From owner of Books on Wheels - Shelley Briggs -

Hello Friends!

Ward and I are happy to announce that Books on Wheels is opening a Thrift
Store in the Northside area of Richmond. The store is located at

302 W.
Brookland Park Blvd.
Richmond, VA 23222
We will function as other thrift stores do in selling you
gently used merchandise donated to us from the community, but with a few Books
on Wheels specialties to look forward to! This volunteer run, non-profit thrift
store will provide:

Free books! All the time, always free!

Functioning bicycles for sale. Never buy another thrift store bicycle that
you can’t ride away on!

We will not be providing free bicycle repair in store, but we will be
holding classes TBA that teach bicycle repair and as always, Books on Wheels
will hold events in the neighborhoods with our buses so we can fix bikes during
those occasions!

What we need now is support from the community to get us starting. Currently,
we are asking for donations of any kind to the store before opening our
doors. Also, we always need and greatly appreciated monetary donations so we
purchase the following items that we need:

Supplies to build book shelves

Clothes Racks and clothes hangers to organize clothing donations
A Cash Register

Paint!

Donate to Books on Wheels Here!!

Thanks for your support! We are going to open our doors as soon and will be back
with more information!!

Just a reminder, here is information about Books on Wheels:

Books on Wheels is a Richmond, Virginia based 501 (c) 3 non-profit organizations
that provides free books and free bicycle repair. As a mobile operation, Books
on Wheels is able to travel to many different communities in Richmond and
around the country to provide our services. We work with various other
organizations in order to provide to their clients as well as people in their
communities. Our services are available to anyone and everyone, yet we do
have a concentration in working with at-risk youth in low-income neighborhoods.
Currently, we are working on occupying a space within Richmond so we can expand
our operation to provide free books and offer bicycle repair classes at a
particular location. Our new project will allow for more volunteer
participation, as well as ability to reach more people within the community.

Our Mission:

Books on Wheels is dedicated to promoting literacy and maintaining healthy,
active lifestyles, while providing much need resources to our communities that
lack access to free books and bicycle education. Through literature and bicycle
education Books on Wheels works to provide empowering tools that they can use
within their communities.. In concentrating in working with youth, Books on
Wheels strives to encourage young people to read and to learn skills that they
can use for the rest of their lives.

Donate Online through Network for Good!

Shelley Briggs, MSW

Co-founder, Books on Wheels

www.booksonwheels.org

www.booksonwheelsrva.blogspot.com

Grand opening of a new warehouse spot in Baltimore, featuring Amoeba Men!

Tonight at the Triple the only show worth seeing...

The Alphabet -- http://www.myspace.com/thealphabetva
Elephant Child -- http://www.myspace.com/elephantchildren
Nick Coward -- http://www.myspace.com/nickcoward
St. Gods -- http://www.myspace.com/stgodshospital

Unless of course you go to the food not bombs house party...
2608 Hanover Avenue
9pm
Baltimore String Felons
Thimble Wit
Sea Couch
Black Death All Stars
Alison Self

Good Sunday night!

I know you all have been there. I'll give you a couple of scenarios and hopefully you'll relate.

1.) You work for a major corporation and you make a choice: do you spend company time on Facebook or do you justify your boring life by working hard and making yourself proud?

2.) You're a college student and you make a choice: do you aim for c's in order to pass because you know your chosen career really only wants to know you HAVE a degree or do you study your ass off and act as a sponge so you can really take advantage of your inevitable debt?

3.) You're in a band (and probably work at a restaurant) and you make a choice: do you play in town, occasionally hit up DC and NC, occasionally update your myspace, and pray one day someone will offer you an opportunity? Or do you promote the hell out of your band, support your local arts community and come hell or high water tour! tour! tour! in an effort to DO something with your music?

4.) You're a small business and talk a big talk about all you'll accomplish for your community you make a choice: realize you don't have enough time, energy or motivation to actually do it? Or do you work your ass off, find extra time in a day, give and give with blind faith, and make a difference?

Share with me if you want to - I'm loosing my faith in everyone.

ON A SIDE NOTE

If you're in the mood for a low-fi folksy kinda evening might I recommend finding yourself at the beautiful locally owned GALLERY 5 (located at 200 W.Marshall in Jackson Ward) for: Mostly Dimes, Liza Kate, Pedals On Our Pirate Ships and Sweatpants!? What an awesome night this will be. If you're new to town and don't know what the music scene is like here - there are a few bands playing tonight that you NEED to familiarize yourselves with!

Aw, I'm feeling better already!

I would definitely be at The Camel tonight for - Qur new nation/The Weather/Up for Nothing/Stepaside. It's going to be some pop, it's gonna be some punk and a little bit of metal. More so than not it's gonna be a lot of fun. So roll on over to the Camel (located across from Lowes in the fan) show starts round 7pm.

I've absolutely had too much fun. I can't wait till next year! Tonight I'll be wrapping things up with some metal at The Triple. Hope to see you party people there.

1.) hadads.
2.) we'll see from there.
3.) wake up from some sort of daze.
4.) Plaza Bowl for Cheenon.
5.) After parties.

Remember again, take before and after photos during your best friends day weekend and I'll post them on the website Monday. Submit photos to info@richmondrampage.com (make sure they're small files the email server I use kinda sucks).

ON TO THE FUN!

Something I do every year, take a picture of yourself before you go out every night. Passport photo style will yield the best results. Now go out to one of these events tonight:

Best Friends Day 8 at Alley Katz
Featuring - Strike Anywhere, None More Black, Off With Their Heads, Ringers, Blotto, Gatorface and No Friends! Show kicks off at 6pm - 2am 18+.

Protomen
At Plaza Bowl 8pm till 12am.

Wicked After Party @ Couch Heaven
Featuring - SCARCITY OF TANKS, HEAD MOLT, and CAVES CAVERNS! Show kicks off when the party people show up.

Wrenn Mangum (amazing Elvis impersonator!)
At The Triple show starts at 9pm lasts till 1am.

Now that you've had an awesome night on the town - recommended by yours truly - it's now time to drink some water before you hit the hay. Then when you wake up in the morning take another photo.
Do this for the rest of the weekend and you will end up with a hilarious collection of Before and After photos. Encourage your BEST FRIENDS to do it too. Print 'em and hang 'em with pride on the fridge as a reminder of your amazing weekend. You'll be glad you did.

If you want to submit your before and after pics to RichmondRampage.com - send an email to info@richmondrampage.com and I'll put 'em up for you Monday!

I'll tell you a little story about how I came to be a Richmonder. It's a simple story about Fun. The type of fun you rarely find anywhere in VA. The type of Fun that makes you feel kinship with a city. I'm talking people, about the type of fun that gives James Madison University and all the date rape house parties the big F-you. The type of fun that tells your parents I don't want your support I do what I want! The type of fun that turns a 20 year old girl into a party-mongering, beer bonging, pit encouraging, drunk off the flask in your pocket, wild child. The type of fun that makes you forget your roots and claim although PBR tastes like carbonated water it is the bourbon of beers and you'll never look back! I'm talking about a catalyst - a single event that makes you forget your roots and assimilate into a community of people that take fun as seriously as you do.
If you didn't know today marks the start of an event that changed my life. BEST FRIENDS DAY The kick off event is tonight at PLAZA BOWL (it's just over the river in the plaza that intersects Broad rock (which is Monument ave) and Hull street (which is just off of COWARDIN, which is the street that BELVIDERE turns into on the opposite side of the river). The party starts at 7pm and will be OUTRAGEOUS so make sure you get there on-time or even a little early so capacity issues don't keep you out of the party.
The list of acts is as follows:
Young Widows Loud-Powerful with underlying hardcore tendencies.
Ultra Dolphins A band that gets you as close to a basement/house show as you can get without actually being in a basement/house.
Psyched to Die 'FUN' hardcore (seems to be the theme of the post).
Future Virgins This is a get down stay down band, but Jesus man, GET UP it's BEST FRIENDS DAY!
The Measure Get ready for some male and female dueling vocals strewn atop some punk rock guitar/drums/bass.
Friendly Fire So apparently people have been comparing this Richmond band to Jawbreaker...um hell yeah...I LOVE Jawbreaker!

So come out tonight, pick up the new issue of RVA magazine, and plan your BFD weekend accordingly. I'll be there every step of the way!

Nah not like wicked side boob action or a full frontal - more like a kick ass glam rock band fresh out of the Richmond sub culture busting out on the scene like a heavy load of mammal sauce. This will be a full on menage a trois with a band that's 'hitting' it big in the Brooklyn synth-dance scene - AVAVAN!
Swing on down to the Triple (3306 West Broad Street) tonight around 10pm for some throbbing dance friendly beats.

Best live show I've ever seen (I see 40+ live events a month) tonight at the Camel. The Phenomenauts, The Re-Volts, and the Leftovers. Show starts at 7pm.

It's Rock & Roll, it's Rock-a-billy, it's from the future. It's in town tonight!