Enjoy a bevy of Bard-inspired tunes at the Charlottesville Symphony's Shakespeare in Love concert this weekend. Photo: Dan Addison/UVA University Communications
Indulge in the food of love with your sweetheart at the Charlottesville Symphony’s tribute to the romance of Shakespeare. Kate Tamarkin conducts a program chock full of starry-eyed, heartwarming works, including Mendelssohn’s “Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Prokofiev’s “Suites No. 1 and 2 from Romeo and Juliet” and the score to Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love. McIntire Department of Music chair Richard Will delivers a pre-performance lecture on Saturday.
Saturday 2/14 & Sunday 2/15. $10-45, times and locations vary. 924-3376 or www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu.
Paul Waggener (pictured) & the Howling Grimmness put heartache on hold for a night of outlaw country at the Main Street Annex. Photo: Danielle Fedorshik
Sing and dance your Valentine’s blues away at the theme night Unlucky in Love: A Night of Outlaw Country with a Side of Garage with four of central Virginia’s rowdiest honky-tonk acts. Drunk Luke & The Broken Bottles bring some raucous country sing-alongs about frolicking, fighting, and fornicating after sets by The Upper Deckers, Paul Waggener & The Howling Grimness, and Dude n’ Bitch. It’ll be a night to remember that you may care to forget.
Friday 2/13. $8, 8pm. 18-plus. Main Street Annex, 219 W. Water St. 817-2400.
Tara Mills, Holly Renee Allen, Sally Rose and Terri Allard (with Jimmy Stelling on banjo and Sonny Layne on bass) fill your world with love as the Country Sweethearts onstage at the Southern on Saturday. Photo: Martyn Kyle
The room will be filled with love long before the first guest arrives at the second annual Country Sweethearts Valentine’s Day show at the Southern on Saturday. The women on the bill, Terri Allard, Holly Renee Allen, Tara Mills and Sally Rose, have such affection and admiration for each other that it’s impossible to be in their presence without falling in with their loose, generous camaraderie, a vibe that emanates when they sit together onstage, trading songs and banter.
The show reunites the lineup of Allard, Allen and Mills with Rose joining them for the first time, and the bonus of hearing these songwriters together is the exchange of discovery between the fans. “It’s so organic what happens onstage with us and then the audience is having a good time,” said Allard. “Judging from last year’s show, it was a great opportunity for people to hear different songwriters they may not have heard before. Just sitting in and having a great time with this wonderful music community is so much fun.”
Mills booked the 2014 show along with the Southern team and had no hesitation in bringing it back. “We got a great response last year,” she said. More importantly, Allen stressed, “we had fun.”
Despite holiday tradition, the concert is not just for couples, and is intended to be inclusive with “songs of love, loss, heartbreak, marriage, divorce, functional relationships and dysfunctional relationships,” according to Rose, who sent a message to her fan base that read, “We’ll all be your Valentine, if you don’t have a Valentine.”
Mills agreed. “This is not just for couples —bring kids, the whole family,” she said.
Individually, each of these women is nurturing a career on the Central Virginia music circuit: Allard is a veteran fixture on the scene with a pile of accolades, including a Washington Area Music Award for Best Country Artist and co-writing credits on a song with Mary Chapin Carpenter. Her polished folk-country voice has made her a popular local player and although her busy schedule—hosting her own TV show, “Charlottesville Inside-Out” and serving as the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Music Resource Center—has taken her away from touring, Allard still plays often, and is usually found on the bigger stages in town.
Allen is a solo act from the Shenandoah Valley who spent time in the music clubs of Nashville and Atlanta before returning to Virginia. She plays bluesy, soulful country rock and ballads full of romantic notions and road wisdom, often shaping rough-edged stories into unabashed beauty. Allen is effusive about the support she receives from peers in the community, naming Allard, Mills, Andy Gems and Ashley McMillen as key players in developing local talent.
Mills started playing regularly after college and her bluegrass-inspired music has landed her band numerous festival gigs and made her a notable name in the region. Her well-crafted songs are lively, poignant and evoke her thoughtful, graceful presence.
Rose is a bright, bubbly frontwoman. There’s no getting around the earnestness and giddy charm that pours out with every word. “I’m going to say way too many embarrassing things,” she lamented about sitting in the round among her songwriting peers. But the music Rose makes is mature, artful, spirited and spiritual.
There’s not an official song list, but the bill promises love songs old and new, and of course every one of these women has a catalog full of offerings.
“Love lost is the easiest subject to write about when you’re a songwriter,” said Mills.
When it comes to favorites, the choices are as individual as their personalities. “The one song that jumps out is a song called ‘You and Me’—it’s different from other songs that I normally play,” said Mills about a recent composition. “It’s written in B minor and it’s a positive love song.”
One of Allen’s tunes was inspired by a complicated crush that resulted in her song “First Time Love Kinda Thing,” which she intended to shop to Jason Aldean, but serendipitously ended up recording as a duet with Shawn Mullins, the source of inspiration. “He and I have been friends forever, but not romantically involved for a very long time,” said Allen.
Rose cites young love in her namesake song “Witchbaby,” an ode to “that long drawn out history with your first love that never goes away…There’s something about your first love that haunts you,” she said.
Allard can’t resist the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris version of “Love Hurts.” “My husband and I sang it at our wedding reception,” she said. “We’ve always loved singing that song.”
The Sweethearts plan to play originals, as well as covers and hinted that they have a surprise in store for the audience. But most importantly, they plan to send you home filled with love.
“I want people to leave the show with a smile on their face,” said Mills.
“I want them to feel relaxed, warm, happy,” said Rose. “We are all enjoying this together.”
Saturday 2/14. $12-15, 8pm. The Southern Cafe & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
Passion cannot overcome confusion in the new Wachowski-directed sci-fi thriller Jupiter Ascending starring Channing Tatum. Photo: Warner Bros.
Every Wachowski movie, for better or worse, is a passion project. There is no theme, visual detail, character or line of dialogue to which the sibling duo does not have a deep personal attachment, from the hopeful nihilism of The Matrix to Cloud Atlas’ meditation on reincarnation and the risk and reward of realizing your true potential. Silly outliers like Speed Racer are still full of humor and energy that most workaday directors probably wouldn’t put into such a niche franchise flick. Even when a particular film falls flat, the Wachowski’s drive to stylishly ensure the audience gets the movie’s message—regardless of whether anybody cares—is almost always contagious.
Unfortunately, the contagiousness of Jupiter Ascending isn’t fun this time round. It’s measles froman unvaccinated script treatment. Too sincere to be campy, too short to be the epic it wants to be, and too bogged down in minutiae to be exciting when things speed up, Jupiter Ascending is an incomprehensible mishmash of esoteric space politics and New Age science that never manages to find its footing as it barrels along through a convoluted plot and spatially disorienting action sequences.
Here’s the scenario you are expected to follow: Mila Kunis stars as the eponymous Jupiter, the St. Petersburg-born daughter of a Russian woman and an English diplomat with a passion for astronomy. Just before she is born, her parents’ flat is ransacked by unnamed Russian brutes who shoot the father when he won’t let them take his telescope. She is subsequently born on a ship carrying her mother and her family across the Atlantic to the United States. Flash forward to today, where the now-adult Jupiter is living with her extended family in an overcrowded house while working as a maid. One day, aliens show up to kill her as she’s about to donate her eggs, but not before half-soldier, half-space-dog (really) Channing Tatum shows up with his skyskating boots. He takes her to see Sean Bean, who lives in a house of bees that immediately recognize her as the exact genetic match of a queen. Jupiter, it seems, is needed by the more conniving wing of her proto-clone’s family for some reason involving space real estate and harvesting rights of Earth.
That summary barely covers the first hour of this clogged 127- minute movie. The pace at which Jupiter Ascending flies along without catching its breath makes it feel like strung-together clips from a much, much longer film. This raises some questions about its much-publicized delay, plucked from summer blockbuster status and dropped into February’s no-man’s-land; the official reason was that it wasn’t completed, and the Wachowskis are famous for retaining rights to final cut. If this is indeed their vision in its totality, then they’re the first capable filmmakers in history to intentionally create something that feels like it underwent studio-ordered cuts. The real chemistry between Kunis and Tatum is never allowed to develop, and their inevitable romance ends up falling somewhere between modern young adult sci-fi and the hammy Star Wars prequels.
The classic Wachowski energy and attention to detail is here, and it does occasionally flirt with the philosophical and psychological issues raised by its plot, only to ditch them for more uninteresting intricacies of space law and undercooked galactic backstory. Had the classic Wachowski elements been stronger than its Divergent-esque tendencies, it’d be easier to enjoy the action sequences instead of being confused by them. Ascend, this one does not.
Passion cannot overcome confusion in the new Wachowski-directed sci-fi thriller Jupiter Ascending starring Channing Tatum. Photo: Warner Bros.
Sandra Marks’ psychic reading business on Seminole Trail was raided in June 2014, and she was arrested a year later in New York.
Staff photo
Last summer a phalanx of cop cars lined up at Psychic Readings by Catherine on U.S. 29 and closed one lane of traffic. The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement led the June 14 search warrant execution, removed four cars, and left a lot of locals wondering what was up.
No charges have been filed in that case, and nearly eight months later, Ron Huber in the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment, saying the investigation is ongoing.
According to the search warrant, Donnie Marks and Sandra Marks ran the business at 4621 Seminole Trail. Special Agent Larry Cosme alleged the couple attempted to defraud clients, and that Sandra Marks, using the name Catherine, claimed to be a clairvoyant who could see the past and future, as well as curses and “dark clouds.”
The couple would offer services to walk-in clients, “some of whom would be suffering from emotional distress and mental disorders, who had recently gone through personal traumatic events in their lives and/or who were emotionally vulnerable, fragile and/or gullible,” said the warrant.
Sandra Marks would offer to help remove curses to restore harmony to the victim’s life, but the victim would need to “sacrifice” cash, jewelry or property for her to do so, according to the warrant. The money and property would be buried in a box and “cleansed,” and then returned to the victim once the dark cloud was removed, said the warrant.
In 2003, a confidential witness was told she needed $38,000 to get rid of the “dark energy” surrounding her spirit, according to the warrant. She gave Marks $23,000, and Marks said she would use $15,000 of her own money from a second mortgage on a home in Savannah to have enough to appease the dark energy. The witness contacted Albemarle police when Marks didn’t return the money. When threatened with legal action, claimed the warrant, Donnie Marks returned the money.
Ten years later in 2013, Sandra Marks saw a dark energy around another confidential witness who had recently received a large inheritance, and Marks told her she’d need $180,000 to get rid of it, according to the warrant. The witness gave Marks $110,000, which the Markses deposited and spent almost immediately, including $17,100 for a 1968 Camaro purchased by Donnie Marks, said the warrant.
During the raid, agents hauled away a 2014 black GMC Sierra pickup, a 2013 black Hyundai Genesis, a 2012 white Ford Mustang, and a 1968 red convertible Corvette.
C-VILLE was unable to locate Donnie Marks, who is scheduled to be in Albemarle General District Court February 12 on failure to appear charges. According to online address records, psychics named Sandra Marks live in Laveen, Arizona, and Allentown, Pennsylvania, and when contacted, family members said they have never lived in Charlottesville.
Eric Gertner (above) and Kate Collier opened Feast! in 2002. Photo: Amanda Maglione
Feast mode
Feast! on West Main had its most profitable year ever in 2014, and the specialty foods market and cafe is looking to keep its momentum in 2015, recently announcing a high-profile hire and new weekly sandwich concept.
Co-owner Eric Gertner said Feast! has grown every year since opening in 2002, and last year’s success was built largely on the acquisition of new kitchen and office space from the former Main Street Market tenant Sustain. Feast! began renting the Sustain space late last summer and had installed an oven, hoods and other kitchen equipment by the fall, according to Gertner.
“We sort of took a flyer,” Gertner said. “It’s the first time we’ve had a real kitchen. We’ve started doing what we’re calling ‘healthy food to go.’ That has helped fuel our growth.”
Gertner, who owns the business with his wife Kate Collier, said the new kitchen has also allowed Feast! to grow its catering, which the cafe has been doing since late 2004. It’s still not full-service catering, Gertner stressed, but the additional prep space has allowed his chefs to crank out more sandwich platters and the like in the mornings before the lunch rush comes in.
Feast!’s latest sandwich concept, International Tuesday, offers customers a new sammie featuring the flavors of a different nationality every Tuesday. “It’s cool because it kind of engages our staff, which is somewhat international,” Gertner said. “Those guys are already especially team-y, and every day we have a daily special that they make and taste all together and give feedback to improve it.” The first sandwich on the menu was a Salvadoran creation known as Pan con Pollo, and while Gertner isn’t entirely sure where the concept will go next, he said the staff may take things in a Russian direction, as well as into other Latin American flavors.
Feast!, which will turn 13 on February 13, recently grew its administrative staff by hiring a new director of service and operations in Dave Winder. Winder comes to the specialty food biz from Whole Foods, and Gertner said while he understands management from his time with a national grocery, he also has “a lot of exposure to the community and the local customer base.”
For a chance to see what Feast! has going on for yourself, look no further than the series of in-store classes the market began in late 2013. Gertner and his team have followed up their inaugural ham carving class with two cheese appreciation classes, one last fall and a Valentine’s-themed installment on February 9. Look for more such events, likely hosted by award-winning cheesemonger Sara Adduci, in the coming months.
Love fest
Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, which only means one thing—dinner reservations are going to be even more of a pain to get. We can’t guarantee that there will still be any tables available by the time you read this, but thought we’d try to help out anyway.
Local spots offering prix fixe menus for Valentine’s Day include some downtown staples like Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar (dance party upstairs after dinner!), Maya and Red Pump Kitchen. There’s also Rocksalt in Stonefield, the Belmont favorite tavola, and Boar’s Head Inn.
Also check out the local wineries’ calendars; Veritas is taking reservations for a five-course wine dinner, and White Hall will offer a chocolate and wine pairing.
For something a little different, check out Blue Moon Diner’s eighth annual five-course bacon dinner—because nothing says romance like half your weight in bacon.
David Toscano stands with Eugene and Lorraine Williams after the Charlottesville couple was honored by the House of Delegates for their leadership during the desegregation of city schools.
Contributed photo
When the Supreme Court ruled on Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Charlottesville residents Eugene and Lorraine Williams could not have imagined the General Assembly that supported segregation would one day give them a standing ovation. Yet that’s what happened February 6, when the highly partisan House of Delegates rose in unison to applaud them and their lifelong efforts to assure that all people were treated equally.
House Minority Leader David Toscano carried the resolution to honor the couple, who led the NAACP in the 1950s and who filed suit to desegregate city schools. “People in Charlottesville would rather close their schools than have white and black educated together,” said Toscano, referring to Massive Resistance, which, with the approval of the governor and “complicity of the General Assembly,” allowed Lane High School and Venable Elementary to close.
Eugene, now 87, and Lorraine, 89, went on to form Dogwood Housing to provide affordable housing for low-income families. The most moving part of the day, said Eugene, “was the number of black legislators who came up and shook hands and said, we wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you.”
Said Toscano, “Eugene and Lorraine changed Charlottesville forever. They changed the state forever. They changed the country forever.”
BILL BY BILL
A look at some of the session’s legislation—living and dead.
Pass: Delegates Rob Bell and David Toscano’s bill mandating DNA collection of those convicted of certain misdemeanors. A similar bill has already passed in the Senate.
Fail: Delegate Rob Bell’s amendment that would have stalled the grade-separated interchange at U.S. 29 and Rio Road did not make it into the House version of the budget.
Unknown: Senators Creigh Deeds and Emmett Hanger’s SB 1338, which repeals the 2004 law that allowed interstate natural gas companies to enter private property without written consent, is still before the Commerce and Labor Committee.
Pass: Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam casts the tie-breaking vote on SB785, which makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identification. A similar bill in the House died in committee.
Pass: Delegate Steve Landes’ bill banning inmate possession of obscene materials passes the House 86-13 February 4, with Delegate Joe Morrissey, himself an inmate, voting against the bill and calling it unconstitutional.
Pass: A person with a debilitating epileptic condition and with the recommendation of a practitioner of medicine or osteopathy may possess cannabidiol oil or THC-A oil, according to a bill that passed the Senate February 5.
Pass: A House bill that could prevent more instances of handcuffed 4-year-olds in public schools like the recent one in Greene County passed 98-0 February 5. A similar bill passed the Senate January 27.
Pass: Senator Lynwood Lewis’ bill banning primates as pets passed the Senate February 5.
Justin Anderson defends in the Louisville game before the pinkie fracture. Photo Dillon Harding/Virginia Media Relations.
Star guard Justin Anderson’s fractured finger did not stop Virginia from topping ninth-ranked Louisville 52-47 February 7, nor did it prevent Virginia from being ranked No. 2 in the country again this week. But what does it mean for the Cavaliers for the rest of the regular season, with Anderson out of commission for the next four to six weeks?
“Losing someone who is playing as well as Justin Anderson is playing, particularly at this time of the year, certainly is cause for concern,” said legendary UVA coach Terry Holland. “However, Coach Bennett and his staff will make the adjustments necessary to replace Justin’s contributions in the short term and it is possible that these adjustments may actually make the team stronger in postseason play when Justin is expected to be back. No one player will replace Justin, but everyone will share that load.”
The most formidable team during the rest of Virginia’s regular season is Louisville—again— March 7.
On Coach’s Corner February 9, Coach Tony Bennett said they’d have a better feel in a couple of weeks how Anderson’s left pinkie is doing following surgery. “You’re at that point in the season you want to get him back quickly, but safely.” The rest of the season will be more challenging, he said, “but these things happen.”
Anderson tweeted his thanks for fans’ concerns and prayers February 8 after his surgery. “All went well,” he wrote. “I’ll be back soon.”
Sultan Kebab owners Serhat Peker and Deniz Dikmen have been serving up traditional
Turkish fare since 2012, and the natives of Turkey are hoping to relocate to the downtown area by this summer. Photo: Rammelkamp Foto
Sultan Kebab isn’t new. Deniz Dikmen and Serhat Peker, both natives of Turkey, opened the restaurant tucked away in a small shopping center at the corner of Route 29 and Rio Road in 2012. But if you’re like me and don’t often schlep up to that side of town, it’s easy to miss. But partially due to the impending construction at Rio and 29 that will inevitably slow business down, and partially due to a desire to expand, Charlottesville’s only Turkish restaurant may find a new home in the downtown area by this summer.
“No matter what, it’s going to affect our business,” Dikmen said. “We have a lot of repeat customers, but it will be better to get out because of the projects.”
In the meantime, front-of-the-house manager Dikmen and chef Peker—both of whom arrived in Charlottesville about eight years ago with hotel management degrees to work at Clifton Inn—will continue to serve up classic Turkish dishes.
I’ve been craving Turkish food since I returned from a trip to Istanbul. My exposure to the cuisine was fairly minimal, but I did my best to shovel in as much as I could during those 10 days exploring the sea-side cross-section of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern cultures. I learned about Sultan Kebab shortly after my return, but as a downtown dweller who considers a Target run an ordeal, I allowed myself to gradually forget the dishes I’d fallen in love with on the other side of the world. I finally made my way up there last week, and it did not disappoint. Dikmen said the restaurant specializes in meats, “but our goal is to make the best vegetarian and vegan options.” Most of the appetizers are meat-free, like the baked hummus casserole with tomatoes and kashar cheese, the baba ghanoush with homemade pita bread and my personal favorite, the sigara borek, a rolled pastry filled with Turkish white cheese and parsley. (Borek is one of Turkey’s most versatile dishes. Whether the dough is folded like a little calzone, flattened and spread like a pancake, or layered and cut into squares like the ones I inhaled in Istanbul, you really can’t go wrong with the flaky, savory pastry filled with anything from cheese and herbs to meat and veggies.) There’s a Mediterranean vegetarian sandwich served on vegan bread, but for the full gamut, go for the Sultan’s vegetarian plate. It comes piled high with dolma (stuffed grape leaves), hummus, baba ghanoush, tabouleh, rice and salad. If you’re lucky, you may catch them on a day when Peker whipped up a pot of hearty vegetable stew and includes a cup of it with the platter.
“When you put in front of a vegetarian person a plate with 10 different items, they love it,” Dikmen said. “But for me that’s not enough, we want to do more. We want to really surprise people.”
For him and Peker, it’s all about giving people an experience that’s as authentically Turkish as possible, from the pre-meal black tea served in a delicate little glass with two sugar cubes on the side (which I’m pretty sure I had running through my veins by the end of my trip), to the mug of nutmeg-topped rice pudding made from Dikmen’s mother’s recipe. The decorations on the walls, which include ornate carpets, hookahs and Turkish coffee pots, came from the guys’ hometowns of Izmir and Adana, and the owners deliberated extensively over the menu, drawing from the traditional dishes from their hometowns and incorporating old family recipes. Neither of them attended culinary school, but according to Dikmen, food is in their blood. It’s something that’s inherently learned, not necessarily taught.
“The main reason for opening this restaurant was to work for something close to our culture, close to our food,” Peker said. “We cook whatever we love, and we like to share it with the people.”
I couldn’t help but notice that a few of my favorites weren’t on the menu: pide, a cheesy, pizza-like dish served in the shape of a boat; kokorec, a sandwich piled with seasoned chopped lamb intestines; or kunefe, a sweet cheese-filled pastry soaked in syrup. A lot of Turkish staples like these require specialized skills, plus more space than is currently available in the kitchen. They could certainly add kunefe to the dessert menu tomorrow, Dikmen said, but it wouldn’t be authentic or on par with the rest of the menu. But once they move to a bigger place, and if they happen to find the right person to join the team, Dikmen said they may be able to start adding more elaborate items to the menu.
“When we add an item to the menu, we are really careful, because we want to make it really good and really authentic,” Dikmen said. “When we do it, we want to do it with the right timing. That’s why we are proud of every single item on our menu.”
I don’t claim to be an expert on Turkish cuisine or culture by any means, and Dikmen explained that the menu is a collection of dishes from nearly every region of the country. But the 20-minute drive up 29 for a meal of borek, beef and chicken kebabs and rice pudding took me right back to the streets of Istanbul—and I didn’t even have a layover in Amsterdam.
The Saturday Giant takes disparate elements of art rock and blends together a stream of modern pop nirvana at BON on Friday. Photo: Mark Elliot
In the vein of Keller Williams and other one-man bands, Philip Cogley, a.k.a. The Saturday Giant, produces three, four, sometimes five separate tracks at a time during live performances using a guitar, a drum machine, keyboards, and a loop machine. Atop all of his instruments, he adds warm vocals that overlap as harmonies above the loops, creating a collage that crescendos as all of the individual parts collide and comingle under falsetto-vocal drones. When asked why he insists on performing all components of his songs live instead of using pre-recorded material, Cogley said,“That would be cheating.”
Friday 2/13. $5, 8pm. BON, 100 W. South St. 244-3786.
