Chris Rockwell, editor of the new blog, Sansconnie: DC on Schoolnights, says his site offers the city’s only unbiased nightlife agenda. “Our authors are only the truly depraved and will exploit a bar, restaurant, golf course etc. to the limits of it’s decency and legality,” he wrote in an email. Indeed! Rockwell himself, apparently on a date, dutifully reported on the prospects of picking up chicks at a gay bar. The site is looking for contributors: “We are looking for new contributors who can exhibit depraved judgment and a rapist wit. If you’ve got a murderboner then you’re perfect.” Don’t hold back!

Via Boing-Boing, this Firefox plug-in, which conveniently hides the YouTube comments least likely to be useful–those filled with misspellings, profanity, you know, Internet talk. What I’d love is a plug-in that worked on every site, so I’d never again have to read “Slow news day?” or “FAIL” or anything by Don Smith.

I kid, Don, I kid!

DENVER—LL is currently sitting at Denver International Airport, yawning and enjoying the free WiFi, mostly to ogle Sarah Palin. As his time at the Democratic National Convention comes to a close, though, he is reminded of an informal blog-off discussed late last week between himself and the Washington Post’s David Nakamura and DCist’s Sommer Mathis.

You decide the winner in the comments! Here’s my posts, Mathis’ posts, and Nakamura’s posts.

Now before you cast your vote, ask yourself this: What other blogger has brought you poorly lit video of Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. doin’ “Da Butt”:

LL shot that at a poolside party Tuesday night thrown by Pepco, where guests were greeted by a thoroughly seersuckered Vincent B. Orange Sr., the former Ward 5 councilmember turned Pepco lobbyist, and treated to a carving station and raw bar.

Prior to Thomas’ move-busting, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton had been getting down with about a dozen others in a “Booty Call” line dance. That prompted noted jock Thomas, standing on the sideline, to protest to LL that “he got the athletics gene but not the dancing gene.” He pointed to his mother, delegate delegation member Romaine Thomas, who was dancing with Norton and said, “She’s the dancer in the family.” He then informed a surprised LL that he had attended cotillion as a youngster.

Then the DJ spun E.U.’s go-go crossover classic, and it was off to the races. LL, meanwhile, had to explain go-go to a pair of befuddled New Mexico delegates who had wandered in.

To paraphrase All the President’s Men, that’s a good, solid piece of American journalism the Washington Post doesn’t have.

Vote away!

why.i.hate.dc’s Liz is right–she did reply to my interview request, but I missed the e-mail among my daily barrage of spam. We’ve exchanged a couple of e-mails since I wrote Thursday about the the nasty comments on her site, where she seems to have replaced D.C. as the object of some readers’ hate.

Liz didn’t know the blog’s previous author, Rusty, before she entered the contest to succeed him. After she won, Rusty’s girlfriend, Liz says, “wrote me to describe some of the things the trolls had done to she and Rusty. She told me to be careful.”

Hence the paucity of personal details. In one of her first posts, Liz says, ” I did answer a commenter who asked about me with some general answers ‘I’m from the midwest, I moved to D.C. because…’ and they spent the next forty posts dissecting that information and speculating about what I wear. After that, there was no way I was going to give them anything. They still post things every day like, ‘You’re fat, arent’ you? Aren’t you!’ (I delete those comments) trying to get me to say something about the way I look, and it’s very creepy. No one ever asked James what color his hair was…”

Liz says she uses “use the same criteria for trolls that I always have for dates….if everything they say is negative and personal, if they yell or call me names, then they’re out. I delete the comment and move on. Some trolls have ended up being interesting once they stop yelling. Most of them, though, are just constantly whining and then whining about the fact that I removed their last whine. It’s boring.”

I asked her whether she thought the trolls are former fans of the blog or if they’re the same people who Rusty’s girlfriend warned her about. She says her “worst offender” is the latter but that one of her “most persistent” detractors says he was a friend of Rusty. “Both of them sounded like first-class jerks though,” she says.

Finally, I told her I was often surprised at the tenor of the comments directed at women online. Nobody talks about Cherkis‘ looks or his ethnic background when he pisses them off. But, well, check out some of these charmers.

Liz isn’t buying such facile explanations, at least not in her case. “I don’t think I get anger for being a woman. However, I think the anger I do get is more likely to be expressed in a certain way because I’m a woman. When trolls comment about women, it seems like stereotypes provide a common thread that different people can relate to.”

After all, Liz says, “trolls just want to be heard no matter what. Rusty left up all comments, so they posted death threats. I took down the death threats so then they posted personal comments. I took down the personal comments so THEN they posted complaints about the writing. I left those up, and they started posting personal comments paired with complaints about the writing.”

In the e-mail before that one, I asked her if she in fact hates D.C. “I think something the trolls respond to is that I tend not to deal in absolutes,” she says. “James was very much, ‘You sir, are a MORON, if you don’t agree with me.’ I’m more, ‘Sheesh. This is such a mess…’ But the one time I use the word ‘Moron,’ (I was just feeling grouchy) the trolls fall all over themselves to say my writing has improved?”

Turns out there was something about D.C. to like. Fans of recently departed why.i.hate.dc blogger Rusty really miss posts like “Guess Who Got Hosed by Metro This Weekend,” “DC Baseball Still Doomed,” and “Man of the People My Ass.”

Sadly, Rusty (who besides his mainstays of public transportation, Laura Sessions Stepp, and the D.C. government, often turned his attention to this paper) has left the city he hated so much for the totally superior town of Columbus, Ohio (his predecessor, blog founder James F., at least went to Seattle). And his replacement, the similarly one-named Liz, is driving Rusty’s loyal readers coconuts, just coconuts!

For starters, she didn’t even do an introductory post, just fired off about the Post’s Chandra series. That went sorta well till she started deleting comments the same day. Then the howls began in earnest.

One day on the job and you’re already deleting comments? Geez, it wasn’t even that bad (and no, I didn’t leave it.)

# posted by Anonymous : July 14, 2008

Stop deleting comments. Rusty hardly ever did that. Your views will decline drastically if you decide to go that route.

# posted by Anonymous : July 14, 2008

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

# posted by Anonymous : July 14, 2008

THEN, Liz started answering commenters. Semi-cryptic posts like this one prompted replies like, “What is your point here?…I’m also unsure as to how this all fits in with the ‘Why I Hate D.C.’ theme.”

She changed the blog’s mission statement. She blogged about stuff she read in the Guardian. She made fun of the commenters’ ire.

And suddenly, all the hatred in D.C. had a new place to live.

Yesterday, Liz hit her haters with this:

You guys are idiots.

You moved to this city because you thought finally you’d be around people who think you’re cool. And you realized that your pose of, “I’m SMART” was just compensation for not having anything else. You’re not as smart as the bar tenders. You hate everyone for not appreciating you. And somehow that’s everyone else’s fault. So you bitch and bitch and bitch.

Not about anything that matters, just about all the other people who aren’t as cool as you. I don’t care that you “lost” some blog that was supposed to make you feel better. You should feel bad. You suck. Fix that and get over everyone else.

Then today she blogged about the Late Night Shots reality show, and why it’ll suck because it’s set in Georgetown, and Georgetown’s for idiots.

The commenters are happy again.

best post yet. More like this and I won’t stop reading after all.

I’ve e-mailed Liz asking for an interview, but I haven’t heard back.

Dans Snyder and Steinberg are still playing the feud!

First Dan Sn. banned Dan St. from using video from inside Redskins Park on his washingtonpost.com blog.

Now Dan St. gets one of Dan Sn.’s own pets, Chris Cooley, to invite him over to shoot video of lunch at his mom’s. Since the video comes from outside the gates of Redskins Park, Dan Sn.’s odd ban doesn’t apply.

So Dan St. throws it up on his Bog.

This has gotta hurt Dan Sn.

Especially coming so soon after Dan St. spurned Dan Sn.’s effort to hire him.

Is Dan Sn. just gonna let Dan St. do him like that?

Full Disclosure: Steinberg is a neighbor and I still owe him money for a bag of coffee beans from Costco.

Well, it looks like we can finally put that whole “Hipster” movement to rest. A new local Website going by the name Hipster Overkill does the honors of sounding the fad’s death knell, most likely played sarcastically on a cowbell:

What is Hipster Overkill you ask???

It is a platform to bring you Lifestyle, Music, Fashion, Trends, Artists, Viral Video, Events and Culture that are overlooked by commercial media and mainstream newspeak. The irony is, by shining light on the underground we love so, we ultimately make the unknown popular, and thus risk compromising it’s coolness altogether.

Way to cover your bases, Hipster Overkill: Even when you are no longer (?) cool, you will at least be able to take comfort in your own sense of “irony”—well, you would be able to if the situation you’ve described were actually ironic.

Could it be true? Has Hipsterdom finally reached its tipping point, wherein its trademark sense of irony is no longer strong enough to support the ridiculous behavior furthered in its name? Is it ironic when those who thrive on irony do not understand what irony is? When a hipster loses all self-awareness, does a Hipster Overkill blogger get its wings?

Even I do not know anymore. Quick, hand me a PBR to enjoy irresponsibly and with a gleeful lack of sarcasm! Take my photo as I do so! I will peruse it online at my workplace and add it to my Facebook page for all to see! All hail the post-hipsters!

Photo by Zabowski

Tired of accessing the Internet through the Internet? Head to calltheinternet.org to, well, call the Internet. On the telephone. Remember those? The Website for calling the Internet lists only a local number—(202) 470-6789—a status—”live” or “offline”—and this description:

Thank you for expressing an interest in placing a phone call to the Internet. The Internet’s phone line is always accepting calls, unless we are assisting other Internet users, or are out of the office. Check the bottom of each page to find out the status of the Internet’s phoneline. Live means we’re in the office and taking calls, if the line is busy, try again later. Offline means we’re out of the office.

I recently placed a phone call to the Internet. Excerpts from the transcript after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

I never read “The Washingtonienne,” Jessica Cutler’s story of sex, intrigue and blogging on Capitol Hill. Now, the story may be coming to HBO. Lisa de Moraes‘ column has the scoop:

“To that end, [HBO's] given Sarah Jessica Parker’s production company the thumbs-up to make a pilot for an adaptation of the non-somber “Washingtonienne” novel. It’s from former congressional staff assistant Jessica Cutler and was based on her blog of that same name, in which she detailed her interesting life in D.C., including an exhausting array of sexual encounters, some with government suits, some for cash because “how can anybody live on $25K/year?”

Departing why.i.hate.dc blogger Rusty poses with two of his least favorite D.C. institutions—Smith Point and City Paper—in an interview with washingtonian.com. When asked what one thing he’d improve about Washington, a city he’s been hating on so much that he considers moving to Columbus, Ohio, a step up, “Eliminating the Washington City Paper once and for all.”

Really, all he’d ever have to do to fulfill that fantasy is to join a team that plays us at softball. As detailed on this blog, our softball team was overmatched in every contest we played this year. We forfeited our final game, not for a staff meeting—we tend to hold those on weekdays—but because most of the team had to volunteer at Crafty Bastards Silver Spring.

Never did quitting feel so good. I blogged a while back about the difficulty of getting up and driving for 45 minutes to get your bahookie thumped by some team with “video” in its name.

Thing is, I like playing softball. We all do. But serving as cannon fodder for the fine folks at the Gazette papers isn’t really all that fulfilling. So here’s what I’m thinking. Around town, there have to be publications staffed by people as hopeless as we are. Sculpture, I’m looking at you! Hey Preservation, preserve this!

I am proposing a league of wusses. DCist! We must at least stand a chance against you! National Geographic! Actually, I’ll bet those sturdy explorers at National Geographic could wallop us. But National Geographic Kids! Ranger Rick! Callin’ you out, too! Metro Connection! Current Newspapers!

About a week or so back Fox News’ Laura Ingraham visited Tryst in Adams Morgan to figure out what all those crazy people are doing in coffee shops with their newfangled laptops and their Twitterbook and whatnot. “Typing,” I would’ve said if they’d asked me, but Ingraham’s answer is closer to something like, “Spitting on the social contract by failing to hit on the people next to you.” (I had lots of brilliant points to make about how not all third places are created equal, and that third places don’t play the same role that they did in Fox News’ favorite decade, the 1850s, but screw it—I’m on deadline.)

Anyway, one of the people who Ingraham buttonholed is a City Paper contributor, Cherie Parker; “I hate Fox News,” she tells Ingraham in the clip. Understandably, Ingraham dismisses this as failing to be the genuine, neighborly exchange of ideas she was hoping for. Parker has copped to her crankiness, and confesses the deep secret of what she was doing when the news crew arrived: Blogging and surfing Craigslist. Surprise!

Attention District RSS Feeds: Make way for another D.C. music site. Last Thursday saw the launch of All Our Noise, part blog, part ‘zine, part D.C., part … not.

“We wanted to help highlight the indie electro DJ scene here in DC,” says founder Miguel Lacsamana, who conceived the site with his partner-in-electronic-folk, Stamen & Pistils bandmate Raul de Leon. Later on, “We decided to expand it a bit further and have it be a broader music blog, D.C.-based but not necessarily D.C.-centric.”

Says Lacsamana, “It’ll have your standard blog fare, music and show reviews, interviews, and features.” So far, that fare includes a Time Machine interview, a couple podcasts, and a Weezer “Blue Album” birthday retrospective. In the future, All Our Noise promises to develop remixes, podcasts, and video, but hopes to stay low on the self-indulgence. “We won’t be focusing too much on the ’scene,’” says Lacsamana.

Lacsamana and de Leon recruited a bevy of local contributors (check out sexy shots of portions of their faces here) to help with the project, and got the backing of two local labels: Lacsamana’s own Echelon Productions and Shelby Cinca and Håkan Johansson’s Swedish Columbia. According to AON, “We all have our own projects going on at any one time, but this is our baby. We’d like to see it grow up and mature into a bright, bouncing youngster.”

*Hey, look, Laurie Collins is speaking up again.

*What sort of calamity would be sufficient to make D.C. police Chief Cathy Lanier bag her weekend plans and head back to D.C.? This would do it.

*City officials are thinking about the fireworks season, with bans on their minds. Should be no problem–not like it’s a tradition or anything.

*The Smithsonian has put up banners on the National Mall for its annual Folklife Festival, which takes place from June 25 through June 29 and July 2-6. There’s nothing particularly significant about the banners–just that you can be sure that summer’s very hottest days will coincide with the festival. They always do.

Cherkis was in the Post this morning. That’s because of Reason No. 4,665 that I’m glad I live in Virginia:

Officer Ariel Mannes was investigated in 2003 for retaliating against City Paper reporter Jason Cherkis, according to an arbitration filing. In police trial board proceedings, he admitted using his position as an officer to access Cherkis’s personal records and posting the information on a law enforcement Web site. The board decided unanimously to fire Mannes that year, but the department took more than 55 days to notify him.

Lanier rehired him in November but then suspended him. The department is trying to dismiss him again because he was convicted of a weapons offense in the District during the time he was fired, records show.

Over at DCist, some charmers have taken the opportunity of the mention of Cherkis’ name to zing him: “the douchiest City Paper reporter there” grumbles one; “I wonder if Cherkis is pooping in his nappies at the thought that this cop is back on the street with a badge and a gun again?” offers another wag. I tell you, it’s a regular Festival d’Avignon in there!

For the record, here’s the 2002 story that landed Cherkis on Mannes’ to-do list. Cherkis denies any nappy-pooping, incidentally. “No…I was at the beach,” he says. “So—no pants.” Haters, please enjoy the mental image.

For the most part, niche blogs will stick around for a few months before slowly fading into the elusive world of google cachés. Not so for local fashion writer Morgan Hungerford’s pet project: This month, her two-year-old panda head blog has officially graduated to a panda head mag.

The 27-year-old Adams Morgan resident started panda head in 2006 with the intention of covering D.C. street style. Over time, though, photos of District fashionistas (they’re out there) gave way to Hungerford’s own fashion commentary, interviews, and photo spreads. “It got boring,” says Hungerford. “It made sense to stop it altogether rather than let it die a slow death.”

But it wasn’t D.C. style itself that bored Hungerford: It was Internet style. “With all the interviews I was doing, I began to push the text limits of a street style format,” she says. “I wanted to be doing more.” For Hungerford, who holds a B.A. in English from James Madison University, the longer magazine format made sense. She did, after all, learn from the verbose: “I was a Faulkner major in college,” she explains.

The inaugural issue of the online-only magazine was written, edited, and styled by Hungerford; design duties were assumed by pal and BrightestYoungThings designer Erik Loften. This edition of the sleekly designed flash site includes photo contributions from Liz Gorman, Hantim Lee and Ryan Wakeman, and interviews with Au Revoir Simone and locals the Multi V’s. The mag will be released quarterly.