Barcroft Park

Goat’s Head Among Weird Things Found in Barcroft Park

By ARLnow.com

A group of 20 volunteers conducted one of the more eventful clean-ups of Four Mile Run over the weekend.

The group, which cleaned up the portion of the stream that runs through Barcroft Park, filled 28 trash bags with items found in or around the water. Among the items they found were a bicycle, a computer, a 70 pound metal beam and — most amazingly — the severed head of a goat, horns and all.

“I have no clue what it was doing down there amongst the plastic bottles, pens, styrofoam cups, baseballs, etc… but it smelled quite foul and we bagged it with all the other garbage,” Dan Bronson of Arlington’s Community Volunteer Network wrote in an email. “It still had the skin on it so it hadn’t been there too long.”

Bronson said “everyone was mystified” as to how the goat’s head got here in the first place. One theory was that it washed downstream during Thursday’s storm.

“Who knows!” Bronson wrote. “In my experience Four Mile Run stream clean-ups tend to have at least one quite unusual object.”

To say the least.

Saturday’s stream clean-up was a joint effort of several volunteer organizations. There were six wounded warriors on hand from the veteran groups Team River Runner and The Mission Continues. Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment and the Community Volunteer Network sent volunteers and helped to organize the event. A couple of Lockheed Martin employees also joined the clean-up.

In addition to the stream clean-up, volunteers also pulled and threw away a number of invasive plants found around the park.

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Group With World Cup Dream Films Music Video in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

On Sunday, the soccer field at Barcroft Park served as the stage for what some area residents hope will be an official music video of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

You wouldn’t know a production with lofty international goals was taking place by the look of things. The catering consisted of a folding table and some Domino’s pizza boxes. The primary camera was an aging standard def digital camcorder. A wheelchair was being used as a dolly. There were no lights set up, no technicians running cables. The director’s mother was one of the dozen or so extras.

But the modest production values didn’t seem to limit the imagination of the producers, most of whom emigrated to the DC area from various parts of Africa. They are on a quest — perhaps a bit quixotic, but a quest nonetheless — to have their catchy dance song, “Twenty Ten In Africa,” played at the World Cup (listen to it here).

“I want this to be the people’s song,” said Nkeng “Mr. Cole” Alemanji, the song’s writer, producer and video director. He said the first pick for the official 2010 World Cup song was a unpopular with Africans because it was performed by pop star Shakira, who is South American. FIFA, the World Cup’s governing body, should adopt his song because it’s written and performed by Africans, he said.

Alemanji, who runs the Alexandria-based production company Songs From Above, says he was personally inspired to write “Twenty Ten In Africa” after seeing soccer’s “ability to bring people together” during Cameroon’s run for the World Cup in 1990, a time of economic and political upheaval in his native country.

“If people like the song, they’re going to demand it,” said Ajua “A.J.” Alemanji, Nkeng’s brother. Together, the brothers are working to get the song played on radio stations in eastern, western and southern Africa. They say it should begin playing in Johannesburg within a week.

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Arlington’s Hometown Baseball Team

By ARLnow.com

You may not know it, but Arlington is the defacto home of a college baseball team that’s currently in first place in its conference.

For the past 20 years or so, the George Washington University baseball team has played their home games at Barcroft Park.

Situated on Four Mile Run, just up the road from Shirlington, the quiet park seems a world away from GW’s Foggy Bottom campus. But about ten times a month in the spring, the park’s humble baseball diamond plays host to two NCAA Division I baseball teams and, occasionally, some pro scouts.

Under an agreement with the parks department, the team is responsible for much of the field’s game day maintenance. Hosing off the infield dirt, dragging nets and swinging rakes — the players and coaches are their own groundskeepers. It’s a notion that other teams scoff at.

As reported by the GW Hatchet newspaper this week, the team and the university has been in negotiations with Arlington County to renovate the park. But, the Hatchet’s Dan Greene notes, there’s been little progress in the talks. Unsurprising, considering the state of the county’s budget.

At 3:00 this afternoon, the GW team will face cross-town rival George Mason at Barcroft Park. They’ll be looking to avenge a close, extra-inning loss to Mason just two weeks ago.

GW is in first place in the Atlantic 10, with a conference record of 6-0 and an overall record of 16-11.

Alexander Chamandy contributed to this post.