Month: September 2017

Categories
Living

LIVING Picks: Week of September 27-October 3

Rivanna River. Photo by Jack Looney

FAMILY

Family fun hike
Friday, September 29

Local high schooler and wilderness guide Char Tomlinson leads a seasonal hike that highlights native plant and animal life. Pay what you will, 12:30-1:30pm. Wildrock, 6700 Blackwells Hollow Rd., Crozet. RSVP to 823-5100.

NONPROFIT

Rivanna River Renaissance Conference
Friday, September 29

Various community speakers talk about projects relating to the Rivanna River at this conference from the Rivanna Conservation Alliance and other partners. $40, 8:30am-5:15pm. Albemarle County Office Building, 401 McIntire Rd. rivannariver.org

FOOD & DRINK

Vegan Roots Fest
Saturday, September 30

This vegan-focused festival includes food, beer, wine, talks from nutrition experts, live music and vendor booths. Free, noon-7pm. Washington Park, 1001 Preston Ave. cvillevegfest.org

HEALTH & WELLNESS

24th annual Martha’s Market
Friday, September 29-Sunday, October 1

More than 80 boutiques sell their wares at this annual fundraiser. Fifteen percent of each sale benefits women’s health care programs at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital. $10, children 13 and under get in free, 9am-6pm Friday and Saturday, 11am-4pm Sunday. John Paul Jones Arena, 295 Massie Rd. 654-8258.

Categories
Arts

Pianist Arnie Popkin celebrates with style and perspective

Arnie Popkin plays an all-Chopin concert to celebrate his “sense of gratitude” for his 80 years and the ability to play piano better than ever. Photo by Amy Jackson

Arnie Popkin says that people look at him funny when he tells them his ideas on playing piano. “I think you play 90 percent with your brain and 10 percent with your fingers,” says Popkin, who’s been playing piano for more than 75 years. True, he has a pianist’s long, slender digits—and people often remark on them—but a piano player is more than his hands.

“You have to have a conception of how [the music] sounds in your mind, and then you have to have the skill to produce that with your fingers…like how an artist has a conception of a painting, a sculpture,” Popkin says.

As Popkin hears the music in his mind, his hands move over invisible piano keys on the table. “Sometimes you feel like playing a little faster here, or holding up a little here, or playing this note a little louder,” he says. His eyebrows dance over the rims of his glasses and his shoulders shimmy and sway under a blue-and-white striped, short-sleeved button-down shirt.

Arnie Popkin
First Presbyterian Church
3pm, October 1

Popkin, who turned 80 on July 11, has been carrying tunes since he was just a year old and playing piano since he was 3, though his earliest musical memory came a few years later.

When he was 8 or 9, he went to see A Song To Remember, a 1945 biopic about 19th century Polish composer Frédéric Chopin where, in the vivid final scene, Chopin, dying of tuberculosis, coughs up scarlet blood all over the piano keys during a concert. About a week later, Popkin was walking on stage for his own recital when he felt a tingling in his nose. Young Arnie knew a nosebleed was nigh—so he kept his head tipped back through his entire program, just in case blood started to drip. “Everybody must have thought I was so stuck-up.” he says. “It never did bleed, but it was an experience, because I’d just had that vision of me bleeding all over the keys.”

Popkin was (and still is) a rather skilled pianist, but even as a kid, he felt that if he were to become a professional concert pianist, he’d lose by winning—if a pianist is successful, says Popkin, he’ll travel all over the world, a new hotel every two nights, with no home life, no life other than piano. And while Popkin knew his life needed piano, he didn’t want his life to be nothing but piano.

He attended medical school in Philadelphia and went into ophthalmology. He practiced in Princeton, New Jersey, for 14 years before moving to Charlottesville with his wife, Phyllis, and racking up another 33 years in the field before retiring in 2013.

All the while, Popkin gave more than a dozen concerts at UVA’s Cabell Hall, plus countless concerts at local retirement communities, churches and in his living room, on his own beloved Steinway piano.

Now, Popkin wakes up at about 6 o’clock every morning and meditates for half an hour before hopping on his recumbent bicycle. While pedaling, he often listens to music on YouTube or one of his five 160GB iPods, which hold about 20,000 songs apiece. After that, he’ll go about his day with his wife of 58 years (“You can quote me on this: It doesn’t seem a day over 57,” Popkin says), sometimes venturing down to the Paramount Theater for a concert. He likes to take naps, and he sits at his Steinway, often with his Shih Tzus Romeo and Lacy, to play music for a couple hours each day.

On October 1, he’ll play a free concert of 11 Chopin pieces at First Presbyterian Church—he says it was difficult to choose which ones to play because he loves so many of them. He plans to include Nocturne in D-flat Major and the Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major and end on the famous Polonaise in A-flat Major—“that’s everybody’s favorite,” with its fast octaves at the end that sound “sort of like a horse, like the cavalry coming,” says Popkin. It’s a little harder to play now that he’s 80, but he can do it, and so he will.

“Playing music makes you happier. It makes you better in the rest of your life.” And there’s something special about sharing that enrichment with others, says Popkin. “When I’m playing piano, when I’m playing Chopin, it’s a group thing between Chopin and me and the audience. I’m not a show-off,” he says, laughing, “but if people love music, and you’re good and can do it,” it’s nice to share.

Stardate

Arnie Popkin was born the same day that pianist and “Rhapsody in Blue” and Porgy and Bess composer George Gershwin died: July 11, 1937. Popkin says when he shares that tidbit, the question of reincarnation immediately comes up, and he doesn’t have a “perfect answer.” Popkin plays some Gershwin pieces but says he isn’t “overly crazy about it.” There are a few exceptions, though: “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” is one of his favorite songs. “It’s just gorgeous” he says.

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Stronger explores the realities of healing

In Stronger, Jake Gyllenhaal portrays the real-life reluctant hero Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the Boston marathon bombing. Photo courtesy New Line Cinema

It’s unfortunate that Stronger is being seen by some as “the other Boston Marathon bombing movie” after the release of Patriots Day earlier this year. The comparison shouldn’t even be made, but just in case there are people who might not see Stronger due to the association, let’s debunk and move on.

The two could not be more dissimilar; Patriots Day is an intentionally dishonest exercise in authority worship that throws the stories of actual people and victims by the wayside (its lead character, Tommy Saunders, is a composite who happens to be instrumental in capturing the Tsarnaev brothers). Stronger is a thoughtful, fact-based exploration of trauma and recovery, and the difficulty of moving on when everyone around you defines you by a single event that you only want to forget.

Stronger
R, 119 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 & IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Stronger follows the story of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, resident Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), who was at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon to cheer on his on-again-off-again girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany). If you don’t know his name, you certainly remember his face from the iconic photo of him being rescued from the explosion, having just lost both of his legs, with the help of Carlos Arredondo, the so-called “man in the cowboy hat.” He instantly became a symbol of resilience for a city desperate for good news, and the fact that his eyewitness testimony also led to the identification of the perpetrators made him a hero in the eyes of many—including his mother (Miranda Richardson in an award-worthy turn), whose desire for the world to see how strong and brave her son is often hurts Jeff more than it helps.

However, a hero is exactly what Jeff feels he is not. Several times, he asks why standing there getting his “legs blown off” is something to be proud of. His first reaction to “Boston Strong,” the still-ubiquitous (and often monetized) slogan that arose in the wake of the attack, is to wonder what it even means. And as he’s taken to public appearances—Bruins games, his first rehabilitation session and many others—he comes closer and closer to reliving the worst day of his life. On a personal level, his immaturity and inability to show up when needed was a primary reason Erin broke up with him in the first place. And the one time he does manage to show up is when this happens. The pressure of needing to grow and recover at the same time, to be an unwilling figurehead when all he wants to do is hide, leads to the worsening of some pre-injury habits, especially his drinking.

Director David Gordon Green (George Washington, Prince Avalanche, Manglehorn) brings depth and insight into a straightforward narrative, and one that could have easily turned into the same cheap, meaningless inspiration that Jeff fought so hard not to be. The standard Boston beats are there—Red Sox fandom, intertown rivalry, swearing and nosy families—but Green understands the emotional space they occupy in the minds of Massachusetts residents. (In case you can’t tell, I myself am a Boston resident.) Stronger is an affecting film, impressive not only for what it is, but for what it skillfully avoids being.

Playing this week  

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

American Assassin, Brazil, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Mother!

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

American Assassin, Dunkirk, Friend Request, Home Again, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Leap!, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Logan Lucky, Mother!, Spider-man: Homecoming, Wind River

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

American Assassin, Brad’s Status, Brigsby Bear, Home Again, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Mother!, Wind River

Categories
Living

New candy shop opens on Fourth Street

The Candy Store, which sells more than 3,000 different sweet treats, opened last weekend on Fourth Street. Photo by Tom McGovern

Just in time for Halloween, The Candy Store has opened at 114 Fourth St. SE (the space that formerly housed O’Suzan-nah, which moved to 320 E. Main St., next to Timberlake’s Drug Store and Soda Fountain), and the slightly sour sugary aroma is palpable even from the doorstep.

The Candy Store, with a second location in Roanoke, has stocked its Charlottesville shelves full of silver-lidded glass jars holding whatever your sweet tooth desires: a rainbow of rock candies, gumballs of all diameters, M&Ms in a variety of colors, edible Legos-esque Candy Blox, Red Hots, Swedish Fish, Goetze’s caramel creams and Rademaker Hopjes coffee candies. Boxes of Marshmallow Madness cereal (for those who picked all the marshmallows out of their bowls of Lucky Charms), Jelly Belly jelly beans, Sour Patch Kids and Sour Power Quattro line the top shelves. Tables in the center hold boxes of Nintendo Wii gumballs, Kinder chocolate bars, giant candy necklaces, mega Dum Dum lollipops and so much more, including everyone’s arguably least favorite Halloween treat (the trick, really)—candy wax lips.

There are more than 3,000 different candies available in the store, says co-owner Lawson Jaeger, who’s a self-proclaimed “sucker for English toffee” and English candy in general (he stocks plenty of it). Jaeger, who went to high school in the area, has always wanted to move back to Charlottesville, and this was his chance, he says while standing next to a 27-pound gummy bear and pointing out trays of slick-domed chocolates handmade in Floyd, Virginia.

We’re getting a cavity just thinking about it.

Food chain for thought

Here’s some food for thought: What happens to the food chain when a major hurricane (or two, or three) hits? A whole lot, as you could have guessed, and we’re feeling small ripple effects here in Charlottesville.

Seafood @ West Main owner Chris Arsenault says that whenever oceans are churned up, as they are in a hurricanes, the seafood industry is affected. Tides change and stir up habitats for fish and other sea creatures, such as oysters, and high winds and waves make it difficult for fishermen to get out on the water. Hurricane Jose made oyster harvesting a bit more difficult in the Mid-Atlantic, Arsenault says, and Harvey dealt the tuna industry a pretty severe blow—a lot of tuna comes out of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, he says.

Standard Produce owner Bobby Ballard says the week after Hurricane Irma hit Florida and the Caribbean, it was more difficult to get certain items, such as asparagus, which is usually flown to the U.S. from Peru via Miami.

The Bradenton Herald, a southwest Florida newspaper, reports that Florida Citrus Mutual estimates Irma’s winds blew half of Florida’s citrus crop off trees and onto grove floors. The estimates are based on growers’ reports from across the state. And that’s just the fruit—Irma damaged or uprooted countless other trees and flooded groves. Ballard says the cost of a case of fresh-squeezed orange juice will go up a few bucks, but consumers will feel it only slightly—“It hasn’t hurt us too badly,” he says. Not nearly as much as the growers and producers themselves.

Categories
Arts

Idea Factory, Rivanna River art exhibition feature collaboration

FLOW is a new arts festival that combines creativity-in-action and a heightened awareness of the natural world. The festival, including musician Gina Sobel, takes place along the banks of the Rivanna River in Darden Towe Park and Riverview Park. Publicity photo

This week two different organizations are bringing together people from various backgrounds to look at our community through a creative lens. One event will take place in a moonlit warehouse while the other will be on the sunlit Rivanna River. Here’s what they’re all about.

Idea Factory
1740 Broadway St.
September 29

Aidyn Mills, the donor relations manager for the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, has spent the last year and a half researching how to get people in their 20s, 30s and 40s—referred to as “next gen” —civically engaged in the community. A cultural anthropologist by training, Mills learned that while the demographic may not necessarily have excess financial resources, next geners don’t lack the enthusiasm, talent or time, “if directed in the right way.” Piggybacking on the CACF’s mission to help individuals “make thoughtful decisions about their philanthropy,” Mills has used her research to develop a program called Imagination Foundation that hits the sweet spot between structure and flexibility. The launch event, “Idea Factory,” will take place in a Woolen Mills warehouse and features an art installation by Claude Wampler and a sound installation by MICE.

So what is it exactly? Mills says she wanted to educate the audience by using a format other than a PowerPoint presentation. The whole concept is based on drawing from the diverse talents, skills and perspectives all community members have to offer. “The basic foundation is creative collaboration,” Mills says. “How do we all work together in addressing or approaching specific social [and environmental] challenges?” For instance, she asks, “Have you ever thought of asking your local mailperson what they think of urban infrastructure? I mean, who else knows the lay of the ground better than a mailperson?”

Idea Factory is only the first in a series of events focused on creative collaboration. There is no promise, Mills says, of solving all of our community’s problems in one night. “I think as organizations and institutions, for very good reason, we’re focused on outcomes and quantitative deliverables,” she says. “And I wanted to reside in the space of imagination for a while. I don’t think as a society we do that enough.”

Mills wanted a physical space that reflects this concept. Enter the empty warehouse. “Already that first step is pushing the bounds of how we do things,” she says. “And that’s what I’m trying to encourage our community to do.” She compares the warehouse to a blank canvas. The act of people coming together, she says, paints a picture of “what a resilient community can look like.” Rather than focusing on quantifiable results, Mills says, “The fact that we can come together and think and practice empathy and listening and creative problem-solving and critical thinking—that to me is an achievement. Let’s celebrate that!”

FLOW
Darden Towe Park/Riverview Park
September 30

Deborah McLeod, director of Chroma Projects for the last 10 years, was brainstorming a collaboration with the county when Dan Mahon, outdoor recreation supervisor with Albemarle County Parks & Recreation, proposed an art project on the Rivanna River. McLeod, who says, “I love the idea of going to the river, to see the river as a source of cleansing and a sacred aspect,” didn’t hesitate. The brainchild of McLeod and Mahon is FLOW, a dynamic art exhibition on and along the banks of the Rivanna that features a flotilla boat parade, art installations, live music, dance, theater, plein art painting and underwater photography.

The art installations both incorporate and represent their natural surroundings. Compared to typical art festivals, McLeod says, FLOW “is more conscious of environment.” For instance, local sculptor Renee Balfour has sourced invasive vines collected by Rivanna Master Naturalists volunteers to create a bower that will drape into the current. Alan Box Levine’s sculpture uses colored string to explore how trees communicate through their roots. Jum Jirapan will demonstrate suminagashi—a printmaking process that involves painting on water to create a marbleized effect—using silk fabric. McLeod’s own sculpture, a literal interpretation of the riverbed, consists of a rusted bedframe supporting a makeshift aquarium.

Meanwhile, along the riverbank, painters will paint the landscape plein air. McLeod says, “It will be interesting for visitors to see how two people looking at the same view will see it very differently.” Musicians, including Terri Allard, Michael Clem and the Chapman Grove Gospel Singers, as well as Front Porch students and teachers, will perform. Local dancer Some’ Louis will both dance in the water and use it as a percussive instrument, while Katharine Birdsall will lead a dance group along the walking path. Actor Megan Hillary will perform a piece of theater about Queen Anne, the river’s namesake, and Alexandria Searls, executive director of the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center, will demonstrate underwater photography in the Rivanna.

“The way it’s designed,” McLeod says, “is that you experience an art happening and then you go through nature and there’s nothing, so your sensitivity is heightened to nature and what to anticipate next.” FLOW’s sponsor, Rivanna Conservation Alliance, will have a booth, as well as the Rivanna Master Naturalists. “So it really is a confluence of art and nature,” McLeod says. “This is part of my hope that this is a kind of going to nature to be healed and to get some of this anguish out of our systems.”

Categories
Living

High school athletes share how they stay at the top of their games

Josie Mallory plays midfield for Monticello High School’s field hockey team, and last year was named to the first team Jefferson District and first team All-Conference 28/29. Photo by Eze Amos

High school student-athletes aren’t just working to be the best at their sports; they’re also juggling classes and college applications at the same time. That takes dedication, talent and lucky pre-game meals. We talked with some of the Charlottesville area’s best and brightest student-athletes to get a glimpse of how they do it all.

Josie Mallory

Junior at Monticello High School

Sports: Field hockey (midfield), basketball (point guard), lacrosse (forward) and track (400)

Josie Mallory manages not only to juggle different sports but also excel at them. Last year, she was named to the first team Jefferson District and first team All-Conference 28/29 during the field hockey season, as well as selected for the second team Jefferson District for lacrosse after hitting the 20-goal mark for the season, when Monticello went to its first state tournament. And she did it all while maintaining a 4.2 GPA. This year, she’s looking at a few big showcase tournaments (one in Orlando, one in Richmond) even as she visits college clinics and tackles the SAT.

Mallory’s favorite memory playing field hockey was during a shootout at the end of a match. She was up to score when she heard her sister, Lexi, shout from the sidelines: “Do your move!” With that, “I knew that I was going to make it,” says Mallory. “The goalkeeper was reaching to stop it when it slammed and hit the backboard. At that moment I looked at my sister and smiled so big.”

Pre-match meal: Pasta or sushi

Pre-match rituals: “I listen to music and think of my sister. I think about my sister because she calms me down when I am scared and gives me confidence to play for me and not anyone else.”

Piece of sports memorabilia: Field hockey Coach’s Award

Role model: “My older sister, Lexi.”

Favorite subject: Science

Biggest challenge overcome: “Deciding whether or not I should continue to play multiple sports or specialize. It’s so hard because I enjoy them all.”

Madison Warlick

Senior at Albemarle High School; committed to Randolph-Macon College

Sport: Volleyball (outside hitter/defensive specialist)

Madison Warlick was the MVP for her team in 2016, not only serving as the captain but also leading the team in kills (195), digs (274) and aces (53), as well as with a service percentage of 95.5. That led to quite a few conference invitations, the position of captain for 2017 and a verbal commitment to Randolph-Macon College volleyball for 2018.

Pre-match meal: Turkey avocado sandwich 

Pre-match rituals: “Lots of stretching and music to help me get pumped up.”

Piece of sports memorabilia: Shamrock Volleyball Tournament champion T-shirt

Role model: Cassie Strickland (University of Washington): outside hitter and defensive specialist

Favorite subject: Math

Biggest challenge overcome: “I tore my medial meniscus in April 2016 during my volleyball travel season. I had surgery in early May with six weeks on crutches and a projected five-month recovery. Right now I am doing really well in my recovery and the doctor is expected to clear me to play a month early.”

Emmy Wuensch

Senior at Albemarle High

Sport: Rowing

Emmy Wuensch, Albemarle captain, claimed second place in doubles rowing at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America national rowing competition last year. As she and her partner held up their medals for the celebratory pictures, she glanced over and saw her coach, Cathy Coffman. “I don’t think I had seen her so proud in my whole rowing career,” she says. “I thought, ‘This is why I do this sport.’”

In addition to that second place at nationals, Wuensch also took first place at the state-level competition. This year she looks forward to several more high-profile regattas as well as official college visits and, hopefully, a November signing.

Pre-match meal: Pasta and chicken

Pre-match rituals: “Before we race my coach gives us a pep talk. We have to walk the oars down to the dock, and there are always team members or coaches that help us shove off the docks and tell us to have a good race.”

Piece of sports memorabilia: “I wear a necklace with an oar on it that my mom got me for my birthday after I decided that I definitely love rowing too much to not continue with it after high school.”

Role model: “My role model in my sport is Coach Coffman; she inspires me every day to push harder than I thought possible.”

Favorite subject: “Psychology, medical terminology, anatomy, really anything related to health sciences.”

Favorite moment: “Having to yell at another boat when coming around a sharp turn on a 5K course because the other boat was trying to cut us off and take the inside turn, and I was not going to let that happen. So I yelled, ‘Please. Move. Over!’ as loud as I could, and then because we took the inside turn, we passed three boats and took first place in The Chase regatta on the Occoquan.”

Zack Russell

Senior at Charlottesville High School

Sport: Golf

Named the 2015 district player of the year and three-time winner of the Jefferson District championship, Zack Russell is looking forward to this year’s state championship as well as the Virginia State Golf Association and United States Golf Association qualifiers and tournaments next summer.

Pre-match meal: “Because golf tournaments usually start in the morning, I like to have eggs and cereal as a pre-game meal.”

Pre-match rituals: “I clean my clubs and mark all my golf balls with two dots separated by the logo on my ball.”

Piece of sports memorabilia: 2011 U.S. Open flag signed by the winner, Rory McIlroy

Role model: Jordan Spieth

Favorite subject: Math

Biggest challenge overcome: “Growing, and taking a whole year to grow into my swing.”

Categories
Arts

Rap battle winner Zeus4K looks to the next stage

J.R. Brown took the moniker Zeus4K and followed his love of music all the way to the top, winning the Nine Pillars high school rap competition earlier this year. Photo by Eze Amos

Last April, J.R. Brown stepped onto the wooden stage at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and looked out at the small-ish audience that had gathered in the auditorium. With the house lights on, he could see everyone’s faces. All of their eyes—and ears—were on him. He was nervous. He closed his eyes.

The 17-year-old had rapped plenty of times between classes in the breezeway at Albemarle High School, where his fellow students could hear him, but this was different. This was a performance, meant to impress not only a bunch of strangers but a handful of leaders of Charlottesville’s hip-hop scene who were judging the competition.

“Once I spit two bars, I just flowed out and opened my eyes,” says Brown, who goes by the moniker Zeus4K. He got comfortable quickly, spitting rhymes about the ample life he’s lived so far—about family, taking wrong turns, his frustration with how some people are “poppin’ Trayvons” while others are “poppin’ bottles,” about his hopes for his future.

“Life ain’t easy, it’s just crazy as it seems / Living life of hard knocks, of broken hearts and broken dreams. / …Going through a struggle really ain’t a bad thing / Because it made me rhyme harder, gotta get my diamond ring,” he spit a cappella, no beats to fall back on, just his flow.

Rugged Arts Hip-Hop Showcase
Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
September 29

Brown was born in the Charlottesville area and moved to Hampton, Virginia, with his mom, his stepdad and three siblings when he was about 8. As a kid, he was diagnosed with a heart condition and couldn’t play sports, which meant no more basketball with his boys at the neighborhood park until the streetlights came on. His mom and stepdad worked three jobs between them, but money was still tight—sometimes the water or lights were turned off. He was bullied by his peers for lacking the latest fly gear. “I’m not saying I had it the worst, but I didn’t have it the best, either,” he says. That “broken heart” he rapped about on the Jefferson School stage is real, in more ways than one.

Inspired by Nas’ “I Can,” he started writing his own music when he was about 12 or 13. “Any time I was messed up in the head, I would put on some tunes,” he says. Nas, Method Man, Wu-Tang Clan, Jeezy. Freestyling over classic beats (especially the Wu-Tang/RZA “Ice Cream” beat) was his release. He noticed that any time he focused on music, he stayed out of trouble, but too often, he says, he lost sight of the music.

Eventually, Brown was suspended from school for fighting. His family knew him as a shy kid who was a good student and they lectured him: “This isn’t you. This isn’t you.” He promised to change, and when he didn’t change, his mom brought him to live with his dad in Albemarle County last year.

“I’m always going to progressively grow up, but right then and there, I [realized] I had to get my shit together,” Brown says. He kept thinking about music, about how his friends would say things like, “I’d kill to have your talent,” and “You’re nice with your music. Why don’t you just stick with the music?” So when he got to Albemarle, that’s what he did. He started rapping in the breezeway and signed up for—and won—the Nine Pillars high school rap competition.

That night, “everyone really listened to me,” he says. “Even though it wasn’t a humongous crowd, it’s just something I love doing. …Music is everything to me. It was a real game-changer.”

One person listening closely that night was Doughman, a local producer and engineer who served as a judge for the competition. Struck by the young MC’s a cappella performance (a rarity in the hip-hop world), by the resonance and rhythm of his voice and the content of his lyrics, Doughman knew immediately that Brown was his top pick.

Along with bragging rights, Brown won a small trophy, a set of Beats By Dre headphones and two hours of studio time with Doughman. He laid down two tracks during those two hours, and is now working on two EPs with the producer. He’s appeared on Remy St. Clair’s “The Throne Room” show on 101Jamz and in August performed at the Rugged Arts Hip-hop Showcase at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. He’ll perform at the September edition of Rugged Arts this Friday.

“Life is rough, and you can choose to make it better, or not,” Brown says, noting that since he started focusing on music, his grades have improved and he’s stopped fighting. “Music is such a blessing for everybody,” he says. “Music gives people opportunities to say whatever they want,” and right now, Brown is happy to have that opportunity.

What’s in a name?

Last spring, J.R. Brown signed up for the Nine Pillars Hip-Hop Cultural Fest’s high school hip-hop showcase, and when he did, he needed a stage name (J.R. wasn’t going to cut it). So he thought about how music makes him feel: like a god. In Greek mythology, Zeus is the god of the sky and ruler of the gods—the gods’ god, if you will—so that was a no-brainer for Brown. At the time, he had 4,000 followers on Instagram, so he added “4K” to get Zeus4K. Plus, he says, the number four pays homage to Charlottesville’s 434 area code.

Categories
Opinion

Letters to the Editor: Week of September 27-October 3

On the path to planetary destruction

For those of us concerned that the race to completely destroy the Earth’s biosphere might be behind schedule, not to worry. This year’s worldwide forest fires, heat waves, droughts and historic-level hurricanes could prove to break all records. According to the National Fire Information Center as of September 15, the total number of active large fires (which includes full suppression and resource managed fires) is 66, and fires nationwide have consumed 8,036,858 acres—about 12,557 square miles, larger than the size of Maryland. Along the French Mediterranean coast, wildfires forced the evacuation of 12,000 people. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma’s devastation to Texas and Florida’s coasts are unprecedented for a single year, and a new Category 6 hurricane level may be required in the future. (The monetary cost to humans in terms of billions of dollars in lost jobs, housing and infrastructure, agriculture and resorts may not be determined for months.)

And guess what? There’s another reason not to worry. According to Fortune, Trump has bolstered Big Oil’s 40-year quest to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: “There’s a simple reason for their persistence: ‘ANWR is the largest unexplored, potentially productive geologic onshore basin in the United States,’ the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in 2000. It’s also one of the rare pieces of unspoiled wilderness left in the world—home to polar bear dens and caribou calving grounds—and remains much the same as it was 10,000 years ago.”

Seriously, I assume we have not forgotten that stern warning from Smokey the Bear: “Only YOU can prevent forest fires!” I certainly hope Smokey’s cousin, a polar bear, also has a warning: “Only YOU can prevent climate catastrophes!” This could also serve as a reminder to vote in November for candidates who care about our planet and are willing to take action and support policies that will protect our air, our forests and our tributaries and bay from pollution and pipelines.

Julius Neelley
Lake Monticello

Corrections

Native American Student Union Vice President Ben Walters was incorrectly identified in last week’s story, “No invitation: Why Native American groups weren’t protesting Unite the Right.”

The number of black and white arrests in last week’s ”‘Culture of racism’? Albemarle cop says high-volume black stops not racial profiling” should have specified those figures were from sectors 1 and 2 in county police patrol areas, not the entire county.

Categories
News

JADE wannabe: Profiling case against Albemarle cop likely headed to trial

Albemarle police officer Andrew Holmes, photographed in 2011, received qualified immunity on two of the claims against him, but the racial profiling part of the lawsuit will move forward. Photo Hawes Spencer

A federal judge raised questions about an Albemarle police officer’s unprecedented late-night search of two African-American plaintiffs’ home for a piece of paper, and said a jury may find it was based on racial profiling.

Fewer than two weeks before trial date, Judge Glen Conrad seemed inclined to allow Bianca Johnson and Delmar Canada’s lawsuit against Officer Andrew Holmes to go forward, but said the case against Albemarle County was a closer call.

In court September 21, Holmes’ attorney, Julian Harf, acknowledged that his client was looking for drugs when he obtained a search warrant to seek a notice of driver’s license suspension that Canada told him he’d never received when Holmes pulled him over April 26, 2014.

Holmes had been outside the 7-Eleven on Greenbrier running license plate numbers of parked cars. He discovered a BMW there belonged to Johnson, looked up her associates, found her fiancé, Canada, his photo and information that his license was suspended. When Canada came out of the store and drove off in the car, Holmes pulled him over.

The next day, Holmes obtained a search warrant for the home Johnson and Canada shared, and executed the warrant on a Friday night after 11.

A search warrant for a DMV notice had never been done before, according to the deposition of a veteran Albemarle officer. “This is unusual,” said Conrad, who had never seen such a request in his years as a magistrate. “Was there any inkling drugs were involved?” he asked.

Holmes wanted to work in drug interdiction, and had applied to the JADE—the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force—said Harf. “This officer was interested in drugs. He knows if he goes at night there’s more likelihood he’ll find drugs.”

“It seems a jury could say Officer Holmes saw an African-American driving a very expensive nice automobile and assumed he was dealing drugs,” said the judge.

Harf also asserted that statistics showing Holmes ticketed and arrested blacks far more often than his colleagues—and that he’d received complaints—were irrelevant. Holmes is being sued in three other cases by black plaintiffs who allege he targeted them because of their race and the cars they were driving.

Whether the county is liable for Holmes’ behavior and condoned it because of a “culture of racism,” as the plaintiffs contend, “is a close issue,” said Conrad.

Holmes received 11 complaints in 2014 and seven in 2015, yet he said his supervisors never said anything to him about them, said plaintiffs’ attorney Jeff Fogel.

Conrad had not ruled at press time. The case is scheduled for a two-day jury trial beginning October 2.

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Arts News

Film fest features racial theme, brings William Macy

Director Jody Kielbasa introduces his ninth film festival. Staff photo

In the wake of the August 11-12 events, the 30th Virginia Film Festival harkens back to its earlier days when it had a theme every year. This year, it’s morphed into a sub-theme of “race in America” in partnership with Montpelier, according to festival director Jody Kielbasa.

Previously announced director Spike Lee had been asked to attend back in the spring. A few days after a white supremacist invasion put Charlottesville on the hate map, Lee called and said he’d be here, says Kielbasa, and he’ll be screening his documentary, 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham.

“That was domestic terrorism,” says Kielbasa. “They didn’t label it then.”

Kielbasa’s old friend William Macy, star of Showtime’s “Shameless,” will be on hand to screen his new film, Krystal.

Festival stalwart/producer Mark Johnson will bring his latest offering, the new Alexander Payne film Downsizing, the third time a Payne movie will open the festival, following The Descendants in 2011 and Nebraska in 2013. It stars Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig.

“OJ: Made in America” filmmaker Ezra Edelman will be on hand, as will UVA alum Margot Lee Shetterly, who wrote the book that was made into the film Hidden Figures.

Christian Bale’s new movie, Hostiles, is the centerpiece film, and it stars Rosamund Pike and Wes Studi. Director Scott Cooper is a Virginia native and he’ll be here for a discussion at the Paramount.

The current era of “fake news” coincides with the 30th anniversary of Broadcast News, which will be followed with a discussion by legendary newsman Jim Lehrer and the Miller Center’s Wyatt Andrews.

Cult classic Harold and Maude will get the shot-by-shot treatment. And silent films by Alfred Hitchcock—The Lodger (1927)—and Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant on its 100th anniversary will be accompanied with live music by Matthew Marshall and the Reel Music Trio.

The festival features foreign films that it’s virtually impossible to catch around here, and fans of Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke will get to see his latest, Happy End, among the 10 or so currently confirmed.

The festival runs November 9 to 12, and tickets go on sale Friday, September 29.