Month: April 2010

BACA Clean Up Tomorrow and Something completely unrelated

First, BACA Saturday, 1st & P @ 10AM. See more here. I won’t be joining this cleanup as tomorrow is run around town looking for something and dropping stuff off day. My main goal is to get sample sizes of various Benjamin Moore paint colors (used to be able to get them at Monarch Paints but no more) and get rid of an old pre-HD TV.

Unrelated- history. Everyso often I think of papers I would write if I were really inspired to write and had the time to write. One topic I’d like to spend some more time on is the topic of urban renewal looking at some long term things. For one I’d look at the gensis of DC urban renewal by NCPC and DC government and any non-government players and get a sense of what their motivations were. Then try to figure out what happened to those individuals as they dropped out of the process when plans changed, and plans do change. Second, changing plans. The experts and planners start off with one set of plans and then due to budget, staff, political pressure, the odd riot, or whathaveyou the plans change. The big freeway that is currently I-395 does not continue up New Jersey Avenue and on to U Street. And the big thing is I’d want such a paper for people to look up the primary sources for themselves. I don’t want people to automatically take my word as gospel. I have biases, and some of them I will publicly admit to, others I won’t. Some will look at the same information and draw different conclusions, but the main thing is that they look and think.

Banished Productions Hits the Big Bear

This is so exciting. Well to me, and I’ve already asked the Help if his schedule permits if we can go. If he can’t go then I’ll just go by myself.

What I speak of is Banished Production’s “A Tactile Dinner”, which I attended back during the DC Fringe Festival. It was weird and good. They will be having “dinner” at the Big Bear for three days starting May 13th then mosey on over to Longview Gallery for 2 days. Big Bear for vegetarians, Longview for carnivores. Head over to their website for more info.

Farmer’s Markets in May

Truck Patch Stand On the one hand, ‘finally.’ On the other hand, there isn’t that much in season right now. In May strawberries come in season. I’ve been going to Penn Quarter, which is open on Thursdays and has vendors with products not too seasonally sensitive. The fruit vendors have apples and pears and other Fall things. But come May 1st, (or is it May 2nd per the website?) the 14th St & U Market will be up and running. Then several weeks later Sunday May 16th the Bloomingdale Farmers Market opens. And hopefully there will be something there for me to can. I look forward to seeing the old vendors such as Reid’s Farm, Copper Pot, and others. I also look forward to running into neighbors, and their dogs and children. Yes, farmer’s market food is more expensive than conventional food or Florida Ave Warehouse food. However, in some cases it is well worth it and as always you get what you pay for. In the case of strawberries, I can taste the difference. Also after listening (audio-books) to Michael Pollan’s books In Defense of Food and Omnivore’s Dilemma I do want to continue to support local Mid-Atlantic agriculture, so there is a cost in supporting that as opposed to products shipped or flown in from South America.
Truck Patch Stand
On the one hand, ‘finally.’ On the other hand, there isn’t that much in season right now. In May strawberries come in season. I’ve been going to Penn Quarter, which is open on Thursdays and has vendors with products not too seasonally sensitive. The fruit vendors have apples and pears and other Fall things.
But come May 1st, (or is it May 2nd per the website?) the 14th St & U Market will be up and running. Then several weeks later Sunday May 16th the Bloomingdale Farmers Market opens. And hopefully there will be something there for me to can. I look forward to seeing the old vendors such as Reid’s Farm, Copper Pot, and others. I also look forward to running into neighbors, and their dogs and children.
Yes, farmer’s market food is more expensive than conventional food or Florida Ave Warehouse food. However, in some cases it is well worth it and as always you get what you pay for. In the case of strawberries, I can taste the difference. Also after listening (audio-books) to Michael Pollan’s books In Defense of Food and Omnivore’s Dilemma I do want to continue to support local Mid-Atlantic agriculture, so there is a cost in supporting that as opposed to products shipped or flown in from South America.

Moved and Banished

Two things.
One- I have moved this blog over to blog.inshaw.com if anyone cares.

Two- and this is really exciting, Banished productions is doing their Futurist inspired dinner at Big Bear & Long View Gallery (see more info here) starting May 13th. I went to their last dinner during the Fringe Festival and it’s weird and good and definately a fun experience.

Alley Goings On

The worst recently of alley going ons was the attempted armed robbery that happened last weekend. From what I’ve heard, a young guy with a gun tried to rob a Latino contruction dude. I sort of heard something around about the time of the robbery, but when I looked out all I saw was one middle aged Latino guy yelling to some unseen guys. I didn’t think too much about it at the time because there are a few construction projects going on. But when I chatted with a couple of neighbors they told me about the attempt. Not sure what foiled the robbery, I guess the alley is a little bit more active (in a good way) than the robber figured on.

The alley now has a few more eyes and a few more people are using the back deck or patio now that the weather is getting nicer. I regularly hear the family across the way entertaining on their deck. The cat ladies several doors down hang out on their deck and I am hearing and seeing them on occasion. There is a house closer to the end that has a roof deck and noticeable it has an excellent view of the corner where the friendly neighborhood dealers have taken a liking to hanging. Decks and gates that give greater visibility to the alley have placed more eyes in the back.

One neighbor (as we were recounting the robbery attempt to each other) told me how the changing dynamics of the suprised one old bum. It seems the old guy was looking for a place to hide or smoke crack and his old haunt was closed off to him. The neighbor said the guy had this look of annoyance and then surprise when the neighbor (on the other side of the alley with his garage gate up) gave him an “hello.”

During the day, when I was home sick with a cold, I noticed the traffic in my alley. Because of the construction, there are construction guys walking and driving up and down the alley. There is also an employee from the day care talking a smoke/cell phone break pacing up and down. And as usual, school boys, dog walkers, and cyclists cutting through.

About this Entry

Previously published in MT.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on April 27, 2010 11:20 AM.

reborn

Because Blogger is no longer supporting FTP I moved over to Moveable Type. We’ll see how this works.
I’ve been thinking of how I want to blog now. When I started out in 2003ish with Inshaw it was mainly for the entertainment of my friends, then I got more readers. Then I got a lot of readers and the dang thing got a life of it’s own. I really want to get back to making Inshaw a little bit more personal. Like chatting over the fence. The topics of history, gentrification (demographic changes in the hood), and civic engagement still interest me, but I really want the blog to stay manageable. Meaning, if I get an invitation to post something I may or may not, depending on my mood and not feel too guilty about it. In other words I don’t want to make this thing a community bulletin board, it becomes less enjoyable the more that “obligation” creeps in.

Still moving

ARGH!
I didn’t set it up right. Unfortunately, I’m a bit overwhelmed by this and a laundry list of other things going on and will put off until later when I don’t feel short tempered and scatter-brained.
Hopefully I can get this thing either at blog.inshaw.com or at Inshaw.com where the old announcement Inshaw.com page will be bulldozed, destroyed and sitting on a hard drive somewhere.

S*H*A*W* M*A*S*H* (the In Shaw version)

Shaw MASH

(HT CCCA )
Life goes on though.
The day care co-op plays in the rear of the Kennedy Rec Center.
Young men sit at the corner of 7th & O, yards away from the checkpoint.
People with medical/ mental/ ??? issues walk down 7th.
And I explored the maze of pedestrian options in alleys, parking lots and walkways between 6th & 7th. It might also be an option with a Smart Car.