Taking Things Apart

Check out DCist's McGyver stunt on WMATA's SmartTrip card. Although maybe this is more Alton Brown (taking things apart) than McGyver (putting things together).

Shadowboxing

Check out a great article in the NYT about a 32-year old former graffiti artist who's now tracing shadows all around Brooklyn and Park Slope. One of those things that makes you think: man, why didn't I think of that? Of course, for me the answer is: because I can't draw to save my life.

DC to Join Non-Smoker Cities?

The DC city council votes today on whether to ban smoking as of Jan. 2007. A majority of councilmembers support the ban, and it is expected to pass. Maybe some of you can find the bill here. I can't. I did, however, get stuck on the "Luther Vandross Recognition Resolution of 2005."

New Restaurants In And Around DC

You can read about these elsewhere... or you can just read about them here.

• Rasika - Indian, near Chinatown. Apparently opening next week, Dec. 12. Chef Vikram Sundaram has come to DC from London's award-winning Bombay Brasserie, according to The List.
  
• Fogo de Chao - Finally, DC gets a churrascuria. For those of you still confused, that is Brazilian for lots of meat, delivered to your table on an "all you can eat" basis. It's a chain but looks promising. Coming THIS WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7!
• Zengo - recently opened. Billed as "modern Mexican" food, it seems frighteningly more like Mexican meets Asian.
• Open City - see post below for details on this new Woodley Park hangout by the owners of Tryst and the Diner
• Jin - yet another odd mix of Caribbean-Hawaiian. It's located on 14th Street, next to Busboys and Poets. Looks a bit Euro-trash for the neighborhood, but you can't judge a bar by its windows.

And sad to say, closings: Rumor (per the Washington Post) is both Blackie's and Lulu's Club Mardi Gras were recently sold. A new condo building is coming soon to the triangle of land across from Lulu's, and speculation was that the proprietors would try to get rid of the Bourbon Street-style club, but this doesn't quite seem like the right time, does it?

Tab Returns!

Coca Cola is planning to bring back Tab as an energy drink for women. I can't speak for everyone, but I think that is a fab idea. Or a totally radical idea. Pick your decade for a superlative.

Yay, Rent is Here!

Rent the movie is released. 'Nuf said.

When You Go Out...

You might as well go out in style. Take a look at these art coffins by Life Art, a company in Australia.

Morbid? I'm not sure. After all, if you're going to celebrate life, why not do it in death?

Thanks, Seth, for the heads up.

"I Enjoy Being A Girl"

Choosing the Right College by John Zmirak is a new college guide that will help weed out the right people from my alma mater:

I'd be very careful sending anyone to Wesleyan University in Connecticut because they're getting rid of single-sex dorm rooms. You won't even be able to guarantee that your daughter is living with another woman.

Check it out here. If you have any respect for what this guy has to say, please take his advice and stay away from Wes.

Going Blogstream

Something old: journalism
Something new: blogs
Something borrowed: David Corn
Something green:

[Open Source Media] will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers will be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generate.

- A.P.

Busboys and Poets Too

One coffee shop/diner/brick oven pizza place in DC isn't enough. If 14th and V is too far to travel, lucky for you, another is opening on Calvert Street, just east of Connecticut. OnTap explains the new Open City, located in Woodley Park.

The latest venture by Constantine Stavropoulos (Tryst, The Diner) is called Open City, and it is situated on a piece of prime real estate by the corners of Connecticut and Calvert in Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. The coffeehouse/diner/bar aims to, like Stavropoulos' successful Tryst, become the "third place" for area residents. "You have this third place that you go to," Stavropoulos explains. "There's your office, your home, and the other place." This particular third place—also Stavropoulos' third spot in the city—will offer WiFi and feature a gourmet coffee bar, a full-service (cocktail) bar with beer on tap and some 12-or-so wines by-the-glass, and plenty of seats in the dining area to order upscale-ish diner food like Italian-style pizzas, eggs all day, sandwiches and salads.

Incidentally, that corner of Connecticut was nowhere near Adams Morgan until Metro decided to name the stop Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. One mile away, over a bridge, does not constitute one contiguous neighborhood. But I digress... Unclear exactly when this new place will open, but stay tuned.

Oohs and Aahs

Thank you, DCist, for alerting us to the installation of MenuPix. If any of you DCers are as obsessed as I am with New York's MenuPages, you're in luck. What you get: some basic info (including the restaurant's website) and a PDF of the menu. Of course, the only Logan Circle/U Street restaurants online right now are takeout Chinese joints, but who's complaining? And we can always add our own.

Talk of Impeachment...

I love it when church signs say what we all are thinking.

Can you say hypocrisy?

Lucky this administration isn't getting indicted for sex. Only the Dems can be castigated for their sexual deviance. But the GOP is much better at it. First of all, their sex-pots don't look like Monica Lewinsky. And second of all, their prose sounds like this:

"He could feel her heart beneath his hands. He moved his hands slowly lower still and she arched her back to help him and her lower leg came against his. "

It only gets better from there. Read all about Scooter Libby's erotic fiction in this week's New Yorker.

The Smelly City

I don't think anyone's complaining that New York City streets smell good - in fact, who'd have thunk it? And yet, that's the case. Friends on the Upper West side thought it was unique to their apartment building until they saw the NYT.

Never fear, the Office of Emergency Management is on the case. In the meantime, use this as an opportunity to quell your sweet tooth.

One Other Hot Spot

The Columbia Heights Blog also mentions Kudo Beans. Could this possibly be the same joint as this coffee shop in Seoul, Korea?

New Chain, New Local Joint in Columbia Heights

For those of you waiting anxiously to see what kind of retail goes up in the new 14th Street corridor... DCGentrification.com reports that Ruby Tuesday is coming to Tivoli Square. How this happened is beyond me. There is only one other Ruby Tuesday in DC, and it's at Chain Central near the MCI Center. Are Subway, Starbucks and Urban Outfitters on their way to Columbia Heights?

The other new restaurant to arrive will be Rumberos, brought to us by the folks responsible for the Rumba Cafe in Adams Morgan. Can't complain about that one.

I'll keep you posted as more information arrives.

Sales Pitch for New Yorkers

Seeds of Peace will present the 2nd Annual Stand-Up For Peace comedy benefit on Thursday, October 27th at 8:00pm at Gotham Comedy Club's new Chelsea venue in New York City (208 W. 23rd Street).

This year's event will be hosted by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, Stella) and feature comedians including:

• Susie Essman (HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, Comedy Central)
• Colin Quinn (Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn)
• Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (Late Night with Conan O'Brien)
• Demetri Martin (Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central, Perrier winner)
• Caroline Rhea (The Caroline Rhea Show)
• Dean Obedeillah (CNN, Air America 's Morning Sedition)
• Aziz Ansari (Premium Blend, ECNY- Best Male Stand Up)
• Catie Lazarus (AMC, ECNY- Best Comedy Writer) **

Advanced tickets can be purchased online for $30 at seedsofpeace.org/events. Special $25 student tickets are also available. All tickets at the door will be $40. Tickets can also be purchased by calling Seeds of Peace at 212-573-8040 x.32.

All door proceeds will benefit Seeds of Peace, a nonprofit, nonpolitical organization dedicated to empowering young people from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence.

** Catie went to college with me

UPDATE! Wine Is Fine.

DCist reports that

"the D.C. City Council passed emergency legislation establishing .05 as the blood alcohol content level below which a driver is presumed not to be intoxicated."

No need to concern yourself with that one glass of wine anymore. Drink up, suburbanites, and drive yourselves home with no fear.

Looking for Another Reason D.C. Sucks?

Look no further than this article in today's Washington Post. No wonder the city can't afford to fix the roads, fight terrorism or end the muggings on U Street. Not to mention the traffic violations they couldn't give a hoot about. They're too busy spending hundreds (thousands) of $$$ arresting people who have had one glass of wine!

Teaching Morals

Finally, a school is standing its ground. That's how you teach morality to students - not by removing Annie Proulx from your reading list.

This case is so interesting to me. Basically, it's a classic debate over whether a school should promote literature that runs counter to its values. What's most unusual is that this is a parochial school, and the literature is being called "un-Christian."

But this seems to me to bring up all kinds of political issues. If evolution is "un-Christian" and only creationism is real, do we stop reading Huxley in schools?

You can't hide behind literature. It is just another medium - like television, like movies, like music - that describes the era in which we live. If there is more homosexuality in literature today, it means just one thing. And that's what worries people.

$1K Handbags

My favorite quote of the day has got to be this one, today's New York Times:

"A bag is sort of like a portable house. It represents you."

Who are these people buying $1K handbags and - seriously - have you donated your money to Katrina victims yet? These are people who, according to the NYT, make $50,000 to $75,000 a year! People: you are spending 1/50 of your income on a purse. What if someone spills a beer on it?

But my next question is what do you do when you're done with that purse? When you're bored of it? Can you give a $1500 purse to the Goodwill? Do you get to write off $1500 on your tax return if you do?

$10 Guacamole

So you wonder why the Dupont Farmer's Market is so expensive? Did you know conventional crops in the U.S. are subsidized heavily by the government (yes!) but that organic crops are not? I, for one, did not know that.

Take a look at this article in Grist magazine for more details. Then take yourself to Whole Foods and buy that avocado (they're proud to be from California!) that looks like it should absolutely not cost $3. It'll make some damn good guacamole!

The Stigmatized Car

It's easy for Americans - some in particular - to say the French are silly, or naive, or to change the name of French fries to Freedom fries. I tend to disagree. They are also more fashionable, know more languages and eat better food (French fries aside).

An article in today's Christian Science Monitor only supports my thesis - as the French are supporting a campaign to encourage residents to quit driving into town. Noting that reasons to find alternative transportation (or as those punchy French call it, "clever commuting") continue to grow (global warming and rising fuel costs, to name a view), those clever French folks are actually taking action.

Of course, we've reached a tipping point in America too. You know when GM introduces a hybrid, change is afoot.

More food news for the 14th Street crowd

Coming soon to a theater near you - the Studio Theatre, that is. Viridian is a new restaurant supposedly opening this fall, on 14th just north of P Street, in the Whole Foods Corridor. The owner also owns Perry's. The most uplifting news? The plan is to donate one table's proceeds to local good causes.

I did read someplace that it's already open, so if I'm behind, please let me know.

And in case anyone is wondering what the heck Viridian is, it's a blue-green pigment.

Porn Yesterday

My favorite excerpt from a Washington Post article entitled "Recruits Sought for Porn Squad":

"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

I have to say, porn on the web bothers me a lot less than spam (sometimes they are indistinguishable), than Michael Brown's failed career at FEMA, and than the lack of an evacuation plan for Washington in the case of terrorism. But my vote doesn't count for much.

You know DC is too small...

...when your boss comes into the office and tells you she was out last night with a friend of your husband who went to middle school with her husband in South Bend, Indiana. That's 611 miles away! Usually I like the three degrees of separation DC has to offer, but there are times I want to walk into Dupont Circle without seeing someone I know.

busboys, poets, pizza and meze

No doubt some of you in the new U Street/Columbia Heights corridor are intrigued by all the recent growth in the area. To that end, I thought I’d share my weekend discoveries.

Friday night: meze. Tabaq opened last month on U Street between 13^th and 14^th, and it is a new gem in the neighborhood. A nice vibe, a good bar – even if the drinks are not great, they are strong. At 8:30 on a Friday night, it was easy to sit down for dinner (not so at the new-ish Al Crostino, next door, where there was an hour wait). Dinner is small Mediterranean tapas plates with a mix including hummus and baba ghanouj, lamb shanks, mussels, foie gras, beef ravioli, and everything in between. The menu is truly huge, with a lot of tasty options. The food was delicious, and the wine list did not leave much to be desired either.

Saturday: pizza. Delivery from Radius in Mt. Pleasant. Working without a menu, we ordered meatballs and tomatoes. The cost was high – turns out toppings are expensive. Delivery was fairly quick, but the pizza turned up completely soggy. You couldn’t pick it up. The cheese was good, and along the edges the crust was crispy, but that’s about it. I’d try going up there and eating the pizza in person, but I wouldn’t order it again.

Sunday: ever since hearing about Busboys and Poets, I’ve been excited to visit. We spent Sunday afternoon there, and my expectations were met. Busboys and Poets, which opened last Tuesday, is a hip, sunny, bright, clean Tryst. There are tables around the perimeter where people can eat a square meal of lunch or dinner (breakfast is coming, they say). Inside are comfy couches and chaises where people settled in for the afternoon. Wi-fi makes it easy to set down with a laptop. I sat down with a textbook and drank coffee for a good two hours without anyone bothering me except to ask if I wanted a refill. Food is very reasonable – they have sandwiches, pizzas, salads, and burgers, and all of them looked good. I can only speak directly to the Portobello and Goat Cheese sandwich, which was delicious. A full bar rounds out the experience, with Magic Hat #9 on tap! And there is a bookstore inside in case you need reading material.

All in all, a weekend full of delicious discoveries.