Let's get this out of the way: Whether you like it or not, Annie Leibovitz is an American Icon. Her intimate portrait photographs of the famous are so pervasive that even if you don't know the name, you're guaranteed to have seen her work, and lots of it. She began her career with Rolling Stone magazine when it was in its infancy, photographing the musically talented, and quickly became known for her deconstruction of human......

Download the original attachment Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration......

Just this week, GQ published their annual "50 Most Powerful People in D.C." list. Populated by the likes of Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Karl Rove and Tim Russert, the list better describes the movers and shakers in "Washington", but not the District. And since we're snobs about local news and happenings, we threw together a little list of the people who really exercise influence in or over the lives of people who live and work......

So who do you turn to if you're an embattled administration facing an unpopular war, bitter criticism both at home and abroad, an exodus of senior staff, and the barrel of a long year's worth of lame ducked-ness? A retired general? Nope. A political mastermind? Nah, that would be too easy. Perhaps a captain of industry? They're too busy starting and running multi-billion dollar foundations. Well, then how about someone who made his name by......

It feels like it's been a while since anyone truly famous has graced our fair city with their presence, but it looks like that drought comes to an end today. According to an email we received yesterday, Matt Damon and Robert DeNiro are in town (actually in Fairfax, Virginia) today taping a special episode of Chris Matthews' Hardball. Before you berate us for not passing this tip on earlier, tickets were only available to Mason......

Thanks to Dave Hughes' excellent DCRTV for reminding us of the local angle to a national media story: the status of Arlington native Katie Couric's recent ascension to the anchor's chair over at CBS News. Couric grew up in Arlington, attending Yorktown High School (where she was a cheerleader) and UVA before beginning her climb to the top of the TV news industry — a process that included a stint at D.C.'s WRC-TV, NBC4. From......

Local blogger and Condoleezza Rice devotee Princess Sparkle Pony is wondering: Why on earth has the water at the U.S. Navy Memorial turned blue? Indeed, her majesty has turned up photographic evidence of the unnatural hue of the water in the Memorial's fountains. As always, the Pink Pony asks the tough questions: Is it intentional? A prank? One thing is for sure, it now resembles the Ty-D-Bol™ Memorial more than anything. Honey, listen, next time......

If you're slightly overweight and have trouble catching your breath on the way out of the Metro, you should be ashamed of yourself and your slovenly ways. If Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can keep in such fine form, why can't you? Are you jet-setting around the world to put out small diplomatic fires or start bigger ones, all the while keeping toned abs and low body fat? We didn't think so. Fear not, though,......

It may be a first, but it's a first that District voting rights activists have been waiting for and one which they are sure to celebrate -- an international endorsement of their cause. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 55-member regional security organization, is holding its annual meeting in Washington starting tomorrow, during which they plan on considering a resolution that expressly calls for the U.S. government to grant residents of the......

Good evening, D.C. This weekend was certainly hot. Capital Weather's forecast indicates more of the same, with a chance of storms for much of the week. And there's good news for the Nationals -- their winning streak now stands at 10 wins. This photo, taken by Remain Fabulous and posted in DCist Photos, is of Saturday evening's Annual Pride Parade, which was part of the 30th anniversary of Capital Pride In some quick news items......

Various DCist contributors and readers have reported seeing police-escorted convoys of old, empty Greyhound buses noisily making their way through the city since Saturday. Sirens wailing and lights flashing, these convoys have been spotted on Connecticut Avenue just north of Dupont Circle, along U Street, and in the vicinity of Chinatown. Rumors have been quick in coming -- A foreign dignitary? A city-wide test of the civil emergency response system? A couple of cops and......

At the eastern end of Lincoln Park along East Capitol Street, there are bronze statues of a large woman and two large children (well, the statues are large). They are frozen in mid-dance, facing toward the city’s first statue of Abraham Lincoln and the Capitol in the distance. The figures are rough-hewn, like tree bark, and elevated on a massive stone platform itself about five feet high. The woman is Mary McLeod Bethune, and the......

The always hilarious Boi From Troy cast a glance askance at Washington D.C.'s upcoming "Paris on the Potomac" celebration this week. Set to occur between Valentine's and Memorial Day, Paris on the Potomac will feature "over 80 special French-themed programs" and will include performances, tours, lectures and exhibitions. All of which confuses the Boi, who wonders whether D.C.'s yen for John Kerry maybe got the better of us here in the nation's capital. We won't......

It wouldn’t be fair to say that Washington, D.C., spent the past week swept up in "State of the Union Fever." After all, with the Inauguration only a few weeks past, there’s something about a SOTU that seems ... so yesterday. It’s been years since a president ascended the congressional pulpit to suggest that the State of our Union was anything other than straight-up applejack goodness for everyone and everybody, and the last one who......

Well, Inauguration Week has come and gone. Even now, the last of our out-of-town guests are making their way out of our snowblanketed city, Ana Marie Cox is peacefully sleeping one off, and black bandanna-bedecked suburbanites are planning on returning to their regular jobs waiting tables at Denny’s. It was a week filled with pomp, protest, train derailments and the inexplicable vandalizing of Adams Morgan. Next time, maybe your friends at DCist will get credentialed.......

This week, the big story for political minded DCers is Inauguration. Now that the big event is days away, the complaints of those who think the massive party is in poor taste with regard to the recent tsunami tragedy and the gripes of local commentators that Washington's getting stuck with a massively unfair chunk of the bill have started to fade from the newspapers, soon to replaced by those who ask more immediate questions: Can......

Is the Watergate historic? That's the question that faces the District's Preservation Review Board on Thursday. Certainly the building that redefined the art of political scandal has a place in American history, but its residents are locked in a pitched battle that mixes property rights with history. The West End Guide reminds us what's at stake. A group of residents opposed to the conversion of the complex's hotel into new condos want the building declared......