This week the big news is the appointment (PDF) of Dorothy Kosinski as the new Director of The Phillips Collection. She's currently the Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Dallas Musuem of Art, and comes with an impressive résumé that include extensive curating, acquisitions, and teaching experience. Kosinski will officially take over next spring, to replace retiring Director Jay Gates, just in time to take the reins on a five-year strategy the......

Ever work at a store with an intercom system? "Cleanup on aisle four." There's always the temptation to say something funny into it, to make a weird noise or cough or confuse the customers. And there's the amusement that happens when somebody new uses it. "Uhh... (click, buzz) is this... hey boss, uh, come here." The Metro intercoms seem to be mostly used for incoherent announcements about "trains... and stations" and things of that nature,......

Dulles-based AOL announced today it will move its corporate headquarters to New York. The shift is just another in a series of announcements regarding an overall restructuring of the Internet service provider that has included massive layoffs and a switch from fee-based subscriptions to a reliance on advertising revenue. The New York move was explained by AOL to be designed to place executives closer to the advertising industry based in Manhattan. So far we're hearing......

Have you heard the new Metro announcements yet? Maybe you were too busy rerouting yourself around the Yellow line over the weekend to notice, but Metro has added a couple new messages to its usual repertoire of station announcements, and at least one of them should have DCist commenters cheering: "Hi. Welcome to Metro. We have a lot of escalators in our system. You'll notice that most people stand on the right side. And while......

UPDATE (4:10pm): Nuthin! Per Barry Svrluga, the Nats passed the trade deadline without making a move, despite a flurry of late rumors. While they might make minor moves in August (like last year with Livan), they decided against moving Rauch or Cordero. Let's hope Chief's feelings aren't hurt and he strikes out Dunn for the save tonight! UPDATE (2:35pm): The Red Sox, rumored to have sought after Cordero since last winter, have reportedly filled their......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

It's only 36 hours until Deborah Jeane Palfrey makes her national television debut on ABC's 20/20, and we're once again torn between hope and disappointment. You'll remember our yawns at the leak identifying Harlan "Shock and Awe" Ullman as a former client of Palfrey's escort service, Pamela Martin and Associates. The alleged madam then kicked up her media blitz by releasing a page of phone records and promising that her high profile customer list included......

Washington woke up this morning to the sad news that Mstislav Rostropovich died in Moscow today, after undergoing treatment for cancer since February. The world has lost a giant of music, an enthusiastic, larger than life figure for many of his 80 years among us. Many Washingtonians felt the loss more keenly because of the Russian cellist and conductor's long relationship with the city, as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to......

The last 24 hours have proved quite busy for regional concert announcements, and we're happy to say the news isn't about bands skipping DC as they galavant around the country. Earlier this morning the 9:30 Club's Seth Hurwitz announced the newly reformed Police and Smashing Pumpkins, along with the Beastie Boys, as the headliners for this year's Virgin Fest, now to be a two-day event held on August 4th and 5th at Pimlico Race Course......

The rumors had been swirling since December, but today WETA-FM officially announced that it will abandon its two-year old foray into news and talk radio in favor of returning to a classical music format. The move is unusual, though, in that the decision by the public station was made in conjunction with commercial WGMS-FM. The latter station, known as "Washington's Classical Station," will give up its format in favor of news and talk, effectively creating......

To many, it might not seem like Metro understands the spirit of giving very well these days. However, in the past week or so, Metro has made a few other announcements that are much more "Whoville" than they are "Mr. Grinch". After the jump, we have clean energy, carsharing, paratransit, a bus station, and a partridge in a pear tree. Photo by MatthewBradley......

In discussions about Metro's 2008 budget shortfall, you might hear a lot of doubletalk about the costs of dealing with increased ridership, expanded service, the need to recruit and retain workers in a tighter labor market, and how "millions" will have to be spent to enable "fare machines" to accept the redesigned "$5 bill." Tell it to someone who cares, Metro. We know there's largesse to be cut, and we don't mean a few holiday......

In recent years, various neighborhood listservs have popped up across the District, serving as hyper-local sounding boards and electronic community forums. There's NewHillEast, WoodleyFriends, cleveland-park, HillcrestDC, AdamsMorgan, columbia heights, FriendsOfSligoCreek, gloverpark, MPD-1D -- you get the idea. So much commentary is exchanged on these many listservs that the City Paper's blog, City Desk, has taken to publishing twice-weekly excerpts of the best and weirdest that gets exchanged. But one new listserv is looking to fight......

Though he hasn't yet officially conceded, the WaPo is reporting this morning that Sen. George Allen is "realistic" about the outcome of the Virginia election after the Associated Press called the election for his opponent, Jim Webb, last night. With nearly 100 percent of the votes counted in the state, Webb continued to lead by approximately 7,300 votes. He's even begun staffing already, and the phones at his headquarters are being answered, "Hello, Senator-elect Webb's......

D.C. United entered last night's match against Red Bull New York with a grim resolve. In contrast to the pregame festivities in the RFK parking lot and the excitement of the 21,455 in attendance, United's starting 11 didn't crack a hint of a smile during the starting lineup announcements. They knew that for all intents and purposes, last week's favorable result was meaningless; the scars from last year's embarrassing playoff defeat attested to the......

It's going to be a perfectly lovely day, maybe a little on the warm side even, with just a slim chance of showers later this afternoon. We should all, no doubt, have a little spring in our steps. And luckily for us we can, seeing as how we don't usually comment on the goings on up on the Hill. If we did, we might be forced to face some ugly realities this morning. We might,......

You know, we have a lot of fun here at DCist, but we like to think that occasionally we serve to educate as well. It's a daunting task — there's a lot of material relevant to D.C. residents that we could cover, from how to get your car inspected to who's got the best burger to which bars have the heaviest intern infestations. But of all the lessons we could impart, perhaps the most important......

Here at DCist, we deliver. We've gotten potholes fixed, and now we're getting new speakers put into Metro stations. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. Ok, a total exaggeration. But that's neither here nor there. Today Get There, the Post's transportation blog, reports that Metro is in the midst of a three-year, $18 million project to replace the system's crappy PA system. After hearing one too many garbled messages concerning safety or service changes earlier this......

Who would have thought? Clearly not Sidney Davis. Yesterday the Post profiled Davis, a Metrobus driver with a tendency to offer opinions and advice on the coming Dictrict elections, in a fluff piece meant more to highlight a cute quirk than to offer news or analysis on the candidates or the issues. Metro officials clearly didn't see things that way, and today they acted by putting Davis on administrative leave and distributing a memo reminding......

Hey there, Washington. We're sorry to say there isn't a lot of cheery news this morning. For starters, the rain is finally back. Um, it should be over by Friday. That's optimisitic, right? In fact, the headlines this morning were so tough for us to swallow (see below), we feel the need to at least try to brighten up your day just by linking to Cute Overload. Because nothing says we love you like......

Chances are you probably don't get as many press releases emailed to you daily as we do (for the sake of your sanity, we certainly hope not), so you might not be as primed as we are for the announcement that tickets for the first ever Capital Fringe Festival are finally, finally on sale. We've only been excitedly waiting for the festival since oh, long about April of last year, and we've only been receiving......

The summer concert season is well under way, and few surprises remain, which makes concert news that cuts through the humidity all the more exciting. Here are a few new blips on the radar that we noticed, despite our holding pattern as we await the official VFest announcements this weekend. >> We hope you all got your Sleater-Kinney tickets; they sold out so fast that even the formidible Internet prowess of our own Jason Linkins......

A few weeks ago, we told you about the cumulating evidence that Virgin Mobile will be bringing its popular European music festival, V Fest, to the states. The formal announcement has been made: The creators of England's phenomenally successful Virgin Festival will be announcing the debut of the American version. The Virgin Festival By Virgin Mobile will be held at Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes, in Baltimore, Maryland on September 23, 2006.......

For nearly a year, DCist has been following the conflict developing in Shaw between proprietors of new restaurants and bars and neighborhood churches, which oppose the opening of new establishments that allow drinking. Area churches have relied, so far, upon a provision in the law which grandfathers existing liquor stores and taverns, but which does not allow new establishments, "within 400 feet of a public, private, or parochial primary, elementary, or high school; college or......

Maybe Metro's new door closing announcements should have come with a sterner warning. It turns out that swiftly closing doors cause most of the injury and property damage claims filed against Metro each year. As a result, WMATA expects to spend $31 million on legal settlements, many for such injury claims. “If there is one thing that can quickly bankrupt us, it’s this,” Metro board member Bill Euille told the Examiner. “We need to find......

So, we like to celebrate our little milestones here at DCist. We know, it's self-indulgent, but it makes us feel good to look back at the swath of D.C. miscellany we've cut in the internets over the past two years, and today you guys join us in our historical reverie. Just a few moments ago, we recorded our 30,000th comment, a dilly of a pickle left by frequent interlocuter WOV. The comment, WOV's 107th, was......

FRIDAY: >> After a superb D.C. debut last year in the back room, Pleaseeasaur is returning to theBlack Cat tonight, this time on the mainstage, opening for San Diego's Pinback. J.P. Hasson and his invisible sidekick Thomas Hurley III are apparently taking a break this month from recording a new Comedy Central-sponsored album to perform a number of valuable pubilc service announcements. Did you know, for example, that "Cobras are Totally Cool?" Or, for that......

According to announcements at their website and on their MySpace page, almost-there local band The Bonapartes are calling it quits. Details on the cause are very thin, but it does appear that the band will be playing a last show (and it looks like a good one) June 2 at Black Cat, so we're guessing the band members are at least on speaking terms. Here's A Hint posted on this yesterday (using the only appropriate......

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams may not be mayor for much longer, but he does have a few wishes for his successor's benefit, writes the Post today. First off, that the title be changed from "mayor" to "governor," a recognition of the fact that the District serves both the functions of a city and a state. Second, a good retirement package. Third and final, a mayoral house. Williams quickly backed off of asking for a mayoral......

It's been a...weird week for D.C. music lovers. Fur flew over the dos and don'ts of ticket sale announcements. Strange things were afoot with venue booking. We all got twitterpated about Unbuckled. Before we move on to telling you about some things to look forward to, may we just say how much awesome Nethers brought to the Black Cat's back stage last night? This is a truly great band, D.C. or otherwise. They've got well......