At the Bus Stop

Originally uploaded by natalyam.

There’s nothing like seeing something like this on flickr to make you wonder about this city. Whether the people who “understand” the civil divide can be more of an asshole, I’m not really all that sure, but I can say that this one’s got me shaking my head.

What is it about this town’s hipsters that make them feel the need to be literally so much better? I mean, if we post about a 9:30 club show that was “sekrit”, then we get yelled at for not letting “true fans” gets a ticket. Right. When the 9:30 club is giving out twice as many tickets to radio stations instead of selling them to “true fans.”

And of course, this, where it intimates that if you like to hang out in Dupont or Chevy Chase or Georgetown instead of Anacostia or Southeast, somehow you’re a bad person. Is it too much to ask for a little bit of reality these days? I guess so.

If it’s true that American wine consumption is on the rise, then Tallula is certainly the place to inbibe. But those prime midweek to weekend nights can be seriously hot. Ever since the old Whitey’s space re-opened as a swankly decorated wine bar/restaurant with an inventive menu, getting a table can be tough, but worth it.

Anyway, apart from the anomaly of last Friday, I don’t really hang out at night outside the District – not that I’m adverse to it, it’s just that drinking and driving hasn’t been my thing since the Capitol Police pulled me over one late night (then again, I don’t even drive at all anymore!). So my favorite time to go to Tallula is during the day on a Sunday, as I did yesterday.

A dear friend works there as a hostess and we arrived just in time to join her for a late afternoon glass of vino. It was quiet, the bar sparsely populated by folks watching football at the bar or reading the paper in one of the cosy nooks. My girlfriends and I settled into a corner and pulled the gauzy curtains closed – with the sun streaming in it was a wonderfully relaxing cocoon. We leisurely ordered some of the delicious bite-sized “amuses” – risotto fritters, baby burgers, pulled pork BBQ – and a few glasses of wine, of course. Tallula truly stands out with its selection of wines by the glass, with over 65 available. It’s a lot of fun to sample a few pours and the reasonable pricing (you can get half or full pours) means you can be more adventurous than you might normally be when faced with the pressure of ordering a bottle.

It was a brisk autumn afternoon in the perfect place to slowly nosh and sip while catching up with friends.
Now, if only I could do that every day…

The Washington Post highlights a not-so-well known political race for state delegate in Fairfax County. Apparently the western part fo the district, which is more Republican than most fo the area is facing quite some attention over the race for it’s open seat.

The Republican candidate, 27 year old youth minister Chris Craddock, whose indiscretions with the law are slightly more frequent than what you would expect. He’s been cited for traffic violations, including reckless driving 9 times in the past five years. While his Democratic opponent, 67 year old one-time school board member Chuck Caputo has subtly tried to bring alittle more attention to it.

That’s the problem with whippersnappers, they haven’t been around long enough to pick up any significant dirt. And how much are you going to get on a youth minister? I mean, at 27, he’s only recenty been promoted up from choir boy. So he has a lead foot! There’s an easy solution for that; hire a chauffer, but of course he won’t tell you that because we like our public officials to be self-sufficient.

What I am concerned about is his seeming inability to keep up with simple paperwork. Government is all about paperwork. When you’re talking about local politics, submitting budgets and proposals, filing requests on time is paramount to keeping the county’s affairs functional. Yes, everyone in Virginia has at one point or another been behind in keeping their registration and city stickers current, but the consequencesa ren’t so disastruous. Just wait till we find out that registration for the county’s school buses aren’t up to date.

Craddock won’t be able to speed out of town fast enough when that happens!

Despite the horrid weather today, some of my friends and I headed out to Congressional Cemetery for a good game of Tombstone Poker. It seems odd to say I spent all day in a graveyard, looking at stone after stone that date back some 200 plus years, including John Philip Sousa, Mathew Brady, and J. Edgar Hoover. Our instructions made us wend our way all over the cemetery, which has 66,000 constituents and some 18,000 headstones in varying degrees of repair. It was nice, though, that they had the chair of the board of directors of the cemetery foundation to give us the history of the cemetery and a brief tour of the chapel we were in.

I don’t know how that whole Rat Race went today, but, we did run into a couple of contestants from the other event looking for pictures to take. Did you come to either event this weekend? Let us know what you thought.

After watching vampires suck down blood for two hours, we needed some libations ourselves! I?m not really familiar with Rosslyn, where we were for the “Dracula” performance, but luckily I was with friends last night who are Arlingtonians, so it was off to Clarendon to the Eleventh Street Lounge.

The bouncer could stand a bit of talking down to keep the vibe more relaxed (please sir, you are not guarding the Taj Mahal. It?s a hallway in Arlington. Settle down…) but once inside people are happy, talkative, and friendly.

Eleventh is a long, seemingly narrow space, the front half dedicated to small tables and the back to the bar. Though it was extremely crowded at 10pm on a Friday night, apparently it?s a really relaxing lounge to stop by for food and drinks during the week. The scene was the usual – flutter-topped girls in flared jeans escorted by men in button-downs – everyone was clearly on the make and it seemed a prime place to meet people. The d飯r is punctuated by rich red walls and gold wallpaper accents, with little crystal chandeliers giving it a Russian Tea Room Light feel. It helps that the bartenders were on-the-ball and very nice. Overall, a fun lounge that I definitely want to return to on a mid-week night. I bet it?s very cosy in the winter…

If you

What a dreary, grey and gloomy day…

The perfect day to get spooked up proper for Halloween!

Yes, I continue to seek out scary goings-on in the days leading up to October 31st. Washington is supposedly a very haunted city, and Decatur House has the reputation for being one of the most haunted houses around. (Well, certainly one of the more famous – I intend to seek out some of the lesser known stories in the week ahead!).

Commodore Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel in 1820 and is reputed to haunt his former house ever since. His ghost was seen so many times from outside a window that it had to be bricked up to stave off hysteria.

On Thursday, October 27th, Decatur House will host the DC Metro Area Ghost Watchers, presenting the results of their recent paranormal investigation of this historic home. Should be a fun way to raise the hairs on the back of your neck, and get in a little Washington history too.

As we were trying to keep the trip low-key, I hadn

Life in DC sometimes means taking a break from it all and heading out on a long weekend. Usually we fly out to another city or travel out of the country all together, but in the interests of exploring the (relatively) immediate vicinity and keeping it low-key, for last weekend

This Sunday at DC9 my partner DJ Balance and I are making another appearance in our long guerrilla war to attain a regular gig in DC. We’ll be spinning the finest Shogeazer music from across the genre alongside Alcian Blue and Loaded Dreams, two of the best new bands keeping the dream alive today.

Sunday is going to be a great night of music with the sets of four bands couched in the fuzzy glow of our shoegaze atmospherics. So come on out and check it. And if you like the DJs make sure you mention it to the bar staff.

Alcian Blue
Loaded Dreams
Five Four
Rob Montejo (of Smashing Orange)
Re:sonance DJ’s – Balance and Context

@ DC9
Cover $7
Doors at 9