I’ve never played around with infrared photography (and probably never will), but every once in a while I see a shot that looks amazing. The usual effect of taking an infrared shot is that the trees and grass turn white and it looks like you just stepped through the wrong peep hole in wonderland (time to lay off the acid). You can of course achieve this same effect using the magic wizardry of Photoshop, but it’s never quite the same in my opinion.

The composition and exposure of this shot are amazing and will give each viewer a different emotion or feeling I’m sure. For me, I feel like I’m watching a David Lynch movie and that there might be a severed ear hiding in one of the bushes. Cue the Radiohead and start floating across the sky. Maybe it’s just Monday and the new Zero 7 CD is putting me in one of those moods….

Anyway, nice work Mr Speedy Delivery. May the shrooms be with you.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Hummer with Sat

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I came out of the Clarendom Metro on Friday morning, on the way to my office away from home, when I spotted this wonder. It’s a Hummer H3, complete with a satellite dish mounted to the cargo rack. Took me a second to figure out why I’d see such a thing, until I saw all the suits standing around and more coming out of the building on Wilson Blvd that used to be a lot less quiet and less surrounded by machine-gun-toting security guards.

I snapped a picture, and here’s to hoping I don’t have a phone call from the nice people at the NSA…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

You know you check them. You know, every so often, you can’t resist looking. You check the Washington City Paper’s “I Saw You” column in its Matches section. You may even browse the cornucopia of Craig’s List “Missed Connections“.

I’d admit that I do, especially after a chance encounter with a potential supermodel. Of course, like you I always strike out. Well that was until today.

Finishing Savage Love in this week’s Washington City Paper, I glanced at the I Saw You column and the very first ad caught my eye: Heller’s Bakery in Mt. Pleasant. Interesting. I go there often, almost weekly, and I wondered who was making the mack in my local bakery.

Reading the ad, last weekend came back in a flash – the anger the frustration, the loss of my keys at Heller’s. And then, recognizing the ad was about me, my hopes were dashed yet again. This is an “I’m Sorry” not a “Hey Baby” ad:

Yes, I have my keys now. I picked them up later on Sunday from Heller’s when I bought another gingerbread man.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Okay, probably not what they meant by Fall for the Book but how do you pun about a pun? This Wednesday kicks off the eight day event at noon and follows it up with a smorgasbord of events.

You can’t start a festival on a campus without drumming poets of course (no official word on clove cigarettes but I’m putting my bet down on yes) but the rest of the day runs the gamut from “Poetry On Demand booth – original verses in a matter of minutes” to reduced Shakespeare to an evening book tour appearance from Deborah Tannen explaning why yet another two groups of people don’t understand a damned thing each other is saying.

It looks like an interesting assortment of events, look and see if something else calls out to you.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

“Jenn, you never write about Fashion and Fantasy Shopping anymore! What gives? We want the glamour back!!”

I hear you, moved and seconded. So I’m inaugurating what I hope will be my continuing series on, yes, what Washington is wearing. Here’s the first installation, enjoy!

Sitting in Darpino’s Nemesis Maul, a.k.a the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, resting from a whirlwind Necessity Shopping Tour to outfit myself for a new job. As I sip my deadly mocha, my eyes wander about the crowd and I’m surprised to see some pretty daring fashion choices.

Sauntering by is a girl in a lovely printed kimono dress worn with capri tights and ballet flats. Sure, I wore that same outfit in high school, but I love seeing the art student/model look return. Next down the food court runway is a super skinny girl in super skinny jeans, worn with low leg warmers and metallic flats. Another retro look that could be ridiculous, but Miss Legs pulled it off today. Two fetching Grace Kellys pass by in tailored shirts with sweater vests, pencil skirts and skimmers. Suddenly an impossibly daring all-green ensemble of embroidered cardigan, corduroy flared skirt and slouchy boots meanders purposefully through the crowd.

Ok, it’s not all glamour here – I’m still seeing lots of baggy ghetto wear, track suits with names on the posterior, white nylons with open-toed pumps. But, seeing three looks out of September Vogue in three minutes is a good sign!

And what am I wearing for my shopping expedition? Flounced dress, crocheted sweater, riding boots (so last season). What will I be wearing for fall? I like to think of it as my Katharine Hepburn Goes to Paris look – wide-legged pants (cuffed, natch), delicate lightweight blouses, sweater vests, lots of dramatic flapper slouching.

What do you see Washington wearing?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

And there goes a motorcade through Rock Creek Park.

Not sure which diplomat that was but he got the full Presidental treatment, including the chase ambulance.

I was only sad it wasn’t Bush out for a afternoon run.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

This is the sign that used to be at the intersection of 15th and I Streets NW, if you were on 15th Street going north.

Can you figure out which lane does what?

Now that the sign is gone, every morning I watch motorists trying to figure out which lane goes where, in real time, to the honks and shouts of those practiced in the art of the one way to one way navigation.

I’m only sad that when the sign fell, I didn’t have a car and couldn’t convince any of my friends who did have cars, to help me take it.

At least then I’d know where the needed sign went.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Oh it is so close I can taste it. I can smell the cig free air and the smoke free cloths, feel the phlegm free lungs.

In only 100 days, we will be Smoke Free DC. Only 14 more weekends of ashtrays indoors, of stinky clothes, of deadly air.

Then we can breathe deeply, we can sing loudly, we can be Smoke Free DC.

Join me in the 100 days countdown, in the 100 days celebration, in the 100 days till lung-cleansing freedom!

Smoke Free DC – not a day too soon.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Remember last week when a crack addict crashed his SUV through the Capitol Building security perimeter and then ran into the Capitol Building? Well its seems he wasn’t actually caught by the Capitol Police.

Carlos Greene was caught by the Flag Corps.

Yes, you read that right, those high school rejects, they weren’t even cool at band camp, are the heroes of the day. To quote the Washington Post:

Greene burst into the Flag Office and grabbed the supervisor, Karen Livingston, demanding to know how he could get out. She broke away and a burly male co-worker corralled the intruder. Capitol Police arrived seconds later and made the arrest.

Wow! So a police force the size of Cleveland’s, with 1,600 officers, had to rely on Flag Corps basement workers to protect the Captiol.

I feel safer already.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Long-time sufferers readers have read both Wayan and Stacey‘s takes on the ‘puffer’ explosives detectors in place in our airports, so I thought I’d point out the Post’s story that the machines are apparently headed for the great scrap-heap in the sky, victims of the War on Liquids and their tendency to get clogged up with all the dust and cruft floating around a busy airport.

Color me shocked that a machine designed to ‘sniff’ might need its filters cleaned more often than our crack TSA security is prepared to do.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There’s an in-progress hostage situation going on in Pentagon City on 20th St. Nothing on the news about it yet but the above subject line is a quote from one cop talking to another cop. Which leaves about 14 more not participating in the conversation. Here’s hoping they didn’t really say M4.

Update 8:40pm: The situation continues. At least some of the roads are closed off in Crystal City around 20th S and Ives. Neighborhood chatter and what’s been overheard from the cops indicates the hostage taker is named Gene who had been trying to cope with a substance problem for the last year. Communication between Gene and the cops is going through a friend he is on the phone with. No word on who, if anyone, is being held against their will inside.

Update 10:20pm: The situation has ended with a sniper shot. The hostage-taker was wheeled away on a stretcher, apparently alive. No word of yet about the status of any hostages but nobody else was seen being taken away by ambulance.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

This is another Friday stockday for the CVS at 15th and K Streets. This is not the first time it took over the street or blocked the sidewalk.

Taking over the entire street and blocking the sidewalk is a new level of obstruction.

What is next? Taking over all of 15th and expanding into K Street? Tune in next week..

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Every once in a while, and more frequently than it used to happen, I have a moment where chills run down my spine and I wonder what the fuck we’re doing to ourselves as a nation. Today’s comes courtesy of the Washington Post and the DC Housing authority:

The D.C. Housing Authority began a crackdown yesterday to rid one of its most crime-ridden sites of unauthorized residents by changing the locks on dozens of apartments and requiring every resident over age 10 to get an identification card to carry at all times.

Housing officials in red T-shirts, accompanied by police, knocked on the doors of all 174 apartments at the Park Morton complex in Parkview, asking each person to produce identification.

I know crime’s been bad around here, but are we really going to a system whereby you have to carry your travel papers on you at all times? Or where people can’t visit their friends for fear of being thrown out bodily by a security guard? There’s got to be a better way.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Education is at the center of the city’s malaise. For whatever reason, be it the school board, the adminstration, the poor facilities, what-have-you, DC’s Public School system is hurting. There are a lot of folks who say they want to help out, but are too busy to volunteer, too busy to sit on the board, but rare few are too busy to take a second to give some cash for a cool project. Check out Means for Dreams, which uses a system whereby teachers can craft proposals for classroom projects that you can help fund. Projects run the gamut from donating some DVDs for a Shakespeare DVD library to a Mathematics In-classroom system from Texas Instruments to a science kit for 1st and 2nd graders.

Best still, you can search for your Ward, so you can find schools in your neighborhood. Each school lists the percentage of students who are assisted by the city, each project lists the details of the school that you’d be helping out. All donations are handled through the Means for Dreams organization, which is a 501(c)3 charity, meaning that your donation is 100% tax deductible. Projects range from the small to the large, and you don’t have to donate the entire amount of a project to make a difference. Go, try to make a difference in DC’s schools by helping out on a project basis.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Okay, folks, I’m about to make a joke so epicly bad and in such poor taste that I am apologizing before the link is even thrown down. Sorry. It’s gotta be done.

Apparently the Nats aren’t the only thing at RFK that sucks.

Had to be done. Had to. So yeah, not that I condone getting a hummer at the ballpark in public, in a place where families are (supposedly) hanging out with their kids, but yeah, when the Nats are as bad as they are, I can’t say that I blame the couple in the upper level 500 seats.

As they say on the Mastercard ads…

Tickets to a Nats game: $6
Program: $5
Two Hot Dogs, and some beer: $70

Getting a hummer in the 7th: Priceless.

Here’s to hoping they didn’t get caught. Thanks Deadspin. So, where’s the craziest place you’ve ever caught (or been caught!) an amorous couple?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I knew the Curly and The Rocket “Electricshow” album launch party this Saturday would be different when a supermodel sent me a concert Evite that included these odd and tempting benefits of the $20 cover:

• Your very own copy of Electricshow, the album
• Unlimited intoxicating libations and fun foodstuff
• Photo opps for camera phones

– combined with –

• Swami Yomahmi and Mysterion the Mind Reader
• The Cheeky Monkey Sideshow

And now that I’ve interviewed the Curly part of that duo, I know its not only going to be different, the show is going to be amazing. Why? Let me tempt with you this tidbit from the interview with Curly:

Why the Cheeky Monkey Sideshow in your album release concert?

We wanted to bring together different kinds of artists and performers for our show. Who says seeing live music has to be an opening band and a headliner?

We also feel a kindred connection to the sideshow act – our electric power duo is live, immediate, raw, unusual and independent. I’ve always thought of it in terms of Vaudeville, Chautaqua, and the Carnie Sideshows because we’re bringing our act to the people.

.

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

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Lucky Mr. Mystery, inventor of a now obsolete technology, is getting a good cleaning this week thanks to the National Park Service.

Now here is the question I ask: Who and Where is the Mystery Man and for the bonus, what is the history behind the park?

Winning Prize: A joe-cool, much coveted, Metroblogging DC T-Shirt

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

By way of Circumlocutor comes today’s amazing WTF?!: Rap star DMX says he was raped by a DC woman that now has a child as a result of that encounter.

I guess that’s just how tough DC women are: they can rape 6 foot angry rap stars.

Is there anyone out there who believes this story for longer than a femtosecond?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

For those who have not visited the Eden Center shopping plaza at Seven Corners in Falls Church, you are missing out. The shopping center, at the corner of Wilson Blvd. and Route 7, boasts restaurants, gift shops, video stores, jewelers, a tofu shop and more. People who live near various ethnic neighborhoods may be thinking, “So what? I have my choice of 50 authentic restaurants within walking distance. What’s the big deal?”

The big deal is that the Eden Center is not just another marketplace but has the best of everything with one parking lot and easy access to all. The fact of having one good restaurant, like the award-winning Huong Que (Four Sisters), requires all the others to step up and provide the same level of quality. This is evident as you stroll by the windows and see one after another displaying write-ups in various newspapers and different awards they have won.

A real gem of the shopping center, though, is the Eden Market, which is one of the largest Vietnamese markets I have seen in the area. My test for which Asian market to shop at has to do with availability of ingredients. I look for one particular type of fruit that is particularly tasty and fragrant to those of us who have acquired the taste but disgusting and stinky to those who have not. This market passed the test, having both fresh and frozen durian – the king of fruits. Eden Market is the real deal.

If you have not been there, definitely go check it out. The shopping center is just a mile from the East Falls Church metro and is on a few bus lines as well, so ease of access is not a problem. You will find a treasure trove of super shopping and delightful dining for any taste.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

On Mass Ave there is a protest about political represson in the Philippines. Their catchy slogan: Extra Judicial Killings Must Stop!

I do not want to discount thier protest. I am sure they are very ernest about the people effected.

I would only humbly suggest that they pick a catchy slogan if they want more than a handful of protesters to join them next time.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs