Two fan clubs met on the evening of 4/26/2012 – and I was at both. One was a private gathering that was treated to good news about the Valentine Richmond History Center’s capital campaign and an announcement about the Center’s new grant from Altria to continue to make Court End and the good work of the Center ever more engaging for our entire community. The other was a pull-your-waders-on-differently gathering at Bow Tie Cinema that featured the one-night Richmond stop for the nationally touring . . . (wait for it) . . . “Fly Fishing Film Tour.”
 

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Ours is Tommy Emmanuel’s version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7iBWfz75vY    Warning: This clip – only 99 seconds – may cause you to spend your day searching for other youtube recordings of Tommy Emmanuel (try his “Guitar Boogie” and “Classical Gas”) AND it will cause you to buy your ticket for Tommy Emmanuel’s forthcoming Richmond performance at CenterStage: Saturday evening June 9 2012.

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I watched a leashed dog trot alongside a man pedaling a unicycle across the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He wasn’t a contracted performer – just a community member enjoying the venue. I vote to hire him and dozens more interesting folks to continually mosey about the VMFA’s campus. My unicycle encounter was immediately after exiting a 4/24/2012 meeting with Elena Madison – urban planner for the New York City-based Project for Public Spaces. The VMFA has engaged PPS to help make the VMFA’s exterior ever more inviting...
 

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The green-shorted, sunglassed artist demonstrated equal expertise with the 16-ounce can of spray paint and the 3,830-pound JLG scissor lift. His right hand alternated rapid 6-inch can shakes with methodically precise 12-inch paint strokes across a 30x40-foot artwork that was slowly emerging while a whole bunch of us watched shoulder-to-shoulder on 4/14/2012.

 

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On 4/12/2012 Benjamin Norman of the Pamunkey Indian tribe conducted the consecration ceremony for the site where a monumental tribute to Virginia Indians will be erected on the grounds of the Virginia Capitol.
 

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On 4/12/2012 I “slipped the surly bonds of earth” at the downtown branch of the Richmond Public Library while reading many of the 50+ essays by Richmond personalities – presented in large font on individual posters - about their favorite children’s books. The exhibit, entitled “Why Children’s Books: Inspiring Generations,” is not only endearing, it’s transcendent.

 

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