Month: May 2023

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Generational investment?

Albemarle County wants to spur a public-private partnership to build several hundred thousands of square feet for military use and defense contractors. The image above shows a prospective future expansion of Rivanna Station superimposed over satellite data. Supplied photo.

Should Albemarle County supervisors pay a single landowner $58 million for 462 acres of land to help preserve the future of the area’s growing intelligence community? That’s the question for a June 21 public hearing.  

“We know this project is a generational investment in our community’s vibrancy,” says J.T. Newberry, Albemarle’s interim director of economic development. 

Rivanna Station makes up half of the estimated $1.2 billion economic impact the defense sector has in the region,
according to a recent report from the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. 

Tenants include the National Ground Intelligence Center and the Defense Intelligence Agency. The military base dates back to 1997, when the U.S. Army bought land to move NGIC out of downtown Charlottesville. NGIC is currently spending $90 million on an expansion for additional space and parking. 

Jeff Richardson, a member of the county’s executive staff, says the question of whether NGIC might move to Missouri came up in 2018 when Albemarle met with Army officials about their future needs. At the time, new headquarters for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency were being planned in St. Louis.

Planning got underway for what the Army might want in order for Rivanna Station to expand. Richardson says the county used a real estate broker to enter into anonymous negotiations with developer Wendell Wood to purchase some of the land he owns under the firm Next Generation LLC. (At press time, officials with the Department of the Army had not returned a request for comment.)

“The Department of Defense had a strong preference to have as large a buffer from neighbors as possible, because it enhances base security,” Richardson says. 

The future expansion of Rivanna Station would be about 100 acres, and Richardson says additional land could be developed for defense sector businesses that would be compatible. 

With that in mind, they have also put forth a vision for something called the Intelligence Community Innovation Acceleration Campus, which is modeled in part after the future NGA facility in St. Louis. 

“Based on the discussions that we’ve had with our partners at the state and their consultants, which are well connected with the intelligence community, we believe there is a strong desire to replicate this model on the East Coast,” says Deputy County Executive Trevor Henry. “Albemarle County sits in an ideal spot.” 

Newberry says other partners would be needed to make this intelligence campus a reality, adding that Albemarle will work with state economic development officials and others.

“Not only do we need the land to be acquired but we also need to ensure the appropriate zoning is in place, due diligence has been completed, and that necessary infrastructure is in place,” Newberry says. 

Five years ago, Albemarle purchased the former Readings by Catherine property on U.S. 29 North for $250,000, in order to preserve it for a future road connection.    

Supervisors will get more financing details at their June 7 meeting. 

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Arts Culture

She wrote

Golnar Adili’s “She Feels Your Absence Deeply: A Family History Woodblock” is on display at “Women Making Books” through June 10. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Commonplace books, private scrapbooks, and zines are presented alongside traditionally published works at “Women Making Books,” an exhibition currently on display at the UVA’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. The show forces viewers to let go of their preconceived notions of what a book is, so they consider the idea of authorship and explore the ways in which women have been involved in North American and English bookmaking from the mid-18th to 21st centuries. 

“The [exhibition] is thinking about women writing books, but writing in scare quotes,” says curator Annyston Pennington. “What does it mean to be a writer? What does writing look like? And what are the different ways that women have actually participated in and also intervened in print culture?”

Read between the lines of the exhibition’s 23 pieces, and you might begin to uncover the answers. 

The exhibition, arranged chronologically, opens with a familiar frontispiece illustration of Phillis Wheatley, found at the beginning of her 1773 work, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Though the publication of the book made Wheatley the first published African American author of poetry, her control over the design of the book itself was limited. Wheatley was enslaved by a Boston family, and her enslaver’s words forward her own. What would it have looked like if Wheatley had been able to call all the shots regarding the design of her book?

Questions of agency and intent arise at all the installations, which include works by other well-known authors like Virginia Woolf and Louisa May Alcott, as well as pieces from unknown women who likely would not have even considered themselves writers. 

One such piece is a commonplace book from 1782, belonging to an unidentified woman who filled the blank pages with quotations, translated Latin, and bits of writing from contemporary authors, much like the way we use modern-day Tumblr blogs or Pinterest boards.

Another installation includes a poetry book, in which a grieving mother found solace following the death of her son. Her annotations in the margins of the page could be considered defacement, but by including her in “Women Making Books” she is presented as an author. Whether she meant to or not, her words have altered our perception and reading of the book, making it impossible to detangle the two writings found within.  

“Women Making Books” concludes with “She Feels Your Absence Deeply: A Family History Woodblock” by artist and UVA alum Golnar Adili. Text is written on multiple wooden blocks, which can be arranged to show different images. It turns the traditional book model on its head, and refashions it into something new. 

Together, the works offer an intimate look inside the minds of various talented women and what they deemed important enough to write down, in a collection that serves to memorialize a feminine bond of creativity when creating, deconstructing, and reimagining books. 

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Arts Culture

Dürty work

Musician Koda Kerl has expanded the live music offerings at Dürty Nelly’s since he joined the booking team in 2021 and launched Koda’s Corral. Photo by Rich Tarbell.

The weather was clear, and the pickup truck show was a go.

Koda Kerl brought the idea to Dürty Nelly’s when he started managing the local bar’s music booking in spring of 2021. Nelly’s owner Jordan Brunk had hired Kerl to kickstart his sound coming out of lockdown, and one idea was to formalize “the corral,” a casual outdoor gathering of musicians born at Brunk’s other bar and restaurant, Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar. “It wasn’t so much a performance, but we would try some new songs, and it grew,” Kerl says.

Riffing on the concept at Dürty Nelly’s, Kerl and Brunk decided not only to launch the “curated songwriter showcase,” but also to expand their usable outdoor space—weather permitting—by using the bed of a pickup truck as a stage.

Koda’s Corral has since hosted a bevy of local talents, including Adam Long, Emily Kresky, Kai Crowe-Getty, Rob Cheatham, Will Overman, and Kerl himself. But it was that first night when they rolled the pickup out as a perch that stuck with him.

“It was a special night—beautiful at sunset, tons of people crowded around,” Kerl says. “I grew up in Nelson County, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”

The songwriter showcase epitomizes the vibe Kerl and Brunk want to drive: A dusty Americana, Southern rocking and eclectic soundstage, where folks who like cheap drinks and dancing like no one’s watching can do their thing.

Kerl himself has spent a lot of time touring and exploring venues as frontman for Chamomile & Whiskey, and as a result, he knows the value of stepping-stone clubs like Dürty Nelly’s. They’re a place to be seen and grow recognition as bands climb to bigger houses. And they’re places where more established bands can stop in without stress between cities. Places with an easygoing vibe where you might not make a ton of money, but you can have a good time, play without pressure, stay sharp, and sling a little merch. “We don’t have an enormous budget, but we’ve been gaining a reputation for being fun and an easy stop on the way to more lucrative shows,” Kerl says. 

Kerl says he tried to draw on diversity to keep the new Nelly’s sound interesting; his goal is always to bring in audiences where the faces don’t all look the same. That means that along with the traditional country sound of Richmond’s Deau Eyes, the bar has put up the ’80s-inflected garage rock of Work Wear, as well as the jaunty indie outfit Daddy’s Beemer from Charleston, South Carolina.

Nelly’s has hosted music video shoots for local friends like Lord Nelson and Shagwüf, and teamed up with Fry’s Spring Beach Club to host a doubleheader for Fredericksburg’s Elby Brass. After the band’s horn players had graced the club’s pool, they processed down JPA to Nelly’s for another set. “They’re always up for things like that,” Kerl says of Brunk and his team at the bar, where he’s careful to point out he’s not actually an employee. “They want to work with everyone and build the scene.”

Kerl says Dürty Nelly’s won’t soon be hosting cover bands, and some genres, like extremely loud metal, might clash with the space’s acoustics, but otherwise, the team remains open. “It’s fun to see people in their 70s hanging out with college kids and people of different tastes,” Kerl says. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes us proud and happy to be a part of the scene.”

If fans of Chamomile & Whiskey are wondering how’s he gonna find time to make new music himself—not to worry, he says. His band has a nearly finished new record, which Kerl’s begrudgingly acquiesced to leaking out streaming-style one song at a time, and they’re ready to hit the road to support it. He says he’s in a rhythm at Nelly’s; all he has to do is figure out how to be a little quicker with all the emails.

“We just finished our first longer tour a few weeks ago, so I can finally take a break from driving and scroll through my phone and get back to people,” Kerl says. “When I was younger, I know I made every mistake you could, but the funniest one to me is the blanket email that doesn’t even mention the name of the venue. So those get moved on from, but we don’t mind emails from wild acts. We’re all ears for that kind of thing.”

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Arts Culture

Exit music

Since 2004, Kirby Hutto has been general manager of the Charlottesville Pavilion, where he and his team have hosted legendary musicians and world leaders. Now, he’s ready to retire. Photo by Tristan Williams.

Kirby Hutto has been involved with the Ting Pavilion since ground was broken for the downtown venue in 2004. Together with his crew, he’s hosted James Brown, Loretta Lynn, Bruce Springsteen, former President Barack Obama, and the Dalai Lama, to name just a few. Now, the Pavilion’s general manager is passing the torch and stepping into the crowd.

“I’m 65. I’ve got a Medicare card, man,” says Hutto. “It’s time to start enjoying everything that I’ve worked so hard for.”

Hutto’s career was born out of a love for live music. He traces the spark to 1976, when he was a first-year at the University of Virginia. “Back in the day, when the drinking age was 18,” he says, “you would go to have dinner at Observatory Hill Dining Hall and there would be kegs and a band playing outside on the Lawn.”

But his first shot at managing live shows didn’t come until 1992, when he went to work for Fridays After Five, Charlottesville’s longrunning concert series. There, he transitioned the Fridays shows from booking corporate bands—“You know, wedding bands that would come into town. They had no local following.”—to tapping into outstanding local talent such as Charlie Pastorfield and The Believers, Wolves of Azure, TR3, The Casuals, bands that were “big in their time.” He remembers how, in 1995, The Subdudes accidentally drove to Charlotte, North Carolina, on the day of the concert while it was pouring rain in Charlottesville. 

At FAF, Hutto learned to make sure the show went on no matter what chaos was unfolding backstage. That lesson has served him well in his GM role at the Pavilion.

“You’re really, really fighting the good fight to make things happen,” he says. “And ideally, from the patron’s point of view, all they know is they came to a great show.”

In 1996, Hutto left Fridays After Five for more steady work in the corporate world. But soon, he caught wind that Coran Capshaw was looking to build an amphitheater on the Downtown Mall. Hutto contacted a good friend who worked for Capshaw, and asked to pass along a message, almost as a joke: “If you need somebody to run that amphitheater, tell him to give me a call.” 

Months later, he got that call. “Next thing you know, I’m having dinner with Coran,” says Hutto.

At the Pavilion, Hutto has dealt with every manner of touring artist, from the well-worn veterans of the road to the discombobulated traveling acts that haven’t heard of an input list before. But regardless of a performer’s crew size or experience, he and his staff—many of whom have been with Hutto for five to 15 years—have worked tirelessly to ensure visiting musicians have a memorable time in Charlottesville.

“I know from talking with other venues, artist hospitality can be an afterthought,” says Hutto, who credits Allie Leffler, the Pavilion’s artist hospitality manager, for the effusive praise performers have for the venue. “And that’s how you, A, make an artist want to come back, but, B, it’s also how you sort of compensate for some of the challenges that we know our venue presents.”

The urban nature of the Pavilion’s downtown location means that space to unload gear is limited—and therefore that process takes much longer—but artists also have quick access to the amenities of the mall and surrounding attractions. David Byrne brought his mountain bike to town, and Pavilion staff pointed him to the Rivanna Trail. Neko Case went on a shopping spree. 

“A lot of artists will take their day off here,” says Hutto.

That pride in the Pavilion’s situation in the center of Charlottesville extends to the non-musical events Hutto and his team book, from high school graduations to the Eid prayer for the city’s Muslim community. He stresses that the Pavilion is city-owned—“It’s a public-private partnership”—and that the way the venue represents, promotes, and supports the community is the legacy he hopes to leave behind.

“We’ve created this special little place … there’s not a whole lot of them exactly like us around the country,” says Hutto. “We find that balance between the ticketed shows with the big names, the Fridays After Five with the local names, and then all of the community activities. And between those three buckets, we stay damn busy.”

Though Hutto is stepping from part-time involvement into retirement in May, he’ll remain a resource for his successor through the end of the year. The new GM, Jonathan Drolshagen, has managed venues such as The Southern and The Jefferson Theater, and he shadowed Hutto last year.

“I hope he’s gonna be able to thrive in it,” says Hutto.

Categories
Arts Culture

Two directions

Husband and wife duo David Wax Museum released the radio-friendly You Must Change Your Life on May 5. Photo by Tristan Williams.

Folk troubadour and 10-year Charlottesville resident David Wax befriended a fellow aspiring musician while studying at Harvard University. The students had a lot in common, Wax recalls, also having met briefly during high school trips to Washington, D.C., where they pursued their passion for politics.

The two friends did not go on to found the successful pop-Americana duo known as David Wax Museum.

Instead, Pete Buttigieg would abandon his musical aspirations and turn to public service, first acting as mayor of a midsize Midwestern city, then launching a splashy presidential bid, followed by an appointment as President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Transportation. 

Wax ventured in a different direction, leaving behind his political aspirations and launching a journeyman music career.

After college, Wax won a fellowship that took him to southern Mexico to study its storied folk music tradition. He returned to the Boston area in 2007 with a deepened understanding of the traditional sounds, and a penchant for songwriting.

That’s when Wax met yet another aspiring musician, Suz Slezak, who would have a far more profound impact on his career. The pair launched a band, David Wax Museum, as a vehicle for Wax’s Latin-infused take on American folk.

Wax and Slezak fell in love on their first national tour in 2008. Today, they have two kids, more than 1,500 live shows to their credit, and an eighth album, You Must Change Your Life, that came out on May 5.

“We recorded it several years ago. A big part of this record has been waiting,” Slezak says. “So much of us changes day-to-day and month-to-month, and who we were when we made it was not who we are now, but … I can’t get tired of things that are rich and fun and danceable.”

The outcome has been hard won for Slezak, originally from Free Union, and Wax, of Missouri. The couple has steadily produced albums since forming David Wax Museum, the first in 2008 and six more over the next 11 years. They received national attention in 2010, winning a spot in the Newport Folk Festival, and critics acclaimed the band’s 2011 album Everything Is Saved and 2012’s Knock Knock Get Up. In 2015, Wax and Slezak came back with Guesthouse, which reached nine on the Billboard Heatseakers chart and 20 on the Billboard Americana/Folk Albums chart.

Along the way, David Wax Museum appeared on “CBS This Morning” and in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, wrote songs for television, and shared stages with the The Avett Brothers, Old 97’s, Buena Vista Social Club, Guster, Josh Ritter, and The Wood Brothers. In 2018, the band played the wedding of Wax’s old college friend, Buttigieg.

Wax and Slezak settled in Charlottesville when they were pregnant with their first child in 2013. They’ve been residents ever since, and while touring as a band with young children in tow isn’t without difficulties, the biggest family crisis came just last year.

Late in 2022, Wax suffered what he’s described in statements as “a sudden and inexplicable collapse.” He doesn’t offer many details on the incident, largely because he still doesn’t have many. He was rushed to a hospital in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri, and given a cardiac catheterization to assess his condition. The culprit turned out not to be a heart attack, which doctors initially suspected.

“It’s still a little bit of a medical mystery,” Wax says. “I’ve been seeing just about every doctor in the UVA medical system and at Martha Jefferson. But I’m feeling good now.”

Wax has been given the green light to go back on tour with David Wax Museum. He and Slezak have been ramping up their efforts since February 26, when they opened for Los Lobos at The Paramount Theater.

“In my mind, it represents the culmination of a sound I’ve been chasing after for 15 years,” Wax says. “We were finally mature enough—or developed enough. We had the right team, the perfect producer. Everything had to come together for every song to hit in the right way.”

Produced by Dan Molad, who plays drums alongside Dirty Projectors singer Maia Friedman in Coco, and has produced records for the likes of JD McPherson, You Must Change Your Life transitions seamlessly from quirky pop anthems like the album’s title track to more traditional Museum canvases like “Luanne,” its first single. Indeed, the toe-tapping doesn’t stop much during the record’s 13-song tracklist.

Onstage, Wax says he’s been “walking on eggshells” for three months after his collapse, but David Wax Museum is emotionally recharged by You Must Change Your Life. As he lay in his hospital bed, Wax says he “felt at peace because this record exists.” Slezak agrees, saying waiting through the pandemic to release the new album now feels like the correct decision.

“I have to trust that this record is coming out at the right moment. Hopefully, this all means something,” she says. “I never listen to our older records, but I find myself listening to this one all the time. I feel like the messaging of the record and the way it makes us feel just never gets old.”

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Arts Culture

A signature scent

Erin O’Hare goes inside the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar in Under the Table and Screaming: Volume 1, the first in a series of zines that celebrate local music venues, past and present. Learn more at underthetablebook.com. Photo by Eze Amos.

In the opening pages of the new zine, Under the Table and Screaming: Volume 1, musician Gina Sobel says, “If you run into a friend who just left the Tea Bazaar, you ask them, ‘Oh, were you just at the Tea Bazaar?’” This is a reference to the distinctive smell of the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, a second-floor venue that has been hosting performers since 2002. Its mixture of loose leaf tea, vegetarian fare, and hookah provide a sensory effect that is a critical aspect of time spent sidled up to the bar or watching a band on the tiny stage. It permeates the air and defines the unique venue.

For those new to “the tea house,” as it’s often known, the zine details the physical space (smells and all), setting the scene for what it’s like to see live music performed there—or to be a band lugging gear upstairs, “a band’s worst nightmare … But oh, is it worth it.” Under the Table and Screaming: Volume 1, written by Erin O’Hare, marks the first in a series of zines published by WTJU that celebrates local music venues, past and present. 

WTJU General Manager Nathan Moore says, “For years, I toyed with the idea that WTJU ought to literally write the book on Charlottesville music. It’s a way for us to celebrate the DIY and independent venues and artists we love.” Early in the pandemic, Moore reached out to O’Hare, a WTJU D.J. and Visible Records music booker, to see if she was interested in writing that book. As a former C-VILLE Weekly writer who covered the local music scene, O’Hare dove in, interviewing more than 60 people and writing a manuscript to submit to a local publisher. She recalls, “I knew that I wanted a diverse set of voices. … And, as always, people will lead you on the path, like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to talk to so and so.’”  

When book publication plans didn’t work out as planned, O’Hare and Moore adjusted course, deciding to format the material as a series of zines, which could be more playful in format and content. “I wanted it to be approachable, fun, and have a ton of personality, because the places I’ve chosen to write about have a lot of personality,” says O’Hare.

In the decision to launch the series with a volume dedicated to the tea house, O’Hare had plenty to play with. “Because of the open-mindedness of Tea Bazaar and the people who’ve booked it, it has welcomed everything from avant-garde jazz to electronic music, from local folk to hip-hop and raucous indie rock. They’ve also held poetry readings, haiku slams, and country Christmas concerts complete with homemade cookies,” she writes.

Tea Bazaar founders Matteus Frankovich and Jason Andrews envisioned it as a place to celebrate tea traditions and host bands. “The energy [behind it] was to create a public living room and open it up to folks and whatever energy they brought in there that kind of resonated,” Frankovich says in the zine. The rest is history, captured by O’Hare through no-holds-barred interview excerpts alongside canonized menu highlights (when was the last time you enjoyed a matcha cooler?) and bands that have taken (and shaken) the venue’s small stage.

For those who rattled their cups and saucers dancing at Tea Bazaar shows in the aughts, sidebars about Borrowed Beams of Light, Dark Meat, Bucks and Gallants, Left and Right, and others, will spark plenty of memories. The zine also features an archive of selected show posters designed by (former C-VILLE Weekly columnist) James Ford, along with photos of live performances and celebrations at the venue. Still, O’Hare does not narrow her focus too tightly on any specific tea house epoch, acknowledging that, “in every music scene everywhere, the ‘best era’ is the one the person you’re talking to was involved in.” 

Using this as a guiding principle, her work highlights a range of voices from the tea house’s past and present. Though O’Hare is open about the limitations to how much history she was able to include in the zine, the far-ranging perspectives she features are also a nod to the hundreds of others who have booked shows, worked behind the bar, hauled gear up those stairs, and cleaned up the afterparties, as well as the thousands who have attended shows over the years. “Honoring the work that people have put in to make these spaces is what I’m most proud of,” says O’Hare. “That was one of the best things about working on this: So many people talking about what they love and why they love it.”

WTJU plans to publish four more issues in the zine series, “highlighting 10 more venues and sharing a bunch of anecdotes about past venues,” according to Moore. In other words, if you’re interested in taking a deeper dive into the history of the Pudhouse, The Bridge, The Front Porch, or Fellini’s, to name but a few, stay tuned.

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News

In brief

Michael Payne (left) and Lloyd Snook (right).

City Council forum

Five Democratic candidates for Charlottesville City Council convened for two forums ahead of the upcoming primary election.

While the general election for City Council is not until November, the winners of the June 20 primary are all but guaranteed seats due to the lack of Republican challengers.

The Democratic candidates vying for three open seats are Dashad Cooper, Bob Fenwick, Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne, and Mayor Lloyd Snook.

At the most recent forum on May 24, the candidates were given an opportunity to introduce themselves before moving on to public questions.

Newcomers Cooper and Oschrin spoke about their policy focuses, and shared their backgrounds as longtime Charlottesville residents. Taking a different approach, former councilor Fenwick highlighted his environmental and zoning concerns during his opening remarks. Current council members Payne and Snook focused on their accomplishments and desire to keep working on current projects.

For Snook in particular this election is crucial, as he must be reelected to council to be eligible for a second term as mayor.

The democratic primary for City Council is one of several local and state elections that will take place on June 20.

While the deadline to register ahead of time has passed, residents can still sign up to vote through same day registration. Voters can select up to three candidates for City Council on their ballots.

The full May 26 forum can be found on the Charlottesville Tomorrow website (cvilletomorrow.org) and the Cville Dems YouTube channel (youtu.be/bMv50qMiffk).

The Daily? Progress

Major changes are coming to The Daily Progress in June, when the longtime Charlottesville paper will switch from daily print editions to a thrice-weekly physical newspaper.

The DP will be delivered by mail on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday starting June 27, with a full e-edition available online. On days with no print edition, the publication will post condensed e-editions.

As the only daily newspaper in the Charlottesville area, the DP’s shift to three times a week print editions is notable. Since its founding in 1892, the paper has been a major source of local news.

In its article discussing the changes, the publication cited advertising shifts, printing costs, and the changing job market. These challenges are not unique to the Progress, with the consumption of print media declining broadly due to the rising popularity of digital content.

While The Daily Progress will still have new content online every day, the long-running paper’s shift away from daily print newspapers marks the end of an era for Charlottesville.

In brief

Veterans’ resources

Military Appreciation Month is coming to a close, but local veterans’ resources are still available. In the greater Charlottesville area, in-person resources for vets and their families can be found at the Charlottesville Veterans Affairs Office (va.gov) and the Virginia Department of Veterans Services (dvs.virginia.gov). The Veterans Crisis Line is an additional resource that can be reached by dialing 988 and selecting 1, or texting 838255. For confidential online chats, go to veteranscrisisline.net/get-help-now/chat

WillowTree layoffs

On May 24, Charlottesville-based tech company WillowTree laid off 23 employees locally, and nearly 100 more workers nationwide. The layoffs come months after the company was acquired by TELUS International, and WillowTree claimed the acquisition would create more jobs. In a statement regarding the layoffs, WillowTree President Tobias Dengel called the move a “restructuring,” and said it would “optimally [position the company] for long-term growth and success.” The layoffs impacted approximately 12 percent of WillowTree’s total workforce.

Good says pay up

The House of Representatives has passed a resolution introduced by Rep. Bob Good that would restart federal student loan payments and prevent the discharging of debt. While the measure was mostly passed along party lines, two Democrats voted with the slim Republican majority. The resolution was intro­duced through the Congressional Review Act, which is a fast-track legislative tool used to quickly overturn rules made by federal agencies. If the resolution is adopted, the decision would be retroactive and could potentially reinstate payments due during the pause. 

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News

Power shift

Alexis Zeigler works the strawberry patch at Living Energy Farm, which grows the majority of its own food. Supplied photo.

In the fall of 2010, Alexis Zeigler and Debbie Piesen set out to see if they could live independent of fossil fuels. On land just north of Louisa, they started building Living Energy Farm, their vision of a self-sufficient, off-grid community with zero carbon footprint. Last March, the off-grid systems and technology they developed won honorable mention and a $5,000 prize from Empower a Billion Lives, a global engineering competition aimed at designing energy solutions for the poorest 1 billion people on the planet. 

When Living Energy Farm started, Zeigler had already helped a few friends in Charlottesville build off-grid homes and worked on some engineering projects at Twin Oaks, an intentional community in Louisa County, so he had a pretty good idea of what it would take. 

“All of those systems failed over time,” Zeigler says. “You buy a big battery bank, you hook it up to the inverters, and it’s expensive, it turns off, it just doesn’t work very well.”

The pair knew they couldn’t just plug in solar panels in place of natural gas and expect the system to last. Living Energy Farm needed to be designed differently to truly be sustainable. The first step was to bring their energy consumption down. 

The majority of an American household’s energy consumption comes from heating and cooling. Zeigler and Piesen knew handling heat would be a key part of their design. That meant building to a community scale, since larger systems for heat storage are more energy efficient, and giving the walls 18-inch straw bale insulation. 

“If you get the cooperation part right, as much shared use as you can manage, and you get the insulation right, you bring your energy use way down, and then renewable energy becomes a very powerful thing,” Zeigler says. “If you just throw renewable energy at a mainstream middle-class house, you’re doing more harm than good.”

The other key was to store solar energy in places other than batteries, which are expensive and likely to break. 

Non-electric solar panels collect heat from the roof during the day and a fan blows the hot air under the floor where it is stored in the dirt and rock through the night. A water pump draws water from the well in the day and stores it in large, pressurized tanks, where it is ready to go at night. The refrigerator cools only during the day and its thick insulation keeps it cold all night. 

“I can take a hot shower all year round,” Zeigler says. “It works great.”

But the breakthrough came when Zeigler realized how much more durable a direct current solar energy system is than the conventional alternating current. Everything at LEF, from the ovens to the saws, everything except lights and laptops, is powered through direct current from the solar panels with no batteries. 

“Without expensive solar kits that break, I didn’t think we could keep the lights on,” Zeigler says. “I had no idea we could do what we’ve done here.”

Zeigler found that the DC system tolerates extreme voltage swings in a way that would shut down an AC system, meaning they can work on the energy supply they have, in cloudy or clear weather, and share energy among multiple devices. The devices just speed up or slow down depending on how much energy they’re getting.

“I had no idea you could do that,” Zeigler says. “With an AC motor, if you hook up an AC motor to a voltage supply that’s swinging all over the place, it’ll smoke and burn up right in front of your eyes. It won’t last 30 minutes.”

But with the DC system, Zeigler is able to run multiple motors, up to 5 horsepower, that overload his 1.5 horsepower supply, and they work just fine. Even in a heavy haze, he can run multiple devices at once. On a sunny day, he could have every device in his shop running at once.

“So, it means you can have a radically smaller system powering a bunch of different tools and it works. Can’t do that with AC,” Zeigler says. “Everything you learn as a mainstream electrician you have to unlearn with our systems. If you would have told me 15 years ago you were going to do something like this, I could have given you a very clear lecture on why it would never work.”

That system, called the Direct Drive DC Microgrid by the farm, is radically simple, affordable, and durable, Zeigler says. He believes that if more communities adopted the method, it would drastically reduce carbon output and increase energy independence. 

Engineers at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which sponsored Empower a Billion Lives, agree—at least in some measure. The farm itself is proof of the concept. 

Zeigler, however, is skeptical that mainstream engineering designs are actually headed toward progress. He argues that renewable energy products are not truly sustainable solutions.

“What’s happened is, buildings are way better insulated than they were, but we’re occupying so much more square footage, cars are more efficient but we drive more, appliances are a little bit more efficient, but we use more of them. We’re not gaining any ground at all. And sustainability is not difficult. Compared to building rocket ships and flying people to the moon and building nuclear weapons and all these things we do, it’s easy. It’s a lifestyle choice.”

LEF’s major goal for its DC Microgrid is to help more communities adopt it. They’ve installed their system on Navajo/Hopi land in Arizona, communities in Jamaica, and are currently working on a large project in Puerto Rico with organizations focused on food and energy independence. 

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Arts Culture

Record breaking 

Avery Fogarty grew up in Midlothian playing piano, singing in choir, and taking vocal lessons. When they picked up the guitar in high school, their musical world was transformed.

“When I started listening to Angel Olsen, Big Thief, and Snail Mail, that’s when I finally found a voice and I was like ‘I know what kind of music I want to make now,’” Fogarty says.

Fogarty began working the open mic circuit, where they met guitarist Kevin Ganley. The two decided to move to Richmond in a dedicated pursuit of music, forming Hotspit in 2018 with bassist Grant Tolber and drummer Kurt Bailey.

“The scene was incredibly welcoming. I feel like Richmond really takes care of new bands and really quickly we got to play some of the venues that I was going to and being like, ‘This is the venue I want to play; this would be the mecca for me or the big one,’” Fogarty explains. “I think we got to accomplish goals really quickly and that put us in a better position to be like, ‘Okay, how can we be even more serious? Maybe time to record and time to tour.’”

The group secured a date playing the renowned Audiotree series in Chicago, and thought it would be a good idea to release studio material ahead of the performance, so audience members would have a touchstone to listen to. Hotspit made its official recording debut in 2021 with CC, an EP tracked with Danny Gibney from the Harrisonburg group Dogwood Tales.

“That was the first time we had ever put out anything and realized how important recording is,” says Fogarty. “It’s funny because you think being a band is just recording, but for us, we thought we had to play every single show and cut our teeth first. So we did things a little backwards, but I wouldn’t change anything; I’m happy with how we approached it.

CC is a moody, melodic slice of indie rock, and this year, Hotspit picked up the pace with a follow-up EP, Memory of a Mirror Image. Standout track “Cave Dweller” was recorded at Drop of Sun in Asheville, with string arrangements by Jessika Blanks (of the duo Bedspread Radio) tracked back in Richmond at Bryan Walthall’s home studio.

“We try really hard to record what we can replicate live, so we don’t do a lot of overdubbing or extra elements that we aren’t also performing just so we kind of stay true,” Fogarty says. “Our live sound is similar to how we sound on our record.”

With two EPs under its belt, Hotspit plans a full-length release, and continues to tour, with stops in Harrisonburg, Baltimore, and New York City next month.

Categories
Arts Culture

3 to see

Disco Risqué. Supplied photo.

Entertainment time is precious, and venue calendars are stacked with options. Music writer and on-air radio pro Samantha Federico says these bands are on their way up. You should see them live, and here’s why:

Shagwüf 

Latest release: Trendy Weapon EP, 2020 

Staunton’s Shagwüf will make you howl, just like the band’s singer and bassist, Sally Rose, who often starts howling into the microphone at a song’s conclusion. Rose makes up a third of the band, which also includes Pete Stallings on guitar, and Pablo Olivieri on drums. 

Together since 2014, the trio commands whatever room it’s in with a dynamic combo of stoner pop, headbanging garage metal, and psychedelic glam rock, plus a hint of Latin flair. Shagwüf shows always bring love for the LGBTQ+ community, and fierce support of social justice issues. Rose, who identifies as trans, is a growing icon on the local music scene, and whenever Shagwüf has a show, it’s known as a safe space that welcomes all. The trio’s latest music video was recorded at the Chinchilla Café, where the group debuted new music that “will be released in this decade.” For upcoming show dates, go to shagwuf.com. 

Ramona & the Holy Smokes 

Latest Release: “I Honky Tonked Too Hard Last Night” single, 2023 

Central Virginia has its share of bluegrass and Americana music, but an old-school, authentic country movement is gaining momentum, thanks to Ramona & the Holy Smokes. Fronted by Ramona Martinez with a lineup that includes Kyle Lawton Kilduff (electric guitar), Brooks Hefner (pedal steel), Jay Ouypron (bass), and Porter Bralley (drums), the band plays honky-tonk originals in the vibe of Patsy Cline and George Jones. Martinez’s songwriting spans a range of colorful topics, including a smoking habit, ex-boyfriends, and her cat. Piloted by Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard’s “three chords and the truth” ethos, Ramona & the Holy Smokes have turned country music sneerers into believers (I can attest). Catch the band at one of its frequent Dürty Nellys gigs, or at The Southern Café & Music Hall on Friday June 2. 

Disco Risqué 

Latest Release: Joke Squad, 2022 

Can’t decide between a concert or a comedy show? Go see Disco Risqué for a whole lotta both. Ryan Calonder, Charlie Murchie, Andrew Hollifield, Robert Prescott, and Sean Hodge make up the Charlottesville band (formed by Murchie and Prescott in 2014). Fans know it as D.R., and newcomers will come to know the fivesome as passionate musicians who are always ready to crack a joke on stage. D.R.’s latest album, Joke Squad, is a passion project that clocks almost 50 minutes of rockin’ musical exploration. It rides hard rock into metal, and then into soft rock with trumpet, keyboard, and guitar solos. The trumpet, played by charismatic frontman Calonder, gives D.R. an edge that makes the band’s live shows a one-of-a-kind experience. Live show info at discorisque.com—Samantha Federico