Month: April 2009

I’ve played my fair share of Dave Matthews Band songs. Never in public, mind you—I memorably chickened out on a version of "#41" with a roommate at an open mic night at UVA—but I can still work through "What Would You Say?" and "Crash Into Me."

The two things that prevent me from dragging out my poor version of "Warehouse" are as follows: (1) The Dave-digger is no slouch as a guitarist, and (2) Mr. Matthews is a very earnest performer. These same things, however, make watching other folks‘ versions of DMB tunes an absolute blast. Namely because, for every one of these…

 …there are five or six of these:

But, every so often, you find a few gems. I give you…the Dave Matthews Band drum cover: 

(If only this dude liked Carter Beauford as much as Jason Segel likes Neil Peart from Rush.)

Any locals have a DMB cover they feel like sharing on Feedback?

Hello Brickophiles. Today, Brickwatch celebrates its centennial, or…well, whatever a centennial would be for days instead of years. ("Centadial"?) We’re sure that brickheads everywhere are celebrating this momentous occasion, but we here at BW are still at it.

We’ve heard a few cries of foul about some cracked, out-of-place, or otherwise bedraggled bricks on the completed sections of the Mall. Indeed, we have seen some not-so-attractive bricks ourselves. (Enjoy that; it will be the last time you ever hear us call a brick "unattractive.") So we went straight to Barton Malow Project Manager Chris Weatherford for some answers.

"Yep, there are a few cracked bricks around," said Weatherford. "That’s going to be one of those last, punchless things we do. We’ll go through in one sweep and replace all of [the broken bricks]."

While on the Mall, we also noticed that the giant trench left over from the excavation of the "mystery manhole" at Third Street East is being filled.

"Filling in that hole and getting the slab poured is the biggest thing that’s happening this week," said Weatherford. He added that the work should be done in a few days.

Have a great centadial.

The state’s grape harvest increased by 25 percent last year, according to news from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That brings total harvest to 7,000 tons, the seventh highest in the nation. Some 3,000 acres are devoted to grape production, with Chardonnay being the number one grape followed by Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Thirty years ago, according to VDACS, a mere 286 acres were devoted to grape production.

The current grape acreage represents a 7.5 percent increase over 2007 levels, when 2,790 acres were planted. In 2006, the number was 2,680. Chardonnay remains the top varietal even as acreage increases and that comes as no surprise. Chardonnay is one of the most planted grapes in the world, growing in more regions than any other. There are two reasons for this: the ease with which it grows and the ease with which it sells. Cabernet Franc and Merlot have been second and third respectively for the last several years as well.
 

If you’ve always wanted to help out the county Sheriff’s office, now it’s your chance. Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding is looking for volunteers for the Search and Rescue team.

A few requirements: All candidates must be 18 years old or older and they need to pass a criminal background check before becoming a non-sworn member. If you have a horse or ATV, you are “especially” welcome.

The training for new members will be held on April 27 from 5:30pm to 9pm and will be followed by a field exercise at the Kluge Estate and Walnut Creek Park on May 2.

With more than 700 hours in October 2008, the Search and Rescue team contributed to the successful search of Earl Funk’s body, found near Free Union. And it’s not all. They assisted in finding a lost woman in Walnut Park and have worked with Project Lifesaver in helping locate lost individuals with autism and Alzheimer’s.

For more information, click here. 

This afternoon, Feedback and C-VILLE Editor Cathy Harding had a lovely lunch with Matthew Affron, the curator of modern art at the UVA Art Museum and co-curator of the current exhibit, "Matisse, Picasso and Modern Art in Paris." After the meal, Affron gave us a tour of the exhibit and a little insight into the changing face of the museum. (Or, rather, changing guts; the face will remain the same.) So take note, visual art fans, because the current show and future plans for the museum have a few things in common.

The day after the "Modern Art in Paris" show closes on April 24, the UVA Art Museum will shuts its doors until September for renovation. A press release from UVA details the changes—improved lighting, controlled climates and an emphasis on large exhibition spaces. Bigger rooms, more vavoom, which should (among other things) place more emphasis on UVA’s substantial permanent collection.

And as Affron showed us today, the "Modern Art in Paris" show plays to the same strength. The exhibit fits pieces from the collection of UVA alum T. Catesby Jones (See Matisse’s "Lorette," right) around the occasional piece from the permanent collection. At the exhibit’s entrance, we immediately confronted Picasso’s "Woman with Kerchief," a piece from Jones’ collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, next to an earlier Picasso from the UVA Art Museum, "The Frugal Repast"—a one-two that emphasized the considerable strength of UVA’s collection as well as Jones’ keen eye.

Throw in a strong, career-spanning group of work from Jean Lurçat—especially the dark undercurrent of "Wind and Blue Sky"—and it’s a show that does UVA proud while flaunting Jones’ prizes. And Affron meticulously arranged the second floor gallery and segmented the exhibit to heighten the power of both collections. Let’s hope the summer renovations do the same.

Amid a lot of recent hustle and bustle, I’ve been waiting for a chance to talk about the new wilderness areas just created in southwestern Virginia. There’s a good rundown here of the Virginia Ridge and Valley Act: 53,000 newly protected acres in the Jefferson National Forest, designated as wilderness by Congress on March 25. President Obama signed off on the act five days later, and Charlottesville’s own Southern Environmental Law Center is cheering. So are a bunch of other folks. And the larger conservation bill of which the Act is a part is described by many as a true landmark—a really significant piece of legislation, in terms of keeping at least some parts of the environment clean.

Count me among the pleased. I’m always glad to see wild places protected from logging, mining, drilling, and other extractive activities. To private companies who would seek to make fortunes by marring public space, I say, Get off my land! And to those who work to get laws like this one passed, I say, Keep fighting the good fight.

And to all us average citizens, I say this: Let’s try to remember that no matter how much of our state we set aside as "Wilderness," we spend most of our time in places that carry no special designation at all. These places are truly our environment, as in daily surroundings, much more so than isolated mountaintops in Bland County. And while it’s completely worthwhile to support the Ridge and Valley Act and other laws like it, it’s just as important in the end to take care of our cities, suburbs and farmland—the places where we breathe and drink water and raise kids and eat food. Saving wilderness while polluting our own habitat would really be quite bizarre.

Experiment: Think of Charlottesville as the Charlottesville Wilderness, or declare your own yard a Scenic Area, and see whether that changes your behavior. Still feel like putting pesticides on the lawn? Still dumping Drano into the bathtub?

The UVA Board of Visitors met today to discuss possible increases in tuition.
According to a UVA press release, the Board approved a 5 percent increase, or $375, for in-state tuition, bringing the annual tuition and fees to $7,873.

For out-of-state students, however, the board approved a 7.5 percent increase, or $2,075, for a total of $29,873 a year. The increase is also part of a decision by the General Assembly to increase capital fees for non-Virginians from $2 to $10 per credit hour.

Other increases:
–    Undergraduate housing rate increase: 5.1 percent;
–    Meal plans: 5.4 percent;
–    In-state graduate students: 4.1 percent;
–    Out-of-state graduate students: 2.2 percent;
–    Darden School of Business in-state tuition: 7.4 percent to $43,500 a year, and out-of-state tuition: 6.6 percent to $48,500 a year;
–    Law School in-state tuition: 5.4 percent to $38,800 a year, and out-of-state tuition: 4.8 percent to $43,800 a year.