Mindgutter brings us a stunning night-time HDR shot of a building on the UMD campus. Like DCist Heather, I’m a complete astrogeek, so the inclusion of the conjuction of the Moon and Venus is a total bonus. I also like that, if you look closely, you can see a security camera in the cupola. Big Brother — and the Moon — is always watching. In the comments on the photo’s Flickr page, Mindgutter asks…

The long, dark night of the Arts Agenda is almost over! Our fearless arts editor, DCist Heather, will return next week and restore confidence in our coverage of the arts. It has been an enjoyable task for me to fill in, but we are all relieved; let’s face it. THURSDAY: >> If you have not seen The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America at the Phillips Collection, you have to do it by this Sunday. Read…

It falls to me to fill in for our peerless Arts Editor for the next few weeks. Don’t worry: DCist Heather will be back soon! Being the end of December, there is not much for me to mention, since the whole city is being shuttered for Christmas. If I miss something, help me out in the comments section. >> Art Enables moved to a new location in NE and has been open for about a…

I’ve somehow been assigned the slot of taking over DCist Heather’s POTD duties this week as she leaves for a long trip to India, despite the fact that I know next-to-nothing about photography. But nevertheless, here I am, and this shot by Flickr user calcitrate caught my eye. EXIF data is here. Other notable shots included a classic sunset, and this explosion of Christmas lights….

The news coming out of Transit on Thursday has not been good over the last few weeks. We’ve lost our man Dan at Metro, Virginia balked (again) on fixing its transportation mess and Maryland might be selling its transportation future to old political cronies. This week, however, we are excited to offer you a few crispy nuggets of good news. Metro goes express and gets the first batch of new rail cars, some unexpected…