The Girls Are Back --

Is There Going To Be Trouble?


Yes, billion-eyed audience, here they are again. Many of you long-time listeners already know the story. But, for those of you who don't: this image was taken, and not by me, at an exhibition opening several years ago at the vanished Three Miles Gallery and this space, and the adjacent one, is today the bustling Tarrant's Café.

Richmond's First Fridays Aftwalk begins its new season in earnest tomorrow evening. You can see it all in colour here. Here at the Blue Raccoon, these young women are emblematic of the social verve and creative energy -- a Dyonisian jumbalaya, well, not in the radical True Blood way -- that First Friday Richmond represents in ye olde Richmond Towne.

This pair of Richmond lovelies display the classic duality of Greek tragedy/comedy, and the predicament of existence, and how in general conditions are one or the other -- depending who you are and where your viewing booth is.

But is the representation of enjoyment that seems to unnerve some people. Or at least, after eight years, suddenly the civil administration here gives the appearance, anyway, of being shocked, shocked! to see art galleries on Broad Street, and droves of people trooping in and out of them. This, too, is reflected by the haranguing of corner preachers on milk crates with PA systems who are persuaded that wine and cheese are the gateway drugs to hell.

The fear and anxiety was portrayed in the current issue of the city's weekly tab.

As often happens, the comment train following the article is more illuminating - and for bad reasons -- than the article. Like a particularly bad morning on C-SPAN, the snipes and quips aren't so much directed at the issues raised but bent on grinding particular axes or slapping around artists, whom even in 2009 in Richmond are viewed with suspicion as potential subversives and condemned as useless drains. Never mind that without the arts schools and institutions devoted to them here that Richmond would just be another whistle stop on the way to Atlanta. I'm beyond fed up with people who a) Don't read articles all the way through and b) Comment with knee-jerk responses to a headline, picture or captions. This is why we as a civilization in decline: lack both attention and discipline. So there, corner preacher, stick that up your righteous indignation.

And so there are belligerent, bullet-headed nihilist hipsters who'll profusely and obscenely decry Richmond as some kind of portal to, I don't know, boredom or hell or hellish boredom but that's because they insist on wanting Richmond to be New York or L.A., or any other place that it is not. Let Richmond be Richmond, and if you're not willing to roll up your sleeves, expose your baroquely tatted forearms and do something constructive, then why are you here anyway? In a way, these types are just as annoying as that street corner preacher who is just there because he likes to hear himself preach or the suburbanites who, from the safe distance of the cul-de-sac, toss their grenades of ignorance and fear. And their shrapnel unfortunately sticks in all of us.

Which gets me to the presence of uniformed officialdom that was meandering among the galleries during August's First Friday, with their clipboards, clickable pens and curious expressions. I understand the need to monitor safety regulations for buildings, without question.

However, there is a way to do things. Can we not go to the spaces and look at them before they are packed with people to see about proper egress and lighted exits and such? You do want to see them under the times of most stress, too -- and that doesn't make city officials bad guys, but, there should be a better, less invasive way.

So. I guess we'll see.

Some of the highlights I intend to hit:

Little Creatures, a 1708 Gallery satellite exhibit at the historic Linden Row Inn and curated by my personal Grand Louvre, Amie Oliver. The show features sculpture, painting, drawing and photography inspired by animals and the natural world.

For more information on the artists please visit the links below:

Joan Gaustad:
http://www.adagallery.com/Joan_Gaustad.html

Leah Jacobson:
http://www.leahjacobson.com/

Rob McAdams:
http://www.supporttrike.com

Jamie Pocklington:
http://www.jpock.com

Gordon Stettinius:
http://www.eyecaramba.com

Rob Tarbell:
http://robtarbell.com

Paul Teeples:
http://1708gallery.blogspot.com

Another show I've quite desirous of seeing is Thomas van Auken's exhibition, sponsored by Art 180, at the Schindler Satellite Gallery at 8 W. Broad.

I snagged this image from van Auken's Facebook. I enjoy his confident lines and Germanic textures. Figurative work has had its ups and downs in terms of general acceptance these days. VCU tends toward the Abstract-Expressionsits, and around the country, drawing itself isn't considered as important.

So it's great to see somebody who somehow not only learned to draw but paints, too, and the overall effects are pleasing and even sometimes a bit startling.

I'll be buzzing into Ghostprint, Gallery5, and Metro Space Gallery, too.


I'll see you on Broad or nearby, on Friday.

We shall return to Phil Gotz's tour of Richmond during the weekend.

First Friday In Ragtime: Get your lecture on

Yikes. I've realized that I've not posted in this space since the February First Friday when, due to weather, The Girls would've wanted a warm wrap. Not so much tonight, though a sweater would be appropriate, though in the crowded Broad and Main street venues, even that could get a little warm.

For those you not regular members of the billion-eyed audience: this image was taken, and not by yours truly, at an exhibition opening several years ago at the vanished Three Miles Gallery and this space, and the adjacent one, is today the bustling Tarrant's Café.

This pair of lovely Richmond lasses display the classic duality of Greek tragedy/comedy, and the predicament of existence, and how in general conditions are one or the other -- depending who you are and where your viewing booth is. If you are a bank executive receiving a federal bail out, for example, you may be the smiling woman. If you worked for Circuit City or Quimonda, or almost anybody else in the U.S. just now, you may instead resemble the woman on the left.

I'm the lady on the right. Well, not physically (though, imagine that...), but psychically. Because tonight and tonight only I'm giving a talk, "Reading, Writing And Richmond In Ragtime" concerning the authorial aspects within my Richmond In Ragtime: Socialists, Suffragists, Sex and Murder.

It's a tossup, I know. Good weather following an early week veering into snow and ice and actual winter. Now, 60s, a jumping downtown street to take in, all that art, all those people. Well. Come on in and get your lecture on; it'll be if not edifying then entertaining. Well. I hope.

Afterward, you should go to Quirk Gallery to see work by Susann Whittier, Ed Trask and Susanne Arnold.

The mechanical, sculptural elements of Whittier's work has phased into elements of textiles -- including the arms and legs of all those drawn models on the packages of McCall's and Butterick pattern books; there's a flowing array of hands, and bird-like cuffs, and collars with ties. This is wonderful work that looks like one thing yet converses with something else, as befits a show titled "Ever Expanding."

Ed Trask's vivid paintings -- I just love them at de luxe -- and like listening to Mahler, is best when viewed loud and large. These are smaller, intimate pieces though -- check out the birds -- but convey his sense of the rust, dust and sin, the nostalgic deterioration of highway and roadside culture in the South, of rusted metal and wind howling through busted windows, or across a damp field at night.

I need to get back into the Vault to see Arnold's boats. Maybe tonight.

Anyway, hope to see you on corner. I'll have books. You can buy them.

Update:

About 40 people came to the underground lair known as the Rare Book Room of the Richmond Public Library where I regaled the assembled about "Reading, Writing and Richmond in Ragtime" using the works and words of James Branch Cabell, Ellen Glasgow, Mary Johnston, John Mitchell Jr. and, naturally, Adon Allen Yoder. Received enthusiastic applause and sold some books -- and ran into my old Richmond Out of Stock repertory comedy colleague Jonathan Orcutt and his wife and daughter.

I went back to Quirk to see Susanne Arnold's ceramic boats and was captivated by the concept of Charon ferrying the dead across the Styx to the Underworld. Arnold supposes, though, that individuals of differing personalities and culture get their own version of the ride and ferryman.

Went into 1708 and thought I'd instead wandered into ada. "Rain or Shine" features Kate Bingaman Burt, Sarah Hollis, Ryan Mulligan and Stacy Searcy and I felt like I was in a big multi-partner studio cleaned up to receive guests. It's a vigorous, energetic show, and requries plenty of time to read and take in the multi-page and images of journal-like pieces. It's all about the raw discipline required to go into a studio and make art every day -- whether it's any good is up to the observer to decide. I need to go back when there's fewer people in the gallery and a list of places to go.

A pleasant surprise of the evening was Brooke Olivares at Ghostprint, and her "One Block Over." These figurative representative pieces using old school techniques really impressed me. Olivares is a young San Diego painter and though we're looking at contemporary mean streets the work is striking.

Amie and I took the Orcutts over to the exhibit at Linden Row, "Inaugural: History In The Making." The exhibition presents 36 pieces by encaustic artist Susanne Arnold, figurative yet abstract painter Ruth Bolduan, big and wide abstract painter Bill Fisher, renown jewelry-maker and sculptor Thomas Mann, painter Amie Oliver, mysterious and compelling figurartive drawings of Eleanor Rufty, the antic and curious mixed media pieces of Bruce Wilhelm, pinhole photography Willie Anne Wright and "house" painter Louise Poole. All of these will soon be joined by several globes created for the "Save Planet Art" auction show at 1708.

First Friday February: Do you wanta take a pitcha? Lookin' is free.



Yes, billion-eyed audience, after some well-needed respite and the author's preoccupation with books, the holidays and domestic life, here are the First Friday Femmes, one more time.

Many of you long-time listeners already know the tale. But, for those you unfamiliar: this image was taken, and not by me, at an exhibition opening several years ago at the vanished Three Miles Gallery and this space, and the adjacent one, is today the bustling Tarrant's Café.

This pair of lovely Richmond lasses display the classic duality of Greek tragedy/comedy, and the predicament of existence, and how in general conditions are one or the other -- depending who you are and where your viewing booth is. If you are a bank executive receiving a federal bail out, for example, you may be the smiling woman. If you worked for Circuit City or Quimoda, you may instead resemble the woman on the left.

These ladies also represent for the Blue Raccoon the energy and verve of the First Friday High Art Hike here in Richmond, Va; otherwise known as Curated Culture's First Fridays: On and Off Broad.(This image of the Metro Gallery from Curated's site)

Not all the galleries are open this Friday, and we have a casualty in the line up -- Transmission where we saw some fun and quirky little exhibtions closed.

More later.

First Fridays In Richmond
Just set bailouts and baloney aside, and experience art




The above image was taken, and not by me, at an exhibition opening several years ago at the vanished Three Miles Gallery and this space, and the adjacent one, is today busy Tarrant's Café.

The billion-eyed audience by now knows this story, but if you're just joining us, this pair of Richmond lovelies are displaying the classic duality of Greek tragedy/comedy, the duality of existence, and how in general conditions are one or the other, depending who you are and your perspective on the matters at hand.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, I think you'd agree.

But the ladies pictured here represent for the Blue Raccoon the energy and verve of the First Friday High Art Hike here in Richmond, Va; otherwise known as First Fridays: On and Off Broad, and brought to you by Curated Culture, and you can see it explained here.

One of the big events tonight is the inauguration of Gallery5's momentous annual "Carnival of 5 Fires," with its cornucopia of art, music and performance, burlesque -- and fire jugglers. The whole thing culminates in a huge spaghetti dinner on Sunday. Take a gander here.

A number of galleries still have up the shows that inaugurated "Inlight Richmond" this past month, and the constellation-in-the-sidewalk in front of the 1708 Gallery is a reminder that, yes, even Broad Street can shine.


And if you get to 1708, you got to dance in front of the musical mirror that compliments you as you do so.

Speaking of illumination, over at 309 N. Adams there's the "Church of the Chrystal Light" which explains itself thus: "The Church of Crystal Light is an artist-run space dedicated to experimental visual art/music/performance/video and outsider community activity. Our goal is to offer communal artists – young artists that may have limited opportunities for expression – a venue for solo shows."

Andrew Jeffrey Wright is featured, and you can see some of the fun he has in store for you, here.

At the Ghost Print Gallery, self-taught painter Chris Milk, straight out of Oregon Hill, has an exhibit of his work. Below, is his "Moon," acrylic and metal leaf on wood.

So we'll see you on the art walk, and maybe having a tipple or two at one of the fine establishments designed for imbibing and carousing, thank goodness, and if anybody brings up anything political, I'm just going to stare into my glass as though seeing into a vortex of time and space, and wishing to be in another place with an entirely different set of problems. Speaking of which, if you get your fill of the art thing, at 10 p.m. at the New York Deli in Carytown there's an elaborate indie fashion show, "Pins + Needles" which you can read about here. Pictures at left, via Scott Elmquist at Style Weekly, "Local indie fashion designers Ono Mangano, left, and Erin Taylor, with two of their models wearing a refashioned jacket, left, and a high-waisted velveteen skirt, will present their version of makeshift chic at the New York Deli Oct. 3. " Back away from the television, get out of the house, and be fabulous to each other. Tonight is also the first of three for the annual "Two Street Festival" in Jackson Ward. This event celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Ward which by the 1920s was considered "The Harlem of the South." This was before a highway was allowed to be plowed through its midsection and poorly planned public housing built. But, anyway, the reason to go is music, food, Croaker's Spot (good luck getting in -- the place is packed for good reason) and general street merriment. Friday, Oct. 3 Waverly R. Crawley Main Stage (2nd and Marshall streets) 6-9 p.m. - Friday Night Kickoff Dance Party featuring Johnny Houston & The Legends Metropolitan Business League (115 E. Marshall Street) 6-9 p.m. – 2008 Second Street Poster Unveiling featuring Larry “Poncho” Brown Saturday, Oct. 4 Waverly R. Crawley Main Stage (2nd and Marshall streets) Noon-1 p.m. – Johnny Peyton Renaissance Big Band 1:30-2:30p.m. – NYCE 3-3:30 p.m. – Grace & Company Fashion Show 4-5 p.m. – The Big Payback 5:30-6 p.m. – Radio One 6:20-7:30 p.m. – Horizon 8:15-9:50 p.m. – PIECES OF A DREAM Joe Kennedy Jr. Stage (3rd and Clay streets) 12:15-1:05 p.m. – Kip Williams Quartet 1:25-2:15 p.m. – QuintEssential Jazz 2:35-3:25 p.m. – SoulArmy 3:45-4:35 p.m. – Carlton Ayles and Legacy 4:55-5:45 p.m. – Jim Branch Quartet 6:05-6:55 p.m. – “Against All Odds” (from Hampton Roads, Va.) 7:15-8:05 p.m. – “Son Sabroso” (Latin Jazz) 8:25-9:25 p.m. – James “Saxsmo” Gates Quartet Bistro Stage (1st and Clay streets) Noon-12:45 p.m. – Ban Caribe 1-1:45 p.m. – String Improv N Me 2-2:45 p.m. – Rumba Drummers 3-3:30 p.m. – Spoken Word featuring Deidre Holland and Friends 4-4:45 p.m. – DJ Williams 5-6 p.m. – Skyline Band Community Stage (2nd and Leigh streets) 12:30-1 p.m. – Richmond Boys Choir 1:30-2 p.m. – One Voice Choir 2:30-3 p.m. – Milestone Dancers 3:30-4 p.m. – African American Repertory Company 4:30-5 p.m. – City Dance Theatre 5:30-6:15 p.m. – Sisterly Grace Fashion Show and Ministries Sunday, Oct. 5 Waverly R. Crawley Main Stage (2nd and Marshall streets) 1-1:30 p.m. – M’Renee 2-2:30 p.m. – Lee Walker and Spirit 3-3:40 p.m. – Glorious 4-4:40 p.m. – Bloodline 5-6 p.m. – Black Awakening Gospel Choir at VCU Joe Kennedy Jr. Stage (3rd and Clay streets) 1-1:50 p.m. – Jason Jenkins Quartet 2:10-3 p.m. – Saxophonist Richard D’Abreu “Jazz In The Spirit” 3:20-4:10 p.m. – Dave Hoggard Quartet 4:30-5:30 p.m. – Debo Dabney and The Happy Band Bistro Stage (1st and Clay streets) 2-2:30 p.m. – F.L.T.I. Steel Pan Orchestra 2:45-3:15 p.m. – Ephesus Drumline 3:30-3:45 p.m. – Sharon Baptist Church Praise Dancers 4-5 p.m. – Grace and Company Fashion Show Community Stage (2nd and Leigh streets) 1:30-2 p.m. – Voices of Virginia 2:30-3 p.m. – Sharon Baptist Church Choir 3:30-4 p.m. – Sixth Mt. Zion Church Mime Ministry 4:30-5 p.m. – First African Baptist Church Orchestra Artist’s Row (2nd and Clay streets) Larry “Poncho” Brown – Featured guest artist Purchase the limited edition 2nd Street posted created and designed by this nationally renowned artist. Brown’s tent is located on the corner of 2nd and Clay streets. Other invited artists: Randy Walters, James E. Murphy Jr., Greg Paige, Kelvin Henderson Capital One Kidz Zone (Jackson Center Lot on 2nd Street between Clay and Leigh streets)

Illumination of Broad Street
Art and Imagination Reclaim Downtown


The parade of Wearable Art down Broad Street, as recorded by photographer Jay Paul.
This is model Rickita McKinty with designer Kevin Blow in his design, "Untitled: Optica." The outfit includes 33 eyes with lights in their pupils and ostrich feathers.

I haven't seen much pop up blog-wise or in the regular media about what was a historic event--or rather, one of a series of them this past year on Broad--more discussion of Rodney Monroe and the rain. Well, that's too bad. Even Sissy Spacek was there.

My bias is obvious, because I emceed the Wearable Art component of the evening, (with at times less grace than I would've wished), but, apparently this caused no untoward distress. At least I hope so.

Yes, there was rain in the early hours but it cleared off and during the 9:00 to 11:00 stretch the street filled up, the video and audio projections on the walls went on, the Hot 8 Brass played and a man-powered contraption designed to project the spirit into the sky lumbered around. Every gallery was open and some very fine art on display-and will remain so for the rest of the month, and some longer--and would be a credit to any other city, of a greater population.

I stood at the center stage with Jake Crocker at one point when we took in the fanning search lights--for once not indicating the location of a strip bar--the glowing columns of light, the bright pools of activity along the street, the whirling psychedelic patterns on the trees, the great knots of crowds--and he said, "This is like some huge, outdoor Vegas club."

For a massive, first-time event, held when weather conditions threatened to wash out the whole production, InLight Richmond went well as we might've expected.

There's many thoughts and observations I have about this spectacular but time presses.

Here's the bottom line take away we should have, though. Events like InLight, First Friday and Broad Appétite are transforming Broad, its wide ungainliness, its semi-charming, semi-off-putting grittiness. Add in the Folk Festival, the proliferation of markets, and the other street festivals all over town, Richmond is reclaiming its public spaces.

This is an historic transformation. From the latter 19th century and more than halfway into the 20th century, Richmonders divided Broad right along the streetcar tracks; the "bad" north side, with its saloons, vaudeville and burlesque houses, nickelodeons, motion picture and legitimate theaters. Behind them, were Jackson Ward and Navy Hill, predominant black neighborhoods. The "south" or good side was where the major retail bustled, and the colossi of Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimer's. Of course, further east, down in Shockoe, form 1905 to about 1920, on Council Chamber Hill and into Shockoe Valley, was the tenderloin and immigrant tenements.

But like many U.S. cities, the vibrant retail center came to an end in the 1980s, and Richmond has struggled like others to redefine what this corridor can now mean to its citizens. The most successful responses have come from the entrepreneurs, the artists, and the makers and creators. Almost every public-private effort has failed or been mired in over-spending, planning mishaps and outright corruption.

Seeds grow where they are planted. Whether 1708 Gallery or Gallery5 on or near Broad, or Plant Zero in Manhester south of the river, they've been followed by restaurants, lofts, apartments, coffee shops and boutiques. What Richmond now needs downtown is a large grocery, or even department store--a regional based, original Big Store. Where'd you put it now, though, is a tough question.

Now, I'm not saying one event is a cure-all, but the momentum built by several of them creates a cumulative effect. And I've not heard much mention of this by any of the mayoral candidates. I don't understand why; except that the people are (almost) always ahead of the leaders. Whether a candidate was present during the evening, I do not know; there was a Mark Warner for Senate event at Quirk, though. Otherwise, I saw some of those Get Out The Vote petitioners, but no city job seeker out on the hustings. Kind of disappointing, if this was the actual case. Where are these people?

The production team that dismantled the Monroe and Broad stage, due to rain, then put together again and set up the sound and lights--those guys were some of the true heroes of the night.

Meanwhile, I danced with an Art Cheerleader to the cheering of a crowd, watched a beautiful woman in an 1830s style garment shoot flames, and experienced my Partner In Art For Life's video creation get projected on two brick walls.

As I stood there and watched the procession of models moving in their often confining creations and confections--including this marvelous Klimt-in-motion with a headdress of antler-like branches adorned with glowing lanterns-- I marveled. The Klimt had some trouble getting up the stairs--the branches got in the way of the handrails--and this true living work of art--needed to be assisted in her ascension.

This was a metaphor of Richmond's possibilities, and how often the biggest thing that gets in her way is herself. She just needs a little help, sometimes, to get unstuck and moving.

I ended my evening on a WoBSoC front porch railing, yakking with Mark Holmberg about Blue Shingles.

It just doesn't get much better.

More later.

Sister Becky Explains It All For You
"Just a girl in short shorts talking about whatever"

This may or may not be Becky, who is the personality behind the entertaining and provocative blog Just A Girl In Shorts Shorts Talking About Whatever. If she's real, or a metaphorical construct, matters not to me.

What I enjoy about JAGISSTAW is the concise text that unravels complicated issues using the tongs of her sass and smarts.

She describes herself: "Mom, recovering attorney, post-modern neo-feminist, enthusiastic regenerated dyke, unlikely punk, nice Catholic girl, passionate freedom-loving libertarian, thinking conservative, sappy romantic, spiritual redneck, softball enthusiast, shopaholic and unrepentant flirt. My other passion is mountain climbing.

On July 4, 2007 I started the next phase of my life as a femme desert tomboy in Arizona, where the chick , once called "trailer trash with a brain" by an Intertard wit, will be able to wear unfashionable daisy dukes year round."

That's what I'm talkin' about.


"How you get that much traffic without the equipment is beyond me."

There's a scene in a cult lesbian power movie Desert Hearts that reminds me of Becky, or the Becky character the blog represents.

The setting is the Reno, Nevada, 1959, where Columbia University professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) has come to establish six weeks residency to obtain a divorce. While outside the safe confines of New York City, she meets an artist and casino worker Cay Rivvers in a dramatic way that has stuck in my head since I first saw the film at The Biograph Theatre when it came out--and has to be one of the all-time great entrances of a film character.

While driving in the desert, Cay recognizes the car of her friend Frances (Audrey Parker) who runs a boarding house for would-be divorceés. With Buddy Holly singing "Peggy Sue," Cay throws her long black, tail-finned car into tire-squealing, smoke-throwing reverse to catch up with Frances for the express intention, as the truckers used to say, of checking out the seat covers. She introduces herself to prim Vivian and we know right away something is going to happen between these two.

[Starts in this clip at 4:29]




Anyway, that's how I picture Becky. But even better, she just gives an alternative viewpoint and she's witty and brassy and knowledgeable. And she uses, um, pictures to illustrate her points quite well. I don't expect to agree with everything she writes -- but -- in interpreting the current financial meltdown, I think she's, well, right on the money.

She writes:

"The American dollar has shrunk 25.8% since 2000. If the US dollar had kept pace with the Euro, the going rate of a barrel of oil (which are traded in dollars) would be around $80, rather than $140. Gas would be about $2.60 a gallon.

One might think all this inflation, and economic hardship, would be enough to wake Americans up.

But since it is not:

Don't we have a freakin' ounce of pride?"


A few years ago, when the loonie slipped in value, there was widespread patriotic outrage in Canada, with demands that their currency be shored up.

However, Americans, for the most part, don't seem to care at all.

We define patriotism by the wearing of flag lapels.

And shopping."


A Stroke Of Insight
"I'm having a stroke...This is cool!"


Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor has most likely never worn a pair of wonderful raggedy cut-off short shorts, but who knows. [this is her via drjilltaylor.com] And, yes, that is a real human brain with spinal chord attached. Not her own, in case you were wondering.

Since the billion-eyed audience is several ticks more aware than average, you may have already heard about the Harvard-trained neuroanatomist Taylor who in 1996 suffered a massive stroke. While experiencing this event she was able as a scientist to analyze how the separate hemispheres of her brain functioned and malfunctioned.

Her mind-splitting epiphany inspired her subsequent writing and talking about not just those insights but how she managed to recover from, well, death.

A commenter here yesterday mentioned Dr. Taylor's story as a way to dispel my favoring the adoption of a "No Hope In Hope" attitude. And in my better moments, I favor Taylor's sensations of "connection to everything" (Due to some wonderful positive interactions with, um, certain manifestations of scientific mixology in my college years, with sensations that have stuck with me ever since).

But knowledge that one is connected to everything conveys to me a frightening, befuddling sense of responsibility. That's how I'm wired.

And, perhaps we humans are a freak of nature. We have evolved with a brain too large, really, to accomplish the basic tasks we need; rusticate and fornicate. We ruminate, too, and that's not necessary for the first two. So we are forever unhappy and isolated and in need of assurance and comfort, wherever and however we choose them.

That's one theory.

And here's the thing. We can't conduct self-diagnostics. We can study the brain, but the brain can't study itself -- though Taylor's experience comes closest. Science requires experimentation. If you cannot repeat the result more than once, you have...an unverifiable outcome.

It's kind of like the "WOW" signal picked up on August 15, 1977 for a 72 scant seconds by astrophysicist Dr. Jerry R. Ehman while working with the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio University. He thought he may picked up an extraterrestrial signal. On the computer print out graph he wrote "Wow!"indicating his astonishment. He may have picked up some kind of alien signal, but nobody's been able to find it since, even after extensive searching. The energy might've been generated by some funky terrestrial source bouncing around out there (probably not) or a heretofore unknown noise caused by an odd pulsar. Nobody knows. You can read about it here.

Taylor explains what happened New York Times piece by Tara Parker-Pope:

“How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?,'’ she said. “In the course of four hours, I watched my brain completely deteriorate in its ability to process all information. On the morning of the hemorrhage, I could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of my life.'’

Her account of the experience of stroke is vivid, and at one point, she recalled, she felt like someone had taken a remote control and hit the mute button. “I was shocked to find myself inside a silent mind,'’ she said.

What is so surprising about Dr. Taylor’s story is that she experienced a sort of euphoria as she was left with only right-brain functions. She lost her sense of self, but she also shed the stress of her life and, as she puts it, “37 years of emotional baggage.'’

“Imagine what it would be like to be totally disconnected from your brain chatter,'’ she said. “I felt a sense of peacefulness.'’

She wrote My Stroke Of Insight, and has been lecturing, writing -- and singing, about her life-altering event. Taylor is quite a speaker, taking a serious-as-it-gets issue but using humor as way to explain what happened to her and the changes she went through.

Opinions as to her message vary. Like: "This insight she describes is the basis of all religion, without the story telling and mythology. She is presenting what could be the basis for the unification of science and religion."

To: "Pseudoscientific [sic.] garbage!"

Dr. Taylor's experience is without question a real one. But whether her intense and intimate understanding of what happened can be universalized -- that, that is another question. I do want to read her book, though. I guess how you take her words is a matter of, dare I say it: faith and hope.

And around the cat goes.

You can read the New York Times interview here.

A fascinating 18-minute video is below:

The First Friday Femmes: Not Taking The Night Off

Curated Culture didn't want to cancel the First Friday Art Walk after all, the weather is good, and there's work to see. So ....

By now, most of the billion-eyed audience should know the story behind this image, but if not, I will here again explain: The picture was taken, and not by me, at an opening several years ago at the vanished Three Miles Gallery and that this space, and an adjacent one, is now the busy Tarrant's Café.

These ladies represent the Greek dramatic expression of comedy and tragedy, the twin fountains of artistic expression.

So there.

I'm busy writing a book, so I doubt I'm getting out. But enjoy yourselves, girls, and drink a PBR for me.

Hot Child In The City / Runnin' Wild And Lookin' Pretty


If you are late to the billion-eyed audience, you may not know that these two women, displaying the classic Greek tragedy/comedy duality, represent -- well, here at the Blue Raccoon, anyway -- the arrival of First Friday High Art Hike throughout midtown Richmond. And the ladies will enjoy the summery evening, suitable for their abbreviated dress. It's gonna be a scorcher this weekend.

If you know the story behind the above image, please repeat along. This was taken, and not by me, at an opening several years ago at the vanished Three Miles Gallery and that this space, and an adjacent one, is now the busy Tarrant's Café.

Tonight's gonna be a busy one.

You need to check out Squirrel-O-Rama at the 1708 Gallery featuring the combined talents of the Squirrely Girls. [Image from the exhibition]

The mad cap creatives include James Busby [a Girl, but not a girl], Melanie Christian, Sandra Luckett, and Katie Shaw Sweeney. All attended Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts.

Something for everyone is promised, including music and a campfire, which you may not need tonight, but maybe they'll have marshmallows. With this group, it's bound to be arty and enjoyable and even, dare I say so? Provocative. Here's an indication of what you may expect:

"Several years ago in graduate school The Squirrelly Girls decided to create an outlet from all the heaviness of art and actually use art for enjoyment but remaining focused on their work. Melanie Christian and Sandra Luckett took it upon themselves to throw in some fun and stage a mock wedding celebration between the two. One afternoon the school closed down for an aqua color themed fake wedding with Sally Bowring presiding over the vows. Everyone in the room had to be dressed in the color Aqua. The next event was an Orange Rave in the elevator of the School of Fine Arts. The next event was a miniature winter parade down Broad Street where each Squirrelly Girl construed ‘Mardi Gras’ like winter floats."

There's also a new bi-weekly arts and entertainment publication hereabouts, Live Canvas Mag. The outfit trumpets itself with the great pride: "No opinion. No politics. No BS." OK fine.

But the calendar needs to be updated; the Firehouse Cabaret isn't up at the Firehouse Theater anymore...it's Reefer Madness! Which I saw last night, and it's exuberant, crazy, man, crazy fun.

Years ago, I vowed that the Firehouse, of which I'm a co-founder and a former president, would never produce musicals. Which goes to show that one should never say never. But that was before such strange delights came along as Batboy: The Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and The Last Five Years, among others --and we've done all of them, in addition to our cabarets.

I love watching the singing and dancing excitement explode all over the stage, and into the audience and throughout the place.

Like Batboy!: The Musical, which uses the framework of Greek tragedy to tell an absurd story that's actually affecting, the sort of dramatic scarecrow that Reefer Madness clothes is Shakespearean, that is, Romeo and Juliet -- and zombie movies.

Director Jase Smith understands that in the world of the production, Reefer Madness is a high school anti-drug play that gives license for uptight kids to let loose their ids and their libidinal energies. So the play isn't camp so much as just gosh darn funny because for most of the time, it's played straight-faced with earnestness. At least that's what I think. Or I could be high.

Matt Beyer, as the Lecturer, is the serious center around which the hurly burly hummer muggery swirls. He also assumes several rolls and wears a mean pair of ram's horns.

I don't know if Mike Rieman (Jimmy) and Jacquelynn Camden (Mary Lane) studied Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies, but they play it as if they did. Camden reminds me of a cross between Cheri Oteri and Ellen Greene.

The titian-haired Kimberly Jones-Clark gets one of the show's meatier roles--and has one of its better voices-- as the drug house moll Mae whose addiction to the weed keeps her in a violent and co-dependent relationship with Jack (Chris Hester) who is a hissable evil pusher and a hipster Jesus (with a noticeable Mondrian tattoo on his right shoulder--reflecting the many parts and multi-hued characters of the Son of Man and Jack?). [Image via Whimsyspeaks.com]

But two of my favorite characters were the Placard Girls, Caylyn Temple and Jackie Prater. I loved'em. They come up to the podium and in stereo highlight the moral teachings of the play with their cards. If I'd seen the show a week ago, like I'd thought I would, I would've hired them to come along as my Historyettes for the Kollatz Does Richmond tour tomorrow.

I attended this performance in the accompaniment of an orchestra from the arts support group OPUS. These are swell folks, and much better looking than me. I sat in the "Reefer Den" which is an assortment of couches where you can eat munchies while you down your adult beverage. I enjoy a show that is just perfect for the space, and happy that the Firehouse is there to provide the stage.

After the show, I got to ride a River City Rickshaw twice on my way, first, to the Metro Grill and then to the New York Deli. Fun to clap my hands and shout, "Rickshaw!" Closest you can get in Richmond to hailing a cab. That's arriving in eco-friendly style.

Finally, as though the mellow of Richmonders wasn't harshed enough today by the stock market falling like an elevator without brakes due to greater unemployment figures and spiking gas prices, then the climbing mercury and sticky humidity didn't help, nor a gray pall that hung over the city.

This morning, many of us here went sniffing around our houses suspecting a fire or one nearby. Nope, turns out that the Sargasso Sea atmospheric conditions is sending us the smoke from a huge Eastern North Carolina forest fire. This is occurring in a nature preserve --which means that unless there's substantial rain on that piece of the country, the fire could burn for two months. It stinks, all the way around.

May First Friday: The Girls Are Back



If you are late to the billion-eyed audience, you may not know that these two women, displaying the classic Greek tragedy/comedy duality, represent -- well, here at the Blue Raccoon, anyway -- the arrival of yet another First Friday High Art Hike throughout midtown Richmond. And the ladies will enjoy fine weather, suitable for their mode of dress.


[Little did we know, but Catherine Keener, (above?)perhaps with friends, has visited...]

If you know the story, please repeat along. The topmost image was taken, and not by me, at an opening several years ago at the vanished Three Miles Gallery and that this space, and an adjacent one, is now the busy Tarrant's Café.

Before you head into the Presidential-named streets of midtown, though, you need to check out two exhibits by friends of ours across the street from each other, Louis Poole at Page Bond, 1625 W. Main St. and Steve Hedberg's new work at the Glave-Kocen Gallery, 1620 W. Main St.

Both painters create environments in their pieces; Louis' houses verge on the abstract, Steve's buildings, streetscapes and landscapes are rendered with a realistic vision, but he also presents abstract elements.

The Poole here is via the Richmond Federal Reserve site.

As they say, the Glaves and the Kocens, on their site about Steve:

Steve Hedberg - harley on lombardy

Steve Hedberg - street parking on floyd

Steve Hedberg - untitled

new works by Steve Hedberg

May 2 - May 31, 2008
Opening Reception,May 2, 2008
6:00 until 9:00

With his latest body of work, Richmond artist, Steve Hedberg continues to divide his time between two styles: realism and abstract. He takes a slightly gritter approach to his realism, focusing on Richmond's Fan neighborhood, old automobiles and local haunts as subject sources. His work in abstract furthers his exploration of a seemingly alternative universe, using compositions of geometric planes balanced by course texture and color.

By the way, A.d.a Gallery, 228 W. Broad St., turns five years old with this First Friday. Gallerist John Pollard has made a definite mark here, and come June, he'll will be hieing off to Scope Basel in Switzerland. This month, members of the collaborative FEAST are exhibiting.


Below are further directly ripped-off blurbs of some of the premiering events:

Quirk Gallery
Chuck Scalin: Rush: Explorations in Glass

We’re SO excited to see what Richmond based (hum, legendary) artist Chuck Scalin will pull out of the kiln for his upcoming first solo show at Quirk. Kiln? Yes, kiln! Chuck has been working with local legendary artist herself, Jude Schlozhauer, learning the secrets of glass. Taking his exquisite collages to the next level, Scalin creates unique (yeah, you’ve heard it before, but it’s true here) works of art by fusing glass and found objects. Each one a mystery until it emerges from the heat, Scalin then works the surface with addition of objects and by working the surface with graphite or paint. This is a not to be missed show!

Exhibition Statement: The creative RUSH comes after the piece is removed from the kiln, with the challenge of where and how to take the piece to completion. Inspiration for these pieces is derived from the irregular textures, color alterations, and accidents that occur during the firing process and result in determining the direction of the final abstract composition.

Rush opens at Quirk on May 2 and continues until June 21.

VCU MFA Thesis Show!
It’s May and that means a city filled with more art shows than you can shake a paintbrush at, thanks to the many end-of-semester shows presented by art students from across the City.

The VCU School of the Arts Department of Sculpture presents their MFA Thesis Exhibitions at two annex locations that are in the First Fridays area. We’re sure you won’t want to miss the works of these exceptional emerging artists!

Terminal: VCU Sculpture MFA Thesis Annex Exhibition
Featuring: Sami Ben Larbi, Lily Cox-Richard, David Grainger, Eli Kessler

Opening Receptions: May 2, 6-9pm & May 9, 7-9pm
2 Locations: 5-7 West Broad St and 209 N Foushee Street
Exhibition continues: May 2-18, 2008

1708 Gallery 319 West Broad St. Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 643 · 1708 1708gallery.org Tuesday - Friday: 11 am – 5 pm Saturday: 1 – 5 pm and by appointment First Fridays hours: 7 – 10 pm

Forgotten Constellations Artist Paul Cantanese presents projected installations First Fridays: May 2, 7-10pm Exhibition: May 2-31 1708 Gallery was founded in 1978, and is a nonprofit exhibition and performance space committee to expanding the understanding, development, and appreciation of contemporary art.

Gallery 5 @ VA Fire & Police Museum 200 W. Marshall St. Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 644 · 0005 gallery5arts.org Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11am – 5pm, and other times by appointment First Fridays hours: 7 – 11 pm Exintrinsic: The Art of Ebony Patterson, Lisa Kellner, Brooke Hine An exhibition that embraces the fine subtleties and details of the surface and texture of the human body, Extrinsic features Ebony Paterson from Kingston, Jamaica, and Lisa Kellner from Richmond. Both artists create an exquisite visual dialogue about the body as a receptacle or vessel for passage while dissecting the discrepancies between what is perceived and what is visible. Lisa Kellner's work ranges from delicate drawings and paintings exemplifying the topographical qualities in the landscape of the skin to installations that explore the qualities of flesh and bodily structure, juxtaposed with the aspects of personal sanctuary. Ebony Patterson creates large scale mixed media prints that seek to reference specifically female objectification from an autobiographical perspective, while making cultural references to her own experiences with her own body. First Fridays: May 2, 7-10pm; Featuring live entertainment Exhibition: May 2-28 Gallery5, one of Richmond’s newest and most innovative visual and performing art centers, is located in a National Historic Landmark known as Steamer Company No. 5. Gallery5’s mission is to help promote a new understanding of the arts in an interactive atmosphere by combining multiple mediums under one roof. Our monthly exhibitions include a collaboration of both visual works of art, live music, film and a wide array of performing arts.

Ghostprint Gallery 220 West Broad Street Richmond, VA 23220 (804)344-1557 www.ghostprintgallery.com Wednesday - Saturday 1 – 7 pm or by appointment First Fridays: 7-10pm First Fridays hours: 7 – 10 pm Peter Fowler - Let the Paint Speak Fowler is a prolific painter whose bravura brushwork and luscious use of paint convey a sense of joyful energy, whether his subject be impressionistic landscapes or romantic figures of women. Peter may be booked for portraits at his First Friday Opening. First Fridays: May 2, 7-10pm Exhibiton: May 2-31 From the cutting edge to established International artists, non-traditional media to oil painting, Ghostprint Gallery synthesizes disparate elements in an enlightened perspective on art itself.

The Girls Are Back (But they made need umbrellas)
First Friday Goes Global


Yes, if those members of the billion-eyed will repeat along for the benefit of those who are new to the Blue Raccoon: it's First Friday in Richmond, which means that we take to the sidewalks and troop from art gallery to art gallery on Broad Street and the tributaries. The image above was taken, not by me, during a long ago opening at the now-defunct Three Miles Gallery now part of the busy and expanded Tarrant's Cafe. Back in the day the place at Foushee and Broad was a pharmacy and lunch counter where city government denizens and interested parties gathered to swap gossip and they themselves "The Gutter Club."

The ladies may want to pack fashionable galoshes and carry pretty umbrellas because there's a 30 percent chance that the high art hike could get a soaker. But that shouldn't dampen anybody's enthusiasm, much like the excited art-goer on the right.

Tonight is bursting at the seams with all manner of exotic entertainments. At the Richmond Public Library will perform the Gamelan Raga Kusuma. The University of Richmond's own Balinese Gamelan Orchestra will perform traditional Indonesian music and dance with their enormous, hand crafted gamelan, an ensemble of bronze gongs, chimes, cymbals and drums housed in intricately carved wooden cases. The Gamelan Ensemble will be joined by Brazilian capoeira musicians and dancers led by Mestre Panao, and Kevin Harding’s Bossa ensemble.

Over at Gallery 5 there's a blow-out party celebrating its and RVA Magazine's third anniversary, it's five bucks, it'll be crowded and loud, and exuberant.

But the Partner-In-Art-For-Life and I are intending to scramble up stairs above Gallery6 to see new work by our friend and Art Cheerleader Kendra Dawn Wadsworth showing at the Todd S. Hale Gallery.

Kendra's paintings and drawings are informed by her time in Arizona, of the native mixed with the pop culture, and a passion for living that is reflected in her ardent enjoyment of the equine. This is all new work. The reproduction below isn't very good, came from a thumbnail, but.





Meanwhile, over at The Ghostprint Gallery are paintings of Anna Kaarina Nenonen. According to the gallery's description, the Finnish native "is a figurative painter with a provocative and ironical approach to female sexuality. Combining elements of expressionism and photo-realism , eroticism and intellectualism, her work is ambiguous and thought provoking."



Over at the 1708 Gallery, celebrating its 30th anniversary as an artist-run gallery, is a full house of varied and intriguing work by artists for the 18th annual art auction, April 19.

The non-profit space for the art of now hired a new executive director; a from-here in a way as a opposed to a come-here, with the lyrical name of Tatjana Franke Beylotte. She was until of late Arts Education Coordinator, Publications Manager and Webmaster for the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She comes to Richmond by Charleston, S.C. and the Spoleto Festival, Washington D.C. and the Smithsonian Institute. Taking the reins of an arts organization in the best of times is courageous, but now as we get the feeling we're on the downside descent of not even the highest rise in a surreal roller coaster, is in the realm of Joan of Arc, or Art, as the case may be. We wish her all the best. It's going to be a wild ride.

1708 is poised to do some huge events, not the least of which is "In Light" on September 5th beginning at 7:00 p.m. an running until midnight, a light-inspired celebration of the gallery’s 30th anniversary.

The idea comes from such concepts as the "Nuit Blanche" that originated in Paris, wherein art institutions and museums remain open all night. Richmond’s first contemporary arts“happening” of this magnitude will be free and open to the public.

Also tonight, an opening reception at the Valentine Richmond History Center between 7-10pm for Battle for the City: The Politics of Race 1950s-70s, an exhibition featuring imagery and artifacts focused on citywide conflicts over integration, civil rights, urban planning, transportation, and political representation - the outcomes of continue to affect Richmond’s physical and social landscape.

If you want to see the outlines of why my fair city doesn't have an effective mass transit system, can't lead a cooperative and fundamental region-wide administration, nor a consolidated school system (anti-busing protest at Capitol Square, below left), and can't seem to manage running itself, here's why.

Due to race and its socio-economic implications/ramifications, the black and white leadership class was chased from the city into the suburbs and beyond, and engineers and businessmen carved up Richmond like a pumpkin. The 21st century has got to be better. It's just got to be. Those bad days are a while ago, and the perpetrators dead or very old. But the sins of the fathers, as the Biblical injunction goes, are visited upon the last generation.

Some of the noteworthy artifacts included are part of the Woolworth’s lunch counter (image above; the store was demolished to make way for the upcoming Richmond Haus von Kunst and Kultur), a seat from Parker Field, a Klan robe, and the office chair used by Mayors Henry Marsh, Roy A. West, Geline B. Williams, and Walter T. Kenny.

And, yes, it's off the main corridor, but, never fear. They've done a smart thing to provide a free shuttle at either the Valentine Richmond History Center or at the corner of Madison and West Broad Street, near Quirk Gallery. The history bus'll make a continuous loop from 7-10pm between the First Fridays area and the History Center.

Gotta Get Cool, Babe

Photographer, poet, scribe, and adventurer Elli Morris has made a contribution to one of my favorite kinds of bookshelves; the one used for Obscure Niche Events That Alter The Course of History.

Her book is Cooling The South: The Block Ice Era (1875-1975) and this handsome, wide white pages of the well-written self-made volume will be good to open up during the torporous days to come in August.

Artificial ice--like most items in the catalogue of the Shock of the New--was considered heresy. Down here in Richmond, the Yuengling/James River Steam Brewery used ice chopped off Lake Erie shipped down here and loaded into underground cooling tunnels (still extant, amid the Rockett's Landing business). But the problem with natural ice, as Elli told me, was it often contained things you didn't want in your drink, much less your ice.

Here, Mrs. Jane King rose to prominence as the city's Ice Queen, at a time when few women ran their own business, or, as Morris points out, dealt with sailors and dockworkers. In 1911, the heat was so dreadful that there was fear of an "ice famine" and near riots broke out as those in need crowded ice trucks to get at the blocks. Demand exceded production.

Block ice transformed how the South went about work and play and presaged the Sun Belt made possible through air conditioning (the downside is we got "Atlangeles," Georgia. ) Elli was brought up in this business, she's from Mississippi, and that makes her both cool -- and hot. Part memoir, part history, part travelogue, Cooling the South, with 209 photographs in both color and glorious black and white is available through the book's website and finer local bookstores. Thus summer, she'll be on a publishing tour, so look for her nearby. I would, if I was you.

An excerpt:

"Crinkling, crunching, shattering ice is what I still remember most from the storage room. As an adult, the beauty of the glacially-blue blocks of ice stuns me, but as a child, the sound of walking on white frost and broken chips of ice was beyond cool.

Everything else in the rest of my Mississippi world, the mud, grass and pine straw, was a soft, muffled quiet under my feet no matter how hard I stomped. But in the ice room I became a giant from another world, from the moon or Mars or an undiscovered galaxy, a ferocious monster capable of huffs and puffs and heaving ho.

Contrary to my mighty feet, my squeals and screams were stopped in mid-air by the thickly insulated walls and dense blocks of ice. This altered transformation was fantastic. It was freezing. It was short-lived when my uncle shooed me out of the workers’ way and pulled me back into the normal life of trees, sun and sky.

Hebron was generous with me and the gaggle of cousins underfoot, imparting his father’s, and his father’s father’s passion for a business that impacted their region of America as deeply and creatively as it impacted four generations of the Morris family."