Serving as a purveyor of the age-old adage of forgoing that which isn't nice in favor of nothing at all, you will not find a single word about the biggest shows in the D.C. area this week.

It's just under three miles -- a mere ribbon of a road connecting Chevy Chase to Massachusetts Avenue that embraces Tenleytown along the way -- but for me it registers almost every landmark of my Washington life.

What does it mean to be a resident of the Metropolitan D.C. region? What defines us as a people and a culture?

Despite the place's storied jazz history I can't find any evidence that there's been a single jazz event there any time recently. Quite simply, nobody wants or needs the venue.

When you think of D.C., you generally think of politics and grand monuments. I discovered a thriving arts scene beyond the National Mall that even D.C. residents didn't know about, much less tourists.