Results tagged “creativecommons”

A Post business columnist and an independent music non-profit have joined the chorus questioning Live Nation's proposal for a Silver Spring music hall. Last Friday, Steven Pearlstein wrote that while I.M.P. boss Seth Hurwitz has fought against competition for his 9:30 Club before, and his alternative proposal to Live Nation is in his own best interest, "he's put forward a financial proposal attractive enough that county officials cannot ignore it."

Mayor Adrian Fenty has ordered all D.C. taxicabs to switch to time and distance meters, abandoning forever the controversial zone system that has been unique to Washington for decades. “As we work to become a world-class city, it is essential that all aspects of District government are user friendly, fair and efficient for residents and visitors alike,” Fenty said in a statement released to the media. “District residents are overwhelmingly in favor of modernizing...

Good morning, Washington. Can you feel the excitement in the air? That's right: it's Taxi Decision Day. Will District residents get a shiny new meter system, or have to make our peace with zones for the foreseeable future? Or will we be treated to a metered zone hybrid/abomination? It'll be just a few hours until we find out. Immigration Measures Elicit Passion, Lawsuits: The Post reports on the scene in Prince William County, where...

Early yesterday morning, the tragic news was announced. On Myspace, a bulletin appeared that read: Ian Mackaye, lead singer of influential hardcore band Minor Threat as well as Fugazi passed away today in a Baltimore hospital room. Outside a Fugazi show in New Jersey last night, the singer was struck by a car passing by the front of the Ventura Theatre. Brunswick police say that the driver allegedly stopped, but then fled the scene. There...

For those folks who tune into Washingtonian food critic Todd Kliman's weekly chogs, we know he can get a little outta control. If you were paying attention to the chog this morning, you may have noticed this rather interesting exchange: DC: Hi Todd, Several well known chefs are lending their names to new restaurants in DC... Do you agree with DonRockwell of donrockwell.com that the latter two are merely "hype-driven, let's-give-the-restaurant-critics-an-erection outposts" or do you...

We're working on putting together a special event for our readers to celebrate towards the end of this month, and will let you know all the details soon. This web site would certainly be nothing without all of you who spend your time here, debating the issues, being overly sensitive and correcting our typos. At the ripe old age of three, DCist salutes you, the commentariat. And of course, we salute ourselves. It is our birthday, after all.

Sad but true: the Post has some great coverage of the closing night at Common Share on Friday. The bar, located on 18th Street NW south of the Adams Morgan strip and just north of Florida Avenue, was one of the cheaper places in the city, with beers going for $2. While there are rumors that the bar may reopen elsewhere, possibly the H Street NE strip, we'll sure miss the inexpensive brew and laid...

Spoon front man and friend of DCist Britt Daniel has left us another update regarding their upcoming performances in the area. Yes, that's right, we said "performances." Plural. As he hinted at in his last comment, the band is keeping their 10/23 date at the 9:30 Club with The Ponys following the 10/22 gig with The Shins at Merriweather. Here's what Britt had to say:

Hi again. We did finally figure out a way to do a smaller show in DC: Spoon and the Ponys will be playing the 9:30 club on Tuesday Oct 23rd, the day after the Shins / Merriweather show. For those who bought tickets to either of the original 9:30 shows, admittance is guaranteed and is free. After that, admittance is free on a first-come basis to anyone who has a Merriweather ticket. The details get a bit thick, so I'll just fw what I've been told. Thanks, Britt

This week at Overheard, we'd like to take a moment to give thanks for a segment of the population that we feel is unfairly maligned. That's right, we're talking about you, Mr. Stares Blatantly at Women's Breasts on the Metro. And you, sir, who just nearly walked into a pole while leering at the woman who just walked past. We raise our glasses to the guy surreptitiously taking pictures of girls' rear ends on the...

Matt Sharp and Rivers Cuomo have a number of things in common. They’ve both been in Weezer for starters. They both have a tremendous gift for a catchy melody. They both look good in thick-rimmed glasses. They’ve both put bands they’ve been in on indefinite hiatus. Where they depart though is in what happened after their bands’ respective hiatuses. Cuomo, after having revealed perhaps a bit too much of his inner monologue for his own tastes on Pinkerton (even if that’s what made it the band’s best record), decided to remove all traces of emotional depth from his music, and Weezer quickly descended into sad self-parody. Sharp, on the other hand, brought back his Moog-tastic New Wave throwbacks The Rentals a couple of years ago after emerging from his own semi-reclusive period, but never lost the sense of fun that made them such a great (if under-appreciated) band to begin with.

Rock 'n' Roll has been around long enough for there to be a number of iron-clad certainties associated with it. Sgt. Pepper will likely top every critic's list from here until the end of time. The good will die young. Keith Richards, on the other hand, will never die, period. And, as was proved once again last night at the 9:30 Club, during the period of time between Neko Case's entrance onto a stage and the sound of the first chord, someone in the audience will yell, "I love you, Neko!!!!" Because everybody loves Neko, and no one is shy about letting the world know. Last night, Case proved once again why such feelings are never misplaced.

Nobody enjoys having to muscle through a dense crowd of people on the metro platform. Especially on those days when everyone is so eager to get on the train that they don't even wait for anyone to get off before surging onboard. Times like that, we wish we had some magical power to transport past the crowd, but then again if we could do that, we wouldn't be taking metro to begin with, now would...

The oven-like heat outside reminds us of summers off from school, which in turn got us into a conversation about the fast food we remember from those days. Maybe it's a good thing that the D.C. area, and the city in particular, isn't overrun with these places, but it doesn't mean we don't remember them fondly -- or, for that matter, dearly wish they had a few outlets closer by at times like these. A...

Good morning, Washington, and welcome to a world with a new home run record. That's right: Barry Bonds hit his 756th career homer last night against our very own Washington Nationals. We're sure there are some mixed feelings among the Nats today about being immortalized in a video clip that'll likely be replayed for decades to come. Four Shot During National Night Out: Last night was the National Night Out, a crime-prevention event where citizens...

You may have one in your office. That one person who simply cannot be trusted. He'll take credit for your work, stab you in the back, and probably trash the restroom just for fun. She makes your life difficult beyond measure, putting on a friendly face to mask the twisted machinations being constructed within. If only you could channel all that effort you put into steering clear of that person into more constructive pursuits. When...

On an October evening in 2002, I found myself driving down picturesque Route 29 with two good friends. Mirah was on tour, but not stopping anywhere closer to D.C. than Charlottesville. And we simply had to see her. Five years later, the singular singer-songwriter with the beautifully delicate voice is on the road again, and while she's stopping in D.C. this time, I can't go, so I had to make a side trip to...

There are certain defining moments in the relationship between any father and son. Times when a father passes down the wisdom gained through the years, when a son asks those burning questions he doesn't feel comfortable asking his buddies, the guidance counselor, or the older guys in the gym locker room. And the father sits his son down and they talk long into the night. About why you should get flowers for a girl when...

We've come a long way, baby. The archetype of the dysfunctional family may go back farther than anyone can remember. But for the longest time, people just had to cope with passive aggressive animosity. At best, you could have lots of alcohol available to make the proceedings easier. The pharmaceutical companies, however, are always looking out for the best interests of you and yours. Their first success? Numbing emotional response to the point where no...

We've got two words for you, D.C.: beer pops. That's right, beer pops. WTOP, along with a number of other local news outlets, has coverage of an innovation being brought to market by an Alexandria restaurant. The folks at Rustico may not be the first to come up with the idea of ale-on-a-stick, but they're the first purveyors of it we know of in the D.C. area, and we salute them for it. Here's...

Quote of the Week

Washington has had a love-hate relationship with the Segway for some time now. Certainly, they are useful modes of transportation -- who among us begrudges the UPS man, or even the tourists, from trying to zip around our city's streets in a more efficient manner? But at the same time, pretty much no matter what you do, if you're riding one, you look like a douchebag. This isn't to say the technology isn't cool, or...

The new face of crimeThere's a new threat stalking the metropolitan area. No, not MySpace predators, tainted pet food or exploding manhole covers. It's far worse than that: it's cheerleaders. Specifically, scam-artist cheerleaders. NBC4 provides the details. Apparently 19 year-old Tasha Mitchell is in the habit of going door to door pretending to be the lead cheerleader for a local high school. She uses the ruse to solicit checks from credulous residents. There's no...

In honor of National Burger Heritage Awareness Month, our favorite Internet travel buddy Gridskipper opted to run a post lauding the awesomeness of Washington's hamburgers. We have no quarrel there; they are awesome, and we feel it completely appropriate to exalt their bovinity. Hmm. Bovinity. Where have we heard that word before? Bovinity, bovinity, bovinity, bovinity... But Gridskipper's list is certainly respectable — incorporating true burger all-stars like Colorado Kitchen and Tallula — even if...

You have to hand it to the Virginia Citizens' Defense League: they know how to stay in the news. We wrote about them just last Friday, noting their opposition to NYC Mayor Bloomberg's sting operations on Virginia gun shop operators. They're in the Post again today — and once again, they're exploring the blurry borders of Virginia's gun laws. This time it's about an anti-Bloomberg raffle that the group wants to put on. The "Bloomberg Gun Giveaway" is designed to raise money for two gun merchants who are being sued by the mayor. Folks who spend over $100 in the shops are eligible for a drawing for a semiautomatic pistol, a rifle, and ammunition. The actual winners are set to be chosen at a meeting in Annandale tomorrow night. Fairfax leaders aren't too keen on this idea, however — or the fact that armed VCDL members have shown up at their offices to discuss the county's opposition to the raffle. In fact, they're trying to shut it down, based upon the giveaway being in violation of gambling laws. We expressed sympathy for the VCDL's anti-Bloomberg sentiments last week, but we're already swinging back around. Don't get us wrong: we thought Deadwood was awesome, too. But the VCDL's incessant public firearm-brandishing is at the very least impolite. Not all of us are reassured by seeing that the guy behind us in line at Taco Bell is primed to make any potential assailants his Huckleberry. It'd be nice if the VCDL could go back to protecting us from bears and redcoats, and leave policing suburbia to the professional rent-a-cops. Image by Flickr user e53, used under a Creative Commons license

Back in January we found ourselves a bit confused by a group of Virginian gun owners who were protesting New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's presence in D.C. Bloomberg was heading up a meeting of mayors working to fight illegal firearms, which seemed to us like a relatively benign cause. Nobody wants crooks to have guns, right? But after reading today and yesterday's Post stories about Bloomberg's latest anti-gun efforts, we can kind of understand...

The kitchen's closing, and it's last call. In less than one week, I leave my native Washington, D.C. for the San Francisco Bay Area. For someone who loves food and drink, the move means fabulous produce (some, ideally, from the fruit trees in my future backyard), proximity to wine country, wonderful restaurants, and burritos, burritos, burritos! But it also means leaving family, friends, and food memories here in the District. So before I skedaddle, I'm...

Last week we checked out that hotbed of hard news, Inside Edition, as they visited our fair city and shined the bright light of truth on the District's rat problem. Today the Examiner reports from the front lines of the war on rodents and concludes that we're losing. From all four quadrants the perennial urban menaces -- sometimes the size of small dogs -- are scurrying about, causing various levels of disgust and panic. How...

In between thier usual fare of investigative news and a bevy of editorial pieces, The Washington Post was busy running their first-ever Peeps Diorama Contest. Sure, we've indulged in Peeps dueling, in which peeps armed with toothpicks are placed in the microwave to see which candy strikes the first blow as they melt, but WaPo's contest surprised us. D.C.'s most esteemed news source asked folks to create scenes with Peeps, the essential Easter marshmallow treat,...

Leave your offices and go to Eighteenth Street Lounge! DCist Voting Rights Happy Hour kicks off at 6 p.m. Thanks to Flickr user kungpaocajun for use of his creative commons photo, and DCist Tom for his photoshopping skillz....

Two games after we suggested the Washington Capitals were trying to lose games for better draft position, the team has won back to back games against teams fighting for playoff spots by a combined score of twelve goals to two. In home games on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, the Caps cakewalked over the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and climbed from twenty-seventh place all the way back to twenty-fifth in the...