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?

Photo by DC Metroblogger

While randomly shopping with the clock-stopping hottie, I came across this amazing find for anyone moving: Costco has mountains of boxes right by the cash registers, free for the taking.

When I was packing to move into the new abode, Costco became a cardboard box goldmine.

The Costco employees helped me dig out the right kind of boxes, sturdy ones not pre-made to be product display cases. I was able to scrounge about half my boxes and all the funky-shaped boxes I needed in this pile o’ dead trees.

If you wanna do the same, I have only one tip: guard your finds. Two other customers tried to swipe my cardboard while I was searching - the suburban thieves!

For the tenth consecutive year Union Station is hosting the Royal Norwegian Embassy’s Norweigan Christmas. Tonight, the Christmas tree gets lit at 6 p.m.:

Renowned actor, Earle Hyman, will flip the switch to light the 8,000 lights on the tree. The 80 year old actor is best known for his role as Bill Cosby’s father, Russell Huxtable, on “The Cosby Show,” but is also a distinguished stage actor. He taught himself Norwegian so that he could read Henrik Ibsen’s plays in the original language. The ceremony includes choral song and appearance by Ambassador of Norway, Knut Vollebaek.

Source: Norwegian Embassy Press Release

The model train that “winds its way through the mountains and fjords of Norway” has been running for a week now. There is also a life size ice carving of a polar bear today too.

Even if you can’t make it up tonight, it’s worth a trip to see Union Station all decked out for the holidays. The decorations beautifully complement the station. Thank goodness those who wanted to tear down this Beaux-Arts marvel failed.

I’ve been wanting to blog about this for months and now that it’s far enough in the past, I think I’m safe to do it without the chance of the subject of my piece reading it or finding out (yeah, I know, he probably reads MBDC on an hourly basis with my luck).

We all say that DC is a small town - and it is, but this story, in as many “this is such a small town” situations I’ve been in the last five years, takes the cake.

This past Thanksgiving, I decided to take the trek up to Michigan for the long weekend - one that I typically do the orphan holiday for because it’s a long drive and only a few days. So when I decided only the week of Thanksgiving to make the trip, I knew I couldn’t get a flight and that I’d be making the trip there and back by myself - no big deal, I love doing long drives by myself. Gives me a chance to think and overanalyze everything in my life.
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Photo courtesy of Eric Z. Grey

Spring has sprung and summer is a stone’s throw away! With 70s forecasted for the rest of the week, some of us will head to patio bars. Others, like myself, will enjoy the great outdoors for camping, hiking and fishing, among other pursuits.

I know that some of you uber-urban people want nature to just stay where it is—in the nature place. This is METRO blogs, after all, and the underground ferns in the Metro tunnels are enough nature for some of us.

But like it or not, Greater Washington DC is one of the greenest urban areas in the country. And whether you’re a modern-day Grizzly Adams or a view-it-from-the-car type, this area has excellent natural resources to enjoy. Over the summer, I’ll be sharing my tips and talking about some of my favorite outdoor places. And for those nature-phobes, I’ll be sharing my favorite view-from-in-the-car experiences as well.
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There is a scene in the 1990 film “Mountains of the Moon” in which a bug crawls into the ear of British explorer John Hanning Speke while he is asleep in his tent in Africa. Speke is jolted awake, he screams, he cries, he thrashes around his tent. He digs at his ear with his fingers, no luck. Then he pours hot wax directly into his ear to try to kill the little bugger, still no luck. Screaming in pain and horror all the while, Speke finally, desperately clutches for his compass and jams the compass needle into his ear. The scene ends with a blood-curdling scream over a desert landscape.

The above scene is the best way I can describe the experience of last night’s WHITEHOUSE show at DC9. Openers Wolf Eyes and Pig Destroyer, while full-force noise reckoners in their own right, sounded like the Spice Girls when compared to the noise wrought by the two-man WHITEHOUSE crew. Their set was fantastic and everything I had hoped for.

Comparing WHITEHOUSE’s noise assault to that horrific Speke scene captures the demolishing power of their ultra-heavy beats and spiteful Dalek-voiced ranting - but it also works in that it draws a connection between Speke, the Nile-source explorer, and what I find most interesting about noise music, the exploration of sound. Watching a truly great noise act explore the full potential of sound within a given venue is miraculous. Like Speke and his partner Burton, WHITEHOUSE are a pair of explorers, only their territory is that mysterious sonic continent that audiences rarely get to visit. And for one night, last night, we all got the chance to fight, love, and die knee-deep in the sand of that far away of shore.

According to my trusty international holiday calendar, complete with lunar cycles, this Sunday is the first new moon and therefore the start of the Chinese New Year! 2006 is the Year of the Dog, and the celebration usually lasts for fifteen days.

The annual Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown is next Sunday, February 5. Festivities are always a blast (fireworks at 3:30pm), with the lion and dragon dances a standout. The parade is a true delight, running from 2-5pm on H Street NW between 6th and 8th.

But if you’d like to kick-off the celebration this weekend, you can hit the Freer Gallery for a tour of the Arts of China. Meet at the information desk at 1:15pm this Sunday. Both the Freer and the Sackler make up the Asian Arts branch of the Smithsonian and always have fascinating exhibitions. Currently the Sackler is hosting an installation by Chinese-American artist Mei-ling Hom, “Floating Mountains, Singing Clouds,” while the Freer has “100 Years of Tea,” a showing of ceramics related to the tea ceremony.

And there’s always your own private tea ceremony at Georgetown’s Ching Ching Cha, the loveliest oasis in the city.

End the celebrations with the Chinese New Year Gala, held at the National Theater with a revue called “Myths and Legends,” which from the pictures alone looks to be worth a trip. It’s on February 16 and 17 at 8pm.

DC’s a hot town. In the summer, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more uncomfortable place in the mid-atlantic than DC. Hot. Damp. Swampy. It’s downright unlivable. In the days before Air Conditioning, DC was considered so undesireable in the summer that politicians used to take all of August off and head for the hills, and diplomats were given hazard pay. Now, though, there are many ways to beat the heat, from air conditioning, to downtown shopping, to ice cream. Here are some of our favorite ways to beat the heat.
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I thankfully returned to DC yesterday after spending three days in the Blue Ridge mountains at an office “retreat.”

Now, some might consider this sort of trip a real perk of corporate life. But for me, an introvert who really has to put the charm on to get through work interaction, it was a draining experience.

(ok, ok, I did get to spend a glorious afternoon riding a galloping horse named Thunder through butterfly-strewn fields, but still! three whole days with your co-workers trapped on a mountain with no access to anything and a bar whose last call is 10:30pm??!!).

The mountains may be beautiful but it was so quiet at night there that I got insomnia. I became convinced that I was going to be killed by some roving band of mountain maniacs (cue banjos).

Funny, I never feel that way in the city. I can always sleep, lulled by sirens and other late-night sounds. I guess I’m just not cut out for the country.

However, if any of you country-hungry folk out there are looking for a mountain retreat some three hours from the city, this idyllic place might just be what you are after…

Greetings. My name is Jason Mojica and I’m your friendly neighborhood guest blogger from Chicago. Here are a few notes from my first week here.

1) Little cars don’t like mountains, and run better when they have oil.

2) Just as all Mike Muir wanted was a Pepsi, all the guy in the above photo wanted was a Big Mac. However, it was 3:30 am Saturday night, and the McDonald’s on 18th doesn’t have Big Macs on their limited, late-night menu.

3) It might be time to get rid of the carpet on the Metro, especially if it means I can bring a cup of coffee on. If the carpet and the no food or drink rule is going to stay, how about something cool, like white shag, or maybe fake fur?

4) I went to a Nationals vs. Braves game, and for a city that doesn’t have years invested in this team, you sure do like ‘em a lot.

5) As much as I was looking forward to spotting politicians and policy wonks, I was more starstruck when I spotted Guy Piccoto manning the Radio CPR booth at the Mount Pleasant fest on Sunday.

6) The fried green tomato BLT at Saint Ex is one of the best things I’ve ever had in my mouth.

7) The two institutions run by the Smithsonian that I’ve visited thus far could use a little maintainence… like light bulbs.

8) I don’t know how I never heard of Giacomo Balla, but thanks to the Hirshhorn, I have. Lovely.

9) What the HELL are those little half-circles sticking out of the roofs of Metro station entrances? To stop ice from falling on people’s heads? Pigeons? What?