Though Amy covered most of the city’s summer films a couple weeks ago, I want to shine a special spotlight on DC’s Screen on the Green.

I’ve been a big fan of this outdoor film festival since its debut nine years ago. I remember stuffing a blanket into my brown leather backpack, emailing friends with a meeting location before I left work, and finding a prime viewing spot by the Washington Monument (when the films were screened on the Mall between 12th and 14th Streets).

Little has changed in that time - except now the giant screen is set up between 4th and 7th Streets in front of the US Capitol.

There are three films left. Tonight’s feature is Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace

All of the films are shown on a gigantic movie screen in front of the Capitol Building and start at dusk around 8:30-9:00 pm. Diehards claim their spots on the lawn as early as 5 pm, so you might want to consider getting to the Mall an hour before the classic begins.

Remember my analysis and prediction, yesterday? Which made me feel kinda dumb, since I said I figured we’d see some licensing movement in two months, but then Fenty made statements about 21 days. I wasn’t quite as wrong as I thought - the 21 days aren’t necessarily when they’ll start, but is when the police will release the requirements and processes. When they’ll then start accepting applications is not so concrete.

My disappointment, though, is that I was so silly as to think that the D.C. government, faced with the obvious and inevitable, would decide to just do what they have to do. No, instead Mayor Fenty et all have decided they haven’t pissed away enough of the city’s money on this battle, and rather than focus on writing gun licensing regulations that might make all of us safer and survive the inevitable legal challenges, they’re going to attempt to enforce other gun laws on the books that obviously are out of line with yesterday’s decision.

[interim D.C. Attorney General Peter] Nickles said the District will continue to enforce a separate decades-old D.C. ban on the possession of most clip-loaded semiautomatic handguns, which are popular with gun enthusiasts.

That regulation, which outlaws machine guns and was not part of the Supreme Court case, defines a machine gun in broad terms, encompassing semiautomatic weapons that can shoot, or be converted to shoot, more than 12 rounds without reloading, officials said. Nickles said that law remains on the books and will be enforced.

I can only hope that (a) the Washington Post will prod article writers Paul Duggan and David Nakamurato be a little more precise with their language in the future, since a ban on “semiautomatic weapons that can shoot, or be converted to shoot, more than 12 rounds without reloading” isn’t a limit on machine guns, it’s a limit on almost any self-loading type of pistol and (b) Nickles will read the opinion issued by the court and notice how often Scalia talks about “common” weapons. Self-loading handguns outsell revolvers 3 to 1, which pretty well fits into the definition of common.

So like it or not, enforcing this other law is just an expensive guaranteed return trip to the court in order to lose. It’s unlikely it will get far; this is so obvious on its face that the lower courts are going to rule against the city and appeals likely won’t get far. However that doesn’t mean it’s not a waste of resources we can’t afford. Let’s accept reality and work within it, and be ready for the inevitable other lawsuits that are going to come up over license restrictions. The universe - and the NRA - give away trouble for free. There’s no need to go looking for it.

UPDATE: Just noticed that Ben Winograd over on SCOTUSBlog addresses this idiocy, provides a salient example, and suggests that DC should fix this statute before the courts or the congress fixes it for them. Starts on paragraph 6.

April fool, courtesy of Djuliet

Tim Russert, host of NBC’s Meet The Press, died this afternoon of a heart attack. He was 58.

Russert’s one of the reasons I felt okay moving to DC. I have a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, almost the entirety of it taken through political philosophy and international relations theory. I couldn’t stand the idea of wasting my time in a class where all I learned how to do was posture and bullshit, and so I stayed away from the American Government classes at Denison. I know there’s a whole dark art to the way Congress works, and I know there’s an acceptance of that that has to happen in order to work here.

But Russert didn’t care about the posturing part. He pressed on with questions when he didn’t like the answer he got. He was a real pest that way, and I remember a number of Sunday mornings when it was clear he took a bit of relish in needling the politician on the other side of his desk.

I remember the 2000 elections and Tim had his whiteboard out and was doing all kinds of electoral math that made everyone else he talked to that night look like an absolute simpleton. He was the only one who really got it. It’s why that whiteboard is sitting now in the Smithsonian.

Thank you, Tim. I will miss you immensely.

Is it seriously summer already? Hold on, let me Google that. Oh hey! It’s not.

Could have fooled me though. This is August weather. In June. What kind of cruel joke is Mother Nature trying to play on us?

This reminds me of the weather we had in ‘Nam during the war. I remember it like it was yesterday. The swift boat dropped John Kerry and I off on the banks of the Poo Nahnee river and we had to cut our way through the humidity with our machetes. We had to tie rolls of Bounty to our heads to mop up the constant stream of sweat. We got heat stroke so many times that our reality was more like a dreamworld than our dreamworld was. Hah - one time when we were crossing the Moo Goo Gai Pan river under sniper fire, John tried to windsurf across on a crocodile. Silly ivy leaguer. I came to his rescue and beat the bajeezus out of that croc with the butt of my gun, but lost it along with three fingers and a buttock in the process. I had to retrofit a potato gun I’d bought at Wall Drug on a family vacation into a tofu gun. Now you know why I’ll never be a vegan.

I’ve had enough already! I want my dry, 75 degree days back. I want to be able to open my windows at night. I don’t want to have to take three showers every day. I don’t want to have to run my air conditioner around the clock. I don’t want my jeans to stick to me when I go out at night.

Go away, Summer.

It’s a rare thing to catch a photo like this of Ms. Picciotto. An icon of DC, she has been protesting the use of nuclear arms since the 80’s, through the Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II administrations. No doubt she will be parked on the north side of the White House through the Clinton/Obama/McCain era too. While her dedication is admirable, it’s obvious that her efforts are falling on deaf ears. Regardless, God bless America, a country that gives us to right to protest in peace.

From what I’ve heard, Concepcion is rather camera shy which is what caught my eye when I saw this photo by Mai-Trang Dang. I asked Mai if she had to ask Picciotto for permission to take her photo but she evidently was in the mood to vogue that day. According to Mai:

She posed for 7-8 shots, at least. She had just put down a sign she was holding up while chanting her protest about Bush…I can’t remember exactly what it said. I work right next to Lafayette Park, so I see her quite often, usually on the way to lunch. I’ve heard the secret service guys talk about how she’s got an apartment somewhere, but I’ve never asked her about it. It seems plausible; to be blunt, she doesn’t have the odor of someone who’s actually living in Lafayette Park and she does change her clothes daily, as far as I’ve noticed.

I’ve tried to make heads or tails of this website dedicated to her story, but my eyes and brain start to hurt within a few minutes. I don’t know if Conception (aka “Connie”) is mentally capable of holding a normal conversation, but if so, it would make for an interesting interview indeed.

Has anyone else taken any good photos of her? If so, please share, and tell us what you know about her.

Unlike what mom said about no internet until 30 minutes after you eat, foodies and techies do mix. See tonight’s episode of Jonny’s Partay and chat with some socially minded foodie techie folks. Dig the description by DC’s very own favorite man about town Jonny Goldstein:

We are pleased to host Sean Shadmand and Isaac Mosquera, the founders of familyoven.com on Jonny’s Par-tay on May 28, 2008. Also on the show Andrew “Batterista” Wright, who will challenge us to pick the best butter out of a dairy-licious selection.

FamilyOven.com is a cooking oriented social network with over 500,000 registered users. Jonny has tried recipes off the site and loved the results. We’ll talk with Sean and Isaac about how they got the idea for Family Oven, and how it is working as a business.

We are also going to have a special bonus feature with Andrew “Batterista” Wright, who besides being a tech entrepreneur, is obsessed with butter. We’ll do a Jonny’s Par-tay Batterista Butter Blind Benchmark.

What: Jonny’s Par-tay, the interactive online TV talk show, with guests Sean Shadmand, Isaac Mosquera, Andrew Wright, and host Jonny Goldstein, with a little Scott Stead magic poured on top.
When: May 28, 9-10PM Eastern
Where: jonnyspartay.com
Interactivity: As always, you are invited to text chat us live. It’s a Par-tay!

Remember - wherever Jonny is, it’s always a par-tay.

Remember this experience?

Well, I received a phone message last week while I was off gallivanting around Maine; the caller was from CSC’s corporate offices. [I had filled out their online customer comment card, pointing to the previous article so they could see for themselves what was going on. Thanks, by the way, for everyone's comments - hopefully they caught those as well.]

I was assured the matter was being looked into and the franchisee was being notified. Supposedly I should have already received a call from the store (nope) and received a gift certificate notification through the mail (nope).

Now, I’ll state right here and now I didn’t start all this for some form of free anything. I’ve done the retail punishment for over 15 years before I got smart and left; it pains me to see poor customer service, especially in establishments I frequent. I feel it’s my duty to politely let them know when they’re failing the public trust. And yes, also when they’ve gone above and beyond as well. (And yes, I’m an excellent tipper when it’s warranted.)

So while the call back is refreshing, the lack of local follow-up is disappointing. If / when we get those certificates, we’ll head back to the same location, if only to see if anything has changed (and yes, I’ll let everyone here know!). Meantimes, we’ll probably shift to the Hoffman location, unless someone can suggest a great local spot in Alexandria / Kingstowne / Springfield to try. (For the record, not a fan of Kalidescoops or Maggie Moo’s.)

Please, readers, suggest away!

I’ve been meaning to write about my Artomatic experience for a few days now. I biked over there this past weekend, not sure how long I’d stay but hoping I’d find it as laid back and welcoming as I did a couple of years ago, the last time I went.

I wasn’t disappointed. What I love the most about Artomatic, which no one else has mentioned, is that it’s a big public space where hanging out is totally ok. Unlike a gallery or a mall, no one owns it or is territorially hoping to make money off of you. And unlike one of our Grand National Museums, you can just be there, without feeling like people are looking at you askance for not moving along.

So my friends and I engaged in some quality hanging out—we meandered about, asked strangers random questions, burst into impromtu dance sequences. Whatever.

The art? Right, the art. It was also pretty great. I remember a lot of it seeming pretty awful last time, but this time I was quite impressed. A couple of the ceramic exhibits on the 10th floor (I think) genuinely looked like they could’ve been in some chichi gallery somewhere.

The On the Fly guy was parked out front—the actual guy I met last week and blogged about—in case folks get hungry. Oh, and be prepared to run into lots of people you know. Including neighbors and ex-boyfriends. Just so you’re ready.

The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (or GTBID for short) is having their kick-off in a series of “Sounds in the Square” this evening at 5pm. I’m not sure how much foot traffic of commuters it will draw away from the mass movement of people to and fro as they rush home, but at least it may be an attention getter away from the razing of the building at Connecticut and K Streets Wayan had such fond memories of.

This evening’s affair will star Justin Jones & The Driving Rain, but other concerts will follow from May 22 and June 5, 12, 19, 26 (and a reschedule from last week’s rained out performance on September 4). I’m sure it will be an interesting experiment for GTBID, who were also, if I remember, one of the first areas in downtown D.C. to offer free WiFi in the park a number of years ago. And you know they’re hip and with it, not just because they dress in gold and black, because they have a MySpace page!

This video doesn’t make the day any warmer, but at least we can remember what warm sunshine is like. It’s on the way, for sure, but in the meantime, enjoy this video shot at Meridian Hill Park by Giganova. This is the type of thing that makes DC great.