Friday, April 9, 2010

what's up the pike: sittin' on top of a parking garage

Skyline From Atop Town Square Garage (1)
- Tonight at 6:30-8pm, Washington Gardener magazine, unveils the winners of its fourth-annual photo contest in an exhibition running through May 27. The periodical's published and edited by Kathy Jentz, East Silver Spring resident and friend of JUTP. You'll find the show in the Adams Bank lobby of the World Building (best known to oldtimers as the WGAY building, 8121 Georgia Avenue at Silver Spring Avenue downtown.

(But speaking of WGAY, the "beautiful music"/soft rock station with a suggestive name that eventually morphed into today's Hot 99.5, check out these awesome old photos of the station at its former home in the World Building and, before that, in a gorgeous but since-demolished Art Deco building on Kemp Mill Road.)

- The Quarry House Tavern is hosting a "nontraditional" open mike next Saturday from 12 to 3pm, because who wouldn't want to spend a nice weekend afternoon in a basement dive bar? They're calling for poets and prose writers, stand-up comedians, and musicians as well. If you suffer from stage fright, the Quarry House's extensive "beericulum vitae" can provide some liquid encouragement. For more info, e-mail the organizers at quarryhouseopenmic at gmail dot com.

- Meanwhile on Ellsworth Drive, baseball season kicks off with the Play Ball on the Plaza festival. From 12 to 4pm, there will be live music, baseball card giveaways, baseball pitching with a speed gun (this is inside some kind of enclosed cage, right?), batting demos by the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts, face painting and the coveted moon bounce. In the event your kids actually like physical activity (so rare these days), they can register for the Takoma Park-Silver Spring youth baseball and softball leagues, though if there isn't, they can eat all the popcorn they want.

- If you read this blog, you know I get all hot and bothered over Albany Grove and Aspen Ridge, two really awesome townhouse developments being built off Briggs Chaney Road that were inspired (among other things) by Colorado ski chalets. Check out these early concept drawings of the homes on the blog of builder OPal, which was known as Ruppert O'Brien when we interviewed founder Sean Ruppert back in 2007.

3 comments:

hockeypunk said...

wow where along kemp mill rd. was that old wgay building??? looks very similar to the building next to the wtop transmitter towers along university blvd in wheaton

Cyndy said...

My husband vaguely remembers that station on Kemp Mill. He thinks it was located somewhere near the shopping center or the pool. He said that he was able to see the light on top of that tower and the one from WTOP from the house where he grew up.

C. P. Zilliacus said...

When the old WGAY was in located on Arcola Avenue, it used the WQMR call letters. It moved from Kemp Mill (where the park and the shopping center of the same name are now located) to Silver Spring in about 1965 or 1966.