September 15
The naughty bits
Hey, guess what law Richmond has on the books? Following a grocery-royalty-backed attempt to keep Marilyn Manson from performing at the Richmond Coliseum in 1997, former councilman John A. Conrad dusted off a resolution former mayor Roy West had written.
From the Times-Dispatch, March 2, 1999:
"The ordinance makes a list of actions illegal at performances attended by minors. They include a display of genitalia; sadistic, masochistic or violent sexual relationships; sexual relations with a child, corpse or animal; rape or incest; any sex act, including sexual intercourse."
Of course, it passed unanimously.
So tell us how exactly the board of the proposed performing arts center is going to handle a situation like this one: The state-funded Barter Theatre is putting on a play that features nudity and coarse sexual language. Now, we all know about the differing standards between those wildly illiberal Southwestern Virginians and the cosmopolitan, urbane Richmonders for whom nudity and profanity are not a problem (though it may be necessary to exclude VAPAF chairman James Ukrop from this group, since he and his brother successfully convinced local advertisers to boycott the Howard Stern show in 1996). But just say, just imagine that it might be possible that something that offends the delicate sensibilities of the proposed performing arts center's major financial backers is offered to Richmond. Will it run? Or will we revert to form?
We've asked time and again how the VAPAF will handle such controversies. The answer we always get is that there will be a facilities committee that will make these decisions. They won't tell us who will be on it, and to be fair, that's a bit down the pike. But if there's no mechanism put into place now to ensure that there's no meddlin' from, say, the chairman of the freaking board, get ready to hear about this time and again years from now. Just another reason why the plan for the performing arts center is deeply flawed, brought to you by your good friends at SaveRichmond.
September 10
"Can't anybody here play this game?"
Normally Andrew's a little reticent to refer to his eight-year stint Up North, but Casey Stengel's epitaph for the '62 Mets is the only realistic way of understanding the plan to erect a 300-foot statue on the James. A stranger vision of downtown could not have been beamed from Planet Zeno into the minds of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, which wants to spend between $21 and $29 million on this project, because the Queen of England is going to be driving through Richmond in four years and we want to impress her.
We agree that there's going to be nothing more impressive than downtown Richmond in 2007. In fact, we think the town fathers are missing the bigger picture—pretty soon urban planners from around the world are going to be able to save tons of money by visiting Richmond alone, where they'll be able to see:
- a failed convention center
- a failed "Canal Walk"
- what we hope will not be a mostly dark, eight-venue performing arts center surrounded by NO local businesses (which seems to be the current plan)
- what we hope will not be an empty shopping center atop a denuded Browns Island
- the pedestrian bridge for the failed 6th Street Marketplace perched atop Silver Persinger's house
and whatever else comes our way in the next 48 months. Look, this is getting out of hand. Whatever impact anyone thinks the 2007 celebrations are going to have on the Richmond economy—and we're sure there's reams of papers from consultants saying this will be bigger than tobacco—nobody in charge seems to be considering that people who reside in Richmond are going to have to live with this Frankenstein's monster of a downtown—not to mention pay for it.
In a way, we kind of like this plan: It's Richmond's prevailing aesthetic of downtown renovation brought to its logical conclusion. No need to look at a successful, organically driven renewal like that of Carytown—what's really needed downtown is a 300-foot statue to religious freedom. They should make it blink; that'll ensure that downtown comes back. Meanwhile, we're still getting emails from people who've moved away from Richmond and can't believe that the Citizen restaurant block (featured on our splash page) is still abandoned and rotting ten years after they left.
Since the Style Weekly article article ran, we've received some criticism that it's nattering nabobs of negativity such as ourselves who are really damaging Richmond. This plan shows that there's really no need for us to do that—just as the fleeing Confederate soldiers proved at the end of the Civil War when they accidentally burned the city to the ground, there's no greater danger to Richmond than those who love it unconditionally. As Stengel once told his barber, "A shave please, but don't cut my throat. I may want to do it later myself."
September 5
So soon?
We've been badgering them about this since July, so it's gratifying that the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation has finally put the current plans for the proposed arts center on its website (until now, the site promised an exciting new home for TheatreVirginia, which went out of business last December; here's a pdf of what was up there until now). Still, if you're curious as to what your tax dollars are going toward, you can now find out about it, which is what we've been pushing for all along. Now if they'd just tell us how they plan to fill nearly three million empty seats a year. We keep hearing there's "reams of information." Send it over, dudes.
September 3
Style for miles
There's a swell article about SaveRichmond in this week's Style Weekly. Andrew thinks the photo makes him look short. Or maybe it makes Don look freakishly tall (which he totally is).
September 2
Congratulations all around!
Congratulations to the Times Dispatch for coming out strongly in support of that Ten Commandments monument in Alabama. This is clearly the mark of a city ready to support a thriving arts scene. (If you'd like to know how Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, et al. actually felt about the church/state divide, click here. The site is a little over the top, but the quotes are accurate.)
Congratulations to Cindy Hicks of Richmond for writing an excellent letter (scroll down) to our not at all embarrassing newspaper about the late, great Eric Stanley. Chris Bopst also wrote a nice piece citing Stanley as his radio role model on Richmond.com.
Finally, congratulations once again to Jackie Jackson, the only member of city council to call the meals-tax increase for what it is--a transparent, cynical, classically regressive move on the part of wealthy people to get the rest of us to pay for their ballet seats. She's going to force the council to revisit the issue on September 8, when her proposal to use any excess money raised by the meals tax for schools (as opposed to SAYING the performing arts center will somehow magically improve our schools) will be considered. If nothing else, as our friend Scott Burger points out, this means another opportunity to talk about the meals tax increase. If you're not happy with the shady way it was rammed through, by all means come on down to 900 E. Broad St. next week and let your councilperson know!
August 20
That darn council!
Richmond City Council continues its descent into complete weirdness. How long before we get our own sitcom? Between a property tax assessor who literally just won't quit to appointed councilman Walter T. Kenney Sr.'s proposal to rename the Boulevard (which, uh, isn't in "his" district) for Arthur Ashe, the proceedings at 900 E. Broad no longer resemble anything we quaintly think of as "government." Now, there's nothing wrong with considering Kenney's proposal; we're for any discussion of anything that shakes off the cobwebs. Hell, why not change Monument's name to Ashe Boulevard? That would drive those Confederate reenactors and the Times Dispatch's editorial board absolutely batshit, a laudable goal by any measure. But is Councilman-for-Life Kenney really the guy to do this? What sort of precedent would we be setting if guys who didn't win elections got into power? Oh, wait a second.... ;>
Welcome back, students. Tell your friends about us, and be sure to sign up for our email updates, and we'll keep you up to date on our quest to improve the city's art and music scenes.
August 11
The Brockie Center?
Hey, here's a crazy idea--Clintwood is creating a music center in hopes of spurring economic development in southwest Virginia. Here's the interesting part--the town named the center for local legend Ralph Stanley, and will time the opening of the center to coincide with Stanley's annual festival. For their trouble, town officials have been presented with $1.1 million in grant money. One could almost infer that working with indigenously developed music has been the key to this project's success!
Brad Armstrong responded while Ewa and Andrew were on vacation. Here's his letter. He says the current plans for the proposed performing arts center will be posted on the VAPAF's website. Frankly, we'll believe that when we see it up there--how long does it take to put something on the Web? Well, it's 10:33 a.m. as I write this.
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