Love snooping around stranger’s homes? Me too!
That’s why you can find me on just about every house tour within a day’s drive. Next week I’m headed to Richmond, Va. for Historic Garden Week in Virginia, one of my favorite annual house tours. Homes are open across the state by the nice ladies of various Virginia Garden Clubs, who act as docents, hosting the tours and providing historic and design tid-bits, all in their lovely Virginia lilts.
Occasionally I get called in to report on fun, yet vapid topics like “The Bachelor” and Tinsley Mortimer. And it certainly was “the most dramatic rose ceremony ever” last night when Richmond bachelorette Rozlyn Papa, got kicked off the 14th season of that reality show after an alleged affair with a producer. For shame! And especially after she’d just gotten a smooch AND the immunity rose from hunky Texan bachelor Jake Pavelka. Chris Harrison must have been truly stunned.
Read my report on the Rozlyn-Jake “Bachelor” scandal for Richmond’s Style Weekly here.
The controversy could be the best thing that happened to her. Do you think Rozlyn will be the next “Bachelorette”?
Posted in Writing
Tagged chris harrison, jake pavelka, Richmond, rozlyn bachelor, rozlyn papa, rozlyn scandal, the bachelor, tinsley mortimer
We’ve moved!
Goodbye to our adorable but small-for-Richmond 1,000-square-foot house
and hello 500-square-foot, third-floor-walkup apartment in Brooklyn.
(Half the size and twice the price!)
I was asked a sort of dying wish, repeatedly, during my last few weeks in Richmond, Va. Where do you want to eat before you go? But after 10 years in Richmond, it was just too hard to decide. Did I want a Chiocca’s Chicken Coup sub? Of course. The lobster puff-pastry egg dish at Millie’s Diner? Heck yeah. White bean, garlic, arugula heaven at Mamma Zu? Absolutely. But alas, there was neither time nor money for everything. But luckily I did get to a few last suppers.
Colorful Cuban spot Kuba Kuba served the most satisfying send-off lunch. My friend and I hungrily ordered black-bean soup and avocado salad (she) and a pressed Cuban sandwich and salad (me). At any lesser establishment there would have been plenty of elbow room. But god love Kuba Kuba. Your arteries, not so much. Continue reading
A Does this look familiar? It does if you read my post a few months back about Ed Trask’s show at Farmville’s J. Fergeson Gallery. On Friday I was driving in the East End of Richmond going to Rockett’s Landing, a new waterfront condo development, when I spotted this odd tower and was lucky enough to catch it just as graffiti-strewn cars were rolling by.
I’ve asked Chris five questions that we’ll release over a series of days with a piece of work each day. See all five paintings in the gallery or read Day 1 here.
“The only reaction to art, music, that I will stand behind, is that of honest affinity. For someone to say, “I love this painting because I love it.” That’s all I want to hear.
Sometimes folks will say, “Your work is so fun. I would like never to hear that again.”
“The Hummingbird, I painted on my easel, and it became a friend,
floating next to the panels painted to the left, and right of it, over the course of a year. Again, here comes saw. Freed from the easel, hummingbird gets
his chance to shine, or fly, really, on his own.”
For more on Chris, visit his site or blog. Portrait by Ash Daniel Photography.
Hey everybody, we’re now curating art! Since I’m passionate about art and want to share the inspiring artists I’ve come across, I’ve decided to begin a series of featured artist profiles accompanied by 5-piece art shows. All work will be under $2,000 and available for sale in the Culture Fix Gallery. Think of it as a virtual gallery where you get to meet the artist.
I love foreign films more than most. I don’t mind the subtitles. I can get over slow-moving plots. And I definitely don’t need a star, action sequence or CGI to get sucked in. I’m looking for escapism at the movies and what better way to get it than by looking through the lens of another culture.
So, one of my favorite weekends in Richmond is when the VCU French Film Festival takes over The Byrd Theatre, the gorgeous old movie palace that’s just two blocks from our house. French natives and Francophiles come from all over (this year from Oregon and Washington state and elsewhere), the streets were filled with buses from area lycees, or French schools, and Can Can Brasserie was brimming all weekend with espresso-sippers (including us). But the French Film Festival let us down this year.
Could it be said that Warhol was an early, embedded paparazzo?
Close to 30,000 images taken by the artist were recently unearthed and donated to universities across the country by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Considering the artist’s obsession with fame, it sounds like a strategic move by the foundation to insure his popularity among the next generation of art collectors. Note to artists: Save everything.
The University of Richmond held an opening last Thursday to show off about a third of its new gift of 153 photos, both candid and studio shots. UR was one of 183 collegiate museums to receive the gift. Take a look at some of their pictures.
Mick Jagger, Mackenzie Phillips, and Nicky Lane Weymouth, circa 1970-1987; gelatin silver print on paper
I interrupt your regularly scheduled blog post to make a small announcement:
This past weekend I was presented with three awards for my writing in Richmond Home from the past year at the Virginia Press Association Awards. No, unfortunately the awards were far, far less weighty than the above trophy, but hey, a piece of paper with a gold-ribbon sticker is cool, too. I mean, I’ll take it.
So what did I win? Continue reading
