Clarendon Day this Saturday Sept 24

The annual Clarendon Day festival is coming this Saturday September 24. The all day event is family friendly will start with a 10k and 5k run, followered by live music on two stages, arts & crafts tables and food vendors from local restaurants.

Here is the list of musicians playing that day, with some of my local favorites like Honor By August, Andy Zipf, and Justin Tradwick:

IOTA Stage
(Wilson Blvd & Highland St)
11:00    ERIC BRACE and PETER COOPER
12:00    BOBBY THOMPSON
1:15      MELODIME
2:30      BETHANY and THE GUITAR
3:45      HONOR BY AUGUST

 Arlington's Car-Free Diet Stage
(Clarendon Boulevard at Garfield St)

11:00    BROTHER SHAMUS
12:00    HELLO
1:15      JUSTIN TRAWICK GROUP

2:30      ANDY ZIPF BAND
3:45      THE WALKAWAYS

Tristan Prettyman at IOTA tonight

Photo via tristanprettyman.com

The beautiful and talented Tristan Prettyman will be returning tonight to Iota's stage at 8pm. The singer, guitarist, surfer and former model has two albums out and is working on her third. I'm sure the show will be packed, as last time she came to Clarendon the show was sold out early.

Upcoming Iota shows: Ten Out of Tenn and Tristan Prettyman

Ten Out of Tenn members. Photo via ExpressNightOut

The upcoming week is an exciting one for the music scene in Clarendon! The first of the not-to-miss shows will be at Iota on Friday Sept 16 as the amazing super-band Ten Out Of Tenn return to Arlington. The tiny stage will be literally overflowing with exceptional rock/folk/indie talent, including accomplished musicians like Butterfly Boucher, Katie Herzig, K. S. Rhoads, and Jeremy Lister!

More fantastic live music continues on Tuesday Sept 20 with Tristan Prettyman gracing the stage of Iota again. I'm sure the show will be completely sold out before Tristan takes the stage and graces us with her beauty and talent!

Then a week later, Iota is hosting their 9 Songwriters Series on Monday Sept 26. This jam packed show of talent will include locals like Justin Trawick and Andy Zipf. This is a great value, as the cover charge is $10 so you basically get to see each artist for only $1 each!

South Block Smoothies' free breakfast burrito

South Block breakfast burrito & Mango Mania smoothie

Today South Block was offering free breakfast burritos to those who liked them on Facebook. Thanks to Clarendon Culture who tipped me off to this nice freebie. I tried a flour totillia egg, cheese and bacon which hit the spot for a quick outdoor snack on such a beautiful day. It paired nicely with a delicious Mango Mania smoothie.

Apartments from Dr. Dremo's ashes... one day?

Plans for 2000 Wilson. Photo via DCMetroCentric.com

It's interesting that while most of the land in Arlington is bought up by developers and then designed so that every square foot of space is used, there are still strips of baren and undeveloped space stuck in real estate limbo.

The best example of this is the space where Dr. Dremo's used to reside in Courthouse. Torn down over four years ago, the large open area now serves as an eyesore as plans to builda mixed use building continually get delayed. Clarendon's own version of story happened with the same developer named Zom in the space next to O'Sullivan's that was supposed to be the 10 story Waverly building.

But now DCMetroCentric is reporting that their are rumors of some progress on the 2000 Wilson project. It will be nice to see the land used for something one day, but I don't think the area needs more high rise apartment buildings. Rather, I would perfer to see more afordable light commericial spaces to promote more restaurant diverstiy. Clarendon is lucky to have tons of great dining options now, but more and more of them are becoming higher end and more expensive restuarants.

Arlington Arts Center Happy Hour Sept 15

AAC on Wilson Blvd, photo via SwedishScene.com

Next Thursday September 15 the Arlington Arts Center on Wilson Blvd is hosting their first in a series of fall happy hours. You can register online here and for $10 get tickes for the wine, cheese and art event from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Sounds like a good date night event!