Heather, Jayden, and I are fine. RVA lost power in a lot of places (including my apartment) We’re at my boyfriend’s house charging our computers and checking emails. There’s no damage to my place, or anywhere near, so hopefully we’ll have power soon.

Richmond lost power (supposedly more customer without than Norfolk) due to trees down everywhere. There were trees down on houses, cars, and powerlines across downtown RVA, but again we are fine. No damage to my car or apartment.

Norfolk has major damage (trees down and flooding) everywhere so we’re not sure the status of Orry and Heather’s house. We should know how things are down there when Orry gets back – hopefully in the next couple of days. The Navy is doing a survey of damage at the base before they can return. I’ll post another update once we get back to Norfolk to check on their house. Email with any questions y’all may have!

If you want to contact Heather or me, my email is aaronjcoriell@gmail.com and my phone# is 985-320-3544.

Love you all! And thank you all for thinking of us as we weathered the storm!

**Update**

Everything is back to normal. Power came back for me the same day I brought Heather and Jayden back to Norfolk. Orry has made it home, and their house is fine! (Now… Katia, stay away!)

The film portrays multiple, highly distinguished families (Including former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt’s family) struggling with accepting their role in the LGBT community. The documentary is educational from both a biblical and LGBT standpoint. There are wonderful explanations of biblical passages from people of high authority in the church. There are also scientific explanations, and backings from many American scientific organizations. It shows just how uneducated most Americans are about the one thing they actually believe in, The Holy Bible.

One of my favorite quotes from the film:

“There’s nothing wrong with a fifth grade understanding of God, as long as you’re in the fifth grade.”  – Reverend Dr. Laurence C. Keene, Disciples of Christ

Personally, the film hits home for me. I was brought up in the Catholic Church, and even though my family is completely accepting of whom I’ve grown to be, I know they – and I – struggle with how my homosexuality fits into everything we were taught by our religious leaders. Though I no longer consider myself to be a religious person, nor worship any form of a god – some, if not most, of my family and friends do. I respect their decision to believe in a higher being, and I expect them to accept and respect the fact that I choose not to. The fact that I choose not to worship a god has nothing to do with my homosexuality. My choice is purely based in the knowledge of science, evolution, etc. That said, this film really has nothing to with whether or not you worship God, but how you interpret the words of The Holy Bible. It is well put together, and assured not to offend any side of the argument. A must watch for anyone who is Christian, LGBT, or is closely related to either.

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“Heartfelt and Provocative… moving and rewardingly intimate.”

- Variety

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“Confronts, with whimsy and hellfire, the clash between religion and homosexuality.”

- New York Magazine

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The following is the movie trailer:

The following is an extremely educational excerpt from the film:

On the topic of my last post about my new home in Richmond, I thought I’d tie it back in with my native state, Louisiana. Anyone who has been to NOLA has probably ridden the streetcars, a staple of the city that has been through some tough and recently good times. Some residents say the only people who use them are the tourists, but we know that’s not 100% true; especially considering the NOLA RTA is expanding their lines to add service to the French Quarter and eastward, and the Warehouse District. But where did New Orleans get the idea for electric streetcars? You guessed it, Richmond. Richmond installed the first successful electric streetcars in the U.S. in 1888. The trend would take off across America, spurring economic development in the new American suburbs. Though New Orleans’ St. Charles Line is the oldest continually operating street railway system in the country (see facts here) it was not electrified until 1893, five years after Richmond installed the system invented by Frank J. Sprague.

Electrified streetcar line on Broad Street in the 1920's

Unfortunately, the Richmond streetcar lines did not survive the introduction of the automobile and the american highway system. There are some efforts now to bring a Bus Rapid Transit system (full explanation/definition here) to Richmond in the previous location of the streetcar along Broad, but these efforts are not seeming to produce a real result, much less bring back a cleaner form of transportation that never should have been taken out in the first place. That’s just my opinion though.

Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed the post!

I’ve never once heard someone say, “Yeah, let’s go to Richmond for vacation!” Unless you’re a Civil War enthusiast or from some state along the central-east coast, you may not even be able to locate Richmond on a mental map of the U.S. Nonetheless; this city has big history, big culture, and big business.

Richmond is a bustling city with a metropolitan area of over 1,200,000 people. It is the third largest metropolitan area in Virginia (Virginia Beach and Norfolk take the lead) and the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia is the 12th most populous state in the country with a population of just over 8,000,000 people. That’s almost double the population of my home state, Louisiana. The city was formally founded in 1737, but has settlement histories dating back to 1609 in English history, and even earlier by Native Americans. This is one of my favorite aspects of Richmond, the history. I live on the border between two neighborhoods, Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom. The Bottom is the location of the original city grid laid out during the founding of the city, and is home to some of the best and worst histories, all of which shaped American history on whole.

Just a few blocks from where I write, one of the most famous American writers found his home – Edgar Allen Poe. His history in Richmond is prevalent but scattered. Though he was not born here, nor did he die here, he did spend a great deal of his life here being educated, falling in and out of love, and working for a local editorial. You can find his full biography here.

Another important, but somewhat overlooked (until recently), piece of history in The Bottom is the international and American slave trade. The Bottom was home to multiple slave jails and auction houses. One of which I live next door to today. The building directly north of Smokehouse Lofts (where I live) is the last known building to be used in the slave trade. During the 1830s Davenport built this building (photographed below. credit: hmbd.org) which is today being renovated into apartments. [Side note: I did a little research on my building. (you see it to the left in the photo - with the banners) It was built post civil war, 1880s to be exact, and housed the Kingan&Co. Smokehouse. Not quite as interesting as my neighbor, but still cool to know.]

Davenport Trading Company

Aside from the history of my neighborhood, other Richmond neighborhoods – The Fan, Jackson Ward, Church Hill, Oregon Hill, Old Manchester (to name a few) – are just as rich in history. I could write for days on the histories of these places, but I’ll move on.

As a new resident to the river city, I quickly found it was much more interesting than my research prior to moving here had found. Richmond is a vibrant city, full of culture, educational tools, and research facilities. The city is home to the largest university in the Commonwealth – Virginia Commonwealth University. Until I did my research on graduate schools, I had never heard of VCU. I’m not alone, either. VCU (until the final 4 hype this year) was largely a university for the Commonwealth. The vast majority of its students are from Virginia. I was taken aback when I started my research to find that the student body is thriving at over 32,000 students. Currently VCU dates its history back to the founding of MCV in 1838. VCU has two campuses in downtown Richmond. The Monroe Park Campus is primarily an academic campus that dates back to 1917, and along the line became a satellite campus to William and Mary. The MCV (Medical College of Virginia) campus is a medical campus, which houses hospitals, research facilities, and classrooms for the medical students. The two merged to form VCU in 1968. A full history can be found here. Aside from VCU, Richmond is also home to the University of Richmond and Virginia Union University.

VCU Monroe Park Campus

Considering the amount of young people here attending these universities, Richmond has to provide a reason for these people to stay here. I read an article on richmond.com in which the writer stated, “Richmond doesn’t exactly have bells and whistles to impress visitors; it’s more the ebb and flow of living and breathing in this city that has made me fall in love with it.” To me, and I’m sure to many other residents, this is 100% true! The city as a whole isn’t exactly beautiful. You have to know the right places to go. There aren’t districts infamous to the population of the world such as Bourbon St. and the French Quarter back home. Richmond is ‘just another city’ to the passerby. But once you stay here for a while, or even a weekend with a resident, you can really get a feel of all the great things RVA has to offer. I won’t list each of those places, I’ll let you read the previously mentioned article, but I’ll post a few photos below of my favorite places in the city.

The Canal Walk starts at the end of my block and ends at Brown Island.

Brown Island is situated between the Kanawha Canal and the James River. This is definitely my favorite park in Richmond with great views of the skyline and access to the James River.

Probably one of the largest parks in Richmond, Belle Isle is in the center of the James and provides great access to the river. The photo below is the main walking path to Belle Isle.

Belle Isle walking bridge.

The Virginia State Capitol building is just a few blocks from my apartment. I just recently explored Capitol Park. It’s beautiful, but undergoing a few updates right now.

As a new resident of Richmond, I invite any of my friends and family from back home to come visit! It really is a wonderful city with so many things to offer. It may not be as infamous as New Orleans, or as glamorous as New York, but it’s a vibrant, cultural city with its own distinct identity.

I have quite a few friends and professors who blog. I enjoy keeping up with their lives through other means than short postings on Facebook and Twitter. Many of my Facebook friends complain I put too much on Facebook, maybe they won’t read this, but I came upon a quote by John Dewey that reads:

“Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself.”

Education truly is all of that. Quite a few of my elders complain about how much time younger people spend on the computer. If time spent on the computer is used for writing, no matter the topic, that’s education! If some research was done, which I would hope anyone who blogs does some research before posting their opinion on a topic, then I consider that time well spent!

I would say my friend Cynthia is my inspiration, or at least my go-to girl, for creating Modern JAC. Cynthia and I have been friends for almost four years now. We met while working at Starbucks in Ruston. The first night we worked together I was pretty excited – we’ll just leave it at excited – over a new Michael Buble CD. She says, “After that night, I knew we’d be good friends.” Sure enough, we’ve been friends ever since.

Finding a name for my blog started with a list of my favorite things. While pairing words together I decided to try the word modern and my first name Aaron. Once Cynthia was up to speed on my intentions to create a personal blog, she suggested I look up the meanings for each of my names. So the process of finding definitions that seemed inadequate, and coming up with titles such as Modern Holds the Heel (Yes, a search for the name James had a listed meaning “Holds the Heel”) began and quickly took a downward spiral. My research eventually lead me to learn that James, my middle name, was derived from Jacob. I’m not a huge fan of the name Jacob, for personal reasons, so I decided I’d switch my initials, AJC, around to spell JAC. Thus, my love for anything modern and an alternate use of my initials, formed…

…Modern JAC.