2011 in review: Q2

We’re taking a stroll down the memory lane that was 2011. Today we’re looking at everything notably notable between the months of April and June.

December 28, 2011; 9:41 AM • by RVANews staff

We’re in quarter two of our 2011 review, and today we’ll take a closer look at what happened during the months of April, May, and June.

Phil Williams started working on his Civil War series in light of the sesquicentennial (bonus points if you can spell that word correctly on the first attempt). Take a look at the spiffy-looking retro aesthetic, people! Although Anderson Cooper was in Richmond this year, perhaps the biggest arrival was that of Robert E. Lee. Cartoonist Christ O’Brion had this to say about Richmond’s Civil War past. While O’Brion used art legally to state his opinion, another person definitely did not and graffitied a monument.

On the food and drink front, Virginia implemented a corkage law that allows people to take wine with them to their favorite restaurant. We put together this handy dandy collection of chartsandgraphs on Restaurant Week. Beer lovers rejoiced as New Belgium rolled Fat Tire into town.

In music news, Richmond was stoked for Reggie from No BS! Brass Band as he joined Bon Iver and played The Colbert Report & Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. GWAR’s Dave Brockie talked about how Kickstarter has helped him do cool stuff. A music video by local rapper Noah O appeared on MTV and got people excited about local Hip-Hop. One of our favorite series, Live at Ipanema came to an end, as did Dean Christensen’s run with RVAJazz.

Valarie Catrow wrote an amazing article about being a mother who suffers from depression. It wasn’t all bad on the motherhood front, Ross Catrow penned a great reflection about how his mother has influenced him. We also had the good fortune to read a lovely Civil War-era correspondence between a mother and a son.

In the world of all things in-motion, we reviewed a multi-modal transportation proposal to help give us an idea of what Richmond could, and may, look like in the future. The Monument 10K happened, and The Checkout Girl waxed nostalgic about the grounding of the Space Shuttle. We also saw a mysterious black van that did laps on roadways around Richmond.

Sadly, people died just outside of the city when a Chinatown bus heading to New York overturned. Twitter provided us with a first-hand account when an individual committed suicide in a Shockoe McDonald’s. And, a small plane crashed at RIC.

Before the weather warmed up, Weather Dan answered some questions about winter precipitation.

Eventually, when the weather did warm up (albeit just a little bit), the Flying Squirrels began their eventual playoff-appearing season. Here are some tweets from their home opener. A new baseball season, however, brought concerns (again) about a new baseball stadium.

Across the pond, there was a Royal Wedding, and the Checkout Girl had something to say about it, as she did about a controversy over a boy modeling for JCrew wearing pink nail polish. But perhaps the biggest aesthetic-related discussion came on the topic of admiring the tattoos of others.

Nate’s Taco Truck tried its hand with social couponing, and we got to the bottom of Boom Boom Burgers leaving Shockoe. Speaking of Shockoe, the former Club Velvet owner was sentenced to jail.

Weather Dan went on a storm chasing trip and wrote all about it, and if that wasn’t exciting enough for you, bees inundated Richmond–which may or may not have something to do with the aftermath of the smoking ban.

We also took a look at a dying breed, video rental stores, as Richmond has one of the oldest in the country in Video Fan.

Chartsandgraphs took an interesting turn as we examined both births and abortions in Richmond. While those facts were illuminating, what wasn’t illuminating for the longest time was what was in the TOM’S mystery tube at Need Supply Co. in Carytown.

Although spring was in full bloom, it didn’t feel like spring until Garden Wars started.

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