Brad Pitt Has Your Secret Shit: Rolling DC

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/11/ted-leonsis-wizards-capitals-verizon-center

In a recent conference call with the Washington Post, Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis grumbled that his teams were “disadvantaged” because he was forced to pay more in building costs than other teams in other cities, in a Verizon Center deal he called “the worst building deal in professional sports.” Leonsis pays an estimated $36 million mortgage annually on the Verizon Center.

He also hinted that in six or seven years’ time, when the mortgage ends, he “will be a free agent,” suggesting that he could could possibly move the teams.

...This is absolutely preposterous. Yes, Leonsis may have to pay more for his mortgage than other professional teams, but just because those other teams duped cities into paying for their stadiums shouldn’t make D.C. fans feel bad about the deal here.

The Wizards and Capitals have spent plenty of money. They’ve spent an ungodly amount of money. The Wizards are currently spending more than the NBA Salary Cap, so for Leonsis to say that he can’t spend enough on his players is outrageous. He can’t spend more on his players because the league expressly prohibits him from doing so. The Capitals are also considered a “cap team,” having spent close to the cap every year in recent history.

The reason the Wizards and Capitals haven’t won a title has nothing to do with Leonsis’ mortgage and everything to do with the fact that he’s hired bad people who have done a bad job. Ernie Grunfeld, as Deadspin pointed out, is still somehow the general manager of the Wizards, even though he hasn’t shown like once in his entire career that he has any idea how to effectively run an NBA franchise. The team has wasted draft picks and signed the wrong guys to big deals and kept ineffective coaches and on and on.

so it seems like we spent about a week staring at the sidewalk and now everybody is gearing up for a long slog. Is that everybody else's take?

yeah. Although it feels like everyone's's going to be far more involved than the passive resignation post-2000 and even 2004.

Yeah, it's going to be freezing at the inauguration protests.

true.

DISTRICT II

In less serious news. Lots of exhibits worth checking out around DC. Just noticed that this opened at the Building Museum:

District II

November 19, 2016 - February 12, 2017

This poetic visual essay explores the changing streetscape of downtown Washington in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s through the urban street photography of Bill Barrett, Chris Earnshaw, and Joseph Mills

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/district-ii.html

I saw the Van Vechten Harlem Heroes photo exhibit, and the Herman Leonard Jazz photos ones. Both worth seeing although I agree with the following:

Of the two exhibits, Herman Leonard’s jazz photographs exude more verve and cool. Van Vechten’s images, taken as much as 20 years earlier, are more historically groundbreaking and serve as a fitting memorial to Van Vechten’s role as a patron of African-American artists—but as artistic objects, his images fall short.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/museums-galleries/blog/20833380/at-the-smithsonian-american-art-museum-carl-van-vechtens-photographs-of-harlem-heroes

x-post -- there were protesters at the Reagan Trade Center Bldg Saturday protesting the "alt-right" conference there.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2016/11/21/a-changing-neighborhoods-last-cheap-carryout-is-closing-owner-says-change-is-great/?hpid=hp_local-news_cheap-carryout-12pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Carryout near Hecht's warehouse

Guzman, 41, is the owner of Louis’ Restaurant & Carry Out, which has operated since 1988 at Fenwick and Okie streets NE in now-gentrifying Ivy City. ...

On Wednesday, Nov. 23, Guzman will close the restaurant’s doors for the final time, but not before giving away free food to all of his neighbors, which include a homeless shelter next door. His landlords are doubling his rent, he says, after he made an offer to buy the building that was declined. (Several attempts to reach the building’s owners for comment were unsuccessful; no one at their number picked up.)

At least Maggiano's donated 10 grand from the day the white supremacists showed up to eat and sieg heil

NY Times article on C*met P*ng Pong is not likely gonna be enough to stop crazies from harassing anyone associated with that pizza place, including musicians who have played there.

Maybe they'll move on and find a new conspiracy theory soon

We moved! Petworth is my new metro stop.

sellout

j/k obv but if you have a garage i will lol

no garage. lol basemetn is hueg tho

Warning: hueg basement, like hueg garage, leads to failure to purge/massive accumulation of crap (at least if you are me).

Luckily we are solving the garage accumulation of crap by doing this lil project: http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/tiny_house_in_cleveland_park_historic_district_approved/11740

wau

ooh can I live there

You are more than welcome there, just be warned that you may be sharing space with an elderly parent or two.

lol @ Granny Pod

Yeah that was spouse's choice of term. We're totally sneaking a roof deck in, btw, zoning be damned.

https://www.popville.com/2016/11/kramerbooks-expansion-coming-under-new-ownership-in-dupont/

free beer if you buy $50 worth of books, now through 12/31

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/young-hungry/article/20845471/two-wage-theft-lawyers-cash-in-on-dcs-restaurant-boom

Just three years after leaving Maryland Legal Aid and launching his practice, the 33-year-old Zelikovitz has gone from using just a single room in a Chinatown townhouse to renting the entire building. He is one of several attorneys who have discovered that suing District restaurants over wage law violations doubles as doing good and doing good business.

Zelikovitz and attorney Jonathan Tucker, who left Maryland Legal Aid last year to join the firm, benefit from wage law violations they say can often be caused by scofflaw managers or ignorance among restaurant owners. They have more than 30 active cases, with nearly 20 others on payment plans.

When a restaurant fails to pay a dishwasher minimum wage or time-and-a-half for overtime pay, that’s an opening for the lawyers to send a demand letter on behalf of their clients, many of whom come to them via word of mouth or Spanish-language Google advertisements.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/12/04/d-c-police-respond-to-report-of-a-man-with-a-gun-at-comet-ping-pong-restaurant/

Crazy. Sounds like guy was arrested with no loss of life. Knuckleheads on twitter still pushing their conspiracy theory

yeah i just checked and clicking the trending topic it's all "this is a false flag, this place needs to be investigated"

wtf

i saw an acid mothers temple show there that was pretty loud but that's really it as far as weirdness

the inauguration is going to be such a fucking mess. I'm not worried, per se, about the grab bag of deluded stupid assholes who are going to descend upon us in January, but if I were a betting man I wouldn't put a dime of somebody else's money on the inaugural parade + affiliated nonsense going off without at least a couple of people winding up in the hospital

Also, the National Park Service has still not confirmed locations for the various anti-Trump protest organizations. They say that the folks who requested the Women's march location, filed late. Plus there are legal battles re locations near the Trump hotel on inauguration day.

I'm probably just going to go to Freedom Plaza and see what happens

I'm working in Downtown on 9th Street during it so good luck to me.

Was re-reading that during the Bush inaugural parade (the first time), some folks decided to show up at random sites and boo, rather than joining in the sole designated protest area...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/groups-call-blocking-inaugural-protests-unconstitutional-44029039

In the past, inaugural committees have let the park service know what land they won't be using, and then permits have been issued, Litterst said. The park service is awaiting word from Trump's inaugural team about its plans. Verheyden-Hilliard said activists are concerned that the inaugural committee will run out the clock on dissidents and she will take legal action in a bid to prevent that.

So U St. condos get named after famous Black musicians, and H St NE ones will get named after historic NYC Black theatres/music sites?

The Apollo Apartments - Brand New Apartments‎

Live in Luxury on H Street at The Apollo. Now Leasing!

Amenities: Rooftop Deck, Fitness Center, On-Site Cafe, Resident Lounges, Dog Run, Bike Storage, 24-Hour Concierge, Guest Accommodations

600 H St NE, Washington, DC‎

https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/restaurants/the-20-diners-favorite-cheap-eats-of-2016/2016/12/28/58c95a1a-c890-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_20-diner-1155am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.280637d84bbb

Tim Carman lives in Maryland so its possible that is why the list has more Maryland places on it (or perhaps that is not why)

There was an Apollo Theater on H street NE. It's not named after the Harlem venue.

http://www.popville.com/2013/10/from-apolo-theatre-to-murrys-grocery-store-to-120000000-apolo-mixed-use-development/

Interesting

The Airedale at 14th & Perry is slept on

I think I really like my new neighborhood y'all

No matter how I parse your first sentence (neighborhood terrier? Hipster bar?) I cannot make sense of it.

hipster bar! wall covered in soccer scarves. wide range of local beers on tap. excellent brunch. slept on = seems rather un-busy

Weather this week was great for our visit over xmas

man a dude moves to Petworth and all of a sudden he's speaking a new language!

What's the feasibility of finding somewhere okayish in DC for 1300 a month?

Currently in Alexandria, but need to move in a few months. Was thinking Silver Spring?

it seems totally doable imho but I don't know what your parameters are for "somewhere okayish"

Your own place, I assume, or are you willing to consider a housemate? I suspect that 1300 may be putting you into teeny-tiny (studio as opposed to 1 br) territory. But throw in a roommate and ~2400 will get you something pretty nice if not luxury-building style in NW. Not really familiar with rents in other parts of the city these days.

I'm okay with tiny studio but if the gap in quality is so large that a roommate will do the trick then I'm willing. Weighing that versus moving further out and buying a car.

do you have a preference of metro line? i've had a lot of luck along the green line for affordability.

Green Line works, yup. Hyattsville/College Park. If you're thinking Red Line you might find yourself in Wheaton rather than Silver Spring. I like that part of the world fine, even though I am a novadude.

the red line is an abomination

Hey! I like my 'hood!

FP'd