But to all those local bands looking for a shot at fame, it looks like 4 nights have just opened up on the 9:30 Club’s calendar. You might want to call them and see if they’ll let you fill in.

Unlike most comics convention this one won’t be filled with people dressed up like Klingons and Batman. It is more likely to be filled with indie hipster webcomics creators including some favorites of mine like Dresden Codak, Perry Bible Fellowship, and Wondermark. Not to mention indie comics legend Matt Wagner, and lots of indie print comics and zines. Plus c’mon, what else do you have to do this Saturday? It’s not like you’ve got a date or anything…

It goes from noon to 7pm and is obviously metro accessible (I suggest you get off at the ‘Clarendon’ stop). There’s a burritto eating contest at 3pm, and an ice cream eating contest at 4pm. I’d suggest entering both.

Arlington already has over 600 regular taxicabs, so the impact will be marginal at best, but at least it is a start I guess. The weird thing is that since they aren’t taking any of the regular taxis off the street, instead of having 600 inefficient cabs, we now have 600 inefficient cabs plus 85 efficient ones. Doesn’t seem like it is going to reduce emissions to have more cabs on the street, especially since all those extra cabs will just be idling in front of hotels or the airport waiting to pick up a fare. Arlington might have made a bigger impact by replacing 85 cabs instead of just adding new ones.

And of course The big question which was not addressed by the Board: currently all the local taxicabs are charging a premium because fuel prices are so high. Since these hybrids get much better gas milage, do you still have to pay the premium? Something tells me that there’s not going to be a discount to being and environmentally friendly passenger.

A few months ago, in an empty lot that used to be a used car dealership here in Clarendon, some enterprising soul opened a shoe repair business. I was passing by today and I took a moment to reflect on what the repairman’s financial situation must be like. I’m sure he pays only a minimal rent, but I couldn’t imagine that he did much business. I mean, in this age of disposable consumer goods, how many people actually get their shoes repaired? It can’t possibly be cheaper to get a repair than to just buy a new pair of shoes. I thought about how lonely it must be for that guy, sitting alone in his little shack day after day waiting for people to come with shoes and money, but probably going home without even repairing one sole. “Maybe it’s a front for the mob,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I’ll plug his store on Metroblog, just because I feel bad for the guy.”

But then, miraculously, in the five minutes that I stood their pondering this guy’s fortunes, not one, but two cars pulled up and customers with armloads of shoes ran into the store. Shows what I know about entrepreneurship.

It’s almost worth not getting blind drunk on Friday nights so you can be up early enough to hit the Arlington Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings. It’s held right across the street from the Arlington Courthouse Metro Station (N. Courthouse St. and N. 14th St). The Market is open from 8am-12noon (but it’s hard to find parking after about 8am).

Unlike most grocery store food that comes from South America and has been in a warehouse for a few months, the vegetables found at the Farmer’s Market were picked at the peak of ripeness by local growers and brought directly to the market. If you can’t taste the difference between naturally ripened and chemically-ripened fruit, you owe it to yourself to buy some of the produce they’ve got there and learn. In the last few weeks I’ve gotten some of the best blueberries, cherries and blackberries I’ve had in a long time. They also have some delicious baked goods from local bakeries.

One of the best parts of the Farmer’s Market is that it’s also pretty cheap compared to supermarket chains. That 4lb zucchini I’m holding only cost 50 cents! You can’t beat a deal like that. By the way, if anybody has any good recipes that call for 4lbs of zucchini let me know…

Sure, there are a number of other comparable Farmer’s Markets in DC; the Alexandria Market on Saturday mornings and the Dupont Circle Market on Sunday mornings for example, but the Courthouse Market has the distinct advantage of being right next to my house.

For years now I’ve been intrigued by the signs for the “Scenic Overlooks” on GW Parkway. Anyone who knows me knows I’m all about great scenery, and based on the rest of the views from the Parkway itself, it seems like there might be some nice views of the river. So this weekend I finally decided to stop and see for myself what all the fuss was about. Turns out it’s not much.

Here’s the view from the first overlook. It certainly overlooks the river, but I’m not sure its all that scenic. Certainly no more scenic than the views you get just driving down GW Parkway. So, I figured that maybe the second one would be better.

Here’s the view from the second overlook. Unless you have some magic power to see through leaves, you’ll probably agree that this particular vantage point doesn’t even count as an overlook. You can’t see the river at all!

So, all in all, I’d have to say that going to the GW Parkway overlooks is pretty disappointing and not worth risking your life trying to merge back into traffic when you leave. They aren’t particularly scenic, and only one is really even an ‘overlook’. On the plus side, they are still great places to go for teens who want to make-out with their sweeties or spies who want to hold clandestine meetings with government officials.

As a follow up to my previous post about the lack of iPhone frenzy in Northern Virginia, I noticed that as of 8am this morning there were 10-20 people waiting on line at the Apple store here in Clarendon. So if you are still hoping to get one today you’d better hurry on down. I’m not sure what makes someone so excited about a phone that they are willing to miss a whole day’s worth of work to wait in line for one. But on the other hand, here I am being late for work so I can write a blog entry about these people. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

I went to the Apple Store in Clarendon this evening. Looks like, as of 11pm tonight, no one is waiting on line to buy the iPhone. There was this one lonely chair on the sidewalk, but it didn’t look like anybody was sitting there. I suppose there’s no real reason to wait around until there is someone else waiting in line behind you.

As you may remember from a few posts back this iPhone is supposed to be generating long lines of fans all around the country, desperate to plunk down their $599 so they don’t have to carry around a phone and an iPod. Maybe DC is more of a Microsoft town…