Nationals' Opening Day is just about here

The warmer weather has finally arrived in the Washington, DC area. A few weeks ago when the area was experiencing frigid temperatures and 20 mph wind gusts, it seemed like spring would never come.

Fast forward to this weekend. The cherry blossoms are blooming and the best part of spring, baseball, starts this weekend. The Nationals have their home opener tomorrow night at their new ballpark against the Atlanta Braves.

DC baseball fans have been waiting for the new ballpark to open for a long time. Few problems were encountered in building the state-of-the-art ballpark. It still remains to be seen if the majority of fans will use the Metro to get the ballpark and if Metro can handle the higher volume.

The Washington Post reports that the overhaul of the Navy Yard metro station is complete to handle the extra riders on game days. The Nationals have repeatedly told fans to use the Metro when travelling to the ballpark, since there are less than 2,000 spaces on site for over 40,000 ticketholders. Let's see if fans take the Nationals advice.

I decided to wait until the end of April to go to a game. I figured the Nationals and Metro will have solved any remaining issues in getting to and from the ballpark by then.

Just by the virtual tour offered on the Nationals official website, the new ballpark is quite impressive. I can't wait to check it out in person.

A way to go straight to the front lines

If you're tired of reading journalist accounts of the Iraq war, the new documentary Bad Voodoo's War features first-hand accounts from a platoon stationed in Anbar province. The film's director, Deborah Scranton wanted to show the long periods of waiting for something to happen. In a Wired article, she says, "People always want to turn war into drama. But the multitude of guys' experience is this. It's wondering: Is today the day? Is today the day I'm to get hit?" Bad Voodoo's War premieres on Frontline April 1st.

Tucker Calson getting his groove on

This old video clip of Tucker Calson dancing horribly was too good to pass up (via Wonkette):

Burlesque in Boston

I visited my family last weekend for St. Patrick's Day. And no, I didn't drink green beer or wear a goofy green hat (Don't insult me). Now I'm starting to think I should have waited another week.

This weekend, the Great Boston Burlesque Expo will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cambridge, MA. At the expo you can buy burlesque costomes and learn proper stage technique. Most importantly there will be performers such as Baby Dolls and Scarlett Letter doing a live show. Sounds very interesting. To top it off, right after the Friday show there will be a pool party. This sounds even more interesting. I definitely picked the wrong weekend to go home to Massachusetts.

Falafel place in D.C. now enjoys euros

One of the best falafel shops in Washington, DC, Amsterdam Falafel now accepts euros, in addition to U.S. dollars, of course. Despite being in Washington, D.C., the reason behind it is surprisingly innocent. According to DCist, it was to accomodate out-of-town tourists that would arrive for a falafel late at night after banks and currency exchanges have closed. One commenter made a good point that Amsterdam Falafel will accept euros, a foreign currency, but still doesn't accept debit.

Zach Galifianakis in a vodka ad

Here is something I found really surprising. Zach Galifianakis doing an Absolut Vodka ad. He's not your typical stand-up comedian. In his online newsletter, he says he agreed to do an ad as long as he had complete creative freedom. I won't spoil the ad by describing it. I'll just say it's not your average tv ad spot.

When political correctness goes wrong

I never liked political correctness. I developed a special disdain for it during my days at UMass-Amherst. They loved political correctness so much there, the school newspaper, the Daily Collegian, had a section devoted to each minority that was perceived as oppressed.

A few years ago I was assured that political correctness is dead by someone I thought was a very intelligent person. It's not completely dead. Howard Stern tried killing political correctness, but it continued. Hip-hop, especially Eminem, made a great effort to kill political correctness, yet it is still with us.

The good news is political correctness is mostly confined to our colleges and universities and our public schools. Right now its on life support, but could one day come back.

There is a case that is almost too laughable for it to be believed that occurred at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis (IUPUI) recently. According to Reason's Hit and Run blog, a middle-aged janitor was reading Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan in close vicinity of black employees. You probably know where this is going. The janitor was accused of racial harassment by the school's Affirmative Action Office. I bet they're a fun bunch.

After the initial allegation, the Affirmative Action Office did some backtracking and realized it could not determine what the janitor "intended" by reading the particular book in front of his black co-workers.

This is where political correctness enters into the realm of the absurd. The university was ready to administer disciplinary action to this janitor based on what he was thinking when he was reading a particular book.

Earth to music fans, new Dandy Warhols coming in May

With not many new album releases to look forward to, I was excited to learn today that the Dandy Warhols will be dropping a new album, "Earth to Dandy Warhols" in May, more specifically on Cinco de Mayo. Being a longtime fan, I'm hoping the new album will be a return to form from their earlier albums, "Dandys Rule, Ok?" and "the Dandy Warhols Come Down."

Here's a teaser video the band released:


And here's a trip down memory lane:

Coolhunter hunts down the cool for you

In my previous post, I argued that Barack Obama is one of the hippest presidential candidates on record. I'm sure you are asking, well that's all good and all, but how do I stay hip and cool? Long ago that would have required countless hours of searching out what was cutting-edge and hip. Now the website, Coolhunter does the job for you. This isn't another blog covering just indie music. Instead, it runs the whole gamut of art, music, fashion, architecture, and technology. It's worth checking out at least once a day.

Obama just got more hip, if that's possible

Barack Obama has reached a level of hipness for a political candidate that I would argue has not been reached before. CNN Political Ticker reported yesterday that Arcade Fire will perform at two Obama rallies in Ohio.

If you think about it, when was the last time a major party presidential candidate got the endorsement of a young band in their prime? Or a hip-hop artist even? No one comes to mind. Alot of it has to do with past candidates being white and middle-aged, or in some cases, past retirement age (hello John McCain). If a band played for a presidential candidate in the past, it was usually a band that saw its better days behind them (hello Eagles). You can call him inexperienced, but Barack Obama has to be one of the hippest presidential candidates on record.

Newt Gingrich can't get his facts straight with warrantless wiretapping

Despite it being two days old (practically an eternity in the blogosphere), I had to point out this great post from the Economist's Democracy in America blog. The post shows how the talking points conservatives like Newt Gingrich and President Bush use in pushing for broader warrantless wiretapping are blatantly misleading. It uses a concocted survey by Newt's Gingrich's group America Solutions as an example.