Month: February 2011

Nobody’s been rocking Charlottesville as long as the party band leader Bennie Dodd. So when Bennie Dodd raises his hand at a meeting about Charlottesville music, you listen. “I remember years ago, back in 1976. The Mall didn’t even have anybody,” said Dodd. “We could play out of Stacy’s Music, and you wouldn’t even see anybody.”

In the intervening 25 years, zoning code has struggled to keep up with where music is played, even as music in those places has became a part of local identity for musicians like Dodd. That rift set the stage for a CitySpace discussion last week, where the city’s lead planner outlined a proposal that would make hosting music by right for local businesses. In short, most businesses that have been hosting music may be able to keep hosting, no special use permit necessary.

That doesn’t mean Director of Neighborhood Development Services Jim Tolbert is talking about a free-for-all. It’s just that in meetings over the past month, representatives from the local music community convinced him that, given existing laws that regulate capacity, alcohol and noise, there may be no need for another layer of confusing rules.

As the law stands, many businesses that host music must apply for a special use permit—the application fee alone costs $1,500. (Four businesses currently hold such permits: The Jefferson Theater, The Southern, The Paramount and Club 216.) Bailee Elizabeth, a local musician who helped start a blog to track changes to music laws on the city level, said she thought the city should refund those fees. Tolbert said the city would consider it.

Tolbert says the city tried to deal with excessive noise at Belmont restaurant Bel Rio without hurting the music community. “It wasn’t that simple,” Tolbert said at a meeting last month at Random Row Books. “What we tried to do…is to say that those places where [music] is purely incidental to the meal are restaurants,” like Hamiltons’ and Aberdeen Barn. “Those places where you go to listen to the music, they’re not. They’re the restaurant/music halls.” But those definitions fall short when it comes to, say, C’ville Coffee, a restaurant that happens to unobtrusively host music three or four nights a week.

If the Planning Commission accepts the proposal next month, and City Council adopts it in April, it won’t matter. (Tolbert says that Belmont watering hole Beer Run, about which the city has received noise complaints, may be the only restaurant that will have to apply for a special use permit to host live music.)

But throw Belmont into the picture, and things get a little fuzzy. Adam Frazier owns The Local, which hosts the regular open mic C’ville Songwriters and regular Wednesday acts. But the 55dB noise restriction in that neighborhood is effectively as good as a music ban. He said that repeat noise violations at the erstwhile restaurant/night club Bel Rio were isolated to Bel Rio, and that Belmont restaurants are being unfairly punished for that restaurant’s indiscretions. “If we were offending our neighbors on a regular basis—I’m a neighbor myself—I’d shut it down,” he says. “It’s not good business practice.”

“You’ve got a law that now, as it exists, if you’re being annoying to someone they can call,” says Frazier. “There’s already an ordinance that you can enforce if it is in fact a nuisance to a neighbor.”

But Tolbert encouraged the crowd to keep concerns about Belmont separate, offering to take up the two issues—what permits businesses need to host music, and the Belmont noise juggernaut—separately. “Ninety-nine percent of the changes we’re talking about making now, everyone is going to support. As soon as we throw Belmont in there, we’re going to run into a buzzsaw,” Tolbert said at the meeting.

But judging by the tone of the meeting, that crisis is headed straight for a buzzsaw­ that’ll send dB-meters into the red. But until we hit it again, remember the words of Dodd: “I’d like to see it where everybody can be happy, everybody can win, where we can have our music, and people in areas like Belmont can sleep at night.”

Eye to the Skybar

Already generating a lot of media buzz, a new Downtown restaurant from Alex George (formerly of Just Curry and Cinema Taco fame) is poised to be one of the most anticipated openings of 2011. In fact, he says, “This is the most exciting event [of my career].”

Last week, the city’s Board of Architectural Review approved plans for the Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar—currently the home of JohnSarahJohn and owned by Allan Cadgene and Gabe Silverman—that gave George (and his design-build team, Marthe Rowen and Alloy Workshop) the go-ahead to knock through a few of the 100′-long building’s exterior walls to make room for pocket windows and to, uh, raise the roof. George has plans to include a 25′ bar atop the restaurant (in addition to the one on the main floor) for dining en plein air. As for the menu, expect “new American cuisine with a South American influence,” sourced as locally as possible.

He’s thought of everything, from the position of the bathroom doors in relation to patrons to the patio surface’s convenience for ladies in heels. “It’s all about customer service and making it comfortable,” he says. “Everybody will give you one shot, but will they come back?”

George says he hopes construction on the space will begin this month and that he’s “seriously shooting for” a mid- to late-June opening.

New old-fashioned

Attention, hungry Belmonters: The renovation of Gibson’s Grocery, at the corner of Hinton Avenue and Avon Street, is nearly complete. The store, which entered renovation mode November 2009, will re-open Saturday, February 26. Chris Gibson, whose dad started the shop in 1977, says, “It still has an old country store feeling, even though it’s been remodeled.”

Gibson’s will offer Lovingston-based Trager Brothers coffee, subs, deli meats, salads and ice cream. Hours are Monday-Saturday, 8am-8pm.

"No nonsense with the best of intentions.” That’s how Sugarleaf Vineyards owner Lauren Maillian Bias says most people would describe her. And, she adds, they’d be right. 

It’s those intentions that have earned her so many points of pride. Bias, in her late 20s, is already the youngest female minority self-made winery owner (whew!) in the United States.

“We learned as we went along,” she says. There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of paperwork and, as she calls them, a few tests. “A kind of, ‘Do you really know your stuff?’ when I’m in other markets,” says Bias, a former runway and print model for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Avon. “I’ve established a lot of friendships by reinforcing the fact that smart women can be beautiful, too.” 

Bias says she’s noticed that attitude works in her favor. “I think a lot of the folks that come in to visit really do appreciate the opinion and knowledge of a smart, savvy, independent, somewhat strong-willed female who really knows her stuff.” 

When she’s not in North Garden running the winery on-site, she’s running the business from her home base in Manhattan, where she donates plenty of time to her philanthropic interests, such as the New York Urban League, the Children’s Aid Society and the Alvin Ailey Arts in Education programs. 

“Even the work that I do philanthropically is about my children,” says Bias, mom to 3-year-old Jayden and 18-month-old Chloe, “so that other children can have the same opportunities and one day end up in the same place, irrespective of the fact that they came from different starting points.” 

“When people feel empowered and when they feel confident, it just makes things better for the people around them.”

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“I have a degree in international trade and marketing. Some of the business workings—that, overall, was not foreign to me. What

was certainly foreign to me was all of the different legal loopholes and hurdles you must jump, and the time constraints and… 

“I’ve had people come to a wine dinner and leave just so grateful that I took the time to talk about the wine and talk about the pairings. And they leave with this newfound confidence. They no longer feel intimidated to say, ‘I like this’ or. ‘I don’t like this.’

“There’s a large sense of pride in what I’ve been able to accomplish at my age and that one day my children can look back and say, ‘Wow. We’re still the only [minority-owned winery] here on the East Coast,’ or, ‘We were the first.’ And that’s pretty awesome.”

 Quite a few women with uterine fibroids suffer in silence, unaware of how common their condition actually is and not knowing where to turn for help and support.

Between 20 and 35 percent of women ages 25 to 50 have symptomatic uterine fibroids (leiomyomata). And African American women have an even higher chance of developing these benign (noncancerous) tumors and experiencing symptoms at an earlier age. Even more women have fibroids without knowing it. 

As far as sexuality is con-cerned, uterine fibroids typ-ically do not affect the ability to get aroused, lubricate or reach orgasm. But, those who exper-ience symptoms complain of feeling and looking bloated, pelvic pain and pressure, heavy and prolonged or irreg-ular menstrual bleeding, frequent urination, gastrointestinal problems and pain during intercourse. Some women with excessive menstrual bleeding become anemic and feel tired all the time. All of these symptoms can range from mild to severe—and any of them can make the woman feel not only uncomfortable, but less attractive, causing her to put the brakes on her sex life. 

Uterine fibroids also can interfere with fertility. A woman may have problems becoming pregnant or, if she’s already pregnant, she may experience a miscarriage or other complications. 

How do you find out if you have fibroids? If you are experiencing any of the above-men-tioned symptoms, you should ask your health provider. The diagnostic test comprises a pelvic exam, often combined with ultrasound, MRI or CT imaging of the uterus, and will show one or several tumors. Size-wise, these can range from looking like a raisin to a large grapefruit, and they can be located anywhere in the uterus wall or even grow as stalks from the uterus. The latter type can cause much pain if they become twisted. Uterine fibroids depend on estrogen for their growth and usually shrink or disappear following menopause.

Treatment options for fibroids range from lifestyle modifications, acupuncture, anti-inflammatory drugs, hormone therapy and birth control pills to surgery to remove the uterus. In fact, uterine fibroids are now the most common reason for hysterectomy. However, there are now alternative treatment options available, which let the woman retain the potential for fertility by leaving her uterus in place. These include:

Myomectomy: Instead of removing the entire uterus, only the fibroids are surgically removed. 

Uterine fibroid embolization (uterine artery embolization): The blood supply to the fibroid is blocked, thereby starving it and helping it shrink. During this procedure a fine tube is threaded through an artery in the groin and small pellets are introduced to block the circulation.

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound: This non-invasive, outpatient procedure can cause symptom relief with-in days of treatment, and fol-lowing it, fibroids shrink about 30 percent every six months. 

Currently, UVA has one of the few treatment centers world-wide that offers MR-guided focused ultrasound for uterine fibroids. The Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation (fusfoundation.org), located here in Charlottesville, helped to open the center in partnership with UVA, and has a patient support initiative, Fibroid Relief. Visit fibroidrelief.org or call 220-4859 for more information.

Charlottesville’s Annette Owens, MD, Ph.D., is certified by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. She has co-edited the four-volume book, Sexual Health (Praeger).

Erin McDermott green stone earrings from Eloise ($52, 219 W. Water St., 295-3905); Shawl Smith London earrings from Spring Street ($159, 107 W. Main St., 975-1200); gold swirl earrings from Bittersweet ($24, 106 E. Main St., 977-5977); Aqua glass teardrop earrings from Bittersweet ($24)

Sonya Renee beaded earrings from Spring Street ($118); Erin McDermott coral earrings from Duo ($54, 101 Elliewood Ave., 979-1212); Verre NY earrings from Scarpa ($220, 2114 Barracks Road Shopping Center, 296-0040); Winifred Grace earrings from eg ($228; 109 S. First St., 979-2888)