The Weekend {list}

FRIDAY + SATURDAY

Monoprint by Jim Sherraden

American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print
Smithsonian traveling exhibition, The Art of Hatch Show Print, celebrates a time-honored graphic art tradition through the work of Nashville's Hatch Show Print, one of the nation's oldest and continuously printing shops. While Hatch's name is synonymous with the music business, its posters promoting football games, vaudeville shows, state fairs, stock car races, and picture shows reflect the breadth of American popular culture.
Library of Virginia | Exhibition Gallery
See more of The Art of Hatch Show Print on YouTube.


FRIDAY

First Fridays Art Walk

Moving Parts
New Work by Emerald Grippa
Quirk Gallery, 5 - 9p| free

First Fridays Samplers
The Visual Arts Center, 6:30p - 8:30p | $5 - $15
Stop by the VAC on Friday night to get two hours of hands on instruction in Raku (traditional Japanese pottery firing), Wheel Throwing, or Letterpress Printing for all skill levels. For a small fee you can test out a new medium and decide if you want to invest in a full course.  I've taken two classes at the VAC over the past few years and my investment was well worth the price and time.

Black Girls & Psychobilly Cadillac
The Camel, 10p | $6
RSVP on Facebook here

Poster design by Team Eight

WRIR Party for the Rest of Us
The Renaissance Conference Center, 7p | $10 donation
RSVP on Facebook here.


SATURDAY + SUNDAY

RVA Environmental Film Festival
The James River Film Society and the Falls of the James Group of The Sierra Club will join together to present another exciting RVA Environmental Film Festival at the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia. The event will showcase films designed to raise awareness of environmental issues.
Saturday 10a - 6p
Sunday 1p - 6p
RSVP on Facebook here.


SATURDAY

Sarah Tector Trunk Show
Jeweler Sarah Tector visits from North Carolina. Come check out her sleek and modern jewelry. Sarah's design philosophy is simple: less is more. She prefers to let one element in a piece stand out creating mainly in sterling silver, gold, platinum and other mixed media.
Quirk Gallery, 12p - 4p | free
RSVP on Facebook here.

Dance Your Cookies Off with the River City Roller Girls
Fundraiser dance party for the roller derby team.
Gallery 5, 8:30p | $5
RSVP on Facebook here.


SUNDAY

The Most SUPER Super Bowl Party 
The Republic, 4p | free
RSVP on Facebook here.

Super Bowl Sunday
Huge screen, huge sound system, drink and food specials.
The National, 5p | free

Boas / Heavy Midgets / Ahnnu
Psychedelic event with live video projections by Chris Balint from Baltimore.
The Camel, 9p | free
RSVP on Facebook here.


Happy Friday Richmond! And Happy Birthday to our Minimalist founder Kristen!

Christie Thompson & Emily Smith

The Weekend {List}

Once you finish your re-organizing with Kristen's tips below, check out these awesome events happening around town this weekend!

Friday:

The annual and infamous J.Crew  warehouse sale starts today! Running daily until January 22, head to 9750 W. Broad Street (Former Borders Books location) in Glen Allen for up to 60% off retail prices. The sale will be open daily from 10 AM to 8 PM. You can find more info here and here.

January's First Fridays Art Walk
Just because it's cold outside doesn't mean the art should be lonely. Put on your mittens and hats and enjoy a less crowded first First Fridays of 2012. And by cold, I meant practically balmy, temps will not even drop below 40 tonight.

Saturday:

Wilderness First Aid Certification Course
Course Title: Casual Hiker, Rural Living or Urban Disaster

This course will cover hands-on learn how to care for an injured / ill person during the critical minutes or hours before ambulance / hospital hand-off. It will be a blend of classroom instruction & hands-on rescue scenario practice and no prerequisites are necessary. The course counts as recertification for WFA, AWFA, WFR and wilderness part of W-EMT and is approved by the Boy Scouts of America and the American Camping Association.

The class is a little pricey ($175 for two days, 8:30 AM - 6 PM) but if you're an avid hiker, mountain biker or camper, this is an awesome resource to take advantage of! Check out WFA on Facebook here for more info and links to register.




Dance off your wilderness surviving skills at BEARD - A queer Dance Party at Balliceaux on Saturday night. Party starts at 10:30 PM and is free to 21+.

Sunday:

Check out the Elvis at 21 exhibit at the VMFA and celebrate Elvis' birthday on Sunday with Barbara Gray (the mystery woman in the photo above, revealed in 2011 by Vanity Fair). The celebration starts at 1 PM and lasts until 3 PM; free to all.

If you're lookin' to get hitched in 2012, you're in luck! The Richmond Bridal Showcase is in town this Sunday at the Greater Richmond Convention Center from 11am-5pm.  The event provides brides-to-be an opportunity to preview services from local caterers, bands, and photographers as well as meet representatives from many central Virginia venues.  You can purchase tickets in advance or at the door. Also, be sure to check out their blog for many resourceful and helpful tips as you plan your big day!

Christie Thompson

The Wine Crate: One Box, So Many Ways...

This DIY project is one that I’ve wanted to write about for quite some time now. I was first introduced the fantastic object that is the wine crate box a few years ago from my friend Megan, who was working for a wine distributor. Wine bottles travel from vineyard to distributor to local store in gorgeous wood boxes and that are more than often tossed into the trash after they’ve reached their final destination. But, wine and beer shops like Total Wine sell them for the awesomely cheap price of only $5 per box. These nifty little pieces of wine country have endless amounts of value to even the most minimally skilled DIY’er. Here are a few uses I have found for them:

Wine crates make excellent planter boxes. Living on a second floor apartment, I don’t have much dirt to play around in and had been looking for a simple way to add more greenery to my balcony. I grabbed about 4 or 5 boxes from Total Wine and brought them home – along with some potting soil and a few seedlings. I simply drilled holes in the bottom of the boxes (to allow for water drainage) and then planted my seedlings. I wanted to sit the boxes on the railing of the balcony so I drilled two screws into each side of each box and ran some wire from one screw to the other, going under the railing edge. The wire and screw technique ended up adding a great aesthetic detail as well as keeping the boxes firmly in place! Total cost was around $60, including the plants, soil, wire and boxes. Not too bad for your very own balcony garden! Not to worry about the changing seasons either – there are tons of fall weather plants that can survive the chilly nights!

This post is the first in a DIY series by Christie for Gungho Guides' Blogho.

Read the entire post over at the Blogho. Stay tuned twice a month for the rest of the DIY series!

Christie Thompson

Quickness RVA: Environmentally Friendly Delivery

Richmond.com video interview with Quickness RVA

You can get some of the best food Richmond has to offer delivered to your door thanks to the bike-loving entrepreneurs over at Quickness RVA. A little over a year ago, Frank Bucalo started Quickness RVA to give great restaurants great delivery options. The Quickness team hand-picks the restaurants they deliver for based on quality of food and local ownership. They promise quick delivery with as little carbon footprint as possible - delivering your meal on their bicycles. In addition to providing those around town with fast, affordable delivery, the Quickness group hopes to promote cycling as a viable transportation option and bring Richmond closer to a bicycle-oriented city.

Currently, Quickness RVA delivers for Strange Matter, Fresca, Lamplighter, Str8 out of Philly, Alamo BBQ, Buff's Corner, Nate's Taco Truck, Thai Corner and Bellytimber Tavern. Delivery is usually free, but riders do rely on tips for income - so please be generous! The Quickness team will deliver to anywhere you like - including local parks - as long as the location is within the delivery zone for each restaurant.

Next time you don't have time to run and grab a meal, remember Quickness RVA! Check out their Facebook page here. Quickness RVA was also recently featured in Style Weekly magazine.

Christie Thompson

Weekend Events!

Hang up that rain jacket and get ready for a sunny & event-saturated weekend to kick off the fall season!

For starters, President Obama will be speaking at the University of Richmond tomorrow morning at 11:30. "What?! Why!?", you ask. Well, he'll be speaking on his latest efforts to jump start the economy and create jobs. The event is free as well as open to the public; however, you'll need to secure a ticket to be enter the Robins Center. See UR's website for additional information on tickets, parking and shuttles.

Relay Foods

Image via Relay Foods Facebook

One of my favorite things about the summer is the abundance of farmer’s markets across and around the city. Nothing beats fresh and local real food. The one draw back of shopping at farmer’s markets is you can never seem to get all of your essentials in one place. Well, Relay Foods is here to solve that problem while saving you time and gas money.

Purchasing from Relay is as simple as shopping on the online store (where almost every local farm and food business is represented), checking out, and then picking up all your goodies from one convenient location! There are multiple locations around Richmond to choose from and you can stop by anytime between 3 pm and 7 pm. You can shop anytime during the week, as long as you make your purchase before midnight the day before you want to pick up your order.

I can’t wait to try this out and report back!

Christie Thompson

Happenings This Week, Part I

Tonight, Tuesday June 21, behold the wonder that is The Listening Room! The Firehouse Theatre hosts one or more bands as a part of this monthly music series and never charges a cover (donations always appreciated). With a focus on singer/songwriters and an intimate setting, it's an opportunity to get to know some of our region's musical talent! The show begins at 7:30 pm.

Also tonight, Could Richmond Be the Next Portland? brings internationally known author Mia Birk, the former Bicycle Program Manager of Portland, Oregon, to Richmond to discuss the driving force behind Portland's efforts to make the change from four wheels to two. Eric Weis, Trail Coordinator for the East Coast Greenway (ECG), will also be presenting his vision on developing the 3000 mile route from Maine to Florida. Now over 25% complete, this off road facility - which passes through the heart of Richmond – will connect the 25 major cities along the East Coast. Be at the Science Museum of Virginia by 7 pm and make sure to register for your free ticket!

Events This Week

Hey, tomorrow is Tuesday, June 7! Swing by the Byrd House Market at 980 Idlewood Ave in the Oregon Hill neighborhood. They're going to have all these yummy foods. Just go.

The BIG Show takes place on Wednesday, June 8, between 6 and 9 pm at Plant Zero. See and hear work created by Richmond's young artists during the ART180 spring 2011 season. Enjoy paintings, prints and drumming, as well as theatrical performances with complimentary refreshments. The evening is free, family-friendly and sure to inspire!

Events This Week

Do you love WRIR 97.3, our local independent radio station, as much as I do? If so, their pledge drive is happening now. Straight from the WRIR website:

"In the six years that WRIR has been on the air, it has established itself as the gold standard for community radio in the country. Not only are we the largest and most successful LPFM in the country, when congress and the senate was deciding whether or not they wanted to expand the Prometheus Radio Project (the bill that allows for licencing LPFM radio stations across the country), WRIR was cited as a shining example of the bill's success."

Paperless April: Address Book

Don't you hate it when someone moves and you have to cross off their old info in your address book? Or what about when you run out of space in the section allotted for last names starting with M or S? Issues like these are a thing of the past if you decide to go paperless with your address book. Some of you are probably already well schooled in digital contact lists. If so, skip down and read the awesome post about Goodwill. If not, read on.

I use Gmail so I'm going to talk about Google contacts. I'm not super familiar with other mail server contact set ups, and I honestly think Gmail is the best option for many reasons - but I'll save that for another post. Here are my top five reasons to go digital with your contacts:

Goodwill Really Is Good

Most people think of Goodwill as that place we take our old stuff when we don't want it anymore. Last week, Ellen Thornhill, Goodwill of Central Virginia's Communications Manager, gave a presentation entitled "Goodwill: I Had No Idea!" at NAPO Richmond's chapter meeting. We toured Goodwill's Midlothian facility this past Monday to see it all in action.

The presentation's title was fitting - I really had no idea about all of the awesome things Goodwill is doing for our community and the environment. Read below for my top three "I had no idea" facts.

Events This Week

Here are a few fun things to keep the blood flowin'...

Green Drinks is happening this Thursday, April 21, 5:30 pm at The Camel. Rachel Flynn, good drinks, good people, good topics, do it.

Now here's the golden ticket - Friday, April 22, you must see the MFA Thesis Exhibit: Round I at the VCU Anderson Gallery! This show is free to the public and open from 5 to 7 pm. The exhibit is showcasing works from the following areas: Interior Environments, Craft/Material Studies, Kinetic Imaging, Sculpture + Extended Media, Painting + Printmaking and Photography. Years in graduate school can lead to an annoying habit of talking about your thesis 24/7, yeah sure, but it can also lead to some damn good work. Come celebrate with these guys!

Richmond's Earth Day Festival strikes again! Come celebrate Earth Day in the Manchester neighborhood between 12 and 7 pm this Saturday, April 23. Food, music, vendors and games promise to make for a fun (and totally free) afternoon!

After the Earth Day Festival, head to Gallery5 for The Diamond Center 7" Release Partaay!! The wonderful folks at Gallery5 aren't charging a dime for the show so come out between 7 and 10 pm and enjoy some delicious tunes from The Diamond Center, Black Girls, The Nervous Ticks and Canary Oh Canary. Bring yer friends!

Emily Smith

Paperless March: Files

Yep, it's spring! With spring comes the dreaded-for-most tax deadline on April 15 (extended to April 18 this year for Federal). Tax time is a great opportunity to re-assess (or create, for some) your filing system. We're digging through our paperwork anyway, so why not do some sort/purge/organize action while we're at it?

One of the most popular paper organizing questions I get from my clients is, "Do I need to keep this?" For most people, the answer is no about 90% of the time. Ask yourself the following three questions to speed up the decision-making process:

The $200 Microhouse

An interesting article on repurposing materials to create small shelters. Click the quote to read more:

"For ingenuity, thrift and charm, Mr. Diedricksen’s tiny structures are hard to beat. Made of scavenged materials, they cost on average less than $200 to build. They often have transparent roofing, which allows a fine view of the treetops, particularly in the smallest ones, where the most comfortable position is supine. They have loads of imaginative and decorative details: a porthole-like window salvaged from a front-loading washing machine, a flip-down metal counter taken from the same deceased washer. Mr. Diedricksen hates to throw anything away."

As a designer, frugalista and environmentally-concious person, I love what Diedricksen is doing. It's kind of like "productive hoarding" - he collects "junk", but reuses it in inventive ways rather than cluttering his home. Keep up the awesomeness.

Kristen Ziegler

Paperless February: Journaling

I've been keeping a journal since about the third grade. I absolutely love reading through them and reminiscing. It's funny to see my life crisis evolving from "My brother is so mean because he wouldn't let me play on the swings," to "I have such a huge crush on Bobby," to "What is my next career move?" Writing is cathartic for me and always has been. However, I currently have about ten or so journals and I am (hopefully) only about 1/3 of the way through my life. Finding a private spot to keep them all gets trickier with each new addition.

Since developing Minimalist, I've found that it's much easier for me to type at the pace of my thoughts than to write by hand. I'm able to get a lot more out in a shorter period of time. I haven't translated this to an online journal yet, but I plan to. It's as simple as creating another blog and changing the settings so that I'm the only one who can see it. Journaling online has many benefits over writing by hand:

What Are You Doing for Animals?

I ask myself this question a lot. If you do too, there's an event coming up in Richmond that you don't want to miss.

On Thursday, February 24, Jon Camp, Director of Outreach for Vegan Outreach, will be in Richmond to talk about helping animals. Jon will discuss the work of VO, the vegan diet as a way to promote animal rights, and effective activism.

Join Jon and other lovers of animals on Thursday, February 24, from 5:30 to 7 pm at the VCU Starke House, 915 W Franklin St, in the first floor conference room.

Anne Marie Vastano

Paperless January: Mail

I've wanted to do a post on going paperless for some time now, but the amount of information I have to share is a bit overwhelming. So, enter Minimalist's new "paperless" series for 2011. Each month I will share information on a different facet of paperless living. I'm thinking the posts will be seasonally relevant, too. In honor of the new year, January's post is about mail. Let's cut that paper off at the source!

Let me take a step back first and ask an obvious question. Why go paperless? There are two main reasons from my perspective. First, paper uses a lot of natural resources to be created. Reducing our dependence on paper also reduces our impact on the environment. Second, paper tends to become clutter for many people. Less paper = less clutter = less stress! I'm not suggesting we live in a completely paperless world. As a designer, I find hand sketching to be a crucial part of the design process, for instance.

Okay, now let's get back to this mail business. My suggestions take a bit of upfront commitment, but once the systems are in place you will save far more time than you spent getting set up.

Richmond Art

Contributing writer Emily Smith shared with me a wonderful piece of Richmond-made art recently. StudioSavvy, a local graphic design studio, created The Richmond Type Map. The design uses 533 layers of typography and 37 colors to create an incredibly unique and engaging map of Richmond. The art is environmentally friendly, too! These posters are printed on offset lithographic presses in Richmond, using 100 lb uncoated paper that is FSC certified and endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance. Pre-holiday sales helped raise money for Art 180. The 19" x 25" print is $40 and can be signed upon request.

I think I need one. I'm fairly picky about buying art and this piece is not only extremely well thought out and executed, but is also personal because it's a map of my home! Click here to purchase.

Kristen Ziegler

Tiny-ness

While I don't enjoy the aesthetic of the particular "tiny house" featured in this article, I do appreciate the concept.

"Tiny House Movement Thrives Amid Real Estate Bust"

Also, tiny apartment for the day below, via Emily Jones. I would love to live in a space that size! Just the thought of all the purging gets me excited. Too bad the studios in Richmond somehow seem to cost $800/mo and up. Send me an email if you know of anything cheaper.

"125 Square Feet! Kristen's Minimalist Studio in Seattle"

Kristen Ziegler

LifeEdited Competition

This is a nice follow-up to the previous post from Miss Emily Smith. I stumbled across an awesome design competition today - thanks to one of my best ladies, Brenda. It's called LifeEdited [a tiny huge design contest] and runs from October 27, 2010 to January 10, 2011. The challenge is to "design a jewel box of an ultra-low-footprint apartment in 420 SF" in NYC for Treehugger founder Graham Hill. Some of the main goals include using one space for work/play/sleep/guests, digitizing everything possible, access versus ownership (Netflix, Zipcar, Airbnb, etc) and a general lifestyle of necessity (nothing extraneous). The grand prize is $10,000 cash along with a few other exciting treats like a Strida folding bike.

This is right up my alley. Man do I wish I had the time! Let me know if you'd like to collaborate - perhaps I could contribute to a team effort. My mind was racing with exciting ideas for minimal and space-saving design as I read the brief. I practice many of the habits described in the competition, such as a shoe-free home with a place at the door for storage. I call this "preventative maintenance". No shoes equals cleaning the floors every other week versus every week! I'm also in the process of digitizing my old film photos and recently digitized and recycled all of my old planners. Less is more, lovely people.

Kristen Ziegler