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Bad Brains are having a moment in Washington, D.C. In honor of Are You Ready! The Birth of Bad Brains & Their First Studio Recording, a new album collecting the music the pioneering D.C. punk band made between 1978 and 1980, there was an event last night at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library featuring Bad Brains bass player Darryl Jenifer and (Dischord boss, Fugazi leader) Ian MacKaye. Tonight a new exhibition opens at Lost Origins Gallery.
A lot has gone down since Bad Brains moved to New York City in 1980, and some band members have been dealing with health issues in recent years.
Are You Ready! The Birth of Bad Brains & Their First Studio Recording at Lost Origins Gallery brings together rarely seen artifacts, film footage, photographs, and original flyers from the collections of local archivists, the MLK Punk Archive, and the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. City Paper contributor Steve Kiviat writes about the exhibition in City Lights this week: “Very quickly this band of Black men began wowing listeners in the mostly White punk scene and beyond with their frenetic but well-played sounds. While many punk bands played fast tempos, few had the chops, songwriting skills, and energy of Bad Brains.”
“The exhibit, curated by Jason Hamacher of Lost Origins Gallery and MacKaye … includes the console from Inner Ear, Super 8 film live footage, previously unseen photos, a hand-drawn Evan Keeling map chronicling the locations of Bad Brains’ D.C.-area gigs from that period, and some historic flyers for those shows from that pre-internet era,” writes Kiviat.
Guarded: Silence buyer and Defense Secretary (for now) Pete Hegseth is beefing up the National Guard’s presence in D.C., even authorizing the use of boats conducting operations against “suspected gang leaders and drug traffickers in Anacostia” and “vehicles typically used by U.S. troops on battlefields like Iraq and Afghanistan … to support law enforcement officers making drug busts.” Guard troops are not allowed to handle many police duties or make arrests. Local leaders voiced concerns at the D.C. Council’s public safety committee hearing yesterday. The expanded presence is set to be in place through the end of the year, and the guard is expected to remain here through early 2029. Minus one point for intimidating D.C. residents and wasting our tax dollars. -1 [AP News, Politico, WTOP]
Arch triumph? Federal judge Tanya Chutkan ordered a 14-day block on convicted felon and President Donald Trump’s 250-foot arch just after the National Capital Planning Commission approved it on Thursday night. Trump wanted to start construction immediately after approval, and DOJ officials acknowledged that a construction firm has begun work on the project despite a court order. Nearly 1,000 pages of public comments have been submitted opposing the arch, and three lawsuits have been filed to block it. Despite the seismic political shift this week, Trump wants to push ahead as lawsuits and lawmakers try to stop it and protesters show up daily. Minus one point for approving the arch but plus two for pushback. +1 [NYT, NBC4, New Republic]
Hate a center: There were at least 41 data center measures on the ballot this week and voters rejected all except one. Americans of all political persuasions united against the centers and politicians who favor them: Voters in more than 30 localities across nine states voted for moratoriums, bans, and other measures Tuesday. Incoming governors Gina Hinojosa (Texas), Keisha Lance Bottoms (Georgia), and Amy Acton (Ohio) all promised to slow the development of data centers. Plus one point for bipartisan rejection of something that benefits a small group of tech bros and pollutes the environment. +1 [Guardian, TPM, Wired, Semafor]
Read the room: If there is one (other) thing voters rejected this week, it’s Trump’s obsessive focus on his expensive, fast-tracked, unpopular, tacky vanity projects. This week he signed a proclamation that would prevent future changes to the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. “We’re making it a national monument and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody,” he told reporters. (Oh, don’t worry, we’ve already ordered two tons of sage to disinfect.) It’s the third time this week that the tone-deaf president rambled on about his pet projects while Americans struggle to afford basic needs. Minus one point for being utterly out of touch. -1 [AP News]
Most popular: In January, Democratic legislators may have enough votes to get rid of the Electoral College—a system that allows the winner of the popular vote to lose. But each state that enacts the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which can only go into effect if a majority of states participate (currently 18 do), would give its electors to the winner of the national popular vote. Plus one point because soon it may be possible to elect a president by a national popular vote. +1 [Mother Jones]
From the early 2000s until it closed in March 2019, a subset of gay D.C. was synonymous with Cobalt. The three-story nightclub at 17th and R streets was the place to lose yourself on the dance floor … or in one of the bar’s infamous bathrooms—depending on what you were looking for. On Nov. 14, Crush Dance bar is gonna bank hard on that millennial nostalgia when it attempts to transform into Cobalt—complete with memorabilia from the club and staffed by former employees—for one night only. It might be possible, considering Crush owners Stephen Rutgers and Mark Rutstein worked at Cobalt back in the day. The event will include a four-hour block of LURE, Cobalt’s long-running lez party, and the club’s beloved underwear contest hosted by drag queen Lena Lett. [City Cast DC]
Local artists share their hopes for life in D.C. under Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George. [51st]
Yesterday, the Prince George’s County Planning Board unanimously approved the National Harbor Sphere, which means developers could begin work on the 14-acre site by the end of this year. [WBJ, Axios]
