Month: February 2011

Here comes the latest issue of ABODE, friendly readers. It’s out today in print, soon on the web, and highly recommended! Here’s what’s green this time around.

1. Our feature story. In it you’ll meet a couple whose new house in Belmont was built by Latitude 38, a local design-build company. It’s an EarthCraft-certified house, but no one’s making a huge deal about that. In fact, what I think is interesting is that now, green building is basically par for the course among your hipper architects and builders.

The story focuses mostly on design questions, as did the Latitude folks and the residents when I interviewed them. But read closely and you’ll find examples of passive solar principles, site sensitivity, recycled and reclaimed materials, and pretty serious energy-efficiency. It’s great to see that these strategies are becoming the rule, rather than the exception.

2. News of upcoming events, including a local-mushroom cooking class and the beginning of the this year’s City Market.

3. D.I.Y. columnist Ed Warwick on the art of secondhand furniture shopping: always green, but only sometimes aesthetically pleasing. Ed reveals how to get the best of both worlds.

4. Onions. Green onions, that is. Lisa Reeder, chef and kitchen columnist, tells you all about buying and cooking with one of spring’s best veggies–scallions and their ilk. (If you don’t know the difference between scallions and other green onions, which I didn’t until I read Lisa’s column, consider this your chance to find out.)

Read, comment, and enjoy!

According to an e-mail sent this afternoon, the Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC)—a Downtown Mall venue for multidisciplinary discussions about design and planning—may no longer be a "center." In light of what the e-mail terms "financial realities," the CCDC will no longer house offices at 100 Fifth St. NE.

"Gallery exhibitions scheduled through August 2011 will continue as planned, and CitySpace will continue to be available for use by the public," reads the e-mail. A CCDC representative was not immediately available for comment.

The organization launched in 2004 with start-up funding from the Piedmont Housing Alliance, according to the CCDC website. The e-mail mentions that CCDC board members and other community members "will continue to discuss and pursue ways for community design to take new forms in Charlottesville." Interested parties are asked to e-mail ccdctransition@cvilledesign.org to offer input.

This is nothing new. Every week we tell you where to go. Some years ago, we underlined our intention by calling the calendar section Get Out Now! Today’s cover story could be titled Get Out This Month!  You’ll have to pardon our exhortations, it’s just that spring in Central Virginia is unrivaled for beauty and inspiration and we want you to enjoy it. Get an early start welcoming the most cheerful season with our event-a-day guide to March. Read the cover story here, and don’t forget to leave your own suggestions in the comments!

There was even a red carpet at last night’s Oscar Night America, the second year in a row that the Paramount and Virginia Film Festival invited locals to don their finest duds to celebrate the year’s best talkies in HD, as if the Paramount were the Kodak Theater. Sitting in the theater, plate of local food and wine in hand, was reason enough to watch from start to finish. (Also, waiting for the hosts to draw my raffle ticket.)

Here’s what happened, bad stuff first:

It’s still for old people. Anyone who would like to defend James Franco’s performance, please do so at your own risk in the comments below. All of the Academy’s attempts to court a younger audience—except for an awesome Auto-Tune The Oscars segment (see it below)—fell similarly flat. YouTube and cell phones exist, we get it.

It was a whitewash. In the weeks leading up, A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis of the New York Times put some interesting perspective on this year’s ceremony, noting that the nominees for Best Picture are more racially homogenous than those from 1940. (That’s when Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win, took home a trophy for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind.) The evening’s ivory palette was hard to ignore as the night went on—so much so that Halle Berry’s tribute to Lena Horn, who paved a path to legitimacy for actresses of color, took on the air of tokenism. Who knows if Spike Lee even bothered to show. 

No good awards for music. The performances for Best Original Song looked like a high school talent show. The pretty girl sang an insipid song about love (Gwyneth, natch), the eccentric girl tried a little too hard (Florence Welch—don’t get it), an duet made everyone uncomfortable (Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi), and the award went to the seasoned vet: Randy Newman. Why does music always sound so bad on TV?

But there was plenty good, too:

The King’s Speech.

The film’s writer David Seidler suffered from a stutter as a child, but gave a moving speech himself when accepting the award for Best Original Screenplay. Speech—which was pretty good, even if it wasn’t historically accurate—was the night’s big winner.

Christian Bale’s beard. What a maniac.

Coen Brothers denied. True Grit was nominated for 10 Oscars and took home none, the worst Oscar performance since Gangs of New York went zero-for-10 in 2003. The Coen Brothers are great, but that movie was only O.K. This ought to light a fire under their rears.

Kirk Douglas. It was tough to get a handle on why Douglas was there in the first place, but aren’t you glad he was? The Academy spent so much time trying to appeal to young folks, and—would you figure?—this 94-year-old earlobey dinosaur stole the show. Look out, Betty White.

The Oscars, autotuned.

What did you think of this year’s Oscars?

The UVA Board of Visitors voted on Friday to approve tuition increases for special programs and a $3,000 tuition differential for third-year students at the McIntire School of Commerce for increased costs and technology. The new change will be carried out on an experimental basis.

UVA President Teresa Sullivan told members of the board that her major concern amidst rising education costs is the preservation of the quality program. Sullivan referenced the inadequate level of resources for students in the School of Commerce and the need to hire more faculty and pay them better wages.

In the same motion, the board approved a 3.5 percent tuition increase for the MBA for Executives program ($119,500, up from $115,500); a 4.3 percent increase for a M.S. in Systems Engineering ($36,500, up from $35,000); a 5.5 percent increase for Virginians enrolled in the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Med Certificate ($25,000, up from $23,700); and 4.5 percent for non-Virginians ($30,000, up from $25,000).

The board also considered and approved a new enrollment growth plan that will allow UVA to increase enrollment by 1,500—1,400 undergraduate and 100 graduate students—by 2018-2019.

According to the approved plan, undergraduate enrollment will increase to 15,688 from 14,015. The new growth will still maintain the current 70/30 ratio between in-state and out-of-state students. Yet according to the approved motion, growth will only happen with corresponding state support. 

With budget talks still underway at the state level, the board was presented with the planning steps for the next academic budget. In addition to the estimated $4.6 million increase of AccessUVA and the $1.5 million in deferred maintenance, Colette Sheehy, vice president for Management and Budget, told the board that the University will face unavoidable costs that include replacing the budget funding gap and the state-approved salary increase for faculty and staff. And although the endowment is back at $4.9 billion, since 2007 UVA has sustained $51.1 million in budget reductions.

In buildings news, Hunter Smith—wife of the late Carl W. Smith and financial supporter of the UVA Marching Band—will be honored with the new Hunter Smith Band Building, more than two years after she donated $10.7 million for the construction of a rehearsal hall. The Hunter Smith Band Building is slated for an August completion date.

Virginia’s NIT chances where flushed down the toilet Saturday afternoon at the JPJ as Tony Bennett’s Wahoos fell to Boston College 63-44. Forty-four freaking points at home for an ACC team in 2011 is unacceptable no matter who the coach is. The Hoos were up seven points at the break.

UVA’s Joe Harris had ten rebounds, but 6-3 Colorado Springs product Reggie Jackson sparked BC’s offense and scored twenty five points for the Eagles.

Coach Bennett said after the game about what his team might have been improved upon Saturday, "Get the ball across half-court, I believe, and then run some offense. We talk about being aggressive, we work really hard to get our people in the middle and up the sideline, we just want to really attack. But there were some times where there was some hesitancy, and times we just had to break it and get a score. But we weren’t able to do that and the turnovers taking time off the clock, it certainly hurt us."

The Hoos shot an awful 19% from beyond the arch, and weren’t much better overall from the field as they only shot 32% for the game.

Tony Bennett’s quotes about the Hoos’s defensive play after the game, "We decided to trap the post, which we only do sometimes, so we needed to come and be aggressive with the trap or to not trap at all. But today we were in no-mans-land. Whether it was miscommunication on a dribble hand off, if we were switching it or we were not, or even just transition defense, we were below average or poor. It really started spilling over into the rest of the game. Sometimes we stayed too long and left a shooter wide open, while sometimes we wouldn’t stay at all. We had a poor performance on both ends, but defensively that was difficult for us.”

Virginia was led by Assane Sene and Mustapha Farrakhan with ten points. Farrakhan had a horrific shooting game as he consistently missed easy looks on a 4-13 shooting night. Sammy Zeglinski was off as well finishing 1-10 shooting the basketball.

The Cavaliers try to scrape their collective souls off the hardwood as they return to action Tuesday night as the Wolfpack from NC State comes to town for a 7 p.m. tip.
 

One thing I love about Virginia is that late February isn’t too early to start cataloging signs of spring. I’m noticing lots already, and I’d like to know what other folks are picking up on.

Bad news first: We’ve got ladybugs massing on the south-facing windows and, on the warmer days, absolute hordes of stinkbugs in the house. I’m glad they’re feeling peppy! And I’m even gladder to drown them in a bottle of vinegar.

Now the good news. With the higher temperatures, we’re burning much less wood for heat.

They’re back!

Our winter cold-frame crops are returning to some sort of viability, with longer days coaxing them to finally grow a little. We actually picked and ate a salad, with mustard greens, mizuna, and spinach.

Robins are showing up in big flocks near our house. And I woke early this morning to wrens, cardinals and titmice singing outside. Lovely!

We’re just about through one half of our garlic stash for the year. Looks like we’ll make it to July, when we harvest the next round. Right now, those plants are sporting about 3" leaves, soon to start growing in earnest.

A couple of our chickens are molting, and their egg production is pretty slow.

Wild onions have come up around the yard, I’ve seen forsythia blooming here and there, and crocuses can’t be far behind.

Our seeds came in the mail! Hooray for heirloom tomatoes and dill and muskmelon!

And of course, I know spring is near when I get itchy to be outside and plant things, hang laundry out, take hikes, sit on the porch, and make our outdoor areas nicer for hanging out.

What are you noticing, readers? Add your spring-feverish observations below and we’ll keep a running tally.

There’s tons going on this weekend! Here is a sample itinerary for tonight:

Check out UVA’s Battle of the Bands at 8pm, then hightail it over to Blue Moon to see the latest installment of CLAW, Ye Olde CLAWe, which also starts at 8pm. On your way, swing by the Jefferson Theater to catch the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group that won a Grammy this year for their Genuine Negro Jig. When you’re done there, go to the Tea Bazaar to catch the great Roanoke pop duo Eternal Summers, and finish in time to the the recently resurrected D.I.Y. space DUST to catch the Corsair EP release show. At which point, you’ll be broke and tired.

Tomorrow night’s highlights?

• Crack pop squad the Sometime Favorites releases a new EP…and then breaks up. See all the drama at The Southern.
• John D’earth premieres a new piece at Old Cabell Hall tomorrow called Green Chemistry, a work in five pieces about the plusses and minuses of scientific progress and is dedicated to Silent Spring author Rachel Carson.
• Play On! Theatre hosts Bridget McManus in the latest of a series that’s bringing nationally recognized standup comics to Charlottesville.

For more, check out this weekend’s calendar listings.

What else is going on this weekend?

Two-and-a-half years after ground was broken at the corner of Lee Street and Jefferson Park Avenue, the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center will officially open to patients on April 4. Two days before the building’s dedication (an event that will feature UVA President Teresa Sullivan and CBS news anchor Katie Couric, sister of the late state senator and building namesake) local media had an opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes look at the state-of-the-art cancer center.

View from the second floor

Each level of the $74 million, four-floor building has a different theme and color scheme to reflect different elements of Virginia. The first floor represents the Piedmont region; the second floor, the coastal plains; the third floor, the valley; and the ground floor, the largest at 31,000 square feet, the mountains.

Fun facts:
-The center measures approximately 105,000 square feet of space. The top floor, 21,000 square feet, is currently unfinished and was planned for future expansion.
-23 different colors of paint were used throughout the building.
-The building is connected by 95 miles of electrical wire and 14,000 electrical outlets.
-207,000 bricks were used.
-Environmentally sound material was used, and the building is seeking LEED Silver certification.
-A meditation room is located on the first floor.
-The building is equipped with a rooftop garden and several negative pressure rooms.
-Flourish, a positive image boutique, will provide wigs for patients undergoing treatments.

Flourish, "a positive image boutique"

The Meditation Room

The rooftop garden

The unfinished space ready for possible expansion

Infusion rooms