Kevin Costner's Russian's Rusty: Washington DC Metropolitan Area Thread II

i'm feeling a lot of enthusiasm for this bleakness.

black cat dance nights are best entered into with good friends, a great amount of alcohol and a minimum of self consciousness. i don't know that anything in DC is a hipster/single person's paradise. i don't know that anything in DC is EITHER a hipster's paradise OR a single person's paradise.

this is the first time in a long time that i'm not coexisting in both cities, which might be another reason i'm gravitating towards this thread.

Marker-Miller Orchards
3035 Cedar Creek Grade, Winchester, VA
540-662-1391 • www.markermillerorchards.com
• Activities: Pick your own apples and pumpkins on weekends. Scenic wagon rides on weekends. Picnic areas available. Also available: 10-15 varieties of apples, Barllett pears, plums, pumpkins, Indian corn, winter squash, gourds, mums, apple cider, fresh baked pies, muffins, apple cakes, apple cider donuts, breads and jams & jellies. Apple Harvest Festival: October 8th (9:00-5:00) and 9th (10:00-5:00)
Everything apples!!!!!!!!!!! 20 varieties of apples to choose from, with pick your own available. Apple cobbler and apple caramel sundaes can be enjoyed while sitting on the front porch or listening to the music each day from 2-4 P.M. For the kids we have the barrel train, antique tractors, an apple pitch and room to run. Hot dogs and country ham sandwiches available for lunch. Wagon rides around the farm scheduled for every 1/2 hour. No admission fee.
Pumpkin Festival: October 22nd (9:00-5:00)
Come find the “great pumpkin.” Choose from ones already picked or pick your own. Enjoy pumpkin pie and hot apple cider as you browse around. Also offering hot dogs, country ham sandwiches, and homemade soup.

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The cider doughnuts at Cherry Hill Farm & Orchard in Clinton (301-292-4642) have such an avid following that you may want to order a dozen in advance or arrive early—the farm opens at 8 during the week and at 7 on weekends. Latecomers have to make do with plain doughnuts, but they’re great, too. Cherry Hill also makes soft-serve ice cream in flavors like apple pie and occasionally pumpkin.

DC hipster paradise: Spilt Milk at Red, the last of which was a couple Tuesdays ago. With Red gone, I heard it might be headed to Wonderland.

Black Cat upstairs DJ nights (Mousetrap, Depeche Mode Dance Party, etc.) are much larger and a little less friendly than the downstairs DJ nights (Right Round, BLISS, bluestate, Guilty Pleasures). BLISS is my favorite of the bunch and it happens to be this Saturday. I also guest DJ there sometimes, so take that with a grain of salt. The worst thing about Black Cat backstage DJ nights (aside from the crappy sound) is that they shut down at 2am instead of 3.

new(ish) places:

I really like W Domku, a Scandinavian/Baltic restaurant/bar in Petworth. Housemade aquavits, a very comfortable atmosphere, and a staff with a personality surplus.

A few blocks south of Domku on Georgia Avenue, Temperance Hall will be opening soon. It'll be a restaurant/bar in the ever-expanding Joe Engelert empire, but I've got high hopes anyway.

Vegetate is open or opening soon on 9th st, featuring an awful name and all vegetarian menu. It's part-owned by DJ Dredd, so the music should be good.

I'll soon be trekking up to the new Dogfish Head non-brewpub in Gaithersburg. Hope it's worth the journey, too bad they're not brewing on site.

Around U St fashion crimes outnumber violent crimes 3 to 1 these days. There's been a run of small-business stickups on 14th the past few weeks, though, one of which I think was Candida's bookstore, goddamit. If you've got to jack a business, in the future please make it Whole Foods.

Living in DC for about a year (Clarenden/NOVA and now College Park), I unfortunately see what you're saying regarding DC not being good for singles (at least singles without much power to weild) or hispter-boho-audiophile types. After college, I actually started out in New York (Brooklyn, east Williamsburg off the Flushing Ave J train stop) but couldn't find any good work, so five months removed from graduation I headed to DC. I am now ready and willing to move back to New York. Suffice it to say, despite all sayings regarding the grass always being greener on the other side, DC just doesn't seem too welcoming.

Maybe it IS impossible to compare New York to DC, but I just get the feeling that although both are smug and competitive, in NY I often feel that I'm struggling with other people, whereas in DC I feel like I'm struggling against everyone.

if i could go to a pumpkin patch in the near future, i really would.

xp haha

I've been trying to occupy myself with drinking heavily! I recommend that, to everyone. I do not care for the Black Cat v. much. Downstairs is much better than upstairs in virtually every situation except maybe NYE. Though I've noticed less the hipster quotient and more the huge goth quotient upstairs.

My coworkers sometimes joke about my issues with crossing South over the damn Potomac. My boss went so far as to deliberately set up meeting in RESTON and forced me to attend. Reston needs to justify its existence, as far as I'm concerned.

futurebride and i are considering haphazardly moving to NYC. i don't think this thread is gonna talk us out of it.

Hey mookieproof is did your futurebride go to DUCK, too? Are you going to spawn a new generation of DUCKIES?

Note that I checked out the UNC roster the other day and, uh, WTF--is NO ONE LEFT from last year??? Arrrrgh, another season of frustration. . . and K going global, good god.

ballston has always been ballston, though, as far as i know.

I will totally go cider-apple picking!

oh, nevermind, it'd probably be pretty much the same only flatter

I think it would be better to live in the city proper. It is just kind of like...ok the best I can do to describe NOVA is like living in suburban Long Island or Jersey, except without ANY of the local flavor or tiny establishments because EVERYONE is a transient out of town 9-5 5 days a week. Whatever local color scene might've been here before the invasion of the Stepford Corporates, it's totally been demolished and replaced with a total void which is really disturbing in a lot of ways.

But hey whatever dood we booked yr suggestion wedding spot! Thx for tha tip!

For serious!

i think you've booked JimmyMod, but in case not, this is the dude that's doing our photos for crazy cash: http://www.carlbower.com/

I have to look into them this week. Can't you just do all that online these days anyway? That's what I'm hoping at least.

I have a sad idea that will never come to fruition of going to a Chinese take out, getting 80 or 100 of their little rice boxes, and printing up "fortunes" that invite people to our wedding! But you cannot really put such a thing in the mail.

Take-out invitations is an awesome idea - I've seen a similar thing (with metallic colored mini-take out boxes) in wedding stores. But that's super, super clever.

I just get the feeling that although both are smug and competitive, in NY I often feel that I'm struggling with other people, whereas in DC I feel like I'm struggling against everyone.

Yeah. I feel that way. I have a few very good friends in the area, but the few good friends are also friends with friends of friends, and the friends of friends tend to be fairly smug and competitive, which rubs off on the good friends, and suddenly I am lying to everyone about how I have all these ambitious plans when, in fact, I just want to be able to pay the bills and not stress. I think what bugs me the most is this vibe one can get from people, that if you're not so into the rat race and working 60 hours a week to chase the next big career goal, or maybe if whatever you've been chasing after doesn't fit their nice practical paradigm, there is something slightly pitiable about that. If only you could be as good as they are. And applying to law school.

Oh, and now I want a cider donut!

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Hey, Patrick Fitzgerald is in my building and there are cameras outside. They got a great shot of my lunchbox.

And OK, there are plenty of "better than you" types here, whether they're corp. ladder-climbers or scenester scum, but are they really that hard to keep out of your life? I mean, there are just as many if not more (more, in my experience) nice, funny, cool people who aren't gonna pull that bullshit on you hanging around.