Happy Weekend, RVA: Brush last week’s crumbs, accept this week’s

Sunscreen! Sunscreen! Sunscreen!

May 30, 2015; 7:00 AM • by Susan Howson

Yo, dudes. It’s the weekend. At least, by the time you’re reading this it will be. At present time, it’s Friday afternoon and I am counting down the seconds until I can hightail it out of here and stuff myself at the Greek Festival. This weekend will hit the low 90s with some clouds and maybe some storms. We’re in our summer pattern, and if you need me you can find me lying on my bed with ten fans blowing on me. Do not disturb. Apparel translation: baklava crumbs.

In case you missed it

Should you decide to cover yourself in those baklava crumbs, read our Greek Festival TIP!(s) before venturing.

Did you see Abby Waller’s Our House?? I cannot stop thinking about it. It must feel pretty dang awful to not feel loved by your own city–and pretty dang liberating to finally do so!

Big news this week on the food front. Who will accompany me to the new Milton jam? Will it be YOU? Will it be whoever can get there fastest? Time will tell! (Related note: I learned about “on fleek” while editing Food News and I feel very old and out of touch. I will make up for it by using it to death.)

There is a hole in my heart when Richmond Ballet is out of the country. What if something happens to them and they can’t leap around for my benefit anymore?? Luckily, they have been checking in with us from China. Spoiler alert: too graceful.

Kelly Gerow reported this week on how the Big Bike Race™ sure would love your help volunteering and/or being an RVA ambassador. With any luck, you’ll get to point out-of-towners to doughnuts, beer, or a grocery store. As RVANews readers, we know you are well-informed about those three subjects.

We also ran an intriguing three-piece report by Capital News Service on some recent recognition struggles that Virginia Indian tribes have been dealing with. To the VCU students who are part of Capital News Service: great work on all of your reporting this year! It has been a pleasure reading and promoting your work.

Last but not least, Hayley DeRoche’s piece on skating the thin ice of gender neutrality made me think a lot, Shannon Nemer’s book suggestions made my Goodreads “to-read” list expand, and Stephanie Ganz’s round-up of awesome restaurant t-shirts, then and now, made me run to my closet and check that yes, I do indeed own an iconic 821 Café T-shirt. As well I might, because its food has powered my body countless times.

Heads up

In the future, you can count on learning more (YET MORE) about the Big Bike Race™ and its effect on the Every-Citizen of Richmond®. Also, RVA Playlist’s five-year anniversary is throwing you a big party, Maat Free will be back with more #untoldrva, Sam Davies will discuss how much of a hypocrite he is (for reals), and, if all goes well, there will be a new human being that shares the DNA of RVANews author Kelly Gerow. As she has the finest DNA I have ever seen, we should all breathe a sigh of relief for what this means for our planet.

A thing you need to do right now!

Do you have tickets to RVANews Live #003 yet?? Heavens to Betsy! You’ll need to get on that! A new season, a new set of topics, including the Big Bike Race and city infrastructure! Buy tickets now, which are $15 and include one drink ticket.. Oh, and it’s this coming Thursday at 5:30, sharp! Do not delay!

Reasons to stay in bed

The new Bob the Builder is coming, and he’s coming for you. Don’t be fooled by those cheerful freckles–the farther Bob gets from looking like a wooden doll and the closer he gets to looking like a human of indeterminate age, the more likely he gets to leaping through the TV and adding you to his little garden of anthropomorphic trucks. You do not want to spend your days cleaning up Spud’s mistakes!
You could stay in bed and thumb through all the historical markers for awhile if you want. I learned some interesting things and also appreciate its value as a reason not to have to stop short, pull over, and get out in the middle of traffic just to satisfy my passenger’s urge to know everything there is to know.
This last one has made me more angry than anything movie-related has in a long time. Total idiot M. Night Shyamalan–who, let me be clear, has been an idiot long before other idiots allowed him to completely butcher Avatar: The Last Airbender, a genius TV show for kids and adults–defends his choices. Look, he’s effectively saying, I had two choices. I could make it for kids, who are inherently stupid. Or I could make it for dudes, who are inherently horny. I chose kids, because I have a kid. There are definitely no other types of people who like this TV show. No women, no smart kids, no men who are interested in things besides boobs, nobody. If he were a politician, we would have impeached him by now, right?

Reasons to get up

The Greek Festival and its baklava! Did you not hear me??
This lengthy interview of a contestant in PBS’s 1990s classic Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? could use an editor, but is still a great reminder of how learning used to be fun! (Maybe it still is, I dunno). Your assignment, gumshoe: Get out of bed and find something similar for your kids watch.
Netflix is focusing on serial documentaries and brags that we all saw Blackfish because it told us too. Ugh it is totally right. Get up and get your exercise now, because you’re going to want to schedule some serious bed-time to give these docs some attention.

Photo by: thetwistedchef