Friday night I met with a large handful of old friends at Dr Dremos, just as we had done a year and a half previously before I left DC for Los Angeles. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time talking to many people there, but it was a blast to be around the people who used to play such a big part in my life.

We ordered one pitcher after another of exotic domestic beer (Purple Haze and Brooklyn Brown come to mind) and talked about the events of the last 18 months of our lives. I can’t great it is to catch up with friends after a year of not seeing them at all. After spending a few hours at Dr Dremos we went to check out Buzz at Nation for the last time together. Buzz, for those who don’t know, is the most legendary and long-standing club night in DC history. For almost the last ten years the same party has been at the same venue in SE DC, an infamous venue called Nation.

This summer it’ll be torn down to make room for new development, which will dramatically change the face of nightlife in Washington. Most clubs have moved to nicer areas in the Northwest quadrant of the city while Nation has managed to maintain success in the heart of the ghetto of the nations capitol. From the balcony at Nation you have a great view of the capitol building which you can’t see from any other clubs I’ve ever been to around here, ironically. I share countless memories of that venue with most of my friends, and I think that even though we rarely (if ever) go there anymore, we’ll all be a little sad to see it finally go. I don’t think any of us can say that we didn’t spend enough time there, though. Here’s a photo from Buzz on Friday:

Last night I checked out V is for you-know-what with Kevork and Mark at the Uptown theater in Cleveland Park. I hadn’t been there since seeing Star Wars Episode 3 on the giant screen that’s only matched by Mann’s Chinese theater in Hollywood, so it was a fun time. The theater was nearly empty at 10pm on a Tuesday night for some reason, so it was especially interesting hanging out in a huge empty opera house turned movie theater. Oh yeah, we also saw a movie there. I didn’t know anything about it before seeing it, but I really appreciated the writing of the film, especially the dialogue of the masked character, played by Huge Weaving (the Wachowski siblings must be raging fans of his).

The night before that I caught up with a collection of childhood friends that I went to elementary school with. We hadn’t seen eachother in a long time and it was great to see them again. After all this time they seem more to me like the people that they were when I knew them than I expected them to be, so everything was very comfortable and natural.

I’m listening to Boards of Canada now and about to pass out in Reston. I can look over the top of my laptop and out the window to see the serene lake illuminated by gas street lamps. Beautiful surroundings!