Month: July 2008

I could enthusiastically word-vomit about 2,000 slimy adjectives—all positive—about last Thursday’s show by The Extraordinaires at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. (In fact, I did just that in my review of the gig for tomorrow’s paper.) However, since newspaper is better suited to cleaning up such messes than listing ’em, here are a few other things worth mentioning about the gig:

Click here for photos from Thursday’s gig by The Extraordinaires.

1. There was somewhere between 150 and 200 people sardine-canned into the Tea Bazaar by the time the show started. (Photo here.) By the time the show ended, we most likely smelled like sardines, but felt just as close as a crowd. Lesson learned: Find someone you can sweat next to.

2. There was no single explanation I could put a finger on for why so many people showed up, which is thrilling , because the music industry has no clear idea how to market Radiohead, let alone a band that writes songs with names like "Hi-Five the Cactus." It was neither all MySpace nor Jesse Dukes‘ excellent piece on the groupNPR nor the fact that singer Jay Purdy won lots of fans as a member of Ted Stryker’s Drinking Problems. But all are very good reasons, and certainly contributed.

3. A new PA at the Tea Bazaar. No question about it, now: If you go to the Tea Bazaar during a music night, you will hear music. And no amount of hookah sucking or tea pot rattling will compete with it.

There were other highlights—my favorite was the set-closing performance of "Warehouse Song," hearing half the crowd sing, "The other night I stayed up ’til 12pm," then scream "The sun was overhead!" But if you made it to the show, I want to hear your favorite parts of the show. And if you didn’t, I want your reasons.

Tomorrow, some details about Crosby, Stills and Nash.

 

Many of Virginia’s elected officials showed an increase in their support of conservation bills promoted by the Virginia League of Conservation Voters (VALCV), according to its 2008 conservation scorecard. The league recognized a record number of delegates and legislators supporting all bills it endorsed as legislative heroes, totaling forty delegates and one senator.

Percentages on the scorecard reflect how closely legislators’ voting habits coincided with the opinions of VALCV, according to Lisa Guthrie, the league’s executive director.

“I think citizens need to be informed impartially on now a delegate in voting so they can hold their legislators accountable,” Guthrie says.

While VALCV is based in Richmond, Guthrie says they work with many groups to decide which bills they should support and try to act as an impartial bipartisan third party. Guthrie says many of this year’s legislative heroes are Democrats but that Republicans held the majority of heroes in last year’s report, according to her opening letter to the scorecard. She says she hopes that the scorecard will provide a way for community members to learn about their legislators’ voting habits and take action to promote conservation as an important political issue.

Scores show Senator Creigh Deeds increased from 60 percent last year to 89 percent in the most recent report. The voting patterns of Charlottesville area delegates David Toscano and Rob Bell differ markedly from one another: Democratic delegate Toscano was named a legislative hero, showing an increase from receiving a score of 75 percent last year; however, Rob Bell supported only half of the bills VALCV decided to endorse this year.

Bell says he is not terribly concerned with this year’s results and the scorecard is one of dozens of reports coming out this time of year. Last year Bell voted in agreement with VALCV on 80 percent of the league’s supported bills, and holds an overall percentage of 48.

Bell says scorecards are not very representative of how citizens feel about his voting patterns and, “in terms of whether people are happy, it’s going to be based on individual bills,” rather than general reports.

As with most bills, Bell says legislators try to get as much information as possible and sometimes receive quite a bit of it, but other times the process is very fast and decisions need to be made quickly. Also, Bell says, he was not responsible for any of the bills VALCV supported this year.

“I don’t draw any big things from this,” Bell says. “I’m not any different this year.”

You hear a lot of dark chatter in bars—a lot of conversation fragments, jokes and rumors. After last call, however, you have to take the talk elsewhere. For Michael’s Bistro, the haven for Belgian beers and bison burgers on the Corner, last call was 10 days ago, on Friday, July 18. Now the bar talk has turned into rumor on the streets and the Web, and the doors are yet to reopen.

“I would say ‘closed until further notice,’” said Sean Chandler, a Bistro bartender. When asked whether he was still employed at the bar, Chandler responded, “I am. Well, I was…I’m not sure what’s going on as far as that’s concerned.” Chandler also said that the reasons for the closure seemed complicated and declined to elaborate further.

Bistro co-owner Chuck Adcock, however, explained that the restaurant closed its doors due to a disagreement with his partner, co-owner Michael Crafaik. “My business partner [and I] disagreed on how the operation of the business was going, and so we split our ways,” said Adcock in a phone interview. When asked why the restaurant closed its doors, Adock responded that the entire staff quit their positions at the same time, and that Crafaik needed to find a new staff.

Chuck Adcock, co-owner of Michael’s Bistro, says that a management with partner Michael Crafaik prompted the firing of manager Bob Dorsey and the loss of the Bistro staff.

“Michael did fire the manager, Bob Dorsey,” said Adcock. “That’s sorta what caused the riff in operations. The staff didn’t want to work for Michael—that’s what it comes down to.”

"The way [Crafaik] has been running the restaurant, it’s been hard to keep it running," said Dorsey in a phone interview. "If he has anything to do with the Bistro, I don’t want to go back and work there."

"Bob [Dorsey] getting fired was the beginning of the avalanche," says Adam Brock, another Bistro employee. Brock also mentioned that there was rumor of more firings to come, and confirmed Chandler’s smoky assessment of the situation. "I wouldn’t say we quit, and I wouldn’t say we were fired." Calls to Crafaik as well as the Bistro’s number were not returned by press time.

When asked for his future plans, Adcock responded that he’d “probably lay low for a little bit.”

“The restaurant business has left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth,” said Adcock. “[But] at some point, I’ll probably try to open another restaurant.”

In the latest chapter in The Washington Post’s fascination with Charlottesville and the Downtown Mall, tomorrow’s edition will contain a piece, already available online, that’s a veritable paean to the beloved heart of our city.  After lauding city planners for their vision back in 1976 (but without mentioning the years it took for the Mall to catch on with businesses and residents), writer Ben Chapman goes on to be amazed by the absence of a Starbucks and describes the general atmosphere as an "urban Eden of oak trees, flower boxes and fountains." Chapman ends the piece by marveling that at the peak of summer the Mall is "not an oven." Um, Ben, were you on the Mall last Monday and Tuesday during the heat wave? 

What, no Starbucks? The Washington Post (yes, again!) is dizzy over the Downtown Mall’s homegrown businesses.

An eco-invasion of sorts took place this afternoon at Whole Foods Market . A busload of so-called "green missionaries" fanned out across the Shopper’s World parking lot to share the gospel of environmental sustainability.

Members of the Conscious Goods Alliance (CGA) rolled up in a tricked out “veggie-bus” (a 28-foot tour coach fueled by recycled vegetable oil) around 11 this morning.  They were entertaining curious customers throughout the afternoon, distributing product samples and giving tours of their wheeled home-away-from-yurt.

A six-person team of artists, environmentalists, and alternative exercisers from across the country and Canada inhabit the conspicuously earth-conscious and fully sustainable love bus, which touts coconut palm floors, solar-powered electronics, and recycled paper counter tops.

But the group’s message to consumers runs deeper than sheer eco-gadgetry. “Our mission is to promote ‘conscious consumerism’—showing people that there are companies out there that are actually supporting a green, harmonious future that is conscious of our planet’s conditions,” says Todd O’Brien, who, with a total of four-and-a-half months on the bus, is its most seasoned member.

In essence, these enviro-evangelists are out to encourage shoppers to “vote with their dollars,” a concept that their 15 sponsor companies support. If you’re sore about missing this bandwagon, you can catch it tomorrow in Springfield, Virginia—that’s the next stop on the CGA’s year-long American tour.

The "veggie bus" rolled into Whole Foods for an afternoon of environmental education and advocacy.

According to today’s Daily Progress, a three-year study by StreamWatch has found that three-quarters of the streams tested in the Rivanna River watershed failed to meet Department of Environmental Quality standards. The new report shows substantially more failing sites than a 2004-05 report, but that news is tempered just a bit by StreamWatch’s John Murphy who points out that DEQ standards have also toughened. As a result, so have his.

C-VILLE profiled Murphy and his nonprofit a year ago as part of a larger article on the shitty state of the Rivanna and what’s being done about it by groups like StreamWatch.

John Murphy of StreamWatch has toughened his standards when appraising the cleanliness—or lack thereof—of the Rivanna River.

Details of the homicide that occurred Saturday, July 19 continue to unfold. According to the Daily Progress, which draws from search warrants and other filed documents, three of the four suspects charged with the murder of 19-year-old Joshua "Spanky" Magruder were present at the scene.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, Bobby Gardner went to the parking lot of a Sixth Street Southeast apartment building to fight someone named Jamal, with whom he’d had a three-year conflict, according to the Progress. Soon after his arrival, a green Honda (occupied by a woman who had heard about the fight) and a white Nissan (later identified to be containing two other suspects, Trenton Brock and Theodore Timberlake) pulled up to the scene and the shooting began. Gardner, believing Jamal was shooting at him, fired his handgun while running from the parking lot the DP reports. Shortly after, Magruder was found dead with at least one gunshot to the head.

Sunday evening, a SWAT team arrived at the apartment of Luscious Lucas, where the suspects were supposedly staying, according to the DP. A search of the property revealed no suspects, but instead a bag of marijuana and .357 Magnum cartridge. After the SWAT team search, Gardner, who the Progress reveals to be Magruder’s cousin, drove to a police station.

The other suspects were found at the Super 8 Motel on Greenbrier Drive in Albemarle County. Upon learning of the police force’s arrival, Timberlake and Brock willingly surrendered. Rachel Turner, who has been charged as an accessory to the murder in addition to her First Degree murder charge, was found in room 214 and also surrendered. A search of the motel scene revealed another bag of marijuana, a box of .380 ammunition and a .380-caliber handgun.

Following the arrests, investigators searched Turner’s residence at 1074-A Reservoir Rd. and found a .38-caliber handgun. Police also allege that Gardner stayed at Turner’s home after the homicide.

Timberlake, Brock and Gardner are expected to appear in court August 14. Turner, who is currently released on bond, is slated to appear in court September 18.

With country music singing the praises of American soldiers in the background, the CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, Gary Shapiro, and the founder of Crutchfield Electronics, Bill Crutchfield, spoke this afternoon on the importance of free trade in the coming election. Community members, Crutchfield employees, and the press gathered together in a parking lot of the Crutchfield Distribution Center to listen to the gentlemen speak.

Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro (left) and Crutchfield founder Bill Crutchfield will tour the country to promote free trade.

Shapiro says the Consumer Electronics Association is going on a tour around the country in a colorfully decorated bus plastered with slogans of free trade in an effort to make a political impact.* So far, they have received unanimous support from town officials all over the country. Shapiro says Charlottesville is one of 30 cities they are visiting and it is their only stop in Virginia partly because it is very politically active. Both men stress free trade as key for a successful future saying prospects of worldwide sales and free trade strongly encourage countries to work collectively on the technological advances our world is demanding. This allows businesses to succeed and Americans to have jobs, they say.

“Our nation is not one that can afford to put up walls,” Shapiro said. “ The trend now is that people want to shut down the borders and we need to keep them open.”

Much of the motivation for their travels, Shapiro said, is aimed at making a political impact and especially convincing Democratic candidates to endorse the significance of free trade. “The last time we stepped away from free trade, we had the Great Depression,” Shapiro says.

With one more stop under their belts, Shapiro will continue promoting the issue of free trade and will stop next in North Carolina.

* This article originally misstated that Bill Crutchfield was on tour with the free trade bus. It was corrected Friday, July 25.

I just nabbed my ticket to see the indie-folk act Bon Iver at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C., and am all sorts of thrilled about it for a few reasons. The group has hailstorm of critical buzz going for it, recently recorded an excellent Daytrotter Session (if you haven’t checked out Daytrotter, do it now) and the gig sold out yesterday afternoon. Namely, I’m excited for a rock ‘n’ roll road trip, a chance to spend a few hours in a car anticipating a gig and making a mental setlist.

All this excitement poses a problem, however, because driving from Charlottesville to D.C. to see a concert is the financial equivalent of driving to New York for good pizza. The problem is complicated by the fact that I have two more such trips planned for August, including one to see recent ATO Records client Liz Phair perform Exile in Guyville at the 9:30 Club.

Is bearded rocker Bon Iver worth the price of a ticket and $40 in gas money? Leave your thoughts below for a chance to win concert tickets.

In John Sellers’ book Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, the author makes a strong case for the rock pilgrimmage as the sign of ultimate commitment to a band as a part of your personality. Neither Bon Iver nor Liz Phair fit that bill for me, but I’ve traveled far for my fair share of bands—notably, from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Rochester, New York, for a Bob Dylan show.

For me, it boils down to whether a concert is enjoyable enough to justify a few weeks of thrifty living. More specifically, it’s a cost benefit analysis that pits tangibles like musicianship and appeal of the venue (I really don’t like the 9:30 Club, but the Black Cat is my kind of joint) against that intangible, subjective feeling of how satisfying a concert is.

Who would you drive 100 miles to see? Five hundred miles? Leave the country? The first response gets two tickets to Saturday’s show at the Pavilion, featuring bands from the local rock doc Live from…the Hook.