Category Archives: The Daily Feed

Special Events, The Daily Feed, We Love Arts
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Shakespeare free-for-all adds online ticketing

Images courtesy the Shakespeare Theater Company

Images courtesy of the Shakespeare Theater Company

Shakespeare Theater Company’s annual free production is adding an online lottery for tickets this year. Or more accurately – and perhaps unfortunately – almost completely replacing the in-person pursuit of tickets. That’s a big winner for everyone who gets to enter the online lottery rather than wait in record-setting temperatures, but maybe not the most accessible to the area’s disadvantaged.

Perhaps that’s a non-issue; I don’t have any statistics on who goes to free-for-all and it might be that the less internet-soaked among us are mostly served by the STC’s excellent Students for Shakespeare program. Anyone else can still line up thirty minutes before the show to pick up unclaimed will-call seats, a number that I suspect will be larger than it was when folks had to stand outside and sweat for their spot.

The rest of us can go to the lottery page anytime between midnight and 1pm before the next showing (or the prior day for matinees) and enter for our shot. Winning gets you 2 tickets which you need to grab at least a half hour before showtime.

I highly encourage you to go – I really enjoyed this production during the regular season and expect this re-staging to be equally good.

The Daily Feed
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Why You Can’t Miss Tonight’s Nats Game 8/10/10


Photo by Ian Koski / Nationals Daily News

The Washington Nationals have never done much to acknowledge their baseball heritage. Those who deem themselves the “Locals Only” group perish and cringe at the thought of associating themselves with the Montreal Expos. Others, more notably known as District transplants, appease the “Locals Only” folks by stating it would be a shame to not honor the days of baseball’s past.

Both sides are right in their own respects because there is no wrong answer here. Baseball is supposed to be fun. It’s not supposed to cause a fuss or commotion among a new and growing fan base. The Expos are the past, the Nationals are the future, and it’s time to coexist in a place within the baseball space-time continuum where everyone involved shows signs of mutual respect for each other.

With that said, I would strongly recommend attending tonight’s Nationals home game against the Florida Marlins. Why? The Nationals are taking a step toward remembering those who came before them in their franchise by unveiling the Hall of Fame Ring of Honor above the Lexus President’s Club seats. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Penn State Football Comes to Town: Will Obama Honor Joe Paterno With Medal of Freedom?

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_0126’
courtesy of ‘enviziondotnet’

There are a lot of Penn State alums down here in the D.C. region. A lot. According to Pat Dunne from the DC Metro Washington Chapter, Penn State Alumni Association, the chapter is the among the top two most active Penn State alumni bases in the country with close to 1,000 active members. It’s incredibly likely that the bulk of supporters are one of the reasons that the Nittany Lions will face off with the Indiana Hoosiers in a late fall football game at FedEx Field come this November, pleasing many fans, for sure.

In addition to the thousands of alums scattered across D.C., Virginia and Maryland, there also seems to be a few fans up inside the Capitol. A Pennsylvania congressman, Glenn Thompson, has recommended to President Obama that he should recognize legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno with the highest citizen honor: a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rep. Thompson, along with 17 other co-signers, want to see Paterno recognized for his commitment to both sportsmanship and the campus of Penn State. Not surprisingly, Thompson is a Penn State alum himself, and he represents Pennsylvania’s fifth district, which includes State College within its boundaries.

Paterno is the all-time leader in wins as a Division 1 football head coach, earning 394 victories in his 45 years as head coach. This would not be without precedent: two of the other most respected coaches in the history of college sports, John Wooden and Bear Bryant, have also received the medal.

The Daily Feed
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Stock Up on Booze on the Cheap

Photo courtesy of
‘Bottle Necks’
courtesy of ‘christaki’
Spezie, the downtown Italian spot that closed earlier this year, obviously didn’t have too many waiters with sticky fingers. I’ve always wondered what happens to all the leftovers when a restaurant closes down, and in this case, I guess they go to auction. All their wines are for sale by online auction right now, and there are deals to be had. I spotted bottles of 2006 Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon for $20, and even some bottles for less than $.50. That’s even better than Trader Joe’s prices. Check in early and often, bidding ends on August 23rd.

The Daily Feed
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Parking Ticket from Hell, Anyone?

Photo courtesy of
‘Only in DC’
courtesy of ‘thetejon’

Last winter, I got in the mail a love letter from DC Division of Motor Vehicles. It said that because I hadn’t paid a parking ticket, the fine had automatically doubled and I owed them $50.

This was news to me for two reasons. One, my parking was paid up for an hour past the time they say they wrote the ticket, and I still have the receipt to prove it. Two, they hadn’t left me a ticket.

So I sent Adjudication this pertinent info, and the receipt, and asked that they write me when they dropped the matter. I know they got it, because they quickly sent me a form letter saying they’d review it and respond, maybe up to six months later (they must be very busy over there).

That was all I heard. Until this week’s letter, which says that I did not respond at all, thereby deeming admission of the crime, and that if I don’t fork over the money within 10 days, they’ll send me to collections.

SERIOUSLY, people?!??

I can’t tell if this is a scam, or if they’re just that screwed up. Readers, what do you think? Are they crooked, or inept? And has this happened to you?

News, Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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NTSB v WMATA in Board on Board Battle

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Yesterday, for the first time in recent memory, the NTSB took a field trip. Their board joined Metro’s board at the auditorium yesterday for the WMATA board meeting yesterday. During that meeting, Metro made a couple of public statements, one from its interim GM Richard Sarles, and one from Board Chair Peter Benjamin, on the subject of the accident review and the progress that WMATA has made since then. Of course, Metro isn’t just silently accepting the conclusions of the NTSB, and yesterday’s board meeting had at times what appeared to be Sharks vs. Jets moments as WMATA faced off with NTSB over the recommendation. The Post has a good accounting of the meeting, but it doesn’t seem to cover any interaction between NTSB and WMATA.

Somehow, it seems, though, that several of the WMATA Board members hadn’t seen the animation of the accident until yesterday, which is mind-boggling to me. Did they also just get the findings yesterday? I recognize that the WMATA Board is not one with full-time members who only do oversight and nothing else, but it seems to me that they should’ve seen that the day of the hearings, no?

Regardless of acceptance of blame, WMATA’s board needs to show a dedication to safety both for its riders and its staff, that just doesn’t seem to be there right now. While WMATA is taking steps in the right direction, they don’t seem to be organized around the issue. A hotline is a good start. Clearing the wayside is a good start. But bellying the 1000-series cars without doing any kind of testing? That’s just reactionary.

The Daily Feed
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Yay/boo: Smithsonian reaches out, still bans photos of the flag

Photo courtesy of
‘Old Glory’
courtesy of ‘Tyrannous’

Ahh, the Star-Spangled Banner. It symbolizes a great many things about our country and our city: freedom, war, resurrection, preservation, complicated photography policies …

Often the subject of discussion among the DC photo rights crowd, the Smithsonian’s ban on photos of the Star-Spangled Banner was put in place in 2008 after the renovation of the American History Museum. The flag got a shiny new home and display case, and tourists got a shiny new rule. The Smithsonian is a generally photo-friendly place, so when it does break out the ban-hammer without explaining why, speculation can run rampant. (Among the crazier theories: the renovation was expensive, and the need to sell postcards so great, that they couldn’t let people create their own memories, not when there were trinkets to sell!) Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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White House Crashers Cause Another Party Foul

Photo courtesy of
‘wine and trash tv’
courtesy of ‘staceyviera’

While all of the Real Housewives of D.C. were celebrating their Bravo premiere last Thursday, Michaele Salahi once again found herself amongst scandal.  According to the New York Post, “White House gatecrashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi were served with court papers for a $15,000 debt while they partied away at a nightclub last week”.

The PR firm, Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications, are asking the Salahis to appear in court over unpaid dues for promoting their America’s Polo Cup charity event in 2008.

I wonder if this is any sign for how the ratings are going to be for the rest of the Real Housewives of D.C. season – a hot mess.

The Daily Feed
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Ryan Zimmerman’s “A Night at the Park” in Photos


Pictured: The Zimmerman family (Ryan , Cheryl, Keith, and Shawn).

Nationals Park played host to Ryan Zimmerman’s “A Night at the Park” on Monday to raise money for the the ziMS Foundation. The ziMS Foundation, which was started by  Zimmerman to benefit multiple sclerosis research, was inspried by his mother Cheryl who was diagnosed with the disease in 1995. The entire Zimmerman family including Ryan’s mother, his father Keith, and brother Shawn were in attendance for a night of live music from Mutlu and Amos Lee, magic from David Blaine, and both live and silent auctions.

Click here for the full story.

For now, here’s the night in pictures: Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Happy Shark Week Easter Egg!

Photo courtesy of
‘Happy Shark Week 2010!’
courtesy of ‘~Daniel The Animal Lover Techie.TaiShan4Ever~’

Happy Shark Week, everyone! As a cute little Easter Egg, fire up ye olde Google Maps and head on over to 1 Discovery Place, Silver Spring MD. Now, if you have a modern web browser, click the Google Earth View button and you’ll be treated to my favorite Easter Egg in recent memory. Seriously, I think this is as good as the time people figured out the Konami Code worked on a bunch of cool websites.

News, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Just to clear up some confusion: The Michaels Brown

Okay folks, there’s been some confusion here in the last week as DC straw poll voters are having a tough time distinguishing between the Michaels Brown.  Yes, there’s more than one Michael Brown.  There’s Michael Arrington Brown (MAB), who is an At-Large Council Member for DC, and there’s Michael Donald Brown (MDB), who is the District’s sitting shadow senator who is running for an At-Large Council seat.

This afternoon, MDB’s opponent, Clark Ray, sent an email out to a number of local listserves with pictures of the candidates, just to make sure that people know that MDB isn’t MAB and to make sure to point out by proxy that one is black and seated on the council, and one is white and isn’t on the council.

The whole thing reminds me of a certain movie favored by Gen X’ers, and I think it would go a little like this:

Samir: No one in this country can ever pronounce my name right. It’s not that hard: Na-ghee-na-na-jar. Nagheenanajar.
Michael Brown: Yeah, well, at least your name isn’t Michael Brown.
Samir: You know, there’s nothing wrong with that name.
Michael Brown: There *was* nothing wrong with it… until I was about twelve years old and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning At-Large Council seats.
Samir: Hmm… well, why don’t you just go by Mike instead of Michael?
Michael Brown: No way! Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks.

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!
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ANC Mary Cuthbert describes challenger with racial epithet

YouTube Preview Image

We tweeted about this one early this morning, but it deserves mention here because advisory neighborhood commission (ANC) races aren’t covered in proportion to their importance to their immediate communities. Congress Heights on the Rise posted a video this morning of ANC Mary Cuthbert’s (8C03) argument with a challenger seeking signatures for his ballot petition, in which she refers to him as a “dumb nigger.” CHotR also includes examples of Cuthbert’s history of other misbehavior. (You can hear it at about 12 seconds in.)

In her role as part of ANC 8C, Cuthbert only represents about 2000 neighborhood residents, but since ANC commissioners are unpaid, volunteer positions, they frequently run unopposed. The small area they each represent means that individual commissioners often fly under the radars of the very residents whose interests they’re theoretically protecting, but they are elected officials just the same. This kind of behavior wouldn’t be tolerated from a City Council member, and there’s no reason to tolerate it from an ANC.

There are many fine ANCs out there who work in a thankless job. If yours is one of them, you should thank him or her. But if yours is not, you owe it to yourself and your neighbors to find out who the challengers are before Election Day. And have you considered running yourself?

The Daily Feed
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Chris Cooley and A Young Fan Prank Donovan McNabb

Donovan McNabb was traded to the Redskins earlier this year to bring some leadership and experience to help new head coach, Mike Shanahan, in his first campaign. As torn as it makes some fans who have come accustomed to looking down on the QB’s time with rival Philadelphia, it could help an offense that finished 26th out of 32 teams in production.

Of course, TE Chris Cooley stands a very good chance to have a productive season if he stays healthy, and McNabb would be a major factor in that. Regardless of how much the new quarterback could help him out, ever the joker, Cooley still took the time to welcome McNabb to training camp with a little hearty prank. CSN Washington was there to capture Cooley staging the gimmick: a young fan, ready to pop out of McNabb’s locker when he approached. Check out the video above via Shutdown Corner to enjoy McNabb’s reaction.

The Daily Feed
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This Week’s Events at Nationals Park

Photo courtesy of
‘Nationals vs Brewers – Nationals Park in All Her Glory – 04-17-10’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

Tuesday is the start of a six-game, two series homestand for the Washington Nationals against the Florida Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Besides the prospect of Stephen Strasburg* starting on Tuesday for the opener and Sunday for the closing match-up, the Nats are providing an added incentive to watch the District’s local team play ball. Here’s a look at the exciting events and promotions at the park this week so you can figure out what games you might want to catch:

Tuesday: 2010 Hall of Fame inductee Andre Dawson (of the Montreal Expos) will be in attendance and honored before the 7:05 game. Tickets are still available.

Thursday: The first 15,000 fans at Nats Park will receive a commemorative DVD featuring Stephen Strasburg’s Major League debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 8. Game starts at 7:05. Tickets are still available. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Cuba Libre To Open On September 17th

Photo courtesy of
‘Cuba Street Sign’
courtesy of ‘Khirol Amir’

The embargo is officially over: Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar will open its doors on September 17th in Penn Quarter. With outposts in Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Orlando, the restaurant’s Washington opening marks a highly anticipated (and oft-delayed) addition to the city’s dining scene.

The restaurant’s 200-seat dining room will evoke Havana’s 1950’s golden age, placing guests in what will feel like a tropical outdoor courtyard. While the design takes a page from the past, the cuisine is all nuevo Cubano. Think lunchtime Cuban Bento Boxes, shareable tasting plates and flights of (sustainable!) ceviche. The menu – developed specifically for DC by the chain’s Concept Chef Guillermo Pernot – will pay culinary homage to the island’s African, Creole, Asian and native Tainos influences. If you’re more focused on the “Rum Bar” portion of the restaurant’s name, never fear: as Jenn reported back in January, the restaurant is known for its 75 varieties of rum and countless other cocktails.

To celebrate the restaurant’s opening, Cuba Libre will be offering 50% off its dinner menu from September 17th through 23rd. From September 24th through 30th, you can still enjoy 25% discounts before full prices kick in on October 1st. It’s the restaurant’s way of thanking patrons for their patience as they work out the kinks and settle into their groove.

Cuba Libre is located at 801A 9th Street NW. Closest Metro stop: Gallery Place/Chinatown (Green, Yellow, Red lines). For more information, call (202) 408-1600.

The Daily Feed
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Obama Drafts a Dream Team for Pickup Hoops

Photo courtesy of
‘obama-basketball’
courtesy of ‘senorglory’

There are many perks with being the leader of the free world, especially around your birthday. With the Mrs. out of town, 44 chose to celebrate his 49th by hosting a pretty star-studded pickup basketball game held on behalf of wounded veterans and members of the White House mentoring program. President Obama was joined on court with several active and retired NBA stars, including Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Magic Johnson and LeBron James.

It is no surprise that Obama threw together such a headlining basketball game as he has often professed his fandom of hoops. Obama has made several appearances at the Verizon Center to catch a game (including just last week, when he took Sasha to see the Mystics), and he even did a little renovation to the White House upon moving in to make sure he had a place to practice his jump shot. As the Post noted, Obama installed a basketball court on the grounds where tennis courts had once been, and the President was hoping to host a star event once the court opened:

In June 2009, when the basketball court was being built, the president told Bloomberg News that he was itching for some professional competition. “As soon as we get the basketball nets up, we’re going to have some of these guys over for a game,” he said of pros such as James. Asked by Bloomberg whether he would be playing, Obama said: “Of course. It’s my court.”

With the wife – and congress – back in DC, Obama now returns to his scheduled executive and fatherly responsibilities. For one weekend, why can’t the guy have a little fun?

The Daily Feed
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Extras Needed for Transformers 3

Photo courtesy of
‘Transformers 3: Actors on set’
courtesy of ‘Martin Dougiamas’

Transformers 3 will be shooting in DC later this summer, and the city’s Office of Motion Picture and Television Development is looking for extras.  If you’re interested, send a photo of yourself and some other information to movie@taylorroyall.com.  They’re also interested in your car, and you get bonus points if you’ve done ‘precision driving’.

No word on exactly what they’ll be filming in DC, but the Washington Post reports that “the robots will be here“.  The District is just one of several US cities where Transformers 3 will be shooting.  It’s wrapping up in Chicago now, and then the robots in disguise are heading to Detroit, Los Angeles, here, and somewhere in Florida.