Month: April 2017

Categories
Arts

Movie Review: Free Fire can’t get out of its own way

Ben Wheatley’s stylish Free Fire stars Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Sam Riley and Michael Smiley in an overlong gun battle. Photo courtesy of A24

Ben Wheatley’s obvious joy of filmmaking is contagious. It’s clear from everything he’s ever made that movement, color (or lack of it, as in A Field in England) and the extremes of human behavior compel him to create unique, kinetic films with an energy that bridges the gap between raw inspiration and technical perfectionism. Even when his work misses the mark, dramatically or emotionally, seeing a story through his eyes is always a worthwhile experience.

Free Fire
R, 85 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Everything that makes Wheatley great to some and intolerable to others is on full display in Free Fire, a gritty shootout flick with a scaled-down story, taking place entirely in one location following a failed weapons sale. In 1970s Massachusetts, two IRA members—Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (Michael Smiley)—attempt to buy automatic weapons from eccentric South African arms dealer Vernon (Sharlto Copley). Both sides are loosely assembled teams of mercenaries, family and other interested parties of varying levels of intelligence, skill and loyalty. A series of misunderstandings raises the tension of what ought to have been a routine sale, but when two henchmen with a very recent and totally unrelated fight cross paths, the guns emerge and it’s every man for himself.

The biggest strength of Free Fire—as with most of Wheatley’s films—is when dialogue and plot are not the focus, allowing his stylistic indulgences to take over with wild abandon. Several individual moments of Free Fire rank up there with the best set pieces in recent genre films, and the interplay between the actors is often hilarious, surprising or both. As only a few of these people have actual principles and all have different levels of interest in who lives and dies in this exchange, the outcomes are often unpredictable. Drug addict Stevo—one of the henchmen whose antics led to this mess—has been freebasing following the death of his friend and is no longer invested in surviving, so he shoots the loose containers of compressed air. The ensuing explosion levels the playing field, disorienting the experienced criminals, making them as helpless as the loose cannons and junkies. Moments like this are clever subversions of the gangster flick, where the cool and confident always win.

The biggest strength of Free Fire—as with most of Ben Wheatley’s films—is when dialogue and plot are not the focus, allowing his stylistic indulgences to take over with wild abandon.

On its own, an irrelevant plot is not the worst offense, especially in the world of genre. Films are more than live-action SparkNotes, after all, so if the narrative takes a backseat to make room for something spectacular or more artistically significant than people talking, all the better. However, doing this requires a balance; if the plot and characters are intended to be something the audience pays attention to, they need to be invested in the outcome.

This is where Free Fire loses its way, getting stuck in the mud of forgettable dialogue, redundant character-based gags and confusing sequences that look great but always have murky motivation. If you’re wondering why a character is doing something, you’re likely not focused on the artistry or positive aspects. Too often, Free Fire demands you remember a single character’s name in a large cast or tolerate the same kind of joke over and over again because one character is still behind the same cover and has nothing else to do. Brie Larson and Armie Hammer are in Free Fire, but I couldn’t find a way to describe their roles in this review because, although they’re great, what they actually do is simply not memorable, a problem that plagues many fine performances that get lost in the mix.

Wheatley is an exciting talent, and even his misfires are interesting. Unfortunately, despite some inspired moments and the director’s obvious enjoyment of the process of making it, Free Fire strains the patience of anyone except the most devoted Wheatley fans with a repetitive script and a distracting story that needed to be either at the forefront or completely out of the way.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

Beauty and the Beast, Born in China, The Boss Baby, The Fate of the Furious, Get Out, Gifted, Going in Style, Kong: Skull Island, Logan, The Promise, Power Rangers, Unforgettable

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Beauty and the Beast, The Boss Baby, The Fate of the Furious, Get Out, Gifted, Going in Style, The Lost City of Z, Your Name, The Zookeeper’s Wife

Categories
News

Feeling blue: Local diner set for closure

On the last day of May, Blue Moon Diner will close until early 2018. While a four-story mixed-use apartment complex is under construction behind and adjacent to Blue Moon this summer, the diner will undergo a few renovations itself. Rendering courtesy of Neighborhood Development Services

 

On a recent Sunday morning, a crowd of Blue Moon Diner patrons could be seen hovering outside the side door of the self-proclaimed “best little breakfast, sandwich, burger, dinner, live music, arm wrestling, vinyl record-playing, family-friendly neighborhood bar and activist spot” with menus in hand. Lovers of the eatery, a Charlottesville institution, are shoveling in their last bites before it closes—briefly.

Owner Laura Galgano says the diner will shut down for some renovations, or “more of a reboot,” at the end of May. And because the 31st is a Wednesday, she said her crew thought it would be fitting “to go out with Jim Waive to serenade us into a break.”

Blue Moon, built in 1951 at 512 W. Main St. and originally operated as the Waffle Shop, is an addition on the facade of a two-story duplex called the Hartnagle-Witt House, which was built in 1884. A six-story mixed-use apartment complex called 600 West Main, proposed by developer Jeff Levien and designed by architect Jeff Dreyfus is set for construction at that address, which includes Blue Moon, this summer.

Galgano says the diner will get a few “very unsexy updates,” to the HVAC and electrical systems and the bathrooms, and “just enough renovation to set Blue Moon up to grow with Charlottesville’s ever-expanding restaurant scene.”

The diner’s hiatus will last until early 2018. For the staff of about 15 people (including Galgano) that will find other work around town and the customers, she says “change is hard,” but she’s focusing on the positives—that this isn’t a goodbye.

“We’re just going to go out into the world for a bit to get some new stories to share,” she says.

“We will be back, and still very much Blue Moony,” Galgano adds.

Bye bye, buildings

Blue Moon isn’t the only downtown historic building facing changes. The Board of Architectural Review voted April 18 to allow for the demolition of the Escafé and Main Street Arena structures, but not without some hesitation.

“About the only thing the [Main Street Arena] building has going for itself is that it’s still structurally sound,” says BAR member Carl Schwarz. “The Escafé building is much older.”

The Escafé building was built in the 1920s, when it served as a warehouse for a department store on Main Street. He says it’s a small remnant of when Water Street had similar industrial and warehouse buildings, and every time one is demolished, the collection that remains becomes less significant.

“Additionally, while overall pretty simple in form, the building does have some interesting features with a stepped parapet and brick pilasters in the front,” he adds.

Though the BAR voted unanimously to allow demolition of the arena, the same vote for Escafé passed 5-2. Schwarz was part of the majority.

“My reasoning was that while old, the building is not significant enough to enforce preservation,” he says. “Even without it, Water Street will still maintain its defining warehouse character due to better examples along the street. To be clear, though, this was not an easy vote.”

Escafé owner Todd Howard says “there’s still a great deal of uncertainty” surrounding the future of his restaurant, but he hopes to open it in another location.

Corrected April 26 at 11:22am to reflect the correct number of floors at 600 West Main.

Categories
Living

Jake Busching’s new label raises the stakes for Virginia wine

Bottling under his new label, Jake Busching Wines, gives the local winemaker an opportunity to use his vast experience in Virginia’s vineyards. Photo courtesy subject

It was while working at Jefferson Vineyards that Jake Busching had his aha wine moment. His epiphany, the Jefferson Vineyards 1998 cabernet franc made by Michael Shaps, remains a true bellwether for Virginia wine—“That’s the one that hooked me,” Busching says. Once he made the connection in his mind between place and flavor, a soil-based winemaking philosophy blossomed, and now the well-known local vintner has a new label: Jake Busching Wines, for which he makes wine from some of his favorite vineyard sites around the state.

Having grown up on his family’s Minnesota subsistence farm, Busching is naturally drawn to working with plants. His father worked at a local paper mill and, at home, they raised beef cows. “When you farm in Minnesota,” Busching says, “you have four months of the year to get everything together to survive for the next eight months. That’s where I learned the importance of the dirt.”

He hunted and fished for many of his meals on the farm, and though life wasn’t always easy, the food was good. Busching sums it up: “I ate like a king, but I wore my cousin’s clothes.”

Eventually, he left Minnesota to work in music, and toured with a band. Asked about the circumstances of his move to Virginia, Busching describes 1993: “We [the band] were sick of being cold and poor, so we moved where we could be warm and poor. We ended up in Virginia.”

By 1996, he returned to farm life and landed at Jefferson Vineyards, a winery near Monticello that grows vines planted on the original site where Thomas Jefferson and Philip Mazzei attempted to grow wine grapes in the late 1700s. “What a great way to come into the business,” says Busching. “This is where it all started. Here.”

Wine bottles. Photography in high resolution.Similar photographs from my portfolio:
Jake Busching has also rethought the conduit of wine from winery to consumer. Rather than open a tasting room or sell to restaurants and retail outlets through a distributor, he sells his wine through his website.

As Jefferson Vineyards’ farm manager, he worked with two important founders of the current Virginia wine scene, vineyard manager and consultant Chris Hill, and winemaker Michael Shaps. Hill has had a hand in planting many of Virginia’s vines, and Shaps now has his own Virginia winery, and produces wines in both Virginia and Burgundy, France.

During a brief stint at Horton Vineyards in 2001, Busching worked with a special site he still admires today: Gordonsville’s Honah Lee Vineyard. Planted in the mid-1990s, the site sits on a mountain that rises up in the middle of flat land. “Up top there’s nothing between you and Richmond,” Busching says. Sloped sites, such as Honah Lee, are good for grapes because the angles generate air movement, which helps prevent frost. The vineyards start around 650′ and at about 1,000′ the top of the mountain wears a crown of old-vine viognier.

Busching subsequently worked at Keswick Vineyards, Pollak Vineyards, Grace Estate Winery and Michael Shaps Wineworks, learning along the way about a wide variety of farming methods and grape varieties from around the state.

In 2015, he made a wine from the special Honah Lee viognier grapes he remembered from his early career, and the recently released bottles are his inaugural offering under the Jake Busching Wines label. He’s also released a 2015 cabernet franc made with grapes from Nelson County.

And keep your eyes peeled in May for Busching’s release of F8, a blend of tannat and petit verdot from the upper section of the Honah Lee vineyard. F8, affectionately referred to by its phonetic nickname Fate, is a special bottling because Busching believes there is a larger place for petit verdot-tannat blends in Virginia winemaking. Throughout his career, Busching has championed tannat, and this has impacted the larger wine landscape. Tannat, typically from France’s Madiran region, is a powerful, full-bodied and usually tannic wine that, to Busching, benefits from blending in some deep-fruited petit verdot. He usually finds a sweet spot at around 60 percent tannat with 40 percent petit verdot. Could his signature blend be a way forward for Virginia reds? If it grows in popularity, we might look back and point to F8 as the catalyst.

Busching has also rethought the conduit of wine from winery to consumer. Rather than open a tasting room or sell to restaurants and retail outlets through a distributor, he sells his wine through his website (JakeBuschingWines.com). This is an effective way to directly interface with consumers on their own time, and it’s becoming increasingly popular with winemakers like Busching, who make incredibly small quantities of special wine. (There are just three barrels of F8.)

As a large second wave of Virginia wine producers establish themselves, Busching’s wines stand out because the mentorship of the late 20th-century wine pioneers shines through. Busching’s new label turns the page to a fresh chapter in Virginia winemaking—one that is built on the sturdy ground of past experience, and maybe a little fate.

Categories
News

Eaglets’ landing: Nest could slow preservation development

Bald eagles have been nesting on Lickinghole Creek Basin for the past few years. Photo by Marshall Faitich

When David Mitchell bought 120 acres 10 years ago off U.S. 250 in Crozet, he wanted to maintain much of its rural character and planned a subdivision with 13 clustered homes, with his own on a 60-acre preservation tract on the banks of Lickinghole Creek Basin.

But he wasn’t the only one who found the spot appealing. A pair of bald eagles liked the location as well, and built a nest on the reservoir before Mitchell could break ground. Now his plans for Fair Hill are going to have to accommodate the formerly endangered birds and their two eaglets.

Mitchell says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department contacted him about the nest and he will be meeting with that agency along with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Because while bald eagles were removed from the Endangered Species Act in 2007, they’re still protected under federal law, which prohibits disturbance of their nests during their mid-December to mid-June breeding season, according to Bryan Watts, director for the Center for Conservation Biology.

The center maintains a bald eagle nest locator, and tracks more than 1,000 pairs found in the tidal region of the Chesapeake. “The population size is much smaller in the Piedmont and mountains,” says Watts.

Since the 1970s, when the state had 20 pairs of bald eagles, Virginia now has a “robust” population of eagles that nest in residential neighborhoods, he says. An isolated pair in a rural area “would be more affected by development.”

Federal regulations require a 330-foot buffer around a nest, and a secondary 660-foot buffer. How that will affect Mitchell, whose land is in growth-area Crozet, has not yet been determined.

When Mitchell first spoke to C-VILLE April 10, he said the tree with the nest would not be cut down and in fact was on land that belongs to Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. He first saw an eagle about seven years ago, he says, and he believed the nest belonged to a single raptor—until he spotted an eaglet, “about the size of a chicken,” April 20.

Other birders have been aware of the nest. “When I was there in February an eagle was in it, and it appeared to have at least one chick,” says Dan Bieker, PVCC adjunct natural sciences professor. He estimates the nest has been there at least three years and before that, there was a nest below one of the houses in a neighboring subdivision. “It was blown apart by a storm,” he says.

Mitchell’s Fair Hill land is near the thick of Crozet development. It’s beside Foxchase, Cory Farms is west of that and Western Ridge is on Lickinghole Creek’s north side.

Mitchell says he would have preferred that whoever notified authorities had called him directly “rather than ratting me out to the federal government.” He has county approval for the project, and the 60-acre tract he plans to live on will have a conservation easement. “We’re ready to start pushing dirt in six to eight months,” he says.

He’s frustrated about possible restrictions on the use of his land, for which he paid $3.8 million in 2006, according to county records, because “a bird put a nest on my property,” and he says it could have a “potentially devastating” economic impact to him and his family.

“We will abide by the protections required,” he says, but adds, “If the nest was on the property when I bought it, I wouldn’t have bought it.”

Categories
Living

Cookie-focused company settles into new home

Found. Market Co., which doubles as a remade furniture workshop and bakehouse, specializes in cookies as well as farmhouse-style baked goods such as muffins and tea cakes. Photo by Tom McGovern

Calling all cookie monsters: Found. Market Co. at 221 Carlton Rd. (the former Kathy’s Produce spot) is here for all of your cookie needs. In addition to functioning as a gathering space and remade furniture workshop, Found. is a bakehouse specializing in cookies—pick up some salted rosemary shortbread, a batch of classic cookies or frozen cookie dough to scoop and bake at home whenever a cookie craving strikes—as well as farmhouse-style baked goods such as muffins and tea cakes, plus comfort foods like Bavarian pretzels, chicken salad and pub cheese.

If that salted rosemary shortbread sounds familiar, it should—Found. started as a wholesale bakery under the name The Bees Knees Kitchen, and it’s been selling shortbread-style cookies at Feast! and Blenheim Vineyards for a few years. The Bees Knees Kitchen eventually grew out of its certified home kitchen and into this larger, industrial-sized space and new name, says co-owner Kelsey Gillian.

Having managed an organic farm for the last 16 years, the Found. team’s “nature is to cook and bake from the field, gather for family dinners and share good food with friends,” says Gillian, adding that it’s all about creating homegrown, handmade “tasty food, imperfections and all.”

New food pairing

Charlottesville has plenty of cuisine options—Mexican, Italian, French, Indian, American—but even in our chock-full-o-restaurants city, it’s rare to find two very different cuisines under a single roof.

Vu Noodles and Pearl Island Catering have teamed up to serve lunch at the Jefferson School City Center café at 233 Fourth St. NW from 11am to 2pm Monday through Friday. (Don’t worry—Vu Noodles will still be served at The Spot/Greenie’s, and Pearl Island isn’t abandoning its catering.)

The menu is a relief for those who can’t decide on just one type of cuisine for their midday meal (or is that just us?). Vu Noodles’ spring rolls, the banh mi sandwich, tofu caramelized onions and various noodle dishes are on the menu alongside Pearl Island dishes such as the Caribbean-seasoned, slow-roasted pulled pork, Haitian-inspired sweet and spicy chicken with gravy, Creole beans and fried plantains.

One more Reason to love beer

In a town where breweries rival Starbucks in numbers, yet another place to imbibe in new brews will open in June.

Childhood friends and Charlottesville natives Patrick Adair, Mark Fulton and Jeff Raileanu are teaming up to open Reason Beer in a warehouse space next to Costco. Adair, director of sales, says the more breweries the better.

“Charlottesville is getting a reputation as a beer town, and that’s awesome,” he says. “We are fortunate enough to be at a time when craft beer seems to sell itself these days.”

To understand the brewery is to understand head brewer Fulton’s background as former head brewer at the venerable Maine Beer Company. In the early days of craft beer there was a focus on making IPAs as bitter as possible but breweries like Maine Beer Company were pioneers in producing beers with balanced hop and malt profiles. Fulton will bring this perspective to Reason, where they will focus on low-alcohol, fresh, hoppy beers.

The brewery is installing a 30-barrel (that’s 930 gallons) brewhouse and will also put in a bottling line that will package 16.9-ounce bottles, a format Adair says is just the right size for drinking by yourself, but also big enough to share.

“I think our focus on balance, approachability, innovation and food pairing will be what distinguishes Reason Beer,” says Adair.—Derek Young

The toast of Tom Tom

Six of Charlottesville’s top chefs went head-to-head in the Iron Chef City Market competition for which each had to create a 100 percent locally sourced dish with a budget of $50, 20 minutes to shop and 30 minutes to cook. Chef Chris Jack of Wild Wolf Brewing Company took the title with a dish of pan-seared duck heart, spicy chocolate granola-crusted duck liver and sautéed oyster mushrooms with purple scallions, wilted arugula and spicy strawberry rhubarb jam.

In the craft cocktail competition at the Tom Tom Founders Festival, Patrick McClure of Lost Saint won over the judges with his Lil’ Rhuby Fizzle, made from sweet strawberry juice from Agriberry Farm, tart rhubarb juice from Radical Roots Farm, Boar Creek Appalachian whiskey and Homestead Creamery cream and egg white. The Flora, a Baker’s gin, strawberry shrub, mint and basil syrup, lemon, cava and cracked pepper cocktail concocted by Oakhart Social’s Brendan Cartin, was the crowd favorite.

Categories
Arts

A record label at AHS puts passion into learning

DaQuadre Taylor (right) is among Chance Dickerson’s Albemarle Alternative Arts House students who learn through creative engagement. The A3 House Showcase shares a variety of projects and performances on April 28 at IX Art Park. Photo by Amy Jackson

In 2013, Chance Dickerson was working as a teaching assistant in the ESOL (English as a Second Language) department at Albemarle High School and he wanted to share his love of music with his students. So he set up an “underground studio” in an English class book closet and began teaching the ins and outs of audio production. The following year, when the school’s principal, Jay Thomas, wanted to create a makers space for music, he asked Dickerson to manage it. The result was A3 House, short for Albemarle Alternative Arts House, and the newly formed A3 House Records, which is an incubator for student art and music. Throughout the school year, students work with Dickerson and staff member Bernard Hankins to come up with project ideas and use the resources at A3 House to execute their vision.

“It’s basically like an entire house of production and creativity,” Dickerson says. “…unlike a traditional classroom, where I could run an audio production class like, ‘All right, everyone sit down with your laptop and we’re gonna go step-by-step through how to record and edit a vocal track.’ We’ve even tried that model and it’s not that it doesn’t work, it just doesn’t engage kids on the same level that the record label does, and it doesn’t give them the freedom to express and create art and the autonomy to create art like the record label does.”

A3 House Showcase
April 28
IX Art Park

Although the program is dubbed A3 House Records, the curriculum isn’t strictly limited to music.

“The vision initially for this place was never for it to be really a music place, it was a place for free creativity,” Dickerson says. “From day one, I was like let’s bring in painting, bring in photography, do video, let’s do poetry, all forms of artistic expression were welcomed inside A3 House, and that philosophy has been refined and focused through the record label.”

Because A3 House runs on a play-based model, it gives students an opportunity to engage on an interactive level.

“We’ve created a space that is free of a standard—there’s no standard for standardized testing or any tests or quizzes or anything like that—it operates like a business would,” Dickerson says. “[What} you have basically [are] employees that come in and they do their work to support the business and the business is providing resources for their work.”

“From day one, I was like let’s bring in painting, bring in photography, do video, let’s do poetry, all forms of artistic expression were welcomed inside A3 House, and that philosophy has been refined and focused through the record label.” Chance Dickerson

For Dickerson and Hankins, A3 House Records is more than just a class promoting alternative forms of learning. It’s a philosophy.

“When it comes down to brass tacks like what are we actually teaching these kids, we’re teaching them passion, purpose, meaning and identity,” Dickerson explains. “So, passion being whatever you’re excited about in life, whatever you find fulfillment in doing, whatever gives you a good feeling and a lot of times art is that common medium or vehicle for a passion. …We’re always trying to achieve equality, trying to achieve diversity in the classroom, but I think we can’t achieve that if our kids don’t have their own identity. And one of the things that we’re doing in the studio is we are helping them seek and refine and develop their own identity.”

Dickerson encourages students to create art that taps into themes that are true to their personal experiences and meaningful to them. “Is your art representing your true vision for your life or is it representing someone else’s vision?” he says. “You can’t find meaning in something that is not you.”

This philosophy plays out particularly well when Dickerson and Hankins work with kids in the program who are creating music.

“This is our approach to reconstructing the idea for what hip-hop is because hip-hop has a bad rep for being a violent genre, for being a genre that promotes misogyny and promotes drug dealing and all this stuff, and some of those things really are in these kids’ lives,” Dickerson says. “It’s not about censorship.”

Dickerson points out that authenticity is a key part of the creative process: “What are the challenges that you’re facing? What is your breakthrough? How are you overcoming this? Let’s get into the philosophy of these experiences and then put them into words so you’re creating actual rich, meaningful, personal content and not content that is a copy of someone else’s experience.”

There are currently 72 students enrolled for credit in A3 House Records, and Dickerson estimates that an additional 20 students, called walk-ins, come in before or after school, or during their free periods like study hall and lunch. Depending on the breadth of the project, a student may work on a single project for the whole year, or she may finish one in a week before moving on to the next idea. All of the students’ projects will be shared with the community at the A3House Showcase taking place on Friday. Along with displaying their work, students will also be running interactive stations where attendees can learn about different art forms and have the chance to make a beat, play with cameras or paint.

Categories
Arts

Theater Review: The Realistic Joneses at Live Arts

The Realistic Joneses relies on a cast that can convey the authenticity of human interaction—ranging from hilarious one-liners and abrupt observations to the meaning behind half-formed compliments. Photo by Will Kerner

There’s something a bit off about The Realistic Joneses.

“Maybe it’s me,” you think at first. You’re sitting so close to the middle-aged couple you’re practically on top of them. She’s talking about the beauty of the night air and the owl she can hear in the distance. He’s staring down at hands twisted together, harrumphing with irritation. It’s awfully intimate, the way you’re hovering in other people’s tension.

But you’re in a theater and you’ve paid to watch this, so that’s exactly what you do: eavesdrop on the world’s most realistic conversation and try not to squirm with discomfort.

The Realistic Joneses
Live Arts
Runs through May 13

Outside a small kitchen, pacing a small AstroTurf lawn, she tosses up conversational softballs and he smacks them down with frustration.

“Maybe we should paint the house,” says Misses.

“Why?” Mister asks. “Won’t we just have to paint it again after that?”

His logic is silly, childish, perfect. Once you start laughing, it’s hard to stop.

You realize this curmudgeon is inadvertently funny. You also find out that he’s sick.

His wife hints at something serious and confusing, but he refuses to talk about it. You see her repressing her own frustration, but she refuses to talk about that.

The night air may be lovely, but it’s also tense. That’s why your heart jumps (as do Misses and Mister) when a muffled crash sounds from offstage.

Could it be a strange animal? A prowler? A plot twist? You pray for something to break the soupy, suburban stillness.

That’s when a young couple appears, offering a bottle of wine. As they introduce themselves as new neighbors John and Pony Jones, you learn Mister and Misses are named Bob and Jennifer Jones. Four Joneses, one neighborhood. What are the odds?

At this point, the dialogue starts throwing off sparks, hilarious one-liners and abrupt observations, and you finally realize what felt off at first. It’s like watching a play about real people, all of whom are a little bit weird.

You’ve stepped into an alternate universe populated by strangers, but they all feel so damn familiar. You’re listening to non-sequitur dialogue, but it mirrors the scattershot logic of your brain. The Realistic Joneses is realistic, yes; it’s a human, authentic comedy, but it’s also borderline absurd.

Welcome to the wild world of Will Eno, the playwright who penned Joneses in 2014. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Eno is known for his unique brand of comedy, which turns on quirky, true-to-life conversation.

Fran Smith, the director of Live Arts’ version of Joneses, certainly had her work cut out for her. A play like this depends on timing, nuance and actors who can take their cues apropos of nothing.

To her credit, Smith gives her audience a world that ought to do Eno proud. She’s given her actors room to play, to deepen their characters and develop unscripted backstories that rush into the silence between sentences. Like the simple but effective set pieces, we understand how a half-formed compliment or bad joke conveys discomfort, or longing, or lust.

The Realistic Joneses can be described as a series of short sketches happening in chronological order. Each sketch features a few (or all) of the same four characters. Time is progressing, and a plot is unfolding, but it rambles and hints rather than progressing in strong, linear strokes.

For that reason, perhaps, I found myself getting impatient somewhere in the first act. More thematic development! More narrative clarity! Show me some progress and make me care!

Beneath my brain’s demands, however, I recognized Eno’s integrity. This show is committed to authentic patterns of human behavior. I couldn’t fairly demand a cinematic character breakthrough every time someone cleaned the kitchen.

By the second act, though, I was fully invested. I saw glimpses of depth in each of the characters, I craved resolution to unfolding mysteries, and I definitely wanted to laugh some more.

In fact, the actors deserve applause for bringing this show to life. In the wrong hands, I’m sure it could easily be rendered unwatchable, but Live Arts’ version was actually fun. 

I loved Jack Walker’s manic take on John Jones, the young, doting husband full of quirks and secrets. He embraced his character’s most unusual brain, hardening with anger, softening with pain, and delivered one-liners with total conviction. (My personal favorite: “I saw you crying and eating a PowerBar, and I thought, ‘Wow. That is one sad, busy person.’”)

Adrienne Oliver plays Pony Jones, a germophobe who tends to avoid thinking too hard about the hard stuff. She warms her character’s self-centered behavior with earnest sweetness and flickers of self-doubt, holding fast to the good in herself and others despite any evidence to the contrary.

Jennifer Jones is the long-suffering wife who gives up her job and her travel dreams to become a full-time caregiver. Kate Adamson manages to express the full range of her character’s tangled emotions—frustration, tenderness, outrage and resignation—often in just a few sentences.

Bill LeSueur (C-VILLE Weekly’s creative director) plays Bob, who looks at his own mortality sideways. Bob joins us closed off, self-centered and awkward, but LeSueur’s blossoming across two acts was incredibly satisfying.

Lucky, because The Realistic Joneses isn’t the sort of play that gives you a satisfying ending. It’s not unhappy or frustrating, I’m pleased to say, but it doesn’t wrap up with a neat little bow.

It’s like life, after all. Most chapters don’t end with a scripted flourish and a heroic kiss. It’s more like an unsung conversation or the hoot of an owl, a moment that passes without our awareness and appears only in hindsight how whole and human it was.

Categories
News

In brief: Angry scientists, alt-right lingo and more

Scientists have had enough. Photo Ron Paris

Science, not silence

At least 500 STEM-lovers came out to IX Art Park on Earth Day for the city’s satellite March on Science. C’ville Comm-UNI-ty hosted the event.

Science March
Courtesy C’ville Comm-UNI-ty

Stonefield death nets $100 fine

Franklin Pollock Reider, 75, was convicted of reckless driving April 24 for hitting pedestrian Bonnie Baha, 57, a California businesswoman who was in town August 21 to drop off her first-year son at UVA and who later died at UVA Medical Center. Reider said he accidentally hit the accelerator rather than the brake.

Let the 2018 races begin

Democratic newcomer Roger Dean Huffstetler, 38, an entrepreneur and former Marine, announced a challenge to 5th District Congressman Tom Garrett.

“Nothing is worse than a Yankee telling a Southerner that his monuments don’t matter.”—Gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart via Twitter, April 24.

“You know what was worse? Slavery.”—Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery in response.

Accused widow bilker files for bankruptcy

Former Farmington Country Club and Virginia Athletics Foundation president Victor Dandridge III filed for bankruptcy, putting on hold the lawsuit filed by his best friend’s widow, Lynne Kinder, who alleges he swindled her out of nearly $7 million. Dandridge now works for Uber, according to a court filing.

Five innocent people

John Grisham hosted a fundraiser for the UVA Innocence Project Pro Bono Clinic April 19 with a panel of the wrongfully convicted, including local men Robert Davis and Michael Hash, as well as Eric Weakley, Thomas Haynesworth and Beverly Monroe. “They were so focused on me, they allowed this man to rape 25 more women,” said Haynesworth, who was convicted of rape and spent 27 years in prison.

Innocence Project-monroe-hash-lithwick-davis-grisham-haynesworth
Beverly Monroe, Michael Hash, Dahlia Lithwick, Robert Davis, John Grisham and Thomas Haynesworth at UVA law school. Photo Jesús Pino

Loitering-proof seats nixed

The Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review rejected backless benches on the Downtown Mall April 18 and voiced concern the uncomfortable seating violates designer Lawrence Halprin’s vision of the mall as a public space.

Short-termer

People who say Erich Reimer is unqualified for student government? “Haters,” he says. “I’ll be saving a few tweets for them later.” Submitted photoUVA law student Erich Reimer, 26, known for his “Make UVA Law Great Again” campaign during his run for student office last year, was elected new chair of the Charlottesville City Republican Committee April 18—at least until he leaves in a few months to join the US Army JAG Corps as a military lawyer. Sad!

Glossary for alt-right speak

Richard_B_Spencer_VasPanagiotopoulos
UVA alum Richard Spencer. Photo Vas Panagiotopoulos

A year ago, many of us had never heard the term “alt-right,” which started popping up in conjunction with former Breitbart News head/President Trump adviser Steve Bannon. That’s because a “language and set of ideas are coming out of a movement that was on the fringe and on the Internet,” says UVA Miller Center’s Nicole Hemmer. Racism and white nationalism are being communicated with a more modern, more millennialist twist, she says. “It’s a new generation of racist.” And if someone has a frog on a website, unless it’s the Muppets, that could be a sign.

Alt-right: Coined by UVA grad/white nationalist Richard Spencer, it’s a far-right ideology that believes white identity is under attack. Urban Dictionary’s top definition: “a politically correct term for neo-Nazi.”

Antifa: You might think being an anti-fascist would be a good thing, but in alt-right land, antifas are PC extremist gangs who only object to racism when it’s done by white people, and who probably sip chardonnay.

Cuck, cuckservative: Cuckold plus conservative equals conservative light—one who doesn’t uphold white preeminence. “Really racist, really sexist,” says Hemmer. Cuck means “race traitor,” she says. GQ defines cuck as a porn term in which a white husband watches his wife have sex with a black man.

Human biodiversity: It’s been called the “eugenics of the alt-right” to allege racial superiority and Forward’s Ari Feldman describes it as “pseudoscientific racism updated for the Internet age.” It’s another example of using a seemingly benign term, in this case “coopting the language of environmentalism,” says Hemmer.

Kek: Ancient Egyptian god of darkness and chaos now symbolized by Pepe the Frog, originally a comic series character that’s been appropriated as the avatar of the alt-right and designated a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.

Masculinist: “An advocate of male superiority or dominance,” according to Merriam-Webster.

Social justice warrior, SJW: Another usage that takes something often seen as a positive—social justice—and turns it into a slam. Wikipedia defines it as “a pejorative term for an individual promoting socially progressive views including feminism, civil rights, multiculturalism and identity politics.”

Snowflake: Unique, but not in a good way. Used to describe a generation of young people who take offense easily because they’re as “weak and vulnerable as a speck of snow,” according to USAToday College, which calls it the new “it” insult.

After the ice rink fact sheet

The current size of the Main Street Arena is 20,211 square feet. The size of the tech incubator to be built in its place will be 100,000 square feet.
Staff photo

Jaffray Woodriff’s purchase of the Main Street Arena and the building that houses Escafé means big changes—and big demolition—are in the Downtown Mall’s future. Woodriff’s publicist sent the following info:

Site: 230 W. Main St. and 215 Water St., total .88 acres.

Ownership: Woodriff’s Taliaferro Junction purchased the arena from Mark Brown in March for $5.7 million.

Repurposed:
Charlottesville Technology Center, a multi-use office and retail structure for existing tech companies and start-ups, with LEED platinum certification and green rooftop terraces for tenants.

Size: 140,000 square feet includes 60K for anchor tenant, 10K for retail and 10K for event/common area.

Demolition: Spring 2018, lasting about three weeks.

Ice sports: Will get another season, through spring 2018.

Categories
News

Insurance denied: City footing Lee statue, parking garage legal bills

Water Street Parking Garage

Since 2016, Charlottesville has faced a larger-than-usual number of high-profile lawsuits, and in at least two cases, its insurance carrier won’t be picking up the tab. And while the carrier hasn’t seen the most recent suit, filed by Albemarle County over the Ragged Mountain Natural Area April 20, that litigation could join the Lee statue coverage denial as a “willful violation” of state law.

The city’s insurer, the Virginia Municipal League, covered Joe Draego’s federal lawsuit after he was dragged out of City Council for calling Muslims “monstrous maniacs,” and a judge ruled the city’s public comment policy banning group defamation was unconstitutional.

But VML is not covering the lawsuit filed against the city for its 3-2 vote to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee, nor is it covering Mark Brown’s Charlottesville Parking Center litigation against the city, which heads to mediation May 31.

In that case, the city is paying Richmond LeClairRyan attorney Tom Wolf $425 an hour. At press time, City Attorney Craig Brown was unable to come up with costs of that suit, but a year ago, as of April 30, 2016, before the city had gone to court on Brown’s emergency receivership petition, it had spent $11,593.

Craig Brown says the suits on the statue, parking garage and the dispute with Albemarle have “all generated a large amount of public interest, whereas someone tripping on a sidewalk doesn’t.”

“It’s unusual to be involved in as much high-profile litigation as it is now,” agrees former mayor and CPC general manager Dave Norris.

“There’s only a certain amount of appetite taxpayers have to paying high-priced lawyers,” he says.

The litigation with Albemarle stems from the city’s December 19 vote to allow biking at Ragged Mountain, which is located in the county, despite county regulations that prohibit biking at the reservoir. Before the vote, Liz Palmer, then chair of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, sent a December 15 letter to City Council asking it to defer action and citing state code that prohibits a landowner locality from adopting regulations in conflict with the jurisdiction where the property is located.

And while the city held a year’s worth of public meetings about uses at Ragged Mountain, conspicuously absent from that process was the county. “We were not involved in that,” says Board of Supervisors chair Diantha McKeel. “It’s unfortunate it got as far as it did without recognizing that.”

McKeel stresses that the city and county are not at odds on most issues, but says, “Both of our localities have agreed this is a legal question that has to be settled in the courts.”

After the City Council voted April 3 to adopt a new trails plan that would allow biking, the city offered binding arbitration, “precisely because we wanted to resolve the underlying legal issues without having to go to court,” says Mayor Mike Signer.

That was an offer the county declined. “The question goes back to state code,” says McKeel. “We can’t mediate our way out of that.”

Attorney Buddy Weber, a plaintiff in the Lee statue suit, sees a pattern with the city’s decision to proceed at Ragged Mountain over the county’s objections—and state statutes. “What you really have to ask is where they’re getting their legal advice,” he says. “Are they doing this to invite litigation?”

An injunction hearing is scheduled for May 2 to halt the city from moving the statue—or selling it, as council voted to do April 17. “We thought it was reckless for them to do what they did to remove the statue,” says Weber.  “Selling it falls in line with that. That’s why we need an injunction.”

But when Councilor Bob Fenwick changed his vote to remove the statue February 6, he said it was an issue that would have to be decided by the courts.

For activist Walt Heinecke, that fight embodies the city’s values on the Civil War statue, and he also applauds council’s funding of $10,000 to Legal Aid Justice Center to support immigrants. “I do think it’s important,” he says.

Other legal battles, like the city’s defense of its 2011 panhandling ordinance or the Draego lawsuit, “seem like a complete waste of money,” he says. Heinecke hasn’t followed the Ragged Mountain debate, but says, “It certainly seems there would be better ways to work this through rather than bull-dogging it.”

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, who had his own day in court recently to fend off a petition to remove him from office, says when he was campaigning, he frequently heard comments that prior councils were “paralyzed” and that citizens wanted City Council to make decisions.

“This council is committed to making a difference and to making bold choices,” he says. “We’re not going to be paralyzed.”

Categories
Arts

Album reviews: Kendrick Lamar, Laetitia Sadier and Karriem Riggins

Kendrick Lamar

DAMN. (Aftermath)

After the world-beating To Pimp a Butterfly and the casual but satisfying demo album untitled unmastered., anything Kendrick Lamar put out in 2017 would have drawn scrutiny; signs of falling off would have been magnified—even a sequel to Butterfly could have been slammed as predictable, lazy.

DAMN. is neither. Released on Good Friday, it has warranted dozens of voluminous exegeses by Internet eyewitnesses—and that’s “witnesses” as in religious witnessing; the main theme of DAMN. is Lamar’s spiritual struggle examined through the curse laid down in Deuteronomy on disobedient people of God. The 14 chapters—“cuts” sounds wrong—are relentlessly heady and ambitious; the wordplay dense, allusive and provocative. It’s almost unseemly to ask how it all sounds. And the truth is, it’s not as cohesive or majestic as Butterfly, but it’s no fall-off. Producers including longtime collaborator Sounwave, Mike Will Made It and 9th Wonder, work from a more restricted palate, with results that proceed from harsh (“DNA.” and “LUST.”) to quiet-storm smoothness (“LOVE.” “FEAR.” and “GOD.”). And the guest spots—Rhianna, Zacari and Bono—all work. Yup, even Bono. DAMN. is an agitated triumph.

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/04/kendrick-lamar-releases-new-album-damn-stream-download/

Laetitia Sadier
Source Ensemble

Find Me Finding You (Drag City)

Laetitia Sadier was one of the two main movers in Stereolab; she wrote the bulk of the group’s lyrics—often frank post-Marxist declamations in the guise of space-age bachelor pad harmlessness. Her former partner Tim Gane was “the music guy” in the band, so for Sadier’s solo albums to sound so much like Stereolab is both unremarkable and notable. That she’s been so productive and consistently good since Stereolab disbanded is cheering—Find Me Finding You is Sadier’s fourth album since 2010, and it merits another visit to her distinct yet familiar, elegant sonic world.

As usual, Sadier’s voice dominates—dreamy, deliberate and slightly sad—as she sings alternatively in English and French. There are the expected pulsing drums and keyboards, unobtrusive rhythm guitar and punchy bass ornaments, especially on “Undying Love For Humanity,” the (not-ironic!) lead-off track. But Sadier now calls her band Source Ensemble and gives it an artist credit—it’s a confidence members earn, as textures thin out and tempos slow down on songs such as the poignant “Love Captive” and “Galactic Emergence.” It all sounds clean but not clinical—like transmissions from a temperate, logical place.

https://laetitiasadier.bandcamp.com/album/find-me-finding-you

Karriem Riggins

Headnod Suite (Stones Throw)

Erykah Badu, Common, Paul freaking McCartney—Detroit jazz/hip-hop drummer Karriem Riggins has insanely high-quality credits stretching back to the mid-’90s. Until now, however, his discography has only included 2012’s Alone Together, a goodie bag of 35 song snippets. A friend and I listened to the whole thing and afterward he said, “By the end of it I was kinda ready to hear a full song…but that was cool.”

Riggins still eschews conventional form; Headnod Suite stuffs 29 mostly instrumental tracks into an hour. (There’s a palate- cleanser halfway through via spoken word badassery from Jessica Care Moore. Where have I been? She’s amazing.) Riggins’ deceptively simple musicianship is more than enough of a draw. He keeps things clean—doesn’t mess with cymbals or toms—and he makes every gesture matter. You don’t have to pay close attention to get pleasure out of Headnod Suite—the title is truth in advertising. But close listening is rewarded with the infinite variations on the simple rhythm of “Cia,” the snare hit that becomes doubled in “Tandoori Heat” and the clack of the rimshot finding its way into your cortex. Tasty. 

https://karriem-riggins.bandcamp.com/album/headnod-suite