As of yesterday, City Paper’s office at 2390 Champlain Street, NW is no longer a two-story operation. (The idea is to save on rent while effecting, ahem, a “more perfect union” between edit and web.) So now the old editorial desks languish on the second floor—empty but not forgotten—and the CP staff in toto has divvied up the third floor: the writers, the editors, the salesmen salespeople, the marketeers, the web folks, the ad coordinators, the classifieds folks, and the operations team.  Lion lying down with the lamb, as it were. Or, you know, cats and dogs living together. Whichever you prefer.

Either way, the end of last week was one massive game of musical chairs, as staffers boxed their personal and professional effects, unearthed a few oddities (Cherkis‘ first cover story! Amanda Ripley’s alarm clock! A headless photo of David Carr!), and reminisced. A stirring scene.

Watch it below.

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

Arlington Mill, precinct 43, was staffed by 4 a.m. No tardy librarians in NoVa.

Via YouTube/PBS’ NewsHour Video Your Vote project:

LL shot Carol Schwartz’s speech earlier this afternoon. Enjoy:

In Part 2, LL arrives at incumbent Republican Carol Schwartz’s headquarters at about 9:30 p.m., just in time to catch her giving what she termed a “reality check” to supporters, with a mere 20 percent of precincts reporting. Immediately afterward, LL claimed on City Desk that Schwartz had conceded; others claimed no concession had been made.

Here’s a reality check: It was a concession speech. Watch LL’s exclusive video and see for yourself.

In attendance were colleagues Jim Graham of Ward 1 and Mary M. Cheh of Ward 3, not to mention much of the local Republican leadership. After Schwartz’s remarks, she retreated to the back room and showed reporters the numerous mailings sent to local Republicans by opponent Patrick Mara and the secretive “Citizens for Empowerment PAC.”

Toward 10 p.m., new numbers came in from the Board of Elections—the bad numbers—and Schwartz staffer Denise Wiktor began wondering exactly what the hell was going on. That’s when LL bolted for Judiciary Square.

LL shot some video Tuesday night, first at Patrick Mara’s campaign HQ, then at Carol Schwartz central, before heading down to the Board of Elections and Ethics for the late-night voting fiasco.

Let’s begin with the Mara video, shot early in the evening before results came in. By 8:15 p.m., several dozen had gathered at Mara HQ at 6th and K Streets NW, including D.C. Chamber of Commerce head Barbara Lang and several of her colleagues, restaurant lawyer Andrew J. Kline, consultant and Board of Trade-r David Julyan, and Ward 8 Republican rabble-rouser Cardell Shelton. Upstairs, guests dined on crabcakes and other noshes from Clyde’s, while waiting for their candidate to emerge from his private quarters below.

Also of note: Incumbent Carol Schwartz has deemed Mara’s candidacy a conspiracy hatched by fellow at-large councilmember David A. Catania, a former Republican and longtime Schwartz-hater. The scene on Tuesday night did nothing to knock down those rumors: No fewer than five Catania staffers were present and wearing Mara T-shirts.

Take that John McCain!

Check out this look at the evolution of Bill Cosby, by a CP vet.

Loose Lips attends Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry’s birthday bash, held last night in honor of Mayor-for-Life’s upcoming 72nd. Remarkably, Barry actually speaks to LL.

My fellow Americans, I ask you: Can this great nation of ours really endure four to eight more years of the Black Eyed Peas?

Seriously, think of the Super Bowl halftime shows.

I guess it makes sense that Obama supporters make lots of videos—they’re the new generation, video-editing software comes standard on their Macs…

Anyway, here’s yet another entry with a CP angle—former Channel Serf writer Mario Correa helped his buddy Mo Rocca with the lyrics on this one; it marks, as Correa says in an e-mail, “the only time that our poor Latina mothers have ever succeeded in getting us to use our broken Spanish.”

I have a pretty low tolerance for political humor, myself, but goddammit, surely the type of people who go to bars to watch the State of the Union address will be humming this all the way home.

Loose Lips queries D.C. Councilmembers about The Real Super Tuesday, the Potomac Primary on Feb. 12.

Note: Video is two days late due to 48-hour news cycle.

Can’t Stop the Bleeding calls this “[p]ossibly the greatest video of all time.” I’m not sure there’s an argument to be made to the contrary.