S CE NE ON E R IC HM ON D

Annual Post

2011-12-17T18:49:00.001-08:00

Believe it or not, I actually do think about this blog sometimes. It has been almost exactly a year since I last posted here.

I am currently retooling my blog strategy, and I want to start posting more. It has been almost 8 years since I started this blog, and a lot has changed in Richmond. Also, *I* have changed. So I need to go back (at some point -- but not today) and revisit why I started this blog and what I am now going to do with it. I feel like I have been explaining the concept to people more recently, and probably need to do a better job of articulating my vision.

Stay tuned!

Rationale / website content

2010-12-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

This is website stuff... AA can you edit this?

Outline for the guide

2010-12-21T07:01:00.000-08:00

Ok so this is the draft outline for the guide.

* Intro -- What do I do now

* Questions you never thought you'd ask

* Examples by real people

* the Vision (how to join the network)

* Other resources

--> links

--> books

MarkoCo!

2010-11-30T18:29:00.001-08:00

MARKO SCHAIRBAUMO - @finish

2010-11-13T07:31:00.001-08:00

MARKO SCHAIRBAUMO 2:45:32 @finish (10:30 AM)
2010 McDonald's Half-Marathon

MARKO SCHAIRBAUMO - @10k

2010-11-13T06:05:00.001-08:00

MARKO SCHAIRBAUMO 1:12:31 @10k (8:57 AM)
2010 McDonald's Half-Marathon

Folk Fest 2.0

2010-10-09T05:37:00.001-07:00

Let's have a picture party at the richmond folk fest and send each other mms messages!

Links I could have tweeted V001

2010-09-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

I got a twitter account but I can't bring myself to spam people... here is a sampling of interesting links to peruse...

Virginia ranked in the top 42 of 100 US cities as far as economic health http://www.virginiabusiness.com/index.php/news/article/three-virginia-metro-areas-rank-well-in-survey1/307651/
Gov McDonnell unveiled a new statue today (Sep 17) at the state capital. It honors Barbara Rose Jones, who attended school in Farmville and organized a walkout of the “black school” there. The statue will move to the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville likely during next year’s April 23 commemoration of that Civil Rights event http://wjz.com/wireapnewsva/Portrait.of.Virginia.2.1918679.html
Interesting history of “Devil’s triangle” by Alix Bryan http://www2.richmond.com/content/2010/sep/14/devils-triangle/ http://twitter.com/alixbryan
Just read Ray Bonis’ article and decided I like this Richmond History Blog… “The Shockoe Examiner” http://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/
I am no fan of anarchists, but I like the idea of the GRTC being more efficient. The Richmond Transit Riders Union has some good ideas… http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100917051125494
People walking around in Richmond neighborhoods in Red berets to promote safety… http://www.wtvr.com/news/guardian-angels-in-richmond,0,4018552.story
Ross Perot will be at the grand re-opening of the Virginia War memorialperhaps worth a bike trip http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/09/ross_perot_mcdonnell_to_attend.html

The second half of the list of ministers from the first congregational church of charlevoix

2010-08-11T19:02:00.001-07:00

The first half of the list of ministers from the first congregational church of charlevoix

2010-08-11T18:56:00.001-07:00

churchy-pedia, perhaps

2010-08-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

I will spare you the detailed theory behind this... but trust me that there is an interesting Sceney Richmondy theory behind this. But, be warned, this post contains is alot of history of Northern Michigan. And it's not very organized, because I am just trying to put the facts together...

So yeah, I went on vacation, and did some research tourism related to my obsession with the 1830s. In Northern Michigan, almost nothing remarkable happened before 1850 and Charlevoix wasn't much of a place until sometime between 1870 and 1890. Growing up there I had almost no sense of pre-civil war history in the United States. In Richmond it is kind of the opposite; all our good history (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, E.A. Poe, John Marshall, John Tyler, Capital of the Confederacy) happened before 1865 and the historians rarely have time to talk about anything that happened after that.

Long story short, I went back a couple weeks ago and geeked out on local Northern Michigan history. I went to the public library and read up on Pioneer John Dixon and how the Strangite Mormons drove him away while during the era of their cult kingdom on Beaver Island from 1846 to 1856. I learned how the John Dixon fled by boat across the Grand Traverse Bay to the Old Mission Peninsula and Northport (on the Leelenau peninsula). When I convinced my parents to tour Northport with me, we learned how the founder there was a Congregationalist minister who had come from the Holland area to set up a mission to the Native Americans. Northport, Charlevoix and Beaver Island were not only locations of Native American encampment (and Christian Missions to Chippewa and Ojibway tribes), but they were also chosen as lighthouse locations by the US Lighthouse service. In short, Northern Michigan was originally settled in the 1840s and 1850s by Missionaries and Lighthouse keepers.

Later settlement in the area occurred after the Civil War, as veterans paid $1.25/acre via the Homestead Act and began chopping down all the trees to build their farms. Lumber speculators came north (lured by all the virgin forests) and set up sawmills all over Northern Michigan. The Industrial Revolution was in full effect. Later, the city fathers of Charlevoix ensured that a rail connection was made to Chicago. That was 1870s-ish, and with the establishment of convenient rail transportation to and from Chicago, the clean, beautiful, and temperate Charlevoix began to establish itself as a vacation spot for Chicagoland. So ... that's the setup for the REAL research that I want to do in the future. I want to investigate cultural connections between Charlevoix and Chicago.

So anyways ... I do have an inside clue into some of the cultural influences... the church I grew up in in Northern Michigan... the First Congregational Church of Charlevoix, Michigan ... has had a number of pastors over the years. While at church, I snapped a picture of a plaque listing every pastor that the church had for 100 years.

Being that there are no seminaries in Northern Michigan, I though it would be interesting to trace the background and training of these pastors and where they went after their time in charlevoix.

So basically this post is a setup for future google research into the identities of these folks. I don't know if there is a story to tell there or not, but I like that I have sketched out a possible research project that will give a little more insight into the culture of the town where I grew up.

I will send the pics from my phone as separate blog posts ... and maybe merge them later.

-M

The Cardinal Train from Indy to Charlottesville

2010-07-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

11:50 -- Indianapolis, IN (map) (wikipedia)

1:26AM -- Connersville, IN (map) (wikipedia)

3:17AM Cinncinati, OH (map) (wikipedia)

4:51 Maysville, KY(map) (wikipedia)

5:44 South Portsmouth / South Shore, KY (map) (wikipedia) (wikipedia)

6:29 Ashland, KY (map) (wikipedia)

7:09 Huntington, WV (map) (wikipedia)

8:16 Charleston, WV (map) (wikipedia)

8:45 Montgomery, WV (map) (wikipedia)

9:36 Thurmond, WV (map) (wikipedia)

9:53 Prince, WV (map) (wikipedia)

10:23 Hinton, WV (map) (wikipedia)

10:53 Alderson, WV (map) (wikipedia)

11:25 White Sulphur Springs, WV (Greenbriar) (map) (wikipedia)

12:14 Clifton forge, VA (Homestead) (map) (wikipedia)

1:31 Staunton, VA (map) (wikipedia)

2:47 Charlottesville, VA (map) (wikipedia)

Polity

2010-07-09T18:33:00.001-07:00

2010-05-05T15:46:00.001-07:00

Gatorade G2 popsicles!

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Thanx yall! Best bday ever!

2010-05-02T18:07:00.001-07:00

2010-05-01T18:59:00.001-07:00

Fax n snax!

2010-04-15T19:46:00.001-07:00

March in march in april game night that was really a music night

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-30T23:25:00.001-07:00

Ok this is violating the "No Alleluias during Lent" rule but you need to know it in case your church sings it this Sunday... it is an Easter classic, and I happen to have figured out an arrangement it for guitar a couple years ago ... It kind of reminds me of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changing"

The RAW version was recorded first and then I created the LR version by basically re-recording everything (partial transliteration using the 'raw' track as a baseline!!!!) but with new harmony vocals to the right, new guitar to the center, and a new main vocal to the right.

Ok, maybe I need to record some mourning tracks for Good Friday. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves!

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-28T22:50:00.001-07:00

Ok first of all, y'all don't know what you're missing... I could have sent you this super weird half completed caucophony of terrible drum beats over top of this obscure Holy-week hymn (that I never heard until tonight when I found it on page 284 of the Rejoice in the Lord Hymnal), but good sense got the better of me and I mixed down a nice and calm ooh ooh ooh version.

Secondly, after recording, I googled the hymn and found out from wikipedia that "English rock band Coldplay has a song entitled 'A Message', the lyrics and melody of which were inspired by this hymn"

so naturally, I am obliged now to include the lyrics of both the 17th century lyrics and the Coldplay tune ...and allow you to either compare them and/ or sing along with the track I have provided.

If nothing else you now have a fun fact about the song "the Message" by Coldplay. (youtube link for people like me who did not know this song)

Enjoy!

My Song Is Love Unknown (by Samuel Crossman)

My song is love unknown,
my Saviour's love to me;
love to the loveless shown,
that they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
my Lord should take frail flesh, and die?

He came from His blest throne
salvation to bestow;
but men made strange, and none
the longed-for Christ would know:
But, O, my Friend, my Friend indeed,
who at my need His life did spend!

Sometimes they strew His way,
and His sweet praises sing;
resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then "Crucify!" is all their breath,
and for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
he gave the blind their sight,
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
themselves displease, and 'gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have
my dear Lord made away;
a murderer they save,
the Prince of life they slay.
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
that He His foes from thence might free.

In life, no house, no home
my Lord on earth might have;
iIn death no friendly tomb
but what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav'n was His home;
but mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
no story so divine;
never was love, dear King!
never was grief like Thine.
this is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days would gladly spend.

A Message (Coldplay)

My song is love
Love to the loveless shown
And it goes up
You don't have to be alone
Your heavy heart
Is made of stone
And it's so hard to see you clearly
You don't have to be on your own
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
Got to get that message home

My song is love
My song is love, unknown
But I'm on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
And I'm nothing on my own
Got to get that message home

And I'm not gonna stand and wait
Not gonna leave it until it's much too late
On a platform I'm gonna stand and say
That I'm nothing on my own
And I love you, please come home

My song is love, is love unknown
And I've got to get that message home

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-18T06:21:00.001-07:00

The background: Yesterday, I received a suggestion to come up with an original song... so I found a chord progression and then had to come up with lyrics. I improvisationally mumbled into the microphone on a couple tracks and then I wrote down what I thought I was saying on a word document.

then I edited the lyrics to have them make sense.

This A-mazing process resulted in a triple entendre song loosely based on Bachelor angst.

The other cool thing is that I stripped out the beat track and so now it is theoretically playable by two people at a cafe.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-15T05:31:00.001-07:00

Ok I was gone this weekend...

so I am sending this Ukropia remix

a new day in Ukropia

the day has come and gone

the salad bar and my guitar

they softly sing this song

Take my rainbow cookies back

don't know where I'm gonna snack

Am -- C G

mrs fearnow will always be here now,

You, Ukropia

are burned in memory

You, Ukropia

will always be with me

Richmond wil never be the same

You, Ukropia

have made it what it is today!!!!!

You Ukropia

what else do I have to say?

outro

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-10T22:17:00.001-08:00

haha this is all concept... I did not put a lot of thought into the lyrics but you get the point... this is just the MBOX Boom module and two audio tracks... I HAD to add the cheesy hype upfront.

I can just imagine the video for this one as one of those kit-kat commercials where everyone is doing the "new dance" that is so dumb.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-09T22:29:00.001-08:00

Ok I felt it was time for another hymn... as basic as it sounds, I am excited that I can do what I am doing in this track. I don't usually know the exact harmony parts for these old hymns, but I can read music ... and thus encode the hymnal four part piano harmony into protools on a MIDI piano track ... After learning and practicing with the computer I just eventually record myself singing the parts and then strip out the piano altogether. I can do as many takes as I like until it is 95% right...

I added some reverb (echo chamber) to cover my voice up a little.

-M

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-08T21:00:00.001-08:00

Ok I have to admit I recorded this Sunday night... but I did some tinkering with it tonight. Basically this is an original from the vault ... I cover of myself (if you willl)... and it embodies my old triple entendre style of writing a song about (1) a spiritual theme (2) some "facts of love" and (3) stuff in there to throw you off as obfuscation / wisdom / nonsense / word play.

I like the guitar riff and I tried to strip it down because there is so much I could do with it but I like the ethos of keep it austerely simple.

It is long because it is supposed to go on forever but obviously that would be a big mp3.

Enjoy!

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-08T05:39:00.001-08:00

This is the one that I recorded video for... not sure if it will ever pan out but I thought this would be a good one for the children's album. This may actually be the first song I performed in public (with my fam)

Learning point was that protools does not have video editing capability but I can open a video file and mix the soundtrack for the video and then save it as a video again.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-04T23:17:00.001-08:00

Ok so I am recovering from a cold, but I think I did this one justice.

Let's see what did I learn? I learned that I am not a piano player. I learned that the key of E has 4 sharps. I learned that Jeremy Camp likes to do silly things with MIDI instruments. I learned that protools stores all my bad takes on my hard drive.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-03T22:19:00.001-08:00

It's request week at NewDominionStudios.com

Robin wanted this one. Any other requests?

NERDY PROTOOLS LEARNING POINTS: Note well, the fading of all tracks at once at the end. I used the fading tool. Also I learned how to overdub without recording over previous tracks.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-03-01T02:34:00.000-08:00

Another old fave... I played around with mixing the volume of a midi organ part in and out. It's ahrd to explain but you can adjudt the volume of the track without using faders.

I wrestled for like 5 seconds about whether to send y'all just the experimental track (=wierd) or the more normal base track... but then decided to send both because why not right?

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-27T23:10:00.001-08:00

This is an old one. Aaron requested it.

I think Sundays can be "from the Vault" days.

This was back in 2007 when I first said "I could do this" with respect to making raps. I performed it at game nite. Aarons was there, but he has never heard the rap single that I produced.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-26T23:38:00.001-08:00

this is a wierd track... I have been tinkering with this chord progression (code named ACOBASS) for about 5 years.

Today it gets the phaser treatment.... I have to admit today's is a little more angry/wierd than I expected it to be.

All I did was play ACOBASS on the keyboard and then mess around with which midi voices I thought were cool... there are literally hundreds of voices to choose from. I spent most of tonight's sesison playing around with the different voices I can use. what you are getting are the ones that MARVAA could theoretically remix and/or rap over.

btw I did BOOM drums and some backing ahhh vocals behind it.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-25T21:16:00.001-08:00

Haha this is beautiful.

I picked this one because I like the lyrics and the potential use in Vespers type services. It is in 4 flats as well as 6/4 time, so it was the perfect candidate for MIDI-fying to find out what it really sounds like.

What is totally hilarious is that as I was playing around with different MIDI voices I decided to continue my theme of dance music... I added a "beat" to it even though it is basically in a three count... so now we have two MP3's of the day ... REEEEMIIIIXXXXXX!!!!!!!

Day is dying in the west;
Heaven is touching earth with rest:
Wait and worship while the night
Sets her evening lamps alight
Through all the sky.

Chorus--
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Heaven and earth are full of Thee!
Heaven and earth are praising Thee,
Our Lord most high!
...

When forever from Thy sight
Pass the stars, the day, the night,
Lord of angels, on our eyes
Let eternal morning rise
And shadows end.

(Chorus)

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-24T21:36:00.001-08:00

The trick to this one was improvising vocally what I wanted to score musically. I can explain it best by telling you the order of tracks made

TRACK 1: PERCUSSION = record my voice making a high hat sound (as a click track) chhh ch-ch ...chhhh ch-ch...etc

TRACK 2 = VOCAL = sing the tune from elementary school

TRACK 3 = improvisationally sing what I think a trombone part ought to sound like

TRACK 4 = improvisationally sing what I think a counterpoint clarinet ought to sound like (then I realized it was new orleans jazzy)

TRACK 5 = MIDI trombone = click on the virtual piano keys to encode what I was singing for the trombone (track 3) into notes

TRACK 6 = MIDI clarinet = same thing as track 5 but I struggled to turn track 4 into something useable. ... then I made it it up and scored two clarinets in the same track

When I mixed it down I muted tracks 3 and 4.

I just realized Aaron's sister is 5 foot two eyes of blue. WHOOOOAAAAAAAH

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-23T18:36:00.001-08:00

aa, I would call this EP "dance tunes from the aughts and the 1800s"

I think I hit a wrong button and so I lost some of what I was doing... I have to stop somewhere... I was unable to clean this one up to my usual high standard of editing... kind of makes me mad at the machine for being confusing... so WARNING: THE END IS KINDA WIERD

the learning point today is that I can use midi to do trumpets... and I got better at editing harmony within MIDI.

also shoutout to vancouver olympics!!!!!!!

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-22T23:32:00.001-08:00

My uncle in Raleigh- Durham has a book of Civil War tunes ... he had this one bookmarked just for me... "We Are Marching on to Richmond" ... so this is a Northern tune.

It is super hard to sight read because it is in four flats (the key of Ab) and has wierd Civil War rhythms (dotted eigth notes etc)

Computers make things easier ... I entered it in and then sang over top. May not be that beautiful but I learned something about how to enter each note into the computer via the computer mouse.

=======================

We Are Marching On To Richmond

Music and lyrics by E.W. Locke

Our knapsacks sling
And blithely sing,
We're marching on to Richmond
With weapons bright
And hearts so light
We're marching on to Richmond
Each weary mile
With song beguile
We're marching on to Richmond
The roads are rough
But smooth enough
To take us safe to Richmond!

chorus:
Then.......tramp away
While the bugles play
We're marching on to Richmond
Our flag shall gleam in the morning beam
From many a spire in Richmond

Our foes are near
Their drums we hear
They're camped about in Richmond
With pickets out
To tell the route
Our army takes to Richmond
We've crafty foes
To meet our blows
No doubt they'll fight for Richmond
The brave may die
But never fly
We'll cut our way to Richmond
(chorus)

But yesterday
In murd'rous fray
While marching on to Richmond
We parted here
From comrades dear
While marching on to Richmond
With manly sighs
And tearful eyes
While marching on to Richmond
We laid the braves
In peaceful graves
And started on for Richmond
(chorus)

Our friends away
Are sad today
Because we march to Richmond
With loving fears
They shrink to hear
About our march to Richmond
The pen shall tell
That they who fell
While marching on to Richmond
Had hearts aglow
And face to foe
While marching on to Richmond
(chorus)

Our thoughts shall roam
To scenes of home
While marching on to Richmond
The vacant chair
That's waiting there
While we march on to Richmond
'Twill not be long
Till shout and song
We'll raise aloud in Richmond
And war's rude blast
Will soon be past
And we'll go home from Richmond
(chorus)

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-22T05:19:00.001-08:00

Ok... a dance tune... basically the learning point is that I was able to get the keyboard hooked up via MIDI and thus I can do all sorts of stuff that doesn't require microphones.

I discovered the protools BOOM module, which is a basic but powerful a beat sequencer... so I can tell it to make a bass drum on 1-2-3-4 and snare on 2 and 4.... and way more complex sounds as well.

so I put the MIDI keyboard functionality together with the BOOM beat functionality... added some vocals... and created this little ditty... MARVAA yall ... PS the rap haha

2010-02-21T13:11:00.001-08:00

Richmond sign at 2300 hermitage

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Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-19T22:45:00.001-08:00

Double portion today... I think I am taking Saturday night off

Actually a triple portion... sort of a mashup... I almost didn't send it... soooo bad.

also, you may be wondering , "why chubby chicken?" ... well I tested a new mike setup today, and in high school the tech person always told us to say "chicken butt" to test the mikes... something to do with plosives.

anyhoo, it looks like I I will be able to use the TASCAM DP004 with the AT3035 condenser mike if I ever want to record outside my house

Enjoy!

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-18T23:16:00.001-08:00

Best. One. Yet. (see attached)

Btw, I learned that this song was produced by Dr. Luke Gottwald and mixed by Serban Ghena ... people who I had never heard of before but when you look at their wikipedia articles they have produced massive pop and hip hop songs that you **have** heard of, such as tik tok by Ke$hia.

Also, credit is due to youtube... I basically used these lyrics and listened to this youtube link to understand the parts and to lay down the click track... maybe we can do this song at Park Ave sometime.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-17T21:12:00.001-08:00

Ok I was thinking of this song all day for some reason...

Then for the lyrics I read the wikipedia article ...and learned fun facts about the camp towns where railroad builders lived in the 1850s. They built train tracks by day and raced their horses in their free time and sang these silly songs.

Clearly I miss music night... I created a whole room full of people clapping and singing doodah.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-16T21:09:00.001-08:00

TRACK 4 ... Fairest Lord Jesus... yay for multi-part harmony!!!

you will notice that at the end of the song somone started chatting me on facebook and you can hear the little "pop" alert if you listen for it. I left it in there... for authenticity of course.

Also, I edited out one of the key signature mistakes that I made And then I recorded the right note in there. A-MAZING.

Re: Got the MBOX 2 hooked up last night...

2010-02-15T22:29:00.001-08:00

POST #3

Ok this one really sucks... it is experimental... but it proves that I can heavily edit all the tracks and shrink WAV files into MP3s

an explanation of the details follows, or you can just listen to the track and say, yeah this isn't as good as yesterday's.

1. I sang the do-re-mi scale and then cut it apart into 8 pieces on 8 different tracks. The first "mash" is all 8 notes being sung together. Then I used these 8 notes to construct your average C-F-G-C-Am-F-G-C... then I added "reverb" to make it sound like it was in a church. This is basically tube singing with audio tracks.

2. I created a wav file that was 3000K... after I downloaded Audacity 1.3.1.1(Beta) and converted the wav file to MP3, it was only 563K

Richmond VA 2PM

2010-01-30T10:59:00.001-08:00

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richmond va 5am

2010-01-30T02:04:00.001-08:00

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2010-01-16T11:41:00.001-08:00

We built a cairn aka a pile of rocks

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Heidelburg Catechism Widget

2010-01-04T23:15:00.000-08:00

Who makes this stuff?

2009-12-31T16:41:00.001-08:00

A patient waiter is no loser

What hath god wrought?

2009-12-31T16:38:00.001-08:00

What hath god wrought?

Test

2009-12-31T16:37:00.001-08:00

Test

My one Post of 2009...

2009-12-31T16:27:00.001-08:00

Well... it looks like I have not blogged much in 2009 either... but -- just in the nick of time --here I am.

On the eve of the new decade, I celebrate the five year anniversary of this blog... in this space of time, we have gone from "content is king" to "crowds are king" ... we will see if I can somehow crack the nut on getting people to participate in group blogging... sunday margins was a total failure, not because it was a bad idea, but because people didn't participate.

What hath God wrought? In the words of Samuel Morse, "a patient waiter is no loser. "

Four posts for Mike Scott

2008-01-22T20:11:00.000-08:00

I have been derelict in my blogging. The other night I had all these ideas for posts and I left Firefox open with something like 25 tabs open with interesting links to discuss sometime in the future. Ok, so I have finally gotten around to updating "the blog." Thanks to Mike Scott and an Anonymous Michigan State fan for reminding me that people actually read this blog sometimes.

At this point, my raison d'etre for this blog is a jumbly mix... on the one hand I want to be informative and capture the zeitgeist... on the other hand I just think something is brilliant or hilarious and therefore want to share the joy of discovery. So here goes:

1) David Brooks. I was talking with a friend of mine about one of my favorite syndicated columnists... David Brooks. He is really good about framing complex issues in understandable and apt ways. Sometimes his generalizations are too broad, and I disagree with some of his positions, but overall he makes me think and I appreciate his ability to boil down the issues. He is pithy. Check out his wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brooks_%28journalist%29 ) and his articles on NYT ( link ) if they ask you for a login name get somone else's at bugmenot

2) Videos. Two brilliant parody videos from collegehumor.com
--> Linkin Park cliche video parody... brilliant.
--> Minesweeper: the movie... also brilliant.

3) Presidential election 2008 Dash For Cash. I am closely following this election. My theory is that due to McCain-Feingold finance reform bill, small donations of money by "the little guy" like you and me have a lot of sway. The Federal limit that any one individual can give is $2300, so politicians are going to be depending on a lot more small donations. If one million people each gave $10 that's ten million dollars. Check out this news article for a (IMHO) well thought out opinion on the value of money to the POTUS 2008 election. Don't wait until October to start paying attention... even better, I recommend giving money to the candidate of your choice. Read this article for more ... http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23040314-26397,00.html

4) POTUS 2008 redux. see below for the websites and wikipedia articles on various candidates. Yes, I am a dork, but I think that having all this information in one place could be valuable

a. My Descriptions. (alpha order to convey neutrality)

--> Rudy Guiliani -- 911 Mayor, ruled NYC with an iron fist
--> Mike Huckabee -- Baptist Preacher, Populist Arkansas Governer, and Rock Bassist
--> John McCain -- War Hero Maverick
--> Mitt Romney -- Mormon Harvard MBA, Massachusetts Governor, Olympics savior from a Michigan political family
--> Fred Thompson -- Watergate Lawyer turned Actor turned Senator. Pithy/Lazy/Floppy-faced "Consistent Conservative"
--> Ron Paul -- Tech-savvy Libertarian Kook

--> Hillary Clinton - well-connected She-Bill, one term senator promotes universal health care
--> John Edwards - North Carolina populist with a passion for the poor; hates corporations
--> Barack Obama - Chicago union organizer, one-term senator, and optimist who thinks we can change if we do this together for the future.

b. Campaign Websites
--> Rudy Guiliani -- http://www.joinrudy2008.com/
--> Mike Huckabee -- http://www.mikehuckabee.com/
--> John McCain -- http://www.johnmccain.com/landing/?sid=gorganic
--> Mitt Romney -- http://www.mittromney.com/
--> Fred Thompson -- http://www.fred08.com/
--> Ron Paul -- http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

--> Hillary Clinton -- http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
--> John Edwards -- http://www.johnedwards.com/splash/
--> Barack Obama -- http://www.barackobama.com/

c. Wikipedia

--> Rudy Guiliani -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani
--> Mike Huckabee -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Huckabee
--> John McCain -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
--> Mitt Romney -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney
--> Fred Thompson -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Thompson
--> Ron Paul -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul

--> Hillary Clinton -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton
--> John Edwards -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edwards
--> Barack Obama -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

Ok I know I said four posts but here is number five... who's counting?

5) Blogs, and the word Hustings. Virginia has a particularly strong political blogging community. ( http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4040). Also the word hustings is awesome. If you are cool, you will read this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustings)

No Way to Filter all this

2007-11-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

This news junkie is OD'ing.

From time to time I pause and realize that there's a lot going on the world, and that I have no clue how to process it all. Let me at least try to put it in list form to give you a sense of what I'm trying to process:
* Complete overthrow of the Pakistani Government -- all media is shut down and political dissidents are arrested and incarcerated
* Violent protests in the country of Georgia
* Massive Battle in the capital of Somalia
* US Dollar Values plummeting... imploding of the US mortgage industry
* A US presidential race that nobody really follows (Clinton? Obama? Thompson? Guiliani? Romney?)
* US Congress not passing a budget
* Following Catastophic fires in San Diego last week, this week a huge oil spill occurred as a barge hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge
* Writers strikes in NYC and LA that will completely shut down Late Night Talk Shows, Political satire (Daily Show, Colbert), and primetime shows. ... Complete shutdown of Broadway by stagehand strike.

That's just off the top of my head.

I have this lingering suspicion that I am supposed to have some sort of reaction to all these events. I don't know... I feel a bit catatonic since I cancelled my subscription to the RTD a couple weeks ago... I wasn't reading it... but I am starting to wonder if there is some other way to get a handle on all this news... and how I am supposed to respond, if at all.

I like to think I have pretty well-formed opinions on current events, but the volume of crises in recent weeks seem to have maxed out my reactive capabilities.

My new favorite Scrabble Word and Witty Tidbit

2007-10-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

UT -- the syllable once generally used for the first tone or keynote of a scale and sometimes for the tone C: now commonly superseded by do. [Origin: 1275–1325; ME; see gamut]

GAMUT --
1.the entire scale or range: the gamut of dramatic emotion from grief to joy.
2. Music.
a. the whole series of recognized musical notes.
b. the major scale.
[Origin: 1425–75; late ME re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) being named from a Latin hymn to St. John the Baptist: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris. Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes]

Party in my tummy

2007-08-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

Speaking of morbid fascination... I feel a sense of horror and wonder as I watch this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PqjMSNfkU

the good kind of evangelism?

2007-08-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

I am always morbidly fascinated by evangelism videos... namely street evangelism, where you go up to people Ray-Comfort-style and engage them in a debate about what the Bible says about how they are going to hell without Jesus. Part of me thinks this is rude and the other part of me... agrees with the first part of me. This is totally rude evangelism.

Don't get me wrong... the Good News involves repentance from sin... and Jesus was rude and confrontational sometimes... but I have to admit I am just not comfortable with the idea that the way to introduce people to Christ is by videotaping yourself accusing them of murder. "Hey, there, S%&$head, want to meet my friend Jesus? By the way, I'm taping this to show my Christian friends."

Are there other forms of public evangelism? the good kind?

I don't know ...these guys are more my style...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKOnqy61ahA

On the one hand it seems like singing in public can be a public nuisance...

...but if you are a street performer, and you are really good at what you do, most people will appreciate that.

There's a deep thought in there somewhere.

I am proud of my sister

2007-08-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

My sister is hanging out with people in Mali for a while. She is learning Bambara and helping them with their agriculture stuff (something to do with Shea trees or Shea Butter or something). Ok lets face it, I have no idea what she does all day but she is awesome. I think she is trying to feed the world or something. She just sent some pics to my parents. See if you can pick her out.

(hint: she smiles a lot)

First correct guess in the comment field gets you the shea butter product of your choice from Bath & Body Works.

An amazing New Technology??

2007-07-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

Check it out... I got an invite today for this amazing technology that enables you to send messages, links, and files to a network of your friends... no, not email... silly...

... it's Pownce!!!

Pownce ( http://pownce.com/)

The only way I can think of this having value is if it stops the spammers and phishers.

Then again, it's a site that asks for your name, birthday, and financial information, so for all I know, it may be solely dedicated to phishing and spamming. Hmm... and it's called "pounce."

Ahh... who can you trust? Free Lunch goes to the best reponse (leave a comment)

2011 and future technology

2007-06-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

I just started playing with Google Earth.

Wow. (If you don't understand, I can't explain it to you. You have to see it.)

Then I found this article.

"For people who haven't spent much time in a 3-D world, of course, it's hard
to imagine feeling comfortable in either. But such environments may soon be as
unavoidable as the Web itself: according to technology research firm Gartner,
current trends suggest that 80 percent of active Internet users and Fortune 500 companies will participate in Second Life or some competing virtual world by the end of 2011. "

Wow.

Ten years ago Google didn't exist.

Four years ago Myspace didn't exist.

What kinds of technology are going to emerge in the next five years, and what impact will they have on our professional and social lives?

Wow.

The way I cope with all of this is that in five years you will still have groups of people who interact with each other. If you invest in people you almost can't go wrong.

New York Times plugs Fan Walking

2007-06-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Caption: Monument Avenue in the Fan District is one of the loveliest places in Richmond for an urban stroll

I almost missed it.. but thanks to the WoBD neighborhood blog for the link to the NYT article promoting my favorite hobby. I am telling you, I'm on to something here.

Surface Computing

2007-05-30T14:46:00.001-07:00

I am going to get one of these coffee tables at work... someday... I hope.

This is where we are headed... we are getting closer and closer to that crazy power glove wall computer from Minority Report ... Awesome!!!

And guess what device has multitouch technology????? the iPhone ... coming to a circuit city near you in June 2007

More links
* Perceptive pixel homepage

* Multitouch research at NYU

* iPhone

Hip Hop

2007-05-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I'm in a hop hop phase.

Richmond ZineFest 2007

2007-04-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

I almost didn't go to this, but I thought it would be cool to see what kind of underground paper culture is floating around Richmond. The Richmond zinefest was held at the Firehouse Theater and at The Camel and according to the people I talked to, it was the first such festival in Richmond in about 14 years. As it turns out, about half the zine publishers were from out of town. Knowing nothing about zine culture except a vague reference from a 1990s Harvey Danger Song, I decided to learn more about zines from the people at the 25 or so tables.

I talked to most of the participants and picked up a lot of free schwag. The setup was rather like a flea market or comic convention, with each zine person sitting behind their own own table or half table. Some people had tee shirts and stuff for sale, but a lot of people gave me free stuff because I was talking to them.

You know this was a Richmondy event because RVA Magazine was there and it was at the Firehouse Theater (co-founded by Harry Kollatz Jr., aka senior writing editor of Richmond Magazine and guy with the funny hat who is always fan walking in Carytown). The guy from Patchwork Collective was manning the info table, and the Zinefest program he had put together was about as DIY as you can get.

Keywords for noobs:
* Zine -- a Do It Yourself(DIY) magazine-like publication, usually 10 to 50 pages containing original art, poetry, opinion pieces, doodles, and random whatever.
* Distro -- sort of a zine middleman; a person who publishes lists of available zines and will send them to you. Examples include PaperChaseDistro.com, , parcell press , Valiant Death (records and Distro). Zineworld ("A reader's guide to the Underground Press") seems to be a good place to start... they review zines of all quality levels as well as writing articles on how to do zine stuff.

* PerZine -- someone who writes a zine about their PERsonal experience.
* Tower Records -- Apparently Tower used to be zine central, but now that they have filed for bankruptcy.
* Tabling -- I saw this on a flyer... not sure if it is zine scene lingo but it works... it's a verb... "who will be tabling at that event? Oh, I have a bunch of people who want their own tables"

As some of you may know, I originally intended sceneonerichmond to be a "newsletter" for the Richmond <>< scene. When my co-conspirators in the sceneone project bugged out in 2004, I started this blog in 2005. Even as I am now mostly internet presence, I have always had a place in my heart for making and distributing paper information pamphlets around Richmond. Here are some things I learned about the craft in case there are others like me who think about this kind of stuff...

* Frequency -- most zine kids are far less productive than they originally intended. The distro people told me it was fairly normal to have zines be created bi- monthy (that is... every other month). Some people put out zines only once a year. One guy shared a table with another "zine buddy" told me he put out two zines in August 2006 and started a third that didn't get done until last week.
* Media -- Most people published in 8" X 6" staple-bound "fold copy paper in half" format, and several mentioned to me that they relied heavily on the Staples copy center honor system or friends who had access to "free" copy machines. Several people went beyond the low-fi DIY norm and actually had impressive art and copy. The twine guy (28 Pages Lovingly Bound With Twine) was using a wooden spoon to get the twine the right length. I was also particularly impressed with the stuff at the substanceInk table (these guys were VCU art students). The other people who set the curve at this festival were the folks from Young American Comics. Not only that but, they gave me their price list for making buttons. Buttons!
* Content-- HOW TO tips like Gardening ... musings about love... documentation of experiences... Richmondy stuff... anarchists calls to arms... stories about a particular location... absurd anecdotes... tripped out doodles(brains melting, etc) ... personal poetry... artsy comics

My overall memory of this event was that it was a lot of down to earth people who are trying to build community by putting a little bit of themselves on paper. Many of them got into "the zine scene" by first reading other peoples' stuff and saying, "I can do THAT!"

I am struggling for a pithy conclusion here. I guess I'll just say that I also got the feeling that zine-ing can't be that hard. I have even though of a name if I ever do catch the zine bug... " ZineOneRichmond!"

-RCU

Summer Fun in Richmond -- Schedule

2007-04-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

This post will be regularly updated with concerts and other fun stuff occurring this summer. **** This was last updated April 28, 2007****

If you want weekly schedules, go to weeklyrant.com or check out the event links to the left.

1. GENERAL CALENDAR

------MAY------
* Friday Cheers and other weekly summer concert venues (see below) kick off
* Jamestown 2007 kicks off, including Godspeed visiting Richmond and Henricus May 23-26
* Richmond 1977 "30 Days of 30 Years" kicks off ...
May 5 -- Cinco De Mayo on Brown's Island

------JUNE------
June 9 -- (tentative) River city Beer and Seafood festival

------JULY------
* July 4 -- Fireworks at Dogwood Dell and The Diamond... followed by Fan Walking
* July 5 -- Kingsfest at King's Dominion
------AUGUST------
* TBD -- Carytown Watermelon Festival (Sunday Afternoon Early in August)

2. Innsbrook After Hours (Wednesdays, and some Fridays)
May 9 -- Wierd al Yankovic
May 16 Elliott Yamin
May 23 -- Dark Star Orchestra
May 30 -- Huey Lewis and the News
June 3 -- Three Days Grace/Braking Benjamin
June 6 -- LIVE
June 13 -- Gin Blossoms
June 20 -- Doobie brothers/Little Feat
June 22 -- Sugarland
June 27 -- TBA
July 4 -- No Concert
July 7 -- Taylor Hicks
July 11 -- Hootie an the Blowfish
July 18 -- Los Lonely Boys/Pat Green
July 25 -- TBA
July 26 -- Sara Evans
July 28 -- Chicago
Aug 10 -- The Wailers

3. Groovin in the Garden (Thursdays)
May 10 -- Seldom Scene... and the Avett Brothers
May 17 -- Dickey Betts & Great Southern
May 24 -- Medeski, Martin, & Wood
May 31 -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
June 7 -- Big Head Todd and the Monsters
June 14 -- Son Volt
June 21 -- TBA
June 28 -- 1964 the Tribute (Beatles covers)

4. Friday Cheers (uh... Fridays)
May 11 --- Carbon Leaf
May 18 -- Lee Boys / DJ Williams Project
June 1 -- Soullive/Exister
June 8 -- Keller Williams
June 15 -- AAE/Crucial Elements
June 22 -- Drive-by Truckers
June 29 -- The Slip

5. Other concert venues I will link but not list
* Fridays at Sunset (weekly)
* Dogwood Dell Festival of the Arts (Daily )
* Third thursdays at VMFA (monthly)
* Fourth Fridays at Artworks (monthly)
* First Fridays on Broad (monthly)
* Richmond Kickers games... not a concert but fun to watch with friends.

6. FALL 2007 EVENTS
* "Swingin on the Tracks" at the Science Museum (September/October) (weekly)
* October 5-6 -- 2nd Street Festival
* October 12-14 -- National Folk Festival

I suck at blogging, but...

2007-04-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

... I have been linked, so I have to blog now. Let the real blogging begin!!!!

Ok, stream of consciousness wikification:

Today is April 23, which is, let's see... the third day of Taurus... that number 23 is coming up like in that movie.

I paid off my car today... I talked to my sister in Kita, Mali on a three way call for the first time since Christmas.

I am turning 30 in May, which means you should take the pledge. ... Richmond1977.com, aw yeah

All I need to be a great blogger is... practice! I think my slant for this blog will be that I go out in the world and assimilate random information and post it here so that other people can read it and assimilate it some more and then ... hopefully someday... it will be useful to someone.

...so you should expect lots of random but interesting links and facts!!!!!!!!!!

We are the Web

2007-03-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I have been telling everyone about "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. We are all interconnected more than ever before.. in all of history.

Tonight, I found a cool link on YouTube that conveys this pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

The phrase to remember is "We are the Web" The internet/blogs/Web2.0 is produced by people like you and me. If you don't like what you see on the internet, ask yourself what you have done to contribute. Nothing? Think about that.

Top 50 from United Way

2007-02-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

1	American Red Cross Greater Richmond Chapter	754,928	http://www.yourunitedway.org/NR/rdonlyres/D79F3739-8EBF-4ACF-9BDC-254FB6E4E11B/0/FundingbyAgencyFinal.pdf
2	Family Lifeline	742,268	http://www.family-lifeline.org/
3	Friends Association for Children	569,001	http://www.friendsassn.org/default.asp
4	YWCA of Richmond, VA	398,537	http://www.ywcarichmond.org/
5	Memorial Child Guidance Clinic / ChildSavers of Richmond	361,000	http://www.mcgcva.com/
6	YMCA of Greater Richmond	358,807	http://www.ymcarichmond.org/
7	Salvation Army - Richmond	353,678	http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/richmond
8	Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond	315,311	http://www.bgcmr.org/
9	IVNA Health Care	277,000	http://www.ivna.org/index.html
10	William Byrd Community House	267,587	http://www.wbch.org/
11	Commonwealth Catholic Charities	164,304	http://www.cccofva.org/defaultHome.aspx
12	The Greater Richmond ARC	152,279	http://www.richmondarc.org/
13	HomeAgain (formerly ESI Connections)	148,000	http://homeagainrichmond.org/
14	Goodwill of Central VA	147,880	http://www.goodwillrichmond.org/index.asp
15	Offender Aid and Restoration of Richmond	135,000	http://www.oarric.org/
16	Jewish Family Services	129,612	http://www.jfsrichmond.org/
17	Children’s Home Society of Virginia	124,443	http://www.chsva.org/
18	Refugee and Immigration Services	123,469	http://www.richmonddiocese.org/ris/
19	CHIP of Greater Richmond	123,413	http://www.chipofrichmond.org/
20	Big Brothers Big Sisters Services	122,187	http://www.bigbrobigsis.com/
21	Daily Planet	120,000	http://www.dailyplanetva.org/
22	A Grace Place Adult Care Center	118,500	http://www.agraceplaceacc.org/index.php
23	Southside Child Development Center	115,160	http://www.mcgcva.com/about.htm ???
24	Boy Scouts - Heart of Virginia Council	95,220	http://www.scoutingvirginia.org/
25	Circle Center Adult Day Services	84,000	http://www.circlecenteradultday.org/index.php
26	Meals on Wheels Serving Central VA 40th anniversary!!!!!!!!!!	84,000	http://www.mowdelivers.com
27	Freedom House	83,000	http://www.freedomhouserichmond.org/
28	Fan Free Clinic	77,559	http://www.fanfreeclinic.org/
29	Central Virginia Legal Aid Society	76,231	http://www.cvlas.org/
30	CARITAS	75,000	http://www.caritasshelter.org/
31	Carol & Marcus Weinstein Jewish Community Center	70,246	http://www.weinsteinjcc.org/
32	Salvation Army - Southside	66,579	http://www.salvationarmysatx.org/
33	Girl Scouts: Commonwealth Council of VA	65,828	http://www.comgirlscouts.org/
34	Quin Rivers Agency for Community Action	54,108	??? http://www.vadv.org/???
35	Senior Center of Richmond	48,000	http://www.benevolink.com/main.aspx?page=ConsumerCharityProfile&id=564578
36	Association for Retarded Citizens Petersburg Area	45,363	??? http://www.unitedwayofhopewell.org/profiles.html
37	Hanover Adult Center	30,872	http://hanoveradultcenter.com/
38	Foster Grandparents Program-Petersburg	27,068	??? http://www.yourunitedway.org/NR/rdonlyres/FBA6009C-60FC-4B28-A4F7-568F83CAC286/0/PARTNERCODES.pdf
39	American Red Cross Southside Area Chapter	27,000	???
40	Hanover Arc	26,600	http://www.hanoverarc.com/
41	CARES	24,998	CARES, Inc. (Crisis Assistance Response Emergency Shelter, Inc.) P.O. Box 1142 Petersburg, Virginia 23804 (804)861-0849/(804)861-0865 Regional shelter serving persons in the cities of Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell, as well as the counties of Prince George, Dinwiddie, and Chesterfield who are homeless as a result of a housing crisis, transportation crisis or are victims of domestic violence. Provides service referrals, travel assistance, child care as well as a mailing address.
42	Lead Safe Petersburg (Petersburg Health Department)	24,000	http://www.upal.org/safehousing_petersburg.htm
43	READ Center	22,587	http://www.readcenter.org/

44	Goochland Fellowship and Family Services -- 45th anniversary!!! 18,000	http://www.goochlandfellowship.org/
45	South Richmond Adult Day Care Center	long link
46	CHIP of Petersburg (Petersburg Health Department)	CHIP of Petersburg Petersburg Health Department 301 Halifax Street Petersburg, Virginia 23803 (804) 863-1652 15,000
47	Tri-City Literacy Council	http://www.tricityliteracy.org/14,000
48	In Home Care Fund for the Elderly--Petersburg Department of Social Services	???11,421
49	Virginia Voice for the Print Handicapped	benevolink link 11,000
50	Crater District Agency on Aging	http://www.cdaaa.org/pages/1/index.htm10,000
51	Emergency Medication Fund Dinwiddie Department of Social Services	??? 8,000
52	Al-A-Mo Recovery Center	??? link?>?? 6,817

Other Good Causes

2007-01-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

Still deciding whether to elevate these to "top 30"...

http://www.projectrescue.com/ -- Money donated saves the kids from brothels and helps to get women out of trafficking slavery. Pretty intense.

http://www.richmondhabitat.org/page3.html

http://www.forkeepsvirginia.org/ -- a project for the first lady about finding permanent placement for Va. teens in foster care

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/ -- it's a movie... not a charity.. but a good cause, of course.

http://www.virginiasupportivehousing.org/icf.htm -- Virginia Supportive Housing works with other community development corporations in the Richmond area to revitalize abandoned and substandard housing to provide safe affordable housing. Virginia Supportive Housing also works closely with Richmond area homeless shelters and transitional programs.

http://www.bgcmr.org/ Richmond Boys and Girls Club ... for the kids... (Donate here!)

Crisis Pregnancy Center -- The Center is dedicated to providing compassionate care and practical assistance to women who are unprepared for pregnancy. Since 1983, the Center has helped more than 20,000 women meet the challenges of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. All services are provided free of charge. 24-Hr Helpline: (804) 673-2020 or Email us at CPCRichmond2@aol.com

Central Virginia Food Bank -- " The Central Virginia Foodbank (CVFB) was founded in 1980 to procure and distribute food efficiently and effectively to feeding programs throughout the area. Since then, the Central Virginia Foodbank service area has grown to include 31 counties and five cities in the Central Virginia region. Presently, we distribute food through a network of more than 500 network partner agencies, which includes more than 130 child care providers serving needy children. In addition, we serve as many as 4,000 daily meals in the summer and 2,000 daily meals during the school year to needy children through our 54 Kids Café programs."

Bells and Whistles

2007-01-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here are some elements to work on....

==Definite==
blog ... content to be developed ... sceneonerichmond.blogspot.com

Tee shirt
-- Logo... working
-- Schedule of May events to wear your tee shirt to(Cinco De Mayo, Friday Cheers, )
-- official purchase location for tee shirts
-- should I charge for tee shirts?

Website ... still need to decide on a URL... stick with sceneonerichmond.blogspot.com?

==Possible==
myspace account?
Theme song?
______ contest?

Take the pledge! Draft list of charities

2007-01-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

The challenge: Take the pledge! Under the consultation of friends, I have chosen a list of 30 charities that I would feel comfortable giving money to and that I feel do a great deal of good for the Richmond community. I am challenging everyone I know to give$30 to one of these charities... or $1 to all 30.... however you want to do it. Consider it a b-day gift. To take the pledge, simply let me know when you have sent your gift the charity(-ies?) of your choice. Obviously, I can't tally how much money you gave because I can't prove it.. but I am going by the NPR honor system... I only tally the amounts that people have pledged!!!

This is a start. (in no particular order)

Send suggestions to sceneonerichmond@ g ma il. com. At some point, I'll put together a tee shirt design.... still need to figure that out.

1 William Byrd Community House Help out the kids.

2 CARITAS Richmond End Homelessness in Richmond Check out their "donate" tab... pay online

3 Homeward End homelessness in Richmond heck out their "donate" tab... pay online

4 ART 180 - "ART 180 creates and provides art-related programs to young people living in challenging circumstances, encouraging personal and community change through self-expression. Our group is based in Richmond, Virginia."

5 United Methodist Family Services "By making a gift to UMFS you can touch the life of a child or family in deeply significant ways. Your financial support enables UMFS to be a world-class leader providing human services that enable children and families to realize their hopes for the future." (Adoption, Treatment Foster Care, Residential Treatment, Support Services, and Affiliate Services.)

6 The Giving Heart (Community Thanksgiving Feast) - Providing basic needs, assistance, acceptance and opportunities to the underprivileged, elderly and those who otherwise are hindered in their desire to move forward 7

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Arbitrary 2007 anniversaries

2007-01-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

It seems like 2007 is the year for arbitrary celebrations of increments of time ending in 0 or 5.

For example:

* 400th anniversary of Jamestown
* 385th anniversary of the Indian Massacre of 1622
* 265th anniversary of the founding of Richmond (1742)
* 200th anniversary of Robert E. Lee's Birthday
* 175th (ish) anniversary of the Virginia Historical Society
* 10th anniversary of Bandito's Burrito Lounge

And, obviously, the 30th anniversary of me.

30 days Of 30 years: The concept...

2007-01-22T17:27:00.000-08:00

It all starts with concept...

Premise 1: I am turning 30 in May... people who turn 30 often do something drastic on their 30th birthday...

Premise 2: doing drastic things doesn't need to be negative... I can do something drastically positive on my 30th birthday... like get people to donate to charity. It is right to help out the little guy.

Premise 3: tee shirts are awesome. Richmond is awesome. Raising awareness of Richmond charities by putting them on tee shirts is awesome...

Premise 4: Viral Marketing sucks but it works... and advertising for a good cause doesn't suck .

I think the conclusion follows... A 30-day Richmond Charity Pledge Birthday Festival Website Tee Shirt

Coming to a capital city near you in May of 2007.

I will keep you posted via this blog.

Walking into 2007...

2007-01-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle....

ok, so apparently I didn't make ANY blog posts in 2006. That tells you what sort of blogger I am. I am a very bad blogger.

So what did I do in 2006? I did exactly what I said I would ... I walked the Fan, and I promoted walking the Fan. For my birthday in May, I took the GRTC and walked to Brown's Island and joined 3500 of my closest friends for a Friday Cheers concert by Fighting Gravity. The highlight of that evening was when the lead singer (Shiavone McGee), shouted happy birthday.. to himself... but little did he know that he was playing my party... the biggest birthday party that Richmond had ever seen.. up to that time.

The best part of the whole year was December 31, when over 6000 people joined me in Carytown and that dude from RVAmag yelled something passionate about community and we all waited for the New York Deli ball to drop... err rise... and then we all went Fan walking into late into the night.

So what's next for 2007? Obviously, I have to throw a bigger birthday party than last year.

... and that's a pledge...

FanSpace

2005-12-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

http://groups.myspace.com/RVAFanClub

Everyone else likes this one
http://groups.myspace.com/rva

Reading is the new trend, hepcats!

2005-10-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Romans 12:2:Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

A Movement is Afoot

2005-10-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

Kings Fest

2005-04-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

Kings Fest is being held Thursday, July 7 through Saturday, July 9 at Paramount's Kings Dominion this year--

Three days of Christian music, speaking and teaching. Many performances are scheduled for this three day event.

Thursday: Third Day, Pillar, Hyper Static Union

Friday: Audio Adrenaline, Cameron Mills, Rebecca St James, Kutless, Building 429, Hawk Nelson, Stellar Kart

Saturday: Newsboys, Wes Hamilton, Tobymac, FFH, Jeremy Camp, Thousand Foot Krutch, Dizmas

Click here for the Upcoming.org event listing. It would be cool if you registered with Upcoming and dropped yourself in the Richmond metro group, and listed yourself as attending if you are...

Finding the Scene Part 1

2005-03-06T22:03:00.000-08:00

I had a thought today. What if I subscribed to all the church newsletters in the Fan? I could compile a a list of the most interesting Young Adult activities and send it out to everoune through my account at sceneonerichmond@gmail.com.

Nah... too much work.

There must be an easier way to collect this information.

PS when I say Young Adult, I mean ages 20-30. We need a new word.

The Madness of Crowds

2005-02-28T21:37:00.000-08:00

Crowds are trendy nowadays.
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/

I am skeptical. As I sit at World Cup Cafe on Morris Street, I observe to my left a rowdy group of 12 Christian young adults from a vibrant Fan-area church. They have colonized the entire East side of the cafe to the point that the Men's bathroom is blocked off. Their presence distracts the VCU kids trying to study, and their mass arrival and demand for every sort of fancy beverage and dessert creates a tremendous workload for the barista, which makes her grumpy. Is this a loving witness? It appears that this excursion into public space is also an intrusion, an invasion.

They are sincere in their relationships with each other, and I love them and respect them for it, but they represent a tremendous annoyance to everyone else in the cafe. Sometimes, the only contact some people have with Christians is through being lectured and talked-down-to, and through rude but oblivious groups such as this one. Where is the model of Christian fellowship in the world that gives people exposure to loving Christians without having us be the bull in a china shop?
http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm

Scene Insider #1

2005-02-27T10:31:00.000-08:00

This guy is basically WeeklyRant.com. While his position gives him the
scoop on RVA events, there may also be a bias to plug his sponsors.
That said, http://weeklyrant.com and its companion blog
http://riverrapids.blogspot.com/
are pretty good views to the RVA Scene.

On Band Names #1

2005-02-26T12:50:00.000-08:00

I find myself making up band names and song names all the time. For a while, I started coming up with potential band names for religious rock bands, especially those containing lame puns. My favorite is Jonah and the Whalers, but I also like Noah Way and Allah Y'all. In the spirit of lame puns (that might actually be good bands), I present the following:

Pheer Knot plays Heavenly Grounds Cafe Friday, March 4, 2005. Oxbridge Square 9957 Hull Street. Call 647-9273 for more info.

Jah rules

2005-02-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

Hasidic Reggae anyone? I heard Matisyahu on WRIR. It reminded me of the Matrix 3 where the people of Zion (the underground city) had their cathartic rave.
==================

Matisyahu comes to Alley Katz Wed., March 2nd from 8pm-midnight. $8 advance; $10 door. 18+. 10 Walnut Alley in Shockoe Bottom. 804-643-2816. http://www.hasidicreggae.com/

Matisyahu, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, was raised on a steady diet of Bob Marley and early hip-hop. After several years of soul searching, Matisyahu began to explore his Jewish roots. More than realizing the depth and beauty inherent in his own religion that had remained distant to him until then, Matisyahu noticed the striking similarities Judaism shared with Rasta culture. The result of this is a Reggae sound unmatched in today's pop culture. Matisyahu draws heavily on the spirit of traditional Judaism, and juxtaposes it with the dub-wise sounds of Jamaican Reggae.

Craigslist

2005-02-18T21:54:00.000-08:00

This is awesome.

http://richmond.craigslist.org/

Lenten Lunch at St Paul's

2005-02-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

Saint Paul's Episcopal is one of Richmond's "historical" churches. Itis near the Capitol grounds (at 9th and Grace), and has been thechurch of hoity toity Richmonders ever since Jefferson Davis. Theyalso have a well respected community Lenten lunch series. Thedistinguished speakers give a sermon weekdays 12:30-1:00, and lunch isserved the 45 min before and the 30 min after the sermon. (If you arein a hurry, they operate a takeout counter from 11:45 to 1:30)Speakers include the pastoral director of Richmond Hill, the pastor ofFirst Baptist Church, the Dean of VUU school of theology, pastor ofSt. Paul's Baptist Church, the "bishop suffragan" of the EpiscopalDiocese of Southern Virginia, "rector emeritus" of Trinity church onWall Street (NYC), and the "consulting theologian" of Fifth AvenuePrez in NYC.http://www.stpauls-episcopal.org/2005Brochure_2004Brochure_1.pdf

Underground: The Next Generation

2005-01-29T17:41:00.000-08:00

I was reading Wadi magazine, which sucks, and I happened to see Grace Brethren Church listed as one of the band venues. Apparently, bands play there on the fourth Saturday of each month 7 - 10, and they have a coffeehouse (a.k.a Black Hole Coffeehouse) there on off-weeks. Two drawbacks: (1) it's near Midlo = Southside (2) Pictures on the site indicate it may be a teeny-bopper thing. Even so, I am reminded of the old adage that the Church is always one generation away from extinction. You have to start somewhere, and adolescence is the age when musicians generally start to play guitar. It is sweet that we have at least one Richmond church hosting and advertising bands. That creates a scene-- a separate and legitimate alternative culture. That's the essence of the RCU.

http://www.fgbc.org/richmondgbc/blackholecoffee/index.htm

Turn Turn Turn

2005-01-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

I have always maintained that Richmond has two unique weather seasons. The first is Hurricane Season (Mid-September), and the One-Week-of-Winter (Late January).

As I write, The National Weather Service is warning of "MIXED SNOW... SLEET... AND FREEZING RAIN" Saturday night and Early Sunday. Last week most churches in Richmond were cancelled because of a monster ice storm that kept schools closed for days. This happens every year in a predictable fashion... predictable in that I anticipate it, but unpredictable in that the it comes as a surprise to everyone else.

Ok so here's my call for 2006: Two road-crippling storms in Richmond, less than a week apart, in late January. Don't say I didn't warn you.

(oh, and July and August will be unbearably hot and muggy)

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
1 There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
6 A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Tsunami of Love

2005-01-19T18:35:00.000-08:00

Got this from the Plan9 weekly email...

1) Sunday, January 30th music lovers of all ages can enjoy a day of live music from some of Richmond’s best bands while also donating money to the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunamis in South Asia. It's “The Sound of Help: A Benefit Concert for the Red Cross International Tsunami Relief Fund,” at the Canal Club downtown. Doors open at 2:00 pm, with live music from 2:30pm-8pm. Tickets, sold at the door, are $20, $10 for kids 14 and under; children under 3 get in free. Cash, checks and credit cards are welcome. Live performers include: The Susan Greenbaum Band, Page Wilson and Reckless Abandon, Plunky and Oneness, Robbin Thompson, The Taters, The Honky-Tonk Experience, The English Channel, Janet Martin Band, Lee Harris 3, Steppinstone, Farewell, Dave Pahanish. There'll also be a silent auction featuring art, jewelry and recorded music by a wide range of local artists.

2) FUSION JAZZ LOUNGEShockoe Slip, 109 S. 12th St.Saturday, January 22, 1:00 PM TO MIDNIGHT This benefit concert is a gift from Fusion and the musical Community to the Red Cross Tsunami Aid Fund. Jared Stone has moved quickly to put together an amazing lineup of over a dozen groups of local and regional musicians for this event from different genres of music, from jazz to funk, from blues to swing, to pop-rock.Scheduled to appear: The George Melvin Experience, Stone Stew with Jared Stone on drums and Alan Parker on guitar, the John D'earth Band, Howard Curtis & the Percussion Discussion, the Modern Groove Syndicate, D.J Williams (funk), Terry Garland (blues), Susan Greenbaum (acoustic pop-rock), Chez Rouee' and others
For more information call (804) 249-2338

Sweet Richmond

2005-01-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Christians sitting around informally talking… the Richmond hobby that
became a national phenomenon.

http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=9703

http://sweetmonday.com/

PS -- Ladies can go to the World's Largest Tea Party May 16 at the University of Richmond’s Robins Center. No Boys Allowed, apparently.

The Future is Now

2005-01-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

People from all over Richmond watching plays about faith and then going somewhere to discuss them. Not A pipe dream. It's happening right now. Get involved.

http://www.actsoffaith.org/
http://www.actsoffaith.org/cs.htm

PS Thanks MonAve. Thanks for introducing the world to my theory of coagulation... also known as Modular Assembly Theory. More later...

"Radio for the Rest of Us."

2005-01-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

Richmond's indie radio launched today after an extensive testing phase.

97.3 on your FM dial.

http://wrir.org/x/modules/news/

"If I had a radio /for every time you loved me so/ I wouldn't have a radio at all" - One Ring Zero

Coffee Talk

2005-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Three bits of News:
1) Upper Room Cafe (in Carytown) recently announced that they wil no longer be open on Saturdays. New hours are Tues- Fri from 8 a.m. to noon. What will people do after going to the Byrd?

2) Two cafes reopen this week in Shockoe Bottom after the flood. Cafe Gutenburg's entire first main floor was essentially destroyed along with what was at the time the largest antique book collection in Richmond Support them by buying good books. Visit http://www.cafegutenberg.com/ Also 17.5 cafe opens Wednesday. They're a little bit more cramped but it's eclectic for sure.

3) Other cafes in Richmond can be found at at http://www.restaurant-info.us/coffee/VA/Richmond.asp

Hallmarks of the Underground: Chinese Food

2004-12-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

Every Tuesday, my bible study gets out at about 9:30 PM. At this
point, I usually haven't had supper so I get Chinese from China Panda
in the Museum District. I have been doing this so long that they now
recognize me in there. The owners remarkably friendly. They gave out
Christmas presents this year -- I got a bamboo 2005 calendar with
Chinese art on it.

Some interesting observations about the calendar I got:
1) Their hours indicate they close early on Saturday nights and an
hour later than usual on Sunday mornings. Hmm...I wonder what they do
Sunday Morning.
2) They have a fax number. Who faxes in orders for Chinese? Interesting.
3) They cater? Who gets their parties catered with Chinese food?
Perhaps this is an idea for my next birthday...

Full text of the calendar says:

China Panda
For the New Millenium
Healthy and Delicious Chinese Cuisine

Tel:355-6888
Fax:359-0346

616 North Sheppard St.
Richmond VA, 23221

(the letters 'MSG' with a ghostbusters-like 'no' sign around it)

Free Delivery
(minimum $9.00/Limited Area)

Open Hours - seven days a week
Monday - Thursday 11 AM - 11 PM
Friday 11AM - Midnight
Saturday 11:00AM - 11:30 PM
Sunday Noon - 11:00 PM

Catering For any occasion
Vegetarian Menu Available

Purpose-Driven Blog

2004-12-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

Let there be no doubt: I still believe that blogs are for narcissists. Blogs are all talk and ultimately do nothing but propagate gossip. HOWEVER, I see real value in the internet as a virtual town square. I don't want this to be a one man soapbox as much a moderated discussion. This site will lose its mojo someday soon, but before it gets boring (estimated boring time = Summer 2005), it will serve as a launch pad for several purposes:

Young Adults can post things here about what's going on in Richmond Christian Scene. I'm thinking in terms of: your friend's band playing at The Upper Room cafe OR your church is having a concert OR you found a cool web link OR an obscure film is playing at the Byrd. The first guidance about this is it should be the kind of thing that appeals to people in the age 20-30 college-career demographic. The second guidance is that while it doesn't necessarily have to be Christian event, it probably needs to not be evil. I think that's clear enough guidance for now
People can come here to learn about what's going on in the Richmond Christian Scene
People can learn about the Scene One Richmond Newsletter project and how they can contribute
People can subscribe the the Scene One Richmond Newsletter by requsting subscription at sceneonerichmond at (@) gmail dot. com (I think you get the point)

http://wikipedia.org. The word of the year for 2004 is blog. That's cheesy. Let's redefine blog in 2005 so it means more than 'what the young kids use nowadays to get their news.' This must be a group effort in order to work.

Put the 'we' back in weblog. (Yeah, that's cheesy too. )

Peace on Earth.

S CE NE ON E R IC HM ON D

Annual Post

Rationale / website content

Outline for the guide

MarkoCo!

MARKO SCHAIRBAUMO - @finish

MARKO SCHAIRBAUMO - @10k

Folk Fest 2.0

Links I could have tweeted V001

The second half of the list of ministers from the first congregational church of charlevoix

The first half of the list of ministers from the first congregational church of charlevoix

churchy-pedia, perhaps

The Cardinal Train from Indy to Charlottesville

Polity

Thanx yall! Best bday ever!

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Richmond VA 2PM

richmond va 5am

Heidelburg Catechism Widget

What hath god wrought?

Test

My one Post of 2009...

Four posts for Mike Scott

No Way to Filter all this

My new favorite Scrabble Word and Witty Tidbit

Party in my tummy

the good kind of evangelism?

I am proud of my sister

An amazing New Technology??

More Richmondy Links

2011 and future technology

New York Times plugs Fan Walking

Surface Computing

Hip Hop

Richmond ZineFest 2007

Summer Fun in Richmond -- Schedule

I suck at blogging, but...

We are the Web

Top 50 from United Way

Other Good Causes

Bells and Whistles

Take the pledge! Draft list of charities

Arbitrary 2007 anniversaries

30 days Of 30 years: The concept...

Walking into 2007...

FanSpace

Reading is the new trend, hepcats!

A Movement is Afoot

Kings Fest

Finding the Scene Part 1

The Madness of Crowds

Scene Insider #1

On Band Names #1

Jah rules

Craigslist

Lenten Lunch at St Paul's

Underground: The Next Generation

Turn Turn Turn