Month: March 2010

 Hate to break it to you, but the music on the radio, in YouTube videos, in your iPod—it’s all dead. All recorded sound is a bunch of ones and zeros graphing—as best they can—the shape of a soundwave made in an isolated soundbooth far away and long ago. Technically speaking, the most vibrant music today is live music. Classical music carries on timeless sentiments over hundreds of years to touch and move audiences throughout time. For Kate Tamarkin, musical director of Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra, revitalizing century-old music is epitomally human. “There is a reason why people come back time and again to recreate this music,” she says.

Saturday’s Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra concert, “English Variations,” played heavily on the idea of reaching back to older traditions to inform current creative projects. Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” took as its theme a motif from Henry Purcell, a 17th-century British composer. Immaculate and stunning already, Britten amped up Purcell’s theme to a magnificent, British imperialist-worthy orchestra study. After the grand statement of theme, Britten lead the audience through the orchestra sections, each with its own variation. The piece highlighted extremely well the overall instrumental caliber of the orchestra, most notably I-Jen Fang’s artfully restrained timpani playing during the percussion’s “Moderato Variation.”

Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” continued the generational interplay, Tallis’ theme being composed in 1567 and Williams’ “Fantasia” in 1910. “Fantasia” takes the Tallis folk melody and injects it with a rich Celtic mysticism. CUSO’s string section unfolded the work to its fullest extent, taking the open nature of Williams’ orchestration and enveloping Old Cabell’s occupants in a thick sonic blanket.

Ending the program was Elgar’s “Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma).” “Enigma Variations” paints 14 portraits of lives past, 13 being Elgar’s friends and the fourteenth being Elgar himself. Most popular from the variations is “Nimrod”, a meditation subtly influenced by Beethoven’s “Pathétique Sonata.” Its achingly moving lines celebrate life, both in its glory and tragedy. The fourteenth variation brings back all the previous motifs creating an aural gathering of Elgar’s closest companions. Fun and playful yet deep and nuanced, it was a wonderful cadence to the piece and the concert. And what better way to end the most lively form of musical expression than with a party?

 When he began leading the University of Virginia’s investment management firm, he oversaw roughly $2.5 billion in assets. More than five years and one Great Recession later, Chris Brightman, CEO of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company, resigned for “personal reasons,” with an endowment pool totaling $4.4 billion, according to a January 31 investment report.

“My five years serving the University were an honor and the highlight of my professional career,” said Brightman in a statement. “I regret that my personal situation prevents me from continuing to serve.”

Brightman oversaw UVA’s endowment in the throes of the economic downturn, when it plummeted from $5.1 billion in value in June 2008 to $4.2 billion in October 2008. Furthermore, UVA’s endowment fund lost 22.7 percent of its market value from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2009, according to a survey done by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute. 

The sharp decline was due in part to UVIMCO’s investments in private equity and hedge funds, a practice many universities with substantial endowment funds have undertaken in recent years. While the decline in endowment dollars somewhat strains UVA’s budget in the near term, UVA’s endowment only provides just north of 5 percent of the school’s total operating budget.

Former UVIMCO CFO Henry Kaelber told C-VILLE that mixing riskier investment practices with more conservative ones usually proves worthwhile in the long run.

“It’s always easy to slap people in a down market, especially if they’re an investment professional, but I think [UVIMCO] takes a really thoughtful approach,” said Kaelber, who worked at UVIMCO from 1997 to 2003.

Though he did say investing endowment dollars in more illiquid assets like private equity and hedge funds is a “bold strategy,” Kaelber also said it “wasn’t a bad idea,” either.

“I don’t look at university endowments as 70-year-old retiree money,” he said. “They have a unique advantage over most other long-term investors in that endowments’ time horizon is in perpetuity. Volatility is what should concern constituents of an endowment, not risk tasking.”

In addition, UVA officials pointed out in 2008 that UVIMCO’s losses were less severe than what the Standard & Poor 500 index hemorrhaged over the same time span.

UVA spokeswoman Carol Wood told

C-VILLE that Brightman did “an outstanding job of leading UVIMCO.” Wood would not comment on whether his departure was in any way linked to the arrival of Teresa Sullivan, who replaces John Casteen as UVA’s next president on August 1.

While UVA conducts a national search for Brightman’s replacement, current UVIMCO board member John Macfarlane will take over as chairman of the group’s investment committee. In addition, Leonard Sandridge, UVA’s executive vice president and COO, will assume Brightman’s administrative roles in the interim. Sandridge is slated to retire from his post in December.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

 On March 17, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted to advertise a real estate tax rate of 74.2 cents per $100 of assessed value, the same rate as last year. Advertising a tax rate means that, while the supervisors may decide on a lower rate before the budget is finalized, a higher one is extremely unlikely. Maintaining the same tax rate would give most county residents a tax break, considering a decline in home assessments.

Recently, many county residents expressed disapproval at the Supervisors’ decision to keep the same rate. A March public hearing on the county budget, for instance, brought multiple calls to increase the rate to direct more funding to Albemarle schools. 

And while cuts to Albemarle County Public Schools now seem far less drastic, there’s sure to be some more thought on whether 74.2 cents is an appropriate price to pay. Have a look at the tax rates of surrounding counties to see how Albemarle stacks up.

 Dear Ace: Every year, my husband and I celebrate the beginning of spring with an aerial tour of the renewed landscape. We’re new to Charlottesville, and wondering where around here we might find a private plane, helicopter, or balloon to give us a bird’s eye view of the area?—Fuselage-Fool-in-Charlottesville

Would-be Charlottesville aeronauts have several places to turn for a jaunt through the wild blue yonder. There are at least four nearby firms that offer hot air balloon rides: Blue Ridge Balloon in Charlottesville, Bear Balloon Corporation (which launches from Boar’s Head Inn), Bonaire Charters at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Monticello Country Ballooning. Each has a website with answers to whatever more specific questions you may have. Did you know, for example, that people with a fear of heights don’t typically struggle with hot air balloon rides, due to a lack of physical connection between the carriage and the ground? This is good news for Ace, who fears heights almost as much as he dreads spilling ionized bottled water on his immaculately-pressed dress shirt and slacks. Indeed, the thought of wasting all those precious electrolytes is almost distressing enough to make him reach for an O’Doul’s. Almost.

If you’re looking for something a little more high-octane, though, you’re probably going to want to go through the Charlottesville Flight Center, which offers sightseeing tours, flying lessons and rentals for small aircraft. The CFC hangar includes several varieties of Cessna biplanes; a pair of Robinson helicopters; an Evektor SportStar light sport aircraft; and a spacious Piper Apache multiengine plane with room for four.

Ace would be remiss, however, not to mention Hotelicopter—perfect for sightseers looking to elevate their search with a luxurious flourish. The company, the brainchild of two UVA Darden School of Business graduates, offers multiple-night stays on its lavish, 18-room airborne roto-hotel, which went down in history as the first of its kind during its christening in early April last year. Each cabin, according to the company website, features a queen-sized bed, media center, whirlpool bath and customizable minibar (Ace’ll take Vitamin Water in his, thanks).

For find out more about the Hotelicopter experience, visit the company headquarters on the Downtown Mall, or visit their website at aprilfools.hotelicopter.com.

You can ask Ace yourself. Intrepid investigative reporter Ace Atkins has been chasing readers’ leads for 21 years. If you have a question for Ace, e-mail it to ace@c-ville.com.  

 For anyone who thought that last week’s climactic vote on the healthcare reform bill would reduce the toxic levels of partisan rancor in Washington, think again! If anything, President Obama’s hard-fought victory has only served to blow the lid off the Republican party’s boiling cauldron of rage, releasing a vast cloud of crazy that seems unlikely to dissipate any time soon.

And, to nobody’s surprise, leading the right-wing offensive is none other than Virginia’s ubiquitous Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who took time out from his busy schedule of harassing college administrators and challenging global warming science to file a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate portions of the new law.

Although most legal experts rate the Cooch’s chances of success somewhere between infinitesimal and nonexistent, that’s not really the point. The real purpose of these anti-mandate lawsuits is to rile up the base, and to provide ongoing, high-profile resistance to the Democratic agenda heading into the 2010 midterm elections.

With that in mind, let’s fire up the old superlative prognostication machine and try to figure out whose healthcare vote might help them, and whose is likely to lead to a congressional cataclysm come November. 

On the right side of the aisle, there were zero surprises—every Virginia elephant voted no. And trust us, these votes will do absolutely nothing to endanger a single Virginia Republican. The only real chance for a Dem pickup would require Frank Wolf, who has represented Virginia’s moderate- to left-leaning 10th district since 1980, to get picked off by a primary challenger before the general election. A not-very-likely scenario, believe us.

As for the Dems, they suffered two Old Dominion defections on the final healthcare vote: Representatives Glenn Nye and Rick Boucher. For a while, it looked as if Gerry Connolly, the 11th district’s freshmen Democratic Representative, might also jump ship. (He was a conspicuous no-show when President Obama held a healthcare rally in his district.) But in the end he swallowed hard and took one for the team.

Our sense of things is that Boucher—who has won election in his conservative southwestern district an impressive 14 times—was one of the members given a “pass” by House leadership to vote no. But Nye, currently serving his first term in a district that Obama won (albeit barely), had no such excuse.

Finally, there’s our hometown representative, Tom Perriello, who voted yes in the face of increasingly deranged levels of right-wing vitriol. (Most recently, a slimeball posted what he thought was Perriello’s address online and instructed his fellow fanatics to “drop by” for a “good face-to-face chat.” As it turned out, the address belonged to Perriello’s brother, who has four young children at home.) Many are prognosticating that this vote seals Perriello’s fate, but we’re not so sure: He’s become one of the most high-profile, and well-liked, freshmen in Congress, and the seven (!) Republicans fighting to take him on have been too busy attending Tea Party debates to gain much traction.

The bottom line? Well, if we were betting today, we’d guess that Perriello, Boucher and Connolly win re-election, and that Nye is toast (perhaps even by the hands of a fellow Democrat). But as always, only time—specifically, eight months and counting—will tell.

 A disconnect between City Council and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) over the planned 250 Interchange may have negative implications for a timely construction of McIntire Road Extended (MRE), the city’s portion of the road that cuts through McIntire Park. And it all started with a letter Angela Tucker, city development services manager, sent to VDOT last November.

In her letter, Tucker wrote, “if the City elects not to move forward with the Interchange project, City Council will grant the necessary permission to complete the at-grade intersection as designed under the McIntire Road Extended project.”

Not so, according to Council’s response to VDOT. “City Council has taken the official position that the Council support for the McIntire Road Extended is specifically based on the construction of a grade-separated interchange at the U.S. 250 Bypass. Council has taken no position on an at-grade intersection,” wrote Mayor Dave Norris.  

Brent Sprinkel, VDOT’s preliminary engineering manager, then wrote to Council that the two letters “confused” the Army Corps of Engineers, the organization in charge of approving a permit considered the last hurdle before the construction of MRE. Because of the confusion, he says, the Corps has yet to sign the permit, thus putting advantageous bids on hold. 

Yet, Sprinkel tells C-VILLE that the city “has supported the at-grade connection for many years.” Norris disagrees. 

“It certainly is not the case that this Council or any recent Council has ever approved an at-grade intersection,” he says. 

After he received Council’s letter, Sprinkel responded and drafted a clarification letter to be sent to the Corps on behalf of City Council. In it, he too wrote that an at-grade intersection would be an “acceptable and realistic alternative.” It requires Norris’ signature. 

“Unless the majority of City Council decides ‘Yes, we will support an at-grade intersection as a fallback option,’ I can’t sign that letter,” says Norris. “I am not going to sign my name to something that’s not truthful.” 

VDOT has advertised bids for MRE and has received one for $3.37 million—more than $2 million below VDOT’s $5.58 million estimate—but with a delay, there are no guarantees the contractor will honor it. 

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, in a recent letter to Council, also argued that a delay could hurt the chances of formalizing a favorable contract. The group also questioned Council’s idea of having City Attorney Craig Brown meet with MCP opponents. 

“Our letter was primarily about the change in direction by the City Council,” says Chamber President Timothy Hulbert. In the letter, the Chamber expressed “grave disappointment and concern” about actions that could “compromise” the road project. In the end, he says, “we want the road built.”  

Although Norris says Council is not worried about the bidding environment, he says that the controversy over the at-grade intersection was connected to the debate over the MCP’s segmentation. 

In addition to requiring environmental reports for all federal projects, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) also mandates aforementioned projects to have rational end points. 

“We ended up stopping our project just 775’ from the Bypass to make room for the Interchange and we have been moving under that scenario for several years trying to get these things under construction,” says Sprinkel. Technically, MCP comprises three separate projects, but its opponents—who are prepping for a possible federal suit—argue that that’s not the case.  

“There has been a lot of discussion and review on that for several years and the FHWA [Federal Highway Administration] has come out several times with rulings indicating that these are independent projects and they are not segmented,” says Sprinkel. “It’s just how the projects have developed over the 40 years.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.