Monday, February 1, 2010
Norfolk Under Siege
Words Jesse Scaccia
Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Last night I was at Empire, enjoying some beers with a couple friends, when I heard this horrible rumbling on Granby Street outside.
My buddy Lennie turned, looked out the window, and went pale as a ghost. (Which is really saying something, because he’s quite dark of complexion.) He did the sign of the cross then passed out it my arms. I looked over at the bartender, Darby. She was drinking Legend from the tap and weeping uncontrollably. Somewhere in Norfolk, Mira tripped and fell on the ice.
I laid Lennie tenderly on the ground. I told Darby, “Shh, girl, no” as I stroked her foamy blond hair.
Somewhere in Norfolk, Mira tripped again.
Since I’m so brave it’s sick I ran outside. Norfolk was under siege… and what made it extra dramatic was that for some reason down the road there was an orchestra playing “The Imperial March” from “The Empire Strikes Back.”
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such.
I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.










Highly entertaining! They just don’t train those storm troopers like they used to…
It’s a little anti-climactic when you realize it’s just gonna pass, but the thing was like three or four stories high. Made me feel like I was in a scene from Avatar.
Highly entertaining indeed…
I’ll cut you some (a lot actually) my good friend, but I draw the line on the sign of
the cross; I gave that up for lent!
I lol’d about Lennie, Darby, and Mira.
what was that thing???? it was kinda scary looking lol
lol
I predict future loss of some utility service. My guess this time would be electricity, since they’ve already managed to hit water, gas, and cable already. :-/