Oh, turns out the City Paper featured him when they put out their “best of DC” issue last month. Photo and all.

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.

But I just had to do it because I think On the Fly is very cool. The business operates a handful of carts around town—7th and F, 8th and H, Farragut North, Capitol Hill, and also the Nationals stadium, National Arboretum, and near Artomatic for the next month—that sell food cooked by local businesses such as Teaism, Rocklands BBQ, Julia’s Empanadas, and many others. The whole thing is initiated by a guy who used to work for Zipcars, and apparently his crew is a bunch of dedicated folks who’ve all known each other for a while and really believe in the endeavor.

I hope they survive. DC certainly needs more places where the price covers good food, not just pretentious surroundings.

They’ll be having a candlelight vigil this evening at 8pm, at the National Law Officers’ Memorial on Judiciary Square. The public is invited and apparently it’s really something to behold.

I recently had a brilliant idea of doing an irregular series of posts that would investigate neighborhood stores from time to time, looking at who shops there, what they buy, and what the general neighborhood vibe is.

I started at my own neighborhood shop, the Euclid Market, but now I’m not sure how great my idea is. The Korean guy working there, Joe, was happy to talk to me, but the shoppers were not; one of them asked if I was “the police.” Also, while the market sells a very wide variety of goods (sardines, Yellow Tail wine, Van Holten’s Pickles in a Pouch, Luna bars, the obligatory pasta/oil/beans/etc, wristwatches, male enhancement herbal supplements), the best sellers weren’t surprising: singles of IceHouse or Budweiser 211, and Newport cigarettes. I have a feeling those goods might be ubiquitously popular throughout much of the city.

So I’m not sure how well this series is going to proceed, or whether the Logan Circle market I had in mind next will really be much different. Perhaps I need to look under the surface a bit more. Suggestions are welcome!

The organizer had proposed a hike up Old Rag mountain, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The only problem was that he wanted to “beat the crowds” and do it at 6am, which meant leaving DC at 4:15am–and getting up at 3:30am. Second problem: it rained all night. But I stuck to my guns and, after about 3 hours of sleep, stumbled out of bed and made it to the meeting point. Two hours later, we were ready to climb the mountain in the grey fog.

It turned out to be really terrific. First of all, Old Rag is amazing. It’s just the right length (about 4.5 hours for us, including a half hour at the top) and rigorousness (rigorosity?) to feel like you’ve genuinely accomplished something. The path we took on the way up gave way to rocks towards the top, so we had to scramble and at times truly climb over the rocks, which was a challenge. Apparently the views are amazing, but we were in fog the whole time and largely missed them–but the verdant forest and lichen-covered rocks were impressive enough. And we had the whole mountain to ourselves.

What was also very cool was the whole meetup thing. Because of the rain, only 5 of the 28 who’d RSVP’d showed up. But that made it even better, as we were able to get to know each other quite well and really look out for each other throughout, particularly on the treacherous parts of the train. Meeting 4 strangers and having a great time talking and being kind to each other–it’s enough to give heart to any cynic.

The Dinner Party: An evening of experimental dance, music and performance art

Tuesday, May 6, 8pm
The Warehouse Theater, 1021 7th St., NW
$5

In an effort to expand DC’s venues for in-progress, experimental, and new work, The Dinner Party is a new series of monthly open showings that will take place on Tuesday nights in the Warehouse Theater downtown. The evening will end with a short facilitated audience discussion.

We look forward to seeing you there!

That may not ring any bells among those of you who didn’t go to college with a bunch of radical anarchists who shouted “fuck the police!” and “smash the state!” Frankly, it’s not part of my world anymore either–once I left college, I slowly drifted away from punks and DIYers who created their own zines and would wheat-paste fliers on walls around town after dark.

I’m not sure what an infoshop is technically meant to be, but the one I hung around in Berkeley, CA was a place where you could stay all day, reading books about ending speciesism or acting up against the military-industrial complex, and then have a meal of second-hand brown bread and vegan soup. And where the shelves were packed with homemade zines about folks’ adventures and thoughts. Kinda like paper blogs. No, make that just like paper blogs.

I’m not making fun of these places. It’s the greatest thing when people’s ideals push them to actually do something rather than just talk about it. It’s just such a walk down memory lane for me, though, that I have to laugh.

So DC’s infoshop is exactly like the one in Berkelely, only smaller. And the people are friendlier! And there are signs on the wall urging support for activists who are now in jail. I don’t remember that from my college years.

Technically this infoshop is called the Brian Mackenzie Infoshop, after a local activist who died while trying to make the place a reality.

Go check it out; smile and the folks there will smile back. It’s in the middle of nowhere, 1426 9th st NW (by P, I think) and it’s generally open noon-9pm Weds-Sun. Call at 202-986-0681 if you want to be sure they’re there before you come.

–How did Ledroit Park (or Bloomingdale, as some seem to call it) wind up developing? It’s compressed into a small area around 4th and T NW and is very isolated from other developments around town; I rode through there on my bike and thought I was in California for a second–and then whoosh, it was gone.

–What’s up with Ethiopian cafe owners? Seems like all the newish cafes in town are owned by Ethiopians: Cafe Sureia in Brookland, Windows Cafe on 1st and Rhode Island NW, Azi’s on 9th NW, Sidamo Coffee and Tea on H St NE, and I think I saw a new cafe on Georgia around Irving. Oh, and Columbia Heights Coffee was bought by an Ethiopian couple about a year ago. Not complaining, that’s for sure–just curious and impressed.

–What’s going on at the corner of V and 14th street, catty corner from Busboys and Poets? There’s often a big crowd there–mostly black folks, but not the glamorous hipster crowd that hangs out at B&P. I’ve seen that crowd many times but there’s no sign indicating anything interesting there.

–Does Metro have express trains now? And if so, why does the red line express skip the Bethesda station, of all places?

–Why do train operators tell passengers, while the train’s in motion, how many cars the train has (as in, “This is an 8 car train”), when it’s illegal to move between trains?

–Is owning a home really so much better than renting, when you add everything up? If the only affordable houses are so far off in the suburbs that riding metro–post-fare hike–costs up to $10/day, and driving and parking cost double that and climbing, can you really argue it’s so worth it?