D.C. is apparently so square that even San Juan, Puerto Rico and Kansas City, Missouri are considered better places for hipsters. more ›

Here's what my dictionary tells me when I look up the word "ambiance": it's "a feeling or mood associated with a particular place, person, or thing." So, hardly a quantifable thing -- as a "feeling or mood," any individual's determination of "ambiance" is not necessarily transferable to others. "Hipster," as we all know, is pretty much undefinable and is, frankly, one of the lazier terms anyone can employ. Given these facts, I'm somewhat struggling to figure out why Yelp is now giving its reviewers the option to categorize the "ambiance" of establishments around the District and the world as "hipster." more ›

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the... more ›

Your mission, should you choose to accept: With only one week, adapt a randomly-chosen Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale into a compelling stage production. more ›

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Repertory: Stranger Than Paradise "You go to some place new and everything just looks the same," says Eddie, one of the two hipster-slacker protagonists of Jim Jarmusch's wickedly funny second feature. Press materials made a big deal of the origin of the film, pointedly calling it "A New American Film by a New American Director." There's... more ›

Hey look, someone who writes for Gawker doesn't know where to go out in D.C., and thinks that everyone who lives here works for the government and never changes out of their work clothes! How adorable.Yesterday, I was trying to get home from Miami, but the weather had other plans, and the plane I was on got diverted to Washington, D.C. To Dulles Airport, to be exact, which is way farther outside of the city... more ›

Co-written by DCist Contributor Paul Ghosh-Roy Get together a bunch of artists, a bunch of bands, a cool venue, and a great time is had by all. On Saturday night, DCist ventured into the land of perfectly disheveled hair and meticulously scuffed jeans to see if the theory worked in practice as The Rock and Roll Hotel hosted the Big Art Show . The event is organized by a collective of artists and volunteers based... more ›

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick... more ›

>> As you've all no doubt heard, we're all Time magazine's Person of the Year. Unless you've never authored a blog post, a comment, or even submitted a loosely-sourced tip to a blogger who would irresponsibly publish it. Then you're nothing. [Time] more ›

Because we simply can't get enough of salary talk, today the Post tells us that Metro's presumptive new head honcho, John B. Catoe Jr., will be taking in $300,000 a year, not to mention a $60,000 living allowance, a company car, and all the free Metro rides he can take. more ›

After six years of adding to the eclectic flavor of the intersection of 18th and Florida NW, word comes to us this week that Staccato is closing its doors forever next month. Staccato has always sort of been the Little Club That Could, hosting aspiring musicians from a variety of genres in its no-frills, teeny, converted-townhouse venue. more ›

>> As exciting as all the congressional politics were yesterday, there was also a whole bunch of local fun going on. The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics has full results of the races, including those for ANC, for your viewing pleasure (in a PDF format). [DCBOEE] >> Hey, who needs political representation when you get to file your taxes a whole extra day later? Something for us to look forward to come April.... more ›

By DCist contributor Mehan Jayasuriya I have to admit, I was a little concerned when I first showed up at the Black Cat on Saturday night. The crowd was pretty thin, folks seemed more interested in shoe-gazing than the band on stage and there wasn't a raised fist or pointing finger anywhere in sight. This certainly isn't the kind of scene that I'm used to seeing at a hardcore show; the last time I saw... more ›

We know that rock 'n' roll has now been around long enough to be the subject of serious academic study. We can accept college level classes devoted to the cultural impact of punk, the influence of the artistic fringe on the work of the Velvet Underground, and the inventive and complex harmonies in the collected work of the Beatles. But doesn't there have to be a line somewhere? What I really want to know is... more ›

Person is a crappy singer. There, I said it. His performance last night at the Rock and Roll Hotel had me thinking I had stumbled upon a tragic highschool talent show. The kind where talent-less wonders are given a forum to sing into real microphones instead of into their shower nozzles, and the result isn’t pretty. Person aka Miguel Lacsamana takes himself way too seriously. Fortunately much of his singing was drowned out by the... more ›

After last year’s WaPo Best Bet winners turned out to include an un-hip number of national chain stores and discount outlets, the organizers made some changes to the categories. The changes were designed to draw out the local spots and independent retailers that locals cherish. Categories like “Neighborhood Spot” and “Vintage/Thrift Store” were positively begging for an increased hipster presence in the poll. The 2006 Bets are out, and while peppered with Washington-based establishments, many... more ›

Even as the stores sport back to school sales (which depress us, even now), summer lingers on your friends the -ists. This week's collection of links provides some of the best, worst, and oddest bits of summer fun. So, bring your laptop up onto the roof, make yourself an umbrella drink or ten, and enjoy this week's choice posts from across the Gothamist network. Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing)... more ›

It's usually pretty hard to get the crowds at the Black Cat to dance, but Philly/Florida mash-up DJ Diplo and two bands from Brazil, Bonde do Role and Cansei de Ser Sexy, did it pretty easily on Sunday. Openers Bonde do Role (which Google translates to something like "rolling tram," though it might be slang) got the dancing started with their big bass, pretty obvious samples (AC/DC, Alice in Chains and "The Final Countdown") and... more ›

Ah, Silver Spring. Even the name suggests silver lining optimism. Despite that it’s the ‘burbs, plenty of former city dwellers are making the commitment to buy real estate, open restaurants, and set up shop in what was previously considered a place to pass through as opposed to a destination. Perhaps Silver Spring is growing into what Clarendon wanted to become, before condos and retail chains began chipping away its character. In five years, will Silver Spring suffer the same fate? more ›

Before we kick off this week's suggestions, a quick note about Sunday's show at the Black Cat. The Lovely Feathers were good, Dr Dog was great, and The Spinto Band was freakin phenomenal. What a tremendous bunch of characters those guys are, we haven't seen head shaking like that since That Thing You Do. TUESDAY: >> We'll be honest -- we can't exactly picture Trent Reznor playing in an amphitheater. But it's a plan so... more ›

Lucky for you, someone's making things easier. Today and tomorrow at the Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue, MyTailor.com will be taking measurements for reasonably priced, custom made shirts that will make you look like a million, even if it's not in your account. Thanks to Tracie Rozhon in the Sunday New York Times Business Section, who confirmed in "The Thrifty Millionaire" that yes, custom tailoring reminiscent of the Hong Kong stopover is available for between $75 and $200 a shirt. Rozhon’s husband’s shirt was under $100. Not bad for French cuffs and 2-ply superfine custom made duds. We'd suggest you call rather than email for an appointment. more ›

Those of you that hang around here at DCist fairly often, and I certainly encourage the behavior, may have noticed that nothing generates a huffy, neverending comment thread like a good turf battle. We see tiffs between the central municipalities and the exurbs, between Washingtonians east and west of Rock Creek, and especially between D.C. and Arlington (an epic struggle indeed). Mainly good fun for, as our own Jason Linkins pointed out recently, cities are cool because there are lots of different areas to visit; only a total goober would really get vein-popping mad over whose side of the river was better. more ›

Houstonist reports on cross-dressing thieves and undressing educators this week. A Peeping Tom defends himself with a papaya and an outraged onlooker asks Ken Lay, "TATER TOTS OR FRIES?" Also, FEMA wants it's money back. LAist are a bug bunch of geeks. They're Star Trek geeks, David Duchovny geeks and Frank Gehry geeks. During their Cochella preview their readers reveal themselves to be Depeche Mode geeks. Seattlest saw their basketball team preparing to leave for... more ›

Our email list is blowing up this morning with tips to check out this piece in today's New York Times, a feature taking a look at the once again bustling U Street drag. The Times claims it can hear hipsters sneering in the opening paragraph, and a few of our favorite locales are omitted, but they avoid calling the area the U District, Hipster Handbook style, and overall it's a pretty neat little read. NYT... more ›

TUESDAY Are you so pissed off at DCist for our marginal abetting of the Death Cab pre-sale sellout that you’re just busting to express your righteous hipster indignation in unrhymed dactylic hexameter? Rail against the machine, dude, at Busboys and Poets' weekly open mic “session.” It all goes down tonight at 9 p.m. Tickets are handed out “approximately one hour” before, and they cost two dollars. Hmmm. We recommend “Indig Nation” as the new name... more ›

While most of us here at DCist are still basking in the warm, awesomeness-infused light of Unbuckled, there are a few other things going on in the music world. As we're sure most of you have already heard, the heralds of the hipster era, most commonly known as The Strokes, are bringing their First Impressions of the Earth tour to D.C. Dates have been added to this much anticipated tour slowly, but we finally got our fair share of Fabrizio. The show's at DAR Constitution Hall, so if you didn't get tickets to the Death Cab/Franz Ferdinand show, it's all our fault, and we'd like to make it up to you. Strokes tickets are on sale right now, and the presale password is: yeahrightsucka. In all seriousness, tickets go on sale March 3rd. more ›

As you know, DCist likes to let the cat out of the bag. We're constantly searching for ways to spread the word far and wide, from Fairfax to Frederick, soup to nuts. We also have a penchant for really screwing over a particular archetype: The Superfan. You know the type; they're the people who spend day and night toiling to sign up for e-mail lists comprised of mere tens of thousands of other superfans. They have worn the ink off of their F5 keys reloading websites for the first news of ticket presales. They wear pithy screen-printed t-shirts and dare you to resist their sarcasm. They're pissed, but mostly just at us. more ›

D.C.: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Wait, isn’t that New York? Regardless, 14th Street boutique Pop recently expanded to open a second location in hipster haven Williamsburg, Brooklyn (308 Grand St.). more ›

TUESDAY In her work in the New Yorker, Daphne Merkin writes with a head-on style that tosses concern for political correctness to the wind and, just as often, polarizes readers, especially across the feminist spectrum. She’ll be holding court at the J tonight on the topic of the rebranding of Jewish identity and culture along hipster lines. DCJCC, 1529 16th Street NW, 7:30 pm. For tickets, call 888-621-2230 or order online at www.nextbook.org. WEDNESDAY Jared... more ›

What is it about the joke-tee that is so potentially alluring? Could it be the irresistible opportunity to shock and offend? Is it tied to the indie-culture affinity for semi-obscure references? The combination of the two? Is it the same hope for wit by association that drives people to quote Will Ferrell movies or put MR. PIBB + RED VINES = CRAZY DELICIOUS in their away messages (or on their t-shirts)? Whatever the case may be, such shirts are not only prevalent, but their online cottage industry is quite lucrative. Though they may be a few steps farther up the evolutionary fashion ladder than sparkly “Princess” t-shirts, their tacky brethren, most “humorous” tees fall more than short of funny into the realm of simply corny, crass, and cringe-inducing. So naturally we were a little anxious to read The Rock Creek Rambler’s recent post about a brand-new source of comic hipster tees, almost all emblazoned with some sort of DC theme. more ›