Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F, and highs today will hit the mid 70s! Don’t wear socks! Ride your bike! Schedule a patio-based happy hour (although there may be some wind early evening)!
Water cooler
If you’re confused about Virginia’s budget, Medicaid expansion, or life in general, Radio IQ’s Mallory Noe-Payne has the explainer for you to read this morning. Who are the hundreds of thousands of Virginians who stand to gain access to health insurance if/when the General Assembly gets their act together and expands Medicaid? Read the aforelinked piece and you’ll find out plus have the background you need for this piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Michael Martz which covers the strategies our legislators will use over the next couple of days to pass the budget with expanded Medicaid built in. Sounds like we should have things settled by Tuesday.
As per yesterday’s conversation about who should design and build schools—City Council or School Board?—Council’s Education and Human Services Committee will meet today and consider RES. 2018-R033. This resolutions says Council would rather the School Board handle that stuff but does want to be kept in the loop just in case things start to go off the rails. I mean, someone will need to be in charge, right?
Laura Ingles at Style Weekly writes about the new photography exhibit at the Black History Museum, and it sounds awesome. This exhibit runs through June 1st, and you can get your tickets online for just $10.
Did you know the Monument Avenue 10k takes place this Saturday? I should hope so, it’s only the biggest running of the humans Richmond sees all year! The Richmond Police Department has put together this handy map of street closures that you should be aware of. Pro tip: The weather this weekend should be incredible, and getting around town by bike (or bike share!) is an easy way to avoid the hassle while getting a close-up look at all the race-day shenanigans.
As we enter baseball season in Richmond, Marc Cheatham has a good piece in Richmond Magazine about what the sport means to his family as well as some suggestions on how best to enjoy the region’s baseball offerings. Using baseball to talk to your kids about zoning! I love it!
Sports!
32-year-old Highland Springs alum Andre Ingram is a feel good story in the NBA and had a heckuva debut the other night.
- Squirrels couldn’t hold up against Hartford and lost 1-3. They’ve got the day off today but return to Richmond tomorrow for their home opener.
- Nats tripped up against the Braves, 3-5, and will start a new series with the Rockies tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's longread
A Field Guide to the Musical Leitmotifs of “Star Wars”
From Patron Sam comes this fascinating article about the Star Wars score. Deep, wonderful nerd stuff on many levels!
Something more substantial happens in the celebrated scene in which young Luke Skywalker looks longingly toward a horizon lit by twin setting suns, dreaming of a life beyond the desert planet Tatooine. Williams writes a melancholy, expansive G-minor theme for solo horn, which is soon taken up by full strings. Akin to the noble C-minor melody that Wagner writes for Siegfried, this leitmotif represents not only Luke but also the mystical medium known as the Force. Buhler points out that the music is heard before the Force has been explained; thus, in classic Wagnerian fashion, it foreshadows the not-yet-known. This may be the point at which “Star Wars” steps out of the adolescent-adventure arena and into the realm of modern myth.
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