Ugly Christmas Sweater Party 2009
The weekend before Christmas is usually a time of last-minute shopping, packing for travel and holiday parties. In fact, Dan Kelly and I had put together the details to host a sweet holiday party featuring the famous ugly Christmas sweater. But not this year!
Our grand plan to host the biggest and baddest ugly Christmas sweater party was thwarted by Mother Nature when a winter storm dumped roughly 16 inches of snow on the District. Would-be-guests were left snowed-in at their homes as Metro shut down above ground stations and city roads were nearly impassable. So many ugly Christmas sweaters never saw the light of day because of this rare winter dumping.
But because Dan and I have that never say die spirit, the party went on as planned. Sure, it was just 5 of us donning our funktified holiday garb. But damnit, we had some fun. And I have to give a shout out to Robert Fairbairn for being the only one to brave the blizzard and drive to the party. Granted, Rob has a vehicle that can handle the snow and did go to college where snow is plentiful. But I digress, we had a blast, played some Wii and Rock Band and documented the madness with a few images. We'll try again next year, so start looking for your ugly sweater today.
After you've looked at these images, I'd like to point out that finding an ugly Christmas sweater isn't as easy as you might think. Everyone thinks, "gosh, those are easy to find. I mean who wants those!" But hell, it took Jo and I quite a bit of leg work to finally track some down. We ultimately found two girls Christmas sweaters at the Georgia Ave. Thrift Shop in the Brightwood neighborhood, which turned out to be perfect.
Labels: Entertainment, Nightlife, Party
Snowpocalypse 2009
The weekend before Christmas is usually a time of last-minute shopping, packing for travel and holiday parties. But plans were changed in 2009 as a winter storm dumped roughly 16 inches of snow on the District. Some areas of Virginia saw as much as 26 inches. Instead of buying last-minute gifts, people were in a mad rush buying toilet paper and milk. It was a little crazy.
Since I'm lacking in the snow apparel department, I didn't wander too far away from my house during the height of the storm. But I was able to capture some neat shots in the Capitol Hill and Navy Yard neighborhoods of DC. Enjoy...
Labels: capitol hill, DC, navy yard, Photography, Urban, weather
75 Bars DC: Galaxy Hut
We continue our 75 Bars adventure in the great Commonwealth of Virginia with a stop at the ultra hipster hideout,
Galaxy Hut. I'll go ahead and admit here that I had not heard of Galaxy Hut prior to reading the Washingtonian 75 Bars issue. Even after reading, I couldn't get a sense of what to expect. All they said was "it's small." Okay, but that can mean anything. What's the crowd like? What's the decor like? Are the drinks good? Dan and I found out!
We hit up Galaxy Hut after our visit to the wonderful
Liberty Tavern. We had already experienced a great bar in LT, so it would be hard to top what was presented to us there. And frankly, I kinda expected some disappointment based on what I already knew about the venue. After parking the car on a side street, Dan and I agreed, "this would be interesting."
Galaxy Hut is located almost dead-center between the Clarendon and Court House Metro stops along Wilson Blvd. It's an unassuming white building clustered in with a bunch of other unassuming white buildings. Your only sign to locate the bar is a flag hanging out front and some pretty funky colored lights and a crafty sign hanging in the window. This was a Thursday night, so street traffic was light and there was no band playing. But upon entry into this little hangout, I was overwhelmed with a sense of artistic expression. Galaxy Hut is basically what every coffee shop strives to be. It's quaint. It's unique. It's rustic but not dirty. It's small, but not a shoebox. And best of all, it truly is a hipster bar...not some prefabricated venue designed to look hip but is actually an Ikea showroom that serves beer. The art on the wall is all original and local. The patrons are all loyal customers and local. The music that is performed at Galaxy isn't necessarily local, but the support is truly grassroots.
The bar is dark and gets it's lighting from those funky lights in the window and from the video games that serve as tables. Near the back of the bar is a kitchen that serves up a nice assortment of vegan and vegetarian friendly fare. They don't sell hard alcohol, but have a very large assortment of draft and bottled beers. Yes, people were drinking Pabst, but you get the sense they drink it because they like it, not because
Urban Outfitters says it's cool. In other words, this bar is straight up real.
Dan and I found a seat at one of the video game tables and ordered our beverages. I wish I could remember what Mr. Dan ordered, but I got so giddy about my own selection. Galaxy Hut was elevated in my eyes the moment I saw they had a Belgian lambic. It gets better kids! The Belgian lambic was priced at a very reasonable $7. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw that. Oh, but we're not done yet.
Remember the food menu I mentioned? Well I couldn't let the night go by without ordering their tater tots. Yes, you read that correctly. They have tater tots on the menu. I mean, is this a real-life DVS dream-come-true? Raspberry lambic and tater tots? My mouth waters right now thinking about it. And I wasn't the only one stoked about the tots. Dave from DC said it best when he confessed "I'm not going to eat dinner. I'm just going to stay here and eat tots!" I couldn't agree more.
You see, the thing about Galaxy Hut is you get a real sense of expression and uniqueness in this little bar. While sitting there enjoying my lambic, I really felt like I was enjoying someone's truly unique bar concept. As I said before, it might be a hipster magnet, but it's real. Galaxy Hut is a geek-chic bar with an artistic edge that knows exactly what it wants to be and will stay that way as long as the DC area echo boomers continue to visit.
I will most certainly go back to this bar. Because no matter how much I enjoy the fine dining establishments of the District, there is nothing better than a lambic and tater tots!
1st Photo by Flickr user JackiePants'
2nd Photo by Flickr user Tim Serge
3rd Photo by Flickr user Waleed123
4th Photo by Flickr user HoiPolloiLabels: 75 Bars, Bars, Entertainment, Music, Nightlife
The weekend before Christmas is usually a time of last-minute shopping, packing for travel and holiday parties. In fact, Dan Kelly and I had put together the details to host a sweet holiday party featuring the famous ugly Christmas sweater. But not this year!
