Brad Pitt Has Your Secret Shit: Rolling DC

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.

Hi Tombot, long time no see! I would love to see you and R and the mini, but I am in Mexico for a while longer. Will try to catch up with all dcilxors when I do a quicky trip up sometime in November or December. I miss Ethiopian food soooooooo much it hurts.

THE UNTITLED (SMITHSONIAN HIRSHHORN MUSEUM) PIECE IN THE PETER COFFIN EXHIBITION AT THE HIRSHHORN

IS SO

FUCKING

CRUCIAL

like guys seriously there are no words

well okay there are lots and lots and lots of words that I could say about it but instead why don't you just go experience it for yourself

Will check it out. Have seen the war photos exhibit at the Corcoran but nothing else lately.

Oh I did finally play mini-golf at the Building Museum. I kinda liked it even if many holes were annoying-- no proper place to put golf ball at beginning; topographical map that made golf balls roll right off it; cylinder with impossible angle.

Aww man, I missed 3 exhibits I shoulda seen: BK ADAMS*I AM ART at Honfleur Gallery; Chocolate City Rest in Peace by Steven M. Cummings at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions; plus Permanent Summer with the work of veteran rock show poster printers David Sandlin, and artists such as Maya Hayak, Brian Chippendale, and Rob Corradetti

Will try to see that Peter Coffin exhibit at the Hirshhorn before its October 6th closing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/08/left-with-nothing/

Sad and frustrating

x-post -- and that go-go exhibit in SE DC before it closes in mid-October, and that landscape photo one at a museum

plus this one of D.C. photos:

http://www.popville.com/2013/08/art-exhibit-coming-to-glen-echo-park-from-the-incredible-historical-photo-collection-by-michael-horsley/

Saw the Peter Coffin exhibit--took me some minutes to appreciate it but then I did--there's a dark room with paintings on the walls and then visual projections start randomly appearing from projectors on the ceiling onto the various paintings; accompanied by audio of music and animal sounds. Visuals of flowers bloomings, numbers, German text, all kinds of stuff,

There's also a big giant sitting dog sculpture in another room

and a non-imprssive sculpture outside and other stuff elsewhere in the museum

is everyone ok right now?

Sending u love, DC.