While we’re all just a speck of sand in this thing we call the universe, and none of what we do really matters in the grand scheme of things, sometimes it’s worth noting and recording a little piece of history. Case in point, when Alfonso Soriano (aka “cry baby”) became only the fourth player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases, he etched his way into his own little piece of modern history. Some of you may have already forgotten this amazing feat, but thanks to Scott Ableman’s lens and quick-acting shutter finger, I never will.

I always thought it would be fun to be a sports photographer, or better yet, a presidential photographer, to record momorable moments such as this. I’ve taken quite a few photos of protests and rallies in the short time that I’ve lived in DC and I will always be able to look back at them and remember what it was like to be a part of something big.

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Psst! In October, Cakelove will be selling cupcakes for $2 instead of $3 for Customer Appreciation Month! Mmm, cupcakes.

I know of at least one DC Metroblogger who will be having a birthday in October, so I am particularly excited about this.

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Last night, when re-telling the tale of the Metroblogging DC vs. DCist trivia fight, I asked the usual crowd-stumper: What is Mayor for Life, Marion S. Barry Jr.’s middle name?

As usual, no one knew it was “Shepilov “. Challenged by fools doubting me, I Googled “marion barry dc” and got this interesting result:

Phonebook results for marion barry dc
Marion Barry (202) 678-3682 2654 Douglas Pl SE, Washington, DC 20020 Map

Of couse the first thing I did was dial his number. Who better than Barry himself to check the anti-Shepilov crowd? Well, when he gets his phone turned back on.

“We’re sorry. The number you tried to dial is no longer in service. Please check your number and try again.”

.

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It’s official, Frank Robinson is in his last games as the Nationals’ Manager. Robinson, already a Hall of Famer, will end his tenure with the Nationals with a sub .500 record, surprising precisely no one. Sadly, the Nationals suck more than a Dyson vacuum cleaner, but I’m not sure it’s all Frank’s fault. He’s a character. He’s a muse. He’s brilliant and he’s daft.

What else can we say about Doddering Uncle Frank?

We laughed, he cried?

Sorry Frank, perhaps your next time won’t be addled by an insane GM high on endorphins after another beating from his girlfriend, or a crazy bunch of folks like Major League Baseball.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

When I travel, I love to bring back fun knick knacks from around the world. Often, they are items that can fit in my carry on bag: cloth, cards, rolled posters.

This last trip to Sri Lanka, I brought back an elephant pillow cover. Not one to have throw pillows, I decided to frame it.

Now framing my elephant is such a tough task – to get it just right, with background colors and format, frames, glass. It can be overwhelming.

Luckily, I’ve found the right guy to help me in this challenge. Habib, owner of International Art Gallery & Custom Framing.

He knows his colors, he feels his paper backing, he sees the end result even before it’s finished. Habib is an expert.

He also has art for sale, good art, way out of my price range too. Still, if you need to frame your elephant, there is no better place to go.

International Art Gallery & Custom Framing
1625 K St NW, Washington, DC 20006
Phone: (202) 466-7979

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photo courtesy of Fall for the Book

PostSecret, that is. If you’ve never seen what I’d describe as a collaborative art project, you owe it to yourself to have a look. Theoretically every submitted postcard represents a secret that is both truthful and has never been shared with anyone. I think that’s already that’s a high bar, but maybe I am abnormal – I have any number of things I don’t share with many people but I’m not sure I can think of any that I’ve kept from everyone, as the submission rules demand. So I sometimes wonder what percentage of the submissions are on the level – surely some people must be viewing this as a creative writing project for themselves rather than as a component of a projects for Frank Warren, wouldn’t you think?

If you’d like to see some of the cards – but surely not all 70,000 that have been submitted – there will be a PostSecret exhibition as part of GMU’s Fall for the Book Festival. The exhibition runs October 2 through October 5. During the run there will be a reception with an appearance by Mr Warren on October 3rd at 5pm and a presentation on the 6th at 6pm.

The exhibit will be at both Gallery 123 in Johnson Center, and Grand Tier 3 in the Center for the Arts. The reception will be in Gallery 123 and the presentation will be in the Concert Hall at the Center for the Arts.

Everything is on the George Mason Campus, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax VA 22033

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Back in May I snarked here about an ad for Mitchum’s deodorant which fell somewhere between homophobic and generic moronic. Some time later I was contacted by a writer for OUT magazine asking me a few questions about the ad, where I’d seen it and my reaction to it. Amusingly, he asked me if I’d seen it in any of the local gay bars and what message I thought it sent to gay men. I had to plead ignorance on an informed opinion on both counts, but I’m pleased that I got quoted anyway – it tickles me that I’ve apparently got more gay street cred than my actually homosexual sibling.

In case you wondered about the ad, by the way, the odds seem to be on moronic: the author of the OUT piece first noticed the ad himself in a men’s room that had only a single urinal, making the text nonsensical. And that men’s room? In a gay bar, making the text outright farcical.

Yeaahhhhh… if you’d ever wondered if advertising writers and advertising space buyers communicated with each other, this should pretty much clear that up. I wonder what went up in that NYC men’s room the following month? Maybe an ad for Summer’s Eve or spermicide.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Hess

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Yeah, prices are going down to sane levels again, as evidence by this Hess station, but what’s going on that it’s happening in such an odd fashion? Check out the Shirlington Shell by my house, which is $0.30 more per gallon for regular as of Monday afternoon, compared to this Tuesday afternoon capture of the Hess on Washington Boulevard. A few cents, yeah, I can let that slide, but $0.30 more per gallon? That’s like $5 more per tank for my Jetta.

How are gas prices in your neighborhood?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Location: The elevator in Potomac at Riverhouse, Pentagon City

Notice anything odd about this elevator panel? Look closely…

Did you count the floors? You notice that its missing one (or two).

First there is no first floor, which is common, “Ground Floor” and “First Floor” are interchangeable. But that there isn’t a 13th floor, now that I think is odd.

Wouldn’t those on the 14th know they are really on the 13th? Aren’t we a little past that superstition by now? Do you know of any other buildings that do this?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

OK, I know I recently wrote about how most attempts at photographing the Metro fall short of being interesting, but when I stumbled across this shot by Flickr user kerron7, I nearly ran for the hills. Maybe I should have waited until Halloween to post this, as I find this shot downright spooky. I almost expect to see the ghost of Abe Lincoln standing on the platform waiting for the next train to hell.

Now the execution of this isn’t overly difficult, given that you have a steady hand (or other sturdy device) for a long exposure such as this. Oh, and owning a copy of Photoshop is a must. But I want to compliment kerron7 on his eye for a good shot when he sees one, and for his post processing work. I think he did a great job converting the original shot into b&w as well as the contrast adjustment for added effect.

I think I’ll stay off of the Metro for a while.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Dad, I wanna paddle!

No, I wanna paddle, you paddled on the way up here.

Okay kids, stop fighting, you both can paddle.

Wait, what about me, Dad? Can I drop the rock anchor?

No, little miss, let your brothers paddle. You navigate.

I what?

Just tell the boys to paddle downstream, that way.

Okay, but they’re making us go in circles.

Don’t worry, we’ll be going downstream anyway.

Paddle yourself these beautiful fall days at The Boathouse at Fletcher’s Cove. Open till the end of October

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

In my day-to-day work I have found myself at some of the more elite private schools in the DC area and, in working with the students, have found that one trend among private schools nowadays is to have few rules and to allow the kids to call the teachers by their first names.

Okay – the name thing could be cool and can really help establish a great rapport between students and teachers. This could be really powerful if the teachers kept their spots as authority figures but more often than not what I see is a buddy-buddy relationship. These are the same schools that allow the students to more or less do what they want and go to class or not, depending on their moods and how they feel at the moment. And the kids pretty much run wild, show little respect or even good manners to outsiders like me who are there to do a service for them. It looks more like indoor recess than like classtime.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

There’s not a lot to say about this Virginia plate, spotted on Route 1 during rush hour tonight, other than the guy driving it was a real douchebag. The subwoofers on his tiny Civic were rattling his plastic, windows down. He caught me taking the photo and nearly caused an accident to pull up next to my car, demanding to know what I was taking a photo of.

“Your bumper sticker, it’s hilarious.”

Nice to know it’s funny because it’s true…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Location: 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, right outside what used to be Riggs Bank

When I see a utility box like this, open and exposed to all, I have an odd urge to flip some switches.

I haven’t of course, I don’t wanna get shot by the trigger-happy Secret Service at the White House next door, but this is a temptation.

Back in Russia, I had an odd red button on the wall that said “Stop : Moscow”. I never did press it, thinking the whole city would stop, but I often wondered.

Have you ever succumbed to the urge? Ever flipped a switch like this just to see what happened? I think this one might change lights or it might change lives.

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Crouching Meter, Hidden Parking Ticket

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Spotted on Wilson Blvd in Arlington near Whitlow’s today. If you can’t spy the meter, you’re not the only one. The meter, hidden amongst the newspaper boxes, was cause for a ticket when I walked by. The driver of the beamer snatched the ticket angrily from their windshield and sped off into traffic.

Sorry man, tough cookies.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of NeilGaiman.com

… they’ve moved the event to a larger venue since interest has been so high.

I’m so getting hatemail from Sandman fans… Please stop throwing your lit clove cigarettes at me!

If you’re interested in hearing the most excellent Mr Gaiman speak, or want to get some of your books by him autographed, the new venue for this Friday evening at 7pm is just three blocks down the from Politics&Prose. I presume this is primarily a promotional tour for his book “Fragile Things” which will street in October so expect to hear him read some material you haven’t heard before.

Wesley United Methodist Church
5312 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

The caption to this photo was going to be something cheeky about how DC MPD can arrogantly park in front of fire hydrants, while if us mere residents did, we’d get tickets.

I was gonna say that even in my most crazy parking days, when I would wedge my car into a spot with 24 bummer taps, or park with a wheel on the curb to make a space, I never, ever would block a fire hydrant. It just isn’t cool or right.

Then as I took this photo and started to compose a post on my joe-cool Nokia 6682, up came a DC MPD Sergeant who asked me what was wrong – why I was taking a photo of the cop car?

When I explained that I was taking a photo because the police cruiser was parked in front of the fire hydrant, an amazing thing happened. The sergeant got mad.

Not at me, but at the poor-parking officer. The sergeant immediately went about tracking the officer down. As I walked away, a shocked and embarrassed policeman passed me at a trot, his Ben’s Chilli Bowl half-smoke half-eaten and dripping sauce as he ran.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Falling leaves? Cold winds? New television programming? No. Calendar kiosks everywhere are the sign of fall truly being upon us. Every year the pestilence falls upon us all, eager to tempt us with cute puppies, kittens, lighthouses, Hooters waitresses, scenic vistas of faraway places we hope we’ll get to next year. All of it predicated on your forgetting that come January 20th every damned thing there will be half off.

Resist! Resist, I say! Stop and oogle the oiled-up pictures of people with better genes and more time to spend in the gym than yourself, if you must. But don’t spend! Don’t encourage this cancer that kills trees and entreats you to just HANG IN THERE with it’s cutsie-wootsie widdle snookums-pudding kitty.

Unless you need a Christmas gift for dad, that is. Because jeez, what the hell else are you going to buy the old man this year?

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

While I’m not known for my tag recognition abilities, that would be for Tom, Don and Mik to duel over, I do sometimes wonder about them.

Like this license plate seen on K Street today. What might this mean? “UZMELRD”? My guesses: You’ze Mellerd? Use Mel Road? Use Metal Rods?

Yeah, I’m clueless. Anyone have one they can spare me?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Tom pointed out to me this morning that there didn’t seem to be a single bit of mainstream media news about Friday night’s Crystal City armed standoff. This isn’t 100% true – it made the 11pm channel 4 news that night, but there’s no sign of it on NBC4.com Similarly there’s no mention on washingtonpost.com that I can find either.

This amazes me. About a quarter-mile of street was shut down for about four hours on Friday, over a dozen machine-gun toting S.W.A.T. officers and who knows how many cops were in attendance and the whole thing concluded with gunfire, albeit a tactical non-fatal (we think!) shot from a police sniper.

And if you weren’t there or don’t know someone who was… it may as well have not even happened.

As someone who’s a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic, if I read an allegation of anything less obvious than “the sun came up this morning” on the web and it’s not corroborated anywhere else I just assume it’s baloney. By my own standard, none of you should believe what I wrote. So this leaves me bordering on shaken – our paper of record makes no mention of an incident this high-profile? What else happens around town that we don’t hear about?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs