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gowhatyourself t1_ja7hpla wrote

Really wish posts like these could establish what the ideal amount of weirdness or charm was. Like give me a benchmark year. Are we talking Nancy Raygun to strange matter transition or highest murder per capita? Work with me here.

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Charlesinrichmond t1_ja85ulc wrote

I know, I know!

It's how RVA felt the day they moved here. Anything before that or after that was bad.

Was reading an article on Austin in the New Yorker yesterday, with a quote telling someone in the 70s that Austin really peaked in the 60s. Captured what you are saying perfectly

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xRVAx t1_ja980pc wrote

Early 2000s to 2005 was late murder / early maximum weirdness. We're talking punchline magazine and Wadi and Alley katz.

2005 to 2010 was peak organically creative because everybody discovered each other through Myspace and craigslist and blogs and RVAMAG and created things like underground house shows and no BS brass and farmers markets.

2011 to 2016 was the early post-Lincoln movie branding period when everyone bought the RVA sticker for their car and send each other that one "RVA River City" YouTube video. we thought we were cool for having an international bike race in 2015. This is the period where people started getting brewskis at hardywood and all the other local breweries popped up in Scott's Addition. It feels like this is when Richmond was getting a lot of outside attention to include chef awards and such. A lot of international mural artists came in painted our city. There was a very small EDM scene at the time which I'm not sure I think it went away.

It's hard to say what 2016 to present has been. Covid 2020 definitely put a damper on the vibe.

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gowhatyourself t1_ja9adrh wrote

This is actually fairly accurate. I'd say the early to mid 2000s could be weird, but I don't think most people experienced it or would willingly go back to it.

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xRVAx t1_jaa6q0g wrote

Obviously Fall 2008 was not fun for a lot of ppl. On the one hand, everyone at Circuit City lost their job. On the other hand, lots of ppl were forced to found a startup ##CreativeDestruction

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EscapePond t1_ja7xfkp wrote

What about Twisters

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gowhatyourself t1_ja827hz wrote

It just gets tiring hearing people whine about something that they either A: Were not a part of and didn't live through it or B: Don't even know how far back you need to go to get true gritty Richmond charm. It's like RVA MAGA or some shit.

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EscapePond t1_ja8hx72 wrote

Poorly executed joke I attempted apparently… Your comment just made me recall when people were complaining about twisters becoming raygun but now I’m just showing my age 😅

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ladythestral t1_ja8jj6k wrote

Not that poorly executed, they just haven't lived here long enough (or maybe I've lived here too long lol)

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LouieKablooie t1_jaavdbl wrote

The other day near maymont I saw a car driving real slow down a side road around dusk, people were dancing in hot dog costumes around it as it slowly drove, there was a woman lying on the roof of a car and a moped circling with what looked like a plate of hot dogs or some kind of food. Was pretty solid level of weird, I just nodded and drove around. Frankly I have own a hot dog costume too and was envious.

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airquotesNotAtWork t1_ja8fpkr wrote

It’s all vibe based

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gowhatyourself t1_ja8ievu wrote

It's entirely "when I was in college I did super weird shit in strange places because that's what you do at 19 but now that I'm older and have different priorities Richmond is boring" based.

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Hedgecore138 t1_ja8bkw6 wrote

2006 was a pretty good benchmark year in my lifetime, but after reading a bunch about the Biograph era, 1978 sounds like it was a pretty great time to be weird in Richmond.

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gowhatyourself t1_ja8egab wrote

I was here for that and I don't think it's any more or less interesting than now. Maybe some of grace was uhhh charming but that's it really.

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