I realize the past few posts have been a bit negative. As I was walking home past all the garbage on the street I was already crafting an angry diatribe. But just then, I passed the new trees that were planted in the park on New Hampshire and Taylor and a huge smile crossed my face. Sure the trees are small, and they don’t have any leaves but if you close your eyes you can imagine how beautiful they will look. That is the beauty of Petworth, there is always something to smile about. The trees are a great start and hold so much promise. Another thing I love is when the neighborhood kids call me Mr. Prince instead of just Prince. These kids can be so polite, just like seeing the trees, whenever one of the kids calls me Mr. Prince I smile and know that there is hope for our future.


I’m afraid I have some disappointing news to report from the Petworth front. I was walking home from the metro last week going north on New Hampshire Ave and I see this gentleman standing next to a wall in front of one of the rowhouses. Well, nothing wrong with that expect I notice he is taking a leak against the wall. Now I should mention it was like 6:30 at night and only a few houses down from the church. Ok that is pretty bad but then I see that he walks right into one of the rowhouses next to the church. Now what the hell is up with that? Are there no bathrooms in that house? I mean for real, this is one of the little things that is infuriating. Why piss right on the street, when you either live right there or are visiting someone right there? This guy was not homeless either. He was probably in his 50s fairly well dressed. I just can’t for the life of me understand it. Can anyone help me understand this?


So here is an interesting dilemma I’m facing: I don’t know if I should put the Nouvelle Vague disk on the ipod. This is a very new problem. I am a huge fan of the ipod and it makes the metro ride a breeze but I’m finding that I’m burning out quickly to new music. When I used to buy a new cd, the freshness would last for months. Now with the convenience of the ipod I find that I lose the freshness within the week unless it is one my absolute favorites like Dylan or the Drive by Truckers. With the ipod I either listen too frequently or I am starting to get overwhelmed by choice. Anyone else facing this issues?


It seems as though everybody mixes music reviews into their community blogs so what the hell, I’ll do the same. I may be a little behind the curve but I just got the old Nouvelle Vague CD and it is phenomenal, ditto Neko Case. Has anyone listened to the new Nouvelle Vague CD?


Every Spring I like to throw a little party to celebrate the joys of, well, Spring. Well as often is the case the first one is always the best. A buddy of mine who is quite tough, army – few tours in Iraq and Afghanistan already, had never been to my house before and got a bit lost on his way over. So he is roaming all over the street I live on and he encounters some of our hmm let’s say “entrepreneurs”. Well they swarm around like bees to honey and he simply says do you know where the party is? And without hesitating they reply “oh, you’re looking for the crazy white boy’s party, it’s right up there on your left.” Beautiful. I don’t quite know how I got that reputation so soon but I’ll take it!


A very large pitbull roaming without a leash just attacked a lovely dog on a leash and that dog and its owner are now seeking shelter at the Columbia Heights coffee house. This is another joy of living in the Columbia Heights/Petworth area, the damn dogs that roam without leashes. To be honest it is not a very large problem but those few times it does happen is quite startling to witness.


In the Summer, I like to leave my window open to hear the crickets chirping and enjoy the Summer breeze. Well on this nice evening at about midnight I hear a zipping sound that just wouldn’t stop. It was like zzip, zzip, zzip incessently for about 5 minutes. So of course I scream out my window “shut the hell up!”. I am from New York originally so I’ve retained some boorish behavior. Anyway, suffice it to say the noise doesn’t stop. As I have an early flight the next morning I’m getting pretty pissed. So I go downstairs with my trusty New York Yankees souvenir baseball bat to investigate. Well, I open my back door and turn on the flood light and it was like seeing a deer caught in headlights.

By the by I do not recommend doing what I did. Well, that noise was a guy with a hacksaw trying to steal my neighbors bike. I stand about two feet away with the bat cocked and scream what the hell are you doing? Oh, I should mention I’m not very intimidating, I’m about 5’6″ on a good day and 135 pounds dripping wet. Anyway, this guy was probably 6 foot easy although he was crouching at that point and I couldn’t tell.

So this guy says “no, no, it’s my sister’s bike”. Ha! Beautiful well I scream you better get the fuck out of here. At this point he stands up and I realize confronting him may not have been the smartest of ideas. Well, I was a little drunk and had major liquid muscles going and I continue to tell him to get the fuck out of here. Then he says hold on hold on, let me just call my sister. Then he starts yelling Julie, Julie or something like that and bolts like the wind.

This guy could of crushed me like a bug but I was rewarded the next day when one of the longtime residents said I did the right thing by looking out. I don’t know about that but the bicycle was saved!


Prince of Petworth captures the absurdity of life in Petworth and life in general.

A bit about me, I’ve lived in DC for almost 10 years, I love Washington and I love Petworth yet I am often baffled by some of the behaviors I witness and the absurdity all around us. Of course absurdity can be both beautiful and horrible, I will try and capture both.


A test for the future! Stay tuned.