WTOP's Mark Segraves got a hold of a partial list of the folks who've been receiving tickets to use the city's free luxury box in the Verizon Center -- the one that the D.C. Council is so miffed they're being boxed out of -- and there's some fun tidbits he discovered.Most of those invited to D.C.'s Luxury Suite at the Verizon Center by Fenty either contributed the maximum $2,000 to Fenty's campaign or worked on......

Hilda Mason, 91, who served more than 20 years on the D.C. Council, died yesterday at Washington Hospital Center. The Post has an obituary up (which perhaps unsurprisingly but a little creepily appears to have been largely written some time ago, as it notes at the bottom that one of its authors passed away in 2006), which details Mason's status as the grand dame of local D.C. politics, having served on the Board of Education,......

MONDAY >> It wasn't too far from here -- just a couple hours south in Midlothian, VA, where Aimee Mann got her start. Now the guitar playing song weaver is a bonafide modern music legend. She's treating The Birchmere to her 2nd Annual Christmas Show, and it's not something you should miss. $45.50, 7:30 p.m. >> Roofwalkers (pictured), the band formerly known as Pagoda, are treating the Galaxy Hut crowd to an evening of......

Much A-Dough About Nothing Over the last two weeks, Todd Kliman's chatters have gotten riled up over CityZen's Parker House rolls. A chatter wrote in about his/her experience at CityZen a few months ago with pleasant servers and delicious food. But then he/she complained that his/her party of seven requested a second serving of the Parker House rolls. Apparently the server hesitated and seemed uncomfortable, but said he would check with the kitchen. The chatter......

FRIDAY: >> Bay Area songstress Goapele’s (pictured) musical background is almost as diverse as her ethnic background. Born to a South African political exile father and a mother whose parents survived the Holocaust, she studied at the Berklee College of Music and later would form musical partnerships with the likes of hip-hop acts like the Hieroglyphics crew and E-40. However her 2005 release, Change It All, established her as especially talented when it comes to......

The majority of Overheards in D.C. fall into only a few categories: funny sex stuff, dumb tourists and weird kids. There's the occasional amusing political thing, or some quip that somebody sent in because they think they or their friends are funny. But there are always those that make absolutely no sense unless you are knowledgeable about some extremely narrow area of trivia, such as say, documentaries about lost and possibly mythical Brazilian cities. Quote......

Living in the Nation's Capital, with so many free events going on year-round, it might seem silly to spend a princely sum of money for the privilege of becoming a Member of a local arts organization. But there are a number of good reasons to think about becoming a member -- maybe you're interested in a particular subject that's only shown at a pay-for museum, maybe you're an artist looking to grab a foothold in......

FRIDAY: >> Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are at the 9:30 Club with Kristeen Young and Partyline, $15, 9 p.m. Also Saturday with Kristeen Young and Ris Paul Ric. >> DC9's Liberation Dance Party hosts Brooklyn's Jaguar Club. $6, 9 p.m. SATURDAY: >> The Historic Sixth and I Synagogue hosts The Eight, D.C.'s part of a "worldwide Hannukah party" featuring the LeeVees, DeLeon and D.C.'s own Black and White JohnsonsJacksons. $12/$18, all ages, 9 p.m.......

>> It's the first night of Hanukkah, so if you're not celebrating with family and friends at home, consider catching the Sinai Mountain Boys, a Maryland combo that melds the speedy strumming and twanging of bluegrass with Orthodox Jewish melodies. They'll be offering an hour of unique sounds for free beginning at 6 p.m. at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. >> The Washington Jewish Film Festival presents Diane Crespo and Stefan Schaefer's Arranged, the......

A recent spate of armed robberies and muggings in Adams Morgan prompted Jonathon and Laura Lunardi to launch a new community website. AdamsMorganCrime.org aims to connect residents to discuss and solve crime issues in the neighborhood. Residents are invited to register on the site and share their stories in the forum, namely details on where and when crime happens in the neighborhood. The site is just getting off the ground, so it's difficult to tell......

As wine professionals, this is the time of year when we go into overdrive helping you, the consumer, fulfill all of your wine needs for parties and gift giving. As wine lovers, we relish being able to share our love of wine with others. We know that buying wine anytime can be an overwhelming an experience, but possibly more so now that you have to cover your family, friends, co-workers, and a mystery person whose......

After what was thought to be a succesful surgery, Redskins safety Sean Taylor died earlier this morning in Florida. His wounds -- a gunshot to his femoral artery, causing significant blood loss -- proved to be too much for his body to recover from. He was shot in what police are calling a home invasion on Monday. In a statement posted on the team's website, owner Dan Snyder said, "This is the worst imagineable tragedy.......

It was a slower week for comments, given that lots of folks were away for Turkey Time, but there were still plenty of good ones. Monkeyrotica has this week's Comment of the Week in regards to the accident in Maryland where kids weren't wearing their seatbelts. He makes a good point, then makes us laugh: It's like they're deliberately avoiding being critical of the kids' behavior, I guess for the sake of the parents, but......

We missed this when it happened a couple of weeks ago, but is it really ever too late to point and laugh at New Yorkers? We didn't think so. So, people are probably aware that Five Guys franchises are proliferating across the Eastern U.S. like nuclear weapons in central Asia. The greasy, peanut-laden fingers of our locally born burger stand have spread as far as Delafield, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee; and Miami, Florida. They've even broken......

After a long wait, CityDance Ensemble Rehearsal Director Christopher K. Morgan finally gets to see his face on the silver screen. In December of 2003, Morgan was cast as a dancer in John Turturro’s film Romance & Cigarettes. After filming in 2004, the movie faced some setbacks and became what the Associated Press referred to as “the luckless orphan of corporate shuffling.” More than two years after its original release date, Romance & Cigarettes......

As we mentioned in the Morning Roundup, the murder count in D.C. for 2007 stands at 169 as of today, which is the same number of total murders the city saw in 2006. The Post is reporting further that the 169th murder occurred over the weekend, and its victim was 25 year-old Timothy Spicer, a short-order cook at legendary U Street eatery Ben's Chili Bowl. Spicer's murder looks to be the result of a carjacking......

Fried Chicken Frenzy Returns Fried chicken fanatics have something to get excited about. Both Colorado Kitchen and Ray's the Classics have restored their famous versions of the dish. Everyone lamented when Gillian Clark pulled her chicken from the menu a few years ago. But now, she is hosting burgers and fried chicken nights on December 11 and January 8 (the second Tuesday of the month). Apparently her chicken is so good that she told......

FRIDAY: >> Local comic book store Fantom Comics is celebrating the grand opening of their new Union Station store tonight with a party from 6 to 10:30 p.m. They'll be serving up free pizza on the early side and the comedy stylings of the Geek Comedy Tour during the second half of the night. There will also be a trivia contest with $500 gift certificates up for grabs. The party is inside the Union......

>> The Senate might have to work all weekend, in advance of a possible vote on Sunday on whether to take up a $50 billion war funding bill that calls for a troop withdrawal from Iraq in 12 months, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned. Be prepared to hear all your Senate staffer friends complain about this at happy hour tonight. [The Hill] >> Foxhall Road will be closed to traffic between MacArthur Boulevard......

Salad days are usually something we look back on with a mix of nostalgia and embarrassment, but the folks at Chop't Salad are embracing them from the get go and celebrating them as soon as they kick off. How? Free salad. Penn QuarterChinatown's newest resident is throwing the doors of their first Washington location wide open today with free salad for all who stop by. The idea behind Chop't is customization. With a bevy of......

>> One of the biggest names in smooth jazz, altoist David Sanborn, begins a five night stint at Blues Alley tonight with daily 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. sets. Tickets are $50 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> Our first must see of the week takes place at Twins Jazz, where the club will feature three ensembles under the direction of local saxophonist Brad Linde. The University of Maryland Jazz Chamber Ensemble will play the first set......

Looking for one last relaxing weekend in the great outdoors before winter really sets in? DCist took to the road this past weekend and headed to Shenandoah National Park. If you're still considering a fall weekend nature trip, here's our tips to make the most of it. Make sure you get the cabin that best fits your group/caravan/drunken posse. There’s plenty of cabins available, especially now during the low season. We used Home Away From......

Pie and helping people are two of our favorite things. Thanks to the folks at Food and Friends, the two are brought together with their Slice of Life program. The charity--which provides meals, groceries, and nutrition counseling to people in the D.C. area with AIDS, cancer, and other major illnesses--is holding a pie sale, just in time for Thanksgiving. Generous people (and pie lovers) can help out by purchasing their holiday pies from Food and......

Editors Note: We enjoyed the tour diaries J. Tom Hnatow wrote for us as part of These United States' last tour, so we asked him if he wouldn't mind doing it again as the band embark on their first ever intercontinental tour of the UK and Europe. He graciously agreed. This is the fourth and final installment of this series. The Paris entry: Thursday October 25th After our marathon, 14-hour, pre-dawn-to-post-dusk trek from Bath to......

Good morning, Washington. It's Friday, and the city is still reacting to yesterday afternoon's announcement about how our new taxi meters are going to work. We already told you about the $4 flag drop, which many people are already saying is too high, and the fact that taxi roof lights will go on and off automatically to indicate whether a cab has a passenger, which everyone seems to agree is long overdue. One more thing......

You'd think potentially violent criminals would know by now: if you injure someone anywhere near your favorite hang out spot in Ward 1, Council member Jim Graham is going to swoop in and ruin the fun for everyone else. If the possibility of being locked up in the terrifying confines of the D.C. Jail isn't enough of a deterrent, having all your friends be totally pissed at you for getting the place where they like......

The verdict on the D.C. Zombie Lurch on Saturday was sadly a little underwhelming ... we estimate there were maybe only two dozen people participating in the mass "Thriller" dance, another two dozen who were dressed as zombies but didn't dance, and then a slightly larger group of pure spectators and/or friends of zombies who didn't dress up. Still, everyone was having a great time, and we got some fun shots of zombies with......

Many things seem more important in D.C. than they would be anywhere else. It's pretty difficult to impress somebody in most places by telling them you met the Undersecretary of such and such. Appearing on C-SPAN is more likely to be subject to quizzical looks rather than admiration in other towns. Most folks elsewhere wouldn't know they just saw George Will honking at pedestrians. And obviously, people talk about bills and laws and politics more......

We're happy to finally have a few days of rain ahead of us after the long summer drought -- though we'd gladly donate it to our left coast friends if we could. Sometime around about Friday though, after days of dreary weather and wondering if there is still a sun behind all those clouds, we're going to need a splash of color. Thanks to rsplatpc, you may now refer back to today's photo of......

Reuters has a video up of a performance outside the White House yesterday by a Dutch magician called Ramana, in which he appears to levitate. Ramana apparently trained at something called the Academy of Magical Sciences in India, but sources tell us he had to drop out during his senior year to go on a long, circuitous trip with his two best friends in search of an evil nemesis. Now that David Copperfield has......