Richmond Springtime, Nightlife & Chaos (allergies, clubs, mall fights, housing etc) — Unscripted #041

This episode of Vera House is brought to you by SoBar Speakeasy:

814 W Broad St

Richmond, VA 23220

(inside Alchemy Coffee)

https://www.instagram.com/sober.speakeasy

If you’ve ever wanted somewhere to go at night in Richmond that doesn’t just completely revolve around alcohol and getting drunk, this is the place. More than ever, we need spaces like this — where you can slow down, reconnect with people, and reset.

SoBar is an alcohol-free lounge located at 814 West Broad Street, right near VCU. During the day it’s known as Alchemy Coffee, and on Friday and Saturday nights it transforms into a low-lit, speakeasy-style 3rd space with frequent live music, conversation, and a curated menu of delicious hand crafted mocktails and simple snacks. Everything on the menu contains less than 5% alcohol.

---

In this episode of Vera House Unscripted, we discuss a range of Richmond topics including seasonal changes, nightlife, local culture, and recent events across the city. We start with Richmond’s springtime shift, including intense pollen, allergies, and how the change in seasons affects daily life.

The conversation moves into Richmond nightlife, including the decline of clubs, changing social habits, and the loss of third spaces that once brought people together. We talk about how rising costs, regulations, and shifting culture have impacted going out, and why social connection feels different today.

We also explore the role of alcohol in social settings, the rise of alternative spaces like sober lounges, and how modern social behavior has changed with increased screen time and digital interaction.

Later in the episode, we discuss recent incidents like the Short Pump Mall takeover and other public altercations, and what they say about generational behavior, social media influence, and public spaces. We also touch on housing costs, renting vs owning, and how affordability continues to shape life in Richmond.

Topics include Richmond spring weather, pollen and allergies, Richmond nightlife, third spaces, social connection, alcohol culture, sober lounges, Short Pump Mall incident, public behavior, housing costs, renting vs owning, and Richmond culture.

Quick interjection to invite you to Vera House Studios. If you are a local Richmond business, entrepreneur, brand owner, or service provider—and you know you need to create better content to get your products and services in front of the right people—we can help.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to the Vera House podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by Sobar. They are a new sober lounge in the Alchemy coffee space at 814 West Broad Street. Today we got pretty nostalgic. We did. It was like a really fun episode. Felt like it took us into like a parallel universe of back in the days in Richmond. But we also talked about some crazy modern day stuff. We talked about this very strange, weird hundred plus person takeover of Short Pump Mall. It's insane. Whatever that means. We talked about the rising electricity prices and kind of like the real estate market around here and just like how insane it is. You know, a house that sold in 2022 for $90,000 today is almost 400 grand. Like we're living in made up world. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. And yeah, it was just like a fun nostalgic day. We talked about a bunch of good stuff. What else do we got? Yeah, we talked about some nostalgia surrounding nightclubs. Why are we, you know, we used to have really cool nightclubs. We used to have a really big sprawling nightlife and now we don't. And maybe some of the reasons as to why. We also talked about a way, a really cool way to get some anger and frustration out that isn't violent. Well, it is violent, but it's in a controlled scenario. It's called gloves up, guns down, and you glove up and go to town in a boxing ring to get out some frustrations instead of taking it to the street, which I think is really cool. Yeah. Dude, welcome back from the dead from the Virginia pollen. Thanks, bro. I was almost in the ICU for pollen related injuries, but I powered through. I powered through. I made it. I made it past the last 24 or 48 hours. And, uh, yeah, I'm here. I'm still a little bit, you know, a little raw, a little sensitive, but I'm making it through. Yeah. I mean, I know allergies exist. I'm not an allergy denier, but I don't know that I've ever been such close friends with someone who's like seriously affected by allergies. Yeah. And when you told me that you were like going to, what'd you say? Urgent care or something? Yeah. I was like, holy hell. Well, that was, I didn't know if it was right. You didn't know what I was suspicious. And I thought that it might be, but it could also be, you know, a number of other things. That's the crazy part, man. I've had allergies for my whole life, lived in Virginia. I'm from here from Richmond. So this is not a new thing. And you're supposed to like, some people will say you grow out of your allergies or like maybe they, but they definitely change. I don't know if you grew out of them. So mine were really bad. And, but it used to be like itchy eyes, watery eyes, congested nasal passages, like swollen, congested nasal passages. And like some, you know, scratchy throat situation. That was about it. Although that's like the worst version. This year in the last few years that I know about that, I can remember rather man, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I could feel it coming on. We were hanging out the other day. It's getting a little scratchy. Maybe I'm getting a cold. Cause that's what it feels like. It feels like you're getting the flu, like scratchy throat, a little bit of a cough, sore throat overnight. Didn't sleep very well, headache. And then the next day, like I sent you a voice note and like my voice was almost gone. Like I thought I was going horse and that lasted for two days. And now nothing. It just cleared up. Dude, that's gnarly. You know, like when I think of allergies, you know, when you're making like a nice Mac and cheese or like a pasta salad and you just sprinkle some salt and pepper on there, but maybe you get like a whiff of pepper and you're like, oh, I got a sneeze. Yeah. That's like the extent of what I thought allergies were. No, man. I know that sounds very naive. Yeah. What's the quote? Can't relate. Like just can't relate. And, uh, um, I'm sorry you went through that. I'm glad you survived and, um, welcome back. Thank you. Just consider yourself lucky. And it's, uh, brutal, brutal, man. And I hope that I would grow out of it, but they are just maturing is what it seems like instead of, you know, itchy, watery eyes. It's like, no, you have like fake flu, which is why I went to the urgent care. Cause maybe it's, you know, like strep throat or something. Right. And the lady was like, no, it's not strep. If you're good, it's allergies. Take Flonase. It's like, I've been taking Flonase for about two months, getting ready for this crap. The video you sent me this morning, dude, literally I was like in tears, laughing so hard. My sister sent me that it's like these three guys dressed up like flowers, like sunflowers, like green jumpsuits and like a, uh, like a yellow flower onesie and a guy like about to walk out of his house and he sees them like at the end of his driveway. And they're, they're like gangsters. They're like standing out there, like plotting plotting. Cause I mean, as soon as he comes out here, we're going to jump all over him. It's going to be all up in his face, all up in his business. We're going to mess his whole day up. And the guy's at the doorstep with like his little, his little inhaler thing. Like, Oh, there he is. There he is. There he is. Say, come on, boy. Come on. Come on. We're not gonna bite. We're not gonna hurt you. He's like that. Look, that little inhaler is not going to do anything for you, though. Come on, come on. And he like runs to his car to try to get in his car before they get him. And like, he can't get the key out fast enough. And then the guys just like jump on like street fight, like jump him. Yeah. That's basically what it's like. Oh, and the part, and then he like touches the door handle and then it was like, like pollen all over his hand is like, like electric green with pollen. That's honestly, that's like three days away. Yeah. If, if not sooner, my car is black. So you can see a really, really good on mine. Yeah. It's already coming. Yeah. And we're going to have like the Richmond street soup, right? It's going to be like the salsa, the sand and the pollen from like the past few months. And we're going to mix it all up together into a nice little soup. Yeah. And I'm just going to scoop a cup of that out of the drain and drink it. Honestly. Yeah. I think it's a good strategy. I think it will. I think that'll, I mean, yeah, you got to like put allergies down for the count, like snort a line of bee pollen and then drink a cup of Richmond street suit. I mean, that's the concept behind antivirals anyway, is like, here's a little bit of the virus so that your body builds up an immunity for it. Like that's, I, I went to the doctor for an allergy test like five years ago and they mentioned like immunotherapy. I'd never heard of it. And I heard of it, but I didn't know what it was. And that's basically what it is. Like they give you, they do the test to find out what specifically you're allergic to. Then they design a cocktail and they give you a shot of it every month for two years. Yeah. And you're supposed to build up a tolerance to it. I was like, I don't want a shot every month for two years. Yeah. I'd rather just have the flu for 48 hours and then be done with it. Yeah. Well, you know, they also don't want you to be done with it in 48 hours. They want to put you on a two year monthly subscription. Hmm. Subscribe, get the premium package. So you get the best, not the medium, not the low. You get the best tier bee pollen injection you can get. Yeah. Yeah. Um, there's a super rare bird that just showed up here in, uh, Virginia or Richmond lately. And apparently it's like all the craze, you know? Yeah. So it's like the birds are out to play. The bees are out to play. We got the pollen allergies are showing up. Yeah, man. I think we've officially entered spring. I think so too. I think this, this today for sure is one of the nicest days we've had. It's like warm earlier in the day. Nice early day was like kind of a little foggy. And then midday, the sun was out, but there was like that thin layer of cloud. So it wasn't like baking on the skin. It's perfect. Yeah. And it like, it's got to cool down a little bit. It's going to be like that for another couple of days. It was nice. I went on a little, went on a little run. Let me show you this crazy bird. Yeah, man. People like drove here from like out of state. They like drove like, you know, from all over the country to see this bird. Bro. Like it's the, this is, we've said this before. I've said this before. It's stuff like this that just reminds me that we live in a small town that masquerades as a city. Yeah. Bird rarely seen in the U S sends people flocking to Virginia. Flocking. Yeah. Um, we have enough flock issues. The red flanked blue tail. It's not even red men. I know the red tail isn't okay. It tells kind of blue. Yeah. Uh, it's an Asian bird. I'm just a hater. Yeah. Bird. Okay. It looks, it looks like, um, it looks like a NASCAR. It does. It does. It blue with like a yellow stripe. It's blue and white body with like a yellow stripe on it. It looks like a NASCAR. Yeah. It's a good looking bird. Yeah. Yeah. The female is black. Well, yeah, it's, you know, it's got a little more dingy look. Cause the male's got to fight for the attention, you know? Yeah, true. They got a, uh, what do you call it? Peacock. Yeah. Show off the feathers. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. I'd be peep peep talking. Peacocking. Uh, unintentionally, I think just be out here living my life, man. Yeah. Yeah. Birds. I mean, they know what's up. They're doing something right. Are they? I mean, I've never, I've never spoken. I don't know what they're doing anyway. Yeah. I mean, they're dude, they're, they sing in the morning so that all the bird, all the flowers open up. Is that how that works? I mean, there are actually like, it's been a while since I looked into this, but it is actually pretty interesting. Like the, you know, all the songs and the calling of the birds is almost like what wakes up nature in the morning. I mean, it definitely wakes me up in the morning. Yeah. I actually, I don't mind the birds singing in the morning. It's it's the circadian, it's the sound version of her circadian rhythm, right? It's like, you know, it's morning time. And most of the time, most places it's like four 30 to five thirties when they start cranking it up, you know, 6 00 AM, the sun started to creep over the hill and the birds are going to town and it's nice. Yeah. Just reminds me of that. Like old timey scene from a lot of TV shows in like the sixties and seventies with that music, it's like, we'll play the song in the background. Yeah. But it's just like, morning is here. Welcome. It is. To a glorious day. And then I like swallow in my throat. It feels like gravel. And I'm like, yeah, this is tight. Yeah. I have a bird that every year, I don't know if it's the same bird, but every year there's a bird that makes a nest like at the, like at the corner of where my gutter meets the roof. And it's right outside of my bedroom, like right outside of my master bedroom. Yeah. And that's. Dude, first thing in the morning, it's like, not just the mama bird, but then all these little tiny birds making all these squeaks and stuff in the morning. And they're like, there's nothing I can do about it. Cause I forget about it every year. Yeah. You know, I could try to play something there and like block it if I would ever remember to do that. Cause some, I mean, it's early, you know, it's the moment the sun starts coming up. These birds are going at it, you know? Um, but yeah, so that'll be happening again this year. Cause I spotted the nest already and I was like, oh yeah. And I just leave it. It's fine. You got to prepare yourself, man. I know. Yeah. I was thinking the other day, I just having like a flashback of just old Richmond stuff. Do you remember a hookah bar called Sahara? I do. Yeah. Oh yeah. Did you ever go there? I did. Yeah. I went there a few times cause it was like right next to VCU before I mean, VCU has always been a big deal, but like before it really blew up in the past, you know, I guess over a decade ago, but yeah, I used to go there every now and then. Um, I could probably count, you know, less, less than 10 times, maybe even count on one hand, but, um, yeah, I definitely been there. That's one of the places that I have like the fondest memories of that period of time. That was like your stomping ground, right? It was, it was there all the time. That's where I like got my start as a DJ. Nice. That's where I learned how to get, how was like, that's where I got good at playing pool. That's where I learned what shawarma was like all the things. And yeah, it was like, it was the neighborhood hangout spot. I was friends with the owner. I actually ran into the owner, former owner of Sahara at Macy's like two months ago. Really? And he immediately recognized me and I immediately recognized him. And it's just, it was one of those things like, man, this is like a big, it was a big, like formative series or span of time. You know, I had a big group of friends that would go, we could go there anytime between 10 AM and 4 AM the next morning. Cause that's how long that they were open. You can get food until they closed at 4 AM the next day. You could hang out there under 21, which I did a lot. You could hang out there after the bar is closed because after you turn 21 and go to the bar club's done, you go to Sahara, he gets you, you know, a falafel sandwich, smoke a hookah with the boys, play some pool, call it a night at 4 AM. And it just reminds me, it's like, man, we don't, we don't have anything like that. Like not even close. Yeah. You know, there've been little pop-ups here and there over the years of spaces and places where you could go to that weren't a club, but they also weren't a restaurant. It was just like a place to just hang out. And, you know, I think it's probably a lot to do with like city economics and just the want and the need for it. COVID definitely didn't help, you know, reducing the size of spaces, making it so that people didn't want to hang out in close quarters, but it's just like, man, I learned how to DJ. I learned that I couldn't dance as well as I could, as well as I thought I could. I learned that I really liked trying to understand Middle Eastern men speak their language. I had no idea what they were saying, but they always laughed at me because they were like, Oh, he doesn't know what we're saying. But I was naive and didn't care. I was like, this is just, it was a cool place to just be and hang out. And it also reminded me of another spot that we were checking out pretty recently. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that's a good point. It does sort of have some parallels there. Um, so bar. Yeah. Yeah. So bar is super cool. So we went there. So last week it was last Saturday. Yeah. Right. So. So bar is a non-alcoholic speakeasy lounge. It's super cool. And they happen to be the sponsor of today's episode. So it's ran by, um, a friend of ours and somebody I've known for a really long time, which is Bobby Kruger and it's in the alchemy coffee space and alchemy coffee, you know, regular coffee shop during the day. They're a, a really great coffee shop. Actually, they're quite into the chemistry of coffee. Like they take, they take their coffee serious, but we had a great time. I really liked it. Um, so if you've ever, if you've ever wanted somewhere to go at night in Richmond, that doesn't just completely revolve around alcohol and getting drunk, this is the place more than ever. We need spaces like this where you can slow down, reconnect with people like you were just mentioning and just sort of reset. So bar is an alcohol free lounge located at eight one four West broad street, right near VCU during the day. It's known as alchemy coffee. And on Friday and Saturday night, it transforms into a low lit speakeasy style third space with frequent live music conversation and a curated menu of delicious handcrafted mocktails and simple snacks. Everything on the menu contains less than 5% alcohol. It's built for those moments when you really don't feel like sitting at home, but you don't want the typical bar scene either. It's a great place to meet friends, work from your laptop, maybe read a book or just hang out in a more relaxed environment where you can just chill. So if you're looking for a different kind of night out in Richmond, be sure to check out so bar and let them know that we have our house sent you. Um, it does kind of remind me of Sahara's a little bit like it's, and I think a lot of the, the change of course has to do with social media. You mentioned like the COVID change and stuff like people just aren't, they're not social anymore. They just don't have, it's not that they don't have an interest. I think there's like this weird level of uncomfortability with being social now that we didn't have before. And I mean, a huge part of it is because we see the world through a screen now. So it's almost like seeing the world in real life and in person when you're not on the internet, not at work, and then not in a familiar environment, all of a sudden it feels really weird and uncomfortable and like anxiety inducing. And so it is, it's tough to find places like that where you can just sit, hang out. There's no like agenda. You're not there to like get drunk and watch a football game or whatever. You're there to maybe listen to some music, just be around other people. It's similar in my opinion of why people go to a coffee shop. It's like, you don't really go to a coffee shop to be social, but you go to be in a social environment rather than just sitting at home or scrolling through your phone all day or watching Netflix all night. So yeah, I definitely think it's cool that Sobar is somewhat leading the way in creating a space like this. I think we've had a lot of conversations with people that want to do stuff like this. So it's cool to see somebody really pull the trigger, take the risk, set it up and do it. And yeah, we went last week and had a good time. Yeah, man, it's, it was a cool experience. You know, it's not flashy. It's not showy offy in any way. It doesn't have the bright lights like pulling your attention to it. So it may not register at first as you know, with the intent of what they're trying to convey with the space, but settling in for a little while, just sitting there, there was somebody playing live acoustic guitar and singing, which is pretty cool. There's no TVs, which I love about any sort of public space, no TVs. And you can get an alcoholic beverage. You can get a latte or you get a coffee if you want. Yeah. Non-alcoholic. Yeah. Non-alcoholic. And you can get a little snack. You can grab a magazine. You can read an article on your phone. If you want, you can choose to converse or chat with the people that are there. And it just reminded me of Sahara and reminded me of a want and a, like a yearning for that type of space. I have distinct memories, even like when I was drinking and definitely now of wanting somewhere to go and wanting to like have something to do between let's say 5 PM and like 12 midnight, let's call 12 was like the cutoff. I didn't want to be up any later than that. And five is when like the work day ends during the week. It's also when a lot of people choose to eat dinner or sit down for a meal. And you know, let's say I'm not going to a club. I don't want to go to a fine dining restaurant or just to any restaurant to sit down for a meal. And I'm not drinking or I want an alcohol substitute. I just want, I'm choosing not to have alcohol at this point in time. All of those other places, restaurants, bars, clubs are certainly it's a social space, but it is all intrinsically entwined with drinking and eating. Sobar or a space like that, you don't, none of that is required to be there. It also opens up the door for spontaneous connection and conversation, right? Like you mentioned that people don't connect in person because of the internet. I would argue or not argue, but I would kind of say that, yes, that's true. But think about a music concert, a live music concert, a venue, maybe something like Brambley park or even shows at the camel or the national, and I'm talking pre COVID. It was a massive social scene. Like you go there to see your friends, your people that were also fans of the music. You're talking with a stranger about the band that he saw them at this city. And you saw this other show that was killer. And you're swapping stories as a big part of that as well. Well, those all take place in a place where there's alcohol being served and there's really nothing else to do if you're not listening to the music. And I think the concept didn't catch on because of all of those things. It's like, well, what are people going to be attracted to if we don't have any of those things to offer? It's like, let it marinate a little bit. The parts of what those other things are getting are allowing people to get from them is what this place is supposed to try and cultivate without all of the stuff that's in the way, like a drink or food or music or a live performance or tickets at the door, what have you. I personally think it's great. There's a lot of room for growth and there's a lot of room for you to kind of make it your own. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm quite certain that they collaborate with 0.5, which for, you know, long-time listeners, listeners of the show, they'll know that we're great friends with them. We did an interview with Jodi. I think that's episode 20 where we spoke with her. And in that episode on this topic of like drinking, we talked about how in modern society, like alcohol is like stronger than it's ever been. You know, like we've never been just casually drinking alcohol at the strength that we currently are today. Right. That's only been a thing happening pretty much this century. Right. And barely that, you know, and, you know, take it back to like ancient Roman history, even with wine, people, wine was like a concentrate and you poured a little bit in a cup and you added water to it, you know, and it just, it's a totally different vibe now. And like anything, you know, especially in Western culture, we like push it to the extreme. Right. So you've got rumplements and crack in and like all this like crazy stuff. And it's like, dude, you have one cup of that and just be obliterated, you know, riding your dirt bike and running over cops on the road or doing donuts in the DMV parking lot or whatever. And it's like, you don't even, you're not even like in reality, you're so drunk. So it's nice to like, I think, try to not do that. Yeah. And sobriety comes in many different formats, you know, and I, you know, personally, I don't even tell people like, Oh, I'm sober. I just, I'm like, I don't drink. I just don't drink. I don't like drinking. Um, you know, and there's been times when I did like drinking and, uh, I'm in a chapter of my life where I just personally don't enjoy it, but I love having, you know, a little mushroom on the weekend or something, or obviously we tried like the THC gummies and stuff like that. And if you look at like the chart of, you know, what's the most harmful, it's not the stuff that we're told is bad for you. It's all like the, all this stuff at the top is the stuff that's sold to you and regulated by the government. It's cigarettes, it's alcohol. It's like, it's all that stuff, you know? Um, yeah. And what do you know it, they want to take over all the other drugs and make sure that they get part of that money too. But anyway, I digress. Um, I think that having a place that is not revolving around alcohol specifically is great. And it's a step in the right direction to get us back to what's important, which is like not having so much anxiety around just existing and like making friends, having a conversation with somebody you don't know. And Richmond is a unique city in that, in that sense, because it's a little bit different than New York where like, you don't have a choice, right? New York, you're maybe on the subway headed to work. And like, you're kind of always in these situations where there's opportunities to be social. Richmond is a little bit different. And yes, we're becoming a more like kind of metropolitan, really busy city. Um, but it's, it's not a place where there's just tons of people walking on the sidewalk, you know, yes, we have public transit, but it's like a little bit of a different vibe. Are all the cool parts of the city are sort of, you know, they're all segmented and not that other big cities aren't like that too, but yeah, I don't know. It's, it's cool to see people intentionally creating spaces that are meant for something other than all the typical stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree, man. I'm a social person. I know to a degree you can be a social person. I think it just makes me think about like, you know, the reason why people are motivated to go out in the first place is for connection. Yeah. That's the main reason that anyone leaves their house is to go to work, to fulfill a need at their job, to pay their bills and whatnot, whatnot. And then any extracurricular activity is for connection, connection with your friends, connection with your family, connection with nature. Being isolated is not in our, in our DNA, like being connected is in our written, in our genetic code. And yes, the anxiety around meeting new people, being in a room with strangers, starting conversations, holding conversations, that's a real thing. And it comes in lots of different flavors, varying degrees. Some people have it easier when it comes to making connections, meeting people. Some people have a really hard time. And you know, the, the kind of workaround was like, well, let me get a glass of wine. My inhibitions are lower. And then I won't care as much about how I felt. I'll just start talking. That has been the kind of major push behind alcohol and creating these environments is like, totally, I, I would argue you can do it on your own. Uh, there's plenty of proof and there are plenty of people who are on the same wavelength and would appreciate it and would actually prefer to do it without that. The other thing about this, you meet somebody new at the club or you're talking to somebody at the restaurant, at the bar and you're drinking and you have, you share a drink and you're like commiserating on having a drink together, which is like a connection thing. Like you're building a connection over a common interest. Intrinsically, you're automatically connected to that person. You get their contact, you get their Instagram. The next day is like, this person could potentially be a new friend. And all you had to do was share a bottle of the same liquid. It's pretty flimsy connection because you still have to build the real interpersonal bridges between your commonalities, your dislikes, your likes, and the things you enjoy about each other. You still have to do that stuff. But what happens now is, well, let's grab a drink next week. So you go out, you get a drink and then you just get drunk again and you do exactly what you did, but you do it a little bit longer, a little bit, whatever. And I noticed this when I chose to not drink as well. The people that I had built those bridges with around the social aspect of going to a bar, to a club, or to a restaurant, we didn't really have a lot left in common. And it is unfortunate that it turns out to be the case. Now that doesn't mean that I am not friends and can't continue to be friends with those people. It just means that we have to be more intentional about how to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, even being an entrepreneur is like that too. It's like at some point people decide to be an entrepreneur. And in some ways, you ostracize yourself from people who don't live that same lifestyle. It's like people have a structure. And for many people that's working Monday through Friday, and then they take the weekends off and do whatever. And when you choose not to live by that structure, it's like you lose that connection with those people sometimes. Maybe not to the same degree, because yeah, whatever, but I totally agree. But you mentioned in what you said, you said about the nightclubs. And even when we were in the car the other day, we drove by a club, was it 534? Yeah. Yeah. Why do you think nightclubs don't work here? That's a great question, man. I wish they did. I really, really wish they did. I have some theories. Are you ready? I'm ready, dude. Okay. Theory number one, Richmond doesn't want nightclubs to exist here. And that when I say Richmond, I mean the city infrastructure, the government here doesn't want nightclubs to exist. Now nightclubs are a part of any culture, any modern civilized culture. Nightlife, entertainment, music, and social connection are a part of any big city. You have to have that because that's a part of being a human. So you have enough humans in one space, they need stuff to do, and that's part of it. I'm from Richmond, so I do remember a time where there were at least a dozen nightclubs between Shockoe Bottom, Southside, East End, and Midtown. There were a dozen clubs that you could go to at any given day of the week. There was music, there were DJs, there was the nightlife part of Richmond was, for the most part, alive and doing well. Somewhere along the lines, something changed. It may have been a series of events. It may have been a regime change. It may have been a decision at a higher level than I'm privy to, but I remember being 18, 19, and going to the underage clubs on 18th Street, which there were two of them, Have a Nice Day and Tiki Bobs. You can go there every week, and there were hundreds of hundreds of people of all ages, but for the most part, on those nights, it would be 18 up. On the weekends, after I turned 21, Saturday, Friday, Saturday night, sometimes on Sunday, there was Catch 22, there was The Boss, there was Club 534, there was Have a Nice Day, Tiki Bobs was still there, and those were all. Club 534 was on VCU campus, and there was another club on Gray Street, which was across from Sahara, and then there was a club there. It was a handful of different names, but it was a club there, and then there were five or six clubs downtown, and this is before Off the Hookah, this is before Commercial Tap House, before Lucky Buddha was down there, Cha-Cha's was down there, so you had nine places to just go to, and the bottom was the spot. Tobacco Company is the longest running nightclub in the city. It's been open for 30-something years, and it's the only one that's been able to stay open that long, and they have their reasons whether they're able to do that. They check a lot of boxes all at once, but something that I've learned about being a DJ and working in the nightlife industry is that there are grandfathered institutional rules and regulations that are not always enforced, but when they are enforced, they make it almost impossible to own one. They make it almost impossible to open one and to stay open. ABC percentage rule. You have to sell 60% of your sales have to come from food if you sell alcohol. To get an ABC license, there's a whole giant process. It's a lot of hoops to jump through, but if you don't sell enough food, you can't stay open, or your liquor license is suspended. Nightclubs make the bulk of their money from sales of alcohol after dinner is over, so what are you supposed to do? A lot of clubs would fudge the books. They would sell 13 to$20 bottles of water and call it food. They would say that a Red Bull was food, so every time you ordered a Red Bull and vodka, they're selling food, but that only lasts for so long because every now and then, inevitably, the ABC commission would come down. They would actually do what's called a raid. They would call it a raid, and they would hit multiple clubs and venues at the same time in one night. Wow. This actually just happened to Loso on Broad Street two weeks ago. They raided multiple venues and nightlife establishments in the city on the same night. What happens is, I've seen it all too many times, is that the owner or the manager would get a message from somebody else that they know and say, hey, ABC is out. They might come to your spot next. What happens is, the alcohol beverage control marshal comes in, who is an armed agent. He has a gun and a badge. Wow. Then the fire department will come in, and they'll come in with ... Fire marshal will come in. He's also vested up and has a jacket on. They'll come in and tell you to turn the music off or down. They'll ask you to see your books, and they'll check to see if you have what's called a cabaret license. A cabaret license is an old world Virginia law that says that you have to have a special certificate where any sort of music is playing and people are dancing to it. I don't know, man. Stuff like that's infuriating. Who are you telling? Yeah. It's like, who is anybody to say like, oh, here's the structure. We're going to play some music. We're going to dance. Yeah. No one should need a badge and a vest to say, yeah, sorry, you don't meet the criteria to do that. There's more. Yeah. Once more, moreover, Richmond was hit with a sweeping enforcement of copyright infringement in the mid to late 2000s. You can fact check me on this, but the organizations that handle copyright for music artists, ASCAP and BMI, they handle royalty payouts when someone's music is being played or shared somewhere. They came through Richmond as they did with lots of other cities that have venues, and they cited all of the restaurants that were playing music from Spotify or Apple Music and had DJs or bands that were playing copyrighted music. Those fines are no joke. Yeah. What happened was they came through, they said, you have to play. This is why some restaurants will have a streaming service called Muzak that has licensed all of their music from BMI or ASCAP that you're allowed to play through like a box and you stream it. It's not Spotify because it's licensed from this royalty payout organization. If you didn't do that, you pay a fine or you just can't have music. Yeah. That happened and scared everybody, shook everybody in their boots. This is like I said, in mid to early, mid 2000s and mid 2010s. It's all of those things. Compounding over years and years is enough for any owner or venue, potential venue owner, to just say that's not worth the trouble. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of where it is. Understandable. I mean, frustrating, but I get it. With the music thing, it's almost the same as, yeah, it's like in a bar, you can't just like play the NFL games or the UFC matches. It's like, yeah, you need a certain license to do that. You can't just like pay your, you can't buy a pay-per-view for a hundred bucks and then show it to the whole bar. Like you just, you're not supposed to do that. Yeah. So I, that part I get because, you know, major sports, whatever, but especially when it's an artist, it's like, yeah. Yeah. An artist, the way they make their living is their music. So that part, I understand a little bit more where it's like, yeah, you can't just stream music. You know, that part I understand. Yeah. I did actually see a Reddit thread on this topic where someone was asking these same questions and they said, I've heard people mention lucky Buddha or have a nice, have a nice day cafe from about 15 years ago, but it seems like Richmond doesn't really have a nightclub scene anymore. Are there different laws or rules that apply to venues or is clubbing just really not a thing in Richmond these days? So obviously you talked about the rules and all that other stuff and people responded, you say like the ABC laws in the state prohibit a lot of nightclubs for being successful because they have to sell food. Somebody said, you know, cause people were saying it's like 50%, somebody said, no, it's even higher than that. And then somebody responds and says it has nothing to do with the food alcohol breakdown. There have been several clubs in Richmond over the past 30 years and they always end the same way, a shooting, it kills the business and it can't recover. It happened to the flood zone. It happened to have a nice day and it seems like folks downtown just can't chill and enjoy a place before somebody ruins it. Um, and so, you know, yeah, you know, and of course it just happened again recently. Yeah. Um, you know what I mean? Shootings happen all, happen all over the place in all kinds of different cities, but yeah, there's something about nightclubs, big groups of rowdy people getting drunk, really loud music. You know, I mean, there's something about it that maybe kind of creates those environments sometimes, you know, and it's like, dude, I'm going to go there with this. So the shootings scenario is, is, is accurate. Like that's, that's an accurate telling and kind of viewpoint when it comes to nightlife. It reminds me of starlight. Do you remember starlight? Oh yeah, of course. Starlight. I don't know. Starlight was cool, man. Starlight was cool. It was kind of a college bar, but it was like the best college. Yeah, it was great. Like it's cool. It was like you go there between Wednesday and Saturday and just have a blast with you and your friends. You're just getting drunk. You're listening to music. There's singalongs. It was vibe. Now they started having DJs and starlight would just play like radio music on the iPad, but they were playing like hits and you know, yeah, you know, good music for a nightlife. They started having DJs and I played there. My buddy Amir played there, another guy that I, a few other guys that I know that DJ had played there and they wanted to mix it up. They kind of wanted to diversify the crowd. Well, I don't want to dive too deep into that, but diversify basically means more than just white college kids to put it plain and simple. They wanted to mix it up. Richmond is a diversity. They didn't want that to just be like the white college kid bar. Not that there's anything wrong with that. They just want to change it up. Starlight had been around for, you know, 15 years. So they had some DJs come in and play different types of music. The open format is what that's called. You know, anything from hip hop to Latin music to rock to whatever by open formats. But they started to garner a more diverse crowd with that more diverse crowd came more adult black folks, men and women. And with that came exactly what this person on Reddit is talking. Unfortunately, this is a character trait that is almost hard. It's really hard to just flat out deny it. When there's hip hop music, the crowd that comes around it and forms around it is often associated or directly responsible for an increase in violence in the bar, in the club or on the street. And what happened, like this person is saying, there was a shooting at Starlight. They canceled all the DJs. They actually recovered and they started to have DJs again, maybe like a year later. But then they closed a couple of years after that. And it's now a barbecue spot. Yeah. And I mean, you know, look, dude, I mean, I love hip hop and rap music. And the truth is, most of it is about violence, you know, violence, gang violence. Like think of any, especially the rappers who have lost their lives, right. Or who have been accused of taking other people's lives. Like, it's a huge part of rap culture and hip hop culture. So it's like, yeah, people who are a fan of it. And I'm not innocent either. You know what I mean? I don't go to night clubs and kill people. But like, when you listen to rap music, there's like this level of like aggression and hype that you get. And it's just part of the music, you know, and it's it has in. Yes, sure. Some of it has to do with societal factors and all that stuff. But it actually is like there's more science behind it than that. It even comes down and I'm sure you know this too, but it even comes down to like the actual notes and tones and beats that they're using in the music, right? Like if you listen to a Katy Perry song and you stripped the vocals and the lyrics out of it, and then you listen to like a little Dirk song and you strip the vocals and lyrics out of that, it's a totally different vibe, you know, or you listen to like young Dolph or something. And again, take the person and the vocals and the lyrics out of it and just listen to the production of the song. It's a much more like aggressive type of music. And it does. It gets the people going. It just makes you want to bonk someone in the head, you know, and then sometimes you just got to let it out, you know? So I mean, I guess the consensus after all that is one, Richmond and Virginia as a whole doesn't want Richmond to have nightclubs. And it may be a chicken in the egg situation. We can't handle it. Yeah, yeah. There's a great comment here that says, it's simple. Kids don't have money, so kids don't go to clubs, therefore no more clubs. Somebody responded and said, facts, it costs $50 to leave your house minimum. And I mean, you know, they're not wrong. You pay to play like, yeah, it's not free. Yeah, yeah. But dude, man, today is a day of nostalgia. Yeah. You know, because you got me thinking about like, um, cha-chas and what was the place next to it? The really popular one? Was it society? What did what Lucky Buddha turned into? Okay, that's right. Yeah, yeah. And then you had like Europa that was a couple doors down. And dude, what a different time, man. So good. I would have never thought about that nightclub across from Sahara's ever. Yeah. The rest of my life until you mentioned it. It was a hip hop club. It was like a rap club exclusively. But I'd been in there and I remember because the front was like, you know, dude, that was, yes. Wow. I went there too. And I was like, this isn't my, it's not my vibe. Yeah. Not for me. It was loud. Yeah. The front was like the big glass and like the aluminum casing of the windows and stuff. And the windows would always end up. It's Chipotle now. Right. It's Chipotle. Yeah. Which is crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. That's the perfect sign of like the modern times. Right. Yeah. Take the nightclubs and turn them into a Chipotle and sling salad bowls. It's so crazy, man. But like, think about, think about like that period of time, you know, we were, we were talking about our like kind of coming up in Richmond, uh, experiences where like house parties were a thing and shows jungle juice. Like there was so much stuff to do at night. Yeah. Like you can have your pick. Like I was talking to a friend literally today. It was like, look, you know, remember gray street or like anywhere on VCU campus, any given night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Thursday, you could just grab a six pack or grab a case, walk down Harrison street and like go into somebody's house and just be at a party. Yeah. Like that's, that's all you had to do. And you brought your own beer. So nobody thought you were weird. You start a fight or somebody starts a fight with you and then you just leave. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. If you wanted to, you go down the street, you go to, you go to Helen's, you could go to, at the time there was a spot called Nara sushi, which was next to, um, the, the hot dog place. What's it called? God, what's it called? Uh, city dogs, city dog. Yeah. And my friend would be DJing there. You could keep walking down main street. You go to Baja B on the patio and then you keep walking a little bit further. You could go a sidewalk. Yeah. Keep walking. Sticky rice. Keep walking. There was deluxe, pearl, vintage, pearl and vintage or upstairs. You keep walking. There's like a little joint across the street. I don't remember what it was called back in the day, but go down another block. And then it was Lady Nolans Sullivan, Lady Nolans Sullivan's, which is what was its own thing. Yeah. Huge block party. Go down one more block. You're at Helen's and starlight. And like, you can have an incredible night just walking down the street. Yeah. Now you have to be very intentional about what you do. You have to know you're going to this place and you have to make time conscious decisions. Like we're going to go to two places tonight. We're going to take an Uber to get to the first one. Actually, no, we're going to pregame at the house because we don't want to just go to a restaurant before we go to the clubs. We're going to hang out. We're going to shoot the shit. We're going to get ready. Then we're going to go to the one spot for about an hour and a half, two hours. Then we're going to go to the other spot. And then maybe if we've got like 45 minutes, we'll hit the one last spot for last call. Yeah. That's it. It's just a different world, man. We live in a different world. You know, you're reminding me that is today St. Patty's day or like yesterday? I don't know, but like the Irish festival. Yeah. Everybody's out today. And, um, my neighbor across the street is having a good old, old fashioned block party, dude. Really? And it was kind of like geeking me out. Cause I was like, I can't even remember the last time I've seen something like this. Like the backyard is packed full of people. They're playing beer pong. They got a band. They like rented a band that was like playing cover songs all day. Um, everybody's wearing green. They're all painted up even the front yard. And this is what got me is cause I went on a run and I'm like, you know, I'm suited up to go on a run and I'm looking at these people and they're like in green. It really reminded me of like the time era that we're talking about right now, because there's just like people standing in the front yard, just talking. And it, it almost, I hate to even say this, but like, it almost looked weird. I was like, it is, it is, but it didn't used to be. Cause it's like, that's what everybody used to do. You just used to like stand and like talk to people. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, it's what a sad thing to recognize. Like, why does this look so strange? And it only feels that way because nobody does it. Right. But man, they're having a good old house party, dude. And uh, pretty cool. Look, look, PSA fight for nightlife. It's important. It builds character. You get your exposure to all different kinds of people. There are certain people that don't do anything except go to work and exist at a night club. Yeah. Right. Some of those people don't have any sort of social life outside of putting on a vampire costume and then going to the club. Yeah. You get to meet some of the really like the coolest people. Some of the most valuable connections that I've ever had have happened at night in a club atmosphere. Fight for nightclubs. Yeah. Well, dude, here's a, here's a bit of a curve ball. Maybe people don't do this anymore and have these house parties and stuff because their rent for their 400 square foot apartment is like 3,500 bucks, you know? True. So yeah, it's like, yeah, I'm not just opening my door to like dozens, if not hundreds of people to just wreck my whole shit. You know, it's like maybe that, right? I saw this listing on Zillow said this 788 square foot house on Venable street could be yours for just $325,000. So basically a closet and a, like half of a kitchen. It's a, it's a bit of a turd. Um, it's, I mean, it's, it's not even a turd. It's just that it's like a wildly overpriced. Um, it's, it's just crazy. And it's right next to, it's literally like up against like a restaurant. Um, it's up against, what is that place? You know, of course, in the Zillow description, it says like, Oh, it's charming and it's small and it's in a vibrant neighborhood. It's like, I don't know about that, dude. I mean, I used to go around in my, you know, label street isn't charming. Yeah, bro. Like Venable street, you know, Overbrook, you know, now North side's getting a lot nicer now. So Overbrook's actually like a nice place to live back in the day. It was not, you know? Um, yeah, dude, it's crazy. So that same house it's sold in 2022 for $92,000. So bro, imagine what that thing sold for pre COVID, right? That's like a $40,000 house. And now it's almost $400,000. It's crazy. And like we talk about, I mean, we don't talk about it, but it's been talked about that the things are overinflated and not worth the price that they're being valued at. And, but people are still paying for it. So it like just does everybody who can't afford it dirty because then everything else just gets more expensive. Yeah. And then you're, you're sitting in here, you're sitting at your house on a Friday night eating, you know, cheez-its because you can't afford to go to the club because you can't afford an $85 Uber with surge. And you can't afford to spend $16 on a water because they don't have tap and you can't afford to buy a glass of champagne or a glass of wine because it's $27. And there's a tip included that you didn't choose. It's just automatically all that I could go on, but I get it. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, dude, you know, let's keep in mind, it's not just a $300,000 house in a not great area. It's a 700 square foot, two bedroom, one bath up against fat rabbit, like the little cafe. Yeah. Like literally the patio for fat rabbit is like in the front yard of this house. Like here, I'll show you the picture. Um, so it's like, dude, I'm not so sure about that. And I think people underestimate how, don't get me wrong. You live in a tiny house. That's, you know, 500 square feet. And that's, that's great. But think about like what you would pay to rent an apartment and an apartment comes with a gym and amenities and a lobby downstairs and whatever. Right. Like, so this is the house, this little tiny building right here. Oh, it's so small, very small. I mean, it's insanely small. It's like on this main road and this is a restaurant right here. So this is a restaurant patio in your front yard. Why would somebody 300 and some thousand dollars. Yeah. You know, somebody is going to buy it. And that's exactly what you mentioned, which is like, I could see the charm or it's a developer. It is like, I'm going to use this lot for a new Starbucks or whatever. Yeah. Something, which would almost be, I mean, not Starbucks, but you know, it would almost be better to just knock the thing down. But what ends up happening is you get the, it's called like a bandaid flip. You know, it's like someone buys that thing for super cheap, buys it, you know, dude, that's crazy. I mean, in 2022, that house was 90, 90,000 bucks, super affordable. Obviously it's very small and not ideal, but it's like, yeah, that price reflects the home. Yeah. But then someone comes in there, does a bandaid flip. They smack a bandaid on it, put a new washer and dryer in there, fix a couple of things, a landlord special where they just cake on, they paint the windows closed. Yes, exactly. You know, and then they just crank the price up because they know that people don't have options right now, you know, and don't get me wrong. I love my neighborhood, man, but there's a house across the street that just went up for like $1.2 million. And I was like, dude, it's good for you. I know. But see, it's the same thing where it's like, it is, but is it, is it good? You know? And it's like, don't get me wrong. But the thing is, the more that happens, the more the taxes on my house go up. Cause then the valuation of the home keeps going up, you know, which increases my mortgage and increases insurance and increases all these things. So sure. If I want to sell the house, which I will eventually, yeah, I'll make a killing on it. Um, but even me, I'm like, I don't know, bro, that thing's worth like 800 grand at most. It's like, dude, 1.2 million. And it's, you know, it's not when we were kids and you think about, wow, a millionaire, like a million dollar home. It's like, it's not, it's like a one story rancher with two bedrooms. Yeah. A millionaire today. It means you drive a brand new Honda pilot and you live on Venable street in a 788 square foot home. That's what being a million. Yeah. It says a Honda pilot is like $60,000. Yes. And it's a beautiful brand new car, you know? But yeah, it's like 60 grand on the Honda pilot, 325 on your home on Venable street. And, uh, congratulations. You're like the modern version of poor. I'm just going to build a time machine instead of buying a house. Yeah. And the time machine consists of, uh, a grinder that blends mushrooms and LSD and then sprays it in my face like a mist. So when I get out of the time machine, I'm in whatever time that I want to be. Yeah, dude, it's better than, uh, it's better than the pollen, I guess, right? Seriously, bro. That's crazy. And like, you made the, you made the mention of, you know, why someone would choose an apartment. And like, we are on both sides of that conversation or two sides of the conversation. Cause I chose an apartment, but I had been looking at houses before I chose my apartment, but I'm making the choice to rent as a whole versus buying, right. That's a, it's a whole conversation itself, but it's for reasons like this. I did look at the houses and the houses that I would actually be interested in moving into, you know, a one story ranch or a little bungalow. It's $250,000. Yeah. And the term house poor comes into play. It's like, unless I have enough money to, cause I would have to do a little bit of a flip on it. It's going to be an old house. It's gonna need work. It's gonna need upkeep. And then I've got to pay a mortgage on a house that costs 250 K. It's more than what I would pay to rent the apartment that I'm in now. And I wouldn't have any of that stuff. Like the amenities were more appealing to me saving all of my extra money for my personal investments, saving it for things that I want to spend on money on my personal side, investing in this business. The math didn't math and it really doesn't anymore. Yeah. And it's, yeah, it's becoming less mathable over time. You know, every now and then I kind of miss like having, you know, a balcony and a gym downstairs. And, you know, it's like, you kind of dig it, you know, and, and don't get me wrong. Like I'm, I'm very happy in my situation, but, um, when it comes to like these houses, any old house or like, you know, you buy, yeah, less than half a million dollars. Yeah. You end up having to make improvements, which is wild to say, but, you know, I'm about to spend a year's worth of what I would spend in rent just to replace my HVAC unit, you know? And it's like, yeah, you're talking, I know, 7,500 to $12,000. And it's like, you know, maybe that's not quite a year's worth of rent, but it's a solid, you know, it's a solid chunk of cash just to upkeep the house, you know? And then you got all these energy issues, right? So it's like, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, it's going to cost me like over $10,000 either way, you know? And they're both pretty miserable. And dude, I said this thing the other day where like the, um, the Virginia general assembly just passed nine bills to increase the electricity costs in Virginia. I saw this in your notes. What? Dude, the 2026 Virginia general assembly has passed at least nine separate new laws that will increase the cost of your electricity. Not one of the bills creates a single megawatt of additional energy for common use. Most of the bills create new ways for the utilities to take money from all of the rate payers and spend it to benefit a small set of customers, mainly based on low income. Those will be praised by advocates as affordability measures, at least for those beneficiaries, but for the majority of people, it will only mean added costs. So there's, we can include the link to this. This is from the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. We'll link the, the article in the description because it explains all nine of these bills here. Um, you know, but basically it's, yeah, we won't get into politics, but it's, you know, certain things are being vetoed by the new governor. There's all this stuff, you know, happening and it's, you know, it's the same thing where it's like the loss of freedom disguised as protection and safety, right? The increase of expenses for the majority of population disguised as like solving homelessness and helping poor people. It's like, dude, since when has the government establishment cared at all about poor people and who is still buying? Like that's not real. You read that. And I can tell that the art, the, the author of that article takes the same tone. It's like, it's going to be praised as assistance for less or lower income. Yeah, no, I don't buy it. It's crap, dude. You know, and like, you can even get into like solar and all that other stuff too. Like you have all these solar companies that like intentionally target old people because like they make more money on financing the solar equipment. So literally what happens is they sell it to old people on purpose because the old people aren't going to live for the longevity of the solar system. So they make a huge commission on selling it up front. Then it increases the value of the home. And then when the person dies, not only do they default on the loan, but the solar company comes back and either acquires the equipment now that the loan's been defaulted on. So they just get all the equipment back and resell it, or they partner with property developers and say, Hey, this person has died. They defaulted on the home, go in and pick it up and then resell it for more now that the solar system is there. And then they basically give them a bulk discount for the leftover loan that's on the solar system. So it's like, dude, it's, it's not good. So anyway, the reason I bring up the solar thing is because this law makes that okay. It makes that legal. And it, I mean, it's, is anyone getting in the way of it? Is anyone trying to cut it off at the pass? Us. It's just us talking about it on the VeriHouse podcast. It's just, so if you're listening, I don't know what you can do, but cast a vote, carry your pigeon, you know, write a little note and send it to your representative. I don't know, but awareness is the beginning. Yeah. I mean, people just need to be aware of this stuff and, and continue the conversation. And I think Virginia as a whole has done a good job of like raising the issue of the data centers. Obviously the whole power thing is getting a lot of scrutiny. Is it making a difference? I don't know. And with all this stuff going on, you know, the consensus is probably not, um, it's easy to just like get caught up in all this stuff and just be infuriated by it all. And I think a lot of people spend a lot of time doing that. You know, they just like are constantly infuriated by the news and politics and all this stuff. So knowledge is power. It's good to be aware of it, but in small doses, you know, and I mean, my way of trying to do everything I can is learning about energy efficiency. And it's like, all right, well, if we got a bunch of evil, satanic pedophiles that are trying to like purposely increase our electricity costs, the best thing I can do is like understand how to be more efficient with my home, you know, and just try to do the best that I can. Or if you really want to get your frustrations out, you can go to RVA glove up guns down. Okay. Have you heard of that? No. It's it's an event that offers outlets to fight out your problems. Oh, sick. Like actually getting into the ring and fighting other people instead of taking it to the street and causing a bigger problem with gun violence, bro. Pause. Can we be the commentators for one of these? Yes. Can somebody involved please invite us to commentate on one million percent. I actually know quite a bit about like boxing and MMA. So let me in there. An event in Richmond aimed to give people a constructive way to channel their emotions before they lose before those emotions turn deadly. Community members came together at Diversity Richmond on Friday. RVA gloves up, gloves down to box shop for vendors and connects all with a goal of steering people away from gun violence. It's pretty cool. It's a video. I'll show you the video here where you just get into the ring, you put gloves on, and then you just box like spar with a stranger to get your frustrations. That's awesome. It's like a rage room, but you get to take it out on another person. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, it sounds great to me. Yeah. It's all fun and games until like a semi-pro boxer comes in there and just like totally jack somebody up. Just wreck somebody. But yeah, look, like people are actually in there gloving up. Let's go. Yeah, man. So the organizers of RVA glove up guns down, please let us be the commentators for one of these events. At least once. Let us give it a shot, man. We're entertaining. We're fun. Let us in there. Oh, nice. They got like merch and hoodies. Yeah. So it's a whole thing and it's a whole like events. It seems like a pretty cool community event where you can go and wreck somebody, a complete stranger. If you had a bad day waiting in line at the DMV. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, honestly, the DMV should have like a waiting room and with that going on, you know, it's like, that's what you do. Like while you're waiting. Yeah. Oh man. It seems like a really cool opportunity, man. Like I, I haven't done one of the rage rooms like where you go on like break. I've never done it either. Or anything like that, but it sounds cool. And I've never boxed, so it would be a first for me. Yeah. But I'd be interested to take a swing at a stranger. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Why not? In a safe space with like you and me, like the ref is there. Somebody is commenting on it. Yeah. Sign me up. Dude, you want to box? I'm down. We could do it, man. We can do it. You know what? I mean, physical exertion to relieve violent energy is like the best, safest way to do it. Yeah. Right? Like I keep seeing on TV and movies, the trope of men are violent and men fight each other and women think it's stupid, but women fight each other psychologically like assassins. So instead, like there's a TV show called new girls. One of my favorite shows on new girls. So incredible. And, uh, Zoe Deschanel's character, Jess and CC get into a woman fight, which is different than a men fight. And a men fight is like Schmidt and Winston get into a fight, but instead of like harboring resentment and talking shit behind their back, like Schmidt just slaps Winston in the face and say, are we finished? Like, yeah, we're done. And the women are like, guys are so dumb. Yeah. And then later in that episode, one of the women does something to the other. And instead of fighting about it, they just like start dealing out or doling out like fake pleasantries. Oh my God, I love your dress today. Right. And it's psychological manipulation. And later she's like, we can't talk about it. If we talk about it, then everything that we've ever wanted to say to each other is going to come out and we're never going to be friends again. I was like, well, just take it to the rain, dude. I mean, you say that, but I saw this video of these four women fighting at like a Henrico Wawa, like on the sidewalk. It was like, just happened. And dude, they were, I saw that. Okay. That was down the street. Well, they were, they were getting after it, dude. I don't know what that was about, you know, but yeah, it's like four women just beating the brakes off each other. And like one guy kind of trying to break it up. And then at some point, I think he just joins them. He's like, screw it. And then he starts beating them up. And then he's like, wait, I probably shouldn't be doing this. And he changes his mind and tries to break them back up again. The video is so funny. The person that's filming is like pretty like far enough away that they're not in the fray. But then out of like left frame, this guy, this random guy just comes in with his phone and he's like in the fight with his phone. Like so close. It's like, just the stuff you see at a Wawa parking lot. Yeah. It's totally like something out of like a WWE skit or something. Ridiculous dude. Or yeah, man, if you want to get your frustrations out, don't do it in the street. Like the women at the Wawa. Yeah. Don't do that. Dude. So we'll finish on this note because it's been a day of nostalgia. Did you ever go to, or have you heard of Slotarama? I've heard of Slotarama. I never went, but I always wanted to go. Okay. So this is pretty cool. This person made a documentary about Slotarama back in 2006. So 20 years ago. And it's crazy. Like it's crazy to even say that 2006 is 20 years ago. Yeah. That is kind of nuts. Um, but it says Slotarama where bicycle bohemians gathered to drink PBR and play bike games. I figured I'd wait 15 years to release this now seems like a good time. And this video is four minutes. We won't watch the whole thing, but you should watch a couple of minutes of checking it out. Yeah. It's just very, um, dude, it's Richmond nostalgia, man. Just riding bikes under the bridge, having a good old time drinking a PBR tall boy carrying the speakers across the bridge on a bicycle. It's a blast, man. Like bike culture is very cool. And it's, there's nothing like it. You know, you just biking with your boys and your friends and even people you don't know is pretty cool because it's like something you can do as a group, but you don't have to be social if you don't want to. And it's just like, uh, you know, we've come full circle back to the third space thing. It's rare to be able to find a community where you can feel like you're hanging out, having a good time with friends and with a community, but you, you're just riding bikes, getting a little exercise, having some fun, doing some crazy stuff, you know, and Slotarama is like the fullest embodiment of that. Plus some craziness and getting drunk and lighting stuff on fire and jousting each other. It's very much the, the Richmond punk version of like bike friends. Yeah. Right. It was like forties. People like throwing their bikes into the middle of this abandoned tent structure, which if you go to bell isle, it's still there. It's, it hasn't been turned into anything. It's this, this, this empty kind of decrepit. So that used to be in the tent. Yeah. It used to be a cargo hold for ammunition. Gotcha. Like back during the historical site. Yep. Yeah. And there's just like hundreds of kids on their bikes. They're doing like the bike jousting where they're like somebody's riding a bike and then someone's on their shoulders and they try to knock one another, like one another off. I see them doing the, um, they're like holding mugs, like beer mugs and like trying not to drop them is like a challenge. Yeah. The Stein challenge, or maybe they're holding like cases of beer. It's kind of hard to tell, but like, yeah, it was anarchy in its purest form. Yeah. That's what it says. A day of mayhem. And, uh, that is surely exactly what it was. Well, this also reminds me of best friend's day. Yeah. Very similar best friend's day. Yeah. And they also have this thing called burning van. Yeah. Uh, yeah, it's all, they're all interlinked. Yeah. It's, it's very, this is very, very Richmond for sure. Yeah. I love it, man. It is, it does make me nostalgic for, for like connection like that. Cause like that, that happens in small doses with like small groups of people nowadays, but like to get something like that together, you know, I'd say, I'd say it would be a stretch to like pull it off. And with that type of energy and like commitment to the bit. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's a vibe dude. It's a vibe. And it's one that Richmond hasn't seen in a long time. I mean, in some form or another, I think we see it from time to time, but it's just, yeah. Time has changed. It's not the same. I know you talked about hopefully even doing maybe like a show or a set in some sort of place like this under, under a bridge or in some abandoned build it like that'd be sick, you know, you're back. Yeah, man. Like we're, we're still very much a punk, like against the, against the, the establishment kind of a vibe. And it's there it's in smaller doses than it's ever been, but it is still there. It's still alive. You know, there's, there's a group of friends of mine that do parties in the abandoned tunnel underneath what used to be a factory that you see as you're approaching, um, rockets landing that building on the right where you're next to kickstand. There's a cunt, there's a tunnel under there and people have raves in the tunnel. Sweet. I'll see you there, dude. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. So throw away your phone, get you a non-alcoholic bevy, put on some boxing gloves, punch your friend in the face, and then I'll see you at Slotarama afterwards. Dude, it sounds like a great Sunday. Um, I'm sure that you saw this freaking crazy 100 person brawl at short pump mall. I did. And honestly, I don't, I don't, I don't really even know what to think about it. It's kind of insane. It's also hilarious that it happened in short pump and it was like a bunch of kids, like teenagers. I mean, dude, it's, you know, is it gen X? Is it the generation before them or after them? I don't, I don't even know, man, but what a wild, weird, random thing. You know, it's funny because from time to time people ask me and ask us, like, how do you come up with topics, you know? And it's like, dude, trust me, they just keep showing up. They just keep coming. Yeah. They just, you can't make this stuff up. Yeah, man. It's insane. You know, and especially the past couple of weeks, there's always some crazy shit going on here, dude. It's like, it just makes something up and it's not, and it's still not even close to like the real thing. Seriously. If someone were to say, oh yeah, did you get caught up in the, the huge fight of like a hundred plus people in Henrico in at short pump mall? It's like, no, I sure didn't. What is that all about? Yeah, man. Like I, I haven't done a lot of investigation into like what happened with it, like what started it or anything, but I did see a bunch of clips of just like mayhem, just like kids everywhere. And it just, it's anarchy. And like, there's cops all over the place. And like, at first I couldn't believe that it was actually a hundred people. And then it was confirmed by the police that there were, I think over a hundred kids. Right. Yeah. It doesn't even, yeah. When someone says that, it's like, okay, that's clearly an exaggeration. Right. But no, I mean, it was all over the news. It happened at like 7 PM. So apparently there was a social media post for a quote, takeover event. So of course, related to what we just spoke about on the last episode, people, you know, doing burnouts and donuts in the middle of broad street. Uh, so it was a large crowd of middle to high school age children. Um, several dozen teens were dropped off at the mall unsupervised and were seen running around to different areas of the property. Henrico police is working with mall security to understand the situation. There were reports of possible gunshots, but turned out to be false. There were no reported injuries. Someone said I was by the Kroger and I was just leaving there, grabbing some groceries. I was coming out of the store and a whole bunch, a swarm of kids came out, at least 50 kids came out of nowhere and they were all running and screaming and whatnot. Um, honest, I couldn't believe it. You know, up here, you don't really hear about all that. Shore pump is just kind of like higher end places. So I was really stunned to hear about it. I think upping the security would be good just so everybody feels comfortable. It's like, yeah, yeah. I don't want to get swarmed and stampeded by a bunch of 13 year olds. Imagine like death by children. Death by child stampede is not at the top of my bucket list. No man. And like, it's upsetting because it's like, here are these kids. And I think we talked a little bit about this before we started rolling, perpetuated by the internet. Like we, we wouldn't do anything like this when we were younger. One, because we were too afraid of getting arrested. Kids like today aren't afraid of anything like consequence wise. Um, but then they are radicalized by a post on social media. It's just like thinking about this generation of kids. Like it's not Gen X or whatever it is. I don't know what the next generation is called, but yeah. What did I say? Did I say Gen X Gen Z Gen Z or after that? I don't know what's after them, but it's like it's the ones with the sweat pants and the green Crocs. They're right. Those kids raised by iPads. Yeah. And I mean, whatever, but you know, raised by the internet and uh, yeah, they're being prompted by a mass text thread or a mass Instagram post to go and like cause mayhem at the mall. I don't, I mean, I would never have done that when I was a kid. Like I was pretty normal for the most part when I was in high school at least. Yeah. Yeah. Imagine, imagine everyone gathers at your funeral and it's like, Oh yeah, this guy was stomped to death by a bunch of 12 year olds wearing Crocs. It's like, uh, I can't be going out like that. I hate it, man. And I saw a clip from like somebody that worked at the mall, like looking down from the balcony until like the first floor. And it's just, it's mayhem. Like security is nowhere to be found. The cops aren't there. People are running all over the place and crying and screaming. And I got, I see, you know, some people talking about it on Reddit. It was like as someone who was working at the mall during this time, security did an awful effing job at letting us know what was going on. They frantically came into my store saying everyone needs to evacuate immediately and close their store. And the mall was closing and then ran off. It's like, what are we supposed to do that? Yeah. Well, I think, you know, there's probably no security because I think like normal people are like, what is this? What is that? What am I securing? I don't even know what's happening. What is this? I'm an armed guard at the mall. The worst case scenario is one person gets caught stealing one thing from one store. My stepdad is an armed security guard. He doesn't work at the mall. He works at Meta. So he has a little bit of a more of a responsible role in the security system. But he's guarding the Metaverse. He's guarding the AI chatbot farm. Yeah. But think about the security guard at like JCPenney. Yeah. Somebody, they're not stealing cologne or shoes. Like what is he supposed to do? Yeah. Well, I guess that's the whole thing with this is like when you see a huge mob of people and everyone's screaming and yelling, especially when it's like high school kids, you assume it's a fight. And when we were walking around the other day, remember there was like the, like some fight going on when we were walking by the alley or whatever. Where were we going? I don't know. It was like, I don't know what it was anyway. Or maybe that was when I was in DC. I don't know. I think you're making stuff. Yeah, maybe. I don't know, dude. I'm a non-alcoholic. Don't listen to anything I say. But I think the issue is like, you know, you see all these people and everyone just assumes it's a fight, but that's not even what it was. It was like one of these trendy takeover things, which kids are bored, dude. This is what's happening. You have kids with these like robot iPad brains, and this is them experimenting, trying to understand what kids used to do. And it's like, we tell them, oh yeah, we just like played outside and ran through the woods. This is their version of that. This is them playing outside and running through the mall. You know, it's like, look, dude, that's not really what we were doing. Like we would just borrow five bucks from our parents and get like the slice of pizza at the mall. That was so good. What was that place? Sbarro. Like, you know, you get a slice of Sbarro pizza that would like keep you full for like three days and you would just play on your Tamagotchi in the like commons. And then you would go to journeys and be like, oh, I want to get a pair of shoes. But like $40 was way too much for a pair of shoes. So you'd be like, oh, well, maybe next time. Yeah. And that's all you did. Yeah. Like we went to the mall with my buddies on the weekend and walk around because we couldn't afford to buy anything because we didn't have jobs because we were in high school. And when we got a little bit of money, we'd go to attorneys or you go to Spencer's gifts and you buy like a weird Jason mask. Yeah. Freak your friends out. Then you go to Cinnabon to get you a sugar rush. Go and get maybe get your ear pierced and call it a day. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, we might be we might be cooked. We're very cooked. We're heading towards like well done. Yeah. We're definitely chopped. Yeah. I think is the word that keeps going around. We're chopped. Yeah. Well, wonder who came up with that. It's probably the same kids, man. It's the same kids that came up with chopped. This podcast was recorded at Vera house studios in Richmond, Virginia, and produced by Perry Young and Mike Metzger.