ARTICLES
The HALLOWEEK GHOST SHIP sets sail on Halloween!
Pregame on the James! Join us from 7 to 10PM Halloween night on the Eagle 3 Yacht for DJ’s, drinks and food catered by the mighty mighty Cous Cous.
The Democrats' Health Care Overhaul.
I don't usually put up national news but as a small business owner I have been watching this very closely.
The Barista and Lone Wolf Answer Your Questions Richmond.
The heavy wine drinking, embittered but charming ladies at Café Darkness are sharing their quick wit with RVA. Want advice from the Barista or The Lone Wolf? Email cafedarkness@gmail.com and see your answers featured on the site.
Dear Cafe Darkness,
My boyfriend/husband/real doll insists in participating in Mustache March. He and bunch of friends have all thrown $20.00 bucks in to see who can have the most rad mustache by March 31st. He's literally in it to win. The only problem is when I think of mustaches I think of gross, early 80's porn and hanging out in a van down by the river. What can I do to get through it?
Sincerely,
Hating Mustaches in Manchester
Dear 'stache hater,
Our first inclination is to tell you to cease and desist sexy times until that lip duster is gone, but then that is also punishing the victim, no? Instead you need take a more Pavlovian approach to Mustache March. The first step is to get as many pictures of Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds as you can. Then, with pictures in hand, watch a little soft core porn. Nothing too freaky-just a little Skinamax action. Switch between your Skinamax and Tom, Skinamax and Burt-but more Skinamax and Burt because he's a total badass. Eventually you'll start to associate awesome 'staches with the sexy. You'll no longer be repulsed by it, but turned on by it. Before you know it, you and your boyfriend/husband/real doll will have the best March ever!
The Monday Hangover 03/01
The bastards are closing in. All of them. Debt collectors, landlords, city politicians with puritanical noise ordinances, senators with bureaucratic guillotines falling with nauseous rapidity towards the tensing neck of our state arts funding, and the Westboro Baptist Church wheeling into town with all the senseless venom of unreasonable hate stabling on the putrid lips of their despicable rhetoric. I’m feeling the hate, RVA.
Goat screams like a man.
i imagine a guy inside the goat screaming "Hey, get me the hell out of here!" Sums up my week.
Enjoy your weekend. Go see Shutter Island !! I am outta here.
The Monday Hangover
As John Lee sound checked on the low-floating stage of The Camel, the weekend fell upon the hunched shoulders of a Friday night and all its neon sex. I watched as Tiger Woods shook his head solemnly into the great silence of barrooms and seething housewife indignation, his eyes wide with the fear of a man blamed for the articulation of infidelity. And as the bass-driven funk of the band struck up like the drunken flirtations that would circulate the bar later that night, I could almost see the rising and falling of philandering bodies locked in the palpable heat of forbidden fuck, just behind that sorry, sorry gaze.
Richmond Noir: A book of many Richmonds.
I just can’t compete with Tom Robbins.
My first reaction is bitterness. I fell in love with the alleyways here, fell in love in them. They were the speechless avenues I followed to my own voice, the unwinding pathways of forgotten deities that emptied into dawn. They were my favorite part of Richmond, the first reason I fell under the infamous spell of this city that holds its enchanted minions tightly to the cobblestone breast of its amber-colored nights and never lets go. They were my favorite things to write about. And now I can’t write about them.
Exit Through The Gift Shop, a film by Banksy
Possibly the most visible graffiti artist in the world, Banksy has had art openings, but he rose to infamy by working in and fostering the stencil graffiti movement that is now a permanent tool in the graffiti bag. Anti-gallery and generally opposed to all that is art up until this point, Banksy's film, Exit Through The Gift Shop is receiving praise and hate from all the right sources.
Hail the Pho King!!
This is how we spent our Super Bowl, watching Reinhold compete in the annual Super Bowl Of Pho at Mekong. Highlights include the crazy Asian laughing, the "REINHOLD" chanting, and the almost full-on 'hurl' that would have made great viral video.
Reinhold is the Pho King of Mekong. All hail the king!
What's Happening with RVA.
When RVA launched in April 2005 Richmond's cultural scene was a blank canvas waiting for direction, documentation and new vision. To our excitement, many groups (Gallery 5, Curated Culture, Venture Richmond, Books On Wheels, etc.), businesses (Kulture, Sticky Rice, Rumors, Chop Suey, The Camel, New York Deli, Ellwood Thompson, etc.) and promoters (PLF, Best Friend's Day, Community Chest, Brain Drain, etc.) heard the call and helped create a homegrown culture to be proud of. Almost five years later the city is entering a new phase of cultural growth, and with respect for the changes in media consumption and technological advancements in communication, we've decided to make some big changes too.
The Martin Agency wins Agency Of The Year.
There is no one in America doing it better in the advertising world than Richmond's own Martin Agency. Amazing and well deserved.
Socially acceptable racism.
I present to you this: a racist stereotype and subsequent mocking that is clearly an attempt at comedic bigotry. I loved The Muppets, but can someone tell me why this is OK? I'll take answers in short form or essay.
Choose your Own Adventure?
I hope I am not jumping on this too late but this video is pretty amazing. An interactive YouTube PSA encouraging youths in Britain to stop stabbing each other. Think about all the ways this could be applied to other narratives. Action movies where you choose which way the hero goes or a romantic comedy where you win the girl.
RVA Volume 5 Issue 9 - Snow Days
Ah, snow days. Staying up late to see if school's going to be closed or not, watching the flakes fall, and then viewing a world that is drastically different from just a few hours before, all from the same window. Don your boots, warmest clothes, and step outside to a crisp, clean air that makes you truly feel like you're breathing.
The Internet Archeologist
On October 27th, 2009, a web era came to an end as GeoCities was shut down. The company was bought by Yahoo! a decade ago, and in late April of this year they announced that they would be shutting down the U.S. branch (the Japanese site remains at geocities.co.jp). For those of you who don’t know or are perhaps too young, GeoCities was a web hosting service that started in the mid '90s and, until recently, consisted of at least 38 million user built pages. Now that it's gone, does anybody actually realize what’s been lost? Ryder Ripps might. On a Saturday afternoon in early November I sat down with self-proclaimed Internet Archaeologist in his apartment in Queens to discuss lost unicorn homepages and deleted kitty fanatic domains.
Sketchy Santas
Ah, the time honored tradition of taking your child to see Santa Claus. A meaningful right of passage for every true blooded American childhood but I gotta ask is it for the children or the adults?
Just The Fright Job
One of our regular contributors James Wayland has written a book and it is up on authonomy.com, which is owned by Harper Collins. At the end of the each month, the books constituting the top 5 stories will be reviewed by the publishing house.
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