Category Archives: The Daily Feed

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, The Daily Feed
By

Live Jazz All Weekend!

Photo courtesy of
‘Live Jazz’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

I make it no secret that I believe Jazz is an underappreciated portion of American music history by the millennial generation. With that said, I shared with you one man’s love for the trombone and how he brought it to the forefront of band leadership. Now, I ask you to give something a try (if you’ve never done so before) … go see some live Jazz.

I leave you with two options for the weekend if you’ll be sticking around the District:

1) Doc Scantlin and the Imperial Palms Orchestra – Doc means business. His band is considered a Jazz institution in the area, having been around for a decade now. Their specialties include anything from the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. Their final performance at the Carlyle Club (where they play live every Friday unless their on break or on tour) until June 18 is tonight at 8 pm. Tickets are required but the Carlyle Club is a dinner club as well, so come and make an evening of it. I’ll be there! Ticket information is available on the Carlyle Club’s website.

2) The Kaleidoscope Orchestra – The Orchestra is just one of many acts performing at this year’s 33rd Annual City of Alexandria Memorial Day Jazz Festival on Monday. The entire event is from 1 to 7 and features some of the top Jazz acts in and around the area. They include: The Jazz Ambassadors Dixieland Band, the Joe Baione Trio, WAMMIE Award winner Al Williams, straight ahead jazz group and the Washington Area Music Association’s Best Jazz Group for 2009, the Larry Brown Quintet. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
By

West Wing Junkies Rejoice

Photo courtesy of
‘Through the fence…’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

A few years ago, I happened upon a box set deal for the West Wing and it was super cheap, but then came today’s Gold Box to just blow that out of the water: The West Wing: The Complete Series Collection. It’s available for $99 today on Amazon, and frankly there’s been no better show for DC than the West Wing. If you’ve been putting off picking it up, now’s the time to stop procrastinating. Did I mention the shipping was free, too?

The Daily Feed
By

Flags In: Arlington Cemetery Begins Memorial Day Observances

Photo courtesy of
‘Arlington National Cemetery – Quiet Watch – 7-19-09’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

Memorial Day weekend is not just about cooking out and beautiful spring weather here in the District. If you want to take a moment to take in some of the sights and sounds of remembrance, it’s worth the time to travel across the river and a walk through Arlington Cemetery. One of the most important additions to the fields of memorials for this holiday weekend is the small American flags that are placed near each of the 350,000 headstones throughout the cemetery.

Yesterday, more than 1,500 members of the Army’s “Old Guard” and other service branches spent the time to complete the task at hand. This “Flags In” ceremony has been an annual observance since 1948, and the flags will remain through the weekend until being removed before it opens on the morning of Tuesday, June 1.

capitals hockey, The Daily Feed
By

NHL to Announce Caps, Pens for 2011 Winter Classic

Photo courtesy of
‘Pre-game Festivities at Heinz Field’
courtesy of ‘marc.benton’

According to one of my sources, the NHL will be announcing two outdoor games for the 2010-2011 NHL season. And yes, it looks like the Capitals will be part of the festivities. Rumored to be a participant since last summer, the Washington Capitals will be facing the Pittsburgh Penguins this coming New Year’s Day at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field. (The other game is an all-Canadian affair between the Canadiens and Flames in Calgary, sometime in February.)

Honey, I know what I want for Christmas this year!

The Daily Feed
By

Metro to Spend Almost $1b on Giant Kawasaki Motorcycles!!

Photo courtesy of
‘Motocross #11’
courtesy of ‘Vincent Luigi Molino’

Metro announced today that they have approved a contract worth $886m for Kawasaki! The money will go towards 428 giant, super duper fast motorcycles that can hold an enormous amount of people each. Of all of the ideas to improve the rail system, I think going with giant motorcycles is the best idea yet. I can’t wait to hear what the 1 trillion HP engines sound like on these babies when you open them up at full throttle! I wonder if the train operator can get these bad boys to do wheelies?

What’s that? Kawasaki builds rail cars too?? Ah, Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc. You can see the confusion. So that means…they aren’t giant freaking motorcycles? Damn. Well, still cool. As long as they have sidecars.

Metro plans to replace 300 of their old Series 1000 cars with this new purchase and provide 128 new cars for the super Dulles rail extension. (Which speaking of, have you seen that project? It’s like they’re trying to finish it by Memorial Day or something!) This allows them to both fulfill the needs of the rail extension project and make Metro a significantly safer system, complying with the NTSB recommendation to give the old dangerous cars the boot. This should replace all Series 1000 cars out there.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
By

Metro Board Approves Fare Hike Behind Closed Doors

Photo courtesy of
‘You can never go back’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

The Metro Board of Directors unanimously approved major fare hikes during an extended lunch break today. The lunch, not open to the media, lasted 3 hours and resulted in the budget agreement. The budget will be given final approval on June 24. From the looks of it, base fares will increase as expected to $1.60 with a $0.20 peak-of-the-peak surcharge. Bus fare will increase to $1.50.

According to reports, there will be no service cuts for the next fiscal year budget. This is a hopeful development, however at this point little is known about the final agreement. Budget negotiations during a closed-door lunch is not a good example of transparency, and leaves many questions about how the final decisions were reached.

The Daily Feed
By

Sometimes You Really Want to Rock Some Switchfoot

Photo courtesy of
‘sfsacc-43’
courtesy of ‘hopes_unbroken’

I have a new motto for craigslist – “Where Time Goes to Die.” Browsing through the musicians section on a personal equipment quest I found the following gem: SWITCHFOOT cover band. (Fairfax area).

Hello there. I’m looking for some fellow musicians and switchfoot fans to get together with and jam out. I’m a drummer so we’ll need to find 1+ electric guitarists, vocals, bassist, and possibly a keyboardist. Please be familiar with the music. You don’t need to know any specific parts for now or even play the songs exactly the same, but I’m a big fan of their music and you should be too.

This leads to all sorts of questions, most of them involving determining how somebody rocks out to Switchfoot (for all intents and purposes, they’re just the Non-Canadian Nickelback). Now, show me a Fastball cover band, I’m all for it. Until then, a word of warning to craigslisters: being too specific in your ad may just lead to stuff like me finding it and posting it for the good of the peanut gallery.

The Daily Feed
By

Hot Ticket: Holy Fuck @ Rock N Roll Hotel 5/31/10

Holy Fuck at RNR Hotel

Warning: This post is a minefield of F-bombs.

The 9:30 Club’s 30th Anniversary, DC star-studded, extravaganza isn’t the only cool as fuck thing going on in DC on Memorial Day Monday. Inventive as fuck, Canadian, electronic non-traditionalists, Holy Fuck will be bringing their fucking amazing live show to the fucking Rock N Roll Hotel on fucking Monday night.

Holy Fuck make fucking awesome dance music while shunning the majority of traditional electronic tools and techniques. They are a live electronica jam band that has featured a rotating line-up of talented fuckers over the years. With their fucking great new album ‘Latin’, the band has settled into a regular line-up and the result is a cleaner, more focused, dance-your-fucking-ass-off sound. Imagine the music of the Chemical Brothers or Crystal Method made with instruments (both real and improvised) instead of relying on sequencers and other technology and you are getting close. This concert promises to be one of the most fucking original shows you’ll see all fucking year.

Holy Fuck
w/ Nice Nice & Vita Ruins
@ Rock & Roll Hotel
$12 adv / $14 door

Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, People, Special Events, The Daily Feed
By

DC’s Best Highschool Baseball Players Hit Nationals Park

Photo courtesy of
‘Take me out to the Ballgame.’
courtesy of ‘Paul Frederiksen’

This Saturday’s Congressional Bank Classic brings out D.C.’s premier highschool baseball players and team in a day long celebration of America’s game at Nationals ballpark. Featured events include a St. Albans v. Maret School match up, the District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) Championship game between Wilson v. McKinley Tech, a citywide all-star game and the main Championship game between the two earlier game winners.

The event starts at 9:30am and goes until 8:30pm.  Admission and parking are free.

News, People, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
By

Well, maybe not…

Photo courtesy of
‘2ND’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

Last week I reported that it was looking like Steve Strasburg’s MLB debut would be June 4.  Well, it seems that I was wrong.  The Nationals website reports that Strasburg will be starting between June 8 and June 10 in the Nats’ series against the Pirates. They haven’t said which game, exactly, but they plan on making that announcement a week before the actual day itself.  If it makes you feel better, I bought pricey tickets to the June 4 game.  Oh well. I guess I’ll just have nice seats when they take on the Reds.

The Daily Feed
By

Property Update: Watergate Hotel

Photo courtesy of
‘Watergate’
courtesy of ‘Rolenz’

According to the Washington Buisness Journal, the Watergate Hotel has finally sold for a cool $45 million.  Euro Capital Properties Inc. of New York are the lucky new owners of the infamous property and DC-must see. 

I am already wondering if (and how) the new owners are going to update the space.  As iconic as the building is in its own right, the Watergate Hotel could really use an interior update.  I can already see an eye-catching lighting treatment for the building’s ultra-low ceiling heights….

The Daily Feed
By

Natinals Win in San Francicso

Photo courtesy of
‘9TH_1891’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

First off, for all the weary readers out there — I know there are typos in the headline and no, they’re not a mistake. I got the idea from a tweet issued last night during the game.

The joke’s on whoever screwed up the printing of these two team’s game day jerseys — the Natinals incident occurred last April and the San Francicso snafu this April. But joke headlines aside, last night was quite the game.

For those of you who didn’t catch the Nationals west coast contest against the San Francisco Giants last night, it can be summed up into very few words — they made a mockery of veteran pitcher and Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum.

Washington is now 24-23, a feat that wasn’t reached until the club won it’s 24th game of the year last July 4, having pounded the Giants’ ace in a 7-3 victory.

In the guy’s defense, he was by no means on top of his game. That mixed with the Nats patience at the plate set a steady pace of running Lincecum ragged by running up his pitch count (he threw 96 pitches in 4 2/3 innings). SS Ian Desmond even went as far as to say the team started noticing some problems in Lincecum’s curve ball early in the game in addition to the fact he was leaving his fastball up in the hitting zone, according to MLB.com’s Bill Ladson.

This is when the Nats bats got smart. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
By

District Firefighters and Police Unions to Endorse Gray

Photo courtesy of
‘Nacho #19’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Some more 2010 campaign news today, mayoral candidate Vincent Gray is expected to receive the endorsement of the District’s firefighter and police unions. This isn’t exactly shocking news, given the often contentious relationship between these unions, management and Mayor Adrian Fenty. Both DC Fire and EMS and the Metropolitan Police Department have seen their share of controversies during Fenty’s tenure. Kristopher Baumann, the head of the DC Fraternal Order of Police has been a vocal critic of MPD Chief Cathy Lanier.

What impact will this have on the campaign? Hard to say at this point. Fenty will surely be touting the recent decrease in homicides and violent crime, this move may work to muddle that message a bit. However, Fenty’s campaign will likely emphasize that it was the leadership from MPD brass that has led to the recent decreases, and that it’s unwise to change management at this point.

In any event, Gray will likely have a larger base of volunteers to call upon, but again it’s quite early and it’ll be a very long summer.

News, The Daily Feed
By

Zombie Criminal in Manassas

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘erin m’

It sounds like the start of a good comic book series, or maybe a Dashiell Hammett detective story. A criminal fakes his own death, with the help of his attorney, to face the consequences of his life of crime, only to be caught again in the act some time later. It could have soaring arcs covering the nature of human behavior, the strength of the police force in their investigations, the whole nine yards. It would be a best seller, I promise you, except for the fact that it actually happened in Manassas the other day.

The accused is Rodney T. Newsome, who is alleged to have committed a number of petty offenses in the last few months. He was caught by a court clerk who recognized his name from his earlier case. The Commonwealth’s Attorney has now asked for an investigation as to Mr. Newsome’s disposition. Read the whole thing, it’s worth a good laugh.

News, The Daily Feed
By

A Lesson in Decision Making: Local News Edition

Photo courtesy of
”A Dame’s School”
courtesy of ‘National Media Museum’

Today’s Lesson is: decision making.

It was quite a busy and buzz-worthy news day on this Wednesday in the District. First we lost the streetcars proposed for H Street, then we got them back. Oh … and then there was that time the Nationals sold tons of tickets for their June 4 contest vs the Cinncinatti Reds because everyone took it upon themselves to guess that the young phenom Stephen Strasburg would be making his Major League debut that day. This happened all while the Nationals organization never once announced anything on the subject.

Here’s the biggest difference in today’s decision making by the major players in Wednesday’s local daily news: Continue reading →

News, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
By

Council Re-Funds Streetcars

Photo courtesy of
‘infrastructure infrastructure’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The news that the City Council was thinking of de-funding the streetcar program’s capital investments this morning sent shockwaves throughout the city. The Council, in their morning meeting, de-funded the effort to the tune of $42M, reserving only $5M left for future planning. The shock was immediate, explosive, and frustrating. Phones rang off the hook in the council offices shortly thereafter with angry constituents demanding that the council reverse their decision.

This afternoon, Chairman Gray backpedaled so fast you’d think he was cycling backwards in the Tour de France. After the lunch break, in their legislative session, the Council reinstated $10M in immediate capital funding, and set aside $37M in reserved funding once the Mayor has a further plan.

The total time between the cutting of the streetcar funding and its restoration through new budget amendments was less than four hours. The response was overwhelming, and is an amazing example of the power of the constituent to influence, through emails, phone calls, tweets, blogs and other rapid-fire media, the workings of the council. Good job, everyone.

Entertainment, News, The Daily Feed
By

Screen On The Green Back For 2010 Season

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

It’s been settled — Screen on the Green will return to DC for the 2010 summer season, its 11th in the District!

The fun beings with a July 12 kick-off featuring the 1964 James Bond classic “Goldfinger” and continues with their free outdoor screenings on the National Mall between 4th and 7th Streets each Monday evening through August 2.

“We are honored to bring Screen on the Green back to fans this year with a great slate of films,” said David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President.

Check after the page jump for the full 2010 schedule. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Daily Feed
By

NoMa Summer Screen Presents “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”

Photo courtesy of
‘Day 250/365 – Modern Day Drive-In’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

Tonight’s installment of NoMa Summer Screen features “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”.

So get into adventure mode, head on out to L Street between 2nd & 3rd NE (just two blocks South of the NY Ave Metro), cozy into a grassy spot (with a blanket of course!) and let your mind go numb from watching Keanu in his prime (I was never a big fan of The Matrix, sorry).

NoMa Summer Screen also has BBQ by Smokin’ Something, popcorn, Italian ice, and live music for those of you who need a distraction from the movie or something to do before it starts.

The fun begins at 7 p.m., move starts at 9 p.m., and … best of all … admission is free.

The Daily Feed
By

Hot Ticket: The Besnard Lakes @ The Black Cat 5/27/10

the besnard lakes are the roaring night

The Besnard Lakes are playing the Black Cat backstage tomorrow night. Personally this is one of my most anticipated shows of 2010.

I first heard about this Canadian, husband & wife founded, indie rock band thanks to the many glowing reviews of their dominant performances at South By Southwest this year. Their new album “The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night” is one of the best (if not the very best) album of 2010. I have been listening to it daily for months. Their first album “The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse” is also a masterpiece and I am glad to finally have it brought to my attention.

The Besnard Lakes sound is epic. They feature beautiful, mournful vocals that haunt and inspire the listener with their many tales of love found and lost in war. Their expertly applied vocal harmonies can in turns chill you to the bone or warm your heart. The band bring massive and expansive layers of guitars, both fuzzed out and wailing, set to chugging rhythms that promise for one of the most dreamy and dynamic sound-washes this year.

This show tomorrow night is going to be amazing.

The Besnard Lakes
w/ Land of Talk
5/27/10
@ The Black Cat
$12

The Daily Feed
By

Verizon To Recycle Your Old Electronics Tomorrow


‘Recycle’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

Is that busted printer just not selling on Craigslist? Well don’t throw it out just yet. Tomorrow from 7:30am to 2:00pm, Verizon will be accepting old electronics for recycling at their Silver Spring office, located at 13100 Columbia Pike. Laptops, desktops, alarm clocks, shredders, telephones, small appliances – whatever! Just drop it off and Verizon will take care of the dirty work for you. It’s all part of their “go green” initiative, which is something we can certainly get behind.