A simple network model of the primary visual cortex (V1) can exhibit a variety of phenomena observed in the real visual cortex, including orientation tuning, spontaneous background patterns and surround suppression, as well as increased gamma-band oscillations and decreased trial-to-trial variance following stimulus onset. The dynamic regimes of this model which capture all of these phenomena are rich in structure and strongly shaped by temporally localized barrages of excitatory and inhibitory firing. This emergent collaborative activity has far-reaching consequences, giving rise to the phenomena mentioned above and informing many testable predictions within the real V1.