As we noted yesterday, today is Patriot Day; so conceived to commemorate the 9-11 attacks—even though we Americans aren't the greatest at "commemorating," see: Veterans' Day, Memorial Day, etc. Just six years on, though, feelings are still raw and memories vibrant. Resiliency is a virtue of our citizenry however, and if nothing else, we can get a hearty laugh out of OBL's radical beard transformation, his decidedly porno 'stache, and threats of attack via the......

Written by Adam Bailey Hey Washington, it's Pride Weekend! Following the warm up of Memorial Day's Black Pride, LGBT Washington and thousands of visitors will gather this weekend for celebrations like tomorrow's parade (through the Dupont and Logan Circle neighborhoods) and Sunday's street festival (between the Archives and the Capitol). Swing by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's booth while you're down there; they should be jubilant given today's news that Peter "Gays are Immoral" Pace......

Memorial Day has come and gone, and we are now officially in the summer hiatus of the Classical Music Agenda. Here are some highlights for this week: in a week or two, this feature will take a well-deserved rest until Labor Day, when the classical concert schedule returns to full power. TOPS THIS WEEK: >> On Wednesday night, the excellent NPR radio program From the Top will be recorded in front of a live audience......

If you've been complaining that Memorial Day weekend wiped out your wallet, D.C. art venues heard your pleas for something a little less draining on your finances. This weekend the city is chock full of free activities, from private gallery openings to neighborhood wide social events. Put on your walking shoes and check out the following: >> It's time again for the annual Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk Weekend. Held on the first full weekend in......

Getting through the work week after a long weekend can often be a drag. We loved this video of the Washington-Marion Magnet High School marching band, from Lake Charles, LA, practicing before their turn in the annual Memorial Day Parade on Monday along Constitution Ave. Maybe it'll brighten up the rest of your work day like it did ours. If you caught any of the parade, let us know who your favorite bands were......

Looks like lots of folks stuck around for the Memorial Day events in D.C. this weekend. There are some fantastic shots of Rolling Thunder celebrating their 20th anniversary, poingant images of families visiting their loved ones at Arlington Cemetery, and some more lighthearted shots like this one, of a sweet Model A Ford brought out by the Marines. Flickr user {ryan} describes them by how hard they were to shoot, the "chrome and paint......

OK OK, so maybe it's not technically "morning" anymore. DCist is on vacation for the day, and we slept in before we started browsing today's headlines. We hope you're enjoying the holiday with good food and good friends, and we'd like to dedicate this roundup to all of our readers who serve in the armed forces. The photo at right by Flickr user Karon is of yesterday's Rolling Thunder motorcycle parade, which celebrated its 20th......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

Heck yeah, Washington! It's the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, and we sure hope you're leaving early today. Whether you're staying in town to enjoy a little extra breathing room or escaping via bus, train, car or plane, we'd like to wish you a wonderful and safe weekend. If you're like me, you're driving out to the beach despite surging gas prices -- but according to the WaPo, we're not alone. According to AAA Mid-Atlantic,......

The descent into a holiday weekend always takes so long. Does anyone else wish it was Friday yet? I'm betting that many of you are taking tomorrow off, so today is your Friday. That said, is it happy hour yet? Samer Farha thinks so. His photo of Legacy's Hedonism Ale is a clarion call through the haze of the pre-Memorial Day rush on the Hill, the silence of a 3/4 empty government agency, or......

Good morning, Washington. We pestered you yesterday about your Memorial Day plans. Today, a word of warning: make sure they don't include flip-flops. As FOX5 helpfully warns us, the sandals can lead to sprains, broken bones or even the dreaded Flipflop-Induced Foot Failure Syndrome (aka FIFFS). We had no idea we were in such peril. Bad Day For Bobb: Yesterday the U.S. Senate unanimously approved Mayor Fenty's school takeover plan. Rest assured, we'll have......

Memorial Day is this Monday, meaning a lot of Washingtonians have a three day weekend. With the extra day comes extra opportunity to take a day trip (or two) around the area. We polled our staffer for some good destinations in the area to share, so pump up the bike tires, get out the hiking boots or start the car (Zip, Flex, or your own). And if you have any other good suggestions, let us......

Good day, Washington. Are you getting tired of this gorgeous weather yet? Yeah, us neither. As you work out the kinks in your upcoming Memorial Day Weekend plans, we wish you good luck and delight in describing the rest of this week and weekend ahead as forecast to be sunny and hot enough to give you that sunburn you've been hoping for. We're also putting together a few ideas for last-minute day trips for those......

Summer is almost here, and that means it is almost time to roll up the carpets and send the Classical Music Agenda on vacation. So enjoy the music while you can. In particular, this is the last week to take in a performance of the best production from Washington National Opera this season, Janáček's Jenůfa. My review called this opera "essential viewing for anyone who cares about music drama." Performances remain only on Monday (May......

By DCist Contributor Matt Pelkey On the Fourth of July you light fireworks, on Memorial Day you grill hunks of meat, and on Labor Day you grill more hunks of meat. But how should you celebrate Emancipation Day this Monday? The voting rights march leaves little excuse for perverting another holiday into reason for a meaningless leisure activity. But if for some reason you can't be at the march, make up for it by heading......

In a city of monuments to great Americans, it's easy to think that the more recent monumistas began the trend of honoring foreign heroes. But for nearly a century, a statue of Polish freedom fighter Casimir Pulaski has made its home at 13th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., in what is now known as D.C.'s Freedom Plaza. The plaza, designed in 1980, is mainly a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement,......

FRIDAY: >> Baltimore's Fertile Ground return to 9:30 Club for a concert with collaborator Raheem DeVaughn called Let's Do It Again. Also singer Anthony David. 9 p.m., $22. >> Gallery Openings of Note: Maria Friberg opens her show, titled embedded, at Conner Contemporary, reception 6 to 8 p.m. That's embedded #4 at left. Also we checked out a preview of Colby Caldwell's new show, Small Game, at Hemphill Fine Arts on Wednesday, and definitely recommend......

We've only ridden the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail once in an ill-fated experiment to see if it could help us bypass Memorial Day Traffic on Rt. 66. It didn't. But for the thousands of Virginia commuters who count on it to get them to work every day, their ride is going to might get a bit more expensive. For the fifth consecutive year time in recent years, VRE is hiking might hike fares to......

This post was written by DCist contributor Salima Appiah-Kubi. Warning: Some links contain nude photographs. This Saturday some of the leading ladies of modern burlesque will be taking it off for a good cause. Warehouse Theater will present Burlesque...As It Was, a night of classic striptease benefiting the Exotic World Burlesque Museum and Hall of Fame in Helendale, California. Produced by Kitty Victorian, the force behind much of D.C.’s burlesque scene, the benefit will......

Perhaps it's the steamy weather, or the too-short tease of the Memorial Day weekend but for whatever reason, folks seem to be irked this week, ready to tear into a comment section with extravagant gusto. As always, DCist is prepared to oblige. If you're going to be generally upset, you may as well get something for your trouble. So, for the rest of this week, we'll be running a rant contest. In the comments section......

Today's photo comes from Flickr user Pak Gwei, who was front and center for this year's Rolling Thunder festivities. You can check the Rolling Thunder Flickr pool if you want more biker action, or if you crave more traditional Memorial Day photo fare, there's always the DCist tag pool. This shot was taken on a Canon EOS Digital Rebel. The EXIF data can be found here. I must confess I have a ulterior motive......

Last time you came back to the office from vacation, we had a little treat waiting for you. Never ones to drop the ball for our readers, DCist Takes You to the Movies is back, post-Memorial Day weekend, in full effect. Tonight at 7 p.m., DCist invites you to a screening of The Puffy Chair at the E Street Landmark. The creation of Sundance darlings Mark and Jay Duplass (the this will be their......

A win is a win, right? Sometimes it comes in the form of Wednesday night's gem: an outstanding pitching dual duel between Houston star Roy Oswalt and Washington rookie Mike O'Conner. O'Conner was great, allowing only a three hits over 6.0 innings and holding the Astros to one run on a Morgan Ensberg homer. Oswalt was even better, mowing down Nats for seven innings before finally allowing Damian Jackson to score on a balk that......

FEMA announced at a news conference this morning that it is fully prepared to handle the traffic disaster expected to begin mid-afternoon today as a result of heavy holiday weekend travel. "With more than half a million people potentially caught in traffic this Memorial Day Weekend, we are standing by and ready to assist in every way we can," said a spokesman yesterday.Relief workers will be stationed along area highways with MREs and bottled......

Ah, Memorial Day. The smell of barbecue smoke perfumes the air and you can taste the promise of a three-day weekend. American flags wave in the afternoon breeze. Every hometown is putting on a parade. Your neighbors are probably making hamburgers and hotdogs in the backyard, putting away a few Miller Lites while they talk about their wasted youth. You sigh and think, "Wouldn’t it be nice to be a bit more creative and invite......

This week in transit, Metro answers calls to be more bike friendly and the bubble finally bursts in Virginia. Also, a new report says D.C. needs Amtrak more than it thought, and we give out some Memorial Day travel advice. Photo by matthewf1.8......

As college commencements take place across the District, the first signs of Washington's summer transfusion, in which students and politicos are replaced by tourists and interns, have begun to appear. A few weeks remain in the public school year, so local parents have not yet begun intensive vacationing, and while generally nice weather has surely fueled the incidence of office hooky, it's still pre-Memorial Day, after which casual Friday means a jaunt to the......

[Note: Last week, the comma that normally follows the word "Reader" in the title was inadvertently left off. Anyone who really feels strongly about that is invited to attend June Casagrande's signing at the Wilson Boulevard Olsson's in Court House this Wednesday at 7 p.m. She wrote a book about you, so eat your shoots and leaves and attend. 2111 Wilson.] MONDAY The Folger Shakespeare Library hosts Pulitzer prize-winning poet Charles Simic as he reads......

For 38 summers, the Northwest Youth Alliance has been rocking D.C. residents with free all-ages outdoor shows at the District's highest point, Fort Reno Park. Performers have ranged from local high school bands to up-and-coming local acts to nationally known bands like Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, who played last year. And as usual, DCist has been waiting anxiously for the release of the Fort Reno's 2005 schedule so we could plan our summer. Would......

Sorry for the delay in this week's music agenda - sun, surf, and a whole lotta beer over the Memorial Day weekend kept us from getting it to you in a more timely manner. But judging by the absolute clamor from those wondering where it was (okay, the one email kind of vaguely asking what was up), we figured, though it's late in the week, that we'd put it together anyway. But first things first!......