Author: eric-rezsnyak

The survey included 944 military respondents interviewed at several undisclosed locations throughout Iraq. The survey was conducted January 18–February 14, 2006.

The margin of error for this survey is +/-3.3 percentage points.It began with a bunker-busting missile barrage known as “Shock and Awe,” and now, three long years later, the war grinds inexorably on—no longer shocking, perhaps, but with an awful, ever-increasing number of injuries, casualties and fatalities on both sides of the conflict.

   As this eye-opening collection of surveys and statistics (painstakingly compiled by The Sacramento News & Review) clearly demonstrates, the war in Iraq continues to exact a fearsome (and growing) toll on our troops, as well as the ordinary Iraqis they were sent to protect.

   But beyond the raw numbers, a deeper story has, until now, gone untold—that of the U.S. soldiers who face the violent uncertainty of this war every day. In the first comprehensive study of active-duty military personnel in Iraq (recently released by Zogby International), one striking fact stands out: 7 out of 10 of our brave servicemen (and women) feel that the U.S. should be out of Iraq before the fourth anniversary rolls around.58% of U.S. troops say mission is clear in their minds

42% of U.S. troops say U.S. role is hazy to them

 93% said that removing weapons of mass destruction is not a reason for the U.S. troops being there

85% think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11

77% believe a major reason for the war was to “stop Saddam from protecting Al-Qaeda in Iraq”

68% believe the real mission was the removal of Saddam Hussein

24% think “establishing a democracy that can be a model for the Arab world” is a major reason for the war

11% see the mission as a way to secure oil supplies

6% think the mission is to provide long-term bases for U.S. troops in the region

 72% think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year

29% say the U.S. should leave Iraq immediately

22% say the U.S. should leave Iraq in the next six months

21% say U.S. should be out between six and 12 months

23% say the U.S. should stay “as long as they are needed”

 30% of U.S. troops think the Department of Defense has failed to provide adequate troop protections

 

Source: Zogby International

 

 

 

THE COST OF WAR

Average monthly cost of Iraq War: $5.6 Billlion

Average monthly cost of Vietnam War, adjusted for inflation: $5.1 billion

 

Source: The Institute for Policy Studies

 

Running total based on congressional appropriations:

$246,236,390,000+ and growing

 

Running total per person in the United States: $984+

Source: National Priorities Project

 

 

CASUALTIES OF WAR

UNITED STATES

Male: 2,199

Female: 48

 

AGE

Younger than 22: 654

22-24: 515

25-30: 557

31-35: 241

Older than 35: 280

 

IRAQ

Iraqi civilians killed: Between 33,489 and 37,589

Number of Iraqi civilians killed

year over year:

March 2003 – March 2004: 6,331

March 2004 – March 2005: 11,312

March 2005 – March 2006: 12,617

 

Source: Iraq Body Count

 

Number of Iraqi deaths attributable to the war in Iraq according to the British medical journal The Lancet: Over 100,000

 

 

THE GROWING THREAT

Insurgent attacks in 2004: 26,496

Car bombs: 420

Suicide car bombs: 133

Roadside bombs: 5,607

Insurgent attacks in 2005: 34,131

Car bombs: 873

Suicide car bombs: 411

Roadside car bombs: 10,953

 

Source: The Brookings Institution

 

It’s been three years since ground operations commenced in Iraq.

Where do you think we’ll be at the end of year four?

Kelley Midkiff

Age: 38

Occupation: Nurse Practitioner

“I just hope it’s over soon.”

 

Diane Oaks

Age: 42

Occupation: Marketing for Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

“Well, I think we’ll still be there. I would hope that some of the troops would go home. News that the president will be leaving it for the next president is not very encouraging.”

 

Ian Harris

Age: 20

Occupation: Computer Tech

“I’m not entirely sure ’cause I didn’t think it would last this long. I thought it would’ve ended because of military action in Iraq being taken out.”

 

Mary Johnston

Age: 47

Occupation: Judge

“I think probably I would see a troop drawdown of maybe one third. I don’t see civil strife lessening much. It’s been going on for millennia, so I see that being a continuing problem.”

 

Chris Mertz

Age: 28

Occupation: Student at UVA

“I think for the next year they’re gonna call it a low-grade civil war, but not a full-blown civil war. …I think it’s gonna get worse and I think eventually America’s gonna pull out.”

 

Maryanne Rodgers

Age: 60

Occupation: Teacher

“In spite of all the terrorists’ attempts, I think there will be a stronger indigenous government. I believe that America will provide support to all the different kinds of people that are over there. I’m expecting success.”

 

Righting wrongs
UVA Law School’s human rights clinic takes on Abu Ghraib and other international abuses

UVA’s Law School doesn’t exactly have a reputation for matriculating anti-authoritarian bomb throwers. Consider this: In the past four years, the school has graduated 1,314 students and only 82 (just 6 percent) have taken jobs in government or the public sector. Thus, it can come as quite a shock to outside observers when the work of the school’s Human Rights Law Clinic contributes to left-leaning headlines in the International Herald Tribune.

One can imagine, for instance, that (UVA grad and Supreme Court wannabe) J. Michael Luttig’s head nearly exploded when he heard that the Clinic supplied research for a German case holding Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

   Established in 2001, the Human Rights Law Clinic was founded at the urging of professors Rosa Brooks and David Martin, who were well aware of the market demand for such law school programs—and appreciative of the real-world applications such training can provide.

   “[These issues] are on the front page of the newspaper everyday,” says Brooks. “Students are reading about them and they care about them and should care about them… It’s part of any law school’s duty to give students the skill to go out there in the world and understand these issues.”

   And, of course, publicity never hurts. While some of UVA’s more conservative students and faculty might dismiss the politics, they surely relish the attention—even if it comes from an international court action against Donald Rumsfeld.

   “When that case was filed, and got a tremendous amount of attention,” remembers professor Deena Hurwitz, “Students were really excited to see the discussion of it in the press. They said, ‘Look, we made this happen,’ and then [the students] keep following [the story].”

   The Law Clinic’s progress has been mirrored by similar programs nationwide. Hurwitz, who often teaches the class (and is the director of the law school’s Human Rights Program), estimates that there were only 20 other such programs at peer schools when UVA’s clinic began. Since 2001, however, there has been a proliferation, with approximately four times as many programs now up and running across the country.

   The appeal is easy to understand. Whereas most grad students spend their days absorbing theory and abstraction that may never find practical use outside of the library stacks, students inside the Massie Road classroom of the Law Clinic are thinking practically about how to help real people. People whose hands have been chopped off by their own governments, people plagued by stillbirths due to Vietnam-era Agent Orange exposure, and yes, people who are currently being tortured under the disinterested eye of the U.S. government. For the engaged, compassionate law student, the opportunity to make a real difference in the world is all but irresistible.

   “I don’t want the students to just be doing leg work,” Hurwitz says about selecting projects for the Clinic. “It’s got to be something real concrete. The students have to be able to see how what they do is going to be used. It doesn’t have to be used immediately. It doesn’t have to be used in the way that they will see the ‘victory of human rights,’ but they have to know that it’s practical and real.”

 

On a recent Tuesday afternoon in Hurwitz’s class, 13 law students sat around a table in a wood-paneled seminar room, laptops out and fingers tap-tap-tapping away, getting a fresh, if not entirely cozy, sense of the “practical and real.” Four of their classmates explained the brick wall they’d hit.

They had spent the past eight weeks working with the D.C.-based organization Earth Rights International to draft a submission to the U.N. that could help shape an upcoming resolution on transatlantic corporations operating in countries that commit human rights abuses. (Think Google voluntarily censoring their results in China.) But the students heard that John Ruggie—the U.N. representative they were purportedly trying to help—had called the propositions “out in left field.” He had dismissed them entirely. A little frustrating, to say the least.

   Well, sometimes that happens when you’re trying to change the world, so buck up, Katie Redford told them. She’s a UVA Law graduate, co-founder of Earth Rights, and currently adjunct professor for the class.

   “Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is the best thing that can happen from an advocacy perspective,” Redford says. She didn’t expect Ruggie’s decision, either, but now the students’ work can be used for advocacy purposes. Earth Rights can now present the ideas, perhaps not to the U.N., but to governments and corporations.

   It might not be exactly the victory the students sought, but hey it’s another day in the thorny world of human rights law. If these 13 had been looking for the easy way, they probably would have chosen the corporate route, like most of their peers.—Nell Boeschenstein

  Art Spiegelman would have been like any other adolescent comic fan, losing interest in the form at about age 13, but for the fact that right about that time he discovered something that hijacked his attention—ka-pow!—and turned him into a lifelong comics reader. For Spiegelman, that was Marvel’s trippy, mystical Dr. Strange series by Steve Ditko. His editor at The Virginia Quarterly Review, which has been publishing a series by Spiegelman and is largely responsible for his headlining appearance at the Virginia Festival of the Book this week, had the exact same experience—roughly 20 years later. But for Ted Genoways, VQR’s top dog, it wasn’t Dr. Strange that hooked him, it was Spiegel-man’s own Maus. Spiegelman’s career, which segued from Dr. Strange to the underground “comix” scene of the 1960s, and eventually international acclaim, seems to have come full circle.

   Keeping people interested in comics, landing a ka-pow! to the brain, is what Art Spiegelman is all about. Widely regarded as one of the greatest graphic novelists out there, he has dedicated nearly his entire 40-plus-year career to learning about, working in and talking up a genre that most people dismissed as the stuff of second-graders’ Sunday afternoons. Thanks in large measure to him, comics are now sold just down the aisle from Shakespeare, Homer and Tom Wolfe at Barnes & Noble; comic characters are generating hundreds of millions of dollars through movies and TV shows; and comic art now hangs on the walls of the nation’s major art museums. On Saturday, at the Virginia Festival of the Book, Spiegelman will give his “Comix 101” lecture in an effort to enlighten any holdouts over the age of 13 as to why comics belong in more than just the funny pages.

 

Sounds corny but when you talk to Spiegelman you get the impression that he didn’t choose comics. Comics chose him.

   “I found myself wanting to be a cartoonist when I discovered that it was done by people, not a natural phenomenon like trees or grass,” he tells C-VILLE in an exclusive interview from his home in New York City. After his birth in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948 his parents immigrated to Queens, New York, and that’s where he discovered comics and humor books like Mad on grocery store magazine racks. “I said, ‘I want to do something like that.’ The die was totally cast when I was 11,” he says.

   But it wasn’t an easy roll. Spiegelman went on to attend the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan and then enrolled in the art program at Harpur College in Binghamton, New York, where he suffered a nervous breakdown and was treated at a mental hospital. Later that year his mother, Anja, an Auschwitz survivor, committed suicide.

   That life-shattering moment inspired what would become Spiegelman’s seminal work. In 1973 he channeled all the disparate emotions he felt over his mother’s suicide—grief, anger, guilt, despair—into “Prisoner on Hell Planet,” a four-page comic. This was not your typical superhero adventure. The stark black-and-white images and captions were like a primal scream captured on paper and ink; the anguish was almost palpable. Years later the strip would be incorporated into Maus, a full-length graphic novel that detailed his Jewish parents’ experiences during the Holocaust.

   Graphic novels were nothing new. Europeans had been collecting strips like Tintin and Asterix in books since the 1930s, and Will Eisner had been telling long-form stories by marrying pictures and words for years. But Maus was clearly different. Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale (alternately known as My Father Bleeds History) was first published in 1986; the second part, And Here My Troubles Began, published in 1991. At the time few comics had attempted to tackle such confronting real-life issues in such a personal way. The work was undeniably serious, even as the manner Spiegelman chose to tell the story—transforming his cast into cute, almost Disney-esque animals, with Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats and the Poles as pigs—made it accessible to anyone.

   The mainstream response to Maus was unprecedented in the comic world. Widespread critical acclaim, a show at the Museum of Modern Art, the book becoming a staple of college and high school reading lists—the list goes on. The true watershed moment came in 1992, when Spiegelman was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for the entire work. Consider that again: A comic book had won the Pulitzer Prize. Could the world ever look at Superman’s inside-out underpants the same way again?

   Maus’ success, however, put Spiegelman in an awkward position. “I’ve been chased by a 500-pound mouse for the past 40 years,” he says. “There’s something great about spending 13 years on a project and then have it land that fully. But it leaves you wondering what to do as an encore.”

   But aside from Maus Spiegelman had been keeping busy, so he had a course he could continue to follow. From 1965 to 1987 he held a day job as a graphic artist for candy/card company Topps, where his work included designing for the delightfully disgusting Garbage Pail Kids cards in the 1980s. More importantly, during the Me Decade he helped create and edit the experimental comic anthologies RAW and Arcade. Through them he helped other young, indie comic creators get their work out there, including Robert Crumb and Charles Burns.

   After the Pulitzer, in 1993 he joined The New Yorker as a staff artist and writer; his wife, Francoise Mouly, also came aboard as the magazine’s art editor. In previous interviews he has related his ongoing difficulties with what he regarded as censorship at The New Yorker, which came to a head following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Spiegelman created The New Yorker’s now-iconic cover for the issue published six days after the tragedy—a seemingly completely black image that, upon closer inspection, reveals the outlines of the two towers in a deeper shade of black—and he wanted to further explore his strong reactions to the event and the politics he believes led up to it. He says the magazine’s management rejected him.

   Spiegelman says he wasn’t surprised by The New Yorker taking a pass on the piece, or other mainstream American newspapers. “But that’s why I had to find someplace else to hang my hat,” he says. “It was in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, and it was a really frightening and pathetic media environment.” He eventually took the project to the German newspaper Die Zeit and the American Jewish weekly Forward, which published the 10 large-scale tabloid spreads that would eventually be collected by Pantheon Press as In the Shadow of No Towers in 2004.

 

Spiegelman’s current project continues his autobiographical streak. Titled “Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@?*!” it examines what drew him to cartooning and is currently being published exclusively in The Virginia Quarterly Review. The series of strips started in the Fall 2005 issue of VQR and, according to editor Ted Genoways [for more on Genoways, see feature, p. 25], will run whenever Spiegelman has enough pages ready to publish. “He works slowly, but when the work is complete we’re always so happy with it that it’s hard to complain when he says he won’t have something ready for the spring issue,” Genoways says.

   His slow rate of work brings up an interesting dilemma when considering Spiegelman. For such an icon in the comic field, he has a remarkably slight body of work given his four decades in the biz—in addition to his New Yorker work, the two Maus tomes and No Towers he has the children’s book Open Me…I’m a Dog and illustrated adaptations of a few extant works, including The Wild Party. In a 1999 Village Voice piece, one of his critics, political cartoonist Ted Rall, questioned whether Spiegelman might not be “a guy with one great book in him.”

   Genoways sees Spiegelman’s significance more clearly. “Art found a way of taking on obviously extremely difficult subject matter but approached it in this autobiographical way and used a lot of the trappings of memoir,” he says. “For the first time for a general audience there were recognizable literary guideposts. The art doesn’t seem to get in the way. If anything it was something there to augment and increase the power of the work.” Spiegelman gave people “the chance to see for the first time the potential of the form rather than focus on the limitations of the form.”

   Genoways isn’t the only Spiegelman fan. In 2005 he was named one of Time magazine’s Top 100 most influential people in the world. The New York Times Magazine described him as being “to the comics world a Michelangelo and Medici both, an influential artist who is also an impresario and an enabler of others.”

   That aspect of Spiegelman’s career has certainly been a boon for VQR, Genoways says. “It brings us a lot of credibility as we’ve been trying to build not only our identity as a literary and contemporary thought journal, but also a journal that has more focus on the visual side now than we ever did before.”

   It also means that a lot more of his contemporaries in the comics field are taking notice of the quarterly. In the short term those benefits include former New Yorker staffer Lawrence Weschler, who is now VQR’s art consultant, and graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), who will publish an excerpt of her upcoming Chicken With Plums in the Spring 2006 VQR. Genoways credits Spiegelman directly with making both connections possible.

 

Fourteen years after Maus won the Pulitzer, the popular comics landscape remains largely unchanged. The vast, vast majority of commercial American comic books feature superheroes tussling in brightly colored spandex. And with cover prices soaring to $2.99 per 22-page story, collecting them becomes more costly every month. You’d need X-ray vision to find the once-prominent comic racks in supermarkets, the very outlets that hooked Spiegelman himself more than 40 years ago. And interactive computer and videogames zap kids’ imaginations and free time instead of the passive pastime of reading about Captain America and the Avengers. Has the comic industry failed to live up to the promise of that momentous mainstream breakthrough?

   Spiegelman doesn’t hesitate to answer. “Comics are doing better than they have for a long time. The world is turning to shit and it’s great biz for cartoonists. The bar has been lifted—it’s possible to make anything. That can include, like, getting Batman to fight Osama bin Laden,” he says, referencing the planned DC graphic novel by Frank Miller, Holy Terror, Batman. “Or it could be something as sublime as anything literature ever took a stab at. It’s up to the artist what it will be and there’s a possible audience that will receive it.”

   And boy, are they receiving it. Spider-Man 2 grossed $373 million in the United States alone, and comic movies keeping coming down the pipeline—even more independent projects like Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World, John Wagner and Vince Locke’s A History of Violence and currently Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. The New York Times Magazine is now running a series featuring Chris Ware of The Acme Novelty Warehouse fame. Writers who have found major success in TV, movies and novels, like Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” writing Astonishing X-Men), Damon Lindelof (“Lost,” writing Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game, writing Ultimate Iron Man) and Brad Meltzer (The Millionaires, penning Justice League America) are actually shifting over to comics because they love the medium so much. And the Best American series that previously focused solely on poetry, short stories and essays recently announced that they’re starting an annual anthology of graphic narratives.

   “More and more, I think at this point the things I was demanding happen for comics are happening,” Spiegelman says. “When we were doing RAW magazine it seemed insane to people that we were saying, ‘This is a serious medium, capable of as wide a range as any medium.’ Now they’re available in bookstores rather than comic shops.

   “They’re not all preadolescent male fantasies,” he continues. “Some of this work belongs on gallery walls, museums, and is worthy of the same analysis that one would give at any university to other work.”

 

Editor for a new age

Ted Genoways, the boy wonder of The Virginia Quarterly Review who has revamped the vaunted journal in only two years, is smart, nice, talented and successful, damn him.

By Nell Boeschenstein

nell@c-ville.com

 

It’s a view for which aesthetes the world over would sacrifice their silk neckties: One window looks out onto the façade of UVA’s picturesque 1883 stone chapel, the other window frames a scene of Jefferson’s Rotunda. Ted Genoways, the 33-year-old wunderkind editor of The Virginia Quar-terly Review, seems satisfied with his corner of this earth: Smiling from behind his hefty desk, hands clasped behind his head, some gentle prodding reveals his soft spot for Coldplay. Here’s the man who led VQR to six National Magazine Award (“Ellie”) nominations earlier this month—more than any other magazine, save Atlantic Monthly; here’s the man with the plan to get the famed author of Maus and graphic novel godfather Art Spiegelman to speak at this year’s Virginia Festival of the Book. Yet the first question that pops into my head concerns the appraisal value of his view.

   At a time when the average English grad is still debating whether waiting tables is a lucrative career, in the fall of 2003 at the tender age of 31, Genoways took over the reputable reins of VQR to much fanfare and media adulation.

   “This was the position I always wanted,” Genoways admits, grinning somewhat abashedly, and with a knowing look in his eye (he must get this question all the time). “It was not a job that I was necessarily expecting would come along as quickly as it did…[but] it was the job I had always imagined working toward and hoping to get by the time I was 50.”

   He succeeded retiring editor Staige Blackford who had led the magazine for nearly three decades, and Genoways immediately revamped the no-frills quarterly. He traded in the staid black-and-white design for four-color printing, lots of art, photography and a bold embrace of (gasp!) the graphic novel. The redesign clearly played to an audience accustomed to the Internet, TV, movies and tabloids. In short, a new generation.

   “Ted has a wonderful sense of design,” says the novelist and UVA professor Christopher Tilghman, who also serves as an advisory editor to the journal. “It’s really stunning to look at. In this quarterly business, [design] is far more than just glitter. Some of the old-school academics may miss the cream paper and letterset type, but [VQR] now speaks to a more assertive attempt to see what art and thought really are: They are broader.”

   Genoways also went to work right away milking big-name writers. He snagged, for example, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison as a contributor to his first VQR issue, Winter of 2004. As a result of Genoways’ vision, circulation has in-creased by more than half and the national awards and recognition have rolled in like dogs and dirt.

   “[Ted] has brought some authors that we might not have been able to go after,” says Nancy Damon, program director for the Virginia Festival of the Book. “He has a budget to help him get some of these important significant authors to publish in VQR and come to the Book Festival, which we could not do by ourselves.”

   Genoways’ picturesque office in the VQR headquarters on the West Range is surprisingly tidy. Orderly piles of books and stacks of paper all sit in their respective seats on his desk. Oriental rugs are scattered on the pine floors, and the two logs in the fireplace are just for show. They’ve never been lit and never will be because the fireplace doesn’t even work. Genoways, too, is neat as a pin: khakis pressed, nails clipped, goatee shorn.

   A complete set of leather-bound volumes of VQR dating from 1925 line one bookshelf—one volume per year—along with back issues of Granta, Harper’s and The American Scholar. Miscellaneous books in no particular order (Alfred Kazin’s America, Four Souls by Louise Erdrich, A Changed Man by Francine Prose, The Complete Poems of Claude McKay) and more than 25 different kinds of dictionaries (Russian-English, biographical, slang, classical, quotations) line the opposite shelf. Genoways doesn’t have much time to read for fun these days, though—what with the submissions up by 100 percent in the past two years to 5,500 manuscripts, his unfinished dissertation on Walt Whitman, and a wife and toddler keeping those home fires burning.

   The hiring committee that pegged Genoways to be Blackford’s torch-bearer knew from the get-go they wanted someone who could breathe that proverbial breath of fresh air into the admittedly musty—if hallowed—halls of the VQR. Incidentally, Blackford himself was on this committee, so draw your own conclusions.

   UVA English professor Jessica Feldman sat on the advisory committee. She says they wanted “someone who would have a really strong personal vision…[and] someone with a lot of good connections…Ted was pretty unique in that way. He is a superb networker and so he knows a ton of people. In that way he seemed to be an ideal candidate.”

   Moreover, despite his tender years, Genoways had significant experience: He’s a published poet himself, and he had started or helped start a magazine almost everywhere he’s been from the age of 13 on. In fact, he founded Meridian, another UVA lit mag, while an M.F.A. student here in the late 1990s. Arriving at VQR was Genoways’ opportunity not just to have a vision for a lit mag, but also to work with the freedom and financial means to see it through. Total, the journal has $800,000 to play with each year, funding that comes partly from Pres-ident John Casteen’s of-fice and partly from what Gen-oways calls a “significant” endowment.

   The Genoways faithful have not been disappointed.

   The quarterly has an illustrious history of contributors such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Jean-Paul Sartre and William Faulkner. Founded in 1925, it was at the forefront of the mid-century small magazine renaissance, which also saw the upcropping of The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly and Ploughshares. Yet even given VQR’s history, Genoways’ track record is impressive: In two years he’s scored coup after coup, getting everyone from Salman Rushdie to Joyce Carol Oates to E.L Doctorow to Margaret Atwood to Tony Kushner to publish new work with him before it appeared anywhere else.

   And Genoways is get-ting the props he deserves. The six Ellie nominations are proof positive of this, and since the nominations were announced on March 15 the national media scene has sat bolt upright and taken notice of VQR. Everywhere from The New York Times to the New York Post to Media Life Magazine to the blog, Gawker, gave the quarterly its due. Even if, in some cases, that "due" was granted with some surprise. Moreover, the company VQR keeps with these nominations? The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Harper’s and Atlantic Monthly. When asked what bar he’s reaching for, these are precisely the publications Gen-oways rattles off.

   With a full-time staff of only four, this is a not an insignificant achievement. Advisory editors, contributing editors and readers for poetry, fiction and nonfiction help out the full-time staff, but in the end it all comes down to taste.

   “I have the expertise only because someone said I do,” Genoways says in all seriousness. “I’m not trained as a writer in [all these] fields. All of us around here are discriminating readers but ultimately it comes down to taste: If I opened up another magazine and saw this, would I read it?”

   What’s good for VQR is good for the school that funds it. The access to literary glitz and glamour reflects well on the University’s national reputation as a place that fosters the written word. The asso-ciation especially works for UVA’s graduate writing programs. In 2005, UVA’screative writing M.F.A. program was ranked fourth nationally by U.S. News and World Report.

   Don’t, however, think this is just a bookish pissing contest. If you really do have only 10 seconds to grab someone’s attention, then marquee names and a little aesthetic spice are clear pluses—for everybody. Genoways likes to repeat a quip attributed to George Plimpton, the celebrated editor of The Paris Review, who likened big-money names to the poles that hold up the tent for younger writers to come in under.

Genoways’ magnanimity is no act. The man is just smart. And kind. And hard-working. A withering triumvirate.

   Janna Gies, Ted’s assistant who also worked under Blackford, calls Genoways, “one of the smartest people I have ever met.”

   John Casteen IV, a close friend of Genoways, who besides being the son of UVA’s president, is a member of VQR’s poetry board, calls his friend “a fundamentally sympathetic person.”

   “One of the hallmarks of the great mind is the ability to change,” says Casteen, “not being doctrinaire,” and Genoways, he says, has that turn of mind.

   Ironically, this is precisely the quality Genoways himself values in his magazine. For the record, VQR is not simply a literary magazine. Never has been. It’s a magazine that explores contemporary issues and debates—from desegregation to Iraq to AIDS in Africa to, as in the issue that comes out this week, Darwin and evolution—discussing and deconstructing each topic in essays, criticism, stories and art. In this sense, VQR is more akin to Harper’s than The Paris Review.

   “There are some issues that, to me, there aren’t two sides to,” says Genoways about how politics manifest themselves in the journal. “[For example], the question of whether we should be taking a greater role in trying to stem the spread of AIDS in Africa. It’s hard for me to see the argument against us doing that…I think that there’s a confusion between fairness and balance. We are absolutely committed to being fair. I don’t think we have any obligation to be balanced.”

 

Spiegelman, Morrison, Chabon, Kushner, etc. regardless, VQR may have readers that “matter”—discerning readers who appreciate the obscure instrument Geno-ways has mastered—but the quarterly still doesn’t have circulation with any significant real-world meaning. The circulation may have increased almost 60 percent since Genoways arrived, but that still means that whereas it used to hover around 3,400 per year, now it’s just short of 6,000. In contrast, Harper’s average circulation is 227,600 per month.

Luckily, those precious readers are enthusiastic. In a file near her desk, Gies keeps an inch-thick manila folder of letters—mostly from thankful readers and contributors, although a few are from bitter, rejected writers. The outpouring of appreciation can be summed up in the words of C-VILLE’s own book reviewer, Doug Nordfors, who in reviewing the latest issue of VQR said, “In today’s unsound world, to demand more fiction and poetry and less social commentary is heartless, not to mention wrong…Bless you, VQR, for doing what you’re supposed to do.”

In some ways, however, the greater meaning of the quarterly’s life in today’s literary landscape comes from the food chain: It feeds the mainstream media beast above it.

   Genoways cites, for example, how when the Johnny Cash biopic came out, National Public Radio picked up on photos of the Folsom Prison concert that VQR had run a year earlier, and linked the VQR text to the radio channel’s website.

   “There are occasions like that,” Genoways says, “when suddenly we can tap into something larger. Then, for a brief moment you think, ‘Wow, O.K., people are listening.’”

   For his part, Genoways appears to get the most satisfaction out of the nonfiction pieces he commissions to bolster the theme of each issue. Genoways may have gotten his M.F.A. in poetry, but his early mentors were journalism teachers and this is apparent in his passion for the medium.

   “We’ve provided a forum where these important opinions and analyses are put to paper,” he says, the customary vigor in his voice deepening into something slightly more thoughtful, ardent even. “These things wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t gone to the author…Then those pieces just exist. They’re in libraries and they’re part of the permanent record.”

   Of course, the biggest problem with being young, vigorous, and full-of-cool in the now, is that you’re gonna get old, fat, and out-of-date in the future. Genoways willingly admits he never wants to get booted from his chair with the gazillion-dollar view. Lucky for him, nobody I interviewed seemed at all concerned that time could chip away at El Genoways.

   “I don’t see my generation of editors becoming substantially more conservative as they age,” says Casteen, who places his friend into a category of esteemed young editors such as Heidi Julavitz of The Believer and Dave Eggers of McSweeney’s. “It’s a literary movement that doesn’t yet have a name but I think that in a generation we’re going to look back on this decade and say this was when all the new stuff was formed.”

   The remaining question, then, about this prince of the printed word is if he has the ingredients to become his generation’s Plimpton? Youth, charm, intellect, ambition, sparkle? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. But does our culture—with its reality stars and celebrity sex tapes—still crown literary kings? Who can say?

   But hey, it’s nice work if you can get it.

Bill Cosby. Blackalicious. The Rolling Stones. A year ago, it would have been almost unthinkable that artists this big, this cool, would be coming to little ol’ Charlottesville. And yet here we are on the eve of the 2005-2006 cultural season, and here they are, gracing our stages, playing our clubs, generally rocking our worlds. Little ol’ Charlottesville isn’t so little anymore.

   So behold, the lineup for the 2005-06 arts season.
In the calendar that follows you’ll be hard-pressed to find a night when something amazing isn’t going on that involves dancers, singers, actors, painters—or all of them combined! But don’t take our word for it. We reached out to local experts—artists and performers like Terri Allard, Damani Harrison and Russell Richards—to get their thoughts on some of the biggest names visiting this season, the shows they might cancel their own gigs to see.

   Heed their words. Don’t be left out when everyone else asks, “Did you see….?”—Edited by Eric Rezsnyak

 

MUSIC

Tuesday, September 20

Widespread Panic; 7:30pm, $35. Charlottesville Pavilion

Peter Mayer; 8pm, $12-15. Gravity Lounge

Max Collins; 10:30pm, free. Cocktail Lounge, Starr Hill Music Hall

Wednesday, September 21

Moot Davis and the Cool Deal; 8pm, $5. Gravity Lounge

Thursday, September 22

The Heavenly States; 8pm, $6. Gravity Lounge

Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival featuring Boccherini’s Cello Quintet in F Minor, G. 348; Lieberson’s Piano Quartet; Hemphill’s One Atmosphere; J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3; 8pm, $6-22. Jefferson Theater

Calf Mountain Jam and Tea Leaf Green; 8pm, $8-10. Starr Hill Music Hall

Friday, September 23

Skip Castro; 5pm, no cover. Charlottesville Pavilion

Cephas and Wiggins; 8pm, $18-22. The Prism

Saturday, September 24

Jan Smith; 7pm, $8. Starr Hill Music Hall

Opening Night 2005 Benefit Showcase; 8pm, pay what you can. The Prism

Tracy Grammer; 8pm, $10. Gravity Lounge

Sunday, September 25

Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival featuring Penderecki’s Cadenza for Viola; Scarlatti’s Sonata in A Major, L. 391; Schnittke’s Piano Quartet; Part’s Mozart- Adagio; J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations; 3pm, $6-22. Jefferson Theater

The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra &
The Pied Pipers; 4pm, sold out.
The Paramount Theater

Monday, September 26

Army of Me’s Brad Tursi; 9pm, free. Cocktail Lounge, Starr Hill Music Hall

Wednesday, September 28

Allman Brothers Band; 7:30pm,
$22-44.50. Charlottesville Pavilion

Thursday, September 29

The Pixies; 7:30pm, $35. Charlottesville Pavilion

Devon Sproule and Found Magazine; 8pm, tickets TBA. Gravity Lounge

Friday, September 30

Jimmy O; 5pm, no cover. Charlottesville Pavilion

Malcolm Holcombe and David Childers and the Modern Don Juans; 7pm, $8. Gravity Lounge

Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant 40th Anniversary Massacree Tour; 8pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Devil Music scoring Nosferatu; 8pm, $8-10. Satellite Ballroom

Matt Haimovitz; 8pm, $18-22. The Prism

Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen; 9pm, $15-18. Starr Hill Music Hall

Saturday, October 1

Carbon Leaf; 7:30pm, $15-17. Charlottesville Pavilion

Jake Armerding Trio; 8pm, $12-15.
The Prism

The Lascivious Biddies; 8pm, $8-10. Gravity Lounge

Saturday, October 1-Sunday, October 2

Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra presents Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin; Ewazen’s Concerto for Trombone; Mahler’s Symphony No. 4; 8pm (10/1) & 3:30pm (10/2),
$11-22. Old Cabell Hall

Sunday, October 2

David Ross Macdonald; 7pm, $5. Gravity Lounge

Keller Williams; 7:30pm, $22. Charlottesville Pavilion

Monday, October 3

Chanticleer; 8pm, $33-39.
The Paramount Theater

Tuesday, October 4

Free Country; 7pm, $5-10.
Gravity Lounge

Tuesday Evening Concert Series presents Marc-Andre Hamelin; 8pm, $5-25. Old Cabell Hall

Dar Williams; 8pm, $20. Starr Hill Music Hall

Wednesday, October 5

Kate Campbell; 7pm, $10-15. Gravity Lounge

Starr Hill Presents Nanci Griffith and the Blue Moon Orchestra; 7pm, $22.50-$29.50. The Paramount Theater

O.A.R.; 7:30pm, $25. Charlottesville Pavilion

Thursday, October 6

The Rolling Stones and Trey Anastasio; 7pm, sold out. Scott Stadium

Seamus Kennedy; 7pm, tickets TBA. Gravity Lounge

Friday, October 7

Grrrrls Night Out with SONiA of disappear fear; 8pm, $10-15. Gravity Lounge

Bill Cole and William Parker; 8pm, $12-15. The Prism

Starr Hill presents The Pietasters, Big D and the Kids Table; 9pm, $10-12. Satellite Ballroom

William Walter & Co.; 10pm, free.
Starr Hill Music Hall

Saturday, October 8

Nickel Creek; 7:30pm, $22-29.50. Charlottesville Pavilion

Foster’s Branch; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Frankie Gavin; 8pm, $15-18. The Prism

Brazilian Girls; 9pm, $10-12. Starr Hill Music Hall

Sunday, October 9

Greg Howard’s Stick Night; 7pm, $5. Gravity Lounge

Dean Musser and Friends; 7pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Michael Feinstein and Linda Eder; 8pm, regular-priced tickets sold out; only patron tickets left, $250-500.
The Paramount Theater

Slightly Stoopid; 8pm, $12-15. Starr Hill Music Hall

Monday, October 10

Grrrls Night Out with Denice Franke
and Mary Ann Rossoni; 7pm, free. Gravity Lounge

Tuesday, October 11

Geoff Muldaur; 7pm, tickets TBA. Gravity Lounge

Matt Nathanson; 8pm, $10-12.
Starr Hill Music Hall

Lyrics Born and Pigeon John; 9pm, $12-15. Satellite Ballroom

Wednesday, October 12

The Strawbs; 7pm, tickets TBA.
Gravity Lounge

Thursday, October 13

Dave’s True Story; 7pm, $5. Gravity Lounge

Dierks Bentley; 7:30pm, $17-29.50. Charlottesville Pavilion

Railroad Earth; 8pm, $8-10. Starr Hill Music Hall

Friday, October 14

UVA’S University Programs Council
presents Jason Mraz; 8pm, $15-35. Charlottesville Pavilion

Cat Power and Spokane; 8pm, $12-15. Satellite Ballroom

The Biscuit Burners; 8pm, $10-12.
The Prism

Robert Jospe’s Inner Rhythm; 8pm, $10. Gravity Lounge

Lockjaw; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Saturday, October 15

Soul Sledge; 8pm, $5. Gravity Lounge

Raymond McLain and Mike Stevens; 8pm, $12-15. The Prism

Jay Pun and Morwenna Lasko; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, October 16

Adrienne Young and Little Sadie; 3pm, $7. Gravity Lounge

Nerissa and Katryna Nields; 7pm,
$10-15. Gravity Lounge

Sonya Lorelle; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Tuesday, October 18

Tuesday Evening Concert Series presents Sharon Isbin and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra; 8pm, $5-25.
Old Cabell Hall

Thursday, October 20

Jimmie Dale Gilmore; 7pm, $20-25. Gravity Lounge

Ensemble Galilei with Jean Redpath; 7:30pm, $10-17. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill; 8pm, $20-25. The Prism

Steve Kimock Band; 8pm, $15-18. Starr Hill Music Hall

Friday, October 21

Eddie From Ohio; 8pm, $16-18.
Starr Hill Music Hall

Dromedary; 8pm, $12-15. The Prism

Metanoia; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Monticello Road and Sparky’s Flaw; 9pm, $8-10. Satellite Ballroom

Saturday, October 22

David Grisman Quintet; 7pm, $25-35. The Paramount Theater

Scott Fore and David Doucet; 8pm, $12-15. The Prism

Pantops Trio; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, October 23

Jan Smith and Caroline Herring; 7pm, $8. Gravity Lounge

Lori Derr with the George Turner Trio; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Thursday, October 27

Chris Smither; 7pm, $15-20. Gravity Lounge

Yonder Mountain String Band; 7pm, $20-25. The Paramount Theater

Young Artists Night featuring The Wave; 7pm, $3. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Friday, October 28

Richelle Claiborne, Andy Waldeck and the C-villians; 8pm, $5. Gravity Lounge

Trashé Blues; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Atomic Halloween Party with Hillbilly Werewolf and Jimmy & the Teasers; 10pm, free. Atomic Burrito

Saturday, October 29

Rahim AlHaj; 8pm, $12-15. The Prism

Sweet Trouble; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, October 30

Nature Boys; 7pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Tuesday, November 1

Freakwater; 7pm, $10. Gravity Lounge

Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon; 8pm, $30. Starr Hill Music Hall

Wednesday, November 2

James McMurty and the Heartless Bastards; 7pm, $12. Gravity Lounge

Gogol Bordello; 8pm, $12-14. Starr Hill Music Hall

Friday, November 4

Clumsy Lovers; 8pm, tickets TBA. Gravity Lounge

Paddy Keenan; 8pm, tickets TBA.
The Prism

Johnnie and the Lowdowns; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Dougie MacLean; 7pm, $20-25.
Starr Hill Music Hall

Sunday, November 6

Brokedown Palace; 8pm, $3. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Doc Severinsen with the Richmond Symphony; 8pm, $46-52. The Paramount Theater

Monday, November 7

The Perceptionists featuring Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, and DJ Fakts One; 9pm, $12-15. Satellite Ballroom

Tuesday, November 8

Rockin’ Blues Revue with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers; 8pm, $33-39. The Paramount Theater

Tuesday Evening Concert Series
presents Rebel Baroque Ensemble & Deutsche Naturhorn Solisten; 8pm,
$5-25. Old Cabell Hall

Thursday, November 10

David LaMotte; 7pm, tickets TBA. Gravity Lounge

Pat Metheny Trio with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez; 8pm, $43-75. The Paramount Theater

Mofro; 8pm, $10-12. Starr Hill Music Hall

Friday, November 11

Acoustic Muse presents Billy Jonas; 7pm, $5-15. Gravity Lounge

Jawbone (Tony Trischka and Bruce Molsky); 8pm, tickets TBA. The Prism

The Orderlies; 8pm, $3. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Friday, November 11 &
Sunday, November 13

Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra presents Bernstein’s Candide Overture; Bartok’s Viola Concerto; Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem; 8pm (11/11) & 3:30pm (11/13), $11-22. Old Cabell Hall

Saturday, November 12

Laurie Lewis Band; 8pm, tickets TBA. The Prism

Foster’s Branch; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, November 13

The Kinsey Sicks’ “I Wanna Be a Republican”; 3pm, $20-35. Gravity Lounge

The Kinsey Sicks’ “Sickest of the Sicks”; 7pm, $20-35. Gravity Lounge

Crooked Road; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Monday, November 14

Galactic; 8pm, $20. Starr Hill Music Hall

Tuesday, November 15

Richard Shindell; 7pm, $15-20. Gravity Lounge

Wednesday, November 16

The Pink Floyd Experience; 8pm, $23-29. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, November 17

Vince Gill; 6:30 & 9:30pm, regular-priced tickets sold out; only patron
tickets available, $125. The Paramount Theater

Acoustic Muse presents Slaid Cleaves; 8pm, $12-15. Gravity Lounge

Friday, November 18

Sierra; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Saturday, November 19

Devon Sproule; 8pm, tickets TBA. Gravity Lounge

John Jorgenson Quintet; 8pm, tickets TBA. The Prism

2 Red Shoes; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, November 20

Lori Derr with the George Turner Trio; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Friday, November 25

The Moscow Boys Choir; 7:30pm,
$21-30. The Paramount Theater

Friday, December 2

Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra Family Holiday Concert (with the University Singers); 8pm, $11-22. Old Cabell Hall

Bluzonia; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver; 8pm, $23-29. The Paramount Theater

Acoustic Muse presents Catie Curtis; 8pm, $15-18. Gravity Lounge

Saturday, December 3

Virginia Consort’s “Christmas with the Consort”; 4 & 7pm, $15-20. First Presbyterian Church

The Wastrels; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, December 4

PVCC Chorus Holiday Concert; 3pm, free. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Christine Lavin; 7pm, $22-27. Gravity Lounge

Las Gitanas; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Friday, December 9

Sun Dried Opossum; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Saturday, December 10

Windham Hill’s Winter Solstice; 8pm, $27-33. The Paramount Theater

Long Slide; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, December 11

Charlottesville Municipal Band Holiday Concert; 3:30 & 7:30pm, free (tickets required). PVCC Dickinson Theater

High Ground Bluegrass; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Friday, December 16

Jerry Harmon; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Saturday, December 17

Sweet Trouble; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Sunday, December 18

Beleza Brasil; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Friday, December 30

Wayne Parham; 8pm, $5. Kokopelli’s Cafe

Saturday, December 31

Jesse Winchester, Paul Curreri, Devon Sproule and the Jay Pun and Morwenna Lasko Band; time and price TBA. Gravity Lounge

Monday, January 16

Gospel Choir of Harlem; 7:30pm,
$10-17. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Tuesday, January 24

Tuesday Evening Concert Series presents Renaud Capuçon and Gautier Capuçon; 8pm, $5-25. Old Cabell Hall

Monday, January 30

Riders in the Sky; 7:30pm, tickets TBA. Blackfriars Playhouse

Saturday, February 4-Sunday, February 5

Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra presents Tower’s Made in America; Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits; C.P.E. Bach’s Concerto in D minor; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7; 8pm (2/4) & 3:30pm (2/5), $11-22. Old Cabell Hall

Sunday, February 5

The Temptations; 8pm, sold out.
The Paramount Theater

Friday, February 10

Liz Story and Lisa Lynne; 8pm, $23-29. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, February 12

Sing! Sing! Sing!; 7pm, $27-33.
The Paramount Theater

Tuesday, February 14

CeCe Winans; 8pm, $36-42. The Paramount Theater

Tuesday, February 21

Tuesday Evening Concert Series presents Magdalena Kozená & Les Violons du Roy Chamber Orchestra; 8pm,
$5-25. Old Cabell Hall

Friday, February 24

Yo-Yo Ma with the Silk Road Ensemble; 8pm, regular tickets sold out, patron tickets still available, $250-500. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, March 2

Chick Corea & Touchstone; 8pm, $43-49. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, March 5

Virginia Consort‘s “Midwinter Masterworks” featuring Ravel’s Trois Chansons and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War; 3:30pm, $15-20; Cabell Hall Auditorium

Wednesday, March 8

The Fab Four; 8pm, $23-29. The Paramount Theater

Friday, March 17

The Polish Chamber Orchestra with Sir James Galway & Lady Jeanne Galway; 8pm, regular-priced tickets sold out; patron tickets available $150. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, March 18-Sunday, March 19

Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra presents John D’earth’s Blues for Orchestra; Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5; 8pm (3/18) & 3:30pm (3/19), $11-22. Old Cabell Hall

Tuesday, March 21

Tuesday Evening Concert Series presents St. Petersburg String Quartet; 8pm, $5-25. Old Cabell Hall

Saturday, March 25

Terri Allard; 8pm, $10-$15. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Tuesday, March 28

Soweto Gospel Choir; 8pm, $34-40. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, April 6-Sunday, April 9

Pierre Bensusan 2006 Residential Guitar Seminar, times and prices TBA. The Prism

Saturday, April 8

Jane Monheit; 8pm, $24-30. The Paramount Theater

Tuesday, April 12

Tuesday Evening Concert Series presents Sergey Schepkin; 8pm, $5-25. Old Cabell Hall

Saturday, April 22-Sunday, April 23

Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra presents Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty; 8pm (4/22) & 3:30pm (4/23), $11-22. Old Cabell Hall

Tuesday, April 25

Charlottesville Municipal Band Spring Concert; 8pm, free. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Sunday, April 30

PVCC Chorus Spring Concert; 3pm, free, PVCC Dickinson Theater

Saturday, May 13

Virginia Consort’s “Spring Concert” featuring Mozart’s Sancta Maria and John Rutter’s Requiem; 7pm, $15-20. First Presbyterian Church

 

STAGE

Through Friday, November 25

Hamlet; American Shakespeare Center. Blackfriars Playhouse

Through Saturday, November 26

The Three Musketeers; American Shakespeare Center. Blackfriars Playhouse

All’s Well That Ends Well; American Shakespeare Center. Blackfriars Playhouse

Through Sunday, November 27

The Comedy of Errors; American Shakespeare Center. Blackfriars Playhouse

Tuesday, September 13

Second City Comedy National Touring Company; 7:30pm, $10-17. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Friday, September 16-Saturday, October 15

Noises Off; Live Arts DownStage

Sunday, September 18

Theatreworks USA Aesop’s Fables; 1 & 3pm, $5. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Wednesday, September 21-Thursday, September 29

DAH Theatre Research Centre’s Jadranka Andjelic Project of Serbia
residency; Live Arts

Saturday, September 24-Saturday, October 22

Rumpelstiltskin (puppet show); Old Michie Theatre

Friday, October 7-Saturday, October 15

Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe; New Lyric Theater. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Friday, October 7-Sunday, October 23

Lightly Seasoned; Four County Players. Barboursville Playhouse

Wednesday, October 12

The Bomb-itty of Errors; 8pm, $18-27. The Paramount Theater

Friday, October 14

The Berenstain Bears On Stage; 7:30pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Tuesday, October 18

Broadway—The Star-Spangled Celebration; 8pm, $40-49. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, November 3-Thursday, November 17

Cloud 9; UVA Drama Department. Helms Theatre

Friday, November 4

The Smothers Brothers; 8pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Friday, November 4-Wednesday, November 16

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf; UVA Drama Department. Culbreth Theatre

Friday, November 4-Sunday, December 4

Pinocchio; Old Michie Theatre

Saturday, November 5

Live Arts GALA; 6pm, $200 (reservations required; call 977-4177, x102). Live Arts DownStage

Saturday, November 5-Thursday, November 17

Call of the Wild; UVA Drama Department. Culbreth Theatre

Saturday, November 5-Saturday, December 10

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse (puppet show); Old Michie Theatre

Thursday, November 10-Sunday, November 20

Ayn Rand’s Night of January 16th; PVCC Drama. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Friday, November 11-Saturday, December 17

Having Our Say; Live Arts UpStage

Thursday, November 17

Paula Poundstone; 7:30pm, tickets TBA. Blackfriars Playhouse

Wednesday, November 30-Saturday, December 31

The Santaland Diaries; American Shakespeare Center. Blackfriars Playhouse

Friday, December 2-Sunday, December 18

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Four County Players. Barboursville Playhouse

Friday, December 9

Laughter Arts Festival; 8pm, $26-32. The Paramount Theater

Friday, December 9-Friday, December 30

A Christmas Carol; American Shakespeare Center. Blackfriars Playhouse

Tuesday, December 13

Troupe America, Inc. and Mainstage present A Christmas Carol; 7:30pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, December 17-Saturday,
December 24

The Elves and the Shoemaker (puppet show); Old Michie Theatre

Friday, January 13-Saturday, February 4

Macbeth; Live Arts DownStage

Friday, January 13-Sunday, January 29

The Greater Tuna; American Shakespeare Center. Blackfriars Playhouse

Saturday, January 14-Saturday, February 18

Rapunzel (puppet show); Old Michie Theatre

Saturday, January 21

The Flying Karamazov Brothers; 7:30pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Friday, January 27-Sunday, February 19

The Prince and the Pauper; Old Michie Theatre

Saturday, January 28

Helikon Opera presents Strauss’
Die Fledermaus; 8pm, $41-47.
The Paramount Theater

Saturday, February 4

Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Co.; 7:30pm, $18-27. The Paramount Theater

Friday, February 10-Saturday, February 25

Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Live Arts UpStage

Wednesday, February 15-Sunday, February 19

PVCC Drama winter play; Maxwell Theatre

Thursday, February 16-Saturday, February 25

Truth and Beauty; UVA Drama Department. Culbreth Theatre

Saturday, February 18

Mame; 8pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Tuesday, February 28

The Prisoner of Second Avenue (featuring Hector Elizondo and JoBeth Williams); 8pm, $30-36. The Paramount Theater

Friday, March 3

Aquilla Theatre presents Hamlet; 7:30pm, $10-17. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Jekyll & Hyde—The Concert; 8pm, $43-49. The Paramount Theater

Friday, March 3-Saturday, March 25

Metamorphoses; Live Arts DownStage

Saturday, March 4-Saturday, April 1

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (puppet show); Old Michie Theatre

Friday, March 10-Sunday, April 2

Babes in Arms; Four County Players. Barboursville Playhouse

Saturday, March 18

The Trip to Bountiful; 8pm, $26-32. The Paramount Theater

Wednesday, March 22

Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka; 7:30pm, $15-24. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, March 23-Saturday, April 1

Luminosity; UVA Drama Department. Helms Theatre

Friday, March 24

Nobodies of Comedy; 8pm, $19-25. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, April 6

Opera Roanoke and the Roanoke Symphony present The Marriage of Figaro; 8pm, $39-45. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, April 8-Saturday, May 13

Puss In Boots (puppet show); Old Michie Theatre

Thursday, April 13-Sunday, April 23

Rupert Holmes’ Accomplice; PVCC Drama. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Thursday, April 20-Saturday, May 6

Our Lady of 121st Street; Live Arts DownStage

Friday, April 21-Saturday, April 29

The Spring Festival of One-Acts; UVA Drama Department. Culbreth Theatre

Saturday, April 21-Sunday, May 14

A Little Princess; Old Michie Theatre

Saturday, April 22

The World-Class Juggling of Mark Nizer; 7:30pm, $13-22. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, April 29

Bill Cosby; 5 & 8pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, May 4

Broadway Center Stage: Broadway Love Stories; 8pm, $23-29. The Paramount Theater

Friday, May 5-Sunday, May 21

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; Four County Players. Barboursville Playhouse

Thursday, June 1-Saturday, June 17

All My Sons; Live Arts DownStage

Thursday, July 13-Saturday, August 5

Urinetown; Live Arts DownStage

Friday, July 21-Sunday, August 13

All’s Well That Ends Well; Four County Players. Barboursville Ruins

 

DANCE

Thursday, September 22

Dance Master Class: Flamenco Vivo with Carlota Santana; 6:30-8pm, $10. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Friday, September 23

Flamenco Vivo with Carlota Santana; 7:30pm, $10-17. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Wednesday, November 2

The Parsons Dance Company; 8pm, $32-41. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, December 1-Friday, December 2

PVCC Dance presents “Choice: Movement in the Moment”; 7:30pm, $5. PVCC Maxwell Theatre   

Saturday, January 28

Dance Master Class: Hawaiian Dance with Audrey “Aukele” Jung; 1:30-3:30pm, $10. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Wednesday, March 8

Richmond Ballet Youth Performance; 7:30pm, $5. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Thursday, March 9

Dance Master Class: Malcolm Burn, Ballet Master, Richmond Ballet; 3-4:30pm, $10. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Richmond Ballet; 7:30pm, $10-17. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Saturday, March 11

Russian National Ballet presents Swan Lake; 8pm, sold out. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, April 1

Dance Master Class: Modern dance with Doug Hamby; 1:30-3:30 pm, $10. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Tuesday, April 25

Miami City Ballet; 8pm, $36-250. The Paramount Theater

Friday, May 5-Saturday, May 6

PVCC Dance presents “A Celebration of Movement”; 7:30pm, $8-10. PVCC Dickinson Theater

Saturday, May 20

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; 8pm, $21-30. The Paramount Theater

 

ART

Through September

“Graham Caldwell: Thin Lines and Solid Air”; Second Street Gallery Main Gallery

“Short Films by Kevin Everson”; Second Street Gallery Dové Gallery

“Truth be Told,” paintings by Lisa Beane; Les Yeux du Monde

Through October 2

Tim O’Kane (Main Gallery), Central Virginia Watercolor Guild (Lower Halls 1 & 2); McGuffey Art Center

Through October 17

“Insistent Absence: The Unacknowledged Influence of Ukiyo-e on Modern Japanese Prints”; UVA Art Museum Entrance Gallery

“The Power of the North: German, Dutch, and Flemish Old Master Prints”; UVA Art Museum Graphics Gallery

Through November 5

“Above and Beyond: Perspective in Aboriginal Art”; Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

Through November 23

“A Jeffersonian Ideal: Selections from the Dr. and Mrs. Henry C. Landon, III Collection of American Fine and Decorative Arts”; UVA Art Museum Main Gallery

September 28-September 29

“Sankofa: African-American Museum on Wheels” with Angela Jennings; 7pm (9/28), 12:30pm (9/29), Free. PVCC

September 28-October 26

Works by Chica Tenney. PVCC Dickinson Building

October

“Casting a New Light”; Second Street Gallery

“Russ Warren: Forgive Us Not”; Les Yeux du Monde

Watercolors by Barbara Wachter; BozArt Gallery

Quilts by Rose Rushbrooke and paintings by Judith Towns; Sage Moon Gallery

October 1-October 30

“Advent: Work by Chica Tenney”; UVA Art Museum Foyer Gallery

October 4-October 30

Chica Tenney (Main Gallery), Jim Henry (Lower Hall 1), Lee Alter (Lower Hall 2), Children Youth and Family Services Fundraiser/Auction (Upper Halls 1 & 2); McGuffey Art Center

October 26-December 23

“Mi Cuerpo, Mi Pais: Cuban Art Today”; UVA Art Museum Entrance Gallery, Graphics Gallery

November

“Ju-Yeon Kim: Recent Paintings”; Second Street Gallery Main Gallery

“True Defenders of the Craft: Drawings by Warren Craghead”; Second Street Gallery Dové Gallery

“Katherine Porter & David Summers: An Uncommon Alliance”; Les Yeux du Monde

Tribute oil paintings by Vido Palta; BozArt Gallery

Oil paintings by Jennifer Young; Sage Moon Gallery

November 1-November 20

Ann Cheeks (Main Gallery), Julie Godine (Lower Hall 1), Steve Taylor (Lower Hall 2), Murray Whitehill (Upper Hall 1), Terese Verkerke (Upper Hall 2); McGuffey Art Center

November 2-November 30

PVCC Art Faculty Show; PVCC Dickinson Building

November 15-February 18

“Yilpinji: Love Magic and Ceremony”; Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

November 22-January 4

Holiday Group Show; McGuffey Art Center

December

“Gary Baseman: The God of Love and Other Works”; Second Street Gallery Main Gallery

“Lincoln Perry: Faeries and Rabbits”; also showing works by Cary Brown, She Fisher, William Mead and Christophe Vorlet; Les Yeux du Monde

Group Show; BozArt Gallery

Oil paintings by Andre Lucero; Sage Moon Gallery

December-January

“Interactions 2”; Second Street Gallery Dové Gallery

December 5-December 23

“Portraiture: Identity”; UVA Art Museum Main Gallery

Monday, December 12

C-VILLE Talks presents renowned photographer William Albert Allard, who shows photos from Bollywood, the Indian film industry; audience discussion to follow. 7pm, free. Live Arts DownStage

January

Oil paintings by Elliott Twery; Sage Moon Gallery

January-February

Donna Mintz and Celia Reisman; Les Yeux du Monde

January 3-January 29

Kathy Craig (Main Gallery), New Members Show (Lower Hall 1 & 2); McGuffey Art Center

January 14-February 26

“The Social Lens: Photography from the Graham Collection”; UVA Art Museum Entrance Gallery, Graphics Gallery

January 21-March 19

“Guardian of the Flame, Art of Sri Lanka”; UVA Art Museum Main Gallery

January 31-February 26

Rose Hill (Main Gallery), Figure Drawing Group (Lower Hall 1 & 2), Bob Anderson (Upper Hall 1), Ron Langman (Upper Hall 2); McGuffey Art Center

February

“Still: Paintings by Chris Scarborough and Stanley Taft”; Second Street Gallery Main Gallery

“Nora Sturges: Adventures with Marco Polo”; Second Street Gallery Dové Gallery

Oil paintings by Wantue Major; Sage Moon Gallery

February 28-April 2

McGuffey Alumni Show (Main Gallery), Chris McAndrew (Lower Hall 1), Grex Sykes (Lower Hall 2), “Charlottesville 2-D” (Upper Hall 1 & 2); McGuffey
Art Center

February 28-April 29

“Proof: Portraits from the Movement, 1978-2003”; Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

“Ancestor Spirits in Aboriginal Art”; Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

March-April

“Terra Incognita: Forty Years of Anne Slaughter, 1966-2006”; Second Street Gallery, Les Yeux du Monde

Trisha Orr; Les Yeux du Monde

March 8-April 22

“The Mutant Image: Photographs, Prints, and Drawings from the Collection”; UVA Art Museum Graphics Gallery

March 12-May 21

“A Soldier’s Life: Selections from the Charles J. Brown Soldier Trust”; UVA Art Museum Entrance Gallery

April 1-May 12

“Humanism and Enigma: The Art of Honore Sharrer”; UVA Art Museum Main Gallery

April 4-April 30

Robin Campo (Main Gallery), Kris Onuf (Lower Hall 1), Kelly Lonergan (Lower Hall 2), Sea Aviar (Upper Hall 1), Diane Siebels (Upper Hall 2); McGuffey Art Center

May

“Will May: Interrupt”; Second Street Gallery Main Gallery

“Manual: Video by Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet”; Second Street Gallery Dové Gallery

John Borden Evans; Les Yeux du Monde

May 2-May 28

Robin Braun (Main Gallery), Blake Hurt (Lower Hall 1), Nancy Bass (Lower Hall 2), Fleming Lunsford and Susan Leschke (Upper Hall 1); McGuffey Art Center

May 9-August 19

“Mysterious Beauty: Edward L. Ruhe’s Vision of Aboriginal Art”; Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

June

Jan Aronson; Les Yeux du Monde

June-August

“Love Letter Invitational”; Second Street Gallery

 

FILM

Tuesday, September 20

Virginia Film Society presents the Manhattan Short Film Festival, featuring shorts from around the world; 7pm, $8, free to Film Society members. Vinegar Hill Theatre

Saturday, September 24

National Velvet; 2pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

My Fair Lady; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, September 25

3-Iron; 7 & 9:30pm, $3. OFFScreen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater.

Wednesday, October 5

Virginia Film Society presents Darwin’s Nightmare; 7pm, $8, free to Film Society members. Vinegar Hill Theatre

Sunday, October 9

Mysterious Skin; 7 & 9:30pm, $3. OFF-Screen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater.

Saturday, October 15

Dial M For Murder; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, October 16

North By Northwest; 2pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Young Rebels; 7 & 9:30pm, $3; OFF-Screen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater

Sunday, October 23

Brothers; 7 & 9:30pm, $3; OFFScreen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater

Thursday, October 27-Sunday, October 30

“IN/JUSTICE”: The 18th Annual Virginia Film Festival. Confirmed premieres include Nine Lives (featuring Glenn Close, Sissy Spacek and Holly Hunter) and Manderlay (featuring Danny Glover), plus screenings of Dirty Harry, To Kill a Mockingbird, Anatomy of a Murder and Inherit the Wind, and many more. Various venues including Culbreth Theatre, Regal Downtown Cinema 6 and more

Saturday, October 29

Virginia Film Society presents The Kid Brother, a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton; 1pm, $8, free to Film Society members. Culbreth Theatre

Sunday, October 30

Nobody Knows; 7 & 9:30pm, $3; OFF-Scren Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater

Sunday, November 6

Kings and Queen; 7 & 9:30pm, $3; OFF- Screen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater

Tuesday, November 8

Virginia Film Society presents Unseen Cinema: Experimental Treasures from the World’s Leading Archives; 7pm, $8, free to Film Society members. Vinegar Hill Theatre

Saturday, November 12 & Sunday, November 13

Gone With The Wind; 7pm (Saturday), 2pm (Sunday), $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, November 13

Nights of Cabiria; 7 & 9:30pm, $3; OFF-Screen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater

Tuesday, November 15

Virginia Film Society presents The Talent Given Us; 7pm, $8, free to Film Society members. Vinegar Hill Theatre

Sunday, November 27

Juilette of the Spirits; 7 & 9:30pm, $3; OFFScreen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater

Sunday, December 4

I Am Cuba; 7 & 9:30pm, $3; OFFScreen Cinema, Newcomb Hall Theater

Tuesday, December 6

Virginia Film Society presents I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth; 7pm, $8, free to Film Society members. Vinegar Hill Theatre

Saturday, December 17

It’s a Wonderful Life; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, December 18

White Christmas; 2pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, January 7

Woman of the Year; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, January 8

Top Hat; 2pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, March 4

Rocky; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, March 5

The Magnificent Seven; 2pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, April 1

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, April 2

Kiss Me Kate; 2pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Thursday, April 13

The Ten Commandments; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Saturday, May 13

It Happened One Night; 7pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

Sunday, May 14

Sleepless in Seattle; 2pm, $4-6. The Paramount Theater

 

PAUL WALKER ON REBEL BAROQUE ENSEMBLE AND DEUTSCHE NATURHORN SOLISTEN

The emphasis in this concert is on the natural horn, which is not something you hear very often. What that means is that there are no valves: The players can only play certain notes, and they do that by lip. The sound is often associated with horn calls, like for hunting. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that valves were put on and people could play the entire chromatic scale.

   The most famous piece here is the first Brandenburg Concerto by Bach. Bach’s music is well known and often performed today. It’s head and shoulders above his contemporaries. His music is just at the limits of what a human being can do. Anybody who’s played or sung it can tell you that. But he himself could do it, so he wasn’t asking people to do something that he wasn’t prepared to do himself.

   A lot of the audience is also likely to know the first Brandenburg. The melody in the Handel Concerto in F Major also appears in the Water Music, and so people will recognize that as well. It may sound slightly different, but they’ll recognize it. And recognition often increases enjoyment for people.

Paul Walker is an associate professor of music at UVA, director of Zephyrus and director of the Early Music Ensemble. Rebel Baroque Orchestra performs Tuesday, November 8, as part of the Tuesday Evening Concert Series.

 

TERRI ALLARD ON VINCE GILL

When I think of Vince Gill I think about his gorgeous voice. His range is incredible. He can sing low and also these absolutely beautiful, pure high notes. He just has one of the most beautiful voices. He can kill a ballad. I’m always drawn to voices, but he’s also a great guitar player. I don’t think that the general public knows that. I think that he’s one of those guys who can play just about anything he puts his hands on.

   I like some of his earliest ballads. He had that hit, I think it was in ’89, “When I Call Your Name,” and the other ballad that he sang, “Never Knew Lonely.” I love both of those. I get goose bumps just talking about them. Beautiful, simple country ballads that he absolutely conquers.

   I think that he has written or co-written most of his hits. The other one that I like is “Liza Jane.” It kicks. It’s a song that grabs you, then takes you away. It’s fun. It’s up. It’s so catchy you’ll sing it all day after you hear it.

 

Terri Allard is an Albemarle County-based folk singer-songwriter. Gill performs Thursday, November 17, at The Paramount Theater.

 

MATTEUS FRANKOVICH ON GOGOL BORDELLO

If you asked me two years ago I would have said Gogol Bordello was turning people on to a lot of cultural freshness and turning them around from their 64-ounce American servicing. It’s cool that they’re not just Romanian guys playing punk music; they’re actually hearkening back to some tradition of the music. Like the 60-year-old violin player with some traditional nontraining training. They’re from New York, so that has the whole melting pot thing going on—a lot of different worlds colliding violently but gracefully together.

   Last time they came through town they added that whole reggae dub dancehall moment to it. Then there is the more classic driving yelling punk side to the songs. A little singy-songy traveling gypsy ballad side to them, too.

   The joie de vivre of Gogol Bordello? They’re lunatics. They’re driven. Eugene Hutz has that insuppressible thing. He can do it every night—drinking wildly and tearing his heart open and pouring it on people. They’ve got the drinking down to a well-paced science through the evening.

   In the midst of it I get off on the music in a shamanic trance-inducing way. You’re going crazy, your stomach muscles are cramped for two hours in a pit of sweaty bodies somehow unified and writhing like baby serpents.

   If you’re going to see them in Charlottesville, there’s such an enthusiastic response by everyone who is there you can tap into that. Looking around at the last show and seeing all these people I cross paths with on a regular basis and everybody was going on this kooky gypsy train. It was a great unifying moment for Charlottesville.

 

Matteus Frankovich is a proprietor of the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar and a science impressario. Gogol Bordello performs Wednesday, November 2, at Starr Hill Music Hall.

 

RUSSELL RICHARDS ON GARY BASEMAN

I had seen these very distinctive illustrations and art in magazines like Art Juxtapoz, but it wasn’t until recently that I placed a name to them. Some of my art appeared in Super-7 magazine, and in the same issue (No. 5) there was a big article about Gary Baseman, which was what really acquainted me with his work. This article described a variety of his creations, from the animated TV series “Teacher’s Pet” to vinyl toy designs like the Dunces and the Dumb Luck rabbit. Incidentally, I gave a copy of that magazine to Leah [Stoddard] at Second Street Gallery, which resulted in her contacting him, so I feel somewhat responsible for the show.

   Baseman’s artwork manages to be edgy and charming at the same time, and he successfully applies his recognizable style across a diversity of media—an ability that I certainly respect. As far as influence, I do feel akin to Baseman and other artists who have forged a unique personal iconography, but by definition that kind of imagery comes from within.

   His style is like a surrealist tableau of childlike devils, scary cats, autumn trees, ghosts, skeletons, naked women, dumb rabbits and menacing snowmen, rendered with a deceptively simple-looking technique. They’d be best appreciated by an art fan with a sense of humor.

 

Russell Richards is an artist and member of the McGuffey Art Center. “Gary Baseman: The God of Love and Other Works” shows at Second Street Gallery during the month of December.

 

 

JON-PHILLIP SHERIDAN ON WILL MAY

May has shown his photography at the McGuffey in the past, so many people are probably familiar with his old mode of working. He used to shoot with a large-format camera, and used film that would distort the tonality of the image to make the composition harsh or grey, which created a kind of Gothic aesthetic.

   Though rooted in his traditional themes, this show is a big departure from what May has done before. He has moved to a cleaner color photography, in which objects are focused and articulated. A maximalist by nature, May is drawn to the Baroque. But ultimately, May attempts to balance his dramatic maximalism by infusing his photography with contemporary elements of minimalism.

   Skeptical of the way that people interpret photography as reality, May tries to make his photos more like paintings and less like traditional photographs. Inter-rupting the image with digitally layered noise, May attempts to make his viewers active. By creating photographs that are also sculptural objects, May creates visual narratives that require an act of interpretation on the part of viewer. He believes that you can either make stuff to put in a living room or make stuff that challenges. May chooses to do the latter.

 

Jon-Phillip Sheridan is a local photographer. “Will May: Interrupt” shows at Second Street Gallery during the month of May.

 

RONDA HEWITT ON
WOMAN OF THE YEAR

Woman of the Year is a fantastic film for many reasons. Its film-history value comes from being the first time Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy teamed together on the big screen. Their chemistry was very palpable and they would later do, like, seven or eight films together. It also marked the beginning of their 25-year, real-life love affair.

   But the film as a piece of art is also extremely valuable. It was made during World War II and during that time movies tried to be a little less serious and a little more entertaining. But this film was unique because it dealt with domestic issues and dealt with them in a very progressive way.

   It’s about two journalists—played by Katharine and Spencer—who fight and feud as Katharine’s character tries to juggle a career and marriage. Every time she thinks she masters it, something happens and the audience ultimately realizes that she can’t in fact juggle both. One of the last scenes in the movie is of her trying to cook a very simple breakfast, and if I recall correctly, she can’t even work the toaster or the coffee machine or something like that. She just couldn’t do it.

   The film’s message may come across today as very sexist, but it was monumental for its time. And the bottom line is that there is this struggle for women even today. I think there’s still, for better or worse, this angst to try to match family with career. Women feel pressured to not let one area of their life be less fulfilled than another. So this struggle is almost instinctual.

 

Ronda Hewitt is a playwright and actress, and marketing director at Live Arts. Woman of the Year screens Saturday, January 7, at The Paramount Theater.

 

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
New site examines art censorship

Art inspires. It enlivens. And as the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression ably demonstrates on its newly unveiled Internet art tour, art can also enflame. This week the venerable First Amendment center, which is located in town, opens its virtual guided tour to art works that have ended up in court largely because of free expression disputes. With dozens of works vividly reproduced on the site, www.tjcenter.org/ArtOnTrial, backed up by legal summaries that, thankfully, are written in plain English, “Art on Trial” is a layman’s study guide to complicated terrain.

   “There is a lot of misperception about the legal limit of artistic expression and the First Amendment right of free speech,” says Josh Wheeler, the center’s associate director. Besides presenting information objectively and without jargon, the project has another goal: “to encourage people to examine their own views as to what should be [Constitutionally] protected,” as Wheeler says. “A picture truly is worth a thousand words when discussing censorship of the arts.”

   A tour through the site makes clear that sometimes art is censored as a byproduct of other laws that seem to have nothing to do with expression. In one case, restrictions on who can give tattoos, enacted in the name of public health, resulted in a censorship court case. Or how about the one where Mattel invoked trademark privileges to try to restrain a photographer who made a series that situated Barbie with a variety of household appliances? In that one, the court figured that the public didn’t need to be protected from any potential offense that Barbie, in a compromised position with a blender, might generate.

   Though there is no central theme to arts cases that land in front of a judge, Wheeler says that the works depicted in “Art on Trial” have something in common with the many other censorship cases that the TJ Center considers. “There’s often this paternalistic attitude involved in censoring the arts. People usually are advocating censoring the work in order to ‘protect’ somebody else. How often do you hear someone say that a work should be banned because ‘it’s harmful to me’?

   “That’s a disturbing trend when somebody else is making decisions for me about what I can or cannot see.”—Cathy Harding

When Second Street Gallery vacated its home in the McGuffey Art Center—its location since 1984—City-subsidized McGuffey was left with 850 square feet of prime real estate and several options. Suggestions ranged from more studios to accommodate the collective’s ever-growing applicant pool to a large sculpture gallery to a guest-curated space to be run by non-McGuffey artists. But in a close vote the members opted to try something altogether different: a performance space.

“The possibility of doing something entirely new was just too compelling,” says current McGuffey president Rosamund Casey. “The space was clean and if we were ever going to try a performance art space, this would be the time. Because once you put an artist there all hell breaks loose.”

And so, after a strict selection process, starting in December three new performance groups will move into McGuffey, all of them dance-focused—the long-running Zen Monkey Project, Brad Stoller and Mecca Burns’ Presence Center for Applied Theater Arts and new troupe Prospect Dance Group.

But the hoofers aren’t the only budding arts groups moving on up. With Second Street, Live Arts and Light House setting up shop in Water Street’s new City Center for Contemporary Arts (C3A), several sweet Downtown venues were left for grabs—and quickly snatched up. The ever-increasing number of creative types in the City make for a constantly changing arts landscape, with new galleries opening (bonjour, Mountain Air Gallery and Dave Moore Studio), old ones closing (ciao, Gallery Neo) and established spaces shaking it up a bit (zut alors! Bullseye and Nature).

The new opportunity is especially exciting for Zen Monkey, which has been without a space to call their own since August 2002, when they left their home of seven years in the New Dance Space above Hamiltons’ (a space subsidized largely by Zen Monkey co-founder Katharine Birdsall). On and off since then, the 8-year-old group has been rehearsing at the Living Education Center for Ecology and the Arts for their next performance, scheduled for early 2004.

From a dollars-and-cents point of view, McGuffey is such a plum prospect for the troupe because of the vastly reduced rent. “That’s very attractive. When we were at New Dance Space we were struggling how to stay there, and eventually we didn’t,” Birdsall says of the $2,552 monthly rent that the New Dance Space commanded by the end. “This is very manageable. We feel like we can go back to doing what we’ve always wanted to do, which is the work.” McGuffey will charge less than $300 per month for the dancers’ admittedly smaller space, she adds.

Not only that, the work will be bolstered, Birdsall says, by the input of “having the community right there. Not only within the space, being in alliance with these two other groups. But being within the building, all these other artists.”

That communal feeling is also a perk for Prospect. A nascent collaboration between dancer/choreographers Ashley Thorndike and Dinah Gray and musician Peter Swendsen, Prospect has already performed at McGuffey, using veteran choreographer Miki Liszt’s third-floor studio.

“All of us—Peter, Ashley and I—have been really thrilled with the reception we’ve gotten from the community, especially from McGuffey,” says Gray. “We feel it’s a big risk of McGuffey’s in a way, but it shows a lot of confidence in our group and the future of performing arts in Charlottesville in general, especially dance.”

Folding the dancers into the visually oriented McGuffey presents some logistical quirks, however. “It’s difficult because visual artists are very different—they don’t tend to make a lot of noise, don’t need a lot of space, they can keep their exhibits up, they’re not ephemeral,” says Presence’s Burns. “It’s going to be interesting to see how that works with the vision of McGuffey, how we find creative ways to incorporate our rehearsals to [McGuffey’s public mission of] being open to the public.”

That challenge explains why the new tenants will start out with an eight-month trial period. McGuffey’s current operating hours are 10am to 5pm Tuesdays through Sundays, extended only to 7:30pm on First Fridays—not exactly conducive to drawing audiences to live dance performances. All three groups remain unsure of how, or even if, they’ll be able to use the roughly 30-seater space to host evening performances.

Birdsall isn’t overly worried—this opportunity is too good to blow. “I don’t really see that it wouldn’t work because in the end, to just have the rehearsal space and works-in-progress shown there during the day is a big thing in itself,” she says. The dance community, traditionally “last on the totem pole,” she says, “really needs this.”

Casey is optimistic the dancers will resolve these and other issues like noise and public access. “We feel like we’re doing what we did when we let Second Street in however many years ago—we’re taking a big chance,” she says. “Second Street worked out beautifully, and we think this will, too.”

 

Massive attack

Also available following the C3A move, Live Arts’ Market Street digs now house another community culture entry—at least temporarily. As of November 1 the former main theater space became Club Massive, a dance club run by Garden of Sheba co-owners Scottie B. and Abba that continues the concept they ran briefly last year in the Water Street storefront now occupied by Blush. Landlord Gabe Silverman agreed to let the duo use the space through at least the month, but is open to extending the option, Scottie says.

Don’t come expecting the numbingly familiar electronica heard at Club 216. Scottie plans to create a multicultural gathering place—really an extension of what the duo already puts on at Sheba—featuring DJs on Fridays and live music Saturdays and assorted other events, like the family-oriented Massive Day of Culture on Saturday, November 8. The music will vary from light hip hop to reggae to Brazilian rhythms. “I’m trying to get people to dance again,” Scottie says of the space, which can hold 400. “Nobody’s really doing that. I want to bring the whole dance-party atmosphere back. The club scene is hurting here, even with places like Starr Hill. You wonder what’s going on. Too many people are sitting at home, too many people forgetting.”

While previous Downtown dance clubs like The Jewish Mother were breeding grounds for trouble, Club Massive is designed to be a smoke-free, violence-free environment. In fact, Scottie is so serious on this point he says you can expect metal detection at the door. “Anybody looking for trouble can’t come in,” he says. “Just come in with a peaceful heart.”

 

Change will do you good

One gallery that’s already benefited from a recent change is Nature Visionary Art, which moved from a space in the rear of the Jefferson Theater to its swanky new Fourth Street digs in September. The switch required more than just a change-of-address label, though. As co-owner John Lancaster explains, the enterprise matured a bit from the funky studio showcasing cutting-edge local art to a more grown-up gallery featuring both emerging regional artists and national folk art masters. While he and partner Laurel Hausler had to give up hosting some of the coolest parties in town, they traded up for other amenities when they left the still-empty Jefferson space—like, say, a heated building.

The reception to the 5-year-old enterprise’s growth has been “outstanding,” Lancaster says. “Our grand opening was grand, definitely.” Not only did they sell five paintings on opening night, they nearly sold completely out of their traditional Mexican folk art.

Expect even more changes at the space like exhibitions that will focus more on individual artists or genres. November spotlights the work of Mose Tolliver and Jimmy Lee Sudduth, who Lancaster describes as the “two foremost African-American folk artists in the country,” and others. “We feel like it’s actually a museum-quality show we’re bringing to Charlottesville,” Lancaster says.

Also going through an identity shift is the Bullseye Gallery, Nature’s former building mate located just under the Jefferson. The space comprising five studios has an entirely new crop of artists, a new head and a new name—Cilli Original Designs Studio.

That’s the primary business enterprise of new gallery head Monty Montgomery, a graphic designer and painter whose work has been popping up all over town lately, from Liquid to Station to, well, Bullseye. On November 1 he took over the lease from former Bullseye leader Kimberly Larkin and promises that the gallery’s erratic schedule will level out some, but the place will continue its after-hours, come-on-down-and-see-the-works-in-progress feel, while expanding its outreach to the community.

“I want to have a space to give people who are wondering if they’re artists a chance,” says Montgomery. “If you only have six pieces, not 30, now you can have a show,” he says. He’s also planning to extend the space’s back hallway to graffiti and experimental artists to do their thing, inspired by the nine studio mates working around them. “I want this to be a hub for artists, more of a SoHo vibe.” First Fridays will bring more “serious” shows, too, including December’s showcase of C-VILLE contributing photographer Billy Hunt’s work.

Though Montgomery has zero experience running a gallery, he is passionate about making CODG (shorthand for the new space) work. “Dude, I don’t know how the hell I’m going to this,” he says. “But I know I’m sure supposed to do it. I feel it.”

 

The "G" force

While the alternative Bullseye enters its next permutation, one of Downtown’s earlier experimental galleries has called it quits. Gallery Neo, which existed on Second Street for 18 years, closed its doors in September, replaced by the third store in the O’Suzannah retail empire. Painter Edward Thomas, who took over the gallery in 1999, says that the 15-year lease terminated when the landlord asked for too much rent.

Neo had mutated several times itself, as both a private studio and showplace for emerging artists. In its most recent incarnation, artists were given solo shows and all the proceeds in exchange for doing community service with the Boys & Girls Club.

The enterprise will live on, in a sense, when Thomas launches his new website, gallery-neo.com, sometime around Christmas as an online portal to sell his work. “If things work out I’ll develop the website more and replace some of the functions of the gallery, and maybe show other peoples’ art,” he says. “And if things work out down the road Gallery Neo might come back in some form in a physical space.”

Given the booming real estate market, where commercial space can command $15 per square foot, Thomas isn’t surprised Neo had to close its doors. “It’s just inevitable with the gentrification, or whatever word you want to use, with the market Downtown pushing out all the places that initially made Downtown cool. Gallery Neo was one of them,” he says. “The real artists and the real kind of movers and shakers that made Downtown desirable and an arts center are now getting pushed out because nobody can afford to live there. It’s a shame that happens, but it’s kind of inevitable.”

Concern over spiraling leases extends to other arts observers, too. Charlottesville’s recently formed Arts and Culture Task Force certainly will consider the need for more and affordable arts spaces, says Bob Chapel, chair of the UVA drama department and a task force appointee. Though by press time the fledgling nine-member group had met only once, Chapel is confident that in its investigations “all aspects of the arts community will be addressed, and real estate is one of those aspects.”

 

Good times

Two other new players have joined the already-crowded Downtown art marketplace. In October, photographers Bruce and Robin Pfeifer opened Mountain Air Gallery in the former Gitchell’s Photography Studio at 107 E. Main St., where they’ll showcases local artists. Further down the Mall, Dave Moore Studio opens this week in the long-vacant spot underneath the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. It will serve as an old-fashioned atelier where the painter will work and operate with an “open-door policy,” he says, meaning visitors (and he hopes, paying customers) can drop by spontaneously to see his art. Moore will also mount group exhibits, including pieces by artists “unknown to this region.”

With so many changes on the playing board, it might be hard at first for arts cognoscenti to keep up with who’s showing what where, but as far as Chapel is concerned, it all makes for “an absolutely fantastic time for the arts.”