Month: October 2016

Categories
Arts

Telegraph Comics grows in size and diversity

Following a move to a Downtown Mall storefront, Telegraph Comics has more to offer—more books, more genres, more voices—and Kate DeNeveu and David Murray have a better idea of what they want their shop to be: representative of Charlottesville and all of its people. Photo by Amy Jackson

Telegraph Comics co-owner Kate DeNeveu loves watching first-time customers walk into her store on the Downtown Mall. They’ll wander in, eyes scanning the bookshelves near the door. They’ll take a few more steps into the shop and suddenly, their faces will change, says DeNeveu. They almost always ask, “Are all of these…comic books?”

Yes, all of these are comic books, she tells them, delighted by what they’re about to discover. It’s not just Batman and Superman, though the shop carries plenty of superhero comics. There are also science fiction and fantasy comics, and humor, horror, LGBTQ, kids, drama, art and romance sections.

Comics isn’t a genre of its own, but a medium, and a broad one at that.

Late, legendary comics artist Will Eisner described comics as sequential art; comics artist and expert Scott McCloud points out in his book, Understanding Comics, that, when taken individually, pictures are pictures. But when part of a sequence—even a sequence of two—“the art of the image is transformed into something more—the art of comics.” It’s a different way of telling stories.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that comics are for kids and for adults who don’t want to grow up, McCloud says; Telegraph, with its massive selection for adults and children alike, explodes that myth with a POW! and KA-BLAM!

DeNeveu and her husband and co-owner, David Murray, make a concerted effort to stock Telegraph with titles that reflect the growing diversity of the comics world. “The diversity situation in comics isn’t perfect, but it’s a whole lot better than it was,” says DeNeveu. “More publishers are willing to take chances on people that might not have had their voices heard before,” Murray adds.

It’s how they’re able to stock classics like Calvin and Hobbes and Batman alongside Ed Luce’s Wuvable Oaf, a rom-com set in the San Francisco bear scene; Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Fun Home (Bechdel is known for the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For); Raina Telgemeier’s Smile (“braces, boy troubles and other plagues of the sixth grade,” says the New York Times) and the new iteration of Marvel’s Black Panther series, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

One of Murray’s favorites, Brian K. Vaughan’s Paper Girls—a routine paper route takes a weird, “Stranger Things”-type turn—features a group of female protagonists. Representation of voice is important, DeNeveu and Murray say. Everyone should feel like they’re part of a world, and increasingly, readers can find their world in comic books.

DeNeveu says that she and Murray do “a tremendous amount” of hand-selling, talking directly to customers about their interests in order to make solid recommendations. They’ll ask what you like to watch on TV, what kinds of books you like to read. They’ll ask about your favorite movies and what sort of reading experience you want. Do you want to be scared? Excited?

Telegraph stocks posters, prints and toys, too, but most of its income comes from paperbacks and kids’ books—not at all a typical comic shop model, DeNeveu says. Most shops use pull lists—a subscription service/customer wish list hybrid —to know what their baseline monthly income will be; pull lists make up only about 20 percent of Telegraph’s total income, DeNeveu says.

You won’t find an original Superman No. 5 or other vintage comics at Telegraph—Murray says they don’t have the space to do it justice—but plenty of hard-to-find titles, such as the Introducing Graphic Guides series (fresh presentations of familiar topics like feminism, fractals, Freud and fascism), and issues of zines sold only at comic convention booths are in stock.

Peek into a comic to see into a world—familiar, new, entirely fictional—that, through the art of the comic, can surprise, delight and captivate a reader. The combination of pictures and words can be especially powerful, and both Murray and DeNeveu believe that comics have the power to deeply affect a reader, and savor the chance to facilitate that connection.

Just recently, DeNeveu says a customer came in and asked for a book that would teach 11-year-olds about what it is to be a good person. She immediately suggested March, Congressman John Lewis’ series about his own involvement with the civil rights movement and his decades-long crusade for justice and nonviolence.

“There are so many ways that a good [comic] book can impact a person’s life,” Murray says. “The right book hitting the right person at the right time can be so transformative.”

The inside story

DeNeveu and Murray share their favorite scary stories to read in the dark.

Harrow County

Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook

On her 18th birthday, a girl learns of her connection to the ghosts, monsters and other creatures that stalk the woods near her home.

The Woods

James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas

A high school is inexplicably transported to an alien planet. DeNeveu calls it “a teenage alien horror extravaganza.”

Uzumaki

Junji Ito

A spiral curse infects a Japanese
town—people become obsessed with spirals and twist and turn into spirals themselves.

Last Look

Charles Burns

A psychological thriller that DeNeveu calls “an homage to Tintin and punk parties,” the story switches between real life, where a jerk of a protagonist tries to piece his life back together, and a dark, mirror world with plenty of foreshadowing.

For kids: Alabaster Shadows and Camp Midnight (which includes some light cursing…swears, that is).

Contact Erin O’Hare at arts@c-ville.com.

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Kamalakiran Vinjamuri

Publicity photo

Not only has Kamalakiran Vinjamuri been mastering the Carnatic approach to violin since age 7, he’s also composed a ballet, earned a black belt in karate and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for participating in the largest Kuchipudi group dance with more than 5,000 others. The young classical musician from northern Virginia performs with a second violinist and percussionist.

Friday, October 28. $8-12, 7pm. The Prism at C’ville Coffee, 1301 Harris St. 817-2633.

Categories
News

Day 8: Rolling Stone fact checker, Jackie’s friends testify

For a second day, former Rolling Stone fact-checker Elisabeth Garber-Paul took the stand to explain why she believed Jackie, the student whose fake gang rape story sent the University of Virginia campus into uproar two years ago.

“She seemed to really care about getting this story right,”  testified Garber-Paul. “She was totally comfortable with having her peers know she was the Jackie in the story.”

Unlike other witnesses in this trial, now in its eighth day, Garber-Paul turns directly toward the jury to explain that she conducted a pair of two-hour conversations with Jackie.

“Four hours in one week is a lot for a college student,” Garber-Paul testified.

The fact-checker said documentation supplied by reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely included a 431-page file including contemporary emails, alleged injury photos, and the transcript of congressional testimony about Jackie’s ordeal from the UVA administrator who had first introduced Jackie to the Rolling Stone reporter.

But the witness said it wasn’t just written records that seemed to validate the story; it was also Jackie’s way of recounting her alleged rape.

“It was like she had these snapshots in her head– 360-degree memories,” said Garber-Paul.

The images seemed so clear, vivid and painful that Jackie seemed at one point to be losing her breath, and Garber-Paul offered to pause the process.

“She said, ‘Let’s keep going.'”

The fact-checker said the college student spoke as someone recounting a terrifying ride.

“It was like she could close her eyes and see what was going on at every stop,” said Garber-Paul. “I believed everything in the article to be absolutely accurate.”

After lunch, the plaintiff fired back by blasting the decision not to reach out to Jackie’s former friend Kathryn Hendley, or “Cindy,” whom the article quoted as calling herself a “hookup queen” and supposedly telling Jackie she should have enjoyed getting raped.

“Why didn’t you have fun with it?” Cindy is quoted in the story. “A bunch of hot Phi Psi guys?”

“Those quotes were too perfect, weren’t they?” demanded plaintiff’s attorney Andy Phillips. “You didn’t contact her because you knew she’d deny them, didn’t you?”

The fact-checker disagreed. The lawyer then suggested that Garber-Paul should have noticed that Jackie was hiding witnesses who could corroborate her story.

“Isn’t that a giant, waving, red flag?” asked Phillips.

“I didn’t realize that she was in any way preventing us,” replied Garber-Paul.

However, the lawyer refused to retreat and reminded her that Jackie must have possessed contact information for her former friends. Finally, Garber-Paul agreed that Jackie may have been stonewalling.

“This is not specialized fact-checker information,” concluded Phillips. “This is common sense.”

The afternoon included testimony from two police officers revealing that Jackie refused to cooperate in their attempts to criminally investigate her alleged gang rape or a subsequent tossed-bottle incident.

But the bulk of the afternoon was consumed by playing video depositions of two of Jackie’s former friends, Kathryn Hendley and Ryan Duffin. Both testified that the Rolling Stone article departed in dramatic fashion from their memories of the aftermath of Jackie’s fateful date.

Each said that Jackie had trumpeted her plan to meet up with her mysterious suitor, “Haven Monahan,” on September 28, 2012, the night of her alleged gang rape. Jackie would claim that Monahan then orchestrated a five-man assault in which Jackie was forced to perform oral sex.

It was a bizarre climax to a month, the friends testified, of catfishing, creating fake messages in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to woo Duffin by making him jealous.

Hendley and Duffin disputed key details in the Rolling Stone account, saying they saw no blood or injuries on the friend who would later claim herself the victim of a three-hour, seven-man attack atop the shards of a smashed glass table.

“A complete fabrication” Duffin called the story, while Hendley– aka Cindy– called Rolling Stone’s account “a fictionalized version of my life.”

DSC_0031-Erdely-m
After a Tuesday afternoon recess, reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely returns to court. Photo Hawes Spencer

In the video, laughing off her portrayal as the callous “hookup queen,” Hendley reveals that when Erdely finally contacted her a few weeks after the article came out, she felt sorry for the reporter.

“I definitely understood,” she said, “what it was like to be lied to by Jackie.”

Categories
News

Bad memory: Jackie testifies on Day 7 of Rolling Stone trial

If “yes, to my great regret” has become the stock answer for remorseful Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely, then her protagonist in the now-discredited gang rape tale—the one who sent a college into chaos two years ago—has found a mantra of her own: “I don’t remember.”

Before a hushed courtroom in downtown Charlottesville, a federal jury and a gallery of 24 spectators gathered Monday to hear over two hours of Jackie bobbing and weaving around questions in her videotaped deposition.

This wasn’t the chatty Jackie of yore, the one who enthralled the visiting Erdely over dinner at the College Inn restaurant. Or even the the deeply scarred Jackie who dove into radio silence a month before Rolling Stone’s once-blockbuster article.

This was the Jackie whose memory couldn’t even be refreshed by looking at text messages and emails from two years ago, such as a text in which she claims that she was misrepresented.

“It says that I did,” she allows.

In the original article, the reporter accused UVA President Teresa Sullivan of over-invoking “I don’t know” as an answer, but in the nearly three hours of audio-taped deposition, Jackie said some version of this answer at least 50 times—before we lost count.

Some of the things Jackie can’t recall: why she stopped responding to Erdely, whether she backed out of the article, whether she later agreed to be in it, whether she claimed to get a sexually-transmitted disease from her alleged attack, and how Erdely—as Jackie claimed in a note to a friend—took “artistic license” and “sensationalized” her story.

“I can’t remember anything specific,” says Jackie. “I just remember reading the article and thinking I wouldn’t have written it that way.”

The lawyer presses for more.

eramo legal team
Nicole Eramo leaves court with her legal team: Libby Locke, Tom Clare and Andy Phillips. Photo Eze Amos

“It’s very difficult to explain, to articulate,” says Jackie.

As the one of the defense lawyers warned in the opening statement a week ago, Jackie—though she reveals in the deposition that she’s now married to her childhood sweetheart—”she’s a completely different person—like a shell.”

On the tape, she sniffs like Donald Trump at a debate. Her lawyer, Palma Pustilnik, who has threatened legal action against a reporter contacting her client, issued a blanket statement: “My client continues to have no comment in this matter.”

Surely, she would remember meeting with UVA Police over the criminal report she filed after allegedly getting beaned with a beer bottle on the UVA Corner?

“I don’t remember,” she says. “I have PTSD.”

She declares that she didn’t want to file criminal charges.

The climax of the proceedings comes when she’s presented a set of screenshots of text messages she’d emailed Erdely. Ostensibly from two friends and fellow rape survivors, the women were adamant about not being interviewed, and the lawyer asked if Jackie clandestinely created the text messages.

The reply: “I can’t remember.”

“You can’t remember one way or another?” gasped the bewildered barrister, who then asked if she wished, under penalty of perjury, to deny making the messages.

“I just don’t remember any of this,” replied Jackie. “It’s foggy.”

The day ended with a blistering examination of Elisabeth Garber-Paul, the Rolling Stone fact-checker.

mcnamara-amos
Team Rolling Stone includes attorney Liz McNamara. Photo Eze Amos

C-VILLE Weekly’s coverage continues tomorrow.

Correction October 25: Headline “Jackie deposed in Day 7 of Rolling Stone trial” changed to reflect that Jackie testified in court through her previously videotaped deposition.

Categories
News

Day 5: A recording of ‘Jackie’ makes waves

Former Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely put in a third day on the stand Friday, a day spent answering friendly questions from the defense in an effort to show how a veteran journalist could be duped by a college girl named Jackie– the centerpiece of a story that became a libel trial.

For over two hours, the jury listened to an interview in which Jackie talks of “daddy issues” that led her to become depressed. College was supposed to provide a fresh start, but barely a month into her freshman year, she was allegedly attacked.

She tells Erdely that she got a tattoo to brand herself a survivor. As Erdely describes it, it’s a women’s symbol with a fist, a rose, and the word “unbreakable.”

Rolling Stone defense lawyer Scott Sexton stops the audio to ask Erdely, “Did it ever occur to you that someone would get a tattoo on their body to commemorate a sexual assault that didn’t happen?”

Erdely’s voice shakes in reply: “Never.”

As the anniversary of her alleged September 28 attack neared, Jackie tells Erdely on the tape, she’d have nightmares in which she pictures herself walking up stairs but telling herself, “Don’t go.”

“I’d sleep during the day and stay up all night because I just couldn’t deal with the dark,” she said.

“I reverted to thoughts of suicide and self harm,” Jackie tells Erdely. “You can run as fast as you can, but you can never get over it. I still have nightmares.”

“She tells it in such a real and emotional way,” Erdely says on the witness stand. “She’s so conscientious with her details I could feel it.”

She wasn’t conscientious about every detail.

The jury hands a note to the judge. They want to know what to make of Jackie’s varying pronunciations of the fraternity where she was allegedly raped. The background noise is distracting, but she seems to call it Chi Phi, Chi Psi, Pi Phi– rarely, if ever, the one actually named in the story: Phi Psi.

Rolling Stone’s lawyer says he’d be happy to stipulate Phi Psi. But Eramo attorney Libby Locke suddenly stands and demands that the jurors trust their own ears.

“It goes to credibility,” says Locke.

Judge Glen Conrad agrees.

The infamous rape school quotation came into the record as Jackie can be heard telling the tale of what Dean Nicole Eramo, the plaintiff, was quoted in the article saying about the UVA’s alleged penchant to bury rape statistics.

In Jackie’s words: “She looked at me very solemnly and said, like, ‘Well, who would want to send their daughter to the rape school?'”

With her chin up and her gaze fixed firmly on Erdely, Eramo lets a hint of a confident smile course across her lips, as this pillar of her lawsuit– that she never actually said it– can be heard coming from the mouth of Jackie.

Later, Jackie can be heard telling Erdely about running into two of her alleged rapists in the beverage section of Walmart while she and a boyfriend were making a night-time search for spinach. Erdely took the tale as more evidence of truth.

“Her level of specificity just reinforced her believability,” Erdely testified. “She didn’t just run into them at Walmart; she ran into them in the juice aisle.”

Jackie’s not on trial here, as the judge and lawyers remind the jurors from time to time, but she seems to relish certain aspects of victimhood. She enthuses about her 12-person UVA course on women & violence, but she reserves her greatest enthusiasm for One Less, a support group for female sexual assault survivors.

“I’m not in a sorority,” she tells Erdely. But in One Less, she says, there are sorority-like get-togethers where women share emotional “highs and lows.”

“All of us are really close,” Jackie tells Erdely. “It’s a little sorority within itself.”

There almost seemed to be a little sorority within Erdely and Jackie. The audio reveals the two talking of post-traumatic stress disorder and swapping tales of psychologists, bio-feedback therapy and migraine headaches– all while as sporting events, music, and the sound of billiard balls clink in the background.

In court, Erdely testifies that Jackie, who speaks at a rapid clip, seemed “outgoing and forthright” as well as “bubbly and enthusiastic.”

How this sister act will play with the jurors who appear to be in their 40s, 50s, and low 60s is unclear; but the college student definitely made an impression on the reporter.

“It was like drinking from a firehose when you were with Jackie,” Erdely testified. “She just talked and talked.”

Jackie seems particularly talkative on the topic of “Becky,” another woman that Jackie claims shared her story of getting raped at the same fraternity.

“She spoke like Spock from Star Trek,” says Jackie, as Becky tells of going into a room with three men.

“They summoned another boy into the room,” continues Jackie, “and I remember she used the word ‘summoned.'”

“What, was she carrying a thesaurus?” jokes Erdely, impressed with the diction and the specificity of the tale.

Jackie notes that “Becky” acts formally, dresses in business casual, and proceeds to say she was an unwilling participant in “forcible sexual intercourse.” And then leaves.

“She looks at her watch and was like, ‘I’ve got to get to class now.'”

Jackie, while admittedly more emotional than Becky– whom the defense lawyer suggests may be fictitious– is never heard in the audio protesting her role as the controversial story’s centerpiece. And, Erdely testified, Jackie never asked the reporter to remove her.

“And after it came out,” said Erdely, “she was thanking me for the article.”

Categories
News

Day 4: Erdely gives scarring testimony

“I found her to be very credible,” said the reporter on the podcast. “I put her story through the wringer.”

This audio about “Jackie,” the now-discredited protagonist of a once-blockbuster magazine article was played for jurors, as the plaintiff’s attorney tried to crush the credibility of reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely on Day Four of the $7.5 million libel suit filed by former UVA dean Nicole Eramo.

“I spoke to virtually all of her friends to find out what she told them at various points,” continued the Slate podcast published on Thanksgiving Day in 2014, during arguably the  greatest days of Erdely’s journalism career.

It was just eight days after the release of “A Rape on Campus,” a now-retracted story Erdely penned for Rolling Stone. And the words from the podcast hung over the courtroom, as plaintiff’s attorney Libby Locke attempted to demolish them.

Using Erdely’s own interview notes, Locke got Erdely to concede that Jackie’s roommate Rachel Soltis recalled that Jackie described her violation as a five-man oral assault that included penetration with a broken beer bottle. The magazine, however, depicted a seven-man rape with an intact beer bottle.

“Yeah, the details changed over time as she came to terms with the rape, which is typical of trauma survivors,” Erdely explained.

Locke pointed to another friend who, Erdely’s notes indicate, said Jackie claimed she’d been violated with a coat hanger.

“The important thing to me,” Erdely shot back, “was that she was verifying that she had been raped with a foreign object.”

There was one moment when Locke may have thought she’d caught Erdely with another inconsistency, a discussion of the victim wearing a red dress in one account and then a blue dress in the roommate’s account.

“She was making a joke,” said Erdely. “She’s referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.”

Locke’s questions suggested that allegations of scars on Jackie’s back and arms provided another pile of bogus information.

“I asked to see the scars on her back,” Erdely said in her own notes, as shown on two large video monitors. “Her boyfriend hadn’t seen them, but it had been two years, so I accepted the explanation that they had faded. In the dim light I see nothing.”

The notes show that Jackie then offers, “I can wear something tomorrow to show them.”

The jurors heard audio of a dinner interview in which Jackie says, “All of my friends are like, ‘What are those?’ And I’m like, ‘Those are from September 28.”

Erdely would later tell Washington Post journalist Paul Farhi: “Jackie showed me the scars that she said she’d suffered the night of her attack.”

Erdely refused to answer Farhi’s questions about whether she knew the attacker’s name and whether she’d interviewed him. He said it would be journalistic “malpractice” if she hadn’t.

“You’re getting sidetracked,” she chastised Farhi in a November 30 e-mail exchange in which she said the main point of her article was the culture and a UVA administration “which chose not to act on her allegations in any way.”

Around the same time, however, the notes show Erdely was losing confidence in Jackie and e-mailed Jackie to point out that none of her friends had seen the scars.

Also at that dinner interview according to a transcript put on the screen, Jackie tells the table that the gang rape gave her syphilis, something that catches her boyfriend off guard.

“I don’t have it any more,” Jackie reassures him.

It wasn’t the last time Jackie carried a claim about syphilis. She alleged that one of her three best friends—the ones who comforted her after the alleged gang rape—contracted the disease after sleeping with 40 guys.

“You never challenged her,” says Locke.

“Yes,” replies a quietly weeping Erdely, “to my great regret.”

That was the friend Erdely put in the story under the pseudonym Cindy, a “self-described hookup queen” who frets that Jackie should remain silent to avoid being “the girl who cried rape,” adding that they’d “never be allowed into any frat party again.”

After Locke pressed Erdely to admit that she waited until after the article’s publication to grill Jackie on the inconsistencies, the judge interjected a question of his own: Who asked Erdely to re-report.

“Jann Wenner,” was her answer.

The founder-owner of the rock/culture magazine has not been attending trial, but his magazine’s future may hang in the balance if his recent decision to sell a 49 percent stake is any indication.

Erdely was to be one of the magazine’s stars. She revealed Thursday that after writing stories for Rolling Stone for several years, this one was to be her first under a new contract that would have paid her $300,000 for seven stories over the course of two years.

During a discussion of the days in late August when Jackie allegedly stopped replying to the reporter’s texts and e-mails, Locke begins reading from one e-mail shown on a screen. When she gets to Jackie’s last name, plainly visible to the gallery, the lawyer suddenly halts and shouts to a nearby technician: “If we could take that down, please, off the screen.”

Later, the technician dims the gallery screens again when a photograph appears of Jackie’s purported facial injuries from an incident—disputed by the Charlottesville Police Department—in which Jackie was allegedly injured by a thrown bottle.

“Keeping her identity confidential is important,” said Judge Glen Conrad, to encourage “other victims” to come forward. How Jackie, now with multiple false accounts, convinced a judge as well as both sides of this litigation that she’s a “victim” has yet to be explained.

Devastatingly, Locke produced interview audio in which Erdely mentions the photo to Jackie and says the supposed facial injuries resemble “something smeared,” a substance, the reporter said, “looked like face paint.”

In response, Erdely downplayed the statement as merely a manifestion of alleged abrasions that were “so bright.”

In early November, as the article was getting vetted, an e-mail from proofreader Elizabeth Garber-Paul asked if Erdely had received a last name or comment from the alleged rape ringleader.

She e-mailed back: “Unfortunately, the answer is no and no.”

Just a week or two earlier, late October, Jackie was threatening to pull out of the story, according to texts from Jackie’s friend Alex Pinkleton.

“I need to be clear about this,” Erdely texted back, “there’s no pulling the plug at this point—the article is moving forward.”

It was October 24 when Erdely e-mailed her editor, Sean Woods: “Fuck. Jackie is in full freakout mode right now.”

The next day, Erdely turned on the charm in an e-mail to Jackie: “You’re about to make a difference. I know you can do this Jackie. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. Give yourself a hug. Everything is going to work out fine.”

A separate Erdely email to Rolling Stone’s photo editor noted that “Jackie is in not-great mental shape right now.”

Didn’t Erdely realize that Jackie had PTSD? Locke demanded.

“I’m not a doctor,” replied Erdely. “I have no qualms about building my lede around someone who is emotionally fragile.”

But wasn’t this a mistake in this instance, Locke demanded.

“It wasn’t a mistake to rely on someone [so] emotionally fragile,” Erdely said softly on the witness stand, as her voice broke and tears flowed in an otherwise silent courtroom. “It was a mistake to rely on someone who was intent to deceive me.”

Locke pointed out that Eramo had brought police to speak with Jackie, but later let that get removed from an early draft of the story. “A reader would have no idea that Dean Eramo took Jackie to meet with the police.”

“This article was not about how the university handles bottle incidents,” said Erdely. “It was about how the university handles sexual assaults.”

At issue was the “rape school” quotation attributed to Eramo, something that Erdely says, “Jackie told me twice, and I believed her. “

And Erdely conceded she had not strenuously attempted to verify—though she points out that she learned that her planned meeting with Eramo was cancelled as she was boarding a plane from Philadelphia to Charlottesville.

“UVA made it very clear,” testified Erdely, “that I was going to have no access to Nicole Eramo.”

Erdely also unashamedly continued to criticize the university’s policy for laying out three judicial choices for rape victims, an array that the reporter contends harms justice.

“Victim choice left Jackie, as it leaves many other victims,” said Erdely, “paralyzed.”

Locke read the second editor’s note which apologized to everyone “damaged” by the story and repeatedly asked Erdely whether Eramo had been damaged. Even after her lawyer, Scott Sexton, objected, the judge allowed the question.

“I’m sure that her feelings were hurt,” was the most Erdely would offer, well aware, as her lawyer pointed out, that “damages” has a legal meaning in a libel trial.

Erdely acknowledged the hate mail Eramo received but pointed out Eramo subsequently received a pay raise and ascribed Eramo’s removal from working with students to being found liable of violations of Title IX, the law meant to protect women on campuses. Pressed whether she stands by the story, Erdely didn’t hesitate.

“I stand by everything in the article that did not come from Jackie.”

Updated October 24: Eramo filed a motion October 17– the first day of trial– withdrawing her demand for $350,000 in punitive damages, bringing the monetary awards she wants down to $7.5 million.

Categories
News

Potential traffic nightmare

A parking map for Saturday, October 22. A larger version can be found at the bottom of the story. Courtesy of UVA Police

UVA football and Carrie Underwood fans could be on a collision course this weekend.

The University of Virginia Police Department has issued a traffic and parking advisory for Saturday, October 22, near UVA Grounds, and suggests avoiding the area if possible.

The UVA football team will face a longtime rival, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, at 3pm at Scott Stadium. A 7pm Carrie Underwood concert at John Paul Jones Arena is also expected to draw large crowds to the same vicinity.

Expect traffic delays if you are attending either event and plan to arrive early, police advise. And since a majority of the traffic will be in the evening with low light, they ask you to be cautious while watching for pedestrians and officers conducting traffic control.

A parking map is below. Click to enlarge.

Parking Map Saturday, October 22, 2016[9]

Categories
Real Estate

Fall Foliage: Central Virginia’s Autumn Tapestry

It all comes down to chlorophyll, the green pigment in the leaves. Every autumn, as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, two phenomena occur. One, as the production of chlorophyll slows and eventually comes to a halt, other pigments already present but obscured become visible: brilliant yellow and gold, and orange, crimson and purple. Two, and following closely behind, as the leaves turn beautiful and begin falling, the leaf peepers appear—in the woods, on the trails, on Skyline Drive and wherever autumn’s splendors may best be seen. Virginia has the deciduous trees, the mountain vistas to show them off, and the perfect fall temps to give us a stunning show.

“Veni, vidi, I took pictures for my Instagram page,” as Caesar might have said, if he could have gone leaf-peeping. Fortunately for us, we can.

Roundabout mid-October is when the colors usually start to show. While the right amount of rainfall delays leaf fall and makes for the most brilliant colors, too much rain will mute the palette, as will too many cloudy days, and too much or too little warmth. “If we get the right combination of warm temperatures and good moisture and cooling off gradually, we’ll get a long, extended, beautiful fall,” says Doug Coleman, a botanist by training, and the Executive Director of the Nature Foundation at Wintergreen Resort, which encourages the understanding, appreciation, and conservation of the natural and cultural resources of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. If those three factors conjoin, peak peeper season will extend through the end of 
November.

“The conveyor belt that takes the whole process along is the shortening length of day,” Coleman explains. As the days gradually shorten, “the photosynthesis period is shorter, and that’s what starts the slowdown of the chlorophyll process.” Moisture and temperature determine the duration and the intensity of color. “If you have an extremely dry period of weather, that will hasten the leaf fall, and if you have a warm, moist fall, the color will linger. From mid-October on, you’ll see these changes start to occur. I’m sitting here seeing just a touch of change happening now, but most everything, especially the oaks and hickories are still green.”

“I expected this to be a very poor year until we began to get rain,” Coleman says. “The driest places in the forest where the color changes first—that is on the ridgeline and the rock faces—were already starting to change and lose their leaves. But based on the warm temperatures and the rain we’re having right now, I expect it to be a normal, if not lingering, beautiful fall.”

Typically the dogwoods and black gum change first, displaying brilliant reds, followed by the yellow of the maples, then the oaks and hickories with their warm rich brown colors. Meanwhile, Virginia creeper is turning multiple shades of scarlet. Let’s look at a few fine places to enjoy nature’s annual color display.

Wintergreen
Wintergreen’s 11,000 acres are primarily mixed hardwood forest: oak, hickory, maple, and ash trees, with evergreens here and there, laced with 30 miles of hiking trails, some steep and rugged, some gentle and easy, as well as two mountain peaks: Black Rock, and Devil’s Knob. The latter is almost 4,000 feet high. Black Rock, where many of Wintergreen’s homes are located, is encircled by a wilderness trail with spokes leading in and out of it, so that hikers can take one spoke out and another back in. From the trails, Coleman notes, “you can take short walks to the overlooks if you’re handicapped or otherwise—and you can just take the whole thing in—breathtaking splendor, it’s just incredible.”

“If you get on a west-facing trail [like The Raven’s Roost Overlook Trail] and look out across the Shenandoah, you will see the color change more quickly because of the geology—a week earlier there,” Coleman says. “You also can climb to the highest point in Wintergreen, Devil’s Knob, and look for 20 miles down the Blue Ridge to a breathtaking view. On east-facing trails like The Plunge and Cedar Cliff, the color changes take place later. “That’s because the Shenandoah is higher elevation and is a little more northern-zoned, plus the geology is different.”

The folks at Wintergreen make several recommendations for those eager to see the show. One is to try the most popular hikes: Humpback Rock, The Priest and White Rock Falls. Two, because the Blue Ridge Parkway gets crowded on fall weekends, it’s best to either drive it midweek, or to take alternate routes on Saturdays and Sundays. Three, it’s a good idea to check “The Foliage Report,” delivered by the Department of Forestry and posted on the Wintergreen website, to know what to expect on any given day.

For drivers, one sample itinerary loops through beautiful Nelson County. Leaving Wintergreen, it turns right to go up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, going south for 15 miles to Route 56. Turning east on Route 56 it continues to Crabtree Falls, where a two-mile hike will lead to the head of the falls. Continuing down Route 56, it passes the Fitzgerald’s, Silver Creek, Dickie Brothers, Seaman’s and Saunders Brothers apple orchards. Heading north on Rt. 151, it winds across Brent’s Mountain. A left turn on Rt. 664 leads back to Wintergreen.

For walkers, The Nature Foundation maintains a full schedule of guided hikes. The moderately hard, 4.8 mile Journey To High Places Hike on October 20 at 2:00 p.m. will begin along Wintergreen’s neighboring trail system, the Appalachian Trail, starting at Dripping Rock and heading south to Reids Gap. The year’s final Journey To High Places Hike on November 3 at 1:00 p.m. will begin at Reids Gap and head to the summit of Three Ridges and back for a total of 9.2 miles. The cost for each hike is $6 for members and $10 for non-members. Hikers should bring water and wear hiking shoes or boots.

Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah National Park is long and skinny and runs for 105 miles, north to south. Color peaks first in the north, then in the south; the same phenomenon may be observed as one moves from higher to lower elevations.

“Autumn sure is taking her time in Shenandoah National Park this year,” the National Park Service reports, calling this year’s color show “a late bloomer. We might be saying she came on slowly at first, then burst out of the gate in mid-October. Or we might be saying she trotted leisurely through the first half of this tenth month, and was still trailing color in early November.” Right now, it’s too early to tell. But already in the Park’s north district, from mile 0 to mile 28 or so along Skyline Drive, as the elevation heightens, so does the color, as forest green gives way to lime green, chartreuse, and maize.

Old Rag Loop along Old Rag Mountain is the park’s most well known trail, and one of the most popular and spectacular in the Mid-Atlantic Region. For that reason it’s also one of the busiest, and is best begun in early morning. But don’t start before daylight. Old Rag is a demanding trail requiring serious caution and adequate preparation—sturdy shoes, food and water. Allow seven or eight hours to complete it. Keep the kids close and within sight.

Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway is an easy way to enjoy fall colors, but to beat the traffic, midweek is best. Traffic can be an issue getting into the park as well. Its northern end is the busiest, and backups before the northern entrance on Route 340 are not unheard of.

Monticello
“I never before knew the full value of trees,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph in 1793. “What would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown.” All or most of Jefferson’s own tree plantings are gone, but no doubt if he were alive today, he’d be able to see how much has replaced them.

If designing Monticello taught Jefferson the value of trees, living on the mountain made him love a view. “Of prospect I have a rich profusion,” Jefferson wrote. “It may be successively offered, & in different portions through vistas, with the advantage of shifting scenes as you advance on your way.” Just down the road from Monticello, Carter Mountain Orchards offers even more spectacular, drive-up views.

Monticello’s Falling Leaves and Winter Trees Walk, Saturday, October 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. will ramble through Monticello’s forest, concentrating on identifying trees by their bark, fruit, seeds, buds, and habit. Jerry Therrien and Peggy Cornett will lead hikers along Jefferson’s original woodland passages. Binoculars are recommended, as are sturdy shoes suitable for muddy slopes and uneven terrain.

Saunders-Monticello Trail
Winding up to Monticello from Route 53 is the gently ascending, two-mile long, Saunders-Monticello Trail. Instead of grand, sweeping views many leafers seek, it mostly offers a walk in the woods—but such rich and lovely woods they are. The first change regular hikers will observe here is the black walnuts and redbuds turning yellow—though not for long. In a good year, the sycamores and tulip poplars will do the same, while the black tupelos turn a deep and lovely red. Next to change, pale yellow or just brown, should be the trail’s many oaks—mainly Scarlet and Red Oaks, but also chestnut oaks, a species of white oak. More unpredictable in their timing are the maples, which will show yellow, and sometimes red or orange. Sweet gums, persimmons, ironwoods, sassafras, cherries, mulberries and more may be seen as well. The leaves of Sassafras trees will turn orange, while those of Sourwoods and the Sumac shrubs will add red to the spectrum.

Perhaps the loveliest time of all to hike the trail is late in the season, when with most of the trees having already shed their leaves, the rich golden hues of the pignut hickories’ leaves are highlighted against the deep blue of the skies. Underneath those vibrant hickories the paw paws turn as well: first yellow, then increasingly translucent. Along the ground at about the same time, the trail’s scattered witch hazel plants come into bloom. Lush and constantly changing as this color show is, the Trail rewards revisiting throughout the fall. While in times past the leaves were gone by Halloween, now the season goes well into November, sometimes even to the end of the month.
According to the Virginia Department of Forestry, colors should peak between October 10-20 in western Virginia, between October 15-25 in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and between October 20-31 in the eastern part of the state. Go and see!

Categories
Real Estate

Welcome, Baby!

A baby on the way? What could be more exciting!  You’ve got to get ready, so we’ve organized some ideas for you as you prepare.

Many parents-to-be visit nursery shops and check out the endless cute ideas on the Internet. But do you really want pink or blue walls with pastel dancing giraffes around for the next four or five years? 

A better idea might be to view the nursery with an eye to the future when your child turns three or six or nine. One way to do this is to choose neutral hues (especially if you don’t know the gender of your child-to-be) and colors that flow seamlessly into the rest of the home.

Painting
In fact, this might be a time to do some repainting throughout the house. Many paints contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chemicals that evaporate in a process called off-gassing that can last for weeks. They may cause nausea or dizziness or irritate the eyes and respiratory tract and a baby has no way to tell you this. In addition, some paints contain fungicides to prevent mildew growth, and biocides to extend shelf life. Some pigments used to color paints also contain toxic chemicals.

To be safe, check labels carefully and choose paint with natural pigments plus low VOCs, fungicides and biocides. Actually “low-VOC” just means the paint meets the EPA’s minimum requirements of no more than 250 grams per liter of VOCs in latex paints and no more than 380 in oil-based paints. Some paints, however, are lower with 100 grams per liter or even fewer.

Organizing
Set up the nursery to be convenient. The basics should include a baby monitor, a crib meeting all the current safety codes, a changing table, and a dresser. Sometimes the changing area is designed atop a dresser for a space-saving single unit.

The last essential piece of furniture is a rocking chair and not just any chair, but one you “test drive” ahead of time. It should be thoroughly comfortable with arms that support your arms while holding a child for feedings. Consider, too, that you might want to move the chair to another part of the house when baby starts eating in a high chair, so avoid ruffles, cute patterns, or those pastel giraffes.

Lighting is also important. A small nightlight in the nursery is a good idea. Locate it in a spot where it doesn’t shine directly into the crib. Indirect lighting is also a good decorating move. One of the smartest ideas we’ve heard lately is to install a dimmer on the nursery’s main lighting so you adjust it to the lowest necessary level when have to go in at night. This way you aren’t as likely to waken the baby (or yourself) so completely it’s hard to go back to sleep.

Babies have a way of accumulating a lot of paraphernalia, so consider reconfiguring a closet for extra storage. Since baby clothes aren’t very long, you can install hanger rods one above the other at one side of the closet. Built-in shelves are nice, but a thrift-shop chest-of-drawers (take closet measurements with you when you shop) can tuck in nicely, whether repainted or simply given a good scrubbing. 

Got Pets?
If you have pets in the home, prepare ahead of time to keep them apart from the baby unless you are directly supervising, especially at first. In most cases, pets recognize that there is now a human puppy or kitten in the home and they often become protectors. Take, for example, the dog who silently but convincingly showed her teeth to anyone approaching “her” baby without being fully okayed by the parents.

On the other hand, some pets may be jealous or suspicious. It’s also wise to keep pets out of the baby’s sleeping area to protect the infant from dander and fur. In one case, a family installed a screen door on the nursery to keep pets and toddler relatives out when the baby wasn’t directly supervised. Another family got out a saw and devised a Dutch door for the nursery, so the lower half could be closed as needed and the entire door closed at naptime and bedtime.

Be clean, but not too
It’s smart to minimize potential irritants such as fresheners and fragrances, perfumed laundry detergents, and chemical strips in the dryer. In addition, be aware that the average American home has many anti-bacterial products in everything from body soaps to household cleaners and even toys.

We’re learning that most anti-bacterials are not only ineffective, but are believed to foster the development of “superbugs.” These are bacteria that develop a tolerance for anti-bacterials and have a worrisome potential for also developing a tolerance for certain antibiotics. A better idea is to let children develop robust immune systems by simply using soap and water.

Prepping the Parents
Finally, there is a lot of comfort in having a freezer stocked with quick-to-reheat meals when bringing that baby home. Why not use paper plates now and then?

When friends or family say, “If there’s anything I can do…..” have a list ready whether it’s taking a package to the post office, doing a load of laundry, or watching the baby while you go to your book club.

Marilyn Pribus kept the rocking chair from her boys’ nursery for many years. When she offered it free before moving, she was delighted that a very pregnant woman and her partner hauled it away in an old station wagon.

Categories
News

Day 3: Testimony gets heated in Rolling Stone trial

 

If yesterday was an emotional sob fest, Wednesday’s proceedings in UVA administrator Nicole Eramo’s defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone were much calmer, with the leading ladies in the suit—plaintiff Eramo and defendant/reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely—both taking the stand and both sparring with opposing counsel.

It was not without emotion, however. At the lunchtime recess outside the courthouse, Eramo “was accosted by a woman who called her a ‘rape apologist,’” said Eramo’s attorney Libby Locke, an incident the lawyer says proves the ongoing damage to her client’s reputation from the November 2014 Rolling Stone article, damage for which Eramo is suing for nearly $8 million.

And in a bombshell request, Locke attempted to enter a video in which Erdely told students at her University of Pennsylvania alma mater that she’d made mistakes while a student reporter, which Locke described as plagiarizing material for an interview that never happened with folk singer Michelle Shocked and making dubious attributions.

Judge Glen Conrad will be mulling over how pertinent that is to the case and whether to admit the video. “I’m a little bit disappointed this is coming up so late, on the third day of trial,” he said.

The day began with Rolling Stone attorney Elizabeth McNamara’s cross examination of Eramo, questioning how she’d handled the report made by Jackie, the alleged gang rape victim in the Rolling Stone story.

Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity where Jackie claimed seven men attacked her, was already on UVA’s radar before Erdely appeared on the scene after Jackie said she’d met two other women who had similar experiences there, according to Eramo’s testimony.

“Under Title IX, it’s required the university undertake an investigation,” said McNamara, who asked Eramo if the campus was warned about the alleged gang rape.

“It was not my purview to send warnings,” replied Eramo, who also noted that while Jackie’s assault had taken place September 28, 2012, she didn’t report it until many months later and it wasn’t until May 2014 that she said there were other victims.

Eramo reported to her boss, Dean Allen Groves, in a May 13, 2014, summary that Jackie said “several of them forced her to give them oral sex.” Eramo testified that she met with a national Phi Kappa Psi representative in September 2014 about a “potential rape at the chapter.”

The fraternity’s investigation resulted in no brothers stepping forward with additional information, Eramo said, admitting she was frustrated by the response. At the same time, as word of the upcoming Rolling Stone article spread, Phi Kappa Psi hired local public relations practitioner Pam Fitzgerald in October 2014 to handle fallout from the story, according to testimony.

“…It seems the fraternity is planning to throw me totally under the bus,” Eramo said in a November 14, 2014, text.

Eramo seemed in good spirits early in day, responding to McNamara’s questions with, “Yes ma’am,” and smiling from the witness box. But as the questioning continued, the jovial banter with McNamara dissipated.

And then McNamara played Eramo’s September 2014 WUVA interview, in which she’s questioned about the fact that while UVA expels students for cheating, it’s never expelled anyone for sexual assault.

Eramo’s testy response to student interviewer Catherine Valentine—”I think I’ve answered your question—became the basis for the Office of Civil Rights September 21, 2015, report that statements from Eramo, the chair of the Sexual Misconduct Board, “constituted the basis for a hostile environment” for the handling of sexual assault at UVA.

The testimony also indicated Eramo had been eager to talk to Erdely for the Rolling Stone article, and when Vice President of Student Affairs Pat Lampkin “suggested I not be the institutional voice on this,” said Eramo, she wrote in an e-mail to Lampkin and the student affairs hierarchy, “I’m afraid it may look like we are trying to hide something for me not to speak with her.”

McNamara guided Eramo through the article, pointing out all the times Erdely noted Eramo was beloved by the survivors.

The attorney also tallied the apologies Rolling Stone made for its major journalistic gaffe. Eramo was not swayed by the four apologies. “I don’t believe it was sincere,” she said, because Rolling Stone, while admitting error in its Jackie account, still stood by its reporting on Eramo.

In a final effort to minimize the harm Eramo suffered from the story, McNamara introduced a letter about a salary increase to $110,000 Eramo got in August 2015, and Eramo testified she’s now making $113,000. She was never disciplined or reprimanded and she received letters of praise from her bosses, including a handwritten note from UVA President Teresa Sullivan, reminded the attorney.

McNamara also pointed out that while Eramo held the title of deputy Title IX coordinator for students, she called Jackie a “serial fabulist.”

“Yes,” said Eramo.

Eramo read in its entirety an April 2015 letter she sent to Rolling Stone about how it added “insult to injury” in its portrayal of her as an “unsympathetic and manipulative false friend” more interested in keeping UVA’s rape statistics low. The article, wrote Eramo, “deeply damaged me both personally and professionally.”

Her name and a Photoshopped picture “remain forever linked” to the article that damaged her reputation, she said.

Erdely’s appearance on the stand around 5pm—nine hours into the proceedings—perked up weary jurors and spectators.

Eramo attorney Locke wasted no time in presenting articles longtime journalist Erdely had written about sexual assault, and accused the reporter of being critical of medical licensing boards for failing to protect patients from convicted gynecologists, of juries that don’t convict date rapists, of the Catholic Church for covering up sex crimes and of the military for covering up sexual abuse.

“I take issue with how you’re characterizing my articles,” said Erdely.

“You can take issue,” replied Locke. “It’ll be up to the jury to decide.”

Included in the plaintiff’s massive exhibit stack is Erdely’s 430-page reporting file of the notes she took while interviewing. The notes, she explained, were not every word from an interview. “You’re trying to get the important things for the article, not necessarily a record for litigation,” said Erdely.

Locke hammered on the premise that Erdely all along was focused on “institutional indifference” in her story pitch and in interview requests for her article about rape culture on college campuses.

Referring to an e-mail Erdely sent to Eramo asking for an interview, said Locke, “You don’t tell Eramo your article is about institutional indifference.”

“My article is not about institutional indifference,” said Erdely.

The trial, which began Monday, is expected to last 12 days, with Erdely back on the stand Thursday.

C-VILLE’s coverage of the trial continues tomorrow.