Moody times call for moody tunes. Locally stacked triple bill The Lightmare Before Christmas featuring the darkwave of Jaquardini speaks volumes to our need for something darker than the blues with the cathartic space beats of This Hollow Machine and the Brickbats’ Corey Gorey in a goth solo set.
Saturday, December 10. $7, 9pm. Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, 414 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 293-9947.
Despite the short days and early nightfall, there’s light on the horizon at the 10th annual “Let There Be Light” installation. James Yates curates an eye-dazzling array of work from area artists that challenges the senses and offers magical perspectives, including Yates’ “Luminous Egg Hunt,” which he says is “drawn from the writings of Carlos Castaneda, which refers to the energetic configuration of humans that can be seen by seers or shaman from his shamanic lineage.”
Friday, December 9. Free, 6pm. PVCC, V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr. 977-6918.
These days, Richard Spencer, class of 2001, is being voted least popular by his former classmates at UVA and his Dallas prep school, St. Mark’s.
Spencer, who says he coined the term “alt-right” and is president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute, has raised the ire of some UVA alums. A group called Hoos Against Richard Spencer is raising money to benefit the International Rescue Committee, which settles refugees.
“The effort was inspired by St. Mark’s fundraiser,” says Jessica Wolpert, class of 2002.
“I think the most egregious thing is that he’s a racist spouting hate,” she says. “The National Policy Institute is a white supremacist group trying to get in the mainstream.”
After the election, video emerged of Spencer at an NPI conference shouting, “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail our victory!” with some in the crowd raising their arms in Nazi salutes.
“We felt ashamed,” says Wolpert. “We wanted to show we’re more welcoming to people than Richard Spencer. We wanted to show that UVA has a more positive face. It’s not the face of racism.”
As of December 5, the group had raised $2,655 of its $10,000 goal.
At press time, Spencer had not responded to a Facebook message. His Twitter account has been suspended.
Update December 7: Spencer is in the news again, sparking protests December 6 at Texas A&M. Hundreds lined up to denounce his appearance in College Station, where he was invited by a former student who rented space, not the university. The school said his views are “in direct conflict with our core values.”
Cluster
Kollektion 06: Cluster 1971-1981 (Bureau B)
In the ’70s, Cluster’s Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius were part of Germany’s glorious outpouring of synth-based instrumental rock, simultaneously extending ’60s experimentalism and pointing forward not only to the golden age of synthpop, but to bands like Stereolab, Tortoise and Boards of Canada. Cluster’s psychedelic soft bulletins could melt into space, lucidly. Or they could just shimmer.
Kollektion, compiled by Tortoise’s John McEntire, showcases Cluster’s range. “Zum Wohl” drifts amiably and “Heiße Lippen” churns like a machine, while “The Shade,” stately and forthright, could be the theme for an alternate happy ending of A Clockwork Orange. “In Ewigkeit” is a post-blues that winks as it fades away—it kinda sounds like Tortoise, as does “Großes Wasser,” which kicks off with a groggily fierce drum groove and what sounds like an angry carillon, before synthesized string solos and horn passages appear and dissolve over 10 protean minutes. Three cuts are edited here—irksome and puzzling, since Kollektion is under an hour long. Still, while Cluster’s individual albums are plenty strong on their own, Kollektion is a solid introduction to a great band.
Robbie Robertson
Testimony (Capitol)
The track selection on Testimony, the album accompaniment to Robbie Robertson’s newly published autobiography, is odd. It provides some overview—a couple Hawks songs, an outtake from Blonde on Blonde, a live cut from the Before the Flood tour and songs from across Robertson’s solo career—which makes sense. So does the inclusion of pretty much every Robertson lead vocal with The Band, which were rare occasions because, at his peak, Robertson was the group’s fourth-best singer. Happily, these cuts include the magnificent “Bessie Smith” from The Basement Tapes, plus the gorgeous, elegiac “Twilight” (a demo) and the endearing yacht rock slow dance “Out of the Blue” (an outtake).
Sadly, the rich remainder of The Band’s output is represented by just one album cut (“It Makes No Difference”) plus four songs from the Rock of Ages concert. Whatever might account for the selection, Testimony feels weirdly blindered. And then there’s the issue of Robertson’s solo stuff, which is tedious and lame, no matter what Jann Wenner’s minions have asserted through the years. So Testimony the album is a decidedly mixed bag—but maybe the book is better?
Various
Punk 45: Les Punks: The French Connection: The First Wave of French Punk 1977-1980 (Soul Jazz)
Forget the cumbersome title—this compilation is aces. And if it’s hard to take the idea of French punk seriously, then never mind serious—this stuff is giddy fun even with the nihilisme dialed up. Behold the band names: Marie et les Garçons. Guilty Razors. Angel Face. Aw, French punk! Metal Boys’ “Sweet Marylin” kinda sounds like Suicide, but it just ends up being adorable.
Most of Les Punks is adorable—which is to say endearing, not twee. The Fantomes’ cover of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” is ferocious, but even more, it radiates a sheer joy in playing punk—an echo of ’60s garage bands ripping through “Johnny B. Goode.” Tying these threads together, there’s punkabilly on Warm Gun’s “Broken Windows” and buzzy garage rock on Electric Callas’ “Kill Me Two Times.” Elsewhere, there’s bouncy post-punk on Asphalt Jungle’s “Planté Comme un Privé,” frantic new wave on A3 Dans Le WC’s “Photo Couleur” and marks of early Devo on Charles De Goal’s “Dans le Labyrinth.” Les Punks is a shining testament to punk’s galvanic global force—and it’s great punk.
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/the-first-wave-of-french-punk-197780
And the next election cycle begins
Charlottesville Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania says he’ll seek his boss’ job in 2017. Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman plans to retire after 24 years as the city’s top prosecutor. And state Senator Bryce Reeves officially threw his hat into the lieutenant governor’s ring, vying with two other Republicans who want the nomination.
Screwdriver stabbing
City police say Keith Lamont Brooks, 40, stabbed a family member with a screwdriver December 3 at 4am in the 800 block of St. Charles Avenue and fled the scene before police arrived. He was arrested the following day without incident. Brooks’ rap sheet includes possession of cocaine, grand larceny, multiple probation violations and driving as a habitual offender.
Streak snapped
UVA men’s basketball’s 24 home game-winning streak ended December 3 when West Virginia’s Mountaineers cleaned house at JPJ with a 66-57 victory.
Rolling Stone rebuffs verdict
The magazine filed motions December 5 asking a judge to overturn the jury’s $3 million award to UVA administrator Nicole Eramo, contending Eramo did not prove Rolling Stone and reporter Sabrina Erdely acted with actual malice in publishing “A Rape on Campus” in 2013.
Look out, Uber
Ride-share competitor Lyft began offering rides and gig economy jobs December 1. New passengers using the code VALOVE got $5 off their first ride.
Don’t give money to strangers who call
The Albemarle Sheriff’s Office is NOT demanding immediate payment of fines for skipping jury duty and warns of a holiday scam.
Quiz: Real or fake?
Safety first
Police officers in America killed at least 28 juveniles and adults carrying BB or pellet guns in 2015, in instances in which the officers did not realize the firearms were fake. In preparation for every parent’s inevitable Christmas shopping frenzy, the Albemarle County and Charlottesville police departments are preparing a program to inform families of the dangers of buying and using these faux firearms.
“We’re hoping to prevent a local tragedy,” says ACPD Crime Prevention Specialist Andrew Gluba, adding that there have been several instances locally in which law enforcement officers encountered toy gun-toting juveniles. “We’re not saying don’t let your kids play with these, we’re saying educate them if they do,” he says.
How to help:
Answer key: 1. Fake 2. Fake 3. Fake 4. Fake 5. Fake 6. Fake 7. Fake. All guns pictured were confiscated locally.
Quote of the week
“This whole issue of matters by the public is a tempest in a teapot. Just ignore it. You’ve got far more important things to do.”
—John Pfaltz at the December 5 City Council meeting, where petitioners sought to throw out new comment procedures
Leave it to the Swedes to make a comedy-drama about an elderly widower’s unsuccessful attempts at suicide into the feel-good movie of 2016. A Man Called Ove strikes a rare balance between sardonicism and optimism, between hope and hilarious misanthropy, and succeeds thanks to excellent performances and a thoughtful story that would have drowned in sentimentality in less capable hands than writer-director Hannes Holm’s.
A Man Called Ove
PG-13, 116 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema
We meet Ove (Rolf Lassgård) as he argues with a checkout clerk over the meaning of a coupon to save money on flowers—flowers, as it turns out, that are meant to be left on his wife Sonja’s grave as part of his regular visits. He then unloads his frustration with the situation to Sonja as he sweetly confesses that he misses her, promising to be reunited with her soon. This is a perfect introduction to Ove, his worldview, what he values and how deeply he feels. The trouble comes when his inability to leave well enough alone collides with his desire to leave a world that seemingly has nothing more to offer him, when he sees his neighbor is incapable of backing a car with his trailer hitch at the exact moment he is attempting to hang himself.
Bit by bit, Ove becomes involved in his neighbors’ lives and problems, sometimes reluctantly but often out of frustration that they cannot follow the rules or complete household tasks themselves. Gradually, his suicide attempts become more infrequent as he becomes a steady part of their lives, particularly Parvaneh (Bahar Pars), an Iranian woman who both enjoys Ove’s company and refuses to relent to his stubbornness. A mother of two, soon to be three, and a caretaker of sorts to her less-than-handy husband, her tolerance for nonsense is even lower than Ove’s, but her enormous capacity to empathize motivates Ove to peel back the layers of his entrenched personality.
You can see how A Man Called Ove could have easily given way to sappiness, as the story of a rough but sensitive man from a previous generation whose defenses gradually get worn down. Where the film stands apart is in the way it explores how he became so closed off to begin with—giving the character more depth than if he had simply been an ornery old man. Ove revisits his past when he has a moment to reflect, usually as an attempt on his life nears success or when he’s feeling vulnerable with Parvaneh. She becomes something of a daughter to him, a fact that is significant as we learn about his relationship with his father, why he and Sonja never had children and the gradual way in which the young man with an enormous work ethic who married the woman of his dreams became the rules-obsessed, aggressive loner we see today.
Among the most remarkable aspects of A Man Called Ove is the way it balances all of the emotions of both its leading man and its diverse supporting cast. Laugh-out-loud moments bleed into near-tragic events without a drastic shift in style or tone, as director Holm tells the story in a mostly subdued manner that is befitting Ove himself. His suicide attempts are never stopped by cold feet or regret, but by an immediate reminder of his use in today’s world, and his portrayal by Lassgård is second to none. Sensitive, insightful, funny and intelligent, A Man Called Ove is a wonderful film that defies all expectations.
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Allied, Almost Christmas, Arrival, Bad Santa 2, Doctor Strange, The Edge of Seventeen, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hacksaw Ridge, Incarnate, Moana, Rules Don’t Apply, Trolls
Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
Allied, Arrival, Bad Santa 2, Blue, Doctor Strange, Gimme Danger, The Handmaiden, Loving, Moana, Moonlight, Rules Don’t Apply
The connection between music and politics bears the same nuances as any standard relationship: It can be complex and messy, yet symbiotic. Between protest songs, benefit concerts and artists serving as activists, music and politics have long inspired and fueled one another. Portland, Oregon, pianist Thomas Lauderdale sought to marry the two when he founded the celebrated orchestral ensemble Pink Martini in 1994. With aspirations to one day run for mayor of Portland, he was regularly attending political fundraisers when he realized that the music at these events left something to be desired.
“I started the band actually to play at political gatherings to provide kind of a more Breakfast at Tiffany’s soundtrack,” Lauderdale says. “And then we became sort of the house band for progressive causes in Portland.”
Pink Martini’s Holiday Spectacular
The Paramount Theater
December 11
These causes ranged from civil rights and affordable housing to public parks and the environment. The next year, Lauderdale recruited his Harvard classmate, singer China Forbes, to join the group. With their combined songwriting prowess, the band quickly climbed the ranks and has now played with symphonies all over the world. Combining classical, jazz, pop and world music, the self-described “little orchestra” has garnered a reputation for its ambitious sound that’s as enchanting as it is eclectic.
Released last month, the 15-piece’s ninth studio record, Je dis oui! (that’s “I say yes” in French), is a multilingual extravaganza combining originals with standards from America, Armenia, Turkey, Iran and Lebanon. Across seven languages—English, French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish—and an array of guest vocalists, it’s a celebration of cultures and the raw emotions that unite us all. In what is perhaps the most delightful surprise on the record, fashion guru Ikram Goldman sings on the iconic Fairuz song “Bint Al Shalabiya,” while Portland civil rights activist Kathleen Saadat takes on “Love For Sale.” Operatic pop singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright incorporates the rare introductory verse on “Blue Moon,” and NPR’s Ari Shapiro, who has appeared on Pink Martini records since 2009, sings “Finnisma Di” and “Ov Sirun Sirun,” an Armenian folk song about unrequited love.
“On everything, whether it’s music or the band or anything else, I just generally try to follow my gut instinct from moment to moment,” Lauderdale says. “And in terms of figuring out who’s going to sing what, it’s purely gut instinct.”
According to Lauderdale, this album came together faster than other Pink Martini records. In the past, the group workshopped pieces of music together or came up with ideas and arrangements on the spot. But going into this recording session, they had an idea of what they were going to do.
“When the band first started, half of our income really came from album sales,” Lauderdale explains. “Now, people aren’t really buying albums very much. Album sales are sort of on the decline and so, just to be able to break even, I had to be much more sort of efficient in the studio.”
This strategy paid off. The album’s overarching themes of inclusivity and community are especially poignant given the current political and social climate in the United States.
“One of the great things about the band and one of the things I’m most proud of is that we have an audience which is very, very diverse,” Lauderdale says. “Because there’s so much divisiveness everywhere we look, the band should be a place of refuge where people who have different opinions politically can actually be in the same room and sit together and hopefully be a part of the conga line together at the end of the night.”
Before playing some of the most prestigious stages in the world and livening up audiences with participatory conga lines, Lauderdale came to music on a much smaller stage, the way many musicians do: through the church.
“I started piano when I was 6 years old. My father was a Church of the Brethren minister in rural Indiana, so I grew up amidst cows and hay—a very pastoral upbringing,” he says. “And after church services, I would go up to the piano and try to pound out the hymns that I heard during the service.”
From there, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons and, as he puts it, he never stopped learning. While he may not be hitting the campaign trail as a candidate these days, Lauderdale has found a way to exist in the balance—to showcase the ways in which politics and entertainment can positively inform each other.
“Music shouldn’t be an escape. I think what would be great is to have a way so that we could all sort of calmly discuss what the issues are and try to understand the other side. I wouldn’t want entertainment to distract from the issues. …[We need an] earnest discussion which is respectful and dignified and empathetic,” he says. “And hopefully the band can, in a small way, demonstrate what that might look like. That’s a lofty goal for a band out of Portland, Oregon, but, you know, I really sort of see us as musical ambassadors at this point and hopefully like diplomats.”
The four members of post-rock band Woods Running are about halfway through a pot of mint tea at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar when they catch the eye of a bearded, ponytailed man sitting at the next table.
“Hey guys! I thought that was you,” the man says with enthusiasm. “When’s your next show?”
December 9, they tell him, at The Ante Room.
“Sweet,” he replies. His own band’s show for that night got canceled, so he’ll catch their set instead. “You guys rock. Let’s play a show together soon,” he says, before turning back to his own mug of tea.
“That guy’s in a band here in town,” Jacob Sommerio, who plays guitar in Woods Running, tells me in a lowered voice, before promptly freaking out with his bandmates. For Sommerio and his bandmates—guitarist Jake Pierce, bassist Aaron Richards and drummer Benjamin Snell—there’s a huge thrill in being recognized as musicians.
One, they’ve only been writing music for a year and a half, and playing shows for even less time.
Two, all of them are in high school. Sommerio and Pierce attend Albemarle High, and Richards and Snell are part of the same homeschooling collective. They began playing music together about four years ago, at first getting together for jam sessions via their youth group at Maple Grove Christian Church.
“Normal teenagers want to go to the mall to hang out; we just want to hang out in Ben’s basement and jam,” says Richards. “[But] we’re definitely not your typical teenage garage band.”
And he’s right. Woods Running’s ambient post-rock is devoid of the punky, chunky power chords and angst-ridden lyrics that you’d expect adolescents to write. The band’s sets are entirely instrumental; no words at all. “It’s a different feeling from other music,” Sommerio says. “My grandpa is always asking, ‘What are you doing, making up all those songs? That’s not what a guitar sounds like.’”
“It’s an emotional soundtrack,” Pierce says, one that explores the landscape of sonic time and space, allowing these four musicians to discover the overall feeling of a piece as it’s written.
The band wrote its first song, “Eleanor,” in about 30 minutes, just so Snell’s older brother (who is a member of indie-folk band Rain Tree) could make a live session parody video. It’s named after a friend’s 1991 baby blue Cadillac that had driven its final mile a few days before. That first take, the bandmates say, was “terrible, awful,” but they’ve refined it into a thoughtful song that starts off with straightforward, fingerpicked guitar and swells gently into an airy, reverb-y atmosphere not unlike the sideways shoreline sunset that graces the band’s Preface EP cover.
The EP’s other tracks, “Harmony of Inhibitions,” “Father of Lights” and “Swift and Certain,” with its reverb-drenched guitar parts, simmering drum beats under shimmering cymbals and full, deep bass, are fuller and more unexpected, demonstrating a level of confident, emotionally expansive and sensitive musicianship that sounds wise beyond the band’s adolescent years.
So far, all Woods Running songs have been written accidentally. “Seriously, nothing is intentional,” at least not at first, Sommerio says. “We’ll play, feel it out, then run through it again. It’s evolving every time,” Sommerio says of the process.
The band knows it has something good to work with when its members look at each other with “What the heck did we just do?!” expressions on their faces. Once, Pierce locked himself in the bathroom to freak out about a song. Other times, the band will run screaming from the room, or jump on a bed.
Preface was created with a “let’s make some dope songs and put it out there” attitude, they say; they recorded four tracks in Snell’s parents’ basement using Logic Pro.
The band’s new material, which the guys are currently recording at the Music Resource Center (Sommerio and Snell are budding audio engineers), is more intentional. Now, each time they run through a “freak-out song,” as they say, they stop to work out each section. They’re playing with structure, paying attention to loudness and quiet. They’re exploring the heavy, the light and the sonic and emotional sound and space that exists between the two.
“We’re pushing ourselves, trying to find our niche,” Pierce says.
They all admit to getting a bit nervous before shows; they’re still learning how to feel as comfortable on stage as they do in the Snell family basement.
“There are definitely moments [during shows] where you realize it’s all coming together and this is what we wanted it to sound like,” says Pierce, who has a penchant for playing with such urgency that he’ll break a string and have to finish out the set with guitars borrowed from other bands on the bill.
Local audiences are responding well. So well, in fact, that less than a year after Woods Running debuted at Maple Grove, the band has played the Tea Bazaar twice and will open for Girl Choir and Matt Curreri & The Exfriends at The Ante Room on Friday.
Snell says the band never intended to perform for audiences, but Will Mullany, who books DIY shows for Milli Coffee Roasters, reached out, and from there, other local bands and bookers started inviting Woods Running onto bills.
When asked why they play music in the first place, the guys joke about only being able to play so much Minecraft, disliking sports, having no interest in Model UN and wanting to do something that sets them apart from their peers. But then Snell deadpans, “What else would we be doing?,” and the group smirks and nods in agreement before taking another sip of mint tea.
President-elect Donald Trump, known for his uncanny ability to raise eyebrows with 140 characters or less, sent out this particularly scrutinized tweet November 29: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag—if they do, there must be consequences—perhaps loss of citizenship or a year in jail!”
While one Virginia man voices the same grievance, another local would like to remind The Donald about U.S. Supreme Court rulings that declared otherwise.
In two cases—one in 1989 and another in 1990—the highest court in the nation ruled that the prosecution of people who burn the flag violates the First Amendment right to free speech and is, therefore, unconstitutional, notes Joshua Wheeler, the director of Charlottesville’s Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
“It’s a little puzzling as to why politicians of both parties try to bring this up given that it’s not such a common occurrence,” Wheeler says. But, as a result of the tweet, he adds, a number of people have burned flags outside of Trump’s New York City abode in protest.
Wheeler compares the decades-old Supreme Court decisions with the recent arrests of 13 Black Lives Matter protesters who stopped traffic on Richmond’s I-95 and were convicted on the same day Trump sent his tweet.
“Unlike flag burners, the conviction of the Richmond protesters had nothing to do with the message they were expressing,” he wrote in a statement. “Their crime was impeding traffic. Had a similar highway-blocking protest involved the Ku Klux Klan, Planned Parenthood or the NRA, all would have been equally guilty of impeding traffic—a crime of pure conduct.”
And prosecuting someone for burning a flag can get sticky, he says, asking what exactly an American flag is. “Does it include a flag patch sewn onto someone’s jacket? How about a realistic painting of the flag? Or a button displaying only the U.S. flag? If you can’t burn it, can you also not step on it? Or write on it? Such laws are unwieldy, to say the least.”
The First Amendment “doesn’t mean citizens can say whatever they want whenever they want,” Wheeler says, but it is a limit on the government’s ability to restrict free speech. And while he doesn’t think flag burning is the best way to express oneself, he says he supports the right to do it.
“I am personally offended by it,” he says. “I think it is a deliberately provocative way to express something that could be done in a more respectful way. On the other hand, I believe more strongly in the right of free speech.”
But Jonathan Guy, a Chesterfield man who comes from a long line of family members who served in the military, feels otherwise.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” he says. “People stepping on the flag and burning them is a disgrace. …I’m looking at two folded flags in my window. One was my granddad’s and one was my dad’s. I cherish those flags.”
And he’s proposed a solution to the problem.
For offenders who weren’t born in America: “Send them back to where they came from.” But for natural-born citizens: “That’s a really tough question.”
It starts innocently enough with some faint clicking as your dog trots across the kitchen tile. It can wait, you figure. She hates having her nails trimmed and another week won’t hurt. Until she climbs into your lap and eight dull knives dig deep into your thigh. Reluctantly, you admit to yourself that this is overdue and pick up the clippers.
You lead her to the porch and give her a treat. She wags her tail, but seems suspicious of your motive. You remember the last time you clipped one nail too short. That tragic yelp still echoes in your mind. Was it pain? Betrayal? You set the clippers back down and pretend to clean the house instead.
Nobody likes to do this. I certainly don’t. But this isn’t optional. It needs to happen on a regular basis and it only gets worse otherwise.
Overgrown nails aren’t a cosmetic issue. They can get snagged in carpet or stuck in cracks. These nails often splinter, crack or get ripped right off, which is as traumatic as it sounds. I see claws growing full-circle, stabbing right back into dogs’ toes to create bloody, infected wounds. And with time, overlong nails will cause the toes to deform, twisting them sideways and making it harder for animals to walk at all.
Many people are paralyzed by the fear of trimming too far back, cutting into the sensitive quick that lies at the core of each nail. This is a valid worry, and it’s bound to happen now and then. Even if you’re well-practiced, sometimes an animal squirms at just the wrong moment. Don’t panic. Offer some treats as a distraction, and stay positive. If the nail is bleeding, you can calm it down with some styptic powder or corn starch.
Unfortunately, as a nail grows longer, so does its quick. And that means that any delay only compounds the fear and anxiety next time around. If you make a habit of trimming your pet’s nails weekly (yeah, I said it), you’ll likely find that the experience gets more pleasant each time.
For many dogs, the anxiety still escalates rapidly during a nail trim. In these cases, you may have better luck with a stealthier approach. Try trimming just one nail every morning before breakfast instead. You’ll have to do a bit of bookkeeping to remember which toe you’re up to, but it ensures that nail trims are brief and promptly rewarded. Plus, the daily routine helps prevent each trim from feeling like a big, ominous event.
Another option is to file the nails back rather than clipping them. This is perfectly fine and easiest to accomplish with an electric rotary tool (like a Dremel), but it comes with a few caveats. There is always a risk of stray hair getting caught up in the rotation, causing significant injury. Fur should be trimmed back with scissors first, or the nail can be poked through a small hole in a nylon stocking to keep hair out of harm’s way. Some devices (like PediPaws) are designed specifically for this purpose, and have built-in guards and motors that cut out with any resistance. But that safety measure also causes them to seize and fail against the tougher nails of larger dogs, which can be frustrating.
Regardless of what technique works best, regular nail trims are something we sign on for when we adopt pets. It’s annoying, and it’s tempting to do it some other day. But done correctly, it should be a genuinely painless experience. More often than not, the anxiety is far worse than the event.
Dr. Mike Fietz is a small-animal veterinarian at Georgetown Veterinary Hospital. He received his veterinary degree from Cornell University in 2003 and has lived in Charlottesville since.
You can meet us at the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, where we’re all available for adoption. 3355 Berkmar Dr. 973-5959, caspca.org, noon-6pm, daily.
From left:
Elena: I’m a spunky young kitty who gets along with other cats (as long as they give me space when I’m playing). I can get a bit riled up, so I’d be best in a home with adults and older children who can read my body language.
Copely: Hi! I’m one hyper little dude who just loves to have fun. I enjoy running after toys and chasing balls. I’m a little unsure when people pet me at first, but with the right family, and with a little time and patience, I’ll open up.
Ryder: I’m the strong, silent type. I like having other cats around and will even give them a bath before we curl up together. If you take me home with you, all I’ll need is a cozy place to sleep or maybe even a comfy lap.
Moa: You don’t have to tell me twice—I know what a pretty girl I am! I prefer to be the only pet in the house-
hold and to be left alone during dinnertime. I’ve already mastered several commands, and I’d love to keep learning new tricks.