It may sound like a bad coming of age novel (it is) but it’s really about Richmond’s upcoming mayor’s election on week from Tuesday, RVANews’s coverage of forums leading up to debate, and how yours truly will be helping with said coverage Tuesday night, October 28th.  Yes, I’m gonna be a livebloggin’ fiend.

Check out RVANews’s previous coverage here and keep an eye on RVANews starting around 6 pm for live coverage of Style Weekly’s final final Mayoral Forum that’ll pit Jones vs. Grey vs. Pantelee vs. Williams (he’s still in it, right?) in an all out brawl.  Will Goldman show up to help out Jones?  Will Wilder suddenly announce that he’s going to run again and throw the whole thing into chaos with seven days to go?  Will the “Gang of 26″ start a coup and just take over everything?  Will there be nachos?

Tune in tomorrow and find out.

In the meantime, a recent Mason-Dixon poll shows the race close between Jones (32%) and Pantele (30%) with Grey (13%) and Williams (2%) far behind.  How those numbers looked before Goldman pulled out is anyone’s guess (my guess is not pretty for anyone but Pantele) and with 23% undecided it’s still completely up in the air.

I saw a Grey ad on TV Saturday night right after the Virginia Tech/Florida State game which was a fluke because I never watch TV, but I’m not sure if anyone else is getting on the teevee.  All of the top three candidates are sitting on a good chunck of change going into the final week so expect an all out blitz to aim for that 23% who are still trying to figure out who to vote for.

Bill Clinton’s coming to VCU for the Obama campaign this Sunday:

This Sunday, October 12th, please join President Bill Clinton for a rally in Richmond, where he will talk about Barack’s vision for creating the kind of change we need.

Change We Need Rally
with President Bill Clinton

Virginia Commonwealth University
University Student Commons
Commons Plaza
907 Floyd Ave.
Richmond, VA

Sunday, October 12th
Gates Open: 8:00 p.m.
Program Begins: 9:30 p.m.

http://va.barackobama.com/RichmondChange

This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required; however an RSVP is strongly encouraged. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

For security reasons, do not bring bags. Please limit personal items. No signs or banners allowed.

From my inbox:

Join Governor Sarah Palin at a campaign rally Monday, October 13th at the Arthur Ashe Center.

Tickets are available online or by visiting one of the designated Virginia Victory offices between 9:00am and 9:00 p.m. EDT.

Please see below for ticket distribution locations.

The Arthur Ashe Center is located at:

3017 North Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23230

Doors will open at 11:00am.

If you have any questions please email: richmondrally@johnmccain.com

Click here to RSVP and print your ticket online

Please wear something red to remind everyone to keep Virginia Red this November!

Governor Palin Rally Ticket Distribution Sites

Richmond Regional Victory Headquarters
2819 N. Parham Road, Suite 210
Richmond, VA 23294
804-248-6981

Chesterfield Victory Headquarters
9507 Hull Road
Richmond, VA 23236
804-365-4970

Hanover County Victory Headquarters
9502 Chamberlayne Road, Suite 12
Mechanicsville, VA 23116
202-641-6753

Fredericksburg Regional Victory Headquarters
150 Riverside Parkway, Suite 213
Fredericksburg, VA 22406
540-479-1888

Harrisonburg Regional Victory Headquarters
182 Neff Avenue, Suites 13 and 14
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
202-236-7924

Charlottesville Victory Center
455 Albemarle Square
Charlottesville, VA 22901
434-973-5499

Roanoke Regional Victory Headquarters
3904 Franklin Road SW, Suite E
Roanoke, VA 24104
540-725-7445

Montgomery County Victory Center
302 A North Main Street
Blacksburg, VA 24060
540-577-4335

Washington County Victory Center
903 East Main Street
Abingdon, VA 24210
276-623-8244

VPAP has released the latest financials for the candidates for Mayor in Richmond and it actually proves for some interesting reading if you’re into the numbers and sources and the like.  I haven’t had time to crunch any of the really interesting numbers (dollars from businesses compared to individuals and the like) but some easy to get to numbers can give a good insight on the state of things as of today:

Paul Goldman
$9,219 – Raised
$3,719 – Richmond City
$219 – Self (In-Kind)
$1,438  – Total Expenses
$8,000 – On Hand

Robert Grey
$234,598 – Raised
$92,397 – Richmond City
$10,000  – Self (Loan)
$73,340 – Total Expenses
$161,257 – On Hand

Dwight Jones
$231,023 – Raised
$102,057 – Richmond City
$73,000 – Self (Jones for Delegate – Dwight)
$95,079 – Total Expenses
$135,943 – On Hand

William Pantele
$203,448 – Raised
$132,591 – Richmond City
$77,185 – Self (Pantele for Richmond City Council – William)
$77,747 – Total Expenses
$125,699 – On Hand

Lawrence Williams
$10,163 – Raised
$8,000 – Richmond City
$8,000 – Self (In-Kind)
$9,027 – Total Expenses
$1,136 – On Hand

Total raised is always key, as is how much has been spent and what’s left for the last six or so weeks of the campaign.  What I also find interesting is how much money is coming from the city itself (whether from individuals or a business) and how much came from the candidate himself.  When looking at self funding, I considered any transfers from already standing committees as self funding, as well as any actual contributions, loans and in-kind efforts filed.

I think for many folks, myself included, finding out how much really came from concerned citizens and how much came from concerned industries is very important to know, and if you dig through VPAP’s data you can find out for yourself.  If I find the time I’ll try and crunch those myself.

Clearly this is a different environment than 2004, where only one of four candidates broke the six figure funding barrier.  Mayor Doug Wilder raised $277,897 – more than double the combined total of the other three challengers.  He also raised more from the city ($155,357) than any of this years challengers have (as of yet).

You can smell the North Carolina wildfires up here in Richmond.  The haze is from it too.  I was wondering what I was smelling all the way from Bryan Park to WoB.

RetroRichmond.com - A new blog from a simply awesome woman who loves retro things!  This site is going to be awesome, I can just feel it!

Does anyone know a good resource for finding rent-to-own homes in Richmond?  Particularly in the Northside.  I’ve been checking Craigslist but that’s kinda hit or miss.

Robert E. Lee was caught watching women dress at the Virginia Center Commons Sears:

First Robert E. Lee lost the Southern cause, now one of his more recent rear-guard actions has him in hot water in Henrico County Circuit Court.

It seems the rears that this Lee — of the 8000 block of Creighton Parkway in Mechanicsville — tried guarding were not among his assigned duties as an assistant manager at the Virginia Center Commons Sears in March 2006.

No, the rears in question were trying on bathing suits in the ladies’ dressing room, above which Lee had taken up a scouting post. The action has already earned Lee two convictions for peeping.

Now Lee’s being sued for $2.7 million — that’s federal currency, not Confederate bonds. The facts: One of Lee’s victims, a pre-pubescent girl, happened to glance up to notice Lee watching her through the ceiling tiles and reported it to store officials.

The Consumerist picked up the story too.

The804.com has a good rundown on Richmond media and blogs and it’s hard to argue with the assessment.

Jon Baliles says Ukrops is going to be shutting down it’s store at Harrison and Grace.  Man, there goes the closest salad bar.

Richmond’s got itself a new literary journal: Makeout Creek.  The first issue features writings and art from David Berman, Tom De Haven, R. Kuszyk, Clint McCown, Sto, Allison Titus and more.  You can find copies at Chop Suey’s two locations and a place up in NYC if you find yourself up there.  Read more about it at RVANews.

Style Weekly’s Scott Bass has a little ditty this week that cherry picks from River City Rapids as an example of Jon Baliles readiness and presumed eagerness to take a job with Mayor Wilder’s press office. Because, clearly, if you support something you must be looking to get a job with that thing as well.

Where to begin…

Let’s start with the cherry picking. You grab four posts out of three and a half years of blogging and he’s begging for a job? You find four instances where Jon is supportive of the Mayor, one from Jan. 2005, the most recent from Oct. 2007, and this is supposed to be a feeler for employment?

Now, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Scott’s onto something here. I mean, I wrote an awful lot about IHOP’s Free Pancake Day. Who wouldn’t want to be the spokesman for Free Pancake Day? I could be IHOP’s Jared, only instead of losing a ton of weight by eating their food I’d be the fat guy that became large and in charge thanks to IHOP and their all you can eat pancake special!

Second, minor, but Scott Bass wrote the article and the first quoted post happens to mention, wait for it… a Scott Bass article! Dear Scott, now that I have cited you and an article you wrote, can I expect a piece to be written about me quoting the time I wrote about you? Please? Maybe I can hook you up with free pancakes. (I jest.)

Third, I think Jon’s being honest when he says the offer surprised him and he really had to think about accepting it.

While there certainly are bloggers out there who blog hoping and praying that someone will see their work and hire them on the spot to do what they’ve been doing, many bloggers simply write because they care about something. Jon cares about Richmond and at times he has found himself in agreement with Mayor Wilder on how to exactly “care about Richmond”. But I’m pretty sure there’s more to Jon than just his blog. Just as there is more to any number of bloggers who have been offered professional jobs in fields they blogged about (Conaway Haskins, John Henke, and Shaun Kenney to name a few).

Style and Scott have a right to pick on Jon a bit. That’s fine. But it’d have been nice if they provided the full URL to River City Rapids in the article and provided Style readers an opportunity to visit RCR and see for themselves how much Jon cares not for Doug Wilder but for the City of Richmond and its people.

Maybe it’s to keep him on a short leash (joking… or am I?), but Jon Baliles of River City Rapids has gone and gotten himself a job with City Hall.  Or City Hall went and got itself a blogger.  Either way, good move, especially since Jon’s already been doing a lot of shilling for the city.

Back in October West Of The Boulevard News posted about the upcoming Infuzion Ice Bar.  Couple comments here, a couple comments there, months go by and suddenly, bam, mid-January you have yourself a regular ol’ deluge of comments coming in saying Infuzion is the bestest place in the whole wide world.  Interestingly enough, the two or three cheerleaders for Infuzion have a strikingly similar writing style.  And the conversation is still going.

Now maybe this is a case of people just Googling “infuzion” and finding WOTBN’s coverage on the place.  But so much talking so far after the fact just strikes me as odd.  Especially since it’s only people coming in and screaming “OMG, INFUZION ROXORZ!” (more or less).

So are we seeing people truly enjoying Infuzion or folks at Infuzion trying to get people to come enjoy it?