Month: March 2014

Categories
Arts

Ten locals interpret written work through visual art

Frank Riccio's piece is one of the visual works produced for the interpretation of the short story “This is How You Open a Pomegranate.”

When FIREFISH Gallery co-curators Araxe Hajian and Sigrid Eilertson brainstormed concepts for their next collaborative project, they decided to flip the script. Rather than host a visual art show that invited verbal interpretation, they decided to ask visual artists to interpret Hajian’s short story “This is How You Open a Pomegranate.”

“I didn’t see this as an illustration of a story,” Hajian said. “I wanted to see how someone else would tell this story. We did it backward, not writing responses to art, but art as response to writing.”

Inspired in part by their new memberships with the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, Hajian and Eilertson chose 10 diverse local artists, including Eileen Butler, Chicho Lorenzo, Ken Nagakui, Julia Travers, Kate Hunter, Rose Brown, Suzanne Nelson, Frank Riccio, and Claudia Walpole to create new works that interpret the story.

“It’s a kaleidoscopic story, not plot driven, much more of an inner monologue,” said Hajian, who is Armenian-American. “A few artists I knew said ‘It’s so visual, I want to draw it.’”

At face value, “This is How You Open a Pomegranate” is the recollection of an American woman traveling with relief efforts to an Armenian village leveled by an earthquake. (Though the story is fiction, it takes place in Spitak, a real city devastated by a 1988 earthquake.) When the narrator finds a baby alive in the rubble, she forms an unexpected bond with the child and must decide whether to stay or leave.

In pottery, textiles, paintings, collage, multimedia, mosaics, and letterpress prints and art books, artists’ responses ranged from food imagery to scenes of objects built or broken. “They reminded me how we focus on what themes resonate emotionally, these ideas of being uprooted, of attachment and detachment, of loss and the concept of home,” said Hajian.

All the works are for sale to benefit the Armenia Tree Project, which plants trees in impoverished and deforested zones like Spitak. Though the gallery often hosts collaborative shows to benefit non-profits, “this is the first time we’ve interpreted an object of literature,” Eilertson said.

As a result of artistic interpretation, the facts of the story shifted, and the exhibit reads like a game of visual telephone. For example, one artist believed the infant was a boy, despite Hajian’s description of a baby girl.

Hajian herself interpreted the story three times, once through writing, once through textiles, and again in the compilation of a hand-bound, limited edition book cataloging the project. She saw firsthand how fiction suggests a story without committing to it, how language, like art, is a lens to the truth, not the truth itself.

“Even in real life, we don’t know how much we’re embellishing in our heads,” she said. “When I try to fact check my memory, I’m shocked by how much it morphs. Art morphs too.”

Eilertson, who also contributed to the show, said she painted an Armenian goddess that wound up looking Brazilian.

“But it’s O.K. It’s all art therapy. It turns into something you don’t intend it to be,” she said.

Art writers use words to interpret meaning, to tease out themes like multicolored threads. If you’re reading this, you’re interpreting, too, contributing to the weave. And when you look back, meta-magic will happen. You’ll remember a story about this story, a fiction about artists narrating fiction about what may or may not be a pomegranate.

When the truth dissolves in extrapolation like this, we all become art-makers. As Eilertson said, “I think that’s just what happens in art. Things become bigger than themselves.”

Categories
News

Charlottesville’s Woolen Mills building under contract

The historic Woolen Mills property was listed for $5 million and is under contract. Photo: Jack Looney

Big changes could be in store for the Woolen Mills neighborhood if the sale of the historic neighborhood’s namesake building goes through. The 105,000 square-foot warehouse building that was home to a textile factory by that name from the post Civil War era to the mid-20th century is under contract. While its current owner confirms the contract and calls the prospective plans for the site “exciting,” he won’t spill the beans on the would-be buyer.

“There’s nothing I’m going to say,” said Presley Thach, whose family has owned and operated the Security Storage and Van Lines business in the old Woolen Mills location since 1960.

The property, which forms the eastern terminus of Market Street and sits on a triangle of land where Moore’s Creek empties into the Rivanna River, is more than 10 acres of prime Albemarle County real estate and was listed for $5 million—more than double its assessed value of just over $2 million.

A history of the Woolen Mills by historian Rick Britton details commercial enterprise at the site dating back to the late 18th century, when it was first home to a water grist mill and, a dozen years later, mills owned by William D. Meriwether, uncle of Meriwether Lewis. It officially became the Charlottesville Woolen Mills in late 1868, according to Britton’s account.

While the property is currently zoned industrial, the listing agent, Carolyn Betts of Keller Williams Realty, noted that the county is working on a mixed-use plan for the site that could incorporate industrial, commercial, and residential components. Like Thach, she declined to identify the potential buyer.

Longtime residents of the Woolen Mills neighborhood, which is also home to Riverview Park, where the Greenbelt Trail offers miles of paved paths for biking and walking, and the scenic Riverview Cemetery, are optimistic about plans to develop the site.

“We’ve talked about it as a great residential condo site for a long time,” said Roger Voisinet, a real estate agent whose own historic home is about half a mile west from the Woolen Mills on Market. Voisinet noted that the stream of Allied Van Line trucks driving down Market Street over the past decades “is not much of an asset” for homeowners, and he speculated that a mixed-use development on the site—if  vehicle access to the property is also provided from Broadway Street—“should be good news.”

Thatch hoped to be able to offer more details on the sale in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Categories
Living

Big river: Scottsville’s contribution to the craft beer scene ups the ante

James River Brewing Company is rolling out a new beer, created by brewmaster Kelby Barnhill, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Photo: Martyn Kyle

James River Brewing Company is not an urban legend. I promise.

If you’ve never been down to Scottsville, you might find it hard to confirm the place exists. You haven’t seen the brewery’s beers on tap around town, and if you’ve come across a James River bottle somewhere, a Sasquatch hunter you are indeed.

But the tiny craft brewery 30 minutes from Downtown Charlottesville has big news coming that stands to change all that. By the end of the month, James River will be installing a 20-barrel brewing system that will up its production by a factor of 10.

No, a 20-barrel brewhouse ain’t big. But when your existing system is less than two barrels and consists of hardly more than a guy running his homebrew operation in a commercial location, it’s a big step up. When the dust clears on the James River construction project, which should be completed by the end of March, the little beer engine that could will go from a couple hundred barrels a year capacity to nearly 3,000.

“We’ve been operating on a shoestring,” head brewer Kelby Barnhill said. “As soon as we get this new system in, we’re going to have more beer than we know what to do with.”

Which brings me to why you should care. I’ll be honest, the first time I drove by James River about six months ago, I thought it was closed and/or under construction. The large room adjacent to the tasting room where there should be a gleaming chrome brewing system looks halfway cleaned out after a sudden shutdown.

Even when I first walked into the Scottsville brewery, I still found it confusing. The tasting room was uncomfortably small, with a singer-songwriter strumming away practically in my lap, and the menu was uncomfortably large. The brewery seemed to be making a little bit of everything, and its focus was hard to pin down.

Since my first visit, though, I’ve heard nothing but good things about James River, which was ahead of C’ville’s Champion and Three Notch’d brewing companies at taking advantage of the new laws that allow joints to make beer without serving food. From the casual tippler to the local craft beer guru, almost everyone I’ve talked to agrees the beer coming out of the boutique Scottsville brewery is pretty damn good.

Originally under the direction of co-founder and brewmaster Dustin Caster, James River has indeed had trouble figuring out what it wants to be. Caster handed the title of head brewer over to Barnhill just a few months after the place opened, and the duo has produced beer in a somewhat scattershot fashion so far. Since day one, they’ve been pushing beer out strictly through their “pilot” system, a three-burner Rube Goldberg apparatus that was originally intended as nothing more than a way to get the business off the ground. Almost two years later, Barnhill is still diligently making two 50-
gallon batches a day up to five days a week to meet steady demand from James River’s tiny tasting room.

“I love brewing on that system,” Barnhill said. “It’s like flying the Millennium Falcon. Everything is manual.”

Barnhill, who was hired as assistant brewer and became head brewer when Caster shifted over to the administrative side, said the goal with the new system is to standardize James River’s flagship beers and regular seasonal offerings. That means staples like the English mild River Walker and English bitter River Runner will be produced on the commercial system. The brewery’s more unique beers and one-offs will still be made on the pilot system.

That change should be a good thing, as in my own experience, James River’s staples have been inconsistent, while its one-offs have been highlights. Currently on-tap and worth the 30-minute trip down are Barnhill’s Vanilla Porter, which has a subtle and natural-tasting vanilla note, and 1865 Smoked Brown Ale, with a porter-esque character and just enough smokiness to give it depth and make it interesting. Coming soon on tap is a dry Irish stout, a beer that sounds as if it’s right in Barnhill’s wheelhouse. It’s making its debut in the tasting room on March 14 as part of an effort to bring in out-of-towners for the brewery’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend festivities.

“Our goal is to get people down here,” Barnhill said. “If people can brave the 20 to 30 minute drive, it is a totally different scene from C’ville, with local music with a rural character.”

No one would blame you, though, if you waited for warmer days to visit James River. The brewery’s small tasting room has been expanded to include a new room for live music and a second sitting room, but the prize of the place is certainly the beer garden and outdoor stage positioned along the creek out back. It’s a lovely shaded gem on sunny days but bitterly cold during winters like the one we’re having.

Categories
Magazines Real Estate

Virginia Festival of the Book: Celebrating Twenty Years

How many books do you read each year? How many do you first hear about at the Virginia Festival of the Book? A five-day celebration designed to honor book culture and promote reading and literacy, the festival has enchanted readers, encouraged writers, and made Charlottesville a book lover’s paradise every March since 1994.

This year’s 20th annual festival, March 19-23, largely on and around Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall and the University of Virginia grounds, will feature 134 events for adults and oodles more – 71, to be exact – for kids. Most are free.

Thanks for Twenty

As an anniversary gift, the festival is presenting free evening programs with poets Gregory Orr and Patricia Smith and novelist Alice Hoffman. Free tickets may be reserved at vabook.org or at the UVA Arts Box Office. “These are our gifts back to the community, thanking them for the twentieth anniversary,” says Susan Coleman of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, which produces the festival.

Orr and Smith will read from their work during the Cities of Poetry program, Wednesday, March 19 at 8:00 p.m. at the Culbreth Theatre. Orr founded the MFA Program in Writing at UVA , where he has taught since 1975. He has published eleven collections of poetry, and his memoir, The Blessing, was one of Publisher’s Weekly‘s fifty best non-fiction books of 2003. Smith’s six volumes of poetry include Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah and Blood Dazzler. She was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and recently won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.

Alice Hoffman has written young-adult and children’s fiction, but she’s best known for blending fairy tales, romance, and magical realism in adult works like Practical Magic (1995) and The Story Sisters (2009). Toni Morrison called her novel The Dovekeepers “a major contribution to twenty-first century literature.” Hoffman’s newest novel, Museum of Extraordinary Things, is a love story set in early 20th-century Brooklyn. An Evening with Alice Hoffman: A Twentieth Anniversary Event, will take place on Thursday, March 20 at 8 pm in the Culbreth Theatre.

Homecoming

Five acclaimed writers who have delighted audiences at previous festivals will return for Homecoming: A Conversation with Some Favorite Authors, Saturday, March 22 at 8:00 p.m. at the Paramount Theater. Sonia Manzano is author of The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, a young adult novel set in New York City’s Spanish Harlem in 1969, plus the picture books No Dogs Allowed! and A Box Full of Kittens. She’s also a star and Emmy Award-winning writer on a certain beloved television show. “We always have lots of young men who want to come see her,” Coleman says, “because they fell in love with her when they were little boys watching Sesame Street.”

Festival favorite Lee Smith’s eleven honors include the 2002 Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2010 Lifetime Literary Achievement Award from the State of Virginia. Our annual literary blowout “ is my favorite event in the world,” Smith says. “It is like a family reunion. It is so exciting to meet new writers and see old friends. Also, writing is a two way transaction, you know, requiring both writer and reader . . . but we seldom get to meet our readers face to face. I love this opportunity to hear from them for a change.” Smith’s 17th and most recent novel, Guests on Earth, proposes a solution to the unsolved mystery of the fire that killed Zelda Fitzgerald and eight other patients in an Asheville, North Carolina mental hospital in 1948. 

Poet, children’s book writer and playwright Kwame Alexander has created more than 1000 student authors through his Book-in-a-Day program. His debut young adult novel, He Said She Said, is a Junior Library Guild Selection.

Joanne V. Gabbin edited The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry and directs the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University. Gabbin is author of Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition.

Poet and “literary activist” E. Ethelbert Miller has written two memoirs, The 5th Inning and  Fathering Words: The Making of An African American Writer. He directs the African-American Resource Center at Howard University. Homecoming program tickets are $20.

Gardening

For Garden Lovers from Henry Thoreau to Today is for everyone dreaming of spring. Young adult fiction author Ruth Kasinger blogs on the intersection of gardening, history, and science. Her new book for grownups is A Garden of Marvels: How We Discovered that Flowers Have Sex, Leaves Eat Air, and Other Secrets of Plants. Michael Sims has written on everything from E.B. White to Victorian vampire stories. Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan calls his latest work, The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man’s Unlikely Road to Walden Pond), “a rich, entertaining testament to the triumph of a young man who never comfortably fit in, but who made a place for himself, nonetheless.” The program takes place at New Dominion Bookshop, Thursday, March 20 at 6:00 p.m.

Little Stories

The ability to pick up a book and read it at will is something most adults take for granted – but not the proud adults on the Voices of Adult Learners program, Thursday, March 20 at Buford Middle School. The event will feature 16 stories chosen from more than 100 submissions by new local readers, many of them recent immigrants, in GED, ESL, or volunteer literacy programs. The reception takes place at 5:30 p.m.; readings begin at 6:00 p.m. Audience members will receive a small book with the winning stories. This annual reading “always turns out to be a breathtaking cross section of life,” says Susan Erno, of Charlottesville’s Adult Learning Center. “It’s a wonderful snapshot of our community in little stories.” 

Irish-American

Kathleen Curtis Wilson was such a popular guest in her last festival appearance that her books sold completely out. Wilson will join Mary Lyons this year for Two Stories of the Irish in America, Friday, March 21 at 2:00 p.m. at City Space. Wilson’s Textile Art from Southern Appalachia: The Quiet Work of Women features 43 bed coverlets and 2 quilts and demonstrates that the region’s renowned textiles were created to satisfy aesthetic – not financial – need. Lyons’s The Blue Ridge Tunnel: A Remarkable Engineering Feat in Antebellum Virginia tells the story of the Irish miners and African-American slaves who hand-drilled and blasted the Nelson-to-Augusta- County railroad tunnel. Heartwood Books owner and festival co-founder Paul Collinge of the Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation, which hopes to restore the tunnel for trail hikers, walkers and bicyclists, will speak as well.

Publishing Day

“In Charlottesville,” says the VHF’s Jane Kulow, “If you don’t know a writer, you must know ten people who want to be a published writer.” That’s for sure, and that’s why each Publishing Day, Saturday at the Omni Hotel, is packed.

This year writers and scribblers of all sorts will want to hear one of the country’s premier publishing experts, Jane Friedman, in the Digital Publishing Landscape program, Saturday, March 22 at 10:00 a.m. Formerly publisher of Writer’s Digest, Friedman is web editor of Virginia Quarterly Review and teaches digital publishing an online writing at UVA. She will speak on what it takes to succeed in today’s rapidly changing publishing world. Seven more “Pub Day” events are scheduled, including programs on building author’s platforms, hooking editors on the first page, and publishing literary work.

StoryFest

While published and aspiring writers trade tips and secrets at the Omni, kids will enjoy

their own day-long literary treat, StoryFest. For the first time, the festival has worked with local schools and community creative writing teachers to develop programs for teen authors. In First Page Panel for Aspiring Teen Writers, Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at Village School, teens 13 to 18 can receive anonymous feedback from authors Tommy Hays, Andrew Auseon, Carrie Brown, and Susann Cokal. Interested teens should submit one page of their writing to  VABookTeenWriters@gmail.com.

In Q & A for Teen Writers, Saturday noon at Village School, writers, creative writing teachers, and editors will answer questions about improving writing, studying writing, and writing for a living.

Wild About Reading, Saturday, March 22 at 10:30 a.m. at the Virginia Discovery Museum, will facilitate face-to-face encounters between Virginia wildlife species, animal and human. The first 100 young humans will receive a free wildlife-themed book. 

In the 19th annual Kids Book Swap, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Oakley’s Gently Used Books, kids can trade their own gently used books for others they haven’t read.

Chip Kidd has been designing book covers for Alfred. A. Knopf since 1986. Publisher’s Weekly calls them “creepy, striking, sly, smart, unpredictable covers that make readers appreciate books as objects of art as well as literature.” USA Today calls Kidd “the closest thing to a rock star in graphic design today.” He will talk about his career and his new book, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, at 4:00 p.m. in the Monroe Room of the Omni Hotel.

StoryFest spills over into Sunday this year, with appearances by two-time Newbery Medal Recipient Lois Lowry and National Book Award recipient Kathryn Erskine. Lowry’s latest book, Son, completes her celebrated Quartet series, set in a seemingly perfect future world. “I have always been impressed by Lois Lowry’s books,” Erskine says. “She is able to say so much and convey so much emotion in strong, stark prose. Number the Stars [about the Danish Resistance during World War II] is one of my favorite books, and I’m excited that The Giver [the first in the Quartet series] is going to be a movie, since so many kids have read that book.”

Born in the Netherlands, Erskine settled in Virginia after living in South Africa, Israel, Canada, and Scotland. In her award-winning 2010 novel, Mockingbird, an 11-year old girl with Asperger’s finds healing from grief as she learns that life isn’t always black and white. In her latest book, Seeing Red, 12-year old Frederick “Red” Porter discovers dark family secrets when his father dies and his mother wants to sell the family’s car repair shop. 

“Growing up, I spent more time overseas than in the U.S.,” Erskine says. “Seeing Red is inspired by the racism I saw as a child, both in the south and in South Africa. I didn’t want today’s youth to forget the people and events of the Civil Rights and post-Civil Rights era.  I also want them, and all of us, to think about what still needs to be done.”

An Afternoon with Lois Lowry and Kathryn Erskine takes place Sunday, March 23 at 2:00 p.m. in the Culbreth Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $3 for children in grades K-12.

Authors love readers. And readers love authors. “I have been coming to the festival from California for years, and wouldn’t miss it,” Kathleen Curtis Wilson says. “The way it’s organized makes it easy to attend numerous presentations each day and still have time to visit with friends, enjoy a stroll on the Mall, and peruse the huge number of books that I want to buy.”

Kathryn Erskine lauds Charlottesville’s “rich writing community of poets, novelists, and historians,” and the festival’s “southern hospitality yet worldly outlook. We’re a city of readers and book lovers. Sure, people come from all over but I still like to claim it as our hometown literary event.”

– Ken Wilson

Categories
Magazines Real Estate

An Open-and-Shut Case for Going Green

Going “green” is a good strategy for homeowners to save energy and money at the same time. When you look around any home, you’ll see that doors and windows have a big potential to be energy drains—letting in cold air in winter and hot air in the summer. While even Energy Star windows and doors can let in air, older doors and windows are especially vulnerable. Check for obvious leaks by shining a bright light around the edges while someone is inside to see. Then use putty caulk or rope caulk to seal cracks, both on the inside and the outside. 

Next, install weather stripping which comes in easy-to-install styles from sticky-backed foam to bronze. If air sneaks in under your doors (or windows), think old-fashioned draft stoppers also called “snakes.” They can be purchased inexpensively or you can create your own from fabric remnants or old socks filled with sand or even use a rolled-up towel. With a window, you can just leave the snake on the sill, but for coming-and-going convenience through a door, it’s easy to secure a vinyl “door sweep” to the bottom of the door.

Especially for single-pane windows, plastic film insulation is an inexpensive, although not highly durable, option. It comes in kits, can be applied with tape and in some cases a hair dryer is used to shrink it into place. The film can be removed easily at the end of the season and can sometimes be reused. Once the film is installed, you can’t open the window, however, so be sure it is sealed and the lock (which often serves to make the window seal more snug) is secure. You won’t be able to reach window blinds either, so you must decide whether you want blinds open, closed, or partly closed.
A more expensive, but practical energy-saving tactic is a vestibule—a small room with an outside door on one side and a well-insulated interior door on another. (Many commercial establishments have them.) A vestibule serves as an air lock, preventing icy (or sweltering) air from pouring in when people are coming and going. It also helps to keep out pollen and dust out.

If you lack a vestibule, but have a large foyer, creating an indoor vestibule could be as easy as framing in a wall for that second door. An exterior vestibule can also be built on an existing porch or veranda. It’s also a great option for a high-traffic door where kids are always coming and going. With a bench for boot removal, hooks for coats and jackets and some shelves for storage, it also becomes a mudroom. All a simple vestibule needs is a floor, basic wall framing, a roof, a window or two, and a door. Since it’s unheated, non-insulated windows and doors work fine.

A “door” that many people forget about, is attic access through the ceiling. If it’s simply a removable panel, glue two slabs of 2” rigid foam board insulation to the back and add weather stripping around the lip of the opening.

Attic access with pull-down stairs, however, is more complicated because of the folding steps themselves which rest atop the access panel when it’s closed. These hatches are not always well insulated, but there are several strategies. Attic stair “tents” are available in a variety of styles for purchase. A less expensive option for a reasonably handy homeowner employs rigid foam insulation and duct tape to build a light-weight, well insulated and easily removable “box” to provide protection from cold. The vent for whole-house fan can also be a big heat loser in winter and should be covered with insulation.

Remember, the sun is your ally in winter, so open your blinds to sunshine whenever possible. When the sun isn’t shining, close your blinds or drapes to keep the warm air inside. If you don’t have drapes, you could temporarily tack up a heavy beach towel in particularly cold weather.

In summer, the sun is not your friend so block direct rays with those same blinds and drapes. If your budget allows, purchase insulated “honeycomb” blinds, which work year round. You might be able to supply one room at a time with insulating blinds until your house is completely furnished.

For a longer-term strategy, plant deciduous trees near the house to block the sun in the summer, but let it shine in during cold weather. Framing windows with trellises supporting deciduous vines for shade in summer and sun in winter is practical and attractive at the same time.

There are useful how-to videos about caulk, weather stripping, insulating window film, attic access insulation, door sweeps, and even building a vestibule on the Internet.
So remember, some energy-saving tactics are inexpensive and immediate while others take time and money. Thinking green can become a rewarding way of life, both philosophically and economically.

Marilyn Pribus lives near Charlottesville in Albemarle. In winter, she welcomes the morning sun streaming through a window into her home office. In summer, that same window is completely shaded by a maple tree.

Categories
Magazines Real Estate

CAAR Celebrates 2013 Professional Honor Society Class

Forty-seven Local REALTORS® Recognized for Excellence

Congratulations to 47 REALTORS® of Greater Charlottesville for being recognized in the 2013 CAAR Professional Honor Society class. The distinguished group of professionals is committed to raising the bar for the industry and being a role model in the local community. CAAR members earn points throughout the year in four focus areas: association involvement (attending events); professional development activities (earning certifications/designations or instructing real estate classes); leadership roles (serving on local, state or national committees or earning awards); and sales production.

More than 100 CAAR members attended the traditional brunch ceremony on Thursday, March 6 at Farmington Country Club. To date, a total of 155 different REALTORS® have achieved this pinnacle in the program’s history. Voice of the Cavaliers and Director of Broadcasting for Virginia Athletics Dave Koehn served as Master of Ceremonies to announce the following 2013 Honor Society members:

1 – 4 Years Honor Society Recognition

Jack Crocker

Pam Dent

Bonnie Field

John Ince

Tele Jenifer

Sherry Orrell

Kathleen Ritenour

Kay Sands

Tom Woolfolk

5 Years Honor Society Recognition

Michael Guthrie

6 – 9 Years Honor Society Recognition

Tammi Campbell

Kelly Ceppa

Brad Conner

Sasha Farmer

Kathy Markwood

Denise Ramey

Margaret Ramsey

John Updike

10 Years Honor Society Recognition

Carol Costanzo

Gaby Hall

11 – 14 Years Honor Society Recognition

Byrd Abbott

Marjorie Adam

Linda Broadbent

Pat Crabtree

James Dickerson

Alice Fitch

Barbara McMurry

Donna Patton

Sue Plaskon

Marina Ringstrom

Barbara Seidler

Greg Slater

Sabrina Thompson

Drake Van de Castle

15 Years Honor Society Recognition

Pat Sury

16 Years Honor Society Recognition

Rives Bailey

17 Years Honor Society Recognition

Anita Dunbar

Judy Savage

18 Years Honor Society Recognition

Kim Armstrong

Tim Carson

Pat Jensen

Bill May

Percy Montague

Ginny Nelson

Trish Owens

Pat Widhalm

Arleen Yobs

The event was made possible through the generous support of brunch sponsor Stanley Martin Homes; awards sponsor Student Services Moving & Storage; and event sponsors Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Real Estate Weekly. Check out the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® Facebook page for more photos from the event. Congratulations to all the winners.

Categories
Magazines Real Estate

Real Estate News – Week of March 13

Real Estate News & Views

CARR Member Ginger Slavic Honored with Good Neighbor Award 

Better Homes & Garden/REIII REALTOR® Recognized for Volunteer Work for Ronald McDonald House

The Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR), the voice of real estate in the Central Virginia region, has announced Ginger Slavic as a Good Neighbor Award recipient. This recognition program highlights local REALTORS® who dedicate significant time and interest to projects that make a lasting impact on our communities.

“The REALTOR community is so inspired by Ginger’s energy and devotion to creating a home-away-from-home atmosphere for families in need,” Anita Dunbar, CAAR president-elect and associate broker at Montague Miller & Company, said.

Slavic has been involved in Ronald McDonald House Charities Charlottesville since the late 1980s, where she typically volunteers at least 40 hours each month. Currently she serves as president of the board of directors. About 900 families each year have benefited as a result of her volunteer activities.

Given her professional background, Slavic has been invaluable in the extensive facility renovation project over the past year from consulting with the architect and builder to processing the paperwork for a $200,000 grant from the RMHC global organization. She also has recruited other local residents to volunteer and donate.

“Ginger’s expertise has been invaluable to us during this major renovation project,” Rita Ralston, executive director of RMHC, said. “The Charlottesville Ronald McDonald House will be a beautiful respite for families dealing with very difficult circumstances. Ginger always keeps those families in the forefront of her mind.”

Slavic has been an active CAAR member since 1988. A $100 donation was made to Ronald McDonald Charities in her name.

About CAAR –
The Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR) represents more than 1,000 real estate professionals in Charlottesville and Albemarle and the surrounding areas of Greene, Fluvanna, Nelson, Louisa counties. For more information on CAAR, pick up a copy of the CAAR Real Estate Weekly, visit www.caar.com, or contact your REALTOR®.

Low Cost Rabies Clinic
The Fluvanna SPCA announces a low-cost, drive-thru rabies clinic to be held March 29 at the Augusta Cooperative at 8173 Scottsville Road in Scottsville from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  Rabies vaccines will cost only $10 and will be good for one year or three years, if proof of a prior current rabies vaccine is presented at the time of the vaccine.

“The Fluvanna SPCA presents these drive-thru rabies clinics as a service to the community,” says Jennie Shuklis, FSPCA Executive Director.  “We’re working to help people retain their pets and keep them healthy by making this legally-mandated rabies vaccine affordable and available.  It’s a drive-thru clinic because we ask that people keep their dogs in their cars, and cats in cat carriers, until veterinarian Jim Starkey is able to give the vaccine.  Then people and their pets are free to go about their day!”

The Fluvanna SPCA is a no-kill shelter located in Troy, Virginia, serving approximately 1000 animals per year.

For more information, please call the Fluvanna SPCA at 434-591-0123 or email director@fspa.org.  You may also find more information at www.fspca.org.

Jimmy “Magic Man” Miller Bracket Breakfast for Piedmont CASA
“I love everything about this team.  The chemistry, passion, unselfishness … I wouldn’t want to play us!” – Jimmy Miller about the UVA men’s basketball team

For the first time in 33 years, UVA men’s basketball won the ACC regular-season championship. And for the first time ever, Jimmy Miller – selected Most Valuable Player in the 1984 NCAA Eastern Regional Championship – is hosting a Bracket Breakfast, right here in Charlottesville.

At 7:00 a.m. Monday morning, March 17, a group of basketball professionals are gathering at the Omni Hotel on the Downtown Mall. Norman Nolan, Barry Parkhill, Junior Burrough, and Wally Walker are the panelists – lively bracketologists who are going to share stories, tips, and picks for the Final Four. The emcees will be David Koehn, UVA Director of Broadcasting and Voice of the Cavaliers, and Rachel Ryan, Newsplex Anchor and Reporter.

Three members of the UVA men’s basketball coaching staff will be there, too: Assistant Head Coach Ritchie McKay and Assistant Coaches Ron Sanchez and Jason Williford.

Over a big breakfast and steaming cups of coffee, ticket holders will get inside stories about the tournaments, and inside scoops on the Final Four. Then they get a chance to fill out their own bracket – and win a giant 60” LG Plasma Screen TV from Crutchfield.

For more information or to purchase tickets, go to the Bracket Breakfast website, or call the Piedmont CASA office at 434-971-7515.

It’s all for the benefit of Piedmont CASA – Court Appointed Special Advocates. The children it serves range in age from newborn to 18 … they live in Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Greene, and Louisa … and they are victims of abuse and neglect. The worst cases end up in court, and that’s when judges appoint Piedmont CASA Volunteers to represent the best interests of the children – hundreds of them each year.

Research shows that children with CASA Volunteers spend less time in court, less time in foster homes, and find safe and permanent homes faster – all keys to breaking the vicious cycle of abuse and neglect. No other organization performs this service, and they do not charge fees.

Haydn Meets Gershwin At Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra Concerts
Unlikely travel companions Franz Joseph Haydn and George Gershwin explore London from two different centuries when the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra continues its 39th season on March 22, 8:00 p.m., at Old Cabell Hall on the U.Va Grounds, and Sunday, March 23, 3:30 p.m., at Monticello High School in Charlottesville.

Conducted by Music Director Kate Tamarkin, the concerts open with Johannes Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn.  Haydn’s joyful and humorous Symphony No. 104, dubbed the “London”, provides the other bookend.  In between, the orchestra’s Principal Trombone, Nathan Dishman, performs the Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra by Launy Grondhal, a Danish composer from the early 20th century.  Rounding out the program is the world premiere of London Town Fantasy by Virginia composer Antonio García.

London Town Fantasy was commissioned by the Charlottesville Symphony Society, a non-profit organization that provides administrative, financial and marketing support to the orchestra.  García, who is also an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, has taken Haydn’s “London” Symphony as his point of departure in this new work for trombone and orchestra.  He includes a clever fusion of the theme from the symphony’s finale with a nod to George and Ira Gershwin’s famous ballad, A Foggy Day (in London Town), recorded by Wynton Marsalis, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, David Bowie and many others.

Nathan Dishman is a member of the music faculty at the University of Virginia.  During the 2013-14 academic year, he is serving as a Visiting Professor at Morehead State University in Kentucky.  He also maintains a busy freelance schedule, playing regularly in orchestral, jazz, recording and church settings.  He is a former member of the acclaimed Fountain City Brass Band, Kansas City Symphony Brass Ensemble and Des Moines Symphony.

Both performances are sponsored by Castle Hill Cider.

Know the Score pre-concert lectures will be presented 45 minutes before each concert.  Free of charge, these informative and entertaining lectures by McIntire Department of Music Chairman and Associate Professor of Music Richard Will offer both novice and experienced patrons a deeper appreciation of the performances.  Friday’s lecture will take place in Minor Hall; Sunday’s lecture will be held in the Forum at Monticello High School.

Free parking is available in the U.Va Central Grounds Parking Garage, located on Emmet Street, on Saturday night and at the high school on Sunday afternoons.  Both venues are wheelchair accessible.

Tickets are $10-40 for adults and $10 for students.  U.Va students may request one complimentary ticket in advance.  Tickets may be purchased at The University of Virginia Arts Box Office, (434) 924-3376, 12:00-5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday in the lobby of the Drama Building at 109 Culbreth Road, or online at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu.

All University of Virginia employees are entitled to a 20% discount on tickets to individual performances.  This offer does not apply to subscriptions or previously purchased tickets.

Remaining dates in the orchestra’s Musical Kaleidoscope season are:
April 26-27
• Mussorgsky – Triumphal March from Mlada
• Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5
• Mozart – Symphony No. 25 for Piano and Orchestra with world-
renowned pianist Anne-Marie 
McDermott
Sponsored by Katherine and Richard Douglas

Categories
Arts

Film review: Aaron Paul brings a new image to the big screen

“Breaking Bad” sidekick Aaron Paul takes his foot off the break for a fast-paced role in Need for Speed.

Need for Speed is a movie in need of two reviews. In fact, I read somewhere that its original title was Need for Speed: Judge Us On Our Merits, Not On Yours. And I either made that original title up or the movie is so subversive it planted that title in my head. But whatever. This movie should be viewed by two critics with two dichotomous sets of criteria.

First there’s the “rational” critic. He says, “This movie sucks. In fact, it doesn’t just suck. It blows. It’s stupid and self-serious and full of shit and the stunts ignore physics. I defy anyone to take it seriously—or to like it!”

Then there’s the “whatever” critic. He says, “Dude, this movie sucks but it’s so awesome, I can’t believe how much fun I had. Did you see those driving stunts? Most of them were practical. Like, with real cars. When they launched the Mustang over those two lanes of traffic? That shit was unreal, yo! If it was computer-generated, I couldn’t even tell.”

The rational critic replies, “Maybe, but what about Aaron Paul’s super serious performance? Why is he growling? Is he Clint Eastwood in training? For one thing, he’s too short. For another, how often is he going to rub his mouth and chin with his hand? How often, I ask you?”

The whatever critic shoots back, “Look, I grant you he’s a little stern. Maybe even morose. But what do you expect? He watched his best friend die in the first 20 minutes and then spent two years in the joint for a crime he didn’t commit. And the asshole bad guy got away with everything!”

“Let’s talk about that,” says the rational critic. “The bad guy, played by Dominic Cooper, isn’t much of a bad guy. No charisma, no menace. He’s just a weasel. And what fun is a weasel?”

The whatever critic sighs. “That’s the point. Who gives a shit about that asshole? This is about driving, man!”

“And why are we driving?” says the rational one. “Aside from dumb personal vengeance? To win some stupid race funded by Michael Keaton that no one could possibly drive without dying? In fact, I’m sure most of the guys in the climactic race, along with a bunch of cops, totally died. And that’s a weird thing to cheer on like the screening audience was.”

The whatever critic shouts: “Yes, it’s stupid! Of course it’s stupid! The movie is based upon a goddamn video game! Why do you think each character, especially the heroine, is made of cardboard and glued together from other better characters in other better movies? The purpose of Need for Speed is to drive and watch shit blow up.”

There is a pause in the conversation. “You really yelled at me,” says the rational one.

“I’m sorry,” says the whatever critic. “But if you take this movie too seriously your head will explode. You have a choice. Live in its world or live in yours. You can’t live in both and enjoy it.”

Playing this week

3 Days to Kill
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

12 Years A Slave
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

300: Rise of an Empire
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

About Last Night
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

American Hustle
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Chicago
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dallas Buyers Club
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Frozen
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Gravity
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Lego Movie
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Monuments Men
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Non-stop
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Past
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Philomena
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Pompeii
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Robocop
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Son of God (Hijo de Dios)
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Wind Rises
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
News

Local doc goes on hunger strike to support state funding of Medicaid expansion

“I’ve made my voice heard and that’s a start,” said Greg Gelburd, a local physician who fasted to bring attention to Medicaid expansion. Photo: Ash Daniel

Dr. Greg Gelburd was watching a local screening of the film Jesus the Man when he had an epiphany about Medicaid expansion in Virginia. “I started to focus on the message of the film,” said Gelburd, a devout Christian and family medicine physician who believes providing affordable health care to the working poor is a moral imperative. He’d been dismayed when the U.S. Supreme Court removed the Medicaid expansion mandate from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in June 2012, a ruling that enabled Virginia and 20 other states to deny the expansion, and watching the film, he felt an urge to get more directly involved.

“First, I thought, I could just put in a letter to the editor,” said Gelburd. “Then I thought, that’s not enough. I could fast. I could go down there.”

On Thursday, March 6, two days before the Virginia legislature wrapped up its 2014 session, Gelburd stopped eating, and, after clearing his schedule at his Garrett Street practice, drove to the state Capitol where he sought out conversations with Republican lawmakers. He was hoping to understand their objections to expanding Medicaid coverage to the estimated 400,000 working poor in Virginia who fall into the gap between current Medicaid coverage and insurance policies now available through the ACA health care exchange.

“It’s a personal attempt to bend the thoughts and decision making of people who are opposed to expanding Medicaid,” said Gelburd.

One of those people is local Delegate Rob Bell, and in an interview on Monday, March 10, two days after the General Assembly adjourned without a decision on expansion or the state budget, the Republican lawman explained his position.

“The program as constructed is not sustainable,” said Bell, who criticized the Medicaid expansion for taking money from other tax-supported state resources including schools, roads, universities, and prisons.

Bell, who had not yet met with Gelburd but planned to this week, said he and other Republicans are also concerned that even if the federal government fulfills its promise to pay 100 percent of the states’ costs for three years and 90 percent thereafter, the additional expense to the state would be too burdensome. He said he was aware of the health care hardships facing the working poor, but suggested there are affordable health care options for them.

“There are free clinics and other ways they can get it,” he said.

Poor patients aren’t the only ones clamoring for Medicaid expansion, of course. Gelburd cited testimony from hospital administrators including UVA Medical Center CEO R. Edward Howell.

“Here’s Ed saying we’re going to lose $100 million to $122 million this year because you’re not expanding Medicaid,” said Gelburd, noting that Virginia taxpayers are already paying for the Medicaid expansion but are getting nothing in return.

“I know that they believe what they’re saying,” he said of Republicans, “but I don’t get the math at all.”

At presstime, Governor Terry McAuliffe had scheduled a special legislative session on March 24, but Bell didn’t believe progress would be made unless the Medicaid expansion issue was decoupled from the budget.

Gelburd, who ended his hunger strike on Saturday, said he planned to keep pushing for expansion.

“I’m hoping that the stories I share of the people in my practice go past the intellect and straight into the heart so they clearly hear what people in Virginia are facing without health insurance,” he said.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Kathryn Caine & The Small Band

Kathryn Caine releases her eighth studio album with a celebration show at the Southern.

If you’re looking for a mid-century, backwoods throwback, join Kathryn Caine & The Small Band to celebrate the release of a new studio album. Sometimes twangy, sometimes bluesy, Caine’s vocals evoke ’60s folk darlings Dusty Springfield and Bobbie Gentry on this self-titled collection of wide-ranging Americana. The lifelong singer-songwriter’s lyrics drive tunes featuring guitar work from local favorites Billy Brockman and Ian Gilliam.

Friday 3/14. $8-10, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.