We're highlighting odd or interesting pieces of pop culture we find popping up around Pope Benedict XVI's visit to D.C. and New York this week. Still haven't had enough of Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the United States? Check out some of these intriguing pope-themed items available for sale on the internet. Pope Benedict XVI Nested Dolls, available for $30 from 1-800-Porcelain.com. We're not exactly up on our other big-time Catholic figures. Do you know......

We're highlighting odd or interesting pieces of pop culture we find popping up around Pope Benedict XVI's visit to D.C. and New York this week. Pope Benedict XVI's first U.S. popemobile ride today was littered with entrepreneurs trying to cash in on those who wanted to take home a souvenir of their papal experience. If you hadn't already snagged your "Property of Pope Benedict XVI" T-shirts from Catholic to the Max, the official supplier of......

To say D.C. is not known for its fashion sense is an understatement. The people in our fine city get slammed again and again for their inability to dress themselves in anything other than career wear. Luckily this holiday shopping season offers a little incentive in the form of trunk shows for those of us who'd like to look better and help us score some spiffy new duds. As gifts, of course. Trunk shows are......

Well, we are reaching the end of the season. The Nationals stand two games away from their stated, and admittedly pathetic, goal of 72 wins -- one better than last year. They have 5 games remaining, two against the Mets and three against the Phillies, all on the road. Given that the Nats are 30-46 on the road this year, these last two wins should be tough. That said, the Mets seem desperate to see......

FRIDAY: >> Octogenarian fiddler Joe Thompson (at right), said to be the last black traditional string band player, plays a free show at The Kennedy Center's The Millennium Stage with fellow folk musicians Wayne Martin on fiddle and Bob Carlin, a clawhammer style banjoist. 6 p.m. >> Space rockers The Gulf sold out their D.C. show in April, and are coming back to play at the Red and the Black with the Joonies, Twin Earth,......

When the Drive-by Truckers rolled into the 9:30 Club on July 15, 2006, it was the closest I’ve ever come to actually losing consciousness at a rock show. The gig was beyond sold-out, more vacuum-packed with sweaty bodies than any other supposedly sold-out 9:30 show I can remember. On top of that, the show fell on one of those spongy, airless summer nights that that can make the period between Independence Day and Labor......

>> Larry Flynt has 30 solid leads on potential congressional sex scandals, and was especially shocked to learn something juicy about a yet unnamed senator. [CNN] >> Via Matt Yglesias, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports the latest hilarity in the Duke Cunningham saga: First, he's snitching to the FBI, so look out, Brent Wilkes. Second, he apparently was miffed that Wilkes got the “younger and cuter” of the prostitutes Wilkes hired for them on......

Near sunset on a Tuesday in the middle of May, Lana Labermeier and her husband Stuart Davenport were sitting outside their then-unfinished new Bloomingdale coffee shop, Big Bear Cafe, enjoying a hard earned cold beer after a long day of landscaping work. Unfortunately, their neighbors could hardly let them rest. "When are you gonna be open?" shouted one man from his car. "Are you hiring?" asked another. "What's this going to be?" "Aren't you......

There have been many great performers in Music Land, for example Bono, Freddie Mercury, and Madonna, just to name a few. There are also many folks who go out of their way to exude cool via ironic t-shirts purchased at Urban Outfitters and meticulously unkempt hair. It’s one thing to dance with a pretty girl in the audience, but how many rock stars put a guitar in her hands and then proceed to wrap their......

The fire that gutted Eastern Market this week left the historic Capitol Hill marketplace facing an estimated $20 to $30 million in repairs. Undaunted, this Sunday vendors will set up shop for the weekly flea market, and the streets surrounding the building will play host to the 44th annual Market Day festival. The free, kid-friendly festival, which is organized by the community service group Friendship House, will feature arts and crafts, music, food, and......

>> D.C. United host rivals New England in a game nationally televised on ESPN2. Posters and t-shirts await the first 10,000 and 3,000 entrants, respectively. Be sure to get there early for food, drink, and some party rock courtesy of Love Seed Mama Jump in Lot 8. [RFK Stadium (tickets still available), 7 p.m. kickoff; pregame festivities at 5:30 p.m.] >> Don't forget the Onion's D.C. kickoff party with Georgie James, Neil Hamburger, Aziz......

We had been looking forward to seeing Swedish indie darlings Peter Bjorn and John for some time, but as sometimes happen with indie darlings, Monday's sold out 9:30 Club show underwhelmed. The trio, who have been all over Pitchfork and the blogs, play understated, finely crafted 60s-ish pop. They've been together since 1999, but their third album, 2006's "Writer's Block," catapulted them to indie stardom, mainly due to the single "Young Folks." The rest of......

I was taken aback by an email I received this morning, alerting me to a newly-created hoax website that offers T-shirts, coffee mugs, and buttons inscribed with a simple Metro logo and the phrase "Metrobus Kills." This is not funny, and I will not post a link to the site. However, it puts a very fine point on a problem that has been simmering for a dangerously long time. This past Saturday, Metrobus claimed......

FRIDAY: >>Do you like Hall and Oates and Haddaway? Who doesn't? The Black Cat is hosting Crap, a dance night of bad music on purpose. We advise loosening your Macarena muscles and preparing your ears for "singers" like Don Johnson, Eddie Murphy, and Bruce Willis. 10 pm, free. SATURDAY: >>There are more art openings than we can shake a sculpture at today, so check out our Arts Agenda for a rundown. >>Anything called "Underwear Party"......

I'm a Black-Cat-or-smaller, low-spectacle rock band kind of Girl. Venturing to the Verizon Center to see a pop sensation perform to thousands of fans last Friday definitely took me out of my element. But bring together I don't know how many dancers, four drum kits, three keytars, two turntables and one man by the name of Timberlake on an unbelievably tricked-out stage in the middle of the floor and, well, I can find plenty......

In a few short weeks, your fearless editor will finally be attending her very first Wizards game, and I'm getting more excited by the day. I've reportedly got a great seat (thanks, Matt!), the Wizards are having a fantastic season, and the game in question will find the boys facing down the Los Angeles Lakers -- a team I would be hard-pressed to despise more. Awesome. So of course, in preparation for the big day,......

Last year, we gave you a gift guide that was local, local, local. We suggested books, art, music and D.C.-specific creations for you to put on your wish list and give to your loved ones for the holiday season. Well, though there are only five days till Christmas this time around, we thought we'd throw it out there again anyway for those of you who, like us, have procrastinated on the gift-giving, but still......

What does the term "garage rock" conjure up for you? Perhaps it's the wave of young upstarts in the 1960s who comprise the genre's original incarnation. The Wailers, The Pretty Things, and countless other groups of rebellious youngsters making primitive, minimally-produced noise in American suburbia. These bands became a-dime-a-dozen, and would sparkle and fade -- or not sparkle at all -- before dying out. If they were lucky, they racked up a small fanbase. And......

There's more to this weekend than axe-wielding haunted house props and bars full of Sexy Nurses sexily vomiting from too many Jäger bombs. Those of you who feel pained at the thought of breaking out the zombie costume again have a wealth of options to satiate your creative side without resorting to make-up that'll make you break out like a 15 year-old for the next month. Now that I've completely earned the ire of half......

Good morning, Washington, and welcome to another beautiful fall day. Let's start it with a question for the group — which of the following better exemplifies the proud tradition of local news: WTTG's repeated pre-commercial teases last night warning that "this teddy bear is responsible for the deaths of thousands"? Or this snippet of audio from The Simpsons? Richmond Nixes Transportation Funding: The Virginia Legislature's special session is off to an unproductive start, as the......

TUESDAY Tired of running into the virtual junta of returned Peace Corps volunteers living in our fair city and being forced to listen to story upon story about how working in an office every day will just never be as fulfilling as digging that well in Cameroon? Then this event is not for you. Former Peace Corps volunteers read from and sign A Life Inspired: Tales of Peace Corps Service. Peace Corps, 111 20th......

The Nats did a nice thing for 15,000 of their closest friends on Sunday afternoon. After soundly defeating the Phillies, 6-0, on a day perfectly suited to the game of baseball (75 degrees, cool breeze, sunshine), the team had a Picnic at the Park for season ticket holders. Now I have not purchased season tickets, but I was with a friend who did, and so I went along for the ride. This sort of mass......

Our sage grandfather once told us that you've got three options when confronted with a problem. You can live with it, fix it, or avoid it. Our problem is the weekend onslaught of tourists. With the spring luring out-of-towners to the District in 17-year-cicada-like droves, we're simply not in the mood to deal with the super-obese family sporting matching "F.B.I. Witness Protection Program" T-shirts, blocking the left side of the Metro escalator, and imprudently buying......

By DCist contributor Campbell Roth. Somewhere in between frigid and sweltering, it happens every year: the rubber balls and rainbow-colored t-shirts descend on every green space in the metro area, where underpaid Hill staffers and overpaid lawyers frolic around, remembering the days in third grade when a home run made one a hero, then celebrate afterwards at a pre-determined bar, where they'll drink away that ability to remember. It's kickball season and, for better or......

In the spirit of DCist feature Three Stars (and we heart the music section), we're launching Design Capital, which will highlight emerging local designers. Today we start with Morgan Hungerford of Muss Line, a designer who’s never met a vintage piece she couldn’t tear apart and sew back together into something infinitely cooler. Meet Muss Line. Designer Morgan Hungerford's indie clothing line (she got the name from a children's book) is a mix of hand-screened......

Break out the AmEx black card – Barney’s Co-Op has moved in. Barney’s Co-Op yesterday opened at 3040 M St. NW, welcoming fashion conscious shoppers with discerning taste and deep pockets. The Co-Op’s M Street location was the temporary home of the Ralph Lauren store before it moved into its new digs on Wisconsin Avenue, and it has since been transformed into a modern space with a loft-like atmosphere. On previous trips to high-end stores,......

Last week Ball-Wonk picked up the news that a Cincinnati company called Bygone Sports might win a case with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granting them the rights to the name Washington Nationals. Today, ESPN and The New York Times are reporting that the dispute will go to a judge in April, and a loss in the case there might necessitate a name change for the beleaguered Washington franchise. Ball-Wonk, whose post covers the......

As you know, DCist likes to let the cat out of the bag. We're constantly searching for ways to spread the word far and wide, from Fairfax to Frederick, soup to nuts. We also have a penchant for really screwing over a particular archetype: The Superfan. You know the type; they're the people who spend day and night toiling to sign up for e-mail lists comprised of mere tens of thousands of other superfans. They......

The end of next week could be pretty bleak. The excitement of early February, from Groundhog Day to the Olympics Opening Ceremonies to Valentine's Day to Presidents Day, comes to a rushing halt as the long weekend draws to a close. Bereft of any elementary school-style holiday-appropriate window appliques, you may find yourselves plodding along, just trying to muddle through. But we here at DCist, well, we saw this coming. We knew you needed one......

News today has it that the U.S. Capitol Police seemed to have forgotten about the First Amendment on Tuesday night, when they arrested anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and Beverly Young, the wife of a Republican representative, at the State of the Union address for wearing "expressive t-shirts." Ironically, Young's shirt was pro-military: "Support the Troops -- Defending Our Freedom." Capitol Police Terrance Gainer issued an apology and dropped the charges against the two. District Claims......