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Recent Entries
Syndicate Monthly Archives Mezzanine was Delightful
Karen Newton
September 16, 2008 8:27 AM
Quick, before everyone reviews it and the hoards find out about it, go to Mezzanine. This new Carytown spot replacing the old coffee shop in the 3400 block is a worthy addition to the local dining scene. Or maybe just to the local scene in general. The casual coffeehouse vibe has been replaced with a sleek interior highlighted by that massive glass window in front. The menu is ever-changing, so they use a big chalkboard to list the day’s choices The food is almost completely locally sourced and they’ve got plenty of wines by the glass. I consider both of these good things. Tried and found most tasty: Caprese Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes with Crabmeat, Scallops with Pea Shoot Potatoes and Hunk ‘o Red Meat with Lobster Potatoes. Fair warning, however: at the moment, they have no chocolate choices on the dessert menu. I think I’ve made my feelings on this matter known (and with any luck, they’ll have the sense to correct that soon).
Country and Eastern Music ...excuse me, what???
Karen Newton
September 12, 2008 8:31 AM
Last night’s HuDost show at the Camel defies any convenient musical stereotypes. They band has been called Alternative World Music but prefer their own term: Country and Eastern fusion. To this listener, it was more of an atmospheric, experimental sound. This is probably a result of them blending traditional Sufi music, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian and Balkan folk music, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, Folk, Pop, Rock and Southern Gospel. Critics have said that HuDost has a folk quality yet is quite post-modern, sort of a cross-cultural hybrid transcendental chill-out music, BUT with an edge. But don’t think New Age, because it was so much mroe soulful than that. Singer Moksha Sommer had an amazingly big voice that wrapped itself around the intricate variations of guitarist Jemal Wade Hines’ and sometimes you heard those Eastern underpinnings and sometimes you just heard a screaming guitar (always a good thing). A couple of songs even evoked Country…but with an Eastern twang somehow. It was a stellar show (albeit with too few in the audience to appreciate it) and a perfect example of just how broad the term World Music is. This would be a perfect band to play the Richmond Folk Festival and expand some cultutural horizons.
A Really Bad Idea
Karen Newton
September 11, 2008 2:38 PM
Is it possible Richmond’s Mounted Police Squad will soon be a thing of the past? It never fails to impress me when I spot the mounties…which I did today downtown on Grace Street and, later in the afternoon, in Jackson Ward. Richmond has had a mounted squad since the Civil War era and I can’t think of a more appropriate city to still maintain one. But the unit I just saw was only three members strong, down from a high of eight. It seems that current departmental policy is not replacing members of the squad when they retire or move on. It would appear then that once these last three members are gone, RVA will no longer have mounted patrols. And what a shame that would be. Picaresque value aside, police officers astride very large animals can be a surprisingly effective crime deterrent in the city. Richmond has a vocal contingent that speaks up every time an historic building is threatened with demolition. I hope just as many voices will speak out to our Acting Police Chief and, ultimately, his replacement and let them both know that the city’s mounted squad is as much a part of the historical and cultural integrity of this city as cobblestones on Monument Avenue and trains at Main Street Station. Horses have always been a part of life in Richmond and the mounted squad continues that tradition in the new millennium. We can’t allow this Richmond institution to fade away while no one is paying attention. Who Cares About Bike Lanes?
Karen Newton
September 09, 2008 12:12 PM
Mayoral candidate Paul Goldman does…or so he told me last night when I ran into him in Carytown. He introduced himself and I immediately asked him what he’s going to do about bike lanes in RVA if he becomes mayor. He said that he is the only mayoral candidate running who has a stated green agenda. That’s great, I said, but we need to start the process to make this city more bike-friendly and that means bike lanes. He agreed wholeheartedly, saying that the car-centric model of the 20th century just isn’t going to fly in the 21st and that part of that means allowing for more bike commuting. Our next mayor has to make this a priority. And we need to ask all the candidates how committed they are to making Richmond a safe and convenient place to bike. Greening cities is not a fad, it’s a necessity and bike lanes are a key step in that process. For a change, let’s not be last to jump on this important issue. RVA deserves better. Eating and Drinking as Entertainment
Karen Newton
September 09, 2008 11:43 AM
When there’s no music or art calling my name, I can be satisfied with food and wine to occupy my time. I can recommend a couple of recent activities that provided both…and even a little learning in the process. Friday night I went to the European Market for its monthly First Fridays Wine Tasting. They provide 6 wines and 6 taste delights paired with them, all of which are served family style. The lovely blogger GenevelynSteeleSwallows was the guest host (and has the best-ever named blog, IMHO) and shared her encyclopedic knowledge of wine with us as we sipped and chowed through a lot of delicious food and drink. Fair warning, though: these events have a hardcore group of regulars who sign up quickly, as well they should, given what a bargain it is and the high tastiness factor of everything poured and served. The market’s owner Jason was a most hospitable host and knows how to show off his kitchen staff’s obvious skill. It was a fine way to wait out the rain before heading over to Broad Street and the InLight extravaganza. Monday night meant Cheese Class at River City Cellars and while I definitely learned plenty, it was the combination of wine and 7(!) absolutely delicious goat cheeses that made this such an enjoyable evening. As with wine, we started delicate and moved on to heartier and eventually to barnyard stinky (a personal favorite). A guy once told me on a second date that he didn’t care for strong-flavored cheeses; I knew at once it would be our last date. And it was. We tried some cheeses last night that were so pungent they left a tingling in your mouth; those are my kind of cheeses. The wine flowed throughout the evening, sometimes enhancing the cheese and sometimes just cutting through the stink. They can call it a class…but it was really an awesome way to spend a Monday evening drinking wine and tasting some superior cheeses. Both events have a fee and require reservations and both are so completely worth it that I’m probably an idiot for sharing. Something Old, Something New
Karen Newton
September 08, 2008 8:12 AM
Croaker’s Spot and Patrick Henry’s Bar and Grill…I hadn’t been to the former in years and it’s only a few blocks from my house and the latter is new so I had to find out what they had to offer me. Bike Lanes for RVA
Karen Newton
September 05, 2008 10:42 AM
I visited Cambridge, MA last weekend and I came away in awe of how bike-friendly a place it was. There are bike lanes everywhere…and not some white line painted next to the parked cars, but wide, dedicated bike lanes that are treated like legitimate traffic lanes. Drivers actually yield to bike traffic where appropriate. There are signs on one way streets telling cyclists not to use that street to go the wrong way, BUT the sign also provides the location of the nearest street going in the opposite direction for cyclists. And bike racks are on every corner, in front of every major building and in town squares. This is one improvement RVA needs to jump on. We already have an active bike culture here, but local vehicular traffic is definitely not in the habit of respecting cyclists. Let’s face it, as gas prices continue to rise and more people try to reduce their carbon footprint, the number of cyclists will only grow. This is one issue the mayoral candidates need to take on. Richmond’s appeal both to newcomers and tourists would only grow exponentially if we were to become a truly bike-friendly city. The fact is, this city does not have major traffic congestion and the addition of bike lanes would only require a commitment to greening our city and teaching its drivers that cars and bikes can peacefully co-exist. The result would benefit us all, residents and visitors alike. Walnut Alley gets a facelift
Andrew Cothern
August 25, 2008 9:13 AM
All this weekend Richmond Arts in the Alley cleaned up, pulled weeds and painted murals making Walnut Alley a much nicer place. I helped out all day Saturday and my whole body aches from all the work involved. But seeing the alley now makes it all worth it. BEFORE
Indie Music Worth Hearing Tonight!
Karen Newton
August 18, 2008 8:35 AM
Last time I went to a show on a Monday night and then blogged about how great it was on Tuesday, I heard complaints that I should have spread the word before the show so others could have benefited (although it was pretty amazing to have the band performing for only a dozen of us). So here’s your heads up for tonight: Go to Ghostrpint Gallery at 8 to hear Yndi Halda. They’re an indie-rock band from Canterbury, United Kingdom. The name Yndi Halda is Old Norse for “Enjoy Eternal Bliss.“ The band’s music is characterized by expansive, cinematic pieces, so the group has been compared to modern classical and post rock, although their work is usually considered more thematically optimistic and hopeful and more song-based than those kind of artists. Personally, I enjoy their sound for the same reason I like Explosions in the Sky…it’s big and beautiful and totally enveloping. Go to Ghostprint Gallery for this show tonight or don’t whine to me tomorrow cause you missed something extraordinary. Fair warning to share the bliss tonight. Very Few Degrees of Separation in rva
Karen Newton
August 12, 2008 12:31 PM
In a recent post, blogger JGF (acuallly, that acronym could stand for so many things…) made the point that, in Richmond, it’s almost impossible to find a girl or a guy who hasn’t slept with someone he knows or has met in the past. I’m sure he’s right about that, but I’ve found that it also applies to other areas of a person’s life besides their sex life. In the nine months that we’ve been doing MashUp, we have met, interviewed, chatted up and had a great time with many artists, musicians, filmmakers, photographers and generally creative types. And, without fail, as we go about our non-MashUp personal lives, we run into them again and again. Once you’ve met a few of rva’s creative finest, it seems inevitable that you’re going to run into them everywhere; it’s just not that big of a place. And as anyone can confirm, few artsy types are only involved in one artistic endeavor. This is a music town and if you play in one band, chances are good you play in other bands, too. Likewise, tattoo artists, photographers, designers and just about everyone else play music. A First Friday is a solid guarantee that I’ll see people we’ve interviewed. A show at the National means I’ll run into a musician we’ve featured. Hell, eating a grilled gouda sandwich at Ipanema is as sure a thing as you could ever hope to bet on. And if I’m going to run into people from whom I’m only separated by a few degrees, I’ll take interesting artistic types over people from my friends’ sexual past any day. Not that I don’t still run into them, too… |
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