Month: July 2012

Categories
News

Sullivan reinstated: a timeline of events

Over the course of 16 days, anger, confusion, and ultimately resolution washed over UVA’s Grounds in the turmoil following President Teresa Sullivan’s removal. Here’s the breakdown of the saga—one resignation and one reaction at a time at a time—from the moment the surprise announcement came to the day she was reinstated.

The bomb drops
Instead of enjoying brunch and the beautiful weather, the UVA community got a nasty shock on the morning of Sunday, June 10. Around 11:30am, Rector Helen Dragas sent an e-mail announcing President Teresa Sullivan’s resignation, effective August 15. Sullivan was quoted in the e-mail saying she and the Board have “philosophical differences,” and Dragas went into little detail about the decision.

Sunday afternoon was quiet while word spread and the community began to process, but the Faculty Senate responded the following day. Chairman George Cohen released a statement on Monday calling the Board’s explanation “inadequate and unsatisfactory.”

Revelations and reactions
On Tuesday, June 12, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported on a leaked e-mail from Darden School Foundation Chairman Peter Kiernan, in which he told his colleagues he had been sworn to secrecy about the decision to oust Sullivan, adding that the situation was under control. “Trust me,” he wrote, “Helen has things well in hand.” Meanwhile, alumnus Bob Eckerd created an online petition to reinstate Sullivan.

The next day, Dragas released a statement saying the Board fo Visitors had had an “ongoing dialogue with the President,” and asked the UVA community for support in in joining together “in partnership to create that bright future.” Suzie McCarthy, a UVA graduate student, created a Facebook group called “Students, Faculty, Family, & Friends United to Reinstate Sullivan,” which soon had more than 16,000 members. The Board announced it would have a meeting on Monday, June 18, to discuss candidates for the interim presidency.
A day later, Cohen released a resolution after the Executive Council met with Dragas that declared the Faculty Senate’s support for Sullivan and expressed a lack of confidence in the Board of Visitors. The same day, Peter Kiernan stepped down from his position with the Darden School Foundation.

The boiling point 
Sullivan’s supporters began gathering on the Lawn around 2pm on Monday, June 18. Protestors held signs quoting Thomas Jefferson while Cohen spoke and reporters from publications all over the region took notes and photos. In a brief open session, Dragas read a four-page statement, apologizing for the past week’s turmoil but offering minimal explanation for the decision. Drama professor Gweneth West then read the statement Sullivan delivered to the Board, which received applause, laughter, and tears, and sounded very much like a goodbye. Sullivan herself then offered a few words to the crowd.

Many assumed the Board’s closed session would wrap up quickly. But the meeting went on until 2:30am, when the Board voted to appoint McIntire Dean Carl Zeithaml as interim president. Heywood Fralin cast the only “no” vote, and most Board members refused media comment following the meeting.

The aftermath 
Though the Board came to a kind of conclusion during the marathon meeting, the drama on Grounds wasn’t over. Around the time Vice Rector Mark Kington announced his resignation from the Board of Visitors, computer science professor William Wulf and his wife Anita Jones resigned as well, and Wulf encouraged other faculty to follow suit.

Despite his hesitation to accept the “daunting” position as interim president, Zeithaml made himself available to the media and fielded questions about why he took the job and how he would move the University toward recovery. After the press conference, the Cavalier Daily released a series of e-mails between Dragas and Kington that detailed their thinking in the days before Sullivan’s resignation was announced.

Change of heart? 
Eleven days after announcing Sullivan’s forced resignation, the Board of Visitors said it would meet again on Tuesday, June 26 to “discuss possible changes in the terms of employment of the president.” On the same day, 10 of the 11 University deans called for Sullivan’s reinstatement, and Dragas released a list of “difficult challenges” she said justified the Board’s actions.

Three days after accepting the position, Zeithaml announced on Friday, June 22, his decision to step aside and suspend all activities as interim president. Governor McDonnell stepped in, telling Board members to make a final decision Tuesday or he would ask for their resignations.

The weekend was mostly quiet as Wahoos anxiously awaited the meeting, but about 1,500 people gathered on the Lawn on Sunday for a “Rally for Honor,” during which several faculty members spoke and urged the Board to reconsider its position.

Reinstated and it feels so good 
Sullivan’s supporters took over the Lawn one last time around 2:30pm Tuesday, June 26. As Sullivan and Dragas entered the Rotunda side by side, the crowd held a minute of silence for every day since Sullivan’s ousting, while reporters from news outlets all over the country, including the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly made themselves comfortable in the viewing room. After a quick 30-minute meeting and a unanimous Board vote, Sullivan emerged on the steps to address the crowd as UVA’s newly reinstated president.

But the president wasn’t the only one to receive word last week that she gets to keep her job. On Friday afternoon, Governor Bob McDonnell reappointed Dragas for another term on the Board of Visitors, saying that while he believed the Board had made mistakes under the much-criticized rector, “this is not a time for recrimination. It’s a time for reconciliation.”

Storm update: Thousands still powerless

Governor Bob McDonnell urged Virginians in today’s press release to continue taking care of one another in the aftermath of Friday’s storms as thousands of families still wait for their power to return. He also laid out different recovery efforts throughout the Commonwealth.

“The intense heat combined with lack of power continues to be a real and ongoing safety concern for us,” McDonnell said. He reminded residents to do all they can to stay cool, and to care for those who may still not yet have power and air conditioning.

McDonnell said power companies are working around the clock, and the state is working closely with the utility and communications companies in order to return power to the thousands of homes as quickly as possible.

According to the press release, 286,000 customers in the state are currently without power—down from the height at 1.2 million—and power restoration will likely continue through the weekend. The Daily Progress reported that as of yesterday, 18,840 Dominion Virginia Power customers have experienced outages. This is in addition to 834 Charlottesville residents and a total of approximately 2342 other customers residing in Orange, Louisa, Fluvanna, Buckingham, Nelson, and Madison counties.

There have been a total of 11 confirmed storm-related fatalities from Albemarle, Bedford, Fairfax, Loudon, and Montgomery Counties, the city of Chesapeake, and the city of Fairfax.—Ana Mir 

Categories
News

McDonnell returns Dragas to expanded UVA Board

Two weeks after UVA students and faculty followed Rector Helen Dragas to her car after a marathon closed-door Board of Visitors meeting yelling “Resign!,” Governor Bob McDonnell announced that the much-criticized Board leader would keep her seat. And despite the anger directed at her for her role in orchestrating the ultimately unsuccessful ouster of President Teresa Sullivan, the message coming from University community leaders is one of reconciliation.

“I have been heartened by the recent statement made by President Sullivan, the Board of Visitors, and by the Faculty Senate chair about their ability to work with the rector,” McDonnell said in a Friday press release explaining his decision to reappoint Dragas.The governor’s other appointments were noteworthy, too. Four new names join the Board as voting members: Frank Atkinson, a Richmond lobbyist and McGuire Woods chairman; Victoria Harker, a Gannett executive and chair of the Alumni Association; Bobbie Kilberg, a tech CEO and big-time Republican donor; and Linwood Rose, the outgoing president of James Madison University. Dr. Edward Miller, who has been serving as an ex-officio Board member, was given an official voting seat.

Robert D. Hardie—one of the three Board members who called for the emergency meeting to vote on Sullivan’s reinstatement—was up for reappointment, but didn’t keep his seat. Heywood Fralin and Glynn Key weren’t eligible for reappointment.

McDonnell also created two non-voting advisory positions on the Board, appointing Leonard Sandridge, UVA’s former executive vice president and chief operating officer, and William Goodwin, a former Board member and a former chair of the Darden School Board of Trustees.

Conspicuously absent from the new spate of appointments was the faculty representative many at the University had called for—a change that faculty have said could take time to institute.

While many raged on Facebook, Twitter, and news story comments over the governor’s apparent unwillingness to acknowledge the fury and will of the University community, the official line from UVA has been calm acceptance of the new appointments.

Despite having repeatedly called for Dragas’ resignation, the Faculty Senate signalled support, with chairman George Cohen commending McDonnell for his “careful, thoughtful consideration of these appointments and for his eloquent statement explaining his decision.”
Spanish professor and UVA alumnus Ricardo Padron was one of a number of people who said he felt the outcome of the Sullivan saga was a mark in the rector’s favor. “I think Helen Dragas is to be commended for finding a dignified and honorable solution to the crisis,” he said. “The entire University is indebted to the Board for being able to come to a solution that has brought the University together like never before.”

Even Sullivan spoke up, saying McDonnell “used great wisdom” in appointing the new members.

And in her statement on her reappointment Friday, Dragas took pains to stress the importance of including the entire UVA community in pushing the University toward success.

“Each of us on the Board looks forward to working in a constructive and inclusive way with President Sullivan, along with students, faculty, alumni, and staff on tackling the broad challenges that face the University,” she said. Laura Ingles and Graelyn Brashear both contributed to this story. 

Categories
News

Bypass opponents study plans, await environmental assessment

After decades of controversy and an unexpected revival, the Route 29 bypass project hit a key milestone earlier this month with the Virginia Department of Transportation’s release of contractor Skanska-Branch’s detailed plans for the 6.2-mile route around the traffic-clogged arterial. And while the road is closer than it’s ever been to becoming a reality, bypass opponents are putting the plans under a microscope, and waiting for what may be a last chance to stall the project.

Jeff Werner, the Piedmont Environmental Council’s land-use field officer, has spent much of the last week-and-a-half poring over the plan, printing out and taping together the Skanska engineers’ detailed drawings of the road to get a better idea of what the project will look like.

A key concern is the northern terminus, he said, where the bypass will join up with Route 29 just south of Ashwood Boulevard and the Forest Lakes development. VDOT’s initial concept for a grade-separated interchange at the north end of the bypass, released in September of 2011, provided for more lanes of travel than the current plans, and that raises concerns of bottlenecks at one end of the roadway, Werner said.

The Skanska proposal provides two lanes for through traffic approaching the intersection from the south on Route 29, instead of three, as the original concept plans show. Vehicles exiting the bypass join northbound cars in a third lane, but the three abruptly become two north of a stoplight at Ashwood Boulevard. And the on-ramp for southbound bypass traffic is down to one lane instead of two.

“Given that saving time is the issue here, the question is, ‘What’s the clock running now for this trip?’” Werner said.

That concern and others will help fuel a continuing push to shift public opinion about the project, Werner added. But when it comes to a policy fight, opponents have only one real foothold: a pending environmental assessment.

Morgan Butler, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Charlottesville office, said it’s been 20 years since VDOT conducted an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, on the complete project —a thorough examination mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

Since the project roared back to life last summer, there’s been an expectation that VDOT will reevaluate all the documentation from the EIS, in a process called an Environmental Assessment, or EA. The agency will have to determine if its old data still applies, and make its case for carrying on to the Federal Highway Administration. If the review shows there are a lot of new factors affecting environmental impact of the road, it’s back to the drawing board for VDOT.

“If FHWA determines that to be the case—and we think it clearly is, considering how outdated parts of the earlier studies are and how much work the community has put into developing less damaging alternatives for improving 29—then the project cannot proceed until the new information is thoroughly analyzed and considered,” Butler said.

If there’s a true revisiting of the impact of the project, agencies will have to use a whole new set of metrics, said Butler. “A lot of what we know about the environmental impacts of a project like this has changed,” he said, including the compounding effects of urban sprawl on the environment and human health.

Butler was careful to point out that legal action from his group and its allies is far from a given. Opponents can’t raise their shovels until the EA currently underway is complete and the FHWA has given its opinion on whether or not the old data is acceptable, he said.
“It would be like grading a test before it’s been turned in,” he said.

VDOT spokesman Lou Hatter said there will be a public information session* once the EA is completed, but it hasn’t yet been scheduled. The Commonwealth Transportation Board has indicated it will likely be in September.

In the meantime, many in Charlottesville will keep scrutinizing the plans, trying to make sense of the pages of maps and grade diagrams. To Werner, the picture that’s emerging is one of a project that’s going to cause more problems than it solves. But he’s worried the wheels of bureaucracy will keep grinding.

“You would hope people at the FHWA would say, ‘This isn’t a good way to spend $200 million in federal dollars, and we need to take a hard look at this,’” he said. “But on the other hand, there’s this tendency to say, ‘Well, they’ve checked off A through Z.’”
Whatever the outcome of the EA, Butler said a close to the seemingly endless controversy is probably near. “I think this whole saga is about to reach a critical stage,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to drag on for years and years.”

*This story originally reported that there would be a public hearing on the Environmental Assessment once it’s filed. VDOT actually plans to hold a public information session, not a hearing.

Categories
Living

Lambrusco’s making a becoming comeback

SIX WAYS TO SPARKLE WITH RED
Bruscus San Valentino Lambrusco Amabile 2010. Market Street Wineshop. $9.99

Cantina Gonzaga Lambrusco Amabile NV. Tastings of Charlottesville. $7.95

Cantina Puianello “Primabolla” Lambrusco NV. Wine Warehouse. $13.99

Cleto Chiarli Grasparossa di Castelvetro “Centenario” Lambrusco NV. Mona Lisa Pasta. $12.99

Feudi del Boiardo Lambrusco Amabile NV. Market Street Wineshop. $8.99

Roberto Negri “Rigoletto” Lambrusco NV. Wine Warehouse. $15.99

Those of you who lived through the ’70s probably have quite a bit you’d like to forget about the decade. There was Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, the Ford Pinto, the leisure suit, and that unfortunate color scheme of rusty orange, mustard yellow, and avocado green. Cheese fondue and wines that tasted like soda were the height of culinary sophistication. Our nation alone popped the cork on 3 million cases of sweet, fizzy Riunite Lambrusco every year (“Riunite on ice….that’s nice!”), sending the imported wine’s reputation down the drain as soon as wine coolers appeared on the scene the following decade (one rife with its own regrets).

But everything deserves a second chance, and today’s Lambruscos are well worth trying again. In its Italian homeland, specifically the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, Lambrusco never fell from grace and continues to be the beverage of choice among the locals. Of course it’s the real stuff (not the industrially-produced cherry Mike-and-Ike tasting stuff) that they’re drinking, because this chilled red is lively, fresh, low in alcohol, and absolutely perfect with picnic foods and picnic weather.

The grape, also called Lambrusco, has a long and storied history with archeological evidence that suggests the Etruscans as the first cultivators and Roman writers Virgil, Pliny, and Cato as some of its first fans. Historically, the grape was prized for its high yield, since two thirds of an acre of Lambrusco could produce enough to fill 300 amphora (see Winespeak 101). Though today’s producers, all of which come from the five Lambrusco DOC regions (Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, Lambrusco Reggiano, and Lambrusco Mantovano) limit their yields to coax more earthy character from the generous grape.

Lambrusco producers may use up to 60 different Lambrusco subvarieties, but Lambrusco Grasparossa, Lambrusco Maestri, Lambrusco Marani, Lambrusco Monterrico, Lambrusco Salamino and Lambrusco Sorbara are the six most often used. Susceptible to mildew, Lambrusco vines were once trained to climb up poplar trees, and while trees are no longer used, producers still train the vines high off the ground.

Unlike Riunite’s Luden’s cough drop taste, most Lambruscos are vinified completely dry or secco in Italiano. Lambrusco Reggiano is a variety of the grape that’s often made amabile (slightly sweet) or dolce (sweet) by way of either partial fermentation or the addition of up to 15 percent of sweeter Ancellotta grapes. Lambrusco’s bubble, which Italians refer to as frizzante or slightly sparkling (as opposed to spumante or fully-sparkling), comes from the Charmat process where a second fermentation happens in a pressurized tank rather than in the bottle as it does in the champagne method.

All styles go delightfully with the foods for which Emilia-Romagna is known, most of which carry their own government-protected label (DOP). Chunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano and ribbons of prosciutto di Parma with Balsamico di Modena drizzled here and there beg for an old trattoria style juice-glass filled with the frothy, zesty wine that ranges in color from pale pink to deep purple. And with low tannins and 11 percent alcohol, it isn’t going to send you home from the picnic early with a sunburn and a headache.

Lambrusco also loves pizza—a match Italians are likely to make if they’re not having beer. In this nation where many of us were raised on soda pop, especially with our pizza, Americans will really get behind this pairing. Grab a bottle or two ($16 is the highest I’ve seen it on the shelves) and your favorite pies on the way home from work on Friday and just try to have a lousy time.

With a wine so distinctly made for pleasure and everyday guzzling, delineating aroma and flavor profiles in Lambrusco seems silly, but I guess that’s my job. So in the dry versions, let’s call it strawberry-rhubarb jam with earthy undertones and an appealingly bitter finish that reminds me of sassafras. In the sweeter versions? A black cherry Italian soda with a kick.

Think of it as Italy’s red counterpart to prosecco—effortless, refreshing, and mood-lifting—just don’t think about it too hard.

WINESPEAK 101
Amphora (n.): a ceramic vase-shaped vessel with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body that held a standard measure of about 39 liters (41 quarts), giving rise to the amphora as a unit of measure in the Roman Empire.

Categories
Arts

Independence Day, “Insane Coaster Wars,” “Perception”

Independence Day
Wednesday 8pm, AMC
Celebrate our nation’s birthday by watching Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and President Bill Pullman save the world by taking out a bunch of squid-looking aliens. Believe it or not, the blockbuster popcorn flick is 16 years old. If it was a person it could be getting a driver’s license. This means that if you saw it in the theater, you are old. The movie is pretty ridiculous, but there is still something impressive about watching the world’s various monuments blown up after all these years. Plus, it’s a reminder that while computer viruses might make your workday infuriating, they may one day save the planet. So you be nice. If you’re looking for more Hollywood patriotism, AMC will screen the Civil War flick Glory at 1:45pm and Mel Gibson’s Revolutionary War epic The Patriot at 4:30pm.

“Insane Coaster Wars”
Sunday 9pm, Travel Channel
This summer millions of Americans will head to theme parks. There they will pay too much for crappy food, fry in the sun, and wait 30 minutes in line for a three-minute ride. And I will proudly be one of them, with plans to hit at least three different parks before Labor Day. If you’re looking for some road trip-worthy thrills, this series on the Travel Channel might be up your loop-de-loop. “Insane Coaster Wars” is a six-part series in which various rides from across the country are compared and contrasted on specific criteria. Sunday night check out both “G-Force Giants” and “Hang’em High” (open-air coasters), and future installments will feature wooden coasters, mega-high coasters, and super-fast rides. If you like your theme parks wet, companion series “Xtreme Waterparks” debuts at 8pm. But, I won’t write about that because of the terrible intentional misspelling.

“Perception”
Monday 10pm, TNT
At this point the well must be running dry for new twists to the mystery-solving format, but this new show’s concept might push it into ridiculousness. Eric McCormack—best known as Will from “Will & Grace”—plays a brilliant neuroscientist who is brought on by the FBI to help solve complex mysteries. The problem: he may be a genius, but he’s also a paranoid schizophrenic who sometimes experiences vivid hallucinations. Helping to keep him on track are a former student and current FBI agent (played by Rachael Leigh Cook, the “stupid bet” from She’s All That) and his dean/friend played by Kunte Kinte/Geordi La Forge himself, LeVar Burton.

Categories
Arts

To Rome With Love at Vinegar Hill Theatre

The eternal city hosts an aspiring cast that includes Alessandro Tiberi, Roberto Della Casa, and Penélope Cruz in Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love. (Sony Pictures Classics)

For some of us, Woody Allen could film the phone book and we’d find pleasure in it: How nice all those listings might look in his signature white-on-black Windsor typeface. Poignancy, too: The phone book, like the Woody Allen movie, doesn’t seem as useful to as many people as it once did. But, after a bracing Midnight in Paris, he’s off To Rome With Love. The new film faintly tingles with unfocused quasi-recollections of earlier movies and motifs. At times it even seems vaguely demented, and might be a test to determine whether we’ll just stand politely by as Allen finally descends, doddering, into the void. At other times, though, that same quality reads as invitingly dreamy. This is Fellini country, after all.

The tales, very loosely interwoven, are these: Beset one morning by a random mob of paparazzi, a middle-class Roman everyman and self-described schmuck (Roberto Benigni) becomes suddenly famous for no apparent reason. Getting to know the fiancé (Flavio Parenti) of their daughter (Alison Pill), a retired American opera director (Allen) and his psychiatrist wife (Judy Davis) discover the fiancé’s mortician father (Fabio Armiliato) to be a world-class tenor—who can only sing in the shower. Honeymooning provincial newlyweds (Alessandro Tiberi, Alessandra Mastronardi) find themselves separated by the respective temptations of a call girl (Penélope Cruz) and a movie star (Antonio Albanese). An American architect (Alec Baldwin) revisits bittersweet memories of youthful romantic missteps, as evidently replayed before his eyes by Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, and Ellen Page.

Baldwin seems the most at ease, maybe from having been in similarly muted magical-realist territory before, as the wisecracking apparition of an affectionate ex-lover visible only to Mia Farrow in Allen’s Alice. Certainly he comports himself more casually than the younger American actors here who nearly choke on Allen’s generationally anachronistic dialogue. The Italians, and Cruz, suffer mild translation losses too, although it’s also clear that Benigni hasn’t had as much fun working up a Roman riff since he played the compulsively confessional taxi driver in Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth.

The aspiration to work with Allen has become automatic among contemporary actors, who reportedly do so on the condition that they see only those portions of script in which their characters appear. The risk of such auteurist dominion is that all big-picture views, then, are privileged and purposely myopic: An assistant director deals with production scheduling, not narrative consistency; a script supervisor monitors only the minutiae of continuity between takes; and an editor’s efforts necessarily aim for Allen’s final approval. Meanwhile, keeping busy in front of the camera as well as behind it, might well leave Allen too distracted or exhausted to tidy up expositional false starts and loose ends, not to mention meager ideas and misfired jokes. It shouldn’t be a problem for a filmmaker with so much experience, but Allen has a way of making seniority seem like complacency.

But look: The routines are merely perpetual. It’s the city that’s eternal.

Categories
Arts

Interview: Comedienne Cocoa Brown discusses the ride of fame

Tyler Perry’s “For Better or Worse” star, Cocoa Brown, brings down the house on Saturday at Play On! Theatre. (Publicity photo)

Farah “Cocoa” Brown, a Newport News native and VCU graduate, has serious entertainment chops. She has appeared on a slew of TV shows, including “2 Broke Girls,” “ER,” and “Breaking Bad,” and acted in movies such as Lakeview Terrace and Mahogany Blues. Despite the Hollywood success, stand-up comedy is Brown’s true passion, and on July 7, she’s bringing her brand of it to Play On! Theatre as the headliner of the National Stand-Up Comedy Series. C-VILLE spoke with Brown about her career and the best way to deal with being booed.

C-VILLE: How did you get into stand-up?
Cocoa Brown: “Boredom. I was working at a corporate job and it just wasn’t fulfilling. A friend asked me to emcee a comedy club while they searched for a regular, and I got bit. I loved it. Then, once I got with a mentor who had been doing comedy for 25 years (“The Fat Doctor”), and he taught me about the formula for stand-up, things took off.”

What do you mean by “formula?”
“Anybody can get on stage and talk trash. But can you take your thoughts and what you see in life and turn it into something relatable? As a comedian, you take something very simple and you exaggerate it. That’s the formula. Simple enough for anyone to understand, but exaggerated enough for people to laugh at it.”

Did you find it difficult when you started doing stand-up?
“No, not really, I kind of took to it. It was something I truly enjoyed doing and I loved it. It gave me an outlet, and a freedom, and it didn’t really get difficult until recently.”

Why do you say that?
“Because now people expect so much of you. You can’t just enjoy the journey, it’s always, ‘Well you’ve been doing it so long what’re you gonna do next?’”

So it’s a double-edged sword. You work all this time to achieve success, but then it’s ‘O.K., you’re successful, what now?’
“Yep, you can’t just enjoy the ride.”

Who was your inspiration when you started?
“One of the comedians I truly admire is JB Smoove [best known as Leon on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”]. He was already in the business when I came up, and he was just an amazing talent. Whenever he stepped on stage it was just tons of laughter, and he had the crowd in palm of his hand. He’s also a really nice and humble guy. I always used to pattern myself after him, and when people called me the female JB Smoove, I took that as huge compliment.”

You’ve had a lot of success in acting, is that the end goal?
“I love acting; I love being able to transform into different characters. But, I definitely want to get into producing, directing and writing.”

Cocoa Brown
July 7 at 8pm and 9:30pm
Play On! Theatre at Ix

Which is harder, acting or stand-up?
“Stand-up all day long, because you have to be on your toes. With acting you’re given a script, you know what you have to be, what you have to say. But, stand-up can change at the drop of a dime.”

That reminds me of a Jerry Seinfeld speech, where he says comedians have it much tougher than actors. He says something like, ‘For actors it’s put on these clothes, stand there…ready? Say what we told you to say!’
“Yeah exactly. With stand-up everything changes depending on the venue, the crowd, what’s in the news, what you look like. Stand-up has so many more dynamics than acting.”

Ever had a crowd that wasn’t into your performance?
“The one and only time I’ve been booed was many, many moons ago. I didn’t know I was at a particular singer’s [Erykah Badu] alma mater and I talked about her and that crowd turned on me so fast. It was like a tsunami of boos. At that point all I could do was exit stage left [laughs].”

Categories
Arts

WTJU shuffles the schedule and relaunches public affairs programming

 

WTJU’s General Manager Nathan Moore is taking it on the road with a new live remote system. (Photo by John Robinson)

In 2010, WTJU was uncertain of its future. The unpopular general manager, Burr Beard, had just resigned after proposing a number of drastic programming changes. WTJU was left without a leader while the office of public affairs undertook the search for a replacement, and many wondered where the station was headed. In the interim, volunteers formed committees to guide the future of the station. One year later, Nathan Moore was hired as general manager and the programming committee began to wrestle with the difficult task of reviewing and redesigning the station’s weekly schedule. (It should be noted that the author of this article serves as a member of WTJU’s programming committee.)

Designing the ideal weekly schedule for a radio station is trickier than one might think, considering the task of balancing the station’s four departments: folk, rock, jazz, and classical, while maintaining consistent programming from day to day. “One of our goals was to make it less of a patchwork,” Moore said. “We’re a station with a lot of variety, so it’s important to have block programming, so there’s consistency during the week, which is just basic conventional radio wisdom. People get into their cars, coming home from work, they expect something similar from day to day. We’ve arranged our schedule so that it’s easier for folks to find what they’re looking for; it’s easier for them to tune in, and stay tuned in.”

For much of the week, the new schedule will look pretty similar to the old one. The most significant change is that the 4-6pm “drive time” hours will now be occupied by folk and roots programming. The evening classical shows will be bumped forward an hour; jazz will lose an hour of morning programming but gain an hour in the evening.

The schedule also allows the station to feature live music, with bands appearing in the studio and via broadcast from local concert venues. The station recently set up a live remote system, and has aired shows from around the region. “Over the last year we have made live music a priority,” said WTJU’s folk director Peter Jones.

Another significant change is the addition of public affairs and news programming from 9-10am every weekday. WTJU had public affairs shows in the past, but for most of the last decade the only major public affairs show was the syndicated program “Democracy Now.” “It’s a great program, but it wasn’t fulfilling the core goals of what we’re after at WTJU” said Moore. “We’ve decided to give public affairs at the station a fresh start.” In February, the Charlottesville Tomorrow staff approached Moore and C-VILLE Weekly editor Giles Morris about starting a new local news podcast. “As we talked, it became clear that what we were talking about was a radio show,” Moore said.

“Soundboard” had a “soft launch” in early March, and currently airs every Friday. “There’s a lot of music-heads at the station who were skeptical of public affairs programming—we had to show them that it could be done, and that it could be done well.” said Moore. By mid-July, he hopes to expand to twice a week, and eventually air it for an hour every weekday. “We’d like to run it when it has a shot at succeeding. It’ll be airing right after NPR’s “Morning Edition,” so hopefully a lot of listeners will carry over from that.”

WTJU found itself doing an unexpected bit of public affairs reporting as the Teresa Sullivan resignation scandal erupted two weeks ago. As thousands gathered on the UVA Lawn to protest the actions of the University’s Board of Visitors, WTJU brought its live remote system along to broadcast comments from the crowd on-air. Moore said, “It was an important thing for us to do. At that time things were still really up in the air, and we wanted to be a platform for people to share their views, and to share their vision for the University. It’s important to go out into the community, not only to be present, but also to bring those voices to our listeners.”

With the new schedule set to launch on July 15, Moore’s plans for the station include strengthening the FM signal, increasing student involvement, and revamping the station’s website with the help of Ken Garson, web guru for forward-thinking New Jersey station WFMU, and a recent Charlottesville transplant.

“It’s not just about increasing our online listeners, but thinking of ourselves as a media outlet, and showing the same attention to our website that we do to our radio station,” Moore said. “What’s gonna keep us going—and thriving, not just staying afloat—is the things that listeners value about WTJU. Not just that it’s well-curated, but that we can really connect with listeners, that we bring the community together.”

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Quoting Thomas Jefferson at UVA

The ever-quotable Thomas Jefferson had plenty to say during his lifetime about governance, transparency, and the future of the university he founded. No surprise, then, that his name and words have been invoked a number of times over the last three weeks by people on both sides of the debate on Grounds over Sullivan’s resignation. So who said what?

1. “The great object of our aim from the beginning has been to make this Establishment the most eminent in the United States.”

2. “…as new discoveries are made, new truth discovered and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.”

3. “For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

4. “This institution of my native state, the hobby of my old age, will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind, to explore and expose every subject susceptible of its contemplation.”

5. “…Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of the labyrinth, in the easiest manner possible. . . An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second.”

6. “It is pleasant for those who have just escaped threatened shipwreck, to hail one another when landed in unexpected safety.”

 

A. UVA faculty who are also alumni, in a letter to Governor Bob McDonnell on Thursday, June 21.

B. Faculty Senate Chair George Cohen, in a statement delivered before the emergency meeting of the Board on Tuesday, June 26.

C. Governor Bob McDonnell, in a letter to the Board of Visitors, Friday, June 22.

D. Rector Helen Dragas, in the initial press release announcing Sullivan’s resignation sent out Sunday, June 10.

E. President Teresa Sullivan, in a statement to the Board of Visitors at the start of its marathon closed session June 18.

F. President Sullivan, in her statement on the Rotunda steps on Tuesday, June 26.

 

Answers: 1. (D); 2. (E); 3. (A); 4. (C); 5. (B); 6. (F)