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.

The best local blog I’ve stumbled upon so far: Things Rachael and I Argue About, the diary of a District man’s relationship with his roommate and her creeping insanity. The site details the fascinating spiral of increasingly unbelievable interactions that brew between the blogger and Rachael, a woman who shares his room, and consumes his life. According to the blog’s FAQ:

Q: Did this really happen?
A: YES. ALL OF THIS REALLY REALLY HAPPENED.

Meet Rachael:

Rachael: Why did you lock the bathroom door?
Me: for privacy?
Rachael: are you afraid I’m going to come in there?
Me: no, just a privacy thing
Rachael: yeah right, you don’t trust me
Me: How did you know the door was locked?

In about forty posts (written over an unknown period of time), the blogger detailed all of Rachael’s threats, insults, condescending asides, temper tantrums, and accusations. Then, Rachael found the website. He writes:

Rachael found this webpage. It’s not that I think she’s going to kill me or anything, but she’s just nuts enough to make me genuinely scared for my life. So I’m printing out several copies of this and signing it as testimony, should something bad happen. Knowing her was perhaps the worst thing that happened in my life, and it left me emotionally tortured, financially devistated, and all around feeling a hopelessness for humanity.

The blog hasn’t been updated since I found it last week.

Every Monday my colleague Andrew Beaujon does something to crush my soul a little: He writes up a listing of the most popular City Desk posts of the previous week. I rarely make the cut. That’s my own damn fault, of course—writing about things like City Paper’s general awfulness at softball and authors striking deals with luxury carmakers is pretty niche. But I think I’ve cracked the code here: The blog Journalistopia is linking today to Jake Luciani’s efforts to locate the best time to send out a blog post. He’s deduced that “Tues - Friday between 10am - 2pm PST” is the best time to unleash a blog post upon the world.

“I do think it’s clear posting late at night or on the weekends + monday is a bad idea,” Luciani adds. “Your post will most likley [sic] go unnoticed.” I don’t think anybody running a media blog can afford to take Mondays off. But it is true that Beaujon’s Monday posts of the most popular blog posts have never made his weekly list of the most popular blog posts.

Moe at Jezebel points out the oh-gosh politics and journalism cross in strange ways news that Andrea Mitchell won’t let her hubby Alan Greenspan spend any time alone with his one-time snuggle bunny, Barbara Walters. Moe thinks our generation of women is more comfortable with sharing past partners. I think she’s right, for the most part. Especially in incestuous fields like journalism and politics, it’s sort of inevitable. And if you’re not totally dependent on dudes for your sense of self-worth, you won’t waste your time wondering if your girlfriend gave that one dude something you couldn’t. Mitchell’s situation is a bit different, since she is still in possession of said dude, and since Babs is so freaky. But, still, she should loosen the reigns a bit.

Over at Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art, Julia steps on two landmines simultaneously, criticizing D.C. cyclists for: 1) their fashion sense; and 2) for wearing helmets.

Obviously, this is the kind of thing that can set off World War III in a comments section, especially since Julia keeps ducking in to zing dissenters.

The argument about cycling clothes vs. street clothes is an old one, and Julia’s in good company: legendary “retrogrouch” Grant Peterson, whose Rivendell bikes are especially lust-worthy, believes that seersucker is superior to spandex and that clipless pedals (which require special shoes that lock into them) are b.s. Me, I think you should ride in whatever makes you most comfortable, but I’m always happy to support efforts to raise D.C. residents’ consciousness about their appalling fashion choices, so Julia, this one’s a win for you.

Her helmet argument, though, is moronic. It doesn’t matter if you’re cycling “attentively and at a leisurely pace.” A couple weeks ago I got rear-ended at a stoplight wearing a (sorry, Julia) neon-yellow jacket and two rear blinking lights. Drivers. Just. Don’t. Care. Fortunately I was stopped and got nothing worse than a nasty jolt, but if I’d fallen my head would have almost certainly hit the curb. Julia, your taste in bikes is excellent, and you’ve obviously got a nice brain. It would be a pity to remove it from circulation. Strap up, mlle.

Photo by rubberpaw

Sports! We all watch them. And what a weekend it was for Washington’s teams. The Caps, holding onto their postseason life, and the Wiz showing again that they’re not in the same league with the Cavs. Even though they are.

*Wizznuttz–whaddaya say about this series? C’mon, it’s playoff time, yet you fellows can’t give me a weekend update? C’mon!

*On Frozen Blog has a great meditation on the woes of Flyer Mike Knuble and the implications for the rest of the Caps series, in which the home squad is down 3-2 heading into a big game on Monday night and then–locals hope–Tuesday night.

*WaPo draws a powerful link between the local econ and one of the most environmentally devastating practice of modern times–mountaintop mining. The fundamental: Washington needs more and more power, and more and more of it is coming from coal. The coal has to come from somewhere, and it often comes from mountains whose buzzcuts make them look like “Mars,” in the characterization of an environmental activist.

*Recycling feat of the weekend: Examiner puts story on its site about how burglaries are up 21 percent in the District. Credits and links to WTOP. Go to WTOP, and find that WTOP links to and credits the Washington Post, which actually did the journalism.

*Columnist Mike Wise makes a good point about the Wiz–until and unless Abe Pollin’s team actually wins a series against this “rival,” there’s no rivalry. Just a one-sided relationship of sorts.

*Check this out on the Washington Times site: Ollie North executes hit piece on Jimmy Carter.

Sure, there’s no such thing as bad press in the era of the hit-counter. But damn if it don’t hurt to be mocked on a site as grand as DCRTV.

“DC City Paper is out with its annual ‘best of’ issue. And it confirms that the weekly rag is pretty cluelessly brain dead about local TV and radio,” writes the heroic DCRTV Dave.

Ouchie. DCRTV-D goes on to rail against our failure to cite local personalities such as “Elliot, Geronimo, the Junks, Cerphe, Russ Parr, Chris Core” etc…

No defense here, DCRTV-D, though we have weighed in on your idol and sponsor Chris Core recently. Hope we don’t disappoint you so much next time around, DCRTV-D. And thanks for the hits.

I’ve done it. I’ve written the most cliché poem in the world. Waldo Jaquith, over on the Virginia Quarterly Review’s blog, tried to prove that writers of clichés don’t get published. He discovered the opposite. And in doing so, gave up a juicy list of 12 clichés rampant in (usually) bad, bad poetry. Put them all together, and you get the most publishable poem ever! The New Yorker, I’ll be waiting for your call:

In the water, there is death.
Blood stains a stone,
once the color of bone.
My poetry is dead as is my heart. Like that fish.
No more birth, only darkness,
its eyes the color of rust,
no longer fears the cat.

First Kentucky, next…America! Last week, Kentucky state legislator Tim Couch filed a bill to end anonymous internet comments. Here’s some more info from the local ABC News affiliate ACTION NEWS 46 WTVQ out of Lexington:

The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site.

Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted.

Read the rest of this entry »

Weekend marked an end to a mid-winter Sunday slump for the Washington Post. Readable articles this time included:

*Definitive assessment of ravages of condo conversion trend. Sure, story’s a decade old, but still compelling.

*More immersion on the drama of the superdelegate votes for Hillary and Obama.

*The last word, hopefully, on Charlotte Allen’s idiotic piece on women and her editor’s craven pursuit of buzz.

*A solid piece by Liza Mundy on the true meaning of those marriage vows that you parroted without really thinking about.

*The Examiner’s prize bit of wire copy discusses bad water being used by the troops in Iraq.

*The Washington Times could have come up with a less duh headline than this one: “Pennsylvania demographics resemble Ohio”. Well, you don’t say.

*New York Times Mag–in the Money Issue–goes deep on the impact of celebs in advancing do-gooder causes worldwide.

The 10 most popular City Desk posts in February:
1. Washington Times “Scare Quotes” Are History

2. Chairman of the Bored

3. Photo of the Day, “Fuck You, Bill Belichick” Edition

4. Barnum & Bailey & Davis*

5. Morale Boost at the Post: A Game Room

6. Washington Post Staff Now Huddled With Publisher

7. LNS Makes a Literary Debut

8. The “O” in Obama Has Frosting and Sprinkles

9. Party Report: The Young and the Guest List

10. 2 Girls 1 Cup and 1 Slate Article**

*From January, but Lance fans/haters kept it hopping all month

**Also from January, but timelessness of subject prevailed

Thanks for reading all month, folks. CP staffers whose posts didn’t make the list: Be very afraid.

Pete Wentz: Statesman. Lover. Genius. But not Fall Out Boy’s lead singer.