‘366 – 350: You can’t shut me up’
courtesy of ‘yoshiffles’

Yesterday afternoon, Transformer Gallery began showing a controversial video by late artist David Wajnarowicz, which made waves this week after it was removed from the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibit “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” The video will be shown on a continuous 24-hour loop in Transformer’s front window.

The four-minute video depicts ants crawling over an image of Jesus Christ, meant to symbolize the suffering of an AIDS victim. The decision to remove the piece from “Hide/Seek” came on the heels of an uproar fueled by an article on CNSNews.com, which decried the use of federal funding to support an exhibit containing LGBT, sexual and religious themes.

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‘Washington Redskins at Tampa Bay Buccaneers – August 2, 1997’
courtesy of ‘trainman74’

While players and owners continue to negotiate new agreements, it’s becoming more and more likely the 2011 NFL season really may find itself locked out. In advance of this, teams are trying to navigate the waters between planning the next season ticket ventures and avoiding too many contracts. The Redskins announced today, just as other teams around the league, that there will be no ticket price increase next season, and that refunds will be provided in the event of a lockout. From the release:

“We remain hopeful that an agreement can be successfully negotiated between the League and the Players Association,” said Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder. “If that does not occur, all Washington Redskins season ticket holders will be offered full refunds for any games that are missed.”

I love that the NFL – and Snyder, especially – do seem to be forced to go on the record to clarify that final point. “In the event of no games, we will give you your money back. No crossies. No, seriously, stop laughing.”

‘American and English fans react as they watch World Cup match at Ireland’s Four Courts Pub’
courtesy of ‘TDLphoto’

Dave Eggers once famously described American sentiment towards soccer through the following story:

When I was 13—this was 1983, long before glasnost, let alone the fall of the wall—I had a gym teacher, who for now we’ll call Moron McCheeby, who made a very compelling link between soccer and the architects of the Iron Curtain. I remember once asking him why there were no days of soccer in his gym units. His face darkened. He took me aside. He explained with quivering, barely mastered rage, that he preferred decent, honest American sports where you used your hands. Sports where one’s hands were not used, he said, were commie sports played by Russians, Poles, Germans, and other commies.

I post this for two reasons.

1) There are a lot of people from the Drudge Report on our site right now and I’m feeling vindictive.

2) Within the next 24 hours, an announcement will be made regarding the World Cup host for 2022. The US is up against Qatar (which has a lot of infrastructure to build among other concerns), Australia (aka, the world’s playground), Japan (recent host in 2002) and Korea (worries surrounding that threat from, y’know, real communism) for a chance to be the country to welcome the world’s game that June. DC will, as it was in 1994, would be among the host cities.

Hopefully tomorrow morning, we’ll be boasting about the good news (and it is good news). Until then, keep all of your extremities crossed.

‘Chanukah at the White House’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting the day’s end so you can start celebrating the first night of Chanukah. But good news: you don’t even have to wait for sundown for the festivities to begin! The lighting of the National Chanukah Menorah will take place at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon on the Ellipse. There will be latkes, doughnuts and dreidels to spare, as well as performances by violinist Itzhak Perlman, cantor Itche Meir Helfgot and Hankus Netsky. Tickets are free, but required.

Image edited and created by Chris Olds/Beckett

Some people are having a bit of fun mocking the current situation with long-time Yankee shortstop/all-star/captain, Derek Jeter. As the free agent Jeter works on taking a “reality potion” and scaling back his new contract request from the Yanks, there is some joking speculation as to where else in the world Jeter would go to finish out his career. It’d be really hard to imaging the star playing at home anywhere other than Yankee Stadium, but the longer this drags out, the more curious people get if he really could go somewhere else.

That’s probably why Chris Olds of Beckett undertook some photo editing recently, just to imagine a little bit of what Jeter would look like somewhere else. “Strasburg Who?” reads the Nationals version, and, seriously, this graphic design project is about the closest the Nats will get to having Jeter don the Curly W. Alas, Olds didn’t even use the new jersey design. That’s how you know it’s really not happening.

Fire in My Belly de David Wojnarowicz, Diamanda Galas
Uploaded by altimsah. – Independent web videos.

Yesterday, the National Portrait Gallery pulled a video installation from the exhibit “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” following an uproar from conservative groups. The four-minute video, “A Fire in My Belly” by late artist David Wojnarowicz, depicts ants crawling over Jesus Christ, symbolizing the pain suffered by AIDS victims.

Hide/Seek marks the first major museum survey to explore sexual identity and LGBT themes in American portraiture, and features pieces by Andy Warhol, Annie Leibowitz and Jasper Johns. Although the exhibit has been in place since Oct. 30, it only drew criticism following the publication of an article on Monday by conservative news site CNSNews.com. The article notes that the “Christmas-season exhibit” has used federal funds to display “naked brothers kissing, genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts.” The Smithsonian does receive roughly 70 percent of its funding from the federal government, though funds for specific exhibits — including this one — are raised privately.

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‘Pre-packaged mince / hamburger/ ground beef; also some steaks, pork, lamb…’
courtesy of ‘Diane Duane’
Uh-oh. Do you shop at the Kensington Safeway? If so, read on. The supermarket, located at 10541 Connecticut Ave., is recalling 220 pounds of ground beef sold over the weekend because the meat may contain pieces of plastic and/or ink from a pen.

Any ground beef purchased at this Safeway with a sell by date of November 30th should be thrown away immediately, or returned to the store for a full refund. All possibly affected products are listed here.

‘Fojol Bros. of Merlindia’
courtesy of ‘The Ardvaark’
Well it’s the first day of December and…the weather sucks. And as we all know, rain is the enemy of all food trucks. Don’t get your hopes up folks, the trucks are few and far between today.

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‘Sweetgreen opening party’
courtesy of ‘Kitchen Wench’
The latest location of salad mecca Sweetgreen opens tomorrow at 4075 Wilson Blvd. The Ballston storefront is their first in Arlington, joining the ranks of their four D.C. locations and one each in Bethesda and Reston. The Sweetgreen truck has been posting outside the new location for the past few months, but now that it’s getting a little colder out, I’m sure Arlingtonians will be thrilled to wait in some central heating for their healthy lunch.

To celebrate the opening, Sweetgreen will be giving out one of their reusable “salad bowl blasters” to the first 200 guests to purchase one of their signature salads. Not only will you be helping the environment, but when you reuse your bowl in the future, you’ll get a free veggie topping for your efforts.

Sweetgreen is open daily for lunch and dinner.

‘Wounded.’
courtesy of ‘vvvracer’

Happy World AIDS Day, We Love DC. A full list of the day’s rallies, vigils and parties will be coming your way shortly, but I thought I’d help you kick off the morning with a roundup of sites offering free HIV testing today. If you haven’t been tested since getting cozy with a new partner, then it’s probably a good idea that you do so.

The Whitman-Walker Clinic will be sponsoring free HIV testing from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m at the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center (1701 14th St., NW), and from 9:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Max Robinson Center (2301 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE).

The Women’s Collective (1333 Rhode Island Ave., NE) will be hosting free testing from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Student Union Building I at George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus will be offering free testing from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. today, from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. tomorrow, and from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Friday. Ten panels from the AIDS Quilt will also be on view.

The Washington Hospital Center will be offering free HIV testing in front of the Washington Cancer Institute (110 Irving St., NW) today from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and tomorrow from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.