Month: December 2004

Every year at about this time, we take a special look back at the news that was. And yes, we’re looking for the gaffes, the missteps, the you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me’s. Thankfully, 2004 was rich in them, mostly because public officials did so much to promote fear and divisiveness. And that was just the Sheriff’s office! Media organizations and entertainers made their share of blunders, meaning Channel 29 played dirty with the new competition and Dave Matthews Band reportedly went afoul of the public. •••No one denies the many fine humanitarian acts credited to the Cheap Shots recipients. Who could forget Rob Bell’s courageous support of Pat Benatar in the pages of C-VILLE, for instance? Or the kind invitation the legislature extended to Virginia’s gays and lesbians to just pack up and move to San Francisco if their unnatural “lifestyle” wasso freakin’ important to them? Not us. It’s all here for your reminiscing pleasure—Cheap Shots, circa 2004.

 

THE “GET ME REWRITE” AWARD FOR EDITORIAL EXCELLENCE
Coach Al Groh
For his hissy fit overpreseason team coverage

UVA head football coach Al Groh has a lot riding on his shoulders. As field general of the Cavs, Groh has more than 100 players and 11 coaches under his command. This summer, he took on an additional role: armchair newspaper editor. Unhappy with media coverage of several off-field incidents involving UVA football players, Groh lashed into reporters during the ACC football kick-off press conference this July.

 “I’m pissed off. I’m invoking the Bowden doctrine,” Groh said, referring to Florida State University’s coach Bobby Bowden, who limited media access to his players after a spate of off-field problems.

 The chief target of Groh’s press conference spaz was The Daily Progress, which reported on the July 17 arrest of Ahmad Bradshaw, a UVA football freshman who was nabbed by police for underage alcohol possession and obstruction of justice. Groh dissected the DP’s editing and layout choices, charging that Bradshaw’s arrest was overplayed by the puny, 250-word article.

 “The only story in the main section of the paper that had a bigger headline was about the 9/11 commission,” Groh said, according to an account in The Virginian-Pilot. “That’s out of whack. I think everybody would agree, that’s out of whack.”

 Given Groh’s unexpected editing expertise, one has to wonder, what did he think of the DP’s front-page coverage of malfunctioning toilets in McIntire Park? Out of whack or right on target?

 If Groh is contemplating giving up his million in salary and perqs for a turn in newspaper editing, we can think of a few ink-stained wretches who wouldn’t mind trading places with him. Calling for a handoff to Wali Lundy or telling Ahmad Brooks to smash the QB—how tough can that be?—P.F.

 

THE TOUGH TITTIES AWARD
Lactating mommas
For the nurse-in at Atomic Burrito

A cold, drizzly day wasn’t enough to keep an impressive number of protesters off the Mall in June. An onlooker might have wondered, what’s the issue that brought such committed demonstrators and their homemade signs out to raise heck? Was it the war? The election? The racial achievement gap in local schools?

 Nope. The protest was over the right to breastfeed in a tiny burrito restaurant on the Mall.

 Only in Charlottesville.

 The furor began when an employee of Atomic Burrito allegedly told Suzy Stone, 30, that her breast, on which her infant was suckling, was making other customers uncomfortable. That request escalated into rude comments from the employee, Stone alleged.

 Three days later, a gaggle of protesters, including a dozen breastfeeding mothers, were on the Mall to fight for their right to nurse in public.

 “I just don’t want it to happen to other mothers,” Stone said during the protest.

 Atomic Burrito, no doubt feeling the heat from such high-stakes controversy, posted on its front window a statement which read: “Atomic Burrito unconditionally supports the rights of mothers to breastfeed within the restaurant specifically and in public generally.”—P.F.

 

THE “VIRGINIA IS FOR HATERS” AWARD
The General Assembly
For passing anti-gay H.B. 751

Virginia is for lovers…well, just so long as Virginians express their love in the missionary position, and for the sole purpose of birthin’ babies.

 Ah, yes—it turns out that Sweet Virginny, where our forefathers first sought freedom from tyranny across the pond, has quite a bitchy streak herself. Virginia’s legislature rebelled against the British crown, then the American union; it fought civil rights and integration. Now, the Virginia legislature has turned its famous wrath toward gays.

 Bible-thumping politicos—State Delegate Bob Marshall and his Republican minions—have made gains in the Commonwealth’s conservative suburbs by cynically exploiting old-fashioned homophobia. In July, Marshall’s H.B. 751, known as the “Affirmation of Marriage Act” and stating that Virginia shall not honor same-sex civil unions performed in other states, became law.

 The people who pushed this bill invoke religion and “family values” to cement their own power. Ironically, families suffer under their policies.

 Lisa Miller-Jenkins, a Vermont woman seeking to dissolve her civil union with her partner, Janet, is now using the Affirmation of Marriage Act to her own purposes. The two women have a child together, and a Vermont judge ruled in June that they should share custody. Lisa then fled to Virginia and on July 1—the day H.B. 751 took effect—filed for sole custody of the child in Frederick County Circuit Court. In October, the Virginia judge ruled that Janet has no right to custody, while the Vermont judge found Lisa in contempt of court for refusing to share custody. The legal battle continues.

 While the Virginia court focuses on bolstering anti-gay politics, it seems the welfare of the child—who deserves a relationship with both her parents, regardless of their sexuality—is ignored.—J.B.

 

THE TEMPEST IN ATEAPOT AWARD
Parents of Charlottesville schoolchildren
For flipping out about the new superintendent

A fracas erupted over the management of city schools this September, stoked by a weekend of furious e-mailing by hyper-involved parents. One of the chief e-mails, written by parents Karl and Jenny Ackerman, began with the ominous lines: “Dear Friends, We’re writing because we can keep silent no longer. We are deeply concerned about the direction our school system is taking under the new superintendent, Scottie Griffin, and we believe something needs to be done now before the damage is irreparable.”

 How long had parents kept their silence about the allegedly ruinous reign of Dr. Griffin? About 10 weeks, give or take a few days.

 Griffin, who began her job as Charlottesville superintendent on July 1, was just beginning the school year when the squabble came to a head. On September 16, a few days after the most frantic batch of e-mailing, hundreds of parents, teachers and concerned citizens packed a School Board meeting to have a say in the debate.

 During the meeting, the issue of race—long the undercurrent of school controversies—dominated the conversation. In their haste to lower the boom on Griffin, who is black, the agitated parents, the vast majority of whom are white, managed to anger many members of the African-American community. If parents’ complaints were legit, they were now lost in a far more divisive argument over whether Griffin was getting more pressure than would a white superintendent.

 “Let her do her job,” was the plea by both black and white Griffin supporters during the meeting. This response seemed reasonable compared to the tone used in those early parent e-mails, most of which were hyperbolic, overheated and at least a little clueless about how they might be perceived in the black community.—P.F.

 

THE “WANNA BE STARTING SOMETHING” AWARD
Rick Turner
Playing the race card in the schools debate

Are you a white parent of a student in the Charlottesville public schools? Are you concerned about recent policies handed down by the superintendent or school board? If so, you must be a “redneck” with a secret stash of “white sheets” ready to be thrown over your head in a moment’s notice, or so says Rick Turner, UVA’s Dean of African-American Affairs.

 Turner’s task is to stand up for black students, faculty and staff at a university with a less-than-perfect history of racial harmony.

 But to Turner, the dean job also entails making inflammatory comments over conflicts in the Charlottesville community, some of which have nothing to do with UVA.

 At a spirited and contentious meeting of the Charlottesville School Board in September, some African-Americans stood in defense of Dr. Scottie Griffin, the new African-American superintendent. Griffin has come under fire for several changes she has made within the school system and, some said, for her lack of outreach within the community.

 Turner took his defense of Griffin a step farther than others, claiming that people who have criticized Griffin’s initiatives “really can’t accept the color of her skin.”

 Turner received a smattering of hisses and boos for playing the race card without acknowledging the substance of any of the parents’ complaints, but was that response enough to make Turner reconsider his irresponsible blathering?

 Hell, no.

 At a School Board meeting a few weeks later, Turner upped the ante, talking about “white sheets” and “rednecks” when addressing further criticism of Griffin.—P.F.

 

THE DIAL-DOWN-THE-CENTER AWARD
The Paramount Theater, Inc.
For underwhelming firstseason programming

In the late 1980s, as The Paramount Theater faced certain demolition to make room for new development, a group of concerned citizens formulated a plan to rescue and restore the old Downtown landmark, which had closed its doors in 1974. By about 1992, the project’s fundraising drives had started generating buzz about the theater’s grand reopening. And in March 2002, a groundbreaking ceremony officially began construction on the theater. With such good intentions, it would seem unthinkable to say that the end result might not live up to all the hype.

 On September 17 of this year, the $16 million undertaking finally unveiled its opening season, which would commence in December. They promised “rock ‘n’ roll in-your-face energy,” and “a spectacle worthy of the Rolling Stones.” And that was just for Carrot Top. Over the course of renovations, it appears workers had stumbled upon a time warp and used it to recruit their entire season’s lineup. Some of the acts might even have welcomed gigs at the pre-renovated Paramount.

 By the end of the week following the announcement, the red-mopped prop-comic, AT&T pitchman and star of Dennis the Menace Strikes Again had become a symbol for the theater’s out-of-touch-with-the-Downtown-audience allure, as vandals left a large “X“ over Mr. Top’s headshot on a panel display mounted at the work zone.

 “That mixed-bag reaction is the sort of thing you get when you present any sort of season, especially when so many have waited so long,” says Kristen Gleason, The Paramount’s director for community relations and education. The theater downplays cynical speculation, maintaining that its niche as Downtown’s more traditional venue will complement the stages at the envelope-pushing City Center for Contemporary Arts and the Coran Capshaw-backed amphitheater currently under construction, neither of which, it must be said, could properly accommodate a Pauly Shore-caliber artist.—Ben Sellers

 

THE TIGHT FIST AWARD
Delegate Rob Bell
For making a hard right in the General Assembly

Albemarle Delegate Rob Bell is a rising star in the Virginia General Assembly. For good reason—behind the Orange County prosecutor’s Boy Scout charm and affinity for ’80s party rock lie fierce intelligence and in-depth knowledge of State law.

 Bell’s attributes were on display in the 2004 General Assembly session, when he led a House of Delegates effort to strengthen and streamline the Commonwealth’s drunk driving laws.

 This year’s biggest issue, though, was taxes. Last January, Democrats and moderate Republicans pushed for new taxes that would help the State pay overdue bills for everything from roads to schools to police officers. The new taxes passed, but not without a drawn-out fight from some Republicans, including Bell, who opposed all new taxes.

 “We’re spending more per person every year. We should look at prioritizing,” Bell said in February. That may be true, but the problem is that Virginia law requires certain levels of spending for education and human services. When the General Assembly doesn’t pay those bills, local governments must raise taxes to meet the Commonwealth’s unfunded mandates.

 We’ve got to give Bell credit, though. This year, his fellow no-taxers also continued their efforts to restrict a woman’s constitutional right to abortion services. Bell refused to march in lockstep with the Right’s social agenda, however. He supported some, but not all, of that anti-choice legislation, indicating that Albemarle’s delegate has a mind of his own.—J.B.

 

THE PIECE OF THE ROCK HOMELAND SECURITY AWARD
Ed Robb
For creative use ofgeology in the fightagainst terror

Albemarle County has long done its part to fight terrorism within its rustic borders. County Sheriff and former FBI agent Ed Robb has led the charge, declaring that anti-terrorism is his top priority, and the County has used federal homeland security funds to buy high-powered sniper rifles and machine guns.

 This year, County officials added a new line of defense: boulders strategically placed around the entrance to the County Office Building.

 That’s right, any terrorists plotting a front-door assault of County HQ this August—perhaps during a particularly important Planning Commission meeting—would have to contend with a Stonehenge-like array of big boulders. Take that, Osama!

 In the end, the boulders were only a temporary solution, giving way weeks later to a planned plaza, complete with brick planters and stone benches. The boulders were retired to Darden Towe Park.

 Not that Robb dreamed this thing up on his own. According to County spokesperson Lee Catlin, the feds’ guidelines over how localities should deal with Code Orange alerts had included suggestions for preventing “vehicular intrusions.” The County’s first solution to the presumed threat of car bombs and the like was to park several police cruisers around the building’s entrance. The boulders were later purchased to free up the cruisers for other tasks—you know, like actual policing.—P.F.

 

THE “SEE YA, WOULDN’T WANNA BE YA” AWARD
City Democrats
For unceremoniouslybooting Meredith Richards

The Democratic Party remains nearly monolithic in Charlottesville, but that doesn’t mean there are no fractures in the foundation.

 The “Dems for Change” faction that formed in late 1999 and sent two candidates—Kevin Lynch and Maurice Cox—to Council in 2000 hasn’t played a visible role in the two campaigns since. But the division between conservative and progressive Democrats still influences city politics. When two-term Democratic Councilor Meredith Richards didn’t toe the DFC line, she found herself brusquely booted from the 2004 ticket.

 The DFC’s website, which hasn’t been updated since 2002, opens with a quote from Gandhi: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” For some Democrats, that change includes redeveloping Charlottesville into “a transportation and land use system that will reduce reliance on cars and promote mixed-use, human-scale development.”

 It’s a fine idea—trying to maximize real estate tax revenue while retaining Charlottesville’s quality of life. But for the small-business owner who discovers the City wants to close the street in front of his establishment and build condominiums, well, he’s likely to say screw your political platform, buddy.

 Leading up to the 2004 campaign, Richards helped push a plan to ease city land to the state for the Meadowcreek Parkway. That didn’t sit well with the DFC faithful. Nor did they appreciate it when she sided with a group of local business owners protesting the city plan that was dear to the heart of architect Cox to build condos at the intersection of Preston and Grady avenues.

 In no time flat, Richards’ ouster was underway. Was Cox, the champion of the Preston Commons project, behind the efforts? One thing’s for certain, up front he dedicated a lot of energy to recruiting eventual winner Kendra Hamilton to the party’s ticket. Some say Richards lost simply for responding to the concerns of her constituents. Richards refused supporters’ calls to run as a write-in candidate, but she was openly angry about the situation: “The party turned their backs on me,” she fumed to C-VILLE after the primary.—J.B.

 

THE FLUSH WITH SUCCESS AWARD
Dave Matthews Band
For letting shit happen

This August, a group of 120 Chicagoans got up close and personal with the Dave Matthews Band—way too personal. According to a lawsuit filed by the Illinois Attorney General’s office against the band, one of DMB’s tour buses let loose a tank full of raw sewage while rolling on a grated bridge over the Chicago River, dousing scores of passengers on an open-air tour-boat that was passing below the bridge.

 Brett McNeil, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, was on the ill-fated tour-boat.

 “Mostly what I remember is people gagging,” McNeil later wrote, describing the substance dumped by the DMB rig as “Port-a-potty juice.”

 To try to make amends, the band later donated $50,000 to both the Friends of the Chicago River and The Chicago Park District. But though DMB has suspended the bus driver in question, by press time it had yet to admit whether one of its buses was the manure-spitter. DMB did, however, offer up DNA evidence to help determine whether the offending poopy came from one of their buses.

 Though Chicago dyes the river green every St. Patrick’s Day, the city has worked hard to clean up the urban waterway. DMB’s alleged contribution to the river—an ironic twist for such committed environmentalists—has not gone over well in Chi-Town. In a Chicago Tribune poll, 36 percent of respondents said the incident was made worse because they are “bombarded with enough of [DMB’s] crap already.”—P.F.

 

THE PURPLE PROSE AWARD
The Daily Progress
For best dramaticperformance by aneditorial page

This year, The Daily Progress’ political endorsements were like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai—lots of passion, but hard to take seriously.

 The newspaper’s May 2 editorial, “Fresh voices energize city,” urged people to vote for Democrat Kendra Hamilton and Republicans Kenneth Jackson and Ann Reinicke for City Council. That piece’s creative highlight was the way it glossed over Jackson’s criminal record with the rhetorical question: “Who else can speak for those in trouble as well as he?”

 Yet for sheer absurdity, no piece of journalism this year can top the DP’s October 31 endorsement of George W. Bush for president.

 The piece was a textbook example of the Rovian fear-mongering Republicans successfully employed throughout the campaign. “The right leader is Mr. Bush. His solid commitment to liberty is undeniable,” says the DP. “No one…can doubt his steadfast determination to save America.” The piece absurdly implied that John Kerry is not committed to liberty, and that a Kerry presidency would herald the destruction of the United States.

 The DP’s endorsements, contrasted with the city’s votes in the Council and presidential elections, indicate that the newspaper is seriously out of touch with Charlottesville’s electorate. Why? Perhaps it is because, as local blogger Waldo Jaquith opines on www.cvillenews.com, DP’s parent company Media General is lobbying the government to lift regulations on media monopolies, a position generally favored by Republicans.—J.B.

 

THE “THREE’S COMPANY” AWARD
WVIR, “Virginia’s Most Powerful Station”
For fighting dirty

The story has all the makings of a classic exposé. With fears about radiation, dueling corporate bigwigs and conflicting scientific studies, one could almost imagine a NBC 29 anchor saying, with TV-voice gravitas, “Next up, an exclusive story in which Channel 29 has learned …”

 But this scoop never ran on local TV, because it was actually about WVIR NBC 29’s parent company, Waterman Broadcasting Corp.

 NBC 29 has long been the big dog on the dial in this town. But competition loomed this March, when Gray Television, an Atlanta broadcast chain, announced plans to bring new CBS and ABC affiliates to town.

 Battling for viewers and ad dollars was sure to be, as the President would say, hard work (we know this because we see it on TV). So WVIR’s brass had a better idea. The government still requires television stations to beam their signals into the TV sets of the cable deprived. Therefore, NBC 29 realized, if it could keep Gray’s broadcast tower from being built, it would remain the only game in town.

 NBC 29’s first move was to commission an engineering study of the radiation around the antenna farm on Carter’s Mountain where Gray planned to build its new tower. The study, conducted by a D.C.-based engineering firm, revealed that if Gray built the new tower, the resulting radiation would be a serious safety risk.

 This alarming research, which stirred up worries about irradiated apples, apple-pickers, residents and tourists, was filed with the Albemarle County Planning Commission just in time for a decision on Gray’s tower plan. Gray had to get its tower built by August 15 or it would lose its FCC license.

 But unfortunately for NBC 29, Gray’s tower wasn’t the only new structure going up in the tower farm. In fact, NBC 29 was in the process of building its own tower. To get approval for this structure—a digital broadcast tower required by the feds—NBC 29 had paid for yet another radiation study of Carter Mountain. This study, conducted by the same D.C. engineering firm, found that radiation around both the new NBC and CBS towers would be far below dangerous levels.

 Oops. Apparently determining whether people might be zapped by radiation depends on who’s asking, and how much they’re paying.

 The Supes approved the new tower, and both the new ABC and CBS stations were on the air by August.—P.F.

 

 

THE “THIS IS ONLYA TEST” AWARD
Ann Reinicke
For her inflated sense of emergency

Republicans’ lifeblood is bashing local government for wasting resources in the pursuit of frivolous causes, unless, of course, the cause happens to be one of the city Republicans’ pet projects.

 This September, approximately 3,000 Charlottesvillians got a call from the City’s “emergency operations” phone system. The emergency: meetings to discuss whether City Councilors should be elected from wards rather than the current at-large system. This possible electoral change, one that Republicans gave a big push this year, could only be considered an emergency among a tiny cadre of geek politicos. The culprit behind the unauthorized automated calls was Ann Reinicke, a Republican who failed in her election bid for City Council this year.

 Reinicke is an informal block rep in her Orangedale neighborhood, a capacity in which she had recently been trained in how to use the City’s emergency phone system. Though Reinicke was authorized to send messages to her neighbors about meetings and neighborhood emergencies, she was not cleared to blanket a wide swath of Charlottesville with phone messages. That authority is reserved for calls about real disasters like hurricanes or toxic waste spills, not for a minor disasters-in-the-making, such as a Republican plot to take over the City Council.—P.F.

 

THE “I HAVE A DREAM BUT NO IMAGINATION” AWARD
City Council
For renaming the Performing Arts Center

At a marathon April 5 Charlottesville City Council meeting, just before Council prepared to hash out its fiscal-year budget, members of the local NAACP and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Committee presented another momentous proposal: Citing a petition with more than 800 signatures, group representatives asked that the Charlottesville Performing Arts Center, located in Charlottesville High School, be renamed to honor King.

 As the appeal came amid the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown decision, guilt over the city’s historic role in massive resistance to integration, and calls that—as in other cities—something be named for the great civil rights leader, Council unanimously voted in favor. On May 19, the name change was made official.

 Few questioned the fact that King had no discernible ties to local arts or education and was only known to have visited Charlottesville once, for a 1963 speaking engagement at UVA’s Cabell Hall. Nor conversely did anyone stop to ask how the high-school auditorium’s Nutcracker performances and the occasional Béla Fleck visit might do justice to Dr. King’s legacy.

 While anyone from local black leader Raymond Bell, to Newport News native Ella Fitzgerald, to former Virginia Governor and now Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder would have seemed a more fitting honoree, pressures to fall in line with other cosmopolitan hubs boasting MLK centers and boulevards prevailed. Ultimately the hasty initiative didn’t rewrite the city’s history, but left its mark in a little extra paperwork, a lot of head scratching, and one squandered opportunity.—Ben Sellers

 

THE “BECAUSE I SAID SO” AWARD
Judge Paul Peatross
For despotism in the courtroom

For all their power, judges enjoy a level of privacy most other public officials can only dream about. Sitting judges rarely give interviews, and little is known about the behind-the-scenes interactions between judges and lawyers.

 When Albemarle Circuit Court Judge Paul Peatross announced in April that he wouldn’t hear any criminal cases involving the County’s Commonwealth’s Attorney or public defender, we could only speculate on reasons for the fallout.

 Then, in October, the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission released reports from a hearing on Peatross, which provided a rare glimpse into the inner realms of Albemarle’s legal system. According to media reports, the Commission recommended that the State Supreme Court censure or remove Peatross for “judicial absolutism.”

 The ruling against Peatross stems from a complaint filed by Jim Camblos, Albemarle County’s Commonwealth’s Attorney. In December 2003, Camblos approached Peatross with a plea agreement he had negotiated with an assistant public defender in a robbery case. The agreement would have withdrawn a failure-to-appear charge against the defendant, but Peatross did not accept the plea bargain. Instead, Peatross booted both attorneys off the case.

 Charlottesville lawyer Francis McQ. Lawrence, in a written testimony to the Commission, wrote that Peatross “refuses to allow reasonable reductions in charge decisions sought by the Commonwealth.” Peatross told the commission he was “overwhelmed and humiliated” by its findings, which the judge apparently does not find fair.—J.B.

 

THE DEADBEAT DAD AWARD
Commonwealth of Virginia
For claiming rights but failing to pay support

Because of a 150-year-old law called the Dillon Rule, cities and counties in Virginia only have powers explicitly granted to them by the General Assembly. This rule makes localities children of the state, and this year, nobody was happy in the Commonwealth’s household.

 Dissing Richmond was big in Charlottesville this year. Vice Mayor Kevin Lynch kicked off the hate parade during last spring’s City Council campaign. When Republicans blamed rising City budgets on Council’s tax-and-spend liberalism, Lynch countered that the City is only paying for the sins of the State. Now, as Council begins preparing next year’s annual budget, City officials are claiming that about 75 percent of the City budget comprises various line items that the State requires but doesn’t fully fund. Real estate taxes got you down? Don’t blame us, says Council. Blame Richmond.

 That’s been UVA’s refrain all year, too. As UVA’s top brass seek more autonomy from Richmond, head ’Hoo John Casteen has been sure to remind everyone within the sound of his voice that the Commonwealth is a deadbeat.

 Down in Richmond, some legislators think that City Councilors and college presidents are just crybabies. If the State gave Charlottesville all the money it wanted, the General Assembly’s conventional wisdom goes, then we’d just squander it on organic pavement or solar-powered buses. All of which means that the 150-year-old argument over the Dillon Rule will last a while longer.—J.B.

—Probing Pedestrian, Esquire

 

A: Well, good Pedestrian, thou shalt probe no further. Ace appreciates any and all queries whose answering involves throwing on a hardhat and getting his hands dirty in the line of investigative duty. David “Scar” Hodo was, after all, Ace’s favorite member of the Village People. No construction man has ever danced with such rhythm while wearing a tool belt.

 Where was Ace again? Oh, yes, onthe case of the various communities in Albemarle County currently besieged by bulldozers. The project in question has been appropriately dubbed the Avon Street Trail Project and is just one of the 11 public works projects constituting Albemarle County’s Community Improvement Initiative Project, otherwise known by its mathematically clever moniker, “CI2.“ CI2 is headed by Paul Muhlberger, Albemarle County’s chief of public works, and has been allotted more than $3 million for construction projects and maintenance in the more densely populated communities in the county. Think Crozet, Commonwealth Drive and Pantops. Out of the 11 projects, seven involve laying new sidewalk (curious community-dwellers can find more information at www.albemarle.org by looking under the “Services” and then “Public Works” tabs).

 Construction on the Avon Street Trail Project began in October and entails laying 4,000 feet of 5′-wide sidewalk and asphalt trail on Avon Street Extended. The trail will run along the west side of the street between Mill Creek Drive and Stony Creek Drive, fronting the Mill Creek, Lake Reynovia and Mill Creek South subdivisions. So by “trail” they mean “sidewalk.”

 According to Muhlberger’s estimate, residents will be able to walk/bike/run along the beefy byway by springtime, all for the not-so-meager price of $555,000.

 The County already has funds for phase two of the project, which will run sidewalk all the way back to the Charlottesville city limits. Detainees and prisoners housed at nearby detention centers will then also be able to walk, bike or run their way into the city at their leisure. When not, you know, locked up.

 Reason leads Ace to question just from where the County has drawn its inspiration for such an elephantine and wayward undertaking. One such gargantuan stone structure comes to mind, winding over approximately 4,000 miles of Asian countryside. Its effectiveness at keeping war enemies out of the country was bollixed when weapon-wielding Mongolians paid off a few guards and simply climbed on over. Foiled again.

Dear Ace, What’s this I hear about my cell phone number getting released to telemarketers?—Chatty Cathy

Well, Chatty, if you thought when you purchased your handy-dandy cellular telephone-o that you were safe from the grasp of telemarketers everywhere, think again. Looks like those peaceful, uninterrupted nights around the family dinner table are to be no more. As of December 31 all cell phone numbers known to man, woman and dog will be released into the hands of those diabolical phone monkeys that keep you hanging on the telephone at all the wrong hours of the day.

Yet, Ace is here to say, Do not lose hope. There are two ways to avoid letting your digits fall into hands far worse than those belonging to the drooling, badly toupeed man at the bar. Your first option is to call 888-382-1222 from your cell phone, and your cell phone only. Repeat after Ace: “This will not work if I dial from my work phone. This will not work if I dial from a pay phone. This will not work if I dial from a banana.” And so on and so forth.

   The second option is to visit www. donotcall.gov. Click on “Register Now,” type in your cell phone number and e-mail address and make sure they’re typed all correct-like. Then, an e-mail will magically arrive in your inbox, complete with a link to the final piece of the puzzle. Click the link and—presto!—your number is safe from the paws of telemarketers everywhere.

   However you choose to save yourself, do it now, Chatty, because time’s a-wastin’. Either means to the end will block your number for five years.

   And, if you stupidly choose to ignore Ace’s sage advice, remember come January, when your Motorola starts shaking to the digitized melody of “Big Pimpin’” at the exact moment you’re about to settle down in front of “America’s Next Top Model” with a glass of wine and a bowl of ice cream: Ace’s advice may be free, but it’s worth more than that.

—Pynt Syzed

A: Well, Mr. Syzed, first of all, Ace wants to know what crazy eastern European country you crawled out of, and as for your question, Pynt, “Anatomically correct?” Ace colors at the thought!

 Composure regained, Ace put in a few calls to the friendly folks at Monticello and Montpelier, and confirmed that something with the statues—those of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe at City Hall—is indeed awry. Lee Langston-Harrison, a curator at Montpelier, confirmed that Mr. Madison clocked in between 5’2" and 5’4" and at around 100 pounds, was puny “even for that day and age,” when, as we all know, French doors were the size of today’s doggy doors.

 The illustrious Mr. Jefferson on the other hand, says Monticello research librarian Anna Berkes, was tall for his age at a whopping 6’2.5". As for TJ’s weight, Berkes couldn’t say exactly, but instead quoted some random historical figure who described him as “bony, long and with broad shoulders.” Ace guesses this means skinny.

 Thus, in answer to your question, Pynt: It’s true that the statues of our local heroes outside City Hall do not correctly present Jefferson and Madison as the two men would have appeared signing the Constitution side by side in Philly. Maurice Jones, ever-helpful Director of Communications for the City, offered these oh-so-official words of wisdom regarding why the statues depict the short founding father and the tall one as identically sized: “I believe it could be argued that…each had a monumental impact on the founding of our nation.” MoJo’s so diplomatic we should send him overseas!

 In closing, Ace would just like to say that great minds come in small packages. Mr. Madison is Example A. Ace Atkins, the public may now know, is Example B. As for bleak expressions, they’re statues for chrissake! How would you feel, Pynt, if you were made of stone? Yeesh.

 And then there’s Monroe. What about Monroe? Exactly. What about him, poor guy.

 

Dylan sang that the times they were a-changin’. Bowie said to turn and face the ch-ch-changes. And in 2004, all that change really hit home for Charlottesville’s music fans. The year witnessed the fading out of some of the city’s most cherished traditions, whether grooving to Jimmy O at Fridays After 5, listening to locally owned radio or dancing around with a greasy burger to old-timey tunes at the Blue Moon Diner. But with every door closed, another opened, and from Modest Mouse to Trey Anastasio to The Roots, nationally known names formed their Charlottesville connections. While you might notice plenty missing from C-VILLE’s review of the year in local music, we tried to cover the greatest hits, the things that rocked the scene. As for the rest, like ’Pac said, “things changed and that’s the way it is.”

The circle unbroken

For the genre that prides itself most on good ol’-fashioned traditionalism, Charlottesville’s bluegrass scene underwent some surprise changes this year. Though King Wilkie was a familiar name around town as early as, well, 2003, the sextet of traditional bluegrass musicians, all in their 20s, soared in 2004, establishing themselves as some of its brightest stars. While their local shows, including the CD release party for their Rebel Records debut, Broke, in April, drew large audiences at Starr Hill and Miller’s, Wilkie’s fan base kept growing outside of town and, in October, the band won the Emerging Artist of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association.

 But just as one group began its ascent, another took a hard loss. On August 18, the death of Gordonsville resident Charlie Waller, the only remaining original member of 47-year-old musical icons the Country Gentlemen, shook the bluegrass world.

 “It was overwhelming at the time,” says Country Gentlemen banjo player Greg Corbett. “Two or three days between [the funeral] and the time he passed, there were newspapers and TV stations calling the house.” In addition to coverage from national media outlets CNN and Country Music Television, prominent Country Gentlemen alums Ricky Skaggs and Doyle Lawson were among the guests calling on the Wallers. About 1,000 people attended the funeral, Corbett estimates. Despite the setback, The Gentlemen have remained busy as ever fulfilling their touring schedule with Randy Waller, Charlie’s son, assuming the front slot. “Randy has been doing a wonderful job, just stepped right in,” says Corbett. “We’ve kept all the dates…and we’ve got big scheduled dates for next year.”

Saga’s genesis

Buried somewhere in the subconscious of every radio listener in Charlottesville is the catchphrase, “Locally owned and operated by Eure Communications.” But on October 13, employees of the company and its three affiliates, AM talk radio’s WINA, classic rock 3WV and “Lite Rock” Z95.1, learned surprising news that the slogan, at least, would be changing. In a meeting at the company’s Rose Hill offices, Brad Eure announced to the staff that after 20 years of locally owning and operating the business his parents founded, he’d agreed to sell to growing Michigan-based conglomerate Saga Communications. Eure cited family reasons for the deal, which will take effect in January, pending FCC approval.

 Eure, who stays on as general manager and president of the new subsidiary, Charlottesville Radio Group, is confident that the company won’t tinker with his successful programming formula. “They kind of work to provide consulting services to individual markets and really let the local people make the decisions,” he says. “I haven’t found anything that deviates from that.”

Shaw ’nuff

Coran Capshaw’s public revelation that he was the long rumored force behind the planned redevelopment of the Downtown Amphitheater likely shocked no one at a June City Council meeting. Though details on the design, which proposed installing a large arch and covered seating, and speculation over the fate of the Fridays After 5 free summer concert series, stirred some discussion, Capshaw’s assurances that he would put on about 40 events, including something similar to Fridays concerts, eased worried music fans. Following the season’s final show on October 1, construction began on the project, adding yet another chapter to the Dave Matthews Band manager’s history as a benevolent local developer.

 Capshaw’s promises to bring nationally known acts to the new amphitheater particularly sweetened the deal, given the exciting growth at Musictoday.com and Red Light Management, where Capshaw presides as chief executive officer.

 “It’s been a great year—it really has,” says Red Light Director of Marketing Patrick Jordan. “On a management side, the roster more than doubled.” The Ivy-based company this year signed emerging rock groups Graham Colton Band and Blue Merle, popular Australian act John Butler Trio and well respected British DJ Sasha. In December, Red Light was rumored to have made an even bigger catch, signing former Phish front man Trey Anastasio. Though industry wags said the deal was all but clinched, Red Light could not confirm it at press time.

 ATO Records, the BMG subsidiary in which Capshaw shares stake with Matthews, and associates Michael McDonald and Chris Tetzeli, also brought packed shows to Starr Hill Music Hall, with visits this year from My Morning Jacket, Mike Doughty, Ben Kweller, North Mississippi Allstars and Jem. “This is the kind of community that really embraces great music,” says Jordan. “We look at Charlottesville as being a testing ground for the rest of the country and it’s definitely proven to work in those cases.”

 
Whaa happened?

The Prism Coffeehouse, which regularly brings world-class folk, bluegrass and jazz artists into an intimate local setting, may have spent the last 38 years subsisting on the charity of its volunteers, contributors and supporters. But in April, a local tabloid didn’t feel so charitable when it forced an internal dispute at the venue briefly into the public eye. Based on former board member Jim Quarles’ allegations of impropriety against Prism head Fred Boyce, The Hook wrote that “a mighty wind of discord has begun to gust behind the scenes, threatening to shake the Coffeehouse to its very foundations.”

 The resulting clamor spawned a series of meetings during which mediators from UVA attempted to bring the two sides together. Ultimately, Boyce weathered the storm. “I think it was blown out of proportion quite a bit,” he told C-VILLE, following a December 3, packed-house performance by renowned Gypsy-jazz player John Jorgenson. “It was an unfortunate bump in the road. Some people got a hold of it and tried to make a lot more out of it than was there…I don’t apologize for just trying to put the absolute greatest musicians in this room.”

 
All the rave

With R2, Downtown restaurant Rapture’s dance-hall annex that opened in October, 2003, leading the pack, the year saw what at first appeared to be a full-fledged movement towards a more DJ driven nightlife. Adding a hip cosmopolitan sheen, turntablists and CD mixers set up shop at restaurants like Atomic Burrito and Mas, as well as several art openings aimed at engaging the area’s youth culture, while dance parties at diverse establishments like Club 216, El Rey del Taco, Tokyo Rose and Wild Wing Café continued bringing in their own disc-jockeying devotees.

 Yet DJs long a part of the underground movement expressed dismay that the spike in clubbing wasn’t about the artistry so much as it was the bumping and grinding. “More than anything, rap has just gotten really popular in the U.S. and that’s made things a little different,” says Stroud, who began his DJ career in 1995, when students, townies and promoters united to make the rave scene flourish. As Stroud, the founder of Mining Vinyl Records, withdrew briefly this year to undergo treatment for cancer, he watched many of his DJing colleagues head to Washington D.C., and Richmond for better gigs.

 “Most of the restaurants and commercial places are trying to make a buck and go with the more popular music. The underground music was always reserved more to labors of love.”

 Meanwhile, the outlook for aspiring hip hop artists in town seemed better and better with the successes of the Music Resource Center, a mixing studio and rehearsal space for urban teens, which in March relocated to the old Mt. Zion Baptist Church. In October, “Another Day,” a rap tribute penned by MRC members and turned into a music video with the help of Light House Youth Media and director Sam Erickson, won an award as one of the year’s best videos by national youth media network Listen Up! And in November, MRC introduced the community to its next generation of rap and rock musicians with an impressive compilation CD, New Destinations.

Atsushi rolls

On January 24, Goth fans and musicians bade farewell to their longtime hangout in the Tokyo Rose basement. For six years, The Rose had hosted a regular Goth night, The Dawning. But following a December incident involving a knife during one of the Saturday shows, owner Atsushi Miura decided he’d had enough and sent the entire genre packing—something he’d previously done for both hip hop and punk music. “Almost every time we have that, there’s problems or tension,” Miura said in January. “I feel sorry for parents who have kids like that.”

 For the iconoclastic Miura, also known as a musician around town for songs including “I Hate Charlottesville” and “Don’t Call Me Alcoholic,” things evidently didn’t improve much. Amid rumors, including an e-mail from a Tokyo Rose music list-serve, that the last show would be December 18, Miura confirmed for C-VILLE that he planned to sell the restaurant for family reasons, but had no additional details at press time.

 
Charting the world

UVA’s students had plenty to dance about in October, as its music department presented a four-day Afropop Festival featuring three of Africa’s most important contemporary musicians: Congo’s Kanda Bongo Man, Mali’s Abdoulaye Diabate and Zimbabwe’s Thomas Mapfumo. The festival came about due to a financial gift from the UVA Athletics Department. “It was a question of what to do with this money. We were going to have a festival and it was a tossup between bluegrass and Afropop,” says visiting UVA ethnomusicology lecturer Heather Maxwell, who helped organize the festival. “We wanted to bring in something not quite so local, kind of expand the horizons of music students and members of the community to world music.”

 In one riveting moment on a Friday evening, a conga line formed and made its way through Old Cabell Hall as Mapfumo and his Blacks Unlimited delighted the audience. And while a show the following day with Diabate and local jazz supergroup the Free Bridge Quintet (unfortunately competing with the undefeated UVA football team’s Florida State matchup) didn’t bring quite the audience turnout, that too had its highlights, prompting C-VILLE reviewer Spencer Lathrop to note: “I always thought [saxophonist] Jeff Decker was a great horn player, but at some point in his career he had a badass switch installed and he flipped it for the final number.”

 The music department wasn’t the only organization hosting big shows, though. University Programs Council’s PK German stepped up with several great events this year, bringing The Wailers and Better than Ezra for its free Springfest concert at the Madison Bowl in April, and Philly hip hoppers The Roots to University Hall in October. And even the oft-derided UVA Marching Band, in its first year of existence, didn’t sound half bad playing along with The Temptations at the October 7 Clemson football game.

Modest’s proposal

It’s been about five years since the Hackensaw Boys emerged on the local scene. Yet, 2004 saw major leaps in the band’s national recognition, with their first billed gig at Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Festival in June (they’d made a surprise appearance in 2003), and their first European tour this fall.

 Arguably the Hacks’ biggest accomplishment, though, was good networking. The band had previously toured with The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse, two groups that saw major critical success in the year. And when Modest Mouse needed an upright bass and fiddle player for their April release, Good News for People Who Love Bad News, they called their old friend, Hackensaw’s Tom Peloso, to sit in on three tracks: “Bukowski,” “Satin In A Coffin,” and “Blame It On The Tetons.” Because the Hackensaw Boys were unsigned, for legalities, the record company had Peloso, a.k.a. Pee Paw Hackensaw, appear courtesy of the band. “If people take the time to read it, our name’s on a million or so records which have been sold already,” says Peloso.

 Peloso also performed with Modest Mouse on both the “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and continues to tour with them in his spare time, all the while helping boost exposure for his band mates back home: “I’ve heard people out in audience yelling ‘Hackensaw Boys’,” he says.

 It was a bittersweet moment for local Hackensaw fans when, in August, Blue Moon Diner closed its kitchen after 25 years. Peloso credits the Main Street restaurant with being a launch pad for the Hackensaw Boys. “It kind of formed the band, helped us attain our first manager [Blue Moon co-owner Mark Hahn]…and also was our headquarters for a while.” Peloso adds, however, he supports Hahn and business partner Rob “Gus” Gustafson’s decision to focus instead on their Harvest Moon Catering company. “It’s a good memory and you can’t repeat it.”House music

2004’s local releases worth checking outIn some cases, they were the songs you knew by heart. In others, the music just seemed to come out of the blue. As many of Charlottesville’s leading players released highly anticipated full-length albums this year, we bring you a selective guide to some of our favorites, available at shows or in the local music rack of your neighborhood CD store.—B.S.

 

B.C.
Puberty and Justice for All

Sunday nights at Miller’s wouldn’t be as big a draw if not for the guitar and cello duo, whose bawdy lyrics and quirkiness have earned them a devoted following, and who are now dubiously a part of recorded history.

Beetnix
Any Given Day

The city’s best rap group follows 2003’s Homesick with a sophomore release of tracks that remain crisp, danceable and fully inspired.

Big Circle
Things May Change

In many ways, a throwback to celebrated ’80s college rockers, The Deal, Circle has the added benefit of an all-star lineup who lend their talents to Deal front man Mark Roebuck’s songwriting.

Big Fast Car
Fuel for the Fire

Oh-so-satisfying, ’70s-era hard rock in the vein of vintage Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.

Eli Cook
Moonshine Mojo

The young guitar virtuoso’s live energy translates well into the studio with an album of mostly blues and rock covers that could be the start of something.

Paul Curreri
The Spirit of the Staircase

The jazzy album signifies a welcome departure for the poetic blues-folk fingerpicker, with the help of a backing band to fill out the sound.

Peter Griesar
Candy Shop

 The longtime local scenester and once-DMB-member’s solo release is like a sonic bible for disaffected youth; also good cruising music.

Indecision
The Great Road

Legends of the jam-band movement, they celebrated their 20th anniversary with a reunion gig and wound up making a solid Allman Brothers/ Grateful Dead-esque album, proving they’ve still got it.

Robert Jospé and Inner Rhythm
Hands On

The local king of jazz percussion toys with rhythmic ambiguity and spicy Afro-Cuban beats, backed by some of his illustrious colleagues.

King Wilkie
Broke

Wilkie’s enthusiastic twangage is irresistible, even if your bluegrass background doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

Peyton Tochterman
The Personals

The Fair Weather Bum’s promising solo release evokes Uncle Tupelo jamming with Miles Davis (actually, John D’earth, in an unlikely supporting role).

Vevlo Eel
The Sound of A Thousand Chryslers Rusting

Formerly C-VILLE’s Official House Band, the Eel’s CD release was also its swan song. Their grunge opus represents everything Pearl Jam might have aspired to if they weren’t such posers.

Andy Waldeck
Offering

Who knew that underneath the funky bass and guitar thrashing, Waldeck had a sensitive side? He outright flaunts it here with soulful vocals and Brit-pop-reminiscent strumming.

 

The young and the restless
O.K., what matters more to the future of rock, hip hop, dance and every other form of popular music: a) that U2 launched their new CD and the sale of a personalized, preloaded black iPod crammed with a career’s worth of tunes simultaneously; b) that the sales of new video games are now outpacing the sales of new CDs; or c) that Eminem hedged his bets by signing up to host a channel on pay satellite radio before releasing the almost but not quite mature and reflective Encore?

 If you answered “all of the above,” I’d tend to agree with you. These are strange, quicksilver times for popular music. Consumer electronics and the ever-changing world of high-tech entertainment drive the market far more than any individual musical artist or movement does. Forget concentrating on selling stand-alone tunes through familiar channels; most artists are scrambling to get their tracks slotted in the latest video games, understanding that, for kids and young adults, game titles like Grand Theft Auto have eaten up all the time they might have previously spent passively watching MTV. Oh, and don’t forget ringtones. Some folks in the music industry are already predicting that American artists are certain to reap big profits from selling cheap-sounding renditions of their hits to download-happy cell phone addicts. (Don’t laugh, ring tones already represent a substantial income stream for artists in Europe.)

 No wonder Jay-Z prepared for his planned retirement from the hip hop pantheon by angling for and nabbing a powerful new title in 2004: president of the venerable Def Jam label. Sure, making music has enriched him by hundreds of millions of dollars, but the future of hip hop—and really all other popular forms—will be about directing the music into places no one even thought about back when the Sugarhill Gang challenged the currency of the old contemporary R&B scene with the 1978 release of Rapper’s Delight.

 New delivery systems, new markets, new opportunities for cross-promotion with other youth-oriented forms of entertainment are what it’s about in the morphing music industry. Jeez, both U2 and Green Day offered fans the opportunity to preview their new albums online in their entirety before they were available for purchase. Even the supposedly industry-killing scourge of free downloading is yesterday’s news. Things are moving just that fast.

But onto music itself. I’d venture that if Jamie Foxx wins an Academy Award for his dead-on performance in Ray, the late Ray Charles will qualify as the musician of the year. A hit biopic, a hit posthumous album of duets with big stars? All this from a guy who’d been unfairly typecast as an R&B golden oldie during much his last two decades on earth. Yeah, Ray’s gotta be laughing up there somewhere.

 Another great figure from the past, Loretta Lynn, proved that there’s still plenty of music left in her pathos-brushed pipes. If the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose wasn’t the best album of the year in both rock and country, it was in the ballpark. Like Charles, Lynn illustrated that in order to bring real life into a tune, you have to live a little first. The same held true from the quixotic Beach Boy Brian Wilson; years after its original conception, Wilson finally brought the completed version of his masterwork Smile to both CD and live audiences. And what about Prince, who came back from the edge in his middle age and delivered a straightforward album that finds him movin’ to the groovin’ and delivering life lessons at the same time.

 With the callow, flavor-of-the-month consciousness that now controls popular music, those are astounding achievements. I mean, how many hip hop or rock or country stars of today will even get a chance to put out new music at 50, 40…or even 35? My guess is not too many, and that’s a shame.

 As far as selling units goes, no one spent more time at the cash registers than Usher, who jumped from the crunk-addled “Yeah!” (formulated with omnipresent party machine Lil Jon) to his considerably creamier duet with Alicia Keys, “My Boo,” with the greatest of ease. He was the toast of R&B in 2004. Naw, make that the toast of all commercial music. His ba-zillion-selling Confessions even threatened to diminish the impact of Kanye West’s laudably gangsta-free instant hip-classic College Dropout. And it did succeed in making the much-ballyhooed return of Destiny’s Child seem parochial and unnecessary.

 Snoop Dogg, on the other hand…. With Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes in his corner, his braggadocio-laden R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece was pretty much guaranteed to make a respectable showing. But right now it’s doing much more than that. In fact, it’s threatening to turn the former gun-toting cheeba-hound into an amiable, genre-crossing pop star—albeit one that still gives shout outs to his beloved Crips.

Frankly, I have no idea where rock is going in the future, and judging from what happened in 2004, no one else does either. In a perfect world, gifted prog-metal practitioners Coheed and Cambria, genteel strutters the Walkmen and sui generis indie/electronic explorers TV On The Radio would carry the day, while veteran practitioners of melodic weirdness like Modest Mouse and the reconfigured Wilco kept attracting more and more believers to their sonic cults. What’s really happening, however, is that Dorian Gray wannabes U2 are poised to dominate the rock ‘n’ roll conversation once again with their latest glossy-but-well-meaning studio production, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, while Green Day mesmerizes legions of kinda-sorta punky suburban youth with American Idiot (a surprisingly vigorous anti-Bushie screed) and guileless Jay-Z buddies Linkin Park pound whatever rock fans are left into beat-heavy submission.

 As for the distressingly influential ’tween demographic, those kiddies who aren’t lapped up by tattooed pop goths Good Charlotte have either renewed their love affair with oh-so-professional grrrl rocker Avril Lavigne or have been duped by tone-deaf lip-syncher Ashlee Simpson.

 Sad, sad stuff. But, as always, there are some hopeful signs popping up on the margins of the mainstream. English acts like the keyboard-driven Keane, the fun-loving Franz Ferdinand and the genre-straddling Streets threaten to bring some much-needed new blood to both indie and the mainstream. U.S.A. natives the Killers (whose synths and grooves sound English), Bright Eyes and irrepressible Tex-Mex blues-rockers Los Lonely Boys also offer the kind of kick in the head the rock beast requires right now.

 Jeez, if even just a handful of young musicians took 10 minutes out of their busy schedules to plug into Tom Waits’ deliciously delirious Real Gone, we’d have a few decades of gloriously bent tunes to look forward to.

But what’s really next? As far as actual music goes, there’s certain to be a spate of new country acts plugging a strong “values” agenda that’s been nipped and tucked to appeal to the straitened esthetic of Red State audiences. Look for more Spanish-speaking acts to push into genres that have remained overwhelmingly Anglo up until now. Also, melodic rock acts that embrace synthesizers are on the rise, and they’re likely to gain a modicum of mainstream appeal. And, of course, if 2004 showed us anything, it was that a canny blend of smooth R&B and hip hop remains the surest route to a Top 10 album.

 Still, it’s what happened to the business of making, selling and consuming popular music during 2004 that provides the most insight into its future. At the turn of the millennium, very few folks really believed that hard formats like the CD would be marginalized before the end of the decade. Now everyone and her brother has an iPod-like device, and space-stealing stereo systems seem quaint. In the glory days of Pac-Man, video game soundtracks consisted of a simple synthesizer-generated theme that was repeated ad nauseam. Now the ability to place tracks in the hottest new video games is becoming key to connecting artists with young audiences. Those are big changes.

 Think of it this way: Kurt Cobain’s been in the grave for little more than a dozen years, and the early ’90s version of the music industry that helped transform him into a global figure looks like a dusty relic from our current vantage point. Don’t know about you, but I find that astonishing. And, to be honest, a little disturbing.

Tom Laskin is a music critic based in Madison, Wisconsin.