Month: January 2011

Neither former winery owner Patricia Kluge nor her husband and partner, William Moses, attended this morning’s foreclosure sale for Vineyard Estates, the couple’s largely unrealized luxury real estate development dream. Kluge and Moses, also the subjects of a $34.8 million contract action  and a $1.9 million civil suit brought by Farm Credit of the Virginias, make up Vineyard Estates LLC, which defaulted on an $8.2 million loan from local lienholder Sonabank.

After a $1 million opening bid from Les Goldman, a slender, middle-aged man who declined to comment on his interest in the property, Sonabank bought the lots back at a price of $4.9 million. Among those lots not included in the auction? A mansion at 2621 Cooper’s Lane, the lone Vineyard Estates spec house, assessed at $2.5 million.

Reassessments will be mailed this week to county and city residents. In Albemarle, overall assessed values declined 1.24 percent, excluding new construction.

A slightly smaller decline, .98 percent, was reported in commercial property values and multifamily properties. On average, the value of residential properties declined 1.72 percent—meaning that a house assessed at $200,000 in 2010 dropped to $196,560 if it followed the average trend. To check assessments on individual properties, click here.

Changes to assessments show the Rio District with a 1.1 percent decline, Jack Jouett with a .75 percent decline, Rivanna with the smallest decline at .08 percent, Samuel Miller with a 1.53 percent decline, Scottsville with a 3.4 percent decline, While Hall with a .86 percent decline, and the Town of Scottsville with a 1.53 percent decline.
 

Tonight at 5:30pm, the Piedmont Council for the Arts is hosting a "Men in Music" event at the Charlottesville Community Design Center. I am sitting on a panel with Danny Shea, who books at the Jefferson Theater, cello whiz Wes Swing, Beetnik and MRC staffer Damani Harrison, plus the Invisible Hand and Borrowed Beams of Light’s Adam Brock. The Performer Exchange Project’s Sian Richards moderates.

The "Men in Music" conceit riffs on the 2010-long statewide celebration of women in the arts, as well as last spring’s discussion about the role of women in Charlottesville music. (Doesn’t seem like the questions will be gender-based, per se, but you’re free to ask whatever you’d like.) "Panelists will answer questions and discuss topics such as booking and promoting shows, finding practice and recording spaces, raising funds, negotiating the noise ordinance, and outreach opportunities for musicians."

Beverages to follow. Read more about the event here. Oh yeah—there’s gonna pizza too!

Are the men in music, or is the music in the men?

Locals may know Hannah Pittard’s name because it was attached to the as-yet-unopened Southern Crescent restaurant in Belmont. But with positive reviews of her debut novel The Fates Will Find Their Way appearing everywhere from the Times‘ Book Review and Washington Post, to the Onion’s A.V. Club, that may soon change.

The Fates Will Find Their Way starts with the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl on Halloween night and ends with the boys she left in her wake, now men, struggling to shoulder the weight of that trauma—and many others. Pittard now splits her time between Charlottesville in Chicago, where she teaches fiction at DePaul.

Writes the Post’s fiction editor Ron Charles, "It’s a wistful novel about how little we know of one another, but how eager we are to tape together a collage of rumors, assumptions and fantasies to answer questions we’re too young, too cowardly or too polite to ask." The novelist Jennifer Gilmore in the Times: "One of the most impressive aspects of The Fates Will Find Their Way is how it summons up the elements of a suburban youth, with each image reinforcing the idea that danger has a different meaning for the young."

Pick up tomorrow’s C-VILLE for a full review. Pittard reads at the Barracks Road Barnes & Noble on Monday, February 7.

Read anything good lately?

Do pick up the new issue of ABODE, dear readers—it comes out today and I hope y’all will check out the feature story in particular.

It’s not about green building in the more explicit sense; instead, it takes a look at a couple of buildings that were in danger of falling down and were lovingly saved and restored instead. Both are log cabins; one came from West Virginia and the other was originally built in Albemarle. Now, the former is a full-time home with modern amenities like laundry and central air (but still very much a cabin), and the latter remains quite rustic, used only for family gatherings and camping.

I had a great time visiting both and loved seeing what can result when people take the time to care for modest but historic buildings. After all, as the saying goes, the greenest building is the one that already exists.

In that spirit, the greenest way to update your house is to rearrange the furniture you already have–and Ed Warwick tells you how in his D.I.Y. column. Cathy Clary reveals what the heck you can do with your garden this month, and Lisa Reeder reveals the secrets of that most basic winter vegetable, the potato (including how to make a foolproof potato salad).

As always, ABODE also includes green events and tips, wisdom from Better World Betty, and loads of style. Read, enjoy, and be in touch!

The Staunton News Leader reports that brothers Fidel Palacios-Cruz and Rosalio Palacios-Cruz were arrested last year in Albemarle County when law enforcement caught the pair unloading a one-ton shipment of pirated CDs and DVDs. The reportedly resides in Barboursville.

Late last week, the Palacios-Cruz brothers pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to charges of unauthorized distribution of copyrighted information. The charges carry a possible five-year prison sentence. Law enforcement also confiscated an additional 24,000 unauthorized discs.

For C-VILLE’s coverage of the Charlottesville black market, click here.

Tony Bennett’s Wahoos traveled to Winston Salem Saturday to play the only winless team in the ACC, and the Hoos came up just short losing to Wake Forest 76-71 .

The Hoos have now lost five of their last six games.

Assane Sene scored a career-high for Virginia as he pitched-in fifteen and grabbed thirteen rebounds. Sene was credited with a double-double, the first of his career.

Going into the game if I had thought Virginia would have five guys score in double-figures Saturday, well then I would have certainly said that the Hoos would have won the game, but the Hoos did just that and still lost.

Virginia (11-10, 2-5) was up by ten points with 12:35 to play in the second-half, but the Wahoos sloppy play, bad shot selection, missed easy baskets, and Wake’s never say die attitude brought the Demon Deacons back to give their first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik his first-ever ACC win.

Wake (8-13, 1-5) had six-players score more than ten-points, and was led by sophomore C.J. Harris who was a perfect 10-10 at the line, but he had a off-shooting night hitting only 2/8 shots for fifteen points.

Virginia was 8/20 from three-point-land for 40%, and they only attempted fourteen free-throws missing as many as they made (7/14). The Hoos also out-rebounded Wake 31-27.

Missed shots from the charity-stripe, and major breakdowns defensively (both on the perimiter and under the basket) doomed the undermanned Hoos.

Jontel Evans played well in the loss as he scored ten points on 5/6 shooting, and he only committed one turnover from his point guard position.

Richmond native and freshman Travis McKie (12 points), in his first game against the Hoos also played well for Wake.

Coach Tony Bennett’s rebuilding effort continues Wednesday night as Clemson (15-6) comes to town for a nine o’clock game at the JPJ. Clemson is coming off a huge upset of ACC-unbeaten foe Florida State (15-6) Saturday afternoon at home. Clemson held FSU to only 44 points in the win. 

Look out for these fun events this weekend.

Two UVA-related Final Fridays exhibits are worth the trip tonight from 5:30-7:30pm. The Aboriginal artist Reko Rennie, who I wrote about in this week’s Feedback column unveils his installation "Patternation," a post-graffiti installation at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum. Or head over to the UVA Art Museum to celebrate the opening (though they’ve been on view for two weeks) of two awesome shows: Southern Views/Southern Photographers and Society Portraits: Andy Warhol’s Photographic Legacy.

An undated Warhol photo of Margaret Hamilton. More below.

And music. I caught the Richmond indie rock group White Laces in their home city a couple of months ago and the message they sent was clear: If you like angular guitars and funny time signatures, look out for these Built to Spill soundalikes, who just released a very good EP. White Laces hits the Tea Bazaar tonight with another of Richmond’s most Charlottesville-friendly acts, the pop group Hot Lava. The earnest Wahoo yahoos Left & Right, who also have a new record called Miss Virginia, round out the bill. 

White Laces — "Spirituals"

Hot Lava — "Apple+Option+Fire"

Also, don’t miss a couple of strong songwriters Saturday night at The Southern. Clay Cook (a Berklee grad who cowrote tunes with classmate John Mayer) and Levi Lowrey.

Local fare? We got that too. WNRN hosts Winter Ball at sometime swim club sometime venue Fry’s Spring Beach Club tonight. Blue Moon fort-holder Mister Baby kicks off at 8:30 on the bill, with the E’ville Fuzzin’ 6 Day Bender and Teddy [Pitney] & The Roosevelts rounding out the party. Tickets for this blowout are $8-10.

On Saturday night Live Arts does for local theater what Adrenaline did for filmmaking, or the Design Marathon did for…design. 24/7 (“Real. Fast. Theater.”) returns for its third year, cramming the writing, directing, and rehearsing processes into a single day. Seven teams each present their own 10-minute plays. An e-mail from Live Arts yesterday afternoon said the early show was already sold out; hit up the box office to see if tickets are still available for the 10pm show.

Dig this groovy 24-hour time lapse. 

What are you up to this weekend?

On Monday, I showed up at one of Nelson County’s recycling centers hoping to get rid of a back porch’s worth of cardboard, metal and plastic. No dice. As of a few weeks ago, I learned, the center is closed on Mondays.

This, of course, is something that Albemarle and Charlottesville folks have been dealing with for a while, since the McIntire Center is also closed not only on Mondays, but Tuesdays too. It may sound pathetic, but I’d been looking forward to the outing. More to the point, having fewer days when people can recycle is bound to result in less recycling.

A more serious problem for us Nelsonians, though, is the fact that our collection centers do not take glass on any day of the week. Those of us who like drinking beer from bottles quickly find ourselves with a problem on our hands. (Of course, there’s also olive oil, mayonnaise, etc.) And, inevitably, we start eyeing up that nice big glass receptacle at McIntire.

Shall they return to whence they came?

I admit, I’ve dropped off glass at McIntire even though I’m not an Albemarle resident. To me, it’s a much lesser evil than throwing it in the garbage. But I’d like to hear from those of you who actually pay taxes in Charlottesville and Albemarle. Do you resent the incursion by non-residents? Or do you welcome us as refugees who are attempting to serve a greater good?

The new year is not getting any easier for Halsey Minor.

One week after a Georgia judge ruled in favor of the government-backed bank Specialty Finance Group (SFG) in all of its claims against Minor, owner of the Landmark Hotel on the Downtown Mall, the Virginia Gazette reports that the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will foreclose on the Carter’s Grove mansion owned by Minor.

According to the article, Minor’s Carter’s Grove, LLC defaulted on a $10.3 million loan. The Gazette reports that the property was sold in 2007 for $15.3 million. Of that, $5 million was paid in cash at the time of closing. The foreclosure sale is scheduled for February 15 at the Williamsburg-James City County Courthouse. 

In 2009, SFG filed suit to claim $10.5 million of a $23.6 million loan issued by its subsidiary, Silverton Bank, for the construction of the hotel. Silverton Bank was eventually taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Minor plans to appeal the decision.