This Weekend

By Jennifer Deseo | Aug 28, 2008

That chill in the air, and that insatiable hunger for chili dogs and beer, mean only one thing: It’s football season. For turtles, anyway.

The Maryland Terps start their season Saturday with a home game against Delaware’s Blue Hens. (Gotta love those collegiate names.) The Redskins finish their preseason antics tonight at home against the Jags.

Catch either game, then hit Silver Spring for some of this action:

Thursday

7:00 p.m. The Skins go after the Jacksonville Jaguars in the last game of the preseason. Soak up the rain at FedEx Field, or keep your beer dry and watch the game on NBC.

8:00 p.m. The Silver Spring Stage (10145 Colesville Rd) rolls out the final weekend of its one-act festival. This week’s pickings: “Napoleon & Betsy”, “Eclipse”, “Tea Exercise”, and “Ghost Painter”. Tickets are $15 to $18 for the whole deal.

Friday

5:30 p.m. Musical artist Michelle Jordy performs at South Silver Spring’s Arts Alley (8030 Georgia Ave). The gig is part of the weekly Arts Alley Fridays series of free performances.

8:00 p.m. The Open Circle theatre company presents “Story Theatre”, a new spin on old tales. The gig rocks the Roundhouse Theater (8641 Colesville Rd) and costs $25 per seat. Score a break when you flash convincing military, student or senior ID.

8:00 p.m. The Silver Spring Stage (10145 Colesville Rd) rolls out the final weekend of its one-act festival. This week’s pickings: “Napoleon & Betsy”, “Eclipse”, “Tea Exercise”, and “Ghost Painter”. Tickets are $15 to $18 for the whole deal.

10:00 p.m. Shake dat ass, show me what you got at Loda, South Silver Spring’s weekly music-and-multimedia gig. Hit it at Gallery lounge (1115 East-West Hwy) with $10 and convincing ID for the guy at the door.

Saturday

9:00 a.m. Freshfarm holds its weekly farmers market on Ellsworth Drive, between Fenton Street and Georgia Avenue. There is no admission fee.

3:45 p.m. The terpalicious University of Maryland Terrapins start their football season against the Delaware Blue Hens (seriously?). Hotwire your neighbor’s cable connection to catch the game on ESPN-U, or camp outside Byrd Stadium Friday night to beat the gameday traffic.

8:00 p.m. The Open Circle theatre company presents “Story Theatre”, a new spin on old tales. The gig rocks the Roundhouse Theater (8641 Colesville Rd) and costs $30 per seat. Score a break when you flash convincing military, student or senior ID.

8:00 p.m. The Silver Spring Stage (10145 Colesville Rd) rolls out the final weekend of its one-act festival. This week’s pickings: “Napoleon & Betsy”, “Eclipse”, “Tea Exercise”, and “Ghost Painter”. Tickets are $15 to $18 for the whole deal.

Sunday

2:00 p.m. The Open Circle theatre company present “Story Theatre”, a new spin on old tales. The gig rocks the Roundhouse Theater (8641 Colesville Rd) and costs $15 per seat. Score a break when you flash convincing military, student or senior ID.

2:00 p.m. The Silver Spring Stage (10145 Colesville Rd) rolls out the final weekend of its one-act festival. This week’s pickings: “Napoleon & Betsy”, “Eclipse”, “Tea Exercise”, and “Ghost Painter”. Tickets are $13 to $15 for the whole deal.

SPONSORED CONTENT
Nicaro restaurant (8229 Georgia Ave) hits you with its brunch menu, with prices ranging from $6 to $15. The nosh rolls from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Lead images courtesy of the University of Maryland.

 
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The Watercooler

By Jennifer Deseo | Aug 27, 2008

While all eyes were on Denver last night, The Penguin newsroom scurried around Silver Spring for the local scoop. Here’s the deal:

Coming soon: Qdoba Mexican Grill

Credit: J. Deseo/SSP

Credit: J. Deseo/SSP

The former Colesville Road home of the Carolina Kitchen scores this fast-food franchise, as evident by a twisted “Coming soon” banner hung on the building’s Ramsey Avenue side. The restaurant will sit down the block from another Tex-Mex joint — Mi Rancho.

One Qdoba franchise already sits in southern Rockville (or is that North Bethesda?) and operates much like Chipotle. Customers pick basics off the wall-mounted menu, then order extra fixings from behind the sneeze guard. It’s unknown when the Silver Spring restaurant will open.

Coming soon: M&T Bank

J Deseo/SSP

Credit: J. Deseo/SSP

The same building on Colesville and Ramsey also gets an M&T Bank, which will occupy a ground-floor retail slot and office space on the second floor. Another bank branch sits on Colesville at Spring Street, though it’s unclear if that branch will remain.

Going (though not far): The Pyramid Atlantic community-arts store

The gallery, which opened this summer on Ellsworth Drive in Downtown Silver Spring, gets booted from its rent-free slot for a paying customer. (A volunteer with the arts organization told The Penguin that a Halloween shop would be opening there.)

But don’t sweat things too much. The store will move to a space formerly occupied by Moto Photo, in the Whole Foods Market shopping center, said Sarah Levine, a Pyramid Atlantic spokesperson. Of course, this raises another question ….

Coming (or what?): Donuts

According to Laurie Yankowski, spokesperson for the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center, talks are still in the works to bring The Fractured Prune to town. “There has been a delay due to location-of-store issues,” she told The Penguin. “While, there’s no lease signed just yet, we still plan on having them as a merchant at the center.”

And there are still no signs that a Dunkin Donuts will be moving to the area, despite the company’s recent announcement that it would hit parts of Silver Spring with fatty, sugary goodness. Nonetheless, The Penguin newsroom will continue its vigil.

Gone: The Turf

Courtesy of Flickr user Wombat

Courtesy of Flickr user Wombat

Stick a fork in it — downtown’s artificial grassy knoll is done. Penguin reader Wombat captured photos of its demise on Tuesday, on track with the county’s promise to trash the carpet once public schools reopened. (Tuesday was the first day of school.)

Crews also have erected a chain-link fence along Fenton Street and Ellsworth Drive, where construction on Silver Spring’s civic center and veterans plaza should start any day now.

Lead photo and tip courtesy of Penguin reader Wombat.

 
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Penguin Punditry: Power, fame and free drinks

By Jason Gedeik | Aug 26, 2008

DENVER — Monday started off with me and my boss headed for an interview on NPR’s “News & Notes” program. One the way, we ran into Jon Meacham, top editor at Newsweek, who just wrote an interesting cover article on Barack Obama’s relationship with his father. Famous people were everywhere — at least famous for DC. People like George McGovern, Al Sharpton, Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi were there.

Later, I attended a Progressive Book Club luncheon with a host of amazing authors who sat around a table and discussed whether the conservative movement was dead. Editors with The New Yorker and The National Review, and New York Times best-selling authors, covered everything from terrorism to the downfall of the religious right. At one point I looked over at the guy next to me, and he was playing Brick Breaker on his BlackBerry. I just had to laugh — a kindred soul!

I attended a few more interviews and then headed to the Pepsi Center for the night’s political speeches. Buses idling outside designated hotels picked up credentialed people, then crawled for 45 minutes in two miles of traffic, security points and a hundred other buses full of political junkies.

Fortunately, I got there early and received a guest pass to CNN’s “grill”. It’s a diner on the ground floor of a brick building within the security perimeter — a blessing, because once inside, I didn’t want to leave. It was a terrible pain to wait in line and go through security checks, like the airport but with a few hundred people at one check point.

Courtesy of Flickr user LEH4.

Courtesy of Flickr user LEH4.

The CNN Grill itself was awesome! It had a western theme and outdoor seating, with huge flat-screen TVs for watching CNN’s live convention coverage. The best part: Everything was free! Burgers, pasta, booze and desserts. I sat down and got a good buzz going, considering it took one and a half hours to get my food. The server must have thought I wouldn’t notice the long wait if she quickly refilled my glass. I still noticed but wasn’t feeling any pain.

After watching Ted Kennedy’s speech, I raced into the Pepsi Center. My press credentials got me near the main floor but didn’t permit me to stay there for some reason. Being opportunistic, I noticed a clear path towards the West Virginia delegation, which was half empty. I snaked my way down there and quickly found a great seat. I turned my “inadequate” credentials inside out and settled in for a great night of entertainment — I mean, political speeches.

Courtesy of Flickr user Spotbott

Courtesy of Flickr user Spotbott

The stadium was jammed with thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people, packed in at all sides and angles. They went a long way to make a big show of it — balloons, banners, pretty lights and plenty of red, white and blue. In between speeches, Obama volunteers ran up and down the aisles handing out signs reading “Common ground” or “Change”. Right before Michelle Obama went on, they handed out tall picket signs that read “Michelle”. Political crackheads collected dozens of these things to take home. Don’t judge, I told myself. Just enjoy.

Suddenly, Madeleine Albright sat right in front of me with her posse. This is really cool, I thought. My boss, who knew everybody there, walked up and down the aisles, hugging and kissing everyone. I just tried to remember their names so I didn’t look like a total idiot. This was all very new to me, and while it was exciting, I had to force myself not to get caught up in the drama of it all — the glamor of the lights, music, speeches and personalities.

In reality, the convention process isn’t about attendees, or the candidate, or which party wins the most seats in Congress. It’s about change within each American — not just those whom we elect — to recognize that we too play significant roles in our country’s evolution. Relying on the next president to solve the nation’s problems won’t cut it. We’ve got some serious work to do ourselves and in our own backyards.

Obviously, all this “change you can believe in” had seeped into my pores. It was late and I had to get my boss back to the Pepsi Stadium by 6:00 a.m. for a CNN interview. Too bad the CNN Grill wouldn’t open until 3:00 p.m. I sure could use a bloody Mary to start my day!

Jason Gedeik is a member of the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association and a political junkie (at least for this week).

Lead photo courtesy of Flickr user Spotbott.

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Penguin Punditry: From Denver, with love

By Jason Gedeik | Aug 26, 2008

DENVER — I landed in the Mile-High City for the first time on Saturday, as the sun set behind the great wall of the Rockies. What struck me was the landscape — so large, so wide and so intense. The Rockies jutted out of nowhere and stretched as far as the eye can see.

I drove by the state house, where thousands gathered to protest or watch those protesting. Signs exclaiming “Save Tibet” and “Bring communism back” lined the street, along with huge billboards of aborted fetuses. Wow, I thought. I had arrived.

–

Staying at the Hyatt Regency as a guest of the DNC has its perks. This amazing hotel is where all the top politicos are holed up during this week of craziness. Police in full riot gear are posted around the hotel to greet visitors. Only registered guests can enter the building, and each carries a “passport” that must be presented on approach. It felt cool at first but quickly wore off as a nuisance.

Courtesy of Flickr user Spotbott

Courtesy of Flickr user Spotbott

A walk through the hotel lobby gives one the prime-time lineup of Washington’s political elite. Senators, congressmen, religious leaders, famous delegates — they’re staying here. (Talk about great networking!) The hotel is also next to the convention hall, where a lot of activities take place during the day. Denver is trying to show its “progressive side”, so all of the hotels use room key cards made of sustainable wood. Great, but now they’re that much easier to accidentally break.

–

Sunday kicked off with an interfaith gathering of 1,000 people inside the Wells Fargo Theater. The Dems are really trying to woo religious voters this year, particularly Evangelicals and Catholic voters. They even hired Leah Daughtry, a Pentecostal pastor, as chair of the convention. She’s an amazing woman of deep faith and helped put together a stellar lineup of speakers.

Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun who wrote “Dead Man Walking”, gave a riveting speech on the nation’s need to look deep within its collective psyche and recognize its “sins”. She spoke with so much conviction, she even had Evangelicals in the audience shouting, “Sing it, sistah! Praise the Lord!”

There’s plenty of skepticism that this focus on faith is just for show to win over voters. Some of it is. Things quickly become rhetoric after an election, when a candidate no longer remembers promises made to this new “progressive-faith” constituency. But most of it seems sincere, honest and a positive step forward.

Jason Gedeik is a member of the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association and a political junkie (at least for this week).

Lead photo courtesy of Flickr user Zenobia_Joy.

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Bogus bomb threat empties Ellsworth cinema

By Jennifer Deseo | Aug 25, 2008

A false alarm prompted The Majestic movie theater to shut its doors Friday night, though not before giving patrons the boot.

A bomb threat was received by the the Ellsworth Drive multiplex sometime before 9:00 p.m., according to Laurie Yankowski, a spokesperson for the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center. The threat turned out to be a hoax, she said.

Nonetheless, theater managers decided to evacuate all 20 auditoriums and close for the night, Yankowski said. Movie goers who lost out that night were told to return on Sunday or Monday for refunds, she added.

Lead photo courtesy of Flickr user Mad Appler.

Update: According to Laurie Yankowski, Downtown Silver Spring spokespserson, the bomb threat might not have been received by telephone. The article has been corrected to reflect that. — JD (Aug 26, 2008)

 
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The Early Bird

By Jennifer Deseo | Aug 25, 2008

It’s your last week to save coin with the “Friend of The Penguin” card. Six local restaurants — Abol Ethiopian, Addis Ababa, Eggspectation, Ghar-e-Kabob, Mayorga Coffee and Nicaro — are hankering to cut you a 10-percent discount when you flash that card.

Get caught up on the details here, then hit them like a mofo. After Labor Day, the savings are history.

Once you’ve had your fill, check out this week’s other events:

Monday

SPONSORED CONTENT
Nicaro restaurant (8229 Georgia Ave) offers a three-course tasting menu for $30. Hit it.

Tuesday

8:00 a.m. MoCo public schools reopen for another year of learning, signaling the end of incessant whining from bored kids countywide. BYO number-two pencils.

SPONSORED CONTENT
Nicaro restaurant (8229 Georgia Ave) offers half-priced bottles of wine with dinner. Definitely hit it.

Thursday

SPONSORED CONTENT
Nicaro restaurant (8229 Georgia Ave) offers $6 cocktails for your sipping pleasure. Hit it or else.

 
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