Don’t Breathe unravels after a group of friends, including Dylan Minnette, botch a robbery of a blind man and wind up being terrorized. Courtesy of Sony Pictures
No film is completely perfect, but it takes a special kind of wrongheadedness to make a decision that completely divorces an audience from enjoyment by being both morally repugnant and betraying its own narrative. This is the experience of watching Don’t Breathe, technical wunderkind Fede Alvarez’s follow-up to his promising remake of Evil Dead, which fell short of the original but still managed to impress.
With Don’t Breathe, Alvarez clearly relishes the freedom that comes with being under the wing of Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures. For the first hour or so, the movie is a fantastic, clever twist on the home invasion genre. The plot follows three burglars in Detroit who plan their robberies carefully: Alex (Dylan Minnette), whose father installs security systems and is extremely methodical and keen on minimizing the gang’s legal risk; Rocky (Jane Levy), who is fixing to make enough so she can live the good life in California with her daughter; and Money (Daniel Zovatto), the most reckless and aggressive of the bunch.
In figuring out their next score, the group chooses the house of a mysterious, reclusive, blind veteran (Stephen Lang), who won a large settlement after his daughter was killed. The operation takes a turn for the worse when the blind man (as he is credited) is alerted to the robbers’ presence and kills Money. He then blocks off all exits for Rocky and Alex, and what follows—at least until it all comes crashing down—is some of the most exciting camerawork of the summer, delivering a thrilling cat-and-mouse game where the ability to see becomes a disadvantage. The house is Alvarez’s playground, and the way in which he maximizes the dramatic potential of just a few rooms and hallways is truly captivating.
This is where things get ugly. This might be an appropriate place for a spoiler warning, but this sort of thing needs to be discussed openly. While Rocky and Alex are trying to find an unguarded exit, they discover a woman who is kept hostage in the basement, who we come to learn is responsible for killing the blind man’s daughter. She was acquitted, the blind man says, because “rich girls don’t go to jail.” Kind of demented, but after the trauma of war, then losing his child and seeing the perpetrator go free, it works as a component of the overall moral ambiguity of the narrative; neither the thieves nor the blind man are entirely good or bad—either side could win in the end.
Rocky is captured and placed in the harness where the killer once was. Here, we learn that she wasn’t simply a hostage. She was forcefully impregnated by the blind man, which is what he’s about to do to Rocky. This moment is played for campy laughs, with a slo-mo close-up of a turkey baster dripping with semen, and the purpose is only a ticking clock for Alex to heroically rescue Rocky.
Let’s repeat: There’s a five-minute sexual terror near-rape subplot that’s played for laughs. The blind man is about to forcefully insert this object into Rocky and we’re supposed to find this thrilling?
Narratively, it fails on its own terms; this moment exists so the audience changes its opinion of the blind man, removing any sympathy and making it all right for Rocky and Alex to kill him if necessary. Even a less horrifying trait would be a betrayal of the breathless anything-could-happen flow of the film that precedes it, dulling the edge on the audience’s anticipation. But for the filmmaker to make him an abductor who impregnates his captives and then assume it’s so cartoony as to be unbelievable is insulting. We just had an Academy Award- winning film, Room, explore this very subject. It’s not a hammy subplot.
This sudden shift does the double duty of being wholly unnecessary and manages to lose whatever traction the film had. The final showdown isn’t heightened from this contrivance, but rather it’s deadened as the audience is still trying to cope with what just happened. It’s puzzling, it’s heartbreaking, it’s unnecessary. Alvarez has something to offer the world cinematically, but the transcendent first hour of Don’t Breathe only means that it crashes from a greater height than if it had never been any good in the first place.
Playing this week
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Bad Moms, Ben-Hur, Florence Foster Jenkins, Hands of Stone, Jason Bourne, Kubo and the Two Strings, Mechanic: Resurrection, Pete’s Dragon, Sausage Party, The Secret Life of Pets, Star Trek Beyond, Suicide Squad
Violet Crown Cinema 200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Ben-Hur, Don’t Think Twice, Florence Foster Jenkins, Hell or High Water, Jason Bourne, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Music of Strangers, Pete’s Dragon, Sausage Party, Suicide Squad, War Dogs
Paul Reynolds has tracked the speed of more than 700,000 vehicles on Locust Avenue since the beginning of the year. They’re not slowing down. Photo by Martyn Kyle
Last month, the city announced the initiation of a traffic calming project on Locust Avenue, where locals have been concerned about the influx of cars whizzing up and down the street for some time. But a resident who has persistently tracked the traffic himself says the project has had “no apparent benefit.”
After a 12-year-old pedestrian was hit on Locust last October, UVA emeritus professor of computer science Paul Reynolds, who lives on the same street, began filming the cars passing his house and created a software program to monitor their speed. The software is now being used in China.
“Speeding on Locust and, to some extent, irresponsible driving, was really getting out of hand,” says Reynolds, who adds that an older woman was hit just weeks later while walking her dog in a crosswalk. “It was difficult to get across the street.”
The $6,500 traffic calming project, which was implemented in the last 10 days of July, consists of new road markings that more clearly define travel and parking lines on the street, as well as additional space for cyclists in the southbound lane and making crosswalks more visible.
When the project was first implemented, Reynolds says about 40 percent of cars traveling south in the 800 block of Locust were at or under the 25mph speed limit, which was a significant improvement from the 25 percent that were routinely compliant before. But by August 5, he found that southbound speed compliance had reverted to its norm before the traffic calming went into effect,and “northbound compliance is actually a little worse,” he says. And on the weekends, he has tracked more cars going over 35mph than those following the speed limit.
Reynolds has monitored more than 700,000 cars since the beginning of the year, and, on average, found that 7,500 cars travel Locust during daylight hours, which equals about 10 cars per minute. Every 12th car drives at speeds between 35 and 50mph.
But it’s not all bad news. In February, he told City Council that city buses and school buses were passing his house at speeds between 30 and 40mph on average. Four months later, 95 percent of city buses were obeying the speed limit, he says.
As expected, driving too fast isn’t just an issue on Locust. One city resident acknowledges the issues with speeding across town, but says he shouldn’t have to pay to fix it.
“I think it’s absurd that taxpayers have to now pay for street modification to slow traffic when taxes already pay the police department to enforce traffic laws,” Frank Jesionowski wrote in an e-mail to C-VILLE. “People speed because it appears the police don’t care.”
Charlottesville Police spokesperson Steve Upman declined to comment, but provided information that shows patrol officers issued 91 speeding tickets on Locust in 2015, an increase from 25 issued in 2014 and 45 issued the year before. Thirty-four tickets have been issued so far this year.
But Jesionowski is not convinced. “If the town develops a reputation for enforcing the speed limit, people start obeying the law,” he says.
Will Mullany and Judith Young formed the music booking group Camp Ugly to develop a representative scene beyond white dudes playing indie rock. Photo by Ron Paris
In May 2015, housemates Judith Young and Will Mullany went to the Paramount Theater for a screening of Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, D.C. (1980-90). In the cushy theater seats, they watched how the early D.C. DIY scene unfolded, how now-legendary bands such as Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue and Fugazi released their own records, booked their own shows and eschewed major record label and mainstream media in the process. They left inspired to start a venue of their own in support of independent music.
Young and Mullany, both recent UVA grads and former WXTJ 100.1 FM student DJs, began hosting shows in their house on Gordon Avenue for the station. They called the effort Camp Ugly. High school and college students packed into their living room and kitchen, spilling out onto the porch, to hear local bands like Cream Dream and New Boss.
But they wanted to do something that would meld the student music scene with the city music scene. While sitting at Milli Coffee Roasters on Preston Avenue one afternoon, Young looked up at the ceiling and noticed stage lights hanging from the ceiling; she thought it would make a cool place for a show.
Young e-mailed Milli owner Nick Leichentritt and asked: “Can I book shows here?”
Leichentritt responded almost immediately: “Yes.”
And thus began Charlottesville’s latest DIY music initiative: Camp Ugly shows at Milli.
Every Friday night, bring $5 to Milli and get a red ink Camp Ugly heart stamped on your hand and hear a handful—sometimes three, sometimes two or four—of local and touring independent bands.
Camp Ugly has one major principle: Book talented, diverse musicians who play good, diverse music, and pay them for their art.
But that’s easier said than done. It’s a challenge to find bands that aren’t full of white dudes playing indie rock, they say. And while both admit that they love plenty of bands full of white dudes playing indie rock, they don’t want to perpetuate the status quo.
“What purpose are we serving by maintaining the only thing that there is?” asks Mullany.
They’ve booked Those Manic Seas, an alt-rock band whose lead singer has recorded a DVD of his performance played through an old TV propped up on the neck of a mannequin. They’ve hosted Charlottesville ex-pats Left & Right (an all-white, all-dude rock band). They have a hip-hop show planned for September 16 and a free computer-music and jazz improv night booked for October 7. “You come in with the expectation that what you see might be totally off the dome,” says Mullany. They envision all-female bills, electronic and bluegrass acts and maybe even an all-Jewish klezmer show.
“The philosophical debates that we have about music don’t show well in our calendar,” says Young. At least not entirely, not yet. They’re still trying to seek out diversity in race, gender and sound—and for good reason.
“Women, non-binary folk and people of color have different perspectives in their music,” Young says. “They are detailing different narratives that people really need to hear.”
It’s important that everyone have a musical platform, Mullany says. “When it becomes apparent in music, as it has, that certain types of people or backgrounds aren’t getting the same sort of treatment or presence in the community that others are, it’s time to take a hard look at why this is, and what you can do to help.”
Leichentritt says these intentions are what led him to agree to a Camp Ugly/Milli partnership in the first place, along with Young and Mullany’s promise and ability to come through on their word. “I’ve been happy to work with them,” he says, noting that both Young and Mullany know what they’re talking about. “They do a good job.”
All of the door money goes to the bands; Camp Ugly doesn’t take a cut, and neither does Leichentritt, though he profits from coffee, beverage and food sales made during the show. Bands are paid on a weighted scale that considers the number of band members and distance traveled, and Young says she tries to pay them as fairly as possible for their time and their art.
“Women, non-binary folk and people of color have different perspectives in their music,” Judith Young says. “They are detailing different narratives that people really need to hear.”
Camp Ugly joins the ranks of more established DIY venues like Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar and Magnolia House, but Young and Mullany are quick to note that they’re not looking to compete for bookings. At first, they say they worried about whether Camp Ugly would be a detriment to the local DIY scene by diluting it. “But I don’t think so,” Mullany says. “I think there’s more room to get people into it.”
When Magnolia House booked three of Charlottesville’s most popular bands, New Boss, Night Idea and Second Date, for September 9, Camp Ugly decided to take the night off rather than compete for the audience. They still might put on a show, but it’ll be for a different crowd—bluegrass, or jazz, instead of indie rock. “Magnolia is not an enemy,” says Young. “We’re trying to achieve the same goal.” And that is getting more ears tuned in to live music.
Mullany hopes that having yet another DIY venue will inspire more people to play music—and more diverse music at that—around town. “Sometimes bands will form when there’s an opportunity to play that isn’t being filled,” he says. “I hope that more places to play means more people playing music. I don’t know how true that will be, but I would like there to be more people performing in Charlottesville.”
The Hart App aims to take modern dating beyond the surface and connect people through their art. Photo courtesy of Scott Webb
The last time I went on an online date, I found myself at Buffalo Wild Wings with a guy named Tony. It was 2010, and I was living on the New Jersey shore at the time. (He was actually the second Tony I’d gone out with, it being the Jersey shore.) I remember feeling…underwhelmed. Missing the spark despite millions of messages exchanged, let down in a way that only deliberate, digitally orchestrated dates can inspire.
Technology has come a long way since then. We have apps now. All it takes is a finger swipe to dismiss someone, should you find their face and/or body parts unappealing.
Unfortunately, our modern approach to romance still fails to convey the visceral magic of a person. No app can capture the soul that animates your face, radiates your brand of warmth or talent, and shines when you immerse yourself in creative work that lights you up.
Or so I thought.
There’s a new app in town, and it’s designed expressly for creative, artsy types. You know, the ones who might classify themselves as more than just a pretty face.
The idea for the Hart App was born after Scott Webb attended a Rolling Stones concert and realized “Mick Jagger couldn’t compete on Tinder if he wasn’t Mick Jagger, but people love him,” says Webb. “It’s almost a form of hypnosis. When someone has created a great artistic revolution, people don’t care what you look like.”
“A headshot can’t capture the depth of a person’s character,” proclaims the website for the Hart App, and so this Tinder-for-creatives eschews your face entirely.
Users create a profile by uploading a photo to their “public canvas” along with a five-word caption. The photo can be anything—doodles, tattoos, the sidewalk, an airplane, whatever image you decide expresses your uniqueness. The caption can be poetic, descriptive or completely unrelated to your image.
The only catch? You can’t post a photo of your face.
Once you’re in the public gallery, you swipe left to dismiss the work that doesn’t move you and swipe right to engage with the spirit that does. Should you like a canvas, you’ll be asked to write a critique. If the person on the other side of the screen likes what you have to say, he’ll allow you to view his profile. Then the conversation can begin.
“If you post to this app, you’re one to two steps ahead of someone on Tinder,” says Hart’s founder, Scott Webb. “You want someone to understand you. That’s really who the app is for: those people who have evolved a notch ahead, who want to bypass all the bullshit of what dating is and just have a conversation about imagination.”
A colon hygienist and former philosophy major, Webb ran with the idea for Hart after recognizing its potential. “It seems very simple and it has a broad appeal nationally, and maybe across the whole planet, this idea that people could connect more via their interests or their passions, talents, versus just what they look like.”
At present, the app has launched in limited markets: first in Nashville, where Webb lives, then Asheville, North Carolina, and now Charlottesville. Brand-new users will find that the public gallery “unlocks” when 25 (or more) locals create and upload profiles.
So far, user profiles run the gamut, from a stylized sun painted on a guitar to a pair of legs on an outcropping overlooking the Blue Ridge to an oil painting of a woman looking out to sea.
But the real breakthrough, Webb says, is the way users take advantage of their caption.
“It’s not enough to just put up a photo,” he says. “It’s the five words that I think is the genius aspect of the app. Because now the post itself becomes a work of creativity.”
(Of the few I saw, my favorite was the image of an aquarium-bound jellyfish, underscored with the caption “don’t be jelly.”)
Helping people harness that artistic charisma—whether they are artists—is exactly what Webb wanted to do in the first place. “I think sometimes creative types, their photos may disqualify them from Tinder-type competition,” he says. “You could have someone highly creative and an introvert that has all this material, and they could thrive if they could put their art forward first.”
The idea for Hart was born after Webb attended a Rolling Stones concert and realized “Mick Jagger couldn’t compete on Tinder if he wasn’t Mick Jagger, but people love him,” says Webb. “It’s almost a form of hypnosis. When someone has created a great artistic revolution, people don’t care what you look like.”
A hypnotherapist himself, Webb explains how limited typical dating thought patterns can be.
“In society, all we’re providing people with is the hypnotic aspects,” says Webb. “It’s looking at a face and saying, ‘Yes, no. Yes, no.’ That encourages a generic, cookie-cutter model for what dating is and for what relationships are. We’ve been trained to focus more on what is. It’s a very linear, hypnotized, cause-and-effect model, whereas genuine love comes through the subconscious.
“What I’m suggesting is, for how the human mind works, we might introduce more imagination and more expression and getting to know each other, and that changes the whole dimension of the relationship.”
Led by John Dwyer, garage-psych wrecking crew Thee Oh Sees has churned out 15 albums, the latest being A Weird Exits. It covers familiar territory, though previous forays into jangly, poppy material have been obliterated. For the uninitiated, A Weird Exits is not an easy introduction; song titles like “Gelatinous Cube” and “Unwrap the Fiend, Pt. 2” indicate the prevailing vibe. The frantic grooves are at once minimal and overflowing, with Dwyer chanting and puncturing the fabric with trademark unholy roller yips. Guitars throw down razor riffs and suddenly peel off like cartoon spaceships. Unnerving sonic touches abound.
The last two songs mix things up without mellowing things out. “Crawl Out From the Fall Out” is a slow waltz with low, groggy strings; it sounds like a lurid shanty emitting from a trash barge floating on an alien sea, while “Axis” is a feverish hymn based on the chords of “Bold As Love” by Jimi Hendrix—Dwyer drops an overdriven psychedelic solo that breaks down in spectacular fashion. It’s an apt finish to another uncompromising album by one of rock’s implacable forces.
As guitarist for Sweden’s progressive psychedelic heroes Dungen, Reine Fiske has been party to some of the best music of the last 15 years, laying down precise, fluid solos integral to that band’s Apollonian brand of acid rock. Calling The Amazing his side project is perhaps unfair, and the band is hardly a fly-by-night proposition; this is its fifth album since 2009. Still…
Ambulance continues the temperate psychedelia The Amazing has always cultivated. It’s tempting to link the band’s style to the windswept Swedish landscape; chiming, echoing, intertwining guitars prevail, with synth strings drawing out long notes over moderate tempos. Fiske’s gentle, incantatory vocals seldom rise from the mix—in fact, nothing really demands attention. The Amazing resemble a European version of Kurt Vile, easygoing but not especially engaging, and Fiske’s solos never attain the heights he regularly hits with Dungen. Outliers include “Blair Drager,” which pushes trip-hop drums to the fore, and the pair of burbly, folky, acoustic-driven numbers that end the album (variation that would have been welcome earlier). The Amazing weaves attractive if mostly ornamental tapestries.
The colored pencil drawing on the cover of Animal Races depicts a Western-style main street, except, instead of a street there’s a creek that disappears into distant green hills. A giant naked woman and man stand on either bank, clumsily brandishing tennis rackets, and overhead, a giant hovering eyeball encased in a vibrating orb observes the scene. Remarkably, the tableau is suggestive: San Francisco quartet Cool Ghouls plays twangy psychedelia, keeping it homegrown, loose and unconcerned.
Ghosts of classic Byrds, early Love and the Nuggets compilations are ubiquitous, but this isn’t reverent nostalgia, and Cool Ghouls flip the script enough to sound vital. There’s a hint of the paisley underground on the title track, a Feelies-like urgency to the jangle of “Time Capsule” and interweaving guitar solos à la Television on “Spectator.” The band weeps it up with a yearning pedal steel on “When You Were Gone” and flexes alt-country chops on the catchy, piano-driven sing-along “Days.” Animal Races is a solid album full of terrific moments from a band that just wants to make life a better party.
“Let’s relate, let’s relate, let’s relate,” of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes sings on the band’s new album. They take the stage on Tuesday at the Jefferson. Publicity photo
Over the course of two decades and 14 LPs, of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes has established himself as a bit of a sonic chameleon while usually covered in glitter. He swallowed up ’60s psych-pop, Prince-ly funk and glassy prog while morphing deftly between the personal and the fantastical. On the new record Innocence Reaches, the first line asks, “How do you identify?,” surfacing ideas about gender, attraction, nationality and race that are on our collective minds.
Tuesday, September 6. $18-20, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4980
“Bronco’s office is under renovation,” I’m told as I walk into UVA head football coach Bronco Mendenhall’s temporary office in July. “They’re adding bookshelves.”
Mendenhall sits at the end of a long table in a conference room, surrounded by pieces of paper. He looks every bit the part of a head coach in a Virginia shirt, Virginia athletic shorts and a Virginia visor. Mumford & Sons plays softly in the background.
As I approach, he gives me a friendly smile, but his tired expression and sun-beaten face are evidence of how hard he and his team have been working this summer.
What’s not so obvious about Mendenhall, 50, tall and broad-shouldered, is that he approaches the game with a unique coaching philosophy.
Those new bookshelves in his office aren’t for New York Times’ bestselling novels—they’re for his own personal research. Calling himself a “lifelong learner,” Mendenhall turns to books to guide him toward successful practices and methods, rather than relying solely on his own judgment.
Among his favorites are four “foundational books” that he bases his program on: Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, Legacy by James Kerr and Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden. And Mendenhall himself is the subject of a book—Running Into the Wind, by Alyson Von Feldt and Paul Gustavson, which discusses the philosophy he developed as head football coach at Brigham Young University for 11 years.
“Everything we do is very well-researched,” Mendenhall says as he discusses the practices he has implemented at UVA since he was hired in December at a salary of $3.25 million for year one, to replace Mike London (London received $2.1 million in his first year), according to Streaking the Lawn. “What we do is often cerebral in nature, but it is always very well thought-out and very well researched. For example, there is nothing that our players are given. They have to earn everything, from their locker, to their V-sabre, to possibly their jersey number.”
While the methodology behind Mendenhall’s “earned, not given” policy was researched, he admits the decision to implement it was an impulse.
“This was all formed when I was standing in front of the team for the very first time,” Mendenhall says, explaining that the team lacked certain “foundational elements” necessary to “build a consistently strong program over time.”
A week before the Cavaliers face-off against the Richmond Spiders September 3, the whole team has earned the right to wear small V-sabres on their workout shirts. A total of 72 players will dress for UVA’s home-opener.
Mendenhall’s emphasis on proven coaching methods has been a staple in his career, evident since he began his tenure at BYU in 2005.
Then-quarterback John Beck, who played at BYU from 2003-2006 and in the NFL from 2007-2012, describes the young coach as “devoted and visionary,” constantly reading and studying.
“When Bronco took over as the head coach there, he was taking over a program that needed to be rebuilt. He was always trying to find the best way, the most efficient way to do things,” Beck says.
The first thing UVA football coach Bronco Mendenhall told his players was to “train, and if they had extra time, train. And in between training, train.” The team had to earn everything this year: from their lockers to the right to wear their V-sabres. Photo by Jackson Smith
During Mendenhall’s tenure, BYU did not have a single losing season. Barring his first season, in which the team ended with a 6-6 record, the Cougars posted 10 straight winning seasons and received 11 bowl invitations.
The ’04 Cougars and UVA’s current team look similar on paper. In ’03 and ’04, the Cougars recorded a 4-8 and a 5-6 season respectively, while UVA’s last two seasons left them 5-7 and 4-8.
In fact, in London’s six years at UVA, the Hoos had only one winning season, which came in 2011, during London’s second year with the Cavaliers. But after four subsequent losing seasons, calls for London’s resignation began to reverberate within the fan base, and they were answered at the end of the 2015 season when UVA lost to in-state rival Virginia Tech for the 12th consecutive year.
NUMBERS GAME
Mike London’s last season as head coach at the University of Virginia
Overall record: 4-8
Conference record: (ACC): 3-5
Points per game: 25.8 (opponents, 32.2)
Points off turnovers: 61 (opp., 81)
Average yards per rush: 4.1 (opp., 4.5)
Rushing touchdowns: 13 (opp., 15)
Average yards per pass: 6.9 (opp., 8.2)
Passing touchdowns: 21 (opp., 26)
Average yards per game: 383
(opp., 411.5)
Average yards lost to penalties per game: 63.8 (opp., 54.5)
Percent of third down conversions: 43 percent (opp., 37 percent)
Bronco Mendenhall’s last season as head coach at Brigham Young University
Overall record: 9-4
Points per game: 33.7 (opponents, 22.8)
Points off turnovers: 79 (opp., 83)
Average yards per rush: 4 (opp., 3.7)
Average yards per pass: 7.6 (opp., 6.4)
Average yards per game: 424.8 (opp., 345.7)
Average yards lost to penalties per game: 57.7 (opp., 58.7)
Rushing touchdowns: 28 (opp., 22)
Passing touchdowns: 26 (opp., 12)
Percent of third down conversions: 40 percent (opp., 38 percent)
Points per game
Mendenhall’s offense last season averaged eight more points per game than London’s did during his last season with the Cavaliers. The Cougars also allowed 10 fewer points per game from their opponents. More points per game plus fewer points scored by opponents equals more “W’s.”
Average yards per game
Mendenhall’s Cougars averaged almost 42 more yards per game than London’s Cavaliers, and they held their opponents to 66 fewer yards per game than Virginia. More yards per game plus fewer yards for your opponent equals more trips to the red zone.
The ‘X’ factor
A smile flits across Mendenhall’s face when I ask the questions he must have known were coming: Why leave BYU, where he had built such a successful program? Why come to UVA?
A search firm had contacted him last summer to gauge his interest in the head coaching position at UVA should it become open—not an unusual occurrence for a winning coach—but for Mendenhall, it wasn’t about the numbers. It didn’t come down to how successful BYU was or how unsuccessful UVA had been. For him, there had to be the “X” factor.
“There would have to be something more than just the game to get me to a different school and by that I mean a culture or an academic standard,” Mendenhall says. “I love to build and I love to do hard things—and so if there was a place that had an amazing academic environment and an amazing conference, then possibly I would leave.”
Mendenhall’s wife, Holly, who describes the BYU players as “family,” lists his love of a challenge as one of his top reasons for coming to UVA.
“Bronco’s really excited to be here,” she says. “I think he’s having a blast. He loves to fix things…” Holly says that fixer attitude carries over to broken items in their home.
The Mendenhalls aren’t what you’d consider a typical football family. When UVA’s new coach is at home, he generally doesn’t watch football on TV. It’s Holly who flips on the Thursday night game. And of their three sons, only one has pursued football so far, as Mendenhall says he “wants the motivation to be from them, not me.”
Breaker Mendenhall, 14, whose first season of football was last year, also plays baseball and basketball and hopes to pursue horse roping. Cutter, 16, doesn’t play team sports and was recently cast as the lead in his school’s production of Grease, while the youngest brother, Raeder, 13, has taken up tennis after watching the UVA men’s tennis team.
THE STORY BEHIND THOSE NAMES
Marc “Bronco” Clay Mendenhall isn’t the only family member with an unusual name.
Cutter Bronco Mendenhall
“If you ride a cutting horse you’re called a ‘cutter,’ so that is my oldest son’s name. If you go back to cowboy days, a cowboy on a cutting horse would cut through the herd and cut one cow out of the herd. That was usually to buy time for another cowboy to come up to grab the cow to brand it.”
Breaker Blue Mendenhall
“There’s a famous horse breaker named Breaker Morant, so he’s sort of named after him. Then for his middle name, I love the ocean and I love surfing, so I chose blue.”
Raeder Steel Mendenhall
“My [late] father-in-law’s name was Rae. We honored his name with ‘Rae’ and then we added the ‘der’ to make it ‘Raeder.’ We chose his middle name as Steel because we liked the idea that it was sort of steadfast and immovable.”
The move to Charlottesville required the family to sell their 12 cows and chickens, pack up their lives and move their five horses and four dogs 2,081 miles from Provo, Utah, and live in a hotel for three months and in an RV on their new property for four months while their home was being renovated. But Mendenhall says each of their three sons has individually thanked him for moving to Charlottesville and that the family is excited to be a part of the community—“and not just on Saturdays.”
“We are just excited for the Eastern experience, not as much sports-wise as history and culture,” Holly says. “We’re excited to have an adventure out here and soak up and experience all that we can.”
Mendenhall was raised in Alpine, Utah, and grew up on a ranch, breaking horses and working with animals throughout his childhood. Everything from his sons’ names to his lifelong role models is based on his experiences growing up.
“I never aspired to be a coach,” Mendenhall says, explaining he had to change his career plans when he realized he was not good enough for the NFL (he was a two-year starter at safety at Oregon State University). “I went to the two things I loved, and one was breaking horses and the other was football.”
Mendenhall cites his father Paul, whom he worked side by side with at the ranch, as a major influence.
“I never saw or heard him act in a way that was anything but exemplary,” Mendenhall says. “There was always an answer to a question, there was always time for me. Most importantly I could see what a man of substance was through his actions. He, more than anyone, has shaped my life.”
Much in the same way that Paul Mendenhall influenced his son, Bronco Mendenhall has shaped the lives of the student-athletes he has coached.
BeyondX’sandO’s
“When I see Bronco, I see him with a baseball cap, yelling at players to get their mind right,” John Beck says, recalling a key phrase from Mendenhall’s days at BYU. “He would always tell everybody to ‘have your mind right.’”
What Mendenhall meant, according to Beck, was to make sure players were mentally prepared for every practice or football game before stepping on the field. In a team sport like football, “you have to have everybody with their mind right.”
Andrew Rich, a defensive back who playedfor BYU from 2008-2010, similarly admired Mendenhall’s ability to give players the mental motivation necessary to succeed, even if they “maybe physically didn’t belong in the game.”
“His ability to get the most out of every player is kind of uncanny. He has the ability to draw everything from you if you’re willing to do it,” Rich says.
Although Mendenhall exerts a certain authority over his players, Rich stresses that his approach differed from previous coaches he’d had.
“He’s naturally an introvert so he’s just typically a little more quiet and a little more reserved type of coach,” Rich says. “I’ve had a lot of coaches who are really outspoken and loud and always yelling just to yell, and he’s definitely not that way.
For Rich, who experienced a difficult period at BYU, Mendenhall was more than just a football coach—he was a mentor.
“One day he drove an hour and 15 minutes to my house just to see how I was doing,” Rich says. “And it wasn’t because he was interested in me because I was this great football player because at that time I hadn’t had much success. It wasn’t always about X’s and O’s with him.”
Along with the individual care Mendenhall gave his players, Beck felt that he always knew what the team needed as a whole, evident even from one of his first acts as head coach at BYU.
“There was a moment where he took the entire football team up a canyon and we wrote down all of the frustrating things about why the team hadn’t been winning…and then he took a football helmet with the old logo on it and we chucked the helmet and all the papers into a fire,” Beck says. “And he said, ‘That’s done and we will never ever be that again.’”
A similar philosophy has manifested itself in Charlottesville, where Mendenhall says he’s “anxious” for the team to start over—not just on the field, but with their community of fans as well.
“I think our fans appreciate excellence,” Mendenhall says, referencing the UVA men’s basketball team fans. “Our fans are knowledgeable…and that, to me, is a great place to start from.”
Something else Mendenhall hopes Cavalier football fans will appreciate is a game day that looks a little different than in seasons past. In addition to revamped uniforms, spectators will notice the return of diamond overlays in the end zones and free programs. Missing this year, though, will be the Wahoo Walk, which allowed fans to cheer on the team as it made its way from Engineer’s Way to Scott Stadium two hours before kickoff, and the animated pregame video featuring Cav Man.
No more sitting homein December
Of course, it will take more than just a supportive fan base to jump-start UVA’s football season, and Mendenhall has not shied away from enforcing discipline on his team.
“I love fanatical effort, but first and foremost I love very high standards and very clear expectations,” Mendenhall says. “Rarely do I raise my voice, but what I say—we are gonna do. And we’re gonna do it exactly as I said. There are only two ways to do things in my book: We do it the exact right way or we do it again.”
Although Mendenhall’s policy may seem uncompromising, wide receiver coach Marques Hagans, who has been a part of UVA’s coaching staff since 2011, says the team is more than up to the challenge.
“The players have really bought in to what’s being asked of them and one of Coach’s biggest things is the power of choice. …The guys who are left really want to be here and really want to do everything that’s asked of them,” Hagans says, emphasizing that the players have been responding to challenges as a team and that he has seen an improvement in camaraderie and team chemistry.
Hagans notes especially how hard UVA’s student-athletes have been training leading up to this season, something Mendenhall has stressed since day one. In fact, Mendenhall’s message at his first meeting with the team included little more than “train.”
“I told them to train, and if they weren’t sure what to do, train. And if they had extra time, train. And in between training, train,” Mendenhall says, smiling. “And then I stood at the entrance to the team room and I shook every player’s hand as they left and I just tried to get a feeling for where every player was at.”
Junior Kurt Benkert, a transfer from East Carolina University, will take the field as starting quarterback this season. Photo by Jim Daves/UVA Media Relations
After four consecutive losing seasons, Hagans says both the players and the coaching staff are ready to see this team succeed, saying it’s been “tough” to watch UVA football recently. The team recently picked its starting quarterback—junior Kurt Benkert, a transfer from East Carolina University. Senior Matt Johns, last season’s starting quarterback, remains on the team.
“I want this team, these players, to have success and be able to say that they were a turning point in UVA’s history under Coach Mendenhall,” Hagans says. He adds with a sigh: “You get tired of sitting home in December.”
The big question on many fans’ minds is whether UVA will go to its first bowl game in four years—and, better still, whether the Virginia Cavaliers will record a “W” against Virginia Tech.
Thus far, however, the odds are stacked against Mendenhall’s Cavaliers, with the sports media choosing the team to finish last in the ACC Coastal Division via a poll at the season kickoff conference in July. Mendenhall has just one thing to say in response to the team’s last-place ranking: “They couldn’t have written a better script. In my entire life, I have never been picked to finish last, nor have I ever finished last—and as a head coach I’ve never been part of a losing season and I’ve never not gone to postseason play. They’ve provided a great storyline to start a very intriguing plot.”
BRONCO’S LIST
UVA’s head coach tells us which players we should be watching this season
Quin Blanding. Photo by Jim Daves/UVA Media Relations
Quin Blanding
Junior, free safety
“Quin Blanding is incredibly smart, fast, experienced, tough. Exactly what we want at safety.”
2015 stats
Solo tackles: 68
Total tackles: 115
Tackles for loss: 1 (4 yards)
Interceptions: 1
Forced fumbles: 1
Recovered fumbles: 1
Pass break-ups: 3
Doni Dowling
Junior, wide receiver
“Doni Dowling is a fierce competitor, plays with tons of emotion, and when channeled correctly he can be a huge big-play asset.”
2015 stats
Solo tackles: 3
Micah Kiser
Junior, inside linebacker
“Micah Kiser is absolutely reliable in every way and is the heart of our defense.”
2015 stats
Solo tackles: 64
Total tackles: 117
Tackles for loss: 13 (58 yards)
Sacks: 7.5 (48 yards)
Forced fumbles: 3
Fumbles recovered: 2
Pass break-ups: 2
Jackson Matteo. Photo by Pete Emerson/UVA Media Relations
Jackson Matteo
Senior, center
“Amazing leader and an excellent football player that has been leading from the front in everything we’ve done since the moment I arrived.”
Taquan “Smoke” Mizzell
Senior, running back
Mizzell goes into his senior year as the leading receiver from the 2015 season, tallying 75 receptions and an average of 60 receiving yards per game, despite being a running back. He hasn’t slacked off as a running back, though: He leads the Cavaliers with 163 carries and 723 yards gained. Mizzell can also fill in as a returner, which makes him a player worth watching—he’s a threat in three categories.
“Smoke is a big play threat at any time from multiple positions on the field.”
2015 stats
Rush attempts: 163
Yards gained: 723
Average gain per rush: 4.1
Average rushing yards per game: 55.9
Longest rush: 36
Rushing touchdowns: 4
Receptions: 75
Average yards per reception: 9.6
Average receiving yards per game: 60.1
Receiving touchdowns: 4
Kick returns: 7
Average yards per kick return: 13.7
Total touchdowns: 8
Average total yards per game: 124
Eric Smith
Senior, offensive tackle
“Eric Smith has a tremendous future. He’s a very good football player with great experience, and he’ll play a pivotal role in defending our quarterback.”
2015 stats
Solo tackles: 2
Donte Wilkins
Senior, defensive tackle
“Donte Wilkins is where 3-4 defense starts and that’s at the nose tackle.”
2015 stats
Solo tackles: 6
Total tackles: 11
Tackles for loss: 1.5 (2 yards)
Sacks: 0.5 (1 yard)
Olamide Zaccheaus. Photo by Rich Schmidt/UVA Media Relations
Olamide Zaccheaus
Sophomore, running back
Olamide Zaccheaus is another triple-threat player, making his mark in rushing, receiving and returns for the Cavaliers last season. As a freshman, he recorded 33 carries and 275 yards, as well as posted 21 receptions and an average of 18 receiving yards per game. The returner for the Cavaliers also averages 19.3 yards per kick return and 6.8 yards per punt return. Look for him to step up into a larger role this year on many potential fronts.
“Olamide is a dynamic, versatile player—thrives in space.”
Elizabeth Haysom, photographed at Jens Soering’s trial in 1990, warned Soering in a letter: “...promise me you will not let me ruin you life...” Courtesy Filmperspektive
The tale of UVA students Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering, who were convicted in the 1985 double murders of Haysom’s parents, has long riveted central Virginia, and a new documentary reveals how the two saw themselves as tragic characters out of Shakespeare and Dickens.
Initially Soering confessed to the murders, he says, to protect his beloved from the electric chair, but he almost immediately recanted, and 30 years later, still maintains his innocence.
Soering’s attorney, Steve Rosenfield, filed a petition for absolute pardon with Governor Terry McAuliffe last week. Earlier this year, German filmmakers Marcus Vetter and Karin Steinberger screened their documentary, The Promise, at the Munich Film Festival. Germany, too, has long been fascinated with the case involving one of its citizens, who has garnered support from the entire Bundestag and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The real-life film noir, screened for reporters August 24, opens with lonely highways and dark country roads to Loose Chippings, the genteel Bedford home of Derek and Nancy Haysom, and then slams the viewers with gruesome murder scene photos that one investigator described as “like stepping in a slaughterhouse.”
Soering was 18 years old when he met Haysom, two and a half years his senior, in 1984. “I was practically a child,” he says. Both were Echols scholars, and Soering also was a Jefferson Scholar, a rarity even in the world of the University of Virginia’s gifted students.
Soering says he was a virgin when he met Haysom, and the pair’s passionate affair was documented in their love letters in that era before e-mails and texts.
Writes Haysom after their arrests, “Promise me, Jens. Whatever it takes now, promise me you will not let me ruin your life. I’ve seriously fucked up mine. Don’t let me destroy yours. I would kill myself if I discovered you were compromising yourself for me.”
That was a warning Soering did not heed from a woman who also referred to herself as Lady Macbeth.
Haysom’s letters and writings frequently expressed her wish that her parents were dead. She also has suggested that her mother sexually abused her, but denied it when pressed on the witness stand at her trial.
Soering saw the tale as more Romeo and Juliet, he says. When Elizabeth came back from Bedford and said to him, “I’ve killed my parents. I’ve killed my parents. You’ve got to help me,” Soering turned to Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, and pictured himself as Sydney Carton, giving up his life to save another, only he believed that as the son of a German diplomat, at worst he’d only be sentenced to a few years in prison in Germany, ultimately to be reunited with Haysom.
“I said it was me,” says Soering in the film. “I thought I was a hero.”
And police were willing to believe that. Even when Haysom told the detectives interrogating her in London, where the couple was arrested in 1986, “I did it myself,” a detective says, “Don’t be silly.” To which Haysom responds, “I got off on it.”
Haysom was an “unconventional beauty,” says Carlos Santos, owner of the Fluvanna Review, who was a Richmond Times-
Dispatch reporter when the trials took place. “She was worldly, smart,” he says, admitting on the witness stand that she used LSD and heroin. “At the same time you could tell that she lied,” says Santos. “She was a beautiful, charming liar.”
“I have brought sorrow to so many,” Soering tells the filmmakers. “I have destroyed my life because I thought it was about love. Retrospectively I realized I never knew this woman.”
Soering, 50, was sentenced to two life sentences in 1990. Haysom, 52, is serving a 90-year sentence.
Upon completion of the Berkmar Bridge, one can drive from the former Shoppers World, now called 29th Place, up to CHO without setting wheels on 29. Courtesy of VDOT
Good news for smoothie fans
Charlottesville has no reports of hepatitis A cases like the outbreak that struck 28 Tropical Smoothie Cafe patrons throughout Virginia that was thought to be caused by contaminated Egyptian strawberries, according to the local Virginia Department of Health office.
Understudy steps in
While UVA drama professor Walter Francis Korte Jr., charged with two counts of possessing child pornography earlier this month, is still being held at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, two of his classes—Cinema as an Art Form and Film Aesthetics—are now being taught by Matthew Marshall, another professor in the department, according to the Cavalier Daily. History of Film, which Korte was also scheduled to teach this semester, is no longer listed for students.
A little more time
Photo: Scott Elmquist
U.S. Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled to reverse former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell’s 11 corruption convictions in June, sending his case back to Richmond’s 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether there is enough evidence for a retrial. His council and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are now asking the appeals court to give the U.S. Justice Department three more weeks to further prepare and consider its next steps before taking any action.
Hotel hot spot
Rendering courtesy of CARR City Centers
Developers announced August 29 that they have secured a $25.8 million loan for a 10-story luxury hotel on West Main Street. As part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection Hotels, the space will feature 150 guest rooms and suites, a restaurant and 3,000 square feet of meeting space. It will be located next to Uncommon, West Main’s newest digs. Construction is slated to begin this fall, and the hotel is expected to open in 2017.
Sexual assault details
The victim of the August 19 sexual assault occurring on Emmet Street, possibly between Thomson Road and Jefferson Park Avenue, recently told Charlottesville Police that “a couple of people” on the street took her home after the assault. Police ask for anyone who aided the victim or noticed anything suspicious in the area between 11:30pm and 1am to contact Detective Regine Wright-Settle at 970-3274.
Bridging the gap
While the U.S. 29 and Rio Road grade-separated intersection got all the attention this summer, the Berkmar Drive Extended project, parallel to Seminole Trail, has been chugging along. Upon completion, one can drive from the former Shoppers World, now called 29th Place, up to CHO without setting wheels on 29. And VDOT has documented the bridge construction over the Rivanna with pretty nifty time-lapse photography. The connecting road beams are supposed to go in this week.
2.3 miles long
Costs $54.5 million
Two lanes with four-lane right of way for future expansion
Includes bike lane, sidewalk and multi-use path
By the Numbers: Power struggle
Dominion Virginia Power was officially given the go-ahead August 23 to begin
a $140 million power line burial project across the state.
400 miles of power lines buried
$350,000 per mile
$6 extra per year that each customer will pay
50 cents added to average customer bill starting next month
Quote of the Week:
“Every year he has new evidence about why he shouldn’t be in jail in Virginia.” —Delegate Rob Bell about Jens Soering’s petition for absolute pardon.
Twelve area food trucks will fight itout for the title of “best food” at the second annual Virginia Food Truck Battle & Beer Competition. Proceeds benefit The MaDee Project, which helps families and their children with pediatric cancer. $10, 2pm. Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, 1290 Richmond Ave., Staunton. tickets.frontiermuseum.org
Nonprofit
Peanut Butter Drive
Saturday, September 3
Telegraph Art & Comics is hosting its inaugural Peanut Butter Drive to benefit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. All non-perishable donations will be accepted, but people who donate peanut butter will receive a20 percent store discount. Telegraph Art & Comics, 211A West Main St., Downtown Mall. 244-3210.
Health & Wellness
Hoofing with the Herd 5K
Saturday, September 3
If you’ve ever wanted to run with wild horses, now’s your chance to run or walk one of three courses with Scottsville Sanctuary’s wild herd. All paths have natural terrain, gravel roads and rolling green pastures with a Blue Ridge Mountains view. Music, food and a meet-the-mustangs hayride follows. $15-35, 10am. The Scottsville Sanctuary, 15585 S. Constitution Rte., Scottsville. (540) 661-9990.
Family
Meet Yer Eats Farm Tour
Saturday, September 5
Visit 10 of the farms that regularly sell their wares at City Market. Bring a cooler and some cash—most of the farms offer produce, eggs, meat, cheese and plants for purchase. Free, 10am-4pm. Various locations. meetyereats.wordpress.com.
