Busboys and Assholes

Chai and I met up tonight, after her Rip Van Winkle move, to catch up and get some dinner. We decided to head over to Busboys and Poets since it's nearby and we had a fairly good time last time we stopped by for Open Mic night. After tonight, we've reached the consensus that that place is totally effing overrated.

We got there at a little past eight pm and faced a 45 minute wait. So we took some seats at the bar. After the bill for the first round came back at just over $15, we decided that, since we were obviously going to be at the bar for awhile, maybe we should switch to some cheaper beer.

Chai put in the order for two Amstel Lights, pretty much the cheapest cheap damn swill beer you can get, and this is the bartender:

"That's um....$10.50. Oh, er, wait...now it's $12.45, sorry."

Neither of us were really paying good attention to this exchange he had with himself about our bill, until NEARLY TWO HOURS LATER we were finally escorted to our table and asked for a drink menu. Amstel Lights? Four dollars. How do two four-dollar beers add up to more than twelve dollars? I mean, we're not trying to be cheap bastards here, but the guy was blatantly trying to rip us off.

Luckily, our waiter was both extremely nice and cute and brought us some drinks on the house after we innocently inquired about our bar tab. Still, we had some decent but not spectacular sandwiches (sandwiches! Saturday night fare!), after being passed over on the waiting list for hours because they forgot we were sitting at the bar (with everyone else who was waiting for a table), and were taken for fools by the bartender. You think we're going back?

Hell. No.

(And if you think at least one of us (cough...Chai) didn't say, "I'm totally blogging about this," you don't know us well enough.)

Update: Not enough Busboys hate? Chai does the review right.

Keep your eye on:

A new DJ named Nina. She spun for her first time ever last night at the Black Cat and was spot-on. Nina is roommates with my good friend Slyvie - who hit the ground running last night off her plane from London. I think she ducked and rolled out of the plane's rear hatch as it touched down onto the tarmac at Dulles at 8pm last night, simultaenously changing into a sexy top and dialing her cell phone to tell me to get my ass down to 14th Street.

It was actually "Ladies DJ Night," which somehow that translates into "Lesbian Make-Out Party" for the DC populace, but we still had a pretty good time (I think our guy friends had a better time!). We heard about three dj's while we were there, but Nina out-shined the rest. Slyvie told me she dj's for some pirate radio station, but this was her first time in a club - I hope it's not the last!

Tonight is the Project 4 Gallery opening (903 U St), which I'll be attending, so come say hello!

Here are some photos from Wall Snatchers for your viewing enjoyment. The show has great hours, as far as galleries are concerned, so you have no excuse not to go see it.






Click on the photos to go to my Flickr page for more.

Update: God, I hate exclamation points. I don't know what got into me. I deeply apologize for their extreme overuse in this post.

Friday's Lesson

Here at Two-Timing the Cosmos, I like to make mistakes so you don't have to. Here's Friday's Lesson for you all:

If you're going to head over to an art show straight from work and liberally partake of the free beverages (and you wondered why they ran out), then go home around 8, immediately change clothes and head over to Cue for some more beers with a friend and the roommate, then go straight over to DC9 for, you know, a few more beers, then for the love of all that is holy, at some point in the evening sit your ass down and EAT SOME FOOD.

Oh sure, you might have a slightly bizarre, but fun time. You might see some pretty cool graf and even leave your own tag on the wall (TTtC - holla!). (No, I didn't really write that, but I did write 'VTA,' cause it's all about the 805, bitches.) You might even run into the art world's social chair, who will introduce you to half the people on the planet. You'll meet some fellow bloggers, gallery owners, and other interesting people, and walk away with a fistfull of business cards. Then, you'll come home and convince your old maid of a roommate to come out for a beer - unbelievably! - and watch him talk with your funky dj friend about Boston like they were old drinking buddies. Sure, it'll be a good time.

Until the next morning when you wake up at TEN-THIRTY, wrecked, and start cashing in on the good will you've racked up over the last month with your boss. You'll roll into the office around noon, running into a friend in the elevator who points out your tardiness loudly enough for the other passengers to look over when he says in a mocking voice, "Insomnia again?" Around 3pm, the hangover will finally start to kick in, just as you're talking with Chai about her martini happy hour this evening. You'll totally regret coming to work at all when your boss makes you, like, work. And basically, you'll kick yourself for your empty-stomach drinking.

So your lesson for the day is: Dinner - Just Do It!

More later on Wall Snatchers. Photos galore!

Meet me by the graffiti

Boy, as soon as I saw one notice yesterday for the opening of Wall Snatchers tonight, it was suddenly all over the interweb. Looks like it'll be a pretty crowded show. I'll be there with my funky dj friend, who will no doubt lend me some street cred as I check out the street art in my law firm issue oxford and sweater vest. As if I could add to the maximum oxymoron-ism already established by having a graffiti exhibit in Georgetown.

I asked my friend if he wanted to cab over, to which he replied, "Don't you use the Circulator? Learn it, live it, love it." The what? The Circulator! Who knew there was some easy, cheap way to get across the city! I guess this bus, which costs one measly dollar (with your SmarTrip, if you want) and stops about every three blocks, has been around for about a year, but they're just starting to do some advertising push. Turns out it stops right in front of my office building on K and it'll drop me off right on Wisconsin and M. Man, I love this city more and more everyday.

Speaking of my own personal arts agenda, I'll also be checking out the Project 4 Gallery opening at 9th and U St. How could I not go when I can practically see the gallery from my front steps? Chai will be joining me and it's more than a possibility we'll roll out the night with some chili cheese fries. Mmmm....Ben's....

Update: While we're on the arts, please please go see Hiroshi Sugimoto's exhibit at the Hirshhorn. His photographs are just fantastic...If I could afford real art, this is exactly the kind of stuff I'd want to look at everyday. Am I above pimping myself? No, I don't think I am.

Do it for the Children

Via DCist.

Virginia wants a Reagan Day.

While I'm as opposed to the idea of celebrating Ronald Reagan as much as the next person who appreciates rational taxation schematics, I think it's fair to concede that letting children skip an entire day of learning is the perfect way to honor him.

Why does the metro hate me?

I was just trapped underground with a zillion eight-year-old screaming girls in princess costumes.

After spending 45 fruitless minutes trying to get to Union Station - with a train that held at one station for 20 minutes, a broken train, another train that discontinued service one stop before mine, repairs forcing trains to share the same track, ghost trains passing by, and no train in sight that would eventually take me to where I needed to go - I decided to just go the fuck home.

When I got to Gallery Place, I realized I missed the memo about the ice capades being in town. People should really warn me when the children are going to swarm like this.