The arrival of warmer spring weather means one thing: it's time to spray for the jizz berries. (Or poop berries, or vomit berries, whatever you prefer.) That's right, the ginkgos are once again threatening to rise up and fill our nasal passages with nothing but disgusting scents all summer and fall. more ›

This week's spring heat wave is causing more problems than just power outages and heavy 911 call volumes. The unseasonably warm weather has also jump started the production of the dread female ginkgo fruit -- better known to us as jizz berries (or vomit berries or poop berries, depending on your nasal sensibilities). Concerned about having another particularly stinky ginkgo year, the District Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Administration started spraying the trees today, much earlier in the year than normal. From the release:

Spraying will begin in Wards 1, 2 and 6, where female ginkgo trees are most prevalent, and continue through Wards 4, 3, 7, 8 and 5. The spraying will be conducted at night and there is no need to move vehicles parked on streets. more ›

We have to concur with We Love D.C.'s brownpau that the answer to Wonkette's inquiry from earlier this week about why downtown Washington "smells like dog-shit" right now is undoubtedly ginkgo fruit. The nasty little berries settle on city streets and sidewalks every autumn, though we admit that this year has seemed especially bad, with the mashed up fruit and accompanying stink lingering far longer than recent years. Brownpau plays scientician:

The seed is encased in a fleshy berry-like layer called a sarcotesta, which contains butanoic acid — a chemical found in vomit, feces, and rancid butter. (And delicious parmesan cheese!)

This past Friday night and with little fanfare, Alberto’s in Dupont Circle restarted its ovens and pizza-making operations, less than four months after a fire seriously damaged the P street location and left a pizza shaped hole in many pizza lovers' hearts. The same fire also forced the closure of the DJ Hut located above Alberto’s and the Subway next door, both of which remain closed. more ›

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... more ›

Written by DCist guest contributor Michael Lodico The Washington National Opera’s production of William Bolcom’s operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller’s earthy play (premiered by the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1999 and staged by Frank Galati) shows the company’s commitment to remounting new American operas after their premieres. The Chicago production, now being presented to D.C. area audiences by the WNO, also features three leads from the original production and the two arias added by... more ›

The Anacostia River, which has been blamed for altering the gender of fish and producing a funky smell, just got funkier. The Post is reporting that raw sewage is flowing into the Anacostia River from a leak in a major sewer line that carries untreated waste from a pumping station in Southeast Washington, D.C. Thanks, WASA! The cause and size of the leak was not immediately known, and WASA's chief engineer claimed it was the... more ›

It's October, friends. Can you smell the pumpkin pie yet? Flickr user outdoor_type was out in Herndon, Va. this weekend and found his first pumpkin of the season, getting some great depth of field on this pretty iron bike outside of a soon-to-be bed and breakfast owned by some friends. Guess it's time to start scoping out local pumpkin fields -- where will you be going for your Halloween gourd this year? EXIF.... more ›

The first thing of note at the Earth on Stone on Earth is Naturally So exhibit, now at Flashpoint gallery, is the smell. A musky, damp, soil smell envelops you immediately and is a soothing contrast to the hot concrete outside. It’s the equivalent of getting out of the city, finding that perfect hiking trail in the early morning, and breathing in the damp cool earth; exhaling the stale city air. The smell emanates from the sod covering the majority of the floor and trailing up a small hill, drawing your eye to the back wall where a video of the outdoors, by Evan Wells, is playing. more ›

MONDAY: In case you missed him at Politics and Prose last month, left-of-center sports writer Dave Zirin will be at Busboys and Poets to discuss and sign his latest book Welcome to the Terrordome, which tackles the topics of race, class, politics and identity and how they play in the mainstream media's coverage of athletes. Hip-hop activist Son of Nun is scheduled to perform. 6:30 p.m. TUESDAY: Busboys and Poets will hold a forum to... more ›

Good morning, Washington. After such a long, hot week, that was some beautiful weekend, wasn't it? And apparently, the beauty of the weekend is spilling out on to Monday morning: Karl Rove, President Bush's controversial deputy chief of staff and senior political adviser, will resign at the end of August. After he packs up his Palisades home and heads back to the Texas Hill Country, Rove will reportedly leave politics and plans to write... more ›

The Washington Post has their ear to the ground, listening for the news that D.C. really wants to hear: the next wave of super duper anti-rat technology. Or not, they add, but Joseph Dussich, inventor of the Repel-X trash bag, thinks he's found the key to Pied Piper the city's rats right out of town, or at least away from alley dumpsters. His trash bags use the aroma of eucalyptus and a few secret ingredients... more ›

A few more tidbits keep trickling out about decisions made during the D.C. Council's action-packed final summer session earlier this week, and this one is ripe for a cascade of debate. Running enthusiast Mayor Adrian Fenty is determined to see the Nation's Triathlon, scheduled for Sept. 29, go forward this year, complete with a one-mile swim in the Potomac River. Last year, the swim part of the event was canceled after the health department determined... more ›

Noticed a weird smell or taste in your tap water this week? Water authorities have begun treating raw water from the Potomac River with a carbon process, after customers began complaining on Monday. WTOP's Neal Augenstein reports the musty odor is the result of warmer temperatures in the river, which has led to an odd-smelling algae bloom. According to an engineer quoted in the story, the carbon process is designed to absorb odors. The carbon... more ›

In fact, during their set at the Black Cat on Saturday night, Chicago-based Tortoise proved themselves to be musically uncategorizable, though simultaneously projecting the aura of a band that knows its way around the jam-band circuit. Whether it was the smell of nagchampa permeating the air, or the whoops and hollers of the audience during every interlude, one couldn’t help but think that a certain illegal, smokable, substance coupled with a more grassy dance floor wouldn’t be just a little more fitting as their musical backdrop. As it were, the video-projection that was the literal backdrop on Saturday night seemed a bit dated (with one portion looking as though it came straight from Tron) and simplistic. However, during the set, the projection seemed to meld more with the music and became more of an accompaniment than a visual distraction. more ›

There's a new entrant into the crowded East coast cheap bus service market. DC2NY, which launches officially on July 26th, has begun advertising their services by handing out cards and fliers around Chinatown. The new bus line will travel only from D.C. to New York (no stops in Baltimore or Philadelphia), picking up from two stops in D.C. -- one in Dupont Circle and the other at 14th and Eye NW near McPherson Square --... more ›

Kerry Skarbakka & Marla Rutherford: Re-Presenting the Portrait, now on view at Irvine Contemporary, features a fantastic pairing of photographers, whose works are extraordinarily similar in theme. Both artists are working with the photographic image as performance – all carefully staged and performative in execution. In Kerry Skarbakka’s series The Struggle to Right Oneself, the artist stages scenes that dissect the concepts of control and perception of balance. He casts himself in the leading role... more ›

We were alerted yesterday by Jon at the DC Traveler that the mighty Titan Arum has begun blooming at the US Botanic Garden. He was, no doubt, tipped off by the oh-so-lovely smell of rotting corpse wafting through his window, which the flower uses to attract meat-loving (at least, meat-stench-loving) bugs to pollinate it. The giant, odorous plant seems to be falling into habit, blooming every two years since 2003 -- before that it hadn't... more ›

Chances are, if you live in or near the city and are not fantastically wealthy, you probably have roommates. Maybe you live with friends, maybe with some folks you randomly found on craigslist and barely talk to, but sharing your living space with other people is a fact of life for most people under 30 in D.C. And in this kind of heat, any sort of odd personal odors emanating from your roommates' bedrooms might... more ›

We love it when local bloggers take it upon themselves to explore the nooks and crannies of our city and report back to us. Today we were introduced to a new blog by Lia Pendarvis with the promising (though hilariously unflattering) title, The Lavatory Lady. As a mother of two young boys who are not only always on the go but often have "to go," Lia confesses she spends an inordinate chunk of her daily... more ›

Written by DCist Contributor Vince Wadhwani, of BuyIndie.net more ›

By DCist Food and Drink contributor Jamie R. Liu more ›

In the area around the D.C. Courthouse on Indiana Avenue NW near Judiciary Square, and we suspect elsewhere in the city, there are massive plumes of steam coming from the grates in the sidewalk. We usually don't pay any attention to the steam that regularly comes up from the grates around town, but thanks to the cold, cold, Vostok-esque weather, these are reaching higher than the surrounding buildings. Walking through them is like flying in... more ›

>> Breaking News: Former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has taken a new job at Friedman Billings Ramsey, an investment banking company involved in real estate investment trusts. A formal announcement is expected shortly. [NBC4] >> It's SotU time! Wonkette has details on where to go and exactly how much of which substances you'll need for a proper drinking game. Who will the president kiss while walking down the aisle this year, and how jealous will... more ›

MONDAY>> We're excited to see Glasgow indie-pop group Camera Obscura headlining the 930 Club tonight. We last saw them at the Black Cat and compared them to Belle and Sebastian. The group's latest album, Let's Get Out of This Country, is whimsical, romantic and will make you feel a little bit better about your life, or at least, this dreary weather. Vermont via Brooklyn band Essex Green opens. 9:30 p.m., $15. >> If your Fugazi... more ›

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. more ›

With the District's smoking ban now in force throughout the city's bars and restaurants, pretty much the only option for smokers set on enjoying a quick cigarette without heading outside was getting elected to Congress. Today, that changed. more ›

Written by DCist contributor Matthew Yglesias Wizards fans in the Verizon Center for last Sunday's overtime loss to the Nets could smell victory as the Nets were forced to try and in-bound the ball facing a three-point deficit with only 2.7 seconds remaining on the regulation clock. Odor turned to palpable taste as guard Vince Carter launched a long shot on a short-arced trajectory that couldn't possibly fall in. And, indeed, the shot slammed into... more ›

By DCist contributor Spencer Ackerman It's pretty appropriate for a cooking expo so near the Chesapeake Bay that the first olfactory experience greeting a visitor to the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show is a powerful blast of salty, baking fish. No one is going to mistake D.C.'s answer to the New York Fancy Food Expo -- a 100-stall extravaganza of middlebrow-to-high-end cooking, oenophilia, celebrity chefs and cheap wares -- for the food-porn original. But with... more ›

It's a drizzly Thursday morning out there, D.C., and it seems like every ... single ... local news headline ... we've run across has to do with this Tuesday's election. Rest assured, we'll have DCist's own election guide for you later this afternoon, but we'll also have plenty of our regular music, food and other odd goodies. Because lord knows we could all stand a break from the Midterm Midtacular (hat tip to The Daily... more ›