Two recent stories have been popping up around the vablogosphere over the last couple of days.

A group of folks recently signed a letter of intent to buy the National Theatre on Broad Street. They will work with the folks who own the NORVA to book shows. This could finally be the mid-sized (1,500) venue Richmond has swooned after for a while now. The full story.

Second, the mayor laid out his plans for the city – actually plans for “The City of the Future.” While this reminds me of Epcot, there are some things in his plan that aren’t the future envisioned from the 70’s. Highlights include:

• Rebuild and/or modernize 15 schools, concentrating on the elementary schools that are the anchors to revitalizing our neighborhoods and also several new neighborhood high schools
• Spend upwards of $50 million, with support by the business community, to repair city streets
• Create a citywide “High School for the Arts,” patterned after the great institutions in some of our biggest American cities
• Create a citywide “Science and Math High School,” patterned after the legendary school in New York and the successful similar endeavor in Northern Virginia
• Provide the bulk of funding to get a new Carptenter Center of the Performing Arts in operation as quickly as possible
• Modernize the Landmark Theatre
• Modernize the Richmond Vocational Technology Center
• Provide funds in advancing a partnership between the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University to create a downtown legal campus and provide Legal Aid services in the 8th Street Office Building (formerly the Murphy Hotel)
• Contribute toward the relocation of the Aviation Museum from the airport to a site near the Science Museum to create a better venue for teaching aeronautical skills and history
• Retro-fit all City library branches with state-of-the-art internet communication services
• Buy and modernize a permanent home for the City School Board and School Administration
• Purchase a home for the State Probation Department to allow for an expanded GED program to better assist ex-offenders’ re-entry to society

Apparently all funded without a tax increase (through magic?). Anyway the law school thing sounded pretty sweet to me, along with the citywide Science and Math High School. I could get behind something like that.

Technorati Tags: Richmond, Wilder

Tonight at the Raygun, 7pm, PharrOut is sponsor its first musical event! This one happens to be an insane Patchwork Collective rock show featuring An Albatross.

Get ready to rock, remember THE LAZER VIKING.

Seriously, come out and melt your face off.

Technorati Tags: music, Richmond

From an anonymous public school teacher’s email:

Teachers,

You will be unable to make any copies until further notice. I am sorry to tell you that the school is out of paper. Once again, the Warehouse pays no attention to what you tell them. The order was placed before break with a LARGE note stating to deliver when we returned in January because we were VERY LOW. I guess we are not supposed to be back yet ’cause they have not delivered!!!!! I called them yesterday - so we will see!!!

Sorry for the inconvenience.

I mean wtf people? I feel like “making copies” might be pretty important to a class full of kids trying to learn things.

Technorati Tags: Richmond, wtf

CNN says:

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — Two men were captured Saturday and charged in the brutal killings of seven people from two Richmond families, slayings that police hadn’t publicly tied together until now.

Police Chief Rodney Monroe said Ray Joseph Dandridge and Ricky Gavon Gray, both 28, were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and auto theft after they were arrested driving a Cadillac that belonged to one of the victims.

The men were arrested in Philadelphia and have ties to the area, but Monroe would not give further details. He said neither is from Richmond.

someone picked the wrong state to slit throats in- right or wrong, can we say “death penalty?” what kind of sick bastards butcher little girls for a car?? the ability for this to happen simply blows my mind.

That’s all I’m going to say.

Technorati Tags: NCAA, Virginia

RTD article. No reason given other than the people in charge of NASCAR huff rubber cement. I kid, but seriously that makes me m/sad. Although I’m not a big NASCAR fan, thousands of people are — an not just good ol’ boys either. It is a sport with a growing audience and popularity. Richmond would have been a good home for it.

Read more from the past.

Technorati Tags: NASCAR, Richmond

Whoa. So I just finished House of Leaves, by one Mark Z. Danielewski. It was craaazy and pretty awesome.

It’s a (postmodern) horror book, mostly, and that’s where you’d find it in the bookstore. To give you a brief synopsis: it’s about a guy who discovers that the interior of his house is 3/4 of an inch bigger than the exterior. As he is trying to figure out what’s wrong with his tape measure, a door appears in his living room which should lead out into his front yard, but which instead leads into a dark hallway and structure that seems to go on forever. I won’t give too much away, but the cover of the book has a giant spiral staircase on it; you can go from there. Here’s a hint: it doesn’t go up.

More below…

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World of Mirth a few days after the Harvey murders:

While I was out taking this picture three people came by in tears. It was powerful.

As with the Taylor Behl murder, The Dark Side is the place to be for news/speculation/insight. Currenty speculation points towards a drug related crime — as in the killer was involved in drugs (meth?).

Just insane.

Technorati Tags: crime, murder, Richmond

A family of four was found murdered yesterday in Woodland heights — husband, wife, and two daughters (nine, and four). They were found in the basement bound with their throats slit.

The wife co-owned World of Mirth, which some of you may be familiar with.

It’s so surreal and crazy I don’t even know what to say.

Technorati Tags: murder, Richmond

I just realized that there are 50 blogs over on RVABlogs. That’s a lot. So way to go everyone. It has been pretty interesting to watch the site evolve. Early on political bloggers dominated the scene — which does interest some people, but bores the snot out of a good percentage of the population. Latley there has been a sharp increase in the number of art blogs. Who knows where we will end up next? Maybe swimming blogs?

If you’ve got a blog and live in Richmond send me an email at info [at] rvablogs [dot] com. I’ll be happy to add you. Just make sure you rock, hard. But not too hard because, you know, we don’t have any quality guidelines or anything like that.

Technorati Tags: Richmond