Yearly Archives: 2010

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Jeter Says to Rider: “Apparently You Believe in Slavery”

Photo courtesy of
‘mute’
courtesy of ‘woodleywonderworks’

UnsuckDCMetro posted an alleged email conversation between a concerned Metro rider and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 boss Jackie Jeter that, frankly, makes the union look even more like…well, a-holes. The conversation was in regards to the fact that two union bus drivers got their jobs back – with pay – despite some serious issues.

Take a gander at how this labor organization handles itself when a legitimate complaint is brought forward. Apparently, Ms. Jeter thinks if you believe certain union members are “unfit to perform the basic duties required of a Metrobus driver,” you are, in fact, a proponent of slavery.

Seriously, Ms. Jeter? Do us ALL a favor and STFU. You’re only making your union brethren look even worse than WMATA. And that’s pretty hard to do.

Entertainment, Music, The Features
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We Love Music: Five Reasons To Check Out The Columbia Pike Blues Festival

Photo courtesy of
‘Guitar being played by Tom Walton: White Springs, Florida’
courtesy of ‘State Library and Archives of Florida’

The Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization is celebrating the Columbia Pike Blues Festival‘s 15th year on June 19. Jazz and music lovers alike are in for a hands-on, interactive, outdoor musical experience should they chose to embark upon the event. Here are a few reasons to not miss the 15th anniversary of Arlington’s famed CPBF.

1. There’s an instrument petting zoo

Sounds fun, no? Ever wanted to try and be big a rock superstar. Live large? Have a big house? Five cars? Well, whether or not you’ve ever wanted to shine bright in the limelight is of no consequence. Try something new or revisit the glory days of your musical youth by partaking in the instrument petting zoo. If anything else, how awesome would be to go into the office on Monday and say “What did I do this weekend? Oh nothing really, except rock out at an instrument petting zoo!” For those about to rock, We Love DC salutes your efforts should you choose to partake.

2. These folks are serious about music education

This year, the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization is trying something new – a partnership with Guitars Not Guns. GNG is a non-profit specializing in guitar education. Their mission is to ensure that all children, no matter the circumstances, receive the opportunity to learn and play guitar. Which leads directly into reason #3. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Heart’s Delight at the Passenger

Photo courtesy of
‘The Passenger 8’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

Charity is a good thing.  Charity plus drinking is an even better thing.  This is one of the reasons that Heart’s Delight is one of my favorite non-profits, because they consistently host charitable events that feature fine selections of alcohol, and their next event will be no different.  Heart’s Delight will be hosting a membership drive at the Passenger on Monday, June 14. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about the organization and to join up.  10% of all sales will go to the American Heart Association.  I highly recommend that you check it out.

Talkin' Transit
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Talkin’ Transit: Drive

Photo courtesy of
‘twilight drive’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Through a very lucky break I’ve had a free parking pass for my office building over the last month. It’s given me a chance to drive into the office on a regular basis, and to compare that commute to my regular Metro commute. The things I do for you fine readers!

First, let me make it clear: I think that a viable public transit system has to be at the heart of any reasonably sized community. We just cannot afford another half-a-million cars on the road.

Having said that, from time to time (at least once a week) when I ride Metro, I get the urge to drive again. Every time I look at Metro’s site and see “delayed” (as I write this, the Orange and Blue lines are delayed) I want to get in the car and go.
Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Reel Journalism with Nick Clooney: “State of Play”

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Nick Clooney with NBC Anchor Brian Williams/Photo By Rachel Levitin

The evolution of media is a hot conversation and what better way to nip that conversation in the butt than actually talking about the daily changes in how people write, gather, and read the news.

Nick Clooney hosts the final installment of his Reel Journalism series at the Newseum this coming Monday, June 14 with guests David Gregory and Betsy Fischer of NBC’s “Meet The Press” to discuss these changes.

“State of Play” (2009) is Clooney’s film of choice for the discussion focusing around the plight two fictional journalists face while attempting to cover a murder case. Character and traditional print journalist Cal McCaffrey (portrayed by Russell Crowe) utilizes police contacts to obtain details for his story while new media blogger Della Fry (portrayed by Rachel McAdams) takes to blogging the facts for wide-spred dissemnination of news pertaining to the case.

Tickets are still available for $25, $20 if you’re a Newseum Member.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for the 7 p.m. show at the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Theater located inside the Newseum.

Adventures, Entertainment, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed
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Burgers, Wings & Beer; Georgetown’s latest additions

Photo courtesy of
‘Ted’s spicy wings’
courtesy of ‘rick’

This week two new restaurants open along Georgetown’s posh M Street and hope to fill some of the gaps within the neighborhoods food scene.

Opening on Thursday, the long time M Street Italian staple, News Cafe, re-brands and revamps its menu as Thunder Burger & Bar. According to Vox Populi’s exclusive interview with Thunder Burger & Bar’s GM Ryan Clarke, the establishment will offer “a fully rounded-out menu, but 95% of the focus will be on the burger.” Clarke hopes to differentiate the eatery from the  plethora of DC burger places by bringing “quality burgers back to a sit-down restaurant with a sit-down experience.” Not quite sure this is a winning strategy, especially with all the other nearby restaurants that offer fantastic burgers (J. Paul’s, Clyde’s, Martin’s, Rugby, etc.) but it will definitely be an improvement from News Cafe.

Further down the road at 3291 M Street, Georgetown Wing Co. has a soft opening this week, which features (not surprisingly) wings. The restaurant has a fantastic beer selection, because what goes better with wings than beer, and they’ll feature $1.50 Miller Lites and $3 Sam Adams Seasonal and Sierra Nevada bottles. According to their twitter profile, for Friday’s World Cup kick off, they’ll be expanding their menu to include Crêpe bunch, mimosa & draft specials. Nom.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Sweetgreen Opens on Capitol Hill, Announces Plans in NoVa

Photo courtesy of
‘Sweetgreen #14’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Sweetgreen, known for their amazing salads and super tasty frozen treats, has opened up their newest location on Capitol Hill on Pennsylvania Avenue this past weekend. That makes five locations for the local chain, whose friendly staff and fresh ingredients make for a fine healthy lunchtime option for the busy folks of DC. They’ve also announced that they’re expanding into Virginia, with their first location in Reston Town Center, opening this summer.

The Daily Feed
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Chance to open HFStival… and free burritos

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

California Tortilla is sponsoring the Battle to Break Out at HFStival– local, unsigned bands can upload a track, the top 20 tracks will be voted on by fans, the top 6 will perform for HFStival judges, and the winner of that round will open the main stage of the festival. It’s a pretty great opportunity for the fantastic local music scene.

I wouldn’t have mentioned the sponsor except that every band that uploads a track gets a free burrito for every member of the band, and the top 6 bands get free burritos for every member of the bands for a year. I don’t know about you, but free burritos seems like reason enough to participate, no?

Sports Fix
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DC Sports Fans Rejoice: Strasburg is Real

 IMG_0058 Strasburg.jpg
Photo by Cheryl Nichols/Nationals News Network

Joe Posnanski of SI wrote in his column yesterday that today was a lot like Christmas morning, in that the hopes and aspirations of the franchise lay in the wrapped present of Stephen Strasburg.  He also wrote that “you never really hear them talk about Christmas AFTERNOON, when the presents are out of their boxes and wrapping paper is scattered on the living room floor.”

For many other debuts, I’d say he’s right. For Stephen Strasburg’s debut, though, the reality of the present is absolutely matching its expectations. The Nationals tonight delivered Christmas afternoon before the capacity crowd, which at times was so loud as to be deafening, and whose enthusiasm I have seen just once at Nationals Park. That game? The first victory at Nationals Park in April of 2008. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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And the Wheels of the Bus Go…

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

Let’s pretend you’re a bus driver. You get involved in a deadly collision between your bus and a taxi where one of the taxi passengers later dies from injuries. Your bosses believe you ran a red light, causing the accident, and fired you from your job. Sounds reasonable, right?

Or, let’s say you’re still a bus driver, but you decide to take offense at someone dressed as McGruff the Crime Dog and slug him; the costumed canine turns out to be a cop. You’re fired from your job, arrested and found guilty of simple assault.

Think you deserve to get your job back in either case?

Apparently Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 thinks so. Both men won their jobs back after an arbitration hearing between the union and WMATA sided in favor of the union. The McGruff hater is due back behind the wheel of a bus after some “retraining.” The driver involved in the fatal accident is currently sitting at home, awaiting a decision by WMATA on where to place him. Both drivers were awarded their jobs plus full back pay, something the union considers a victory.

The reinstatement of a bus driver who caused a fatal accident (and I’ll note that he had not been cited or charged with anything; Metro determined from their own investigation that the driver ran a red light) is most disturbing. “We’re very concerned,” said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein to the Examiner‘s Kytja Weir. “We feel strongly that termination was the right decision.” WMATA settled out of court with the widow of the victim, after she sued the agency for $100 million.

Union president Jackie Jeter said of the hearings that “[t]he authority does not have authority to do whatever they want to do.”

Words? Fail.

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Blitzen Trapper

Blitzen Trapper

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

For our first giveaway, we have a pair of tickets to Blitzen Trapper at the 9:30 Club. These experimental folk rockers will be playing the 9:30 Club on Monday, June 14th.

Blitzen Trapper are touring in support of their latest album “Destroyer of the Void”; a sprawling, electric-folk album that plays like the perfect soundtrack to an imagined Super-8, vacation film shot by a bored, sixteen year-old on a family road-trip across Kansas. It is an album that sonically hearkens back to late 60’s folk-rock while evoking classic mid-western imagery with an undercurrent of uneasy tension. It makes me think of grainy film images shot from the backseat of a moving station-wagon: leaning barns, tilted telephone poles, rows of corn, gravel roads, and weather-worn faces. Blitzen Trapper are currently a sextet of very serious looking men who I am sure will employ all manner of inventive instrumentation to recreate their imagination-inspiring music when they play the best sounding club in town next week.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts.

For the rules of this giveaway…
Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Yves Klein iPhone App

Photo courtesy of
‘tidal meta’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

There is an app for everything these days, so it is no surprise that the Hirshhorn decided to join in all of the fun.  The Hirshhorn has launched the mobile application for “Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers” as the “first mobile application offered to the public by a Smithsonian art museum”.  The Klein app is available on iTunes for a price of 99 cents and “provides users with a full overview of the exhibition”.

Once you check out the new iTunes app (and, of course, my recent review of the exhibit) and like what you see then perhaps you would be interested in heading over to the museum tonight in order to hear Klein’s wife, assistant, model, and muse, Rotraut Klein-Moquay discuss his life and works.

In Conversation will be held tonight at 7 PM in the Ring Auditorium.

The Daily Feed
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Strasburg Delivers: Sets Record for Strikeouts in Nationals Uniform


Pierogie Disappointment
Originally uploaded by tbridge

In a performance that could only be considered “air superiority” for the Nationals, Stephen Strasburg made his debut tonight in front of a sellout crowd of 40,315. He would proceed to do things to the Pirates batting order that would be considered illegal in 12 states and 2 territories. He struck out 14, including every one of the Pirates who batted. That’s a club record, surpassing John Patterson in 2006, and Clippard and Capps would add three more for a team record of 17 Ks in one evening.

Throughout his start, Strasburg kept his fastball in such a range that could only be measured in low mach numbers. He cleared 100mph on multiple occasions, and his fastball never dropped below 97. His breaking stuff was so superb that several hitters looked at pitches as if they’d just disappeared between the mound and the plate. We’ll have more in the morning, but suffice it to say: The Hype Is Real. This kid’s the real deal.

The Daily Feed
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All Female Art Exhibition

Photo courtesy of
‘Rothko Colour’
courtesy of ‘Edward Hoover’

Would you like to support local artists and a local charity all in one night?  Sounds pretty awesome to me.

The Art Registry is hosting an art exhibition and fundraiser to benefit Dress for Success on Thursday evening.  The event will feature seven female artists (six are local) whose work will be up for sale at the event.  Tickets can be purchased at the door for $20, and the cost include hours d’ oeuvres, wine, and of course, the opportunity to help a great cause.

The artists to be featured are: Joey Manlapaz, Anne Marchand, Leah Matthews, Karen Smul, Sandy Wexler, Catherine White, and Shawn Yancy (Fox 5 News Anchor).

The event will be on Thursday from 6-9 PM at the the Kimpton’s Hotel Palomar in Dupont.  For more information call 703-798-8717.

The Daily Feed
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We’re Finally Here


Ballpark at Sunset
Originally uploaded by tbridge

The debut of Stephen Strasburg is the single most hyped event in baseball this season, and probably going back further than that. This is as big a day as DC sports has seen since Alex Ovechkin first took the ice in a Capitals sweater. As the fans stream through the centerfield gate, and they’ve been streaming in steadily since 4:30 this afternoon, the final preparations are being made for his first start. Dozens of media camera crews are patrolling warning track around the infield, everyone from George Will to yours truly is here to report on the results of this phenom.

The expectations at this point are so high that anything short of an astounding first outing will be a massive disappointment to the fans for this ballclub. Talking with manager Jim Riggleman before the game, he was clear that the team is excited to have Strasburg, but they’re not resting all of their fortunes on his shoulders. His debut tonight, in front of an oversold home crowd, is the beginning of what the Nationals hope is a new era. It’s rare that a turning point for a club could be so clearly identified, but if Strasburg is what the label says, and from talking with future Hall of Famer John Smoltz this afternoon, he is, then we’re in for the start of something wonderful here.

As with many things in sports, it’s hard to know for anything for sure before the results are written in the books, but all the pieces are coming together to make this an amazing season for the Nationals. Bring it on.

Look for live tweets this evening on @welovedcsports on Twitter

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Othello

Roger Payano as Othello in Synetic Theater's production of "Othello." Photo credit: Graeme B. Shaw

Ambition. Envy. Lust.

This is the triple-headed monster that drives one of Shakespeare’s most explored villians, the manipulative yet seductive Iago whose knowledge of his rivals’ secrets and fears are the keys to a devious plot. His motivation being so multi-faceted and open to different interpretations, he tends to grasp control of a play that is, after all, named for another character. It’s an issue every production has to face – do you focus on the monster or the hero?

Now through July 3 you can witness how effectively Synetic Theater tackles this issue with their take on Othello. It’s their sixth wordless Shakespeare production – I thought they had reached the pinnacle with their last outing, Antony and Cleopatra, but clearly there’s no end to the brilliance of this company when it applies its physical theater style to the Bard. Hyperbole? Head to the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater and judge for yourself.

Here Othello’s polished veneer of self-control masks a deep wound into which Iago writhes like a parasite, whereas Iago’s wound is shown to us right from the start. As they are so entwined, they are equally the focus. This is a production marked by psychic pain so palpable it made me shake. It’s also fast, frenzied and exquisite. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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U Street Movie Series Tonight: This Is It

Photo courtesy of
‘Day 250/365 – Modern Day Drive-In’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

No tickets to tonight’s game?  Here’s another option for outdoor entertainment: the U Street Movie Series.  This summer movie  series kicks off tonight with This Is It.  Gates open at Harrison Field at 7 PM, and the movie will start at 8:30.  And if you’re one of the first 100 people there, you’ll get free popcorn!

Music-themed movies will be shown at Harrison Field on the second Tuesday of every month this summer, so mark your calendar for Buena Vista Social Club on July 13, The Soloist on August 10, and Soul Power and Duke Ellington’s Washington on September 14.

The Daily Feed
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Washingtonian Picks Up Multimedia Award for City Magazines

Photo courtesy of
‘the entire set except for 22’
courtesy of ‘Xhanatos’

Over the last few days, the City and Regional Magazine Association handed out annual achievements at its conference up in Providence, Rhode Island. While the biggest prize went to regional magazines in Texas, Cincinnati and Honolulu, our own city glossy picked up a trophy for some of its excellent use of digital media.

Washingtonian Magazine received top honors in the multimedia category, which recognizes the use of videos, slide shows and podcasts on the respective websites for the magazines in the last year. Congrats go out to the digital staff of our local mag, and you can see the release that lists all the winners across the categories at Romanesko.

The Daily Feed
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Video of the biplane flip

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Dan Webb caught footage of the biplane coming in at National and you can see the flip happen. Compare it to the video I have below and you can see what went wrong. Tail-dragger planes have a lot of weight up-front with the engine and prop but need to land with the tail down firmly to avoid this kind of mishap.

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