FRIDAY >> The legendary Patti Smith is at the 9:30 Club tonight, and tickets are incredibly still available for $25. Doors at 9, show at 10 p.m. >> The idea of attending a lighting display, particularly after Christmas, might sound a bit cheesy. But the Garden of Lights in Wheaton might just change your mind. The designer tours the county gardens each year for inspiration for his display; this year, it invokes the four seasons.......

Monday >> It’s Saint Lucy’s Day! Hej Hej, the DJ night dedicated to Scandinavian pop and rock, is getting festive for this start of the Christmas season with drink specials and holiday hits in addition to their regular fare. Pop into Café St.-Ex in your finest crown of candles, and you might even get a free drink. 10 p.m., FREE. >> Le Loup are also celebrating tonight, in a homecoming of sorts for the local......

>> "Japanese Action Comic Punk" band PEELANDER-Z hits DC9 tonight, along with Massachusetts power-poppers My So-Called Friend, Lights Resolve and up and coming locals The City Veins. $8. >> The Lisner Auditorium is hosting Malian traditional guitarist Vieux Farka Toure (son of the late great Ali Farka Toure) and Tinariwen, a band of musicians from the Sahara who meld North Malian guitar stylings with blues, middle–eastern, reggae and rock influences. 8 p.m., $15-$45. >>......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

We were as surprised as anyone to discover we had never done a Three Stars feature on Georgie James. With a big, heralded entrance onto everyone's radar last year fueled by lots of live shows and an EP that won the hearts of pop lovers throughout the city, they became one of D.C.'s premiere bands. The band is driven by Laura Burhenn and John Davis (formerly of Q and Not U), doing their best take......

By DCist contributor Valerie Paschall By the way, Virgin Fest starts tomorrow. Just to clarify, in case you missed the all the advertisements and press about the lineup full of buzz-worthy artists and a few artists that probably would’ve been a lot more fun to see in a previous decade. You guys got all that, right? It’s safe to say, Virgin Fest has likely gone under no one’s radar. But except to the most......

The Ponys play the Black Cat Backstage tonight with Jay Reatard. $10, Doors at 9 p.m. The Ponys are one of those buzz bands that seem perennially plagued with the “next big thing” tag. Hailing from Chicago, a city full of legends of all sorts and more than a few hype-worthy up-and-comers, theirs is a difficult task. But 2006's Turn the Lights Out picked up where Celebration Castle left off and took it one step......

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version......

I picked a hell of a night to stay home and do laundry. There I was, checking my RSS feed during a Friday Night Lights commercial break when Ivan Carter and the always informative Wizards Insider informed me that Gilbert Arenas arrived late for the afternoon shoot around and would not start against the suddenly hot Charlotte Bobkittens. "Not that big of a deal" I thought, but then I went on to Ivan's next......

FRIDAY: >> RJD2 is not to be confused with the new R2D2 mailboxes unvelied this month. His turntable skills, however, have us wondering if he's part robot. At the 9:30 Club, $20. >> Native sons The Walkmen, who we talked to last spring, bring their boozey, jangley rock, to the Rock & Roll Hotel tonight. Fans can look forward to hearing lots of new material that the band's been road-testing this spring. If you liked......

This marks the return of DCist's bar feature, Coalition of the Swilling. Don't forget Poland! Post by DCist contributor Brandon Gentry It's no secret: 18th Street can be a real mess, especially on the weekends. Drunk folks crowd the sidewalks, angling for fights and hook-ups. Too many of the bars cater to the lowest common denominator ("Shots! Blaaaargh!") or to adults playing dress-up (it's hard to pretend you're on a secret mission when you're puking......

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor is spending......

Written by DCist Contributor Abby Lavin Acerbic campaign ads, Redskins season, pumpkin ice cream from Max’s…it’s officially autumn. And what better way to commemorate Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday night than with a sundry cornucopia of local music at the Rock and Roll Hotel? Jazzy songstress Laura Burhenn and indie collective Meredith Bragg and the Terminals are two acts you wouldn’t expect to share a bill with heavy-rock trio Dead Meadow. But together, the three rising......

Washington chefs fell to 1-2 in Iron Chef America competitions, as Bobby Flay defeated the uni-monikered Morou in Battle Frozen Peas last night on the Food Network show -- two months after Galileo's Roberto Donna avenged his own loss to Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. Morou -- the former Signatures chef who had earned the right to take on an Iron Chef when he topped former 1789 chef Ris Lacoste and Tosca's Cesare Lanfranconi in the......

As we speak, there is a highly concentrated mass of ions hurtling towards Earth from the Sun. It may wreak havoc with our communications satellites and other space-based equipment, but that's part of the danger with a solar flare, which are—essentially—sun farts. The upside of Apollo's flatulence is that it and the Earth's magnetosphere are the only ingredients needed for aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights. According to spaceweather.com, "an M2 explosion near sunspot 898......

Metro has always been on the search for more and more money. The transit agency is invariably described as "cash-strapped" by local media outlets (this one included), and rare is a year that Metro officials don't beg the District, Maryland, and Virginia for just a little bit more to cover everything from operating costs to capital improvements. Given that getting more money is always a fight, how can Metro seek to better spend what it......

Though you might not realize it upon entering the poster-decked bar which probably would be right at home next to Don't Tell Mama on Restaurant Row, the tiny back room of the Playbill Café has its very own puppet show going on. These puppets have a weightier task ahead of them than the jovial characters on Sesame Street, or even the dysfunctional lot over on Avenue Q. Puppets, and various other props, are what drive......

DCist loves our indie rock, especially that of the D.C.-area variety. So when the Black Cat was good enough to book three local bands on Saturday, we were there, cameras in tow. Openers Georgie James played a great set for what was only their second local gig. Their performance with Joggers a few weeks back was uneven if not promising, so they have obviously been practicing since then. Saturday's performance was much more confident......

Last night marked the second time in the last few months that I attended a Stellastarr* show at the 9:30 Club and didn't stick around for the headliners. Last October I caught great sets by Cedars and Giant Drag and last night I went solely to see the English quartet Editors. Despite spending most of the set with my ears pinned to the front speakers in order to snap these photos, I thought their......

According to D.C. Wire, the Post's new blog on local politics, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and his wife set off yesterday for a four-day vacation to...Iceland. Huh? After the bruising battle he waged to get the D.C. Council to endorse the long-awaited stadium lease, wouldn't he want to escape to a Caribbean island and drink fruit-themed cocktails all day? It seems not: Food. Iceland. End of Feburary. Plug it all into Google and you get......

Photo of the District cityscape taken from the heights of Kalorama by Fur Cafe, posted in DCist Photos. Good morning Washington. We'll probably remind you again later on today, but please remember to come on out tonight to the Black Cat for DCist Presents: Unbuckled ... with Cartel and Bicycle Thieves. We're looking forward to a great show. You should be too. (Don't forget about the free concert ticket giveaways.) Capitol, President Evacuated: Remember......

So it wasn't Philadelphia's night. We're sure Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven, where ever they are, are rolling in their graves, pissed off that their dejected city lost out on football's top prize. Are you happy New England won? Or do you think Philadelphia should have taken home the Lombardi trophy? (This DCist had divided loyalties of sorts. First, in our undergraduate days in Ann Arbor, we were introduced to a very drunk Tom......

We really wanted to title this Out and About: This Will Be Short Because We're Tired From DCist Happy Hour Edition. But brevity is the soul of wit! FRIDAY: >> Drummer Cindy Blackman (who used to play for Lenny Kravitz), is bringing her jazz styling to the Blues Alley in Georgetown. >> The National Philharmonic plays the beloved season favorite, Handel's Messiah, at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre in Rockville. 8 p.m. Call 301-762-8580 for......

D.C.'s Chinatown is sometimes referred to as Chinablock. Once a multi-block neighborhood, Chinatown's identity has been slowly eaten away by the booming Seventh Street corridor and what some refer to as "neighborhood imperialism" from Penn Quarter's pushers. Although, we don't think that adding Chinese characters to signage at Hooters, Chipotle and Fado's has done much to stop Chinatown's erosion, there is still a good selection of Chinese restaurants and stores along H Street east of......