The 'burbs of D.C. can be a harrowing place for the uninitiated. Things to fear: games of chicken with deer, falling trees, cougars on the hunt (the kind wearing leopard print skirts). So not too many eye brows were raised when several McLean Gardens residents spotted a large cat, supposedly a mountain lion, last week. more ›

A newly-single mother is forced out of her home, as a rival family brutally beats her, and murders her husband. Displaced, she flees to unfamiliar territory, homeless and barely able to watch over her three young children. Her efforts to put food on the table for her family are blocked at every turn by the hulking, scarfaced leader of a band of thugs who like to hang out near the area where she's tried to stake out a hideaway. Meanwhile, that rival family, led by a half-blind silver-eyed matriarch, continues to stalk her and her children, intent on wiping them out entirely. The mother must somehow run all of these gauntlets and either learn to survive on her own or manage to get accepted into that rival family if she has any hope of raising her children.

That may sound like the pitch for a pretty intense crime thriller, or an intimate gangster piece about warring mob families. Believe it or not, it's actually the basic outline of the conservation-minded nature documentary, The Last Lions. more ›

What, you thought that the mysterious death of multitudes of animals was limited to Louisiana and Sweden? Think again! Millions of fish have turned up dead along the shores and in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay recently. What could possibly cause such mass destruction? Pollution? Man's destruction of the fish's natural habitat? Some kind of precursor to the inevitable 2012 end times? Nope -- it's just cold water. more ›

Who will bail out Washington's azaleas? more ›

It feels like this week has really been the turning point for autumn, doesn't it? The air is crisp, leaves are beginning to turn shade and fall to the ground and the wind against your chest leaves you feeling invigorated as the oxygen burns through your lungs. Obviously, our pool photographers feel the same way I do -- there were a ton of photographs of the stark imagery of autumn floating around the DCist pool. Here are some of our favorites. (Though you'll need to supply your own cardigan, mug of apple cider and bonfire if you want to really optimize the viewing experience.) more ›

This morning, the local media devoted nearly every resource they could muster the energy to summon to cover an event that -- if you didn't sleep straight through it -- felt like a Metro train or a truck barreling by. Yes, the earthquake. more ›

Whether or not you were actually part of the 1960s, if you are a Beatles fan or, well, obsessed like some of us, then consider heading down to the Music Center at Strathmore tonight for Rain: The Beatles Experience, a tribute band that takes its audience on a trip down memory lane to a time when four lads from Liverpool tried to show the world that there's nothing funny about peace, love and understanding. The... more ›

TUESDAY: Tomorrow is a treasure trove for science and sci-fi junkies. Our reviewer raved about The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula. Hear author Eric Nuzum muse on the undead at Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St. NW, which will offer drink specials, while Olsson's will have books for sale at the bar. Fangs and capes encouraged. 7 p.m. Over at Politics and Prose, author Ira Flatow will discuss his lengthily titled... more ›

MONDAY: Democratic presidential candidate and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd will make an appearance at Politics and Prose to talk about his book Letters from Nuremberg, which has nothing do with 2008 and everything to do with 1948 (or thereabouts). Dodd's father, Thomas, was an attorney during the famous Nuremberg trials, in which members of the Nazi Party in Germany were prosecuted for their crimes, and the book consists of letters written by Thomas to his... more ›

This month marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's assault upon the city of New Orleans. The suffering and hardship of that city's citizens no longer makes headlines, but the havoc caused by the storm is something many people still live with on a daily basis. Jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is one of those people. A son of the Crescent City and musical descendant of fellow New Orleanians Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, and... more ›

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are in town today, thanks to Affleck having agreed to be the commencement speaker at Falls Church High School. The WaPo explains that the actor agreed to lend an unusual amount of starpower to the high school graduation ceremony thanks to his friendship with Falls Church senior Joe Kindregan. Kindregan and Affleck met when the actor was filming 1998's Forces of Nature at Dulles Airport. Kindregan has ataxia-telangiectasia, a rare... more ›

No, these adorable critters don't have anything to do with the last post of the day. We just finished watching many hours of Planet Earth and are now looking for ways to make blogging "green". See, Al Gore, DCist loves Mother Nature and all her creatures. Well, most of them. >> We also love all sorts of maps. Now we've been informed that National Geographic's awesome array of maps are online. Let the cartographic... more ›

Good morning, Washington. Chilly and rainy, huh? So that's how nature wants to play it? Fine. You know what? We're glad that Al Gore's stupid eco-concert series isn't coming to D.C. And that MTBE leak in Frederick? We were going to provide an environmentally-minded link, but now we're thinking better of it. Your free ride is over, Mother Nature! No more PageRank-boosting blog mentions until you cut this crap out. P.G. Hospital Set To... more ›

>> You might want to pick up your porn before heading to the beach this summer. Ocean City has passed a moratorium on sex shops of all kinds. We can only see this as a boon to Washington's own hard-working purveyors of such merchandise. Not that anyone at DCist has any idea where such stores might be. [WTOP] >> One D.C. blogger has already had it up to here with clueless tourists on the Metro.... more ›

All right, all right. We'll admit that we may have been jumping the gun slightly when, ten days ago, we called the evening's winter weather advisory our "last chance" for snow. But c'mon! It was already March, and beautiful weather was just around the corner. We were sick of hoarding bread, milk and toilet paper; tired of wondering what the hell "liberal leave" meant; and weary from the toll exacted by churning out an... more ›

As Mother Nature seems to have finally relinquished her icy stranglehold on our fair city, DCist figured it was high time to go in search of a restaurant that featured cuisine of a decidedly warm-weather bent. Away with the heavy stews and roasts; we were looking for spice, for fruit, for delicate seafood and tropical drinks. Luckily, Chef Howsoon Cham runs such an establishment. We settled in for some of his down-home Caribbean cooking at... more ›

We gotta say, Mother Nature is a moody lady. She gives us Saturday's near-perfect conditions to watch the Idiotarod in all it's idiotic glory, then follows up with Sunday's frigid bluster. This week, she's gonna drop the winter hammer again, with highs in the thirties and – dare I say – the possibility of snow. Stay tuned to DCist to see if the forecast warrants scaring up the ol' Snowpacalypse Warning System. Alleged Cocaine Dealers... more ›

"It will be for a more skilled hand than mine to rear the superstructure." William Henry Fox Talbot made this statement in the mid-1800s, after he had developed his patented Calotype process, a technique that helped establish modern photography. His inability to draw made him search for a way to make direct impressions of the world around him, and while there's something to be said for artistic impressions that allow us to see things in a different way, Talbot noted that his precise copies perhaps give the viewer more insight, since they reveal minute details that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. more ›

Michel Gondry's latest film, La science des rêves (The science of dreams), opened last Friday in Washington under its American title, The Science of Sleep. After an extended period working in the United States, notably in collaboration with the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman on Human Nature and the Oscar-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gondry has returned to his roots and set this film in his old stomping ground, the 18th arrondissement of Paris. As... more ›

It's the weekend, which means it's time to leave the cement palaces behind and find something a bit more soothing. Turns out you don't have to stray too far from home to hang with Mother Nature for awhile, as Flickr user Grundlepuck shows us with this photo from Rock Creek Park. Pack a picnic, avoid the annoying Metro delays, and hang with the water striders tomorrow. EXIF.... more ›

Mother Nature has not been very kind to the capital region this summer. From Deluge '06 to Scorcher '06, it seems that all we do is moan and bitch about the weather. However, if had some more respect for Mother Nature, then perhaps she wouldn't be so eager to take out her wrath on us. Quote of the Week SE Washington: Neighbor yelling at someone across the street: "You hear that thundering, bitch? That's mother... more ›

With Mother Nature tossing lightning and thunder, space shuttle Discovery shooting across the Florida sky, and the pyrotechnics on the National Mall, the Nats' little matinee date with the Marlins was easy to overlook yesterday. Only 23,000 showed up for the game between NL East also-rans played under threatening skies. But rookie RBI machine Ryan Zimmerman would have none of it. He launched some fireworks of his own with a walk-off homer in the bottom... more ›

Just as we were done drying off from Deluge 2006, Mother Nature had to come along and dump some more rain on us yesterday. How rude. And now that NBC 4 is reporting that we may see some strong thunderstorms today and tomorrow, we're starting to question where her allegiances may lay. Rain, on the Fourth of July? For shame, Mother Nature, for shame. Slots Petition Drives Kicks Off: Does anyone wants slots in the... more ›

FRIDAY: >> Please Hammer, don't hurt 'em. Landmark R&B radio station WPGC celebrates 19 years of playing 18 jams in a row with a concert at the Verizon Center that features LL Cool J, MC Hammer, Chuck Brown, EU, Naughty By Nature, Bow Wow, MC Hammer and Lisa Lisa. Apparently Cult Jam had previous commitments. $45 - $70, 7 p.m. (Kyle Gustafson) >> You may have missed La Didone last weekend, but if you... more ›

Trotting over to our inbox on free-ranging feet the other day came an invitation for media and invited guests from Equinox: join us for a blind taste test of Certified Humane products next Thursday, June 29. more ›

It was only when this DCist moved to the Delmarva area from Texas that she realized that spice blends are truly a regional thing. Here, it’s all about the burnt-orange crab seasoning, like Old Bay or J.O. Even McCormick’s, which is based in the area and makes Old Bay, is ignored for its good work with Grill Mates and Salad Toppins. That's right, it's all about the orange dust. more ›

Thankfully, Mother Nature will be going easier on us this week than she did on Saturday, which saw record rainfall for the dry region. Our friends at Capital Weather are telling us that spare Tuesday and Sunday, it should be a great spring week. New D.C. Public Library Likely: Though many District activists continue to push for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library to be salvaged, the Post reported yesterday that a new... more ›

Good morning D.C., and happy Earthday Eve (if that's a thing). It looks like Mother Nature will be providing plenty of mud in which to celebrate the observance: the weekend forecast is for rain, rain and more rain. Md. Gets Electricity Rate Relief: WTOP reports that Governor Ehrlich has reached an agreement with Baltimore Gas & Electric to forestall the 72% rate hikes that had been looming for Maryland utility consumers. Customers opting into the... more ›