Velvet van vandalized
Oh, what is the world coming to when a couple of pole dancers can’t go for an ice cream treat without drawing fire – or at the very least, poorly rendered graffiti slurs — from militant feminists?
Oh, what is the world coming to when a couple of pole dancers can’t go for an ice cream treat without drawing fire – or at the very least, poorly-rendered graffiti slurs — from militant feminists?
What started as an innocent trip to one of Richmond’s favorite lunch counters for an old-time frosty milkshake turned into something far less wholesome for Dan Shorkey and two Club Velvet exotic dancers earlier this week after an unidentified vandal defaced their car in broad daylight.
“I took the two dancers to The Village for lunch,” says Shorkey, who is known simply as “Dan” to the seemingly endless parade of statuesque beauties who emerge daily from his Fan Tan salon on West Broad Street in varying hues of bronze, brown and fluorescent orange. Many are dancers at Velvet, says Dan, who has been good friends with the notorious Shockoe strip club’s owner, Sam Moore, for about two years.
After dessert, the milkshake-loving trio trotted down Franklin Street to Cous Cous for lunch “because we really like their lamb,” says Dan, clean-cut and 40-somethingish with sandy hair and an even, golden skin tone that indicates he’s not just the owner of his tanning shop, but also a client.
On returning to the SUV, Dan and the dancers discovered the cost of those milkshakes turned out to be the last few threads of gauze-thin dignity worn by the larger-than-life, pout-lipped models painted mural-like on all three over-sized SUVs in the strip club’s iconic fleet.
While they’d munched lunch kebabs, someone in full view of other patrons of The Village Cafe had scrawled in large letters with white shoe polish “Feminism” and “Pig” across the laser-rendered murals of lingerie-clad dancers that adorn the infamous purple and white Range Rover.
“One of the girls we were with was really upset – it was obvious that the people inside [the restaurant], they knew who did it,” Dan says, chuckling. “I thought it was funny.”
The anonymous graffitist’s attempt at preaching Women’s Lib was equally lost on the truck’s owner, Moore.
Driving back to Dan’s tanning salon, “we saw Sam in the Fan and showed [the graffiti] to him and he said ‘Leave it on there, I think it’s funny’.”
And so it remained for two or three days, one of the city’s most conspicuous vehicles parked along one of the city’s most conspicuous stretches of roadway, slowly drying shoe polish baking into the truck’s paint under unseasonably hot April sunshine.
Finally on Tuesday morning, the time came to scrub it off, says Dan. But it was a decision made not because the scrawled protests had started to sink in.
“One of the girls was taking her mother to lunch, and taking that [truck],” says Dan. “She didn’t want that stuff all over there. She thought it was embarrassing.”
By afternoon, the only words other than the Velvet logo left on the truck were those that are on all of Moore’s SUVs: “Always Hiring.”
(Image courtesy of Dan Shorkey. Nelly is on the left, Anna is on the right. Shokey identified both ladies as dancers at Club Velvet.)
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“One of the girls was taking her mother to lunch, and taking that [truck],” says Dan. “She didn’t want that stuff all over there. She thought it was embarrassing.”
I…ummm…you know, if that’s not a money quote, I don’t know what is.
HA HA! Are we trying to compete with FilthyRichmond, and Tobacco Avenue? This is great!
The alternate headline for this one was: Dan Fan Tan Van(dalized).
I hope they find the person or people who did this – because I need to buy her, him, or them several drinks each.
This is the best thing I’ve read all week. Kudos.
“Militant feminists” — too early in the morning to type out an argument as to how misguided that expression is, so maybe someone else will do it for me?
The fact that everyone watched the thing get defaced and allowed it to happen, then didn’t rat on whoever did it, kind of makes me have faith in Richmond as a community.
Also, Same Moore, number one candidate for real life Punisher-comic-style villain. If there were to be an origin story for a suited vigilante in Richmond, he would definitely be part of it.
And I’m sure he thinks that’s awesome…
Priceless. I like that the author doesn’t need to be confrontational or rude in talking to these folks — they speak for their tribe in a very telling manner just fine, without being angered into it.
As a side note, more pictures are here:
http://rumorsownsyou.tumblr.com/post/518951473/car-grafitti-harrison-st-vs-velvet
Shouldn’t they have written “sexist pigs”?
And once the vandalism turns more serious and they do it with something more potent than shoe polish that actually destroys the paint job, the next headline can be Dan Fan Tan Van Can(ned).
It figures that bad stripper girls could drink milkshakes first without spoiling their appetites for lamb.
Chris Dovi, please. “Militant” refers to people who blow shit up or oppress people with brute force. Not ones who simply write “women’s lib” on the side of a van. Just because a woman is protesting with spray paint doesn’t instantly make her a fascist.
Maybe I’m being too “militant” here, but I have an issue with this kind of biased language showing up in a piece of journalism. On a reputable news site. In the year 2010.
P.S. Couldn’t they have defaced that terrible Obama mural while they were at it?
I agree with Kate. Also I don’t think “Feminism!” is the rallying cry of most feminists, unless Jessie Spano was behind the vandalism.
Guys — you do know this article is meant to be ironic, as “anon.” points out above, in the vein of Tobacco Ave.? Unless I have read it completely wrong. Perhaps the author will confirm or deny for us…
i think we should jessie spano out of this…
*leave*
kate is an obvious member of the pc police department… that or a better internet troll than I’ll ever be.
I hate those Velvet cars and their stupid horsey horns!
Jeff, I don’t think Kate is being an Internet troll at all. She took issue with the term and expressed her opinion. I interpreted the use of “militant feminists” just as Tess did, but it’s obvious others didn’t and they have every right to talk about that.
What’s interesting to me is how everyone seems totally cool with people defacing someone else’s property, just because it’s Sam Moore. He’s managed to make basically an entire city hate him THAT much. It’s almost impressive.
I just have a knee-jerk reaction whenever people are overly sensitive to words and use said sensitivity to imply someone shouldn’t use them. The person did technically commit an illegal act by defacing someone’s property and they themselves used the word “feminism”. Doesn’t seem to be much of a stretch IMO. But I personally have no problem with it mainly because Sam Moore is an a’hole, his trucks are loud and ugly, and because the perpetrator had the good sense to use shoe polish as opposed to spray paint.
Val — regarding defacing somebody’s property just because you disagree with them: I think the time is ripe for the next installment of Richmond Proper to be “On How to Agree to DIsagree.”
I love my new branding as a PC/overly sensitive/internet troll! Now I have a Halloween costume!
Single tear
I mean it’s an article with some ironic moments, but it’s not an ironic news article like Tobacco Ave. It’s a good article and very funny, and I love the part about the girl taking her mom to lunch, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t saying “militant feminists” sarcastically. Why would he? That’s the kind of phrase lots of people use. I’ve gotten called a “militant feminist” more than once, and I write silly movie reviews! It’s indicative of a somehow STILL pervading culture of fear and loathing, and it just gets old when you have to hear it all the time.
Jeff – I don’t think she’s looking for a PC term for “someone who vandalized someone else’s car because they are activists for gender equality.” I think it’s just frustrating to hear the word “militant” thrown around with “feminism” just as much as it gets thrown around with “terrorist groups.” To my knowledge, feminists (and who here is not one? it sounds like we all agree with the sentiment written on the van) have never blown up a hospital. If the car had had racist crap all over it, and someone wrote, uhhhh, I don’t know, “YOU SUCK, RACIST DUDE,” can you imagine someone ever saying “some militant anti-racist vandalized a car”? I can’t. They would say “the van was vandalized.” There’s not even really a WORD for anti-racist because that’s just what we’re all supposed to just BE. It’s normal!
Here are some comparisons that might get some empathy flowing. Do you get annoyed when you meet someone from out of town and they immediately say “Oh Richmond! The capital of the confederacy! Man, does everyone there still have slaves?” Those are just words too, but I bet you get offended by it. What about if you’re religious, and someone calls you a “Crazy Christian” because some genuinely psychotic person killed an abortion doctor in the name of your religion. Think about it. This is the kind of thing females and other marginalized groups have to deal with on a regular basis (whether or not they realize it), and it sometimes really honestly feels like those other marginalized groups’ concerns are treated with compassion, but us bitches just keep on whining about how we want to burn our bras.
And just to be clear, all of the above refers to the power of semantics and in no way defends any acts of vandalism. It would just be cool to decouple “feminists” from “militarism” once in awhile.
<3 <3 <3 Susan H. <3 <3 <3
Something about this just screams “publicity stunt” to me.
that’s Karma for you!!! I have never heard anything good about the owner, Sam Moore. Nothing to do with Fem. Lib. and everything to do with people who do not respect women/people or any one else, etc.
Carole noland-roth, that’s not karma. It’s just backlash.
I DID THIS> I AM SO PROUD.
Hey I went to school in MI with Dan – he’s NOT 40ish He will be 53 this year 2011- graduated High school in 1976 – Google Him – Peace Out
speaking for the marginalized groups of non-cultural liberal racial minorities and hirsute, south-asian trailer trash, i’ll have to vehemently disagree with Susan H.
and ‘militant’ isn’t a bad thing. I militate for aiming at a spot on the urinal which doesn’t cause undue splashing–that’s a public good! The folks at Copblock.org militate for smarter and less violent cops, a public good. Jessica Valenti militates for upending our very fine, non-Napoleonic code, tradition of considering the accused innocent before guilty; possibly a public good if you buy her arguments (i do not) but you get the picture.
Militant can be good!
JOEL TODD
what high school did Dan Shorkey go to? I am just wondering because I have been to his tanning salon and I am very suspicious of it. I decided to look him up on the internet and have reason to believe that he has hidden cameras in his salon and films women naked while they tan. People on various websites have said they even saw the cameras themselves. In fact he was been charged for sexual battery/ force/ helpless. Check it out for yourself- http://epwsgdp1.courts.state.va.us/gdcourts2/caseSearch.do.
So any information you could give me would really help my search. thanks!
I can tell you anything you need to know. Stay away from him! I was personally involved in the link you posted above.