How is this night different from all other nights? For one thing, it’s the wrong darned night. Don’t let that stop you from attending the third annual Cyber Seder at CarlWeaver.com. This is the third year we have done a live cybercast of our Passover Seder. Unfortunately, we were out of town the first two nights of this important holiday, but we feel that it is important enough to continue the tradition that we are doing it on the third night to play catch-up.

Not sure what Passover or a Seder is? Read all about it here and then come join us. As long as we are here, your wanderings have not taken you too far from home, or at least a virtual representation of it. The broadcast will start at 6:30 and the actual Seder will commence at 7 p.m.

So you just finished reading the latest Grisham thriller, or stayed up all night because you couldn’t put down Amy Tan’s newest, and now you’re just itching to tell everyone about how awesome it was. Or what a terrible read it was, so don’t even bother. What options do you have?

Well, a lot, actually. You can find a forum or review site pretty much all over the web these days….except at the library.

Those days are over, at least in Alexandria.

The Alexandria Library now offers patrons and residents a chance to put down their own reviews and thoughts on nearly all of the library’s holdings, which includes books, movies, music, and other material found on the online catalog. The Library has included this functionality as another resource for people to get recommendations and reviews from other patrons on materials to check out.

“Our Library now has a truly interactive mechanism, completely integrated into our catalog,” said Rose Dawson, Director of Libraries. “We know that our patrons are already used to such interaction on many commercial Web sites, but our Library affords its patrons the ability to reserve materials online—and to get those materials at no charge.”

Accessing the catalog is easy. Go to the website and click on “Library Catalog” and start browsing. When you find something you’d like to offer a review on, just type it in. Keep in mind that you’ll need to register to the website in order to do so.

The interactivity of the online catalog is just one more step in building the community, and one that is appreciated from its patrons.

I love libraries, courtesy of mj*laflaca

Ever wish you had the luxury of a baseball player to just say, “Sorry dude, it’s raining WAY too hard out there for me to do my job,” and skulk off to the nearest bookstore/bar/bedroom and give the world the finger? Yeah, I think that’s how most of us feel this morning. After yesterday’s ark-inspiring demonstration of Mother Nature’s irrigation systems, to wake up to more rain this morning seemed like a bad joke, some sort of retribution for sins committed, or perhaps even just imagined, in the beauty of Spring in the days prior to the weekend.

Looking through a search or two on Flickr, it seems yesterday was spent in the pursuit of uploading the previous week’s collection of beautiful day photos. I was driving home from Winston-Salem in the storm last night, hitting several patches of rain so hard I had to slow to 25mph and flip my hazards on, as driving faster than that meant that I couldn’t see the end of the reach of my headlights, due to the sheets and sheets of rain coming down.

I may well declare a rainout today unless it gets better soon.

That’s right, kids, it’s a gorgeous day out. The kind we get all too precious few of as DC makes the transition between “cold and gloomy” to “humid and sweltering.”

So why are you sitting in front of a computer reading this? Get up! Go outside! Open the sunroof! Occupy a sidewalk table at your favorite restaurant! Go to the zoo!

But don’t stay here when you could be taking advantage of this.

Omg awesome outside

Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge

Heartbreaking.

That’s as good a word as any for Capital fans today, after last night’s loss to the Flyers. They now trail the surging Philly team 3-1 in the series.

By far, it was Washington’s best game of this year’s playoffs. But it fell short by a Mike Knuble goal in the second overtime.

I really thought the Caps would take this one away from Philly last night; I watched in awe as Ovechkin delivered a thunderous hit on Knuble in the early stages of the first period and saw that fire in him that reminded me of the last two weeks of the Cap’s regular season. The team was tight, calm, and focused.

It just wasn’t enough.

A less-than-stellar first period start didn’t derail the team, unlike the last two games, with the Caps shutting down the Flyer’s power play after practically giving them three penalties in a row early on. The lead changed hands all night, with Eminger netting his first playoff goal and giving the Caps the lead briefly in the third.

The Caps played hard – they led the game in hits, 38-29 – but the Flyers were ready for them. The lackluster showing last Sunday here in Game Two has really come back to haunt them. Ovechkin and the Caps now face elimination on Saturday, and the stats are not favorable. Philly is 15-2 all-time when leading a best-of-seven series 3-1. It’s rare for a team to roar back from being two games back and unless the Caps can dig deep and find the energy they had in the race to the playoffs, I don’t think they’re much longer for Round One. Winning three games in a row against a physical team that is peaking at the right time is a daunting challenge indeed.

Still, it’s a possibility, and I won’t count the Caps out yet. It’s not over until the final horn sounds.

8 ball, courtesy of jiariles

Third Fridays at The Rock and Roll Hotel have been a nightlife staple of mine for the past year, as Metblogs own Michael Darpino (he of the perpetual tower of books) has been onboard as one half of Room 429′s Re:sonance DJs, along with Chris Diamond. These two tirelessly spin a relentless onslaught of shoegazer, brit-pop, 80′s/90′s underground, and whatever else the eclectic and diverse crowd cries out for…

My favorite thing about the Hotel is the unexpectedness of any given night’s events – one minute everyone’s chill, the next minute a girl is rocking out on the pool table, and then suddenly there’s a hula hoop dancer going wild in the corner. And yet it all manages to happen without any of the attitude that can plague other nightlife spots in the city – people are just happy, mingling and having a crazy fun time.

So join us this Friday, April 18th for the one year anniversary of Room 429, free upstairs from 9:30pm on. They’ll be giving away Screen Vinyl Image and Soundpool CDs. And don’t forget to say cheers to Darpino and Diamond for a job well done!

In what is some shocking news, a Senate committee was informed on Tuesday that should a 10 kiloton nuclear bomb explode at the White House, a lot of damage would occur to our fine state city. They were also briefed on the lack of readiness by our government for such an attack. And here all along I thought we were completely safe since 9/11 due to our “war on the axil of evil”, the spiffy color coded terror alert system, and the addition of a few air marshals on our airplanes. No?

According to the article:

Dr. Cham Dallas, a public health expert at the University of Georgia, presented a map of downtown Washington, D.C., showing that there would be 100,000 deaths within just a few square miles of the White House.

Casualties would extend from the Washington Monument through Georgetown and north toward the Washington Zoo. There would be massive debris from damaged buildings, including shattered glass.

In Chicago or New York City, which have more concentrated populations, the damage could be four to eight times as bad.

I have to wonder, is this something we can really prepare for? A catostrophic disaster such as this, especially in our nation’s capital, would cause such a panic around the country and around the world, 9/11 would pale in comparison.

What do you think, DC? How safe and prepared do you think we really are? Or is it best not to even worry about it because if a nuke goes off we’ll be instantly burnt into crispy critters? I’m just glad I live nice and close to the White House.

In 2002, I abandoned my Catholic faith, after a priest of the cloth in Falls Church used the pulpit to explain that women couldn’t properly understand the suffering of Christ.

Maybe it’s my mistrust of the Catholic Church after that incident that leads me to think that the Pope’s visit today is unimportant. Growing up, I had the chance to see His Holiness John Paul II at Laguna Seca raceway, except that our bus broke down on the way to collect us from my small California hometown. We were stranded without a way to get there. I remember being incredibly disappointed, though my disappointment paled in comparison to my mother’s. We watched on TV instead as the Holy Father took bread, blessed it and broke it, and distributed it to the tens of thousands who had gathered to hear him speak.

Sure, I understand what makes people Believe. Belief is a powerful thing, it gives us will when we might not have it otherwise, it gives us strength when we are weak, it gives us comfort when we are sad.

Perhaps if it were John Paul II again, I might understand the excitement. He reached out to the world and sought to make the faith more accessible to all. This Pope, though, has been more controversial, making changes to the mass to return it more closely to the obfuscated Latin origins, as well as with no new policy for dealing with the problem of abused children by people of trust in the Church, I think I will stay away a bit longer.

So, if you are a fan of His Holiness, by all means, get excited and worship in your faith today. Me? Just another day, only with more crowds, and more closed roads.

DC Metrocentric has an awesome preview of the new Capitol Visitors Center that’s been under construction on the East side of the Capitol since time immemorial. I love the glass ceiling that gives way to the Capitol Rotunda. You can also read more about the new facility via the Architect of the Capitol’s Weekly Construction Summaries. This week, they’re working on “millwork, wall stone, floor stone, grout lines, painted surfaces, ceiling panels, plaster work, doors, and other finish materials.”

You can watch the Pope go by today without even leaving your office! Check out this traffic camera at 17th & Penn NW for the procession.

The traffic camera is gone, now, so please check out this video time-lapse instead

Many thanks to Brownpau for the cool video!