babes for boobs

If you were at Whitlows right now, you could be bidding on Wayan. Well, not right this second, but the bidding is about to begin. If my darling girlfriend is much later I might just bid on Christina here… Nice eh?

posted by Don from Wayan’s phone

Some of you may know of Tyler Cowen, an Economics professor at George Mason University, who co-authors Marginal Revolution. Few of may be aware of the massive Ethnic DIning Guide that he put together a few years back in html format. It reviews about a hundred of the best ethnic restaurants in the District and Fairfax County.

The site was a hit even though it was unwieldy, having just been republished in its twentieth edition. Well now’s it better, having been translated into the interactve, categorized and cross-referenced format of a blog. To be found here, and soon to give Tom Bridge more time to write about Ben and Jerry’s.

Special to Metroblogging DC from contributor Mik

I went to The Arlington Cinema and Draft House last Wednesday evening for their Wine Night at the Movies. This was my first visit to the Draft House, and although in an easy enough to find location, parking was a pain. Employees of the Draft House recommend parking behind the 7-11 to prevent being towed from the lot behind the Draft House or from the lot across the street. I of course illegally parked in the lot behind the Draft House and was not towed, but not being one to tempt the towing gods, wouldn’t recommend it.

I was excited by the opportunity to finally see Office Space on the big screen and really looked forward to the wine tasting. Amongst many the Sideways pun, the five wines sampled were:

The first wine of the evening was a Schmitt Söhne Relax Riesling. Apparently the Riesling of trailer park trash according to most reviews read. They dumbed down the label so as not to confuse the American market with often times hard to pronounce foreign names. Tastes very much like their Blue Riesling Auslese.

The second wine of the evening was an offering from Guy Buffet (no relation to Jimmy), and artist cum wine connoisseur and his 2002 Merlot. By far the best offering of the evening.

I’m not a big fan of Greg Norman and his stupid sharks and I’m even less of a fan of Chardonnay, so it goes without saying that the third offering of the evening from Greg Norman’s wine estates of Chardonnay was worse than drinking Earl Grey tea.

I do not aspire to be Miles from Sideways. I don’t care that the wine world was not prepared to have a 300% increase in Pinot Noir sales once Sideways was released. I wouldn’t feed Pinot Noir to my dog. Needless to say, the fourth offering of the evening a Pinot Noir from the Louis Jadot vineyards was worse than pig swill.

As a self-confessed wine snob, I am appalled to learn that the fifth offering of the evening, a L de Lyeth Cabernet, is a domestic wine. One of only a handful of domestic wines I have enjoyed since residing here, I found this wine to be full of velvety tannins and just to my liking. Definitely an A+ in my book.

Washington Wine Academy put on a great wine tasting check out the Draft House’s schedule and try to make it out for the next Wine at the Movies night.

Excuse me? Excuse me, senor? May I speak to you please? I asked for a mai tai, and they brought me a pina colada, and I said no salt, NO salt on the margarita, but it had salt on it, big grains of salt, floating in the glass…

Every year April – October, the National Cathedral offers Gargoyle Tours on the last Sunday of the month. A couple of years ago my wife and I went to one and left disappointed by the tour, but impressed by the Cathedral.

The tour we were on was unorganized from the start. After paying our entry fee ($5 each) we were given poor directions and wound up being late for the slide show. Following that were we led outside by our volunteer guide and basically told to look up as she pointed at a few specific gargoyles and then told us to look around at our own pace. So, for a slideshow that we missed most of and a “tour” that was about four minutes long we paid $10 and freed up a Sunday to head up there. My advice — download and print this guide (PDF) and head up to the Cathedral whenever you find it convenient. Visiting the Cathedral, the sixth largest in the world, is worth the trip, just not the $5 for the tour.

Do you live or work in the District of Columbia? Do you know what the District’s biggest problems are and how they should be solved? Wanna make $5,000 in the telling?

Thanks to a reader using our new fangled Suggest A Story link, I’m here to tell you that DC Appleseed, with a grant from the June and John Hechinger Family Trusts is holding a very cool contest, Solving DC’s Problems where you can post, comment, and vote on reader’s opinions of the biggest DC problems and their creative fixes. The three winners will get to present their ideas to the Mayoral candidates at a forum in June.

What might DC folks think are issues and solutions? Here’s a random sampling sure to get you thinking, wondering, or all out laughing:

• Dog Racing at RFK – unlike other greyhound parks, RFK could be turned into a kid friendly avenue
• Paintballing Bad Drivers – each citizen be provided a paint-ball gun and 5 special pellets per year
• Spatula Cars “capable of flipping double parked cars out of the way and up into the air to any predetermined location – yard, tree top, small body of water, sidewalk, building roof, etc.”
• Smack people in the head when they do something stupid – Arm the citizenry of DC with foam padded batons.
• Chocolate Milk Solves Everything – all city water fountains to offer a choice between water and chocolate milk

Chocolate Milk!

So I’ve picked just the funny ones, but there are others there as well, real gems that I hope will be presented to government officials, and candidates running in the District’s 2006 elections.

It is a good way to have city leaders listen to how we think the city should be run, and to infuse the elections this year with the issues that matter most to us.

Still, I’m down for chocolate milk.

If you’re not of a mind to come see Wayan pimp himself for charity, the Washington Projects for the Arts in conjunction with the Corcoran Galllery is having the second of three Experimental Media Series events this evening. I can’t tell you if it’ll be any good but it certainly seems to defy description. From the event announcement:

This collection of work takes us beyond the glossy sheen. With Free Radical, sound artist Joe Reinsel creates a seemingly familiar collage of voice, ambient noise and computer generated sounds that eerily resembles the chimes of a popular media outlet’s news format; exposing it as the perfectly composed, beautiful but empty noise that it is. Diane Dwyer’s We Have a Problem and Lisa Erdman’s Second Skin cleverly use repetition, commonly implored by politicians to keep us on message, to demonstrate how the over use of a word or phrase with a supposed clear meaning can morph into so many things that it quickly becomes meaningless. Performance artist Holly Bass will explore the idea of self -imposed isolation through the use of technology such as music devices and the new taboos it creates as ROMP. Through his frenetically paced Neurodancer II , Chris McDaniel seems to question the very notion of “user friendly” and positions what can be likened to a glitch or virus from the point of view of its creator, as a thing of insular beauty.

If you’re not fond of multi-media art it’s probably not the event for you. However if even one piece is as impresive as Graffiti Analysis was then it’ll be worth your while. I’m already committed to tonight’s auction but I’ll be there for the third event in May.

at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Armand Hammer Auditorium (New York Avenue entrance.) from 7:00 – 9:00 pm
500 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006

Happy Hour

While it doesn’t have outdoor seating and so therefore isn’t on the Definitive Patio Bar list, I noticed a great new DC Happy Hour addition today – Chef Geoff’s.

Usually thought of as a swanky lunch or dinner spot, their happy hour specials rank right up there with Fox and Hounds in cost per drink.

Add to it the snazzy air and this is a place to bring a date and impress, on the cheap.

Looking for a book? Want to help DC Public Schools? How about the Carpe Librum Book Sale? Put on by Turning the Page, and benefitting DCPS, the sale is on now through May 12th, Monday through Friday from 10a to 7p, then again Saturday from 11a to 6p, and even on Sunday from 11a to 5p, all over at the iBEW building on 7th St. NW. Go on over and pick up a book. It’s been too long since you’ve read anything anyway.

Many thanks to Laura Hart for pointing out the story!

C’mon McDonalds – With the DC city council on a rampage about drug paraphernalia is this any time to encourage the ravers?

Special to Metblogs from contributor Mik

For those of you who don’t already know, it’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. What’s better than taking a little time out of your day, standing in the sunshine, chatting to coworkers, donating money to a good cause whilst waiting for a free ice cream cone? Nothing you say? Then clearly you weren’t waiting in line at the M Street location about an hour ago.

I’m not sure if all of the DC area B&Js are supporting the same charity, but there were volunteers from My Sister’s Place at the M Street location this afternoon. If you’ve wanted to get involved with volunteering but have lacked the right charity to volunteer for, please, please, please check out the website. My Sister’s Place is committed to helping battered women improve their lives, and the lives of their children. Giving just an hour of your time would mean so much to many people.

A volunteer walked the long line of people awaiting their free cone, collecting donations in a bucket. She approached a frail, hunched-over, old man standing to ask him if he would like to donate money to a shelter for battered women; his response: “No, I’m a batterer.” The volunteer handled the situation extremely well and told the old man that she hoped he was able to find help. My friends and I stood in shock whilst the volunteer carried on down the line not bothered by this crotchety, old man.