WE STARTED THE DAY with a piece about slowness on the Orange Line, now we'll end the day that way, too. Get ready for some delays, commuters.
A "kink" in the rails — a bend created by high temperatures — was discovered at 3:15 this afternoon between East Falls Church and Ballston, Metro says. Orange Line trains are now sharing a track between Ballston and East Falls Church. Metro is also running shuttle buses between Ballston and Vienna, which are "stopping at Ballston-MU, East Falls Church, West Falls Church-VT/UVA, Dunn Loring-Merrifield and Vienna," according to a press release.
Good luck out there.
Photo by Michael Lutzky/The Washington Post
PULLING YOUR OLD ATARI out of the closet is a fun time — for a little while.
As a band, The Ataris felt the same way: They'd hit big with 2003's "So Long, Astoria," a collection of straightforward pop-punk adored by high-schoolers. But the band members had grown up when the time came to write and record last year's follow-up, "Welcome the Night"; it had a brooding, sophisticated indie-rock sound.
"Our progression was a bit more drastic," guitarist John Callura said. While The Ataris had taken their music to the next step, fans still clung to the memory of the band's cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" on MTV. The group may have lost interest in the sound of "So Long, Astoria," but they owed their success to it.
"Sometimes an artist or musician says, 'We've succeeded at doing this. Let's move on,'" Collura said.
The lukewarm sales of "Welcome the Night" — which was well-received by critics — shook the band's confidence and muddled its identity: Would The Ataris let their fan base go, and forge a new one? Soon, the group was playing its older material, even while touring to promote the new record.
"What we should have done after 'So Long, Astoria' was continue on that path," Collura said. "People had grown into that sound with our band, so changing that resulted in people not really wanting to listen to the record."
Now, as frontman Kris Roe tours solo, and with the Marymount University show on Friday the only one scheduled for The Ataris, fans must wonder whether the band might pull the plug entirely. Either way, "Welcome the Night" is a positive direction for the band's members musically, as they've outgrown a pop-punk genre they're no longer enthusiastic about.
"I have no interest in being a part of it," Collura said. "There hasn't really been an evolution. None of it has gotten any better."
Get a full transcript of Express' interview with Collura below.
Metro to Set Up Special SmarTrip Sales Kiosks
Map It:
Anacostia Ballston Brookland Columbia Heights Minnesota Ave Potomac Ave Silver Spring Union Station
AS METRO GEARS UP to make its fare hikes a reality next month, the transit agency is also working to make it easier to buy one of its rechargeable SmarTrip fare cards.
Bus riders will be especially interested in SmarTrip cards. After the new rates go into effect on Jan. 6, riding the bus will still cost $1.25 if you pay with a card, but fares will rise to $1.35 for those paying in cash.
No surprise, then, that the special kiosks Metro officials are setting up to sell the cards next week will be in rail stations that they say cater to a large number of bus riders. The special sales of SmarTrip cards, which cost $5 to buy, are scheduled from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at these dates and locations, according to a Metro press release:
» Jan. 3 at the Anacostia Metrorail station (near the bus bays)
» Jan. 4 at the Minnesota Avenue station
» Jan. 7 at the Columbia Heights station
» Jan. 8 at the Union Station and Potomac Avenue stations
» Jan. 9 at the Silver Spring and Ballston-MU stations
» Jan. 10 at the Brookland-CUA station
Riders can also pick up SmarTrip cards online, as well as at Metro sales offices, some Giant stores, commuter stores and vending machines at Metrorail stations that have parking facilities, Metro says.
SOME CONDO BUILDINGS include gyms, indoor pools and other add-ons to entice would-be buyers. But a new structure planned to rise in Arlington will boast an atypical amenity: a ground-floor funeral home.
The project is the Club on Quincy, a building slated to be constructed near the Ballston and Virginia Square stations on the Orange Line. And as The Post's Jerry Markon reported on Saturday, the jokes have already started about how the current Arlington Funeral Home, pictured here, will be incorporated into the new building.
Continue Reading "New Arlington Condo Amenity: A Funeral Home" »
SURROUNDED BY CHAIN-LINK FENCING, the iconic Bob Peck's Chevrolet showroom, pictured here, and its adjacent car lot sit empty, staring out onto the busy intersection of Glebe Road and Wilson Boulevard in Ballston. To the north and east are new office buildings, a hotel and condo towers. To the west is a lower-density residential neighborhood.
The future of the site, which closed last year, is in the hands of Arlington County board and planning commission, which will next month consider a proposal for a big mixed-use development that would make use of both the Peck property and that of the neighboring Staples building. According to a report over the weekend in the Sun Gazette:
The developer's plan is to construct two office towers, one 10 stories and one seven stories, along with 36 townhouses, 90 apartments and 970 parking spaces on the 4.8-acre site, which in addition to the Peck and Staples buildings also currently includes the 21-unit Jordan Manor apartment building and a number of residential properties.The 90 apartments would be reserved for affordable housing.
The western end of Ballston's core — adjacent to Glebe Road — has seen an influx of new construction in recent years. Long-range planning includes the construction of a new western entrance to the neighborhood's Orange Line Metrorail station to serve an increasing business and residential population.
» "Planning Commission, County Board to Get Plan for Peck Site" [Sun Gazette]
EARLIER:
» "Ballston to Bid Adieu to Landmark" [Free Ride/Express]
» "Walking Around Town: Big Stuff in Ballston" [Free Ride/Express]
File photo by Michael Grass/Express
A BUILDING HAS SLOWLY FILLED in the hole at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and Quincy Street in Ballston over the past year or so. And now we've got an idea of what street-level retail will be taking shape there as part of the new Liberty Center complex.
Coming soon: a Marvelous Market, Saxby's Coffee, Bruegger's Bagels, HSBC bank and an Arlington location for Palisades restaurant D.C. Boathouse. That's according to the Buckingham Herald Tribblog, which passed along information from the Hyde Park community newsletter.
» "Amenities of Ballston's Liberty Center (Opens Early '08)" [Buckingham Herald Tribblog]
THE POST is one of the smartest deals in town (if we may be so bold as to say so): Just 35 cents for one of the best newspapers in the world.
Despite its low cost and numerous subscription deals, though, some people go to unnecessary lengths to get their Post fix. And few do it as strangely as a newspaper thief in the Buckingham Village section of Arlington County.
Reports the Buckingham Herald Tribblog on the case of resident Karen McMillan:
The thief does not take her Wall Street Journal or New York Times, and pilfers mainly the Post on weekends and certain week days, sometimes just pulling out the advertising supplements.Advertising supplements? If that's the case, there's a pile stacking up in this writer's apartment building lobby the thief can help himself to.
» "The Pilfered Papers of N. Thomas St." [Buckingham Herald Tribblog]
IN ARLINGTON COUNTY, six women have been groped from behind while they were near Orange Line stations in the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor. While the cases might seem to be connected, as The Post's Daniela Deane reports, victims have given differing descriptions of the assailants to police, which might mean that they're unrelated and "rather a rash of improper behavior," said Arlington Detective Robert Icolari.
Arlington County police are still searching for man from a string of attacks earlier in the year in the same area as the recent gropings. In the earlier incidents, the suspect would approach a woman walking alone from behind and try to put a plastic bag over her head. At least three such cases were reported; in each, the victim fought off her attacker.
» "Six Women Groped Near Metro Stations" [WaPo]
Map Image courtesy WMATA
IT'S 2:45 P.M. on a sunny Saturday afternoon. More than 100 people in uniforms mill about, huddling with teammates over game strategy and technique. A torchbearer dashes past. All fall silent as they're called to attention.
"Would you mind removing your hats, headbands and bandanas as we sing our national anthem?" asks Andrew Towne, 25, as he takes off his cowboy hat and places his right hand over his heart.
"The Star Spangled Banner" blares from outdoor speakers. Considering that the torchbearer is Lance "The Shred" Kasten — the 45-year-old who won this year's D.C. Air Guitar Championship — and that the torch was of the tiki variety, it's become clear that this isn't your typical sporting event.
So, no one bats an eyelash when Kasten hops on the bed of a pickup truck and unleashes a three minute airy jam fest to Rush's "2112."
Welcome to the Dakota Boys' 2007 D.C. Flip Cup Championships, a ritual that transcends college connotations and elevates the drinking game into a serious sport. Or as serious as flipping empty beer cups off the edges of tables can be.
Teams of five with names like Shower as a Team, Homeland Security and the Flippin' Furies face off two at a time at one of three wooden tables, carefully pouring beer to the first line of their red Solo cups. While the names might be whack, this is no thrown-together shindig, say Towne and co-host Eric Olson
Continue Reading "Flippin' Out: Ballston Boys Take Beer Seriously" »
WHEN HE DECIDED to go back to school and study interior design, Matt Swingly never dreamed he'd be doing mathematical calculations about how much electric candle power it would take to light a high-ceilinged auditorium.
"It was so much more technical than I ever imagined," says the 38-year-old Swingly, who received his master's degree in 2001 from Marymount University in Arlington, Va. He now heads his own residential design firm — McMaster Wallace Interiors, named after his grandmothers. There, he finds himself not only doing lighting computations but also determining what size steam unit a luxe master bathroom shower calls for and picking out fabric to update clients' sofas.
With a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Cornell and job experience in digital design, Swingly qualified for an accelerated program that allowed him to finish his master's degree in two and a half years. He estimates the cost at about $30,000 to $40,000 per year sans scholarship.
"It was a lot of time and a big investment, but going as an adult made a big difference," says Swingly "I realized how important it was to study hard and do the homework, which, as an 18-year-old, well, I'm not sure I would have." Moreover, he says, taking techy courses like textile science and lighting, along with learning space planning and building safety codes, made him a better designer.
"It's not just about the artistic talent to pick pretty paints and fabrics," says Swingly. "Sure, a house has to look good, but it also has to function."
Addison Road