This review was written by guest poster Eric Nuzum, a local pop culture commentator and author of The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula. Here’s the reason why there have been more than 600 vampire films produced in the past 85 years: Vampires are the perfect metaphor. Tradition says that vampires don’t cast reflections. But vampires are, in fact, reflections of what terrifies or titillates us, as well as what we…

Written by DCist Contributor Andrew Chriss Enjera Eritrean Restaurant opened in Crystal City in May 2007. On an early visit over the summer, the restaurant was not very inviting from the street level, which was disappointing due to the vast amount of outdoor seating space available. The menu was crudely assembled from what seemed like loose-leaf, and the signage for the restaurant did little to sell the restaurant besides intrigue passersby to ask, “What do…

>> We would have liked to have read about “The Best Bars in DC For Ensuring That You Will Not Run Into a Single Person Even Vaguely Connected With Politics or Media (crossposted to Gridskipper).” Good luck to you, Pareene. [Wonkette] >> A fire will be set Saturday morning on Metrorail’s bridge over the Potomac River as part of an emergency-response drill involving 100 firefighters from seven area jurisdictions. The Yellow line will be shut…

California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has declared September “California Wine Month” for the third consecutive year. Since September is almost over we thought we would get into the spirit and raise a glass to the California wine industry (not that we think they need their own month). We would have celebrated sooner but we were busy getting tipsy off our own local Virginia Wines, as you may recall. The Wine Institute, a.k.a. the self-proclaimed “Voice for…

Clockwise from top left: Comet Ping Pong, Red Rocks, 2 Amys, Bebo There are many factors that affect a pizza. The type of flour used for the dough. The temperature of the oven. The quality of the toppings. The skill and hands of the maker of the dough. The vigilance of the pizzaiolo (the person manning the oven). D.C. may not be known as much of a pizza town, but a few of the…

DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Foreign: This is England After receiving accolades galore at a number of major film festivals, British director Shane Meadow’s autobiographical film is receiving a limited one week run in D.C. starting on Friday. Based on his own experiences coming of age in the UK in the early 80’s, This is England follows 12-year old Shaun, a…

There are certain defining moments in the relationship between any father and son. Times when a father passes down the wisdom gained through the years, when a son asks those burning questions he doesn’t feel comfortable asking his buddies, the guidance counselor, or the older guys in the gym locker room. And the father sits his son down and they talk long into the night. About why you should get flowers for a girl when…

The longest day of the year has just passed us by, the solstice bells have rung out, and far to the north they’ve seen the sun at midnight. Here in Washington, we brace for the brutal heat we’ve only just tasted up to now. There is some consolation for the misery mother nature heaps on D.C.’s coming dog days. For many lucky office drones, in summertime the living truly can be easy. That filing that’s…

MONDAY: French journalist Sylvain Cypel will speak about his book Walled, a look at relations between Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the barriers — both cultural and physical — between the two groups. Politics and Prose, 7 p.m. D.C.-area Star Wars geeks will want to check out Olsson’s Arlington/Courthouse, where science-fiction author Karen Traviss will be talking about her new novel Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice. We love Han, Chewie and the gang as…

MONDAY: Cullen Murphy, the Atlantic’s managing editor, will be at Politics and Prose to talk about his new book Are We Rome? Murphy is of course referring to spreading corruption in Washington, our imperialist tendencies and the outsourcing of government work to private contractors. Personally, we’d rather read a book comparing our government with a different empire, but we won’t hold our breath on that one. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Dancer and award-winning actress Victoria Rowell…