#1 In Your Hearts, #9:30 In Your Programs: Touring bands always give a shout-out to the 9:30 Club when they play there, and even if some of the real legend behind the brand was forged at 930 F Street NW instead of 815 V Street, you get the sense they really mean it. Apparently, Billboard agrees. For the third year in a row, the club won the magazine's Top Club award. Yeah, we know, it's based on attendance, but people wouldn't crowd in there if they hated it, would they? +2

Now Boarding, Silver Line To Dulles: Construction had already begun on the Metro line to Dulles International Airport, but there was one final matter awaiting resolution—who would pay for the last bit of track. Now the feds, Metro, and Virginia have announced a deal for the nearly $3 billion the line will cost to finish. The station at Dulles won't be underground, and some grand plans may have to be scaled back to get the project in on budget, but hey, it still beats the bus. +2

What Earthquake?: The National Cathedral is ready to reopen this weekend, two months after an earthquake damaged it badly. (And not long after the White House declared the city an official disaster area, due to the same trembler.) There's a full program of events; no word on what the appropriate hymn to ward off future seismic trouble is. +1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 27 Today's score: +7 Veterans Day bonus: +2 Friday bonus: +2 Today's Needle rating: 38

9:30 Club, 6/16.  © 2011 Michael W. Hicks

Suffragette City: Members of the League of Women Voters join forces with the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of D.C. to demand voting rights for the District on the 90th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment, which granted the right to vote to women—as long as they don't live in D.C., of course, in which case they wouldn't get the right to vote for president until 1961 and the right to elect a voting member of Congress until... well, sometime after Aug. 26, 2010. The protest involved Victorian costumes, parasols and, most likely, some bemused tourists. Too bad they cleared out before the Glenn Beck rally on Saturday, or things could have gotten lively! +3

9:30 Club Diversifies: Once upon a time, rock and roll bands would dream of getting a record deal, so they could lay down an album and hit the road promoting it in clubs all around the country. Those days are over. The 9:30 Club is launching its own label, since now, bands make most of their money touring and the population of law-abiding citizens willing to actually pay for records is dwindling. (For that matter, the "records" are mostly downloaded, anyway.) If all goes well, someday down the line hipsters still yet to be born will lord it over their less-cool friends that they bought 9:30 Club records back before they moved into a fancy new office. Doesn't quite have the same ring as reminiscing about pillars in the middle of the floor, though, does it? +3

Metrobus Panopticon: The next time a Metrobus driver leaves his post to punch out McGruff the Crime Dog, it'll all be caught on video. Metro will install cameras on 1,500 buses to keep an eye on drivers, recording audio and video, provided by a San Diego-based firm with a name that sounds like it was designed by committee: DriveCam. The idea is for the transit agency to have a better sense of what goes wrong in accidents. Lest you protest that this is an invasive expansion of surveillance, don't worry—Metro already records the passenger area on many buses. TV news stations around the area rejoice, cheered at the prospect of having better B-roll when, inevitably, a bus runs over a pedestrian sometime soon. -2

D.C. Justice for the Rocket: Okay, Stephen Strasburg is on the DL, probably done for the year. But another famous pitcher will soon be spending a lot of time in the District—and his prognosis may not be as good. A federal judge has scheduled Roger Clemens' arraignment on perjury and obstruction of Congress charges for Monday afternoon in the federal courthouse on Constitution Avenue NW. Trial should start by next spring. No word on whether, like at the ballpark, Ben's Chili Bowl will be available for spectators. +2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 36 Today's score: +6 Today's Needle rating: 42

This Guy Isn't the Michael Brown You Think He Is: Politics is often a game of playing to the lowest common denominator. Voters in a series of D.C. straw polls are attempting to demonstrate exactly how low. Incumbent At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson lost a straw poll last night in Ward 5 to Michael D. Brown, best known for a) not being the Michael D. "Brownie" Brown who presided over the Department of Homeland Security's attempts to pretend Hurricane Katrina hadn't happened and b) being Michael A. Brown, another at-large member of the D.C. Council who isn't even up for re-election this year. Brown, who currently serves as one of D.C.'s two shadow senators, is listed on the ballot without a middle name or initial. Mendelson now faces the challenging task of defeating a popular opponent who isn't actually running against him. Isn't Home Rule great? -4

Call it a Convenience Charge: In these troubled financial times, when local governments are struggling to pay the electricity bill to keep streetlights on and laying off teachers and cops, one particularly vulnerable group needs all the help it can get—corporations with near-monopolies over their industry. Fortunately, Montgomery County is on the case. A lawsuit filed by 9:30 Club owner Seth Hurwitz reveals county taxpayers' tab for building a new concert venue in Silver Spring for Live Nation, which recently merged with TicketMaster to form a veritable evil empire of service charges, has risen from $8 million to $11.2 million. (Meanwhile, Hurwitz says he would have paid for a venue himself.) In fairness to the county, the extra $3.2 million was listed on the contract, but cleverly disguised as "processing charge." -4

F for Fire Safety: A D.C. school bus catches fire on Langston Place SE, requiring the driver, an adult aide, and several children to escape and destroying the vehicle. Fortunately, no one was injured, though presumably the kids were a little late to class. A "mechanical issue" was likely to blame. Time for DCPS to make auto shop classes mandatory? -3

Race is On: DCPS wins a federal "Race to the Top" contest, worth up to $75 million in grants targeted to school districts that are linking teacher evaluations to student performance and improving schools that haven't done well in the past. Maryland wins the prize, as well, getting up to $100 million; Virginia, alas, does not, indicating Department of Education bureaucrats weren't as impressed by the state's new policies requiring all students to carry concealed handguns to class. +4

Yesterday's Needle rating: 48 Today's score: -7 Today's Needle rating: 41

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: "Tampering Charges Tossed, But Conspiracy Case Goes Forward," "Outcast Psychic Eyes Bethesda Comeback," "World Cup Roundup," "Defense Expert Disputes Knife Evidence In Wone Case," "Court Sides With Protesters In DPW Poster Removal Case," "Fatal Shooting In Brentwood"

Good Morning. So just how bad is Mayor Adrian Fenty doing against D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray? He lost the Ward 3 straw poll—the results of which were released late yesterday. If Fenty is to have any hope of keeping his job, he's got to dominate that ward. LL is stunned and thinks maybe this is some kinda joke. But it must be true since there's a Gray campaign press release in my inbox: "According to results released tonight, Gray was named the winner of the Ward Three Democratic Committee Straw Poll with 174 votes to 168 for Fenty. The straw poll was conducted one week ago as the candidates faced each other in a candidates’ forum sponsored by the committee, but ballots were not counted until this evening. The straw poll was open to any registered Democrat living in Ward Three. The Ward Three Democratic Committee also voted tonight on whether to endorse a candidate for Mayor. While no candidate received the required 75% needed for an endorsement, Gray handily beat Fenty among the delegates by a margin of 40-15 (or 64% of the vote to 24%)." More coverage via WaPo.

AFTER THE JUMP—Virginia at war with itself over Metro, Don Peebles rides the fence, bad record keeping found at Adult Protective Services agency, and much, much more!

METRO MESS: WaPo editorial board refers to Virginia's threat to withhold Metro funds as "blackmail." The board writes: "This is not a dispute between Virginia and Metro, or even between Virginia and the other two Metro jurisdictions, Maryland and the District. This is a dispute between Virginia and Northern Virginia. And resolving it would not require redrawing the rules governing Metro's board. As things have stood for years, the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, a regional body representing Fairfax and Arlington counties and Alexandria, has named two voting members to the Metro board to match the two voting members named by the District and the state of Maryland. (Maryland's seats have for years been controlled not by suburban governing bodies but from Annapolis, which also provides the state's subsidy.) When Virginia was asked to pony up $50 million a year in funds to match the federal dollars, state officials started pressing the commission to allow them to name one of the two voting members (plus an alternate) for Virginia. The Northern Virginians declined.... State officials point out that they are chipping in about 52 percent of all Virginia dollars going to Metro; the remaining 48 percent comes from Northern Virginia localities. State officials are also right that the Metro board would be well served by having Virginia represented by a full-time transportation expert, not part-time politicians, no matter how conscientious and well-intentioned." Best line: "But Metro is not a political trophy to be squabbled over; it's one of the busiest and most critical transportation systems in the nation. Northern Virginia needs to recognize the state's legitimate interest and contribution, back down and allow Richmond a vote on the Metro board. Richmond should negotiate without holding the system hostage. This internecine skirmish must not be allowed to jeopardize funding for transit in the nation's capital."

IT'S NOVA VS. THE REST OF VA: Meanwhile, the Examiner's Kytja Weir reports that two Virginia Congressmen called the funds threat "budgetary blackmail." Weir writes: "Reps. Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran, both Democrats, wrote a letter to Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell stressing 'serious concerns' about the proposal to give two of the four Virginia board slots to political appointees instead of elected officials from Northern Virginia. They specifically disputed the McDonnell administration's claim that the commonwealth deserved half the positions as it was contributing 52 percent of the overall $249 million in state and local subsidies for the pending $2.1 billion Metro budget, which starts July 1. They argue that Northern Virginia riders' fares and parking fees are not included in those numbers, thus underestimating how much local residents are contributing. Furthermore, Connolly told The Washington Examiner, that the $50 million the state is threatening to withhold comes from revenue paid by Northern Virginia drivers through the 2 percent gas tax. 'I know who pays the bills. It's local taxpayers, not Richmond, not the commonwealth,' Connolly said. 'This is our own money that Virginia is suddenly laying claim to.'"

HOPEFULLY, THE LAST DON PEEBLES LINK EVER: WaPo's Mike DeBonis writes that the developer has finally, sorta, maybe made up his mind on whether to run for mayor:

"The D.C.-born developer, based in Florida for more than a decade now, appeared on Jonetta Rose Barras's WPFW-FM show Thursday morning, promising to answer whether or not he'd challenge Mayor Adrian Fenty — a decision he's been openly pondering since last fall.

Not surprisingly, no hard answer came from Peebles, who has pledged to inject as much as $5 million of his own money into the race and has relished the attendant public attention. But it's clear the public's patience is nearing an end. Barras started by asking Peebles the big question: Will you or won't you?

'I continue to get an outpouring of support asking me to run for mayor,' he started, before launching into an extended monologue on the problems of Washington today — ranging from jobs to fiscal management.

Barras finally pressed him to answer the darn question. Even that didn't get a clear yes or no.

When he had agreed to come on the show, Peebles explained, he intended to announce he'd run for the mayoralty as an independent — that is, in the general election, after Fenty and Vincent Gray had duked it out. But Peebles said that earlier this week he'd learned that his mother-in-law's cancer had significantly worsened.

So, he said, 'at this point right now, I cannot be a candidate for mayor.'

Barras then asked if the 'door is closed' to a mayoral run. Said Peebles, 'You never say never.'"

Peebles has a great back story and can talk passionately on the subject of job creation. But why would anyone vote for this guy after all his indecision? More coverage via WBJ.

SHADY RECORD KEEPING: The Examiner's Alan Suderman reports that paperwork concerning some of the District's most vulnerable residents wasn't kept secure—the IG has found: "Sensitive information of some of the District's must vulnerable residents, including abused and neglected elderly and disabled citizens, was left in a haphazard and unsecured mess at a city office, the D.C. inspector general has found. The District's Adult Protective Services division is tasked with 'investigating reports of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of frail, elderly and disabled adults,' according to the inspector general's report. But the APS's case files — which include clients' statements, Social Security numbers, health records, and the names of those who reported abuse — were left 'unorganized lying on unattended desks, in open boxes, and in carts waiting to filed' in a storage room," the IG found. And the storage room was often left open and unlocked because it was used by city employees "as a thoroughfare" to reach exits and restrooms. City employees from a different department and who weren't authorized to look at the records had easy access to the files, according to the IG. The report is the third the inspector general has issued in little more than a year that details how a city agency has failed to safeguard city records."

9:30 CLUB VS. LIVE NATION: AP reports: "The owner of Washington's 9:30 Club has filed a lawsuit against Maryland to prevent the state from giving Montgomery County $4 million to build a music venue. The lawsuit was filed this week by the music club's parent company, IMP Inc., and that company's co-owner Seth Hurwitz. It says the county hasn't provided enough information about the project's costs as required by the General Assembly. The county is contributing $4 million to build the venue. A spokesman for the county executive says the county has met the assembly's conditions. The Live Nation venue would be built in downtown Silver Spring and serve about 2,000 standing patrons. Hurwitz has said his company could create a music venue in Silver Spring without public funds."

FENCED IN: WaPo's Ann Marimow updates on Vincent Gray's controversial fence: "The clock is ticking for Council Chairman Vincent Gray to do something about his fence. He has 30 days to relocate or lower the black aluminum fence that surrounds his Hillcrest home, according to a letter dated June 9 from the District's Public Space Committee. Last month, the committee ruled that Gray had not provided sufficient justification to exceed the District's height limit on fences built in the public right of way. The panel, charged with protecting the character of the city's neighborhoods, gave Gray two options to act by July 9: lower his 67-inch fence to the limit of 42 inches or move the fence back to the property line. Rulings by the obscure but powerful committee are final. Gray is consulting with his attorney, but has "not yet made a decision on whether he will move the fence or decrease the height," his campaign spokeswoman Traci Hughes said Thursday."

METRO MESS PART 2: Metro workers will be disciplined over ten-car train.

HOLDOUT HORROR STORY: One landlord who refused millions to sell during downtown's development boom now probably regrets that decision.

REQUIRED FATHER'S DAY READING: WaPo's Petula Dvorak profiles a father who adopted two neglected boys with the help of the Children's Law Center.

GRAY'S HEALTH: The Examiner's Bill Myers reports that Gray had a bit of "a sniffle" this week.

CRUISERS: Three cop cars were hit by an SUV.

EMAIL OF THE WEEK: From Keith Jarrell on campaign sign wars:

"For more than a month I have had a Vince Gray for Mayor sign in my yard. Proudly I might ad, and at my request. This evening after attending a CAC meeting at 4th District I came home only to find a Fenty for Mayor sign in the middle of my front yard, completely unauthorized!

Where does the dirty, over bearing side of Fenty STOP?

I am open to no excuses from the Campaign on this heinous act. If they even begin to suggest that the person that installed the Fenty sign maybe didn't see the Gray sign then I am going to suggest that they get their eyes checked. They would have to have practically walked over the first sign to put up the second one.

I have left a message for the Fenty Campaign manger giving him until 8Am tomorrow morning to have the sign removed.

Keith Jarrell"

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE:

9:30 a.m. Remarks
Ribbon Cutting for Marvin Gaye Park
Location: Marvin Gaye Park
Minnesota Avenue and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE
(Don't you feel like he's already cut a ribbon at Marvin Gaye Park?)

D.C. COUNCIL SCHEDULE:

11 a.m.
Committee on Aging and Community Affairs (Hearing)
Bill 18-235, the "Veterans License Plates Establishment Act of 2010"
Location: John A. Wilson Building, Room 412

"While they investigate, police have closed 8th Street NW between and V Street and Barry Place, near a Howard dormitory and the 9:30 club. Southbound lanes of Georgia Avenue are closed at Barry Place," says the Post." The ages, genders and condition of the three injured people were not immediately known."

A police source tells City Desk none of the three victims are Howard University students and that one of them is in serious condition while the other two are in stable condition. The source also says cops have not been able to interview the victims and so don't yet know what motivated the shootings.

Penn Quarter Living debuts a new column called High Rise Life. The first one is on elevator etiquette. It's not so much a column as bad comment bait of which I am sometimes guilty of. Here's a sampling from PQL's rookie effort on sharing an elevator: "Fob in and offer to push buttons or don’t offer and make sure others belong in the building? Remind neighbors that bicycles and their owners usually ride the freight elevator or zip it? Heel your dog or let him/her sniff around and be friendly? What is good neighborly elevator etiquette?" Fascinating.

Frozen Tropics reports on the breaking news last night concerning the pedestrian hit by a Metrobus in Trinidad. The Post is reporting that the woman has suffered life threatening injuries:

"In Monday's incident, the woman had just gotten off the D-8 Metrobus on Mount Olivet Avenue NE, between Trinidad and Montello avenues. She apparently crossed in front of that bus and then was struck about 6:30 p.m. by another Metrobus traveling in the same direction, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.

Two men who said they witnessed the incident told television stations that the woman was thrown a distance down the street, and appeared to be unconscious after being struck. One of the men said that after the woman was hit, the driver of one of the buses 'got down' and prayed."

The Georgetown Metropolitan answers the question: Just what are Georgetown's boundaries?

Do you want to see pictures of people buying records? Someone posted a bunch of pictures from the DC Record Fair held this past Sunday. We wish we could have been there. Meanwhile....Fair sponsor The Vinyl District is giving away tickets to this week's Gossip show at the 9:30 Club.

The New Teacher On the Block offers their take on the hundreds of teachers laid off last week. In the Rhee vs. Gray fight, the blogger sides with Gray:

"Now, of course, this has resulted in finger-pointing, name calling, and a complete lack of transparency on many people's parts (Standard Operating Procedure for DCPS, really). Rhee blames the City Council for not providing the money required to allow all of these teachers to keep their jobs. City Council member Vincent Gray the DC City Council fired back with a press release accusing Rhee of using the council as a scapegoat in executing her master plan of getting rid of large numbers of DCPS teachers.

In this case, I'm in Gray's corner. The numbers just don't lie. It's just another example of the lack of transparency Rhee feels she is entitled to. When I came here, I thought I liked her: I am among the legions of teachers she's supposedly replacing the entire DC teaching force with and I support a lot of the ideas she proposes. But both her behavior and her attitude are counterproductive and arrogant; since I have been here, she has done nothing but alienate, obfuscate, and out and out lie."

Both schools of thought have valid points. To wit:

The "Bands Are Its" Argument

The word band is singular. Saying "Collective Soul are playing the 9:30 on Aug. 27" is as ignorant as it is a sad statement of fact. Collective Soul is a band. The band is playing on Aug. 27. It would be incorrect to say "Only a group of people with unfashionable tribal arm-band tattoos are going to the Collective Soul show at the 9:30 on Aug. 27." The antecedent is not the plural noun people, it is group, which is singular. QED.

THE PROBLEM: Some bands have inconveniently plural names. To say "The Fiery Furnaces is playing the Black Cat on Aug. 8" is to create something almost as difficult to listen to as the new Fiery Furnaces album. So this rule requires a big honking exception: "The Fiery Furnaces are playing"; unfortunately, "the band is out of ideas." It can look odd to have both forms of address in one article.

The Bands Are Theys Argument

People write sentences like "Widespread Panic are opening for the Allman Brothers Band on Oct. 6 at Merriweather Post Pavilion" because people say "Widespread Panic are opening for the Allman Brothers Band on Oct. 6 at Merriweather Post Pavilion." It's unnecessarily stilted for a publication that doesn't address people by "Mr." or "Ms." on second reference to sound so stuffy. Moreover, consonance reigns in your music section. All bands are theys.

THE PROBLEM: Why should the music section follow different rules from the rest of the publication? Because musicians lack unfashionable tribal arm-band tattoos? "Apple are releasing a new iPhone?" "The government are declaring war?" Asinine! (INTERESTING SIDENOTE: In the United Kingdom, many ostensibly singular entities are referred to as plurals: "PARTICK Thistle have found a unique way of topping last season's headline-grabbing pink kit – by launching a new away strip in camouflague." Then again, the story misspells camouflage.)

My feeling:

Platform agnosticism is underratedoverrated [DOH! WISH I'D HAD A COPY EDITOR LOOK AT THIS]. Just as there are features that work better online and features that work better in print, the way you talk and the way you write can be different. Anyone who's ever heard me stammer through an interview would probably agree! I say option 1.

-According to WaPo, GM, Chrysler, and Ford are begging lawmakers–that's what it's come down to. ""There is no plan B," said Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer."

-DCist had the scoop on the redesigned 9:30 Club website. But don't take their word for it, check it out for yourselves and tell us what you think.

-Meet The Press, meet David Gregory. (So why the hell is Koppel leaving Discovery?)

-Wired has some great gift ideas for dealing with office bullies.

*photo by Flickr user freeparking

I'd already seen most of his jokes on YouTube and his Myspace page, and he didn't deviate from what he's done before. I was almost envious of the people around me who were hearing his routine for the first time and laughing their asses off.

But there was something else that kept me from enjoying the show: the 9:30 Club's seating arrangements. Darby's event was a "seated show," yet the venue was intended for standing-room-only events. Ergo, the 9:30 Club provided a few rows of folding chairs on the main floor, as well as bleacher-style benches on either sides of the balcony. But because they don't actually sell you seats, just admission, it's up to the patron to find a spot. We (there were two of us) tried to sit down several times, only to be told "seat's taken."

We grabbed a spot on the balcony rail after being shooed away from several chairs and the bleachers. The show started at 7 p.m. (we showed up at 6:15, the doors opened at 6), and I counted 19 empty chairs at 6:58 p.m. I told my girlfriend that I was going to try for two of those spots, and she replied simply, "Shut up and quit whining." When Rhys came onstage around 7:05 p.m., there were still 6 empty seats in the audience that never filled.

Now I'm debating whether or not to fight for a seat the next time I go to a "seated show" at the 9:30 Club. After all, if some greasy hipster tells me "Seat's taken," who's going to throw me out for saying, "How 'bout I keep it warm until your imaginary date shows up?"