BGW

I don't have time to respond to everything right now (should be working...) but: Alley Katz capacity is 400ish, and Canal Club is 550ish. Premier gets a dance-club crowd on weekends, Norva gets a live band crowd, both of which are different animals. The degree of difference depends on what sort of band Norva's hosting.

Charlottesville has the reasonably new Charlottesville Pavillion, which books the same level of band which tends to frequent The Norva, 930, Cat's Cradle, etc. I'm not sure what you mean by your comment re: Richmond & Norfolk venues. If you're saying what I think you are, then I disagree: there's no compelling reason for a non-local band to play Richmond and Norfolk, especially with Richmond's admissions tax. I do too. I'm sick of driving out of town to see decent bands. All I can say is this: the DC Metro area has only 1 rock club in the 1500-capacity range (1.5 if you count the occasional rock/pop shows at the Warner Theater). The idea that Richmond needs or can support two seems crazy to me. Also, the Premier Club's website suggests that it's a dance club, not a live music venue. That's a much different endeavor with a very different audience from The Norva.

For one thing, by "Hole in the Wall" I literally mean Hole in the Wall, the late, great indie rock club on Laurel St. That place birthed many a great local band, and showcased many larger indie outfits who wanted a lower-key show. Cary St. Cafe is almost 100% jam bands, Hyperlink screws up every show they hold, Babes & Godfreys have rather narrow target audiences, Mars Bar rarely holds a show, and while I love Mac to death, McCormack's is an awful venue that's almost 100% bad punk and hardcore. As for having 2 1500-capacity venues: One is plenty, and even then I think it won't be filled very often. There's no reason for touring bands to pick Richmond over Norfolk (larger population base) or Charlottesville (college town with strong live music turnout). Everyone said that the Canal Club would be the second coming of The Flood Zone, but that's not been the case. I'd love to be wrong, but I predict that, when they're both open, Toads & The National will be dark at least half the time, and live dates will consist mostly of 1/4-full shows by local bands.

The sad thing is that, even though the Federal Gov't OWNS Amtrak, it gives more money to individual PRIVATELY-OWNED airlines. If private industry takes over passenger rail, expect most passenger routes to disappear.

I don't. I hope I'm wrong, but I predict at least 1 of the two will be closed within 2 years. For years, there's been a pattern of touring bands which would be well-served by Alley Katz or The Canal Club skipping Richmond in favor of Charlottesville or Norfolk. I don't see that pattern being any different at the 1500-capacity level. I wish them well, but I'd trade one of them for a couple of small, Hole In The Wall-ish places in a heartbeat.

No, but if a 30-minute rainstorm next year does the same thing...

Just got back from walking the dogs (the backyard's a mudhole), and Westover's a mess with downed trees & limbs. Westover Hills Blvd has closed twice at the south end of the bridge due to trees across the road and I understand Riverside Drive isn't pretty either. Still, we dodged a bullet.

The place is a craphole. A/C hasn't worked in years and plumbing is suspect. Twisters was never pretty to look at, but it was tolerable. The last two outfits in that space haven't done much to help. I wish management luck, but if they're only going to continue booking all-ages pop-punk shows, they'd be better off saving their pennies.

Other than the passing mention in Style, no, although management at Springfield & Newport News stores told me not to expect a Richmond store anytime soon. TJ's policy typically involves occupying existing storefronts, so don't expect new construction should they locate there.

Brian Munford is chef-owner of Patina as well, so not a surprising move.

This is true, and that's largely the fault of the American buying public: cheap prices trump American jobs every time.

I don't necessarily disagree with the second statement, but Target et al don't wrap themselves in the American Flag, nor do they brag about their "low prices" which have more hidden costs than Joe Public will ever see or acknowledge.

Sure it's biased, but no more so than the PR line that Wal-Mart is great for the American People.

...which would be great, except for the fact that many staff are scheduled for far less than 40 hours/week. I'd recommend watching a documentary called Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. One section focuses on a company-owned Chinese labor camp and is quite depressing (as is the rest of the film). (and before any dismisses this documentary as leftist, liberal propaganda, the first family portrayed in the film is a very conservative, pro-Bush family...)

Because Wal-Mart execs are big donors to the political status quo.

Yes, there may be lots of problems with the location, and perhaps the area should never have been developed as anything other than a cowpasture in the first place. But the fact is that it's there and, less-than-impressive though it may be, it's one of the few parts of the city that doesn't roll up the sidewalks and call it a night at 5PM. Inaction by the city at this point isn't going to drive merchants and restauranteurs to Broad or Grace, it's going to drive them either out of the city, or out of business entirely. We could armchair quarterback this to death and state that it's the business owners'/residents' fault for moving there in the first place, but they're doing so based on assurances from the city that they were going to fix what Gaston showed us was broken. So what do you suggest we do? Abandon the whole area because of a very solvable drainage problem? Yes, it's a flood plain, but there are hundreds of cities in similar floodplains which don't experience the same issues. The difference is that other cities have actually done something about it. The amount of money won't run into the billions; in fact, had the city actually put the same effort to this as they have the ballpark and the Ukrop-Armstrong Smoke-and-Mirrors Performing Arts Center, we might not be having this discussion now. Funny how our city government is quick to institute a meals tax when the beneficiary is the top 1% of the population, but they can't seem to find the time or money for public works...

Almost 2 years to the day...good job Richmond! Perhaps Mister Mayor needs to worry less about digging up trains and knocking down schools and focus more on fixing the drainage in The Bottom. Much more of this, and they'll be lucky if everyone doesn't close up shop and move out of there.

I read that over the weekend. I was surprised to learn about the triple-crossing's middle line not having enough clearance to let Amtrak double-decker cars through.

We already have Franklin Military (in the old Minnis Middle building), and another school like that wouldn't be a bad idea, but the whole system? No thanks. We've got a couple ex-Fork Union teachers at my school and I don't think they'd last a second in RPS.

This just furthers my belief that Douggie's clueless on schools. Or maybe my half-joking statement that he wants to sink the whole ship and turn the system over to charter schools wasn't a joke after all.

This is not the place for this argument, but I will say that this: Those "thousands" of jobs are of very low quality and of often horrible conditions, and hardly balance out the economic, environmental, and even public safety damage Wal-Mart has wrought over the years. But if people want to shop there, then so be it. The Chinese Government thanks you for your patronage.

The damage Wal-Mart does on a daily basis is staggering, and that's all I'm going to say for now.

Ask and ye shall receive: I don't care who handles their ads, I'm not setting foot in Wal-Mart again if I can help it.

I'm still half-and-half. This was in Westover.