Halloween in Clarendon

Halloween night this year was a little colder and much wetter than in 2008, but Arlington still had a lot of party goers in costume out and about. After 11pm the rain stopped and the costumed action picked up.

As with every year, Clarendon Ballroom, Mister Days and Clarendon Grill were the places to see and be seen in costume. Lines were long in each venue, but none more so than at Ballroom with a queue all the way around the block around Eventide.

Hailing a taxi was just about impossible at 2am when everything started closing up. It was great people watching witnessing the competing costumes trying to flag down a cab. Many fled to 24 hour restaurants to recuperate, and it was fun to watch Silver Dinner as it was full of half awake colorful costumes.

We also hit up Alexandria earlier in the evening hoping there would also be some original get ups to gawk at there. Sadly the rain kept people away from Old Town mostly, except for an invite only event at Torpedo Factory. Tuxedo Frog made an appearance down by the water front, who was received as the best dressed there.

Halloween Party @ Velocity 5 in Falls Church

Tonight Velocity 5 in Falls Church (not the one close by in Court House unfortunately) is hosting a "Freaks Come Out at Night" Halloween party. $5 cover gets you in and drink specials include:

$2 velocity draft
$4 vodka (42 below)
$4 bacardi (any flavor)
$5 mini bombs

Arlington Flu Forum tonight

For information about where to get flu vaccines and who should be getting them, attend the forum tonight in Court House:

Where: County Board Room, 2100 Clarendon Blvd, Third Floor
When: Wednesday, October 28th
Time: 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM

For more complete details click here.

Thanks to What's Happening in Arlington Village for the heads up.

Arlington Turkey Trot 5k Nov 26

Lyon Park and Ashton Heights will host a 5k fun run/walk on November 26. The Turkey Trot will raise money for three local charities:

• Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless
• Arlington Food Assistance Center
• Doorways for Women and Families

The race starts at 8am at the Christ Church of Arlington on North Pershing Drive. Map of the race route is here.

Twitter Convention Twtrcon 09 @ Grand Hyatt

The Twitter for business convention TWTRCON took place at the Grand Hyatt in DC. The one day event featured dozens of interesting speakers talking about the uses of Twitter and other new social media for business, government, non-profit and charity uses. Hundreds of attendees represented everything from the Department of State to local customer service firms.

A few speakers of note:

Donors Choose is a charity that helps connector donors to classrooms in need. They gave out $5 donation cards to each attendee that they could redeem to the school of their choice.

Charity: Water is an amazing charity that works to provide clean drinking to the 1 billion people in the world who are lacking clean water.

Captain Sukach of the Air Force Public Affairs Agency told us interesting stories on how the military uses Twitter, and had a great quote of "if you are not failing you are not trying."

Craigslist.com founder Craig Newmark participated and was also a fan of Donors Choose. He stated that in order to succeed, "print media needs to restore trust" with their audience.

Funniest Fed on Oct 23 at Cinema Drafthouse

Arlington Cinema ‘n Drafthouse is hosting the 2009 Funniest Fed Competition on Friday October 23rd. The comedy special starts at 8pm and pits six finalists against each other:

Doug Hecox, FHWA
Kevin Blackerby, Smithsonian
Kate Taylor, US Senate
Shahryar Rizvi, Census
John Quirk, US Senate
Jeff Maurer, EPA

Portions of the night's $15 tickets will benefit the Fisher House Foundation.

Thanks Delia for the heads up!

Taste of Clarendon on Sunday Nov 1

Professionals in the City are running a "Taste of Clarendon" event to sample the fares at four of Clarendon’s restaurants: La Tasca, Restaurant 3, Ri Ra, Sette Bello. Cuisine varies from Spanish, Soulful Southern Cooking, Irish and Regional Northern and Southern Italian.

The event lasts from 2 to 6pm on November 1st and is $49 if tickets are purchased by this Friday on their website.

Open Mic Comedy @ Eleventh Street Lounge tonight

Eleventh Street Lounge is one of my favorite venues in Clarendon, as it is a little more classy and tasteful than the typical bars and clubs packed with the identical post-college drunkards.

Known for its techno music DJ's, warm red interior, and a speak-easy like basement section, Eleventh has added another feature to make it even more attractive. Every first and third Mondays of each month the lounge hosts an open mic comedy standup, with comedians ranging from beginners to veterans.

The open mic that starts at 8pm. More info at their site or their Facebook event page.

True Womanhood @ Black Cat tonight

Local indie/experimental/rock group True Womanhood will be performing at Black Cat again!

Black Cat praises TW as "definitely different. Tons of drums, a few homemade instruments, and some well-placed pop hooks makes for an experimental, energetic, and very entertaining show. Who doesn't love a band that loves double kick drums AND crafts?"

Don't miss them and the Grooms tonight at 9pm!

Photo credit: Express Night Out

GWU Alumni Happy Hour Oct 28

GWU's ISTM program is hosting its first alumni happy hour on Wednesday, October 28. Rub shoulders if you are a GeeDub graduate from 5 to 8pm at Mister Days.

Click here to register for the free event.