5 months ago
12.23.2008
The international media comes to Bethesda
This morning, at 7:55 a.m., a 66 inch water main exploded in Bethesda, Md. Luckily for me, that's my beat.
Now water mains burst with fairly regular consistency in Montgomery County, due to a combination of aging infrastructure and fluctuating weather. The difference between this break and every other one was that there were people trapped in their cars.
I was down at the scene for a few hours, along with reporters from The Washington Post (normal), CNN (usually not normal), the BBC (weird), some Korean news channel (?!#?), and about 50 or 60 other reporters, cameramen, and photographers.
All the people are safe, which is why I can say this was really pretty awesome to watch.
The video is from CNN, and you can read my article here.
12.22.2008
Albums of the Year: Biggest Disappointment
Here comes the ubiquitous year-end list. I'm going to try and spread it out over a couple days, mainly due to travel and HTML inadequacies on my part.
Since it's tough/impossible to embed song files, I'm going to try and at least post a video link of one of the album's songs, or at least a link to the artist's site.
This year I tried to expand my tastes a bit (Americana? British disco-pop? Sound like fun!), with mixed results. No matter how much critics try to push James McMurtry or M83 on me, their appeal has only grown slightly. For those of you who have no idea what/who I'm talking about, don't worry, Kanye West is on my list!
I'll kick it off with my biggest disappointment, then follow that with some honorable mentions and my favorite albums of the year.
Bloc Party- Intimacy
When their debut Silent Alarm came out in 2005, I could not stop listening to it. The tight, spiky, Gang Of Four-style guitar work, the British lyrics I couldn't understand, the general grandiosity of the whole album, everything. The opening line of "Like Eating Glass," It's so cold in this house, became a battle-cry in my Philadelphia rowhouse, as energy costs drove my roommates and I to drop the thermostat to 55 degrees and cover all the windows with blankets to save money.
I even grew to love A Weekend in the City, the band's second album, which seemed a bit overwrought, over-written and over-edited.
But when Intimacy came out this October, I couldn't even bring myself to buy it. While my catalog includes as much electro-pop as the next guy, this album just relied too heavily on the synths and not enough on the guitar work that made the band.
This video is for the only song I actually like on the album.
12.17.2008
Bearded Dragons
At my newspaper we have a unique relationship with The Washington Post, allowing our articles to be reprinted periodically in their regional section.
This is one of those stories.
I got an e-mail a couple weeks ago with an interesting subject, and one close to my heart: beard growing. As someone whose laziness usually overrides facial hygiene, this story was perfect for me.
It ran in both The Gazette and Post. Dan Gross was the photographer.
12.16.2008
The Kojo Nnamdi Show
On Dec. 10, The Gazette published an article, entitled "Council passes law to curb mansions," that I wrote. By the afternoon of Dec. 11, the article was cited by National Public Radio's WAMU, on The Kojo Nnamdi Show.
Listen to the broadcast here.
New Web site
So this is my new Web site. It's simple, and hopefully you will like it. If you don't, well, there is a list of other sites I enjoy on the right; maybe you will like those better.
Check back periodically for updates about articles, links to stories and photos, and general fun.
Thanks for stopping by.
Brad
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