This morning, at around 10 a.m., I stood at a bus stop, 30 minutes into the morning's snow-filled commute. A fellow rider huddled next to me in the bus shelter remarked that the snow was pretty. "Yeah," I replied, "but why did this have to happen in March!"

"Because March is fucked up," he said. "You ever notice how when you meet a woman born in March, she's all fucked up? March is a mess."

I don't know about that guy's theory, nor do I know what the next 29 days of March '09 will bring, but this particular day in March was indeed a mess. Although the amount of snow on the ground didn't seem all that scary when I assessed it from my window this morning, it took me more than two hours to get to work today, thanks to all of the snow on the ground. Ridiculous.

Read More "How Was Your Snowy Commute?" »

Tonight’s Green Ball, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Avenue, NW, is a “really good ball,” says Erik Wemple, reporting from the scene.

In fact, Wemple says that the evening’s entertainment, singer/rapper Wyclef Jean, “is rockin’ it!” Jason Cherkis adds that there are “muffin-shaped apple pies with cheese on top,” and that, even at the end of the night, “they are still warm. Yum.”

The Green Ball’s celebrity attendees include: Hayden Panettiere, of Heroes fame, and singer Jackson Browne.

Yamiche Alcindor, a senior at Georgetown University, tells Cherkis the event is “amazing” and well worth the $500 ticket price, since it “goes to a good cause.” The Green Ball’s mission was to “have a minimal impact while maintaining the aesthetics, quality and standards expected from an Inaugural ball experience,” according to event literature.

Still, Alcindor admits she didn’t buy a ticket to get into the ball. “I didn’t actually pay $500,” she says, adding, “students can’t pay for balls.”

The Democratic Black Caucus of Virginia's Grassroots Pre-Inaugural Ball is the event to attend tonight, reports Erik Wemple.

The ball, held at Arlington, Va.'s Marriott Crystal Gateway, was on the stop-by list of aspiring and established Virginia politicos alike--not a surprise considering the Virginia Black Caucus is known for delivering the state's critical minority vote, Wemple says.

Democratic gubernatorial candidates Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran showed, as did Senator Mark Warner.

Larry Kibler, a 46-year-old Republican who came to the event with his wife, told Wemple that he is a McAuliffe supporter, and was glad to see the former Democratic National Committee chair. McAuliffe "speaks to lower taxes," Kibler says.  

Attendee Brenda Kelley-Nelum was similarly pleased with the number of politicians who showed up, and told Jason Cherkis she thought their brief speeches were the highlight of the night. However, Cherkis suspects the real star of the evening was the roast beef on the buffet table, which seemed to be a real crowd-pleaser.

Erik Wemple and Jason Cherkis report that Democratic bigwig John Capozzi, D.C. Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta, and D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray  are the biggest celebrities at the People's Inaugural Ball, which is going on over at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. on K Street, NW.

Even without major starpower, the event drew about 700 people, Wemple says. That's a head count on par with last night's event at the Historical Society building, and that party featured a performance by Doug E. Fresh, Capozzi told Cherkis. 

With tickets for tonight's event running $100 a pop, Wemple reckons that the ball, powered entirely by grassroots Obama organization, raised about $70,000, despite lacking a big-name celeb. Wemple says people seemed content with the sounds of WMB and the Bad Ass Brass Band  as entertainment.

Ball-goer Jessica Fleuti, for one, was not going to let a dearth of star sightings put a damper on her night. Fleuti told Wemple, "We're going to leave this place at 12, and then party at the bars on U Street until 5."

Erik Wemple reports that the event attracted about 180 activists and celebrities and, by his count, roughly 12 police officers. “At one point, I saw five cruisers out front,” Wemple says.

Ted Loza, chief of staff for Ward 1 councilmember Jim Graham and one of the event's organizers, told Wemple the night brought out “people of high names,” including nine-time Grammy nominee El Maestro Johnny Pacheco, actor Edward James Olmos, and the incomparable Teresa Rodriguez, author and host of Univision’s Aqui Y Ahora.

Asked about the location of the event, Rodriguez told Wemple, “It is wonderful it is being held in a place that is representative of the community.”

The residents of Alexandria's Arlandria-Chirilagua Housing Co-operative thought their problems with rent increases, evictions, and utility hikes were over when the tenants purchased the low-income development back in 1995 and decided to run it themselves.

As it turns out, not so much, residents say.

On Tuesday, about 50 or so residents of the 282-unit co-op staged a protest in front of the multi-building complex, alleging that its elected co-op board, comprised of residents, is mismanaging funds and retaliating against those tenants who have asked that the books be opened.

During the demonstration, residents said board members are handing down random evictions and rent hikes in an attempt to silence the vocally disgruntled.

Mesfun Berhane, a resident of the complex, says that the board attempted to raise the rent and utility fees this month and if tenants can not---or will not---pay the new rate, they are threatened with eviction and also barred from voting in a fall election that will determine whether the complex gets new leadership or not.

"There has been a $100 rent increase," Berhane said. "We refused to pay and now they are trying to evict us so that we will not vote against them."

Another resident of Arlandria-Chirilagua, which lies between Alexandria's Del Ray and Arlington's Ridge Road neighborhoods, said that management has been withholding hot water in an attempt to push residents out and that he is tired of giving his children cold-water baths.
Tenants also said that the nine-member board, and the management staff of the complex, is stacked entirely with members from 3 families who are running the co-op like a dictatorship. "This is our place, but they're trying to turn it into their place," one woman said.

"They're trying to run it like their family business," Berhane said.

Calls to the management office of Arlandria-Chirilagua weren't immediately returned, but if someone from one of the families decides to talk, City Desk will give you the scoop.

Regal Gallery Place is a fantastic movie theater—easy parking, plenty of food options in the building, and, sometimes, if you're lucky, you can buy a child's admission ticket from one of the machines in the lobby, and the ticket taker won't notice that you only paid a $5 in admission. Or so I've been told.

I recently went to my new favorite movie theater for a late afternoon showing of my new favorite movie, Dreamgirls. I saw a 4:10 show listed in the paper, but it wasn't up on the big board when I went to buy my ticket. The nice person behind the glass told me that the 4:10 showing wasn't being advertised because it was an OC/DA show—that's “Open Caption/Descriptive Audio.” In other words, the movie gets captions for the hearing-impaired and a device that plays narrated descriptions of what's happening on screen is available, too, for the visually-impaired.

The ticket seller told me that most people who don't have trouble seeing or hearing don't want to buy tix for an OC/DA show. I told her I was curious—and didn't want to wait around for the next Dreamgirls show scheduled for 6-something—so I'd go ahead and check it out.

The verdict: It was good to have the captions. There was a lot of dialogue I would've missed if I couldn't have read what was going on. And I only had to tell the annoying kids sitting behind me to shut their damn mouths a couple of times, since I could read along with the movie even when they were chattering away.

Unfortunately, only a few movies are OC/DA at the Regal Gallery Place. (Currently Because I Said So and Norbit, but they keep an ever-changing list.) I assume that part of the reason that Regal doesn't advertise the OC/DA films is because they don't want folks who aren't seeing-/hearing-impaired selling out these shows so that there are no tix left for the people who need them. So don't take 20 of your friends to the OC/DA show and take up all of the damn seats.

But, if you're ever at Regal, and it's completely dead, and the only showing of the movie you want to see is an OC/DA show, check it out.

Daybreak, an ABC drama starring Taye Diggs, was axed from the network's lineup in early December, but the series still lives on—deep under G Street NW.

In the Metro tunnel between the Gallery Place and Metro Center stations, an ad for Daybreak remains as a reminder of Diggs’ struggle to transition from movies to television. Hung inside of a lighted box, the ad is one of only two “tunnel ads” in the entire system.

Because swapping out tunnel ads is more complicated than, for instance, ripping a poster off of a bus shelter, the Daybreak ad will remain up until late February. Cathy Asato, spokesperson for Metro, says that in order to switch out tunnel ads, “track rights” are required. “It means you can have access to the tracks to take down ads and install new ones,” she says.

Because working on the tracks is dangerous, Metro prefers that old ads be removed and new ones be put up at the same time. So the Daybreak ad will remain up until ABC's ad space expires. It's slated to be replaced by a Microsoft advertisement.

“It's a little unfortunate Daybreak was canceled,” says Asato, but she adds that having the ad up is still beneficial for ABC. “They still have their corporate name out there, which is bringing recognition to the corporation.”

Posted by Sarah Godfrey
On Friday morning, employees at XM Satellite Radio's Northeast D.C. headquarters got a memo regarding pests—and not on-air personalities Opie and Anthony or Ron and Fez, either.

“We're talking rodents,” wrote an unknown member of XM broadcast operations in an e-mail to colleagues. “Those of you familiar with DC rodents know that we're looking at the size of small house cats.”

The rodent problem seems to be concentrated on the XM building's second floor, which houses more than 100 different studios and the foodstuffs that belong to those who work in those studios. Rodents have chewed through cable in one of the second-floor production rooms, and, according to the memo, the raised floor on the second story of the building “represents an eight lane super-highway to anywhere the rats want to go.”

According to Chance Patterson, vice president of corporate affairs for XM, the entire second floor is on a platform, which minimizes vibration and allows thousands of miles of fiber to be stowed beneath foot traffic. The raised floor “is part of how we pipe in fiber for the broadcasts that connect to the uplink that sends the signal to the satellite,” says Patterson.

The combination of the raised floor, which allows the rats an extensive, invisible passageway, and people leaving food around is “setting up an easy opportunity for pests to feed,” says Patterson. “This is the prime season—it's cold and [the rats] are looking for a warm place.”

The memorandum, in addition to asking that food not be stored by those working in the building, announced a “massive and comprehensive clean-up” to include “ridding the rooms of stacks of magazines, posters, albums, paper and just general clutter.” Patterson says that posters hung on walls for decoration and albums or magazines essential to job function won't be targeted, but that it's time for studios to become more organized.

“Some studios have piles of posters and magazines and stuff,” says Patterson. “It's like, you gotta clean the dishes once in a while. When they start falling out of the sink, it's time to put them in the dishwasher.”

And, to kick-off the rat raid, pest-control company Orkin was called to the building the same day as the memo was sent out. “They put out the appropriate ‘boxes’ in the right places to address the problem,” says Patterson. “And hopefully the memo will encourage people to do their part to mitigate the issue.”

Wrote the unknown author of the mass e-mail: “Eventually [the rats] will get the building back, but we ain't done with it yet.”

The 1st Annual DMV awards are going down this Sunday, January 14, and they've got nothing to do with getting your car inspected. Promise.

The DMV (that's short for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia) Entertainment Hip-Hop and Music Awards, organized by D.C. rap luminary Brother Maniac, is bringing together some of the best hip-hop, R&B, and go-go acts in the area, drawing artists from all different spheres of the local arts scene.

The MCs/live-instruments mix of Opus Akoben is nominated in the same “Best Band or Group” category as go-go band Familiar Faces. The jazzy hip-hop verse of the Poemcees is right next to the Southeast storytelling of Money for Life in the “Best Rap Group” contest. Other categories to watch: “Beast of Baltimore,” a concession to this region's northern cousins; the charming, high-school-yearbook-esque “Most Likely To Succeed”; and the oh-so-thick “Best Male Rap Artist” race. The nominees include 20 Bello, Kingpin Slim, Multiple Man, Priest da Nomad, 2006 John Lennon Songwriting Contest winner Storm the Unpredictable, Tabi Bonney, and Whitefolkz.

There will be 24 award presentations and several live performances on an excellent, female-heavy bill: Gina Rose, Madam Madon, Porche’ 9-11, Shy Thoro, Durty Dy-Anna, Shellberaw, and Kyana, among others.

Ten bucks gets you in before 8 p.m., but even if you arrive late and have to shell out $15, it's a pittance for the privilege of seeing some of the best artists in the area peforming and being honored. It'll be like the BET Awards, ’cept you won't have to watch Terrence and Rosci trying to dance.

1st Annual DMV Entertainment & Music Awards
Club Onyx, 817 Southern Avenue, Oxon Hill, MD.
$10-$15
Call 1 (888) 961-0111 for more information or click here.

Every Tuesday and Thursday Friday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.

Brookland
Brookland resident Courtney knows that it's hard to find a cat-sitter—and it's even harder to find a cat-sitter who is willing and able to wield little teeny-tiny insulin needles and inject them into a squirming kitty twice a day. “We are going away soon and though we have someone coming to stay with our cats, we need someone who knows how to give a shot two times a day to our diabetic cat—every 12 hours to be exact.” Courtney writes. “I was wondering if anyone out there is a vet or vet tech and would be up to doing shots, as shots freak out the person staying with them…Thanks!!”

shepherdpark
So much for diggin’ the scene with a gangster lean. It seems one man's leisurely cruise through Shepherd Park is apparently another man's menacing case of the neighborhood. Aja posts “Burgundy Cadillac with Tinted Windows is prowling the neighborhood.311 contacted.”

TakomaDC
In the annals of Takoma diversity: For a personal project, neighbor Judy enlists the help of some of Takoma Park's finest amateur translators. “Any linguistics in the neighborhood?” she asks. “[I]'m looking for the translation of:
* gift
* clarity
* freedom
in as many languages as possible, including sanskrit, but not french and spanish.” Rich tells Judy to look online, as he did, to find out that “freedom” in Sanskrit is svatantra. Yet Seth cautions against using the Web for accurate translations. “In Hebrew, freedom = he-rut ????, gift = ma-ta-na ????, clarity = be-hee-rut ?????? You have to be careful with dictionaries and machine translation. You might get word senses and cases or declensions other than what you want.” Pamela steps up with Swahili: “gift is zawadi; clarity is ubayana (my dictionary says clarification); freedom is uhuru.” Steve chimes in with the Italian translations, another Steve offers up German and Latin, Simone provides Portuguese translation, and Rich comes through, again, with Arabic, Catalan, Czech, Russian, and Yiddish.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.

shepherdpark
When Shepherd Park resident Mari’s van was stolen from in front of her home last Thursday, she was worried that she may never see the candy-apple-red Dodge Caravan with the soccer ball and “terrific kid” bumper stickers ever again. Although frustrated by the police's handling of her stolen vehicle, a couple of days after the van was taken, she and her husband received a couple of good tips. First: a sighting. “Neighbors spotted our van tearing through the neighborhood,” Mari writes. “It was parked in one neighbor's yard for part of the day, then disappeared - either the thieves came back, or a new set of thieves took it.” Even with that information, the police still couldn't recover the van. “These sightings were reported to the police as early as 11:30, only minutes after the van was stolen, but as far as I know no one was sent to follow up at that time - when the thieves were apparantly hanging out enjoying Shepherd Park.” Maybe the second lead will be more helpful: “Two casette tapes of ours were found in a neighbor's yard. These thieves do not like Old School.”

AdamsMorgan
In trying to figure out the mystery of a black sootlike material that covered Adams Morgan last week, one neighborhood resident suggests that perhaps the dark dust on Ellington Bridge could be the result of a recent sandblasting to remove dirt and graffiti from the structure. Naturally, this post, devolves into a free-for-all on private school kids. Martymoo comments that a little grime is a small price to pay for the removal of a tag on the bridge that read “Grand Old Pedophiles.” He says the graffito “made me want to puke” and he blames the nauseating bit of vandalization on kids from “Maret/Sidwell/GDS” who “are taught that ‘self-expression trumps civility.'” Rich responds, “You mean it took kids from three different schools to paint that slogan? Man, the kids these days are slacking.” But Kiltumper says private schools and thinky grafitti that uses big words simply go hand-in-hand. “Yeah, exclusive ($$$) upper-NW prep schools are known breeding grounds for strong anti-establishment/anti-conservative sentiment.…I wonder if any St. Albans kids were involved too.….”

columbia_heights
A holiday greeting from Columbia Heights resident Halya:

Mary Krismas every 1
Mary Krismas to the boys and girls
To the people of the world
To the saints and the sinners
the people who take blood thinners
The sick and the healthy
the poor and the wealthy
The prosperous and the weak
The tender and the meek
We been through a lot this year
But we still got good cheer
How about a beer
Just don't drive
You might hit a deer

I think the funnest part about Krismas is getting new tunes
Jamming and whamming and banging and clanging
slipping and sliding and gripping and gliding
that's the roll in the rock
when your ship hits the dock
when your goose leaves his flock
You say tick tock
what time is it?
It's Krisma yo
time to go
and rest a spell - take the time to smell

don't worry about the world
the world will take care of itself
It always has
It always will
You sipping on egg nog with rum, or rum with coke
won't make a difference - that ain't no joke
The world won't end—we'll all be here
next year
It's what I've been trying to tell ya
Being that I'm Halya.
Think of Mary.

Mary Krismas.
What would she say if she were here?
Merry Christmas to ya'll
Have a happy next year.

This fall, Alexandria's city council approved plans for a new project at the still-developing Potomac Yards site along Route 1. As a blurb in the December issue of the city's citizen newsletter FYI Alexandria pointed out, the development will feature 216 condos, the city's first new fire station in 30 years, and 60 units of affordable housing—to be built right on top of the station.

Those involved in the project insist it's an innovative way to provide housing for the city's workforce, not a case of sticking poor people in noisy, undesirable units that no one else wants. “I think that's a very rational sort of comment initially, but certainly there are examples, historic examples, of where people live over fire stations,” says Jeff Farner, of the city's Department of Planning and Zoning.

Among the measure being taken to ensure that the housing is as noiseless as possible are special doors for the truck bays that open and close quietly, advanced building technology that will abate noise, and a plan for trucks not to turn on their sirens until they're actually out of the station house.

“We're not thinking of it as a negative at all,” says Farner. “Through construction and programming at the fire station, there are ways to deal with these things.”

Every Tuesday and Thursday Friday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.

shepherdpark
In the days following Halloween, Shepherd Parksters decide to swap some stories of tricking and treating around the neighborhood. TPJohnson, who cites giving candy to some Walter Reed staffers as a highlight of the night, repeats a common complaint of candy-givers: too many kids in street clothes. “I asked one little guy where was his costume, and what he was supposed to be, and he told me “a grownup!” Mark reports that he had 51 kids, and one adult, come by for candy­-a 21 percent increase over the previous year. Christine cops to being that one big person asking for sweets at Mark’s house. The sole tricking incident is reported by Caryn. “Only one bit of ‘weirdness’—I had my boombox playing on the front porch with scary sounds and music. It was outside, but plugged in indoors with cord running under the door. I heard some commotion and noticed the cord was pulled taut. I opened the door to see some young boys sprinting across Jonquil toward Shepherd Elementary and the boombox was out of place.” But, she says, there was “[n]o harm done.”

TakomaDC
Why bother Verizon with a request for a couple of phone books when you can just bug your neighbors for ’em? “Help! I am desperately searching for 2 copies of the White Pages for DC. Does anyone have a copy (or two!) they’d be willing to let me have or at least borrow for about 2 weeks?” asks Wendy, presuming that Takoma residents are a more reliable and speedy source of the books than our region’s premier supplier of communications services. Or maybe she’s just thinks that her fellow neighbors would be less likely to brand her as a weirdo when she explains her intentions. “I need them for a magic trick and can return them to you!”

Brookland
In an epic thread about veterinarians, Brookland residents debate the merits of various veterinarians—particularly the head pet docs at Hyattsville Animal Hospital versus those at the Brentwood Animal Hospital. The vet at Hyatsville is praised as “caring” and “compassionate” but also way too slow and old-fashioned. The doc at Brentwood, based on animal owners’ experiences, is technologically advanced and prompt, but has a lesser bedside manner. Amid the kudos and complaints, Lorie says she typically felt rushed at Brentwood and thought the doc didn’t listen to her. And, while the staff was likeable and informed about animals, their knowledge of world geography left much to be desired. “[W]e did really like [the] staff (although one of his vet techs was sure our Norwegian Elkhounds were from ‘Norwegia’).”

Every Tuesday and Thursday Friday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.

CSNA U Street
CCDogpark suggests that, rather than letting kiddies have the final dip in municipal pools, the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation should close out the pool season with a dog swim. “Other towns are generating large sums of money every fall with season ending canine swim events on the weekend before the pools are closed and drained for the season,” the dog lover writes. “You need to have an outdoor, municipal, fenced, pool with a zero-depth end and/or a baby pool for small breeds.” CCDogPark says the event should be a fundraiser to benefit a cause important to the city and dog owners alike—which automatically excludes anything benefiting children, right?

TakomaDC
For almost a week, Takoma DC residents have been trying to help Carolivia figure out how to crack open the delicious black walnuts that are apparently plentiful up near the D.C./MD line. Suggestions have ranged from expensive, specialized crackers to a vise. On Sunday, Carolivia thanked her neighbors for their suggestions and announced that she was attempting to do some online shopping for a nutcracker designed specifically to smash tough nuts. But she hadn't yet heard the simple solution offered up by Lea. “I don't know if this alternative has been mentioned: placing the black walnuts in the street or your driveway and running over them with the tires of your car. I was told about this option when I was living in the mountains of Virginia.”

Shepherd Park
Instead of using a cutesy pseudonym, Washington Post reporter Henri Cauvin adds his byline to a listserv post that reveals he is looking for a framer to fancy up a very special piece of work. For, um, a friend, maybe? “Looking for suggestions for reasonably priced places in the area to re-frame a couple of posters and to do a commemorative engraving of newspaper article,” Cauvin writes.