Friday Fun Post: Help Computer

Not the funniest one out there, but the funniest one that is safe for work. Apparently there are dozens of these. Mindless fun for an attention-span-less nation. Population me.

Inside the Real World DC House

DC flags, Lincoln Room, potty jokes, cast mates, dirty kitchens, deep thoughts, confessions, reading books, instant DC natives and more. Can't wait for the season to air. ? It's in Dupont at 20th an S Streets NW. The show finished taping a couple of weeks ago. Care of the Washington Post.

Apartment Houses: The White Apartment House

I don't know the name of this building, but it always intrigued me. Right at the corner of 16th and Newton Street NW, on the edge of Mount Pleasant. It's always seemed to have apartments upstairs, apartments in the basement and vacant first floor. The photos doesn't really show, but it's a very narrow building that butts right up against the Canaan Baptist Church. You could reach your arm out of one one and touch the other. Perhaps it was part of the church property at one point? I don't know. Anyway, I like it. 3360 16th St NW.

Maoz Veg Looks Close, For Real This Time

Wayyyy back in January of this year I was drooling over the prospect of a Maoz Veg falafel restaurant opening up shop in Dupont. I was all ready to take a long lunch to be there when this place opened and stuff my face. But didn't happen. And it isn't open. The storefront sat for months with the coming soon signs teasing me each time I walked by. The address is the basement level of 1817 M Street NW.

There has been a little progress. The permanent signage is up above windows. The window coverings are gone. And Washington Biz Journal is reporting that opening may happen soon. Now in DC, I never trust a reported opening date. But just for fun, I'll pass along that the reported date is November 1. As in next week. I'll take before the year end, but if it's next week, I will be there, too.

Just to recap, Maoz Vegetarian is a European falafel restaurant. We'd be home to either the 7th or 8th U.S. store, depending on opening date. Falafel is what they serve; plus fries, drinks and salad. Here's the menu (PDF). Essentially, all the falafel shops in DC are copies of this place. Without Maoz, there's no falafel shop culture in DC. The OG of falafel shops if you will. Hopefully this place will come through with the quality and top all the others, which have proliferated here over the years.

Midnight Movies at E Street

The mostly art-house theater E Street Cinema is once again offering a midnight movie series. The first film in this series was Shuan of the Dead, which showed last weekend. So, if you missed that... well, it's available on DVD, pretty much anywhere where DVDs are sold. The rest of the series continues this weekend. E Street Cinema is on the corner of 11th and E NW, a block form the 42 bus. Here's the line up.

October 30 & 31 The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Perhaps THE cult movie of all cult movies. This is a film adaptation of a British stage show from the early 1970s. American performances usually include audience participation. These showings at E Street will feature a live cast who'll perform scenes during the movie.

November 6 & 7 Jaws
Freaking terrifying movie about a giant shark that scarred me as a young child. Way more engaging that "Saw" crap which is supposed to represent the horror genre nowadays.

November 13 & 14 The Rocky Horror Picture Show
2nd screening

November 20 & 21 Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ultimate 80s, living in excess, no-consequences, high school movie. John Hughes' Ferris is living the dream with a pretty sweet life when he decides to skip a day of school during which his life only gets better. Cubs games, sneaking into parades, driving Ferraris, Abe Froman; you name it, he somehow gets it done all in a day. Classic flick.

November 27 & 28 The Room
I've never seen or heard of this movie, but it's apparently a cult classic for all the wrong reasons. This recently made (2003) movie suffers from the "so bad it's good" affliction. Bad acting, plot holes and spotty dialogue have made this a mini-Rocky Horror regarding audience participation and attendance. Ha, I like bad movies like this. Might have to sit in on this one.

December 4 & 5 Labyrinth
An 80s movie that probably wasn't meant to affect me as much as it did. The puppet imagery in this movie reminds us all that all puppets are evil. No exceptions. Evil. At least evil looking. David Bowie signed on for this, so you know it has to be pretty weird right off the bat. Jim Henson + David Bowie + George Lucas = use your imagination = this movie.

December 4 & 5 The Room
2nd screening

Book Reading and More at Past Tense, Tonight!

A local author will do a reading form a fun and timely book tonight at Mount Pleasant's own Past Tense yoga studio. The reading is after the Happy Hour yoga class, which I hear is pretty fun. So get in a yoga workout and then get in the Halloween mood a week early.

From the folks at Past Tense:

Local author Eric Nuzum will join us after Happy Hour on Friday October 23 for an entertaining reading from both The Dead Travel Fast, his pop culture look at vampires and his forthcoming book Bring Me To Heaven, in which he visits to some of the most haunted locations in the country to find ghosts.

Selected for the 2007 Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers” series for his last book, Eric will share some funny stories of his exploits searching for vampires and ghosts. During the event, Eric will demonstrate some of the techniques used by ghost hunters to see if there are any spooks lurking in the Past Tense studio! Come for Happy Hour, which starts at 6:30, or join us after class for this free event.

Samber Market

The Chinatown Metro Mural

The Chinatown Community Cultural Center wants your input on a planned mural for the entrance of Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station. The mosaic-mural proposal is in the very early stages and the CCCC is looking for feedback and ideas from those who live and work in the area. The meeting is today!

The artist has been chosen and part of this meeting will be devoted to her communicating her initial concepts and vision. Martha Jackson-Jarvis has experience in this area. Her work graces many other public and private spaces including the entrance of the Anacostia Metro station. Ms. Jackson-Jarvis appears to be a great choice.

The entrance being considered is the Verizon Center entrance at 7th and F Streets NW.

The meeting is at the CCCC, is located at 616 H Street NW Suite 201. You can also enter from 7th Street-Regal Cinema entrance. Just take the escalator to the second level and walk straight down the corridor that is slightly towards the left. Here's the catch" the meeting is today. October 21, 2009. a t 6:00pm. If anyone attends, I'd like an update. Potentially a classy and artsy addition to the neighborhood and Metro.

Union Station 9 Closed

The Union Station Theaters are closed. As of October 12. The move had been planned for quite a while but I was still surprised to finally see the yellow tape and semi-destruction going on behind the glass doors. The theatres were sold to Phoenix in 2005 when the original owners (AMC + Lowes) merged and were forced to sell off some theatres for approval.

Looks like the biggest loss will be for the National Community Church. The NCC (which runs Ebenezers Coffee) had used the church for Sunday service for 13 years. The closing also means that Northwest is now the only quadrant with a first run, commercial movie theatre.

I tried watching a movie there several times with the last being the LOTR: Return of the King, on it's its first week of release. During the move, at a pivotal moment, the lights went up and the movie went off. There was a fire alarm going sounding. We all exited, orderly-like, and learned the culprit halfway down the hallway; an overworked popcorn maker had overheated and smoked the place out. Fine, it happens. Half hour later, we're back in the theatre, but that break sort of killed the flow. And also made seeing that movie a near-four hour experience. That was the last time I saw a movie at Union Station. Not soon after, the massive Regal Gallery Place theatres opened and was much closer for people living in Mount Pleasant.

Reality, Bites

The Real World is gone. What?! Whoops. I hardly noticed. DCist pretty much summed up my fascination with the Real World DC: fairly intrigued before the arrival, didn't notice it much after. I tried to stay up on their whereabouts and get into the excitement, but alas, we are in a 24 hour, minute to minute news cycle here. And excitement for any show 20 seasons in would be hard to sustain. How could they compete with the likes of non balloon boy? I'll have to wait until the show airs to see the high and low lights of what happened. Good while it lasted?

If you think you missed out on the reality show buzz, there's still another chance. The cooking reality show Top Chef is scouting DC in early November. Head down to the Occidental --15th and Penn Ave-- on November 4 with this completed 24 page application (PDF). Yes, 24 pages. Oh yeah, and accompanying video tape. Make it good though, because I bet they save the funny ones as "extras" content on the DVD.

Want to be your own reality show? Start a small business in DC. We've been ranked among the top metro areas in the United States to launch a small business. The 127,000+ small businesses we are home to is 4 times the average for the top cities on the list. The article touts the prestige of being in the District proper as an asset and the potential commute for suburban dwellers to a city work location as a negative. Sounds about right. Featured is David Von Storch, owner of various small business all over DC: Capitol City Brewery, Vida Fitness, Bang Salons. Seems to be quite an example of all the good possible for a DC small business owner. Go DC, go. Another plus four our fair city.

Metro Friday: Taking Names and Making Calls

Here are the results of last week's poll. The question: Would you support changing the name of Columbia Heights Metro station to Columbia Heights-Mount Pleasant? The results were not quite what I expected. I guessed that a firm majority would be against the idea. There was a very slight majority for those against. But not overwhelming at all. Almost evenly split. There were only 230 votes, so not a large sample size. Here are the numbers.

poll by twiigs.com

In other Metro news, for the 1% of you who ride Metro during rush hour and are not already checking (or at least looking at) your crackberry, try it today. If all goes according to plan, most cell phones should be able to operate in about 20 underground Metro stations. The list includes most downtown DC stations, and some uptown stations like Columbia Heights and Dupont. The underground coverage now includes more carriers: AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile. While not an exhaustive list, those are four of the largest carriers in the nation and likely cover the vast majority of users in the DC area. Wiring of all underground stations and the tunnels is due to be complete by 2012. So for now, at least you'll have something to do while waiting for the train to arrive. Even if you have to stop talking when you actually get on the train and ride into the tunnel.

Video: Yula Be'eri in Adams Morgan

This show was just a lot of fun. I went on a recommendation of a friend and a quick myspace.com site check. I enjoyed the 30 seconds or so I heard of Yula Be'eri online and decided to head over to Asylum on Wednesday night to see for myself. This Brooklyn-based band took the stage shortly after 10:30pm, succeeding a DC band, Punch Drunk Poets. PDP played acoustic and I really dug them as well.

But Yula was amazing. Very much like a stripped down Gogol Bordello. Yula and her mates were only 3 strong, but switched instruments several times and had good stage presence and banter. Picked up a CD and left the bar in a tune. Doesn't happen often. Here's to better shows on the 42 bus route. If you know of a good upcoming show, please pass along the details to the42bus at gmail dot com.

Yula Be'eri and the Extended Family playing at Asylum from The 42 Bus on Vimeo.

18th and Columbia

Up and Coming: Music and the Arts

October 13 and October 16 @ Verizon Center. Back to the 70s? KISS (13th) and AC/DC (16th) play the Verizon Center. These two mega-arena rock bands rose to stardom in the early 1970s. But they're still rocking DC this week in 2009, a good 35 years later. Who says you have to stop partying. Neverrrr!!!! 7th and F Streets NW.

October 14 @ Asylum Rock and Roll Lounge. Yula Be'eri and the Extended Family are playing this Wednesday. Asylum has been trying, with varying degrees of success, to become a music venue. They chose well this time. Be'eri is a spirited performer who doesn't really fit into any strict genre. Horns, keys, eclectic vocals, guitar. Very intriguing. I'll be there! 2471 18th St NW.

October 15 @ The Phillips Collection. The just opened exhibit, Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens, gets an interpretation from local artist Renée Stout. This series of talks is titled Artists' Perspectives. Also speaking will be Jennifer Wen Ma, whose video installation Brain Storm, opens at Phillips on the same day, October 15. 1600 21st Street NW.

October 17 @ Civilian Art Projects. Last day for Debriscapes, a show by Nikki Painter. This artist is from my hometown of Richmond, VA. Her rather abstract images attempt to explore the relationship between the built environment and the natural world. There will be an artist talk with Ms. Painter on from 6-8pm that evening at the gallery. 406 7th Street NW.

October 23 @ National Portrait Gallery (pictured). Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009: Culmination of an open submission portrait contest. The juried finalists will complete for a $25,000 prize and a chance to have their portrait hang among the permanent collection at this Smithsonian museum. Exhibit through August of 2010. Located at 9th and G Streets NW.

Rest in Peace Ben Ali

Friday Fun Post: Renaming Columbia Heights Station

Five days out of the average week, I use Metro rail to get to and from work. The station I use is Columbia Heights. Every morning I make the trip there and every afternoon, I make the trip from Columbia Heights station back to Mount Pleasant. I see dozens of you doing the same daily (some on an identical schedule down to the minute!).

Whether you cross over on Irving, Park, Monroe or Newton, the quick walk over to 14th Street and the Metro are truly a great reason to live in Mount Pleasant. We get the quaint quirkiness of our neighborhood without the coming and going of traffic on busy 16th or 14th Streets. At the same time, we're within walking distance of the second largest rail system in the United States. Not too shabby.

Since it's our Metro of choice, would you support renaming the station "Columbia Heights-Mount Pleasant?" Greater Greater Washington mentioned this as a possible aid to the neighborhood businesses. We'd literally be put on the map for DC area residents and visitors who had never been here. On the other hand, it is not actually in the neighborhood and could possibly cause confusion for some who don't know this part of the city well. What do you think? Vote on the poll and leave a reason for or against in the comments.

poll by twiigs.com

Video: Watching the HBO Cube

HBO, the cable movie channel, promoted itself by creating several free, two minute films to be shown in public. The films were shown on each wall of a 16x16 cube. When watched in sequence they came together to form a longer, nuanced story. Viewers had to walk around the cube several times to view different scenes the stories, which played continuously all night, not necessarily in order.

The experience was pretty neat. After each two minute clip you had to rotate around the cube to essentially see the exact same story played out from a different angle or point of view. After watching the same story through three or four viewpoints, you get to piece together what actually transpired, although there are still questions which remain. Perhaps that's supposed to drive you to the HBO website or to the channel itself. Pretty cool, even for an advertisement. If you don't want to or can't go to Adams Morgan to see this thing, you can watch online at HBO Imagine.

Here's video of people watching the cube: yes a video of people watching a video. Early Thursday night. The corner of 18th St and Columbia Rd NW.

The HBO Cube in Adams Morgan from The 42 Bus on Vimeo.

Movie Cube in Adams Morgan

Last night I came upon a giant cube. It was perhaps 15 or more feet tall and just as wide. Right on the northeast corner of 18th and Columbia Rds, NW. There was a film showing on one side. Apparently a promotion for HBO. Inside various Adams Morgan bars, mini cubes to complete the promotion. It's called the Imagine Cube. Pretty neat. I don't have HBO though. I did like the Sopranos when it was on TV.

Qdoba Should Come to Mt P Street; More Taxis, Taxes: Keeping Tabs

**Qdoba, the Mexican fast-food/casual restaurant is opening a new location in Falls Church. That's not nearly as important as the fact that that franchisee is looking for new locations across Washington. Mount Pleasant Street, NW, perhaps? I wish! Take one of our open storefronts, please!

**The Ward One taxi scandal is turning into a DC-wide taxi scandal with the arrest of nearly 40 people in connection with an elaborate bribery scheme. Well, actually not that elaborate. The accused allegedly attempted to bribe DC Taxicab Commissioner Leon J. Swain Jr. for access to taxi operators licenses. Mr. Swain apparently alerted the proper authorities and worked to ensnare the accused. Initially the news reports centered on the arrest of one man, Ted Loza. Mr. Loza is the chief of staff for Ward One council member Jim Graham. He was arrested on related bribery charges. Mount Pleasant is in Ward One.

**If you hadn't noticed, the DC sales and use tax (i.e. sales tax) just went up to 6%, from 5.75%. Council made the change last summer and it officially changed on October 1. Does not affect restaurant or gas taxes.

**The Wall Street Journal labeled DC the hottest "Youth-Magnet City." We're tied with Seattle as the top destination spot for college grads, interns an the like. That's good I guess. I'm not in my 20s anymore, but I was when I moved here. Loved it then and love it now! Go DC!

New (Clearer?) Rules for Bloggers and Their Reviews

The Federal Trade Commission has cleared up some rules regarding bloggers and reviews of products or services. Basically, if you blog and review a service or retail product AND get paid by producer of the service or product specifically for the review, you must disclose that fact.

The FTC news release can be found here.

And a New York Times explanation of the ruling is also helpful.

Luckily it appears that if there is a violation, the enforcement would be focused on the producer, not the blogger or other poster in question. Seems like a fairly ethical rule that's easy to follow: If someone pays you to promote a product, that's an ADVERTISEMENT, not a review. And should be labeled as such. I've never been paid for anything on this blog. And there are no ads, not even Google Ads. hat may change one day, but not right now. I do like to promote places I like, especially if they serve good vegan food or have great service, etc. But no one's offered me free food as payment just yet... (hint, hint!)

We're a One Sport Town. Right?

Last night the Washington Nationals became the first team ever to finish the season with seven wins after starting the season with seven loses. During the 148 games in between, they won 52 games and lost 96. For a second year in a row, they lost more than 100 games, the ultimate achievement for a terrible team. The controversy and excitement of last year, when the city-financed stadium first opened, are gone. But the investment will be on the books for years to come. The payoff can be measured in different ways.

The city will measure success largely by tax revenue. If the owners can sell tickets, merchandise and food, the city will get a cut. Likewise, the city will also get a rent payment for use of the park as long as the Nationals are around. There are two other similar benefits. The seasonal and full time jobs provided by the team provide some work to DC residents. And finally, once the economy comes around the ball park will act as the largest anchor (no pun intended) for other development and construction taking shape around the Navy Yard. The new neighborhood name is Capitol Riverfront, but I like Navy Yard. I always thought the stadium should be called Nationals Park at Navy Yard, or something to that affect. Or the current name, Near Southeast.

However, fans will probably measure success by another metric: wins. Sport is often a "what have you done for me lately" endeavor and the Nationals haven't done much lately. And being a Nationals fan is tough even if you give the team quite a bit of leeway. When teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies or even Orioles come to town, you feel like you're outnumbered by the other teams fans. When the team is reportedly one of the most profitable in the Major Leagues and dead last in the standings, you think of that old Brian Williams' segment "The Fleecing of America." And when the most expensive seats are $325 and Ben's chili, fries and a drink set you back about $20, you start to measure success not in wins, but how well you can support your team without giving any $$$ to the owners (impossible).

Yes, hockey season is here and the Caps bandwagon is sure to be overflowing. Hopefully the Nationals will have a productive off season and maybe those running the show recognize that there are real fans in DC who aren't transient or who want to root for whoever is visiting a the moment. Just a little respect. That's all we are asking for.

(left: a sold out Nationals Stadium during one of three Red Sox games. above: a mostly empty park at the final home game on Sept 30)

Video: Crafty Bastards Breakdance Battle--The Finals

The b boy break dance battle has become quite the tradition at Crafty Bastards, the arts sale-fair in Adams Morgan. The fair itself was on point featuring many vendors who I've begun to recognize for their original work over the years. I thought there were more clothing and accessory options for men this time around, something I've lamented before. We like style, too! Hopefully there were more buyers than window shoppers.

Well, the break dance battle was held on the pit of an old play area of Marie Reed School. There was a bracketed elimination style tourney set up and the dancers were from all over the mid Atlantic; DC, Phila, VA Beach. This is the video of the final match up between two teams.

In related news The 42 Bus has just started a Vimeo video channel, where I'll be posting various videos. I'm still trying to figure out how else to be creative with it, so if you have ideas throw them my way. Thanks and enjoy the first video from The 42 Bus.

Crafty Bastards B Boy Battle '09: The Finals from The 42 Bus on Vimeo.

Adams Morgan Taxi Blackout?

Had a rather good run the last few months not talking about taxi drivers. After the implementation of the metered fare system last summer, all seemed well on the taxi front. The fare seemed, well, fair. Customers like never have to worry about walking the extra few blocks to get out of a zone or being overcharged if they didn't know about the zones. The drivers contend that they're losing up to 30% of their pre-meter weekly income. But Jim Graham says there are as many as 300 new taxi drivers registering per month. I have no idea if that's true. If there are so many new drivers becoming licensed there must be some money to be made. And if I were a driver, I'd want less drivers getting licenses, because that would dilute the product. But moving on...

The whole DC taxicab industry seems sleazy and corrupt, from the drivers gaming the old zone system to the recent FBI probe of an official in Graham's office over taking a bribe on behalf of taxi legislation. Taxi drivers were incensed over the bill which would add another layer of regulation to the registration part of the business. A move that could eventually limit the number of cabs through medallions or another identifying marker. They had planned a strike for last Tuesday, which apparently was carried out.

This weekend, there is talk of another strike, this time in Graham's district, Ward One. Taxi drivers are planning to boycott Adams Morgan on late-night Friday and late-night Saturday. The "service blackout" could encompass the area from 16th Street to Connecticut Avenue and Florida Avenue to the Duke Ellington Bridge. Basically all of Adams Morgan, especially the 18th Street strip. I guess it's an effective strategy?! Or not really, considering the only people left without a ride those nights will most likely be people who don't live in Ward One.

Somehow, I don't think this will work. But just in case they somehow pull this off, all you folks who haven't mastered the mass transit route back to your place of residence better brush up on it. Or carry along a DD with you. Or walk home. Whatever happens, let me know. I'd like to see how this "strike" works out.