If you won't be in D.C. for Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, you have a chance to at least get a sense of what you'll be missing earlier that month. The Post reported today that the official inaugural rehearsal date has been set for Jan. 11. The inauguration dress rehearsal, which features stand-ins for most of the VIPs, is done every year early in the morning on a Sunday before the inauguration. This year's......

The Inaugural Parade has seen more than its fair share of controversy over the last few years. In 2001, a few protesters scuffled with police, resulting in six arrests. In 2005, D.C. police were accused by the ACLU of making false arrests and indiscriminately using pepper spray during the inauguration festivities. This past March, a federal court ruled that the park service had violated the First Amendment by preventing war protesters from getting near the......

Even though it literally rained on our Capital Pride parade this year, the spirit of celebration certainly wasn't dampened. Here's just a few of our favorite shots from the DCist Flickr pool.......

In case you haven't noticed, it's Capital Pride week here in D.C. The 33rd annual celebration of all things LGBT in the nation's capital culminates in a parade tomorrow and the street festival on Sunday. Saturday's parade features head Oscar comedy writer and actor Bruce Vilanch, known for the most recent incarnation of "Hollywood Squares" and originating the role of Edna Turnblad in the touring company of Hairspray, as the celebrity grand marshal. Over 70......

The Cherry Blossom parade will modify many downtown Metrobus routes this weekend. The parade starts this Saturday at 10 a.m. and marches on Constitution Avenue between 7th and 17th streets, and will force the 5A, 13, 32, 34, 35, 36, 52, 54, 66, 70, 80, P6, S2, S4 and V8 to alter their routes until about 1 p.m. If you plan on taking any of these buses tomorrow, you should expect delays. Metro also says......

The United States Park Police, DDOT and MPD have released the following road closure advisories for Saturday's Veterans Day Parade. All closures should be re-opened by 5 p.m. Saturday. Roads closed at 6 a.m.: * Jefferson Drive from 14th Street to 4th Street, SW * Madison Drive from 4th Street to 15th Street, NW * Seventh Street from Independence Avenue to Constitution Avenue, NW Roads closed at 10:30 a.m.: * Lincoln Memorial Circle to Henry......

There's something inherently likable about about Spencer Krug. Just ask Wolf Parade bandmate Dan Boeckner who snidely referred to him as the guy that everybody likes. Although that was a clear barb, Boeckner has a point. Dante DeCaro, another fellow Wolf Parade member likes him enough to continue touring with Krug (under the moniker of opener Johnny & The Moon). Fellow Canadians Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and Dan Bejar (Destroyer) like him enough to work......

Saddle Creek Records was kind enough to let us offer DCist readers a couple of free MP3s in honor of the first Georgie James music video, which just hit the Internets for the first time yesterday. Sure sure, you're busy listening to the new Radiohead album you just downloaded this morning, but go ahead and download these while you're at for later listening. They're free, after all. Both tracks are from the band's recently......

The high point of this week in classical music is surely the Lieder recital by the superlative German baritone Christian Gerhaher and his regular pianist collaborator, Gerold Huber, sponsored by the Vocal Arts Society at the Embassy of Austria (October 11, 7:30 p.m.). Gerhaher's most recent Lieder recording is a knockout, and his program for Thursday night is devoted entirely to songs by Robert Schumann. THE SYMPHONY: >> Riccardo Chailly brings his La Scala Philharmonic......

>> There's a new webcam available showing the progress of Monument Realty's Half Street project, which includes the expansion of the Navy Yard Metro station. [Near Southeast DC Redevelopment] >> Georgetown student pleads not guilty in hate crime investigation. [WJLA/AP] >> Members of the Metro board representing D.C. are pushing for higher parking fees at suburban stations in order to avoid increasing bus fares. [Examiner] >> A bunch of streets will be closed this......

FRIDAY: >> Howard University alum Eric Roberson performs tonight at the Black Cat along with Emily King. Doors open at 9 p.m. $17. >> It's pretty much the end of times: Vanilla Ice will be at Foggy Bottom bar McFadden's tonight, "drinking, partying, and hosting the night" starting at 10 p.m. $5 Jager bombs and $2 Bud and Bud Light bottles are little enticement to make this event anything more than laughable, but maybe if......

We first heard about DieYuppieKickball.com over the weekend -- like some seed that had been delicately germinating for a few weeks, it burst forth into the sunlight of popular consciousness seemingly all at once, displaying its angry, vengeful sprout for all to see. In other words, seems like everyone's been talking about this lately. It surely doesn't take too much explanation to understand what this web site is all about, but here's an excerpt from......

The Examiner reports on a $36,000 bill received by the organizers of the 2007 Capital Pride Festival from the D.C. police and the Emergency Management Agency, who say they need the money to pay for overtime and other costs for security incurred during the June festival. But the festival's organizers and some members of the D.C. Council are questioning the charges, since the agencies waived these same fees last year and other annual parades, like......

YouTube user artschoolscrewup only recently uploaded this video from D.C.'s July 4th parade, which shows the guy playing Uncle Sam on stilts falling on his butt. A quick search reveals that Uncle Sam on Stilts Taking Abuse is on its way to becoming its own YouTube genre, but questions abound: is it funny for any Uncle Sam to look silly, or only ones on stilts? And why the prevalence of putting Sam on stilts......

>> Continuing their trend of showing only the weirdest awesome movies for free in this city, the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater will actually screen an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 tonight as part of their Screening Shakespeare series. Really. It's the episode of MST3K where the crew is forced to watch a laughably bad German made-for-TV adaptation of Hamlet -- as the press release rightly notes, "is that Ricardo Montalban as......

MONDAY >> The City Veins are a strong local outfit that's been making their debut around town over the course of the past few months. They just formed in March and are already more mature and ready to bring the rock than a lot of bands with a lot more stage time. And hey, they have a blog! See what you're missing tonight at Solly's Tavern on U Street. 10 p.m. >> Do you......

Last month we got a letter from reader Christine, who related the follwing story and asked us to look into it. I recently moved to Fairfax, VA to live with my parents until my marriage next month to a marine who is stationed at 8th and I Marine Barracks in SE. After their Friday evening parade, many of the guys like to grab a beer or two. This Friday, myself, my fiancee, and five others......

MONDAY >> If you'd like to see how infinity is treating them, Souls of Mischief, of the album '93 to Infinity fame (released in 1993 of course), will bring mid-90s hip-hop to the Black Cat tonight. We assume they've updated their sound a bit since then, but quite frankly, we'll take some throwback hip-hop any day. With DJ Lex, Icon the Mic King, Kaze and Zeph & Azeem. 9 p.m., $10. TUESDAY >> For our......

Are you a resident of Washington, D.C. and looking for a new job? D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is hosting her 10th annual Norton Job Fair, at the Washington Convention Center's Hall C on Tuesday, July 10, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. You need to show proof of D.C. residency to attend (either a valid D.C. driver's license, or picture ID plus a utility bill with your address), the idea being to give D.C.......

Happy Friday, Washington! Oh, wait. It's Tuesday. But we're not going in to work tomorrow! Oh, wait again. We have to come in on Thursday. And Friday. This is confusing. We'll have some more info for you later today on how to avoid the crowds and have a stellar 4th of July celebration -- just as soon as we can wrap our heads around the idea of stumbling to our desks on the 5th, totally......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

FRIDAY: >> Let it be known - any country with a holiday that translates as "party of music" (or "music party") is OK in our book. In celebration of the French holiday Fete de la Musique, as well as the summer solstice, French and American musicians will be performing at La Maison Francaise tonight. Local guitar and cello duo Janel and Anthony*** will play from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on the auditorium stage, but......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

Above is one of the many short videos we found on YouTube from this past weekend's Capital Pride Parade (and if dancing men dressed as cowboys in short shorts isn't safe for your work, then this is NSFW), and it got us thinking. We couldn't be happier with the community of excellent photographers that's developed out of our DCist Flickr Pool. But we like running funny, interesting, or beautiful videos just as much as......

We saw this man on Saturday in Georgetown and immediately thought that he looked awesome, like somebody out of P-Funk. We didn't think about it at the time, but he may be dressed up for the Capital Pride Parade given the rainbow flag and umbrella/hat. And it's hard to tell from this photo, but Mr. Liberty also had bright blue pants and bright red shoes. We were happy to see Ellie van Houtte's photo and......

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......

FRIDAY: >> It may be that we've simply gotten so, so, so many press releases about The Horrors show tonight at the Rock and Roll Hotel, and we've been beaten into submission to mention it. Give the punky-garage rock revivalists a chance for $12 at 8:30 p.m., and let us know if they're worth all the fuss. Seattle's Schoolyard Heroes open, plus locals Scanner Freaks. >> One of the most anticipated new hip hop albums......

In their coverage of the Capital Pride Festival, which kicked off yesterday and will culminate in a parade and street festival this weekend, the Post gives an account of a town hall meeting on GLBT issues last night at Studio Theatre where Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said he plans to introduce a bill legalizing gay marriage in the District within the next two years. Graham appeared on the panel with several other openly......

MONDAY >> We've made no secret of our love for Benjy Ferree, and judging from the amount he seems to be playing around town, everyone else must be enjoying him as well. He's headed out into the great wide open for some of the summer touring season though, so better get over to the Black Cat backstage tonight before he hits the road. With Chicago's The 1900s. $8, 9 p.m. >> Nü metal may be......