Come see a video from today’s Bethesda Market. The market goes on every Tuesday from 11-3 until October. There is food, baked goods, plants, produce and all sorts of other things at the market at Veteran’s Park. Come on down next week. Click the picture to the right to see the video.
A parking enforcement vehicle parked in front of a fire plug. Does that seem fishy to anyone else? If a week goes by without me seeing a Montgomery County parking enforcement vehicle parked illegally, it’s because I haven’t spent many days up here in Bethesda.
Photo: Parking Enforcement Parking Illegally Originally uploaded by carlweaver
Please join Shara Banisadr and her students to celebrate unconventional ways of painting. They request that youRSVP so they know how many people to expect. You can visit the site about this event here and see others’ works as well.
The above painting is by local artist Kristin Bruch, a very talented and interesting young artist. As I have said before, I am not schooled in such highfalutin’ things as art history or art appreciation, but I know what I like and her work is drenched in it. Come on down and see Kristin’s work and that of many other artists as well. Here are all the specifics:
Reception: Friday, May 2, 2008
Time: 6:30-8:30
Location: Kensington Framing & Gallery
10805 Connecticut Ave
Kensington, MD 2089
I want to add a kitchen to my finished basement. A place for guests or renters to cook and entertain a guest.
On the advice of others I went to the Home Depot Expo Design Center Saturday morning. Oh what an error that was!
First off, all the massive bathrooms when you first walk in made me realize just how small my house is. But the real affront happened at the kitchen design center.
There a very arrogant salesman demanded I start my kitchen design with cabinet selections, ignoring my desire to start at what appliances would fit in my small space.
When I balked at his minimum kitchen design price, $45,000!, as ridiculous crazy talk, he became downright nasty. Apparently, unless you are trust fund wealthy, you are not welcome at Expo Design Center, Montgomery Mall.
Which leaves me with a problem: where do I go to design a little basement kitchen on a small budget?
If you’ve ever been to El Pollo Rico, you know how good the chicken is. The yucca is tender and crisp, and they’ve got a fridge full of bubblegum-flavored Inca Cola just waiting for you. And chances are, the whole meal wouldn’t cost more than a Hamilton. But, for as good as the food is, their hiring policies and sketchy cash management has landed their owners in jail tonight for harboring illegal immigrants, knowingly employing illegal immigrants and money laundering.
The bust took place recently at the Wheaton location of the chain, and four members of the Solano family were arrested for these charges, and 9 more of their employees were arrested and placed under deportation proceedings. Their cash business amounted to over $6 million over the last five years, and was deposited to avoid being noticed by banking regulations that require more stringent tracking practices. Shady, shady stuff is being alleged here.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Bethesda over the past month (rather equivalent to falling off the face of the earth for me), working on the costume design for a student production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Imagination Stage. As this is in addition to my full-time job downtown, it’s involved a fair amount of caffeine as well…
My current downtown purveyor of the greatest legal stimulant is the cheerful fellow at The Coffee Espress, whom I’ve praised before. But however much I love that little place, I’m beginning to be seduced over to the charms of Cornucopia, a skip away from the theater at 8102 Norfolk Avenue. It’s the sort of shop I could drop a lot of dough in, filled with a (yes) cornucopia of culinary delights - chocolates, nougat, olive oil, preserves, sauces, a tempting cookie spread, vats of gelato, crostini, on and on.
Though my stress level is at a hideous height, owner Ibo Selmy never ceases to put me at ease and create the most exquisite espresso I’ve had outside of Sicily (and being as he is part Sicilian, this makes perfect sense). I don’t know what I’ll do when the show is finally up and my journeys to Bethesda cease. I may actually have to make the pilgrimage for porcini and prosciutto.
“Road closed” - that is what the sign in the photograph of Ellsworth Drive says and that’s what PFA Silver Spring, LC, the developers of Downtown Silver Spring, said to photographers for years who thought about snapping a picture on this once fully public street. Until last month.
That’s when Chip Py started questioning the policy after he was harassed for photography. And when Metroblogging DC decided to organize a photo walk to visualize his concerns through Free Our Streets.
Now the developer has changed their policy, a first step in the right direction. But a policy statement subject to change at any time is not the answer. Welcoming photography, videography, and other filming on Ellsworth Drive, consistent with First Amendment rights as they would apply on any other public street is.
Or as Marc Fisher says:
Chip Py’s run-in with the picture policeof downtown Silver Spring has morphed into a good old American fight for the right to express oneself……The Peterson Companies, the developer that took advantage of $100 million in generous taxpayer support to get their lovely downtown retail strip going, is apparently running scared, and has offered what it terms a compromise.
But it’s an empty offer. Peterson will put up a “Welcome Photographers” banner, but the reality is that the company is in no way conceding that the street it controls is open to the public in any meaningful way.
So its time for you to join our good old American fight for the right to express oneself. Its time for you to Free Our Streets with a Downtown Silver Spring Photo Walk on the perfect day for a declaration of photographic freedom - July 4th!
Downtown Silver Spring Photo Walk
a declaration of photographic freedom
Wednesday, July 4, 2007, 12:00pm - Noon
At the Green Turf, the corner of Ellsworth and Fenton Streets
Free Our Streets, a loose association of Chip Py and DC Metrobloggers has started to make a difference.
Through our efforts, Montgomery county citizens are now aware that the developers of Downtown Silver Spring feel they have bought control over basic First Amendment rights on Ellsworth Avenue for $1 a year. And MoCo voters are not happy.
The questions they’re asking has led PFA Silver Spring LLC, a development partnership including the Peterson Companies, Foulger Pratt and Argo Investment, to change their stance on photography. But that change is just a start, a first, baby step. As the Baltimore Sun explains:
Last night, the development team, PFA Silver Spring LLC, issued a new policy, allowing photography in the area. And on July 4, it plans to display a “Welcome Photographers” banner on the site.But Py insists photography is not his sole concern. All types of free expression should be permitted, from political campaigning to handing out fliers and other literature, he said.
“They are telling us it’s OK to take pictures on the street, but we don’t have any other First Amendment rights,” he said. “They don’t want to talk about public-private rights on a street. … We are asking for some First Amendment considerations in our town.”
Free Our Streets is asking for PFA Silver Spring LC to welcome photography, videography, and other filming on Ellsworth Drive, consistent with First Amendment rights as they would apply on any other public street. Not a watered down “photography at our discretion, if we like you” policy for Ellsworth Drive.
The Downtown Silver Spring development includes $187 million in county and state funds and the once completely public property Ellsworth Drive, public investment that should come with public rights.
And so the Downtown Silver Spring Photo Walk is still on. A declaration of photographic freedom on July 4th.
Have you heard about the Montgomery County “Monkey Woman”, Elyse Gazewitz, who is fighting to free her monkey, Armani, from county banishment?
While I don’t care if the powers at be say that Armani is illegal and seized him for extradition to an animal sanctuary “where a monkey can live as a monkey,” what strikes me as odd about this whole situation is Gazewitz’s commitment to her capuchin monkey man:
Gazewitz said she had made preparations this week for a homecoming, stocking up on Armani’s favorite bananas and apples. She has left his room — she built a $4,000 addition onto her home just for him, she said — untouched since he was seized.Waiting for him are a little hammock, tire swings and infant toys. She also has his Huggies diapers (with holes cut out for his tail), his Osh Kosh B’Gosh outfits and baby bottles ready to go. “I have his little Tigger on my bed, and I have the little baby blanket that he loves,” Gazewitz said.
Pet owners, dog people, cat people, even guppy Dad’s, what do you think about that commitment to an animal, “wild” or not? I say its freaky-deeky.
To build a whole house addition with all the accruements mentioned, is a huge sign of addiction beyond the normal cat lady eccentrics or doggy mansion overbuilds. That says this lady is thinking monkey = child and going all gonzo over a primate.
That no matter what the Animal Matters Hearing Board says, maybe its best that Elyse Gazewitz be separated from her “little boy” and seek counseling for psycho-level anthropomorphism.
A footbridge to help pedestrians get to a Metro stop without having to cross the Capital Beltway or its exit ramps sounds like a great idea, right? Silver Spring surely thought so. That is, until the design of the footbridge put pedestrians under the Beltway, in the dark, out of view and out of earshot, and penned in by fences on both sides. Oh, that’s a GREAT idea.
I can’t decide what’s more alarming, that they built a footbridge that has become a magnet for armed robbers, or that they knew the design had these issues in advance and they built the thing anyway. We’re lucky so far that it has only been muggings (and two of them thwarted at that), but I personally don’t expect it to stay like that for long. Way to go, MoCo.
In the meantime, this seems like a good time as any to review a few basic self-defense tips for walking in dark and isolated areas:
- Turn off your portable music player so you can be more aware of your surroundings.
- Carry whatever type of self-defense implement that is legal and that you are confident in your ability to use.
- Ladies, I know we all hate to be the woman in a skirt and sneakers, but consider that high heels impede your ability to run or stay on your feet if you are attacked. Carry the cute shoes to change into, and wear the practical ones.
