By Rebecca
‘busey’
courtesy of ‘spectabillis’
Thankfully, it’s not that often that Gary Busey and DC cross paths. However, the geniuses at http://barackandgary.tumblr.com/ have a lot of time on their hands and have photoshopped shots from the official White House Flickr stream with Busey’s head. My personal favorite is the photo of Busey with Clinton, Gates and Obama. Classic. Not sure what the purpose of this project is, but it was a great way to start hump day.
By Samer Farha
‘good morning’
courtesy of ‘volcanojw’
Last week we told you about Metro’s board having voted to give preliminary approval to change their privacy policy in order to be able to provide SmarTrip data to users over the internet. The press release outlining what was to happen later this year set off my “I-can’t-believe-we’re-having-this-conversation” alarms.
In that release, Metro points out two things that set me off. First, there’s the reason for the change. It seems that after SmarTrip was introduced in 2004, the board approved a privacy policy in 2005 that seems not have considered the possibility that people would want access to their data over the internet.
Let me repeat that: five years ago, almost 15 years after the world wide web was invented and a decade after “information superhighway” entered the general lexicon, Metro’s board didn’t consider the internet when making their plans. Add to that having to have the board act in order to change the privacy policy because, it seems, the policy is written so narrowly that delivering the same data online and offline requires a change.
Continue reading
By Max
Whole Foods Market on P Street by Maryland Route 5
In case you’ve forgotten, April 15th is the only deadline you have as an adult, the day to send in your tax return. Some of you may have done your taxes on January 1st in order to buy an iPad with your refund, but many others will be burning the midnight oil tonight to get them done.
If you fall into the latter group, I suggest you head over to Whole Foods to buy some organic toothpicks for keeping your eyelids open, as well as a free coffee. That’s right, according to Free in DC, Whole Paycheck is giving away free coffee all day long on April 14th. A free cup of joe. You know you want it.
‘Jerk City’
courtesy of ‘Smath.’
So, you remember how DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee laid off all those teachers, citing budgetary pressures? Yeah, so apparently the budgetary pressures were based on faulty data from the schools’ CFO, Noah Wepman. According to Councilman Harry Thomas’ (D-Ward 5) office, the schools CFO based the budget on an average teacher salary of $81,000, when the average salary of a DC teacher is $67,000. So now instead of a $43M deficit, there’s a $34M surplus, which will be used to pay for the new teacher contract rather than to reinstate the laid-off teachers.
I’d say I predict a big, screamy fight between the Council, Fenty, Rhee, and the Washington Teachers’ Union, but it seems cheap to predict laws of nature and pretend you’re insightful.
‘Assessment’
courtesy of ‘christaki’
There’s been a lot of chatter today among DC bloggers about Megan McArdle’s post on Atlantic.com about the trouble she’s had in finding a house to purchase in the District.
DCist indicates that there are plenty of great houses for sale in the $1M+ range! With tongue planted firmly in cheek, I think. IMGoph at District Curmudgeon points out that there are plenty of great houses in neighborhoods whose lower desirability is probably over-inflated in the minds of buyers. Continue reading
By Don
‘Fudgie the Whale’
courtesy of ‘barron’
Remember when Paul pledged to shove an entire Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake into his piecakehole for charity? Well the end total raised for the Arlington Food Bank was $7270.12. They raised $3655.06 in donations and the AFB’s matching arrangement from the Feinstein Foundation doubled that.
And I know, that math isn’t right – twice $6555 is 7310, not 7270, so I think someone forgot to carry a 1. Artists, pfft. But who cares? That’s mad charity bank right there any way you slice it. Nice work, guys.
You could thank them – and treat yourself – by going to see them at the Wolf Trap Barns later this month.
By Jenn Larsen
John Milosich in Synetic Theater's production of "Kafka's Metamorphosis." Photo credit: Graeme B. Shaw
I’ve always had a fascination with insects – the hive brain, the rigid delineation between workers and soldiers, queens and drones, a repulsive caterpillar breaking out of a hard cocoon as a delicate butterfly, the viciousness of praying mantis sex, spider babies eating their mother… just your average day in a realm all around us, a kingdom we barely notice.
Gregor Samsa, the unfortunate center of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, leads a life not unlike that of a worker drone, slaving away at a clerical job so that his family may live, in particular his beloved sister Greta. His creator, writer Franz Kafka, lives in a body progresively weakened and diseased while pining for his beautiful love Felice. Director Derek Goldman takes these two and morphs them together in his adaption for Synetic Theater of the story of a man waking up one morning to find himself transformed into a nasty and unwieldy insect body. Here, Kafka’s internal rage at his body’s weakness and his psychological wounds are directly manifested as he creates Gregor’s world.
Now through May 22, you can witness this grostesque and haunted world (“creepy,” as artistic director Paata Tsikurishvili said at opening) at Rosslyn Spectrum, where the stage has been incredibly and nauseatingly transformed into wild angles by designer Natsu Onoda. Your stomach will also be turned by the sound design of James Bigbee Garver, evoking a gooey, icky insect world. It’s all lit with eerie unnaturalness by Colin K. Bills. The production design is top notch.
The adaptation itself? It’s brave, and filled with some startling imagery, but ultimately left me cold. You may feel differently, but splitting the main character dropped the stakes significantly – I found myself unable to care for Gregor’s plight, and just wished Kafka would stay behind the writing desk. That being said, it’s an intriguing production whose merits I’m still debating. Continue reading
By Donna C.
Talk about a homegrown recipe. Local blogger Mary K. of Herban Lifestyle shows you how to make a beautiful salad with a few cultivated herbs, and greens that may be growing wild in your back yard this very minute, such as garlic mustard, dandelion leaves and violets. (Just make sure they are chemical free.)
Who needs a lawn mower? Check out her recipe!
By Tom Bridge
‘jumbo slice’
courtesy of ‘krossbow’
Tomorrow night, the Travel Channel is pitting two DC pizza joints against each other in an episode of Food Wars. Look, I know all about Jumbo Slice, I know all about Pizza Mart, or whatever, but this is simply not a pizza town. You want a battle? Let’s talk cupcakes. There’s a bajillion of cucpake vendors in this town, and I’m sure that they would practically break out in an alley knife-fight over who was best. Let’s talk burgers. There’s a half-dozen truly top-drawer burger joints in this town, from Ray’s Hellburger, to BGR, to Good Stuff, to Palena, etc. Why not focus on something with real focus for the food community instead of some bullshit lowest common denominator thing? Also, where’s the love for 2 Amys? Or Pete’s? Or Red Rocks?
I expect better from you, Travel Channel. Or did your research assistant get drunk off their ass in Adams Morgan and never go anywhere else?
Hat tip to Marc Benton for this one
By shannon
‘TJ, from above’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
It’s officially tourist season here in DC, and our once-serene monuments and memorials are again overrun with school groups in matching t-shirts and families pushing strollers the size of SUVs. They’re here to see the monuments and memorials all over the city, and to educate future generations about the founding of our country and important historic events. But there are so many myths about the monuments and memorials in the District that can’t possibly be true, so I set out to bust some of them, just in time to set those tourists straight. Read on to find out whether there’s an extra hand of God on the Iwo Jima memorial, whether the number of horse’s hooves on the ground of a statue relates to how a person died, and what’s really buried beneath the Washington Monument.
By Don
John Kelly’s Washington has a piece today largely about dog poop and the man who doesn’t love it at all: We Love DC alumnus Wayan Vota.
I’ll confess I rolled my eyes a bit when Wayan was on his tear about the Petworth poop surplus last year but clearly I didn’t recognize the universal appeal of the subject. I certainly didn’t recognize the transformative power his efforts would have: he and Kelly say Grant Circle is a much less pooptacular place now and credit the change to an improved appearance – the broken window theory in practice – and signs posted by the local ANC asking people to pick up after their pets.
Nicely done, Wayan!
‘Kazuko 05’
courtesy of ‘yospyn’
Do you enjoy spending time with your friends, shopping at amazing discounts, and scoring lots of freebies? If so, Shecky’s Girls Night Out may just be your idea of a perfect evening. Experience the newest Spring trends while enjoying cocktails and beauty treatments all in one night. Sounds pretty good to me!
Shecky’s will be setting up shop in DC at DAR Constitution Hall on Wednesday (14th) and Thursday (15th) — tickets can be purchased here.
By Donna C.
‘Rock Creek – P Street Bridge Cleanup-7’
courtesy of ‘TrailVoice’
Thank you to all who attended the Potomac River Watershed Cleanup that We Love DC sponsored with Trail Voice, Friends of Rock Creek’s Environment, and the DC Trash Runners on Saturday! More than 60 people attended, improving our park by removing:
See more pictures from the event on Flickr. Special thanks to Trail Voice for the photos and the great job with planning! Come join us next time!
By Rebecca
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’
The Ernest W. Brown Summer Camp, located in Scotland, MD and operated by MPD officers and staff of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington, is in need of donations from the DC community.
The camp makes it possible for children to escape the stress of inner-city living for one week during the summer to experience camp in the country. For some of these children, it is their first experience outside of the city.
Although The Boys and Girls Club pays for all the costs of the camp, it cannot cover the $100 individual registration fee and due to the economy and layoffs this year, there are more children than ever who cannot afford the registration fee.
You can assist in this effort by making a donation to either sponsor a child ($100), or several children or whatever contribution you are capable of. You can make checks out to the Joseph K. Smith Memorial Summer Camp Fund (a 501C3 tax deductible organization) and mail them to Samantha Nolan, 2940 Northampton Street, NW Washington, DC 20015. All contributions will be acknowledged with a letter for your taxes and will be gratefully received.
By Dave Levy
‘President Barack Obama winds up for the first pitch 1’
courtesy of ‘sportsreference’
Here’s some news that would have helped President Obama show his South Side support while still cheering for the local club. Jermaine Dye, who was the World Series MVP in 2005 when Obama’s White Sox won the trophy, turned down an offer to join the Nationals’ outfield during the offseason. It was reported that Dye, who has still not signed with a team for the 2010 season, chose not to come to Washington because he didn’t want to uproot his family to move across country from their home in Arizona.
Dye played with Chicago’s AL club in 2009, and posted a respectable 27 HR, 81 RBI campaign. I guess there is a little bit of solace to know that the game plan wasn’t always a Harris/Taveras platoon.
By Samer Farha
‘the meet cute’
courtesy of ‘(afm)’
Street photography takes many forms and is done for many reasons. This shot looks like a private eye tailing one of the two, as if to document an illicit love affair. The subjects certainly look like they aren’t aware of anything around them, much less the camera. And the processing just adds to the feeling of someone hiding behind a mailbox, peeking above it to get the shot.
There’s a fair bit of street photography in our pool, and I encourage you to get out there and to that body of work.
By Tom Bridge
‘The Return of the Ghost Bikes’
courtesy of ‘Daquella manera’
A National Guard truck, as part of a security convoy related to the Nuclear Summit, struck and killed a local woman yesterday at 12th & New York. Her identity remains unknown, as does the identity of the driver of the truck, and the convoy that they were part of. There is significant outrage that such a large truck was necessary to use as part of any street convoy in DC, and I must admit that I share it. I’m not sure why the National Guard felt that they had to use giant box trucks instead of the standard Suburbans/Tahoes/Denalis that they use for security here in the District.
Perhaps the next time they do this, they should hold it over at the Pentagon or Bolling AFB, as those are places that usually have such large vehicles running about?
According to the Post’s DC Wire blog, Mayor Fenty indicated that DC government may have to look at scaling back the increased parking meter fees that went into effect earlier this year, due to “outcry.” The admission came during today’s Council budget hearing.
What’s that? You mean increasing hours of enforcement AND jacking up the fees without actually providing a way for people to pay without carrying huge sacks of change around turned out to be not such a great idea at all? You’re saying citizens thought that idea kind of sucked? Who’d have thought?
While clearly I’d be happy to pay less in parking, the issue for me has always been that getting full use out of a 2-hour meter too frequently requires 16 quarters, which is just logistically ridiculous.
courtesy of Frank Bors Jr.
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of The Wedding Present’s seminal, break-up album, “Bizarro“; and to celebrate, band founder David Gedge is touring the U.S. playing the album in full. On Friday night The Wedding Present stopped in at The Black Cat to play a handful of non-“Bizarro” tracks and then the album proper from beginning to end. While the current Wedding Present line-up skews slightly younger than the blokes that originally played this material, the crowd on Friday night was definitely composed of first generation fans judging by the abundance of middle-aged and soon to be middle-aged men in attendance. It was certainly a night for reliving passionate youth for many as “Bizarro” is one of the great relationship-angst albums of all time. So great in fact that Gedge’s heart-wounded lyrics can still inspire a crowd of grown men to scream along with him even now, twenty years removed from the soul-crushing trials of youthful romance and the debut of the perfect soundtrack for them.
By Tom Bridge
‘United vs Revolution 14’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’
Congrats to D.C. United for lining up a match against AC Milan this summer! One of Europe’s best sides will be coming to DC for a match at RFK on May 26th. Tickets, once they’re available, will start at just $35, which is dirt cheap to see one of Europe’s best pro-soccer clubs. When United has faced European clubs in the past, it’s not been terribly pretty for the local boys, but it is a chance to see some of the finest soccer played in the world. Set aside the 26th on your calendar, this is one not to miss.
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