Jan 17, 2009

I'm in "the fake DC" this weekend

So I'm back in DC for the inauguration right now, and, as someone who tries hard to live in the moment, I'm feeling the DC pride as if I still lived here.

Inevitably, with a hip and classy new president coming to town--one who'd rather check out a trendy restaurant or theater company then go out and clear some brush somewhere--the national media has turned its elitist, patronizing attention to DC and its cultural scene. Did you know that there are artists in Our Nation's Capital? And even restaurants?

Here's a good specimen of the genre: a piece on the dining scene in "the real DC," which seems to mean roughly the opposite of what Sarah Palin means by "the real America"--the real DC is apparently a place where rapid gentrification is welcome, everyone has money, and cuisine is judged primarily on its relative haute-ness. This will certainly be news to DC's many, many poor people.

And, you ask, what publication might have run this article implying that
  • it's a pleasant surprise when anything remotely fashionable happens in a city of fewer than five million people
  • DC is a cultural wasteland waiting to be rescued by a celebrity president
  • "real" people routinely spend $50 on dinner?
A hint: it rhymes with the "blue fork crimes."

4 comments:

  1. Ahhh, yes, I remember the fake D.C., what with its fake homicides, fake rat-infested alleys, and fake areas called "Northeast," "Southeast," and "Southwest".

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  2. Yup--good thing THAT was made-up! (And NW east of the park is sort of quasi-real...)

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  3. Man, it sure does suck to have a fake hometown. At least I get to see the real Chicago when I patronize such places as Mundial and Russian Tea Time.

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  4. Artists in DC? That's crazy talk. They were probably visiting New Yorkers. Everyone knows that the U.S. has a miniscule amount of culture outside our countries hipster capital, NYC.

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