Yearly Archives: 2010

The Daily Feed
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Summer Movies in Near Southeast

Photo courtesy of
‘Waiting for the Movie to Start’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

Now here’s something to look forward to: every Thursday night beginning June 3rd, the Capitol Riverfront BID will screen movies at the future site of Canal Park.  They need your help now to pick the best movies that fit this summer’s “Ultimate Underdog” theme.  Rudy, Forrest Gump, Finding Nemo, Miracle– there are so many to choose from, so go vote for your favorites now.  And in just a few short months, you can grab a blanket, head to Navy Yard, and watch your favorite characters triumph over adversity.

Last year the theme was 80s movies, and just looking through their pictures is getting me excited about outdoor movie season!

Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Dan Giusti of 1789 (Part II)

Photo courtesy of
‘This just makes me want to eat more gnocchi, immediately, from this spoon’
courtesy of ‘CathyLovesDC’

As you read earlier, Katie and I spent yet another Saturday morning slaving away in the kitchen for you, dear reader. Not that we mind.

While we waited for potatoes to bake (no really), we made ourselves quite comfortable in the 1789 kitchen. We sort of started to feel like a part of the family.  The best part was snacking on the homemade sugar cookie bits, chocolate hazelnut-dipped waffle cone triangles, and sugared, Italian pistachios. We watched a tray full of huge crabs slide into the steamer and a salmon salad artfully prepared for a group event. La de da. How are those potatoes coming along? Not quite completely, perfectly tender? Ok, no worries. There are some pepitos in a Tupperware over here that I might sample.

My dinner party on Saturday night was sort of similar. If those gosh darn potatoes hadn’t taken 2 hours to bake, well, we might have had dinner before 10:00 p.m.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Pentagon Metro Reopens

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

The Pentagon Metro station has reopened following last night’s shooting and is usable. Be aware, however, that it’s just the northern entrance that’s open- the southern entrance and the upper level of the Transit Center are both closed. So your Metrobus will be picking you up and dropping you off on the lower level until the FBI completes their investigation in the area. The rules for regional buses are a little different and you should check their website for details.

The Daily Feed
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Don’t Be Late For This Very Important Date — Madhatter Re-Opens Tonight

Photo courtesy of
‘queen of hearts’
courtesy of ‘m hoek’

The Madhatter in Dupont re-opens tonight at its new location just south of the circle, located at 1321 Connecticut Ave NW. And — if you bring your Alice in Wonderland movie ticket stub with you this weekend — you’ll get half-off an appetizer (only one ticket per group though).

Madhatter opens to the public at 8.

Crime & Punishment, Fun & Games, News, People, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Snowballer Cop Keeps his Badge

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_2384’
courtesy of ‘AJ Ashton’

It appears that in the MPD, pulling your gun on innocent citizens isn’t a fireable offense.  This is lucky for Detective Mike Baylor, who, you’ll remember, didn’t take kindly to his hummer being hit by snowballs and waved his gun at some people involved in a U St. snowball fight. A few months have passed, and after some measure of deliberation, MPD decided Baylor could keep his badge. DC Police Chief Lanier stated that Baylor did violate department protocol but that his offense didn’t merit termination.  So, be wary of red hummers and keep your snowballs hidden away.  You never know when Baylor might roll up to inflict some justice on your ass.

The Daily Feed
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Drink Some Beer and Buy Some Art

As Moses once said to Tiger Woods as he parted the water hazard on the 8th hole at Hains Point, “Love thy neighbor.”  And with that in mind, we are happy to promote a great event that is put on by our neighbor in the blogosphere, the DCist Exposed Photography Show.  In its fourth year, the show is bigger than ever featuring 47 local photographers (many whom contribute to our We Love DC Flickr pool) and their amazing photographs.  I’m happy to be showing one of my photos again this year along with many iconic DC shots, all priced affordably for your collection.

There’s really not much more to say about it other than, “Be there.”

Opening Reception
Long View Gallery
1234 9th Street NW
Saturday, March 6th, 6-10pm
$5 cover

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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We Have Georgetown Tickets. You Want ’em?

Photo courtesy of
‘Men’s Basketball’
courtesy of ‘Tulane Public Relations’

I don’t know how it happened, but it seems that we’re the giveaway kings this week! First the VIP Passes to ShamrockFest (congrats, Kay!) and then the Adventure & Travel Show (congrats, Lauren!) and now we’ve got 20 tickets to give away for tomorrow’s Georgetown Basketball game against the Bearcatst! The first 20 people to leave comments with valid email addresses and names will get tickets left for them at will call. You have until 3pm to claim these seats, so do not hesitate.

The Daily Feed
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Nats Lose Two To Open Spring Training, Pitching A Key Contributor

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington Nationals vs. Arizona Diamondbacks August 7th’
courtesy of ‘ShashiBellamkonda’

After two losses for the split-Nationals squad on Opening Day of Spring Training (aka Thursday afternoon), the Nationals are in the process of solidifying their regular season rotation.

Right now, Marquis and Lannan are on the list, but that’s all Riggleman has confirmed.

“These first couple of outings, we are going to let them get the bugs out,” Riggleman told MLB.com.

If by bugs he means losses, than that’s a good idea. Four pitchers fighting for the final rotation spots pitched in the split-squad games in Jupiter and Kissimmee, Fla. Thursday. The foursome included Right-handers J.D. Martin and Collin Balester vs. the Florida Marlins and Garrett Mock and Sharion Martis against the Houston Astros. Continue reading →

Capital Chefs, Foodie Roundup, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Dan Giusti of 1789 (Part I)

IMG_3906

I was having one of THOSE days last Saturday. I woke up to get ready for 1789, hopped in the shower, and the shower head flew off the spout and hit me in the head. Hard. Then I was running late, after the appropriate amount of panicking and curse words and feeling my head for a bump and wound up forgetting my wallet. Then I couldn’t find a parking spot that wasn’t metered, but I had no money. After finally parking, I burst into 1789’s bakery, which isn’t actually attached to the restaurant, and asked for Cathy, who I knew was already there. Everyone looked at me like I had five heads. Was I not at the right place? 1789 is located a block from Georgetown’s campus, right near The Tombs, and intermingles with the other restaurants located next door. I got flustered and tried to explain in a rush of words, “I’m having the worst morning ever, I got hit in the head, forgot my wallet, there’s no parking, you think I’m crazy right? I’m a writer, I’m here to do a story on 1789, I’m looking for Cathy…” Pastry Chef Travis Olson stood up from putting house made crackers on a rack, looked mildly amused at my storm of words and shook my hand and introduced himself. I unleashed the hurricane again. “I’m sorry, I know I’m crazy, I’m just supposed to be meeting Cathy in here, you probably think I’m insane, is this even 1789?” I trailed off. Thankfully, the kind soul of a woman baking bread in the window turns around, and volunteers that there was in fact, a girl dressed in street clothing who was writing an article that came in a few minutes ago looking for the chef. And then, as if on cue, Cathy walked in the kitchen to find me.

So after that sort of an entrance it was only appropriate that Executive Chef Daniel Giusti throw an egg at me. We were waiting for the potatoes to bake for the gnocchi he was going to show us how to make, and he was gathering up our necessary ingredients. Flour, a bowl, a knife, a cutting board, and eggs. He leaned back against the counter holding the two eggs for our pasta and all of a sudden an egg comes flying out of his hand and hits me in the knee, falling to the floor with a huge thwack and busting open. “Why you gotta throw an egg at me?” I laugh. “Haven’t I been through enough today?” Dan dissolves into laughter. “DID YOU EVEN SEE THAT? That was some Houdini shit right there! I didn’t even do anything! I didn’t even move my hand! We better get you out of the kitchen, this is like the worst place for you to be, there are knives in here.” And that’s what I love about the kitchen at 1789, Cathy and I were automatically comfortable there – we wound up having a really fun morning. I can tell why such good food comes out of the kitchen there. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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More Cool Historic Maps

Historic Map Overlay, courtesy of Arthi

Historic Map Overlay, courtesy of Arthi

Thanks to our reader Arthi for letting us know about her set of historical maps overlaid with current Google maps.  A couple months back, we found the awesome 1851 and 1861 overlays that let us see how roads in the city have changed over time, and now Arthi’s maps go out even further to Annandale and Springfield.  It’s cool to see how roads like Backlick Road and Arlington Boulevard haven’t moved since 1865 or how Bailey’s Crossroads was actually a major crossroads, but the Beltway and Interstate 66 seem to have been plopped down in the middle of nowhere.

The Daily Feed
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Time to Start Garden Seeds!

Photo courtesy of
‘Seedland’
courtesy of ‘adie reed’

With all the snow of late, thinking about starting seeds is probably the last thing on most people’s minds, but we are rapidly approaching the time in which we can start planting things in the ground. We are already a bit past the time to start seeds indoors for certain plants. This doesn’t mean that you can’t, but you’ll not be able to transfer them into the ground at the same time as other plants. Check out the Almanac planting times for Washington DC. There’s also lots of reading material at the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

News, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Georgetown Professor Fires Up Rumor Mill, Scares Politicos

Photo courtesy of
‘Georgetown University’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

The rumor mill is a dangerous thing. While we don’t require multi-sourcing for this site, we tend to require some demonstration of validity. Yesterday, a Georgetown professor in his 1L class told students shortly after the start of the class that he knew that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was retiring for health reasons. You can guess what happened next.

At least one media outlet ran with it without verifying the statement, and things snowballed from there. Not long after, it was on Drudge, then Fox News, and suddenly conservatives everywhere were having heart attacks at the thought of President Obama replacing the Chief Justice.

Professor Tague was making a point about trust and unverified: do you trust the news right now? Why?

Folks, the world is changing fast. The barriers to entry in news have been drastically lowered, and as a result, we get some scrambling moments like these. Journalists will use this as ammunition against bloggers like us, who they feel threatened by. “These kids today,” they say, “they’ll run with anything!” Yes, some people will run with stuff like that. They’re revealed to be unreliable by the coverage they produce. Good sites have reputations to protect, and will do what they need to do in order to protect theirs, including handle a level of fact-checking that some sites chose to avoid yesterday.

Definitely a cautionary tale.

News, WMATA, WTF?!
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Pentagon Metro Station, Transit Center Closed Tonight, and Part of Tomorrow

Photo courtesy of
‘Butternut #3’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

The Pentagon Metro Station and Transit Center is now closed for the evening, while law enforcement works on the crime scene. In addition, both stations will be closed during the morning rush tomorrow, and all buses that were bound for the Pentagon will now head to Pentagon City Mall. It’s not clear when the FBI, who have taken over the investigation at the site, will issue a reopen command for those areas.

You will need to add twenty to thirty minutes to your morning commute time if you’re passing through that area, as things are probably going to be a little hectic in the morning, plus the additional time to deal with the increased walking time.

We are pleased to report that the two officers who were shot by the suspect are expected to recover from their injuries.

The Daily Feed
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Shooting at Pentagon Metro


(Video from ArlingtonNews)

Update, the next day: Pentagon shooter J. Patrick Bedell was a software engineer from California, with lots of online trails: a Wikipedia profile, a blogspot blog, an Amazon review and wish list, a Linked In page, and a SourceForge project. See DCist and Gawker for additional details on Bedell’s disturbed online presence.

(Earlier updates after the jump)
Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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DC Selected as Race To the Top Finalist, Virginia Passed Over

Photo courtesy of
‘schoolyard 1’
courtesy of ‘Pappa91’

One of President Barack Obama’s more interesting programs this year has been his Race to the Top program, designed to spur innovation in state school systems, to get better results out of new programs.  The District applied last month to be one of the grant winners, and today it was announced that they were selected as a finalist

Now the District must defend their proposal in mid-March, touting the reforms listed and demonstrating their plan for success among the other 16 finalists. The number of winners is flexible, and they will split $4B in education funding among what they term to be a few winners for Phase 1. If the District’s plan is not successful in Phase 1, they may reapply in Phase 2, along with Virginia and Maryland. Maryland chose not to apply in Phase 1, and to wait and see how the process worked, and Virginia was not selected as a finalist.

Special Events, The Daily Feed
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The Nationals Team-Up With The Cherry Blossom Crew To Welcome Spring

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington Nationals Game’
courtesy of ‘acaben’

The Nationals are teaming up with the Official Cherry Blossom Festival crew to celebrate the beginning of Spring this April. Festivities include an appearance by Screech and the GEICO Racing Presidents in the National Cherry Blossom Parade on Saturday, April 10 in addition to on-site events at Nationals Park.

Cherry Blossom Festival representatives will be present at the April 3 exhibition game vs. the Boston Red Sox and two games vs. the Phillies on April 7 & 8.

We’ll keep you posted as more details become available.

The Daily Feed
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Washington Improv Theater: FIST

WITFIST

Washington Improv Theater is hosting a fairly ambitious event for the next month or so: The Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament (FIST) will see 44 teams of 3 improvisers each face off in a bracketed battle for comedy glory. (Which is totally an oxymoron, but whatever.)

The tournament will run Thursdays-Saturdays every week through April 10, but check the bracket for the specific dates and times. All shows will be at Source Theater, and include not only the competition performances by that night’s bracket, but also a performance by one of WIT’s company troupes. Tickets are $10, and no actual fists are involved.

Downtown, Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks
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Drinks Preview: Oyamel’s Tequila and Mezcal Fest

Photo courtesy of
‘Oyamel 4’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

Tequila flies under the radar as connoisseur’s drink. It’s had an unfair representation from co-eds pounding back shots on spring break in Cancun and middle aged women drinking slushy margaritas by some pool. But Tequila, much like anything, can be done right and can be done wrong. Chef Jose Andres and Co. at Oyamel want to highlight the former, something that they do annually with their two week Tequila and Mezcal Festival.

This celebration of all things agave is becoming a highlight of the DC cocktail scene. Not only do you get to sample some of Mexico’s finest in carefully constructed flights, you find some truly creative cocktails crafted by the mixologists at Oyamel, and from a few guests they bring in. The festival kicked off Monday night and I was fortunate enough to be able to sample a few of their highlighted drinks and appetizers.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Stop the Billboard!

Photo courtesy of
‘Friendship Arch’
courtesy of ‘Rolenz’

The DC facade has undergone a few too many facelifts in the past decade or so, turning some neighborhoods – ahem, Gallery Place, Chinatown – into something reminiscent of a once (it’s getting a bit better thanks to NYC finally getting their act together) over-commercialized Times Square.

However, a few key residents of the Gallery Place neighborhood have joined together to stage an intervention.  Stop the Billboard, a website made public yesterday, hopes to raise awareness and gain support in order to “keep DC beautiful and free of outdoor color video advertisements“.  The residents behind the website are specifically outraged by the newest proposal by Gallery Place Partners LLC to install two, 12-ft by 40-ft ‘interactive’ billboards on the corner of 7th and G Street NW – which as the website states, “violates numerous District ordinances“.

If you want to learn more about this cause, keep DC architecture billboard free, or show your support – visit Stop the Billboard!

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends, March 6-7

Photo courtesy of
‘lost in your eyes’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Max: On Friday I’ll be helping two awesome friends celebrate their birthdays by drinking alcoholic beverages and checking out the Rogue Wave show at the 9:30 Club, and on Saturday…ah yes, Saturday.Well it’s going to be awesome.First I’ll be attending the WPA’s Art Auction Gala and if I’m lucky I’ll walk away with an awesome piece of art like I did last year. Later I’ll be sprinting over to Long View Gallery to hang with my photographer peeps at the fourth annual DCist Exposed Photography Show, the best show in town to buy awesome, affordable photography! Oh and Sunday…ugh. I’ll be preparing my taxes. Way to end on a low note.

Rachel: I’ll have to second Max on the birthday celebration front. I don’t know what it is, but a whole bunch of my friends have March birthdays. Friday night I’ll be partying it up at The Tombs in Georgetown only to follow that performance up with a night of friends and shuffle board at Atomic Billiards on Saturday. Sunday has the potential to be a laid back, movie kind of day. I haven’t been to the Uptown in awhile, so it’s likely I’ll make a visit to see the always dreamy Leo in Shutter Island.   Continue reading →