Month: August 2008

Of all the bands on the ATO Records roster—including those impressive Brit-wits, Radiohead—no group exemplifies the label’s commitment to making careers rather than records than My Morning Jacket. Since the release of It Still Moves in 2003, the Jacket has released roughly one album or EP each year on ATO Records, save a dry spell in 2007, and seem to be on an upward trajectory from odd new kids to the most popular dudes in school.

In fact, try this: Picture ATO Records as a high school hallway. The three fellows in The Whigs talk loud and act like punks while straightforward, rule-abiding Patty Griffin threatens them with detention. Liz Phair and Soul Coughing’s Mike Doughty spend the first half of the school day in Phair’s car smoking, pop machine Ben Kweller wonders why David Gray is so popular, and everyone kinda wonders where Jem went.
 

My Morning Jacket start at ATO as precocious, naive rock freshmen—think of the character William Miller in Almost Famous. Everyone loves a good guy, and these fellows easily win over classmates and teachers with It Still Moves. “Shucks,” they seem to say. “Weren’t nuthin’!” Next, MMJ releases the adventurous record Z, an album that rattles the lunch trays out of Radiohead’s hands, then throws a killer party before senior year and records it—that’d be 2006’s searing live album, Okonokos. Principal Capshaw announces that MMJ is the king of the Bonnaroo Prom, and tells them to ready a valedictory speech for graduation. That speech is Evil Urges.

ATO’s cherished rockers, My Morning Jacket, dress up their sound for the ambitious new record, Evil Urges.

The problem is that everything MMJ does from this point on is done in front of the whole school. Evil Urges has all of the grown-up rockstar sound of records by The Who—this is the group’s stab at making Who’s Next—but the band sounds like a group of guys borrowing their fathers’ coats on graduation day, like they’re getting into something a bit too big. Evil Urges’ 14 songs about hope and fear could’ve been tucked and taken in; the opening title track is monstrously catchy, pairing a double kickdrum and dueling lead guitars with vocalist Jim James’ skyscraper vocals, but goes on for a minute too long, as do most tracks here.

That being said, a good deal of the extra space is taken up by the sort of bottle rocket guitar work that makes MMJ a phenomenal live act. For every song that seems a bit too ambitious—James singing about “peanut butter pudding surprise” over Depeche Mode back-up vocals in “Highly Suspicious” or the redundant sophomore fantasy of “Librarian”—there are five more that will make Flaming Lips’ gig at the Charlottesville Pavilion look like a set by Raffi. And, at eight minutes, “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 2” is the album’s longest track but also the most necessary, the surest sign that MMJ’s considerable risks on this record may yield a bigger modern rock classic after graduation.

After years of tweaking, polishing and adding features, the guys at EA Tiburon have finally pinned most of the elements of simulated college football down, leaving the developers free to focus on what really matters.

Mascot games.

No, seriously, while it’s certainly hysterical to watch a front line of Bucky Badgers side-flipping through the hapless Iowa Hawkeyes, the mascot mashup mode isn’t the best new thing about the ’09 edition of EA’s Division 1-A pigskin extravaganza.
 
No, that’d be the new online dynasty mode, a long-overdue feature that fans of the series have been clamoring after for years. Fantasy leaguers will probably do a few side-flips of their own to realize that it’s possible for you and 11 of your Xbox 360-owning pals to run an entire season online with only a couple of glitches. (Let’s just say you’ll want to be careful how you edit and manage your rosters between game sessions.) This is a huge and welcome advance for the series, bringing it into its next generation.

Wreak Cav havoc in the latest—and dare we say greatest?—version of NCAA Football 09.

Just like last year, the graphics here look amazing, with each team’s stadium looking remarkably realistic. EA’s been in love with the concept of home field advantage in its college sports sims for years now, and in NCAA 09, it matters even more. You can pump up or silence the crowd before big plays, and if your quarterback gets rattled enough in that tough road rivalry game—think the Cavs in the fourth quarter at Clemson—your receivers will actually begin to forget their routes on pass plays, and you’ll really be screwed.

Unfortunately, not everything is quite as well implemented or intuitive. Play a handful of games and you’ll begin to notice some of the flaws emerge, like the way ACC teams dominate in October and fall off the charts at bowl time. The way the CPU quarterbacks can complete short passes at will, especially late in games. The alarming lack of sacks you’ll rack up, despite any and all efforts by your linemen to bust spin moves. And the ways the new juke move feature can turn most screen and sideline passes into 80-yard plays after the first tackler whiffs on them.

None of these things are the equivalent of an NCAA death penalty, but they’re the beginning of a sizable laundry list for NCAA “Big” 10, the natural title for next year’s decade edition. Hey, Tiburon: Feel free to send those marketing royalty checks my way.

Many of Virginia’s elected officials showed greater support for 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 40 delegates, including Charlottesville Del. David Toscano, 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 how a delegate is 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.

Rob Bell isn’t shedding any tears over a lower conservation-vote score than he got last year.

Scores show Senator Creigh Deeds increased to 89 percent in the most recent report from 60 percent last year. The voting patterns of Charlottesville area delegates Toscano and Rob Bell differ markedly from one another: Toscano was named a legislative hero, showing an increase from receiving a score of 75 percent last year; however, Republican Bell supported only half of the bills VALCV took positions on this year. Those bills included support for fertilizer regulation, natural resources funding and state LEED buildings, as well as opposition to uranium mining.

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.”

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Devin Schneider is proudly sporting dark khakis, a blue tie and a big smile the morning of July 31. It is an important day for him: He is drug-free and has been for a whole year.

Roughly a year ago, Schneider was arrested for possession (he would not tell this reporter the substance) while studying at the University of Mary Washington. He pleaded guilty and was admitted to the Charlottesville/Albemarle Drug Court Program, where he submitted to daily drug tests, made weekly court appearances, attended intensive substance abuse rehabilitation and got a full-time job.

Schneider struggled at the beginning, getting sanctioned for using alcohol, thus prolonging his stay in the program. But one night, as clichéd as it may sound, his life changed when he met Jimmy.

James E. Crenshaw III helped inspire Devin Schneider as they both quit drugs and alcohol to avoid jail time for drug offenses.

“Jimmy and I were in the same treatment group, and he needed a ride home, so I drove him and we just clicked,” says Schneider. James E. Crenshaw III is a fellow graduate of the program, and, unlike Schneider, was an inspiration to drug court officers from the start. Crenshaw kept an eye on Schneider, pushing him to stay positive and encouraging him to follow the strict rules. They became close friends and depended on each other to stay sober.

Crenshaw’s stellar performance was attributed to his determination to be a good father and son. His drug court officer shared his journey, praising his courage to admit he felt isolated, alone. At a very early age he started smoking marijuana and his use only increased with time.

Now he wants to go back to school and get a degree in computer science. “I plan on staying out of trouble and catching up on my child support,” says Crenshaw. He is currently working as a full-time cook at the local IHOP.

On July 31, they both stood tall in front of a packed courtroom receiving praises from Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward Hogshire and featured speaker, Bob Gibson, former Charlottesville reporter and current executive director of the Sorensen Institute.

The drug court program is an alternative to incarceration, and a more successful one at that, says Jeff Gould, drug court administrator. Schneider and Crenshaw were among the four graduates of the program, which enrolls 45 to 50 people. Gould is proud to say the program is not only more efficient in recovery rates than incarceration, but also in its cost: The state spends on average $22,000 on a year of incarceration versus a quarter of that in drug court. In this year’s General Assembly session, House Republicans made an effort to cut funding to the program, though drug court ended up escaping the legislative scalpel.

After graduating, Crenshaw and Schneider walked out of the courtroom hugging family and friends. Both graduates are already planning their future.

“I am going back to Mary Washington and [will] study economics,” says Schneider. “But my dream is to be a sports journalist.” Crenshaw’s dream, on the other hand, involves traveling—if not physically, at least in his thoughts. “I want to go on an island and hang back in the sun.”