Month: February 2012

Green Scene Blog: Forward to nature

It can get too easy to equate “nature” with what’s in the past. If nature can’t be modern, then our only way to reconnect with it is to turn back the clock on ourselves, too (i.e., throw out the e-book, start rubbing two sticks together). Not so fast, says Richard Louv. The guy’s clearly a fan of the great outdoors (he wrote the very widely-read book Last Child in the Woods), but he doesn’t expect anyone to adopt a Luddite stance.

Back-to-nature thinking, he explained to me in an e-mail, ignores the fact that we live in a technological and increasingly urban world. Yet we need nature more than ever, to shore up every aspect of society from property values to mental health. He’s trying (in his new book The Nature Principle, and likely in his March 15 talk at The Paramount) to lay out a vision for a thriving culture that unites nature and technology in a mutually beneficial, yin-and-yang relationship.

“The ultimate multitasking,” he wrote, “is to live simultaneously in both the digital and the physical world, using computers to maximize our powers to process intellectual data, and natural environments to ignite all of our senses and accelerate our ability to learn and to feel; in this way, we would combine the resurfaced “primitive” powers of our ancestors with the digital speed of our teenagers.”

Louv’s vision is complex, running from ecovillages to “Human/Nature Report Cards,” and I can’t do it justice here. But here’s one glimpse. “Pediatricians and other health professionals are beginning to ‘prescribe’ nature. They’re partnering with park districts, writing ‘park prescriptions.’ Park rangers take on a new role as health paraprofessionals. That’s not looking backward, but to a future we’ve never had.”
 

UVA ticket prices increase

Season tickets for UVA football will be a bit more expensive next year.

Prices increased by $15, roughly $1.82 per game. A season ticket package will now cost between $130 and $285.

The decision is based on lower sales figures.

"Those sales goals have been where we have been off, but I think attendance generally has been solid. And we’re thinking that attendance is going to go up," UVA Athletics Director Craig Littlepage told NBC29. 

Depsite the increase, UVA’s season ticket prices remain much lower than other ACC schools. Ticketholders at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill pay up to $315 and Virginia Tech charges a flat $300. 

Men’s basketball season tickets will also be more expensive next year, increasing by 94 cents per game.

Center for Politics hosts “Inside the 2012 Elections”

UVA’s Center for Politics is assembling a group of political experts to discuss the upcoming 2012 election as the important political contests on Super Tuesday approach.

Panel members include Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard, and Major Garrett, the White House correspondent for National Journal. Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato will moderate.

Discusison topics will include the race for the Republican nomination, President Obama’s reelection chances and the battle for control of Congress.

The event will be held tonight at 6 p.m. in the Rotunda Dome Room.

Categories
Living

UVA Art Museum reassembles a 14th century Italian masterpiece

 A momentous reunion is happening at the University of Virginia. No, we’re not talking about alumni returning to town to relive their glory days. This goes back much further than even Mr. Jefferson himself—all the way to 14th century Italy, when painter Bartolo di Fredi took up his brush to create an altarpiece for a church in his native city of Siena. As he applied his tempera and gold leaf, he surely didn’t imagine that half a millenium* later parts of his painting would scatter across the globe, nor that they would be reunited for “The Adoration of the Magi by Bartolo di Fredi: A Masterpiece Reconstructed,” an exhibition opening Friday at the UVA Art Museum.

“Seven Saints in Adoration” is one of three pieces of Bartolo di Fredi’s majestic Sienese altarpiece shown together at the UVA Art Museum beginning Friday. (Courtesy of Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali PinacotecaNazionale di Siena.)

“Bartolo’s most famous work was probably a series of frescoes that were painted in the town of San Gimignano, which is near Siena, in the late 1360s,” Bruce Boucher, who joined the museum as director in 2009, told us. Boucher, along with UVA Associate Professor Francesca Fiorani, co-curated this exhibition, which was inspired by a portion of Bartolo’s altarpiece that found its way into UVA’s collection. “When I came here I thought it would be great for our public if we could try to reunite the three surviving pieces of this altarpiece, to show that the painting, pretty though it was, was merely a small part of a much larger structure,” Boucher said.

While his frescoes might be more famous, Boucher views Bartolo’s “Adoration of the Magi,” painted between 1375 and 1385, as the artist’s biggest accomplishment. “I think this is really his masterpiece,” he said. “He was not a painter of the first rank, like Simone Martini or Duccio, but he was consistently good, and in this painting I think he really outdid himself.” The altarpiece’s upper portion, for instance, not only features the wise men’s cavalcade as they journey to Bethlehem, but also incorporates Siena itself into that Biblical scene. “You see a view of a walled medieval city, which looks very much like Siena, and a building with green and white marble, which looks very much like the Gothic cathedral in Siena,” Boucher said. “It has this wonderful richness of detail, of narrative detail, that has this very obvious attempt to try to connect Siena with Jerusalem.”

“And of course it calls to mind the political fact that the Sienese had entrusted their city to the care of the Virgin from 1260 onwards,” he added, referring to Siena’s adoption of the Virgin Mary as its special patron.

Bartolo’s altarpiece remained in place for around 500 years, but then came the 19th century and the upheaval of the Napoleonic Wars. Like many religious artworks during that period, it was divided and scattered by the art market. The main panel, which depicts the familiar scene of the wise men paying homage to the Baby Jesus, remained in Siena, where it is now in the collection of Italy’s National Picture Gallery. A large portion of the bottom panel, which features Christ’s crucifixion along with a group of on-looking saints, was purchased in Rome by German aristocrat Bernhard von Lindenau, and it is still part of the Lindenau-Museum in his hometown of Altenburg.

Another section of the bottom panel, which portrays seven additional saints, has had the most adventurous journey. Its whereabouts remained a mystery until the 1920s, when it turned up in New York in a Milanese sale catalog, only to promptly disappear again. Then, in the 1970s, those gold-leafed saints surfaced right here in Charlottesville, when a local woman who had inherited the piece donated it to the UVA Art Museum. “Our scholars made the connection with the other panel in Germany in the late 1970s, and so we knew that it was part of this altarpiece,” said Boucher. “The painting may have had other panels to it, or wall frescoes that were part of a larger complex. We just don’t know.”

In addition to the three known sections of Bartolo’s “Adoration of the Magi,” the exhibition will also feature two works by his Sienese contemporaries, a small domestic altarpiece by Naddo Ceccarelli and a life-size crucifixion scene by Francesco di Vannuccio. “With these other two paintings we also show other aspects of the Christian narrative and different types of Christian altarpiece,” said Boucher. “You get to see something of the variety of religious painting in 14th century Siena and the way in which the Sienese regarded these works not only as religious statements but also as statements of political affiliation, of talismanic power.”

“The Adoration of the Magi by Bartolo di Fredi: A Masterpiece Reconstructed” opens this Friday, March 2. The museum will also host some of the world’s leading scholars on Sienese art for a symposium on April 27 and 28, and you can catch a glimpse of the six century reunion through May 27. Take that, Class of 1962.

*Corrected from "half a century"

Categories
Arts

The Secret World of Arrietty; G, 94 minutes; Carmike Cinema 6

 The latest offering from esteemed Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli (Ponyo, Spirited Away) comes to American audiences courtesy of Disney, and that seems like a win-win arrangement.

The Secret World of Arrietty is a collaboration between Disney and Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli based on the children’s book series The Borrowers. (Disney)

The Secret World of Arrietty—written by Karey Kirkpatrick, directed by Gary Rydstrom, and starring the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, and Carol Burnett—is one of those all-ages movies whose appeal derives directly from not having much to lose in translation.

Adapted from The Borrowers, the first in a series of British children’s books by Mary Norton dating back to 1952, and directed, originally, by Miyazaki protégé Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Arrietty portrays the denizens of a stately but rustic country house, particularly the very tiny people who for several generations have subsisted rather resourcefully under its floorboards. One of these “Borrowers,” the eponymous young heroine (voiced by Bridgit Mendler), is a girl on the cusp of adolescence and accordingly eager for adventure. Naturally, this causes some consternation for her taciturn dad (Arnett) and her too-nervous mom (Poehler).

Borrowers live peaceably and preferably unnoticed among humans, known to them as “Beans.” Never mind that the self-applied moniker is a euphemism, as they don’t actually return what they take. Borrowers “borrow” only what they need and what Beans won’t miss—a sugar cube, a Kleenex—and tend to make it last a lot longer than the Beans would anyway. They are models of inconspicuous consumption. It’s fun to watch them work, rappelling from kitchen countertops with earrings used as grappling hooks, and impressive to behold the film’s fully telescopic view of how far down this unwittingly cooperative resource-sharing trickles: Left briefly unattended, that same sugar cube inevitably gets reduced to still smaller bits and carted off by ants to their own tiny unseen home.

If this is sounding low-key, well, yes. The trademark Ghibli animation style prioritizes lush, lovingly drawn and sound-designed atmosphere over high-stakes drama, and that’s literally the beauty of it. You just want to hang out here. Plot is provided, albeit clunkily, as soon as Arrietty gets noticed by Shawn (David Henrie), a sickly Bean boy of about her age (if well beyond her height) who’s been stashed away at the house to rest up before a risky heart operation. Also, the Bean maid, Hara (Burnett), wants to prove that Borrowers exist and redeem herself from a reputation for “losing things.”

Through these tensions, Yonebayashi suggests the mutilating magnification of good intentions transposed between incompatible scales. More than that, though, and maybe more importantly, he animates the gentle wonder of a secret world.

Categories
Living

Alberto Longo’s making wines fit to gulp

Accountant-turned-winemaker Alberto Longo is producing a range of wines at his modern facility in Lucera, Italy, including a few reds available locally.

There are certain wines that, even without knowing what they are, make you want to drink them happily, heartily, with friends, and without restraint. They make you want to stuff rustic foods like bread and salami into your mouth using little to no table manners. These are my favorite wines. They don’t need to be aged, decanted, swirled, sniffed, or analyzed. They just need to be enjoyed with reckless abandon. Reds from Southern Italy fit this description and a Pugliese producer whose line is carried by Richmond-based importer, Peter Atkinson, makes wine fit for a bacchanalian feast.

Most of Puglia’s wine is produced on the high-heel of Italy’s boot—the Salento Peninsula—where the land is flat and drenched in sun with a mean annual rainfall so low that it’s measured in millimeters. But travel to the northern reaches of the region, near the country’s ankle, and it’s hilly and mountainous. Here, in the town of Lucera, accountant-turned-winemaker Alberto Longo is producing an impressive range of wines on about 85 acres of vines. His über-modern facility, complete with light-, temperature-, and humidity-controlled cellars, was built from a 19th century farm house, so terracotta tile roofs contrast with sleek stone walls.

Atkinson imports an interesting white that Longo makes with Falanghina, a grape more commonly grown in Campania, as well as a gravelly rosé that’s made from Negroamaro, an indigenous red grape that literally means “bitter black,” but it’s the reds that beg to be downed by the bucket.

Longo’s reds are as generous and lusty as those from Puglia’s sun-baked south, but because the north has iron-rich soil and a growing season that’s four to five weeks longer, Longo manages to coax out a minerality and complexity that isn’t always there in the Salento-grown stuff. A bonus, I should add, that comes at no additional cost. The Cantine di Terravecchia line retails for around $10 a bottle at Market Street Wineshops, Tastings of Charlottesville, Wine Made Simple, and Greenwood Gourmet & Grocery.

The pàmpana is 100 percent Negroamaro and tastes of fresh black cherries with lithe tannins and a bitter almond finish. The citerna takes Nero di Troia, a grape traditionally used only for blending, and lets it stand on its own. It comes across soft, floral, and swelling with blackcurrants. The làmia showcases Puglia’s trademark red wine grape, Primitivo, more gracefully than the often overripe, stewed versions from down south. With the same DNA as Zinfandel, Primitivo is all about spice and fruit and in the làmia, specifically plums and cinnamon.

In all three, fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks, then the wine’s transferred to cement vats (see Winespeak 101) where it spends a few months before being bottled. They’re fresh, juicy, and ready to drink. I’d pair them with orecchiette, spicy sausage, and rapini; or pizza with soppressata and sweet peppers; or even just a hunk of sheep’s milk cheese and bread.

Of course, you need not limit yourself to Italian food. Tavola’s poured these juicy jewels by the glass, but so does Bizou and Bonefish Grill, where the pàmpana is the Happy Hour Red and a most contented companion with everything from surf to turf.

Longo makes higher-end wines that he oak- and bottle-ages for 18-plus months, but it’s his low-priced ones that scream instant-gratification, friend-filled, food-fueled, guilt-free fun.

Winespeak 101
Cement vats (n.): Vessels for aging wine that allow the microscopic exchange of oxygen without imparting any of the vanilla or baking spice flavors that oak barrels do.

 

The polished up Gov Cup goes to…

Glen Manor Vineyards 2009 Hodder Hill Meritage took this year’s Governor’s Cup, the first in a revamped competition which raises the profile for both the competition and its winners. The Meritage was selected from more than 400 entries, all of which were made from strictly Virginia-grown grapes. This year’s competition, judged by a panel of 15 wine professionals, placed the top 12 wines into a Governor’s Case and nine of them were from the Charlottesville area. The winners were announced last Thursday in conjunction with the Virginia Wine Expo, which ran over the weekend in Richmond.

Dinner down on the trail
The wineries of the Appellation Trail (White Hall Vineyards, Mountfair Vineyards, Glass House Winery, and Stinson Vineyards) are joining forces with Bill Curtis, owner and chef of Tastings, to offer a five-course meal at White Hall Vineyards on Saturday at 6pm. Each course will be paired with wines from the Appellation Trail. The cost is $175 per couple and includes all wine pairings, tax, and tip. Make your reservations at: theappellation trail.com/#events. Want to make a weekend of it? The Inn at Sugar Hollow Farm is offering a two-night package that includes the dinner along with a wine reception on Friday.

Categories
Arts

TV Previews: “Awake,” “When Vacations Attack,” “GCB”

“Awake”
Thursday 10pm, NBC
Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter flicks, totally butched up here) plays a cop living a fascinating double life. Months ago he was in a car accident with his wife and teenaged son. Only one member of his family lived—but he’s not sure which one. When Isaac’s character goes to sleep, he finds himself in one reality in which his wife is alive, he has a new partner (“That 70’s Show”’s Wilmer Valderama), and he sees a shrink (B.D. Wong, “Law & Order: SVU”). When he goes to sleep in that reality, he wakes up in another, in which his son is alive, he has a totally different partner (Steve Harris, “The Practice”), and he sees a totally different psychiatrist (the amazing Cherry Jones, “24”). Despite the potential for cheesiness, both realities are completely believable, the drama is compelling, and Isaacs is a surprisingly strong leading man.

“When Vacations Attack”
Thursday 8pm, Travel Channel
I’m taking my first big-boy vacation next month, heading to Mexico for a week at a resort. My mother is convinced that I will end up headless on a beach, or sold into white slavery by a drug cartel. (I keep trying to explain to her: Nobody would pay for me.) Before I head off, I plan to study up on this show, so I know what stupid shit to avoid. “Vacations” chronicles real people’s horrific getaway experiences. So you get surfers breaking their backs on killer waves, fishermen getting stabbed by marlins, elephants rampaging. I think I’ll just stick with my Kindle, the pool, and a cabana boy, thanks.

“GCB”
Sunday 10pm, ABC
With the ladies of “Desperate Housewives” bidding adieu to Wisteria Lane at the end of the season, ABC needs to fill its pumps with another dramedy about pretty women behaving terribly. “GCB”—short for “Good Christian Belles,” and formerly/awesomely “Good Christian Bitches”—is produced by Darren Star (“Sex and the City”) and written by Robert Harling (Steel Magnolias). It centers around Amanda (Leslie Bibb, “Popular”), a former Dallas mean girl who has been tamed by time, and is forced to move home to live with her mom (Annie Potts, “Designing Women”). Across the street is the former target of her high-school terror campaign, Carlene (Broadway goddess Kristin Chenoweth), who in Amanda’s absence has climbed to the top of Bitch Mountain. Expect lots of religious-infused barbs, wackiness, and steamy scenes with a variety of bohunks. —Eric Rezsnyak

Categories
News

Jarmere Jenkins and the Cavaliers set their sights on spring titles

 ‘‘I’m going to retire from this game,’’ mutters UVA junior Jarmere Jenkins.

He roots around behind the heavy curtains hanging in front of the wall behind Court 7 at the Boyd Tinsley Tennis Center, the Boar’s Head Sports Club’s cavernous indoor tennis facility, searching for a stray ball and collecting his thoughts.

Jarmere Jenkins, UVA junior co-captain, is an explosive hitter who can overpower opponents and cover the court like a blanket. (Photo by Matt Riley)

At least that’s what it sounded like he was saying. Whatever he said, it was under his breath, not meant for the ears of the 1,070 spectators who had braved heavy snow to claim a spot on the hard aluminum bleachers overlooking the gladiator’s pit Jenkins was standing in.

His body language—shoulders slumped rounder than usual and the hair-trigger look in his eye—sent the clear message that the nation’s 10th-ranked college singles player was frustrated.

Jenkins found the ball, which Ohio State University’s 16th-ranked Chase Buchanan had fired past him just moments before, glowered at it, and stalked back onto the court. If the Cavaliers, ranked second best in the nation as a team, advanced, they would play top-ranked University of Southern California in the title game, with a chance to earn their fifth-straight national indoor team championship in front of the hometown fans.

The one-on-one battle between Jenkins and Buchanan was one of many that played out on Court 7 over the middle two weekends in January. For the first time in history, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) agreed to host both the men’s and women’s National Indoor Team Championship tournaments at a single facility, making for an early season battle royal between the nation’s best players.

Twelve women’s teams descended on Charlottesville from February 10-13, and UCLA walked away victorious on the final day. The operations team at the Boar’s Head had about a day to recover from a series of late-night marathons, before they had to gear up for the men. Five teams—Cal, UCLA, Pepperdine, Stanford and USC—made the exhausting journey from the West Coast to central Virginia to take part.

“We’ve been on Virginia time all week, setting our alarms early so we’ll be alert,” said Cal Head Coach Peter Wright, who brought 11 players with him from Berkeley. “Win or lose, you’re in a draw with the top teams. You find out a lot about yourselves and how you compete. We’re here to win, but whatever happens just motivates us for later.”

USC arrived as the top-ranked team in the nation, last year’s collegiate champion Steve Johnson flanked by a new partner in crime, the highly touted 6’4" German freshman Yannick Hanffman.

Peter Smith, USC’s easygoing, silver-haired coach, knows his team has a target on its back, and that nobody wants to win this tournament more than the home team. “You think a lot of things. That’s certainly one of them. You try to stay disciplined and play one match at a time. Virginia’s aware of us and we’re aware of them, but there’s 14 other teams we’ve got to deal with,” Smith said.

The tournament’s format was designed to make the trip worthwhile as an early season proving ground, with each team guaranteed three matches, win or lose, against the nation’s top competition. Wright’s Cal Bears, ranked No. 13 in the nation, fell to No. 4 Georgia on the first day. In the consolation bracket, Cal defeated No. 12 Pepperdine and lost to No. 8 UCLA, both teams they could have played without leaving their home state.

The rigors of travel are part of tennis life. While some players worked out on the court between sessions, others hunched over notebooks on metal benches in the gallery. They had homework to turn in when they got back.

The home court edge
Back on Court 7, Jenkins’ frustration is coming to a boil. Steady, cool-headed Chase Buchanan has taken the first set 7-5. This UVA team has never lost at the Boar’s Head, but things are beginning to look dark.

In a collegiate team match, there are seven points up for grabs. The teams play three doubles matches—the first team to win two matches taking a point. Jenkins and his partner, senior Drew Courtney, beat their opponents in their doubles match, but Ohio State won the other two to take the point.

Jenkins is a set down, and his team is facing the prospect of having to win four out of six singles matches to reach the tournament final against USC. That much distance now, between him and a showdown with Johnson and Hanfmann. A set down, not hitting spots, not seeing the ball well.

The fans love Jenkins, who moves around the court a little bit pigeon-toed, like Andre did. They’re trying to lift him. “C’mon, JJ!” and “You’ve got this one, JJ!”, bursting into wild applause as he slots a backhand volley into the corner, just past Buchanan’s outstretched racket. All six singles matches are going on at once, side by side, and the grunts mix with the pop of the balls and reverberate across the hard surface. As the games turn on decisive points, the numbers lighting up the large scoreboard tell the story.

Jenkins is right in the middle of all that, on Court 7 where the teams’ top singles players do battle and the row of bleachers courtside allows spectators the chance to see the players’ eyes dilate before they make contact. It should be an advantage for Jenkins. Former UVA stars Dominic Inglot and Samdev Devarrman—fixtures on the ATP professional circuit since graduating—are in his corner, calling out advice and encouragement from prime seats. Head Coach Brian Boland has turned trips to the Tinsley Tennis Center into a dreaded experience for opponents, in part because of the tight familial character of his team. He knows Jenkins feeds off of the older guys.

“Yeah, they love it. That’s why so many of us coach; the opportunity to build these unbelievable relationships, not only for four years but hopefully for a lifetime,” Boland said. “If you have great relationships with your current and former players, and you kind of set them up to accomplish the goals and dreams that they have for themselves when they take their first step off Grounds at the University of Virginia, then I feel like I’ve done my job.”
Court 10 is less than 100 yards away from Court 7, but the atmosphere is a world away. Drew Courtney, a co-captain, has won his first set, and leads the second. Guatemalan junior Julen Uriguen has split sets on Court 12. Justin Shane is reeling on 11, to his left, but Courtney can only control the outcome of his own match. The 6’5" senior is from Clifton, Virginia, and his family has packed the nearby bleachers.

UVA coach Brian Boland knows how to juggle personalities. Here he shares a quiet word with senior captain Drew Courtney. (Photo by Matt Riley)

“It’s cool to have some familiar faces in the crowd that you can vibe off of,” he said later. “We have the best fans in the country. We appreciate it, and it’s so fun to be able to play in an atmosphere like this when they’re going crazy. It’s definitely an advantage.”

They are ecstatic when Courtney closes the match, earning Virginia’s first point. After he shakes hands with his opponent, he thanks the referee, walks up the courtside ramp toward his family, but stops short to exchange a few words with USC’s Johnson. The Trojans advanced earlier, brushing aside No. 4 Georgia with the same alacrity they displayed in dispatching early-round foes Duke and Tennessee.

As Courtney’s courtside exchange with Johnson proves, familiarity and friendship often cross team lines in the college tennis world. Most of the players have warred through the juniors, many of them traveling together to national tournaments and tour events. As a UVA fan you could consider Johnson the enemy. He finished the 2011 season ranked No. 1, one spot ahead of UVA’s Alex Domijan, and won doubles and singles points to help USC win the NCAA title over Virginia by a narrow 4-3 margin.

“Drew, Jarmere and myself…we’ve been playing against each other since we were 12,” Johnson said. “We’re good friends off the court, but on the court we put our friendships aside for a couple of hours.”

Shane gets behind early in the second set, leaving Uriguen in a lonely third-set showdown on the far end of the building, two empty courts between him and the rest of the action. Ohio State is up 2-1 with four sets of players still on the court.

All for one, one for all
On Court 7, Jenkins has turned the match around. His frustration boiled over early in the second set, prompting him to take an angry swipe at a ball that sent it skyward so hard and fast that it penetrated the space-age material covering the ceiling, lodging fast. It’s a temper tantrum, and Jenkins may see a bill for the repairs later in the semester, but as he stares at the hole he has made, his frustration dissipates. At 5’11", he is not as tall as many of his teammates—Alex Domijan, one court over, is a towering 6’7"—but Jenkins looks more like a cornerback than a tennis player.

As the matches on the lower courts wind down, UVA Associate Coach Andres Pedroso has taken up station near Jenkins.

“Beat him with your legs!” he urges. “Not one ball with your hands! This guy cannot handle you!”

Jenkins rares back and powers a serve past Buchanan for an ace. While Pedroso amps up Jenkins, Boland is on a different tack with the other players, offering a quiet word of advice to freshman Mitchell Frank then to Domijan, during the changeover. For the more experienced player, a fatherly hand on the shoulder and a single word of encouragement are sufficient.

“The way you would coach Justin versus the way you would coach Mitchell or Alex or Jarmere is just different,” Boland said. “It’s an individual sport, so you have to learn to adjust to each player and what makes it work for him, rather than them all adjusting to your personality.”

With six matches going on at once, college tennis coaches have to be master jugglers. Often, that means the older players essentially coach themselves so the younger players can get the attention they need.

USC’s Smith handles his players with a seemingly avuncular laissez-faire that disguises a meticulous attention to detail, sauntering between courts in his grey hoodie, asking a player to set up one step to his left to take away a wide serve in the ad court. He has arranged special meals to accommodate Hanfmann’s gluten-free diet, and keeps careful tabs on the mental state of players, even when they’re on the sidelines, waiting. “Tennis players aren’t used to being up in the stands cheering,” he said, with a wry smile. “They’re by nature very selfish creatures. When they have to be helping and supporting, it’s a good lesson for them.”
As a returning champion and a senior team captain with USTA men’s singles events under his belt from the offseason, Johnson hasn’t gotten much advice from Smith, who knows he’s got the even-tempered, big-hitting Hanfmann batting second in his powerful lineup.

UVA co-captains Jarmere Jenkins and Drew Courtney have a near-telepathic bond that helps them excel in doubles play. (Photo by Matt Riley)

Hanfmann strikes a deep and heavy ball off both sides and moves well, like Wayne Ferreira. Johnson is twitchy, explosive, and ferociously competitive. His killer instinct and serve and return games separate him from the pack. He can also be petulant on the court. During a dispute with an official in his first-round match, he approached the chair and drummed a tennis ball between the aluminum rungs beneath the chair umpire’s feet to emphasize his point. His periodic quips continued throughout the match, until the official declared firmly, “That’s enough,” ending the onslaught. On Sunday, a second official felt his wrath, which can be directed at himself at times, but which doesn’t seem to bother him so much as it lets him dictate terms to the world. The chair umpires endured his theatrical shrugs of dismay and sarcastic badgering with stone-faced equanimity, and Johnson won both matches in straight sets.

“I felt that I hit a serve that was in,” he said after his Friday match. “And I wanted to voice my opinion that I felt that it was good. We all miss some, so I don’t want to say I was upset.”

If coaches must deal with different personalities in different ways, chair umpires must do the opposite: The integrity of the game demands that they render rule of law to both the feisty and the polite in even-handed fashion. Head Referee Scott Dillon said he works to make sure his crew rotates frequently throughout the long weekend, so they don’t end up seeing the same player over and over again.

“Each works four or five matches per day, but they’ll never do more than two in a row before taking a match off,” Dillon said, adding that he maintains absolute faith in the professionalism and endurance of his officials, nearly all of whom are certified for the highest levels of tennis and have worked pro events like the U.S. Open.

“Other than the NCAA tournament, this is the premier event in college tennis,” Dillon says.

End of the fight
We’re back on Court 7, and a glance at the scoreboard tells Jarmere Jenkins that the situation remains dire. Uriguen and Domijan, first-set winners, have both dropped second sets and moved to decisive thirds. Jenkins has turned the momentum in his match, beating Buchanan 7-5 in the second, and he’s jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the third.

USC team captain Steve Johnson, defending national singles champion, lets out a primal scream after downing Georgia ace Sadio Doumbia at the NTI. (Photo by Matt Riley)

An inordinate amount of pressure has fallen on freshman Mitchell Frank, who lost 7-5 in his first set and is tied at 6-6 with Ohio State’s Peter Kobelt.

Frank likes to grind.

“I try to be as physical as possible, see if [my opponent] can stay with me,” Frank said, grinning confidently beneath a mop of sandy hair. “Some can, many can’t. I try to do a lot of training and lots of fitness and I feel like I’m in better shape most times. I go out there and play my game and try to make the other guy see how much he’s willing to suffer.”

Frank entered the weekend as the ITA’s top-ranked singles player, in part because he’s a top talent in the college game, but also because more experienced players often skip early-season team events to play the pros. Johnson, for instance, took Belgian Steve Darcis—the ATP Tour’s 66th-ranked player—to tiebreakers in both sets of a close loss at the SAP Open on February 13, just days before arriving in Charlottesville. Frank has played the same types of tournaments.

“I’ve already been out on the Futures Circuit for a while, finding out what that’s like,” Frank said. “You have to get out there and lose a lot, win a lot, and keep coming back. That’s what it takes to be successful at this level and continue to improve going forward.”

Kobelt wins the tiebreaker, tilting the balance 3-1 in Ohio State’s favor. Uriguen, Domijan, and Jenkins all have to win for UVA to go through.

A college tennis match might only last an hour but it could also last more than three. As soon as one team wins its fourth point, the contest ceases, and the matches still in progress end mid-set.

“When I was playing, it wasn’t unusual for matches to go seven hours,” said Tim Delaney, a spectator who played for Georgia from 1975 to 1978. “We played all of the singles matches first, and doubles didn’t start until after everyone had finished.”

Delaney drove down from Washington, D.C., to visit with former teammate Manny Diaz, now coach of the No.4 Bulldogs. He said the sudden-death format works a little better for a crowd-friendly event like the NTI.

Maybe for the fans, but it still stings when Ohio State’s Blaz Rola finishes Domijan on Court 8, leaving Uriguen and Jenkins, each leading their respective matches, helpless as their opponents drop their racquets mid-point and run to join the ecstatic Buckeye mob surrounding Rola.

The Cavaliers, ranked No. 2 in the country, have just lost their shot at an unprecedented fifth straight NTI title and suffered their first home loss since the 2006 NTI semifinals in front of their home fans.

The lesson
For the Cavaliers, the ACC season still looms, with a trip to Blacksburg on February 26. The league tournament starts April 19, followed by the NCAA championships in May. Boland expects his players to use the loss as fuel. USC is gunning for a fourth straight NCAA title, and nobody is likely to forget that their most recent, in 2011, came at the direct expense of UVA.

“I think you learn the most about people when they go through adversity, and when they take losses. You can’t let it drag you down,” Boland said. “From an emotional standpoint, a lot of our players have come a long ways, starting with Jarmere Jenkins, and it goes right on down the lineup. We can manage our expectations so we can make sure the guys have both feet on the ground—ready to work hard, handle adversity and get the most out of tennis and school every day.”

USC coach Peter Smith, seen here conferring with freshman sensation Yannick Hanfmann, is a master at wedding individual play to team goals. (Photo by Matt Riley)

Ohio State surprised everyone at the NTI, doing everything it could to add USC to its list of victims in Monday’s final. After taking the doubles point again, the Buckeyes backed the Trojans up a step.

“We got punched in the face in doubles,” said Smith after the match. “I told them if you get punched in the face, you better get up and punch back.”

USC lost two singles matches, but rallied back from the brink to win. Johnson handled Buchanan, and then Hanfmann—the freshman with tour-ready groundstrokes—bounced back to win a deciding third set, giving USC its first NTI title since 1988.

“You never like to watch someone else doing the celebrating,” Boland said philosophically. “But we’ve been the ones celebrating more often than not.”

Jarmere Jenkins has absorbed his coach’s philosophy. He has his eyes on the prize of an NCAA title, and a likely rematch with USC. He knows he and Courtney will have to face Johnson and Hanfmann in doubles if that happens, and that he and Johnson, as top singles competitors, may be destined to meet in individual combat as well.

“I would have had to play him,” Jenkins said, a fire smoldering in his eyes even in defeat. “We grew up together, and we like to see each other do well, but as UVA playing against USC, we don’t really care too much for each other.”

Johnson doesn’t back down from the implied challenge, either, though he’s diplomatic as he stands beside Jenkins.

“We’ll bang heads,” he said, with a wicked grin. “And then right after, we’ll let it slide and go out and be buddies again.”

Categories
Living

Say charcuterie: Cured meat specialties around town

(Photo by Nick Strocchia)

Say charcuterie
Cheese plates are so last year. Cured meats in all shades of salty and pink are the new shareable darling on the restaurant scene. These local spots are slicing and arranging downright tempting spreads.—Megan Headley

Salted meats reign supreme at Mas Tapas where the incomparable jamón Ibérico de Bellota sets the gold standard. Mas serves shavings of this ruby red ham that comes from an ancient breed of pig free to roam the woodlands of western Spain gorging on acorns (that’s the “bellota” part) from oak and cork trees, packing on two pounds a day. Mas’s jamón comes from the shoulder and the loin and is cured for 30 months before it hits your plate with a hunk of bread fresh from a wood-burning oven.

At Zinc (right), everything served on their charcuterie board is from around these here parts. There’s Surreyano ham (a clever misspelling of Spain’s serrano ham from the Edwards family in Surry), Olli Salumeria’s Toscano and Calabrese salame, and two house-made items—chicken liver paté and beef terrine. Fresh bread, whole grain mustard, and house-pickled red onions and watermelon radishes round out a divine offering.

Nothing satisfies a gourmet’s late night hunger like the charcuterie board at C&O Restaurant. There’s a traditional Genoa-style salami, a dry salami, and ribbons of silky prosciutto. Spicy peperoncini, tangy cornichons, and toasted Marcona almonds make the warm crusty rolls with chilled butter seem almost superfluous.

Meat’s match: Feast!’s charcuterie cutter, Levi Houk, says baguette slices are charcuterie’s perfect pairing. (Photo by Cramer Photo)

Far from cold cuts
Behind the charcuterie counter at Feast!, Levi Houk drapes paper-thin slices of meat onto deli paper before wrapping them in butcher paper and sealing them with the shop’s sage-colored sticker. Here’s his advice on creating your own board at home:

Choose three to five different meats—one pâté, a cured meat or two, and a salami or two—and vary the spices, meat-type, and size to your preference.

Estimate two slices per guest of intensely flavored, large-format cured meats and four to five slices of salami or other mild meat.

Sliced baguette is charcuterie’s perfect partner.

Serve condiments with some acidity, like mustards and cornichons, to cut through the meats’ fat.

Keep meats refrigerated until 20 minutes prior to serving, then allow them to come up to room temperature naturally for the most flavor.—Eric Angevine

Move over Virginia ham
The artisanal renaissance that redefined wine, chocolate, and cheese in America has paved the way for Italian salumi, thanks to fourth generation salumiere (cured meat-maker to you and me) Olli Colmignoli. He, along with co-founder Chip Vosmik, launched Olli Salumeria in Manakin, Virginia, three years ago and the pair have won over discerning chefs and retailers nationwide with their meats, salame, and cooking fats cured just as the Colmignoli family’s done it in Italy for 160 years.

Say what?
Impress your friends. In your best French accent, say it with us: “shar-COO-ta-ree.”

Harrison Keevil, chef and owner of Brookville Restaurant, is one of Olli’s greatest fans: “I honestly think it’s one of the best products you can get in the world, definitely in the States. It’s amazing stuff and we’re lucky to have it in our backyard. They respect the animals that they use in their products, which is really something that we appreciate here.”

“Here” being our hungry little city, which, just one hour northwest of Olli’s factory, means we were of the first to embrace Olli’s products. “Charlottesville has been very supportive. Folks there understand good food and appreciate local food,” said Vosmik.

You’ll find Olli on the menus at Brookville, tavola, and Commonwealth (among others), and it’s sold at C’ville Market, The Wine Guild, Mona Lisa Pasta, Foods of All Nations, Rebecca’s Natural Foods, Relay Foods, Whole Foods, and Market Street Wineshop.

Colmignoli’s philosophy explains their success: “We like to believe that we create experiences more than we create products. It’s like putting you in Italy, maybe with a good glass of wine, and some cheese, and friends.”

Now that’s a recipe for the generations.—Laura Brooke Allen

Categories
Living

Small Bites: This week's restaurant news

 Fuel up on gas and beer
Take a trip past the corner of Market and Ninth streets and you’ll notice that even though the building still says Fuel Co., changes are a-happening at this formerly Patricia Kluge-owned restaurant. Subhash Desal, owner of a convenience store and a Subway sandwich shop, purchased it at auction this summer and we still don’t know all of his plans, but the gas pumps say Sunoco, there’s a shiny drive-up (or walk-up?) window front and center, and beer trucks have been wheeling in their wares.

Scribbled chefs
Waynesboro artist Bart Lanman, who’s made an art form out of a style of rendering he calls “scribble scratch,” will have nine lifelike portraits of Charlottesville chefs for sale at Blue Moon Diner on Friday, March 2 at 6:30pm in the “A Line of Good Taste” art show. Lanman will donate a portion of his proceeds to UVA cancer research. And don’t forget to eat and drink while you’re there.

A chile cookoff
The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library is hosting the Big Read (a program sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts to revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture) throughout central Virginia during the month of March. The featured book, Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, takes place in New Mexico with a focus on southwestern cooking, so the library’s main branch is having a chile pepper cook-off on Saturday, March 3 at 3pm. Share your green or red chile salsa with the library community for a chance to win one of three gift certificates to Foods of All Nations. E-mail bigread@jmrl.org to enter.