At the close of last night's concert at the 2007 Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, Executive Producer Charlie Fishman said his friend and mentor, the great Dizzy Gillespie (pictured), who was the focus of this year's proceedings, chose to name his last big band the United Nation (in the singular) Jazz Orchestra to show the oneness of humanity. Fishman went on to say that Dizzy often told his colleagues that human beings all share two characteristics:... more ›

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. more ›

Welcome back to work, Washington. This week promises not only to feel longer than normal thanks to its coming on the heels of a holiday, but also hot enough that you might want to consider setting up an ad-hoc shower in your office, as there's little chance you'll get there without breaking into a sweat first. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has issued a Code Orange alert because of the heat wave, and... more ›

Today, on the 11th of July, or 7/11, the convenience store by the same name celebrates its birthday. On a day that ranks right up there with free Ben & Jerry’s cone day, Krispy Crème Kreme donut day, and Starbucks Coffee day, hoards of people flock to the ubiquitous corner store to receive a complimentary, yet surprisingly small dose of frozen sugary goodness: the Slurpee. Upon reading a recent press release, we got excited to step out on our lunch break and pick up a slushy cherry-coke, or maybe try the new flavor with the enticing, though somewhat nauseating marketing slogan, “Looks purple,” but “Tastes vanilla.” more ›

“Comfort Accomplished” it certainly couldn’t have been called. Unfortunately, the group show Comfort Potential, currently exhibiting at Transformer, fails to live up to any such standard. Sara Dierck, Vincent Lamouroux, and Gabriel Martinez fill the tiny gallery with two to three works a piece, displaying their attempts to interact with society and, one assumes, contribute some comfort to the world at large. Instead, a couple of these artists don’t seem to live very comfortably in... more ›

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-weidling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.... more ›

DCist wanted to make sure that everyone, especially teachers, knew about today: 4/20. As you know, 420 is teenagers' ubiquitous reference to surrealism. You should know that some kids today will be emboldened to come to school in shapes representing themselves, or will want to "engage the subconscious" with others. Be on the lookout for the following troubling behavior: more ›

Ok, so it is a little like throwing yourself a party (which, in fact, we are doing next week), but we think it's worthy to note that today is the day DCist celebrates its first birthday. It was one year ago today that DCist launched, becoming the fifth of what is now the 13-member -ist family, including troublesome siblings Austin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Shanghai, Seattle, and Toronto. more ›

Andrew e-mailed Ask DCist late yesterday with a question...where should he go out to TONIGHT for his birthday. Since he then stroked our ego by telling us that he "loves the blog" and considers it the "best place to find out about what's going on in D.C." -- and because it is late August and we need a little fun -- some DCist staff decided to chime in with recommendations of where Andrew should go... more ›