Six Flags America Opens for the 2010 Season originally appeared on About.com Washington, DC on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 07:14:53.

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New Exhibits at the National Geographic Museum originally appeared on About.com Washington, DC on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 07:07:16.

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Tax Preparation in the Washington DC Area originally appeared on About.com Washington, DC on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 15:26:24.

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• March 18 - 21, 2010 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC
  
• March 25-28 and March 31-April 4, 2010 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Parades Through Washington, DC originally appeared on About.com Washington, DC on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 14:06:38.

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• Don't forget to join us tonight at the Emerge Exposed panel discussion at Long View Gallery. 7 p.m., $10 at the door.
• Seven D.C. Council members have signed on as co-sponsors to Muriel Bowser's sunshine bill, which would effectively make closed-door meetings of the council illegal, D.C. Wire reports.
• The Hill is Home conducts an item-by-item shoppers comparison of Safeway and Harris Teeter, and finds that despite the widespread notion that Harris Teeter is more "high end," it actually offers lower prices on many staples.
• Disturbing story from WUSA9 about a women with dementia who was released from GWU Hospital without proper clothing and without her family having been notified.
• The Business Journal reports that the long-awaited Rhode Island Station development is at last seeing some forward momentum. "The developers of the $90 million-plus project, nearly a decade in the making, are expected to announce a ground breaking date in a month’s time."
• If you haven't been following Jason Cherkis's latest series on living conditions at D.C. General, take the time to catch up. "In the past week, City Desk has reported several items on D.C. General: overcrowded conditions, indifferent case workers, the death of a newborn, and staff soliticing sex from female residents in return for blankets and juice."

Venus' lone home match this season is on July 7 against the New York Buzz, who will feature former world number one Martina Hingis against Venus in singles play. July 14 is your chance to see Serena in person against Kansas City, while Anna Kournakova -- who missed last season's match in Washington due to a wrist injury -- will take the court at CityCenterDC on July 21. Of course, we're mostly looking forward to a rematch of last year's heated contest between the New York Sporttimes and John McEnroe -- in you've forgotten, McEnroe and his teammate Robert Kendrick got into a bit of a thing (as he has been known to do once or twice in his career) with the Kastles during the doubles portion of the evening.

For more information on ticketing, you can check out the Kastles' website.

A full copy of the schedule, after the jump.

The most stunning track on their debut EP was an instrumental number called “Radhus,” which layered quick drumming and memorable guitar riffs over loops that change tempo without warning. Much of Phosphenes also takes this layered approach, and the two most excellent tracks are similarly experimental. "Mortal Wombat" uses the same sort of approach as "Radhus," never staying on one pattern too long, but still running the same underlying loop throughout the song. "Corrupting The Integrity of the Grid," meanwhile, is the song most likely to be remixed by an enterprising DJ. It's the most electronic track on the album, mixing more than one danceable loop into the fray before evolving into a blistering guitar number.

Brian Porter's his vocals are rarely the focal point, and often sound like another layer that happens to complement the overall sound, as in the instrumentally sparing "Bananamite." But Porter proves his chops on songs like "Go Where Airplanes Go," a dreamy, slower track that sounds like a Person Pitch outtake. He's even more potent on "A Modern Life," where he moves from yelling to singing and recalls a very different heavy act that reigned supreme in the mid-1990s: Tool.

There are a few weaker points on the album. "The Last Starfighter" initially falls flat when placed after the stellar "Go Where Airplanes Go," and needs saving from some of the more melodic guitar riffs on the album. And "Invincible," while solid, suffers in comparison to the tracks that sandwich it. Still, if the worst criticism we can muster is that a song is only less awesome, that's not a bad thing. Not only is this a promising start for Imperial China, it's a wake-up call to anyone who has bemoaned the death of the "DC Sound." HarDCore hasn't died, just evolved.

Fire crews responded to a call of smoke in the area around 19th & N at about 3 p.m., and discovered the fire, according the D.C. Fire/EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer. At that point a second alarm was raised.

No injuries have been reported, but firefighters are still on the scene working to ensure the blaze is contained. Traffic delays should be expected in the area -- the intersection has been blocked off to traffic.

Photo and additional reporting by Tom Lee

Billed as the region's largest service event, the Servathon is set for Saturday, April 24. We'll be one of many teams assigned to help beautify a school or other community non-profit -- we'll let you know what our specific project is a little later on, but we'll do our best to pick one that's transit accessible. Then when we're done painting the walls or weeding the garden, we'll head to the Servathon after party for some well-deserved food and beer (location TBD).

All you have to do to join "Team DCist" is click on this link, click "Join Our Team," fill out the quick form, and pay the $25 registration fee -- which goes toward the cost of supplies, trash bags, water, etc. for the day. Participants are also encouraged to raise additional funds for Greater DC Cares, but it's not a requirement. To start raising money, simply set your fundraising goal (Servathon suggests $100, but you can always try for more), and then you can use the Servathon site to email out sponsor requests to your friends and family.

As a bonus incentive, if we can get 25 volunteers for our team signed up by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the organizers will print our name, Team DCist, on our Servathon t-shirts, so please sign up ASAP! All are welcome, so please encourage your friends and family, readers old and new, to join you. Just do it soon so we get our special tees.

We've had a ton of fun in years past, and we're looking forward to another successful day of service.

The store has been closed for almost a year, while Safeway completely gutted and rebuilt it into one of their fancy new "lifestyle" locations. It will be open 24 hours a day, and include "specialty wine and cheese selection, a bakery, a sit-down sushi bar, brick-oven pizza and other amenities."

Chain Bridge will be entirely closed from 8 p.m. on Friday, March 19 until 5 a.m. on Monday, March 22 while crews work on the bridge deck, approaches and structural steel beams. There will be no access, whether by car, bicycle or on foot, to the bridge at all from either the District or Arlington. Use the American Legion, Key, Roosevelt, Memorial or 14th Street Bridges instead.

Three great panelists -- George Hemphill, Leena Jayaswal, and Max Hirshfeld -- and moderator Philippa Hughes will offer tips and ideas and answer all your questions about how to buy photography. Which means we'll take this moment to remind you that all the artwork at DCist Exposed is for sale, far below regular gallery prices, and on display through March 24. (Please note the extension; Long View will be closed March 21, so your last day to see the show is now Wednesday, March 24, with extended hours from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.)

Buy your tickets for the panel in advance for $8, or just head down tonight for $10 at the door. Discussion starts at 7 p.m.

One of the Flickr tags on Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie's disconcerting yet amusing photo is "Sick." We're not sure if he knows that the woman glaring at him is unwell, or if it's mere speculation. Let's hope for all our sakes her apparent ailment doesn't develop into something this serious. (EXIF)

Wednesday:
>> Setting up shop at Bohemian Caverns is the imported Richmond, VA spoken word event, Verses. This week, D.C.'s own Green Tea and Poemcees will be performing. $7, 8 p.m.

Friday:
>> DJ Dredd's "Close 2 the Edge" returns to the Black Cat's backstage with his standard Golden-era hip-hop. $7, 9:30 p.m.

>> If you aren't headed down to Miami for the Winter Music Conference next week, you can get a taste of what it might be like Friday night. Chicago native Ron Trent is a legendary DJ and producer who'll be spinning at the Warehouse Loft (411 New York Avenue NE) with Chris Burns. $10, 10 p.m.

This year's route for the animal walk has changed somewhat:
*Start on Virginia Ave. S.E. (By Garfield Park)
*Northwest on Washington Ave. S.W.
*West on Independence Ave. S.W.
*North on 3rd St. S.W./N.W.
*West on G St. N.W.
*North on 6th Street to the loading dock of the Verizon Center.

View 2010 DC Elephant Walk Route in a larger map

But bracketeering is hard, man. Run out of ideas for how to keep the opposition at bay? Here's some tried and true methods to completing your bracket:

• Always remember: What Would Davy DCist Do?
• Prognosticate all games based on the best player names on any given team. Highly recommended: Just-in'love Smith, Siena.
• Eliminate all 13,14,15, and 16 seeds in the opening round and proceed through brackets using twelve-sided die.
• Just pick all the number ones to advance to the Final Four, because you have stuff to do that, for some reason, doesn't involve agonizing over an 8/9 matchup that no one will remember in three years.
• Go for a 17th century-themed Final Four featuring Musketeers, Demon Deacons and Monarchs. Or go for the historically impossible clashes (Aztecs versus Cowboys, or Fighting Irish against Seminoles, for instance).
• Maryland and Georgetown, all the way! (To the regional finals!)

There, now you should be all set to dominate.

Signup is easy: Create a CBS Sportsline profile and log in. Click here to access the DCist pool. The pool password is dcist. You're still automatically signed up for this year's tournament if you played last year, so just follow the link in the email you were sent to get to your brackets. (CBS, helpful folks they are, sent you an email reminder out last week.) There's a bonus for upsets in the first round, but otherwise, scoring is pretty simple. So go, bracketize, and prepare yourself to claim ultimate bragging rights.

UPDATE: Okay, our first group is totally full. So we've launched a second DCist staff-reader group -- you can sign up here and the password for entry is still dcist. We will consolidate the leaderboards of both groups as we progress through the tournament. Many, many apologies for the inconvenience.

Good morning, Washington. Word spread quickly Monday that D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray was poised to announce his candidacy for mayor this week, likely on Thursday. WUSA9's Bruce Johnson felt comfortable enough with what his well-placed sources were telling him that he ran with the story. But for his part, Gray is still trying to put on the brakes. Here's the statement his office put out last night after the evening news:

"This evening it was reported on WUSA 9 News Now that Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray will announce in a few days that he is running for mayor. However, Gray said tonight he has not made up his mind on his intentions. The Chairman added he will not address the issue further with the media until the time comes when he officially announces a decision on his future plans."

The District's primary elections are now just six months away. Gray may still be claiming not to have made up his mind, but he's certainly starting to run out of time.

Fenty Announces Jobs Program: D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty joined with the Washington Interfaith Network last night to announce a new program that will offer seasonal jobs installing home weatherproofing to 700 D.C. residents. Employees will receive job training and earn $13.25 to $25 per hour, the Post reports, and low income residents can also sign up to be the beneficiaries of said weatherproofing. With D.C.'s unemployment rate sitting at 12 percent, Fenty is looking for ways to improve that figure.

Parking Enforcement Beefs Up Again: Already feel like D.C.'s parking enforcement efforts are plenty zealous? Well it's only going to get more hardcore, as more than two dozen new parking enforcement officers are about to begin job training, Alana Goodman reports in The Examiner. More importantly, the story makes sure to note that D.C.'s budget is leaning heavily on projected revenue from the tickets these additional officers are expected to issue, which would be great if people were already paying the tickets the city is giving out now. But thanks, presumably, to the economy, that's not actually happening. "Millions in lost ticket revenue would compound D.C.'s already colossal budget troubles. District revenues are running $225 million short in fiscal 2010."

Briefly Noted: Man, 20, charged in first Arlington homicide of 2010 ... DCPS cash for grades program is running out of money ... Fatal shooting on Langston Place SE ... Ted Loza trial set for Oct. 4.

This Day in DCist: One year ago, Jim Graham withdrew his anti-loitering bill, and three years ago, we were gearing up for a spate of anti-war protests.

• A barge bumped into the 14th Street Bridge earlier today. No injuries, no structural damage, but the barge got stuck thanks to surging water levels, AP reports.
• Kwame Brown is proposing outlawing sexual contact of any kind between "any public, charter or pre-kindergarten teacher or public day-care worker" and any student enrolled in a public school, the Post reports. Seems like a reasonable idea, but the ACLU's got some concerns about the measure being overly broad.
• A big tree fell on a house and several cars in the 2300 block of 49th Street NW this morning, via WJLA.
• Former SFist editor Eve Batey seems like she's more than a little skeptical that James Dougherty is going to be the answer to all of WMATA's safety woes.
• Southwest residents, take note. Safeway says it will provide shuttle bus service between its SW store and the 14th and Kentucky Ave SE location during 8 days the SW store will be closed later this month. Via Southwest ... The Little Quadrant That Could, more details to follow.
• DCmud details the selection of a development team to turn the M.M. Washington Career High School at 27 O Street NW into affordable senior housing and various community space.
• The Department of Parks and Recreation is seeking input on how best to improve its web site. Online survey here, via Susie Cambria.

The fire broke out in the walls between the 4th and 5th floors at 1808 Connecticut Ave. NW, Piringer said.

Southbound lanes on Connecticut Ave. and Florida Ave. in both directions are closed in the immediate area while fire crews continue to work at the scene. Best to avoid this intersection on your commute home.

Image courtesy the DCist tip line

All this comes in the context of Cuccinelli's recent push to remove language dealing with sexual orientation from state university anti-discrimination policies.

For one, he says the Guinness people told him they aren't interested in keeping track of records that have to do with specific demographics, for which this would qualify. And for another, he fell quite a bit short of his goal of helping up to 400 couples get married all at once. As of Monday, only 15 couples had signed up to participate.

"We had no idea if many people would want to sign up for this," said Wilkinson, director of wedding services for the GLBT wedding services division of meeting and event organizers Event Emissary. "There are definitely folks right now that are interested in getting married quickly."

The group wedding will go on as planned, albeit adjusted for scale. The couples will all exchange vows inside a smaller section the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Ave., instead of in the grand ballroom. And if you're interested in joining in on the ceremony, there's still a sliver of time. Couples who already applied for their marriage licenses can contact Wilkinson and register via his company's web site up until Friday. Couples who still haven't filed their paperwork, however, would need to get down to the D.C. Superior Courthouse by today, and the marriage bureau office closes at 5 p.m.

If group weddings aren't your thing, Wilkinson stressed that private ceremonies are really his core business. He's already busy planning five different weddings, ranging from as soon as June up to a year or so from now.

The Brutalist Bricks is the band's sixth album and in many respects echoes Leo's career-minded track of marrying the best of Weller & Costello without (thus far) succumbing to those artists mid-career indulgences. Songs like “Even Heroes Have to Die” and “Last Days” are testaments to the band’s enduring strengths, reinforcing sonic hallmarks without retreading covered ground. When Leo’s voice hits the opening lines, “When the café doors exploded/I reacted to, reacted to you,” on opener “The Mighty Sparrow,” its booming proclamation is equal parts jarring and welcoming. There’s plenty on The Brutalist Bricks that finds the band outside of its established repertoire. But the album's deviation from type is subtle, the result of a steady progression as opposed to hoary critical generalizations like "a back to basics approach"or "a more experimental direction."

Yet, Leo’s career with the Pharmacists hasn’t adhered to a typical trajectory. The Tyranny of Distance shook up Leo’s grab bag of influences in 2001 with a wildly diverse set of songs, a circumstance that rarely comes across so successfully. 2003’s Hearts of Oak established a catalog of fan-favorites ensuring that the band cannot play a set with fewer than 20+ songs. Fast forward to 2007’s Living with the Living, an album in which Leo’s steadily developed sound made forays outside of his comfort zone (“Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.,” “The Unwanted Things”) took on the unfortunate flavor of genre-exercise (embodied here on the lone misstep "Tuberculoids Arrive in Hop"). All of which makes the taut and lean The Brutalist Bricks hew closest to Shake the Sheets, the band’s 2004 anti-Bush polemic released just prior to that year’s defining Presidential election. It makes sense then that its quasi-companion piece would come five years later, in the wake of a different era but still a time when the political landscape finds itself rattled by familiar foes. Battles have been fought and lost countless times since then (see 2008’s Rapid Response EP for evidence) but with The Brutalist Bricks, Leo sounds like he’s back on offense.

Leading up to the release of The Brutalist Bricks, interviews and tweets from Leo cited a re-kindled love for old hardcore, hinting toward the potential for an aggressive punk record. This frenetic energy is obvious on songs like “The Stick” and “Woke Up Near Chelsea” — to say nothing of long-time D.C. punk fixture James Canty's presence — but Leo’s attack will never be mistaken for that of Conflict or Disorder. On any given night, the Pharmacists are just as likely to cover Stiff Little Fingers as they are Eddie & the Hot Rods.

Leo’s been construed as something of an enduring idealist, though his lyrics hint at a clear-eyed pragmatism not usually attributed to most Crass-related bands. It's bound to be particularly disillusioning penning a song like “Mourning in America” whose punny title illustrates how little has changed since Shake the Sheets, never mind the '80s hardcore that resisted Reaganites thefirst go 'round. But the consolations -- “we’ve got the best of an imperfect world,” Leo offers in “Where is My Brain?” -- are in the uneasy tenderness of “Ativan Eyes” and the globetrotting experiences chronicled on “Bottled in Cork.” If we'll always have a lot of walking to do, Leo's imparted wisdom might be as straightforward as enjoying the sights on the way.

The Brutalist Bricks is out now and available from all the usual the suspects.

The usually placid C&O Canal in Georgetown swelled with water this afternoon, forcing the National Park Service to close off access to the towpath alongside it. A park service employee on the scene told us that the weekend's heavy rains and a prolonged ice-melt had broken Lock #5 on the canal, located just north of the District-Maryland line, allowing a flood of water downstream. Water flow through the canal in Georgetown is kept to a minimum during the winter, she added. Tape was being put up at access points to the towpath to prevent pedestrians and cyclists from using it.

Update, 3 p.m.: The park service has warned buildings and businesses along the canal of the potential of further flooding, and is bringing in sandbags as a countermeasure. It indicated that threats of flooding may last until 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. According to one park service employee we spoke to, only one half of Lock #5 has broken, and more significant flooding would occur if the second half also gave way.

Dupigny-Samuels was one of several top managers who was asked to resign late last year amid a leadership shake-up. WMATA has come under heavy scrutiny over the past year for serious safety lapses, including a marked increase in passenger and worker fatalities.

Christoph Eschenbach will begin his first season as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra next fall, and the programming he has planned is encouraging. In his only concerts with the hometown band between the announcement of his appointment and the beginning of his tenure, this past weekend, Eschenbach gave reasons both to hope and worry about what we can expect in the coming years. Giuseppe Verdi's bombastic but intensely pious setting of the Latin Requiem Mass, performed with alarming frequency in Washington over the past few years, is sure to thrill a crowd, even if all of its surfaces are not perfectly polished. As heard at the final performance on Saturday night, Eschenbach's rendition of this overexposed masterpiece excelled in the rip-roaring parts, but had a sort of enforced solemnity. This was thanks in part to the conductor's long hold of the silence at the end of the piece, which as time passed went from being reverent to affected.

What was obviously in question was Eschenbach's judgment as far as his quartet of vocal soloists. For the most part, Verdi simply transferred his understanding of operatic vocal demands to these parts, and the piece can succeed or fail on the power of these voices. Austrian tenor Nikolai Schukoff was the best, an earnest voice with resonance and power as well as control. Mezzo-soprano Mihoko Fujimura was mostly solid, although in some ways Verdi rests the dramatic weight of the first part of the work on the mezzo's shoulders, demands especially at the top of her voice that Fujimura was not always able to meet. For all of the beauty of Evgeny Nikitin's bass voice, with enough bluster and power to fill the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, one could only wish that he knew the part better. He tended to start many notes somewhere near the pitch in the score, generally below it, then scooped up to it.

None of this could have prepared me for the abject failure of soprano Twyla Robinson, whose voice just collapsed under the pressure of what Verdi asked her to do. Throughout the early movements she sang with a nervous flutter in her voice, a shrill edge that knocked her off the true center of the pitch. Then, in the critical Libera me movement, where the soprano is supposed to belt the piece out of the park (and not by belting), the high notes were shockingly off the mark, including one that she just had to cut off awkwardly to keep from cracking. Gasps of embarrassed surprise were heard in the audience, and not just from me. One can only hope that Robinson was in poor health: she is one of Eschenbach's preferred performers and is already scheduled to return next season, for a performance of Zemlinksy's Lyric Symphony. If she ruins the experience of Matthias Goerne, who will share the stage with her at those concerts, Eschenbach should be concerned.

That said, the Washington Chorus sang their amassed hearts out, making the big choral moments, like the famous Dies Irae, the high points of the performance. Standing in a mixed formation, rather than sorted into sections by voice part, helped the group's intonation and blend. The NSO played well, although Eschenbach could have done a little more to shape the sound to his soloists, as the orchestra often seemed a little unbridled. The band's new principal tympanist, profiled last week in the Washington Post, had an uneventful debut, twirling his sticks and nonchalantly ignoring the pressure. The big percussion solo, of course, goes to the bass drum, some of the most memorable wallops of that instrument in the orchestral literature, executed with admirable precision. The brass were similarly apocalyptic, with special kudos going to the group of musicians placed in the upper balcony: it sure did sound like Judgment Day was upon us.

Cellist Daniel Müller-Schott and conductor Jakub Hruša join the NSO for their next program (March 25 to 28), featuring music by Czech composers and Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony.

YACHT plays Monday at the Rock & Roll Hotel.

>> Black Cat: Janelle Monae's show is sold out. 8 p.m., $15.
>> 9:30 Club: Megadeth is sold out too. 6 p.m.

TUESDAY
We've never seen A Study In Her, DC9's headliners this Tuesday, but we're big, big fans of the two supporting acts on the bill: Olivia Mancini has counted DCist among her loyal fans for a long time, whatever band she's playing with. She'll do double duty tonight, giving the crowd some of her own songs, as well as stepping behind Jess Matthews as part of the new outfit America Hearts. Doors at 8:30 p.m., show at 9. $8.

WEDNESDAY
The inaugural event at the long-awaited U Street Music Hall features Belgium's AEROPLANE and locals Beautiful Swimmers. The new venue's owners include local DJs Will Eastman and Tittsworth, Eric Hilton and Farid Ali of Eighteenth Street Lounge, and Marvin chef James Hilton. We'll have more about the space later this week. Buy tickets to this first big show here. 10 p.m., $10.

>> DC9: Little Bigheart & The Wilderbeast, P .A. Tony Street, Jeremy Johnson. 9 p.m., $8.

>> 9:30 Club: For those who enjoy ambient music and brevity in naming: Air and AM. 7 p.m., $40.

>> Rock and Roll Hotel: Hockey, The Postelles. 8:30 p.m., $10/$12.

>> Birchmere: Bobby McFerrin. Wednesday & Thursday. View our full preview here. 7:30 p.m., $65.

THURSDAY
As it turns out, some good things do come from Wasilla, Alaska. Portugal. The Man have been putting out high quality recordings since they rose from the ashes of Anatomy of a Ghost around 2004. Now based out of Portland, the band has a reputation for incredible live shows. They're on tour promoting their new record American Ghetto, which the WaPo loved, introducing it as a modern answer to the songwriting of John Lennon. They'll be at the 9:30 Club, with friends Port O'Brien and The Dig. 7 p.m., $15.

>> Black Cat Backstage: The Moderate (***), The Torches. 9 p.m., $8.

>> Velvet Lounge: Sweet Interference, Gist (***), City Folk. 8 p.m., $8.

It's hard to say whether Atlanta's Black Lips are best known for their excellent "flower punk" music, their destructive onstage antics, or their bar brawls with other bands. But what's clear is that on both previous stops in our fair city, they've given our reviewers something to rave about. Best represented by their anthem, "Bad Kids" (embedded at right), we're looking forward to seeing what rafter-swinging or spit-balling they have in store for the Black Cat (a club that, unlike several others around the world, keeps inviting these guys back) this Friday. With Nebraska's Box Elders and (relatively) locals The Vermillions. 9 p.m., $13/$15.

>> Velvet Lounge : Free DJ night downstairs — BALLS! "rock & roll, punk, & metal jams provided by two total homos! DJs Joshua Ryan (HottBoxx DC) and Robert Bozick (Peach Pit @ Dahlak) *Note: This event is not exclusively queer. All are welcome!"

SATURDAY
Canadian metal band Anvil spent 20 years in obscurity. Until, that is, becoming the subject of a documentary so funny many assumed it was satire. That doc gave the band their biggest boost to date — finally landing them a manager, a booking agent and a slew of huge gigs. Catch them this weekend at the 9:30 Club (presented by VH1 Classics), with openers Misstalica, an all-girl Metallica tribute band. 8 p.m., $20.

>> Black Cat: Fruit Bats, Blue Giant (formerly Viva Voce), The Singleman Affair,. 9 p.m., $12.

SUNDAY
Head to the Black Cat for a great show to end out the week, with D.C.'s Buildings and Brooklyn's Magic Markers. And check out this video feature All Our Noise did on Buildings last year. 9 p.m., $10.

Despite the dreary gray of the weekend, Flickr user .lissa went out and made this colorful image. The red coat and red house bring a little cheer to an otherwise gloomy Ides of March.

Weekday ridership for the first two weeks in March averaged roughly 750,000 trips. The same period in 2009 saw an average of approximately 677,000.

In a press release touting the new figures, WMATA officials speculated that despite record low ridership during February's historic snow storms, this winter's rough weather may have actually helped bring customers back to the system.

"When the region reopened for business after the blizzards, many roadways were still piled high with snow banks blocking driving lanes and parking areas, so they climbed on board Metro," said Metro General Manager John Catoe in a statement. "Quite frankly, it looks like they’ve stayed with us."

The shift to increasing numbers of riders is important for the struggling transit agency, which has been scrambling all this fiscal year to make up for reduced revenues thanks to declining ridership since the June crash.

Crowds typically swell as the spring and summer tourist months approach, however. And as we've seen, while WMATA's finances may benefit from the trend, regular riders don't always appreciate it at the time.

The route was canceled for the off-season this year in an effort to save money, and was originally scheduled to resume service on April 3, but the District Department of Transportation has since revised the date to coincide with the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

And a Bobby McFerrin performance is so much more than a concert.

"Joy. That's always what I hope for," McFerrin said of what he tries to bring to his live audiences.

The 60-year-old McFerrin's musical journey starts with the influence of his father, Robert McFerrin, Sr., the first African-American soloist with New York's famed Metropolitan Opera. The younger McFerrin spent the early part of his career in the family business as a journeyman pianist, and was captivated by keyboardist Keith Jarrett's entirely improvised solo performances. In the late 1970s, McFerrin began a six-year effort to create a method for improvised solo vocal performance, the format in which he began performing in 1983.

"I didn't really know what solo voice sounded like," McFerrin said. "My task was sort of to find a way of allowing the audience a way to hear the music, harmony, and rhythm."

Solo performance has become McFerrin's signature path of musical expression, and he will be appearing solo for two shows this week at the Birchmere. Using his body as a percussive instrument to support his four octave vocal range, McFerrin plays a mix of familiar tunes and improvisations, but does not plan anything in advance. He also invites the crowd to actively participate in his exploration.

"Everyone has a secret desire to be an actor, artist, musician, or whatever," said McFerrin. "I appeal to that part, that sense of adventure."

McFerrin feels that he has hit his stride as a solo performer. So while he continues his myriad collaborations, the majority of his appearances are now solo.

"Just in the last couple of years have I begun to understand what solo voice means to me," McFerrin explained. "Solo voice was the tree trunk of everything else I was doing."

His solo concerts are also leading McFerrin on a new path in terms of his recording career. VOCAbuLarieS, McFerrin's forthcoming release, is a collaboration with composer/arranger Roger Treece. Treece went through McFerrin's voluminous archival recordings to tease out improvised ideas around which he could base full-blown compositions. Dozens of vocalists, in a variety of genres, were then brought into the studio. Recorded one at a time or in small groups, Treece and McFerrin meticulously assembled a virtual choir of over 1,400 voices to create the soundscapes for VOCAbuLarieS.

"[The songs] represent sort of different cultural sounds," McFerrin said. "I wouldn't say one tune is Indian and another tune is Spanish, but they have different cultural languages."

Bobby McFerrin, with Sam & Ruby opening, will perform 7:30 p.m. shows at the Birchmere on Wednesday and Thursday, March 17 and 18, 2010. Tickets are $65 + fees. VOCAbuLarieS is due out April 6, 2010.

Pentagon Shooter's Gun Traced: The Associated Press got the scoop over the weekend that one of the guns used by alleged Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell was once seized by Memphis police. The Memphis police department, like many other jurisdictions across the country, has a policy of selling or trading confiscated weapons as a way to earn revenue. Bedell's gun was seized in Memphis in 2005 and later traded to a gun dealer, and it eventually showed up at a gun show in Las Vegas, where Bedell apparently bought it. The Washington Post did its best to play catch-up on this story for today.

Harry Thomas, Jr. Gets the Boot: Kwame Brown isn't the only D.C. Council member who's received a hefty parking fine of late. Harry Thomas, Jr. actually got the boot put on his SUV last week, The Examiner's Michael Neibauer reports. The Ward 5 councilman owed $655 for four different unpaid tickets, but unlike Brown, he's contesting the fines. "I should not have been ticketed," he told Neibauer, referring to the council's parking exemption.

Briefly Noted: Jim Graham considering emergency legislation to reinstate vehicle safety inspections ... WaPo obit for former Current newspapers reporter Charlie Bermpohl ... Sharon Wise is filing suit against Marion Barry, District ... Catholic Charities adds new language to employee hiring letter requiring pledge not to violate church tenets ... Stabbing at Rockville Metro station ... Police officer collapses during St. Patrick's Day parade.

This Day in DCist: In 2007, we got excited about the U.S. House scheduling a vote on D.C. voting rights. Sigh.

• The Caps pulled off an incredible comeback in Chicago to beat the Blackhawks, 4-3 in overtime. (And yes, commentariat, we were watching.) Scoring three goals in the third in 196 seconds -- without Alexander Ovechkin, no less, who was ejected for a completely bogus boarding call in the first period -- Washington capped things off with a wild Nicklas Backstrom tally in overtime. The Swede turned the puck over, got it back, headed back down the ice, and put the puck in off a 3-on-2. It was a firm figurative shot across the bow of the 'Hawks, reminding them that the Caps -- who only need a brief time to completely take control of any game -- are the most dangerous team in the league.
• About that Ovechkin call: let's just say that anytime that NBC talking head Mike Milbury -- he who has a favored seat at the Church of Crosby -- can be found condemning a call against the Russian, well, that pretty much hammers home how ludicrous it was. Really, it was just a terrible, terrible, terrible call. (Terrible.)
• Ah yes, the Tournament. Well, our incredibly general prognostications were somewhat on target -- Georgetown a #3, Maryland a #4, Richmond a #7, Old Dominion an #11, Morgan State a #15; Virginia Tech and William and Mary on the outside looking in. Georgetown and Maryland (who gets an old rival in Tom Penders in their opener) are both part of what might be the most stacked regional in history, while Richmond and Old Dominion got winnable matchups in the first round.

• So here's your Big Dance viewing guide:
  Thursday:
  12:25 PM Old Dominion vs. Notre Dame
  2:50 PM Saint Mary's vs. Richmond
  7:25 PM Ohio vs. Georgetown
  Friday:
  12:15 PM Morgan State vs. West Virginia
  9:40 PM Houston vs. Maryland
• But those weren't the only teams extending their seasons! The NIT field was also released. William and Mary will travel to Chapel Hill for a shot at North Carolina on Tuesday, while Virginia Tech -- a 1 seed in the NIT, which is kind of like being the first alternate on an Apollo moon mission -- gets Quinnipiac at home on Wednesday. (George Mason, VCU and George Washington are also playing on, but even I can't get excited for the third-tier college basketball tournament. Sorry.)
• The Wizards lost to the Magic 109-95, despite Andray Blatche's 32 points -- probably because they got outrebounded by 16 and Dwight Howard (28 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists) is a complete monster.
• Strasburg: still really awesome, arm remained attached, Nats (of course) lose.
• Finally, congratulations to DeMatha, who defeated Ballou in the Abe Pollin City Title Game at Verizon Center yesterday 80-70. It's the Stags fifth city championship in six years.

Aaron's all over the floodwater beat today, though he forgot to link to the greatest rock song ever about heavy rains. I am sure he regrets the omission. Elsewhere in serious flooding around the District, the SWDC Blog reports that the Maine Avenue Wharf flooded this morning, as did the road to Hains Point. Despite the floodwaters, D.C.'s fishmongers continued to fling fish. I can't imagine that they've been busy today; now that the rain appears to have subsided, y'all probably still have a chance to go pick up an incredible deal on fresh catch. And what with daylight savings time upon us, there's still light for it.