Today I came across a massive group of police officers hanging around their motorcycles at 5th and E streets. Dick Cheney visiting the Science Museum? A sting about to occur at the Building Museum? No, it’s National Police Week, and the officers were gathered from all over the country to honor fallen colleagues. There were folks from as far as California, as well as a busful of officers from Hagerstown who were there on behalf of an officer who died this year.

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’ve realized that one powerful symbol of urban life is the little convenience stores that are on about every tenth corner throughout the District. They’re tiny and the cashiers are often boxed in by bulletproof plexiglass, but the shoppers are regulars and the stores are packed to the gills with necessities and odds and ends. They are a neighborhood institution that only exists in a walking—ie, urban—culture.

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!

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.

Today marks the opening of Artomatic 2008 or what should be called “More Art Than You Can Shake a Stick At 2008″. This annual show promises to be bigger and better than ever this year, taking over the empty ten story Capitol Plaza office building and housing the work of about 1,000 artists. Yes. 1,000 artists. Not exactly something you can see all of in a casual walk through. Something tells me I’m going to have to make multiple trips to the show and even then probably won’t catch everything.

So what is Artomatic you ask? Their website sums it up best by saying:

Artomatic is a month-long multimedia arts event that draws together visual artists, musicians and performers and brings their work to the community without charge.

I had toyed around with the idea of exhibiting in this year’s show but just couldn’t get my act together in time. Picking a series of photos, printing them (bleh), framing them (bleh and cha-ching!), printing business cards, painting the walls of my space, arranging lighting…way too much work for me to tackle. I am, however, excited to see the work of many of my friends at this year’s show including Marie Kwak, Eric Petersen, Kyle Gustafson, Angela Kleis, and Jason Colston.

The show opens at noon today and if you are planning on going tonight (like I am), be prepared for an insane amount of people and chaos. If you want to avoid tonight’s crowd, the show runs until June 15th so you have plenty of time to pay your respects to DC’s art community.

Artomatic
Opening Friday, May 9 - Closing June 15
1200 First St NE
Capital Plaza I - corner of First & M streets NE - NY Ave Metro
Wed-Thu: 5pm-10pm; Fri-Sat: noon-2am; Sun: noon-10pm; closed Mon-Tue
Free admission; donations welcome

Photo by Tracy Lee

I was pretty sure that my good friend and colleague Jonny Goldstein (of Jonny’s Par-Tay) was never going to warm up to a city like Washington, DC. He moved here the same time I did, about two years ago, and I could tell that DC didn’t really have the spark he had come to love about the Big Apple after ten years there.

We met up at the Brickskeller with Andy Carvin one summer evening after the three of us had moved here independently within a month of each other and I sensed, from how Jonny described his DC experiences thus far, that he found the place serviceable but not necessarily interesting beyond the obvious tourist sites. I was excited to have moved somewhere with built-in friends and was a bit sad that Jonny may not be satisfied enough with the area to make it his home.

This is why I was happy to see the serene emotions in his post about five really cool things that happened to him in DC within about 90 minutes:

So, for all my griping, DC sometimes surprises me with little moments like these. And I appreciate that this former swamp has turned into a city that every once in a while even a jaded dude like me can appreciate.

Jonny, I know you won’t be here forever, but I am glad you have warmed up to the place a little. Hopefully when you go back to New York, whenever that may be, you will take positive memories with you, not just the occasional soullessness of the city and the bleak strip malls that pockmark the roads and highways. It’s a different kind of high here, but one definitely worth trying and I am glad you eventually inhaled deeply enough to get it.

To anyone lucky enough to have ended up here, like Jonny and me, I offer you this hope – give this city, in fact, the whole area, a fair chance. You’d be surprised how at home you can feel after just a short stay.

Readers, I would love to know what brought you here, what has kept you here and what do you find here in the DC area that you can’t get anywhere else. Please chime in.

In the wonderful wisdom that is the D.C. Council taking their lead from the President in trying to *hush* dissent in the Capitol, preliminary approval was given to quiet noisy demonstrations within the city. As WTOP reports, that the measure is aimed at getting demonstrators away from residential neighborhoods and limit “non-commercial public speech” to 80 dB at a distance of 50 feet. The initial ordinance was proposed by Tommy Wells (Ward 6) and supported by Mary Cheh, Kwame Brown and David Catania in 2007, but was now just voted upon for enactment.

So what you’re saying, is that, while folks who decide to at least exercise their right to be heard in a public forum, “non-commercially”, must do so at a whisper, but some “commercial” entity, blaring music and using a loudspeaker, can do so wherever and whenever they want in D.C.? Let’s take a glance at what 80dB’s really gets you. [Note: Contrary to the “quick facts” posted on Councilmemeber Wells’ site, and increase in decibels is not a simple “doubling” but a logarithmic scale increase… which is a much different mathematical consideration… so much for politicians fact checking before trying to enact laws.]

10dBA - Normal Breathing
20dBA - Mosquito or Rustling Leaves
30dBA - A Whisper
40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA - Normal Conversation
60dBA - Laugher
70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower

So, what they are proposing, is that you can protest in D.C., as long as we can’t hear you above the din of the traffic in D.C.. WTF?! Ice Cream trucks are louder than that… granted other cities are cracking down on those too. Granted, I always wanted the ice cream truck in my neighborhood to play “Helter Skelter” or come around like L.A.’s ice cream truck of satan.

D.C. readers, what’s your view on this… pleasant relief or curb to your Constitutional rights to be a pain in the ass?

DSC_5644.jpg — Originally uploaded by rev_bri

Earlier today, we mentioned there were six major breaches in the Water Mains in Southeast, crippling most of the water network. Now, WTOP is reporting their cause is an unknown surge in water pressure from outside the system, which caused major disruption in service as the mains couldn’t handle the pressure and burst. The Post, however, says they’re related to the cleaning of a nearby reservoir last night.

The bursts are all currently being repaired by every crew that WASA can get their hands on. My email to WASA has not yet been returned, requesting a timeline for repairs. I suspect it may not be until tomorrow that the water pressure throughout the area south and east of the Anacostia is restored.

This does bring up an important problem, though, in that DC Fire & EMS depend on the availability of good water pressure to power their firefighting efforts. A good portion of the city, to the south of the Anacostia, is unprotected in case of a fire, as there’s nowhere to get water pressure to attach the fire hoses to. No statement from the Fire Department is available at this time.

bubbling up — Originally uploaded by JamesCalder

The Washington Post has indicated that the Tarpon Springs authorities have ruled her death a suicide and released her suicide note. The Smoking Gun has included actual images of her suicide notes, and they’re heartbreaking. Particularly sad is a part WaPo didn’t comment on, a paragraph in the letter to her mother that says “There is a little surprise waiting for you in the BOA account. Please use the monies for final arrangement & various account settlement.” Before some cursory Googling I’d have wagered good money that there’s no way the people who prosecuted her for racketeering and money laundering will fail to seize those assets. Over at Justice League, however, blogger SP Biloxi has posted that the defense and has already filed motions to abate and the prosecution had no objection. After all that’s gone on, including the death of Brandy Britton, everything has just been wiped away like it never happened.

Unless you’re Randall L. Tobias, former AIDS czar, Senator David Vitter or think-tank guru Harlan K. Ullman, named as clients. Or Lt. Commander Rebecca C. Dickinson, identified as an employee of Palfrey’s and compelled to testify… and suspended by the Navy, despite the immunity the prosecution granted all the women called to the stand, preventing them from exercising their 5th amendment rights and staying silent. Or Rhona Reiss, 63, also publicly identified as a former escort. Or any of the other 11 women called to testify by the prosecution. The other 119 women identified in Palfrey’s records may be safe, since the judge ordered those portions of the records sealed, and thankfully we all know that information mandated as private never leaks out.

What a waste of money and life, all to prosecute a woman who paid all her taxes on the money she made connecting two consenting adults with each other.

If she’d been running a ItsJustLunch franchise and collecting thousands of dollars from both parties she was connecting up, she’d still be alive and doing business.

If she’d been Craigslist, connecting people who want to have sex. then the shitbags at rightwingpundits.com, who I will not dignify with a link and the search engine credibility that conveys, wouldn’t have a page up about one of the case’s identified escorts, along with a picture of her and details about her academic history and family life. Oh, and a swipe at how attractive she is.

But hey, she had it all coming and nobody to blame but herself, right? After all, if it’s illegal then it must be wrong, right Mrs. Loving?

The Capital Weather Gang (rarely wrong, always fun to read) have put up their insanely optimistic forecast for the early part of the week, calling for sunshine, low humidity and the kind of perfect days that exist only in the collective imagination of the poets.

So, here’s what you do after work today. Don’t head straight home, take a walk. Getting on the metro at McPherson Square? Walk to Metro Center or Farragut West. Walk through Dupont Circle down to Farragut North. Walk to Gallery Place or Archives.

Give yourself a taste of this awesome weather instead of taking the subterranean route home. Taking the bus? Walk a few blocks and catch it at the next stop up the route.

Or, blow off dinner at the house, and pack it up and head for the park for a picnic. Better yet? Take your camera and snap some shots for the Flickr group!

From my walk — Originally uploaded by tbridge

Phew, another week in DC! Things never seem to get boring around here do they?

• We’ve got the Wizards pulling off a stunner against Cleveland to survive one more day in the NBA playoffs. Good luck tonight fellas. Let’s hope that Queen James doesn’t decide to open up a can of whoopass and dunk on your heads. Here are some tips for winning: play some aggressive D, drive to the hole, make your foul shots, and rebound for Rodman’s sake!
• Deborah Jeanne Palfrey, the ‘DC Madam’, hung herself with some rope in a shed down in Florida. While suicide is not exactly the best way to solve your problems, I don’t feel sad for Deborah like a lot of people do. She got herself into her mess and then came up with a way to get herself out of it. Now if somehow we find out that there was foul play involved…that’s entirely different.
• Taxis started installing meters. And by ‘taxis’, I mean about six of them. Cabbies are dragging their feet when it comes to installing them, claiming their income will be drastically reduced. And that’s my problem how? I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to trick the system, like taking the long way around town or by choosing streets that are known for traffic jams.
• People lined up like starving wolves for free ice cream cones at Ben & Jerry’s. Baskin Robbins tried to follow that up by selling $0.31 scoops, but don’t they understand that nothing is better than free, and that people don’t want four pennies in change?
• There was a shootout at a school in NE DC. None of the victims died thankfully, but did this make the national news? It’s shame that people are so immune to hearing about shootings in DC. If this had happened in some place like, I dunno, Taos, CNN would have been on the scene faster than Wolf Blitzer’s beard grows.

What did I miss? You know, when some of us move out of DC to some place like, I dunno, Taos…life is going to be pretty boring in comparison. I can’t wait to see what happens next week! Hopefully less shooting and more free ice cream.

Photo by rsplatpc