Month: September 2009

Giving garbage its due

My new issue of Orion Magazine came in the mail a few days ago. One of the features is a photo essay in which the artist took pictures of the insides of people’s refrigerators, revealing their eating habits through the packaged foods and bunches of kale and takeout containers that populate the shelves. I wanted to share it with you, so I went to the Orion website, but it’s not posted yet. Instead, I found this.

I love the concept: photographing everything you throw in the garbage for an entire year. It’s a great way to frame the topic of waste, and you can see the portraits as a kind of bittersweet celebration of the resources that make up all those objects about to meet the landfill. (I’m not quite sure why Tim Gaudreau isn’t recycling those beer bottles and orange juice containers, but perhaps he couldn’t avoid tossing them.)

It’s unclear whether the photos shown on the site are just a selection, or actually represent all this guy’s garbage for a 365-day period. If this is the sum total, count me impressed—I know my "garbage yearbook" would be much lengthier.

I also know it would include stuff that I’d really be embarrassed about. Stuff like paper coffee cups that I acquired even though I had a reusable mug with me at the time (there’s something about the clean white cup that I really like, oddly).

Fail.

What garbage of yours would you be a bit ashamed to memorialize? How many trash portraits do you think you’d have to take over 365 days?

Charlottesville job growth stalled in 2008, says 13-year study

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce announced today that its Regional Jobs Report data show that after four consecutive years of job growth, the private sector has lost more than 1,000 positions over past year.

Government jobs, however, grew by 627 over the same period of time.

Over the 13-year study, jobs in the Charlottesville area grew to 104,233 in 2008 from 80,901 in 1995, an overall increase of close to 29 percent.

Moreover, data from the Virginia Employment Commission show that for the first six months of 2009, jobs in the private sector declined. On the upside, the U.S. National Defense Intelligence Agency will bring up to 800 new jobs to the area between 2009 and 2010.
 

Morwenna Lasko and Jay Pun to release sophomore album at Live Arts

A few local arts updates, from a few sources we haven’t visited in a while:

  • This morning, I ran into Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish, those sweet Dewdrops I mentioned in last week’s column. The pair mentioned that they’d been tapped as an opening act for a CD release gig by Morwenna Lasko and Jay Pun at Live Arts, and that Lasko and Pun would send info along shortly. Well, right they were: You can nab your first copy of the pair’s sophomore album (title TBA) at Live Arts on Tuesday, October 6. Tickets are $15 and are available at Sidetracks Music.
  • The UVA Drama Department announced its 2009-2010 season, complete with the annual Bob Chapel-directed musical (Pippin), a trio of dance performances choreographed by students and faculty, and—we’re really batting for the cycle on this one—another show by playwright Sarah Ruhl! (Live Arts produced two Ruhl plays during the past two consecutive seasons—The Clean House, and Eurydice.) UVA Drama’s pick? The show that Mary-Louise Parker reportedly rocked on the New York stages last year (ah, to’ve witnessed MLP…), Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Get psyched.
  • Keeping up with Open Studio? This week, we spoke with Clay Witt, who mentioned a collaboration with Dean Dass and students in UVA’s printmaking program that is currently on view at Ruffin Hall (and right here). Be sure to check out the UVA Faculty Art exhibit, and let us know what other local artists we should check in with below!

ATO Pictures’ distribution company nearing the End Zone? [VIDEO]

Two weeks ago, I wondered aloud what the struggles of large film production organizations like the Weinstein Company meant for ATO Pictures, the film production offshoot of Coran Capshaw’s media empire. Since 2002, ATO Pictures has served as a production company on a half-dozen films—most prominently, the evil-seed flick Joshua, and Choke, the film adaptation of Chuck "Fight Club" Palahniuk’s novel. You might remember that Choke was a hot ticket (and big sale) at Sundance in 2008, and—according to BoxOfficeMojo.com—fared better in domestic and worldwide gross than Joshua did.

As something of a Don DeLillo fan (is that what you call someone who doesn’t finish Underworld? Kidding), I’ve kept an eye out for details on End Zone, a DeLillo-penned football ‘n’ nukes novel adapted by the team behind Joshua and produced by ATO Pictures. (The film is currently listed as "In production" on IMDB.com.) In my search, I also came across a 2008 Darden "Producers Forum" lecture by ATO Pictures co-founder Temple Fennell. (The video is posted after the text, in full.)

After watching the video, I called Fennell for a quick update on ATO Pictures. While he mentioned the possibility of more news in the not-too-distant future, he mentioned that End Zone is "on hold at the moment" while ATO works on starting its own domestic distribution company, ATO Gotham.

"Primarily, we want to have greater control of our U.S. distribution," said Fennell. "Going out and selling films at Sundance and different markets is really not a viable model anymore for independent films." Both Joshua and Choke were distributed by Fox Searchlight, recently behind (500) Days of Summer.

Not really a surprise, if you ask me—especially given ATO Records’ success nabbing a few high-profile distribution deals in recent years. Watch Fennell’s lecture below; it’s an hour long, but a good insight into one of the minds behind ATO Pictures.

Can ATO Pictures keep the film reels spinning for smaller, independent flicks? Leave your thoughts below.