This coming Monday is Columbus Day, which is technically a federal holiday. That being the case, WMATA has announced as it always does that it will be following a holiday schedule for the day, meaning the Metrorail system will operate on a modified Saturday schedule, opening at 5 a.m. and closing at midnight. In other words, there won't be any peak service during rush hour. But how many of you actually have Monday off? More of you than, say, get Veterans Day off? About the same? We're curious.

In May, we wrote about how stricter residential parking rules were desperately needed in Adams Morgan. Yesterday, Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham's office sent out the following announcement:

D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward One) this week introduced a bill that will protect and enhance residential parking in Ward One. Ward One attracts many non-residents who park on neighborhood streets. As a result residents – even with residential parking permits – can’t find parking near their homes. The bill would preserve street parking for residents by restricting certain areas to RPP holders only. It would also create a more efficient system for metered street parking in commercial areas.

Seems pretty directly aimed at Adams Morgan -- now the only question is, which certain areas will be restricted?

Still, the basic concept is generally a good one. Various areas of the District, from Georgetown to Capitol Hill, have started implementing stricter rules to discourage non-residents from parking on residential streets. The District is years behind in establishing parking regulations that allow for better turnover. And though some may complain that the neighborhood by neighborhood approach will create a mish-mash of different parking regulations, there's enough diversity in the city's different wards to call for varying regulations.

Photo by Ronnie R

Metrobus riders, take note: The Examiner has good news for you in the form of Metro deciding on a roll out schedule for several new express bus routes over the next three years, with the first being a hotly anticipated, limited-stop Express S line bus traveling up and down 16th Street NW. Metro is currently planning on having the Express S operating by the end of 2009.

Other scheduled express bus services include:

2010: An Express Q2 line in Montgomery County and Express 28 Line along Leesburg Pike in Northern Virginia.

2011: New Express service along H Street/Benning Road in D.C., and along Georgia Avenue and New Hampshire Ave. in Maryland.

WMATA told the Examiner they hope the new express bus routes, of which there are at least 10 more in the pipeline farther in the future, "will speed customers’ trips and improve reliability." Or in other words, that if they get you to work just a little bit faster, maybe you'll all stop complaining about D.C. buses so much.

Photo by cstein96

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) thinks that "ex-gay" is its own sexual orientation. To make their point, they are suing D.C.'s Office of Human Rights.

Regina Griggs, the group's executive director, claimed in a statement that, "The ex-gay community is the most bullied and maligned group in America, yet they are not protected by sexual orientation non-discrimination laws."

Certainly some would beg to differ on their claims that ex-gays are the "most bullied and maligned group," especially in light of recent attacks on gay men in D.C.

"If so-called ‘ex-gays’ are now heterosexual, they are covered under the basis of sexual orientation," said Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a group that opposes the ex-gay movement. He calls the lawsuit frivolous and says that PFOX has offered no proof of ex-gays experiencing discrimination.

Discrimination against anyone because of sexual orientation -- gay, straight or otherwise -- gender identity or gender expression is illegal in the District of Columbia.

Flickr user NCinDC took this photo of a classic car parked, quite appropriately, outside a row of houses in this historic neighborhood -- the caption notes that this area of Capitol Hill is listed in the National Register of Historical Places (a great resource for you history nerds out there). The color palate here is quite interesting, and we especially like the composition, which kind of makes the car look like an ostentatious tree planter. Can anyone identify the make and model of the car?

Good morning, Washington. Well, you knew this story was coming: The Post shines some light on the practice of paying parents who adopt from the District's foster care program. In the wake of the grisly discovery of the bodies of Renee Bowman's adopted daughters inside her freezer, everyone's trying to figure out how the system failed those children. Bowman received $2400 a month for her three children. The Post says District officials are considering requiring evidence that children are enrolled in school or have been immunized before checks can be sent to adoptive parents.

Additional Fines for Encroaching on Bike Lanes Considered: The Examiner reports that the D.C. Council is considering instituting a $100 fine on drivers who float into bicycle lanes, and mandating a 3-foot clearance between cars and cyclists. D.C. Council Member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced the bill as a reaction to the death of cyclist Alice Swanson, who was killed on her bike when a garbage truck ran her over just north of Dupont Circle.

Report Blames Board and Voting Machine Company: The D.C. Council's investigation into the Sept. 9 primary election irregularities is out, and it lays blame both on the Board of Elections and Ethics and Sequoia Voting Systems. But since nothing can be done to fix or replace any of Sequoia's hardware or software before Nov. 4, the Council is recommending that poll workers be trained to encourage everyone to file a paper ballot and feed it into an optical scanning machine -- that way, even if the machines can't be trusted, there will be a paper ballot record that can be hand-counted if need be. Who's excited to vote now, D.C.!?

Briefly Noted: Man arrested on murder charge in 1998 shooting ... Neighbor charged in killing of Falls Church woman ... Bank robbery stole Rabbi's car that was covered in Stars of David.

This Day in DCist: In 2007, we toasted the official announcement of the end of Dr. Dremo's.

Photo by lmno.p

You don't need to be told who Sarah Vowell is anymore. You can immediately recognize her voice from years and years of This American Life appearances, her role in The Incredibles, and her road-trip ready audio books, especially Assassination Vacation. Maybe you find her nasal tone irritating, maybe you don't, but you know that she has an uncanny ability to nail down the unique contradictions to be found in the stories of Americans. You also know, or at least you should, that she's a lot smarter than you. Her new book is The Wordy Shipmates, which delves into the history of the Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century. Vowell is in town tonight for a reading at the Avalon Theater at 8:15 p.m., sponsored by Politics and Prose. Tickets are already sold-out, but if you're a Vowell disciple, that probably won't stop you from heading down to the theater tonight to see if you can snag an extra from someone on their way in. Vowell took some time to chat with DCist last week.

So, why Puritans?

I guess I had been thinking about John Winthrop a lot, starting on Sept. 11 and then we went into the war in Iraq, and it all just kind of came crashing down on me watching Ronald Reagan's funeral. When Sandra Day O'Conner was reading "A Model of Christian Charity" at the funeral, that's the sermon that gives us the "City upon a Hill" soundbite that president Reagan was so very fond of. So she's reading that and she gets to the part of the sermon that says, "the eyes of all people are upon us." It was right after the Abu Ghraib photos came out, and I had just been to NYU to see Al Gore give a speech where he called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation, and the speech was all about how not only were those atrocities generally sinister, but that it was a betrayal of American exceptionalism. And of course Rumsfeld was sitting there in the National Cathedral with the president, and it just seemed like a good time to go back and look into the foundations of American exceptionalism and write about the people, the New England Puritans, specifically the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who gave us the idea of ourselves as a city upon a hill. They gave us the idea of ourselves as God's new chosen people.
Did you approach your investigation into those ideas expecting to find that we've gone against them?

I don't think we've gone against them, I think we totally still believe it. I say in the book, even I most of the time probably still believe we're God's chosen people, and I don't even believe in God. It's such an innate part of the American DNA. The average American, and myself included, we can't really get away from it, and history bears it out. We're pretty much the superpower. There isn't really getting past it, but you can question it and be aware of it. Barack Obama actually uses the words "American exceptionalism" in interviews fairly often. But I think I can tell that he has a sense of responsibility about that. The thing I say about Winthrop and his shipmates and especially "A Model of Christian Charity" is that to him, the idea of being a city upon a hill isn't just about being a beacon of hope, it could also be the opposite. I mean, he's terrified that they will fail and disappoint their God and incur their God's wrath. To say that "the eyes of all people are upon us," he also means everyone's watching and if we fail, we fail big, and we fail in sight of everyone and we fall harder because we go higher. It would be nice if we were a little more mindful of this tendency of ours. My favorite image of 17th century New England is the official seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which is the Indian saying, "come over and help us," which is ironic considering that within a few years of getting there that colony literally burned alive 700 Pequot, for example. The idea that they had about themselves was that the Indians needed their help, that they were coming over to help, we're here to help whether you want our help or not. That seems to be kind of the M.O. of the United States as well.

When I went to school, I was taught that America never lost a war, and I started kindergarten in 1975, four months after the helicopters are being whooshed out of Saigon. I just don't like this idea that we have of ourselves that we're infallible. You think we would maybe proceed with a little more caution perhaps in the world stage if we were aware of our own shortcomings.

Since you've written this book, are there elements of modern society where you now can't help but notice this heritage of puritanical doctrine and beliefs?

Well right, like when Dick Cheney went on Meet the Press during the buildup to the war in Iraq, with this statement that we'll be greeted as liberators. He might as well have just morphed into the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. But also, with Winthrop and his crowd, there was a tendency to say one thing about themselves and be another, and I think we definitely have that. "Model of Christian Charity" is all about generosity and brotherhood and suffering together and mourning together, but anyone who disagreed with the clergy or the magistrate was banished. One guy I write about had his ear sliced off for saying seditious things about the clergy and magistrate. And then, even that speech itself, I write about how it was quoted by Reagan, and same thing. Reagan was going around quoting from this sermon that's about charity and generosity to get himself elected and re-elected, in order to preside over an administration that is at its core about a complete and total lack of charity and generosity. He's quoting from a sermon that says "if your brother's in need, and you love God, if you can help him, then thou must help him," and Reagan is quoting [this] while he's slashing the budget for housing and urban development, cutting school lunch programs, and not mentioning AIDS until thousands of people are dead from it. I guess it's ironic at the very least, but I'd also say it's phony, and disingenuous and offensive.

So would John Winthrop have fit in with the Bush Administration?

This administration, especially the president himself in terms of theology, is actually a descendant of Anne Hutchinson, the woman heretic who John Winthrop banishes from Massachusetts. She has this very cockamamie, emotional form of Christianity that's about a direct relationship with God, she says she hears the voice of God and that she's filled with the Holy Spirit, and to the Puritan higher-ups, this is just blasphemy. The fact that the president is an inheritor of this more ecstatic, loosey-goosey, overly emotional, gut-level of Christianity, Winthrop would probably be horrified by that. They're very Biblical, Calvinists, their approach to religion is highly intellectual. And the president, as we know, is all about his gut. None of that book learning. Puritans are all about book learning.

So they're the snobby elites?

The Puritans? Yeah. That's why I like them. That's one thing that's very admirable about them. They're obsessed with learning and knowledge and scholarship and expertise. They've barely built their own houses and they're building Harvard, because they want their sons and especially their future ministers to be fluent in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, and to be able to discuss all the great theological texts of Europe and the ancient world. These are people who wrote poetry in Latin, they're incredibly brainy people, which is another reason I wanted to write about them. More than anything, they were thinkers and writers, and I don't like how their image is often stereotyped that they're stupid. That probably comes from all the silliness in Salem, which came much later after Winthrop was dead. They're essentially literary.

Yeah, the list of primary sources at the end of your book is pretty daunting.

Um, yeah.

How long did it take you to do all that reading and research? Were there tomes that were just incredibly difficult to get through? I imagine that the language they were written in was a little dense.

Oh, yeah. I think I mention that I really feel for the scholar who edited the volume of Roger Williams's correspondence. A two-page letter by Williams will have 30-something footnotes, because Williams alludes to sometimes several Bible verses in one sentence, so sometimes unpacking all that theology gets a little tricky. I definitely culled through a lot of dense texts, and hopefully I pilfered out the juicier bits.

In fact, when I was recording the audio book, I was using various actors to be the different Puritans, and I never noticed it until we were putting the audio book script together, but it's rare that I let one of the Puritans have an entire sentence. I frequently quote only part of a sentence, I'm quoting the understandable bit, and then the part that needs to be deciphered I will kind of translate that a little bit. I am kind of proud in just a general knowledge sense, this book is absolutely for the general reader, and at the very least it's definitely one of the breezier books on the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

I would say so.

So I'm a little bit proud of that, and maybe that's one reason why these people are a little bit forgotten is that they were really so much smarter than us and were just so well educated and heady that it's harder for the general reader to dig in, compared to say Lincoln or somebody, who's such a clear literary stylist. Reading the speeches of Lincoln is nothing but a pleasure, where there are certain sermons from the Puritans that are definitely a pleasure to read, but not all of them.

Presumably you had a pretty good grasp of the colonists's behavior toward the Native Americans before you started writing ...

Yeah, that part of it is not complicated at all.

Did you uncover anything that actually shocked you?

I don't know about shocked. I mean, it is shocking, the idea of burning 700 people alive is shocking, which they did to the Pequot, babies included. Baby burning is always pretty shocking.

But I do talk about my own little epiphany I had with my own background, being part Cherokee, and the Cherokee are one of the so-called five civilized tribes, and always prided themselves on their civilized behavior. And to me, that aspect of Cherokee heritage always made me a little uncomfortable, because I just felt like the English showed up and the Cherokee just dropped everything they were doing and said, "sounds good to me," and immediately converted to Christianity and wanted to become white southerners to the extent that they owned black slaves. There's nothing Geronimo about the Cherokee, and I always wondered, where was their backbone? And then when I was researching the big plague, the one that happened essentially right after the first European contact, and I was specifically researching the plague that happened amongst the Native American population in Massachusetts between 1616 and 1619. The reason that the Pilgrims and the Puritans can sort of swoop in and settle Massachusetts was that pretty much the entire native population was killed off by this small pox epidemic. That basically happened up and down the Americas starting in 1492, starting from fisherman and traders and explorers, that initial contact brought so many germs that some scholars estimate as much as 90 percent of the native population of the Americas was wiped out even before organized colonization started.

So I was reading all that and then I came across one sentence from some anthropologist who said that when the Cherokee suffered through an epidemic like that, their priests destroyed all the idols of the tribe. Basically, they abandoned their God, because God had abandoned them. And that was just a light bulb moment, it was like, oh, that's why when the English show up and they're so healthy and their God protects them from all these horrible diseases and epidemics, that's why the English ways and especially English religion and education would seem so attractive. So that answered that little thing that had pretty much nagged me my entire life.

There's a line in your book where you talk about how the Puritans that you're writing about would be totally horrified by the idea of Thanksgiving. You said they'd think, "what if we didn't deserve it this year?" Are you planning on celebrating Thanksgiving any differently this year?

Oh, do I deserve it? I probably never deserve it. (laughs) I mean I basically ignore Plymouth and everything we think of as the classic Thanksgiving story, so probably not. I'll be in Hawaii for Thanksgiving actually. It is interesting though how things filtered down from colonial Massachusetts, we get this holiday, Thanksgiving, that to the Puritans, Thanksgiving was definitely a conditional event, and you couldn't have Thanksgiving unless you deserved it. More frequently they would fast to atone for however they had offended the almighty. The idea that Thanksgiving would be a day in the calendar would be blasphemous to them. And I write about how their Thanksgivings were often pretty disgusting, in that they feel like they deserve a Thanksgiving after the massacre of the Pequot, because God had clearly given the English this victory and destroyed their enemy so mightily. It's really gross to have a party to celebrate that babies got burned alive.

So you're heading to Hawaii, and I understand that your next book is set in Hawaii?

Yeah I think so, it'll be about the history of Hawaii, pretty much a story I'm always attracted to which is how white people messed things up. Basically from European contact with Captain Cook through probably statehood. It's kind of a sequel to the Puritans book, actually, because the history of Hawaii, especially in the 19th century has to do with immigrants from New England, both the missionaries who settled Hawaii and the whalers from Salem and Massachusetts, so Hawaii is basically Massachusetts part two. I don't know if you've ever been to Hawaii, but there are so many congregational churches built by missionaries from New England, that you can barely drive 20 miles down any back road on any island in Hawaii and you'll come across a church that looks like it's straight out of a Massachusetts village.

I've never been to Hawaii, I had no idea about that.

It's pretty great.

I bet. So are you going to watch the debate tonight?

Oh yeah.

Here in D.C., people gather, you know every bar in town will be packed tonight with people watching the debate. Do people do the same kind of thing in New York?

There's a little bit of that, sure, but it's not like D.C. I lived in D.C. for a little bit of time after college, and it seemed like people gather in D.C. to watch specific votes on C-SPAN.

Ha, sometimes.

I can imagine a real showbiz event like a debate would be like that times ten.

Where did you live when you lived here?

Adams Morgan, over by the Zoo.

When was that?

1993.

Oh wow, so have you seen Adams Morgan since then?

I guess I've been to Dupont Circle a few times but, no, why?

It's pretty different.

It was all like, Ethiopian restaurants as I recall.

Well all of 18th Street is now one bar after another, it's where people get drunk and throw up in the street.

I just remember it was the fall, and coming from Montana where it's mostly evergreen trees, I was so charmed by my whole neighborhood, all the sidewalks were carpeted with leaves. It was very picturesque.

Washington, D.C. may run decidedly blue in elections, and you may have to walk past 25 blocks of Obama canvassers before you even spot a McCain sticker here these days, but that doesn't mean we're all in agreement in this city.

Home furnishing and design store Skynear, located in Adams Morgan, recently asked artist Dana Ellyn if they could hang a few of her paintings. Ellyn is a popular local artist, having shown her work in a number of venues, such as Warehouse, Gallery Neptune, Long View, and most recently in the Brushfire sponsored show at Gallery Plan B, from which the three pieces in question came. Her bold colored caricatures, which often focus on current events, are intentionally provocative. And this time, it seems, they're making some people downright violent.

Owner Lynn Skynear asked Ellyn if she could hang some of her paintings in the run-up to the election, and Ellyn sent her three Gov. Sarah Palin paintings to put in their window: Miss Congeniality (with her sheeple), Pulling Rabbits out of Hats, and Juggling Act (pictured at right). Friday afternoon, Ellyn got a call from Skynear employee David Stulajter. The store is close to a number of other locally owned shops (a hair dresser, etc.), and these neighbors started bringing word to him about threats regarding the paintings.

We spoke with Stulajter, who said there were quite a few people who reportedly talked of "breaking windows" and vandalizing the paintings, though it's unclear if they were direct threats or passive aggressive "warnings" that, ahem, things like that happen. One particular Skynear customer, who had returned to order furniture, noticed the new paintings on the wall and told Stulajter he was "quite offended," particularly by Juggling Act, in light of Palin's baby with Downs Syndrome. He left without purchasing anything, and they don't expect him back.

Stulajter doesn't lament the lost sale, stating, "it's art!" While threats of violence go on behind their backs, there are also folks who like the work, finding them "funny and clever," and in fact, Ellyn already has an offer on Miss Congeniality.

Nevertheless, the store is worried about the safety of the artwork, so they've moved them to the second floor, away from the windows. In that location, Stulajter hopes, the store's alarm would scare anyone away before they got that far.

Ah, Sesame Street - who among us doesn't long for the idyllic setting of Big Bird, Snuffalopogus, and Cookie Monster? Sometimes it's easy to slip away and imagine sitting on the stoop, sharing a juice box with your buds Bert, Ernie, and Grover after a hard day at the grind; even if rote memorization of multiplication tables are far in our rear view mirror.

RCKNDY owner David Dennis, though, is living proof that Sesame Street isn't that far from, well, U Street.

"Sometimes I feel like Mr. Hooper," Dennis observed when asked about the best part about owning a business in the bustling corridor. "I know who's having a baby, remodeling, moving, just got a promotion. I love it. "

An ethos of "decor shouldn't be so serious" has helped Dennis in making quite the impression as one of the District's foremost, centrally-located purveyors of quirky furniture and specialty items. So while we had his ear, we asked the man what kind of free interior design advice he could give us for the chilly months ahead:

"Purple is the 'it' color for fall this year - but while we have some hints of purple in the store we're not delving into the trends too heavily, especially with such a strong color." Dennis made sure to assure us that there's "no purple sofas at RCKNDY! We love to mix the practical with the tongue and cheek." To wit: Dennis gushed about "the most comfortable sleeper sofa along side a neon green plaster roller-skate!"

He's understandably quick to sing praises about the surrounding businesses - Dennis counts himself as a devotee of wine on Local 16's deck and Cakelove's gastronomical goodies - but also said the "hidden gem across the street is Threads for eyebrow threading - it's so cool!"

But, just like a sage shopkeep, Dennis realizes that there's always room for improvement - especially considering the District's paucity of local modern designers.

"I haven't found many local designers with a point of view equal to the store," he admits. "D.C. isn't a good base for modern design. If you know someone, send them my way. I'm all for supporting local designers."

But he's hopeful, noting that "inspiration is everywhere. You just have to open your eyes, ears and mind."

Well said, Mr. Hooper, er, Dennis.

RCKNDY is located at 1515 U St, NW. Photo of David Dennis by Steve Goldenberg.

Gregg Gillis studied biomedical engineering in college. He's also been playing music since he was a teenager. Combining that interest in breaking things apart and seeing how they work with his love of music, maybe it's not all that surprising that Girl Talk was the result. Girl Talk, as anyone who's been to a dance party in the past few years probably knows, is Gillis' stage name; he mixes samples of dozens of songs together to make unbelievably smart and fun songs in their own right. His recent album, Feed the Animals, worked its way onto most everyone's iPods after Gillis and his label, Illegal Art, decided to follow the Radiohead model and let people choose what they wanted to pay for a download. Tonight the Pittsburgh native is coming to the 9:30 Club, to put on a show that sold out long, long ago. We talked with him last week about old friends, Lil Wayne and the economic crisis.

When you do your live shows, I can't imagine that you're doing a lot of fly by the seat of your pants stuff. I assume it's mostly planned ahead?

I do think it's all very live. I do all the samples by hand. But the arrangements are all very thought out. I don't ever want it to be an exercise in improvisation or anything like that. I think people get into the albums and the live shows are more about composition. They want to hear what sounds good -- you know, this goes with this. For me, it's a very big trial and error process. It's not like you could throw out a song and be like, "what would that go good with?" I have no idea. It's a very long process, trying different things. I spend many hours trying to find something that works. So, in the live setting, the performance of everything is very isolated. If you're hearing a drum beat playing, that could be four different loops -- a kick drum loop, a high hat loop, a snare loop -- so at any time I could stop the snare, stop the kick drum, stop the high hat. So it's very interactive. But, it's so interactive that it's difficult for me to even change a little bit. For me it's like writing a song, and then you know, kind of going out and doing a loose interpretation of it each night. Even if I'm playing the same source material, I could never play it the same way two times in a row.

So I asked the people on DCist's staff if they had any questions for you, and one of them said that her friend used to be your pen pal growing up.

(laughs) That is not true.

Did you ever have a pen pal named Emily?

Wow, like an internet pen pal?

I'm not sure.

I don't know... maybe, well, it's weird. Back when the internet hit big, in my life at least, when I was in like 8th grade or something (like '95 or '96), it was crazy to be able to communicate with other people, and that was like the first time. I've never been into like... meeting strangers on the internet. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I think that's totally cool. And it's very commonplace these days. Many people meet their husbands and wives that way. And that's fine! I'm not talking trash on that, but that's never been my thing. But, when I was in 9th grade, I was on some mailing list for music or something or other, and you could like make your first internet friends. I had never thought of that prior, 'cause the internet wasn't around. But yeah, actually I had an internet friend named Emily that I have not thought of in 10 years. That was like one of the first people I knew... online. From somewhere else. But that was not a pen pal experience, that was more of a nerdy music experience.

Photo of Girl Talk courtesy Christos Schizas detroitartist dot orgApparently she lives in Massachusetts now and wishes you well.

I hope it's her! I honestly hadn't even thought about that at all in a long time.

I really like the way your stuff strips away the idea of what constitutes "good music," and is all about fun. But it also reminds me of this postmodernism professor I had in college who talked about how our culture is so bereft that we have to strip different parts of different things and collage that together to make a whole again. And then suddenly your stuff seems very dark to me.

No, I definitely think it's a celebration of that whole postmodern idea. That's cool to me! I think that's an idea of all music and art; you can't really make music based on any truly original ideas. You have to learn to play your guitar or accordion or singing voice from somewhere. You're using a note structure, rhythmic patterns, all based on something. I think that's just the nature of making music -- you take a previous idea, you manipulate it, collage it together, put a slightly new sound on it, and call it your own. So I try to do that in a very physical sense, while still retaining something. When you hear the Rolling Stones, you can hear those bluesy riffs, and you can tell they're influenced by blues guitarists. Any music, you can hear what it's influenced by. I try to do that as well -- where you recognize the songs, but I try and do something new with them. Just kinda break down all the barriers. You know, I'm a fan of pop -- beyond the point of having "guilty pleasures" or thinking anything is cool or uncool. I just don't think in terms of that anymore. I just try and recycle a lot of ideas that people have emotional connections to and kind of play with that and try and make something new out of it.

This album's definitely gotten a lot more widespread attention, I know I read your name in a lot more places now, and hear a lot more friends talking about Girl Talk. Why do you think this one sort of struck a chord more, or why your audience has grown so much?

I think it is a successful release, but at the same time, the album prior to this (Night Ripper), I was literally playing to like 10 people and no one had ever heard of me. And that was fine, that was just kind of the world I existed in. That one just got a few favorable reviews, and that got the ball rolling. I think this style of music can appeal to a wide fan base. And when you start getting blog coverage, you get music nerds who read blogs getting into it, and from there, their friends telling friends and friends and friends. I think the word just spread, and eventually it reaches its potential market. You know, not all music can just be played on MTV or on the radio. Other, slightly more underground music has to find other ways of getting out there. I think slowly, that album came out and people took to it, and I just continually played shows. I think that's how it spread. The shows have gotten a pretty good reputation for being pretty insane, and I just haven't stopped.

Do you have any plans of doing anything different musically in the future? Is there anything you wanna try out?

I mean, this is basically my instrument. I probably won't veer far from sample-based music. It's something I've been doing in a band prior to Girl Talk, it's something I've been doing for about 10 years now. There's just an entire world to explore. I don't think it will always sound like it does right now. I think the last two records are kind of cousin albums... they're done in a similar style. And at this point I can't really imagine doing another one like that. I don't know where I'll go -- I never have a vision for the future, like, this is what I'll be doing two years later. I always just work on small little elements, just constantly playing around. And then, things pop up and we'll add that to the set and see where it goes.

Is there anyone you want to collaborate with? Because of the nature of your music, it's sort of really hard and really easy to imagine what a collaboration would sound like.

Right. Yeah, I haven't really done that much. There's a band I'm going on tour with -- I can't remember if they're playing the D.C. date or not, I think they are. Grand Buffet, they're a rap group from Pittsburgh. I've done a beat for them in the past; that was an interesting collaboration I thought went really well. Yeah, stuff like that I'd like to do. There's a producer in Pittsburgh who goes by the name of Sky Mall and he does some sample based works. I'm a fan of his work; we've sat down and worked on some things. And a guy I went on tour with last year, Dan Deacon, he and I have been talking about collaborating for a long time. We've been throwing around some ideas. I would actually like to make that a reality sometime, because I'm just such a huge fan of his.

D.C.'s, ya know, less than an hour away from Baltimore, so, Dan Deacon's...

Almost a local hero there?

Yeah, totally. Everybody loves him. So, I know you like to listen to the radio a lot. I do too. And Lil Wayne is on every 10 minutes or so. Is he mixed in every single one of your songs coming up?

(laughs) Yeah a little bit. I mean I love his album. I think it's great. But even beyond that, I think the Lil Wayne mania he's created is fascinating. It's great! He's like the first... to me, you have your Jim Morrisons and your Kurt Cobains -- people completely outside of what they do artistically or musically, when you get them in front of a camera or on an interview, you just don't know what they're gonna say. It's rock and roll! It's very exciting! Is this guy gonna be on drugs right now? Is he gonna say something completely abstract and make sense, is he gonna be sincere, you just don't know. I think we haven't seen a character like that in a long time. So much pop -- and even coming from the rap end, which is usually such a renegade style, and raw, rock music and big rock shows are so predictable with their style and what they're gonna do. I'm just so excited to pick up a magazine with Lil Wayne on the cover and see what he's gonna say. And I think everyone's like that, it helps fuel the music. Everyone's so excited for him to do something insane. I think the new album's great, and of course I've been mixing up some jams from it. Almost all those songs are hittin' the radio now, so you have your fair pick of what Lil Wayne songs you wanna mess with this week.

Who else do you like right now?

There's a new album by Killer Mike, a rapper I'm a big fan of. And he has a track with Trina called "Look Back At Me" that I think is amazing, and kind of, making a small dent on radio, but I don't know if it's gonna blow up. But mostly, just a lot of oldies. Like "Louie Louie." I'm kind of constantly surrounded by a party atmosphere when I'm on the road. I'm constantly playing a show and going to an after party, listening to hip hop and electronic music, that's sort of always around me. So when I'm at home, I usually sort of just listen to the oldies station and chill out. Just listen to some Stevie Wonder or something like that.

Do you have any economic crash, post-apocalyptic songs in the works?

No; I am fearing that though. Every day. It's exciting for me, though. Everywhere I go -- I mean, I have friends in Atlanta who can't get gasoline, and people whose parents are trying to move their money around because they don't think the banks will be able to protect it. It's a very tough time, but I'm also excited for it -- it's an unknown. I feel like something could be on the horizon here. It seems like a crazy era, something we can look back on. I don't know; eventually you reach the end of civilization, you run out of resources, and things start to collapse. It happens! I'm not saying it's happening right now, but the possibility is always there.

On a final note, do you know what you're going to be for Halloween?

I don't! I have a show that day, so I wanna lock it down. I feel like a lot of people are gonna be Heath Ledger's version of The Joker, I feel like that's gonna be the costume to be. So I don't wanna repeat that, but I did really like the new Batman, and I thought Heath Ledger was amazing. I was thinking about being him in the nurse's uniform. That's my first idea -- I can easily get a nurse's uniform. And I wanna get like a professional makeup job done that day. So I'm not sure... either that or maybe ALF or something.

Dish of the Week: Mascarpone-stuffed dates with sea salt
Where: Komi

Congratulations to Komi, which received a fourth star in the 2008 Washington Post Dining Guide. A definite splurge for most diners, most visitors to Komi find themselves wowed by the clean, simple flavors of the dishes and great technique. More than just fine dining, it is a place to take pleasure in really good, simple things.

One of Komi's signature dishes is the mascarpone-stuffed dates sprinkled with sea salt. It is a simple recipe in practice, but as was pointed out by Todd Kliman in his chog this week, is complicated in execution. The dates need to spend just the right amount of time in the oven to get the perfect point of caramelization without burning.

For those who want to try and sample the luxury without the dough (a.k.a. those paying attention to all the screaming newspaper headlines that make you want to buy gold coins and stuff them under your mattress), you can try out Eat DC's recipe, which she admits isn't quite the same. It just verifies the fact that Komi deserves its place at the top of the local list, joining CityZen, Restaurant Eve, and the Inn at Little Washington.

As for the rest of the Guide, it was a surprising list. Some notables have lost stars (Citronelle) or dropped off the list completely (Vidalia). A chain restaurant, Nando's Peri Peri, found its way on to the list with its admittedly delicious grilled chicken. Equally surprising is Tom Sietsema's continued love affair with Jaleo, to which he awarded three stars, making it equal to Proof. Great Wall Szechuan House seemed to be a token cheap eats in D.C. pick, especially in the face of the great Szechuan fare at Hong Kong Palace in Falls Church. Et Voila was a Belgian shocker at 2.5 stars - a recent visit included Sysco-like frozen fries and a mediocre steak in a cheap red wine sauce.

As usual, the Guide seems a little detached from reality, especially in these trying times. Sietsema writes in his introduction, "We've consolidated all the basic information you want about every restaurant -- location, type of cuisine, star ratings and the page number of the review -- into one index." Excuse us, but what about prices? Now, more than ever, it is important to talk about price, not just value. And giving a nod to the economy in your introduction is not enough. We want a cheap eats guide, and fast.

Photo by EssG
Small Bites
Serious DC Dining
This week, the Washington Post's Jane Black takes a shot at her own form of a dining guide on Serious Eats. Filled with a lot of safe and decent choices, this may serve as a slightly better guide for the cash-strapped.

Fly for free at Culinaerie
This Saturday at the 14th and U St. farmer's market, there will be cooking demonstrations by Juiliette Tahar of Healthy Living, Inc. (10 a.m.) and Susan Holt, co-owner of CulinAerie (11:30 a.m.). All market attendees will be able to participate in a raffle for a free cooking class for two at Culinaerie. At the same time, pick up some kiwi berries, bitter melon (for the more adventurous), as well as apples, pears and other fall items.

Just one more of those crazies
Enjoying cooking and have some slight psychological problems? Great. You might want to try out for Hell's Kitchen. The Gordan Ramsay show will be holding a casting session at the Hard Rock Cafe on October 20. Given the past few seasons, crying hysterically as you cook might just land you a spot.