Month: May 2010

Monticello has announced that comedienne Tracey Ullman will be the featured speaker at its annual naturalization ceremony on July 4. Those hoping for her dead-on impersonation of Arianna Huffington, David Beckham or Rachel Maddow, will likely have to wait. Ullman became a naturalized citizen in 2006, in order to be able to vote, after 25 years of living in the United States. Expect in her speech something lively, affectionate, and comparatively straightforward.

As Monticello’s speaker, on a day that will see scores of new Americans take the oath of citizenship, Ullman joins a long list of naturalization ceremony speakers from the arts and politics. They include Madeleine Albright, Andrew Young, I.M. Pei, and, two years ago to mild protest, President George W. Bush.

Since 1963, more than 3,000 people from all over the world have been sworn in as new American citizens at Monticello. The morning event is free and open to the public.

The new ABODE comes out today, and as often happens, my work on the cover story got me all reflective. Like these big windows:

Just one corner of an extremely efficient house. Photo by Ashley Twiggs.

This is John Semmelhack standing in the southeast corner of his living room. His house was built in 2008 and comes very, very close to meeting a set of building standards known as Passive House. Think of it as the next LEED. Passive House comes from Europe, where in some countries—notably, Germany and Austria—it is close to being the mainstream way to build. And it saves something like 70 percent of a building’s energy use.

Check out the story to learn how it’s done. What I was reflecting on was the fact that my own house, and millions of others, is older and leaky. I’d probably love living in a house with no drafts and a tiny energy bill, but I wouldn’t want to see my house torn down to be replaced by a new Passive House. Nor would that be a green strategy.

What I hope is that folks continue to get wise to the amount of energy they can save by making their old houses less leaky. And, if they’re going to live in a new house, that they steer clear of those built merely to code. There are too many smart builders and designers around here to sign up for a cookie-cutter abode that’ll be wasting energy now and through the next 50 years.

Read the story and tell us what you think! 

Top-Seeded Virginia Set for Semifinal Showdown with Duke on Saturday in Baltimore

UVa faces ACC foe Duke for third time in 2010 for right to play for the National Championship

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The top-seeded Virginia Cavaliers (16-1) enter the semifinal round of the NCAA Championship as the nation’s top-ranked team in both the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media and USILA coaches polls. Participating in a third-straight NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship, UVa will have a semifinal matchup with the Duke Blue Devils (14-4) on Saturday evening, inside Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium. Faceoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Live stats will be available at VirginiaSports.com.

The game will also be broadcast in the Charlottesville area on WINA 1070 AM with John Freeman calling the action and Doug Tarring doing the color broadcast. The contest will be televised live in HD on ESPN2 with Sean McDonough doing the play-by-play, while Quint Kessenich serves as the color analyst, with Eamon McAnaney and Bob Holtzman patrolling the sidelines.

This is Virginia’s 33rd tournament appearance overall, second behind Johns Hopkins (39). Virginia won the national championship four years ago and has received a bid in 17 of the last 18 seasons. UVa is also making its 21st overall appearance in the semifinal round and 12th appearance in head coach Dom Starsia’s 18th season at the helm.

Virginia advanced to the semifinals on May 23 when the Cavaliers received hat tricks from Shamel Bratton and Chris Bocklet, the second time the duo has accomplished the feat during this NCAA Tournament. Adam Ghitelman was stellar in between the pipes, saving 13 shots en route to UVa’s 10-9 triumph over the eighth-seeded Stony Brook Seawolves.

Virginia advanced to the quarterfinals on May 15 when the Cavaliers received hat tricks from Shamel Bratton, Chris Bocklet and Brian Carroll, while Steele Stanwick dished out five assists in UVa’s 18-4 victory over Mount St. Mary’s in the first round.

The Blue Devils, ranked No. 5 in the media and coaches poll, reached the semifinals with convincing victories over Johns Hopkins, 18-5 in the first round, and 17-9 over ACC foe North Carolina in the Princeton quarterfinal. The Blue Devils are making the program’s fourth-straight semifinal appearance.

Friday marks the 73rd all-time meeting between the Cavaliers and the Blue Devils, a series that began in 1938 and which the Cavaliers own a 49-23 advantage. Facing each other every year since 1972 – save the 2006 season, UVa ended an eight-game losing streak to the Blue Devils the last time out in the ACC Tournament, defeating Duke 16-12 in College Park, Md.

The winner of this game faces the winner of Saturday’s other semifinal game between Cornell and Notre Dame in the finals at M&T Stadium in Baltimore on Monday (May 31). The semifinals will be televised on ESPN in HD at 3:30 p.m.

Bocklet leads Virginia with 49 goals, while Stanwick holds the team lead with 30 assists and is second on the team with 25 goals. Bocklet leads the squad with 63 points and needs one goal to become the first Cavalier to amass 50 goals in a season since Doug Knight tallied 56 goals in 1996. Shamel Bratton and Brian Carroll are tied for third with 23 goals, while Rhamel Bratton is next with 22 scores. Tewaaraton finalist Ken Clausen has 52 ground balls and 37 caused turnovers, while Chris LaPierre is next with 49 ground balls. Ghitelman is saving 56.3 percent of the shots against him, while posting a 7.87 goals-against average to go with a team-best 58 ground balls.

Duke head coach John Danowski is in his fourth season at Duke and returns 31 letterwinners and seven starters from last year’s NCAA semifinalist team that went 15-4. The Blue Devils are currently ranked No. 5 in the coaches poll and media poll.

Tewaaraton finalist Ned Crotty leads the Blue Devils with 82 points, amassing 60 assists to go with 22 goals. Crotty’s 3.3 assists per game average is tops in the nation. Max Quinzani has scored 64 goals and is second on the squad with 77 points. Zach Howell rounds out the top scorers with 47 goals and 17 assists for 64 points. Parker McKee has picked up a team-high 98 ground balls, while Dan Wirgrizer has seen the most time in the cage, saving 52.0 percent of shots and posting a 9.47 goals against average. Mike Rock started the NCAA game against North Carolina and is saving 44.4 percent of shots and posting a 5.79 goals against average.

-UVA SID Release-

#1 Virginia, and #5 Duke met tonight up at M&T Bank Stadium for the third time this season to decide who would play in the National Championship. The Hoos got things going in the right direction Saturday as attack Chris Bocklet scored the first goal of the contest at the 12:47 mark. It was his 50th goal of the year. The 50 goal mark has not not seen by the Wahoos since 1996. A bad outlet pass by Virginia Jr. goalie Adam Ghitelman made it easy for Duke’s Rotannz (1 goal) to tie it up less than a minute later.

The television coverage started with usually fantastic play-by-play guy Sean McDonough getting tongue tied and becoming overcome by emotion when he started speaking about Yeardley Love. McDonough tried a little later to talk about how much he respected how Yeardley’s mom had handled the horrific tragedy, and he again had a tough time speaking.

Steele Stanwick (3 goals, 2 assists), scored two quick goals for the Hoos which interrupted some really sloppy play for both teams. At the 2:55 mark of the first quarter, Duke’s Justin Turri (3,1) scored a sweet between the legs goal to make it 3-2 Hoos.

Virginia really seemed to be on the defense end for most of the first quarter. The Wahoos had eight turnovers in the first period as well. With 6 seconds to go in period one, Shamel Bratton (1 goal) scored on a really pretty left handed goal, his 24th goal of the season, which made it 4-2 to end the first stanza.

Duke started the second period with an extra man opportunity, and it took Duke only 19 seconds for the Blue Devils to score to make it 4-3 Hoos. Next up, it was Virginia, who received the extra guy as Duke was called for a slash. The penalty expired without any meaningful offensive attempts by Virginia. At the 11:06 mark Chris Bocklet scored his second goal of the game to make it 5-3 Hoos.

The Blue Devils got the scoring going again on a strong 87 mph. shot by Justin Turri again to make it 5-4 Hoos at the 9:19 mark in the second period. The Blue Devils started the game with a 7-4 faceoff advantage. Duke again scored to make it 5-5, and the momentum had cleared swung back in Duke’s direction.

At the 2:25 mark, Virginia returned to playing smart, mistake free lax and went back in the lead on a nifty right-handed Colin Briggs shot. Duke won the ensuing faceoff again, but missed a shot attempt that was wide to the right of the Virginia goal. To close out the first half of play, Virginia’s Brian Carroll scored his 92nd career goal on a powerful right handed shot that hit the bottom right ground, just in front of the goal on the turf. 7-5 Virginia at the half.

First-half stats: UVA was 12-14 on clears, Duke 5-11. Duke won 10 faceoffs, UVA won only 3. Both goalies had 4 saves.

To start the second half, Virginia won the faceoff and took just two shots to get back on the board, as Chris Bocklet (4 goals) scored his third goal of the game at the 13:49 mark. The goal was Virginia’s third straight on the evening to make it 8-5 Hoos! At the 10:05 mark Duke shot and the ball got stuck in Adam Ghitelman’s face-mask. Virginia was also called for a penalty, and Duke answered the call with a score to make it 8-6 Virginia. Duke then scored again at the 5:35 mark on a pretty goal by Zach Howell (2,1) to make it 8-7 Virginia.

You could really tell the emotion was again swinging in Duke’s favor at this point. Duke again scored at 3:12 on a beautiful goal by Ned Crotty (1,2) to tie things up 8-8. 3 unanswered goals by Duke. A penalty on Clausen again handed Duke the extra man opportunity, which they again turned in another outstanding goal to make it 9-8 Duke. The goal gave the Blue Devils their first lead of the night. In the final minute of the third quarter Duke out hustled Virginia on an errant shot, and was awarded the ball, but was unable to get a shot off.

The fourth quarter began with Duke controlling the faceoff and immediately scoring to make it 10-8 Blue Devils. It was only the third goal of the season for the long-stick Constabile. Duke leads the nation in long-stick scoring. Duke scored again to give them a 3 goal lead. The Hoos just looked out of gas at this point. Virginia, then looked completely out of sorts as they totally lost their composure and it led to another Duke goal to make it 12-8 Duke at the 12:08 point. Lights out for the Hoos… Or so I thought…

The Hoos finally found the goal again at the 10:36 mark as Rhamel Bratton (1,1) took a little off on his shot and found the top left portion of the goal. The goal was Rhamel’s first of the NCAA tournament. The Bratton goal stopped the barrage of 7 straight Blue Devils goals. Virginia came right back and scored another Bockett goal to make it 12-10 Duke. Phew, the momentum had firmly changed back the Hoos’s way again! Quickly, the Hoos came right back, and Brian Carroll scored to make it 12-11 Duke with a little under seven minutes to play. 3 straight goals for the Hoos! Virginia then had a very costly turnover, and Duke was back on the move again offensively. Duke scored after a stall warning called by the officials, to make it 13-11 Blue Devils.

An incredible shot by Steele Stanwick got the Hoos within one goal at the 1:50 make. The most important faceoff of the game was then won by Virginia, and then Bocklet made an errant shot that was backed up by the Hoos. Brian Carroll then got the hat-trick on a sweet center shot to tie things up at the 1:21 mark. The ensuing faceoff was won by Duke and then the Blue Devils called their last time-out of the game.

Off the TO, Duke scored an incredible Max Quinzani goal with 12 seconds remaining. It was his 68th goal of the season. Virginia got one more chance to tie things up with 8 seconds remaining, but came up short because of an inexcusable offsides call on the Hoos. Another boneheaded play by Virginia to end the Hoos’ season.

Duke goes on to play Notre Dame on Monday in the National Championship game. The winner of that contest will bring the Championship trophy home for the first time ever to which ever school wins, since neither team has ever won this game before. Duke got hammered by the Golden Domers earlier this season.
Final statistics:
Shots: Virginia 46 Duke 42
Saves: Virginia 8 Duke 7
Faceoffs: Virginia 11/30 Duke 19/30

After appointing a handful of the University of Virginia’s highest ranking officials, serving as co-chair of the school’s Commission on the Future of the University and shaping the first years of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, UVA Provost Arthur "Tim" Garson is ready to shape his own future. Yesterday, UVA announced that Garson will depart in May 2011 to take a position as senior vice president for health policy at the University of Texas’ "UTHealth" center.

In a statement to UVA Today, President John Casteen called Garson’s time as provost "splendid."

"His work on the Batten School and on new public service offerings for undergraduate students stand at the core of the curriculum now," said Casteen. "Tim’s leadership has been powerful and gentle." And UVA appreciates a gentle power: According to a 2008 report on faculty salaries, Garson earned $706,800.

Garson will also serve as director of the nonprofit Dreyfus Health Foundation. And his move to Texas should be an easy one. Garson received a master’s degree in public health from UT-Houston, and previously held positions at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.

P.S. While we’re talking about jobs, RichmondBizSense.com writes that Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris tobacco company, reappointed Casteen and Miller Center of Public Affairs Director Gerald Baliles to its Board of Directors. "Each was paid more than $200,000 in 2009 for their service to the Altria board," notes BizSense.

A mix of good and bad weather this holiday weekend. Have a great one!

Miljenko Matijevic, local studio owner and sometime lead singer of the band SteelHeart, will sing Jim Morrison’s parts on a tour with members of the Doors. The band has alternatively toured under the names Riders on the Storm, The Doors of the 21st Century and D21C. Because of legal reasons, they now go by Manzarek-Krieger (which has a ring to it!) after keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger. The 13 dates with Matijevic, the first of which is tonight, are here. They hit Richmond’s National on June 7.

The band’s last lead singer, Brett Scallions, left the band to resume his duties as lead singer of Fuel.

 The Naked Indian leads dream-state Wayne Campbell to see Jim Morrison in the desert in Wayne’s World II.

I heard from the Piedmont Environmental Council this week that the 2010 Buy Fresh Buy Local guide is about to hit the mail stream. To which I say, Woo hoo! The BFBL guide has become a staple of the local food scene, with its listings of farms and markets, and it gets better every year.

I checked out the PDF version on the BFBL website, and quickly learned a few new things about my favorite subject (that is, things I can eat that grow around here). First of all, my home county of Nelson has a farmer’s market I didn’t know about—Wednesdays, 3-7pm in Lovingston. Fab!

Even bigger news: A short article in the guide informs me that one local farm is getting into the grain and legume business. Brian and Mihr Walden own Steadfast Farm in Albemarle and are already selling beef at City Market. But the ace in their sleeves is 10 acres of wheat. They’ve got plans to expand into beans, lentils, barley, oats and canola, and they’re selling CSA shares for those kinds of crops.

A grain, legume and oilseed share! I love it! This has been a major hole in our local food offering; all summer long you can skip the produce aisle in the grocery store completely, but you still have to go to the bean and oil sections. Here are my official good wishes to the Waldens. Now if someone would grow local pepper and mine local salt, we might be able to cut our grocery trips down to a couple per year.

If you live in Albemarle, Charlottesville or Greene, you’ll find the new guide in your mailbox soon. Read carefully; it’s full of surprises.

Patricia Wiberg, chair of the UVA Department of Environmental Sciences, recently told C-VILLE that the department hoped the university administration would issue a formal response to a recent Civil Investigative Demand (CID) from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. The AG requested information pertaining to grant documents of former UVA climate scientist Michael Mann.

Today, Wiberg and her colleagues got their wish. UVA filed a petition in Albemarle County Circuit Court to "set aside" Cuccinelli’s CID. In a press release from the UVA Office of Public Affairs, Rector John O. Wynne remarks that "We are fighting for preservation of the basic principles on which our country was founded."

"The CIDs are deficient under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act [FATA]…and their sweeping scope is certain to send a chill through the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities," reads the petition.

The filing goes on to call Cuccinelli’s CIDs "unprecedented," and argues that none of the five grants identified by Cuccinelli’s demands "appears to implicate FATA." Additionally: "The fifth grant was an internal University grant initially awarded in 2001. FATA did not become effective until 2003…and it does not apply retroactively."

Read the petition here, and a letter sent from the Union of Concerned Scientists to Cuccinelli’s office here.

The family of slain UVA student Yeardley Love has created a memorial fund at Love’s high school, Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson, Maryland, for the construction of a turf athletics field.

“We want to honor Yeardley and her contributions to Notre Dame as a student, athlete, and friend,” said Love’s mother, Sharon, in a news release. “We believe that the new turf field will be a great tribute to Yeardley as future generations of students use it. Notre Dame was such a special place for both Yeardley and her sister Lexie, we are humbled that so many people would like to help NDP to memorialize Yeardley.”

According to the release, the estimated cost for the field is $1 million. Currently, the school has reached 3 percent of the total. Gifts can be made to the Yeardley Love ’06 Memorial Field, care of Notre Dame Preparatory School.

Other memorial funds have been established in honor of Love. Contact information for two follow:

The Yeardley Love Memorial Fund
Notre Dame Prep School
815 Hampton Lane
Towson, MD 21286
Phone: 410-825-6202

The Yeardley Love Women’s Lacrosse Scholarship Fund
Virginia Athletics Foundation
P.O. Box 400833
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Phone: 434-982-5555 or 800-626-8723