Wired has the best stuff on the juicy scandal still percolating with D.C.-based Women’s Voices. Women’s Vote, which admits to being behind some high-tech “anonymous” phone calls going to primarily black households in North Carolina. The calls from a Lamont Williams imply improper voter registration and give instructions on re-registering, only the voters there have not necessarily improperly registered and the instructions to wait for a packet in the mail and send in another application would put voters well past the deadline to vote in Tuesday’s primary. Virginia State Police investigated similar robo-calls before VA’s primaries last February, also sourced to Women’s Voices. Women Vote.

The group’s president (and Duke grad, no less) is Page Gardner of Northern Virginia, who has been making the rounds in this hamster-wheel primary to talk about the impact of single women. According to the Institute for Southern Studies and OpenSecrets.org, Gardner has contributed $6,700 to Hillary Clinton in one form or another in 2005 and 2006. Her total contribution to the Obama campaign: $0.

Gardner does have a response to all of this: “We apologize for any confusion our calls may have caused.” That may not be enough for the Attorney General.

You know the fifty-color fliers and postcards good neighbors leave on your windshield? The ones inviting you to those exclusive afterhours parties and special events? The ones that would make Luther Campbell nod in approval?

While I’m not sure who actually responds to this spam and goes to these things, I do know that they constitute an annoyance. How many of these cards have I tossed into the backseat of my car? Too many!

It’s not a shock that people have complained. Southwest residents have been up in arms over them for a while. They’ve started calling them “Booty Cards.” Kinda perfect.

And they got Councilmember Tommy Wells‘ attention. After months of effort, Wells—along with the D.C. attorney general’s office—has been able to at least banish one company from distributing them. Wells, in a press release, calls this a “partial victory” for Southwest residents—and D.C. citizens in general.

Although he considered them pornographic, Wells knew he couldn’t fight them on indecency issues. Instead, his office went after the company over the trash they produce. A smart move!

-”This is just one battle in a much larger effort,” explains Wells’ Chief of Staff Charles Allen.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cherry blossom tourists and kite-flyers had a chance to get star-struck over a total nobody last weekend. Some guy you don’t know organized an “Improv Everywhere” event in which another guy you don’t know acted like a celebrity, and some 40 other people acted like paparazzi, bodyguards, photographers, and adoring fans; and in the end, all the randoms on the National Mall were following him around and taking pictures with their cell phone cameras. His fake girlfriend even got fake-mad when a fake-fan demanded that he sign her (real) boob.

The supposed singer of the supposed hit song “Trapped in My Heart” attracted dozens of hangers-on and fans-for-a day but failed at his ultimate mission of being allowed to go to the top of the Washington Monument without a ticket. Apparently the security guard nearly came to blows with the tour guide in the Abraham Lincoln costume over it. (You can always count on Honest Abe to reassure us that we’re all still created equal, and we all need a ticket to get to the top of the Monument.)

Together with the Freeze Action that happened in Union Station a couple weeks ago, this is almost enough to convince you that Washington is becoming absurdist-artsy-hip like we always dream it will.

Photo by Bruce Witzenburg.

Kudos to the New York Times for digging into Spitzer prostitute Ashley Alexandra Dupré’s MySpace page and coming up with this gem:

On the Web page is a recording of what she describes as her latest track, “What We Want,” a hip-hop-inflected rhythm-and-blues tune that asks, “Can you handle me, boy?” and uses some dated slang, calling someone her “boo.”

But the Times missed the real draw of Dupré’s site: the user comments. What do you say when your online acquaintance is revealed as a prostitute? Whatever it is, it’s probably in all caps. The highlights:

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, and lest I forget my daily post on LNS. The Post’s Reliable Source dishes today about Reed Landry’s strangely violent reaction to a Wonkette videographer.

I posted here a few weeks ago about LNS founder Reed Landry’s assault on my friend Liz Glover at the Young and the Guest List party thrown by Washington Life magazine. It was pretty lame behavior for an aspiring media mogul. Turns out there were a few things I didn’t realize when I posted: Reed broke Liz’s camera and she has evidence. Wonkette put up the video today–the important bits are near the end. It’s a little grainy and mostly audio but you can clearly see/hear three things in sequence: Reed’s face approaching, the sound of something hitting the camera, and Liz saying “Help! Help!”

This past weekend was the Washington D.C. International Wine & Food Festival, an event where you wander the Reagan Building with an empty wine glass, trying to get people to pour wine into it. I stopped by yesterday hoping to learn a lot about wine. Here’s what I learned:

1. Be aggressive. This place is packed with people, and they’re not above pushing you out of their way for a splash of Pinot Noir.

2. Beware of women’s purses. They look innocent but are actually disguised weapons. One quick turn and even the most petite woman can send you stumbling away from a table. Where she is now enjoying a sip of wine.

3. Bring an old person with you. Even if you are able to maneuver yourself to the front-and-center of a table, if an old person appears, you will be trumped. I’m sure it’s assumed that they have more money than you. Actually, I’m sure they do have more money than you.

4. Look like you have money. Older people will always look wealthier. But don’t discount the possibility of looking like a trust-fund kid. I recommend a single strand of pearls for the ladies and a blazer for the gentlemen. It doesn’t hurt to drop lines like, “Oh! Wouldn’t this Chardonnay taste lovely on a summer day on the boat?”

5. Don’t get hammered. Don’t be that guy. That guy accosted my boyfriend and me. He wanted to know why my boyfriend is so tall. And he said it’s really important to buy good vinegar (but hard to find). And he said the port he was drinking was the best fucking thing in the world. And if you saved it for 20 years, it would be orgasmic.

6. Try the port. The best table was the table where I tried a sherry, a tawny, and a ruby. Enlightening and delicious.

Finally: Foggy Bottom’s answer to Late Night Shots. A trio of sophomores from The George Washington University have created a photo blog dedicated to the G.W. nightlife scene. The G-Scene, run by Josh Sasouness, Torrey Ripinsky, and David Spier, documents G.W. after-hours through candid photography and even more candid sexual innuendo! (Full disclosure: As a G.W. student, I personally delivered David Spier’s laundry to his freshman dorm while working part-time for laundry service Soapy Joe’s).

The site celebrated its kick-off last Thursday with a party at Lotus Lounge. Hey, do you guys think you can use your fake I.D.’s to buy me some beer?

From the editors:

If your picture is not on the site…you are wishing it would be…and if your picture is up on the site…you’re wishing you would have smiled better…or worn more clothes. This site is just a comic strip of the life at GW…if you can’t laugh at that..then you have no sense of humor. Everyone can talk all they want but at the end of the day this site makes celebrities out of kids who think they’re already celebrities. This site is immature, at best, but you know what…you check this site once a day, at least. So who are you kidding?

This message is one part disclaimer, one part humor, one part satire, and one part social commentary, and one part fuck you.

This quote, via The Hatchet, from freshman Lindsey Pace, pretty much sums it up: “To be honest, G-scene is lame,” Pace said on her way into Lotus. “It’s kind of high-school.” (emphasis mine).

OK. New condo towers and office spaces are sprouting up all over town. Inevitably, these new buildings require some sort of retail on the first floor. Lately, I’ve been noticing the business of choice seems to be a FedEx Kinko’s, a Wachovia or both. I count three new FedEx or FedEx Kinko’s [is that like when KFC/Taco Bell joined forces?] either moving in or having just moved in to some gentrifying zone. There’s one on M Street in SE by the stadium. There’s one on 14th Street NW. And there’s one in Adams Morgan. I’m sure there’s more. The FedEx Kinko’s website says there’s at least 19 locations in the District. Um, I guess I’m a little late in spotting this trend.

So is FedEx Kinko’s the new CVS?

My informants have reported back and it sounds like last night’s casting call party for the LNS reality show at The Park on 14th St. was a bit of a bust.

This text came in from one attendeee at 11:19 p.m.: “Soooooo lame. No lnsers here. Barely anyone here. Blahhhhhh!”

One post on LNS described the evening as the “Best Night Ever,” but other posters begged to differ.

Posted By: Wait on 02-29-2008 9:42 am Report as shockingly offensive

When was there actually something going on at the park? Because we stopped by there around 11 and it was ghetto city with no familiar faces so we left.

Let us know if something interesting actually did happen. Or gossip about the show. Will Katherine Kennedy be the star? Who will be the villian?

I may have to think of something else to write about. Horrors!

Will someone please attend this and report back? I think I will get stoned if I go. Someone on LNS just posted a link all about how I am a whore. Someone else said I have a “level of fascination with this site that I’m not sure I’m comfortable with.” Believe me, I am not comfortable with it either. It’s a very sick fascination.

I recently spoke with the development director at the company working on a potential LNS reality show. They’re shooting a final round of casting interviews this week.

Personally, I’d rather watch this. Perhaps the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

DC writer Grant Ginder just made a deal with Simon and Schuster to publish his first novel, This Is How It Starts, which follows the travails of a recent college graduate as he navigates the world of young and powerful Washington elites. I spoke with Grant and his editor, who both say this isn’t a DC gossip novel a la Sally Quinn. Both described the manuscript as a Bright Lights, Big City for DC. Just replace the media/publishing industry with jobs on the Hill, and Manhattan glamor with loafer footsie in Georgetown bars. The main character is a member of Late Night Shots, as is Ginder, although the 25-year-old author says he just used the site for research and entertainment.

The book isn’t out for about a year, but I’m looking forward to reading it, and taking a bar crawl in Georgetown with the author. Like most of the people he writes about, Ginder isn’t a native. Worse, he’s from California (Laguna Beach!). His familiarity with the psychographic of young, aspirational DCites began during summer internships here during college, at U Penn. Ginder clearly knows “the scene,” but the scene doesn’t dominate his life. He lives in Adams Morgan, the most feared neighborhood of the LNS set, and works at the Center for American Progress, a decidedly progressive think-tank.

No more shaking it like a Polaroid picture. The Times reports that Polaroid is getting out of the instant photography business.

After a move, I lost my Polaroid camera that I got for my Bar Mitzvah. But up until a few years ago, it was my main camera. It was perfect for taking really close up pictures [and not much else]. Now those cameras have since gone on to be quite the hipster go-to for backstage pictures and even wedding pictures. And the cameras seem to be flourishing on Ebay.

The Times reports: “The company, which stopped making instant cameras for consumers a year ago and for commercial use a year before that, said today that as soon as it had enough instant film manufactured to last it through 2009, it would stop making that, too.”

Here’s a news story on the company.

From DCist, a local TV production outfit, PB&J Television, has put out the casting call for LNS members who want to bare their social souls for a “new primetime docu-series in the vein of The Hills.” I thought this was a joke. Looks real so far.