Yesterday's 40th anniversary celebration of Fiesta DC in Mt. Pleasant was either a raucous and colorful celebration of the District's Latino heritage or a complete breakdown of the neighborhood's otherwise peaceful veneer. It just depends on who you ask. more ›

Playing an album in its entirety as a live show has been equated to a "slam dunk contest" at best and at worst, "a cruel perversion of a concert's real-time magic." The basic question being raised from such a show is, "if you can just listen to the album at home...why go to the show? What's different?" In the case of Dinosaur Jr., sheer volume. more ›

This morning, DCist heard more complaints from District residents about yet another loud racket which woke them up a little earlier than they would have preferred. Fortunately, though, we didn't have to go on quite the same kind of wild goose chase to figure out what happened this time -- Arlington's alert system filled us in that, indeed, the booming noises were again blank cannon blasts, fired during a drill conducted by the Old Guard's Presidential Salute Battery. more ›

Victory is ours! DCist has finally hammered down precisely what was creating noises that sounded like pile driving around the District early this morning: a World War II Anti-Tank Gun. Yes, you read that correctly. more ›

Oh, you better believe DCist is still on the case of the mysterious noise which woke the District this morning. (We've got stick-to-itiveness, what can I say.) Tamika Wright, a spokesperson at Fort Myer, tells DCist that the cannon blasts "weren't coming from" the base as we previously suspected, but instead were being fired at Arlington Cemetery as part of an installation. So we dialed up Arlington National Cemetery spokesperson Steve Satkowski, who tells DCist that there was indeed some blasts being fired at the Cemetery this morning. more ›

Our Fox Mulder-esque search for the truth about this morning's blasting continues! DCist was able to get in touch with Shannon Whalen-McDaniel, a spokesperson for Arlington County, regarding the possibility that the noise had originated from the work which is currently going on at the Rosslyn Metro station. more ›

Were you awakened by loud, booming noises which started at about 6 a.m. this morning and resonated throughout the District? Your editor-in-chief slept right through them over here at DCist HQ, but most of the city wasn't as fortunate. more ›

For the past several weeks, a labor protest outside the Madison Hotel at 1177 15th Street NW has been causing a real commotion, day and night. But quiet has finally arrived -- Michael Neibauer reports that the union, Unite Here Local 25, and hotel management came to a settlement last night with the help of Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, putting an end to the noise, at least temporarily. more ›

According to a new law which went into effect on Friday, someone who is being excessively loud in the District could risk being put behind bars. The Georgetown Dish reports this morning about the new law, the Disorderly Conduct Amendment Act of 2010, which significantly bumps up fines for noise violations and continues to allow officers of the Metropolitan Police Department to place offenders under arrest, imprisoning those that are making noise which is "likely to annoy" for up to 90 days. more ›

Spring Valley is one of the city's most striking neighborhoods, replete with beautiful residences, spacious tree-lined avenues and planned munitions detonations which will be exploding eight to ten times a day over the next week. That's right, upper Northwesterners: the Army will soon be blowing some stuff up within earshot of your idyllic neighborhoods. more ›

On October 29, the National Zoo put on Night of the Living Zoo, an evening of rock and roll combined with some harmless Halloween revelry. It sounds like it a rollicking good time -- there were palm readers, fire eaters and illusionists, and DCist was on hand to check out the set performed by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (which we rather enjoyed). But some of the Zoo's neighbors weren't too thrilled about the noise being made at the show, so they took their gripes to the most captive audience they knew of. To the listserv! more ›

Via JDLand, we find this YouTube video a resident made of an incessant beeping noise emanating from the general direction of the Department of Public Works equipment staging area at 900 New Jersey Ave SE. According to the Capitol Riverfront BID, that site is eventually set to be redeveloped into housing, but in the meantime, the resident who made this video says the beeping has been going on for at least two weeks. We're checking with DPW to see if they know anything about it. That would drive me absolutely bonkers if it was happening right by my house. more ›

Yesterday's Ask DCist feature addressed a weird, metallic, pulsating noise that appeared to be emanating from the HUD building in Southwest Washington, and could be heard clearly as far away as Eastern Market. All signs pointed to a busted steam pipe on the HUD roof, and indeed, U.S. General Services Administration spokesperson Michael McGill has since confirmed for us that at 3:30 a.m. on Monday, GSA received a call that a valve malfunction at the HUD building was causing built up pressurized steam to escape from the steam system, resulting in the loud noise. A repair crew was dispatched to make an adjustment to the valve, and the HUD building was open for business at its regular 8 a.m. start time on Monday. more ›

Anne, who lives at 11th and Pennsylvania SE, writes in: more ›

The D.C. Council earlier today passed an amended version of the noise bill first introduced by Tommy Wells and Mary Cheh that was born out of Ward 6 resident David Klavitter's crusade to put an end to amplified street preachers keeping him awake at his home near H Street NE. But Wells and Cheh actually voted against this bill, after it was basically gutted by an amendment introduced by Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas Jr. that was a major concession to union groups. more ›

Earlier this year it looked like a measure pushed by some Ward 6 residents to impose volume limits on protests in residential neighborhoods was destined for failure. As we briefly mentioned yesterday, though, the D.C. Council endorsed an amended version of the legislation. more ›

As we reported last week, Georgetown residents should have been ready for some rude awakenings over the weekend -- and rude awakenings they received. more ›

If you live on any of Georgetown's quiet tree-lined streets, this weekend might be a good time to take an impromptu out-of-town vacation. more ›

When we told you about David Klavitter's struggles against a noisy group of demonstrators on H Street NE a few weeks back, most everyone seemed to agree that while free speech is an important principle, it's not one that everyone has to exercise using a loud amplifier. But today the D.C. Council seemed to disagree. more ›

David Klavitter doesn't blog about presidential politics, sports or trashy entertainment gossip. No, he just wants some peace and quiet, dammit. more ›