RVA Mag

Film Review: Away We Go

anthony — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:15:56 -0400

Director Sam Mendes makes movies about relationships. Both American Beauty and Revolutionary Road examined the breakdown and death of romance in the American marriage. At it’s core, The Road to Perdition was the tale of a father and son that are forced to finally understand and subsequently love the other as a result of the situation they find themselves in. Jarhead is about the Gulf War and its soldiers. Now, with Away We Go, Mendes sets his focus on the journey of a couple on the brink of parenthood.

The film begins with Burt Farlander (John Krasinski) and Verona De Tessant (Maya Rudolph) discovering an awful flash of news. Burt’s parents intend on moving to Belgium a month before their granddaughter is to be born. The couple soon realizes the only reason they remained living in this area was to be in proximity to family. Now that this is no longer an issue, they decide to travel across North America for a place that feels like home to the couple.

Away We Go spends a fair amount of the film going through the different trends and models of the American family. The audience is exposed to everything from single parents to families led by new-age philosophies that seem more detrimental than helpful for the development of a family unit. Along with that, one interesting aspect of the storytelling is the personification of landscapes and environments through the cinematography. Burt and Verona travel from the deserts of Arizona to Madison, Wisconsin to Montreal and to Miami. Each location offers itself as a character to each part of the story. The barren, dying desert seems to play as a perfect backdrop to the couple of Lily and Lowell (as played by Allison Janney and Jim Gaffigan). The two live in a confusing marriage where neither seems to be all too happy and the characters as well as the audience question why they remain together. Also, by the time the film reaches the end of their travels, they finally discover a place to call home. The moment is breathtaking and serves as a perfect moment where the environment serves as a great gift of an ending for both the characters and the audience.

This is certainly light-hearted fare for a director like Mendes. It’s no surprise considering the screenplay was co-written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. For those unfamiliar, Eggers is famously known with his literary magazine entitled McSweeney’s and he is the author of What is the What and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. The two writers bring forth several real moments that earn their laughs and never feel too forced. One of my biggest pet peeves is that I never felt like anything in Away We Go was truly at stake. For Eggers and Vida, they get away with it by offering a realistic portrayal of an experience for Burt and Verona. The journey they go in is a huge risk and it isn’t necessary for a cliché trope to be thrown in as a hurdle. Burt and Verona’s understanding of their mid-thirties along with the preparation for parenthood is enough to make the film rewarding and exhilarating. If this film acts as any indicator for Eggers’ quirks at cinematic storytelling, I cant wait to see how his charms work with adapting Where the Wild Things Are later this year.

Maya Rudolph was the biggest acting surprise in the picture. After seeing her be a part of Saturday Night Live for so many years, she has never been given a part quite like this. A role that requires her to be vulnerable, frightened, genuinely funny and most of all human. She steals every scene she is in and it doesn’t hurt that co-star John Krasinski supports her.

Krasinski is best known for his role as “Jim” on NBC’s The Office. A film like this doesn’t exactly demand much of a stretch for a performer like Krasinski. Yet, he is a perfect supporting player. Even in the most lackluster of comedies (Leatherheads and License to Wed), he proves to be a prominent force that we should all keep a close eye on in the future. His interactions with Rudolph are endearing and poignant. In any relationship, there needs to be a strong support system and the two actors are a very convincing couple. At their most vulnerable moments, the other player is constantly there and it proves to make the film exist in a realistic realm that several portrayals of these types of relationships seem to miss.

This isn’t the best film Mendes has ever directed, but it is still a strong addition to his filmography. The performances are great and the dialogue is well written. The best thing that could be said about this film is that it has heart. The final interactions of Burt and Verona are whimsical upon their discovery of home. The two are still left uncertain as to what the future holds for them and if this place is truly going to be the perfect home for their new burgeoning family. In moments like this, the film truly relishes in it’s realistic arc about adults that can only be so prepared for the next step and that’s why this is one of the better and thoughtful films to be released this year.

RVA's Irregular Broadcast

anthony — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:58:49 -0400

Have you heard about Amazing Ghost, The Itchy Hearts, Long Jawns, Battlemaster, Color Kittens?

Long Jawns pic by Joseph Talman

How about Easy Tiger, Gumby, Cubscout & Rhinocerous, Divine Profitz, Clint Maul?

Color Kittens

We talk about them and a slew of other slept on musical talent from our city. On top of that, we give our thoughts on the state of the RVA jazz scene, run an interview with Henrock promoter Rudy Lopez, sound the alarm on the rebellious return of old timey, and much more in this packed issue of RVA.

Divine Profitz

Irregular Broadcast because the music in this city is a strange beast - read about it here.

---> CLICK THE CURRENT ISSUE BUTTON AT THE TOP<---

FYI - Be on the lookout for the best compilation we have done of Richmond music later this week for free download.

WRIR SHOW PROFILE: Bebop and Beyond with Mr. Jazz

anthony — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:47:24 -0400

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. You may be strolling through Byrd Park enjoying the smooth, rhythmic waves in the midst of the ponds. You may be running some last minute errands before the next workweek while noticing the scat-beat of human and automobile traffic. While turning the dial on the FM, you may wonder if there is any station that offers a faithful, honest portrayal of every color and form of jazz. Look no further than WRIR from 9am-1pm on Sundays. The first two-hour set starts with New Orleans Roots and More hosted by Bill Thomson followed by a second two-hour set by Mike Gourrier (a.k.a. Mr. Jazz) entitled Bebop and Beyond with Mr. Jazz.

Gourrier is the Jazz Director for WRIR. His experiences with the genre began at an early age. He was raised in the birthplace of Jazz. His love for Jazz only acted as a catalyst for wanting to be involved in community radio. Having spent twenty-four years on WWOZ-FM in New Orleans, his primary purpose was to share the music he loved so much with that listening audience. After the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, he was displaced from his home.

This is how he ended up on WRIR. Since the station hit the airwaves, the time slot of 9am-1pm has been relegated to Jazz programming. In August of 2007, Gourrier was awarded a First Place Award in the Media Category from Richmond City Magazine for his radio show. By October of 2008, he was named the Jazz Director of the Station. Now thirty-five years later, he is still actively involved in the genre as well as community independent radio.

Although Gourrier’s commitment to Jazz is well noted, in his opinion the commitment of the country around him to the art is in serious question:

“Jazz is America's Original Performance Art Form. Unfortunately, America is not an art appreciative country. There is minimal support from the government. For example, compare the budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Defense Department. Arts are the first areas pared down when School Systems have to deal with budget cutbacks. In there formative years, kids do not get the exposure to the arts as they do the material on commercial radio and on television.”

It is unfortunate that WRIR cant offer more time for Jazz Programming. With an incredibly eclectic mix of genres as well as a mission statement to showcase as much as they can, it’s nearly impossible to make room for everybody. Fortunately, we have jazz aficionados like Thomson and Gourrier to educate us and electrify our ears with the groove and cadence of this magnificent genre in all its colors and forms.

For more information about New Orleans Roots and More, please visit this link to view past and present playlists http://wrir.org/x/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=172

For more information about Bebop and Beyond with Mr. Jazz, please visit this link to view past and present playlists http://wrir.org/x/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=133

WRIR SHOW PROFILE: Cause and Effect

anthony — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:37:46 -0400

In the early planning stages for our music issue, all of us at RVA magazine were certain we wanted to cover several aspects of the city’s independent radio station WRIR. As an addendum to our article about the history of WRIR, we have organized a series of show profiles. With these profiles, we hope to help spotlight the eclectic nature of the station’s programming as well as make mention of a few programs that you may not be familiar with. Accompanying these articles are links to past playlists, podcasts and more. All just to show that WRIR is, and has always been, radio for the rest of us.

SHOW PROFILE: Cause and Effect
Air Time: 7-9pm on Thursdays
DJS: Alex Kurth and Tracy Wilson

Have you every wanted to know more about your favorite contemporary Alternative artists? Who inspired them? Who their peers are? When they went in to record that one song what they wanted it to sound like? WRIR’s Cause and Effect as hosted by Alex Kurth and Tracy Wilson has the answers to these questions and even more.

Cause and Effect is a weekly program that does its homework, so you don’t have to. Kurth and Wilson examine each week’s artist discography and history for links to how the band became what we know today. The show brings the music nerd out of us all and makes it alright to admit that sometimes that new Dirty Projectors reminds us all of an old Mariah Carey song.

What prompted you to want to participate in radio programming? Were there particular memories you associate with music and radio that installed a desire within you to want to be a DJ?

Tracy Wilson: I grew up with a genuine love for radio. I loved music as a kid and it was the only way at the time (pre Internet) to hear it for free. I started with top 40 stations, moved over to an all alternative radio station in my early teens and then fell head over heels for WFMU in my late teens. Even though I moved out of NYC eight years ago I still listen to that station weekly. They are one of the greatest non-commercial stations in the world and are a constant inspiration to me.

Alex Kurth: When I returned to Richmond from living in Norfolk for seven long years I met DJ Stu, of The Secret Stash on WRIR. We met on the pitch, both sharing a passion for soccer, and started to talk about music. Our friendship quickly formed and he asked if I would join his show. I grew up in Northern Virginia and most of my music experiences involved riding shotgun in friends' Beetles and Tercels, listening to the latest mixtape, while causing merry prankster mayhem through the suburbs and venturing to D.C. to see music shows at the old 9:30, Bayou, and various church basements. I have always had friends who have great tastes in music. Rob (green Beetle '73) scored the latest Dischord releases. Andy (red Tercel '88) blasted Mudhoney at all hours. Gary (yellow Beetle '75) ranged from the Grateful Dead to Voivod. Joe (black Grand Cherokee '90) never left home without the Misfits. Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique frequently rotated between cars.

How long have you been doing a program at WRIR?

Tracy Wilson: I started doing Cause & Effect with Alex right at the turn of this new year. I had a late night slot on Tuesdays from 1AM to 3AM several years ago called Wrapped In Plastic. I mostly played new indie rock but used the show as an excuse to dust off my record collection and play some long forgotten favorites as well. The hours were really tough for me since I had a full time job with regular 9 to 5 hours but what I find most comical looking back was my fear of talking on air. I have no idea what happened but just a few years later you can't shut me up. Just ask Alex.

Alex Kurth: I joined DJ Stu with The Secret Stash in May of 2005. This was one of the first shows on WRIR. Every Thursday night from 7-9 pm, we played a variety of indie rock from our personal music libraries and pulled from the studio shelves. We would each bring an hour or so of music each week and mix it up, and also dabbled in music genre/theme shows from time to time. DJ Stu moved to Roanoke with his beautiful wife last year to eventually start a farm and family. Running solo Thursday nights with The Stash and feeling like the wick is about to expire, I asked Tracy if she would join me and we started collaborating on ideas for a new show. Tracy and I first met over a Hanover Tomato BLT at Bamboo Cafe four years ago and have been good friends since then.

With the popularity and advent of podcasting and internet broadcasts of radio stations, how do you think this changes the medium?

Tracy Wilson: Speaking on a totally selfish level, I love podcasting because it allows our show to be heard by friends and strangers alike from all over the planet who can't listen to us during our regular show hours. It's really fantastic to have an old friend who lives across country tell you he commutes to your show and how we may not be in touch all the time but there I am in his car with him for two hours a week. The same goes for internet broadcasting...knowing that anyone in the world can tune in if they want to is really exciting and certainly breaks open the boundaries of our signal only reaching people in a certain radius of our antenna.

I think the disadvantage of podcasting is it makes the show something you don't have to tune into as it is happening which in turn steals some of the thunder of us doing it all live and in the moment. That moment can be delayed until someone gets around to listening to it but because our show isn't covering news- our kind of themed show doesn't really have an expiration date. I think we fare better than other shows who focus more on the hip and happening for that reason.

Alex Kurth: Many DJs podcast their shows that I personally download regularly and find “essential listening” on long road trips for work. Imagine, a collection of music tracks selected by a local DJ with the sole desire to rock your world with a playlist. I can live with that. Many friends have noted that they would love to catch our show, though the time never works out for them. With the advent of podcasting, they can listen at their leisure. Low Power FM has inherent limitations in watts and overall radius of radio signal. WRIR provides web streaming of music and news programs, detailed information of their programs, including playlists, and a wide range of musical genres and news programs to choose from. The option to download podcasts further supports our dedication to the provide quality programming to our listeners, regardless of their ability to tune into a specific time.

How did the idea of Cause and Effect come about? How do you decide which bands to showcase? Is it determined on the proximity to a local show happening in the area, a new release, or do you receive requests constantly on which artists to focus on?

Tracy Wilson: I am a fan of music websites that list influences, peer groups, and followers so I basically just applied that concept to a two-hour radio show, named it, and luckily when I pitched it to Alex, he said yes. I was afraid he wouldn't be into a show that requires so much prepping but again lucky for me, he was up for the challenge. How we pick our bands really varies from week to week. It could be just a band we like and know inside and out. Sometimes it could be an artist on tour and coming to town and occasionally it reflects the recent new release. We truthfully don't get many requests for a show which means we are either doing something right or that nobody cares, ha!

Alex Kurth: Originally, I considered inviting artists, fellow DJs, and music enthusiasts/geeks/friends to share an hour or so of the music that inspired them and we would play tracks that would fit with their playlists. I love hearing about how the passion of music develops in artists, that “click” moment where the song you are listening to strikes your core, how you've heard that track a hundred times and it continues to kill. Tracy pitched her idea of Cause & Effect, which has a more central focus on the roots of artists and their influences and it was an immediate “Go!” We try to match our shows with upcoming events in Richmond or in the indie music world and new releases. Each week, I learn so much about new bands.

What methods do you use for your research?

Tracy: The Internet is a huge aspect of our research but sometimes we have a personal relationship/friendship with a label or an artist which allows us to get a list of influences directly from the source. Traditionally however we spend hours reading interviews and articles on the bands we pick in an effort to uncover any artists they claim as an inspiration spanning from their childhood to their song writing process in the now as well as production value when they record their music in a studio.

Alex and I are uber-fans of a few artists so from time to time we have a chance to show off our personal knowledge and my new favorite method of building a show set list is asking my friends (who are mostly all music fanatics) to offer their input on the artists they know inside and out. Our recent Lemonheads show was created this way and we have a Sigur Ros show that will be almost exclusively thanks to an uber-fan who has an incredible collection of rarities to share. In the end I think our friends might turn out to be the show's secret weapon.

Alex Kurth: We scour the Internet for information and interviews of our featured artists. On two occasions thus far we have had direct input from an artist and founding member of a record label. Chad VanGaalen & Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop both gave information regarding music that influenced them.

It seems like a lot of the bands you showcase exist in the world of indie rock? Would you ever consider expanding from that genre to focus on other artists who have done remarkable things to change the way we view a particular genre or music in general?

Tracy: Absolutely! It will happen over time, I am certain of it. For now, since the show is still new, it is easier to focus on the music we know best. As we getter at it though and the longer we do it... the more adventurous I am sure we will get. I love and collect so many kinds of music that it is just a matter of time before we do a Black Metal set or an ambient soundscape spotlight. The sky is pretty much the limit there...but one other thing to keep in mind, our goal is to also pick artists we think our listeners would be excited to sit through two hours of. If you have some ideas for us Shannon I say bring em on!

Alex Kurth: Interestingly, over the past 7 months Lightning's Girl and I have found several salient artists who have caused seismic waves in various music genres. Expect several shows in the near future that profile these artists and the impact they have on the music we listen to today.

I think you should do a show focusing on the Dirty Projectors...that new record is pretty fantastic.

Tracy Wilson: I don't know man, that first single sounds a whole lot like Mariah Carey to me but it could happen - heck maybe I will include MC in that set list just to remind people how Top 40 R&B fringe that group really is. Alex you have some Mariah in your collection right? Oh yeah...I should mention that all the music for the show comes from the combined collection of Alex and myself. No joke. We don't use the WRIR library at all so I think the show really reflects the two us because it is rooted from our own personal collections.

Alex Kurth: I regret missing them for the TVOTR show. Bitte Orca, as well as many other releases, is on my "To Listen" list. Who knows?

To keep up with Cause and Effect, please visit http://wrir.org/x/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=176
Here you can find playlists, podcasts, updates on the upcoming episodes and more!

The Dead Weather - 9:30 Club Record Release Show

pjsykes — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:44:12 -0400

I’ll admit that I didn’t have incredibly high expectations for Dead Weather. I have always been a fan of the White Stripes, and I feel that De Stijl and White Blood Cells are amazing albums, but their later work and Jack White’s excursions with The Raconteurs never moved me one way or the other. This uncertain position allowed me to enter the 9:30 Club with a blank slate on Tuesday night for the interesting on paper combination of members from the White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, The Kills, and The Raconteurs.

Upon entering, I was greeted with the ferocious screams of Marissa from Screaming Females. The band tore the audience and their instruments apart, combining disparate elements from post-punk, 70’s rock, glam, and dance music into a perfectly executed stop n’ howl set that seemed to convert nearly half the crowd. It’s incredibly rare that I come across an opening band that holds my attention with such vigor, but Screaming Females had me by the throat. (I conducted an interview with the band that will be available soon.)

After the noise died down and the band left the stage, two impeccably dressed men in black suits and derby hats prowled around the stage intently tuning, testing, and turning on every instrument crossing the stage. Then, to the soundtrack of an old blues number, the band appeared and ripped into “60 Feet Tall”, which recalled all of the rock swagger of a stadium band in the 70’s crammed into the mid-size space of the 9:30 Club.

Leading up to the show, I was quite skeptical as to how a band that seemed so hastily assembled, regardless of their pedigree, would fare on their first tour. I’ll simply say that they had the looseness and swagger that could only come from a group of musicians that needed a bit of uncertainty to drive them into the sort of reckless blues-soaked jams that I witnessed last night. Allison Mosshart trolled the stage with the sort of swagger that would befit a drunken Joan Jett or a barely sober Jennifer Herrema (PLEASE tell me you guys remember Royal Trux) and managed capture the heart of the audience without lapsing into parody.

It was a hell of a night and a hell of a rock show.

Film Review: Moon

parker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:22:37 -0400

Moon is that one film that science-fiction enthusiasts wait for. After an onslaught of commercial pictures in the genre, a film like this reminds us that science fiction can exist in an intelligent realm. Director Duncan Jones delivers a tale that examines the existential riddles within a future Earth that is in dire need to discover a cure for an energy crisis at any cost necessary, all morality aside.

The story follows astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) as he is about to complete his three-year stay on the surface of the moon. His mission on the moon has been to collect helium-3 and shuttle it back to the planet as a new source of energy for Earth to strive on.

Hallucinations begin to set in which Sam attributes to his recent health ailments, but it all comes to fruition after an accident he endures. He awakens to the voice of his station’s robot named GERTY (as voiced by Kevin Spacey). Sam is informed that he suffered a head injury that may have resulted in a concussion and slight memory loss. The company Lunar that he works for has demanded he doesn’t leave the station until a rescue team has arrived. After Sam’s recovery, he is confused and angered by this restriction placed upon him. As soon as he finds a way off the station, he uncovers several secrets regarding the mission and himself that he may or may not be prepared to understand.

Sam Rockwell is one of the more captivating actors of our time. With roles in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Choke, he has displayed the necessary presence to be a leading man. With Moon, Rockwell is given this opportunity and he flourishes. The majority of the picture relies on him to play off of the deconstruction of a man’s psyche when encountering intense isolation. His character has been deprived of a constant live feed with the planet. His interactions with his wife and newborn baby girl are limited. When his wife makes any reference to a past digression in their relationship, he is unable to react to the subtle remark. In moments of subtlety such as these, Rockwell hits his mark. Sam Bell simply wants to have a connection with someone besides the robot on board. When things start to unravel and the cloak that has been looming over all operations becomes apparent, Rockwell deals with these mixed and fleeting emotions with a finesse that most actors in bigger budget pictures wish they could pull off with such ease.

Jones’ direction really helps sell the story. The picture was made with a budget of five million and all of the shots on the surface of the moon were manufactured with practical effects. There is also this distinct effect done to the shots taken on the moon. It feels as if a distinct grain is placed on the frame giving the shot a presence that seems remarkably foreign.

While taking in all of the environments, I was drawn into the intricacies of the space station. Since the majority of the film takes place in this station, the corridors begin to grow more and more familiar as the plot thickens. When discoveries are made, you grow just as fascinated and surprised as the characters on screen in front of you. It also helps examine how the clean, lifeless shades of white everywhere can make a place feel that much more empty and soulless.

While watching and examining Moon, I was reminded of the 2007 Danny Boyle picture Sunshine. Both pictures examine an attempt made by mankind to develop a workable solution to an energy crisis. Sunshine dabbles a bit more in the supernatural spectrum of this universe, but is still mighty effective. I found myself preferring Moon for more of it’s allusions to science fiction of the past. Perhaps a film like Sunshine could find it’s predecessors more in line with the early installments of the Alien franchise, where a film like Moon belongs next to films akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey in it’s take of the lonely, isolated confines of space exploration.

All in all, Moon is a wonderful film. It isn’t perfect, but its flaws are overshadowed by the triumphs. If you’re in the mood for a film that really shows off the acting talents of Sam Rockwell and introduces the world to the directing talents of the successfully ambitious Duncan Jones, then don’t hesitate to check out Moon while it is still at your local multiplex.

Working for the World: A Conversation with Meena Khalili

parker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:44:34 -0400

I first encountered Meena Khalili's art last winter, in an experiment done with what she called "entropic typography" - she would create designs and typography from found objects in her trash, and then document their disintegration and decomposition in the wind and weather. I had never before encountered the work a graphic designer who seemed less interested in what was being said than in HOW it was said. It seemed almost counterproductive that a designer, someone whose livelihood depends on communicating a message to people, would deconstruct that message and delve headfirst into the semiotics of the written word and question the entirety of visual communication. In my interview with her, I was struck by how she manages to both further the business of graphic design and seek out some kind of artistic truth in her illustrations.

Matt Ference: Tell us about your background and how you ended up doing illustration.

Meena Khalili: Well, it seemed a natural progression from the doodles I was doing in my high school notebooks. I graduated high school in ’99 and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and I applied for VCU without any major intended, and realized, “Oh my God, what am I doing? I have one of the best art schools here at my fingertips," and I applied for AFO, and then I got in, and then I applied for CA, and then I got in, and then -- illustration was it for me, you know? My life was -- it was obviously the right progression, the right track for me.

Do you feel more comfortable doing, for lack of a better phrase, art for a purpose rather than art for its own sake?
Oh, totally. I know there are people out there doing it, and I guess it has its place, but personally, for me, it’s not the way I roll. Anything that I’m doing, whether it’s art or music, whatever it is, the purpose behind it - THAT’S what keeps me going.

There is this stigma associated with doing commercial art, as opposed to...

As opposed to starving art?

Exactly.

To be completely honest, you’ve got... Listen, I’ve already been through the starving artist thing, and I did it for three years, trying to make it work, and realized that at some point I needed to get a job. (Laughs) Case in point: a friend of mine, Kelly Redling, works over at Play on 18th and Cary. When she and I started out, we weren’t making any money. We finally decided to go ahead and get design jobs. We did that, but we were missing that creative spark, that excitement in our lives, saying that what we were doing wasn’t for The Man, but for The World. So we started up this design blog and grouping called White Rabbit. We called it “just another excuse for good design.” These places, like certain public schools in the area, small businesses, people who didn’t have a logo, who didn’t have money, needed to promote themselves -- we worked for them for free, as long as we could put the art in our portfolio. So, that’s where I think we melded the starving artist and the commercial artist. We had the money, but we needed to find something that made us feel good - so that’s where White Rabbit came from. That’s since defunct, and we’re doing our own things now.

So what are you doing now in terms of design? Are you freelancing?

I am freelancing, yeah. I’m pretty much on call whenever anyone needs me. I just finished up a job for Play downtown. I’m freelancing, and also working on my MFA at VCU.
 
Is that where your professional aspirations lie? To be a graphic designer?

To teach and to practice, yes. That’s my goal; I have a strong desire to teach, which is fueling that starving artist drive in me, and to practice, which fuels that commercial need. There's a line I try to walk as an artist, not to call it "selling out," but to have my feet firmly in both worlds.
 
Do you want to keep doing that in Richmond?
 
Oh, I would love to! I've been here for ten years, and I really want to stay. As long as there is someone in Richmond who wants me to teach them, I will be here.
 
Let's talk about your art. One of the things that struck me was that you work in radically different media, but you still have this cohesive style throughout your work. Do you have a medium or media that you prefer working in?
 
I really love working in monoprint. I would say that my biggest inspiration in monoprint would be Gary Kelly; if you go into any Barnes and Noble, the mural that you see on the wall, that's his work. I studied under him at the Illustration Academy, which was at that time held at VCU, and I think it's now in Sarasota, Florida. Monoprinting is such an interesting medium, because it's so unforgiving. I have a place in my heart for any medium that makes me say, "All right, you push me, I'm gonna show that you push me."
 
Tell me about monoprinting, actually. It's not a medium I'm very familiar with.
 
I'll tell you how I do it; there may be different ways. I take oil-based printing ink, I put that on a brayer, and I brayer that onto plexiglass. You can draw an image onto that plexiglass, on that oil-based ink using your finger, using a rag, a dry paintbrush, anything. After that image is put onto that plexiglass, you flip it over and you burnish it onto cotton-rag paper. You pry it apart, let it dry, and that's it. You can make ghostprints from that, and again, that's another thing that I love about this medium - it reacts to how to you treat it. There is no faking - you can't bullshit your way out of it. It takes a lot of skill to pull it off. Another thing I've done in this show is a series of polymer prints. I take photo polymer plates that are sensitive to UV light, I expose an image that is reversed out on them, I then wash the plates, and all of the polymer comes off that is not hardened by the UV light. You put that through a letterpress, crank it out onto a cotton-rag sheet, just like the monoprints, and there you are.
 
That sounds incredibly complicated.
 
Well, it really, really isn't, and I think the reason I've been drawn to these two media is because of their unforgiving nature. The oil ink, too, is unforgiving - you smear it, and it stays. There's something interesting that I find about working with it - you can't cheat your way out of it.

 
The first thing that struck me about your work, both from your portfolio on your website and in the work for this show, is that you have some of the harshest line work I've ever seen - just hard-edged vertical lines everywhere, regardless of the medium, almost like a woodcut. Knowing that you're also a designer, my natural assumption is that -- that might have something to do with your dealing with typefaces and fonts and words and letters.
 
It might be the opposite, actually. Since my base is in illustration, I think I might be drawn to design, actually, because my artwork is so heavily linear.

If you're an American artist, it's pretty difficult to break out of the American scene. Looking at your bio, you've studied in Florence, and your father is Persian. Have you absorbed things from Italian or Persian art? Do your experiences with those cultures color your work at all?
 
I think so, yeah. As far as the Italian influence, being there taught me that -- this is going to sound really cheesy -- that there is art all around you. I mean, you're walking down the streets there, and you're seeing frescoes everywhere, you have the Duomo, the Uffizi right there, and there are all of these wonderful statues, and you start to appreciate little things when you're over there. The way cobblestones line up, those types of things. And then I remember coming back to America and feeling so shocked by the lack of -- well, the lack of frescoes. (Laughs) But what I found myself doing was finding that same type of energy, that same artistic energy, randomly here in Richmond. You've got the beautiful architecture downtown, like the train station, and things like that. My experience in Florence taught me that there is really art everywhere, even in the less arty-seeming places, and you can draw inspiration from anywhere in your environment.

The Persian side of it taught me to really appreciate negative space. A lot of the Persian designs you see that is in Iran, the artwork is filled - every last little place! - with some sort of ornament in it, on a page or a piece. I mean, those mosaics, it's like Tetris! They fill every possible inch with these incredibly busy and incredibly beautiful flourishes. And looking at that artwork growing up taught me to really appreciate how well done that is, and it also helped me grow to love negative space.
 
What has been your experience with technology in your work? In the last ten years, five years especially, there has been such a huge shift in how art is created and distributed.
 
It's important for the artists that are coming out of school now to really be Jacks or Jills of all trades. I think as far as social networking and websites, there is no better medium to get your name out there. I had a website six months before I graduated with my BFA. Aside from that, the way that we actually use technology in creating the artwork - I had to buy a Wacom tablet. These are just things you've got to do, to start picking up these new media and using them. There's no time for hate. You have people out there who are saying, "Tradition, tradition, tradition," who don't use the new medium, but they're directly competing with people who are utilizing both the synergy that comes from the new stuff and the knowledge and experience that comes from the old stuff. One of my mentors moved from working with scratch board to doing everything digitally now, with a Wacom. He brought that harsh line-work from his scratch board art to working directly on a computer. It's important that the artist harness that synergy and use it to help them with their career.
 
How has that changed the way you deal with your professional career? Has there been a leveling of the playing field that you've had to adjust to?
 
Well, personally that's something I've never dealt with, but I've heard many older colleagues telling me about it, people who have been in the illustration field for much longer than I have. The globalization that the Internet brought with it - somebody who is doing design out of NYC or is illustrating in NYC and being there, in the middle of the industry, was getting good-paying jobs that way, talking directly with the art directors, was on exactly the same level as someone working out of Tulsa, OK, who could do it from their computer, and just fax in, or scan and send PDFs to the art directors, at maybe a lower rate, or maybe a different type of style. I haven't had to deal with that shift, since I've been dealing with it all along. We got the Internet when I was 14. From what I understand, it has really touched illustration and made it adjust its way of working, but now you have up-and-coming 20-something, 30-something artists who have never known another way of doing it.
 
So tell me specifically about this show, ink.paper.print.

This show came about two years ago, when I was doing a show with Richmond Illustrators Club. They were showing at the library then, and now they're at Ghostprint. The library came up to me, and said, "Hey, we really like your monoprints. Would you be interested in doing a show with us?" So I showed them my work, they said "yes", and that's how it happened. They schedule exhibits two years out, and the timing just happened to sync up with me being in the middle of my MFA process. Because this is my first solo show, what I'm trying to accomplish is to show my work with monoprints and polymer prints, because I don't see a lot of them out there. I want to show people what these outcomes look like. And I have two oil illustrations that I really enjoyed making, and I just really enjoyed the whole process of making these and putting the show together, and I hope that people will enjoy the show, too.

ink.paper.print has its opening on First Friday, August 7th, in the Dooley Hall of the Richmond Public Library (101 E. Franklin St). Meena's portfolio can be seen on her website, meenakhalili.com.  

No Kubrick Movie Is Just A Movie: 10 Years After Eyes Wide Shut.

anthony — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:26:15 -0400

With his first film release since 1987's Full Metal Jacket Stanley Kubrick returned to American cinemas with Eye's Wide Shut on July 16. 1999 . Initial reports of the film were based on rumors and secrecy. Finally in theaters the controversy surrounded a film that wasn’t made, many critics and general public missed what was. Like all his work EWS was ahead of its time and with the years spent in existence the themes and subtext have come into perspective. The world catches up and with Internet speculation on current sociopolitical world alignment the film has become a touch point for the end of the 20th Century. Kubrick said in a 1987 Rolling Stone interview, “critical opinion on my films has always been salvaged by what I would call subsequent critical opinion.“

Re-exploration and attention has been paid to Eyes Wide Shut not surprisingly it has led to bleak and conspiracy-laden thoughts and responses. The polar sides are on one side an artist responding to reality with a thoughtful metaphoric exploration of social order in a challenging film the other side a paranoid truth seeker who was killed for being a part of vast attempts to enslave mankind’s modern mind. From the same Rolling Stone interview, the set up is Tim Cahill’s “you don't make it easy on viewers or critics. You've said you want an audience to react emotionally. You create strong feelings, but you won't give us any easy answers.” Kubrick answers, “That's because I don't have any easy answers.” Kubrick has laid it out for us to come up with our own questions from his presentations and that viewer can cross-reference the film with recorded human history to come up with his or her own answers.

In a computerized world of data doing that is possible, Kubrick would have read every book or article pertaining to a given subject, and if the viewer does that same research the films open up in fascinating ways. There are countless articles online breaking down and cataloging his symbolism. In my time as a teacher I have attempted to answer interpretative questions from students about his films. It is fun for me as I have done exhaustive readings, but reading their interpretations in the film essays I assign is where I get new insight. Combined with reading the responses of film critics, professors, psychologists, sociologist, historians, and paranoid fringe theorists a rather nuanced collective unlocking has happened. The leads referenced in EWS go from ancient times to modern and opens the mind to all sorts of secret corners of global human rule, how sex, money, and power drives it all. It is also a case study of marriage between man and woman.

The most telling game that Kubrick plays is the references to his own films, as obviously as the soundtrack to 2001 in A Clockwork Orange record store or Quilty calling Humbert, Spartacus in Lolita, to more subtle things like having the name Bowman on the side of a building in EWS. Kubrick himself affords himself a cameo in the Sonata Café. If you can see these details then it is also up to you to see what all else is in the film. The first time I saw the trailer I mocked myself for thinking that his wife must have done a painting in the background, when I found out she had, predictability became obvious and my ability to read his work transcended beyond just plot and camera technique.

His photographic perspective before he started making films shows how his mind and eye were shaped in the 40's and 50's. His career was made on a photo reflecting the word of the death of US President Franklin Roosevelt in print surrounding a newspaper salesman. Followed by photo series of boxers, New York jazz clubs, showgirls, actors, circuses, zoos, baseball games, dentist offices, and horse race tracks shot on assignment for Look Magazine. In these settings he took pictures of people watching the performers or animals often without their knowledge, he knew more about large groups of people than he let on. Those photos show the real world he was soaking up to put in his films.

It is said that Kubrick wanted to adapt Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzter in the early 1970’s it took him about 30 years to bring the film to the screen. Having his films, Paths of Glory, A Clockwork Orange, and Lolita banned to entire countries, few filmmakers have elicited so much censorship over a career. The studio obscured some of the more graphic sexual images at the masked orgy to avoid an NC17 rating altering EWS digitally. Sadly the only CGI in his films is the shoddy black-cloaked figures hiding the action. Shortly after the films release a bootleg uncensored clip circulated online as an AVI file and on IMDB one can find record of the alternate DVD versions. One of the obscured vignettes was of a servant on his knees with a hooker on his back as a masked man fucks her. This statement of subservience so charged with power and dominance is lost to the viewer. The other thematic element lost forever in the posthumous editing is the audio of a passage from the Bhagavad Gita the quote actually draws attention back to the teachings of that sacred text even in its controversial use those that find it can receive what Kubrick shared.

In the void created by the lack of career capping interviews there are lots of holes and assumptions the computer-based devotees of Kubrick can get lost in. Kubrickian conspiracies are claimed to surround everything from the CIA, FBI, LSD, NASA, fluoride, Manifest Destiny, Royalty, Buddhism, the Kennedy assassination, pedophiles, Satan worship, Sun worship, phallic worship, systematic abuse of women, Jewish, Mason, secret society ruling class theories, nuclear holocaust, prison systems, military conditioning, numerology, Aliens, chess, all schools of philosophy and so many other sub theories it can be a challenge to separate lore and legend from artistic prophecies and true intent. That A Clockwork Orange is rife with it's own presentation of conspiracies as is Dr. Strangelove and many of the passages of dialog in 2001 directly speak of government plans in withholding evidence of extra terrestrials or conditioning the population slowly to accept there presence by design doesn’t help separate what is his belief and what is his satire. EWS is in some ways an extension of The Shining’s pleasure retreat of the world rich and elite as Wendy is told "All the Best People" have stayed at the hotel, directly across from the gaze of a Native American Chieftain. On the surface it is about child abuse but the subtext of The Shining is the annihilation of a people and the expansion westward. Hollywood is in some ways the end result of moving to the west coast and crossed with his observations about making and watching war movies in the middle of his own war movie Full Metal Jacket and with how Lolita’s mentions the “Art Films” Quilty makes, the red carpet rituals in EWS might reflect some thoughts on the Hollywood beauty factory. A Clockwork Orange is in some ways a treatise to the subliminal power of music and the programming power of drugs and movies. Barry Lyndon is the same to visual art and how to read a painting, secondly how to read a movie visually thru symbols and composition. Cross-referencing his films in this way may be over thinking, but better to think than to miss it all.

In the Rolling Stone Kubrick says of his reputation “Part of my problem is that I cannot dispel the myths that have somehow accumulated over the years. Somebody writes something, it's completely off the wall, but it gets filed and repeated until everyone believes it.” His films live in an age where fringe-thinking groups of all philosophies and disparate religious agendas can parse up his work to fulfill their worldview. Strangely Virginia has decided to play off of Eyes Wide Shut for its statewide celebration of women’s contribution to the arts “Minds Wide Open” not to be looked into beyond irony. What gives me comfort reading into his legacy is I’d like to fit his filmmaking model, the end result is a body of work of my own not web based fear mongering or misinterpretations.

The last time I saw EWS in its original run at the Byrd in fall of 1999, I watched the corners of the frame knowing to look for clues in the mise-en-scene, notes written on the back of a check book. Recently with it’s astounding run on late night cable the spring of 2009 I have studied the film’s every second as if running it back in Final Cut Pro. Kubrick edited EWS on an avid system, likely a similar version to what VCU Photo/Film department had in 1999. I cut my 2nd student film on that machine. In hindsight The Flipping Firecracker is an auto-programmed Kubrick homage. The parody character of myself wears A Clockwork Orange shirt as he tries to make a movie about a wannabe wrestler. It was inspiration to come up with my final treatment for the project days after Kubrick died March 7,1999. Richmond Moving Image Co-op co-founder and VCU film history professor Mike Jones recently shared that in the 2nd Unit Photography in Lolita includes a glorious wide shot of Richmond’s Broad Street taken from West Hospital. The shot follows Lolita typing of a letter asking for money, just before Humbert goes to find her the last time. For one of the only city skylines in a Kubrick film to be Richmond is astounding chance, that I lived at 2001 E. Grace and drove that stretch of road daily more resounding personal motivation.

One certainty is Kubrick loved paper. He stockpiled it. Thanks to the documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes by Jon Ronson a glimpse into his process has finally been made public and his deepest secret is he got giddy about stationary. Each one of his major films had been based on a book and in most Kubrick films there is a writer character. Lolita a academic writer, A Clockwork Orange a conspiracy far left writer, The Shining is a most horrific meditation on writers block and in Full Metal Jacket a wartime military reporter. In EWS the orgy is mostly shown in a library, as is the final standoff between Ziegler and Dr. Harford. On-screen Newspapers and letters the audience can read also share information key to the storytelling. Kubrick was noted to have props translated into different languages for international releases, he made films for literate people. A lasting legacy of his love for books and reading, with the attention he paid to the stories he loved, it is easy to imagine the amount of material he read and processed to find those few stories he wanted to tell.

Is there a Kubrick Code? There are codes to the way he filed and research so perhaps the editing of the film is the final synthesis of that material. Kubrick had his perspective of the sociological order of Earth and there is something more to his work than just entertainment. Simply illustrated by everyone who has said his films are boring, his films are not an excuse to stop thinking and go for a ride. Stanley Kubrick's reputation is debated in film programs, cinema chat rooms, forums, and message boards. A friend once criticized me for how easy and unoriginal it was to admire Kubrick, as if it was more virtuous for a young filmmaker to hate his films. No filmmaker has been as rewarding in the details and depths of interpretation as Kubrick.

ENDNOTES
------------------>
In 1999 cinema saw one of the most important years for modern motion pictures. Released late in 1998 Terence Malik's The Thin Red Line was still in theaters at the start of 1999. Films released that year included the return of Star Wars with The Phantom Menace the return to directing by George Lucas was a milestone, good or bad is irrelevant. His process changed the way big budget and low budget blue-screen films are made forever. The first Matrix movie was released as well as its thematic counterpoint David Cronenberg's eXistenZ. David Fincher's cult film Fight Club, David Lynch's The Straight Story, Luc Besson's The Messenger, Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead, all released that fall. Spike Jonze's first feature Being John Malchovich started the onslaught of Charlie Kaufman penned scripts. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. The Insider by Michael Mann portrayed both the tobacco and media industries of the 90’s. Johnny Deep made another film with Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow. The Best Picture that year was the Dreamworks produced American Beauty directed by Sam Mendes with a script by Alan Ball (who has gone on to HBO to pen Six Feet Under and True Blood). Roman Polanski returned to Satan with The Ninth Gate. Robert Altman released Cookie's Fortune Kevin Smith Dogma, Alexander Payne Election Sam Raimi For the Love of the Game The Sixth Sense skyrocketed M. Night, the Blair Witch Project was the alternative in summer horror. The Studio's were pushing Wild,Wild,West on America and other films released Girl Interrupted Go The Green Mile Julian Donkey Boy The Iron Giant, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Limey, Man on the Moon, Office Space, Ride the Devil, The Red Violin, Romance, Run Lola Run, Summer of Sam, Sweet and Lowdown, Titus, Toy Story2, Three Kings and other rounded out a spectacular year for movies.

Great article on Stanley’s work at Look Magazine
www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2005/03/kubrick200503

For a full investigation of the Bhagavad Gita use in Eyes Wide Shut please see this link
www.brightlightsfilm.com/35/eyeswideshut3.html from 2002 by Robert Castle

www.vamindswideopen.org/

links about Jon Ronson’s Documentary on Kubrick’s research methods.
http://mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/2008/08/stanley-kubricks-boxes.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2004/mar/27/features.weekend

KUBRICK LINKS (all content found on these links is open to interpretation material ranges in all directions)
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0077.html
http://www.jeffreyscottbernstein.com/kubrick/eyeswideshut.html
http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id79.html
http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120663/faq
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/
http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id56.html
http://collativelearning.com/EYES%20WIDE%20SHUT%20analysis.html
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0096.html
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0072.html
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0076.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/faq#.2.1.116
http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/sep/01us1.htm
http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/offline7.htm
http://www.konformist.com/flicks/eyeswideshut.htm
http://dvisible.com/2009/03/09/selling-kubrick-in-america-the-poster-des...
http://www.coudal.com/archive.php?cat=cat_stanley_kubrick
http://www.kubrick2001.com/
http://www.stanleykubrick.de/eng.php?img=img-l-6&kubrick=news-eng

Radio For the Rest of Us: WRIR's Evolution

parker — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:36:01 -0400

WRIR has a long and bumpy history. Its inception started with just a few radio advocates and a little tenacity.

The idea of WRIR was born from the mind of Christopher “Max” Maxwell, who was frustrated with WCVE from getting rid of two of his favorite shows, “Talk of the Nation” and “Living on Earth”, in 1991. Max decided to go out and get signatures to let the powers that be know that their listeners liked those shows. In the process, he found that WCVE’s listeners were also pretty upset over the cancellation of their favorite evening jazz show, produced by Henry Wailes. He gathered over 2200 signatures and set up a meeting with the station manager, who wasn't very interested in what his listeners wanted. In a fit of frustration, the manager exclaimed, “If you know so damn much about radio, start your own station.” So Max took the petition and started a grassroots project.

About a year later, Maxwell began the process of raising funds for building a radio station. There was an opening for the airwaves, but he didn’t raise enough and a religious organization got it instead. Realizing that there were too many regulations and that financing was beyond his means, Max became involved with the Virginia Center for Public Press (VCPP) to lobby the Federal Communications Commission to create LPFMs - low power, non-profit radio stations that can only use under a hundred watts. VCPP was already an established nonprofit, and the idea fit perfectly with their agenda, creating community media for local issues and a different point of view from mainstream media.

During the long wait for FCC approval Max got together with some friends who were already running a pirate radio station called “Oregon Hill Free Radio” and an internet stream called Trinity. Trinity was run by Scott Burger and Leland Maurello. I became involved during the winter of 2000. I had always wondered why the capital of Virginia had no decent radio station. I grew up in Williamsburg, and the College of William and Mary had a superb college station there. I had always heard about WDCE, but who could ever pick it up on their radio in the city? I never even knew VCU had a station until years later when WRIR was on its way. I was even more annoyed by something that happened just before I got involved. In the summer of 1996, a friend and I drove across the country. While we were on the West Coast driving late at night, we would tune into the NPR stations out there. They had late night DJs on from the local community playing whatever they liked! My first thought was, “How awesome is that?” My second: “We MUST do that in Richmond.” So when we got back, I started looking into it. I found out that the NPR stations here, and on most of the East Coast, don’t do that sort of thing. So I was very happy that I ran into the folks behind Oregon Hill Free Radio 3 years later.

After a few weeks I was invited to meet Max, Leland, and Scott, and join in their efforts to be ready and waiting for the FCC to approve the applications. During that time we met with Alan Shinchues, who was then the VCPP president. He was also working on his own dream: a café where socially conscious people could go and have meetings and network with folks. His name for it? The Camel. We made a deal where we would volunteer our time to help build his idea, and he would let us use the basement for ours. We focused all our energy on Internet streaming and christened the new enterprise “Radio Free Richmond”. We still needed funds, and we made a partnership with the now-defunct Orange Door Gallery for a portion of the proceeds. Even though VCPP had been around for a while, they hadn’t been doing any fundraising lately. It was hard to get people involved in a struggling nonprofit that was waiting on government approval. There were a few standouts, though. Tim Kaine, who at that point was a city councilman, helped write and pass a resolution in favor of low-power radio.

By 2002, Radio Free Richmond was fully operational. We were located in a dank basement with old and donated equipment, an Internet stream that could only handle about 15 people at a time, and not much help in the way of monetary donations or volunteer time. We had a couple of local music shows but most of our music was automated.

Then it happened. The FCC granted us our construction permit in May 2003. It gave us 18 months to build, test, and complete our station. We needed help. We put out word to let people know we were having meetings. These meetings were to let people know what we were about and how they could help. There were huge turnouts. People from all walks of life showed up. We gained more live DJs who produced very popular shows like “The Audience Hates You”, “Global-A-Go-Go” and “Stunted Development”.

We never gave up, and thanks to Liz Skrobieszewski-Humes (who used to run “Punchline” with her husband Pete), who joined in August 2004, and some other well connected supporters, the money started rolling in. Things became much easier and we were on the air in January 2005.

Editorial Note: Next week in celebration of our special music issue, Irregular Broadcast: A Selection Of Sounds From RVA, we will be spotlighting a different show from WRIR each day.

Film Review: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

ian — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:00:21 -0400

Personally, I thought the Harry Potter fad was finished. The novels have been over with for a couple of years now, and the final book seemed to split the audience over whether it was wonderful or disappointing. The most recent previous movie came out around the same time as the last book, and it was not very well received. Now, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sequel to a sub-par film, leading up to the story of a disappointing book. Imagine my surprise, then, when I walked up to the theater for the midnight showing to see something I have not seen for any other movie this summer. There were signs posted on the doors reporting that all the midnight screenings were sold out. Fortunately, I bought my tickets in advance.

To end the suspense of anyone waiting on bated breath, this new Harry Potter film is vastly superior to the last. In fact, it is the best one in the series thus far. Earlier, this series only improved when new directors took over, but this time David Yates, the director of the lackluster Order of the Phoenix, recovers from that misstep to deliver a much more satisfying experience.

For starters, this film is much tighter. It moves at a quick pace, but not so much so that the story becomes confusing. Many who had not previously read the books complained of the prior film that they did not understand what was happening at key points of the story. I doubt any will complain of that for Half-Blood Prince. It is only unclear when it wants to be in order to create intrigue, and all is explained before the end of the movie. Another major improvement is the visual style. The colors are dark and muted and there seems to be constant rain and fog. It is exceptionally appropriate, and a welcome change from the brightness of all the previous movies. These wizards are at war. The film finally reflects that visually.

For those who do not know the story, do be aware that though this film is superior to the others, it is still a middle stepping stone. The climax is certainly impactful on the overall narrative, but the plot of this film still lacks a real beginning or end. Harry returns to Hogwarts and, on Dumbledore’s instructions, attempts to learn more about Voldemort’s past by befriending one of his old professors. Harry also discovers an old textbook with a note claiming it as the property of “The Half-Blood Prince.” Harry learns powerful spells from the book, so he also attempts to figure out who the titular character is. Needless to say, seeing as how this is part six, this is not the place to try and jump in if you have not seen the previous movies or read the books.

As has been the case for most of these films, fans of the novels will likely be disappointed in how much is cut from the book in order to work as a film. Strict editing is necessary, of course, in order to turn a novel into a two hour movie. Fortunately, the filmmakers do not repeat the mistake of the last film in which many essential scenes from the book were cut. Unless my memory betrays me, this film equips the audience with all of the information they will need when it is time for the final film (or final two films as they are apparently splitting the final book into two movies).

The Harry Potter series has been quite a roller coaster in terms of quality. The first two films of the series were quite bad. They were overlong and boring, and the children had not yet learned to act well enough to carry a movie. The third film saw a slight improvement as the actors grew and the filmmakers became more discriminating in the editing room, and it cleared the way for the fourth film which continued those trends and was actually very enjoyable. The fifth film was the major disappointment. One of the better books had yielded one of the worst movies. Now, with Half-Blood Prince, we have reached the highest point so far. We will just have to wait patiently to see if the final film will remain at this level, or if it will be another freefall.

RVA Magazine is on vacation.

ian — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:52:57 -0400

It's summertime, and more importantly, it's vaycay time. Most of the staff of RVA Magazine is heading out of town today, and those who remain are going to kick it back. We're going fishing, you see... Fishing. Right.

The issue is at press, and will be on the streets Saturday. We'll start our web coverage of Richmond's music scene on Monday.

Until then, have fun!

-RVA

Sticky Rice Coupon #3

ian — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:25:57 -0400

Stay Sticky, y'all.

Baiting the Public: The RIAA is Watching You!

parker — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:31:53 -0400

Why the hell is this still happening? Why, after nearly a decade of structural decay and paradigm shifts, I’m sitting behind my laptop writing about KaZaA? I’ve never shied away from discussing the lopsided copyright laws that the RIAA and other major labels have used to attack and alienate their clientele, but things are becoming absurd. The recent $192,000,000 judgment leveled by the court against a 32-year-old woman from the Midwest hit me with barely a whimper. Sure, the press ate it up, but here’s the thing : IT DOESN’T FUCKING MATTER ANYMORE.

For those who are unfamiliar with exactly where we are and how we got here, I’ll give you a quick recap: The Recording Industry Association of America was initially formed to help the collective progress of music technology and to protect the interests of the labels and music-related companies that comprised its affiliates. KaZaA, on the other hand, was created as a conduit for file sharing which included bundles of spyware and adware as an added bonus. In the early 2000s, the RIAA decided that the best way to deal with these wayward and thieving fans was to sue their pants off in order to send a strong message that there were feasibly horrendous consequences to downloading songs by your favorite artists without paying for them. This most recent judgment, which breaks down to roughly $80,000 per song, is anachronistic. Jammie Thomas, the defendant, has refused to settle with the RIAA, and as a result has found her fine increased from the $222,000 settlement leveled upon her in 2007. The fact that the fines are getting larger merely heap on the irony of the case, considering the current public standing of the RIAA.

Nearly a decade ago, when industry giants were bathing in money coming in from Britney Spears and N*Sync, things were a bit more cut-and-dry. There was still a strong industry to defend, and as artists spoke out against their fear of binary code and burned CDs they gained a bit of a sympathetic ear. Big Labels were still considered evil, and the Us vs. Them battle seemed to carry some weight in the media. Lars Ulrich still commanded attention during press conferences and inspired spirited debate. Digitizing media was still something that bewildered a lot of America, and John Doe hadn’t yet procured the technology to rip his Netflix rentals onto his laptop. As the decade wore on, it became obvious to everyone that digital culture was expanding its gravitational pull and physical media sales began to plummet. That’s when college students, the elderly, and suburban housewives began to be sued by corporate giants and things became a bit more opaque. Even as these trials wore through dismissals, settlements, and the inevitable media circus, CD sales continued to crash, and the public all bought iPods (and apparently a Zune, as well - I saw one once) and went about their merry way, downloading torrents and zipped files of every album they could think of. Time passed and now we have these judgments rendered in cases that have gestated in the system for years, becoming increasingly irrelevant. How in the hell does the RIAA still have the money to deal with these things in court? The battle is over. I’m absolutely baffled as to what they think they’re going to win with this. You cannot reverse anything that has happened. People are not suddenly going to run towards the industry-approved light because of some astronomical figure they see on the front page of CNN.com. The culture is in place and thriving. Who needs KaZaA or any kind of P2P anymore when Google has fashioned itself into a hotbed for music piracy? Try searching for any album of your choosing, followed by the words “Mediafire” or “Megaupload”. Congratulations! You’ve just acquired Neil Young’s entire discography in one fell swoop. The RIAA can’t sue your way into the past. The American legal system is not a time machine unless you’re dealing with gay rights or abortion.

A few years ago, when these suits were in full swing, the RIAA created a website on which defendants could settle en masse for as little as $3,000 per case, since college students aren’t exactly rolling in cash to spend on court fees. This is mind-boggling. These are absurd “lessons” that simply wore away at any goodwill left towards the industry. Who wouldn’t pirate music with glee after forking over thousands to some faceless conglomerate who demonized you in the process? The defendant, Jammie Thomas, doesn’t have the resources to deal with this kind of money, and it’s not likely that she’d be able to pay a lesser settlement. Even once this is likely struck down on appeal, she’ll still be stuck with court fees for downloading Richard Marx songs (who, interestingly enough, condemned the judgment - http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/06/24/richard-marx-...)

The industry is simply lobbing stones from a ship whose mast is barely above water. The Billboard Charts are a pathetic reminder that sales are shrinking to a mere fraction of what they once were, allowing labels like Sub Pop, Matador, and Anti- to be labels with albums in the top ten. Multi-million sellers are a thing of the past, and the idea of a unifying force in pop music has all but evaporated in the past decade. Niche markets are now king. Music magazines are folding left and right, with the venerable Rolling Stone cutting its size and page count while MTV cries and sputters its way into obscurity via The Hills and almost self-effacing online “specials” on new scenes. Major labels aren’t the enemy anymore, they’ve just become irrelevant. Gone are the stereotypes of the A&R shill telling bands to make things “more commercial.” Who makes hits anymore? Aside from established R&B stars and Lady Gaga, major labels are hemorrhaging money on their artists and burying themselves with each transaction. The return for the industry was never really spectacular, but they’ve reached a point where the only place they have a chance of ending up in the black is with ham-fisted lawsuits. Sure, Black Eyed Peas have the #1 album in the country, but what they’re selling is less an album of songs than twenty-second snippets for Target and movie trailers. Remember when everyone balked at Moby’s licensing frenzy after Play? This dwarfs that. Why even put out a record? You’re writing jingles. At least then I won’t have to worry about accidentally hearing three minutes of your shitty auditory Pap smear at my local retail outlet.

Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, and countless others have dropped out of the world of the majors simply because there’s nothing necessary anymore. The idea that a major label somehow provides any sort of security or advantage over an indie based out of a tiny office has simply evaporated. None of this is meant to imply that I am in any way nostalgic for the way things were, but there’s almost a sense of tedium to covering this kind of court decision. The game is over. The RIAA can’t realistically expect money from this woman, and went so far as to come out with a statement saying just that. My question is this: why in the hell would you publicize a decision that simply reminds the populace how insidious and ineffectual of a group you are and then tout it as something that’s primarily a symbolic judgment? At the crux of it is the same ineptitude that buried them in this hole. A lack of foresight, technophobia, and lingering nostalgia for the coke headaches their expense accounts afforded them in the ‘90s thanks to Stone Temple Pilots and Alanis Morrisette.

I think that when we look back on this in two years, we’ll see it as the last gasp of an industry that has already irrevocably changed. Major labels are shitting out eleventh-hour reissues on the nearly buried CD format and having their flagship artists brush them off in favor of new media. The public learned long ago that their money was just barely trickling down to the artists, and now that they’re leaving en masse, there’s not even a wisp of sympathy for all the lawyers and middlemen who are scrounging for cash by trying to steal it from the cold dead hands of the market, or a Midwestern housewife.

For a brief history of how the industry ended up mired in this kind of bullshit, I kindly direct you to Steve Albini’s infamous “The Problem With Music” (http://www.negativland.com/albini.html)

Chaotic Noise Productions

parker — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:29:56 -0400

CNP Records (aka Chaotic Noise Productions)

Chaotic Noise Productions started in 1992 with the cassette releases of Rectal Puss and Suppression. Jason Hodges sought out to release recordings that embodied the experimental conundrums that were most intriguing to him. By 1998, the label had released its first seven-inch by Suppression as well as their first compilation. In true CNP fashion, the compilation featured ninety-nine bands. That was the point when Chaotic Noise Productions became CNP Records.

Bill Porter joined CNP Records after a failed attempt at starting his own label. He moved from Roanoke to Richmond and felt as if the two fared better odds at running a label together as opposed to competing. With the two at the helm, the label has found minimal success monetarily, but tremendous success artistically and creatively. With their compilation entitled Audio-Terrorism, they were able to help expand the exposure of the ninety-nine bands featured. The Supersonic Sounds of the Fuck You Movement also acted as a successful compilation that informed as much as it enticed its listeners. The most successful release would have to be the split seven-inch with Bermuda Triangles and Tickly Feather. Due in no small part to Tickly Feather opening for an Animal Collective tour around the time of the seven-inch’s release. Along with the success of these compilations and seven-inches, Hodges and Porter do find that it gets better as they continue running the label. They have started to focus their efforts towards screen-printed album artwork and steering away from the confines of pixilated Photoshop images.

poster by Joey Fitchett

The rest of 2009 should remain exciting for the label. With the releases of a new Bermuda Triangles full-length and a few CD-Rs, CNP should continue to flourish. The most exciting tidbit of news for the future is in the planning stages. A new compilation that Hodges has proclaimed will be entitled “YO CNP RAPS!” If it is anything akin to Audio-Terrorism or The Supersonic Sounds of the Fuck You Movement, it should be yet another fantastic addition to the label’s already impressive discography.

poster by Joe Legs

The Roster of Artists on CNP Records (with one and multi-word descriptions by Jason Hodges and Bill Porter):

Rectal Puss – Butts (www.myspace.com/rectalpus)
Bunny Rabbits – John Swart (www.myspace.com/thebunnyrabbits)
Kojak – Stolen band name. (www.myspace.com/cnpkojak)
[man speaking chinese] – Dope friends! Two of which now live In Austin that used to live here. (www.myspace.com/manspeakingchinese)
Hallelujah! – Exclamation Point! (www.myspace.com/hallelujahrva)
Horrible Axidents (Ho-Ax) – Matt Deans (www.myspace.com/hoax)
The Yes Sirs – Yes sir, Cali-core meets Richmond. (www.myspace.com/radioactivepopsmear)
Insomniacrobats – Drunk (www.myspace.com/theinsomniacrobats)
La Mere Vipire – Geniuses (www.myspace.com/lamerevipererva)
Silver Ninjas – Mysterious as hell, we don’t know them, but they’re fun. (www.myspace.com/silverninjas)
DJ Renaldo – Ryan Parrish is all you need to say. (www.myspace.com/djrenaldo)
Suppression – Long time... (www.myspace.com/suppressionrva)
The Amoeba Men – Chris (www.myspace.com/theamoebamen)
Bermuda Triangles – Terror in the Tropics, Post-Apocalyptic Tropical www.myspace.com/bermudatriangles)

Yes, So On and So On with Thao Nguyen

parker — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:07:19 -0400

Ages ago, there was a wonderful event that took place at Café Gutenberg entitled A Light in the Attic. This idea was spawned from the mind of Adam Thompson. His eclectic musical outfit, The OK Bird, acted as the house band while guests from around the country were invited to play on these inspired Sundays. Besides the OK Bird, he spent time playing bass for Prabir and the Substitutes, as well as a group that had recently been signed to Kill Rock Stars. This was how I became introduced to Thao Nguyen.

Instead of the OK Bird, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down performed on one of these Sundays. In the most intimate of settings, I was spellbound by the wonderfully creative and whimsical presence the band and front woman Nguyen delivered to the crowd. With a mix of songs from her first full length Like the Linen and the then soon-to-be-released We Brave Beestings and All, I had to let the world know about this wonderful gift of a songwriter. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who took on this mission.

Nguyen is that rare breed of a musician that approaches the craft with incredible ease and maturity. Her voice is one that demands to be heard, and will leave remnants of hooks and introspective lyricism in your head for days on end. If you missed out on We Brave Beestings and All last year, don’t hesitate any further. Pick up a copy immediately and check out this fantastic band as they play the National this Friday.
 
Shannon Cleary: From my understanding, you started playing and writing songs at an early age. What artists at the time were large influences on your approach to songwriting/lyrical styles?

Thao Nguyen: I was and am a huge fan of Motown. I didn't know what Smokey Robinson was responsible for when I was that young, but all my favorites were written, if not also performed by him. I loved the juxtaposition of brighter sounds with more melancholic lyrics. I also was intrigued with the Reading Rainbow theme song, because it sticks to your bones but it is not necessarily a good song. I wanted very much to focus on gleaning the catchiness and sparing the potential annoyance of a hook.

At what point, or moment, was it for you that you decided to take music more seriously? Was it before or after you entered William and Mary?

After my sophomore year at William and Mary I started to notice a declining interest in pursuing a career in anything but music. After the first month of my senior year I narrowed it down to just that one egg in my basket, and I intentionally forewent any registration for GRE testing.

How did the experience of growing up in Virginia affect your perspectives on all things few and far between?

I grew up in the suburbs, in Northern Virginia. I had a lot of time to myself because I couldn't get a ride to any friends' houses, (not that I had that many) and I wasn't really much for organized sports, and in the summers it is so devastatingly humid you can't leave the house anyway. And really, how often can you go to that one Starbucks close by, or shopping at Old Navy? So I stayed in my room a lot and played guitar and wrote songs.

Your rhythm section is very Richmond-based. I have read a few tales as to how you met these members, but I’d love to hear how you came across Willis and Adam. (Also, I think it’s neat that Adam still refers to himself as the OK Bird. That was easily one of my favorite Richmond-based musical projects. I felt honored to play alongside in my own musical endeavors.)

Willis and I met at William and Mary. He was a man about campus. I stayed in my room a lot from habit. We had mutual friends and I would play shows around the college and he eventually started guesting and making everything sound better. His friends would come to the shows and that would exponentially increase the crowd. We met Adam in Richmond at the Harrison St. Cafe. We were on the same bill with the highly revered and esteemed OK Bird. We took to him immediately. Months later we asked him to join as bassist for the below mentioned Kill Rock Stars Compilation tour. Normally I am not so handy with segues.

The big break for your band must have been the Kill Rock Stars compilation and tour, which helped offer your group exposure. How did this change everything? At least, now looking back on it.

It solidified my, and our, relationship to Slim Moon, our great friend and manager. Moon had set up a week of recording with Tucker Martine. Martine signed on to produce four tracks for a demo, which was an incredible coup for us. Then Portia Sabin, the head of Kill Rock Stars, signed us, and Tucker worked on the rest of the record (We Brave Beestings and All) with us, and now here we are, still riding around in a van.

One of the greatest tools that I have witnessed in the exposure of your group has been NPR podcasts and the Daytrotter sessions. What were the experiences like participating with both of these mediums that have such a high respect for the independent music community, and do you see outlets like this as being what keeps the interesting facets of the music community acknowledged and recognized?

We are so grateful for the support of both NPR and Daytrotter, and it is always positive to be affiliated with something people trust and are excited for. I have great respect for their tastes and their mission to promote and support independent music, and if they find us worthy of their exertions, then I am flattered and we are just glad to have a float in the parade. And overall, yes, I think both mediums are at the forefront of offering exposure to the maybe underexposed.

Your first release was just under your name. How did the name The Get Down Stay Down come about?

The Get Down Stay Down did not form until necessity arose, in the form of the KRS compilation tour. I had wanted to have a rock band for a while before that, but my tendencies are more reactionary.

How did your approach to storytelling in your songs evolve between releases? From my own perspective, the first release is very relationship-centric, but it keeps you involved and it evokes a scene. Whereas the second release seems to be more like “this is the world around me, the history of what made me Thao, and how I perceive relationships and the ways people treat one another.”

I'd agree with that. For the first one, my songwriting style was a lot more direct and plaintive, which I used to attribute to being younger. That is peculiar reasoning, because I think I have revisited that approach lately with my newest batch of songs. Also for the first record, I blamed other people more, and for my second record I blamed myself more, and for this next record I just give up more.

When do you expect a second release on Kill Rock Stars to come out?

Our new record will be out on Kill Rock Stars on October 13th.

With a label like Touch and Go ceasing their distribution, does that become a concern for any band that is supported by an independent record label? Like, how are we going to sustain being a band if every label around us goes under?

To be honest, I haven't really considered this because making a living in music is so precarious, if one thought about everything that could go wrong and leave us all destitute, one (I) would never recover from angina. In addition, I think we have hit the era of "the record label is irrelevant" for those who have the gumption and the drive and the Internet to record and market and industriously propel their own music. I only have the Internet, so I'm very grateful for KRS.

Lastly, what have been some memorable or favorite tour experiences? Whether between David Shultz and the Skyline, Xiu Xiu, Rilo Kiley, or so on and so on?

On our last tour in the spring we were down south with our friends Sister Suvi and we played tag in the parking lot of the venue. That is a terrifying game, all the chasing and fear. Why do kids like to do that?

David Schultz and the Skyline are dear friends and they let us borrow their rehearsal space in Richmond because ours is a homeless band. They are coming with us on our fall release tour. My favorite is when both our groups combine to become Super Band for our last song. And we hang out backstage and drink whiskey and giggle and debate where will eat after the show.

Rilo Kiley was such a great opportunity for us and they were so kind and hospitable. I thought Jenny Lewis was incredibly gracious and dignified and I have such respect for how she handles her job. And all the gifts we were asked to deliver to her were pretty cool, but we never skimmed anything off the tops of those goody bags.

Thank you for participating with this interview and good luck with your Richmond show.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down will be opening for the Avett Brothers this Friday, July 10th at the National. Tickets are $25. The doors open at 7pm and Thao with the Get Down Stay Down will take the stage at 8pm.

Film Review: Bruno

anthony — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:57:37 -0400

Bruno finds Sacha Baron Cohen returning to his quest of exposing intolerance in the most outrageous of ways. Creatively, the filmmakers have not progressed at all since their 2006 film, Borat. The premise and gags are nearly identical. The only differences are the name and appearance of the main character. Fortunately, so long as people continue to be offended by various members of society, Sacha Baron Cohen can continue to confront them with hilarious results.

If you saw Borat a few years ago, you know exactly what to expect with Bruno. Sacha Baron Cohen does his best to offend actual people and catches their reactions on film. The emphasis has shifted for this film. Borat was about catching people in cultural misunderstandings. The character was a Middle Eastern man who was attempting to understand American culture. For Bruno, the filmmakers target homophobia, as the titular character is a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion designer. The character himself may actually be a little too over the top. Often, the targets of the sketch will look shocked merely by Bruno’s appearance before he even speaks. They’re horrified after he does open his mouth. It’s hard to believe Cohen was holding back when he made Borat, but it seems as though he must have been.

The plot is where the movie really has a misstep. The filmmakers may want to consider giving up on trying to make these narrative movies, because this was the main problem with Borat, as well. In the case of Bruno, we find a plot that is exactly the same as that of the previous movie. Borat saw the main character touring America to make an educational movie for his home country. Bruno sees the titular character traveling around attempting to break into Hollywood show business by putting together a celebrity show, and later a charity music video. Just as in the first movie, the central character is accompanied by an underappreciated assistant who leaves Bruno when he hits rock bottom, only to have a reunion toward the end of the film. It is as though the filmmakers just pulled their old storyboards out of the trash, dusted them off, and started over again. We really don’t need a cohesive plot for movies like this. The comedy doesn’t come from the scripted scenes, it comes from the unscripted reactions.

One aspect that continues to impress from the first film is Sacha Baron Cohen himself. If ever there was an example of an unshakeable performer, he is it. His ability to so completely transform into his characters is admirable enough, but the fact that he is able to stay in character through unscripted interactions so well is staggering. It makes me wonder if there is any footage they are unable to use because he breaks character or starts laughing. It seems like there would either have to be a lot or none at all.

Bruno is a very funny follow up to Borat. The movies are so similar, though, that it is difficult to consider the new film as anything more than an extension of the first one. Changing hair styles and accents does not make this an original film. Especially not when the plot remains the same. One thing we can be thankful for is that the very nature of these films will keep them from making too many too often. Sacha Baron Cohen cannot risk becoming too recognizable or he will not be able to trick people anymore. Hopefully, they will use the necessary break between films to figure out a fresh approach for the material. Until then, Bruno proves that another episode of the same thing isn’t all bad.

Sonic Youth: The Sisyphean Task

parker — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:02:58 -0400

Writing about Sonic Youth’s recent live shows can be a Sisyphean task for longtime fans. On one end of the spectrum, there’s the grumpy part of me that wants to stress just how disjointed the sound is at the National and how few, err… hits were played at last night’s show. And on the other end? They’re fucking SONIC YOUTH. No one does what they do the way they do, and no other band played as important a part in my musical education as they did.

For me, the most exciting part of the show happened before a single note was struck by the band. Apparently, Sonic Youth is the only band that can bring every Richmond band from every conceivable genre crawling out off of their porches to Broad Street. It’s a truly satisfying (and depressingly rare) sight to see people from the city joining together in a sort of giddy ecstasy over the same band. More than any other band, Sonic Youth have managed to be all things to their audience. They served as a gateway drug to the underground for many, they have pop nuggets in games like Rock Band, they have improv noise jams, and their new album, The Eternal, is a Black Metal reference.

After an extended howl from the audience, the band barreled into “Incinerate” off of Rather Ripped, which illustrated perfectly my fence sitting about the show. I really love some of the songs off of the band’s recent albums, and I’ve got more than my share of reverence for a band that can keep on ticking after all these years without lapsing into an alternate-universe Stones. The problem is that their set relied almost exclusively on material from their new album, with the exception of the one-two punch of “The Sprawl” and “Cross the Breeze”, which was a mighty reminder of exactly why the band is here in the first place. I can count the bands on one hand that can slip back 21 years into their catalog without losing any of their fury. And then, after that rush of nostalgia and power, the audience was treated to almost every other track from The Eternal. Mind you, the band has every right to do what they want at this point, and I’m truly glad that they haven’t become a nostalgia act, but after preparing for the show by listening to the new record over and over, and coming to the conclusion that it was a pleasing but slight entry into the catalog, I wasn’t thrilled.

That said, I brought one of my friends along who had never seen the band or heard anything from them aside from Dirty, and she was absolutely mesmerized from start to finish. Sonic Youth will always be one of those bands that give people tiny revelations in their songs, and gatekeepers to kids who always wanted to shove screwdrivers and drumsticks into their guitars but needed someone to tell them it was okay.

After getting to the second encore with no more 80’s or 90’s material, I had all but given up on hearing anything but more Dead-style jams from their new album. Of course, this is when they kicked into “Death Valley ‘69” off of their 1985 masterpiece Bad Moon Rising. It was noisy, cathartic, and a thousand other flashy adjectives that don’t come close to describing the sheer force of a band reaching towards the peak of their powers. Sure, their best moments still come from material that’s over two decades old, but really, who else is going to do it?

Sonic Youth interview by WNRN

ABOUT WNRN
STU-COMM was established in mid-1993 as a Virginia non-profit corporation with the purpose of building a non-commercial FM radio station for the Charlottesville-Albemarle area. That station came to the airwaves in August 1996 as WNRN. WNRN offers cutting-edge modern rock programming to intelligent, educated, upscale listeners from 18 to 49. STU-COMM's Board of Directors is committed to providing the Central Virginia community with a contemporary music radio station suited to the needs and lifestyle of the area's large academic and professional population.

WNRN is solely supported by donations from listeners and by business underwriting. There are no commercials. We invite you to explore our site, to listen to our live broadcast, to participate in the listener survey, and to send us any comments or questions you have about our program or web site.

If you like WNRN and want to help us stay on-the-air, you can pledge your support online, or, if you represent a business, you can find information on how to show our listeners your support of public radio.

http://www.wnrn.org

Dear CAPS, Stop Taxing Culture!

parker — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:13:01 -0400

Feel free to grab this graphic, spread it around and use it however you desire...

Brookland Park Tattoo Unveils New Shop

john — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:43:58 -0400

Brookland Park's new shop is located at 127 West Brookland Park Blvd. David Zobel and the guys are a talented group of artists that put out quality work and we always hear nothing but great things. They greet people with hand shakes, good news, and new ideas. We stopped by and snapped some pics of the new shop they've been working on.

Here are some pics of the new shop...... pimped out!!

Main Shop with pool table...

Back shop tattoo area..

David working on a tattoo, in the new "office".

Sweet ride outside shop... one of their boy's rides..

Message from Brookland Park:
We are a tattoo shop located at 127 Brookland West Park Blvd Richmond, VA 23222. We offer quality work at amazing prices including $30 name tattoos and $20 piercings. Feel free to stop by anytime to get a quote on new ink or just to see what we are all about. We are open 7 days a week; 12- 8:00PM

You can email us at brooklandparktattoo@gmail.com for tattoo-related questions, such as quote, ideas, etc.

We have some of the most talented tattoo artists and body piercers in VA, right here in your own backyard.

Come stop by!

Contact Info:
phone: 804-497-4100
http://tattoorichmondvirginia.com/home.html
www.brooklandparktattoo.com

Social Networks:
http://www.myspace.com/brooklandparktattoo
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Richmond-VA/Brookland-Park-Tattoo-and-Pier...

The Bicycle Film Festival comes to Richmond

parker — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:05:37 -0400

The Bicycle Film Fest comes to Richmond!: (ALL SHOWS ARE $10 EACH OR ALL 3 FOR $23)
Friday and Saturday, July 10th and 11th!

Gallery5
200 W. Marshall St.
Richmond, VA 23220

Friday: 7PM $10 (Featuring both a collection of two short-films and one full-length film)
Saturday: 7PM and 9PM (Two showings) $10 each
7PM (A Collection of 13 Film Shorts)
9PM (A Collection of 14 Film Shorts)

AFTER PARTY!
Mojo's
733 W. Cary St.

The Bicycle Film Festival celebrates the bicycle.

We are into all styles of bikes and biking. If you can name it-Tall Bike Jousting, Track Bikes, BMX, Alleycats, Critical Mass, Bike Polo, Cycling to Recumbents- we've probably either ridden or screened it. What better way to celebrate these lifestyles than through art, film, music and performance? We bring together all aspects of bicycling together to advocate its ability to transport us in many ways.

Ultimately the Fest is about having a good time.

We have been fortunate enough to include works of established artists such as Jorgen Leth, Mike Mills, Jonas Mekas, Blonde Redhead, Swoon and Michel Gondry among others as part of our programming.

Many of the artists who have participated in the Bike Film Fest such as the Neistat Brothers and Lucas Brunelle are gaining more and more recognition for their work.

Sign up for the email list or just come out and enjoy our 9th Annual Bicycle Film Festival.

Thanks.
Brendt Barbur, Founding Director

P.S. bikes rule

Go to HERE for the Gallery5 schedule or www.bicyclefilmfestival.com for more information.