Month: March 2012

Categories
The Editor's Desk

Readers respond to previous issues

Closing the gap
When Rose Atkins came to Charlottesville, she was surprised to see so many people in her office. She came from a place that had a lot more children than Charlottesville and was surprised to see the number of secretaries and workers in her office. So we could start there in eliminating some workers [“City fills $3 million gap in school budget,” March 6].

Also, the children in Charlottesville public schools are decreasing not increasing. If they have to count Charlottesville college kids that go here to increase their numbers so Richmond will send more money, then something is wrong with our system. In that same article, the Daily Progress reported that the school board wanted to entice families to move into the city so more children would go to city schools. Since our tax rate is .95 a hundred, compared with Albemarle County’s at .76 a hundred, I don’t think that is going to happen. Also many of the city students go to private schools.

Our graduation rate is very low in the public schools, and I don’t see a lot of new ideas. There was a reading program in the Washington Post (March 7, 2012 on p.B2) that offered a unique way of helping kids to improve their reading. It was called, “Reading program offers tutoring that helps both ways.” There are a lot of people out there trying to help kids and that includes our teachers. But I think Charlottesville is not very frugal, and they waste a lot of our money on non-essential items.

Carolyn J. Belt
Charlottesville

Metrics of ecology
In her article about recycling clothes hangars [“Plastic hangers (and other stuff you don’t need),” February 21] Rose Brown stated that plastic hangers were not easily recycled, and that “Metal hangers aren’t much more eco-friendly. The plastic coating that is applied to keep them from rusting also makes them difficult to recycle.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Per the Wikipedia page on “Ferrous Metal Recycling” and my own personal experience, steel coat hangers are one of the most “eco-friendly” and recyclable products we have in the home. When steel is recycled, scrap steel is placed in a furnace and heated to a temperature that melts the steel, about 2500 degrees. At that temperature, the plastic quickly goes away. Home appliances are also easily recycled, even those that are enamel coated. The enamel also melts, albeit at a much higher temperature than a plastic coating. Metals other than steel are unlikely to be used for hangers because of the cost, but most metals are easily recycled.

Ms. Brown advocates the use of recycled cardboard hangers. I have no firsthand knowledge of these hangers, but my guess would be that more energy is used and more pollutants are generated in the initial manufacture and the subsequent recycling of paper. Also note that if one purchased heavy guage metal hangers, they would easily last a lifetime.

That brings up a concern I have for any claim of a product being “eco-friendly” or recyclable—how is that measured? To properly evaluate any product, you should do a full mass and energy balance of the manufacture of the item, then do a life-cycle analysis of the product to the end of it’s life. For example, for either a plastic, cardboard, or metal clothes hanger, one should compare the cost of the raw materials that went into the item, the energy required to produce it, and the emissions generated during production. Then one should look at how the item is disposed of a the end of its life, to include energy required to destroy it, pollutants generated, or cost of land filling. None of this information is easy to acquire on something like a clothes hanger, and including it for hangers would increase the initial cost, but it is the only way to compare the options.

I enjoy the articles on sustainable living, but we need more accurate information.

G.P. Burdell
Albemarle County

Categories
Living

Small Bites: This week's restaurant news

 Celebrate good foods, c’mon!
Kate Collier and Eric Gertner, owners of Feast!, celebrate the 10th anniversary of their gourmet food shop Saturday, March 31, from 10am-6pm with tastings from local artisans and food and gift card giveaways. You can even air your love for the shop in a testimony that may get played on 106.1 The Corner. From 10am to 11:30am, get your 5- to 15-year-old kids schooled on packing healthy lunches. From noon-3pm, taste Foggy Ridge Cider with Caromont Farm cheeses, and from 3-6pm, enjoy Claude Thiebaut and his sparkling wine with a spread of signature Feast! goodies.

Gluten be gone
Life in Charlottesville has just gotten a lot sweeter for gluten-intolerants. In January, Linda Newman started Mixing It Up, a gluten-free baking company in her Ruckersville home and now has her muffins, cookies, breads, tortes, brownies, and bars at shops like Atlas Coffee, Calvino Café, The Corner Cup, Greenberry’s, Java Dragon, Rebecca’s, and Yoder’s Sugar & Spice. The Inn at 400 West High serves the goodies to guests and Timberwood Grill serves a warm Mixing It Up brownie topped with vanilla ice cream, crushed heath bar, and whipped cream for dessert. Newman’s perfected what blends of flours work best for what treats and is currently testing recipes for small pies and sandwich breads.

Relay race
It’s hard enough to remember to fill the fridge, let alone with what to fill it. Relay Foods is automating the process and giving our brains a rest with its new automatic scheduled check-out, Relay Refill. Set how often you’d like a particular item on your list and then cash in on the refill discounts—and the hands-free shopping.

Categories
News

Media companies file for access to Huguely evidence

 

George Huguely (pictured) got his day in court, but a group of media companies said the public still doesn’t have the full story because nobody but the jury saw key evidence. (Photo by Nick Strocchia)

George Huguely was back in court March 16, and the headline that came out of the motion hearing that brought him there ran in publications around the country: Attorneys for convicted murderer to seek retrial.

But Huguely’s fate wasn’t the focus of the proceedings. At issue was the evidence in his 13-day trial, which ended February 22 with a guilty verdict and a recommendation of 26 years in prison for the murder of ex-girlfriend Yeardley Love. Despite the fact that the First Amendment protects the public’s right to open criminal proceedings and common law dictates trial documents be public, too, the evidence in the Huguely case has remained sealed.

Several media companies, including the Washington Post and Gannett, the parent company of USA Today, are still pushing for access to that evidence. Charlottesville attorney H. Robert Yates III, who is representing the companies, said the fight actually started weeks ago, on the day the prosecution showed the video of Huguely’s interrogation by police conducted the morning after Love was found dead in her apartment.

Everyone in the courtroom heard the exchange between the police and Huguely: the questions about what happened in Love’s bedroom, the nature of the cuts and bruises on his hands and arms, and his apparent shock upon learning Love was dead.

There was just one problem: Nobody but the jury could see the TV. Ditto the graphic showing the layout of the apartment, the incriminating e-mails between Huguely and Love, the text messages.

Trial observers—press included—have a well-established right to see what the jury sees, Yates said. Plenty of U.S. and Virginia case law says so.

“It’s a check on the judiciary, and it makes sure that there aren’t secret decisions,” said Yates. “People need to be able to determine whether the jury got it right or wrong. To do that, you need to be able to see the evidence. If you can’t see or interpret the evidence, what’s the point?”

It wasn’t supposed to fall out this way, said Yates. The prosecution and defense had approved a media plan that directed trial documents be posted to the Web the day after they were offered in court. But Yates said the plan changed, quietly and without input from the media, via a hearing before testimony began. When it became clear the court had effectively pulled the curtain, Yates filed a motion to review the original media plan. But Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire said he couldn’t interrupt court proceedings to address the issue.
Understandable, said Yates, in a high-profile murder trial in a small city. But not really acceptable.

Hearing police describe a diagram of Love’s apartment “doesn’t mean anything unless you can see the diagram,” he said. And how can observers have a true understanding of the merits of the case without seeing something as key as Huguely’s reaction to police questioning?

“Each day that this goes on, it’s a separate First Amendment violation,” said Yates.

He took his clients’ complaint to the Court of Appeals in Richmond to ask for a writ of mandamus, an order commanding an official to follow established law—in this case, letting the public and the press have the same view as the jury. The effort failed, Yates said, because the Virginia Supreme Court recently decided courts shouldn’t go the mandamus route when issues of access arise during an ongoing trial.

Instead, the appeals court said complaining parties should wait until the trial’s end and request the documents again. So wait they did. And they’re still waiting.

Opposition to the release of the evidence exhibits and documents created a rare moment of unity between the prosecution and the defense in the case. According to reports out of the March 16 hearing, Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman told the judge he thought the evidence should stay sealed for now. In agreeing, Huguely lawyer Rhonda Quagliana dropped the bombshell: Making the evidence public could hurt Huguely’s chances of finding a fair jury for a retrial.

Quagliana also said releasing the documents now could result in “irresponsible” online reporting of the details within.

That argument doesn’t hold water, Yates said.

“There have been good journalists and bad journalists since the advent of writing,” he said, and a media circus isn’t a good enough reason to shut down access.

William & Mary law professor and constitutional scholar Timothy Zick said Yates has a pretty solid argument.

“The purpose for having the right to access is so the public can be fully informed,” Zick said. “If you weren’t able to see the proceedings, you could argue it wasn’t open.” The issue gets sticky, he said, when you take into account that any access going forward will likely have to mirror the kind of viewing experience the public should have had at the trial. How do you mimic real-time exposure to the evidence? A TV set up in a courtroom basement showing the Huguely interrogation, watchable on request?

Actually, that might be exactly what happens, Yates said. Hogshire asked him to come up with a plan to make the evidence public. Yates has until this Friday to complete it. His clients don’t have any interest in examining bags of DNA, he said, but offering access to a computer where reporters could view the e-mails and texts and watch the interrogation could solve the problem.

Even then, the legal wrangling may not be over, he said. He and the companies he represents are still considering filing an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court on the writ of mandamus issue. They think the tool should be available as a remedy for First Amendment challenges during criminal trials.

“It’s not just that we disagreed with the decision, it’s that the process is also flawed,” Yates said. Since it’s unlikely the state Supreme Court justices would change their minds, he said, it’s conceivable this leftover argument from Charlottesville’s most notorious trial in decades could end up before the United States Supreme Court.

Otherwise, he said, the cycle of judges denying access unreasonably only to have their decisions overturned later when the damage is done could continue indefinitely, “and this could go on forever,” he said.

Categories
The Editor's Desk

Editor's Note: Rites of spring

3.27.12 It rained most of the weekend, but the soft, gray light only amplified the color in the new green leaves that are pushing out from the tips of the fruit tree boughs. The night air smelled like wisteria and honeysuckle, and under the glow of the street lamps, the dogwood flowers looked like they’d been fashioned from alabaster or Easter sugar. If Virginia is for lovers, it is because of the fine, fragrant spring, when the entire world flowers at once and we humans feel profoundly the pubescent possibilities of the season.

I’m a spring baby, a mid-April Aries, perhaps overly given to believing in new beginnings. After all, life is cyclical. My father was born March 22, 1939. I recently read a letter his father wrote to him on his 23rd birthday in 1962. My grandfather, whom I never met, talked about the stock market (a gold venture), world affairs (the formation of the OECD), and offered a fatherly salute. “Even though we argue a lot, we are very close in heart and mind, believe it or not,” the letter said. Later that same year, my father walked the bridge of a ship off the coast of Cuba, waiting for the order to invade. This year, he is in Cuba on vacation with his wife. Happy Birthday, Dad.

At C-VILLE Weekly, we’re experiencing our own fresh start. I’m proud to announce the arrival of a brand new news team, a new arts editor (Tami Keaveny) who has already expanded her section, and a whole new crop of freelance writers (Chris O’Shea’s hip-hop piece in last week’s paper is an example). I’ve been here for nine months now, a significant number in the human life cycle. When I arrived, a bunch of people asked me what my plan for the paper was. My grandfather’s letters remind me that I’m a fifth generation journalist. The plan: Try to live up to that history, finding new beginnings wherever possible.–Giles Morris

Categories
Arts

“Punk’d,” “Game of Thrones,” “Adventure Time”

“Punk’d”
Thursday 10pm, MTV
MTV revived the “Candid Camera” format back in 2003 with “Punk’d,” a celebrity-prank show from the “mind” of puckish Ashton Kutcher. The series became a pop culture touchstone, and in its heyday, had some pretty amazing episodes—the bit where Justin Timberlake cries because he thinks the IRS is repossessing his house, cars, and property is classic. After eight seasons exec producer Kutcher stopped the show in 2007, but now it’s back, featuring a different celeb pranker each week. The premiere sees Justin Bieber terrorizing poor Taylor Swift, making her think she inadvertently blew up a yacht on which people were getting married. Other targets including Liam Hemsworth and Khloe Kardashian, who has to deal with a delivery man who gets his testicles stuck in his fly. (I’ll admit it, I laughed.)

“Game of Thrones”
Sunday 9pm, HBO
HBO scored last year with its adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy-novel series. As a fan of the books I was worried; it’s a sprawling story with dozens of characters, and the plot doesn’t really kick in until three-quarters of the way through the first book. But now that the exposition is done, shit is about to get real. The presumptive hero is dead. The “bad guys” are in control of the throne. The main family is separated and plagued by a multitude of enemies—and that’s not even mentioning the zombie knights. Season 2 will tackle the second book, A Clash of Kings, which introduces new characters, kills off some established ones, and develops several others. Rumor has it some substantial liberties are being taken with some plots and characters this season, but the showrunners have earned my trust.

“Adventure Time”
Monday 7:30pm, Cartoon Network
My art-nerd friends worship this show, and it is hard to resist its bizarre, endearing charms. The cartoon follows Finn, a teenage boy who loves going on adventures with his best friend, Jake, a smartass dog who can stretch his body at will. Finn has a crush on Princess Bubblegum, ruler of the Candy Kingdom, who is a frequent target of the Ice King, a lonely old man who keeps stealing princesses for company. Other characters include Beemo, a sentient video-game console; Lumpy Space Princess, a spoiled floating cloud; and my favorite, Lady Rainicorn, a rainbow/unicorn hybrid who loves the viola and speaks only in Korean.

Categories
Living

Chenin blanc’s a charming chameleon

Chenin blanc’s ninth century birthplace along France’s Loire Valley showcases the grape’s wide range. (James Morris/Axiom Photography/Newscom)

Certain wines confuse people just by nature of their multiplicity. It’s easier when a wine has an overarching flavor to define it—like grapefruit in Sauvignon Blanc or black pepper in Syrah —but why scoff depth when there’s shallow pleasure to be had? Chenin blanc, a grape whose ninth century birthplace along France’s Loire Valley remains its most hallowed ground, is called “the world’s most versatile grape variety” in The Oxford Companion to Wine and inspires rhapsody among winos. We call it underappreciated and misunderstood, but most of all, we call it mind-blowingly delicious.

First, an explanation for chenin blanc’s coat of many colors. The grape itself (a mutation of Pineau d’Aunis) is neutral enough that the climate in which it’s grown dictates its style. And although chenin blanc’s grown elsewhere in France (and everywhere from Canada to Cape Town), the Loire Valley—namely Anjou, Bonnezeaux, Chinon, Côteaux du Layon, Jasnières, Montlouis, Quarts de Chaume, Saumur, Savennières, and Vouvray—showcases its entire range from citrusy coquette to sexy sophisticate. A la French mode, the bottles don’t hint at the grape within, rather just the name of its village.

In the cooler, northernmost reaches of the Loire, like Jasnières, wines made from chenin blanc are dry and lean with vigorous acidity. In especially cool vintages, the grape’s acidity can be so austere that its most amicable home is in the region’s sparkler, Crémant de Loire. The continental climate of appellations in the Middle Loire, like Vouvray, Anjou, and Saumur, balance ripe sugars with preservering acid, and a more coastal environ like the Côteaux du Layon promotes the development of botrytis (or noble rot), which creates a honeyed, unctuous wine. In the tiny AOC of Savennières, where winds keep the fog and botrytis at bay, the wines are most often dry. The traditional use of aging in acacia and chestnut barrels gives a yellow tinge and creamy flavor to Savennières, making it, perhaps, the most cerebral of an already brainy bunch.

To add confusion to perplexity, it’s rarely obvious how dry or sweet they are since dryness designations are not required. Sec will be dryer than demi-sec and doux will be sweeter than moelleux, but there’s often more variation and overlap than such a scale implies. What matters most is that the residual sugar in chenin blanc is what makes it so alluring. Without it, the grape’s acidity would feel like whiplash to the tongue. Instead, it fills your mouth with a round, almost oily lushness that’s kept in check by chiseled edges.

Chenin blanc’s aromas and flavors are a cross between bizarre and seductive. In the fruit family, there’s quince, apple, pear, citrus, and melon. In the flower family, there’s honeysuckle and orange blossom. In the none of the above family, there’s lanolin, beeswax, and wet wool. With its slippery, creamy texture and sweet-tart flavor, I often find that lemon meringue pie compares the closest.

Sometimes referred to as France’s answer to riesling (that other darling amongst sommeliers), chenin blanc’s an ideal dinner date. Dry chenin blanc works with anything other whites do. Semi-dry versions can handle everything from creamy sauces to chicken liver paté and sweet versions are a knockout with foie gras. And given our mild winter and summery spring, a perennial crossover’s good to have.

Chenin blanc’s unique for its ageability. In sweet versions, it can live for at least 100 years due to the grape’s naturally high acidity. Demi-sec examples can last into their 30s and even some sparkling and dry bottlings from top producers and favorable vintages can age for 10 years or so.

I’d be remiss not to mention South Africa and California, which combined grow more chenin blanc than France. In South Africa, where it goes by the name Steen, the wines are usually dry or off-dry with characteristic aromatics and viscosity. Nice examples come from Indaba, Man Vintners, and Stellenbosch. Most of California’s chenin blanc plantings are in the hot Central Valley where the result is one of mediocrity, but in the past 15 years or so, the Clarksburg AVA in the Sacramento Valley has made a name for itself with plush and pretty examples like Dry Creek Vineyards.

The best way to fall for chenin blanc is to go somewhere where you can try it in all its glorious variations, poured by someone who’s cuckoo for it. Here, that’s as easy as pulling up a stool at Tastings of Charlottesville and asking Bill or Jason to enlighten you. It’s spring and love is in the air.

 

Categories
News

City spokesman resigns; radio critic claims victory*

 Ric Barrick, the city’s director of communications, abruptly announced his resignation last week, telling WVIR TV that his job had become too stressful and citing the Huguely trial and a recent internal investigation into his conduct as factors.

Ric Barrick, the city’s director of communications, resigned last week amidst allegations that he had violated procedure by rigging the bidding process for an upgrade to the city’s public access TV station. (File photo)

In the wake of the announcement, WINA radio host Rob Schilling, a longtime critic of Barrick’s, claimed the resignation was the result of his reporting. Schilling instigated two separate investigations into Barrick’s alleged mishandling of a city procurement project and later published an exhaustive account of his allegations. Barrick resigned the same day the story went online.

“I’ve had this and been researching this for well over a year and decided I wasn’t going to break my story until after I had let law enforcement have a look at it, which is what I did,” Schilling said. “When that investigation was concluded, I put my story out two days later, and three hours after the story comes out, the resignation was tendered. I don’t see how you could look at it any other way.”

City Manager Maurice Jones, Barrick’s supervisor, responded to C-VILLE’s questions—which included asking whether the resignation had anything to do with Schilling’s allegations—by saying he could not discuss personnel issues in detail and providing the following synopsis of events:

“A procurement issue was brought to our attention several weeks ago and we immediately began an internal investigation concerning the possible violation of policy. We also reached out to the City’s Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office to examine whether any laws had been violated. They then approached the Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney about managing the investigation as a special prosecutor. Everyone involved from the City cooperated fully in the investigation. In the end, the Commonwealth’s Attorney in Orange, Diana Wheeler, determined that criminal charges were not founded. As both investigations ended, Ric submitted his resignation and I accepted.”

Barrick referenced the investigation into his conduct in an e-mailed response to a request for comment, but said his resignation reflected his desire to focus on other parts of his life.
“I am grateful, but frankly not surprised, that nothing came of the investigation. This turned out to be a blessing, and I was able to do some soul searching, look back on a particularly busy year, and rearrange my priorities to be more on my family and my passions. I am still working for the city that I love but now will have some time to devote to my personal interests,” the e-mail said.

The city also released a brief statement that said Barrick would be “taking on a temporary role working on the City’s 250th Anniversary Celebration and other projects,” after leaving his post on Friday, March 23.

Barrick was responsible for coordinating a media plan for the George Huguely murder trial, which involved providing timely information to more than 30 news outlets over the course of the three-week trial. But the timing of his announcement on the same day that Schilling’s story broke lent credence to the talk show host’s notion that the resignation was related to fallout from the way he handled a city Request For Quote (RFQ) for a “channel in a box” solution to Charlottesville’s public access television station, TV10, in early 2010.

In his story, Schilling accused Barrick of “the deletion of sensitive e-mails, the financial defrauding of Charlottesville taxpayers, and the collusion to manipulate the bidding process to the detriment of other bidders” and called his behavior “highly problematic procedurally, legally, and ethically.”

Schilling met with City Manager Maurice Jones and City Attorney Craig Brown last month to address his concerns over Barrick’s handling of the bidding process for the TV station RFQ, which he learned about after receiving a week of Barrick’s e-mail correspondence through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Schilling said he issued the FOIA request because Barrick had cut him out of his media e-mail list and he wanted to know what was going on.

“I thought, well, how am I going to deal with this? If he won’t give me information, I’ll get it through FOIA. And I said, ‘Well, just give me a everything you’ve sent in and out of your mailbox for a week,’” Schilling said.

After stumbling upon an e-mail correspondence between Barrick and Eric Levy, director of broadcast products for a Kansas company called Weather Metrics, Schilling spent the better part of a year investigating the matter and building a case. Barrick’s e-mails show that he communicated with Levy after the closing date of the RFQ in an effort to negotiate a lower bid from him.

In March, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office initiated an investigation, conducted by Special Prosecutor Diana Wheeler, the Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney, at the behest of Judge Edward Hogshire.

Upon concluding her investigation, Wheeler issued a three-page report on March 16 in which she cleared Barrick of wrongdoing in relation to Virginia’s “bid-rigging” statute but confirmed that he had violated the city’s procurement policy in his handling of the RFQ. Wheeler went on to say that she felt Barrick’s behavior had been misguided but well-intentioned.

“In fact, it is my view that Barrick’s actions which violated policy, though wrong, were well-motivated and were actually taken for the benefit of the citizens. He simply wanted what he viewed as a superior product at the best price,” Wheeler wrote.

Schilling said he rejected the logic in Wheeler’s conclusion, but understood the legal rationale of her findings.

“It was a complex story. I think anybody who reads it online would look at that and say, ‘If there’s not something illegal that happened here, maybe we need to change the law,’” Schilling said. “But I do respect their decision, because they told me, ‘We don’t want to go to court and lose.’”

Schilling has also claimed that Barrick’s conduct and resignation are indicative of more systemic management problems in Charlottesville city government.

“If you have a guy who’s claiming that he’s totally incompetent and doesn’t understand contract and procurement law being put in charge of contracts and procurements, I think it shows you that there’s a real problem in the management of the organization,” Schilling said.

*An earlier version of this story said that Ric Barrick did not respond to a request for comment. Barrick did respond on deadline with a brief e-mailed statement but chose not to discuss the specifics of the case. We apologize for the error.

Categories
Arts

Two days at the Festival of the Book as literary smorgasbord

Smithsonian Arctic specialist Stephen Loring spoke on the topic of natural history as it relates to the human condition. (Photo courtesy Stephen Loring, Smithsonian Institution)

I didn’t know what to expect from the Nick Galifianakis’ presentation held last Wednesday at McGrady’s Irish Pub. I’d never heard of Galifianakis, who illustrates the Washington Post column, Carolyn Hax, which is authored by his ex-wife. I don’t typically read the Post or the other newspapers where it’s syndicated, but I knew by the large and spirited crowd that had assembled to drink beer and eat chicken wings that I’d hit pay dirt.

On a bad day, Galifianakis would be hard to resist. Smart, funny, self-effacing, and when talking about his beloved pit bull, Zuzu, who died in 2010, noticeably affected. He’s also extremely easy on the eyes. While walking us through a slide show of his cartoons, Galifianakis totally charmed the audience. He even managed to carry on a spirited flirtation with a comely divorcée there with her young son. I didn’t stick around until the end of the Q & A to see if he got her number. I hope so; the chemistry was palpable.

Galifianakis began his career as a political cartoonist working for USA Today, but he got “really, really bored with politics” and turned to what has always fascinated him, namely human interactions. He’s interested in origins, which is why Adam and Eve are such constants in his oeuvre. His cartoon characters are based on friends and family. He always writes the captions first, because “form follows function.”

Cartoons enable him to combine his love of drawing with comedy. At the end of the program, the self-taught Galifianakis presented some of his life-drawings. He said one of his greatest pleasures is “to draw on a white piece of paper with a pencil.” Additionally, he likened the process to a form of training. Just as eating and sleeping well are important to an athlete’s regimen, spending time on a classical drawn head helps Galifianakis produce “the three lines that compose the teacup” in one of his cartoons.

Just to mix it up a bit in my literary pub crawl, I moved from relationship cartoons to the Arctic. Renowned museum anthropologist and archaeologist from the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center, Stephen Loring presented, “The Penguin’s Egg: Natural History Collections and Collectors as a Means of Understanding the World and What it Means to Be a Human Being.” The lecture examined how objects collected by 19th century naturalists, most notably Charles Darwin, “reflect as much on notions of humanity as they do on scientific discourse.”

For Loring, stories are a way to perceive and understand history. As a young man visiting the Arctic, he was bowled over by the life stories of Inuit elders. These were the last of the Inuit to have experienced their traditional nomadic existence.

Continuing with the story theme, Loring described several prominent anecdotes from the annals of natural history expeditions, starting with the naturalist Edward William Nelson and the hapless Jeanette Expedition, which was marooned for three years in the Arctic when its ship was caught in ice. Nelson finally managed to bag a Ross’ gull, which he brought back to the Smithsonian, most likely tucked into his shirt. Then there was Syms Covington, Darwin’s “meticulous plunderer” who saved Darwin’s bacon when his precise notes (not his boss’ slapdash ones) provided the necessary data on the Galápagos Finches that form the basis of the Theory of Evolution. And lastly, he touched on the ill-fated Robert Falcon Scott Antarctica expedition, during which a number of men died including Scott, but despite unimaginable hardship, an Emperor Penguin’s egg was successfully collected.

Loring also showed a selection of stunning Innu/Inuit tools that vibrate with energy. There was an arrow shaft straightener in the shape of a caribou, and a large fork-like implement used to scratch the ice to imitate the sound of a seal’s claws moving across it, something to lure other seals out from beneath the ice. In each case, the tool embodies the act of the hunt: the hole for the arrow shaft pierces the caribou’s middle, and the ice scratcher is adorned with the head of a seal just as it would look popping up through a hole in the ice.

Other pieces were adorned sparingly with tiny blue beads that represent the meeting point of spirit and real worlds. Acquired through trade, they were so valued that one purchased in 1850 cost the equivalent of a dog team, dogsled, and $1,000 worth of furs and baleen.

From the history-laden Arctic, it was on to a date with Andy Warhol, where Louis Menard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Metaphysical Club, covered a lot of familiar ground in an engaging way, offering up a number of astute observations about the enigmatic Warhol who’s biography presents a “booby-trapped landscape” of misinformation.

It was in Menard’s discussion of Warhol’s ongoing game of brinksmanship with Rauschenberg, Johns, and de Kooning where things really got interesting. A successful commercial artist, Warhol was spurned by this triumvirate of art insiders. Menard showed a series of their works followed by Warhol’s ripostes, beginning with Johns’ painted bronze beer cans and Warhol’s iconic tomato soup. The latter is deceptively facile, yet complex—much like Warhol himself—it’s a bold statement about art, challenging entrenched formal and contextual standards. Next to Johns’ ponderous sculpture that’s weighed down with such portent, Warhol’s soup can’s insouciance hits you like a breath of fresh air.

Warhol’s success at the anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better game was part genius and part lucky circumstance. Uniquely positioned as an outside the box, commercial artist, Warhol was free from the recondite trappings of fine art. Furthermore, his years in the commercial art field had honed his eye; he knew what looked good. And plugging away at the drawing board he’d no doubt developed a cynic’s eye for where the commercial side ended and the art began.

In two days at the Virginia Festival of the Book, I learned about cartoons and polar exploration—tasty topics to be sure—but I ultimately found my way back to the modern art world, my truest passion. There and back again.

Categories
News

New OpenGrounds studio, a location for interdisciplinary collaboration, is now open for business

 

OpenGrounds is more than a building. The students and faculty who designed this network model hope to connect differing University departments in new ways. (UVA Center for Collaboration and Innovation)

“How can we move beyond protecting what we ‘know’ to embrace what we don’t even know we don’t know?”

Among some two dozen other inquiries scribbled on the whiteboards at the new OpenGrounds studio, this question encompasses the spirit of UVA’s new initiative, challenging the boundaries of disciplines and proposing collaboration across borders.

The space at 1400 W. Main St., originally the first University Bookstore, is now brightly lit with both north- and south-facing windows, and the locally crafted concrete and steel tables make it easy for groups large and small to gather. Whiteboard material and eco-resin panels, both of which visitors can write on while brainstorming, cover the length of the walls, with blank space above for large video projections.

John Abele, retired founding chairman of Boston Scientific Corporation, spoke at the launch event on Monday, March 19. He noted that scholars have traditionally been rewarded for individual gain, for building silos with thick walls to keep others out.

“Real innovation comes when silos collide,” Abele said. Rather than claiming ownership of knowledge and ideas, OpenGrounds encourages students, faculty, and community members to share knowledge and tackle challenging problems by merging disciplines.

Bill Sherman, associate professor of architecture and founding director of OpenGrounds, hopes that groups will use the space to tackle a myriad of “wicked problems,” including sustainability, new energy, health, and political demands.

OpenGrounds officials have invited the Center for Global Health at UVA to the studio to exhibit their Water and Health in Limpopo project in early May. Since 2008, the Center has been in partnership with the University of Venda in South Africa to develop model systems for the delivery and purification of water in small rural communities.

Dr. Rebecca Dillingham, associate director of the Center, said that the project is a collaboration of faculty members specializing in fields including medicine, nursing, engineering, architecture, anthropology and microbiology, and participating faculty from the University of Venda include mining engineers, urban and community planners, and lawyers. As an associate professor of infectious disease, Dillingham “came at this from the diarrhea perspective,” and noted the vast number of perspectives needed for the success of the project.

Dillingham said she is particularly excited about the technology the studio offers, especially its teleconferencing capabilities, which will allow her team to meet face-to-face with their colleagues in South Africa.

“It will be extremely helpful, particularly as we move into more complex design work and diversify our collaboration, to have the video conferencing opportunities,” she said.

OpenGrounds provides “neutral space” for multidisciplinary collaboration, which Dillingham said can be helpful when so many differing disciplines and opinions are involved.

“We’re excited about having that really welcoming and stimulating space to work in,” she said.

Daily “open hours” will allow groups to use the studio, and interested people can grab a sandwich across the street and participate in OpenTable lunch discussions. The studio will also host frequent exhibitions, events, and workshops, which Sherman hopes will attract new curious minds and encourage “connecting, collaborating, and creating.”

Sherman noted that the studio is open to everybody, and that community members not affiliated with UVA are encouraged to utilize the space. “If you’re here to work with, collaborate and meet new people,” he said, “you’re welcome.”

The studio is in a prime location, nestled between the University and the city, and Sherman said that when the idea of OpenGrounds was first proposed, the architecture students, naturally, wanted to construct a building.

“Physical space makes a big difference,” said Marilyn Moedinger, a Boston architect with a master’s degree from UVA, whose involvement with the innovation began in 2009.

But OpenGrounds is more than a physical space; Sherman said that the studio is the “first of many places, physical and virtual,” to bring everyone together.

Thomas Jefferson built the University with innovation and progress in mind, after all, and Moedinger noted that forward thinking is not new to UVA.

“It’s very natural for us to be thinking about this kind of thing,” she said.

Categories
Arts

The Hunger Games; PG-13, 142 minutes; Regal Seminole Square 4

Jennifer Lawrence stars in the post-apocalyptic death match drama, The Hunger Games, based on the best-selling novel by Suzanne Collins. (Lionsgate Films)

Odds are, by the time you read this, you’ll already have seen it. Possibly more than once. So let’s discuss. How about those Hunger Games, huh?!

Speaking of odds, let’s speak of odds, as they often do in The Hunger Games. “May the odds be ever in your favor,” they say. Of course, if you’re playing, the odds are never in your favor. They’re 23 to 1 that you’ll die. Murder, starvation, exposure—options do abound; it’s just that none of them are actually favorable. The only way to win is to not die. And to make sure everybody else does.

But you knew this. You knew this is what happens when pairs of adolescents from a dozen districts of some future former America, are chosen by annual lottery for a woodsy death match on live TV, which has been going on for nearly three quarters of a century now. You knew because you’ve read the first book of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling young adult sci-fi trilogy, and you’ve been waiting for the movie.

About which the best thing must be Jennifer Lawrence as its heroine, a coal miner’s daughter from District 12, where the fashion tends toward migrant-mother chic and folks glumly congregate like movie Jews en route to concentration camps. This sets them starkly apart from those foppish capital-city richies who sanction the mandatory bloodsport (and, what’s more insidious, the mandatory viewing thereof) as some twisted pillar of their decadent glam couture. Boilerplate dystopia plot aside—and the script, by Collins, Billy Ray, and director Gary Ross, has its own battles to fight against pseudo-suspense and other bloating filler—the most innocent and enduring pleasure of The Hunger Games is seeing Lawrence go so agilely through a progress of contexts in which she stands out.

It’s a great relief that she’s not just another scantily clad ass-kicker, nor a wispy nonentity torn between mythical monster men. (Although yes, a love triangle takes shape, with Josh Hutcherson as her closest opponent and Liam Hemsworth as her brooding back-home pal). Contrasting peripheral not-quite-characters played with brightly costumed monotony by Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Wes Bentley, Toby Jones, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz, and Donald Sutherland, Lawrence brings a steady presence and enough unabashed vulnerability to plausibly survive the flamboyant savagery at hand.

This is partly a parable of show business, after all. Reportedly inspired by Collins’ experience of flipping channels between war coverage and reality TV, it seems appropriately more mind-numbing than groundbreaking or actively satirical. And there’s a sense of money having been siphoned from the special-effects budget into the marketing budget. But fair enough—as you know, it is important for young people to have pop -cultural touchstones about which to feel possessive. The movie itself seems daunted by neither its provenance in Collins’ beloved books nor the precedents of its many similar ancestors. And isn’t that just the kind of fighting spirit you like to see?