Nation's Capital pt. 4

What could compare to the festivities of last week? After all it WAS Fourth of July weekend. Perhaps, it was time to take a breather. You know, turn the fans on hi, grab a Schlitz with some bug spray and kick of those ratty shoes (be sure to put them outside because I know you haven’t been wearing socks) and just have a relaxing weekend of public radio, humidity and no showers. While that isn’t quite the way things went down, this week was a bit slower. Maybe it was because beer outweighed aqua on the alcohol to H20 ratio. Damn dehydration. Your guide to the fantastic and sometimes horribly depressing world of D.C. as selected by yours truly continues:

Plus

+Big Bear Café. This coffee shop sits in a strange location. It’s mostly a residential area. Admittedly, it i also right on the border of some serious gentrification. However, the coffee was actually really good and I heard the food is grub. Plus, they were blasting M.I.A. the whole time.

+ Making friends that you don’t work with or already knew before moving to D.C. I heard this was a good thing so I actually tried it. Working out so far.

+ When your smart, creative and intelligent friends visit from the West Coast and you can go drinking on Monday with them and talk about all the strangeness that is the East Coast. (Diana, Nick…) Always a plus!

+ The second burrito I had in D.C. was a breakfast burrito from a small Latin restaurant next to Casa Blanca’s downtown. Really cheap, filling and delicious.

+ L’Enfant. This is a French restaurant on 18^th and U st. It only serves dinner and alcohol during the week but on the weekends it opens early and serves up a breakfast/lunch menu that is delicious and well-priced. In addition, the service was amazing. While the cuisine and décor is quasi-french, it still is well worth it. Finally, they serve fruit with their plates! I know this sounds strange but most places here don’t offer fruit as a free side with your breakfast meal here. I find this strange. I will definitely return.

+3 dollar, 32 oz. beers from the food mall. (good call A...) Yep. They give them to you in plastic cups with a cover and a straw. You can also walk right out of the mall with them without anyone stopping you.

Minus

- George Washington University undergrad. Its bad enough you go to the most expensive school in the country. Try a little harder to not be a spoiled snob. Sure, you getting a better education than me but you work at the front desk of the student housing…over the summer. You’re essentially a secretary for the school. How cool is that? Nope.

- The first burrito I had in Washington D.C. was for lunch during our national student journalism conference. I threw it up 10 minutes later. Rad. Don’t eat California Tortilla. It’s a glorified Taco Bell. You’re better off going to Chipotle…and no…McDonalds doesn’t own them. Read up kid.

- Local bands. Nothing against the kids but the scene isn’t really showing me anything impressive so far. I’ll keep looking…I know its out there.

- People who are drunk talking about politics. Really? Really? I mean we all live walking distance from the white house practically. Senators cut in line at the local deli. People hand us political propaganda when we walk out of the metro. Half the people you know work on the hill or go to the hill or call people on the hill on a regular basis. Do we really need to talk about politics when we are drunk. Can we not just drink beer and put on a good record. Oh you don’t own a record? Then put on your Ipod for god sake. Lets dance and spill grape juice all over the floor. Lets shake our ass and do our best air-guitar impression. (Bobby…) Lets blow up rubber balloons until we turn blue. Lets NOT talk about politics when we drink. Please? Please…no…I don’t want to talk about the latest poll…no I didn’t read that new article in the Post…shut up. nonononononononononononononononono…nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! no no no blah blah blah. I can’t hear you!

Equal.

You don’t get any equals. I was too opinionated to feel neutral this week.

(Image: Don't Block the Box signs are all over D.C. Even the street signs are trying not the playa-hate.)

Nations Capital part 3

Ah, the Fourth of July: the day when all your nationalistic sensibilities can finally come out in the form of attire, cuisine and body art. While being in the Nation’s Capital, one would assume that the festivities here are like no other town. This may be true. However, I decided to spend my Nation’s Birthday in the form of cheap beer, dance parties in kiddy pools and bad Mexican food. Here’s your plus/minus/equals for week 3.

Plus:

+ Last Sunday, I saw King Khan and His Shrines at Rock N Roll Hotel. I haven’t been to such a fun show is so long. Super dancey and Ian Svenonius showed up!

+ Partying with new friends in the form of Spam, dance music and kiddie pools. Photos to come.

+ Schlitz

+ Ben’s Chili Bowl. So this may seem like a “duh” but it really is a great place. First and foremost though are the signs in the place. One reads:

“Our chili will make a hot dog bark. Black owned and operated since 1958”

A second sign reads:

“People who eat for free at Ben’s: Bill Cosby. No One Else.”

+ **BREAKFAST SPECIAL**

+ Florida Street Grill. This southern greasy spoon has great service and a total local, family owned feel. Watch how much you go here though. You could be asking for a heart attack.

+ Rosemary’s Thyme. This is a breakfast/lunch place that is decently priced and with a Mediterranean spin. Service was shitty though and the crowd was a bit yuppie-ish. Still worth it.

+ Seeing the documentary “My Winnipeg”. (This really has nothing to do with D.C. but I still suggest it.)

+ Café Mozart. This is a German café/convenience store next to the building I work in. The convenience store is okay. You can get German chocolate and bratwurst to go. However, in the back is a bar/restaurant that has some awesome beer. In addition, you can order a beer in a stein. That’s a liter of beer for you. Perfect after 9 hours of work. Oh and don't be surprised if some lady bust out the accordion and sings in German. (Caution: finding your way home after a couple steins may be difficult.)

Minus:

-Quotes heard this week that totally bummed me out:

“Let me tell you something about REAGAN mister!”

“Dude. I totally hooked up with my intern! (*enthusiastic high-five*)

“I can’t make out with bad hair.”

- Keg Bus (I nearly cried)

- NOT BEING ABLE TO BUY BEER OTHER THAN AT A BAR PAST 10pm (WTF??!!$)

- DC9 on gay night. This is unusual because gay nights seem to be usually bumping and good for dancing regardless of your sexual preference. However, this just included a lot of douchebags that do not normally frequent DC9 and sweat. Lots o’ sweat.

Equal:

= AFI Silver Spring Theater- this theater likes to tout how great it is in the previews. Heads up: Your Theater sucks like your town. However, the plus side is that they show really great films and Milos Foreman is coming to talk there in celebration of a retrospective they are doing with him.

= Phillips Gallery- the permanent collection is small, mediocre and rather arbitrary. In addition, it cost way too much to enter. That being said, the retrospective on Jacob Lawrence was enjoyable.

Nation's Capital pt. 2

Plus

+ The AFL-CIO held a free cookout last week around lunchtime to celebrate the return of their “Bush Legacy Tour” bus. The inside of the bus basically has documented all the ways in which Bush has blown it via Iraq war, Katrina, environment, etc. The cookout was yummy, free and two blocks from the White House.

+ People read! On the metro or the bus, morning or night, people are reading. In addition, the books seem relatively edifying and not romance novels or US Weekly (not that there is anything wrong with US weekly). I’ve met and know people who use their 40 hour work week as an excuse for why they don’t read very much. I say “boo” to you. If reading isn’t your pastime then fine but don’t blame your work week on it. D.C. proves that one can work a 9-5 and still fit in some literature or non-fic.

+ Madeline is here!

+ Monday happy hour with David Halperin and some other kids from the staff. Good times.

+ Watching the Angels destroy the Nationals on Tuesday

+ Interviewing Maria Teresa Petersen and CNN correspondent Rick Sanchez

+ Going to the SilverDocs festival for work and seeing a great documentary called Forbidden Lies

+ The Raven. Um… am I in Portland? For my Portland friends this bar is like a mix of The Nest and Beulahland but smaller than both. Cheap beer, variety of different kids, a bit seedy, good jukebox of old punk, rock and indie…my kid of place.

Minus

- Fashion: ouch. This may be apart of the down side to their being very few hipsters in town. After a few drinks, I told one of my friends that, “People in D.C. were just way more okay with looking dumpy than in Los Angeles, or even San Francisco.”

Last weekend, I went to dance at three different clubs and people weren’t even trying. I’m not talking thrift store style because that can work sometimes. I’m talking sales rack at Ross.

Having said that I commend the guy wearing the white wedding dress at Black Cat’s 80’s prom night two weeks ago. At least you’re mixing it up, dude. In addition, yesterday on my way to the metro, there were thousands of people out on the street. Most of them were black and killing it style-wise. So I give it up to them as well.

- Dulles Airport. Can anyone tell me why this place still exists? It’s not near anything and once you are there, it is the most convoluted, difficult and unaccommodating airport I have ever been too. Imagine a trailer park in the form of an airport.

- Noise. Yeah yeah…it’s a big city and it gets noisy. However, I cannot walk the streets for longer than five minutes without an ambulance, cop or high-profile brigade of security surrounding black escalades blasting by me.

Neutral

= Weather. So the down side is that it is humid as all hell. However, the interesting/good side is that you get some pretty crazy lightning storms that randomly arrive and then disappear within hours. Plus, when it does finally rain, it is such a different rain that Portland. It is like the world is relieving its stress. It seems like a natural development that the earth and all of us suffering underneath it need. Can I say the strange developments of the weather are a seemingly fitting necessity for the earth and the people on it well? Sure. And to continue being corny and a bit of a hippy, the weather and my body seem to have a relationship that seems to coincide and understand each other. (<--I think my two days in Santa Cruz a couple weeks ago rubbed off on me)

= Softball game. Our organization plays in a pretty competitive softball league. On Thursday we played against The Heritage Foundation. Unfortunately, we lost in the last inning and I didn't get to play which were both down sides. However, the upside was that afterwards we played a "Intern vs. Staff" game in which I was able to prove that I got some skills and shouldn't be riding the pine. Next game is against the Defense Department on Monday.

(image: Lafayette Park)

Nation's Capital

In case you haven’t heard I am spending my summer in Washington D.C. as an editorial intern writing for Campus Progress and sometimes Pushback.org. I arrived last Tuesday and so far really love my job/internship. Things are different though now. I live in a living room and sleep on a couch. I wear business casual clothing and work for 40 hours. In a way, I feel like I am living someone else’s life. I’ll get use to it though. Its just really different to go from slinging pizza pies and being a full time student to this new life.

So, I figured that at the end of every week I’ll give a +, -, and an = to various aspects of my life here in D.C. You can figure out what sign means what.

+ Internship and all the kids that work there
+ Hanging with Courtney and crew
+ open bar at Liberation Dance Party on Friday at DC9
+ diversity! D.C. is much more ethnically diverse than Portland. I say this with a certain sensitivity to the fact that there is a slight tension between the minority working class of this town and the well-off. However, there is a wide range of various types of people from all different classes and cultures. I understand that it is not all peachy and that gentrification is in full effect here but it’s a nice change from the bubble that Portland was stuck in at times.
+ Walking by Senator John Kerry’s office door and seeing him standing amongst his interns at the Russell Senate House.
+ 10 dollar Nationals game. They suck but hey…at least I can see the Angels annihilate them next week for cheap.
+ DJ at Black Cat mixing “House of Jealous Lovers” by The Rapture with “Our House” by Madness and Hot Chip’s “over and over”…shit was so impressive, sounded good and basically could make anyone shake their rump.

- No Wells Fargo
- Roaches. See these things everywhere. None at the apartment yet though.
- Waking up at 4 in the morning to gunshots….yeah that ain’t cool.
- 40 dollars for a ticket to a D.C. United game. Um what? Isn’t the MLS struggling for sales. Here’s a clue….lower the price of a ticket.
- Lack of diverse restaurants around my work. Three words: sandwich, soups, salads. That’s it.
- Trader Joe’s being so far away. I have to walk like 8 blocks and change 2 metro trains to get there.
- No internet at the house.

= No Hipsters. Or at least those serious, should be in a American Apparel ad, hipsters.
= Wearing business casual Monday through Friday. You look good but you gotta iron shit and take it to the cleaners and what not.
= Lack of Mexican food. Its probably about time I lay off the Mexican food and try other cuisines. There are many restaurants specializing in food from Latin countries but I still haven’t found a real Mexican Taqueria. I couldn't even find good salsa at the store.