Well, Hello everybody, and namely those regular Metblog readers. I figured I’d slip in my “hello” under the radar of the “holidays” (and aren’t there so many of them) to all those dilligent readers who don’t have the local “use or loose” and are stuck at work this week.

As a slight introduction, I’ve been a DC area resident off and on since the early 1990s (enough to see the changes), and have firmly ensconced myself in the various roles of the area (single/married, non-profit/government/private-sector, scene-ster/old-guy) and have come to love all that was, is, and can be DC. I hope the folks here will tolerate the new/old blood. I’m not sure I’m the regular mold folks may be expecting, more of a lurker than a pontificator but definitely somebody who has something to say now and again.

I accept Tom’s and the rest of the DC Metroblog’s staff challenge to come up with those pithy three articles a week and hope my perspective on the area, it’s life, culture, and of course, politics, may be fun and entertaining. Glad to join the team, and hope to see you all in the “bitsphere” in the coming weeks.

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Happy Holidays from the Authors of Metroblogging DC. May your season be one of joy, peace, good will and good friends and family. The photos here are from various flickrstreams of our authors, and some that you have posted to our Flickr Group. Thanks especially to Max Cook, Maria K., bossa67 and Doug Clifton.

The music is Sufjan Stevens’ Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, and is my favorite version of my favorite Christmas carol.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ll have a writeup about our experience seeing She Loves Me later today, I hope (executive summary: very good, you should go, it’s the last week) but for the moment I’ll just comment on Arena Stage’s odd advertising.

Uh, what? Did they pick this up at a white elephant sale when the now-defunct WB network dumped their old collateral before becoming the CW? From a 2004 (when this sucked the first time) writeup: “During tonight’s shows, the WB had the words “Fresh Episode” in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Hmm… Is that just fresh as in new or fresh as in “funky fresh”?”

Seriously Arena: ditch this phrase. It was lame when it was original, ie, not now that you’re using it.

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If you’re an electronica music fan like I am, and you know your DC bands, then of course you love Thievery Corporation. Even if you don’t live in DC and you’ve seen such movies as Garden State, you’ve heard their music and chances are you liked it.

I attended their concert at the 9:30 Club last night, part of an unprecedented four night, sold out performance that rocked the club down to its timbers (should have brought my ear plugs). Part of the draw to TC for me is that they appeal to so many different audiences due to the fact that they incorporate so many different sounds in their music. In attendance last night were hip hop dudes, yuppie suburbanites, and even people over the age of 50. Tell me, what concert are you going to see a mix like that? Jay Z? Kenny G? Neil D? I think not.

While the energy of last night’s performance was amazing, it slowly turned into a reggae festival. Don’t get me wrong, I like reggae as much as the next freedom fighter, but I can only take so much of it. My friend and I decided to cut it short after the 18th ear drum pounding, dreadlock flinging, reggae-esque song. Overall, there were some amazing guest singer performances and for those of you who were lucky enough to see one of their shows, how about that belly dancer, huh?

PS – Sorry for the low quality photo. Camera phones are not cut out for concert photography (or much else for that matter).

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Captured by YouTube:

Now, granted, this may cause some controversy: Which is worse? That these jackasses got away with being jackasses, or that they got licenses like that?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

You can get a lot of things in Virginia and in DC, but one thing you can’t get is Everclear. It’s 190 proof, highly flammable, and only available in Maryland. So, as I was out on a client visit anyhow, I stopped by a liquor store on the way home and picked up a full handle of the stuff. Now, before you call out for an intervention, or send the Alcoholics’ Anonymous SWAT team to my house, I’ve got good reason to need the stuff: Limoncello. We’re making a big batch for New Years’ this year, and that’s the primary ingredient, beside the 15 lemons.

It may force you to head outside the district, Wayan, but getting the good liquors requires a trip outside the District, as VA and DC tend not to sell the really good stuff in their state-run operations.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

My grandmother’s grandfather got off the boat from Italy, settled in Pittsburgh, and pretty much never went anywhere else. Neither did most of his descendants. So even though “Baxendell” is about the least Italian name you’ll hear, and even though I look less Italian than almost anyone you know, it’s the Italian part of my family that I grew up around, and it’s their traditions I associate most with holidays.

So I was delighted to see in my Daily Candy email this morning that Dino in Cleveland Park will be offering a traditional, family-style Feast of Seven Fishes this weekend.

Christmas Eve used to be a day of fasting in the Catholic tradition, and no meat could be eaten. With Italy being a big ol’ peninsula with lots of coast, fish was easy to get, so families started making it the centerpiece of their celebratory meal, of course winding up in time for Midnight Mass. The menu varied from village to village and family to family, and of course the tradition carried over to Italian Americans as well. The fasting requirement has been lifted from Christmas Eve, but the feast tradition remains.

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

This would be a taxi in Old San Juan, the capitol of Puerto Rico. Guess how much it is for a ride around their “Zone 1”?

$10. And then it jumps up by $5 at the mystery “zone” lines like in DC.

Its pretty much at least $20 for a Old San Juan to anywhere local trip each way.

The only bonus? Like in DC, longer rides are somewhat cheaper. Across the island is $80 which you can share with as many people that can fit into the van.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Anyone interested in meeting others who do media stuff online, feel free to come to the Cleveland Park Library at 6:30 tonight. Here are all the details.

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I am completely amazed by Flickr user Steve Strawn’s gallery of stop action, broken glass photos. The planning, creativity, and perseverance that’s needed to do work like this is hard to find. The lighting in his photos is fantastic and his use of colors (this one titled “Broken Primaries”) really adds the extra pop to push these to the professional level. I would love to see his setup for these and watch the master at work. This makes me want to head over to Ikea to buy a pallet of glassware so I can attempt some shots of my own. Warning, if you try this at home, be sure to wear some protective eyewear!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So there I was, standing in line at Filene’s on Connecticut today, and I swear I must have gotten the trainee cashier. I hadn’t eaten lunch yet and it took so long that by the time I was done my hands were shaking so badly from low blood sugar that I could barely sign the receipt. Usually I do all my holiday shopping online, but I got a late start this year and I’m running out of time to wait for shipping. So what’s a crowd-hating, mall-disdaining, DC-based shopper to do?

Anyone who has been reading Metroblogging DC for any length of time knows about, but might forget, the many fine open-air markets available in and around DC. Excellent for the shopper who needs to pick things up and hold them before deciding as well as the person who can’t stand a big crowd in an enclosed space. In addition to the Holiday market mentioned earlier today, there’s Eastern Market, the Georgetown Flea Market, the Clarendon Antiques Market, etc. I’ve found some terrific photography gifts at such places, and there’s usually an array of other interesting things to be found as well. You never know, you might just be supporting a Metroblogger in the process.

There’s the ever popular White House Christmas Ornament. We mentioned these last year- they’re great for like, grandmas and stuff who are oh-so-proud of their progeny who have moved to Washington. I can just hear my own grandma saying, “Oh, my granddaughter got that for me on her lunch break. She works just near the White House, you know…” Anything that gives Grandma bragging rights at the bridge club is an excellent gift.

And then, of course, you can make your own damn gifts. Photojojo has a great guide on photo-related gifts this year, and of course Flickr has a selection as well, in addition to a huge Creative Commons-licensed pool of images you can use if you’re not a shutterbug. Might I suggest the Metroblogging DC Flickr Pool as a starting point?

As for me, well, I’m still not done, so now I’m looking for your suggestions. What are your favorite less-crowded places to look for gifts locally?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Over the weekend, seven episcopal parishes in northern Virginia voted to split with the Diocese of Virginia over the issue of homosexuality. Specifically, the seven parishes object to the ordination of a gay bishop and the sanctioning of same sex unions. The churches now each face a lengthy legal battle regarding the ownership of the churches’ properties as they belong to the diocese of Virginia. The objection is being couched in terms of “following scripture” instead of the more likely explanation of “we dislike gay people and think they should be stoned.”

The churches will now be aligned with the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, who encourages the jailing of homosexuals, so it’s really not so much about scripture as it is the jailing of those damn gays. Personally, I think the whole thing is no great loss for the Diocese of Virginia, so long as they’re able to get a good agreement of the purchase of the property.

The reactions from the parishioners, both for and against are strong, and full of emotion. One local Episcopal blogger wrote today: “Yes, I’m deliberately avoiding a discussion of the current unpleasantness here on this blog. There are many other sites both conservative and liberal that are more than happy to hash that out, and I’ve even commented on some of them. Just… not here, not today, alright?”

I can certainly understand the reaction. What’s your take?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Apparently we’re expected to set a record high today with temperatures in the mid 70s in some areas. Amazing stuff for the second half of December. If you’re in the downtown area you might want to use this lovely weather as an excuse to wander over to the Downtown Holiday Market set up over on 7th and F near the Verizon center. The other vendors told us yesterday that the biggest problem they’re having is that it’s so popular that people are having trouble keeping up their stock. So (please forgive me for this one – I couldn’t resist) go get it while it’s hot!

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I took my darling girlfriend out to dinner at Cafe Atlantico on Friday night for her birthday, and while the entrees were fantastic we didn’t find any deserts that really blew our skirts up.

Yes Wayan, we were indeed both wearing skirts. So nyah.

So we decided to go over to Love Cafe for a happy birthday cupcake. While they didn’t have any candles for us (what’s up with that, Warren? They’re cheap and I’da paid $1 for one! Make a note – new profit center.) they did say that if DG could pony up ID showing that it was her birthday then her cupcake would be free! She did and it was.

So go by on your special day, buy a cup of coffee and enjoy your birthday cupcake. And remember: no matter how much getting older may suck, it beats the only known alternative.

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Photo by DCMetblogger

Now this is happy hour pricing! Check out those wallet-friendly prices. My favs:

$5 Cuban Mojitos
$8 Corona Buckets

Yep, Santa Rosa Seafood Sports Bar at 18th and Wyoming is on my happy hour list.

While it might not be a Cafe Citron Thursday and maybe lacking the young and beautiful, I know my wallet (and your) will be so much happier.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Schoschie

Anyone else see that shooting star flash across the sky arounf 6:08pm this evening? Pretty damned cool – it was visible for about a full three seconds and looked like it had calved – I saw two distinct bright dots next to each other.

Just to show that I haven’t entirely left behind the remnants of reaching adulthood during the cold war: As it disappeared off to the southeast I thought “Hope that really WAS a shooting star… wonder if I should close my eyes and look away so I’m not blinded by the flash.”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Downtown After Dark

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

For every commission report and press conference in DC, of which there are approximately 3 gazillion each year, there are the people that appear on the news, and there are the people who make the event Happen. If you see enough of these events in your time here in DC, you frequently miss the people that make these sorts of events possible. Today, I got to be one of those People for the The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce as they launched their report and presented their case to invited guests today at the Grand Hyatt downtown. There’s a ton of work that goes into these events. My partner and I have been planning and plotting the AV for the event for close to a month now, and worked multiple 12 hour days this week making sure everything went off without a hitch.

It’s an amazing thing to watch an event come together, with all the screens and podia and chairs and tables and people working in concert with the space to get it all ready. Last night, as I took a quick break to find a laser point and a presentation remote, I caught this picture of H St. downtown. Downtown DC after dark, as most of the people have cleared out of the business district, as most of the folks who were writing and presenting were off to dinner, is so incredibly peaceful and serene.

In that calm and serenity lie of the very best of DC, in the midst of winter.

So, thank your support staff today, if you’ve ever hosted an event at a downtown hotel, or ever made a presentation. A smile and a thanks on a job well done are never as good as a raise and a nice gift card, but sometimes they’re the best thing you can give someone.

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As punishment for losing to the New England Revolution, the DC United, er, wait a second. Let’s stop and have a moment here. I’ve been castigated twice on other blogs this week for using a definite article to refer to the soccer-team-that-plays-at-RFK-and-whose-name-involves-the-concept-of-unification. Is it The DC United? Or just DC United? Does it really fucking matter? The lack of a definite article could mean that there are, in fact, other groups within the District of Columbia who could use the concept of Unification to define themselves without concern for being referred to one for the other?

When I was an MLS fan in 1998-2000 in Columbus, we always referred to DC’s club as “The United,” or, actually it usually involved something to do with them being the team that would paste us at the Crew’s stadium while we ogled the hot soccer chicks (hey, we were dumb college kids, what else could we do? It’s not like fake IDs were readily available…).

Regardless of whether or not our soccer team gets a definite article, they are going to be playing host to the 2007 MLS Cup at RFK Stadium on November 18th, 2007. Tickets will run between $30 and $100 per. No word if you’re allowed to refer to a collection of tickets to said event as “The Tickets.”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DCMetblogger

Look! Phone books! Wow. I cannot believe they still make those things. I guess there are still couches missing legs. Or maybe it’s a cheap way to heat when firewood runs low.

This is Washington DC, we are all online. Why are there still phone books? And who still uses them? You? Why, pray tell!

All I see are dead trees, killed, wasted for useless blocks of pulp that in the case of my apartment building, wound up tossed in the recycle bin.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

With Metro’s giant budget gap looming, and the budget meeting to discuss new fare and service options this evening, commuters and other Metro riders ought to get ready for some pain in the wallet. Metro’s fares have remained constaint since 2003, and are now facing a significant increase.

What’s good? SmarTrip users won’t pay quite as much an increase as those who use paper tickets, with paper ticket fares going up by $0.65 to $1.75, while SmarTrip fares will go up only $0.15 to $0.45.

What’s a little weird? That the downtown core stations will get an extra $0.35 tacked on to the fare. From Courthouse to L’Enfant Plaza on the Orange Line, Pentagon to L’Enfant Plaza on the Blue Line, Pentagon to Mt. Vernon Square on the Yellow, Mt. Vernon Square to Waterfront on the Green Line and from Dupont Circle to Union Station, is the new zone (see also the graphic here) that will receive an additional $0.35 congestion charge.

The new “max fares” under the new fare regime would be $4.75 for SmarTrip customers and $6 for paper ticket customers. Also on the block are some of the weekend and holiday services, so you may end up waiting longer and longer for trains on the weekends and on certain holidays. Metro won’t be changing service for holidays like Independence Day because they’re not completely mental. As many as twelve bus-lines may also face service cutbacks or outright route cancellations. Fares for the bus may go up by $0.05 if WMATA’s plan goes into effect.

So, fares are on the rise, and services are going to be cutback. Is this too much of a fare hike? Too much of a service cutback for too much a service cut? What say you?

graphic shamelessly cropped and borrowed from this Washington Post Story, with kudos to the graphics team there and apologies because any graphic I’d have done would’ve involved stick figures or badly drawn metro maps.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs