Good Morning, RVA: What a wintery mess

Rain, sleet, maybe even snow–take your pick this morning.

February 10, 2015; 7:03 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: David Strom

Good morning, RVA! It’s either 32 °F or 33 °F depending on where you live, which will, as science dictates, make a big difference in your day. Expect a gross and cold mix of rain, sleet, and snow to interrupt your morning plans and a cold, cloudy rest of the day.

Water cooler

Michael Paul Williams sums up how I feel about the latest embarrassing, small-town-politics scandal to hit the Richmond School Board. While Representative Mamie Taylor (5th District) seems to be the impetus for nearly every embarrassing headline, each story erodes the city’s trust in the group as a whole.

Slow night at city council. Of note, I guess, some city blocks will be renamed after members of the first black city council majority, and the Rite Aid at Broad and Belvidere can now sell beer.

Ahhhh, here it is: the first (of what will surely be many, many articles) about the public’s outrage over lost parking due to the BRT. Also, I’m not sure I’d ever describe The Camel, one of city’s premiere small music venues, as “quaint,” but doing so certainly pulls on the reader’s heartstrings a little more than “business that successfully petitioned city council for a noise ordinance exemption.”

The soon-to-open Tin Pan in the West End might get closest to fulfilling my desire for a lounge-style bar (I’d take a piano bar, too!).

Big news for fans of comic books, massively successful movie franchises, or friendly neighborhood webslingers: Sony and Marvel have worked out a deal for Spider-man to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The press release makes it clear that Spider-man will remain a Sony property, but will get his own movie(s), appearances in the MU films, and access to Marvel’s proven filmmaking talent.

Vox has the explanation you were looking for on why Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore thinks he can stop the state’s probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

Sports!

• Hokies rallied behind head coach Buzz Williams’s amazing sweater to pull off their second ACC victory, defeating Georgia Tech 65-63.

This morning’s longread

Friendship and Race and Knowing Your Place

Today I think a lot about my complicity in racism, then and now, and what living a life just adjacent to whiteness meant for me as a kid. I think about the white people who still feel comfortable saying racist things to me (“you won’t take this the wrong way”), who invite me into all-white spaces and assume I won’t notice or care. I wonder to what extent my assimilated adoptee accessibility functions at the expense of other people of color; I wonder how many of my relationships provide safe ground from which people can claim not to be racist. In short, I wonder if I really am a token.

This morning’s Instagram

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February 10, 2015 7:03 AM 1