I know that most of us here are avid Flickr users, but I don’t know if I’m the only DC metblogger here who uses their geotagging feature or not. I hope not, since I’ve just discovered – through a post on reader Justin Thorpe’s blog – that Flickr has enhanced the way you can see those tagged images by offering Flickr Places.

The DC Flickr Places page has a neat selection of shots, though they are kinda heavy on the touristy and flashy stuff, like this shot of the 4th of July fireworks behind the Washington Monument. It’s fun, though, to click through on those shots and see the “Taken in Washington, District of Columbia” under the Additional Information header on the right, where the link will show you that user’s local shots.

The screen full of DC entries has one minor flaw, in my opinion, in that it’s not immediately obvious how you move to another block of photos. See the screengrab here with the block of shots? Those left and right arrows are only visible once you mouse over them, making it not immediately obvious there’s more than one bunch of shots when you first load the page. Personally I’d have made them always visible, but they got bought for a bazillion dollars by Yahoo whereas I’m sitting in a cube, so what the hell do I know? So just realize – there’s more than those 12 shots to page through.

This is my fave so far.

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As Don quickly pointed out earlier today, Sean Taylor died early this morning ostensibly from the gunshot wound he sustained in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning. His femoral artery was severed by the bullet, causing severe blood loss, and resulting eventually, despite 7 hours of surgery designed to repair the artery, in his death.

More troubling, though, is the report that his phone line was cut, preventing his wife from calling out for help: “Taylor’s fiancee tried to call police from the house line, only to discover that the line had been cut. She had to use her cellphone to call 911, which delayed the response time.”

My thoughts are with the Redskins family today, as well as with Taylor’s widow and daughter. This is a horrific occurrence.

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170 murdered in DC. In less than 11 months.

While not a record total for DC, it is more than we had all of last year. So far, All-Hands weekends haven’t worked, and apparently gunshot tracking isn’t all that useful either. What solution is there for DC’s police group? How do you better prevent murder? Is it an outreach problem, or is it a police-presence problem? Socio-economic?

We’re still nowhere near the 2005/2004 totals which are just short of 200, so it’s possible last year was just a statistical aberration. Of course, no one really wants to think about that, do they?

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Apparently he succumbed to his injuries early this morning.

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Local musician, blogger, techie and all-around great guy Phil Shapiro has a post today giving thanks to Tim Berners-Lee. In addition, he posted a simple little ditty that I found to be quite heartwarming. Check it out.

Phil is one of the more interesting people out there, a real community builder, and has a great heart. Be sure to check out his bio page and learn more about the good work he does.

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Redskins star safety Sean Taylor was shot in his Florida home early this morning. The Post article goes deep into Taylor’s discipline history and seems to imply that the shooting was either of a domestic nature, or relating to his personal discipline problems, while ProFootballTalk is reporting that the shooting was related to a burglary:

Redskins safety Sean Taylor has been shot in Florida, a source with knowledge of the situation tells us. He is in critical condition at a Miami-area hospital and, per the source, is “fighting for his life”.

Taylor spent Sunday night in his Florida home with his girlfriend and infant daughter. A robbery occurred, and Taylor was shot in the leg by one of the invaders.

The bullet severed his femoral artery. He currently is in surgery.

It strikes me as odd that the two reports are of drastically different nature. Of course, ProFootballTalk being an internet site may not have as detailed a fact-checking department as the Washington Post, I just find it odd that the Post needed to put his discipline problems at the bottom of the article, either as explanatory or expository to the story. However, the Miami Herald is reporting that Taylor was shot by an intruder: “Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins was shot and wounded early Monday by an intruder in his home on Old Cutler Road in Palmetto Bay.” I suspect their fact-checkers are as good as the Post’s. Unfortunately, the Herald also felt it necessary to harp on Taylor’s background.

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Over the weekend, Hawthorne Heights (Warning, plays music) was supposed to play at the 9:30 club, a nearly sold-out show on Saturday night. However, their guitarist Casey Calvert was found dead on the tour bus, the cause of his death is unclear at this time. Hawthorne Heights released this statement via their website on Sunday:

Today is probably the worst day ever. Its with our deepest regrets that we have to write this. Casey Calvert passed away in his sleep last night. We found out this afternoon before sound-check. We’ve spent the entire day trying to come to grips with this and figure out as much as possible. At this time we’re not sure what exactly happened. Just last night he was joking around with everyone before he went to bed. We can say with absolute certainty that he was not doing anything illegal. Please, out of respect to Casey and his family, don’t contribute or succumb to any gossip you may hear.

Having enjoyed Hawthorne Heights on XM on many a drive around town, my heart goes out to the band, and to Casey’s family and friends.

DC Police are investigating Casey’s death, but no timetable is given for any conclusions.

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I’m not sure what it was this morning that finally got me out of bed, but I noticed it wasn’t the sunshine, nor was it a drive to get to work, it might’ve had something to do with the cat poking my eye with his paw, or maybe it was the NPR report about Sarkozy and China on WAMU, I’m not entirely sure. What I found particularly odd was that I wasn’t alone in my turkey hangover this morning.

All along my route into Murky, I was surprised by the lack of traffic. Am I the only one getting a late start this morning? Was it just me with the light traffic? I suspect that if Route 50 was as light as it was, the rest of town was pretty manageable as well. As displeased as I am to be off vacation and back to the grind, knowing that I have an easy ride home may do wonders.

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I’m sitting in my dining room, eating breakfast, enjoying a moment of peace before friends descend and our Orphan Thanksgiving Dinner preparations begin. Running over the list in my head of what goes in the oven, on the cooktop, how long, temperature, how much chopping, dicing – I know it fills a lot of people with dread but for some reason this is my absolute favorite holiday.

It’s even more my favorite now that I’m in my second year of putting my foot down and saying “no way in hell” to traveling anywhere.

The curtains are floating in and out, the windows all open thanks to a magnificent morning (thundershowers later, maybe? that’s ok, we have plenty of candles). The sunlight has begun to stream in the yellow room. I’m so very happy today. Happy for my friends, my family, my house, my husband asleep upstairs. Happy I have the unbelievable luxury of food to prepare and people to make happy by sharing it with them. Happy to live in this beautiful city, maligned by some yet still adored by many.

Happy Thanksgiving, Washington!

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Washington, DC on $85 a Day

Originally uploaded by Musely.

Trompe L’oeil is what the French would call this excellent photo collage featuring the various famous American buildings that are featured on our currency. All those times we pull the bills out of our wallets and purses, their varicolored backgrounds set against the traditional green, we forget that we drive or walk by them and see them every day.

Great shot, Musely!

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Garden edging free for the taking. No joke. These things look really nice. If I hadn’t been dog tired from excessive travel and walking home because of the crappy ART Bus schedule, I would have taken them myself.

Corner of Kensington and 36th Street North in Arlington. Get them before some other person with more energy than I have saunters by.

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photo:whitehouse.gov

Everybody knows that Thanksgiving “weekend” is probably among the best five days in the Washington, DC calendar. People come home for the holiday from wherever they have dispersed to and everybody heads out to clubs and bars – sometimes even those that might be off-puttingly packed with khakied-and-ballcapped transients during the rest of the year.

As for what to do during the day time to amuse yourself and family as people get progressively snippier with each other around the house, how about something that is pleasant and edifying (probably more than can be said of most of the movies you were thinking about)?

My top suggestion is that you remember that all Smithsonian museums are open every day except Christmas. That means they are all open on Thursday for your pre-meal perusal. Try visiting one you have put off before, or go back to a favorite knowing you will have the peace and quiet to really pay attention to the pieces you love. Check out the new Kogod Courtyard at the Reynolds Center. Go to the zoo!

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Let it be known that I am not advocating for some kind of coup, staged under cloak of night, to the end of changing the legal status of the District of Columbia. That would be crazy.

Instead, I am advocating that you head out to the Black Cat Backstage tonight to see the band Statehood perform in support of their just-released record Lies & Rhetoric.

This will be the third or fourth time I have seen the band, which formed in 2006 and has been playing shows in the area fairly regularly. Each time, they have acted exactly like you want your new favorite local band to: enthusiastic and intense, but also modest and friendly at the same time. Bassist Eric Axelson, in particular, always seems so charming when he talks to the audience – presumably a blend of his years of rock-star on-stage nights* and a day job teaching children in a DC public school.

For those who have not yet had the pleasure of seeing them live or hearing the record, the sound is sort of angular and dance-punky, in a way that seems to show the maturity of the musicians behind it. Do you like bands such as Mission of Burma? Appreciate the inevitable (and fair) Dismemberment Plan comparisons? Ok, you will like Statehood. A lot.

What else were you going to do? Hang out with your family at home?**

Black Cat Backstage. November 21, 2007, 9pm. Satehood, with The Aquarium and Gary B & The Notions. $8

*Eric Axelson and drummer Joe Easley were famously members of perhaps my all-time favorite band, The Dismemberment Plan. That fact, and the inevitable comparisons has perhaps gotten more ink than Statehood’s own work, so I will leave that to others to discuss at length. Suffice it to say, yes, there are similarities, but they work for the band, and never come off as samey.

**Possible answers to this question: Let us say for a moment your tastes run more to the dance side than dance-punk. If so, you might want to check out Pho Real 2007 at FIVE. DJ Eleven will be there (among quite a slate of DJs), and is, for some reason, the only one of the three members of The Rub I have never seen live. If you go, let me know how that was.

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Lonely this holiday? Dejected without a place or family with whom to have Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow? Mr. Smith’s of Georgetown, notable for its Tuesday half-price burgers, is offering $14.95 home-style roast turkey meals on Thanksgiving Day. Doesn’t that clipart look scrumptious? Be sure to tip generously — that’s a night of wait staff missing Thanksgiving so you Georgetowners can stuff yourselves with pilgrim fare.

Of course, the whole idea of a restaurant serving Thanksgiving turkey dinners is a novelty to me, and I’m only posting this particular one because their sign caught my eye, but if there are other places doing the same tomorrow, do let our readers know in the comments so they know where to go. Me, I’ll be with the in-laws up north.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This was Metro Center last night — a train on the Shady Grove side of the Red Line had apparently lost power and was emptied and pulled out of service at the very peak of rush hour, in the very middle of the whole system. If you look closely at the photo you’ll see that there are still people in the darkened train. From where I stood it looked like they might have had a bit of a time getting the doors open. “Moderate” delays would cascade to the rest of the Red Line for about half an hour afterward. And now this morning, the alerts are scrolling messages on a train with “mechanical difficulties” at Medical Center causing single-tracking and delays in both directions.

I’m just not sure what’s up with Metro lately. I remember a time back in 2004 when I was so fed up with Metro that I resolved to walk the three miles to work everyday till I heard things had gotten better — which, happily, they did during the reign of Dan Tangherlini. Since then, it’s been downhill again, almost back to the breaking point it was at three years ago. I’m starting to think there’s something to Disaffected Scanner Jockey’s analogy to the Ford Pinto.

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Here’s something we just don’t see as often as we used to in DC: LaRouchies handing out their Master’s literature, singing baroque choruses and casting the requisite aspersions on Cheney, Gore, Rohatyn, and the British monarchy. The night I took this photo it was just one guy, giving out EIR magazines muttering something about Pelosi and the British.

Not all has been well in the strange, conspiracy-ridden world of Lyndon Larouche since the head of his print house tragically jumped off a bridge last April, driven to suicide by an internal memo castigating the organization’s “boomer” followers for lacking the vision of his youth movement’s wide-eyed, wild-eyed younger members. Comrade Lyn is getting old, not running for president this year, barely able to keep his cult together as he rails against the internet for leading his flock astray.

This of course bodes quite well for those of us who are tired of seeing those “Sexual Congress of Cultural Fascism” and “Al Gore – the Naked Truth about Global Warming” blowup sandwich boards and “card table shrines” at schools, Metro entrances, protest marches, and along Connecticut Ave NW. As that particular herd wises up, thins out, and loses ever more funding, the DC streets stand to gain some respite from at least one source of incessant conspiratorial catastrophist ranting.

If you like rubbernecking this particular train wreck as much as I do, you’ll love these links:

• “Publish and Perish” – Avi Klein’s Washington Monthly article
• Scott McLemee’s InsideHigherEd profile of the LYM
• FACTNet message board for former LaRouche followers
• The LaRouche Challenge
• Larouche Watch
• Journalist Chip Berlet’s LaRouche collection
• Kenneth Kronberg Memorial
• Talking to Lyndon LaRouche’s Youth Movement

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Wayan’s DC Photos

If you are leaving for Thanksgiving tonight from National Airport, do not fret about security lines. There are none.

Betrothed Butterbean and I waltzed right up to the TSA security theatre, who prompty yanked my love out of line for an expired license.

After a tearfull repose we arrived at the gate just it time to find our flight two hours delayed.

At least I have a drink and am wearing the right shirt.

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SCOTUSBlog reports that – somewhat to the surprise of some people who think the Roberts-led court avoids doing anything of substance – the Supremes have indeed agreed to hear DC’s appeal on the ruling that struck down the gun ban. So, if you were waiting at the city limits with an arsenal you planned on taking home today, tough.

The hearing will be sometime in March and given the level of interest this has for both sides of the gun debates (if you can call two sides screaming at each other while completely ignoring each other a ‘debate’) you might want to start camping out for a place in line, oh, around now.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There was music, there was juggling, there was magic, there were Lite-brites and Warhol and collage and Marilyn Monroe and beads and Charlie Chaplin and festive hats and a generally fun time at the grand opening of the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian Reynolds Center. My wife and I sauntered over there Sunday after church to check out the new space, expecting a quiet, laid-back afternoon promenade with some light jazz, maybe. We were pleasantly surprised to find a party in full swing: lots of families with kids, and various crafts tables all over the place, as well as free Target-sponsored animal crackers, candy, and cider. Those guys know how to sponsor the arts, I must say.

Hats were an especially prominent feature: the “Festive Hat Design” table was swamped with eager decorators, adorning simple cardboard headwear with everything from flowers and glitter to clever political commentary (i.e. the word “BUSH” under a wobbly house of playing cards).

Of course, the courtyard itself is an architectural marvel. The new undulating skylight gives a sensation of expansiveness and volume that one would miss from just an unroofed space. I do wish I could have seen this courtyard in its pre-renovation days, however; a friend tells me that two ancient sycamores used to grow there, and the hard, gray pavement could use a bit more greenery. I look forward to seeing this space after Opening Day, when the tables are gone and the “water effects” are finally active.

Eye Level, the official American Art Museum weblog, had live coverage and photos of yesterday’s events at the Reynolds Center, and we do invite you to share your own photos and experiences from there in the comments and the DC Metroblogging photo pool.

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Nice parking job, asshat.

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

If you wonder why I hate DC cabbies, look no further than this empty Executive Cab parked in front of a fire hydrant right on Dupont Circle. There are some rules that are so completely universal, I lose all sympathy for people who break them. This is one: Never, ever, ever block a fire hydrant. Ever.

It’s just lame. I dont care if the cab stand at Jurys was full, you don’t just block a fire hydrant, slam it in park and walk off to get a coffee.

Here’s hoping you enjoy that giant ticket.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs