Brad Pitt Has Your Secret Shit: Rolling DC

After reading the dcist.com editor tweet about seeking viewpoints from NYers on their new bikeshare system, I almost (just almost) wanna join Post columnist Courtland Milloy and his grumbling about bikepaths and what makes a world-class city, but then I take a deep breath and relax and move on.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/film/2013/06/04/14th-and-youtube/

DC-based fictional dramas that air on Youtube: Orange Juice in Bishops's Garden; Real Housewives of Benning Road, and more

x-post-- What I mean is that the dcist.com editor never requests NY viewpoint on anything else that both cities share: kids struggling in schools; subway and bus transportation; etc.

to be fair, a literally insane subway system is probably doing more to keep us from being a world class city than what we do or don't do about bikes

That WMATA guy saying that 10 years or something of weekend work will need to be done was something else.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/supreme-court-justice-sonia-sotomayor-u-street_n_2612105.html

She lives in the U Street area and The Post writes that Sotomayor likes to pick up food from The Greek Spot, Chix and Tacos El Chilango, whose owner, Juan Antonio Santacruz, seems thoroughly enamored. “We love her,” he told the Post.

Yes to the Greek Spot and Tacos El Chilango.

http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/06/13/Editorial-Opinion/Graphics/toles06142013.jpg

There have been vague references to 2017 as when Metro may return to normalcy, but most riders haven't heard that, and those who have don't know what it actually means.
Thus, the Washington Post today published an editorial calling on WMATA to publish deadlines, so the riding public has a better idea of what to expect.

what's been going on with the metro?

major track work/multiple station closings every weekend + weeknights after 10pm, "new" escalators that took months to install instantly breaking, so many elevator outages that the system becomes nigh-inaccessible to people who need elevators, plus a dude got hit by a ceiling tile recently.

"the metro becomes unusable on weekends" has become a pretty common refrain. trips that would take me 30 minutes wind up taking an hour plus.

i don't understand why they schedule maintenance on the weekends, rather than from 11pm-5am, when no one's actually using it. i mean, i know that's hard on the employees, but when has any entity ever cared about the employees, and isn't that pretty standard practice anywhere else?

i'm sure ridership figures on weekends are like a fraction of what they are on weekdays, but even so

honestly if it weren't for having to commute to arlington when i lived in dc, i probably would have taken the bus like 90% of the time - i'm familiar with the reasons why, but looking at metro's coverage map as a whole you can REALLY tell that it's a city that just had a subway system kind of sloppily grafted onto it ex post facto (ie i still don't think i've ever seen a person get on or off at judiciary square)

I read the first chapter of this once http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Society-Subway-Washington/dp/080188246X

I forget what its thesis was

Great book, no real thesis just a history. It gets into a lot of the larger transportation planning of the region/era without getting crazy unreadable. There's such a huge difference between subway systems developed before widespread car ownership and after.

#fuckLAmetro

i'll have to check that out, been meaning to read it

metro service has gotten amazingly bad over the years but i gotta admit the however many long month upgrades on the south dupont station were worth it, that new escalator is amazing as far as escalators go. high walls. sturdy. good lighting.

Was reading "Dr. Gridlock" (I think that was the columnist) in the Washington Post Express and he was asked why couldn't Metro not have done work a recent weekend where there were 40,000 at that international soccer game at RFK. He responded when else do you think they should do the work, without mentioning weekday overnight. Would they have to pay more overtime rates to do the work on weekday nights after midnight?

Probably? I imagine fucking the track worker out of the overtime pay is part and parcel of their "fuck everyone until this shit is over in 10 years" strategy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/tom-sietsema-just-say-no-grazie-to-la-tagliatella/2013/06/18/88fbab74-ca0c-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html?hpid=z1

Tom gets mean towards a red sauce and spaghetti place.

“This is like Olive Garden,” I say to a friend who is not putting a dent in a mound of black ravioli under a blanket of minced salmon, tomatoes and cream. “When’s the last time you were at Olive Garden?” he asked. Fair point; I couldn’t recall. Soon after, I headed to the Falls Church outpost of the popular chain owned by Darden Restaurants to do some comparison grazing — and found myself eating my words. Among other dishes, the minestrone at Olive Garden, thick with identifiable vegetables and robust in flavor, is superior to the pallid puree at La Tagliatella.

more food stuff

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/44476/the-food-issue/

50 dishes they like (both high-end and low)

http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/2013/06/an-astonishing-first-at-the-national-gallery/

re: food stuff

one of the more well-written articles going around re: paula deen turns out to be written by an old pal mike twitty that lives in montgomery county

http://afroculinaria.com/2013/06/25/an-open-letter-to-paula-deen/

Interesting. thanks

check out this awesome nice guy just outside of my work a few days ago!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sAGGoPidEY

The Final American Revolution...

Um

http://dcist.com/2013/07/this_town_full_of_sandwiches.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2013/07/08/hey-new-york-times-heres-where-you-can-get-a-good-piece-of-pizza-in-d-c/

ps re: kokesh that video got him arrested and his house raided, wherein they found magic mushrooms

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/10/us/dc-kokesh-search

kokesh is sort of insane but a nice guy irl in the way that i imagine i would not really want to punch ron paul in the face if i shook his hand first

You softie !

he's like down for the cause on a couple of things i'm down with, we have fist bumped and he's filmed me getting roughed up by cops, its hard for me not to feel a *little bad* for the guy even if he's 90% sub-Alex Jones libertarian theatrics.

were they magic mushrooms? the articles i've seen just say schedule I or II drugs, and given his intensity in the video i just assumed they were amphetamines of some sort.

and yeah, of course he's not dr. evil or anything, and i appreciate his anti-war activism in particular. still, when a dude is standing outside of my work talking about rebellion and snapping bullets into his shotgun, i cringe

were they magic mushrooms? the articles i've seen just say schedule I or II drugs, and given his intensity in the video i just assumed they were amphetamines of some sort.

― Z S, Thursday, July 11, 2013 6:41 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah shrooms

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/988254_611171302250811_1959374098_n.jpg

Todd Kliman of Washingtonian from an online chat in response to a question about their upcoming August issue with best cheap ethnic eats ($25 or under per person). It used to be just "cheap eats"

what does it tell you that the only "American restaurants" that qualify for Cheap Eats in the Washington area are pizza, burger, and barbecue joints?

To me, it's a fascinating thing to ponder.

One question that comes to mind is this: Why are there so few restaurateurs in the entire DC region able to compete with the prices charged by the so-called ethnic restaurants? In DC, for the most part, you either have Modern American restaurants, and can expect to pay $120 for two, or you have chain restaurants and their crummy chain food that costs $40 for two.

Why are there only a handful of American restaurants where you can eat well for $60 for two?

because you insist on buying wine, probably

eating out is so much cheaper when you don't drink

gimme dat wiiine

Silby, he's talking about "ethnic" restaurants vs. American ones; not about reducing one's total bill

Kliman theory in response to an online chatter:

One thing to consider is that so-called ethnic restaurants are often family restaurants, and can get away with paying less to employees as a result. Hey, that’s what family’s for!

As for paying less for raw ingredients … maybe. But I hope you’re not reflexively equating paying less with inferiority. If you’ve ever eaten at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Eden Center, you will be struck by the quality and freshness of the produce. Lettuces, herbs — all so green and so fragrant. And of course no one comes around to brag about where they were sourced.

I doubt that that is the case where meats and fishes are concerned, but you never know. And if you’re turning those meats and fishes into pastes and sausages, or treating them to long marinades and then grilling them and giving them that char and smoke, it often does not matter that much.

1st world problems

yeah it's just weird that he disqualifies burgers/pizza/barbecue from being food that can be served at american restaurants. I bet if you take out three of the most popular and low cost kinds of food from most other cuisines you're not left with a lot of options either!

I love the new Cheap Eats issue (it's always one of the most exciting days of the year when it comes out), with the tremendous detail on the different cuisines. I especially like that the "guide" doesn't limit itself to the Cheap Eats dollar ranges, but also includes expensive places like Izakaya Seki.

Kliman confuse me here (maybe because I haven't seen the hard copy "Cheap Eats" issue. Only the table of contents is online. So the "CHEAP Eats" contains a guide with "expensive" restaurants?

i'm looking at the hard copy right now & there's a section of two pages for each cuisine and restaurants they recommend, followed by a list that adds some more restaurants that don't fit in the previous groups. i don't see how 'cheap eats' has much to do with it other than it's the magazine's branding thing, some of these places are cheap and some could quickly get rather expensive ime

reminded me that i have to go to georgia ave for some mafé at that senegalese place, i didn't know it was still there

dad post

if anybody wants to accidentally run into a tombot and tombot mini we're thinking about making a regular thing of the "brunch" at the boardroom on sunday mornings. there's like tickets and drink tokens and shit but it's pretty clear you don't have to bring a toddler. That and eatonville are what we get up to these days. looking forward to Ted's Bulletin though

aww

yeah

x-post

reminded me that i have to go to georgia ave for some mafé at that senegalese place, i didn't know it was still there

― seriously, THIS GUY (daria-g),

Went back there around 6 months ago and the restaurant was mostly empty except for me & gf. Food was mostly good, but I think she doesn't have much ready for each night in the kitchen-- meaning, yes those were canned veggies--peas and such--thrown on top of the rice.

Reminds me that longtime ethnic restaurants, wel any restaurants, need to find a way to keep folks coming out. Taste of Morocco in Arlington was pretty empty when we went there the other night. Maybe cuz it was Sunday and its Ramadan.