This week’s edition of Business Week includes an essay by Scott Clemente, a first-year student at UVA’s Darden School of Business, about the long and winding road he traveled before deciding to get an MBA. The 32-year-old worked for Goldman Sachs in Chicago and London and for Morgan Stanley in Rome, also finding time to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, before finally applying to Darden. Clemente opens and closes his essay with a scene from an unnamed Charlottesville watering hole, where people dressed as gorillas and cheerleaders are among the patrons, and where four beers cost $4. To which we say, maybe it’s time for us to get an MBA too—we’ve obviously been drinking in all the wrong places.
[October 21]
Eisenberg honored
Library of Virginia hands out fiction award
Along with a number of other writers, UVA fiction professor Deborah Eisenberg has won a literary award from the Library of Virginia, according to today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch. Specifically, Eisenberg’s short-story collection Twilight of the Superheroes earned praise from judges; another local writer, Donna M. Lucey, was a nonfiction finalist for her book Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age, and Richmond native Tom Wolfe snagged a lifetime achievement award. Unfortunately, the Times-Dispatch failed to provide an image of the "crystal book" presented to Eisenberg and other honorees.
 UVA professor Deborah Eisenberg one an award from the Library of Virgina for Twilight of the Superheroes. |
[October 20]
Coran Capshaw—role model?
Perhaps for record labels trying to stay afloat
As the S.S. Compact Disc continues its steady plunge beneath the surface of that ocean we call "technological irrelevance," a few musicians and management teams are paddling away from the impending wreckage in lifeboats. Recently, news sources from Billboard and The Associated Press to Business Week blogger Jon Fine (in a post dated October 29) have mentioned the names "Radiohead" and "Red Light Management," Coran Capshaw’s music management firm, in close company. Fine mentions Capshaw’s additional music biz endeavors—his ATO Records label and Musictoday, a merchandise company now owned by Live Nation—and says that, as record sales decline, bright bands may do well to sign with "savvy management types like Coran Capshaw," where they can ensure prosperity by marketing themselves across a range of cultural fronts. "In an LP- or CD-centric world," writes Fine, "a label had enormous advantages…That advantage evaporates in the transition to digital." Radiohead has not yet announced plans to release its latest record, In Rainbows (currently sold through their website for any price deemed appropriate by purchasers) on a label in 2008, but Capshaw’s Side One Records, co-owned by ATO Records and Red Light Management, is rumored to be a frontrunner.
[October 19]
Rutherford Institute represents rabbi
Sues New Jersey town over religious rights
 John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, is representing a New Jersey rabbi who is fighting for the right to hold religious gatherings in his home. |
Recently making headlines for challenging the constitutionality of Virginia’s so-called abusive-driver fees, the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute is now representing a New Jersey rabbi who sued his town over a new law. Rabbi Avraham Bernstein said that the law, which defined his house as a place of worship, unfairly caused him to violate zoning laws when hosting prayer services in his home. "This is a small group of Jews meeting in somebody’s home," Rutherford president John Whitehead said. "If there were a hundred cars pulling up it might be some concern. But these people walk. It’s their Sabbath. They can’t drive." Though the town amended its law to make an exception for Bernstein’s situation, the rabbi sued again after the town set up a video camera to establish how many people were visiting his home.
[October 18]
Virginia man’s execution halted
Decision may trigger closer questioning of lethal injections
The Washington Post published a supreme piece of news this morning. The Supreme Court has put a stop to the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett, who used a Danville motel brass lamp to beat a co-worker to death in 2001. Emmett’s guilt is not in question. Rather, legal experts say the decision might trigger a nationwide moratorium on lethal injections, until the Court decides next year whether that method of execution constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment." According to the Post, studies have shown that inmates may be fully conscious if the barbiturate isn’t administered correctly, and may experience intense pain without being able to communicate that fact.
 Back in June, a group of people opposed to the death penalty held a vigil outside the Charlottesville Courthouse for Christopher Scott Emmett, who was granted a stay by Governor Tim Kaine two hours before his scheduled June 13 execution. The appeal filed by Emmett with the Supreme Court was upheld yesterday. |
[October 17]
Heavy symbolism
UVA students stage a "lie in" on six-month anniversary of Virginia Tech shootings
 On October 16, thirty-two UVA students held a "lie in" on the Lawn to protest what they say are the country’s lax gun laws. |
They lay on their backs, shoulder to shoulder, for three minutes. Each was dressed in black, and each wore maroon and orange yellow ribbons around his or her neck. Thirty-two UVA students held a "lie in" October 16 in protest of what organizers say are the country’s lax gun laws. As TV cameras rolled and photographers snapped away, the minutes grew heavy with symbolism. The period of time that the students laid on the ground, three minutes, represented the brief interval it takes to buy a gun. The number of students, 32, signified the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech, which took place six months ago. The principal organizer of the protest, Dillon Hauptfuhrer, said that seeing how close to home a tragedy like Virginia Tech can hit motivated her to take action.
[October 16]
Warner earns one million
30 points ahead in poll
I’m rich, biotch!
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Although he only announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on September 13, Mark Warner has raised more than one million dollars through the end of that month. As reported in the Virginian-Pilot, the former governor’s campaign received 703 contributions in-state and 301 outside of Virginia. Warner, a Democrat, is running for the seat of the retiring John Warner. The Republicans, meanwhile, voted on Saturday to choose their next nominee in June at a statewide convention. Regardless, according to Newport News’s Daily Press, a recent poll shows Warner 30 points ahead of any rumored opposition, which may explain his ability to raise so much without even hosting a fundraiser.