Thing 149: Meridian Hill Park

Well, that was exciting! I upload a quick picture of our gorgeous first lady and mention how much I love having the Obamas in this great city of ours, and next thing I know, I've scooped the Washington Post, DCist, USA Today and Politico. So, if there are any new readers to the blog, I'd like to say, Welcome! You can read a little bit more about what this blog is all about here and here.

How amazing was the weather this weekend? It was perfect picnic weather, and we all know how much I love a picnic. This time, we headed towards Meridian Hill Park, aka Malcolm X Park, a park that I realize I have spent entirely too little time in.

Meridian Hill Park is a perfect place to spend an afternoon. It's spacious (12 acres), and tiered, so it's easy enough to stake out a corner for yourself that feels quiet if you're feeling quiet. Or you can throw yourself into the myriad activities if you're looking for a more communal experience. Acrobatics,

tight rope walking, hula hooping, dog walking, sun bathing and of course, an amazing drum circle.

In addition to the lively drum circle and excellent array of dogs to coo over, Meridian Hill Park boasts a thirteen basin cascade fountain, overflowing from one basin into the next and dramatically cascading down. At least, I presume this is what happens, for the fountain was empty yesterday, but was lined in bright yellow daffodils and was nevertheless quite pleasant to look at.

It also home to the only equestrian statue in DC that depicts a woman riding the horse -- Joan of Arc rides proudly on the terrace above the fountain; a gift from "ladies of France in exile in New York."

As for our group, we stuck to usual picnic activities like eating cinnamon swirl bundt cake, joking in the sunshine and playing Uno. We whiled away the afternoon nibbling on potato salad and an huge sandwich, playing skips and reverses, as the drum circle beats drifted down to us.

Related: Cherry Blossom Picnic

Thing 142: Cakelove

It's Cupcake Madness! Click here for the bracket and the judging sheet.  Check out previous contenders Red Velvet and Couture Cupcakes.

Cakelove was the original.  Before cupcakeries were a dime a dozen, before Sex and the City made cupcakes flirty and commonplace, Warren Brown had a dream.  He was a government worker, droning on at a job he didn't like, and during his free time, he was baking cakes.  His coworkers reaped the rewards of his after-hours experiments as he adjusted butter and sugar levels, coming up with perfect butter cream and seductive, layered combinations.

Now, Warren owns six Cake Loves, the Love Cafe, is a minor local celebrity and even has his own show on the Food Network.  He is a pillar of the business community.

But can his cakes compete??

I had my doubts.

Truth be told, I don't much like Cakelove cupcakes anymore.  Sure, there was a time in my life when I asked a coworker to drive from Fairfax to U Street to pick some up for my birthday.  And when I was a having a quarter-life crisis I gave very serious thought to taking Warren's offer of a minimum wage job just to learn the secrets of good baking.  I still think his cakes themselves are about the best in town (that chocolate/vanilla/raspberry/butter cream/ganache monster being my favorite).  But the last few times I tried his cupcakes...well, they were dry.  I thought the cake was dry, and the frosting was fine, but not great.  

I don't know if Warren has re-calibrated his cake recipe, or if Cakelove was just having a good day, but when my team came to evaluate the cupcakes for the bracket, they were good.  Really good.

As per the bracket, we ordered three "control" cupcakes (vanilla cake, chocolate frosting), as well as one salted caramel cupcake, and one maple butterscotch.  Cakelove uses a very traditional butter cream, and I had to restrain my team from eating the cupcakes right away -- the frosting needs at least 20 minutes to come to room temperature or it just tastes like butter.  

But once we cut in and tasted, we really liked them!  The cakes were more moist than I remember, and the frosting, though not particularly thick, was rich and well-flavored.  The maple butterscotch in particular was a big hit, though I was partial to the salted caramel.

At $3.25, these were priced about average, and were average-sized.  Overall, these cupcakes scored above-average on cake, size and amount of frosting, with average or low scores for icing and creativity.  One person even checked the 'yes' box on the all-important "this cupcake makes me want to say 'do me on this cupcake'" criteria, a sentiment we all came close to sharing. 

Comments from my team included "do me with butterscotch," "maple butterscotch very good, salty caramel good too," "maple butterscotch almost 'do' worthy," "control - buttery, cake good, maple butterscotch - incredible, best yet," "did not like it," "big, but control was too buttery,""pretty good, almost do me good," and "cake moist!".

The overall score for Cakelove? A 3.6!  0.5 points more than Couture Cupcakes!!  Cakelove advances to the Tasty Two!!  

Who will make it from the Western Bracket??  Check back to find out!

Thing 139: SpeakeasyDC

Eye of the Tiger.  If It Makes You Happy.  Take Me Home, Mountain Roads.

We all have songs that trigger intense memories, that put us right back into a time and a place in our lives, that make us giggle or blush or weep.  Dr. Dre's Keep They Heads Ringin' puts me right back in Mr. Nelson's seventh grade science class.  Stacey's Mom brings me back to driving the snow covered roads of pre-caucus Iowa in 2003 and the intense pull of first love.  Nelly's Hot in Herre drops me in the midst of the happy reunion of roommates in those first few days of senior year, after we'd all returned from various studies abroad and couldn't tell our stories fast enough, a jumble of words and photos spilling all over each other, laughing and dancing and printing out Nelly's lyrics and attaching to them to the fridge so we could try to memorize them in idle moments.  

But while these songs and countless others bring up intense memories and feelings of time and place for me, it is decidedly harder to spin these feelings into great stories, with a beginning, middle and end, with a lesson or a poignant moment or laughter strewn throughout.  Which is exactly what the storytellers at SpeakeasyDC have learned to do.  

SpeakeasyDC offers workshops and performances for storytellers -- seasoned or beginners.  Every month the group gathers for performances, and every month has a theme.  February's theme was "Mixtape" and all the stories revolved around a song.  Some stories were funny and alive with embarrassment, others were personal and quite poignant.  

Mike got up to tell us about a rather unfortunate incident that occurred while he was running on the treadmill.  Just as Eye of the Tiger came on, he, er, lost control and had to flee the gym quickly and in a haze of blushing embarrassment.  He'd crafted it so that we were all laughing out loud, and he laughed with us at his own misfortune.  Suji told her story of trying to find love, centered around her love of music and in particular her love of There's a Light That Never Goes Out, by the Smiths.  It was quiet, honest and real -- an unglamorous look at the good and the bad decisions we make in the pursuit of love.  And Meredith told us the story of her sheltered Mormon roommate her freshman year of college, a funny but mean tale of revenge, humiliation and the "h-word" in If It Makes You Happy.  

I love story telling.  I love the Moth podcast, I love This American Life, it's one of the reason I love improv, and why I primarily read fiction.  I have a great respect for those who can tell good stories, dropping in important details that matter later, keeping people enthralled the whole time.  And if you feel your story telling skills could use a tuneup, SpeakeasyDC also holds four-week workshops, in which you learn the fundamentals of the craft, and ultimately get to perform in open mic settings such as these.

This event was held in the upstairs room at Station 9 (which is huge and awesome, by the way.  Does anyone know anyone there?).  It cost $10, and they had full food and drink menus available, though we'd eaten prior to arriving.

Full disclosure, the Boyfriend and I left at intermission.  Not because we weren't enjoying ourselves -- we really were -- but because this event is simply too popular.  We couldn't find a place to sit, and we got tired of standing on the edges of the crowd (one of us was in heels no less).  We will return, but we will get there early, and I recommend you do the same.

I've started corporate blogging, too!  If you just can't get enough of me over on DC365, or if you are interested in seeing a completely different side of my life, I am one of the contributors of Aristotle's new blog, In The Know.  Pop over and check it out over!

Thing 129: Improv Workshop from WIT

"I am one of those people who believe that improv really changes who you are, and how you approach your life and relationships," Anna, our improv teacher for the night, told us by way of introduction.  What followed was two hours of games and exercises, as nine strangers stood in a circle to see where 'yes' would take us.

The Washington Improv Theater gives free workshops leading up to their regular sessions of classes, which cost $240 for eight weeks of 2 1/2 hour classes.  The free class is a great way to decide if you want to invest in the full session, if you've ever been curious but scared to commit to learning the fundamentals, or if you just want to flex your funny bone.  If you're shy or a ham, the small group setting and professional instruction will make you feel comfortable during what could be a pretty scary experience.

I was not in totally unfamiliar territory however.  Those of you who have read this blog very carefully, or who have just known me a long, long time, may recall that in high school I did my fair share of improv.  My high school theater program, which I remain grateful for even though I don't do a lick of theater in my adult life, really emphasized the skills of good improvising -- not just being funny, but being realistic, in the moment, accepting, open minded and empathetic.  Having gone through the introductory two hours with WIT, I am pleased to report back that they stress those same skills, valuing experience and truth over the cheap and easy laugh.

Anna led us through a series of games and exercises, some tried and true ('freeze tag,' 'what are you doing?') and others that I'd never done before ('emotional four square').  Throughout the lesson, she highlighted the 'teachable moments,' picking out the things that worked best in certain scenes, and explaining the theories or techniques behind why they worked.  We learned about mirroring of physicality and emotions, why patterns (and breaking them) are so darn funny, the importance of listening and accepting the realities as we created them on stage together.  She was a great teacher, knowledgeable, approachable, friendly and quick to encourage making mistakes as part of the learning process.

We were also fortunate that the group itself was eerily good at improvising off the bat.  Though by no means experts, we all worked together with the trust and openness of a troupe that knows each other intimately and has worked together a long time.

As part of my new year's resolutions to both save money and blog more, I will not signing up for the regular class session, but not because I didn't enjoy myself.  It felt really great to remove that safety net and take the leap, to not know what was coming next and accept it as it came.

Thing 124: Nellie's Sports Bar and Trivia Night

Add Nellie's to the list of fabulous patios for summer time drinking in the out-of-doors. Nellie's, located on U Street a short block up from the African American Civil War Memorial, boasts a gorgeous, spacious rooftop deck replete with Beyonce, two rooftop bars and beers served in buckets.


Downstairs, the two spacious, high-ceilinged rooms are decked out with TVs showing nonstop Olympics coverage , along with enormous portraits of 19th century ladies. Rough brick walls and exposed pipes, colorful Chinese paper lanterns hang from the ceiling and an enormous antique mirror lines the wall behind the main bar.

If this doesn't sound like your typical straight-guy sports bar, that's because it's not. Nellie's caters to the gays of DC, and has become something of a see-and-be-seen place apart from the strip on 17th street.



A couple dozen of us had assembled for Good Friend David's birthday. GFD loves beers, Olympics, gay men, nachos and trivia, so the decision was pretty simple.


On Wednesdays, Nellie's hosts a trivia night, two games of four rounds each. We stayed competitive until the last round, during which we promptly lost it all. Questions ranged from the topical (Olympics) to the gay (Bette Midler) to the downright obscure (Ross Perot's running mate?). A lightning round was comprised of ten second snippets of song covers, and the answer had to list the name of the song and the original recording artist.

But our sorrow over losing was easily abated when GFD was presented with birthday nachos, complete with candle and boisterous singing. The menu at Nellie's is your typical bar food, burgers, wraps, wings, and hot dogs, along with some Mexican specialties (arrapas, empanadas and burritos). I can personally vouch for the mini hot dogs, which I demolished in between rounds 3 and 4 of trivia.


So here's wishing GFD a very happy birthday, as he joins the ranks of the Very Old. Wishing you many more, and lots of occasions to celebrate in the coming years!

Related: Trivia at the Wonderland Ballroom. Wow, that was the first Thing...how far we've come.

Thing 123: Dog Days

Oh my, I am behind on this entry. The Dog Days were three weekends ago, and if you want to go you'll have wait a whole forty nine weeks. But if you missed it this year, you will want to check it out in forty nine weeks because it's pretty great.

Mid City's Dog Days is a giant sidewalk sale, with several dozen participants from 'mid-city' -- basically the Logan Circle/U Street area. (Who knew I lived in 'mid-city'? Not me...). The merchants along P Street, 14th Street and U Street basically clear out their inventory, mark everything down, and put it outside to peruse. Logan Hardware was selling cheap gadgets, PULP had bins and bins of cards for $1, Miss Pixie's marked all their furniture in the store down 25%.

Over at ACKC, where I was working on the first Dog Day, there was madness. People were streaming in for chocolate, cold drinks, a caffeine fix. Everyone seems to take the opportunity of beautiful weather and cheap prices to get out and stroll the neighborhood, sampling new businesses and loading up on bargains.

The next day, on the way to brunch on U Street, the Boyfriend and I took a good hour to walk slowly up 14th Street, popping in to the different stores. I didn't buy much -- a few cards at Pulp, a couple gadgets at Home Rule -- but it was great to explore local businesses along the street and see what they were offering. We joked with the workers from Garden District about their bronze avocados, and who the potential customer for such a product might be. We talked mandolins at Home Rule. And perhaps most interesting of all, I learned of a real estate company cum art gallery The Urban Art Group, which can sell you a house and decorate it, all at the same time.

It's too late to partake this year, but next year, when the weather is at it's hottest, head to mid-city for some good deals and some new shops.

One year ago: My plan for the Perfect 3 Day Weekend -- just in time for Labor Day!

Thing 109: The Bar at Marvin

It's patio weather.

Oh yes, after teasing, taunting and fluctuating, it is finally gorgeous out. Sunny, warm, not humid and with a cool breeze in the evenings. Which means you'll find me on a patio.

This week, I'll be trying and testing and writing about some great patios to drink, eat or sit with a book and I encourage you to pipe in with your favorites and with suggestions for the rest of us to try out ourselves.

Starting with...the rooftop bar at Marvin! Marvin, a new Belgium-meets-soulfood eatery on the heavily visited corner of 14th and U Streets, NW, has a fantastic covered rooftop bar and deck. Though open all year, this spot excels in the late spring/early summer when the weather is mild and cold beers hit the spot.

If you like beer, Marvin is a treat. There are a number of different Belgian beers on tap for all different tastes, wheat or light, ales and stouts and even fruit flavored beers. Though the bar was pretty busy on the night I went, the bar staff was very friendly and approachable -- I didn't find myself waiting and waiting.

The main section of the deck is covered with a canopy, protecting drinkers from those unexpected summer showers, and there is a large open air deck adjacent. The bar's patrons seemed, well, nice. Smartly dressed without being pretentious, a happy smiling mix of folks. Unfortunately, the view is of the back of the Ellington Condos -- not a great. Overall, I had a really fun evening at Marvin and can't wait to go back for some more open air frivolity. I also wouldn't mind sitting down to dinner and trying out some moules-frites...

Thing 75: Organize a Scavenger Hunt

A city-wide photo scavenger hunt, my friends. I organized a city-wide photo scavenger hunt for my birthday. Because drag queens and orcas and Creme just weren't enough, I wouldn't rest until rogue teams of costumed individuals roamed the streets of DC harassing tourists and slamming back sangria. It was everything I had hoped it would be.

I had been dreaming about this event since I casually mentioned it to a friend in January for his birthday and he passed on the idea. I realized I was relieved, because I wanted the idea for myself. Then came Urban Dare, and it made me want to organize my own version that much more. And so, as the Saturday before Halloween dawned clear and the previous night's rain dried up, I met my friends in Dupont Circle to let the games begin.

This was incredibly fun and relatively easy to plan, and I urge you all to do this too (or, as the entrepreneurial Boyfriend insists I mention -- I will do it for you, for a nominal fee). Teams met in Dupont Circle at 2, and were handed a list of over 60 places, things, people, foods and drinks, all of which were weighted with different point values based on distance and/or difficulty in obtaining. I did it this way, rather than with clues or a shorter list, so that I could play too. There was an element of strategy involved this way that did not guarantee that I would win (and boy, did I not win. My team got smoked in fact). The teams then had four hours to run around the city, collecting as many photographs off the list as they could in an attempt to get the highest point total.

The list included everything from the DC specific (the point where the four quadrants begin, Duke Ellington's childhood home, Dorothy's ruby slippers), to the crafty (on 'spinning' bikes, in an elevator, playing shuffleboard), to the embarrassing (a tourist with a fanny pack, three tourists doing the "Charlie's Angels" in front of the Spy Museum), to local foods and drinks (sangria at Jaleo, a Julia's empanada, a salty oat cookie from Teaism). Extra high marks were awarded to the damn near impossible - 150 points for either a U.S. Senator, or George Clooney (who was in fact in town filming a movie that weekend). No one managed to snag a picture with George or a U.S. Senator, although our team did do a sweep of the men's rooms at Union Station.
Since it was the Saturday before Halloween, costumes were encouraged, but not required. One team showed up in some amazing lederhosen, which led to one of my favorite moments of the whole afternoon. Stopping at Jaleo for a quick sangria, the bartender told us that there had been another team in to do the same thing earlier in the afternoon. "They were dressed like Keebler Elves, but taller," he informed me.

At 6:30, all the teams met back up at Ben's Chili Bowl for dinner, cake and prizes. First prize went to team No Pugs with an amazing and unbeatable 515 points. The prize is a dinner cooked by me, so really, I was going to be a winner no matter, sharing food with good friends sometime soon.

You can check out all the wacky and ridiculous pictures here. And if you'd like to do one of these yourself in the future...do it! I will be happy to help, just leave a comment and I'll get right back to you.

Thing 73: Creme

It's National Blog Posting Month -- NaBloPoMo!! Woo! And though I didn't know it until this morning, I haven't even blown it yet since I happened to post yesterday about the High Heel Races. The only terms of NaBloPoMo are that you post every day for the month of November...and that may be asking a lot. I may be setting myself up for a fall. But I have a little reserve of Things in my back pocket, and dammit, I'm going to go for it! Although at some point this month you may get something like "Thing 88: Take out the trash". But here goes...

The birthday recap continues...

On the actual night of my birthday, the Boyfriend and I headed out to U Street for a coolly romantic dinner at a table for two at Creme.

Creme has been on my list for a good while, and seemed the perfect choice since the nouveau-Southern-home cooking style meant there would be something there that the Boyfriend would surely enjoy (he gets a bit suspicious at things like tuna and almond nigiri or faux gras terrine).

We stepped into the hip space and were greeted warmly at the door and shown to our table. The place was full of a good cross section of the neighborhood. Gay men and black professionals and students in Halloween costumes and young women in work clothes all seemed to be enjoying drinks and handsome plates of food.

I am worried about how to describe the decor, because what I want to say is that it looks like it was furnished at Ikea, but that sounds more negative than I mean it to be. Ikea implies cheap and functional, which I don't want to imply. But take a look at their bar, and you will be reminded of an out-of-the-box Ikea entertainment center...but in a good way.

Even with its reminisces of Ikea, this is a cool and handsome restaurant. It's small, with a brief lounge and a narrow dining room. All the dining room's seating runs along one wall, coupled with a handful of seats at the bar and that's it. At the back of the room is a tiny kitchen, completely open to the restaurant, where the chef, his two cooks and a dishwasher are hard at work but clearly enjoying themselves. Large mirrors with antique-looking frames hang on the walls and modern light fixtures hang over the bar. The walls are painted in deep primary colors and the furnishings are all light wood. A martini glass filled with red liquid awaits you at the table -- not a complimentary cosmopolitan but the candle holder. A small tea light floats in the cocktail glass.

The food itself was good. I wasn't blown away, nor was I disappointed. I ordered the surf and turf -- crispy tempura'ed shrimp and a gorgeous pink flat iron steak, sliced and stacked on a bed of vegetables and topped with a salad. The meats were great, but the vegetables were boiled and uninspiring, and the salad was a bit confusing. The sweet and salty, Asian-inspired sauce was fine, but didn't leave me licking the plate (which, ahem, I have been known to threaten the Boyfriend with when we are out together).



The Boyfriend ordered more wisely -- shrimp and grits, for which Creme is widely praised. The waitress had warned him that the andouille sausage in the dish was spicy, and she was not kidding around. The sausage was smokey with a serious heat at the end in the back of the throat. Luckily, the grits helped to put out the fire, creamy and mild, as a nice complement.

Our starter was the real winner of the meal though; the "wild mushroom masterpiece" was just that. A deep bowl with simply sauteed local mushrooms -- a touch of truffle oil, and sprinkling of parsely and some finely shaved Manchego cheese melting over the top of it. The mushrooms tasted rich and meaty and were enhanced by the savoriness of the cheese. The Boyfriend and I split one, though in retrospect I should have been greedy and fended him off.

For dessert, we split the chocolate quad -- a chocolate spice cake, with whipped cream, chocolate mousse and chocolate covered strawberries. The cake was good, almost like a chocolatey gingerbread, heavy on the spices. But again, not great. I've heard Creme does not have a pastry chef, and I believe it. Although I don't know where they'd put one in that tiny open kitchen!

So all in all, I enjoyed myself a lot. The food left us satisfied, the wait staff was friendly and attentive and the restaurant itself was cool and inviting. I do think it would be a better place to hang out and have a couple drinks then dinner, but I sure wouldn't say no to an invitation back there.

Thing 70: Reel Affirmations

An actress friend of mine (Jenny), recently participated in a staged reading of screen plays for a screen writers' conference. Prominent screen writers came to listen to these up and comers' works and then gave feedback and criticism. One of the things they kept saying, as reported back by Jenny, was that you have to establish everything in the first five minutes of your movie. Characters, setting, conflict all have to be clear and catching in five minutes, or no one will keep reading your script (or presumably watching your movie).

I kept thinking back to that when watching the short films as part of the Reel Affirmations International LGBT Film Festival. What if your movie is only five minutes long? How do you tell a compelling story when there's hardly any time to establish character, plot or conflict?

Having watched these nine short films, I think the answer is, "with difficulty." Two of them succeeded all the way, creating characters you were invested in immediately, and one even creating a heartbreaking twist of an ending that surprised me in my emotional response after only 14 minutes of movie. A couple of them were funny and charming, but more like comedic sketches or offbeat art projects than mini-movies. And some of them were failures -- failing to make me care about the characters, introducing trite or cliched conflict, and then hitting me over the head with the moral at the end of the story. No, thanks.

Of course, this is a gay film festival and all the shorts dealt with gay topics and themes. And of course, I'm not gay, so maybe this sentiment is not shared with the festival's target audience, but I felt the strongest films were the ones able to transcend their 'gayness.' In other words, they were able to address the themes that face everyone -- loneliness, connection, love and longing -- within a gay context. The films that limited themselves to being gay films only were the ones that didn't succeed.

This was the only night of films I made it out to see, during the ten nights and fifty-odd films showing during the festival. Anyone else out there see anything good? Bad? Care to chime in on my amateur critical take on the men's shorts?

Thing 50: 9:30 Club

Stimulant and sedative
Original, repetitive
Violently competitive
A school unaccredited

Along with such venues as Wolf Trap or the Uptown, the 9:30 Club is one of those places that is so laced with memories that everything I see there is enhanced and made richer by all those that came before.

When I first started going to the 9:30 Club, U Street was a scary place, and my Foggy Bottom-centric college self didn’t realize that the club was a short cab ride or an easy walk back to campus. I remember leaving the Guster concert before the encore to be sure that I could catch the last train before midnight.

I’ve seen George Clinton there. Twice. The first time was with Gina, and after a round of green tinted mystery cocktails from the now-defunct Peppers, we arrived at the 9:30 Club and hung out towards the back waiting for George to take to the stage. An old, busted-looking man approached Gina and told her he was in the band and could he buy her a drink. We laughed and rolled our eyes. An hour or so later, when the band took to the stage, we realized he had been telling the truth. Gina and I still kick ourselves about missing the chance to hang out on the bus with the Parliament Funkadelic.

The second time seeing George Clinton, after a round or two of Wild Turkey, one of my friends spent the night dancing with a man in a full body condom, and then we all rendez-vous’d at Ben’s Chili Bowl afterwards for some chili cheese fries. But not before said friend attempted to ride the pig statue on U Street, and ended up lying face up on the sidewalk.

I have seen Justin Timberlake live at the 9:30 Club, where I witnessed a friend (who shall remain anonymous as I do not care to publicly shame her in this venue, but you know who you are) who I never ever thought would do this, scream like a pre-teen girl, and then cry when Justin started singing. Weep. As if it were the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

I have seen the Charlatans there, going by myself because no one else had heard of them, and yet they are still one of my favorite bands from the time when I lived in England. I learned about the show the morning of, and rather than go with someone who wasn’t familiar with the group, or not go at all, I waltzed up to the box office that night and bought a ticket for one. And enjoyed every British, tight-jeaned, floppy-haired, harmonica-filled minute of it.

And I have seen Mos Def there. Twice, now. Mos came back to the 9:30 Club on Saturday night. I had gone to see him last time he came to town, back in early 2005, one of the first things I did after getting back into town after being away during the election cycle. I had bought Mos’ latest album at that time, The New Danger, while stressed out and working in Florida, and had listened to it on repeat driving back to this District after the heartbreak of losing a national election.

I’m like the second plane that made the towers face off
That s**t that let you know it’s really not a game, dog
Your grind and my grind ain’t the same, dog
I’m the catalog
You the same song

I love Mos Def. Hip hop artist, poet, actor, and just incredibly handsome and brilliant, he keeps me entertained in all his endeavors. And on Saturday, there he was in that little venue, not 10 yards away, in his white t-shirt, sunglasses and shaved head. Dancing and rhyming and cracking jokes. “You ever been in love with someone you don’t even like?” he asked, before launching into “U R The One”. Accompanied by two men on turntables, Mos went through a 90 minute set that included a nice balance of his old and his new, as well as paying homage to some of the old school artists that came before him and of course a shout out to Talib Kweli and Blackstar.

Of course, the beauty (and the beast) of 9:30 Club is that there are no seats. And the venue is small enough that you’re never particularly far away from the stage, you just need to angle yourself correctly for a clear view. If you are short like me, that tends to mean being on tip toe and leaning lightly on strangers for balance. The rest of the time, we were drinking Miller Lites and dancing, singing and laughing along with Mos.

The 9:30 Club excels at putting independent artists into a personalized setting where you can really hear the music and enjoy the band. And while Mos Def is hardly independent any more, and certainly not Justin Timberlake, it remains an intimate setting to see some really top quality headlining acts. Go go go, and make your own set of memories with the place and the people who play there.

Thing 30: "Before There Was Harlem..."

"The who's who of America passed through this neighborhood," our tour guide will tell us over and over during out two-and-a-half hour walking tour. And as she takes us along U Street and into Shaw, you realize, she's absolutely right. Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall, Bill Cosby, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Diana Ross, Cab Calloway, Langston Hughes, Dr. Charles Drew, Coach John Thompson, and all manner of black lawyers, doctors, writers, musicians, politicians, activists and intellectuals. They were all either born, educated, or made their livelihoods on U Street and in Shaw.

On a perfect, sunny Saturday morning, I meet a small group at the 13th Street exit of the U Street metro stop to take a walking tour of the neighborhood, led by Sandra at Washington Walks. Sandra turns out to be a somewhat strange guide -- knowledgeable but disorganized. Her speech is dotted with repeated phrases ("the who's who of America," and "we're going back 140 years," are mentioned more times than I can count), and though I'm sure she's given the tour many times before, her explanations meander and she frequently misspeaks. However, her point is a good one -- before there could be a Harlem Renaissance, those artists and intellectuals had to pursue a rigorous education. And so before they went to Harlem, they came to Howard University in the Shaw neighborhood, the most important of the historically black colleges and universities in the nation.

Our tour begins at the corner of 13th and U with a view of the Lincoln Theater, Ben's Chili Bowl and the mural of Duke Ellington on the side of the True Reformer Building. Sandra sets the stage for the tour by playing Duke Ellington's Take the A Train from a small stereo in her canvas bag, and tells us about the days before integration, when blacks were not allowed to shop downtown or enjoy the entertainment. So they spent their free time in Shaw, seeing movies at the Lincoln Theater or live acts at the Howard Theater. "We're going back 140 years," she says as she explains that the Shaw neighborhood is named for Colonel Robert Shaw, the white Civil War colonel portrayed in the movie Glory, who led an all-black unit of the Union Army. After the Civil War, thousands of black Civil War soldiers settled in this neighborhood, creating the largest urban black population in America prior to World War I.

Our next stop on the tour is the True Reformer Building, at 12th and U. Historically, Duke Ellington played his first show here. Today, it houses the museum that goes with the African American Civil War Memorial located at 9th and U. We spend about a half hour in there, looking at old prints of black Union troops entering Richmond, photographs of Frederick Douglas' two sons in their Union uniforms, bills of sale of slaves. We watch half of a longer documentary about black soldiers in the war. The regular curator is apparently not there today, replaced by a young woman that does not know Sandra, and the two women seem uncomfortable in each other's presence, trying to out do each other for knowledge of the Civil War. We leave the museum and walk towards the Thurgood Marshall Center.

I had never been to nor heard of the Thurgood Marshall Center, despite its location at 12th and S St, NW. A former YMCA, this historic building is primarily a community meeting space, but also houses a small exhibit about the historic social life of the Shaw neighborhood. As Sandra explains, during segregation, blacks were not allowed to stay at white hotels, and there were no hotels at all for blacks. They were relegated to boarding houses, and places like the Y. Famous entertainers and athletes stayed here because there was nowhere else for them to stay.

The Y also served as overflow housing for Howard, and they have a sample dorm room still set up for visitors to look at. Langston Hughes once lived in a room just like this. Langston Hughes was a really important poet for me when I was in high school and it was completely humbling to see his college dorm room.

Next stop on the tour: the former Whitelaw Hotel, at 13th and T St. This historic hotel is now a low rent apartment building, but was once the first hotel in the District built for and by black people, to accommodate first class guests who might not want to stay at the Y or another boarding house. It was built in 1919 by John Whitelaw Lewis, a wealthy African American who founded the Industrial Bank of Washington. "The who's who of America" passed through this hotel in its day.

After desegregation, when the white hotels downtown were opened up to all guests, the Whitelaw fell out of favor and declined. By 1977 it was in serious disrepair and was closed by the city. Sandra took us inside for a look at the dining room's original stained glass ceiling. When the building caught on fire in the '80s, one of the locals from the neighborhood took out the original ceilings to save them from ruin. They are now back in the building's main community room, one representing fish and the ocean, the other representing fauna and the forest.

Duke Ellington's childhood home is at the end of the street, but we are now running behind so Sandra simply tells us the address and then scoots us towards our final stop on the tour. After the tour I seek it out, a nondescript, red brick building, two stories with a small front yard.

We end the tour at the African American Civil War Memorial, at 9th and U. It depicts three soldiers and a sailor, all African American, on the front side of the bronze statue. On the back, in the hollow, it depicts their homecoming. It is surrounded by two large granite arcs, with over 200,000 names carved into them, the "Wall of Honor." These are the names of all the soldiers who fought in the all-black units of the Union Army and Navy.

Sandra leaves us by pointing out the outline of the Howard library in the distance, reminding us that this city, this neighborhood, and this university drew a large, vibrant community of African American artists, intellectuals, professionals and business owners, sustaining the community after the Civil War and through the civil rights movement.