Would you be willing to pay $25 for a photograph of yourself standing next to someone who looks eerily similar to your favorite celebrity? That’s the question you’ll want to answer before venturing in to the new Madame Tussauds wax museum at 10th and F Streets NW, which opens to the public today. Last night, DCist attended the opening party for the attraction. We say attraction purposefully, because Madame Tussauds isn’t a museum at…

Alfonso Velez is an old soul. The former frontman from Monopoli recently stepped out of the indie rock scene and into the past, drawing upon various folk and blues influences in his solo career. He has the demeanor (and hair) of a young Elvis, the storytelling stylings of Bob Dylan, and the gritty vocals of George Harrison. These are but a few of the names that come to mind as you watch him on stage….

By now it is Chamber of Commerce cliché to write of “U Street’s revitalization.” Most residents have read the historical postings along U Street NW and know, by way of slogan at least, that “before Harlem, there was U Street.” At the height of Washington’s segregated past, a few decades after segregation was imposed by Congress against the will of a vocal many white and black District residents, U Street NW was the city’s celebrated…

Yesterday was Budget Day, which is one of those big deal days for official Washington that no one else notices. It’s the day when the President formally submits his budget for the next fiscal year to Congress. Sexy, right? If you happen to work for an appropriator or one of the budget watchdog groups, it is. Each Department holds its own budget roll-out event complete with powerpoint, Secretarial speechifying, and usually some sort of bunting;…

This early evening shot over Malcolm X park was takin by Flickr user kezee. The bottom-lit clouds, gradiant sky color, and silhouetted trees are perfectly lovely. Find the EXIF data here….

When we first mentioned the non-fatal shooting of Cameron “Cam’ron” Giles in town two weeks ago, it appeared to be nothing more than, as Cam’ron’s manager Joe Sherman described it, “a botched carjacking.” It happened, it was reported, and since Killa Cam left Howard University Hospital in fine condition, most thought little of it afterwards. Such things happen after all, and one could hardly be surprised when a rapper who is known almost equally for…

At the eastern end of Lincoln Park along East Capitol Street, there are bronze statues of a large woman and two large children (well, the statues are large). They are frozen in mid-dance, facing toward the city’s first statue of Abraham Lincoln and the Capitol in the distance. The figures are rough-hewn, like tree bark, and elevated on a massive stone platform itself about five feet high. The woman is Mary McLeod Bethune, and the…

Today the whole world counts lines of longitude away from Greenwich, England. But the globally accepted prime meridian running through the Royal Greenwich Observatory is a relatively new development. At one time, most every important city had its own line: Rome, Jerusalem and St. Petersburg, among others. Of course, for a meridian line to be taken seriously by navigators and mapmakers, one had to publish an ephemeris, viz. an almanac of points on the ground…

Last Friday were were sad to hear of the passing of legendary actor and civil rights leader Ossie Davis. Davis and his wife, Ruby Dee, were recognized at the 27th Kennedy Center Honors in December. We’ll remember him not only for his great acting but also the times when we saw him interviewed – including this powerful interview we saw him give with Bill Moyers on NOW. The news program Democracy Now! has dedicated today’s…

We hope you had a good weekend. This photo was taken at Meridian Hill Park, looking south from a stairway leading to 16th Street. Or should we say Malcolm X Park? (Meridian Hill Park was once rechristened as Malcolm X Park. While that name is still in use, do you think the gentrification and development in the surrounding neighborhoods will eventually cause the Malcolm X name to disappear? Feel free to post your thoughts…