Look out behind you! (Flickr/Barbara L. Hanson)

The Washington Post's On Parenting blog has always served as a practical guide for paranoid parents, and today it doesn't disappoint with "How to prevent TVs from falling on children," in which Janice D'Arcy writes:

It is heartbreaking any time a toddler gets seriously hurt or worse, but there is a special torture in knowing that a child’s injury could have been easily prevented.

One of the most common of these tragedies is when a television topples on a child. In recent months there’s been a rash of these deaths in the Chicago area. It has also occurred too many times in the D.C. region.

Go ahead and click through those links. The first one, despite its alarming language, isn't untrue (although this Sun article is more informative). But the second link takes us to a post on the WaPo blog The Crime Scene, "Baby injured by falling TV set." Note that word: injured. Not dead — and certainly no mention of deaths, plural.

Yes, it's quite possible that parents should do more to secure their TV sets, but D'Arcy needn't make this sound like an epidemic just to get her point across.

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(Facebook/Thang Le)

In this space, I was going to write about tonight's Vietnamese pop-up "Pho U" at Montserrat House. When he contacted me last week, Toki Underground chef Thang Le was excited to talk about the collaboration with Marvin chef James Claudio. But "Pho U" was postponed because, as Toki owner Erik Bruner-Yang confirmed to TBD, Le died earlier this week. Bruner-Yang said Le had been at Toki for six months, but declined to comment further, saying he wanted to respect the Le family's privacy.

Le and I weren't friends, not by the real definition of the word. We'd only met on a few occasions, and had one substantive conversation, at the Peregrine Espresso on 14th Street NW last month. It was windy and sunny that day, and he'd come from his apartment down the street. He told me about places where he'd worked — Komi, Hank's Oyster Bar, Iggy's in Singapore — and about his plans, such as starting a food truck with his brother.

Le had passion, and he was loved. I'd heard a lot about him, through mutual friends, before actually meeting him. They always referred to him as "du ma" — a Vietnamese insult that can also be a term of endearment — so when we finally met, I had to ask Le to remind me of his real name. (They'd given him that name over a decade ago, when he was an aspiring DJ, and it stuck.) The other night, some of those friends and I took a shot of Jameson in his honor. At 31, Thang Le left us too soon.

   

   

(Facebook/Thang Le)

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(Google+)

Aaron Morrissey, who stepped down as editor-in-chief of DCist in November, had himself a nice long holiday break. Now's he returning to work, as a Web producer at Atlantic Media Company's Think Custom Media division. He'll be supervising Web production for external clients, the first being Tennis Media Company — publishers of Tennis Magazine, tennis.com, and SMASH Magazine — which recently inked a multi-year parntership with Atlantic Media.

A posting for the position suggests Morrissey's responsibilities at tennis.com will be much as they were at DCist, with the possible exception of writing articles himself. He says he's starting soon, perhaps as early as next week.

"I'm really excited to be joining Think Custom Media and its dynamic team," he wrote in an email. "While it is a slight departure from my previous work at DCist, I'm really excited to stretch my legs and apply the editorial lessons I've learned to something new."

So this was the "very important phone call" Morrissey was awaiting yesterday. Congratulations to my occasional drinking buddy (yes, that's my disclosure). I know he'll have much more success at Atlantic Media than Arsenal had against AC Milan.

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K.Flay

Rapper and producer K.Flay looks more like an indie-rock chick than someone who spits rhymes. The electronic/hip-hop artist uses rhymes as a "sonic technique," writes the New York Times. "She represents a generation of white kids who grew up with hip-hop but who weren’t obsessed with it so they feel rhyming is theirs to use without needing to pay homage to the culture." She told Spin her latest EP, Eyes Shut, which was recorded on a coffee high, is "about wanting to float away, but also wanting to tie rocks to your shoes." She performs with Cheyne and Gage at DC9. 8:30 p.m. $10/$12.

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If you've paged through the classifieds in the Washington City Paper or sipped a beer at Clarendon's Galaxy Hut at any time since 2004, you've seen comics-style art by illustrator Ben Claassen III.

While Claassen writes and publishes a new comic strip every week, some of the paintings just taken down and replaced with new ones at the Galaxy Hut have been up for nearly eight years.

"I remember making them in the basement of a group house I lived in in Hyattsville," Claassen wrote in an email.

That house was called the Dirtfarm, which became the name for the series of comics he conceived that today runs in several alternative newsweeklies.

Claassen and Galaxy Hut owner Lary Hoffman originally agreed that his pieces, which depict stick-figure characters from his comic strips in sweetly depressing situations, would hang until sold. Whenever a painting went out the door, Hoffman required a new one be put in its place.

Over the years, though, inquiries about purchasing the paintings begin to pile up in Claassen's inbox, and he "just couldn't keep up." The old paintings maintained their spots on the bar walls for years.

"I got overwhelmed with a good many other things, and after a point didn't even know how to respond to the emails — many, many of which I still haven't responded to. Pretty bad, eh?" Claassen said.

Now that his latest pieces, which debuted at the bar on Monday, are on display, Claassen can finally work on selling the old ones.

"I'm figuring on going back to the earliest of the emails and offering them to whoever wrote to me first about each of them. If any of them are still left unsold after that, I figure I'll add them to the Web store on my site," he said.

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Dear Jim Irsay,

This must be a very difficult time for you, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts. You have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, a holder of myriad records who brought your city its first Super Bowl victory and who, everyone seems to agree, is a nice (and occasionally funny) guy. Last July, you rewarded the future Hall of Famer with a five-year, $90 million contract. But then a neck injury forced him to miss last season, and your team performed so miserably as to earn the top pick in the NFL draft, which surely will be Stanford's Andrew Luck, one of the most promising college quarterbacks since — well, since Manning.

Some pundits think you should start Manning next season and groom Luck, but a growing chorus of sportswriters say it's "a virtual certainty" you're going to release Manning, which will cost you tens of millions but also save you tens of millions more, and let some other team take the risk on a 35-year-old QB with a tweaked neck. I beg of you, please, don't consider it another minute. Do it right now — and not as a courtesy to Manning, or so your team and its fans can move forward, but rather for all of us here in Washington, D.C., who can't bear to read one more article in the Washington Post about Peyton Manning definitely, possibly, maybe, conceivably wearing a Redskins uniform next season.

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It's probably fitting that a movie depicting perhaps our greatest president as a vampire hunter would also take its liberties in depicting Washington, D.C. Behold, the first trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which is based on a book partly set in Washington but that was shot in New Orleans. (The D.C. film office had hoped that the production would film here for two days last summer, but as far as I know, that never happened. I'm awaiting confirmation.)

So what's in the trailer below? A score that sounds like Inception — you know, that foghorn sound — remixed by the Crystal Method. A gruff voice that couldn't possibly be Lincoln's, since his was "high keyed, unpleasant." Oblique camera angles. The sun setting behind the Washington Monument. A slow-motion fight involving lots of drapery. The West Lawn of the Capitol Building covered with thousands of people dressed in earth tones (which had become all the rage after a famously controversial fashion spread in Harper's Magazine). And lastly, finally, what everyone came to see: people being hacked to death by a former president.

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Flickr/Pen Waggener

The origins of Valentine's Day are "shrouded in mystery." In the early Roman days, men used to hit on women by actually hitting them. So forgive me if I don't consider the day such a big deal. As someone who was single for most of her life, I often forget Feb. 14 even exists, since it's never served a purpose beyond parties in elementary school. Meanwhile, it makes messes of men who are in relationships. Between those with high-maintenance girlfriends who want the world, and the girls who say the day doesn't matter to them (but it really does), it's a wonder anyone celebrates it at all.

In this special edition of our daily events roundup, we've included two Valentine's Day stories from contributors that are sure to melt your heart. (No, not really.)

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Galaxy Hut hosts a Dirt Farm Valentine's Day featuring new works by satiric comic-strip artist Ben Claassen, whose works appear in City Paper and the Examiner. The Arlington venue, which already features his paintings on the walls, is replacing them with a bunch of new paintings. The night also features music by The Torches and Third Channel, and Baltimore stand-up comedians Mickey Free and Ellie Beziat. 8 p.m. $5.

POETRY

For the haters. Mothertongue Anti-Valentine's Day Slam features a night of spoken word at Black Cat. 8 p.m. $8.

THEATER

What would you do to make it? How far would you go? Is the enterprise of American capitalism working? In Civilization (All You Can Eat), six professionals living in the city fight to make it to the top. Jason Grote's satiric play opens at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Tickets online.

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It's an Oscar weekend. West End Cinema and E Street Cinema are holding screenings of the short film nominees in live action, animation and documentary categories.

Animation-nominee The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris, inspired by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton and The Wizard of Oz, is a must for lovers of books and whimsy. A Morning Stroll chronicles a New Yorker's morning walk by a strutting chicken. And Dimanche/Sunday is set during an ordinary Sunday in a small village as a train rumbles through, rattling tea cups and ironing boards. Live-action nominee The Shore, set in Ireland, is about two childhood friends, Joe and Paddy, reuniting after 25 years. Friday. Live Action and Animated Shorts screening at E Street Cinema/Documentary shorts screening at West End Cinema.

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Stefanie Ambrose of Alleghany St. (Facebook/Alleghany St.)

This weekend is full of sold-out shows: All the tickets to the 9:30 Club — for Rebirth Brass Band, Jack's Mannequin, and Die Antwoord — have been scooped up, and you're also out of luck for much-hyped Sharon van Etten and Shearwater show at the Black Cat. With concerts at the most popular venues out of the question, it's time to seek out more unusual spaces.

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In the 20's and 30's the U Street corridor was known as "Black Broadway," an epicenter for theater, jazz and blues at places like Lincoln Theater and Bohemian Caverns, frequented by the likes of Duke Ellington. The D.C. Hip Hop History Project records its live podcast, Black Broadway: The Roots of D.C. Hip Hop, at the Dunes tonight, with moderators James Benson and Kokayi. The panel discussion features singer-songwriter-actor-poet W. Ellington Felton, Luke Stewart, editor of Capital Bop, blues musician Stacy Brooks, and DJ's Alizay and RBI. Cornel West Theory and Nappy Riddem perform. The Dunes. 7 p.m.

After the jump: Charlie Chaplin and baked goods.

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Well, this should make for an awkward evening: FishbowlDC, which generally prefers to crash parties rather than throw them, is holding "an evening swim in the Fishbowl" next Thursday at Lost Society. "Meet FishbowlDC's star characters (we'll twist their arms to get them there if we have to) and mingle with our writers," the invitation, which contains nary an insult, reads. "This is our chance to thank an exclusive bunch of readers who have laughed with us, put up with us, and sometimes even shouted at us along the way."

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Meklit Hadero (Facebook/Nathanael Keck)

As excited as we are at the prospect of some snow tonight, knowing our luck it'll be merely a dusting. So, here are some excuses to get fancy and romp around the city on a Wednesday night. The weekend's almost here!

• Trying to believe in that thing called love? Can't believe that it's real? The British rock band The Darkness performs tonight at the 9:30 club with Foxy Shazam and Crown Jewel. The show's sold out, but perhaps you can wrangle tickets off people who can't bear the cold. 7 p.m. $25

• If theater suits your fancy tonight, but you're broke, good news! The Pulitzer-nominated story, Yellowman, opens at Rep Stage. Set in South Carolina, two childhood friends struggle with identity and love in the foreground of class, race and family loyalties. 7 p.m. Pay What You Can.

• Missing life elsewhere and in need of some laughs? New York Night at Riot Act Comedy Theater features a night of comics hailing from NYC. The roster includes Dave Siegel, Gary Vider and Andy Klein. 8:30 p.m. $15.

• The Greatest Czech's screening at the Avalon. Winner of the 2010 Award of Czech film critics for Best Actress in a Leading Role and nominated for a Czech Lion Award for Best Film Director and Best Screenplay, the film is a story of starving artists who've produced a number of successful films. Now, the director intends to produce his life's dream, but loses out on the funding. 8 p.m. Subtitled.

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Glittarazzi CEO Kelly Ann Collins went on a rampage this afternoon after bearing witness to a violent crime.

A call to police did nothing to ease Collins' mind: She learned that this type of crime is commonplace. Unnerved about the barrage of muggings in her city (even the good neighborhoods!), Collins unleashed a barrage of tweets describing the violence, slamming the Washington Post and the D.C. Council, and commenting on the lack of resources available to police:

 

kellyanncollins Kelly Ann

We've been on phone ALL DAY with police. Their resources are limited. @WashPost = slacking. Thugs won't terrorize our people. @dcpolicedept

Feb 07 Favorite Retweet Reply

 

 

paultheviking Paul Frederiksen

@kellyanncollins your best protection against robbery is an easy one. Don't make yourself a target. Pay attention (not to your cell phone).

Feb 07 Favorite Retweet Reply

 

in reply to @paultheviking↑

@kellyanncollins
Kelly Ann @paultheviking it's a crime spree - they are mugging people and stealing phones ... it doesn't mattter ... it is bad. police can't keep up.
Feb 07 via web Favorite Retweet Reply

Luckily for Glittarazzi's local readership, Collins doesn't just write up Clint Eastwood interviews. She used to be a crime/gang violence/investigative reporter.

Collins says by phone that she is very serious about covering crime, most likely in the form of reported tweets. After having her car broken into repeatedly (twice last Sunday) and witnessing this violent mugging, Collins says her conversations with D.C. police have her convinced that this is a problem that needs attention.

"There's a crime spree happening right now where these thugs, not sure where they're coming from, are robbing people all over the place," she says. "We heard it's bad, even in Georgetown."

Collins commends the police department for doing what they can, and she's prepared to use the full reach of Glittarazzi to inform the public of what's going on. "I know we cover politics and celebrities," she says, "but if we need to cover crime, we will. Sometimes you need to help out."

We look forward to the watchdog crime reporting from Team Glittarazzi. Watch your back, thugs. You too, Washington Post.

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The Daily Caller, for all its tiring politics and homophobia and gun-nuttery and careless reporting, is nothing if not spunky. The two-year-old website likes to pick fights, especially ones that require punching above their weight. That's to be expected of a young site hoping to stake its claim in a crowded media market, but a recent stunt by founder Tucker Carlson was particularly inspired. In an online auction to benefit the Illinois Humanities Council, he won a $2,500 dinner for five at the home of former Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn — and then he held a contest to bring a reader with him. Was there any chance in hell this wouldn't make for a great story?

Apparently so. Dinner was served on Sunday, and today senior editor Jamie Weinstein filed this flat report, which begins:

At an extravagant penthouse apartment in downtown Chicago, The Daily Caller dined with former terrorists Sunday night.

That’s not a sentence one often has the opportunity to write, but on Super Bowl Sunday former Weather Underground leaders and Obama friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn feted TheDC to an elaborate gourmet meal at the home of a very rich friend to fulfill the obligations of a charity auction won by Daily Caller editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson.

Note to Weinstein: If you have a great lead, leave it alone; drawing attention to it only lessens its greatness. Or maybe you should have gone with another lead entirely, as the story never lives up to it. Still, here's what we learned, plus a scorecard to make things nominally more exciting:

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Jason Wu, we hardly knew thee. The designer's much-anticipated line for Target debuted Sunday and was over a few hours later thanks to ravenous fashionistas. In one Miami store, a couple bought out the location's entire Wu stock with plans to resell it, which caused uproar coast to coast and Facebook to Twitter. ("So awful!!! What is wrong with people?!?") Pieces are going on ebay for twice their listed price.

Twitteristas report that local stores sold out of Wu's line by morning, leaving them Wu-less and heartbroken. Some have taken to Target's Facebook page to post updates about which items have come back into stock online ("the black trench is back up!") and brag about how often they're refreshing the Target page.

Are the clothes cute? Sure, but that's beside the point. Once, long ago, normal people could walk into Target at any hour of the day and buy a fancy Paul and Joe leather jacket without having to devote hours to refreshing a web page or get up early. Fancy doesn't mean obsessive. Let's try to get back to a good place, Target.

WHAT DO FANCY MEN WANT?

Confused about how to impress men with your look? Refinery 29 has put together thoughts from local fancy dudes to confuse, er, help you navigate the waters. A few takeaways:

DO wear bold and bright colors.

DON’T wear bright colors.

DON’T wear sneakers, unless you are beautiful and they are high-top Chucks.

DO wear high-waisted jeans!

DON’T wear high-waisted jeans!

DO wear oversized tanks that show your bra, but DON’T wear revealing clothing.

Also: try to look tough, sexy, fun, smart, and genuine! And don’t straighten your hair! And never carry your reusable grocery bag to work, even if you’re touting leftover veal piccata for lunch and are trying to avoid a purse spill.

It turns out that, like women, men have different views on what looks good. So here’s a thought: Wear whatever the hell you want!

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One reason journalists appreciate megamogul and filmanthropist Ted Leonsis, albeit slightly less than before, is that he's relatively accessible. He doesn't shun the press — unlike a certain other sports owner, who prefers underage interviewees — and, on occasion, he writes articles himself. He's also more active on Twitter than some local journos, and even maintains a disarmingly candid blog, Ted's Take, where he often writes in near-haiku. But sometimes he goes long on all manner of topics, from Britney Spears to Barack Obama. Today is one of those days.

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Six more weeks of winter is upon us! If this is what the rest of 'winter' is like, I'll be dreadfully depressed. What's a girl got to do for some snow? But with temperatures in the 50s, there's no excuse not to go out and take advantage of life in the city this weekend.

FRIDAY

Cold winter nights are the perfect ingredient for film festivals. Here are some film screenings in town to wash away some of that winter depression.

• Screen Valentines: Great Movie Romances starts at AFI Silver Theatre. Just in time for us to remember how depressing this holiday is when you're alone or how cheesy it is when you're with someone. The month-long film screenings span the decades from leading men like Cary Grant in The Awful Truth to the 80's classic Dirty Dancing to Nicholas Sparks' modern-day tearjerker, The Notebook. Film screenings run to March 7.

• Of the great film directors, in the 50's there was Nicholas Ray. Most known for Rebel Without a Cause, Bigger Than Life: The Films of Nicholas Ray celebrates the recent restoration of some of his works, at AFI Silver Theatre. Ray's films spanned various genres, from the film noir, They Live by Night and In a Lonely Place, to the surrealism of Johnny Guitar. Film screenings run to April 12.

• The four-day DC Shorts Laughs Film Festival, which brings together the DC Shorts festival and Riot Act comedy club comedians, runs to Saturday at Riot Act Comedy Theater. Friday shows explore the themes of Sexual Adventures, The Dating Game, and Payback is Hell. Saturday's themes are A Guy Walks Into a Bar..., Bad Moves, Alternative Lifestyles, Bedroom Games, The Business of Comedy, A Very D.C. Moment, The Meaning of it All, Breaking Up is Easy to Do, and Coffee Shop Romance. Hurry, before it's sold out! $15.

• A First Friday Reception featuring Elizabeth Grusin-Howe's solo show, "La Bellissima," and duo shows by Sally Levie ("Glimpses of Solitude") and Trish Palasik ("Moments: Taking Shape") at Studio Gallery. Grusin-Howe's screenprints of life in Italy from the streets of Florence to the canals of Venice are haunting. The exhibitions run to Feb. 25.

• Part memoir and part cultural critique, THE BI(G) LIFE: Two Solo Performances features two thirty-minute solo performances examining life "in the middle," at Georgetown University/Davis Performing Arts Center. $5. The play runs to Sunday.

• All I Did Was Ask - An Evening with NPR's Terry Gross at Strathmore Music Center. The Fresh Air host goes behind the mic and discusses her most provocative interviews over the years with artists like James Brown, John Travolta, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. 8 p.m. $35-$55.

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Deanna Bogart (photograph by Bette Bitting)

In the 1990s, Lilith Fair certainly took a lot of the novelty out of the idea of "women in rock". That said, even if you can't get into the Kills' sold-out show at 9:30 Club, there are plenty of rockin' ladies playing in town elsewhere this weekend.

The Deanna Bogart Band

Friday, Feb. 3, at the Hamilton, $22.50

Penn Quarter's restaurant/venue the Hamilton is still new, but its first few weeks have been jam-packed with a blues/jazz-heavy schedule. Local blues singer/saxophonist (no, that's not a phrase you hear too often!) Deanna Bogart is gracing its stage this weekend, so check out this musician who was named Horn Instrumentalist of the Year three years in a row by the Blues Music Awards-- not to mention her 22 Wammies (Washington Area Music Awards).

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