‘Circulator panning’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The Washington Post is reporting that the city has reversed their decision and will not be discontinuing the Georgetown Wisconsin Ave Circulator route. The move had been part of an overall plan to close an almost $1M shortage in the District’s department of transportation budget and this reprieve doesn’t mean they found other ways to make up the money. WaPo says officials said they’ll have to find the money elsewhere, possibly from the council’s budget.

‘Mount Vernon – What Are Yous Lookin At – 12-26-08’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

Apparently, it’s hard to be a pub downtown if your landlord rents out your space to the Peace Corps while you’re trying to extend the lease. Or, that’s what the Black Rooster Pub on L Street found out recently. They’ll be closing their doors on November 3rd, as during negotiations with the landlord, Peace Corps was offered the space and accepted a lease.

The Black Rooster‘s been there since 1970, and I can remember more than a few trips there in my early years in DC working downtown. It’s a shame they haven’t been able to find an appropriate space to move their bar to, and that instead of a street-level retail outfit like Black Rooster, we’re stuck with more office space that goes dark at night. Owner Jody Taylor is fairly sure at this point they’ll be shutting the place down, as their business model wouldn’t allow for the re-creation of the place from scratch in another part of the city.

This is definitely a sad day. Get there while you can, it’s a gorgeous pub, and it’ll be a shame to see the doors close for good, just so some desks can go in instead.

image courtesy the Gay Games & Betty Lark Ross
Cheer team for the 7th Gay Games

WKYC-tv is reporting that their city of Cleveland has won the bid to host the 2014 Gay Games and the Washington Blade confirms. So despite the best efforts of local officials back in August, Washington will not be hosting.  We join Boston in being rejected.

Durian, courtesy of Perantau Sepi Lodge

The Smithsonian blog has an entry today about durian and its potential interaction with alcohol. They report that Japanese researchers believe they’ve found evidence that durian inhibits the liver’s ability to metabolize the toxins resulting from the consumption of alcohol.

Put down the stinky fruit, frat boy: that’s the toxins resulting from metabolizing the alcohol, not the alcohol itself. So your Delta Tau Chi fantasies of a $4 drunk aren’t going to pan out: you’re just going to make your hangover longer or worse, or maybe die. So when you decide to tackle the Omni 100: Durian, leave the beer in the fridge.

This is (at least until Oprah’s people have it pulled down) a video of local Bollywood dance troupe Dhoonya Dance performing on yesterday’s Oprah Winfrey Show. Only, what Oprah didn’t tell them was that Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the two most famous Bollywood stars currently living, were also appearing on the show that day. So when the choreography has the dancers turn to face the rear of the stage… OH HI, NICE TO SEE YOU.

I applaud Dhoonya founder Kajal Mehta and her team for being total professionals and not immediately forgetting every step they ever learned. Which is totally what I would have done, in case you are wondering.

A clip demonstrating exactly why Abhi-and-Aish are so famous is behind the jump. Also, I am very glad to have an excuse to post my favorite Bollywood song ever. Continue reading →

‘loudmouth matthews’
courtesy of ‘silas216’

Yeah, I know, all the fame and fortune goes to amateur singers and dancers on TV, and you just can’t stand it. I mean, these are just slaves to the auto-tune, after they win, right? Enter the Washington Post for a really DC contest: America’s Next Great Pundit.

So, if you’ve got an inner orator with the skill to make us all feel riled up, guilty, or perhaps even righteous, get the entry ready and submitted.

Awesome photo courtesy of Karl Johnson

I don’t know if these signs have made it into the District, but they are EVERYWHERE around the Ballston area in Arlington. At least before the monsoon hit on Saturday and potentially washed some of them away into the Chesapeake Bay, there were literally 4 on every pole at every intersection. But I’m not here to rant about littering or violating sign regulations (although someone should), I’m here to ask this simple question: WHO HAS AN UNWANTED BUS AT HOME? And better yet, is it really, really only worth $100 to you? And where the hell do you park your bus around here? Most people can barely park their compact cars. I have so many valid and pressing questions. Please contact me for an interview if you live here and just happen to have a bus you were considering trading for a $100. Thanks. (I’ll give you $105)

”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Councilman Phil Mendelssohn has proposed an extension to the DC Smoking Ban which would allow retailers and/or landlords to ban smoking within 25 feet of their front door, further pushing smokers out into the cold at the discretion of the owner. The language for this ban is much more business-choice friendly than the previous all-must-ban-smoking-inside bill from a few years ago, but one can definitely wonder if there will be a place left in DC that people can still smoke.

‘Sidewalk Closed’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

Metro has put out a schedule listing the maintenance they’ll be doing on four out of the five next weekends. If you intend to take the metro at all in that time – which includes Friday evenings – you should make sure to check it out. Columbus Day Weekend and full station closures is the worst of it but there’s a lot of single-tracking listed in there.

”
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

Arlington is planning to make some major changes to its parking policies in November to better match parking availability and demand in the county.

Among the changes, they plan to discourage employers and residential buildings from subsidizing parking and from using monthly or yearly plans. 

Arlington plans to extend parking meter hours (not so fun). But they also hope to implement “a web-based information network to locate on-street & off-street parking spaces in real-time.” (That sounds handy…)

While you may already be thinking you’re not going to walk out to the street at 9:00 p.m. to add money to your meter, Arlington has plans to assuage this concern by implementing newer technologies, including cell phone payment options.

To read the full summary the plan, click here.