Dana Goldstein

The Spectacles and Pageantry, the Thousand Things You've Got to See

Election night on U Street in D.C., 2008

My heart is based in New York, so I'm very excited that soon my professional life will be based there as well. Tomorrow is my last day at The American Prospect. I'm moving on Saturday, and on Monday, I start an exciting new job at The Daily Beast, as an associate editor focusing on women's issues, international coverage, and politics.  I'm so psyched to join such an innovative, growing publication.  And I've already been doing some interesting writing for The Beast -- check it out.

That said, this is a bittersweet transition. I've been in D.C. for a whirlwind three-and-a-half years. I moved here two weeks after college graduation and didn't know a single person. But I was lucky: I started out in an awesome job and quickly met some incredible people, who were not only professional mentors, but great friends. In 2007, something fortuitous happened -- I won the writing fellowship at TAP. It really changed my life. I had to get serious about politics and policy, and fast. Working at TAP has been like grad school, with incredibly smart colleagues. I'll be eternally grateful for the opportunity.

Through it all, I lived in Mt. Pleasant, a neighborhood that's one in a million. This is the view walking down my street, of the National Cathedral.

I complained a lot about the food scene in D.C., and I maintain that most of the whining was justified. But before I go, a few places I can wholeheartedly recommend: Vace in Cleveland Park for fresh pasta and Italian goods; Red Rocks in Columbia Heights for brick oven pizza; Cork, the wine bar on 14th Street that lives up to the hype; Indique, also in Cleveland Park, for Indian; and the new Pho 14 on Park Road. One good thing about the less than tantalizing restaurant options was that I became a better cook, with much assistance from my roommate and close friend of 16 years, the lovely Eva Seidelman. I'll miss her terribly.

It's been a thrilling, stressful, passionate, and at times sad three years, but my time in D.C. is something I'll always value and never regret. I hope to see everyone regularly in New York. As Gossip Girl would say, "XOXO."

My Friends are Delicious

Also famous and adorable. Read the Washington Post story about their entrepreneurial food blogging exploits.

On Mount Pleasant Street

Super Tuesday is just too suspenseful. Gotta think about other things.

Around and About Meridian Hill Park

Jeanne d'Arc

Jeanne d'Arc II

The secret staircase...to the creepy public restroom.

Masonic temple, with Unitarian/Moonie church in the background.

Georgetown Rant

The scene: 7:30 p.m. last night on M Street in Georgetown, the D.C. neighborhood known for its charming colonial architecture, but constantly overrun by prepsters, jocks, young Republicans, and deep-pocketed Europeans.

You may be asking yourself why I was in Georgetown at all. The simple truth is that Georgetown is the only neighborhood in the city with a very concentrated number of clothing and book shops, both chains and independent stores. It also has some decent restaurants.

So last night I was heading down busy M Street to a vegetarian Indian place with my friend Britt, chatting about the death of print (typical D.C. journo), when somebody hit my butt very hard.

At first I thought Britt might be playing a joke on me, but when I turned toward her, she looked confused. Then I assumed I had run into a friend who mistakenly thought I'd find it amusing to have my ass smacked as a surprise. But no. When I turned around a perfect stranger was smiling and waving at me. He was very well dressed, in a black wool pea coat and fitted blue jeans. He was in his early to mid twenties, clean shaven and square jawed.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I screamed. "DID YOU JUST FUCKING HIT ME IN THE ASS?!"

He simply turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

Now, I've had my ass grabbed twice before by strangers in public. The first time was in high school, while I stood in a pool of people waiting to cross a street in Times Square. The offender was a homeless guy, though, so at least I understood there were probably mental health issues at play. The second time was on the Champs Elysée when I was living in Paris, just a few blocks way. But French men, for all their sophistication on fashion and food, are actually quite a few lessons behind American men when it comes to women's liberation.

And I get cat-called several times a week walking around D.C., and every other city I've ever lived in.

But something about last night's incident was different. It was the shock of the physical contact, the absolute demeaning quality of it, and the fact that it was perpetrated by someone who seemed completely in control of himself.

Gross.

Sights By My Office

If this billboard is supposed to make me feel less guilty about guzzling this tooth-staining crap, it's not working.

The best vegan dinner under $5 in D.C. -- Julia's Empanadas. Meaty specialties available. This is the Farragut North/Dupont Circle branch. The old standby is on 18th Street in Adams Morgan. And a new Julia's will open soon on 14th Street in Columbia Heights.

A Twilight Walk

In commemoration of finally coming home from Iowa, I've photographed a typical walk down my street in Mt. Pleasant, Washington, D.C.'s most charming neighborhood. Enjoy.

In other news, I've decided to officially make this blog -- more often than not -- a place for photography. TAPPED takes up more and more of my time and energy when it comes to political blogging, and I hope you're visiting me there daily. Over here, I need to relax!

Members of Americorps painted this mural, dedicated to the children of Mt. Pleasant, on Kilbourne Place betwen 17th Street and Mt. Pleasant Street.

Kilbourne Place boasts the best view in the city of the gorgeous National Cathedral. Believe it or not, I have a very similar view from the balcony off my bedroom. If you're planning a trip to D.C., I highly recommend you take a guided tour of the Cathedral, which took almost a century to build and features stained glass windows depicting not just biblical scenes, but also important moments in American history.

D.C. is well known for its colorfully embellished brownstones, like this one.

Klingle Road, if functional, would connect Mt. Pleasant to Cleveland Park and Woodley Park, two affluent, Upper Northwest neighborhoods on the other side of Rock Creek Park. Some MTP-ers want the city, as promised, to keep the road closed and create a recreational trail through the woods in its stead. Others relish the convenience the road would bring to the neighborhood. Much of the shopping on Mt. Pleasant Street itself is geared toward the Salvadorean immigrant community, so some folks in the neighborhood are looking for an easier way to get to stores that cater to  middle class white people. Since I don't own a car, I'm quite fine with the trail idea, since walking through the park is already how I get around.

Jenna Bush...Not Exactly What You'd Expect

Perusing the Washington Post this morning, I learned that Jenna Bush, the blonde twin, taught elementary school right here in my own neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant, Washington, D.C., at the Elsie Whitlow Stokes charter school. In recent days, Jenna has made herself available to the media for the first time. She's promoting her new book, Ana's Story, which tells the tale of a 17-year old HIV-positive mother in Panama who she met while working with UNICEF. Jenna is also recently engaged to Henry Hager, a GOP blue blood.

But what I found really interesting is that despite defending her dad as a good man, Jenna comes perilously close in the interview to publicly opposing his policies. Here's some of what she had to say:

On Iraq and criticism of her father: "Nobody wants war. ... Obviously, all of this breaks my heart."

On HIV prevention strategies: "Everybody knows that condoms prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS."

On the United Nations: "I'm not my dad. I can tell you that UNICEF is doing incredible work."

Visiting Elsie Whitlow with reporters from the Post and NBC, Jenna speaks frankly to the students about HIV. "Can you get HIV from holding hands?" she asks the students. "No!"

Someone call Bill Frist.

Reconsidering Code Pink

I've been meaning for awhile to check out Britt Peterson's TNR profile of Code Pink, which was published while I was in Europe. The activist group's confrontational tactics have annoyed me in the past, even as they've been crudely effective. At the Democratic National Committee's Winter Meeting in February, Code Pink hecklers briefly drowned out Hillary Clinton, but they also succeeded in forcing her to address the Iraq war more directly. Clinton ended up reiterating that she would not apologize for her war authorization vote, but urged the audience ot look into her detailed Senate proposal for beginning to withdraw troops now.

While Code Pink practices equal opportunity harassment of male and female politicians, their rhetoric often implies -- or directly states -- a special reponsibility for peace on the part of women. That bothers me. I don't think women are inherently more pacifist than men. But after reading Britt's piece and trolling around on the Code Pink website, I think I've been too harsh. The war is fucked up, hot pink clothing attracts attention, and the call to "be outrageous for peace" is certainly compelling. My concern remains that outrageous spectacles don't win American hearts and minds over to the antiwar cause, but rather radicalize mainstream, sensible ideas like beginning troop redeployment now.

In any case, the article is full of fascinating tidbits. Did you know the Code Pinkers have a group house in D.C. filled with pink stuff? And that they exchange gifts with the Capitol Police?

Embedding Feminism

That was the title of my panel yesterday at the Campus Progress National Student Conference, which featured Jessica Valenti of Feministing.com, Aimee Thorne-Thomsen from the Pro-Choice Education Project, economist Randy Albelda from UMass-Boston, and political scientist Jennifer Lawless from my alma mater, Brown University. There's already been some discussion of the panel here, with the critique that only one speaker (Aimee) adequately addressed the intersection of race with class and gender.

While Aimee may have sparked many of those discussions, I don't think I'm speaking only for myself when I say that as a young feminist intent on expanding our movement, I think about intersectionality (of race with gender, of class with gender, of sexuality with gender) constantly. I'm a hetero white woman though, so I'm not always the best person to talk about these issues myself. That's why I rely on other women to teach me, and that's exactly what happened yesterday.

All in all, I think the panel was one of the most vibrant and funny conversations I've seen at a conference in a long time. Here are some of my unanswered questions and thoughts as I went over the event in my mind:

1. Aimee urged us to stop using the word "choice" (since not all women have the same choices) and talk about reproductive rights and reproductive justice. Here, here. Does that mean Aimee's awesome Pro-Choice Public Education Project might change its name?

2. I was struck by how many question askers were using feminism as a form of self-help, just like Jessica writes about in Full Frontal Feminism. From boyfriends and male roommates who don't carry their weight at home to conservative families who just don't get it, everyone wanted to talk about how to bring their personal life more in line with their feminist political consciousness. Ladies, I hear you. We all struggle with this everyday.

3. Kudos to Jennifer for being the change she wanted to see in the world and running for Congress against an anti-choice Democrat. She put up a great fight, even if one guy did liken her to a "babysitter." I loved Jennifer's comment that leadership qualities aren't "male" -- but both the men and women who achieve leadership tend to have similar, go-getter qualities that have traditionally been encouraged in men and discouraged in women.

4. Thank you Randy for bringing along a presentation with some powerful statistics: 40 percent of women are earning less than $30,000 annually. Think about that number. And then think about supporting a few kids.