Check out this week’s Feedback column for some background on these music videos that students grades 7-12 made for three local bands—Borrowed Beams of Light, Downbeat Project and, sorry, me—below.
Light House’s youth film fest is September 9 at the Jefferson Theater.
Light House Studio 2011 Summer Music Video Workshop Sneak Preview from Light House Studio on Vimeo.
/council.jpg) From left: Kathy Galvin, Satyendra Huja, Dede Smith
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Jim Nix, co-chair of the Democratic Party of Charlottesville, says no.
“I don’t see that there is any problem, but there has been talk about it,” he says.
Mayor Dave Norris, who endorsed nominees Dede Smith, Colette Blount and Brevy Cannon, says that during elections, “factions form,” but when the election is over, “the party comes together and most people in the party support the ticket and I suspect that’s what’s going to happen this time.”
In fact, Nix tells C-VILLE that the three nominees, incumbent Satyendra Huja, current School Board member and local architect Kathy Galvin and Smith are working together on a “unified campaign.”
“For the most part, Smith, Huja and Kathy Galvin are largely in agreement on most of the issues that are important to Democrats,” he says. The water supply plan and MCP are only two issues, “and that’s not the big picture by any means.”
The nominations of Huja and Galvin, who support the MCP and a new dam and were endorsed by councilor Kristin Szakos, have been seen by some as a challenge to Norris’ endorsements. The backing of three candidates by Norris stirred controversy, but Nix says that it was not “precedent-setting.”
“I don’t know how much good it did for them. You can see that his trio didn’t fare very well,” says Nix.
In an early August press conference, Galvin called out fellow Democratic candidates for having a “bunker mentality about a particular issue or set of issues.”
“It seems to me that by my election and by Mr. Huja’s by a very clear majority of the voting population, that we are being tasked with completing the work of Council,” says Galvin. “We now have the votes to make sure we are not going to revisit the water plan and we are not going to revisit the parkway, and those were the two issues that were highly charged and the voting public had said enough. They did.”
If elected, Galvin will find a seat on the same council as Norris. Although the mayor opposes the MCP and still believes that the adopted water supply plan is “overpriced and overbuilt and not good for the environment,” he says he has been able to work with councilors who disagreed with him in the past.
“I can’t expect people to just give up their heartfelt beliefs, but that doesn’t mean that Council as a whole can’t get a lot of things done,” he says.
For Norris, disagreements are never personal. Norris has served with Huja for years and although they don’t see eye-to-eye on all matters, Norris expects him to become the new mayor. “I will support him in the transition to that role, assuming that’s something that does happen,” he says.
Galvin says she is looking forward to working on new city issues and on old ones that have been put aside.
“Already I know that Mayor Norris and I have common ground on a comprehensive plan to address unemployment,” she says.
For the first time in more than 30 years there won’t be an African-American on council. Blount, who finished fifth in the primary, was the only black Democrat and Independent Andrew Williams is the remaining black candidate.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people wanted to make sure that we had a City Council that voted a certain way on a couple of these hot button issues and, in the process, didn’t really take into consideration what kind of Council we are going to have in terms of diversity,” says Norris.
For Galvin, however, the “almost overshadowing emphasis” on the MCP and the water supply plan did not resonate with the African-American community.
“I walked many streets in the African-American neighborhoods. Those two issues were not the issues, first and foremost, for the people I talked to. It was jobs and it was good paying jobs,” she says.
Galvin, Huja and Smith will square off against five independents—Andrew Williams, Brandon Collins, Bob Fenwick, Scott Bandy and Paul Long—in the November election.
/Sullivan_Press_Conference_0.gif) UVA President Teresa Sullivan
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“This is the strongest academic class that we have admitted, as measured by their standardized test scores and their class rank,” Sullivan said.
In spite of the fact that the University’s state funding has dropped to around 10 percent of its academic operating budget and is less than one-third of what is provided at nearby flagship UNC-Chapel Hill, UVA is still ranked among the top public universities in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, The Princeton Review, and others.
Sullivan said the school’s adherence to its founder’s vision, which emphasizes the role of student/faculty engagement, is still one of its main attractions.
“I think the academical village is one of the huge attractions for people to the University of Virginia and I take it as, literally, one of the gems that we have to preserve, but I also take it figuratively as a sign of a model of education that Jefferson believed to be best in which faculty and students worked in close proximity to each other,” Sullivan said.
Other reasons for the University’s continued prominence are its $5 billion endowment and its consistent ability to raise money from private donors. The College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, UVA’s largest school, received $41.7 million from alumni, parents, and friends in 2010-11** and the University has raised over $2.4 billion thus far in its most recent capital campaign.
When she took over as president, Sullivan prioritized hiring a new leadership team, a job she finished this past week by naming Duke chemist John Simon as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. Simon joins brand new Chief Operating Officer Michael Strine, who came from Johns Hopkins University during the summer.
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UVA first years at a glance
Total students (projected): 3,450
Avg. SAT total: 1,339
In-state: 2,298 or 67 percent
Out-of-state: 1,152 or 33 percent
Top 10 percent in class: 91 percent
International students: 230
Virginia community college transfers: 325
Students on financial aid: 1,125
Total tuition cost for in-state students: $22,543
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During an interview in July, Sullivan talked about the challenges facing her team. First among them is the state’s insistence that the University grow its enrollment to accommodate more students from northern Virginia and to produce more graduates in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.
Sullivan sees the initiative as an unfunded mandate, but the threat of a cap on out-of-state students has driven the University to meet the demand.
“The state will not be able to increase its enrollment of science and engineering students without more science and engineering faculty, and the bottleneck for us is the ability to equip laboratories that those faculty need to conduct their teaching and research,” Sullivan said.
Faculty at UVA has gone three years without raises, and Sullivan said faculty recruitment and retention will be another fundamental challenge in coming years if the school intends to maintain its status as one of the elite public universities in the nation.
Meredith Woo*, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, anticipates the need for 63 new professors in her area to meet the enrollment growth targets through 2018-19.
Sullivan, Simon and Strine all addressed the need to control costs and create efficiencies during their press conference last week, using language that sounded more corporate than Jeffersonian.
“We are constantly looking for opportunities to control costs, increase savings, and improve efficiency. Our areas of focus so far have included streamlining processes, consolidating units and positions, automating functions, creating shared services and resources, conserving energy, and studying best practices in other industries and our higher education peers. This year we will come through the University once again to look for additional savings opportunities,” Sullivan said.
As a new first year class arrived on Grounds, Simon urged it to help redefine the way learning happens in the information age.
“I think technology has democratized knowledge, and in universities today the opportunity that exists is almost redefining or rethinking the student/faculty relationship and how we work together to create knowledge. How you learn,” he said.
*An earlier version of this story included an incorrect spelling [Wu] of Meredith Woo’s name.
**An earlier version of this story said the University raised $41.7 million in new commitments in 2010-11; that number properly refers to commitments to the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
Mike London announced Monday afternoon that Mike Rocco will be the starting quarterback for the William & Mary game on September 3. The Hoos open up Mike London’s second-season in Charlottesville as the Tribe come to town for a six o’clock affair. Rocco played sparingly in relief of Marc Verica in 2010, but he has won the job with his strong play during the Summer camp.
We all remember what transpired the last time Jimmye Laycock’s boys headed-up I-64 as they kicked Virginia’s ass all over the field. In that game played in 2009, the Hoos gave up 7 sacks to the Tribe, and were also 5-17 on third-down conversions. William & Mary scored ten points in the fourth quarter to seal the win in Charlottesville.
Coach London also told the media that 10-12 first-years will see the field this season. Ross Metheny will start the season as the number two guy at the QB position, and true freshman David Watford will be the third string quarterback. London has said before that Watford will most likely play at some point.
Go Hoos!
A male victim was robbed in the early hours of Saturday on the 1100 block of John Street near the UVA Corner. According to the Cavalier Daily, the victim was approached by four of five men who struck the victim and fled with his wallet. Descriptions of the assailants are not available.
One month into the last school year, UVA Police already had at least five investigations on their hands. And while the victim has not been deemed a UVA student, University Police Chief Michael Gibson seems eager to alert students early to best safety practices.
The Cav Daily reports that Gibson sent an e-mail to the University community reminding students and faculty to avoid walking alone at night or in dark and poorly lit areas, and to travel in small groups for safety. Gibson also recommends cooperating with a perpetrator during a robbery and immediately reporting such incidents to the police.
We’re getting the band back together! On Friday, UVA officially opens the new Hunter Smith Band Building, a $12 million structure funded almost entirely by its namesake, who has given more than a few dollars to the University in her time. The band opens one day before the band sounds its first trumpets for the opening of the football season against William & Mary on Saturday.
UVA will host a reception starting at 4:30pm. The event, according to a media release, will feature remarks from UVA President Teresa Sullivan, Dean Meredith Woo of the College of Arts & Sciences, Rector Helen Dragas, band director Bill Pease and former Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Leonard Sandridge.
For a C-VILLE feature on the Cavalier Marching Band, click here.
The rioters that swept England in early August may have had the nation’s establishment in their sights, but their fury also claimed a Sony warehouse holding more than 2 million albums released on independent labels.
Labels affected by the fire included bigger indies like XL (which releases music by Adele and Vampire Weekend) and Domino (from Animal Collective to Cass McCombs) and a host of smaller ones, whose artists encouraged fans to buy digital downloads from the labels to keep the cash flow coming. (Though much of the stock was insured, the fire puts independent labels, many of which operate hand-to-mouth, in a compromising spot in the short term.)
Now local musicians, organized by Astronomers’ Alexandra Angelich in association with Label Love and Bay 1 Studios, are sweeping in to help struggling labels with a last-minute benefit festival this weekend. The Laser Waste Music Festival is "a benefit concert to support independent labels and artists who lost over 2 million albums in a senseless act of arson during the London Riots," says the event’s page.
Here’s the lineup for the festival, which is this Saturday, September 3, at the
, according to the fest’s Facebook page.
Main Stage:
Sinclarity 12:00 am
Grey Matter 11:00 pm
Astronomers 10:00 pm
Hunter Smith and the Dead Men 9:00 pm
Manorlady 8:00 pm
Rock n Roll Cannibals 7:00 pm
Gunchux 6:00 pm
the Co-Pilots 5:00 pm
Bar side:
DJ Landing Force 9:00 pm
the Buffalo Theory 7:45 pm
Sally Rose 6:30 pm
Graham Partridge 5:45 pm
Willits Bowditch 4:45 pm
Will Patterson 4:00 pm
For more information, visit us at https://sites.google.com/s
"Firestarter," from Prodigy’s 1997 album Fat of the Land, was an early break for the influential indie label XL Recordings, which lost stock in this month’s London fire.
When you’re done buying lots of duct tape, water, batteries and flashlights in preparation for the big storm (talkin’ Irene here) that threatens to blow citizens over—unless talk is overblown—until it just blows over, there’s plenty of fun to be had. Start polishing your rainboots now, and remember to call ahead.
Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule, who announced earlier this summer that they’d be moving to Berlin, play a farewell show Saturday night at the Jefferson Theater. For all the details—WHY!??, for example—check out this week’s Feedback column.
Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams screens tonight at PVCC, part of a free movie Friday series there. Herzog filmed it in 3D to capture the famous Chauvet Cave’s paintings as the historic people saw them dozens of thousands of years ago. Don’t miss it.
Owen Ashworth made a name for himself with the equal parts minimal and confessional act Casiotone for the Painfully Alone—aptly named. He comes to town with a new project called Advance Base (genre listed on Facebook: "Sad") that expands the instrumentation, with piano, real drums and more, without taking any unnecessary left turns. Hear what appears to be the band’s complete catalog, limited though it may be, here. Peaceful tunes for a rainy Saturday at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar.
What are you up to this weekend?
Guest post by Chelsea Hicks.
Perhaps the single most contradictory aspect of indie rock is the fact that independent artists and listeners alike are so often concerned with what’s cool. My Morning Jacket, who played last night at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion, asks "who cares?," swaying with a towel on their heads and capes on their shoulders.
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Despite having coursed through a few members, My Morning Jacket feels comfortingly like an actual band and jot just a front man with instrumentalists in the shadows. That palpable sense of band unity—they spent a lot of time rocking out in each others’ faces—is just one of the many nods My Morning Jacket unconscionably makes to that pure, forgotten form of old school rock ‘n’ roll.
After all, My Morning Jacket has never been much concerned with what people might think of them. James is secure, comfortable crooning at the audience genuinely during "Slow Slow Tune," affect-free. When he’s ironic, it’s not directed at his audience and it doesn’t feel critical—it more like an elephant-in-the-room self-awareness that he’s channeling both Led Zeppelin and Willie Nelson. We all got this watching his arsenal of machine gun leg kicks, especially during "Holdin’ On to Black Metal."
It’s even more pleasant to watch someone extending that lack of concern for judgment to their own audience: everyone who likes MMJ (fratboys and soccer moms included) is in their club and that doesn’t make them uncool. And everyone was cool when the green robotic-like eye from the album cover of their latest release, Circuital, shone over the crowd while "Victory Dance" washed over and either you were full-out dancing or just bobbing; it was more of a rock band family event than a club that half the audience wasn’t supposed to be pretending they belonged to.
Photos by John Robinson.
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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has filed a lawsuit against officers of Atlanta-based Silverton Bank, the lender of the Landmark Hotel. Bloomberg reports that the FDIC sued Silverton for $71 million to help regain the loss after the bank was taken over by the FDIC in 2009.
According to the article, in the suit filed in Atlanta on Monday, FDIC is arguing that Silverton officials mismanaged loan policies and spent millions on a corporate aircraft.
“Silverton’s aggressive expansion plan was accompanied by significant weaknesses in loan underwriting, credit administration and a complete disregard of a declining economy,” the article quotes the complaint as saying.
The $71 million is a small part of the $386 million the FDIC had invested in the failing bank. Specialty Finance Group (SFG), which is a subsidiary of Silverton Bank, loaned Halsey Minor, Landmark Hotel owner, $23.6 million for the hotel construction in 2008. Minor was later charged with defaulting on that loan and in 2009, SFG sued Minor for $10.5 million of the loan.
Asked what this latest development means for the Landmark, Minor says “nothing more than pure irony.” The FDIC is litigating against Minor for a $10 million loan and, he says, legal fees have far exceeded that amount and now stand at $13 million.