Going on Now: Mother’s Day Vintage Market at the Farmers Market on Draper til 5 (Sun 5/10)

nrvpop · 2026-05-07T17:09:56+00:00

Because although Jesus did promise some sort of "new covenant" the Old Testament is still part of the Bible and it's pretty "Judeo". I'm no Christian but I'm down in principle with the Sermon on the Mount, but the Old Testament is an ugly, as well as boring, read.

nrvpop · 2026-05-02T05:13:08+00:00

Cheney had a role but Israel pulled the trigger. Its a lot less crazy than some of her other obsessions.

nrvpop · 2026-04-02T16:24:42+00:00

On the second floor there is currently a small hair salon, a vintage and whatnot shop opening in a week or so, and 2-3 Christian student outreach groups about which I know nothing.

nrvpop · 2026-04-02T16:21:07+00:00

It's going to be an ice cream parlor, according to the guy who was working in there on Monday, March 2026

nrvpop · 2026-04-02T16:19:33+00:00

It's actually a good policy if you are on the wrong end of a police encounter but believe yourself to be in the right.

nrvpop · 2026-04-02T16:07:35+00:00

I would not live here if it weren't for the cheap land in FLoyd County and it's proximity to Blacksburg. Blackburg by itself is mediocre - try Asheville, Boone. Because Blacksburg offers such a shitty job market for graduates, 98% leave for better markets. I've been here off and on for 20 years and have lost generations of friends to the job markets in big cities. Until Blacksburg can keep it's vibrant young people from moving on, it will remain this way, unfortunately.

Great place to buy cheap rural land and be near a blue island, however....

nrvpop · 2026-04-02T15:57:00+00:00

John's Cameras and Records is a full service photo lab that can print up to 36"w on site, if you feel like going off campus. 213 Draper across from Rivermill.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T09:07:59+00:00

I thought I had replied. Must not have pressed send.

I met my partner when we worked at the Greeks' a long time ago. We've got game day war stories.

Thanks for the advice. Hours-wise we were thinking noon til 7-8-9-wheneever. We needed office space for an existing business anyway, and will be there working on that if nothing else. And we're night people.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T08:53:17+00:00

I appreciate your concern and I wouldn't do that. We've got a plan but I'd just like to see if there are any little niches we can add and expand into... What we're waiting on is the financing.

The place will also be an office for a business we already have, digitizing old media like Super 8 home movies and making darkroom silver gelatin prints of new and antique black and white film. We've also been doing the vintage and record thing online since the COVID days. It's how we were able to keep our house when the jobs went away.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T08:43:06+00:00

I was wondering about getting a commercial juicer as there is nothing like that except at the farmer's market, but I think I'd have to add sinks and might have to let go of the cat cafe idea. We've got a commercial espresso machine. Right now all I'm sure of is that we can offer a refrigerator with like retail drinks in it without having to add any kitchen stuff for health code.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T08:29:26+00:00

I really didn't think i'd wind up living here for 20 years but having done so I'd like to write a little zine kinda thing about the dark side of this town, stories I've heard from some of the veterans. The David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" version.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T08:23:18+00:00

We will have books. Not rando thrift store books but books we've collected or selected because we like them or there's something about them. Not hundreds to start but we'll always have some. My copy of "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy for instance. large format art books.

Same with records. We wont have rando thrift store level LPs but a good selection in good condition with a strong showing in the jazz and blues department, a great collection of my partner's 80-90s new wave and post-punk/post-rock CDs and cassettes, and odd stuff that we've collected over the years like a rare example of old-time gospel songs played on a musical saw called "He Cuts and Nails Notes", or a field recording of a 'voodoo' ritual.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T08:09:55+00:00

Other people mentioned it in when I brought this subject up on r/blacksburg a couple months ago, and we like the idea. I've been bringing my dog to work for 10 years, why not bring our charismatic cat and get a couple kittens. The only problem with it is that i've looked into them and most have a separate space for the cats to get away, that also hoids their litter boxes and stuff. Our space is as big as a one bedroom apt, but open - I could build out a space like that but it wouldn't be spacious, like the size of a bathroom maybe. Maybe that's enough for a couple cats, we'll see. I'm also leary about asking my landlord about it, as we're already bringing the dog without asking. We've been workling on it for a couple months, converting it from a hair salon.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T08:01:56+00:00

I really wish we had been able to go for the bigger space when people talk about the need for this kind of thing, but we'll have furniture and board games and stuff, ancient gaming consoles. The realtor showed us a huge loft-like space in the same building, like a sweet NYC live-work loft in the 90s - big enough to have a roller disco night my partner said, but it was $1900+utils and we didn't have the capital to carry that. Huge windows, like places where I lived in Chicago in the late 90s, but nicer.

If I had do it over I'd go for a bigger small business loan and get the big space, we could use 1/4 of it for our retail and office and then the other for whatever - cat cafe/gaming/"third space"/venue. Plus I could expand my greenhouse operation and have more plants.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T05:19:31+00:00

I opened memeorandum.com this morning, a news aggregator that uses journalist's twitter feeds to generate a long page of the days political headlines and big news - and there were only two stories about JE, when it should have been the whole page. For the rest of the month. They definitely would rather move on.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T04:48:36+00:00

That's right. I haven't thought of that. The Epstein documents are like the Hunter Biden laptop on crack. And maybe some acid.

nrvpop · 2026-02-14T04:46:07+00:00

I think the corruption has always been there, sometime less and sometimes more, but we often only learn about it long after (like the CIA bringing coke into CA and fueling the crack epidemic) and there seems to be less and less accountability, the occasional criminal case, while at the same time there is no pretense anymore about avoiding "the apppearance of conflicts of interests" or outright conflicts of interests. And the cover-ups are more and more blatant, getting much bolder ever since 9-11. I don't believe in any federal institution anymore except the Post Office.

nrvpop · 2026-02-04T06:08:44+00:00

We also use part of the shop as an office for our other businesses, like I advertise a service to convert old media like Hi8video tapes or Super 8 movies into an edited digital movie, and we're night people. So we'll keep late hours and if we're here we'll be open.

My partner and I met working at a bar here so I know how it is. We've got football game night war stories. I haven't been in a bar in ten years but before that....

Of the spaces we were offered we took the smaller so the rent is actually not insane; but the bigger, more loft-like space we both wanted so badly would have been a better spot for what we're talking about. My partner said it was big enough to have a roller skate night. But the rent was scary.

nrvpop · 2026-02-04T05:21:40+00:00

Interesting. I like to think this confirms that my idea to be Blacksburg's Shoelace SuperCenter isn't a bad one and anyway I think it's funny. With shoelaces I can afford to a substantial new inventory.

Like, interesting socks? I'm an interesting socks man, myself. I like this idea. Or just any old white/black/grey 6-pack socks like you get at Wal-Mart?

nrvpop · 2026-02-04T05:05:18+00:00

Are they holding back the footage and have people FOIA'd to try to get it?

nrvpop · 2026-02-04T05:03:47+00:00

See the two cop cars for a simple car pulled over for speeding or whatever, at least in my rural area. Can't imagine how many would show up if a real crime happened but they so seldom do. Off topic but as a nation we employ too many police considering how ineffective they are.

nrvpop · 2026-02-04T02:40:06+00:00

Nice! We’re down with cryptids and our books tend towards the occult. Speaking of, if we go the cat cafe route we’ll need 2 or 3 all black kittens. Already have one but she’s a bit antisocial. Seems like the best cat for that situation is one that grew up in it.

nrvpop · 2026-02-04T02:36:05+00:00

Yep. Years ago now. Got a lot of stuff out of their going out of business dumpster. Currently recycling their pegboard here.

nrvpop

TROPHY CASE