of The Hill VOICE This Month 22 Treasures in our Backyard: The Arboretum 24 Inside the Brickworks 26 This Joint is Jumpin' ...Jazz Night in Southwest 28 Adolph Cluss...Adolph Who? 32 The Os vs the Nats: Ballgame Cuisine 36 The Spirit of '76: Where Were You? 38 Take an Easychair Vacation 40 We All Scream for Ice Cream Departments VoiceMail ...........................................3 City Desk ...........................................4 Editorial..............................................5 The Beat............................................9 Business Bits ...................................15 A Closer Look..................................17 Citywide News.................................20 Ask Judith........................................44 Designing for Hearth and Home ......46 BID Talk ...........................................48 Health & Fitness...............................50 Computer Corner ............................53 Exhibits Calendar.............................54 Business Snapshot..........................57 Community Calendar .......................58 Horoscope.......................................60 Classifieds .......................................60 Business Services............................61 Vol. 7 No. 4 July 2005 of The Hill VOICE Voicemail The Voice of the Hill is published and distributed monthly to Capitol Hill residences and business locations. CHRS Responds DC charged me for DC Permit Office: In The focus is on the community and removing two includes contiguous neighborhoods Dear Editor: Desperate Need of Reform the privilege of small walls Yard and from the Capitol to the To the Editor: from Gallaudet University to the Navy Answering Ms. Elkins' letter in the June from my Stadium Armory Complex. Publication VOTH presents the usual difficulties asso-I recently applied for a building permit for and distribution is the last Friday of ciated with responding to a letter rife with the common and relatively minor project home. As frustrating each month. Advertising deadline is misstatements, misrepresentations and of removing two walls from the interior of calculated exclusions. I want to spare my Capitol Hill home. No significant as this ordeal was, the first of the month preceding readers a long history of both the Capitol plumbing, electrical or other work was I felt fortunate: my office is not too far publication. Hill Restoration Society (CHRS) and the away, and my employer is understanding. compounded deceptions associated with involved. Moreover, most of my fellow citizens in Voice of the Hill the alterations to Ms. Elkins' house at Against the advice of both contractors the waiting rooms were obviously having PO Box 15874 20 9th St., NE. However, the board of and friends, who regaled me with horror an even harder time than I was. A few Washington DC 20003-0874 CHRS decided that her letter should not stories of their experiences, I decided to appeared to be utterly distraught. 202-544-0703 Main office be ignored, so I offer this. "do the right thing," as it were, and get a "Outrage" is an overused word, but it's CHRS remains the organization we permit for the work. In the process, I dis-hard to think of a better response when 202-318-7806 Fax have always been, committed to preserv-covered that my friends were not exag-the city government makes it so difficult www.voiceofthehill.com editor@voiceofthehill.com ing the architectural framework unique to gerating. and expensive to follow the rules in an daviskennedy@currentnewspapers.com Capitol Hill and the close community While a couple of employees in the area so obviously important to public "intake" office were helpful and courte-safety. Countless of my acquaintances-- bruce@voiceofthehill.com lifestyle that goes with it. Ms. Elkins has ous, most were indifferent at best, and patti@voiceofthehill.com shown respect for neither. Purporting to on the whole the experience was a baf-upright, law-abiding individuals in all make roof improvements in the original fling and inexplicably time-consuming other ways--have been driven to reno-dave@voiceofthehill.com application for permits, she and her hus-vate and repair their homes in secret. band John Robbins, a high-ranking offi-ordeal, even for someone like myself who For exterior repairs, vulnerable to "stop Staff is familiar with both the DC bureaucracy work" orders and large fines, many have Davis Kennedy, Editor cial of the National Park Service, raised and the basics of general contracting. turned in desperation to expensive, pro- the roof in question and proceeded toScott Shumaker, Managing Editor create an extension to the house that When I first walked into the door, a fessional "permit expediters" in bright T-Bruce Robey, Webmaster approached 100 percent lot occupancy sign directed me to take a number, but shirts, who appear to have mastered the Adele Robey, Design and Production gave no clue where to get it. Eventually, I system and were cheerfully providing free and aroused the neighbors to ask CHRS discovered the unlabeled, toaster-sized advice in the waiting rooms. It was the Andrew Noyes, Assistant Editor to support their objections. DCRA and dispensing machine on a far counter. only such guidance most of us could Dave Francis, News Reporter, the HPRB began the continuing process When I got my various forms, I was able seem to get. Polling Coordinator of trying to make Ms. Elkins and her hus-to get some assistance in filling them The District government should be Patti Shea, News Editor, band accountable for their misdeeds. out, but it was terse, and in a couple of ashamed to have created a lucrative Political Reporter In Ms. Elkins' upside-down world she cases, one employee contradicted Juilo Arguello, Calendar Editor casts herself as the aggrieved and vic-market for such a service. Of course, timized homeowner, when the opposite is another. those customers are typically wealthy, After submitting my application and which brings me to my final point: the Co-Publishers true. Creating the extension to the house waiting an hour and a half, I had to return biggest victims of this dysfunctional sys·threatened to inflict a monstrosity on the to my office. The next day, I was told that tem are my lower-income and often elder- Bruce Robey and Davis Kennedy neighbors. The regulations requiring per-my application had been held up because ly neighbors, who would very much like mits and conforming to HPO standards Distribution were protection, not an invasion of any-(at the suggestion of an employee) I had to remain in our rapidly gentrifying neigh- not filled in my name and address on one borhood but are being systematicallyReady Willing and Able, Gospel one's rights, except Ms. Elkins' perceived of the more minor forms. Despite the fact pushed out by factors exactly like the Rescue Ministries right to do what she pleased, law and that this information was provided clearly expensive, time-consuming ordeal Contributing Writers neighbors' concerns be damned. She is in at least six other places in the adjoin-involved in getting a simple permit to anything but the good steward she ing paperwork, this bad advice cost me a maintain or upgrade one's home. S.J. Ackerman Joshua Gray claims to have ambitions to be. Rachel Adams Jeffrey Howard The histrionic nature of Ms. Elkins' let-day. Facing another long wait, I had to Systemic change takes time, I know. Julio Arguello, Jr. Larry Kaufer ter suggests a preference for emotion return to work. But even minor steps could make a big Rozanne Barry Celeste McCall over an objective examination of the rec-The following day I was told that there difference. Clearer signage, in plain Patty Brosmer Selby McCash ord, which would reflect badly on them. was another holdup; this time because I English, would help. So would a policy of had not listed a specific contractor. I had encouraging city employees to volunteer Judith Capen Michael Meneer In this time of increased interest in previously explained that I was still gath-potentially helpful information, rather Joanne Collings Aileen Moffatt Capitol Hill as a place to live, CHRS has erings and been told to instead put than respond only to direct questions Amy Doolittle Linda Norton worked hard with responsible developers down my best estimate of the cost of the that a novice applicant might not even Dave Francis Patti Shea like Eakin-Youngentaub and JPI to make project. Once I repeated this explanation, know to ask. A couple of employees new construction compatible with the I was told to go to another office, where tasked with helping applicants standing Sara Fritz Fay Singer community; with other community groups my application would finally be pro-Therese Foote Josh Singer on the development of Reservation 13 cessed and granted. around looking confused--we're not hard David Gelles and other major projects; with DCRA to to spot--would be invaluable. If nothing By then, I was learning. Once in that else, even legible forms would be a step bring vacant and nuisance properties office, I waited only half an hour before forward. back to useful life; and always, always inquiring about the status of my applica-I've written Mayor Williams and mem- Memberships with you, our neighbors, to be a channel tion. The answer was priceless: "The bers of the city council urging that they Capitol Hill Association of Merchants of information and advice through meet-only one back there who types," said the devote some attention to reforming the and Professionals ings, guidelines and availability. Our goal woman at the counter, had gone to Art Directors Club of Metropolitan remains yours, to preserve the lifestyle lunch, and it would likely be two hours permit office. If you've had a similar Washington and architectural context that brought us before she returned and got to my file. experience there, do the same. Barracks Row Business Alliance here in the first place. On my fourth visit, I finally got my per-SCOT MONTREYIndependent Free Papers of mit. But my jaw dropped when I saw the America R OBERT L. M. NEVITT fee: $230. That's how much the city of 1212 E Street NE H Street Merchants Association President Capitol Hill Restoration Society Cover: Roderick Turner paints on 11th St., SE. Reach him at 202-562-0491 cityDesk CO VERING THE HILL'S POLITIC AL SCENE AND MORE ANC 6A Protests License Renewal Asks City to Clarify School Rule BY PATTI SHEA ANC 6A said June 9 that it will protest the renewal of a liquor license for the Ha Hu grocery store, 1451 Maryland Ave., NE, because they say the original license wasn't legal to begin with. At issue is the license under the previous owners, whose license the ANC contends should never have been issued because the store is located less than 400 feet from a school; city law states that stores within this distance from educational facilities are forbidden from selling alcohol. "This seems very cut and dry," Commissioner Cody Rice said. "Why does the city put the ANC in this position? This should have been discovered by [Alcohol Beverage Control] board staff." Residents agreed. "There's too many liquor stores in the neighbor·hood already," said one resident who gave his name as Joshua. "They need to start another business that helps the community." The store is located at the Maryland Avenue, Benning Road, and H and 15 Streets intersection, where there are many shuttered buildings. Residents say the store attracts loiterers and con·tributes to the trash problem in the area. The owner was present at the meeting, but was too nervous to speak to the crowd. Commissioner Marc Borbely -- whose single member district includes Ha Hu-- said he had a petition signed by residents opposing a license renewal for the store. The panel sent the matter to its alcohol beverage licensing committee to come up with a recommen·dation. The issue came before the full board instead of the ABL committee because the city's ABC board didn't notify the ANC in enough time to give the matter to the alcohol subcommittee. In the meantime, the ANC wants to know why the original license was granted in the first place. Father's Day Event Okayed Citing problems in recent years, Commissioner Joe Fengler tried to dissuade the panel granting a public use permit to Friends of Sherwood, which was coor·dinating its 23rd Annual Father's Day celebration at the Sherwood Recreational Center. According to Fengler, the event over the past cou·ple years has greatly impacted the Sherwood neigh·borhood, with participants drinking excessively and showering yards with garbage. Fengler said he had a petition from neighbors who live in the area asking the ANC not to support the event. But the event planners said the celebration rallies the community and that there have been no report·ed acts of violence or vandalism. "This gives a chance for residents new and old to come together," organizer Jordan Washington said, adding that it was a few residents trying to destroy "our culture." One resident said there is a "definite distaste in the community" and that there is a clear division among the residents. Another said the ANC should work with the event planners to assure that what happens in the past doesn't happen again. "[You're] just fostering the division of the community" by canceling the event, she said. Commissioner Gladys Mack made a suggestion to cut the event's hours by two hours, instead allowing it to run from noon - 6 p.m., instead of 8 p.m., as it has in the past. Mack also suggested that the organ·izers boost public safety efforts. Fengler said he wasn't against the event, but that "we should have the event in its current form." The commission voted, 3-1-3, with Commissioners Nick Alberti, Cody Rice and Mary Beatty abstaining, to grant the public space use per·mits to Sherwood for the June 19 street party. Commissioners Marc Borbely, Mfon Ibangha and Mack voted in favor of the event, with the restricted hours. More Kid Power The commission unanimously approved a $500 grant to Kid Power-DC for program supplies and materials for its summer camp. The program serves 100 at-risk youths, more than half from ANC 6A's district, and promotes academic, artistic and histor·ical literacy and teaches leadership skills. Commissioner Announcements: Commissioner Gladys Mack announced a communi·ty clean up for the 1500-1900 blocks of Benning Road, NE. It's a combined neighborhood effort with adjacent district ANC 5B11 and the city's public works department. The event occurs from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, July 16. She also said donations for bottled water for volunteers are also needed. For more information, contact Mack at 202-398-3329. Commissioner Joe Fengler said an amplified noise problem is increasing at the corner of Eighth and H Streets, NE. He is checking with the city to see if any codes have been violated. Fengler also announced that the city lifted parking restrictions along H Street during prime traffic hours. Commissioner Mary Beatty said $900,000 was restored to the city's park budget to help with the construction of Lovejoy Park. Commissioners Gladys Mack, Marc Borbely, Joe Fengler, Mary Beatty, Cody Rice, Nick Alberti and Mfon Ibangha were present. Commissioner Robyn Holden was absent. The next ANC 6A meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, at Miner Elementary, 601 15th St., NE. For more information click on www.anc6a.org DDOT Presentation Leads to ANC 6B Resolution Panel Says 'No' to Mass. Ave. Bridge BY AMY DOOLITTLE The District Department of Transportation present·ed its monthly transportation study update to ANC 6B at the commission's meeting June 14, sparking a heated exchange between Commissioner Ken Jarboe and DDOT spokesman John Detrick regard·ing roads proposed in the Kenilworth Avenue Corridor study. DDOT presented maps detailing the roads and potential traffic impact, including a proposed bridge over the Anacostia River at Massachusetts Avenue and a park road along the Anacostia River. When Jarboe expressed bewilderment at why DDOT is even studying a bridge for Massachusetts Avenue, which, the commissioner said, is prohibit·ed by Reservation 13 documents, Detrick admitted that a bridge there is a bad idea since it would draw such heavy traffic volumes. "I would've preferred t to study these at all," Detrick said. In light of the potential of increased traffic vol·ume and the negative impact on the neighborhood such a bridge could bring, the ANC passed a resolu·tion at the request of Jarboe to strongly oppose the building of such a bridge. The opposition resolution does not rule out the possibility of a pedestrian or bike bridge beginning at Massachusetts Avenue, Jarboe said. Jarboe also requested that DDOT give a presenta·tion to the ANC on the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative master plan, of which the Kenilworth Avenue Corridor Study is part. By seeing the big pic·ture, Jarboe said, the commissioners could under·stand where each piece fit in it. DDOT also gave an update on the 11th Street bridge project for which, they said, ground would be broken in about five years. During the meeting the subject of truck routes through Capitol Hill also was discussed. Detrick said that the Capitol Police and Secret Service were in charge of those routes and that, while DDOT tries to make recommendations to them, they are not required to listen. "I don't know if it's just a power trip or not, but the Capitol Police sit and make decisions," Detrick said. Virginia Park Cleanup Volunteers Needed The DC Building Industry Association (DCBIA) pre·sented a renovation plan for the Virginia Avenue Park, located between Potomac and Virginia Avenues and Ninth Street, SE. They asked that vol·unteers come and help cleanup and plant at the park on Sept. 17. They will need 400 to 500 volun·teers to make the day run smoothly. Projects will include planting and building. Each year the DCBIA works with the city parks department to renovate one city park. The renova·tions are done using private donations and volun·teer work. Included in the new park plan is increased space for the current community garden, the removal of a trailer currently used for boxing classes, the removal of a basketball court and the removal of playground equipment, which the city considers unsafe. Total cost for the project will run at about $250,000. In preparation for the renovation the trailer, playground and basketball courts will be removed in the next two months. Signs informing the community about the project will be posted soon. Interested persons should contact DCBIA at 202-966-8665. Planning, Zoning and ABC Approvals A variance at 1535 A St., SE, and a new rowhouse development in the 1100 block of K Street, SE, were approved unanimously by the commission. A transfer of alcohol license from Zack's Restaurant to Mark Menard, owner of the Pour House, was approved unanimously. Menard will renovate the 613 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, restaurant and will reopen it as the 18th Amendment, which will feature a speak-easy style decor. The ANC approved unanimously a change to Neighborhood Commercial Overlay District limita·tions for eating and drinking establishments on Eighth Street to include uniform procedures for determining street frontage usage by the establish·ments. However, the ANC did recommend that the zoning subcommittee reexamine the wording in procedures regarding measurement versus special exceptions. Commissioners Mary Wright, Julie Olson, Scott Cernich, Ken Jarboe, Will Hill, Sandra Thomas, Sandy Moore of Urban Strategies, a St. Louis firm Antonette Russell and Francis Campbell were pres-working with the city to help the project gain ent. Commissioners Neil Glick and David Sheldon momentum, urged community members to educate were absent. The next ANC 6B meeting will be a spe-themselves about the issue. But some residents said cial session held in July at the Old Naval Hospital, information about meetings and other events to 921 Pennsylvania Ave., SE. The date and time for the publicize the plan were not getting to the commu·meeting have not yet been announced. Check back nity and asked Moore to make more of an effort to with www.voiceofthehill.com for information. spread the word. "We're having a communication problem," ANC 6C Hears Revitalization Plans Moore said, and vowed to work more closely with the ANC to get information into neighborhoods. Deputy Mayor Introduces New Initiative to Panel Commissioners seemed supportive of the plan. "This is something long overdue," Commissioner BY DAVID FRANCIS Daniel Pernell said. "I want you to make it very clear Deputy Mayor of Planning and Development to the mayor of Washington, DC, [that] citizens are Stanley Jackson outlined for ANC 6C June 8 a bold being run out of the community by developers." new initiative aimed at revitalizing troubled com·munities throughout the city. Commissioners were Pennsylvania Avenue Closing Protocol Urged enthusiastic about the plan and urged the city to Commissioner Charlie Docter is working with make sure low-income residents are not pushed out Joann Newhouse of the Pennsylvania Avenue as a result of community rehabilitation. Neighborhood Association to establish protocol for The New Communities Initiative, with its street closings on Pennsylvania Avenue in Northwest One Revitalization Process, aims at creat-Northwest. ing "healthy, mixed income neighborhoods" Docter said the panel needs to review an applica · through investments in neighborhoods without tion to close the street for a festival, concert or other displacing current residents, according to a fact events so that the community can be more aware of sheet distributed by Jackson. travel and other disruptions. The pair are working Jackson was not specific as to what Capitol Hill together to create a protocol that all applicants have neighborhoods are being targeted by the plan, but to go through to make sure all applications through said communities with histories of crime problems neighborhood associations and the ANC. and economic disadvantage are candidates. "We "We think that if we work together, we can get want a city that's truly inclusive of all residents some standards that can be adopted," Newhouse regardless of their income experience," he said. "We said, noting that the ANC cannot reject an applica·wanted to find a way to support the residents who tion. However, it can provide input to improve con-were there through all of the bad times." ditions for residents. Under the new plan, the city is promising that all residents that are forced to leave when rehabilita·tion of a neighborhood begins will be able to return once construction is complete. Jackson said this will ensure longtime residents of a neighborhood are not displaced. The number of units currently in a neighborhood will not change after rehabilitation and the city promises apartments and condominiums below market rent. Jackson also said the initiative will bring new businesses to communities, and that the city is working to make jobs available available to local res·idents as a result. "While we're growing jobs, the jobs are not being targeted to people in the District who meet the minimum requirements," he said. "We have to do a better job of preparing residents for the workplace." Come where love and grace abounds! SUNDAY SCHEDULE Worship 8:30 am & 11:00 am Christian Education 9:45 am Children's Chapel 11:20 am Nursery opens 9:45 am 212 East Capitol Street 202/543-4200 All areas of church accessible by elevator www.reformationdc.org Candy Mitchell, a representative from the mayor's special events task force, attempted to "make clarifications" on the special events permit process by handing out guidelines, but was berated by Commissioner Bill Crews for speaking without the ANC's permission. Crews told Mitchell she was not a member of the committee and was not given permission to speak by a commissioner. He said she was not permitted to speak out of turn simply because she was with the mayor's office. Mitchell returned to her seat, her eyes wide and lips frozen in a half-smile, seemingly in shock from the outburst. In the end, the ANC recommended setting up a task force with neighborhood representatives to explore the issue. It's Electric Carrie Archer, a representative with DC is Electric, urged the commissioner to ready its constituents for the coming shift to a competitive energy market. In February rate caps on electricity in the city were lifted, giving people the option to choose between providers. Increases were most likely seen in bills, although Archer said she has found many residents do not understand the changes. She urged citizens to go to www.dciselectric.com to learn more about energy options and to get tips on how to cut down on electric costs. Penn Avenue Sidewalk Closed John McIntyre of Turner Construction said a crane working on the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, at the north end of the mall will cause the side·walk to be closed for 18 months. ANC commissioners, not happy that they were not informed of the closing when they approved the project, asked McIntyre to inform Com·missioner Charley Docter if any work will be done after 9 p.m. since Docter represents the affected dis·trict. ANC's Generosity Continues The commission, who last month doubled a request by the Capitol Hill Baseball and Softball League, gave $825 to R.H. Terrell School for an awards ban·quet and Tyler House Kids $1,100 for a trip for chil·dren to Six Flags. Roll Call Commissioners Karen Wirt, Anthony Rivera, Daniel Pernell, Mark Dixon, Lena Brown, Charles Docter and Bill Crews were present at the meeting. Commissioner Mike Sherman and Lawrence Thomas did not attend. The next ANC 6C meeting will begin at 7 p.m. July 13 at National Public Radio, 635 Massachusetts Ave., NW. Dave Francis can be contacted at dave@ voiceofthehill.com. DMV Office Move Catches ANC 6D By Surprise Commissioners Blast City Government for Not Consulting the ANC BY DAVID FRANCIS News that a Department of Motor Vehicles license renewal and registration facility is moving into the former United Way building at 95 M St., SW, was greeted angrily by ANC 6D, who blasted the city government for not consulting the commission before making the move. The committee was incensed that without con·sulting the board, the department made a decision that will greatly increase the number of cars in an already congested area. "We were not notified on this project," Commissioner Mary Williams said, adding that she had received an email informing her of the project just days before the meeting. "You should be inquiring of the community what we think should be done," added Commissioner Andrew Litsky. The panel is concerned that because the parking lot in front at the facility, which estimates 560 visi·tors per day, only has 80 spaces, the neighborhood will become clogged with traffic. Commissioners said this will only increase traffic problems resulting from already long lines at the department's vehicle inspection facility around the corner from the new location. But Stan Edwards, associate director of the DMV, said that measures have been taken, including "curb cutting" to give cars more room to get in and out of the parking lot. The "One Done Vision," a new department program that aims to cut down on vis·its to the DMV, should also help alleviate traffic con·cerns, added Deputy Director Lucinda Babers. District Department of Transportation's Chris Delfs said any changes that would affect traffic pat·terns were premature. "The curb cuts might have jumped the gun a little bit," Delfs said. He added that a traffic study had not been done, but that DDOT engineers advised DMV before the site was okayed. The committee was not swayed. "You're adding more congestion and you know it," Commissioner Ahmed Assalaam said. He called for some type of traffic barrier to protect children, as the United Way building sits next door to an ele·mentary school. When Edwards was pressed by commission mem·bers for a reason why the department chose the site, he responded simply, "We didn't see another suit·able site." The new Department office will employ 130 peo·ple, and operations will begin moving there in mid-July. Racial Tensions Highlight Friendship Church Vote A vote to reconsider plans to renovate the Friendship Baptist Church on Delaware Street, SW, prompted an impassioned speech from Commissioner Ahmed Assalaam, who implied white commissioners were ignoring the African-American community by voting for the proposal. At issue is Commissioner Max Skolnik's request to have the ANC members explain their position on psychiatry with a heart on capitol hill JOSEPH TARANTOLO, MD board certified psychiatrist certified group psychotherapist herbalist · Individual and couples psychotherapy · Two hour intensive group therapy · Cancer and chronic illness counseling with customized herbal tonics · Self-exploration without drugs · Help weaning off antideptressant drugs · "Talk back to Prozac" 202/543-5290 Fulton framing services For the framing and preservation of fine art and documents Hours: Monday and Tuesday, Noon-6 pm Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am-6 pm or by appointment 722 I Street, SE 202.544.8408 Washington, DC 230003 lafune@mac.com numerous questions about why the police did not handle the situation better. He said three official and two unofficial events on the same night created the perfect traffic storm. But Commissioner Andy Litsky said the police do not decide what they must patrol and put the responsibility on other city offices. "It's not on you to make that determination" of what to patrol, Litsky said. "It's on the city." "Neighborhood services really dropped the ball on this," he added. "They messed up big time." Litsky asked the police to notify the commission before any other large events. MAC Construction to Begin Next Year Kathryn Kaene, deputy director of the Corcoran Museum, said construction on the Corcoran's new art school at the Millennium Arts Center on I Street SW, will begin sometime next year. Kaene said a purchase and sale agreement for the MAC was signed recently and plans are in the works the church and why they voted the way they did in May, when the panel overturned an early vote that endorsed the project. The property owner wants to install 21 condos on the site adjacent to the sanctu·ary, but renovate the church structure and lease it to a non-profit. The project went before the city zoning commis·sion, its only stop in the city approval process, after the Voice's press deadline, so outcome on the vote was not known. Skolnik's request paved the way for another vote, which would be the third, on the controversial proj·ect. Commissioner Bob Seigel, who was formerly against the renovation of the church, changed his vote without explanation. Commissioner Andy Litsky said he approved of the plan as long as the historic character of the church was kept. None of the commissioners gave any indication that race was a motivating factor behind their decision. Commissioners Seigel, Litsky, Skolnik, Roger Moffatt and David Sobelsohn are white. Assalaam, who is black, said the church, which was built by slaves, needed to be protected as part of DC's African-American heritage. "Everything has just been ridiculous. You're heartless," Assalaam told the commissioners. "You only care about what you see. I think you're being very ridiculous." "I am an African-American, and my ancestors built this and it means something to me," he con·tinued. "You already bulldozed us out as a people" and will continue by destroying the church. "I'm sick of what's going on in this city and this community, and it has to stop. Listen to us about what belongs to us and what affects us," Assalaam said, adding that the commissioners were trying to pretend slavery never happened. Commissioner Mary Williams, who is black, reminded the panel that Skolnik, who is white, voted against the proposal during the May ANC meeting. After Assalaam spoke, the committee took a vote. The measure was failed with a vote of 3 -3-1, with Litsky now abstaining. Lime Gets the OK After months of delay, a voluntary agreement was approved by the ANC that allows the Lime night·club to begin operating. The agreement was delayed since February, as commissioners hammered out details of the agree·ment. Although Commissioner David Sobelsohn had some objection to the agreement, he agreed to allow it to be amended after approval. Assalaam, who has championed the bar, said the del ay was akin to discrimination against the estab·lishment. But Commissioner Andy Litsky, who wanted the agreement unamended, said minor changes should be made to ensure the agreement holds up. "If we're going to do it, we're going to do it right," Litsky said. Panel Wants Action on Street Noise, Ruckuses Commissioners, days after traffic clogged the street around the Southwest Waterfront until 5 a.m., said the city must inform commissioners of events beforehand so that residents can be warned. The backup occurred after the June 11 Mike Tyson fight post-party at H2O. Commissioner Max Skolnik reported streets filled with people and cars with loud noise until dawn. "It's intolerable," Skolnik told a police representa·tive from PSA 103 who gave his name only as Sergeant Harvey. "If this is going to be increasing in frequency, there needs to be a response." Harvey apologized to the commission following to move the school, which offers undergraduate degrees and continuing education classes. The Corcoran purchased the property for $6.2 million after the former owner defaulted on payments to the city. Kaene said zoning and repair processes have to being before work at the site can begin. She did not rule out the possible addition of condominiums on the site to help finance construction of the school. "I think the whole process will take about a year," she said. "By next summer we should know what we're doing and be doing it." She added that Corcoran is open to working with the community to develop arts programs for local students. Roll Call Commissioners Max Skolnik, David Sobelsohn, Mary Williams, Robert Seigel, Roger Moffatt, Andy Litsky and Ahmed Assalaam were all in attendance. The next ANC 6D meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 11, at the Millennium Arts Center, 65 I St., SW. TheBeat Rumsey Aquatic Center Closed for Repairs Again 'Extensive Damage' Found Throughout Local Pool BY AMY DOOLITTLE After $3 million renovations in 2003 and a series of repairs over the winter and spring, the William Rumsey Sr. Aquatic Center at 635 North Carolina St., SE, has been closed for repairs again--just in time for the summer heat. Late in the third week of June, about two weeks after the pool opened for the summer season, staff noticed plaster (that had been applied less than a month before) was falling from the pool wall, said Jackie Stanley, a project specialist with the District Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). "The contractor came out and determined that there is extensive damage throughout the pool with a bad chemical reaction keeping the wall from bonding," she said. Capitol Hill Art & Frame · Expert custom designs · Museum quality materials · Superior frame selection We have silkscreens by Joseph Craig English. 623 Pennsylvania Ave., SE 202 546-2700 10-6 Tues-Sat · Eastern Market Metro The pool is to be closed at least a month while the contractor attempts to find what's causing the prob·lem, then fix it, she said. Fortunately for residents, who have already had to foot the over $3 million price tag for the 2002-03 renovations, the repairs will cost them "not a dime," Stanley said. "It's a problem with the con·struction of the pool so the contractor will fix it at no cost," she said. The fact that the pool--one of only five in the District--must be closed for such a long period of time just as the weather is heating up is irksome to residents. "It's been very frustrating," said Mary Wright, ANC 6B commissioner whose single mem·ber district includes the aquatic center. "The pool is for kids and adults, and now that it's summer, peo·ple are mad." Since the new problems are a construction issue, Wright said, she questions the integrity of the contractor. But DPR stands behind their contractor, say· ing that he says this problem is "highly unusual." "In all fairness to the contractor, he indicated that this problem is very unique to them and that they haven't seen this problem occur in other pools they worked," Stanley said. To address the problems with the pool, Wright said she plans to form an oversight committee with other community members that will, if nothing else, help keep everyone informed. "I'm in the process of try·ing to provide the committee--I Eastern Market 327 7th St., SE · (202) 546-CAKE don't know what else to do," she said. "I think everyone is frustrated." DPR plans to provide a free shuttle bus to resi·dents to help them get to one of the other District pools while Rumsey is closed. A bus schedule will be posted and provided to residents. The pool renovation project has been riddled with problems since its 17-month renovation was started in 2002. The city originally closed the pool to refurbish the 30-year-old old building's electrical, mechanical and alarms systems. However, the park department said during the process it was discovered that the systems had deteriorated extensively and needed total replacement. It was reopened in September 2003. Residents Relieved that Reservation 13 Rumors Put to Sleep City Administrator Bobb: No Bioterror Lab, Crematorium on Site BY DAVE FRANCIS Capitol Hill residents expressed relief following the announcement by City Administrator Robert Bobb that the city has dropped plans for a bioterrorism lab on Reservation 13. "Reservation 13 is not one of the preferred loca·tions for the consolidated labs," Bobb said at a June 15 community meeting at Payne Elementary. The announcement was met by thunderous applause from the sizeable audience. Bobb also dispelled numerous other rumors about what will eventually be houses at the former DC General Hospital site. "I'm not aware of any desire to expand correctional facilities down there," Bobb said, addressing rumors that the city would be expanding on the jail located at the site. Again, his comment was greeted with applause. On rumors of a crematorium at the site, Bobb said to laughter, "That must be in the dark recesses of a mind somewhere in the District government." As for additional homeless services at the site: "There are not plans to consolidate all of the District's homeless services at Reservation 13," Bobb said. More applause. Asked if the city plans to consolidate methadone and drug rehabilitation services at Reservation 13: "No." Yet more applause. As for what will eventual·ly be on Reservation 13, Bobb said Mayor Anthony Williams was committed to plans worked out with the community in the Anacostia Waterfront Master Plan. "It is not the goal or desire of the Williams admin·istration... to deviate from [the community's] vision of Reservation 13," Bobb said, adding mixed income communities and the National Capital Medical TheBeat Center, a 230-bed hospital proposed by the mayor, form the core of plans for Reservation 13. Questioned by community members on the need for a hospital, Bobb defended the city's plan. "We have a bad distribution issue in this area," Bobb said, explaining that research conducted by the city shows a lack of hospital beds on Capitol Hill. "There is a need for this hospital." Some residents told Bobb they were concerned that the hospital would not serve the uninsured. He said that while the hospital will provide some serv·ices for uninsured patients, the medical center "will not be a hospital for only persons that have no med·ical insurance." Some health care organizations have questioned the need for a hospital in the area, saying the neigh·borhoods surrounding the site are better served by additional primary care services. In addition, a report commissioned by the mayor found that cur·rent plans for the hospital do not support long-term growth. Despite questions about the hospital, Hill resi·dents are pleased that Bobb dispelled rumors about unpopular plans for the site. Committee Okays H Street Licenses Clears Way for Full Panel Vote BY PATTI SHEA ANC 6A alcohol beverage licensing subcommittee unanimously okayed four licenses for proposed H Street establishments, paving the way for a full com·mission vote this month. More than 75 residents packed the community room at Sherwood Recreation Center June 21 to lis·ten to entrepreneur Joe Englert descbe his view of his proposed eateries and taverns along the busy thoroughfare. The proposed establishments, located on the 1300 and 1400 block, are: · The Argonaut, CR license · The Beehive, CR license · Rock and Roll Hotel, CT license · The Red and the Black Tavern, CT license The four establishments will open over the next two years. In all, Englert, who owns and operates the Capitol Lounge, plans to have seven restaurants or bars on H Street, including the soon-to-be-opened The Olympic. she said the establishments should be spread around the street. Englert responded by saying he didn't like the term Entertainment District, but said that it make sense to have the restaurants next to the theaters. "People are being incredibly shortchanged on H Street," he said. "There has to be a middle ground." Subcommittee member Tolu Tolu said she has lived in the area for 40 years and that H Street used to be an entertainment destination before the 1968 riots. "This was the neighborhood before," she said. "This was always this type of neighborhood and people need to be reminded of that." Building on Tolu's remarks, another resident said there are different types of dangers now than in the mid-1960s. "We're not saying we want H Street to change," the resident said. "It's just different now." Malcolm Ross, a member of the committee, said the ANC has an opportunity work with a willing property owner. "This area is going to build up real·ly fast," Ross said. "In the future, there's [no way] we're going to have this chance." "[Englert] doesn't have to spend time talking to us, but he is, and we should take advantage of it," said Patti Neil, another committee member. Lyndon Bonaparte, who lives off Linden Place where a burned corpse was found the day before the meeting, said there are bigger issues to worry about in the area instead of a willing restaurant owner trying to improve the neighborhood. "Some of the concerns here are light in comparison to the bigger picture," he said. "I thank you for trying to do some·thing." The committee with draft four voluntary agree·ments for Englert to sign and present them at the July 14 ANC 6A meeting. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Miner Elementary School, 601 15 St. NE. For more information, click on www.anc6a.org. Who Will Let the Dogs Out? Community Working Group Created to Address Leash Issue BY DAVE FRANCIS Representatives from Capitol Hill sports leagues and residents will form a working group to resolve a sim·mering dispute over whether dogs should be allowed off the leash at Kingman Field in Northeast. However, Cloutier believed the bioterror·ism lab was a real possibility, and is happy that it will not be on the Hill. "The bioterror lab, in some shape or form, was apparently a possibility, although most folks really did-n't think Congress would allow anything with a serious biological threat so close to the Capitol," he said. Dave Francis can be reached at dave@ voiceofthehill.com. Site of the future Argonaut at 15th and H St., NE But residents said they were worried about an increase in public drunkenness, trash, crime, and traffic, including the clog·ging of an already precious amount of park·ing spaces. Englert said he is talking with the police department to establish a substation on the block to help monitoring of the area. He also said he has already committed $25,000 a year to an H Street BID to help keep the street clean. As for parking, Englert said he is working with the Atlas Theater to lease out nearby The DC General Site at Reservation 13. "I am very relieved that a bioterrorism lab or cre·matorium won't be coming to our neighborhood. We already have more than our share of social serv·ices," said a resident who gave her name only as Nan. "There are so many better ways to make use of the riverfront. If there's such interest in revitalizing or in this case developing the waterfront area, we need ways to draw people, not scare them away." John Cloutier, who lives close to the site, said he was pleased that rumors about the site were dispelled. He said certain false·hoods were spread to get people involved in planning for the Waterfront, and was glad establish a shuttle that will run from Union Station. Some residents were upset about the heavy con·centration of the establishments on the east end of the street. The restaurants are proposed within the so-called entertainment district of H Street, which includes the Atlas Theater and H Street Playhouse. But some say the moniker is bunk. "The Entertainment District was built up around us, not us around it," resident Laverne Law said. Instead, TheBeat Kingman Field is the site of growing tensions over enforcement of the District's leash laws. The group hopes to come to a compromise on the issue, which one resident said has destroyed the "sense of community" around the park. But Sharon Ambrose, who along with ANC com·missioners and parks department representatives was present at a contentious community meeting June 8 at Miner Elementary, said city law, which requires dogs to be kept on a leash on city property, allows little room for compromise. She said that while she sympathizes with respon·sible residents who wish to exercise dogs off-leash, the safety of people using the park and the cleanli·ness of the grounds is the first priority. "They've worked hard on that park," Ambrose said in an interview with Voice of the Hill following the meet·ing. "They've worked hard to give kids a place to play." Legislation currently in front of DC City Council, championed by Ward 3 representative Kathy Patterson, would require dog runs to be built on city-owned property. But until that legislation is passed, the city is required to enforce the law. Ambrose noted that no hearing has yet to be scheduled on the bill. She said it was unfortunate that there are not more places for dogs to roam free on Capitol Hill, but added that under law dogs can not wander off-leash anywhere in the city, especial·ly a space where children play. "I am not aware of any space where children and dogs share the space," she said. At the community meeting, Maryse Beliveau of the Parks Department said health concerns are a major factor in not allowing dogs to run off-leash. But she did say the city recognized the need for more areas for dogs to play. "I know there's a need for dog runs," Beliveau said, and urged the passage of Patterson's bill. But Fred Roasario, a police officer in PSA 103, said enforcing leash laws are not at the top of the police department's priority list. "As long as the dogs are with their owners, we don't mess with them," Roasrio said, adding that police on the Hill have more pressing criminal matters to deal with. "You do have some officers that have made cita·tions, but we don't have time for that." But he did add, "If we had more time in the day, we'd put an officer in every park," pointing out that technically an off-leash dog is a violation of DC law. Rosario's testimony tipped off harsh exchanges between residents for enforcement of the law and residents against it. Accusations were lobbed back and forth, with some residents claiming off-leash dogs left the park dirty and put children on the park in danger. Those in favor of dogs off-leash, led by an advoca·cy group called Hill Hounds, accused those resi·dents of making threatening comments, calling the parks department to report off-leash dogs, and destroying neighborhood spirit. "That sense of community doesn't seem to be there anymore," one resident said. After numerous terse exchanges, the parks department recommended the working group to try to hammer out a compromise. But Ambrose said there was little room for compromise. "The compromise has to be in the limits of the law," Ambrose said, adding that the law does not allow dogs to run off-leash on city property. Ambrose said the working group, composed of the Capitol Hill Youth Baseball League, Sports on the Hill--both of which use the park--and repre·sentatives on both sides of the issue has yet to meet. TheBeat Bridge Causes Troubled Waters BY AMY DOOLITTLE DC Department of Transportation officials are pro·posing a bridge that would extend west across the Anacostia river to Massachusetts Avenue, bumping into what is now DC General property. The possibility of such a bridge has been dis·cussed before, but was shot down by community members and ANC 6B commissioners who are not interested in turning Massachusetts Avenue into another commuter route. To dissuade DDOT from even looking at the pos·sibility of a bridge, ANC 6B passed a resolution at the commission's June meeting to "strongly oppose" the bridge scheme. But regardless of community disinterest, DDOT continues to study the proposal, this time as part of the Kenilworth Avenue Corridor Study, a trans·portation study that accompanies the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative. In the past "there's been various proposals pro·posed and shot down," said Kenan Jarboe, an ANC 6B commissioner who adamantly opposes the bridge idea. "It would turn Massachusetts Avenue into a commuter route--another Pennsylvania Avenue without helping Pennsylvania Avenue." Capitol Hill's only do-it-yourself Frame shop custom framing also available Serving Capitol Hill for 20 years Monday, Friday, Saturday 10-6 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10-9 Sunday 12-6 522 Eighth Street, SE 202.543.3030 www.frame-of-mine.com DDOT insists that the four plans which they pre·sented to the ANC are nothing more than possibili·ties they are studying. "We're looking to study to see if any of these plans make sense," study coordinator Allen Miller said. "It's a process. You look at the spectrum of possi·bilities, take it to the logical extreme, and drop out those that don't work," Miller added. "We're just in the initial stages of looking." "I would've preferred not to study these at all," said John Detrick, a spokesperson with DDOT at the June ANC 6B meeting. "But to answer the questions of those who want those built we had to study it." But Jarboe, who runs a Hill think tank named Athena, wonders why DDOT thinks the bridge is even a possibility. In his view, language included in the Reservation 13--the 60-acre parcel of land located on East Captiol Hill that includes the DC prison and DC General--transfer letter says an extension of Massachusetts Avenue over the river is essentially illegal. The letter reads: "The District hereby...agrees that no improvement shall be constructed that would impede the extension of Massachusetts Avenue southeastward, in line with said Avenue's present orientation and width, extending onto the adjoin·ing Reservation 343, terminating in a cul-de-sac or traffic circle upon the southeastern boundary line of the property ..." But what does that mean? "My read on that is a connector bridge violates the terms of the transfer of jurisdiction." Jarboe said. DDOT disagreed. "Go re-read that--there's noth·ing in that transfer that prohibits an extension," Miller said. Neighborhood Concerns Neighborhood concerns about increased traffic congestion should such a bridge constructed are legitimate, Miller said. "We are concerned with traf·fic problems a possible bridge could bring. But that's part of the problem with urban infrastruc·ture. We don't have enough river crossings," he said. There is one thing that Miller and Jarboe agree on--adding just one more river crossing at Massachusetts Avenue would do little to ease con·gestion. "If we had more crossings we'd have less traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue. But one isn't going to do it; we need more river crossings," Miller said. But to Jarboe, building a bridge onto Massa·chusetts Avenue is not an OK start on the path to less congestion. "When you've been putting options on the table, I get worried," Jarboe told Detrick at a May public meeting. "You are deliber·ately manipulating the process to get the bridge in contrary to the law." No decisions will be made on whether the pro·posed bridge plans will actually be studied as poten·tial projects until the fall, Miller said. "We may see these projects dead by September. We will come out with some potential projects in September, and they will be folded in a one and a half-to-two-year environmental impact study," he said. Church Efforts to Ease Parking Tensions Create New Ones Neighbors Say Noise is Ongoing Problem BY AMY DOOLITTLE In an effort to ease parking tensions between neigh·bors and parishioners at Way of the Cross Church at Ninth and D Streets, SE, church officials have added TheBeat a second Sunday morning service and rented park·ing spaces at a nearby credit union building, church officials said. But neighbors say that the new 9:30 a.m. service time not only does not help parking issues but also highlights another ongoing problem with the church--noise. "I cannot sit in my house and watch TV at a nor·mal volume level when they're in service because their volume is so amplified," said Paul McMahan, a Ninth Street resident, who lives around the corner from the church. "The 9:30 a.m. service makes the noise problem worse, and surprisingly, it doesn't alleviate the parking problem. They still block the fire hydrant and the cross walk. Nothing changes." "It's naturally a quiet neighborhood," said Anne Schwab, who lives across from the church. "But when they are here, you will not be able to hear because they are screaming and yelling." The noise is created, Schwab said, when the church amplifies their already high-energy sermons and music, and is made even worse when they open the windows in the church, she said. "It's not like we object to a little noise--that's neighborly," she said. "But when they get going I can't hear myself think." But church officials say their noise level is "far below" the city-sanctioned decibel levels. "DC has come out and did a decibel check and it was below level," said Richard Simon, church administrator. "And the ordinance--even if we were above level--is for outside noise at 9 p.m. And they tell me that the church is exempt." "I've got some inquiries into DC Department of Regulatory Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General trying to clarify what the noise regulations say about churches, if there are exemptions, and who's in charge, and I haven't gotten any answer to my satisfaction," said Cody Rice, Advisory Neighborhood Council 6A member. "I've had no official answers and none from folks who are in the position to actually do the enforcement." That the church knew about the decibel check ahead of time, McMahan said, makes him suspect that the only reason they passed was because they knew the city was there. "They had sound testing [on June 12] and remarkably they were quiet," he said. "Go figure." "They had sound testing?" Schwab asked. "That doesn't surprise me. They were quieter [June 12] then they have been for weeks. I even said some·thing about it to Merri," a next-door neighbor. 'Attitude Issues' Even beyond the volume issue, are "attitude issues," that both the church feels the neighbors have and the neighbors feel the churchgoers have. "There is a feeling of entitlement from this con·gregation that they are entitled to do anything they want and we have to deal with it whether we like it or not," McMahan said. "We don't have a problem, they have a problem," church member Eddie Harrison said. "It's not noise, it's our religion. I resent the fact that someone called my religious practice noise." "Noise," said Schwab, "is something that disrupts the quality of my life. I don't care if it's religion." "First and foremost is the disrespect that this con·gregation has for us on all levels. It's just disrespect all the way around," said McMahan, who said he's been called derogatory names and sworn at by dis·gruntled church members. "The second issue, which is more frustrating, is the lack of the city get·ting involved and responding to the need of the community, as opposed to placating the problems of the church. If it were a night club the city would be all over them; if it were a drug house the city would be there and we'd have some way to stop it; but because they mask themselves in religion they're untouchable? Please." Rice agreed that the city needs to do something to enforce the noise regulations and parking ere are existing laws protecting public safety and we just want to make sure everyone's in compliance. 1335 NORTH CAROLIN A AVE. NE A correct and complete restoration of a classic in town porch- front. All the original chestnut wood work was removed, restored and replaced to include all doors, transoms, casing. The attention to details doesn't end there. custom kitchen and a BRIGHT breakfast room, Out back deck, garden, patio and parking. Plus a Bonus Full In-Law Suite. PERFECT CONDITION, PERFECT PRICE $778,777 TheBeat It doesn't really matter that it's a church. It's a build·ing that a lot of patrons come to that creates prob·lems for neighbors. "We're just looking for cooperation, but if not cooperation, then enforcement of the existing laws by the DC government," Rice said. The DC Department of Regulatory affairs did not return calls for comment. New and Blue (But They Might Not Fit You) City's New Recycling Bins Being Installed at a Rate of 4,000 Per Week BY JOSH SINGER Space limitations may prevent some Capitol Hill residents from switching to the larger, wheeled recycling bins that most District dwellers are chang·ing to. "Capitol Hill is in that special little group of neighborhoods that has very narrow streets, and presents some difficulty for getting truck and trash together," said Mary Myers, spokeswoman for the DC Department of Public Works (DPW). The new recycling carts, which have already replaced their conventional predecessors in the outer ring of the city, are slated to hit all of the DC areas that can accommodate them by the end of July, and are being installed at the rate of 4,000 per week. DPW personnel made a personal survey of Capitol Hill areas, deeming some of them unfit for the new blue recycling bins because there simply was not enough space to store them outside. The bins have the same size as the old ones but are twice as tall. Increased volume allows the containers to hold more recycling material, and residents can now put all of their recyclables in one bin without sorting paper separately, though some Hill residents will not be able to take advantage of them. According to Myers, the fact that the new bins are the same size as trash carts emphasizes the city's commitment to recycling. "You should be tossing out less trash, and recycling more," she said. Recycling numbers have picked up in areas where conventional bins have been traded for new ones. According to statistics from the DPW's pilot pro·gram, in neighborhoods with the new carts recy·cling participation increased from 17 to 46 percent of residents, and the average amount of material set aside increased from 1.5 pounds per person to six. The majority of Hill residents should be able to use the new bins and are encouraged to do so. If peo·ple in areas that have been approved for using the new bins find that their property is unable to accommodate the switch, they can call the Mayor's Call Center--202-727-1000 to revert to the smaller ones. Myers asked that residents give the change a chance, drawing an analogy to past DPW innova·tion. She said that some people were initially opposed to the switch to trash "supercarts," which are identical to the new recycling bins except for their green color. She said, "Now, though, you would have to pry those supercarts from their fingers." Property Transfer Further Delays Rehabilitation Abandoned Fire, Police Station Still Empty BY DAVE FRANCIS Two long-vacant Capitol Hill properties located at 525 Ninth St., NE, and 1341 Maryland Ave., NE, will be transferred from the Office of Property Management to the National Capitol Revitalization Corporation (NCRC), further delaying a process to rehabilitate the structures. The properties, which were maintained by the city's community development department (DHCD), but technically owned by OPM, were transferred to the NCRC as compensation in a deal with the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation in which the city would transfer property to aid in the revitalization of the Southwest Waterfront. Both properties are located in Northeast. The transfer will likely delay the renovation of the properties. The impacted Advisory Neigh·borhood Commission and residents close to the buildings have been working with the DHCD for nearly two years to issue proposals for companies to develop the properties. ANC 6A Commissioner Joe Fengler said that it is unclear how long the delay will be, as the NCRC is not a government entity but an independent agency. "I don't know where we are," Fengler said when asked about a timeframe. "I am disappointed that the disposition of these two properties has found its way into another bureaucratic delay." The latest delays come over a year after DHCD Director Stanley Jackson promised proposals for these projects would be issued before the end of 2004. When this deadline was missed, additional promises were made by Vanessa Akins of the Office of Planning that the proposals would be issued early this year. But because the properties are under the purview of DHCD, they will have no part in issuing a propos·al, erasing over a year's worth of work. Length of delays caused by the transfers of the properties is not yet known. ANC 6A sent a letter dated June 15 to OPM chief Carol Mitten asking her if the office can issue the proposals despite the transfer. He has yet to receive a response. In the letter, singed by Fengler acting as ANC chairman, the commission attached a long string of documents, dating back to February 2004, outlin·ing committee and community efforts to rehabili·tate the properties. The letters include minutes from the March 2004 meeting in which Jackson promised the proposals would be issued by the end of that year, and an April 2005 letter to the DHCD requesting an update on when the proposals will be issued. The properties have been a point of contention in the community. Residents were split on how the property should be used, but after long debate the ANC recommend·ed that facility have a quasi-residential use. The process for coming to community consensus on the Ninth Street property was less contentious, with res·idential use being approved easily. WHAT DOES IT DO? PSAs: A Strategy for Community Policing Part One of Two BY DAVID GELLES The District has its hands full when it comes to mat·ters requiring police involvement. There are politi·cians to protect, monuments to guard, drugs and crime to combat, and over half a million residents to keep safe. Nearly 4,000 officers strong, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is well equipped to han·dle DC's diverse security requirements. But with the burden of national security weighing down the force, sometimes the District's neighborhoods-- those most fundamental patches of civic fabric--are neglected the policing they need to thrive. Enter the District's 44 Police Service Areas (PSAs). Established eight years ago as part of a major restructuring of the MPD by Chief Charles H. Ramsey, the PSAs were immediately at the forefront of the department's new strategy of community policing Technically PSAs are the smallest subdivision of the city. MPD has seven policing areas, and within are the 44 PSAs. Capitol Hill is entirely in the First District, and is represented by seven PSAs--101 through 107. The PSAs are, in effect, liaisons between the com·munity and the police department. Captain Angel Medina is responsible for oversee·ing PSAs 102 and 104, which cover some of Capitol Hill's roughest areas, including the H Street corridor in Northeast. "At monthly PSA meetings we share information with the community, and the commu·nity shares information with us. They tell us if they've noticed suspicious activity, and we let them know what we've been up to. Not just the bad news, but the good things also, like our summer camps and success stories," Medina said. Niceties aside, PSA meetings are opportunities for the community to let MPD know what's been going wrong in the neighborhood. If a new corner has become a hotspot for drug dealing, or if an alley has been particularly noisy, the department will hear it. "They know we're there to hold them account·able," said Ror Mattioli, citizen coordinator for PSAs 102 and 103 in northern Capitol Hill. Captain Medina agreed. "The PSAs go beyond tra·ditional police work, and [it] requires officers to do more," he said. Restructuring Resources In May 2004 the PSAs were restructured in an effort to streamline bureaucracy and consolidate re·sources. The 44 current PSAs were formed from the previous 83, and captains, lieutenants and officers were reassigned. Initially, there was some resistance to the changes. Some PSAs tripled in size. "Our principle concern when they announced the reorganization was that we'd lose the sense of community," Mattioli said. In some ways, they have. Mattioli said that many PSA 102 residents no longer recognize the police officers in the neighbor·hood, and that it took some time to get acquainted Continued on page 17 www.voiceofthehill.com It STARTED with a vengeance on THURSDAY, JUNE 23, at 11:00 a.m. TheBeat continued from page 17 with the new department officials assigned to each area. On the streets, it was also a rough transition. In the summer months immediately following the restructuring, burglaries and robberies in PSA 102 shot up nearly 300 percent. Local residents collected statistics and attended the PSA meetings every month, pressuring officers to do more. "Apparently they got the message," Mattioli said. "They brought in additional resources, and as a result, in the winter months there was a precipitous drop in burglaries." "We made them aware that we were aware," he said. "Even Chief Ramsey knew of the situation in our PSA." Over a year after the restructuring, Mattioli seems to have signed on. "There's more capable leader·ship," he said. "And they can move their resources more effectively." Policing for Prevention At their best, PSAs are more than the eyes and ears of the city. Ideally, they can also be the brains. Partnership for Problem Solving (PSP) is a struc·tured approach that brings together residents at PSA meetings with MPD and city agencies together to address specific issues. For instance, when the area around Ludlow Taylor School became the scene of several nonfatal shootings and increased drug traffic, there was a good deal of discussion in the community, and a PSP was initiated to address the problems. After a few enthusiastic meetings, Mattioli said residents' enthusiasm waned. "They want change to happen, but they want MPD to do all the work," he said. "For any of this to work, we've got to involve the community." So far, community involvement has amounted to pressuring the police department to address certain issues, and real community policing still seems a long way off. "PSP is the methodology MPD has adopted, but it hasn't worked for our PSA," he said. Staying Connected With thousands of residents in each PSA, the task of keeping residents informed and involved is complex no matter how it's approached. Distributing\pam-phlets and fliers was uneconomical and cumber·some, and the delay between events and communi·ty response made many communications obsolete. As a way to skirt these inefficiencies, the PSAs developed active online communities, where resi·dents share concerns about everything from noise pollution to burglaries and homicides. PSA 102, one of the most active, now has a website and an email network (NELink) that distributes news of recent crimes, messages of concern to resi·dents, and bulletins from police and city officials. Often residents get a response from MPD within a day. Inspector Andrew Solberg is particularly active on the PSA 102 listserv, and has recently fielded queries on everything from purse snatching to video surveillance. For the most part this direct interaction with department is well received, but occasionally, the anonymity of the Internet leaves room for brutal honesty. "I find the response from Inspector Solberg piti·ful," wrote one unsigned resident. "The only police activity he offers...as proof of police involvement is www.voiceofthehill.com merely passive." All opinions are welcome though, so long as they deal with crime or quality of life in the neighbor·hood. John Wirt, who initiated the movement towards an online PSA community, still screens every message. Once he approves a post, it is sent to over 430 residents. "The online community is absolutely critical," Mattioli said. "I don't know how we would work without it." The monthly meetings are still the backbone of the system. PSA 102 meetings typically draw 15 to 30 citizens, and have guest speakers, such as local judges or detectives. "We're working with the PSAs to let the commu·nity know: 'You are not forgotten,'" Medina said. PSA 102, covering most of Capitol Hill, meets from 7 - 8:30 p.m. the third Thursday of every month at the Sherwood Recreation Center, 10th and G Streets, NE. The website can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PSA102/. A CLOSER LOOK Citywide Call Center Earns High Marks 727-1000 an Effective Number to Call BY AMY DOOLITTLE In a city where things seem to constantly fall apart, and the concept of being satisfied with the govern·ment is all but completely foreign, a shining light of success and efficiency has risen out of Mayor Anthony A. Williams' administration. They call it "The Citywide Call Center." By dial·ing a single phone number--202-727-1000--you can talk to cheerful, helpful people who know what they are doing and will help you find the person you're looking for, help you file a complaint, or at least direct you to a person who can. Please pardon those of us who are cynical as to whether the city can do anything right. At least in this case we have, for the most part, been proven wrong. To our surprise, a request to Voice of the Hill read·ers for stories--good or bad--of the Call Center turned up few criticisms. For the most part, the small number of readers who responded felt that the center has done a very good job and is an enor·mous improvement over the bureaucratic chaos that reigned just a few short years ago. "My experience with the call center has been real·ly positive," said Nancy Vogt, a Southeast resident. "I've had occasion to use it twice recently in the past two months, and I'd say I'd rate it close to perfec·tion." Vogt had called the city to request the removal of several large appliances. The person who answered the phone, she said, was pleasant to talk to, knew what she was doing, helped her file her removal request, and told her the appliances would be removed within a few days. Not only did they pick up the trash, Vogt said, but they did it well before the prescribed hour without leaving debris lying around the street. "I was really surprised, because I thought it would take forever," she said. Her second request involved a certain street light with a broken globe and a shut·off problem. Not only did the city replace the globe in an expedient manner as promised, they also fixed the shut-off problem at the same time. "I was really impressed with everything, because before I purposely never called them because I was afraid something would be messed up," she said. The call center serves several purposes. Through it residents can be connected with any city office, and if they don't know who or what department they need to talk to, the operator will help them with that, too. Service requests are a special feature of the call center. When residents call and file a complaint the operators will register the problem with the correct agency and issue the caller a service tag number, which can then be used to track progress on the issue. Each department tracks how quickly their service requests are filled, comparing them to set turn·around time standards which can run anywhere from a few days to a few years, depending on the department, the nature of the complaint and the all-important funding for the issue at hand. A few of our readers did write in to complain about what appeared to be ignored requests. "I called the city last July [2004]," wrote Lisa Volk, a Northeast resident. "They were in the process of repaving part of the alley behind my house. But they only did part, and the section immediatelhind the homes next to me needed attention. ... The contractor who repaved the alley agreed that this section need[ed] work, but he could only do what he was being paid for." So Volk called in the problem. The city said that they would come back this year to finish the job if they had the money. After following up this spring she found that nothing had been scheduled. Another resident, Phyllis McClure, who lives in Southeast, called the call center in early May to request a new recycling bin. It took four calls for her to find out that the reason her new bin was not being delivered was that new recycling bins on wheels would be distributed across the city at some point this summer (see related story). To help these readers, Voice of the Hill checked up on these two problems, but were unfortunately no more successful than the readers had been in find·ing resolutions. We were told by Janice Quintana, operations manager for the call center, that McClure's recycling bin problem was to be resolved by the end of the summer and that Volk's alley was "on the list for DDOT" and is "more about funding" than time. The call center handles several thousand calls a day, with 5,000-6,000 calls on Monday, their busiest day. Their hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, but they have a forwarding system in place so that calls placed after hours are sent to an emergency management agency. When the center opened in 1999, no other city in the U.S. had a system quite like it. Since then offi·cials from cities across the nation--including Jacksonville, Fla. and Denver, Colo.--have toured the center to see just how the District does it. Even international visitors are interested in the system. And other cities, including Baltimore, New York and Chicago, have already made moves to imple·ment similar systems. Of course, there are always ways to make a good system better, Quintana said. "Eventually calling the non-emergency 311 line will be the same as call·ing 727-1000," she said. "I think most of the people are pleased, and it's already improved over the years." HILL CHURCHES Capitol Hill Presbyterian Has Unique Place in Hill Church History BY AMY DOOLITTLE Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church has a unique place in Hill church history--it is believed to be the only congregation to ever hold worship services in the Capitol Building. Founded in the mid 1860s, the church met in sev·eral different public meeting places on the Hill before the current building's cornerstone was laid by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869. The church is now home to about 120 members, with a regular attendance of about 100 on Sunday mornings. Pastored by Andrew Walton, the church holds a 10 a.m. worship service on Sundays in the summer and an 11 a.m. service the rest of the year. Despite the small membership, the church is actively involved in many community ministries and local mission work, Walton said. "We pass out brown bag lunches and work with the soup kitchen with Church of the Brethren," he said. The church is also home to the Washington Seminar Center, which hosts about 1,400 over night guests annually in the church building for social justice, interfaith and peacemaking seminars. "This way we help outside the community and expand our outreach and mission," Walton said. The church is located at 201 4th Street, SE, the corner of 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SE. Child care is provided during all services and church activities. Citywide Zoning Administrator No Longer Working for DC BY ELIZABETH WEINER AND JULIE WESTFALL Current Staff Writers Toye Bello, who was appointed city zoning adminis·trator in October to fill a long-vacant position, is no longer working for the city. City officials June 7 refused to say why Bello is not in his post anymore after more than 12 years with the city government. But at the day's regular Board of Zoning Adjustment meeting, rumors about Bello's fate flew. "He's been let go. That's all I know," said one city staffer. Another said the "official line" is that Bello did not meet city residency requirements but dis·missed that as "pretext." "A lot of people didn't like him, and they finally got [Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs director Patrick Canavan] to force him out," someone else speculated. A zoning lawyer, George Keys, lamented the loss of a zoning administrator who had "a strong knowl·edge base" of DC's arcane zoning code. "Toye was very even, very fair," he said. The development community is "dependent on consistency of inter·pretation." Keys said past zoning administrators used to pass down a kind of institutional knowledge to their suc·cessors, including longstanding interpretations of the somewhat ambiguous code. But in recent years, the department brought in outsiders who never really learned the code or how to apply it, he said. "It's a broken ship. I think the job is impossible," he added. The position has been empty for multiple long spans since 2001. The last permanent zoning administrator before Bello, Robert Kelly, resigned in March 2003 after less than a year on the job. The office has also been plagued by erroneous decisions in the last several years that cost builders and the city time and money when the developers -- or neighboring property owners -- went before the Board of Zoning Adjustment and judges to have decisions corrected. Some at the June meeting noted that many appeals are pending before the zoning board, most alleging that the "zoning administrator erred." The firing could further complicate those appeals and the department's attempts to defend issued permits. "Who's going to defend those judgments?" one offi·cial asked. Bello was a staffer in the independent Office of Zoning before he snagged the top job--at which time some DC Council members said they were dis·mayed with his appointment. He had previously worked in the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. A spokesperson for the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs said June 7 that Corey Buffo, previously general counsel at the Department of Motor Vehicles, has been named acting zoning administrator. The spokesperson, Linda Argo, said Buffo "has a background in land-use law, and we were familiar with him from work we had done before." The department will conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement, Argo said. When Bello was appointed to the top spot, at-large Council member Phil Mendelson complained that no nationwide search had been done. More than a year ago, the council's Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs raised the salary for the position from $80,000 to $103,000 and recommended that future zoning administra·tors have both land-use and legal training. Bello is not a lawyer. The zoning administrator holds a powerful post in city government--responsible for deciding whether building plans meet height, density and, in some cases, use requirements of the city zoning code. The administrator also decides whether to issue building permits and certificates of occupancy. Fenty Announces Bid for Mayor CURRENT STAFF REPORT Ward 4 Council member Adrian Fenty announced last month that he is running in the 2006 mayoral election, becoming the first to declare his candidacy. Before the announcement, during a two-hour interview with The Current, the second-term Democrat was full of praise for Mayor Anthony Williams' accomplishments in reviving the city. But he was critical of the mayor for "not being represen·tative of Washington's marginalized residents." Williams has said he will announce this summer whether he will seek a third term. Fenty, 34, was elected to the DC Council in 2000 after a bruising battle with veteran Council member Charlene Drew Jarvis. He has served since January as chair of the council's Committee on Human Services. With a strong reputation for constituent service among local advisory neighborhood commission·ers, Fenty was unopposed in 2004 when he ran for re-election in a ward that stretches from Chevy Chase in the west to Lamond Riggs and Manor Park in the east. Prior to his election to the council, Fenty was committee clerk and counselthe council's Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation, chaired at the time by Ward 7 Council member Kevin Chavous. He had interned with then-Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio; then-Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, D-Mass.; and DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. He has served in several community leadership capacities--as president of a civic association, as an advisory neighborhood commissioner and as leg·islative director for the Ward 4 Democrats. Fenty, a District native, grew up in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. He attended Bancroft Elementary School, Deal Junior High School and Wilson High School before attending Mackin Catholic High School for his junior and senior years. He holds a bachelor's degree from Ohio's Oberlin College and a law degree from Howard University. His parents, Phil and Jan Fenty, run an athletic-equipment store, Fleet Feet, in Adams Morgan. Fenty and his wife, Michelle, have twin 5-year-old sons, Mathew and Andrew. The family lives in Crestwood, just east of Rock Creek Park. During the interview, Fenty said Williams was elected to be a "hands-on" mayor but is not. "He has become more disengaged [as his term continues]. You've got to govern full time, the way my parents do at the store," he said. "I like being out in the hustings," Fenty added, contrasting himself with the incumbent. "You've got to like it if you're going to be effective." Fenty acknowledged improvements in the city during Williams' tenure, but he focused on resi·dents he said have not benefited. "There is no doubt but that things have gotten better under Williams. [But] you have to govern for people who are down on their luck," Fenty said. When asked whether such advocacy would mean major increases in government spending for the poor, he said no. "Spending is not the only way to serve poor peo·ple. ... The best way to serve low-income residents is to hold the managers responsible...Yvonne Gilchrist [Williams' director of the Department of Human Services] has no idea what she's doing." Williams' approach, said Fenty, is "trickle-down economics." Except for residential real estate taxes, which he said the city needs to examine, Fenty said he does not think the city's tax structure is that important in attracting higher-income residents, whose taxes bring the city more revenue than they consume in services. "I've never heard anyone say they'd move in or out of the District due to the income tax, "he stated. "The No. 1 thing is to fix the schools and improve community policing." "Williams no longer talks about the schools and doesn't attend education hearings," added Fenty. While the superintendent of schools does not report to the mayor, Fenty said a mayor truly inter·ested in improving the public schools would take the time to meet with the school board and the superintendent and use the bully pulpit to get improvements. When asked about charges that some black teach·ers are being inappropriately forced out of the sys·tem for racial reasons, Fenty answered, "Some peo·ple will try to play the race card. No one cares what the race of their teacher is. [If incompetent teachers are being forced out, parents] are going to say, 'Great, and do it quickly.'" He said the same approach is needed throughout the government. "You've got to get rid of people who are incompetent." Williams has blasted Fenty as not accomplishing much during his council tenure. But Fenty said he's done a lot. At his announcement last week, Fenty said, "I have pushed legislation for affordable housing, redeploying police officers, neighborhood econom·ic development, reforming our juvenile justice sys·tem, improving the standard of care for our home·less." In addition to Williams, others who are consider·ing running include Democratic council members Jack Evans of Ward 2; Vincent Orange of Ward 5; and Chairman Linda Cropp, who is elected at large; independent Council member David Catania (at·large); former DC Democratic State Committee chair A. Scott Bolden; lobbyist Michael Brown; for·mer U.S. Attorney Eric Holder; and former DC Chamber of Commerce president and Verizon exec·utive Marie C. Johns. Continued on page 42 must admit I'm a bit ashamed of myself. I've lived in DC for almost eight years (having moved here from Niagara Falls, NY, to attend college in 1997), and until just recently, I never set foot in what might be one of the city's best "galleries." Don't get me wrong--I've always had a great excuse to avoid the National Arboretum, located in a hilly section of Northeast Washington, perched atop one of the city's highest points, and sprawling over 446 acres. Most of the time I managed to dismiss it as "way over on the other side of the city" from where I live, and though I've often driven past it to go to Annapolis or to beaches in Delaware or Maryland, surely I couldn't be bothered to take a trip solely to look at a bunch of trees in a big park, right? Furthermore, this city's museums and galleries--the familiar National Mall players--are resplendent in treasures that do not require much of a trek for me (though admittedly those treasures are not of the natural sort). Considering I am a fiscal con·servative, I could not imagine why almost $12.5 million of tax money was needed for what I thought amounted to nothing more than a big, federally-subsidized forest (real·ize I'm from what my friends refer to as the "Dark Woods of Upstate," and trees and plants are not hard to come by, let alone recipients of appropriat·ed public funds). And as I'm about to move to Chicago in a few weeks, I almost left DC without having experienced a day at the National Arboretum. Luckily for me, I have an editor who asked me to visit the Arboretum and write a bit about it, thus prod·ding me to expand my horizons and take advantage of the fruits of my hard-earned income. Upon First Entry... The National Arboretum, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was created by an Act of Congress in 1927 to serve not only as a natural exhibition space for innu·merable varieties of vegetation, but also as a federal research and educa·tion facility for botanists and horti·culturalists. Scientists breed and study new varieties of trees, plants, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables and attempt to develop gene strains that resist dis·eases and parasites, without resorting to pesticides and chemicals. And as part of its design, only two miles from the Capitol building, one is able to view the Washington's downtown monuments from certain corners of the Arboretum, making it a veritable "Capitol" experience. As an exhibition site, the Arboretum is a bit confusing. When I entered the grounds, I made my way Treasures of the Arboretum: MORE THAN A PARK BY GREGORY WOLCOTT to the Visitors Center, an administra-that dips towards the ground and myself without the aid of instruction tive building surrounded by a lily lifts its neck back up to reveal some manuals or directions, I dismissed pond full of brightly colored (and foliage. And though not nearly as old this option in the beginning of my some surprisingly large) koi, for as the collection's white pine, the visit. But as I left the bonsai exhibit, I whom fish food is sold so that eager Japanese red pine, about 180 years really felt overwhelmed. All I saw in young children can get closer looks old and donated by the Japanese the distance were meadows and at their speckled, fluorescent flesh. Imperial House, surely rivals the forests and no obvious indication of Behind the Center is a patio punctu-elder's beauty due to its petite which collection warranted the next ated by a juice bar and some tables grandeur and sheer grace. visit. and chairs with a view of the I could have spent the good part of I almost felt like I were about to Arboretum's vast expanse, making it the day only studying the intricacies waste a good portion of my day run-a pretty space to sit and enjoy some of the bonsai exhibits. Indeed, I visit-ning around in circles attempting to refreshments and natural surround-ed the Arboretum during the week-extract meaning out of some cluster ings. end of the World Bonsai Convention, of trees just because I was too o- But that's where the simplicity held downtown each year for bonsai nate to look at the Arboretum's maps ends. Though from the patio one can enthusiasts, trainers and vendors; the and guides and because I was too easily see the grand Corinthian Arboretum, in its role as an official good for some silly magic train ride "Capitol Columns," which served to sponsor, also welcomed many out of through those subsidized woodlands. support the East Portico of the town visitors hoping to delight in its Because I recognize this as one of Capitol building from 1826-1958 and offerings. But as I know that I reach a my personality faults, I decided that now stand proudly upon a hill sur-saturation point when it comes to perhaps the tram tour wasn't such a rounded by golden meadows, or the anything museum-like, despite my bad idea after all. Besides, I had a nearby herb and rose gardens, which enjoyment of such things, I decided deadline to meet. are filled with more varietals of mint, to move on to the next exhibit. I backtracked to the other end of salvias, and roses than I had ever the parking lot where visitors can imagined possible, it's hard deter-A Change of Course purchase tram tickets for 40-minute mine where to go next. From my ini- The Arboretum offers a scenic tram tours running every hour. I bought tial view, the Arboretum looks just ride for a couple of dollars, complete my ticket, hopped on the tram, and like a forest, and the collections don't with narration during the trip. as I waited for the tour to begin I seem very inviting. So it's not so clear Believing as I often do that I am flipped through the literature I had what the best way of tackling it may capable of figuring things out for picked up in the Visitors Center and be. Remarkable Treasures Accordingly I started with an easy part--the Bonsai and Penjing Garden. Through a pathway of slen·der and elegant Japanese cedars and wisteria, visitors enter pagodas hous·ing incredibly impressive collections of bonsai trees. I was stunned when greeted with a simple stone fountain and a miniature Japanese white pine that has been "in training" since 1625. Perfectly pruned and propor·tional, I found myself in awe of such a regal delight. Though that white pine is the old·est bonsai housed in the Arboretum, it is by no means the only remarkable one. I particularly enjoyed the tiny forest of young "Foemina" junipers, complete with rocks and flowering shrubbery and the California The unusual California Juniper draws looks at the Arboretum. juniper, with its long, striated trunk www.voiceofthehill.com Left: This group of Chinese Redwoods were once thought to be extinct. Above: This Japanese White Pine has been "in train·ing" since 1625. learned something reassuring: the good people at the USDA, in their infinite wisdom and consideration, have announced the construction of a "Flowering Tree Walk" to enhance visitors' experiences by connecting major portions of the Arboretum through a series of meandering paths lined with, you guessed it, flowering trees. A Natural Resource Environment As I mentioned earlier, the Capitol Columns, though a very special and unique element of the Arboretum, sit in the middle of meadows and research fields far from the Visitors Center patio. There are woodlands and exhibits surrounding the columns on all sides, and some driv·ing paths apparently useful for arriv·ing to point B from point A, but there is nothing inviting about this layout (though there is something dramatic about the singular view of the columns). The Arboretum lacks extensive and definitive pedestrian paths (apart from mowed grass) that welcome closer inspection and a cohesive experience. In fact it seems more like a collection of disparate exhibits over a large acreage protected from noisy New York Avenue by a fence. However, the Arboretum is first and foremost a natural resource envi·ron, not a sculptured Martha Stewart garden. Hence, the landscape archi·tects and the Arboretum officials have sought a design that aims to preserve the "openness of the space" while also providing accessibility and natural displays. The project entered a new phase just this spring and will www.voiceofthehill.com continue for at least a couple of years. From a purely visitor's point of view, I imagine this is going to be a welcome addition to the Arboretum. In the meantime, my tram ride had just begun. The vehicular tour of the Arboretum starts in the world's largest collection of boxwoods (104 varietals, to be precise). Our guide graciously paused and the recorded narration over the loudspeakers encouraged us to examine the many different shapes and sizes of these shrubs, which despite their bitter·sweet odor have been popular in landscaping since the colonial era. As we progressed in the journey, we passed by empty exhibits of early springtime perennials, such as daf·fodils and tulips, which was an implicit encouragement to return to the Arboretum at various points through the year in order to view its splendor while different items are in season. One of the highest elevations in the city is Mount Hamilton, a natural woodland within the Arboretum whose maintained forest attracts large numbers of owls and butter·flies. But surely this would not com·pare with the incredible azalea gar·den we were about to see, which is the largest and oldest collection of the Arboretum. I am, however, incapable of offer·ing my expert opinion on this matter at this time. Though I've heard it's absolutely magnificent, I was, unfor·tunately, a few weeks too late for this portion of the exhibit. This monu·mental garden, one of the best azalea collections in the world, was work of scientist Benjamin Morrison, who worked diligently to bring everwood azaleas from Asia to the USDA in a breeding program starting in the 1920s that resulted in the planting of thousands of seedlings by the 1940s. The tram ride whisked us by the "Youth Garden," an interactive gar·den for DC area schoolchildren where the youngsters can grow veg·etables for the Capitol Food Bank, thus serving to prune our those local residents into both capable and char·itable gardeners. Close by, I really enjoyed our pause to view what are known as "The Girls." Planted from seedlings in the 1940s, these three impressive and gigantic magnolia trees are the largest in the DC area and have blooms resistant to frost. Due to their age and as a sign that comedy knows no bounds, the recorded tram narra·tive suggests that they'd be better named the "Golden Girls." Living History Like the azalea gardens, the Asian collection is worth a protracted visit. Because DC has a climate similar to large portions of Asia, the Arboretum is able to host many trees and shrubs found halfway around the world. Something is in bloom year-round, and I especially recommend this exhibit's serene landscaped terraces outlined by meandering paths through some very lovely flora. This collection is not far from two very poignant reminders that the Arboretum serves as a paean to living natural history. The first is the exhib·it of the Chinese redwoods, a type of redwood over 200,000 years old and once thought extinct. However, seedlings were found and botanists nurtured them back into their right·ful glory. The second is one of the actual oldest trees in the Arboretum (notwithstanding the aforemen·tioned bonsai)--a splendid willowed oak. This tree, over 200 years old, majestically rises out of the middle of rather ascetically boring research fields by virtue of its gargantuan trunk and innumerable branches full of silvery leaves. As the tram ride concluded, I had to admit that I had enjoyed my expe·rience at the Arboretum and felt compelled to visit again in order to take full advantage of nuances offered by the many exhibits. In fact, it appears that many people do just that. I saw families eating picnics in the meadows, hikers walking their dogs through the woodlands, and nature lovers riding their bikes around the perimeter. So depending upon your mood, you might just want to make destina·tion visits to the Arboretum, as it is a lot to absorb in detail all in one visit. And the very fact that the exhibits change naturally is reason alone to make multiple trips. What's truly wonderful about the Arboretum, however, is not simply that it is such an expansive gallery of nature's finest, but that it's an oasis within an otherwise harried town. Sure, there are green spaces through·out the city, but the Arboretum feels like a different place altogether. Its ability to transform the visitor to another place (and, due to the his·tory of the exhibits, another time) is what makes the Arboretum so unas·sumingly special. Its charms and his·tory sneak up quietly but positively, making time spent there more than just a lovely day at the park. The National Arboretum is located at 3501 New York Avenue, NE. More information is available by phone at 202-245-2726 or on the web at www.usna.usda.gov. Greg Wolcott, a 2001 graduate of the Catholic University of America, lives in the District and works at two-partnered non-profits in Arlington, Va. After eight years of living in this city, he's moving to Chicago to enjoy real winters. About the Brickworks... Remains of Active Brick Kiln at the Arboretum BY RA CHEL AD AMS Nestled against New York Avenue, NE, at the southwestern corner of the U.S. National Arboretum near the on-ramp to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, sits a curious conglomeration of structures: a dilapidated grouping of brick mounds and smokestacks, slightly infiltrated by wild grasses, rising up behind a high iron fence. This is what remains of the United Brick Corporation, established in the late 1890s, which at its heyday pro·duced 130 million bricks per year, and which for nearly a century pro·vided the city with many of its still-standing structures. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the site has been owned by the Arboretum since its decommis·sion in 1972. The United Brick Company was among the most successful of the 90·plus brickyards that peppered Washington's turn-of-the-century landscape. Geologically, its location was ideal--it was situated on the now-exhausted "Anacostia deposit," a clay-rich swath of earth that extended northward to Beltsville, Md. Between 1927 and 1931, the brick·yard underwent its most extensive expansion, and nine igloo-like "bee·hive kilns" were constructed, along with several chimneys, a drying building, and administrative build·ings. In a triangular patch of land bounded by V Street, Hickey Road, and Bladensburg Road, clay was extracted by steam shovel, packed onto mule-drawn carts (later replaced by a small, self-contained train sys·tem), and relayed to the brickyard proper. Complicated Procedure "Brickmaking was a complicated pro·cedure," says Thomas Elias, director of the Arboretum, who has worked diligently to maintain the historic site during his 11-year tenure. The raw clay, he explains, was transport·ed up earthen ramps to the second story of the main factory building, then dumped down onto a "grinding pan" at the ground level, where its impurities were siphoned out. From there, the clay moved to a "pugmill," where it was moistened to gain the appropriate plasticity. Forced through an augur, it was formed into an attenuated, smooth ribbon, known as a "slug," and sliced into individual bricks. Placed onto carts, the not-yet-fired, or "green" bricks were set into one of 38 drying tunnels--housed in a long, low building, still visible today--where they remained for three days, drying at 150-180-degree temperatures. Inside the beehive kilns, site of the final step in the brickmaking process, the temperature became exponen·tially higher: close to 2,000 degrees. "After the drying came the firing," says Elias. "The bricks were taken from the tunnels and hand-stacked in the kilns," the doors of which were then sealed with bricks and mortar, he explains. "Fireboxes," tucked along the kiln's inner walls and accessed through small service holes, were externally loaded with coal and set aflame. Hot gas filtered along the structure's walls, up to its crown and down into a subterranean flue, where it passed though interconnected tunnels dis·tributing heat to other areas of the factory. Within, the kilns glowed an incandescent yellow-red, and out·side, their walls--restrained by strong iron bands--expanded slightly due to the extreme temperature. After baking for three to four days, the newly-formed bricks were removed and distributed to construction sites throughout the city. In Later Years Thus functioned the United Brickyard until January of 1972, when, unable to compete with new, A view of the brickworks automated brickmaking, the site shut down. Six of its World War II-era kilns, as well as several other struc·tures, fell into disrepair and were razed. In 1976, the federal govern·ment purchased the brickyard for $5.5 million, and incorporated it into the Arboretum's 412-acre domain. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Since then, the Arboretum has spearheaded an effort to preserve-- and eventually revamp--the area. "We'd love to see something done with it," says Elias. "But at the moment, financing is the problem. In the meantime, we're just trying to take care of it as best we can." In recent years, the site has been cleared of overgrowth, and the foot·prints of its now-absent kilns have been marked by low, circular walls that outline their original locations. It is not difficult to envision the sort of renovation that could take place here--the kilns' wide, spacious domes, if stabilized and refurbished, could easily hold floral exhibits, and the empty brick circles seem to lend themselves to walk-through gardens or topiaries. The single large building, a simple, peak-roofed structure that housed changing-rooms and break-rooms for the brickyard employees, is also structurally sound, perhaps the future location of a history museum or information center. Elias notes, however, that the area is not currently open to the public, due primarily to safety hazards; the kilns, in specific, are dangerous to enter, their floors dotted with deep holes leading to the interlaced net·work of tunnels below. The drying tunnel building is also crumbling-- recently, a large chunk of its south-facing wall disintegrated and col·lapsed to the ground. The pathways between the build·ings are scattered with wayward bricks and are relatively unkempt. At present, only employees may traverse the site, on their way to the Arbor-etum's large composting zone adja·cent to it. In years past, Elias says, trespassing and vandalism have been problematic, resulting in a height·ened security presence on that part of the property. But the impetus for renovation is still strong, and the Arboretum con·tinues the effort to amass as-yet-insufficient funds. "It's really a won·derful place, and one of the only of its kind remaining in Washington," Elias adds. "We keep hoping to one day operate it as a historic site--to have it made accessible to everyone, and used more efficiently." DC resident Rachel Adams has written a number of historical pieces for the Voice. jazz nightin southwest Preserving, Advancing DC's Jazz Tradition BY SELBY MCCASH fter more than 335 consecutive per·formances and counting, the weekly church-affiliated concerts billed as "Jazz Night in Southwest" have become an established part of the city's music scene. Their success means more than an evening's entertainment or artistic expression to those responsible for the concerts, such as the Rev. Brian Allyn Johnson recently replaced Calvin Jones as director of jazz studies at UDC. Hamilton and ex-pro football play-er/singer Dick Smith. As they see it, the bottom-line purpose is to pre·serve and advance the century-old DC jazz tradition and, in the process, bring their diverse and often-frag-mented community closer together. Established six and a half years ago, "Jazz Night" presents an ever-changing lineup of locally-based musicians, including some of world class stature and many promising up-and-comers. It takes place every Friday throughout the year, from 6 to 9 p.m.. The venue is the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 400 I St., SW, across the street from Arand Waterside Mall, just a few blocks below Capitol Hill. The admission is a meager $5, free for children under 16. Accompanying the music is a downstairs buffet serv·ing up such choices as fried whiting, baked chicken, slaw, collards, sweet potato pie, tea and lemonade for as little as $7 for an entrée, side, drink and dessert. Not surprisingly, costs exceed the prices. But organizers aim to keep the concerts affordable for virtually everyone, covering the deficits with fund-raising events, pri·vate contributions, and government grants, including support from the DC Arts Commission. Remarkable Growth Although never widely advertised, the word was spread effectively enough to draw respectable crowds from the beginning. Today, the turnouts are larger than ever, reach·ing a record average of 275 a perform·ance over the past year. Moreover, Jazz Night has expanded in scope, spawning a wide variety of related activities. Sponsored under the "Jazz Night" umbrella are an audio-visual Heritage Archive program documenting DC jazz history; an annual day-long out·door Jazz Preservation Festival in late September; an after-school music instruction program and the youth Renaissance Jazz Ensemble; jazz per·formances at schools and senior cen·ters, and special concerts such as a recent sold-out Lincoln Theater fund raiser starring noted vocalist Gloria Lynne. Now plans are underway to estab·lish a program called "Blue Monday Blues," providing the same weekly outlet for the city's blues artists pro·vided for those in jazz. The target date is sometime by the end of the summer. But Jazz Night remains the feature attraction. Local Luminaries Among those periodically appearing at the church are Keter Betts, who accompanied Ella Fitzgerald for 25 years and still ranks among the world's top jazz bassists; Buck Hill, a former mailman who gained nation·al recognition on tenor sax, playing with luminaries like Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderly, and Sonny Stitt; Connie Simmons, a vocalist with cel·ebrated jazz pianist Art Tatum, still singing at 88; and, when his health has allowed, Butch Warren, bassist on more than 130 jazz recordings, including a number of acclaimed 1950s and 1960s post-bop Blue Note classics. More frequently, appearances are made by younger musicians such as trumpeter Michael Thomas, reed players Antonio Parker, Paul Carr and Zach Graddy, and pianist Vince Evans. Most have day jobs as teach·ers, computer analysts, and a church music director. But they all play pro·fessionally part time, and time will tell if some are destined to have full-time jazz careers. These are random examples. The District harbors many promising young jazz artists, partly as a result of the flow emerging from jazz pro·grams at Howard University, University of the District of Columbia; University of Maryland, and the Washington Jazz Art Institute, founded by sax player and educator Davy Yarborough (also a Westminster regular). Scores of musi·cians, young and older, play Westminster for a minimal fee, citing a variety of reasons: to support the cause of jazz, gain wider recognition, enjoy the fellowship of fellow musi·cians and fans, because it is a place where people truly listen, or all of the above. "You won't hear better jazz if you spend $100 or more at the swankiest www.voiceofthehill.com Local percussionist Nasar Abadey wows the crowd at Jazz Night. "The music is amazing. But even more amazing is the cohesiveness of the people who come there, people of all races and ages and backgrounds, all sharing the music together." club in town," observes Ray Wilson, a the experience "profoundly engag·retired Navy Petty Officer and ing" for many. An art form like jazz, Congressional aide who has attended he says, is "uniquely structured" to the Westminster concerts for the past bring people together, enriching the four years. A noted photographer, he whole community. has documented many of the per-The program's genesis dates back formances with his camera. "The to the 1970's, when a volunteer effort music is amazing. But even more known as "Lettumplay" was formed amazing is the cohesiveness of the to find work for the city's neglected people who come there, people of all jazz musicians. Although races and ages and backgrounds, all "Lettumplay" arranged a series of sharing the music together." jazz memorial services for departed musicians, it had little luck finding A 'Profoundly Engaging' gigs for the living. Things changed Experience when a member of the Westminster That is exactly what Jazz Night is all congregation brought Rev. Hamilton about, says the Rev. Hamilton, who, together with Smith, a former 1960's along with his wife Ruth, has served Washington Redskin halfback and as co-pastor of the church since 1996. "Lettumplay" activist. He believes the convergence of the Their agendas meshed perfectly. Rev. Hamilton, a native of Maine, music and a spirit of bonding make who had experience with jazz ves· pers in previous inner city ministries in Detroit and Philadelphia, wanted to reach out to the church's multi·racial, multi-income-level neighbor-hood--not simply to boost church attendance, but to fulfill what he viewed as his ministry's purpose of healing divisions and shaping a more unified community at-large. Smith, a part time performing singer with a rich, deep voice, who has also been involved with jazz church services, wanted to do more to give the city's avocational musi·cians a chance to be heard, an objec·tive that resonated with Rev. Hamilton. With the minister at the helm, a private nonprofit entity called the Southwest Renaissance Development Buck Hill, "one of DC's really great Corporation was created to manage horn players." Jazz Night. The congregation was generally supportive, and still is. Smith became musical coordinator. On Jan. 22, 1999, the first of the Friday night concerts took place. Although planned as an eight-week experiment, they have continued without interruption ever since-- ensuring that practically everyone has access to a distinctly American art form and can appreciate its enduring legacy. DC's Jazz Roots To be sure, Washington, DC hardly compares with New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City or New York in the annals of jazz history. But jazz roots go deeper in the capital city than many people realize. This is, after all, the hometown of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, one of America's foremost composers and a towering figure in jazz born in 1899 at 2129 Ward Place, NW. The nucleus of his first band was drawn from musicians then living in DC, includ·ing his longtime drummer Sonny Greer. That was prior to 1920. Jelly Roll Morton, born in 1885, the self-styled "inventor" of jazz, who certainly had a major hand in its development, managed and played at a dingy, failing club at 1211 U St., NW, in the mid-to-late 1930's. These were hard times for the leg·endary pianist, singer, composer and innovative ensemble leader, but also a time when he made a series of solo recordings and interviews at the Library of Congress that remain among the most soulful and historic of jazz documents. This is the city of Dr. Billy Taylor, the top-flight jazz pianist and famed jazz educator and director of the Kennedy Center jazz programs; of guitarist Charlie Byrd, who ran a famous DC jazz club for decades; of Shirley Horn, Claude Hopkins, Charlie Rouse, Leo Parker and Billy Hart, just a few of the native citizens achieving national jazz renown; of the Howard Theater that brought jazz pioneers to DC early in the 20th century, and dozens of places that bring local and national jazz musi·cians today. Jazz Night in Southwest and its spin-off programs are establishing themselves as a part of this history-- a part Rev. Hamilton would like to see spread to neighborhoods all over DC, helping make the city a more harmonious place. "DC is a jazz town," he says. Hill resident Selby McCash's work appears frequently in the Voice. Celebrating Cluss Adolph Cluss is shown during the construction of the National Museum, currently the Smithsonian's Arts & Industries Building. Photo courtesy Goethe-Institut. THE RADIC AL RED BY S.J. A CKERMAN id you know that Eastern Market was designed by a militant communist? Indeed, Adolph Cluss was probably the only person to be chummy with both General Grant and Karl Marx. Aside from his double life, the other surprise is that we've been liv·ing with Cluss (rhymes with loose) without knowing it. After the Civil War, he designed "the New Wash·ington," the "brick city," in his own distinctive style. Beyond specific buildings, Cluss influenced the distinctive Washing·ton streetscapes we enjoy today. We instantly recognize them in movies actually filmed here. Cluss gave DC its signature look. As technical advi·sor to "Boss" Shepherd, (see the May Voice), Cluss innovated our tax-free front yards, our tree boxes, and even our bay windows extending past the literal property line. Upon the centennial of his death, under the auspices of the Goethe Institut, Washington's German cul·tural organization, Cluss is about to explode from obscurity with release of the first book about him, a display of his work, and even a mini·museum in Germany. Conveniently, September's Overbeck Capitol Hill history lecture will feature him. As if to punctuate it all, Calvary Baptist Church in Chinatown recent·ly replicated its intricate Cluss steeple, which had fallen to a hurri·cane in 1913. Suddenly Cluss is every·where. The Bolshevic and the Boss Cluss seized his breakthrough oppor·tunity in 1872, when he became the chief engineer for "Boss" Alexander Shepherd's Board of Public Works, charged with making Washington a modern city. Private commissions, as well as federal contracts, made him wealthy. When he designed three palatial "Shepherd's Row" mansions in the 1700 block of K Street, NW, for a whopping FA THER OF EASTERN $150,000, the Boss bought the cen·tral mansion, while Cluss bought one next door but never moved there-- fortunately, as it turned out. President Grant smiled on Cluss, so the contracts flowed--lucrative jobs involving public buildings, mar·kets, and schools. This work attracted more contracts for houses, churches: even Washington's first apartment building. Alas, the Shepherd government went bankrupt, so Cluss was hauled before a Congressional investigation. He caved in under pressure, implicat·ing his patron Shepherd in fiscal cor·ruption. Grant promptly fired him. Cluss in turn advocated repeal of the home rule the District had enjoyed for just a few months. Cluss likely panicked because he had something to hide. Back in his native Germany, he had been a com·munist revolutionary, an agitator for--and intimate personal friend of--Karl Marx. Born in Heilbronn, Wurrtemberg, in 1825 to a family of upwardly mobile architects and builders, Cluss started on the technical end, build·ing a railroad along the Rhine. In 1848, when Europe exploded in revo·lutions, Cluss led the fight for the Communist League in Mainz, earn·ing Marx's praise as an agent "beyond compare." Cluss fought for a classless society, but police spies preferred a Cluss-less one, tracking his every movement. His family found his zealotry embar·rassing, to boot. When the revolu·tion failed, he prudently sailed for America. Here he prospered, married, ascended the middle class. In 1858 he re-crossed the Atlantic to tell Marx personally why he was leaving the international movement. No doubt he influenced Marx's opinion that upwardly mobile American soci·ety would be the last to buy into communism. MARKET The Cluss Style When Cluss got his first architectural commission in 1864 to design a DC public school, it's clear that he didn't list Marx as a reference on his resume. A "dialectical materialist" would have been unlikely to win commissions for churches or three Catholic schools (where some of his children would be educated), let alone U.S. government buildings. Close to the reigning Republican establishment, he survived Shepherd's fall and built much of the "brick city" that preceded the marble and granite edifices the world thinks of today as Washington. More than 70 Cluss buildings once adorned our streets; only seven remain, two of them in Baltimore and Alexandria. The inauguration of President Garfield in 1881 was a Cluss triumph. Not only did his new Smithsonian building host the inaugural ball, but ephemeral triumphal arches he designed spanned the parade route. Cluss does not fit neatly into any architectural box. Architectural his·torian Tanya Edwards Beauchamp finds the basis in the Rundbogenstil style Cluss knew in Germany, adapt·ing round-arched Romanesque mode to new uses and materials. He looked to Italy for the dignified use of the brick so readily made in Washington, bringing in the mansard roofs and colorful accents of Second Empire Paris. His obvious love of light inspired abundant large windows, preventing a ponderous look. Some of his designs seem a tad busy, very much of the late 19th century. Washington's gift to Cluss was the clay upon which we sit. Brick became his apt medium for making an American city on a human scale, the final element in his style. Answering the sneers of architectural snobs who deemed brick intrinsically ugly, Cluss pointed to the example of Lombardy in Italy, where it had been "raised to a standard of value and dignity." Back in Heilbronn, a new brick-shaped Cluss Cube houses a mini·museum to the long-forgotten native son, overbilling him as "The Man Who Built Washington, DC." Most of Cluss's abundant buildings have been destroyed, some--like the Army Medical Museum at 7th and Independence SW--fairly recently. An eloquent few remain: Calvary Baptist Church (8th and H Streets, NW); Masonic Temple (9th and F, NW); Franklin School (13th and K, NW); Sumner School (17th and M, NW); Alexandria City Hall; Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building; and Eastern Market. Hill Legacy Cluss's enduring gifts to the Hill were his tree boxes, liberalized front yards, and architectural permissiveness, keeping Washington from looking like flat-front Baltimore. These ideas were particularly important here, where building picked up vigorously in the 1870s. Research is ongoing, but Cluss buildings on the Hill later demolished include two Navy Yard buildings, one home, and three schools. The sole survivor is Eastern Market, where a year of Cluss com·memorations all over town and in Germany will kick off in a celebra·tion on July 23, marking the centen·nial of his death. Le Renovation HAND YMAN SER VICE Free Estimates No Job Too Big or Too Small · Plumbing· Painting · Electric· Decks · Carpentry · Fences · Masonry · Patios · Tile 202.359.9971 Want to fix your house, but lack the funds? Call us. Eastren Market, Adolph Cluss' Capitol Hill legacy. Although prosperity may have market honoring its visionary prodi·made him bourgeois, Cluss retained gal son. his youthful idealism in envisioning At this writing, the language of the a livable city on a human scale. We plaque is still tentative. The proposed can say that he realized it at Eastern headline is "A Lively Market for a Market. In October, the mayor of Lively Neighborhood." The copy will Heilbrunn will unveil a plaque at the point out details we may overlook as we shop, which were striking in 1873. The truss-roof configuration allowed for Cluss's beloved natural light as well as ventilation. "Cluss's air vents lining the roof were sealed decades ago, but long-timers recall that they worked and should be reactivated." The many doors provided ready access, while the cellar for cold storage became a model for markets elsewhere. Many market loyalists want to restore the rooftop vents, perversely sealed in the 1970s. The point is that the building we take for granted today was a breakthrough in its time, socially and technologically. We love it because it still works as Cluss intended. Whatever its wording, the plaque will proclaim Eastern Market's heritage and energy. Upcoming Cluss-Mania We're going to have fun toasting Adolf Cluss, starting by looking at Eastern Market as a building that works today as designed, the center of a "civic society." Tours, art exhibits, and hands-on activities for the kids are on the agenda. A video camera hookup with the marlace in Heilbrunn is also planned. Resident artist Michael Berman has rounded up colleagues who have por·trayed the Market, while encouraging school kids to paint their impres·sions. So hitch up your lederhosen and come on down to see the old market with fresh eyes. On Sept. 13, Dr. Joseph Browne, the director of the exhibition who set off Cluss mania, will deliver an Overbeck Capitol Hill History lecture about the architect's activities in this neighborhood. A lecture at the Navy Yard will follow in September. On Oct. 18, the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra will present a concert hon·oring native son Cluss at the Library of Congress. These Hill events are just part of the Cluss celebration. The center·piece is the exhibition on Sept. 15 in his own Sumner School: "Adolph Cluss: From Germany to America. Shaping a Capital City Worthy of a Republic." The Cluss book will issue at the same time. A wine named for Cluss from his ancestral vineyards will be uncorked in November. To keep updated on the still-devel-oping list of activities, look at the exhibition website: www.adolf-cluss.org or the Goethe Institute, www.goethe.dc/cluss. You can sub·scribe to a free electronic Cluss Newsletter. All this to-do seems a lot for a guy we've never really heard of. Yet the diligent work of "Team Cluss" shows that we Washingtonians owe Cluss a great deal. A century later, it's time to acknowledge and appreciate him. Hill resident S.J. Ackerman is a regular contributor to this newspaper. Inspired by Shakespeare? Become a Folger Docent Applications Now Being Accepted for Fall 2005 Fascinated by Elizabethan England? Inspired by Shakespeare since reading Romeo and Juliet in the eighth grade? Never miss a Renaissance festival? Join with others from throughout the metro Washington area that share your fasci·nation with literature and history and volunteer to be a Folger docent. Acting as museum teachers, Folger docents share their love of the Bard and his times with the public and students of all ages. Docents staff the Library's public information desk and offer tours for visitors from around the world. They conduct workshops for student groups, and help plan and run special events like the annual Shakespeare's Birthday Open House and student per·formance festivals. The benefits are many. Retirees speak of the chance to revive interests from their school days and return to their academic roots. Those still active in the workforce think of their docent work as a chance "to take time just for me in pursuit of something I love." Folger docents also enjoy discounted tickets to Folger plays and concerts and opportunities for further learning about Shakespeare, the English Renaissance, and theatrical performance. The Folger docent training program is offered once a year, starting in October and running two mornings a week for two months. Docents are asked to volunteer 50 hours a year for at least two years following the course. For more information and an application, visit the Folger's website at www.folger.edu or call Megan Smith at 202-675-0395. Applications Being Taken for Free Spring-flowering Bulbs Individuals and groups are invited to apply now for free daffodil and crocus bulbs to be planted this fall. The bulbs will be donated by the Capitol Hill Garden Club for planting in pocket parks, tree boxes, curbside private gardens, church and school grounds, and parks and community centers--all on Capitol Hill. Applications are due on Aug. 15, and the bulbs will be distributed in October. For more information or to request an application, interested persons may con·tact Jan Shea at 202-548-0870 or by email sheacom@hotmail.com. Your applica·tion should include your simple plan for the planting. It must be visible from the street. Washington Vs. Baltimore Ballgame Cuisine BY CELESTE MCCALL he baseball wars are heating fans were going wild, stomping their about this. Not only are dining found the crab cake recipe on the up, and we're not talking feet and making the stadium sway. options limited to the rather over-Food Network's web page (see below). about batting averages, home Even better but equally messy was priced items inside (and severely tax-Plus the obligatory burgers (about runs or RBIs. We're talking chorizo. The sausages' $5.75 price tag ing the 44-year-old stadium's single $5), hot dogs (around $3.50) and food. seemed a much better deal than the 1,600 square foot kitchen, which sausages (we prefer the Polish-style), Where would you rather dine-or ho-hum hot dog, which went for $5. might feed an average of 32,000 peo-which were slightly more expensive. snack? RFK Memorial Stadium or at Other food items along the stadi-ple per game), it leaves out patrons The Eutaw Street area opens two Oriole Park at Camden Yards? um concourse were fried chicken ten-with dietary or religious food restric-hours prior to game time, giving During much of our 34-year dry ders with fries ($8.50); pizza by the tions. folks plenty of time to chow down. spell when DC lacked a home team, slice, nachos with radioactive-look-In contrast, the last time we visited Inside the stadium concourse, Peter and I often made the 35-mile ing bright orange cheese dip, soft Camden Yards, we were allowed to numerous vendors offer a similar trek to Camden Yards for O's games. pretzels, popcorn, peanuts, ice bring in foods and non-alcoholic array of victuals and beverages. The We would try to schedule our visits cream, cotton candy, lemonade and beverages, also available outside at Third Base Deli makes sandwiches when the O's were playing my Pepsi products. Caveat: If you want lower prices. Like many people, we and subs--hot or cold. Prices are rea- beloved New York Yankees (the less anything more exotic than a hot dog, usually bring our own sourdough sonable considering the ingredients said about the once-feared Bronx arrive early. A fan attending the pretzels and bottled water from are reportedly fresh. Last year, a cus- Bombers this year the better). opening game against the Arizona home. tomer purchased a roast beef and Nighttime excursions usually Diamondbacks told me that vendors provolone sandwich with chips and included supper, consumed at the had run out of sausages by the third Camden Yards Culinary soda, all for $7.50. Not bad for ball- Yards, and culinary options were inning. Sometimes we yearn for beautiful park grub. more diverse than the fare at RFK, Unfortunately, crab cakes, which Camden Yards and are going there in Here's the recipe for Camden Yards where the Washington Nationals will were sold during the April 3 exhibi-a couple of weeks to see the O's play crab cakes: play until their new stadium is com-tion game against the New York the (gulp) Yankees. In years past, if 1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat pleted in 2008. Mets, disappeared from the general we were lucky enough to squeeze 1 pound backfin crabmeat However, this year we are switch-concessions when the regular season into a close-by parking spot and 1 cup mayonnaise ing our allegiances from Baltimore to began April 14. We understand this arrive at the park ahead of time, we 2 large eggs, beaten Washington. Not only is RFK within Maryland delicacy is available in would sometimes queue up for Boog 3 ounces Dijon-style mustard (just walking distance of our house, the RFK's Diamond Box restaurant and in Powell's delicious barbecue. We under a third of a cup) Nats are a scrappy, fun team to private boxes. Hopefully crab cakes could smell it even before we reached 2 ounces panko (Japanese bread watch. And they win. will return for regular customers later the stadium. During home games, crumbs) or substitute high in the season. Boog's green tent and picnic tables quality regular bread crumbs RFK Repast We were pleasantly surprised to were set up behind the centerfield 1 ounce (1/8 cup) fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning For fan sustenance, RFK relies on the find a fairly wide beer selection at bleachers on Eutaw Street. Aramark Corporation, the worldwide RFK. Near an entrance was a stand Sometimes, Powell, the Orioles' All 1 Tablespoon fresh chopped mega-company which feeds such hawking Guinness stout and Harp Star first baseman during the 1960s parsley diverse clients as colleges, correction-Irish beer, and for $6.50 we ordered a and 1970s, would be on hand to sign Preheat oven to 375 ·F. Pick crab- al institutions, health care facilities, "black and tan," a mixture of the autographs. In 1999, when the meat thoroughly, being careful not parks and resorts--not to mention 34 two. Another booth was pouring Orioles played Cuba--one game in to mash it. Combine mayo, eggs and sports stadiums, including Camden Heineken's at the same price. Bud Havana and another in Baltimore-- mustard with crumbs. Sprinkle Yards, Citizens Bank Park in and Miller Lite, offered at numerous Boog's stand dispensed delicious lemon juice on top of the crabmeat Philadelphia and Boston's venerable stands, were $6. The Foggy Bottom Cuban black beans, rice and roast and toss together. Combine crabmeat Fenway Park. At RFK, negotiations are "brew pub" offered its signature beers pork. As I recall, we drank El with mayo mixture and fold together underway for local food vendors, plus full bar service. A plastic "glass" Presidente cerveza from the gently. Sprinkle mixture with Old including the Red Hot & Blue barbe-of Woodbridge wine (poured from a Dominican Republic. The food and Bay and chopped parsley. cue group, to set up tents or kiosks. mini-bottle), was a rather steep $7. beer were certainly worth the long Form into 10 3½-ounce balls and At a recent afternoon game at RFK Outside RFK, enterprising vendors lines. flatten slightly. Place crab cakes on a (when the Nats defeated the set up shop, selling hot dogs, For every home game, after passing lightly oiled baking pan and bake for Milwaukee Brewers), we munched a peanuts, soft drinks and the like at through the Camden Yards turn-12 minutes or until golden brown in decent Italian sausage topped with much lower prices than those found stiles, hungry fans may amble along color. (Writer's suggestion: Serve grilled peppers and onions, nestled inside. However, taking food and Eutaw Street, choosing from numer-immediately with coleslaw!) Makes on a rather soggy soft roll. Fortunate-drink inside the stadium is a no-no, ous food stands dispensing freshly-about 10 3½-ounce crab cakes. ly, we found tangy honey mustard to and yes, they usually check your bags squeezed lemonade, soft drinks, perk it up. It was tasty, but eating it (leave the bulky backpacks at home, Colombo frozen yogurt, pizza, potato Hill resident Celeste McCall's work was a contact sport, especially while please). knishes, and crab cakes. We even appears each month in this newspaper. balancing a beer on my lap while Many people are complaining www.voiceofthehill.com Capitol Hill BID Banner Design Contest Winning Design Selected 1990, Doussard said "I can't wait to see them around my neighborhood!" He will be awarded a cash prize of $250 and a banner to display. The Capitol Hill Business Im·provement District is a nonprofit cor·poration dedicated to fortifying the area within its boundaries by provid·ing a clean, safe and attractive envi·ronment; and by undertaking mar·keting and development initiatives to affirm the unique nature of Capitol Hill, and to make Capitol Hill the destination of choice for visitors, res·idents and businesses. A map of the BID area and further information can be found at www.capitolhillbid. org. im Doussard, a principal in the design firm HOK, submitted the winning design in the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District's (BID) light pole banner design contest last month. The BID's Marketing and Promotions Committee selected the winner from among 21 designs sub-RY," "NAT'S BASEBALL [or DC UNIT·mitted by 12 artists. Judged on rele-ED SOCCER]" (and other descriptive words to be selected by the commit- vance, aesthetic appeal and "mes·sage," committee members were not told who the artists were until the winning design was selected. Committee Chairman Don Denton of Coldwell Banker said, "We got so many wonderfully tee) with a graphic in the back·ground of the Capitol dome. One hundred fifteen banners will be pro·duced and will replace the existing light blue "It's All Here on the Hill" banners. Doussard is a principal and the director of graphics for the Washington, DC, office of the presti·gious international design firm HOK. Also a resident of Capitol Hill since creative submissions, but Jim Doussard's really cap·tures the visual and com·municates the message that we want to portray for the business community. We want to thank all those who participated in the contest and for their commitment to the Capitol Hill business community." The winning design fea·tures the theme "It's on the Hill," and refers to a red ver·tical strip on the left side with the words "SHOP·PING," "DINING," "HISTO- SMOKEY'S BARBERSHOP We Sell CDs and Cassette Tapes Open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. 1338 H Street, NE Washington, DC 20002 (202) 396-2377 (202) 399-9726 The Spirit of '76 If You Remember the Bicentennial, You Probably Weren't There BY JOSHUA GRAY NOTE: Voice of The Hill proudly chooses to scoop the Johnny-Come-Lately-Patriots who might wait until 2006 to recall our nation's Bicentennial, and brings you this most timely reminis·cence. The '70s are hot now, though I'd be hard pressed to say why. Those of us who were there don't quite recognize the kitschy, flared-trousered, disco-ball of an era recalled by Hollywood (and Madison Avenue, and The Gap). A generation that is too young to know better has a major '70s craving, and a generation too old to have any reliable memory of the times is happy to satisfy. Strangely overlooked has been the massive rave-up surrounding the Bicentennial. Appropriately, as a celebration of all things American, the Bicentennial was a tremendous marketing oppor·tunity, and its most enduring legacy is a remarkable national accretion of commemorative detritus. Industry churned out Bicentennial editions of everything, which typically were the same as the regular editions, but with red, white, and blue graphics. Many of them seem to remain in your attic. A recent Ebay search showed 1,795 Bicentennial items on offer, includ·ing the expected profusion of com·memorative coins, spoons, and plates, as well as a truly astounding assortment of Bicentennial liquor bottles, Bicentennial area rugs, Bicentennial Marvel comic books, and a "Special Bicentennial" Log Cabin Syrup flask, which, after seven days, failed even to reach its original selling price of $1.39. Of course, the syrup was gone, thus limiting its value to serious collectors. Detroit got it on with numerous Bicentennial editions of automobiles, which, predictably, were distin·guished by festoons of red, white, and blue. Even if you couldn't spring for one of 200 Bicentennial Cadillac Eldorado convertibles, you could still pimp your Bicentennial AMC Pacer Patriot with a special Bicentennial license plate. The kids were alright with Schwinn Bicentennial Stingrays. Cities around the country dedicat·ed and re-dedicated buildings, parks, monuments, and statuary. Among the dozens of such ceremonies in DC: Constitution Gardens at 17th & Constitution, a pet project of Richard Nixon's, was dedicated in May '76. With President Gerald Ford presid·ing at its dedication, the National Air and Space Museum opened to the public on July 1. A gift from the Japanese people, the Japanese Garden at the National Arboretum opened. On Capitol Hill, both the Marine Barracks and the Home of the Commandants were re-designated as National Historic Landmarks by the Department of the Interior. As July 4th drew nearer, and CBS's Bicentennial Minutes became ever more fevered, the sense of a giant party in the making was palpable. When it arrived, it was a free-for-all, a blowout bigger than Carnivale and Spring Break combined, but with less nudity. According to the National Park Service, it remains the largest gather·ing on the Mall ever, with over a mil·lion in attendance. Trust me on this: 900,000 of them were seriously wast·ed. Although the 4th remains a time of overi ndulgence, the tone of the day tilted toward the Dionysian. In today's context, the scene was unimaginable. Alcohol was consumed openly and to excess--if you told me that there were open-air beer vendors, I would-n't be surprised; it wasn't uncommon at the time. Being under age, we were only able to buy beer at any of a dozen suburban markets. And, in truth, we were more likely to pursue, um, alternate modes of conscious·ness alteration. The Yippee Party's Smoke-In was an annual event. Although current-day marijuana activism nods toward the twin causes of hemp farming and medical marijuana, the Smoke-Ins of the 70s were, well, opportunities to get high in public with tacit police approval. As a measure of how much the times have changed, I can assure you that when the Bicentennial "dutchie" came to a uniformed offi·cer presiding, he partook deeply before passing it "to the left hand side." Recall that in just a few short months, the American electorate would choose for its next president a Georgia peanut farmer, during whose time in office marijuana would very nearly be legalized. These excesses may account for my admittedly spotty memories of the day. The one thing I recall most clearly is the sheer density of the humanity. That, and discovering that the Reflecting Pool is full of leeches, and probably not a great shortcut, no matter how thick the crowd. Seeking elucidation, I turned to my friends of the day, who, via email, were only too happy to share a raft of possibly fabricated memories. Bill: Okay, I barely remember what happened yesterday, much less 29 years ago. But I have this vague memory of doing acid with a bunch of guys which may have included one or both of you... maybe even Josh. This vague memory says that I drove us down to The Mall to see the fire·works, but the traffic stopped on 17th Street in front of the Corcoran, and we were stuck there when the fireworks started. I think we got out of the car and sat on the Corcoran steps to watch the fire·works. When the show was over, I think we drove on down to The Mall, parked and ran around in the night like mad·men, which, of course, we were. Of course, I may have the details, the year, or the whole story completely wrong. Any of you guys remember any of this..? Richard: No, I'm certain none of this ever hap·pened, but I *do* have a similar memo·ry! I was there. We sat on the hood of the Pinto for a bit, watching the fireworks, since traffic was completely stopped. Since this doesn't really mesh with any of my memories, I'm relieved to discover that at least one of us recalls things differently, and in greater detail. Tom: We did in fact make it to the Mall in the afternoon, although we had to park way over near the World Bank /State Department and hoof it... I recall there case could be made that, in the was some announcement during the fes-true spirit of independence, the 4th of tivities about the Viking Lander-- July serves primarily as an whether it had landed, or the landing excuse for various forms of dangerous was delayed, I don't remember. [The hedonism. Viking Lander touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976.] The only other memo-Right On!ry I have (and if Richard and Bill are With 2006 almost upon us, and the sure about the Corcoran, maybe I'm certainty of a flood of red-white-and-thinking of the wrong year) is that there blue Bicentennial tributes, it'll be was supposed to be a laser light show interesting to see the treatment of following the fireworks--the emcee gave The Nation's Biggest Kegger. I'd it an enormous buildup along the lines endorse a realistic version, kind of of "the most spectacular show ever wit- Dazed and Confused on The Nat·nessed by man." When it actually start-ional Mall, but America loves to rein· ed, there were a couple of beams shoot-vent itself, and part of reinvention is ing from the top of the Washington glossing over the embarrassing. Monument over the Lincoln Memorial Nevertheless, those of us who were that blinked on and off... Turns out that there have memories of our own, of the elevator in the Monument had bro-the times if not so much of the day. ken down. They weren't able to get the And if we're a little sketchy on the cooling equipment for the lasers up to details, we might turn to the descrip·the top of the monument and weren't tion offered by The National able to do what they'd planned. Coalition to Save Our Mall, whose website, without a trace of intention- So much for collective memory. al irony, describes the scene as "a Tom's recollection has the greatest moment to inhale the joy of being an depth of plausibility, or at least a American, and let it all out in a great convincing veneer of detail. But we display of fireworks." all seem to recall one thing clearly: Hey, don't Bogart that Democracy, Man, were we high. my friend. Richard: Josh Gray has written a number of sto-All this suggests an expanded subject, ries for our newspaper during the past since so little of this has had year. to do with the Bicentennial. I think a GLBT Arts Consortium, CHAW Present Adaption of Pinafore The GLBT Arts Consortium and the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) will present Gilbert & Sullivan's Pinafore for six performances over two weekends in July and August. The performances are: July 28-30, and August 4-6, at 7 p.m. each evening. All performances are at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th Street, SE (corner of G and 7th St., SE). Tickets are $20 and are available by calling 202-547-6839, or click on www.chaw.org. The production is funded in part by the Capitol Hill Community Foundation. This loving adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore is under the musical direction of C. Paul Heins (Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington, DC). Jill Strachan is providing stage direction and choreog·raphy is by Alvin Mayes (both also of the Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington, DC. Mr. Mayes teaches at the University of Maryland.) Cast members hail from Bread & Roses Feminist Singers, DC's Different Drummers, Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington, and the community at large. This rendition of Pinafore in an ensemble format has several unique updates starting with the scene set in Washington, DC. Savoyards will still expect to enjoy the highlights of Pinafore, including "When I was a Lad" and "I'm Called Little Buttercup." The GLBT Arts Consortium is a network of more than 15 GLBT arts organizations and artists in the Washington, DC area that seeks to increase the visibility of GLBT arts. CHAW is a community-based, not-for-profit organization that offers numerous ways and opportunities to get involved in the arts through classes, workshops, performance, music, art and private music instruction. This is the fourth collaboration between the Consortium and CHAW. For ticket information or more information about CHAW, call 202-547-6839, www.chaw.org. For more information about Pinafore and the GLBT Arts Consortium, click on www.dcglbtarts.org. Tell our advertisers you saw them in the Voice of the Hill. CHAIR TRAVEL: THE EASY WAYTO VACATION Part I: Vacations as Rites of Passage BY JOANNE COLLINGS f there's any worse time in the gas prices, fewer train travel District than August, it's July. options--all make getting away full The weather is actually worse, of stress which is, of course, one of there's no promise of fall in the the things we take vacations to get air yet, and it doesn't have August's away from. saving grace of a city largely empty. If you find trying to travel too We probably all need vacations daunting, or you just can't leave more than ever, just as actually tak-town, you can always do so vicarious·ing them is becoming harder to ly. Take someone else's vacation. But achieve: pressures of work, increasing be aware that novels about vacations difficulties involved in flying, high are never just about vacations. The Idylls of Children-- Learning Self-Reliance My family took only one vacation when I was a child, memorable large·ly for the amount of time I spent in a grungy motel room in Brigantine, N.J., while my mother put hot com·presses on the infected horsefly bite my brother got ot day on the beach. The four oldest Walker children are more fortunate: their British naval officer father doesn't want them to be "duffers," and their mother, who grew up on a sheep station in Australia, allows them a lot of inde·pendence. So, while on summer holi·day in the English countryside in Arthur Ransome's 1930 children's classic (but great reading for adults) Swallows and Amazons (David R. Godine, $14.95), they are allowed to camp out on a nearby island which they discovered on the evening of their arrival: [O]n the lake they had seen the island. All four of them had been filled at once with the same idea. It was not just an island. It was the island, waiting for them. It was their island. With an island like that within sight, who could be content to live on the mainland and sleep in a bed at night? John, Susan, Titty, and Roger have a grand time, having first written Ship's Articles and assigned ranks. They encounter an angry man who lives on a houseboat, complete with parrot and cannon, meet the ama·zons and pirates, sisters Nancy (actu·ally named Ruth, but whoever heard of a pirate called Ruth?) and Peggy, declare war on them, capture their ship, and eventually join together and discover treasure of a very unusual sort. When their time on Cat Island is up, each finds individ·ual meaning in their adventure: John . . . remembered the harbour and the leading lights and his swim all around it, and the climbing of the great tree. For Roger it would always be the place where he had swum for the first time. For Susan it was the camp and the housekeeping and cooking for a large family. Titty thought of it as Robinson Crusoe's island. It was her island more than anyone's because she had been alone on it. Foreign Affairs-- Discovering Yourself Molly Clearwater in Weekend in Paris by Robyn Sisman (Plume, 2003, $13) is the only child of a single mother and has no knowledge of her father. After university, she leaves her home in "Minister Episcopi, sleepiest town in the universe," to work for a phar·maceutical firm in London. When she learns that the only reason her boss has invited her to a conference in Paris is to seduce her, she quits her job and decides to go anyway. Molly doesn't yet feel like a grown-up and believes "France was different. Now she was here, she would be different, too." She falls in love (this is chick lit, after all), a little with a young man, but a lot with Paris: The blood in her own veins seemed to flow faster, and she was filled with a fierce, almost painful expectancy. It was the oddest sensation, a kind of nostalgia in reverse, as if she was already feeling the emotional reverberationsof some·thing that hadn't happened yet. But it was waiting for her here, she just knew it. Molly is, of course, correct, and Paris changes her, bringing about all sorts of unexpected revelations, not the least of which are about Molly herself. One of the friends Molly makes on her weekend vacation is an Australian (Australians turn out to be a recurring presence in vacation nov·els) who is working her way around the world. Because Alicia is from Australia and doesn't have a degree, Molly makes all sorts of (wrong, as it turns out) assumptions about her, including that because she lives in a place Molly has never heard of, she comes from the bush and has no job qualifications, unlike herself. Hearing Alicia's list of skills (and that Tullamarine is a suburb of Melbourne), "[f]or the first time it occurred to [Molly] that she might not have been as brilliant an employ·ee as she had thought." The Molly who returns to London is a lot more mature than the one who left it just a few days before. Although she finds many things in Paris, the best of these is herself. A Vacation Between Two Worlds In Laura Caldwell's Burning the Map (Red Dress Ink, 2002, $12.95), Casey Evers travels to Rome and Greece with her two best friends for a last vacation before entering what we like to call "the real world" after finishing law school and taking the bar, peri·ods during which she has had little time to spend with Lindsey and Kat so their relationship is strained. Casey doesn't really want to be a lawyer and she's "terrified of working for a living." Even on vacation she clings to routine, something that's occurred during the last hectic years of her life. "I'll panic at any small change in my daily routine, taking comfort in always knowing what's around the corner, the ease of sim·plicity and repetition." She's involved with another, somewhat older, lawyer who has problems of his own in this regard, her parents are splitting up after a long marriage, and the family dog has died. She's floundering and she doesn't know what to do about it. Despite Casey's best intentions to show Rome, a place she considers a "second home after Chicago" since spending part of her junior year in college studying there, to Kat and Lindsey, the time there is a disaster. Things don't go much better on Ios, though Casey has what turns out to be a pivotal encounter with the req·uisite Australian who's been away from Sydney for three years, some·thing Casey interprets as "escaping everything." Nicky, the Australian, however, sees it as ""one big learning curve,'" as "'all about finding, not escaping.'" In Mykonos, "the Greece you saw in movies," where the three travel after having learned that they are all unhappy with what they've achieved, accomplishments that were supposed to make them happy, Casey realizes she's "comfortable by [her]self, more comfortable than [she's] been in a long, long time." She's "come out of [her] shell" and is "determined to burn the map that shows [her] how to get back." She makes surprising and risky changes in her life as this time between comes to a conclusion. A Vacation for Discovering Your Roots Three strangers--Hope, an advice columnist who herself needs counsel after learning a shocking fact about the man she'd planned to marry; Rebecca, an unhappy, unfulfilled housewife; and Theo, a successful screenwriter who's become guardian to his orphaned half-brothers and half-sister, all fetch up on McKinnon Island off the coast of South Carolina, a place where "[e]ven the pets. . .were laid-back," in Lessons of a Lowcountry Summer by Rochelle Alers (Pocket Books, 2004, $13). Hope and Theo both have Gullah roots, but it is Rebecca who becomes fascinated by the culture and history on the island, where families are being tempted by developers to sell their heritage, and filled with a determination to pre·serve all things Gullah. Meanwhile, Hope and Theo find each other as well as measures of peace and ways to cope with the problems life is throw·ing at them. All three, though, learn the wisdom of a Gullah proverb which says "'If you don't know where you're going , you should know where you come from.'" A Vacation as Turning Point Miles, an unsuccessful novelist "clinging to [the] tattered ribbons" of his chosen career, and his best friend Jack, an actor about to be married, are off for a week to the Santa Ynez Valley, "the poor man's Napa/ Sonoma," for "'a little bachelor week blowout.'" Miles is to "'educate'" Jack "on wines" and Jack will "'educate'" Miles "'on life.'" Sound familiar? It's the Rex Pickett novel of the same name that Alexander Payne's Oscar-nominated film Sideways (St. Martin's Griffin, 2004, $13.95) was fairly faithfully based on. Miles, who has always been able to "count on losing [him]self in wine," has a harder time of it on the trip, despite many instances of getting "sideways." Miles needs to be away from L.A., which has been "suffocat·ing" him, and Jack has his own agen·da, which basically involves a final fling before taking his marriage vows. One of the major differences between the book and the film is that Miles the narrator, although neurotic and otherwise a mess, is not nearly as self-satisfied about it as Paul Giamatti's interpretation of him is. Continually pushed by Jack into situ·ations he wants to avoid, Miles makes tentative steps toward a rela·tionship, accepting his ex-wife's remarriage, and understanding him·self. On a trip (not in the movie) to the San Simeon Hearst Castle, he reflects: Though the opulence of the castle was impressive. . . the place felt spectral, haunted by a history that seemed both unreal and unfathomable. As we parad·ed from one high-ceilinged room to another, walking over priceless Italian terra-cotta, floating past decadent Baroque artworks, our group finally end·ing up encircling the fabled, mosaic-inlaid indor pool, I reached the prosaic conclusion that one could be unhappy anywhere. Or was I just projecting? Coming up next month: The Working Vacation, Bed and Breakfasts from Heaven and that other place, the Curse of the Summer People, and two non-fiction vacation recommendations. Joanne Collings has lived on Capitol Hill for 20 years and reviews books regu·larly for BookPage. CHRIST CHURCH--a welcoming community of faith and fellowship with a big heart and room to grow. 620 G Street, SE Just two and a half blocks south of Eastern Market See our web site Metro station www.washingtonparish.org Sunday Worship Schedule Phone (202) 547-9300 8:15 am Holy Eucharist 9:15 am Breakfast 9:45 am Adult Forum The Rev. Dr. Judith A. Davis, Rector Bible study and discus· sion of special issues 11:00 am Church School 11:00 amHoly Eucharist 12:00 pmCoffee Hour and Fellowship Nursery care for children under 3 available at 8:15 am ICE CREAM 101 MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF TREAT THIS SUMMER BY THERESE FOOTE School's out for summer, and now it's time for the real learning to begin. If you've never tried making your own ice cream, there is no bet·ter season for mastering the essen·tials than National Ice Cream Month in July. Ice cream making has advantages for both experienced cooks as well as beginners. For the beginner, it is one of the easiest and most rewarding treats to make. For the more experi·enced, ice creams and sorbets provide a unique outlet for creativity, since they are some of the easiest types of recipes to tweak or invent on your own. If you can dream it, you can mix, freeze, and eat it. What's more, homemade ice cream has a texture and consistency that many find preferable to that of commercial ice cream, which usually contains emulsifiers and thickeners. By going homemade, you control your ingredients. You can use all organic ingredients, for example, which few commercial ice creams do. If you don't eat eggs for ethical or other dietary reasons, you can leave them out. Watching your weight? You can adjust the fat content and sweeteners to your taste. No Special Equipment Needed Contrary to popular belief, you do not need any special equipment to make your own ice cream, although a machine can save time and make life easier. The essential function that ice cream-making machines serve is to break up large ice crystals as the mix·ture freezes. This results in a smooth, creamy texture (if you have ever let commercial ice cream melt and then tried to refreeze it, only to discover that it didn't taste nearly as good afterwards, this is why). This bowl is kept in the freezer until needed and must be refrozen for as long as a day before a new batch can be made. Despite this drawback, such machines are easy to use and cost only around $50. For approximately $500, high-powered machines with built-in freezing capacity are available, allow·ing one to make batch after batch with no wait in between. Unless you are feeding an army or running a restaurant, however, this may be more machine than you really need. Two Types of Recipes There are two main types of ice cream recipes, Philadelphia style and custard-based. Philadelphia style recipes contain no eggs and are easy to make. For a typical ice cream machine with a one and one-half-quart capacity, the proportions are three cups of liquid to a half cup of sugar, plus the addition of flavorings, the most ubiquitous, of course, being vanilla. The liquid can be any combination of heavy cream, whipping cream, half-and-half, milk, evaporated milk, or yogurt. I prefer to use one part heavy cream and one part whole milk, but this is entirely a matter of taste. Likewise, the amount of sweet·ener can be varied according to taste, and alternatives like honey, brown sugar, fruit preserves, or artificial sweetener can be used in place of white sugar. If you add fruit as a fla·voring, you will want to adjust the amount of added sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Custard-based recipes are more complicated, and it's best to rely on well-tested recipes when starting out. The basic technique involves heating eggs or egg yolks and sweetened cream or milk in a double boiler or www.voiceofthehill.com If you don't have a machine, you can always use the still-freeze method. This involves pouring the ingredient mixture into a shallow pan and putting it in the freezer until it is partially frozen. The pan is then removed and the mixture is scraped and stirred thoroughly to break up the ice crystals that have started to form. The pan is returned to the freezer, and the same procedure is repeated several more times until the mixture is completely frozen. The still-freeze method results in a rougher texture than an ice cream maker would produce, but works well enough if you think you won't be making ice cream often enough to justify buying a machine. Machine Options If you decide to buy a machine, there are several options. The old-fash-ioned ice cream makers consist of an inner barrel nested in an outer barrel packed with ice, to which rock salt is added. The salt causes the ice to melt and remain liquid at a temperature lower than the freezing point of cream. A cream mixture is added to the inner barrel, and a stirring arm within the barrel is continuously turned, either with a hand crank or electricity, to break up ice crystals as the mixture freezes. More modern electric machines have a removable bowl filled with a chemical substance that, like the saltwater, has a lower melting temperature than cream. VOICE of the Hill / July 2005 If you've never tried making your own ice cream, there is no better season for mastering the essentials than National Ice Make a simple syrup by bringing the sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow syrup to cool completely. Purée the berries, citrus juice, and cooled syrup together in a blender or food processor. If desired, press purée through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds. Freeze in an ice cream maker or use the still-freeze method described above. Makes about one and half quarts. White Chocolate Ice Cream An unusual alternative to plain vanil·la, this is a Philadelphia style recipe. Use bars of good quality white bak·ing chocolate rather than white chocolate chips. 1½ cups whole milk 1 /2 cup sugar 8 ounces white chocolate, broken into chunks 12 cups heavy cream, chilled 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Heat the milk until it is just bub·bling around the edges. Place the sugar and white chocolate chunks in a blender or food processor, and pulse until the white chocolate is finely chopped. Add the hot milk to the blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool completely. Stir in cream and vanilla extract. Freeze in an ice cream maker or use the still-freeze method. Makes about one and a half quarts. This is Hill resident Therese Foote's sec·ond contribution to the Voice. Inside a Strange Parallel Universe The Washingtonienne By Jessica Cutler Hyperion 291 pages $23.95 BY THERESE FOOTE One of the most notorious Capitol Hill residents in recent memory was 26-year-old Senate staffer Jessica Cutler. Her story was released in late May 2004. The way most of us Hill staffers first heard about her was through a political humor and gossip website called Wonkette. The site posted a link to Cutler's online diary, where anyone could read Cutler's insou ·ciant and profanity-laced anecdotes about her on-and-off liaisons with six different men identified only by their initials. In the diary, Cutler explained that the $25,000-a-year salary she received from her job as a Senate mail room assistant was "thankfully subsidized" by two of her older lovers, one of whom just happened to be t he chief of staff of a government agency and a presidential appointee. At the speed of a few mouse-clicks on congressional staffers' computers, Cutler's office, name, and picture became public knowledge. Cutler lost her job and immediately became an object of intense media attention. As Cutler gave interviews to journalists and made a televised appearance, eventually posing for the cover article of an issue of the Washington Post Magazine, the ironic aspects of the story gained prominence. There was the fact that Cutler had worked in a legislative office known for its conservative political positions. There was the way in which pundits and commentators of all stripes declared their con·tempt for her with a gusto that bordered on fawning celebrity obsession. Most of all, there was the evidence for all to see that Cutler was profiting handsomely from the free publicity her antics had generated, as she was bombarded with lucrative offers to pose for men's magazines and calls from publishers proposing large book advances. The Washingtonienne is the novel that emerged. Set in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, with fre·quent mentions of local venues like Murky Coffee, Lounge 201, and La Colline, the book reads more like a thinly veiled memoir than a work of fiction. Just how raunchy is it? Let's just say, I wouldn't recommend reading it as a bedtime story to minors under the age of 21, and you are urged to call Child Protective Services if you hear of anyone doing so. Does the novel have any redeeming literary value? Cutler is no Jane Austen, and the text some·times reads like an email dispatch hastily composed while still under the influence of too many mar·tinis, but wry humor abounds, and countless aspects of life in Washington are ferociously skewered and set to roast in the flames. Is a typical Hill staffer's life like those in The Washingtonienne? Clearly, Cutler's story wasn't pulled out of thin air. But for many of us, The Washingtonienne presents a Capitol Hill that is almost unrec·ognizable as the place where we live, work and socialize. While we might take a guilty pleasure in peering into the strange parallel universe in which Cutler's narrative unfolds, we can be thankful, at the end of the day, that it isn't ours. Therese Foote also writes about making ice cream in this month's edition. Citywide News, continued from page 20 Orange Running for DC Mayor Speaking to his hundreds of guests, many of whom wore orange clothes, Orange admitted he is CURRENT STAFF REPORT an underdog, but said, "If you think you'll lose, you've lost. ... The man who wins is the one who Ward 5 Council member Vincent Orange thinks he can. ... I am the best." announced June 19 that he plans to give up his He said he is proud of the recent accomplish-council seat to run for mayor. ments of the DC Council and Mayor Williams, The Oakland, Calif., native made his plans known which include improvements to the District's bond at a Father's Day barbecue in the back yard of his rating. home behind Bunker Hill Elementary School off But the Howard Law School graduate added that Michigan Avenue in Northeast. the growing wealth of the District has not been He joins fellow Ward 4 Council member Adrian evenly distributed across the city. "We have a great Fenty in seeking to fill the job now occupied by foundation to build on." Mayor Anthony Williams, who has not announced He said the District needs to assure affordable whether he will seek a third term. housing for teachers and police officers and a far 42 better school system and better health care for everyone. It also needs to put District residents first, he said. "If you are a blue-collar worker, if you are a teacher ... you deserve to be able to live in the city," he said. When asked how he would ensure affordable housing, Orange said the District should purchase land to build new units. In an interview, Orange said education is the biggest problem facing District residents. Third-graders should know how to read, and fourth-graders should read in order to learn, he said. "We have the money to pay for" a first-class school sys·tem, he added. Orange said he is a beneficiary of a gifted-and-tal-ented program in the Oakland school system and wants to ensure the District starts one. He also said the school system should prepare children for jobs by providing vocational education. Orange said his father was a day laborer and his mother a worker for the Pullman Co. He benefited when some of his teachers paid for his summer music school out of their own pockets. "They gave me a chance to excel," he said. "We want to open the door to prosperity for everyone." The mayoral candidate criticized the school sys·tem for spending about $300 million a year on spe·cial education at schools outside the District's bor·ders, saying the mayor and DC Council should develop special-education programs on the St. Elizabeths campus east of the Anacostia River. When asked his thoughts on Fenty's proposed $1 billion bond issue to rebuild the District's many leaky schools, Orange said the proposal was not well-researched. "It has to be well thought-out, not just a grab for headlines. We can't give people false hopes," he said. Orange attacked the labor agreement proposed by Williams for construction of a new baseball stadi·um. "We shouldn't force people to join a union," he said, adding he would introduce emergency legisla·tion to prevent the Williams proposal from being approved by the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission. "I want to reduce the costs and give DC citizens the best chance," he said. He also said the proposal would not get the maxi·mum possible number of District residents involved in the stadium's construction. Only $750,000 of the $800 million spent for the convention center was spent locally, he said. "I'm going to trap our dollars at the border." "When the unemployment rate in Ward 8 is 21 percent," he added, "we must address unemploy·ment in the city. ... We have to be in the mind-set of DC first." With a jazz-band playing "Happy Days Are Here Again" in the background, he told the crowd, "Vincent Orange is running for mayor to give DC residents a better chance... because God gave me a better chance." Orange received his bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., in com·munications and business. After receiving his law degree from Howard, he went to work for Arthur Andersen's tax division. Orange, a certified public accountant who holds a master's degree in law and taxation from Georgetown University, spent three weeks at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in a post-graduate local government program. Orange chairs the DC Council's Government Operations Committee. His wife, Gwendolyn, is a former special-educa-tion teacher who now supervises a literary coaching program headquartered at Kelly Miller Middle www.voiceofthehill.com School. The couple's eldest son, Vincent Jr., is a ris·ing senior at Morehouse College in Atlanta. The middle child, Paul, is a rising senior at St. John's College High School in Chevy Chase, and their daughter, Janie, 9, will be in the fifth grade at Bunker Hill Elementary. Council Names McCarthy To Head Office of Planning The DC Council June 21 unanimously confirmed Ellen McCarthy, a Chevy Chase resident and veter·an of citizen and government planning efforts, to head the city's Office of Planning. McCarthy has overseen zoning and development review ever since the Planning Office was rebuilt by Mayor Anthony Williams under the leadership of director Anthony Altman. For the past six months, since Altman moved on to head the Anacostia Waterfront Corp., she has served as interim direc·tor. Every council member who spoke Tuesday offered warm praise. Ward 2 member Jack Evans, noting McCarthy's long career as a planning advocate, said she helped draft an overlay in Dupont Circle when he chaired the advisory neighborhood commission there in the 1980s. She also spearheaded efforts to create "a living downtown, not an office canyon," he added. Members Marion Barry of Ward 8 and Vincent Gray of Ward 7 referred to critics of McCarthy from Upper Northwest who testified during her confir·mation hearing. But they dismissed the critics of her work on the Upper Wisconsin Avenue Corridor Study. "It was fairly undeserved criticism," said Gray. "She's been collegial and responsive to the needs of Ward 7." Barry noted that the mayor is responsible for overall development policies. "If you're angry at McCarthy, you should be angry at the mayor," he said. No-Smoking Bills Gathering Momentum in City Council BY CHARLES BERMPOHL Current Staff Writer The smoke-filled room as a political tool would be a thing of the past in Washington under two bills that appear to have gathered overwhelming momentum on the DC Council following a hearing on the legis·lation last month. Eight of the 13 council members had pledged to support one or both of the smoke-free bills by June 14, and a ninth, Marion Barry of Ward 8, announced his intention to back "some ban" dur·ing the hearing in a crowded council room. Mayor Anthony Williams--previously opposed to a ban on smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants, because of a perceived threat to jobs and revenues--said in a statement yesterday that he would work with the council to implement "a reasonable smoking ban in public places and workplaces" to protect the health of workers against the effects of secondhand smoke. Williams, whose position was made known by City Administrator Robert C. Bobb, who spoke to the panel on behalf of the mayor, said in written tes·timony that he switched his stance on the smoking ban after learning that similar legislation in other jurisdictions did not produce the negative econom·ic impacts "some had feared." At-large Council member Carol Schwartz, who www.voiceofthehill.com chairs the Committee on Public Works and the Environment that held the hearing, stood alone in opposing the smoking ban, proposing instead a bill that would require powerful new ventilation sys·tems and higher license fees for establishments that continue to allow the Marlboro moment. And she seemed ready to concede defeat. "The votes may be there for a total ban regardless of what I do," she told the crowd filled with people on both sides of the issue but clearly weighted against smokers. She urged a compromise to protect the city's hospitality industry, with its vast reservoir of tax dollars. "Why would we choose to shoot ourselves in the foot by putting in a smoking ban?" she asked. "We have the highest unemployment in the region. Do we want more?" Her colleagues at the hearing gave her a reason for a smoke-free environ·ment: health. The entire debate, said Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham, "is a health issue first, second and fore·most." "People are dying. It's a health issue," said at-large member Kwame Brown. "It's really a question of public health," said Phil Mendelson, another at-large member. "The need to breathe clean air is worth more than a license to pollute," said Ward 4's Adrian Fenty. For others, especially those who spoke for the hospitality industry, the issues came down to jobs and the freedom to choose. "It is all about choice," said Lynne Breaux, execu·tive director of the 500-member Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. Breaux quickly added that it was also about saving the jobs of bartenders. Breaux brought a chortle from Ward 3 Council member Kathy Patterson when the restaurant industry executive said the potential for getting can·cer from secondhand smoke was "still open to ques·tion." But that possibility seemed to be no laughing matter to others who spoke for the industry. "I don't think there's a death certificate on record" that pinned a cause of death to secondhand smoke, said Andrew Klein, the general counsel of the restaurant association. Brown disputed that. "Secondhand smoke kills," he said. That was backed up by testimony from Dr. Donald Henson, who chairs the DC Cancer Control Coalition, who called lung cancer a contagious dis·ease because it can be "transferred from one person who smokes to another who doesn't." And Dr. Peter Shields, director of Cancer, Genetics and Epidemiology at the Georgetown University Medical Center, said bartenders are especially vul·nerable to secondhand smoke. Klein said that despite all the talk about health effects being tossed about, "an unemployed worker is not a healthy worker." And he asserted that there are bound to be more unemployed workers from an industry that would be especially hard-hit by a smoke ban. Graham acknowledged that there could be a "transitional period" of economic awkwardness fol·lowing the adoption of a smoking ban. But, he said, that would not affect the District's tourist industry because tourists "don't come here to drink bourbon and smoke cigarettes. They can do that in Kansas City. Do you think they'll go to Omaha if they can't smoke in DC?" he asked Klein. "They won't go to Omaha," responded Klein. "They'll go to Virginia." Barry, the former mayor, said he was concerned about the health of the hospitality industry, which he called "our biggest business." But he said some kind of ban was inevitable because a council major·ity supports one. As for himself, Barry said, "I support some ban. Have to." He then mentioned a friend who recently died of lung cancer. As it stands now, five members support the Smokefree Workplaces bill: Brown, Fenty, Mendelson, Patterson and Ward 7's Vincent Gray. All but Fenty are also co-sponsors of the companion bill, the Occupational Safety and Health Amendment Act, which is sponsored by Ward 6 Council member Sharon Ambrose. According to the citizens group Smokefree DC, Ward 2's Jack Evans favors those efforts. And Graham and Barry indicated in June that they each support some form of banning smoking. Schwartz said last month that if the smoking ban supporters have nine votes--the number necessary to adopt emergency legislation or override a may·oral veto--"it's all over but the shouting. Seven votes can prevail. I'm hoping to get a compromise." Schwartz Introduces No-Alcohol Legislation To 'Prove a Point' BY ELIZABETH WIENER Current Staff Writer Carol Schwartz, the DC Council's major holdout against attempts to ban smoking in city bars, restau·rants and nightclubs, on June 21 shocked and amused her colleagues by introducing legislation-- with the same rationale, she said--to ban those same establishments from serving alcohol. In a clearly sarcastic statement, Schwartz said the "impending smoking ban has empowered" her, and she said drinking is also a health hazard. "Some will say that not serving alcohol of any kind in our bars, restaurants and nightclubs will drive away business to the suburbs. That's ridiculous," she said. "We're DC. Our residents won't go anywhere else." Schwartz has argued a smoking ban would drive away business but has won no support for her alter·native proposal to grant tax incentives to businesses that bar smoking voluntarily. "But why bother with that approach," she said of the anti-alcohol propos·al. "I can just ban it outright. So much quicker and easier." She added, again sarcastically, that she is now "looking at some other legal choices to ban--like driving, or sex." The anti-drinking bill won no co-sponsors. It was referred to the council's Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, chaired by Ward 1's Jim Graham. "Do you think I should hold a hearing on prohi·bition?" he mused. "What would Congress think?" By that same afternoon, Schwartz announced she was withdrawing the bill, as she said she had intended to do all along. The politics of the proposed smoking ban are complicated. Bills to do so now have majority sup·port, but have been bottled up in Schwartz's com·mittee. On June 21 she said she will bring them to a vote only if "we can reach a compromise that the majority can agree to." But Ward 4 member Adrian Fenty, one of the orig·inal sponsors of the smoking legislation, said he may move it as an emergency bill--without com·mittee action--in September. That would be two years after the legislation was first proposed, he said. A separate bill by Ward 3 member Kathy Patterson would invoke a workplace smoking ban Continuege 57 More on White, with Advice on Traveling with Old Buildings BY JUDITH CAPEN ou may remember I mentioned a February washingtonpost.com article extolling white in which the author said "White is always right." I used the newspaper article to launch a rant against white. Then, in May, brows·ing in WashingtonPost.com for something else alto·gether and wondering what advice they were cur·rently giving, I clicked on another blip about white that opined "Fewer homeowners are playing it safe with shades of white..." The careful Washington Post reader could have put these two articles together over a three month span and learned something very instructive about. Let's think about what we have learned. White! What a joke. All fiberglass boats. Fine for porcelain bath fixtures since I would rather spend extra money elsewhere. In my previous rant, I mean column, I enumerat·ed the practical shortcomings of white having to do with cleaning, damage to the environment, the consumer and disposable society...This discussion about white is rooted in the historical economics of white as a color choice. But, we have a problem already. White is not a color. Both my children, one of whose name I'm allowed to use in this column, but I forget which, attended or are attending the School Without Walls Senior High School whose school "colors," as I never tire of pointing out, are not colors at all: black and white. Maybe the good part about this is that the whole idea of school colors is so lame you may as well take it another step to non-colors. The school's choice of non-"colors" is redeemed by the school mascot: the benign penguin with its charm·ing gait. To develop the contradictory package fur·ther is the fact that the School Without Walls does have walls: the historic ones of the 1873 Grant School in Foggy Bottom. Back to white is not a color. White is defined as being the presence of all colors just as black is defined as the absence of color. And brown? We won't venture there. I ask you, what does it say when you choose appli·ances, floor tile, cabinets, etc. etc. in a non-color? So much for science and on to American's historic use of white in and on buildings, as opposed to mak·ing no conscious color choice by using brick or nat·ural materials like stone, leaving wood to weather or otherwise lettering materials take care of them·selves color-wise. It turns out that paint of any kind was a luxury in the Colonial era. Many wood buildings, houses as well as outbuildings, were never painted. Survival trumped decorating. Besides, siding from old growth wood held up to weather much better than today's fast growth wood. The economic subtext of paint and color appears here: paint, and especially color, denoted affluence. By the 18th century, the most widely used finish for the largely rural and agrarian Colonies was whitewash: generally consisting of no more than quicklime slaked in water and brushed onto walls inside and out. Quicklime, manufactured by burn·ing limestone or shells, was used in quantity in mor·tar, as fertilizer, and in whitewash. Whitewash fin·ishes were often renewed annually, brightening up interiors subject to the dingy effects of soot from wood fires and tallow candles. For tallow candle think animal fat burning with generous amounts of smoke and smell. Besides the brightening effect, people considered whitewash to be cleansing, per·haps because of its caustic properties. To me, an interesting aspect of the ubiquity of whitewash is what it tells us about white buildings scattered about the landscape. Until relatively recently, white buildings meant whitewash: cheap, easy and available. Simple whitewashes evolved to include other ingredients added for various reasons. A common addition was casein or milk. (Casein is a milk-based product that forms a strong glue when mixed with an alkali e.g. lime...) Combine two readily available materials, quicklime and milk, add some pigment and you have a very decent paint. I've been told that "barn red" is achieved with milk, lime, and rust. Throughout history, colored earths were used for pigment but getting color in one's paint was usually too much bother and expense except for limited uses and the rich. Even with the development of commercial paints after the Civil War, white continued to dominate. White paint didn't fade and held up better than pig·mented paints. Thus, in spite of the advice of the color mavens of the late Victorian era to eschew greens (as referring to grass and leaves, materials of which houses were not built) and white, many Victorians painted their wood cornices, window frames, and sash white and their shutters green. Cheap and durable. There we have it - white. Love it for its ability to freshen and make new and for its durability. Hate it for its default ubiquity. And the fact that all those white appliances will never look as clean as they did on the day you plugged them in unless you never turn them on. Q. What book,more or less related to old houses, would you take to the beach? A. To be perfectly honest, I hate the heat, the sun, the gritty sand, and sticky salt water of the beach. However, I go to Cape May with my family because they all like the heat, sun, sand, and water and I can spend my time wandering about a vacation town of about the same era as Capitol Hill. The book I would, and do, take to Cape May is Cyril Harris' Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. I love the way building parts have names, often obscure. Once you know those names, you tend to notice the things named. While some might think it child abuse, I think it is wonderful that my daugh·ter saw and named a worm-track-like pattern in stone called "vermiculation" from when she was twelve. We do types of stone pretty successfully in the family, too. "Travel-teen" seemed like an appro·priate transformation of the travertine of which the Spanish Stairs in Rome are built by a teenager. Cyril Harris is my reliable source for the names of things. The problem with looking things up in Harris is how do you look up "crocket" if you don't know that the thing you are wondering about is a crocket? Now the fun starts. You begin at 'A' and page through looking at the illustrations. As you ramble through the 'A's' to the 'B's' and beyond, you meet old friends you've forgotten and make new acquaintances. "Jerkin head" had long been hard for me to hold onto so I'm always pleased to run into it in Harris. I'm hopeless about molding profile identification so I welcome cyma recta and reversa, hopeful that meeting them once again may cement those profiles in my memory. Almost always I even·tually find what I originally set out for. The disappointing exception is Harris' refusal to accept "lamb's tongue" for that bit of curved termi·nation at the chamfer on wood columns from the Victorian-era. I also continue to think there is a bet·ter name for the sawn gingerbread set in between columns on Victorian-era porches than we've found in Harris or anyone else. But, two disappointments out of all the entries is pretty modest. Even if I don't find what I'm looking for, it's an absorbing trip and Harris never whines or asks for skee ball money. Going to Europe Q. We're going on a Mediterranean cruise in late September that will make stops in Rome, Florence, and Athens. This is my first trip to Europe and I am realizing that it is all about old buildings. Do you have some recommendations about what we should be sure to see? A. Lucky you! You are going to some of my favorite places and with three thousand years of great build·ings, too. Naturally, my main recommendation is to see lots of built environment. But I'm the person who goes to Cape May and often doesn't make it to the beach even once. As to what to see: any tour package provides a thumbnail list of "must-sees" so I would suggest what to see is not really an issue. The real issue is how to see what you are looking at. For that, my advice is to get a copy of A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method by Sir Banister Fletcher. Mine is the 17th edition, purchased for $17.95 as a callow undergrad, weighing in at 1,366es. They're up to much higher editions by now but since Sir Banister did his best job on European architecture through the eighteenth century and those buildings are changing little, I recommend buying an old edition as cheaply as possible as a used book. You can probably get the same fine edi·tion I have for a fraction of what I paid 35 years ago. Be warned, though, it is a lot more book than any binding can support. One fall from desk height and the binding goes. I recommend Scotch Book Tape 845, which I get through the various office supply catalogs we use at the office since I don't shop in person. I really don't believe any adhesive product is archival but librarians I know use it, so I have relaxed my archival standards in favor of extending book life. I also use Elmer's glue in my do-it-myself book repair. Sir Banister, as we called A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method in college, is one of the best, and most desiccated, traveling companions ever for Europe. Sir Banister's 14 pages on Chinese archi·tecture hardly does 2500 years of Chinese building justice. But, Europe! Sir B has fourteen pages on Belgian and Dutch Gothic architecture alone. Nineteenth and 20th century architecture in Continental Europe, which included the entire modern movement, rates only 59 pages and "Architecture of the Americas" get 53 pages. In my edition, "Architecture in the East" includes not a single mention of Africa, South America, or Indochina. Clearly, Sir Banister is not the guy to take everywhere, but Europe: absolutely. When my husband and I were ignorant youth in undergraduate architecture school, in a school still in the throes of Bauhaus modernism, architectural history was given short shrift by everyone, students and teachers alike. Thus, our ignorance remained largely unchallenged. However, our architectural history textbook was Sir Banister and, as a required text, we bought it and kept it on our bookshelves until we had grown up enough to appreciate it. As arrogant undergraduates, we found Sir Banister vir·tually unreadable. His 1,366 pages are solid with text alternating with pages of drawings and photo·graphs equally densely packed with information. The writing style is totally of the "just the facts, your time. His chapters such as "Greek Architecture" or later "Italian Romanesque" begin with precisely the context-setting information we all need. He sets the geographical, geological, cli·matic, religious, social, and historical stage, with wonderfully succinct paragraphs on each. Then he moves to a page or two on architectural character and finishes with the bulk of the chapter on examples. This is where his deliciously dry style pays off. Instead of great looping discursive conjec·ture, Sir Banister puts boat loads of information before you with the occasional eminently sensible bit of causation applied to architecture (the north·ern French Gothic style is highly ornamented so that it will still be richly figured in a climate that is frequently overcast). It was when the youngest member of our family was travelable that we discovered Sir Banister as the perfect traveling companion to Europe. With Sir Banister we understood why the oldest building still under roof any of us had been in, the Pantheon in Rome, still had a roof. Sir Banister, in an astonishing departure from his usual style, recommended an experiment with an orange to illustrate how the Byzantines got a round dome on the square plan of Santa Sophia in Istanbul. In Greece, Sir Banister cov·ered several millennia of Greek history with dis·patch and got on with what all that history meant to their buildings. Sir Banister is much too weighty to travel with unless you're going the steamer trunk route so I sug·gest pre-departure work at the photo-copier. For Rome and Florence you will want to copy the chap·ters on Roman Architecture, Romanesque Architecture in Europe, Italian Romanesque, Italian Gothic, and the Italian Renaissance. For Athens, do the Greek Architecture and Byzantine Architecture (and be sure to have an orange handy) chapters. For both Italy and Greece, read over the chapters on Early Christian Architecture and Renaissance Architecture in Europe. All this totals 275 pages; maybe a little daunting, but most of these pages are on specific buildings you won't be visiting so don't copy them. At the photocopier, look at the material just enough to know what pages to copy then plan to do your reading on the long plane ride over and in those days-at-sea between ports. Have a wonderful trip! Don't forget the sunscreen and your sketchbook. The quiz will be when you get back. How highly regarded is Sir Banister outside this column? I know this sounds like I own shares in the Sir Banister company, but here is what Borders has to say about Sir B: "Banister Fletcher has been the stan·dard one-volume architectural history for a hun·dred years and continues to give a concise and factu·al account of world architecture from the earliest times." The publisher adds "in the words of Sir Banister Fletcher, this book shows that 'Architecture ... pro·vides a key to the habits, thoughts and aspirations of the people, and without a knowledge of this art the history of any period lacks that human interest with which it should be invested.'" Q. I really want to go to New Zealand for a year, or a semester, with AFS. My mother thinks I should go but my father thinks I'm too young to be away for for a whole year. Besides, what an opportunity to learn a foreign language: Kiwi. I think your father will come around. Judith Capen, preservation architect and author of this column, would like to wish her son and her Volvo sta·tion wagon Happy Birthday. Her son will be 16, her car 20, both this summer. She would like to remind her son of the advanced age of the car in hopes that he will wait until he is as old as the car to begin driving. ma'am" school. Lots of facts, no hyperbole, no effu·sions, no poetic and verbose interpretations. So, what is it about this book? Sir Banister is like that difficult anything that rewards you if you take the trouble to make some effort. As I discovered, later in life than I would like to admit, you must approach Sir Banister like a reference work, taking so long. I'll be seventeen and half when I leave and my mother started college when she was only seventeen! What do you think? Tell our advertisers A. I say go! Life with all its complications catches up you found them in the with us all too soon. Every year will make it harder Voice of the Hill. to imagine picking up and going to another country Delirious from the Heat: Food, Friends & Assorted Summer Tips BY LINDA NORTON ced tea weather is here and today I'm lamenting the move to North Carolina of my friend, Martha Marble and her husband Ray. Martha is the iced tea champ. You can go into her house at any our, day or night and there is always a freshly made pitcher of iced tea on the counter. It's the good "southern" kind of tea; brisk and pale, slightly sweet, that clears your throat and your mind and fosters good conversation. I will miss Martha and her tea, her yard full of flowers and so much more about our sisterhood of 25 years. Whenever I drink tea I feel a connection to her. DC is a Summer Town Summer like all seasons, has its evocative scents and sounds, and tastes, but in the heat of summer they are magnified. Stagger home at the end of a long, difficult day and to be greeted by the heavenly smoke from your neighbor's chicken barbeque and you know it's summer time in Washington (and that you'd do just about anything for some of that chicken). Honeysuckle and other fragrant vines line our fences and alleyways making even the walk to the subway a pleasant sensory experience. On the entirely other end of the spectrum is the occasional early morning when you open your front door to be assaulted with "l'eau de Blue Plains" heavy on breeze from the south. Hot weather brings us out of our houses. We relax with a cool drink on our front stoop and all of those neighbors we've missed over the winter stop to catch up as they pass by. This year the population explosion is obvious in all its pastel clad glory as the baby stroller brigade has mushroomed. Gardening has become more serious and our yards and tree boxes look better than ever. The fact that there are few yards in town that require a lawnmower, buzzing "weedwackers" are gaining popularity over push lawnmowers as the tool of choice for cutting the grass. There are so many new neighbors to meet and old friends to keep up with. The pundits may whine about what a dreadful place Washington is to live; but the real Washington can't be beat for beauty and tight knit neighborhoods. My own grown sons feel that they have many "mothers" here in the neighborhood. These people have helped shape who they are. They are the vil·lage who has raised our children and we feel hon·ored to have had their influence. We live close together; we know each other here in the city. We look out for each other and help each other. Capitol Hill is a place where everyone speaks when they pass on the street, whether they know each other or not. The children know you and you know them, and look out for them. Washington heatwaves like the one which we have recently experienced, always bring more frequent ambu·lance and fire calls. Many of these calls are to treat heat related health problems. The heat is very tough on the elderly of our community, many of which live in un-air-conditioned homes. If you have neigh·bors who suffer heat related difficulties, try to be in touch to see if there is anything that you can do to make them more comfortable. Even the loan of an electric fan can make a big difference. Severe heat conditions are no joke. They can take a high toll on your health and play havoc with your budget. Here are some suggestions for keeping cool and keeping the lid on your utility bills: · Keep shades or blinds drawn during the day. They will not only keep out the direct sun, but will provide another layer of insulation. Blinds and shutters are useful because they can be adjusted to keep out the sun, while still allowing some light into your room allowing minimal electric light levels. Sheer curtains provide some relief and when used with a lining fabric which operates independently can block heat in the summer and cold in the win·ter. · Use minimal electric lighting (especially high heat halogen fixtures). Replace high wattage incan·descent light bulbs with full spectrum fluorescents. · When wiring a room, it's always advisable to have switches for several different lighting plans. This will enable you to decrease the lights in use at any one time. · Programmable thermostats will enable auto·matic fluctuations. If you don't have one keep your thermostat at a low/even setting rather than turn·ing air conditioning off when you leave for work and then having to re-cool the house each evening. * Installation of ceiling fans strategically through·out the house will keep the air moving and reduce strain on air-conditioners. You'll probably also be able to increase your temperature setting by two or three degrees. · Open your double hung windows from the top down when you're trying to clear the heat from a room. This works well in rooms like kitchens where there is significant heat build up near the ceiling or in bedrooms where you want to avoid a direct draft. · Open your transoms. Rowhouses built pre-air conditioning usually have glass transoms above the interior doors. (Often these have been painted shut and will need to be pried open.) Although you will experience some loss of privacy, the heat which builds up near the ceiling can be circulated and cooled. · If you have a steep enough pitch to your roof, install an attic fan. Nightly use of this exhaust fan will clear the hot air which has built up in your attic over the course of the day. · By keeping steamy showers and boiling pasta pots to a minimum you can dramatically reduce the humidity level in your home. This will also save additional strain on your cooling system · Be kind, we're all in the same boat. And now, for something completely different. I don't know how it is at your home, but the volume of mail that we receive each day is ridiculous. When I was a child the mailman came twice a day to pick·up and deliver mail. My sister and I would watch for the truck and run out to see if there was any mail. There was not always mail and we would have to report "No mail, just the paper," that being the newspapers, which our paperboy delivered both morning and afternoon. Now I'm happy to have given up the rural style mailbox in favor of a mail slot. I do find, however, that often the bulk of the mail is such that I have difficulty opening the front door. Have you ever gone away for a few days (too few to have a house sitter) and returned home to find that you really can't open the door fully because it's blocked by a mountain of mail? Does this pile consist of passionate love letters, interesting missives from long lost friends or care·fully lettered invitations to wonderful social gather·ings? Anyone would feel honored to be so admired. No, the pile is made up of several bills, lots of "spe·cial offers," frequent requests from charities to whom you sent $25.00 at the end of last year (which they obviously spent to send you more requests for money), magazines and flyers, lots of catalogs, mis-delivered mail and, with by far the largest volume, credit card offers. How much profit can credit card companies make when they send us at least one card offer per day (per company). If we signed up for every card that is offered to us "pre-approved" we could charge more purchases than we could pay for in five lifetimes. I suppose that is why they send the offers. Yesterday I received one for my business which would give me a credit limit of $100,000! "Wow," I thought, "this is great!" But wait, that means that I would owe the hundred grand plus interest. The idea that someone, somewhere thinks that it would be a good thing to charge that much money on a credit card is surreal to me. The idea that if that piece of junk mail fell into the wrong hands it could result in a financial disaster with years of complicat·ed wrangling with vendors brings me to the point of the story. Buy a shredder; put it where you open your mail and use it daily. No, shredders are not par- www.voiceofthehill.com ticularly attractive, but find a way to position or conceal it so that using it becomes habit. The Direct Marketing Association can actually help you in this quest to lessen your junk mail load. At their web site: www.the-dma.org or www.dma-consumers.org you can go to a section called "Getting off mailing lists". By joining their Mail Preference Service (for $5) you can greatly reduce the amount of nationally generated unsolicited mail that you receive. You can also request removal from e-mail and phone lists. Within three or four months you should notice a marked decline in unwanted mail (according to the website). It will be interesting to see if this really works. I'll let you know. In the meantime, ask someone to pick up your mail while you're gone and have a great vaca·tion! Note to those people who want a decorating job completed by the winter holidays: Start now to insure completion! Linda Norton Interiors can be reached at norton@olg.com. Linda is a regular contributor to the Voice on decorating and other "home and hearth" related matters. Tell our advertisers you found them in the Voice of the Hill. n an effort to better serve the business commu·nity, the Capitol Hill BID assigned Michael Baxter the new job of homeless outreach/safety ambassador. Michael works in partnership with the various homeless outreach service providers within the District, including the Capitol Hill Group Ministry and the Downtown DC Service Center. In this position, Michael is tasked with the fol·lowing: · Monitor and get to know the homeless popula·tion within the BID; · Work with the local homeless services organiza·tions (e.g., shelters, intake and treatment facili·ties, soup kitchens, etc.) within the District of Columbia; · Provide the BID a weekly report on contacts Meet Michael Baxter-- Ambass ador to the Homeless homeless; briefing with Capitol · Respond to the business community and police Hill BID Executive requests regarding the homeless; Director Patty Brosmer · Attend monthly meetings assigned by BID man-and the other safety agement; and ambassadors, Baxter · Remain the extra "eyes and ears" for the police pulls two bottles of and deter crime and nuisance behavior. water out of the refrig-The BID's Homeless Outreach/Safety Ambassador erator and puts them in Michael Baxter, the BIDs homeless outreach and safety ambassador, talks to some of the Hill's homeless during a recent patrol of the neighborhood. Photo courtesy of Douglas Graham/Roll Call hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 10:30 am to 7 pm. As a safety ambassador, Michael is first aid and CPR certified. Jennifer Lash, a staff reporter for Roll Call newspa·per did a nice profile of Michael in his new role in the June 21, 2005 edition. We received permission to reprint the article here. Promptly at 10:30 a.m., Michael Baxter enters the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District trailer in the Union Station parking garage, ready for another day as the BID's homeless outreach/safety ambassa·dor. Baxter's homeless outreach position is new to the two-year-old BID and was created to offer help for the area's homeless population, as well as for Hill businesses that have had problems with the home·less. his waistpack. As he adjusts the hat on his head and turns to walk out of the trailer, the bright yellow block letters reading "AMBASSADOR" are clear as day across his shoulders. Baxter's blue ambassador uniform threw some of the homeless in the Hill are for a loop, as he said a few of them took "offense at first, they think I'm the police and there to hassle them." But Baxter is out there each day trying to help them and now, four months into his position, he said he knows the majority of the homeless within the Capitol Hill Bid. Ambassadors on the Hill The Capitol Hill BID and its ambassadors "provide enhanced services from what the city provides," mainly in the areas of hospitality and security, Baxter said. Baxter was one of five safety ambassa· dors for the Capitol Hill BID before adding his homeless outreach duties. While he still goes through the same daily routine as the other ambassadors, Baxter said he now also stops "to talk to the homeless and get them to trust me." A few other responsibilities come with Baxter's new title, such as monitoring and getting to know the homeless population within the BID, working with local home· less services organizations, responding to area business and police requests regarding the homeless and helping the police by keeping an eye out in an effort to deter crime and nuisance behavior. All of the safety ambassadors go through a rigor·ous training program, including a minimum of 120 hours of customer service training and familiarizing themselves with the Hill. They all take tours of the buildings, such as the Capitol, Supreme Court and Library of Congress, so they know them first-hand and are able to give tourists the most accurate infor·mation. Getting to Know You Baxter said his new post as homeless outreach/safe-ty ambassador has been more of a challenge than he expected. "It's like they don't want to be bothered," Baxter said. "It can be hard. But once you break 'em down, they get to know you." Baxter said his job is great "if you like being around people," but there are some homeless on the Hill who haven't yet warmed up to Baxter. As he's out on his patrol route, Baxter makes a point to at ©Copyright 2005, Roll Call Inc. www.voiceofthehill.com least say hello to the homeless he sees, and he'll stop to chat for a while with those who are comfortable talking with him. "Everyone talks to me, but everyone has their days," Baxter said. "They're in their own little world --the only way to find out what's going on is to talk to them." Baxter has learned a lot about the homeless in the past few months. He said most of them have fami·lies but "don't want to bother them because of their habits." Many of the homeless are addicted to alcohol and drugs and that's what they buy as soon as they have asked for enough money, Baxter said, adding that this cycle can lead to aggressive panhandling. "Drugs are more expensive and harder to get," Baxter said. "If they're having a slow day [panhan·dling], they will go for alcohol." Some days are not slow, however, as Baxter said he knows some homeless who have made $200 in four or five hours. More often than not, it's local resi·dents who give money to the homeless rather than tourists because the locals see the same panhandlers every day. When trying to help the homeless, it's best to let them dictate the conversation, but Baxter said he "slide[s] in" ways they can get help. being homeless as a "living on your own terms - you make your own rules," and that's a hard thing to steer them away from because "once you're on the streets, it's in you." Change for the Better Brosmer said there have been fewer complaints about the homeless from businesses and communi·ty members since Baxter started his job. "It's a relief for businesses to have a number to call" when they're having problems with the home·less, Brosmer said. "And the other [safety ambassa·dors] help him out, they're all trained in that." Baxter said the area at Pennsylvania Avenue and Third Street Southeast is the "most improved are in terms of the homeless." And while Baxter admitted that his job is more difficult than he originally thought, he goes out on his patrol routes every day as prepared as he can be. "It's hard to get them to go to a program - when they do come to me, I've got to be ready, got to have all the information they need on hand," Baxter said. "If you're not there and ready to take action, things can change the next day." To reach Michael Baxter, please call 202-369-1696. "I'll say, 'You getting tired of sleeping on the streets, George?' and he'll say, 'Yeah," and I'll say, 'You don't have to do this - they have this, this and this" available, Baxter said. But once they're living on the streets it becomes a lifestyle for them, and Baxter said many of them aren't ready to give that up. He added that they see Patty Brosmer is the executive director of the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District (BID) and submits a monthly column covering BID-related issues. Patty is also a licensed real estate agent, an avid photographer, and the mother of a 20 year old son. She can be reached at pbrosmer@capitolhillbid.org or by calling 202-842-3333. What is on your to-do list for this fall? Work on your career? Learn new skill? Pursue a hobby? Join the Graduate School, USDA for our fall term of evening and weekend classes beginning September 12. We offer courses ranging from human resources management and information technology to environmental studies and foreign languages, all designed for busy Washingtonians who want to improve their careers or enrich their lives. Upgrade your skills in Windows XP Professional, learn Arabic or explore local ecosystems. NEW THIS FALL! 50 new and exciting information technology courses! For more information, visit our Web site at www.grad.usda.gov or call us toll-free at (888) 744-GRAD. Feeling a Bit Crabby? BY DUG Y. LEE uly makes me think of humidity, sun, beach, swimming, tank tops and...crabs. No, not the Chesapeake Bay variety but the astrological symbol for Cancer. For those of you who, like me, were born under this sign, we have been plagued for centuries with the unearned image of a lowly slothful bottom-feeder. But, is it any wonder crabs don't move very well? After years of constant·ly bent legs, they are now handicapped with joints that are inflexible and hard to straighten, severely limiting their range of motion. Quite sad, really. This brings me to the topic of flexibility. If you don't use it, you do lose it. In order to maintain proper joint motion and muscle length, body parts should be taken through full range of motion on a regular basis. In most of our bed-to-chair-to-car-to-office lives, o ur limbs and trunk are kept pretty immobile. Even for those who exercise regularly, unless intentional stretching is part of the regimen, the body is still not taken through the entire avail·able range of motion. Rules of the Game Three main elements of stretching should be kept in mind: time, repetition and form. Proper form must always be maintained to prevent injury while stretching. Make sure body parts are lined up prop·erly, you continue to breathe and only stretch to the point of feeling a stretch, not pain. Contrary to the '70s aerobics teachings, don't bounce while your stretch. The motion should be smooth and then held still. Repetition and time are closely related. In order to improve the flexibility of any specific muscle, you must stretch that particular muscle for two minutes a day. This can be one stretch that lasts for two min·utes, four stretches that last 30 seconds, or any other derivation. To maintain the flexibility that you already have and to prevent injury and help recov·ery from exercise, my general recommendation is to hold each stretch for 30 seconds, relax, and repeat. Ideally, do this once a day after your body is warmed up. Specific Stretches Here are some basic stretches covering the major body parts. All the instructions are written to stretch your left side. Repeat for the right side. And of course, never engage in a new exercise program without approval from a medical professional. People with joint ailments, osteoporosis, or poor circulation should use extra caution. · Calves: Stand and face a wall. Move your right foot forward until the toes are nearly touching the wall. Keep your left foot back behind you. Both heels remain on the floor and both sets of toes face forward. Place your hands on the wall at chest height and lean forward, bend your right knee but keep your left knee straight. · Achilles tendon and front of the hip: Repeat the beginning stance for the Calf stretch stopping before you place your hands on the wall. Instead of leaning forward, lean your torso slightly back. Bend the left knee, keep your left heel on the ground, and push your pelvis forward until you feel a stretch in the front of the left hip and behind the left heel. · Front of thighs (quadriceps): Lie down on your right side and keep your body straight. Grasp your left foot with your left hand (if you can't reach, wrap a towel around your foot and grasp the towel) and pull it behind you. Your left knee is bent and both thighs are still lined up and in full contact with each other. · Back of thighs (hamstrings): Lie on your back with your right knee bent and foot flat on the ground. Wrap a towel around your left foot and gen·tly pull the towel toward you, keeping the left leg straight. · Buttocks: Sit in a chair and cross your left ankle over your right thigh. Bend at the waist bringing your chest straight down toward your lap. · Hips: Stand with your right side facing a wall. Support yourself with your right hand on the wall. Cross your left leg behind your right leg. With both feet on the ground, push your left hip out to the left while simultaneously pointing your head and torso toward the wall (visualize a "C" with the opening facing the wall). Keep your entire trunk facing for·ward; prevent any twisting. · Lower back: Kneel on the ground with the tops of your feet flat on the ground, thighs pressed together. Sit back on your heels. While maintaining this butt-heel contact, bow down from the waist until your hands are on the floor in front of you and your arms are straight. Allow your head to drop down between your arms. · Upper back: Face and stand two feet in front of a sturdy stationary object that you can securely grasp with both hands at the same time (i.e. bedpost, some door handles, any kind of bar attached to a wall). Grasp the object with both hands. Your hands are touching each other and both arms are straight. Bend your knees and sit back allowing your weight to fall behind your feet. Tuck your head between your arms so that a straight line could be drawn from your hands down to your tailbone. · Chest: Stand in a doorway. Bring both arms up to chest height and out to your sides, bend your elbows 90 degrees. Place both sets of elbows and forearms on the walls on either side of the doorway. Lean forward with your torso. · Shoulders: Straighten your left arm and extend it directly in front of your left shoulder. Take your right hand and place it on the outside of your left arm, just above the elbow. Pull the left elbow toward your chest. Make sure you keep your torso straight with no twisting. · Back of arms (triceps): Extend your left arm straight and point up at the ceiling. Your left upper arm should be next to your left ear. Bend your left elbow. Take your right hand and place it just below your left elbow and push the left arm back. · Front of arms (biceps): Stand and extend both arms out, pointing in opposite directions to your left and right. Twist your arms until both thumbs are pointed at the ground. · Neck: Sit tall and wrap your left arm behind your lower back. Take your right arm and wrap it over the top of your head, placing your hand on the left side of your head. Bend your head to the right while facing forward and apply a light pressure with the right hand. Fellow Cancers (and bottom-feeding-wannabes)! Unite and break the stereotypical binds that tie you up into cramped positions! Stretch and look ahead to the sleekly flexible Leo lions coming up close behind. Dug Y. Lee is a freelance writer, personal trainer, and graduate student in applied behavioral science. Please send birthday wishes, comments, questions and requests to her at . The Boys of Summer BY BETH LAMBDIN n the credits of The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, local filmmaker Aviva Kempner dedi·cated her film "to the return of major league baseball to and statehood for Washington, D.C." Well, one out of two ain't bad. This month's column celebrates the return of our favorite pastime to the nation's capital. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998, Rated PG) Kempner labored for 13 years to make this docu·mentary about Hank Greenberg, one of baseball's greats. Her efforts pay off with a fascinating and inspiring film. In opening scenes, Greenberg fans Walter Matthau and Alan Dershowitz attest to what an important symbol Greenberg was for Jews--and Madigan), Ray mows down his crop and puts his for all Americans. Greenberg played during a time of farm and family at risk by building a baseball field in rabid anti-Semitism in the 1930s and 40s. In 1932, the middle of nowhere. Now, "they" have a place to he was pulled over for speeding and the cop asked, come and Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) shows "Who the hell ever heard of a Greenberg playing up. Other dead baseball stars join the disgraced baseball?" This insult was mild compared to the Shoeless, who was banned from the game for throw-slurs Greenberg would endure for the duration of ing the 1919 World Series. The boys of summer are his career. Nicknamed "Hankus Pankus," at 6'4," delighted to be "home" and play the game they Greenberg was a lumbering, ungainly giant, but no love. But, something's missing for Ray. Although matter, he got the job done--and then some. he's not fully conscious of it, he's on a mission relat-Playing nearly his entire career for the Detroit Tigers ed to his father, also deceased. He gets help from an (until he was gracelessly traded to Pittsburgh), unlikely alliance with activist author Terence Mann Greenberg was a power hitter who in 1938 was shy (James Earl Jones). The scenes between Ray and of Babe Ruth's homerun records by two runs. He Terence are some of the best in the film. And, don't played first base for the first half of his career, moved miss the scenes stolen by Burt Lancaster in his last to the outfield in 1940 and subsequently became role. Is the outcome of this film ever really in ques·the only player to be chosen MVP at two different tion? Nope, but suspend your cynicism and revel in positions. "Hardworking Hank" emulated Lou the sweetness of this film--they're a dying breed. Gehri, (see Pride of the Yankees) and like Gehrig, was humble about his achievements. Greenberg wore Damn Yankees his Jewish heritage proudly and used the constant barrage of slurs as motivation to excel--and inspire (1958, Not Rated) those who followed. How many Washingtonians share the sentiment of the title? After a successful three-year run on Field of Dreams Broadway, musical maestro Stanley Donen and pro-ducer/playwright George Abbott brought this huge-(1988, Rated PG) ly popular play about our national pastime to the This film ages well. When I first saw it back in '89, I silver screen. And, for the first few scenes of the film, thought it was set in Oklahoma where as the song I thought it might be great fun. As the film opens, says, "the corn grows as high as an elephant's eye." aging Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) curses those "damn While there's a major "corn" factor here, I'm now Yankees" as he watches his beloved Washington feeling fonder about films filled with themes of Senators lose yet another game and fall to seventh redemption and second chances. Phil Alden place in the race for the pennant. The curse seems Robinson directs Kevin Costner, channeling Jimmy innocuous enough, right? Wrong! Somehow, Joe Stewart as Ray Kinsella, a reluctant Iowa farmer who has conjured up Mr. Applegate, aka the devil (we one day hears "the voice," which says, "If you build know he's Satan by his red socks and tie, and ability it, he will come." I remembered, "if you build it, to light cigarettes with flaming fingers) played they will come." Turns out, the "they" has to come rather blandly by Ray Walston. Mid-song, middle-before the "he," but I'm getting ahead of myself. aged Joe transforms into studly Joe (Tab Hunter) With the reluctant support of his wife (Amy and the rest of the story progresses in predictable 1950's musical fantasy fashion. Instantaneously, Joe's a lean, mean hitting machine and the Senators, once a bunch of hapless boobs are sudden·ly red hot. Joe's another one of those mid-western "aw shucks" kind of guys who neglects but deeply loves his long-suffering wife, Meg (Shannon Bolin). However, devil man is going to put that love to the test and recruits his protégé Lola (Gwen Verdon) to seduce Joe. Bob Fosse choreographed the dancing and I hoped for some steamy dance scenes, but with the exception of one number towards the end of the film, "Two Lost Souls," the dance sequences are rather silly. View this film as a period piece and then maybe the cornball dialogue, overacting and cringe-inducing stereotypes will be less painful. The Pride of the Yankees (1942, Not Rated) We liked our movies sappy back in the '40s. Director Sam Wood (with a heavy dose of Frank Capra) gives us an idealized portrayal of baseball legend Lou Gehrig as played by another legend, Gary Cooper. Being made so soon after Gehrig's untimely death in 1941, it would have been impossible not to ideal·ize him. And, Gehrig certainly has a compelling story. Gehrig's German parents (Elsa Janssen, Ludwig Stössel) immigrated to America believing it was the land of opportunity. They labored in low paying jobs and Lou's mother fervently wished for Lou to attend Columbia (where she was a cook) and earn a degree in engineering. But, we see young Lou belt a baseball like no other kid in the neighbor·hood. Despite strong apron strings tied to Momma, Lou follows his passion and while at Columbia signs with the Yankees in 1923. Not bad for a kid from the tenements in New York City. Although Cooper is too old for the part, he's still appealing as the thor·oughly decent and naïve Gehrig. A tireless worker, earning him the nickname, "The Iron Horse," he earns a place in baseball history with phenomenal statistics including the 2,130 consecutive games he played until illness felled him in 1939. A vivacious Teresa Wright (who died recently) plays Eleanor Twitchell, the love of Lou's short life. Earning an incomprehensible 11 academy award nominations (and one win for editing), this is an enjoyable but mediocre film elevated by the presence of Cooper and Wright and of course, Gehrig's stirring farewell speech to 62,000 adoring fans at Yankee Stadium. Only a boulder could remain unmoved. Beth Lambdin reviews movies you can rent or purchase for your own armchair viewing every other month in The Voice of the Hill. Despite Increase in Funding, Public Library System Still Hurting BY RA CHEL KOLANDER Special to The Voice of the Hill ayor Anthony Williams recently approved a $ 1.3 million increase to the DC public library system's operating budget, topping the blighted system's account to just over $ 30 million, but years of neg·lect have hurt the public library system. It's a start. Although lawmakers and the public have begun to pay attention to the poor condition of the DC's libraries, many foundational problems still need to be fixed. Mary "Mimi" Hernandez, Northeast Library branch librarian, spoke of her gratitude for the mayor's increased budget. However, she'd "love to see more books and materials, longer operating hours and more staff." The Friends of the Northeast Library branch has supplemented the library's needs for almost 25 years, but private donations and nonprofit organizations can only help so much. "We're not going to fix this overnight," said Leonard Minsky, co-founder of the advocacy group DC Library Renaissance Project. "The buildings are in bad shape. We took pictures of moldy carpets, bullet holes in windows, tattered American flags, electrical wires hanging out, and holes in the ceil·ing." Conditions have only slowly been improving, Minsky added. Lack of Funding There are several reasons for the library's consistent lack of funds. Monica Lewis, director of marketing and public communications for the DC public library system, chalked up the decades-long lack of funding to the difficulty of gaining back money after necessary cuts in hard times. She also said the librarians' natural resiliency caused problems. "One of the things I've noticed over the last four years is that [librarians] will do whatever they have to do to serve their customer, even if it's taken from their own pocket. As libraries kept taking cuts, the librarians kept rising to the challenge." The librarians couldn't compensate forever and the cracks began to show. After the mayor's office asked the library to cut nearly a million dollars in 2002, people started to notice the crumbling library system. "[The cut] hit people where it hurt," Lewis said. "It was a clarion call." But Minsky had a different reason for the library's "chronic under-funding." "The library's been oriented the wrong way," he said. "It's been built for a middle class with the assumptions that 1) people are literate; and 2) peo·ple will go to the library to get a bestseller or use the computers. We can't fix the library by putting in more computers. We have to get the library to pay attention to literacy." Lewis pointed out the DC Public Library has an Adult Resource Literary Center (ARLC) made up of 13 collections of easy-to-read materials for adult learners, as well as pre-GED and GED materials. The ALRC staff counsels test takers, leads book discus·sions and manages the literacy Help-Line. The library does not, however, provide direct instruction to adults on how to read. It refers those who want to learn to read to DC LEARNS, a coalition of professional literacy providers. She also stated "the DC Renaissance Project has no decision-making authority and does not always have the same goals as the library's nine-member board of trustees." She continued, "That does not negate an advocacy's group's ideas. Although we do not have identical thoughts, their work has been very helpful." The library, its branches, and the DC Library Renaissance Project think the arrival of new interim director, Francis J. Buckley, Jr., this past April will continue to add new morale to the library. Buckley and the board of trustees delayed launch·ing reconstruction on the four libraries: Anacostia, Benning, Tenley-Friendship and Watha T. Daniel/ Shaw. The libraries have $20 million in capital funds, and they are still on sche dule for completion in 2006, according to Lewis. "We have to serve the everyday people," said Hernandez, whose Northeast library also has adult basic learning resources. "The Smithsonian and Library of Congress are wonderful libraries but we have to think in terms of the person in DC: the mom and dad who have a preschooler... the adult who needs to learn to read... the home schooling The Latest in Wireless BY FAY SINGER ast summer I wrote a column extolling the virtues of wireless computing from my "gar·den office." I pointed out that wireless net·working is an especially attractive alternative for older buildings on Capitol Hill, as well as the ability to move your office outdoors. While hard wired networks are generally faster and more reli· able than wireless, their installation means you are faced with a maze of unsightly cables or expensive renovations to hide the cables behind walls. Unfortunately, wireless signals often cannot pen ·etrate the thick brick walled construction typical in older buildings such as those on the Hill. For exam ·ple, my wireless access point was located in my office on the second floor at the back of the house. I had no signal in my living room, located on the first floor at the front of the house. The signal elsewhere on the first floor varied from weak, to poor to non ·existent. My "garden office" is located within line sight of the wireless access point at a distance of about 70 feet. There were no brick walls running interference - just glass, a few small tree limbs and air. However, the signal was usually "low" and I would frequently lose my connection. It's History! My 802.11a network was close to three years old, which is pretty ancient technology in a computer MIMO geek's house. I chose the 802.11a wireless equip-A while back I started seeing technical articles about ment because it is faster the 802.11b. On the other a new wireless standard being drafted called hand, 802.11b has a wider broadcast range. The 802.11n. It is based on a technology called MIMO 802.11g standard that was emerging when I set up (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) which was devel·my wireless network is basically the same as 802.11b oped in 2003. The major difference with MIMO is with speeds similar to 802.11a. At the time, speed that it uses multiple antennas to transmit data four was more important to me than range, so I chose or five times faster than 802.11a. It also boasts sub-802.11a. stantial increases in operating distances. You may have noted that I refer to my 802.11a To a geek, this is some really exciting stuff! I decid·wireless network in the past tense. Last summer's ed I had to have it right away. Unfortunately, the wireless is history. 802.11n standard is not expected to be ratified by the IEEE until late 2006. Fortunately, there are always a few vendors who gamble to bring technol·ogy to the marketplace before standards are in place. In my research, I found several "Pre-N" wireless routers were already available. The risk in purchas·ing equipment based on a standard that has not been ratified is that it may not be compatible with equipment based on the final standard. Location 802.11a Network Speed/ Pre-N Network Speed/ Strength Strength Office 2nd floor back of house, 3' from router 48.0 Mbps/Excellent 108 Mbps/Excellent Bedroom, same floor, 8' from router 48.0 Mbps/Very Good 108 Mbps/Very Good Living Room, 1st floor front of house No signal 108 Mbps/Very Good Dining Room, 1st floor, middle of house 12 Mbps/Low to non-existent 108 Mbps/Very Good Kitchen, 1st floor back of house under router 36-48 Mbps/Low to Very Good 108 Mbps /Very good Patio, outside directly behind kitchen 12-48 Mbps/Very Low to Low 108 Mbps /Very good Garden Office 70' from Router Garage, double brick construction 12-48 Mbps/Low to Good 108 Mbps/Very good 160' from Router No Signal 108 Mbps/Very good Half way down the alley No signal 108 Mbps/Very good After reading reviews, I decided to purchase the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router. While the Pre-N Router will improve the performance of 802.11b or g network cards, optimal performance is achieved when Pre-N network cards are used. Therefore, I also bought a Belkin Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card. The fact that it may not be compatible with the IEEE 802.11n standard does not concern me. The standard ratification is so far in the future that something else may emerge before then. In the meantime, my Pre-N notebook card is backwardly compatible with 802.11b and g wireless networks. Does It Work? You betcha! The chart below compares the speed and signal strength of my old 802.11a network with my new Pre-N network. I finally lost the signal to my Pre-N network at the end of the alley. What Does It All Mean? A Pre-N network (or a 802.11n network when it finally comes to reality) provides a fast, strong signal that can reliable broadcast over a wide area. This is good news for Capitol Hill residents and businesses that have experienced spotty reception with 802.11b or g networks. If you have put off installing a wireless network because you had heard they do not work all that well, this is what you have been waiting for! You always pay a premium when you are the first kid on the block to get a new toy. Pre-N routers and network cards typically cost two to three time more than 802.11g products. Of course, the prices will come down over the course of time. But, by then there will no doubt be some other nifty new gadget on the market to replace it at three times the cost. In the meantime, I'm planning on enjoying the fastest most, reliable wireless network on the Hill! To me, it is well worth the price. Fay Singer is a lifelong resident of Capitol Hill. She is the owner of Small Business Data Solutions, LLC, a computer consulting company serving business and home computer users on Capitol Hill. Fay can be con·tacted by email at fsinger@sbds.biz or by phone at 202-841-9928. Citywide Exhibits Calendar for July · "Gods and Empire: Huari Ceremonial Textiles," an exhibition of 12 tapestry-style weavings from the Huari Empire, which existed during the 7th and 8th centuries in what is now Peru, will open July 1 at the Textile Museum and continue through Jan. 15, 2006. Located at 2320 S St., NW, the museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but a donation of $5 is suggested. 202-667-0441. · The Freer Gallery of Art will open a permanent exhibition July 10 of some 30 ceramic objects recently linked by scholarship with the 12th- to 16th-century production centers in the Red River delta in northern Vietnam. The gallery, located at 12th Street and Independence Avenue, SW, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 202-633-1000. · "Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals," an exhibition featuring nearly 75 photo·graphs, drawings and paintings spotlighting his·toric and contemporary African American murals, will open July 11 at the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, and continue through Sept. 10. Located at 1901 Fort Pl. SE, the museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 202-633-1000. · "The American Spirit," an exhibition of American abstract art epitomizing patriotism and the charac·ter of the country, will open July 14 at Palette Restaurant and continue through Oct. 1. An open·ing reception will be held July 14 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The restaurant, located at 15th and M Streets, NW, is open Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 6 to 10:30 p.m. and Saturday from 6 to 10:30 p.m. 202-587-2700. · "Mary Swift's Washington," a retrospective of por·traits by Washington Review photographer Mary Swift picturing artists, curators and others involved with the Washington art scene between 1975 and 2000, will open July 21 at Flashpoint and continue through Aug. 26. An opening reception will be held July 21 from 6 to 8 p.m. Located at 916 G St., NW, the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. 202-315-1305. · "Food, Glorious Food," a group show featuring artists who create artbout food, opened June 29 at Zenith Gallery, in collaboration with the Capital Area Food Bank, and will continue through Sept. 30. A portion of all sales will be donated to the Food Bank. The show is on view at 901 E St. NW, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 202-783-2963. · "Then and Now," a 20th anniversary members group exhibition of prints, opened June 28 at Washington Printmakers Gallery and will continue through July 24. Receptions will be held July 1 from 5 to 8 p.m. and July 10 from 2 to 5 p.m., and a Brown Bag Lunch/Gallery Talk will be offered July 14 from noon to 1 p.m. The gallery, located at 1732 Connecticut Ave. NW, is open Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 6 p.m., Friday from noon to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. 202-332-7757. · "Realization of Hope," an exhibition of Japanese sumi-e ink paintings by Yoshiko Oishi, opened June 26 at the Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church and will continue through July 24. Located at 3401 Nebraska Ave. MW, the church is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 202-363-4900. · "East Meets West: Hiroshige at The Phillips Collection," an exhibition of Utagawa Hiroshige's color woodblock prints of Japan's Tokaido Road published about 1832 and examples of Western art inspired by the Japanese tradition, opened June 25 at the Phillips Collection and will continue through Sept. 4. The museum, located at 1600 21st St. NW, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday until 8:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for stu-dents/seniors and free for children 18 and under. 202-397-7328. · "Caravan Kingdoms: Yemen and the Ancient Incense Trade," an exhibition of 129 archaeological objects unearthed from the region of modern-day Yemen, opened June 25 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and continue through Sept. 11. Located at 1050 Independence Ave. SW, the gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 202-633-1000. · St. Thomas' Parish opened an exhibition June 25 that includes photography, sculpture, drawings and paintings by parish members, their family and friends. It will continue through July 24. The parish, located at 1772 Church St. NW, is open Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 202-332-0607. · "Jewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community," an exhibition of photographs, scrap·books and other artifacts examining the people, places and events that have shaped the history of Washington's Jewish community, opened June 24 at the National Building Museum and will continue through Jan. 8, 2006. The museum, located at 401 F St. NW, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 202-2722448. · "Traveling with Gulliver," an exhibition by four artists on the theme of "Gulliver's Travels," opened June 24 at the District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC) and will continue through July 24. Featured will be an installation by Karen Joan Topping por·traying Lilliput, larger-than-life portraits by Ian Jehle and abstract videos by Alan B. Callander, who are all members of the KIOSKdc artists' collabora·tive. Cartoons by "Dirt Farm" cartoonist Ben Claassen will portray the land of the Hounhynhms. Located at 2438 18th St. NW, the gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 2 to 7 p.m. 202-462-7833. · "Visual Music," an exhibition of some 100 works by more than 40 artists who try to visually evoke musical ideas, opened June 23 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Featuring every·thing from abstract painting and experimental films to color organs and contemporary installa·tions, it will remain on view through Sept. 11. Located at 7th Street and Independence Avenue, SW, the museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 202-633-1000. · "Where Gods and Mortals Meet: Continuity and Renewal in Urhobo Art," an exhibition of 70-some objects that include traditional figures and masks, field photos and videos and contemporary paint·ings, opened June 23 at the National Museum of African Art and will continue through Sept. 25. The museum, located at 950 Independence Ave. SW, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 202-633-4600. · "For Better or Worse," an exhibition of paper·mache sculpture and drawings by Stephen Hansen on the theme of relationships, opened June 23 at Zenith Gallery and will continue through July 24. Located at 413 7th St. NW, the gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. 202-783-2963. · "Assefa Yeshiwork: Selected Paintings 1998 - 2005," an exhibition of paintings, assemblages and collages by this Ethiopian-born artist, who lives in the Logan Circle area, opened June 23 at Catholic University of America's Salve Regina Gallery and will continue through Aug. 11. Located at 620 Michigan Ave. NE, the gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 202-319-5282. · "Points of Tangency," an exhibition by six emerg·ing artists, opened June 22 at Studio Gallery and will continue through July 17. Featured will be abstract paintings by Els Forger, engraved glass by Michael Janis, close-up photography by Judith Terlizzi, ceramic sculpture by Raymonde van Santen, inter·nally illuminated sculpture by Erwin Timmers and minimalist paintings by Jan Willem van der Vossen. Located at 2108 R St. NW, the gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. 202-232-8734. · "Emotional Topography," which launches a new series of exhibitions featuring abstract art at Wohlfarth Galleries, opened June 22. Featuring 17 layered minimalist paintings by Christian Conrad, it will continue through July 21. The gallery, located at 3418 9th St. NE, is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. 202-526-8022. · Conner Contemporary Art opened an exhibition June 18 of photography by John Kirchner and light sculpture by Leo Villareal that will continue through July 30. Located at 1730 Connecticut Ave. NW, 2nd floor, the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 202-588-8750. · The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2005 National Exhibition opened June 17 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Continuing through Aug. 8, it pres·ents "the best works of visual arts and writing pro·duced in our nation's junior and senior high schools," according to an announcement. Also, "Tall Tales & Short Stories" opened during May in the Corcoran's Alumni Hallway. Featuring narrative photography by Sara Pomerance, the exhibition will continue through July 11. The gallery, located at New York Avenue and 17th Street, NW, is open every day except Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 9 p.m. Thursday. Admission is $6.25 for adults, $4.75 for seniors, $3 for students, $12 for families and free for children under 12, and "pay as you wish" Monday all day and Thursday after 5 p.m. 202-639-1700. · "In Tandem," an exhibition of monotype prints by C. C. Vess and paintings on paper and slate by R. E. Levine, opened June 17 at Anne C. Fisher Gallery and will continue through July 29. Located at 1054 31st St. NW, the gallery is open Tuesday from noon to 3 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. 202-625-7555. · "Blues Alley," an exhibition in cooperation with Blues Alley exploring the inspiration of music in art, opened June 16 at Apex Gallery. Continuing through July 31, it features abstract to representa·tional depictions of musicians and instruments in a variety of media. Receptions will be held July 8 and July 21 from 6 to 8 p.m. Located at 406 7th St. NW, the gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. 202-638-7001. · "Emil Mayer (1871 - 1938): An Intimate Master of Photography," the first-ever U. S. exhibition devoted to the work of this Viennese photographer, opened June 15 at the Embassy of Austria and will continue through Sept. 4. Mayer, one of the first street pho·tographers, used a hand-held camera to capture intimate moments on the streets of his native c ity. A Jew, he committed suicide following the Nazi inva·sion of Austria just before World War II. Located at 3524 International Court, NW, the embassy is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 202-895-6776. · "New York Moves: Paintings by Laurentz Thun," an exhibition of paintings portraying people in motion or in space by this German-born New York-based artist, opened June 15 at the Goethe-Institut and will continue through Sept. 2. "Third Thursday" receptions will be held July 21 and Aug. 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. The gallery, located at 812 7th St. NW, is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 202-289-1200. · "Celebrate!" an exhibition celebrating the grand opening of the Foundry Gallery at its new location and featuring works by gallery members in a mix of artistic media and styles, opened June 15 and will continue through July 31. Located at 1314 18th St. NW, the gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. 202-463-0203. · "Marc Chagall: The Bible Series," an exhibition of more than 100 hand-colored etchings by Chagall illustrating the Hebrew Bible, opened June 15 at Catholic University of America's Pope John Paul II Cultural Center and will continue through Sept. 15. Located at 3900 Harewood Rd. NE, the center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. 202-635-5440. · Addison/Ripley Fine Art opened an exhibition June 11 of recent paintings, drawings and prints by Ana Mercedes Hoyos and will continue it through July 16. Located at 1670 Wisconsin Ave. NW, the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 202-338-5180. · "Women & Blues," two exhibitions involving women and the blues, opened June 10 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and will con·tinue through Sept. 25. "Amalia Amaki: Boxes, Buttons and the Blues" features 80 of Amaki's mixed-media pieces inspired by sources as varied as Billie Holiday and Man Ray. "Women in Blues and Jazz" includes some 45 photographs of female blues and jazz performers from the 1920s through the '50s. The museum, located at 1250 New York Ave. NW, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors/students and free for children 18 and under. Free Community Days are the first Wednesday and Sunday of each month, and every Friday until July 15. · "Mechanical Cloud," an exhibition of wall reliefs, sculptural installations and drawings by Diana Cooper referencing biological, digital and cultural networks, opened June 10 at Numark Gallery, where it will continue through July 16. The gallery, located at 625 - 27 E St. NW, is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 202-628-3810. · "Ten," an exhibition of new prints and large-scale drawings by David Chung exploring the iconogra·phy of historical Korean symbols in immortality, opened June 9 at Flashpoint and will continue through July 15. The gallery, located at 916 G St. NW, is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. 202-315-1305. · "Literacy through Photography," an exhibition of student writings and photographs from a three-month project sponsored by the educational out- reach organization Turning the Page, opened June 9 at the S. Dillon Ripley Center and will continue through Aug. 21. The project, called "Literacy through Photography," involved Washington ele-mentary-school students at Aiton Elementary, Benning Elementary, Bruce-Monroe Elementary, Garfield Elementary, Gibbs Elementary, Kenilworth Elementary, King Elementary and Merritt Educational Center. They photographed scenes from their daily lives and used the images as inspira·tion for writing. Located at 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW, the center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 202-633-1000. · Touchstone Gallery opened two exhibitions June 8 that will continue through July 3. "Project: Painting" will feature 10 local abstract female artists "who share a love of color and freely expressive painting," according to a release. All from Virginia and Maryland, the artists include Ann Barbieri, Jean Beebe, Tory Cowles, Marcia Dullum, Louise Kennelly, Joyce McCarten, Beverly Ryan, Dominique Samyn-Webrouck, Paula Wachsstock and Ellyn Weiss. "Fusion of Modern Diversity II," the Independent Artists Forum's second exhibit at the gallery, will present abstract paintings by six female artists from diverse backgrounds. Featured are Ethel Bustamante (Columbia), Marjolein van Milligen (The Netherlands), Hayden Rastin (Iran), Wendy Plotkin-Mates (US), Nathalie Tavernier (Belgium) and Marion van Ruiten (Germany). Located at 406 7th St. NW, 2nd floor, the gallery is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. 202-347-2787. · The National Gallery of Art re-hung its monumen·tal Alexander Calder mobile June 7 in the atrium of the East Building after removing it more than a year ago for cleaning and re-painting. The gallery, locat·ed at 4th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 202-737-4215. · "Bhutan," an exhibition of photography by Rajesh Nair and Stuart Brafman portraying the Kingdom of Bhutan, opened June 3 at Kathleen Ewing Gallery and will continue through July 23. Nair's images focus on the architecture and landscape of the mountain country, while Brafman portrays the region's native people at work and leisure. Located at 1609 Connecticut Ave. NW, the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. 202-328-0955. · "Swimming Against the Current," an exhibition of abstract oil paintings by Sheridan-Kalorama artist Emily Light Rose inspired by swimming, open June 1 at Gallery 10 Ltd. and will continue through July 9. Located at 1519 Connecticut Ave. NW, the gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 202-232-3326. · "Riverbirds and Rainforests," an exhibition of paintings by Valentina DuBasky on themes of flora and fauna, opened June 1 at the National Academy of Sciences and will continue through Nov. 11. An artist's reception and lecture will be held Oct. 30 from 12:30 to 2:45 p.m. Located at 2100 C St. NW, the gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A picture ID is required for entrance. 202-334-2436. · Spectrum Gallery opened an exhibition May 31 of watercolors and oil paintings by Virginia artist Shelly Bechtel Shepherd, focusing on trains, tinker toys and scrap metal. The show will continue through July 3. The gallery, located at 1132 29th St. NW, is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. 202-333-0954. · "Navigating the Dead Sea: U. S. Navy's 1848 Expedition," an exhibition of artwork, navigational equipment, diplomatic passports, ship models and weaponry relating to the only U. S. expedition to the Dead Sea and River Jordan, opened May 23 at the U. S. Navy Museum, where it will remain on view indefinitely. The museum, located at the Washington Navy Yard, 9th and M streets, SE, is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors must call first for per·mission to enter the Navy Yard. 202-433-6897. · "The Udall Brothers: Voices for the Environment," an exhibition of photographs and documents from the congressional archives of Morris and Stewart Udall profiling their public service, opened May 10 in the library of the Department of the Interior and will continue through July 29. Located at 1849 C St. NW, the Interior building is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 202-208-6416. Citywide continued from page 43 through occupational health and safety laws. That bill has been assigned to the health committee chaired by at-large member David Catania, who supports it but said he cannot schedule a hearing until September. Catania called Schwartz's anti-alcohol proposal "silly." Said Schwartz: "I was just trying to make a point." Doggie Day Care Providers Worried District May Ban Overnight Boarding City Officials Say Shutdowns Not Happening BY JULIE WESTFALL Current Staff Writer Doggie day-care operators who also care for canines overnight are worried the District might ban night·time boarding altogether as it moves to regulate an industry that has been operating in the city for at least seven years. But city officials say there's noth·ing to fret about. "You can't just come and shut us down. That's not fair; it's not right," said Christopher Stone, co-owner of City Dogs, a boarding agency on 18th Street NW. Office of Planning associate director Jennifer Steingasser said the city does not intend to shutter the boarding businesses. The Office of Planning is charged with making recommendations to the Zoning Commission on any new zoning regulations or changes. "We're not planning to outlaw them," she said. "The problem is that they are not an explicit use in the zoning [regulations]." Planners expect to present the Zoning Commission on July 11 with a proposed text amendment that would permit the use of "overnight kenneling and dog day care." The office is now studying how other jurisdictions regulate dog boarding. Stone and other day-care owners say they wel·come regulations for the small businesses, which number at least four in the District, but they said banning overnight stays would ruin their business·es and eliminate a much-desired service. "There would be rioting in the streets if ... folks couldn't board their dogs in the city where they live," said Linda Welch, owner of Dogs by Day on 16th Street NW. "[But] we are in complete favor of there being rules and regulations." Stone and Welch said they met Friday with an Office of Planning official who toured Dogs by Day. The lack of regulations for dog day care and board·ing came to the city's attention after one such busi·ness, WagTime, moved into a residential neighbor·hood on Q Street. Before the case, "The zoning administrator found a way to permit them as a business and they flour·ished without complaint. The WagTime issue brought [the issue] to light," Steingasser said. Furious neighbors appealed the permit to the Board of Zoning Adjustment, which ruled that the city zoning administrator made a mistake by allow·ing WagTime to open next door to a row of houses. The board sent the case back to the zoning adminis·trator. WagTime has since filed an appeal that is scheduled for a hearing June 28, though owner Lisa Schreiber did not return phone calls seeking specifics on the appeal before press time. Dog day-care owners say their businesses are not kennels where dogs are caged, but day-care centers in every sense of the phrase. The dogs are constant·ly supervised in open rooms by employees who play with, feed, walk and even sleep in an area with 60 to 70 dogs during the day and 20 to 40 overnight. "We have a no-bark policy. The dogs that come here know to stay quiet. We employ a lot of people who are with the dogs constantly," Welch said. Welch said she has more than 900 regular clients; Stone said he has 1,000. Owners say their businesses appeal to well-off professionals who want their dogs to have company during the day or who have no place to turn when they travel for business. "Obviously, dog day care and dog boarding is a luxury. So our clientele are high-end customers who want the convenience," Welch said. "A lot of people say they chose a day care before they chose a house in the neighborhood. A lot of our folks tell us they wouldn't be able to keep a dog without our service." BusinessSnapshot A Diverse Dive, Zack's Closes its Doors BY DAVID GELLES n a recent Wednesday night, Zack's Bar was stuffed shoulder to shoulder with stu·dents. The beer was copious, the pool tables were crowded, and the mood was upbeat. But the room was nearly silent. The jukebox was off, and the sizzling grill in the back kitchen was audible at the bar. It was deaf night. Four years ago, when students from Gallaudet University approached Zack Harvey Harrigam--the bar's namesake--looking for a once-a-week hangout on Capitol Hill, he didn't hesitate to welcome them. Soon, the sign language alphabet was posted above the bar, a staff that could sign was hired, and even Zack had learned to sign. In time, Wednesdays became one of the bar's busiest nights. But Zack's closed its doors on May 21. With a lease that was to expire in two years, Zack decided to accept a buy-out now. In its place, Joe Englert, owner of Capitol Lounge and Politiki, will be open·ing a pool hall. Soft-spoken, with droopy features and a white ponytail, Zack is, at 63, nothing if not grateful. He made many deaf friends over the years, and said the deaf community "has absolutely been a positive influence on the place. They've really been great customers." The feeling was mutual. In a written interview, Laura Nordby, a Gallaudet student pursuing a Masters in Linguistics, explained why she was there. "Other places just tolerate deaf people," she said. "But Zack understands them. It feels like home here." The deaf community wasn't alone in calling Zack's home. Known for its friendly atmosphere, Zack's, located at 613 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, attract·ed a diverse crowd. Gay and straight, black and white, rich and poor--on any given night, just about everyone was represented. "I sit behind the bar and see different races, differ·ent sexualities, and it's like one family," said Cyndi Bradshaw, who worked at Zack's since it opened on Friday the 13th, in June 1997. Speaking in the kitchen, where books by Tolstoy and Freud are stacked next to the stovetop, Bradshaw added, "Nobody judges anyone here. That's why the end is hitting everyone so hard." Wide Appeal Zack's never garnered popularity by feigning chic. It was a dive in every sense of the word; the beer was cheap, the bar food was forgettable, and the smoke was thick. Four rickety booths lined the walls, three pool tables crowded the middle of the floor, and a dozen stools provided seating along the bar. Overhead, a peeling mural depicted faces of the reg·ulars, while a few TVs showed American Idol, and a clutter of billiards trophies caught the neon light·ing. Zack's shabbiness was a major part of its appeal. www.voiceofthehill.com While swankier neighbors like Capitol Lounge and Politiki attract mostly congressional staffers, Zack's remained informal and under the radar. The regu·lars ranged from gay lawyers to blue-collar laborers, who regarded it as a local secret. At the same time, new faces were welcomed with smiles. Pool: The Unifier If there was one unifier to the diverse faces at Zack's, it was pool. "The first question here was not 'How much money do you make?' or, 'What do you do?' It was, 'Do you play pool?'" explained Bradshaw, who is also captain of The Psycho Killers, one of ten American Poolplayers Association teams that called Zack's home. Over the years, several teams and individuals from the bar went on to compete in regional and national tournaments. With the closing, several teams are relocating to nearby bars with pool tables. Others have simply disbanded, opting not to play at all if they can't play at Zack's. In-house 8 and 9-ball tournaments were raucous weekly affairs, and at $1 a game, Zack's boasted the cheapest tables in the District. Not everyone at Zack's was a shark though, and even novices found their niche. "People improved their games here," Bradshaw said. "The sharpshooters liked helping people learn." Spirit of Camaraderie This spirit of camaraderie is part of what kept the regulars coming back. And, according to Bradshaw's approximation, most of the clients were regulars. Mark Amissah, who is hard of hearing and worked the bar on Wednesdays, said, "This was the only bar I went to in DC. Everyone knew who you are. Everyone knew your name." The atmosphere was not always so cordial at Zack's. Eight years ago Capitol Hill was a rougher neighborhood, and in the words of one patron who asked to remain unnamed, "there were fights every night." Once, Bradshaw asked a knife-wielding man to leave. Much to her surprise, he obliged. When she turned around, she found a dozen pool shooters, their cues upturned as weapons, escorting the man outwith their glares. Zack says he opened his bar hoping to create a space for "mutual respect and friendship." "People have got to have something more than just going to work and going home," he said. "They need a place with intellectual activity." Intellect was evident at Zack's. A communal bookshelf held policy treatises, volumes of poetry, and Greek classics, and serious games of chess were a nightly affair. Commenting on the bookish aspect of the bar, Ms. Bradshaw said, "Zack is one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. And he's got a huge heart. He's constantly feeding the homeless, and he's helped the staff through personal situa·tions." Additionally, Zack doesn't drink, and when the business is slow, he often had his nose in a book. Zack was no novice when he opened up on the Hill. Previously, he owned and operated several bars and restaurants inside the Beltway. But the last eight years were special. "This has been the richest of my bars," he reminisced. "Not in terms of money, but of people." Business was brisk for the last weeks. Regulars savored their final hours in a bar that became a home to many, while folks who had only heard of Zack's dropped in while they had a chance. In the final days, the staff was equally distraught. "It's not a happy thing for me at all," Zack said. "There are a lot of people I won't see again. Some things end, and they end forever." Zack collected the names and email addresses of regulars in a notebook, fueling speculation that he may be reopening soon. But as for his next move, Zack is unsure. "I'm going to take a little rest, but I might pop up again," he said. If he does, he hopes any new venture will include a dining room and a stage for entertainment, in addition to billiards. The plan is to remain on Capitol Hill, and Zack is already in talks with poten·tial leasers. Pressed for specifics, Zack issued a wry smile, looked toward the pool tables, and said, "I don't know what I'm going to do, man; nothing right now. But don't worry, there's always another game. BY JULIO ARGUELLO J R . July 11 July 20 Northeast Library Used The District of Columbia Book Sale. For more infor-Board of Education holds MUNICIPAL mation call 202-698-3298. Stated Board Meetings on MEETINGS 330. Northeast Branch the third Wednesday of ARTS AND architecture and film. In ENTERTAINMENT the magnificent 15-story, football-field sized Great Hall, where George W. July 2 Bush danced in January Come to the Market Library, Seventh St., NE, every month. The District and 15 other presidents Festival and Arts & Crafts July 11 10:30-3 p.m. of Columbia Board of have held inaugural balls Fair at Eastern Market. ANC 6D: Millenium Art Education is the official since 1885, visitors can Center, 65 I St., SW, 7 July 12 policy making body for edu-Artists, musicians and arti· throw down a blanket, p.m. The Local Organizing cation-related issues in the sans have always been a bring a picnic, lay back and Committee (LOC) of the city. Its membership is part of the traditional enjoy a free movie. The July 12 "10th Anniversary of the comprised of five elected "marketplace," and the free series begins the ANC 6B: Old Naval Million Man March- Millions members (the President is Saturday festival on the weekend of July 9 and 10, Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania More Movement" holds elected city-wide), four Gallery's North Plaza was 2005, and continues for Ave., SE, 7 p.m. meetings every Tuesday. members (At-Large) who begun in 1978 to return the next seven consecutive this tradition to Eastern For more information, call are appointed by Mayor Wednesdays evenings, Market. The festival fea-July 13 202-399-1010. Local Williams, and two student from July 13 through ANC 6C: NPR, 635 Organizing Committee, representatives. Public tures painters, potters, jew-August 24, 2005. Live Massachusetts Ave., NW, 1615 Kenilworth Ave., NE, comments are also heard elers, silversmiths, musi-music by local bands pre 7 p.m. 7-8:30 p.m. at the beginning of the cians, clothing designers, Wednesday evening Stated Board Meeting. street performers and screenings will add to the July 14 July 12 People who wish to com-other creative people who festivities, and select exhi-ANC 6A: Miner Elementary The U.S. Navy Museum ment are encouraged to are not typically exhibited bitions will also be openin concert halls or commer- School, 601 15th St., NE, Education Center presents contact the Board of for viewing. The Reel 7 p.m. a lecture and booksigning Education prior to the day cial galleries and gives Architecture Film Series with author David Poyer. of the meeting by calling them the opportunity to kicks off the National Poyer is the author of 202-442-4289. Please be perform and sell their Building Museum's 25th COMMUNITY work. Other markets "Anvil of Our Souls," the aware that each individual anniversary events, and include South Hall and EVENTS third volume in his "Civil is limited to three minutes will be followed by a birth- War at Sea" series. This per presentation, as time Market 5 Gallery, both day bash on October 29, July 5 book investigates the most permits. The DC Board of open all day Tuesday 2005, and an exhibition The Local Organizing historic sea engagement of Education 825 North through Sunday. Market showcasing the Museum's Committee (LOC) of the the Civil War, the battle Capitol St. NE, 5th Floor Festival occurs every collection titled Cityscapes Saturday. Eastern Market, Revealed: Highlights from "10th Anniversary of the between the "Merrimac" Board Room, 6:30 p.m. Seventh St., SE (between the Collection opening Million Man March- Millions and "Monitor." In this work, Pennsylvania Avenue and December 3, 2005. More Movement" holds Poyer joins characters of July 25 North Carolina Avenue, SE) meetings every Tuesday. his own design and his-The Burrville Civic For more information, call toric figures to recreate Association holds meet-10-5 p.m. The Reel Architecture Film 202-399-1010. Local one of the bloodiest con-ings every fourth Monday Series, dedicated to the Organizing Committee, flicts in American history. of every month. For more July 8 relationship between archi· 1615 Kenilworth Ave., NE, U.S. Navy Museum, information call Rev. "Summer Concert Series tecture and film, will 7-8:30 p.m. Washington Navy Yard, Thomas S. Alston at 202-at St. Joseph's" - presents screen American films that Building 76, 805 Kidder 398-5819. Burrville Civic the Capital Hill Brass reflect themes found in the July 8 Breese, SE, 12 p.m. Association, Catholic Quintet. Founded in 1999, National BuildingThe Department of Church of the Incarnation, the brass quintet is com-Museum's 25 years of Employment Services July 15 880 Eastern Ave., NE, 7-8 prised of semi-professional exhibitions, such as sus-offers a "Learn How You The Hill Havurah, an inde-p.m. musicians that live and tainable architecture, trans-Can Write Your Own pendent Jewish Community work in the DC area. For portation and transit, and Business Plan" class. on Capitol Hill hosts July 26 the last five years, they office design. Films will Using techniques tried and monthly Friday evening The Local Organizing have performed at church include Soylent Green, proven by successful entre-Sabbath Services on the Committee (LOC) of the services, concerts, and Chinatown, Los Angeles preneurs, you will create a third Friday of each month "10th Anniversary of the weddings throughout the Plays Itself, and Touch of business plan that is followed by a potluck sup-Million Man March- Millions DC area, including the Evil, to name a few. acceptable at any level i.e. per. Children are welcome. More Movement" holds 2002 White House Holiday Open House. The ensem· local lenders, venture capi-Other events include week-meetings every Tuesday. The free series kicks off talist or Wall Street. You ly Torah study, a book club, For more information, call ble loves to play everything on Saturday, July 9, from from renaissance to rag- 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will have a professional and a children's education-202-399-1010. Local time, Gabrielli to Grainger, Sunday, July 10, from 11 business plan completed al program. To learn more, Organizing Committee,in as few as seven ses-visit www.hillhavurah.org or 1615 Kenilworth Ave., NE, and Palestrina to The Pink a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with two sions; two hours each ses-e-mail: 7-8:30 p.m. Panther. They will play a full days of movies dedicat·wide variety of music both ed to the shape of sion. Apply for a SOHO hillhavurah@aol.com. Christ written and/or arranged for Hollywood's home town business loan of $5,000 Our Shepherd Church, 801 July 30 brass quintet. Donations Los Angeles. Movies on to $15,000 for business North Carolina Ave., SE, 7 startup (Guaranteed by p.m. SBA). Bring federal tax ID number and green card (if July 19 Monthly Community Meeting of the requested. St. Josephs, opening weekend will be Metropolitan Police 313 Second St., NE, shown either in the Great Hall or the auditorium. Department, Patrol Service Saturday, 7 p.m. you have one), your driver's The Local Organizing Area 105, Capitol Hill (to After the opening weekend, the Reel Architecture Film license or legal ID. $25 Committee (LOC) of the identify the PSA you live in, July 9 (cash only) each partici-"10th Anniversary of the go to Architecture Film Series Series will continue with pant. The Department of Million Man March- Millions http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/ Celebrates The NBM's 8:15 p.m. showings all in Employment Services, 64 More Movement" holds the Great Hall on cwp/view,a,1239,Q,54333 25th Anniversary The Reel Architecture Film Wednesday evenings for New York Ave. NE, 9-4 meetings every Tuesday. 6,mpdcNav_GID,1523,.asp p.m. For more information, call ). Metropolitan Police Series Move over Screen seven weeks, from July 13 202-399-1010. Local Patrol Service Area 105, on the Green the movies through August 24. Several July 11 Organizing Committee, 500 E St., SE, 10 a.m. are heading indoors to the Barrack's Row Main Street 1615 Kenilworth Ave., NE, Second Saturday. 4-10 7-8:30 p.m. feature films will be National Building opened by short documen-Museum's Great Hall dur-taries or silent comedies, p.m. on Capitol Hill.ing the Reel Architecture providing additional views Film Series, dedicated to of the built environment the relationship between onscreen. Doors to the www.voiceofthehill.com Community calendar Wednesday evening which features Jack July 15 July 22 Mr. Brad Norris, organist. ister, please visit screenings will open at Nicholson as J.J. Gittes, a "Summer Concert Series "Summer Concert Series Norris is Minister of Music www.chaw.org or call 202- 7:15 p.m., with live music 1930s detective who dis- at St. Joseph's" presents at St. Joseph's"presents at St. Andrew's Episcopal 547-6839. by local bands serving as covers a corrupt land the Slavic Male Chorus of Mr. Dale Shifler, organist. Church in Newport News, entertainment before the development scheme at Washington, DC. The Slavic Program to include works Va., and teaches music to July 6 movies begin. Dead Men's the heart of murder case. Male Chorus has thrilled by Raison, Frescobaldi, students in the third, The National Building Hollow (folk), JP McDer- Rated R audiences with heartfelt Bach, Franck, Messiaen fourth, and fifth grades at Museum celebrates mott and Western Bop interpretations of the folk and Tournemire. Mr. Shifler St. Andrew's School. He "Creative Wednesdays." (rockabilly act), Lianna Los Angeles Plays Itself · songs and sacred hymns graduated from Oberlin holds degrees in organ per- This is a creative, educa- (pop), and Drew Gibson 1:30-4:30 p.m. Thom of Russia and many Slavic Conservatory of Music and formance from the tional, and fun-filled way to (blues guitar and vocal) are Andersen's acclaimed doc- lands. Founded by its cur- The New England Conser- University of Wisconsin · express yourself through all scheduled to perform. umentary (169 min., 2003) rent conductor, Mr. Gregory vatory of Music. Following Superior and the College · design! The cost is $3 per Select exhibitions will also pays tribute to Los Angeles V. Oleynik, the Chorus has graduate school he lived Conservatory of Music, project. All ages. Drop-in be open for viewing. and how it has been histor· performed at folk festivals, with Harold Vogel in North University of Cincinnati. He program. National Building Seating will be on a first· ically represented on film concerts, benefit events Germany on a Rotary has held positions in Ohio Museum, 401 F St., NW, come, first-served basis, whether as a different city and religious services in International Fellowship and Colorado and has pre- 11:30-12:30 p.m. and with only a small number altogether, a vision of an Washington, DC and the and studied with Luigi formed at St. Thomas 1:30-2:30 p.m. of chairs available; blan· apocalyptic future, or a Eastern U.S. to promote Ferdinando Tagliavini and Church, New York City and kets, beach chairs, and pil· nostalgic landscape of the the continuation of a cap- Bernard Lagace. He has Colonial Williamsburg, Va. July 16 lows are encouraged. past. Employing hundreds pella music from many held positions in Cleve- Donations requested. St. The National Building Concessions will be avail- of film clips, and with a Slavic traditions. To learn land, Paris, Belmont, San Josephs, 313 Second St., Museum presents Material able for purchase and out- strong sense of humor, Los more, visit www.slavicmale- Francisco and Key Bis- NE, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Explorations. During this side food and non-alcoholic Angeles Plays Itself shows chorus.org. Donations cayne. As organist of St. series, families explore the beverages will be permit- how a very real Los Angel- requested. St. Josephs, Joseph's Catholic Church characteristics and uses of ted. es can still be glimpsed 313 Second St., NE, since 2003, he also main- JUST FOR KIDS various building materials through the haze of Holly- Saturday, 7:30 p.m. tains a studio of private and then create a sculp- Opening Weekend Films July 9 from 11-5 p.m. Liberty--11-11:20 a.m. In this classic short film (20 min., 1929), Laurel & Hardy are two escaped convicts trying to remain unnoticed in downtown Los wood's imaginings. Not Rated July 13 Films on the Hill, a project of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop presents The Flame and the Arrow July 20 The National Building Museum presents The Reel Architecture Film Series as part of its 25th Anniversary celebration. Beyond Organic: The Vision students on Capitol Hill. Donations requested. St. Josephs, 313 Second St., NE, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. July 23 Films on the Hill, a project of the Capitol Hill Arts July 1 The National Building Museum presents Kids' View of the City. This exhib·it features projects de·signed by Washington, DC, elementary school stu·dents who examined their ture using hardware The cost is $5 per project. All ages. Drop-in program. National Building Museum, 401 F St., NW, 1-3:30 p.m. July 20 The National Building Angeles. They find that it's tough going when they accidentally put on each other's pants and have to find a private place to switch. Not Rated The Long Goodbye-- 12:30-1:20 p.m. California hilltop homes and arid country retreats form a surreal and sunny backdrop in Robert Altman's interpretation of the hardboiled detective story (112 min., 1973), starring Elliott Gould as the sardonic and chain-smoking Philip Marlowe. Rated R L.A. Story--1:30-3:15 p.m. In this film (95 min., 1991) Steve Martin is Harris Telemacher, Los Angeles' "wacky weatherman," who struggles to fit in and find love in this magical valen·tine to the city of angels. Rated PG-13 Dogtown and Z-Boys-- 3:30-5 p.m. Surfers and skate punks redefine boardwalks and suburban swimming pools in this documentary (91 min., 2003) tracing the history of California's skateboard·ing subculture. Rated PG-13 July 10 from 11-4:30 p.m. Chinatown--11-1:15 p.m. Roman Polanski directs this film (131 min., 1974) (1950) in TECHNICOLOR. The first of Burt Lancas-ter's three technicolor swashbucklers is a fun story in the Robin Hood genre, as oppressed vil·lagers rebel against a cruel overlord. Lancaster's trade·mark acatics amazed and delighted audiences. The film was nominated for two Oscars. Bring the kids! Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh St., SE, 7 p.m. For more information call 202-547-6839 or visit www.filmsonthehill.com. July 13 The National Building Museum presents The Reel Architecture Film Series as part of its 25th Anniversary celebration. Boomtown is a short non·fiction film (20 min., ca. 1942) that presents a day-in-the-life for office workers and soldiers in over-crowd-ed wartime Washington, D.C. Not Rated. 8:15-8:40 p.m. Afterwards, stay to see The More the Merrier, a short film about Wash-ington's wartime housing shortage leads to romance when a woman opens her house up to not one, but two boarders starring Joel McCrea, Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn in George Stevens' screwball classic (104 min., 1943). Not Rated. 8:45-10:30 p.m. National Building Museum, 401 F St., NW of Fairview Gardens is a short documentary (33 min., 2000), an urban organic farm sits at the heart of controversies sur·rounding real estate devel·opment and sustainable food production. Not Rated. 8:15-8:45 p.m. The second feature is Soylent Green, in this sci-fi classic (97 min., 1973), Charlton Heston makes a chilling discovery about the foodstuff being provided to residents of an overpopu·lated New York City of the future. Rated PG. 8:50- 10:30 p.m. National Build·ing Museum, 401 F St., NW July 20 Films on the Hill, a project of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop presents His Majesty O'Keefe (1954) in TECHNICOLOR. Another of Burt Lancaster's technicol·or swashbucklers. This time he's a sea captain dumped by his mutinous crew, ending up on a South Seas island. The local coconut trade flourishes, but greedy slave traders and hostile tribal chiefs cause trouble. Full of Burt's acrobatic, flashing white teeth and swords·manship. Bring the kids! Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh St., SE, 7 p.m. For more information call 202-547-6839 or visit www.filmsonthehill.com. Workshop presents The Crimson Pirate (1952) in TECHNICOLOR. Lots of fun and adventure! Burt Lancaster is the exuberant leader of a scurvy band of pirates. After some double crosses and triple crosses, Lancaster aids an island rebellion. Lots of flamboy·ant stunts, all performed by Lancaster as an ex-cir-cus acrobat. Bring the kids! Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh St., SE, 7 p.m. For more information call 202-547-6839 or visit www.filmson-thehill.com/. July 27 The National Building Museum presents The Reel Architecture Film Series as part of its 25th Anniversary celebration. In the film Who Framed Roger Rabbitt? Cloverleaf Indus·tries is determined to raze Toontown to make way for an eight-lane freeway and they will stop at nothing even murder to succeed, in this landmark film (103 min., 1988) that combines live action and animation with hilarious results. Rated PG. National Building Museum, 401 F St., NW, 8:15-10:30 p.m. July 29 "Summer Concert Series at St. Joseph's" presents schools' neighborhoods during the academic year. First, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students from Margaret M. Amidon Elementary School in Southwest, John Eaton Elementary School in Northwest, Ketcham Ele·mentary School in South·east, Langdon Elementary School in Northeast, and Malcolm X Elementary School in Southeast creat·ed a variety of projects ranging from models and photographs, to drawings and stories depicting differ·ent aspects of the neigh·borhoods surrounding their schools. National Building Museum, 401 F St., NW, Second floor, Building Learners Gallery, exhibit runs through July 17. July 2 The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is currently reg·istering students ages 5 to 12 for its popular Summer Arts Adventure Camps. Campers this year will explore and experience the arts and culture of South America, New York City, the Middle East and Italy. The Arts Workshop also pres·ents two performance camps, Musical Theater: Annie Camp and Jazz/Hip-Hop Dance Camp. For more information or to reg- Museum celebrates "Creative Wednesdays." This is a creative, educa·tional, and fun-filled way to express yourself through design! The cost is $3 per project. All ages. Drop-in program. National Building Museum, 401 F St., NW, 11:30-12:30 p.m. and 1:30-2:30 p.m. July 27 The National Building Museum celebrates "Creative Wednesdays." This is a creative, educa·tional, and fun-filled way to express yourself through design! The cost is $3 per project. All ages. Drop-in program. National Building Museum, 401 F St., NW, 11:30-12:30 p.m. and 1:30-2:30 p.m. July 31 The National Building Museum presents Material Explorations. During this series, families explore the characteristics and uses of various building materials and then create a sculp·ture using wood. The cost is $5 per project. All ages. Drop-in program. National Building Museum, 401 F St., NW, 1-3:30 p.m. Send Community Calendar items to calendar@ voiceofthehill.com www.voiceofthehill.com 59 STARRY DAYS Eastern Daylight Saving Time Edition Your Astrological Guide to the Pursuit of Happiness BY JEFFREY HOWARD © All rights reserved STARRY DAYS observes the daily rearrangement of those ancient symbols we call planets, and offers an interpretation that works for everyone. Using this calendar can help us all in our pursuit of happiness. STARRY DAYS is written for each time zone to help everyone find the shifting tides of opportunity. May you be happy. Friday, July 1 Tuesday, July 12 Friday, July 22 Heading into a holiday week-A romantic heart is the key If ever you've wanted to end, the key word is: to today's happy home. improve your health, get "Relax." Practice paying organized, or maybe just be attention to your breath; Wednesday, July 13 a better person. See what especially this afternoon. Luck is with you after lunch. happens if you try again at: (Means: Try things you won't 1:41 p.m., or 9:01 p.m., or Saturday, July 2 try if Luck wasn't with you.) 10:55 p.m. Which of your relatives do you like least? Experiment: Thursday, July 14 Saturday, July 23 See what happens if you Early in the morning, with Follow beauty. Look for beau-give them a call today. the confidence of a barnyard ty. Move toward beauty, and rooster, let people know who all will go well. Sunday, July 3 you are, and where you are. Holiday weekends can be Then lay down until after Sunday, July 24 pig-out eating adventures. lunch. Life rushes to meet you Eat a moderate lunch. Chew tonight. Relax. Sit down. your food. Take time to Friday, July 15 Pretend to be disinterested. breathe; to relax. Try to be extra considerate Wash the dishes. Dust. of everyone, but especially Monday, July 4 family members. Monday, July 25 Celebrate freedom... how do Walking is an easy way to the fireworks people put it? Saturday, July 16 burn off excess energy. "Respectfully." Respect most Experiencing any family prob-of all the spacesuit carrying lems the past few years? All Tuesday, July 26 you around on this planet. the little hurts go away Things might look so good today, and the big hurts get this afternoon, we might Tuesday, July 5 scabs and a kiss. think we're wearing rose-col-Have dinner at home ored glasses. tonight. Make it a picnic Sunday, July 17 even if you eat indoors. Get your sweetie, and get Wednesday, July 27 outside. Take a walk. Hold Bring a picnic lunch to work Wednesday, July 6 hands. There's magic for to share with a few of your There is no such thing as lovers today, and it's waiting friends. This works best, too much moderation. Chew outside. when the food is the star, on that while eating lunch. not clever you. Monday, July 18 Thursday, July 7 A pleasant and productive Thursday, July 28 Spend a little time, energy day. Try to be home by 9 Going slow works well. Let and, or money, improving p.m. to enjoy a well-your feelings guide you in your home. You're worth it. deserved rest. your decisions. Chew your food, and your ideas. Friday, July 8 Tuesday, July 19 Encourage Luck to pay you a This morning list your three Friday, July 29 visit: Think positive thoughts most important to-dos. Mid-Try to bring some style, flair about your home while you morning, at lunch and mid-and drama, or maybe a are at lunch. afternoon, check your sense of humor to tele· progress and re-prioritize if phone calls today. Saturday, July 9 needed. After lunch, take off your Saturday, July 30 shoes. Wiggle your toes. Wednesday, July 20 Study scriptures. Count your toes. Count We may be immortal souls, everything you own. But oth-but it is our breath that con-Sunday, July 31 erwise, relax. Inhale. Exhale. nects our bodies to this This evening, watch your Relax. world, and by paying atten-thoughts as you take off tion to our breath, we can your socks. Sunday, July 10 find the peace in this world. Give a hoot! Pay attention to Jeffrey Howard loves the 4th your diet. Thursday, July 21 of July, and he can be Full Moon at 7:01 a.m. We reached at mayyoubehap-Monday, July 11 can all learn something py@aol.com This evening, prioritize your today. Watch what makes number one relationship. people laugh. To place a classified ad, log on to www.voiceof thehill.com and click on "newspaper" and then "advertising" and follow the prompts. men/24 foot truck. For an Books For Rent appointment, call 301-808-Wanted to purchase Garage for Rent 0388. Visit www.1rate- Quality used books. Single vol-Storage. Capitol Hill (near movers.com for more informa ·umes or entire library! Call Supreme Court). Secure, tion. Steve at Riverby Books, 202-clean, 2-car, $220/month 544-1925. (long term available). 202-VCS Chimney Sweeps 546-3284. We specialise in chimney cleaning & repairs Books Bought and Sold. We want what you can give, Garage for Rent Call 301-408-8422 GARAGE 1 block Lincoln Park, http://www.vcschim- we pay what we can afford. neysweeps.com. Capitol Hill Books. Capitol 1/4 block East Capitol. Hill's used bookstore across Vehicles only. $165 - $220/ the street from Eastern month 410-991-0038. Massage Therapy Market. 657 C Street, SE, ELEMENTAL THERAPY, LLC - 202-544-1621. Storage/Garage Space "The Art and Science of Alternative Health Care" is Available. your out-call professional Secure, 24 hour easy access. service. Certified massage Employment Capitol Hill, 1 block from therapists serving the metro. 10x20 garages. N.Virginia, S.Maryland and Office/Cemetery $125/month. 202-543-3370 Washington DC Metropolitan Manager or mberman@his.com. area. By appointment only. Duties include office manage-Visit our website at www. ment, volunteer coordination, Services elemental-wellness.com or call and management of burial to schedule your session now process and plot sales. at 703-606-2226. Home/ Ability to work with public a Murals Office Conference. NO Hotels. must. Knowledge of local his-Recent art school graduate tory or genealogical resources would like to paint murals for HOMESCHOOLING? a plus. Position is 30 hours homes and businesses on If you are homeschooling, or per week. Full job description Capitol Hill this July. Indoors thinking about homeschool·available at www.congression-or outdoors. References ing, you are warmly welcome alcemetery.org or contact available upon request. Call to visit Christian Home202.543.0539 543-5896 evenings. Educators of DC, Inc. (CHE DC). We feature monthly Radio DJ Bookkeeping meetings with great guest Internet Radio DJ Needed for Affordable bookkeeping serv-speakers, a newsletter, fellow-New WorldWide Radio ices for small businesses in ship and encouragement, tips Station/Dance Music/Email: the Washington Metropolitan & advice, curriculum fairs, yourentertainmentgroup@ Area. Accounting System Set-field trips, play dates, a yahoo.com/www.e-radiobiz. up and Payroll services also library, achievement testing com available. QuickBooks is our for children of members, and specialty. Contact KNK much more. For more info, Help wanted-- Bookkeeping and let us cus-please call Antoinette tomize a monthly package for Kearney at 202-526-4108. your small business. Let us Able to grow--Fragers. help you keep your financials Cleaning Service Fragers Just Ask Rental needs on track! (301) 749-6597 or management trainee to learn info@knkbookkeeping.com Residential and commercial about all rental equuipment cleaning. Reasonable rates, and computer system. references available. Carpet Mechanical minded, with DC Writers Way Creative cleaning, move in, move out, unbroken work history, valid Writing Workshops. construction cleanup. driver's license. Apply in per-All skill levels. Experienced Licensed, bonded and insured son at 1107 Pennsylvania Instructors. Now accepting Call Rosemary Clean-4U, 202 · Ave., SE. Ask for Jay. enrollments for Spring eight-320-0805 or 202-518-9449. week Capitol Hill session. Build Your Own Business Meets Sunday afternoons Other near the Capitol South MetroEver consider a lucrative busi-station from 3:30-6 pm begin-On the Hill? Taking care of an ness in real estate sales? ning April 24 through June elderly person needing lots of Come learn how agents are 26. Sign up at www.dcwriter-help? Maybe someone barely earning incomes of $65,000-sway.org or 202-547-3506 able to live alone? Would you $600,000. Learn what is like to talk about possible involved in getting started and cooperation? Sharing building your business. Learn CLERGY resources? Or even, just how soon you can start. Learn Weddings, naming cere-tricks of the elder care game?why some brokerage firms are monies, marriage renewals, Nothing to lose by chatting. better for beginners than oth-performed by nondenomina-Call MJ Barnett (202) 543·ers. 1 hour, FREE career semi-tional minister according to 1746 nars are held most Tuesdays your specific requirements. at 1p.m. You must register to Will work closely with you to attend. 202-393-8271x155. assure that you have a per-Overeaters Anonymous Larry.Kamins@Prudential fect ceremony for your special Meets on the Hill Carruthers.com. Prudential day. REVEREND LEAH Call for meeting locations and Carruthers REALTORS, Capitol RIESNER riesnerl@yahoo.com directions. Hill office. or 703 346 1021 · Non-holiday Mondays at lunchtime - 12:10 p.m.- Masonry 202-882-4886 For Sale Repointing/Brickwork, General · Thursdays after work - Repair. Free estimates. 6:15- 7:15 PM - 202-544-"Only Child Dolls" Licensed and Bonded 4350 of Capitol Hill. 22" one of a Dave Masonry Additional National and kind, handmade, beautiful 242-473-0217 International meeting listings cloth and vinyl children of all and information on races. Come and choose your Moving www.oa.org. We work on self-defeating "only child." Call designer at 1 RATE MOVERS has eliminat-attitudes that hamper keeping 202 546 3423 or email at ed the need for misleading our healthy eating resolutions, shatzsoft@msn.com estimates. $850 per truck-whether we over-eat or under ·load (most homes require one eat. truckload). No hidden fees. 6 Accounting Accounting, bookeeping serv·ices. QuickBooks®set up, training and consulting. Marina L. Martin, MBA QuickBooks®Advisor 202 251-3907, 547-9536 Thomas Jenkins & Company Certified Public Accountants Tax & Financial Planning Corporation/Partnership 547-9004 See our ad on page 8 Antiques Antique and Contemporary Leasing, 709 12th St., SE 547-3030 Attorneys Rick Halberstein & Karen Byrne 705 D St., SE 543-1110 Arts Capitol Hill Arts Workshop 545 7th St., SE 547-6839 See our ad on page 35 Association The Chesapeake Bay Foundation Anacostia River Initiative 725 8th St., SE (202) 544-2232 or email dsiglin@cbf.org. CHAMPS Capitol Hill Association of Merchants and Professionals 621 PA Ave., SE 547-7788 Baby Store Dawn Price Baby 325 7th St., SE 543-2920 See our ad on page 49 Bank National Capital Bank 316 PA Ave., SE 546-8000 wwwnationalcapitalbank. com See our ad on page 27 Bed and Breakfast Doolittle Guest House 504 E. Capitol Street, SE 546-6622 See our ad on page 5 Books Capitol Hill Books 657 C Street, SE, 544-1621 Good Used Books Bought & Sold. Riverby Books 419 E. Capitol St., SE 547-3228 See our ad on page 25 Bookeeping Thigpen Hall & Associates Small Business Bookeeping Personal Property Appraisal Bobby Thigpen 202-546-7734 See our ad on page 9 Church Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church Worship Sunday 11am, Sunday School 9:45am wwwcapitolhillpreschurch.org 201 4th St, SE 547-8676 See our ad on page 18 Christ Church + Washington Parish 620 G St., SE 547-9300 See our ad on page 39 Lutheran Church of the Reformation 212 E. Capitol St., SE, 543-4200 www.reformationdc.org See our ad on page 6 St. James' Episcopal Church 222 8th St., SE, 546-1746 www.saintjameschurch.org See our ad on page 9 St. Peter's Church 2nd & C Street, SE 547-1430 See our ad on page 33 Clock Repair HARRY FLOYD 202-543-6422 payneandcampbell@ verizon.net See our ad on page 7 Clothing & Gifts Art & Soul 225 PA Ave., SE 548-0105 See our ad on page 11 Plaid 715 8th Street, SE 675-6900 See our ad on page 49 The Village 705 N. Carolina Ave., SE 546-3040 see our ad on page 18 Computer Consulting Small Business Data Solutions A Solution Provider for all your computing needs Fay Singer 202-841-9928 See our ad on page 45 Drug Store Grubbs Care Pharmacy 326 E Capitol Street SE 543-4400 See our ad on page 29 Design Build Columbia Enterprises, Inc. 202-547-7979 Educational Services Sharon Negri, M.S. Academic tutoring, grades 1-8. Parent and school consulta ·tion. 543-3272, sharonlne- gri@aol.com Electrician Charlie Lucas 202-397-2273 Fax 202-397-2127 See our ad on page 8 Garden and Landscape Art Garden Design 546-6920, artgarden@ starpower.net Specializing in urban gardens with an emphasis on functionaland non-functional art elements. See our ad on page 6 Cheryl Corson Design 202-494-5054 District Cityscapes, Inc 202-544-4886 See our ad on page 12 Frager's Garden Center 1115 Penna Ave., SE, 543-6157 See our ad on page 47 Gingko Gardens 911 11th St., SE 543-5172 See our ad on page 19 Serendipity Garden Design 202.544.7247 www.serendipitygarden design.com See our ad on page 5 Gifts & Collectables Hoopla Traders 733 8th St., SE 202-544-3620 Hardware Fragers Hardware 1115 Pennsylvania Ave., SE 543-6157 See our ad on page 34 Health & Fitness G. I. Jane Fitness Bootcamp Open Mon-Thu 7am-8pm 202-547-7906 www.GIJanefit.net Results the Gym 3rd & G Sts, SE 202-234-5678 Home Furnishings Antique & Contemporary Leasing & Sales 709 12th Street, SE 547-3030 James Rimensnyder Graduates from US Military Academy at West Point Pets John Parker Salons Doolittle's Pet Supply Pardoe Real Estate Randolph Cree Chateau Animaux 605 PA Ave., SE 546-7000 325 7th St., SE 547-1014 On May 28, James Rimensnyder, Capitol Hill resident, 224 7th St., SE 544-8710 See our ad on page 57 See our ad on page 25 participated in the hat toss following graduation from See our ad on page 30 the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. Rimensnyder was born in Washington, DC, on July 10, 1982. He attended the Capitol Hill Cluster School, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in 2000. James participated in scouting, starting as a Cub Scout and continuing into Boy Scouts as a mem- Prudential Carruthers Dogma 216 7th Street, SE Schools 821 Virginia Ave., SE 393-1111 Capitol Hill Day School 202-543-77805 www.prudentialcarruthers.com 109 S. Carolina Ave., SE www.dog-ma.com See our ad on page 31 547-2244 See our ad on page 31 Rob Bergman See our ad on page 15 Picture Framing ber of Troop 500 on Capitol Hill, and completing his Eagle rank as a senior in high school. In high school, James was a member of Wilson's Residential and Commercial Edmund Burke School Capitol Hill Art & Frame 262-3848 2955 Upton St., NW 623 Penna. Ave., SE See our ad on page 13 362-8882 546-2700 See our ad on page 9 John Janke St Peter's School highly rated International Studies Magnet program and earned a varsity let·ter in crew. During the summer after his junior year, he served as an intern Randall Hagner 422 3rd St., SE 544-1618 Fulton Framing 546-9057 in the office of U. S. Representative John Shimkus (R-IL). Congressman Framing and Preservation See our ad page 6 USDA Graduate School Shimkus, a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, class of 1980, encouraged James to consider seeking an appointment to West Point. James received a letter of recommendation from Congressman Shimkus and was nominated by his Congresswoman, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D - 544-8408 888.744.GRAD See our ad on page 7 Sherlocke Homes www.grad.usda.gov Panchita Bello See our ad on page 49 Frame of Mine 708 G Street, SE Speech-Language Therapy 202-543-0954 DC), in 1999. Although not admitted immediately, he was offered a one-year Do-It-Yourself and We take the mystery out of Katherine T. Sullivan M.S., scholarship by the Association of Graduates of West Point to attend the New Custom Framing 522 8th St., SE 543-3030 real estate CCC-SLP Mexico Military Academy (NMMI) in Roswell, NM to prepare for admission See our ad on page 12 Providing Services for Children to West Point the following year. Following successful completion of the program at NMMI with an out- Call first for appointment from Birth to School-Ages. www.sherlockehomes.com (202) 329-4444Newman Gallery and See our ad on page 47 ksullivan@dcspeech.com standing academic record, and with the recommendation of the staff there, Custom Frames James was accepted into the class of 2005 at West Point. The events of 511 11th St., SE 544-7577 Valerie M. Blake Theater Prudential Carruthers Folger Shakespeare 9/11/2001 inspired that class to adopt as its motto "Keeping Freedom Alive in See our ad on page 41 Realtors Theatre and Library 2005." Plumbing 5025 Wisconsin Ave, NW 201 East Capitol Street, SE At West Point, in addition to completing the core program of engineering Grayton Plumbing studies, Cadet Rimensnyder majored in American Legal Systems, a major that requires writing and defending a senior thesis. Cadet Rimensnyder chose for his thesis subject voting representation in Congress for residents of the District of Columbia. He also served as an intern at the United States 202-362-1348, x111, 544-7077 544-4366 www.DCHomeQuest.com See our ad on page 35 See our ad on page 4 Property Management Real Estate Settlement Theater Alliance Evolve LLC Congressional Title H Street Playhouse 650 PA Ave., SE 544-0800 1365 H Street, NE Supreme Court in summer, 2004. 202 359-RENT See our ad on page 8 202-396-0050 In a special ceremony on May 26, Cadet Rimensnyder received an "Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Department of Law of the U. S. Military Academy for his 50-page thesis entitled, "Voting Representation for the District of Columbia: A Constitutional Analysis and Potential evolvellc.com www.theateralliance.com See our ad on page 12 Eastern Market Title 210 7th St., SE 546-3100 Shakespeare Theatre Yarmouth Management See our ad on page 7 Education Solutions." 309 7th Street, SE 547-5688 202/547-3511 Restaurants On May 28, 2005, Cadet Rimensnyder was awarded a Bachelor of Science 1/2 block from Eastern Aatish Therapy degree from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and took Market Metro 609 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Joseph Tarantolo, MD the oath of office affirming his appointment as a Second Lieutenant in the E-mail: Rent@YarmouthM.com The City's Finest Pakistani Individual, couples and group U. S. Army. The oath pledges all officers to "support and defend the Real Estate Restaurant psychotherapy Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." 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