Month: July 2010

Former UVA hoops assistant coach Bobby Gonzalez arrested in New Jersey

Former UVA assistant basketball coach Bobby Gonzalez was arrested July 5th in Newark, New Jersey. He stands accused of stealing a $1400 Deerfield Vachetta mailbag satchel (known as a man purse) from the Polo store in the Short Hills Mall on June 29.

Gonzalez, who was on Pete Gillen’s bench at UVA, Providence, and Xavier, was fired March 17th as the head coach of Seton Hall after a series of often bizarre incidents.

Coach "Gonzo" often called sportswriters in the New York area to rip them for their coverage.

Categories
Arts

Movies playing in town this week

The A-Team (PG-13, 117 minutes) From Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan, it’s the inevitable big-screen update of the ‘80s TV action-comedy, starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and some other guys, plus Jessica Biel. Regal Downtown Mall 6

Despicable Me (PG, 95 minutes) Steve Carrell voices an evil genius whose plot to steal the moon is threatened by a greater challenge, three orphans who want him to be their father. Opening Friday

Get Him to the Greek (R, 109 minutes) Russell Brand stars as Aldous Snow in this spinoff from the 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where a characteristically bewildered Jonah Hill must escort the British music star to a gig. Regal Downtown Mall 6

Grown Ups (PG-13, 102 minutes). Five old buddies, played by former "SNL"ers David Spade, Rob Schneider, Adam Sandler, as well as Chris Rock and Kevin James, gather for a Fourth of July victory lap after the death of their high school basketball coach. Carmike Cinema 6

Iron Man 2 (PG-13, 125 minutes) Robert Downey Jr. resumes his role as Marvel Comics’ billionaire inventor/armored superhero, again struggling to keep his deadly technology out of the wrong hands—like those of Mickey Rourke, for instance. Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell also co-star. Regal Seminole Square 4

Jonah Hex (PG-13, 80 minutes) Josh Brolin, John Malkovich and Megan Fox star in this comic spinoff about a bounty hunter who wipes the price from his head by agreeing to seek out a terrorist who wants to unleash Hell on Earth. Regal Downtown Mall 6

The Karate Kid (PG, 126 minutes) It’s the inevitable remake of the 1984 coming-of-age crowd-pleaser, with Jaden "Spawn-of-Will" Smith as the kid and Jackie Chan as the karate. Regal Downtown Mall 6

Knight and Day (PG-13, 110 minutes) Cameron Diaz is an ordinary woman caught in the middle of covert agent Tom Cruise’s globetrotting, double-crossing action/adventure escape from people he claims have set him up, and romance ensues. Carmike Cinema 6

The Last Airbender Based on the animated series, a boy learns his ability to manipulate air, wind, earth and fire makes him the only warrior capable of ending a century-long war between the four nations who govern the separate elements. Opening Friday

Please Give (R, 90 minutes) A New York couple butts heads with the granddaughters of their elderly tenant, while grappling with materialism, ethics and their own marriage. Vinegar Hill Theater

Predators (R, time info unavailable) In this third installment, mercenary Adrian Brody leads a crew of elite warriors to an alien planet, then realizes they are the prey to be hunted by a new alien Predator species. Opening Friday

Robin Hood (PG-13) Ridley Scott directs Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and William Hurt, among others, in the latest big-screen take on the 13th-century English hero. Carmike Cinema 6

Sex and the City 2 (R, 146 minutes) Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon resume their romping rom-com franchise, this time in Abu Dhabi. Opening Friday

Shrek Forever After (PG, 93 minutes) Everybody’s favorite brogue-tongued ogre returns for a victory lap around the land of Far, Far Away. Opening Friday  

Toy Story 3 (G, 103 minutes) Read the full C-VILLE review here. Regal Seminole Square 4

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (PG-13, 124 minutes) Tween royalty Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner return to the third installment of the Twilight Saga for more danger, supernatural species rivalry and love triangles. Regal Seminole Square 4

Categories
Uncategorized

At Monticello, Tracey Ullman exhorts 71 new citizens to be confident

Confidence, Tracey Ullman said. That’s what Americans exude. She learned this watching the telly during her childhood in a small English village, and she exhorted the 71 naturalized citizens assembled atop Jefferson’s mountain this morning to believe in themselves and, as new Americans, to exude some confidence of their own. The comedic actress and Emmy winner (seven times, as she good-naturedly pointed out to Monticello board chair Alice W. Handy, who, in her introduction, robbed Ullman of one statuette) was the keynote speaker for the 48th annual naturalization ceremony at Monticello. As has been tradition, the 70-minute event took place under a beating sun and before a full audience of flag-waving patriots and friends.

Ullman became a naturalized American in 2006, she said, because “I realized how much I loved this country” and because she wanted to vote. She recounted her first look at the New York skyline and how inspired she became after intensive study at the Museum of Broadcasting by comediennes like Lucille Ball, Carol Burnet and Gracie Allen—all women, she pointed out, who had their own TV shows.

And while her comments highlighted the affection for the U.S. that should be evident to anyone who has watched her on her own television shows over the past two decades, she allowed as to how “it’s not perfect here.”

“It can be puritanical and extreme,” she said, adding that with a national penchant for over-analyzing, “it’s like the whole nation is in perpetual group therapy.”

Ullman revealed that, given the auspiciousness of the occasion and the mighty setting for the event, she wondered if she were worthy of the honor bestowed on her to address the new citizens. But then she counseled herself to be confident. She’s earned it, she said, pointing to her achievement in introducing Americans to Bart and Homer Simpson, who debuted on her Fox program “The Tracey Ullman Show” in 1987. “I have made an indelible mark on the cultural heritage of this land,” she announced—a declaration that earned more than a few salutes from amongst the crowd.

 

 

 

 

Categories
News

Fry by night

Hi Ace. Bastille Day is coming up, and I was wondering: Can you, gourmand that you are, explain to us why French toast is neither French nor toast? And what are French fries, really?—She-Don’t-Use-Jelly-in-Charlottesville

Why are carrots more orange than oranges? Why is Iceland greener than icy Greenland? Why does time fly like an arrow, whereas fruit flies like an apple?

Riddle Ace this, Virginia Highway Patrol: Why do they call it a restroom if you can’t discreetly sleep in it?

French toast, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has been part of the English culinary lexicon since 1660 at least, referring to bread fried in wine, orange juice and sugar, with egg-based variations appearing in 1882. However, the dish likely originates in medieval Spain, where torrijas were common fare as early as the 15th century. Broadly, the practice of frying bread in eggs, dairy and spices was no gourmet innovation, but a way to make stale bread edible.

Indeed, French toast is more fry than toast. Which brings Ace to the French fry, originally a relic of the Meuse valley in the Spanish Netherlands, now Belgium, circa 1680. According to Belgian journalist Jo Gérard: “The poor inhabitants of this region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish, but when the river was frozen and they were unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to accompany their meals.” Belgian fries, which the French call pommes frites, first found their way into the mouths of famished American servicemen as they arrived in Belgium during World War I. So how did the misnomer arise? French, as it happens, was the official language of the Belgian Army at the time. 

Ace doesn’t know what it says about us Anglos that we weren’t able to tell the difference, but hey—if it weren’t for us Yanks, they’d be called German fries. And to be fair, frites were known to us as French long before the Great War, by some accounts—notably that of Thomas Jefferson, whose records from 1801-1809 contain a recipe for “potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings,” which almost certainly came from Jefferson’s French chef, Honoré Julien.

Note that both French toast and the French fry were inventions of dietary necessity, which leads Ace to believe that the adjective “French,” rather than signifying national origin, merely connotes desperation.  

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.

WTJU community supporters to meet at Random Row this evening

In the latest sign that community members are looking to battle changes to WTJU, UVA’s oddball radio station, Brandon Collins, one half of the guitar and cello duo B.C., will go all neolithic at a community support meeting at 5pm tonight at Random Row Books.

"One extremely helpful thing we can do as a group is assist the announcers through doing some basic footwork on their behalf," writes Collins in an e-mail. "This might include flyering, a steady stream e-mail petition, outreach, letter writing, attending a rally, attending other community meetings, and anything else we can do to lighten the load on the announcers."

Collins also started an online petition, which is part of a broader "Community to Keep WTJU Weird" here. Also new on the Internets is a Facebook group called "Keep WTJU Weird". It’s an interesting choice of language, given that the station’s new general manager Burr Beard was met with some backlash for suggesting that Charlottesville could become the "Austin of the East." (The city’s catchphrase is "Keep Austin Weird.")

Read this week’s feature story for a complete update here.

McDonnell appoints developer Hunter Craig to UVA Board of Visitors

Among Governor Bob McDonnell’s four new appointees to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, there are some familiar faces.

Charlottesville developer Hunter Craig—also former developer of Biscuit Run along with Forest Lodge, LLC—is one of the new quartet chosen to lead the University in matters of finance, development, student affairs and athletics. Last year, Craig ranked third in C-VILLE’s list of top property owners in Charlottesville and Albemarle with an estimated assessed land value of $126 million (though things may have changed after Biscuit Run was bought by the state for $9.8 million at the end of 2009). 

Another notable name among the appointees is Sheila Johnson, CEO of Salamander Hospitality and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television. Craig and Johnson will be joined by Marvin Gilliam, Jr., vice president of Cumberland Resources Corporation, and Mark Kington, managing director of X-10 Capital Management.

According to the UVA Board of Visitors’ website, these appointees replace Don Pippin, Warren Thompson and E. Darracott Vaughan, Jr., whose term expired yesterday. Vice Rector Daniel Abramson, eligible for another year at his post, was not reelected.

Garbage revealed (and reviled)

If you want to confront your own landfill contributions, one way to do it is to run out of garbage bags.

This happened at our house last weekend, so for a couple of days we used small plastic shopping bags sitting on top of our garbage can. I say "bags" because, to my consternation, we went through more than one in this relatively short period of time. We recycle, we compost, and still we produce this ongoing stream of garbage—and it seems to flow faster than I’d thought.

Granted, I’d cleaned out our junk drawer on one of those days, and I could claim that there was extra trash because of that little project. But there’s always something. We get a magazine in the mail, shrouded in a plastic wrapper. We get to the end of our yogurt, stored in a container that isn’t #1 or #2 plastic. We clean out the fridge and have to toss, rather than compost, the food that has cheese or meat in it. Garbage happens.

It reminded me of this project, in which a photographer recorded images of all his garbage every day for a year. I don’t know how he or I would stack up to the national statistic: Americans each produce 4-5 pounds of trash every day. But I know that the simple act of looking at one’s garbage, rather than trying to get it out of sight as we usually do, is very revealing.

 

Barring an appeal, warrants in Huguely case to be unsealed July 8

On June 8, Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins released court orders that sealed search warrants tied to the investigation of 22-year-old UVA student George Huguely, charged with first-degree murder in the death of fellow UVA student Yeardley Love. Exactly one month later, the warrants themselves may be released.

According to the Charlottesville Newsplex, Albemarle Circuit Court Judge John McGrath ruled that warrants for searches of Huguely, as well as the residences of both Huguely and Love and an unidentified vehicle, may be released on Thursday, July 8. Defense attorneys for George Huguely will have the opportunity to apeal the court’s decision in the next week.

The orders to seal warrants were filed on behalf of the prosecution by Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman. Each cited the publicity of the Huguely case and their potential to negatively impact jury selection and further investigations as a reason for keeping warrants sealed.

Huguely’s next appearance in Charlottesville General District Court is slated for October 7.

C-VILLE Minute: Your weekend preview [with video]

Happy holiday weekend. Still plenty of fun to be had. First reports on the Heritage Theater‘s new production of The Sound of Music have trickled in. Read the long version in Tuesday’s C-VILLE. The short version? Even the reviewer’s 18-year-old son liked it. The Ash Lawn Opera‘s season begins Saturday at the Paramount with a production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Monticello‘s naturalization ceremony will be presided over by Tracey Ullman at 9am. Get some lunch and head over to McIntire Park for some fireworks.

Happy Fourth. More below.

 

Here are two of my favorite songs about America, both of which do a good job of summing up American history in song.

The best song about America, ever: Elvis sings "An American Trilogy" in 1972. More below.

 The second best song about America, maybe: "Fireworks" from Schoolhouse Rock.

What’s your favorite patriotic song?

Charlottesville and Albemarle prep for Fourth of July weekend [VIDEO]

Happy Holiday weekend, everybody! Before you go watch the fireworks, here are a few housekeeping announcements from the City of Charlottesville:

–City Hall will be closed on Monday. However, trash and recycling services will operate as usual.
–There will be no Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) service on Monday, July 5.
–The City’s Fourth Annual Independence Community Concert is scheduled for 3pm on Saturday, July 3, at the Charlottesville Pavilion.
–McIntire Park fireworks for July 4 will begin after sunset. The city is reminding those who will attend the festivities at the park NOT to park on Route 250. There will be a shuttle from the County Office Building on McIntire Road and a handicapped shuttle from Walker Upper Elementary School.

County Spokesperson Lee Catlin sent out a reminder for residents interested in using fireworks. "County fire officials are strongly urging caution with any private fireworks displays this weekend, given the very dry conditions and the presence of significant dried debris on the ground due to the recent storm which is very susceptible to catching fire," she writes in a news release. Consider yourself warned, folks.

Now, where were we?