If you've been complaining that Memorial Day weekend wiped out your wallet, D.C. art venues heard your pleas for something a little less draining on your finances. This weekend the city is chock full of free activities, from private gallery openings to neighborhood wide social events. Put on your walking shoes and check out the following: >> It's time again for the annual Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk Weekend. Held on the first full weekend in......

Last Saturday morning, under grey skies and whipping winds, DCist rolled out of bed to take a walking tour of Embassy Row, one of the 60 free tours being offered in this weekend's WalkingTown DC, an event offered by Cultural Tourism DC. Like Sommer, I was initially sceptical that there was much to learn about the Dupont Circle neighborhood, a familiar stomping ground for many Washington young people. But on the Embassy Row tour,......

It was two years ago that we first took notice of D.C.'s new population of coyotes. Back then we worried about the threat of an international incident as the animals made their way to Embassy Row. Today the Post confirms that coyotes continue to roam the edges of Rock Creek Park, bringing them in much closer contact to city residents. This is one case of animal/human cohabitation that can't be blamed on urban development pushing......

Driving up Massachusetts Avenue beyond Dupont Circle and Sheridan Circle one quickly comes across Embassy Row -- the expanse of real estate stretching up towards the National Cathedral occupied primarily by the embassies and residences of the many countries that maintain diplomatic relations with the U.S. And while the houses and buildings speak of stately tradition, what happens within may not. Law students at American University's Washington College of Law are taking to the courts......

Halloween falling on a Monday night, DCist took the night off, opting to hand candy to passing children and fend off egg attacks from neighborhood hooligans. We did explore area houses, though, taking in decorations both simple and elaborate. And proving that some people will use any opportunity to make a statement about the state of affairs in the country, we spied one gravestone marked "Scooter Libby, R.I.P." and one proclaiming the death of world......

Last Monday, the Post profiled ousted American University president Benjamin Ladner. Gina Maria Schulz, who served as "Personal Assistant to the First Lady" -- yes, Ladner's wife -- described the man as such: "He was the most ethical man I ever met." Ladner himself has this to say: "I do feel I've done what I've done with intentional integrity." How the Post's reporters didn't break out in hysterics is beyond us, given the emerging news......

DCist has been sent some unsubstantiated celebrity sightings from this weekend. We put our fact checkers hot on the confirmation trail, but really, celebrity sightings are more intriguing gossip than serious journalistic news, so we've decided to go straight to you, our eyes and ears on the ground. So dish already. Here are the details as we know them right now: On Saturday, the D.C. Office of Motion Picture and Television Development hosted an open......

For those of you who find the government-sponsored Freedom Walk more propoganda-ish than poignant, there's another option for the walking-inclined that day: the D.C. Unity Walk. Members of all religions and cultures will be walking together to promote peace and religious tolerance. Things will get started with a ceremony at the Washington Hebrew Congregation at 3935 Macomb Street NW, at 1 p.m. September 11. From there, the walk will start at 2 p.m. and proceed......

For today's Monument feature, we thought we'd do another installment in our Embassy Row series, which so far has included the Letelier/Moffitt memorial and statues honoring Ukrainian icon Taras Shevchenko and Czecho-Slovak president Tomas Masaryk. This time, though, we decided to ease off the obscure figures for a moment and talk about the Mahatma himself, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Now, is it really necessary for DCist to summarize his life and accomplishments? Of all the foreign......

FRIDAY: >> All weekend long we've got Filmfest DC! Check out the schedule here, and if you haven't picked up a copy of this week's City Paper, you really should, because they've got some good Filmfest coverage. >> If you're feeling crafty, you won't want to miss the Smithsonian Craft Show this weekend: there are 120 booths exhibiting and selling some of the nation's finest arts and crafts. Just check out, for example, some of......

Councilmembers Irked by Reports of Money Spent on Baseball Consultants: WTOP reports that members of the D.C. Council are pressing for an investigation of the alleged use of baseball consultants by the mayor's office during the stadium-financing controversy. WTOP was the first to report on the matter through a massive Freedom of Information Act request. WTOP has also learned that the District has been paying the travel expenses of several California-based contractors. Two of them......

Tomas Masaryk, or a statue of him at any rate, towers over the foot of Embassy Row at Mass. Ave. and 22nd. Often called "President-Liberator," Masaryk was the George Washington of Czechoslovakia. The memorial is one of a several in D.C. honoring foreign dignitaries -- think Simon Bolivar, Queen Isabela, Benito Juarez. At least Masaryk lived in D.C. for awhile, at the former Powhatan Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and 18th Street. Before he eventually left......

Editor's Note: With the breaking news out of Chile that a retired army chief suspected of human rights violations under dictator Augusto Pinochet has flung himself from a 18th floor balcony at a Santiago apartment tower to his death (say that in one breath?), we thought it was odd timing that we were working on a profile of a monument remembering another violent passage from the Pinochet era right here in D.C.: The Embassy Row......

Now that Ivorian mobs are ruling the streets of Abidjan (with machete-armed locals looking for French nationals and the French downing the entire air force of Cote d'Ivoire), DCist laments the surge of violence in the troubled West African nation. With the latest flashpoint, we're curious what's going to happen to the long-troubled embassy of the West African country on Massachusetts Avenue near Sheridan Circle. Long an eyesore, construction on the Ivorian embassy has been......