The 9:30 Club as you know it today- an award winning, freestanding venue just north of U Street- wasn’t always on the corner of 9th and V NW. As a less-than-five-years-category newbie to DC, I’ve been to a couple dozen concerts at the 9:30, but didn’t know much about its history (including its mysterious tower).

The Little White House. The Cutts-Madison House. The Howard T. Markey National Courts building. You’d be forgiven for missing these places. While centrally located, another home distracts you from their existence – the White House. Madison Place hides in plain sight. The grand Federalist and Italianate style homes on this closed street look like they should sit on acres of land, but they are instead built right alongside on another.

This year was the ninth in a row that DC area folks, at the urging of the Montana State Society, ate balls. Sliced, fried bull testicles accompanied by Kraft lubrication (ketchup, ranch and barbecue sauce) were slung on ordinary paper plates- an underwhelming image of the overwhelming Rocky Mountain Oyster.

Cashion’s Eat Place, which has been roasting whole goat (among other things) in a quiet corner of Adams Morgan for almost twenty years, is finally letting the public in on their secrets. “Farm-to-table” is probably something that’s top 10 in your common foodie conversation phrases, a saying that instantly rolls out of your brain when phrasing praise for a new restaurant in the city.

When the District was illuminated by gas flame and before cell phones (BCP) city planners spliced street lights and call boxes together to create a corner by corner assistance system. Bright red glass surrounded the flame up top, making a “Police” or “Fire Call Box” logo glow in the darkness. A passersby could break open a key encased in glass and use that to trip a switch that would alert, well, the police and fire departments to an emergency.

Put off your summer diets for a spell, here comes GBD Fried Chicken and Doughnuts. Enter their newly opened Dupont dual-contender for the titles of best hangover food ever and fanciest informed twist on Southern favorites, GBD (Golden, Brown, Delicious). Last night under warm, bare bulbs and alongside exposed brick walls, GBD served its first steaming fried chicken and sparkling sweet doughnuts.

The newly re-visioned Art & Soul space, wide open without clear beginning or end and sprinkled with minimal, farm-chic decor, is reminiscent of many places you’ve been lately, not limited to DC. There are mason jars brimming with wild flowers, a dozen Edison bulbs blooming into a full-blown hanging lamp, dark and distressed woods, all half-remembered details from some pastoral dream.

In the beginning the 9:30 Club was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the floor, and the spirit of Youngblood Hawke, Passion Pit’s opener, was hovering over the audience. Then, preceded by a heavenly chord, Passion Pit exploded into being, onstage. Opening with “Take a Walk,” they laid their foundations for an upbeat, falsetto pop cake of a concert.

Jill Abramson, the first female executive editor for the New York Times in its 160 year history, tried her hand at dogoir with the Puppy Diaries, a memoir about raising her dog Scout. Last year, she and her sister Jane O’Connor wrote a children’s book, Ready or Not Here Comes Scout. We met up with them at the Library of Congress National Book Festival.

At this point, British DJ Gareth Emery is a household name in electronic music. Last year's "Sanctuary" was the dance hit of the summer, and this year's "Concrete Angel" is shaping up to be the same.

Band "fun." with hit single "We Are Young" played at the 9:30 club to packed house. "We Are Young" will extend to be the feel-good hit of the summer. I mean, the band's name is "fun." after all. Although why put a full stop after "fun"? Are you trying to stop the fun, fun.?

Lovefoxx strode on the NYLON tour 9:30 club stage with a huge wave of black hair swinging around her. It blew in the wind, onstage, helped by a fan at the foot of the stage. The remaining members of the band took their places, standing tall with the experience of seven years recording and touring behind them.

Standing squat on the corner of 16th and Eye Streets, the Third Church of Christ Scientist remains one of the more interesting buildings in the District that won’t be standing there much longer. The octagonal complex is a mere 42 years old and supports an arm of bells that juts out from its 16th street side.

Settled on the edge of the Mt. Vernon neighborhood, a self-described historic hotel projects into DC an image of its near-past. Intricate eaves of the Morrison-Clark Inn lock together under an Asian-inspired, red tiled roof. Its dark, grand woodwork and bold colors lend a masculine touch, but its history and leadership were commanded by prominent women in the early 1900s.

Rosa Mexicano unveiled its unbelievable seasonal cocktail menu last week, working with master craft bartenders in LA to develop what will ultimately become some of your favorite drinks this summer. The Penn Quarter staple exists in trendy locales including New York, LA, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, San Fran and Panama City, and their flavor influences reach beyond that.

Carla Hall, chef, TV personality and DC resident, is starring in Celebrity Autobiography at Sidney Harmon Hall, this Monday, June 10th. She will be reading from celebrity autobiographies alongside Dayle Reyfel, Eugene Pack, Lanie Kazan, Mario Cantone, Rachel Dratch and Steve Shrirripa. She stopped a moment (between episodes of “The Chew”) to talk with Brightest Young Things about life, cookies and never, ever, ever catering again.