Named after Kipling’s character in The Jungle Book, the alternative rock band The Mowgli’s achieved success quickly after the single ”San Francisco” hit the airwaves. The eight-piece collaborative is defining a new California sound while relying on standard West Coast notions of peace, love, and chasing a higher consciousness. Royal Teeth and X Ambassadors open.
Tuesday 11/12. $12-15,7:45pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4980.
Love is in the air for white-tailed deer this month. Unfortunately for humans, there’s nothing romantic about a smashed car, and deer-vehicle collisions soar in November as the randy animals roam through woods, over fields, and into roadways during the peak of their mating season, which coincides with the start of deer hunting season.
According to statewide data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, in each of the last three Novembers, there have been more than 1,200 deer-vehicle collisions, which make up nearly a quarter of the approximately 5,400 deer related crashes that have occurred in the Commonwealth each of those years. While the vast majority of these incidents damage only cars (and deer), injury and even death to the cars’ occupants is possible. Four people died as a result of a deer strike in Virginia last year, and five perished in 2011.
On October 12, an Augusta County woman who was riding in the front passenger seat died from her injuries after a deer struck the vehicle in which she was riding and came through the windshield. Her husband was also injured, according to a news report. At least two other car-deer collisions in Albemarle County in the past several weeks have resulted in 911 calls being placed, although no injuries were reported.
In a November 2010 New York Times article, deer biologist David Yancey with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, explained that by human standards, deer are legally blind. Because they are “crepuscular”—that is, most active in the one hour before and after dusk and dawn—their vision is best adapted for low light, and they’re essentially blinded by headlights.
“They don’t know what to do,” Yancey said, “so they do nothing.”
In addition to the tips below, Washington, D.C.-based State Farm insurance spokesperson Anna Bryant offered a few other reminders that include keeping high beams on as much as possible to deter deer before they enter the roadway. And if a deer collision seems inevitable, slow down and don’t turn the wheel suddenly.
“Attempting to swerve out of the way could cause you to lose control of your vehicle or place you in the path of an oncoming vehicle,” said Bryant.
So what’s a driver to do to avoid a deer strike? Dumb luck is still probably the best defense, but here’s some advice from insurance agencies and from travel organization AAA.
When writer/director Jeff Wadlow suggested adding a production component to the Virginia Film Festival in 2004, he didn’t foresee that the 72-hour filmmaking competition would become his baby. “This is the 10th year, and I’ve only missed one,” said Wadlow. “And now we do it in the spring in Eugene at the University of Oregon.”
As many as a dozen three-person teams pitch, write, cast, film, edit, and screen their films—all in three days under the guidance of professional filmmakers like Wadlow. “The emphasis is on collaboration,” he explained. And all aspects of the production have to receive a green light from Wadlow or a mentor—just like in Hollywood. “This forces them to see how it’s done,” he said.
Adrenaline alum Steve Robillard, who won an Emmy for his work on the reality show “Deadliest Catch,” agrees. “In order to get it to an audience, you’ve got to please an executive first,” he said.
“The more films you make, the better you’re going to be,” said UVA professor Kevin Everson, who teaches film in the art department, is an Adrenaline mentor and is on the board of Light House Studio, the nonprofit that teaches filmmaking to students. “The non-experienced teams, they can’t imagine staying up all night or not eating.”
Wadlow kicks off the event with a crash course in filmmaking on Wednesday. “The workshop tutorial Jeff does is an hour-long master’s class on how to shoot a short film,” said Nick Lazo, whose team won in 2007 and who now works in L.A. “It’s something I’ve used at Adrenaline, at USC film school, and in projects since then.”
Lazo remembers Evan Almighty director Tom Shadyac coming into his wrecked hotel room that reeked of Chinese take-out, “sitting over my shoulder while I was editing, giving me tips. That was incredible.”
Adrenaline participants have had other high-profile guest mentors, like Brad Silbering, Norman Jewison, and Mark Johnson.
“One year we had Peter Bogdanovich stop by,” said Rom Alejandro. “I went pretty gaga over that.” Alejandro participated for two years before becoming a mentor himself. He now runs the Oregon Adrenaline Project and is head of post-production at Ketchum Labs in L.A. “It’s the best film experience you can get in 72 hours,” he said.
More than 500 people have participated in the Adrenaline Film Project. “I’ve never had a film not completed,” said Wadlow. “Although it’s been close.” He tells his teams, “Just get it done. If it’s good, it’s gravy.”
And then it’s showtime—and the payoff for Adrenalites. “It’s giving them the chance to realize the end product is not a movie,” said Wadlow. “The end product is a screening. The final step is an audience watching a movie and becoming active participants, making meaning from it from their own lives. That’s the rush.”—Lisa Provence
Election day has come and gone, heralding a new era of Democratic dominance in Albemarle County. But Republicans are agitating for further investigation into the activity of a local advocacy group they say stepped over the line in the weeks leading up to election day by operating as an unregistered PAC.
“It seems like there’s a web that’s being woven here, and they’re trying to hide their tracks,” Boyd said of the Bypass Truth Coalition, which has fired back by insisting it’s well within its rights as a registered nonprofit.
Bypass Truth may be a new name, but the group behind it—the Charlottesville Albemarle Transportation Coalition—is a familiar player, founded by Ann Rooker, wife of longtime independent Albemarle County Supervisor Dennis Rooker, local resident George Larie, and others. The IRS revoked CATCO’s nonprofit status for failing to file paperwork for three straight years, but records show that status was reinstated in May. Shortly after, the group filed to do business under a different name: the Bypass Truth Coalition.
A flashy website, a well-maintained Facebook page, and a press release announcing a “new grassroots coalition” followed. Only one name is mentioned in recent communications: Nora Seilheimer, a St. Anne’s-Belfield mom of two.
The group decided to rebrand itself “because we liked the idea of a fresh name for our first effort in social media,” Seilheimer said in an e-mail.
Since then, Bypass Truth has worked with local PR and design firms on its Facebook and Twitter campaigns and TV, radio, and print ads—including one that ran in this paper—that slammed Rodney Thomas and Duane Snow, the two Republicans running to keep their county supervisor seats, for their roles in bringing the Bypass project back to life in a late-night vote in 2011.
And that’s what Boyd says is alarming. He announced in a Halloween press conference that he was asking the State Board of Elections and the IRS to investigate the group, and voiced his suspicion that Bypass Truth should have registered with the State Board of Elections and been open about its funding sources.
“If they believe in what they’re saying about us, they should be transparent in who they are,” Boyd said. “They seem to be going to great lengths not to.”
Legally, it’s fine for 501(c)(4) nonprofits like CATCO to get involved in politics, said Michael Gilbert, an associate professor at UVA’s School of Law and an expert on election law. Unlike PACs, they ordinarily have no obligation to reveal their donors, and the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case gave them even more leeway.
The hitch: Political advocacy can’t be their primary purpose. If that sounds a little hard to define to you, you’re not alone.
“We don’t have any clarity,” Gilbert said. “We don’t know where the line is between a properly registered social welfare group and a PAC in disguise.”
Neither Larie nor Rooker, who are still on CATCO’s board, returned calls for comment, but Seilheimer said the group is a legally operating 501(c)(4). And whatever questions Republicans are raising about its activity, the group has succeeded at pushing the Bypass issue; Thomas and Snow spent the bulk of their own half-hour press conference last week defending their positions on the road.
Meanwhile, in a statement released after Boyd’s press conference, the group said it would comply with requests from state election regulators, should it receive any.
“We are purely a local group with nothing to hide,” the statement read.
Crisp fall air thick with lingering wood smoke. Unbeatable mountain views as the leaves change. Pumpkin beer. There are plenty of reasons to love this time of year, and as the days shorten into darker evenings, the motivation to linger over the stove increases in proportion. Family meals once again exude the aromas of the crock-pot, piquing the urge to sip red wine and other soul-succoring libations. Restaurant menus shift focus to hard-skinned root vegetables, thick, hearty stews, and slow-cooked meats to fortify us during the impending cold months.
Our town is filled with professionals capable of guiding us through this annual transition, so we asked a few friends to offer up their favorite fall food and drink pairings as inspiration.
Pasta + dry cider
Ivy Inn’s chef Angelo Vangelopoulos looks forward to making his signature fall dish of pumpkin agnolotti every year. A roasted medley of pumpkins and seasonal squash is mixed with mascarpone, Parmigiano, and sage, and stuffed into thinly rolled pasta sheets folded into little pillows. He blends brown butter, diced pumpkin, chopped kale, pumpkin seeds, and pecans into a sauce and serves the whole concoction on a velvety bed of pureed parsnips. Albemarle Ciderworks Old Virginia Winesap, with its dry, slightly effervescent profile, balances the dish perfectly.
“The flavors and textures of this pairing really scream ‘fall!’ in my mouth,” Vangelopoulos said.
Braised meat + barleywine
Maya’s chef Christian Kelly’s favorite meal to dig into when the leaves turn and the temperature drops is the restaurant’s braised Rock Barn pork cheeks with housemade ricotta dumplings. He pairs the dish with the Anniversary Barley wine at South Street Brewery—a beer with bitter hops and notes of pine, resin, and caramel—to round out this tender, flavorful, and often overlooked delicacy.
Rabbit stew + crianza
Over at Mas, chef Tomas Rahal favors his rendition of a traditional Spanish cacerola—literally meaning “stew pot”—of local duck, pork, and “wabbit.” Most complementary to the dish, he said, is a glass of Elias Mora crianza from Ribera del Duero, which exhibits rich notes of black fruit, licorice, tobacco, and a spicy finish perfect for this hearty stew on a chilly evening. Both are currently available at the restaurant.
Venison + cabernet franc
Grace Estates Vineyard winemaker Jake Bushing has specific tastes and very little time to cook during harvest. But when he does sit down for a hearty dinner, his favorite fall dish consists of a venison loin marinated in red wine and lees—the dead yeast cells that fall to the bottom of the tank or barrel after fermentation is finished. He grills it rare and serves it alongside butternut squash, date risotto, and cooked greens. Bushing prefers to pair it with the 2007 Pollak Cabernet Franc which, unfortunately, is no longer available in the retail market. The next best thing is a mid-weight Virginia red wine like the Glen Manor Hodder Hill 2010, a ripe blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and petit verdot—if you’re lucky, you might be able to dig up a bottle at Market Street Wineshop.
“Smoke hangs heavy in the fall air, and a medium Honduran cigar with Connecticut wrap leaf and a glass of tannat port cap the meal,” Bushing said.
This time of year is all about traditions, but don’t be afraid to test out new flavor combinations, and share your favorites with us! Follow @eatdrinkcville on Instagram and tag us in your photos.
Other fall favorites
Craft lovers, get ready to hit the road for the 19th Annual Artisans Studio Tour, a self-guided visit to local studios exhibiting artists works and processes around Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. Showcasing 38 of Virginia’s finest artisans, the tour includes demonstrations, opportunities for hands-on experience, and displays of pottery, furniture, weaving, jewelry, stained glass, clothing, baskets, wood turning, and more.
Saturday 11/9 & Sunday 11/10. Free, 10am. Various locations, see artisanstudiotour.com for details. 295-5057.
Robert Redford has long been one of our greatest movie stars. He’s never been one of our greatest actors. For every compelling performance he gives—Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969); All the President’s Men (1976)—he gives several bordering on narcolepsy. Just look at him in The Company You Keep (2013); this is a man on the run from federal agents whose heart rate doesn’t get above 45 beats per minute.
In All is Lost Redford is the whole show, and the fate of the movie rests squarely on him. It doesn’t matter how good a screenplay is, and J.C. Chandor’s screenplay and direction are excellent, if we don’t care about the person on screen, but Redford is up to the challenge. In All is Lost, he’s quick, canny, resilient, angry, and morose, all in the span of 100 minutes, and often in the same scene. All is Lost is beautiful, wonderfully acted, terrifying, and altogether possible.
An unnamed man (Redford) on a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean wakes up to the sound of rushing water as his boat collides with a shipping container adrift at sea. The hole in the hull rapidly fills with water—and children’s sneakers, (a sly commentary on the global reach of Western commerce)—and becomes the least of the man’s problems.
In fact, he’s so quick thinking, he patches the hole in about 24 hours with plastic grabbed from other parts of the boat and a heavy-duty epoxy. Unfortunately, the damage from the shipping container is just the beginning. His navigation equipment, which rests directly under the hole, is waterlogged and useless. Even drying the equipment out on deck doesn’t help.
He makes the most of the books on board that detail celestial navigation and figures he’s about 1,200 miles south of the nearest shipping lane, and plots a course to sail toward it.
Nature has other ideas. There are approaching storms, big storms, and it’s here that Redford (the character doesn’t get a name—and he doesn’t really need one) runs into his worst trouble as the boat is tossed around in waves so big they’re difficult to see; the ocean is a wall of water. And then there’s the driving rain and gusting winds to contend with.
Director Chandor’s first feature was Margin Call, the 2011 drama about an investment bank on the verge of going under during the 2008 financial crisis. Lots of talking with stern voices and veiled threats about the end of life as we know it.
All is Lost is a wholly different animal, no less dangerous, and answers similar questions: What are we made of? What lengths will we go to survive? It’s one of the best films of 2013, and Redford’s performance is one of the year’s best; it’s certainly his greatest. What he can do with a steely glance or a hopeful look speaks louder than his opening voiceover—the film’s one misstep—and reminds us why he’s been one of the most fascinating figures in cinema for nearly 50 years.
Playing this week
Blue Jasmine
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Captain Phillips
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Carrie
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Cloudy With a Chance
of Meatballs 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Despicable Me 2
Carmike Cinema 6
Don Jon
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Enough Said
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Escape Plan
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Fifth Estate
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Gravity
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Grown Ups 2
Carmike Cinema 6
Inequality for All
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Insidious Chapter 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Kick-Ass 2
Carmike Cinema 6
Machete Kills
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Monster’s University
Carmike Cinema 6
Prisoners
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Riddick
Carmike Cinema 6
Romeo and Juliet
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Runner Runner
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
Rush
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Smurfs
Carmike Cinema 6
The Summit
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Wadjda
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
The Way, Way Back
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
Carmike Cinema 6
The Wolverine
Carmike Cinema 6
Movie houses
Carmike Cinema 6
973-4294
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213
Some film festivals are all about making deals. The Virginia Film Festival—not so much. And yet, Mr. Jefferson’s University’s annual fall movie-thon, now in its 26th year, has generated encounters that led to the critically acclaimed AMC hit TV series “Breaking Bad,” movies like Kick-Ass 2 and The Jane Austen Book Club, and a gang of Charlottesville-connected filmmakers working in Hollywood.
“It’s a great opportunity for filmmakers,” said festival director Jody Kielbasa. “I hate to use the word ‘networking,’ but often lifetime connections are made, filmmakers often return, and some graduate from short films to features.”
The second Virginia Film Festival in 1989 spawned the connection that years later led to “Breaking Bad.” “I had just won an Oscar that year for Rainman,” producer and festival board member Mark Johnson remembered. He was also a judge for the Governor’s Screenwriting Competition, and the winner blew him away.
That was a Richmond-born guy named Vince Gilligan. “That’s how we met,” said Johnson. “I tracked him down because I was so impressed with his work.”
Johnson also recalled that director Steven Soderbergh was living in the area at the time and the two got together with Gilligan.
Johnson later made Gilligan’s winning screenplay, Home Fries, into a movie starring Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson. He also introduced Gilligan to “X-Files” creator Chris Carter, and Gilligan wrote 29 episodes for that series, and was a writer for “The Lone Gunmen.”
And when AMC aired the first episode of “Breaking Bad” in 2008, Johnson was executive producer. He’ll team up again with Gilligan on his new series, “Battle Creek,” set to air next year. Meeting Vince Gilligan, said Johnson, “is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”
Johnson says he’s kept in touch with a number of filmmakers he’s met at the Virginia Film Festival, such as The Parking Lot Movie director Meghan Eckman, who filmed her 2010 documentary in a Corner lot. “We’re still trying to do a television version,” said Johnson.
He also met fellow UVA grad Julie Lynn at the film festival. “She tracked me down, we had coffee on the Corner and she came and worked with me. Now she’s producing,” Johnson said.
“We shared a professor in the drama department—David Weiss,” said Lynn, who also sits on the festival advisory board. “There’s a direct connection with Mark and the film festival and me getting a toehold in movies.”
Lynn’s Mockingbird Pictures produced The Jane Austen Book Club, which she said is about her only movie that wasn’t screened at the Charlottesville festival. She’s brought Albert Nobbs and its costar, Mia Wasikowska, and the Rodrigo Garcia-directed films Mother and Child and Nine Lives, the latter starring Sissy Spacek and Kathy Baker, both of whom attended the festival in 2005. Remember when Morgan Freeman was here in 2006? That was thanks to another Lynn film, 10 Items or Less.
And she says that Arie Posen, the director and writer of her latest film, The Face of Love, which screens on November 9, is co-writing a film set in Charlottesville.
Richmonder Megan Holley also won the Governor’s Screenwriting Competition. Producer Glenn Williamson, another UVA alum and festival board member, was on the jury, and optioned her screenplay, Sunshine Cleaning. “That’s another connection,” said Jody Kielbasa.
American Film Institute president Bob Gazzale was an early director of the Virginia Festival of American Film, as it was then called, and he said he “definitely” would not be in his current position without the Virginia fest.
“Jean Firstenberg, then the president of the AFI, was on the board,” said Gazzale. He’d been working at the film festival for five years following his graduation from UVA when Firstenberg invited him to come out to Los Angeles to the American Film Institute. “She was sitting beside Charlton Heston,” remembered Gazzale. “How’s that for gravitas?”
Jeff Wadlow calls the Virginia Film Festival’s impact on his career “tremendous.” Wadlow, the writer/director of Kick-Ass 2, said, “Growing up in Central Virginia, there weren’t many outlets for someone interested in film. I was frustrated at 13 years old by the lack of opportunities.” His mother, State Senator Emily Couric, apparently got that.
“I remember vividly in the seventh grade my mom pulled me out of school for two days to see Roger Ebert’s shot-by-shot of Citizen Kane,” said Wadlow. “That got it started.
After graduating from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, Wadlow won the 2002 Chrysler Million Dollar Film Competition for his short film, Living the Lie. He used the money from that to make his first feature-length movie, Cry Wolf, in Richmond. By 2004, Wadlow, too, was sitting on the Virginia Film Festival advisory board.
That year, the festival’s theme was “Speed.”
“I said to [then festival director] Richard Herskowitz, ‘Why don’t we do a production component with an emphasis on collaboration and mentoring?’” recalled Wadlow. “Richard said, ‘Great, you can do it.’”
And thus was born the Adrenaline Film Project, the make-a-film-in-72-hours competition, now celebrating its 10th year. (See sidebar on page 26.)
A couple of Adrenaline alums have gotten into USC and NYU film schools, “a major accomplishment because they’re highly competitive,” said Wadlow. Another, reality show producer Steve Robillard, has won an Emmy.
“I stay in touch with a lot of Adrenaline filmmakers who come to L.A.,” said Wadlow. “It’s important to know people on all levels.”
And it’s not too unlikely that one day they’ll be bringing their work to the Virginia Film Festival.
“I think we have an affection for each other and where we come from,” said Julie Lynn about the UVA grads and Charlottes-villians who work in Hollywood.
The Virginia Film Festival provides a platform for independent filmmakers to meet—and to form relationships, said Kielbasa. “It can be incestuous,” he laughed, “in a good way.” —Lisa Provence
The last word that most people would use to describe former “Saturday Night Live” regular Will Forte’s acting style is “restrained.”
“Relentless assault” would be more accurate. As the inept special operative MacGruber, he wreaked mass destruction while trying to prevent it, one accidental explosion at a time. On “SNL,” he French-kissed actor James Franco furiously while playing his grandson. Forte’s role as a mattress salesman on the cult comedy “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” climaxed with him shrieking and eating human flesh.
Restrained? Not quite. Until now.
After years spent almost exclusively doing over-the-top comedy, Forte’s performance in director Alexander Payne’s (Sideways, About Schmidt) dark new comedy-drama Nebraska is a breakthrough. Forte will host a screening of the film, as well as his 2010 comedy MacGruber, at this year’s Virginia Film Festival.
Those expecting Forte’s usual hysterics in Nebraska are in for something more jolting than any of his comic mayhem.
“I would say, if anything, I might have pulled back too much [during filming],” Forte said. “Thinking I didn’t want to dare be sketchy or anything. So I might have underplayed it too much, and then would get the note to inject a little more energy in it.”
But, Forte adds, “Alexander is so good, if you’re going off-track,” he would “just [keep] nudging you back on the right track.”
In Nebraska, the broken-down, elderly Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) goes on a misguided quest to redeem a million-dollar marketing prize, joined by his estranged son, David (Forte). The film has been roundly praised and Dern’s bravura performance won him the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
When he first got the script, Forte said, “I just decided, ‘Ah, what the heck. I’ll just put myself on tape. Who knows? Maybe everyone will go crazy and somehow I’ll get the part.’ And everyone did go crazy. Everyone lost their senses somehow and I was able to sneak in there and get the part. It really was the most unexpected thing of all time.”
Forte’s enthusiasm for the project is boundless. “Everything appealed to me—the beautiful script, Alexander Payne was directing it—the only thing that didn’t appeal to me was that I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to get the part,” he said.
Even while reading the screenplay initially, Forte said, “The character just seemed. . . familiar to me for some reason. It seemed like I understood what he was going for, and that’s not always the case when you read something.”
Forte was somewhat in awe of being cast opposite elder statesmen of the cinema like Dern and Stacy Keach. “They are amazing to watch work because they are just so good at what they do,” Forte said. “There’s a part in the movie where Stacy Keach takes a punch from somebody and he had to keep falling on this barstool over and over and over again. And each time, he was perfect at it. And the same goes with Bruce—it was just constantly this master class in acting. I learned so much from these guys. From the very start, they put me right at ease and made me feel like I was part of the club.”
Forte said that Payne turned what could’ve been scary into an inspiring experience.
“It’s really exciting because it’s scary,” he said. “It’s kind of fun to go into work and try something new. It would always bug me when you would hear somebody say, ‘well, I wanted to stretch and do this and do that.’ I never felt the need to stretch.” He’s so content with comedy work that he “could make MacGruber every day for the rest of my life.”
MacGruber, a parody of the ludicrous ’80s action series “MacGyver,” was created by “SNL” contributor Jorma Taccone. Taccone pushed the character on his fellow writers until they finally caved in and used him.
“At first we were just trying to shut him up,” Forte said. “But then we were so happy that he was persistent.”
Forte’s MacGruber skits on “SNL” grew into a feature film in 2010, with a much grander script than its approximately $10 million budget would allow.
Heavy editing ensued, Forte recalled, “So we kept having to come up with different, lower-costing versions of things. And I think, a lot of times, it really helped us out.”
The cost-cutting involved condensing one elaborate sequence into a shtick where MacGruber puts a “cup of water above a person’s head and ties a string to it,” which Forte found much more satisfying.
Forte starred in another drama this year, Run and Jump, which was well-received at the Tribeca Film Festival. But he is far from finished with farce.
He co-starred in the upcoming comedy Squirrels to the Nuts directed by Peter Bogdanovich (a Virginia Film Festival guest in 2010). “It’s all about this play that Owen Wilson is directing,” Forte said. “It’s delightfully crazy. I love it.”
“If somebody had told me I would be working with Alexander Payne and Peter Bogdanovich, I would have told them that they were crazy. It has been so much fun.” —Justin Humphreys
Will Forte and producer Ron Yerxa will host a discussion at the screening of Nebraska at The Paramount Theater on November 7, and director Jorma Taccone will join him for the screening of MacGruber at the Newcomb Hall Theater on November 8.
Five reasons to see MacGruber at VFF
As the film festival approaches, cinephiles find themselves clamoring for seats to some of the most intriguing flicks on the indie circuit, complete with director/producer/actor Q&As and “I saw it when…” bragging rights. Though, with the line-up announcement comes the proverbial cocked eyebrow and head-shake at some of the more obscure and seemingly questionable screening material (last year’s opening night feature of the hip-hop/martial arts amalgam The Man with the Iron Fists comes to mind.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqySbDqTGGc
This year’s odd duck is the little-seen, oft-maligned “SNL” parody film MacGruber. The film prompts two major questions: How was Paramount able to not only greenlight, but promote a feature-length film based on a 90-second repeat sketch, the punchline of which usually arrives in the form of the opening theme song? And why is this particular film included alongside the ranks of lauded feature films and documentaries at a regional festival?
—William Smith
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath, and bring the tea cup to your lips. Allow the steeping leaves’ delicate, earthy aroma to quiet your surroundings. Gently slurp the first sip, letting the tea aerate and reach every part of your palate. What do you taste? Flower? Berries? Can you visualize the mountainside the tea leaves were plucked from? What is the piping hot cup in your hands telling you? Sit back, take another sip, and let the ancient, medicinal drink work its magic.
Back to reality. A scoop of chai-flavored powder dumped into a disposable cup with a splash of 2 percent milk and too much sugar, with a cardboard sleeve and ill-fitting plastic lid is hastily slid across the counter into your hands. You take your tea to-go and rush outside to continue going about your day.
Russian-born tea enthusiast Olivia Oldaker and her husband Donal want to reinvent the rushed culture surrounding the beverage in America, and through their wholesale, tasting, and events company, the White Lotus Tea Club, they’re encouraging tea-drinkers to take a moment to enjoy a cup to stay.
A jack of all trades, Oldaker has degrees in landscape architecture and sociology, and has worked in schools and as a yoga instructor.
“I always just kept coming back to tea,” she said.
What used to be a hobby has turned into her physical, mental, and financial sustenance. The couple began leading courses and workshops through the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar and local coffee shops when they arrived in Charlottesville in 2011, offering their expertise in the rich history and culture of tea and Chinese tea ceremonies. They spent months researching business models and studying the landscape of Charlottesville’s tea scene, and in the spring of this year, moved to Staunton to start a wholesale business that distributes handpicked loose tea leaves imported from top tier Chinese farms.
“Charlottesville has a pretty ingrained tea culture already, and we decided to put all that research and effort into wholesale,” Oldaker said.
Shortly after settling into a downtown space that doubles as the couple’s home and workspace, local tea lovers began knocking on their door.
“People wanted to come in,” Oldaker said. “So we opened up the tasting room, which allows us to be creative.”
The small tasting room, with its mint green walls, shelves lined with tea cannisters, and rustic wooden table handcrafted by Donal Oldaker, can accommodate about 10 people for a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Any more than that, Oldaker said, and the serene, calming effect of a private tea ceremony is lost.
“You want to focus on the flavor and not take the focus away from the tea,” she said.
Oldaker and her husband are in the process of establishing a club membership aspect of the business. Soon, tea lovers may be able to receive monthly leaf shipments and have access to tastings, exclusive varieties like the now-rare wild-grown Chinese teas, and other special offers and events. They’re still working out the kinks of the membership setup, but the term “club” is not meant to be exclusive.
“If you love tea, you’re already part of our club,” Oldaker said.
Decaf debriefed
Tea leaves are naturally caffeinated, and a cup of black tea steeped for five minutes is believed to have about 40 to 50 milligrams of the stimulant. The leaves can be decaffeinated, but you won’t find any decaf tea at the White Lotus Tea Club. Oldaker said the “industrial methods” used to remove the natural pesticide destroys the plant’s positive chi energy and can even remove some of the flavors.
Herbal drinks like peppermint and chamomile are naturally caffeine-free, but contrary to their packaging, are not actually teas. They’re called tisanes, which are any infusion of herbs, spices, or other materials in hot water, and aren’t sold through White Lotus.
Which tea should I drink?
Ancient Chinese culture says that tea is the end-all be-all, with healing qualities for just about every malady under the sun.
“I believe in that, and I follow it,” Olivia Oldaker said, adding that she will always reach for a cup of tea over a bottle of ibuprofen.
• For a headache or stomachache, the Oldakers recommend a cup of pu-erh, a fermented dark tea produced in the Yunnan province of China.
• After a big meal, bypass the coffee and reach for some black tea, which helps
with digestion.
• Green tea is said to be a more powerful antioxidant than Vitamins C and E, and Oldaker drinks the earthy, vaguely sweet tea as a form of vitamin supplement.