Food and Drink, Night Life, The Features, We Love Drinks

The Week in Drinks in Pictures

Tiki Tuesday 7
All photos by the author

If you follow me on Twitter, you might be aware that this has been an eventful week. Literally. Friday the Social Chair and I hosted her birthday party, Sunday we hit our usual brunch, Monday I had a tasting, and Tuesday saw the launch party for Dan Searing’s new book, The Punch Bowl. Plus Tuesday was, as always, Tiki Tuesday at the Passenger. So I was busy.

Instead of picking just one of those, I thought this week would be a perfect opportunity for a photo feature. So here goes.

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The Features

Photos: Old Washington in the Winter

Taft Inauguration

Photo courtesy of the DC Public Library

I love Flickr. Here at We Love DC, we all love Flickr. Without your contributions to our pool, the site would be a lot less colorful. But one of my favorite things about Flickr is The Commons, where museums of the world post selections of their historic photography collections. It can be fun sometimes to spend an hour or two lost in a long-ago world, made all the more enlightening because so many of those photos show scenes of our very city: Washington. As we recover from last week’s snowstorm and as we’re currently dealing with another mess of a weather pattern, it seems like the right time to take a look back at how Washingtonians of the past dealt with winter.

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The Daily Feed

Photos: DC Henge, such as it was, the moon and special bonus storm

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington Monument – Old Glory Aflame – 09-22-10’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

Yesterday had the potential to be a squee-worthy afternoon for DC photographers. The first day of autumn meant the possibility of spectacular light as the sun set directly along the east-west axis of the city’s streets during an event we have come to know as DC Henge, and shortly after that, the harvest moon was set to rise in alignment with the major monuments along the mall. Both are twice-yearly events that drive the photographers wild, but to have both happen on the same day is pretty unusual.

So of course, something had to go wrong. In this case, storm clouds conspired to obscure the moon until it had risen well past the Capitol Dome, and haze kept the sun’s brightest rays a bit dimmer than we’ve seen in recent days. But, because there is always a silver lining in every cloud, that storm gave up some spectacular lightning bolts for the photographers conveniently already in place along the mall. Below the jump, a collection shots featuring the moon, the sun, the storm and other signs of the apocalypse: Continue reading

Music, The Daily Feed

Photos: Welcome back, Fort Reno.

Photo courtesy of

courtesy of ‘erin m’

I love Fort Reno. And I don’t mean in some, “Oh man, that’s a great event” sort of way. I mean…well, you remember that scene in “Say Anything” where John Cusack is holding up the boom box outside Ione Skye’s window? That’s how I feel about Fort Reno, the summer concert series that kicked off Thursday night. Fort Reno to me is summer. It is grass. It is picnics. It is kids and dogs and ice cream trucks and glorious sunsets and, most importantly, it is music.

Thursday’s show became the de facto kick-off for this year’s series after the threat of rain canceled last Monday’s concert, and a drummer’s broken arm forced the usual trio of bands to become a twosome–let’s hope that’s it for the curse-like events this year. The two bands, Gangland Buries Its Own and Sleeper Agent, stepped up admirably and gave a great welcome to this year’s concerts. After the jump, photos of the picnics,  the people, the glorious sunset and the music.

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The Daily Feed

Photos: Summer vs. winter. Let’s compare.

Photo courtesy of
‘crystal palace II’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Remember winter? Yeah, that was nice. It was just four short months ago that we were recovering from the Great SnOMGasm Snoverkill Snomageddon Whatever the Heck we Finally Ended Up Calling It of 2010. Back when we put on layers of clothes just to get out of bed and then walked uphill both ways through snow and ice just to find out the store was out of milk and condoms anyway. When we spent weeks cowering from Mother Nature’s wrath, trapped by the piles and piles and piles of snow that just. would. not. end. And then we did it again. Dreaming of better days, warmer days, summer days. So, D.C., four months later, we’ve got our wish. It’s hot. How’s that working out for ya?

With help from the talented members of the We Love DC Flickr pool, let’s take a look back at the cold, snow-filled winter of 2009-10 and see what a difference a season makes:

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Featured Photo

Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of
‘a summer romance’ by ‘Blinkofanaye’

At 5:00 on any given Friday afternoon in the summer, Jazz in the  Garden is just getting started, and space quickly becomes scarce as hundreds of worker bees flock for a little wine, maybe a pitcher of (surprisingly potent for what you pay) sangria, a picnic and some tunes. It’s a grand way to spend an evening, even if by hour two you’re hot, sticky and a little closer than you’d like to be to the sweaty stranger who drank too much of that sangria.

Or you could do what this couple did: carve out a nice, cool space for themselves where the crowd couldn’t get to them. Sure, the police will come along eventually and escort you away (to the boos of the crowd), but in this moment, for these two people, none of that matters. All they feel is that cool, forbidden water on their feet, and all they see is each other. It takes a certain kind of guts to walk into a fountain and, ahem, dance like nobody’s watching. That’s the kind of guts we could all use more of.

We’re lucky Flickr user Blinkofaneye caught the moment so perfectly, with the fountain water glistening and half the crowd in the background oblivious to the scene unfolding right in front of them. He also caught the pair a moment later, hands entwined, proud smiles on their faces, and really, can you blame them? (Hat tip to Tracy Clayton, who tweeted the incident as it happened and also captured it and posted a play-by-play of their dance.)

Life in the Capital, People, The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors, WTF?!

This Week in Rodents: Squirrels 1 – Hawks 0

Photo courtesy of
‘Salient #10’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

A local squirrel is recovering after a narrowly escaping a hawk, this week.  This normally wouldn’t be news except that the incident was captured on film by local photographer Mark Hansen. Check out the photos here and note the priceless WTF look on the hawks face, post miss. Sweet shots, Mark!

The Features, Weekend Flashback

Weekend Flashback: 1/29 – 1/31/2010

Photo courtesy of
‘single snowman’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

While Saturday proved to be more than just a ‘dusting,’ it was still less than our Snowpocalypse of December. And when there’s light, fluffy snow and a sunny day afterward, it’s just natural to have photographers out in droves to capture the beauty created around the capital area.

Enjoy. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Senate Subway, Then and Now

From historical photoblog Shorpy we get this underground gem:

Senate Subway, 1915

That’s the Senate Subway, c. 1915, just two years after it started operation, part of the whole Capitol Subway System. After the jump, you can see how the Senate Subway still uses open-air cars, though somewhat more modernized.

(Update: Well, boy is my face red; the ‘today’ photo after the jump is actually from the House subway, not Senate. You can tell I’ve never ridden either system, not having had the privilege of working on the Hill myself.) Continue reading

Talkin' Transit, The Features, WMATA

Talkin’ Transit: Eye Candy

Photo courtesy of
‘Inside the Metro Car’
courtesy of ‘Bogotron’

I was going to take today’s article and gripe about the “Follow the Rules” mandate now being enacted by most of the Metrobus drivers this week. But really, what’s the point? (And what exactly is their point, too, other than to make commuters surly and late?) So if you’d like to gripe or share your bus ride horror story, share in comments. I can’t really gripe, because I don’t ride the bus, but I offer you the chance to blow off steam.

Instead, I offer pictures.

Metro is the subject of many of our local photographers, including myself. So today let’s just take a grand look at some excellent shots taken by local and visiting photographers.

Sometimes, pictures are worth a thousand words. Continue reading

The Features, Weekend Flashback

Weekend Flashback: 9/18 – 9/20/09

Photo courtesy of
‘Zooming around H Street’
courtesy of ‘mediaslave’

Zooma-zoom-zoom and a boom-boom!

Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.

Hope your weekend was as fantastic as our weather was. Technically the last weekend before fall, I think summer finally went out with some panache. Now we get to look forward to fall colors, football disappointments and holidays galore! In the meantime, hold on to the last hours of summer by checking out some great photos from our area readers, taken over the last few days.
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The Features, Weekend Flashback

Weekend Flashback: 7/10 – 7/12/09

Photo courtesy of
‘what to pick…’ courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Once again, a great cross-section of photos from over the weekend in the area.

If you’d like to see your photo pop up on our Flashback, here’s how it works. Once you upload it to Flickr, drop it into our photo pool. (The photo has to have been taken between that Friday and Sunday evening.) That’s really all there is to it; myself or one of our other authors will select those photos we think best gives a look at weekend happenings in the area. If you’d like to make it a little easier for us, put “weekend flashback” in the photo’s tag list.

Thanks to all our photo contributors for making every flashback a difficult one to do. So many great shots every time! Here’s a look at this past weekend; enjoy before you get back to that daily grind. Continue reading

The Features, Weekend Flashback

Weekend Flashback: 6/26 – 6/28/09

Photo courtesy of
‘Wild DC – Immature Bald Eagle – 6-27-09’ courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

The weekend before the ‘mass exodus’ of the Fourth holiday…and it was a gorgeous one. Eastern Market now open, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in full swing, boating and water sports on area rivers and even simple ‘backyard’ fun – our area photographers caught it all.

So before this short work week gets into full swing, sit back and reminisce a little. And get ready for the long weekend!

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The Daily Feed

Street Car at Washington Monument, 1938

Streamliner: 1938

Streamliner: 1938

From Shorpy, the historic photo blog: a DC street car near the Washington Monument in 1938. The view seems to be looking west from 15th St, and could almost be a modern view, aside from the street car, rails, and old-timey automobiles parked on the ramp — right up to the base of the Monument, something you couldn’t do today, what with the ha-ha wall.

The Features, Weekend Flashback

Weekend Flashback: 5/15 – 5/17/2009

Photo courtesy of
‘Rolling In’ courtesy of ‘Rob Shenk’

To many, this past weekend was our last before the throngs of tourists flood our fair District. Starting this upcoming 3-day weekend, the ‘summer’ season opens up and quiet weekends around town will be nothing but a memory until after Labor Day.

But even though the ‘official’ start of the summer season has yet to kick off, we residents – as usual – made the most of our time, enjoying what the District has to offer us. From festivals to airshows, rain or shine, our determined photographers were out and about, capturing images for our Monday morning readers to gaze upon. So take up your coffee and a moment and reminisce over the last ‘quiet’ weekend in the area… Continue reading