Month: April 2011

Saturday at Scott Stadium, Virginia dropped their second straight regular season lacrosse game for the first time since 2004. Maryland’s young goalie Niko Amato (12 saves) was brilliant in goal as he made several splendid saves on the afternoon.

Maryland dominated the faceoffs 14-8, as Virginia won the ground ball battle (37-31), and also outshot the Terrapins (32-27). Virginia star Shamel Bratton was suspended from the game for a violation of team rules. The suspension is Bratton’s second suspension of the season.

"I don’t think we ever stopped playing," said head coach Dom Starsia. "They were just sharper and took advantage on our defensive end. We had some chances that we didn’t drop, but their goalie played well as did Adam. For us it was not good enough, especially in the second half. I wouldn’t go too much with our effort or intent coming out of halftime, but clearly we just didn’t get the job done. I credit Maryland with some responsibility of that as well."

The Cavaliers were led by Chris Bocklet, and Rhamel Bratton who each scored two goals a piece. Virginia’s goalie Adam Ghitelman recorded 11 saves, but the UVA crease defense really let down their keeper Saturday afternoon giving Maryland quite a few point-blank shots on goal.

Dom Starsia’s Hoos had a particularly rough third quarter as they did not score a single goal, and gave up four goals to the Terps.

Hopefully Virginia (7-3, 0-1) can regroup as UNC comes to Charlottesville Saturday for a key ACC matchup. Saturday’s game is scheduled for a Noon faceoff, and the contest will be carried live by ESPN.
 

Scott Stadium will be full of Virginia sports fans Saturday as the Hoos play a rare lax game there followed by the Spring football game. Faceoff of the lax game is scheduled for Noon.

#10 Maryland (6-2, 0-2) will be the first ACC game of the season for the Hoos. The Terps come to Scott for the first lacrosse game to be played inside Scott Stadium since 1995. Virginia (7-2, 0-0) is ranked #6 in the nation, and is coming off a disappointing loss last weekend in Baltimore to Johns Hopkins. The leading scorer for the Hoos is Steele Stanwick who leads the team with 20 goals and 19 assists.

In the last meeting of the two teams in Charlottesville, UVA won on a Brian Carroll goal 1 minute into the seventh overtime, and that game still stands as the longest game in the history of NCAA Division-I lacrosse. Just this past week, Queens University of Charlotte beat Feiffer with just one minute to play in the seventh overtime to surpass the UVA-MD game as the longest ever played in collegiate lacrosse.

Tickets for the lacrosse game are $7 for adults, and $5 for youths, seniors, and UVA faculty or staff. The lax game will be broadcast live on AM-1070 WINA, also on ESPN-U, as well as on the internet by ESPN-3. The football scrimmage is free and open to all.

Hopefully after seeing his team perform in the Spring game, Mike London and his coaching staff will have a clearer understanding of who the starting quarterback will be going into the summer. At this point through the first several practices, none of the options at QB have distinguished themselves as the next signal caller for the Wahoos.

ESPN will webcast Virginia’s Orange-Blue Spring Football Game on ESPN-3. UVA is one of eight schools scheduled to have their spring football game carried by ESPN. 

In preparing the next issue of ABODE, I discovered a book called A Householder’s Guide to the Universe, by Harriet Fasenfest. It’s part how-to guide, and part polemic, mixing a Wendell Berry-esque philosophy of householding with practical tips on cleaning, cooking, canning and gardening. I’m liking it a lot. I can get behind a book that refers not only to the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle but also the pectin content of cranberries, and still manages to seem coherent.

Anyway, I wanted to share a passage that I was particularly taken by. Here it is:

"When thinking about ‘stores,’ I realized that is how grocery stores came to have that name. That was another aha moment for me. Grocery stores do for us what we used to do for ourselves–stock provisions and provide nourishment for our family throughout the year. That the food is coming off their shelves rather than ours offers a clue into how we have structured our systems and prioritized our world. Sure, grocery stores are convenient…but in general terms they are a service born of urban America’s distance from rural resources and wisdom.

"Were this simply a missed opportunity, a lost occasion for picking just-ripe berries in the early-morning sunlight, it would be sad but not fatal. And I suppose fatal is a strong word, but it is nevertheless true that many of our industrial food systems, from growing practices to delivery to consumption, are killing us and the planet. So it is no small matter to consider the alternatives and to learn the skills needed to create (and use) a fully stocked pantry."

Hear, hear! Canners and thrifty meal planners, unite!

As anybody who logged into Gmail this morning and tried to access an amazing new feature called Gmail Motion already knows, it’s April Fool’s Day—otherwise known as April 1. Tonight’s show at the Southern is somewhere between a gag and fine art, but whatever it is, it sounds worth seeing: A benefit for St. Baldrick’s features a set by We Are Star Children and local performers reading the "R. Kelly Monologues." Tickets are here.

R Kelly’s "When a Woman’s Fed Up."

An interesting performance kicks off The Bridge/PAI‘s annual month-long celebration of sounds, Audio April. UVA composition student Erik DeLuca spent last June as an artist in residence at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park—the largest in the country. He recorded everything from house-size blocks of ice calving from Hubbard Glacier, to the underwater sounds of Tanada Lake. On returning he teamed up with poet Chelsea Hicks to create "Onomatopoeias and Songs for Wrangell-St. Elias, Alaska," a collection of sound and word portraits of the park. That performance is tomorrow. A third installment of the Experimental Music Showcase fills the gallery with out-there sounds on Sunday.

For the regionally inclined, dozens of bands congregate in Harrisonburg all weekend for MACRoCk, Central Virginia’s answer to South by Southwest. In addition to shows, shows, shows downtown Harrisonburg grows overrun with panels and expos. Outsized headliners this year are the Jersey punk group Bouncing Souls, plus lots of Charlottesville bands—Corsair, Invisible Hand, Borrowed Beams of Light and Wes Swing—are scheduled to do their respective things.

New Jersey’s Screaming Females ("Wild") also play MACRoCk tonight.

Tonight locally-adored songwriter John McCutcheon hits the Haven at First and Market for a show to benefit the homeless shelter there. He released his 34th album—that’s no typo, folks—back in October, Passage. Tonight folk lovers have to choose between that show and one at C’ville Coffee, where the lovely modern folk duo Friction Farm performs. C’ville Coffee, go. McCutcheon’s show info is here.

John McCutcheon’s "Step by Step."

Lots of First Fridays highlights for this afternoon. At the opening for a new show called "Small Breaches in the Firmament," at Chroma Projects, UVA art prof Bill Bennett unveils a "performance machine" he created with students. It will be outside the gallery from 5-9pm. New City Arts presents work by its artist-in-residence Patrick Costello at WVTF studio on Water Street. Interested in buying art? Second Street Gallery has the work that will be up for sale at its New Art Auction on April 8. Pick up a copy of this week’s C-VILLE for complete openings and listings.

What’re you up to this weekend?

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is one of three finalists for the Sam Adams Alliance’s annual public servant award—part of the free market and open government advocacy center’s annual Sammies ceremony. The Cooch’s competition? Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who signed a bill to significantly reduce collective bargaining rights just days before receiving his Sammies nomination.

In the eyes of the Sam Adams Alliance, the ideal public servant "holds themselves and
their institution to a higher level of responsibility…[and] has enacted or helped to enact
tangible improvements to their district or community from their elected or appointed position." The alliance cites Cuccinelli’s lawsuit against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)—which won the AG some bragging rights when federal judge Henry Hudson declared the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision unconstitutional in December—and mentions his effort to bring the PPACA before the Supreme Court.

But surely the Sammies passed some of the AG’s other memorable moments from the last year! To revisit some of Cuccinelli’s other highlights, click here. And happy April Fool’s Day.