It's the end of the year! And DCist is here to tell you about it...through the power of radio. That's right, if you're antsy at work and want to hear DCist Editor Sommer Mathis pontificating on some of the area's biggest trends, then tune into WETA's The Intersection. Sommer'll be there with some other media folks, chatting away. Can you guess in the comments what they'll think will be the most important D.C. stories of... more ›

Whoooooosh! What's that giant sucking sound? Oh yeah - it's the sweet reverberation of another record store totally biting it and going out of business in this era of iTunes. In this case, we've got Tower Records bowing out of the business, a fact that, though it feels inevitable, saddens us all the same.

According to an AP article that ran in the Post,

On Friday, after a 29-hour auction, most of the bankrupt music retailer's assets were sold to liquidation firm Great American Group, which bid $134.3 million. The company outbid Albany, N.Y.-based retailer Trans World Entertainment by a mere $500,000.

DCist Hemal has her memories of Tower too, saving her from Tysons purgatory:

I was working at the most soul crushing job ever in the paved hell of Tysons corner my first year out of school. I'd escape into the tower records two to three times a week during my lunch break and browse through the CDs, trying to reconnect with something artistic for a few minutes before I had to go back and be an office bitch.

I remember when my right-wing Christian ex-girlfriend broke up with me and I went out and bought Bad Religion's Against the Grain and a couple of other great punk records at Tower, and I remember thinking, "Aaah, freedom."

I'm hoping for a FUTURE Tower memory in which they eventually start having stuff marked down to the point where I can finally take revenge for years of having to take it in a very uncomfortable place from Tower once I reached the cash register.

Do you have any memories (good, bad, or ugly) of Tower Records?

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A friend is getting a Dubya mask for Halloween, but I feel like there's so many other D.C. characters and entities that would make for better costumes. Any DC-themed costumes you can suggest? (Please help, otherwise I'm doomed to show up on the 31st as either Jessica Cutler or the Metro!) DCist was staring vacantly into our computer screen thinking of taking the week off of Ask. But when this question came in, we knew... more ›

With the rainy, cloudy weather -- all dominated by the intense news coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II -- it hasn't been the most uplifting past couple of days. Since we can't add much more to what's been said or written about the late pope, we'll do a survey of obituaries and headlines on the jump. But first, here's what you may have missed on DCist. -- If you're late for... more ›

What a beautiful day it’s been ... Highs were in the 50s and 60s, the skies were mostly clear, as you can see from this DCist photo of the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square taken near sunset. The first day of the New Year’s three-day weekend seems to have played climatological tricks on us. Perhaps Mother Nature has some big mass of Canadian cold air in store for us, but we... more ›

It seems that digital photography is the wave of the future. Countless photobloggers depend on digital cameras to rapidly export their work to their Web-based viewership. And DCist couldn't bring you on-the-scene photos without a digital camera or handy camera phone. But is the art form associated with traditional photography -- dark rooms, rolls of film, noxious chemicals and all -- being lost? James W. Bailey says yes. more ›

And DCist blanks on telling everyone about the start of 2004 World Cup of Hockey last night. We plead Olympic hangover. But hockey fans have nothing to fear with 13 games remaining to satiate your hockey craving. Actually hockey fans, there may be something to fear with the probable delay of the NHL season, but we will get to that later. First things first. Tonight the United States takes the ice with Canada at Montreal’s... more ›

We finally found one. After nine months of searching, DCist spied someone wearing a WMATA metrorail shirt this weekend on a Connecticut Avenue sidewalk. (It was a Metro Center shirt, like the the one at left). Since we love to talk about transit issues, DCist has a few thoughts on D.C.’s attempts to enter the world of transit chic. London promotes “Mind the Gap.” Paris glorifies its Art Nouveau Metropolitan signage. And New York has... more ›

DCist is currently bogged down in the August doldrums. The work of democracy slows down and the workday is generally uneventful. But around 10 a.m., a spectacular multi-vehicle crash provided some excitement for DCist and other workers near Union Station. more ›