Kennedy Street NW

Full gallery after the jump.

If you pick up a paper copy of Washington City Paper this morning, you may experience a sensory flashback to 2006, when our issues averaged 160 pages and always weighed this much. However, it's just that our fall arts guide is stuck inside! Don't panic! The newspaper business still sucks! This year's guide has listings and content up the wazoo, including critics' picks and a feature that purports to tell local bloggers such as Morgan Hungerford and Matthew Yglesias just what they should do with their entertainment dollars this autumn. Also in this piece: bear joke. It looks great in print. Pick one up!

As Mike Watt would say, I feel like spielin' this morning. If you don't have the time, DO NOT CLICK MORE.

Rain! That stuff is wet! If you haven't left the house yet, pack a hat, or better yet: an umbrella!

Tonight, Virginia gubernatorial candidates square off in a debate that will focus on business. Washington Post helpfully points out that unions are shoveling money toward Creigh Deeds, which in Virginia should go over as well as another Ben "Cooter" Jones campaign. For sure, the race has tightened since Thesiscaca™, but it's hard to see Deeds pulling this one out. My buddy Norm points out this is a poll of registered voters and probably an "outlier," but then again he thinks the tea-party protests were a wake-up call to fancy-pants Republicans such as himself. I don't buy that---who is going to herd the nutballs into a majority? Mitt?

Also can I get a what-what for Anita Kumar, who is covering the bejesus out of this race?

• Has anyone else noticed that Giant is a lot cheaper lately? This major newspaper has. Can I get a what-what for lower prices?

• BIKE COMMUTING CORNER: After my helmet, your second-most important accessory is gloves. Buy yourself a quality pair! Sure, they're great for protecting your hands should you fall, but they also dampen the vibrations that lead to hand numbness. Velo Orange is contemplating a fussy pair for fancy-pants people such as Norm, but I have had tremendous luck with these gloves, which I got on sale for $4.95 and which have come through two summers beautifully. Look for extra material around the thumb.

• ITEM! Christmas will soon rock for the color-blind. Demby, I got you on this one, man!

It's 10 a.m.! I'm out of time! E-mail me for more riffs or follow me on Twitter!

After the jump: more things that happened yesterday, but with bullet points!

• Like the swallows to Capistrano, so return corrections to the New York Times' Cronkite obit.
• Kappa Alpha sigh. Next year: Vegas!
• It would be funnier if this said "GREGRY"
• Bad teams...win close games?
• Also: It's raining!

Rain/Northeast, 2001

• Yesterday's storms put a damper on voter turnout for the Virginia gubernatorial primary.  After clogging every channel with strange campaign ads like this one for the past several weeks, the Post reports that only about 6% of the state's registered voters cast ballots.  Polls closed at 7 p.m. and by 7:45, the pollsters at fivethirtyeight.com called the Democratic primary for state senator R. Creigh Deeds.  

• Deeds captured 50% of the total votes, with former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe earning 26% and delegate Brian Moran earning 24%.  The results are shocking considering that the other two candidates had much more name recognition and money but Deeds got the Post endorsement.  He's now up against state Attorney General Bob McDonnell in November's general election.  McAuliffe will hopefully get back to running other people's campaigns, since he seems to have slightly more success in that arena.  Actually, with the exception of the Clinton/Gore reelection, none of the presidential campaigns listed on his Post profile won, but hey, at least he tries.

• Celebrity Sightings: While everybody else is busy complaining about The Real World and the lack of parking spaces around their new abode on S Street NW, other celebrities are flocking to DC discreetly.  NBC4 spotted Owen Wilson snacking on Georgetown Cupcakes alone at a table in the bakery.  He's in town for the next couple months filming James L. Brooks' new comedy with Paul Rudd and Reese Witherspoon. And now the line of sweating people in need of baked goods will extend even further down Potomac Street.

Highly recommended: Small Crime

Our guide to Friday's selections; weekend picks below the jump.

YAY!:

I.O.U.S.A., a documentary on the Federal Reserve that, according to Jule Banville, "does for our economic crisis what An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming," only "with a lot more humor and a lot less PowerPoint." 6:30 p.m. at Goethe-Institut.

Small Crime, a comedy about a mysterious death on a bumptious Greek island. I said: "Servetalis steals the show as an expressionless but compassionate protag, and a lo-fi but sweeping soundtrack underscores innocuous moped chases. Come for the atmosphere, stay for the love affair—and by the end, you won’t really mind that Zacharias’ death might not have been all that mysterious, after all."

Rain, about a 14-year-old who spends her time in a Nassau slum with her mother, who is addicted to both gambling and crack. The young girl finds a mentor in her high school track coach. Mike Riggs says the film "fosters social awareness without giving up its grit." Leave the kids at home. 8:15 p.m. at E Street Cinema.

The Witch of the West Is Dead, about a timorous Japanese girl who thrives under Granny's tutelage. Jule Banville says it's full of "lush shots" and filmed with a "Zen-like approach...land[ing] an emotional punch." 6:30 p.m. at the Avalon.

Dancers, a romantic thriller about a lovesick Swedish woman obsessed with her boyfriend's dark past. "Heavy-handed" at times, write Sarah Godfrey, but "fascinating" where it counts. 8:30 p.m. at E Street Cinema.

MEH:

Daytime Drinking, about lonely Hyeok-jin, who mopes his way through a booze-drenched, tedious film. Jeff Winkler calls it "an exercise in staying seated." 6:30 p.m. at E Street Cinema.

Villa Jasmin, a split-personality film about a young Tunisian man with daddy issues. Andrew Beaujon calls it mopey. 6:30 p.m. at Regal Gallery Place.

The English Surgeon, a documentary on British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, whose "nearly perverse sense of self-importance" drags down an otherwise agile film, Winkler says. 6:30 p.m. at Goethe-Institut.

Kabei, a film about WWII-era Japan, in which the title character has to raise two daughters while her husband, a suspected Commie, languishes in jail. "The film," Justin Moyer says, "lacks a coherent voice and narrative center.... Kabei is no tearjerker—it’s a film that unreasonably demands tears." 8:30 p.m. at the Avalon.

And this weekend's highlights:

*Ashes of American Flags: Wilco Live. If you dig the band, this one's a no-brainer. Tricia: "Unlike 2002’s I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Ashes is primarily a concert doc, with only brief commentary from the boys on subjects including the “Walmartization” of America and how it sucks to get old and be aware of aching body parts during a show. Regardless of the complaints, though, you get the lovely feeling that Wilco will never stop touring." 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Avalon.

We Can Do That, a gem of a film about a cooperative of mental patients in Italy. I said the film was "likely to be one of the most moving of the whole festival." Tremendously uplifting while avoiding most clichés. Please see it. 4 p.m. on Sunday at Regal Gallery Place.

***

Check out our complete coverage of Filmfest D.C.

Hey Mr. Expensive Bike Guy,

I couldn't help noticing this morning that you weren't whizzing past me on my way to work--the Four Mile Run trail, the Mount Vernon trail, and the Rock Creek trail were absolutely free of guys on $3,000 carbon-fiber Cervelos and Colnagos who don't signal with bells because those add 25 grams. I didn't see even one person in a moisture-wicking lycra suit covered in logos for European utility companies.

Nope, just cyclists with morbidly obese steel-frame bikes with fenders, racks, and waterproof panniers. I saw more runners than cyclists this morning. Runners! Washington, D.C., runners! The kind of people who wear polar fleece both for dining AND working out.

You couldn't have been worried that your clothes would get wet--I can't believe you dress like an extra from a Hungarian sci-fi film in your office. You couldn't have been worried about how the rain would affect your bike--it's made of plastic, after all. You couldn't have been worried about your time--mine only went up by five minutes this morning.

No, I guess you were just scared of a little water. Which is too bad, especially for those supposedly committed to a greener, simpler lifestyle, because there's nothing greener than Rock Creek under a curtain of life-sustaining rain, and there's nothing simpler than this: If it's morning, you ride.

Anyway, too bad you missed the day; it was really good riding this morning. No amateurs on the trail.

Photo by Flickr user MoBikeFed