Month: August 2009

Black Eyed Peas crash stage during Dave Matthews Band gig [VIDEO]

Longtime Dave Matthews Band fansite WeeklyDavespeak.com sent out the usual e-mail to its mailing list—including a piece commemorating the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore one year on, and a bit of fans-only lyrical obsession. My vote for most entertaining article, however, goes to coverage of fallout during a recent DMB set at the Outside Lands music festival, when members of the Black Eyed Peas hopped onstage alongside Dave and Co. and did…whatever it is that this shows them doing:

Lady lumps or not, I find nothing lovely about the Black Eyed Peas. And neither did this DMB fan.

There’s a lesson to be learned here, I just know it…

Charlottesville Dialogue on Race gets official price tag

The city’s dialogue on race has an official price tag. According to the Daily Progress, Gwendolyn Whiting, of G. Whiting & Associates, of Chester has won the bid for $30,000.

Whiting’s bid was the lowest of the three finalists the city interviewed for the job.
Some of the firm’s past and present clients include: Pew Partnership for Civic Change; Foundation for Mid-South; Episcopal Diocese of Virginia; AARP; White House Task Force on Racism, Discrimination and Xenophobia; U.S. Department of Commerce; U.S. Department on Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service.

At the fall retreat last September, City Council identified priorities that needed to be discussed in 2009. Included was the plan to address race relations in the community and “promoting diversity within City government.”

Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones was appointed to develop a concrete and detailed plan for a citywide, sustainable dialogue on race and racism. Jones, as tasked,  recommended a series of “study circles,” groups of up to 15 residents from different backgrounds that meet to discuss concrete ways to help their own community solve racial problems and, most importantly, create plans of action.

The kick-off event is scheduled for early December.
 

Slideshow: UVA Faculty Art Show opening at Ruffin Hall [PICTURES]

You can read a bit about the opening of the UVA Faculty Art Exhibit at Ruffin Hall in Tuesday’s issue of C-VILLE Weekly. In the meantime, I thought I’d post a few photos from the event, including works by Kevin Everson, Clay Witt, Dean Dass and a two-sided piece attributed to "Apollo." While I urge you to see the show while it’s up (through September 18), you can check out a few images below:

Orange County Walmart decision doesn’t sit well with preservationists

The Orange County Walmart saga isn’t over. Late Tuesday night, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to grant a permit for the construction of a 130,000-square-foot Walmart in the vicinity of the Wilderness Battlefield.

Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, a group comprised of eight different private organizations, wrote and sent a letter to Walmart’s CEO Michael Duke asking him to reconsider the current location for the supercenter. The coalition also offered to help find a different location.

"Our coalition has stated from the beginning that we would welcome a new Walmart to Orange County at a less historically sensitive location," reads the letter.
 

C-VILLE Minute: Your weekend preview [VIDEO]

Your weekend options, from tasteless party games to celebrity speculation:

  • A nice game of "Who Dunne It?" Commemorate the lifestyles of the rich and ruthless—and longtime chronicler of the same, Dominick Dunne, who died on Wednesday—by revisiting some old mysteries. For instance: Did Claus von Bulow, acquitted twice, kill Sunny von Bulow? I suggest polling some colleagues; verdict is still out in our office.
  • Autograph hunt? Local musician Jim Waive—who performs with his Young Divorcees and The Honey Dewdrops at Fridays After Five tonight—will make his feature film debut in My Fool Heart, a flick written and directed by local Jeffrey Martin. But Waive’s not the only local in the flick—check out this cast-list of Charlottesville residents featured in the film.
  • Smile for the camera:

Or maybe you could recommend something to us? Leave it below.

Spare Studio: An extended interview with Allyson Mellberg-Taylor

When we checked in with local artist Allyson Mellberg-Taylor for this week’s Open Studio, she gave us quite a bit to think about—from the non-toxic art book she’s working on with her husband, Jeremy Taylor, to "Skins" and Doris Day movies. In fact, Mellberg-Taylor was so generous with her time that we thought we’d share some additional material from her interview with C-VILLE. Read more below the photo, and don’t forget to tell us which local artists you’d like us to check in with!

What’s inspiring about Charlottesville right now?

What excites me every year around this time is that this is when everything is growing. The walnuts are starting to fall to the ground and rot, so that means it’s time to make things, and our garden is starting to produce food that’s ready to pick… For both Jeremy and me, winter is hard, feast or famine, but summer is just great, all feast—everything is producing, growing, and it’s good. I’m from Wisconsin, and sumer in Charlottesville are longer than where I grew up, so this time of year is always prety happy and magical for me, because it’s a lot less so up there.

What songs are playing on your iPod?

I have really been revisiting Deerhoof lately. I never got to see them play in Charlottesville—I know they played a while back at the Satellite Ballroom, and before that with the Flaming Lips, but I’d been working night classes and hadn’t been able to do either. They do so much with so little, it’s amazing. Their drummer is terriffic.

Favorite artist in your genre? Outside your genre?

This is going to sound really cheesy, but I mean it: In my genre, I’d have to say my husband. Everything Jeremy has done—the research into non-toxic art-making that he started and, when I met him, we started collaborating in doing, it’s been a really big part of our lives. But also because his work is really beautiful. Even before I started dating him, I knew of him and his work and felt the same way. His images of animals that are so human.

Outside of my genre, Louise Bourgeois. She’s a sculptor, in her late 90s. She had a retrospective in D.C. earlier in the summer. My work is nothing like hers, but she’s done almost everything, from printmaking to painting to drawing,and she can carve marble like an old master. She’s had a sketchbook journal and a writing journal and she’s written about her life—her writing is so beautiful and clear. While I was working on my undergraduate and Master’s theses, she was a really big help to me. A really sassy, little old French lady.

Green fights and Wilderness rights

Because this is back-to-school week, this edition of Green Reads is extra packed. Buckle down, class! We’ve got a ruler and we’re not afraid to use it. And yes, it’s made of bamboo.

First, Grist’s Tom Philpott takes on the notion that sustainable agriculture proponents are unrealistic about what it takes to feed the world. Watch the sparks fly. And if you think Philpott delivers some grim news, wait till you read this piece on the same site.

Also on the national stage, the Obamas set up a White House farmers market (reason enough to move to D.C., were it not that I’d miss Caromont cheese too sorely) and the New York Times exposes the problem of weed-killer in the drinking water.

Now we go local, with some good news about city schools’ increased energy efficiency. I’m happy to hear it not only because it probably means young citizens are getting the conservation message, but because schools (like hospitals) are one of those bigger slices of the pie in terms of energy use. Like, say, bigger than the bamboo-ruler-store sector.

Our own mayor, Dave Norris, has been to the White House to talk green jobs with President Obama…(wait for it)…’s advisors. It’s all about renewable energy, folks. I bet the refreshments were first-rate, too.

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention the furor up in Orange County. The planners said no, the public rode in on mules to have their say, and then the Supes voted yes on the Wilderness Wal-Mart. Blech. It ain’t over yet, though: Preservationists are still actively fighting the store. Stay tuned, and write letters.

More links? Post ’em up.

The Fiery Furnaces at Fry’s Spring Beach Club [PHOTOS]

I’m currently working on a review of last night’s three-pronged rock event at Fry’s Spring Beach Club—roughly four hours of music, courtesy of The Fiery Furnaces, ATO/TBD Records signees White Rabbits, and The Cinnamon Band. You can read the full review in next week’s C-VILLE; for now, check out the slideshow below and leave your thoughts on the gig!

Tina Fey photo from 1990 UVA Drama production surfaces in archives

On Monday, I was paging through old issues of what was once titled "C-VILLE Review" when I came across another interesting first act. In the November 13, 1990 issue of the Review, there’s a listing for the final run of The Boys Next Door at the University of Virginia’s Culbreth Theatre, with an accompanying photo. While the cast members in the picture aren’t identified, the actress on the far left resembles Tina Fey—the UVA grad who out-winked Sarah Palin and nabbed writing and acting Emmys for "30 Rock." See for yourself below (and compare with her yearbook photo):

Introducing…Mrs. Fremus! Third-year student Tina Fey (above, left) appeared in the 1990 UVA Drama production of The Boys Next Door.

I’d read that Fey had the lead in a UVA production of Cabaret, but couldn’t find any reference to a role in The Boys Next Door. I called James Scales, business manager at the UVA Drama Department, and he dug up the show’s program, along with a poster and a Cavalier Daily article. The only mention of Fey is in the program, but there she is, listed in the role of "Mrs. Fremus."

Sure, there is no caption to accompany the photo. But I’ve got the program to prove she was in the cast and—beyond a shadow of a doubt—I’m convinced that’s Tina Fey. To borrow from a former Wahoo, "Lemon out."

AT&T launches 3G network in Charlottesville

It’s finally here! iPhoners rejoice! Late last night or early this morning AT&T launched the 3G network in Charlottesville. 

Ellen Webner of AT&T Corporate Communications sent a press release confirming what some early tweets and blogs had announced. 

Areas that already had AT&T 3G include Arlington, Newport News, Norfolk and Richmond.