this site is not active: Archive

The Butter Room →

We’ve moved back to Wordpress.

Aug 20th

Play Ball at Historic Calfee Park

Last week I attended a baseball game at historic Calfee Park in Pulaski, Virginia. Calfee Park is one of the oldest minor league baseball stadiums in the country. It was built in 1935 as part of the Works Progress Administration project and is included in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. Named after a former Pulaski Mayor, Ernest W. Calfee, the Park seats...

Aug 13th

It's that time of the week again! SWVA Butter...

Hi Folks! Okay, we know, we’ve been slackin’ on the Mondays! But don’t worry because today is Tuesday and there’s plenty to do the rest of the week. Check it out… TONIGHT :: It IS easy being green… Big Lick-Green Drinks is still going strong at All Sports in Salem, VA so if you love livin’ green and want to surround yourself with likeminded peeps then...

Aug 12th

SWVA Butter Roomies... Here's Your Week at a...

And to our roomies all over VA looking for a road trip, hop in the car, on the bus, or your bike (if you’re ambitious) and come on over. Check it out… TONIGHT :: Its a special month for the Emerging Artist Program at the Main Roanoke Library. They have not one BUT two fantastic events starting tonight with the BOE Showcase, a Roanoke collective of hip hop, RnB, and breakdancing artists...

Aug 5th

Jul 30th

7 tags

SWVA Butter Roomies! Conquer summertime boredom...

It’s summertime, and you’re bored!?! We don’t think so! Check out what’s happenin’ in your ‘hood this week! July 28-August 3, 2008 MONDAY :: What’s America’s favorite pastime? Baseball of course! And lucky for you the Salem Avalanche are taking on the Frederick Keys tonight on their home turf. Go show support for your local team and grab a hot dog...

Jul 28th

4 tags

FloydFest 7: This Weekend in Floyd, VA

As promised, FloydFest is on myScoper.com! Here are some highlights that you don’t want to miss this weekend, July 24-27, 2008! THURSDAY :: Donna the Buffalo, a FloydFest favorite, returns as the Thursday night headliner on the Dreaming Creek Main Stage. Funky and danceable with a message of tribal philosophy and celebration, Donna the Buffalo’s music is a unique blend of reggae,...

Jul 23rd

3 tags

To our SWVA Butter Roomies, Here's Your Week in...

Hiya Friends! It looks like a great week in SWVA. Enjoy! MONDAY :: Hey, having a Monday ladies? No worries, grab your gal pals and head to Martin’s tonight for Martini Mondays! Nothing cures a Monday quicker than an ice-cold Appletini! TUESDAY :: Wanna move your body and feel good? Try out the newest Modern Dance class at The Water Heater! Two hours of dance and movement for all skill levels...

Jul 21st

Doug and Telisha Williams in concert at The Water...

country-folk artists Doug & Telisha Williams, a married couple from Martinsville, VA who tour nationally will perform at The Water Heater in Roanoke, VA Friday July 18th 7-10pm. $15 for a ‘button ticket’, bring a chair or cushion. No Alcohol. Family Friendly! They have become a favorite of celebrated Nashville songwriters, having opened recently for Lucinda Williams, Charlie...

Jul 17th

4 tags

The Black Crowes @ Charlottesville Pavilion -...

Last weekend, I caught another solid concert at the Charlottesville Pavilion. The Black Crowes were in town to help celebrate the July 4th weekend. This was the 6th time that I’ve seen the Crowes, which is hard for me to believe. I am not a hardcore Black Crowes fan, but am probably more of a fan now than I was 18 years ago when I first caught them on the Shake Your Money Maker tour. My...

Jul 14th

3 tags

Good, Cheap, and Local / Nick's Seafood

Shhh…I’m going to tell ya’ll a local secret. But first, I’ll assert that there are two kinds of seafood restaurant. One of them serves just about everything fried and/or soaked in butter. I don’t know what the other kind is…fancier, I guess. I enjoy both. But when it comes to lots of fried fish, tartar sauce, hush puppies and beer there are only a few...

Jul 4th

2 tags

Emmylou Harris at the Charlottesville Pavilion... →

Our friends over at cvilleMUSE posted a review of Emmylou Harris’ show last week at the Charlottesville Pavilion. Summer concert season is here! Get out and see some live music.

Jun 29th

Jun 28th

3 tags

Cheap, Good, and Local / Kids, Pork & Beer at the...

I am starting a new column this morning about three things that I am always in search of when I am out and about - cheap, good, and local. In today’s economy, these three words couldn’t be more important. Our family, like so many others, is cutting back on the amount we eat out. Therefore, when we do eat out, I want to make especially sure that my belly and my wallet are satisfied....

Jun 23rd

It’s Easy Being Green

How big is your carbon or eco footprint? That’s an excellent question; one that I decided to ask myself. I Googled “What is your carbon footprint” and found a variety of Web sites that offer a free calculator that will estimate, in cubic tons, the amount of carbon dioxide pollution I contribute to global warming. My estimated carbon footprint was 11.13 cubic tons per year on one site, and 12 on...

Jun 17th

8 tags

King's Grant Waterways Cleanup Results

Our neighborhood action to clean up our waterways by cleaning our neighborhood was a success…a blistering, steaming, hot success. I am excited and looking toward the future. Here are the results: 17 individuals from 6 families, 9 adults and 8 children participated 15 trash bags filled 2 square miles cleaned Poundage could not be determined but I would estimate each bag weighed 20-30 ...

Jun 11th

Jun 10th

3 tags

Watch

The Butter Room gals, Beth and Wendy left Roanoke, VA at 5 a.m. to drive 2.5 hours to Bristol, VA to see our new presumptive Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama begin his national campaign in Southwest, VA. Below is our close encounter with Barack Obama as he shook hands with the crowd after a Town Hall discussion about Health Care. Although The Butter Room is not a political blog, we were...

Jun 6th

8 tags

A Meeting between Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, and...

The music from the lot grew louder and our anticipation built as we walked amongst the crowds descending on the Roanoke Coliseum, destined to see what has been dubbed the perfect blend of two of music’s most powerful forces… That’s right, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss visited Roanoke, VA last night, June 2nd, for one spectacular and very special evening of bluegrass, rock, and a little bit of...

Jun 3rd

5 tags

Baked Virginia Jams/ Bathtub Gin - Phish Memorial...

Jun 1st

8 tags

In The Butter Room / Ann McDaniel, Director of the...

The Butter Room is thrilled to interview Ann McDaniel, the Director of the Warehouse, the official Dave Matthews Band fan association that is celebrating it’s tenth year at the end of 08! With Dave Matthews Band’s summer tour kicking off today at Post Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA, we felt it apropos to interview the person who runs the best fan club around. Ann moved to...

May 30th

6 tags

Memorial Day Food Rundown

I was very excited leading up to this past Memorial Day weekend in anticipation of all the grilling and smoking I’d be able to do, and in particular, the smoking. I’d done a good amount of grilling already this year, but I hadn’t smoked much meat, doing only a mackerel so far. It was good, but it wasn’t pork. You know how it is. To quote the great Thomas Keller in his...

May 29th

6 tags

Watch

Baked Virginia Jams Tall Boy > Time Is Free - Widespread Panic Here is our last video from the Landmark Theater (4/27/08) show last month. This was my personal favorite moment of the show. Enjoy!

May 26th

May 25th

3 tags

Book Review: Blind Faith, by Ben Elton

From its release in 1949 through the end of the Cold War, George Orwell’s 1984 was a fixture on high school reading lists in many Western nations. Orwell’s protagonist, Winston Smith, was familiar to students as the man who fought against but ultimately succumbed to Big Brother and the totalitarian regime that ruled the London of Orwell’s future. 1984 certainly made an...

May 23rd

6 tags

Delicious Eye Candy

Networks of people tagging the URL: http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/03/22/2359-army-reaches-public-through-youtube-flickr-delicious/ Green edges point to people tagging the URL. Blue edges point to the taggers’ first-degree friends. Fucia points to taggers’ second degree friends. White is the “back graph.” It shows people in different networks who also know each...

May 21st

5 tags

Deserving of a Ticker Tape Parade: My Initial...

Mark Evans wrote on his blog recently: If there was a way to post a “no vacancy” sign on my digital front yard, it would have been up long ago. There is no more room at the inn; I’m absolutely full and can’t eat another byte of whatever digital service you’re serving up, etc. I feel the same way, but every once in awhile I find a service or app worth adding to the barn. I was introduced to...

May 20th

5 tags

Baked Virginia Jams / Might as Well - Grateful...

May 18th

4 tags

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes...

by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Penguin, 2006, 324 pages The advent of social media has introduced an era of collaborative communications that raises many questions. Are corporate blogs necessary to influence consumer buying decisions? Can low-cost viral marketing campaigns outpace traditional media buying? How influential, accurate and necessary have resources like Wikipedia become in...

May 14th

3 tags

Virginia Beach Neptune Festival Season Kicks Off...

The Virginia Beach Neptune Festival kicks off this weekend and goes all summer. It starts off with a wine tasting party in the 24th Street park and culminates in Boardwalk Weekend, September 26-28, 2008. We usually run in the 8K and check out what’s left of the Surfing Classic after. But the true gem of Neptune Festival has to be the North American Sandsculpting Championship. I remember...

May 14th

6 tags

Radiohead @ Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA -...

The Butter Room was well represented at the Radiohead show from Nissan Pavilion last night (5/11/08). So much so that we decided to do two reviews. Cheers. Review #1 by Brian Chenault Exactly how do you measure the dedication of a band’s fans? Is it by the number of bootlegs or import versions of albums they own? Is it by the amount of merchandise they purchase? Their willingness to shell out...

May 13th

6 tags

Watch

Baked Virginia Jams “Ribs & Whiskey” - Widespread Panic 4/27/08 Landmark Theater - Richmond Here is some more from Widespread Panic’s show in Richmond a couple weeks ago. Check out our review and more video here. Enjoy! Baked Virginia Jams highlights live music performance from the state of Virginia and District of Columbia.

May 11th

3 tags

Give the Gift of Meat

I want to tell ya’ll about a little treasure from Virginia called Edward’s of Surry. This is about sausage. This is about sausage and bacon and ham. Smoked meats. I know Dylan is pickin’ up what I’m throwin’ down. About 3 years ago my dad introduced me to Edwards, a.k.a. Virginia Traditions, when he sent me the cavalier Collection (ahem) for Christmas. The bacon...

May 10th

8 tags

In The Butter Room / Paul Rosner of Trees on Fire

Trees on Fire are set to play their second show in as many years at Charlottesville’s Fridays After Five tomorrow, 5/9/08. The Butter Room was lucky enough to catch up with Trees’ drummer, Paul Rosner, before the show for some question and answer time. What’s the songwriting process like? Do lyrics come first and then music or the other way around? Is there a primary...

May 8th

6 tags

Van Halen @ John Paul Jones Arena in...

Diver Down was one of the first rock albums I ever owned. “Mean Street” was the first guitar solo to blow me away. “Hot for Teacher” was the best video ever made (at least from the perspective of a 13 year old male, but it’s not too shabby at 37 either). I loved Van Halen and then David Lee Roth left. Enter Sammy Hagar and you know the rest of the story. Even though I...

May 6th

4 tags

May 5th

4 tags

King's Grant Communities Waterways Clean Up

WHO: Residents of King’s Grant Neighborhoods WHAT: Waterways Clean Up WHY: Look around. Our trash is all over our streets and side avenues. It flows heavily through our storm water runoff system. A significant amount of our trash flows along our storm water ditches, drains, creeks, and lakes that flow directly into the Lynnhaven River. These waterways serve to protect our...

May 4th

4 tags

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band @ John Paul...

I consider myself part-Jersey. You see, my whole family is from Jersey. My Mom and Dad were the first to fly the coup a few years before I was born, and moved to the South from the Garden State. I grew up a Florida boy from Jacksonville. However, we spent at least 80% of our vacation time in Jersey visiting family and the Jersey Shore. One specific memory from our vacations was my first...

May 3rd

3 tags

ROFLcon ‘08 :: A Meet Up for Internet Celebs,...

The first ever ROFLcon happened this past weekend as a two-day symposium on the MIT campus in Cambridge Massachusetts for Internet celebs, academics, and everyday nerds (April 25 and 26, 2008). The purpose? To find out what Internet Celebrity is, how Memes form, what comprises Internet Culture, how this affects living, breathing human-beings and where this bus is headed? So imagine if you will,...

May 1st

3 tags

Iron Man Debacle Shows Twitter's True Power

Like many PR people, I’m still unsure of the best way for my industry to leverage Twitter. Opinions are developing across the board. On one end, Todd Defren made some good points yesterday calling for PR people to go tweet or go home, and on the other, I know a lot of PR people who agree with Kara Swisher in saying that Twitter is relatively unknown outside the echo chamber. I tend to...

Apr 30th

8 tags

Widespread Panic @ Landmark Theater in Richmond,...

Last night I made the trek from Cville to see some old friends in Richmond and catch Widespread Panic at the Landmark Theater. Being the dork that I am, I did a quick calculation of how many Widespread shows I had seen and figured it out that this was my 20th. A milestone show - Wow! (ok, I am only kidding). Twenty shows is not much for the average Spreadhead, but I have seen those twenty shows...

Apr 29th

3 tags

Apr 28th

3 tags

Apr 28th

4 tags

Apr 28th

3 tags

Apr 28th

3 tags

Apr 27th

4 tags

Twhirl + Friendfeed: Use, but use with caution

I am a big fan of twhirl, a desktop client that up until last week allowed one to update their Twitter account(s) and receive Twitter updates from friends. Then last week, twhirl introduced support for friendfeed in their newest version, 0.8. This came as a very pleasant surprise since I had been struggling with using friendfeed. I did not have an app that would keep me abreast of my...

Apr 27th

3 tags

Apr 26th

6 tags

Watch

“Git R Dun” by The Kings of Belmont at Charlottesville’s Fridays After Five on 4/25/08. More from the Kings here.

Apr 26th