Results tagged “weekend”

Someone has placed a Star-Spangled GIF in front of kimberlyfaye's photo of the Old Executive Office Building -- lulz! But why does it not animate? Why do you not wave freely? Why no fireworks, little American Flag? Where does your eagle soar? I don't know what I'm talking about.

If two sex shops are able to remain open in the relatively small Old Town Alexandria commercial district, someone must enjoy patronizing them. Yet Alexandria city planners proposed to ban further sex shops from opening in the historic district, according to ABC7. That decision that would have grandfathered in Le Tache but forced the more recently opened Lotus Blooms to close. Both stores are located on King Street. (Those links are potentially NSFW, especially if you work in Old Town Alexandria.)

This time last year, the Washington Redskins were fresh off an election-eve home beatdown by the Super Bowl champs–elect, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a game noted for the stunning prevalence of Steelers fans at FedEx Field. A little past the halfway mark of the season, that game officially kicked off the team's late-season demise, where they'd go 2-6 and labor to put up points in virtually every game. The offensive line looked slow, tired, and hurting, and so did Clinton Portis -- whom we all hoped only looked like that because he was behind that slow, tired, and hurting o-line. The defense, for the most part, manfully willed the team into games before the offensive ineptitude just became too great a burden to bear.

           

Every so often a songwriter emerges who captures something about the city he calls home. Elliot Smith was as Portland as fixies and strollers. There is something free and unmistakably flyover about Omaha, Nebraska's Conor Oberst. Kurt Vile -- who finished a tour to support his latest record (and first release on Matador Records), , at the Black Cat on Thursday -- is making his claim as a lo-fi laureate of Philadelphia.

The Dremo never dies, so long as people long to play flip-cup and watch weird movies in an eclectic taphouse -- assuming there's money for it. Home of the Night of 101 Elvises and the much-missed Psychotronic film series, Dr. Dremo's is looking at a new home. According to an email from manager Andrew Stewart, the backers behind the former Arlington landmark seek to raise $200,000 to build out a location in Clarendon. It's unclear whether the good doctor has found a venue in Clarendon or simply means to keep with the original ambition to find a new home there. Any angel investors out there with a love for Dremo's Redneck Ale? The bar needs $10K minimum, to be paid back over 2 years for 10% annual percentage rate. For my part, I can pledge to spend that much in the form of a tab over 2 years.

WUSA9 has it that parents and kids waited hours to get the H1N1 vaccine in Cheverly, MD. Yet the Washington Business Journal reports that 55% of Washington-area adults don't plan to inoculate, nothing that a full "one-third of parents with children living at home do not plan on getting the vaccine this year."

Here philliefan99 has captured this tribute to the Fort Hood shooting incident, whose local connection the Washington Post explored yesterday. NBC Washington further notes that Maj. L. Eduardo Caraveo, among the victims in the shooting, was a Woodbridge, VA, native. President Barack Obama (pictured here, kind of) ordered that flags fly at half-mast staff until Veterans' Day, calling the shootings "crimes against our nation."

Mornin', Washington. Hope you're awake, because Montgomery County needs your help.

Yours truly has a love-hate relationship with junk food. But so do you, dear reader: one of the most popular posts in this here site's five-year plus history was Andrew Wiseman's thoughts on the fast food joints that the nation's capital misses out on.

The Georgetown University Department of Public Safety has the details on the second bias-related assault in the last few days near the school. Early this morning, a Georgetown student was attacked by an unknown male near 36th and N Streets NW. According to the public safety alert:

              

I think two things about making a gallery of pictures of jack-o'-lanterns. One: This is exactly the sort of task I'm up to on a November 1. I tend to enjoy my sweets in the four of bourbon for Halloween, and as a result November 1 is a hangover to rival January 1. In stumbling around the house groaning for advil and wondering how I stubbed my presently lame big toe, I present a more convincing zombie than any you saw in Georgetown last night. Two: Something about taking pictures of pumpkins makes people go nuts with the photoshop. How is it that photos of orange gourds look so green?

Here is a photo that manages to summon both Vince Gauraldi and Cecily Brown. This fall flickr by apium is full of flesh tones that draw the eye, but it's far from sexy. For all the skin color and movement, this picture still conveys the quiet transformation of autumn.

Last year, we had a laugh or two about the signs that Maryland required registered sex offenders to post during last year's trick-or-treating hours, in order to let parents know which houses to avoid. We even had deeply offensive musical accompaniment! But despite last year's positive results, the signs were not required this year, according to WTOP. Why's that? "[T]he sign was confusing because it had a pumpkin," said the coordinator of the sex offender registry for the county sheriff's office. So confusing that you'd miss the large, green "NO CANDY AT THIS RESIDENCE" text which lies directly on top of the pumpkin's face?

At the top of the agenda this week are two concerts of rarely heard Baroque music, very different from one another but both worth hearing. Many other options, including some excellent free concerts, come later.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann, that balrog from the 6th Circle of Minnesota, has summoned her minions to descend upon the Capitol on Thursday, The Hill reports. What should our poor Hellmouth of a federal city expect? Invoking "every one" of Sean Hannity's viewers is probably a summoning feat too great for even an unholy overlord as powerful as Bachmann, but presuming that she is able to call up even a fraction of Fox's zombies, the city could be looking at a horde of 9/12ers large enough to seize the Capitol steps. What do they need (beyond braaains)? Freedom from health-care, or something! A suggestion for the visiting undead looking to fit in thematic evening plans: the Kurt Vile show at the Black Cat.

Washington National Opera's new production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos puts me in a bit of a quandary. It has a score and libretto of particular beauty and is produced rarely enough -- the last time WNO mounted it was in 1994 -- that I would always recommend that others see it, even if this particular production, heard on Wednesday night, is not an ideal one. It is a shame that this quirky opera, revised by Strauss and his brilliant librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, as a postmodern dissection of the perils and vanities of creating opera, returns to Washington National Opera at this time. The company's precarious financial situation has led to a season cobbled together to fulfill contracts, hardly a context for great Strauss to thrive. Even so, the production's party atmosphere and bright costumes could make tonight's performance (at 7 p.m.) an interesting alternative Halloween destination (see the notes at the end of this review for a possible discount opportunity).

Cast your eyes on this image, ye reader, and despair! Truly the most horrifying image poured into the DCist Photo Cauldron so far. Or at the very least, the most damning. Flickr user M.V. Jantzen actually captured these souls during (what else?) the annual drag race, but let it stand as a challenge: Can a costume come in a more terrifying form than floral? I submit not.

    

The Church of Scientology Religious Trust's building at 16th and P Streets NW is the site of a barricaded celebration of some sort today -- one which is blocking a sizable section of one of the District's major arteries. (Obviously, I wasn't invited behind the curtain. I mean, you should have seen my last audit: whew!) Police are out in full force around the humongous 50,000-square foot building, and security is tight -- a ten-foot tall white temporary barricade is blocking off 16th Street; there are huge draping banners reading "SCIENTOLOGY" and "DIANETICS", though, in case those walking by on their Saturday jaunts to the 14th and P retail corridor were wondering what the hell was going on with this big white thing in the middle of the street.

But perhaps you're like me, and have begun to feel the urge to strap on some thick socks, tighten up the laces and hit the ice. If so, here's some good news: the Washington Post Weekend twitter feed reported yesterday that the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden skating rink will open for public use on November 14 this year, but two weeks from today. While this editor is plenty excited to hear the scraping of ice on metal firsthand, I'd certainly be remiss if I failed to disclose that this news saves me from having to dig deep for an innovative date spot next month, if but for one evening. (Thanks for the help, Smithsonian National Gallery of Art!)

Sometimes, when you have as much talent as the Caps' roster, you get in your own way. Despite coming in on a six-game winning streak, facing a team that was 2-4-5, a hefty 40-28 advantage in shots, and a solid performance by Jose Theodore, the Capitals lost 4-3 in overtime on Friday.

Happy Halloween, ye fellow denizens of Zombieton, D.C. I suppose that some of you are spending the precious daylight of All Hallow's Eve running around, paralyzed with the realization that your utter lack of costume ingenuity has finally come back to bite you. (Note: we hear the Columbia Heights Target is already out of white sheets, so there goes that idea.)

       

We were speaking with a couple of photographers recently, who claimed that this year's crop of changing leaves were particularly stunning, and yesterday, a short trip through a few of D.C.'s tree lined streets seemed to confirm that sentiment. So, perhaps it wasn't very surprising that a look through our DCist Flickr pool was full the same evidence of autumn's rise. Didn't get your fill of lovely fall color with today's photo of the day? Crack open a pumpkin beer, and take a break from that Halloween costume construction to enjoy some more.

>> We only recommend a trip to Baltimore for something extraordinary, and this week the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is not bringing a worthy program to Strathmore. Daring conductor Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, will conduct two Russian fairytale scores, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and the suite from Stravinsky's ballet score for The Firebird. (October 29 and 30, 8 p.m.) The concert will also feature Leila Josefowicz as the soloist in John Adams's violin concerto. If you want to learn more about how Rimsky-Korsakov tells a story in music in Scheherazade, there will be a special multimedia concert attempting to show just that (October 31, 7 p.m.).

Passing by market-goers this morning wrapped in scarves as they rummaged through bins of root vegetables, this writer felt like fall finally arrived. It's usually mid-October when the blazers and sweaters come out of the closet; this year, mid-October came late. After a week of unseasonal cold and a flood-y Saturday, it's nice to have a day of actual, honest-to-goodness autumn. Don't fall in love, though: Rain is likely over 4 of the next 7 days.

For those waiting for today's sizable marathon-related road closures to clear up, Alert DC says that both the Key Bridge and streets in Georgetown have reopened to traffic. The 14th Street bridge remains closed, however. Other streets will be closed until later this afternoon, so tread lightly. Oh, and for those interested: John Mentzer, a 33-year-old Navy lieutenant commander and Muliye Gurme of Ethiopia won the men's and women's races, respectively, running over 26 miles in the time that it took me to decide what to eat for lunch today.

After a few months where we wondered if any business could maintain an open storefront in Cleveland Park, it looks like two of the most quizzically empty spaces in the neighborhood have plans to be filled. Posters to the neighborhood's ubiquitous listserv have passed on the information that the space at Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street which formerly held a 7-11 could house an urgent care office. (Urgent care next to the new Walgreens? Convenient!). Meanwhile, the former McDonalds at 3407 Connecticut -- which has literally been empty for years -- could potentially become a diner. A fun place to get some awesome breakfast before or after a weekend matinee at the Uptown sounds utterly delightful.

It's been a while since we've posted such a sweet piece of transit porn; so, streetcar advocates, feel free to keep drooling as you read the rest of this text. To the right (and in more detail here), you'll find DDOT's comprehensive idea for an expanded streetcar network, based on the existing plans for H Street NE and Anacostia.

There had already been too much violent crime in residential Northwest neighborhoods when we posted about it yesterday; sadly, there was even more of it to report from last night. First, according to MPD, a woman was shot in the leg on the 1300 block of Euclid Street NW around 6 p.m. yesterday evening. Police say there was no known motive. Assistant Chief Diane Groomes also confirmed that there were shots fired in the 200 block of W Street NW last night. In this particular gunfight, two adult males suffered one gunshot wound each. Police are still investigating both incidents. Anyone with information about either of these crimes, or the multiple shootings yesterday, should call MPD at 202 727-9099 or 1-888-919-CRIME.

We've mentioned the International Year of Astronomy in passing, but not in great detail because Washington, D.C., disappointingly, doesn't seem to be hosting too many events. The IYA is a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the year Galileo Galilei first gazed through a telescope to look at the universe. Organized by the International Astronomical Union, IYA events have been planned all over the world all year, including tonight, the last night of Galilean Nights: three evenings encouraging the public to look up and get a closer look at our Moon and Jupiter and its moons (all of which will be close together in the sky this week) -- the objects Galileo first studied. If you're outside of D.C., see if there's a Galilean Night event near you, or follow other people's observations online through various webcasts and Twitter feeds (many with photos), or just head outside tonight and wait for a break in the clouds. You might consider buying a Galileoscope for just twenty bucks, which should give you a nice view of the Moon's craters, or participate in the last night of the Great World Wide Star Count.

Plenty of area residents will be enjoying some absolutely fantastic weather for tomorrow's Marine Corps Marathon, whether they are running, cheering, or just catching a peek while they wander around town.