Capicostia Heat

At Ease With Our Own

2012-01-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

Brangler Oppossum (above) is the only thing gathering in these hills, my friends.

(Originally published, July 23rd, 2009)
If it seems some Penn Branch folk are always bellyaching about the lack of quailty retail in our neighborhood, don’t judge us too harshly. It’s more than just bellyaching. Prior to the Reagan Era 80s and the Inflation that preceded it, this neighborhood had plenty!

I remember drugstore diners with GREAT coffee, movies at the Hyland Theatre (at the Hyland Cinema, once located next to the Pope Funeral Home) and, with valet, at Coral Hill. There were even several restaurants, a cocktail lounge or two, a bowling alley, ..and all right here, in and around Penn Branch.

I remember seeing my neighbors at these places and the feeling of relaxed belonging and protection it gave me. I remember hearing my father laugh about bumping into Mr. Such N. Such at that cocktail lounge, and how, after the encounter, he’d decided that Such N. Such probably wasn’t such a bad guy, after all. I remember, in passing, seeing the broad smiles on the faces of our hardworking Penn Branch guys and ladies, sitting around the diners and bars, proud that these were our places.

At ease, with our own. The tribalism I talked about, last week.

Today, if there’s a place (besides, the Southeast White House) where *Branglers routinely gather, east of Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market and south of the Denny’s on Benning Road, for coffee, margaritas or anything else, it beats the hell outta’ me. Now, people go to Capitol Hill and Northwest for that kind of thing.

The last three and a half decades, post Civil Rights Movement, post-desegregation, post-riot, post-urbanism, post-inflation, has been rough on Penn Branch. We want commercial development and always have, ..but, not the kind that attracts people, who don’t respect or appreciate the wholesome, small-towny, slightly Cosbyesque thing we’ve got going here–the Brangler Way. If gang violence, over-crowding, loitering and the pungent fragrance of urine wafting up Carpenter Street is the price of having a cineplex and steakhouse burgers and a proper bar in the neighborhood, no thanks!

We also like people! We like music, color and laughter in the air!

We like carefree retirees, newlyweds, families and big, goofy dogs! We like to work hard and play harder, and we would love to see Penn Branch Center reflect and indulge all of that, ..but, without making our neighborhood feel like a war zone in a Third World Country.

Not at the cost of losing everything we’ve worked so hard to build and grow here.

Not at the cost of losing our community’s unique identity. Our Penn Branch culture.

Mel Dyer

*Brangler is what the Dyers call a Penn Brancher of long-standing.

One Night In Anacostia

2011-12-17T07:55:00.000-08:00

An evening drive through Historic Anacostia turns up the Big Chair, a little history (very little), bars, coffeehouses and ..NEW CONDOS at Sheridan Station, which appears to be open for business.

Hop in ..and let's go for a ride!

...

More Beltway Beauty Than We Can Handle

2011-12-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

Penn Branch Center, charming as ever! (Clockwise from top right) Penn Branch Liquors, CVS Pharmacy, Beltway Beauty and Star Pizzeria, below it.

(Originally published, July 15th, 2009)
She sits at the corner of Pennsylvania and Branch Avenues, this brick and concrete goddess. Our Penn Branch. She sits there, with a mouthful of meatball subs, twinkies and Cool Ranch Doritos and washes it all down with a Colt 45. She sits there, fixing the one good eye she’s got left on you, as your car makes a mad rush for the John Philip Sousa Bridge.

For Capitol Hill. National Harbor. Adams Morgan. Cool places. Exotic places.

Faraway places, where cafes litter the sidewalk. Where laughter, foreign accents and live jazz tease the imported air. Where people linger. Celebrate. Hook up.

I cannot honestly say that I remember the last time I wanted to visit Penn Branch Center, the prehistoric strip mall at the corner of Pennsylvania and Branch Avenues, for anything, ..and I don’t know anyone else, who does, either.

The retail section is pretty small, but not uncommonly so for a Southeast D.C. strip mall. Nearly as large as its anchor store, the CVS Pharmacy, is a beauty supply store smack in the middle of the mall. Just to the right of it, is the Star Pizzeria, which, in spite of its longevity at PBC, speedy service and GREAT double cheeseburgers, hasn’t really been a pizzeria, since the late 1970s. To the left and a few doors down, was Sabin’s Records, a discount records, tapes, CDs and lottery ticket retailer - now ‘CLOSED’. At the Center’s west end, off the corner of Pennsylvania and Branch Avenue, are a Subway sandwich shop and a Wachovia Bank.

Once, the back of Penn Branch Center featured a sensibly sized Safeway, in a time before supermarkets (to compete with malls) blew up to the size of baseball stadiums. Now, there really isn’t anything back there you’d ditch a happy hour to get to. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Violent Crimes Unit, a satellite office for the D.C. Municipal Center and a VERY GOOD cleaners are all very useful to have close by…

But, can they make you a margarita?

Grill you a round of porterhouse steaks for the guys on the blankety-blank team?

Pour you a cup of hearty Columbian coffee?

And why is that important?

Pubs, diners and cafes give people a sense of community - a collective ease with one another. It’s a chance to figure out what we’ve all got in common ..and to gossip about the folks we can’t quite figure out! In my opinion, it’s a breeding ground for a healthy sense of tribalism - that collective self-awareness, out of which a culture grows, is defined, strengthened and proudly celebrated by the group. Without these places, great neighborhoods can become bedroom communities - culturally dead, socially disconnected and unprepared to address challenges to the collective well-being of the people, who live in them.

Am I saying Penn Branch is culturally dead or disconnected? Of course not, ..but, we’re lucky.

I can honestly say that, in spite of its shortcomings, which are LEGION, Penn Branch Center has been a good neighbor, ..and with the upcoming and long overdue renovations, it can only get better. It’s got a hot sandwich ready, when you’re too tired to cook dinner. It’s got your prescriptions waiting, after a much dreaded doctor visit. On occasion, it’s even got champagne on hand, ..on a shelf, of course. That’s a good neighbor, my friend.

You want cocktails, Brangler? Bring your own.

Mel Dyer

Capiwhutzia?

2011-12-02T05:44:00.000-08:00

What in Dante's Hell is 'Capicostia'?

There's something about living here, ..in Penn Branch, Fairfax Village, Pope Branch, Dupont Park, Twining, Hillcrest, the Randall Highlands and probably Fairlawn, too, ..that's different than living in other parts of River East, and the culture-angst is something only we can understand. When you think about it, the only thing separating us from Capitol Hill and everything the Hill represents - sophistication, culture, history, relevance, style - is a stupid bridge and a river, and, while it seems rather inconsequential, we all know it isn't. Not in D.C.

And, especially, not over there, West-of-river, ..in Capitol Hill, Georgetown, Downtown, No'Ma and Adam's Morgan.

There's a fleeting anxiety among some of us, who live in the neighborhoods along Pennsylvania Avenue, that we're unfairly characterized as less intellectually sophisticated, less cultured (appreciative of history and the arts), less relevant and less stylish than our Capitol Hill. I would dare say some of us feel unfairly lumped in with the neighborhoods bordering ours, where crime, drugs and other inner city problems regularly make the six o'clock news, ..much to our collective embarassment.

It's something that creeps into your psyche, when we're tooling around Barracks Row or shopping the Harris Teeter grocery on Potomac Avenue or unwinding at Trusty's Bar, this angst, I'm talking about, ..when we find ourselves comparing our GORGEOUS, hilly, tree-lined roosts to the stately old cobble-stoned streets of historic Capitol Hill, where the important people carry on. When we try on a sidewalk cafe like a shoe we might be buying, ..and finding it fits very well, indeed. Maybe, better than Fairfax Village?

Video is coming.

Interviews are coming.

New design is here. Like?

CAPICOSTIA HEAT should give you a feel for what it's like to live here. A feeling that you know us. I want you to smell this place.

Mel Dyer

[This article was compiled from previous introductions.]

5.9 Earthquake In Washington, DC

2011-08-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

Washington, DC has had an 5.9 RS earthquake and is expecting aftershocks.

If you're in the area, keep perishable foods, plenty of bottled water and weapons/firearms on hand; you may also want to put some of these items in your auto, in case you must evacuate your house. Please don't forget the water, as it's very hot here in DC.

Keep a half-full glass of water in a centrally visible location and monitor it for shaking. If you think it's something other than an air-conditioner, passing truck or some kind of machinery, head for an exit.

We're okay here, so far.

Another UFO Sighted Over Penn Branch?!

2011-06-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

If you missed the International Space Station hurdling over Penn Branch at 9:42 pm (EST), like a flying saucer from the movies, don't sweat it! You can catch it again, tonight at 12:00 am or whenever you like, by checking in with Penn Brancher (and my mother) Shirley Dyer's Space News website, generally recognized by skywatchers and astronomy enthusiasts to be one of the most comprehensive space information portals (list of links) on the Worldwide Web. Look for the 'Daily ISS [International Space Station] Sightings for Fort Dupont Park/Penn Branch' and get ready for one helluva show!

When you look up in the sky on a clear or near-clear night, you will see a scattering of stars and planets - stars blink or twinkle, while planets typically don't. When you notice that one of the planets you're looking at is moving across the open sky, quickly, but, not as fast as a shooting star (meteor), you will know you are probably looking at the ISS, which is roughly about the size of two football fields and moving at a speed of 17,239.2 miles per hour. Unlike the high-flying spy planes you routinely see scouting the D.C. area, which often look like little pinpricks of blinking red and white light, the ISS shows no blinking lights and usually looks entirely white or slightly yellowish white in color, ..very much resembling the planet Venus. Because of the way light reflects from its large, rectangular solar arrays (or shields), it sometimes looks just a little bit, like a giant, beer can floating through the sky...

Or a UFO. Have fun and get over to Space News on Shirleyvision's Astronomy Portal, before you miss the next show!

Mel Dyer

Weiner Exposed And Shaken, After Confessing

2011-06-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

Pompeii knew you couldn't keep a good weiner down.

(Yahoo! News)
"After days of denials, a choked-up New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner confessed Monday that he tweeted a bulging-underpants photo of himself to a young woman and admitted to "inappropriate" exchanges with six women before and after getting married. He apologized for lying but said he would not resign.

A conservative website that last week started a furor over a lewd photo sent from Weiner's Twitter account posted new photos..."

A difficult, but, all too typical story of political intrigue about a complex and driven man!

Read more of the Yahoo! News article here

Recasting America's War On Terror

2011-05-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

As the so-called liberally biased American TV news media intentionally or unintentionally rewrites the history of America's War On Terror with chinny, cinematic video clips of President George W. Bush vowing to get the people, responsible for the 911 attacks, I think it's important to keep the record straight.

As conny bloggers and wingnut journalists ask questions like, "Does Obama deserve credit for killing Osama Bin Laden?" and "Does Bush deserve more credit for Bin Laden's death, than Obama?", I think it is easy to forget the Bush Administration's dismissive attitude regarding Osama Bin Laden's capture. As we give well-deserved credit to the U.S. Intelligence Community and our armed forces for the elimination of the global threat of Bin Laden, I think it's important to remember how many lives had been lost, tracking this guy through the mountains of Afghanistan, at the time that President George W. Bush told us he wasn't concerned about him, anymore.

For all those, who lost their lives on, before and since September 11, 2001, mark and remember the moment above.

Still Think We've Got A Pretty Good Deal Here...Really

2011-05-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Penn Branch may be a little behind the times and short on modern amenities, but we got cars. We can drive, wherever we like.

A major coffee retailer, with a name that sounds something like 'War-bucks', will NOT be coming to Penn Branch or anywhere else in Southeast Washington, D.C. in the Fall of 2011, ..and if you read differently here, and this is a little bit of a letdown for you, I hope you aren't taking the truth too hard. Bummer, huh?

It was all a big April Fool's gag, courtesy of yours truly.

It might be a bitter pill to swallow, but, eventually, we're going to have to swallow it, my friends. The market research for this area (for reasons I won't get into here) is so terrible and nearly impossible to compile, that we are commercially invisible. Besides groceries, gasoline, liquor and a few other things, no retailer can determine, with any measure of certainty, what we are or aren't buying in Southeast or anywhere else, and, without the assurance of nice, cushiony subsidies, aren't willing to take a chance doing business, here. That's our cold, steely reality.

If you think I'm overstating things or being pessimistic, find out what happened to Ben's of Penn Branch. Sometimes, I say 'Ben's of Penn Branch' out loud ..just to amuse myself.

In spite of a few undeniable cultural and eerie aesthetic similarities between our neighborhoods, Penn Branch will never be Chevy Chase, and Fairfax Village will never be Cleveland Park. Skyland will never be Tenleytown, and Anacostia will never be Georgetown or Adams-Morgan. Accept that and see your uniquely appointed neighborhoods, without all the attractive amenities we go elsewhere to enjoy, for what they are - great, if slightly boring, bedroom communities. There are a few I can think of, right here in Middle River East, that are GREAT places to raise your kids, keep a nice lawn, retire and praise the Lord for the rest of your days.

River East may not be what we sometimes dream it could or should be.

God knows I tire of driving all the way to Capitol Hill or Northwest Washington, every time I want to go to a decent restaurant, coffeehouse or see a movie, and I can honestly say that not having those things closer to home keeps me home, more than I like ..or even think is healthy. I'm not twenty-something years old anymore, and I don't feel like somersaulting into my car and driving all over Creation, as much as I used to, and that leaves me out of the loop. It means the New D.C. we keep hearing about - No'Ma, U Street, H Street, Adams-Morgan and rapidly expanding, established areas, mostly in Northwest - is a party you and I aren't invited to, ..but, I still think we've still got a pretty good deal, here. Really, we do.

Really. Seriously...

So, Washington's commercial development revolution continues, ..somewhere else. Somewhere you and I ..aren't? See you at Starbucks ..in Northwest, Forestville, Alexandria and anywhere, but, right here in great, ole Penn Branch.

As you were, Capicostia. Back to your regular programming ..and lousy, instant coffee. Nothing new to see, here.

Go home, now.

Mel Dyer

Coffee Juggernaut Soon To Open First East-Of-The-River Store

2011-04-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

A major coffee retailer, with a name that sounds something like 'War-bucks', will be coming to quietly middle-class Penn Branch (Washington, D.C.) in August 2011, and it looks like they may already be hiring.

One of Capicostia’s many routine googlings of ‘retail coffee southeast Washington dc’ produced an employment notice posted for a new “Hillcrest” store here. A reliable source tells Capicostia that the world-famous coffee giant's Penn Branch store will be located between PB Center’s old, broken down escalators and the nail salon, in what used to be a High’s Ice Cream store ..and two doors down from the CVS Pharmacy. Considering that Big Chair Coffee (with GRRREAT coffee and eats) on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue is roaring into its second year in the River East area, this new coffehouse, while long wished for by many area residents, will not be the first of its kind to cross the Anacostia.

And the commercial development revolution in Old Southeast continues un-televised, ..until now. See you at Stabucks!

Mel Dyer

Four Times Journalists Held In Libya Faced Brutality

2011-03-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

(NYTimes.com)
As the four of us headed toward the eastern gate of Ajdabiya, the front line of a desperate rebel stand against the advancing forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a car pulled up alongside.

“They’re in the city!” the driver shouted at us. “They’re in the city!” Lynsey and Steve had worried that government soldiers might encircle the town, trapping us, but Tyler and Anthony discounted it. We had covered the fall of two other rebel-held towns — Ras Lanuf and Brega — and each time, the government had bombed and shelled the towns for days before making a frontal, methodical assault.

When they did, rebels and journalists fled in a headlong retreat. If Ajdabiya fell, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces would be on the doorstep of Benghazi, the opposition capital, and perched on a highway to the Egyptian border, from...

Read full story here

Bullied Kid Fights Back: Right or Wrong?

2011-03-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

This act of bullying, caught on tape, and how the victim responded, is drawing a lot of reaction from around the world.

The kid who was being bullied is said to have been picked on his whole school life. But, after being taunted by another student, he finally snapped and in a physical manner, said “enough”.

The question is, while this child is being applauded all over the internet, is this the way to respond? Many experts will say “no...

Read full story here

For pets In crisis, nearby Forestville Vetinary and Bird offers comfort and heart

2011-03-08T02:49:00.000-08:00

There's nothing worse than having a sick animal friend or pet in your home, who is ill and cannot speak for itself. It's a helpless feeling, and you want to get your pet to someone, who can help them, as quickly and easily as you can.

For Capicostia, that doesn't mean popping over to Capitol Hill, Old Anacostia or Northwest D.C., where you know there'll be no parking. It probably means hauling your pets out to Maryland's P.G. County, where parking and lots of space for it is practically guaranteed.

That's how I found the Forestville Vetinary and Bird Hospital. It is located on Marboro Pike, right around the corner from the Penn Mar Shopping Center on Donnell Drive, in District Heights, Maryland, ..and it's got more than just convenient parking. FVBH is headed up by Ukraine-educated vetinarian and animal friend-spirit, Dr. Abdoul Diarra, and a caring staff of vetinary students, pet grooming and kennel professionals and vetinary technicians. Rest assured the well-trained staff will surround their patients with warmth, cooing and stroking, before Dr. Diarra's examination of your pets. Furthermore, I liked very much that the FVBH waiting room is spacious enough that keeping your pets out of entanglements with other animals will NOT be a problem.

For pet owners, FVBH is a real comfort in crisis.

I recently took the Poowes (featured above) to the Forestville Vetinary and Bird Hospital and got them all caught up on their shots. Thorough examinations of both Hubble Poowe (above, staring into the camera) and his scrappy brother, Kirby Poowe, and lots of helpful questions from Dr. Diarra, put all of my worries to rest. When your animal friend's in pain the way Hubble was, you don't have time to plan a trip to the vet - parking, traffic, long drive, crowded waiting rooms and long waits. Instead, you want to just go and sort it all out as best you can, later, and that was my experience with Forestville Vetinary and Bird.

I've no doubt, FVBH will be the same for you, and I highly recommend going.

Mel Dyer

Columbia Heights Teens Attack Man with Shotgun..On Tape!

2011-02-27T10:07:00.000-08:00

(Above, from Flickr) Columbia Heights after dusk. Clearly, River East doesn't have the lock on dark, unsafe streets OR violent crime.

Violent Assault on Tape | NBC Washington

Stand By Your JAMs

2011-02-24T15:10:00.000-08:00

If you blinked in the early Nineties, you may have missed this techno/rap/R&B combo platter--probably dismissed it as hallucination, if you did see it!

The video of this KLF song, featuring [I swear!] Tammy 'Stand By Your Man' Wynette, is beyond imaginative. It is absurd, nonsensical and brilliant, and the coolest thing about the song itself is that it takes the sweet, creek-clear vocals of a country music legend, like Wynette (a grandmother, in her Seventies), whom you wouldn't expect to find within a hundred and fifty miles of this pop experiment, and marries them perfectly to KLF's fully-loaded urban, hip-hop-inspired sound.

Ingenius.

Rush Limbaugh says First Lady is no swimsuit model

2011-02-22T23:50:00.000-08:00

(Yahoo! News)
"Radio host Rush Limbaugh poked fun at Michelle Obama's waistline Monday; the latest entry in a string of conservative attacks on the First Lady's anti-obesity campaign.

During his show yesterday, Limbaugh pounced on a report that the Obama family (minus the president) had dined on ribs while vacationing in Vail, Colo.:

The problem is -- and dare I say this -- it doesn't look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary ..."

Can somebody tell me what in the hell this guy is talking about?

What are 'First Lady' and 'swimsuit model' even doing in the same sentence, ..without mind-warping drugs that make you bounce up and down at CPAC being involved?

There was a time, some twenty years ago, when my late granduncle and I (listening to Limbaugh's show on tape) were occasionally awakened to something sensible or even clever from Rush Limbaugh's radio program. Something about integrity and the patriotic dignity of independence and individual accountability would occasionally shine through all of Limbaugh's over-dramatized indignation, and we'd both laugh knowingly that we'd got the message, ..but, I guess that was the old Rush.

That was before the ugly, creepy darkness settled in.

Now, Limbaugh seems just a floundering, blustering, mean-spirited buffoon, ..raging against the impending recession of his fading relevance. Now, he just seems painfully inauthentic, and I think the day is coming soon - you can almost hear the dread of it in his latest broadcasts, shadowing his every desperate word - when we just won't believe a damn thing Mr. Flush Dumbaugh tells us anymore.

Read more of the Yahoo! News article here

Clergy Sexual Abuse: It Ain't Just Catholic Priests

2011-02-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

(Biblical Evidence for Catholicism)
"...It is commonly believed that clergy sexual abuse is an exclusively Catholic problem that does not happen in other churches. In a 1983 doctoral thesis by Richard Blackmon, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner and 38% admitted to other sexualized contact with a parishioner. [When Mentor Becomes Molester, by Alexa Smith. Reprinted with permission from Presbyterians Today, Magazine Of The Presbyterian Church, USA].

The Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) estimates that there are about 50 clergy sexual misconduct cases every year. Although cases in the PCUSA tend to involve adult women and male pastors, there are sometimes cases reported that involve children and other..." from Dave Armstrong's It Ain't Just Catholic Priests: Resources on Shocking Statistics of Clergy Sexual Abuse

Read more

4 American hostages killed by pirates, US says - Yahoo! News

2011-02-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

(Yahoo! News)
"NAIROBI, Kenya – Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years.

U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans' captured yacht with four warships, quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire and tried to provide lifesaving care to the Americans, but they died of their wounds, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

Two pirates died during the confrontation and 13 were captured and detained, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from Tampa, Fla. The remains of two other pirates who were already dead for some time were also found. The U.S. military didn't state how those two might have died.

Negotiations had been under way to try to win the release of the two couples on the pirated vessel Quest when the gunfire..."

We oughta' drop these scumbags in the Indian-damned Ocean. Read more.

Above photo: Somali pirates from previous incidents (Wikipedia)

Washington: the 'blackest name' in America - Yahoo! News

2011-02-21T19:21:00.000-08:00

(Yahoo! News)
"George Washington's name is inseparable from America, and not only from the nation's history. It identifies countless streets, buildings, mountains, bridges, monuments, cities — and people.

In a puzzling twist, most of these people are black. The 2000 U.S. Census counted 163,036 people with the surname Washington. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name.

The story of how Washington became the "blackest name" begins with slavery and takes a sharp turn after the Civil War, when all blacks were allowed the dignity of a surname.

Even before Emancipation, many enslaved black people chose their own surnames to establish their identities. Afterward, some historians theorize, large numbers of blacks..."

Then, came Jamal, Tyrone, Delante, Pookie, Booboo...read more here

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appears on state TV

2011-02-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

(BBC News)
Col. Gaddafi signalled his defiance over a mounting a revolt against his rule.

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has dismissed reports that he had fled amid the unrest sweeping the country, calling foreign news channels "dogs".

Speaking to state TV from outside a ruined building, he asserted: "I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela."

UK Foreign Minister William Hague had said he had seen information suggesting Col. Gaddafi was on his way to Caracas.

Col. Gaddafi's statement came after security forces and protesters clashed in the capital for a second night.

Witnesses say warplanes and helicopters fired on protesters in the city. To the west, sources said the army was fighting..."

Don't cry for me, Venezuela? Full story here.

Jessica Alba And Film-maker Cash Warren Are Pregnant..AGAIN!

2011-02-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

(People.com)"It's baby no. 2 for Jessica Alba and Cash Warren.

The actress announced on her Facebook page and Twitter account Wednesday that she and her husband are expecting their second child.

"I thought I'd drop by to let you all in on some exciting news – Honor is going to be a Big Sister!" Alba, 29, wrote.

"Cash and I are thrilled and wanted to share the news directly with you so you didn't..."

Full story here

Since the ethnicity of this gorgeous couple seems to pre-occupy some of us, I'll try to simplify things for you, here. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cash Warren are, like yours truly, Americans of Mexican descent--Jessica, with a Mexican American dad, and Cash, with a Mexican American mom. To keep things interesting, you may also like to know that Jessica's mom is of Danish and French Canadian heritage, and Cash's dad is Emmy-nominated star of the classic TV cop drama, Hill Street Blues, and, also like yours truly, is Afro-American.

In D.C., they'd be another cute, Latino couple, and that would be the end of that.

Thank You, Fred Joiner's Weblog!

2011-02-18T18:11:00.000-08:00

See who wrote us up on his weblog, right here.

Kendall Anderson, 16, killed mom with claw hammer for taking away his PlayStation...

2011-02-18T17:28:00.000-08:00

(NYDailyNews.com)
"Authorities say a young South Philadelphia teen was so angry his mom took away his PlayStation that he killed her with a claw hammer.

The motive was revealed as Kendall Anderson's confession to the brutal crime, committed on the day after Thanksgiving, was read in court, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old allegedly told police he decided to kill his mother, Rashida Anderson, after a 90-minute argument that culminated in her taking the video-game console away.

Anderson considered his actions before killing his 37-year-old single mother, said the judge who read the teen's statement in Philadelphia Municipal Court. The teen paced for three hours mulling over what he would do before deciding to kill her, said his confession, which he gave to a police detective.

Anderson struck her 20 times with a claw hammer while she slept.

In an effort to get rid of her body, he tried to "cremate her" in..."

Read full story

Friday Night Lights Star To Head-up David E. Kelley's New Wonder Woman Show!

2011-02-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

(Popeater)
"NBC released a wonderful bit of casting news today: 'Friday Night Lights' alum Adrianne Palicki is set to play the title role (and two alter-egos) in David E. Kelley's buzzed about 'Wonder Woman' reboot.

Kelley reportedly has a lot of work to do on the script, but Wonder Woman will have to do some serious heavy lifting of her own. Not only will Palicki play the star-spangled crimefighter, who's now based in LA, but she'll also play her alter-ego, billionaire CEO Diana Themyscira and Diana's mousy..."

Full story here

Still Lost In Space, After A Week...

2011-02-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

Yeah, after a week, Capicostia, successor to the irascible Penn Brangler and the frightfully irregular Mel's Penn Branch Life, is still floating in Cyberspace, undiscovered by her River East sister-blogs. I was warned, prior to The Big Move to this new blogspot, that this could happen, if I didn't mail out engraved invitations to our new location.

I didn't.

I did, however, post a thread pleading everybody, who carried PennBranch.blogspot.com, to change our listing to Capicostia.blogspot.com that would show up as a title on their blogs and hoping that would put our friends on notice. I was hoping, also, to spare them the unsightly matter of carrying dead links, which I hate to find in my own list.

The press for the new direction of this blog, all created right here, toted the Capicostia idea as being a blog about Middle River Easters (D.C.'s Silver Coast), who identified more with the international, big city experience that 'Capitol Hill represents', than with other River Easters. Never intended for that to sound as though Middle River East was looking down on its East-of-the-River neighbors, but, it probably could have been.

If that was taken the wrong way and ham-handedly mischaracterized the residents of Penn Branch, Westover-Highlands, Randle Highlands proper, Twining, Dupont Park, Fairfax Village, Fairlawn and Hillcrest (which has a mighty high opinion of itself) as elitists, I sincerely apologize. It's true that many of us have always seen our communities as the exception to the Beltway's long-standing misconceptions about River East, but, ..for what it's worth, we have also always looked at the most troubled parts of Southeast and asked, "Why not them?"

And we still do.

There's hope...And Now, Anacostia is the FIRST River East blog to carry a link to our new location. Google just started listing us (the full URL), yesterday morning, and I've reached out to some fellow River East bloggers about updating our listing on their blogs.

Like most Middle River Easters, I'm an optimistic fool.

Crossing fingers now...

Mel Dyer

Pa. Teacher Strikes Nerve With 'Lazy Whiners' Blog

2011-02-16T07:59:00.000-08:00

Yahoo News, Associated Press
"FEASTERVILLE, Pa. – A high school English teacher in suburban Philadelphia who was suspended for a profanity-laced blog in which she called her young charges "disengaged, lazy whiners" is driving a sensation by daring to ask: Why are today's students unmotivated — and what's wrong with calling them out?

As she fights to keep her job at Central Bucks East High School, 30-year-old Natalie Munroe..."

America's War On Teachers (and it's real) continues, my friends. Speak out ..and be obliterated.

Read more about Natalie Munroe's adventure with the psycho-liberal left hijackers of public education, here.

Former P.G. County Executive Johnson Indicted

2011-02-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

(Washington Examiner)
"Former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson was indicted Monday on eight federal charges of conspiracy, extortion and bribery as well as tampering with a witness and evidence. Authorities say Johnson took bribes from developers seeking favorable treatment, and he and his wife attempted to cover it up.

The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, also says Johnson conspired with..."

Full story here

Haynesworth Accused Of Sexual Abuse In DC

2011-02-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

(WUSA9.com)
"WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- DC Police confirm that they are investigating an allegation of sexual abuse against Washington Redskins player Albert Haynesworth.

Haynesworth is accused of touching a waitress' breast while paying his bill Sunday night at The W hotel on 15th Street, NW.

According to the police report, the waitress' hands were full of dishes when Haynesworth wanted to pay his bill and he asked if he could put his credit card in her blouse near her breast area. She nodded yes and he placed the card in her blouse, sliding his hand further..."

Read more here

Obama's Budget Savings: Reduce Federal Travel, Printing Costs and More

2011-02-14T18:19:00.000-08:00

(Politics Daily)
"Democrats and Republicans in Congress will battle over proposed cuts in federal programs in President Obama's proposed FY2012 budget, unveiled on Monday. But the administration, seeking to put its own house in order, is looking for savings in many corners of the U.S. government.

The Obama administration is looking to squeeze a few million in savings from reducing federal travel costs, to eliminating printing expenses to painting the roofs of embassies white.

Some samples of savings the Obama administration is proposing that do not need Congressional approval..."

Full story here

Energy Drinks In River East: A Mother's Horror

2011-02-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

(Developmentally-Speaking.com)
"“The TV is too loud!" "Turn it down!” “Turn it down some more!” “Turn it WAY down!”

Ok. Now I can barely hear the TV, and am straining my ears to the point of getting a headache. But if I don’t turn it down, then I will hear the crying; loud cursing-like-a-sailor; banging on walls; stomping across the floor; banging doors; and maybe stomping down the stairs; then the glaring, unrecognizably large spirited eyes—all to demonstrate extreme..."

Read more here

Earthquakes Continue To Rattle Southern Chile

2011-02-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

(The Santiago Times)
"Seismic activity continues to alarm Chileans

Nearly one year since a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Chile last Feb. 27, the earth shook once again on Friday afternoon, and in almost the exact spot.

Friday’s earthquake measured a magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale according to ONEMI, Chile’s National Emergency Office. U.S. seismologists measured the tremor at 6.8-magnitude on the Richter scale.

The tremor began at 5:05 p.m. Friday evening and was centered 30 miles outside of Concepción. Still, the quake was felt from Valparaíso to the Los Ríos Region.

As the Earth continued to shake, people from buildings throughout the city of Concepción evacuated into..."

Full story here.

Allen West Closes CPAC With Fiery Keynote Speech...Warns Of Letting Multiculturalism 'Grow On Steroids'

2011-02-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

(The Huffington Post)
"Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) delivered the keynote address on Saturday night at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference.

Topics discussed in West's speech encompassed a wide range. From the state of nation's economy and federal budget to social issues, the congressman covered a lot of ground. He stressed the importance of adhering to conservative principles while also taking time to criticize Democrats.

"Liberal progressivism evolved after our Constitution," explained West to his audience. "It has repeatedly failed all over the world..."

Read more here

First Lady Obama's Retro H&M Polkadot Dazzles and Dares On The Today Show

2011-02-11T06:06:00.000-08:00

We tend to want to dress our First Ladies like aircraft carriers sailing off to war. Stately. Imperious. Elegantly invincible.

Clearly, that is not what's happening with First Lady, Michelle Obama - a beautiful, remarkable and magnificent lady - and, in keeping with her occasionally unconventional adventures in fashion, the dress that she wore on her Today Show appearance isn't quite as bad, as you've probably heard.

Firstly, it's not the dress that's the problem, really. The fun begins, when you slap that frilly frock together with a pair of mustard green [Was that green?] or greenish yellow pumps and a melon-toned red belt.

Now, you've got a problem. Not entirely unsalvageable, though.

Match that melon or (maybe) vermillion belt with a pair of vermillion pumps, just like the shoes she wore on that Today Show, and you've got a springy, sassy, runway winner. Seriously - with an adjustment as simple as that, you've got something bold and breezy for an elegant garden party in Spring Valley or Sunday on the Presidential Yacht (if we still have one), ..and all the better on a woman as marvelously statuesque as Mrs. Obama.

You could also tone the whole thing down with a clay-toned (slightly grayish) white belt, but, keep it all a little playful with a pair of pale, smokey blue pumps. Yeah, it's still somewhat on the flamboyant side, but, that 80s kick-thing I mentioned is preserved.

All that said, it's really a cute outfit.

It might be a little playful for a woman of her station, but, cute, ..and whoever put it together should get a little applause for fourteen carat, Viking ambition, if nothing else. Perhaps, this outfit was intended to be an attempt, however wobbly, at recalling the playful audacity and neon kick of the 1980s. If so, it's a cool twist...I get it...bravo.

Joan Collins gets it, too, I've no doubt.

If you're too young or busy to remember the 80s, you just have to trust us forty-somethings on this one. As a colorful Eighties echo, the outfit works, ..and Mrs. Obama's relentless infusion of color, personality and youthfully girlish energy into America's long-standing tradition of dressing First Ladies, like flag-draped monuments, is a breath of fresh air.

All that aside, the First Lady Michelle Obama is held in the highest regards in Penn Branch Park, where I grew up, and the surrounding Middle River East neighborhoods, between here and the Anacostia River. I cherish and applaud her campaign against childhood obesity, which I have been no stranger to, and wish her the best of success in everything she is doing for our country.

Mel Dyer

More on that dress, here

[Mel Dyer is a three-year Visual Arts major and graduate of Washington, D.C.'s Duke Ellington High School of the Arts ..and knows what the hell he's talking about.]

Secretary Napolitano on E-Verify & Immigration

2011-02-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

D.C. To Host Hispanic Business Expo!

2011-02-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

(MinorityNews.net)
"WASHINGTON -- On March 16th, the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GWHCC) will host its second annual business expo. The expo will once again bring together business leaders and decision makers from dynamic companies, corporations, embassies and prime contractors as well as federal and local government agencies in the Washington, D.C. metro area..."

Read the full story here.

Fate of Fired DC Teachers Still Up In The Air As DC Decides Whether To Appeal Ruling

2011-02-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

(MyFoxDC.com)
"WASHINGTON - District officials have not decided yet whether to appeal the ruling of an independent arbitrator, who says 75 terminated teachers should be reinstated.

The 75 teachers were let go in 2008 when Michelle Rhee was D.C. Public Schools Chancellor. The arbitrator said the fired teachers were not informed of the reasons for their dismissals..."

Read more

Plain, Ole, Stinky Columbia

2011-02-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

See that part on the map (below) that reads 'Territory of Columbia'?

What is the point of naming the City Formerly Known As D.C. something like 'New Columbia', if we're all still in the same, old Columbia? So far, our poll reports that there are more people, who want to name our new, non-capital territory just plain, ole, stinky 'Columbia', than anyone else.

Common sense prevailing, I think.

Great Subs At Big Chair Coffee & Grill!

2011-02-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

Forget the COFFEE at Big Chair Coffee! The food is unbelievable!

Anacostia's BIG CHAIR COFFEE & GRILL is now THE east-of-river place to grab breakfast! The Bacon and Sausage Omelette (and I'm really not an egg-lover) is phenomenal--a spicy, juicy fiesta in your mouth! What I love about this dish is that the amazing spices light up your tongue, without overpowering the spiciness of the sausage or the smokey flavor of the bacon--genius! If you can't park, this is totally worth calling-in and orbitting the block for--seven or eight minutes, and you got crazy, freakolicious breakfast!

Don't get me started on the BUFFALO CHICKEN SUB! You will want to wear this thing around your neck, it's so GOOD!

And yeah--the coffee's great, too! That's kind of a given, considering it's coming from the same folks, who gave us MURKY COFFEE (a Dyer family favorite) on Capitol Hill! Great, great stuff!

River East's only true coffeehouse is open on weekdays, with FREE WI-FI, from 7 AM, until 9 PM! Get your tusch to BIG CHAIR!

Take The Poll: Flying Bullets, Terrified Whites, Crackheads Napping In The Streets...

2011-02-08T12:13:00.000-08:00

Bullet-proof, Amazon yuppies get along just fine in River East, I'll have you know!

People have a lot of stupid ideas about life east of the Big Dirty, and River Easters are fed up! What do you think is the most common 'wrong idea' about our great neighborhoods?

Take the poll on the right and share your views.

River East Renaissance? Did You Get All That?

2011-02-08T04:21:00.000-08:00

The Wikipedia listing for Anacostia (here, meaning all of D.C. 'East-of-the-river') ends abruptly with the opening of an unnamed supermarket in 2007. So, where's the rest?

There's Denny's (a Dyer family fave), the Fireside Resaurant, Honfleur Gallery, the River East Emerging Leaders, Ray's The Steaks, the Savoy, the Grays, Big Chair Coffee, Uniontown Bar/Grill, the Hive and two NEW libraries and a museum. All of that is happening right here, in River East, and everyone should know.

So, if you already have a blurb somewhere on all of the above and any new developments I might have missed, send it to the people at Wikipedia, so they can get this right.

Mel Dyer

Shamefully Stateless Avenue? Don't Think So

2011-02-05T14:39:00.000-08:00

AOL News' prodigious 2009 upstart (and a GREAT e-read), Politics Daily, takes a smarting and timely little swing at the latest efforts to shame Congress into moving on D.C. statehood--namely, the re-branding of Pennsylvania Avenue as 'Statehood Way' or 'Voteless' some-such. The short article is written competently by author/columnist, Tom Deimer.

It'll never happen, by the way, for one very simple reason. If shame, and heaping lots of it, is the requisite element in lighting the D.C. Statehood fire, the forces in Congress, who ritually oppose it (like Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell), have none on the matter.

As there are sound arguments on both sides, whether they should or shouldn't be ashamed is a matter to be settled in the court of local public opinion. Not, typically, very forgiving on this issue.

Have a look, here. Then, take the poll to give the State Formerly Known As D.C. a name:

Washingtonia would add an 'i' and 'a' to signs that presently read, "To Washington". Very cost-effective solution.

Columbiana would add an 'n' and 'a' to signs - a similarly cost-effective solution.

New Columbia doesn't make any sense to me, because there was never an 'old Columbia'. There should be, don't you think?

Mel Dyer

More Wal-Mart And D.C. Ankle-Flashing?

2011-02-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

Photo from from PeopleofWalMart.com.

Not the type to count my Wal-Marts before they hatch, but, it looks like D.C. might get treated like a lady, this time. Three of the legendary big-box stores - at South Dakota Avenue, Barry Farm and Capital Gateway - are headed for the Nation's Capital! Just trying to keep up...

http://www.walmartwashingtondc.com/news-room

It's East-Of-The-River, Mijo

2011-02-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

It's NOT the east-of-the-river you're probably thinking of, ..and isn't that entirely the point of this stupid blog? Here's what CDBaby.com has to say about it:

"...Nina Stern and Daphna Mor began playing together several years ago and immediately felt a unique musical bond...became especially interested in the music of Armenia and the Balkans, finding that that repertory was especially suited to their instrument. Balkan music's virtuosic rhythms and exciting tempi lend themselves to the fleet recorder, and the soulfulness of the Armenian repertory is well suited to the plaintive sound of the instrument. In "East of the River", Daphna and Nina invited their favorite musicians from New York City's classical, jazz and world music backgrounds to collaborate with them. Jazz bass player Omer Avital who has been called "the poet of the bass", composer/accordionist Uri Sharlin and percussionist Tomer Tzur each added his own unique talents and flavor to "East of the River..."

Live a little, my friends...

http://www.eastoftherivermusic.com/live

Capicostia, Again?

2011-02-02T02:35:00.000-08:00

A 'Capicostia' blog?

Kinda trying this on, again. Feeling it out, again.

Capitol Hill + Anacostia = Capicostia?!

A wise, odd man once said, "...River East needs a blog that speaks to the frustration and quiet hysteria of what it's like to live here, but, sometimes, feel some small part of you might belong on the other side of the river, ..where political intrigue and urbanity slink down the sidewalks, stopping for the occasional latte or imported beer..."

Maybe, this'll be that clean, articulate blog. Maybe, it won't.

Blame it on the sageous, pixieish enthusiasm of Congress Heights On The Rise blogger, River East entrepeneur (whom I met yesterday, at The Hive), Ms. Nikki Peele, but, Capicostia will live again.

Capicostia is about the big, fat 'Why Not?'

It's about asserting your will, like a rocket, beyond the cultural isolation and socio-political ghettoization, intentional or otherwise, of Middle River East (Penn Branch, Fairfax Village, Hillcrest, the Randle Highlands, etc) and getting your 'global' on. It's about hokey American things, like freedom, hope, self-determination and a bunch of other motivational stuff President Barack Obama dropped on you in 2008.

Good stuff, I think.

It'll also be about exotic, gourmet coffee, sixteen-ounce steaks and, of course, politics. 'Capicostia' will be around.

Thanks for reminding me why we do this, Nikki.

Mel Dyer

[Second Edition]

At Ease, With Our Own

2011-02-02T00:33:00.000-08:00

Brangler Oppossum (above) is the only thing gathering in these hills, my friends.

(Originally published, July 23th, 2009)
If it seems some Penn Branch folk are always bellyaching about the lack of quailty retail in our neighborhood, don’t judge us too harshly. It’s more than just bellyaching. Prior to the Reagan Era 80s and the Inflation that preceded it, this neighborhood had plenty!

I remember drugstore diners with GREAT coffee, movies at the Hyland Theatre (at the Hyland Cinema, once located next to the Pope Funeral Home) and, with valet, at Coral Hill. There were even several restaurants, a cocktail lounge or two, a bowling alley, ..and all right here, in and around Penn Branch.

I remember seeing my neighbors at these places and the feeling of relaxed belonging and protection it gave me. I remember hearing my father laugh about bumping into Mr. Such N. Such at that cocktail lounge, and how, after the encounter, he’d decided that Such N. Such probably wasn’t such a bad guy, after all. I remember, in passing, seeing the broad smiles on the faces of our hardworking Penn Branch guys and ladies, sitting around the diners and bars, proud that these were our places.

At ease, with our own. The tribalism I talked about, last week.

Today, if there’s a place (besides, the Southeast White House) where Branglers routinely gather, east of Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market and south of the Denny’s on Benning Road, for coffee, margaritas or anything else, it beats the hell outta’ me. Now, people go to Capitol Hill and Northwest for that kind of thing.

The last three and a half decades, post Civil Rights Movement, post-desegregation, post-riot, post-urbanism, post-inflation, has been rough on Penn Branch. We want commercial development and always have, ..but, not the kind that attracts people, who don’t respect or appreciate the wholesome, small-towny, slightly Cosbyesque thing we’ve got going here–the Brangler Way. If gang violence, over-crowding, loitering and the pungent fragrance of urine wafting up Carpenter Street is the price of having a cineplex and steakhouse burgers and a proper bar in the neighborhood, no thanks!

We also like people! We like music, color and laughter in the air!

We like carefree retirees, newlyweds, families and big, goofy dogs! We like to work hard and play harder, and we would love to see Penn Branch Center reflect and indulge all of that, ..but, without making our neighborhood feel like a war zone in a Third World Country.

Not at the cost of losing everything we’ve worked so hard to build and grow here.

Not at the cost of losing our community’s unique identity. Our Penn Branch culture.

Mel Dyer

More Beltway Beauty Than We Can Handle!

2011-01-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

'Carlos In DC' Publisher, Vigilant and Defiant...And A Long Overdue Farewell

2010-12-31T01:24:00.000-08:00

"Artista. Intelecto. Periodista guerrero. We need more young writers like this, my friends..."

I once used those words to describe a dedicated journalist, whose understanding and whose substantive and investigative reporting on complex D.C. issues, like poverty and gentrification, has been truly inspired and will be sorely missed on this weblog network.

I once wrote that "anyone calling themselves a journalist in a city as diverse and (often) divided as Washington, D.C. will do well to follow Carlos In DC's lead" and that, amidst "so much routine criticism of the blogosphere by established journalists and politicians, if you are not reading Carlos In DC, you are missing a fine example of how consistently relevant weblogs can truly be."

For that reason and too many others to name here, this Brangler is a follower of the journalism of Mr. Carlos A. Quiroz, today, and will continue to be a follower of his work, now that he has left Blogger.com to continue his crusade on WordPress.com, at the location below...

http://carlosqc.wordpress.com

At the time that I was first introducing myself to the D.C. Blogosphere, Carlos Quiroz, whose work on Carlos In DC I had long admired, was the first blogger of Hispanic heritage to encourage my work, and, as a grandson of Mexican migrant workers, I was moved by that. There was a time not so long ago, when I was considering shutting this blog down, altogether, that I reached out to Mr. Quiroz, and he embraced me as a friend and a fellow journalist. Mr. Quiroz encouraged me to keep writing and, with no regard of some impending competition between us, has since generously shared his news resources with me and other fellow bloggers, that our work might be as well informed as his.

He is a good man and a friend to this entire city, ..and we are all the benefactors of his insight, his tireless dedication to justice and truth, and the gift of his work.

For quite some time, following Mr. Quiroz's example, I have diligently continued to publish this blog, in spite of inclinations not to.

Overwhelmed by my own devotion to truth, I am very disheartened by the circumstances of Mr. Quiroz's departure from this network (explained here).

Mel Dyer

Don't forget to join the crusading Mother-Of-All-DC-Blogs, 'Carlos In DC' at its new location, here.

...
...

[Second Edition]

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T00:42:00.000-08:00

A More Visual and Lyrical Nadia Ackerman Experience For 2011?

2010-12-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

No that is NOT David Bowie!

Check out the 80s revisionist profile pic on Nadia Ackerman's Official Facebook Group wall! Not at all the tone I'd expect from the mistress of earthy, urban art village sublime and acid jazz undercurrents, ..but, I love it. The new biscuit, A Little Moment, is chock full of depth and haunting inspiration, chillingly edgy in some places and sensually cocoa-warm in others, ..and if this kind of duality or mutability is any indication of what Nadia's upcoming website is bringing, we're in for a treat.

I honestly tried to find some clever, exploitative way to use "Hang Me Out To Dry" or something from it in this post, since it's lingering in my head, anyway. Give me time, I'm sure I will.

For those of you completely in the dark about all things Nadia, thumb through your mental rolodex for a funky, but playful, acid jazzy rendition of Dean Martin's hit, That's Amore', currently playing on the UPS commercials ..AND check out her official YouTube channel for more of her way too addictive ear-crack tracks!

Mel Dyer

[Second Edition]

Autistic River East Woman Starts Insightful, New Blog

2010-12-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

Get ready for a ground-breaking, NEW blog, called And The Autism Thing, written by my brilliant and dynamic hermanita, Shielda Dyer! Shielda is a grown woman living and thriving with autism, who has been keeping daily journals for nearly an entire year, ..only recently sharing her experiences online. Sometimes surprisingly insightful and always brutally honest, she is very committed to continuing her work and bettering our understanding of what living with autism is like.

And we, her family, are all very proud of her and couldn't be more excited.

If you have not followed Shielda's blog before, you can find it at its new location here, right here.

Mel Dyer

A BID For Disaster? Some Thoughts...

2010-12-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

Penn Branch has some problems that won't wait, until 2012 [Movie poster for '2012', above].

I predicted trouble on the horizon for Penn Branch, just a few months back.

In spite of the fact that the good folk of Penn Branch are working very hard to feed their families and struggling to keep a roof over their heads, I fear a greater struggle may be ahead for us.

As Washington, D.C. descends further and further into the dark future of revenue-creating gateway communities rising, east of Anacostia, ..and the emergence of 'Business Improvement Districts' (or BIDs), west-of-River, I fear stable-but-static neighborhoods, like Penn Branch, will see the quality of their services (power, police, EMS) go down. Unlike Penn Branch, the BIDs, according to DC.gov's Business Resources page, "collect a 'self tax' from property owners to provide services and programs to the entire BID...cleanliness, maintenance, safety, promotion, economic development, and other collective business issues", ..and all those services and amenities will have to be taken from somewhere. Here's where the trouble begins.

What kind of priority will City Hall give Ward Seven's request for fourteen more police officers on our streets, if our neighbor, Capitol Riverfront, fully loaded with revenue-creating retail (movies, shops, etc), upscale condos that we don't presently have, wants to bring those police officers to their neighborhood?

I fear the problems on the horizon for Penn Branch will be so directly related to the BIDs (presently Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront, No'Ma, Georgetown and others) and the civic resources they command that some of us will be tempted to move out, if our leaders do not soon address this issue.

That's not a criticism of Councilwoman Alexander; nor is it a criticism of the dedicated firemen and law enforcement professionals, presently working in our communities. However, ..without sufficient funding of resources and personnel, we know they can only do so much, and that leaves us on our own, in some respects.

So, watch yourself out there, Brangler.

Mel Dyer

Capicostia?

2010-11-17T03:15:00.000-08:00

[Second Edition]
A 'Capicostia' blog?
Kinda trying this on. Feeling it out.

Capitol Hill + Anacostia = Capicostia?!

I think River East needs a blog that speaks to the frustration and quiet hysteria of what it's like to live here, but, sometimes, feel some small part of you might belong on the other side of the river, ..where political intrigue and urbanity slink down the sidewalks, stopping for the occasional latte or imported beer.

Mmmm...I'll cop to the angst. Even if you won't.

There's something about living here, ..in Penn Branch, Fairfax Village, Pope Branch, Dupont Park, Twining, Hillcrest, the Randall Highlands and probably Fairlawn, too, ..that's different than living in other parts of River East, and the culture-angst is something only we can understand. When you think about it the only thing separating us from Capitol Hill and everything the Hill represents--sophistication, culture, history, relevance, style--is a stupid bridge and a river, and, while it seems rather inconsequential, we all know it isn't. Not in D.C. and, especially, not over there, ..West-of-river.

Capitol Hill. Georgetown. Downtown. No'Ma. Adam's Morgan.

There's a fleeting anxiety among some of us, who live in the neighborhoods along Pennsylvania Avenue, that we're unfairly characterized as less intellectually sophisticated, less cultured (appreciative of history and the arts), less relevant and less stylish than our Capitol Hill. I would dare say some of us feel unfairly lumped in with the neighborhoods bordering ours, where crime, drugs and other inner city problems regularly make the six o'clock news, ..much to our collective embarassment.

It's something that creeps into your psyche, when we're tooling around Barracks Row or shopping the Harris Teeter grocery on Potomac Avenue or unwinding at Trusty's Bar, this angst, I'm talking about, ..when we find ourselves comparing our GORGEOUS, hilly, tree-lined roosts to the stately old cobble-stoned streets of historic Capitol Hill, where the important people carry on.

When we try on a sidewalk cafe like a shoe we might be buying, ..and finding it fits very well, indeed. Maybe, better than Fairfax Village?

Then, we think about those same crowded streets, with parking meters everywhere and no off-street parking, and we laugh out loud! Sucky parking! What a lucky stiff I am in Penn Branch! East-of-the-River ..from Barney Circle straight out to Ward Nine.

In Capicostia.

Capicostia is a state of mind.

Mel Dyer

Jumbo Jetliner Buzzes Penn Branch and Fairfax Village

2010-10-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

This Ilyushin Il-96 (above) isn't the alleged jumbo jet, but looked very much like this one.

At about 4:13 pm EST, I saw a white jumbo jetliner, with red markings, pull in low enough over Penn Branch to clip the treetops and dive toward Alabama Avenue in Fairfax Village! It looked like it was going to land at the strip mall, down the hill, on Pennsylvania Avenue! I can also say, with some measure of certainty, that its design identified it as a Boeing 747.

Military helicopters--Navy-commissioned, if I'm not mistaken--were seen in the air, shortly afterwards. Though I only saw one, it was admittedly hard to tell how many because of the trees, and it sounded like more than one. This might have been perfectly inconsequential, considering some kind of helicopter are seen speeding over Penn Branch, almost every half an hour and especially during rush hour.

I heard police and emergency sirens following all of that, and there is a difference. Trust me--River East hears enough police sirens to know the difference between the two.

I can't be the only person, who saw this, because that plane was just too damn big not to be noticed. If you saw it, please leave your comments below and describe this incident as well as possible AND how unusual you found it to be.

Since I didn't have my celly on me at the time, there are no pics. Sorry.

Mel Dyer

GATEWAYS OF DOOM!

2010-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

*He-Man knows how to handle a few barbarians at the gate, and so does Penn Branch. I hope.

The delay in development at our delightfully decrepit Penn Branch Center, at the corner of Pennsylvania and Branch Avenues, is very frustrating to me.

Though, in mere days, it will have been an entire year since construction was to begin on our shopping center, nothing resembling upgrades and infusions of new, dynamic retail has been initiated. Check the websites of the Penn Branch Civic Association website (on your left) and of ICG Properties, and you will not find news of any significant developments for PBC.

We have THREE gateway areas developing in the River East area, each fully-loaded with upscale condos and retail, and I worry Penn Branch, virtually unchanged since the 80s, will soon fall behind in how efficiently the city delivers vital services. With the explosion of commercial and residential development on Martin Luther King Avenue, Howard Road and coming soon to Barry Farm, generating tax revenue for the District that Penn Branch cannot match, I do not see how our community will keep its footing with the Public Works people, downtown.

When the next hurricane or really, really bad thunderstorm or blizzard knocks out the power on Carpenter Street (our main artery) and my mother's stretch of Pope Street, and we are waiting a week or longer for restoration, while Uniontown Anacostia is miraculously lit up like Nationals Stadium, within a few hours of suffering a power failure of its own, ..I think Penn Branch will recognize that its once prized position on this side of the river is a thing of the past.

I don't want to entertain, in a neighborhood with so many elderly and retired citizens--some of whom, live with great health-related challenges--what kind of problems the gateway-related changes will create, with respect to police and emergency response. This could prove a life and death situation.

Heads-up, Fairfax Village. I have a condo, there.

This Brangler is worried, and I think all of us in Penn Branch should be worried. I think we need a big, chalk-white government monolith, where PBC's parking lot presently is, to keep us on the map.

It took me years to understand why my Penn Branch neighbors so adamantly fought the installation of a Burger King and other Big Retail in Penn Branch. They werer protecting our neighborhood from high taxes, crime and other bumps in the road. I am not so sure how long we can afford to lockout significant development with the consequences for not being compettitive, dire and life-changing consequences, on the horizon.

Mel Dyer

*He-Man is a trademark of the Mattel Corporation.

It's Time To Come In Out Of The Rain

2010-09-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

Ms. Crabtree (above) and her law-giving ruler is just what D.C.'s little rascals need right now, ..but, Chancellor Rhee would just fire her for being old-fashioned--so, what would be the point?

[Fourth Edition]
This is going to be a rambling mess that I'm not even going to attempt to hedge up pretty for you. It's some less-than random thoughts about public education, particularly in D.C., and about the erosion of old-fashioned values and a little about spanking rotten, little no-goodniks, who need it.

You could call this a rant ..or dinner at Mel's? Take your pick.

The big, liberal experiment in public education, ..teachers with no real authority in their own classrooms and principals undermined by school superintendents and chancellors--an experiment that the American taxpayer has been funding since the Sixties--doesn't appear to be working. The idea that we can turn our schools into a communal, hippie Shangri'La, where children and teachers are on a peerage, sharing equal power and authority, resulting in learning environments with virtually no order, has been disastrous for our city and our nation, ..but, it seems we're not ready to admit that, yet.

And we're not the only ones.

I read a very disturbing article that tells us how South Korea, whose children out-perform their US counterparts in math and science, is about to screw up their children and ruin their schools, by banning dress codes and corporeal punishment and replacing them with more school counseling, trips to the principal's office and extra homework. All of these 'methods' are in play in American schools, and none of them work, here, ..but, South Korea doesn't seem to know or care about that.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LH17Dg01.html

Corporeal punishment is still on the books in DC's public schools, but is not being implemented by notorious school policy reformist, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor, Michelle Rhee.

And why not?

If Chancellor Michelle Rhee is genuine in her intentions, is there some reason she is not asking the teachers, who taught in our D.C. public schools, when CP was in play, to consult with today's administrators and policy-makers? Older teachers have told me that the problems (students with chronically bad behavior, challenging domestic issues or low academic performance) plaguing our public schools today did not seem so unsolvable, when they were teaching--why are we not asking them for solutions, if it is suddenly so urgent for D.C. kids to have effective teachers? Why hasn't there been a council of mature and experienced teachers called in to consult with Chancellor Rhee--a council of teachers, who were teaching when public schools actually WORKED and children knew their proper place in them?

Why isn't Chancellor Rhee looking to South Korea's public schools, where teachers are adamantly against banning CP in the classroom, and whose youth are out-performing us in math and science? Why isn't she looking at some of the other Asian and Carribean countries, whose children out-perform ours in these subjects?

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/schools-bring-back-corporal-punishment/story?id=10989155

Why isn't Chancellor Rhee green-lighting good, old-fashioned raps on the knuckles, spankings, ear-pulling and sending your kids to the corner, before firing a few hundred teachers? Most people my age will tell you those were very effective methods, when they used them on us. Were Chancellor Rhee being genuine with us, she would implement the use of these time-honored teaching tools, instead of more experimentation. Aren't you getting a little tired of our D.C. youth being experimented with by carpet-bagging, psychoeducational opportunists passing through with their charts and behavior modification theories?

If Chancellor Rhee is sincere in her mission, why isn't she commissioning a council of mature teachers to tell us why their classrooms were effective in ways that ours aren't? Why isn't someone in Ms. Rhee's office hosting a symposium on what public education was like, before Dr. Spock and his ideas, much based upon transactional analysis, on child-rearing screwed everything up?

Do we want only new ideas?

Do we want to see our kids subjected to more studies? Do we want more research? Do we want our school policy-makers standing around big pitchers of ice-water, making useless PowerPoint presentations and plugging their upcoming books on how to fix our schools and save our children? Do we care about producing better people, by putting young Americans on a sound and disciplined path, or do we only care about higher test scores?

Public education is screwed up because the opportunistic people doing research, symposiums, writing books, opening consulting firms, developing charter schools and hosting big conferences are making a TON of money off of the mess we're in and want to keep it screwed up and profitable for them. The chronic experimentation in public education, and all the problems that have come with it, is not something we can continue to afford, especially with our ailing economy, ..and it isn't working.

It's time to admit that, quit our pouting ..and to come in out of the rain.

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/08/23/1403050/give-teachers-more-authority-parents.html

If Chancellor Michelle Rhee is genuine in her reform crusade, she will champion the real empowerment of D.C.'s teachers--full restoration of the classroom-level authority of individual teachers, the policies (uniforms, corporeal punishment, etc.) to support that authority and educating new teachers in the most effective use of that authority. If Chancellor Michelle Rhee was genuine about reforming our schools, she would push aside the over-priced consultants and psycho-educational studies witchdoctors, and she would talk to some old teachers and administrators, who remember how to make our schools work.

Could it be that moving forward might have to begin with looking back?

Mel Dyer, ex-teacher

G'night, Joe

2010-09-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

My movie review blog at StudioJoeMovies.blogspot.com, after a year of virtual neglect except for spot-on reviews of the movies, A-Team [Loved it!] and Prince Of Persia, has taken a final bow into the twilight.

I want to thank Joe's single follower, my blogger Obi-Wan, Carlos Quinoz of CarlosInDC, for his defiantly optimistic support. If you aren't reading his blog, you're missing a refreshingly unpretensious source of politics, world news and local cultural event reporting unparalled by a single journalist.

So, get over there, already! What do you need--an invitation? Why I oughta'...

I had big plans for Studio Joe and Joe-inspired merchandise and working with an old writer bud of mine from college. Never quite found the time or will to give this project the attention it deserved. Believe me; Joe will miss you, but not nearly as much as I will miss him.

Get ready for a new blog soon to be launched from this account, called I Want You To Know, written by my younger sister, Shielda (our 'empanadina') Dyer. Shielda is a grown woman living and thriving with autism, who has been keeping daily journals for nealy an entire year; now, she'll be sharing those journals, sometimes surprisingly insightful and always bruatlly frank, with you online.

Hasta luego, Brangler.

Mel Dyer

Ignore The Buzz, Nothing New Coming To Penn Branch

2010-09-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

My Brangler spirit may be running a little low, right now.

Exactly a year ago, in October of 2009, several reliable sources told Penn Branch and surrounding residents that construction was to begin on our weary old tomb of a shopping strip, Penn Branch Center, which is basically a big piece of crap that's been falling apart for the last twenty or so years. We've got sleepy, hum-drum retail that forces Penn Branglers to go spend our money in other communities, making them more economically viable, while our own neighborhood fades deeper into civic irrelevance with City Hall, and I was really looking forward to the end of that.

But, the ending never arrived.

In the meantime, Minnesota-Benning (Bennesota) and even Fairfax Village (where I have a condo) are witnessing the beginnings of exciting changes in their respective business districts, while Penn Branch, still the host of lots of dependable, law-abiding middle class tax payers, stays drearily and abysmally the same. Not poor or crime-ridden enough for any politician to save from itself with miraculous infusions of new development, while also not economically dynamic enough to throw our weight around like Capitol Hill, No'Ma, Georgetown or Spring Valley. Basically, that means we'll never see what used to make Penn Branch such a GREAT place to live (movies, restaurants, ice cream shops, pet stores, etc.), when I was a boy, come back to us.

The nearby Hyland Theatre, now housing a daycare center, will likely remain a big, ugly holding cell for rugrats. Maybe, it'll get another dollar store. Whoop-frakin-ee.

The old High's Ice Cream at PBC will remain a credit union or whatever it is.

The old Hot Shoppes restaurant, where my mother once worked (the first Afro-American to do so), will remain a laundromat. Honestly, it breaks my heart, every time I drive past that place. It really makes me so angry, I'd almost rather see it vacant or torn down.

The CVS Drugstore, which used to be a Leader's Drug that had its own DINER inside, will stay just another generic, chain convenience-store/pharmacy. I would take my greasy, little drugstore diner, where my grandmother and I used to plan our ritual Saturday trips into town--with its juicy cheeseburgers, fries and strong hot coffee--over a Starbuck's Coffee any day of the week.

The Subway Sandwich Shop, once a handsome, wood-panelled restaurant-by-day and cocktail lounge-by-night, will remain a very well-run Subway, ..though still too much a fastfood franchise for National Harbor.

I am convinced, and I don't have any evidence to verify it, that we're just not getting the old Penn Branch back, and, after all of the buzz and speculation of last year, I am truly pissed about that. I am so angry about it, I honestly don't know what this blog is about anymnore.

I feel really screwed, and I'm not sure by whom.

It's sad, but, likely true, that there is no new, compettitive, development coming to Penn Branch--just more talk, more promises and more studies by rich, urban-planning consultant firms. We've just been jerked around, quite enough.

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/03/30/story9.html

The above link is from March of 2009, chatting up the big development coming to Penn Branch. Yes...the development that never got here.

Mel Dyer

Bennesota Dreaming, When Cafe Life In No'Ma Is Not Enough

2010-08-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

My Penn Branch based family is looking very seriously at expanding our real estate portfolio, and I know we aren't alone.

While we are taking measured and realistic looks at prospects in Northeast and Southwest, the dramatic changes happening right here, in River East, are a part of our on-going conversation. I think it would be less than prudent to overlook opportunities right here in River East, and, next to the amazing civic and cultural developments in the Uniontown area of Anacostia, nothing is more exciting to me than what's going on in the Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue area of East River Park!

http://www.capitalcommunitynews.com/publications/eotr/2009_February/34-35_EOR_0209.pdf

http://www.wdcep.com/pdf/neighborhoods/benning.pdf

http://planning.dc.gov/planning/lib/planning/retail_action_strategy/ras_2_benningminnesota.pdf

Take a good look over these related links, find out the civic, commercial and economic commitments that have been made to developing 'Downtown Ward Seven' and who is making them. There is a master plan at work, here--seriously, one of the documents above is actually 'MASTER PLAN'--and let's do all that we can not to be left out of the changes, both good and not so good, coming to this part of OUR city.

What's coming down the pike will not be an invasion, if you are an enlightened and empowered participant in it. A power player at the table, holding your own with the big, bad, wealthy wolves! Why shouldn't you be?

Gentrification is an ugly, tyrannical, bright, hopeful, promising and threatening reality of living in big, important cities, like the District of Columbia, and all the tribalist resentment and isolationism you can muster will do nothing to protect you from it. Get informed, get your strong on, economically AND psychologically, and get your families and communities ready to thrive and prosper in a new River East.

Mel Dyer

Let There Be Loft: A Rant

2010-08-01T02:50:00.000-07:00

Just finished browsing DCLofts.com and found one--ONE--converted loft property in Southeast, on Capitol Hill (of course) called the Bryan School Lofts, ..which are all sold out. The Bryan School was done by award-winning Abdo Builders, and probably cost a vital organ AND a limb to own. Frankly, they are a little too polished for my tastes--scrubbed of all the rugged, Industrial Era charm that ought to be evident in converting an old school, garage, trolley car barn or factory into functional living space. These Abdo lofts look like the Sex In The City ladies hang out there.

They're sissy lofts, and I hate'm.

Lofts used to be the large, unattractive, slate gray ruins of an obsolete industrial era that no style-conscious yuppy would be caught dead in. In the 1950s, lofts were places, where a large, lower income, working class or struggling immigrant family could stake a claim in the steamy, jazz-scored urban experience...the Big City. They were open frontiers for the poor, but, ambitious. They were blank canvases upon which a large family could build a promising, new destiny, painted in bright, exotic, loud, un-American colors, ..beaded, piered, book-cased, crated and rice-papered off into whatever wondrous shapes their world-weary, colonized, disenfranchised minds could imagine...and all of that at an affordably low rate.

These struggling Mexican, Nigerian, German, Russian, Puerto Rican, Korean, Welsh, Irish, Chinese, Peruvian, Italian, Jamaican, Hungarian and (back, then) Afro-American families made virtual mansions out of these lofts, some of them were so huge. Coming to America's big cities with little more than the clothes on their backs, a big, ugly, renovated meat-packing plant or cannery was all many of them could afford.

Firetraps, some of them were called.

Now, those same families needn't even look at the word 'loft' in the classifieds, because they know, or will learn rather quickly, that these miracles of urban housing are priced out of their reach. Were my great-great grandmother, Rosana, and great grandfather, George - both Mexican American farm-workers, who could not speak English or read their own names in print - my great grandmother Eliza and their two boys, George and Edgar, to come to the Washington, D.C. of today from the old Republic of Tejas, they would be forced to live in the most inhospitably cramped, delapidated, roach-infested, crime-ridden apartments the Distict has to offer, because all of the big, dreary, drafty lofts they were once able to afford have been gobbled up by greedy real estate developers with no vision or appreciation for the future of this country, beyond a respect for capitalism.

Because some rich, flamboyant bubbleheads have decided they want to play artiste in the big, gritty city, taking the only place they might be able to afford into vulgar, track-lighted, steam punk expressions of conspicuous consumption.

America can and should be so much more than consumption of the frivolous.

Anyway, I am looking for crappy, UGLY, sensibly priced lofts that no one in their right mind would want to call their home ..in River East. There's no reason that River East, with our ancient and abandoned, Industrial Era garages, factories and schools, should be short on loft-living opportunities, and there is no reason River East should not be the place, where the experimental, revolutionary shot was fired - the place, where working middle and lower income people took back the Loft! I am so sick of seeing irresponsible urban planners, greedy developers and corrupt politicians herding large populations of working people into immutably small and inhospitable places, and throw their hands up in apoplexy, at the crime, disfunction and blight that results.

And I want mine, Brangler. If you find any, please contact me [My media info at the bottom right of this blog.] and let me know.

My best to you and yours...and thanks, all.

Mel

It's A Life

2010-07-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

The DAILY BRANGLER is now Mel's Penn Branch Life, a weblog that with an ecclectic format that will cover community news, politics, world affairs, media clap-trap and the colorfully chaotic circus that is my life with the possums.

See? Progress already.

Mel Dyer

The Daily Brangler Goes..DAILY?!

2010-07-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

It probably seems that we cannot settle on a format for THE DAILY BRANGLER, ..but, solid programming for this blog is coming, River East! TDB will be daily and interesting and relevant and everything you want in a daily blog, soon enough. Until we get that hammered down properly, ..follow me, the Poowes and everybody I've ever known or went to school with (and they really are ALL there--kinda' creepy) on Facebook!

Mel Dyer

A Garden Store In Fairfax Village?

2010-07-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

With a garden store on the way, could Caribou Coffee be far behind?

I have just reopened the featured polls and want very much to hear your opinions about the changes in Penn Branch and the surrounding areas. So far, the Deanwood-Burroughs Avenue area and the MLK Avenue-Uniontown area of Anacostia are the River East neighborhoods that people are saying need the most commercial development. In another poll, people are saying the Fairfax Village-Fort Davis and Uniontown neighborhoods have the most potential.

And I agree.

Being a large condominium community, Fairfax Village is more transient than the rest of Fort Davis. Should the cost of renting and owning a condo in the Village dramatically increase, the population of the area could change in kind. It is not at all impossible to imagine that garden stores and coffeehouses wouldn't be far behind. As when Fairfax Village went from being a fashionably upscale roost for junior congressmen and Capitol Hill staffers in the 1970s to feeling a little like New Jack City in the Reagan Era Eighties, ..changes in the Village can happen fast.

But, I want to know what you think.

Take a minute to share your thoughts, my friends.

Mel Dyer

They Say You'll Sleep With Anything!

2010-07-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

If you are one of those people (and I'm not saying I'm one of them), who people say will sleep with anything--and I mean ANY-thing--and you've thought about changing your ways and cleaning up your reputation, ..maybe, you want to hold off on that.

At least, until Saturday morning. Might need a cigarette, after this.

Mel Dyer

A Declaration Of Penn Branch Spirit

2010-07-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

[Excerpt from "To Fight Another Day", published here, 1/30/10]

...We are good people, and, in spite of those who would prey upon and destroy us — of those, who cruise our tree-lined hills with jealousy and contempt for the peace our parents and grandparents have worked so hard to give us — we ought to go right on being good people.

That is the war to be won here, Brangler.

We live in a place, where you can look straight up into the sky on a clear, starry night and see a flurry of golden, shooting stars raining like gold coins from the heavens ..or the International Space Station pass overhead, looking very much like a traveling planet.

We live in a place, where our children carelessly play outside, well after nightfall, and summer lovers steal kisses in the shade of dogwood trees, ..bewitched by the fragrance of Concorde grapes on a passing breeze—where old, silver-haired friends look back on harder times from the comfort of a porch ..and laugh out loud! We live in a truly blessed place, this majestic and wondrous Penn Branch.

This neighborhood is so much more than where we live – it’s who we are. We are good people, and it’s going to take more than men with guns to take that away from us.

We will be vigilant.

We will be careful and wary and prepared for the worst, ..but, we will be Penn Branch. We will never give it up.

Mel Dyer

Dedicated to Ms. Alberta Paul and my mother, Mrs. Shirley Dyer

More Beltway Beauty Than We Can Handle!

2010-07-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

Two Ben's Restaurants Rushing To Penn Branch?!

2010-06-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

Ben's would be right at home here, in good ole Penn Branch! (Compiled from a photo from Wikipedia)

[*Second Edition]
Negotiations with the D.C. Government to open TWO Ben’s restaurants here, in the River East neighborhood of Penn Branch, are “on the fast track”, according to Ben's Next Door proprietor, Mr. Kamal Ben Ali. According to Mr. Ben Ali, the Government is acting as quickly as possible to move the application and licensing process forward for a second Ben's Chili Bowl, styled like the U Street landmark, AND a new Ben's Next Door bar and grill, both to be located at Penn Branch Center.

In the interim, the Ben’s restaurant family is researching how best to appeal to the Penn Branch area. “The desire for [family-oriented] sitdown restaurants”, says Mr. Ben Ali, is of primary interest to the (presently unnamed) area representatives they are talking to, and that interest is shaping, “on a conceptual level”, what a Ben’s Next Door at Penn Branch Center might look like. As Ben’s Next Door in Northwest Washinton is, first and foremost, a bar, with restaurant-grill attached, ..Ben Ali says the proposed Penn Branch venture could be “more of a family restaurant-oriented [experience], with an attractive bar” and pubby feel.

There is, in this developing familiarity with our neighborhood, very shrewd and detailed market research at work.

The mid-upscale Penn Branch neighborhood (presently the home of D.C. Councilwoman Yvette Alexander) is the most central and culturally representative of the working-middle and upper class populations surrounding it, which include Randle Highlands-Westover, Twining, Pope Branch, DuPont Park, Hillcrest and even nearby Fairfax Village. While Hillcrest personalities may be making more of an impression on business and political entities, downtown, ..Penn Branch is and always has been at the cultural center of everything between Southern Avenue, Benning Road, Naylor Road and the Anacostia River; the Ben’s Chili Bowl family knows that and how vital it will be to the success of a restaurant, here. Ben’s is doing its homework, and that should be very impressive to all of us.

The retailers, soon to follow them across the Anacostia River (and they ARE coming), ignore that glaring fact at their economic peril.

While he did not confirm any names for the new restaurant, Mr. Ben Ali says “Ben’s Of Penn Branch” has possibilities. Can you imagine President Obama and his First Lady--famous patrons of Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street--with Sasha and Malia in tow, being quietly nudged to that nice Ben’s Of Penn Branch, just off of Capitol Hill, ..and with enough parking space for the presidential motorcade?

See you at Ben’s, Brangler!

Mel Dyer

*This article was cloned from "And Now,..Ben's Of Penn Branch?", published 6/29/10

You Can See My BC From Barry Farm! It's Huge!

2010-06-29T03:37:00.000-07:00

What's the point of having a BC, if there isn't someone sitting on it, drinking steaming, hot coffee ..or eating a freakolicious Buffalo Chicken Sub? That's how the Brangler rolls...

Big Chair Coffee n' Grill
Open Daily 7am-9pm

With Ghana's Shoe In Our Tookus, U.S. Leaves FIFA World Cup

2010-06-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

Landon Donovan at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (Photo from Wikipedia)

Ending a second valiant effort to establish American supremacy at the FIFA World Cup, with unbelievably skilled playing by Clint Dempsey (the first American to appear in a European final) and Landon Donovan, Ghana's Black Stars run off with a 2-1 victory over the U.S. Soccer Team. After a 1-0 win over Algeria, American soccer fans were celebrating what many of us hoped would be the conquest of the 'other football', but, it seems Ghana's renowned toughness may have put that dream on ice, at least for a while, with today's match.

This is the Yanks' second trip to the FIFA Cup. We will be back.

Mel Dyer

Angst And Angus In Bennisota

2010-06-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

It's STEAK, River East! Run for your lives! (Photo from Wikipedia)

It bothers me that the opening of something so ordinary and Middle American as a simple steakhouse in River East could generate so much resentment and gentrification paranoia among our neighbors, considering that River East has been deprived of this kind of mid-upscale retail for so long.

We are already hearing, "That ain't for us!", "What THEY think they doing putting that here?" and "**** that white ****! I'm going to Clinton!" It's in line at the bank. It's on the subway. It's everywhere.

Before *RAY's THE STEAKS opened in the colorfully chaotic and rapidly developing Benning Road-Minnesota Avenue area of East River Park, we were grumbling about not having the kind of sit-down restaurants in River East that other parts of D.C. enjoy. When DENNY's opened, just up the street, we were all atwitter with how refreshing it would be to take our familes to a nice resteaurant, after church ..or grab the occasional late meal, near home. Now, we hear grumbling about what an imposition on our Southeast status quo this new steakhouse is, ..and how the folks at RAY's better act like 'they know where they are'.

What are we, Thunderdome here? Should the bad steak-people serve us with a net and a trident? What is this weird surge of paranoia we keep hearing over a steakhouse, ..and isn't it getting a little old?

Well, some people aren't paying it any mind at all.

My seventy-year old mother, who has lived in River East for over forty years, and (her brother) my seventy-plus year old uncle, a first-time homeowner here, ate lunch at RAY's, yesterday, ..and they LOVED it. They grew up between D.C.'s Marshall Heights, off East Capitol Street, and Newport News, Virginia, and they remember segregated picture shows, steakhouses and 'Whites Only' signs, very well. Enduring indignities that make gentrification look like a Sunday church picnic, and all right here in Washington, D.C., I assure you they knew well 'where' they were, dining at Ray's.

They know because they remember what it took to get them there.

Despite all the tribalist paranoia, Mama and Uncle Stanley are ready for RAY's and ready for those big, black angus steaks hanging off the plate, whether it came here for them or not. They've paid for those steaks and the right to sit down and eat them in their own neighborhood, many times over. If they are ready, after surviving all they have survived, we will never be more ready for the changes coming to River East, than we are, right now.

For crying out loud...can you imagine the paranoia you will see, when other new retailers want to (and they are coming) give Bennisota a try? If we can't handle a simple steakhouse in Southeast what are we going to do, when a CARIBOU COFFEE opens next to the Minnesota Avenue Metrorail Station? Or a TARGET? Or--saints preserve us--BARNES & NOBLE? What about AU BON PAIN or--man the lifeboats--LORD & TAYLOR?

You're going to hear one collective "Oh, hell no!" from Benning Road all the way to Westover Drive, mami. Count on that.

This isn't attack dogs and 'Whites Only' signs and crosses burning on your front lawn. It's JUST a steakhouse, my friends. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bold experiment in anything, because I believe we have been ready for this for a very long time. I believe, whether it's an outgrowth of coming gentrification or not (and maybe it is), we must accept it and believe we are ready for whatever follows it, ..simply because we are still here. Ready or not, River East, we have a steakhouse.

And we all eat...don't we?

Mel Dyer

*RAY's is located at 3905 Dix Street NE, Washington, D.C. (20019).

I Pity The Fool, Who Hasn't Seen This Movie!

2010-06-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

"Joe (Smokin' Aces) Carnahan's The A-Team picks up the TV series' original setup; the A-Team is a U. S. Army special forces unit, who go on a covert mission in Iraq to steal something important for the government, but, get sent to prison, when their commanding officer dies, taking the truth about their mission with him. Now, upgrade all that with inter-agency government conspiracies, huge explosions, aerial dogfights with F-22 Raptors, high-speed car-chases, a crazy attempt to fly a TANK that's been dropped out of an exploding airplane, kicking back with the guys, more explosions and Jessica Biel in tight outfits, ..and you're scratching the surface.

It gets WAY better..."

I pity the fool, who doesn't read my review of The A-Team! I pity the fool!

Mel Dyer

USA Raising The Stakes In The World Cup

2010-06-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

Johnny-come-latelies we may be, the United States is getting serious about its soccer. Today in Pretoria, South Africa, with a 1-0 win over Algeria, the United States rockets to the second round at the World Cup! Could news like this curb our Nation's Capitol's longstanding disdain for this globally celebrated sport?

The story here...

Mel Dyer

Did You Catch Blogging While Brown?

2010-06-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

It really bugs me that I missed Blogging While Brown, and, if you missed it, you are probably as bummed as I am. The time to start preparing for the next one is right now, and the following link will tell you what to expect...

Ping. That's the sound of relevance hitting your brain.

Mel Dyer

Try Getting A Futon In There...Not Gonna Happen

2010-06-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

Problems facing the penitentiary system of Costa Rica will be very familiar to us...a link. President Laura Chinchilla is making the prosecution of drug-related crimes, even non-violent ones, a top priority of her administration, and the country's prisons are finding it all difficult to manage.

Mel Dyer

Enough Caffeine To Wake The Dead!

2010-06-20T02:38:00.000-07:00

[Originally published, 2/1/10]
Forget the COFFEE at Big Chair Coffee! The food is unbelievable!

Anacostia's BIG CHAIR COFFEE & GRILL is now THE east-of-river place to grab breakfast! The Bacon and Sausage Omelette (and I'm really not an egg-lover) is phenomenal--a spicy, juicy fiesta in your mouth! What I love about this dish is that the amazing spices light up your tongue, without overpowering the spiciness of the sausage or the smokey flavor of the bacon--genius! If you can't park, this is totally worth calling-in and orbitting the block for--seven or eight minutes, and you got crazy, freakolicious breakfast!

Don't get me started on the BUFFALO CHICKEN SUB! You will want to wear this thing around your neck, it's so GOOD!

And yeah--the coffee's great, too! That's kind of a given, considering it's coming from the same folks, who gave us MURKY COFFEE (a Dyer family favorite) on Capitol Hill! Great, great stuff!

River East's only true coffeehouse is open on weekdays, with FREE WI-FI, from 7 AM, until 9 PM! Get your tusch to BIG CHAIR, Brangler!

At Ease With Our Own

2010-06-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

That's Not A Handgun...That's A Space Station

2010-06-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

Above: President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, looking a little like my late papa here.

I was one of the people, who was not at all surprised, when Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, told a joint session of Congress that eighty percent of the seventy-five thousand guns seized by Mexican law enforcement, over the last three years, have been traced right here to the United States of America. According to the Associated Press, Calderon, after urging U.S. legislators to strengthen gun laws, warned that over ninety percent of the guns used by [Mexican] drug traffickers come from north of Mexico's border.

I was not surprised because I know what "guns used by drug traffickers" means, and you probably do, too. Even if you think you don't.

Don't get caught up in the political crap-storm brewing over the ninety percent part. The guns being used by the drug traffickers President Calderon spoke of are small arms--handguns--the same our local papers tell us are being used in drug/gang-related crimes, right here in the Distict. Where they are being manufactured and how big the weapons are is irrelevant to me; that the guns are coming from America is what matters.

Trust me...if some punk kid points a gun in your nephew's face or shoots him, walking home from a club, you aren't going to care where on what assembly line that gun was manufactured. You may get a little mad, if you find out it was one in some seventy-five thousand guns smuggled here from Maryland, Atlanta or wherever. In my opinion, that is the part, after the funeral, that's going to make you angry and crazy.

It is that feeling of invasion that is the issue President Calderon is addressing here from a Mexican perspective, and I think we should try to understand that.

For the record, I am not advocating tougher gun laws or anything else, here. Like many Mexican Americans and Afro-Americans, I grew up with guns around the house that my parents taught me how to use, and I'm very comfortable with them. I am almost more comfortable with a sensibly secured firearm at home, than without one, ..but, I can understand why someone in another country doesn't want your guns, regardless of what country manufactured them, pointing at their kids.

Does that appreciation for the constitutional right to defend ourselves make us a bad country? Of course, it doesn't.

People keep coming here, don't they? Did your grandparents think it was a bad country, when they sailed here to escape the Second Serfdom in Poland, ..or when they didn't get on the first boat to Liberia or Puerto Rico or some island, somewhere? We're here, don't want guns pointed in our faces, and we should understand why people in other countries feel the same way.

It annoys me to no end that we can't look at issues like this--we've got a little gun problem, here--without having to clarify with the American exceptionalist, psycho-right that we love our country--that we think our country is a great, big ball of star-spangled sunshine, spreading God and freedom all over the world! I feel like I'm teaching kindergarten, when I have to do that, ..but, sometimes, when we're asking potentially critical questions about something going on in the U.S., it seems we have to do that or risk being called un-American.

For my money, an America that can't be questioned or criticised, under any circumstances, is no America at all.

Anyway, Inner City Press talked to the Small Arms Survey's managing director, Eric Berman, about what percentage of guns in Mexico come from the United States. Here is a link.

Mel Dyer

Arugula: Why President Obama Probably Won't Throw The Podium At You,..Today!

2010-06-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Above: That's President Obama being cordial with Mr. George Bush. Maybe, he'll punch a baby for you, tomorrow--wouldn't count on that, though.

I don't know about you, but, I am getting a little tired of all the speculation, criticism and, now, deconstruction of why, when and if President Barack Obama is capable of showing anger or strength in some spectacular, public way. I am getting tired of it, because the President has already addressed this issue in his book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, first published way, way back in 1995, ..when Eurodance duo La Bouche's "Be My Lover" was burning down clubs all over America.

Anybody here read the Jonathan Capehart article, Rage: Why Obama Won't And Can't Give You What You Want?

There seems to be this expectation that, at some point, President Obama MUST blow his top, like a black cop in an 80s action flick. He must! If President Obama doesn't turn into a Danny Glover or Mr. T character and kick over the podium in a press conference, he is a [gasp] tortured black man, strangled by the spectre of his own ethnic stereotypes! A victim. A broken, fragmented, caged and unrealized being, hopelessly lost in his private cultural assimilation nightmare. Mr. Capehart's piece doesn't go that far, but points in that direction.

One strategically placed, intellectual banana peel, and you'll find it.

At the core, isn't it more likely that President Obama is just as culturally and philosophically Asian, as African American--maybe, moreso? It's also mentioned, if you dig really, really hard, that President Barack Obama grew up between Indonesia and Hawaii, two predominantly Asian populations. With these factoids staring us red-blooded, race-obsessed Americans right in the face, why do we still seem confounded that our president doesn't express his anger in ways that are more acceptable and celebrated to the high-strung, over-caffeinated West?

I'm not deconstructing, here. Just asking.

Why are we looking for Mr. T here? Mr. T isn't showing up.

If you are old enough (and I am) to remember when Washington, D. C. was culturally and demographically a 'black town', with an African-American population of some sixty or so percent, ..take that number and replace the black people with Asian people--then, imagine you're a bi-racial youth with a Kenyan Father and an Irish/French-Canadian American mother, and you get some idea of what it must have been like to have been Barack Obama growing up in Hawaii. In his piece, Capehart says the President just isn't "wired that way", and I think he is probably right.

And I think some of us have been watching too much TV and reading too many Donald Goines novels!

Why do we keep looking for Mr. Obama's hot buttons? He was running against a guy, who was entertaining the idea of pre-emptive strikes on or invasion of Iran, and we didn't want that. We wanted cool and calm. We wanted a ninja, ..but keep looking for his samurai-switch. We have a president with a diverse cultural background and experiences with people from all over the world, who may see different ways of handling things than we are used--and so what? In the global economy, that's money in the bank. That's gold, and we ought to leave it the hell alone.

Anyway, have a look at this blurb, before you start deconstructing, ..and, for crying out loud, read the President's book!

You may also notice that this blog has a new marquee, and a new direction probably comes with it. Deconstruct that anyway you like.

Mel Dyer

Thoughts On Cinco De Mayo, I Guess

2010-05-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

I could write something heavy about how this city's local bars and cocktail lounges celebrate Cinco De Mayo and what I call the 'Ricky Martin-izing' of this holiday for cheap, quick mass consumption ..in the grand Corporate American tradition.

I could write something about how it rubs me the wrong way, as a fifth-generation Mexican American, that this seemingly unattainable victory of simple farmers, peasants (oppressed by wealthy land-owners) and Zapotec peoples over the French Army of 1862 isn't commemorated more respectfully, ..but, I won't. There's a truly exceptional article on CARLOS IN DC that says it all more eloquently than I ever could, this early in the morning.

I missed the whole thing, anyway.

Yesterday was a hot and busy day--got home late and way too exhausted to get my Cinco on. Put some hot sauce on a fish sandwich, last night, if that--but, that really doesn't count. Creo que no.

Consider this...we live in a magnificent city full of genuine opportunities to be students of and ambassadors to cultures from all over the World. In this age of SNUGGIES, hate-radio demagogues and reality TV, let us pursue substance, where we can.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

Mel Dyer

The 'G' Is For Gentrification, Folks!

2010-05-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

[Reprinted from April 5, 2010]
This week, the CARLOS IN DC blog features a superb accounting of the gentrification issues troubling the Anacostia area of River East, written with refreshing authenticity by journalist, Northwest DC resident and self-affirmed Peruanista (and Facebook pal), Mr. Carlos A. Quiroz.

At the time the Anacostia area was incorporated as 'Uniontown' in 1854, people of white Irish [True!] or African descent were outlawed from owning or renting anywhere in that part of town. This ugly historical truth is an example of how stupid and arbitrary the demonization of any ethnic group can really be--one day, Mexicans, and tomorrow, it's Arabs! It forces the more sensible of us to scratch the surface of the classist tribalism 'crab barrel', to understand one another better and find effective solutions to problems that have been with us since before the American Civil War. Quiroz's article does all of that and more, and as an occasionally less-than-objective Penn Branch tribalist, my-damnself, I can appreciate that.

Anyone calling themselves a journalist in a city as diverse and (often) divided as Washington, D.C. will do well to follow Carlos In DC's lead--including me, should I ever (and, I don't) consider my own unapologetically tribalist blog, real journalism. This Brangler is a fan of Carlos A. Quiroz; this blogger-journalist's understanding and detailed reporting of complex East-of-the-River issues is truly inspired. Amidst so much routine criticism of the blogosphere by established journalists and politicians, if you are not reading Carlos In DC, you are missing a fine example of how consistently relevant weblogs can truly be.

Artista. Intelecto. Periodista guerrero. We need more young writers like this, my friends.

And Carlos quoted something I wrote. Big like, here.

Mel Dyer

Guns And Possum, Amigo

2010-03-01T23:20:00.000-08:00

"I feel safe in Penn Branch because..."

When a Penn Brangler poll asked postors why they feel safe in Penn Branch, fifty-four percent said it was because it is "surrounded by well-kept, working-middle class neighborhoods", while forty-five percent expressed that the neighborhood's "strong police presence" gave them a feeling of security. Penn Branch's wholesome, small town charm did not go unappreciated in the poll; seventy-two percent said they felt safe, because "Branglers look out for each other", and two percent said it was because "nothing ever happens here". Right on both counts, you ask me, and God bless the folks (in uniform and out), who keep it that way!

For the record, ONE perecent of you admitted feeling safe, because you've "got a gun and...can fight". Only ONE percent?! I thought Branglers'd be a little more candid than that--not going to press the issue here, because I don't want any of you gun-toting, crackshot retirees on this hill mad at me.

Neither do you, stranger. Count on it ..and take the poll. [See right.]

Angry retirees and opossum are two things you don't want to mess with in Penn Branch--guns might be a third. If you feel strongly about that or are someone, like me, who grew up around guns and are pretty comfortable with having them around for the protection of your family, you may want to get ready for the Second Amendment National March, coming up in late April.

Mel Dyer

A Celebration Of Life..And A New Beginning

2010-02-16T23:08:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Vilma Dianne Bowie Peele, a GREAT lady, an exceptional teacher and the mother of my good friend, Mr. Bryan Brandon Peele, passed away on the morning of February 10, 2010 in Northwest Washington, D.C. Friends and family will gather for a celebration of Mrs. Peele's life on February 17, 2010 (later, today), at Northeastern Presbyterian Church, which is located at 2112 Varnum Street, in Northeast Washington, D.C.

For more details, please visit Mrs. Peele's obituary (here), as it was published in The Washington Post on February 15th and 16th.

It is also, with no small measure of regret, that I announce The PENN BRANGLER will break for TWO weeks, during which I will be focusing on a long, long list of pressing matters, ..not the least of which is the development of another blog. For me, this coming fortnight will be a time to honor some long-standing and much neglected commitments to myself, my friends and family. May this be, for all of us, a time to honor those, who have honored us, in bleak times and hopeful ones--as Mrs. Vilma Peele often did--with their unconditional friendship.

That's not such a far-flung ambition in the neighborhood I come from, ..and we, in Penn Branch, are blessed that is so.

Hasta luego, Brangler.

Mel Dyer

Farewell To One Of Our Finest River East Teachers

2010-02-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

The mother of Bryan, my best friend [I have a few.], passed away this morning, around 5 am at the Washington Home (headquarters of the Washington Hospice Centers) in Northwest Washington, DC. Bryan's mother had been a teacher for over thirty years at Anacostia High School and was much loved by the students of its various intra-curricular academies--forerunners to D.C.'s charter schools--for her nurturing heart, strong principles and old-fashioned discipline.

Bryan is one of a handful of close friends, who, at one time or another, have joined me for imported coffee and caramel macchiatoes at Crystal City Underground's Starbucks, in a corner of the shop we called the Rainbow Room, because of its STAINED GLASS WINDOW, plush armchairs and clubby feel. The Rainbow Room Mob loves this guy. My family loves this guy; I love him like a brother, and I consider his late mom a godmother to me. Bryan is handling this terrible loss in his own way, and is in the company of family members, many of whom are going through sheer hell to get to him in this blizzard.

In that spirit, please keep Bryan and his family in your prayers and understand my wish to protect their privacy, at this time. I will share more with the River East community, as it becomes appropriate.

God bless all of us, Brangler.

Mel Dyer

To Groovier, Funkier Times...

2010-02-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

I've got the most amazing memories of the parties my parents used to throw at the little, Georgian-styled colonial cottage on a tree-lined stretch of Pope Street, right here in Penn Branch. You or your parents (if you were lucky) may have been invited to one or two of them, and if you made it, you found yourself submerged in a groovy world of champagne, high fashion, beautiful faces, intellectually stimulating conversation, expensive cologne and accents from every corner of the known world--all of that ..and rhythm! Oh, yes!

That, amigo, is how Mr. & Mrs. Lewis and Shirley Dyer rolled.

All of that snow out there is about to drift out of your mind--to hustle and slide out of your way, as you boogie down Memory Lane to simpler times--can you dig it? This 70s song has been stuck in my head for an entire WEEK, and (courtesy of Youtube) it's about to get stuck in yours.

Keep it funky, Brangler...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44pYL9-XOW0

A Day Of Dignity For The Poor Of Venezuela

2010-02-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

Above: Caracas, capital of Venezuela [Courtesy of Wikipedia]

Right here, in Penn Branch, I grew up around people, who have had the most truly amazing experiences all over the world, and I feel so privileged that they have shared so many of those experiences with me. Hearing their stories expanded my thinking and encouraged me to look at our community as being part of a much larger world of exciting and moving cultural experiences. Honoring that, I will occasionally make it PENN BRANGLER business to bring you news from various parts of the world, ..and this is one of those times.

The Christian Science Monitor has a very good article on Venezuela's Day of Dignity march, which will take place, later today in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. The article is significant, if only because you probably won't find much coverage of this event on the major cable news channels--CNN, MSNBC or Fox News--while lesser known media entities you probably aren't watching or have never heard of, like LINK TV, likely will.

Had Carlos Quiroz, publisher of the Carlos In D.C. blog, not announced this on his Facebook page, I might not have known about it, either. [Gracias, Carlos!]

Here is a link to the CSM article.

Freako-licious In Anacostia, Mamis!

2010-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

To Fight Another Day

2010-01-30T18:53:00.000-08:00

[Second Edition]
On the evening of Saturday, January 30, I sat down at a friend’s PC and wrote a bitter rant, dressed up as an op-ed or something more journalistic, condemning the robbery of a Metro Access operator and the subsequent courageous actions of our Ward Seven city councilperson, Yvette Alexander, who risked her life, watching over the attacked driver (still unnamed, as of 1/31/10), until he got help. Now, hunkering down to write a more informed and revised thing ['Piece' sounds pretensious for this venue.], I am moved by the pluck and courage of Councilwoman Alexander and of the River East hills I call home to write something markedly different than what I had originally intended.

From what I have read in the Washington Post and have heard from outraged Penn Branch and Fort Dupont residents, at the time she stopped to inquire about the safety of the driver she saw lying on a Penn Branch area sidewalk, as she drove by, Alexander did not know that this man was a Metro Access driver, ..or that he was being robbed. That is when the councilwoman's SUV was set upon by two, masked men with handguns, who threatened to shoot her, if she didn't leave their victim to whatever dark fate they had in store for him. Defenseless and probably more than a little shaken up, Alexander drove far enough off that she could use her cellphone to call for help, without getting shot. She made that call, rushed back to the driver's side and stood watch over him, until he got that help.

There was nothing stopping the assailants from speeding back to the crime scene and shooting Councilwoman Alexander and the Metro van driver from whatever vehicle they were driving--absolutely nothing. Washington, D.C. is no stranger to ‘drive-by’ shootings. In the eight minutes it took for the police to respond (not a criticism of DCMPD), I’m sure that must have crossed Councilwoman Alexander’s mind--that and the fact that she really need not have come back at all. She really didn’t have to be there; yet, there she stood.

Say what you will of the Councilwoman’s part in it—Monday morning quarterback it to death, if you must—I call that heroic, and I think it’s commendable. She did the right thing, and she survived to tell the tale.

I'm not even getting into the issues surrounding 911's response to this situation. Our Councilwoman, Yvette Alexander, is handling that, and, if there's a fight to be had about it with the folks Downtown, she's time enough for them. When she doesn't have all the answers, she'll leave no stone unturned, until she finds them. Whatever you're going through, she makes sure you know you're not going through it, alone. Councilwoman Alexander is a big-hearted lady, who never shrinks from a fight for her beloved Ward 7, ..and she wins most of them! She is defiantly optimistic, refreshingly authentic, ..and I'm glad she is alive to fight another day.

In spite of that kind of optimism, events like this robbery can stain the soul of a community, even when no blood is spilled. It is my ambition that we do not let this or any other attack on Penn Branch change who we are at the core—who Councilwoman Yvette Alexander was, when she came to the aid of a stranger. We are good people, and, in spite of those who would prey upon and destroy us — of those, who cruise our tree-lined hills with jealousy and contempt for the peace our parents and grandparents have worked so hard to give us — we ought to go right on being good people.

That is the war to be won here, Brangler.

We live in a place, where you can look straight up into the sky on a clear, starry night and see a flurry of golden, shooting stars raining like gold coins from the heavens ..or the International Space Station pass overhead, looking very much like a traveling planet. We live in a place, where our children carelessly play outside, well after nightfall, and summer lovers steal kisses in the shade of dogwood trees, ..bewitched by the fragrance of *Concorde grapes on a passing breeze—where old, silver-haired friends look back on harder times from the comfort of a porch ..and laugh out loud! We live in a truly blessed place, this majestic and wondrous Penn Branch.

This neighborhood is so much more than where we live – it’s who we are. We are good people, and it’s going to take more than men with guns to take that away from us.

We will be vigilant. We will be careful and wary and prepared for the worst, ..but, we will be Penn Branch. We will never give it up.

Mel Dyer

Party Over Here..On Facebook!

2010-01-29T03:27:00.000-08:00

If you're on Facebook, check out the Capitol Hill Kiwanis Club Cafe!

The 'cafe' is the Capitol Hill Club's first Facebook forum, chatroom and gateway--a place to welcome new people, chat and set up 'real world' events and meetings, off-line and around the D.C. Metropolitan Area. Belonging to this club is about as good a social/professional NETWORKING opportunity, as you'll find east of the U.S. Capitol--believe it! You're also guaranteed to meet some very interesting people here, who care about River East and are working hard to make it an empowering place for young people to grow up.

As a three-year Capitol Hill Kiwanis Club member, I can tell you we've got an exciting year planned, and you don't want to miss one more minute of it. Get more info, here.

If you're not on Facebook, get on Facebook! You may as well, because nearly everybody you've ever known or are related to already IS--not kidding! Besides the chatroom thing, there's also dating, parties, events in the D.C.-Metro area ..and ten thousand more things I can't think of, right now!

Get over there, Brangler.

Mel Dyer

Local Area Murder Rates Are Down

2010-01-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

Take a minute to look over the latest crime stats, as reported by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department's Crime and Activity Statistics page. Homicides in Washington, D.C. are down, and arrests of juvenille suspects are up (for the week, at least). Have a look at the DCMPD's weekly arrest reports, if you want even more detailed information.

Keep in mind that this week has been alot warmer than last week, which saw snow and freezing temperatures between Wednesday and Friday, January 20-22. In Penn Branch, that's when our young turks like to ditch the grown-ups to hook up with their friends, outside or at a friend's house, ..where they can swear out loud and indulge some other bad habits they don't like us hassling them about. For that reason, it's probably wise to keep the kids (especially, your teens) on a short leash, this week--ask smart questions, keep an eye on who they're running with and stay in their business--to insure they stay out of trouble and don't bring any to your doorstep.

And if, while passing through Penn Branch Center, you happen to see Officer Halley on patrol, tell that man you appreciate what he's doing there and the high level of professionalism, with which he is representing the DCMPD. Just this weekend, I saw some five or six local teens creating a loitering problem in front of Penn Branch Liquors, and it took all of half a minute for Officer Halley to settle things. I have no doubt that Penn Branch Center would be a sewer without him.

This is a GREAT neighborhood, Brangler, and it takes good folks to keep it that way.

Mel Dyer

A Frank Talk About Healthcare And Other Things

2010-01-22T17:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to the blog, Medicynic, written by my friend Laurie Goff's dad, Dr. Paul Goff. This essay on the healthcare reform debate and other pressing issues facing our great nation is very timely. Very frank and provocative... http://medicynic.com

Live..From The Marianas Trench!

2010-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

I just watched a live D.C. Council hearing from Thursday morning, January 21, 2010.

There's an African American teen, a student of Friendship Public Charter Schools in D.C., describing the violence he regularly faces to the Council, ..and his voice is trembling as he describes his situation. The guy just wants to go to this GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOL and take advantage of the many opportunities it provides--preparation for higher learning, smaller classes, more indivualized attention. Still, he's trying to be so brave and to do what we have told him is the right thing, and it breaks your heart that we can't promise this wonderful, young guy that NOBODY is ever going to attack him, going or coming from school, ..EVER again.

But, we can't--can we?

God bless Councilwoman Yvette Alexander for noting that the student attackers, who make a routine passtime of brutally beating other youth in their area, are "crying out for help" in their own way. While I truly believe this woman has a great and kind heart, and that she is a refreshingly authentic presence in a sometimes not-so-authentic town, I think I have heard one too many stories like this one to share her compassion. I think these monsters she's referring to could do their 'crying' some place else, ..where maybe they couldn't hurt anybody.

Like the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

The accoustics must be pretty amazing down there.

Mel Dyer

[If you're coming to this clip a little late, you may have to access it through the D.C. City Council site's 'View Past Hearings' feature.]

And Now, Anacostia...?

2010-01-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

BIG CHAIR COFFEE, folks! At the corner of W & MLK Avenue. Great sandwiches. Great service. Great coffee. In ANACOSTIA...

An old man could get used to this.

[Pictures are on the way. Stay tuned.]

An Open Letter (of sorts) To Mayor Adrian Fenty...

2010-01-11T02:04:00.000-08:00

[The following is an open letter (of sorts) commending Mayor Adrian Fenty. Please reserve all comments.]

Dear Mayor Fenty,

I am writing to thank you for the spectacular job you, our Department of Public Works and other government agencies did on preparing the streets of hard-working Penn Branch for the small snowstorm we faced on Friday morning, January 8, 2010.

The state of readiness of our D.C. government agencies was evident in the River East area, long before the snow began to fall. On the evening of January 7, I must confess to being concerned about what looked to be a D.C. Police helicopter holding a single, unchanging position over Texas Avenue in Penn Branch; I worried that the police might be chasing a criminal suspect through my mother's neighborhood. I was much relieved, of course, when a neighbor suggested this copter was probably surveying streets for snow service (salting, plowing, etc)--a pre-emptive strike to prepare Penn Branch for dangerous, snow-related road conditions. I still do not know exactly what this helicopter was doing up there, ..but was glad it was there, anyway.

The following morning, between the hours of three thirty and five AM, my mother (who still lives in Penn Branch) told me there were salting trucks speeding up and down her stretch of Pope Street ..and that she could see trucks working on Carpenter Street, on the hill above her brick cottage. I was very glad to hear that, as Carpenter is Penn Branch's main and most essential thoroughfare; its passability would ensure that she could get out of the hills safely and, more importantly, that I could get in, should she or my younger sister need me.

I was very glad to hear that, indeed.

I appreciated very much that our Mayor and local government was standing with us in the face of an impending crisis, as in times before, though I have never before written to express that appreciation. Again, Mayor Fenty, I want to thank you and commend you for the timely leadership you exhibited, that morning, and the attention paid to preparing Penn Branch for the snowstorm.

Sincerely,

Mel Dyer

Get Over Here!

2010-01-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

Hola, River East! Follow me, the Poowes and everybody I've ever known or went to school with (and they really are ALL there--kinda' creepy) on Facebook... http://facebook.com/MelDyerWorks

BIG CHAIR COFFEE: RIVER EAST GETS ITS FIRST OFFICIAL COFFEEHOUSE!

2010-01-09T02:21:00.000-08:00

Barely dug out of the ice of the Nation's Capital's first big snowstorm, the ghostly lavender morning skies of January 8, 2009 were quickly blotted out by falling white, and D.C. area commuters were filled with winter's dread. Then, around six thirty that same morning, all of the nasty, awful, seemingly inevitable things we expect to slow us down during a snowstorm...

Didn't happen.

I want to and WILL be writing something to commend the truly spectacular job D.C. Department of Public Works did proofing Penn Branch's labrythine streets against the ravages of (January 8, 2009) Friday's lackluster snowstorm. I will also be writing something to commend the timely leadership and attention Mayor Adrian Fenty commited to making that enterprise so succesful, between Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. I hope you'll join me for that ..and indulge the following:

Now,.. BIG CHAIR COFFEE, after three or so months of delays upon delays, ..OPENS MONDAY, JANUARY 11th, ON MARTIN LUTHER KING AVENUE, IN ANACOSTIA!!! YES--ON MONDAY, RIVER EAST GETS ITS FIRST OFFICIAL COFFEEHOUSE!

There. Just had to see what it felt like, after waiting since early September of 2009, to type that news with my own hands. Felt pretty okay, too.

See you in Anacostia, Branglers.

Mel Dyer

Spilling A Trail Of Kosher Salt, As She Went (Part Two)

2010-01-03T17:35:00.000-08:00

The blizzard (or 'Snowpocalypse', as bloggers called it) of 2009 shattered records for snowstorms in December and pounded the Metropolitan Area with a deadly two-plus feet of snow and slush-covered ice. Local governments advised us to stay in our homes and (wisely, I think) suspended Metro bus and rail service to above-ground stations. Holiday travelers at Ronald Reagan National Airport saw their flights cancelled, while a few determined holiday shoppers, mere days before Christmas, braved roads slicked with crushed, dirty snow and ice to get to nearby shopping malls, ..only to find their stores had closed early.

Things got worse, before they got better.

For much of Saturday morning, the Department of Public Works cleared River East's major thoroughfares--Pennsylvania, Minnesota Alabama and Branch Avenues, Benning Road, East Capitol Street, etc--before turning to the smaller, residential streets in the afternoon. Unfortunately for those smaller streets, as snow continued to fall faster and heavier than before, Public Works pulled its crews off those side streets before they were finished, ..and quite a few of them, like Pope Street, wouldn't see another snow plow before the following Monday or Tuesday ..night.

The efforts of the Adrian Fenty Administration to keep drivers and pedestrians off the streets, through a series of press conferences, radio announcements AND the 24-hour Mayor’s Citywide Call Center, was truly commendable. Considering the scale of this storm (and it was BIG), whether or not parts of River East, like Penn Branch or Fairlawn, were underserved or lost in the shuffle is pure speculation. There may be as many of us, who were dazzled by the hi-tech tracking devices the Mayor's Office used to pinpoint the locations of Public Works crews to the press, ..as there are those forced to park their cars several blocks from their homes, because they could not safely drive on their own streets.

There may be just as many of us, who felt a little slighted by the D.C. Government, when our friends on Capitol Hill told us their streets had been plowed and salted, hours before the snowfall stopped, ..as if a long caravan of trucks had been lined up along the Eisenhower, waiting for the first opportunity to service them. Makes you wonder...

But, Penn Branch got through it. Branglers always do.

We look out for our neighbors, when a snow comes--drop by and offer a hand. If we're able, we shovel the walks and driveways of some of our older neighbors, people who've kept this neighborhood the best, East of the River. We do what we can and hold fast to our optimism, even in the face of bleakest adversity—we always have. It doesn't matter that we sometimes feel like Downtown has forgotten about us, because when we're up against something that takes everything we've got, ..Penn Branch has what it takes.

This is a great neighborhood, folks, ..and it’ll take more than any freak blizzard to lick us. Happy New Year and good luck in 2010!

Mel Dyer

Spilling A Trail Of Kosher Salt, As She Went

2009-12-23T08:55:00.000-08:00

[Above: The Poowes taking in a snowy day at the Dyers' Cottage. If you don't think they're cute, you're a heartless SOB, who deserves a big lump of coal in your stocking.]

This Brangler isn't happy.

On the evening of December 18, 2009, just before a foreboding mauve-colored sky began burying the D.C. Metropolitan Area under nearly two and a half feet of snow, I was headed towards Capitol Hill along the Eisenhower Freeway, where I saw many HUGE salt trucks lined up on an overpass. These trucks were of the industrial-sized GMC variety you might see servicing a construction site, and a fellow Penn Brangler later told me they had also seen these trucks lined up along the Ike. My own mother, who'd traveled that same freeway, early Friday evening, told me she had seen the same, large salt trucks, there.

It would all make sense the next day, as the snow piled to over a foot and kept falling, when a neighbor would tell me that the D.C. government had a sand surplus--more than enough to handle a blizzard this size. More sand than all those big trucks could carry, surely.

The 3500th block of Pope Street, in the heart of hilly Penn Branch, didn't see a salt truck until December 21st, Monday evening--that's nearly two days after the storm faded on Saturday night. The truck appointed to service this tree-lined stretch of Pope Street was barely bigger than a Ford F-150--so small, your two fattest cousins would tip the thing over, if they jumped in it too fast.

From the porch of old Dyers' Cottage, where I grew up, we watched this little truck sprinkle what looked to be fairy dust up and down Pope Street--took two trips, I think. It left behind a trail of sand or salt that was every bit as unimposing as the truck that had delivered it. It looked as if a tired, old lady'd come up the street with a leaky grocery bag,..spilling a trail of Kosher salt, as she went.

For a Ward Seven neighborhood that voted overwhelmingly for the current administration, it was disappointing. It was insulting...

Sit tight, my friends.

I've got more coming, and in typical Penn Brangler fashion, there's light at the end of the tunnel and all is tied up in a warm, positive, affirming bow. It gets better, ..and it kinda has to with the holiday upon us and all that--can't really leave you all bummed out for the holidays, can I?

The Penn Brangler is back.

Another Shining City On A Hill, ..Again!

2009-11-23T02:49:00.000-08:00

Check out the plans for the new Penn Branch Center... http://www.icgproperties.com/retail.asp?id=10 on ICGProperties.com!

Check out the airy, light-friendly glass and steel architecture, the environmentally conscious green roofing, the restaurants, the sidewalk cafes and the people! Imagine spending a Saturday afternoon, dozing over your laptop at Dunkin' Donuts or Panera or Caribou Coffee! Imagine heading down to a bar for drinks with the fellas on Cinco de Mayo! Imagine celebrating your whatever with your whoevers, amidst the primal, smokey scent of STEAK on the grill, wafting up and along Carpenter Street! Imagine all of the schemes you'll have to come up with just to drive by this place, without pulling over for something.

You'll never get downtown. You will never see Capitol Hill, again.

And speaking of downtown, imagine the GATED PARKING that will end the abusive over-crowding of Penn Branch Center's parking lot by commuters. It's so crowded during the day, it sometimes takes several minutes to get around the lot or to find a parking space.

"I spoke with the real estate broker a while back," Ms. V of the Fairfax Village blog, LIFE IN THE VILLAGE, told me in September, "and the new facade on the existing building and two new pads in the existing parking lot are scheduled for completion in [December] 2010."

Just thought it might be nice to post another link to ICG's spectacular plans for Penn Branch Center, in case some of you missed the original post (now deleted).

Don't know when this thing is supposed to be built, considering that construction was supposed to start on the first of October, and I am still concerned about what will happen to our favorite nighborhood businesses, like Star Pizzeria. As far as I know, the rumours about PBC businesses being moved into trailers, during the big renovation, are still just rumours.

I'll tell you this--you haven't had a chicken cheese-steak, until you've had one with extra cheese, at Star Pizzeria. Yum-mmm! Get down there, Brangler!

Mel Dyer

Dracula Should Be So Lucky!

2009-10-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

Is that a...?

I think I we just drove past a...

Can't be a...not in Southeast, Washington, D.C.!

But, actually, ..it is.

Someone is actually building a something that looks very much like a small castle, right here, in Southeast Washington, DC!

The expansive, red brick mansion being erected on Texas Avenue is getting quite the buzz around here, and, upon its completion, will be one of the largest houses ever to be built in Penn Branch. It's flanked by a patch of woodland on its left and a spacious backyard on its right, ..and, from the looks of the grounds, will probably feature a stately manor driveway sweeping up to the front door and back out to the street. While the Gothic influnce is clearly distinguished by the masonry accents over the windows and the arched window over the double doors, there's also a plethora of other architectural styles being used here that I can't begin to recognize.

The overall effect is powerful. Arresting. Quirky.

It takes real guts to build something this weird in this middle of sleepy, little stretch of Texas Avenue. There's something about people, who make their homes on mountains, even small ones, that will always run roughly over the boundaries of consensus normality, ..and it's something Penn Branch understands.

We Branglers tend to live a little on the wild side.

Whoever's putting this house together should fit right in, around here.

Mel

An Evening With the Bard

2009-09-09T04:26:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard already, Councilwoman Yvette Alexander (a Penn Branch native) will be hosting Ward Seven Night at the Shakespeare Theatre, TONIGHT--on Wednesday, September 9, 2009, at Sidney Harman Hall, located in the Gallery Place area of Downtown Washington.

According to Ms. Alexander's website, "400 complimentary tickets" will be available to residents of Penn Branch and other Ward Seven neighborhoods (Hillcrest, Fairfax Village, Goodhope, Capitol Heights, Deanwood, Greenway, etc.) for this big-box production of William Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew. The magic begins at 7:30pm, ..but, the Shakespeare Theatre Company website warns to get down there early, as their lines usually start forming four hours before a show starts. With director David Muse's inspired all-male production of Romeo & Juliet still the talk of D.C.'s theatre circles, this production promises to be a quirky, unconventional, eye-bending spectacle, typical of his critically acclaimed interpretations of the Bard's works ..and not to be missed.

The speed-humps on Carpenter Street (around the corner from where my mother and sister live) are high enough to ski on, and there is more opossum and racoon on this hill than you can shake a hunting rifle at, ..but, Councilwoman Alexander continues to be a Penn Branch gift that keeps on giving. Events, like Night at the Shakespeare are so vital to the wellness of River East Washingtonians, and especially to our kids, many of whom often express a feeling of being a scarred, exiled and forgotten part of our otherwise opulent Nation's Capital. I think Yvette Alexander knows that these events connect all of us to a larger world of art, culture and opportunities that simply haven't landed in our part of town, ..yet. In spite of the considerable challenges facing much of her community, Alexander continues to bring insightful and forward-thinking solutions to us, and we are all the wealthier for calling her one of ours.

She is a light, my friends.

She is a light with free tickets to a play at Sidney Harman Hall, ..after which a night of shameless, frivolous partaying in Chinatown and points farther west must be had by all.

Go, you must. *Go! Vanish into air! Away!

Mel Dyer

*That last bit, "Go! Vanish into air! Away!" was inspired by (or stylishly lifted from) William Shakespeare's infamous Othello. Hey--I'm an English Lit major, here! Look the other way and let me have my fun.

Saddle up, Branglers!

2009-09-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

The Penn-Branch Citizens/Civic Association is meeting tonight in the basement multipurpose hall of the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, located at 3000 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Southeast Washington! Come around to the back of the church, and you'll find us.

See you there, my friends!

Mel Dyer