I love Washington DC

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Anyone else? I miss DC a lot these days, so I thought I would start a thread encouraging people to talk about how great DC is. I wish I was hanging out at Stetson's right now.

― daria g (daria g), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish I was wearing one.

― Lara (Lara), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

haha FAP anyone?

― Millar (Millar), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I really want to go back to DC to visit the NSA Museum again and then take the Spy Tour.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't like DC. Except for Bridge Street Books (wow, unless I'm misremembering the name), which is awesome. Otherwise, bleh. (And those who I chatted with a while back might have noticed that I didn't go out to DC after all last weekend -- but I'm sure I'll be there sooner or later.)

― Chris P (Chris P), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

haha Chris is that some sort of hint? what size shirt do you want?

― Millar (Millar), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:25 (twenty-two years ago)

i like DC a lot and i will miss certain parts of it... i love the metro stations, and the failed modernist places (l'enfant plaza !!!), and i love the classical buildings... i think the neighborhhods can sometimes be dud, like too cute, or not dense enough. i love downtown but there is nothing much to do... i will miss not having to pay for museums.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I could go for a FAP (but after I get some sleep).

― j.lu (j.lu), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:35 (twenty-two years ago)

DC has improved, but that means it has gone from being an ultra-boring and segregated city to being a mediocre segregated city

what abt DC do you miss so much?

I grew up in the DC area and while I have fond memories of various spots and scenes, could not imagine ever living there again. I don't find it to be a city that inspires nostalgia so am curious what you miss or like. (aside from Stetson's)

― H (Heruy), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:40 (twenty-two years ago)

i do hate the segregation.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I would like a list of cities that are not segregated plz, worldwide

― Millar (Millar), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

DC is an extreme

― H (Heruy), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, some of the Metro stations are spectacular (if freaky). That's nice too.

― Chris P (Chris P), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i think what is different about DC though is that it is less fluid. I dont see people from SE in NW though in NYC it is more probable to meet someone from south bronx in village.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i dont know if i can do fap this weekend, maybe next? of course, if jlu and tom are both in nyc for july 4, then we will see each other then. i think i am going to relax tonight, maybe help my store with the harry potter launch. as for tommorrow night, i might be available, though i have to work sunday morning.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

the DC metro is truly something to witness - someone needs to set a good heist film here, with a go-go soundtrack, stat

― Millar (Millar), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:54 (twenty-two years ago)

go-go soundtrack is U&K

― H (Heruy), Friday, 20 June 2003 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

ever notice how heist films always have primarily white casts with token minorities thrown in for their 'special skills?' EG asians are agile! black guys know about explosives! My DC heist film would be all about a gang of SEsters looking for the 'last job' that will afford them the means to go straight and retire, and the white guy would be the Ella Fitzgerald.

― Millar (Millar), Friday, 20 June 2003 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Cruising through slow slow DC traffic w/ 92Q's go-go show pounding on the hi-fi = moving set piece of kings

― Millar (Millar), Friday, 20 June 2003 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

the DC metro is truly something to witness - someone needs to set a good heist film here, with a go-go soundtrack, stat

Ever hear of Good to Go, from 1983 or thereabouts? I haven't seen it, but supposedly the film is as bad as the soundtrack is good.

― j.lu (j.lu), Friday, 20 June 2003 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

DC CAB!!!!! (for bad Dc movies)

― H (Heruy), Friday, 20 June 2003 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

i like the *idea* of DC, all that interesting stuff happening. but i've had two breakups as a result of going there, which isn't a very good record. so i think i couldn't ever live there, since i'd have a horrible romantic life. but the cherry trees rock!

― colette (a2lette), Friday, 20 June 2003 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the Medical Museum. I'd like it better if it had a gift shop.

― rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 20 June 2003 23:30 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite thing about going to DC when i used to live in richmond was getting there early on Sunday morning (well, 10 o'clock or so) grabbing a good parking spot and waiting in the park for the national gallery to open...

...man,i might have to do that again soon. Surprisingly quiet there that time of day...

― Phil Dokes (sunny), Friday, 20 June 2003 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

+ The view of DC from the river approach into National
+ Ben's Chili Bowl
+ Union Station
+ Free embassy events with great food & open bars (esp. at the Scandinavian embassies)
+ Go-go street musicians with drum kits made of 5 gallon plastic paint buckets
+ Following cabbies to find great Ethiopian food
+ The Smithsonian's film series
+ Marion Barry

― Brian Miller, Saturday, 21 June 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I want to do see the Museum of Menstruation - anyone else want to come along? (Sorry, looks like it is now closed. *sigh*)

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 21 June 2003 01:54 (twenty-two years ago)

+ Ben's Chili Bowl

A goddman fucking institution! I love that place. After spending so many years away from DC I did not think I had many feelings towards it until I returned and felt all this goodness rush in.

― Roman (Roman), Saturday, 21 June 2003 05:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Hm.. I miss.. My friends! All of them! Aside from that.. the fact that I met a couple of my dearest friends after renting a room in the group house they shared (thanks city paper).. all the international people you meet there.. the fact that the economy didn't seem to nose dive as much as in other places b/c of the government.. the protests, the activism.. And I met a number of folks who worked as defense contractors or for the military in some capacity, and I have a lot more respect + appreciation for the military than I ever had before.
Otherwise, to name stuff and places instead of people-
Politics and Prose
The Folklife Festival
Walking from Adams Morgan/U Street/Dupont Circle
Massachusetts Ave past the embassies (the N2-N3-N4 bus ride)
Metrobuses in general!
Cherry blossoms. The monuments at night. The National Mall on a beautiful afternoon.
the Freer + Asian film festivals there
Video Americain
Art-O-Matic
Chez Antoine in Adams Morgan
Ching Ching Cha in Georgetown
Great cheap Thai food and Ethiopian food
The Steak and Egg by AU, and that dive of a diner on Capitol Hill
Ben's Chili Bowl
Embassy parties
Hip hop radio
The 9:30 club (when there's someone in town whose show is worth paying a lot for, ie Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
Old Town Alexandria's lovely coffee houses and thrift shops
The Redskins beat the Cowboys once last season! Finally!

I like driving in DC, but perhaps that means I have control freak and anger management issues. Ben's.. I lived just around the corner from Ben's a couple summers ago.. Nothing like being able to *walk* out of a house party after a couple drinks too many and get fries and a milkshake at 3am.

― daria g (daria g), Saturday, 21 June 2003 05:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i liked DC a lot when i was there, it is a very nice city, but the thing about the segregation is definitely correct. it was very striking, i dont think ive been to a city that was so noticeably segregated

― gareth (gareth), Saturday, 21 June 2003 10:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I have fond memories of the giant nachos at the tombs in georgetown (?). it probably would have been much better if I were old enough to drink.

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 21 June 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

It's true that you can watch the segregation actually happen right before your eyes like some kind of time-delay graph by just riding the green line back and forth from one end to the other.

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 21 June 2003 21:25 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

+ The view of DC from the river approach into National
+ Ben's Chili Bowl
+ Go-go street musicians with drum kits made of 5 gallon plastic paint buckets
Art-O-Matic

*sigh* I'd like to be having a pulled chicken sandwich and a white lightning at Old Glory right now, then walking down by Georgetown Harbour.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 2 August 2003 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd like to have just left the Brickskellar after a couple rounds w/my friends & be walking around the Lincoln Memorial at night.

Man, I should hit the road and go back, what else am I going to do with my weekend.

― daria g (daria g), Saturday, 2 August 2003 04:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Things I love about D.C.

- The "Exorcist" steps in Georgetown.
- Commander Salamander in Georgetown
- Heaven & Hell in Adams Morgan (are they still there?)
- Minor Threat
- Lindsay Conn (a girl I knew from college, and a lovely one at that).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 2 August 2003 04:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah, Commander Salamander--DC's one-stop shop for all your inflatable furniture and Manic Panic needs. I think all of my friends but me quasi-legally (ie like 14 years old) worked there for a little while.

I love the pre-cleanup downtown Silver Spring most of all though in DC proper I miss:
- Fort Reno
- being able to smoke in Georgetown Park
- omnipresent go-go (better than the current omnipresent "funk" I live with)
- the Key
- the Northwest Cafe

et cetera et cetera. DC was a cool place to grow up.

― adam (adam), Saturday, 2 August 2003 05:30 (twenty-two years ago)

oh man, that reminds me I gotta sell my black vinyl pants from Commander Salamander. I have some orange & red zebra printed tights & some sparkly silver ones but am not parting w/those just yet.

come to think of it I did buy my brother some blue Manic Panic there once.

― daria g (daria g), Saturday, 2 August 2003 05:33 (twenty-two years ago)

On the Heaven & Hell thread we determined that Heaven & Hell is indeed still there.

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 2 August 2003 05:40 (twenty-two years ago)

- the Key
- the Northwest Cafe

both gone, I think

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 2 August 2003 13:30 (twenty-two years ago)

weird that people above mentioned the subway, the station interiors were the first thing i thought of when i saw the thread title. the ones i remember looked like they came out of a black+white 20s sci-fi film.

other things i liked about dc when i was on holiday there:
1. meeting blelvis on the street and trying to think of songs for him to sing that he didnt know. (i failed)
2. playing the legendary stardust cowboy on the black cat jukebox 3 times in a row and incurring the wrath of the barstaff.
3. being hugely amused by the idea of Bass Ale being a trendy imported (and overpriced) beer.
4. being carded when trying to buy cigarettes. they thought i was under 16?!?!
5. the biggest thunderstorm i've ever seen rolling in from the sea.
6. almost everyone i met was so damn nice.

― joni, Saturday, 2 August 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Bass is an EPA in the states, not the draft stuff you get here, very nice but often over chilled.

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 2 August 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

the sea?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 2 August 2003 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The Key has been gone for, oh, eight or so years now. As I remember it went about the same time as the Biograph. And you have to be 18 to buy cigarettes.

Some things that I don't like:

Neighborhood snobbery. This is probably the case in all cities, but no one cares that you live in Mount Pleasant or Adam's Morgan. Least of all me.

Sort of crappy restaurants. All the good foreign food is in the suburbs. Cheaper, less cutesy, and more authentic.

Lack of "natives." Everyone you meet moved here in the last two or three years from Massachusetts or some other awful place. Except the black people, but then you don't meet them cause of the aforementioned segregation.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, the direction of the river then.
(i failed geography at school....can you tell?)

― joni, Saturday, 2 August 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Mount Pleasant.

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 2 August 2003 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i like dc.

― gareth (gareth), Saturday, 2 August 2003 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I like it quite a lot too. I am in d.c. right now, my last night here. sigh, back to the world...

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Sunday, 3 August 2003 01:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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