Hard Times Cafe

Originally uploaded by ellen.w.

Driving into Old Town tonight for my weekly trip to the Virginia Tech campus, something didn’t feel right. All of a sudden, I was Payne & King St., the heart of Old Town, but it’s like I had missed the gateway. Suddenly I had gone from residential to commercial with no buffer. I stopped at Payne Street, the site of a recent accident involving my Jetta and a crazy drunk woman’s Nissan, and it didn’t feel right.

Coming home, I put my finger on what was absent: this beautiful antique truck, with American flag & plastic horse and the striking Christmas lights. It’s the gateway to Old Town, coming from the Masonic Memorial. A homey touch of American making the transition from residential to commercial, and tonight its spot stood empty. The tired façade of Hard Times looked lonesome for its eponymous symbol of American perserverance in the face of its iconic Protestant Work Ethic name. Where’d the truck go?!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There’s a magical time of day that comes just before sunrise and just before sunset. Twilight? That may be the term to describe it. It’s when the sky turns a dark shade of blue and the gradient is just amazing. Say goodbye to the harsh, scorching light of day and paint some romance into your photograph with the subtle, fading light of dusk or dawn.

I think this time of day goes strangely neglected in photography. Maybe because it’s such a short period of time? Maybe because it’s when you’re either asleep in the morning or eating dinner at night? The fact is, it’s a perfect time to get your camera out, especially when you’re photographing things like an outdoor Christmas tree, or a quaint plaza, and you want to see a silhouette of your subject. When the sky is pure black as it is when night has fallen, there is too much contrast and it’s hard to expose just right.

Fellow Flickrian ehpien has used this lighting to perfection here with his beautiful sunset reflection of the Lincoln Memorial. I don’t know about you, but I’d love a huge print of this hanging on my wall.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This was supposed to be the post where I excitedly announce that Google Maps has added Metro stops and building outlines for DC. I was all prepared to find some nice, prominent spot in DC to show off the new feature, like maybe the White House and McPherson/Farragut Square area or something, but I entered the zip code wrong, putting in “20050” instead of “20500,” and got this:

If you look closely, Google Maps has a big balloon saying “PENTAGON” pointed squarely at The Ellipse. So yeah, close, but no cigar — I give Google Maps a C+ for Geography and a D- for Geometry.

(Hmmm, maybe this explains that guy who keeps editing the Wikipedia entry for The Pentagon to say that it’s shaped like a circle.)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of F.W. Thomas Performances

It doesn’t have to be current, but hey – everyone’s got a story and the F.W. Thomas Performances would like you to share it. In their own words:

In addition to our ALL-STAR lineup of presenters, we’re opening the podium up to that most dreaded of all show-biz tropes: AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION.

To wit: We are looking for BREAKUP STORIES, EMBARRASSING LOVE LETTERS (THOSE RECEIVED and THOSE WRITTEN AND MERCIFULLY UNSENT) and OTHER ASSORTED TALES of ROMANTIC WOE. Possbily including:

* Transcripts of Instant Messenger dumpings
* Excerpts from restraining orders taken out by celebrity crushes and delivered via process server
* Primary school Valentine’s cards woefully misinterpreted by you

The audience participation portion of the evening will be modeled after a poetry slam. As is the case in a poetry slam, performers will be expected to be dynamic and brief.

Unlike a poetry slam, you will be expected to be funny and interesting.

They had me even before they took a swipe at poetry slams, but that clinched it. Don’t be a wuss, brave the light snow Wintry Doom of Death and get thee just north of the Verizon Center and see the show. Seriously: $5. How wrong could it go?

The Warehouse Theater
1017-1021 7th Street NW
7:30pm tonight

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There’s just a scant 24 hours left before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training down in Viera, Florida, but all I can see going through my head is the scene from Major League with a bunch of suits reading the list of invitees…

Stan Kasten: This is a list of players that I want to invite to Spring Training this year.
Board Member #1: I’ve never heard of half of these guys and the ones I do know are way past their prime.
Manny Acta: Most of these guys never had a prime.
Board Member #2: This guy here is dead.
Stan Kasten: Cross him off then.

With 71 players coming to Spring Training this year, only 3 of whom played with the Nationals all season in 2006, I’ve got to say, it don’t look too good. I’ve got hopes, though, that we can scour the California Penal League for our very own Rick Vaughn, and hope to God that we can find a whole chicken so that our Pedro Cerrano can hit a curve ball.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

This is the florist at 14th and I Streets today.

See all those rose boxes? He is ready for your Valentines flower needs.

I count at least 28 dozen roses in that stack and I bet there are more inside.

Question is: with the impending snow hysteria tomorrow, will there be anyone downtown needing flowers?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

When I wander around the city, I always wonder what radndom utility boxes actually do.

Walking back from a meeting, I saw this one open. At the corner of 14th and I Streets NW seems to be a telephone switching box. Or at least the guys standing around it were from Verizon.

Look at the close up view, recognize any equipment?

How many of these urban utility boxes actually perform some required service, and how many are just relics of the past, like police call boxes now made into art?

I wonder how cleaner our sidewalks would be if we removed all the un-used detritus that clutters our egress.

Might we have room for more trees instead?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Capitol Weather

Well, this is not your day.

Where else are you going to get weather updates that – in addition to not being the hysterical wankfests you get from local tv weather – give you a breakdown of probabilities like this? It beats the hell out of “up to 10 inches!” given that “up to” includes “none.”

On a related note, my grocery shopping excursion an hour ago was shockingly uncrowded. Perhaps the hysteria won’t uncork till after the 11pm news.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Yes, I know who Percy Sledge is.

I had made one of my favorite jokes while having lunch with my wife today. While browsing through the jukebox selections I saw “When a Man Loves a Woman” and made the comment that someone was stealing Michael Bolton’s song. Somebody at a nearby table burst out laughing. I probably had it coming, but I think I’m the one who ended up looking like the “no-talent ass clown” for saying that.

You can tell the difference between a laugh at something funny versus a laugh at incompetence. At least I had the presence of mind to introduce myself as Wayan to the laughing person.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Saturdays in February, especially ones near Valentine’s Day, should be spent being pampered at Salon Roi.

Here the clock-stopping hottie is getting the Diva Mani-Pedi. Complete with luxury chocolate snacks and mud masks for your feet, its the delux treatment you’ll love too.

Better yet, share. Salon Roi can do dual mani-pedis, perfect for a his and hers spa saturday.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Now just how bad would you need to relieve yourself to use this Port-a-Potty? Note that its in the middle of Connecticut Avenue construction.

Not only would you be at risk of a very embarrassing car-person-potty accident, everyone on the street would see you going in for the load-drop.

I think I’ll pass on the median men’s room. Toilets shouldn’t be so public, or so precarious.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A theater in Florida gets a complaint about the word “vagina” in The Vagina Monologues and knuckles, we have a middle school doing a play called “Say you love Satan.”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Metro escalator

Originally uploaded by rpongsaj.

One of the sad facts of the Metro system is that pretty much every day there’s a major malfunction at one of the system’s escalators. There are tons of station who lose escalators for upwards of six months in some cases, and we’ve all seen what even just the slightest maintenance needs will do to the system. Of course, there’s always talk of why the escalators are out service, but DC blogger Good at Drinking, Bad at Life comes up with a truly plausible explanation:

I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories, but it seems to me that perhaps there is a conflict of interest here. We really wouldn’t need nearly that many escalator repairmen if the Metro escalators all suddenly started working. If every escalator in the city went for months without breaking down, the DC Metro system would probably only have to employ about 20 escalator repairmen. Where’s the incentive to permanently fix something if the end result is unemployment? I certainly know that I wouldn’t devote my best effort to fixing something if the result was that 90% of my friends and coworkers would be laid off. It’s the same principle that makes unscrupulous auto mechanics take a wrench to your transmission when you go in to have your brake pads replaced–they make more money when there actually is something that needs to be fixed.

I’m with GWD, there’s something mighty fishy going on here…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

DC Metro-ites, sing, rejoice and be, um, plastered on Valentines Day. The venerable DC beer institution (and Guinness World Record holder), The Brickskeller, is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary in 2007, and has scheduled a year full of great beer events.

Culminating next week is the annual “Craft Brewed Strong Ale” tasting, on February 14th and 15th at RFD (Regional Food & Drink – also managed by the Alexander family). This is quick on the heels of last month’s “Lovefest” with Russian River (CA) and Allagash (ME) breweries at the Brickskeller’s upstairs tap-room. Call 202-289-2030 for tickets, they do sell out fast, as this is one of the annual highlights of the “beer tastings“. Support craft brewing and regional brewers such as Capitol City, Sweetwater Tavern, The D.C. Chophouse and others by trying something out of the ordinary with your sweetheart.

Also on “tap” this year for “The Brick” is a series of lectures and tastings about the Philosophy on Tap series in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution entitled – “What Is the Nature of the Mind?”. Also, “The Beer Hunter”, Michael Jackson is set to return for a fundraiser for Parkinson’s Disease (which he, himself, just revealed he has been battling) later this spring. If you think a Budweiser, Miller or Coors is all there is to beer (really, they are NOT beer), I highly recommend trying something out of the ordinary with your sweetheart this Valentines Day. (and at the very least, with a batch of strong ales [> 9% abv], you can forget about the evening’s events if they go south!)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I found myself with an hour and a half to kill last night and decided to wander down to the Crystal City shops, which I had never had occasion to visit before. A quick clarifying question – is it a nicer place when stores are actually open? The whole place seemed dreary and I suspect it might even be so during business hours.

Everything except the restaurants seems to close around seven o’clock, which left me with nothing to do or see except the occasional person walking purposefully through the hall, no doubt residents of one of the high-rise apartment buildings nearby. Why else would someone be there after dark?

After a few minutes the night security guard started to eye me suspiciously, probably because there are few legitimate reasons to go there at night and even fewer to wander around while killing time. As I left I wondered if there was a legitimate reason to go there during the day or if it is simply another place that caters mainly to the area lunch crowd.

My biggest source of curiosity was that the restaurants seemed to be doing good business at that late hour of eight o’clock but that the stores were closed, despite people going there. Perhaps I am not a retail genius but wouldn’t it usually makes sense to be open when customers are around? I understand the shoeshine place, leather repair or some other service like that being closed, but isn’t there a whole mess of opportunity being passed over by the clothing stores, coffee shops and other such smaller places?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

It’s been a while since I’ve written a honest concert review (at least for no money), but I figured sharing an experience with Metblog readers about one of the best bands you’re probably not listening to, The Guggenheim Grotto. They were headlining Jammin’ Java last night supported by Alfonso Velez (a Paul Simon voice with Phil Ochs song-writing, tonight @ The Black Cat) and The Sketches, performing a rare acoustic set due to their lack of a drummer for the gig.

Overall, the performances were even and well-done, some not as polished, but excusable for looseness of the setting. Mr. Velez was a pleasant surprise, bearing a level of honesty and personalization of his life around DC that helps bring you into the performance. I felt some of the riffs seemed overly familiar, but realized he was imitating as flattery and not as plagiarist. The Sketches (performing Friday, 2/16 @ The Black Cat and a soon to be released CD) were feeling restrained as an acoustic arrangement, even joking that their twisting in their seats was due to wanting to ‘rock out’, but being constrained by not being ‘plugged in’.

Of course for me, and the main draw for hoofing it to VA from MD, was catching The Guggenheim Grotto, and they did not disappoint. Hot off being on a number of “Best of…” lists for 2006, and 2007 Independent Music Awards, and gaining a US distribution deal (bar originally being sold through CD Baby), this Irish band is making their second go-round in the US, returning to Jammin’ Java for the second time (I’m kicking myself for missing the first…). Tracks of their album “…Waltzing Alone” have found their way in to TV shows and other media, besides the fact of also being regular fan favorites on radio. Their hit in the UK, “Told You So” has a familiar quality to it, and is definitely one of the catchier tunes, but of the better tracks on the CD, “A Lifetime In Heat” is, by far, the stand out lyrically and musically. The entire album is consistently good, and playable (over, and over, and over again). I’m sure as more folks end up hearing them (as I did on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic“), they’ll be off and on their way. If anybody from other Metblog cities are readers, try to catch them if they drop in in your neighborhood.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Mr. zachstern, our resident digital infrared photography guru, has done a beautiful job on this shot of the Jefferson Memorial. As a newbie to the area, I never realized that the Tidal Basin froze over during the winter but duh, of course it does, especially in this horrific weather. When I think of the Jeffy, I think of cherry blossoms, tons of gawking crowds, and warm, sun burning weather. But I love the memorial’s reflection on the ice and the overall composition.

I really like a lot of this guy’s photos, but I have to wonder: does he ever get sick of the infrared thing? Does he feel obligated to shoot mostly IR photos because people on Flickr are expecting him to? Or is it simply because it turns what might be an ordinary photo into something very out of the ordinary? Only he knows the answer to that one.

On a side note for all of you Canon DSLR lovers out there, there are strong rumors that Canon will announce some new cameras on February 23rd. It’s possible that they will upgrade the 30D and the 1Ds Mark II sometime this year. It’s going to be like Christmas in February.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A friend once told me, in response to a question about how long DC-area snow takes to melt, “Snow in the Baltimore-Washington area lasts about three days longer than its last vestige of beauty.”

As evidenced by the hand in the photo, we didn’t get a whole lot of the fluff in DC last night, and I woke up just a bit too late to photograph whatever pretty views got melted away by sun and salting. But I did get some pics, including my pride and joy for the day, a 360° panorama from the Capitol.

Got any good photos of last night’s snow? Add them to the pool!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Ian Mackaye of Fugazi lays down the funk on the DC Council when it comes to all-ages clubs. Listen to Mackaye, listen to what he has to say to the Council. Well said, Ian. It’s four minutes long, yes, but his points are darn clear: it didn’t matter what age the people at the club were, someone would’ve been hit by that bullet.

Banning all-ages clubs and events is a really dumb way of handling things in the wake of the situation that brought on the current legislation. It’s time to get the council to pay attention and work on problems that they CAN solve, not create ones that they can’t.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

No, not Adrian Fenty, Mayor-for-life Marion Shepilov Barry. Barry inexplicably put forth a bill at the Council meeting that would suspend the gun-control laws for 90 days, which would allow handguns in the District for 90 days. I think the best explanation for all of this is that Barry is out of his fucking mind, evidenced by this quote:

“Let’s not only make our city safer, but people ought to feel safer,” said Barry. “Now I’m opposed to any citizen having a gun in his or her house, but there are some citizens who, they ought to have these guns registered, so we should accommodate that.”

Let’s try and parse this? “Let’s not only make our city safer.” Okay, got that. “But people ought to feel safer.” So, if the city IS safer, I expect people to FEEL safer in the city. They go together, right? Now I’m opposed to any citizen having a gun in his or her house” So, you want to make it legal for 90 days for people to have guns in their homes, but you’re opposed to citizens owning firearms. Wha? “but there are some citizens who, they ought to have these guns registered, so we should accommodate that.” It sounds, Mr. Barry, like what you really want is a gun amnesty. Turn in your gun, no questions asked, and the city will be cool with it. But, instead, you proposed that we suspend the gun laws for 90 days. Are you using again? Really? I mean, I’m all for removing the gun ban in DC, as it’s not preventing a good deal of violence. Homicide-by-firearm is still going on in the District, still powered by illegal guns, I don’t think opening it up again to residents being allowed to responsibly own firearms will make it that much worse, do you?

What was the Mayor-for-Life really saying?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs