better graffiti

Rosie in England

Peyton Place

Peyton Place in Springfield Va., is as an unassuming restaurant as it gets, blink and you miss it, you have to squint to see it. It's stuck in between a strip of stores 75 feet wide off of Backlick Rd., but I think it's got the best fried chicken I've tasted. They pressure cook their chicken, so the result is a light and thin skin and ultra crispy. This picture doesn't do it justice, when you get it, it looks as great as it tastes, very flavorful and very moist. I've eaten here many times and only once was the inside a bit dry, but I wasn't complaining.

Pictured is what they call a Snack Pack, a two piece meal, I added one wing to the order, but you get a choice of white or dark, and it comes with slaw, two giant potato wedges, two sour-dough rolls, sour cream for the wedges and butter. All this came to $7.36, pretty good deal, but I would of paid that just for the chicken. A very small fraternity of us know about the fried chicken at Peyton Place and want to keep it that way, it's already difficult to carry-out their popular chicken in the evening as it is.

They also have steaks, entrees and sandwiches too. Within the restaurant there is also an american saloon and a stage for live music. Note: when carrying out a large order, whichever box/container they use, it's best to release the hot air a few times to avoid moisture build up, it keeps the pressure cooked crispiness longer.

6516 Backlick Rd., Springfield Va., 703.451.6620 MAP

A "D" for effort.

Even if you have a mild interest in sports, you've seen the cards of the players that go along with that sport. And more than any other decade, I think the 70's take the cake when it comes to bizarre simplicity and just sheer wretchedness in personal hygiene and appearance. And more than any other sport, hilariously, hockey by far is the worst offender.

My Boat

This is my motor yacht, (in my mind) the Princess V Class V62. Due to financial restraints, a very small percent of the population of the world are able to own watercraft that exceeds the 40 ft length. But that doesn't mean we can't still get over by perusing their websites!! Some of my favs...

Bertram
Doqueve
Fairline
Princess Princess E
Majesty
Chris-Craft
Pershing

Princess 95MY

F#ck Copter

If your having a crappy day, just fly the Fuck Copter around your office and let everyone know how you feel.

Hey… we’re all jaded and sometimes you just don’t give a flying fuck… but wouldn’t it be nice if you could? Now you can give a flying fuck to a friend or loved one. This fine r/c helicopter is in the form of a giant hovering FUCK. It has two-channel control meaning it is always moving forward slowly. You control the hover and right and left turns. It’s really a genuine gift from the heart… Rather than telling someone you don’t care a rats ass about them, you can let them know you respect them enough to give a flying fuck. Awww… We’re tearing up right about now.

Important Note
The FUCK in the image above is blurred out, but when you get the real copter it’s not blurred… Capiche?

Ricky & Elmo

If you haven't seen this video of Ricky Gervais and Elmo by now, from the out-takes of Sesame Street, I'm proud to bring it to you here. It's very endearing and funny.

My Food Pits

"Preamble" Mike Wilkins, 1987, metal on vinyl and wood, 96"x 96" Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Tauba Auerbach

K 50"x 38" ink on paper 2007

Conceptual graphic artist, Tauba Auerbach creates artistic studies of the language and the written word, also relating the verbal to the symbols used in written language. She is one of my favorite artists. To see more of her accomplished and innovative styles please visit her website.

Subtraction (Startling) ink and pencil on paper 27"x 27" 2007

The 133rd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show February 9-10

Those eyes, those ears, those nose! Aahhh roooo! It's time to get your dog on, for the one hundred and thirty third time! Can you believe it's been going on this long? That's alot of ticks! Even the ticks on these champions get a grooming. Last year's winner UNO, was the first beagle ever to claim Best In Show. That smacks of canine bigotry.

Who will be Best In Show this year? Will there be another great story?,.. a long shot defies the odds?,... It better not be some dumb yapper mutt!! I'm very sorry for that outburst, I don't know what got into me, I apologize. Anyway,.. watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show every year is like someone handing me a steaming bowl of homemade chicken soup. It's comfort! So please go to the website, it's very informative, and it will give you the complete broadcast information where you can watch. Here are a couple of links for last years show pics. 1), 2), 3).

2008 winner "UNO" Hound Class (K-Run's Park me In First)

The Empire State Building is bathed in Westminster purple and gold annually for the show.

Crab cake at Faidley's Baltimore

This is the award winning lump crab cake from Faidleys Seafood in the historic Lexington Market in Baltimore. You can get a platter with fries and a side but got just the crab cake. They, and most everyone say it's the best in Baltimore, and that's saying alot because crab cakes are the claim to fame for a ton of restaurants in this city. The crab cakes here are basically a large ball of almost entirely lump crab meat, surrounded by a perfect blend of tangy and sweet filling. Don't let the look of it fool you, that thing is almost ALL lump meat! The best crab cake around? I couldn't say, I don't eat many crab cakes but these were awesome. The atmosphere is great, they serve cold beer, and the staff have a good time.
For more of my pics of market see here.

200 N .Paca St., Lexington Market, Baltimore Md., 410.727.4898 MAP

cold and briny

I ducked into the Main Ave. Fish Wharf in SE Washington DC today for a half dozen clams for the always cheap $5. Make sure you go to the far end of Jessie's Cooked Seafood stand, I find it's got the best. Everytime I go there, the clams are always bigger, colder, and tastier than the other stands. Tip the guys before they start shucking and they always take care of you.
See: Captain Whites Seafood City • Jessie Taylor Seafood

1100 Main Ave., SW Washington DC. 202.314.5759 MAP

the White Onion at Vace

This is the White Onion pizza at Vace Italian Delicatessen in Cleveland Park, Washington D.C., pronounced (vaa-chay). I could go on and on and tell you how much I like this pizza, but I won't. I'll just say It's my favorite pizza pie. All the others like The Italian Store, 2 Amy's, Pizzeria Paradiso and so on, have their own specialties and their great but this is by far my favorite. Very thin crust with the best tasting mozzarella, and plenty of shaved, sweet Vidalia onion. Their other pizzas are also made with fresh ingredients and are delish. Please visit their website for more info. It's located directly across the street from the famed Uptown Theatre. Many people consider Vace the best kept secret in D.C. and I agree, their pizzas are the best.

3315 Connecticut Ave., NW Washington DC, 2008, 202.363.1999 MAP

El Pollo Rico

There are alot of Peruvian chicken restaurants around the D.C. area, but the one place that keeps coming up in blogs and articles is El Pollo Rico in the Clarendon district in Arlington Va. It was recently featured on an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show. Around lunch or dinner time the activity in the parking lot of El Pollo Rico is reminiscent of the frantic drive-in restaurants of the fifties. People going in and out, doors opening and closing, cars jockeying or spots. Folks, everyone is saying this is hands down the best chicken of this type in the area.

Chicken is the only entree on the menu here, you can get a quarter, half or whole. They'll ask you "with everything?" and you'll get cole slaw and fries on the side along with as many tiny containers of (dangerous) green chilli and their delicious mustard/mayo sauce as you like. The chicken really is delicious and very moist. Great unusual spices flavor it, and the skin is cooked crispy so it's almost like another side dish. The slaw has heavy horseradish and the fries are from frozen but crispy. Yuca frita or plantains would be a better side but what are you gonna do. A fork-full of chicken, skin, chili, and mustard/mayo sauce and you know why the lines are always long. Wash it all down with cold Inca Kola. So is it the best Peruvian chicken I've ever had? Yes.

The dining room is huge, it's cash only, and typical of a Clarendon eatery, the parking is sparse. It's all worth it though, it's the very well seasoned, very moist chicken that people show up in droves for. Also a bargain, my half chicken meal pictured above, with everything and the Kola came to $9.57.

El Pollo Rico, 932 N Kenmore St., Arlington, VA. 703.522.3220 MAP

The name of the Lamborghini Embolado comes from a Spanish festival called the "Toro Embolado". The festival involves releasing a bull into the streets with a burning ball attached to it's horns. The Lamborghini Embolado concept by Luca Serafini, possibly the big brother to the Gallardo.

I think I'll stick with Scrabble.

Zeitgeist

zeitgeistmovie.com

myopenbar

Open bar listings at myopenbar.com. in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Honolulu, and Miami. A cool weblisting site of free or discounted booze and grub. Reader-submitted, this site let's you know the places giving out complimentary food and booze in the city. You can discuss, share ratings and descriptions of the venues and even sign up for weekly e-mails that let you know where the free shit can be had.

Scout Tufankjian

The wonderful photography of Scout Tufankjian. She is a journalist that covered the Obama campaign for 27 months. Visit her site, you won't regret it! The Secret Service gallery is brilliant.

Ba-Tampte Half Sours

Best pickles ever.

Mini Burgers at Matchbox

What everybody says about Matchbox in the Penn Quarter district of Washington DC, is to try the Flat-Iron Steak Pizza and the Mini Burgers. I was in the mood for the minis, the pizza will be next time I guess. They come in quantities of 3, 6, or 9. The couple next to me ordered 9, and they looked funny and delicious, all of them sitting on that plate. I got the three and it's plenty! Little Angus beef patties with a pickle, and your choice of three cheeses on buttered brioche. Fantastic! The dill pickle adds the perfect acid, and the small portion of melted mozzarella was just enough. Top of the line Minis! The onion straws come with the meal and surprisingly they are not boring. They are delicate, crispy and sweet.

Check out the Drink List on their website, they boast award winning concoctions, along with having the reputation as one of the best martini bars in the area. Matchbox has a very hip, very cool interior, you feel like a hipster when your there, there are also different, neatly folded newspapers from around our region at every place setting at the bar - nice! And I thought the service was very friendly and laid back.

Matchbox, 713 H St. NW, Washington D.C., 202.289.1947 MAP

Julia's Empanadas

I finally made it down to one of the world famous Julia's Empanadas locations in Washington DC, it is a very well known establishment and all 3 stores are located there. An Empanada is a stuffed pastry, baked, and stuffed with various ingredients. Julia's has about 10 different kinds, the one the left is the Jamaican (ground and chopped beef, onion, potato, curry, and spices). And on the right is the Turkey w/ spring onion (cilantro, onion and jalapeno seasoned w/ tumeric). Both very good, I mean someone handing you an Empanada is like someone handing you a diamond, nothing bad can come from it, ever. I was hoping the crust was alittle more crispy and flaky but the filling more than makes up for it. It's cheap too, $3.50 apiece, and the cucumber, radish salad was fresh and only a $1.50. Julias is open till 4 am on the weekends.

2452 18th St NW, 202-328-6232 (Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan) MAP
1221 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-861-8828 (Dupont Circle) MAP
1000 Vermont Ave, NW, 202-789-1878 (McPherson Square) MAP

Frozen custard at The Dairy Godmother

It's the Wisconsin-style vanilla frozen custard from the very popular The Dairy Godmother, located in the very quaint "Main Street" section of Mt. Vernon Ave. in Alexandria Va. I'm not huge into sweets and desserts and am the furthest thing away from a frozen custard expert but, here, it tastes like a sugar, cream, and milk fat heaven, trust me on this one.

The Dairy Godmother, 2308 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, Va., 703.683.7767. MAP

William Claxton Oct 12, 1927 - Oct 11, 2008

Chet Baker (Piano), Hollywood, 1954. William Claxton.
William Claxton Photography

what's in your lobby?

The 22 milion dollar, 10 million pixel video wall in the lobby of the Comcast Center building in Philadelphia. 2,100 sq. ft with 4 millimeter LED lights creates an image 5 times clearer than HD TV. And in between video episodes, the screen perfectly mimics the surrounding wood paneling. A better time filler than reading last years issue of Redbook while waiting for your appointment.
Please see HD promo HERE.

Talking Head

Musician, artist and bike enthusiast David Byrne of Talking Heads in partnership with NYC Dept of Transportation and art gallery PaceWildenstein, recently designed and installed these nine bike racks in various locations around the city of New York. Please see here for more info. http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/bike_racks/index.php

The names and locations of the nine racks follow:

• The Jersey: Northwest corner of Ninth Avenue and 39th Street, near the Lincoln Tunnel
• The MoMA: South side of West 54th Street, east of the Avenue of the Americas
• The Ladies’ Mile: West side of Fifth Avenue, north of 57th Street (in front of Bergdorf’s)
• The Chelsea: In front of 530 West 25th Street, east of 11th Avenue (in front of PaceWildenstein Gallery)
• The Hipster: West side of Bedford Avenue, near North Sixth Street, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• The Olde Times Square: South side of West 44th Street, west of Seventh Avenue
• The Villager: In front of 536 La Guardia Place, between West Third and Bleecker Streets
• The Wall Street: North side of 82 Wall Street, west of Water Street
• The Coffee Cup: West side of Amsterdam Avenue, between West 110th and 111th Streets

Arepas at La Caraquena

This was my grilled Venezuelan cornmeal bread stuffed with Reina Pepeada (lightly seasoned avocado with baked chicken), It's a type of stuffed arepas. The cornmeal can come either fried or grilled, my guy on the inside said to get grilled, "...it always makes the cornmeal softer..."

It's from La Caraquena, a tiny Latin American restaurant in Falls Church, Va. They serve over 11 types of arepas there along with beef, chicken, and seafood entrees.

This is the most flavorful thing I've had in this area, and I'm not kidding, the avocado and chicken is subtly deeelish, but here the basic taste of the grains in the white cornmeal instantly took me back to a one woman run roadside bread meal I had in the middle of nowhere in the Baja Peninsula. The salsa (pictured) rocked out too, it's got a bite and it's hot. Also the arepas was grilled with a tasty light oil that remains at the bottom of it. This is my new and lasting favorite thing to eat in this town.

La Caraquena, 300 W. Broad St., Falls Church, Va. 703.533.0076 MAP

Pork & Fries at Earl's

My Pork & Fries, roasted pork loin, roasted green peppers, sweet pickles, chopped onion, chipotle mayo and french fries between a toasted ciabatta. Very tasty, served very quick.. Earl's Sandwiches in Arlington roasts their own pork, turkey, and beef, fresh daily. Soups from scratch. Super nice owner (Stephen Dugan) and staff. I hear it's a key part of the Clarendon lunch rotation.

Earl's Sandwiches, 2605 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va., 703.248.0150 MAP

Hippie Rolls at Joe's Place

They are the best quality sausage shipped in from New York, sauteed green peppers and onion, wrapped in thin, hand rolled dough. They are Hippie Rolls from Joe's Place, Woodbridge Va. It's made fresh every morning and they come in spicy or mild sausage. Crispy outside, piping hot inside. It's common for loyal customers to travel 100 plus miles to get these, they buy a bunch and freeze them when they get home.

These rolls are the most delicious things. It's the mild, sweet, soft sausage that's different from almost anything sold in these parts. You will flip for these things.

Joes Place, 13710 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Woodbridge, Va. 703.494.9689 MAP

Ray's Hell Burger

Your not going to find any french fries here, " ..no fries, ever.." says owner Michael Lundrum. They don't serve them, just corn, watermelon and a few light sides. Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington Va., is got the buzz as the best burger's in our entire area, at least for now. A very large 10oz. patty, cooked 1. "warm red center" 2. "pink" or 3. "cooked throughout" I had the pink, and it was still deliciously bloody. 3 months training is required for the cooks. The apprenticeship at Lundrums Ray's the Steaks a few doors down.

The burger I had was $6.95 plus $1 for the Smoked Mozzarella, two half ears of corn and a giant iced tea, all for $10 bucks. Great price! and they have more expensive, specialty burgers too. The choice of luxurious cheeses for the price is the kicker here, all on top of a home ground, perfectly cooked monster. The brioche bun is lacking, and it quickly disintegrates under the juicy steak, but who cares. Warning, the place is small and IT PACKS OUT, all day, every day.

Ray's Hell Burger (Butcher Burgers), 1713 Wilson Blvd.; 703.841.0001. Open Monday thru Thurs at 5pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday noon to "whenever". MAP

Wacky Packages, The Book!

I just came across this Wacky Packages coffee table book! If you loved Wacky Pack stickers as much as I did, this book is definitely for us.

Wacky Packages (Abrams; June 2008; $19.95; 240 pages, 233 color illustrations), is the first-ever collection of Series One through Series Seven (from 1973 and 1974) and showcases images of all 223 rare and hard-to-find stickers. Celebrating Wacky Packages’ 35th anniversary, the book also includes a bonus pack of four rare and previously unreleased stickers, an introduction by Art Spiegelman (one of the original creators), and an afterword by Jay Lynch (a long-time Wacky Packages collaborator). Also included are 3 never before seen "Lost Wackys" (actual stickers) available only with this book, and a version of Muller Beer not seen since 1967.

To order click here. For more pics of the book see here.

The awesome bi-annual art show is here again, SUNDAY SEPT. 28 at the MARIE REED LEARNING CENTER - 18th St. & Wyoming NW DC. (Adams Morgan). One of a kind, unique, handmade stuff, great food, and a proper music stage with some really good small bands. See HERE for the City Papers website, and HERE for the vendors.

hulu is a pretty good site to at the very least get your somewhat hard to find SNL clips including the commercial skits and the SNL Digital Shorts. It's all free, but ad supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from Fox, NBC and a bunch of other networks and studios. And Flash gives you a higher resolution and size than YouTube. It gives you over a 100 motion pictures to choose too,.. full length features, clips and trailers. It seems to be worth the exploring, just the SNL stuff alone was keeping me pretty happy.

Pentagon Memorial

Please click here for more pics of my visit today.

Take Metro to Pentagon, but if you would like to drive, it's easy, park at the Pentagon City Mall parking structure ( $2 for 2 to 3 hours ) then walk directly across the street to the tunnel clearly marked Pentagon Memorial, and it will take you there.

My Margherita at Pupatella

Hand-rolled pizza pie from a food cart? Say what? It's the little red food cart that can. Pupatella on the corner of 9th and N. Stuart St, Ballston Common, Arlington Va., next to the Ballston Metro. I heard whispers of this place hanging out at the Kettler Iceplex around the corner. And you know when people whisper, it's gotta be good. Culinary school friends Anastasiya Laufenberg and Enzo Algarme are both slinging it, in Neopolitan style, and flavor, for cheap. Working with tiny 650 degree ovens, they peddle way above average street fare.

My Margherita was 6 bucks, thin, light, really fresh tasting mozzarella, and of course San-Marzano tomatoes. The Margherita is the easiest thing on the menu so I got it in about 8 min. Their bringing it to us, so check them out. Washingtonian Magazine also says they got the best sausage and grilled onion sandwich this side of Philadelphia! Will have to try next time.

Hill Rag is a very competent monthly community newspaper owned by Capitol Community News. I try never leave home without it. If you want to know the haps on everything on Capitol Hill, Southwest, H St Northeast, and Navy Yard, pick up an issue ....free of charge, at Metros, street corners and fine establishments across the city.

News, community periodicals, food, the arts, finance, bulletin board, homes, classifieds, Eastern Market Watch, it's got it all. Also see the great online version at capitolcomunitynews/hillrag, .pdf's of every relevant page from the monthly. Not to be confused by The Hill. Also see DC North and East Of The River.

maria bamford

the very funny maria bamford from the comedians of comedy.

A large build up of Imperial activity in San Francisco...

Wouldn't they have more room in Fresno? I would hate to see Polk street after that Death Star is fully operational.

Katie was cleaning her paws and just before I snapped this pic I asked her about her thoughts on this up coming election.