Richmond Bars, Black Mirror & Bureaucracy (the old Fan, city surveillance, Virginia Mobile ID, etc) — Unscripted #054

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In this episode of Vera House Unscripted, we discuss a range of Richmond topics including Virginia Mobile ID, surveillance cameras, Black Mirror, Main Street nightlife, Sail Fest, Rockets Landing, local businesses, and why Richmond sometimes struggles to promote everything happening around the city.

We start with updates on Carytown Run Club and the upcoming Richmond Parallel Parking Championships before discussing the return of Ginger Juice and the importance of supporting local businesses. We then dive into Virginia’s Mobile ID program, expanding surveillance technology, AI-powered traffic cameras, digital privacy, and the growing role technology plays in everyday life.

Later in the episode, we talk about Richmond’s changing identity, including colorful architecture that’s disappeared over the years, the city’s evolving design, and the history behind some of Richmond’s most recognizable places. We also revisit Main Street nightlife, old Richmond gathering spots, and the memories that shaped an entire generation of Richmonders.

The second half of the episode focuses on Richmond today, including Sail Fest at Rockets Landing, Blue Atlas, local events, and why discovering what’s happening around the city can still be surprisingly difficult despite Richmond’s growing cultural scene.

Topics include Virginia Mobile ID, Richmond surveillance cameras, Black Mirror, Main Street, Sullivan’s, Sticky Rice, Blue Atlas, Sail Fest, Rockets Landing, Ginger Juice, Carytown Run Club, Parallel Parking Championships, Richmond nightlife, Richmond history, and local events.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome back to the Vera House podcast. Be sure to join us at an upcoming Carrytown Run Club every other Saturday at 9 a.m. You can check that out on Instagram at Carrytown Run Club. Also in the description, we're gonna have a link for you to join the wait list for the Richmond Parallel Parking Championships. Today we talk about the return of one of Richmond's favorite little juice shops in the museum district. We hope it's here to stay. We also talk about the craziness of what's going on with uh the new surveillance state. And I guess now we've got, you know, AI pedestrian cameras and stop sign cameras and microphones recording everything we're saying. So, you know, that's exciting. And we talked about the very, very cool big sailboats and sail ships that came into Rockets Landing just uh within the past couple weeks, which was yeah, pretty, pretty cool to see, in my opinion. What else did we get into?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, man, some cool stuff, definitely. Um, we talked about the heyday of Richmond's fan districts and how it was such a special time if you had the opportunity to live through it and how we may not be able to get back to that place with regard to what's coming in the future. R.I.P. R.I.P. We also talked about being a towny. I'm a towny, Mike's a pseudo towny. We talked about that in regards to what makes Richmond special and why someone like me or Mike would choose to stay here among all of the other cities and countries in the world. We're parceled to Richmond, and there are a lot of reasons for that. And we also talked about architecture and design in Richmond, but specifically the absence of creativity, color, and flamboyancy in architecture and design. What happened to all the cool buildings? We just, we just really don't know. And we looked at some really cool photos of a time where that was live and well here in the city. So stay tuned. Check the link in the below for all that information about what's coming up, and enjoy the episode.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Dude, did you see this absolutely gigantic fish that this dude caught in the James River?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Oh, that's in the James? That's in the James. Dang. You know, I always heard that they were like weird sea monsters lurking in the James. That's wild. That's like crazy. What kind of fish is it?

SPEAKER_03 2:23

That's a sea monster. It says Andrew Scott was throwing a giant swim bait on eight-pound test when his line stopped. After an exhausting fight, he landed this grass carp, which he says has to be one of the largest grass carp ever caught on this stretch of the James River. Grass carp.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

I mean, it's about the size of a Honda Civic. I mean, seriously, it's about the size of like a big dog, like a like a basset hound or something like that. It's massive. Isn't that nuts? And like, how do you and look at the size of the boat that he's on? It's like a teeny tiny little boat. And you know he's probably out. And it's nighttime. This is why I can't be a fish, fisherman. That's crazy, man. Yeah, you wouldn't catch me out there.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

No. This was posted on RVA James River Fish Report.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

And I'm not even a little surprised. There's a whole website devoted to weird fishing stuff.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Yeah, we just gave them a follow. Um isn't that crazy though? Like swimming around in the James, you're not quite thinking, like, wow, there's like a seven-foot fish, you know, nibbling at my toes.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

That reminds me of center of the universe or not center of the universe. Hardywood, I think. They came out with a beer that was like highlighting this long forgotten natural occurring fish. I'll have to look it up. But it reminds me of that because it was like this The Great Return. That's the name of the beer. Yeah, yeah. The Great Return, Hardywood.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

It's highlighting this giant fish.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Yeah, now that we don't drink anymore, we can't remember any of the names of the beers. Seriously. Got so sober we forgot the beers.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

We really did.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Um yeah, I haven't been swimming in the James River in a little while. Up up towards this side of town, it's not that bad. I know, I know that James gets a lot of flack for E. coli and being dirty and all the sewage stuff, which don't get me wrong, it definitely, you know, there's definitely a lot of issues with it, and there has been for a hundred plus years. But um when you're up towards the top of the hill, the water is a lot cleaner. And I like being close to like the rapids and stuff. And when the water's like super cold, go in there and do a little cold plunge in the rapids. I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Every ever since, and to circle back really quick, it's the giant sturgeon or the Atlantic sturgeon was the fish. Was that your favorite beer? Yeah, it no, it was one of my it was one of my go-tos for a while. Okay. Um, it was to celebrate the symbolic return of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon to the James River. The prehistoric fish, which can grow up to 14 feet long and weigh 800 pounds, can occasionally be spotted breaching near Richmond's fall line. This is that's crazy. It was crazy. Um, what did it say? 14 feet? 14 feet long and 800 pounds. That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah. Like I know I say the word insane all the time. What's that word? Like hyperbolic? Like I'm always like, that's insane. Yeah. But that is insane.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

It is. And like it's prehistoric. I don't know the history of the prehistory of this fish, but I guess it's back, and Hardywood decided to put it on a beer can.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

I mean, that's cool. Yeah. I mean, this is what beer people do, you know? It's great marketing.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah, fish, boots, car heart. You're describing like uh uh an outfit. Yes. Like car heart, boots, and a little bit of fish residue and a hat. What kind of hat? Um curved brim. Curved brim. I don't know what kind of hat that is, but I would say either uh uh a beanie. Okay, alright. So slow so short, short beanie, maybe a red and black flannel, but that might be like two or mid-early 2000s, 2010s. Yeah. Um now it's probably a work like a work wear jacket. Yeah, like a cargo shirt.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

What the heck is a like a it's like cargo pants, but like a cargo shirt. It's just got the giant pockets on the you know, it's like tough fabric with pockets on the It's work wear.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah, it is literally Carhartt work in progress, the fashionable work wear, which is just basically them charging double for stuff that they already sell. Yeah. Guilty is charged. I've got a few pieces from work in progress.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Stuff's pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Well, nobody has to work anymore because the robots and the AI do it all. This is true, you know? Yeah. So it's like, what's work?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Ask the dude that found that giant fish. That's work. Yeah. He's working harder than most people in the Richmond metropolitan area these days.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

I mean, definitely reeling that fish in, but do you think that was hot? I mean, that must be hobby, right? I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

I don't you couldn't pay me enough to research fish world. Would you eat this thing? Let's find out. Can you eat grass? Grass carp? Grass carp? I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

I like that we started on on fish because that means there's only we can only go up from here.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

That's very true. Yes, you can eat grass carp. Um watch out, America. It's okay, grass carp is much less muddy than other carp species. However, they're quite bony. It's not appetizing at all. Yeah, I don't know that I'm r rushing to the front of the line to get grass carp. Um what I might be rushing to the front of the line for is the reopening of North End juice, though.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Did you see that?

SPEAKER_00 8:10

I did see that. It got shut down a while back because the I believe I'm I'm not looking at any notes or anything, but if if I'm getting the story correctly, the former owner had some transgressions against employees that were not going to be stood for. The employees revolted, and the short of it is that that version of North End closed. And then there was talk of the employees trying to buy it, and I think that's what just happened.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

Yeah, I don't know the details of the new reopening, but people noticed on Instagram when they had like put up a new profile picture with new branding and new colors and a few posts and stuff. And then I guess people noticed they took it down or they made their profile private, and then of course they put it back up. And I think this past week was like their soft opening. Yeah. And I also don't remember all the details, but we almost spoke about it on this podcast, and I think we chose not to. And it was something along the lines of like, you know, the person who owned it, it actually had to do with like the manager that they hired that was like a family member or something, and then the staff had issues with them, and there just was some sort of big disagreement, and then the whole thing imploded, and that was that was the end. Yeah. But I'm very glad that they are what it looks like reopening, and hopefully they're here to stay. Because I love North End juice. Like the place was great.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

I was a big fan of the Elvis, anything with peanut butter in it, protein shakes, the takeaway wraps. It was clutch, man. It was just it was great, it was a great location. They had options and and items on the menu that you couldn't get anywhere else, which is pretty cool. Like, I'm I'm glad that it's back.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Yeah, yeah. People love the uh the breakfast burrito there.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yeah. I mean, there's I mean, it's been a while since they closed, so there are other places that do breakfast food and health conscious drinks, protein shakes and things like that. But North End, I think, was just like it was that spot.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Yeah, it's just cool. And you know, I know a lot of people that listen to us, they, you know, maybe just moved here in the past year or two. Maybe they have no idea what we're talking about. So North End Juice, it's like this quaint little spot on Cleveland Street over in the museum district. And it's cool because I mean it's very, very Richmond. You know, you're basically in the middle of a neighborhood, and you just pull up on a bike or a skateboard or a scooter, you can easily pull up there in your car and just pull over real quick and get something um very cool. And uh, yeah, if you've never tried it, definitely go give it a shot. Support, you know, whatever the new ownership is, go check it out, see what they got going on.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

That's a good point. I um I do you know forget sometimes that not all of our listeners are Richmond natives and familiar with everything that exists here, that's going on here, that's kind of um grandfathered in, if you will. I actually was just uh over at a a local studio, a Pilates studio here in town, and someone who goes to the studio to take the class spotted me and she said, Hey, I saw you on TikTok. I didn't know you were 41. I was like, That's thank you, but that's all you got from the TikTok since you didn't know I was 41. I was thank you. Go ahead. I mean, I hope you liked it. I don't know, I can't tell. Uh but then in the same instance, one of the instructors there who's new to Richmond was asking, like, so what do you do that's to be recognized on TikTok? It's like I have a podcast, it's about Richmond, we talk about history, some current events, and just like things that we think are cool. And she said, I I I would love to check it out. I've been here for a little while and I don't really know about a lot about the city. So if you are new to Richmond, take a listen to some of the previous episodes. We we go into a deep dive on some of the bigger, more in-depth stories across the history of Richmond and Virginia as a whole, and then we talk about some of the current events that have happened over the last several years, and yeah, we just try to keep it fun and informative and maybe call out some things here and there, maybe you know, go on a rant or two when it's necessary. But yeah, we're just having a good time.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Yeah, yeah. Well, we've got a rant in store for this episode, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

What you got? Well, did you see this uh law that the governor or this bill that the governor signed about putting, you know, we've talked a lot about these speed cameras and surveillance cameras and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

And not to beat a dead horse, but you know, it's only getting worse. Um horse is getting better. Yeah it's yeah, the horse is yeah, it's it's been beat to beyond death. Um, they're installing microphones and surveillance cameras into all the stop signs now.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

I heard about this.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yeah, so that's fun.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

I didn't hear about it happening here, but I heard about it being a potential eventuality. And the idea, I believe, and you're you're gonna have more information about this, but I I think the idea is to prevent crime from happening by basically recording everything that happens in the public area all the time. So a microphone will voice record or record the audio, the ambient audio from multiple neighborhoods constantly and they say that it's going to be trained and programmed to be on the listen, on the lookout for things like gunshots and screams. But that also means you might be potentially implicated by saying something nefarious about the government because they're listening to you and they're not filtering that stuff out.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, this is a a long, dark, deep rabbit hole that we could go into. So we'll, you know, we'll just try to skim the surface here. But yeah, the implications are much further than just crime. You know, the thing is like, it's really just your freedom of speech and your privacy, you know. Um, and people like to combat that argument with like, oh, well, if you're not doing anything wrong, you got nothing to worry about. It's like, yeah, that's not true. You know, it's like, look at the other countries that are heavily surveilled states and cities, you know, and it's like they have all kinds of issues, and you can literally get arrested for saying things. And it will, it'll get to a point to where, you know, I mean, if you think of how the United States was created, it was created from a revolution, right? It was a revolt against the English government, and then they decided to create America, right? Well, we the people will have there's no opportunity to revolt against anything. So it doesn't matter if we agree or disagree. We are the subject of the government, and that's not how it's supposed to be. It is supposed to be the other way around. You know, like why is the IRS armed with $30 million worth of ammunition and weapons and night vision when they're supposed to just be collecting taxes? They're not. They're like a militarized operation. Why are cameras and microphones being installed in all major metropolitan cities? And why is Virginia one of the first ones to do it? You know, so it's like, oh yeah, it's harmless. It's to capture criminals. It's like, really? If you were worried about capturing criminals, you would have been doing that a long time ago. No one's ever cared about capturing criminals, but now all of a sudden you care? It's so it's crazy. And um, you know, it's funny because when you when you approach any of these people about this, they do this. It's freaking hilarious, dude. Check this out. So this is Virginia. Oh I'll well, whatever. You're gonna see his name anyway. This guy, Rob Whitman, just pretending to be on a phone call when he's being asked questions, you know, by somebody.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

He's just pretending to be on the phone.

unknown 16:42

Hey, how are you doing? I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

You can clearly see that he's not on a phone call. Yeah, you know, so this guy's trying to pass bills to cut social security, you know, benefits and stuff. And so somebody's asking him, like, hey, what's up with this? Why are you doing this? And he's just pretending to be on the phone. You know, it's like these people think that you're an idiot. No, they don't think that you're an idiot.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

They know that you will do whatever you're told.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Yeah, you know, or they know that they can get away with it and that you have no choice. Exactly. You know? Um Yeah, it's I don't know, dude. It's ridiculous and it's it's frustrating. And as much as this show isn't about these types of things, somebody's gonna talk about it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Um, because the news isn't gonna do it. I think, yeah, uh, to that point, I know that this show isn't about that stuff, and we we kind of tend to really not go in those directions in one fashion or another to avoid any of the just the negative or or biases, backlash, because we kind of just want this to be like a fun form for us to talk about stuff. But the more that we talk about things like this, the more it's apparent that we should be talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

And not just us, anyone who's listening, the public at large, it should be at least on your radar, because it's going to happen whether you know it's happening or not. And I'll be the first to admit that I I am willfully ignorant to a lot of these things because I don't really want to bog my mind down by the feeling of having my privacy taken away or the potential reality that some of these things imply. Because oftentimes what you hear in lieu of something like this starts you down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and and stress, and you start making a mental note and a mental plan about how to navigate this this potential eventuality. And oftentimes the the reality of it, when it does come to pass, is different. It's not going to be exactly like it says it's going to be. This is the first version of it. It'll obviously change over time. It may get passed, it may get blocked, it may get delayed. What who knows? That's just how the politics work.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

And I like to do myself a favor and not worry about it until it's a reality. Because oftentimes you can't do anything about it in between now and then anyway. Yeah. But I think stuff like this with the cameras that film your car at stoplights and then send you a ticket in the mail. We actually we we did an episode where I talked about that. And I've actually since looked into reports. I think maybe you even sent me something where there was conflicting information about whether or not to pay it. Is it legitimate? Is it even the government itself? Is it a a third party third-party agency sending out these tickets that have nothing to do with traffic violations? And the answer is no one really knows. Yeah. Because there isn't any information about it, and that's how they like that. So I think it's behoovement or it would behoove people that listen to the show and you know, care about their well-being and living in the city to just be a little bit aware of what's happening.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Did you get this text message that says, um, you know, skip handing over your ID by downloading the Virginia Mobile ID app? I did. Yeah. Did you click on it? No. Okay, good. Um, the interesting thing is that this is actually real. I was like, wow, that's a scam. And uh me being me, I dug into it and I was like, wow, pathetically, this is real. Yeah. So this is actually the Virginia state government. They partnered with a uh software company called Granicus, and they are a software company that helps government agencies and intelligence agencies optimize their databases. And this is Virginia's attempt to try to get every human being to download an app on their phone. And it's like, huh, wonder what that app would do. Would it maybe track your location? Would it maybe triangulate with whatever you're saying picked up in these microphones?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

This is where we just gonna superimpose tinfoil hats over our heads because we start to sound like those crazy conspiracy theorists guys.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

I mean, but it's not that crazy because this stuff happens all the time anyway. It's happening right now. I mean, think about it, dude. The Virginia app, like, and then they're installing all this software and technology everywhere. And maybe it does sound crazy, but the thing is, I've been in marketing for like over 10 years, right? And when you look at all this like Cambridge Analytica stuff and how targeting and advertising works, you learn a you learn a lot about these devices. You know what I mean? Like when you're sending advertisements and how you target people based on their interests and you're using things like um meta business suite or you're running Facebook ads, you're even using like out-of-home advertising and stuff. The way that you target these people is through device IDs and through tracking cookies and browser cookies and all that other stuff. So, you know, maybe it does sound crazy, but that's because it is crazy. It is crazy, you know, and you know, no, I do not have definitive proof that this app would be connected to like all the surveillance stuff, but I can guarantee you that that's on somebody's mind somewhere and that they would love to make that happen.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah, and I like I said, yeah, if you if you mentioned this hell even earlier this year, I would say, all right, man, you you've been smoking the peyote. I think you need to go on a walk and like well, I still need to do all those things, will relax a little bit, you know, take a chill pill. But I know it's kind of hard to ignore when um as as as hard as I try to be blissfully unaware, it crosses my radar without intention, like without me actually going to look at it. You know, with the tickets showing up in the mail, I'm already a part of the the situation. I'm already in the system. And yeah, you know, the thing about the cameras picking up audio, it just gives me that like icky feeling that I could be walking down the street thinking and I'm minding my own business and being minding my private time, but I'm being monitored and listened to. I think that's worse than if I knew that there was a camera watching me because I could duck around a corner and I don't think that they're recording my voice. Yeah. But with its just audio, and we know that voice recognition and pattern recognition and audio files is very much a pattern. Of technology and AI at the moment, it just doesn't make me feel good at all.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Yeah. And I'm just saying, like, you know, audio recordings are only so useful unless you know who the person is talking and you want to know how they would know who it is, is if your phone with the Virginia Mobile ID app is installed and you're walking by the microphone and it's recording that and it's like, oh, that's who's saying this. Have you ever seen Black Mirror?

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Just saying. Have you ever seen Black Mirror? If you've ever seen it, I know you probably haven't. I haven't, and I can't because I'll lose my mind, dude. You will. I think you would actually enjoy it, but I think I understand. There have been numerous occasions over the last several years where it's remarkably aligned with the future reality that Black Mirror projected. Black Mirror's been on for going on 10, 15 years now. Yeah. Um there hasn't been a recent season, probably, because it's there's nothing new to write about. It's all happening right now anyway. Yeah. But um it is a, if you haven't seen it, it's a black mirror contrast to the future of the modern world when and if we embrace technology and things like AI, but if that technology was fast forward, already active and and built into our lives in a way that doesn't really benefit us but has like nefarious uh underpinnings and ends up being the worst part about society in the first place. Yeah. I'll keep it brief, but a very good example of something like this is the f I think it's the first episode of season three, is that everyone has a user profile and a user ID, and that user ID is public, and every time you go into a store, you're scanned. Every time you buy something, you're scanned, and every time you interact with another person, whether it's in the street or in a store or at home, you you're you scan each other's user profile, and then you give that person a rating, and that rating counts to your overall score. Now, if your score is high, you can live your life like you would normally live it. You can go to work, you can get on the bus, you can take a cab, you can go to the store, you can buy a plane ticket. But if your rating drops besor a certain score, you get denied at the grocery store because you don't have a good enough rating. You get denied at the bus station because you don't have a good enough rating. You can't get a loan to buy a house, you can't apply for an apartment. So suddenly you're in this dystopian world where every time you interact with somebody, you're giving them fake niceties and fake pleasantries because you need your score to stay high. Now, if you didn't know this, this is already happening in China.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Years ago it was a con it was a project called Zima, now it's called something else. But they did a documentary on how those people in the community that's had this system rolled out are acting or are dealing with it and how they feel about it. And everyone that was interviewed on camera was like, oh, it's the best thing in the world. It's it's making everyone nicer to each other. It makes being in public so much better, and it makes just going about my day so much more pleasant. It's all BS. Yeah. And it's exactly like the Black Mirror episode. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

I mean, it's happening, you know, sadly, it's happening all over the world. And I mean, TV and Hollywood have always been an indoctrination system for what's coming. I mean, this has happened all the time, and that's why it's important to just unplug and don't participate.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Yeah. Well, you know, we could go on in this, or go on a rant about this forever. We should spin the wheel and pick the next topic. So I I as I do, I was spinning the wheel on the internet and I came across a picture that reminded me immediately of the good old days. That that phrase, you know, just brings warmth and joy to my memories about being in Richmond at a certain period in time. And these were pictures taken of best, the department store, yeah in the 1970s and the 1980s. Now, this this series of pictures illustrates a couple of things. One, it illustrates the the rise and the boom of giant department stores and how they just took over the country. But it also illustrates a problem that I think I've seen someone or people kind of highlight over the recent years or recent time is what happened to color, what happened to flamboyant artistry, what happened to art and construction and building and building design. So if you take a look at these pictures of these buildings, these are department stores. Yeah. And like you this picture of the best is people walking in off the parking lot, and the front facade of the building is crooked, but the rest of the building is actually straight. Yeah. So it looks like you're walking into like a fun house. And like this next, the next building or the next picture of the best building has a crack in it. Like it's but it's built into the side of the building, like it's supposed to be there, and it's full of balloons. And these balloons are like being blown out one of the other sides of the building. And then one of the facades, like the front fascia of the building, is like being peeled off, but it's actually concrete. And on the other end, it's like curving out into the parking lot. I just think this is super cool, but it also just reminds me of something that I've been I think we've all kind of maybe not really noticed, is that things that are colorful, flamboyant, and shiny are has been like sort of snuffed out in modern culture. Like art and design is very minimalist, it's very bland, it's very muted color palettes. Now I like some of that stuff. I know you do too. But when I look back at like just even like the cars in the parking lot, this yellow, this teal, this orange, this blue, and every car on the street is now black, white, or gray.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah. Dude, I mean it's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 28:57

Like these photos are amazing. And I think this photo, I think this is potentially in the branch museum right here. The best.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Yeah, and this is on uh monument.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah, and this is on the RVA mag thread on Reddit. So shout out to our friends over at RVA Mag. Um it's pretty uh yeah. I mean, it's it's equally sad as it is cool and inspiring and nostalgic. You know, but this, I mean, not to stay on that same like tone that we were on, but dude, this also happens all over the world. You know, things are worse now than they were before. And obviously, we've talked about this plenty of times, but it doesn't matter if it's a painting or architecture or design or the guardrails and the street lamps and the and the park benches. You know, it's just everything has been stripped of any sort of design or cultural identity or artistic integrity. It's just gone in the name of efficiency, you know, and longevity, I guess. You know, I guess the argument is, yeah, if you just make a plain square concrete bench, I guess it lasts longer, you know. Who knows? But yeah, like to be in an art city full of artisans with, and don't get me wrong, we have plenty of art, but that is missing from the entire country. Like, dude, you can look at a Van Eyck painting from 600 years ago. And if you looked at it, you'd be like, there's no way someone painted this. And then you look at a painting today, and again, no offense to any local artist, but you know, you walk into you know an art gallery and you look at a painting on the wall, and it's like, I bet it you'd hear you'd overhear at least one person say, Wow, my granddaughter who's four, could paint this, you know. And again, that's not everybody, and there's some unbelievable artists, and especially uh sculptors as well. Like VCU has a fantastic sculpture program. But um anybody who's interested, man, Google Van Eyck painting from 600 years ago. It'll blow your mind. Yeah. Um, and you look at these people like you know, Michelangelo and stuff, and then you look at what we got today, and it's like, okay, something has happened. Something, something definitely happened. We are dumber and less talented for sure. Yeah. And it's not good.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah. We could argue the argument can be made that art and the embrace of art and artist artistry, the way that an artist thinks, teaching that open-mindedness and that free thinking that you would if you take art 101 or if you take an intro to art, they usually start with theory.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

So teaching those people how to think freely and explore and be curious and be childlike and be whimsical, you probably don't want those people growing up and being powerful adults because they might challenge the status quo. That's just a theory.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Yeah. Well, even in Dugamara, I love modern art. I mean, you've seen my home. Like I love the like modern Your home is sweet, dude. Like, I love the, you know, the sharp 90-degree edges. I love the modern art. Like, I really do enjoy it and like it a lot, but I can't deny like the origin of where a lot of it came from, um, which is like modern abstract art specifically was commissioned by the CIA. Like, I'm really not even kidding, dude. It was during the Cold War. There we go. But I'm look it up. Look it up, dude. I'm really not kidding. Okay. The CIA, I'm telling you, dude, the CIA during the Cold War used modern abstract art as a form of cultural propaganda. It was a covert program initiated in the in the late 1940s and 50s, sought to weaponize culture and and destroy ideology against the Soviet Union, um, promoting abstract expressionism. So, of course, like this is where uh Jackson Pollock comes from, and even artists like Mark Rothko um and William DeCooning and like all these people that do these kind of like non-representational works, uh, they were funded and promoted from the government. Like, I'm really not kidding, dude. Is like just yeah, look it up. It's yeah, we're cooked. Look it up. So I'm you know, they did it on purpose because like old art used to represent things like religion and things like family and self-portraits and culture and all that stuff, and then they just turned it into like colors and shapes and like whatever. And again, don't get me wrong, if you walk into my house, I have a lot of art like that that's just like abstract colors and shapes and textures, and I do love it, but I also recognize where it came from. And uh, we didn't have art like that beforehand. Yeah, and it's another reason why. If you go look at paintings from hundreds of years ago, they're significantly better than now.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Now I know why. Yeah, and I don't think I'm any better for knowing why, which is exactly my argument for being blissfully. I know, dude. I'm sorry I do this to you every week. Like, I'm just gonna be like, you're just gonna find me next week, just like completely just zapped of any enthusiasm. Like, what's the point, bro?

SPEAKER_03 33:58

It's like there's no way art came from the CIA, and it's like, oh damn it, I looked it up.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

It's just like we're fucking cooked. I know.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

Excuse the F-bomb. Don't look anything up, man. Let's yeah. Well, anyways, you know, spin the wheel again.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Yes. I found this picture because we uh and I thought this was relevant because last episode we talked about the canal and how people like to drive in it instead of uh using boats. Yeah. But this is a picture of what the canal looked like before it was the canal. Okay. Whoa. So the picture that I'm showing Mike is from 1978, superimposed with um the canal today. And if you're familiar with the canal, um down on Canal Street in the Chaco Bottom area, it's parallel to a man-made canal inlet from the James River where they have like little river boats that take you up and down on tours. And it's really cool. You can walk down there, there's a nice pathway, it's right next to like the canal club, it's next to Bottoms Up Pizza, and that canal goes all the way out to like near Rockets Landing and lets out there. The image is of the same canal location. Like you can see the pillars of the bridge are the in the exact same location. Exact same photo. Yeah. But it was a it was a street. There was a whole street that ran through there, essentially on top of where the canal is. The street ran all the way through, and it looks like it goes up to I guess that would be like 10th Street, 9th Street. I mean, and then you can see the train bridge intersecting right there. Like the train bridge and everything is still there. Yeah. So yeah, this just yeah, it's just it's so crazy to see like the before and after of these mega like construction projects. That'd be like almost like 14th and 15th street. Yeah, I think you're probably right. I think it's probably 14th Street, because that's the 14th Street bridge that takes you to Manchester. Yeah. And then coming down here, you would now you would go around what is now the canal.

SPEAKER_03 36:02

Yeah. I like that guy who posted that too. I see a bunch of his stuff. Watt Hamlet. Yeah, Watt Hamlet. Shout out, dude. This is a cool photo. Yeah, he takes some really great photos and posts like some cool stuff, like a lot of cool Richmond stuff. Um, I see his stuff all the time. Yeah, Richmond's changed a lot, man. Do you think, uh, do you think Main Street, as we used to know it, is making a comeback? You know, I know that you used to DJ above Pearl at that place called Vintage. Yeah. I used to live right above sticky rice. I would spend my days stumbling from Sticky Rice to Pearl to Sullivan's to Starlight.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

Those are the days, dude. I know it's a different time period. But um, do you think it's making a comeback? I saw where the owners of Nami, which is like a sushi spot downtown, they bought the Sullivan's building in the fan.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

Um Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

I so I think I did see that. Um my shorter answer is no. To the question, oh, to the question that whether or not we will have a resurgence of what the fan used to be like back in those days when when I was DJing and when you were working at Sticky Rice, where you know, if you're if you're not familiar with this time period, I want to say it was like early 2010s. Yeah. Right? It's like 2010, 2012 to like 2018, something like that. Yeah. So not quite a 10-year span, but from basically from where City Dogs is now, because Get Tight Lounge wasn't there. Yeah, that was like a college bar.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

It used to be called Roxy.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Yeah, yeah, it was the Roxy, and then there was like the local. But those were really like college bars. Yeah. So essentially you could start at City Dogs, which is still there. You could start there, get a drink, get a hot dog, and then walk west on Main Street, going down to the next bar you'd come to would be it's called um what's it called now? It used to be called a bunch of different things, but it's got a big rooftop now. What's it called? Post Bellum. It used to be called Post Bellum. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the next bar you'd go to. You'd go to Post Bellum, get a beer, keep going. The next bar you'd get to would be Belly Timber. Yeah. Because at the time it was called Belly Timber, now it's called uh Bovine. And then you would go to it might have been Baja back then. Oh, yeah. Baja Bean. Yep. Baja Bean Company. Which is like the big patio where Jardin is right now, and then across the street. I don't know if there was anything there at that time, but now it's uh it's a uh Asian restaurant. Yeah. Keep going a little ways, you get to Home Team Grill. Yeah. Keep going a little ways, you get to it's Skybox now, but it used to be called um uh District Five. District Five, and then before that it was like Martini Bubble Bar. Oh wow. Yeah, that's a throwback. Um and then you go to the next block, and then there's Sidewalk. Sidewalk hasn't has not changed in like 50 years. Yeah. Still there. And then the next block, sticky rice. And back then it was called Pearl. Yep. So you go to Pearl and Vintage upstairs, I'd be DJing, and then right across the street was another like little Asian Thai place. Like a little noodle bar. Yeah, it's like a little noodle bar with a tiny bar and a tiny little DJ booth, but they'd have like wasabi shots. Yeah, you would just go up there and get wasabi shots. Next, next block, you had Lady Nollins on that corner, and then right across the street you had uh Sullivan's, and then you go to the next corner, and that was Starlight. No, that that's so the next corner was a a bar. Oh man, what is it called? Or what was it called? It's called so many things, and it wasn't it now. It is the pizza joint. It's called Benny Vitano's. Oh. What was it called before?

SPEAKER_03 39:45

Was that was it called Empire or um no? Um did it start with an R?

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Um I can't remember. I can't remember. There's so there was a bar there. Yeah. There's a bar there. Go there, and then now you're you're one block before you get to Robinson. And on Robinson, you've got Helens and Starlight and three monkeys. And then after that, you got bamboo, and then after that, you're a boulevard. Yeah. So you could literally spend an entire night just walking in one direction and going to different bars.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

Oh, and uh Social 52.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Social 52, right? That wasn't there back then. Right, right. That was kind of right at the end of that. Right at the tail end of that, yeah, yeah. But that dude, that's that is where I spent so much time and a lot of money just being social. And I was literally just talking about this the other day. Um earlier today, I was talking about this. I went on a bachelor party with a big group of guys, yeah, and my buddy Travis was getting married. Congratulations, Trav. And we all went out to Vegas, and it was like 50 guys on this trip. And I actually knew all of them with the give or take a handful of guys. And it just was it was kind of a upon reflection, it was kind of a reminder of how I knew all these people was from that period of time. Now, this is also extends the a lot of these people I met extending to Shaco Bottom, where there were some clubs that aren't there anymore, like Lucky Buddha and and Cha Cha's and um tobacco companies still there, but there was a time in Richmond where the social scene was so alive and thriving that if you weren't a part of it, you actually thoroughly missed out. Yeah you missed you missed so much stuff. Drama, fun, connections, parties, invitations, all these things were happening because of places like what Sullivan's was and and the Main Street strip, I guess you could call it. And I just I I have been here for long enough, so I've seen it just kind of change and drift and change and kind of dwindle. But seeing those guys out at the bias party was a reminder that yeah, we're we're not super tight, we're not best friends, but those are people that I'll know for the rest of my life. Yeah. And we have nothing but good memories because of this time.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Yeah. After you did that speed run, I'm like, yeah, I don't know that we'll see that again. You know, maybe like in a different form or a different way. You know, like I guess Scott's edition probably serves as that same time period for other people. Um yeah, I mean, what a time, dude. What a time. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely different now. Yeah, it should it. This little thing says that across the street from Sullivan's is a building that's also taken over by the owners of the Jasper, so they'll probably do something cool because they've got the Jasper, they've got Emerald Lounge in Churchill, and then I guess this spot in the fan. Yeah, that'll be cool. I think so too.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

It's growing up. It was largely dominated by 20-something idiots, and uh, I think the new generation of restaurants and bars and establishments is just aging up a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 42:59

Yeah, we're in a different culture because obviously, like, yeah, it's just different prior, not even just prior to COVID, but I mean, you know, just the age of the 2000s and it it blossoming into 2010 and beyond. It was just a different time period, you know. Same way that the 90s was different, you know.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

You know, the 90s was like pre-internet and the early 2000s was pre-COVID.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Oh man. Yeah, what a time. And you know, it's always good, it's good to reminisce every now and then. I know we like to talk about you know the current state of affairs and the future and what's to come, but I think it's it's a re reminiscing like this and thinking about that that time period is a good reminder of why I still like it here. Um and I was just talking to somebody earlier today, and that person is new to Richmond, they've been here for about four years. And I said, Yeah, you know, the podcast is is you know a good way to kind of get exposed to some of that stuff. And they were just like, uh, I said I'll be in towny. I've said this before. I was like, yeah, I'm from here, I'm a towny. Yeah. And it always gets a chuckle. Um showing my age for sure. But they're like, the question that usually follows that is, so you never wanted to live anywhere else, or you're just gonna stay here forever? I was like, Well, I never said forever. Yeah. But I'm born here and I've moved elsewhere briefly, and then I've moved back here and I haven't left yet. And them being new to Richmond, they always have a story similar to that, but from somewhere else. They're like, you know, I was I was in Oklahoma and I'm never going back to Oklahoma. And I really like Richmond. I was like, yeah, man, Richmond's dope. Richmond's dope.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Richmond is very cool. And I know that a lot of people may disagree, but I would say that most of those people are people who have always lived here, and they they feel that there's something beyond the horizon better. That was me. Yeah, and You know, not that that can't be true. Of course it can. Like people can leave here and go find a place that suits them better and love everything about it and not miss anything from here. That's totally possible. But I think a lot of what makes something feel like home and makes you love it is your effort into enjoying the place that you live, you know? And I mean, if we just zoom out and take a very basic perspective, people like living on the water, people like nice weather, people like community, people like uh, you know, the active community and having things to do. They like a place that can help them find hobbies. Of course, they like a place that has great food and great drinks, um, good infrastructure, good like walkability, good travelability, um, and something that also has things around it to go and do. And Richmond does check a lot of those boxes, you know. Um I've been fortunate enough to do a lot of traveling. And I don't know. I always come home and I'm like, I like Richmond. You know, I do. Um it does have a lot of cool things. Does it need help in certain areas? Of course, man, but so does everywhere else. You know, it's it's a fairy tale to think that there's some like amazing far-off land where there's no problems. It's like that's not real unless you're in the Jehovah's Witness where you know they think everyone's gonna die and then they come back and they just live peacefully amongst the lions, you know. Um, so until I join them, Richmond's fine for me.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Richmond's fine for me too, man. I'm not really I'm not hurting for for another location.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

I want to get a place in Bali. I want to get like a little like or or I mean Bali, Costa Rica, can't give away all my future plans because then they'll know how to find me. But you know, there's some places I want to go.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's definitely places I want to go. There, because I haven't I haven't traveled in a couple years from a previous job. I traveled a lot. Yeah. It was mainly domestic, but um went to the UK a couple times and that was fun. Um but I haven't explored any of Europe. I haven't seen much of Asia. Went to J went to Japan once, but yeah, um there's an entire world that I am very, very much anxious and interested to like explore and see and travel and do all that.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I would like to get another property, you know, somewhere in some far-off jungle land and build something and have like a second residency.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

Your house is Asian affiliate in Thailand.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be cool. Um, so you're getting ready to head to Blue Atlas, right? You've got a reservation there, you're going there for the first time. What time is your reservation? At seven. All right, very nice. Yeah, sunset. Um that'll be cool, man. Blue Atlas is like it's money.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

I don't even really know what it looks like. I've seen like some pictures of the patio and I've heard nothing but good things. So I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03 47:42

It's built inside of an old schoolhouse. And I'll quickly look it up, but it's one of the reasons that it's one of the more unique restaurants in Richmond. Um, I forget the name of the schoolhouse that it's in. Let's just look it up real quick. So it's built in a historic schoolhouse in the Fulton Hill neighborhood. Let's see if they have a little about page.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

I'll have a little history lesson.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't really say, but when you go there, it doesn't look like your typical restaurant. Um, it's definitely uh a bit different. Yeah, Robert S. Fulton Elementary School, originally built in 1917. Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

Damn. Yeah, some old old buildings around here, man.

SPEAKER_03 48:28

Uh very much so. Very much so. Um so yeah, hopefully you enjoy it. But it's cool. It's like an a la carte restaurant, you know. So you go in, you just order a bunch of random little plates and they just come out when they're ready. Really? Yeah, really.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

Okay, I didn't even know that that's how they did it. I just heard it was good, so I'm going.

SPEAKER_03 48:44

Yeah. Well, the building was named after the inventor Robert Fulton. It was chosen because the hilltop majestically overlooks Rocket's Landing, Richmond's historic, former port on the James River. The school opened in January 1917 to accommodate a boom in residential growth in Fulton Hill, holding over 1,300 students from kindergarten to seventh grade. It originally opened as a segregated white institution. It later transitioned into a school for black students as demographic shifts occurred in the Greater Fulton area. It closed its doors as a public school in 1979. Um, and then I think Blue Atlas opened it like right after COVID or like right around that time. Um with Rockets Landing, did you hear I know you got your boating license recently? Did you see Sail Fest?

SPEAKER_00 49:33

I saw or did you hear about it? I saw like little clips online of like sail ships, like big like pirates of the Caribbean ships cruising around, and uh that was the extent of it, but it looked pretty cool. So what was it?

SPEAKER_03 49:48

Well, so I guess it was a festival celebrating 250 years of America. Um and it was all around sailing.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

So I guess a bunch of SS Christopher Columbus right there.

SPEAKER_03 50:01

Basically, yeah. Um so you know, they had all these tall, legitimate, traditional sail ships pulling into the port, you know, the original port at Rocket's Landing. So there's some pictures of the boats here. This is the Oster Shelled, this is the Virginia, the Pride of Baltimore the Second. So yeah, just a bunch of old school sailboats. It's pretty cool. It is super cool. And I think, is this a video? Yeah, check this out. Like that's very cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Yeah, some pirates of the Caribbean shit, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Yeah, and then they had a big outdoor festival down there in Rockets Landing, but I from what I heard, it was a little bit of a bust. Um, just wasn't a big crowd. I I didn't even hear about this. I didn't even know. And I mean, that's crazy because I mean, dude, we're looking into Richmond stuff all the time. I had no idea this was going on until like the day it was happening.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

That happens pretty regularly, I feel like. It's like stuff just happens and people do do a mediocre job of promoting it or think they don't need to promote it, you know, too far in advance. And then it happens, and like, where is everybody? What what else is going on this weekend? It's like nothing else is going on, but you didn't tell anybody that you were having a thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

Well, as we know, I think Richmond struggles with marketing.

SPEAKER_01 51:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

You know, like don't get me wrong, we've got some good agencies here and stuff. And, you know, the marketing program at VCU is pretty decent from what I understand, and U of R has a good business school and stuff, but people get these big marketing jobs and then they leave to go to other big cities. And from being in marketing for a long time, there's I mean, dude, I can count on one hand the people that I've met that I feel like really have a strong understanding of marketing here. Um I really just don't feel like there's a strong marketing infrastructure in Richmond, and people just yeah, sadly, they don't do a good job of marketing and promoting things.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

But also, I think one of the mistakes that was made on that Salefest thing was that there was no shade. Like it was just out in the sun. It was very hot on that weekend, and I guess people were just getting blasted by the sun, and people are like, nah, I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

That's something I've always noticed too, and and it's just the nature of I would say it's the nature of Richmond, but it is also a big part to do with marketing or lack thereof. Is and I was asking, or somebody somebody said something recently uh when I was just around and they were just like, What's going on in Richmond today? And my I was at brunch this morning with my mom and a friend, and my mom's friend was like, What's happening in Richmond today? My mom was like, I don't know. It's like well, I don't want to chime in because it'd be a longer conversation and I don't want to pull that thread, but I know for a fact that there are dozens of things going on every day. Every day of the week, there is always something happening. But if you were to pull up your Instagram and just kind of scroll through like your feed, you wouldn't see 90% of them. Right. Some of them would be paid ads, which you usually disregard because you don't like being sold to. I'm speaking for the audience. Some of them are promotions and flyers being shared by your friends or followers or people you follow. And some of them like maybe musicians or companies that you follow or businesses that do a pretty good job of promoting themselves. But by and large, uh the promotion and marketing aspect of the events in Richmond is like so scattered and disjointed and kind of there is no status quo, there's no one singular place to go and get information. There's bits and pieces from one section and bits and pieces from another over here, and you kind of need to be in the know. It goes back to when we went to that event for the big Dipper Summit at Harry's, and we met that guy, and he was like, Yeah, I've been in Richmond for a couple days, and I can't seem to like really connect with anybody. It seems really clickish. I don't like know what's happening. It's like yeah, it's kind of the problem. Yeah. It's just we think that I'm speaking like the royal we, the Richmond Wii's. Like, we think that because we think something is cool, then everybody will know about it when I put it on my personal Instagram.

unknown 53:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

Instead of thinking about it from a marketing perspective, how do I make this as visible as possible? How do I include as many people as potentially I can to join in what I think is a cool thing? Instead of taking the, like, I would assume it's a combination of like the punk rock approach. It's like, oh yeah, we'll put a black hand on a flyer and stick on a one singular pole next to the courthouse, and everyone's gonna know that we're having a rave next weekend at the alley. Like, no, dude, it's not how it works anymore. Yeah, maybe 20 years ago, maybe not even then. You have to tell people and you have to be very clear when you do so. Yeah, yeah, very true.

SPEAKER_03 54:35

Probably a good opportunity to give a couple people a shout out. Obviously, our friends over at the Richmond Experience, they do a pretty good job of like putting things together of like what's going on in Richmond. So they're really good. And then our friend um miscellaneous, she does a really good job of also kind of just highlighting everything that's going on. Yeah. And there are other people as well, but those are the first two that kind of come to mind when I think of like where do I go to see what's going on? You know, those are two really good ones. Um and then um, I think it's called Restless RVA. They do a good job of curating like music stuff specifically. That's been a page that I've always kind of followed for a while, but what was good stuff going on in Richmond, man? Um, probably another good opportunity to tell some people about some things that we have going up, uh, going on, coming up, just so that it's on people's radar. Obviously, we've been doing the Carrytown Run Club. As of now, we've been doing that every other Saturday morning. So the next one is June 27th at 9 a.m. We'll be meeting in front of Blackbird Goods. We're also considering doing an evening run. So we'd probably do that on a Wednesday. We don't have a date in place, but if that's something that anybody listening would be interested in, please send us a message and let us know. We're also, we're quite certain, 95 to 99% certain point nine five percent that we're gonna be doing the Richmond Parallel Parking Championships. Let's go. And so if you're listening to this, check out in the description. We'll probably have a link there so that you can join the wait list if you'd like to actually compete and participate in that. Uh, we're partnering with NASCAR, it's gonna be a ton of fun. We're gonna do it somewhere in the city. So details to come on that. Anything else that we're uh we're missing?

SPEAKER_00 56:08

I think that's it. And I I think, you know, I personally am really excited about the Richmond Parallel Parking Championship. We talk about traffic on the show quite often, and it may be beating a dead horse, but I think it's just a different horse every week. So let's continue to you know ring that gong. Yeah. Um, we think this would be a really cool uh just opportunity for people to come out and do something fun. You'll get to meet us. There is very likely going to be an official NASCAR race car driver on the panel with us, kind of passing comments, judging people's form. As a professional driver, he's going to have a really good insight onto uh how to get the angle right and how to line things up on the road. Uh, we're gonna be doing it in the city. The location is TBD, but we're gonna be doing it in the city limits. So uh it'll be somewhere really cool, somewhere really public. And we would encourage you, if you think that you're like a good driver, definitely come. If you think that you're maybe not the best and you don't want to like embarrass yourself, you should still definitely come. It'll be a lot of fun. And uh if you don't drive, come and watch. Yeah. Spectator sport all through and through. We're gonna be out there on the street, we're gonna be set up, we're gonna have like a microphone and speakers, and we're gonna be filming it, so we're gonna make this a part of our Vera House YouTube series, so you'll be able to watch this and recap it all. Um, I'm personally excited about doing all of this.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

Yeah, yeah. And it's all fun. You know, it's like no shaming, you know. Like, you know, we're we're there to, you know, there might be some jokes here and there, but like we're there to have a good time, have fun. Um, we're gonna be trying to do some things to make sure that uh everybody's, you know, maybe some like bumper pads and stuff for anybody that wants to use that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 57:53

We'll keep it safe, it's kid friendly. Um we'll we'll we'll keep it keep it PG for the most part, yeah. You know, for the kids and parents out there. But again, it's all for fun. Um the another example of one of the many crazy, cool, fun things that happen in our city.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

Yeah. Well, enjoy your dinner at Blue Atlas and uh yeah, we wish everybody a great weekend. Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

This podcast was recorded at Vera House Studios in Richmond, Virginia, and produced by Perry Young and Mike Metzger.