Category Archives: Life in the Capital

Featured Photo, Life in the Capital, The District
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Featured Photo

20080713L1000014 by furcafe

‘Tis the season for barbecuing, the time to gather up your friends and family, fire up the coals, and throw down some of your favorite meats and vegetables. It’s also a great opportunity to toss back a few cans of beer or your favorite blueberry drink of choice. But be careful, DC. When you mix an open fire pit with alcohol consumption, you may very well set the neighborhood on fire.

This brings up a good question. Last year it was discovered that at least 25% of DC’s fire hydrants were out of order. So what state are our hydrants in now? Have they all been fixed? Are we down to 5%? I know the hydrant across the street from my house still has an “out of service” collar on it which is not exactly a comforting feeling. I have to say, from the Georgetown Library fire to the recent one in Mount Pleasant, DC should also be known as the “fire capital” of the United States.

Photographer Chris Chen (furcafe), an omnipresent “man on the scene”, did a great job of capturing the spirit of a backyard barbecue in this shot. While you’ll normally see him with a film camera strapped around his neck (and please note that I have never seen Chris without a camera), this photo was captured using his digital Leica M8.

Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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Starbucks Offering Discount

$2 after 2 p.m. by brownpau

You either love Starbucks or you hate it (or you’re somewhere in between like I am). Regardless, if you get your morning coffee there like I do, hold onto your receipt! According to an AP report, if you show the receipt from your morning caffeine fix, you can get any iced grande beverage for only $2 after 2 p.m. With savings like that, you may actually be able to fill up your car’s gas tank from time to time.

I haven’t given this a try yet but I see an iced grande vanilla latte with my name on it in the very near future.

Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Mall
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Yes, I love the Mall too.

All over the mall
Less than two weeks after we launched We Love DC, I got an email message from a friend. Here is is in its entirety:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/146735?GT1=430012 – is it the dead ducks in the reflecting pool that makes you love DC so much? :)

I ground my teeth and opened the link, knowing pretty well what was going to be there – more kicking the Mall around and use of over-blown words like “disgrace.” I was not – well, yes, I was disapointed, but I wasn’t all surprised by what I found inside, though my friend got her geography a little wrong – the ducks in question were in what is a reflecting pool in front of Congress, but not what most of us would think of as the reflecting pool between Lincoln and the Washington Monument.

Be that as it may, I took it as a challenge and took an extended stroll around the Mall two weeks ago. It was sweaty work, but well worth it. Newsweek, WaPo, everyone else: you are correct, the Mall has problems and needs attention and it a bit threadbare in places. But you’re completely wrong.

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Life in the Capital, Talkin' Transit, The District
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Ah-ha! Scramble Intersections

I was buzzing around the Internets today (as I do), looking for interesting photos, reading up on celebrity gossip, browsing through drink recipes, Googling people’s names – you know how it goes. Little did I know that when I clicked on one of my RSS feeds I would be slapped in the face by what seems like a brilliant idea: Scramble Intersections!

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Life in the Capital, Sports Fix, The District
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Kastles Trump Aces After Rain Delay

Anna Kournikova by Max Cook

The Washington Kastles ended their regular season last night with a 22-17 win over the Western Conference’s last place St Louis Aces. Unfortunately, a beautiful night of tennis turned into quite a rainstorm. The sold out crowd was invited to stay dry in the VIP tent in hopes that the rain would pass, but as soon as the storm got worse and the tent started flooding, team owner Mark Ein made the call to move the match to the East Potomac Tennis Center at Hains Point. Once play resumed, sets of mixed doubles and women’s doubles were split between the two teams, forcing the match into overtime which was won by the Washington-Jones women’s duo.

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Interviews, Life in the Capital, Music
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District Mixtape: Zulu Pearls


photo of Zulu Pearls at the Black Cat by flickr-rickr

Being a musician in this town can be a challenge. Just ask Zach Van Hoozer, founder of Arlington-based pop band Zulu Pearls. “It seems like there is just no continuity, nothing that holds things together,” he remarks. Indeed, “D.C. can seem like it is just a carbon copy of an actual scene from a bigger city.”

Nonetheless, Van Hoozer, who grew up in the area, leaving only to attend college in Richmond, VA before returning, feels that the iconic, DIY sprit of D.C. has permeated his approach to making music. “If you do not feel that DIY attitude about things,” he remarks, “you just aren’t paying attention.” In a similar, do-it-himself vein, he has also launched YESORNODC, a great website chronicling pop culture, with a special focus on the Washington area.
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Life in the Capital, Sports Fix, The Daily Feed, The District
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Only Two Kastles Games Left!

Sacha Jones

Sacha Jones by Max Cook

While the Washington Kastles lost their match yesterday (23-19) against the Philadelphia Freedoms, they played their hearts out until the bitter end. Thanks to an intense women’s singles effort by Sacha Jones, the game went into overtime where she was quickly defeated by Audra Cohen, 1-0.

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Life in the Capital, The District, The Mall, We Love Arts
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Tourist in Your Own Town: Smithsonian Weekend

DC at dusk
DC at dusk by brianmka

I’d lived here easily a year before I ever ventured down to the Mall and saw something at the Smithsonian. As many of said in our entries on why we love this town, the free museums in Washington are replete with options for the local tourist. As “Staycations” become more popular with gas prices on the rise, go out and see some of your own city and enjoy it.

This first column will focus on a few of the open exhibitions that are happening in the Smithsonian Museums on the Mall. But, as we explore the District’s Tourist options, we’ll be heading far afield from the Mall. Feel free to drop us hints in the comments about where your favorite local spots are.

For now, though, let’s take a look at what’s going on at the Smithsonian this weekend!

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Featured Photo, Life in the Capital, Special Events, Sports Fix, The District
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Washington Kastles Stop ‘Big Mac’

Mashona Washington

Mashona Washington by Max Cook

In a dramatic come-from-behind victory, the Washington Kastles showed John McEnroe and the New York Sportimes that they are not to be messed with on their home court. What started out looking like an easy New York win, the match became a slug fest that came down to a women’s doubles “Supertiebreaker”. Mashona Washington and Sacha Jones out dueled Milagros Sequera and Hana Sromova, beating them 7 to 5 and giving the Kastles an 18-17 win.

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Life in the Capital, Media, The Daily Feed
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“Hottest Media Types” Nominations

Apparently, Media Bistro’s Fishbowl DC is holds an annual contest to determine the “hottest” media types in DC for 2008. Categories include women and men, who work on-air, off-air, and in PR.

I have pretty mixed feelings about contests like this. It all seems a bit bloggers-in-bikinis. That said, as long as they keep things reasonably appropriate and – very important – gender-balanced, I cannot get too upset.

Nominations are currently open. I think We Love DC’s Tom Bridge would be filed under “male, off-air” (not that I am just saying that because he is the boss, or anything…)

Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The Hill, The Mall
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Hill Staffer Hate

Via DC Blogs, we have a WhatLizSaid rant on hill staffers: “This is what your Harvard education has gotten you. Rule your coffee getting domain with an iron fist! “ She’s nice enough to qualify that there are nice, normal staffers, and then there are those staffers, so puffed up by proximity to political power and prestige that they must try to vocally and bodily exert an imagined sense of superiority over DC’s lowly Capite Censi.

Honestly, I can’t recall any runs-in with such brutes, despite living right on the Hill, but then I don’t work in government or play softball/kickball on the Mall, nor do I frequent local bars much. Are the stories true? Is there really such a high population of boorish hill staffers?

Life in the Capital
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Completing the Trifecta


Four letter word
Originally uploaded by Justin Shearer

I know my news will be overshadowed by the coffee war currently swinging through the blogging community (which I find utterly hysterical), but I need to share!

Last night, my wife and I ended our six-month quest to find a home in the DC Metro area. We’d put out two other offers over the course of the last two months; both were foreclosures. The first one was beaten by another offer that came in right after ours, the second one the bank was countering with miniscule changes of which we got tired of and backed out.

Saturday, we hit square one again and went looking with our awesome Realtor. First house of the day was it. You know what I mean – that feeling you get when you see something and you just know. We put the offer in Sunday and yesterday we got the fabulous news that it was 100% accepted. This wasn’t a foreclosure, short sale or desperate buyer. Just a nice older lady looking to move after being in that house since the 1970s.

We still have to go through the hoops – inpsections, finalizing the loan, etc. But at this point, it’s all gravy. By the end of August, we will finally return to home ownership in the good ol’ U.S.A. I’m just happy we’ve returned to John Locke’s trifecta of rights: life, liberty and property!

Man, do I love this town.

Featured Photo, Life in the Capital, The District, The Mall
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Featured Photo

Presidential Helicopter Passing the Washington Monument by realkevin

Talk about being in the right place at the right time. This perfectly framed shot of what could be Marine One flying in front of the Washington Monument makes me wonder what George was up to. Was he coming back from Andrews AFB? Was he on his way to Camp David? Was he giving some Saudis a tour of the city or just out for a joy ride? We’ll never know.

According to my trusty sources on The Google:

As a security measure, Marine One always flies in groups with identical helicopters, sometimes as many as five. One helicopter carries the president, while the others serve as decoys for would-be assassins on the ground. Upon take-off these helicopters begin to shift in formation (sometimes referred to as a Presidential shell game) regularly to keep the location of the President secure. Also, Marine One reportedly is equipped with standard military anti-missile countermeasures such as flares to counter heat-seaking missiles and chaff to counter radar-guided missiles. To add to the security of Marine One, every member of HMX-1 is required to pass a Yankee White background check before touching any of the helicopters used for presidential travel. Marine One is always transported (as is the president’s limousine) wherever the president travels, within the U.S. as well as overseas.

I find anything and everything to do with the presidency fascinating. For example, “Air Force One is the call sign for any fixed-wing aircraft that the President of the United States may happen to be in at any given time. Should the aircraft happen to be a rotary-wing aircraft, it is referred to as ‘Marine One’.” Also, “A Marine Corps aircraft carrying the Vice President is designated ‘Marine Two’.” Who came up with these call signs? Why not call them ‘Big Bird’ and ‘Little Bird’? Or ‘Dumb’ and ‘Dumber’? I guess there’s a reason they didn’t consult with me on this decision.

I haven’t been lucky enough to be near the Mall or the White House with my camera when one of these choppers is flying around, but I know that no matter the occasion, one of our talented photographers will be on the scene.

Life in the Capital, People
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Why I Love DC: Jenn

Hallway, Rock and Roll Hotel

Hallway, Rock and Roll Hotel. Photo credit: Jenn Larsen.

I came to DC on a whim, an instantaneous attraction. Initially the classicist in me was drawn to the cool solemnity of the federal architecture, the romantic to the cherry blossoms. But the pragmatist could see the long-term benefits, and so here I am, after nineteen crazy years.

(Or perhaps it’s because the procrastinator can’t make up her mind where to live next… Paris… Buenos Aires… Antwerp…)

I grew up thirty minutes outside what many people consider to be “THE City” – New York, naturally – but when it came time to go to college there, I balked at it, even though it was the pragmatic choice for a drama student. I also resisted the lure of that other Nor’eastern city, Boston, the classical choice for a chowda-oysta-slurping Yankee.

No, somehow I was seduced by the balmy breezes (what a shock, that first 100-degree day in September!), the courtly charm (what a surprise, that first night in the dorm, gunshots across the Metro tracks!), and the decorous beauty (oh, those baby rats hungrily gnawing in the alley outside my first solo apartment!) of our Capital City. Continue reading →

Life in the Capital, People, The District
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Why I Love DC: Paulo

17_reflpool
Above: The author poses by the Reflecting Pool shortly after arriving in DC, some years ago. Note the in-line skates.

Before I came to Washington from the Philippines, most of my experience of America had been limited to occasional summer vacations in suburban California, so my general impression of U.S. cities was of vast pockets of sprawl connected by freeways, the isolation broken only by strip malls and Disney theme parks. Go ahead and laugh it up when I say this, but my first day after moving to DC (note how I called 16th St NW an “avenue”), the discovery that a city — any city — could be a livable, walkable, [somewhat] affordable place blew me away after a mostly-sheltered life living in a gated subdivision in Manila.
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Adventures, Business and Money, Downtown, Entertainment, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Music, Night Life, Special Events, We Love Arts, WMATA
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Why I Love DC: David


Capitol Columns #5
Originally uploaded by andertho

My first exposure to Washington D.C. was in 1982 as a side stop on our family’s trip down to see the World’s Fair in Knoxville, TN. On that trip we did the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the National Zoo in D.C.. I remember vaguely, the trees being more plentiful and taller, however I’m also a yard taller now, and they seem now, just a bit shorter. I’m still surprised I remember something from over 26 years ago, but D.C. had that kind of effect.
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