RVA Volume 2 Issue 2

RVA

VOL. 2 ISSUE 02 Bohemian Intelligence

WORDS Clay McLeod Chapman D.L. Hopkins Teddy Blanks Stryder Lee JoAnna O Jesse Split Brandon Peck Blair Johnson Ryan Mulligan Sallie Keena Tess Dixon Michael Roberts Christian Detres Peter Szijarto J.D. Gavin Ian Graham Jeremy Parker Adam Sledd R. Anthony Harris

R. Anthony Harris

Kathryn Whitley

Peter Szijarto

EDITOR IN CHIEF / SENIOR DESIGNER

ART / LIT/ FILM EDITOR

CREATIVE ASSISTANT

Jeremy Parker

Christian Detres

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

FASHION EDITOR

J. D. Gavin. Michael Roberts INTERNS

Tess Dixon

Ian Graham

Adam Sledd

MUSIC / LOCAL EDITOR

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

FINANCIAL DIRECTOR

DESIGNERS R. Anthony Harris Andre Shank Kate Jones

CONTACT Inkwell Design 3512 Floyd Ave. Apt.1 Richmond, VA 23221

ILLUSTRATORS Nick Martin Michael Pae R. Anthony Harris

p// 804.349.5890 e// info @ rvamag.com www.rvamag.com

PHOTOGRAPHERS Ian Graham Chris Lacroix Danny Spry

ADVERTISING For all local and national advertising inquiries p// 804.349.5890 OR e// advertising @ rvamag.com.

DISTRIBUTION If your business or establishment would like to carry RVA contact us p// 804.349.5890 OR e// distribution @ rvamag.com.

COVER >>

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SUBMISSIONS RVA welcomes submissions but cannot be held responsible for unsolicited material. Send all submissions to content @ rvamag.com.

HEADS UP The advertising and articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinion and attitudes of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publisher or editors. Reproduction in whole or part without prior written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.

RVA Magazine is published monthly and is $ 3.99 USD. All material within this magazine is protected. RVA is a registered trademark of Inkwell Design L.L.C. Thank you.

08 Pick & Choose >> Andre Shank 10 Gallery Profile >> Red Dragon Tattoo 11 RVA Art Market >> Scott Elmquist Wanna See More?? >> Illustrator Mickael Broth >> Painter Michael O’Neal >> Illustrator Katie McBride >> Photographer Taylor Burton ART 18 J. Pocklington on J. Pocklington 22 Interview with Frank Warren of the incredibly popular Postsecret.com 28 Stuntkid.com’s Jason Levenge MUSIC 34 17:17 The Chronicles of Blackberry An Interview with spoken word legend - Saul Williams 40 MacRock X Experience Harrisonburg’s big time music fest 44 On Blast With Cobra Kai Local promoters on the rise

34 Music Reviews >> Meneguar : I Was Born At Night >> Armalite : S/T >> A Northern Chorus : Bitter Hand Reign >> Bloody Crackdown : Cowboy Dubyah’s Fallujah Barbeque >> BCEE & Lomax : Misguided VIP >> Paul Johnson : So Much >> Collette : Didnt Mean To Turn You On >>A New Dawn Fades : I See The Nightbirds 52 Concice Records

FILM 64 Why French Films Are Better Than American Movies 66 Cinema >> Failure To Launch >> ATL

LITERATURE 54 Throwing Golem 56 Idiot Stalls Congrats to VCU Illustration Contest Winner - Michael Pae. He is will receive a full ONE YEAR subscription to RVA plus have his piece in print.

78 THE LAST WORD

Thank you to Professor Eric Colliins for working with us on this project.

58 Matrimonial Missteps LOCAL 60 Black, White, Blue, or Green The final article in this series looks at the problems on Broad from the view of the police.

QUICK GUIDE 68 Quick Guide Map & Listing FASHION 76 Languid Days on Your Estate The fashion designs of Sharon Deporter

PICK + CHOOSE This is where we find art in the city we like and show it to you.

Andre Shank comes over and brings me this CD full of his new work. Hidden under a pile of other stuff is this collage he made because he wants to get back to doing handmade art.

It’s probably laying on the floor, forgotten, buried under his boxers.

Check out his other work at http://fedeffects.com/

08 PICK & CHOOSE / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

Red Dragon 1537 Tattoo W. Main St. p// 804.648.3319 hours // Monday-Friday12-8, Saturday 10-5 Every First Friday Red Dragon Tattoo has an opening reception for a new exhibition.

10 GALLERY SPOTLIGHT / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

RVA Art Market title : Hollywood’s Guitar artist : Scott Elmquist size : 16” x 20” medium : Photography price : $250.00* Currently hanging at Rentz Gallery’s show “Style Weekly’s Hidden Richmond.”

Rentz 1700 W. Main Street 804.358.5338

* $ 50 off the price of this piece, if you mention the RVA Art Market.

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / RVA ART MARKET 11

WANNA SEE MORE??

Showcase for work that has been submitted to us.

email // parker@rvamag.com

from -> wiltedroses.com’s Mickael Elliot Broth For me, making art is like putting a gun to the head of the President and pulling the trigger. It’s the way that I deal with all the garbage that even middle class white kids like me experience in life. This style of drawing developed for me during the ten months I spent in jail for painting things that didn’t belong to me. Ever since then it’s been my way of sorting out the good and bad.

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / GALLERY 13

from aartrageous.com’s Michael O’Neal

14 GALLERY / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

Katie McBride - mcbrideka @ gmail.com 16 GALLERY / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

Taylor Burton - burton.taylor@ gmail.com

< Hangovers Are For Tomorrow

J.POCKLINGTON ON J. POCKLINGTON I paint quasi-realistic people in abstracted settings. People often feel like they know or have seen the subjects of my work. Not likely, unless you were drinking with those kids at beach week or were at that New Years Eve party in Australia.

The images I select have universal qualities, but purposely no local ties. Thus, I can collage them into new scenarios without anyone saying “Why did you do that to me? ”Although not knowing the subjects allows me great freedom, I often wonder if someone out there is thinking, “I feel like someone is painting me and If I find them I will sue them.”

Purchase work at Eric Schindler Gallery, Richmond VA. >>> www.jpock.com

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / ART 19

< Momma Bird

< RVA Snugglers

< Courage in a Bottle White Buddha is Wack

KEEPING SECRETS: THE ARTIST BEHIND POSTSECRET words : Adam Sledd images courtesy of Frank Warren “…one of the messages that the project seems to convey is that there is an artist in all of us. I think that too often we tend to think of artist with a capital “A”, who we go to view at certain places like museums. The project invites art from everybody and into everybodys lives in unusual ways and places.”

-- Frank Warren, founder of Postsecret.com In late-2004, Frank Warren decided to enter the D.C.-based, non-juried art show Artomatic. Handing out over 3,000 self-addressed postcards to strangers at metro stations, Warren asked people to write down a true secret that they had never told anyone and then mail the card back to his home in Germantown, MD. Little more than a year later, the project, known as PostSecret, has become a full-fledged phenomenon. Warren updates the website weekly, posting about two dozen meticulously-crafted cards as well as a handful of reader emails. The site (www.postsecret.blogspot.com) receives millions of visits a week, making it one of the most widely viewed blogs in the world. Warren has more recently expanded the project, including a book, film projects, and an upcoming live performance on May 25th at the Old Town Theater in Alexandria.

Adam Sledd What drew you to this project originally? Where did the idea for using secrets come from?

Frank Warren I’ve always just felt that people have these rich interior lives, and I wanted to create a space where people could share those feelings.

AS How often do you get emails from someone complaining about not

getting their secret posted on the site?

FW I get that a lot, but then you consider that I get seven or eight hundred postcards a week and just post about 20, so the odds aren’t very good to begin with.

AS What’s your editing process like when you’re deciding what to post each week?

FW It comes down to the cards that speak to me, and surprise me in new ways. I try and show a variety of the cards I receive, cards that express all different human emotions: humor, sexuality, joy, remorse. I try to arrange them in such a way that they tell a story.

AS Do you find yourself resisting the urge to add more content to the site? Even for a blog it’s pretty sparse.

FW I keep it minimal on purpose. Early on in the project I used to add more comments, to have my own voice narrate it to a degree. But eventually I reassessed that, and decided that the power of the project is really through the voice on the postcards. I try to minimize my own presence as much as possible on the blog and the book and anytime I share the project. Really all I do is get in the way of the power and the poignancy.

AS So you’ve become more like a mediator between the secrets and the audience?

FW I try to be as invisible as possible, just let the cards speak for themselves.

AS Then are there other projects you’d like to do where you could just say “Allright, I’ve spent all this time not putting my voice into something…”

FW Are you kidding? There’s so many stories written about the project where I’m interviewed, I have no desire to have any more face time. I’ve been on the Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20, Fox, MSNBC, RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / ART 23

CNN. So even though I say I try to stay in the background, in other ways I’m out there talking about it, promoting it.

AS I recall reading the USA Today article on PostSecret expressing surprise that the American public is actually creative.

FW Yeah. Sometimes I get the question, “Do you create all these postcards yourself based on secrets people give you?” Or sometimes people don’t belive the postcards are written by strangers, by ordinary people. This just underlines the pre-conception that some of us have, that art isn’t something that everyday people can do. I hope this project breaks through that.

AS You’ve had the book out for a while, but now there’s also this performance in Alexandria coming up in May. What’s that going to be like?

FW What I’m trying to do is share the secrets in different ways-- at art exhibitions, on the internet, in a book-- and this is a new way I’m experimenting with sharing the cards. I’ll be projecting them at this event with music from a live string quartet to accompany the images as you see them on the movie screen.

We’ll talk about the project, have a book signing, and Davy Rothbart is going to be there from Found magazine, so I’m hoping it will be a fun event, a meaningful event. I consider Found magazine to be a project that inspired me, so I’m excited to have Davy there to talk about some of his recent finds.

AS So do you see this as a one-time thing, or do you plan to continue on and hit the road?

FW We’re going to try it and see how it works in Alexandria. We’ve sold quite a few tickets already. We’ll try other things too. I’d like to share the cards in a jewelry store at night, in the cabinets when all the jewels have been removed.

Or project the images on old building or at a drive-in movie theater screen at night. I have several new ideas I’d like to try out.

AS Is that part of the motivation for you, to get art outside of the gallery-sanctioned space?

FW I’ve always believed in that. I had another art project previous to this, where it was a strong idea to have the art find people, rather than having to go RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / ART 25

to a gallery to see it. I think it helps create a new aesthetic, expanding maybe how we appreciate beauty or truth. I think it’s in the tradition, if I can say that, of Found magazine, and I hope that there are other projects that come after this that keep the idea going and evolving. It’s this new kind of work that we haven’t really recognized just yet. I’d like to see other projects that keep it going and turn it into a movement, or a school in some sense.

AS The catch then is that it becomes very difficult to make a living from your work.

FW I try not to mix art with commerce too much. Fortunately I have my own business, so I don’t have to, for example, put ads on my website. I don’t have to make decisions based on financial concerns, I can make decisions based on the integrity of the project itself, and I hope that’s always the case.

AS Still, I imagine that this takes up quite a bit of your time at this point.

FW Yeah, I spend more time on PostSecret than I do my own business.

AS Do you see an end to the project, that you’ll eventually get tired of keeping other people’s secrets?

FW I don’t know. I just try to take this project day by day and see where it goes.

I try to protect the integrity of it. I don’t even really guide it as much as see where it will lead me. I’ve received over thirtyfive thousand postcards, and every day when I go through them I still wish there were more when I get to the bottom of the pile. So if I’m going to reach that point, I haven’t done it yet.

STUNTKID.COMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S JASON LEVENGE words : R. Anthony Harris A friend of a friend on Myspace led me to his work and after checking it out, I was interested. On StuntKid.com was a collection of very good Anime inspired illustrations and a variety of strong photographic pieces - by this dude in Hampton Roads!

Who the hell lives out there? About ten seconds later I knew I had to contact the guy and get him into the mag.

R. Anthony Harris Did you know early on you were going to make a living drawing for other people?

Jason Levenge When I was young I thought I might be a writer. As i got older though i really began to enjoy illustrating the book and drawing my characters. By the time I graduated High School I was done writing and preferred drawing in my spare time.

RAH I love the subject matter - how long did it take you to figure out this would be your style and approach to your work?

JL Yeah, so I realized what I enjoyed drawing early in life. Around puberty. I started drawing ladies from the few playboy magazines i had been able to acquire. My mom was constantly finding them and tossing them out along with my dirty sketches.

RAH I read you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go to college for art? What gave RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / ART 29

you the confidence to continue in a very competitive field?

JL Oddly I think not going to college kept me confident. I think I’d find it harder to imagine myself being successful while surrounded by hundreds of people with the same dream. Also I think to be a successful artist you need to be able to see past the imperfections of your own work. If i was aware of how awkward my work was 4 years ago. I may have stopped then. Luckily I saw it for better than it was, and that kept me going.

RAH How long until you found a market for your stuff?

JL I feel like I’m still finding it. But I suppose I’ve been taking my illustration work seriously for the past 4 - 5 years. The last 2 of which have actually met me with some success.

RAH Have you ever considered the toy market?

JL I have, I’m hoping they’ll consider me, haha. Seriously, I secretly play with sculpy and would love to see some of my characters rendered in a physical form.

RAH There is a slight Japanese flavor to your work, where do you think this comes from?

JL When I was 13 I saw the Anime “Akira” for the first time i really connected to style of drawing. I had always had comic books but never could relate to the Marvel anatomy.

RAH I drew from my comics. Todd McFarlane when he did Hulk, Jim Lee from the Punisher days, and Silverstri from the X-Men. Did you have any favorites from the comic book world?

JL I can’t say that i followed comic books closely enough to have had a favorite. Funny because all my friends were into comics. Somehow I just never got into them. I did however acquire a small collection of anime VHS tapes that i’d pause and try to draw from. Hah, pretty pitiful. I 30 ART / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

remember rushing because after about 2 minutes the VCR would cut off and i’d have to inch back to find my place again.

RAH You recently did a show on the First Friday Artwalk at Red Dragon Tattoo, what are your thoughts on the space and the crowd that came by?

JL The space was great the people working there were very helpful in pulling it together. Red Dragon is at the far end of the First Friday walk so it misses out on a lot of the foot traffic. But the artists showing there are definitely worth stopping in. Christine, the curator, is booking some really talented people and I’m hoping that the future will show even larger crowds.

As for the crowd itself I was far to interested in seeing the other shows up and down Broad. I missed most of crowd that came in to RedDragon.

The people i did meet though along the way seemed to be genuinely interested in the art displayed and it was inspiring to see a real market for the sort of work i do.

RAH Have you ever lived in Richmond?

JL I’ve never lived in Richmond. I’ve lived down in the Hampton Roads area for most of my life. I’ve always enjoyed visiting Richmond though and can see myself moving there eventually.

RAH I feel there is a lot going on in Richmond now where there was nothing a few years ago. Why would you consider moving here?

JL I think you’re right about the art scene in Richmond. Hampton Roads it seems has yet to make a big effort to pull together the art community.

What I’ve seen in Richmond and other city’s doing their art walk is a real coming together of creative types. Also of course having a magazine like yours dedicated to the local art scene is a great catalyst. As things stand I’m doing what I can in my area. I’ve recently started a monthly live drawing event here in Norfolk based on NY based Dr. Sketchy’s. I figure I’d be better off trying to make things happen than complain about the lack of things to do.

17:17 THE CHRONICLES OF BLACKBERRY An Interview With Saul Williams words : D.L. Hopkins

image : R. Anthony Harris

I kept my phone with me. Glaring at it skeptically, waiting for its betrayal. Judas. Through the hallways of my corporate disguise, I cradled it like a newborn or holy scripture. Through each morning meeting and cube call. I became a smug-gler. I knew at any moment I would be found out. Coworkers began to look at me sideways. They had good reason to; I was a little jumpy. This, after all, was day two, and because I didn’t receive a call yesterday it must be this damn phone. It has to be.

Looking back, I guess I was a smuggler of sorts. I alone held the beacon to the mother ship. I was just awaiting docking instructions.

When I got the call to ask if I would interview Saul Williams, I had to have the re-quest repeated. This is a joke, right? That’s like asking a post-reformation monk if he’d like to hang out with Martin Luther. Hells yeah!

I immediately got some ques-tions together and began researching.

And then it dawned on me: how the hell am I going to record this thing?

I mean, I’ve got to keep it for posterity. So I grabbed the iPod with a mike and my Blackberry phone. I ran some tests and still didn’t trust it. In the back of my mind I knew that if there would be a screw up, this would be it. Damn you, technology. I wanted it to be perfect. After all, I wanted to be faithful to the words of this generation’s spoken word prophet.

Saul single-handedly changed the game in respect to the art of spoken word. His use of imagery and symbolism are legendary. Total disregard for traditional rules (i.e., check his similes. He hardly ever uses “like” or “as.” It is what he says it is.). Being a spoken word artist, this ap-pointment was a crumb trail to the heavens.

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / MUSIC 35

I first met Saul Williams some years ago. We sat, exchanged pleasantries, laughed and went our way. I went on to a wife, two kids and a mortgage. He went on to the 1998 feature film, Slam . The film won both the Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Camera D’Or. His performance credits include likes of The Fugees, Erykah Badu, KRS-1, De La Soul, and DJ Krust, as well as legendary poets Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez and a host of oth-ers. He now has two well-received albums on the shelves of the Ameri-can marketplace ( Amethyst Rock Star and Saul Williams ), four books to his credit ( She, Said The Shot Gun To The Head, The Seventh Octave , and most recently Dead Emcee Scrolls ), and a teaming legion of fans all scream-ing his accolades and gospel through an international megaphone. Now, with his self-titled sophomore album, Saul Williams has become somewhat of an amethyst rock star himself. While on tour with Nine Inch Nails, his publicist called my phone at the time scheduled. He was on the phone, in a hotel room somewhere. I ducked into a break room to set up my makeshift sound stage. During the course of this interview a few suits walked in with curious looks. I shot them the “fuck you looking at? ” stare in response to their queries. I’ll handle the fallout when that time arises. A very low, well-rung voice growled over my phone, “What’s up man? ” Below is what took place in that break room.

D.L. Hopkins What’s good?

Saul Williams Everything, bro. Everything DLH How has this tour been going so far? Looking at your schedule, you’ve been working day and night.

SW So far so good. Yeah man, it’s been nonstop.

DLH In the intro to The Dead Emcee Scrolls you offer some strong opinions about hip-hop. What are your feelings about the direction that 36 MUSIC / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

hip-hop has taken?

SW I feel that it’s at a very positive space right now. I feel that the comeuppance of southern hip-hop is extremely exciting. On one level it’s very cool that the Three-Six-Mafia won an Academy Award, which is amazing. But the music itself has evolved. It has become something that I’m learning from. A lot southern artists have brought a lot of elements of the blues back to hip-hop, whether this is done consciously or sub-consciously. I think they [southern hip-hop artists] are bringing it back to a more musical and inventive place than it has been in a long time. I’m really excited about where hip-hop is right now.

DLH I’ve found it very interesting that certain southern hip-hop artists can consistently convey positive or edgy messages without the criticisms that come with producing “happy rap.” There are a ton of these artists, but Outkast’s “Liberation” comes immediately to mind.

SW Outkast has been trailblazing from day one. Not just them, but the whole Dungeon family. They have been making it [good music] from way back. But again, the way it’s evolved is amazing and something to be inspired by.

DLH To the uninitiated, how would you describe your sound?

SW Huh. It’s hard to describe the sound. I usually say somewhere between hip-hop and punk. But not that that’s necessarily accurate. I usually just say that so that people don’t know what to think [laughs].

I don’t really know how to describe my sound. Usually it’s aggressive, but I’m working on new music now. I have aggressive moments and laid-back moments and pensive moments and damn scary moments, and the music is just that. I think that people spend a great deal of time talking about what I’m talking about. And for the most part I’m doing the music as well. 90% of the stuff I’ve put out there is produced by me.

And when you’re talking about songs, I don’t think any of that stuff would stand out unless the music was right. So I don’t know. It definitely has its roots in hip-hop, just as I do. But my definition of hip-hop may not be the

prevail-ing definition. You know, I just allow a lot more into my conception [of hip-hop]. I mean, “Planet Rock” was akin to what the modern day conception of what hip-hop is supposed to be. If that is so, then I’m on the “Planet Rock” side of things.

DLH You’ve been very vocal when it comes to your opinions of what slam poetry is. I run a slam here in town called the “Just Poetry Slam.”

Inevitably, your name comes up when talking to many of the poets about this art form. What are your feelings about the delineation between slam poetry and spoken word?

SW First of all, I think that poetry, again, has become very important for young people today. It has truly become a vehicle for them to express themselves. I personally don’t know what “slam poetry” is. I’m not claiming ignorance, I just don’t know. With the titles, categorizations and boxes – whatever. Poetry has always been recited out loud; that’s nothing new. The Greek Homer was a spoken word artist. Nobody read Homer in his day and time. Everybody was illiterate. So people gathered to hear him speak the same way they gather to hear us speak. There’s nothing new regarding that. The only thing we’ve done is constrict it to three minutes. Let’s see someone recite The Iliad in three minutes, you know. It might take more like three months. For many of us it serves as a great way to find our poetry. Not everyone in the poetry movement, neces-sarily, have goals of living their lives professionally as a poet. But it will help them find their voice in whatever it is that they choose to do and I think that that is important.

DLH Do you feel that the competitive nature of slam poetry in any way taints the art?

SW Everything is competitive, bro. I’m in the music industry. If my beats or hooks or what have you ain’t right, I can’t compete with what’s out there. There is no airplay for me. It’s all competitive, you know. We come up with interesting titles and interesting covers because it’s competitive.

DLH Of the many that are out there, what spoken word artists do you ap-

preciate, or whose work are you enjoying right now?

SW First of all, I can’t say that in my leisure time I spend it listening to spoken word. I don’t. I’m on more of the music side of things. But as far as poets that I like that are out there: Suheir Hammad, Amir Sulaiman, a lot of the Def Poets, Jessica Care Moore. A lot of stuff that’s out there I think is wonderful, you know. A lot of them have become wonderful writers. And that’s what I’m looking for. It’s not your ability to entertain.

You see, my background is in performance. But I don’t rely on my background in performing to release a book. You have to really focus on your craft of writing. And that’s what I’m looking at. I’m listening to decipher how well written the piece is, you know. That’s what’s interesting to me.

DLH So what musical artists are you listening to now?

SW I’m listening to Joi, T.I., and TV on the Radio.

DLH In The Dead Emcee Scrolls , you abbreviate the word “nigger” with “NGH.” I have heard arguments on both sides for and against the word.

Could you expound on what went into your thought process in the choices you make in this book?

SW I was inspired by ancient religious texts. In the ancient Judaic text, the one commandment that God makes is that you are not to say his name in vain. You are not to call his name in vain. So they didn’t write it.

And that practice is even predated by ancient Egyptian practices as well.

When the first alphabets were created, they believed the consonants spoke to the temporal reality and the vowels spoke to the eternal reality, which is the most holy. So they saw it as sacrilegious to write down the vowels because it would be like trying to box what was eternal. So they only wrote down the consonants sounds. So in all the talk about the word “nigger,” or what have you, most intellectuals that I listen to have spoken in terms of letting go of the word, or pushing it down, forgetting about it, sweeping it under a rug or some shit. I just thought it would be interest-ing instead of pushing it down, to lift it up. Basically in The Dead Emcee Scrolls , “Nigger What” is the name of God. But I’m leaving RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / MUSIC 37

it abbreviated because it’s sacred and holy. So what if we see that as an ancient, sacred term, since we don’t know the true etymology of the term any way? Since the Niger existed as the Niger river before white people even came to Africa. Which is to say, that there are words that are really close to the word “nigger” in the English and African languages. We may not be fully understanding why that word will not leave our mouths. Why has this word not left the American lexicon? It may be the only word of truly indigenous African origins. I’m not saying that this is a fact. I’m saying that is a way to look at it. And that’s the purpose of poetry and the purpose of perception – to broaden it. It is to say, here’s another way to look at it. Now granted [laughs], when the truth comes in, it’s all the shit aside [laughs]. We are now waiting for the truth to come in. But in the mean-time it benefits us all to think as openly as possible.

DLH [laughing] That would be incredibly ironic if the word “nigger” is our one tether to the past pulling us back into focus.

SW [laughing] Exactly. Exactly.

DLH That’s what’s up. Thank you very much for your time. I’m going to look into getting you to run through Richmond some time.

SW You do that. If the schedule’s permitting I’ll be there, just hit me up.

Peace bro.

And there you have it. Saul Williams.

Upon hanging up the phone, the drab reality of the break room began to take hold. The Blackberry rang to remind me of an 11:00 meeting. I could now feel the cold tile beneath my feet and the looming fluorescent lights.

My buzz is slipping. I decided to check out my recording of the interview before I feigned interest in some random corporate BLAH-BLAH-BLAH. I push play on the iPod and there is this chopping beep blaring through out the entire interview. DAMN YOU, TECHNOLOGY! Damn you to the dark abyss that bore you. It’s a rap. I’m late for blah-blah.

38 MUSIC / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

MACRoCk X :

Musings on ten years of carnage in a city that never sleeps. words : Tess Dixon

image : Chris Lacroix

It’s the best of times; it’s the worst of times. Mostly, it’s the best of times. This year marks the Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference’s tenth year of inflicting organized chaos upon the throngs that lovingly make the pilgrimage to Harrisonburg every April. Put on by WXJM, the student radio station at James Madison University, the festival has put Harrisonburg on the map as a destination for bands, industry workers, scenesters, and partyseekers from all over the country.

This is most likely redundant to a lot of people, but here’s the basic anatomy of MACRoCk. Friday afternoon is sign-in time, which means you go pay for the fest and get your “badge” (which has recently been reduced to a ghastly neon wristband). You are also handed a plastic bag full of “goodies,” also known as “shameless implements of marketing paraphernalia.” You wade through the coupons, pizza advertisements, and sampler CDs of insufferable new hardcore bands until you find the holy grail of the MACRoCk plastic bag: your schedule. This important item is proudly emblazoned with the current year’s fancy new MACRoCk graphics, and contains an itinerary of every event you want to go to. Various music showcases. Label expo, panels, and films. More coupons. The locations of every thrift store in the ‘Burg. It even contains a map, although you will undoubtedly still get lost.

Music showcases throughout the weekend include such genres as indie, metal, hardcore, rock, mellow rock, americana, and this year there was even “spazz.” The showcases are held in a mélange of on-campus and off-campus venues, with a trend towards more off-campus venues as the years move on. But enough about music. All showcases are followed up by several illicit after-parties, which you will definitely get lost trying to find. To save time, just head to Old South High Street, an ingeniously hidden dead-end street full of crumbling old Victorian party houses. Note: you will get lost, but it’s worth the hassle. If parties are not taking place in every single house, they are taking place in every other house. This is where you really experience the grit of MACRoCk. It almost always rains during MACRoCk weekend, which heightens the already-overwhelming chaos as well as the mess. You will certainly ruin your shoes (or possibly everything you own) by venturing onto the muddy hillsides of Old South High.

You move from party to party, careful not to touch anything for fear of becoming contaminated with whatever diseases the walls are crawling with, avoiding the occasional dreadlock or whiff of patchouli, and listening to a variety of interesting conversations / screams / drunken apologies / rants / epiphanies / expostulations. Even just observing the insanity around me, I’ve had some experiences so surreal that people didn’t even believe me, RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / MUSIC 41

or the description just couldn’t capture the Alice in Wonderland quality of it all. The night will probably contain some of your finest moments ever, but will inevitably get sucked into the one-track whirlpool of, for the love of all that is holy, finding some place to sleep.

Saturday morning, you wake up to the unfamiliar fuzz of a hangover (alcohol-induced or just plain bizarre-induced) in a strange town. Whether you’re on some friend’s couch or in a cheap hotel room, your waking circumstances will most likely be the same. You’re surrounded by the…oh, how should I put it? The dregs, the telltale signs…nay, the very essence indicative of a night of partying. Bottles, trash, pizza boxes, college students, and other residue may be on top of you, beside you, and also lodged in your breathing canal. But another day awaits, and there is not time for recovery.

The label expo is usually the first destination on Saturday: a room crowded full of tables where record labels, distros, and pushers of other various causes peddle their wares. These days, there is also a MACRoCk film festival on Saturday, which features films and speakers related to or about independent music. Saturday is also to be spent finding more beverages of dubious content and eating a whole lot. Driving around, you usually think “Eureka! I’ve figured this city out, and I’ll never been lost in it again!” But as soon as it gets dark and you head out to more music showcases and more parties – you guessed it – you get lost.

Sunday morning might possibly be the groggiest morning of your life. You wade through partied-out, stunned Harrisonburg, and make your way to the highway as best you can. The drive home is spent recounting the weekend’s adventures and wondering if you left something (or someone) there.

And perhaps you did.

MACRoCk is a sort of makeshift New Year for its participants. I always find myself asking questions like “what did we do last year?” “how does it compare to this year?” and “would I act like this at home? ” MACRoCk is more than a music festival…it’s a time to let your hair down. It’s a time for reconnecting with old friends, running into out-of-town acquaintances, and introducing Yankees to the concept of sweet tea. It keeps things in perspective. Every year you recognize that no matter how far you’ve come in the past year, no matter how much your life has changed, and no matter how much you’ve matured…you’re back, and things are relatively the same. You partially revert to your old self; channeling some semblance of the kid you were the first year you ever went. For all the pretension that has built up in your head during another year, you’re really just another anonymous kid at MACRoCk. Is MACRoCk keeping us in check every year, and keeping us from truly growing old?

As I muse about the momentous occasion that is MACRoCk, a carload of drunken partygoers from Florida pulls up in front of a kegger on Old South High. “Holy crap, we just got pulled over!” exclaims the driver. “We’re all wasted, and I was so scared…and then, the cop just gave us directions to Old South High!” The gathering crowd cheers.

I would like to laugh at them. I would love to say “Oh please. Excess ain’t rebellion.” But jaded remarks have no place at MACRoCk. In the affectionate vortex of Harrisonburg, even the most seasoned of MACRoCk rats finds something new every year, and remembers again why they have come.

It’s a place and an event that continues to surprise us all. And I know that somehow, no matter how many times I go to MACRoCk, I will still most likely get lost on my way out of town. Again.

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / MUSIC 43

A tk in s w or ds : Xavi er

M ar tin im ag e : Nic k

Cobra Kai is DJ Krames and Nick Martin. Their dance night at Nanci Raygun every last Thursday of the month has quickly become a staple for bringing in new DJs and keeping the crowd moi moi moista!

I sat down with them on 4/20 to rap about the haps on the craps. You know we had to twist something up...

Xavier Atkins Sup Fellas!

Krames and Nick Martin Sup! X A Now where the hell did Cobra Kai come from? What’s up with that?

Krames Well, it’s just straight from Karate Kid .

NM It’s remembering your childhood, man. Bringing you back to happier times.

X A Ooh, I like that.

NM Yeah, Cobra Kai came from me and Krames knowing each other and working with each other for six years.

We’ve been throwing parties and involved in the scene for a few years now, Krames being the DJ and me being the designer/promoter and we just decided after a while that we should work together exclusively and see what happens.

X A Everybody knows, Krames, you’ve been doing your DJing thing for a minute now. You’re established in Richmond, people know your name, you got your mix tapes, I see them all around, 46 MUSIC/ RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

on people’s shelves and shit. So you (Nick) get the acts down here or what?

NM Well, yeah, I sort of started out as a consultant for Krames, uh, he actually wants to call me his manager now…

Krames Hah, yeah, you could say that.

XA So what ya’ll bring to the table and what’s new and refreshing (and I think everyone is loving it, whether you dig the music or whatever) is you’re bringing in something new, bringing in the DJs from other places. How’d you get these people, how do you know them, that they’re coming up in here and rocking the party?

Krames There’s parties going on in other cities. Nick’s got some connections, I had DJed with Tittsworth a few years ago. So for our first party I was like, “let’s throw a Baltimore house party.” Tittsworth spins Baltimore, he’s gotta be real dope now, it’s been three years. He’s escalating, so we were lucky with that. We’ve been lucky to get these DJs. They dig the scene here.

They’ve seen the pictures, they like what people are…

XA Like I was saying to Krames earlier, fucking Richmond, we don’t sit around and look pretty. People go nuts. People get sweaty, they wanna get sweaty, they wanna leave there feeling like they did something, that’s the way it’s

always been…

see this summer possibly.

Krames It’s like an experience.

X A That’s what’s up. Do you still do Richmatic?

X A It is! So, you knew these dudes, you knew SpankRock right?

NM Yeah, I did an interview with Diplo for Slow Education; I’d always been fans of them and kept in touch with the Hollertronix crew. I partied with SpankRock before and I’ve just always been trying to bring some DJs through town that I know could rock the party.

X A Well let me ask you this, will it always just be then, party DJs, or will it be some actual acts? ‘Cause the closest you came to being on way bigger than a party-type level was that fiasco at Canal Club, with 900 people, with DJ Mix Master Mike. I don’t know if that was Cobra Kai but that was…

Krames Nah, that was Richmatic. That was the Camel Show. Richmatic was asked to open up, to take control of some of the local promotion, and uh, yeah we plan on working with them a lot more, we actually were asked by them, if we could do more things with them…

X A With Richmatic?

Krames No, Camel. The Camel representative asked Cobra Kai, he’s interested in working with us, and so we’ll

Krames Yeah, I actually have it in an hour.

X A Oh, shit.

Krames We do Producer’s Cup once a month. Producer’s Cup is getting bigger and bigger, too, which is interesting. It shows that more and more people are starting to come to some of these events where it’s actually a good time again. Where for a while, I think it wasn’t.

NM People are starting to have more faith.

Krames Yeah. It’s worth coming out to. Everything really. What do you think?

X A Shit, it’s gotten to a point where like everyone is like, we know where to go Thursday. No question, you know?

And that’s tight, the fan base is solid and unquestionable.

I’m thinking, you wouldn’t think about going anywhere else for a party. Do you think that now that that’s where

everybody goes, there’s a lot of pressure on ya’ll and us and when is somebody else gonna do some shit? Do you worry that people might get tired of coming out and…

Krames Well, I’ll tell you, every party we throw, and Nick will tell you, I’m always nervous. I’m like, “do you think it’s gonna be tight? ” I think there’s a vibe on the streets for it. We do it once a month, we try not to flood the scene, which I think is a good thing. I think it’s a good thing too that there’s not a lot of other people trying to bring in national DJs, but you know, it would be tight if they did, I would still go, regardless.

X A Yeah, ‘cause I feel like we’re in a good place now, where everybody is cool with everybody as far as who’s doing shit, you know? Cause it wasn’t like that back in the day.

NM I’m just kind of happy to be putting Richmond on the map, other than being recognized for something other than…

EVERYONE - Hardcore.

NM When you say Richmond, people are like, oh Avail, GWAR. We’re just trying to show that Richmond has other people besides rock kids. No diss to them, we all love them, but at the same time..

XA There’s other shit going on. And it needs to be recognized.

Krames Yeah. And it is. And the (Nanci) Raygun is a sweet place to do it, cause it’s been around for a long time. It’s the type of club everyone likes to come to. Lots of different people come to these parties. It’s something different, you know? The thuggest dudes, the punk rock kids, random girls and guys under and over 21, all different types of people having a good time at the same place, which is something new and interesting and I think that brings a lot to it.

NM I’ve actually driven all the way up to Philly or New York, just for one night, for a party. And now we have people driving from North Carolina and Maryland…

XA And New York!

NM People coming in just for this party. I think our parties are becoming a dependable thing. We’re gonna be doing this throughout the summer, and I

think as long as people know it’s there, I mean, we’re changing the lineups and people everytime, you know, doing different things. And I think it will hold strong. If people keep coming out.

Krames Yeah, we always got the national DJs act going on at 12:30, so like, but you still gotta get there early, ‘cause it just starts popping.

NM It’s to the point now where people keep dancing. Like, we have to have after-parties, because people are still in the mood to throw down. We’re looking at doing another night, not like at a club, but at a bar, just have a Cobra Kai hangout night.

X A So, is there big things to come or what? Is it gonna stay at the Raygun?

You said you wanted to do after-parties and stuff, you guys ever thought of getting out of Richmond or…

NM More house parties, keep the name of Cobra Kai rolling, and this summer, we’re gonna keep bringing people down, bring down Tittsworth again.

Early July we’re trying to do a tour in the Northeast…

Krames I wouldn’t even call it a tour, I’m just gonna DJ a couple parties, hopefully I’ll get Bobby La Beat to come with me.

much as possible, give him the chance to show off his skills, you know.

X A Alright, well that’s about it guys. We hit it on the head, I think. I guess the last question I got is, how do you think you stack up against me as Hypeman, Nick?

(Everybody laughs) Krames Get on the stage anytime, Xavier!

X A Haha, I know. I’m actually trying to stay off of there now, I got wifey over here saying, oh you danced with me for three songs tonight and I’m like, baby I got a job to do over here!

NM I mean, man I’m up there just trying to have a good time, it’s a party, I’m just up there being drunk, I’m not up there to entertain anyone, the music’s what’s supposed to be entertaining people. You know, you just gotta look up there and be like, man, that dude’s wasted. It’s all love.

X A It’s all love. God bless.

NM I’m just trying to help him out as RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / MUSIC 47

Meneguar play off of each other I Was Born At Night to perfection, someTroubleman Unlimited times so perfectly that >> http: //www.myspace. you don’t fully realize com/meneguar what’s going on until you’ve heard the songs Though this album several times. These was already released are pop songs written several months ago, the way pop songs hopefully now with should be written, all a more substantial the hooks in place pressing, it will gain without all the usual the exposure it surely conventions. deserves. What we -Brandon Peck have here are 7 of the best pop songs I’ve Armalite heard in a long time.

S/T The first time I ever No Idea Records heard the song “House of Cats,” I didn’t think I tend to put too much too much of it, but in value on all-star bands the following days I before I hear them, found myself trying to and usually I’m disapsing a chorus to a song pointed. Such is not I had only heard once. the case with Armalite.

All of the instruments They feature Atom Go48 REVIEWS

ren (Atom & His Package), Mike McKee (Kill The Man Who Questions / Amateur Party), Dan Yemin (Lifetime / Kid Dynamite / Paint It Black) and Jeff Ziga (Affirmative Action Jackson), and they fucking rip. The lyrics are a lot more playful on this release than most of the players’ previous efforts, yet while not covering world issues, a lot of the topics discussed are easy to relate to vanity, self-serving parental pressure, idiot Americans who would rather vote for other idiots than putting any real thought into it, and loving your friends, amongst

other things. This is an important release for pop-punk…now if only the band would start playing more shows.

-Brandon Peck

sion, and multi-layered vocals (both male and female), ANC create a lush sonic environment that never gets boring or lags. Bitter Hands Resign (their A Northern Chorus third full length album) Bitter Hands Resign is an orchestral vicSonic Unyon tory weaving together instruments that create So, it’s springtime sonic magic with very and your wondering poetic, thought-prowhat to pop into the cd voking lyrics. The player while sitting on disk demonstrates your back porch as the the bands’ attention sun goes down. Well, to detail without ever take a big swig off of sounding overproduce your PBR and put in (The live set they played the album Bitter Hands in Richmond a couple Resign by Ontario, months ago sounded Canada’s A Northeren almost as great). BitChorus. Laced with ter Hands Resign is a organs, pianos, and beautiful but yet powercellos as well as your ful listen that should bass, guitar, percusfind it’s way to your

ears before nightfall embraces the sky.

-Parker Bloody Crackdown Cowboy Dubyah’s Fallujah Barbecue Valiant Death Records I understand that a lot of bands like to have a dress-up gimmick and theme. Some bands can pull it off when it’s funny, sarcastic, and tongue-in-cheek (i.e., Richmond’s own GWAR!). Some bands just want to get the attention of angst-ridden teenagers by dressing up in (what they think are) scary costumes and taking themselves way too seriously (i.e., the always-ri-

diculous Slipknot).

Bloody Crackdown is a band which doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, but serious enough to talk about all the bullshit involved with G.W. Bush, the needless war in Iraq, and how our military is nothing but a bunch of puppets of a corrupt government. Their live shows consist of the band in full camouflage soldier attire, war paint, fake artillery, and a lot of beer. With a band like Bloody Crackdown, the CD doesn’t capture the drunken debauchery of the live shows and you kind of want to leave the experience at that....LIVE. Don’t

get me wrong, if I were 18 again this CD would be my cup of tea. But alas, my adolescence has slipped from me and with it a lot of the musical tastes that would sexually arouse Beavis and Butthead.

The bottom line is if you like progressive, innovative, and jawdropping music, this is NOT for you. If you like your music aggressive, raw, familiar, and with the word “motherfucker” in every other sentence, then by all means pick up this CD, crank it up until your ears bleed, drink three 40s of Old English, and go pick on a group of popped-collar, pastelwearing, GOP-loving

yuppies.

-Parker

worldwide drum and bass community. The high quality production BCEE & LOMAX from Bcee & Lomax on Misguided VIP the title track is nothSpearhead Records ing short of astounding. The track uses Misguided VIP is an familiar vocal hooks absolute dance floor and samples from the killer by the UK’s mid-nineties classic Bcee & Lomax and Rabbit in the Moon is the fourth release anthem, “OBE” (or for Spearhead “Outer Body ExperiRecords. The label ence” ). The somewas launched in 2005 times mystical rolling as part of the Rubik basslines combined Records family, but with the eerie female 2006 saw the label vocals whisper to the breaking away and listener, ”Will you establishing its own meet me…want to fly identity and sound. In away…” before dropjust over a year, the ping into a hair-raisduo Bcee & Lomax ing breakdown that has been making is sure to have more quite a name for than a few lighters up themselves in the in the air. The flipside,

entitled True Lies, is the debut release for artist Kleer. The track is an atmospheric roller that establishes Kleer as a force to be reckoned with on the drum and bass scene.

Snatch this record up quick and look out for upcoming releases from the Spearhead Records crew in 2006.

-JoAnna O PAUL JOHNSON So Much Dustraxx Paul Johnson is certainly no stranger to the house music scene.

Since hitting the Chicago house scene in 1985, Johnson has become known worldwide

for his quality production, his rare live dj-ing sets, and his work for the highly influential record label, Dustraxx.

The LP’s title track was originally released in 1998, but lucky for us the re-release of this classic track has hit the streets for 2006.

The 2006 edition is extremely limited in its distribution and only available as a picture disc. “So Much” is definitely a gem of a tune for the dance floor.

Johnson begins the track with the familiar Chi-Town-inspired chunky bass beats, building up to some snappy high-hat action before unleashing the best part – the vocal REVIEWS 49

hook. The sometimes explicit vocal conversation takes place between Paul Johnson and an unnamed female vocalist. Not one for sassy vocals? The flipside is the dubbier and deeper version of “So Much,” sans the vocals. The re-release of “So Much” shows yet another quality release from Paul Johnson & the Dustraxx crew.

-Blair Johnson

Records is perfection to your ears! The single is featured on Colette’s debut artist album Hypnotized which is now available at your local record store on vinyl and CD.

the best remix of the lot. The track starts off with the familiar thumpin & addictive west coast bassline before breaking into the familiar hook, sung by the vocally talented siren herself. House She brings a fresh and legends Kaskade sexy take on the clas- and Chuck Love also sic 80’s song by Robert provide solid mixes for Palmer ‘Didn’t mean those looking for the to turn you on’. Colette late night vibe. goes above and beyond -Jesse Split for this sultry remake on the classic, making A New Dawn Fades Colette this quite possibly the I See The Nightbirds Hypnotized best 80’s remix heard OM Records to date!! The Justin I first saw A New Dawn Martin Mix (which is Fades last summer at DJ Colette is definately only available on the the Nanci Raygun and no stranger to dance single release) is a immediately latched on music. Her latest crusher of a track to the ethereal sound release for California for the funky house of the two-piece, inbased house label -OM lovers, and definately strumental outfit.

50 REVIEWS

The feedback and sustains that hovered over guitarist PJ Sykes melodies confused me like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

How the hell did he do both at the same time and never manage to compromise the integrity of either?

My primitive mind can’t grasp these concepts. The drummer, Nathan McGlothlin, is something else all together; without his nonchalant style and insane precision (the man doesn’t put a wrong beat down) the band wouldn’t exist; truly the sum was superior to the parts.

I’m sometimes apprehensive about whether a band can pull off the same intensity when it comes to recording; too often the energy is lost in the transition.

For their first full length release, “I See The Nightbirds,” ANDF have answered an atheists prayers and given me one of my favorite albums of the year thus far. The LP opens with “No Expectations on Big Things,” which does a bang up job of illustrating the subtle and subdued way the pair weave with each other. “Glories of Summer Camp Past” and “I Remember When This Town Was a Good Place

to Grow Up” are the filet of the album.

For anyone who’s a sucker for bands that don’t need to say something to say something.

-Joe Gavin

SWORDPLAY

CoNCICE ReCORDS words & image : Ian Gragham Concice Records started with an idea in the spring of 2005. The idea was simple- the market is saturated with people trying to emulate the main stream rap. The people are begging for original hip-hop. Geoffrey Dean Stanley meets Swordplay, and in August, Concice Records was founded.

If you haven’t heard of Concice yet, then you’re not into the local hip-hop scene in RVA. With one major release out- The Tilt EP, by artist Swordplay (featuring talent from across the label)- and the next, from Murk One on it’s way, they’ve got shows booked for months. The full label roster is Swordplay, Merkury Fallen (Murk One), Salvage Army, and Focus. Who Concice really is, however, is a bunch of cats from Richmond. After Dean and Swordplay started the label (Dean put out Swordplay’s first album, and thus was born Concice), they met Murk One, who introduced the rest of the talent to the label. The kicker? M1 and the rest of the label met working together at the Tower Records in Willow Lawn.

As mentioned before, there are two albums currently in the works.

Both of them feature everyone from the label- lyrically, and in terms of production. Swordplay is putting together most of the tracks, but everyone’s helping, everyone is influencing... watching these guys have a conversation is like talking to a brilliant hive mind. Their range of influences is as wide as the seas, so what do you get when Richmond’s most talented undiscovered MCs, producers, and hustlers end up in one place? You get everything that you wouldn’t expect a hip-hop label to be, and therefore, everything that a hip-hop label should be.

This is not the kind of cat you expect to hit a ‘mic. Swordplay stands about six feet tall with shaggy, curly hair, usually unshaven, and almost always with very large sunglasses. He most certainly doesn’t look like the kind of person who can drop atomic bombs in French, but well, he is. He’s been a musician for a while- playing drums, and guitar, for hardcore bands, but he remembers when he first spit a line (in English). It was on the fourth of July, 2004, on a front porch in Oregon Hill. “I got high, and started freestyling. It was about Bush.” Swordplay was originally made up of three people, however, one moved away to seek peace of mind (Chris Lauderdale, who has tracks on The Tilt EP ), and the other was kicked out for voting for G.W. Bush in 2004. He produces most of his own tracks, but isn’t against the idea of working with someone else- “there are plenty of things (in production) that I can’t do. I’ll keep pushing, see what I can do by myself.” Swordplay is what you would probably call an intellectual snob, if he weren’t such a nice person. He’s spent a lot of time in France, with a host family- in fact, The Tilt EP is selling well in France. The next CD will, as mentioned, have flows in French. His next album- Cellars and Attics - is currently in progress, hopefully to be out late summer or fall 2006. There is a mix CD, entitled Get Rich in 06’, out now, from local legend DJ Krames, with tracks off of Cellars and Attics.

JEFF

MURK ONE M1 is just about the quietest MC I’ve met, for about the first 15 minutes. After that, he’s bright, talkative, and uncontrollably funny at times. From what I’ve heard, something went sour with the last crew he was working with. He won’t discuss it, however, it’s in the past. He doesn’t want to focus on what’s happened, he says, because the important shit hasn’t happened yet. His yet unnamed album, currently being recorded, is slated for release at the June 10th show @ Gallery 5. On the new album: “It’s different. Before this, I was doin’ a lot of crunk-style shit, shit that was easy as hell, you can drop one of those tracks in a few minutes.

What I’ve got coming out is a lot more hip-hop, a lot more on the beats.” Don’t bullshit me, Murk. What you’ve got coming out is going to be the hottest hip-hop this town has seen.

Shows coming up for Concice Records are May 4 @ the Nanci Raygun, May 27 @ Penny Rock (Chesterfield), June 10 @ Gallery 5, and July 1 @ the Nanci Raygun.

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / MUSIC 53

THROWING GOLEM words : Clay McLeod Chapman You couldn’t have been any older than seven when you first asked me where your name came from. Remember what I said? There are only two things in this world that I love more than life itself, you and my pottery -- so why not name one after the other?

The name Clay means born from the earth. Which is just what you were.

Your porcelain eyes, your sandy, silica hair. Even the terracotta tint to your skin, all red and slippery.

You were a miracle to me. A gift from God. You needed a name that rooted you to your mother, as if I were the earth itself.

I raised you at this potter’s wheel. When you were just a baby, I couldn’t afford a sitter -- so I had to carry you in a papoose along my back, cradling you while I worked. The hum of the wheel’s motor lulled you off to sleep just behind my shoulders, keeping my hands free to make mugs and bowls. Pots and saucers.

People need to eat off of something. Whatever puts food on the table, I make the plates that hold the meal. You always knew which piece was mine from the signature incised along its base. I’d carve my name into the clay with a quill, signed to show that it was an original.

Sculpted from these very hands.

The kids at school would tease you over your name, every chance they got. Especially after they found out what I did for a living. Calling you everything from Clay-dough to Mud, forcing you to eat spoonfuls of soil at recess. You’d come home crying, your lips caked in dirt -- wishing you had a simple name, like Jeff or Greg. Something that blended in with 54 LIT / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

everyone else’s.

Some names just take time, honey. You might not’ve been fond of it in kindergarten, but I knew you’d grow into yours. There’s a weight to certain words. Every letter holds its own essence. Mix one letter together with another and their substance combines, adding to the name’s strength -- until you’ve harnessed a power that embodies who that person is. You’ve created a name that represents their very soul.

And look at yours. It’s as if each letter is a different mineral that man was first formed from. Alumina and feldspar. Kaolin and limestone.

The very dust of the ground.

This is what you get for having an artist for a mom. Always digging for a deeper meaning.

We would have what I liked to call clay days -- where we’d set up some card tables out in the backyard, inviting over all the neighborhood kids to make their own pinch-pots. Just a way to make friends.

All the children gathered around me at the wheel, watching me throw. I’d explain all the steps along the way -- trying to describe everything that I was doing, from blunging to burnishing, fettling to firing.

First, I took a slab of raw clay and did what’s called wedging -- where you knead out all the air bubbles. If there’s a pocket of oxygen trapped inside, there’s a risk the clay could explode in the kiln. The heat will turn any excess moisture into steam, bursting right through the walls of your pot. You could lose an entire kiln’s worth of work to a single bubble.

A ceramic aneurysm.

I remember you saying you felt dizzy, watching the wheel spin around.

When you started to complain about a pain just behind your right eye, I figured it was simply a headache. A couple Tylenol would fix it. But when

your vision began to blur, I asked if you wanted to lay down for a while.

Take a nap. It wasn’t until I saw your eyes for myself, how one pupil was dilated differently from the other -- that I asked all the kids to head back home, rushing you to the hospital. We left in such a hurry, I didn’t even think about washing your hands -- this crust of clay dust dried all over them, leaving your fingers looking gray and brittle, these cracks splitting as far as your wrists.

Seven years old and already you had the hands of an elderly man.

The doctor explained that an artery in your brain had begun to balloon outward, the built-up pressure blocking the flow of blood. He tried to describe the procedure to me, what he would have to do before the vein ruptured. He would insert a hollow tube into the dilated artery, snaking it through your brain until it reached the aneurysm -- this tiny catheter draining the pressure back down.

He said that there was a chance. That there were risks involved.

And I remember thinking to myself, I’m familiar with these risks. Every time I unpack the kiln after firing a load of pottery, I hold my breath -expecting half of my ceramics to be shattered.

As if I wanted him to know that I was prepared. That I could handle the worst, for some reason.

Four feet, seven inches. You’d never grow another inch taller.

Seven years old. Never a day more.

Everybody’s pinch-pots had been left out back, the sun drying them up -- all these fingerprints crumbling to pieces.

Roof shingles, flowerpots, the bricks that built up our home, all the plates in the kitchen cabinet. I couldn’t look anywhere without seeing you around me.

You were in everything.

I made your urn myself. Looking at the kiln, I couldn’t help but think of the oven they cremated you in. Almost expected to find you inside. There were times when I would peek in through the kiln’s peephole, checking on the temperature -- only to see you huddled inside the chamber, your legs tucked against your chest, your chin resting against your knee. Firing at over two thousand degrees.

When you were little, I’d load up the car, the two of us driving up and down the eastern seaboard. I’d set up a booth to sell my ceramics at all these different craft fairs cropping up around the coast. It was a nomadic existence for us. May as well have been gypsies, you and me -- a traveling band of craftsmen making our way from one art show to the next.

Your family was made up of other potters. Bisque and Bun Raku. All mothers, too. We’d take turns nursing our children, looking after each other’s booths while the other mother breastfed her baby.

The first time I sat back at the wheel after you passed away, I couldn’t bring myself to touch the clay. Felt cold to me now. Lifeless. I’d end up just watching it spin around, all lopsided, the clay contorting into different shapes, warping over the wheel the faster I pressed my foot down on the pedal, throwing it off balance, only to urge it to move faster, faster -- until it finally spun off, chunks of clay scattering all over the floor.

How could I ever make something as beautiful as you? What was left in my life to inspire me now?

A potter makes these pieces knowing that they’ll hold something for somebody. Food or flowers, we’ll never know. But that’s what we do. We make containers. Mugs and bowls. Plates and vases.

We create the very vessels that hold people’s lives together.

A name is a container, too. It holds certain syllables, certain cadences -that, if you say them in a certain order, in a certain rhythm, you are able RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / LIT 55

to invoke the very breath of God. And I wanted to say your name with life again. I wanted to say your name and have it sound the way I would say it when you were alive, breathing. I wanted to say your name with all of my heart -- to endow every letter with love, everlasting love.

So I decided to make a receptacle for your soul. An urn wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough for me.

There are types of porcelain that are mixed with the ashes of bones -- baked and ground down into a fine powder, glazing the pottery in this translucent white. I poured a cup of water into your urn, blending your ashes into a thick paste. It became malleable again. It held its form.

The marvel of clay is its plasticity. Add water and it bends without breaking. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s porous, like skin -- soft and yielding. It has the ability to absorb. To breathe. I added a slab of terracotta and took the wedge to the wheel, getting to work right away.

Cupping the clay in my hands, I forced it up into a cone. I pressed my thumb into the center, drilling through the core of the clay, using the palm of my free hand to hold the column in place. I pulled up on the walls by pinching the edges with my fingers, lifting the lip up, using both hands to widen the sides.

Wet clay seeped through my fingers, clumping up at the knuckles.

Bits of it flung into the air, the wheel sending sediment everywhere.

Dribbles of it spackled the insides of my thighs.

It was like giving birth all over again, molding this wedge in between my legs, with my own hands.

I took the time to throw every section separately -- hand-building your limbs, rubbing water into your skin until the segments adhered themselves together.

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I molded your face from memory, sculpting your features just the way I pictured them. Carving the dimples in your cheeks. Pecking freckles across the bridge of your nose. I stuck a tiny ball of clay where that mole nestled under your right eyelid. I even carved your scars back into your skin, duplicating every injury you got from riding your bike.

Even down to the navel, I added every last detail.

Four feet, seven inches. Never an inch taller.

Seven years old. Now as eternal as the earth itself.

You opened your eyes to me. Your hazel eyes, held up in pools of porcelain. Your skin was red, as glistening and slippery as the day you were first born -- the glaze crackling into a network of veins, running over your body.

I wet my hand to fettle away all the blemishes from your skin, smoothing the clay down. I parted your hair with a fork, raking the tines through -- leaving behind an even row of grooves across the top of your head.

I breastfed you with plaster of Paris, nursing you to health on slip and gypsum -- until you could finally stand on your own again.

When a mother thinks of her only son as her muse, it goes beyond simple inspiration. He is a revelation to her. He is the one creation that took her entire body to render.

There will never be another. Not like you.

So I signed my name along the sole of your foot. As mother to this masterpiece.

Idiot Stalls words : Ryan Mulligan

image : Michael Pae

I have taught two students arrested for Graffiti, and I’m oddly proud of that fact. (Of their work in class, not their arrest.) Virginia Commonwealth University and the City of Richmond have taken a great deal of time, effort, and money to stop the proliferation of Graffiti. I can’t blame them. No one wants to be known as a bastion of public debasement, or a training ground for future taggers. But wouldn’t it be nice if there was some more well designed graffiti around the city? Something with great color relationships, good layering and design, smart juxtaposition and elusive content that make viewers sit back and ponder at a train crossing? Wouldn’t a well conceived story on a bathroom wall be a little refreshing?

Looking around VCU’s Bathrooms you become depressed about the state of art, or more accurately how little classroom lessons actually stick. Poorly written language says nothing for the English Department. Puns are trite and witless, spelling is almost at a middle school level, and the referential material is just plain obvious. Nazi’s, politicians, sexual advances, and lots of “your stupid,” Your gay,” are the most prevalent texts. What happened to good storytelling? Research? Poetry of language and hints of a well of emotion? Have you ever seen a nice research article on a bathroom stall door? But bathroom graffiti and tagging both share a lack of craft and design.

Sharpie markers are designed to demonstrate a myriad of line thicknesses, yet tags around campus are empty of craft. Far too often this lack of skill is allowed because graffiti is made quickly, without time to pay attention to line dexterity. But this is an art school; shouldn’t some of those skills cross over?

Perhaps more crafts majors should venture into the discourse on stall doors. Decorating their tags with gold leaf, embellished script, or historical motifs might be an interesting change.

What about graphic design and typography majors? Shouldn’t their tags show a smart use of contrast, type, kerning, spacing, and obscure keyboard symbols? Painting majors and illustration majors should at least show some class. Yet the painting department’s bathroom stalls are mainly appropriated Basquiat-esque imagery and pseudo-primitive phallus designs, if you can even call them designs. Haven’t these people ever looked at an Etruscan Phallus? Or a Mural of Pompeii? Those people knew how to tag a wiener!

I am in no way advocating Graffiti, Tagging, and destruction of public property. I just think if you don’t even push your art in class, at least make something smart on the crapper.

MATRIMONIAL MISSTEPS? words: Styder Lee You’ve got to hand it to those religious conservatives, if they aren’t trying to smuggle religious monuments into public buildings or (as if tax-exemption isn’t enough) if they aren’t trying to wrangle more public funds for sectarian programs, they are trying to destroy the institution of marriage with a constitutional amendment – how’s that for misguided? Now that our sodomy laws are rightfully off the books, the next logical target for some GLBTQ (any group left out?) activists is the legalization of gay marriage, and why not? Isn’t America the land of equal opportunity and equal protection under the law? Not for our religious friends it’s not.

By the way they talk, our religious friends have the highest esteem for the institution of marriage, so you’d think they would want more people to get married.

Legalizing gay marriage would only serve to support and honor the institution of marriage. With heterosexual divorce rates at or above 50% and 60 LOCAL / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 serious problems with heterosexual domestic abuse, heterosexual rape and heterosexual child abuse, perhaps it’s time to recognize that heterosexuality does not guarantee moral behavior or healthy relationships.

It’s almost as if our religious friends are afraid that if we legalize gay marriage, homosexual marriages will outshine heterosexual ones.

Maybe they’ll even compete. With the scriptural case so weak and with traditions beginning to transform, it is hard to understand the deep passion that some folks feel about the gender of those involved in what is basically a civic relationship. Then again, it wasn’t too long ago that Dr. King was jailed in Alabama for his civil rights work, reminding us that it is possible to evolve in our thinking, our morals and our priorities.

Perhaps it’s only a problem of semantics. Maybe some folks are just upset about the use of the word “marriage” and would have no problem with a gay “civil union” as long as it wasn’t expressed in an unpronounceable acronym of consonants like GLBTQ. If a civil union carried the same status and legal rights as regular marriage, this could be a 58 LIT / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

viable option. I suppose hardliners on both sides might object, but we’ve got to make progress here – just think of the economy. If gay marriage were legalized then there would be incentive to have fabulous weddings, from simple to spectacular, which would only boost the economy. And the benefit for the rest of us? We’d all get invited to more wedding celebrations and celebration is what life is all about.

In an odd way, our religious friends are betraying their lack of faith in an institution that they purport to revere and claim to be the bedrock of civilization. Is the institution of marriage so fragile that a tiny minority of homosexual couples could cause the entire thing to collapse? If so, then marriage is only a house of cards. But if marriage is the God-ordained, tried-and-true, rock-solid building block of our culture as they say it is, then it can surely stand up to a slight alteration in its configuration. If they think about this strategically, maybe religious conservatives should encourage gay marriage to increase the pool of tax money available for their “faith based” work.

Opposition to gay marriage is not unlike misguided miscegenation laws that were passed to prevent the union of two people of different races, a prejudice that was also “divinely ordained.” It is ironic that many religious conservatives hold laissez-faire perspectives when it comes to mammon, the church or big business, but when it comes to our personal lives, they clearly do not favor the free market approach. The problem with their attempt to monopolize marriage is that it limits the “market” for a kind of social arrangement that is suffering from decreasing popularity. That is, unless you consider the massive and rather cultic 3000 couple weddings performed by Rev. Moon’s Unification Church. Then the sanctity and popularity of marriage is protected by Moon hand picking the couples, all of which of course are heterosexual. I’m pretty sure that Rev. Moon opposes gay marriage.

This is all a long-winded way to suggest that perhaps religious conservatives have made some matrimonial missteps in their opposition to gay marriage, and that if they want to prop up this somewhat sagging institution they might want to expand membership rather than making it exclusive. As for me, I only recently joined “the club” and I am loving it, though it is a strenuous endeavor if you’re serious about the commit-

ment. There’s nothing like marriage to increase your learning curve or provide you with opportunities for personal growth, and the legal bond that is created prevents the easy “cut-and-run” that comes to us so easily from a lifetime of channel surfing.

As a new member of the club, I cannot imagine why there is a policy against same-sex couples. I almost feel like I’m in a country club that won’t admit Jews.

My wife and I are enjoying our “traditional” marriage, but we would never dream of forcing it on others or of preventing anyone else of whatever sex, race or religion from making the same choice we have made by joining in a legally recognized, loving union. In these days of war and potential disaster, it would seem that we should be promoting and protecting, equally, the unions of loving couples everywhere regardless of our religious reservations.

1801 E. Cary Street Third Floor Richmond, VA 23223 www.c3va.org 804.474.3638

An official designation of a Broad Street Arts District could stimulant growth in the gallery district. We are looking at this idea from the the parties most affected - Curated Culture’s First Friday program, Jackson Ward business and residents, and the Richmond police.

The following is the final piece to this series. Michael Roberts rode with Jackson Ward Police to see what they see and get a taste of what it is like to ride with Richmond’s “Boys in Blue.”

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Black, White, Blue, or Green part 3 : LAW AND ORDER?

words & image : Michael Roberts

The party revved up, the dance floor was packed, plenty of Lord Chesterfield was served. While the RVA and Gallery 5 family celebrated its first birthday, I rode shotgun with Officer Cote of Richmond Police Department’s Fourth Precinct.

“I’ll probably have to break them up tonight,” he said as we cruised Marshall Street, passing Richmond’s Police and Fire Museum.

That seems to be the main directive for Downtown Richmond’s police force on a Saturday night -- break up loiterers and keep the noise from getting out of hand.

Richmond’s Fourth Precinct covers Oregon Hill, part of the Fan and Downtown, Jackson Ward, Gilpin Court, Ginter Park, and Highland Park. Each neighborhood has its own characteristics and its own set of problems. Our patrol focused on Jackson Ward and the VCU area, with particular concern about the gas stations at the intersection of Broad and Belvidere.

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Leaving the party, I jealously watched as the crowd gathered outside the gallery -- nonetheless, I had work to do. I hopped on my bicycle and rode east to Fifth Street, and turned toward Cary…maybe I’d shake my buzz off before having to deal with authority figures. I had noticed the police presence before; I always pass the cruiser pen on the way to Belle Island. I used to think to myself “damn, that’s a lot of cops.” The Precinct itself, however, is tucked away in a dark alley, marked along a broad cinderblock wall only by an open garage door and a single door above which reads “POLICE” in white-lit block letters.

complaints.

I locked up my bike (I can’t believe the media relations lady told me to ask them about a “safe” place to park, I mean it’s the f-ing cops!) and walked through the door into what looked like a small reception area for a dentist I’d never visit. I asked for Sergeant Phibbs, and a man of ambiguous age with a black crew-cut and moustache promptly turned and introduced himself.

The word “sketchy” is overused these days. People throw the descriptor onto anything they find disagreeable, without any real conception of what they are saying. ‘Sketchy’ doesn’t mean disagreeable though -- it means “sketchy.” As in, if it weren’t for the fact that the people I encountered were police officers, walking along a dark alley into a poorly-marked building and then moving through a dingy garage would feel sketchy.

As we sat in an office, I explained my intentions: I am looking for the changing nature of law enforcement and police attitudes toward the arts district and the development around it. According to Sergeant Phibbs, the story of Richmond’s turnaround is blatantly clear in neighborhoods like Oregon Hill and Jackson Ward. “Years ago there were blocks where we’d routinely lock people up for trespassing -- fences everywhere... and now people have built $200,000 homes,” Phibbs said.

Irrespective, the police have some great toys. On the far left wall was a row of dirt bikes; around the corner, a stack of Cannondale Mountain Bikes. Officer Wu jibed Sergeant Phibbs -- he is getting more into the bike cop thing, though it used to seem less respectable. Officer Cote, on the other hand, said he will be jumping on one of those bikes as soon as he gets past a recent injury.

Amidst the rapid change of downtown into a cultural center are what Phibbs call “growing pains,” reflecting a series of conflicts between the old and new, the quiet and loud, and the rich and poor. “You’ve got culture shock both ways,” said Sergeant Phibbs. “You get attractive places…but you get people going ‘we’ve been [hanging out] for years,’ so you have to balance tradition -- it’s the balancing act of ‘yes you can, no you can’t.’”

The spread of the social scene out of Shockoe Bottom, the original downtown party spot, has further complicated the terrain of areas like Jackson Ward. With galleries, bars, and clubs popping up on and around Broad Street, new money seems to bring forth new nuisances and new 62 HAVE FUN IN INDIA MIKE!!

Phibbs introduced me to Officer Cote, a newcomer to the force. I would be riding with him. It turns out that he wasn’t so much a newcomer to the police, but rather to the Fourth Precinct. Cote returned from the Marine Infantry in Afghanistan last year to first work in the Second Precinct (Southside) and eventually came to the Fourth in February. I was in for an interesting perspective on Richmond, the police, and personal philosophy (Afghanistan = Richmond – buildings + sand).

The cruisers, on the other hand, looked like they could use some first aid. Officer Cote related to me that the Fourth Precinct is among the most poorly funded and paid police forces in the city.

Cote is adamant about avoiding politics, but when I mentioned one of Nadira Chase’s criticisms of Mayor Wilder -- that he took away funding from the arts to bolster the police force -- Cote could only reply “I haven’t seen any of it in my paycheck.” In fact, Cote said that a lack of resources has affected the police relationship with the community: “People want you to show up right away, but when you’re short people, short cars… you can’t be everywhere.”

The majority of the night was spent on patrol around Broad Street, dealing with the occasional domestic call (usually noise complaints).

“They’re starting to clean it up; clean it out,” Officer Cote said of the changing streets of downtown, echoing the words of Ms. Chase. But it isn’t a simple matter of clearing the streets. As we moved in and out of the Hess parking lot on Belvidere and Broad, Cote was casual about his charge. “Some officers are a little more aggressive,” he said on methods of ‘cleaning up,’ “I just try to start a conversation if I can.”

There is no uniform police attitude. In fact, the daily patrol routine is dependent on the officer and the moment. “It’s dynamic,” Officer Cote said about the average night on patrol. One moment, he pulled over a red Honda for barely missing a yellow light. It was a nurse. “You don’t give tickets to nurses. You never know when they will save your life.”

Two hours later at the same section of Marshall Street, he pulled up to a Chevy Avalanche on 22-inch rims, television in the back seat and bass thumping. “Didn’t I let you off on the noise last week?”

“Nah,” was the reply. According to the driver, the officer gave him a ticket. Whatever happened last week, the stereo turned down and the car went off.

It’s a balance, say all the officers of Fourth Precinct, between being a citizen and being an authority. Culture clashes come from all directions, and all Phibbs hopes to do is “make sure no one gets hurt.” Cote and I patrolled an area of clubs on Grace Street, passing first the Matrix, then the Cherry Lounge and Cotton Club, and finally winding back through Grace by Godfrey’s and Barcode. We would be back here periodically, most importantly at 2 AM when the clubs let out. “Godfrey’s is the homosexual bar -- Cherry Lounge, Matrix, they’re not. You get a lot of gangster wannabe’s coming down here and then you have problems.”

avoid escalation. The club is frequented by a majority black crowd, and the officers were mostly white, but Sergeant Phibbs stressed about the argument at hand: “it’s not a black thing, it’s a pride thing.”

I sat in the cruiser while the police mediated and oversaw the emptying of the Cherry Lounge. A day of screwing around and a couple of rounds at the anniversary party were making me groggy, but I phased in and out of tune with the police scanner. “Juveniles…more than 10…weapon fired…large gun….44 caliber…” I was startled out of my fog by Officer Wu. Apparently I had volunteered to do some vice outside of Godfrey’s.

He laughed with me, “the key is to make sure you get them asking for money.” I told him I’d have to shave first.

Richmond, we do have a lot of problems. We have a crater on 7th street and a barrier between rich and poor called the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike. The problem, though, isn’t cops or black people, gay men or transvestites. The problem can’t be found in the thud of a 15-inch subwoofer or behind a white picket fence in front of a newly renovated row house.

In fact, Richmond, I can’t even say what the problem actually is. But perhaps I can use Officer Cote’s words to best explain it: “Downtown -it’s political. You go where you’re going to make your money -- who has pull. It doesn’t affect policing, but it affects politics. And politics affects policing.”

The problems that night, though, were at the Cherry Lounge. According to Sergeant Phibbs, there was an issue between the business owner and the promoter. This, he said, was the perfect example of the balancing act. He explained that they were not there to force any action, but to RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / LOCAL 63

WHY FRENCH FILMS ARE BETTER THAN AMERICAN MOVIES words : Sallie Keena This month I was afforded the great pleasure of attending the VCU French Film Festival at the quaintly opulent Byrd Theater. I came without expectations, open to the experience with a blank journal and a fistful of change for popcorn. I did hope that the festival would open my eyes as a filmmaker, allow me to make a few new friends, and inspire me in these lonely pre-spring months when larger production companies release nary a worthwhile film. (This causes a drought of movie watching that leads only to me spending more money than I would in the theater, because I can never seem to return my Video Fan rentals back in time. Sorry guys). I did not, however, foresee departing this festival with a quiet sense of remorse for long hours (days, even) of my life that I have blithely invested in the bleak experience of watching a lame film merely to watch it and not care about it one bit.

That being said, somewhere between Friday and Saturday night, nestled into the worn red seats of the Byrd, excitedly devouring handfuls of popcorn, I had an epiphany. I have been wasting too much time being “entertained” by pointless American movies. Don’t get me wrong; I have a great sense of respect for Hollywood; that golden machine that has been polishing classics and enthralling millions for nearly a century. The American film industry is by no means a travesty, and I would be a fool to say that it is meaningless. Hollywood itself was formed by creative pioneers. Even many of the early companies that today dominate theaters were formed by outsiders to “the man.” United Artists really was composed of united artists (Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford to name two), and Hollywood still remains, for the most part, the center of the filmmaking world.

Furthermore, there is so much to be said (I would like to write a novel, even) for the great American filmmaker, for all of you out there who strive to produce your notebooks of dialogue and see your handwritten-slug-line dreams become a glittering reality in the face of the large Machine, for those of you who max out your credit cards and can’t sleep at night because there is a story that pulls upon your heart and takes your very breath away, a narrative that nags you until you see its solid completion on a large screen, and for those of you who know that final joy of seeing those shadowy faces behold your treasured tale. (Friend, I have been there, too).

There is a mentality among Americans to file into movie theatres out of boredom or a need to thwart date-night awkwardness, paying to be momentarily amused by trite images and bland soundtracks. What we as the movie going public need to cultivate is not a tendency to seek fruitless amusement, but a desire for greater cinematic adventures. Not just car crashes and disasters, but meaningful cinema; priceless stories both captivating and sad; true and imaginative. I found all of these qualities in the films of the festival.

The first thing I noticed that sets French films apart from American films is the use of CGI (computer generated images). In today’s big-box-officesummer-blockbuster film arena, computer imaging has made possible the impossible for many directors and has enabled countless screenwriters to free their pens without fear of the difficulty of making many once problematic scenes a reality. The problem is, many popular films use this technology for dumb things. Let’s see…obscenely large car-chase explosions, horrifying natural disasters, shipwrecks, plane crashes, and other catastrophes, demons, alien invasions, doom and destruction, and giant monkeys.

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This weekend I witnessed the loveliest use of computer generated images. In Iznogoud, a delightful film written and directed by Patrick Broude (based upon a comic book of the same name), there were talking frogs, flying carpets, and magic lamps with ridiculous genies. The film used computer imagery to enhance the imaginative qualities of the film. It was beautiful. In Narco, a film by Tristan Aurouet and Gilles Lellouche about a narcoleptic who uses inspiration from his dreams to create a comic book series, Gus’s ( Guillaume Canet ) daydreams while napping came vividly to life. It was dazzling.

And in Mon Ange , a film about a prostitute and a young man on a journey of sorts, computer imaging made many fantastical camera shots possible, breaking the viewer away from the grittiness of a hotel room and the tension between two lonely people and uniting them in a single dream as they fell asleep.

Another thing I have noticed is that the heroines of many of these films were modest. All the main female characters, including the love interests, were modest creatures unless being portrayed as sluts. Even the prostitute in Mon Ange (the lovely Vanessa Paradis) wore an outfit I’d hardly call scandalous, though was remarked about as being so by men throughout the film. There was hardly a need for explicit cleavage to prove that these women were desirable. They were demure, strong, feminine, smart, and beautiful even when wounded, cheated on, or down on their luck. It seems as if in American films it is not obvious to an audience that a woman is to be desired in any way unless she is scandalously dressed at some point in the film. I feel like many of the principal female characters in Anthony Zimmer, Ca Commence Aujourd’hui, Le Battre Que Ma Coeur S’arrete, Iznogoud , and Mon Ange were alluring without overdoing it or becoming objectified.

I was also delighted by the fact that many of the French films are open-ended. Screenwriting is an arduous craft that, in order to produce a successful film, requires great attention to pacing, skillful weaving of plot and subplot, character development, and dialogue, while submitting to a rigorous traditional structure. (Screenplays are written in three acts and are typically 130 pages long. Each act is 30 pages and each page represents roughly one minute of actual screen time). I believe in the screenwriting format, and I think it is wise to hold to a “know the rules before you can break them” philosophy. But American Pop Culture filmmaking tends to over explain plotlines and meaning. American movies go too far to spell it out for us and often leave little or no room for thought or discussion. If they do leave room for interpretation, they are put into “art house” theaters or are called “independent.”

I enjoyed the film Anthony Zimmer because there was a breathtaking plot twist in the last half hour that left the viewer in awe, yet still able to decide just what might happen to these characters should they carry on. I am impressed at the way several of the French films at the festival tactfully brought closure to a story, yet allowed the audience space to travel into the story and imagine more. The French Filmmakers treat the audience as intelligent and imaginative people capable of interpreting films to find meaning.

I am still taken aback by the quality of cinema I was fortunate enough to witness this April.. I wasn’t expecting each and every one of the films I saw to be so exceptional. The Festival was a joy to witness and certainly a treasure worth investing an entire weekend in. I think I’ve made the point that I certainly will not look at “entertaining” movies the same way, and I hope that many others will share my detest for unnecessarily large explosions.

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Director Tom Dey

Director Chris Robinson

Actors Mattew McConaughey Sarah Jessica Parker

Actors Rashad Swann Evan Ross Lauren London

FAILURE TO LAUNCH 0 stars Matthew McConaughey’s face looks particularly disgusting, like he stayed in the tanning bed too long and it turned his skin into a dark, flaky coating. His costar Sarah Jessica Parker reveals herself here to be a particularly bad actress, overdoing almost every line, perpetually squinting through her three extra coats of eye makeup. McConaughey plays Trip, a thirty-something boat salesman that still lives with his parents. He, of course, has two buddies who also still live with their parents, which gives the writers a chance to have him in various outdoor situations that result in bites from various animals. Trip’s parents hire Paula (Parker) to pretend to be his girlfriend so he’ll move out of their house.

But oh no, guess what? She accidentally falls in love with his dry, baked face.

Movies more or less exactly like this one are lurking around the corner of dark marooncarpeted hallways in multiplexes every week, and Date Movie, which was released earlier this year, purported to lampoon these 66 FILM / REVIEWS TEDDY BLANKS

pictures—it ended up unabashedly celebrating them.

Date Movie was weak, not mean-spirited enough. These romantic comedies are no laughing matter. Millions of dollars are thrown away on this shit so groups of old women like the ones who sat behind me can laugh at the stale jokes and not realize how much they are being ripped off. Failure to Launch is the worst kind of movie, because nobody from the producers to the filmmakers to the audience ever thinks it is going to be worthwhile.

It is as much of a product as the popcorn you carry into the theater, but the popcorn is at least bearable.

ATL 3.5 stars When I’m not writing movie reviews, I sing in a local band called the Gaskets. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get interviewed by a college newspaper or a local magazine like this one, and invariably are asked what we are currently listening to. Despite how preposterous I may come off in print I usually tell the truth, which is that the only CDs I have purchased in the past six months are by Southern rappers like Young Jeezy, Slim Thug, and T.I. This stuff is huge right now on hip hop radio. A lot of it is shitty, but the best of it sounds raw, new, exciting. ATL is an attempt to capture a piece of the southern black culture that this music came from,

and its characters are part of the youth that this music is made for, and they don’t look like skinny white band guys.

Tip “T.I.” Harris is not the first to make the rapper-to-actor transition, but he does it well, or at least he does it much better than 50 Cent did in Get Rich or Die Tryin’. He plays the stoic Rashad, a high school senior who, in one scene, hangs out with his friends Brooklyn, Esquire, and Teddy at a local diner and they talk about why Atlantans call each other “shorty” and New Yorkers call each other “son.” Observational conversation like this usually occurs in movies right before the characters rob something, or shoot someone (see Pulp Fiction ), but here the screenwriters just let it be. The dialogue exists simply as a nice film moment—one we can get caught up in, one we can believe in. Rashad finds love, and finds out love can be socio-economically complicated. He tries to protect his younger brother Ant from falling in with a (surprisingly unromanticized) drug dealer. He is comingof-age.

There are a lot of wonderful things about

ATL , and its flaws are the more disappointing for it. It has young black characters that aren’t evil drug dealers or helpful saints.

They are endearing and faulted, different from one another in noticeable ways. Sadly, this is remarkable for Hollywood, which still treats black people either as villians, cops, sidekicks, or emptily drawn “commentaries on race.” ATL is admirable, but for all of its promise, it never finds the right tone. I attribute this partially to the director Chris Robinson, straight off of music videos, who shoots this movie like one. With him, he carries the embarrassing aspects of Southern rap culture: the misogyny (apparent in the way the male characters talk to women and in the one-dimensional female characters) and the fixation on asses (there are several inexplicable “booty close-ups”). Also, the writers aren’t confident enough in the perfectly decent characters they have written to keep themselves from tacking a You Got Served -style “rollerskating competition” plot onto the picture, which is thin and never materializes.

You can find us at - ADA Gallery, All Star Market, Ashland Coffee & Tea, Black Swan Books, Blue Mtn Coffee, Cafe Gutenberg, Chop Suey Books, Ellwood Thompson, Gallery5, Glen Allen Cultural Center, Harrison Street Coffee, Jumpin Jâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Java, Katra Gala, Kulture Clothing, Nonesuch, Quirk Gallery, Panda Veg, Plan 9 Music, Plant Zero Cafe, Tropical Soul, Turnstyle, Velocity Comics, Video Fan, World of Mirth, & World Cup

QUICK GUIDE CARYTOWN

CHURCH HILL

DOWNTOWN

BURGERS / DELI / PIZZA Carytown Burgers & Fries 3500 1/2 W. Cary St. 358-5225 Coppola’s Deli 2900 W. Cary St. 359-NYNY Mary Angela’s 3345 W. Cary St. 353-2333

CAFE / COFFEE Captain Buzzy’s Beanery 2623 East Broad Street 377.6655 Jumpin’ J’s Java and General Store 2306 Jefferson Ave. 344.3500

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

CAFE / COFFEE Blue Mountain Cafe 3433 W. Cary St. 355-8002

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

GROCERY Ellwood Thompson 4 N. Thompson St. 359-7525

POLICE / LIBRARY Richmond Police First Precinct East of 95 to the city line, with the exception of the Shockoe Bottom area and Gilpin Court.

2501 Q Street 804.646.3602

RESTAURANTS / BARS Babe’s 3166 W. Cary St. 355-9330 Chopstix 3129 W. Cary St. 358-7027 Double T’s Real BBQ 2907 W. Cary St. 353-4304 Eatery 3000 W Cary St. 353-6171 Farouks’s House of India 3033 W. Cary St. 355-0378 Nacho Mama’s 3449 W Cary St. 358-6262 RETAIL Need Supply 3010 W Cary St. 355-5880 Plan 9 Music 3012 W. Cary St. 353-8462 World Of Mirth 3005 West Cary St. 353.899

Richmond Public Library East End Branch Library 414 N 25th St RESTAURANTS / BARS Accapella’s 2302 E. Broad St. 377-1963 The Hill Cafe 2800 E. Broad St. 648 - 0360 Millie’s Diner 2603 East Main Street 643-5512 Poe’s Pub 2706 E. Main St. 648-2120 Sandra’s Soul Food 1800 Fairmount Ave. 743.9185 Sette 7 N. 23rd Street 804-788-7077

GALLERIES 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 art6 Gallery 6 East Broad Street 343.1406 Curated Culture 23 W. Broad Street 304-1554 Elegba Folklore Society 101 East Broad Street 644.3900 For Instance Gallery 107 East Cary Street 574.4111 Gallery5 200 W. Marshall St.644.0005 Henry Street Gallery 422 West Broad Street 247.1491 Oro 212 West Broad St 344-9847 Quirk Gallery 311 W. Broad St. 644-5450 Richmond Camera 213 West Broad St 648-0515 Studio/Gallery 6 6 East Broad St. 207-4677 Visual Art Studio 208 West Broad St644-1368 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 Scomo 217 W. 7th Street 230-1000 Turnstyle 102 W. Broad St. 643-8876 VENUE Mr. Bojangles 550 E. Marshall St. 344-2901 RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / QUICK GUIDE 69

THE FAN

MANCHESTER

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

RESTAURANTS / BARS Legend Brewing Company 321 W. 7th St. 232-8871

MOVIE RENTALS Video Fan 403 Strawberry St. 358.7891 PIZZA Chanello’s Pizza 2803 W. Broad St. 358-3800 RESTAURANTS / BARS 3 Monkeys 2525 W. Main St.204-2525 Avalon 2619 W. Main St. 353-9709 Banditos 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 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 Star Lite 2600 W. Main St. 254-2667 Sticky Rice 2232 W. Main St. 358-7870 Sidewalk Cafe 2101 W. Main St. 358-0645 RETAIL Katra Gala 2225 W. Main St. 359-6996

70 QUICK GUIDE / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

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 Scomo Scooters 217 W. 7th. St 230-000

OREGON HILL RESTAURANTS / BARS Hollywood Grill 626 China St. 819-1988 Mamma’zu 501 S. pine St. 788-4205 TATTOO Salvation Tattoo 324 Pine St. 643-3779

SHOCKOE BOTTOM CAFE / COFFEE Cafe Gutenberg 1700 E. Main St.497-5000 Ethos Cafe 17.5 N. 17th St. 513-6700 Jumpin J’s Java 2306 Jefferson Ave. 344-3500 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 VENUE Alley Katz 10 Walnut Alley 643-2816 Canal Club 1545 E. Cary St. 643-2582

SHOCKOE SLIP CAFE / COFFEE Shockoe Expresso & Roastery 104 Shockoe Slip 648-3734 RESTAURANTS / BARS Lucky Lounge 1421 E. Cary St 648-5100 Richbrau Brewing Company 1214 E. Cary St. 644-3018

VCU BOOKS Chop Suey 1317 W. Cary St. 497-4705 Velocity Comics 818 W. Grace St. 725-6300 CAFE / COFFEE 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

Languid Days on Your Estate ---> Sharon DePorter On any given weekend night at Sticky Rice, you’re likely to run into Sharon DePorter, a petite pixie of a girl handing out drinks and manhandling crowds with ease. Sharon does a hell of a lot more than dole out Tecates and PBR’s. She has made a name for herself in Richmond as a custom apparel designer with a preternatural talent for knit fashions. Whether crafting sexy backless tops or full-length wedding gowns, sheinfuses her work with ethereal fantasy, downtown cool and uptown style. Her pencil skirts are cut to evoke San Juan nights with Rita Moreno with an updated New Wave color palette. Her dresses belie an artistry and technical ability sorely missing from many collections this season and defy the need for accessories. Custom, one-a-kind designs of this quality are hard to find anywhere – in Richmond, they’re gems on a pebble beach.

Sharon, a northern Virginia native, twenty-six, and a future graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Fashion Design department has aspired to put her talents to full-time use (“hopefully on a beach somewhere” -Sharon) as a fashion designer specializing in knit fabrics. She has very few credits to complete to win her degree, and to speak for all of her fans, we wish her the height of success.

< Skirt by Sharon DePorter, necklace from Need Supply, shoes by N.Y.L.A.

Sheer lime banded top by Sharon DePorter, jeans by J-Brand, necklace from Need Supply, oversized bag from City Shoes >

< Knit dress by Sharon Deporter

Knit, backless top by Sharon DePorter, Jeans, stylistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own, shoes by Pink, clutch and necklace from Need Supply >

74 FASHION / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / FASHION 75

76 FASHION / RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2

Special Thanks go to the owners of the magnificent Grace Manor Inn at 1853 Grace Street in the Fan. Albert and Dawn Schick opened their home/bed & breakfast to RVA Magazine to shoot this photo editorial and we are grateful if for nothing but to have had the opportunity to spend a day in such opulence and comfort.

Also, thanks go to Rebecca at City Shoes of Carytown for the, well, shoes, and for rocking so hard with her pet humanzee. I also donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to forget the generosity of Need Supply and their uber-coolosity.

< Corseted top by Tonii & Daf, satin and tulle skirt

by Sharon Deporter, necklace and bracelets from Need Supply

Art Direction Christian Detres Photography Danny Spry Model Mary Hefley Stylist Mary Heffley Assistant Stylist Sara Hedgecoth Hair Jill Belfield

RVA VOL.2 ISSUE 2 / FASHION 77

The Last Word

Think you’re funny? Have some wit? We need that shite!

We are giving away PRIZES for your LAST WORD!! >> tony@rvamag.com.

Starving The Arts Despite much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments (or blog posts and press conferences, whatever you want to call them), it appears that the Performing Arts Center has been finally set aside due to irreconcilable differences. The Center is stillborn, and while many Richmonders will continue to knit fuzzy socks and hand out cigars, a rose by any other name is still a dead baby. The time for pickles and ice cream has passed. Now is the time to simply bury the thing in the backyard, say a quick prayer, and get back to knocking up Old Lady Richmond.

With that said, the following are a few suggestions for the gaping hole at 7th and Broad streets.

1.The obvious solution: a taxpayer-funded RVA magazine headquarters, all steel and glass, towering over Richmond’s skyline like a beacon of hope to all the lost souls who just want to make monochrome prints and dance on Thursday nights.

2.Build the Virginia Museum of Urban Holes, the nation’s finest museum dedicated to famous city holes. To be included: Boston’s Big Dig, the La Brea tar pits, and those lakes bordering Chicago (Lake Michigan) and Cleveland (Lake Erie), which are really just holes filled with water.

3.Batman has the Batcave. Doug Wilder needs the Wildcave. I’m picturing unplugged microphones, photos of the mayor, and mirrors everywhere.

And possibly a disco ball.

4.Declare it a national wildlife preserve and just see what happens. Maybe we’ll get some new bears.

5.Put up “under construction” signs and rope off the perimeter, then tell other cities that we’re building a subway. They’ll be so totally jealous, plus it’ll take years before anyone figures out the truth.

6.Backfill the hole and turn the space into a sculpture garden—with the theme of “colossal failures in city governance”.

7.Turn it into a gladiator arena so that the members of the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation may combat jungle lions to better convince us that 17 nights of ballet per year is a far better decision than pouring money into Richmond’s many pre-existing arts groups.

And if none of these solutions appeals to you, loyal readers of RVA magazine, then I have but three words to describe the greatest possible future of all: monkey knife fights.

- PAUL LAZIO

78 NEXT ISSUE--- > BORN UNDERGROUND