“So the thing you have to understand is this is radio,” says the voice in the darkness — a little bit squeaky, a little bit nasal, not at all the voice you’d assign to the leader of a benign radio cult if it weren't already so familiar. Ira Glass, creator and host of the weekly public radio story anthology This American Life, begins all his speaking engagements this way. That opening line is always good......

Howard Kurtz's WaPo column today concerns the kerfuffle over Tim Page's angry email to Ward 8 Council Member Marion Barry's office that we told you about yesterday. As you'll recall, Page, who writes about classical music for the Post, received an unsolicited press release from Barry's office about the city's deal with Specialty Hospitals of America to purchase the Greater Southeast Community Hospital. Page then fired off an angry email in which he called the......

Do you have memories of long hours spent in video arcades, slowly becoming desensitized to the flashing lights, the boops, the beeps, the whistles and wails? Of endlessly trying to get the change machine to take that last crumpled dollar, to give you four more games before it was time to head home? Or maybe for you it was a dark-wood-paneled basement at your best friend's house, where you played an Atari 2600, a Colecovision,......

Since 1983, Loose Lips, the City Paper's weekly local politics column, has been the place to get quirky news and commentary on the District's political figures. But today, James Jones, Loose Lips columnist for the last two years, bids farewell to the paper. Jones came to the City Paper after a stint at WAMU, and his first column was published on March 11, 2005. According to the folks at the City Paper, Jones has taken......

Today the National Press Club announced the craziest show to hit the Washington music scene since Dismemberment Plan decided to reunite for two performances this weekend. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, who's recovering well from his cancer surgery, and CBS anchor Bob Schieffer go head to head in a battle of the bands dubbed Honky Tonk Meets the White House Wonk. The veteran newsman sings with Honky Tonk Confidential, a country-western band, while......

Allow us to throw out some hearty congratulations to DCist alumna Catherine Andrews, who, like others before her, has broken free of the warm DCist nest to spread her wings and soar through the brilliant skies of Big Time Professional Journalism. Or you know, hooray, DCist Catherine got a cool job at Washingtonian Magazine! Having recently graduated with a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern, Catherine has just begun as a Senior Online Editor at......

From the Associated Press via WTOP:The top editor of the Washington Business Journal was found dead at his home Monday. John McCalla was 38. A spokeswoman for the D.C. medical examiner says the cause of death would be determined pending further tests. Our readers may remember McCalla best as a perennial nominee in Fishbowl DC's Hottest Media contest. It's a tragic loss for local journalism, and we at DCist express our sympathies to his family,......

If you're anything like us here at DCist, you've really given up the pretense of doing any work, and are merely counting down the days to your holiday vacation. Despite the lack of cold weather, snow, or anything seasonal, actually, the spirit manges to make its way in to our cold, bitter, two-sizes-too-small hearts. Somehow. And one way that happens is via the various displays of awesome Christmas lights that can be found throughout the......

One of the first lessons you learn about blogging is that timing is everything. Earlier this week I was emailing DCist Matt about a story idea, a two part story that would ask the question that just had to be answered: Who is crazier more eccentric, Gilbert Arenas or Clinton Portis? We decided to write it over the weekend and run it next week. Great in theory, right? But then Esquire had to go......

Shocker: DCist thinks the Internets are just dandy and a great way to get our daily fill of news. But the debate concerning the effects of Internet journalism continues to rage, and our esteemed Editor-in-Chief is not above diving into the fray to defend our honor. Tune your radio to WETA, 90.9FM, and listen to Sommer Mathis discuss the virtues and vices of young people getting their information from a series of tubes, and how......

You know, we have a lot of fun here at DCist, but we like to think that occasionally we serve to educate as well. It's a daunting task — there's a lot of material relevant to D.C. residents that we could cover, from how to get your car inspected to who's got the best burger to which bars have the heaviest intern infestations. But of all the lessons we could impart, perhaps the most important......

It goes without saying -- the District is a town full of Democrats. They occupy the majority of the elected offices, have the most registered voters by a long shot, and reliably vote for Democratic presidential candidates. In the most recent analysis of the voter registry, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics reported that 73.5 percent of registered voters were Democrats. Republicans could only claim 8 percent, the Statehood Green Party 1.6 percent, and......

It's been a chaotic month for AOL employees. First came news that the Dulles-based online giant would be cutting 5000 jobs. Today, another shoe is dropping: the company's accidental release of customer search data has finally reached the fall guy phase, resulting in the departure of CTO Maureen Govern and, presumably, others. Here's hoping that those previously laid-off can at least extract a little schadenfreude from the fiasco. Macaca Misstep Takes Toll In Poll: Yesterday......

If you're looking for something to do tomorrow night, you may as well put your money towards supporting local music with a mission. Street Sense, a newspaper written and distributed by the homeless, is holding its annual benefit show at the Black Cat on Saturday night (even after the club balked at letting the show happen). Heading up the night's bill will be ex-Fugazi bass player Joe Lally, supported by Unbuckled alums The Hard Tomorrows......

The insular world of the local media may have been broken wide open by NBC 4 today, allowing us a valuable insight into what some employees at the television station think of each other. I was perusing the news early this morning, and only quickly glanced at an NBC 4 story titled, "Some Say They Are Annoyed By Coworkers." Not seeming like anything new, I didn't give it much of a second thought. But upon......

If you're a fan of sushi, it may come as a bit of a surprise to know that your eating habits may directly be propping up the Washington Times and the rest of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's quirky religious empire. A reader recently tipped us off to an article in the Chicago Tribune outlining how Moon -- a self-proclaimed messiah and leader of the Unification Church -- has all but cornered the sushi market, using......

We awoke this morning to a new and shocking sight -- the Washington City Paper, the District's godfather of alternative press, had redone their website. And not a minute too early, we might add. The City Paper's website was always, to put it mildly, stuck in 1998. Such an online presentation was a clear injustice to what was otherwise good writing, quirky features, and solid alternative journalism. The paper's new site is brighter, sharper, and......

The Post has long been struggling with an apparent lack of diversity in their ranks, a reflection of the sad fact that much of American journalism remains dominated by white reporters, editors, and managers. In late 2004 Post staffers openly expressed their unhappiness that a white man had been chosen over a woman and a black man to be the paper's managing editor, and, more recently, there were grumblings over the promotion of Robert McCartney,......

As we reported last week, the Post has finally come around to the ugly reality that online comments are not all peaches and cream. And today the Post is inviting some notable bloggers to discuss how it can better handle comments on its increasing number of blogs and, by extension, explore the issue of online ethics and interactivity. The online chat starts at 1 p.m. and will feature Jeff Jarvis from Buzz Machine; Jane Hamsher......

Courtesy of our media-obsessed friends over at Fishbowl DC, today we find that the Post has been struggling with commenters on their official blog, so much so that yesterday they resorted to shutting down comments altogether. In a message posted yesterday afternoon, Jim Brady, Executive Editor of washingtonpost.com, wrote: Great journalism companies need feedback from readers to stay sharp. But there are things that we said we would not allow, including personal attacks, the use......

...is exactly what we hope to hear sometime down the line. No, seriously. The folks behind the Pulitzer Prize -- journalism's most prestigious award -- are adding "Online Journalism" to their 14 existing categories for the prize. It seems that they have become aware of this thing called the internets, and are beginning to recognize that many of the country's most prominent newspapers have expanded their coverage and features online (yes, Posties, we mean you)......

We may not have as cool a city, but we now have a better hometown newspaper than our northern neighbor. Yes, it's official -- the Post rules supreme over the once veritable New York Times, or so says media junkie and academic Jay Rosen: Just one man's opinion, but now is a good time to say it: The New York Times is not any longer -- in my mind -- the greatest newspaper in the......

For a while there, we thought D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams was regretting having started a blog -- two of his first three posts involved apologizing for his slow pace of posting, a huge no-no in a fast-paced information society that demands at least one new post a day. Since then, though, Williams has picked up the pace, offering unfiltered opinions on everything from public schools to the benefits of the power of eminent domain. In......

Hurricane Katrina has come in fast and furious on the Gulf coast, and we can't stop looking for news about it. From news of the Superdome roof leaking, to how the disaster will affect crude oil prices, to the human stories of loss and tragedy, the information is overwhelming. And where are the best stories and accounts coming from? Without a doubt, the blogs. True, we've got CNN on in the background, and we're certainly......

In an interesting move that could have repercussions for new media and other online newspapers, washingtonpost.com today switched to a dual homepage format. One homepage features more local and regionalized news, and the other has a national/international focus that won't highlight the Post's regional content (like the Entertainment Guide) as much. Which homepage you view is based on your registered zip code -- if you provide a local zip code, you will get the local......

(Editor's Note: Last weekend, we introduced a new feature called Weekend Reading, a look at what newspapers are featuring in their Sunday and weekend editions. Some of you were confused at first, since the first newspaper up was the Post, which many of you read on Sundays anyway, so we'll try to mix it up a bit more today. Like we said before, some people in D.C. make their weekend reading into a competitive sport.......

(DCist would like to take a moment to introduce one of our summer interns, Lindsay. Lindsay is a University of Maryland journalism major who is spending her summer interning for a new political comedy radio show End of Politics (think Daily Show). She also spends time in the local stand-up comedy circuit. Look for her posts on intern highlights and general around town bits and pieces this summer... well, if she can find time to......

Todd Kliman was the only winner from D.C. at this year's Beard Awards. Last night at the Beard Award's Restaurant Gala (a separate event from the Journalism Gala Sunday evening), Marc Vetri of the eponymous Vetri in Philadelphia won the award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic region, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the category was dominated by the D.C. area. Michael Flynn, nominated for best wine service at Kinkead's, lost out to wine......

FRIDAY: >> The Sixpoints Music Festival, which highlights good local music played at good local venues, continues this weekend. Make sure to check out the schedule here and support your local music scene. >> Ross Douthat, blogger extraordinaire and reporter at The Atlantic Monthly, managed to pull a pretty nifty trick: he attended Harvard, reaped the rewards of the degree, and then got a hefty advance to write "Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the......

The 2005 RAMMYs aren't the only culinary awards on the horizon. The nominees for the 2005 James Beard Foundation awards were announced yesterday (.pdf). The awards are separated into three general segments, cookbooks, journalism, and restaurants and chefs. In the journalism segment, Todd Kliman of the City Paper (who most recently "reviewed" Perdu) was nominated for Best Newspaper Column for his weekly "Young and Hungry" feature. Tom Sietsema of the Post has been nominated for......