Map for Clarendon Bar Crawl Saturday

Here is an update for the All American Bar Crawl going on this Saturday, June 29. The map above shows where all the pre-Independance day parties will be going on from 1pm to 9pm. More bars have been added to the particapation list, totally 11 now with Velocity 5 joining the party. Online tickets are only $12 after fees with the 30% promo code ALLAMERICAN2013!

Mad Rose Independance Day party

The best place to celebrate July 4th next Thursday could be at Mad Rose for their Star Spangled Independance Day Party. The no cover celebration starts at noon and includes buffet brunch, grilled food, and beer and liquor specials. DJs Biks and Karl N will provides music and hookahs available on the patio. This event being thrown by party pros and Arlington local Social DC PR so it bound to be a good time.

Drink specials will include:
$3 Red Apple
$3 Blue Moons
$3 Batch 19
$4 Rail Drinks
$4 'Merica Shots
$6 Bombs

GMU Operation Smile HH at Greene Turtle

Thursday June 27 Greene Turtle in Ballston and George Mason University is throwing a happy hour to benefit the Operation Smile non-profit charity. From 3 to 9pm a proceed of all sales goes directory to this charity, which provides free surgery and medical care for children born with facial deformaties and cleft palates internationally.

All American Bar Crawl

UPDATE: Use promo code ALLAMERICAN2013 when you buy you ticket online to save 30%.

You don't have to wait to July 4 to party hard for America's birthday. The massive All American Bar Crawl will take over Clarendon this Saturday, June 29 from 1 to 9pm The bar crawl hits at least 10 bars between Clarendon and Courthouse, with cheap drinks and food as well as prizes for the most outlandish patriotic costumes. Tickets are $15 online or $20 at the door. Check in and pick up a souvenir beer mug at Mad Rose or Clarendon Grill between 1 and 5pm and then bar hop to any (or all) of these bars:

Arlington Rooftop Bar & Grill
Clarendon Grill
Hunan Number One
Iota
Mad Rose Tavern
Mister Days
Sobe
Spider Kelly's
Whitlow's
Wilson Tavern
Velocity 5

Hokie night at Wilson Tavern Thursday

This Thursday, June 27 Wilson Tavern will be hosting Virginia Tech alumni for a Summer Mixer. The Hokie night lasts from 7pm to close and features drink specials like The Rail (a cocktail that combines 6 bottom shelf liquors plus a splash of juice and float of grenadine) and a best VT themed dressed contest.

Drink specials:
$7 VT Rails (ToTS recipe)
$5 Fireball shots

Kate Moran at Iota 9 Songwriter Series

Local talent Kate Moran is one of the nine musicians headlining Tuesday, June 25 at Iota. The show starts at 8pm and is a great deal with 30 songs from 9 musicians for one $12 cover. The Nine Songwriter Series is a varying group of artists started by Justin Trawick which frequests Clarendon monthly. The full lineup (not in order) follows below:

Justin Trawick
Alexe Colbus
Alex Vans
Elyse Krachman
Kate Moran
Michael Clem
Josh Himmelsbach
Lauren Calve
Luciano Lima 

Spider Kellys Tuesday running club

Spider Kelly's is gathering runners together Tuesday, June 25 for a Running Club. Meetup in front of Spider Kelly's on Wilson Blvd at 3pm, and the running starts at 3:30. They will be using the free Nike+ running app to track your run. After the 5k run, you can hang out at the bar ro refreshments and hang out with other runners.

Photos from Arlington Festival of the Arts

A large outdoor art festival took over Highland Street this weekend, with the Arlington Festival of the Arts featuring too many tents to count, five food trucks, outdoor beer tent and music.

The line of tents filled with art, jewelry and sculpture
s went for 3 blocks on Highland Street on Saturday
 and Sunday.

Beer tent Sunday behind the Metro in Clarendon park.
Patrons could get drafts in the shade while eating lunch
from one of the five food trucks parked nearby.

My favorite art exhibit by Whitney "SPOON"
Summerford. You are actually encouraged to use
a phone camera to view the handpainted scenes,
which helps bring out the abstracted images.

Clarendon Grill ThanksUSA Benefit Concert

Clarendon Grill is hosting a benefit for military families on Sunday, June 23. The ThanksUSA charity provides scholarships and education support to military families, with music provided by cover band Partners In Crime. The $10 cover is donated to the cause, with the event going from 5-10pm. There will be drink specials like $2 domestic beers from 5-7pm along with prize raffles. Visit their blog to donate directly to the charity if you can't make the event.

Chris4Life at Clarendon Ballroom Saturday

You have until midnight Friday night to buy tickets ahead of time for the great Chris4Life fundraiser event at Clarendon Ballroom Saturday, June 22. This is the third annual event in the memory of Erica Paul, who fought against colon cancer and participated in mulitiple fundraisers but passed in 2011. Chris4Life provides grants to colon cancer patients in hope they can spend more energy on the fight to get well and less energy worrying about money.

Saturday's event will feature a happy hour from 5-6pm on Ballroom's rooftop followed by drinks, food, auctions and prize drawings in the main room 6-9pm. Tickets are $25 online before midnight or $30 at the door.

Dangerously dark on Clarendon Blvd

For at least a week now, the new LED street lamps on eastbound Clarendon Blvd have not been lit at night. This creates a dangerous area as there is heavy pedistrian traffic here at night, especially with the Clarendon Metro station on one side, Mad Rose and Sobe late night bars on the other, and then a not obvious crosswalk not at an intersection connecting them.

Usually this type of infrastructure issue doesn't belong on this blog, but I feel annoyed by this avoidable situation. Having a key area of the town in darkenss really doesn't help a situation full of intoxicated people and speeding cars. Despite reporting the problem to Arlington county and its Twitter feed, I haven't heard anything back. For a county that loves shiny new funding projects like $310 million for a street car and $2.4 million for Artisphere, I don't think its unreasonable for me to expect them to maintain basic utilities like street lighting.

Big Beach Blanket Wine Bash at EatBar

EatBar is celebrating their fifth annual Big Beach Blanket Wine bash this Saturday, June 22. The party goes from 1 to 4pm and features 20 different wines designed to be enjoyed on a summer day along with Blue Mountain Lager on tap. Snacks are also provided with BBQ pork sliders, mini  hot dogs with cole slaw & spicy mustard and other picnic themed bites. Cost is $27 and you can get tickets here.

Date Social at Velocity 5 Friday

Date Social is having their first group dating event this Friday, June 21 at Velocity 5. At their social events 20 guys and 20 girls are split into groups of four each, and talk for 12 minutes and then rotate groups. At the end of the night each person can pick up to 5 people to be re-introduced via email the next day. The event starts at 7pm and you can sign up on Eventbrite here for $6.

Del Ray Music Festival June 22

Don't miss the Del Ray Music Festival this Saturday June 22, as its a free event from noon until 9pm and showcases many local bands. This is the seventh year the event has graced Alexandria, VA with the goal to "highlight, support, and showcase the local musical talent through a community event for families and children." The headliner for the event is Catie Curtis, with other bands on two stages including:
The Walkaways
The Highballers
Orchard Wall
The Beanstalk Library
Tiffany Thompson
The Weathervanes
Kate Moran Band
Elroy Jenkins
Rock of Ages student performances

The event offers food from local Del Ray restaurants and is family friendly with a moon bounce and games for kids. They are also partnered with the non-profit all-volunteer Guitars not Guns, which aims to use music to inspire at-risk and underprivileged youth by providing music education and mentoring opportunities.

The list of musicians and events is too long for here, so check out their Facebook, website or Twitter for more event information. Thanks to Kate Moran for organizing this, and if you want to volunteer you can sign up here.

Beanstalk Library at Iota Saturday

DC native band Beanstalk Library will be releasing their second album The View From Here next week and is celebrating with a performance at Iota Saturday. On June 15 the rock band will be joined on stage by Normal Rockwell at  9pm, with the $12 cover getting you in for both bands. Beanstalk Library has played in Clarendon many times before, and also alongside other local talents like Andy Zipf and Molly Hagen

Justin Trawick at Iota June 28

Local musician Justin Trawick just released a new music video for his song "Starting Over". Justin is not only very talented, but he keeps incredibly busy by playing with his own band and organizing the  9 Songwriter Series and the 9 Comedy Series that plays in Clarendon regularly. If you like what you see here, Justin Trawick and his band will be playing at Iota on June 28 along with Mission South. But Justin is sure to lend his talents on stage at the next 9 Songwriter Series show also at Iota on Tuesday, June 25.

Mad Rose Bachelorette party and Crittenton Services fundraiser

Mad Rose is hosting a Bachelorette viewing party this Monday June 9 at 7:30pm. They will be watching someone named Brian Jarosinski try to win someone named Desiree's heart on The Bachelorette season 9 finalie, a show I obviously do not watch. But I will be attending because the $5 donation at the door gets you access to wine and beer specials and goes directly to The Crittenton Services of Greater Washington, a charity that encourages teen girls to stay in school, avoid pregnancy, and graduate from high school.

Also in attendance will be Chris Bukowski, who was on the Bachelorette show previously and is opening a new bar in Clarendon soon called Bracket Room. Thanks to Social DC PR and The Madison for promoting the event.

The WeatherVanes at Iota Saturday

Local American band The WeatherVanes are playing at Iota Saturday, June 8 to celebrate the pre-release of their new album Long Way Down. The $12 cover also includes performances by Dean Fields and Norman Rockwell.

DC Music Download recommended the upcoming show because "the WeatherVanes and Norman Rockwell is like a match made in Americana heaven; these are two of the strongest bands playing in this space at the moment."

Bike to the Beach Autism awareness fundraiser at O'Sullivans

O'Sullivan's Cycling Team is participating in the annual fundraising bike ride to raise money for Autism awareness and research called Bike to the Beach. This is a 100 mile, one day century ride from DC to Dewey. O'Sullivan's Irish Pub has graciously agreed to not only sponsor the team, but also donate 20% of their net profits between 6 and 9pm on Thursday, July 11, 2013. 

Margot MacDonald speaks at TEDx Rosslyn

Local muscian Margot MacDonald will be one of 19 presenters at this Sunday's TEDx event in Rosslyn. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, and TEDx are locally organized events in the spirit of TED's mission. The topic of Sunday's talks is "Imagining the Future". Tickets were $45 and they have sold out quickly, but you can still watch it on livestream here.

Cancer Prevention happy hour fundraiser at Wilson Tavern

This Thursday June 6 Wilson Tavern is hosting a happy hour for a great cause from 5pm to 9pm. That night 10% of their bar and 100% of registration proceeds will go to the Prevent Cancer Foundation's fundraising efforts for the 5k Walk/Run in September. The evening includes extended happy hour specials and a pair of sourviegner sunglasses. Tickets are $8 online or $10 at the door. You can check out the event on Facebook for more information or donate directy to them here.

Velocity 5 closeout 80s party and fundraiser June 12

Next week on Wednesday June 12, Velocity 5 in Courthouse is throwing their last big party. Before the location becomes the German themed Social Haus, an 80's themed dance party is happening with music by the Screaming Monkeys. This combo event goes from 5:30 to 8:30pm and is both a throwback dance party and a networking event, featuring some free appetizers, drinks and valet for those who get there early. The event is free, but you can RSVP here.

The night will raise money for a local nonprofit FACETS, which operates in Fairfax to "end the cycle of poverty through education and counseling", by giving 20% of the bar proceeds to the charity. This is also the last event organized by HD Happy Hour, as have been acquired by the Washington Business Journal.