While we were not able to score tickets for tonights opener against the Braves we did take a stroll down to the new stadium to see what could be seen. The stadium looks great, especially considering the break-neck construction schedule that they had to adhere to. My hats off to HOK, Clark, and all the other designers and contractors that pulled it off. A few things (namely the glut of above grade parking, very short sited) leaves something to be desired but the over all design is cohesive, indigenous, and impressive. The neighborhood is coming up nicely as well. The Half Street and Yards developments look particularly encouraging.
Zimmerman coming off with the nail-biting bottom of the 9th win tonight should be good for the team. Hopefully this is a team that the city can continue to get behind and support.
…and oh my god the massive scoreboard looks amazing
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…other than your value…as a person.
March 19th, 2008
I found my favorite new piece of graffiti (a scribbley tag, really) this morning: “YOUR SALARY MEANS NOTHING”. This is on the top of a building in Woodley Park on Connecticut Ave. I can’t imagine that it will last very long up on the face of this building but it made it through the day so that made me happy. I enjoy “public service messages” aimed at making people think a little bit. They snap you out of your daily zone for just a moment.
I’ve come across a few similar messages scrawled around DC that I thought were worth snapping a photo. On an overpass near the Kennedy Center we found “THE BUBBLE WILL BURST”. I found “Save Our City” with a nice rendition of the DC flag. This freshly painted white wall that used to display a fun and colorful mural off of 18th St. in Adams Morgan asks “Where’s the ART?”. These messages don’t have a “style” per se so it is tough to tell if they are from the same hand but they help to add some interesting character to the daily urban fabric. Of course I’d never support the destruction of O.P.P (Property, that is).
We were blessed with some idle time on this blistery February night and decided to visit, appropriately, Idle Time Books in Adams Morgan. Located at the north end of the strip, this is a pleasant break from the typical 18th St. bar scene. It’s a great place to check out if you don’t have a specific book in mind or are just looking to spend a bit of time. Coming here with a certain book in mind, particularly a new release, would probably be an exercise in futility. None the less, there is something very enjoyable about aimlessly perusing around a musty used bookstore searching for that “diamond in the rough”.
Idle Time Books is 3 stories tall and seemed to be in fairly good order as far as subject matter of the books. The lower floor is primarily fiction, art/architecture, children’s books, and vintage notecards. Moving up to the second floor (which is really more of a landing on the stairs) is a large section of biographies. Idle Time’s upper story is home to the non-fiction books that covered topics like: the Official Rules of Leisure Sports, Russian history in the mid 1700’s, Freudian psychology, Alaskan Tours, Models of the Contemporary City, and pretty much everything in between.
A good way to spend a few hours on a slow evening.
The Design Within Reach in Adams Morgan hosted the showing of the “champagne chairs” tonight with complementary bubbly and fine chocolate from Biagio. The Champagne Chair Contest is an annual event to make the best miniature chair using only the foil, label, cage and cork from no more than two Champagne bottles. Displayed in little 4″ Plexiglas cubes, the champagne chairs exhibited some pretty impressive craftsmanship. The DWR Staff winning pick (shown above) is made of what looks to be a ground cork/glue combo that has been meticulously and painstakingly sculpted into an elegant little chair.. The other chairs had a much more straight forward approach to using the cork. The popular-vote pick was this fun little chair.
Interesting/random little event with (miniature) furniture, bubbly, and chocolate. Doesn’t get much better.
Lori and I continued our weekly (or almost weekly) new restaurant excursion tonight. In the past, this has taken us to such local gems as Afghan Grill, Thaiphoon, and New Heights. Tonight’s trip took us to Mediterra in Woodley Park (when it is cold out you don’t want to stray too far from home). Overall impression of this Mediterranean restaurant = over-priced with sub-par service. The waitress was generally inattentive and was not able to bring our dishes out in the proper order, nor did she not bother check how I preferred my steak to be prepared (what I got was over done and rubbery). The Lamb Pita that we ordered came out on a French Baguette. To be fair, it was still good on a baguette. The Roman Pizza was smothered in oil and was actually quite good, if you like lots of oil. The layout and furnishing of Mediterra did not help its case. The space felt too wide open and under populated with tables/chairs and streaky painting on the walls. Half of the chairs in the restaurant were made of chintzy metal with a bronze finish. Mediterra has a decent drink menu and pretty extensive list of Mediterranean appetizers but I would not come back for more than drinks/appetizers.
I give it a 1 out of 5 and don’t see a return visit in the near future.
UPDATE: we passed the 1000 visitors mark, wooohooo!
Interface Multimedia was asked by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation to create a video showing the expansion plans for the National Museum of the Marine Corps. We were invited to attend a community outreach reception at the museum in Quantico, VA to promote the expansion. It is that giant metal and glass spire that looks like it is projecting out over I-95 as you come up to DC from the south, a very distinct form to be sure. The Museum was designed to reflect the shape of the famous flag raising at Iwo Jima and contains an enormous atrium with a number of full size planes, tanks, and helicopters. We were not able to see any of the immersive exhibits last night, but from what I understand they are the most impressive exhibits in the Museum. Other highlights of the museum include lifelike scenes from various moments in the Marines rich history complete with the metals won in the conflicts, the garments that were worn by the troops, and their weapons (including a lot of grisly trench knifes).
We expected that they would show the Interface video during the event, but unfortunately that did not happen. Luckily you loyal Juxtaexposed readers can watch the video on IFMM’s website here and view the remainder of the photos here.
The National Museum of the Marine Corps is a little bit of a drive from the District proper but it is well worth the trip if not only for the architecture.
Nothing spells awesome like UF!
January 19th, 2008
On the way back from a very nice brunch with the parents at Urbana we came across a big white contractor’s style pickup truck. This gentleman found a great way to express his road rage with fellow drivers. He is working of the “ECNALUBMA” concept of writing the message you would like to send to drivers in front of you in reverse so it is clear as day in their review view mirror.
This guy had a very large, very black “UF” written as a page on his notebook. I really, really hope that the entire notebook is filled with select phrases that he wishes to share with drivers who are less than courteous. It looks like he might have multiple tabs for the various situations. The possibilities are endless but you would need to keep it fairly brief and to the point so that the full impact of it would be realized by the offending party. I’m thinking that a similar book may be making its way to my car (to help Lori with her road rage, I don’t need it so much on the metro). I have a few in mind that I’d like to include in my notebook of frustration:
Last night I dragged Lori to the Pikesville National Guard Armory for a night at the fights. Overall, it was a pretty underwhelming show with very little drama in any of the matches. Gary “Digital” Williams from boxingalongthebeltway.blogspot.com has a good write-up on the fights here. We went up to support the owner of my gym, Laurence Jones, who was fighting in his 4th professional bout. Laurence fought hard but he was fortunate to leave the ring with a majority draw.
The highlight of the evening (aside from the sweet neon fried chicken marquee sign, shown above) was getting to meet 5 time World Champion Vinny Paz. This is a guy who after winning his first world title (IBF Lightweight) was in a brutal car crash that broke his neck; he was told he would never fight again. Vinny, against his doctor’s recommendation, came back to win 4 more world titles. Bad ass.
Light at the End of the Tunnel…err the Sides of the Tunnel
January 14th, 2008
So apparently there was a Pantless Metro Ride in DC over the weekend (!) leaving from Dupont Circle, and involving approx. 100 people in their undies. hehehe. We weren’t there to capture this event in all it’s glory, but some people got some good shots. It looks as if no one got arrested. Thank goodness for those people with too much time on their hands (and not enough modesty/decency/ettiquette).
We weren’t there to capture this event in all it’s glory, but some people got