2009: October – December

Even though we’re still technically in Q4, I’m having a hard time remembering anything that happened. Probably because there was just. so. much. The busyness, let me show you it.

December 31, 2009; 12:00 PM • by Valerie Catrow

Even though we’re still technically in Q4, I’m having a hard time remembering anything that happened during it. Probably because there was just. so. much. The busyness, let me show you it.

We started off the final quarter of the year with a very exciting announcement: RVAJazz was joining our wacky little family! We’ve loved having Dean on board these last few months, especially since he lets us call him “Dean, Dean, The Jazz Machine.” And by “us” I mean “me.”

Speaking of exciting content developments, October brought the first installment of our user-generated, monthly photo feature It’s not the heat. Our first theme was “Last days of summer” and it was great. Since then our talented readers have continued to provide us with some excellent images to share.

As if those weren’t enough, October also included the opening of Garnett’s, the Richmond Zombie Walk (one of my favorite features of all time), an unfortunate evening for a certain councilman, and general uproar over the cancellation of Carytown New Year’s Eve.

And let’s not forget perhaps the biggest WTF of the year: the suggested names for Richmond’s new baseball team.

Moving on to November, we kicked things off with the R. Crumb controversy. Well, it started as the R. Crumb controversy but soon turned into a conversation about the recently-opened CenterStage. Then we all got educated about a local music gem: the Richmond Sacred Harp Singers. This one drew attention on a national level and brought some very knowledgeable folks into the conversation. Throw in a little Melissa Chase abruptly leaving Q94 after a bagillion years and a dash of the Rams getting the Signature Victory over Oklahoma (who stole VCU’s coach once), and you’ve got a lovely little hodgepodge of Richmond news.

December started with a bang as the smoking ban went into effect (and some restaurants flat-out ignored it). The following weekend the Spiders ended their excellent season a bit earlier than they’d hoped with a loss to App. State in the second round of the FSC playoffs.

Then the stars aligned to make everyone in Richmond lose their damn minds: The Ukrop family announced that they were selling and we had a blizzard. This hysteria was palpable.

And to wrap things up for the year, we managed to stir several pots with Ross’s College Football Bowl Watching Guide, our review of Avatar (which is well on its way to being our most commented-on feature of all time), and Raising Richmond’s discussion on Santa. I guess the prospect of no more rainbow cookies and the stress of the holidays really got some people’s blood-a-boiling.

In conclusion (hello, 8th grade writing assignment), 2009 really has been a great year. We’ve had a blast writing for you, talking with you, and getting to know you. Thanks so much for being part of RVANews. We can’t wait to see what happens in 2010.

As the editor of RVANews, Valerie Catrow spends most of her time wrangling people over email and muttering to herself about the content calendar. She also contributes to our parenting column while maintaining her own blog, Made in Richmond. It should be noted that she loves tots, both the potato and child varieties.