Month: December 2011

UVA names Bryan Fetzer, Harvard recruiter, new head of track program

PRESS RELEASE: UVA Athletics–– Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage announced Tuesday (Dec. 20) that Bryan Fetzer, the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Harvard the past two years, has been named the Cavaliers’ director of track and field/cross country.

"It is with great enthusiasm that I welcome Bryan Fetzer to the University of Virginia as our director of track & field/cross country,” Littlepage said. “He has a successful and comprehensive background recruiting, coaching and developing championship student-athletes and teams across six sports.

“He understands clearly what is needed in order to lead championship programs in track and field and cross country. With his leadership and the completion of Phase I of our new track and field facility, we are positioning our program to attract the most outstanding prospective student-athletes and further develop the overall quality of our programs.”

Fetzer, who has had stops in the SEC and the Pac-12, helped the Crimson bring in the number-five ranked men’s track and field recruiting class in 2011 according to Track and Field News. At Harvard, Fetzer coached the sprinters, the vertical jumpers and the multi-event athletes.

"I am blessed and humbled to become the director of track & field/cross country at the University of Virginia,” Fetzer said. “I would like to thank Craig Littlepage and the Virginia athletic department for having the confidence to provide me with this incredible opportunity. I can think of no better combination in regards to academic excellence and athletic tradition than what we have at the University of Virginia.

“I am thrilled to have the chance to work with the current student-athletes. I feel we have something special here. We will be a team in every sense of the word. My expectations for the program will be very high, the goals will be lofty and to some they might seem unattainable but I want the team, university and community to know that there is nothing that we cannot accomplish together."

Prior to his time at Harvard, Fetzer spent three years as an assistant coach at Mississippi State, and helped guide the Bulldogs’ men’s program to back-to-back 17th-place finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Under his tutelage, Bulldog student-athletes earned seven All-America honors and Marrissa Harris won the 2008 SEC title and a bronze medal at the NACAC U23 Championships in the heptathlon

Before his time in Starkville, Miss., Fetzer spent three years as an assistant at California and helped the Golden Bear women earn their highest NCAA finishes in 2007, an eighth-place showing at the outdoor meet and 15th during the indoor season. His student-athletes broke 11 school records in the sprints and hurdles.

In 2003-04 Fetzer served as an assistant women’s cross country and track and field coach at Ball State and in one year, guided three athletes to Mid-American Conference crowns and five to NCAA Championship appearances.

From 1999-2003, Fetzer was the first director of track and field/cross country at Gardner-Webb and led the Runnin’ Bulldogs’ transition from Division II to Division I. Fetzer coached six NCAA national champions along with 12 All-Americans, including the 2000 IAAF world leader in the 55m, Julia O’Neal. The Runnin’ Bulldogs’ women’s team produced a pair of top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships in their only year at Division II and finished as the Atlantic Sun Conference runner-up in the school’s first year in Division I

Fetzer began his career at Ranger College in Ranger, Texas, as a track and field and football coach. During his tenure, the women’s program became a national junior college power, placing second during the 1999 indoor and outdoor seasons and finishing no lower than 11th at the NJCAA Championships during his four years. Ranger student-athletes captured eight NJCAA National Championships and secured 65 All-America honors.

In addition to his work with collegiate student-athletes, Fetzer has consulted and worked on speed and power development and strength training with several professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, Arena Football League, WNBA and WUSA. Fetzer has also served on several national staffs for various countries for the World Junior Championships, the Commonwealth Games, the NACAC Under-23 Championships and the World University Games. He also served as the secretary for the US Women’s Coaches Association from 1999-2005.

Fetzer earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Canisius College, where he was a four-year letterman and senior captain for the football team. He holds a master’s degree in physical education from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas.
 

Charlottesville tech start-ups nab lion’s share of state grants

Today, the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)—a nonprofit organization linked to the state’s innovation and entrepreneurial efforts—awarded $3.6 million in awards to more than two dozen Virginia-based tech start-ups. The kicker? More than 40 percent of those funds—$1.55 million—will go to six Charlottesville businesses.

CIT focused on state "priority areas," and awarded businesses working in "the areas of life sciences, energy, advanced manufacturing and nuclear physics." Many of the recipients received awards through the Small Business Innovation Research‘s matching funds program, which suggests they may see more investment dollars yet.

The businesses include Indoor Biotechnologies, which has plans to rehabilitate the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on Preston Avenue, and a few companies grown through research partnerships with UVA. (See No. 13, Tom Skalak, for details.) For more on the start-ups, click here.

A stitch will be mine

I think people who know how to sew are really cool.

I mean, think of it. When they need curtains, they whip up some curtains. When they need a present for someone, they make an apron or a shirt or a tea towel, totally custom. When they get tired of their throw pillows, they can make new ones (or covers for the old ones) in no time.

This Christmas will mark two years since I received a very nice sewing machine as a gift, and I’ve yet to figure out how to use it. This makes me feel kind of dumb. But I’m not giving up hope; the time will come when I make friends with that old Singer, and then–mark my words–I will be greener.

Not only will I be able to repair stuff, I’ll be able to make stuff. Like, for example, I wanted to make my daughter a stocking for Christmas this year, and never got to it. I fear this will cause her grandmother to buy her a stocking. When I learn to sew, I will be able to prevent such tragedies by swooping in with my handmade stocking.

But check it: Even the hippie Martha Stewart, Soulemama, doesn’t get her baby’s stocking made in time!

Here’s to new skills, lofty goals, and better ways to get what we need in 2012.

New City Councilors are ready to get to work

Satyendra Huja, Kathy Galvin and Dede Smith were sworn in this afternoon by outgoing City Clerk Paul Garrett and are now full-fledged City Councilors.

Smith told C-VILLE that she feels ready “to get started.”
“I am looking forward to the budget,” she said “It’s really where the rubber hits the road.” Smith added that it is the responsibility of Council to look at the budget in a creative and effective way. In fact, she said, this year’s choices will “start to shape the next four years.”

For Galvin, working to craft a strategic plan to expand employment opportunities for the city’s residents is on the top of the to-do list. The Belmont Bridge project is also a priority for Galvin, a local urban designer. She envisions taking a more holistic look at plans that will benefit the areas that closely surround the bridge: Sixth Street and Crescent Hall, two of the city’s seven public housing sites (which are going through a major redevelopment) and the Belmont neighborhood. 


“We need to constantly be aware of being green in terms of planning,” she said in reference to developing a “very good” transportation and bike and pedestrian systems.

But first things first. In early January, the new Council will decide who the next mayor will be. Bets are on Huja for his seniority and his service to the city. Find out more about the race to become mayor in Tuesday’s paper.

 

Kathy Galvin, Satyendra Huja and Dede Smith are sworn in as new City Councilors. (Photo by Chiara Canzi)

Categories
Living

December ABODE: Your Stuff

 My brother just got his first solo apartment and lacks some of the basics—like a broom and mop. If that special someone on your holiday list is a bit further along on the householding journey, she’d probably appreciate gifts of a more refined nature. Delight friends and relatives alike with these gems from local shops.—Erika Howsare

Click to enlarge

Little wings Child-sized "Swan" chair from And George ($425, 3465 Ivy Rd., 244-2800); Under ware Paper placemats from Créme de la Créme ($1, Barracks Road Shopping Center, 296-7018); That whistle blowing Tea kettle from The Happy Cook ($50, Barracks Road Shopping Center, 977-2665); On the fringe Cotton throw from Patina Antiques ($89, 2171 Ivy Rd., 244-3222); Say when Champagne glasses from The Curious Orange Store ($72, set of 6, 2845 Ivy Rd., 984-1042); Bright glow Candle holder from Ivy Nursery ($40.95, 570 Broomley Rd., 295-1183); Back and forth Rocking chair from Blue Ridge Eco Shop ($295, 313 E. Main St., 296-0042); Press here French press from The Seasonal Cook ($49.95, 416 W. Main St., Main Street Market, 295-9355); Terry Christmas Bath towels from Yves Delorme ($33, 311 E. Main St., Downtown Mall, 979-4111); Perfectly clear Pitcher from Artifacts ($42, 111 Fourth St. NE, 295-9500); Hip to be square Alarm clock from Roxie Daisy ($54.95, 101 E. Water St., 202-8133). 

Categories
Arts

Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Have you heard about those MIT researchers who invented a camera that records a trillion frames per second, literally reducing the speed of light to mind-boggling slow motion? More importantly, has Guy Ritchie heard? 

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law reprise the roles of Holmes and Watson in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, director Guy Ritchie’s latest attempt at translating a cerebral Victorian mystery series into a showy modern action film. Photo courtesy Warner Bros.

Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows derives from Arthur Conan Doyle’s fiction, but it’s hard not to wonder if the director’s real inspiration was that famous old freeze-frame of a bullet blasting through an apple. There’s a lot of time being slowed down here, not just because it’s a Victorian period piece but also because its maker loves to gape at flying bullets and fists. Ritchie’s dubious breakthrough, so zealously embraced in his first Holmes film two years ago and obligingly repeated in the new sequel, is to posit these grunting sub-montage digressions as an action-thriller expression of the great detective’s consequence-calculating mind. But all pretensions to the contrary aside, A Game of Shadows is anything but a head game.

Robert Downey Jr. resumes his role as the supersleuth, with Jude Law again playing his loyal physician helpmate Watson, this time tangling with storied criminal-mastermind nemesis Moriarty, in the amusingly palpable form of Jarred Harris. With due respect to screenwriters Kieran and Michele Mulroney, you know it’s a Guy Ritchie movie when even the great intellectual rival is depicted as a mouth breather.

Moriarty’s plan for world domination involves cornering the market, by any means necessary, on war supplies. Holmes’ task is to stay a few moves ahead of him. And Ritchie’s strategy about strategy is self-parodic, more or less “Me prove me smart. Me put chess piece in extreme close-up!”

Ever the theatrical swaggerer, Downey doesn’t exactly redeem this material, but he still seems like the best man for it. Holmes practicing his disguises allows Downey the challenge of simultaneously chewing on and blending in to the scenery. He’s always had a gift for physicalizing his intelligence—or, as befits Ritchie’s project, channeling it into a current of smartest-guy-in-the-room smugness. With that in mind, it’s a minor coup for Ritchie to have cast the great Stephen Fry as Holmes’ older brother Mycroft, a government dandy who rivals the detective’s deductive brilliance but is lazy and unwilling to sully himself—a one-man antithesis to the movie’s sooty vim. Looking bulbous and at ease, Fry nonchalantly sends up the preposterousness of the whole enterprise; he’s the only one here who’s not trying too hard. Even Noomi Rapace, as a combat-ready gypsy accessory, seems strained by her assigned duty to just look nice.

A Game of Shadows goes down abrasively, with all the fizz and chemical syrup of soda pop. Then it sits in the gut, passing off heaviness as satisfaction, and this kind of effect can be habit-forming. “All that slow-motion stuff? I love that,” one young woman said on the way out of a recent screening. She wanted more.

A book to give you TV time back

A friend alerted me to the publication of this new book, apparently written just for people like me.

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter breaks down the world of food into two categories: stuff that it’s worthwhile to make/grow/cure/slaughter yourself at home, and stuff you’re better off picking up at the Food Lion. (Or wherever.)

For the D.I.Y.-inclined, this is kind of like sanity in book form. I’m all too familiar with the mania that can overtake someone blessed with a backyard, an inability to relax and a perverse desire to tally the number of home-raised versus store-bought ingredients in any given dinner.

For me, the mania mostly has to do with canning. I can too much, and I know that because I don’t actually eat everything I can. Even after giving away as much as possible, I still have jars in the basement that’ll never see the light of day. One of my resolutions for 2012 is to can less. (Except tomatoes. No such thing as "too many.")

For others, the mania could manifest in animal husbandry (picture somebody with a full-time job raising bees, chickens, ducks, goats, a small cow, tilapia, etc.) or in artisan-type food projects (making cheese, curing meats, brewing beer). Whatever the flavor, it might get you some serious foodie cred, but the mania can also wreck your leisure time in a hurry.

So I’m glad somebody’s talking some sense about this. Anybody read the book? Anybody cutting back (or ramping up) your food-producing hobbies?

Categories
News

Review: The Producers

To paraphrase a line from The Producers, Christmas came early to Live Arts this year, and guess who they stuffed in our stocking? Adolf Hitler! This holiday season, Live Art’s production of the wryly-humored musical by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan gives the gift of gut-splitting laughter. The Producers is deftly directed by Live Arts Executive Director Matt Joslyn, who took a break from managing to reconnect with the creative process. According to the playbill’s director notes, his primary objective with the show was to “play,” and play he does, in an over-the-top production with a 24-member cast, a 12-member production team, and a crew of 28, all of which manifests as a fast-moving kaleidoscope of craziness.

 

There’s no success like failure for Live Arts’ Doug Schneider and Kip McCharen, who bicker and cajole their way to accidental show-biz fame as Max and Leo in The Producers. Photo courtesy Live Arts.

 

The action begins on a sidewalk in front of a Broadway theater, on opening night of the latest flop by floundering producer Max Bialystock (Doug Schneider). Swirling, smiling patrons besmirch the show with ironic verve in “It’s Opening Night,” cleverly setting the mood for things to come. While lamenting the slump in his career, the greedy, showboating Bialystock is inspired by an observation made by his accountant Leo Bloom (Kip McCharen), that a producer can make more money from a stinker than a success. The duo sets out to make millions by producing the worst play Broadway has ever seen, and thus is born Springtime for Hitler, a musical idolizing the quintessential villain of the 20th century. Mayhem ensues as the show’s playwright and Nazi sympathizer, Franz Liebkind (Tom Howard) is cast in the lead role and flamboyant director Roger DeBris (Noah Grabeel) joins the production.

Live Arts’ show is kept at a breakneck tempo through Robert Benjamin’s well-executed lighting tricks, which keep the action focused on performing actors as others move set pieces, making scene changes practically unnoticeable. The large cast is cleverly manipulated by Joslyn’s brilliant blocking and choreographer Geri Carlson Sauls’ exuberant dance numbers, which utilize every inch of the available space without seeming crowded. Particularly clever is “Along Came Bialy” in which Sauls incorporates metal walkers for percussive and visual effects. But if there were an award for best production element, it would easily go to the costume crew. Kerry Moran and her volunteer staff designed and created an awe-inspiring 108 witty and wild costumes. The audience squealed with delight over the icons of a Springtime for Hitler fashion show, where a bevy of beauties paraded across the stage in a Ziegfeld Follies homage, dressed in showgirl representations of beer, pretzels, bratwurst, and a Wagnerian norse goddess. I laughed so hard my cheeks ached.

Although Joslyn performs miracles with his volunteer cast, all of whom achieve professional level performances, Schneider’s Bialystock dominates the show (and his creepy comb-over hair-do only helps). Schneider plays the role with such shameless sliminess and perfect comedic phrasing that lines like “Who do you have to fuck to get a break in this town?” go beyond offensive and become character defining. He is even able to elicit sympathy during his solo number “Betrayed,” without a hint of sappiness, which is a testament to his ability as an actor.

The one low ebb of this tidal wave of a show is a dance number between Leo and Ulla (Michelle Majorin), the sexy Swedish secretary. Though McCharen is delightfully in-character as the tightly wound Bloom, stilted in movement but purposefully so, and Majorin’s Swedish accent is flawless, the chemistry between the two comes off as frosty and a bit reserved. Those familiar with the play might be a tad underwhelmed here, but on the whole, the show is stellar.

The Producers won an unprecedented 12 Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway in 2001, and Live Arts has truly captured all the glitz, hilarity and irony of the original in its production. When Joslyn and company invite you to play, you’d do well to accept, and luckily, this invitation extends until mid-January.

Charlottesville investment banker and family believed dead after plane crash

Jeffrey Buckalew, a 45-year-old investment banker who worked for New York-based investment firm Greenhill and Company but lived in Charlottesville, is believed dead following a plane crash in New Jersey. Buckalew, a pilot and registered aircraft owner, traveled between Charlottesville and New York for his job. The single-engine airplane was traveling between New Jersey and Georgia when it crashed on I-287. The airplane was registered to Buckalew’s New York address. 

Buckalew’s wife, Corinne, his two children, and business partner Rakesh Chawla were also reportedly on-board. The New York Times has more here.

Buckalew supported local arts and charities, and was also reported to be an investor in Forest Lodge, a limited liability company that purchased then sold Biscuit Run.

Categories
Arts

The Great Russian Nutcracker comes to the Paramount

When Moscow Ballet brings its sumptuous Great Russian Nutcracker to the States, the company comes bearing gifts of major artistic accomplishment. Each year, two companies of 40 dancers each tour over 60 cities in the United States and Canada, averaging over 100 performances in two months time, offering a unique version of the classic Christmas treat served up with Eastern European flavor.

Moscow Ballet debuted in 1993 with its Great Russian Nutcracker, which is now in its 19th holiday season touring the U.S. Publicity photo.

For those who have seen countless iterations of The Nutcracker, the storyline of Moscow Ballet’s production has its own unique elements, and these twists are also bound to awe those who have yet to see the ballet. In the Great Russian Nutcracker, as in typical American takes on the tale, the story begins with a family Christmas party, and a generous uncle who bestows a nutcracker to the hosts’ daughter, who is commonly known as Clara, but goes by Masha in the Moscow version. That same evening, the nutcracker is broken during some rough play and the girl is despondent. Later, she dreams of a fierce battle between the Christmas toys and some pesky mice in which the mighty nutcracker leads the toys to victory and then turns into a handsome prince. Here is where the similarities between the two Nutcrackers end.

The American brand of The Nutcracker follows the original 1892 storyline of a young girl’s foray into an exotic dreamworld of candy and sweets, The Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Russian version delivers a more romantic vision. “It is a beautiful love story between Masha and her Nutcracker Prince,” explains Nataliya Miroshynk, a solo dancer with Moscow Ballet and five-year veteran of its Great Russian Nutcracker. Although the first act of the story is basically the same as the traditional incarnation, the second follows Masha as additional characters from Russian folklore, including the Snow Maiden and Father Christmas, guide her to a place called The Land of Peace and Harmony. In lieu of characters like Mother Ginger, who greet Clara in The Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Masha is welcomed by a cadre of international emissaries from Russia, Spain, France, China, and Arabia to a place where, according to Miroshynk, “all creatures live in accord with one another.” The Sugar Plum Fairy is replaced with the Dove of Peace, and at the end of the second act, Masha is an adult woman who performs a grand pas de deux of love with her prince. The traditional Waltz of the Flowers concludes the performance.

Something else that may surprise audiences in Moscow Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker is the style of dancing. “In the Moscow Ballet we dance in the style of Vaganova, which is different than the American style,” says Miroshynk. “It is more flowing and smoother.” The style to which she refers is named after the famous Russian ballet instructor Agrippina Vaganova, who literally wrote the book on Russian ballet technique, Basic Principles of Classical Ballet. The Vaganova method instigates movement from the torso, condones deliberate hand gestures, and often includes powerful turns and very high jumps. Igor Antonov, a native of Ukraine and an Artistic Associate with the Richmond Ballet explains, “Generally speaking, the Russian style has a long tradition, having started centuries ago. It’s had a long time to develop into a distinct movement style, marked by big movement and strong technique. Especially for the male dancers, the focus is on big jumps, a high level of presentation and bravado, all while keeping the technique intact. The American style is newer, still developing. The movement is more contemporary, and based a lot on what George Balanchine did, with his neo-classical movement. It’s the same technique and steps, but altered slightly, stretched a bit.” Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century, was trained in the Vaganova method, which distinguished him in America. And if you’ve ever seen Baryshnikov dance, the Great Russian Nutcracker will bring to mind his gravity-defying high jumps and beautifully centered movements. 

The second act of Moscow Ballet’s performance also incorporates puppets by famed Russian set designer and puppeteer Valentin Federov. Puppets are important to Christmas tradition in many parts of Russia, hence their appearance in this production. “Puppetry has been used a lot in religious traditions for centuries, dating back to shamanistic rituals,” says Heidi Rugg, director of Barefoot Puppets, a touring company based in Virginia. “The roots of puppetry are grounded in this magical tradition.” On Christmas Eve, puppeteers in pre-revolutionary Russia would travel from house to house bearing a vertep—a portable puppet theater whose name translates as “secret place”—on a sleigh. Puppet shows depicting stories from the Bible, along with sung Christmas carols, would be presented to families to celebrate the birth of Christ. For the Great Russian Nutcracker, Federov designed 6′ tall stick puppets in homage to the vertep, steeping the show even further in Russian tradition.

Moscow Ballet comes to The Paramount Theater for performances on December 21 and 22. Its message is one of peace and harmony, which may be something you hear a lot during the holiday season, but it’s a rare delight to get it through the medium of dance.