Though there are a lot of great photos in the pool today, this image taken at Haines Point of The Awakening by Brandon Jones seemed like the perfect shot to start off the new year. EXIF. Did you resolve to enter the DCist Exposed Photography Show this year? You only have 11 more days to submit your application and put your entries in the pool. And since it is the beginning of a new......

The first baby born in the D.C. metro area in 2008 was Stella Jones. WJLA reported that little Stella was born at George Washington Hospital at 12:02 a.m. on New Year's Day. Melanie Smith Jones and Justin Philip Jones are the proud parents of the baby girl, who weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds and 10 ounces. The Joneses live in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. So congratulations to the Joneses! Of course, it's a......

Traditionally Christmas decorations stay up through New Year's Day, which means today is the official start of the "chucking your dried-up tree onto the sidewalk without regard for your neighbors or trash collection schedule" season. Allow DCist to help point you in the proper direction for Christmas tree disposal. The District Department of Public Works is collecting trees from sidewalks starting today through Jan. 19. However, in order to be certain DPW will pick up......

Good morning, Washington. Well, this is it: the holidays are finally, tragically over. You're once again sitting at your desk. And now we begin the slow, terrible death march toward spring, with only brief, inadequate celebrations of Presidents' and MLK Day to sustain us. Stay strong, D.C. — we'll get through this. Can You Hear Me Now? Hello? Hello?: The ball dropped, the phones came out and... nothing. "Y2K8 Bug" doesn't sound very catchy,......

THURSDAY: Happy New Year! Jerrold M. Post will be at Politics and Prose to read from his latest book, The Mind of the Terrorist. Is there a more depressing way to start the new year than discussing the psychology of terrorism? Only in Washington. 7 p.m. Cultural historian Jane Rhodes will be at the Olsson's in Penn Quarter to read from Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon. 7 p.m.......

We're frankly mostly of the mind that New Year's Eve is best spent at a house party with good friends -- going out to a club is almost always overpriced and often a big letdown. But in the event you don't have a party to attend, are new in town, or for any other reason are facing tonight without a firm plan, here's a few of our suggestions on how to have a fun and......

Good morning, Washington. With a new year less than 24 hours away and an improbable playoff berth for the Redskins suddenly a reality, we frankly expect you to have been skipping in to your offices today, in a total and joyous rapture. Even if you've had to work straight through the holidays this year, we will tolerate no whining on this, or really any other matter, on this particular New Year's Eve. There will be......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

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.......

The Metro can be a boring place. Next stop, yadda yadda, doors on the right, zzz. There are sometimes crazy people on the train, or somebody singing, or something amusing happening, but generally it's a snooze fest. Thankfully some Metro train operators like to change things up a bit, wishing people a good day or just being funny, rather than the usual "Next stop Judisherary Square" script. And we like that. Better not give this......

Believe it or not, it’s that time of year…. again. A time to sit back and reflect, but also to look to the future. But speaking in wine terms, it’s the time of year to pick out that bottle (or bottles) of bubbly to ring in the New Year. As much as we love our champagne, vintage champagne no less, it’s not always the practical choice. Unless you plan on not drinking what so ever......

While the week between Christmas and New Year's is far from a dead zone for movies, most of the new fare that's going to be brought out before year's end has already come out, and those that the studios did save for Christmas day release look wholly uninteresting, from sequels to films that were horrible missteps to begin with, to overly earnest inspirational fare. Instead, we'll join the living in the past bandwagon and revisit......

Good morning, Washington. The week surrounding the holidays is almost always a certifiably slow news period, so you can bet good money every local media outlet in the country is shamefacedly relieved to be able to find their own angle on the terrifying fatal San Francisco Zoo tiger attack. Sister site SFist has the roundup of Bay Area coverage, and the Examiner steps up to the plate with the D.C. version of the story --......

>> Beginning tonight, piano legend Ahmad Jamal (pictured with bassist James Cammack) continues his annual tradition of closing each year with a week-long residence at Blues Alley. Daily 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. sets begin tonight and run through Sunday. Tickets are $30 + $12.50 surcharge/drink minimum. On New Year's Eve, the Keter Betts memorial band, which includes celebrated guitarist Paul Bollenback and local drumming ace Lenny Robinson, will join Jamal to ring in 2008......

Be sure to make a note of Metro's holiday schedule, which is available on WMATA's web site. Metrorail and Metrobuses are operating on a normal weekday schedule today, but tomorrow, both trains and buses will be on a Sunday schedule, with trains running from 7 a.m. until midnight. On New Year's Eve, trains and buses will be on a normal weekday schedule, but both will continue running until 2 a.m. — maybe not late enough......

Finally legal and ready to party This week the Washington Post published an article featuring three local pastry chefs creating recipes around exotic fruits. The article was a nod to the recent change that allows the legal importation from Thailand of rambutan, litchis, longans, new varieties of mangoes, and the "queen of fruits", the mangosteen. Many of these fruits were available fresh in Asian markets, but were often smuggled from Canada. The fruits will begin......

If you think the Montgomery County 911 system has problems, D.C.'s 911 office isn't likely going to be having an easy time of it this week either. On Saturday the Examiner ran a small story about how D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At large) had to make a 911 call early Friday morning and says he received "textbook badgering treatment" from the operator. Catania placed the 911 call after being awakened by the sounds of......

At this point in December, holiday concerts and Handel's Messiah have completely hijacked the classical music schedule. Here are a few other events, not all of which avoid the spirit of the season. After this post, the Classical Music Agenda will take its end-of-the-year hiatus, to return in the New Year. >> On Tuesday, the final concert sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society this calendar year features young violist Jennifer Stumm and Finghin Collins at......

Sure, it's December and we're all preoccupied with holiday cheer and making plans for that one New Year's party that will finally be worth the all the hype. But even though they've suffered some setbacks this year, D.C. voting rights activists are pushing the cause through the holiday season. On Thursday, December 6, the D.C. Council will hold a hearing to consider legislation that would place large electronic billboards outside the John A. Wilson Building......

Just one night after the Season Opening Night Gala hosted by Washington National Opera, another set of patrons (and the critics of the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post) came together to fill the Kennedy Center Concert Hall to open the National Symphony Orchestra's season on Sunday night. In terms of funds raised, it was the most successful opening ball in the NSO's history, according to Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Blackstone......

>> President Bush is set to announce plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by around 30,000 by next summer -- which is the same, pre-surge level it was about nine months ago. [AP via WTOP] >> D.C. firefighters put out a fire in the parking garage at Union Station this morning. [AP via WTOP] >> The 2007 American League of Lobbyists Hoops for Hope Charity Game is tonight at GW's Smith Center,......

Celebrate Your Moms If you're lucky enough to have your mom or grandma somewhere easily accessible, then you have the distinct pleasure of celebrating Mother's Day with the real McCoy. As for me, I'll have to settle for a teleconference with my mom while eating pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse that I'll pretend she made for me. Sniff. I love you, Mom! If you aren't separated by a continent, then you have some meal planning......

At Overheard, we'll go for any excuse to have a party. New Year's? Obviously. Halloween? Let's find a costume. Housewarming? Sign us up. Bank error in your favor? Sounds like an occassion for celebration to us. If you stock the refrigerator, we will come. Still, we don't think we've ever been to a party with quite the sense of urgency as the one mentioned in this week's quote of the week. And we agree with......

>> Transformer opens a show this weekend showcasing the work of two extremely talented photographers. Lely Constantinople and Antonia Tricarico utilize a slew of cameras as they approach people on the streets, taking portraits and learning the person behind the picture. They look for the commonalities in strangers who may pass each other everyday, never seeing it themselves. Unsurprisingly, these documentary artists each have pieces hanging in the National Museum of American History. Stop......

First of all, this is another suburban restaurant review, so let’s just get that out of the way. Second, yes, we went to the steakhouse and got the chicken. Third, this is a time of upheaval for Ray's the Classics, so we can’t make any promises. Executive chef Michael Hartzer left after New Year's Eve to do his own thing (though we presume that, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with much beloved owner......

The holidays are over. We're as sad to report it as you are to hear it, because next week, for the first time in over a month, we have to work a full five days. Some of you who had less lenient schedules may be primed to tell us to quit our whining. Those of us who spent the past month stringing together vacation days and holidays to make a patchwork of leisure time punctuated......

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing. Austinist said goodbye to their co-editor (sell-out) and played rumor monger on the SXSW lineup. And when dozens of dead birds littered downtown Austin, it's......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

It's a new year, and the winter and spring half of the season is getting under way. There are some excellent concerts planned in Washington over the next several months. We'll be letting you know more about them week by week, every Sunday. SYMPHONY: >> Why is DCist headlining the Baltimore Symphony? The incoming music director of the BSO — Marin Alsop, the first woman to hold that position with a major American orchestra —......

It's OK, Washington. We've spent most of the last week either hungover or staring down at the bathroom scale in tears, bearing witness to the aftermath of the steady string of holiday food orgies. We understand. We've been too busy to do much overhearing either. It was a quiet week in the Overheard offices to start the new year. So quiet that we just don't have enough submissions to field a viable column, so......