These neighborhood projects are a heck of a lot of work. All of the writing, research, fact-checking, map-making, walking around, metro-riding, photographing, uploading, downloading, sun-block wearing, and image re-sizing is not easy. Trying to maximize my lazing potential, I volunteered to document the Jewelry District figuring that the neighborhood's mere six square blocks shouldn't be too much work. I got off the Metro thinking "I've been here a million times, I know where the points of interest are, this shouldn't take long, I'lI take like 15 pictures, and I'll be out of the sun and sprawled out supine under a ceiling fan in no time." But many, many pictures and five hours later, I can safely say, damn, was I wrong. The Jewelry District is vibrant, visually engaging, and architecturally absorbing -- a neighborhood-sized vintage curiosity of antiquarian intricacies. more ›