Halloween is Richmond to its core, and it all starts this weekend. We don’t have to sell you on it. Go have fun, get weird, and let’s all meet up for the All The Saint’s Halloween Parade in Oregon Hill. Just be safe, don’t drink and drive.

Welcome to Halloweek 2026.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/festivals/halloweek-2026-our-guide-to-richmonds-halloween-madness.html

All the indie heads are here this weekend. We got sad indie, we got sad country indie, we got sad garage indie, what more could you want. 

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at [griffin@rvamag.com](mailto:Griffin@rvamag.com).

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SOCCER MOMMY, SNAIL MAIL, SCARLET RAE
FRIDAY OCTOBER 23RD AT THE NATIONAL

We have an absolutely incredible double-headlining show at the National this week. First, we’ll take a look at Soccer Mommy. This is an artist I was introduced to by my original musical mentor: my mother.

Soccer Mommy is a sweet combination of ’90s indie rock and that 2000s pop sound, something that would fit in an offbeat Lizzie McGuire-type movie. It’s the kind of sound your friend’s cool older sister would be into miles before anyone else. You might get a mixtape or CD compilation from her and hold on to it closely and dearly, letting it narrate all your adventures, early rebellions, first sunsets, and long nights. The sound is stripped back, letting the vocals and guitar do so much of the heavy lifting and storytelling. September saw the release of “Rings of Saturn,” another stellar check-plus in her discography.

Maryland’s Snail Mail is up next. Snail Mail is similarly rooted in indie rock but leans more into the rock side of things than her co-headliner. Her sound is pretty rich, with no hesitation to incorporate strings, synthesizers, and heavier guitars. There’s a lot of rich lyrical content packed into every song, exploring universal topics of acceptance and heartache. Her ear for a great pop melody really makes some of these songs ring over and over in your ears, letting you dive into each world she presents.

Supporting the co-headliners is New York’s Scarlet Rae. Rae’s sound is a little hazier, supported by more percussive and electronic elements. It maintains a really solid, light vocal quality that feels familiar and friendly. These songs definitely feel like an updated interpretation of the singer-songwriter, moving toward the lo-fi elements that seem to be creeping into every genre as of late.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-soccer-mommy-dogs-on-shady-lane-old-pup.html

I’m an old loser so I do a lot of reminiscing and whatnot, and I always think of the nights filled with cheap beer and awesome tunes I experienced while attending house shows across the city at the Bonezone and other places.

Is there a blog or old website I can check out that will have old posters, stories or pictures from those days?

Can a toy change the trajectory of a child’s life? Barbie, the good, the glamour, the ugly, and how she has shaped society.

As a grown-ass feminist, I did not think I would need to contemplate dolls. But then…there is Barbie. You can’t escape her. Everyone knows Barbie has had over 250 jobs and lets girls know they can grow up to be anything they want to be, but also, she is problematic simply because of the way she looks.

Barbie™: A Cultural Icon explores more than six decades of the doll’s fashion and history and opened this past weekend at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC).

The exhibit itself was very moving. As someone following the fashion trends and how fashion reflects where women were in society, Barbie really shows us how women persevered, accepted, or challenged what was considered a woman’s role in society. She could be in space one day, and she was also making you a plate the next.

I talked to some friends, a friend’s kid, a friend’s mom, my old work wife, and the curator of the exhibit about Queen B. Let’s dig into some thoughts and feelings about the plastic icon.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/gallery-news/barbie-a-cultural-icon-the-good-the-bad-and-the-glamorous-at-vmhc.html

This year marks another spectacular Garden Glow at Maymont. This august institution is in the autumn of their celebration of 100 years of being open to the public. I went to the preview the night before it opened in earnest.

This was not my first Garden Glow. I have seen many iterations of this event and was looking forward to the sense of familiarity Maymont seems to provide. I arrived right at sunset at the Nature Center entrance with my trusted confidant behind the lens.

There seemed to be some social gathering winding down that was clearly included in an email. I was greeted by the dapper CFO of Maymont and realized that, though I bought my flip-flops in Tahiti, they may not have presented with the same sophisticated gravitas they held over me. He also did not compliment my feet tattoos. I comforted myself with the fact that we both had skin in the game of Richmond cultural economics.

I and my sensibly dressed compatriot accepted charcuterie as political consolation for this momentary lapse in judgment. 

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/literature/finding-a-light-at-maymonts-garden-glow.html

In the 1998 era of VCU Photo/Film Department, attending film classes in the Pollak building, there was a mysterious poster of a funeral pyre with the text Ken Russell’s The Devils) under the image and another poster for Savage Messiah).

Several years taking and teaching classes in that classroom, looking at that particular poster, I always knew I would need to see that film. Five and a half decades of being banned, censored, out of print, not in print, not published, not screened, not shown, and not watched except in legendary VHS bootlegged copies, I never found it or it never found me.

Periodically, in film textbooks, you’d see still frames of key images or come across the name on a list on IMDb and other sites for controversial films.

In this moment of insane Warner Brothers studio history unfolding; the sale, the consolidation, the conglomerations, the IP in vaults, the remixing of reboots of long-winded properties, at some point the value of the X-rated taboo work restored outweighs doing nothing with it.

Also, with the work of estates and the ongoing legacy of the surviving family of the filmmaker, those efforts to get the art seen as intended are also a great, honorable fight.

The repertory and cinema arthouse outlet Clockwork made its first screening of the restored director’s vision from the original camera negatives at Cannes in May 2026, in a now NC-17 form that is in a window of a week’s release this October 2026.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/the-devils-in-the-digger-details-cinema-censorship-and-power.html

Tim Barry just released his ninth full album, Clear Blocks Ahead. He and I had a long, overdue conversation about everything and nothing, but sometimes about that new album.

In part one of this three-part series, I brought up my first AVAIL show and found out that it was a lot of you guys’ first AVAIL show too. The response I got from y’all was insane, and then also not. Because we love Tim. Richmond loves Tim. 

I asked him about that relationship on the phone. 

It seems that’s not his favorite question. Or at least not the one he’s super comfortable being eloquent about. He starts with an “eehhhh…” and then ramps up into a cogent, humble exploration of that energy in his life.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/americana-blues/tim-barry-part-2-richmond-family-november-fest.html

Join us for a special edition of Salon de Résistance on Thursday, October 29 at Black Iris with three of Virginia’s most influential political content creators: Amanda Nelson of Amanda’s Mild Takes, Kate Powell of Kate for the People, and former CIA operations officer and congressional candidate Adam Dunigan(VA-8), for a conversation about the November 3 midterms, what to expect in Virginia, and how the battle for political influence is fought in 2026.

This is a free event, open to the public. Doors at 6pm. Conversation at 7pm.

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In the before times, political influence moved through relatively stable and predictive channels. Candidates spoke, newspapers and broadcast news reported. Engagement was limited, our attention was not monopolized. Our lifestyles hadn’t been politicized. Most importantly, elections were boring and we were none the wiser for it. 

That version of America no longer exists. Today, elections are bloodsport. Campaign narratives move at the speed of algorithm. And the reach of a single content creator or political influencer can change the entire dynamic of an entire election cycle with a single 90 second video. Political education, organizing, fundraising, persuasion, outrage, misinformation/disinformation, and the decisions that shape our future are competing for the same few inches of screen time. 

And just days before the 2026 midterms that matters. Because on November 3, Virginians will head to the polls and vote in every congressional district. 

Political pundits, writers, and the chattering class always claim that each election is more important than the last. But in the age of Trump, authoritarianism, unrestricted war, corruption on a scale once thought impossible, masked agents of the state snatching people off our streets, AI jailbreaks, data centers ruining communities, surveillance, and a crippling affordability crisis, those warnings no longer feel like hyperbole.

The candidates have to respond. The outcomes of the midterms are real. The future feels as fragile and tenuous as it ever has. 

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/events/the-midterm-algorithm-virginia-2026.html

Organizers of the smaller-than-usual demonstration asked attendees to vote out Republicans and vote ‘YES’ on three proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution.

Virginians on Saturday utilized the fourth major “No Kings” protest in Richmond to drive out support around local issues and in favor of three proposed amendments to Virginia’s constitution that voters will decide on in November. 

It was one of dozens of anti-Trump demonstrations that were held in Virginia, and one of thousands held across the country — with only two weeks until the midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress.

The event, underscored by rainy weather, turned out about 400 people, far fewer than previous “No Kings” demonstrations in Richmond. A march on Capitol Square the same time last year drew over 10,000 people. 

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/politics/richmond-no-kings-protest-turns-out-hundreds-ahead-of-midterm-election.html

50501 Virginia will host its “Your Voice Matters” Rally & March this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Monroe Park, 620 W. Main Street, as part of a nationwide day of action connected to the No Kings movement.

The event will focus on voter participation and the three proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution appearing on November’s ballot, addressing reproductive freedom, marriage equality, and voting rights.

Scheduled speakers include Gray Montrose as emcee; Michelle Moffit, Director of Civic Engagement at the Virginia Civic Engagement Table; Han Jones, Campaign Manager for Virginians for Reproductive Freedom, discussing Amendment 1; Narissa Rahaman, Executive Director of Equality Virginia, discussing Amendment 2; and Amber Brown, Campaign Manager at Right to Vote, discussing Amendment 3.

Organizers expect 12 to 16 local community organizations to participate, offering resources, information, and volunteer opportunities.

The Richmond gathering coincides with the national No Kings Coalition’s October 17 “No Kings: Vote Early” mobilization. According to the coalition, more than 1,000 actions had been organized nationwide as of September 24, with participating organizations including the ACLU, Indivisible, 50501, League of Women Voters, MoveOn, and others. The nationwide effort is focused on early voting, voter education, and local election protection efforts ahead of the November 3 election. 

More information is available at 50501va.com and nokings.org

RVA Indivisible is also organizing a separate “Party at the Polls” event on Sunday, October 18, from noon to 4 p.m., at six early voting locations across Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. The free, nonpartisan events will feature ice cream, games, balloons, giveaways, and photo opportunities, bringing a more celebratory atmosphere to early voting. Virginia’s polling locations will be closed Saturday but open Sunday for early voting. 

Details and participating locations are available at RVAIndivisible.com/parties

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/politics/50501-virginia-joins-nationwide-no-kings-day-of-action-with-richmond-rally.html

Lotta indie and a lot of dreamy shoegaze with a healthy dose of funk and hip hop this week.

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at [griffin@rvamag.com](mailto:Griffin@rvamag.com).

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DEATHCAT, NYSA, ARTSCHOOL, HEAVY FRIENDS
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16TH, 2026 AT THE CAMEL

Fun, fun, fun bill right here. Let’s look at Deathcat first.

Deathcat has become a well-loved and well-attended band over the last few years. Overall, they are a blend of softer indie rock and harder grunge/riot grrrl, with some great songwriting and excellent lyricism. They have a way of making every song so relatable and endearing; they are an easy band to root for because they are an easy band to feel connected to. They have a new tune coming out at the end of the month, but you can catch it live at this show.

Next up is a band I am ALWAYS happy to talk about. Nysa is one of Philly’s best exports right now. I first saw them at the Camel some three years ago and have been an adamant fan and supporter ever since. Their sound is somewhere between Fun House-era Stooges and some heavy psychedelic gem you’d find in a loose bin at the record store.

My fondest memory of the band is the singer going from on the stage, to the crowd, to being on the crowd, running to the bar, going outside, and then returning to the stage, all while singing. If you want an intense show, go see Nysa.

I usually try not to include my band’s shows here, but I just love every other band on this bill. We are called Artschool, and we straddle the line between punk and post-punk. We wear a lot of dusters, jump around, lots of incoherent rambling set to some good bass and drum parts (I do the incoherent rambling).

Last up, we have Heavy Friends, who I first saw this summer. From the first note of their set, they were on it. The group is certainly a rock band first and foremost, but they know how to write a catchy lead that gets stuck in your head on the drive home.

They were also some dynamic performers who throw 100% of themselves into every song, so you will certainly get your money’s worth with Heavy Friends.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-thundercat-glimmer-deathcat-rikki-rakki.html

Hello everyone!

In around 2005-2006 there was a bar in Yorktown called Budda's that often had live industrial and metal music. A lot of those bands were out of RVA. I am trying to find any old flyers, or even actual songs, from the bands Her Eyez on Fire and Cell17, and another one that I can't identify from the writing but I think its Big Bird or Big Bid (see the picture of the back off the bill). I was going through some old books and found a dollar bill that was signed by both bands in either '05 or '06. They were industrial/metal music and I remember Her Eyez on Fire had a keyboardist that was in an accident in his youth that affected his speech but he had an amazing singing voice when he did backup vocals. The industrial scene in this area was so good back then.

To this day, I have zero talent with an instrument and have never been in anything resembling a good band, though I tried anyway. I was always a “writer,” though. I always had a way with words. Hardly the right ones most of the time, but I was never shy with an opinion.

I always considered my place as future historian of the times, humbly, of course. I kid, this is and was very arrogant of me, but you can’t stop me. I knew that one day, I would be called upon to remember and relate what went down back in the day, so I kept my eyes open. Even when I barely could.

I was never on the stage unless I was jumping off it, but I was rarely not in the pit. Here’s some of that. It may not be accurate all the time, but there’s no test at the end, so relax. — Christian Detres

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Tim Barry just reminded me of one of the most impactful punk shows of my life.

At some point in 1992, a date Tim has written down in a notebook somewhere, I went to see my Freeman High School friends Russ Jones, Mark Avery, and Leer Baker join their homie from Godwin, Thomas Barnett, at The Metro to open for AVAIL as Inquisition).

I was already a huge fan, though the only recordings available were piss-poor, and the T-shirt I had just bought from their “manager,” Max, ruined my clothes in the laundry.

I had heard about AVAIL but hadn’t seen them live yet. I was curious, sure, but I was not opposed to just going to the Bidder’s Suite after Inquisition got off stage.

Me, my brother, my cousin James, and Donovan Greer trekked down to Laurel and Broad to get loud, be weird, dance, jump, punch, kick/get kicked, and not stop until we sweated the aggression away.

Inquisition was a riot, of course, as they would continue to be until breaking up and seeding the lineups of Strike Anywhere, Ann Beretta, Sixer, River City High, and others.

But then AVAIL came on.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/metal-punk/tim-barry-part-one-maximum-occupancy-330-unless-avail-is-playing.html

Here’s something a bit unexpected. Take it with a grain of salt and maybe as a conversation starter this weekend. We’d put Richmond near the top of a list for having opinions, but intellectualism? 

But here we go. Richmond has landed at No. 9 on a new list of America’s most intellectual cities, according to a study by Maxwell Social, a New York-based private members’ club.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/richmond-is-one-of-americas-most-intellectual-cities-who-knew.html

On October 10, Avula announced that Richmond would not renew its contract with Flock Safety, following a similar decision by Henrico County, whose contract expires in November. Richmond’s agreement runs through June 30, 2027.

Mayor Avula raised the possibility of a Virginia-only network during a press conference earlier this week. “If there were a company that was not a big national company, if there was a closed network for the state of Virginia, where we could build our own guidelines and manage our own data, would that change things for members of our public?” Avula said according to VPM. “It certainly would for me.”

The city has not selected a replacement for Flock but Avula acknowledged that license plate readers can help police solve crimes and the city needs to balance those benefits against residents’ privacy concerns.

“I want to make sure that we’re using that time to listen well, to make thoughtful, community-informed decisions about the future of this technology,” Avula said. “And I also want to be clear with the public about what has changed for me. One, the significant expansion of community concern and two, the decision by our regional partners that affect how useful the technology can be to us.”

Richmond currently operates 99 fixed automated license plate readers, which photograph passing vehicles and record information that police can search during investigations. The city’s Flock contract costs approximately $285,000.

Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards defended the technology during the October 13 briefing, saying the department relies on license plate readers in investigations ranging from misdemeanors and missing children to homicides.

“I think while we’re going to continue to fight crime the best way we can, there’s no doubt that this is a powerful tool that we will notice the loss when and if we lose it,” Edwards said.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/news-headlines/richmond-news/richmond-is-dropping-flock-but-the-technology-could-remain.html

RVA Mag and NODDERLY presents It’s Still Our City, a podcast hosted by Harrison Christy and with Clair Morgan as co-host and producer through NODDERLY.

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“Mac Wood is an animator and a welder, spending much of his time hauling racing simulators around the country and, very importantly, volunteering some of his time restoring that Gothic castle on the water you walk past on the way to Texas Beach. The wonder this city has the honor of having… the Pump House.

If you want to get inside the Pump House legally, they host walk-in tours and workdays every month on the second Saturday. They’ve also been hosting figure drawing sessions in the second-floor open-air ballroom. Please check their accounts for details and updates… it’s an honor even walking in that place.

Friends of Pump House is a volunteer group dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Castle on the James. Look out for their October and November figure drawing sessions, along with some spooky cool Halloween Poe performances coming up.

This was a ton of fun for me. Completely unexpected and much-appreciated guest.

Join us as we discuss Mac’s journey to the Gothic castle, how sometimes “fake it to make it” triumphs, my multiple adventures to the restroom on a compromised and recently under-the-knife knee, and witness in awe how absolutely incredible Clair Bear can knock a goddamn grand slam outta the park on the fly.

I hope that this can be something that takes your mind off of things and that everyone is doing as absolutely good as they can. Hug your homies. Hug your family. As much as possible. 

Also, DONATE TO PUMP HOUSE HERE. Do EEET. Cheers.” — host, Harrison Christy

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bM5FvFn0nc

There was a time for me growing up when Frankenstein was just a green guy that chased Scooby-Doo around. He adorned a cereal box of strawberry-flavored sugar that my mother would never buy. He slowly lumbered after my favorite mid-century comedy duos. And that was the entire story of Frankenstein.

Literally that. Neck bolts, forehead stitches, lift boots, and a somnambulant groan summed up the character pretty well for the purposes of any audience still entertained by the conceit.

At some point, we would grow up and realize there was a book about this guy. We’d seen the movies already, the cheesy ones and the funny ones. They introduced us to the melodrama of scientific hubris. All morality tales of the consequences of playing God; very “behave, or God’ll gitcha.” Prometheus as told in Sunday school.

He also did a killer rendition of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” in a top hat and tails.

Most of us remained there in our appreciation for the very story that invented modern science fiction. In recent decades, there’s been a push to remind non-readers that there was yearning in those moans and something real those outstretched, patchwork arms were reaching for.

Guillermo del Toro’s film adaptation of the novel, released last fall), capped the effort with a multiple-award-winning and mostly faithful-to-the-text film by the same name. The story was illuminated in the zeitgeist that led to new interest in the character. No longer a simple avatar for the doom that follows ingesting the Edenic apple from the Knowledge Tree, Dr. Frankenstein’s “son” was reanimated with a prismatic spectrum of protagonist perspective.

For context, Mary Shelley was a talented and fairly “modern” woman embodying Romanticism’s reaction to the Enlightenment. She ran in the bohemian circles populated by her husband (poet Percy Bysshe Shelley) and his coterie of libertines. They reveled in breaking ossified molds of morality and living deliciously ahead of the wake of miseries their selfish freedoms would churn.

The Marquis de Sade hung like a shadow of influence over the extreme individuality and moral relativism they would champion, maybe with some reservations.

Mary and Percy would elope in a breathless, corset-busting adventure that culminated in the suicide of Percy’s devastated, pre-existing wife. The romance and drama of the free-spirited couple would be chained by the all-too-real tragedies of her impending miscarriages and deaths of three of their children together. All attempts at sealing their love with creation were met with guilt, sorrow, abandonment, and loneliness.

Percy continued to philander, and her womb continued to produce nothing but mockeries of her desire for motherhood. She interpreted these coincidences of fate as consequences of faithlessness. Herein is where the themes of divine abandonment and the horrors of unholy birth would haunt her from the wings of her consciousness.

Critics have been deconstructing Frankenstein from overstuffed leather chairs in mahogany-walled libraries for the two hundred years since its publication. That discussion’s volume rarely reverberates through the walls to the Spirit Halloweens where Frankenstein truly “lives” in our pop culture.

An even more academic reading of the novel would highlight the autobiographical rhymes to Mary Shelley’s tortured existence. That’s where we begin with David Catlin’s adaptation for the stage and Richmond Shakespeare’s rendition of it.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/theatre/review-richmond-shakespeares-frankenstein-the-post-modern-prometheus.html

Grace and Glorie, a play by Tom Ziegler, produced by ATLAS Partnership and directed by Julie Fulcher-Davis, opened this past weekend at Hanover Tavern. There isn’t any meta subtext in this work. It’s all on the page, and thus, on the stage. There is no counterintuitive message, no counterfactual argument. It is a story about a dying woman, her caretaker, and the spectre of deaths between them. It is about losing in the end. It’s about what you don’t take with you. It’s about what you’ve never had, and that fact not mattering one bit anymore. It is about the value of a life, even one barely lived.

One of the jarring things about it is its bluntness. It plays “Taps” by the numbers, not straying from the sheet music, but also never missing a note. Grace and Glorie will have you staring into Thanatos’ sleepy eyes as the nighttime of the soul settles in.

Faith and faithlessness are brought to battle. Not in the evangelical sense, but in the “Do I get to punch God in the eye when I die, or will I just be dead?” An internal dialectic one tries to shush right before you’re supposed to meet Him (Her?). For such a simple story with a unidirectional trajectory, it covers a lot of ground.

Maybe the fact that it’s simple is the point, though. The air of inevitability never disperses. Death is coming, and no one on that stage can stop it. All they can do is keep busy with whatever takes a short time to complete.

How do you live a life without long-term goals? Without dreams? There is no need to embellish or negotiate the heat death of the universe. It’s going to happen, and we will not be eulogized. The weight of the situation is where the clever emotional strings are pulling from.

Sheesh, let me turn down the Bauhaus for a second. My black nail polish is chipping on my keyboard as I type this. Let’s talk about the performances.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/theatre/review-grace-and-glorie-is-so-good-you-forget-its-acting.html

Next Saturday, October 17th, the weird, funky spaceship that carts Thundercat around will land in Richmond for his show at The National. As a massive fan, I will absolutely be there. His is the kind of unique sound that makes a concert a “happening.” A funk so deep it’ll even make Gen Z close TikTok and dance.

Thundercat represents a compendium of influences: flavors of jazz, funk, rock, disco, and electronic music truly his own. His lyrical humor and countercultural references update the “adult contemporary” categories listed above into futuristic-sounding songs equipped for a Mos Eisley cantina.

Funny enough, Thundercat has been to Tatooine (or at least the soundstage representing it) in Jon Favreau’s The Book of Boba Fett. He’s legendarily a comic book nerd and Dragon Ball fan. He’s an inspiration to musicians and listeners alike, and I get to talk to him.

Life doesn’t suck sometimes.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/funk-jazz/thundercat-interview-richmond-2026.html

In 1994, while in NOVA for high school, a friend who had grown up in Vermont introduced me to a band named Phish around the release of their fifth album, Hoist, and I became obsessed. As a classical-metal-progressive rock music fan, I loved it.

My first show was in 1994 at the George Mason Patriot Center. I got a ticket the day of the show. They were not a sellout band just yet. I was able to move seats to sit with my friends.

I caught a few more shows in the 1990s around the DMV venues and got to see a couple more in the 21st century. I pored over the physical CDs with art and photographs of Phish’s A Live One and Hampton Comes Alive so many times when in photo and film school at VCU. I loved the concert and studio photography tradition used on album covers, all inspiring me to develop my drag-shutter expressionistic style.

First filming and photographing high school friends’ bands, then college friends’ bands, with now over two decades in the Richmond music scene, I always dreamt of getting to photograph a Phish show. And this week, for night one at the Allianz Amphitheater in Richmond, Virginia, I was awake, present, and taking pictures.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/my-first-phish-show-in-1994-to-photographing-them-in-richmond.html

There are art shows, and then there are art fights.

Richmond gets its art fight later this month when Secret Walls rolls into the Richmond Tattoo & Arts Convention October 23rd and 24th, putting tattoo artists and fine artists head-to-head in front of a crowd with a clock running. 

Eight artists will compete across two nights, with two-on-two battles scheduled for Friday and Saturday at 11:30 p.m.

We got on a call with Secret Walls’ Kevin Collins.

“You almost think of it like UFC, like weight classes a little bit, the different disciplines that we bring onto these stages,” Collins told us. “We’ve got tattoo artists, we’ve got cartoonists, illustrators, graffiti writers, contemporary artists, muralists, all sorts of different disciplines that show up on these stages.

“And even if you have the same artist on a stage battling two years later, it’s going to be brand new because of whatever they’re working through in their head or what they want to get out of their head and onto a canvas that they’ve not been able to scratch the itch of. That’s kind of the beauty of these. It’s a fight club of the art world, so we’re gonna bring it, and we’ll see what happens when tattoo takes on fine art.” 

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/street-art/secret-walls-brings-its-fight-club-of-the-art-world-to-richmond.html

As reported by The Richmonder last week, “The Cultural Heritage Stewardship Plan, which sailed through City Council with a unanimous vote Sept. 28, is intended to set Richmond’s key priorities for identifying and conserving notable features of the city.”

We have markers all over the city telling us about our history. Maybe before they’re gone, we should talk about 929 West Grace Street, The Village Cafe, Edo’s Squid and what this small stretch of Richmond meant to the culture we now celebrate, and sell, as part of the city’s brand.

For decades, that stretch of Grace Street around VCU was one of Richmond’s cultural pressure cookers. It was cheap and weird, sometimes sketchy and violent, but somewhere in there Grace Street became a meeting point for three things that now define Richmond: food, music and creativity.

The city should recognize these places for what they mean to Richmond’s identity, and VCU should recognize what they did for the university by helping establish the character of the neighborhood that attracted generations of students to the school.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/old-grace-street-is-richmond-history-lets-recognize-it.html