Category: 2010 Posts

I’m slowly adding the blog posts from 2010-2017, until I can find an easier way. Otherwise people can just go to inshaw.com/weblog/2010 or inshaw.com/weblog/2011 and so on for the files to the old blog.

Church Announcements

First, Shaw Main Streets and Emmaus Services for the Aging is putting on a ‘Shaw Gospel Music Explosion.’ Yup, explosion. Call Homeland Security. Anyway, if you want to witness this musical bang it is being held at Shiloh Baptist Church on 9th Street, August 7th, at 2pm and tickets are $10. The money raised will go to help seniors services and outreach programs. Contact Emmaus Services for more info at 2/ 745 1200.

Second, know of a non-profit looking for new digs? Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church has a vacancy next door to it’s offices and is seeking a renter in the townhouse. The occupant must be a non-profit for tax purposes. It is located a block from the Washington Convention Center, is close to the Mt. Vernon Sq. metro and not too far from the Shaw metro. Contact their office for more information.

Lastly, it is nice to see the 7th Day Adventists doing a kind of outreach that doesn’t involve door to door literature drops. No seriously, the Fourth Street Friendship SDA Church does a pretty good Sunday feeding program that doesn’t have a negative impact on the surrounding community. Sometimes the music has crept out but participants don’t loiter long and there isn’t much of a trash problem. Anyway, they are sponsoring a few programs that seem directed more at the middling classes. One that caught my eye was a workshop on Vegetarian Cooking. This workshop is to be held Monday June 21st facilitated by Mark Anthony. According to the blurb I found on the flier, “Mark makes regular appearances on T.V. including regular appearances on the 3ABN Network. He will present the topics of Plant Based Health & Nutrition, Vegetarian and Vegan Cooking. As a bonus, Mark will prepare a healthy and delicious meal for all!” The workshop is free but they are asking for a free-will offering, so treat it as a pay-what-you-can event. If one is interested call A.S.A.P. (that’s what the flier says) 2/ 797-9255 to reserve or R.S.V.P.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 6, 2010 7:50 PM.

Flower Power and the Treebox thing

Yesterday, Caryn of the BACA blog sent out an email calling for more treeboxes to be signed up for the June 5th event. Not enough people have signed up. I mentioned it to a neighbor on my street, he’d heard of it but didn’t think his treebox needed any more plants. My side of the block several treeboxes are still coasting on what was planted in the Fall of last year. But still, more participation is needed, if your ANC is Anita Bonds you’re in the BACA area and if yours or a neighboring treebox can do with some plants (or dirt or mulch) please sign up at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dGhjbFdWNUxPWnE0ZjZWWFVlZjdPd0E6MA to pick up the items on June 5th. It is asked that you take a before and after photo. In the Fall our block managed to get a new tree out of the deal.
Also with low participation, so far, are nominations for Flower Power. Of course the deadline for nominations is two weeks away.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 1, 2010 8:19 AM.

UHOP Parade this Saturday, more info

From PSA 301 via the MVSNA listserv:

The parade hours will be Saturday, May 29, 2010 from 10am which will be the assembly time, and start at 12 Noon to 3pm which will be the disbanding time.

The route is as follows:
The parade will form at 6th and M Street NW and will proceed over the following route: North on 6th Street to S Street, West on S Street to 13th Street to Logan Circle, Southeast around Logan Circle to P Street, East on P Street to 7th Street, South on 7th Street to M Street, East on M Street to 6th where participants will disband.

Enjoy the parade, but if you got somewhere to go, don’t do it during the parade unless you’re on foot or bike.

Razin’ Hell

I’ve pulled two Washington Post articles from the pile.
The first is from May 10, 1955 “5000 Homes To Be Razed In RLA Plan” by Robert C. Albrook. The RLA is the Redevelopment Land Agency, a government agency that dealt with blight. And the blight in this case were some 5000 houses in the general Shaw area. I say general because the agency was working on the 2nd Precinct (think 14th St NW to Union Station, Florida to Mass Ave) and hadn’t paired it down to the Shaw School borders. They were considering what needed repair and what needed to be bulldozed. The neighborhood had yet to organize against those plans and the impact of the SW Urban Renewal hadn’t really sunk in yet.
Fast forward a couple of decades to “RLA Sets Razing in Riot Areas” February 20, 1971 by William L. Claiborne. 1971, a little more than 2 years after the 1968 riots that ruined many parts of Shaw. Instead of several thousand structures to be razed, the effort was to tear down several hundred damaged properties. Fun quote from this article is:

Marion Barry, executive-director of Pride, Inc., who also attended the session, said, “You never get anything done unless the citizens go out and raise hell…. This (demolition schedule) came because of our protest.”

Making Ice Cream

This has nothing to do with anything, but last night I felt like I just discovered fire or that cold vodka is useful in making pie crust.

I like to make my own ice cream. I have a hand cranked thing that uses a cylinder that I set in the freezer a day or so before. Some of my neighbors have had my creations. I tend to make chocolate and BAM!Vanilla! (as my cousin calls it) and I tend to like it more than anything I’ve had elsewhere. However, the new gelato place on 7th St in Penn Quarter is pretty darned good too. Anyway, the only problem, if you consider it a problem, is my ice cream is typically too dense. The chocolate is like eating a frozen brownie sometimes. Or it bends spoons. I figure I’m just not churning it enough.

But last night, I made a Strawberry Sage ice cream using a recipe from an Irish Ice Cream store and it called for whipping the cream. I’ve never whipped the cream when making ice cream and this whipped concoction is lighter in texture. The whipping I see makes it less dense and easier to scoop.

Now the whole fruit herb combo makes me wonder if I can make a Twizzler’s sorbet with strawberry and tarragon.

As I said, this has nothing to do with anything.

Flower Power 2010

Two things you’ll want to know about the neighborhood beautification for the Bates Area (northern Truxton Circle, north of P).

One, you need to sign up ASAP for the treebox improvement on June 5th on the BACA blog. By doing so you can get some free treebox plants, mulch and dirt. But you have to sign up. If you don’t sign up, maybe, you’ll just get some free mulch or compost that DPW (hopefully) will dump at 1st and P. (G-d willing). So sign up here.

Second, Flower Power is on this year on June 26th and tickets for the garden walk are back to recessionary prices. Five bucks if you get them the day before. Once again I’m selling them. Contact me at mari at inshaw dot com or show up at the next BACA meeting June 7th or get them from others on the Flower Power committee. In the meantime you can nominate your or your neighbor’s yard or your block (which is why you need to sign up for the treebox thing) for the Flower Power walk. Some of you should have gotten fliers but if not you can go to the BACA blog’s Flower Power page and fill out the nomination form.

Dunbar Marching Band Scam

via the Eckington Listserv
It seems some kid is going around collecting funds for the band, but it seems Dunbar no longer has a band.
I’ve pretty much gotten cynical when it comes to mealy mouth kids and fund raising. I don’t truly believe they are raising money for their school or football team. I may give out of pity or explain that I only give to the kids who live on my block, sorry.
When I want to do charitable giving I have lots of choices and I have a higher preference for those who I can somewhat hold accountable.

Grusesome Playground Injuries

This has very little to do with Shaw but I was invited and the Wolly Mammoth, where this play was performed is between work and home, so good enough.
We did make an effort to go to one of the WM supporters, Cedar Restaurant. I was barely aware of the place before seeing anything at the Wolly. We enjoyed the appetizers. Maybe next time 701, I sometimes go there for lunch.
The play itself is funny and later touching but not for the easily grossed out. If the sounds of loud retching makes you want to toss your cookies. Avoid. The story is about two self-destructive accident prone people and their relationship. The staging is a little odd, and made it difficult to see some on stage wardrobe changes if one sat in the balcony area. The music was modern, right now Lady GaGa is stuck in my head because of it. But in the end, it is quite touching. The Help noticed that I wasn’t the only one teary eyed leaving the theater.