When I was growing up, we weren’t exactly wealthy, to say the least. For entertainment during the holidays, my family (and sometimes friends) would brew up a Thermos of strong coffee, pile into the old Bel Air, fog up the windows, and ride around Montgomery, Alabama looking at Christmas lights and decorations in the nicer [...]
We live in a neighborhood ruled by an “association.” Perhaps you know the situation. If not, here’s how it works. You live on a stereotypical cul-de-sac, pay a monthly fee (not a choice for us) and the association keeps up the common areas, landscaping, playgrounds and allows you access to the pool.
I have never had a green thumb; just the opposite. If I plant it, it will die, water and fertilize be damned. There was a time, however, when I could grow a nice stand of grass (not the kind people smoke) by disturbing the ground enough to toss some seeds out and get them to [...]
It is not often that people drive forty miles to get a loaf of bread. We did.
I’ve known Mark McIntyre, the owner, chef and chief baker at Norwood Cottage Bakery for years. His homemade artesian bread was rumored (on Facebook) to be sinful. As I recall, Mark was the one doing the rumoring. After roaming [...]
A local newspaper recently voted the new Bass Pro Shop’s Outdoor World off I-95 north to be one of the ugliest buildings in Richmond. “Hideous,” is actually the word they used to describe the monstrously-glowing, pseudo-timbered ode to fishing and hunting – with a restaurant that features alligator and an appetizer of about an hour-and-a-half [...]
It hurts to lose a baseball game. It hurts even more to lose your entire team.
During the holidays, Dee Briggs had an idea. “I’m going to go to the grocery store and get a turkey and take it to Extra Billy’s (a local barbecue restaurant). They’ll smoke it. You want me to get you one?”
I was out of town when he called and quickly said, “Absolutely.” It sounded like a [...]
Richmond, Virginia, police may have found a way to Glue police to criminals, a feat not easily pulled off in other cities.
Inside the mouths and bellies and minds of Southerners, a war has been raging for years. OK, the conflict has mostly been in my own mind, but I did my best to start a bigger fight.
Summer is officially here with Memorial Day past and the torched meaty smell of smoky perfume in my backyard every afternoon. People are grilling.
They gather at the Barnes & Noble early Saturday morning to drink coffee and discuss a few books. They speak in the hushed, reverential tones of people who have been raised to respect the edicts of a stern librarian. Seven of them congregate in the corner chairs; they carry several new books. Their camo apparel and thick [...]
Just a little piece north of Richmond, Virginia, on Lakeside Avenue amid the 1940-ish neighborhood and the plethora of auto repair establishments, there wafts the aroma of the 1960s. In a ramshackle square of a building straight out of a time where the world was viewed through black and white photos, sits the worldwide headquarters [...]
Recently, I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a shoot with Dee Briggs, and we happened by Rock City on top of Lookout Mountain, the granddaddy of Southern tourism icons. “See Rock City”, the barns, Ruby Falls — it made me think about Southern vacations. The South was a brutally poor place after the Civil War [...]
This past weekend, Shockoe Bottom here in Richmond filled up with liquid again. Except this time, it was not murky water from a Gaston-ish flood but a murky, gastronomical flood of Brunswick Stew that swirled and puddled around hundreds of people who jammed the streets as contestants tried to out-cook each other into vatted oblivion [...]
My back is hurting and I limp here and there around Rainmaker Studios, crablike, contorted and bent. This is not new. I have this ailment on a regular basis and it runs its course and then I’m fine. Today, however, I am not fine.
Dee Dee looks at my Igor-ish stance, frowns, and says, “You really [...]