Month: November 2014

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Abode Magazines

Wall to wall coverage: Building with stone brings endless possibilities

“Some people don’t have a usable backyard until we design and construct a retaining wall to create that usable space,” said TimberStone’s Megan Taylor. Photo: TimberStone Landscape Design + Build

If stone walls could talk, they’d probably say, “Man, it’s great to be built to last and look good doing it.”

Landscape walls are more than just a way to give your backyard a sophisticated and high-end look; they can be quite useful. They might be retaining structures. They might cordon off a lovely patio seating area. Or they might contain a feature such as a fire pit, fireplace, or water fountain.

“Free-standing walls can be a purely aesthetic-defining element, provide the threshold to an entrance…or be used for seat walls,” said Megan Taylor, a landscape designer for TimberStone Landscape Design + Build. “Some people don’t have a usable backyard until we design and construct a retaining wall to create that usable space.”

According to TimberStone President Dave Hefren, stone walls are typically built using fieldstone, boulders, or granite, with fieldstone being the most popular in this area. Whatever the material, the appearance of the stone can vary from load to load—and even stone to stone—based on where it’s harvested or quarried.

How landscape walls are built is a more complex issue than what they’re made of. Retaining walls must be designed to hold earth in place, where free-standing walls must only withstand their own weight. Depending on its structural requirements, each wall may be built with mortar or dry-stacked with stones being hand-shaped, chiseled, and placed in an intentional way.

“Any stone wall should be built as though it were structural and self-supporting, not relying on the use of mortar for its integrity,” Hefren said. Mortared walls are built atop a reinforced concrete footing that must extend below the frost line, whereas “dry-laid walls can be built over a compacted gravel base, depending on the application,” Hefren said.

The size of the stone used can have an affect both on the way a wall is built and how it appears. Thin stone, typically between 1-2 inches thick, is the—surprise!—thinnest, with wall stone and building stone widening from there. Depending on the client’s preference, the different thicknesses can be laid to either show the face of the stone (typical with thin stone) or the edge of the stone. Large boulders can be used to get funky with your stone wall design or to “help anchor the wall to the site,” according to Hefren.

“Our typical clients confess that they simply love the look and feel of stone and they appreciate the time it takes to create something beautiful,” he said. “Building with stone is truly a creative process, and the possibilities are endless.”

Caroline Shaffrey, who contracted with TimberStone to build a stone fireplace, walls, and other elements over the course of about a month behind her historic home on Park Street, said she was looking to add a focal point to her backyard. Natural stone, she said, won out against contractors offering poured concrete faux stone walls.

“The end product was fantastic,” she said. “If they could build me a house out of stone, I would have them do it.”

Set your own price

Ask landscape designers how much a stone wall costs, and you’re likely to see smoke come out of their ears. There are so many variables in play, you might as well be asking them to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem.

“It’s kind of a loaded question,” said Megan Taylor of TimberStone Landscape Design + Build. “There are many variables that affect the overall cost, as with any type of construction.”

Some factors, of course, are more important than others. First, material. Fieldstone, the most popular wall stone in this area of the country, can range from $250 per ton to around $400 per ton.  Granite, another durable stone used, is typically more expensive.

Application is also a serious consideration. Any value-added elements, such as a water feature, will add to the price. Free-standing walls are typically more expensive than retaining walls.

“Dry-laid walls can be built over a compacted gravel base, depending on the application,” Hefren said. “This can help save the cost of installing concrete footers, and they can be permanent, timeless structures if installed correctly.”

Other considerations, according to the TimberStone team, are site accessibility and custom design and implementation. When Caroline Shaffrey contracted with TimberStone for stone seat walls, a fireplace, and several other elements in her backyard off Park Street, the tight access and custom design and construction helped push the cost north of $50,000.

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Abode Magazines

Scene setter: The curtain rises on a fresh Live Arts

Photo: Stephen Barling

More than a decade ago, three of Charlottesville’s signature arts organizations got a beautiful new home—the City Center for Contemporary Arts, housing Live Arts theater, Lighthouse Studio, and Second Street Gallery. Yet, since 2003, the lobbies of the building—on floors one, two, and three —have been unfinished.

“It was an awesome achievement—a very, very ambitious project,” said Jeff Bushman, whose firm Bushman Dreyfus designed the facility. A shortfall of funds meant that the front of the house was left in a raw state, and was often used as utilitarian space. “Sets were built in it; chairs were stored,” said Bushman.

In 2011, Live Arts began to tackle the question of how to at last finish the lobbies, making them places that catered to patrons. “It took a lot of soul-searching by Live Arts staff,” said Bushman. In the process, the organization had to rethink its ways, as well as the space it had grown accustomed to over the last 11 years.

For one thing, the theater would devote less room to permanent concession areas, opting instead for more flexible space that could be used for presentations or rented out for events. For another, it would jettison the main theater’s lower balcony, which “severely constricted sightlines” from the upper balcony, said Bushman.

Overall, the goal was to make the building a proper home for a grown-up theater—one that had come a long way from its shoestring origins a few decades ago. “It’s time to take Junior out to dinner,” said Bushman.

The result is a showstopper. Bushman Dreyfus’ design balances elegance with a trademark Live Arts aesthetic: “made by hand, and by volunteers,” as Bushman put it. That doesn’t mean “second-rate” —it means “labor of love,” as in the striking natural-edge pecan planks that one longtime Live Arts volunteer made into panels and display shelves.

The pecan wood is a warm element within an otherwise industrial palette. Perforated metal panels make up the stair rail, while concrete treads by Fine Concrete provide a solid and very modern look to the stairs themselves. Local fabricator Gropen created signage with cutout stencil-style text, including a large wayfinding wall on the ground floor that spells out for visitors what’s contained in the building.

Structurally, the major change was to remove a concessions “tower” that had punched through four floors of the building. Now, only the ground floor box office remains, and a single concession spot—more like a bar, with its sinuous concrete bartop—is located on the third floor in what had been an outdoor terrace.

Removing the tower freed up square footage in the lobbies, and Bushman Dreyfus designed understated elements that suggest and invite mingling there. Red banquettes encircle the third-floor lobby, while a drink rail rings the second floor. Mark Schuyler’s lighting design, said Bushman, invites passersby even from the street.

And a huge red theater curtain falls two stories along the staircase, providing apt symbolism and a moment of—what else?—drama.

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Abode Magazines

Two for one: Architect Kate Snider Tabony on merging arts and science

A concrete studio space with low ceilings and little natural light posed significant design challenges, but the project became a testing ground for material experiments, sustainable technologies, and spatial flexibility. Photo: Courtesy Kate Snider Tabony

“For me, architecture is like a state of active meditation—like yoga for the brain.” That’s Alloy Workshop architect Kate Snider Tabony on practicing her craft—one that’s taken her, since attending UVA’s architecture school, to California’s East Bay, Santa Fe, Princeton, New York City, and finally, Charlottesville, where she works with her brother, Zach Snider, at Alloy Workshop. She recently spoke with us about growing up in West Virginia, what brought her to Charlottesville, and how working at Alloy means designing a multi-use building for a local school and a playhouse for a fairy princess.—Caite White

IMG_9654
Photo: Melody Robbins

Why architecture?

I love the process of design. I love finding the best solution within a complicated labyrinth of constraints. When I was a junior in high school, my favorite subjects were art and physics. Although I had no real clue at that point, I thought that studying architecture might combine what I liked from both of those disciplines into one field of study. But it wasn’t until my first architecture class at UVA with Peter Waldman that I realized I’d made a good decision.

Why did you choose to practice in Virginia?

I came back to Virginia to work with Alloy. After my undergraduate work at UVA’s architecture school, I lived and worked in various cities across the country (California’s East Bay, Santa Fe, Princeton, New York City) practicing architecture. When my brother Zach Snider (one of the owners of Alloy) called me and asked if I would be interested in coming back to Charlottesville to work for Alloy, I was on a hiatus from architecture in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Frustrated and worn out from a year in New York City, I spent the summer recharging, and challenging myself in new ways as a raft guide and learning to whitewater kayak. During that summer and fall, I commuted from Charlottesville to Fayetteville so that I could work on the rivers on the weekend, and design on the weekdays. Charlottesville has kept me here because it has so much to offer: walkability, outdoor adventure, a tight-knit community with a sense of responsibility to the environment, and a thriving design scene.

Alloy installed stained, tongue and groove paneling on low HVAC soffits throughout the space, to define a sleeping nook in a basement guest room on Park Street. Photo: Courtesy Alloy Workshop
Alloy installed stained, tongue and groove paneling on low HVAC soffits throughout the space, to define a sleeping nook in a basement guest room on Park Street. Photo: Courtesy Alloy Workshop

What was your childhood like, and how did it lead you to design?

I spent most of my childhood summers with my brother Zach climbing trees, swinging on vines and searching for elusive Yetis on our property in West Virginia. I was lucky to have parents that encouraged exploration and allowed me to try different things while I was growing up. For example, my father is a big tinkerer; always fixing up an antique motorcycle or lofting plans for a sailboat hull. When I was about 12 years old, he helped Zach and me build our own wooden sea kayaks from mail order patterns. The patterns reminded me of the patterns my mom used to make my dresses when I was little, and are not dissimilar from the plans I draw every day. We spent many weekends in my dad’s woodshop cutting plywood, and using fiberglass and epoxy to glue them together. I remember finding it so surprising that I could make this curved 3D shape out of flat pieces of plywood. When we finally finished, Zach and I took them out on our yearly visit to the ocean, and the first wave I caught, I slammed my bow into the hull of Zach’s boat and knocked a huge hole in his kayak, which promptly sunk—the crazy thing was that he didn’t even get mad about it.

Tell us about your college experience. Was there a standout teacher who had a lasting impact on you?

During my last year in college at UVA, I asked Sanda Iliescu to be my instructor for an independent study in painting. By maintaining a critical yet infallible positivity, she created a safe and dynamic space for discussion about architecture, design, and art. Sanda really helped me develop an understanding of architecture that was not limited by the boundaries of a building.

A niche wall of toned cedar and Carrara marble tie into the colors of a city bathroom. Photo: Courtesy Alloy Workshop
A niche wall of toned cedar and Carrara marble tie into the colors of a city bathroom. Photo: Courtesy Alloy Workshop

On process: How does it begin?

At Alloy, we first meet with a client and ask loads of questions about the project they envision: their needs, desires, budget, timeline, etc. Then the architecture team takes a trip to the site. We take a careful inventory of the existing structure or site and surrounding environment. We make drawings and take detailed measurements, and tons of photographs, and try to get a thorough understanding of the physical parameters of the project. Almost immediately after we visit the site, we begin sketching and imagining. We use precedent images and 3D digital modeling to help our clients imagine what their project can be. A unique aspect of Alloy’s process is that we can bring in our construction team very early during schematic design. This helps give our clients a realistic idea about how their desires align with construction schedules and costs.

What inspires you?

Most of what inspires me tends to be outside of the traditional definition of architecture. Like my 6-month-old son and his rapidly expanding perception of the world around him. Or the images of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong—what’s become known as the umbrella revolution. There was something so incredible about the tenuous line that was created between the demonstrators and the police; the thick plastic riot shields and black Darth Vader helmets on one side juxtaposed against the protester’s technicolored umbrella armadillo on the other. The protesters had such a simple and brilliant architectural response to the physical threat posed by the police. The umbrella, a cheap and pedestrian object, suddenly became this incredible multifunctional device, as it was both a defensive mechanism (as it seemed effective at deflecting tear gas and pepper spray) and an iconic and beautiful symbol for a peaceful demonstration. I’m inspired by projects like this that grapple seriously with the heavy questions of our time, but do it with beauty, economy, and a sense of play.

What are you working on now?

One on the best aspects of working at Alloy is that we always have a variety of projects going on at once, so things stay interesting. At the moment, I’m super excited to be working on a new gymnasium, music, and art building for the Charlottesville Day School. At the other end of the spectrum, I am designing a small play structure for a family in town. Our client gave us an image of Bilbo Baggins’ house as a precedent and asked that the structure be an appropriate dwelling for a fairy princess. I’m also working on a modern apartment renovation within an historic building for adult humans.

How does the site or sense of place inform architecture for you?

In general, the site is one very important piece in a complex puzzle and it influences every project in different ways. Because we do a lot of renovation and addition work at Alloy, our sites are often a space carved out of an existing structure. We always try to strike a balance between the old and new when we design a new space within an old structure. Sometimes the situation allows us to make a radical intervention, and other times we try to blend our project in to the surrounding aesthetic more seamlessly.

Tabony’s own renovated Fifeville home features salvaged materials from floor to ceiling. Photo: Courtesy Kate Snider Tabony.
Tabony’s own renovated Fifeville home features salvaged materials from floor to ceiling. Photo: Courtesy Kate Snider Tabony.

How would you assess the state of architecture in our region?

Someone once said that architecture can only be as good as the clients who commission it. We are extremely lucky in this area to have a population of inspired individuals who are interested in improving the physical world around them and understand the value of good design. It is also very heartening to see that there is momentum gaining in our region for sustainable and environmentally conscious design and building. I love that there is real support and encouragement from the local community and government (with wonderful organizations like LEAP) to design, build, and retrofit in a way that is ecologically responsible.

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Arts

ARTS Pick: Technosonics XV

Modern composer Joo Won Park builds sonic compositions with unusual instruments augmented by sounds available in his performing environment. Hear what he finds at UVA’s open grounds in a livestream concert on Thursday. Publicity photo.

Technology and music have a symbiotic relationship. Developments and inventions constantly change the way we write, perform, and listen to music of all styles and genres. Technosonics XV: Found Sound celebrates the latest innovations in music technology by showcasing digital music, electro-acoustic music, and the combination of high profile performers with UVA composers and faculty. The two-day event includes collaboration of electronic artists led by Annie Gosfield at Old Cabell Hall as well as Thursday’s livestreamed (via www.music.virginia.edu) concert featuring Philadelphia-based computer composer Joo Won Park (above).

Thursday 11/6 & Friday 11/7. Free, 8pm. Old Cabell Hall, UVA. 924-3052.

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Arts

A teller of truths: Sixty years on the road with Hal Holbrook

Hal Holbrook has performed onstage as Mark Twain for every one of the last 60 years. He will be live in his role as Twain on Friday at the Paramount, and the documentary Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey screens at PVCC on Saturday. Photo Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival

“I think that this film gains its emotional integrity from the fact that everybody is speaking the truth. It was very moving to watch it. The one thing I was hoping that they would get was for everyone to stop acting like Hollywood people, and just tell the truth—about the mistakes we’ve made, the struggle that it takes to do things in this business.”

That is the actor Hal Holbrook talking about the new documentary Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey, screening Saturday at PVCC. The doc follows Holbrook as he does something that he has done in every one of the last 60 years—travel the country to perform Mark Twain Tonight, the show that he first developed in the 1950s, that brought him success and celebrity, and that he continues to refine and hone and perform to this day. At age 89, he still gives around 25 of those performances a year. Holbrook, the movie makes clear, is either a workaholic, a road warrior, or a true believer. Maybe he’s all three. You will have a chance to see for yourself when he performs live at the Paramount on Friday night. It will be the 2,298th time he’s played Twain on stage.

Scott Teems, the director of the documentary, also directed Holbrook and his wife Dixie Carter (who has since passed away) in the 2009 film That Evening Sun. While they were working on the film, Carter started working on Teems to do a documentary about the Twain show. “I had seen the TV version as a kid and had a vague familiarity with it,” said Teems. “I figured at this point it was like a Vegas act—something he came out and did in his sleep—because why wouldn’t it be after 60 years.” But Carter kept insisting that he wouldn’t really appreciate what was up with the show until he saw it. “So I went, and I was blown away by how much I did not know about the show, about its performance and about Twain. I was stunned at how visceral it was, how alive it was, how relevant it was.”

That relevance is in fact stunning—coming as it does from a 60-year-old theater piece performed by an 89-year-old actor built from 150-year-old material. But Holbrook has labored for that relevance, unstintingly. He is constantly confronting and re-confronting Twain, on the hunt, mining out new material that will point us to truths that can still transfix us today.

An example: A great deal of Twain’s satirical outrage is aimed at religious and political hucksters who flatter our chauvinism and applaud our cultural exceptionalism all the while ignoring the stains on our hands. “If we are the noblest work of God,” he asks in what is often one of the central moments in the show, “where is the ignoblest? In the last 5- or 6,000 years, five or six high civilizations have risen, flourished, commanded the wonder of the world and then faded away and disappeared, and not one of them until ours ever invented a sweeping and adequate way to kill masses of people…. Before long it will be recognized that the only competent killers are Christians. And then the pagan world will go to school to the Christian…” He lets it sink in for a moment that 1870 is having a little word to say about 9/11. Then he inserts the dagger: “…not to acquire its religion, but its guns.”

“What he wants,” said Teems, “is for his audience to think.”

Holbrook said the same thing. “I traveled this country for over 60 years. Every single year, coast to coast. You can’t do that without becoming very close to your country and without understanding that there are all kinds of people in it and that most of them don’t want to think about what we’re doing to ourselves. The hardest thing in the world is to try to go out there and inspire or incite or force people, cajole people to think.”

I actually disagree with Holbrook about some of that. It’s not just that people don’t want to think about injustice and inhumanity, about the myriad ways that we dehumanize ourselves and each other. The bigger problem is that we don’t know how to think about them. We don’t know how to accept these darker impulses as our own, as part of our shared human nature. And so, we commit the unforgivable, universal sin in Twain’s eyes: We excoriate others but let ourselves off the hook.

Most of what passes for satire these days—from Twain’s current inheritors like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for instance—isn’t in the long run much more sophisticated than a glorified playground taunt. But Twain’s enduring value as a satirist and the reason that Holbrook’s devotion to his cause continues to matter with such urgency is that he forces us to go deeper than that. He teaches us how to think about human evils by making it plain that we are all implicated in them. It’s our own flawed humanity that we are simultaneously laughing at and appalled by.

“Man is the only animal who blushes…” he said, with a cock of that bushy eyebrow, a puff of the cigar, and a hint of the sigh of a weary truth teller, “… or needs to.” 

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Living

Bella birthday: Italian staple tavola welcomes new kitchen staff

Tavola’s new team: Chef Aris Cuadra, former sous chef at Pasture (left), and sous chef Caleb Warr, who previously worked across the street at Mas. Photo by Rammelkamp Foto.

Was it a reason for tavola regulars to celebrate or cry in their Montepulciano?

Sure, they were gathered for a night at one of their favorite restaurants in town. Definitely a plus. But the reason for the occasion was the introduction of an all-new kitchen staff at the Belmont eatery. Would the new kids be as good as the old guard? Would they live up to the high expectations set in tavola’s first five years in business?

It’s too early to tell, but the prix fixe dinner on October 18 that doubled as the restaurant’s five-year anniversary and new staff roll-out was a solid start. Michael Keaveny’s focus on thoughtful plays on classic Italian dishes was still very much evident, and the execution in the restaurant’s small kitchen was on point.

“The new team has been great,” Keaveny said. “For the first month, I was in the kitchen pretty much every night, and now I don’t need to be. I think the food is going out amazingly fast and consistent. I am very big on consistency.”

The transition in the tavola kitchen has been some time coming. Keaveny (husband of C-VILLE Arts Editor Tami Keaveny) long knew his team of Loren Mendosa, Mitchell Beerens, Ian Redshaw, and Andrew Cole was looking to step out and open a new restaurant. They wanted to do something a bit more down-market, and there was even talk of Keaveny joining them.

In the end, Keaveny decided he had all he wanted in tavola, and the four mainstays of his kitchen settled on opening a Neapolitan-style pizzeria in the former Farm space next to the Belmont bridge.

Mendosa and his team plan to open this fall, and anticipation for the concept, which has been extremely popular in larger markets, is strong. But lost in the excitement has been the fallout for tavola. How would the restaurant replace what has come to be known as one of the most consistent kitchen staffs in town?

Keaveny was up to the task. He posted his openings to websites. He pored over resumés. He invited chefs in to offer tastings.

“The first thing I look for is integrity and character,” Keaveny said. “It has to be someone who doesn’t have a huge ego, because they are going to be producing a lot of my food.”

At the same time, Keaveny wanted someone who’s motivated to help improve existing dishes and can be creative enough to enjoy the “chef’s playground” that is the tavola specials board. It was a tough balance to strike, but Keaveny believes he’s found it in chef Aris Cuadra, former sous chef at Pasture, and sous chef Caleb Warr, who was working across the street at Mas when he answered tavola’s ad.

Neither chef had significant experience cooking Italian food, but that didn’t matter much to Keaveny. Both were fans of tavola before joining the team and seemed to intuitively understand what the restaurant wants to do. Both shared many of Keaveny’s philosophies about food, and both delivered spot-on tastings.

“To me, it is not about the chefs, it is about the restaurant,” Keaveny said. “The chef needs to work within the framework of what tavola does. That being said, chef Aris has come up with some amazing specials, and some of the dishes we have done in the past have been brought to a new level in his hands.”

One of those dishes, a duck confit with polenta, cherries, and peppercorns, was on display at the anniversary meal. Mendosa, invited by Keaveny to sit at table one for the dinner, said the plating on the dishes was “wildly different” from the way the restaurant had done it in the past and called it “impactful.”

The highlights of the meal, though, were no doubt the Maine lobster “open ravioli”—chunks of steamed lobster and slow roasted parsnips loosely ensconced in a toothsome house made pasta—and the Timbercreek beef tenderloin served with mushrooms, radicchio, fonduta, and truffles. While the intense smell of truffles dominated the dining room as that dish was unveiled, Mendosa later said the key was the “proper char on that radicchio.”

It’ll take more than one great dinner to prove the new kitchen is equal to a staff that turned in years of consistent performances, but Mendosa, at least, isn’t worried about tavola’s future.

“Obviously the new staff is going to bring a new approach, but with Mike there at the helm, I don’t think it will be too radically different,” he said. “It’s still Mike’s vision, it’s still his restaurant.”

With a new kitchen staff in place, Keaveny is eying another change—adding a back bar where those waiting for a table can sit down to cocktails and snacks. “That will be the final piece of the puzzle,” he said.

Clarification: The original version of this story said the former staff had been there for five years. They had been there for varying amounts of time and the story has been adjusted to reflect this.

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News

Warner declares victory in tight Senate race, Hurt easily defeats Gaughan

Photo: Josh Rhett

Incumbent Mark Warner has claimed victory in a Virginia U.S. Senate race some say is still too close to call.

His opponent, Republican Ed Gillespie, held the lead during much of the night’s tallying, but late-posted vote totals in Fairfax County and elsewhere helped Warner close the gap and pull ahead by a very slim margin. Late last night their vote difference was for a time in the hundreds, with the percentage differing by a few hundredths of a percent.

The State Board of Elections‘ final update of the night, which came just before 2am with 99.2 percent of precincts reporting, show Warner with 1,067,342 votes, or 49.11 percent, and Gillespie with 1,050,534, or 48.34 percent. The SBE website was plagued with server problems throughout the night, requiring poll watchers to wait for regularly released PDFs of precinct results and scroll through hundreds of pages to find statewide updates.

It was an unexpectedly narrow margin. Warner, who finished his term as Virginia governor in 2006 with high approval ratings and has remained a popular politician in the Commonwealth, had been the expected winner.

“It was a hard-fought race,” Warner said his late-night speech. “It went on a little longer than we thought, but we know in Virginia about close races.”

Gillespie has not yet conceded the race, and in his election-night speech, he indicated he would ask for a recount—something Virginia election law allows for when a margin of victory is less than 1 percent.

“Unfortunately some campaigns last longer than others, and I’m going to need a little more hard work,” Gillespie said.

The race for the 5th District House of Representatives race was far less intense. Republican incumbent Robert Hurt easily defended his seat against Democrat Lawrence Gaughan, with Hurt taking nearly 61 percent of the vote to Gaughan’s 36 percent. Libertarian Paul Jones snagged 2 percent, and independent candidate Kenneth Hildebrandt took 1 percent.

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Arts

In transition: Teen queen Kate Voegele explores her mature side

TV star/pop song princess Kate Voegele brings her new tunes, new grit, and a Wahoowa to the Southern on Wednesday. Publicity photo.

Kate Voegele was miscast—quite literally.

Voegele’s career hit the fast track in 2005 when she gained a strong following on the social media site MySpace. That same year, MySpace and Interscope Records teamed up to create MySpace Records, and Voegele became one of the label’s earliest signees. She released her first major label-backed full-length record Don’t Look Away in 2007. The record caught the ear of producers on the popular teenybopper show “One Tree Hill,” and Voegele was cast to play one of her songs under the name Mia Catalano. The character ended up sticking around for the next four years.

Voegele was a pop sensation. She had Christina’s pipes and Brittany’s swag. She was ready to set the world on fire.

But it turns out that’s not really who Voegele was.

The now 27-year-old said her music has always had a grittier soul than viewers of a show on the dubba-dubba-WB might have assumed. She has a connection with the music of the people, and she just couldn’t be tied up in a pretty pop bow forever.

“I grew up in Ohio and I have a huge love of folk and bluegrass music—anything with a rootsy vibe,” Voegele said in a recent phone interview with C-VILLE Weekly. “But I always felt like I wasn’t allowed to use certain instruments when I was on a pop label.”

Now that the gloss of “One Tree Hill” stardom has begun to wear off and Voegele has switched over to ATO Records (founded by a team led by Dave Matthews and Coran Capshaw), she said she’s free to explore the folksier side of her musical talents. She’s writing songs with deeper lyrics. She’s using more varied instrumentation—the banjo is featured on her latest EP, and she’s learning to play the mandolin.

Heck, she even married a good ol’ UVA alum (former lacrosse star and 2012 graduate Brett Hughes), left Los Angeles, and settled in Nashville.

“My last two years were spent sonically soul searching for how I wanted to evolve into my next record,” Voegele said. “That’s a necessary part of every artist’s process from record to record. It got to a point where I learned to find my authenticity as a writer.”

When Voegele plays the Southern Café and Music Hall on November 5, it will be the first date of her fall tour and her new release Wild Card will be only several hours old. So whether she’s truly found her authenticity at this point is an open question. One track leaked from the EP, “Just Watch Me,” indeed points toward a more mature sound. In it, Voegele highlights the twang in her voice as she wrestles with her future: “Everybody’s telling me who I ought to be/Who am I and where I got to be…I don’t even know yet who I want to be/I got miles and miles in front of me.”

In another early-release track, “Carousel,” Voegele seems to slip back into pop diva mode, with a defiant Taylor Swift-esque chorus and slick imagery, but the song also features that varied instrumentation she promised, employing the banjo in a unique way.

Voegele said for the upcoming tour she’ll be taking the stage with two backing musicians, Eric Montgomery on keys and guitar and Noah Denney on percussion. The plan is to keep it simple, rearranging some of the new tracks in the absence of a banjo. “It will be a mix of an intimate living room-type show and moments that are more upbeat and energetic,” according to Voegele.

Voegele said she’ll play a good number of her old favorites on the current tour, but also wants to “give fans a taste of what’s to come.” What is to come for the songstress in transition is a full-length album sometime next year. She said the record may feature a few of the songs from the current EP, but for the most part will be all new music.

“These are different sides of my writing and arrangements,” Voegele said. “It’s a broader scope and a more colorful mix of things. I’m really looking forward to it, and I’m excited to continue to work on getting it conceptualized as I’m on tour.”

The Charlottesville stop should prove to be an interesting opener. Fans will get their first look at the new Voegele, and the singer-songwriter will get another chance to play to her husband’s college town.

“I love Charlottesville. We are big Wahoo fans,” Voegele said. “I’ve been a few times for reunions and played a few shows there —I love the music history.”

Even while looking forward to the upcoming tour, Voegele doesn’t look back on her start with MySpace Records and her days on “One Tree Hill” with any negativity.

“I feel really fortunate to have been at the forefront of social media with my MySpace deal and I learned early on how crucial social media was,” Voegele said. “I’ve made it a priority to stay in touch with fans and be consistent with my updates.”

MySpace has become a punch line in the post-Facebook era. Voegele, it seems, refuses to be one herself.

Wednesday 11/5. $12-15, 8pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.

Categories
Arts

Explore the Commonwealth: Navigating local cuts at the Virginia Film Festival

Kevin Everson followed the workers at a bowling alley equipment factory to make his eight-hour film Park Lanes, Spare. VFF moviegoers will be “spared” the long version and offered a 90-minute cut at the downtown Regal on Friday. Photo courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival.

In anticipation of the Virginia Film Festival this weekend, I’ve been considering geographical predispositions when it comes to movies. Predictably, as a student, French New Wave films were guaranteed pleasers. These types of geographical tastes exist for many. French films carry a different prestige than Hollywood movies. India’s Bollywood and Nigeria’s Nollywood each have their own connotative meanings as well.

When it comes to American films that are made outside of Hollywood, what regions do we define? Too often, the alternatives are simple: New York and “everywhere else.” However, this year’s festival encourages us to think about Virginia filmmaking as its own category. For the first time, there is an entire program of films that have been curated to celebrate filmmakers in the Commonwealth. And given the wealth of filmmaking talent in Charlottesville alone, the offerings are understandably rich and well worth exploring.

Arguably the most renowned experimental film artist in the state, Kevin Everson returns to the festival this year for an advance screening of his upcoming release, Park Lanes, Spare. This work focuses on experiences of the American blue collar worker, following a typical shift at a bowling alley equipment factory. Everson has previously screened his films at the Rotterdam Film Festival, the 2008 Whitney Biennial (as well as a 2011 solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art), and the Punto de Vista Film Festival in Pamplona, Spain, among other venues around the world. Much of his work examines African-American experiences in America through a non-narrative structure. Often, on-screen action is allowed to unfold without heavy editing, potentially fostering a level of discomfort in viewers unconditioned for this sort of cinema.

Case in point: In its 2015 release, Park Lanes, Spare will be an eight-hour film (mirroring the work shift) meant for gallery screenings in which people can come and go as they please. For some, this merits anticipation and a planned “sick day” to camp out where it will be on display. For others, an eight-hour screening sounds punishing. Charlottesville will have a chance to see an edited 90-minute version, so you can test out Everson’s style for yourself, and a filmmaker discussion follows.

When Everson isn’t making his own films, he teaches cinematography at UVA. His students are included in the Digital Media Gallery, which graces the walls of Second Street Gallery with works from UVA and the local nonprofit Light House Studio. An opening reception will be held on November 7 to coincide with the monthly First Fridays gallery walk and a closing reception with the filmmakers is set for November 20.

Charlottesville-based filmmaker Lydia Moyer also supports the short experimental genre with her film The Blocks, which is part of the DWELLING program. And the annual Adrenaline Film Project showcases local filmmakers in a break-neck competition to create short films in a 72-hour competition. The completed works will be shown and a winning filmmaking team announced.

Stepping back to look at the rest of the category of Virginia filmmaking, VFF programmer Wesley Harris explains that the curatorial idea behind this category includes “films that were either made in Virginia, or by filmmakers with distinct Virginia ties.” By that definition, there are plenty of other offerings that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Working in the genre of traditional documentary, A Winding Stream traces the personal lives and musical successes of the Carter family and their roots in Southwest Virginia. Big Moccasin explores the lived reality of daily life in the Appalachians. A third documentary, From Grain to Growler, traces craft brewing in the Commonwealth and features a discussion with the filmmakers and local brewers such as Champion Brewing Company’s Hunter Smith. And let’s not neglect Karate Tango, the locally made offbeat musical love story written by Peter Ryan and directed by Brian Wimer.

The festival also includes narrative feature films with Virginia roots. Wish You Well stars the inimitable Ellen Burstyn in an adaptation of a book by the Commonwealth’s own David Baldacci. Big Significant Things—a favorite at SXSW earlier this year—chronicles a 20-something’s search for meaning, ultimately leading him to Virginia. Finally, the opening night film, Big Stone Gap, proves that star power trumps geography. An adaptation of the best-selling novel by Adriana Trigiani, with an ensemble cast including Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, and others, this Virginia film is still as Hollywood as it gets. For screening times check out www.vafilm.com.

What’s your favorite film set in Appalachia?

Categories
News

Sorority report: On writing from inside the issue

Photo: Martyn Kyle

C-VILLE Weekly news intern Nicolette Gendron shares a byline with news editor Graelyn Brashear on the feature that hit stands last Wednesday, a close look at the gulf between fraternities and sororities when it comes to rules regarding alcohol and parties—something many Greek women see as sexist and potentially dangerous. As a fourth-year UVA student and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, Nico’s insight into Greek life at the University was indispensable, and she talked with numerous fellow students in extensive interviews. We asked her to reflect on what it was like to tackle an issue she couldn’t help being close to, and what she hopes to see happen next.

When reflecting on the time I spent working on the feature on disparities in Greek life at UVA, one particular thought comes to mind: Opening up a dialogue is powerful. It makes for better quotes when interviewing subjects for an in-depth piece like this. But my experience interviewing extended beyond getting a quote that was juicy, controversial or insightful. When the recorder was turned off, people wanted to keep talking. They were no longer interview subjects, but fellow classmates, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, friends. And I am one of them. For an extra thirty minutes or two hours, we engaged in conversations many had been waiting to have for their entire college careers. They were conversations I had been wanting to have for most of mine.

As fourth years, we have little to lose when speaking up. As one sorority member told me, giving her opinion on the issue did not mean she was championing for a complete change in Greek life and culture overnight. Instead, she was thinking ahead to when conversations regarding gender dynamics are unignorable and action has to be taken. She believed that conversations like the one we had—and the article itself—will be a building block for change in the future.

There are so many different ways to approach the issue of sexual assault and safety on college campuses across the country, and it’s hard know if one take is better than another. But we found some strong voices that offered perspective on the issue—voices you might not expect to speak up and take a stand, like fraternity brothers, social chairs and the national governing councils of Greek life.

I don’t know when I will again have the opportunity to investigate and report as a member of this culture that is often under scrutiny for its negative aspects. I consider myself lucky to have been a platform for the honest and empowered voices of UVA students and Greek members.