"HAIRSPRAY," the story of a young girl who just wants to dance and winds up leading a fight for civil rights, is worth your time any day. But when it's free? What are you waiting for? Free movies play all this weekend at Van Dyck Park. Bring bug spray.

» Van Dyck Park, 3500 Old Lee Hwy., Fairfax; Sat., 8:30 p.m., free; 703-480-4917.

Photo courtesy New Line Cinema

Posted by Fiona Zublin at 11:13 AM on June 20, 2008
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Tagged in Entertainment , Fairfax County , Film , Top Stops , Top Stories , Virginia

GOOD MORNING, WASHINGTON. We're hip-deep in the time of year when most people are thinking about slimming down, but in Tysons Corner, the talk is all about bulking up: new high-rises, more roads and "enough parks, schools, police stations and firehouses to serve an entirely new place," The Post's Amy Gardner reports.

It's all part of a plan to turn Tysons Corner in appearance into what it's become by default: a city, but one that's more walkable and accessible than the confusing knot of access roads that exists now — the result of decades of suburban sprawl.

The task: remaking an area that's home to several major highways, 28 million square feet of offices and 40 million square feet of parking, as well as a destination for 120,000 workers and customers at two of the nation's most bustling shopping malls. Piece of cake, right?

Continue Reading "Urban Retrofitters: The Plan to Remake Tysons Corner" »

Posted by Greg Barber at 9:42 AM on May 29, 2008
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Tagged in Fairfax County , Free Ride , News , Top Stories , Tysons Corner , Virginia

MAYBE YOU'VE loved her forever, maybe you're just a diehard American Idol fan who rediscovered her a few weeks ago, but you know you want to see Dolly Parton when she comes to GMU on her "Backwoods Barbie" tour.

If you need an explanation of her music, you just need to go back to that rock you've been living under. Dolly is unapologetic about her freakishness, and that's undeniably awesome.

» Patriot Center, 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax; Mon., 7:30 p.m., $46-$76; (703) 993-3000

Photo courtesy Dolly Records

Posted by Fiona Zublin at 3:53 PM on April 28, 2008
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Tagged in Entertainment , Fairfax County , George Mason University , Music , Top Stops , Top Stories , Virginia

THE WORLD OF HEAVY METAL has undergone a lot of change the in past 15 years.

Countless bands struggle to keep up with metal trends as they come and go, from nü to grunge to metalcore, but Mushroomhead has occupied its own strange niche for a decade and a half.

The Ohio-based band, easily identifiable by its members' dark masks and creepy costumes, plays an unusual brand of metal combining the forceful riffs of thrash and punk rock with gothy textural flourishes and rave-inspired electronic samples and beats.

Mushroomhead's latest effort, 2006's "Savior Sorrow," continues the band's tradition of noisy but listenable hodgepodge metal. "In comparison to the Mushroomhead catalog, it stands up well," says vocalist Jeffrey Hatrix who, for Mushroomhead purposes, is known as Jeffrey Nothing.

Continue Reading "Masked Stalwarts of Metal: Mushroomhead Returns" »

Posted by Express at 12:01 AM on April 25, 2008
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Tagged in Entertainment , Fairfax County , Music , Top Stories , Virginia

THE ANNIVERSARY OF the shootings at Virginia Tech received somber acknowledgment at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., today. The Northern Virginia school has a unique tie to the incident — shooter Seung Hui Cho and two of his victims were Westfield alumni.

Westfield's principal, Tim Thomas, issued a short statement on the school's closed-circuit-television system this morning about the anniversary of the shootings in which 32 people were killed, according to Paul Regnier, coordinator of community relations for Fairfax County Public Schools. But no major events are planned.

"What [the school system has] said, and I think the schools are happy with this, too, is to keep any activity that they do among the students and within the school communities, and not have a big public remembrance." Regnier said.

Continue Reading " NoVa High School Quietly Marks Tech Shooting Anniversary" »

Posted by Clinton Yates at 2:48 PM on April 16, 2008
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Tagged in Fairfax County , Free Ride , News , Top Stories , Virginia

THEY PROBABLY don't train for this at the police academy. A Fairfax County police officer yesterday took an unexpected detour into the world of medicine when he was flagged down on Braddock Road.

The Post's Tom Jackman tells the rest:

Police said Officer Syed Ahmed, a four-year veteran, was on patrol in the Ravensworth area, just west of the Capital Beltway, when a car flashed its headlights at him shortly before 1 p.m., Officer Eddy J. Azcarate said. Ahmed pulled over with the other car at Inverchapel Road and found Jennifer Resner, 36, ready to deliver a baby in the front seat.

Ahmed radioed for a paramedic, but the infant girl would not be delayed. She emerged moments later, with the assistance of Ahmed and her father, Chad Resner.

Azcarate told Jackman that Resner and her baby were taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital and are said to be in good health.

» "Police Officer Makes a Special Delivery" [WaPo]

Posted by Greg Barber at 10:15 AM on April 2, 2008
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Tagged in Fairfax County , Free Ride , Virginia

THE EVER-TENACIOUS group of residents and business owners who have kept alive a fight to build the Metrorail extension through Tysons Corner as a tunnel have dropped their lawsuit to block a plan to run elevated track through the area. Mostly because that plan is already dead.

Reports The Post's Bill Turque:

Scott Monett, president of TysonsTunnel.org, a coalition of businesses and McLean-area residents, said today that the suit against the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is no longer necessary because his group believes that the agency recognizes the need to fundamentally reconsider the project. The coalition has pushed for a redesign of the 23-mile extension that would move the Tysons segment underground. Current plans call for an elevated track through the area.

The U.S. Transportation Department and the FTA said in January that they couldn't provide the $900 million in federal funding that planners had expected for the project because of concerns that, as Turque reports, include "the project's rapidly escalating cost -- now placed at $5 billion -- the ability of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to manage the construction, and the ability of Metro to integrate the extension into a system plagued by underfunding and a backlog of needed repairs."

» "Suit Against Dulles Rail Project Withdrawn" [WaPo]

Rendering courtesy Di Domenico + Partners

Posted by Greg Barber at 3:42 PM on March 26, 2008
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Tagged in Fairfax County , Free Ride , Metro , News , Top Stories , Transit , Tysons Corner , Virginia

FORGET THE SCREAMING GIRLS and zillions of MySpace and YouTube hits. You know you've become a pop sensation when you learn the Hollywood hotties you check out are also checking you out. Witness what happened to the Jonas Brothers, a fraternal trio that has become the Disney-certified tween popsensations du jour.

"They had [a] big celebrity pre-Oscar party event, and we swarmed on it," explains 18-year-old Joe Jonas. "We met all these different celebrities and Kate Beckinsale was one of them and of course we were like, 'Oh, wow!' ... Then, like a week later, after we Googled her, like, 1,000 times, we find that she says something about us saying that she thinks we're hot guys. We're like, 'Whoa!'"

But superstar status came calling, Joe Jonas says, only after the band signed with the Disney-owned Hollywood Records, which released its self-titled 2007 sophomore CD.

"There was definitely a season of worrying before we got signed to Hollywood Records," he admits. "Then, right when we got signed, it just kind of took off. 'Year 3000' was played on the Disney Channel right away, and we had so many more hits to our MySpace site."

Continue Reading "The Boys Next Door: The Jonas Brothers" »

Posted by Express at 12:05 AM on March 13, 2008
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Tagged in Entertainment , Fairfax County , Music , Top Stories

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS should be allowed to sleep in longer. That's according to a community transportation task force who recommended to the Fairfax County School Board that high school start times should be pushed back, The Post's Annie Gowen reports.

Bell time for the area's 164,000 students should range between 8:35 a.m. and 8:55 a.m., more than an hour later than the current 7:20 a.m. start time at many schools across the county. Some members of the committee, however, were concerned such a change could pose an economic hardship and negatively impact after-school activities, Gowen reports.

Recent research has suggested that requiring teens to rise at an early hour runs counter to their biological clocks (as any parent of a teenager will frustratingly attest). In Fairfax County, there's even a grassroots group lobbying for such a change. Wish they'd have been around when this writer was a bleary-eyed student in Fairfax.

» "Panel Urges Later Openings for High Schools" [WaPo]
» "Experts Tout Value of Sleep for Students" [Detroit News]

Posted by Greg Barber at 12:27 PM on March 11, 2008
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Tagged in Fairfax County , Free Ride , News , Top Stories , Virginia

IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO DRINK caffeine-free water, you might want to avoid the stuff coming from your tap. The D.C. area's water supply contains trace amounts of the stimulant, as well as six pharmaceuticals, new federal research says.

The water supply tested is one that serves a million people in the District, Arlington County, Falls Church and parts of Fairfax County, The Post's Carol D. Leonnig reports. Similar combinations of trace elements were found in 24 of the 28 water supplies tested nationwide — findings detailed in an Associated Press analysis released today.

Do the findings mean the water supply dangerous to drink? Scientists aren't sure, Leonnig reports:

Although the chemicals pose no immediate health threat in the water, the health effects of drinking these drug compounds over a long period is largely unstudied. Some scientists said there is probably little human health risk; others fear chronic exposure could alter immune responses or interfere with adolescents' developing hormone systems.

So which drugs were found in the water? Here's a breakdown, according to The Post:

Continue Reading "Trace Amounts of Drugs Found in Water Supply" »

Posted by Greg Barber at 8:54 AM on March 10, 2008
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Tagged in Arlington County , Fairfax County , Free Ride , News , The District , Top Stories , Virginia