As a fledgling local journalist, I’ve been spending some time on community blogs lately. Many of them are charming and compelling, and unfortunately wind up eating up hours as I go from one link to another. What I love is reading about the little issues that can be so important to residents, and the chiming in of various voices to give their two cents that creates a distinct flavor and sense (or illusion) of community.

Some of my favorites so far (and this is a very incomplete list, since I’m still new to this) are Prince of Petworth, Frozen Tropics (covering H Street, Trinidad, and north of Capitol Hill), and Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space (urban planning issues). I think a lot of people like these blogs too–their owners post very frequently, write about relevant subjects, and are clearly passionate about their topics. The Prince of Petworth blogger, for example, posts constantly about an area that probably doesn’t get written about much otherwise; he’s got a great eye for the unusual and, best of all, writes with a funny, fresh, cynicism-free style.

Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space is funny because it seems to break a lot of blogging rules–besides the long title, the topic is sort of dry and the blogger tends to write really long posts. But his obvious passion about the topic of city planning shines through and makes the blog interesting. It’s a great reminder of that lesson, “pursue what you love and stick to it, and you’ll be successful,” or whatever the adage is.

I also joined a Brookland listserv recently because I’m thinking about writing something about that neighborhood soon. Reading it is like taking a step down from blogs into the granularity of neighborhood issues: the listserv is full of recommendations for good handymen, discussions of school closings, and debates about new city development plans for the neighborhood.

This city’s neighborhoods are clearly humming with busy citizens and activity, which is great. My only reservation is to question the diversity of voices found online. I think most of the bloggers try to be racially ’sensitive’ and it’s my impression that some of the posters are black or maybe latino, though I have a feeling they’re in the vast minority. That’s kind of odd, given that some of the most dynamic neighborhoods are ones that were probably 90% black/latino just a decade ago. It’s cool that new residents are such boosters for where they live, but it also bums me out to think that they might be (unintentionally) drowning out other voices.

So you just finished reading the latest Grisham thriller, or stayed up all night because you couldn’t put down Amy Tan’s newest, and now you’re just itching to tell everyone about how awesome it was. Or what a terrible read it was, so don’t even bother. What options do you have?

Well, a lot, actually. You can find a forum or review site pretty much all over the web these days….except at the library.

Those days are over, at least in Alexandria.

The Alexandria Library now offers patrons and residents a chance to put down their own reviews and thoughts on nearly all of the library’s holdings, which includes books, movies, music, and other material found on the online catalog. The Library has included this functionality as another resource for people to get recommendations and reviews from other patrons on materials to check out.

“Our Library now has a truly interactive mechanism, completely integrated into our catalog,” said Rose Dawson, Director of Libraries. “We know that our patrons are already used to such interaction on many commercial Web sites, but our Library affords its patrons the ability to reserve materials online—and to get those materials at no charge.”

Accessing the catalog is easy. Go to the website and click on “Library Catalog” and start browsing. When you find something you’d like to offer a review on, just type it in. Keep in mind that you’ll need to register to the website in order to do so.

The interactivity of the online catalog is just one more step in building the community, and one that is appreciated from its patrons.

I love libraries, courtesy of mj*laflaca

It’s a blog-eat-blog world out there, but we here at Metblogs love DCist and hope that they love us too (or at least really like us a lot).  To show our love for them and to help promote what is turning out to be a great showcase of local talent, I highly recommend that you join me in attending the opening of their 2nd Annual DCist Exposed Photography Show. From their press release:

The exhibit will showcase new talent as they reveal the city to us through the eyes of people who live and work in the D.C. metro area. In a city too often seen purely as a collection of federal government buildings or a destination for tourists, these photographers capture the local music, art, architecture, and urban surroundings that give Washington, D.C. its unique cultural vibrancy.

If you’re looking for a way to get into the local art scene and perhaps even start your very own collection, I can’t think of a better way to begin. Over 40 photographs will be on display and, dare I say, for sale at prices that may be a bargain one day when these photographers hit the big leagues. Regardless, this should be a fun, free event that should not be missed.

Friday March 7th, 7PM to 9PM
Civilian Art Projects
406 7th St NW (THIRD FLOOR)
Washington, DC 20004

A friend of mine sent me this but suggested I might want to check with my darling girlfriend first.

I told him I didn’t think she was skilled enough to do virus repair.

I give up.

I don’t want to seem ungrateful, as I do like the Arlington online event calendar. It’s klunky and javascript-crazy, but it works okay in Firefox and has a good amount of listings in it for community events. The problem is, like any website that requires that I revisit it periodically to see what’s new, is that I just won’t remember to do that. The solutions they offer to this are email alerts - fat chance, I get too much email already - and RSS feeds. Super. If you don’t know what RSS feeds are then this ain’t the whine for you.

If you do, Arlington’s got several, one for each category on the calendar. Arts, Business, Environment, Government, Reading & Literacy, Special Events, and Sports & Fitness. The only problem is that they just don’t work.

Oh, they list the calendar events…. sometimes a bunch of times. But they all come up with useless links rather than the link to the item itself. For example, here’s the item detail for the Pedestrian Advising Meeting on Jan 9th It’s got the times, location, sponsor, transportation options and more. But if you look at the entry in the RSS feed for Government events you get the brief description “Pedestrian Advisory Committee bi-monthly meeting”. Which might be okay, except the link is just to the sponsor website, WALKArlington. Go there and there’s no immediate information on this meeting.

If it’s a library-hosted event like this Stop in for Stories regular event you get a description that says “Stop in for Stories is a fun and interactive program with stories, songs and crafts for all ages. There is no registration required for this ongoing program.” and a link… that doesn’t say diddly about “Stop in for Stories.”

So I’m done with clicking a link to get more information… and not getting more information. I’ve removed all the feeds from my reader and if I don’t happen to look at the calendar to see something on any given week I’m just not going to know about it. I don’t know if this is a mis-configured tool or if they’re using it wrong, but the upshot is that you get less functionality with the RSS reader, not more. I wonder if anyone involved in running the calendar has actually ever tried to use their own RSS feeds?

He lost his pants, and then he lost his composure, but neither of those things got Roy Pearson $67 million. What it did get him was a sizable chunk legal fees, and, of course, the coveted spot as Metroblogging DC’s Grinch of the Year. Pearson, if you were living under a rock this summer, sued a local dry cleaners when they lost a pair of his pants. Normally, no giant thing. The problem here is that he sued for $67M. Yeah, with six zeroes. For a pair of his pants. Talk about your frivolous lawsuits…

Anyhow, Pantsgate turned into a national news story, and as the case went on, the more and more ridiculous things got, naturally. Pearson’s court case provided many moments of hilarity to the DC area, but the Dry Cleaners Shut Down this fall, as a result of all the legal travail. I can’t say I blame them, after that kind of harassment, I wouldn’t know what to do either, except close up shop and head home.

So, congratulations Roy Pearson for making a mockery of our courts, the entirety of the legal profession (which took some doing, I might add), and for reminding us that it doesn’t take much to become a giant flaming asshole. Congrats, you’re the Grinch of the Year. Vote totals are below the cut, for the curious.
(more…)

If you missed last year’s Exposed show, then now’s the time to get planning! DCist today announced their plans for Exposed 2008, which will take place March 7th-15th at Civilian Art Projects in Penn Quarter. With a friendly $5 entry fee, and a request of only 25% of final sale profits, Exposed is a great way to get your photos seen without having to come up with a bundle in jury fees.

Check out their new Flickr Group for Entries, and make sure to fill out the entry form.

And remember: unless you can capture it on fire, the Washington Monument is a bad subject.

I’m now receiving unsolicited emails from The DC Republican Committee, each message arriving twice because two of my email addresses (which both forward to the same location) appear to have been subscribed. Here’s their newest “action alert” which just plopped into my inbox:

DC Needs More then (sic) Hearings

Washington, DC: The DC Republican Committee made the following statement in response to the City’s workers accused of corruption:

“When you have two city employees from the District’s Office of Tax and Revenue who alledgedly were so brazen in their corruption scheme as to have bought a 2005 Benty and spent over $1.4 million dollars from Neiman Marcus, the bottom line is the citizens of DC have to police their public officials,” stated DC Republican Chair Robert Kabel.

“Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, chairman of the finance and revenue committee, said he and Council Chairman Vincent Gray will hold oversight hearings. This is a start but not a solution. Reform must take place and the first step is to set up an independent office with subpoena power to root out waste, fraud, frills and abuse within DC Government,” concluded Kabel.

I have no comment on their suggestions for DC government — I’ll leave that to more savvy political commentators — but I do vehemently disagree with the text that follows at the bottom of the email:

You have received this message because you have subscribed to a mailing list of District of Columbia Republican Committee. If you do not wish to receive periodic emails from this source, please click below to unsubscribe.

No, I have not subscribed to any mailing list of DCGOP, and no way am I clicking on an “unsubscribe” link. Into the “Report Spam” bin this message goes.

Jonny Goldstein, by Carl Weaver

Tonight, DC media guru Jonny Goldstein interviews Lux Nightmare of boinkology.com and DC’s own Gerry T. of gerryt.com about their video blogs which delve into the complexities of sex in the digital age.

Join us to find out the ins and outs (so to speak) of making media about sex and sexuality with these two provocative yet grounded media makers.

As always, you direct the conversation via live text chat.

When: 9PM Eastern
Where: jonnygoldstein.com

If you have a free account from Operator 11 you may be able to get in on the video discussion as well.

Comic from the excellent Married to the Sea

My first thought was a big sandwich board signs erected on the mall but it occurs to me this might be a good use for those lighted signs over 66. Not like they ever put useful traffic information on the goddamned things.