We Heart This
Words AltDaily Staff
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 8:08 pm
The things we love:
Starting with the locals…
? It amazes and inspires us that GROW remains in Norfolk. They have stirred such talent amongst a young, thriving generation of designers in this area. If we end up having anything resembling a renaissance of culture here, these guys will be at the front of it.
Check out prettytasty and AIGA Hampton Roads to see more of what Drew and Co. are all about.
? The Boot is the kind of place that makes you feel a little cooler, a little more in touch somehow. But in truth progressive ideas, comforting food and great live music know no age or ilk. Considering Relative Theory as well, there’s no question that this area would be a much lesser place without Dave and Josh.
ps The Spring Menu makes us hungry to think about.
? The philosophy at Boxed City is “that real progress comes in a series of small steps. A city that learns to embrace its music, art, and culture is more likely to demand progressive architecture, urban planning, innovative art, and ground-breaking design.” YES. Yes, yes, yes.
[A little small-world sidenote: Hannah and Craig of boxedcity go way back from middle school days. Craig and his wife Kathleen returned to the area from LA, where they had worked in graphic design and fashion respectively. What they are doing for the 757 is truly inspiring, and Virginia Beach is lucky to have them back.]
? Tom Robotham does more for this area than many of its elected leaders.
It’s fortunate for us that when Port Folio Weekly made the ridiculous mistake of firing their ten-year editor, Tom stayed in the area and founded TReehouse–”a magazine of possibilities.” His letters and essays are pretty much the definition of ‘culture’; high-minded, arts-focused, literary, and demanding of a life made more wondrous by simple attention to small beauty.
Every Monday Tom contributes a short commentary on HearSay with Cathy Lewis, another local we love. Cathy‘s show can be heard every weekday at noon on 89.5 WHRV.
? And speaking of local public radio, the god of our Saturday afternoons is Paul Shugrue, who supplies the Seven Cities with alternative, Americana, blues, local artists and more.
“Out of the Box” is defined by Paul as
1. an expression that describes things nonconformist and creative.
2. used as a synonym for “brand new” meaning ready-made, immediate, just created.
The show’s on air Mon to Thurs, 7 to 9; and Sat, 1 to 5.
More talent-crushes:
? Everything about McSweeney’s is brilliant; in particular, the lists.
Dave Eggers is a genius, Wholphin is beautiful (“The Big Empty” on Issue 1, starring Selma Blair, is one of the most beautiful short films I’ve ever seen…watch below), and 826 is inspiring.
Plus this is hilarious. Man, does that speak to us.
So does:
Writer’s Block.
To overcome “writer’s block” you have to kill your “inner censor” and anyone else who says you’re no good.
By Dan Liebert, Verbal Cartoonist.
? Jim Coudal is our new Arianna Huffington.
Coudal Partners is a small creative studio in Chicago; a self-described “design-studio/retail/publishing collective thing.” As Coudal explains:
The site is about British novelist Zadie Smith reading Frank O’Hara’s poem Animals into our answering machine. It’s about Steve driving from Iowa listening to nothing but Dancing Queen. It’s about Abelardo Morell turning hotel rooms into pinhole cameras. It’s about the Dane drinking tea and the owner of the yellow house smoking Dunhills. It’s about the rules of cricket, a cartoon Sasquatch, counting to three, crashing airliners full of dummies and breaking all the commandments before breakfast. Or maybe it’s about a guy named Stanley, a building by Mies, George Saunders at the library, a chalkboard in the washroom or a museum full of museums.
? “Dossier is a bi-annual arts and culture journal incorporating fashion, photography, creative writing, art, music and culinary pursuits. Inspired by the French word for file, we have no themes, features or specific guidelines. We’re independently published and owned.”
Like us here at 24SevenCities, this year-old Brooklyn-based journal is run by two young women–childhood friends and collaborators Editorial Director Katherine Krause and photographer Skye Parrott (who acts as a Creative Director).
So that’s just a few. Will add as we go, so if you liked these, check back soon, there’ll be more.
Share your inspiration… It’s easy. Just comment.
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This article has been published by AltDaily editorial staff. For more information on AltDaily email the editor-in-chief at jesse@altdaily.com or the publisher at hannah@altdaily.com.
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hey ladies,
i remember slightly one of the first times i hung out with the both of you. i criticized “out of the box” and was silenced by volume, insistence, repitition, and the persuasive sight of two intoxicated, intelligent, vivacious young women chanting “hater! hater!”
that was yr schtick at the time. i don’t know if it still is, but i suspect it might be. i recently heard evidence that jerome might be infected with the zombie “hater!” repitition strategy.
luckily that night my lil’ homey ty bliss had my back, levelling the debate with the irrefutably true argument that “americana sucks ass.”
and it does. sure, it’s a useful interest if you’re a striver seeking to set rich caucasians who hate music at ease, but as an ill defined musical genre to get passionate about, it sucks fairly hard.
but i’m getting ahead of myself. the “hater” accusation is grounded in some fairly sound points. aimless negativity is a toxin. i have close friends who congratulate themselves for predicting failure, and it’s a useless frustrating stance.
i don’t feel like we do ourselves a service as a community, however, to shut off our innate and learned guages of quality to mindlessly support anything that’s supposed to be a big deal locally. it just winds up being embarassing, as if we don’t even have the sense, or the scent, to differentiate quality from shit.
even deeper, virginia is for haters. i know it contributes to a local sickness and talent drain, but it shapes us. the real locals know that the state motto is a sick ironic joke. “virginia is for lovers” is a bile dripping sarcastic statement. sure, we don’t support each other (though we’re working on fixing that through awesome outlets such as this), but when virginians travel we’re forged in such an atmosphere of apathy and negativity that we’re ready to effortlessly dazzle the world.
so here is where i’m going to get haterish and be a prick. time to wave around the diploma. few people know this as i’m abashed to shed light on my own failure by pointing out my credentials, but i have a goddamned tv and radio degree from a real college. i spent 4 long, wild years on the radio.
listen to me, both as a hater and a semi-educated jerk who almost knows what he’s talking about: shagrue and cathy lewis are, charitably, subpar broadcasters. shagrue mindlessly programs a blues and americana show borrowed from magazines and promotes it as progressive music programming. i find that a bit of an insult. beyond his programming, do you not notice that he fucks up, like, most of his back announcing? he’s so transparent about not bothering to know what he’s playing or talking about. sure, you can take that as him being charmingly human, but i see it as a lack of homework or professional skill/effort revealing an attitude that he knows his audience will not notice or care. there’s a real contempt that bleeds from “out of the box”.
cathy lewis just isn’t good at talking on air and loses herself routinely in conversation she thinks is clever but does not cohere and confuses her guests. you have to wait so late at night to get coherent programming from whrv 89.5 that you end up with jae sinnett, who despite his smugness is actually a semi-professional broadcaster. by that hour, he’s having his ass handed to him on a plate by the stellar “lessons in jazz” program on 88.1, hampton university’s station. seriously, if you honestly want to recommend cathy lewis and “out of the box” before you mention that world class program, you’re either seriously myopic or distressingly attracted to middlebrow monied non-taste.
or maybe we just disagree. whatever.
George.
You. Are SUCH. A hater!
To reiterate the conversation that we had, the one you refer to in your comment, why is it that we are so quick to point out the things we think are lame? Especially in this area. Every conversation I get into with people around here, inevitably it has to be said that such-and-such sucks or that such-and-such should be better.
You’re opinionated, and I (almost) always respect your opinion. On the other hand Torres says tons of stuff I don’t respect (but I love ya anyways Torres!), and he seems to agree with you. Granted, I felt like his opinion about it was also much like a “hater.” But I’m not gonna argue with two guys who feel so passionately about radio. You may very well know better than I do.
But from where I see it, Shugrue and Cathy don’t do anything for this area that sets it back, only forwards it. I don’t know how good (or bad) either of them are at broadcasting. And I guess, to be honest, I don’t really care.
To me, contributing to local culture is just immensely worthy of note. These two people do that. Undeniably.
George. You totally convinced me. I’m going to start only listening to that station that plays Nickelback and “Holla Back Girl.”
I actually think “Hollaback Girl” is kind of a brilliant and pure pop object. If it had a smidgen of actual content it would probably ruin it, but the very vacuity of it is like an unvarnished frame through which to display the flawless art of the song.
Nickelback, meanwhile, sucks.
But fuck your contrarian argument. “At least its not THAT”
Listen to 88.1. That’s even further left of the dial than 89.5.
well well well,
I must say…i do enjoy perusing this debate! and i suppose i should start by saying booker and i have spent time as roommates AND that i think paul shugrue is GREAT at what he does for the 757. i also do feel different about americana than you, george. but probably because the tradition of music within my little folk-y family has been one that has come pretty close to an “americana” feel from time to time.
that being said…i do have a little issue or two with WHRO/WHRV. i think they owe my father, bob zentz, a formal public apology for TRASHING his record collection within the radio’s official station library. taking his show, “in the folk tradtion”, off the air was a travesty in and of itself…but not my judgement call, so that part can be forgiven. howeverrrr, getting rid of all of one of your longest running dj’s record collections is NOT COOL.
anyway…shugrue and graham are cool with me…but if i ever find out who’s responsible for the “whoops” of losing my dads whole record collection…the zentz family legend may turn into more of a graphic novel.
oh, and im comin home next week.
Thought this was a mostly great list. Grow is incredible and truly inspiring and proud of their locality. Spent at least an hour on the website tinkering around. The Boot will always have my support.
I do have to second George’s general thoughts on “Out of the Box”, however. Shagrue continues to win the “Best DJ” awards given out by publications that clearly lean towards independent issues and he happens to play more independent music than anyone else around here, but it’s like picking the least ugly tomato at a roadside fruitstand. The “effort” he puts into picking the most vanilla of all “independent” music is laughable and much more often than not the music could literally be put out by any band from a mile down the road of your front door, playing in a bar for 5 or 6 people. And it’s on the radio? It’s like sleepwalking, that show, and it sounds like it anytime he feels like opening his mouth after a set. I commend the effort of breaking some new and upcoming talent, but all I think about when I hear that show is the potential it so obviously doesn’t fulfill. It’s a shame we have to go to truly independent student radio to get a truly progressive attempt to further independent music that doesn’t blow. But hey, enough of this soapbox.
I just joined the site, I’m poking around a little. I like what I’m seeing. I miss Hannah and Allison’s stuff in PFW!