While most of the feedback we at Washington City Paper receive from readers comes via e-mail, we occasionally get that amazing voicemail message that’s worth the menial chore of transcribing.

This is such a message. It comes in response to an arts feature about a group of kids that launched a go-go band. The leaver of the message didn’t identify herself.

Yes, hi, uh, we get your paper here at our building, and I just want to comment on this week’s…the picture on page 40, about…the kids …with the microphone, with his jeans down around his butt and his underwear showing and some of the other kids, the way they’re posing. I think it’s disgusting and in poor taste, OK? Don’t put those in there. It’s not right.

Photograph by Charles Steck

So, you may have heard that our Best of D.C. issue is out. If you haven’t heard: Are you living out of a box in Rock Creek Park or something? Go get one! Even though the issue is the largest in memory for the City Paper, there were some items that just wouldn’t fit. To wit: the classic D.C. Go-Go Band, Mambo Sauce. All of Mambo Sauce (of “Welcome to D.C.” fame and the stars of local label Red C Records) were included in our Classic D.C. Archetypes feature, but didn’t make it to the print issue. For this, we are sorry, because these people are pretty, they’re talented, and they love them some D.C., so here they are, along with their answers to the burning question: What is the Best of D.C.?

Andy White: Ben’s Chili Bowl

Black Boo: We’ve got our own swagger. We march to the beat of our own drum.

Keyboard Chris: We have our own form of music native to our area (until Mambo Sauce spreads it to the rest of the world)!

Pep: Go-Go!!!

Twink: My family

Yendy: The city’s rich African-American history.

This just in from Bisnow on Business: Chuck Brown is a Visionary.

On May 6, Group Goetz Architects is hosting a “Visions of Washington” event at the House of Sweden to honor “Visionaries [That's With a Capital V, Dammit] who’ve given Washington the spirit, vibrancy, and diversity that make it one of the most exciting cities in the world.”

Your “Visionaries of the Year” are the Lerner Family for “applying their energy, money, and name to bringing DC literally into the Major Leagues.” (I guess that makes the District’s taxpaying public visionaries in their own special way.)

Then you’ve got your usual developers and lawyers: Doug Jemal, Forest City’s Deborah Ratner Salzberg, Arent Fox’s Joe Fries, Arnold & Porter’s Steve Porter, the Carlyle Group’s Hayden Jones, among others.

And…the godfather of go-go. Hell yeah.

Photo by dalesun

From today’s Post: an article on the standoff between P.G. County and club owners over increasing violence at late-night venues. Representatives of D.C.’s go-go community went to Maryland to try to mediate—and offered some ideas for how to help: “Speakers offered suggestions such as requiring people in clubs who get in fights to attend peace training, copying the IDs of troublemakers, and establishing security standards.”

What in the hell is “peace training”? These people seem to have made a profession out of it. I’m afraid we’ve finally gone too far.

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, we run down what’s going on in local Internet discussion groups.

TMOTTGoGo Community Forum Board
Denizens of TMOTTGoGo—that’d be Take Me Out To The GoGo for all you knuckleheads—discuss the pertinent issues of the day. “LLEM,” says King. “LMMFAO,” says BUCKSHOT. “GTHOH!!!!!!!!” says Da Remixx. “MODEL JOANT!!!!!…Butta cranks.…WOW!!!!!!!!” says #02. “*chiggity*…Huh?” asks Hatee. “Pressed ass!” says Chipster. “WHAT HE SAID!!!!!,” says #02. “My GAWD woman!!!!! You don’t wanna know what I’ve saying over here!!,” says Jay113. “WHAT HE SAID AGAIN!!!!!!” repeats #02. “DAYUM RIGHT!!” says momma.honey. “to the utmost!!!!!!!!” says Da Remixx. “holllaaaaa!” asks Chipster. “SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDD!!!!!!” says Peaches_Baby. “lunch time,” says Xenobia.

psa105
Posts on this crime forum continue to suggest that Capitol Hill residents believe the earth, in fact, does revolve around a large, really cute golden retriever. “Saturday night in Marion Park, two police officers drew their guns when a friendly, non-barking dog ran towards them. One officer pointed the gun at the dog and the other waved his gun in the air,” writes kennedym. And that was wrong: “[W]hy would anyone, police or not, who is afraid of dogs walk through Marion Park in the evening, when so many people are walking their dogs? Is this a training issue?” PTLdogs, however, takes exception to the idea that dogs should have their own police force. “I [am] a 19 year resident of the District and the fact that you would even ask this question is troubling.…There is not a sign on the side of dogs that says ‘this one is friendly.’” In retort, kennedym posts the following Rules of Canine Engagement from the Humane Society of the USA: “Remain motionless, hands at your sides.…If the dog does attack, ‘feed’ him your jacket, purse, bicycle, or anything that you can put between yourself and the dog,” and “curl into a ball with your hands over your ears and remain motionless.” Got that, officer?

hstreetdc
On Behalf Of Marilyn has people hanging out in front of her house drinking sack beers—they obviously need to go. “I’ve only had to do it a couple of times,” says Sharon, “but I’ve found playing classical music very loudly, with the speakers pointing toward the windows works very well.” And Richard takes the joke too far, suggesting a Barry Manilow assault. “[T]hen again,” he reconsiders, “listening to ‘Mandy’ over and over ought to set anybody on edge, regardless of their musical preferences.”

The students in Matt Webb’s eighth-period English class at Roosevelt Senior High School in Petworth were having a tough time getting started on a long research paper. So Webb made them a bet that they could write a five-paragraph essay in only 30 minutes. The 12 students, all freshmen and sophomores, didn’t think it could be done but banged out the preceding paean to D.C.’s indigenous music in a half-hour.

“I did it to break the ice,” Webb says. “It was a way to produce something without it being perfect.”

One of the students, who didn’t know a thing about go-go, got a shout-out in the essay; his name has been redacted at Webb’s request. The orginial remains posted in Webb’s classroom.