Author: ben-sellers

Once again, you’ve answered our call. More than 600 people sent in C-VILLE’s “Best Of” ballots, providing invaluable assistance to our Native Guide as he sought out the greatest among the great, the best among the brightest here in Charlottesville. Naturally, there are many familiar favorites along with a few new faces, some select puns and one a propos reference to Sandra Bernhard.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

ART GALLERY
McGuffey Art Center

The McGuffey collective, housing many of the city’s visual veterans and offering regular open-studio hours, edged out galleries such as its former tenant Second Street Gallery and the now-departed Nature Visionary Arts. And with the inaugural run of its “Spotlight” series, the art center now opens its doors more than ever to the viewing public, ensuring its juggernaut status for years to come.

  

MOVIE HOUSE
The Jefferson Theater

The Downtown landmark dating from 1901 may not win for best sound system—but whether it’s the appeal of watching an art-house flick surrounded by early-20th-century murals and frieze work, or seeing major releases for a mere three bucks, the second-run theater is first in your hearts.

  

PLACE TO DANCE
R2

Rapture’s floor faced its closest competition from Club 216 and Fridays After 5. Other contenders were the new Satellite Ballroom and Outback Lodge’s Gothic dance party, The Dawning.

 

OUTDOOR RECREATION
Walnut Creek Park

This 480-acre jewel, open 365 days a year with bike trails, a boat launch, fishing and even summer canoe rentals, is one of Albemarle County’s best open spaces.

 

OUTDOOR EVENT OR FESTIVAL
Fridays After 5

Despite having a makeshift Garrett Street location for the first half of the Fridays season, the Downtown concerts showcasing your favorite local groups and the occasional rock ‘n’ roll dinosaurs withstood challenges from county fairs and a spring parade named after a certain tree. But as its new home, the open-air Charlottesville Pavilion, brings even bigger names to ticketed events, locals may start to wonder: Will the free outdoor series continue its “Best Of” winning streak next year?

 

SWIMMING POOL
ACAC

Its Adventure Central water park, off Four Seasons Drive, offers three outdoor pools, water slides and what the website calls a “park-like setting” (perhaps a tad euphemistic, considering the preponderance of pavement around the pool). The gym’s flagship facility at Albemarle Square also has an indoor pool for ACAC’s more exercise-minded members.

 

LIVE MUSIC VENUE
Starr Hill Music Hall

At three times Starr Hill’s size, and with heavy hitters already playing there, can the Charlottesville Pavilion be far behind Starr Hill in next year’s balloting? Either way, the trophy will end up in the same case, as music mogul/hyperactive developer Coran Capshaw operates both venues.

 

ROCK MUSICIAN/ BAND
Dave Matthews Band

In last year’s race, C-VILLE broke with tradition by naming Monticello Road the best local rockers—let’s face it, they needed the press more. This year’s race saw The Road closing the gap against the veteran front-runners. But with a newly released album (Stand Up) to promote, and the growing possibility that they may soon return to local stages, we’ll give DMB its just desserts this time. Coming in third were UVA-based psychedelic art-rockers Fountainhead. Bon chance à la prochaine, fellas.

FOLK MUSICIAN/ BAND
Terri Allard

Being a full-time mom evidently has
no effect on Allard’s stage energy as
she claims yet another victory, defeating newlywed runners-up Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule.

 

CLASSICAL MUSICIAN/ BAND
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Carl Roskott leads CUSO in its seasonal concert series of orchestral masterworks at Old Cabell Hall, which took first chair in the contest against UVA’s many choral groups.

 

BLUEGRASS MUSICIAN/BAND
Hackensaw Boys

We might expect a letter or two from diehard bluegrass buffs about declaring this neo-Appalachian outfit the winner. But nomenclature aside, The Hacks’ populist approach is as grassy as it gits in our voters’ eyes. The local twangers-turned-Nettwerk-recording-artists are moving full steam ahead with the recent release of their fourth album, Love What You Do.

 

JAZZ MUSICIAN/BAND
John D’earth

Seeing the UVA brass-master play Thursday nights at Miller’s is a must for fans and students of modern jazz. And at least one noted local jazz player voting in our poll “trumpeted” his colleague’s work as co-leader of the Thompson D’earth Band.

 

WORLD BEAT MUSICIAN/BAND
Darrell Rose

The contest between traditional African percussionist Rose and his frequent collaborator on guitar, Corey Harris, was a close one. But with a single vote separating the two, the ever-present skin-man can sound his own “Best Of” drumbeat for a second year running.

 

DJ
Quarter-Roy

By DJs, we meant, of course, the hardworking figures keeping parties pumping from behind the stereo at many local nightspots. Regular Mas mixer Quarter-Roy (a.k.a. Patrick Jordan) snags his second win this year over club fixtures Stroud and DJ Frank Rivera. But with Quarter-Roy’s recently announced retirement from the turntables (or was that just a ploy to make us want him more?), there could be new room at the top next year.

 

ARTIST
Monty Montgomery

The founder of Cilli Original Designs and CODG gallery, Montgomery is sharp and focused, yet full of energy and ideas, much like the brightly colored, pop-influenced paintings he produces. He also offers his own clothing line. Runners up were oil-painter Robin Braun and watercolorist Lee Alter.

 

AUTHOR
John Grisham

The quixotic individual who wrote “Not John Grisham” couldn’t cancel out the best-selling author’s supporters, who bestowed on him 100 votes more than his nearest competitor, poet Rita Dove.

 

KIDS ENTERTAINMENT
Virginia Discovery Museum

Parents and kids both can appreciate the educational fun at the Downtown museum’s exhibits, like the current “Circus! Many Faces, Many Places.” Runners-up were Planet Fun and the Charlottesville Ice Park.

 

TOURIST DESTINATION
Monticello

Our Native Guide had absolutely no trouble finding this place, and apparently neither do you when it comes to entertaining visitors.

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RETAIL

PLACE TO WORK OUT
ACAC

Long live the king!

 

SHOE STORE

Scarpa

We reported last year that Scarpa might face competition in the designer shoe market from its newly opened sister store, Great State Of. In fact, it was another newcomer, Garrett Street’s Sweet Beets Shoes, which posed the biggest challenge to the North Barracks Road “shoetique,” though Scarpa still enjoyed a comfortable lead.

 

TATTOO/PIERCING PARLOR
Acme Tattoo

The best tattoo parlors may offer none of the ambiance of a good hair salon, boutique or resort. But we’ll gladly give good ink to Acme, your favorite place for that other type of pampering—the painful type—conveniently located on Elliewood Avenue, near all the student bars so you don’t even have to make a special trip.

 

JEWELER
Angelo

Shine on, you crazy diamond stores: Local ring peddlers like Andrew Minton, Hebblethwaite, Keller & George, Reines and Tuel all received strong support. But Lee Angelo Marraccini’s Downtown business took home the gold again.

 

DRESS SHOP
Eloise

Mother-daughter team Cyd McClelland and Amy Kolbrener operate the Water Street favorite. As for the Miss Congenial-ity award, it’s anyone’s guess, with Dixie Divas, Levy’s and Pearl all vying for second place.

 

PLACE TO BUY JEANS
Gap

Apparently, the denim-lifestyle purveyor’s decision to axe “too old” Sarah Jessica Parker from the ad campagin didn’t have any influence on you jeans-wearing readers (what-ever!). Still, others resisted the machine and cast their vote for Judy B., the local boutique that, thanks to owner Judy Bushkin, made famous the phrase “Do these jeans make my butt look famous?”

 

SPA
Oasis Day Spa and Body Shop

Hair salons, massage parlors, boutiques and resorts all pamper you. But a good spa takes a little from each of these. Oasis presents a remarkably mellow and relaxed environment considering its central Water Street location. Body wraps, facials, waxings, manicures and deluxe skin-care products are just a few of its offerings. Runners-up were the Boar’s Head Inn and Rio Road’s Escapes.

 

VINTAGE CLOTHING
Bittersweet

While many businesses are setting up in the “warehouse district” south of Downtown, Shannon Iaculli’s trend-setting second-hand shop seems an especially fitting choice for Second Street’s rehabbed Glass Building. Everything about the place screams hipster—including recent commercials by local guerilla filmmaker John St. Ours.

 

ATHLETIC OUTFITTERS
Blue Ridge Mountain Sports

Save all those “athletic supporter” jokes. When people around here think athletics, they think climbing and trekking and kayaking, and for another consecutive year that adds up to BRMS in the Barracks Road Shopping Center. Runners-up include Downtown Athletic and arriviste monolith Dick’s.

 

DRY CLEANERS
Brown’s Dry Cleaners

With four locations across the city, it’s no wonder Brown’s cleans up every year! You also like “green” dry cleaners Terra Bella and Rudy’s.

 

BARRACKS ROAD STORE
Barnes & Noble Booksellers

Yes, it’s a big bad chain store, and no, you don’t care. Not only that, you love it! Or is that leaf it?

 

WINE STORE
Market Street Wineshop & Grocery

Market Street’s decisive lead over competitors might be attributed to owner Robert Harllee’s friendly personal touch, expertise, selection and a name that says it all—though with its second location near Whole Foods in Shoppers World Court, giving directions can get confusing.

 

HEALTH FOOD STORE
Whole Foods Market

The Texas-based, organic-friendly conglomerate was closely trailed in votes by Preston Plaza-based veggie sanctuary Integral Yoga, with some saying recent changes at IY had caused them to defect.

 

GROCERY STORE
Whole Foods Market

Having another store soon-to-open at Hollymead Town Center could give a much-needed boost next year to Harris Teeter, which followed Whole Foods in a close second-place.

 

FLORIST
University Florist

A rose by any other name is this repeat winner.

 

GARDEN STORE
Ivy Nursery

The greenly named town just west of Charlottesville on Route 250 seems a fitting locale for this seven-acre garden center with floral arrangements, landscape contracting, a Christmas Shop and, of course, plenty of shrubs and vines.

 

HARDWARE STORE
Martin Hardware Co.

Nuts, bolts, they have it all—and those are just the customers! But seriously, Martin’s, as we know it familiarly, must be doing something right, as it consistently beats out Lowe’s.

 

TOY STORE
Shenanigans

Stocking toys for every kid from the teeniest newborn to the brainiest ’tween, including plenty of stylish Euro playthings (Brio, Playmobil, etc.), this North Barracks mainstay took first place for another year. But with its respectable showing as a runner-up, Alakazam, new to the Downtown Mall, seems to have worked some magic of its own this year.

 

CD STORE
Plan 9

Coffee shop, in-store concerts, frequent-buyer discounts, hipster t-shirts, smarty-pants advertising, a great used selection and two locations—what’s not to love? Bonus for you trivia buffs: Plan 9 from Outer Space is the name of a 1959 film by weirdo director Ed Wood, who scrapped the original title Grave Robbers from Outer Space. And music fans have thanked him ever since.

 

YOGA STUDIO
Studio 206

Increasingly, local spaces are hopping on the yoga bandwagon—even the Central Library now hosts regular classes in “ninja yoga.” But the ones who started the boom, Chris Friedman and her gang of more than 20 instructors in yoga, Nia, Pilates, dance and more, still reign over the rest from two locations on Market Street and Monticello Road.

 

FURNITURE STORE
Under the Roof

You were expecting “Under the Board-walk”? Charlottesville loves its modern, Euro furniture.

 

ANTIQUE STORE
Circa

If that perfect conversation piece you’re looking for isn’t in your crazy packrat relatives’ attics, try the Allied Street shop, boasting a constantly changing inventory full of surprise finds, from Elvis busts to typewriters, radios, furniture and other curiosities.

 

BIKE SHOP
Performance Bicycle Shop

Performance takes the yellow jersey trailed by Blue Wheel and, in a tie, Extreme Sports and Basic Cycles.

 

USED BOOK STORE
Daedalus Bookshop

As The Washington Post discovered in a March profile of local shops, Charlottesville truly is a haven for inexpensive and slightly used reading material. Books (numbering approximately 100,000) fill nearly every available corner of the three-storey Daedalus, making it quite easy to lose yourself both figuratively and literally.

 

PLACE TO RENT MOVIES
Sneak Reviews

Whether you prefer Sarah Bernhardt or Sandra Bernhard, the Ivy Road store has the ticket, celebrating all things cinematically obscure in artsy, foreign and independent film.

 

CATERER
Hot Cakes

Sweets may be the starting point for this Barracks Road shop, but its catering menu also offers salads, stews, casseroles and ample hors d’ oeuvres.

 

REAL ESTATE AGENT
David Sloan

The word is still out on whether Sloan can cut you a better deal than the rest on buying or selling that million-dollar Albemarle home. But if you want a dealer who makes you feel at home, the Roy Wheeler agent is your man. Most anyone in town recognizes the Sloan name from the recently closed Millmont restaurant that bore it for more than 20 years, which he and his father co-founded. Sloan, a Charlottesville native and former UVA athlete, also officiates lacrosse games.

 

DOWNTOWN STORE
Cha Chas

Apparently many Downtown shoppers are in need of rhinestone-encrusted cat’s eye sunglasses and novelty bartender sets. And they know just where to go to get them!

 

CORNER STORE
Mincer’s UVA Imprinted Sportswear

The 57-year-old former tobacco shop still “corners” the market when it comes to UVA memorabilia.

 

29N STORE
Whole Foods Market

The grocery store managed to wipe that goofy grin off the face of last year’s winner, Wal-Mart.

 

CAR DEALER
Brown Automotive Group

We have it on good authority that you’ll love the service.

 

MECHANIC
Cole’s Import Specialist

Chris Cole’s Carlton Avenue shop, which last year tied with C’ville Imports, had just enough votes this year to take the lead.

 

BANK
UVA Community Credit Union

An exclusive, money-holding club of which only folks in Charlottesville and surrounding counties can be a part—no wonder we love it. The bank (in fact, a nonprofit cooperative) began in 1954 to benefit hospital workers and later all UVA employees. It received its community charter in 1997.

 

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LOCAL COLOR

TEACHER
Greg Thomas 

While Albemarle High School Band Director Thomas runs a tight ship, he also has a knack for bringing out the best in his students. The AHS Marching Patriots, wind ensemble, jazz, concert and symphonic bands continue to blow away statewide competitors with frequent “Superior” ratings. But like all great teachers, Thomas is humble about his achievements: “The main accomplishment… has nothing to do with trophies or competitions,” he says via e-mail. “I think our program has turned a ton of kids on to the aesthetic of rehearsing and creating high-quality music that that really goes beyond the trophy and the director. I am also very proud of the community service aspect of our program—we reach out to the community and play at events that involve us with larger causes—Martha Jefferson Hospital, retirement homes, Save the Fireworks, Tsunami Relief, Armed Forces Day, to name a few.”

 

TV PERSONALITY
Norm Sprouse

What sort of crazy weather will NBC 29’s forecaster pull out of his hat next? Stay tuned to find out. Runners-up included Sprouse’s NBC cohort Beth Duffy and, making her first ballot appearances, WCAV’s Lauren Knight.

 

RADIO PERSONALITY
WWWV’s Big Greasy Breakfast

Rick Daniels, Max “In the Morning” and company brought home the bacon, followed by WNRN’s Jaz Tupelo and WINA’s Dick Mountjoy.

 

PRINT JOURNALIST
John Borgmeyer

Wherever injustice and iniquity reign supreme in Charlottesville, look to the “tallest guy in the room” to uncover the truth. From humble Missouri beginnings, this national award-winner has risen to become C-VILLE voters’ most valued reporter. Runners-up were The Daily Progress’ Bob Gibson and Reed Williams, and C-VILLE’s Nell Boeschenstein.

 

PHILANTHROPIST
Dave Matthews

At its last meeting alone, Matthews and his bandmates’ Bama Works Fund approved grants totaling $217,561, adding to the more than $2 million they’ve given to mostly local charities since the fund’s inception. Take that, Monticello Road.

 

NOISEMAKER
Rob Schilling

We’ll wager our voters weren’t referring to Schilling’s 2003 album of gospel and contemporary Christian tunes, Sing A Psalm, but rather to the lone Republican City Councilor’s uncanny ability to ruffle feathers for City Dems. Former council candidates/music fans Waldo Jaquith and Stratton Salidis rounded out the top three.

 

WANNABE
Coran Capshaw

Developer. Restaurateur. Philanthropist. Manager. CEO. Gym rat. Party guy. Capshaw is a man of many hats and has a publicity photo to go with each.

 

UVA ATHLETE
Ryan Zimmerman

Even after breaking school records and recently becoming the most sought-after UVA baseball player ever to enter the major leagues (a first-round pick for the Washington Nationals), we’re sure Zimmer-man’s success will really hit home now.

 

PLACE TO WORK
UVA

But if stereos are your thing, also try second-place runner-up, Crutchfield.

 

PLACE TO LIVE
Belmont

Alternatively, this city neighborhood could have been dubbed Best Place to Triple Your Real Estate Investment.

 

PLACE TO READ C-VILLE
Downtown

With such a broad and varied field of responses, it may be possible to read your favorite local weekly at first-place winner Downtown, second-place winner Mud-house and sixth-place winner “on the john,” all in one fell swoop. Just remember to give the key back to the barista when you’re finished.

 

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FOOD & DRINK

RESTAURANT
Zocalo

Last year’s Best New Restaurant, the Latin-fusion spot in Downtown’s Central Place still has the right recipe for success…and a pretty damn good mojito to boot. Runners-up were C&O and Mas.

 

NEW RESTAURANT
Cassis

Taking culinary ideas and a successful business model from his experiences working at previous “Best Of” darlings Bizou and Mas, chef and owner Sean Lawford has a lot of folks talking about his new French bistro on Water Street. Ryan Martin, owner of second-place contender Martin’s Grill, also has folks talking about his years of experience at Riverside Lunch. And…wait a sec…there’s a Bodo’s on the Corner now?

 

BREAKFAST
The Tavern

The real house of pancakes. A different specialty flapjack each month keeps people coming back, as does the unasssuming but steady service (“What’ll it be, hon?”) and humongous helpings. Other early-morning loves: Bluegrass Grill and Bodo’s.

 

BRUNCH
Blue Bird Café

Your love for this W. Main Street establishment didn’t fly the coop even when new ownership took over earlier this year. Bluegrass Grill made another appearance in the runner-up column (see “Breakfast”), and for the Ralph Lauren set Boar’s Head Inn was the best.

 

LUNCH
Bodo’s Bagel Bakery

That’s right. You heard it here first, folks—Bodo’s now has three locations.

 

DESSERT
Splendora’s Gelato Café

Yet another battle fought in the eternal struggle between ice cream and gelato. Truth is, our voters can’t get enough of either, naming fro-yo palace Arch’s in second and traditional ice cream parlor Chaps in third.

 

CUP OF COFFEE
Mudhouse

As usual, fans of the Mudhouse really poured out for this one. Maybe second-place winner Greenberry’s, with franchise locations open throughout the state, in Texas, Florida and soon, New Jersey, should look to opening a place on the Downtown Mall as well.

 

GOURMET TAKE-OUT
Hot Cakes

Tucked into Barracks Road and best known for decadent desserts, Hot Cakes also scores big for inventive salads and killer lasagna.

 

LATE NIGHT MENU
Littlejohn’s Delicatessen

After you drink all night, you can eat into the dawn at this 24-hour Corner institution. Even if you’re sober, or maybe especially if you’re sober, the Wild Turkey sandwich is worth gobbling down.

 

BAKERY
Albemarle Baking Company

Put down the Pop-Tart and pick up the Linzer Torte. Your palate will thank you.

 

PLACE TO TAKE THE KIDS
C’ville Coffee

Part of the appeal of Toan Nguyen and Betsy Patrick’s Harris Street business is that it’s the only wholesome place we know of to offer an “Adult Zone.”

 

SALAD BAR
Ruby Tuesday

Not a restaurant synonymous with healthy living—have you seen the 30-burger menu? But Ruby Tuesday’s 65 salad offerings topped both Whole Foods and Downtown’s Blue Ridge Country Store.

 

FAST FOOD
Bodo’s Bagel Bakery

We’re gratified to see the local guys take this one home, though the real shocker is how close Wendy’s, with only two locations in town, came to beating Brian Fox’s popular sandwich shop.

 

SERVICE
Zocalo

A man cannot live by bread alone—and a great restaurant’s food can only take it so far. No surprise that Zocalo’s fast and friendly service, even on busy nights, helps make it the best. Hamiltons’ and Bizou also earned high marks.

 

ASIAN
Thai ’99

Last year’s winner, Thai ’99 saw growing competition from Second Street’s Asian-tapas-fusion biz, Bang. Flaming Wok and Downtown Thai…er…thaied for third.

 

MEXICAN
Guadalajara

What’s not to love about endless refills on the chips and the super-frugal lunch special? Con mucho gusto.

 

SEAFOOD
Blue Light Grill

One of the few places to serve tuna-grade sushi on a Caesar salad. At the other end of the spectrum, Tiffany’s, once the only fancy restaurant in town, was a runner-up.

 

PIZZA
Christian’s Pizza

With more than 100 votes separating it from runner-up Mellow Mushroom, the Downtown restaurant known for heaping slices and gourmet toppings still has a secure lead—at least until Five Guys opens up its pizzeria (see “Burger,” page 39).

 

ITALIAN
Vivace

The Ivy Road escape was followed in votes by La Cucina and Carmello’s.

 

BURGER
Five Guys Burgers

The fast-growing Northern Virginia-based franchise with generously greasy burgers fit to eat right out of the bag proved a major upset for local competitors Riverside Lunch and Martin’s Grill. We must say, we’re even a little tickled by the thought of having our plaque grace the walls of the Barracks Road location, alongside Five Guys’ many Washingtonian and Zagat awards.

 

BBQ
Big Jim’s Bar-B-Que

Big Jim is the big man in town when it comes to barbecue, evidently, as he takes the lead for another year. Close on his heels are Jinx’s Pit’s Top in Belmont and Blue Ridge Pig in Nellysford.

 

AFTER WORK WATERING HOLE
South Street Brewery

Somewhere between the Downtown Mall and your parking spot, thoughts of nachos and the taste of a Satan’s Pony inevitably will drift into your mind. Thankfully, South Street won’t be far. Runners-up were Miller’s and Rapture.

 

SPORTS BAR
Buffalo Wild Wings

You can see the big game from anywhere you sit on B-Dubs’ many televisions, which need no longer fear the competition from nearby second-place runner-up Sloan’s.

 

WINGS
Wild Wing Café

Buckets of ice-cold beer and a nice view of the train tracks enhance the sticky-finger experience.

 

DRAFT BEER SELECTION
Mellow Mushroom

Pity the poor keg-changer. Mellow Mush-room’s approximately 40 taps line the whole back of the bar. Runners-up were Michael’s Bistro and South Street Brewery.

 

WINE LIST
C&O

Here in the heart of Virginia wine country, selecting the right bottle can be a critical part of the fine-dining experience. The Downtown mainstay offering French country fare knows its importance and is ready to choose the right wine for the job. Runners-up were Tastings and Zocalo.

 

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Worst of 2005
A highly subjective editors’ guide to local stuff that ain’t so great

 

Worst local phrase
“Coran owns that.”

First DMB, then Starr Hill…tomorrow, your soul. In Charlottesville, it’s all Coran.

Runner Up: “Dave Matthews worked/lived/picked his nose there.”

 

Worst thing said about our city
“Isn’t that in North Carolina?”

O.K., here’s the difference: Charlotte loves NASCAR, Charlottesville loves itself. Any questions?

Runner Up: “Charlottesville is ugly and its mother dresses it funny.”

 

Worst place to run into Chief Longo
The gym locker room.

Holy crap, that guy’s ripped!

Runner Up: In the back of his
squad car

 

Worst place to wait in line
For a job at MusicToday.

Face it, you’re never getting one. And even if you do, you don’t get to hang with the band.

Runner Up: The Port-a-John line at Foxfield

 

Worst local collective personality trait
Smugness.

Admit it…we’ve all complained about that No. 1 rating, but secretly we really want to believe it’s true.

Runner Up: Narcissism

 

Worst place to wake up in the morning
The bar you sat at the night before.

You’re a lush, and it’s a problem.

Runner Up: A fraternity house on Rugby Road

 

Worst reason to wake up in the middle of the night
The train whistle.

All of Charlottesville’s old industries have been replaced with art boutiques and coffee shops. What are those trains hauling, anyway? Soy latté?

Runner Up: Realizing that you just finished your Ph.D. in English, you’re $50,000 in debt and the only job you can find in Charlottesville is serving cappuccino, which apparently gets delivered on a midnight freight train.

 

Worst place to get stuck at a red light
Hydraulic and 29.

Runner Up: Park and High streets

 

Worst place to speed
Earlysville Road.

It’s a long and winding road—and look out for those bikers!

Runner Up: Avon Street Extended

 

Worst intersection
Preston and Emmet at 5pm.

You can feel your life slipping away while you wait.

Runner Up: Hydraulic Road and 29

 

Worst-smelling place in town
Hogwaller’s disarming sewage-treatment aroma. Especially in the summer.

Runner Up: The corner of Market and Second streets on a hot Monday morning

 

Worst place to take a first date
A baby store. Need we say more?

Runner Up: The emergency room

 

Worst place to run into your ex
Anywhere Downtown before you’ve had your coffee.

Runner Up: OXO, where he is out with someone new and you are out with your parents.

 

Worst thing said about local girls
“You can’t get laid unless you drive a BMW.”

Damn those girls who come here from NoVA. Don’t they know local guys drive 10-year-old Volvos?

Runner Up: “Duke girls are hotter.”

 

Worst thing said about local guys
“They are a bunch of stuck- up, small-town hillbillies posing as refined, sophisticated urbanites.”

Runner Up: “Duke guys are smarter.”

 

Worst Wahoo nonsense
A capella groups.

This is not the 1920s and you are not cool, even in an ironic sense.

Runner Up: The UVA/Virginia Tech game. So many bad ties…

 

Worst Wahoo fashion trend
Those flipped-up collars.

The only consolation is that 10 years from now, when they see pictures of themselves in college, those fratastic fellas will be forced to confront the irrefutable evidence that they really were conformist preppy jackasses.

Runners Up: Vera Bradley quilted bags and flip-flops in January

 

Worst Wahoo phrase
“Academical Village.”

It’s a freakin’ campus. Get over it. And “academical” isn’t even a word!

Runner Up: “What would Mr. Jefferson say?”

 

Worst part of the student return
The fact that we get older, but they stay the same age!

Runner Up: Power-walking girlswith “UVA” imprinted on the bum of their shorts

 

Worst thing about local restaurants
A $23 entrée that doesn’t come with a salad.

Come on! This isn’t New York!

Runner Up: Tables reserved for “dining only.” Empty tables make your restaurant look bad.

 

Worst thing about local servers
When the wait staff is hotter than your date.

Runner Up: When the wait staff is hotter than you

 

Worst place to eat on the run
While streaking The Lawn.

Well, at least you won’t get ketchup on your shirt…

Runner Up: 29N. Because if you’re in a rush and eating in your car, you’re going to be late anyway.

 

Worst place to pass out
The free trolley.

When you wake up, you’ll still be stuck on W. Main Street.

Runner Up: The bathroom at Pen Park. We’ve been there. It ain’t pretty.

 

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INDEX

Entertainment

Best Art Gallery

McGuffey Art Center

201 Second St. NW

295-7973

 

Best Movie House

Jefferson Theater

101 E. Main St.

295-3321

 

Best Outdoor Recreation

Walnut Creek Park

3750 Walnut Creek Park Rd.

296-5844

 

Best Outdoor Event or Festival

Fridays After 5

 

Best Swimming Pool

ACAC

200 Four Seasons Dr.

978-3800

 

Best Place to Dance

R2

303 E. Main St.

293-9526

 

Best Live Music Venue

Starr Hill Music Hall

709 W. Main St.

977-0017

 

Best Rock Music Band

Dave Matthews Band

 

Best Folk Music Band

Terri Allard

 

Best Classical Band

Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra

 

Best Bluegrass Band

Hackensaw Boys

Best Jazz Musician

John D’earth

 

Best World Beat Musician

Darrell Rose

 

Best DJ

DJ Quarter Roy

 

Best Artist

Monty Montgomery

 

Best Author

John Grisham

 

Best Kids Entertainment

Virginia Discovery Museum

524 E. Main St.

977-1025

 

Best Tourist Destination

Monticello

931 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy.

984-9822

 

 

 

RETAIL

 

Best Yoga Studio

Studio 206

206 W. Market St.

505 Monticello Rd.

296-6250

 

Best Place to Work Out

ACAC

Albemarle Square Shopping Center

973-5856

200 E. Water St.

984-3800

 

Best Spa

Oasis

103 E. Water St.

244-9667

 

Best Tattoo/ Piercing Parlor

Acme Tattoo

9 Elliewood Ave.

293-6730

 

Best Jeweler

Angelo

220 E. Main St.

971-9256

 

Best Dress Shop

Eloise

218 W. Water St.

295-3905

 

Best Place to Buy Jeans

Gap

Fashion Square Mall

973-5026

 

Best Shoe Store

Scarpa

North Wing, Barracks Road Shopping Center

296-0040

 

Best Vintage Clothing

Bittersweet

313 Second St. SE

977-5977

 

Best Athletic Outfitters

Blue Ridge Mountain Sports

Barracks Road Shopping Center

977-4400

 

Best Dry Cleaners

Brown’s Dry Cleaners

510 Preston Ave.

296-6285

Additional locations on High Street, Millmont Street and Ivy Road

 

Best Hardware Store

Martin Hardware Co.

941 Preston Ave.

293-8171

 

Best Wine Store

Market Street Wineshop

311 E. Market St.

964-9463

Shoppers World Court

964-9463

 

Best Florist

University Florist

2123 Berkmar Dr.

973-1381

 

Best Health Food Store

Whole Foods

Shoppers World Court

973-4900

 

Best Grocery Store

Whole Foods

Shoppers World Court

973-4900

 

Best Toy Store

Shenanigans

North Wing, Barracks Road Shopping Center

295-4797

 

Best CD Store

Plan 9 Records

Albemarle Square Shopping Center

974-9999

1419 University Ave.

979-9999

 

Best Furniture Store

Under the Roof

1017 W. Main St.

977-0231

 

Best Antique Store

Circa

1700 Allied St.

295-5760

 

Best Bike Shop

Performance Bicycle Shop

Seminole Square Shopping Center

963-9161

 

Best Used Book Store

Daedalus Bookshop

123 Fourth St.

293-7959

Best Garden Store

Ivy Nursery

570 Broomley Rd.

295-1183

 

Best Place to Rent Movies

Sneak Reviews

2244 Ivy Rd.

979-4420

 

Best Caterer

Hot Cakes

Barracks Road Shopping Center

295-6037

 

Best Real Estate Agent

David Sloan

Roy Wheeler Realty Co.

296-4170

 

Best Downtown Store

Cha Chas

201 E. Main St.

293-8553

 

Best Barracks Road Store

Barnes & Noble

Barracks Road Shopping Center

984-0461

 

Best Corner Store

Mincer’s

1527 University Ave.

296-5687

 

Best 29N Store

Whole Foods

Shoppers World Court

973-4900

 

Best Car Dealer

Brown Automotive Group

Route 250E

977-3380

 

Best Mechanic

Coles Import Specialist

1025 Carlton Ave.

295-2653

 

Best Bank

UVA Community Credit Union

3300 Berkmar Dr.

964-2001

Additional locations on Lee Street, Arlington Boulevard, High Street and Route 250

 

 

LOCAL COLOR

Best TV Personality

Norm Sprouse

WVIR NBC
Channel 29

 

Best Radio Personality

Big Greasy Breakfast
(Max and Rick)

WWWV-FM 97.5

 

Best Print Journalist

John Borgmeyer

C-VILLE Weekly

Best Philanthropist

Dave Matthews

 

Best Teacher

Greg Thomas

Albemarle High School

 

Best Noisemaker

Rob Schilling

 

Best Wannabe

Coran Capshaw

 

Best UVA Athlete

Ryan Zimmerman

 

Best Place to Work

UVA

 

Best Place to Live

Belmont

 

Best Place to Read C-VILLE

Downtown

 

FOOD & DRINK

Best Restaurant

Zocalo

201 E. Main St.

977-4944

 

Best New Restaurant

Cassis

210 W. Water St.

979-0188

 

Best Breakfast

The Tavern

Corner of Emmet Street and Barracks Road

295-0404

 

Best Brunch

Blue Bird Café

625 W. Main St.

295-1166

 

Best Lunch

Bodo’s Bagel Bakery

1418 N. Emmet St.

977-9598

505 Preston Ave.

293-5224

1609 University Ave.

293-6021

 

Best Dessert

Splendora’s

317 E. Main St.

296-8555

 

Best Late-Night Menu

Littlejohn’s New York Delicatessen

1427 W. Main St.

977-0588

 

Best Bakery

Albemarle Baking Company

Main Street Market

293-6456

 

Best Gourmet Take-Out

Hot Cakes

Barracks Road Shopping Center

295-6037

 

Best Cup of Coffee

Mudhouse

213 W. Main St.

984-6833

Additional locations in Bellair, Forest Lakes, Mill Creek and Pantops

 

Best Fast Food

Bodo’s Bagel Bakery

1418 N. Emmet St.

977-9598

505 Preston Ave.

293-5224

1609 University Ave.

293-6021

 

Best Salad Bar

Ruby Tuesday

Barracks Road Shopping Center

295-9118

 

Best Place to Take the Kids

C’Ville Coffee

1301 Harris St.

817-2633

 

Best Service

Zocalo

201 E. Main St.

977-4944

 

Best Asian

Thai ’99

2210 Fontaine Ave.

245-5263

 

Best Mexican

Guadalajara

801 E. Market St.

977-2676

395 Greenbrier Dr.

978-4313

2206 Fontaine Ave.

979-2424

 

Best Italian

Vivace

2244 Ivy Rd.

979-0994

 

Best Seafood

Blue Light Grill

120 E. Main St.

295-1223

 

Best Burger

Five Guys Burgers

Barracks Road Shopping Center

975-4897

Best Wings

Wild Wing Café

820 W. Main St.

979-9464

 

Best BBQ

Big Jim’s Bar-B-Que

2104 Angus Rd.

296-8283

 

Best Pizza

Christian’s

118 W. Main St.

977-9688

 

Best After Work Watering Hole

South Street Brewery

106 W. South St.

293-6550

 

Best Sports Bar

Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar

1935 Arlington Blvd.

977-1882

 

Best Draft Beer Selection

Mellow Mushroom

1309 W. Main St.

972-9366

 

Best Wine List

C&O

515 E. Water St.

971-7044

 

 

Out of the 614 valid Best Of ballots that we received, we picked 18 lucky entrants at random to receive one of our fabulous prizes. Pete Emerson, Joe Jenkins, Marissa Guillen, KeriAn Bicknell, Sarah Johnson, Jason Stanford, Katherine Jenkins, Kristin Cole, James Assante and Sumner Brown all took home $10 gift certificates to Downtown stationary store Rock Paper Scissors! Patty Cornell, Mark Quigg, Amy Matt, Kathleen McGreevy, Jon Zug, Emre Ilter and Gabrielle Mandell received $50 gift certificates to Barracks Road shoe store Great State Of! And Donna Mathes got really lucky as she gets a 20-gigabyte iPod from the fine folks at Crutchfield!

It seemed like the perfect end to an era. Loretta Lynn, played by Sissy Spacek, and her husband, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, played by Tommy Lee Jones, driving away in their Jeep CJ before the backdrop of a Tennessee sunset. Cue the final number.

   The movie, 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, would go on to win Spacek a Best Actress Oscar and many other awards, effectively launching the starlet’s career. Yet its success, and Spacek’s powerful performance, were in no small way due to the memorable qualities of the woman she portrayed—the same qualities that have allowed Lynn herself to stay relevant throughout a 40-year career in the fast-changing music business.

   “Besides being an amazing talent, the thing that’s most disarming about Loretta is there’s no pretense at all about her,” Spacek, an Albemarle resident, tells
C-VILLE as Lynn’s historic engagement at the Charlottesville Pavilion approaches on Saturday, July 30. “What you see is what you get and that’s rare, particularly in the entertainment industry, that someone is not trying to be anyone but who they are. And it’s incredibly refreshing.”

   While more than 15 years of performing had made Loretta Lynn a celebrity by the end of the 1970s, Coal Miner’s Daughter, based on her best-selling autobiography, made her a national icon. Telling how the 13-year-old naïf from Butcher Holler, Kentucky, became a tour-bus a-ridin’, Grand-Ole-Opry a-singin’, big-hair a-wearin’, bona fide superstar, the movie encapsulated not only Lynn’s life, but that of an entire generation of Nashville-based musicians. In a time when “Funkytown” reigned supreme, Loretta Lynn led the country charge back into the cultural Zeitgeist.

   After her 1982 hit “I Lie,” Lynn, however, all but vanished from the public eye. She began to focus on her family, looking after Doo, who died in 1996, and carving out her legacy by way of a memorabilia museum at her ranch, a tourist attraction in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, complete with a RV park and “simulated coal mine.” Though she received her share of “lifetime achievement” awards, by the time of 2000’s “Country in My Genes,” Lynn’s first solo single in a decade, it seemed there wasn’t much room for the “Queen of Country” in the era of Britney and Shania.

   So when the indie garage band The White Stripes hit it big in 2001 with their CD White Blood Cells dedicated to Lynn (having visited Hurricane Mills after cutting the record in Memphis), anyone reading the liner notes may have reacted with an ironic smirk or a perplexed scratch of the head. Some might even have thought the Detroit duo was eulogizing the faded symbol of Nashville’s golden days. Then something unexpected happened—Lynn sent them a thank-you note and an invitation to the ranch, where band members Jack and Meg White feasted on Loretta’s homemade chicken and dumplings. They, in turn, invited her to share the bill at a show in New York. Not long after, singer Jack White signed on to produce Loretta Lynn’s next album. And though many old-school country music followers may have been shocked to see one of their own cavorting with the 20something rocker, for Spacek, at least, such a bold move was typical Loretta. “She just follows her instincts and her instincts are so incredible,” says Spacek. “That was a decision that a lot of people wouldn’t have had the courage to make.”

 

Boasting 27 No. 1 hits by the 1980s, with hundreds of new songs report-edly scrawled on paper throughout her home, perhaps Lynn didn’t need White’s audience or his street cred to make the resulting album, Van Lear Rose, a success. Trends may come and go, but trailblazers like the “Honky Tonk Girl” are the real deal, says Afton-based roots musician Terri Allard. “Many of us have always been aware that they’ve been there, and I just think that the rest of the world’s been getting smarter…radio and record labels are just getting smarter,” says Allard, who became a country fan after first hearing Lynn hits like “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man).”

   Jack White would likely agree. If Lynn represented something to him, the symbolism stretched deeper than the image of a septuagenarian entertainer ripe for one last moment on stage. For his part, White told magazines like Rolling Stone that he viewed Lynn as “the greatest female singer-songwriter of the 20th century.” White, in turn, became an ideal composite for Lynn. By joining her on vocals for “Portland, Oregon,” which won a Grammy for “Best Country Collaboration with Vocals” (Lynn also took home the prize for “Best Country Album of the Year”), White filled in for Lynn’s longtime duet partner, Conway Twitty, who died in 1993. In encouraging Lynn to dig out her original material, White was her Doolittle too—even acting the part of her lover with an eyebrow-raising, mouth-to-mouth kiss in the “Portland, Oregon” music video. Finally, in the eyes of the mainstream media, White played the role of Rick Rubin to Loretta’s Johnny Cash.

   Between 1996 and his death in 2003, Cash had succeeded in overcoming the fast pace and fleeting tastes of modern country to release some of his most universally acclaimed material on the independent American Records label. It was Rubin, co-founder of hip hop label Def Jam and later a hard-rock producer, who teamed with the country legend on the four so-called American Recordings, channeling Cash’s creative vitality in unprecedented directions. Many writers and critics found irresistible the temptation to compare the two crossover comebacks. In naming Loretta Lynn to its 2004 “Cool List,” Spin magazine wrote: “On her recent album…Lynn sings a song about a betrayed housewife waiting to go to the electric chair for murdering her husband (‘Women’s Prison’). This makes her the female Johnny Cash. Or Johnny Cash the male Loretta Lynn.”

   In fact, though equally shunned by Nashville’s Music Row, Cash always had a rebellious streak in him—he famously ran a full-page ad in Billboard following his 1998 Grammy win, in which he gave the city’s music establishment the middle finger—while Lynn spent much of her career within that system. Cash fixed his imagination on the outlaw hero riding trains, locked away in prisons, or standing on the gallows. Lynn’s rebellion came in subtler
ways through the songs she wrote. Her figures were drawn from her own experience, cleverly confronting real-life issues like divorce in “Rated X,” motherhood—Lynn has six kids—in “One’s On the Way” and “Pregnant Again,” and sex, in songs such as “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” and “The Pill.”

   Producers Rubin and White also influenced the artists differently. Rubin was aware that his project with the ailing Cash might well be the Man In Black’s last. Their mission was to archive as many great songs as Cash could record, bound together simply by the power of the legendary figure singing them. White’s project, on the other hand, was not to catalogue the individual, but to rediscover the essential qualities of Lynn’s music by stripping the varnish of 30 years of overproduction. Just as Rubin encouraged Cash to experiment with different types of music, from old Gospel standards to Nine Inch Nails, U2 and Soundgarden, White sought to make an album that was 100 percent Loretta, relying on a single take in most cases, using an eight-track recorder. “Her voice has the same power and clarity it did when she was a young woman, which is proven on this new album,” says Spacek. “They just took a lot of first takes. It was 1, 2, 3, go. And she was able to able to do that. It’s rare that singers’ voices aren’t punched in and overdubbed.”

   White’s assemblage of session musicians, The Do Whatevers, abandoned the niche “country” image of Loretta and injected that same one-of-a-kind purity she sings with back into the music. Lynn’s brilliance on the album comes from “the authenticity of her perspective,” says Live Arts Artistic Director John Gibson, a Loretta connoisseur who estimates to have seen Coal Miner’s Daughter about 40 times (his organization is the beneficiary of specially priced fundraiser tickets to Lynn’s show). “One of the things about Shakespeare is that he found the universal in the commonplace, in the ordinary, in everything,” says Gibson. “Loretta Lynn does the same thing.”

   The 13 tracks penned by Lynn on Van Lear Rose all sparkle without any trace of flashiness. Her signature twang in songs about two-timing men (“Family Tree”) and growing up in the hills of Butcher Holler (“Story Of My Life”) hearkens back to her early days. Yet, her vocal delivery reaches its peak on numbers like the bluesy “Have Mercy.”

   “She’s a sex bomb! I mean, it’s like a stripper number,” says Gibson. “It’s down and dirty and growling.” (That’s a far cry from the cornpone innocent in Coal Miner’s Daughter who didn’t know what “horny” meant until she was in her 20s.)

   The cover photograph for Van Lear Rose hints at yet another side of Loretta. Only the Western-style acoustic guitar with her name written on the neck, which stands propped in her hand, suggests anything of Lynn’s performer status. Wearing a blue gown with her torso seemingly exposed, she is a regular Scarlett O’Hara, at once defiant and decadent, frail and rugged, “a beauty to behold like a diamond in the coal,” as she sings in the album’s title track, a tribute to her mother. In essence, Jack White’s Loretta Lynn embodies a vintage coolness that, like an old vinyl record packed away in a trunk, needed only to be unlocked.

   Wherever Lynn’s cool factor comes from, though, Allard, for one, hopes White’s presence is introducing Lynn’s music to listeners who wouldn’t otherwise have been turned on. “I think it was a really cool move that has wonderful results,” she says. “There are so many things you can say about Loretta Lynn’s career. I think it says that she’s just as cool as I always thought she was.”

 

One thing is for sure—Loretta Lynn’s music has the power to make strange bedfellows. As Van Lear Rose exploded on the charts, two of Charlottesville’s cultural heavyweights, Starr Hill Presents and Live Arts, came together with the idea of bringing Lynn to town. Amid scattered concerns and a lot of speculation, developer Coran Capshaw was advancing his plans for the new Charlottesville Pavilion, and needed to find the right A-lister to launch the venue. For Live Arts, which in the ’90s hosted then-living legend Ray Charles, a Loretta Lynn performance seemed the fitting choice to celebrate its 15th anniversary. After all, Coal Miner’s Daughter was celebrating its 25th anniversary and it just so happened that Spacek is on the organization’s advisory board. Capshaw, too, had a long history as a Live Arts benefactor, says Gibson. “Coran wanted to do something special for us on this big birthday.”

   Half the cost of each $125 to $250 “Premium Donor” ticket makes a tax-deductible donation to Live Arts. Prior to the July 30 performance, Live Arts will also hold a reception for ticket holders at the $250 level with Spacek as hostess. At 8pm, the actress will take the stage at The Pavilion to introduce Lynn, whose band also includes twin daughters Patsy and Peggy, professionally known as The Lynns. For Gibson, the performance will signify the start of a new cultural era in Charlottesville.

   “That’s one of the things that’s most remarkable about the growth in Charlottesville over the last decade or so. We can pull this off now,” he says. “I see it as a mark of having arrived.”

   Spacek is equally excited about the chance to see her old pal and about the opportunities for future mega-performances at local venues. “I’m just gonna be there and enjoy the party and get to see Loretta and introduce her to my hometown,” she says. “And as far as other friends, I think things are gonna change a lot with this amphitheater…I’m just gonna wait with bated breath and see who comes.”

   Among the book-cluttered shelves in the Caseys’ house, Ros Casey’s creative side emerges in everything from the carpentry in the kitchen to the landscaping in the back yard. In the living room hang photographs of a young Julia and two cousins, which Casey took at her family’s Pennsylvania estate. She set the pictures alongside a poem by former UVA student George Bradley, which she turned into a book, The Blue Cage, and which was featured in an exhibition at the National Museum of Women. In an upper hallway, watercolor sketches depict scenes from a year spent in Rome, when John Casey was a fellow at the American Academy.

   Surprisingly, the Caseys say they share little of their unfinished projects with each other. “It used to be that I would come running up out of my shed and try and read something to her while she was cooking supper,” says John Casey. “It didn’t work very well because I tried to explain, ‘Well, here’s what happened in the first hundred pages…’ You really do have to keep your own counsel.” That’s been the case more than ever since Rosamond Casey became McGuffey chief. As the partially City-subsidized collective, located in the former McGuffey Elementary School off Second Street, enters its third decade, facing what some consider to be an uncertain future, Casey, 53, has stepped up to become one of its greatest assets.

 

Portrait of the artist

  In 1976, following her graduation from the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, Rosamond Pittman began working in Washington, D.C., in the graphics department of ABC News, a fast-paced job that earned her respect in Beltway circles but left her unfulfilled: “People were discouragingly impressed by my news credentials, when it was a job I had negative impressions about, if any at all.”

   She also pursued her art, working with The Smithsonian Institute and with the Fillmore Arts Center, a K-8 program in the D.C. public school system, where she began developing a curriculum based on “signs, symbols and alphabets.” Letters were one of her passions. “There is something internal driving humankind to make some kind of scratch in the earth,” she says. While in D.C., she met John Casey, whom she married in 1981. And soon the new Rosamond Casey settled into life in Charlottesville, helping raise two daughters, Maud and Nell, from John Casey’s previous marriage, and eventually bringing two more, Clare and Julia, into the family.

   It didn’t take long upon arriving for Casey to become involved with McGuffey, principally teaching calligraphy and working by commission. In 1995 she branched out by establishing Treehouse Book Arts, which was “like a school for fairly archaic crafts” including papermaking and bookbinding. Though the classes have since gotten more conceptual, Casey continues to teach a Treehouse summer program for kids at her home. In May 2003, Casey accepted a one-year term as McGuffey president, a position some artists regard as thankless and time consuming, and broke with tradition last May by taking on a second term. “Anybody can be it, just nobody wants to,” says Casey. “I enjoy being at the center of things—it’s a safer place to be than on the edges.”

   The tasks of McGuffey president include anything from managing administrative issues to coordinating events to settling private concerns between members, which can be a particularly daunting task, says McGuffey artist Fleming Lunsford. “McGuffey is a funny place because you’ve got this group of artists who are all essentially working independently and doing our own thing in many ways, so you’d think that it’s difficult to come up with a leader. Ros is a very thoughtful leader. She takes everyone’s opinions into consideration and she sees the larger picture that McGuffey has and should be playing in the community.”

 

City limits

  Rosamond Casey’s family traces its political pedigree at least two centuries back, and with it, a reputation for dubious political decisions. Her ancestors were French Protestants who supported Napoleon. They arrived a day late to Waterloo only to find the emperor vanquished, says John Casey. “If they’d arrived on time, they’d be killed and [Ros] wouldn’t be here.”

   The family then fled to Milford, Pennsylvania, where they established strong ties to Theodore Roosevelt and helped him establish the Bull Moose Party, a progressive faction of the Republican party which, during the 1912 presidential election, drew enough votes away from Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, to win Democrat Woodrow Wilson the presidency. When Casey assumed her second term as McGuffey president in May, amid heated conversations with Charlottesville’s City Council over increasing the center’s rent, it seemed as if history might repeat itself.

   Concerned by the impending departure of arts-friendly Councilors Maurice Cox and Meredith Richards, on April 27 McGuffey artists sent an open letter to the center’s mailing list that criticized incumbent Democratic candidate Kevin Lynch’s lack of support for the center during budgeting sessions and for a 2002 vote against renewing the McGuffey lease. “Basically we were trying to really fulfill the stated mission of being a community art center,” says Russell Richards, a McGuffey artist and Meredith Richards’ son, who advocated the letter. “It’s important that people be aware of the rather precarious political situation.”

   Fearing the McGuffey voting bloc, along with a write-in campaign for Meredith Richards, might have a real impact on the election, and cost city Democrats one or more Council seats, party leaders brusquely responded. When Mayor Cox showed up at an emergency meeting of McGuffey’s five-member Executive Council, Casey gave him the floor. “He lectured us as if we were children,” she says. McGuffey sent another postcard, which, though not a retraction of the earlier one, clarified that “the letter was in no way intended to be a partisan position.”

   Lynch says clarifying his position early on with the artists would have spared the ill will. Currently, he says, the City budgets about $28,000, or the cost of building utilities, for the center, most of which is offset by the artists’ rent. Though he would like to see McGuffey’s funding on equal footing with other arts organizations like Live Arts and other City-supported spaces like the mostly unused Jefferson School, he has no intention of closing it down, he says. “We’ve had enough discussion now between City Council and the artists,” he says, “that they know that if their rent goes up, it’s not because the City doesn’t appreciate McGuffey or is trying to move the artists out, it’s because we’re fiscally constrained and there are other arts organizations that are deserving.”

   Though Casey says different camps exist within the McGuffey building, she says McGuffey should not have exerted its political influence. “We got ourselves a little more involved in the public arena in that we pissed off some people we shouldn’t have. So there had to be some deft maneuvering to get ourselves back out of that jam.” However, Casey does see more public outreach and awareness as integral to preserving the center.

   “We’re in a position to persuade by our work,” she says. “I think we have a unique role. [McGuffey does] something that no other institution in Charlottesville does… meets the public, allows questions to be asked and detailed answers to be given.” Though one of the requirements of McGuffey’s charter with the City is that members open their studios to the public for at least 17 1/2 hours per week, Casey leads the charge for opening the center up even more to special events. In March 2004, McGuffey hosted Tibetan monks for a series of workshops that included a sand mandala display. And hoping to capitalize on a newly available space in McGuffey, which formerly housed the Second Street Gallery, Casey has aided the development of a monthly Spotlight Series, in which a panel of artists, writers or performers would have “an opportunity to raise questions and try to answer them,” she says.

 

Digging for treasure

  Rosamond Casey pulls out a finely crafted box, 12.25" x 9" x 3.5", and gently sets it on the island at her space in McGuffey’s Studio No. 16. The work is “Mapping the Dark: A Museum of Ambient Disorders.” Inside the box, 10 booklets fold out, revealing the lives of fictitious characters through psychological profiles: A woman worried by her weight clips bar codes from the food she eats. An older man, going deaf, begins meticulously bottling noises. Another man with amnesia tries to reconstruct his previous life based on a single photograph.

   “Mapping the Dark,” which debuted in March 2003 as a McGuffey installation piece, marked a turning point of sorts for Casey. Brushing off the safety net of titles like “calligrapher” and “bookmaker,” she deliberately entered the realm of “mixed media” for the first time, using a variety of materials and techniques, from found objects to carved stones, even training herself to paint with her feet for a character who comes to terms with a phobia of losing her hands. “Those tools become the medium through which to express the character’s plight,” says Casey.

   The box, one of 45 in existence according to the website of her dealer, Joshua Heller Rare Books, Inc., is delicately stitched in brown leather, Japanese silk, cloth and fiber. All the “lives” are color-coded and organized by hand-punched, numeric dot patterns. “It’s very professionally done,” says Neil Turtell, executive librarian for the National Gallery of Art. “Unlike most artists’ books, which look like books, hers was sort of a treasure chest.” Last year Turtell purchased one of the boxes, going at $1,750 each, for the illustrious D.C. gallery’s permanent collection. “Obviously you can tell I think very highly of [Casey’s] work and I don’t do that lightly.”

   Nor is Turtell alone in his thinking. The Library of Congress also picked up “Mapping the Dark” for its illustrated book collection. And Wood Notes Wild: Notations of Bird Music, which incorporated bird songs with painted designs, made its way into an exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts before being purchased for $8,000 by the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Melbert B. Cary Graphic Arts Collection. All of this puts Casey into a comfortable spot straddling the line between creative and profitable. For husband, John, the potential was always there. “She finally got around to thinking, ‘Geez, I’ve been doing 20 years, maybe I should try and sell some,’ and then bingo, the popcorn popped,” he says.

   Rosamond Casey is now in the position to pursue her deeper calling, not as a working artist, but as an artist artist. “I don’t make art anymore for hanging on walls,” she says. “I’m much more of an installation artist or conceptual artist—I mean, I think about art.” And she teaches it. With “Mapping the Dark: A Course in Conceiving Art,” Casey shows other people how to live and think artistically and to unlock their own passions. “The role of a teacher is to gently open the hand of an artist and let them visualize—help the thing that is most important to them emerge.”

 

Casey’s class

  Rosamond Casey’s work has inspired art lovers for years. She unlocked her own creativity through her project “Mapping the Dark: A Museum of Ambient Disorders,” and since 2003 she’s developed a class to help artists and non-artists tap into their abilities with “Mapping the Dark: A Course in Conceiving Art.” The third session of the class begins Tuesday, January 25.

   The eight-week course covers all aspects of creating a work of art, from developing your thoughts to choosing your medium to offering a final display that an audience will connect with. “What I’m teaching is language…a translation for how to turn an idea into something that has form,” says Casey.

   As a new member to McGuffey, photographer Fleming Lunsford was also one of Casey’s students. “She definitely has a presence,” says Lunsford. “From that class, I pulled a lot of personal, very dark work…I can’t say if I’d just been toodling along in my studio I would have probed in such a way.”

   In one exercise, students bring in objects, which are combined to create something new. “That’s really all art is—taking one object and putting it in new relation to something else, finding a different meaning,” Casey says.

   Teacher and artist Isabel McLean took the techniques she’d learned from Casey’s class into creating an exhibit, “Detritus: A Mixed Media Memoir” at the Renaissance School in October. “The class is so individual, because I knew exactly what I wanted and she allowed me, and facilitated my getting there. It was different from what other people in the class wanted.” McLean says she still uses the journal she kept in the class.—B.S.

Dylan sang that the times they were a-changin’. Bowie said to turn and face the ch-ch-changes. And in 2004, all that change really hit home for Charlottesville’s music fans. The year witnessed the fading out of some of the city’s most cherished traditions, whether grooving to Jimmy O at Fridays After 5, listening to locally owned radio or dancing around with a greasy burger to old-timey tunes at the Blue Moon Diner. But with every door closed, another opened, and from Modest Mouse to Trey Anastasio to The Roots, nationally known names formed their Charlottesville connections. While you might notice plenty missing from C-VILLE’s review of the year in local music, we tried to cover the greatest hits, the things that rocked the scene. As for the rest, like ’Pac said, “things changed and that’s the way it is.”

The circle unbroken

For the genre that prides itself most on good ol’-fashioned traditionalism, Charlottesville’s bluegrass scene underwent some surprise changes this year. Though King Wilkie was a familiar name around town as early as, well, 2003, the sextet of traditional bluegrass musicians, all in their 20s, soared in 2004, establishing themselves as some of its brightest stars. While their local shows, including the CD release party for their Rebel Records debut, Broke, in April, drew large audiences at Starr Hill and Miller’s, Wilkie’s fan base kept growing outside of town and, in October, the band won the Emerging Artist of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association.

 But just as one group began its ascent, another took a hard loss. On August 18, the death of Gordonsville resident Charlie Waller, the only remaining original member of 47-year-old musical icons the Country Gentlemen, shook the bluegrass world.

 “It was overwhelming at the time,” says Country Gentlemen banjo player Greg Corbett. “Two or three days between [the funeral] and the time he passed, there were newspapers and TV stations calling the house.” In addition to coverage from national media outlets CNN and Country Music Television, prominent Country Gentlemen alums Ricky Skaggs and Doyle Lawson were among the guests calling on the Wallers. About 1,000 people attended the funeral, Corbett estimates. Despite the setback, The Gentlemen have remained busy as ever fulfilling their touring schedule with Randy Waller, Charlie’s son, assuming the front slot. “Randy has been doing a wonderful job, just stepped right in,” says Corbett. “We’ve kept all the dates…and we’ve got big scheduled dates for next year.”

Saga’s genesis

Buried somewhere in the subconscious of every radio listener in Charlottesville is the catchphrase, “Locally owned and operated by Eure Communications.” But on October 13, employees of the company and its three affiliates, AM talk radio’s WINA, classic rock 3WV and “Lite Rock” Z95.1, learned surprising news that the slogan, at least, would be changing. In a meeting at the company’s Rose Hill offices, Brad Eure announced to the staff that after 20 years of locally owning and operating the business his parents founded, he’d agreed to sell to growing Michigan-based conglomerate Saga Communications. Eure cited family reasons for the deal, which will take effect in January, pending FCC approval.

 Eure, who stays on as general manager and president of the new subsidiary, Charlottesville Radio Group, is confident that the company won’t tinker with his successful programming formula. “They kind of work to provide consulting services to individual markets and really let the local people make the decisions,” he says. “I haven’t found anything that deviates from that.”

Shaw ’nuff

Coran Capshaw’s public revelation that he was the long rumored force behind the planned redevelopment of the Downtown Amphitheater likely shocked no one at a June City Council meeting. Though details on the design, which proposed installing a large arch and covered seating, and speculation over the fate of the Fridays After 5 free summer concert series, stirred some discussion, Capshaw’s assurances that he would put on about 40 events, including something similar to Fridays concerts, eased worried music fans. Following the season’s final show on October 1, construction began on the project, adding yet another chapter to the Dave Matthews Band manager’s history as a benevolent local developer.

 Capshaw’s promises to bring nationally known acts to the new amphitheater particularly sweetened the deal, given the exciting growth at Musictoday.com and Red Light Management, where Capshaw presides as chief executive officer.

 “It’s been a great year—it really has,” says Red Light Director of Marketing Patrick Jordan. “On a management side, the roster more than doubled.” The Ivy-based company this year signed emerging rock groups Graham Colton Band and Blue Merle, popular Australian act John Butler Trio and well respected British DJ Sasha. In December, Red Light was rumored to have made an even bigger catch, signing former Phish front man Trey Anastasio. Though industry wags said the deal was all but clinched, Red Light could not confirm it at press time.

 ATO Records, the BMG subsidiary in which Capshaw shares stake with Matthews, and associates Michael McDonald and Chris Tetzeli, also brought packed shows to Starr Hill Music Hall, with visits this year from My Morning Jacket, Mike Doughty, Ben Kweller, North Mississippi Allstars and Jem. “This is the kind of community that really embraces great music,” says Jordan. “We look at Charlottesville as being a testing ground for the rest of the country and it’s definitely proven to work in those cases.”

 
Whaa happened?

The Prism Coffeehouse, which regularly brings world-class folk, bluegrass and jazz artists into an intimate local setting, may have spent the last 38 years subsisting on the charity of its volunteers, contributors and supporters. But in April, a local tabloid didn’t feel so charitable when it forced an internal dispute at the venue briefly into the public eye. Based on former board member Jim Quarles’ allegations of impropriety against Prism head Fred Boyce, The Hook wrote that “a mighty wind of discord has begun to gust behind the scenes, threatening to shake the Coffeehouse to its very foundations.”

 The resulting clamor spawned a series of meetings during which mediators from UVA attempted to bring the two sides together. Ultimately, Boyce weathered the storm. “I think it was blown out of proportion quite a bit,” he told C-VILLE, following a December 3, packed-house performance by renowned Gypsy-jazz player John Jorgenson. “It was an unfortunate bump in the road. Some people got a hold of it and tried to make a lot more out of it than was there…I don’t apologize for just trying to put the absolute greatest musicians in this room.”

 
All the rave

With R2, Downtown restaurant Rapture’s dance-hall annex that opened in October, 2003, leading the pack, the year saw what at first appeared to be a full-fledged movement towards a more DJ driven nightlife. Adding a hip cosmopolitan sheen, turntablists and CD mixers set up shop at restaurants like Atomic Burrito and Mas, as well as several art openings aimed at engaging the area’s youth culture, while dance parties at diverse establishments like Club 216, El Rey del Taco, Tokyo Rose and Wild Wing Café continued bringing in their own disc-jockeying devotees.

 Yet DJs long a part of the underground movement expressed dismay that the spike in clubbing wasn’t about the artistry so much as it was the bumping and grinding. “More than anything, rap has just gotten really popular in the U.S. and that’s made things a little different,” says Stroud, who began his DJ career in 1995, when students, townies and promoters united to make the rave scene flourish. As Stroud, the founder of Mining Vinyl Records, withdrew briefly this year to undergo treatment for cancer, he watched many of his DJing colleagues head to Washington D.C., and Richmond for better gigs.

 “Most of the restaurants and commercial places are trying to make a buck and go with the more popular music. The underground music was always reserved more to labors of love.”

 Meanwhile, the outlook for aspiring hip hop artists in town seemed better and better with the successes of the Music Resource Center, a mixing studio and rehearsal space for urban teens, which in March relocated to the old Mt. Zion Baptist Church. In October, “Another Day,” a rap tribute penned by MRC members and turned into a music video with the help of Light House Youth Media and director Sam Erickson, won an award as one of the year’s best videos by national youth media network Listen Up! And in November, MRC introduced the community to its next generation of rap and rock musicians with an impressive compilation CD, New Destinations.

Atsushi rolls

On January 24, Goth fans and musicians bade farewell to their longtime hangout in the Tokyo Rose basement. For six years, The Rose had hosted a regular Goth night, The Dawning. But following a December incident involving a knife during one of the Saturday shows, owner Atsushi Miura decided he’d had enough and sent the entire genre packing—something he’d previously done for both hip hop and punk music. “Almost every time we have that, there’s problems or tension,” Miura said in January. “I feel sorry for parents who have kids like that.”

 For the iconoclastic Miura, also known as a musician around town for songs including “I Hate Charlottesville” and “Don’t Call Me Alcoholic,” things evidently didn’t improve much. Amid rumors, including an e-mail from a Tokyo Rose music list-serve, that the last show would be December 18, Miura confirmed for C-VILLE that he planned to sell the restaurant for family reasons, but had no additional details at press time.

 
Charting the world

UVA’s students had plenty to dance about in October, as its music department presented a four-day Afropop Festival featuring three of Africa’s most important contemporary musicians: Congo’s Kanda Bongo Man, Mali’s Abdoulaye Diabate and Zimbabwe’s Thomas Mapfumo. The festival came about due to a financial gift from the UVA Athletics Department. “It was a question of what to do with this money. We were going to have a festival and it was a tossup between bluegrass and Afropop,” says visiting UVA ethnomusicology lecturer Heather Maxwell, who helped organize the festival. “We wanted to bring in something not quite so local, kind of expand the horizons of music students and members of the community to world music.”

 In one riveting moment on a Friday evening, a conga line formed and made its way through Old Cabell Hall as Mapfumo and his Blacks Unlimited delighted the audience. And while a show the following day with Diabate and local jazz supergroup the Free Bridge Quintet (unfortunately competing with the undefeated UVA football team’s Florida State matchup) didn’t bring quite the audience turnout, that too had its highlights, prompting C-VILLE reviewer Spencer Lathrop to note: “I always thought [saxophonist] Jeff Decker was a great horn player, but at some point in his career he had a badass switch installed and he flipped it for the final number.”

 The music department wasn’t the only organization hosting big shows, though. University Programs Council’s PK German stepped up with several great events this year, bringing The Wailers and Better than Ezra for its free Springfest concert at the Madison Bowl in April, and Philly hip hoppers The Roots to University Hall in October. And even the oft-derided UVA Marching Band, in its first year of existence, didn’t sound half bad playing along with The Temptations at the October 7 Clemson football game.

Modest’s proposal

It’s been about five years since the Hackensaw Boys emerged on the local scene. Yet, 2004 saw major leaps in the band’s national recognition, with their first billed gig at Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Festival in June (they’d made a surprise appearance in 2003), and their first European tour this fall.

 Arguably the Hacks’ biggest accomplishment, though, was good networking. The band had previously toured with The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse, two groups that saw major critical success in the year. And when Modest Mouse needed an upright bass and fiddle player for their April release, Good News for People Who Love Bad News, they called their old friend, Hackensaw’s Tom Peloso, to sit in on three tracks: “Bukowski,” “Satin In A Coffin,” and “Blame It On The Tetons.” Because the Hackensaw Boys were unsigned, for legalities, the record company had Peloso, a.k.a. Pee Paw Hackensaw, appear courtesy of the band. “If people take the time to read it, our name’s on a million or so records which have been sold already,” says Peloso.

 Peloso also performed with Modest Mouse on both the “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and continues to tour with them in his spare time, all the while helping boost exposure for his band mates back home: “I’ve heard people out in audience yelling ‘Hackensaw Boys’,” he says.

 It was a bittersweet moment for local Hackensaw fans when, in August, Blue Moon Diner closed its kitchen after 25 years. Peloso credits the Main Street restaurant with being a launch pad for the Hackensaw Boys. “It kind of formed the band, helped us attain our first manager [Blue Moon co-owner Mark Hahn]…and also was our headquarters for a while.” Peloso adds, however, he supports Hahn and business partner Rob “Gus” Gustafson’s decision to focus instead on their Harvest Moon Catering company. “It’s a good memory and you can’t repeat it.”House music

2004’s local releases worth checking outIn some cases, they were the songs you knew by heart. In others, the music just seemed to come out of the blue. As many of Charlottesville’s leading players released highly anticipated full-length albums this year, we bring you a selective guide to some of our favorites, available at shows or in the local music rack of your neighborhood CD store.—B.S.

 

B.C.
Puberty and Justice for All

Sunday nights at Miller’s wouldn’t be as big a draw if not for the guitar and cello duo, whose bawdy lyrics and quirkiness have earned them a devoted following, and who are now dubiously a part of recorded history.

Beetnix
Any Given Day

The city’s best rap group follows 2003’s Homesick with a sophomore release of tracks that remain crisp, danceable and fully inspired.

Big Circle
Things May Change

In many ways, a throwback to celebrated ’80s college rockers, The Deal, Circle has the added benefit of an all-star lineup who lend their talents to Deal front man Mark Roebuck’s songwriting.

Big Fast Car
Fuel for the Fire

Oh-so-satisfying, ’70s-era hard rock in the vein of vintage Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.

Eli Cook
Moonshine Mojo

The young guitar virtuoso’s live energy translates well into the studio with an album of mostly blues and rock covers that could be the start of something.

Paul Curreri
The Spirit of the Staircase

The jazzy album signifies a welcome departure for the poetic blues-folk fingerpicker, with the help of a backing band to fill out the sound.

Peter Griesar
Candy Shop

 The longtime local scenester and once-DMB-member’s solo release is like a sonic bible for disaffected youth; also good cruising music.

Indecision
The Great Road

Legends of the jam-band movement, they celebrated their 20th anniversary with a reunion gig and wound up making a solid Allman Brothers/ Grateful Dead-esque album, proving they’ve still got it.

Robert Jospé and Inner Rhythm
Hands On

The local king of jazz percussion toys with rhythmic ambiguity and spicy Afro-Cuban beats, backed by some of his illustrious colleagues.

King Wilkie
Broke

Wilkie’s enthusiastic twangage is irresistible, even if your bluegrass background doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

Peyton Tochterman
The Personals

The Fair Weather Bum’s promising solo release evokes Uncle Tupelo jamming with Miles Davis (actually, John D’earth, in an unlikely supporting role).

Vevlo Eel
The Sound of A Thousand Chryslers Rusting

Formerly C-VILLE’s Official House Band, the Eel’s CD release was also its swan song. Their grunge opus represents everything Pearl Jam might have aspired to if they weren’t such posers.

Andy Waldeck
Offering

Who knew that underneath the funky bass and guitar thrashing, Waldeck had a sensitive side? He outright flaunts it here with soulful vocals and Brit-pop-reminiscent strumming.

 

The young and the restless
O.K., what matters more to the future of rock, hip hop, dance and every other form of popular music: a) that U2 launched their new CD and the sale of a personalized, preloaded black iPod crammed with a career’s worth of tunes simultaneously; b) that the sales of new video games are now outpacing the sales of new CDs; or c) that Eminem hedged his bets by signing up to host a channel on pay satellite radio before releasing the almost but not quite mature and reflective Encore?

 If you answered “all of the above,” I’d tend to agree with you. These are strange, quicksilver times for popular music. Consumer electronics and the ever-changing world of high-tech entertainment drive the market far more than any individual musical artist or movement does. Forget concentrating on selling stand-alone tunes through familiar channels; most artists are scrambling to get their tracks slotted in the latest video games, understanding that, for kids and young adults, game titles like Grand Theft Auto have eaten up all the time they might have previously spent passively watching MTV. Oh, and don’t forget ringtones. Some folks in the music industry are already predicting that American artists are certain to reap big profits from selling cheap-sounding renditions of their hits to download-happy cell phone addicts. (Don’t laugh, ring tones already represent a substantial income stream for artists in Europe.)

 No wonder Jay-Z prepared for his planned retirement from the hip hop pantheon by angling for and nabbing a powerful new title in 2004: president of the venerable Def Jam label. Sure, making music has enriched him by hundreds of millions of dollars, but the future of hip hop—and really all other popular forms—will be about directing the music into places no one even thought about back when the Sugarhill Gang challenged the currency of the old contemporary R&B scene with the 1978 release of Rapper’s Delight.

 New delivery systems, new markets, new opportunities for cross-promotion with other youth-oriented forms of entertainment are what it’s about in the morphing music industry. Jeez, both U2 and Green Day offered fans the opportunity to preview their new albums online in their entirety before they were available for purchase. Even the supposedly industry-killing scourge of free downloading is yesterday’s news. Things are moving just that fast.

But onto music itself. I’d venture that if Jamie Foxx wins an Academy Award for his dead-on performance in Ray, the late Ray Charles will qualify as the musician of the year. A hit biopic, a hit posthumous album of duets with big stars? All this from a guy who’d been unfairly typecast as an R&B golden oldie during much his last two decades on earth. Yeah, Ray’s gotta be laughing up there somewhere.

 Another great figure from the past, Loretta Lynn, proved that there’s still plenty of music left in her pathos-brushed pipes. If the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose wasn’t the best album of the year in both rock and country, it was in the ballpark. Like Charles, Lynn illustrated that in order to bring real life into a tune, you have to live a little first. The same held true from the quixotic Beach Boy Brian Wilson; years after its original conception, Wilson finally brought the completed version of his masterwork Smile to both CD and live audiences. And what about Prince, who came back from the edge in his middle age and delivered a straightforward album that finds him movin’ to the groovin’ and delivering life lessons at the same time.

 With the callow, flavor-of-the-month consciousness that now controls popular music, those are astounding achievements. I mean, how many hip hop or rock or country stars of today will even get a chance to put out new music at 50, 40…or even 35? My guess is not too many, and that’s a shame.

 As far as selling units goes, no one spent more time at the cash registers than Usher, who jumped from the crunk-addled “Yeah!” (formulated with omnipresent party machine Lil Jon) to his considerably creamier duet with Alicia Keys, “My Boo,” with the greatest of ease. He was the toast of R&B in 2004. Naw, make that the toast of all commercial music. His ba-zillion-selling Confessions even threatened to diminish the impact of Kanye West’s laudably gangsta-free instant hip-classic College Dropout. And it did succeed in making the much-ballyhooed return of Destiny’s Child seem parochial and unnecessary.

 Snoop Dogg, on the other hand…. With Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes in his corner, his braggadocio-laden R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece was pretty much guaranteed to make a respectable showing. But right now it’s doing much more than that. In fact, it’s threatening to turn the former gun-toting cheeba-hound into an amiable, genre-crossing pop star—albeit one that still gives shout outs to his beloved Crips.

Frankly, I have no idea where rock is going in the future, and judging from what happened in 2004, no one else does either. In a perfect world, gifted prog-metal practitioners Coheed and Cambria, genteel strutters the Walkmen and sui generis indie/electronic explorers TV On The Radio would carry the day, while veteran practitioners of melodic weirdness like Modest Mouse and the reconfigured Wilco kept attracting more and more believers to their sonic cults. What’s really happening, however, is that Dorian Gray wannabes U2 are poised to dominate the rock ‘n’ roll conversation once again with their latest glossy-but-well-meaning studio production, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, while Green Day mesmerizes legions of kinda-sorta punky suburban youth with American Idiot (a surprisingly vigorous anti-Bushie screed) and guileless Jay-Z buddies Linkin Park pound whatever rock fans are left into beat-heavy submission.

 As for the distressingly influential ’tween demographic, those kiddies who aren’t lapped up by tattooed pop goths Good Charlotte have either renewed their love affair with oh-so-professional grrrl rocker Avril Lavigne or have been duped by tone-deaf lip-syncher Ashlee Simpson.

 Sad, sad stuff. But, as always, there are some hopeful signs popping up on the margins of the mainstream. English acts like the keyboard-driven Keane, the fun-loving Franz Ferdinand and the genre-straddling Streets threaten to bring some much-needed new blood to both indie and the mainstream. U.S.A. natives the Killers (whose synths and grooves sound English), Bright Eyes and irrepressible Tex-Mex blues-rockers Los Lonely Boys also offer the kind of kick in the head the rock beast requires right now.

 Jeez, if even just a handful of young musicians took 10 minutes out of their busy schedules to plug into Tom Waits’ deliciously delirious Real Gone, we’d have a few decades of gloriously bent tunes to look forward to.

But what’s really next? As far as actual music goes, there’s certain to be a spate of new country acts plugging a strong “values” agenda that’s been nipped and tucked to appeal to the straitened esthetic of Red State audiences. Look for more Spanish-speaking acts to push into genres that have remained overwhelmingly Anglo up until now. Also, melodic rock acts that embrace synthesizers are on the rise, and they’re likely to gain a modicum of mainstream appeal. And, of course, if 2004 showed us anything, it was that a canny blend of smooth R&B and hip hop remains the surest route to a Top 10 album.

 Still, it’s what happened to the business of making, selling and consuming popular music during 2004 that provides the most insight into its future. At the turn of the millennium, very few folks really believed that hard formats like the CD would be marginalized before the end of the decade. Now everyone and her brother has an iPod-like device, and space-stealing stereo systems seem quaint. In the glory days of Pac-Man, video game soundtracks consisted of a simple synthesizer-generated theme that was repeated ad nauseam. Now the ability to place tracks in the hottest new video games is becoming key to connecting artists with young audiences. Those are big changes.

 Think of it this way: Kurt Cobain’s been in the grave for little more than a dozen years, and the early ’90s version of the music industry that helped transform him into a global figure looks like a dusty relic from our current vantage point. Don’t know about you, but I find that astonishing. And, to be honest, a little disturbing.

Tom Laskin is a music critic based in Madison, Wisconsin.