Nats Park

A few Sundays ago, we went to our first Nats game at the new stadium. I think we both agreed that the experienced was mixed. The day we went was pretty crowded since the Nationals were playing the Orioles. Of course, the stadium is brand new, and so everything looked great and new. Our seats were great, just a few rows back from the Nats' dugout on the first baseline. The field was beautiful, and the jumbotron was very... big.

BUT, it was also really hot, and we had seats in the sun and we didn't realize they got ridiculously hot in the sun. Liz had a hard time sitting in them because her shorts weren't long enough to provide protection. There are big ugly parking garages that sit and block any sort of view of the city past the outfield walls. It seems they're still ironing out the kinks even after 3 months of being open. The lines were long, they ran out of concessions, and the food was super expensive. It's true the stadium doesn't have much character, I guess, but I'm not sure what kind of character I'd expect from a brand new stadium.

I am really hopeful, though, that when they finish developing that part of town that it will be lively and fun and full of action. It seems that will happen, but you never know. And hopefully the team will win more than lose. That could never hurt.

The SS music venue saga continues

In the last several weeks, it seems that the new all-consuming pasttime in Silver Spring has been debating who the county should partner with in order to get the SS music venue built. The county agreed to have Live Nation build a Fillmore branded club. Then Seth Hurwitz came along and offered a new, arguably more attractive offer. Now seemingly everybody in SS is lending their voice to a more and more discordant crescendo about who should have the right to build and run the thing.

So, here's a series of links and summaries of the latest info...

First, check out Steven Pearlstein's column from Friday's Post. So far, I think this is the best summary and view of the situation.

Sample quote: "It wasn't too many years ago that even street musicians would refuse to perform in downtown Silver Spring. Now things are so hopping that you've got Live Nation, the country's biggest live music outfit, and Seth Hurwitz, owner of the District's 9:30 Club and operator of the Merriweather Post Pavilion, in a nasty political catfight over the right to operate a new music venue there."

Next, for context, check out the links to letters submitted both for and against Seth Hurwitz.

For Hurwitz: From Howard Co. executive

Sample quote: "While I do not know all of the details of this situation, I understand that Seth Hurwitz and I.M.P. Productions have expressed a desire to be involved. Certainly, you must do what is best for Silver Spring and Montgomery County, but having worked with Seth over the past four years, I believe he would be an invaluable asset to this project."

Against Hurwitz: From owner of Ram's Head

Sample quote: "Practically every show we have tried to book in Baltimore, Seth Hurwitz (the Nations top club owner) has “blocked’ due his fear that it may hurt his club in DC, nearly 40 miles away. Apparently, Seth has the answer as to why the people in Baltimore would prefer to drive to DC than to see the same show in their hometown?!? For goodness sake, there is enough population between the two cities to support more than his club and mine. I have never, and will never, block a show from playing in the DC market. Anyone living in the area knows there are plenty of people to fill two very small venues."

It's nutty! Read the comments on those "For" and "Against" pages too if you want to witness the real back and forth around this. I still say that Hurwitz missed his chance, and the county should stay with Live Nation. I love the 9:30 Club and have been going since it was on F St. I would love to have a similar club in SS. But a deal's a deal, bird in the hand, all that good stuff. Just get it done!

The Fillmore is coming to Silver Spring

This is sort of old-ish news by now, but Silver Spring has signed a deal w/ LiveNation to bring one of their Fillmore-branded clubs to the downtown area. It will go where the Birchmere was going to go -- in the old JC Penny building on west side of Colesville Rd, across from the AFI Theater. LiveNation has several of the Fillmore clubs around the country, like in NYC and San Fran, plus they own the House of Blues clubs.

Not too long ago, the House of Blues wanted to open up shop in the newly developing 'hood of NoMa. Not sure who comes up w/ these names, but NoMa is in the area where 395 meets NY Avenue. Guess NoMa stands for North of Mass Ave... Anyway, when the House of Blues wanted to do that, many people rose a stink about it, especially because the club would directly compete w/ our own nationally-renowned local institution, the 9:30 Club. Plus, people don't like LiveNation because it's Clear Channel and a huge corporation.

Intestingly, Seth Hurwitz who owns and runs IMP productions and the 9:30 Club sent a letter to Montgomery County saying he was very interested in being considered to develop a music hall at the JC Penny site. But he was too late because MoCo had already decided they were going w/ LiveNation. That's too bad because it would've been cool, I think, to have him develop something. And this new Fillmore club definitely will compete w/ the 9:30. Hopefully, the competition will be good for everyone.

Oh yeah, and the other interesting thing is that very shortly after the LiveNation deal was announced, College Park announced that the Birchmere was gonna open up a new location in their planned new Town Center development. So PG County gets the Birchmere and MoCo gets the Fillmore. To me, it sounds maybe there's more to the story, but what do I know.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this, but I think generally it's a good thing. On the one hand, I do have an admittedly knee jerk fear of Clear Channel because -- many people would say -- that by buyig up many many radio stations they have an unfair monopoly on radio and have homogenized radio in general. And as a local supporter of the 9:30 Club since they used to be on F Street, I would hope that nothing bad happens to their business because of the competition. But it'll be a good thing for Silver Spring. Bottom line: I probably won't spend much time there, but I think it's a good thing.

Uline Arena / Washington Coliseum

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The Uline Arena (or Washington Coliseum) down by Union Station is being renovated and redeveloped by Doug Jemal. When I heard about the development, I wanted to find out more about the building since I wasn't that familiar with it in the first place. Turns out it has some kind of interesting history behind it -- I had no idea. And it's a pretty unusual looking building for DC. I've ridden past it many times while riding on the eastern leg of the Red Line to Silver Spring and always wondered what it was.

For one thing, it was the location of the first Beatles concert in the US on Feb 11, 1964! Wild. Here's a picture from that show.

The cover photo of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits was taken at a concert at the Washington Coliseum in 1966.

In the '80s, go-go bands like Chuck Brown, Trouble Funk, and Rare Essence played there.

Here's a pretty thorough history of the facility from the Washington Business Journal.

Most recently, it has been used as a parking lot and as a waste facility. It's in pretty rough shape now, so here's hoping they do a good job in redeveloping it. Check out some pics on flickr.

No Birchmere here

Apparently, as is being reported by several of the Silver Spring blogs, the deal to bring a second Birchmere here to SS is dead. I find this to be disappointing on one hand since I think it would be a feather in SS's hat to have the Birchmere here. However, I can't say that I'd go to see many shows there. In my whole life of living in this area, I have only been to the original one in Alexandria once. But you know, maybe I would go more often if it was close by. Plus I'd guess I now fit more into their demographic since I'm an oldster. Maybe I'd enjoy some nice quiet acoustic folk or bluegrass or blues. It would be easy on my ears... Eh, I don't really see that happening.

As for the rumor that the county wants a comedy club, I say I'd rather have the Birchmere. As little as I would go to the Birchmere, I would go to a comedy club less. But I guess other people would go more often to a comedy club. The county wants a tennant that generates more revenue than the Birchmere is what it sounds like it comes down to. I hope they bring in something good, but odds are I won't be spending much time at anything they bring in. This town does need some more decent bars, tho, that's for sure. But I say that about most places I live in, visit, read about, see on TV. You get the idea.

Here are a coupla links to posts from SS blogs:
Silver Spring Singular
Silver Spring Penguin

Silver Spring in the NYTimes

Here is a recent article about Silver Spring's revitalization from the NYTimes. Thanks for sending, Rosana!

A Dose of Art and Entertainment Revives a Suburb

Petition to bring NPR to Silver Spring

Apparently, NPR is considering moving their headquarters to Silver Spring. This sounds like a great idea to me and would complement Discovery and AFI nicely, IMO. The Silver Spring Scene is running a petition on their site to show support for NPR in the Spring. So, if you're inclined, go sign it.

Purple Line

Apparently, there's new interest in putting the purple line underground. If it's gonna happen, I say put it underground! I'm very skeptical about how any above-ground transit line will work. Won't it create more traffic by taking up lanes in existing roads? Wouldn't it make more sense in the long run to dig tunnels?

WTOP: Will Purple Line be Above or Below Ground?
Purple Line on wikipedia

The Birch-here?

They keep threatening to build this thing... it'll be nice when (if) it happens. The company designing the Silver Spring Birchmere has published some illustrations of what it may look like. Dunno, but to me that "Birchmere" neon sign is kinda big. But the sound-level-bars on the side are pretty cool.

New bar coming to the Spring

From the Silver Spring Scene, here's a report of a new bar and restaurant on GA Ave in an old firehouse station. That's pretty cool, 'cause as it stands now, there ain't too many places to get a beer around here.

Joe Englert

Friends of mine already know about my semi-fascination with Joe Englert. As an armchair observer of DC and participant in DC nightlife, I would definitely say that Englert has done a lot for DC. In fact, I'd say he's done as much as anyone has for DC.

When we were all younger, his bars and clubs were our bars and clubs of choice: 15 Minutes, Insect Club, Planet Fred (later the Lucky Bar), Crowbar, Big Hunt, etc. All those places were go-to places and we had a lot of fun there. When we reached "club age," we first went to the standard places (the only places if you asked us) -- places that weren't Rumors or whatever other mainstream bars were going on at the time. We mainly wanted a cool place to hang out that played cool music. Those places were Poseurs and then Backalley Cafe and then Cagney's.

But after those three places closed up, it seemed like there wasn't a place to go hang out and dance as well. But then 15 Mins opened up, and we were there what felt like every weekend. We'd see Joe at 15 Mins, and he'd give us passes or would say hello at the door. We'd see him at Planet Fred all the time. There was a lot of youth mis-spent there. We felt like regulars -- felt like we belonged.

Now, Englert is working on fixing up H St. NE. He's got six bars going on now, and is working on luring in more businesses. I gotta say I'm rooting for the guy. It seems like he's really got some work cut out for himself at H St. I went with Scott to see Retisonic at the Red and the Black about 6 months ago. The Atlas District (what they're calling the strip on H St NE) right now is still pretty desolate and rough. But who knows -- if anybody can pull off revitalizing the strip, it might be Joe. If I had the energy, motivation, and balls, I'd love to do what he does.

(Oh yea, and his favorite band is the Pogues, so he's okay in my book right there. As a matter of fact we saw him when the Shane MacGowan movie showed at Visions. He was there with his wife, Lynn, who went to my high school. Small town.)

Some Englert links:
Wash City Paper: Englertification
The Goodspeed Update
Wash Business Journal
WaPo on Atlas District

Some Englert H St Bars:
Red and Black
Palace of Wonders (Showbar)
Rock and Roll Hotel

National Park Seminary

If you've ever driven by the National Park Seminary in Forest Glen, you'd say "what the heck is that -- some kinda weird cult compound" (that's what I said anyway). It's a cluster of buildings made up of a strange combination of castles, pagodas, elevated covered walkways, and generally out-of-the-ordinary looking buildings.

It's been in a state of disrepair for a while (and some, including me, would say it looked pretty cool that way).

So, now it's being redeveloped and semi-restored to build a sort of planned neigborhood. Check out the developer's site for lots of photos, plans, schedules, etc. Try to take a look at the photos, especially the historical ones and the current state of the buildings. I thought those were really interesting. I had no idea that the campus used to be a women's college back at the turn of the 20th century. Kinda wild...