Results tagged “mayflowerhotel”

The Renaissance Mayflower Hotel sent word around today that DeSales St. NW between Connecticut Ave. NW and 17th St. NW will be closed starting at 4:30 p.m. for a traditional Hindu wedding procession. D.C. residents Shilpa Maheshwari and Neil Agarwal are getting married today, and the Baraat ceremony will involve the groom arriving on an elephant as he and his family proceed down DeSales St. The hotel is offering local media interview opportunities with the father of the bride, as well as encouraging people to use the outdoor part of the ceremony as a photo op ... we certainly hope the bride and groom got a discount on their ballroom rental in exchange for their special day being offered up as potential PR fodder.

About 100 people gathered on the sidewalk around the Mayflower Hotel in downtown D.C. this evening to catch a glimpse of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Obama was scheduled to make a statement to the press at the hotel after leaving a meeting about the economic bailout package at the White House. Obama had met with President Bush, Republican presidential candidate John McCain, and congressional leaders. Neither McCain nor Obama made an immediate statement after leaving the meeting.

It's always exciting when major sex scandals elsewhere turn out to have local connections. If you somehow haven't been inundated with the news already for the past couple of hours, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has publicly apologized after having been caught on a federal wiretap arranging for a prostitute to meet him in a hotel room. Turns out, the hotel room in question was right here in D.C., though it's unclear which hotel that might have been. Spitzer stayed at the historic Renaissance Mayflower Hotel on Connecticut Ave. on Feb. 13, the night in question, but hotel records show the room number the prostitute allegedly visited was registered under a different name that night.

Good morning, Washington. Not that you could have missed the fact that it's awfully windy this morning after yesterday's late fall rainstorm, but the National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for the metro area, effective through 1 a.m. Tuesday morning — this wind will consistently be 25-30 mph until late tonight, with gusts over 46 mph expected. If you drive an SUV or another type of high profile vehicle, you're asked to use...

You're probably sick of hearing it by now. We're sorry about that. But we're only thinking of your well-being when we say it: you really ought to be watching The Wire. The stunningly complex and believable series about Baltimore's drug trade and pervasive institutional decay is only a couple of weeks into its fourth season on HBO, but the plaudits are already here in force. A 98 out of 100 on metacritic should provide some context. This is, at the very least, among the best dramas currently on TV. And now's a great time to get into it: taking a relatively fresh start, this season promises to examine Baltimore's failing school system. We're confident that by the end of it the D.C. educational system will look like the School of Athens by comparison. Lucky for you, Campus Progress wants to help you discover the show. They'll be hosting a screening of the season's third episode at 7 p.m. this Wednesday at the Mayflower Hotel. Unfortunately, all of the RSVP slots are currently taken — but you should think about getting on the waiting list anyway, because in addition to a chance to catch the new episode early, there'll be a Q&A with creator David Simon and writer Ed Burns immediately after. If this lengthy interview with Simon is any indication, it should be an interesting chat. Besides, they've already changed venues to accomodate the large crowd once. Who knows — by the end of this process, we might all be watching it at RFK. But if you don't get lucky on the wait list, you should tune in this Sunday anyway. And while you're at it, you might want to check out our interview with novelist and Wire writer George Pelecanos.

In case you thought the past several days were just some wretched dream, yes, it really is September. Summer, for all intents and purposes, is deceased. School is back in session, the Amazonian humidity is behind us, and we can all look forward to a successful and productive fall. If that doesn't cheer you up, perhaps leaving the house this weekend will? Go on, give it a shot.

filming in DC these days? Major Hollywood muscle has been spotted all over town, giving us celebrity gossip hounds a rare and local fix. Last night's premiere of the Miramax movie "The Great Raid" at the Uptown in Cleveland Park brought out more then a few famous faces, but the buzz was all about Mayor Willams and Michael Douglas shaking hands in front of the Mayflower Hotel.

Good morning, Washington. There's a 70 percent chance of showers today in both the morning and afternoon, so remember to bring along an umbrella. Temps will max out at the positively cool lower 80s. Aziz Gökdemir uploaded this photo of the Awakening statue to DCist photos. The huge statue can be found on Hains Point.

Thousands of hotel employees at 14 major D.C. hotels will go on strike at 11:59 p.m. tonight unless a last-minute deal is negotiated between the hotels and their union. UNITE HERE Local 25 joined that union's other locals in five other cities when they voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if negotiations with the Hotel Association of Washington D.C. failed to yield a contract. (See the potential strike covered by the AP/WTOP, Post, W. Times.) The two other cities where union members have voted to authorize a strike are San Francisco and Los Angeles. From the Post:

Union officials say a strike would close half of the first-class hotels in Washington, creating a devastating effect on the city's economy. The tourism industry generates more than $10 billion in direct spending each year and sustains 260,000 jobs, according to the Washington, D.C., Convention and Tourism Corp.