Thursday, August 28, 2008

RideTheCity - DC's Biking Score?

For all those bikers in DC, I ask you this one question - Now that the city gave you all bike lanes on most major streets, why are you still biking on the sidewalks? These days I see more runners in the road and more bikers on the sidewalk. Last I checked, a bike was supposed to follow the same traffic laws as vehicles. This is clearly not the case here in Washington as people are biking on the sidewalks and feel that they can run red lights at intersections just because they on a bike. I wonder if the police are going to start ticketing people that use those DCBikeShares. I have yet to see a police officer pull anyone over for reckless biking in this city. Do you know anyone who has been ticketed on a bike in this town?

Monday, August 25, 2008

What's Your WalkScore?

As an avid walker in this capital city, I am constantly assessing the walkability of different neighborhoods in Washington. In fact, walkability will be a major consideration whenever I decide to buy real estate. So, when I stumbled upon this website called Walk Score, I was thrilled. I immediately plugged in my address in Subarubia and awaited the results. I was a little shocked to see a score of a B - (83 out of 100). 

I quickly chose another neighborhood where I hang out - Laptopia - and entered an address. Of course, that one came up with a higher score of an A + (97 out of 100). What shocked me was when I entered an address in Los Angeles, that came up with a higher walk score than where I lived. I concluded, the database must be flawed. How can LA have a high walk score than DC?

Okay, I am off to take a walk before calling it a night.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Screen on the Green (What a Scene!)

So, this is the second time I have been to one of DC's signature summer events - Screen on the Green. I think the first time I went, I attempted to watch the screening of Casablanca, which I had never seen.

This year, I went and the showing was the Oscar winning film The Apartment, another movie I had never seen. Heavily advertised and promoted to tourists while appearing as an annual editors pick in the WashingtonPost, Screen on the Green draws large crowds year after year.

One of my favorite capital-centric blogs, DCist, describes it as "good programming is nice, but it's sort of secondary to the whole experience anyway, lazing away a summer evening on the Mall under the stars with a picnic, a blanket, and an old movie flickering away on a screen with the Capitol dome looming in the distance. The feeling of community bears the distinctive stamp of a sort of Capra-esque Americana, shattered only on unlucky occasions when a group of interns on the blanket behind you decide to be loudly drunk through the whole film.
"

Nicely put DCist. As a second year attendee I have a few observations of my own on our outdoor gem of summer events.
  1. Plan to take at least one hour off of work to get a decent space to park your blanket, chill your wine and layout your crackers and humus. Yes, I said humus.
  2. Don't be surprised if some yuppy couple parks their lawn chairs in front of you, ultimately obstructing your view of the screen and the Capitol.
  3. Don't be surprised if you feel the slightest bit under dressed. The first time I went to SOTG, I thought "function over fashion," and brought a pair of shorts and sneaks to change into. Clearly I didn't get the memo that went out to all Hillterns (Hill Interns) stating the importance of being seen on the green.
  4. I would say bring bug spray, but you don't really have to. Since people park themselves so close to you while invading your personal space, you are likely to get a mouth or eye full of OFF if you are not careful. Just be alert and when you see the spray can come out simply jump up and stick your leg or arm into the jetstream of repellent that is bound to come your way.
  5. Prepare your senses for an assault of sorts as you will encounter a mix of smells throughout the evening - call it Eau de SOTG - a base of repellent, accented with only the best moldy Balducci's cheese, a splash of cheap wine or champagne, topped off with a dollop of sunscreen. And for the ultimate palette cleanser you have a perfect mixture of second hand smoke and Birkenstock stained feet.
  6. Don't be alarmed by the strange behaviour that begins once the MC announces the five minute warning and speaks directly the the "HBO Dancers." I was expecting some sort of row of cheerleaders or featured dancers from an upcoming HBO special or show. Instead what I got was a bunch of stirring idiotic interns preparing for what proved to be the weirdest thing I have ever seen on the mall. At the very moment the HBO theme music and logo take over the screen and speakers, the entire crowd gets up and raises their hands to the sky and begins flailing around like victims of some sort of alien abduction. From my viewpoint, where I remained seated, it looked like that scene in Independence Day when the people in LA are on top of the building yelling "Take me with you!" As much as I had wished at that exact moment that some ship would appear and suck all these idiots into the sky, leaving me to watch my movie alone, it did not happen. The music ended and everyone took their seats again. They might as well have been showing or filming an episode of the Twilight Zone.
  7. Expect to concentrate on listening to the movie while everyone around you has conversations like they are at happy hour. This is one thing I do not understand about this event. Why would you come to sit and watch a movie and then talk the entire way through it. I even saw people handing out business cards during the show. Yes, this is D.C. ever the land of networking, but give it a rest, I am trying to watch a movie.
  8. Prepare yourself to leave this event in a worse mood than when you arrived. I can assure you that you will be peopled-out, may have a sore back, and may even come home with a few bug bites. Then, inevitably, someone will ask you how the movie was and you will say, "Every third word of each sentence was audible over the chatter of interns and so I guess one third of the movie was pretty good, but I will have to rent it on Netflix."
  9. Finally, prepare in advance. If you are going to go see a flick on SOTG, make sure to put the same movie on your Netflix queue at least a week beforehand. This way, you can get home and watch the movie the way it should be viewed - on the comfort of your own couch.
So, after my sophomore attempt at this event, do I dare return for a third year? I guess we will have to wait and see what is on the reel and how early I can get off work.

Oh, that reminds me, I need to finish that letter to HBO suggesting that they pipe the sound for these SOTG films over an unused radio frequency - that way we can listen to the audio on our headphones. Wait, do I even have a radio walkman anymore? Does my iPod have this feature? Man, I am getting old. Forget that idea.