back to the James

During a trip to Virginia to visit family and attend the Richmond Folk Festival, I did some field recording.

Having been by, but never to, Ragged Island WMA, I thought it'd be worth a try to record both the James River Bridge (longtime fixture in family history) and the river itself.


I started near the bridge. Which was fine for that objective. But later took the observation trail to further down river. Both places I used the highly kludged together Big Fluff windscreen made with fake fur on plastic cross stitch grid whatever.

James River at end of observation boardwalk trail, Ragged Island WMA, Carrollton VA, noon 8 October 2010


Roughly a 1/4 mile away, the bridge traffic is still a big part of the sound. Noontime sirens sound across the river in Newport News.


Birdsong at Tredegar Iron Works 9 October 2010


The next day at the Richmond Folk Festival, I barely had time to get out my lo-tek MP3 player to do a quick and dirty recording of this birdsong coming from a small tree near Tredegar Iron Works.

Train passing overhead on trestle near Tredegar Iron Works/James River, Richmond VA, 10 October 2010


That following day I took a break by the riverside and a train came over the trestle.

The last day there I went down to Chippokes Plantation State Park, where I hadn't been in over 3 years. Once there, I found a spot on the James I wanted to record.



Forgetting some essential adapter gizmo for mounting my recorder, the tripod was dead weight (on a very mosquito infested trail) and I had to improvise.



James River near end of James River trail, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010


I recorded a couple of other spots on the beach, then switched to some DIY piezo mics for my first outdoor attempt at using them as hydrophones. Below is the sound of them dragging in shallow surf on sand and broken shells.

DIY piezo mics as hydrophones in the James River, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010


Time allotted was running out. I went by the Visitor's Center to see if there was any last fast opportunity.



Near a picnic shelter I just fitted the recorder with the Lil' Fluff windscreen my wife had kindly fashioned from the aforementioned fake fur.



And pointed it down to the banks of the James roughly 100 feet below.



James River surf below Shelter 1 near Visitor's Center, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010 A



James River surf below Shelter 1 near Visitor's Center, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010 B

Elma Seward, 1921-2010

From EJSeward

Early and often, things posted here were from a trip taken with my mom. Or things she had kept.

This Wednesday the 20th, she passed away.

Much as it's been for my brother who died February last year, this blog is an extended remembrance of the world in which she lived.

From EJSeward

ye olde Tinder Box

Revisiting a post at That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead! about the old Newmarket North mall, I recalled still having this stuff from the Tinder Box that was there three decades ago.

Pipe cleaners . . .



Pipe . . .



Everything but the three decade old pipe tobacco. (Huh . . .)

A closeup of the pipe's Tinder Box label:



Another view of the bag:

recent and not so recent

The Smithfield Times kindly shares a few of the sights and sounds from this year's Pork, Peanut and Pine Festival.

Think it's been quite a while since I went.

Meantime, here are some images of cool old newspaper ads someone was good enough to post on Flickr.

Includes old Leggett, Home Quarters Warehouse, Circuit City, Revco and Roses ads. So check it out.

hangers and bags

More hasty photos, this time of coat hangers and suit bags.


Click the photo below for a closer look at a hanger from The Hub ("Tidewater's Most Popular Stores").

says yes

I was out of the area by the time the Rices Nachmans department store chain had been absorbed by Hess's. There was a store in Warwick Village, but my mom likely got these shopping at the one in Coliseum Mall.

totally stuck

sick in a good way . . .

[reposted from unterkayness, epic backstory to be found there]

On her way to work, school and Lane Bryant, Anita Rose has been keeping tabs on dead & dying retail in the Hampton Roads area and thereabouts. The now long gone Coliseum Mall and Mercury Plaza. The pretty much totally repurposed Newmarket North/Newmarket Fair mall. The extant time machine to '89 that is Southpark Mall.

Beyond southeastern Virginia, the Sickmalls blog has links to other retail blogs and sites dedicated to once ubiquitous chains like Caldor and Ames. And Anita also has a hand in Deadmalls.com.

But shunting over to the big grid experience, you'll miss some cool details and such.

So go see for yourself why That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead! wins with special recommendation the E for Excellent blog award.

folksy festival arcana

The Pork, Peanut and Pine Festival began in 1976 and, as you can see, is still running.

Below is an closeup of the datestamp on the back of the postcard.



Likewise the Newport News Festival of Folklife is still running annually. (Click images below to view full size.)


At this 5th annual Festival in 1978, my mom was helping my aunt & my cousin with baking angel flake biscuits as one of the exhibits.

Meanwhile, I was mesmerized by a hammered dulcimer on display nearby. And spent a good part of an afternoon watching a blues musician maybe because or in spite of his playing & singing "Kansas City" over and over again.

time capsule at Newmarket Theatre

Waiting for the movie to begin, my mind would boggle over the dates on this plaque. Especially that second one: Sept. 13, 2015.




Go up those steps in the picture above and somewhere just to the left or the right you'd find that plaque. But no movie to wait for.



Heck, these pictures were taken in 2000 and it was a very closed theatre then.




The newer Cinema 3 & 4, last I saw (sometime after these photos were taken), had become a church. Hardly the first time I've seen that happen.

While I sit and think of every science fiction movie I ever watched and await the arrival of the now retired WB froggy singing "hello my Ragtime gal" along with transistor radios and whatever other mid-60s ephemera the now very retired Newmarket Theatre shoved down into the concrete under that plaque, I strain just as hard as I did decades ago to see the shiny vision of a year 2015. Maybe not the real year just seven and a half years away. But the one seen so long ago in 1965, when movie theatres came in multiples of one and 50 years of relevance was not so much to hope for.

Meantime, a shout out to Anita whose Sickmalls blog entry on the Riverdale movie theatre got me to finally scan these pics. And to my friend Derm, the man with the Time Capsule plan.

And I've added the Newmarket Cinemas (its last incarnation) to the Cinema Treasures website so I can see what someone else has to say.