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Dr awn Out Procedures
The Var iou s Occu pations of the Ric hmond Illustr ators C l u b P res ton D u nc a n
the Richmond Illustr ator s Club, to discuss the role of the illustr ator in the cr eative community, the pur pose of their group and the appetizing subject of sticking things up the ass of an angr y Yor kie.
If you’ ve ever wor ked at a veterinar y clinic or r escued a pet that pays the rent for one, you ar e probably aware of the delicate procedur e that is r ectal temper ature taking. Be it dog or cat, you want to convince the animal that you ar e wor king in their best interest, to comfor t them while simultaneously maintaining control of the situation. You know that the success of your job and the safety of your hands, rely completely on the appeasement of that semi-fer al you’ re scr uffing, with full knowledge that in some way, despite the necessity of it, you ar e violating them.
T he Richmond Illustr ator s Club, or RIC, has been around for a while – somewher e in the vicinity of 20 year s according to K atie – but it has evolved a bit since its inception. Katie McBride: I feel like it star ted more as a way of being able to spend time with other illustr ator s, like ‘This is what I’m wor king on. What are you wor king on? Let’s have a beer!’ You know, really, really low key. I feel like it’s become a little bit more of a promotional thing, r ather than a bunch of illustr ator s sitting around, talking about ar t, shooting the shit.
The occupation of the veterinar y assistant is not unlike that of the illustr ator. Cr eating a visual representation of liter ature r equir es an ability to perceive the intentions of the writer, to distill their per spective and incor por ate it into a wor k that is also tr ue to your own ar tistic vision. Be too slavishly representative of the text, and you lose control of the piece. Exer t too much authority, and you are bound to meet the har sh acquaintance of the gnashing teeth of a misinter pr eted author. With their show fast approaching, I sat down at Harrison Street with Holly Camp and K atie McBride of 14
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Holly Camp: We’ ve kind of used it as a way to motivate people to keep doing their own wor k as well as wor k for clients, and a for um to talk about what you’re doing. It’s reassuring. As the longer standing member s phase out and are replaced by the constant str eam of successor s piped in by Secour s by Jenna C he w
the VCU School of the Ar ts, the RIC ser ves as a tr ansitional facilitator for students unaccustomed to the independence of making their own assignments.
but I think you’d have a hard time calling a completely abstr act painting an illustr ation.
It also helps to assuage the sense of isolation inherent in a line of wor k that is definitively individualistic. This is of cour se a commonality shar ed by many ar t for ms, but with it’s emphasis on commission based, liter ar y inter pretation, illustr ation has it’s own set of unique problems, conditions and philosophies.
It’s not being liter al. Say that there’s an ar ticle about waterboarding. A realistic dr awing of waterboarding is more or less pointless. You’re tr ying to create an image that expresses the unsaid, the under lining meaning, maybe more thematically. You also have to pull the audience in.
KM: There’s a nar r ative quality to most illustr ation. Ideally, or maybe professionally, it would be a piece of communication ar t. It accompanies something else, some kind of stor y; and that can be either in a sequential kind of way, like comic books are definitely illustr ation, but you can get a galler y piece that can stand alone that can also be an illustr ation. Typically it’s pretty representational. It can be abstr acted,
HC: The one thing we noticed last year that was tying in all the pieces of the show was a really strong composition. The pieces themselves were ver y different, stylistically as well as with levels of detail. Some were things that
A b o v e : Bear Mar ket by K at i e M cB r i de | Ri ght : Soldier by Je n B e t ton
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would apply to kids, other s that would apply to really serious subject matter. With ar twor k that is gener ally r eliant upon the nar r ative provided by accompanying media, the prospect of cur ating a galler y show for illustr ator s might seem counterintuitive. T he RIC seeks out a different juror for their year ly show each time. T his year they landed Mar shall Arisman, who is a highly recognizable illustr ator with a list of publisher s so long it would be impr actical to name them. At the risk of sounding clichÊ, you’ ve seen his wor k befor e. The decision to cour t such an accomplished juror was a deliber ate one. Name r ecognition gr eatly encour ages submissions, and as the show is not limited to member s of the club, the quantity of wor k submitted gener ally impacts the quality of the show. Using a famed ar tist has its complications, like the inevitability of communicating with someone 16
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Left: by Angela Dominguez | Abo v e: Disconnect by An d y Pa r r is h
in New Yor k. With the geogr aphic non-specificity of the Inter nets, a juror can be based anywhere, but the technology that allows for this has exer ted a str ange influence on the jur y process. KM: The compositions pop more off the screen than they do in per son. Some of the decisions could have been different, because you can see textur ally what they actually contain [in per son]. Regardless of the jur y process, the submissions themselves adher e to no discer nable A b o v e : Visitor by Ho l l y C a mp | Ri ght : Beach Gathering by B r ooke O li v ar es
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ar tistic per spective. Some are obvious commission pieces with identifiable clients. Other s could gr ace the walls of a galler y, beach house or loft apar tment. T he RIC is an amalgamation of people with common professional goals, not member s of a centr al movement. A piece by Holly featured on http://richmondillustr ator sclub.blogspot.com, one of the incr easingly popular greeting cards she cr afts, depicts a stylized r at. It would come across as urban and gritty if it wer en’t for the decidedly cute rendering of its face and paws, and the use of color in those places. She shar es that she has a sor t of phobia of mice and r ats and feels compelled to paint them out of what can be assumed to be either a for m of self-ther apy or masochism. Logically, I ask her if she owns cats. HC: I’ ve thought about it. My husband’s allergic, but I’m like they could be our little killer s. KM: You could get a ter rier. S. Preston Duncan: Just don’t get a Jack Russell. 18
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T he Dumb Politician by Jesse Smith
KM : They’re so cute, but seriously… SPD : I wor k a day or two a week as a veterinar y assistant, and I have to deal with them. It’s not fun. KM : I used to do that. I hate to say it, but I don’t like Yor kies that much. They’re bitey. You ever have to anally take the temper ature of a Yor kie? HC : No. KM : I guess ‘rectally’ would be more appropriate. HC : Yeah, I don’t do anything anally with a dog.
But with all the careful attention and obsessive dedication required of the professional illustr ator, I can’t help but think that if she’s ever dr awn one, that’s not entirely tr ue.
See the Richmond Illustr ator s Club show opening on Friday, June 5th at Ghostprint Galler y located at 220 W. Broad St. Check out the RIC online at their growing web incar nation at www.richmondillustr a tor sclub.com Weav er s by A shl e y B e nham
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The Silent Music Revival
making their own soundtrack for the pictures S hannon C leary | P hotos by courtney klein
T h e S i l e n t M u s i c R e v i v a l i s a n e x p e r i m e n t a t h e a r t . I t i s n’ t t o o uncommon of an idea. There are examples in the past that incor porate the idea of the synchronicity of music and film. The most notorious of examples is the ebb and flow of playing Pink Floyd’s T he Dar k Side of the Moon w hile w atc hing the American motion picture classic The Wizard of Oz. What happens though, when you take that experiment and impose it on the city of Richmond and r un straight in with hopes of triumph, but remain w i l l i n g t o a c c e p t f a i l u r e a t t h e s a m e t i m e ? We l l , t h a t w a s k i n d o f the challenge Jameson Price took upon himself when he star ted t h i s w h o l e e n d e a v o r. T he event began as an excuse for Price to invite friends over on Sunday evenings and watch silent films. The difference was that he would put on a few records while the film played out. It invoked such a reaction from his friends who attended these ver y ear ly on SMRs that they encour aged him to bring the event out into the public eye. With the assistance of local establishment Nonesuch, the fir st event would take place in ear ly 2007. The fir st par ticipant was Nathan Joyce spinning r ecords. 20
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What star ted as a private event within the confines of Price’s apar tment has now developed into one of the most anticipated events ever y month. He has invited such musical guests as the Mer maid Skeletons, Jonat h a n Va s s a r a n d t h e S p e c k l e d B i r d , G u l l , A n d u i n , S n a c k Tr u c k , A n t l e r s , T h e O K B i r d a n d m a n y o t h e r s . E a c h a r t ist bringing their own unique style to the films that Price felt would best suit the bands in question. A t t h e s t a r t o f t h i s y e a r, P r i c e d e c i d e d t o v e n t u r e o f f t o South America to be educated in or ganic far ming. T he future of SMR was undeter mined. That was until Cour tney Klein and Jessica Har sh took over the reigns and decided to put a little twist on things. Har sh has been a prominent figure with SMR since it’s ear liest conception. She has seen its rise in popularity and has acquired a per spective on their fan base. As a result, she has her own ideas about what she’d like for ever y attendee to take away from each show:
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“There are definitely diehard fans of the event,” she said. “The ones who will show up to ever y event. Then there are the ones who show up based on which band is par ticipating that evening. What I think we both hope to accomplish is to create an incredible experience for anyone who attends, regardless of their intention for being there. They walk away and go, I’ ve ne ver seen anything quite like this.” With now three SMRs under their belts, the duo feels the ambition to continue fur thering the e vent. For star ter s, they are in search of a new venue. The two
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“It could
definitely expand the event to points neither of us could have imagined."
concur that they love what the Firehouse Theater has offered them, but ther e ar e obvious limitations. T he largest being the issues of neighboring residencies and noise ordinance issues, thus preventing them from b o o k i n g b a n d s t h a t d o n’ t s t r i c t l y exist in the folk genre. Their next event is booked at Galler y5, but it is not yet cer tain if this will be the new home of the event or not. Not only will they be searching for a new indoor venue, but they may take the event outdoor s and beyond. Klein concur s, “Especially during the summer months, I think the event might appeal to more people if we
host it outdoor s and just project the silent films against a city wall somewhere. It could definitely expand the event to points neither of us, maybe not even Jameson, could have imagined.” The next par t of this expansion is still in the planning stages, but there may be a tour in the wor ks for the months of August a n d S e p t e m b e r. T h e i n i t i a l i d e a s t h a t H a r s h a n d K l e i n h a v e a r e to bring a Richmond local along with them to different cities a n d a l s o t r y t o b o o k w i t h i n t h e m u s i c c o m m u n i t i e s o f e a c h c i t y. By doing so, the ne w cities can get an idea of w hat is going on in Richmond and perhaps be inspired to take on the challenge within their own musical sphere. Klein does r eassur e ever yone by not w anting to make these e x p a n s i o n s h a p h a z a r d l y. “ W i t h a n y o f t h e s e i d e a s t h o u g h , n o n e o f i t i s w o r t h d o i n g i f i t i s n’ t d o n e r i g h t . We n e e d t o s e e how a new venue wor ks out, how the outdoor shows wor k, how t h e b o o k i n g g o e s f o r t h e p o s s i b l e t o u r. I ’ m n o t s a y i n g t h e y need to be flawless, but they need to feel right.”
The next Silent Music Revival is taking place on May 20th w i t h A u t o c u e a t G a l l e r y 5 ( 2 0 0 W. M a r s h a l l S t . ) . A n d a s a l w a y s , w h e t h e r i t s t a r t s a t 8 o r 9 p. m . , e x p e c t i t t o b e r i g h t on time. MUS IC
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Summer is For R a i si n g H ell S hannon Cleary and Ian M. Graham | PHOTOS BY IAN M. GRAHAM
“I say this often, but the summer is for raising hell and the winter is for documenting.” - – Ti m Barry It has been a fe w days since their tour had come to a c lose. Some 47 dates later, Tim Bar r y and Josh Small sit in Tim’s bac kyar d for a calm moment. Tim’s do g, Emma, lounges a bout. She becomes ver y muc h aw ar e that we ar e talking a bout her as Tim delves into a stor y a bout her r ecent esca pades with the local deer population. Even though he just made it home, Tim is alr eady planning another adventur e. In many w ays, I guess that’s just how Tim Bar r y r olls. Since r eleasing the Laur el Str eet Demo and Riv anna Junction, Bar r y hasn’ t let up. Not inc luding this tour, he spent the gr eater par t of the f all on “T he Re viv al Tour” with friends Chuc k Ragan, Ben Nic hols, Tom Ga bel and a sle w of other s. Constantly on the r oad, Bar r y admits that it’s muc h easier playing an “old man” tour w her e ther e is a nine-day br eak between the two legs as opposed to his days with that “other” band. His last r ecor d, Manc hester , w as r eleased in late Se ptember and he’s r eady to r etur n to Minimum Wa ge Studios to star t wor k on a follow-up. -----When do you go into Minimum Wa ge Studios? T i m Ba r ry: I star t r ecor ding on May 15th with Lance Koehler on another album. 24
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Do you feel like this ne w album is going to be on the same lines as Manc hester, or do you think it will act as a gr owth considering all the touring with ‘T he Re viv al Tour’ and this most r ecent one? Ba r ry: No, I don’t gr ow. My songs don’ t gr ow; they ar e just a document of w hat’s going on. So if you take, e ven the demo I put out, Laur el Str eet Demo w as one thing, and it w as a r epr esentation of living in Or egon Hill at the time. T hen Riv anna Junction w as just another r e pr esentation of that time period. Manc hester w as written in the dur ation of one of the most tr a gic and awful year s that I’ ve e ver lived thr ough, and a lot of other people lived thr ough ar ound her e. So I think that’s a pr etty heavy r ecor d and life has slowly been getting better. T he ne w songs ar e a bit mor e lighthear ted. T he tr uth is that I’m r ecor ding this r ecor d over the dur ation of the summer. It will pr oba bly two days a week until it’s done, and I w as telling Josh this the other day, it’s like I have too many songs. I wr ote enough for an album in thr ee weeks in Januar y, because Januar y is a gr eat time to hide aw ay in the shed and write songs. I say this often, but the summer is for r aising hell and the winter is for documenting. What a gr eat cold Januar y to think bac k about all the things that had been done in the pr evious year. I had to make a list the
other day and just nar r ow it to twenty songs, so I’m going to r ecor d a bout that many. Whate ver songs f all into the sequence that feels best. I hate long r ecor ds, so we’ ll see w hat ha ppens. It’ ll feel howe ver it feels. If it don’ t feel right… if songs don’ t feel right, I wont do them. T hey won’ t be inc luded, so ther e will be some f ailur es on ther e. It’s just music. I don’ t take it too seriously, and I don’ t think a bout it too muc h. If I did or I signed a contr act with a r ecor d la bel and had to write a r ecor d a certain w ay, I think I’ d just stop. I mean that’s how Small r olls, too. J o s h S m a ll: Yeah, it’s pr etty r ar e. I think it’s only ha ppened once or twice w her e I’ ve thought I w ant to write this song. I wr ote a song for my gr andmother. It still can’ t ha ppen until you have a line. It’s like, you can say that all day. You can make a list and say I w ant to write a song a bout par tying, I w ant to write a song a bout this and that, but it’s not going to ha ppen unless a line comes to you or w hate ver. T hen you can go fr om ther e, but otherwise it’s futility if you just w ant those things to ha ppen. Ba r ry: Yeah, I’ ve been getting mad a bout songs. T hey just kee p showing up at the most ina ppr opriate times. I know a lot of people say that a bout writing music , and they say it just shows up and it’s a stupid thing to say, but it’s tr ue with some of us. I can’ t stand it. I’m not complaining; it’s just ridiculous. I’ ll be knee
dee p in the fuc king river, and I’ ll be like goddamn it, another song. I have to fuc king r un home with it in my head and gr a b my r ecor der, and get it on ther e to the point w her e it’s overw helming. I don’ t know w her e to be gin w hen we star t r ecor ding. S m a ll: T hat’s how I am with funk rif fs. I got mor e funky rif fs than I know w hat to do with. Laughs . ------Bar r y is no str anger to singing songs fr om the per spective of other s. At his homecoming show, he played a ne w song a bout the Ric hmond historical le gend, Ga briel Pr osser. For those unf amiliar, Pr osser w as one of many that led a slave r e volt during the summer of 1800. After being ca ptur ed, Pr osser and se ver al other s wer e hung for their crimes. T he Vir ginia State Le gislatur e decided to place fur ther r estrictions on the civil rights of enslaved blac ks. Only until r ecently has this injustice e ven been addr essed, but the pr oblem doesn’ t just lie ther e. ---------MUS IC
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I r eally liked the song a bout Ga briel Pr osser. I took a year long African-American histor y cour se at J. Sar g. I w asn’ t r eally in sc hool, but I w anted to lear n a bout it. I hear d his stor y ther e. Have you hear d of a poet named Kelly Lane? Ba r ry: No, the name sounds r eally f amiliar. He’s been r eally active in the poetr y scene for a w hile now. He’s got this poem he wr ote right after the f lood, which was the anniver sar y of Prosser’s r ebellion. It’s just ground shaking. Ba r ry: I’d love to r ead that, have you all printed that in the magazine? Well, no. Kelly likes to say his poems, mor e or less. He’s not too big on having them printed. Ba r ry: Yeah, ther e’s definitely a way that when some people write their poems they intend for other people to r ead them, or they write them so that they can have their own cadence to it, and that makes perfect sense. How’d you end up falling onto the stor y of Gabriel Prosser? Ba r ry: It’s a long answer to a shor t question. I bar ely made it through high school and didn’t r ead a book until I was 21. I’m 38 now. I had a gir lfriend and a good buddy back then, named Adam T hompson, who encour aged me to r ead, and I opened up to it. T he fir st book I r ead was 26
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T he Outsider s . T hat took me like two months. It opened up a floodgate with an inter est in all sor ts of things. T he fir st thing I became r eally inter ested in was the histor y of Richmond, Virginia. So I r ead on the topic obsessively for a number of year s. And still to this day, I pick topics and study them until I know enough to know what the fuck I’m talking about. Some wher e in ther e I became inter ested in r eading about slave nar r atives and per spectives of Souther n histor y from the vie wpoint of enslaved Africans and blacks. I stumbled upon, of cour se, Nat Tur ner and Gabriel Prosser along the way. It’s funny, I was doing an inter vie w up in Philadelphia, and you wer e ther e (pointing to Small). T his home body pulls out at a ‘zine that I did in like 1993. S m a ll: It w as r eally cool to see. Ba r ry: T her e w as an ar tic le that I handwr ote, because ther e wer e not computer s r eadily av aila ble in 1993. I hand wr ote a w hole ar tic le on Ga briel Pr osser. It w as kind of funny to think that this many year s later, I accidentally stumbled upon that song. I think I w as unconsciously dee ply fr ustr ated by the lac k of inter est that most Ric hmonder s and Vir ginians have in r eally pushing to have a r eal pr oper slave museum and pr oper memorials to those w ho cr eated wealth for the economic elite, i.e., the poor folks and the enslaved blac ks w ho r eally built up the economy in centr al Virginia. T hey ar e pr ofoundly r esponsible for the
wealth that many people still have. T he f act that ther e’s just a simple historical mar ker to Ga briel Pr osser w ho lost his own life in an attempt to fr ee people w ho wer e oppr essed in a w ay we can’t even conceive anymor e, and ther e’s just a simple mar ker in par king lots and highw ays covering slave burial gr ounds, w hic h to me is absolutely a bsur d. It’s easy for me to say that, gr owing up in the suburbs and being of the privileged c lass – w hite and male. With that said, those things dee ply ir k me, and I know a lot of other people, too. I know that lately ther e has been a minimal amount of pr ess r egar ding the topics. I ur ge people to dig a little dee per into the r eal people’s histor y of this ar ea. With that said I write music and I write songs, and that song “Pr osser’a Gabriel” just showed up w hile I w as w alking down at the river. It w as that r eoccur ring line “does anyone know the name Gabriel Pr osser? My conscience thinks he’s the one histor y missed” and then fr om ther e… well. that w as obviously a GCD song. Laughs . I pr oba bly shouldn’t c hange the pr o gr ession. Luc kily I have a br ain that doesn’ t r etain many things, but will r etain entir e stories; historical or cur r ent events, like r eally accur ately. So I w as a ble to just hit play and r ecor d on my r ecor der and pr etty muc h sing that five-minutelong song one time thr ough, then come bac k and flip it ar ound. It w as done. You mention the slave burial gr ounds. Ar e you talking about the ones on 15th Str eet?
Ba r ry: Ye p We did an ar tic le a bout that a w hile bac k. It’s a har d topic , because we know they ar e down ther e. I inter vie wed a gr oup called the Defender s of Fr eedom, Justice and Equality. I met one of them at the par king lot. I had a less enlightened vie w on the matter, thinking well, it’s a hospital and they ar e helping people. T his isn’ t the fir st time this has been paved over. But w hen I got ther e, it suddenly set in that ther e wer e slaves under neath my feet right now. Ba r ry: T hat’s my point. T hat’s my point of the entir e song. I mean, motherfuc ker, if someone in your f amily w as buried under neath a goddamn par king lot, wouldn’ t you r aise a fuc king stink? I don’ t give a fuc k a bout w ho owned w hat befor e, but just think a bout it, it’s fuc king bullshit. If your gr andmother, your gr eatgr andmother, or someone down your f amily tr ee w as buried ther e, you would do anything you could to put up a pr oper fuc king mar ker. In the same w ay that the sons and the daughter s of the Confeder ac y spent all that time and ener g y identifying the unknown confeder ate dead. It’s bullshit. It’s a bsur d. And that’s my stance on that. -----------Not only does Bar r y have another r ecor d in the wor ks, but so does Small. Now doing double duties with his solo output and his r ole as one MUS IC
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of the guitarists in Br ainwor ms, ther e is a definite juxta position in the two pr ojects. Dif fer ent tunings, c hanges in tempo stylistically, and most impor tantly, w hen Small gets to play his solo material, he can sit down. Befor e entering a studio to be gin r ecor ding, his has touring plans for over seas. He will be spending the fir st half of the tour with Br ainwor ms, followed by a stint with la bel mate, Austin Lucas (w ho w as also on the last tour with Bar r y and Small). -----Have you star ted wor king on the ne w r ecor d? S m a ll: Kind of. I tried to do it befor e I left for this trip. I got a couple of songs kind of done, but I w asn’ t ter ribly ha ppy with them. I w as sic k all winter, and I w as just tr ying to do it after wor k, make it happen fast, and it just w asn’ t ha ppening f ast. Most of the songs I w as tr ying to r ecor d I had ne ver played live or had only played live once or twice. I didn’ t e ven r eally have them under my belt that well. So I’m going to be on the r oad until the end of June, and I’ ll get bac k and see w hat to do a bout it then. Ba r ry: On that note, honestly and Josh is going to hate me for embar r assing him, but I love all of Josh’s music. One of my tr aditions coming home fr om tour is unpac king slowly, doing my inventor y, setting up my mail or der, and I gener ally only listen to on r epeat the songs of the people I’ ve been on the r oad with. Man, I love all of Josh’s music, and that’s all I listened to for thr ee hour s str aight the other night. Goddamn, these ne w songs ar e the best. Without pr essur e, they ar e fuc king amazing. I saw it and Small laughs, somehow I have some small cr edibility and a small amount of popularity musically, but this motherfuc ker can write songs and sing ten times better than my old ass can do anything. I fuc king love these ne w songs. T hey’ r e sic k. T hey’ r e so good.
S m a ll: It’ ll be neat to see w hat to do with them, ‘cause I w as tr ying to do them all by myself and play e ver ything myself. To do it all by myself w as just taking for e ver. I don’ t know if I’m gonna scr a p that idea, or if I’m just gonna call people in to help me out. It’s a matter of w ho I w ant to come in. For tunately, I know a lot of people that ar e r eally awesome. So it’s like w ho do I get, w hen ar e they av aila ble, w her e do they live? Ba r ry: When we do things casually, we r ecor d music , unlike esta blished musicians w ho bloc k out a month and hir e studio folks. Josh does this and I do this; we just do it on the f ly. It’s like, oh man, w hen can so and so make it in between shifts. It’s so har d to coor dinate, especially w hen you’ r e on the r oad ‘til the end of June. S m a ll: It w as cool r ecor ding the last r ecor d. We or der ed food fr om 821, and Jef f Gr ant (of the Pink R azor s) came and deliver ed it. And I w as like, dude, can you come bac k w hen you’ r e of f and play dr ums or w hate ver? And he did, and it w as awesome. -----T her e cer tainly has been a tr end with f amed punk singer s star ting solo pr ojects as of late. Whether it’s R a g an, Nic hols, Ga bel, Chris McCaughan of the Lawr ence Ar ms, Rob Huddleston of Ann Ber etta and a plethor a of other s, a lot have taken on this r ole. Yet it feels as if Bar r y
w as one of the fir st. Perhaps it’s the small community in Ric hmond that makes it seem this w ay. Bar r y ac knowledges that ther e is a definite tr end being set with this style of music , but he doesn’t make muc h time for thinking about it. “I mean it’s all a f ad, but by the time it becomes uncool to be doing w hat we do, well I’ ll kee p doing it.” A couple days after the tour had finished, Bar r y had written a long post on his website. It dec lar ed a par ticular r evelation. T his tour ble w his mind, because ever ything w as finally coming together. After thanking e ver yone w ho made it happen, he left us all with one pr omise. “T her e will be many mor e tour s and songs coming.” For mor e infor mation a bout Tim Bar r y, you can visit www.timbar r yr v a.com or www.myspace. com/timbar r yr v a. For mor e infor mation a bout the Defender s of Fr eedom, Justice and Equality, you can visit defender sfje.tripod.com. For mor e infor mation a bout Josh Small, you can visit www.myspace.com/joshsmall. For an e ven big ger tr eat, you can listen to a ne w Josh Small tune, entitled “Waterwings”, at the we bsite.
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Enon:
Pop Chameleons
Landis W ine | PH OTOS B Y PJ S Y K ES
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Enon are nothing if not pop chameleons. The band rose from the ashes of Brainiac, who are one of my most beloved (and sorely underrated) bands of the ‘90s after the tragic death of their lead singer. Since their debut in 1998, they have changed styles multiple times, appearing either as a dir ty rock band, an electro pop ensemble, or a faux-Prince post-punk machine. Their most recent album, Grass Geysers… Carbon Clouds , was released on the sadly now static Touch & Go Records in 2007, and the band has recently returned with new material and an uncer tain future. I sat down with members John Schmersal and Toko Yasuda after their show at Plaza Bowl. Landis Wine: All right, I guess the best way to star t this off is to introduce yourselves for everyone. John Schmersal: I’m John. Toko Yasuda: I’m Toko. JS: And we’re Enon. LW: So the last time I heard from you guys was on a single you put out in 2008. What brings you back out on the road? JS: Well we’re not really even touring as much as playing shows again. We finished our touring in July for the last record, and we star ted playing with Thomas [their new drummer] during the end of last year and finally star ted playing shows again; basically we star ted
working on new material, and went from doing the last thing, which was sor t of rock and kinda straightforward back to being electronic, so we’re going out there and playing for people and getting our legs again. LW: As far as the impetus to change back to more electronic music, is that more of a natural progression? What inspired that? TY: I think it’s pretty natural. I mean sound-wise it’s pretty different, but I think I get bored pretty fast with repeating things, and I’m always inspired to do something different. You know I had fun doing straight rock things on the last tour; it’s a simple setup and you just play. But right now I’m having more fun playing electronics. It makes it more challenging to do new things. I like to keep changing… for our sake, too. JS: That’s kind of our modus operandi, just to keep challenging ourselves. LW: Do you guys feel like you work within a set musical vocabulary, or do you try to rip things up and star t from a fresh perspective? JS: I think for us it’s a challenging thing. We incorporated some new technologies and things for ourselves, and that’s been fun and it’s opened some new doors. But I guess any band no matter what their musical level or whatever, whether they’re beginners or whatever, the personal characters in their band make up their sound. I think that even though we like to think that we feel unhinged and we want to try something new, we’re basically grounded by the people that we are, you know, more than anything. I mean there are things we probably wouldn’t do, mind you, but we like to feel open to be able to do
most anything. Whatever feels comfor table for us. LW: I noticed as I walked back there that you have Ableton Live running, and I’m wondering how you’ve bridged the gap between live music and electronics. How flexible are you as a live band that works with electronics? TY: We play instruments. We don’t just have a laptop out. It definitely makes things more compact for us to do more things using technology, so I think we’re just using that as a good tool. And the more that technology develops, I don’t have a problem to take that in as a tool to be able to do things and to use as an instrument. JS: It used to be more like before we would make things up as songs to record them, and then we would figure out later maybe how to present them, not really caring about how we would… it’s more like something you listen to at home, and we’ll figure out how we want to present that. And now as things develop it’s just become easier to present just about anything under the sun. TY: We have friends, like DJ friends, electronic friends, we’ll learn from them. We actually picked up Ableton from a friend. He suggested that we should maybe use this, and then we checked it out and were like wow, where were we? We were slow about new things, but I think it’s working out pretty good right now. LW: Since your record, a lot of things have metamorphosed or collapsed, depending on how you’re MUS IC
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looking at it, in the record industry. What are your thoughts on that and how do you feel about operating in this environment? JS: I feel like we’re watching it change still. During the course of our last record coming out and us kind of stopping and re-calculating what we were doing, our label sor t of tightened their masts and several other labels have fallen apar t, so I still don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, as this recession takes its toll, it’s going to tighten things up a lot more even. So, we don’t know who’s going to put out our record next or what that even means in the future. I feel sorry for labels, because I feel like that’s the structure that’s changing, but people are always going to want to see a live band, so I know that par t’s not going to change at least. I don’t know, I’ve gone through different feelings about it, and I’m feeling a bit bitter about it. I feel a little bit sad for instance, a label like Touch & Go, things like that happening or other labels that have been around for a while, but I feel like a spectator, too. I don’t know. Everybody’s experiencing it, so it’s not like something I feel like I can comment on about what’s right or wrong, it’s just kind of happening. We’ll all see what the next thing is. LW: Has it changed the way you feel about putting music out? TY: Well, I think we always want to put out vinyl. That’s our first priority. But maybe not CD; we might just do digital. The vinyl with a download op-
tion, that seems reasonable to me. But CD? Who buys CDs anymore? JS: In a way that’s the only thing I feel like is exciting, because we like vinyl and stuff, but I don’t wanna look at CDs. In a way, to be greener, I think that it’s great that CDs are going away and digital is happening. It’s just kind of weird to figure out what the shift is and the proper way to deal with that. LW: Can you give me an idea of where you guys are heading with the new record, aside from more electronics? JS: Where are we going? TY: I don’t know. I’m really having a good time playing electronics right now. I love playing bass, but it can be anything. We can play instruments, and we can do anything if we really try to put our mind to it. I really like the electronics at the moment. JS: We at least feel like we’re always rooted in something pop, but all of us come from a punk and hardcore scene background, so that’s always for us looming. We want to do something that’s rooted in pop, but what our version of that is may not be the palatable regular pop for other people. But that’s just sor t of like the underlying thing for us. Just like what seems fresh and what seems exciting inside of pop. To do something in that format. MUS IC
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A n d n ow b e at i n g t h e ea r d ru m s... Cut Off Your Hands You & I Frenchkiss Records New Zealand: a country with a slight chip on its shoulder, or unexpected expor ter of seriously killer music? Well, both really, but for now let’s focus on the latter. They’re simply churning them out down there, and the latest wave of not-to-be-missed Kiwi bands that’ll make you happy to have eardrums includes Cut Off Your Hands. Taking their cues from ‘80s Brit classics (think the Smiths if Morrissey was less of a glumlord meets the danceable yet biting strains of Scotland’s Orange Juice and Josef K), these lovely lads pair glossy guitar riffs and soaring harmony with somewhat caustic, not-always-what-they-seem lyrics. The trials and tribulations of Cut Off Your Hands are tempered perfectly with air tight instrumentation and the smooth vocals of Nick Johnston (not to mention the production by ex-Suede guitar legend Bernard Butler). You & I , their American debut, is filled with deliriously catchy tunes, perfect for rolling down the windows and blasting on a sizzling summer afternoon. Personal favorites include “Oh Girl” and “Let’s Get Out of Here”. G’day indeed. - Megan Petty
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Hopewell Good Good Desperation Tee Pee Records An envelope appeared in my mailbox one day not so very long ago. This envelope looked like any other small manila mailer, and yet it could not have been more unique. You see, this envelope contained the new Hopewell record; and ladies and gents, that makes for quite a special delivery. It’s been years since Hopewellian singer, Jason Russo, came up through the ranks of the beautifully batty, hanging out with the Flaming Lips. As a former member of the delightfully oddball Mercury Rev, Hopewell’s trademark blueprint of ethereal, transcendent, spacey and psychedelic folk rock ’n’ roll has evolved and expanded over the years they’ve been together, and their newest outpouring of nuggets, Good Good Desperation , finds the band’s sound hur tling into fur ther, far more rocking outreaches. At times I wonder if Hopewell didn’t first take a time machine back to the golden era of mid-‘70s rock before hopping on a space shuttle. It’s a big, bad album, and incredibly charming as one might expect. If you’re not already familiar with Hopewell, now’s the time. - Megan Petty
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca Domino One of the things that Dir ty Projectors excel at are making everyone else look incredibly lazy. Their song structures and harmonies are deft and intricate without being esoteric, and they’ve recently finished two records, this being one of them, while holding down collaborations with David Byrne and Bjork. None of this should come as a surprise to anyone after taking a listen to Bitte Orca, which is easily the album of the year so far and delivers on all the promise of 2007’s sublime, Rise Above . This record sees the hand dealt on that record, and raises it significantly with more strings, stuttering electronics and mind melting harmonies. This results in songs that can simultaneously evoke early ‘90s hip-hop, Eastern melodies and Mariah Carey without sounding contrived or awkward. The band will still be an acquired taste for some, but Bitte Orca is poised to find the band a much wider audience, and do some serious ante upping. - Landis Wine Grizzly Bear Veckatimest Warp I’ve spent a lot of time lately bemoaning the Paul Simon-ization of underground music. So much seems to be getting softer and safer that it’s becoming more difficult to differentiate the underground from FM pop. Grizzly Bear have become increasingly guilty of this over the course of their career, and Veckatimest sees them diving wholehear tedly into the trend. This isn’t to say that there’s anything on here approaching bad, but the band plays it so safe within the niches they carved on Yellow House , that it’s easy to tune out. The couple of exceptions to this rule are “Two Weeks” and “While You Wait for the Others”, which are coincidentally the singles from the record. Both of these display a cer tain amount of swagger that the band has come to posses during their last few years of touring. Even so, par t of me wishes that the band had pushed themselves fur ther. - Landis Wine
Wilco Ashes of American Flags Nonesuch The hear t of Wilco is in their live performances. Their double disc live record, entitled Kicking Television, was a wonderful interpretation of several tracks from their entire catalog. In some cases, songs that originally appeared on A Ghost is Born sounded better live than in their original recorded incarnation. As a precursor for their new album being released in June (entitled Wilco (The Album) ), they have released the live concer t film, Ashes of American Flags. After viewing their other documentaries, I Am Trying to Break Your Hear t and Sunken Treasures , there are instant accolades attributed to the cinematography. With this output, nothing has changed as far as quality. The cameras explore the different venues, cities and landscapes with ease and personality. If only they included a camera angle feature, so that you could view entire performances with the focus on guitarist Nels Cline. His playing has a voice of its own, and the moments where the camera focuses on him are an absolute delight. Perhaps Ashes of American Flags can be your introduction to one of the best American rock acts, and where the hear t and passion of their music may truly lie, their live shows. - Shannon Cleary MUS IC
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Aesthetics have always had a precarious place in the wor ld of moder n music. On the one hand, much of what dr aws kids and adults of all stripes to records in the fir st place is their edgy, rebellious and odd displays of pompous rebellion, detached ennui, or out and out weirdness. Flip this over and you’ ll find a healthy amount of fr ustr ation with ar tifice over content. Overblown productions from bands with little to offer sonically or carefully constr ucted weirdo per sonalities whose mystique is backed up by little more than nonsense. Somewhere between these two points lies the sub-genre of lo-fi. For the uninitiated, lo-fi is shor t for “low fidelity”, which, in essence implies that the recording has a lot of sonic “ar tifacts”, which show themselves as tape hiss, scr atches, cr ackling and out-of-phase sounds. As most of the billions of bands across this great nation of our s begin to record their fir st wor k, these cr acks, hisses and pops are embar r assing fr ustr ations that are soon smoothed over by time in a pristine digital recording studio or at a friend’s house who owns a condenser microphone that’s totally perfect for laying down tr acks in Gar age Band. Other s see this differently. Regardless of the quest for crisp and vibr ant audio by most, there has been a recent resurgence of extreme cr ackle and hiss, both analog and digital, by a new crop of bands who are embr acing shitty 4-tr acks, pummeled tape machines and the digital spikes of overdriven digital tones. Some of the subjective cream of this new crop are as follows: Times New Viking, No Age, Wavves, Psychedelic Hor seshit, Nodzzz, Vivian Gir ls, Woods, Sore Eros, and Super Vacations among countless other s peeking their heads out from the deep underground. These groups are, for the most par t, char acterized by direct pop melodies with heavily psychedelic overtones, which are recorded in ways that emphasize the grime and cacophony of overdriven tape machines, shitty microphones and the seeming intimacy that this approach provides. Although I am not a fer vent fan of genre tagging, the most apropos heading for these bands would have to be the ter m “shitgaze”, which stems from the genre Psychedelic Hor seshit keenly dubbed themselves. In tr uth, it’s the clearest descriptor for these bands as possible, combining the psychedelic pop tendencies of the British/American shoegazer movement of the ear ly ‘90s and stuffing the aesthetic onto cassette with little to no concer n with a quality tr ansfer. The results can be jar ring at fir st, and it’s become easy for people to dismiss this sor t of thing as a gimmick. Par t of me can’t blame them.
In the mid to late 1980s, as prices on home recording gear dropped and more ar tists decided on going it alone in their basement, living room or bedroom, lofi recordings began to flourish. There was a cer tain amount of intimacy to the recordings that projected the seeming urgency of an ar tist unwilling or unable to make the trek to the studio and bolster his or her self with musicians and an engineer directing affair s. Labels, such as the vener able Shrimper Records, emerged to document this scene, and the movement gained massive tr action after the release of such landmar k albums as Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted and Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand . Both of these albums had variable fidelity at best, and fur thered the DIY ideals of the ‘80s, with ar tists taking control of the production of their albums and creating brittle sonic wor lds that sounded like tr ansmissions from distant and ver y shitty, AM stations from across the planet. The mystique quickly mor phed into gimmick via backlash, and the genre cooled for quite a while. Many of its stalwar t ar tists such as Pavement, Guided By Voices, Elliott Smith and Lou Bar low, went from their bedrooms and gar ages into the wor ld of super-producer s such as Nigel Godrich, Ric Ocasek and Jon Brion. Lou Bar low even had a bona-fide moder n rock hit with the song “Natur al One” by his band Folk Implosion. What makes the resurgence so confusing to me is that with the advent of bafflingly cheap digital recording technology there aren’t the same hang-ups and fr ustr ations as there were during that er a. It’s quite easy for any band or solo ar tist to bor row a friend’s Macbook and a ser viceable microphone and, with a little wor k, make a record that sounds relatively clean and produced. So maybe the resurgence is rebellion. Maybe the idea of having the sor t of “perfect” sound is now something that simply makes ever ything anonymous. I’ ll readily admit that I come with a healthy dose of skepticism to the new Church of Tape Hiss, but I’ ve found some absolutely beautiful songs through all the static going on, and though some of the bands I’ ve mentioned have deter red me with what I see as posturing, other s genuinely have the goods and the aesthetic down. The question is, when these ar tists begin seeing dollar signs, assuming that there are any to be seen after this recession, will they hop onto the glistening sonic bandwagon complete with strings and expensive Neumann microphones, or will they be content to wallow in their sonic abyss? MUS IC
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Tricycle Ga r d e n s TALIA MILLER
Jeffer son Avenue Community Garden, located in Church Hill, immediately jumps out at me as a lush oasis of gr een. Pur ple irises str etch along the side of the long, nar row garden, and the tricycle mounted atop the entr ance gates immediately catches my eye as I ar rive to meet Lisa Tar anto, executive dir ector of Tricycle Gardens. Tucked away into what used to be a v acant lot, the garden has 15 plots, most of which ar e alr eady in full bloom. T he plots ar e all individually owned and gardened by community member s who have signed up with Tricycle Gardens, and they boast an impr essive v ariety of flower s, fr uit and vegetable plants and herbs. Community gardening as a movement has r apidly gained popularity in r ecent months. It seems that mor e people than ever ar e now planting their own small gardens in backyards, on windowsill or now in community plots. In Richmond, Tricycle Gardens stands at the for efront of this movement. T he nonprofit cur r ently encompasses thr ee community gardens and thr ee lear ning gardens. T he primar y pur pose of these is to pr esent a hands-on teaching tool about gardening and sustainable living. Jeffer son Avenue Community Garden was Tricycle Gardens’ fir st effor t at community agricultur e. Tar anto, 40
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photo by Talia Miller
Mar y Lorino and Anne Dur kin, all three of whom are architects, star ted the garden. “I got my bike and rode around and looked for land,” Tar anto said. “The piece wher e Jeffer son Avenue Gardens is located was owned by the Better Housing Coalition. We talked them into letting us do the fir st garden here seven year s ago. It took about four year s to complete it. Other people joined in slowly as word of mouth got around, and we flyer ed a four- or five-block r adius door to door. We wer e per sistent and beat the pavement down to get people involved. What’s interesting – and this is par t of the stor y that I love about Tricycle Gardens – is that about seven year s ago we star ted meeting the fir st Tuesday of ever y month, and seven year s later we still meet the fir st Tuesday of ever y month.” T heir gardens ar e all over Richmond – from Car ver to Fulton Hill to the Museum District to Winchester Gr eens – but Tar anto makes sur e to emphasize that the East End is a major focus of the organization. She has just begun talks with Bon Secour s about cr eating a progr am for the community that combines nutrition with sustainable agriculture. Tar anto explains that for r esidents of the East End the area is a “food deser t”. “T her e is ver y little access to healthy food for this mar ginalized community,” she said. “T her e is a lot that we are dealing with in ter ms of r ace and cultur e and food. It is definitely a problem; it’s ver y complicated and ver y deep, and ther e ar e a lot of stigmas around growing your own food in Richmond.”
ability to become invested. “We have plenty of volunteer s from our own or ganization that come out,” Tar anto said. “But these community center s are alr eady str etched with their own staffing problems, and we’ r e in the quandar y of how do we move forward with this par t of it, and how do we get the community really involved? A lot of it goes back to the fact that there ar e a lot of single head of households who have to wor k, come home and what? Grow their own food? It’s a complicated problem.” Tar anto explains that one of the goals of Tricycle Gardens is not to own the gardens but instead to launch them, so that the communities they exist in ar e r esponsible for them.
To help combat this, Tricycle Gardens is r esearching to find a half to a full acr e of land on which to star t a small far m/lar ge garden in the East End, an urban far m of sor ts. “I r eally think food is going to be the new cur r ency. Right now they’re saying that the fastest growing par t of our economy is local food. I’m hoping that by helping people get a small plot going in an urban area through micro loans or education or whatever kind of assistance that we can provide, that we can have a large production garden as par t of our organization, and that we can help dir ect policy to a more sustainable and sensible food system,” Tar anto says excitedly.
T hose who do have plots come from the gardens’ surrounding neighborhoods. People who have plots in the Church Hill garden alone include “a couple that are professor s, a lady who is old school countr y, whose garden is amazing ever y year. Even my parents have a plot; it’s just a hugely diver se group of people,” says Tar anto. Tricycle Gardens continues to expand around the city, putting in gardens wher ever they can forge par tner ships with the sur rounding community. They take legwor k, commitment and or ganization to create, but no one can deny the positive effect that they have, and the sense of pride they give to those who are involved. As Tar anto best advises: “People should think about how to bring this into their own lives, whether in their yard, or an abandoned piece of land or a plot in a community garden; just do it.”
Admittedly, it is an ambitious goal, but when she talks about the impor tance of cr eating healthy public space, it makes sense, especially in ter ms of revitalizing the neighborhoods that a majority of the gardens are in. According to Tar anto, “Par t of an urban fabric has got to be diver se and complex, and it has to cr eate differ ent kinds of spaces. Public spaces in par ticular ar e r eally impor tant to show the health of a city; it’s the public face of a city. When you have bad public spaces, it’s a sign that the health of your city isn’t that good. Community gardens ar e healthy on so many levels.” As the organization grows, it has also begun to wrestle with the issues of wor king in communities where the adults may not have the time or photos cour tesy o f Tric yc le Gar d ens
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Books on
Wheels
spring tour 2009:
A pr i l 3 r d- 8 t h
S helley Briggs and Ward Tefft As told by S helley Briggs Photos by S teve crandall
DISCLAIMER: not a lot written is actually about our events. We gave out tons of books and fixed a bunch of bikes. That was awesome, but the better par t of the stories existed outside of our planned schedule. In an attempt to keep things interesting, this is what we have to offer:
Destination: New Orleans, LA With the economic crisis at hand, we felt the need to cut tour shor t this year to just six days. But, with diesel gas prices so cheap, we decided to drive as far away as we possibly could. Along with our youth connections super visor, Kate Duffy, our professional photographer and hangover special42
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ist, Steve Crandall, our designated bus rider and event volunteer, Mo Karn, and of course, Ward and I, loyal bus drivers, we hit the road for our third Spring Tour. We left Richmond on Friday afternoon highly prepared for traveling with two new lofts in the back of the bus, as well as a renovated bathroom that consists of a five-gallon bucket full of sawdust that appropriately used to house tur tle-brown paint. This was the first time we were doing a straight drive to New Orleans from Richmond, and we were anticipating twenty hours with stops only for gas and switching drivers every once in a while. Ward powered through the night, stopping at one point for an indoor bathroom break at a gas station. As he arrives to the entrance of the men’s room, Ward was stopped by yellow caution tape covering all the bathroom doors. On the wall was a handwritten sharpie sign that said “Crime Scene”. Due to this, Ward was forced to create his own crime scene behind the gas station. The weather was awesome when we arrived in New Orleans the next morning around 11 a.m., almost exactly 20 hours after we had left Richmond. We had intentionally not booked any events for the afternoon so we could relax and decompress from the trip. Since they had never been to the city before, we took this oppor tunity to break Steve and Kate into New Orleans properly with Hand Grenades on Bourbon Street and fried oyster po’ boys from Ver ti Mar te.
As we roamed around in the French Quar ter, we realized to our great surprise and luck, we were in town at the same time a pirate festival had invaded New Orleans! There were pirates everywhere — drinking Hurricanes to prevent scur vy, playing lutes and looking strikingly similar to the very popular three-par t documentary Pirates of the Caribbean . While I envisioned pirates in Somalia wearing puffy velour pants, I wondered why they would stage an attack at the same time as this wonderfully enter taining festival was taking place. After narrowly escaping the pirates, we returned to the bus for a little relaxing only to find an unsettling note had been left on our windshield. For the past two years we have parked in the same stop of town, right outside of the quar ter in an isolated area that allowed for plenty of space and a decent amount of quiet. The typed note stated that it respected our right to be homeless, but requested that we leave. While Ward and I are contemplating what to do about the unsigned note, a man sitting
in his car directly across the street from us tell Steve that the guy who left the note was the gray-haired man standing at the end of the block, hula-hooping. Kate, Ward and I walk over to the man, and I approached him first, attempting to introduce myself with a handshake that was rejected. We laid into explaining what we do and trying to find out why we are specifically being asked to move our bus. The man tells us that we are paying for all the other buses that have rolled through town, staying for months on end, bothering the neighbors and “causing trouble”. Just as we were about to give in and accept moving the bus from public parking, the man references our “other friends” roaming the streets. “So what, are there like, 40 of you?” We tell him there is no one else with us. Kate again tries to explain what we do, where we are from, of which the man surrenders to the fact that we are not just traveling
kids, by stating that we are “upper crusties” and then continues, as a grown-ass man, hula-hooping and smiling to himself. This promptly ended the ordeal, and we retreated to the bus for some sleep that did not involve moving our mobile home for the night. The next morning we woke up early to breakfast and coffee and a really long bike ride to warm up our bones for the day. Steve opts out of the bike ride, deciding to work on his hangover special by sleeping one off. Our first event was at Annunciation Mission, which was set up by our friend Tracy, who moved to New Orleans almost a year ago to pursue her dream of becoming a social worker. It was Palm Sunday and the church had a donkey ride special that morning, which we unfor tunately missed due to poor scheduling. But, it worked to our great satisfaction that we avoiding being asked to reshoe a horse as a repair. A lot of people from the neighborhood came by for
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books and brought their bikes; par ticularly notewor thy, PowerAde dropped off cases of energy juice, and a little boy named Justin spent a good par t of the afternoon hanging out with us. Justin was a 60-year-old man living in a 4-year-old body and rode his bike up and down the parking lot and in between us for hours until Kate pissed him off over a slice of pizza, understandably. We packed up after a little over 3 hours, and headed to Nowe Miasto to make a donation to Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners. I used to live at the warehouse in Nowe Miasto where Books 2 Prisoners has their office, so I was familiar the neighborhood and the lawlessness as far as parking was concerned – i.e. cars park where ever they feel like it, most of them permanently on concrete blocks. I decided to park on the side of the street a block away from the warehouse next to a chain-link fence, knowing we wouldn’t be here for more than 20 minutes or so. Before evening getting off the bus, we are greeted by “Peppy” (this is not his name; we never found it out so we made it up). Peppy excitedly told us to park in his dad’s driveway. I tell him we would only be there for a few moments, but he insists, even immediately offering the space for us to stay overnight. I agreed in order to please Peppy, and reluctantly moved the bus into the lot. We open the back of the bus and begin to unload hundreds of adult books as Mo goes to retrieve the folks in the warehouse to come search for what they might be able to use for their program. Peppy was overlooking the whole time, grapping books and pointing at titles he recognizes, talking quickly and excitedly about authors he knows and books he’s read. As we finish up and lock up the bus to carry books to the warehouse, Steve and I notice Peppy running out of his house holding a huge tor toise that he sets down
on the concrete and promptly beings to spray wash with a garden house. I felt so bad for him, walking away and giving no attention to Peppy and his pet that he so obviously wanted to show off for us. We return to the bus just moments later and thank Peppy for his hospitality. As we drive off, Peppy franticly waves us goodbye, smiling ecstatically at the bus. Ward and I thought it was interesting that we had only earlier that day met Justin, the little old man, and then only a few hours later meet Peppy, the old little man, who was probably about 45. Due to our eviction from the previous evening, we moved the bus to our friend Becka’s house in the Garden District, where we are able to enjoy the pleasures of indoor plumbing and the World Wide Interweb. On Monday morning we woke up early again and walked around a nearby cemetery looking for zombies and discussing serious issues like, “Do you think vampires ever get tricked by an eclipse?” Our first event of the day, we dropped off about 15 bicycles at R.U.B.A.R.B. (Rusting Up Beyond All Recognition Bicycles) for their bicycle program, as well as donating some helmets that were given to us by Erin Briggs, another Books on Wheels volunteer. Afterward, we went to Sylvanie Elementary School in Center City where we gave out books to the students who also got to see the bus. In the afternoon, we returned to Israelite Baptist Church where the most honorable Rev. Larry Campbell invited us back for the third year. The beginning of the afternoon was quiet, and then Rev. Larry arrived. True to his profession, he was a shepherd for us, bringing groups of people from the neighborhood, and we remained busy for the rest of the day.
Monday evening consisted of a really great dinner at Deanie’s (not Denny’s) where everyone got to experience New Orleans food at its finest. Ward ser ved as the enter tainment for the evening, using de-tailed crawfish as finger puppets. Later, Ward and I provided music to a bar that had a broken jukebox, and in our minds, we were greatly appreciated by fellow patrons. In our minds. Tuesday was our last day in New Orleans before driving home. We returned to Slyvanie Elementary School again and then to our last event at Alvar Branch Library. Again, the crowd was good, and people seemed excited about receiving books, book bags, PowerAde and getting their bikes fixed. A group of kids hung out almost all afternoon, and we were donated brownies to help us with the drive home. As the grand finale, an hour before we are to leave, a kid came over to us to ask if we could fix his bike if he went home and got it, and I said sure. He shows up with a bike frame – no wheels, no seat, nothing. We plugged away at it and with the help of Ward, Steve, Mickey and his buddies, as Kate took care of distributing books, we built this kid a monster bike. And he was stoked. As the kid road off on his new bike around 6 o’clock that evening, the bus also headed home. Hopefully, his ride home was shor ter than 20 hours. Books on Wheels would like to thank our Spring Tour 2009 sonsors: Joe’s Inn, Video Fan, SNAFU BMX, Six Burner, and River City Roller Girls
OPINION
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This Is How We Do It Talia M iller and Mike Rutz | Images by A dam Juresko
“You say you want things to be even and you want things to be fair / but you’re afraid to get your teeth caught in my pubic hair / If you’re lying there expecting me to suck your dick / You’re gonna have to give me more than just a token lick / …you better lear n how Because it’s your tur n now.” – lyrics to “You Suck” by Consolidated feat. The Yeastie Gir ls
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blow job, they have achieved the aspect of manhood that revolves around sexual conquests. And for gir ls, it’s the fir st time you’ ve pleased a man sexually, accomplishing that aspect of womanhood. It is a coming of age act that distinctly mar ks you as female/feminine, in the “look what I can do” sense.
When it comes down to oral sex, we all know women are expected to give it away. With men, there’s not the same sor t of expectation, and cer tainly no promise of it. When we think about our fir st experiences with oral sex, it probably has to do with sucking dick, the guy receiving and the gir l perfor ming. When you’re younger, blow jobs are a big deal, at least before you lose your virginity. It’s like a right of passage that both gir ls and guys will talk about with reverence. However, there doesn’t seem to be the same level of discussion about reciprocation. Guys giving head is not talked about as much, if at all. It’s an anomaly.
If women are identifying their femininity and sexuality through blow jobs, does that leave space for cunnilingus? Or is the next logical step intercour se? Women don’t need to receive head to achieve femininity and men don’t need to give it to be masculine. Maybe that’s why some reader s of RVA will say that oral sex is more intimate than “real” sex. When a woman is receiving oral pleasure and the man isn’t, that’s simply not the way feminine sexuality is defined. We could even look at as a fur thering of men’s fulfillment of their own sexual conquests. Even though ever y woman has a different reaction to receiving a man between her legs, there is a tendency for men to think that you have to get her hot and bothered and moaning or you’re doing something wrong. That’s the only way he can tell if his sexual prowess measures up; if he can get a woman so stimulated that she MUST have sex with him.
Sex, oral or otherwise, is traditionally focused around men’s pleasure and making men cum. Think about it. When men receive their fir st
A cock in the mouth may even act as a socially approved trade-off for sex, a way to satisfy men while staving off penetration. As we have seen, it fulfills the traditional sex roles of men and women quite nicely. Obviously, a 30-second blow job isn’t
going to do it, but ejaculation may not be necessar y, either. If that’s all a man is getting for the night, there will probably be ver y little objection. It’s difficult to imagine this scenario the other way around. So it makes sense when women demand oral satisfaction, without intercour se even! As the Yeastie Gir ls sang, “Now you lick, lick it hard, and move your tongue around.” Sounds new and exciting. But wait, hold up a minute. This could potentially put both women and men outside of their comfor t zones. The focus now tur ns to how the gir l is feeling and how much pleasure she’s TAKING, regardless of what she’s showing. Beyond this unusual route to sexual fulfillment, women are ver y socialized to have a negative perception about their vaginas; that they smell bad and they’re ugly and dir ty. And at least once a month, gir ls must do ever ything they can to cover up their menstr uation. So, it’s a more per sonal feeling to let somebody down there, because it’s so stigmatized. Guys aren’t the only ones, whether they admit it or not, who have a fear of cunnilingus. Some women don’t like oral sex simply because they can’t feel comfor table; it’s a mental vulnerability. It’s more per sonal than a blow job, more inter nal, more of an unknown. Most women reading this ar ticle have stopped a guy from going down, for one reason or another. Although men may be in a physically vulnerable position, there’s no precedent for those feelings of anxiety. And even if a guy doesn’t really like giving head, he’ ll probably still make a half-assed attempt in order to get sex. They’re not as sensitive to the dynamics involved, not necessarily through any fault of their own.
Perhaps that’s why there’s always been this open mystique around blow jobs. It’s socially per mitted. Women will sit around and talk about whether they like giving head or not. And there’s such a spectr um. On one hand, she may really like deep throat. On the other, she may have some fear of her jaw locking and getting her head stuck on a dick. Linda teaching Stacey her technique with a car rot in Fast Times comes to mind. We can all laugh about it. It’s funny, because when you talk about cunnilingus with guys, most will guys say they love it. Really? All of you? Okay, there may be a par ticular ly unpleasant experience to tell your friends about, but that never leads to a real specific conver sation about what men like or don’t like. There’s no dialogue about it, because if women aren’t talking about it, most men won’t admit anything other than a general devotion. Where’s the classic movie scene about licking bush? One might argue that a woman going down on a guy is less intimate than sex but a guy going down on a woman is more intimate than sex. A woman may not feel dir ty about receiving head, but there just might be a cer tain comfor t level that needs to be reached before she can let it happen. Intercour se may not be the final boundar y. Intimacy means being comfor table with your entire body, not just your looks or your shape or your grooming habits. Intimacy encompasses ever ything when you’re with a lover. If we continue to ignore the complexities of women and men’s perceptions of vaginas, we will continue to constr uct our sexuality through the penis only. If women want to demand more oral sex, they need to demand open and honest conver sations about it. Have one right now. Shake off the social taboo. And men need to talk about it, too. That’s why we can only reference one classic scene regarding cunnilingus – the mechanic in Natural Bor n Killer s who goes from eating Mallor y Knox’s pussy to eating her bullets.
With this column, we strive to be completely open, honest and as objective as possible in our sociological exploration of sexuality. We acknowledge a heterosexual bias, since that is our area of “exper tise”. If you would like to respond to any of our columns or offer additional insight, please email us at thisishowwedoit@ r vamag.com OPINION
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Cheap Eats: Picnics L auren V incelli and M aya V incelli
ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRANDON PECK
Is there anything better than Richmond in the spring? Most of the college students have skipped town by mid-May, leaving the city with plenty of par king, quieter evenings and par ks filled with locals and their dogs. Our favorite war m weather activity is definitely picnicking. Picnics combine a few of the things we really love – friends, food and enjoying what Richmond really has to offer. Richmond has lots of little mar kets and bodegas where you can pick up some cheap eats and a six-pack, and take them to your backyard, best friend’s porch, Belle Isle or any of the over 150 par ks in the Richmond area. We challenge you to get some of your friends together and create an impromptu picnic of your own! Make your own dishes or pick up some gr ub from any of these fine establishments:
Eat in
TAKE OUT
vegetarian
grocery
abc on
abc off
options
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All-star Market & Deli
Coliseum Loft Deli & Market
European Market & Cafe
111 N. Lombardy St. - The Fan 804-342-5857 allstardelimarket.com
1359 W. Broad St. - VCU 804-359-4480 coliseumdeli.myljn.com
2001 1/2 W. Main St. 804-355-5182 euromarketgourmet.com
Perfect for a quic k bite, All St a r M a r k e t and De li has gr eat sand wic he s a lo ng w it h both typical and atypic a l c o nv e nie nc e stor e of ferings. Pic k up s o m e P B R a nd snac ks for your next trip t o Tex a s B e a c h, or take a load of f and s it a t o ne o f t he thr ee seats at the mini bar fo r a q uic k p int with a friend. Convenient ly lo c a t e d (a nd c leaner than most mom a nd p o p s ho p s ), All Sta r Mar ket shines wit h s im p le but d e licious sand wic hes, loc al f la ir a nd k no w l e d ge a ble staf f – perfec t fo r t ho s e w ho ar e ne w to the ar ea. It’s a f a v o r it e s p o t for br eakf ast as well as lun c h. O ur f r ie nd Vilkas r ecommends their “ s o ul- c r us hing ly good c lub sand wic h”. T hey a l s o ha v e s o m e kille r ve g an and v e getarian o p t io ns, but o f cour se we hav e to r ec omm e nd o ur na m e sa ke , the RVA Ma g : a fr es h c r o is s a nt w it h bacon, e g g, and c heddar. G o fo r t he b e e r, stay for the people-w atc hing.
“ H e llo, my f r ie nd s ! ” is us u a lly t he f ir s t t hing yo u’ ll he a r f r o m t he ir s up e r- f r ie nd ly s t a f f. T h is jo i nt ha s a n e c le c t ic m e nu o f Pe r s ia n, G r e e k a nd Am e r i c a n d is he s. T hey ha v e e v e r y t hing f r o m p iz z a a n d bur ge r s t o Shir a z i s a la d a nd s p a na k o p it a . Yo u’ ll a ls o f ind a s m a ll s e le c t io n o f g r o c e r ie s t ha t in c lud e s f la v o r e d t o b a c c o a nd c ha r c o a l fo r ho o k a hs, a s w e ll a s t he hoo k a hs t he m s e lv e s … if yo u’ r e int o t ha t s o r t o f t hing. O c c a s io na lly t hey ’ ll e v e n p a c k o ne up fo r yo u.
I k no w w ha t yo u’ r e t hink ing : Eur o p ean M ar k et for c he a p e a t s ?! W hile i t w a s o ne o f t he f ancier locat io ns w e v is it e d , a s a nd w ic h a nd some sides fed t hr e e o f us c o m fo r t a bly by t he fountain at Byr d Pa r k fo r und e r $1 2 . Ta k e a f r ie nd and shar e their I t a lia n P ic nic s a nd w ic h w it h t ur k ey, t ale g gio c hees e, g r e e n a p p le s, f ig ja m a nd a io li o n a lightly toasted b a g ue t t e .
H o w e v e r, t he r ea l s t a r o f t his p la c e ha s le s s t o d o w it h a ho o k ah a nd e v e r y t hing t o d o w it h K a b o b - e Juje h. I t ’ s a c ha r c o a l- g r ille d c hic k e n k a b o b m a r ina t e d in o li v e o il a nd le m o n juic e , s e r v e d in w a r m f la t b r e a d w it h o nio n, s a f f r o n a n d o t he r s p ic e s. T hey a ls o ha v e a b a ng in’ v e g g ie k a b o b, f a la f e l p it a a nd hum m us p la t e . T his is a t o t a l ly c ut e p la c e t o r e e na c t t he Fli g ht o f t he C o nc ho r d s ’ “ t he m o s t b e a ut if ul g ir l I ha v e e v e r s e e n w it h a k e b a b ” m o m e nt .
Fo r a s p lur ge , Eur o p e a n M a r k e t has alw ays been g r e a t fo r f a nc y c he e s e s a nd m e a ts, and it also s ho w c a s e s a n int e r e s t ing a s s o r t ment impor ted b e e r s a nd w ine s. Wit h t he la r ge s t t ak eout menu of a ny p la c e w e w e nt t o, Eur o p e a n M a r k et is s ha ping up t o b e o ne o f t he b e s t lunc h s p o ts in town. Over t he ye a r s, Eur o p e a n M a r k e t ha s s hif ted it s priorit ies f r o m c a r r y ing up s c a le g r o c e r i e s t o b ecoming a mor e b is t r o - s t y le c a f é . W hile t hey s t ill ha ve some ter rific go o d s (p iz z a f lo ur o r t r uf f le o il, a nyone?), it s caf é o f f e r ing s a r e b e t t e r t ha n e v e r, a nd it is becoming a f a v o r it e s p o t fo r fo o d ie s a nd lo c a ls alik e. OPINION
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Mediterranean Market
71 9 N . M e a d ow S t . - T h e Fa n 8 0 4- 3 4 0-1 7 1 1
T his little sho p ha s a g r eat assor tm ent o f M e diter r anean and Middle Easter n g r o c e r ie s inc lud ing na tur al halal meat, B ulg a r ian feta c heese, Tur kish cof fee, r o s e w ater (gr eat for making coc ktails), r e nne t fo r ma king c he e se, saf fr on, bulk g r a ins a nd b e a ns, a nd a limited selec t io n o f fr e sh p r o d uce a nd baker y item s. T hey a lso ha ve a we so me g y r os, ka bobs, f a la f e l, homemade baklav a, hot Tur kish c o f f e e , and a sle w of other delightful m e nu ite ms. De finite ly tr y the Foul Mou d a m m as, a r obust dish of slow-cooked f a v a b ea ns with o li ve o il, c hopped par sley, o nion, g ar lic and lemon juice ser ved w it h f latb r e a d . B e sur e to gr a b a Vim to s o d a – tha t stuf f is ma gic al.
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Nick's Produce & International Market
400 W. Broad St. - Downtown 804-644-0683 nicksinternationalfoods.com
Tuc k e d aw ay in th e 400 blo c k o f Br o a d is a 3 0 -ye a r-o ld c la s s ic that pr oba bly looks t he sa me no w a s it d id t he n. Wit h o nly 3 ta bles, a huge sa nd wic h me nu a nd a t o n o f int e r e s ting dr ink s and sna c ks, t his is a g r e a t p la ce t o p ic k up picnic food. T hey a lso ha ve a g r e a t se le ct io n o f G r e e k w ines and an i ns ane ly huge list o f imp o r t e d o li ve o ils, c hees es, m eats, past a s a nd o t he r r e a so na bly p rice d go ur m e t tr eats. We e k d ays ar e bus y with lo ca l busine ss p r o fe ssio na ls a nd s t ud e nts, but on the wee ke nd s it ’s a lit t le mo r e ca lm a nd s lo w - p aced. T he s and wic he s co me up q uic kly a nd t he se rv ic e is fr iendly yet feis ty; mo r e like a NYC -st yle d e li t ha n a ny t hing els e ar ound Ric hmo nd . We o r d e r e d a so p r e ssa t a , m o r t a d ella, pr os c iutto and p r ovo lo ne sa nd wic h, a lo ng wit h a g y r o done up with the wo r ks. O ur o r d e r ca me up in fi ve m inut e s f lat and we took t he m ove r t o Mo nr o e Pa r k t o e njoy. T he s a nd wic hes wer e huge a nd t he b a kla v a w a s fr e sh a nd c r is p. T heir we bs ite is r ig ht : “If it we r e a ny mo r e a ut he nt ic , yo u’ d be paying in Eur os.”
Shields Market
2 0 6 N. S h i eld s - T h e Fa n 8 0 4-3 5 3-9 8 8 0 sh i eldsma r keto n li n e.co m
Shie ld s M a r k e t f e a t ur e s p r e p a r e d a n d t o - go it e m s f r o m Jo e ’ s I nn a nd R ic hmond’ s f avorite G r eek gourm a nd , St e lla D ik o s (o f St e lla ’ s a nd G r e e k Fe s t i v a l f a m e ). M e nus a r e lis t e d o nline . T hey a ls o ha v e g r e a t sand wic hes and pastries. T his shop has a wine and beer selection, tobacco, c heeses and f r esh pr oduce. T he ir g r o c e r y s e le c t io n is o r ie nt e d m o r e t o w a r d t he s t a p le s, but t hey ha v e s o m e go ur m e t it e m s a ls o. I ’ m dy ing t o t r y t he m o o ns hine je lly. I wonder if I ’ ll go blind.
Strawberry Street Market
421 Strawberry St. - The Fan 804-353-4100
St r a w b e r r y St r e e t M a r k e t is a c ha r m ing place to pic k up a sand w ic h o r g r a b a cup of cof f ee. T hey als o ha v e a s m a ll deli and assor tment o f ho t fo o d s lik e c o r n d o g s a nd f r ie d c hic k e n. T hey h a v e a g r e a t c a ndy s e le c t io n a nd s o m e g r e a t b e e r s a nd w ine s, a lo ng w it h q uir k y s m a l l b r e w s o d a s lik e Jo n e s, F iz z y L iz z y a nd t he s u p e r s p ic y B le nhe im G inge r Ale . T heir gr ocer y selectio n ha s lo t s o f go ur m e t it e m s a nd a f e w s t a p le s, a nd you’ r e bound to r un int o o ne o f t he c ut ie s f r o m t he n e ig hb o r ing St r a w b e r r y Str eet Caf é stoc king up o n 5 - H o ur En er g y w hile you’ r e ther e . G r a b s o m e snac ks and r elax in the hid d e n Sc uf f le t o w n Pa r k a c r o s s t he s t r e e t , o r he a d ov e r t o Vid e o Fa n a nd m a k e a d e li c i o us m ov ie nig ht o ut o f it . OPINION
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Out This Feb. Brainworms 2: Swear to Me LP/CD
Snacktruck Spacial Findings 7�
Brainworms 2: Swear to Me LP/CD
Coming this Winter: Mouthbreater/EYC Split
Antlers S/T LP/CD
EVE RY N IGH T
ar t dir ectIO N: Cas e y Lon gy e ar ph otograph e r : Nick Gh obas h i fas h ion as s istant: Amanda Pong make up: Ae naes Zh ou mode ls : D errick McEl ha ne y, Ash l e y Carruthers, Garr e t t Gumby, Z ach Har e , Ch r ist y Mill e r , Becky Smith
Beck y: Mink Pink d r ess from Need Supply, vintage neckl ace from E xile Gumby: Insigh t ta nk from N e ed Supply, Durk l je a ns from Rumors
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F ASHIO N
All c lot h i n g i s s ec on d h a n d & fro m R u m o r s
FAS HION
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As hle y: d r ess from Rumors , je w elry from E xile Christ ie : Gl am dress from Need Supply, je w elry from E xile Beautifu l pastries & cupcakes are avai l abl e at Jean Jacq ues
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Ash le y: leota rd from Rumors , skirt from American Appa r e l Derrick & Z ach: all clothi n g is sec on d h a nd & from Rumors De licious a s s ort ment of ca ndy avai l ab le at Fo r the Lov e of Ch ocol at e
FAS HION
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Chr ist y: d r ess f ro m R um o rs Derric k : Nudie j e a n s f ro m N e ed Su pply, Ag i o ( lo c al ) t- s h i r t from Rum o rs Ashle y: d ress f ro m R um o rs Z ac h: RVCA je an s f ro m Dom ini on Sk ateb oa rds , In s i g h t tank from N e ed S upp ly Gu mby: Nudie j e an s f ro m N e ed Su pply, RVCA tan k f ro m Do minion S k at e b oards Free p o p corn i s always ava il ab l e at V i deo Fan 58
F ASHIO N
FAS HION
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