Buttermilk & Molasses

Death of a Blog: 2002-2010

It was fascinating to watch Buttermilk & Molasses slide down my priority list over the last year, replaced by my new consulting business, a sweetly demanding daughter, time with my wife, sleep. You know, the essentials.

What was once at the top of my daily to-do list – read through dozens of news sites and blogs, ink an observation or two, and then share it all with the broader world – barely breaks through the task list any given week.

Buttermilk and Molasses officially began in April of 2002 as a repository for random musings about politics and culture, and as a place to share interesting links with others. For several years, others rarely topped 35 or 40 people a day.

The horrible murders of the Harvey family, two days of schlepping around town with the Greater Richmond Challenge, and a unique twist on engaging the public in the creation of a new Downtown Plan changed all of that.

For a four year stretch, Buttermilk & Molasses was averaging upwards of 1,000 page views a day – primarily, I suspect, people who were interested about Richmond and extremely bored at work. (Those were the days, as you recall, when America didn't have to work to make money.)

Things changed when George W. Bush and L. Douglas Wilder left their respective offices as President of the United States and Emperor Palpatine of Richmond. (I mark it as a coincidence that my daughter became an active toddler and I began work for paying clients at the same time.)

Blame it on Twitter. Blame it on Gene Cox opening his own Twitter account. Blame it on the success of RVA News – and my string of voting defeats in the ongoing Garden Wars throw down.

Better yet, blame it on life and all of its transitions.

It seems fitting to be closing the door on the Buttermilk and Molasses chapter now. Floricane, my consulting business, has moved from a good idea to a functioning business. Thea is sleeping through the night (and so are we). And the readers of Richmond Magazine just named Buttermilk & Molasses Blog of the Year Best Political Blog (Thanks for the clarification, Susan!) – during the one year where I barely posted on the site.

It's been a fun ride.

In addition to the glory – making Style's Top 40 Under 40 list; a big blogger feature in the Times-Dispatch; being named a media favorite by Richmond Magazine; making the grade with the readers of RVA News – there's been something even more important to come out of all that time behind the computer.

Yes, real relationships.

Buttermilk and Molasses introduced me to hundreds of the coolest people in Richmond – the known, the less-known, and the not known at all.

And for that reason alone, I have no regrets.

So, more than 10,000 posts, almost a million lifetime page views and 2,673 comments later it comes to a close.

Thanks for the fun times, Richmond. Say goodnight, Gracie.

The Birds Are Back

The Times-Dispatch reported last week that the Purple Martins of Shockoe Bottom are back, filling the skies of East Richmond with their aerial ballet:

About 2,000 of the purple martins are using the Bottom once again as a stopover during their migration to Brazil.

"With that many birds this early, it looks like it's shaping up to be a good roost year," said biologist Mike Wilson.

There could be 5,000 to 8,000 martins by early August, said Wilson, with the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University.

After spending the day eating airborne insects, the chatty, acrobatic martins swoop down at dusk, to onlookers' delight, into a row of Bradford pear trees just north of the 17th Street Farmers' Market.

The birds arrived just in time for Gone To The Birds 2010, the third annual festival celebrating the Purple Martins. The festival lands in the Bottom on Saturday, July 31. (The bird photo by David Grunfeld was snagged from the festival website.)

My favorite slice of local news reporting? Birds gone wild:

Suddenly, two of downtown Richmond's rare peregrine falcons shot like rockets into the martin flock. One falcon caught a martin on the wing and passed it in flight to the crying second falcon.

Wilson, who wasn't there, said most likely a parent falcon was feeding a hungry youngster. Before the night was over, the falcons made a couple of more air raids, and a red-tailed hawk flew by nonchalantly with a martin in its talons.

Thea's Art Wall

Among the endless stream of crafty ideas emanating from my wife's mind, I really like the Art Wall she created for Thea – particularly since it brightens up our sunroom. But I also really enjoyed the stream of dog bone images that arrived on my iPhone last week after Thea melted down Thursday morning and I left for work.

The day before, Thea had insisted we buy Rilo, our dog, a ginormous dog biscuit at the pet store; Rilo ate it in less than a minute. The next morning, Thea wanted to buy Rilo another ginormous dog biscuit, and collapsed in hysterics when we told her that Rilo would be a "chubby bunny" if she ate more huge cookies.

It turns out that Nikole and Thea spent that morning cutting dog biscuits out of paper and coloring them with crayons. Hysterics turned to delight. A sampling of Thea's colorful dog cookies now hangs on the Art Wall.

Journalism, Transparency and the Middle East

NYTimes columnist Thomas Friedman manages to tackle three of my favorite subjects all at once today – journalism, social media and the Middle East, which collided recently with the firing of CNN Middle Eastern editor Octavia Nasr after she tweeted about the death of Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Fadlallah was one of the founders of Hezbollah.

Here's Friedman on the journalism, transparency and social media angle:

One misplaced verb now and within hours you can have a digital lynch mob chasing after you — and your bosses scrambling for cover. A journalist should lose his or her job for misreporting, for misquoting, for fabricating, for plagiarizing, for systemic bias — but not for a message like this one.

What signal are we sending young people? Trim your sails, be politically correct, don’t say anything that will get you flamed by one constituency or another. And if you ever want a job in government, national journalism or as president of Harvard, play it safe and don’t take any intellectual chances that might offend someone.

But it's the loss of Nasr at CNN that seems to bother Friedman the most:

I’ve never met Octavia Nasr or Fadlallah. Fadlallah clearly hated Israel, supported attacks on Israelis and opposed the U.S. troops in Lebanon and Iraq. But he also opposed Hezbollah’s choking dogmatism and obedience to Iran; he wanted Lebanon’s Shiites to be independent and modern, and he built a regional following through his social commentaries...

...Of course, Fadlallah was not just a social worker. He had some dark side. People at CNN tell me Nasr knew both. But here’s what I know: The Middle East has to change in order to thrive, and that change has to come from within, from change agents who are seen as legitimate and rooted in their own cultures. They may not be America’s cup of tea. But we need to know about them, and understand where our interests converge — not just demonize them all.

That’s why I prefer to get my news from a CNN reporter who can actually explain why thousands of men and women are mourning an aged Shiite cleric — whom we consider nothing more than a terrorist — than a reporter who doesn’t know at all, or worse, doesn’t dare to say.

Paul Taylor Hits 80; Still Dancing

The Washington Post has a great piece on dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor, whose dance company has been in operation for 56 years, and who celebrates his 80th birthday this summer. The profile by Sarah Kaufman captures the essence of one of America's more iconic dance figures.

We're finally face-to-face with him, in some retro dimension. It's about 1955 in Taylor's little nook. Your run-of-the-mill office cubicle is more spacious. But Taylor, who will turn 80 on July 29, looks at home here, sunken into a chair at a narrow desk, puffing away on a discount cigarette. Gray-haired and sporting oversize glasses, he's in Eisenhower-era weekend attire: tan slacks, sturdy shoes and a blue work shirt, well worn. It's a shirt with character: A pack of cigarettes and a lighter crowd the chest pocket, and on the back, Taylor embroidered a picture of his first dog, Deedee ("damn dog").

He had been reading a crumbling paperback of "Great American Short Stories"; now he pushes Steinbeck, Faulkner and Welty over by a mug of coffee, more cigarettes and a decapitated beer can full of pencils.

Taylor lives the spare aesthetic that you see everywhere here. He rises well before dawn and turns in before sunset. He walks to work from his apartment near the East River. He's a self-described cheapskate. In his flat and in the rustic Long Island cottage he's owned since the 1960s (bought back in Deedee's day), what furniture he doesn't drag in off the streets he has made himself, along with odd and witty sculptures of found objects.

"I've always known not how to make money, but how to cut corners and save money," he says. "That's one reason this company has lasted so long."

Taylor values simplicity, especially after his turbulent beginnings.

Read the whole piece at the Post.

Thanks For Turning Up The Heat, Rabble Rousers

I'm not sure which emotional button to push – the one that makes me happy to see concerned citizens actually protesting for something that needs to (and can be) changed, or the one involving the Times-Dispatch's comments section that makes me want to drive across the Huguenot Bridge in a really large truck.

I'm referring, of course, to the brief news story about a group of residents protesting the summertime conditions in the Richmond City Jail, and to the inane comments it generated:

About two dozen people protested outside Richmond City Hall and the Richmond Jail late this afternoon, calling the conditions for inmates there inhumane...

Mo Karn, 23, one of the organizers, who said she is a member of a South Richmond collective, said the protest was spurred by the death of two Richmond Jail inmates last month. One of the inmates, Grant R. Sleeper, was determined to have died from environmental heat exposure...

Karn said that city leaders have shown a race and class bias against prisoners at the jail.

"With people actually dying, you have to break out of your bureaucratic constraints and do something," she said.

This comes on the heels of a letter to the Department of Justice from the Virginia ACLU requesting an immediate investigation into "punishing" conditions at the jail after two recent deaths.

"We believe that the conditions at the Richmond City Jail pose a persistent threat to the health and safety of inmates, as illustrated by the two recent deaths," [ACLU Executive Director Ken] Willis' letter said. "Periodic proposals to improve or replace the jail have repeatedly come to naught. The situation at the jail requires federal intervention."

Willis says the ACLU of Virginia has received more than 50 complaints from inmates during the past five years. He added that "almost certainly, that is a small portion of inmates who have been adversely affected by the jail."

Cuss This, Einstein

The Periodic Table of Swearing might be one of the most interesting scientific charts the British have ever produced – particularly because it introduces me to a whole host of new cuss words to incorporate into my personal and professional life. Thanks for the tip, Boing Boing! (Click the image for a very big version.)

Charm City Charms The Critics

The Washington Post has a great spotlight on Baltimore's burgeoning arts and culture scene this week with an interactive map, tons of photos and a series of articles covering art lofts, film, theater and club music in Charm City. It's a great collection of stories and images, but not surprisingly it's an interesting reminder that Richmond's creative community has been doing many of the same things as Baltimore's artists for decades.

It would be fascinating to see Richmond's local media turn its collective spotlight on the region's creative underbelly – not as a discrete series of isolated events and activities, but as a holistic glimpse into a region whose DNA is laced with artistic talent. And has been for years.

Twitter A Fad? The TD Catches Up.

In the era of printed news, the Times-Dispatch's article on Twitter would seem almost prescient; in the age of Web 2.0, it's interesting, but a bit late.

My favorite quote du jour – from Twitter user Dean Browell, which alerted me to the feature story by the TD's Melissa Ruggieri – sort of spells it out: "Ironically the only way I even knew the RTD had an article on local Twitterers was @rvabargains Tweet. Newspapers: Fad or Tool?"

At any rate, Ruggieri's piece is largely a well-deserved homage to Richmond's most adaptable newsman, the timeless Gene Cox of NBC12:

You might read the above musings and think they came from a random news story or, perhaps, one of those quote books found in someone's guest bathroom.

Guess again.

Those pithy reflections are the handiwork of Gene Cox, dean of local TV, anchor on WWBT and very big fan of Twitter.

The online social networking service that specializes in brevity -- "tweets," or postings, cannot exceed 140 characters -- has about 18 million users in the United States.

Cox, whose amusing word spurts already have made him a Twitter hero to Richmonders who follow his feed (@genecoxnbc12), adopted the practice in January, after seeing some of his peers in the newsroom busily broadcasting succinct thoughts.

"I said, what the heck, I've got the time," Cox said with a chuckle. "I just kind of got hooked on it. I like short, snappy thoughts. There are some people who are very good at it, and some who are absolutely terrible. Some tweet all day long and have nothing to say."

The TD story also references another expert Twitter devotee – pop singer Elliott Yamin, who also has his very own key to the city.

The paper might have been better served spending the past week with the 23 Iraqi students and their 25 American peers who have been exploring the uses of social media – in journalism, in non-profit organizations and in daily life – with a handful of Richmonders that use the tools on a daily basis.

Now that's a fascinating new story, and one I'll post more about later.

Hey, FIFA, I'm Number 33,442!

The 2010 World Cup is over, and after a dive into the ditch, I managed to land in the top 20% or so of the 907,638 people in the world who played the entire FIFA World Cup Fantasy – and in the top 5% in the final round. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next four years...

The Great Unraveling: Marxist Animated Whiteboard

No, really, if I didn't have you at the phrase "Marxist Animated Whiteboard" I'm not sure I'll ever have you.

The Brits at Cognitive Media continue to astound me with their in-the-moment, animated sketch interpretations of various smart people talking about Big Ideas. Like this one, which deconstructs (or, more accurately, reconstructs) an 11 minute talk by Marxist economist (I know!) David Harvey.

Your political and economic leanings aside, it's pretty brilliant stuff. Thanks, Boing Boing.

The War of the Gardens Continues...

Seven weeks into the gardening season, and Thea and I are starting over.

Not that it's winning us many points in the RVA News Garden Wars, which is pitting the hyper-masculine gardening talents of Scott Pharr, Ryan Smartt and myself in a contest of wills, fertilizer and cute daughters.

After Nikole spent the better part of her late spring removing the universe of weeds that had overtaken our garden, you'd think the plants would show us some courtesy – though honestly, the kale and chard and beans and peas and carrots and radishes were all prolific and delish. It's the cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes who have left us with a bitter taste.

Going into Week 7 of Garden Wars, it's a 1-2-3 split with Ryan in the lead, Scott a close second and me trailing.

So, go check out the photos of this week's harvest of vegetables and cute kids, and cast a vote.

Do it for Thea.

Richmond's Urban Farm Obsession

Finally, an obsession with positive consequences has emerged in Richmond!

Richmond.com's Katherine Houstoun penned an excellent piece this week on the explosion of urban gardens throughout the City of Richmond. It's a must-read, and a welcome departure from the incessant cry of "Garden Wars!" that springs forth every Wednesday.

One truly great example? The production farm at the William Byrd Community Center:

"We are thinking of this as a production farm," said Patty Parks, the woman behind the William Byrd Community House's Urban Farmlet in Oregon Hill. "Our goal is to have enough produce for our children in the early childhood program to take home a bag of produce each week."

There are 30 three- and four-year-olds in William Byrd's early childhood program, and many of them have already been exposed to the idea of growing fresh food through the organization's community garden, which started in 2006, and the weekly on-site farmers market, where the children often sample vendors' wares. The new farmlet aims to bring the lessons of fresh food home to the children's families.

"For our first crop, the children in early childhood cut lettuce, cleaned it and prepared a salad," said Robert Bolling, the executive director at William Byrd, which also offers after-school programs, youth services and family support and emergency services. "Then they took that story home to their families, and they share those over and over again and it goes around the community."

Lost and Found (Richmond) Sounds

Doug Dobey alerted his friends on Facebook about the digitization of a long-lost set of recordings by a long-forgotten Richmond super group – FAFOOT (Famous Actors From Out Of Town).

Comprised of former members of the Orthotonics, Idio-Savant, the Tom & Marty Band, House of Freaks, Sparklehorse, Cracker and Gutterball, FAFOOT made ambitiously composed and arranged instrumental music built on two of the city's best drummers working intricately in tandem.

Their nine-track, limited edition, cassette-only release has finally turned up on the Free Music Archive, and I stand by a comment I made on Dobey's Facebook post: "The first track sounds like a slightly slower, slightly stoned, very noodly version of Breadwinner."

Which makes me think that maybe every band that emerged from Richmond in the late 80s and early 90s sounded like Breadwinner.

Someone tell Greg Darden that it's time to free the Tenderizer/Tenderette recordings...

A Man, A Mission – and Plenty of Tacos

RVA News brings it home this week with a short Q&A that proves two things – the owner of Nate's Taco Truck is passionate about what he does, and he's a man of few words.

What Nathaniel Ramon Gutierrez – "Nate" to his customers and friends – does is sling tacos and burritos. In the rain, and in the cold of winter. In the thick, oppressive heat of summer. At night, and in the afternoon, and even in the mornings.

How good are Nate's tacos?

Very good.

There are three things our daughter Thea – just two-years-old – wants when we visit the South of the James Market on Saturday mornings. She wants to see "Mister Blues", who plays his guitar and sings in his distinctive voice at the front of the market. She wants to buy produce from "Miss Organic" (Amy Hicks of Amy's Organics) and she wants an "eggie burrito" from Nate's Taco Truck.

Here are some tasty details from RVA News on the man with the silver, mobile kitchen; go read more:

What are the bigger events during the year that you set up to sell?
Best Friends Day is a big one. Tons of kids on bikes hungry for tacos. Earth Day was pretty big, and a couple of big weddings.

Can you describe a typical work day?
No, it varies between Taco Nate and Dad Nate, Summer, and college.

Can the job be hazardous at times?
YES. Just a couple of weeks ago I had to go to the emergency room with heat exhaustion and dehydration. It gets up to 130 degrees in my taco truck sometimes.

How would you describe your relationship with your customers?
I love my customers because they love my tacos.

VCU, Iraqi Students and Social Media

I've had a chance to spend a couple of hours over several weeks with a group of 23 Iraqi students who are studying at VCU this summer as part of the State Department-sponsored IYLEP program (Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program). What an amazing group of students.

I was reflecting this evening on some corner of their reality. Most of them are in their late teens, born around the time or just after the first U.S. invasion of their country – after Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait. Their childhoods were spent beneath a U.S.-imposed "No Fly Zone" and an embargo, as well as Saddam's ruthless regime. (An exception to this would be the students from the Kurdish north, who dealt with their own challenges but under a reasonably autonomous regional government.) Finally, where they were pre-teens, the U.S. invaded again and has occupied their country for the better part of a decade.

Politics aside, what a challenge! Literally, their entire lives have been spent – to some degree – beneath the shadow of the U.S. military and government.

For the rest of the summer, these Iraqi students will be working with 25 VCU mass communication students on projects for local nonprofits, as they continue to learn about new social media technologies. (VCU student Denise Virostek wrote about my presentation to the group today.)

They'll also be blogging about their experiences at Richmond.com, and hopefully having an amazing summer away from home!

Not As Classy as Nutzy

If the new RVA News Richmond Class of 2010 Superlatives face-off is any indication, no one in Richmond has anything on our newest mascot – Nutzy the Flying Squirrel is running strong in multiple categories in the online news site's latest love affair with Richmond. Having said that, it's sort of nice to be running a close second to a dive-bombing, acorn hoarder.

Voting in the contest – a good-natured attempt to highlight some people and places that make Richmond interesting – end on Monday, June 5, so cast your votes now. I've been nominated for "most likely to succeed", "cutest couple" (with the much cuter Nikole Sarvay) and "most spirited".