Tallying Up the Day So Far

Number of classic lines I got on my walk today: 2
("Hey, girl, you looking for a man to take care of you?" from a guy sitting on his group house stoop. Later, caught behind another walker, I pass him and from behind hear "You're making me look bad." "I'm good at this," I turn around and say reassuringly. "I walk every day."
"You're still making me look bad," he says, smiling but not speeding up any.)

Number of unexpected friends who showed up while I was eating lunch at the Belvidere: 2
(One of whom I hadn't seen in months and who was not only looking terrific, but actually said the words, "I'm happy." You have to understand, this is a guy who would rather dwell on the negative than the positive just to be contrary, no matter how well things are going. He had the Eggs Belvidere while I ate a Caesar with grilled salmon; it was downright pleasant, not always the case with our shared meals in the past. And then another friend showed up to get a companion for Saturday Stroll and remind me that his birthday is tomorrow, in case I'd forgotten.)

Number of sidewalk chalk artists I saw on my way to the Byrd Theater: 7
(One girl, whose chalk art was labeled VMFA, was actually copying a 19th century Impressionist masterpiece and doing a magnificent job of translating oil on canvas to chalk on sidewalk.)

Number of phalluses in the locally-made film The Taint: Hundreds
(I'd heard about the film at Project Resolution where the director described it as a film about "a tainted river that makes all the men become misogynists and bash in women's heads. It's a comedy." Was it ever! The nearly full audience laughed almost the whole way through at vomiting, internal organs being ripped out, defecation, ejaculation and so much more. You kind of had to be there. Mimicking the age-old litter promo that the Byrd plays, there were several times when a character said, "Sick!" with just the right inflection to be an inside joke for regular Byrd attendees.)

Number of brilliant one-liners directed at me: 1
(Settled into my painful seat at the Byrd, local comic and ukulele player extraordinaire Herschel walked by and I said hello for the third time in three days; he'd been at the show at Alley Katz Thursday, at Gallery 5 last night, and here we were at the same place again. "My god," he exclaimed. "We're soulmates!"

But we all know there's no such things as soulmates. Right?

Stellar Saturday Stroll in Jackson Ward

Hard as it is for me to accept, I know that there are people who only come to Jackson Ward for First Fridays.

Of course, it's their loss; they're missing out on experiencing an area of the city that has much more to offer than just one night's activities.

And while that's only my opinion, apparently it's also the motivation behind the newest reason to get you here, the Saturday Stroll.

Put aside your concerns because you'll be coming to J-Ward in broad daylight, but you're not going to be disappointed.

These strolls will take place on the third Saturdays of the month and feature all kinds of ways to shop RVA.

And don't we all want to support the local economy?

Businesses are open, artists and craft vendors are located all along the streets and in front of galleries and the restaurants and food carts are ready to feed you; here's your chance to try out the Belvidere @ Broad for lunch, a meal they don't normally serve!

Over at Gallery 5, Amanda's amazing cupcakes are for sale.

Of course there's music; do you have any idea how many musicians live here?

Josh Small was playing today, the hula hoopers were out shimmying and you could have a caricature done.

Galleries had doors flung wide open, inviting you to come in; there was even an artist's talk over at the Black History Museum.

There were artists creating graffiti projects on boards near Quirk Gallery. Bizhan from Gallery 5 was one of the artists spray-painting away and I teased him about going back to his roots; he was a fairly active street artists years ago.

He laughed and acknowledged that he was out of practice and his index finger was already sore.

The other issue was the limitations of the size of the board.

With street art, one tends to have a much bigger "canvas" to work on.

Next month, he's planning to add some wheat pasting to the painting he'll do.

And let me point out that it's really pretty cool to be able to watch street art being created since most of it is done late at night and away from the view of the public.

I only wish Richmond would designate some of its old and derelict buildings for graffiti artists to better visually.

Imagine what a win/win situation it would be to artistically improve the ugly facades and give artists an outlet for their large scale work.

Maybe someday RVA will see the benefit to the city in such an endeavor.

I saw lots of people I knew, neighbors and locals, but there were plenty of visitors, too, out enjoying a beautiful day in Jackson Ward.

Anything that gets people down here to see what we have to offer is a very good thing in my book.

And I know we have some convincing to do; not everyone is as sold on the 'hood as me.

One woman with a stroller suggested to her posse (another family with a stroller), "Let's go eat at Lift. They actually have good sandwiches."

No shit, Sherlock.

We actually have a lot of very good things down here and now there's an easy way for you to check them out.

Just save the third Saturday of the month and we'll knock your socks off, J-Ward style.