u/snooka77_

I’m celebrating this weekend by going to a million shows and drinking a billion beers. It’s going to be a super hot weekend, so make sure you’re working in some water between events!

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit me up at griffin@rvamag.com.

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Shagwüf, Human Worm, The Smirks, Cyber Twin
Friday July 3rd at Banditos

It seems like Banditos is going to be the place to be this holiday weekend. Some of Richmond’s finest are on this bill to raise some money for Richmond Community Legal Fund, an organization that helps deliver legal support to those who might not have the means on their own. If the first name on the bill is Shagwüf and that doesn’t sell you, then I don’t know what will. This trio has got it all. It’s hard-hitting rock, wild and weird glam, and spacey, spicy psychedelic. They never fail to deliver a memorable show and an uplifting message. If you’re looking for some stadium-worthy performances, Shagwuf is your group.

Now we got Human Worm, one of the coolest synth acts around town. They’re somewhere in the middle of garage rock and indie pop, with powerhouse vocals from every member. They’ll get you moving, they’ll get you crying. What more can you ask for?

Speaking of dancing, we have The Smirks. These are some damn punk rockers right here. They hit like a truck and keep going. If you are into that broad Epitaph Records sound, you’ll love this group. They are going to be loud and fast, and you will not want to miss it.

Last up we have pop-punkers Cyber Twin. They’ve got a certain knack for catchy guitar riffs that you’ll still be hearing on the drive home. They’re jam-packed with energy and will really open things up and get the room jumping.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-shagwuf-los-san-patricios-black-country-new-road-ostraca.html

“That’s the biggest thing. You have to deal with rejection every day and not lose enthusiasm. You have to stop thinking about the rejection.”

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Derrick Borte might he a Hollywood director, but he’s still a Virginia local. That connection becomes obvious the moment you meet him. 

There’s an understated poise to Borte. The kind of low-key cool you’d find randomly striking up a conversation in a bar about the legacy of The Clash without realizing he also just directed the new Russell Crowe film The Get Out. Or that his resume includes titles like The Joneses, Unhinged, London Town, and American Dreamer—an indie shot guerrilla, where he famously blew up a car at Norfolk’s Harbor Park without clearing it with the city first. In the creative wars, sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

That kind of ease is hard won, and even harder fought. Especially in our attention starved economy where there’s an expectation of immediate recognition, even for the most benign acts of creation. But what sets Borte apart isn’t just his filmography, which certainly entitles him to an ownership stake in Virginia’s creative dividend, but his perspective on human agency. 

Behind the cinéma fantastique is a formative understanding of the friction between individual choice and the systems people spend their lives creating for themselves. When those forces collide is where Borte finds his stories: a liminal space between opposing realities that feels all at once unnervingly familiar and strangely abstract, whether we’re willing to admit it or not.

Those concepts are on full display in his latest film the neon-noir crime thriller, The Get Out, starring Russell Crowe, Luke Evans, Teresa Palmer, and Aaron Paul. Ahead of the film’s release, we caught up with Borte to talk about his philosophy on filmmaking, telling stories from liminal spaces, and building a career in Hollywood on his own terms. But also about why—after all he’s achieved—he keeps returning to Virginia.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/culture/virginia-director-derrick-borte-the-get-out.html

“That’s the biggest thing. You have to deal with rejection every day and not lose enthusiasm. You have to stop thinking about the rejection.”

----------

Derrick Borte might he a Hollywood director, but he’s still a Virginia local. That connection becomes obvious the moment you meet him. 

There’s an understated poise to Borte. The kind of low-key cool you’d find randomly striking up a conversation in a bar about the legacy of The Clash without realizing he also just directed the new Russell Crowe film The Get Out. Or that his resume includes titles like The Joneses, Unhinged, London Town, and American Dreamer—an indie shot guerrilla, where he famously blew up a car at Norfolk’s Harbor Park without clearing it with the city first. In the creative wars, sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

That kind of ease is hard won, and even harder fought. Especially in our attention starved economy where there’s an expectation of immediate recognition, even for the most benign acts of creation. But what sets Borte apart isn’t just his filmography, which certainly entitles him to an ownership stake in Virginia’s creative dividend, but his perspective on human agency. 

Behind the cinéma fantastique is a formative understanding of the friction between individual choice and the systems people spend their lives creating for themselves. When those forces collide is where Borte finds his stories: a liminal space between opposing realities that feels all at once unnervingly familiar and strangely abstract, whether we’re willing to admit it or not.

Those concepts are on full display in his latest film the neon-noir crime thriller, The Get Out, starring Russell Crowe, Luke Evans, Teresa Palmer, and Aaron Paul. Ahead of the film’s release, we caught up with Borte to talk about his philosophy on filmmaking, telling stories from liminal spaces, and building a career in Hollywood on his own terms. But also about why—after all he’s achieved—he keeps returning to Virginia.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/culture/virginia-director-derrick-borte-the-get-out.html

After years of legislative battles, vetoes, compromise negotiations, and numerous articles, Virginia finally has a roadmap for legal recreational marijuana sales. The state budget signed into law earlier this week establishes a regulated cannabis marketplace beginning July 1, 2027. Until then, many of Virginia’s marijuana laws remain exactly as they are today.

Here’s what you need to know.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/virginias-new-marijuana-law-everything-you-need-to-know.html

Editor’s Note: Reminder, the sculptures are located on private property and are not open for general visitation. Access is available only through scheduled guided tours, with Labor Day weekend currently expected to be the final tour on the calendar. Tour information is available HERE.

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On an industrial property outside Williamsburg, forty-two American presidents have spent the last fifteen years waiting.

George Washington’s face is streaked black from rain. The back of Abraham Lincoln’s head has split open, exposing the steel skeleton beneath the concrete. Thomas Jefferson’s cheeks are fractured. Grass grows around their bases while puddles collect between them after every storm. They wait in the mud.

Each sculpture stands roughly 20 feet tall and weighs several tons. They appear to be carved from solid stone but beneath the surface a framework of steel rebar supports layers of metal mesh, plaster, styrofoam, and thick concrete that give each president both its enormous scale and surprising fragility.

Fifteen years of rain, freezing winters, and relentless Virginia summers have peeled away the concrete skin, revealing how they were built. Every fracture exposes another layer, making the sculptures feel less like monuments and more like men, worn down by time.

When these monumental sculptures debuted at Presidents Park in 2004, they were pristine. They were built to celebrate the office of the presidency and offer visitors a walk through American history.

But few people came.

Photos by Mike Avey

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/painting/the-strange-afterlife-of-virginias-president-heads.html

Editor’s Note: Reminder, the sculptures are located on private property and are not open for general visitation. Access is available only through scheduled guided tours, with Labor Day weekend currently expected to be the final tour on the calendar. Tour information is available HERE.

----------------------

On an industrial property outside Williamsburg, forty-two American presidents have spent the last fifteen years waiting.

George Washington’s face is streaked black from rain. The back of Abraham Lincoln’s head has split open, exposing the steel skeleton beneath the concrete. Thomas Jefferson’s cheeks are fractured. Grass grows around their bases while puddles collect between them after every storm. They wait in the mud.

Each sculpture stands roughly 20 feet tall and weighs several tons. They appear to be carved from solid stone but beneath the surface a framework of steel rebar supports layers of metal mesh, plaster, styrofoam, and thick concrete that give each president both its enormous scale and surprising fragility.

Fifteen years of rain, freezing winters, and relentless Virginia summers have peeled away the concrete skin, revealing how they were built. Every fracture exposes another layer, making the sculptures feel less like monuments and more like men, worn down by time.

When these monumental sculptures debuted at Presidents Park in 2004, they were pristine. They were built to celebrate the office of the presidency and offer visitors a walk through American history.

But few people came.

Photos by Mike Avey

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/painting/the-strange-afterlife-of-virginias-president-heads.html

The best Fourth of July celebration in Richmond probably isn’t the one with the biggest fireworks. It’s the one where someone forgot the hot dog buns, the cooler is running low on ice, kids are chasing each other through sprinklers, and somebody insists they know a better place to watch the show.

Still, if you’re looking to celebrate alongside a few thousand of your closest neighbors, Richmond has no shortage of options.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/fourth-of-july-2026-in-richmond-fireworks-festivals-and-more.html

As You Like It is one of my favorite of his works, and the one I feel has the most modern cinematic feel. I will explain. He played with unconventional plot development, existential philosophy (that he’d continue in Hamlet, Macbeth and others), and a deep exploration of the nature of love beyond mummery and spectacle. The play reads like Camus at his most morosely absurd. It progresses like a French New Wave comedy, bouncing from topic and setting, careening between levity and profundity. It could easily be a 90’s or early aughts teen comedy that takes itself too seriously but still has something to say. As only he could be expected to do, he pulls it off with some of the most intensely personal and gravity-bound introspections, multi-layered jokes that provoke the Marx Brothers as much as the Coen Brothers. He more than pulls it off, of course. He masters it. 

The Forest of Arden, where everyone gets exiled to, plays like a big underground party. All the cool people are there living their best life, having been kicked out of Court by some square and hateful betch – the usurping queen. The countercultures of today show a great parallel. You’ve got your gendernauts, gothy emo kids, cool aunts, comedians, poets, and working classes – all in a spot the elites wouldn’t go to if you paid them to. Bushwick in 2008, Silverlake in the 90s, Northside or Scott’s Addition in 2013. The hijinks there are laid out like an indie film describing a night in the making – just ambling towards resolution, with no rudder to speak of. Like the best night in Bushwick in 2008. Lovers love, shepherds shep, and poets quarrel. Songs get sung, and somehow in the end, Arden is THE place to be. No one at all is talking about going back to the castle. Billy Shakes at his most hipster.

How did the company at Richmond Shakespeare do? Well, it absolutely was the catalyst for me having the above opinions. I literally sat on my picnic blanket and got jealous that I didn’t cast and direct it. Claire Wittman did, and she deserves the Director’s chair as often as she wants it. 

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/theatre/review-as-you-like-it-is-just-how-i-like-it.html

During last week’s test run, the museum’s facade became a massive projection surface, illuminating the Boulevard after dark.

Read about it: https://rvamag.com/community/illumination-tells-americas-story-on-a-monumental-scale.html

It’s hard to impress people with just a building. Yet standing in front of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture last week during a test run for IllumiNATION, I found myself just staring.

It was grand, immersive, and for a moment made me feel more Virginian than I have in a long time, maybe ever. Our state sits dead center in the American narrative. The country’s greatest ideals were debated here, fought over here, and in many cases paid for with blood here. 

And admittedly, so were some of its greatest failures. 

Watching that history unfold across the museum’s facade, you walk away reminded that America wasn’t built somewhere else. A lot of it happened right here, on the same ground we drive across every day without giving it much thought.

For four nights, June 25 through 28, the museum’s entire front facade will become an 18,000-square-foot canvas for a 20-minute projection mapping experience that uses the building itself as part of the storytelling. Historic paintings, landscapes, figures, and pivotal moments from the American story transform the museum into something that feels equal parts history lesson, public art installation, and community gathering.

The projection bends the architecture to its will. Columns disappear, windows become portals, and entire scenes emerge from the building before dissolving back into stone. The result is an immersive experience that turns one of Richmond’s most recognizable landmarks into a living piece of history.

The technology is impressive and the scale is even more impressive but what makes IllumiNATION interesting is the timing.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/illumination-tells-americas-story-on-a-monumental-scale.html

The acquisition of the island’s last privately owned parcel clears a major hurdle for Richmond’s plans to create a public park along the James River.

The long-running effort to transform Mayo Island into a public park took a major step forward this week after the Capital Region Land Conservancy acquired the last privately owned parcel on the island, removing one of the final obstacles to unified public ownership.

The quarter-acre property at 510 S. 14th Street was purchased from 510 Property LLC, an entity owned by Louis Heindl. The site had remained outside city control even after Richmond acquired approximately 15 acres of Mayo Island in 2024 as part of a nearly $15 million deal that set the stage for the island’s future conversion into public parkland.

With the acquisition complete, the Capital Region Land Conservancy (CRLC) plans to work with the City of Richmond to eventually transfer the parcel for inclusion in the future Mayo Island Park. The move would bring the entire island under unified ownership for the first time in decades.

“This acquisition represents the culmination of more than five years of negotiations and work to acquire Mayo’s Island for a park,” said CRLC Executive Director Parker Agelasto in a statement. Agelasto noted that while the parcel is relatively small, it fills a significant gap in the center of the planned park and creates additional opportunities for future development of the space.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/mayo-island-is-finally-whole.html

Richmond metal band GWAR says the Secret Service contacted the group following a recent performance at the Vans Warped Tour in Washington, D.C., that featured the mock execution of a Donald Trump effigy.

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Frontman Mike Bishop, known as Blöthar the Berserker, suggested the reaction to the band’s latest presidential execution was different from those that came before it.

“For years, GWAR would do whatever the fuck we wanted. We would kill politicians from both sides of the aisle. We would kill famous people. We never had any backlash,” Bishop said during a recent appearance on the Rocking With Jam Man podcast. “People acted as if GWAR had changed, but GWAR didn’t change. The world freakin changed.”

Bishop pointed to previous performances involving political figures, including former President Barack Obama, which he said did not generate the same level of reaction. “We killed President Obama, we didn’t hear from the Secret Service, but you killed Trump, and you better believe that there’s going to be some shit going on,” he said.

He also argued that pressure on artists and performers does not always come in the form of direct government action. “They don’t have to call the police on you,” Bishop said. “What they have to do is make it hard for you to make money.”

He cited large concert promoters and entertainment companies like Live Nation as examples of organizations he believes can face political pressure when controversies arise.

“Everybody wants to know who it is that we want to kill. But really, we don’t want to kill anybody, man. We just want to have fun,” Bishop said. “Maybe if we had to kill anybody, I would say it would be ourselves. That’s who we haven’t fucking killed yet.”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/metal-punk/blothar-gwar-didnt-change-the-world-freakin-changed.html

I recently bought my first bicycle in more than a decade. Like most people, I started my search online, comparing models, reading reviews, and trying to figure out what kind of rider I actually wanted to be. Eventually I visited several local bike shops before settling on a new Fairdale.

A few weeks later, I received an email from Joel Alford announcing the opening of his new venture, Field Trip Bikes in Church Hill. Joel and I had never met. He had no idea I had recently become a customer at Richmond ReCycles, the shop he has owned since 2017. 

But his email got me thinking about how Richmond’s bike culture evolved over the last twenty years, from Slaughterama and the city’s DIY scene to the 2015 UCI Road World Championships and beyond.

In the early 2000s, there were BMX riders building dirt jumps, bike messengers weaving through downtown traffic, mountain bikers disappearing into the woods along the James, and road cyclists logging miles through the surrounding counties. Shops like Agee’s, Bunnyhop, and ReCycles served as gathering places, but cycling still existed largely as a subculture sustained by riders, mechanics, advocates, and true believers.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/field-trip-bikes-and-the-long-ride-of-richmonds-cycling-culture.html

The Canadian Music Project’s 2013 musical, Come From Away, brings us back to the aftermath of 9/11 to remind us that we took care of each other when the chips were absolutely down. It gives us a reason to believe in our humanity. Come From Away is a tragic musical comedy draped in the kindness of strangers and the perplexity of receiving it.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the towers and the Pentagon, all flights in the air had to be diverted from major airports, as every single plane was now considered a potential weapon. Luckily for the authorities tasked with administering such a response, there was an enormous former refueling station and airport in the sleepy town of Gander, on the easternmost tip of North America in Newfoundland.

This true story, cobbled together from the anecdotal experiences of locals and their unintended visitors, details the chaos and casual generosity of people working together simply to keep it together.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/theatre/review-come-from-away-is-the-best-weve-ever-been.html

Lots of big bills this week. Some that are big because they are being hyped up, some that are big because there’s half a dozen bands on the bill, some are both.

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit me up at griffin@rvamag.com.

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THE BREEDERS, SWEET TOOTH
MONDAY JUNE 22ND AT THE NATIONAL

Holy moly, I’ve been looking forward to this one. The Breeders are on the big stage this week. If you don’t know them already, they are responsible for all your favorite modern bands. They propelled the indie/college rock sound to places no one had attempted before and cemented themselves as one of the most important bands to come out of the ’90s.

There is something about them that is so freeing. You put on “Divine Hammer,” lay upside down, and let all the problems of the world fade away.

We’ve got Sweet Tooth in support. This is a young but ferociously talented group out of West Virginia, but from what I understand, Richmond should be seeing a lot more of them. They are a healthy mix of indie, grunge, and pop rock, but largely you could call it alternative.

The vocals from this band are unmatched. They are relaxed but definite and have a bit of an ethereal edge to them. They pair that with some really catchy and clever riffs, and quickly you realize there are no skips here.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-juneteenth-the-breeders-subhuman-roughshod-weird-nightmare-twin-films.html

Join us for Salon de Résistance on June 26 at Black Iris for an unfiltered conversation with Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi on how Democratic leadership is shaping Virginia’s future in a divided nation.

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

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In November last year, Democrats swept into power in Virginia with a victory that was decisive, uncontested, and unmistakable in its mandate. At the top of that ticket was Senator Ghazala Hashmi, now our 43rd lieutenant governor. She is a historic figure in the Commonwealth: born in Hyderabad, India, she is the first Muslim woman elected statewide in the United States and the first South Asian American to hold statewide office in Virginia.

But the lieutenant governor’s significance extends beyond the history she has made. A longtime educator and legislator, she is playing a key role in advancing Governor Spanberger’s ambitious agenda in the Virginia Senate, while remaining grounded in the progressive values that have long defined her politics. 

That places her at the epicenter of an ongoing conversation about what governance looks like at a time when some of the defining questions of our generation are being decided right here in Virginia: the fate of democracy, the repair of a fractured nation, the fight for economic justice, and the role technology will play in determining who benefits from an uncertain future. 

These are just some of the things we’ll talk about in a very special Salon de Résistance, where we’ll sit down with the lieutenant governor for a rare one-on-one conversation. We’ll focus on both the philosophical and the pragmatic, and how the bigger questions of leadership and public purpose intersect with the realities shaping our daily lives. 

ia RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/events/salon-de-resistance/salon-de-resistance-lieutenant-governor-ghazala-hashmi.html

Imagine pulling into a suburban shopping center to buy a toaster and finding a department store that appeared to be falling apart with corners breaking away, walls peeling open like a giant cardboard box, or facades seemingly collapsing under their own weight.

For thousands of shoppers in the 1970s and 1980s, it was simply a trip to Best Products. It was where you went to buy a microwave, a television, a piece of jewelry, or sure, a toaster.

What they didn’t realize was that they were walking through one of the most ambitious experiments in contemporary art and architecture ever undertaken by an American retailer. The project began in Richmond, where Sydney and Frances Lewis transformed their growing catalog showroom business into an unlikely platform for some of the most influential architects and designers of the twentieth century. 

The result was what may have been the most important contemporary art project in Richmond history, built not in a museum, but in a parking lot.

Now, as Imagining Best Products enters its final weekend at the Branch Museum of Design, the exhibition offers a chance to revisit one of Richmond’s most unique cultural stories and the people who made it possible.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/history/before-richmond-was-an-arts-city-there-was-best-products.html

It’s sizzling outside, but the breeze is refreshing, the birds are chirping, and summer is in full swing. The summer solstice, aka Midsummer or Litha, is the longest day of the year, and this year it falls on June 21, with the sun setting at 8:27 p.m. It’s a time to celebrate the sun, warmth, fire, and abundance.

Here is our list of ways to get your solstice on in RVA.

I honed my craft as a city witch in Brooklyn and very recently moved here. I am living for all the nature this city has to offer. No shade on NY parks, but this shit hits diff. Since I am a bit of a novice on allllllllll this town has to offer, I consulted my nature lovers and witchy crew for their expert advice, and did they ever deliver. 

As I ventured out to check out their recommendations, I would ask random people what their favorite nature spots were. This ended up being a great way to explore the city and meet new friends.

From setting up your altar and finding nature spots to hit up, to spells to do, this article has everything under the sun that you need to know to appreciate summer the witchy way.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/a-witchy-guide-to-the-longest-day-of-the-year.html

There’s one thing I know. The laughs, cringe-groans, cheers, and jeers coming from the audience in Richmond Triangle Players‘ production of I Love You Because came from experience, as did my own. The other thing I know is that watching this bumper-cars act of desire and denial alongside the audience is fun af.

I Love You Because is probably the 900th retelling of Pride and Prejudice. We will probably need about 900 more before we’re done with this story’s bones. It’s just so versatile. In this version of the tale, we get queer and gender-swapped setups. A quick note that deserves mentioning, though: not once in the play did the orientation or gender of the characters matter at all. It was all just love and the awkward clumsiness inherent to it, universal problems with universal punchlines.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/theatre/review-i-love-you-because-is-pure-joy-🏳%EF%B8%8F🌈.html

Did you know that at one point Pepsi was the 6th largest navel power in the world, or that there is supposedly a box of dicks in the Vatican Museum?

These were just some of the surprising history stories I heard at the first meeting of the RVA Tipsy History Club, which launched under the name RVA Drunk History Club before a recent rebrand. The concept is simple: gather with a group of strangers, grab a drink if you’d like, and share a fascinating story from history.

If you’ve seen the Comedy Central show Drunk History, you already have a pretty good idea of the vibe, just with a little less alcohol involved (they get turnt on that show).

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/this-new-club-is-all-about-getting-tipsy-for-history.html