Open Source RVA: Feb. 22, 2013 Podcast

On the latest Open Source RVA podcast, we take a look at a new film about a favorite Richmond literary son and introduce you to the new city council representative for the 9th district.

Michelle Mosby bucked the odds and turned some heads when she ousted incumbent Doug Conner in the last council election. In her first major interview, Mosby talks with OSRVA about her surprising victory, her legislative priorities  and how she -- a political neophyte -- is learning the ropes at City Hall.

Your Show of Shows also speaks with filmmaker Christine Stoddard about her new short film, The Persistence of Poe. Joining the conversation is Jeff Roll of the James River Film Society, who will talk about his quarterly James River Filmmakers Forum.

Politics and Poe. Click here to download the Feb. 22, 2013 podcast of Open Source RVA.

If you don't already know, WRIR's audio news digest is broadcast every Friday at 4PM on 97.3 FM and http://wrir.org. See the link list below to download previous episodes of Open Source RVA.

Feb. 22 - Interview with Michelle Mosby, Persistence of Poe, James River Filmmakers Forum
Feb. 15 - State of the City roundtable, Richmond Macabre 2
Feb. 8 - Carol Piersol and the Firehouse Theatre controversy, Carl Hamm and "Yeh Yeh Pop"
Feb. 1 - Public school truancy, VACLAA and Norberto Gomez Jr., Stuff Redux
Jan. 25 - Interview with Jon Baliles, Susan Worsham's "Bittersweet on Bostwick Lane"
Jan. 18 - The Tea Party and Hanover public schools, activist Scott Burger
Jan. 11 - Arts and culture in 2012 (Kollatz, Griset, Lehman-Rios, Necci)
Jan. 4 -   The year end wrap up on Richmond politics (Goldman, Diradour, Williamson)
Dec. 21 - Arming teachers, filmmaker Rick Alverson, Lewis Ginter Gardenfest of Lights
Dec. 14 - Preservationists and Rt. 5, the RVA Beard League
Dec. 7 -   Richmond's tattoos, Social Services scandal, more Wingnuts
Nov. 30 - Redskins vs. schools, lady arm wrestlers, Henley Street Theatre
Nov. 23 - Wingnuts vs. Police, new youth hostel, Gigi Amateau pt. 2
Nov. 16 - Interview with Parker Agelasto, Keepers of the Flame.
Nov. 9 -  The election, Richmond's new school board, Rock 'n' Roll Hotel
Nov. 2 -  The life of Gabriel, voting trends, Ukefest
Oct. 26 - Spiritualism, horror films, ghost hunting - the Halloweek installment
Oct. 19 - School expulsions, Yes! Dance Invitational and political fact-checking
Oct. 12 - Richmond Symphony contract dispute, mountaintop coal mining
Oct. 5 -   Regional cooperation, windowless apartments
Sept. 28 - Co-Housing, SOL scores, Richmond's musical history
Sept. 21 - Richmond Folk Festival, abortion clinics pt. 2
Sept. 14 - Abortion clinics pt. 1, open government, Mayoral candidate Michael Ryan

Sept. 7 -  The Route 5 controversy

Aug. 31 - A.V. Norrell's reopening, Richmond's Head Start program

Aug. 24 - Regional transportation, water rates Pt. 2, the Art Deco Society

Aug. 17 - Bike safety, water rates pt. 1, baseball in the Bottom
Aug. 10 - Richmond's waysigning program, Paul Goldman on the VP choice
Aug. 3 -  Our debut! City chickens, the state of Richmond public schools

The Radio Wowsville Post-Oscar Breakdown

Join us on Sunday night as Radio Wowsville thanks the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in song (and also our agent). 

Starting at 11PM, I'll will take over the director's chair at WTJU (a.k.a. the Sound Choice in Central Virginia) and set the silver screen to music with two hours of tunes about Hollywood and for Hollywood and against Hollywood. Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Wreckless Eric, The Kinks, Can, Kate Bush, the White Stripes, Mike Nesmith -- it seems everyone wants to get into pictures. 

We're ready for our close up, Mr. DeMille. Sunday night after the Oscars on 91.1 FM and http://wtju.net. And if you miss this F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S episode, you can back up and try it again at http://wtju.net/vault

Virginia Living: Salt of the Earth

Indigenous folklife goes viral!

Virginia Living Magazine has posted "Salt of the Earth," my feature article on state folklorist Jon Lohman and the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, for your online reading pleasure. 

It’s the last day of the Richmond Folk Festival, and Jon Lohman, Virginia’s state folklorist, looks plum tuckered out as he stands on the Virginia Folklife Stage—one of the special attractions at the three-day music and folk arts gathering that takes over the riverfront in mid-October.  

Lohman is about to introduce the delicate Sephardic balladry of Flory Jagoda, 87, a Jewish exile from Bosnia who lives in Northern Virginia. Responsible for programming two days of music on this stage from artists across the Commonwealth, and for curating and displaying at the festival a collection of indigenous crafts, food and folk art, including a functioning whisky still, Lohman’s heavy-lidded eyes are watery by this point, his shirt partially untucked as he stifles a yawn. It’s the home stretch of a haul that has taken three months of planning, logistics and navigating nit-picky details.

Read the rest of "Salt of the Earth" by clicking right here.

(Photo of master guitar maker Wayne Henderson by the mighty Adam Ewing.)

Open Source RVA: Feb. 8 and Feb. 15 Podcasts

Open Source RVA has been busy. Dig it:

The Feb. 15 edition of WRIR's Friday news broadcast takes a look at the state of the city under the leadership of Mayor Dwight Jones. We convene a distinguished panel of Richmond politicos -- Bruce Tyler, Paul Goldman and Charlie Diradour -- to talk about recent City Hall controversies and grade the performance of the mayor as he enters a second term.

We also take you inside the nightmarish pages of "Richmond Macabre 2," a new sequel to the popular horror anthology published in 2011. Editors Beth Brown and Phil Ford join us for a spine-tingling talk about how Richmond lends itself so well to bloody tales of ghosts, zombies and goo-spewing maniacs.

Be very afraid. Click here to download the Feb. 15, 2013 podcast of Open Source RVA.

On the Feb. 8 installment, we talk with Carol Piersol, the cofounder and former artistic director of the Firehouse Theater Project, about her controversial firing by the company's board of directors.  Fellow Firehouse cofounder and Richmond Magazine writer Harry Kollatz Jr. and former board member and reporter Don Baker join the conversation. And for more on the Firehouse controversy, which has fractured the tight Richmond theater community, check out our man Chris Dovi's thorough coverage at the Open Source RVA website.

We'll also take you inside the world of Pop Yeh Yeh, and introduce you to DJ and archivist Carl Hamm -- best known as DJ Carlito. Hamm spent seven years studying and researching the sounds of Malaysian rock 'n' roll from the 1960s, and he has helped compile and research a new CD compilation of the music available on the Sublime Frequencies label. 

Yeh Yeh Yeh. Click here to download the Feb. 8, 2013 podcast of Open Source RVA.

And don't forget to listen each and every Friday at 4PM to Richmond's weekly audio news digest. Source it at 97.3 FM and http://wrir.org. 

WTJU Folk Marathon: The Mamas and the Papas

A very special FUN Raising edition of Radio Wowsville is upon us.

First off, note the time. Tonight, we start tonight's big Wowsville broadcast at 10PM, one hour earlier than usual, and that's because we are participating in WTJU's Folk Marathon, which has been a real treat to listen to this week -- everything from exclusive live broadcasts to special shows on everything from gospel to newgrass. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the magical ways of WTJU, the community-minded radio station doesn't (to paraphrase the Kinks) fundraise like everybody else. No, when each of the four musical departments (that's Folk, Jazz, Classical and Rock) take a week each year to do their thing, and strut their stuff, and feel their oats, the volunteers come up with special programming to entice the engaged music fan.  This has been the folk department's week to shine and the marathon fun is occurring RIGHT NOW. Go to http://wtju.net/stream and check it out. And don't forget to donate some scratch (it's all about raising money to keep the lights on and the equipment working) at 434-924-3959. Or you can give online by clicking right here. 

Even though Radio Wowsville is a proud member of WTJU's Rock department, we have been asked to close down the Folk Marathon the past few years, and tonight's 10PM broadcast will take a two-hour look at the folk (and Virginia) roots of The Mamas and the Papas. No, the "California Dreamin'" didn't start in L.A. -- it has its roots in Alexandria, Virginia, where Mama Cass Elliot and Papa John Phillips (and Scott "San Francisco" MacKenzie) attended high school. We'll play you rare tracks and interesting asides from such pre-M&P folk and folk-rock groups as the Journeymen, the Big Three (pictured), the Mugwumps and the Halifax Three, and sample folk and country-flavored solo recordings from Denny Doherty, Papa John and Mama Cass. (And let me send a special shout out to the band's archivist, Richard Campbell, for hipping me to all of this stuff).

And then, at midnight, we'll have a special (highly-condensed) hour of Radio Wowsville. To cleanse the frequency palette. 

Too much fun (and folk). Join me tonight at 10PM on WTJU. That's 91.1 FM and online at http://wtju.net. And don't forget the funds, folkies! That's 434-924-3959.

Open Source RVA: Feb. 1, 2013 Podcast

What Sourcery is this? Open Sourcery, of course.

On the packed Feb. 1 edition of Open Source RVA, we talk with school board members Tichi Pinkney Eppes and Shonda Harris-Muhammed, and former school board member Carol A.O. Wolf, about why Richmond Public Schools is missing in action when it comes to truancy prevention. Wolf has done much reporting on the issue at her web site, Save Our Schools.

We also speak with Spencer Turner, the executive director of the Virginia Center for Latin-American Art about the group's new Gallery Movimiento, an art bus / mobile gallery space. And we'll chat with artist Noberto Gomez Jr., whose new show is the first for the bus.

But that's not all. There's also a cool project called Stuff Redux. We talk with organizers behind this new creative reuse initiative planned by VCU's art education department in conjunction with its medical college.

Click here for the Feb. 1, 2013 Podcast of Open Source RVA.

And don't forget to join us every Friday at 4PM on WRIR 97.3 FM or http://wrir.org for your weekly dose of Richmond's audio news digest.

Hampton Roads Magazine: A City Separated

My feature article on the fight to desegregate Norfolk's public schools, "A City Separated," can be found in the February issue of Hampton Roads Magazine. It's on sale now. Or you can read a sizable chunk of the story online. It starts like this:

Andrew Heidelberg wondered what the commotion was about. 

“Why are all of these guys walking past the shower, looking at me,” he asked a white friend one day after PE.

“Andy, I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you,” his buddy said.

“Believe what?”

“They’ve been told that black people come from monkeys, and they want to see if you’ve got a tail.”

Today, recounting this incredible story, the dark-skinned Heidelberg has to laugh. “This was real, man.”

He was one of a group of African-American teenagers known as the Norfolk 17, the first to attend formerly all-white high schools in Norfolk after a well-publicized standoff between the city and new federal desegregation laws in 1959. 

Click here to read "A City Separated," in this month's Hampton Roads Magazine.