Month: August 2010

 Paul Curreri told the story Saturday night about his first record release show in Charlottesville. It was a 2002 engagement at the now-defunct Gravity Lounge to celebrate his first album, From Long Gones to Hawkmoth. He looked so despondent afterwards, he said, that mother asked him if he’d started taking drugs. But if there was one message to take away from the release show at the Jefferson Theater this weekend—for California, his six full-length—it was that Curreri has become one of Charlottesville’s flagship singer-songwriters, with no shortage of local admirers.

Paul Curreri was joined on stage by Sons of Bill’s Sam Wilson, drummer Todd Wellons and bassist Jonathan Mills at the release show for Curreri’s sixth record in eight years.

At the Jefferson Theater, Curreri looked styled onstage in a wrinkled flannel, his hair a mat of steel wool. Guitarist Sam Wilson, of Sons of Bill, set the songs awash in atmospherics on a fat hollow body that matched his shoes, while drummer Todd Wellons and bassist Jonathan Mills maintained a tight, professional air on the sidelines. In a rock band arrangement, the songs from his California bloomed, displaying a vast array of touchstones: from ragtime composers Scott Joplin and  and Joseph Lamb, who get namedropped in Curreri’s “Off the Street, Onto the Road,” to Graceland-era Paul Simon and the bizarre, rambling Michael Hurley, whose “Wildegeeses” Curreri covers on the record. 

Curreri’s eclectic breed of acoustic rock has been called the “new Americana,” which expands upon the guitar work of players like John Fahey and Leo Kottke, overlaying it with intricate vocal stylings that could leave Bob Dylan’s head spinning. What distinguishes Curreri—on record and in concert—is that his verbosity doesn’t come at the expense of economy. If you only catch a moment, you’ll probably hear the colloquial expression of a familiar sentiment: “And a stinking suspicion/ that ‘Man, I know who I are,’” he sang on “Once Upon a Rooftop,” one of the show’s highlights.

And as great a songwriter as Curreri is, he’s an even better guitar player—so it was a shame Saturday that he’d chose to play a Telecaster instead of an acoustic guitar. The twangy electric guitar is a less expressive instrument for his style, and it buried the detail of his propulsive playing under a blanket of reverb. (It also meant that the energy of an all-electric band bounced off an audience consigned to seats.)

But if reworking one’s own material can be a mixed bag, “Tight Pack Me Sugar,” a raw piano waltz on the new record, was one of the best songs of the night with an electric arrangement. “If you want to have a baby, we can talk about that too,” Curreri sings toward the end, almost out of the blue.

There was a palpable feeling of equal parts pride and delight among the audience, who were out to see one of the region’s best songwriters in full recovery mode. (A vocal injury sidelined his career for a full year before he recorded the new record.) Curreri’s famously more-famous wife, Devon Sproule, got on stage to sing a song the couple wrote about a recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya. She cast a joyful glow over the stage. The band closed the night with album-closer “Down by the Water,” a wistful I-IV that recalls John Lennon’s “Oh Yoko.” 

All this before the inevitable encore, a bluesified “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

 A few weeks ago, Kendall Singleton returned home from an unplanned trip to Earlysville’s Panorama Farms to find she was down to the last of her weekly community supported agriculture (CSA) produce—onions, basil and garlic from Nelson County, but no centerpiece. A quick shopping trip later, and she had a bit of Twin Oaks tofu and green beans from the Local Food Hub soaking up curry powder and keeping the rest of her local veggies company.

Kendall Singleton, UVA Dining’s sustainability coordinator, says students and staff alike took to reusable coffee cups, and a student-run pilot program called “Greening Greek” placed reusable takeout containers in a sorority last semester.

“It went nicely with the bottle of Viognier I had picked up on a recent wine tasting venture at First Colony,” she told C-VILLE in an e-mail.

One year into her job as sustainability coordinator for UVA Dining Services, and Singleton seems to run her office like she runs her kitchen: Know what resources you have on hand, and know where to find the rest. As a result, UVA is ready to give her more. 

In April, the UVA Board of Visitors approved tuition and dining hall fee increases for the 2010-2011 school year to cover potential expenses associated with “enhancing dining programs including sustainability initiatives.” Singleton says the sustainable dining program aims to “enhance the connection between nutrition and environmental health in the dining halls” and “ramp up our outreach efforts to the greater student body.”

These go along with what Singleton refers to as the “usual suspects”—composting and green dining. Last year, UVA Dining added Newcomb Hall to its composting roster; combined with Observatory Hill’s dining hall, the move now steers roughly five tons of waste each week to a fertile future instead of landfills. And when Singleton started her job in 2009, UVA food that met these “green dining” guidelines was roughly 15 percent of all dining hall chow. Now, the amount is 17 percent and moving towards Singleton’s goal of 20 percent.

And UVA’s community garden may bump that percentage up a point or two. Singleton says that the garden, planted in 2009 and tended by students, will nearly double its current 400-square-foot lot, thanks to the addition of a piece of land located behind Gilmer Hall, a site considered for the original lot. And, in what Singleton calls a “tidy example of closing the loop,” the new garden plot was fertilized with waste from UVA dining that was turned into compost at Panorama. 

“At a school this size, making changes can feel intimidating or overwhelming, but the fortunate flip side of that challenge is that individual small changes or differences add up really quickly,” says Singleton. “The ripple effect is quite amazing.”

UPDATE [August 13, 2010]: 

Virginia Quarterly Review staff returned to the office of UVA’s prized literary journal on Tuesday, August 10—almost two weeks after the suicide of managing editor Kevin Morrissey had temporarily suspended the journal’s operations. Morrissey, who was 52 and described as having stuggled with depression throughout his life, shot himself on July 30.

“If Kevin had been a normal managing editor, we’d be in a tight spot. But Kevin was not a normal managing editor,” wrote VQR web editor Waldo Jaquith on the journal’s website following the staff’s return. “The result of Kevin’s careful planning is that we are, somehow, ahead of schedule for the fall issue.” Jaquith has given his notice, and this will be his last issue of VQR.

While staff resumed copyediting and design revisions, VQR editor Ted Genoways, who is at the center of allegations of “workplace bullying,” worked in a separate office at the university, according to his lawyer, Lloyd Snook. 

“He’s not leaving them in the lurch,” said Snook, who also confirmed that Genoways has retained him for advice on his interactions with the university, including matters concerning his employment contract. “It’s important to him that the to-do list that he’s been working on to get the last issue to bed, that he continue to do that,” Snook said. Genoways is working on “last-minute details” for the issue, and his employment status with the university has not changed, according to his lawyer. 

Unclear is whether Genoways will remain editor of the journal he brought to national stature once the current deadlines are met. The press date for the next issue of VQR is August 26. Since Morrissey’s death, the locks were changed at the VQR office.

There has also been talk of increased police presence near the VQR office since the start of last week. Questions on that matter were forwarded to Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Carol Wood, whose office, by August 6, had started supervising the VQR staff. This new reporting arrangement puts the magazine in the position of answering to the person who controls UVA’s public comments during what is emerging as a human resources/personnel mess. 

While Wood said University police “are assigned regular patrols along McCormick Road,” she told C-VILLE via e-mail that “a computer was recently stolen from VQR—taken when a perpetrator smashed in one of the front windows of the office.” She did not specify the date of that incident other than to say it was several weeks ago.

Genoways has been on leave from VQR since June to work on a Walt Whitman project for which he was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. Still, he has been identified as a “workplace bully” by members of Morrissey’s family, who further allege that Morrissey reached out to the Office of the President for assistance with unmanageable workplace relations (VQR has long been part of the Office of the President). Wood confirmed that Morrissey “was in close contact with HR” before his death, but could not comment on confidential personnel matters other than to say that “all VQR staff members had been working with human resources professionals to address issues within the VQR office.”

Another source close to VQR, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal, confirmed that some staff reached out to higher-ups at UVA to inform them of workplace strain. Genoways has not responded to these charges on the record, though in a personal e-mail he sent to colleagues outside VQR that was obtained by C-VILLE, he acknowledged an “unfortunate rift” between him and Morrissey that he said came to permeate staff relations generally. A call to Alan Cohn, director of UVA’s Faculty & Staff Employee Relations, was not immediately returned. 

Snook said he has received no formal notice from the university concerning investigations of his client, and he is not aware of any face-to-face meetings between Genoways and members of the VQR staff.

Snook said things for his client are currently “on hold.” 

“And frankly, having it on hold like this—where he’s being attacked in ways that he can’t even defend himself—is extremely frustrating. And one of the reasons he can’t defend himself is to do so would require breaking the confidentiality that the university expects out of the personnel process.”

Asked about his client’s current state, Snook said Genoways is “deeply saddened by Kevin’s death.” The two had been colleagues dating to their work together at the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2000.

“Ted didn’t cause [Morrissey’s] depression, it was a pre-existing condition,” said Snook, who added that Morrissey had attended Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners at Genoways’ home. “It bothered Ted and Ted’s family.” Genoways is “extremely distressed over the suicide of someone who had been a close friend of his for many years.”.”

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Published August 10, 2010: 

On July 30, Kevin Morrissey called the police to report a shooting near the coal tower on Water Street. Authorities responded to find that Morrissey, managing editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review for six years, a brilliant 52-year-old publishing professional, unmarried, meticulous in both his work and appearance, had taken his own life. [Editor’s note: A colleague of Morrissey wrote online that the managing editor struggled with depression for much of his life.]

By multiple accounts, relationships between VQR editor Ted Genoways (pictured) and other staff members were strained during the months before the suicide of managing editor Kevin Morrissey.

While Morrissey’s suicide is clearly a tragedy in itself, it also marks a crescendo in a trying time for VQR, UVA’s industry-leading literary journal. According to comments from individuals close to VQR, working relationships between Genoways and other full-time VQR staff members were fractious during the months that led up to Morrissey’s suicide.

Now, several sources—who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal—tell C-VILLE that VQR editor Ted Genoways will not be involved in efforts to finalize the upcoming issue of the journal. 

“I know that he is not coming back to the office except to get his personal things,” says Maria Morrissey, Kevin’s sister. “He was told not to come to the memorial. He was told not to contact any of the staff. I don’t know if he was fired, if he was asked for his resignation, if he was transferred.” Sources also tell C-VILLE that locks on the doors of the VQR office were recently changed.

Both Genoways and several VQR staff members declined to comment on the current organization of the National Magazine Award-winning journal. Sources tell C-VILLE that VQR’s three full-time editorial staff members—web editor Waldo Jaquith, associate editor Sheila McMillen and associate editor Molly Minturn—will finish the issue. 

“We have issues to get out,” says Jaquith. “Even without Kevin around, someone’s got to do it.”

VQR staff was expected to meet with University officials on Monday, August 9, at 3pm. According to UVA spokesperson Carol Wood, the journal’s staff will report to UVA’s public affairs office while Genoways is on a “leave of absence,” she says, as part of his $35,000 Guggenheim Fellowship. He is working on a project about Walt Whitman and the Civil War. Wood says the next issue of VQR is nearly complete, and will be dedicated to Morrissey. 

During a memorial service held for Morrissey at UVA’s Newcomb Hall on Friday, August 6, McMillen said members of the full-time staff—Morrissey, Jaquith, Minturn and herself—“all complemented each other. We worked well together.”

Genoways was not named during the memorial, nor did he attend. Asked about his absence from Morrissey’s memorial service, his current employment status with the Virginia Quarterly Review and relationships among staff members, Genoways responded that he had no comments at this time.

Maria Morrissey tells C-VILLE that her brother spoke with UVA’s Human Resources office and the Office of the President during the weeks prior to his death. Additional sources claim that members of the VQR staff contacted the Office of the President to express their concerns over working relationships among VQR staff members.

In a comment on local website cvillenews.com made prior to the memorial, Morrissey’s sister drew a connection between her brother’s suicide and what she called a “workplace bully.” Following the memorial, a second post attributed to Maria Morrissey turned again to “destructive consequences of unchecked workplace bullying…in hopes that Ted Genoways might read it and rethink his management style.”

C-VILLE received a copy of a letter that Genoways confirms he sent to friends. In it, he asks for assistance finalizing the upcoming issue of VQR. The letter refers to an “unfortunate rift” in the VQR office between Genoways and staff, and mentions allegations of “workplace bullying” from the Morrissey family.

“I feel unspeakably saddened by Kevin’s death,” writes Genoways in the letter, “but I do not feel responsible.”—With additional reporting by Andrew Cedermark