We missed this when it happened a couple of weeks ago, but is it really ever too late to point and laugh at New Yorkers? We didn't think so. So, people are probably aware that Five Guys franchises are proliferating across the Eastern U.S. like nuclear weapons in central Asia. The greasy, peanut-laden fingers of our locally born burger stand have spread as far as Delafield, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee; and Miami, Florida. They've even broken......

Editor's Note: J. Tom Hnatow from These United States is writing a tour diary for DCist chronicling the band's latest national tour. Friday, August 3, 2007 Finally –- a day full of downtime. I restring guitars and work on my pedal steel and go over a few songs with Ben. (The glamorous and debauched life we lead.) Our host Megan makes us an amazing dinner. Then off to Johnny Brenda's, our favorite place to play......

Monday >> The Starlingtons may not seem like your typical Black Cat band, but they are breaking the boundaries of traditional country/bluegrass. Tonight they’ll be on the back stage with Portland Oregon’s Casey Neill and his own folk/punk rock fusion. 9 p.m., $7. >> In the mood to try something new? Chicago’s post-punk New Harbour has been around for a few years now, but just moved to the District. They’re playing their first show tonight......

Good morning, Washington. We've just been catching up on the rather scary looking but thankfully not terror-related explosion in Manhattan yesterday. Naturally, our parent site Gothamist has complete coverage of the steam explosion that occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6 p.m. yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the explosion, which killed one person and injured 30, had New Yorkers worried for a while, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said......

In late February of 2005, I found myself walking along a path in Central Park when, at dusk, a light snow began to fall. As the snow blanketed the landscape, it sucked up the sounds of the city, leaving only one thing audible: the sound of the saffron curtains over our heads lazily flapping in the breeze. Suddenly, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates stood out in brilliant contrast to the ear just as they popped......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. This week, I (carefully) picked up and began reading The Power Broker, the epic (and massive) Robert Caro biography of infamous New York master builder Robert Moses. Bob Moses, it turns out, was one of the best-trained civil service experts of the age when he first began working for the city. He was, as Caro describes him, a consummate idealist, passionately dedicated......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. I got a kick out of New York’s reaction to a report released back in April, showing that carbon emissions in the city had increased by about 8 percent since 1997. The news stories were alarmist and the leaders angry, promising to do whatever it took to reverse the trend and reduce emissions within 25 years. Admirable sentiments, but it made me......

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......

With seven albums under their belt, Blonde Redhead are certainly not newcomers. From their early tutilage under Sonic Youth through their evolution into an ambient, noisey sound all their own, the New Yorkers are coming to the 9:30 Club Sunday night in support of their most recent album, 23, which unlike the movie with a simliar name, is getting great reviews all over the internets. If their show here is anything like the one they......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

The transit news this week is all about new beginnings! We've got a new boss over at Metro, new progress (maybe) on transportation in Virginia, a new clean cars proposal in Maryland, and a new test for senior drivers in the District. Photo by Grundlepuck......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

When Peter Gelb took over as the new general director of New York's Metropolitan Opera, he promised several initiatives to bring opera to broader audiences. The leading American opera company opened its season last September, and New Yorkers were able to watch the celebrity-studded performance of Madama Butterfly on large screens in the plaza of Lincoln Center and the chaos of Times Square. The Met even brought a brief scene from its production of......

One last list of picks from local arists as we look back on the year that was 2006. Today's final installment comes courtesy of W. Ellington Felton, Jukebox The Ghost, The Fake Accents, Telograph and the DCist Music Staff. W. Ellington Felton 1. Thom Yorke, Eraser This is an electronic record minus the noise that a lot of the others out there have. I can listen to this straight through. This is the perfect cd......

Written by DCist contributor Cynthia Rockwell Most coffee drinkers are by now aware that for a few extra pennies you can buy beans labeled "Fair trade" and feel a warm glow knowing that you are helping Third world farmers by paying a "fair" price for their crop. In their new documentary Black Gold, British filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis hope to illuminate the complexities of the issue. The film follows the efforts of Tadesse Meskela,......

The holiday shopping season is officially in full swing, so the literary reading cup runneth over and ruineth your coffee table with big names. Message from Big Literature: Books make great gifts! Message from DCist: Free readings help keep your entertainment budget low, which is helpful since you already have to spend your entire bonus on gifts for other people. MONDAY: Joan Collins is 73 years-old and still fabulous. We're not sure how she does......

After years of jamming together in the East Village jazz club Nublu, the Brazilian Girls released their eponymous debut to critical acclaim in 2005. On that album and this year’s follow-up, Talk to La Bomb, BG are New Yorkers through and through: ultra-sophisticated, inventive, and à la mode. None of the members of BG are Brazilian, and only lead singer Sabina Sciubba is a girl, but we suspect they chose their name because, like supermodel......

Mike Watt, founder of the Minutemen, drew angry protests on the Georgetown campus yesterday when-- hang on. What?...I'm sorry, my producers have informed me that it was actually Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and not the founder of the seminal southern California punk band. They also have informed me that I'm fired. Once we got past the understandable confusion caused by Fox5’s headline we learned that Simcox drew a large crowd......

On Tuesday, American composer Steve Reich turned 70, as mentioned in last week's Classical Music Agenda. While New Yorkers are enjoying a month-long festival of performances of Reich's music, here in Washington there was only one opportunity, a concert Saturday night by the recently formed Great Noise Ensemble at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Silver Spring. The Great Noise Ensemble may have the distinction of being the first new music ensemble formed through a listing......

It's official. According to the U.S. government, D.C.'s collective commute really does suck. And especially if you live in Virginia, don't expect relief any time soon! Also, beginning this week, Transit on Thursday will include a list of any expected weekend service disruptions on Metro. Photo by Miscelena......

As part of DCist's new commitment to hard-hitting grocery store coverage, we're sad to report that the new Trader Joe's in the District's burgeoning West End neighborhood has a little more gestating to do before it shows its Two-Buck Chuck to the world. Originally slated to open today, the long-awaited Trader Joe's now plans to open its doors in early September. For the past few weeks, workers on the new grocery store in the yet-to-open......

As housing markets have exploded over the last several years, the pricey luxury condos springing up in many neighborhoods are seen as a sure sign that the city is on its way to a fully revitalized future. However, great as ultra-modern condos may be for developers and landlords, they don't exactly fit the requirements of aspiring young artists, chefs, actors, and entrepreneurs (much less students, teachers, and cops) who can bring a great deal of......

When you think about a mass transit system, especially a subway, you really have a pretty frightening dynamic at work. Hundreds of thousands of people in an enclosed space. Long, narrow escalators between them and the exit. And the only obstacle between the commuting masses and those who would do them harm is a $1.35 farecard. Metro Police have trouble protecting our iPods, let alone our safety, so it was no surprise to us that......

The District is always being sized up and weighed against its neighbor to the northeast -- New York. And in most regards, New Yorkers or New York transplants view D.C. as a quaint, backwards little town made important only by the presence of the federal government within its boundaries. That may be so. But at least our toilets don't clog as often. In some of the stranger news we have read today, a study sponsored......

Franklin Foer, a longtime writer for The New Republic, was recently named editor of the venerable political magazine. A fourth generation Washingtonian, he's authored a book called, "How Soccer Explains the World," (which we heartily recommend), and his writing has appeared in a host of publications, from The New York Times to Spin. Mr. Foer was good enough to take a few of our questions, on blogging, city life, and those cursed Chelski footballers. What's......

Every Sunday, DCist runs first person editorial pieces about life in this city of ours. If you've got something to say, we'd be happy to listen. This week, Ian Manheimer contributes his thoughts about living in DC. A couple weeks ago DCist asked blogger Matthew Yglesias a question that speaks to the way so many residents build conceptual framework for living in DC. From the interview: You're a New Yorker, and some people in D.C.......

With three blogs, Matthew Yglesias is one of the more prolific progressive political bloggers out there. The 24-year-old writer for The American Prospect, who hails from New York City, has also, since he moved to D.C. a few years ago, been dubbed by just about everybody as either a "rising star" or "up-and-coming pundit." Yglesias took time to chat with DCist over email about everything from the D.C. blog scene to Gilbert Arenas.......

It's almost spell-binding to page through the coverage of the New York City transit strike. While we comfortably commute to and from home and work, we can't help but marvel at picture after picture of restless New Yorkers walking, biking, rollerblading, or crowding into cabs and cars to get to where they need to go. This is a city that has adapted to so much in the past, from terrorist attacks to citywide blackouts, that......

A breakdown in contract talks today led to a strike by the Transport Workers Union Local 100 in New York City, disrupting some 7 million passenger trips and causing economic damage estimated at around $400 million (and providing lots of dramatic images of New Yorkers hoofing it across bridges and through town). Seeing the chaos makes us wonder, how satisfied are D.C.'s transit workers?......

Ah, the 2005 holiday season is here. Easily enraged Newport Group intern Ryan Atwood has finally become a man. A lovelorn giant ape – who apparently didn’t get the memo back on Skull Island that September 11 freaked out some New Yorkers – has destroyed Manhattan for our viewing pleasure. And the federal government has begun spying on its most suspicious citizens’ overseas communications. All good reasons for DCist to have a glass of wine.......