Category Archives: The Features

These are our features. They come back either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

All Politics is Local, The Features
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Campaign Notebook: July 9, 2010

Photo courtesy of
‘police trooper writing a ticket’
courtesy of ‘woodleywonderworks’

There are 67 days until the primary.

This week’s edition will be a bit shorter given the short week, but there’s been some interesting news. It mostly involves traffic tickets. If you missed it, the DC Board of Elections and Ethics released the full candidate list for the September primary on Wednesday. Provided there are no objections to the petitions, the ballot will be set. Of course this is DC, and there have been objections in the past. In 2002, incumbent Mayor Anthony Williams was forced to run as a write-in candidate due to fraudulent signatures on his petition. Despite not appearing on the ballot, Williams still won the Democratic nomination and was re-elected in November. Continue reading →

Interviews, Life in the Capital, People, The Features, They Shoot DC
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She Shoots DC: Paige Weaver

Photo courtesy of Paige Weaver, on Flickr
‘3.30.10’
courtesy of Paige Weaver

Ever since I started our Weekend Flashback feature to start off your week, I’ve become fascinated with the myriad (just for you, Erin!) of photographers in our area. There’s such a wide range of talent, skill, expertise, and perspectives around here that’s worth sharing, so I decided to begin a periodic feature showcasing our local photogs and their array of works. Because DC imagery makes up only a small part of many of our local photographers’ repertoire, I want to give them a chance to expose their broad range of expertise and work – and their personalities.

Kicking off this periodic feature is Paige Weaver, known on Twitter as Moxie_Marmalade. A baker in Chevy Chase, Paige lives in the Mt. Vernon Triangle area and loves to shoot – and eat! – food on the side.

So who is Paige Weaver? Where do you come from originally?

Well, I grew up in Dallas, TX and ended up in DC via Maine and Tennessee. I graduated college in ’08 and moved to DC for a job, which I quit last August to attended culinary school in New York City. The school I attended emphasizes health supportive cooking — how ironic now that I make desserts for a living. But if you need a vegan, gluten-free dinner party menu, I’m your girl. I hate parsley, don’t discriminate against wine that comes in boxes, and have recently become obsessed with the Civil War.

I’ve also been participating in Project 365 this year, challenging myself to take a photograph every day of 2010. It’s been a great undertaking because it forces me to practice photography every day. As expected, some shots are much better than others, but so far, I haven’t missed a day!

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Food and Drink, Special Events, The Features, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: Rickey Month

July is Rickey Month in DC

Close your eyes and imagine life in our fair city over one hundred years ago. Imagine it was a week like we’ve had, a scorching heat wave, in your restrictive starched collar or corset – and there is no relief in sight, no air conditioned buildings to dart in. Sweat is dripping down the back of your neck, the small of your back. You need something refreshing. Now.

Enter the Rickey – “an air conditioner in a glass,” as Derek Brown termed it last night at a Columbia Room seminar on the history and making of our very own native cocktail. Wait, DC has its own cocktail? Indeed. July is Rickey Month, in its third year designated by the DC Craft Bartenders Guild to celebrate and spread the word on a very simple yet heat wave essential drink. All month long bartenders around the city are debuting their unique versions of the classic Rickey, culminating in a competition at The Passenger on Monday, August 2 at 6:30pm. The event is $10 at the door (including a free Rickey), and you can pick up a “Passport” at any of the competing bars and restaurants this month to try as many of the versions as you can before the contest (get ten stamps on your Passport and you get in free). As Guild President Owen Thomson says, “The Rickey is our native cocktail and designed to combat hot, muggy DC summers. We hope to pay tribute to both our history and future as a great cocktail city, as well as helping everyone stay cool.”

I think we can all get excited about that this month! So let’s explore the background of DC’s historical cooler, find out who the contestants are, and learn what makes a classic Rickey so special. Continue reading →

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends, July 10-11

Photo courtesy of
‘Sparkler!’
courtesy of ‘Daniel.Techie{TaiShan~4Ever} @ 127.0.0.1’

Kirk: I’m off to Mann’s Choice, PA this weekend, where the air is cooler, but if I were in town, I’d probably go to the Strasburg game tomorrow night,  Red Derby for their brunch (good sammiches and $2 drinks!) on Saturday morning and then find some pool to spend the rest of the weekend in.  Screw heat.

Rachel: Stephen Strasburg takes the mound Friday night at Nationals Park, so I’ll be watching that either at the park or elsewhere. Haven’t made a final decision just yet. Then it’s on to a two-day two-games softball “double header” with the Glover Park League at Guy Mason Field Saturday and Sunday. Will be doing my best to get some quality relaxation time in while I’m at it too. It’s been a busy week.   Continue reading →

Mythbusting DC, The Features
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DC Mythbusting: Parks

Photo courtesy of
‘Rock Creek Foliage’
courtesy of ‘Rukasu1’

Welcome to another edition of DC Mythbusting! One of the greatest things about living in the District is the access to parks: the National Mall, several triangle and square parks, the fort system of parks, and the enormous Rock Creek Park.   But even with these parks, it seems like DC can’t compete with the scale of other urban parks like Central Park in New York City, right? But would you believe that Rock Creek Park is larger than Central Park? How does DC compare to other comparable cities in terms of parkland? These questions and more are answered in this week’s Mythbusting!

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Faith No More @ Mann Music Center 7/3/10

Faith No More @ Mann Music Center 2
courtesy of Marcus Darpino.

As much as I would like it to be, Washington DC is not the live-music center of the universe. Sometimes to see that special show I have to hop on a jet, castaway on a boat, or hit the road as I did this past weekend to catch one of the limited East Coast reunion shows by Faith No More. These shows were limited enough (only 3) and special enough (a hell-froze-over reunion) that we thought some of our DC readers might be interested in reading about the one I attended at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia last Saturday.

When considering Faith No More and the quality of concert they put on, it is the little details that make the difference. The little details like: Mike Patton riding a fan like a horse while singing Michael Jackson’s ‘Ben’; an unexpected cover of Vangelis’ ‘Chariots of Fire’ theme; song verses done entirely in flawless Portuguese on a whim; and a singing, daredevil, strip-tease atop a 30-foot rope-ladder. In other words, when Faith No More perform live there really are no such things as little details; everything about a Faith No More concert is as huge and in-your-face as it can possibly get. From Mike Patton’s epic vocal range and deranged persona; to Roddy Bottum’s impenetrable, wall of synth-keyboards; to Billy Gould and Mike Bordin’s spastic funk; and Jon Hudson’s heroic guitar riffs Faith No More’s live sound is so gigantic it is almost absurd. And it would be absurd if they weren’t such a tight and overly-talented group of individuals. Saturday night’s concert in Philadelphia was a success on every level that treated a few thousand fans to the stellar, albeit brief, return of an old favorite and left us all longing for more from these SF Bay-area originals.

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Talkin' Transit
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Talkin’ Transit: London Edition

All Aboard
‘All Aboard’
courtesy of Samer Farha

“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” — Samuel Johnson

I recently spent a week working in London, and got to experience, again, London’s remarkable, ridiculous, insane, and fantastic transportation system first hand. Did I say “again?” Yes, this is probably the umpteenth time I’ve worked in London for a short stint, and the umpteenth time I’ve been exposed to the system of busses, subways, and insanity that is the Transport for London (TfL). I’ve been there for strikes and breakdowns, and I’ve been there in the heat and cold. I prefer it when things are running well and in the cold.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive article on the differences between Metro and the TfL. It’s more about what I see as obvious similarities and differences, and where one might have done a better job.

I’ll start with station architecture: Metro has this one down cold. Huge, cavernous stations with reasonably well marked platforms. The only time you feel claustrophobic in a Metro station is when the system breaks down during rush hour. The Tube is a little different. The system gets its name from the tube-like tunnels, which extend their presence into the stations. But each platform is its own tube, and the platforms get very crowded no matter the time of day. It feels much more closed in, and you will get jostled.
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Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of
‘Folk Life Festival 10 – Sky Dancers and the Sun – 07-05-10’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

Under the beating hot sun, four members of the Téenek of Tamaletón in Mexico fly around a pole. They do this as part of a ceremony called the “Danza del Bixom Tíiw,” to honor the Lord of Corn. The Smithsonian Folk Life Festival brought them here to do their sun dance.

Most people taking shots of the dancers will tend to go closer, trying, perhaps, to capture some motion blur as the dancers go by, or to freeze the action in place. WeLoveDC Flickr contributor Brian Mosley decided to go wide, capturing the dancers, the big blue sky, and the sun and it’s rays. Wander over to his stream to look at it big and see other images from the festival.

If you’ve got a few minutes, you should also take a look at the video that the Smithsonian put out. It’s fascinating.

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: The Dead Weather

The Dead Weather
image courtesy of The Dead Weather.

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

We are giving away tickets to another scorching hot show this week! This week’s prize: a pair of tickets to catch The Dead Weather at their sold out show at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, July 13th.

Not that this Jack White/Alison Mosshart super-group really needs any introduction to those readers who would kill for these tix; but for those passer-bys that might want to roll the dice this week, I’ll say that The Dead Weather are a formidable foursome cranking out some of the very best and weirdest down-home, bad-mutha, rock-n-roll this side of the Mississippi. Masterminded by Jack White of The White Stripes, supported by multi-instrumentalists Dean Fertita of QOTSA and Jack Lawrence of The Greenhornes, and led by a reinvented femme-fatale, bad-ass in Alison Mosshart of The Kills; The Dead Weather have made two killer albums that offer a danger-cool sound all their own. Their sound is sweaty, bible-belt, sinning preachers; paint-peeled rocking chairs on rickety porches; sneaked belts of whiskey behind wood-sheds; Jim Thompson novel climaxes along thorny creek-beds littered with rusty Studebaker husks. In other words, their music is a dark, sexy, humid swirl of southern-tinged rock awesomeness and winning these tickets will be your passport to The Dead Weather’s night of swampy, foot-stomp, crazy.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats Pick Up Ninth Inning Victory Over the Padres

Adam Dunn tags out a Padre
Photo by Cheryl Nichols / Nats News Network

By all the stats, the Padres are a far superior team to the Nationals, with a 13-game advantage on their record, superb starting pitching and an active offense.  Tonight, they were no match for the Washington Nationals and the record-setting heat at Nationals Park.  While that heat may usually come in the guise of Stephen Strasburg’s brutal fastball, tonight it came in the game time conditions.  The 99°F temperature at game time was the hottest game in the franchise’s post-move history, and it was significantly warmer before the game.

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Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Heat Kinks on Metro to Slow Evening Commute

Photo courtesy of
‘yup, it’s hot out’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

It sucks out there. It’s fit for neither man nor beast, and your evening commute is going to suck. Now, Metro has come out and said that it’s going to suck a bit more. There are some heat kinks in the rails, which Metro explains as: “Heat kinks form when overheated tracks expand and cannot be constrained by the cross ties and ballast support the track.”

The heat kink that we know about so far is on the Red Line between the New York Avenue & Rhode Island Avenue stations and is slowing trains between the two stations in an attempt to avoid calamity. Please expect the Red Line to suck more than usual, and I wouldn’t bet on any comfort on those trains at all. If you can, folks, a little extra deodorant wouldn’t kill you under these conditions.

Fashionable DC, Life in the Capital, The Features
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The Devil Wore Hose

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘erin m’

It’s oppressively hot this week. A scorcher. Another record-breaker in a year unfavorably full of cruel weather. Some of you will be able to go about your work day in “summer business casual,” but for others, you’ll soldier on in full battle gear. And for many women in our unfairly unfashionably maligned city, that means pantyhose.

Ugh. Really?

Though sales of pantyhose have been on the decline since the mid-nineties, there are still offices that require them for women’s dress year-round. The excuse normally given for such a dress code is that they give the wearer a “polished, professional look.”  As they are more precisely termed actual underwear, I find it a bit vulgar to be told by anyone other than my mother that I should be wearing pantyhose. Wear hose when the garment requires it – something form-fitting and unlined, for example – but with a knee-length lined skirt? If one is well-groomed there should be no need.

And in disgusting 100-degree weather, there is no need to wear pantyhose other than to cover what is bare – which implies that it’s wrong to bare your legs in an office. Why? I’m by no means a radical feminist, but I can’t stand rules with no discernible logic, and especially not rules that are based on perceptions rather than facts. After all, it’s not so long ago that business women in this city were told never to wear pantsuits, only suits with skirts. What was the logic there?

Let’s step back for some history, a fun fashion tangent on clothing codes, before we shred more hose. For example, high heels. Did you know high heels started out as a male fashion necessity?  Continue reading →

Music, We Love Music
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Delta Spirit loves DC, and DC loves them back

Photo courtesy of
‘A Little Bit Softer Now’
courtesy of ‘Karon’

As far as I can tell, there’s a guy at every concert, ever, who takes it upon himself to yell “Freebird.” That Guy is always there, trying for a chuckle, being ignored, hoping, just hoping, that the band will hear his plea. That Guy, like everyone else who saw Delta Spirit at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night, had the time of his life this weekend. Because Delta Spirit’s just that kind of band: Americana rock shot straight through the decades that reminds your soul what fun is supposed to feel like. You want “Freebird?” Yeah, sure, they’ll give you “Freebird.” Because it’s fun, and that’s what their show is all about.

I got handed a copy of Delta Spirit’s last album, “Ode to Sunshine,” in 2008 (put ’em on my Top 5 that year, too). The music-obsessed friend who passed it along is probably personally responsible for a few dozen of the fans at Saturday’s show: each of us spread the word (over)enthusiastically to another few people, and I like to imagine the fandom spread across the city from person to person, like the flu in winter, only better. I tell you this by way of explaining that yes, I am a huge fan, and no, this is not an unbiased review of Saturday’s show. Based on the limited sample of fans-who-also-tweet, I am not alone in having put this one high on the list of best shows ever. (Karon Flage, whose photos you see illustrating this post, took my extra ticket on a whim never having heard of the band, and she left a convert, too.)

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The Features
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Happy Birthday, America (and We Love DC!)

Photo courtesy of
‘Eastern Market Flags’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Today marks 234 years since 56 men stood on the steps of an assembly hall in Philadelphia and stood up for the rights of this nation against a tyrant king. We celebrate today for the declaration of our self-evident rights, among them Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. We celebrate today for the strength of conviction that freed a nation of subjects and made them into a nation of citizens.

What this nation has accomplished in her short life is nothing short of astounding. Though we may disagree about our recent past, there is much to celebrate in this country today, and I hope that we will all put aside our politics for a day to celebrate her many strengths and achievements.

Today is also a special day for us, as two years ago ten writers banded together to form this site. We launched on July 4th, 2008, declaring our independence from another site, now vacant. Today we stand twenty-eight strong, and DC’s best locally-owned blog. For that, we have you to thank, dear readers, and we appreciate your support these last two years. Look for an announcement about a party in your honor in the near future.

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats Come From Behind to Beat Mets

Pudge Rodriguez Swings
Photo by Max Cook, We Love DC

Though Stephen Strasburg’s start this afternoon would be the shortest in his brief tenure with the Nationals, going just 5IP and giving up a pair of runs to the Mets, the Nationals would rally late and pick up a victory. Strasburg struggled early with control and location, and gave up a pair of walks in the top of a 37-pitch first inning that left the Nationals down a run. He would be lifted for a pinch hitter (oddly, it was J.D. Martin who would hit for Strasburg in the 5th) after 96 pitches and five innings of work.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nats Finish First Half With 5-3 Loss to Mets

Tony Plush Shoes
Photo by Cheryl Nichols, Nats News Network

Tonight marked the halfway point for the Nationals’ season, and with a 35-46 record, a full ten game improvement over their 25-56 first half last year.  The bullpen tonight showed a bit of that ten game difference, with Joel Perralta, Sean Burnett, Miguel Batista and Doug Slaten combining for 5 2/3 of scoreless ball after starter Luis Atilano dug a 5-0 hole for the Nationals.  They’d scatter four hits in that span, and kept the Mets largely in check, hoping for an offense that would wake up.  In the ninth, they’d do just that.

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Life in the Capital, We Love Arts
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Chuck Close at the Corcoran


All photos by Max Cook

It would be an understatement to say that the Corcoran Gallery of Art has had an impressive track record over the past few years, hosting art exhibits that have been inspirational, education, and just downright beautiful.  Between the Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, Edward Burtynsky, and Eadward Muybridge exhibits, I’ve walked away from the gallery with a sense of wonderment and a better understanding of the artist, not to mention a better appreciation of their art.

That’s not to say that I’ve been impressed with every exhibit on display at the Corcoran.  While I had high hopes in viewing the William Eggleston exhibit and understanding why his work is held in such high regard in the photography world, I was less than impressed.  My feeling was that he was an artist that did something first, but not necessarily best, and that is sometimes enough to carve a name for yourself.  In fact, even though Eggleston is known as one of the early adopters of color film, I found that I preferred many of his black and white photos to his color shots.

But if art was loved by everyone, none of it would be good.  This week I was fortunate to be part of a tour of the Corcoran’s latest exhibit, Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration, given by none other than the legendary artist himself.  While I found Leibovitz to be somewhat annoyed with the press and anxious to leave, Close was gracious, patient, and answered any questions that were asked of him.  I will always remember something that he said, and that is that we learn more from things that we don’t like than from things that we do like, which may mean that for me, viewing the Eggleston exhibit was more important that I had once thought.

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Downtown, Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, Night Life, Special Events, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: July Music Preview

Photo courtesy of
‘American Flags in Bensonhurst’
courtesy of ’emilydickinsonridesabmx’

Besides birthday’s in general, the Fourth of July is pretty much my favorite holiday. It’s a much needed mid-summer mini mental vaycay that recharges those brain batteries over a long weekend. Then, it’s on to the long awaited arrival of the dog days of summer.

We’ve got a simmering slew of fun shows you might not have necessarily found on the front page of Ticketmaster for the month of July. They’re guaranteed to give you some solid summer memories should you choose to partake, so check ’em out! Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, We Love Drinks
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Friday Happy Hour: Moonshine Iced Tea

Photo courtesy of
‘Easy Day’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Welcome to the Friday Happy Hour, your single drink primer for the weekend.

For this holiday weekend which proudly celebrates our American independence, it might be treasonous to suggest you head over to British gastro-pub AGAINN for your happy hour, but there are two words guaranteed to make me do a happy dance in the world of drinks – tinctures and tea. Add moonshine, and well, say no more.

Ace bartender JP Caceres showed me how they are serving up a Moonshine Iced Tea cocktail with inspiration coming from the past – traveling medicine shows where old wives’ wisdom in the form of specially crafted tinctures cured all ails. Your bartender will mix up the base – 1 oz of your liquor choice, 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 oz simple syrup, and a highball glass is filled with crushed ice and tea. Here’s the fun part – you then get to choose from several different tea-based tinctures with delightful names (like Happy Tummy, Dawn Chorus, Easy Day) splashing a few drops into your drink to your own taste. The idea is to use some old-fashioned knowledge to self-medicate and experiment with different tastes depending on your mood. The results are lovely – flavors ranging from herbal, floral and vegetal with the alcohol just a side note to tea’s invigorating kick.

Ok, that sounds tempting Jenn, but what the heck are tinctures anyway?
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