My pal P.Q. sent me an invite to what appears to be a pillow fight scheduled for tomorrow at The National Mall. In recognition of International Pillow Fight Day, Capital Improv is organizing the local fight in Washington, DC. According to the invite over 400 people participated in last year’s fight and there’s already well over 1,500 RSVP’s for the event. It’s no surprise that the success of the snowball fights this winter have fueled interest in flash mob-type events like this one.

If you are interested make sure you read the complete rules on the Facebook invite: no down pillows, respect people with cameras.

The invite states to arrive with a pillow but keep it out of sight. Head towards the World War II monument side of the Washington Monument and wait for a fake shouting match to occur- that will be your cue to take sides and get in on the action. The fight will last for 15 minutes and then attempt to move to Dupont Circle.

Really ambitious for a pillow fight to move across the city.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Kevin H.

This past weekend I met up with my new pal Rebecca at the The 44th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival. We originally planned on protesting the kites but instead attempted to fly some instead. I think the kites had the last laugh as we realized that we weren’t very good at flying kites.

I didn’t connect the dots this past weekend that the kite festival was part of the opening weekend for the Cherry Blossom Festival. For tourists it means a great upcoming weekend where the blossoms will be in peak bloom. For the rest of us it means mayhem as we try and deal with all you tourists around the city. For those that want to find out what’s going on when should check out the festival’s calendar. The Washington Post has a pretty good guide up as well- and stay on the lookout for local businesses holding their own specials around the even, for instance local restaurant Zola and the Spy Museum have teamed-up to offer Cherry Picks, a combination dinner and Spy Night experience.

How are you going to celebrate the Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend? Hide? Play?

When did massive, single-day volunteer orgies become cool? Maybe it’s a Gen-Y thing. As a college student we had annual community service projects and more recently it was hip to partake in community service around Obama’s Inauguration.

Regardless of how it became cool, I have to admit that it’s always good to support your local community and I’ve been hearing some buzz around my friends about a couple of events coming up this spring.

My friend Rebecca is currently trying to enlist me onto her team for Servathon 2010. This year on April 23-24 over 7,000 volunteers will participate in various service projects around DC. Servathon is organized locally by Greater DC Cares and you can learn more about joining here.

The other big event is put on Hands On DC, an organization that Metblogs’ very own Frank often works with. They put on Work-A-Thon which takes place on May 15th, 2010. What makes this event different is the focus on improving local DC public schools. Check out the video below to see the end product of their recent work.

Whichever event you want to get involved with, it’s clear that spring for DC means volunteering- so get involved!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb-PQhu6cf8[/youtube]

Happy Holidays from all of us here at DC Metblogs!

We will be taking it easy for the holidays, besides a couple of special posts next week we will be back in 2010 ready to write about what we’re thinking and what we’re interested in around The District.

See you in 2010!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user tenderlung

Photo courtesy Flickr user Larry Miller

Fans of DC’s outdoor film festivals don’t have to wait til summer to watch movies outside.

The Golden Triangle neighborhood will be celebrating the holidays by screening holiday films on the wall of the Tiny Jewel Box on 1147 Connecticut Avenue. Films start at 5 PM daily starting today and includes a classic lineup of holiday flicks:

It’s a Wonderful Life – Monday, December 14
A Christmas Story – Tuesday, December 15
White Christmas – Wednesday, December 16
How the Grinch Stole Christmas – Thursday, December 17
The Nutcracker – Friday, December 18

It will be interesting to see how a film will look projected on a building full of windows, and I don’t know where you would be place a chair and watch the films but it will be an interesting sight to see as you walk around after the work day ends.

The Golden Triangle BID is also giving away free dinners and horse-drawn carriage rides in conjunction with the screenings, you can head over to the Golden Triangle BID site to register to win.

President Obama experienced his first Presidential Turkey pardon, a tradition that he notes dates back to the JFK administration. The event was teased in a cheesy yet enjoyable video produced by the White House staff, and the ceremony which occurred yesterday was streamed live online and the video of the ceremony and his Thanksgiving remarks have been posted on YouTube.

The President was in a joking mood during the whole ordeal, noting that he was actually going to eat “the sucker” if it wasn’t for intervention from his daughters, Sash and Malia. He also says he wasn’t sure of exactly how to pardon the bird, waiving his hand in some sort of majestic fashion citing, “Courage you are hereby pardon, and you will live- in Disneyland.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQy0MPWnGY[/youtube]

On behalf of all of us here at DC Metblogs I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, as your city captain I would like to say I’m thankful for having a great audience and I hope to continue to serve you guys well in this holiday season and beyond.

In celebration of Veteran’s Day pop singer Amy Grant could be spotted down the street from the White House at The Red Cross National Headquarters (you really can’t miss the 17th street building- it has a big red cross on it.)

Grant was in town to help kick off the Red Cross’ Holiday Mail for Heroes program, where you can take a moment to sign a card and send a message to those that are serving our country all over. If you missed your chance to sign a card with Amy Grant, you can still send a card to service members and their families through December 7th.

Send your cards to:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Make sure you check the website for info on how you should make out your cards.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZCPy03re30[/youtube]

I used to remember when one would have to wake-up early in the morning and wait in line to see the Washington Monument. This past summer I was surprised when my friend LJ told me that you can now book the coveted tickets online. Now another popular Washington attraction is going online. Trying to obtain tickets to the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony would mean waiting outside in the cold- now you can vie for a spot amongst the 2,800 seats or 7,000 standing spots available.

Starting today you can register to enter a lottery for the free tickets needed to see the event in person. Registration for the lottery will last until 11:59 PM on Friday November 6th. Just head on down to the event website for more info.

The National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, scheduled for 5 p.m. Dec. 3 on the Ellipse, south of the White House.

Photo courtesy Alex Buckley

A disclosure so the FTC doesn’t go after me: this post is going to be 60% shameless plug.

I’ve spent the last few months stage managing for Kensington Arts Theatre’s production of The Rocky Horror Show. We opened last weekend to some wonderful audiences and this weekend we are pulling all the stops out for Halloween. Tonight we’ll have a performance at 8:00 PM but tomorrow night we’ll be having a special midnight performance for Halloween! What better way to celebrate the holiday than watching the show that’s been a horror cult classic for years.

The Rocky Horror Show tells the tale of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple that are left stranded when their car breaks down in a rain storm, and seek the sheltered at the nearby castle of Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist who has a devilish plan in store for his new visitors.

For those that are Frankie fans, audience participation will be allowed and encouraged. If you are Rocky Horror virgin, you can find out what all the fuss is about here. Audience members will be free to shout out their favorite callbacks during the show, however keep your rice and pieces of toast at home. Props brought from home won’t be allowed due to safety reasons, however you can purchase all the props you need to shower the theatre with cards for sorrow and cards for pain.

To get complete details on the show check out KAT’s website– and if can’t catch it this weekend it’ll be running til November 14th.

If my shameless plug didn’t convince you to check out Rocky Horror then here’s a couple of other things you can do:

• The International Spy Museum will be holding a Spy Fright today and tomorrow. Besides a haunted Spy at Night event with cocktails, wearing a costume to the museum gets you discounts including 50% admission.  On Saturday the museum is also launching the latest Clue game: CLUE Secrets & Spies.
• The folks at Lindy Promotions are putting on the 10th Annual Nightmare on M Street, and if M Street two years ago means anything, it’ll be quite the show.
• From 6 PM – Midnight on Halloween stop by any Taco Bell for a free Black Jack Taco. No base stealing required.
• Instead of listing every single Saturday night Halloween party in town, just check out what The Washington Post, The Washingtonian, and BarDC have to say.

If you aren’t listening to Bill Simmons’ B.S. Report podcast, then you don’t know what you are missing.

Sports fans may know him as the ESPN columnist that’s a die-hard Boston sports fan (which appeals to me as a former Bostonian), I know him mainly from his daily podcasts that feature interviews with his friends, fellow writers, and the occasional GM or actor. His experience writing for the Jimmy Kimmel Show has given him a broad background and network that makes his podcasts entertaining for both fans of sports and pop culture.

So you can tell that I was thrilled to hear via Twitter that Simmons will be kicking off his book tour in Washington DC with a midnight signing at ESPN Zone. He’ll be there tonight to release his latest book, The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy, and he’ll be signing copies that you can purchase or you can bring in your own copies to be signed (he’s already recommended going to Amazon or Wal-Mart to get the best deals.)

So if you want to know where I’ll be tonight, I’ll be the one with the Red Sox cap standing in line downtown- however I have a feeling there’ll be a lot of Boston caps in line, maybe I should wear my Nationals hat instead.

UPDATE: It was great to shake The Sports Guy’s hand and get him to sign my copy of the book with an insult to my Alma Mater (which neighbors his Alma Mater of Holy Cross.) The event was so big that they didn’t have enough books for everyone, and the line rounded the corner and went down three blocks- glad to see DC has a lot of Bill Simmons fans!