THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN, and this time around, the big top has gone hip-hop.

Universoul Circus, founded by Cedric Walker in 1994, is the first to be wholly owned by African-Americans. It also focuses on audience members as participants rather than solely as spectators.

Aided by a hip-hop and gospel soundtrack (none of those old-school calliopes here), Universoul Circus is also embellished with the ringmastering prowess of Tony Tone, who has opened for Chris Rock and toured with Def Comedy Jam.

"Being the ringmaster is like being an MC to the 10th power," he said. "It's big, it's animated; the more color we can bring to it, we bring the house down."

Continue Reading "Entertainment With Attitude: Universoul" »

BEFORE NOV. 22, 2006, The Bridge had never played a headlining show to more than 400 people in its Baltimore home base. So, when the band had an album release party at the 1,600 person-capacity Rams Head Live, mandolinist Kenny Liner had hoped 800 people would show up. As fans filtered in, the crowd rose to 1,000. Then, by the time the band took the stage, it had swelled to 1,200.

Liner was sick at the time, nursing a 100-degree fever. He doesn't remember seeing much — he was so sick he was hallucinating — he said, but he does remember one thing:

"I remember walking out on stage and almost fainting, I was so surprised," he said. "I was just like, 'Who are these people? How do they even know who we are?'"

Lead singer and guitarist Cris Jacobs remembered the experience a bit better.

"It felt good," he said. "Just to walk out on stage, after five years of doing it, and see that huge crowd was definitely gratifying. It's one of those moments that you just kind of be thankful for."

And these days, The Bridge is having a lot of those moments.

Continue Reading "Crossing Over: The Bridge" »

WHAT DOES IT TAKE to move a massive five-piece sculpture whose parts weigh up to 1,400 pounds? Lots of manpower and equipment, including massive wrenches, flatbed trucks, a barge and a crane.

The process of uprooting "The Awakening," the sculpture that adorned Hains Point in the District for nearly three decades, and moving it to the new National Harbor development in Prince George's County came in stages. Videographer Akira Hakuta of washingtonpost.com watched the crew at work and filed the video report above.

» "'The Awakening' Finally Moves" [WaPo]

Workers remove the head of "The Awakening" statue in preparation for its move to Maryland. Photo by Richard A. Lipski/The Washington Post

MOTORISTS ON I-395 today might have seen a large face being carted down the street, along with a jumble of other body parts. That's because it was moving day for "The Awakening," the quirky sculpture that made its home at Washington's Hains Point for nearly 30 years.

The sculpture is now resting comfortably at its new home, the National Harbor development in Prince George's County, which is the handiwork of its new owner, Milton Peterson. Peterson bought the sculpture last year.

The Post's Anita Huslin details the removal process:

The first crews arrived before 4 a.m., to begin detaching the five body parts from their steel anchors. The heaviest — the knee — weighs about 1,400 pounds, while the giant's right arm, which claws upward toward the sky, weighs slightly less. The hand and arm weigh the least — at about 600 pounds each, while the head is about 1,000 pounds, construction officials said.

For each, the removal process was the same. First, Kevlar belts were stretched around the pieces to lift then out of the ground and on top of bales of hale cushioned by inflated inner tubes. They there were hoisted by crane onto the back of a flatbed truck. ...

After they removed the sculpture pieces from the site, trucks transported them in a convoy with police escort to National Harbor, near Oxon Hill. There, the trucks drove down to a pier, where a crane offloaded the pieces onto a barge. Later Wednesday, the barge will then be pushed downriver a short distance, to the sculpture's new shorefront home.

Continue Reading "Rude 'Awakening': Sculpture Moved to Pr. George's" »

DO YOU WEIGH less than 150 pounds? If so, you wouldn't tip the scales against Rodell Alton Cole's pot haul.

The 72-year-old Manhattanite was arrested in New Carrollton for transporting 156.2 pounds of marijuana to be exact, WTOP's Michelle Basch reported today. Police told WTOP that much pot has a street value of $1.4 million.

The bust came after Cole allegedly bumped another car in a convenience store parking lot. Police were apparently called, and after they discovered Cole was driving on a suspended license, they told him to empty his car, Basch reported. That's when they laid eyes on the drugs.

» "Cops Bust Man, 72, With Nearly $1.4M in Pot" [WTOP]

"WHAT WE PLAN TO DO since the season is just ended is to see if there is a proposal that can be put together. I actually think it makes a ton of sense, but I think it would be great for the District to put it down on paper for them to have something to respond to."

— D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, speaking to WRC/NBC4 about the possibility of luring the Redskins back to the District from Prince George's County.

As The Post's David Nakamura reports, any financing proposals to build a new stadium are at this point extremely premature. Fenty hasn't even discussed the possibility of a move with Redskins owner Dan Snyder, although officials in the previous mayoral administration did. D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi has "warned that the city is in danger of overextending itself on the credit market and urged officials to limit public borrowing."

File photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post

WITH NEGOTIATIONS TO BUILD a stadium for D.C. United in the District stalled, officials in the Old Line State have taken a big first step that could lead the team to move to the Maryland suburbs. As The Post's Ovetta Wiggins reports, the Maryland Stadium Authority has decided to spend $75,000 to study a potential relocation's economic impact and tax benefits.

Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson initially pressed the stadium authority to help the county steal the team from the District. Writes Wiggins:

United has shown interest in two locations in College Park. But David Byrd, deputy chief administrative officer for the county, said Johnson wants the team to build a stadium near the Metro stations in New Carrollton or Greenbelt, where it could anchor a mixed-used development.

Continue Reading "Md. Looks at Impact of Relocating D.C. United" »

IN THE BATTLE FOR FEDERAL TRANSIT FUNDING, proposals that would serve the most passengers stand the best chance of getting a thumbs up. For Maryland's proposed Purple Line, which would be a light-rail or bus-rapid-transit link between the Bethesda and New Carrollton stations via Silver Spring and College Park, the University of Maryland is a potential ridership goldmine. But as The Post's Katherine Shaver reports, officials at the university are opposed to a state plan that would bring the mass transit line through the heart of the university on Campus Drive, pictured above, citing safety and aesthetic concerns. Writes Shaver:

State officials say similar transit lines operate safely in other areas crowded with walkers, including on college campuses. Supporters of the Campus Drive route say location is key. They point to the inconvenient walk or shuttle bus ride required now because Metro's College Park station was built a mile from the campus, which has about 36,000 students and 12,400 employees.

Continue Reading "U-Md.: Purple Line Should Avoid Campus Center" »

WHILE THE D.C. AREA'S OVERALL rate of homelessness decreased by 8.5 percent from 2001 to 2007, some jurisdictions have seen their homeless populations increase. One of those areas was Montgomery County, which has seen an uptick in homelessness despite a pledge back in 2002 to get the homeless off the streets within 10 years, The Post's Lori Aratani reports.

Let's take a look at the state of homelessness in the region, according to data compiled by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments:

» 18.4: The percent decrease in homelessness recorded in the District from 2001 to 2007. D.C. has the largest concentration of homeless people in the area, a population estimated to number 5,757 last year. According to the Council of Governments statistics, there were an estimated 7,058 homeless people in the District in 2001.
» 4.6: The percent increase in homelessness recorded in Montgomery County. From 2001 to 2007, the county's homeless population rose from 1,089 to 1,139.

Continue Reading "By the Numbers: Homelessness in the D.C. Area" »

BY TRAINING THEIR EYES OUTSIDE the District border, the Nationals are again irking D.C. officials who footed the bill for the team's $611 million South Capitol Street ballpark.

Back in November, the Nationals announced that that team's annual "Dream Gala" would be hosted at National Harbor's Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Now, as The Post's Nikita Stewart reports, the Nats and Gaylord are "negotiating a deal to feature the baseball team at the new development in Prince George's County through a sports bar, store and possibly the title of 'Official Hotel of the Washington Nationals,' sources said yesterday."

The situation has reignited a debate over whether the Washington Nationals are a team for D.C. or the entire Washington region. Some D.C. officials have said that since the District paid for the stadium, the city should play host to the team's off-the-field events, not the suburbs.

Continue Reading "D.C. Peeved as Nats Look at National Harbor Hotel" »