All cities have their different flavors of movie theaters. The nice ones, the not so nice ones, the old ones, the new ones, the one that shows “artsy fartsy” movies, the one that shows blockbusters, the one with the giant screen, the one with the dollhouse sized screens. Here’s my breakdown of the theaters in DC:
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With our friend David’s recent post about who goes where to get away from the city, I have to ask what folks do as they are sitting in traffic, trying to get away from the city. Me, I listen to music. The top five songs on my MP3 player are:

1. Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne
2. Uncle John’s Band by The Grateful Dead
3. London Homesick Blues by Jerry Jeff Walker
4. God Only Knows by The Beach Boys
5. Use Me Up by Bill Withers

Music for coming home again – that’s a different story.

What’s on your top five list for the long drive?

Many thanks to friends old and new who came out to Rock And Roll Hotel on Friday night to make the third installment of our monthly DJ night – “Room 429″ – the best one yet! The place was packed and the crowd was amazing. Especially with all the great costumes that showed up after “Julyoween” let out downstairs.

Chris and I will be hitting the decks again on August 11th. See you there!

Saw this heartbreaking sight on my way to the Foggy Bottom Trader Joe’s yesterday afternoon. There isn’t even a note on the windshield, so whoever snagged onto this poor guy’s bumper must have run off. Our deepest condolences.

It’s one thing to shoot with natural lighting or with a simple flash, but when you start to get into portrait photography you realize you’ve barely scratched the surface. Strobe or continuous? Modeling lights? Umbrellas or soft boxes? Pocket Wizards? Muslin? Am I speaking Greek to you? Well if you want to learn more about lighting as it relates to photography, I highly recommend the upcoming Lighting & Digital Photography Training Camp, hosted by master photographer Jack Reznicki:

Saturday, August 18th, 9am to 4pm

Cafritz Conference Center
George Washington University
800 21st Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Pre-registered Cost: $99
At the Door Cost: $119

Photo by yospyn

After a long week chewing through work, do you fell stuck in your job? Like your efforts bubble up, only to pop? Do you want something more elastic? More cleansing? How about Gum Busting?

Yeah, you’re not seeing things – there really is a job, a need for industrial bubble gum removal. There is even an international need for gum busters too.

No word on if they use big blocks of ice or peanut butter, two ways I’ve heard to remove chewing gum from hair or clothes. Regardless, while not a job I would want, I do love that America is so rich, we have gum removal specialists.

While at the Kabuki at the Warner Theatre last night (which was excellent, even though I didn’t understand a word of Japanese), I had felt that nature called during intermission, and wandered to the less crowded restroom in the basement. Besides the overpowering odor seemingly seeping from the tiles (I thought this was a “high brow venue” not porta potties at the Virgin Festival), I did my business and moved along to wash up. No sooner than two squirts of whatever they call soap there, I hear over my shoulder…

“How are you enjoying the show Mr. Libby?”

I look to my right, and at about 5’6″, with that annoying grin on his face, stands I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. I’m a fan of Jim Henson’s Muppets, and he sure as hell doesn’t look like Scooter. I come to the realization, that no matter how powerful, or how far you fall from that power for whatever reason, you still have to have a place to do a #1 or a #2. Funny, that a schlum like me gets to share the same, um, “airspace” with somebody who had it all, and suddenly doesn’t. But that’s D.C., right?

I wonder if he will read our blog, and maybe take advantage of the suggested “escapes” from D.C.? If he sticks around D.C. longer, maybe he can also get together with another convicted D.C. felon on his radio show, maybe call it “Liddy and Libby“?

No, this isn’t really the next John Carpenter film with Snake Plissken taking aim at the White House and Congress (although, I wished it was). But it’s about mid-season for all the D.C. natives to head out of town just to catch a breather from the madness that is life in the Capitol Region.

While typically, some of these “escapes” are not traditionally vacations in the usual sense (usually only a few days), there are plenty of places both near and far to get away from it all, even if it is only for a short bit. Some folks head internally, staying at home, or spending entire days at the movie theater. Others head out past the potential “blast zone“, to places like Shenandoah, Ocean City, and even Philly (which has King Tut right now, BTW). Others will head further afield…

Tom and Tiff head to Pittsburgh, but have been heard to hit the Eastern Shore. Carl’s on leave of mind to head to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, while Doug slips off to the local mountains of the Shenandoah. Paulo has yet to have a real honeymoon, and feels a strong pull to Harpers Ferry and the John Brown Wax Museum. Jenn loves Cape May in New Jersey, even though another city such as Philly or New York could also top the bill for rapid exit from our fair city. I’m heading to Beantown (to visit the Samuel Adams Brewery as well) and Cape Cod. Even Stacey escapes… at home in Vienna… Virginia, not Austria… just by having moved there. And we all know, DC is good enough for Wayan!

Jenn did bring up a good observation about coming back from these “breathers” from DC; How do you feel about the city when you return? Better or worse than when you ‘escaped’? Have you noticed anything interesting upon your return that you may have not observed or felt being here 24/7?

I’m addicted to Mike Rowe and his Discovery Channel show, Dirty Jobs. They’ve supposedly “searched this great land of ours” for people performing “jobs that make civilized society possible”. He’s hit Baltimore (Glen Burnie - McShane Bell Foundry) for a bell maker and groundskeeper for the Bowie Baysox, but no love for DC?

What do you think is the dirtiest job in DC? Cleaning up the sidewalk in front of Rumors after an overextended night of drinking? Maybe one of the Big Bite munching construction workers and landscape artisans at the local 7-11? How about being a lobbyist to congress for one of the “sin stocks” (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms)? Maybe even filling potholes in DC for the DOT? I could think of a few jobs uniquely “Dirty in DC”, what’s your favorite disgusting, grungy, smelly dirty job in DC?

photo courtesy of Studio Theater

We’re going to see Reefer Madness tonight at Studio as part of our Fringe outings, but unlike most of the other performances it’s not limited to a few showings. It opened in early July and we’re entering the last week of showings now – the show will close on August 5th, a week from Sunday. I’ll try to find some time to talk about it – continuing my lovingly named ‘reviews too late to do you any good‘ – but this far into the run there’s already plenty of reviews. Of the ones I can quickly find they’re positive, positive, positive, and Peter Marks.

Fooey on him. I’m expecting a good time.