Share your thoughts with Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, and the Virginia Food Council on how to strengthen Virginia's local, regional, and statewide food systems. The results of their research will inform a comprehensive Virginia Farm-to-Table plan, research development, extension education, policy, and funding recommendations and strategies. Link is here. Holllaaaa.
Unfortunately I can't find a full image of the supercute logo for the 2010 Vintage Virginia Wine Festival, but here's at least part of it, ha:
The festival is happening June 5th & 6th in Centreville, and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe is headlining the Saturday night music line-up. I saw Karl Denson play in 2002 when I was lucky enough to work at the Newport Jazz Festival, and he was great then, and so I'm sure he'll be great in June.
I had my first foray into Virginia wines last weekend when I had a couple of friends in town, and we visited a few vineyards. We were all pleasantly surprised with what those Blue Ridge grapes are up to, and so get yourself to Centreville if you can.
Thomas Jefferson's birthday is coming up April 13th...
...and so maybe I'll have to drive by Monticello and plant a few seeds along Route 53 in his honor.
Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds. -Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1785
And Monticello is having a b-day party. Fife and drum corps included.
In July 1927 a fast-walking, smooth-talking man named Ralph Peer from the Victor Talking Machine Company showed up to the twin towns of Bristol, VA/TN to record some of the down-home musical goodness that people their were creating.
Was he really fast-walking and smooth-talking? I don't know. But if a movie were made of this moment in music history, he would be. So let's just bet on it.
In the two weeks that followed his arrival, he recorded a whole bunch of folks - The Stoneman Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and (wait for it...) The Carter Family.
The Bristol Sessions are a pretty big deal to country music historians, earning them the distinction of the Country Music Big Bang, and so on.
So what does this mean to us today? That we should go on and visit the Mountain Music Museum on a Thursday to celebrate country music in its birthplace.
Why on a Thursday? So that we can also go to catch the free bluegrass Pickin Porch Show on the Briston Mall afterwards. Schedule.
What does my Grandfather say about asking questions that you already know the answer to? That it's an obnoxious habit only obnoxious people divulge in. Right. Moving on.
Since I'm still learning about Virginia, it was not a big surprise that I haven't heard about Dinosaur Kingdom yet - but I'm pretty excited to check it out.
Mark Cline has created a world in which Union soldiers come across lost dinosaurs in Virginia and then use them as weapons against the Confederacy.
yep... that's a raptor on a Civil War era wagon.
ummm... Mom? Remember that time that you took us to the Natural Bridge in like '95 and we all complained about the detour? Dinosaur World would've really sweetened that deal.
ohhh books. I've hardly been reading at all of late, but just yesterday started Anna Karenina - and, well, everything you've heard is true. It's remarkable. I'm now a quarter of the way through it. It's that freaking good.
My friend Megan became absorbed by Anna Karenina last Fall, but before hearing her describe the book and characters I was always pretty intimidated by Tolstoy. No more. Treat yourself and go get a copy.
Friday March 19th, 2:00pm - Barnes & Noble: Peter Neofotis, author of Concord, Virginia: A Virginia Town in Eleven Stories at the Virginia Stories event
Friday March 19th, 4:00pm - Central JMRL Library: Heidi W. Durrow, author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky at the Race Matters: Novels of Extended Families event
Thanks for stopping by. I started this blog in Thailand where pointing your feet is considered really rude. Right now I'm living in Charlottesville, Virginia but I still try to keep my feet to myself.
