Month: October 2010

So far in the first-half Jacory Harris was knocked out of the game by John-Kevin Dolce with an apparent head injury after a scoreless first quarter. Miami has had some sweet 3rd down conversions, but can’t seem to get anything going because of holding penalties.

Marc Verica has been ineffective again (so far in the 1st quarter) running the Virginia offense. Virginia is hanging around, something that is very important as this is the first time the Hoos have played on the main ESPN network so far in 2010. Remember, Virginia is a two TD underdog at home this afternoon. It’s a perfect day for football here at lovely Scott Stadium. There are a TON of high school recruits at this game, both committed and un-committed athletes.

Virginia’s Mike London went for it on 4th and 3 early in the first quarter at UVA’s own 30 yard line. Ballsy call Mike. I loved the call, and the Hoos got the first-down. Coach London went for it again at the 6:35 mark at the Miami 15 yard line, and they hit pay-dirt as Verica threw a strike to wide-open Colter Phillips for the TD to give Virginia the lead at 7-0.

Miami, marched right down the field with back-up quarterback Spencer Whipper directly after the Phillips score, but Corey Mosely intercepted left-handed signal-caller’s pass and returned it to the UVA 47-yard line. A holding call on Roseland’s B.J. Cabbell negated a nifty run by Perry Jones on this possession, but it did not matter as Keith Payne scored another rushing TD on the very next play. UVA 14-0. The nightmare continues for Miami’s much-mailigned coach Randy Shannon.

The ‘Canes finished the first half with another badly thrown INT, making it their third turnover of the first stanza. The Hoos are going to get the ball again to begin the second-half. HOOS 14-ZIP!~ Go Hoos!!! Hell Yes!
 

Virginia (4-4) imploded in the second-half, but managed to escape with the much needed victory Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville. Miami’s Jacory Harris was knocked out of the game with an upper-body injury after a brutal but legal hit by John-Kevin Dolce, and the 4th-string quarterback, true-freshman Stephen Morris played admirably in relief after the 3rd-string quarterback Spencer Whipple threw two picks and was benched.

Virginia’s Chase Minnifield and Corey Mosely had two picks for the Hoos, and Rodney McLeod had one. All-ACC corner Ras-I Dowling did not play Saturday.

The Wahoos picked off Miami’s quarterbacks 5 times on the afternoon, and the Hoos’ defense played an outstanding game (except for the 4th quarter) giving up only 173 yards rushing to the ‘Canes. Miami was penalized 12 times, Virginia 11 times in a game marred by silly mistakes on both sides of the ball by both Miami and Virginia. Virginia’s offensive line did not give up a single sack in the game, and I think Verica was hit only once in the entire contest. Incredible play by the O-Line!

Marc Verica was solid as he only threw one interception on 19/27 passing for 176 yards and a sweet TD pass to Colter Phillips. Virginia also went for it and got it on 4th down early in the game at their own 40 yard line, setting the tone for the afternoon. This game was a physical hard-fought game, and the Virginia offensive line pushed the ‘Canes around all day long. Perry Jones earned the bulk of the carries for the Hoos as he carried the ball 22 times for 69 yards. Keith Payne also played a great game as he scored twice on 17 rushes for 81 yards and a 4.8 yards average.

The last time Virginia beat a ranked team was 10/25/08 when they beat Georgia Tech, and they were 0-6 against ranked opponents since. The Wahoos had lost nine straight ACC contests! Mike London fell to his knees in complete exhaustion and quiet jubilation as the last seconds ticked off the clock at Scott Stadium. What a huge win in his rebuilding effort that was in front of a ton of highly-regarded high school football recruits, as well as on the main ESPN network for the first time in the London era.

Miami’s talented tailback Damien Berry led the ‘Canes in rushing with 42 yards on 11 carries, and none of his counterparts (including Berry) at tailback found the end zone Saturday afternoon.

Kris Burd had another fine game for the Wahoos as he caught seven of Verica’s passes for 104 yards. Virginia’s special teams played an outstanding game, and the punter Jimmy Howell was perfect Saturday at Scott averaging 42.7 yards per kick as he constantly seemed to place the ball exactly where special teams coach Anthony Poindexter asked him to.

Virginia travels to Durham next week to play the struggling Duke Blue Devils. Duke has beaten Virginia twice in a row. No one loses to Duke three times in a row, right? Go Hoos! 

The state wine industry, by many accounts, is blossoming. New money is coming in from Richmond to market the fast-growing industry, sales within the state increased by 13 percent in the past year, and a well-received PBS documentary captures the unique challenges of making wine in Virginia. But things are looking decidedly sour for Albemarle County’s largest winery, Kluge Winery and Vineyard, the business that socialite Patricia Kluge and her husband Bill Moses opened in 1999.

Rumors of financial troubles at Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard have resurfaced in the past several weeks. Owner Kluge herself has long espoused a worldwide vision for her product, often distancing herself from the Virginia industry, per se, aspiring instead to be “one of the East Coast’s most prestigious wineries,” as the Kluge website puts it. But many people close to Kluge’s business have been saying that her creditors took control of operations and fired staff. At the end of last month, Trevor Gibson, who had been the company’s chief financial officer for five years, left Kluge. Reached at his new business, GTG Advisors, he would only say he was “not at liberty to make any comments.” And late last night, after C-VILLE placed calls to one of Kluge’s lenders, Kluge CEO Bill Moses issued an unusual statement. Blaming a “perfect storm” of economic collapse that has also hit the wine industry, he said Kluge’s pace of growth “was not sufficient to satisfy the company’s banking consortium.”

“We have been, and are continuing intense discussions with various potential partners, and have kept our Bank apprised of these positive developments. From our perspective, it is disappointing that at the very moment when these talks appear to be most productive, they have chosen to take the initial steps towards dismantling the winery as an operating business as well as an auction of the property.”

Moses projects that it will “be some time” before a sale can take place and vows to continue discussions with “the promising partners and the Banks.”

Kluge has long been subject to rumors about financial and managerial instability—rumors that resurfaced in the past couple of years as the company ran through winemakers (at least five red winemakers since 1999) and in 2009 when Kluge and Moses put Albemarle House, their 45-room English style manor, on the market, initially for $100 million. At that time, she was pressed to say that the move had no implications for winery operations, a sentiment she repeated when, earlier this year, she brought most of the contents of the house to auction.

Albemarle County’s largest wine operation has 220 acres under vine. One former employee, speaking off the record, described Kluge’s chaotic environment. “It’s like a reality TV show,” the former employee said. “I always said if they really wanted to make money, that’s what they should do.”

For more on this story and another Charlottesville-area foreclosure, see The Working Pour column in next Tuesday’s edition of C-VILLE.

Mass Sabbath has unfinished business.

Why else would the yearly Hallow’s Eve celebration of Black Sabbath return to haunt us in a new ghastly form? That celebration shifts shapes this year for the Mock Star’s Ball, which finds a bunch of great local bands dressing up like and performing as famous bands, some spooky (Teenagers from Mars as The Misfits), others not so much (The Petty Flies as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which, come to think of it, might get a little spooky). Sorry, Ozzy fans.

With that same mixture of fear and curiosity that drives all ghost hunters, we sent videographer Gary Canino (whose live videos we have been enjoying at nailgunmedia.com) to catch Saturday night’s main attraction: The highly dangerous space rockers Corsair dress up as their forefathers in that amazing breed of tongue-in-cheek metal, Spinal Tap.

Visit the Southern’s website for a full lineup for this two-night Halloween spook-tacular.

Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

What’re you up to this Halloween?

"From the hills of the Piedmont, to the fields of the Southside," sang the Perriello Pickers buegrass quartet at the start of the evening’s rally for Fifth District Democratic incumbent Tom Perriello.

And if familiar melodies began the evening, a familiar refrain capped it, thanks to a visit from President Barack Obama, who reminded an estimated crowd of 8,000 people in and around the Charlottesville Pavilion that "political courage is hard to come by." (An estimated 2,000 people were on the Mall and the surrounding streets).

Obama, who referred to Perriello as "one of the best congressman Virginia has ever had," told the crowd that Perriello has not always voted according to party lines and places his allegiance to the Fifth District and Virginia first. In a speech that focused heavily on job creation and student support, Obama singled out Perriello’s American Opportunity Tax Credit legislation and told the crowd that "the only way to fight cynicism" was to vote on November 2.

"I need you guys to keep on fighting, and Tom needs you to keep on believing," said Obama near the end of his speech, jacket absent and sleeves rolled to his forearms despite temperatures that hovered in the 40s. Read C-VILLE’s Twitter coverage of the event here.

President Barack Obama and Congressman Tom Perriello on stage.

The Western Albemarle High School students who camped out since 7:30am to be first in line.

President Obama and Congressman Perriello saluting the crowd at the end of the night.

President Obama steps down the stage and meets his Charlottesville supporters.

Filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro has canceled his scheduled appearance at the Virginia Film Festival. Del Toro was one of the biggest names on a list of guests slated for the festival, which runs November 4-7.

The filmmaker behind Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, Del Toro was invited to present a new film he wrote and produced, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark Saturday at 9pm Paramount Theater screening. The film (see the trailer below) will now be presented by its producer Mark Johnson, a UVA graduate. A discussion will follow with critic David Edelstein.

“We are quite obviously disappointed that Mr. del Toro will be unable to join us,” said Virginia Film Festival Director Jody Kielbasa in a release. “We do, however, understand that these types of conflicts are an unfortunate reality of the festival planning process, and hope that we will be able to welcome him to Charlottesville for a future festival.”

Guests still include Peter Bogdanovich, Josh Radnor, Tom Shadyac and Vince Gilligan.

Uhh. This looks terrifying.

The Miami Hurricanes head north to Charlottesville to meet the Wahoos in what just might be the most important game in the brief Mike London era. Randy Shannon is 2-1 against Virginia, and some might say he is on the coaches hot-seat as the Hurricanes coach since he is only 26-19 at Miami in his 4th season, more than a bit behind where Miami fans thought he would be in the rebuilding process. Miami has won five National Championships over the years (last in 2001), yet have struggled to return to BCS glory since joining the ACC in 2004.

Saturday will be the first time Mike London’s Wahoos have been nationally-televised on the main ESPN network, and that can certainly be a bonus for recruiting if Virginia plays well enough to keep this game tight. Vegas has the ‘Canes as either 14 or 15 point favorites, which is pretty high for a team playing on the road in the same division in the ACC. There are going to be several high-profile, un-committed 2011 high school recruits at the game, some of which will be on “official visits” to the University.

Miami (5-2, 3-1) is fresh off a balanced-attack, 33-10 win last week at home against Carolina. The Hurricanes gained 442 yards against the ‘Heels with 225 on the ground, and 217 through the air. Jacory Harris is their leader at the quarterback position, and it being Halloween weekend is perfect since Harris is the “Jekyll and Hyde” QB of the Coastal Division. One play he can look like Tom Brady, the next like a confused high school signal-caller that throws off balance and telegraphs his passes.

Virginia (3-4, 0-3) played well in the second-half last week against Eastern Michigan in the win, but there is plenty of room for improvement for the Wahoos this week, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

Jim Reid’s rush defense is the worst in the conference statistically (114th-120th nationally), coming in dead last in the ACC as they give up 211.4 yards per game on the ground. Virginia is much better against the pass as they are #2 in pass defense, but only because the teams they have played only have thrown the ball 160 times all season against UVA. No need to throw when you are lighting the Hoos up with the run.

Miami’s defense is second in the nation in tackles for losses. Sean Spence, Micanor Regis, Allen Bailey and Olivier Vernon are going to be trouble for Marc Verica and his crew. Tailback Damien Berry and wide receiver Leonard Hankerson are super-tough to bring down, and Virginia is going to have to play a nearly perfect game to have a chance to upset the ‘Canes and keep their bowl chances alive.

Virginia’s tailback tandem of Keith Payne and Perry Jones are both going to have huge days, and return-guy extraordinaire Raynard Horne needs to get the Hoos into Miami territory early and often if the good guys are going to steal this game.

Prediction? Hoos 24 Miami 45.  

As the crowd stretches from the Pavilion close to the Omni Hotel on the Downtown Mall, C-VILLE’s writers are headed out to cover President Obama’s appearance at the Charlottesville Pavilion in support of Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello. Follow our coverage on Twitter at @cvillenews_desk.
 

It’s a big weekend in the garden: First frost is expected, and an annual holiday has arrived. Nope, not Halloween, but garlic planting time.

(I enjoy the mnemonic device I learned for growing garlic in Virginia: Plant at Halloween, harvest at Fourth of July.)

Those for whom "big head" is a compliment

We’ve had trouble in the past getting our act together in time to order seed garlic before planting time. So we’ve used whatever garlic we could find in the grocery store–not exactly a recommended practice. Usually, although our garlic has grown, the heads have been small and hard to work with.

Last year, we planted some grocery store garlic and some that we’d saved from our CSA share. And there was a huge difference in the way those two varieties turned out–so now we’re convinced. This year, we saved all our CSA garlic, and that will provide the start for what we hope will be our best garlic harvest ever.

Our method is simple. We simply break up the heads into individual cloves and plant them in a 6-inch grid, root side down. Each clove should be pushed into the soil just until its top disappears. Then we cover the beds with straw, try to remember to water now and then, and dig it all back up in July. By then, each clove has become a head.

(Once or twice, we soaked the cloves in a peroxide solution before planting, to cut down on molds. It didn’t seem to work that well, so we stopped.)

Anyone else planting garlic soon? Have any tips to enhance our stripped-down style?

In a statement sent to the press by Fifth District Republican congressional candidate Robert Hurt’s campaign, Governor Bob McDonnell welcomed President Obama to Charlottesville.

"The President is a good man, but his policies have not been good for the people of Virginia," says McDonnell in the statement. "Congressman Tom Perriello is also a good man, but his lock-step support of those policies has similarly not been positive for voters from Danville to Albemarle County."

McDonnell pressed on Perriello’s voting record, which he describes as sticking right by Obama’s side on the pieces of major legislature that were passed during the first two years of the Obama administration. An excerpt below:

"When the President forced nationalized health care on the citizens of Virginia, Tom Perriello was right at his side. When the President attempted to pass a job-killing cap and trade scheme that would lead to skyrocketing energy prices and devastating job losses, Tom Perriello was right at his side. While the President oversaw the ballooning of our national debt to nearly $14 trillion, Tom Perriello was right at his side. So it is only fitting that at tonight’s campaign rally, Tom will be right by the President’s side yet again."

In a Huffington Post article, Perriello defends his voting record. "I think in terms of the President, the idea that I’m in lockstep is just kind of silly BS that conventional wisdom pundits get stuck on,” he said.