Ahhh DC. The Nation’s Capito(a)l. My old home. To paraphrase Stephen Merritt, “the nation’s grand old seat/of precious freedom and democracy.”
Greatest rock band in last 30 years - after early GnR
Often times my mind wanders to those care-free days of tending to my basil garden at my Woodley Park group house ($375 a month in rent!) on a humid spring day, an icy can of Bud in hand. And of course, how can we forget The Raven and their cold Miller High Life bottles? Or the Black Cat Redroom, where, after a rockin’ Snuff Project show, we’d close down the bar at 3:30 am.
Or The Velvet Lounge, where you could buy a shot of Old Grandad and a Schlit’s for a mere $4?
Hmmm. I guess I drank a lot back then. Burned a lot of bridges. Made a lot of mistakes. Some of which can’t be atoned.
Anyway, if anyone’s out there in DC, Ping Pong, the Henry Miller Library literary journal is representin’ at the big-deal Association of Writers and Writing Conference.
*Blelvis (the "Black Elvis") is a Washington, D.C., street entertainer who knows the words to every song ever sung by Elvis Presley
Held Feb. 2-5 at the Marriott Wardman Park & Omni Shoreham Hotels, the conference brings together the world’s best and brightest writers. Check it out. What else are you gonna do in DC in the winter anyway? (I actually have a few ideas.*)
[Fun fact: the conference is being held in the same place where the big party for W. was held in '00 after he was "elected." I lived nearby, all these Texans in cowboy boots where infesting our quaint little yuppie 'hood.
It was the kind of neighborhood where if someone was walking toward you, and you politely said hello, they'd bow their head deeper into their Patagonia fleece, tensely clutch their Whole Foods shopping bag, and accelerate their pace of walking, utterly terrified and impenetrable. Ahh, DC: the perfect blend of Northern hospitality and Southern efficiency.]
