Courtesy of On Screen Tours

Living in our Nation’s Capital means living in one of the most traveled to destinations in the country. We put up with tourists during Cherry Blossom season, spring, summer, full, and sometimes winter. As a result we have a strong market here for all kinds of tour companies, everything from double decker buses to segway people movers.

However earlier this month I got to go on a tour that is a bit different that your average tour company. On Location Tours, known for putting on tours of television and film location tours in New York City, has recently launched a new tour company that focuses on showing off DC locales that have been used in some of your favorite movies and TV shows. The tour makes sense since our city’s famous places are often filmed- it’s not too surprising to see a shoot on The National Mall or an explosion in Georgetown.

It all starts at Union Station (where all the tours usually start) where I went to meet the “local actor” that leads all of their tours. I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was the tour guide a local actor but also my friend David Vargas who I recently worked with on Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Vargas did a great job interacting with the group and providing all the facts in an entertaining and enjoyable way. Having a working actor giving the tour also provided an insider look at how films are made;  David answered lots of questions fro the group about working as an actor on the set.

At first the tour took us to all usual tourist attractions: The Capitol, The Lincoln Memorial, and other sites along The National Mall. However what made it interesting, and frankly what I think is the greatest asset to the tour, are the movie clips that were shown in the bus throughout the tour. It made it really interesting to see a location and then instantly see it as depicted on the screen. What also impressed me during the tour was just the sheer number of films have actually been filmed in this city. On Location Tours did some great research and I was pleasantly surprised to learn about and visit locations from True Lies and Wedding Crashers.

Tours run every Saturday morning at 10 AM and lasts for 2.5 hours. While you may think that a guided tour maybe a touristy thing to do, the group I was in was actually full of locals who really enjoyed learning more about the area they work, live, and play in. If you are a fan of the movies, it’s definitely a different way to experience Washington DC.

On Location Tours
http://www.screentours.com
info@screentours.com

This Picture May, or May not (but probably does) have something to do with this post. I'm not sayin...I'm just sayin.

So I’m in a bit of a quandry.  The Washington Nationals have this great story going on right now…as a blogger, I should talk about it-but as a fan I have no intention of jinxing it…

What I will say is:

• Joe DiMaggio’s record of 56 hasn’t really even come close to being broken in the modern era of baseball.  44 by Pete Rose is as close as it has come.
• Joe D also holds the same record (as recognized by Minor League Baseball) in the minors with 61.
• That, surprisingly, only 52 times in the Majors has a player done this 30 times in a row-including four Washington Senators (One from the 1890′s team, and three from the team that would become the Twins)and one Montreal Expos. 
• That tonight, maybe possibly that list will grow to 53 and add the first Washington National to the list.
• That perhaps my idea from a few months ago helped this little bit of awesome come along. 
• That it is completely silly and ridiculous to think that the all time record would be matched, or beaten…but if it were, and you wanted to buy tickets to key games:
•  The 37th (To be the new Washington area record holder, and in the top 10 all time) At Home against the Pirates May 19th. 
• The 40th (To tie Ty Cobb and become one of only seven players to do this thing) would be May 22, at home against the team from Baltimore
• 45 and 46 (depending on how you count it) would mean second place and would happen on the road in New York against the Mets May 27 and 29. 
• The 50th (Currently, only Joltin’ Joe has done that) would come on June 3rd at home against the Giants.
• The tying game would be June 10th against the Reds
• The go ahead game would have been on the road…if it wasn’t for the rain delayed game against the Philies in April.  With the doubleheader in May that makes the 57th game (shhhhhh don’t talk about it!) on June 11th, also against the Reds. 
• Also, again, it is insane to even think this.  So stop. 

• If you have to have a huge underground pipe break in your neighborhood, a warm spring morning is not the worst day for it.  If you live below grade, it’s still pretty traumatic.
• I didn’t know pavement could do that.
• The overall response from the City workers was great; the sad thing is that they’ve done this so often that they have it all down pat.   I wanted to kiss them for working through the 4-hour downpour that evening that I’m sure kept it from getting any worse.
• The contractors were out in force; we had 3 business cards for specialists in water damage in our mail slot within 8 hours. 
• Now I know what rush hour sounds like without traffic on Florida Avenue.   And that articulated Metro buses can back up very, very long distances.   
• Life goes back to normal pretty quickly, all things considered.   Until the next one breaks…

Thanks to the phone banks with the Terry McAuliffe campaign, I heard that he and will.i.am will be down the street tonight at Clarendon Ballroom. The event is titled, “A Night with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas” and proceeds will go to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign.

This is less of a political message and more of a, “if you want to see will.I.am and don’t mind throwing money at Terry McAuliffe to do it- here’s your chance!

Terry seems to know a few famous people, later this week he’s holding a rally at NOVA in Annandale with Bill Clinton. Well that makes sense since he ran Hillary’s Presenditial campaign and is a former DNC chairman.

A Night with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas

The Clarendon Ballroom
3185 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Virginia
Monday, May 11, 2009 at 8:00pm
$20 Admission
$500 Co-Host (includes admission to a special VIP reception with Will.I.Am at 8:00PM and recognition at the event)

Courtesy Washington DC School of Photography/Ann Curry

I learned via Ann Curry’s twitter feed that the Washington DC School of Photography opened a new exhibition of photos taken by Curry. The images were taken during her reporting from Chad and the Darfur region of Sudan. The exhibit opened last Friday and will run through Friday, June 5th. In an interview for Roll Call Curry says, “I’ve been interested in still photography all my life, but I think that I did not take it up in earnest until the night I left for my first trip to the Darfur region..”

As a daily viewer of the Today Show, I’m a fan of Ann Curry and I just might have to take a look next time I’m up in Maryland.

She’s met the Queen and has already been on the cover of Vogue; however for Michelle Obama it’s nothing compared to her latest adventure.

Earlier this past week our First Lady made an appearance on Sesame Street and has since remarked her appearance as, “probably the best thing I’ve done so far in the White House.”

Check her out with Elmo in the clip below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhGWSfraeyQ[/youtube]

Courtesy of WGA-East

Well tonight is the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, the dinner is known for more humorous moments such as Stephen Colbert ranting on the podium, and Karl Rove showing off his rapping skills. Tonight Wanda Sykes will be on the mic and I’m very interested to see how she does- I don’t think she’s holding back any punches.

The glitz and glam isn’t limited to the dinner tonight, there will be a slew of pre and post parties all weekend, just check out Politico for their party guide.

I had the opportunity of being invited to the WGA East’s “Writers Speak!” event last night at the Newseum. I checked out the party with Rachel from Rachel, Rachel I’ve been thinking. She’ll be putting up a guest post on her take of the event later next week.

The place was packed as Hollywood and Washington came together for some stand-up comedy and a panel featuring  TV writers. The panel included J.R. Havlan (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart), Bill Scheft (Late Show With David Letterman), Anthony Jeselnick (Late

Anthony Jeselnick (Late Night With Jimmy Fallon) Courtesy of WGA-East

Night With Jimmy Fallon), Matt Goldich (Best Week Ever), Tim Carvell (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart), Opus Moreschi (The Colbert Report), Tom Ruprecht (Late Show With David Letterman), and Allison Abner (The West Wing)- the night was promised as a, “A Potentially Regrettable Evening With Comedy Writers”, but it will be one I won’t be forgetting too soon.

Courtesy Politics on Film

It’s an odd weekend that’s packed with parties, politicians, and celebrities. And I’m not just talking about the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.

This weekend also brings the Politics on Film festival, an annual weekend of bipartisan films that cover a wide range of issues. Last night the festival kicked off it’s inaugural run with an opening night party on the rooftop of 101 Constitution Ave. Among the party attendees were actors Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager) and Peter Riegert (Damages/The Sopranos/Animal House)  who both star alongside Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show) in “The Response“, one of the festival’s official selections.  Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) were also on hand as they accepted awards from The Bipartisan Policy Center, the organization behind the creation of the new festival. The non-profit formed in 2007 was founded by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell. Unfortunately none of the founders were on-hand- I was really hoping for the off-chance to shake hands with Bob Dole.

While I’ve never been in a room with a mix of Washington insiders and west coast creative-types, I learned that they have a lot more in common than they thought.

David M. Edwards is the director of “Sprawling from Grace“, and he tells me that documentary is much more than simple story telling- it’s also a business. His feature documentary covers the today’s urban sprawl and the consequences on our infrastructure. A self-described “prorector” (A producer/director/editor) he essentially created his film mostly on his own, however he made some strategic partnerships in order to secure funding and support. Edwards explains by finding groups and organizations that share the same message and vision, you can create relationships that reduces the burden of creating a feature length indie without big studio backing.

“Sprawling from Grace”  looks at various growing areas of the country and points out how we need to change the way we design and develop our cities to run more efficiently. Arlington and Washington DC were used as locations in the film and we chatted about the role of public transportation and growing areas like Arlington. “You can expand a congested highway [think I-66] and for a little while traffic will go down, but next thing you know the traffic is back,” explains Edwards. He suggests focusing on public transportation like buses and metro, “It’s actually a great thing when you hear stories of The Metro reaching capacity, we should celebrate it.”

Other selected films in this year’s festival include Abraham Obama, an artist’s journey to plaster walls with images to support the Obama campaign; and What’s the Matter with Kansas, a documentary based on the book by Thomas Frank. The films will be screened all over DC, with many of the screenings held at the E-Street cinema.

Check out the Politics on Film website for complete schedule and ticket information.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fa6Xkq_sRA[/youtube]

Even though she now calls Seattle her home, Ali Marcus grew up in the Washington DC area and has performed at local venues such as Iota, Jammin’ Java, and Galaxy Hut. She’s been playing music since she was an 8th grader in Northern Virginia. Now the Folk singer is excited to release “The Great Migration” and is celebrating her release with a hometown performance tomorrow night at The Velvet Lounge.

A one woman operation, Ali does everything herself, from writing the songs; to producing albums and booking tours; she even writes her own press releases! The folk-life entrepreneur has been on an east coast swing spreading the love for her new album, and has also teased a possible “secret show” somewhere in DC on the 13th.

Ali Marcus
Velvet Lounge
Saturday May 9th  (Doors open 9pm/Show at 10pm)
$8 (18+ show)

Velocity Five at Court House before Opening

I was sad to see it go.

Even though many of my co-workers were ho-hum towards King Street Blues on Clarendon Blvd, I was a fan. However it has since closed down, the space bought by entrepreneur Jim Speros so he could use the location to expand his Velocity Five restaurant chain. Even though I was disappointed to see King Street leave, I was anxious for Velocity Five to finish their renovations and open. I was eager to see what the new kid on the Court House block had to offer. The chain’s location in Falls Church appeared to get ok reviews.

I walked up with a friend to the new Court House location after it opened, Speros signed a 15 year lease when he purchased the property from King Street; and it’s proximity to the nearby Metro station made it worth every penny.

Walking inside I was immediately surrounded by rich mahogany.  The ambiance had a more refined feeling compared to Summer’s down the street. The layout of the space remained the same, it looked like King Street with sports memorabilia and flat screen TVs. The place opened right before March Madness and it looked like a place I’d want to go to catch my favorite sports teams.

However those are all the nice things I have to say about this place.

I walked up to an empty hostess station where waitresses openly counted their tips while ignoring our presence. We waited for 10-15 minutes until we were acknowledged by someone on the wait staff. I am a pretty patient person and I wasn’t going to make a big deal of it until I saw during the course of the night, other people walk inside to an empty station and wait like I did- some waited to the point they just sat themselves.

The lack of service didn’t end there- we were served water but then ignored and forgotten by the waitress for almost half an hour. Again I would love to say that the place was packed and we got lost in the shuffle, but my table was only one of three occupied tables in the entire restaurant. The waitress was busy flirting with the guys at the table across from us. I overheard some of their conversation and apparently someone at that table was a pro-athlete:

Guy #1: You have to guess what my buddy here does, I won’t tell you but I will tell you that he’s a professional.

Waitress: Hmm, well your friend is tall- is he a basketball player?

Guy #2: No but I get that a lot…

So while Pro-athlete guy was getting all the attention he needed I was slowly dying from starvation. I ordered a burger but I’ll be honest- the service experience really made the rest of my experience there pretty forgettable.

Now I really wanted to like this place, if I was treated a little better I’m sure I would of had great things to say probably, but Velocity Five at Court House needs to get their ducks in a row. I’m a pretty nice guy and I’ll eventually give you guys another chance- but til then you are on notice!

Velocity Five
2300 Clarendon Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 243-4900
http://www.velocityfiverestaurant.com/