Category Archives: The Features

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

Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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McPherson Square Metro Closed Temporarily

Photo courtesy of
‘Camera moves more than train’
courtesy of ‘Mllerustad’

The McPherson Square Metro station is currently closed due to a burned out cable that caused significant smoke in the station. The Blue and Orange line are currently severed between McPherson Square and Metro Center, so be aware that this will definitely impact getting around the core of the city on the Metro today. Metro’s operating a shuttle between the two stations, but there’s a 40 minute delay expected on the system right now. Ouch!

Update: Metro has reopened McPherson Square, but trains are single-tracking through the station at this time. Expect delays.

The Features, Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 1/30 – 2/1/09

Photo courtesy of afagen
All American, courtesy of afagen

Good morning! For all us Steeler fans, it’s a good morning indeed! Don’t fret though, Cardinal fans – your boy Kurt and his posse put up a great fight; the consensus at the party I was at (where I was one of only two Pittsburgh fans…) was that it was the best Super Bowl we’ve seen in years.

But that’s not all that was happening around the area. A gorgeous Sunday capped off a nice and pleasant weekend after our area brush with “Icepocalpyse 2009.” It was a great backdrop for many, including an area bloggers’ meet-up, a Flickr walk, and a party in Chinatown. To those celebrating the Chinese New Year – happy Year of the Ox to you!

So let’s find out what you saw over this fine, brisk weekend after the jump. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, The Features
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February Concert Preview

February might not be my favorite month of all time, what with the gross weather and the Valentine’s Day pinkness of it all, but there are plenty of exciting concerts and musical events in DC to perk up those winter blues! Here is my (completely subjective, not comprehensive) compilation of what’s going on music-wise for February. Continue reading →

Alexandria, Arlington, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Tourism
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Tourism: Ice Skating

Photo courtesy of
‘Skating Together’
courtesy of ‘Karon’

There are few outdoor activities I enjoy when the weather gets this cold. Skiing and ice skating are about the only two that I daydream fondly about. So just in case this week’s iceageddon didn’t take you down, and you’re itching for more (or you want to tackle the ice with proper equipment), you’re in luck.  DC is home to tons of great indoor and outdoor ice skating rinks for you to take a spin (or a fall) on.  Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Night Life, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: Jimmy Valentine’s

Third Eye

"Third Eye" by Jenn Larsen, on Flickr

I swear time stops at Jimmy Valentine’s. It’s like an alternate universe, a wormhole, a gap in space. Every crazy visit reinforces the feeling that I’m Alice – diving through the looking glass while holding tightly to Hunter S. Thompson’s hand.

Or maybe it’s just that it’s a cracking good bar located in what many people would consider to be the NE wasteland. I’d hazard to guess that Trinidad isn’t high on the radar for any but the most adventurous night owls, though that’s changing radically with H Street’s success. Because of the location, a night out at Jimmy Valentine’s requires a certain commitment. The owners are committed as well, to keeping it grounded with locals as a place to hang out and have a good time, with a vibe that’s almost defiantly pretension-free.  

Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, The Features
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We Love Music: The Killers at Patriot Center

Killers.jpg
The Killers @ Madison Square Garden by Aphrodite in NYC

Suffice it to say: The Killers are a Great Band that plays a Great Show. I just wish I could say that each album they put out was as good as their blockbuster Hot Fuss and its sophomore follow-up Sam’s Town. Day & Age just isn’t as good, and it showed last night at their show in Fairfax at the Patriot Center. Aside from top singles Human and Spaceman, the rest of Day & Age fell flat in front of the crowd. While better live than memorex, it was tough to see the band that rocked out so hard on previous albums watch the crowd ebb in front of their eyes.

Perhaps it’s that the sound wasn’t all that great in the Patriot Center (and it wasn’t, the engineering team needs to go back to school, there was some real balance programs for the whole first half of the concert.), or maybe it’s that the source material for Day & Age just hasn’t gelled yet. Regardless, the crowd came most alive for the partially acoustic version of Sam’s Town, which was a highlight of the show. Continue reading →

Comedy in DC
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Comedy in DC: Become a Local Comic, Support a Local Comic

Photo courtesy of
‘Stand up 371’ (Jay Hastings)
courtesy of ‘YoLoPey’

Exciting stuff in the local comedy world this week, everyone.  There’s a new open mic, and a fun showcase happening at the Improv.  Make your plans quick, or you’ll miss out, and you don’t want that. Oh no, you don’t.

First, the open mic: Standup comedy has returned to the Comedy Spot in Ballston. Every Thursday night, Hot Broth Comedy starts at 7:30 in the Comedy Spot’s black box (which is really more of a gray box) stage. Show up at 7-ish to get on the list.  Okay, yeah, look, it’s not technically in DC. But there are some reasons you should check this out anyway- First, it’s run by Tyler Sonnichsen and Jake Young, who, in addition to being hilarious and committed to running a quality show, are also very professional (for comedians, I mean really), courteous guys who make newbies feel welcome. So if you’re looking to try this out for the first time, this is the show to hit.  Second, it’s ridiculously convenient for driving, metro-ing, AND planning- you don’t have to sign up in advance. And finally, it’s in a dedicated space rather than a bar like a lot of open mics are. So you won’t have to compete with the bar conversation, the local sporting event on the TV, the jukebox, or whatever. I’m delighted to see this happening and can’t wait to go check it out myself.

Second, the showcase: This Saturday, January 31st at 8PM, there’s an audition showcase for the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. Which, let me just say it, is kind of a Big Freakin’ Deal. It’s the biggest, baddest comedy festival there is. It’s like, I don’t know, Cannes for Comics. Many of the area’s finest comics (including the scruffy guy adorning the top of this post) are going to be showing off for the scouts, so for a mere $20, you can go laugh yourself hoarse and support local performers. It’s a win-win, people. I mean, what were you going to do with that money, see Paul Blart: Mall Cop? Go watch some live comedy instead and have a little more respect for yourself in the morning. Go buy your tickets. 

News about local comedy events can be sent to tiffany at we love dc dawt com. I’ll love you forever. Seriously.

Life in the Capital, The Features, The Great Outdoors, Weekend Flashback
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Photo Flashback: Snow Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Berries in snow…’
courtesy of ‘Roger Photos’

The WLDC Flickr pool has been abuzz with pictures of the snow. I listed snow-covered DC as one of the things I am most thankful for, and so it was my pleasure to comb through the great photos our flickratzi have submitted over the past 24 hours, and pulled some to post. So click on through to take a tour of our gorgeous city in the snow. Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

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REYNOLDS, J., PERFORMING ACROBATIC AND BALANCING ACTS ON HIGH CORNICE ABOVE 9TH STREET, N.W. by Harris & Ewing

For some of us, our daily lives are one big balancing act.  We have demanding jobs, families, pets, social calendars, and hobbies that seem to suck every last nanosecond out of the day.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that none of your hobbies include balancing on your dining room furniture hundreds of feet above the ground with no safety net in sight.  Your safety net is likely in the form of a 401(k) or an IRA.  Hey, how’s that working out for you by the way?

Thanks to NCinDC for this great find from the Library of Congress.  John “Jammie” Reynolds appears to be the Evil Knievel of his day, risking his life for the pure joy of an adrenaline rush.  The above shot (circa 1917) features the daredevil atop the Lansburgh Building here in DC.  You can see what appears to be the National Museum of Natural History in the background which had only been established ten years before.  I don’t know about you, but I’d love to take a time machine back to those days when things were more simple, exciting, and free.  You won’t catch anyone bungee jumping off of the Washington Monument these days without ending up behind bars or in a loony bin.

By the way, be sure to check out the super sized version of this photo.  Do you suppose there’s any chance of the man on the right helping if things tip in the wrong direction?

24 in DC, The Features
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24 in DC: Episode Four (1:00 to 2:00)

Photo courtesy of
‘jack bauer action figure’
courtesy of ‘tyger_lyllie’

And now we’re back for yet another week in the 24-straganza here at We Love DC. There are several active threads in DC, and we’ll start with the FBI at the FBI HQ which is magically neither at Judiciary Square or at 9th & E.

1:03pm

There’s an awful lot of grousing at the FBI this week. Janis and Billy Walsh are giving a lot of lip to the agent in charge, who responds by giving them a nice little smackdown inside their weird corporate cube.

1:06pm

The Yellow Van is headed through some magical construction wasteland near to DC with Jack and Tony and the Prime Minister & his Wife.

They’re somewhere with a really big hanger. This is the kind of space that’s only available on, say, an Air Force Base. But it doesn’t look like Andrews, and that’s pretty much the only place around that’s got a warehouse space this big. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The DC 100, The Features
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DC Omnivore 100: #83 Pocky

Pocky Flavors

Pocky Flavors by Pocky-Love-Club

Growing up my best friend Kano was half Japanese, and one of the best parts of going over to her house besides playing NES, eating homemade sushi and getting to watch rated R movies, was an endless supply of Pocky.  After dinner her mom would hand us our own personal box and we’d go off and watch “The Crying Game” or “Blue Steel”.  Really appropriate for 10 year olds.  I think I was scarred for life.  Moving on. Continue reading →

Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: 1/23 – 1/25/09

Photo courtesy of thisisbossi
2008 01 18 – 0327-0332 – Washington DC – Tidal Basin, courtesy of thisisbossi

This past weekend started out giving us hope for spring before diving back down again to…winter weather advisories for the week. However, metro area residents were out enjoying a variety of events across the region. From Chinese dancing to zoo animals to monster truck rallies, here’s a snapshot of what you all were up to…

Remember, when you take photos of our area, drop them into our photo group!

Continue reading →

Monumental, The Features
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Monumental: Nathanael Greene

Looking Up at Nathanael

In the center of Stanton Square in Northeast, stands Revolutionary War Hero and native son of Rhode Island Nathanael Greene. His controversial advice (including burning New York City to the ground as part of a retreat in 1776, which, to me, sounds like the wisdom of the sages) won him favor with General Washington, and his management of the supply chain of the Continental Army won him the post of Quartermaster General. Before the end of the War he’d serve as the head of West Point, and then Commander of the Southern Army.

Greene would lead the American Retreat across the Dan River, forcing General Cornwallis to make mistakes as he chased the retreating light horse. Greene’s beleaguered force would win the race to the Dan, taking all the boats across the river, leaving none for Cornwallis, and the American forces escaped into Virginia. Some say that Greene was second only to Washington himself in military ability and prowess, and did more for the Continental Army than many others who would go on to claim greater fame. Continue reading →

Thrifty District
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Thrifty District: Furnishing Your Humble Abode

‘Fausti Mobili – Lago Point XL a terni’
courtesy of ‘Design Conversation’

So, you need furniture. You don’t have a lot of money, but even so, you’d like something a little nicer than the disposable Swedish particleboard options of Ikea or even the tvbedstore.co.uk page. That can mean only one thing: Consignment!!  You’ll probably have to travel a bit, though. But that’s okay, right? You’re going to need a truck anyway.  Consignment is also good for your carbon footprint; it reduces the need for additional furniture to be recycled, keeps what you buy out of the landfill, and items are generally consigned locally, so even transportation is minimal. It’s an environmental triple-win.

Tom and I needed a dining room table shortly after we got married.   Oh yes, we had hit Ikea, but due to the weird, narrow shape of our dining room, had pretty much struck out. Nothing that we liked would fit.  So we wandered around a bit at a consignment shop, and found what we non-hyperbolically refer to as The Perfect Table. Slightly narrow, with pull-out leaves that nearly double it in length, it fits exactly into our space with room to sit around it, and expands easily for our frequent dinner parties.  Why do I wax poetic with the details of a table that by definition, you can’t buy because we’ve already bought it?  Because it’s an example of the glories of consignment furniture- that table that someone else got rid of, probably because it was too small for their new dining room, was the absolute perfect thing for our needs, and it’s high quality, and probably better than we would have been able to afford brand-new. (We bought chairs to go with it an an open-air antiques market, but that’s another post.)

Continue reading →

Essential DC, Life in the Capital, Talkin' Transit, The Features
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Talkin’ Transit: Rules of the Road

Photo courtesy of
‘follow your path’ courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

There’s lots of news everywhere regarding Metro and Inaugupocalypse, so I don’t see a need to rehash all that here. Instead, I’ve been intrigued with a lot of referencing lately to cycling in the District, especially as an alternate form of travel. I was thinking it might be a good idea to run down some of the rules and guidelines for biking in the District, for both cyclists and drivers to remember.

The “golden rule” to keep in mind? Cyclists traveling on roadways have all the general rights and duties of drivers of vehicles. This is true for the entire region, not just the District. Continue reading →

News, Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA
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The Record That Won’t Fall: 1,120,000 Metrorail Trips


Metro Platform
Originally uploaded by tbridge

Before last week, the best day on Metro came this past Summer, with 854,000 riders. Yesterday smashed that record. Metro has now released the numbers for yesterday’s totals and they’re astronomical. 1.12M riders on the Metro. Another 423,000 rode Metrobus yesterday, leading to a total public transit ridership of 1.54M people.

While it’s safe to say that most of them were headed to the Mall for the Inauguration, not all of them were, which means the crowd estimates around 1.4 million are sounding more and more credible for me.

I’m going to come right out and say it: I don’t think this record will fall in the next 5-10 years. While growth has been strong for metro with gas prices on the rise, I can’t see 1.12M riders in a day being topped without some sort of massive event in DC that will bring people from all around. The broad appeal of the Obama Inauguration is going to be hard to beat.

Maybe another Tibetan-Freedom-style concert down on the Mall with some monster names would do it, but even then, I can’t fathom them breaking the record.

Inaugupocalypse, Special Events, Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback: Inauguration 2009

Photo courtesy of
‘look!’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

In case you were under a rock yesterday, we had us an Inauguration yesterday. Our 44th President was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol while an estimated two million people witnessed it and the following parade.

Our prolific area photographers were out in force yesterday; many of them you’ll recognize from prior visits to the Flashback. I encourage you to check out our Flickr feed, as all but one of the following shots came from it. And for images around the world, check out a special Flickr section that features some great shots taken by photographers outside our Beltway.

Many, many thanks to our regular pool contributors; you guys made my job extremely hard today with all the great photos. Keep it up!

Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Sports Fix: Caps Continue Dominance

caps.jpg
IMG_1380 by jonlarge

Capitals
Record: 29-14
Place: 1st in the Southeast, 12 points ahead of the Panthers.
Last 2 Weeks: 3-3

The Caps may want to avoid any political holidays in the future, especially those involving the Senators. You know, the ones up in Ottawa.

Last night’s 3-2 loss was a tough one, as the Sens scored with less than two minutes remaining. The power play goal by Brendan Bell late in the third broke a Washington comeback and their three-game win streak as the NHL’s All Star break begins for the Caps.

Back on Election Night, Nov 4, the Caps faced Ottawa and lost then, too, in a 2-1 contest. Apparently, big political days and Caps hockey don’t mix. Continue reading →

Arlington, The Features, We Love Food
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We Love Food: Brunch @ Boulevard Woodgrill

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Brunch at Boulevard Woodgrill courtesy of Needlessspaces

I have an odd relationship with breakfast. I don’t care for eggs – gasp – so there’s not tons of breakfast foods that appeal to me. I enjoy the pancakes, and french toast. I love hash browns, grits, bacon, sausage… but most of breakfast is centered around eggs, which is why I embrace brunch. Brunch, the hybrid between breakfast and lunch – I can order some lunch counterparts, or I can stick to breakfast foods that I enjoy like the ones pictured above.

Arlington is home to some insanely delicious brunches – it seems practically every restaurant up and down the Wilson/Clarendon stretch offers brunch.  My fellow Arlingtonites come out in full force, wearing the weekend-morning uniform of Uggs and college sweatshirts, we find ourselves sipping coffee and munching on yummy food. I love it. Matt and I can roll out of bed, I can throw on my UNC hoodie, and we can walk to a plethora of delicious options. A few weeks ago we chose Boulevard Woodgrill, and it was completely satisfactory to our breakfast/lunch cravings.  Continue reading →

24 in DC, Entertainment, The Features
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24 in DC: Episode 3 (12:00 to 1:00)

Picture 5.png
Jack Bauer IV and 24 by Browserd

We’re a little late getting started, sorry for that, we were hanging out with some inaugural guests.

24 picks up this week right at the safe room where Prime Minister Baku is hanging out, which, supposedly, is up in Northwest off Foxhall Road. The house itself looks more like an LA-style mansion than the big properties up on Foxhall.

12:04

Agent Walker is driving up Constitution near Justice, getting bitched out by her boss for “torturing” the guy at the imaginary hospital down somewhere near 3rd and Independence. Continue reading →