ThayerAvenue.com

The InterWeb is Broken
Stupid RCN. It’s been three days now, and resolution is supposed to come today between the hours of 2:00 and 5:00pm. At least that’s what the Mumbai Help Desk told me. In the meantime, here’s some food for thought…

Music Venue Overcomes Hurdles
It looks like Live Nation is one step closer to becoming a reality. I know I’ve talked a lot here about getting things going faster for this project (and bitched about IMP impeding progress with Seth’s offer), but after a meeting with Seth, his publicist, Audrey, and Silver Spring, Singular, I am convinced Seth Hurwitz is not evil incarnate, doesn’t have three heads, and might actually have a larger best interest in mind.

I’ve labeled some of his moves as anti-competitive, which might still be the case in some sense of the word, but Seth is a competitor. As Ted Mankin himself (of Live Nation) said, music is a volume business. Seth hasn’t gotten to be one of the best by going with the flow. It’s a cutthroat, competitive business, and like any great business owner, Seth wants to win.

When we talked about bands that would play here – and the segmentation of music between 9:30 and a Silver Spring Venue – I pressed him on getting the top notch bands to Silver Spring. I was impressed with the answer: “Bands know 9:30. It has such a rich history, and I’m the one that established that. When bands come to the DC area, a lot of them want to play at 9:30. There’s nothing I can do about that. But I would make sure to give Silver Spring the kind of music the people here want.”

I can respect that, and I have to hand it to him that he is the one who made 9:30 what it is. So for what it’s worth, I’d be more than happy to have Seth run a club up here. But this process is so far along, there’s no way anything could fall through at this point, right?

Yes, Birchmere people – you can still go screw yourselves.

Downtown Fight Club
I’ve seem more and more brawls and scruffles in the downtown area. Nice to know the Washington Post is hard on the heels of pressing news about Silver Spring. Sure, it’s newsworthy, but I feel like it perpetuates the old stereotypes about Silver Spring. I guess anything to divert attention from the safe streets of DC, right?

814 Thayer Avenue
As I type this, the planning board is talking about logistics of parking and thoroughfares for the development slated for 814 Thayer. I have the day off and fully planned on going, but now I’m hopped up on caffeine and have to clean the house before relatives come (for the Magster’s First Birthday!).

Have a good weekend, everyone.