About 50 people showed up last night to a meeting led by Todd Metrokin, the out-front gay-bashing victim we wrote about two weeks ago, and Chris Farris, an artist and friend of Todd’s who blogs at thenewgay.net.

The meeting effectively re-formed GLOV (Gays and Lesbians Opposed to Violence), a group active in the ’90s (even before e-mails and cell phones!) in establishing victim advocacy, a hotline to report gay-bashing, sensitivity training for cops, and reports of GLBT-related hate crimes. The reconvening is prompted by recent incidents, including the attack in Adams Morgan on Metrokin and two of his friends and the death of Tony Hunter, who was beaten earlier this month outside of BeBar in Shaw.

The city’s sitting up for this, at least right now. Among attendees at last night’s meeting were Councilmembers David Catania, Phil Mendelson, and Jack Evans; Chris Dyer, director of the mayor’s office on GLBT affairs; Lt. Brett Parson, head of the police department’s special liaison units; and several detectives from the 3rd District, which includes Adams Morgan and U Street.

Metrokin’s still struggling with being thrust into a gay-rights leadership role by virtue of being attacked and talking about it. But, he says, he’s inspired by strangers who’ve thanked him and told him their stories. Also, “everyone I’ve come into contact with in the criminal justice system has been much more responsive.” Metrokin was publicly critical of slow progress in his case, which involves a key piece of evidence: a cell phone belonging to one of his attackers; Metrokin found it in his pocket after being discharged from the hospital.

There’s now one suspect in his case; the police report says at least five were involved. Metrokin has met with an assistant district attorney to talk about charges and prosecution.

“People are talking to me more and more about their experiences in D.C., and there are too many to count at this point. Some people are living with this in their neighborhoods on a day-to-day basis. It’s disheartening,” Metrokin says. The feeling at the meeting, he says, was not that gay-bashing is necessarily on the rise, since statistics are unreliable, “but that crimes are becoming more violent.”

(City Paper photograph by Darrow Montgomery)

Must read. Hint: Author George Saunders‘ take on lipsticks, pigs.

And Now, Anacostia explores an old masonic lodge. He’s got the archival meat and potatoes i.e. old newspaper clippings to make this piece a must read for history buffs!

Prince of Petworth takes picture of building where a pizza place/wine bar is supposed to be in Adams Morgan . Finally, someone has combined two of the biggest cliches going: pizza-as-fine-dining and a wine bar. Thank God. Because there aren’t enough of those around. (Well maybe there’s always room for pizza). Meanwhile he asks if Polly’s is OK. It is.

Upset the Setup worries about the health risks associated with plastic.

Penn Quarter Living reports that Wine Spectator has lavished praise on four PQ spots. Read the item to find out which spots!

Columbia Heights News provides the details for the upcoming Columbia Heights Day Festival on October 4.

Metrocurean details Art and Soul’s opening: “This Southerner’s heart went pitter-patter when I read that the restaurant’s bar will offer boiled peanuts and pork cracklins as bar snacks…” Sounds pretty cool.

Farm Fresh Meat shares: “I am really busy and don’t have time to say much, but this is about the longest I’ve gone without a post since this whole thing began so I wanted to drop by my own blog for a minute. It’s been a pretty crazy week in finance. It remains unclear what will happen in the long run, but it’s pretty safe to say that the face of Wall Street is pretty damn battered and will probably never be quite the same…”

Read the rest of this entry »

City Paper’s new-found promotional intensity does not end with hats. Last week, we got magnets.

They’re nice, but they made me kinda nervous because I didn’t edit any of the stories featured. What do the marketing people know that I don’t? I worried.

Today I’m feeling more sanguine about my prospects for continued employment, because: PENS!

Piles of ’em, on top of the filing cabinet where the office supplies are! And check out what they’re promoting:

Yeah, buddy! Young & Hungry? I edit it! Black Plastic Bag? I’ve totally posted on it! City List? Hey, those InCopy files don’t drag themselves onto the server, pal!

Maybe I’ll buy that new TV after all.

* In 2003, Slate’s Jack Shafer counted how many times Bill O’Reilly had used the phrase “shut up” on his show. Now, he counts the many ways that O’Reilly claims he rarely uses the phrase “shut up”—and recaps O’Reilly’s best shut up moments:

Remember how you wistfully recalled your father telling you to shut up when you were a boy (Sept. 17, 1999) or the time you asked an atheist Eagle Scout why he didn’t “just shut up” about his atheism when asked (Oct. 30, 2002)? Or the times you told “Canadians” (April 16, 2003), “Swedes” (Nov. 20, 2002), “loyal Americans” (Feb. 27, 2003), “spin-meisters” (Nov. 9, 2000), Clinton “partisans” (Feb. 4, 1999), the two political parties (Aug. 15, 2003), gay celebrities (March 21, 2001), and other folks who want to talk about sex to just shut up?

* Via WTOP: What “award-winning actor” is “campaigning for kids in D.C.“? Hint: not Mario Lopez this time.

* Palin e-mails pwned. Yahoo, dude? Really?

* New Columbia Heights posts a photo of an eviction notice at the neighborhood’s Carvel/Cinnabon shop:

My buddy sent me this picture at about 5:30 pm on Wednesday, showing Carvel’s eviction notice. I went by at about 6:15 and it was gone. . . . They recently received the coffee making equipment from the closed Mayorga coffee shop next door, so who knows what’s happening with that. And it might just be some sort of dispute between tenant and landlord that they’ll work out.

* Do you like luxury? Brightest Young Things plays style judge at the Washington Post’s new Fashion Washington magazine launch party: “A pretty tent was set up in the garden, there was glittery black mulch (!) on the floor and pink, flattering lights everywhere (the whole black and pink thing always scares me because it makes me scream “Hot Topic” very loudly inside my head, but it worked here)”

* And in this newspaper:

- Angela Valdez on the story behind the murder of an Afghan-American woman from Woodbridge, Va.

- Mike DeBonis on the Carol Schwartz fallout.

- Dave McKenna: In order for local triathletes to finish the race, they gotta get in the Potomac.

- Tim Carman serves up yummy news bites on Red Sage, the forthcoming H Street Country Club, and $8 glasses of mediocre juice.

- CP launches its new real estate blog: Housing Complex by staff writer Ruth Samuelson

Photo by NCinDC

1. David Foster Wallace Is Dead by Jason Cherkis

2. Palin on Rape Exams: Not the Taxpayers’ Problem by Mike Riggs

3. Finally: Olbermann Gets a Reality Check by Mike Riggs

4. Doodlin’ Among the Orchids by Ted Scheinman

5. David Holder, 1972–2008 by Dave McKenna

6. Carol Concedes! by Erik Wemple

7. How Much Is That Rape Kit in Wasilla? by Amanda Hess (The Sexist)

8. No Spin Pwned by Amanda Hess

9. What Palin Really Needs by Jason Cherkis

10. Total Clusterfuck at BOEE! by Mike DeBonis

Very nice photo by Flickr user takomabibelot

*School recess outsourced? Turns out, yes, according to the Washington Post. In the past two years, principals at 14 elementary and middle schools in the District have brought in non-profit recess instructors to teach and run games, and supervise the kids. “Knowing how to play in a healthy way is not an innate skill. It’s learned,” says the organization’s leader. Sounds fun.

*A homeless, scavenging polar bear visits Columbia Heights! Okay, it was a piece of art. But, let’s not forgot the plight of real polar bears, says Joe Pouliot, director of climate and policy communications for the World Wildlife Fund.”Polar bears are losing their homes. They live on Arctic sea ice, and it’s melting,” Pouliot tells the Washington Post. “It’s not much of a stretch to say that we face an epidemic of polar bear homelessness.” DCist speculates about the bear too. Apparently, it has been making the rounds in D.C.

*Slate praises Meghan McCain: “Young, pretty, and tech-savvy, she’s a tremendous asset, because she’s got a better feel for the way the campaign news cycle works in this era than lots of highly paid strategists. Watch her freely volunteer that, yep, her dad uses that “lipstick on a pig expression,” too—she knows that footage will always come back to haunt you. Or see her deftly put away a query about whether it’s hurtful when people mock her father’s age by laughing “He IS old!”

*”Politicians Lie, Numbers Don’t: And the numbers show that Democrats are better for the economy than Republicans,” Michael Kinsley writes for Slate.

*Brian Beutler, the blogger that got shot in Adams Morgan, is back on the job. “As many of you probably know by now, about two months ago I robbed three bullets of their deadly momentum… and somehow found myself in the hospital as a result.”

*The Post’s fashion insert, FW, debuts on Monday night at the Georgetown home of Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn. Fishbowl snaps a few photos of the not terribly dapper crowd.

Now that the media is talking about something real, can Obama move away from critiquing McCain gaffes and onto something substantial? He needs to elevate the campaign. He needs to give a speech on the economy in the same way he gave that brilliant speech on race. Just a thought. Meanwhile, the Dems have created a McCain lie counter website.

Prince of Petworth finds some balconies “peaceful.”

Mr. T in DC passes on a very interesting tip for local foodies:

“I received a tip from someone apparently in the know, who is probably trying to generate some internet buzz. According to the tipster, there’s going to be some big culinary news for Washington DC this week. He indicated there would be more information by Tuesday or Wednesday. Could it be a new restaurant by a celebrity chef? A new gourmet store set to open in an underserved neighborhood? Who knows. Stay tuned, I guess!”

And Now, Anacostia shares some angst over possible big-box development at Poplar Point.

Pop Cesspool shares The Secret History of Pop Cesspool Vol. 10.

Intangible Arts has some instructions for your Friday night.

The Post’s Richard Cohen is like the last columnist in America to declare there’s a whole “Ugly New McCain.”

Just watch:

The Smoking Gun has documentation on a baggy pants crackdown in Florida. Police reports detail the damning evidence: “black male” in “tan baggy shorts with blue and white boxer style undergarment below his waste.” We continue on to hell in a hand basket with news that a priest in Illinois was dealing coke out of the rectory.

As if I’m not in hate enough with my stupid iPhone, it’s spying on me, so says a hacker.

It’s Mushroom Month!

Oh, phew! Juicy Campus is publishing a Georgetown version after all. But perhaps Georgetown isnt’ juicy enough to produce content. C’mon guys, get with it!

The Post explores Cindy McCain’s Tangled Story of Addiction, which began after her husband’s stressful entanglement with the Charles Keating scandal. She used her own charity to get prescriptions, cost one doctor his license, and only attracted her husband’s attention when she attracted the attention of investigators at the DEA.

“Cool mom” who let kids ride in the trunk of her Volvo three years ago headed back to court for buying booze for teens. She served the kids, whom she didn’t know, screwdrivers with cheap vodka in the woods behind a school.

1. Obama: You’ve Got Something… by Amanda Hess

2. Shepherd Park Man: Examiner Delivery Finally Stopped by Erik Wemple

3. Sarah Palin and the Baby Beard by Dave McKenna

[The Dark Side of the Moon of blog posts]

4. Did City Lifeguards Steal from Poolgoers? by Erik Wemple

5. Silverman Picks Up Rosenstein Endorsement by Mike DeBonis

6. Sarah Palin’s Accent by Jule Banville

7. More on Mayorga by Amanda Hess

8. Just Why Did that Game Suck So Bad? by Erik Wemple

9. Ralph Nader Could Use Ten Bucks by Amanda Hess

10. Update on “Columbia Heights East” Property by Ruth Samuelson

Photo by Flickr user nicvder1