C A P I C O S T I A

You want the skinny on this property from someone living, right here, in Hillcrest? Well, here it is... Your friends will be surprised how much this woodsy, quiet,  safe,  middleclass neighborhood - great for young couples with children OR happily retired - looks and feels like  Rock Creek Park  or Chevy Chase. This house is located in the BEST the Southeast Hills have to offer, with bars and  cafe life  on Capitol Hill barely five minutes away! Safeway, post office and retail are close enough to walk to, in a neighborhood safe and friendly enough to enjoy the stroll! Maybe, you'll jog past a U.S. Congressman - we've actually got one around here, somewhere. I can almost see Skyland Town Center from here. Almost. Upon completion, it will be a short walk from 2109 Thirty-first Place' s doorstep, ..and ground-breaking starts, Fall 2013! Yes, ..I said town center. Looks like a SMART investment...

  I just saw, for the second time, the most facinating and INSPIRATIONAL film on LINK TV, ..and it is ALAMAR, by Mexican filmmaker, Pedro González-Rubio! In the film, we a fisherman raising his son, on and beside the ocean. We see a father, who involves his child in the immediately relevant work and economy of their family, ..giving his son a TRUE sense of self-esteem, ..in ways an endless string of meaningless, irrelevant, organized activities (Ancient Tibetan basket-weaving, hip-hop yoga, Israelli bagel-painting, etc) NEVER could.  We see a father, who plays in the natural world with his son ..and a child, who never stops being excited about learning. We see a child, who knows his place..and, trusting that it is a cherished, loving and protected place, has no need to constantly and wastefully question and challenge authority, ..growing up without the subsequent uncertainty, insecurity and life-crippling anxiety that so many of our American kids are experien...

  HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU! Thank you so much for all of the encouraging e-mail and just for looking us over, in 2012! Coming next week, ..2013 begins with more Bullethedd, Iron Munkee, Twinkly Blanket (above) and BRAND-NEW, quirkier-than-ever  Steak Island vignettes. See the best of 2012, by visiting the 'Archives' at Bullethedd.com Mel Dyer

A new vignette, every WEDNESDAY, ..starting right here. Right now. More changes to come in 2013! To all who followed this quirky, little experiment called Steak Island, ..a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everywhere! Mel Dyer

Bullethedd.com , the Official Website of Steak Island, has a new look, this week! From now on, the week's latest vignettes - the fresh steak - will be featured right on the index page, making some pretty smart changes to the way you get this cartoon. Tweeted links will now bring you directly to the latest feature, while also giving you easy access to all the features of the homepage! Your favorite archived issues of Steak Island,  a quick introduction to Island' s creator, (me) Mel Dyer, and (soon) mini-bios of the characters, and all of our Twitter, Facebook and Blogger, with the latest news and developments on the cartoon; all of that can now be accessed with one link! That's a big pile of new-new, my friend! Stay tuned for a Special Presidential Debate Night Edition of Steak Island, ..posting the evening of President Barack Obama 's second debate with GOP candidate, Governor Mitt Romney - Tuesday, October 16, 2012! That's only TWO DAYS! S...

  In STEAK ISLAND, the red-skinned, pointy-headed alien strongman, Bullethedd, stocks shelves and unloads trucks for the metamythically gargantuan Bygmo warehouse store. Among the denizens of Steak Island, are Bygmo's general manager, the Iron Munkee, a grumpy, living statue, a fallen health goddess and others – all brought to life in weekly, one-panel vignettes, struggles desperately ..to be liked. Steak Island creator, Mel Dyer, is an American freelance website developer and weblog publisher, who grew up in a hard-working, middleclass, Catholic family in Washington, D.C. Between them, his parents privately operated two successful small businesses, a print shop and a detective agency, for nearly fifteen years, while holding down full-time jobs. At home, the political views of his mother, a right-leaning liberal, and his father, a pro-labor conservative, inspired strong populist patriotism at an early age that endures, today, ..and he is very proud of his Southern American her...

Councilwoman Alexander and Mayor Gray leading other D.C. officials in protest for municipal budget autonomy. (Staff photo from YvetteAlexander.org) Editorial [Second Edition] This will be my last editorial as a community blogger ..and as the publisher of what might have been (with better marketing) a great D.C. blog,  Capicostia Heat.   It has been my experience, as a writer and a man,  that, sometimes, the grandest things are best said simply and sincerely, ..with authenticity.  So, there you have it. There were times, just a month and a half ago, during the disastrous aftermath of the rogue storms that devastated the D.C. area, that it seemed my mother's Penn Branch community had been entirely abandoned by the District of Columbia.  Penn Branch was left sitting in the dark with no power, no visible police presence (police patrol cars, etc), in the middle of the worst heatwave of recent memory - temperatures of one hunde...