Does the 9:30 Club have a trophy case? If not, I'm not sure where they're keeping all these Billboard awards. Yesterday, the club once again was honored as the the most attended club in America during the 2011 Billboard Touring Awards. more ›

Despite the current economic climate, the District of Columbia is still home to plenty of jobs which pay mighty well. That said, the market for one high-paying position appears to have just missed out on qualifying for the Department of Employment Services' annual employment guide. more ›

Last week, local development blog DCMud reported that local uber-developer Douglas Development had picked up the deed on the Equitable Building at 915 F Street NW for $5 million, half of what the previous owner paid for it. It's a property that we've been keeping an eye on for some time. more ›

Apex Nightclub, the 18-and-over dance spot popular with the District's LGBT and college residents, closed its doors last weekend and has been sold. more ›

UPDATE: It appears that the club intended to call the incident a "tragic" death, according to a version of the email newsletter which was sent out after the version we received. We just got in touch with Steve Lambert, the booking manager at the Hotel, who confirmed the typo and told us that he couldn't believe that he made the error. "Everything about this situation is so sensitive," Lambert said. "This was something I knew I had to spell check and read a few times before I sent it." more ›

Nice scoop from Fritz Hahn: the empty basement space at 1115 U Street NW, formerly occupied by Cue Bar, will be taken over by an all-star group of local nightlife veterans and transformed into a dance club dubbed the U Street Music Hall. Among the owners are ubiquitous local DJs Will Eastman and Jesse Tittsworth, Eric Hilton and Farid Ali of Eighteenth Street Lounge, and Marvin chef James Hilton. Nice to hear that the space, which has been the site of many a failed bar venture and been sitting empty for over a year, will see some new life. There definitely seems like there's room for something like this on U Street, as well. As Eastman noted when he spoke to Hahn, some kinds of dance nights don't fit in at either the Black Cat or the 9:30 Club, so this project could potentially fill that void. more ›

Sure, Harriette Walters might have stolen upwards of $44 million from the District's coffers, but at least she wasn't stealing directly from low-income school children. According to a WTOP report this morning, District officials have arrested and charged a city official with submitting false expense reports totaling $11,385 for big bills at local restaurants and strip clubs. Emerson Crawley, a program manager at After School for All at Shaw Junior High School, allegedly spent the... more ›

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is hereby proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by conventions of three-fourths of the several States: "Article – Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the... more ›

One need not dig too deep into our city’s jazz scene before coming across the name Thad Wilson. Since coming to D.C. in 1997, Wilson has become a mainstay in the jazz clubs of U Street and beyond by consistently performing with passion, intensity, and consummate artistry in a variety of settings. In addition to his own considerable abilities, his groups feature some of the finest players in the D.C. area. A native of... more ›

>> The biggest D.C. government corruption scandal ever? [WaPo, updated from earlier story] >> Will there finally be enough places to lock up our bicycles? [WJLA] >> An Emerging Columbia Hts.-Petworth Food Split? [Free Ride] >> Bloomingdale Farmers Market not a given for next year? [In Shaw] >> Could H Street NE put a cap on the number of bars that can open there? [City Desk] Photo by sally henny penny... more ›

To call pianist Tigran Hamasyan an “up-and-comer” is a misnomer, because even though he is still quite young, this talented artist, by any measure, has already arrived. In addition to winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in 2006, the 20-year-old has been a finalist in numerous international competitions and has performed at clubs and festivals all over the world. Hamasyan will bring his latest sounds to the Kennedy Center’s KC Jazz Club on Friday... more ›

Local LGBT activists are upset over a document distributed by the Washington Nationals, according to City Desk. The document details the team's Vendor Procurement Program and features Major League Baseball's affirmative action policy, which includes this portion:The Licensee shall not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment or against any service recipient or applicant for services because of race, color, ethnic status, religion, sex, age, national origin, disable veteran status, Vietnam era veteran status,... more ›

Written by DCist Contributor Stephanie Taylor Mark Andersen came to Washington decades ago as a student of international relations, but was heartbroken by what he saw right in his own backyard. What he describes as the distance between the city's idealism and its reality, particularly in terms of radical income disparities and the effects of historic racism, were too much for him to ignore. So he became a different type of diplomat, founding Positive Force... more ›

Today is National Coming Out Day, a day when gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are encouraged to be open about who they are. The annual observance began on October 11, 1988, exactly one year after the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. (The first one was held October 14, 1979.) While there aren't usually major events to commemorate the day, there are a couple of local events that coincide with... more ›

The 2nd year of the District's Awake! Music Festival is making it's grand sophomore entrance tomorrow night in clubs across town. News about the festival is traveling far and wide, with a sponsorship and podcast from everybody's favorite online radio station, WOXY, an interview on the local news, and more. A few last minute changes have been made to the festival — namely the unfortunate cancellation of Cloud Cult's set, and of the Rock &... more ›

>> Looking to practice your Spanish comprehension? The Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the OAS is hosting an interesting free movie screening tonight at the Art Museum of the Americas -- but be warned, the film does not have English subtitles. Donde Acaban Los Caminos is based on the autobiographical novel by Mario Monteforte Toledo, about a young man who arrives in San Pedro La Laguna during the military dictatorship in the first decades of... more ›

>> D.C. United and Chivas Guadalajara renew their budding rivalry this evening. The match is part of the Copa Nissan Sudamericana, a 34-team invitational tournament featuring the best clubs of South America and several North American teams looking to crash the party. The match could be one of the most entertaining, competitive affairs this season. United aims to atone for their first round exit from the tournament two years ago; they also seek to... more ›

Written by DCist Contributor Laura Logerfo For the central cathedral in a major city, St. Matthew’s somehow blends in. The Cathedral is surrounded by offices that stand nearly as high as the church, and its brick façade resembles that of adjacent buildings. It is situated near one of the busiest and trickiest intersections in DC, where Connecticut Ave., Rhode Island Ave., 18th and M Streets all meet. On weekends, city dwellers pass by the church... more ›

On Saturday night, Washington National Opera opened its fall season with an oh-so-edgy rendition of a tired old chestnut, Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème. It is the fifth mounting of this opera by WNO since 1984, which works out to a production every four or five years on average. Film director Mariusz Treliński created this new production for the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, which also gave Washington his Butterfly and Andrea Chénier. The aim, laudable... more ›

Because we like to bring you great bands and great things to do around D.C. as often as we possibly can, DCist has teamed up with Bliss Pop and Brightest Young Things in the name of a great night at the 9:30 Club. On September 8, join your favorite internet types and your favorite music types as DJ Will Eastman, Georgie James, The Dance Party and Soft Complex fill our city's finest music hall with... more ›

The Young Lions personify the resurgence of U Street as the focal point of D.C.'s jazz scene. The original version of the group, formed in 1996, was a collaboration mainly of students attending Howard University. Over the past decade, the group has undergone various lineup changes and eventually settled on the genre-bending trio that heats up U Street's clubs on a weekly basis. Though firmly rooted in tradition, the adventurous group explores and improvises... more ›

D.C.'s jazz community lost its matriarch when Ronnie Wells (pictured right) succumbed to lung cancer in March 2007. One of D.C.'s premier jazz vocalists, Wells began her career in the mid-60s when she started performing at clubs throughout the city. Over the course of her career, her music took her to festivals and around the world. In 1983, she accepted an appointment to the University of Maryland's music program, where she designed a jazz vocal... more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the... more ›

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) never ceases to amaze us. When he's not looking to shutdown bars and clubs (whether he has a reason or not), he's proposing schemes to put strip-clubs anywhere but in his own ward. He's newest plan? Putting them under Dupont Circle. Yes, you read that right. Under Dupont Circle. The Washington Times is reporting today that Graham has floated the idea of relocating some of the strip-clubs forced out... more ›

This city has always produced fine jazz musicians, but the scene has had its ups and downs. In the 1990s, D.C.'s jazz landscape was very different. This was a time before the resurgence of U Street and Adams Morgan as centers for live music, and it also seemed as though there was a dearth of young talent in the city. While top notch national acts always came to the Kennedy Center and Blues Alley,... more ›

With the NHL draft beginning this Friday evening, the Capitals must be excited to possess the fifth overall pick. That high pick gives them a chance to add one more skilled young prospect to a corps of young talent that includes First Team All Star Alexander Ovechkin, hard-shooting winger Alexander Semin and enough other good young players to get their top minor league affiliate to the last two AHL finals. One player likely to slip... more ›

Andre the Giant, Schmandre the Giant. The other day we noticed one of these stickers on a lamppost at about 13th and R Streets NW. It's good to see some grassroots (lamp roots?) support for the D.C. United star, and Dan Steinberg over at the D.C. Sports Bog has been on the case for some time. For those who don't know, "tiene un posse" is a reference to the Andre the Giant Has a... more ›

After facing the inevitable closing that many other violence-plagued clubs have been dealt, Southwest's H2O may be feeling relieved. According to the Post, the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has given the club two weeks to make improvements in security in the wake of a weekend fatal shooting in late May. As part of a plan to keep its liquor license, over the next two weeks H2O will add several layers of security, do away... more ›

Good morning, D.C. If you're like us (and presumably since you're reading this, you are), you love to follow local news, especially for those few stories that come up every now again that manage to combine two of the local media's favorite tropes: fear mongering and funny names. For example, just when you thought the intersex fish problem in the Potomac had drifted off into the ethereal plane of being old news, the Sierra Club... more ›

The D.C. council is set to vote on legislation proposed by Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) tomorrow that would create exemptions to allow strip clubs displaced by the new Nationals stadium to relocate to Ivy City in Ward 5. As we told you previously, Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas opposes the legislation and has offered several amendments to the bill, including one that was adopted that would give $3.6 million to improve the... more ›