| Weekend Poll - Tell me about YOUR mad comfy Washington DC |
[Jul. 25th, 2008|11:09 pm] |
Okay, to you local people, I want some comments! After my last post about my wandering in DC in the late 70s and 80s, I repeated in my head how little I know about DC since then. Please share with me (and my readers):
- Where do you like to go in DC and why?
- What would you want to show friends from out of town?
- If you wanted to hang out with Punkie, where would you take him?
My DC is so outdated, it's not even funny. I want to try and hang out in DC more, with friends, and when taking people around. I want your favorite restaurants, sights, clubs, venues, and stories. I keep hearing how boring and culturally dead DC is, and I am tired of it. Sure, we're not New York or Philly, but there has to be SOME redeeming factor. Christ, it's so easy for me to get there! |
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| Today in Dupont circle |
[May. 17th, 2008|04:59 pm] |
So, today I went out to DC. Again. Which is good, because one of my goals over the next few years is to re-connect with DC since every time I go out, there's stuff that's all new and junk.
I went out with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) shuttergal, a childhood friend from literally kindergarten. We spoke about art, high school, mental hospitals, and a former principal we all hated. We went to and hung out at "Teasim," a kind of combination teahouse and short-order grill that served gourmet stuff. I had a really good time, and had real chai for the first time (not the fake chai I have gotten at Starbucks and Duncan Donuts). This was good for my head cold, which had my ears so clogged up, I think I was shouting a lot.
The Metro ride to and back was completely uneventful. I only point that out because it's getting rarer these days where a Metro ride to and back is uneventful. I know they were doing work on the Green, Red, and Yellow lines, but it didn't affect me.
I finished "The Last Unicorn" last night. Since I hadn't read the book since I was 10, it was almost like reading a new book, but a book that you felt was already done by somebody once. The feel of the book was very ethereal, especially towards the end, when a lot of similes and metaphors kept sloshing about. I couldn't help but wonder if the Red Bull energy drink was named after the character. It was funny what parts I remembered and what parts I had forgotten. I remembered the end pretty well, but a lot of the middle seemed like a new book. |
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| AAARGGHH! |
[Oct. 3rd, 2007|12:08 pm] |
Man, this year just sucks more and more.
Riot Act Comedy Club has closed temporarily to become bigger and better. Sorry for any inconvenience and see you soon.
So much for Open Mic in the near future. I guess that leaves me more time to practice, but I have almost 8 separate bits written now. I am still trying to find my "character" and style, but unless I practice, I won't gain any insight into the process. |
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| Comedy tonight |
[Sep. 12th, 2007|04:56 pm] |
Last night, ninjacooter and I went to The Riot Act and had a pretty good time.
First, let me tell you about where she lives; a place in DC called Columbia Heights. This is a colorful neighborhood, and I don't mean that all McLean like, "you have a fertile imagination," instead of saying, "you're a liar," I mean her neighborhood is not afraid of being what it is. Lot of people who live paycheck to paycheck.
One guy, I assume he was drunk, stumbled around the street and then just laid there. At first, I thought he was hit by a bus, because he was a body in the middle of the street, but ninjacooter suspected it was a local being a dick. And sure enough, whenever he thought he had made his point, he got up and crossed the street. He did this more than once.
( More on urban DC and the Riot Act Comedy Club ) |
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| Waking dream |
[Sep. 10th, 2007|08:49 pm] |
I debated posting this. I hope no one freaks out.
During the summer, I don't usually wear my music player because I usually don't have a place to put it (in the winter, it fits in my coat pocket: my torso is too tall to clip it on my waist), but this time I was using my jogger's arm strap because I really just didn't want to face people. It all started when some dude was trying to bum money off of me on the Red Line, and got all bent out of shape that I didn't have any, and felt the need to explain to everyone that I was like every other rich white man trying to keep his people DOWN... whatever, dude. Nobody else seemed to pay attention to him, thankfully, and he shut up when a guy in a Metro vest came on board and then exited at Union Station. So I put on my jogger's armband and just rushed onto the Orange Line.
Sadly, there was no place to sit because there had been another breakdown earlier, and everything was backed up. Somebody in our car was "baking brownies" as Eric Cartman once put it. Waves of poo-gas wafted about we all tried to find the source of the phantom windbreaker. Whomever it was got off at East Falls Church.
I was trying to be in my own little world, listening to techno on my MP3 player, and even though I was standing up, I think I kind of dozed off. As I watched out the window to I-66 (the train runs parallel to a major highway), I swore I started to see waves of people walking down the tracks. Not workers, but people dressed like a random assortment of citizens from 1970 to the present day. I remember thinking, "These are the spirits of all the people who have died along this road. They are all walking to DC for tomorrow. What happens tomorrow?" But then as I realized I was seeing hundreds of ghosts whiz by, and wondered if they weren't heading towards something as much as fleeing away from something else I was heading towards, I snapped awake, and didn't see anyone anymore.
I know it was a daydream, but it felt so real. After spending some time freaked out about it, I remembered tomorrow is the 6th anniversary of the biggest attack on mainland US soil by foreigners since the War of 1812. Hope you all make it through. |
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| Greg Behrendt and friends |
[Aug. 20th, 2007|04:31 pm] |
I swear none of this is a lie! Should that be a disclaimer? Well, if I was a liar, I'd be lying anyway, so...
This weekend, we went to the DC Improv to see Greg Behrendt. "We" was a clan of people, with me and takayla, anyarm and Brian, cyaneyed James, and mysticpaws. Brad was supposed to join us, but he got the flu.
I was in poor form that night. I got our band lost on the way there, and then abruptly left mysticpaws as we left without saying goodbye. I am sorry, mysticpaws, I was scatterbrained and plain rude.
The venue was pretty good. It seems the Improv is packing people in tighter and tighter as the years go by. Even though we had good seats (thanks to takayla ordering early, we were one row behind the stage), the tables and surrounding crowd made it difficult to use the table. Seven of us were packed around two tables the size of large dinner plates, and there was a "two item minimum" which had me paying $8.95 for a quesadilla and $2.50 for a Diet Pepsi. yeah, I know, that's about normal for such venues, but its irritating nonetheless.
The acts were pretty good. They had a girl named "EJ" who was the Emcee and did a 20 minute routine of her own. She was pretty good; she had a good set. Then there was a Chris Fairbanks, who was hit and miss with his "stream of consciousness" style of comedy. I think half the time he lost us as an audience, but there were peaks of his funniness that really hit the mark and I was laughing hysterically. I kept feeling like he needed more polish before he performed his act. Greg was the main act, and he went on for about an hour and a half. I heard half his jokes before, and some of his relationship humor played on unfair stereotypes of men and women, but as I have always found, that stuff sells. He projected a great confidence, and looked damn good. He is one handsome man in person. Some of his new stuff was good, too. My favorite was the guy that should be in your head to stop making drunk-dial calls to ex-girlfriends. I won't spoil it, go buy his DVD "Uncool."
On the way back, we met some VERY drunk mundanes; two of them were bleeding because they were wearing spiked heels and fell several times. Most of them couldn't have been over 22 years of age. |
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