ado, let’s start off the second to last week of summer with the Weekend Flashback! Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Gio, Nats Make it Worth the Wait

Photo courtesy of dmbosstone
Bryce Harper – Arizona at Washington – 5/1/12
courtesy of dmbosstone

The game was scheduled to begin at 1:35, and around that time the Nats faithful were watching baseball at Nats Park, but it was the Braves vs. the Dodgers instead of the Nationals vs. the Mets. For two hours and 26 minutes Nats fans were literally scoreboard watching as the Dodgers and Braves game was shown on the big board at Nats Park. Those fans in the stands cheered on the Dodgers as they took an early lead on the Braves and were happy to see it held up shortly after the Nationals got underway just after 4:00 PM.

The late arriving game did not disappoint the fans as Gio Gonzalez worked around some control issues. Gio pitched 5 2/3 innings, did not have a clean inning, and only struck out three. The real story of the afternoon was the Nats offense or more pointedly the 19 year old Bryce Harper. It has been awhile since Harper has been the most impressive player in the game, but with a triple and homer that glanced off the facing of the second deck he is on this afternoon.

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The Daily Feed
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A Strange and Magical Season Goes Grand

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
04.03.11 – Nats v Braves-4
courtesy of MudflapDC

In a season of clown questions, weird wusses, joy rubs, and hot stuff there was one thing that Nats hadn’t done on their march to the best record in baseball. Before this evening the Nats had yet to hit a grand-slam. The team with the fifth most homers in the National League had hit exactly zero of their 127 with the bases loaded, but in the fourth inning trailing 2-0 to the New York Mets Michael Morse did exactly that.

Since throwing the first no-hitter in Mets history Johan Santana has not been the same. He hasn’t not just been not no-hit good again. He has been downright bad. In his nine starts following his no-hitter he had a 7.98 ERA and failed to make it further than five innings in all but three of those starts. Tonight though looked different. With an umpire crew on the field who had called two perfect games this season Johan Santana was perfect through three innings, but then came the fourth inning and the Nats second look at him.

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends – Aug 17 to 19

Photo courtesy of kimberlyfaye
Run Teddy!
courtesy of kimberlyfaye

It’s the weekend and we couldn’t be happier. Well, if someone cancels Monday, maybe, but for the moment we’ll take em as we get them. That means baseball, booze, and indulging my silly sense of humor about tv character names.

You’ll get it or you won’t. I ain’t claiming it’s genius; I’m just tried of running the came Comet Ping Pong picture over and over again. Take some others and put em in the WLDC Flickr pool, wouldja?

Mosley: Movies and baseball are my plans this weekend. Saturday night is the 500th President’s Race at Nationals Park…oh yeah, and the Nationals are playing the Mets (guess it’s a side show or something). I’m either going to see Teddy’s 500th defeat or his first win, so it should be a banner evening. On the movie front, there are two possibilities at E Street to see a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yeah. And then on Sunday, at the AFI in Silver Spring, is the great Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; I’m always a sucker for the underrated movie in a long running franchise.

Photo courtesy of Don Whiteside
DSC_4407
courtesy of Don Whiteside

Alexia: What else, but a weekend of rock? Friday night heading to Black Cat for a sweet night of indie-rock with Lorelei (their album release party), Deathfix and Sun Wolf! So stoked! Saturday night heading to Comet Ping Pong to see the shoegazer-tinged stylings of Silo Halo, Motion Lines, and Deep Time, and shake it to the soul DJ delights of DJ Names Names (Ian Svenonius). Yeah!

Photo courtesy of Fitsum Belay/iLLIMETER
Brandon Skall
courtesy of Fitsum Belay/iLLIMETER

Tom: Let me entertain you! Actually let me entertain our out of town guest by doing a sweet beer tour of DC. We’re first up at DC Brau on Saturday at midday, sampling some good food and beer, and then touring over to Chocolate City Brewing before we head over to Meridian Pint for more beers. Safe to say I need to get my work in on the trails ahead of that! Sunday I’ll be heading out into the country in search of the best sweet corn and the last beautiful fresh peaches of the long hot summer.

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
DSC_5496
courtesy of MudflapDC

Nicole: I can’t comprehend how any child of the ’90s could miss the Third Eye Blind concert following Saturday’s Nationals-Mets game, so needless to say, I will be there. I also plan to spend a sizable amount of time this weekend doing the following really cool things that probably will not get my update published on WLDC: helping my friend move into a new apartment in the hopes of earning free pizza, doing an embarrassing amount of planning for my upcoming fantasy football drafts, reading Simon Rich’s Elliot Allagash and Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map, and listening to the amazing new Pandora station I created based on the Faith Hill-Tim McGraw duet “I Need You” until my roommates beg me to stop.

Photo courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

Don: Like Tom, we have an out-of-town guest to show around this weekend. We may go a little farther afield, though, and head to the Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard. They’re having a dog-focused event, and we either integrate our boy into our weekend plans or we’re only out of the house in four-hour increments. So booze and leash it is… presuming the weather cooperates. Beyond that it’s likely the usual monuments and museums, though it’s always possible we’ll take a few moments to finally catch the Batman movie in IMAX while we’re there…

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: MS MR, Marina and the Diamonds @ 9:30 Club — 8/14/12 (or “You’re Going to Need a Bigger Stage”)

Photo courtesy of laviddichterman
Marina & the Diamonds at Showbox at the Market – Seattle on 2012-07-14 – _DSC5289.NEF
courtesy of laviddichterman

The bigger and better Marina and the Diamonds swept through the 9:30 Club Tuesday night, demanding and pretty much receiving all of the attention she could handle.

But first, Brooklyn-based MS MR opened for Marina at the ridiculously sold-out show. I can remember few times the 9:30 Club seemed more packed.  After doing some research on the opener on the Internet before the show and finding precious little, I confess I was pleasantly surprised with their show. MS MR got a very busy room rocking in preparation for Marina’s performance.

MS MR, whose member names still remain unknown to me, appeared as a quartet with female vocalist, two gents on keyboards and another on drums. For quite a few songs in their eight-song set, one of the keyboardists switches out to a guitar. Some of the band’s favorites, according to a YouTube playlist, include New Order, The Long Blondes, Sufjan Stevens, and Glass Candy — none of which comes as a surprise. However, MS MR themselves are a much more rockin’ affair with their blonde lead singer wiggling and swaying at the microphone, dressed and dancing like a jazz club chanteuse ready to heat things up. Immediately after their set, the fill music included The Supremes and Shania Twain, and I gotta say MS MR definitely takes a big piece of the sound of both and melds them into their own unique synth-driven experience.

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Food and Drink, The Features
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Ticket Giveaway: Funky Fresh Foodie Fest

Like beer? Like food trucks? Then you’ll probably want to get yourself over to the DC Fairgrounds for the DC Funky Fresh Foodie Fest (DCF4) next Saturday, August 25.

From 1 to 9 PM, food trucks including Pepe, Takorean, DC Slices, BBQ Bus, Tapas Truck, Curbside Cupcakes, Rolling Ficelle, DC Empanadas, Fojol Bros., and Pleasant Pops, will be at the DC Fairgrounds along with 10 craft brews. You’ll get to sip the likes of Starr Hill, Goose Island, Old Dominion, Fordham, Shock Top, Widmer, Kona and Devil’s Backbone breweries. The winners of the 1st annual DC Trucky Awards will also be announced that day.

And if you need a break from all that eating and drinking, you can check out some of the bands, outdoor games, Google and Art Whino lounges or the karaoke competition (might need some extra beers to muster up the courage to participate in that).

Tickets to DCF4 are offered in tiers: regular admission for $65, premium for $75 and general admission for $10 with the option to purchase beer and food a la carte. A portion of the proceeds from DCF4 will go to DC Central Kitchen. We’re giving away 5 pairs of general admission tickets, thanks to Wonky Promotions, which will get you:

  • access to the site, entertainment and activities,
  • samples from sponsors, including Honest Tea, IZZE, KIND Healthy Snacks and a special tasting from City Eats and chef Teddy Folkman of Granville Moore’s, and
  • the opportunity to purchase food and drinks a-la-carte from food trucks and breweries.

Here’s how the giveaway works:

For a chance to win tickets, leave a comment on this post using a valid e-mail address between 9 AM and 3 PM today. One entry per e-mail address. We’ll close the comments section at 3 PM and five winners will be randomly selected and notified by e-mail. If you’re chosen as a winner, you must respond to the e-mail within 24 hours or you will forfeit the tickets and we’ll select another winner. The winners will be able to pick up the tickets under their name at will call at the Funky Fresh Foodie Fest.

Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Linkin Park @ Jiffy Lube Live, 8/11/12

Admittedly, it had been awhile since I’ve listened to Linkin Park. I definitely liked their older stuff from the albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora but the last time I’d heard their music was on A Thousand Suns and it was…different. And not what I expected.

But I’m always up for photographing a show and when the opportunity came to shoot Linkin Park on the first night of their tour for their new album Living Things this past Saturday at Jiffy Lube Live I thought I’d give them a chance.

MUTEMATH was the opening band, a band that I had known nothing about. Frontman Paul Meany was excellent and I found myself tapping my foot to the beat of their music while snapping photos. A mix of jazz, rock, blues and electronic music they displayed excellent musicianship during their hour-long set. Meany was definitely the highlight of the set as he bounced back and forth between a piano and electronic keyboard between songs. However, their songs started to sound the same after awhile, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that they were a great band to open up the night.

MUTEMATH

During the break before Linkin Park took the stage, I took a look around Jiffy Lube Live and the place was pretty packed. Apparently it wasn’t sold out but I don’t see how that was true, seeing as the general admission area behind me was packed with people pressing up against the barricade and I couldn’t see any vacant spots in the seating area. There was definitely a buzz amongst the crowd and several times there were “Link-in Park, Link-in Park” chants.

Finally after a bit of a delay, they came out on stage to the theme song from “Game of Thrones” to a huge ovation and launched into the hip-hop inspired “With You,” off their first album Hybrid Theory. To me, it’s always a good sign when the crowd sings along with the chorus to one of the first songs of the night and that’s exactly what went down here. As a matter of fact, it seems like the crowd sang along for a lot of the night.

Shinoda

“Faint” was the next song and the crowd roared again during the familiar opening. I could hear several people just beyond the barricade trying to keep up with Mike Shinoda’s high speed rap. But for the night, nothing was as thrilling as seeing Chester Bennington lean over the stage and scream into the mic, a long howl which seemingly lasted forever. Getting to snap photos at a rapid pace of that moment was awesome. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Features
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We Love Food: BLT Steak


Courtesy of ThreeLockharts PR

Talk to people who’ve been around this town for a while and you’ll discover that DC used to be a bit of a one-trick pony in the food scene. We had steakhouses. Meat and potatoes was what we did. And though the city’s culinary scene has advanced by leaps and bounds, every now and then it’s nice to go back to those beginnings. And frankly, sometimes you just want a perfectly cooked, big, honkin’ steak. Enter BLT Steak.

The steakhouse down by the White House, which opened its doors in 2006, ushered in a new chef this past spring with the departure of Victor Albisu and the arrival of Jon Mathieson. Though French cuisine might not be the first thing that pops into your head when you think “steakhouse” (unless we’re talking about steak frites), Mathieson has been putting his classic French-training to work on the new menu at BLT. And it suits the restaurant well.
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The Features
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Kickstart DC: Homicide Watch and Bloop

Kickstarter’s a wonderful platform. I love the feeling of finding a good project that helps my community, through art or through service or through just building something amazing. There are two projects that caught my eye this that have DC roots and need your help. First up is Homicide Watch, which is raising $40,000 to build a one-year student reporting lab. 

The work that Chris and Laura Amico have done with Homicide Watch have been nothing short of astounding – and when you think about the void that they’re filling, it’s hard not to get emotional about. The crime reporting that they’re doing at Homicide Watch isn’t something that the local outlets are capable of doing. The service that they are doing is worth your support, and their program to train a whole new generation of crime reporters is a worthy effort. For more, read up on Alex Howard’s profile of Chris Laura.

Backer rewards include digital ebooks of their Year in Review, sponsorship opportunities on the site, lunch with founder Laura Amico, or a guest lecture/teaching spot for their team in your environment.

Homicide Watch has raised $1,920 of $40,000 in the campaign so far.

The second project is a comic book project by local cartoonist Steve Conley. Conley’s resume is fairly impressive, with an Eagle Award, and nominations for the Eisner and Harvey awards. His work in the late 1990s on Astounding Space Thrills is some of the most iconic comic art I’ve seen.

When I talked with Steve today about going the Kickstarter route, his goal is simple: find a receptive audience: “Independent comics creators used to be able to get pre-orders through distributors but as the comics market shrunk and distribution got worse, it became tougher and tougher to determine if a project was worth bringing to market.”

Conley’s modest fundraising goal will cover production of the first run of Bloop in hardcover format instead of its online environment and move to quality paper editions,

Backer rewards include original art from Conley, hardcover copies of Bloop volume one with 100# satin paper, case-bound with foil stamp and a color dust jacket, as well as hilarious retro-futuristic posters from the milieu of the series.

Conley has raised $1,440 of $3,000 in the campaign so far.

Want to tell us about your kickstarter? Submit a tip and reference Kickstart DC!

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Zombies @ The Howard Theatre — 8/9/12 (or “The Zombies, Yes; Apocalypse, No”)

Photo courtesy of Marga M.
Rod Argent
courtesy of Marga M.

When your admirers include Paul Weller, Dave Grohl and The Vaccines, you probably are doing something right.

And so The Zombies unquestionably got something right, capturing lightning in a bottle in their timeless classic “Time of the Season,” off their most famous album, Odessey and Oracle, in 1968 right as they disbanded. The album endured, however, and the band eventually returned to stay with the new century in a lineup that is touring on a new album with a stop at The Howard Theater in DC last Thursday.

The new lineup consists of the core hitmakers Rod Argent on keyboards and Colin Blunstone on lead vocals. The duo were augmented by capable veteran musicians Jim Rodford on bass (well known for his work with The Kinks), his son Steve Rodford on drums, and Tom Toomey on guitar.

In concert, The Zombies of course jammed through a powered up version of their best-known hit “Time of the Season,” which spotlighted Argent’s talent on the keyboards as he took them on a symphonic roller coaster ride in the middle of the song. The band later closed with their other best-known song, “She’s Not There,” a quickly paced rocker’s lament of misplaced love.

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