‘DC9 Memorial Ali, The Morning After’
courtesy of ‘Chris DiGiamo’

The US Attorney’s office has dismissed the charges against the 5 DC9 employees who were accused of assaulting Ali Ahmed Mohammed outside the club in connection with Muhammad’s death.

The charges were dismissed “without prejudice,” which means the US Attorney has the ability to re-file the charges at a later time. The Washington City Paper speculates that the dismissal is due to the continued lack of an autopsy report on Mohmmed, and that at such time that the report is released, the employees could be charged again.

Edit: in an editing error, the words “accused of” were originally left out of the first sentence. They have been added. We Love DC regrets the error.

‘New DC Parking Meters’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

DDOT announced today that it’s in the process of installing 1150 new single-space, solar-powered, credit card–accepting parking meters around the city. The solar meters were the first of several pilots DDOT has used to prepare to upgrade the city’s parking infrastructure.

DDOT tells us that you can expect to see most of the new meters downtown, where there aren’t already multispace meters, and in the U St. Corridor. Both are high-demand areas where healthy turnover is desirable.

For someone in the process of getting rid of her car, I’m probably disproportionately excited about this, and about the in-car metering system (like Arlington’s iPark) and pay-by-cell options that will also be rolled out in the next year. But nonetheless, making it easier for people to pay for their parking instead of risking a ticket because they didn’t have 32 quarters on them benefits everyone, including the city, which will realize additional revenue simply by making it easier to collect it.

This really just leaves my last remaining parking gripe- Only being able to pay for 2 hours of parking before 6:30 when those two hours of parking will expire well within the 4-hour parking period. Let’s see if we can get that fixed too, okay?

This Sunday marks the return of DC’s premier Hip Hop producer event The Beatdown at U Street Music Hall. To kick off the show Twenty20’s SmCity and Studio 43’s Ra the MC will perform both backed by live bands. Throughout the night, DJ Marc Nfinit wlll be spinning music to keep the party going.

The Beatdown’s return is in collaboration with SmCity’s The Indie Life movement. The Indie Life is a series of events, music and film projects from SmCity in the spirit of the independent music experience.

The Beatdown is not beat a battle. It’s a platform for established producers to showcase their latest music to their core fans before they become hits. The guests of honor Bink (Jay-Z, Rick Ross), 88 Keys (Kanye West, Kid Cudi) DJ Spinna (Eminem, Pharoahe Monch) and Kev Brown (Busta Rhymes, De La Soul) will premiere music that has never been played for public audience until now. U Street Music Hall features one of the city’s best sound systems, making it the perfect venue for this event.

The Beatdown: Indie Life Edition
11/7/10
@ U Street Music Hall
$10 adv / $15 @ the door

‘Susan outside the Palace of Wonders’
courtesy of ‘Anosmia’

Saturday will see the first event at the new Red Palace. A combination of the buildings and concepts previously known as The Red & The Black and Palace of Wonders, the new venue, located at 1210 – 1212 H St NE, will boast a larger stage and refreshed interior, but hopes to maintain the intimacy that people liked about two of DC’s most-popular small venues.

Red Palace will be christened with the 8th Annual Dangerously Delicious Pie and Rock-n-Roll Extravaganza hosted in conjunction with the bar’s bakery neighbor. The 18+ show will feature several bands and, I assume, pie. Red Palace’s schedule currently lists several burlesque nights, local and touring bands, and the next Nerd Nite DC with presentations on the carbon market, sanitation, and The Russian Futurists.

‘New on K’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’
The retail space in the City Vista building at 5th St. and K St. NW has been drawing some D.C. favorites since opening in 2007, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be slowing down any time soon. With news this week that the Michael Landrum-owned space opening in the building would be an “urban bakeshop/cafe,” we are now up to three soon-to-be-opened restaurants in one little building.

Landrum, he of Ray’s-the-Everything fame, told Todd Kliman at the Washingtonian that they have already started construction on Ryse (pronounced “rise”) in the former T-Mobile space. They plan to primarily be a coffeehouse, but will serve salads and sandwiches and possibly frozen yogurt. It also sounds like the City Vista Ryse will be just the first location of Landrum’s future coffee joints around the city.

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‘DC Slices Truck’
courtesy of ‘foodtruckapp’

Food trucks, get ’em while they’re hot.

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courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

The latest press release out of WMATA trumpets “Metro is making it easier for area university students to take advantage of SmarTrip® convenience and savings with cards now being sold at the American University campus bookstore.” The buzzkill is in the second sentence, stating that adding value will be possible there “later this year.”

At this point does anyone give a shit? The only SmarTrip vending question I need answered anymore is “why isn’t there a machine vending these next to all the fare machines at every metro stop?” I suppose it’s two questions really, because I still don’t know why the sale of these things is treated like some sort of controlled munition rather than something that could reside next to the Fritos.

How many man hours at WMATA are spent administering and dealing with this oddly tightly controlled SmarTrip sales methodology? You can buy a cellphone more easily than a SmarTrip and you can be sure that Virgin and TracPhone don’t make it as hard for stores to become resellers… despite the phone costing ten times as much.

‘DSC_0128b’
courtesy of ‘D©Bloom’

According to DC Fire & EMS Twitter, a freight train and an empty MARC train collided (WTOP describes it as a “bump”) near the 900 block of 2nd Street NE around 9:20 this morning, causing a derailment. While the freight train appears to be empty too, HAZMAT, tech rescue, and mass casualty units have been dispatched just in case. So far 4-5 minor injuries have been treated.

MARC service on the Penn line has been suspended and Metro is honoring MARC tickets.

‘National Christmas Tree’
courtesy of ‘Murmurmel’

…that the lottery for the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony begins tonight at 12:01 a.m. and will run through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday. With daylight saving this weekend, you have a whole extra hour to enter the drawing…and so does everyone else, which actually probably hurts your chances. But let’s focus on that whole extra hour you have to enter. The actual ceremony will take place on Dec. 9, and ticket winners will be announced next week.

‘High-wire’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

If I ever stop enjoying the odd press releases that roll into my mailbox I’ll know it’s time to stop writing here. Today’s gem is from Arena Stage and they’re courting the farm aficionado in their new marketing effort.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces that a petting zoo provided by Pony To Go will be available for children and families to enjoy before all Saturday matinee performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!

The second-best thing in this press release is the mention of business Pony To Go – who, despite their name, does not cater to French diners with no time to sit down to eat – and a link to their website… which includes a link to a page titled “pony party prices.” My favorite alliteration of the week.

I think it’s a great promotional idea, though, and kudos to Arena for thinking of it. It’s not clear from the press release whether they’re policing access to ticket-holders only, so if you’re the type to crash a petting zoo you might try dropping by Arena  an hour before matinee showtime any  Saturday this month.

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courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

George Washington University junior Kye Allums has become the first transgender basketball player in Division I history. Allums, who formerly went by Kay-Kay, is a biological female who plays for GW’s women’s basketball team. He publicly announced his decision to identify as a male earlier this week, making waves within the college sports community.

He has chosen to delay hormone treatment and sexual reassignment surgery until the end of his senior year, which will allow him to remain eligible as a player for the Colonial women and thus keep his basketball scholarship.

The Colonials begin their season on Nov. 13 at the Best Buy Classic in Minneapolis.