Good news for people who like bad news (with respect to Modest Mouse): Two of my favorite depressing, macabre, and yet totally awesome bands are coming to D.C., and they’re playing together! Bright Eyes and the Faint will be performing together at the 9:30 Club on May 26th and 27th. They’ll be playing songs from Bright Eye’s recent electronic release, “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn” where the Faint will be providing the back-up, and the Faint will also play songs from their recent release “Wet from Birth.” These are all great performers and from the last several Faint concerts I’ve been to, people will be dancing up a storm. Tickets are not onsale yet, but should be w/in a week or so and will be on tickets.com. Keep a look out and I’ll post when they go online.

the work solution makes the common house a home.

Z104 (I promise, I’ll write some entries that aren’t about them soon) is holding a “Nationals Anthem Idol” contest. Call up the station and sing 30 seconds of any song, and if they pick you, you can win the chance to sing the national anthem at a Nationals game. Plus, if you win, you get tickets to the game for your family and friends. Heck, maybe I’ll try out. There’s more info here.

as a non-native of the dc area, it took me about a year to develop allergies to pollen. now every march through june, i suffer headaches, all-day sneezing w/a runny nose, teary eyes and scratchy throught.

i’ve only been in dc for 4 days over the last 2 weeks and i’m suffering. i’m in los angeles this week and thought i’d get some repreve, but with all the rain, it’s like a green flowring forest in la!!!

anyway, it’s just starting…if you’re new to town and wondering what the film of yellow is on your car. it’s pollen. dc’s one of the worst areas. suffer w/me and keep watch on the pollen count.

How would you like to wake up one morning and find out your company’s logo was all over the web? Well that’s just what happened to the Arlington Pediatric Center over on Columbia Pike in Arlington. Their logo, seen at right, has appeared on Fark and BoingBoing over night, and now I’m sure they’ve got all kinds of questions to answer. I guess the big question is: who’s going to tell them their logo looks just awful? That’s got to be a really really awkward conversation.

“Hi! Just wanted to say, your logo is sick and twisted”
“Oh, well, we paid, like, millions for it.”
“Dude, that sucks.”

Here’s hoping some pro-bono firm will step in and fix their logo before it ends up on the local news…

Last evening, I was driving down 13th St, and on a block just north of Cardozo High School, I came across several police personnel and vehicles along the side of the road. Traffic was getting by in both directions, but it was going quite slowly, as we had to squeeze by. As I passed by the scene, a police officer stepped out from between the cars and headed toward the driver side of one of the cop cars. He was a youngish-looking guy, and he was dressed in what looked like SWAT gear, including a kevlar vest and helmet. That made me kind of do a double take, and I wondered what was going on. I figured it was some sort of drug bust, and continued on to my destination. Several hours later, I headed back up 13th Street on my way home, and I found that several blocks of the street had been closed off, including the block the police were on earlier. I wondered again what had happened, and when I got home, I tried to find out what had happened. There was no information then, but there was this morning.

There was indeed a drug bust. Not too long after the bust, a 9 year old boy was shot in the face while playing on the sidewalk. The worst part is that this was one of three shootings (with 4 people shot) within a span of about 15 minutes last night.

Just another sad night in the district.

I don’t know how many of you remember reading about Arlington’s implementation of OCR cameras last spring to help them catch drivers with unpaid parking tickets and property taxes.

I was sort of uncomfortable with it at the time, but can’t tell if it’s really my libertarian principles that are bothered or if it’s just that I know how bad I am with things like property tax paperwork. I mean, is it really and unreasonable search to read your plate number when your car is parked on a public street just because they use a camera and a computer instead of a human and a phone to do it?

But a line is being crossed: This month, the county began using the cameras to find, and possibly tow, your vehicle for everything from unpaid parks and recreation fees to overdue library books.

I’ve got to leave for work in a minute, so I don’t quite have time to go into the several levels of invective I’ve got reserved for county officials who think the theft a person’s source of transportation is an appropriate response to forgetful people who don’t return library books. I don’t have time to talk about what a monumentally stupid thing it is to deter people from the use of public libraries by threatening the family car should they slip up and lose a book.

But I do have time to point out the danger of giving this technology to a bureaucracy so inefficient and forgetful that they are still trying to tax me for a car that I sold over a year ago- No doubt, the tag number from my old car will be in their database of offenders, seeing as how they have threatened to put a lien on it. Good luck finding it, guys- the dealer where I traded it in sold it at auction. It’s probably halfway to Nebraska by now.

And this is but the smallest of previews of my rage should the situation in Arlington County reach the level of that in New Haven, CT, where people’s cars are being stolen from private driveways over tax bills as low as $85.

Have any of you fallen victim to the roving eye of Big Brother Arlington?

So I know it’s forever in the future and no one wants to think about September yet, but go ahead and put Saturday, September 24th on your calendar to be on the National Mall. It’s the National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress and the First Lady. There’s not much there yet, but they’ll be updating with invited authors, volunteer opportunities, etc.

I volunteered last year in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Pavilion and was treated to the likes of Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, Frederik Pohl, Connie Willis and Patricia Wrede (among others). I’ll post more information about volunteer opportunities as it becomes available, but it was an awesome day with so many great authors and people excited about books.

I can’t believe Tom and I forgot to post about the restaurant we went to a couple of weeks ago. It was our anniversary and decided to try out Ray’s The Steaks in Arlington since we’d been hearing raves about it.

It’s a good thing we decided that a couple of weeks in advance, because Ray’s books up 2 weeks ahead of time. (The owner, by the way, is Michael, not Ray.)

Ray’s is in the same little “shopping center” that Pho 75, another of our favorite spots, is. It’s small and narrow, with bare walls and exposed ductwork in the ceiling. You can see straight into the kitchen as well. The wine cabinet is near the door as you walk in, and there are wine cases stacked up along the divider between the dining area and the kitchen. Yeah, it’s a special kind of ambience.

The menu is pretty simple- you have your choice of steaks with a choice of sauces, and they serve creamed spinach and mashed potatoes family-style to the table. When you arrive, they also bring you some Cajun-spiced mixed nuts and some amazing bread I can’t even begin to describe.

Tom had the crab bisque to start- I tasted it and it was amazing. The crab flavor was strong but not overpowering, and the bread went really well with it. The spinach is also excellent- just enough cream to make it taste good but not so much that you miss the texture of the spinach itself.

The steaks are cut onsite and basically go from the cow, to your plate. The chef also doesn’t season the steaks at all- not so much as salt and pepper, so do take the server up on the offer of a sauce- the steaks are good, but even the best steak can tolerate some light seasoning.

Because I had just taken that class at the Wine Expo, I chose the wine- the wine list is such that someone with only enough wine education to know that cabernet goes best with steak can still be confident in making a good choice. In case you’re wondering, Avalon’s Napa Valley Cabernet is worth picking up.

I had picked up some ice cream for us to share at home so we declined dessert, but we were still served two espresso-sized cups of hot chocolate. When I say “hot chocolate,” don’t confuse it with the powdered, just-add-water, beverage-in-a-packet stuff. This was smooth and creamy and without doubt the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had.

And the bill? Well, let’s say it was noticeably less than you’d spend at a Ruth’s Chris or a Morton’s.

So pick a day a few weeks out and make a reservation at Ray’s. And get there early- parking is a real problem.

It looks like the student hunger strike at Georgetown University worked: the school agreed to give pay raises to contract workers. Earlier in the week, DC delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton publicly sided with the students in their effort (at bottom). Congrats to the protesters & workers, and to the university for doing the right thing.

Much love to Robert over at sister-site Blogging.la for pointing out this DC desktop art for your Computer. I went through and I found a few more, they’re listed below.

Washington Monument
Washington Monument with Reflecting Pool
Cherry Blossoms
More Cherry Blossoms
DC In Winter