8/17/00:

We're getting another new hair salon by a former
Harlow's stylist, called Luna's, located above
"Tiramisu restaurant" on 2014 P Street. 

Garage (1214-B Conn Ave) is changing from a live-music
venue to a dance club, reopening next month.

Firehook Bakery (Q St) has applied for a sidewalk
patio permit.

In spite of CityPaper report, Visions will not open
until their "Catch-Up" Festival begins August 25.

Local development team is hoping to build an "upscale
urban concept" garden store on 14th St...

The auto school for juvenile ex-offenders being
planned for the Sign of the Lamb building on 14th St
is undergoing community scrutiny for misleading
request for city bond authority - not just another
abuse of government support, but also a deceptive
attempt to squeeze in another social service program
in the Logan Circle neighborhood.  See below for more
info.

A new hardware store is expected at corner of 12th &
Florida.

In Adams-Morgan, Felix will be expanding into the
India Gate space.

Cool stuff in Mt. Pleasant:  DOS GRINGOS cafe opened a
few months ago - delicious food (but needs help with
lighting and acoustics);  THE PEOPLE GARDEN (3155 Mt
Pleasant St) is a small but refreshingly beautiful
organic food store.  Expect a healthy cafe to open
next door soon.  Further north, look for the
intriguing MARX CAFE to open by September 1.

A new luxury apartment building with 202 units will be
built between MCI Center and Natl Building Museum, on
5th St across from the beautiful St Mary's Church and
Rectory buildings.  See
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2000/08/14/story5.html

"Son of Bigfoot" premieres for one night only at the
Source Monday August 21 - see full message below... 
(cheap Monday night entertainment!)

Free summer concerts:  Thursdays from 5:50-7:30pm at
Freedom Plaza is JammaLamma Live - (August 24 is
Sister Sledge!)  See
http://www.downtowndc.org/visitor/events/events.html

Farragut has "Music in the Park" Thursdays at noon
through Aug 31 - see
http://www.gtbid.com/newlook/news.html#music

DC Library is looking for old copies of local
newspapers...  see message below.

Best regards,
Michael 
------------------------------------------------
Opposition to Automotive Training Academy on 14th
Street.  In the early 90's, nearly one-third of all
District-funded social service programs were housed
between Thomas Circle and U Street.  Over the years,
the Logan Circle community has successfully sought to
reduce the number of social service program facilities
operating along 14th Street and to more equitably
distribute them throughout the city, where the
programs are needed to support local communities. 
Recently, however, former Redskin George Starcke is
trying to open an automotive training academy in the
former Sign of the Lamb building at 1515 14th Street. 
Starcke's Excel Institute has, in the past, trained
juvenile ex-offenders.  Just last December, the
community thought it would be welcoming the Community
Academy Public Charter School to that location, where
the school would establish an arts and humanties
curriculum tied into the local theaters, or so said
Kent Amos, the head of the school.  The community even
supported the Amos' successful effort to obtain $15m
in bond financing from the DC government to support,
among other things,  renovation of the Sign of the
Lamb building.   However, Amos has now leased away the
property to the training academy; and the
justification for a portion of the bond financing has
disappeared.   Stop work orders have been issued and
violated.  Community residents, major commerical
property holders, and Councilmember Evans are
currently working to find alternative arrangements for
the training academy to identify uses for the property
that will support the needs of the wider Logan and
Dupont Circle communities.

------------------------------------------------
Rising from the muck like those zombies in the
"Thriller" video...the final installment of the
horror-romance-comedy "Bigfoot" trilogy: "SON OF
BIGFOOT."

On Monday, the 21st of August, at the Source Theatre,
at 8:00 PM, Gorilla Theatre Productions is performing
a staged reading of a new play by Roberto
Aguirre-Sacsa, the author of "Say You Love Satan."
Tickets are ten dollars, with proceeds going to
benefit the AIDs Marathon.

For those of you unfamiliar with the motley assortment
of monsters from "Bigfoot Loves Swamp Thing" (1998)
and "Bride of Bigfoot" (1999), "SON OF BIGFOOT" finds
its protagonists on the brink of a brave new world, a
terrifying terra incognita, where--once again, for one
last time--ghosts from their imperfect pasts haunt
their waking lives, and dreams of a possibly
nightmarish future come to them in the dead of night.
In "SON," our four beloved vampire-heroes, thirsty for
love--or, if not love, then sex, and if not sex, then
anything--Roberto, Jody, Steven, and Julie must
navigate a world of werewolves and body-snatchers,
pod-people and evil twins, invisible lovers and demon
ex's, cat people and worst of all...their parents.
Will they find their soul-mates?  More importantly,
will they find their souls?      

Smoking that same cigar from last summer,
director--and artistic associate of Gorilla Theatre
Productions--Sara Patricia Jaffe was overheard saying:
"I love this play's rawness, its messiness. 'SON' is
not a 'well-made' play, and I mean that in the best
possible sense. I love this play and I love this cast.
This cast is hot. This cast is throbbing. This cast is
in control." 

The all-star cast of "SON OF BIGFOOT" includes the
Irene Ryan-nominated Julie Alexander, Joshua "Help,
I've been attacked by zombies" Barrett, Elizabeth
Brammer, Jeffrey Johnson, Ian LeValley, Kerri "But
that's not what the script says" Rambow, Andy
Rapoport, PJ Simmons, Catherine "Bad Beans" Weidner,
Steven Mazzola, and Kevin Adams as the Nicaraguan
Ambassador.
  
For reservations or more information, e-mail me back
or call (202) 518-5854.  That's 518-JULI. 
------------------------------------------------
Back in the 1970s Edward Seneff published a stable of
community newspapers--Southwest Spectator, Georgetown
Spectator, Capitol Hill Spectator....etc. (like the
Current today).

The Washingtoniana Division has a fragmented set of
holdings. Anyone out there have copies tucked away in
a basement or attic that they can give to us? Our DC
Newspaper Project is trying to collect and preserve
all 
the newspapers published in Washington.

http://dclibrary.org/washingtoniana/us-newspaper-project.html
Thanks for any leads....

Matthew Gilmore
dchist@hotmail.com