The Ragtime book arrived! The Ragtime book arrived!
Richmond In Ragtime has arrived at the Valentine Richmond History Center, soon in finer book shops everywhere (around here) and Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com


Yes, billion-eyed audience, this handsome, 221-page, fully-illustrated narrative chronicle of three rambunctious years, 1909-1911, in Richmond has arrived and will various shipments will be appearing at assorted stores and shops as the days go forward.

The first place RIR meets the general public, though, is at the 14th Annual Holiday Shoppers Fair that all the city's regional museums band together to display their offerings for the discerning Richmond gift-giving season buyer. I'm there representing for the Valentine Richmond History Center and The History Press.

I'll be there the second day, at the Library of Virginia, Saturday, Nov. 8 1:00 to 3:30. Not my only appearance, to be certain, and I'll post other places I'll be.

Smokin' Hot In Richmond
A weekend of heat, history and physical and technical mishaps



Billion-eyed audience, little time and too much to tell, really.

First, the BBC site which is my Internet home page has become so glitchy that none of my browsers can bring it up, nor can I alter it in Preferences. HAAAAALP!

Second, I have a scratched right knee, a wrenched ankle and until this morning a bent temple on my glasses. All were unrelated and occurred while I was sober. The knee injury occurred when I slid down the side of my porch while wresting vines creeping across the living room window. The ankle got twisted while walking along in Carytown alongside Double-T's along. This patch has some uneven spots and I think while momentarily distracted I brought my foot down onto what I thought was an even place, but it was depression instead, and OOOFFF, there I went. The glasses got bent when I fell asleep watching Knocked Up.

Third, the weather here has gone from balmy to brutal. Friday we even had smoke pumped up here from an East Carolina forest fire that draped gauzy clouds across the region, and the mercury's rise mirrored the price of gas.

On Colonial Avenue, the cats splay their bodies against the wood floor in an effort to find some cool. I've had to turn on one of the air conditioners that we almost always refrain from until July, or later. But this is for humanitarian, and feline, relief.

The torpid temperture didn't stop the congregants of First Friday. The House of Praise brass band played near Art6 and that alone was worth the bus ride down. Between the heat and the festive character of the gathering, one couldn't help but feel transported to New Orleans. Except they are ours, and we are theirs.

I encountered artist Gillian H. Brown who has a small show upstairs in the Todd Hale rooms of her haunted, tormented and whimsical, funny acrylic-on-paper faces. You can see more of them on her blog, here. Gillian's the coolest, even in this unforgiving torrid zone. By the way, that's her, from her blog portrait.


Finally, I want to thank the Valentine Richmond History Center and Linda Krinsky and Bill, the bus driver, who guided my intrepid hard core history group around town and allowed me to preach before the the Christopher Newport Cross. I forgot my sure fire obscure laugh, "This marker has nothing to do with bearded balladeers who sung themes for Arthur movies." Four people would've gotten it out of the 50 and I would've loved this.

I also want to thank the Lady Susan who tied my bow tie, and surprised her husband of 30 years by knowing how to do so. You learn some things on these tours.

I can almost guarantee that I am the only history tour leader who marched his group in front of the Walnut Alley mural in Shockoe and regaled them with the story of Urban Artists Amalgamated, as recounted in True Richmond Stories. Or, as I referred to the slender volume, 'The greatest book of Richmond history published in October 2007 and republished in March 2008."

The heat further gummed up my synapses because people took pictures and I should've passed out cards and had them sent to me. Duh!

Amie and I spoke Sunday, she in Germany, me in the over warm breakfast nook with overhead fan whirring on Colonial Avenue. She kicked my butt about remembering to tell a story with Ragtime In Richmond. Which is about to rag me out.

I hope to figure out a way around this glitch on the BBC site; if I'm having this problem, I'm not the single one.

I leave you with some posts from James Howard Kunstler's blog. His peak oil-surburbs are crashing-world is ending tropes are consistent, and often eloquent, but in the end, the back-and-forth of the long, trailing comments are what keep me coming back. Of these, I really like montysano's take on the politics of the day.


I've been making book on how the U.S. public takes the coming financial Tidal Wave.

Homicial rage vs Suicidal Rage

Tough call.

Apathy will Not be a choice.

Just read an article (I'll try and find the link) on how many current and recent soldiers are on prozac and similiar drugs, just to cope on a daily basis.

Butt Boy Ben Bernanke should be dropping Prozac out of the helicopter, Not worthless Phunny Money from the Fed 'discount lending window'
Posted by: Lost Horizon | June 09, 2008 at 09:52 AM

Obama will probably be elected president, but if he does he will inherit the wind vis-á-vis Herbert Hoover in 1929 and we will have to wait four years for his successor—either a Democrat or a Republican or even a “Progressive Party” president—(e.g. Henry Wallace)— to start another World War after a similar eight years (1933 – 1941) as was the case with F.D.R., of failing to solve what will come to be seen by future historians as the Second Great Depression. For that reason alone I would have loved seeing Hilary [sic.] as Chief Executive.
Posted by: irahan | June 09, 2008 at 09:59 AM

John McCain can dodder and bumble around the country, without a new or original idea in his head. He does so with the baggage of an heiress wife with a fondness for pharmies, and with the putrid carcass of the Bush administration hung around his neck. And yet, at the end of the day, he still owns 40% or more of the vote. A country this stupid deserves whatever comes its way.
Posted by: montysano | June 09, 2008 at 10:07 AM

Kollatz response: Is it that the country is this stupid, or that we're prevented from having more than just two choices for its highest public office? As DeGaulle said of France, in a nation of 300 cheeses, how can we have just two political parties? I don't think this is as much stupidity as media narco-zation of our thought processes.
Bad habits are difficult to break, even when we know they are detrimental to us, because sacrificing what we regard as normal, means bringing some pain upon ourselves.

Anybody who thinks McLame is totally out of the race has not bothered to dig into the irregularities that occurred during the past 4 elections.

There was a greater statistical probability of having lightening destroy your winning lotto ticket before you could cash it in than there was of obtaining the Ohio 2004 results.

Despite reams of solid, testable data, and a juicy story rife with drama, nary a peep was heard from the Main Stream Media.

And so America will get what it deserves.

And remember to try and act surprised when, against all polling, a McLame victory is plucked from the statistical noise.
Posted by: MaryW | June 09, 2008 at 12:07 PM

Kollatz response: Well, I hope for our sake Mary is wrong. But my fear is, should Obama win, he'll be Carterized or Hoovered by events and poor advice. In a way, maybe for his sake, having McCain left with this rasher of scheit is preferable and perhaps poetic justice.

The Great Deleveraging of the 00's is well underway. (What the heck do we call this decade anyway?) Just read the carnage over at the housing bubble blog (the weekly "local observations" column & commentary is pretty good) and you'll see how fast things are swirling around the bowl...

According to the AAA/OPIS numbers, regular unleaded gasoline went up by 1.8c today to $4.023, and diesel went up 1.1c to $4.773. Diesel was in fact higher-priced at the end of May but had been recovering, while the gasoline price is a new record.

My neighbor's recently-purchased Yukon Denial XL hasn't moved since sometime last week. Besides the repairs it needs, it may have simply burned through the free tankful of gas included with the thing.
Posted by: Nudge | June 09, 2008 at 12:25 PM

Kollatz Responds: Should we call this the "The Aughts of Naught?" "The Awful Aughts."

Kollatz Does Richmond From The Bottom Up


Unlike this roaring motor car climbing up what is probably somewhere back of Church Hill in 1910, this Saturday, June 7, I'm taking a crew of history afficianados on a Three Hour Tour. Never fear, it's on an air-conditioned bus, and no small craft will be involved, or, according to the advance forcasts, rough weather.

However, if any ladies show up as Marianne or Ginger, I'll give them a free signed book. Also, because I can never seem to master the art, if you can tie my bow tie, you get a book, too.

This tour is through the Valentine Richmond History Center, it's $20, and we'll get off the bus on three occasions. This is not a brass plaque of the glorious dead tour. History may never be the same.

The image, by the way, is from the Center's amazing Cook Collection.

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."

Cognitive Collisions Part II

Seems to me, billion-eyed audience, that there should be theatrical extravaganzas or galas in Richmond that look like this. We have the narrow Edwardian streets and a few
old and some genuine decrepit buildings. There is a sense of gloom,
finished and vanished things, and cultivated absurdity, and opposites
in extremes. Sigh. This is from the Dresden Dolls Diary, Amanda Palmer
with "Camille and Meow."
"this is the fringe," she writes. "it's the best place in the world." I suppose so; if you're in a post punk Brechtian cabaret duo with a fervid and distinctive following.


Saturday, Nov. 3, I was in a personal-type appearance at the Holiday Shopper's Fair at the Cultural Arts Center of Glen Allen scheduled from 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m though I stayed about a half hour longer due to the numbers of people come through. This western Henrico County multiple use facility is in part housed in the rescued Glen Allen School, and it is next door to the restored 18th century Walkerton Tavern .

This event is a combination holiday sale for the region's museums. I'd never heard of it before, but plenty of other people know about it because there was a ceaseless flow of people ambling about, going from room to room, where various institutions had set up satellite gift shops.

I was there under the flag of the Valentine Richmond History Center . They'd brought 50 books when the show opened the day before when they'd sold 10. I pushed the goods with the assistance of the Two Nancys. Thank you, ladies.

Among the visitors was actor and acquaintance Raynor Scheine , who bought not one of the slender volumes, but two!

Mark Greenough, my colleague of many summers ago at Fort Harrison National Battlefield Park in Varina outside Richmond--where we both wore Union blue, and how now runs the tours of the Virginia Capitol, came by with his wife and I inscribed his copy of the slender volume, too.

One of the relief clerks--I cannot recall her name--told me that when she was walking into the place, she saw a man reading his recent acquisition while he was going to the parking lot--and he was chuckling. Stuff like this quite rewarding.

I provided sales patter: "Step right up, step right up, get your True Richmond Stories right here! Psychic horses! Ditch digger finds a diamond! Mr. Rubin predicts the weather! Dancing under the stars at Tantilla Garden ballroom! And to New Wave at the Cha Cha Palace, which some of you won't own up to now!"

And:

"Get your True Richmond Stories! No batteries or assembly required! No booting up or downloading! One size fits all! Matches all accessories! Makes you look smarter by carrying it around! Provides ideal holiday party tidbits to impress friends in conversation!

We sold out.

"Standing O"



Amie's behind more deadlines and didn't feel up to more social gyrations so she took me down to Plant Zero, me in my black tie and tails, for attending the OPUS "Standing O" gala for the benefit of the School of the Performing Arts for Children, founded by Larry and Jenny Brown, who were in attendance. Love those guys.

Amie needed to reinstall her video display with additional credits and music. She'd babysit the "Walk The Walk" exhibit in case some of the celebrants were curious about the pieces.

There was a red carpet and a faux news crew interviewing the arrivals as though they were celebrities. I was stopped for Harrison Ford -- I suppose because of my black fedora. (In honesty, my celebrity double is Cary Elwes -- but who knows his name well enough?)


My celebrity double, Cary Elwes. Same age, much better hair and smoother skin.


The newscaster asked me how the filming of "Indiana Jones IV" was going and I retorted, "Oh! I'm too old for all that! Jumping from trains! It's awful!" I'm not sure if the fellow was stunned or amused.

I made my way down the hall to Amie, who was intent at work and I told her I'd be out in a bit to check on her. I got signed in and motivated toward one of the bars for the first vodka tonic. There was plentiful food and a fountain a raised, large-to-small arrangement of shrimp that I munched at most of the night. I ran into various folks I knew, some better than others, and I am embarrassed that I'm not better at names. Faces, I recognize.

I admired the loverlies and fairest-of-them-all arriving, exhibiting their right to bare arms and shoulders and oh, I do love the look. All those high heels clicking on the bare concrete of Plant Zero's event space. So I propelled myself out to check on Amie, and she'd already gone. So I was on my own recognizance.

The Michael Clark Band, with the powerful voice of Miss Tracy Clark in the lead, provided the Motown-funk-blues theme for the evening, and for a while, me and Melanie--she quite striking in her white with black geometric pattern dress--danced up a sweating storm. At one point she even took off her heels. The rest of the crowd did a typical Richmond and stood there holding their drinks and rocking their heads. That is, until after the break and the second set and the audience was, ah, conditioned and primed to move.

I admired the upright video monitors that for most of the evening displayed images of the region's performance arts groups. I asked Jake Crocker about who supplied them because I'd like to use one for the Firehouse's Fireball gala in March. In the evening's second half, images of the night's party were getting shown. That was instant gratification. I'd like to have gotten some of those pictures.

So I danced, drank, and hobnobbed. About 11:30 I was tired, and so I set my glass down and proceeded to walk home, across the Mayo's Bridge -- the Richmond skyline has grown in the past few years, and it makes more of an impression on foot than by car. Still, I wish either we had no high rises at all--like central Paris--or several distinctive buildings. Instead, Richmond's nighttime cityscape isn't inspiring, no symphonic declaration of urbanity. You can thank "Dallas" prompted 1980s architecture, followed by even less interesting 1990s plans, for preventing dynamism in Richmond's skyline. Most of our older, better highrises are hidden behind the glass and plastic ones, and Jefferson's Temple of Democracy, atop its hill, is also invisible. Sad.

So, in my tux, I hied up 14th to Main, thence to Sixth, up to Broad, where the street lights were out (This happens on occasion and I wonder--does the city forget to pay the bill? Is it an auserity measure? Cops messing with the heads of potential miscreants?). I felt a little anxious and obvious but got a Robinson to Belmont bus without much of a wait at all.

I checked at Can Can where chairs were already getting stacked up, then chose to go to the New York Deli. This was, in retrospect, silly. D wasn't there, none of the Club NYD-ettes, just fine pretty things and clouds of cigarette smoke. I got home, reeking of the stuff. Amie wasn't pleased, and I was too happy with me, either.

Wordy Birds

By the way, here's me getting interviewed by Liz Humes on her "Wordy Birds" program that airs on WRIR 93.7 FM on Fridays, 12-12:30. I enjoy getting interviewed by Liz. She reads the books and asks good questions. You don't always get that lucky. Trust me. Plus, she's got that throaty Debra Winger voice.

Press to play.

If you see these two on this page, you know what's up...


That's right, these tragedy/comedy ladies--at a far away opening at the long ago Three Miles Gallery--indicate to the billion-eyed audience that it's once gain First Friday in Richmond ; and on this humid evening of gunmetal grey overcast which refuses to rain, the big inaugural event is preparing to uncoil like a Chinese dragon all along central Richmond's Gallery Row. Or Rows, as there's the big one on Broad, and another on West Main.

My partner-in-art is tending bar at 1708 so I'll be down there. So much going on and a juicy piece in the Times-Dispatch this ayem.

The art season has erupted in earnest and this week, between us both, has been just busy as all get out. I had my book release on Tuesday, and already this seems to have occurred further in the past than just four days ago.

Below, left, is the reading from the book during the launch event (about 120 people attended) with the Wickham-Valentine terrace providing about as dramatic a backdrop as I could ever expect. That's a teeny tiny dl Hopkins in the center of this small picture -- bigger ones to follow. On the right, me with my Ed and Lorena, the ones that brought me into this world. Amie took all these pictures.














This is AOK, the dynamic duo...Don't we look almost famous?



And me, goofing it up with an old manual typewriter, upstairs at Cafe Gutenberg, where we adjourned afterward. Got to get cranking. Another book due in April....


Hope to see folks out and about tonight. More on this and that and assorted during the weekend. Amie and I have to take some time for some major domestic activity, as between her opening and my launch, we've just abandoned housework to the cats, who are notorious in their ineptitude in that regard.