Tom Bridge

throwing to the promised land
courtesy of philliefan99

It is a time of feast and famine from the Nationals’ offense, with half of their last ten games over six runs, and the other half under three. Sunday was a welcome feast for Nationals fans, with a triumphant 9-3 victory over the troublesome Orioles, and an end to a three-game slide that saw the Nationals drop out of first place in the NL East. The Nationals took their lead on the power of their battery – an unlikely source if ever there was one. 

In the fourth inning, tied up at three apiece, Jesus Flores stepped in against Wei-Yin Chin and sent an 81mph change up into the second row of the stands in right center.  Three pitches later, Stephen Strasburg would join the home run club, sitting and waiting for a curveball, and launching it into the Orioles’ bullpen. Strasburg’s first career home run ran about 398 feet according to ESPN, and he had just about the slowest home run trot I’ve ever seen, though, according to the Tater Trot Tracker, he didn’t even make the ten slowest list of the year.

After a struggle to find situational hitting, the Nationals seemed to find it all at once on Sunday against Chen and the Orioles’ bullpen. In the third, a hard fought triple out of the glove of Nick Markakis by Bryce Harper scored Strasburg (2-2, 2 runs) and Espinosa (2-5 5, 2 RBI) put the Nationals even. In the eighth, they repeated the performance, scoring twice more on Danny Espinosa’s 4th home run of the year and a sac fly from Adam LaRoche (0-1, 3BB, RBI).

With everything said about the offense, the Nationals also benefitted from 5 innings, and 8 strikeouts, from Stephen Strasburg (4-1), though he was a bit worse for wear afterwards. Strasburg was pulled for fatigue after just five innings. The removal was a cautionary measure, according to manager Davey Johnson, and should not affect his next start, but the concern is clear that the hurler might be suffering a bit. So far, Strasburg’s reaction has been to shut down any doubt and assign it to recovering from his 2010 Tommy John surgery, but it’s difficult to put those concerns to rest, given the seriousness of the operation.

As bad as the injury bug has been, the Nationals still sit a game and a half back of the NL East lead and seven games above .500. The Nationals head to the road for ten days on their biggest test so far this season. They’ll head to Philadelphia first to take on the surging Phillies, then three against first place Atlanta, and then three against the Marlins. Should the Nationals come out with a 6-3 or 5-4 trip, there’s a good chance they’ll reclaim the lead in the East. Should they fall to 4-5 or worse, there’s a good chance they’ll be much lower on the table. Where do you think they’re going to be on June 1st?

Andrew McCutchen leads off second
courtesy of runneralan2004

Andrew McCutchen had Jordan Zimmermann’s number tonight, clubbing a pair of monster home runs off the Nationals’ #3 starter in tonight’s 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. McCutchen would also flash the leather in the field, stealing at least a double from Adam LaRoche eight feet up the center field wall in the fifth inning, preserving a coalescing no-hitter for Pirates’ starter James McDonald. 

McDonald was fairly stellar for the evening as well, sending 11 Nationals down on strikes in 5 and 2/3 innings. He had a perfect game going through four before walking Bryce Harper in the fifth, and then losing his no-hit bid in the sixth.  The Nationals would stage a rally in the sixth that would knock McDonald out after four hits scored three runs. 

Twice more the Nationals would attempt to rally, each time putting multiple men aboard with 1 out, and in both cases the Nationals couldn’t get the base hits they needed to push over the top. With a 7-0 Atlanta victory over Miami, the Nationals fell to second place in the NL East, a half game behind the Braves.

The team struggled at the plate tonight, and James McDonald’s off-speed mix of pitches were absolutely devastating to the nominally hot offense, often freezing them with the fastball when they were expecting the breaking stuff, and vice versa.

The Nats now take on the also-hot Orioles in the first Battle of the Beltways that will live up to the name. Saturday’s game is “Script Cap” night, with the first 30,000 fans receiving a Script Nationals logo, and Sunday nets kids 12 & under a cool t-shirt if they come in through the center field gate.

Photo by Franklin Garcia, used with permission

In the special election held to replace disgraced former council member Harry Thomas Jr., the field was wide and deep with suitors for the position. Five strong candidates and seven additional candidates spent the last three months wooing voters from Bloomingdale to North Michigan Park to Fort Lincoln and Trinidad in hopes of garnering the wide open council. In the end it was Stronghold’s Kenyan McDuffie that captured the most votes – by a large margin – and will become Ward 5′s new voice on the Council of the District of Columbia at the end of the month when the election is certified.

McDuffie, 36, had worked previously for the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety’s office after an unsuccessful 2010 bid. McDuffie’s biography also includes stints working for the Civil Rights Division at Department of Justice, as well as at the Prince George’s County Prosecutor’s office, and as a letter carrier with the US Postal Service.

The margin of victory was wide – enough for McDuffie to claim a mandate – capturing more than 44% of the vote. Turnout, while fairly low at 15%, was significantly better than many analysts had predicted.  McDuffie’s final total of over 4,000 votes was double his nearest competitor – Fort Lincoln’s Delano Hunter.  North Michigan Park’s Frank Wilds finished in 3rd place with 15% of the vote.  

McDuffie’s victory broke out to outright wins in the western part of the ward – Bloomingdale and Eckington – as well as the central four precincts in Brookland and Michigan Park, and didn’t come in lower than 2nd in any of the precincts he didn’t take. McDuffie made the rounds of the news outlets today, including Kojo Nnamdi, Fox 5, Bruce DePuyt and others. The election results will be certified by May 30th, and McDuffie would like be sworn in just after the budget passes the council.

8030-32Crop
courtesy of furcafe

Rest in Peace, Chuck Brown. Brown, commonly said to be the Godfather of Go-Go music, passed away today at the age of 75. Brown’s #1 single from 1979, “Bustin’ Loose,” is one of the best known examples of DC’s unique style of music.

Brown was a masterful entertainer. He will be sorely missed.

Hot Stuff!!!
courtesy of dmc-flux

The Nationals may be finding themselves in a bit of quandary: which is worse for your luck, not doing some sort of ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods, or doing the sacrifice wrong? While yesterday’s 6-1 loss to the Padres was the sort that makes you wonder if the latter is more likely the case. A day after newly-minted National Sandy Leon was sent to the DL with a high ankle strain suffered at the plate – becoming the Nats’ second catcher to go on the DL in as many games – the Nationals looked listless and deflated in the field, making several mistakes early that cost runs on the board.

The offense was similarly moribund on Tuesday afternoon, collecting just five hits, and scoring just the one run on a long drive to the center field stands by Bryce Harper for his second home run.  The Padres’ Anthony Bass was stellar against the Nats and often used his pitch-to-contact style to work over the NL East leaders.  Ryan Zimmerman continues to battle against opposing pitching, hitting just .230 since his return, and neither Rick Ankiel nor Jesus Flores could find themselves aboard as the lineup turned over.

A footnote to the loss yesterday became the story, when beat reporters discovered that Strasburg had been suffering some discomfort due to some Hot Stuff ointment that relocated from Strasburg’s shoulder, where it was applied, to an area that was undisclosed by implied to be south of the belt.  Rob Dibble, proving there’s no pitching event he won’t insert himself in, has criticized Strasburg for assigning blame to the oleoresin capsicum instead of his pitch command. 

To date, Strasburg has requested to not discuss the incident – saying only “I’m going to keep that in the clubhouse,” and talked only about his pitching performance before the media. It’s not exactly clear how Dibble drew the erroneous conclusion, but then again, Dibble wasn’t exactly known for his rocket scientist reasoning in his short tenure in the MASN Broadcast Booth.

Perhaps we could arrange for a jar of the ointment to arrive at his radio studio for some demonstration tests.

trusty’sBAR
courtesy of 4²5²�productions

If there’s one thing I love about DC, it’s the way that the people rally around their bars and bartenders. Last year when there was a fire at The Tune Inn that nearly claimed the business’ future, residents rallied around their people and held a benefit to help their bartenders. Tonight, Hill East does the same for Trusty’s Full Serve Bar bartender Mike Boone, who was stabbed six times trying to stop a purse snatching outside the Potomac Avenue bar on May 1st.

Boone was med-evaced, had several surgeries to save his life, and is now facing some hefty medical bills and a recovery process that will keep him off his feet for a bit. C’mon out to Trusty’s and do a good turn for a bartender who just wanted to protect his patrons.

Trusty’s Full Serve Bar
1420 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003
Metro: Potomac Ave (Blue/Orange)

Fuji Feather 2012
courtesy of specimenlife

The same people who put together the WalkScore for rating walkable communities have now turned their attention to the bicycle, and boy did DC do well. DC finished 6th, with an average BikeScore of 65, about 14 points back of leader Minneapolis and 5 points back of #2 Portland.

The score is a calculation based on hills, bike commuters, bike infrastructure (bike routes, bike lanes, cycle tracks, bikesharing and destinations for cyclists. DC does pretty well on the hills front, Rock Creek Park and the Palisades notwithstanding, and scores pretty high on the Destinations and Infrastructure scores.  With more cyclist commuters, DC could easily move up toward San Francisco and Portland, tied at 70.

Virgin America N623VA Airbus A320-214 (2006) “three if by air”
courtesy of Jun Seita

As someone with family along the left-coast, I always dread travel there a bit, mostly because it means flying out of far-flung IAD or painful-to-park BWI, instead super-convenient-and-right-on-the-metro DCA. The Department of Transportation announced today four new long-haul routes for National, with a DCA-SFO from Virgin America as the most interesting, followed by JetBlue’s new San Juan route, Alaska Airlines’ new Portland route and Southwest’s direct to Austin route. 

This adds to United’s direct route to SFO, Delta’s direct route to Salt Lake City, American’s direct route to LAX and US Airways’ direct route to San Diego.

Anything that means I can fly out of DCA instead of the burbclaves is just fine with me, thanks.

Comic Book Guys
courtesy of lorigoldberg

This is a guest column on comics by Ian Cyr of Arlington, VA.

Are you going to go see The Avengers this weekend? Did you enjoy The Dark Knight, and are looking forward to seeing what the next Batman movie brings? Are you looking forward to the Spider-Man reboot this year, or did you prefer the earlier movies by Sam Raimi? If you even know what I’m talking about, then you might be interested in another event going on this weekend. Plus, you could get free stuff–and who doesn’t like free stuff?

This Saturday, May 5th, is Free Comic Book day. This is a yearly event put on by comic book shops all over the United States in an effort to show people what awesome stuff is happening in the realm of comics at this point in time. It’s held on the first Saturday of May, and while it obviously includes free comic books, it also often is accompanied by other events at the comic books shops, ranging from guest appearances to trivia contests to drawing lessons. Obviously, not all of these happen at every shop, but they could be happening at the comic book shop near you!

This year will see 48 different comics available for free at your local comic book shop. Now, these aren’t just free issues of comics that you’d normally need to pay for, but instead issues specifically produced for this event. This doesn’t, however, diminish the quality of these books – it just means they’re written to help those that don’t usually read comics get involved with the story, instead of dropping them into some long-running arc that they may not completely understand. In fact, one of my favorite comic book stories in the past several years was released as part of free comic book day.

Alliance Comics
courtesy of IamJomo

If I’ve at least got you intrigued, then I’ll also give you some recommendations for books to pick up. Usually you can only grab a few, as they want to make sure everyone has the chance to get one, so better to get stuff that you find interesting, rather than something boring. Note that I haven’t read any of the comics that are going to be free, so these are based purely on previous performance and my personal tastes.

First and foremost pick up Atomic Robo & Friends. It’s a fantastic series about a wisecracking robot scientist built by Nikola Tesla to defend the world against bad things. Over the course of the series (so far), he’s fought Lovecraftian horrors, time-traveling dinosaurs and Russian mad scientists. All while delivering some of the best dialogue in comics – if you don’t laugh at some of the antics, I’ll happily give you your money back for the comic.

Alright, now that that recommendation is out of the way, the next few really depend on your tastes. If you want to find out more about what’s happening in the two traditional juggernauts of the comics world, being DC and Marvel, then you probably won’t be disappointed by anything release. They’ll likely be short teaser stories, just enough to whet your appetite, as their main objective is to get you to start buying their comics, but they’ll still likely be entertaining and well written & drawn.

For those of you in your 30’s, you’ll probably see some recognizable properties in comics form – Transformers, looking more like what you remember and less like the new movies, Voltron, Smurfs and even Donald Duck. Yes, all of those properties are still in print, in comic book form, so if you ever want to find out what your favorite Saturday morning cartoons have been up to in the past 20 years, now’s your chance.

If you have kids, (or are still one at heart), there will be a number of comics suitable for younger readers. Of those on the list, my first suggestion would probably be Mouse Guard, which from the preview looks both intelligent but suitable for kids. There are actually a number of previews inside, so there’s likely something in there that your kid will enjoy, even if the titular adventure doesn’t suit there tastes. However, if your kid is in their teens, you might want to take a look at Gossamyr, which looks interesting. It has a very nice visual style and the preview is intriguing. If you have a teen already reading Manga, or are into Manga yourself, you might want to pick up Infernal Devices.

courtesy of Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie

So now that I’ve given you some idea of what’s out there, the question is, where do you get all this free stuff? Well, that depends on where you’re located. I’m in Northern Virginia and my personal favorite shops are Phoenix Comics, in University Mall across from George Mason University. Big Planet Comics near Tysons also has a great selection, and E G Comics in Vienna is a third location that I’ve been impressed by. Inside the Beltway there’s Aftertime Comics down in Alexandria, which is a fun comic shop in Old Town, near the King Street Metro station.

Unfortunately there don’t seem to be too many comic book shops in DC itself. Google Maps only gives me 2 – Fantom Comics in Union Station, and another Big Planet Comic location on U St. Between 15th and 16th.
In Maryland, there’s another Big Planet Comic shop in Bethesda, Alliance Comics in Silver Spring and finally a fourth Big Planet Comics in College Park.

Wherever you are, and whatever your interests, I hope you take the time to head to your local comic book shop this Saturday and check out what they have to offer. Even if the traditional superhero comics don’t interest you, there’s a lot more out there in the world of comics that are worth checking out.

The best endorsement in the IT world that I inhabit is often, “does what it says on the tin.” Tonight, fun. was exactly as advertised. For a little over an hour, the 9:30 Club tumulted with an exhilarating triumphant joy that is usually reserved for the end of playoff sports. The volume of the crowd was nothing short of astonishing, at one point stopping front man Nate Ruess for a solid minute in the middle of a song, prompting him to exhort the crowd to let him finish the song.

Fun.’s most famous single, “We are Young,” graces the national advertising campaign for Chevy that debuted three months ago at the Super Bowl. To see the way that the crowd sang along with every song from the sextet, though, you’d have thought that they were old hands on the scene. While the core of fun. have been together since 2008, this is their first time out as headliners on the national stage, and that youth was on display tonight. If you could bottle that incredible energy, both from the crowd and from the band, you’d have the fountain of youth. I was far from the demographic, tonight. Fun.’s audience is the quarter-life crisis set, whose identities are being forged by the fire of a down economy, student loan debt, the jobs crisis, but yet still find themselves dreaming the big dreams of the generations previous. There’s no question that this is a group whose anthemic identity is tied up in the very youth they evoke. There was no finer callback in the evening, though, than when Reuss, Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff and friends broke into the Rolling Stones’ classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Reuss, Dost and Antonoff aren’t much older than Jagger and Richards were in 1969 when Let It Bleed was top of the charts.

I have seen dozens and dozens of shows at 9:30 Club in my dozen years in DC, and this was right up there at the top of the list. Between an audience that was singing along – often in harmony – with the band, and a rock-your-face-off performance from Reuss, Dost and Antonoff and company, I found myself just coasting out of the club at the end of the night with an energy that reminded me of my early 20s, a decade ago. The 20s are a bitch of a time. You’re too young to be an expert at anything, but you’ve got all the energy that the best of experts can muster. Relationships are tumultuous, and the new politics of jobs, of grown-up-ness add fuel to the fire.

The emotional dreamscape of The Gambler just about made my night. The rich dreams of youth were the focal point of the evening, as I remember having those exact same thoughts a decade earlier.  Fun. did bury the lede, though, finishing not with their strongest effort (that would be quarter-life crisis anthem Some Nights) but with slower, quieter Take Your Time. That was just about the only flaw I could find in an 80-minute set that left the crowd sated, energized, and flowing out on the streets.

NPR streamed the concert live, and as of the writing of this article, it was still available online. How long it will remain that way, I’m afraid I don’t know.

Fun. returns for a second show on Friday night, with opener Miniature Tiger, with doors at 8pm. Tickets are sold out, Stubhub is empty, and Craigslist is barren of tickets. Still, if you can, you should beg, borrow or steal your way in to see this show. You won’t regret it.

9:30 Club is a client of mine. That relationship did play into this review. 

Ubiquitous-share
courtesy of Tony DeFilippo

With Bike to Work day just a couple weeks out, if you’ve been thinking of joining the cyclist craze in DC, now would be your easy option. Before, your options for joining Bikeshare were a spendy $75 annual membership, or a $25 monthly, or $15 week membership. If you’ve dipped your foot in the biking waters and want to get onboard, but don’t have the ducats to pay up front, there’s a new installment plan for the annual membership that comes out to $7/mo, which is a lot more pleasant on the wallet in the short term. 

Also – for those existing members looking for a reason to re-up, CaBi is making a helmet available for $16 for its renewing and new members through their online store. If your helmet is starting to get long in the tooth, or if you’ve been in a dust-up with it, it’s probably time to replace it.

Biking may seem like something only hipsters on fixies do, but there’s an incredibly vibrant and diverse biking community here in DC, so give it a shot. Bikes don’t need $4/gal gasoline, just a few extra calories off your ass.

Harper glare
courtesy of BrianMKA

The Wizards finished their season with six straight wins, D.C. United is 2nd in the Eastern Conference after a hot start, the Redskins have drafted Robert Griffin III to be their next quarterback, the Capitals won a pivotal Game 7 against Boston to advance to the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and lastly, the Nationals have started their season 14-5 and have the best pitching staff in the National League and possibly all of baseball.

Late today, the Nationals announced that Ryan Zimmerman would be joining Brad Lidge, Michael Morse, Drew Storen and Chien-Ming Wang on the DL, and that Bryce Harper would make his major league debut tomorrow night at Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles.  So far, Harper’s not lighting up the AAA league quite as he had with the lower levels of the minor leagues, but it’s hard to deny the talent of the youngest member of the elite athletes club of Washington.

Can Harper make a difference at the Major League level? That depends on the Bryce Harper we get. This is one of those wonderful moments where a team has decided, “Alright, screw it, let’s give the kid a chance.” There’s no guarantee that Harper’s ready, though the expectations for him are nothing short of towering. Will he have a Strasburg moment tomorrow night in Dodger Stadium? Can he bring some offense to left field, where the Nationals have struggled to put anything in the offense column?

DC sports fans have been waiting for answers to these pressing questions since the summer of 2010 when the Nationals took Harper with the top pick of the draft. Will he be the next Ken Griffey Jr., or will he be the next Todd Van Poppel? It all starts tomorrow night at 9:10pm. Don’t miss it.

Beautiful night.
courtesy of tbridge

It was a picture perfect evening to sit in the stands and root on the home team last night at Nationals Park. Perfect, that is, if you enjoy chewing your nails down to the quick. Ross Detwiler threw six innings of incredible baseball last night, showing once again the Nationals made the right decision in keeping him and demoting John Lannan. Detwiler was ruthlessly efficient, striking out six and walking just one, dropping his April ERA to 0.56, the lowest on the staff right now, and second in the league. 

K Street continues to be the reason for the Nationals place atop the NL East, without question. The Nationals’ hurlers lead the majors in strikeouts (138), and opposing average (.204), 2nd in WHIP (Walks + Hits divided by Innings Pitched), 2nd in ERA, and are 4th in earned runs allowed.  The bullpen has been just as dominant as the starting pitchers, Thursday night’s rough outing notwithstanding.

There are many reasons to be hopeful as a Nats fan right now, but there are a few reasons to be measured in your enthusiasm, as well.

The bats are going to be a problem.

The words going around right now are, “The Nationals have a 90-win pitching staff and a 70-win offense”

They’re right.

Nady and Ankiel are far from ideal choices for the Nats, I’m afraid. Though I love Ankiel’s arm in center, neither he nor Nady have the kind of run production to make them “good” out there. Most years, Nady is in the negative when it comes to WAR (wins above replacement), which means any of the Nationals’ solid outfield prospects could do what he’s been doing out there. Look for Nady to be the first cut when Harper comes up after the Super 2 deadline.

Morse will be out til the All-Star Break, and maybe a bit after, and that hurts things. LaRoche has been a pleasant surprise so far, but we still see too many nights like last night where he’s swinging big, but far too often. His pair of strikeouts last night were the images photographers dream of, but fans dread: lavish, extravagant, but short of the mark.

Really, power IS the problem with the Nationals. Desmond and Espinosa are capable of 15-20 jacks per season – and that’s really all we can expect from them in this lineup – and Zimmerman’s worth maybe 25. LaRoche, if he remains healthy, can be counted on for about that many.

That leaves Jayson Werth. His biggest year was 36 homers, but that was the 2009 Phillies, where they literally had to pitch to him. There was no escaping anyone in that lineup, so he produced big time. That could happen again – but maybe not until next year when they’ve got more of a murderers row. So, I would expect that the Nats “top five” can be counted on for about 115 home runs this year.

Is that enough?

The 2011 Cardinals, who won it all, had 115 from their top 5 bats. The 2010 San Francisco Giants had 102.

But, by contrast, the 2009 Phillies had 167. In 2008, they had 152.

So – you can win it without a ton of offense. It’s just no guarantee.

Failure
courtesy of BrianMKA

The first-place Washington Nationals stumbled in the first inning on Thursday night, with Edwin Jackson giving up six hits – three of them triples – before the side was retired. The damage was done, and the Nats trailed 5-0 on the back of some shaky routes from their outfielders. A few of those triples might’ve been doubles from a more experienced and fielding-focused outfield, and might have saved a run. 

After the rough first inning, Jackson settled down to his previous self, retiring 12 of 13 in four additional innings, and notching 5 Ks on the night. After 89 pitches, he’d head for the showers just a run behind. The Nationals would score in the 2nd on a pair of singles and a wild pitch, and pick up three runs in the third on Ryan Zimmerman’s towering drive over the visiting bullpen – his first of the season, and a moon shot at 410 feet – but that wouldn’t be enough to stop the Astros.

With Jackson departing after five full, Tom Gorzelanny came on in relief, and immediately coughed up a crooked number. With five singles and a double, the Astros would bat around for the second time in the evening, and not five more runs to put the game out of reach. Davey Johnson would pull Rick Ankiel and Jayson Werth shortly thereafter, in favor of Mark DeRosa and Xavier Nady.  Afterwards, manager Davey Johnson would cite the need for rest ahead of the incoming Miami Marlins.

Johnson left Gorzelanny out longer than he might have liked, but ahead of the division series, he said that “Gorzelanny needed to take it on the chin,” so that the rest of the bullpen might be rested.  Miami is on a hot streak, with four straight wins, and the team has traditionally had the Nationals’ number. In 2011, the Nats won just 7 of 18, in 2010, just 5. While the Marlins have retooled, they’ve struggled early to put up a 7-6 record.

The offense was largely dormant after the 3rd inning for the Nationals, with five scattered hits in the last six innings, to the disappointment of the crowd of 18,000+ on a perfect Thursday night in the nation’s capital. The Nationals remain atop the NL East, 2 games ahead of the Mets, while the Braves were in action late in Arizona. 

The Nationals send Ross Detwiler (1-0) to the mound against Carlos Zambrano (0-0) on Friday, followed by Stephen Strasburg (2-0) against Anibal Sanchez on Saturday afternoon, then Gio Gonzalez (1-0) against Josh Johnson (0-2) on Sunday afternoon.

courtesy of Max Cook

With Mayor Vincent Gray’s term having descended into scandal before it could even get underway properly, and Mayor Adrian Fenty having lost his re-election bid in a disastrous confluence of cronyism, hubris and effectiveness, it’s hard not to think back to the days of Mayor Anthony Williams and smile just a bit, especially given his immense popularity as mayor. Today, Williams was named to be the next CEO of the Federal City Council.

The Council has spearheaded several large projects in the history of the District, including the massive redevelopment of Southwest DC in the 1960s, the redevelopment of Union Station in the 1980s, the move of the Wizards to the Verizon Center in the late 1990s, and the construction of the Convention Center in the middle of the last decade. One local blogger compared the Federal City Council to the Stonecutters.

Williams’ return to the forefront of the District’s stage is a welcome breath of fresh air, given the last 24 months of scandal, infighting and drama. Attach the stone of triumph, Tony!

Metro is releasing more about what their new “Rush Plus” service, which will start this summer, in video form. Highlights include additional orange line trains through the core of the system, as well as additional green and yellow line trains with new destinations. The service kicks off June 18th and is said to affect upwards of 110,000 riders each day.

photo by Paulo Ordoveza

I was driving up Wilson Boulevard this morning, fairly convinced I’d missed the whole thing, and resigned to check it out on Flickr later today when I looked up and saw Discovery, the SCA, and two T-38s fly over Ballston at low altitude. I nearly drove right into the car in front of me. 

I found myself overcome with emotion at watching this incredible feat of engineering and humanity before my very eyes. Losing the shuttle program may be good for space exploration in the long run, but in this short run it feels very sad to see manned space exploration take a pause. We can do such amazing things when we make it a priority. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of programs like the STS.

DSC_9178
courtesy of photopete

Who doesn’t love a parade? This weekend saw two separate parades through our city – one for the Cherry Blossom Festival, one for Emancipation Day – and our Flickr Pool was awash with the parade imagery. This shot from yesterday’s Emancipation Day parade by Pete Kuszmaul captured the balance between joy and professionalism in a parade and this young cheerleader has it perfectly balanced. 

Tomorrow, on its way to live at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Discovery will do a flyby atop the NASA SCA, which is a modified 747. The flyover is between 10am and 11am, and NASA has released a map of good places to watch for Discovery as she’s flown into Dulles. I would imagine that many of the places on this map will be packed with spectators as the Shuttle comes, so I would also recommend Oronoco Park in Alexandria, or Columbia Island Marina, or from a “conveniently disabled car” on the Wilson or 14th Street Bridges.

Get out the long glass, photographers, we’re betting there are some once-in-a-lifetime shots out there.

View Sites for Viewing Space Shuttle Discovery in a larger map

Ian MacKaye and Lamp
courtesy of yostinator

It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of DC music legend Ian MacKaye, who today celebrates his 50th birthday. MacKaye’s contributions to the world of music are myriad, from his days with Minor Threat and Fugazi, to his work with Dischord Records, the music scene has never been the same. 

Happy Birthday, Ian.