extra pickles

as i had mentioned, dragonette came to DC9 this past friday. ...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:27:35 -0500

as i had mentioned, dragonette came to DC9 this past friday. they were pretty awesome. i can’t find any pictures yet from the show, but here are some recent ones from LA. the lead singer is gorgeous (aside from her hairy pits) and cutely coy and can really sing—even their silly “big sunglasses” song was good. and they had these cool vertical lights on stage that added a fun effect.

so why, then, am i posting “remedy” by little boots? because DC9 was playing the video before dragonette came on and i had never heard it before (even though a quick tumblr search reveals that it’s been previously posted by several people i follow [whoops]). and it’s great. if you’re as behind the times as me (i didn’t know she was a singer past that sweet youtube video where she covers hot chip on her tenori-on), put this one on repeat for the day.

oh right, halloween was last saturday. time to get rid of this...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:35:00 -0500

oh right, halloween was last saturday. time to get rid of this goofy-turned-rotten thing.

i went to the prince of petworth’s 3-year anniversary...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:15:00 -0500

i went to the prince of petworth’s 3-year anniversary party last night, partially because it’s a great blog and partially because i can never resist an invitation to wonderland. amelia made the observation that (to use everyone’s favorite ambiguous adjective) it’s interesting that so many people would come together to celebrate that they simply read the same web page every day. oh the power of community blogging!

and the power of a can of pbr and a shot of jim. the combination may have made philly great (bob & barbara’s, anyone?), but it’s also making this ~~morning~~ afternoon miserable. (wonderland serves bottles of pbr, though. DC is so soft.)

the national gallery’s sculpture garden is a great DC...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:46:00 -0500

the national gallery’s sculpture garden is a great DC spot. next to its “jazz in the park” series during the summer (a largely misnomered event), my favorite thing about it is roy lichtenstein’s illusionary house I. from the front it looks either flat or as if the midpoint (where the two sides and the roof meet) sticks out towards you. but actually, the whole thing is concave and that midpoint is the farthest thing away. it’s also cool to view it from angles where certain sides completely disappear.

i took a long DC stroll on tuesday, snapped some shots of the house, and made this animated gif. hopefully it displays properly for you—tumblr was being fussy.

for a few weeks prior i figured that i’d spend my 5th...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:56:00 -0500

for a few weeks prior i figured that i’d spend my 5th halloween dressed as a red jaguar from nickelodeon’s “legends of the hidden temple.” on friday afternoon, though, having an excuse to wear my child-sized dennis rodman jersey proved too hard to resist.

after seeing them on tumblr, i went out and bought these shorts. man, are they short. i picked up a pair of knee-high red socks at american apparel, as well as a second pair of shorts that i ultimately opted to wear out because they showed a little less thigh. (sidenote: did you know you can’t return stuff to american apparel? you can only get store credit? isn’t that a little ridiculous?)

for house parties, this wasn’t the best outfit—“oh, so.. you’re a.. basketball player. sweet.” in past years people definitely got more kicks from my red jaguar costume than they did this year from whatever you want to call this outfit.

dancing while wearing this was great, though—it’s pretty liberating to dance (and a lot less disgusting to get sweaty) in scanty clothing. also, my walk home on friday night was amazing. i walked from black cat across U street and then up 18th street to the mcdonald’s at the end of adams morgan, and i swear i got no less than 25 hollers for wearing a rodman jersey. there were several “the rest of your outfit doesn’t look like him, so why are you wearing a rodman jersey?” comments, but the majority were positive. i even got into a game of imaginary basketball (i’m a pro at boxing out).

overall, i was pleased.

(vaughn is dressed as a hipster, by the way. yes, it’s just a costume.)

a spammer took over dave’s girlfriend’s twitter...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:09:47 -0500

a spammer took over dave’s girlfriend’s twitter account (it’s since been deleted so i had to recreate this screen capture) and these are the two direct messages she sent me. she thinks i’m fat and poor. great, just great. i’m not denying either, but still, come on.

oh hello again, tens of readers. i still exist, i’m still...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:38:23 -0500

oh hello again, tens of readers. i still exist, i’m still wearing gingham, and i’m still looking for an appropriately (or at least fittingly) smug tumblr icon picture.

this picture was snapped two saturdays ago at a restaurant called urbana. its $11 bottomless bellini deal makes it the only place that i know of in DC that rivals red rocks’ $9 bottomless mimosa brunch. the place was empty during our entire 11am to 3pm stay, which i was surprised by—aside from a truly horrible waiter and a bit of an uppity vibe, urbana is great. check it out.

later that day we went to another fun place that i had never been to, comet ping pong. it was filled with kids. lindsey and i befriend a fourth-grader named jake. he and his twin third-grader siblings were highly amused by tales of my own fourth-grade teacher, ms. moon. they were in town visiting their 29-year-old brother and were actually from the north shore ‘burbs of chicago. lindsey and i were excited to reminisce with them about the 4 years we spent in the same area, but apparently elementary school kids aren’t ones to indulge nostalgic talk. anyway, comet ping pong—a place with ping pong tables and cans of old chub is always worth checking out.

after spending that saturday at these two unique DC gems, jason will be proud to know that on sunday i somehow allowed myself to be convinced to go to an olive garden. whoops.

old texts

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:50:20 -0400

i think my beloved pebl is officially dead, so i’m temporarily using my really old phone. it still has a bunch of text messages saved on it that bring back fun memories…

from dennis, 6/13/04, 6:19pm:

“Top doggg”

from an unknown number, 9/10/05, 2:00am:

“BRAD AND I ON L.. FROM JOES..DRUNK!!!!!”

from jake, 2/3/06, 1:37am:

“can a [inappropriate word] get a table dance?”

from dottie, 4/26/06, 1:38pm:

“I met venus williams and 2 nba players at a bar last night”

from danny, 5/6/06, 5:27am:

“Go the fuck home”

from jason, 2/25/07, 5:08pm:

“I think we could all go for an HPD right now”

i think i’m going to buy an iphone today. i’m still wavering a bit—i take little pleasure in spending money, and i’m also worried i won’t like carrying something of that size around in my pocket—but i think i’m going to do it. ugh, i should be more excited about this right? i’m not. maybe once i get it…

it’s your inner chemist’s favorite day of the year:...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:49:07 -0400

it’s your inner chemist’s favorite day of the year: national mole day. to refresh, a mole is a unit of 6.02 x 10^23 atoms or molecules. so, from 6:02am to 6:02pm on 10/23, kooks all over the country celebrate.

my high school chemistry teacher gave us pocket periodic tables to mark mole day 2000. she was pretty eccentric and mole-obsessed (see her piece titled “beyond tradition: a chemistry teacher and her mole fetishes”), and many students probably don’t care to remember her. she was undeniably passionate about chemistry, though, and especially in hindsight i think i really valued that. so 9 years later, even though it has come in handy on far fewer occasions than she claimed it would, ms. phillips’s pocket periodic table still has a nostalgic place in my wallet.

my (half) transformation from a sweater wearing kanye listening...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:20:00 -0400

my (half) transformation from a sweater wearing kanye listening prepster to a chest hair showing tater tot eating (pseudo) indie kid has now been substantiated by seeing myself on byt.

ryan, buddy, we need to work on your mugs.

oh TARP, how i’ll miss the emotional roller coaster...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:40:00 -0400

oh TARP, how i’ll miss the emotional roller coaster you’ve had me on for the past 13 months.

Core TARP Programs Ending

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury will shut down two more financial bailout programs along with its main bank capital injection program by the end of this year, a Treasury official said on Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Capital Assistance Program and the Targeted Investment Program would be shut down along with the Capital Purchase Program.

The programs are parts of the $700 billion financial bailout program that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Reuters earlier on Tuesday were ready to be wound down.

The Capital Purchase Program is the Treasury’s main bank capital injection program launched in October 2008, with more than $200 billion invested in more than 600 banks.

The Targeted Investment Program was used to further prop up Citigroup and Bank of America to the tune of $40 billion, while the Capital Assistance Program was launched in the spring of 2009 to provide capital to banks after regulatory “stress tests” determined their balance sheet health.

None of the banks found to need additional funds in the stress tests have tapped the Capital Assistance Program, choosing instead to raise capital in the private markets.

In addition, the Treasury official said the bailout funds dedicated to the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility — a joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program — and a public-private investment program designed to sop up toxic assets would be capped at $30 billion each.

i’ve gone from feeling elated to disillusioned to star-struck to exasperated and finally to indifferent (although the last has been mainly a matter of circumstance) over TARP. but regardless of those ups and downs, and even though i knew to begin with that it’d all be temporary, it’s still a little sad to realize that a thing to which i dedicated so much time is indeed starting to wind down. alas.

perhaps i’ll get in on the single retail fund that’s supposed to come out of PPIP (BlackRock’s Legacy Securities Public-Private Trust) to keep a little piece of the ~~ordeal~~ experience with me for a while longer.

on sunday i had a wholesome carefree childhood throwback day,...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:26:20 -0400

welcome to cox farms

they had free cider AND FREE PIE

house of pumpkin

me mike sohil and molly

of course my pumpkin was gross & rotting

a few beers and burgers later, done

spooky smiley elementary (hehe) & goofy

on sunday i had a wholesome carefree childhood throwback day, which was a nice contrast to the rest of my weekend. molly, mike, sohil and i went to a pumpkin patch in virginia, had lunch at a fine suburban eatery known as chili’s, then (aided by some beers and 5 guys) carved up a storm. it was pretty great.

i was introduced to dragonette this weekend. i’m not sure...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:39:56 -0400

i was introduced to dragonette this weekend. i’m not sure where all these bands ending in “-ette” are coming from lately—noisettes were stuck in my head recently, noisettes’ name reminded me of the pipettes, there was a band called the ravonettes at 930 club this past weekend, and now dragonette. perhaps it’s some sort of variation on synchronicity.

anyway, dragonette. they’re pretty cool. this song “liar” has a semi-happy dance-y feel to it. “pick up the phone” is another pleasing tune.

and they’re going to be at DC9 on november 6. i’m not really into live music, but they’re coming as part of DC9’s standard friday evening “liberation dance party” (they brought another fun band a few months back, called natalie portman’s shaved head), so perhaps i’ll go.

i don’t usually watch comedies. there’s way too...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:43:50 -0400

i don’t usually watch comedies. there’s way too much funny and ridiculous and absurd stuff in my life already, so why bother with fictional humor?

“white chicks,” though, i love (so sue me), perhaps because i think the concept is just so over the top. it’s been on tv way too much this past year, and today marks another saturday spent with the wilson sisters.

“brushing my teeth” and having so much fun? there...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:49:58 -0400

“brushing my teeth” and having so much fun? there is nothing to say besides happy friday.

joining steely dan and hall & oates and girl talk on my...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:49:55 -0400

joining steely dan and hall & oates and girl talk on my phone, la roux’s “i’m not your toy” is my newest ringtone. it’s an attention-grabbing tune, and lyrically i can’t think of a better ringtone to assign to all those players’ numbers that i know you’ve amassed.

“the new issue of playboy magazine features nude pictures...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:24:00 -0400

“the new issue of playboy magazine features nude pictures of marge simpson… now a lot of people were shocked, and it may seem shocking at first, but this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. plenty of other cartoon characters have posed nude for magazines.”

this bit from conan was pretty good. that latin inches was included made it great.

noisettes’ “don’t upset the rhythm” just...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:07:10 -0400

noisettes’ “don’t upset the rhythm” just won’t leave my mind. it’s ironically starting to upset my own daily/personal rhythms. (thanks, i’ll be here all week.)

the name noisettes reminds me of the pipettes and their song “pull shapes.” you know, just in case you want two songs stuck in your head.

oh hello again

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:54:00 -0400

since my last highly controversial post 13 days ago, i’ve ~~endured (HAHA KIDDING MOM)~~ enjoyed a 7-day visit from my parents. they got here 2 thursdays ago and stayed through last thursday, so that was quite nice—they hadn’t yet been out to see me in DC.

we played tourist. extensively. it was exhausting. disappointments included taking officially organized tours of the capitol and the library of congress, but thankfully those were about the only letdowns. highlights for me included the national cathedral’s organized tour, seeing an argument at the supreme court, watching the senate in session and voting (separate from an organized capitol tour), and the phillips collection.

we also ate out. a lot. not that my norms aren’t delicious, but a parental dining experience is always a little different. in terms of upscale places i should probably avoid while unemployed, blue duck tavern, ristorante la perla, and central michel richard were all great. the similarly regarded vidalia, though, was disappointing. brunch at leopold’s in georgetown is also worth noting as a fun time.

in addition to my parents’ visit, 2 fun weekends have passed since my last post. highlights of those include bowling a 161 (not too shabby for me), dancing at cobalt and wonderland and town and dc9, a fun party at ryan’s where an awkward new game emerged (“truth dare or strip” kings), an adult pizza party at lindsey’s where said awkward game was again played, being 2 feet away from lady gaga while marching for the gays, an ironically timed happy hour at hooters, and amassing 11 game pieces for mcdonald’s monopoloy. hopefully tame yet telling pictures emerge to shed additional light.

and the great debate begins again.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:35:50 -0400

and the great debate begins again.