P arker
As I’m writing this I am turning thir ty years old. The closer I’ve gotten to the day, the more I’ve been thinking “What does it really mean for a person when they hit 30? ” There’s some people that I know (and many that I don’t) that still feel the need to buy into the fear influenced bullshit that society tries to pound into our heads regarding where we are “supposed to be” when we hit that age. Just think, when you were a child and you thought about being 30, your mind probably wondered to a fantasy of being married with kids, a nice paying job in the field of your dreams, and owning a big house on the hill will a giant backyard, a cool car, and a couple of dogs. Well sorr y folks, that is a complete fabricated lie that society has weaved into our subconcious. Unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of people in my age group buy into this and go through a “quarter-life crisis” starting at 25 or so. Why do we do this to ourselves? You are NOT a failure if you are 25-30 and aren’t married with kids, have a dream job, nice car, and a mansion. Let’s think about how materialistic most of those “goals” are. I think it’s sad and a real problem when you see people go through the motions of life, without really stepping back to see the big picture. It seems most of these people end up more unhappy than not, not fully becoming themselves and living out their real dreams. They rush to tr y to achieve these false goals of happiness and miss out on what’s important. I know “what’s impor tant” is different for different people, but it makes me dishear tened to think that we are in the 21st centur y and people still buy into and let the cookie cutter life situations govern them.
A nthony
Ping Pong as Art? I went to a recent exhibition on the artwalk. There was a ping pong table and people playing. No ordinar y table but a really small table and no ordinar y game. The side judge - a trim guy in stereotypical 70’s style moustache, hair, and well-worn plaid suit. Player A, decked in a Oriental fuman chu outfit while Player B was a caught up spectator. An art piece that draws you into it. The table became a foundation for a creative discussion. The players, two mentalities tr ying to communicate and find middle ground. The ball was a kernel for an idea and it passed from one side to the next. The goal was not to beat the other but to create a dialogue. Tr ying to pass back to their opponent enough creative spark to spring an idea from the other. Ping Pong as art. Just a matter of skewed perspective and pullng more in than the surface.
M arisa
“We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.” -Tacitus
In Our Neighborhood munity, wherein each member does its part to serve the whole. ShopRVA encourages the growth of the local economy through a more active relationship between local businesses and their customers. A list of participating businesses will be available online at ShopRVA’s website. One of ShopRVA’s business partners, Chop Suey, is a locally owned bookstore hosting the Bizarre Market, and excellent local resource for holiday shopping. Ellwood Thompson’s is a grocery store that specializes in organic products, which make great presents. Local business owners wishing to sign up for the program or apply for a free listing may email ShopRVA at contact@shoprva.com.
New Initiative Encourages Richmonders to Support Local Business This holiday season VCU Graphic Design students challenge local residents to “Shop RVA” by supporting local businesses over big-box chain stores and fast food giants. ShopRVA is a web & print based initiative to raise awareness of local businesses and their impact on Richmond’s unique cultural diversity. ShopRVA originated as an assignment in a senior seminar called “Design Rebels” taught by local artist and activist Noah Scalin, head of ALR Design. Scalin created the class to be a hands-on course about ethical design and design for a positive social impact. As part of the class, the students designed stickers for local businesses to display in their shop windows to let their customers know they are visiting a locally owned business. The logo shows a group of friendly bees circling their hive. Student Jay Frank says that the hive is a metaphor for an active com10
Beginning December 4th, students will distribute print materials, including identification stickers, posters, and brochures, just in time for the holiday season. There is no better time to demonstrate just how much corporate chains infringe on local business. With the deluge of holiday catalogs and seasonal deals flooding the city, local businesses need something like ShopRVA to highlight what makes local businesses special. “When you help local business, you help yourself,” said one student. “You can show your disapproval of corporate behavior in the way no vote can on issues like suburban sprawl, environmental apathy, labor abuse, and animal rights,” said another. Student Stephanie Diederich explains, “At its core though, ShopRVA is less about bringing out the bad in national stores as it is about bringing out what makes local business so good – delicious tastes, one-of-a-kind finds, considerate customer service, and best of all, people you know.” The students hope Richmonders will visit the website, and look for the honeycomb logo in shop windows to support the local economy and the city they love.
GREEN RUG
Kaylee Pickinpaugh <pickinpaugkn@hotmail.com> TWO DRAG QUEENS
12
STILL MOVING
Elizabeth Talbot <talbotem@vcu.edu> LANDSCAPE ON STILTS
13
WALLSPANKERS & OTHER
DOODLES
Talking Markers and Maine with MWM by R. Anthony Harris
You wouldn’t know Matt W. Moore of MWM Graphics from the next guy except for the tilted sideways cap and pocket full of markers. Dont be fooled, this guy is quietly pulling together a B&W marker revolution. Maybe his work is reflective of sniffing too many but I will go out on a limb and say he is a “Master Of Sharpie.” Now where is that endorsement deal? R. Anthony Harris You reached out to the creative community and put together Wallspankers, a very nice collection of printable stickers. Why do you feel the need to bring everyone together for this project? MWM Wallspankers is a project that I had been thinking about for years, but never had enough money to invest in making it happen in print. But it works great as a free e-zine. My only investment is time, and the community takes care of printing the stickers.
WS serves so many purposes. I have always been interested in collaborating with like-minded artists and designers, especially from all over the world. And the Internet has made that possible. It is such an incredible platform, not only to keep in touch with folks, but also to meet new people with similar interests. My immediate community is so talented, and their communities too. I really wanted to rep these guys and help them get some lime. There have been some righteous books and magazines about street art and graffiti in the last few years, and there are definitely some great web portals too. But they rarely offer the opportunity for people to participate. Wallspankers is my attempt to organize a community of artists that not only love art and design, but also have the drive to go out there and share it with their city. RAH What the hell is going on in Maine? I have had several friends from 15
Richmond recently show up there. What is the scene and where is it going? MWM Maine is fresh! Literally. Clean air and water, no rush hour, tons of freights, great hip-hop and graffiti community, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s close enough to Boston and NY to still be in the loop. It is a very unique place. I have really enjoyed my 5 years here. I think Maine artists and writers will be getting more attention in the next couple years. We have been grinding hard. It is only a matter of time. RAH Do you ever feel your reach is limited by living in Maine? MWM Yes. But I do travel a lot and stay in touch with people all over the globe. I expect to relocate sometime in the next few years, but everything is going to
well for me right now to uproot. I spent years living out of a backpack, traveling all over the country, and I have to say, Portland is near the top of the list. RAH What were you looking at for inspiration growing up? How about now? MWM Growing up, I was always into geometry, logos, and textile patterns. MC Escher, Herb Lubalin, old wallpaper patterns, cereal boxes, blueprints, topography maps, whatevs… When I started paying attention to graffiti, I realized the potential for the two to be combined. I feel that my current work, studio and street, is a celebration of what can happen when these worlds collide. RAH What is your obsession with sharpies? MWM I should be sponsored by Sharpie. Seriously. I’ve gone through hundreds of them. I guess it all started when I was really young, snagging them from my mom’s junk drawer. They just rule. I have tried all sorts of fancy pens, but nothing compares to the rich black and the unforgiving flow of a Sharpie. And you can get them anywhere, even at the local bodega at five in the morning. RAH Any new projects coming up? A new Bangers, maybe? MWM For sure, I just started working on the Bangers 3 book last week. I’m pumped about it. Honestly, I think it has the potential to be my best work yet. It will be at the press in early 07. I’m also working on a bunch of new tees, 2 solo shows coming up, The WS:1234 book will drop next summer, and a handful of other collabo’s with some awesome companies. Staying busy for sure. Wallspankers Issue 3 will release in January, and the deadline for contributions is 12/31. Please join us. Stay good. Stay up.
MWM Graphics and Wallspankers can be found at www.mwmgraphics.com.
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18
DiSCiPLE OF THE BLACK OUTLiNE An electronic conversation with artist Chris Norris. by R. Anthony Harris
Chris Norris in life looks to be unassuming and somewhat plain; a pale face in a sea of people living and working in this doomed megalopolis. His work is something totally different and stands on the shoulders of his peers in Richmond, and his mind is the perfect melting pot of imagery imprinted on him by American media. His work touches a part of the current generation of consumers -- drawing on our nostalgia for harsh comic book coloring and use of heavy line -- it brings back thoughts of early 80s comics and Saturday morning cartoons. Combine those with an impossible-to-read but strange action narrative and you have something that -- at the very least -- will give you pause. He was nice enough to get back to me before his trip to Scope Miami. R. Anthony Harris For our readers, your paintings have a distinc t illustrative st yle that defines objec ts with use of heav y black outlines and color choices that could be seen as “abrasive.” What general reac tion have you gotten about your work since the beginning of your career to now ? Chris Norris Sometimes people are dismissive because of the comic-inspired drawing. But usually those people are
abstrac tionists. If you look back on the whole of twentieth centur y ar t, you will see a lot of black line. E specially in the Dada movement that was mostly comprised of illustrators and graphic designers, but al so with such ar tists as Egon Schiele, Arshile Gork y and Francis Bacon. These are my influences and I gestate their work in my head with such comic illustrators as Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, and Windsor McKay. The fine ar tists deal with formalism and color in a blunt force way while the comic ar tists deal with movement and narrative flow. I’m combining all this into a single image filtered through my hand. So when people get that they usually enjoy the show. R AH I saw your profile & ar t in New American Painter. You were in good company. How much does the publicit y side of being an ar tist take from your time ac tually painting, and do you like that side of your career ? CN Yes, I do like that side of my career and I have created an entire side projec t called FE A ST that deal s with it. You have to be prepared to take on the whole ball of wax. One of the things not taught in ar t school is, as ar tists, how do you treat yourself like a small business? This isn’t just about the fine ar ts but ar ts in general. I don’t know a photographer or graphic designer who hasn’t spent time as a freelancer. So much of the business is about networking, but more with your peer group than with Famous Curator X. R AH Do you feel coming from Richmond has limited you in any way ? CN Yes and no. The great thing about Richmond is that it is blossoming right now in a sophisticated way. Al so the Internet has totally changed where you have to be to make ar t. Fif teen years ago I would have to be in New York Cit y to have a career in the ar ts. That is not true anymore. R AH In painting, there have been so many movements and 19
techniques, are there any new ideas happening in contemporar y painting? CN Absolutely, and expec t to see more. I grew up on Saturday morning car toons and comic books. Now an entire generation behind me has grown up on video games, MT V, and YouTube. E xpec t all that filtered imager y and information to make a huge impac t on peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perceptions and produce the next generation of avantgarde ar t. And never underestimate the impac t of geopolitic s in ar t. R AH What influences your thinking when concepting your next piece? CN The previous piece. Sometimes I am on roll and sometimes at a cold star t. If I am at a cold star t I will just star t to make marks until I see a stor y. Then the rest just flows. R AHAre you going to continue working within the same parameters for future series? Is it dangerous as an established ar tist to change direc tions? CN I already have changed direc tions and reintroduced the figure to my work. It is refreshing and necessar y. R AH What exhibitions do you have coming up in the future? CN Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a big year. I have shown in Houston, New York, and London. Next is Richmond at Ada Galler y and Scope Miami in December. The above-mentioned FE A ST projec t will return to Richmond next September at Plant Zero, and that is going to be wild.
Chris is a 1997 graduate and adjunct professor at VCU. He has been featured in New American Painting, co-founded the art collective Feast, and is a part of the current stable of artists at Ada Gallery. 20
21
BRAINWORMS
THE FEST V REPORT by Sean Patrick Rhorer
photos by Michelle Dosson
Festival s have long been a par t of the Gainesville music environment. Since as far back as the late ‘90s punk, hardcore, indie rock and other bands have been converging on the small universit y-centered town in Florida for an annual gathering. Over the past five years, the annual event has taken the shape of The Fest, run by staf fers of No Idea Records and other local businesses and organizers. 2006 marks what was dubbed “ The Fest V ” by organizers, who al so added a nice equation of “4 20 + 69 = The Fest V ” to the free beer 22
CLOAK AND DAGGER
cozies and various other items being handed out to attendees. Featuring arguably one of the best lineups of the past few years’ events, The Fest V had all the makings of an incredible weekend laid out for anyone willing to make the trip… and we did. Over the course of three days in late Oc tober, some of the best bands -- both established and up-and-coming -- from around the nation and fur ther, ventured to Gainesville to play for what might have been some of the most enthusiastic audiences they’ve ever encountered. Sets from Armalite and Paint It Black, two of Philadelphia’s own, proved that just because you might not like a band’s recordings doesn’t mean they’re not good live. On the other hand, the female-fronted pop punk goodness that is Fif th Hour Hero and the jokester punk-meets-hardcore outfit Af firmative Ac tion Jackson both delivered great sets as expec ted. The weekend would have been a success without subjec ting audiences to A SG though, while The Bomb, 25
ARMALITE
THE BOMB
WHISKEY & COMPANY featuring the former singer of Naked Raygun, made many new fans without a doubt. A good number of Richmond’s own helped keep the strange Gainesville-Richmond connec tion alive. Hometown pop punk favorites Pink Razors played to a large crowd that appeared to love ever y minute of their set despite issues with tuning. Cloak /Dagger and Government Warning both played the punk /hardcore focused show on Sunday af ternoon, not necessarily receiving their t ypically energetic response but playing great sets nonetheless. Singer/songwriter Clint Maul unfor tunately played to a rather small audience, yet still gave each and ever y song his all making for an awesome per formance. Highlights of the weekend weren’t necessarily unexpec ted. Anthem-spouting punks Dillinger Four headlined Saturday night 26
per fec tly, leaving ever yone with a post-show high that ultimately over flowed into numerous house par ties and a house show that lasted until nearly 5 : 00am the next morning. Presented as potentially their last show, Whiskey & C o. wooed onlookers with their fun-meets-depressive brand of alt-countr y. Unmistakably though, New Jersey had the best to of fer this year. Pop punk geniuses The Ergs ! blew away their fans with what one of the members claimed was their best set ever and it’s likely most people would agree. It al so helps when the de fac to king of The Fest, Dan Yemin ( of Lifetime, Paint It Black, Armalite ) stage dives during your set… the ultimate sign of approval. Headlining Sunday night and bringing a close to The Fest, Lifetime dispelled any notions that their reformation wasn’t a good idea. Throughout ever y song the air was filled with stage dives and people clamoring to sing along.
LATTERMAN
YOU, ME, & THE ATOM BOMB
NEW BRUISES
THE ERGS
27
30
THE EVENS 2004
THE EVENS by David Donaldson
intro by Parker
GET EVENS 2004
photos by PJ Sykes
Ian MacKaye has been around the block, from the highly influential hardcore punk band Minor Threat, the short-lived post-hardcore band Embrace, the collaboration with Ministry in a band called Pailhead, and let’s not forget a little band by the name of Fugazi. He even has his own record label (along with partner and former Minor Threat bandmate Jeff Nelson), Discord Records. Enter Amy Farina which is no rookie herself, having played with the D.C. indie rock outfit the Warmers. In 2001 Ian and Amy came together to form the duo The Evens . Having practiced extensively and played a few live shows in (what some what call) unusual venue choices the band came out with its first album, the self-titled The Evens in 2005. Now with the release of their second album, Get Evens , Ian and Amy are hitting the road to play a dozen east coast dates in galleries, churches, colleges, and cultural centers. About a week before The Evens played Gallery5 RVA enlisted David Donaldson (from the band Our Stable Violent Star) to get up with Mr. MacKaye and delve deeper into the formation of The Evens, the new album, and the future of Discord Records. David Davidson How did The Evens come to be? How did you and Amy end up together? Ian MacKaye We’ve been friends for many years, and we’ve spent a lot of time talking about music, and often times playing music together. In 2001 things sort of lined up in a way that made it possible for us to play together for a little while. We were not really thinking about being in a band ; we were just thinking about playing music together. And we ended up enjoying it so much that we continued to do it for about two or three years, and in 2004 we decided to take it out on the stage. DD Did you decide initially to keep it as a two piece? IM Yeah, because I mean really it was more of a musical conversation between the two of us. So we were enjoying just spending time together, writing music with each other. We weren’t thinking about it being a band, we were just thinking about it as the two of us working on songs together. We never really seriously entertained adding anybody else. And once we got up and running, I mean, just so much of our operation is kind of based 31
on the two of us. It would be kind of complicated to just throw in a third just to make it, but also I don’t know that it’s really necessary. DD The Evens have played in some very non-traditional venues, like The Children’s Museum in Richmond. What has been the most interesting? IM I don’t know, we’ve played in a whale skeleton in a Natural History Museum in upstate New York. We played in another museum in Wales that was pretty nice. We played in a junkyard in Birmingham, Alabama. We’ve played in any number of record stores and art galleries. We played in the lobby of a movie theater in Santa Cruz, Ca. That was nice. Frankly, they’ve all been kind of interesting. I mean, not playing in regular venues is definitely more challenging, and it is far more interesting. Every night when you go in you kind of have to make the gig, you have to figure out how everything is going to work. DD I could see that being a little different than just going into a club, setting up, doing your sound check, and everything runs the same way it does every other night. IM Right; I love the engagement. DD Do you find that the non-traditional venues brings a different crowd out, or more people or less people, or younger or older? IM Um, I would say that most importantly it brings out people that are interested in music, and more specifically our music. So the crowd feels more inclined to have to make something of the evening. I would say, I imagine that if we were playing regular venues we would have larger crowds. It’s just partly because, you know people have a tendency to go places where they’ve been. It’s sort of a natural human inclination to just go where they’ve already been. Another thing is, I think that people that listen to music now have become very-- have been trained to find their music in advertising in the weeklys, and you know there is no strip ad for The Children’s Museum for instance. If there’s no strip ad then people don’t really know about the gig. It’s one of those things that you kind of have to search out to find it. Our idea is not necessarily to sort of you know, get as many people to 32
come out as possible, but more to get people who are interested to come see the shows. I would also like to impress upon people the sort of possibility that music can appear other locations, other than just the normal spots. DD When I first talked to you about the Children’s Museum, you mentioned that The Evens were seeking out non-traditional venues and I thought that that was a very interesting idea. IM It’s worked out great for us. I mean, I love it. I have to be honest with you, I really don’t miss the rock club world a bit. DD I don’t blame you. Just the experiences that I personally have had with the clubs in town, I find it’s a lot easier to do things like deal with art galleries and museums, at least I’ve found it to be. IM Definitely, then they’re just enthusiastic. DD Right, because that’s not what they have normally going on there, so somebody must be really interested in doing it if they’re going to go out of their way to have it at a venue like that. IM Right, and then it exposes people to the venue. So maybe there’s, you know galleries and other places, they’re happy to have other people coming into the room. DD How was the process of making Get Evens different than the first record? IM We recorded on a _” 8 track tape at Dischord house. So the first record was recorded on 24 track at Inner Ear. And on this one we did all the engineering ourselves, so that was quite a challenge. We were pretty happy with the sounds. DD Lyrically, what are the songs on Get Evens about? IM We just write about whatever we’re thinking about. At the moment we’re in a country that has a government that has essentially plunged us into military actions all around the world ; you know, that I think, in my opinion are criminal, and I think that it’s just a devastating blow to our country, and it’s going to be something that we have to contend with for years. So at the moment I guess, one thing that’s always on my mind is criticizing the government and also encouraging people to join in on the criticism. Because you know, the most powerful party in this country is not the Democratic party, I know that they now have control of the house and the senate; it’s not
the Republican party, and they have control of the executive branch; it’s the apathetic party, that are in control of everything because they’re not actually voicing any real concerns, they’re just trying to mind their business. Speaking from my lyrics, some of the songs I would say are definitely, you know being critical of what’s happened, because I feel that it’s dearly in need of criticism. Also I think we sing about liberation, the good things in the world that are all around us, sort of celebrate that. DD A question about your choice of instrument, why did you choose to go with a baritone guitar instead of a regular guitar? IM When we first started playing, I did play a regular guitar. But I really had an idea for the way I wanted things to sound. I love low end, I mean I was essentially a bass player first and foremost. I was a piano player as a kid, and when I first got into a band I played bass, and I am actually a very rhythmic player and in Fugazi I essentially played, I was definitely the rhythm guitar player. My rhythm, a lot of the basslines in Fugazi, you know, I wrote them. I think a lot about the bass, I love the instrument. But I didn’t really want to play bass and drums because I find there to be a real sonic limitation. Also I had gotten really used to playing guitar in Fugazi, so the baritone just fit right in. It was kind of a cross between the two. I can definitely get guitar sounds, and I can also illicit bass sounds pretty easily. One thing to think about, I’ve noticed it with the first record, I think a lot of people heard that first record and just thought it was a band, then they heard that it was a two piece, and they thought that we overdubbed the bass. It was actually live, there are no musical overdubs on either one of these records to speak of. There are little tiny things, like there was a piano on the first record, and there are tiny little things I’ve added in on this one, but by in large there’s nothing added in; it’s just the two of playing. But I think that, so the illusion is actually successful people do hear it as a band, but in some ways, I think that once people heard it as a band it became less interesting to them. They just thought, oh it’s just a band. Our job is to write songs that are remarkable enough that they’ll want to remark upon them, and that’s our jobs. Even if though they’re maybe missing the fact that we’re a duo we’ve got to write songs that people are going to say, “man that song just kicked my ass”, so that’s our aim.
DD What other D.C. bands have your ear at the moment? IM I just finished recording a record with Antelope. We actually recorded it at Dischord House on the 8-track and I love it, I think it’s a great record. It’ll come out in early 2007. Actually I think the new Soccer Team record is fantastic, I saw those guys on Saturday night, I love them. And there was a band I saw, I think they were called Babykiller Estelle. They’re pretty interesting, it’s like a piano player and a drummer. I think there are a couple other little things that are bubbling up that are of interest to me, but I can’t think of any at the moment. DD What does the future hold for Dischord? I know over the years there have been a lot of bands, and short lived bands, and other bands forming from those bands; for the other bands, and for you personally what does the future hold for Dischord? IM You know, I just never thought about the future. I didn’t think about the future in the past, I don’t think about the future in the present, and I don’t think I’ll think about the future in the future either. I just don’t think about it. I feel that at the moment our work is, like the Evens, and we just got through releasing 7 releases this fall, we’re really happy about that. This Antelope record is coming together, there’s more. I’m keeping my eye out for new bands in town. I know some bands are going to be going on a break, and I hope that the people in the bands will do something else, and then there’s all kinds of historical stuff we have in our vaults that we’re going to start digging through and just trying to keep putting stuff out. As long as people are interested, we’ll keep putting it out. But I don’t really have a sense of the future, because I have no idea of what’s in the future. So I just think that at the moment, our work is in front of us, what we’re doing today. For me, some things are changing at the label, some people are leaving to do personal things in their lives, so that’s been a bit of a transition, but it’s good, all is well, that’s a good thing. And there should be a sense of fluidity at Dischord, I mean, Dischord is never supposed to be an end, an end all kind of zone it really is, as a job it’s supposed to allow people to figure out what they want to do in their lives and hopefully assist them in that effort.
Find out more info or buy their albums at www.dischord.com.
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+ TOP 5 0 REC ORDS OF 20 0 6 +
1) Battle of Mice A Day of Nights (Neurot) 2) Jesu Silver (Hydra Head) 3) Grails Black Tar Prophecies 1,2, And 3 (Important) 4) Tom Waits Orphans (Anti) 5) Enslaved Ruun (Candlelight) 6) Cult of Luna Somewhere Along The Highway (Earache) 7) Matmos The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of The Beast (Matador) 8) Tragedy Nerve Damage (Tragedy) 9) Mogwai Mr Beast (Matador) 10) Bat For Lashes Fur and Gold (Echo) 11) Ghostface Killah Fishscale (Def Jam) 12) Pit Er Pat Pyramids (Thrill Jockey)13) Melvins (A) Senile Animal (Ipecac) 14) Kayo Dot Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue (Robotic Empire) 15) Hope Conspiracy Death Knows Your Name (Deathwish) 16) Envy Insomniac Doze (Temporary Residence) 17) Burial Burial (Hyperdub) 18) Mouth Of The Architect The Ties That Bind (Translation Loss) 19) Homemade Knives No One Doubts The Darkness (Triple Stamp) 20) Year Of No Light Nord (E-Vinyl) 21) Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti) 22) Mogwai Zidane (Pias) 23) The Sword Age Of Winters (Kemado) 24) The Black Heart Procession The Spell (Touch And Go) 25) Neil On Impression The Perfect Tango (Release The Bats) 26) Nights Like These The Faithless (Victory) 27) Cat Power The Greatest (Matador) 28) Red Sparowes Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun (Neurot) 29) Morrissey Ringleader Of The Tormentors (Sanctuary) 30) Isis and Aereogramme In The Fishtank 14 (In The Fishtank) 31) Ensemble Ensemble (Fat Cat) 32) Mastodon Blood Mountain (Reprise) 33) Lucero Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers (Liberty And Lament) 34) Isis In The Absence Of Truth (Ipecac) 35) I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness Fear Is On Our Side (Secretly Canadian) 36) Blame Game Ask Someone (Stickfigure) 37) Mono You Are There (Temporary Residence) 38) Made Out Of Babies Coward (Neurot) 39) Om Conference Of Birds (Holy Mountain) 40) Genghis Tron Dead Mountain Mouth (Crucial Blast) 41) Tides From Silence (TDB) 42) Magnolia Electric Co Fading Trails (Secretly Canadian) 43) Growing Color Wheel (Troubleman Unlimited) 44) Six Organs Of Admittance The Sun Awakens (Drag City) 45) Sunn0))) + Boris Altar (Southern Lord) 46) Ultra Dolphins Mar (Robotic Empire) 47) Celtic Frost Monotheist (Century Media) 48) Mono and World’s End Girlfriend Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain (Temporary Residence) 49) Pan American For Waiting, For Chasing (Mosz) 50) Agalloch Ashes Against The Grain (The End)
B A ND S T H
T HE
A B OVE LIS
+ FIVE AT A L MOST M A DE T+ 1) Jedi Mind Tricks 2) Across Tundras 3) Scott Walker 4) Raise The Red Lantern 5) Iron Maiden
+ TOP 5 LOCAL RICHMOND, VA BANDS OF 2006 + 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
Homemade Knives Lord By Fire Tigershark Cough Mouthbreather
by Jonathan Lee
images by Adam Juresko 35
+ Top 10 Live Bands Of 2006 + 1)
Sigur Ros 2 ) A Silver Mt Zion 3 ) The Drift 4 ) Grails 5 ) Dalek 6 ) Lucero 7 ) Mono 8 ) Tragedy 9 ) Lord By Fire 10 ) Magnolia Electric Co.
36
As
Jonathan
sneaks into
your family’s house on Xmas eve and drops a copy of the new Souvenir’s Young America “s /t” cd (Underadar or lp on evinyl) into ever y stocking over the fireplace, please remember to leave him some “special ”
cookie s to br ing him holiday cheer….HO HO HO…cough ! 37
Fifth Hour Hero
to mention that this record is a lot more mature and well thought out than anything they have done previously. This album is Perfecting perfection isn’t much less pop punk, still an easy task, not that Fifth ver y pop, but a lot more Hour Hero was perfect berock and roll (paying fore, but they were damn tribute to The Boss on near close. For those the track “Bruce, Oh My unfamiliar with them, Bruce” ), adding texture they definitely had their to a few of the songs roots in pop punk, half of with a horn section. A the time sounding ver y funny thing about this similar to Discount. Their band is that being French last full length, Scattered Canadian, English is not Sentences was pretty Not Revenge… has me their first language, so astounding, as was the EP reevaluating this band sometimes the lyrics are that followed it, You Have entirely. The vocals are phrased a little strangely, Hurt My Business and much more successbut come off at times My Reputation Too . Both fully integrated with each as totally brilliant and records while on constant other and actually play off much more heartfelt than rotation in my stereo were of each other quite well. I would have expected lacking something, and it The song structures are initially. There isn’t one was easy for me to pick my better and the hooks are bad song on this record, favorite of the two singers, even more prevalent. Not but my top pick at the
Not Revenge… Just a Vicious Crush No Idea Records
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Genevieve Tremblay and Olivier Maguire, because they tended to keep their vocals pretty obviously separated from song to song. Tending to lean towards the songs that Genevieve sang on, at one point I just started skipping the songs that Olivier sang on as they weren’t up to par musically, melodically or overall with the songs sung by his counterpart.
time of this writing is the song “To Split a Rival Like a Fish,” a song in which Olivier is the main singer, which is strange for me as I wasn’t ever really a fan of his throaty singing, but the harmonizing in the chorus between he and Genevieve is impeccable. From start to finish, this album is thoroughly enjoyable bringing to mind at separate times the likes of Strike Anywhere, Hot Rod Circuit, and Hot Water Music all the while remaining true to their own perfect blend of pop punk and rock and roll. They may not have reached perfection before, but this might be it. - Brandon Peck
Isis
In the Absence of Truth Ipecac Recordings Words like “layers,” “progression,” and “forward thinking” cannot be avoided when describing the sounds that Isis have woven into In the Absence of Truth . The band continues to break new ground within itself on each album, however large or small that may be. With In the Absence of Truth , Isis have ingeniously crafted another sonic soundscape, musically ebbing and flowing compositions while adding new elements to their sound. At times Aaron Turner’s vocals
are cleaner, clearer, and have more dynamic range than on any of the bands previous albums. Don’t worr y though, there’s still the moments of hoarse, guttural yelling he is known for tearing in at the appropriate times when the music climbs to furious heights of chaos. Another noticeable change is the more dynamic and harder hitting drumming of Aaron Harris. Not only does he use a double bass kick to pack a punch but the percussion has also become more varied and technical, at times even sounding like tablas (an Indian percussion instrument). Together with the multilayered guitars, ambience, and the sculpted
song “Young, Loud and Scotty” ended, I knew I had found something brilliant. I immediately penned a short letter of praise expressing my hunger for more of their music, sealed the envelope and stuck it in the mail. It’s true; I did not yet have the internet. Roughly a month later I was reading a magazine and stumbled across an article about Kid Dynamite, the band that Lifetime guitarist, Dan Yemin had started after the demise of Lifetime. The demise of Lifetime? Lifetime No! The next day my Two Songs 7” letter was in the mailbox, Decaydance unopened, and stamped with “Return to Sender.” When I was in high school For the next 8 years, I heard Lifetime for the Lifetime remained a confirst time. By the time the
electronic tinges and tones, Isis builds another slow burning epic album that reveals new textural nuances with each listen. In fact there are so many layers on this album that it will force you put your ears closer to the speakers. This is not music for listeners with ADD or ADHD. In the Absence of Truth is a beautiful album full of a genuine strive for growth, not by leaps and bounds, but a “baby step” mentality put toward the tweaking of the evolution of their sound. - Parker
stant, eventually taking their place in my heart as my definite #1 favorite band. Constantly finding reasons to be inspired by their music and the lyrics of Ari Katz, and even taking part in a Lifetime tribute band, it was no secret to anyone that this band meant a lot to me. This is why I was inundated with questions as to what I thought of them reuniting after the totally botched Hellfest this year, which turned into Lifetime playing three shows and reigniting the flame that died out nearly a decade ago. I was torn, and when they announced an east coast tour in July, I bit the bullet and went to see them
in DC. There is something about seeing a band for the first time after only hearing their song on CD and vinyl for 8 years that is ver y ner ve-racking. I was sure I would be disappointed, but when they hit the stage and blasted through 10+ songs in only a half hour, the smile never left my face, and my worries were gone. Which brings us to this 7”. The first two songs recorded and released in 9 years are “Haircuts and T-shirts” and “All Night Long”. Both songs have all of the melody and energy that made me love this band, the lyrics are just as personal as ever and if you ever had any doubt that they couldn’t
pull off this reunion with style I dare you to listen to this a few times. The only pitfall of this record is its brevity, barely breaking 4 minutes. If the guys in Lifetime intended to entice us, and leave us hungr y for the next full length, they have undoubtedly succeeded. Bravo, gentlemen. - Brandon Peck
Mass Movement of The Moth
Outerspace Exotic Fever Records If you haven’t heard of this band yet, you must not be paying attention. This Richmond / Northern Virginia group of kids does a great job of making music that is impossible to label. Falling somewhere between the keyboard
punk rock of VCR, the spastic guitar of Blood Brothers and a host of too many other influences (amongst them, grooving reggae rock), Mass Movement of the Moth have released their greatest effort yet. This album wastes no time picking up speed as the first track “Idle Minds Speak in Binar y” comes in full force with its creative guitar compositions, yelled vocals and haunting keyboards. By the time this first track is over, you get about 2 seconds to breathe before the second track, “Fang,” comes blasting through your speakers. Other standout tracks on this album are “Ous We 39
side project initially started to give Walter Schreifels a band to front, only ever recorded a demo in 1989. Those recordings, released now as an exclusively digital EP, ser ve as the transition from Schreifels’ hardcore roots into the post-hardcore sound he helped to create (Moondog’s live lineup Moondog later morphed into QuickMoondog sand) and demonstrate a (digital only reissue) bit of both those styles. Anthology RecordSounding sonically akin ings to the various Schreifels After years only available projects (especially CIV for those who believe in various bootlegged he penned most of that Track after track this formats, the classic band’s debut), these are record will continue to recordings of NYHC act surprise you with some of Moondog are finally get- must-have recordings. Although, I feel like a the most oddly interesting ting a proper release… physical release would compositions, and some sorta. This band, which have been warranted, ver y creative guitar work. was a Gorilla Biscuits Are,” a song that starts with a slow tempo crawl led by creepy keyboards, and slowly picked guitar notes. The tempo picks up a bit before returning to a tempo similar to the beginning in which the title of the song is revealed in the lyrics “Ous we are, so mysteri, ous we are.” We are launched into a long build up complete with yelps and screams before suddenly launching into a total ska-reggae part. It doesn’t make sense on paper, but somehow it all fits together perfectly.
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Ever ything that could be done right, is. The result is a captivating album full of music that will make you feel like you just sat through a really intense alien / zombie / horror movie. I’m looking forward to what is to come from this band with great curiosity and excitement. - Brandon Peck
remastered and available digitally works too.. - Sean Patrick Rhorer
Off With Their Heads
Hi Five For The Rapture 7” Fashionable Idiots Records For some reason, a lot of bands playing pop punk ala Dillinger Four seem to be popping up these days. Of them, Off With Their Heads definitely offer the most interesting music. This new 7” features three anthemic, yet catchy-as-hell tunes that all deliver. As if they didn’t earn enough cred on their own, Dillinger Four’s Paddy Costello plays bass on this recording. Awesome band
that I can’t wait to hear more from soon.- SPR
Our Stable Violent Star
Self Titled Self Released www.myspace.com/ ourstableviolentstar You can immediately tell Our Stable Violent Star had fun making this album, their debut full-length. The patchwork of experimental sounds and styles needed be realized in a setting like Minimum Wage Studios, because the only way to contain a musical beast this out of control is to let it go off. After OSVS wake you up with the film-like intro, a bit of French klezmer nod-
ding, and bouts of manic singing / spoken word, they crash you face first into a water y grave… Then you understand OSVS are just getting started. “Chapter 3” begins with an epic climb as they pull you out, administer mouth to mouth with a steady guitar and bass-line, and push you right back into a noisy, pounding hysteria. While it may be difficult to keep up with the sudden tempo changes, this is no torture session. OSVS ensure that you remain engaged, wondering what they’ll do to you next. This album works kind of like a jack-in-the-box – you don’t know when it’s
going to POP and give you that jolt, but you turn the crank anyway, letting the pretty tune lull you into a false sense of security. You may not always like the jolt, but you welcome it and you will definitely FEEL it, and therein lies the power of OSVS. David, Nathaniel, and Natron can tightly segue from one genre to another and you must rely on primal instincts to pogo, dance, or clap your hands. You’ll be guided along by Jameson’s equally expressive vocals, ranging from indie-rock sing-alongs to hardcore shrieks and flattered by his sometimes-atonal chants. Even after one reading of the lyrics, it’s possible to follow the
characters’ feelings of distress, confusion, fur y and desperation through sound alone. Just take the opportunity to catch your breath during the cracklings of “A Paedo Baptism” and “Ver y Subtle” or the mutant baby talk of “Bastard Birth.” And as you reach the end of “As Told In 3rd.14 Person” OSVS morph into “Several Species of Small Furr y Animals Gathered Together In a Cave and Grooving With a Pict” (look it up). On this record (and their ensuing live show), Our Stable Violent Star succeed in exhausting themselves and the listener. As the last pieces of cello and feedback fade
on “Sequence Raveled Out Of Sound” I’m taken back to imager y from the song prior, “Fractured In Time.” My limbs may be broken, but there’s something about it that’s strangely soothing. And I turn the crank again. - Mike Rutz
the mix. As the years have passed though, the formula has never seemed to be as good as those first couple of EPs and with the release of Not Enough Saturday Nights , River City High has all but abandoned it altogether. In fact, the majority of this new River City High album sounds more like Not Enough lame local bar rock than Saturday Nights anything being created Takeover Records by former pop punkers. While a couple of songs When River City High (most notably “Amy” ) still first popped onto the scene, they showed a lot retain a glimmer of what made this band awesome of promise. Featuring former Funsize front man in the past, the remainJames Menefee, the band ders truly are disappointpacked all the catchy pop ing.. - SPR goodness people had come to love from him, while incorporating a healthy dose of rock into 41
Party Favors by Clay McLeod Chapman image by Jeff Smack
My husband purchased our first camcorder just a few days before Jimmy’s fifth birthday, nearly twenty years ago now. His party’s one of our first memories captured on video, leaving us with hours worth of grainy footage, these pixilated visions of party favors waving through the air. There’s at least three tapes of Jimmy opening his presents, blowing out the candles on his cake. Even me cleaning up after everybody had left.
I’d completely forgotten all about it -- up until I saw Jimmy on the six o’clock news, blindfolded all over again. The image has the same grainy quality to it, shot on some shoddy camcorder -- the auto-focus fluctuating back and forth before finally settling on his face, his features clarifying themselves after a few seconds. His tussled hair. The bruises on his cheek. His unshaven chin, the whiskers just barely beginning to sprout.
Put that damn thing away and help me pick up, you can hear me yelling at the camera, caught swearing on tape for the rest of my life. It may have been our son’s birthday, but it was my husband who was acting like he’d just gotten a new toy -- refusing to put that clunky contraption down all day, recording every spare snippet that caught his eye.
They have him kneeling in the foreground -- while right behind him, there are these three hooded men pressing their rifles against their chests. Their faces are swathed in these red-checkered keffiyehs, made from the same material as the table-spreads we’d use for our backyard barbecues -- looking as if they’d wrapped their heads in picnic blankets. There’s a banner hanging from the wall, written in Arabic. Took me three blinks before I could stop myself from thinking it said HAPPY BIRTHDAY in some foreign language.
The moment I remember best is Jimmy playing pin-the-tail-on-thedonkey, where I’m blindfolding him in the backyard, the rest of the kids forming a circle, surrounding Jimmy as I spin him around three times, all of his friends counting off with each turn, one, two, three, finally letting him go, watching him wobble on his own, back and forth, all dizzy, reaching his arms out in front of him, trying to get his balance back, getting tangled up into the streamers hanging from the trees, suddenly mummifying himself in crepe paper. Searching desperately for that donkey. My husband sneaks up in front of him, trying not to make a sound -- only for Jimmy to start marching straight for the video camera, aiming his pin directly at the lens. There’s about ten seconds worth of Jimmy just filling up the frame, smiling, his eyes hidden behind that blindfold -- reaching out for the camera, only a few feet away from pinning his father with the donkey tail. My husband hadn’t mastered the auto-focus yet, trying to keep up with Jimmy while tightening in on the focal point, following him through the viewfinder -- so most of the footage is a bit blurred. Everybody’s laughing, though -- these images of children in the background giggling as Jimmy stumbles around. I can’t even tell you the last time I watched that video. Had to’ve been years ago. Wasn’t until recently that I even thought about it, having to rummage through a few boxes in the closet to find the tape in the first place, dusting it off and slipping it into our VCR.
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This looks familiar to me, I thought. Where have I seen this before? And sure enough, it all comes flooding back to me in that moment: the blindfold, the banner, the people in the background. This was Jimmy’s fifth birthday party all over again. Hearing him plead for his life -- I remember feeling familiar with that tone of voice, recognizing how it sounded. This is when Jimmy gives up on the game, I said to myself. This is when he pulls off his blindfold to see how far away he is from the donkey, kicking his heels when he sees that he’s only a few inches off. But the men won’t let him peek, insisting that he keep playing -- shoving the butts of their rifles into his back whenever he stops talking, repeating the same statement over and over again. When the anchorman began reporting about a relief worker in Iraq getting kidnapped, I panicked, grabbing the closet video cassette I could find, slipping it into our VCR and pressing record just in time to get Jimmy. He’s wearing an orange jumpsuit that doesn’t look familiar to me. It’s not something I’ve ever seen him wear before. Definitely not something I bought for him. He’s saying something to the camera -- his voice sounding hollow, dissonant. The acoustics of the room are terrible, the microphone picking
up the hum of the fluorescent lights over his head. You can barely hear him. The news had edited his segment down to a few seconds, cutting out all the parts that are spoken in Arabic -- leaving in Jimmy’s plea to American soldiers, begging the president to pull out from Baghdad.
This is my last chance, Jimmy weeps, bowing his head. Please, help me. I ended up accidentally taping over the last half of our vacation to the Florida Keys. There’s about three minutes of me and my husband sunbathing on the beach, the video camera on me, holding my hand up to my forehead, shielding my eyes from the light -- only to cut right to that yellow and black sunburst, that banner of the Jihad hanging from the back wall. Whoever’s behind the camera, you can tell he wants to frame the shot perfectly -- staging everything so that he can get the best composition. Getting the lights just right. Where should the hooded men stand, how close they should be to their hostage. An inch to the left, an inch to the right. Take a step forward and stop. But I can’t help myself from seeing my son sitting at the picnic table in our backyard, his friends all crowding around him, all of them leaning over his shoulders just as he’s about to blow out the candles on his cake. What I’m watching on the national news is nothing but some party game. I’ve spent the entire week sitting in front of the television, watching through all of our home movies. Hours and hours worth of our family’s life. When I make my way through one tape, I’ll pop in the next -- sifting through the last twenty years, watching every moment we ever recorded on camera. All of Jimmy’s birthday parties. Our family vacation to the Bahamas. Our trip to Disney Land. Trips to the beach. Thanksgiving pageants. Christmas dinners. Anniversary parties. Heading off to prom. Jimmy’s senior recital. Jimmy’s high school graduation. Jimmy’s first day of college. What I don’t have is his beheading. None of the networks will send me a copy, no matter how much I beg. Even if he is my son, no one will let me see.
www.needsupply.com / 804.355.5880
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A SPECTACLE MONOPOLIZED – MELTDOWN AT THE MARRIOTT On election night, my roommate’s car breezed us past the big buses barricading the front of the downtown Marriott from all sides. That corner was to become over the next 48 hours the epicenter of the closest watched U.S. Senate race. Conventional wisdom, even that tacitly falling out from Karl Rove’s office, had for a long time held that the Democrats were going to win the House of Representatives, but far, far fewer individuals predicted the heavy Senate losses visited upon the Grand Ol’ Party November 7. Drenched, I signed into Webb’s election night Headquarters at the Omni, only to find an all but empty room, and learn that the candidate was camped out in Arlington. I put down my bag and weighed my options. Allen had set up shop in a local headquarters a few blocks west. Besides, the trickle in of Democrats was slow: only five or so milling about. Jim Turpin was there, an Arlington Democratic Committee member. He sat in front of a projector blasting MSNBC onto the wall, and looked pensive. He said the Mayor would come later. I sat down for a minute, but my instincts led me to trudge into the rainy night, back to the Marriott. The Allen set-up was substantial. Reporters had packed an entire wall of a conference room with cameras facing two ceiling-high projector screens with Fox News on, a ceiling-high waving flag image, and the podium in front of it. That late on the trail, the network news channels by far outweighed CSPAN on immediate tabloid value. George Allen and Jim Webb’s quest for U.S. Senate descended into the bowels of absurdist namecalling. The Senatorial Campaign Committees pushed the most abysmal
and personal of the ads going distinctly negative. The prevalence of the localized TV ads became increasingly ironic as summer ended. Factcheck.org was doing a great job clarifying the claims made by the ads, but I could not find the time to dedicate to Jim Webb’s novels. (Offensive to community standards, or so said the Allen team.) At a Webb rally at VCU earlier on, I turned around to see and meet a guy named Aaron Ledwith who had a big Allen sign covering his lap. He marked up his voting plans in terms of how he saw Webb as “just putting up a front.” He explained, “Once he gets into office, he’s just going to be your typical big Washington politician who is not looking at any [local] issues. He seemed more like a nationalist than a person of Virginia.” TSB “Allen told me that the people of Iraq are grateful for the U.S. actions against them.” Ledwith “They are.” TSB “They are?” Ledwith “Yeah. There was this one speech Bush was giving at where there was actually an Iraqi woman who said that she gave us our thanks because she is now free and able to live in Iraq. And she came here just exclusively to visit the president, Bush.” The sheriff of Henrico County, Mike Wade, would share with me a generally positive sentiment. “I consider the Iraq War part of Homeland Security… I think we need to continue forward, and not take steps backward.” At the Marriott on election night, Virginia Senator John Warner was standing around in the hotel lobby with a handler. From what I could observe, Ledwith’s overview had apparently turned by early evening
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when returns were coming back from exit polls. TSB “Many polls coming out of MSNBC have said that more people are voting on national issues than local issues.” John Warner “I think that could well be true.” TSB “Well, why does that change from Tip O’Neil’s old adage—” Warner “‘All politics is local’?” TSB “Yeah.” Warner “I think Tip O’Neill, who I respected and knew quite well, is slightly outdated.” (O’Neil served as Speaker of the House for a decade before retiring in 1987.) TSB “Are the people of Iraq grateful for their ‘liberation’ and occupation?” Warner “I was up there about four weeks ago, and I can tell you, I didn’t see much gratefulness.”
since I first saw him speak, Barack Obama (D-IL) had not significantly changed his stump speech. It was the same old lame jokes about his name ( “people called me ‘yo mama’” ), talking about his family, the same sort of general party-line positivism, and the familiar misgivings about the war. Obama himself is a Jesus freak, and, consequently, VUU’s gospel choir warmed up the crowd before Bobby Scott (D-VA), Jim Nachman (who would later lose to by Eric Cantor (R-VA) in the 7th district), Mark Warner, the candidate and him took the stage. As much of a buzz of a Democratic Obama presidency was locally generating, black support for Republicans had not been totally devoid. As his office had not returned my calls, it was convenient to run into Benjamin Lambert, head of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, who had taken some grief in the blogging world and the Richmond Free Press for his endorsement of the Republican.
The freak-out and the gratitude around Barack Obama in North Richmond were incomparable to anything I ever saw on the trail. Attempting to get near the Illinois senator at VUU was like trying to wade through a crowded metal show. My body was pressed on all sides so that I had to shove my way desperately through the back of the crowd. Most yearned to get a handshake and, invariably, their copies of The Audacity Of Hope signed, but I could not even get a question in.
TSB “I saw your piece in Style Weekly. What was your biggest reason for supporting Allen? I mean, was it the black college support? I mean, you weren’t really perturbed by the race issue, as, uh, many people in this state appeared to be.” Lambert “George and I have been good friends for a long time.” TSB “Right.” Lambert “His wife and I serve on the [unintelligible] Resources Board. And whenever I’ve gone to Washington, he’s been very kind and receptive… We know how to talk to each other and how to deal with each other, and that’s why I supported him, because I thought he’d be a good merger really.” TSB “Yeah, I mean, I see how you’re really closely connected to the Richmond scene.” Lambert“Yeah.”
There, as well as at VCU, governor Tim Kaine (D-VA) and his predecessor Mark Warner stumped for Jim Webb as they made their last minute push through Northern Virginia – the land of milk and honey, and the land of money and cars. “They call us the three amigos,”said the governor. At both rallies, Warner ingratiated himself to the crowds with a pageantry presentation of his successor. I found it amazing at VUU how, a year later
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TSB “You have the Lambert Center on Grace Street, and I saw that, and I was wondering, you know, what brings Richmond closer to George Allen? I’m a Richmond magazine.” Lambert “The main thing for me is was, is, he supports the historically black colleges, and a lot of them need tremendous support. He put the budget amendment in for $450 million, which is very good.”
on here--” he said, raising an indignant eyebrow. “--that would actually require an administration that believed in science.” This was, of course, a crack at the president’s push for creationism in public schools, and especially his veto of a bill that would have reformed Clinton-era policies that refused funding for embryonic stem cell research. After the rally, I ran into Doug Wilder.
As he dashed about all evening, Allen’s son, Forrest, occasionally chewed the tip of a mechanical pencil. In contrast to what Susan Allen appearance on Fox News, where she claimed in primetime that Forrest had been called “macaca,” he said that the race had “not really” affected his social life, and that “you would be surprised” how little it had. Tim Kaine had made his way off of the other side of the (physical) platform at VUU when I caught him on the other side. I reared my microphone across four reporters’ shoulders while the governor, face forward in consternation, looked slightly exhausted by aggressive reporters. “I spoke to Jerry Kilgore recently, and he told me he thought global warming was one of Al Gore’s fictions, or that it wouldn’t happen until we were all dead. What is your opinion about global warming?” “It’s real,” he said. “Ask the scientists.” A big theme in understanding the party line was the relationship between science and faith, epistemology, and knowing how we know what we do about the universe and our bodies. Such speculation and studies, however, simply did not make effective attack ads. Articulating creationism or evolution in 30 seconds would have been difficult.
TSB “Jim Webb once wrote affirmative action is as ‘odious’ as Jim Crow laws with respect to white people. I’m trying to kind of carve the party line out here, ‘cause, you know, talking with Edwards, Edwards told me he strongly supports it. Curious about your own opinions about affirmative action in relation to that.” Doug Wilder, RVA Mayor “I think unfortunately sometimes people get caught up in the usage of words to describe what should be done in terms of anything. Jim Webb is for families, he’s for equity, he’s for access, and to the extent that government plays any role in denying that, he’s for eliminating it. I’m convinced of that. I’m certain of that. “In terms of what he may have said some while back, I think you’ll find that even he would modify that today in terms of what he knows to be, what he really thinks of a denial of those rights that we’ve spoken of. So to the extent that government participates, the government has a responsibility to--” Wilder’s voice briefly cracked falsetto in emphasis, “--back off, and made to back off denial.” TSB “Jim Webb says he won’t raise taxes on working families. What does he mean by ‘working families?’ I mean, I guess everyone, including that mega ridiculously 1% –” RVA Mayor “I think what he is saying is, that for those people who are saying that he is going to propose a $2,000 income tax or some tax on some people, that’s not true. And to the extent that people are already
On election eve, the “technocrat” Mark Warner bemoaned in a hoarse voice the White House’s refusal of public funding for stem cell research. “Wouldn’t it be great if America led the world in innovation? But hold
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burdened at that working level, he is not thinking about imposing any taxes on those people. I don’t know, I have not heard of him being in favor of raising taxes on anybody. I don’t know that they’re –” TSB “Nobody tends to run on that.” RVA Mayor “No.” At about 10 p.m. on election night, the Allen room’s faces and reactions were looking cautiously cheery. As the commonwealth’s precincts reported, I craned around a suit with a Blackberry in the back room as he sent the results flying out to some remote office location. The exit polls he was pulling up on a ThinkPad were amazing. Race had proven to be dramatic factor, just as much as being an evangelical Christian. One CNN poll showed Jim Webb pulling around 82% of “non-white” women, and 75% of “non-white” men. Later, the network’s analysis showed that if you made less than $50,000 or more than $150,000, you were more likely in an income bracket displaying a Webb majority. It was also apparent that people with postgraduate degrees and without high school diplomas shared a preference for Webb. Of those who strongly opposed or supported the President tended to then want to throw their influence against or for his party. The frequency of church attendance was the strongest correlate for voting Republican. But throughout my conversations in the conference room, I reassured Allen supporters that he would continue to hold on as the numbers ticked in because, in the last issue, I predicted a close but certain Allen win. My honest prediction was wrong. As attorney general Bob McDonnell descended from the podium after trying to fire up the crowd, I told him I could “feel it in my knees.” He said, “Jim Webb is not going to hold a candle to George Allen in terms 52
of his experience, and his understanding of everything from the free enterprise policies and the public safety policies that have made Virginia strong.” The conversation shifted to his concerns about “activist judges.” TSB “What would activists judges do? Would they be, like, uh, you know, enforcing gay marriage? Would it be things like that?” McDonnell “Well, that’s what they just did last week in New Jersey. You had, uh, you had seven judges on the New Jersey Supreme Court telling the New Jersey General Assembly that they needed to enact a law to either have gay marriage or gay civil unions. When activist judges on the, uh, Supreme Court of the United States, uh, I believe, in a keylow decision striking down or upholding the ability to take private property for economic development and employment and tax revenue, I don’t think that’s what our founders meant in either one of those. They understand judges who have an understanding of the historical, traditional limitations of judicial power.” Following those comments, whispers began to go around that RVA precincts were some of the last to trickle in, which was my first quantifiable suspicion of a turnaround later in the night. Incidentally, while the ballot question barring gay marriage and civil unions in Virginia failed in RVA, the Commonwealth overall granted it a pass. Before going into temporary seclusion that night, John Warner told another reporter, “Let’s examine the returns, and carefully go into how the votes were cast, and for what reason. But, remember, Americans are speaking tonight, and the one good, positive thing out of this election is that so many of them are exercising the valuable right to vote. Period.” But, at just before midnight, the dream came crashing down, and a situation took hold that let anybody who cared about the race know why
the candidates did choose seclusion. Registered voter turnout in RVA was about 53% (Half the city is not registered), with Webb pulling an unsurprising majority of local voters with about 72% to Allen’s 27%. Even though the map the city sold me was two years old, the results were still pretty clear. In only four precincts, all in the West End, could Allen pull majorities of any kind. It is very safe to say that Webb wiped Shockoe Bottom. In the northern and especially eastern sections of the city he yanked down several counts close to or above 90%. Geographically, one of the clearest things is how the tightening of urban grid led to stronger and stronger results for Webb. The RVA results, although comprising a mere two percent of the electorate, were key to establishing the fateful figure of Webb’s tentative 12 a.m. three thousand majority. That majority is exactly what was shutting down the Marriott bars at around 12:30 a.m. right before Allen took the stage. It was supposed to be a victory party, not an Irish wake. Waiting for a concession or last minute turnaround, I trudged back from a cigarette. Then, a group of late twenty-something guys started to heckle me. “What is this?” one of them demanded. “Look, that guy told me he voted for Webb. Get out of here!” “You must feel like a rock star,” one of the drunken guys said sadly. “No,” I said. “I don’t. I just told 3,000 fucking people that Allen was going to win. This is humiliating.” One of them mocked me, grabbed my Allen press pass off my neck, and tore it in half. That incident was what woke me up to the sadness slowly tightening its grip on the room, some heads shaking and others even with red eyes. The televisions turned off, the organizers obviously
not wishing to pump out at high volume any Webb victory claims from national television (which actually came an hour later), Allen eventually came out to address the dwindling crowd, the true believers. Warner spoke first, citing a career race in which he won by only 18 votes, trying to plant doubt in the crowd’s minds that it was over. With a smile on his face, Allen took the microphone, thanked his supporters. Lambert smiled when Allen gestured to him, but Lambert looked off to the side ambivalently as the speech continued. “I know you will all be like eagles and hawks watching as every one of these votes are counted,” Allen famously remarked before leaving the stage. That was the last I saw of him. All through the night and the next day, I was slowly doing my own number crunching, trying to figure out why Allen’s advisors had not pushed him to concede immediately. According to the commonwealth’s election website, the few localities still collecting votes that morning were Loudoun, Halifax, Isle of Wight and James City. Despite whatever the networks were saying, my math told me that all Allen could have statistically reasoned to summon still left him thousands short, unless he could allege fraud or incompetence. The speech in the Marriott was probably a cushioning period, both for him and his supporters, a small transition era to which many at the well have entitled themselves. Only his jovial, Bible-referencing, football-throwing November 9 concession at the Alexandria Carlyle House marked certain Senate control for the Democratic party.
On November 15, Harry Reid appointed Jim Webb to the Foreign Relations, Veterans Affairs, and Armed Services committees.
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NEW STRATEGY: BOTCH JOKES by Frankie Lee
Despite the fact that Kerry is leaving the campaign trail, he hasn’t backed down, questioning the Republicans who’ve never worn a uniform and stating that the Administration is the one who owes apologies. He’s
Recently, Dubya dubbed Senator Kerry’s remarks about students de-
also been on Don Imus (closet Republican) to talk about the incident.
meaning toward US troops. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow de-
Imus told him to go wind surfing or golfing and to just keep his mouth
manded apologies for troop families, while Duck Hunt Cheney said Kerry
shut. And Kerry has even apologized. There’s a few problems with this
was for the joke and is now against the joke. I believe I even heard that
whole incident, the first being that it shouldn’t be an incident at all. In
some senators have already made television ads using Kerry’s remarks,
light of Congressional elections, Kerry’s flubbed lines offer material
in hopes of influencing voters in their respective contested states. Kerry
for Republicans to grab the politically media-worthy spotlight. Another
and his people maintain he flubbed the lines during his speech, which in
problem is that Kerry’s botch shouldn’t be offensive. Implying that a lack
turn changed the meaning of those lines. Allegedly, the lines were meant
of enthusiasm for education could cast you in the military is... well, it’s
to liken a person with a lack of enthusiasm for education to Dubya,
what some people do when they have a lack of enthusiasm for educa-
implying that kind of attitude leads to decisions like going to war in Iraq.
tion. Not offensive, just kind of true. The military offers an alternative
Flubbed, the lines took an interesting turn, implying that a lack of enthu-
to those who don’t necessarily want to go to college and opportunity for
siasm in education could lead to one ending up in the military and in Iraq
those who can’t necessarily afford or get in to college. Even after a spin,
(that’s SO Vietnam!). What’s interesting about this flubbed perspective
implying that US troops have a lack of education should still not be offen-
is that the administration and a wide range of Republicans (and people
sive. Is it not widely known and accepted (or protested) that the military
for that matter) demanded apologies for troops and troop families... but
recruits these types of people? Our military does boast some genius
there’s a mildly distinctive amount of spin there. The lines were spun
minds, some of the brightest, but the majority is (I would say) made up of
into implying that US troops have a lack of education.
people who don’t have higher education, thus making the spin on Kerry’s
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botched joke cynically funny (because that wasn’t the intent of the joke
>> Kerry’s remarks... not offensive
and because the alleged offended comprise the military, including Duck
>> The original writing and intent of the remark... not funny
Hunt and Dubya). The only way this joke is offensive is if every person
>>Kerry’s inability of delivering a joke... offensive and not funny
in the military volunteered for completely patriotic reasons OR every
>> Kerry’s speech writers’ lack of legitimate humor... funny, but really
person in the military does have a higher education. Neither is hardly close to truth. Those two instances only apply to an elite (hmm... the administration’s been known to associate and center itself on the elite) group of Americans.
shouldn’t be >> An apology to troops and their families... the insecurity wreaks of cynicism >> Republicans using this for benefit of political persuasion... immature and offensive
Let’s imagine for a second that Kerry would have gotten the joke right, that a lack of enthusiasm for education can lead one to make decisions
>> Democrats sweeping Kerry off the party floor... backstabbingly not funny, offensive
similar to those made by Dubya. Well Dubya graduated from Harvard
>> Any politicians’ public thoughts about this incident... Not Funny
Business School (regardless of how or why, he has it). So in this case
>> The media coverage of the incident... also reeks of cynicism
the joke really wouldn’t be funny because it isn’t Dubya’s education credentials that led him to make the decision to go to war. It’s his ego
There’s an opportunity here: botched jokes provide Democrats with
and distorted perspective on what it means to be an American. In this
tangible evidence that Republicans are lame enough to play the game of
scenario, I would join Republicans in spinning Kerry’s joke (assum-
political persuasion instead of actually coming up with better ideas about
ing it was delivered in taste, muahaha). Now I’m confused as to what’s
how to govern American people. Democrats: quit playing the game with
funny/offensive and not funny/inoffensive, or what is and isn’t supposed
Republicans!
to be funny/offensive. Here’s a list: 55
WALKING THE LINE C ommercial Vs. C reati ve : T h e B a l a n c i n g A c t A t S t u d i o 10 8 by Adam Sledd
photo by Grant Pullman
As Jack Hartmann and Chris Williams settle in to spend the next forty minutes swilling Diet Pepsi and talking about their company, the rest of Richmond’s Studio 108 team is gearing up for what Jack considers a typical day at the office: “Let’s see, we’ve got two edits for different clients, graphics for something else, and audio work for the Jamestown edit.” Chris chips in with location scouting in the afternoon, followed by two meetings on “Beast of Burden,” their upcoming co-production with Mark Joy. Says Hartmann, “And all of this is going on in a room that’s what? Seventeen feet by twenty? The structure of the room helps us out. Everyone knows what everyone else is working on, so we can act as a
backstop for each other. Other places I’ve worked it’s all cubicled off. This is the best feel of any place I’ve ever been.” For anyone looking a for way to eke out a living in the Virginia film industry, Studio 108 stands out for good reason. Created by Hartmann in the late 1990’s as his commercial production business grew, the studio has a steadily growing roster of clients, a Virginia Filmmaker of the Year award, and solidifying plans to move into television and feature films. The extremely shortened origin story goes as follows: arriving in Richmond in 1992, Hartmann moved steadily from radio advertising into television commercials. After years of working with a handful of different companies and after acquiring enough equipment, he opened Studio 108 at its current location in a carriage house behind the Virginia Garden Club. Then, in 2003, Chris Williams entered the picture, looking 57
for more short films to add to a festival at the Byrd Theater. Over the course of their meeting, Hartmann wound up watching a cut of Williams’ film “Solitude,” and came away with a vital member of the Studio 108 team: “I was really impressed with his edit. What happens is you get into making commercials to make money so you can start making movies, but then you make some money and the next thing you know you’re in the trenches everyday trying to make a buck. It really takes the planets aligning to bring someone new into the fold to remind you of what you were trying to do in the first place.” Chris came on with the goal of pushing the studio in a film-oriented direction, only to find himself following Jack down the rabbit hole of commercial production. Says Chris, “You’re making money doing this, but it’s constant practice. The downside is that, with a retail job, you’re giving fifty percent on your day job and a hundred and fifty percent at night on making movies. Here we just get so busy but you forget about it because the productions are fun, then it’s editing, and it doesn’t feel like work.” “We love what we do,” Jack adds, “but we realized that we had to get back to what we really want to do, which is make films. Films that make money, but are the films we want to make.” The pair got started on their goal in 2005, adapting a story by Hartmann’s father into the short film “La Bas,” which Jack directed. They entered the film in the James River Film Festival and came away with the Virginia Filmmaker of the Year award. While “La Bas” is an auspicious start, Williams realizes that it’s going to take money and more to get the studio on his preferred track: “We are an independent film company. Our goal isn’t to be those filmmakers who scrape together money and try to shoot on weekends, because in the end that doesn’t work. You forget you’ll need
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money for posters, for submission fees, or just to fly out to Sundance if you get in. Dismal , which was just shot out in Virginia Beach, is a great point. They blocked off the time they needed to shoot, they got the actors, they had a great co-producer who was able to raise the money. I hope that they’re successful because that will send the message that if you can do things right you really can make movies here.” Ideally, the studio’s success in commercials and editing services will lend itself to feature film production. While Hartmann and Williams both agree that finding money is the most difficult part of getting a project off the ground, by building the studio’s capabilities—including the recent purchase of a grip truck-- they are easing future production costs. Williams estimates that their existing abilities and equipment could save a hundred thousand dollars or more on a feature film budget. As Hartmann puts it, “We may still have to go outside the company for a key grip, but we can do a lot with just the group here. Graham does editing and works on systems, but he’s also a DP (Director of Photography). Our sound guy Andrew just came back from Russia where he was studying lighting design. Chris directs and edits, and he’s doing pre-production work on “Beast of Burden.” “I direct some, and edit, and sometimes I’ll produce. I’m the weakest link. I better be good at this because otherwise I’m unemployable.” Jack knows that commercials have gotten him to this point, and he’s adamant about maintaining that part of his business: “We’re going to do more films, but we love commercials. I love them. You get thirty seconds to tell a story. There are so many great ideas out there, these moments that might not work for a full movie but are great as a commercial.” As they move into new territory, the question facing Studio 108 is one of
images courtesy of Studio 108
balance. Hartmann and Williams are walking a line between paid work that they take pride and joy in and finding the money to further their creative goals. On one hand, a commercial job is guaranteed money. But while Chris subscribes to the indie filmmakers mantra, “If I can make a movie people come see, I’ll get money to make the next one,” he acknowledges that the financial pressures on a feature film will be much different: “When we work with an ad client, they have a creative input that influences how successful the final product is. But when you’re talking about a movie, you’re talking about limited partners who give you this money just to make a script. And now you have to take their money that has no guarantee of returns and you’ve got to put together something that they’re going to like how it comes out. You have a responsibility to the people who gave you that money, because they know they have little chance to get that back.”
As they look ahead to a long road of raising money for future projects, Hartmann and Williams share the hope that Studio 108’s success will help the Virginia film community as a whole. Any project that brings added attention and production dollars to the region should lead to more work for everyone, even if it’s a rival commercial house. “In this town it’s not so competitive, because everybody needs the work. Everybody’s clients have different needs so we’re not going after the same stuff,” says Chris. Jack looks up from his Diet Pepsi and adds, “I don’t know if everybody feels that way, but that’s what we believe. The best thing that we can see is for another company going gangbusters.” It will take more than one company’s success to put Virginia on the filmmaking map, and the group at Studio 108 knows this. All the same, for those of us wondering who here can get the ball rolling, there aren’t many better places to look than an old carriage house behind the Virginia Garden Club. 59
image courtesy of NBC Studios
60
THE SORKIN ZONE
Aaron Sorkin writes a kind of time-devouring drama that has its
Thoughts on three movies, in which T V’s best writer develops a signature style
always on the way to something more impor tant. If we let ourselves
by Teddy Blanks
charac ters feverishly SteadiC am-ed around dark, bustling sets, get into it, we may star t thinking, talking, or ac ting like these people. We may not be able to get out. We shouldn’t stop to think while in the Sorkin Zone ; doing so is neither rewarding nor recom-
Never an avid follower of The West Wing , I’ve found myself pe-
mended. Its charac ters, concurrently snappy and long-winded, say
culiarly obsessed with a new show from its writer and creator,
things that are fuzz y and nonsensical when regarded too closely.
Aaron Sorkin. Last week I dropped twent y bucks on a rather ugly
Sorkin’s dialogue, like film itself, flies by so fast we don’t have time
T V antenna just so I didn’t have to wait a day to download the new
to look at the individual frames. If we did, we might see that some
episode from iTunes. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip , which imag-
are blurr y and warped, unremarkable or dull. Rolling by quickly,
ines the making of a late-night sketch comedy show, is completely
they comprise something seamless ; a pul sing, rhy thmic motion.
laughable if taken seriously because no comedians or comedy writers are ever this serious. ( Not on the sur face, at least. Ac tually,
A Few Good Men was Sorkin’s first feature film. Adapted from
comedians have some of the darkest, most troubled soul s, which
his Broadway play of the same name and direc ted by Rob Reiner,
they mask with a constant need to enter tain, to ac t out— but that’s
it stars Tom Cruise and Demi Moore as militar y law yers defend-
not what Sorkin is getting at, I don’t think. ) But the show works
ing two marines accused of murder. There is a scene, early in the
any way, because its charac ters exist in a familiar realm, a coz y
film, in which Cruise runs into prosecution law yer Kevin Bacon on
parallel world of the statistic-spouting, line-repeating, high-stress,
the way out of the of fice, grill s him about a few detail s of the case,
I-need-it-done-yesterday; a place where ever yone is smar t and
and then the conversation ends when Bacon has to go another way.
self-righteous, but the good guys buf fer their arrogance with self-
Cruise continues walking outside, where Moore is waiting for him,
deprecating sarcasm, where nobody leaves an argument thinking of
and she walks with him to his car, fur ther discussing impor tant
what they should have said , a place I like to call the Sorkin Zone.
case detail s. In the shor t making-of feature, A Few Good Men : From
61
Stage To Screen , Sorkin explains that in the play, the scene was
about those detail s and sketches.
staged all in the same room ; Bacon’s charac ter would leave when the conversation was over, and Moore’s would enter soon af ter. Ap-
And when Sorkin’s most famous bit of dialogue is finally delivered
parently, it was Reiner’s idea to have them moving and speaking at
by Jack Nichol son on the witness stand, “ You can’t handle the
the same time.
truth ! ” sounds as good, hits just as hard as you ever imagined it would.
“It was the exac t scene I wrote,” Sorkin said, “Rob had just applied motion to it.” He must have loved the way the sequence turned
Malice , made a few years later, exists because Sorkin was asked to
out, because he has been writing permutation af ter permuta-
rewrite a lame T V movie in which a doc tor unnecessarily per forms
tion of it, in ever y work he’s created since. The Walk-n-Talk, it’s
a hysterec tomy on one of his patients. It’s a bizarre, incomprehen-
been called, and it’s used in other shows and movies, but never
sible film that seems, at first, to be about a serial killer preying
as well or as of ten as in Sorkin’s. (Another name it’s been given
on a small college town’s young women, suddenly switches gears
by Sorkin fans : Pedeconferencing. ) A s an entr y way into the Zone,
to focus on a dramatic malprac tice suit, and then turns, in its final
A Few Good Men ’s dialogue is comparatively slow-paced, mostly
third, to a stor y about con ar tists. He shares a screenplay credit
because its ac tors, all Holly wood heav y weights, read it like it’s an
with someone, I forget who, so it’s tempting to write of f these plot
ordinar y movie. Cruise is generally ef fec tive, as is Bacon, but Demi
acrobatic s as the imagination of his co-writer; Sorkin’s scripts
Moore can’t keep up at all. When reciting one of Sorkin’s puf fed-up
aren’t usually what I would call plot-heav y. Malice is remarkably
speeches, the only thing an ac tor needs to do is convince us she’s
bad, but its dialogue is straight from the Zone. Alec Baldwin — star
smar t and abrupt enough to think of such a monologue on the fly,
of NBC’s other behind-the-scenes at SNL show— as the sued doc-
and informed enough to know what she’s talking about— Demi
tor, gives a speech that wants badly to be Nichol son’s from A Few
doesn’t sell it. Sorkin’s writing is never really about case detail s or
Good Men , and almost is.
Social Securit y or how tomorrow night’s sketch is going to go over; it’s about the rhy thm and sound of words as his charac ters talk
62 write something and submit it
“ You ask me if I have a God complex? ” Baldwin says, “I am God.”
Needless to say, it doesn’t get him of f the hook.
American President is al so the first time the Sorkin Zone is truly in full ef fec t : Douglas and his staf f whiz around a wonder fully
In only his second screen projec t, Sorkin’s words were already
construc ted White House set, pedeconferencing ar ticulately about
beginning to sound like pastiche. This is the trouble ( if you want to
complicated political and personal issues. The President’s Chief of
call it trouble ) with the Zone : on a bad day, Aaron Sorkin sounds
Staf f is his best friend, played by Mar tin Sheen. Any of this sound
like a parody of Aaron Sorkin. The good news is that second-rate,
familiar ? Watch President and the pilot of The West Wing , Sorkin’s
in his case, is of ten indistinguishable from the best. His writing
second and most successful series ( af ter the shor t-lived but sweet
is sometimes inspired, sometimes transcendent— but it always
Spor ts Night ), back-to-back and it seems almost like a continuous
sounds inspired and transcendent. And when you’re in the Sorkin
work, or at least a sequel with minor re-casting.
Zone, what’s the dif ference? When Aaron Sorkin talks about his charac ters, it is in terms of what Sorkin’s final film before heading of f to T V land is al so his best :
they want, not who they are. He gives them no elaborate back-stor y,
The American President is a romantic comedy about a widowed
making the specific s of their situation up as he goes along. All he
President of the United States, played by a surprisingly un-creepy
knows for sure is how they talk . His secret is this : ever yone in his
Michael Douglas, who fall s in love with Annette Bening’s hapless
movies, plays, and shows, is another version of himself, debating,
poll ster. Sorkin has his fantasy President take a real stand on divi-
musing, pontificating with another version of himself, existing hap-
sive issues like gun control and the environment, and explores the
pily in their alternate universe. He seems to have been able to take
complicated logistic s and negative consequences ( accusations of
the feeling some of us get in debate clubs or high school theater
lacking “ family values” lower approval ratings ) of the world’s most
produc tions while growing up -- the quick-talking, sure-footed
power ful man having a new girlfriend. Sorkin is a sap, which can be
speech of a group of over-confident people all intensely devoted to
cloying in some of, say, Studio 60 , when no sentiment is called for,
the same thing -- and sustained it in his own mind, applying it to an
but in this movie, it’s refreshing, and less sappy than most romance
array of fic tional workaholic s in love with hearing, over and over
writing.
again, the sound of their own voices.
63
Jackie Lee Ă&#x153;ber Brid e Cotton fabric, tubing
RICHMOND ÜBER ALLES – WEARABLE ART9 by Mary Heffley
photos by Nick Kessler
Two hundred people were turned away from the Wearable Art9 runway show on November 11th. Millionaires, Ramen-fed students, and all those in between packed La Difference’s back room to support the 9th annual juried fashion show benefiting 1708 Gallery. The garments of 40 students from VCU, UVA, and Mary Washington University, as wells as professional artists, creatively interpreted the theme – Über, a German word synonymous with decadent excess. The judging panel was balanced with local philanthropic socialites Pam Reynolds and Katie Ukrop, as well as the discriminating eyes of celebrated Richmond fashion designer Michael Taylor. Judges also included architect Chris Humes, VCU Fashion faculty member and designer Kristen Caskey, artist and Wearable Art creator Sally Bowring; Heidi Story, owner of the Carytown boutique that bears her name, and Mary Washington University professor and artist Carole Garmon. A $1,000 scholarship was given by Carytown boutiques The Phoenix and Que Bella to Best in Show recipient Diana Cavanaugh for “We Asians Love Our Rice.” First Place and a $500 scholarship, given in the memory of the late VCU Fashion Chair Theo Young, were awarded to Sarah Perry for “Stilted Modesty.” Nedim Sudic took Second Place and a $300 scholarship given by Christopher English and Meda Lane for “Mameha2.” Third Place and a $200 scholarship given by Cindy Neuschwander, Jay Barrows and Heidi Story was awarded to Zac Monday for “Silver Song Bird and White Figure.” Talented artists - painters, sculptors, and photographers abound in Richmond. Few give credit to the groundswell of avant-garde creators in the fashion category however. A great sign of things to come was evidenced in the lack of a “let’s dress up and pretend we’re in New York” attitude in favor of a “this is truly a Richmond happening” sentiment. Wearable Art9 was a welcomed testament to Richmond’s progress as a world-class cultural destination.
DIANA CAVANAUGH We Asians Love Our Rice wood, ricepaper 66
AMY WILLIAMS Ă&#x153;ber Spoon plastic spoons
SARAH PERRY Stilted Modesty panty hose, wooden stilts
STUART HARNSBERGER Chicken Suits steel pencil rod 67
MEGAN MUELLER 70 Years Bad Luck broken mirrors
68
ELIZABETH KURZ I’ll Clean Your Pipes pipe cleaners, wire, cloth
MATT HOLT Über Pop “popped” collars, fabric
MEG ROBERTS Beach Ball Gown beachballs
ANGIE BACSKOCKY Wunderschon fraulein velvet
CAITLIN LANTHAM In the Center of Elizabeth
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Thank you to 1708 Gallery.
B urlesque
. Now there’s a word with a stigma attached to it. Say “burlesque,” and there is of ten a visible reac tion on the face ( or body) of the person to whom you speak - perhaps glee ( with pic tures of sugar plums dancing in their heads ), perhaps the raised eyebrow from the intellec tually-piqued, perhaps pursed lips from disapproving par ties, or flat confusion ( “what the heck is this “burlesque” you speak of ? ” ). Suf fice to say, burlesque is a visceral experience. I have no interest in arguing definitions or debating histor y, though it cer tainly is a wor thy and fascinating area of study. Burlesque is almost always -- across the board -- shoved into convenient mental cubbies, which could never hope to contain its scope. Nouvelle Burlesque tries to break down these cubbies, cover them in top-shelf booze, and strike the match. Using a foundation of the big band jazz sound and the classic va-va-voom st yle, we frost the cake with stirring swirl s of blues, countr y, funk, folk, Latin, hip hop, and pop. Our dancers, all professional and advanced movers-n-shakers, cream the cur ves with ballet, modern, tap, jazz, sal sa, and trippy yogic goodness. Our usual emcee, not your standard killing-time-between-numbers comedian, Slash C oleman ties the whole thing into a well-rounded theatrical experience - oh yes, we WILL make you think - drawing on the stellar influence of silent film ac tors Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. E xploring the themes of femininit y and masculinit y, the purpose of glamour, and the masks we wear in order to func tion in a mundane and trifling world, our shows enter tain feverishly, forcing the audience’s mind ( and all the rest of their faculties ) to dance. Bienvenue. C ome on in.
A nna L . Tulou , AK A M ama R oux , Creator & Ar tistic Direc tor 74
12 DAYS OF BURLESQUE by Lea Marshall
photos by Kim Frost
A week before Christmas my love whispered to me, “Baby, what should I put for you under the tree? ” I’d been thinking on this since before Thanksgiving, “Burlesque,” I said, “It just keeps on giving.”
“Ooh, yes!” She squealed, “I know just what to do!” So she sprang from the bed and called Mama Roux. “Now there’s an idea that sounds splendid to me,” Mama Roux said, “Though it will never fit under the tree.”
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“On New Year’s come down to the Sycamore Rouge, Where we will make it so hard to choose Between tassels and fans, brass horns and stockings, That you’ll both have thoughts most delightfully shocking.”
77
These words, I must say, I was thrilled to hear What better than eye-candy to ring in the New Year? So my love in her fishnets and I in my tie Drove down to P-burg â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;neath a wintry sky 78
And what we found there has come to be known (In a bright photo montage you’ll be pleased to be shown) As a holiday gift far above all the rest What else could it be, but “The Twelve Days of Burlesque”?
A giant thanks to everyone who made this monster of a shoot happen: Photo-sorceress Kim Frost who put in countless time and creative energy. Master lens and camera technician Kip Dawkins, Girls of Nouvelle Burlesque: Anna Toulou, Kat Legault, Damion Bond, Rebecca Ferrell, Jamela Williams. Thanks to Mimi Regelson, owner of Exile and her right-hand woman Gwendolyn for being so generous with their clothes and accessories. Thanks also to Halcyon Vintage for doing the same. Jordon Waldrop who took off work to lend his hair styling expertise Make up master: Hannah Elvington - Hair mistress: Marisa Browne - Mary Heffley and Christian Detres for being awesome. Samson Trinh and the rest of the guys for coming through with their “dudeness.” Jackie Reynolds assisting and Jon Frost for set building his arse off. Thanks to Lea Marshall for continuing to promote all that is DANCE in Richmond.
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THE LAST WORD -----> THINGS I’VE SAID ABOUT LIVING IN RICHMOND THAT ALSO APPLY TO PAST RELATIONSHIPS > It’s virtually impossible to get anything done without a bribe or six months of incessant arguing. > Honestly, I just wish all the crying would stop. > Kinda trashy, but fun when I’ve been drinking. > I’m constantly handed Christian literature that I’m never going to read. > There seems to be a lot of sex going on that I’m not a part of. > I don’t mind the violence for the most part. > I always talk about getting out, but I know I’d eventually come crawling back, broke and probably drunk. > All the money winds up spent on stupid arts and crafts projects that just lay around half-finished. > Lots of nights I lay awake in bed thinking about how I deserve more than this. > It seems so attractive when I’m out of town, but every time I come back I remember that spandex and racism aren’t attractive. Paul Lazio Want the last word? Now accepting submissions and letters to the editors ---> parker@rvamag.com.
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