Yearly Archives: 2010

Mythbusting DC, The Features
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DC Mythbusting: Water, Water Everywhere

Photo courtesy of
‘Potomac River – Traffic on the Key Bridge – 04-20-10’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

I went for a swim in the Potomac River this weekend, and right before I jumped in the water I heard two fellow triathletes have the following conversation:
Triathlete 1: I have a friend who signed up for this race, but he dropped out because he has an Ironman tri coming up, and he wanted to be healthy for it.
Triathlete 2: (confused look)
Triathlete 1: Oh, you didn’t know?  The Potomac River is one of the dirtiest rivers in the country, and people have caught hepatitis from it.  He wanted to make sure he didn’t catch anything during today’s swim.
Triathlete 2: Oh my God.

The triathletes then continued to discuss the poor quality of the river they were about to jump into.  I doubted that anyone could catch hepatitis from a body of water (but apparently I was wrong), but I started to wonder whether it was true that the Potomac River was one of the worst in the country.  So after swimming, biking, and running around the District, I decided to sit down and put this myth to the test.  Is DC home to the most polluted rivers in America?

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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D.C. Big Flea

Photo courtesy of
‘Georgetown Flea Market’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

Another opportunity for me to buy random crap – fantastic!

This time around, the event that will be sucking me in is the D.C. Big Flea Market.  The flea market will will run on Saturday and Sunday at the Dulles Exposition and Convention Center and will feature over 1100 unique booths. 

The chance that I will come home with at least one porcelain nicknack seems likely.  Which got me thinking.  If you could buy anything at the D.C. Big Flea, what would your one purchase be? 

The Daily Feed
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Clinton Portis on Women Sports Writers

Photo courtesy of
‘Clinton Portis’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

What started out as a run-of-the-mill Tuesday conversation with Redskins running back Clinton Portis on D.C. sports radio’s 106.7 The Fan has now been immortalized by Dan Steinberg via the Sports Bog as another example of male chauvinism in D.C. sports.

During The Mike Wise show at 10:30 this morning, Portis offered his opinion regarding the buzz currently circulating female reporter Ines Sainz. Sainz has made headlines in recent days due to the NFL investigating a complaint filed by the Association of Women in Sports Media on behalf of Sainz who claims that members of the New York Jets harassed her on the field and in the locker room when she visited their practice facility to do a story on their quarterback Mark Sanchez.

The matter is still under review according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen who received word from a league spokesman, but in the meantime Mr. Portis offered his two cents: Continue reading →

Sports Fix
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Week 1 Recap: Skins vs. Cowboys

Photo courtesy of
‘WE WANT DALLAS!’
courtesy of ‘Tony DeFilippo’

If there’s one thing NFL fans are guaranteed it’s that when ever the Skins meet the Cowboys in primetime, the game is sure to be filled with unusual plays and often a thrilling finish. Last night was no exception. While the first half was mostly a dull affair (the Skins had only 104 yards in the half), the stadium woke up when DeAngelo Hall stripped the ball from Tashard Choice, recovered the fumble, and then ran 32 yards for the TD to give the Skins a 10-0 lead at halftime. Both offenses faired better in the second half. The Skins ran the ball more effectively and were able to get into the redzone on the opening drive of the half. However, after missing two good opportunities to get the TD, they botched the snap on the field goal attempt and Dallas was able to stay in the game. Both teams traded scores and when the Cowboys gained possession of the ball with 1:50 left in the game, the stage was set for a classic finish. Carlos Rogers and Laron Landry dropped two sure interceptions, and Miles Austin had a huge 4th down catch to put Dallas in the redzone with 12 seconds remaining. On the very last play, Tony Romo was pressured out of the pocket and delivered a pass to Roy Williams for the game-winning TD…except it was called back by a holding penalty on Alex Barron. Game over. The Skins beat the Cowboys 13-7 as the fog rolled through FedEx Field.

Positives – Offensively, the Skins O-line did a good job handling the Cowboys pass rush and Trent Williams looked impressive in his debut. He only gave up one sack to DeMarcus Ware but had few mistakes in general. Clinton Portis played solid as well. He found some good cut-back lanes and showed a burst we haven’t seen in a couple of years. Donovan McNabb was on target for the most part and could have had more completions if not for some drops by the receivers. He had good protection particularly in the second half and the physical blocking wore out the Cowboys D-lineman. Defensively, the Skins were bend-don’t-break but made key stops while keeping the Cowboys out of the redzone for most of the game. The new 3-4 defense that Jim Haslett has installed showed very few hiccups. At times, the Skins had only two down lineman or none at all. They would blitz corners, safeties, and linebackers from different angles, either in bunches or individually. It was a well-executed game plan by Haslett. Also, credit Mike Shanahan for his decision to kick the 49-yard field goal late in the game rather than punt. It was a gutsy call but the right one.

Negatives – Most people think a long snapper has little impact on a game but they are an important part of the special teams. Last night proved why. Nick Sundberg was brought in this year to replace long-time Pro Bowl long snapper Ethan Albright and he had a terrible night. The botched field goal was a result of his high snap and he even had a low snap on the last made field goal. He struggled throughout training camp and may get the boot if his troubles continue. While the Skins were able to move the ball on offense, this area is still a work in progress. McNabb needs to improve his timing with the receivers and they need to do a better job concentrating on the catch. It was also unusual to see Fred Davis and Joey Galloway not targeted through most of the game. This offense will need a few games to gel.

Adventures, All Politics is Local, Essential DC, History, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Happy Birthday Star Spangled Banner!

Photo courtesy of
‘The Glory That Is Old’
courtesy of ‘ojbyrne’

On this day, 196 years ago, young lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that would eventually become “The Star Spangled Banner.” Mr. Key who has been sent to negotiate the release of Dr. Beanes, an American taken hostage by the British, witnessed the Battle of Fort McHenry from a British sloop anchored behind the British Navy ships.

As night fell and the over 5,100 rockets, bombs, cannon balls, flares, etc. reined down on the fort, the immense American flag disappeared from sight. Come morning, as the lyrics go “our flag was still there” signaling that the British attempt to take Baltimore had failed.

Once off the British sloop, Key rested at the Indian Queen Tavern, where he recorded his famous poem. 5 days later, the poem had been printed and circulated all over the Baltimore area. Unsurprisingly, considering Baltimore’s “colorful” tavern atmosphere, someone eventually figured out that the poem’s lyrics worked smashingly well with the popular English drinking song “To Anacreon in Heaven” and the rest is, well, the history of our National Anthem.

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo

Photo courtesy of
‘255/365’
courtesy of ‘dracisk’

Summer is still there, still hanging on, but fall is coming. This leaf, heavy with rain water, is the height of summer.

This photo by dracisk is a good example of why I love black and white photography. The color in this might be great. Bright greens, I’m sure, and the water magnifying that, too. But the photographer chose to make this a black and white. And it stands out.

The details are sharp, the lens fading off toward the bottom. The curve of the leaf takes your eye to the corner, and the leaf’s arrow like structure bring you back to the area of focus. I could look at that leaf for a long time.

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed
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Primary Day is here

Photo courtesy of
‘Campaign signs’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’

The polls open this morning at 7am, with multiple city-wide offices hotly contested, including the office of Mayor of the District of Columbia.  Whether you back Fenty, Gray, Alexander or even Faith, today’s your day to vote.  If you have questions concerning where to vote, whether you’re registered, or how to register on-site, DCBOEE has activated their election day website which has quick answers to all of those questions.  There is on-site registration this year, but there is not instant party-switch this year.  If you’ve not declared yourself to the DCBOEE to be a Democrat, Republican or Statehood Green party member, you cannot vote today, but can vote in November.

I’ll be working as part of the elections team in Precinct 70 today, as a technician on their equipment, so if you’re over that direction, do say hi.  Working the elections is a long, long day, with workers reporting at 6am, and then not leaving until usually 9 or 10pm, so go easy on your precinct people today if you’ve not voted already.

We’ll have live coverage of the returns when they start to come in tonight, both here on the site, and on our Twitter account, and we’ll have a full breakdown tomorrow of the winners.

Go! Vote! Participate!

The Daily Feed
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Nation’s Tri Draws Record Crowd

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_8384’
courtesy of ‘timkelley’

It was cold, wet, and rainy, but that didn’t stop me and a couple thousand of my closest friends from competing in the Nation’s Triathlon yesterday morning.  It was a (potentially) record-breaking crowd swimming in the Potomac (which was actually quite pleasant– my favorite leg by far!), biking out to Maryland and then up Rock Creek Park, and running around the Mall and Hains Point.  Even Mayor Fenty got in on the action.  The Nation’s Tri is a major Team in Training goal race, and yesterday’s event raised millions for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

All Politics is Local, The District, The Features
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Campaign Notebook: September 13, 2010 – This is it

Photo courtesy of
‘H Street NE DC Flag’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

OK folks, we’re here. Primary Day is tomorrow, and soon the votes will be counted and this will all be over. It has been a pleasure covering these races, and trying to give readers the best information possible about the candidates. This final Campaign Notebook will serve as a basic assessment of each race and what to expect tomorrow. As always, we urge all our readers who live in the District to go to the polls and vote. There’s a lot of predictions and analysis in here, so let’s get to it. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Dismemberment Plan Announce Tour Dates, Vinyl Release of “Emergency & I”

“Emergency & I” sounds like home. Released in 1999 on local label DeSoto, it is the essential album of one of the essential bands of Washington, DC, The Dismemberment Plan and, along with other records by the Plan, would go in my desert island jukebox for the music itself, even if it were not the case that everything that mattered to me in high school happened with these songs as the soundtrack.

In January 2011, “Emergency & I” will see it’s first-ever release on vinyl – indeed a two-LP gatefold fancy thing, completely remastered, and including several rare tracks not previously on the album. As was reported by the WaPo Click Track blog the release, now on Barsurk, will also feature “an oral history of the album.”
Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Get Ready for a Food Truck Smackdown

Photo courtesy of
‘CH Day 2010 Food Trucks’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’
The time has come and gone for camaraderie among the food trucks. In the beginning when it was just a few folks roaming the streets, they were all friends, even sharing their wares with each other. Well, those days are over. It’s a dog-eat-dog (or truck-eat-truck) world out there and it’s high time for a little competition.

Just like the We Love DC crowd’s love of food from a tiny window, our friends over at Brightest Young Things also have a thing for mobile cuisine. So they’ve taken it upon themselves to put together the first annual Curbside Cook-off. Together with the DCRA and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, BYT will host twenty mobile vendors (both carts and trucks) in the old Convention Center/new giant Chinatown bus parking lot downtown on October 7th and 8th, just a week before the new D.C. food truck legislation comes up for a vote.

BYT is leaving the participant list up to you, and will release the method by which you can vote for your favorites on Wednesday at 9am on their website. And to kick off the voting process, Chinatown Coffee will host a special happy hour from 6pm-8pm on Wednesday with some great $3 beer specials. Vote early and often, I know I will!

Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: Fall’s Arrival Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Cowboys versus Redskins’
courtesy of ‘Anthroscribe’

Redskins
Record: 1-0
Last Two Weeks: 1-0

It wasn’t the offensive explosion that everyone was hoping for, but the Redskins dispatched the hated Cowboys last night at FedEx field before a crowd of over 90,000 fans. The highlights will be covered by new columnist Arjun Murthy tomorrow, but the euphoria of another football season in Washington was palpable this afternoon, as Redskins and Cowboy jerseys and other team logo gear outnumbered pretty much every other article of clothing.

Donovan McNabb, slim and fit, worked well behind center, and showed some serious hustle. He picked up 173 passing yards, and ran for another 17. Sadly, he wasn’t able to connect with any of his receivers in the end zone. Chris Cooley and Santana Mass each had 6 receptions.

Defensive highlight of the day came from DeAngelo Hall, who returned a fumble for a touchdown right at the end of the first half, to send the Skins to the locker room up 10-0 on the Cowboys at the half. The 3-4 defense worked well tonight, largely keeping Dallas from putting together serious momentum. It’s tough, though, to see what role Albert Haynesworth will have in the 3-4. At times last night, he separated himself from the rest of the defensive huddle on the sidelines, and largely kept out of team affairs. Not exactly the sort of encouraging behavior you’d want to see.

Next week? Houston. 4:35pm start here at FedEx. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, The Daily Feed
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H Street Festival This Saturday

Photo courtesy of
‘h’
courtesy of ‘Mary Hockenbery (reddirtrose)’

This Saturday, the Rock and Roll Hotel is presenting “H Street Festival Stages” in conjunction with the H Street Festival in NE.

Live local music will run from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. as part of the urban outdoor festival.

In addition to continual afternoon concert lineups, the H Street Festival includes: an urban sports & boxing ring to get out the post-work week aggression, “green street” exhibits, a speed chess challenge, all-day parades, and more.

There will be a free bike valet and free shuttle bus service from Gallery Place and Eastern Market.

Gates open at noon, admission is free, and the weather’s looking to be sunny with a high of 79 degrees — it can’t get any better than that.

Food and Drink, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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AGAINN’s Cocktail Class

Photo courtesy of
‘JP Explains It All’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Party season is fast approaching (seriously, when is it not?) and that means it’s time to brush up on your hosting skills! One of my favorite mixologists, the lively JP Caceres, will help guide you through five cocktail recipes at AGAINN this Wednesday, September 15 at an interactive cocktail class.

Starting at 6:30pm, JP will demonstrate how to make such classics as the Old-Fashioned, the Sazerac, and the Daiquiri. If you’ve never tried an original daiquiri, invented around 1900 in Cuba, you are in for a real surprise. In addition, enjoy a welcome punch called the Gun Hill featuring pisco infused pineapple, hibiscus, velvet falernum, and sage. Sounds luscious.

JP is probably the least intimidating bartender I’ve ever met (ask for one of his business cards to see the best self-deprecating quote) and I’m sure will be a wonderful and fun teacher. The session costs $35 and reservations can be made by calling (202) 639-9830. I’ll be there, brushing up on my Sazerac skills, so please say hi!

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: All’s Well That Ends Well


Miriam Silverman as Helena and Tony Roach as Bertram in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of All’s Well That Ends Well, directed by Michael Kahn. Photo by Scott Suchman.

With only a few minor exceptions, The Shakespeare Theater Company’s production of All’s Well That Ends Well hits every note and does so with beauty and style. The question is, is that going to be enough to make it work for a modern audience?

If you’re not familiar with the work – which, to borrow a joke from the hosts at Filmspotting, is “Minor Shakespeare” – All’s Well tells the story of a woman of common birth who loves a nobleman. Through plucky resolve she gets the King to grant her a boon – her choice of husbands. When she picks the object of her affection he rejects her, fleeing France to fight in a foreign war and vowing not to return so long as he has a wife to return to. There’s a very Shakespearean bit of shenanigans along the way and in the end he sees the error of his ways and he accepts her.

So we’ve got a stalker, forced nuptials, class divisions, a sleazy hymen-chaser, a sort of rape by substitution, and, as such things usually lead to, eventual love and happy marriage. How’s that working for you?

Continue reading →

Adventures, Business and Money, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Today’s Fashion Crawl with Stacy London

Photo courtesy of
‘delicious meatpies selling next door’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

Today from 11am-5:30pm, Stacy London of TLC’s “What Not To Wear” fame is hosting a fashion crawl around DC to promote the launch of  Style For Hire (SFH). SFH recruits London-esque stylists who can help us everyday folk edit, add to and transform our wardrobes into expressions of our personal and unique sense of style.

The fashion crawl will be happening all over DC, so check the schedule to see when SFH and Stacy London will be headed near you.  Also, bring an orphan garment that needs a little embellishment, and SFH will help you give it a whole new life.

The Daily Feed
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Nats Fifth Consecutive Loss Prompts Lengthy Post-Game Meeting

Photo courtesy of
‘Blogger Day’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

Five consecutive losses later, Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman laid down the law.

Riggleman held a lengthy post-game meeting with his team expressing not only his concerns, but the concerns of the entire coaching staff. “This is what I see, this is what the coaches see, this is what Mike [Rizzo] sees, this is what the fans see, so if anybody in the room thought that was acceptable, then they need to be made aware that we certainly don’t think it’s acceptable.”

This deep into the season, a motivational or even constructive post-game spiel from a manager or coach isn’t going to turn a team’s season around – especially a team who’s been out of contention for months. That means it’s up to the players themselves to make a 180 in attitude. Continue reading →