not such a happy family anymore?

Fresh off the presses today, it seems that a number of employees now at Time Warner/AOL can shorten that to just “AOL”. The board of directors authorized the divestiture of AOL from the company and, as expected for many months (if not years), AOL is left to fend for itself. As a friend of a number of AOL employees, both past and present, I’m sure there’s even more speculation as to what’s going to happen to one of NoVa’s largest employers.

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Last night’s US premiere of musician and composer, Yann Tiersen, marked the opening of the season of events hosted by the ‘La Maison Française‘ (or “The French House“) Franco-American cultural exchange at the French Embassy. They are scheduling event’s throughout the summer and vary their selections from music (jazz, folk, classical, and rock) to other performances (cabaret, opera, theater) and are held in a very intimate setting on the grounds. If the actual quality of the performance isn’t enough, remember, this is France, and a complimentary wine tasting ensued after the performance (I only wished for cheese and bread to follow!).

The staff servicing the event, including the cultural attache, were very enthusiastic about the performances and getting feedback on every aspect. It was a pleasure to share their excitement for the work (even if the “avant garde” nature of the performance saw a few early exits of patrons). Considering prices being paid for concerts this year (including those $250 U2 tickets), paying $25 for a seat is more than reasonable and the hospitality extended by the embassy was amazing.

For upcoming events, visit their website (Note: you may have to “click around” as the calendar feature is not working at the moment)… and enjoy.

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So you ask, “snails?”, what is the most joked about cuisine when you’re trying to gross-out friends doing as a willing entry here rather than on a dare. I have to honestly admit, if it weren’t for my wife, there would be a lot of things, cuisine-wise, I’d never have tried, and snails (not to be confused with their brethren, “escargot”) would not have been the highest on my list. But, figuring this is a top notch establishment, and an unlimited supply of good beer to wash everything down, I said “what the heck!”. For goodness sake, the meal and establishment share most of name (Gastropod vs. Gastropub).

First off, the presentation is what truly counts. Much in the same way you’d want calamari to come out breaded, Beck’s snails come out on a round crostini, slathered in a rich burgundy flavored sauce. They have the appearance of an exotic mushroom in the sauce… until you snag one on your fork. It doesn’t jiggle or slip as your mind would want to transpose, but rather it does have that unmistakable outline of something evicted from it’s spiraled calcium carbonate home.

‘Brasserie Beck’
courtesy of ‘webjedi’

Down the hatch it went… and there wasn’t the gag reflex your brain wanted to use, in fact it was rather tasty. The pairing with the crostini added a perfect rough, but airy, texture to accompany the eye fixating snails. The burgundy sauce, however remained the main distraction, as it was too strong and overwhelmed the entire dish, with the reduction of the wine giving it a sour-sweet spin. However, due to this turning out to be a different experience from what I was squeamishly expecting, I’d actually try them again. If you have to whet your appetite between shifts of forking the rest of your fine food on to your, now, highly tuned and subjective palate, my recommendation is to accompany it with an order of Beck’s Belgian frites which come with (insert your Pulp Fiction joke here) three different types of mayonaise. While, in my honest opinion, The Brewers Art in Baltimore has the best frites in the DC Metro area, these come in a close second.

‘Brasserie Beck’
courtesy of ‘webjedi’

Now, for Brasserie Beck itself, the atmosphere had you thinking you were in a train station. Voluminously high ceilings and ever pervasive (non-working) clocks hung on the walls. The service was excellent, with each waiter patiently explaining the menu and offering up his or her help with recommending a series of items on the menu that best fit your mood or palate. While I did not monopolize the beer sommelier, or cicerone, like our neighbors, the defensive line of the Pittsburgh Penguins (who were in town to spank the Capitals the next day), I still did enjoy their selections. If you don’t feel like going in for a full three to four course meal (of which their desserts are also fabulous), Beck is still a place, and was designed to be the place, to experience great Belgian and European beers. While Bill Catron recently exited his post as cicerone, general manager Thor Cheston has taken his place for the time being, still providing that excellent line up.

Brasserie Beck
1101 K Street, NW, Washington DC, DC 20005

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The Washington Post’s employment website just launched a new feature to help those recently displaced from gainful employment with a feature “How to Survive a Layoff“. I’ve personally been reading this feature due to my recent separation from my employer. It’s a handy To-Do style list of things folks should take into account once they’ve found themselves missing the daily enriching (in both definitions of the term) routine of going to work. The chief one, and one that I had to use every day due to my job as an computer incident response professional was “Don’t Panic!”. But the other useful proverb is also “use your network”.

With today’s in-vogue methods of being hi-tech fired, let alone laid-off, maybe via Twitter or Facebook posts, or even blogging, those same resources, along with the likes of LinkedIn and other resources really can also help you get back on your feet. Short of drowning your sorrows with a drink with friends commiserating the demise of your paycheck, it also a way to find out if they know of anybody who knows of anybody who’s hiring (it’s like a shampoo comercial gone wild!) [ed. - the title has nothing to do with the great comedian Costaki Economopoulos, it's just coincidence - check him out]

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Okay, I know it’s apocryphal for us to be linking to another blog <cough>BoingBoing</cough>, but while the video is cool and somewhat local (we had a shot of our own Wilson Bridge), I wonder if our tax dollars, besides going to the banks, insurance companies, and other misanthropes in another metro area <cough>New York</cough>, are now funding somebody’s quick fingers with Final Cut Pro? While I’m glad to see the Dulles Metro extension finally get moving (2013 to ride to Herndon), was this a real “shovel ready” project Tim Kaine approved? (The opera, however, is a nice touch… I think it was inserted for the NoVA constituents)

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Well folks, it seems, much like the application of parking rates, D.C.’s leadership have painted with a large brush in order to solve a detailed problem. On February 9th, the D.C. Council enacted, at the behest of of several ANC members, a ban on the sale of single bottles of beer in several wards in D.C.. The Washington City Paper has an excellent write up on the issue. The local beer aficionado and brewers list (which includes many of the brewers for local brew pubs in the area, local breweries and others), DC-Beer, has lit up discussing the issue. 

In short, to paraphrase the City Paper, too many people in certain areas of the city have been pissing in the wrong people’s yards after a night of drinking and revelry. So far Ward 2 (Georgetown) and 6 (Capitol Hill) are directly affected (can anybody say “staffers”) but has the unintended affect on those who drink beer for taste rather than rote consumption. A number of specialty stores (or those who actually stock something other than the corn-fed varieties, such as Budweiser) are left shipping their stock to the basement to avoid penalties while trying to get responses back from unresponsive commissioners and councilmen. I ask, dear readers, have you been affected by this issue, or have an opinion?

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The brew-ha-ha from last weeks parking meter hike around the city, and how it affected various commuters, visitors and others has taken an odd turn after some research and interviewing. In the apparent rush to receive those funds from the increased rate, it seems the D.C. DPW (whose responsibility it is to maintain them) were sloppily quick… either not being uniform in their application, or just wanting to make it interesting for those who choose to park downtown.

The meters originally under contention last week, actually play 3 different rates to parkers. One, the old rate ($1.50 for 8+ hours), two the projected 50% bump ($1.50 to $2.00 for 8 hours), or the crazy $0.25 for seven (7) minutes. I ask you, dear readership, and those who are regular street parking folks, have you come across similar issues? With the meters under three (yes three) different agencies to maintain, enforce and adjudicate, who’s going to be at the other end of that e-mail or phone call to hear you complain about the issue. Several of my parking buddies on two wheels have either moved to new locations (not yet changed), found a garage that will accept them, or stopped coming in via their former mode of transportation. One gentleman is still awaiting an e-mail back from Mayor Fenty’s office. I doubt this makes good policy, let alone much sense to the community.

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Did you hear me Mr. Fenty and Ms. Babers? D.C.’s quest to now emulate Chicago with the new administration has reached new lows. As the Democrats and Obama administration have been touting friendliness to green technologies, smart transportation alternatives, and conservation, the city they now hold a majority in,  took a TWELVEFOLD step backwards. I had created the D.C. Motorcycle parking map of the Metro region to help those folks on two wheels track down ever vanishing spots (one set is in center court in the Verizon Center… how convenient), and since most garages do not allow motorcycles in, it’s necessary. Over this past weekend, the D.C. Parking Authority (aka, the D.C. DMV) cranked up the rates without warning for the motorcycle spots to be commensurate with the rates for cars (or even more so), from 12 hour meters which were 25 cents for an hour and 24 minutes, to now 7 minutes per quarter… a loss of 77 minutes 92% of your parking value… WTF?! It shocked most folks parking on the G Street meters (which until the beginning of last year were free) on the west side of the Old Executive Office Building so much, that today, EVERY bike has decided not to pay. Seriously D.C., are you trying to discourage smart commuting?

Motorcycles are more space efficient, fuel efficient, and in the hands of a trained rider, actually safer than cars. While space is at a premium, D.C. has discouraged these alternatives by not replacing those spaces lost around the city (including those sacrificed for security, such as the World Bank). They don’t cite those, who, on four wheels, blatantly break the law by parking over multiple motorcycle spots when available, or park in the same spots motorcycles occupy in regular spots in order to get a free ride and play Russian roulette with parking tickets. Has anybody else gotten sticker shock over D.C.’s idiocies regarding parking and revenue?

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Breakin' Beats Breakin' the Club

D.C. begins it’s musical revelry for the Inauguration of Barack Obama on Sunday with both concerts for the masses but also in smaller venues. Tonight, or this morning if you take it that way, Moby is now on stage at the 9:30 Club with a sold out show expected to end at 4:30am this morning. This is the first such event at the club to push past the normal D.C. curfew for alcohol and noise. If you can still get a ticket, it’s one of the most intimate and loose events of the next two days of celebration.

At approximately 1:32am, Moby “broke” the club. The entire club’s power supply tripped and sent revelers into a chant of “yes we can” as attempts to restore the life back to the club continued. At least the bar servers were still able to dispense alcohol in the bottle format to keep the “mob”-y at bay.

At 1:45, Moby improvised with a fifty gallon drum, and started with some street beats, awaiting for the entire block power outage to be restored. It was later supplemented with an empty beer keg and plastic trash can.. The first ever “Moby – Unplugged”… Quite a feat if your a D.J..

2:25, no updates from Pepco, which according to their outage maps, has affected 750 customers in three D.C. zip codes. We’re expecting the club to cancel the show, but the promised update from club management has not been presented to the rapidly dwindling crowd, stumbling in darkness to retrieve their friends and outerwear from a darkened coat check.

At 2:45, even after the club announced a reschedule, Moby returned to the stage as power was restored only moments earlier… The worn down, albeit less, revelers returned to a wide open dance floor reinvigorated. A truly professional result for all those involved, as the beats went on. The most telling moment of that was the club’s stage manager on his phone in the alley simply exhaling to the driver at the other end..”bring him back”.. and so the night went on to oblivion.

(NOTE: As of this update, it’s still unsure if Moby will be rescheduled for another date, as many left dejected and impatient before the announcement and the power restoration, so hold on to those stubs and check 930.com and Moby.com for an update soon. But braving the cold and the hour of the day, the remaining concertgoers could best be described as hard-core.)

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Spiderman Obama issue from Marvel

It was announced last week, and for industry insiders, it may have been a bit longer, that Marvel Comics, purveyors of The Hulk, Fantastic Four, and “Geek-in-Chief” Barack Obama’s favorite, Spiderman were issuing a special edition of the latter for the inauguration. This 5-page story was to center around an impostor taking the oath of office this coming Tuesday and Peter Parker, while covering it for the Daily Bugle, helped Spiderman save the day and democracy as a whole. However, unless you’re a subscriber at a local comic book store, you may be out of luck to catch a first printing in D.C.. Fantom Comics in Union Station and Tenleytown were somewhat caught unawares and only had acquired 9 copies total to split between the two stores. However, there is a second printing, albeit with a different cover, coming this Wednesday the 21st.

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Well, it’s that time of year. As you begin your thoughts of turkey and travel, good ole Mother Nature reminds you that it’s approaching the winter months by teasing you with some colder temps and some welcome (at least in the D.C. area) precipitation. While I spotted some flakes in Rockville yesterday, the first official forecast for snow for the 2008-2009 winter is for this evening.

No, this doesn’t mean you’re to run to the grocery store and irrationally gather milk and bread (why not flour and yeast and make it interesting?). But expect the IQ of your average Metro-area driver to fall faster than the President’s approval ratings. So if you find yourself in freezing precipitation at all, day or night, slow it down, think, and don’t forget to make sure you use your headlights and have new wipers on your car.

For parents, make sure you start planning your early release plans with your significant other, no need to loose your top or mind over what to do when it happens. And of course, for the times when this weather creeps in overnight and plans to deliver more than a dusting (or misting), bookmark those URLs for the open and closing status of schools and work (for most, the Office of Personnel Management is a good start)

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Virginia Tech Logo

[UPDATE] 3:00pm EST

From VT.edu : NO THREAT – Pritchard Hall has been reopened. Police have concluded their search and found no evidence of gunfire. Further details on Virginia Tech News website.

[UPDATE] 2:56pm EST

An e-mail sent from VT Alerts to students stated that, “During the course of the investigation, eyewitnesses reported seeing people, possibly students exploding firecrackers or something else in or near a dumpster near Pritchard.  Police have found no evidence of gunfire from within or outside the building and believe the noises likely came from something other than gunfire.” 

[Original Post]

Virginia Tech’s current web page notes that Pritchard Hall (student dormitory) is on lockdown after shots are supposedly heard around 1pm EST. Virginia Tech spokeswoman says police are searching room by room; currently unknown if there were injuries. No access in or out of the dorm.

CollegiateTimes.com currently has a live blogger covering the events,  WTOP has similar details. AP reports that the sounds may be from a nearby construction site, the campus police are still investigating. We’ll update you as more becomes available.

WSET-TV Reports: “An alert on the university’s website says police are conducting a room by room search in Pritchard Hall on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. “Police have walked the halls and report NO residual smell of gunpowder.”

News Service Release  from Virginia Tech (link from Lynchburg News Advance)

MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: November 13, 2008

Virginia Tech police and Blacksburg police have sent out a campus alert about gunshot sounds being reported in Pritchard Hall, a residence hall.

The building was locked down after two people reported hearing what sounded like gunfire at about 1 p.m. An e-mail alert was sent at 1:40 to the campus community.

Police are searching the building. There has been no confirmation of a shooting.

The residence hall is directly across the street from a construction site, which could be the source of the sounds.

Pritchard Hall, a residence hall that opened in 1967 in the Prairie Community along Washington Street, is home to 1,000 residents and is billed as the largest all-male dorm on the East Coast.

The e-mail alert sent to students at 1:40 said: “Police are investigating reported sounds of gunshots in Pritchard Hall. Building is secured. No access in or out. Police searching room by room.”

————-

(an e-mail received from our own Tom Bridge from Virginia Tech)

From: VT Alerts <alerts@vt.edu>

Date: November 13, 2008 2:21:24 PM EST
To: Multiple recipients <LISTSERV@LISTSERV.VT.EDU>
Subject: Pritchard Hall Update

Police now believe that sounds from Pritchard were NOT gunfire. Investigation still ongoing.
Police have interviewed witnesses who saw and heard people, possibly students, exploding something outside Pritchard Hall.         

At about 12:50 p.m. Thursday VTPD received a report of sounds like gunfire in the vicinity of Pritchard Hall.  Police immediately secured the building and began a floor by floor and room by room search.  During the course of the investigation , eyewitnesses reported seeing people, possibly students exploding firecrackers or something else in or near a dumpster near Pritchard.  Police have found no evidence of gunfire from within or outside the building and believe the noises likely came from something other than gunfire.

- end of message -

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I’m not one to eat and tell, but I guess that “celeb-spotting” in DC is not reserved to strictly politico types. I know Paulo caught the enigmatic Lindsay Lohan on a golf cart to Union Station. I on the other hand, a consumer of all news and an anglophile at heart, caught our local BBC World News America anchor, Matt Frei, pondering his overwhelming options of bentō boxes and small sushi trays at Nooshi on 19th street.

It’s odd that while, say an ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or Fox newsperson (local or national) could cause a minor stir if snagged in public, rather than having an intern doing their bidding. Our friends from “across the pond” can steal away from their anchor desks and fetch their own eats without a mere notice by the regular populace in D.C. (I did congratulate him and his team on the awesome coverage of the campaign this year). Now if I could only catch the cast of Top Gear at the nearby Chipotle, my year would be truly made. Mr. Clarkson and his crew are my unabashed “free speech” heroes at this moment in time, PC or not!

Who’s the oddest or “most famous” celebrity spotted by our readers in D.C. recently?

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Hey travelers, if you’re rushing out to IAD, BWI, or DCA… slow down. There’s a ground hold for take-offs since the FAA’s flight-plan system is now down, in epic fashion. Some airlines and airplanes are being let out on IFR, instrument flight rules, however, instead of backing up the lounges at the airport, check with your airline before leaving your house or other departure point before you head out. Also, web bonus, if you want to listen to Dulles’ (IAD) tower, click here.

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Last night saw the opening of the new Chinese embassy (or the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China) in the Van Ness diplomatic compound. Designed by two sons of I.M. Pei (who’s known for the Louvre and our own east wing of National Gallery of Art), it takes up a heady southwest corner area of that plot of land. It’s now well out of public view, as was not the case with their old digs on Connecticut Avenue just north of the Dupont Circle area and south of Woodley Park. That embassy had been the target of vocal and not-so-vocal protests from human rights activists to Falun Gong supporters nearly every weekend.

I regularly zipped by on my motorcycle or walked by it while crossing the bridge heading north. The construction hasn’t been without controversy, as the Chinese government had flown in it’s own workers for the two year construction project, angering a number of labor unions and construction trades. My biggest wonder, is what will happen to the old embassy, will they implode it to hide secrets, allow curiosity seekers to prowl over it’s mysterious bowls, or let it lie fallow like a number of other vacated embassies around town. Too bad the housewarming party wasn’t open to everybody.

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As reported on several news outlets, due to a $2 milion dollar shortfall, the D.C. Public Library system will be shuttering it’s doors on Fridays and will be possibly closing some kiosk branches city-wide. This is due to a projected shortfall in the 2009 budget for staff. The budget cycle begins in October, so these closings will begin around that time. This will also come at the beginning of the school year, putting teachers and students in a bind for other research materials. While libraries in the computer-age may be a loss-leader for city budgets, it’s also needed resource in cities that have a significant poor and working-poor population.

As Internet use has zoomed in the suburbs around the country, large cities cannot afford to cut off places where others who don’t have that luxury can take advantage of the technology. The idea to cut services in the underserved areas of the city is doing more harm than good, as cutting hours in areas that are at least served to standards (and perhaps overserved) could possibly help balance the issues. I think the decision may be cutting of the nose to spite the face in this respect. I figured with the supposedly smart folks running the city, they’d possibly understand simple things like equillibrium versus the easy pickings… plus, it’s not like you can send people over to the LOC as a backup plan.

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My first exposure to Washington D.C. was in 1982 as a side stop on our family’s trip down to see the World’s Fair in Knoxville, TN. On that trip we did the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the National Zoo in D.C.. I remember vaguely, the trees being more plentiful and taller, however I’m also a yard taller now, and they seem now, just a bit shorter. I’m still surprised I remember something from over 26 years ago, but D.C. had that kind of effect.

In 1992, I found myself a willing suburbanite as my dad moved from Cincinnati, OH to take a job in D.C., which, unbeknownst to me, started my 16 year off-and-on love affair with the Nation’s Capital. During my lifetime, I’ve been to the 48 contiguous states (Alaska and Hawaii elude me), lived in 1/6th of them, and now find that the D.C. Metro area has been my home for almost half my life. I returned back to D.C. from L.A. in 2001 after I felt I missed the seasonality of the area… something you’ll miss if you live in something as vacuous as Los Angeles. My friends are here, there’s a number of things to take in, culturally as well as, in the case of the main reason for this town, politically. It’s what makes this place more diverse than anywhere in America.

If it weren’t for D.C.’s musical institution, the 9:30 Club, I doubt I would have become a fan of live music… and it’s spawned The Black Cat, the Rock ‘n Roll Hotel and many others… in the musical traditions of the old jazz clubs of U Street. Since then, I’ve racked up probably over 100 shows around town and met some really amazing residents and visitors to our fair city. While standing and photographing shows, I’ve met students, NASA engineers, other photographers, writers, politicos, actors, and just regular people… and that was just one show!

I love D.C.’s accessibility, even though we love to whine about the traffic, Metro, parking, Metro, crazy cyclists in Rock Creek, Metro, and many others. D.C.’s plethora of museums and activities on The National Mall are one of a kind treasures… where else could you meet Tom Wolfe, David McCullough, E.L. Doctrow, and Neil Gaiman all in the same day? If you’re not in the mood for the modernism exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, wait a week and you get some classic van Gogh.

Being a fan of food and beer, D.C. far outpaces any city in America for it’s variety. This area has some of the most talented brewers in the U.S., including Barrett Lauer at the District Chophouse, and brewer emeritus, Bill Madden at Vintage 50… and it’s only getting better. Due to the finicky palates of the residents and transients (you know, those summer interns and two, four, and six year termed folks), we get, thankfully, regular turnover of our food choices… too numerous to name.

There are few better places in the U.S. that have as much character and opportunities as our D.C. Metro / National Capital region has to offer, and I’m thankful to be a part of it. Thanks for stopping by and keep reading!

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Apart from seeing a businessman borrowing his daughter’s Winnie the Pooh backpack today on the Metro, I’m not sure how many of us could publicly regress back into childhood at a moments notice. So it did warm my heart this morning when my inner child was revealed to me in a sign for the “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” which will open July 12th at the Smithsonian’s International Gallery. Given the description of the program, I’m hoping it will be better than the last lackluster 5-6 item exhibit last trotted out to fans a few years ago. It is an amalgamation from the “Jim Henson Legacy” exhibit as well as the Smithsonian’s traveling “show”, which should be the best of both worlds.

For those of you who are more transient residents to D.C., or visitors stopping in to say a hearty “hello” to the National Capital region, the global phenomenon known as The Muppets was started here at the University of Maryland through Henson’s first show, “Sam and Friends”, broadcast on WRC-TV in D.C. starting in 1954. Who knew Kermit was that old, right?! Besides the Muppet characters, Henson was an experimental filmmaker, collaborating with composer and electronic music pioneer, Raymond Scott (Henry Warnow) on several films. If you can’t get enough of Henson at this exhibit, swing by UMD for the bronze statue and garden or visit the library there for more collections (the online version is also a treasure trove).

Jim Henson Memorial

Originally uploaded by zhurnaly

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

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