TUESDAY Today’s a good day to study the landscape of war, real and imagined. For a close look at the ephemeral, literary variety, stop by the Corcoran Gallery to hear author Ron Rosenbaum discuss The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascos, Palace Coups. If you’d prefer something more current, and harrowing, Paul Rieckhoff brings first-hand experience to the task of Chasing Ghosts: A Soldier’s Fight for America From Baghdad to Washington. Rosenbaum: in the Hammer…

You may know, and as DCist has reported, that those Hollywood types are just crawling around the District, making movies and reminding us just how cool a backdrop this city can make. Kiefer Sutherland was in Lafayette Park yesterday, stalked and captured at right by Dupont Knitter. DCist learned on double super secret background that the man himself will be shooting in Georgetown today, Thomas Jefferson Street to be exact. Seeing that the dog days…

Spring has finally sprung — or so it would seem. With weather looking to be above 50 degrees for the rest of the weekend, make sure to get out in the city and take advantage of what it has to offer. Capital Weather reminds us that some area ski destinations, like Whitetail and Liberty, are offering online coupons for 2-for-1 lift tickets if you want to squeeze in one more run. FRIDAY: >> Tonight…

Welcome to DCist, the newest metro blog from Gothamist.com. For the next week, DCist will be in a public beta testing period. So please mind the dust as we tie up all the loose ends. On top of our local readers, we welcome visitors from Gothamist and our sibling sites in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. You all know D.C. as a stuffy, formal, capital city on the banks of the mosquito-infested Potomac River….

The group behind the effort to build a massive video slots and entertainment complex on New York Avenue in Northeast D.C. is making a slight retreat as it has withdrawn about 10% of the 3,800-some petitions submitted to get a measure approving D.C. gambling on the Nov. 2 ballot. The Post reports that the group’s lawyer, John Ray, listed 389 petitions that the initiative’s pushers “would like to withdraw.” Three petition circulators told the D.C….

DCist can only imagine the looks on the faces of all the tourists on the Old Town Trolley today when its engine caught fire today in Georgetown. As the trolley cut across Georgetown on P Street, its propane-powered engine caught fire on P Street as it approached Wisconsin Avenue outside the Marvelous Market and the Thomas Sweet ice cream store. WTOP reports that merchants came out with fire extinguishers and fire fighters came soon…