Our town

I love spring in Washington, but tourist season is a pain in the rear. You expect this when driving downtown near the Mall and the memorials, but it's particularly obnoxious when you walk out your front door into a flotilla of strollers. Or when it takes 20 minutes to get out of your neighborhood because of all the zoo-bound families trying to park their minivans on the side streets.

Saw State of Play this evening at the absolutely-packed Uptown, and dude, was it gripping. Highly enjoyable movie, even more so if you live in DC. The audience got a huge kick out of certain details that only DC insiders would get (like blink-or-you'll-miss-it appearances by local tv anchors: "Hey, it's Jim Vance!").

When the movie was shooting in town last spring, most of my coworkers and I watched them film a scene outside the Watergate from the windows of our office, with Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams and his blue Saab, which figures prominently in the movie. The entire street between Virginia and the Kennedy Center was blocked off with equipment and trailers and the version of the Saab that they were apparently using for interior shots (mounted on a wheeled platform, with cameras pointed through the windows). We did not get much work done that afternoon.

Anyway, it was extremely entertaining--I recommend it--and then I had frozen yogurt afterward. ‘Twas a perfect spring evening.