Friday has arrived at last, Washington. Despite the federal holiday on Monday, it's been a rather long week for many of us - though of course, we couldn't hold a candle to the week that D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi has had. The Post writes about yesterday's lengthy D.C. Council hearing into the tax office scandal, which lasted until 9 p.m. and where it was apparently revealed late in the evening that authorities are investigating the......

Hollywood, rock and roll and reality TV are all subject to artist Jeremy Blake’s critical eye in Wild Choir: Portraits by Jeremy Blake. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, where the show opens tomorrow, calls his work “psychological pop portraits” — trippy digital videos depicting the lives of cultural figures. Flashing images, voice overs, music and explosions of color are typical in the three videos on display — 2003’s Reading Ossie Clark, 2005’s Sodium Fox, and......

>> The D.C. Council unanimously approved a final agreement today to spend $79 million to help Specialty Hospitals of America to purchase Greater Southeast Community Hospital. [WaPo] >> Veranda, a new restaurant at 11th and P NW, is officially opening Wednesday and having a soft launch already. [renewshaw] >> Tonya Bell, the woman who was charged in the UNIFEST street festival car crash in Southeast last spring, pleaded guilty to multiple felony assault charges......

We first heard about washingtonpost.com's intentions to launch a comprehensive directory of D.C. area blogs last January, when they gathered a bunch of invited local bloggers to come have free soft drinks and chocolate-covered strawberries so they could pick all of our brains about how best to reach us on the interwebs. Today, we received the first word that the Local Blog Directory is up and running and available to users to register. Generally,......

Fishbowl D.C. scooped even the Washington Post's own gossip columnists on word that Brad Pitt was reportedly visiting the paper's newsroom this afternoon. Says a Postie: "since word got out, female producers from network news shops are clamoring to stop by and just pay a "visit" to the newsroom to see friends they've never visited before in the newsroom."Patrick Gavin says Pitt was there consulting with Post editor R.B. Brenner in preparation for his upcoming......

Summer is coming and so is one of our favorite pastimes: compiling our summer reading list. Remember back when you were in middle school and you were required to read a certain number of books on the school's list by the time classes were back in session? Yes, we realize some of you saw this as a chore. But if it weren't for those lists, we may never have picked up books that have become......

MONDAY As a part of its ongoing “Face It: We Are Probably All Going To Die or at the Very Least, Suffer Immeasurably” Series, Politics and Prose kicks off the week with a visit from Stephen Flynn, author of The Edge of Disaster, which, apparently, we are teetering on (cf. “all going to die,” “suffer immeasurably”). Also: CSI: Miami is on tonight! 5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7 p.m. TUESDAY The art of letter writing is......

> > If we know you, the DCist reader, you are no doubt feverishly caught up in DC's celebration of the life and works of William Shakespeare. Feel like delving deeper? Get on board with Wordfest's Shakespeare Reading Group at Chapters one week from today at 6pm, and get a guided tour of Richard III from University of Connecticut Professor Emeritus Arnold Orza. If you ask us, Richard got mad swift-boated by the Bard, but,......

MONDAY Kenneth Brannagh’s Hamlet. Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet. Bob and Doug MacKenzie’s Strange Brew. All fine examples of Shakespeare on film. Got questions? Well, pepper Simon Crowl, author of Shakespeare and Film: A Norton Guide, with them. Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol St. SE., at 7:30 p.m. $12. TUESDAY According to the Wikipedia, Ralph Nader’s father “owned a bakery and restaurant where he engaged customers in discussions of political issues.” That bakery? The "Ugh…I Mean,......

> > Gerald Ford, remembered. [WTOP] >> The Metropolitan Police Department alerts us that the FBI will be doing a "fly over" above Washington, DC tonight until midnight. No, we don't have the slightest idea what this means either, but why take chances? Tonight, conduct your illicit activity from the safety of your own domicile, where, as the courts seem to agree, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. >> Of course, as far as......

There's a "hoo-ha" brewing in the underground these days, and we all know that every hoo-ha is worth looking into. The Post and the New York Times are both reporting about a smackdown by those elitist Washington intellectuals in an ad campaign that has Nora Roberts ripping off her bodice in rage. The Greater Washington Initiative didn't know the passion that would embroil them when they hung their enormous advertisements from Metro station walls. On......

It's about to get real sloooow in the arts world as summer moves heavily upon us. You could throw down a grand on a trip to the Louvre, but everyone knows you can only love Paris in the springtime. Luckily for us, our nation's capital provides us with more museums than you can shake a Mona Lisa at. Not only will museums around town be open all summer (unlike many private galleries), but they're......

Sonic Youth and their pet project (no pun intended) Be Your Own Pet played a day/night double header yesterday at the 9:30 Club that showcased two generations of bands on one stage. I was lucky enough to score tickets to the first show, which started around quarter 'til seven and was over before last night's Mavs / Heat tilt tipped off. Despite seeing Sonic Youth numerous times over the years, mostly at fesitvals like......

If a Cow Moos in Silver Spring and People Bitch About It, Is it Still Delicious? It appears as if the rumors are true. Months of speculation, faux closings, and exasperation are near their end. Ray's the Steaks is looking for staff to fill the positions at the new (and presumably more congenial) location in Silver Spring dubbed "Ray's the Classics." No joke! Our friend Craig told us. Reading the job postings, you might expect......

Marion Barry must be breathing a sigh of relief. Screw that -- he must be ready to throw himself a huge party full of, well, you know. Barry dodged 18 months in prison this morning for six years of evading his taxes, sentenced instead to three years of probation and $246,000 in back taxes, not to mention interest and penalties. He will also have to submit to regular drug tests, so gone might be his......

The owners of Rehoboth Beach, Del. restaurant Nage are following Horace Greeley's advice by opening a western outpost of their high-end bistro next Tuesday in the Courtyard by Marriott at 1600 Rhode Island Avenue NW. According to the News Journal, longtime friends and co-owners Kevin Reading and Josh Grapski are behind the endeavor -- with Reading taking the reins as executive chef of the two-restaurant outfit and Grapski managing this new D.C. branch. Before opening......

Obviously, crime is no laughing matter. Reading the crime reports included in the Post's District Extra section can be quite sobering; it's tough to grasp just how many people come face to face with crime on a daily basis. However, there are times when it's healthy to chuckle about the minor stuff, so today we bring you Excerpts from a Crime Report. Many thanks to the Post and the MPD. -- MICHIGAN AVE., 600 block,......

MONDAY Counterprogramming this week’s State of the Union Address will be activist Cindy Sheehan, who will ostensibly be discussing her book Not One More Mother’s Child tonight at All Souls’ Church tonight at 7pm. For anyone who’s either been hiding under a rock this past year or who hasn’t yet experienced the pleasure of being clouted in the forehead with a ball peen hammer by a member of the Free Republic, this reading is a......

MONDAY Reader, meet jazzbo! David Yaffe comes to the Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library on a mission to blend bookworms and music lovers into a creamy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of cultural appreciation as he reads from Fascinating Rhythm: Reading Jazz in American Writing. 5625 Connecticut Ave. NW. Mon., 1/23, 6:30 p.m. Free TUESDAY Todd Gitlin picks up where he left off in Letters to a Young Activist, beseeching the American left to reconsider their wheezing......

We here at DCist are all about community development, and certainly the knowledge contained in our public libraries is a valuable resource that should be kept well maintained and freely available. Reading is FUNdamental, no? We just wish that for once, a government task force could report back to the mayor without bringing along a nine-digit number. The latest to issue a draft report thusly was the Mayor's task force on D.C.'s public libraries, which......

(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.......

(Editor's Note: In DCist's pursuit of trying out new features, we're going to introduce something we call Weekend Reading -- essentially we're going to point you to what papers are featuring in their Sunday editions, or in case of The Financial Times, their Saturday/Sunday edition. There isn't necessarily anything local here, but considering reading the Sunday papers can be a recreational activity to some in this city, we think it could be of use. Editors......

The Post's "You Haven't Lived Here If You Haven't ..." feature on Sunday traveled to Adams Morgan to enjoy a jumbo slice at Pizza Mart. By featuring just Pizza Mart, we aren't sure if the Post crowned the jumbo slices that can be found at 2445 18th St. NW as the best on the block, as there are others. (For atmosphere, we're partial to Pizza Napoli. There's nothing like post-last call revelry while chowing down......

Reading into the Post's main article on the official announcement of the Montreal Expos' move to Washington, we were looking for those necessary paragraphs that talked about urban progress in the capital since the Senators left town in the 70s. Any broad overview of something as big as a sporting franchise relocation requires it. They are good measuring sticks of prosperity, despite their broad generalizations that can muddle the context in which they are rooted.......