Site of the Day

Why did we not come up with this sooner?

http://dcinterns.blogspot.com/

NYC and Me?

I'm heading to NYC this weekend and every time I spend a weekend there I wonder aloud why I've not made the move to the Big Apple, (the fact that I'd have to live in a shoebox and eat ramen) notwithstanding...anyways Time Out NYC basically just reinforced what I already know about my potential relationship with New York!

Only until you age out.
Sorry to say it, but you're a temporary New Yorker. Sure, this city is awesome for running around and enjoying your youth, but you came here to work and play hard and plan on jetting at the first signs of crow's feet or when your parents stop financing that party lifestyle of yours. Plus, if you ever decide to settle down and have kids, there's no way you're bringing them up in a studio.

Do you belong in New York City?

HOLY SH*T!

Have you been sneezing, coughing, feeling achy?

DO I HAVE SWINE FLU?

Site of the Day.

Once again, another site (Maria) and I could be frequent contributors to... Thank you to the creators of

Texts From Last Night

Sneaking towards 60 Seats...

Arlen Spector's made it official...he's going to run as a Democrat in 2010! While this has a lot of us in a tizzy of excitement, we've got to take a deep breath here. Even though he will be running as a Dem, he doesn't necessarily support the progressive agenda in its entirety. He's already made it clear that he's upholding his stance on the Employee Free Choice Act (unfortunate for those of us who favor Unions), but at least he's progressive in his views on the environment and abortion.I mean I do wonder why he didn't decide to run as an Independent, but as they say - strength in numbers...

Not such a bad idea?

So this email made its round during the election cycle, and now, given the recent brouhaha surrounding proposed "Democrat-tax-hikes" Republicans decided to throw their version of a temper tantrum, thus nationwide on Tax-day "Tea Parties" were held, (JIC you missed Anderson Cooper's thought on the Tea Parties). Anyways, evidently in light of these peaceful protests, The New Yorker wrote it's own take on the tea parties, and it's pretty much a high-brow regurgitation, of the email below. Either way, both are pretty funny... - " (Note I included the email in an abbrev'd form so as not to garner hate-mail frm some of my Red-State compadres...
So Long, Pardner,"

Dear Red States:
We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92% of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico

Peace out,
--Blue States--

Gavin Newsom for Governor?

I'm excited to see how things progress with the Gavin Newsom for Governor campaign, I love all he's done to push for gay rights, and clean-up the city of SF, but lately he's looking a little... off?Who knows, what's going on, but Newsom's looking a lot less like Bateman (Christian Bale) from American Psycho, and more and more like the sneaky (but kind hearted) butler from Mr. Deeds (John Turturro). I'm clearly all for a Democratic Governor, but this kind of freaked me out...

Happy Earth Day (for reals yo!)

While I know I should be looking at ways to green my day, recycle my soda can, and bike to work (which I did thanks to Jenna loaning me Princess Sparkle), Earth Day actually makes me a touch misty eyed at, not only the threat of global warming, but also at the memories of Earth Day's past in Isla Vista, CA. I have to give a shout out to Morgen, with whom I spent one of the greatest Earth Day's to-date dancing our faces off in Anisqoi'o Park to Blue Turtle Seduction (one of my favorite jam-bands to see live, great, great energy- see below for the hard evidence).

This was followed by an encore set played ocean front on Del Playa, we all packed ourselves in to noodle around on the deck of a house on the 6800 block...

As if I needed more reason to love SB....

Yoshimi

The Flaming Lips delivered, despite the typical awkward crowd that I guess I've just come to expect when seeing a show in this town. Though they made use wait an extra 20 mins, (I thought for sure we'd be caught in a serious thunder storm), lead singer Wayme Coyne strutted out on stage in his white-leisure suit and proceeded to rollick and roll atop the crowd in his trademark bubble, shooting off streamers and confetti (I know seemed like a bit of an oxymoron to be doing at Earth Day) before launching into a few opening acoustic songs. I'll admit opening with some lesser known songs started the show off a touch slow, but Wayne took it up a notch with a rather unexpected cover of...oh yea...Madonna's "Borderline" that at least got me jumping around and singing along. Bring on a round of "Yoshimi" and "She Don't Use Jelly" and pretty much all of us were satisfied with having waited it out for a free show. I mean I wasn't expecting to be blown away, and I wasn't but it was fun, and Ellen and I got to bop around on a Sunday to some sweet tunes. Done and done.

Green Apple Festival!

In the past week, thanks to the Dead show and now the Green Apple festival, I've been part and partie to more hippie-ish events in DC than throughout the past year. Today's event will take place on the mall, and I'm curious to see how the Flaming Lips will pull off their theatrical stage show midday, or if they won't bother with the traditional bubbles, confetti and costumes! Will let you know later!

Site of the Day.

This site appears to be relatively nascent, however it shows great promise, I hope they don't disappoint: Look at this Fucking Hipster

I know I'll certainly be a contributor, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that I don't somehow end up on here. (After my tour de SoCal it's not that much of a stretch...)

la la land

The lack of posting of late can be attributed 100% to the fact that I am currently vacationing whilst in between jobs! Spent the past 5 days in paradise aka Pacific Beach in san Diego, CA and am now galavanting around Hollywood. I start working in business development for Blue State Digital come Monday, so prepare yourself for some serious catch-up blogging soon!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yes, as of yesterday, I am officially 25. And let me tell you, this year's off to a helluva start.

Cut Copy, lit my Heart on Fire!

Cut Copy could qualify as # 376 in the long list of "Stuff White People Like", but that's totally fine by me, especially given the energy of last night's show at the 930 Club! The lead singer of the Melbourne based band is a total cliche, but he's totally geek-chic as he flails around in too-tight-skinny jeans and a worn-out-tee, firing up the sold-out crowd by opening with their infectious hit "Hearts on Fire". They got fists pumping and the crowd jumping with their electro-beats; "Lights & Music" and "Feel the Love" and also sampled a new song (whose name I did not quite catch due to the hammered chick next to me dumping her beer down the front of my (skinny) jeans.) And as my friend Matt pointed out to me, "Out There on the Ice" definitely deserves a mention, that got people moving! Not the most amazing band to see live, and they played an exceptionally short set; leaving the stage after 45 mins, returning only to play a two-song encore. Weak. But I'd still recommend seeing them for a seriously fun night of tweaked-out-awkward-white-guy dancing! *Unfortunately they didn't allow camera's so I don't have any pictures of their stage set-up, but it featured really simple bars of retro neon lights, and did a dazzlingly good job of following the fast tempo of the show! Check out DCist for some great shots (and a glowing review)!

Bring It On.

"The sickest thing to drop from a Republican since Bill Bennett ate bad chili."

I try not to post too many clips from John Stewart or Colbert, but every once in a while my restraint wears thin, especially this "slam burger" from Colbert last week. Try to hang in there until around minute 3.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Conservative Rap Battle - Michael Steele's Response
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Gentleman, Choose Your Weapons...

Pretty much every one's still in disbelief at AIG using their bailout money to give bonuses to "retain" people on staff; despite the fact that hundreds of incredibly brilliant bankers, traders and analysts have been getting laid off ALL over Wall Street. AIG felt it necessary to "reward" their barely competent staff and give them bonuses of up to $100,000 because, you know, they've done such a great job!

This such a ludicrous use of funds, but AIG CEO Edward Liddy seems to be orbiting on his own planet, why else would he think it a good idea dish out tax payer money in such an irresponsible and inappropriate fashion. Nearly every one's got ideas about what should happen to AIG, Liddy and the mysterious recipients of our money, but my favorite call-to-action thus far has got to be these words of wisdom from Iowa Senator-R, Chuck Grassley:

"I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.And in the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology."

Thank you Senator, while many have criticized you for your harsh words, I think America could use some good, old fashioned humility.

Neighborhood News

Tear. The only delicious and affordable breakfast/coffee/bagelsonUstreet joint has just (unexpectedly to me) closed their doors! I loved haunting Mocha Hut on the weekends for their delicious eggs-on-toast breakfast (so good and only like $4) and huge cups of dark-almost-as-good-as-Peet's coffee. Yummy food combined with free wi-fi...a loss to the neighborhood...

Joke of the Day.

I got a giggle outta this one, given my new hood and general 'tude of the area...

Q. How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb?



A. It's a really obscure number, you probably haven't heard of it.

Modest Mouse: Fail.

Now that I'm living in the U street area, I've been hitting up live music like nobodies business.(As is evidenced by my back-to-back evenings at The Black Cat and the 930 Club, respectively). After having seen them nearly five years ago, just after the release of "Good News for People who Love Bad News", I'd been looking forward to last night's Modest Mouse concert for some time and considering the hype surrounding the sold-out show (please see this DCist find from last week), and re-sell ticket prices at nearly triple face value, I was expecting a solid night of cacophonous brass beats. (I personally think it's bad concert-karma to overprice your tickets that much, do undo to others as they say...)
Anyways, doors opened at 8, so we headed over around quarter to ten thinking we'd catch the tail end of the opener and then MM shortly thereafter. Wrong. We show up to a nearly empty 930 Club, catching the end of the first opening act, wait another thirty minutes before being assaulted by a Mexican version of Franz Ferdinand who decided it was a good idea to project awkward and unoriginal video montages onto a screen behind them. I suppose I wouldn't have been so irritated had they just played a few songs, but they took the stage for a solid hour and fifteen. The worst part was probably that the lead singer was crooning into the mike which had a camera mounted on it, that then projected waytoclose images of the sweaty singer's nose onto the screen behind him. I think he thought he was frontin' Menudo. No gracias.

Around Midnight 930 was packed and there was still no sign of the boys. They finally did come on around 12:15, had it been a Saturday night I probably wouldn't have minded as much, but coming off a long work week, then standing around guzzling luke warm Miller Lites (and Guinness in early honor of St Paddy's day) put me in no mood to then deal with the pre-teens attempting to mosh to "City made of Ashes". While the band played a lot of their popular songs and their stage lights were pretty cool, I wasn't even interested enough in their show to stay and hear them do "Float On" for the encore. That might have also been due to the fact that someone evidently had vomited in close proximity to us, and the barman attempted to cover up the smell by spraying it down with catastrophic amounts of disinfectant. (I had to use my pashmina like a burka to keep my nostrils from burning). All I can say is that I hope they improve their stage presence for the remainder of their tour, otherwise, I'd say keep your $50 and listen to them on your ipod en route to work. Much more enjoyable.

The Airborne Toxic Event

And no, I'm not talking about the George W. Bush Sewer Plant...this was the awesome show my roommate and I saw at The Black Cat last night! They sounded like a cross between Vampire Weekend, Ryan Adams and The Shins...I loved them! Click here to go to take a listen!