RVA Volume 1 Issue 6

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RVA

CONTENTS Local

04 Pick & Choose / Mike Taylor 06 Gallery Profile : Quirk 07 Wanna See More?? >> Chris Brand >> Jessica Sims >> Tin Salamunic >> Joanna Ramos 14 Kelley Lane 18 My Friend, Anthony 22 Oregon Hill 26 Circus Maximus

Music

30 Richmond’s Revenge 36 Patchwork Collective 40 Bass Line : Revenge Reviews >> Anousheh Khalili >> Sword >> Homemade Knives >> Planar >> Attackula >> Single Spies 42 Bass Line >> DJ Rap >> Swordplay >> Logistics >> Tenement Halls >> Animal Collective >> Strangulated Beatoffs

Lit

44 The Great Serpent Sintra 47 The Brewery 48 The One Good Thing

Art

50 That Guy Juresko 54 Methods NYC 59 Dealing with Art

Film

60 An Unequaled Connection 62 Dispatches From KG part 5 64 Robots + Misconceptions 66 Project Revolution 68 Ted Blank Picks >> Capote >> Waiting >> Grizzly Man >> Thumbsucker >> A History of Violence >> Corpse Bride 69 The Gentleman’s Picks >> Citizen X >> the Ugly >> Freaks >> The Nomi Song

QuickGuide

72 Quick Guide Map 73 Quick Guide Listings 76 Richmond Indy Radio 97.3 FM 78 University of Richmond 90.1 FM 80 The Last Word / Vivian Davis

Anthony : Thanks go out to Rudy at Need for YO! RVA Raps, Joel for the website design, Gallery 5 always, Charles from Blue Mtn Cafe, Yamashita & Henry from Sticky, Minus, Reinhold, Raviotta, Yellowhouse, C3, Tess + Kathryn, Paige, Eric for covering all of my shifts, Mom for the advice, Brandi for the best PBJs, Team8 for the tshirts, Dylan & Nick.

Parker : Thanks go out to all that have continued to contribute their time and ef fort in making this project the best it can be.

We also thank all the overwhelming support we have received from the community.

Please continue picking up the magazine. Working together, we can ef fectively help Richmond evolve into a place where art, music, film, culture, etc. thrive.

We are still in our infancy and we learn with each issue.

It has been a great experience so far with a lot of hard work involved.

We see our hard work paying of f more and more every day. Things are on the incline.

This is just the beginning.

Pick & Choose The First Fridays in Richmond bring out thousands of people to Broad Street every month.

With over twenty galleries to walk thru there is plenty of art we would own if had the $$$ b u t w e c a n o n l y p i c k o n e.

M I K E TAY L O R

detail of “PROTOTYPE” ACRYLIC ON CANVAS

$9,850.00 USD ar tists downtown access 228 WEST BROAD STREET RICHMOND,VIRGINIA 23220 p h o n e // 8 0 4.6 4 4.010 0 web // www.adagallery.com email // adagallery@verizon.net

gallery hours // tues-fri 1-7pm & sat 1-5pm

T h a n k y o u t o A DA G a l l e r y.

Image / amy vaughters 05

Quirk 311 W. Broad Street 804.644.5450 quirkgallery.com Quirk is a new gallery with a new point of view and features exhibitions of innovative work by both established and emerging American and international artists.

Our artists are chosen for uninhibited use of materials and forms, for juxtaposition of tradition and experimentation, and for refinement of vision and skill.

Quirk exhibits and sells art that is functional and non-functional, works that reflect the Quirk attitude of the unpredictable.

Wanna See More ??

The following is a sneak peek of the work being produced in the city. Please feel free to contact the artists using the emails given.

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / Gallery 07

CHRISBRAND/JERICHO234@HOTMAIL.COM

TOP:JOANNARAMOS/RAMOSJK@HOTMAIL.COM OPPOSITE:JESSICASIMS/JESSICALSIMS@HOTMAIL.COM

TINSALAMUNIC/SALAMUNIC@AOL.COM WWW.TINSALAMUNIC.COM

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / Gallery 13

local

34 IMAGES / BRANDON MARTIN

KelleyLane / Brandon Martin Along the cobblestones of Shockoe Bottom, which once reverberated the echoes of Confederate Richmond, lines of verse have been pouring from a downtown coffee shop. The rich and most often unsettling story of the formation and development of the Capital City, is common as a subject for Kelley Lane’s poetry. His lyrics tell the more sordid stories that have slipped through the slates of local history. Stories that have conveniently existed only orally over the years, as well as remained in the streets in which they originated.

Kelley Lane first filled his pages while he was studying English Literature at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland during the 1960s. Performance poetry at that time was not at all what it is today and though the Beats were emerging, poetry readings were not such a movement in Richmond. Kelley’s poetry was more introspective then and it served as a journal and emotional outlet while he was making ends meet as a folk musician. A stint in the Navy provided for Kelley to work on a second degree in VCU’s music program, which fulfilled his hunger to perform until a different breed of exposure took precedence.

For the past five years, Shockoe Espresso in the Bottom has been home to an open mic poetry reading that was started by Lane and partner, Shann Palmer. When they opened the casual readings in the relaxed room atmosphere, in the rear of the downtown coffee shop, the two were looking for an outlet in which to hone the performance aspect of their craft. As far as Kelley can remember, their series of open mic sessions every other Sunday has been the longest running in the city.

Around the same time that Kelley moved into the Oregon Hill neighborhood, which he describes as a place where “you [could] get your feet on the ground,” VCU had intended to move in as well. This became the catalyst for Kelley’s call to activism as an organizer of the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association. Because of their very public dissension, the Seigel Center that was originally intended for a block of Oregon Hill and Cary Street was diverted, saving the homes of several elderly, working-class families. Says Kelley, “Even Dr. Trani (President of VCU), now, talks about how great it is that they’re up along Broad. Well, that was what we told them to do.”

Whether at the Espresso or at nearly any of the emerging and ever-expanding poetry events in Richmond, you will have found Kelley and his warm greeting. The three-position handshake, slap to palm to finger clasp, is quite uncommon for a white guy in the generation that Kelley belongs, however, his is somehow natural and though curious, quite comfortable. The same can be said for his deliberate and articulate style, delivered on a gentle southern accent that fills local coffeehouses and theaters, open mics and poetry slams.

Kelley’s most recent discovery with the organization involves a small, red brick house on the 600 block of Cary Street. The Jacob House, as it is known, is the latest historic property to have fallen under the scope of VCU. Their intentions, before Lane and several other researches began to pull back the cobwebs over the building’s history, was to convert the house into a new facility for their Engineering Program.

However, the house has been found to be older than anyone had originally thought.

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / LOCAL 15

elite since the founding years; or how, despite all of this, people, as Kelley believes, are predisposed to peace. By being “present,” as he describes, Kelley is able to absorb his surroundings, positive or negative, so that he may “capture images from life and write them down.”

Kelley’s knowledge and sense of history is profound, his poetry prolific, and his style and substance are provocative. His enthusiasm for telling a story and genuineness in encouraging others to do the same are proven the second and fourth Sundays of every month. The open mic sessions at Shockoe Espresso have become a standard among other readings throughout Richmond’s thriving underground of spoken word.

The only requirement to share is to stand in front of the microphone, and for listeners, only an ear is needed to learn something of the history that happened on the cobblestones just outside the door.

Almost immediately after it was announced that VCU wanted the Jacob House, a historian contacted Kelley about his research of Quaker history in Virginia. The Jacob House was built in 1817 by a man named George Winston, a Quaker who was a close friend to the famed abolitionist, Robert Pleasants. Winston. Winston built the house with the hiring of free black apprentices, became one of the most prominent builder-developers in the area and was able to successfully compete with slave labor. The house is widely believed to be one of the early stations of the Underground Railroad, years before actual railroads were even invented.

The story of the house has naturally found its way into Kelley’s poetry notebooks, just as other histories of Richmond sweep through his lyrics.

Whether it be about the unsettling truth of the corporation; the cyclic nature of corruption in a small, southern city; the between-the-lines of Richmond’s 16 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / LOCAL

food, rock & roll, moustaches, and friends with similar interests.

WONDERLAND

1727 E. MAIN ST. 643-9233 WWW.WONDERLANDRVA.COM

MyFriend,Anthony/ Kirsten Lewis

18 IMAGES / KIRSTEN LEWIS :: SEE THE FULL SERIES AT www.innatephoto.com

The buildings were swelling. The lampposts were sweating. The cobblestones were scorching. Everything in the city was hot. As I peeled my shirt away from my damp body I scanned the sidewalk for his familiar face. A face that I have known since moving to Richmond, a man that I have come to know for more than five years. Trying to locate Anthony isn’t much of a gamble. For as long as I’ve known, his smile has become a permanent landmark on Cary Street in Shockoe Bottom.

I handed Anthony a Gatorade and a ten to thank him for allowing me to photograph him. As I stood quietly in the corner leaning against the heavy brick, I watched as he worked. Most people walk past panhandlers, briskly avoiding eye contact, more irritated than empathetic, although when it comes to Anthony it is an entirely different story. His presence is inviting; strong, yet comforting. He never goes anywhere without his smile and he has no need to ask for money, for it’s simply slipped inside his palm followed by a brief conversation. He is an intellect, joker, confidant and even a change maker. He knows all the ins and outs of his self-assigned three blocks, from the businesses that have succeeded and failed in the past ten years to who’s who in the white-collar world that frequents his sidewalks.

As I began shooting I noticed that Anthony appeared different through my lens. Rather than a man who wore an unkempt beard, he was a man whose whiskers masked years of life on the streets. Each crease on his face was a reminder of cold nights, hungry nights, and dangerous nights. There’s a certain stranger inside his eyes that not even he is aware of anymore, a man who served his country proudly twenty-some odd years back. This was man who in a blink of an eye went from bunkers, bombers and a steady income to an undesirable injured employee for this “just” country. After many years of selfmedicating his body and spirit while struggling to exist in New York, he fled south and found himself in Richmond. With no money or dignity, Anthony was a man who forced the poison out of his veins never to enter again.

After sitting back for quite some time watching Anthony, I asked him to leave his post for just a few minutes. The stone beneath started burning through the soles of my sandals. As we reached the giant wall, Anthony looked over at me, beads of sweat caught between his eyelashes. “Richmond: the images of history shape, provoke, and inspire us. They help us to see who we have been and who we might become.” He smirked, eyes glassed over a bit. The power I felt, the irony and anger were one and the same as I released my shutter. Funny how the wider my angle got the more Anthony seemed to disappear, blend into the wall and weeds, just the way this city intends.

After I placed the last piece of equipment into my bag I turned to him, took his hand in mine and thanked him. It was more than just letting me photograph him. It was letting me expose his vulnerability. It was allowing me to not only capture the moments in a small fragment in time but also create an image where we both silently acknowledge his place in this city and as well as mine. Regardless of our social, racial or economic differences I have never wanted to see him as different. I only know Anthony as an intellect, joker, confidante and even a change-maker. I only know Anthony as my friend.

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / LOCAL 21

OregonHil:Morethan justdreadlocksand bikes?/ Tess Dixon

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24 IMAGE / NICK MARTIN

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TheCutthroats&CircusMaximus

/ Peter Szijarto

Don’t tell the Cutthroats that drinking and driving is a bad thing, at least on bikes. They already do it and have made a team sport out of it, the 6 Pack Relay. This and other main events were part of Circus Maximus held on a Saturday in September.

The Cutthroats are a group of crazy kids with branches in Richmond and Portland, Oregon that express their love of bikes by building them, racing them, or chucking them as far as possible. You might have seen a few of their members on “tall bikes.” They are hard to miss as they require two or more frames stacked and seats to at least reach the top of my 6’2” body. The members come from a variety of backgrounds all with their own talents. One of them might be your local bartender or bike welder.

I was given a flier for Circus Maximus from a friend who’s a member, Dennis, and instantly knew I had to schedule the day off from my mundane job manufacturing glasses. Thoughts of drunken kids riding bikes at high speeds, having crazy spills, and spearing each other entered my imagination. I missed their last event, Slaughterama and from what I heard about it, I knew I had to attend this one. With the Black Label bike gang, all the Cutthroats, and a score of other bike lovers in attendance, it was going to be unforgettable.

tors to line up for the 6 Pack Relay.

You might think you’ve seen it all, but I doubt you’ve seen a team of already drunken people trying to drink a six pack of 24-ounce beers as fast as possible all while riding a bike. I distinctly remember one of the Cutthroats, Lori Forty, with a nice projectile spew. She was a trooper though, just riding and chugging her way through it.

Every year they try to come up with a new event and this year they had the Chariot Races. They were particularly brutal sending some people into poles or into each other while bikes and chariots flew into the air, bent rims and all. The race had two people: one who pedaled, and the other standing on a custom-made chariot hooked up to the seat via cable. Two teams raced at once and had to complete three laps to finish.

Finishing wasn’t always that easy for some. CM wasn’t about winning anything really. Half the fun was watching others get fucked up.

Circus Maximus was staged in an abandoned warehouse shell on Belle Isle. A row of iron framing split the area into two, serving as the racetrack. The roof was missing many of its slats, providing enough natural light countering the overcast day. It was a perfect spot; out of sight to those who weren’t looking and provided a nice track for all the events.

I rode my bike to the location and there were at least 50 people already in attendance. Pabst was seen in many hands, bikes were strewn about the cement floor, and a jump had been set up for riding pleasure. Thirty minutes or so passed and Joey, the announcer, called for all competiILLUSTRATION LEFT / R. ANTHONY HARRIS : ILLUSTRATION TOP / OURA 27

Watching others get hurt is hilarious so long as nobody breaks a neck. CM featured the sport of tall bike jousting, one of possibly high risk. Helmets are worn, but imagine riding atop this tall-ass bike and hurtling towards another with a giant-ass spear. Not only do you pedal towards the opponent, you are given a nice boost by your “pit crew.” Granted there is a soft tip on the end of this “lance,” but the damn thing sure does the trick upon contact. Once speared, the loser is hurtled from the bike in a rag doll fashion while the crowd roars with laughter.

Now if you were looking for all out carnage, footdown is where it’s at. I myself engaged in it for some serious fun. As many people who wanted to participate could, with the object being to keep your feet from touching the ground. Every kind of bike was present; chariots to tall bikes, fixed gears, and mountain bikes, every niche were represented. Some bikes had advantages over others but those were negated through sheer sabotage. A duo on a tricycle used a mallet of some sort while the crowd grew impatient for a winner. They threw tires, inner tubes, pizza boxes, and cans of beer, anything really to knock the last few riding off. Oh, and I didn’t win. Maybe next time.

By far the silliest event was the Gauntlet. Bags of flour were launched, Super Soakers were sprayed, tires were tossed at the riders like a crappy State Fair game that you’re too drunk to win, while several people rode through the mayhem to claim the title master of the Gauntlet. It was quite hilarious to see the ghostly floured bodies after the race. They just moved out of the way for the next group, big grins and all.

If you didn’t make it out to Circus Maximus go shame yourself! Now go get yourself a bike, practice your jousting/racing/balancing while drunk skills and make it out to the next damn Cutthroats shindig. Seriously though, they know how to put together a damn fine day of festivities that’ll get you laughing, drunk, and sore till the nights over.

28 illustrations / oura : Images Todd Seelie, Peter Szijarto, stuart squier

music

September 14th-18th marked the return of the annual Richmond’s Revenge, an all-local showcase of Richmond’s musical talent from hip-hop to punk-rock to indie-pop. With around 25 bands playing in five days, Richmond’s Revenge gathered some of the best this dirty city has to of fer to make a buck or two or twenty-three hundred for Richmond’s finest non-profits, including: WRIR Richmond Indie Radio, Paper Street Info Shop, and Richmond Food Not Bombs.

WEDNESDAY - HIP HOP - Luggage, Dollars and Poundz, Hometeam, & Divine Prophets THURSDAY- INDIE - Delegate, Planar, Anousheh Khalili, The Mason Brothers, 804 Noise & Triple Stamp FRIDAY - PUNK - Attackula, The Single Spies, Wow Owls!, & The Pink Razors SATURDAY - METAL/HARDCORE - The Goddamn Wolves, The SetUp, Monarch, and Sword SUNDAY - PUNK - Social Dropouts, Morbid Nutsack

ACOUSTIC - David Shultz, Homemade Knives, & Liza Kate The following is the event thru the lens of three RVA photographers.

All Images by Chris Lacroix From TOP Left to Right :: Delegate, Pink Razors, & Josh Small From BOTTOM Left to Right :: Planar, WoW! Owls!, & Anousheh Khalili 30 thank you to timothy towslee

All images by RVA’s Queen Bee, Michelle Dosson From Left to Right ::Monarch, The Setup From Top to Bottom :: Attacula, Sword, Single Spies RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / MUSIC 33

Thru the lens of Peter Szijarto, Richmond’s Revenge Hip Hop Nite featuring Luggage, Dollars and Poundz, Hometeam, & Divine Prophets

34 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / music

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RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / MUSIC 35

ThePatchworkCollective

/ Brandon Martin

The Patchwork Collective may just be the breath of fresh air that Richmond’s music scene needs. Started only recently, the collective has already put on a number of shows that manage to combine seemingly disparate genres into something of a musical adventure for Richmonders. I recently sat down with them to find out exactly what was going on with Patchwork.

RVA So where are all of you guys from?

Chris From Canada originally; I moved to Richmond last September. I just stayed here for a few weeks and fell in love with the city. I was only planning on staying for a few weeks.

Scott I’ve lived here most of my life, and I play guitar in a couple bands in the area.

Matt I was a Jazz major at VCU, and I graduated last semester. I play guitar as well.

RVA Tell me about the inception of the collective.

Matt I began to feel like the music scene around here...well there was a lot of talent that I saw, but there wasn’t a lot of organization, specifically in the jazz community. There wasn’t a lot of communication between genres, they needed an organization that could promote things well and get what they were doing out to the public, and the city could support it. There’s a lot of talent and a lot of people willing to support it. I came to Scott and said we should do this, and he said yeah, let’s do this, and we had a few meetings and then we had our first show on July 16th.

Scott I went to VCU but I didn’t major in music, I really saw how hard it was...

I was thinking it would be sweet if you could organize something so people could see what each other were doing and get together, and I started playing in a few bands and that was pretty cool, so when Matt came to me with the idea I was just like “awesome.” I had been involved with the film community; none of the film community knew the music people, none of the rock people knew the jazz people.

Chris I wasn’t initially super-interested in this, because it seemed like a jazz thing, which you can get the impression of if you talk to Matt or Scott for like... two minutes, and actually we want to shrug that label off a bit...he was talking about Scott in the jazz scene, and I was like...two jazz dudes, that’s going to be fun...but the more he talked about it and the indie scene and who he needed I decided it was kind of for me. It reminded me of the guys at Relative Theory in Norfolk. We went canoeing and they said “hey quit your job and move into the store,” and so I did and then moved in and spent every day and night living in a store where 4 nights a week there were incredible bands playing

and there were like 15-30 people there. And I was just thinking of the people who weren’t there, who, if they were, would flip their shit. Richmond has a little bit of that apathy kind of, but people at least get excited about things and support each other. That’s what Patchwork is about; it’s like, look at this musician and what they’re doing. I think because it reminded me so much of the Relative Theory idea I definitely think that it could work out. I definitely think that indie music is easier to push than jazz, but we’re definitely dealing with over-saturation, so there’s just a difference between what I have to do and then what Matt and Scott have to do. But I was very interested in the idea.

RVA What would you say are your goals for the collective as a whole?

Matt It’s still frustrating now to see, in the jazz community, people who are very talented have to whore their music out in a restaurant or play very insignificant gigs because there’s no real way to have them play a show that an indie rock band might play and have it be like a musical statement, as opposed to just some background music for dinner. I wanted to, instead of going through years of playing restaurants, just to jump into it, and have a chance to perform music that doesn’t cater to the way jazz is often treated as a moneymaker. I want to see that community happen so we don’t have to do crappy gigs and be able to get an audience for the music.

Scott For me it’s the same thing, I play around here a lot, but I could never get jazz musicians to come out. I hung around with a lot of rock people, and it was weird, because they seemed to really like it, even thought most of them didn’t own any jazz, and the need was definitely there to get people to come out and know what’s going on with events. I used to make fliers for shows, and they used to give me looks and say “fliers, that’s weird,” and it wasn’t even like it was bizarre it was just like, whoah, you can promote your own shows.

Matt People just don’t like to deal with it in the jazz community, and it’s unfortunate, but ultimately it keeps people in the community from coming out.

Scott Yeah, and no one would show up to a show, and people would get angry, but then, no one really knew about it.

Chris It’s the opposite in the indie scene; there’s not a single show that’s not ridiculously fliered, and they’ll see the same bands at the same venues. It’s funny for you guys to talk about this, because I can’t get my head around trying to get guys to go to an indie show except the people that already do.

There has to be some sort of other motivation to go besides just the fact that my friends are going. We have completely different problems to get our heads around, which is completely insane to me.

Matt A lot of it is that there isn’t an avenue to perform their own music, they image / lindsay brown : illustration / r. anthony harris 37

work in studio sessions or at the Jefferson or private parties, but there isn’t an avenue to write and people don’t take ownership of their own music. They’re not stoked about their own music.

Scott People just don’t seem to take ownership of the city, or take ownership of the fact that the reason that it’s a problem is because we aren’t doing something about it. And if nobody is going to shows it’s because we’re not motivating people. You can’t say that it stinks, and then not go yourself; you have to take ownership of it. I would love to see Richmond take more ownership of its scene.

RVA Where do you feel your place is within the Richmond promo scene, with 804 Noise and Hit/Play swimming around as well?

Matt Our focus is somewhere in between. 804 Noise has the hardest musical product you can possibly sell, and they’re dedicated to it, which is great, and we support them 100%, and we do occasionally have a crossover market, and we’ll have avant jazz and indie rock stuff. I think there’s a lot more going on Richmond besides indie rock and noise. And there are tons of other musical communities.

RVA It seems like you guys are trying to hit a middle ground and have more of an egalitarian approach.

Chris What we’ve thought about doing, is getting jazz bands to play, and we have a show on the 26th, and we were talking about what band would be cool to put with them, and I was like, the people that come out wanting to just see indie bands will see this totally tripped out jazz band. There’s a certain sense of us wanting to ease Richmond into the more far-out.

Scott We’re not trying to freak anyone out, but we are relatively picky about who we pick to play, we’re not having “getting people in the door” bands to play.

RVA The way you handle things reminds me a lot of Sonar and No Fun Fest and various American/European Festivals that have bands with a similar mind-set but not necessarily similar sounds.

Scott Our Myspace page is about Sonar, because we really wanted to go. We’re bringing down Ken Vandermark, and from him I found out about Jim O’Rourke, and then O’Rourke is playing folk stuff, but he’s in Sonic Youth, and then Vandermark is playing with Brotzmann, and you think, this is all so different, how is this working? And it’s all from the same mind-set, and it’s just about getting these similar minded people out together.

Chris And it’s not like this is odd, this is happening in other places, shit goes on like this in New York and does it fine, if Richmond can support an art scene it can support a music scene.

RVA Do you have faith in Richmond to fulfill this?

Chris I know that if this doesn’t work out it’s not because it was a bad idea and it won’t be because people wanted to go to keggers, it’s because I did something wrong. So the blame for this lies on us.

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& DISTRIBU-

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thebassline/RICHMONDSREVENGE Thank you to Jason Hodges, PaigeHarbert, JoAnnaWiley, PeterSzijarto, P a r k e r, & Tm i othyTowsele Landis Wine

Anousheh Khalili

Let The Ground Know Who’s Standing On Him

Ratings from 1 to 5

Triple Stamp

and stands distinctively on its own.

Her album, Let The Ground Know Who’s Even before she could Standing On Him, is release her first album, a stunning display of Anousheh Khalili fell into talent with the parallel a whirlwind of internaforce of her voice and tional success with the accompanied piano.

DJ duo Deep Dish featuring her on their track Both serve as the main “Say Hello”. driving dynamism of the songs, never overpowAfter being heavily aired ering one another, but on Europe’s MTV, the rather winding around song took home the each other to produce award for “Best Underfluidity from track to ground Dance Track” at track. Guest bass and this year’s International percussion on the album Dance Music Awards in give an extra fullness to Miami. the songs. The arresting qualities of the album as While the acclaimed a whole are impressive song doesn’t sound for a debut effort and anything like Khalili’s insures that this is not solo work, the attraction the last that we’ll see of her lucid and sultry from Anousheh Khalili. voice transcends genre - Paige

4 of 5

Sword

Lord by Fire

cd penetrate his ears.

The first track, Radula, opens with an eerie From the opening track, foreboding cello and Radula, to the end of the then the pace suddenly quickens with barely final track . Children of heard speaking, increasGhede, Sword proves, yet again, that Richmond ing drumbeats, and spawns some truly great textured guitar work. heavy music.

This all kicks in with Keith Brown’s hoarse vocals “Lord of Fire” is an epic and deep baseline, musical journey that aggressive guitars from dives deep into psyche Shawn Nash and Luke and stirs images of Deskins, and Joey Arcaro ancient long forgotten hitting the drums at an lands, primordial deiincreasing brutal pace. ties, and the depths of mythological seas.

The cd never stops from there. In fact, it hard If author H.P. Lovecraft to differentiate where were alive today and one song ends and the needed inspiration for one of his tales of invis- next begins. This, by no means, is a negative ible worlds harboring nightmarish, multi-ten- thing. “Lord By Fire” is a like a mini novel with tacled behemoths, he would no doubt let this each song a chapter that We Are The Label

4 of 5

flows together so well that you never know if it is still on Cemophora Coccinea (track 2) or if you are experiencing Electrogod (track 4).

There are quieter moments of ambiance sprinkled here and there, usually with Brown’s deep, pulsing baseline setting a few temporary moments before the madness kicks back in.

The last few seconds of the album uses the same cello that we heard at the very beginning signifying an end to this journey. With a little over 33 minutes, this is one album whose thick heaviness engulfs you and keeps your head bobbing at a rhythmic pace all the way through. - Parker

Homemade Knives

Industrial Parks Triple Stamps Records Think about the kind of music you want to hear while hanging out on a friend’s porch in Oregon Hill or when you’re lying on your bed next to an open window after being tragically dumped.

Got that in your head?

Then you have an idea of what Homemade Knives are great at. The laundry list of the mandatory country

4 of 5

song topics are all included, from undeserved punches to whiskey to heartbreak. We know this stuff... it’s all there in the guidebook for alt-country lyrics...

Fortunately, Wil Loyal’s lyricism goes beyond that and fills each song with clever and touching lyrics such as, “We’re like paper lanterns catching on fire./ It hurts like hell, but we still run to the light.” or “I’ve got the best years of my life passing by,/ I’m happier at the station than I’ve ever been on the train.”

Planar

intelligent songs create an unmatched atmosphere that proves to be rather breathtaking.

The electronic loops and samples are placed Listening to Planar’s carefully within the songs Goodbye Atmosphere, Goodbye Traffic is almost to provide richness to the songs, rather than nostalgic after watchoverpower the instruing them progress and mentation. grow in the years since the album was originally recorded and released in Each songs glides Loyal’s voice is downright stunning, 2002 on their own label, gracefully into the next making you believe the pictures his lyrics Gentle Records. providing a consistent present. and evenly paced album Experimenting with their as a whole. The spatial A strong departure from the sound of sound over the last three vocals float throughout previous projects like Marion Delgado years and numerous line the songs making it and El Ahrairah, Homemade Knives’ up changes, Planar seems sound like a dream-like songs are successful with the rich feeling to have finally arrived soundtrack for a long of southern porches and summer nights. with their most solid set nighttime car ride. up they’ve have yet.

The expected banjo, percussion, and This album provides a guitar instrumentation is warmed with The album, while dated, demonstration of the the welcomed presence of cello and foundations of one of the still holds its own with piano The songs go from minimalistic more impressive band to ambient and mesmerplucking and crooning to layered seccome out of Richmond . izing layers. Their tions that seem almost polished.

- Paige well-constructed and - Paige Goodbye Atmosphere, G o o d b y e Tr a f f i c Lujo Records

4 of 5

Attackula Demo

All The Dead Pilots /Single Spies

Dudes from This Town is an Anchor and Boxing Water play music along the lines of both of the aforementioned bands.

All The Dead Pilots are from Mary land and they play some pretty catchy indie rock.

Their style is a little rough around the edges, but sweet enough to catch your ear and make you shake your butt a little. Their songs are about love being found and lost, drinking with your friends, and the general ups and downs of living.

They give a lot of musical nods to some other Richmond punk bands, but their sound is definitely their own. This is honestly one of the best punk CDs I’ve heard in a while and it hasn’t left my CD player for very long since I got it.. Check ‘em out next chance you get. - Timothy

5 of 5

Split Demo

Their beats are danceable and their music is catchy and pleasant, but they’re not from Richmond, so on to the Single Spies.

Single Spies are from Western Grace and they are amazing.

They successfully blend an early eighties post-punk dance sound with an early-nineties DC punk sound a là Fugazi, creating a sound as timeless as bike rides and road trips.

We get five songs from each band. Nice.

- Timothy

4 of 5

thebassline

Swordplay The Tilt EP

Ratings from 1 to 5

Concise Records

the street from my house can do to a person. in the Hill.

- Peter

All the tracks stand out Swordplay has crafted a on their own and that’s nice fuckin’ record here. the EP’s strongest point.

They all flow nicely The first listen through lacked the visceral punch together except for the slight break in style in I hoped for, but I knew it deserved more than a the song “Martin the Warrior.” Though the singular listen. acoustical instrumental for this song is good too That’s where the key (it grows on you), this is to this album lies: the mainly because it’s so shit just grows on different and Issac raps you. I slathered my in French. The lyrics are ears with it and I really on point as well. The line appreciated the fact that this wasn’t another from the first song, “Tilt,“ Aesop, Atmosphere, or even (I apologize to the “A man, a plan, and some cannabis: artists for bringing his That’s all a mammal is name up), an EminemI’m an agent sounding cd.

And the end of men is in The Tilt EP definitely has government made lasers” an underground feel to it and rightly so as it was really shows what smoking weed all day made primarily down

4 of 5

US label System Recordings.

DJ today.

The timeless, classic anthem “Inside My Soul” is the most noted track BulletProof EP in this Hospital Records System Recordings release. The tune stays true to the liquid, epic DJ Rap is definitely not a drum and bass sound newcomer to the drum that Logistics & Hospital and bass world, hailing This latest release is no are known for worldwide. from the early days exception to her previ“Inside my Soul” is quite of the UK’s rise of the ous floor-filler producpossibly one of the best jungle. She has shared tion works.

There’s Hospital releases of all the stage with many nothing exciting about time. The lush female drum and bass superthis ambient album aside vocal hooks, bouncy stars and tours the world from the cover art.

Leave basslines, and crisp drums regularly playing records this one on the shelves, makes for real-deal dance to crowds of thousands. and move on. - JoAnna floor appeal.

Aside from her skills as a But don’t skip out on the DJ, her production work LOGISTICS Spacejam EP *2x12* rest of this double pack is rigid and uneventful, Hospital Records leaving little to be dejust yet. More smashing sired from the hardcore tunes complete the pack Although it was released jungalist. in late 2004, this most with tracks – “Space Jam”, wanted double pack “Together VIP”, and “KaleiWell, DJ Rap has done it again, (or not done it) still tops the wish lists of descope”. many a drum and bass with a new double LP on

DJ RAP

1 of 5

With the usual cheeky artwork on the album sleeve of the cover girl herself, this will be the only thing selling these tracks.

5 of 5

With quality releases like this, it appears that Logistics is on a mission to prove that drum and bass can be jazzy, soulful, funky and still rock a dancefloor proper!

- JoAnna

Strangulated Beatoffs Jacking Off With Jacko b/w Beat It 7” Apop Records Wow! The first Strangulated Beatoffs record in years and I think this is my favorite one so far. I was expecting annoying, repetitive loops with little or no vocals like they can be famous for, and that stuff rules by the way...but while the “Jacking Off With Jacko” cover is definitely

3 of 5

an annoying loop, the vocals/lyrics are hilarious and the loop is kind of funky and catchy after a while.

You get the idea. The instrumentation is a fuzzy, bass-heavy keyboard over fuzzed-out electronic drums with really It must be because some weird vocals that only friends and I listened to 30-something perverts it at least 5 times drunk who live in their mother’s the other night, and the basement, which is what alcohol “couldn’t” have I hear these guys are, had an effect on taste or could do. JH judgment.

No way.

Tenement Halls “Beat It” is a straight up cover of the Michael Jackson classic with a little twist on the lyrics “Show ‘em your weenie, show ‘em it’s white, it doesn’t matter if it’s wrong or it’s right, etc.”

Knitting Needles and Bicycle Bells

Merge Records I’ve more or less come to terms with the fact that not many people knew or cared about the Rock*A*Teens when

3 of 5

they were fighting the good fight in the 90’s, and even though they may never have made a unanimously great album, they never made a bad one either.

It’s possibly for this reason that the new Tenement Halls record, which basically consists of R*A*Ts frontman Chris Lopez and a few scattered players, doesn’t stray too far from the territory on his old band’s swan song, 2000’s Sweet Bird of Youth.

The record sounds a bit more mature, which is to say the tempos don’t

Animal Collective Feels Fat Cat Records

There are very few people who could have guessed that the Animal Collective that produced Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished, an album that reveled in low fidelity, white noise, and inhuman howls, could have made such a glossy pop record like Feels.

Of course there were hints of elemental pop there, but most of them were so shrouded by bizarre mixing and white noise that gave the melodies the feeling of a sailboat in the fog, rather than sounding like... and

3 of 5

let’s just be honest... The The Words?” and “Banshee Beat,” which both manage Arcade Fire. to conjure something that It seems the band have sounds much larger than the soundscapes they dabbled in entirely discarded the prior to this record. It seems crunching digital Phil that with the advances in Spector-trapped-inthe-woods mentality of structure and melody on this “Here Comes The Indian” album, they’ve shed so much of the experimentalism that and decided to clutch desperately to the Brian made them so compelling and unpredictable in the Wilson end of things, beginning. creating actual songs with quite a bit of typical instrumentation (guitar/ Even though the melodies often soar, piano/voice/drums). you know exactly where they’re going to go. Nothing This isn’t to say the songs themselves aren’t dives or drops out into some worthwhile. In fact, one sort of sonic abyss. Feels of the biggest surprises has turned the once grizzly Animal Collective into the life on this record is that of the party, but they don’t these guys can write compelling pop songs, seem to have anything new to say.- LW namely the album opener “Did You See

lit

The Great Serpent of Sintra / The International Gentleman His clean, hairless skin I didn’t mind. Unsettling, you say? Of course. But, one’s faults become endearing when their subtle charms seduce a new acquaintance. And, you see, I was Redondo’s new friend. He had my ear.

I had arrived in Sintra on a dark and moist evening. The tram from Lisbon bore its way through the ramshackle Portuguese suburbs in about three quarters of an hour. I will never forget the sad, plaster faces of the commuters, their faces drenched in the pale green fluorescence of the tram interior.

Sintra bears eerie teeth when first viewed through the irritating drizzle of a night shower. You step off the train into dark and unforgiving streets, the only lights to help you feel your way down those lonely streets come from above; the old Moorish castle atop an even older mountain, bottom lit for effect. And then there are the serpents.

One hardly notices them at night. It’s more of a feeling, really. They creep up on corners, intersections, and in the forgotten by-ways of the town. Vicious depictions painted, sculpted, and constructed throughout the local architecture. It was my incessant inquiries about these startling artifacts that led to Redondo.

His snake room is massive. The task of maintaining the reptiles and the unique decorum of the room is daunting. It is slightly more than an obsession; it is a man’s life work.

The walls are lined with cages. Not the cruel and cold metal boxes we know from the local pet shop, but ornate and loving bone-fenced confines in which the reptiles are meticulously cared for. Redondo spends the first six hours of his long morning whistling classic Iberian ballads to each snake in a soft meter. They seem to respond to him like an empathic equal. He is one of them, hairless, his tongue flicking out at you.

Redondo showed me a photograph of himself as a hirsute young man. A long mane of hair brushed over a woolly beard that rested on a torso; no sign of skin could be discerned upon his chest. He looked like a well-postured ape.

I asked him about his unprecedented hair-loss. He looked away, weeping a bit, and replied. “It was the Great One,” he said, “the Great Serpent of Sintra,” then came the long, poignant narrative.

It was twenty-some odd years ago that Redondo had relocated to the southern coast. He’d come in search of legend. In snake-handling circles, he told me, the Great Serpent was a Holy Grail, of sorts; to merely glimpse it would send one’s follicles on a mass exodus from the skin. The old timers said it made Nessy look like a gummy worm.

Legend had it that the beast had been summoned in Sintra by a club-footed sorcerer with a nasty harelip. Redondo said there’s much debate about his motive in summoning such a creature from beyond, but most agree it had to do with “phallic potency.” Most speculators suspect the magician had problems with the fairer sex (no doubt due to his mangled maw). In fact, the myth goes on that the Great Serpent, upon materializing, gazed upon the limping conjurer, vomited once, and fled to the nearby Atlantic.

Redondo relays this with the greatest of care. The story nauseates him, I can tell. Tiny, glistening beads form around his otherwise smooth brow. He must hate the sorcerer and yet, admire him. He saw the creature first. The beast which is responsible for turning a once thin, hirsute ILLUSTRATION / DASH SHAW 45

young man into the middle-aged, muscle-bound and baldpated freak that hunches before me today. It is true: his muscles have muscles and his posture is not unlike that of a Slinky.™ The trauma of loss, the particular loss that Redondo suffered, caused him to workout compulsively; four hours of sit-ups, three of bench-presses. His schedule consists of snake-handling and exercise exclusively. The man barely eats and when he does, only with his snakes. I’ve seen him swallow a mouse whole. He found himself on the coast, staring into the great expanse of ocean. “Stood there for days,” he tells me, “looking for the Great Serpent.” It was on the eleventh day he decided to swim.

Tackling giant squalls and tsunamis described best as vindictive, Redondo plunged himself into the depths of the Atlantic. It was exactly thirtyseven minutes until he found the big snake.

To hear him tell it, the snake was downright cordial. He apologized to Redondo, telling him that afternoon tea would be simply out of the question, due to their being submerged in salt water. An English muffin, however, was offered.

The Great Serpent had carved an ornate table and chairs from the local coral and insisted that Redondo join him. They passed hours discussing the final paragraph of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and the intrinsic beauty of iambic pentameter. The Serpent was a gentleman, not unlike Redondo himself.

Weeks passed. They became inseparable. Until the faux pas fatale.

Redondo had forgotten. How, no one can be sure, least of all him. A seeming small thing, but unforgivable in the eyes of a Great Serpent.

A simple sneeze. A lack of blessing. How could he have been so inattentive? So callous? The snake never forgave him. Their relationship soured quickly and Redondo was banished from his aquatic abode. Soon after, his hair fell out. All of it.

He blames sorrow for his hair loss and stupidity for his sorrow. Now, through the streets of Sintra, you can hear the weeping of a grown man through the gentle hiss of a hundred snakes. He chants his mantra punctually.

“Bless you, old friend, bless you.”

TheBrewery/ Bryan Carter

ILLUSTRATION / ANDRE SHANK 47

The One Good Thing/ Andrew Jenner I’ve had a longer relationship with Delmonicos Steakhouse in Jackson, Missouri than any other restaurant in my life, which is ironic because the food there is terrible. I have family in Jackson, though, so for the past twenty-three years, from the baby chair to the booster seat, through teenage indifference to the first faltering steps of early adulthood, Delmonicos has been a constant in my life. This is a portrait of a sad town, a call to arms, and the story of a polemicist’s unlikely love with an ugly duckling of a restaurant.

Jackson, Missouri, about two hours south of St. Louis, a few miles from the Mississippi, is probably the most unpleasant and unfortunate town I have ever spent time in. The only remarkable thing about the landscape is how unremarkable it is. The topography is not flat, but certainly not hilly; even the terms “gentle” or “rolling” would be cosmetic lies. Summers are brutally muggy, and seem to suit the mosquitoes and poison ivy just fine. Winters are gray, slushy and set to a constant 35°; the colorful lights that people string up blink out messages of holiday cheer, but their only effect is to underscore the town’s utter lack of gaiety. But even this combination of distasteful scenery and uncomfortable environment has done little to stem the tide of modern American progress – those four lane highways and strip malls, fast food and gas stations that sit like neon pimples on an ugly asphalt face.

There to welcome everybody to his sprawling and revolting eponymous town, painted in grand patriotic colors across from the courthouse where Hope intersects Main, is the smiling face of Andrew Jackson, whose exploits as a violent racist earned him the US Presidency, commemoration in dozens of place names, a spot on the $20 bill, and hopefully a place in one of hell’s hotter sections.

As inevitably seems to occur in such areas of progress, life becomes a little more frantic, a little less satisfied, a little more exhausting. Traffic gets jumpier, red lights take longer, the summer sun glares a little more unmercifully. The Joneses seem to be pulling away, and if you happen to glimpse the faces of Mr. And Mrs. Smith as they hurry into Wal-Mart, desperately trying to keep up, they look a little more tired, a little sadder every year. Nowhere has Americana been so thoroughly corrupted, where the old red barns are being torn down to create room for a few more condos, and the most noticeable rural culture around anymore is that packaged and sold by Cracker Barrel, and yet, I get the impression no one cares, or even notices. When in Jackson, I am often taken by a moral rage towards the corporate rape of American life so blatant there.

And in the heart of it all, between Dollar Tree and the new bowling alley, stands Delmonicos. If Delmonicos has changed any since I’ve been on the scene, it has been too slight to notice. It’s the kind of place where the waitresses have poofy bangs and glamour shots of local homecoming queens decorate 48 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / LITERATURE

the walls. An old, pastoral oil painting of the nearby Bollinger mill (of perceived local significance) provides some identity, and a model engine relentlessly pulls four railcars around the dining room on a ledge up near the ceiling. A forlorn Help Wanted sign is always in the window and two coin gambling machines guard the exit, having swindled me out of dozens of quarters over the last two decades.

The green beans in the buffet appear to have been simmering for months, fading to a dull gray (pleasantly, if accidentally, matching the worn carpet).

The nachos are rubbery, the cheese looks radioactive and the lasagna is burned. The ice cream is always melty, the fudge luke-warm and the Oreo topping is always gone. The clientele are generally as old and worn out as the restaurant itself, shuffling between the booths and the salad bar, diligently carving out slices of mashed potatoes, lifting glasses of ice tea with shaky hands. To the untrained eye, Delmonicos could appear the very epicenter of hellish Jackson, where the locals, after years of fretting and sweltering between 7-11 and Lowes, may retreat for some palliative greasy chicken before curling up to die behind the gambling machines.

But to me, Delmonicos is a safe haven, a bastion of reality besieged by false promises and empty calories. I could get better food cheaper and faster at Burger King, but once inside in the synthetic glow I wouldn’t know if I was in Jackson or New York or Paris or any interstate exit between. Delmonicos, though, seems true. I feel a satisfying sense of place when I see the calloused farmer hands reaching for the okra from the other side of the buffet line, when I hear the grandmas and grandpas brag in their quavering, twangy voices about Johnny making the honor roll or Tiffany in the fourth grade play. Delmonicos has and indescribable air to it, an authentic Missouri feeling, the dirt, steam, lazy nights on the porch swing, the brown Mississippi; sometimes I get so caught up in it I expect to bump into Mark Twain at the urinal or see Conestoga wagons hitched outside, just beginning the long push west.

But then, the meal ends, the check is settled, I lose two or three quarters on my way out the door, and step outside refreshed and gorged. Driving away again, I of course pass the chaos- how the people reverently refuel the family minivan, the blaring advertisement: “COME TRY OUR 99 CENT MENU,” the desperate mothers dragging petulant children into Kmart – in its full horrific splendor. I often think to myself that I would like to someday ride back into town at the head of a revolution, tearing every last neon sign to the ground, smashing every single Slurpee machine and soda fountain within reach, dousing the convenience stores in French fry oil and setting them ablaze, liberating Jackson from the clutches of mass consumption. Of course, afterwards I would retire to the corner booth of Delmonicos, eating fried catfish and drinking Dr. Pepper to my delighted heart’s content.

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / LITERATURE 49

Art

ThatGuyJuresko/ Jeff Grant Adam Juresko is this “artist” I know. He’s currently in to making collage work.

This started by watching his friends make zines, sitting in Kinko’s for hours, cutting, pasting, you know.... the whole process. This seemed tedious, which was appealing to him. He’s done the occasional flier for local music promotion guys, Hit/Play. He’s done cd covers for bands such as Stop It!! (which he’s a part of), Life At These Speeds, Wow, Owls!, Comrade, Pink Razors, and Nightwounds. He is preparing for a show at Ipanema in December with at least 100 pieces gracing the walls.

Jeff He was in Dad. Have you seen Dad? Adam I haven’t seen Dad. Jeff It’s pretty good.

Adam Well, [in] Three Men and a Baby, he’s similar to his role in Cheers, but then he swaps back from his character in Cousins, so you get to see both sides of him in that.

Jeff What do you think Keith Coogan is doing these days?

Adam Who’s Keith Coogan?

He constantly orders Chinese food.

Adam Juresko is also this guy I know. He bugged me for days: “Jeff will you interview me soon?” or “How’s Wednesday at 6:05 pm sound for our interview?” After ignoring his calls for a few days, I was cleaning my room and found some movies I’d borrowed from him that I didn’t have room for.

I figured he’d ask about the interview again, so I grabbed the tape recorder, The Sword in the Stone, and Cousins, starring Ted Danson.

Jeff What are your thoughts on Ted Danson?

Adam I think very highly of him. On Cheers he was tops at being a sleazy dude. He always had a witty remark about the ladies. In Cousins I like him; he was a sweetheart, a dancer.

Jeff Would you say he’s versatile?

Adam Yeah. His role in Cousins is quite the 180 from his role in Cheers... and, what other movies has he been in?

Jeff He plays Mitch in Cousins, and he was also in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.

Adam I would say not too much. I’d have to do a good amount of sleeping to figure out what he’s doing.

Jeff Would you say he was a punk in Cousins?

Adam He was disgruntled but mostly because that girl didn’t like him.

Jeff His stepmom?

Adam No, that girl...

Jeff Oh, with the blue bike?

Adam Yeah, the one whose name he’d written on his Vans.

Jeff Which I’m not sure were really Vans.

Adam I think they were Airwalks. The movie he made, that was pretty punk.

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / ART 51

Jeff He was a multimedia artist. Uh...Do you remember your first piece of art?

Adam Not the first piece. One of the things that sticks out is I had this acetate paper that I painted the Hulk on when I was really young, and the paint flaked off.

Jeff Was that the start of it all?

Adam No, not particularly. My father was always very into painting, my brother’s always been into comic books. I think mostly I just liked to watch my brother. We had to share a room for five years or so. He didn’t like me looking at any of his stuff.

Jeff Bunk beds?

Adam No bunk beds.

Jeff Did your brother get you into punk too?

Adam No, he got me into metal really, and I got into punk through a friend in school, and then I caught him listening to those records.

Jeff Were you into punk or art first?

Adam I would say I was into punk first. I don’t see very much separation between the two.

Jeff How much artwork do you do outside of music-related artwork?

Adam Very little; anything I make that doesn’t get made into a record cover has the potential to be an album cover. I don’t really make things with the intent of being an album, it’s just they can be. I just have the image first.

52 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / ART

Jeff Why do you still do art?

Adam Have I overstayed my welcome? I would say, like music, it’s just another outlet. It’s a part of my day. I’ll sit and play guitar for a while, then sit down and make art; it’s just a part of my day that I don’t really think about.

Jeff Was there a point where you got more serious about it?

Adam Yeah, I’d say after the show Tyler and I did at Chop Suey. Everyone had nice things to say. It’s something I had put a lot of work into before it happened and then I got a lot out of it. Yeah, it was a sweet night.

(pause) Jeff Do you want to talk about more stuff?

Adam Sure...you wanna talk about album art?

Jeff Yeah sure. What’s your favorite album art you’ve done?

Adam I don’t know if I could pick a favorite. I think I like each progressively more than the last one. One of them was fun because there was a blizzard, or ..was it a flood?

Jeff When? A year ago?

Adam It was some time in the past 2 years and I went outside...and Justin was like “Dude come over it’s fucking crazy.” This is when I was living in Lombardy and I was like “I can’t dude.” So I went up in my room...(ed. Some rumblings, at which point I got sucked into the TV or fell asleep). Would you classify what I do as art?

Jeff Um...yeah, I mean, yeah I would definitely classify it as art. Would you?

Adam Yeah I guess.

images / adam juresko 53

Methods NYC / Christian Detres Dave Gee speaks on the Methods NYC lifestyle, dropping some knowledge on anyone trying to follow his fashion footsteps. A graduate of VCU, who now spends most of his time hustlin in the NYC Fashion World.

Christian Everyone loves a story of local boy makes good. Tell me about your roots in Richmond.

Dave I graduated from VCU with a Business Administration degree. My partner, Chris, was an Art major. He worked with DayByDay and Lamb of God designing t-shirts and generally getting his artwork known in the music and arts scene. I was very involved in the music scene as well, DJing in most of the city’s rave/dance spots like Cafiene’s, Tuesdays at Twisters, Massive Mondays at Club Boss and numerous other locations.

I was a part owner in PureLove Records on Grace Street. I still DJ here in NYC at Concrete Jungle. I got my start in Richmond, then moved to Brooklyn to continue my career. In many ways, the art scene in Richmond is just as strong as it is up here. It’s on a much smaller scale, sure, but with all the heart and talent. I convinced Chris to move up here with me to start MethodsNYC, a t-shirt and media company created to tap the source of underground art in its most influential market. We help graffiti artists move their designs from the streets to the clothes rack. It’s a way to honor the best bombers in the city and for all their admirers to wear their favorite street designs.

Christian What’s your relationship like with all of the artists you represent?

Dave We have a great relationship with the artists we represent because we treat them right. Between the upfront payment for the rights to the designs and the commissions we pay them for each item sold, they wind up with nearly 20% of the profits from their own work. In this industry, that’s damn good. We’ve focused on NYC artists mostly and a few friends from Richmond but we’re expanding our focus to include many other top bombers from other cities. This upcoming season we’ve got artists like Tim Johnston, NYC Lase, Elik, Cess1 (NOTE: check spelling on this one) [I googled it, but couldn’t find anything. I have no idea if this is right.], the biggest and baddest we can find. We travel to different cities nationwide to find the one dude who’s up everywhere and give him a shot to merchandise his popularity. We’re looking to have between 10 and 15 new artists on our roster in spring 2006. We’ll be supporting them for the first time next year with full representation at all the trade shows and with dope ad campaigns and photo shoots. We’re excited about this season as I think we’re really hitting our stride.

Christian It goes without saying that controversy and conflict go hand in hand with graffiti culture. Do you feel that the danger involved, physical and legal, drains or props up the art form?

Dave There a lot of artists out there that are driven by the conflict, by the counter-culturalism inherent in graffiti. A good example is Elik, excellent artist and fearless bomber. I wouldn’t be as interested in representing him if it weren’t for the fact that he is EVERYWHERE. On the other image by dylan r. Mullins 55

hand though, the man’s made a lot of people angry. Plenty of consumers and art lovers have an idea of balance in their appreciation of graffiti.

They definitely get off on noticing pieces that are recognizable and being able to comment on them like “yeah, he’s got a piece on my block... he’s up on Lexington...etc.” They also know when enough is enough. A few of my retailers have refused to carry his shirts in their stores because of his rabid desire to get “up.” Too much controversy can easily drive people away. From the artist’s standpoint though, the thrill is where it’s at.

Christian Do you think if there was a completely legal outlet for kids to get their street art up that there would be more interest in graffiti?

Dave At first, I think. There would be a lot of people that would otherwise not consider the risk worth it that would get into it. It would lose its edge as an anonymous backdrop to a vastly commercial and name-driven society. Graffiti is one of the ways that the outsiders and kids that refuse to buy into spoon-fed popular culture can make themselves relevant; force themselves into the consciousness of a populace comfortable with playing yes-man to “safe” and sanctioned activities. The people getting their pieces up now are willing to take the risks and are passionate about their expression. I think the art form belongs to them and would suffer immeasurably if the bandits lost control of their domain.

Christian Do you see any good or bad trends in graffiti art these days?

Dave There’s always been good art, though some of the wheat paste stuff has gotten a bit more sophisticated. A good trend I see is in location choices. A lot of people don’t see the beauty in the balls it takes to paint a sign over a busy highway. Pieces that make you think “How the fuck did they even get to that spot?” are the ones that impress me. As for bad trends, yeah there are some things that piss me off. One in particular is when eager kids buy some paint and just go for it without any idea as to the etiquette involved in the art form. You’ve got people who should have hung around some of the older, more established artists before going out on their own. There’s some ugly, shitty stuff up that’s basically embarrassing. Even worse, they don’t have respect for pieces that are landmarks – and they wouldn’t know they’re landmarks – because they’ve never stopped to familiarize themselves with the culture’s history. I’ve seen tags covering pieces that have been up, untouched, for twenty years. They’re untouched out of respect for a deceased artist – someone that paid dearly for his art and is well-respected and remembered by all of his peers and fans. All I got to say is, those punks need to do their homework and not be so quick to disrespect other people’s work.

Christian If you could bomb one more building, and only that one for the rest of your career, which would it be?

Dave Damn, that’s hard. For me, I’ve always thought of this row of buildings on the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge on Delancey that’s just perfect. It’s such a high-traffic area, almost a welcome mat into the city. That would be perfect.

Christian Who are your favorite artists right now?

56 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / art

Dave I’ve got so many that I love but the ones I’m excited about right now are Cycle, out of NYC and Frost (also known as El Toro) out of Philly.

Cycle is well-known in New York but he’s just now blowing up outside Gotham. It’s an exciting time for them both. Frost is like the Philadelphian Elik, he’s up everywhere. With that kind of urban legend status, we had to seek him out and get him to do some designs for us. In fact, we’ve got both Frost and Cycle on our spring t-shirt line.

Christian How do you rate the importance of the t-shirt in the modern wardrobe?

Dave In the last ten years I’ve seen the t-shirt go from lazy guy un-fashion statement to the most immediate form of identifying yourself – whether it’s your brand of humor, political affiliation, artistic leaning, musical taste or wry philosophy. It rivals denim as a pop cultural force.

You can’t overstate the power of the t-shirt amongst modern youth. People buy t-shirts very carefully. Now that there are such a wide variety of designs out there to fit every taste, you can introduce yourself without ever opening your mouth. People that wear our brand immediately identify themselves as knowledgeable consumers of street art, on the inside of its community, representing the mavericks that make it go.

Christian I go to a lot of fashion trade shows and I see from season to season new designers with that hunger in their eyes. They know they’ve got a shot at making it big but also know they know very little about how to truly run a successful business. They’ve got ideas, balls and ambition, but always tempered by a certain arrogance and a lot of times, fear. What would you say to those getting into the already glutted t-shirt industry to help them become successful?

Christian Stay the course. Crawl, walk and THEN run. You can’t skip a step. IT DOES NOT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT. Remember that. Make your roots in the street. Know your demographic, I mean really know them. Don’t assume anything. Do your research and learn what they like, how they think, and tell them what you’re about. Take it slow because dozens of very talented people burn out every year. Just be patient. Also, if you can avoid it, and you CAN, don’t borrow money from family and friends. If you are lean on funds, save up. While you’re saving up – practice your craft. Design and get to be the best at what you do. When you finally can afford it you’ll be in a position where you waste nothing.

RVA One last thing. A lot of RVA magazine’s readers are students trying to get into this and related fields. For anyone trying to do what you are currently excelling at, what classes would you recommend? Which ones are you glad you stayed awake in?

Dave Definitely project management. Marketing, Advertising and oh, fuck Calculus. Anyone that tells you you are going to use Calculus is fucking lying.

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / ART 57

DealingwithArt/ Doug Utly My way of dealing with art lately is to ask myself the most critical question right off the bat: does it look cool? I know that that sounds unintelligent and ignorant, but, it is really the result of much pondering. I went to art school and have worked around art for many years now. I’ve spent hours upon hours sitting in front of objects that I did not like that much to begin with, and tried my hardest, to no avail, to validate their existence. I’m tired of it. I yearn for things that make sense to me visually, like the design of my 1979 Ford F100 pickup truck, which fills me with joy every morning.

Some weeks ago, I went to the opening reception for an exhibition of sitespecific installations by a group of out-of-town artists at a local university art gallery. After walking through gallery after gallery of rather unimpressive, large-scale, contemporary art installations, I ran into an old friend in a room on the third floor. The walls of this large room were covered, pretty shoddily, with thin strips of fabric arranged in some instances into portraits of pirates.

My friend told me about a friend of hers who was really into pirates and who had some interesting theories about them. I thought that was a pretty fun topic and asked to hear more about it. As the conversation went on I kept glancing up at the walls trying to make sense out of what I was seeing.

58 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / ART

Finally, I turned to her and said, “You know, sometimes I just don’t understand this contemporary art stuff.” She let go a deep breath. “I’m so glad you said that,” she replied, and we both laughed a little.

The authorities will say that the reason a lot of art doesn’t look that good is that it is “difficult,” that the viewer must work for it, that a formal education is required for its appreciation. Well, trust me, I have tried hard to play dumb; I went to art school and studied contemporary art pretty intensely. I stared and stared at things that didn’t look that good, trying my hardest to figure them out. The things that have always lasted for me are the things that I liked the most to begin with, the things that looked cool like my truck looks cool. So, when I enter an art gallery these days, I look for things that I am aesthetically attracted to, and if I don’t see anything of immediate interest I look around for someone fun to chat with.

ILLUSTRATION BY ANDRE SHANK

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TO RICMOND’S LOCAL RAG

IN RICMOND’S LOCAL RAG

film AnUnequaledConnection/ Ted Blanks Out of town and on the phone with my friend Christian, he fills me in on the previous night. The group was sitting around, hack philosophizing, and thequestion came up: “Out of everyone here, which one would you fuck, which one would you procreate with, and which one would you kill?” Some of their answers were obvious, (they’d fuck the hottest, have kids with the most motherly, kill the most annoying) but with others, responses were more telling. One said she would fuck and have kids with the same person, then kill themselves. Another would have kids with someone, then fuck and kill someone else.

Christian and I meditated on the latter prospect, and agreed that the relationship a killer has to his victim before a murder is a unique one. In the moment that the victim realizes he is going to be killed, and the killer understands that she is about to kill him (lets call it the understood moment), there is a bizarre mutual understanding, a closeness that happens in four steps: shock, realization, anger, and acceptance. Although, I suppose with a big enough gun you could skip at least two of those.

As I am a general pacifist, I have no way to test our theory and must examine it the best way I know how: through movies. And I saw two of them the day after this conversation. Whenever I watch two movies back-to-back, my brain naturally connects them to one another. The two films converse, inform each other, the second one answering questions the first one asked, the first one providing a base of understanding for the second. For better or worse, A History of Violence and Capote will be, for me, indelibly linked.

It was dumb luck that both films addressed the killer/victim issues Christian and I discussed.

In A History of Violence, David Cronenberg’s new film, Tom (Viggo Mortenson), the film’s pseudo(anti?)-hero, finds himself in a sticky situation with his older brother Richie (William Hurt). In this scene, Tom sits facing Richie at his 60 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / FILM

desk in his remote mansion. To be vague for not-revealing-too-many-plotdetails’ sake, it’s a loaded reunion: Richie hasn’t seen Tom in years because Tom fucked him over and disappeared. At first, Tom thinks Richie is offering him a way to make up for his transgressions, but then, the understood moment arrives. We see Tom’s face change, and Richie recognizes it. The rest of his speech to his brother is unabashed hatred. Tom asks Richie if there is anything he can do to make it up to him. Richie says, “You can die.”

With most murders, the killer and the victim have an established relationship before the act is committed. Cronenberg shows us how that relationship is mutated and intensified just before the victim is killed. A fratricidal relationship is of course different than an aunt-killing-niece one, but both murders involve a previous bond being somehow shaken or stirred. Less common is murdering a stranger. (Actually, given the sheer amount of killing in most action films, this might be statistically more common in movieworld) A killer-on-stranger relationship is special. It carries no previous baggage. Killing is no longer simply an additional experience to share with someone the killer already knows, it is the only experience the killer and victim ever have with one another.

Bennett Miller’s first feature, Capote, is admittedly more about a killer/crime writer relationship than anything else, a biopic starring Philip Seymour Hoffman that shows Truman Capote’s process in writing his most famous and last book, In Cold Blood. In one scene, killer Perry Smith descibes to Capote his thoughts in the moment before slitting his victim’s throat. This relationship turns out to be one of regret and envy. Smith looks down at the man he has tied up, and realizes that what was supposed to be a simple robbery has turned into something much more. He is in power, but empathetic to the victim’s situation, envious of his victim’s innocence. The vicitim in this situation no doubt felt fear and rage toward his killer, but the killer had nothing particularly against the victim. It is partially due to their being strangers that the understood moment, in their case, involves a lack of understanding, in fact a considerable amount of confusion.

Alright, enough postulating. I now know this: After these two movies, I will look more closely at these scenes that exist throughout film, these looks and speeches that happen right before a murder. Movies can be the key to this unequaled connection, which, unlike having sex or children together, two people can only experience once, and which most people, including myself, will never actually experience.

IMAGES / CHRIS LACROIX 61

DispatchesfromtheCinemaAffairsDesk

Yourmaninthefield,KevinGallagherpart5

“Walking is virtue, tourism deadly sin.” -Werner Herzog I was delighted to find this quote nestled in the pages of a trail register in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Not only for what it means but more importantly for who said it. Herzog has been one of two major influences over the film I am making out here on the Trail. The other, equally important, is Stan Brakhage. I had never heard this quote before, or if I had, it didn’t mean anything to me until walking 1,800 miles. My intention when I set out on this journey was to make a Brakhage themed film with Herzogian methods. Just as the only way to make a film about moving a steamship over a mountain is to move a steamship over a mountain, as in Herzog’s 1982 epic, Fitzcarraldo, the only way to make a film about a journey of 2,000 miles is to walk 2,000 miles. I knew in order to create this film that I would need to adapt Herzog’s method of completion at all cost. I don’t know if I would so readily die for one of my films as the old German would, but I have allowed myself to come closer than expected.

As for content, I wanted to capture the stillness and beauty of nature in a furious barrage of imagery (See Brakhage’s Mothlight). His reliance and exploration of the natural world has been kept steadily in mind. Brakhage’s films are intense with rapidly shifting visuals, but at the same time, there is an underlying calm in the rhythms, almost the way you can zone out by staring at the jumble of white noise on a television set. I too want to capture the halcyon chaos of walking the Trail.

Here is what I have been doing. Everyday, with a 35mm camera aimed down the trail I take 24 continuous stills a day. Step,click, step,click, step,click... As soon as I return to Richmond and get the funding I will get these thousands of slides developed. I will use an optical printer to, frame by frame, set all of the stills in order on a film strip. The hope is to have a finished product that will simulate movement down the trail at an incredible rate of a second per day. That is the hope anyway; I haven’t developed a single frame yet. For all I know my camera acquired a light leak in Vermont...

Herzog and Brakhage are/were adamant in their use of film. I felt I needed to do this on film not just because of the need to live up to an idol’s standards but because of mechanics. To make this film digitally would be much easier and much cheaper. No expensive and finicky slide film. Just pop in a new memory card after a couple thousand stills and load it all into the computer and set up a nice high speed slide show, quick and cheap. But, walking the trail is neither quick nor cheap. It is slow and methodical. I want my film about walking to reflect the habitual action I am taking place in. The laboriousness of re-photographing each still in the printer only to emerge with a roll of film that I can physically stretch out in a long path, a compressed schematic of the A.T. Digital information lives in a bizarre netherworld floating around hard drives and telephone wires. I wanted a product of substance that I could roll out, gaze at through sunlight, touch and watch as it dances through the projector.

Perhaps that is what this whole trip is about, the leaving behind of the intangible and living in a world of the palpable. Or maybe I am just sick of being a tourist.

-Fester 62 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / FILM

ILLUSTRATION / HOLLY CAMP 63

ROBOTS + MISCONCEPTIONS / Kunitaro Ohi Misconceptions can become a daily occurrence if you’re not careful. That’s what I learned when I sat down to speak with aspiring filmmaker Jared Sosa. I first became exposed to Sosa’s work during the 2005 VCU Student Film Festival when his senior short “In the Year 200X” premiered. Long story short, I was captivated by the sheer awesomeness of the film. So now, here I was, knocking on his apartment door and expecting this epitome of auteurs…

And in return I got something completely different. Leading me to his cluttered room of old video game systems and cola can ashtrays, Jared made no excuses about his living space. In fact, he was soft-spoken, realistic, and above all humble.

RVA So, tell me about your films.

Jared Sosa Um, I really only made two that I feel like are actual films, that I feel like have accomplished what I set out to do. One was in “in the year 20XX”, which was about the life of this robot. That was hard work (chuckles). The other one, which I did for David William’s docudrama class, which was about my roommates and it’s called “Pomp and Circumstance”. They were kinda amazed that anything came out of it. It was coherent in the end, so I was happy.

RVA Is there a theme or a message that you want to convey with each film you make?

Jared I don’t really have anything too concrete. There are things that keep popping up in my head and I am always trying my best to convey it. One idea that keeps coming up in my work is the inadequacy of language. I guess it all stems down to the theme of miscommunication.

64 image / KUNITARO OHI

RVA I know that in addition to filmmaking, you’re a member of the band A Roman holiday. How is music composition different than making films for you?

Jared I guess with the kind of music we’re making (pop), unlike narrative filmmaking, there’s not really a clear structure. Like a song will repeat a chorus or a verse… that can happen in a movie but the song ends basically whenever you want it to end. A song doesn’t need a conclusion. I guess a film also doesn’t, but it works. It’s the principle of filmmaking I think.

RVA Does the filmmaking process of having a beginning, middle, and end pose a challenge for you?

Jared Yea. I think its like some filmmakers might say that its constraining, but I think it’s an efficient way of communicating for myself.

RVA Which do you enjoy more, playing in a band or filmmaking?

Jared Uh, I don’t know. Its like when I make movies, I can do that only once a year at most for a short film, but the band thing I can do that every week, time and again... I guess with the band, when I’m dissatisfied, it’s more often because I’m exposed to it more, but playing and experiencing live music… its fun… well, not just fun uh (chuckles). I don’t want to say anything stupid. Let’s just say that when I’m performing, there’s this immediate feedback I get from the audience and that’s gratifying, whether it’s good or bad.

With film, you don’t know how people are going to respond while you’re making it, and even when you show it, people have to sit there, and you might hear them chuckle where chuckles are appropriate and you think “well, I guess that means something”. Its kind of hard, you can’t talk to everyone who’s seen it and it’ll be kind of weird if you actually did that. But at the same time, I enjoy

RVA In the years that you’ve been here, what do you think that Richmond has brought to in terms of being a filmmaker?

Jared Um, I think the best part of the living in Richmond is more opportunities to interact with different people. By nature I don’t want to bother anyone from doing what I am doing, and that’s prevented me from making movies. Living in Richmond has pretty much forced me to get in touch with people and communicate with them on a daily basis.

Richmond also has a pretty big art scene and in it you see a lot of work that tries to be like everything else or totally against everything else. By evaluating the work RVA DV (Digital Video) or film?

Jared Film, definitely film. I mean, people talk about the grain and texture…but what like about film is that the image is essentially light burned into the medium instead of digital information.

It’s mainly the idea that film is a really physical way of capturing moving images. I find something really attractive about that.

RVA You’re at a point in your life when you’re starting a serious foray into filmmaking, how do you feel about it?

Jared I mean, I’m still not sure its gonna happen.

And I am not trying to force it. I’m not really doing too much at this point, just trying to do what I can.

Right now, I am doing my best in trying to find out what film means to me as art and as a way for me to communicate.

That’s about it so far.

ProejctRevou l to in

/ Maura Pond

packing in to see the latest projects and give their two cents, providing a good environment for education, networking, and public exposure. “There’s a lot of untapped resources and talents in the film community here that a lot of people don’t know about….It’s opened up more opportunities for people,” says Yellow House president Stephanie Dray.

When it comes to moviemaking most people think of palm trees, glamorous stars, and big money. What they aren’t thinking is Richmond.

Those unaware of what is going on in their backyard might be surprised after a visit to Project P-Res has gone through several stages of evolution to get to where it is now. In 2002, Jerome Dane, Justin Sheets, and Jane Resolution.

Samborski, three disgruntled students in VCU’s freshman art Project Resolution, affectionately known as Project program known as AFO, bonded over adverse conditions. “We were all frustrated by the third week that there wasn’t any way Res or P-Res, is a monthly forum at the Firehouse Theater for filmmakers to bring their works, show to do video in AFO,” recalls Samborski, “that it was outside them, and be critiqued/glorified/flambéed by the the curriculum.” With no outlet in school, the students took it upon themselves to meet and critique each other’s work. audience. Filmmakers are strongly encouraged From these meetings the beast known as Project Resolution to use the monthly prompt for inspiration, but was born. The first meetings were held outside in the Park are invited to show any works they have that are Plaza behind the VCU Pollack Building. “We originally did it under five minutes. It’s free. It’s unpredictable.

Since they show digital formats, there is the sense there because we wanted it outside where people could walk by and get interested. It was mostly just the three of us sitting that anyone out there can make something and learn from the experience, even if they can’t afford out there in the middle of winter and it was really cold….By March we had other people coming and I think had moved the cost of film. This is film of the people, for the indoors, too. December outside? Not a lot of fun.” people, and by the people.

“There’s no application or application fee. If you make it and you get there early enough you can show it,” says Justin Dray, vice-president and artistic director of Yellow House, the non-profit Richmond production company that supports PRes. “We just want people making movies.”

Make movies they have. The event has become so popular that in recent months Yellow House has had to turn people away at the door in order to abide by the fire code regulations. Professional filmmakers, students, and film aficionados are 66 image / TODD RAVIOTTA

After several months of scrounging up equipment and places to hold the meetings, the event found a semi-permanent home at ArtSpace in June of 2003, where it would remain until the gallery moved in February 2004. Dane, who had been handling much of the organization, left for an internship in France and asked Kevin Gallagher to take his place. Gallagher joined forces with Joe Carabeo, and with the help of Todd Raviotta, film liaison for Yellow House Productions, led the way into the second stage of P-Res history.

“It was sort of like two rivals joining forces for a greater cause,” says Carabeo about working with Gallagher. The project was forced to move its meetings to the 1708 Gallery

after the closing of ArtSpace. Reliable space once again became a priority. Carabeo describes one Halloween show when a large installation piece at the gallery prevented them from holding the event upstairs. Instead, they set up chairs and gathered in the dark of the basement. “It was a freaky show, I’ll tell you what.”

Project Res needed a secure, affordable location if it were going to continue. “We were always afraid people wouldn’t think we were credible,” Carabeo says. That credibility came when P-Res joined forces with Yellow House Productions and found a stable home at the Firehouse Theater.

“The quality of the films really shot up,” says Todd Raviotta. Providing filmmakers with a respectable venue for their work has become the project’s top priority. “Project Res tries to get filmmakers to take themselves seriously so the rest of the world can take them seriously,” Raviotta says. Carabeo likens showing new films to new bands just starting out.

“You have to play house shows first. This is the place. You can really make your name in Richmond by always showing at Project Res.” The face of P-Res changed when Carabeo took over as MC after Gallagher left for the Appalachian Trail in pursuit of his own personal project; however, the basic ideology of Project Res has remained unchanged. “It’s gone through so many different organizers that it really shows it’s not about individuals, but people that want to help filmmakers. The people that come to P-Res feel like it is theirs,” says Raviotta.

The thing that makes Project Resolution so mind-blowingly awesome is that it does belong to the people who flock to the Firehouse Theater each month. What gets shown each month is not determined by a prescreening from already-established filmmakers, but who decides they want to show their own works to the public. The audience is not a mass of passive spectators, but is the participants, performers, and critics all in one. The audience and filmmakers make up the event itself. Everyone in the audience can voice his or her opinion, be heard, and interact with the filmmakers in a spirit of equality rather than bowing to them as mysterious, abstract gods. Project Resolution exposes works without controlling them -- a truly avant-garde idea with makings of a revolution. The Hollywood dream is getting some competition. The success of and need for this kind of event is clear in how it has resonated with the local community. “In three years worth of growth, look what’s happened,” says Raviotta. “I want to be here for that next level. I want to be a part of that.”

“Something is happening,” says Carabeo. “Something is happening in Richmond. I don’t know if you can feel it, but it’s getting ready to explode.”

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / FILM 67

REVIEWS/TedBlankS Corpse Bride

Waiting

Grizzly Man

Johnny Depp, Helen Bonham Carter

Ryan Reynolds Anna Faris Justin Long

Werner Herzog Amie Hugenard Timothy Treadwell

Director / Rob Mckittrick

Director / Werner Herzog

Director / Tim Burton

Ratings from 1 to 5

Tim Burton is really phoning it in these days.

He made a name for himself by making offbeat and goth-ish comedies that looked like nothing else around. His films were little universes unto themselves, with deliberate color choices and a hint of artificiality, plasticity. At best, they succeeded in bringing us into their world, and at worst they were mildly amusing and interesting to watch. Now, though, he just seems content on making ‘Tim Burton’ movies. And to make sure we know, he put his name in the title of the film, the most pretentious thing a director can do.

So there’s this new term I’ve recently been made aware of: tardtingles. I was reluctant to accept it into my vocabulary at first, but it perfectly describes a feeling that we all encounter daily. When someone around you does or says something that makes you embarrassed for them to the point of feeling physically uncomfortable, that feeling is called ‘tardtingles’.

In what is undoubtedly the most tardtingly scene in any movie this year, the new trainee at Shenanagins (think Applebees), played by the main geek from “Freaks and Geeks”, is angry that for an entire day of enduring the terrible jokes by the pathetic lowlifes that work at the restaurant, he hasn’t had a chance to say anything. At the after-work party, he proceeds to awkwardly yell at each of his soon-to-be coworkers exactly why they are pathetic lowlifes. He’s on a roll until he gets to Calvin, clearly the most pitiful character, and he says “You, well... you’re just too easy.”

Pixar, the best animation studio making features today, is so good because it has a signature look, but makes incredible leaps in its craft with each film. Conversely, “Corpse Bride” looks exactly like “A Nightmare Before Christmas” from 11 years ago, with nothing new or interesting to add to the equation. There are even two or three scenes that were stolen directly from “Nightmare”. The characters and plot are entirely predictable, and Danny Elfman’s songs are either uninteresting, annoyingly bad, or don’t even work as songs.

That’s how I feel about this movie. I could point out everything it gets terribly wrong and why, but, well, it’s just And of course Johnny Depp in here again with his *%^$#!! fake British accent. too easy.

2 of 5

0 of 5

Timothy Treadwell took many hours of video footage during the 13 summers he spent in Alaska alone with grizzly bears, on some sort of quest to save them (from what I’m not sure). In 2003, he and his girlfriend were tragically killed and eaten by one of the very bears he was out to help. Werner Herzog, one of my favorite directors, compiled the footage and edited it into this deep portrait of the man’s psyche.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Herzog’s take on Timothy is that he does not particularly care for the plight of the bears, but more about Treadwell’s relationship with nature, and with his respect for Treadwell as a filmmaker. Herzog justifies this by simply showing Treadwell’s beautiful images, of which there are many. For a guy that seems so crazy, he made some breathtaking things out in the woods. Herzog is a fan of bizarre leading men, and even in a documentary, Timothy Treadwell fits the bill.

4 of 5

A History Of Violence Viggo Mortensen Maria Bello Ed Harris Director / David Cronenberg The first thing that struck me about David Cronenberg’s new film is how awfully quiet it is.

It begins on a long shot of two unknown men calmly leaving the scene of a terrible crime, and something about the acting seems just a little too subdued for such a situation. The dreamlike atmosphere captured in this opening shot is stretched throughout almost the entire movie.

Capote

Thumbsucker

Philip Seymour Hoffman Catherine Keener Clifton Collins Jr.

Lou Taylor Pucci Tilda Swinton Vince Vaughn

Director / Bennett Miller

Director / Mike Mills

There’s a great film here in the hands of a more experienced filmmaker. It’s Bennett Miller’s first feature, and, to his credit, it’s quite an ambitious one.

Don’t get me wrong, the film looks good. It’s just your standard 1950s-period-drama look that seems to be total mimicry. Hollywood tells us how biopics are to be done, and this one fits the standard.

It’s plot: a small town diner owner named Tom makes himself a national hero by killing two men who came to terrorize his establishment. Pretty soon everyone’s wondering how he learned to do kill so well, including a couple of mob guys from Philadelphia who seem to think he’s somebody else.

All that aside, Philip Seymour Hoffman is a fucking great actor. I know you already knew this, but it was important to come out and say it in as plain a language I could think of. (Sadly, that involved the ‘f’ word.)

Hoffman creates a version of Capote that lives and breathes, is totally real onscreen. He is able to show us Truman Capote in the state that made him write “In Viggo Mortensen, who hasn’t impressed me in the past, is great as Tom. He makes every moment Cold Blood” while taking full advantage of information count, and plays the mild-mannered small town given to him by the murder suspects he is supposed to man wholly convincingly, all the while letting us be trying to get out of prison. He is charming, awkward, see that something else is bubbling underneath. and relentless, and totally, absolutely real.

What bubbles underneath in this film is what’s important about it.

4.5 of 5

3.5 of 5

Mike Mills’ “Thumbsucker” is a movie that, like “Garden State” and “Napoleon Dynamite”, is too self-consciously indie-cool for its own good.

This film saves itself from the pitfalls of much of its genre by exploring the effect of behavioral modification drugs on teenagers. When Justin is prescribed Ritalin, he suddenly is able to express himself more clearly than he ever has, and becomes the star of the debate team.

There are some remarkable performances by the adults in this film, particularly Tilda Swinson.

What is discouraging is that for a movie like this to get funded and distributed, it needs to subscribe on some scale to the Hollywood star system.

So, amongst many little known actors we have Keaunu Reeves, delivering an interesting performance as Justin’s wise orthodontist that nonetheless cannot strip Keanu from his popcultural significance. In a movie full of relatively unfamiliar faces, he is not the orthodontist, but only Keanu Reeves, and all the baggage that comes with that.

3 of 5

the Gentleman’s picks Citizen X 1995 Bruno Ganz Alexandra Maria Lara Director / Oliver Hirschbiegel

The Ugly 1996

5 of 5

3 of 5

This performance driven true story comes straight out of Robert Cullen’s book, The Killer Department, telling the story of Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo and the Soviet lawmen who took him down. Precise dialogue, character development, and impeccable cinematography make this, if there ever was such a thing, the perfect film.

Paolo Rotondo Rebecca Hobbs Jennifer Ward Lealand Director / Scott Reynolds

A cut above the serial killer genre, the film centers on a shrink’s interview with the killer. Awash with red herrings, well-placed through flashbacks, dreams, and inner fantasies, the film’s suspense builds at an unwavering pace. Although the POV and perspective switching can be a bit jarring, it serves the story well. It’s solid through the genuinely creepy finale.

Freaks 1932

Director / Tod Browning

4 of 5

The performances of Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, Max von Sydow, and Jeffrey DeMunn are at their career best, rising this into the must-see category of true crime cinema.

70 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / FILM

Tod Browning’s impossible classic of horror is as infamous and controversial as it is beautiful and poetic. The plot is a simple revenge tale, but it is in the natural characterizations that the film shines. Browning’s use of real people with physical peculiarities (no make-up here!) is not exploitive, since they are the only players one can find sympathy with. Sympathy with, not sympathy for, because they are the real humans in the story and their concerns are ours.

The Nomi Song 2004 Klaus Nomi Director / Klaus Nomi

A sensitive documentary about lovable German oddball, Klaus Nomi, The NOMI Song is a tune to hear. The film takes us through the singer’s early performance art to his aspirations for mainstream pop approval and finally, to his solitary days dying of AIDS. You’ll find yourself enthralled with this “Simple Man”.

-------------------------------------------------“Looks like an alien, sings like a diva -Klaus Nomi was one of the 1980s’ most profoundly bizarre characters to emerge through rock music: a counter tenor who sang pop music like opera and brought opera to club audiences and made them like it. The Nomi Song is a film about fame, death, friendship, betrayal, opera, and the greatest New Wave rock star that never was!” - from IMDB.com

The Video Fan Recommendation

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SHOCKOE SLIP

SHOCKOE BOTTOM

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QUICK G UI DE CARYTOWN

DOWNTOWN

BURGERS / DELI

COFFEE

COFFEE

GALLERIES

Carytown Burger & Fries 3500 1/2 W. Cary St. 358-5225 Coppola’a 2900 W. Cary St. 359-NYNY

This is a quick guide to our favorite establishments. Do you see your favorite place on this list ? If not email us with places you want to see added.

DoSE Café 522 North 2nd Street 343.3320 Lift 218 West Broad Street 938.3419

1708 Gallery 319 West Broad Street 643.1708 312 Gallery 312 North Brook Road 339.2535 Artists Downtown Access 228 W. Broad St. 644-0100 GROCERY Ellwood Thompson 4 N. Thompson St. 359-7525 art6 Gallery 6 East Broad Street 343.1406 Corporate & Museum Frame 301 West Broad Street 643.6858 Curated Culture 23 W. Broad Street 304-1554 PIZZA Mary Angela’s Pizza Subs Pasta 3345 W. CArt St. 353-2333 Elegba Folklore Society 101 East Broad Street 644.3900 For Instance Gallery 107 East Cary Street 574.4111 Gallery 5 200 W. Marshall St.644.0005 RESTAURANTS / BARS Henry Street Gallery 422 West Broad Street 247.1491 Babe’s 3166 W. Cary St. 355-9330 Oro 212 West Broad St 344-9847 Chopstix 3129 W. Cary St. 358-7027 Quirk 311 W. Broad St. 644-5450 Double T’s Real BBQ 2907 W. Cary St. 353-4304 Richmond Camera 213 West Broad St 648-0515 Eatery 3000 W Cary St. 353-6171 Farouks’s House of India 3033 W. Cary St. 355-0378 Richmond Public Library 101 East Franklin St 646-7223 Sledd/Winger Glassworks & Gallery 414 West Broad St 644 -2837 Galaxy Diner 3109 W. Cary St. 213-0510 Studio/Gallery 6 6 East Broad St. 207-4677 Nacho Mama’s 3449 W Cary St. 358-6262 Visual Art Studio 208 West Broad St644-1368 Blue Mountain Cafe 3433 W. Cary St. 355-8002

RETAIL

Need Supply 3010 W Cary St. 355-5880 Plan 9 Music 3012 W. Cary St. 353-8462 Yarn Lounge 3003 W Cary St. 340-2880

CHURCH HILL RESTAURANTS / BARS

Accapela’s 2302 E. Broad St. 377-1963 Poe’s Pub 2706 E. Main St. 648-2120 GALLERIES

Eric Schindler Gallery 2305 E. Broad St. 644-5005

RESTAURANTS / BARS

Capital Ale House 623 E. Main St. 643-2537 Comfort 200 W. Broad St. 780-0004 Tropical Soul Sea & Soul Food 314 N 2nd St. 771-1605 RETAIL

Turnstyle 102 W. Broad St. 643-8876 PIZZA

Jo-Jo’s Pizza 1201 E. Main St. 225-9600 VENUE

Mr. Bojangles 550 E. Marshall St. 344-2901

THE FAN BOOKS

Black Swan 2601 W. Main St.353-9476 CONIVIENCE

Patterson Express 3100 Patterson Ave. 355-8510 MOVIE RENTALS

Video Fan

RESTAURANTS / BARS

3 Monkeys 2525 W. Main St.204-2525 Avalon 2619 W. Main St. 353-9709 Bandito’s 2905 Patterson Ave. 354-9999 Bogart’s 203 N. Lombardy St. 353-9280 Border Chophouse 1501 W. Main St.355-2907 Buddy’s Place 12 N. Robinson St. 355-3701 Cafe Diem 600 N. Sheppard St. 353-2500 Caliente’ 2922 Park Ave. 340-2920 Taphouse & Grill 111 N. Robinson St. 359-6544 Corner Cafe 800 N. Cleveland 355-1954 Curbside Cafe 2525 Hanover Ave. 355-7008 Davis & Main 2501 W. Main St. 353-6641 Easy Street 2401 W. Main St. 355-1198 Emilio’s Tapas Bar 1847 W. Broad St. 359-1224 Joe’s Inn 205 N. Shields Ave. 355-2282 Metro Grill 301 N. Robinson St. 353-4453 Robin Inn 2601 Park Ave. 353-0298 Strawberry St. Cafe 421 Strawberry St. 353-6860 Starlight 2600 W. Main St. 254-2667 Sticky Rice 2232 W. Main St. 358-7870 Sidewalk Cafe 2101 W. Main St. 358-0645 PIZZA

Chanello’s Pizza 2803 W. Broad St. 358-3800 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / QUICK GUIDE 73

The FAN cont...

SHOCKOE BOTTOM

VCU

RETAIL

COFFEE SHOPS

BOOKS

Katra Gala 2225 W. Main St. 359-6996

Cafe Gutenberg 1700 E. Main St.497-5000

TAKEOUT

Ethos Cafe 17.5 N. 17th St. 513-6700 Jumpin J’s Java 2306 Jefferson Ave. 344-3500

Fujian 2000 W. Main St. 353-5888 Food Fanatics 2901 Park Ave. 353-6389

MANCHESTER RESTAURANTS / BARS

Legend Brewing Company 321 W. 7th St. 232-8871 MANCHESTER ARTS DISTRICT

Artspace 0 East 4th Street 232-6464 Artworks 320 Hull St. 291-1400 Plant Zero Cafe 0 East 4th Street 726-4442

OREGON HILL

RESTAURANTS / BARS

Mars Bar 115 N 18th St. 644-6277 McCormack’s Irish Pub 12 N. 18th St. 648-1003 Tiki Bob’s 110 N 18th Street 644-9091 Wonderland 1727 E Main St. 643-9233 PIZZA

Bottom’s Up Pizza 1700 Dock St. 644-4400 RETAIL

Kulture Clothing N.18th St. 644-5044

RESTAURANTS / BARS

VENUE

Hollywood Grill 626 China St. 819-1988 Mamma’zu 501 S. pine St. 788-4205

Alley Katz 10 Walnut Alley 643-2816 Canal Club 1545 E. Cary St. 643-2582

TATTOO

SHOCKOE SLIP

Salvation Tattoo 324 Pine St. 643-3779

COFFEE

P A N D A V E G 9 4 8 W. G R ACE S T.

3 5 9 - 6 6 8 8 FREE DELIVERY AFTER 4 The Only All Vegetarian

Menu in the City

74 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / QUICK GUIDE

Shockoe Expresso & Roastery 104 Shockoe Slip 648-3734 RESTAURANTS / BARS

Fusion 109 S. 12th St. 249-2338 Lucky Lounge 1421 E. Cary St 648-5100 Richbrau Brewing Company 1214 E. Cary St. 644-3018

Chop Suey 1317 W. Cary St. 497-4705 Velocity Comics 818 W. Grace St. 725-6300 COFFEE SHOPS

Harrison Street 402 N. Harrison St. 359-8060 World Cup Coffee 26 N. Morris St. 359-5282 PIZZA

Papa John’s 1200 W. MAin St. 354-6262 Little Caesars 920 W. Grace St. 358-4116 RADIO

WRIR 97.3 FM 1045 W. Broad St. 864-9450 RESTAURANTS / BARS

Assantes 1845 W. Broad St. 353-7300 Edo’s Squid 411 N. Harrison 864-5488 Empire 727 W. Broad St. 344-3323 Ipanema Cafe 917 W Grace St. 213-0170 Mojo’s 733 W. Cary St. 644-6676 Panda Veg 948 W. Grace St. 359-6688 Roxy Cafe 1104 W. Main St. 342-7699 Taqueria Loco 818 W Broad St. 648-5626 The Village 1001 W. Grace St. 353-8204 RETAIL

Nonesuch 918 W. Grace St. 918-4069 VENUE

Hyperlink Café 814 W. Grace St. 254-1942 Nanci Raygun 929 W. Grace St.353-4263

Alley

Katz

10 Walnut Alley 804.643.2816 www.alleykatzrva.com

11.12SIN CITY (AC/DC TRIBUTE) - MEMORY FADE - MALVADO SOUL SLEDGE - SUICIDE JACK CHOPPERS & TANDY LEATHER WILL CROWN MISS LEATHER KITTY 18+9:00PM-2:00PM WWW.SINSITY.US LADIES COME IN LEATHER TO WIN PRIZES AND BE ON CD COVER! WWW.MEMORYFADE.COM WWW. MALVADOBAND.COM $5ADV. $5DOOR

11.10 CALVIN JOHNSON, TENDER FOREVER, LIZA KATE 6PM $6 ALL

11.04 SLOW EDUCATION.COM 18+ 9:00PM-2:00AM WWW.SLOWEDUCATION. COM $3ADV. $3DOOR

11.14 CIRCLE TAKES THE SQUARE - TRANSISTOR TRANSISTOR - GOSPEL - HOT CROSS ALL AGES SHOW 6:00PM-10:00PM WWW.CIRCLETAKESTHESQUARE.COM $8ADV. $8DOOR

11.11 DEF JUX PRESENTS: HANGAR 18, CRYPTIC ONE, FUZZ JACKSON 7PM $8 ALL

11.05 Y-101 PRESENTS THE FOOD BANK BENEFIT WITH ANNBERETTA SPECIAL GUESTS EARLY ALL AGES SHOW 6:00PM-10:00PM - FREE WITH CAN, CANS, BAG OR BAGS OF NONPERISHABLE FOOD KRASS JUDGEMENT - SELECTED ENEMY WITH SPECIAL GUESTS 18+11:00PM-2:00AM WWW.KRASSJUDGEMENT.COM LATE - WWW.SELECTEDENEMY.COM $5ADV. $5DOOR

11.18 RACE THE SUN - THE GOODWILL - PANIC DIVISION - TRAGETY LETTERS - THE HALF JEFFERSONS ALL AGES SHOW 5:00PM-8:00PM WWW.RACETHESUNROCKS.COM EARLY $7ADV. $7DOOR 11.19 LOTUS WITH LYMBYC 18+ 9:00PM-9:00PM WWW.LOTUSVIBES.COM $7ADV. $10DOOR 11.26 AGAINST ME! - SMOKE OR FIRE - THE EPOXIES - SOVIETTES ALL AGES SHOW 6:00PM-10:00PM WWW.AGAINSTME.COM EARLY $10ADV. $10DOOR

11.06 HALO OF LOCUST - BYZANTINE - DREAM IS DEAD - SEPARATION ALL AGES SHOW 6:00PM-10:00PM $8ADV. $8DOOR

11.29 ZILLA FEAT MICHAEL TRAVIS OF THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT WITH SPECIAL GUESTS 18+9:00PM-2:00AM WWW.ZILLAMUSIC.COM $10ADV. $10DOOR

11.08 FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES - BOY SETS FIRE - THE ESOTERIC - BIOLOGY ALL AGES SHOW 6:00PM-10:00PM WWW.FROMAUTUMNTOASHES.COM $13ADV. $15DOOR

929 W. Grace Street 804.353.GAME www.nanciraygun.com

11.08 FAMILY FORCE 5 WITH SPECIAL GUESTS ALL AGES SHOW 6:00PM-10:00PM WWW.FAMILYFORCE5.COM $6ADV. $8DOOR 11.11 RICHMOND LUCHA: HORRORSHOW AND THE KAMAKZE KID VS SUCIO AND A MYSTERY PARTNER IN A TABLES LADDERS AND CHAIRS DEATHMATCH - YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IN WRESTLING BUT YOU CANNOT DENY TERROR! 18+ 8:00PM-2:00AM WWW.RICHMONDLUCHALIBRE.COM THE DAY THE EARTH TAPPED OUT $10ADV. $10DOOR

Nanci Raygun

11.05 SCARLET, CASSIUS 5PM $7 ALL CASKET LIFE, ATTACKULA, THE DRUGS 10PM $5 18+ 11.06 TRUST THE FALL, OPEN WIDE, MODERN DAY TRAGEDY, SHADOW STRAND5PM$6 ALL 11.08 THE PERCEPTIONISTS FEAT., MR. LIF, AKROBATIK, COOL CALM PETE W/ JUNK SCIENCE, ASAMOV, THE ECHO BOOMERS, DJ KRAMES, & DJ BARNACLES 9PM $10 18+ 11.09 GRAYLAND, THE SAD LIVES OF THE HOLLYWOOD LOVERS, CEREMONY 10PM $5 18+

11.10 STANDARD ISSUE PRESENTS THE ORIGINAL 90’S PARTY, WITH THE RETURN OF THE FRESH KICKS CREW 10PM $3 18+

11.12 SUICIDE MACHINES, STRETCH ARMSTRONG, WHOLE WHEAT BREAD, FOR DIRE LIFE SAKE 5PM $12 ALL 11.12 SATORI, FAR-LES, KIDNAPPED OCCASIONALLY 10PM$6 18+ 11.13 ARMY OF FUN, COUNT THE DAYS, DEAD HEARTS, RUINER, PERMANENT 5PM $7ALL 11.14 NAKED AGGRESSION 5PM $6 ALL 11.15 REALLY GOOD MUSIC NIGHT- DJS SPINNING BADASS MUSIC AND COLD BEER ON TAP FEATURING DJ SETS BY, NATHAN JOYCE, DREW SNYDER, PAIGE HARBERT, AND MORE 10PM FREE 21+ 11.16 THE BRIEFS, CLIT 45 6PM $10 ALL 11.22 PUNK THE CLOCK TOUR FEAT. MASHLIN, DOWNTOWN SINGAPORE, IT’S LIKE LOVE 5PM $6 ALL

Sticky Rice

2 2 3 2 W. M a i n S t r e e t 8 0 4 . 3 5 8 . 7 8 7 0 www.ilovestickyrice.com MONDAY SUSHI HEAVEN :: 1/2 PRICE SUSHI!! 1030PM EVERY TUESDAY KARAOKE STARTING AT 8PM EVERY WEDNESDAY MY IPOD vs YOUR IPOD EVERY THURSDAY FREE REDBULL NITE EVERY FRIDAY SUSHI HEAVEN :: 1/2 PRICE SUSHI!! 5- 6PM EVERY SUNDAY BLINGO! RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / QUICK GUIDE 75

w/River City Blues Society 9pm-11pm Louisiana Dance Hall /cajun/creole/zydeco 11pm-1am Great American Music Hour 1am-3am Music Memories 3am-6am The All Nighter

Tuesday

Richmond Independent Radio WRIR 97.3 FM Schedule Monday

6am-8am Breakfast Blend WRIR’s Multicultural Music 8am-9am Democracy Now! 9am-10am News and Notes w/Ed Gordon 10am-11am Le Show w/Harry Shearer 11am-12pm Power Point 12-12:30pm Homespun C-SPAN 12:30-1pm Asia Speaks w/My Lan Tran: 76 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / QUICK GUIDE

Serving RVA’s Asian community ---alternating with-- Defenders LIVE w/Ana Edwards

& Phil Wilayto 1pm-2pm Power Point Hour 2

w/Carmen Burns 2pm-4pm Talk of the Nation 4pm-4:30pm Voices Of Our World 4:30-5pm Free Speech News 5pm-7pm Lost Music Saloon Americana /alt-country 7pm-9pm Blue Monday

6am-8am Breakfast Blend WRIR’s Multicultural Music 8am-9am Democracy Now 9am-10am News and Notes w/Ed Gordon 10am-11am Justice Talking 11am-12pm Thomas Jefferson Hour

w/Clay Jenkinson & William

Chrystal 12pm-12:30pm Weekly Sedition 12:30pm-1pm Richmond Indymedia News

w/ Jason Guard 1pm-2pm Radio Nation w/ Marc Cooper 2pm-4pm Talk of the Nation 4pm-4:30 Counterspin 4:30pm-5pm Free Speech Radio News 5pm-7pm Wide Ear Folk w/Eric Walters 7pm-9pm The Edge Of Americana w/Josh

Bearman 9pm-11pm Mercury Falls/eclectic rock 11pm-1am Broadcastatic Audio Collage 1am-3am Wrapped In Plastic 3am-6am The All Nighter

Wednesday

6am-8am Breakfast Blend WRIR’s Multicultural Music 8am-9am Democracy Now 9am-10am News & Notes w/Ed Gordon 10am-11am Smart City w/ Carol Coletta

11am-12pm Living On Earth w/ Steve

Curwood 12pm-12:30pm Brown Bag Lunch Special 12:30pm-1pm Enlace Informativo 1pm-2pm New Dimensions: Uncommon Wisdom for Unconventional Times 2pm-4pm Talk of the Nation 4pm-4:30 pm T.U.C. w/Maria Gilardin 4:30-5pm Free Speech Radio News 5pm-7pm Activate! Artists in Richmond 7pm-9pm The Modern Beat w/ Christian

Hendrickson 9pm-11pm Radiomorphism w/DJ Morphism /industrial 11pm-1am 804noise Presents: Noise

Solution 1am-3am Late Night Flight /eclectic rock 3am-6am The All Nighter w/Tracy

Thursday

6am-8am Breakfast Blend WRIR’s Multicultural Music 8am-9am Democracy Now 9am-10am News and Notes w/Ed Gordon 10am-11am The Parent’s Journal w/ Bobbie

Conner 11am-11:30am Wings: Women’s

Independent News 11:30am-12pm 51% w/ Dr. Kammer Neff &

Mary Darcy 12pm-12:30pm Richmond Education Today 12:30pm-1pm Inspiration Corne 1pm-2pm Prime Time Radio 2pm-4pm Talk of the Nation 4-4:30pm This Way Out 4:30-5pm Free Speech Radio News 5pm-7pm Future Perfect w/The TinyDj

/new rock 7pm-9pm The Secret Stash w/Stuart Martin /indie rock 9pm-11pm Funwrecker Ball w/DJ Esskay /rock/punk/ reggae 11pm-1am Zendo Soundsystem w/DJ Nomadic/dub 1am-3am Crypt Shift w/Kiki

/twang trash rock n’ roll 3am-6am The All Nighter w/Tracy

Friday

Saturday

6am-8am Breakfast Blend WRIR’s Multicultural Music 8am-9am Democracy Now 9am-10am News and Notes w/Ed Gordon 10am-11am The Book Guys 11am-12pm Selected Shorts: Short Stories

Read by Great Actors 12pm-12:30pm 20 Minute Pause

w/Liz Skrobiszewski-Humes 12:30pm-1pm Open Ear & Mind 1pm-2pm Calling All Pets 2pm-4pm Talk of the Nation’s Science Friday 4-4:30pm Richmond Indie Radio News w/Lauren Ball 4:30-5pm Free Speech News 5pm-7pm Global World A Go-Go w/Bill Lupoletti 7pm-9pm Beep Ahh Fresh Hip-Hop

w/Chuck B & Hoodrich 9pm-11pm Vinyl Cartel

w/Logan & Krames/hip hop 11pm-1am St. John the Pabstist

w/J. Swart & B. Porter/loud rock 1am-3am Screams from the Gutter

w/ Michelle & Justin/punk/metal 3am-6am The All Nighter w/Tracy

6am-7am Inter Tribal (Tall Feathers)

Native American music 9am-11am The British Breakfast w/Jesse

Reilly & Gene Pembleton 11am-1pm Shake Some Action/classic rock 1pm-3pm Derek Sunshine/eclectic rock 3pm-5pm Songs from the Big Hair 80’s/rock 5pm-7pm Locals Only w/Scott Burger 7pm-9pm Mutiny w/JTF /electronic dance 9pm-11pm DJ Spotlight/electronic dance 11pm-1am Frequency/electronic dance 1am-3am Combustion w/DJ C/trance 3am-6am The All-Nighter

Sunday

7am-9am El Che Y La Rubia

w/tango/folkloric/rock en espanol 9am-11am TBA 11am-1pm All Jazz with Giz Bowe 1pm-3pm Mellow Madness 3pm-5pm The Other Black Music You Don’t

Get To Hear On Richmond Radio

w/Charles Williams/alternating

w/Ambiance Congo w/David

Noyes/r&b/ funk/african 5pm-7pm The Motherland Influence w/ Charles Williams & David Noyes/

african/caribbean/latin 7pm-9pm If Music Could Talk w/DJ Carlito world/freeform 9pm-11pm The Ming From Mongo Show 11pm-1am HOWL!!

1am-3am A party of One 3am-6am The All-Nighter

RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / QUICK GUIDE 77

University of Richmond Radio WDCE 90.1 FM Fall Schedule

If you would like to get a show contact WDCE’s Program Director lauren.vincelli@richmond.edu Listen live in Richmond, Va at 90.1FM Listen Online at: http://www.wdce.org Request line: 804-289-UR90 Aim: WDCErequest

MONDAY

1-3am Indie Drive-BY / Ashley & Kaitlin (variety) 3-7am TBA 7-9am Red Morning Light / Eric (rock) 9-11am Rasa on Faya / Rasa (variety) 11-1pm fLaVa ShOt / Amaretto Groove (hip hop) 1-2pm Vito’s Ordination Show / DJ Mick (variety) 2-3pm Burma-Shave Olde-Time Radio Hour Sara & Ben (variety) 3-5pm Da Truth / DJ Quel (hip hop) 5-7pm The News / Jeremy (variety) 7-9pm DINOSAURS! DJ Brontolicious and DJ Triceraturd (rock) 9-11pm Your Favorite Show / Lindsay (Rock) 11-1am The Fishbowl / Kevin & Joe (variety)

TUESDAY

1-7am TBA 7-9am Red Morning Light / Eric (rock) 9-11am Cinemagic Show / GOOBERZ & DJ Buttered Popcorn (performance) 11-3pm TBA 3-5pm Enam Wohs / Dan (rock) 5-7pm Matt and Chad (Rock) 78 RVA / MANY FACES, MANY PLACES / QUICK GUIDE

7-9pm The 12 Fl. Oz. Show Will Armstrong (Americana) 9-11pm TBA / Kira and Liz (Rock) 11pm-1am How to Fight Loneliness

Dan Baber (variety)

WEDNESDAY

1-7am TBA 7-9am Mikes Morning Show / Mike (Rock) 9-11am TBA 11-1pm This Side of Brightness/Christian (variety) 1-3pm The Infinite Abyss /Dan (rock) 3-5pm Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky’s Awesome Possum Posse “The Awesome Possum” (Americana) 5-7pm My Favorite Chords / Chris (rock) 7-9pm Lotus Land / Michael Miracle (variety) 9-11pm After Hours / James (variety) 11-1am Danhop / DJ Dr. Wily (hip hop)

THURSDAY

1-7am TBA 7-9am The Search Engine / The Marauder (punk) 9-11am Loblolly Pine / Todd Ranson (variety) 11-1pm TBA 1-3pm The Music Sutra / Balu (world) 3-5pm The Biggest one / Chris (Variety) 5-7pm Scenester Extraordinaire / Lauren V (variety) 7-9pm Awkward Silence DJ PJ, The MSS Avenger and Haven (variety) 9-11pm Left of Cool / Larry (variety) 11-1am Kill Your Television / Lander (rock)

FRIDAY

1-7am TBA 7-9am Red Morning Light / Eric (rock) 9am-1pm TBA

1-3pm Sportscentre / Dan and Ken (sports/talk) 3-5pm Round-Squares / The Lizzy (electronic) 5-7pm Do the Mess Around II: The Triumph of the Lazer Viking / DJ Pretty Much the Best Thing Ever (rock) 7-9pm Nocturnal Transmissions / Eric (variety) 9pm-12am Fontaine / Fontaine (variety)

SATURDAY

12am-2am Slaughter House / Tyrone (hip hop) 2-9am TBA 9-11am Veritable Smorgasbord / Beth Ann (rock) 11-1pm Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock and Roll High School Horsey (talk/rock) 1-3pm Vague Disclaimers about Penguinsharks DJ Penguinshark (world) 3-5pm Sports Update / Sidewinder (sports/rock) 5-7pm Urban Thoughts / Ashlei (hip hop) 7-9pm In the Groove DJ Mordecai and DJ Barnacles (hip hop) 9-11pm Liquid Lounge / Kevin (jazz) 11pm-2am ClubEsq / Esquire (house)

SUNDAY

2-9am TBA 9am-1pm Soundwaves / Herb King (jazz) 1-3pm Sunday Jazz / Claude (jazz) 3-5pm Sunday Jazz / Bud (Jazz) 5-7pm Lonesome Johnnie Blues John Morgan (Blues) 7-9pm Birdsongs / Graham Eng-Wilmot (variety) 9pm-1am Akmael / Akamael (house)

The Last Word Letter from Los Angeles Vivian Davis There is one thing that I’ve been told constantly, repeatedly, unremittingly about Richmond, Virginia since the day I arrived for my undergraduate education: Once you get to Richmond, you will never leave. Not really. “Sure, you can try” they say, “but you’ll be back.” And by “they” I mean everyone: Nova transplants, the Goth girl who works at the 7-11 on Grace. Dirt woman. People in Richmond are more than willing to dole out advice, to map the roads of your life for you as you stand in line at Community Pride to buy tampons and frozen waffles on a Saturday night. Richmond is magnetized, they’ll tell you.

It is cursed. It is like a pit covered by cleverly placed palm fronds, waiting patiently for you to fall into it. You will never get out. Not really. Sometimes they smile. Sometimes they scowl. Sometimes they just hand you your change and your bag of tampons.

As reluctant as I am to admit it, they’re sort of right, you know. If you were to thumb through the guidebooks issued by the tourist council, you’d find that this idea that Richmonders are geographically bound into some sort of indentured servitude is the basis of our city’s entire tourist industry: A breathless Patrick Henry still paces the stones behind St. John’s church, a befuddled and potentially inebriated Edgar Allan Poe stumbles down the streets around Shockoe Botton, and incarnations of the confederate dead (and a certain tennis star) strike various poses up and down Monument Avenue. These specters of marble and fog may be magnets for bearded freaks festooned in confederate flags, yes, but they are also proof of the chains that bind anyone who has climbed to the top of Gresham court to see the city’s snow drifts or picked their way through the bacchanalian debris of a Grace Street alley. They are levelers of chronology, collapsing the pockets of time which separate past from future. They remind me always of this thing that I have been told: You will never leave Richmond.

Not really.

It’s silly, I know, but there really is something inexplicable about it. Even now as I sit here in my apartment facing the drudgeries of the construction on Santa Monica Boulevard, I feel the eastward pull. I miss home. Los Angeles just isn’t Richmond. No one on the Westside rides bicycles. How could they? The traffic here is a blistering mind-fuck hostile to any mode of transport lacking rims. There are no house shows. Only gatherings at bars where you can bet your ass that someone is loudly explaining to someone else how they used to be in a band with that guy from Brian Jonestown Massacre.

But I exaggerate. It’s not so bad. It’s not always like an interactive David Lynch film. The smog disappears in the winter. The ocean is fierce and alive when it slaps against your legs. In the fall the Santa Ana winds swirl the tips of your shoelaces as you walk through the streets. And you can buy liquor until 2am.

From a grocery store! Take that, Ukrops.

So I find things to love about Los Angeles. But sometimes I know I will never beat the curse. Sometimes I call my sister back east and talk for hours as she describes the weight of the heat and the force of the last thundershower. Sometimes I walk into my closet and press my face into the corduroy of my winter coat wondering when I’ll wear it again. Sometimes I imagine it is fall and the palm trees have blushed and blazed into brilliant shades of burnt red and charcoal and orange. The fronds litter the streets and crunch beneath my feet, smelling faintly of smoke.

And sometimes it almost feels like home.

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interested in having the last word ?? tony@rvamag.com