American Shakespeare Center’s own cinema-quality streaming service, BlkFrs TV, broadcasts from the replicated Blackfriars Theatre in Staunton. Publicity photo
Much ado about Shakespeare:Shakespeare scholars have been dominating online arts outlets with clickbait headlines about the Bard’s burst of creativity during a bubonic plague quarantine in 1606. He’s said to have “churned out King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra that year,” which may have led to his takeover at the original Blackfriars Theatre in Elizabethan London. In a modern twist, we are now privy to some of Shakespeare’s finest work via American Shakespeare Center’s own cinema-quality streaming service, BlkFrs TV, from the replicated Blackfriars Theatre in Staunton.
"Con Todo el Mundo," the 2018 album by Khruangbin, is one of our Tunes columnist's recommendations for quarantine listening. Publicity photo
More than ever, we’re treating pop music functionally—we choose and use tunes to get us going in the morning; to set the right vibes for cooking; to get amped for a night out. But creating a functional playlist for others can be perilous. Consider the wedding DJ, who takes responsibility for the entertainment of everyone at the reception, and whose success or failure is rooted not just in his judgments, but in his visible actions. At a reception with 10-year-olds, hippie uncles, and everyone in between, musical tastes can be comically divergent, but it doesn’t matter—if you’re the DJ and they’re not dancing, you’re blowing it.
Sometimes, particularly in tumultuous times, it seems that certain music becomes broadly functional for large swaths of society—it’s been said that Beatlemania was partially the response of a nation in search of joy following JFK’s assassination. Some attributed the sustained popularity of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack to a yearning for simpler times following the tumult of the 2000 election and the shock of 9/11. Now, in the midst of ominous news, upended routines, and multiplying demands, Spotify relaxation playlists have found their moment—NPR’s new “Isle of Calm” playlist picked up 20,000 followers in no time; Spotify’s “Ambient Relaxation” has nearly a million.
What follows isn’t a playlist promising peace of mind, but a catalog of music to explore, and maybe in which to find a few moments’ relief. You could play it in the background, but it’s offered in the spirit of Brian Eno, whose ambient music aimed to “accommodate many levels of listening attention.” In any case, I hope you find something that works for you in this strange season.
Starting with Eno himself, this half-hour process piece of overlapping, slowly morphing tape loops clearly marks out the territory he made explicit three years later with Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
As I wrote not so long ago, this album casts a lovely spell, as celestial tones bloom and withdraw through layers of plinking and pulsing synthesizers and various malletophones.
Dead Prez? No, Des Prez! Eight hours of sublime polyphony from the 15th and 16th centuries, featuring masses, motets, and such. It isn’t just for Catholics anymore.
You know how some old dude is always ranting about how the old Fleetwood Mac was the best, and how Peter Green is the most underrated guitarist ever? He coulda just played you this lightly breezy, patchouli-laced gem.
Take away “Maria También” and you’ve got nothing but understated, supremely chill funk that’s perfect for online cocktail hours after putting the kids to bed.
Eleven minutes of long, echoing, guttural tones from a gigantic wooden horn might sound daunting. But there’s a transcendence to the elemental sonics and the deliberate unfolding of this piece; it sounds like the world exhaling.
The Duke’s compositions, orchestrated with Billy Strayhorn, rarely gave his piano a chance to shine, so the 1954 album The Duke Plays Ellington is a treasure, and this solo version of the sweetly sad “Melancholia” defines the word better than any dictionary.
The little-known Kamm turned in a modest masterpiece with this solo acoustic guitar album—there’s nothing fancy in his compositions, nothing flashy in his technique—everything on Saudade just sounds like a kindly relative disclosing simple truths.
The slow movement of one of his visionary late quartets, Beethoven wrote this “holy song of Thanksgiving” while recovering from a long winter illness; it’s not the monumental 9th symphony, but it’s no less an ode to joy.
Ronnie “iRon Lion” Brandon and special guest Davina Jackson perform on Saturday to welcome in Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Publicity photo
Dream date: In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Chicago-born and Virginia-raised human rights activist Ronnie “iRon Lion” Brandon hosts a reggae and poetry showcase that begins by opening up the mic to anyone who wants to express their appreciation for King. Brandon will recite King’s historic “I Have A Dream” speech, and perform with soul, funk, and reggae vocalist Davina Jackson (seek out a recording of their duet “Love Me”), backed by a reggae band that includes former Wailers’ member Ras Mel.
Saturday1/18. $12-15, 8pm. The Front Porch, 221 E. Water St. 806-7062.
When the editorial team at Knife & Fork, the quarterly food-and-drink magazine published by C-VILLE Weekly, saw this exuberant photograph of Finnigan—the Australian labradoodle at Veritas Vineyards & Winery—we knew we had our cover dog. Photo: Zack Wasjgras
Finnigan among the vines at Veritas. Photo: Zack Wasjgras
On July 1, 2018, Virginia House Bill 286 went into effect, officially allowing dogs to enter winery tasting rooms. The occasion was met with no discernible reaction from one constituency: the dogs that live at wineries. • Those lucky animals need not engage in any “get your laws off my fur” protest. As vineyard owners and winemakers will tell you, the resident dog pretty much does whatever he or she wishes. • Whether they’re mascots, greeters, or guardians that chase away other animals, like geese or even pigs, canines at some vineyards can gain a certain level of celebrity. “People call and ask, ‘Is Fig in the tasting room today?’” Paul Summers, owner of Knight’s Gambit Vineyard, says of the popular hound. “They don’t ask about hours or whether we have a band playing on the porch—they only want to know about Fig.” • We’re tail-wagging happy to introduce you to Fig and a few other four-legged drinking buddies right here. Editor’s note: In the print edition of Knife & Fork, we misidentified cover dog Finnigan as Emma, an extremely similar looking pup from Muse Vineyards (see below).
Fig, a 3-year-old hound mix rescue, is evidently tired after a day of greeting tasting-room visitors at Knight’s Gambit Vineyard. Photo: Zack Wajsgras
Fig
Owner, winery: Paul Summers, Knight’s Gambit Vineyard
Gender, breed: female, hound mix
Age: 3
Origin: Charlottesville/Albemarle SPCA
Attributes: Sweet, affable
Duties: “When the tasting room is open, she mingles,” Summers says. “Otherwise, she’s out hunting something or other.”
Memorable moment: “None really stands out. She’s just so all-around friendly—that’s her greatest characteristic.”
Birdie the blue heeler, winemaker Ben Jordan’s dog, leads her human down a row of vines at Early Mountain Vineyards. Photo: Zack Wajsgras
Birdie
Owner, winery: Ben Jordan, Early Mountain Vineyards
Gender, breed: female, blue heeler (Australian cattle dog)
Age: 5
Origin: Harrisonburg breeder
Attributes: Big personality, high energy, always “on”
Duties: “She hangs out at the winery, not down near the tasting room. She thinks it’s her job to watch over me, so she follows me everywhere, out to the vineyards, you name it.”
Memorable moment: “We had a big event for the Virginia Winemaking Board. There were buyers in from around the country. We were all sitting down, eating—lamb cooked on a spit. I got a tap on my shoulder, looked up, and Birdie was standing on the [carving] table, licking up the drippings. It made quite the picture—I had it framed.”
Ti Rey the Welsh Corgi has pretty good hops for a 7-year-old. His first name is a French term of endearment, and “Rey” is an abbreviation of Dee (left) and Roe Allison’s vineyard name, Reynard Florence. Photo: Zack Wajsgras
Ti Rey
Owners, winery: Dee and Roe Allison, Reynard Florence Vineyard
Gender, breed: male, Corgi
Age: 7
Origin: Dalarno Welsh Corgis, Culpeper
Attributes: Gentle, unflappable, confident
Duties: “He’s our official greeter,” Dee Allison says. “When people arrive for a tasting, he knows before we do, goes straight to the door, and herds them in.”
Memorable moment: “He picks out certain people he likes, lays down beside them, and puts his head on their foot—right there at the tasting bar,” she says. Abbey, an 11-year-old golden retriever, sometimes has a tough time keeping up with her younger sister, Shelby, a 7-year-old German shepherd border collie mix. Photo: Zack Wasjgras
Abbey and Shelby
Owners, winery: Jason and Laura Lavallee, Wisdom Oak Winery
Gender, breed: both female; golden retriever (Abbey), German shepherd/border collie mix (Shelby)
Ages: Abbey, 11, Shelby, 9
Origin: Abbey, Augusta Dog Adoptions, Waynesboro; Shelby, a farmer in Pennsylvania
Attributes: “Abbey’s mellow and reserved,” Laura Lavallee says. “Shelby’s outgoing and rough-and-tumble, a tomboy dog.”
Duties: Abbey mostly hangs out with visitors on the patio, but she also looks to Shelby for direction and will follow her around. “Shelby’s the hunter—chasing away birds and deer,” says Lavallee.
Memorable moment: “Four pigs got loose from the farm next door and decided to visit,” she says. “‘Next door’ in this case means a half-mile away. Shelby spent a good 25 minutes herding them. It was a lot of work, but she got them back home.”
Finnigan the Australian labradoodle is at home among the aging tanks and barrels—and everywhere else, for that matter—at Veritas Vineyard & Winery. Photo: Zack Wasjgras
Origin: “We got Finn from a wonderful breeder in Suffolk, Virginia,” Pelton says. “A close friend had the same breed, and we fell in love with his kindness and spirit.”
Attributes: “Finn is a very compassionate and sensitive dog. He is full of energy and loves to snuggle.”
Duties: “Finn is in charge of lifting everyone’s spirits,” Pelton says. “He does that with his happy, constantly wagging tail and lots of love for everyone.”
Memorable moment: “Finn dressed up in a men’s suit for Halloween and seemed so proud and proper. It was hilarious!”
Muse Vineyards’ tasting room ambassador and wildlife manager, Emma, is a rare water-dog breed, the Barbet, which appears in French scripts as early as the 16th century. The American Kennel Club officially recognized the breed in 2020. An estimated 500 Barbets live in the United States. Photo: Zack Wasjgras
Emma
Winery: Robert Muse and Sally Cowal, Muse VineyardsVeritas Vineyards & Winery/winemaker and owner, Emily Pelton
Gender/breed: Female, Barbet
Age: 6
Origin: American Barbet, Indianapolis
Attributes: Sweet, gentle, and calm—but also an instinctive hunter
Duties: “Her main preoccupation is keeping various and sundry mammals from invading the vineyards,” Cowal relates via email. “These have included raccoons, deer, groundhogs, possums, squirrels, and rabbits. She also greets tasting room visitors, both human and canines, with enthusiasm!”
Memorable moment: “Her most outrageous, wildest act,” Cowal writes, “was killing a fawn and then dragging the poor thing around in front of startled visitors!”
Nick Nace plays Blue Moon Diner this Thursday, January 9. Publicity photo
Playing it off: If things had gone according to plan, you’d know Nick Nace for his acting work. A self-proclaimed drama kid, Nace followed his dreams to New York City to attend acting school, and spent his spare time playing guitar. Soon enough, he says that cheap guitar was guiding him towards the tunes, and the result is a full-length album, Wrestling with the Mystery. The intimate songwriting and catchy melodies have earned Nace comparisons to Hayes Carll, Justin Townes Earle, Slaid Cleaves, and James McMurtry.
Thursday, January 9. Free, 8pm. Blue Moon Diner, 512 W. Main St. 980-6666.
Paul Summers pulls a Frazier Fur tree, which he sells for $75 each, from a shed near the Knights Gambit tasting room on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019. Summers sources the pre-cut trees from a farm near Mount Rogers. He gives all the proceeds to the Charlottesville Area Community Fund in honor of his late daughter Alex who passed away in 2007. PC: Zack Wajsgras
Tree huggers
On an unseasonably warm December Sunday, Yoseph Asmellash, owner of Little River Christmas Trees, had dozens of Fraser and Douglas fir trees for sale in the parking lot of the Fashion Square Mall—one of many local spots for buying Christmas trees that pop up around the holidays. Asmellash, a native of Ethiopia who’s been selling trees for over 20 years, got into the business after working at a garden center during high school and college.
Business has been brisk, he says, and he orders new trees weekly–ever since the time, about 10 years ago, when he ended up with several hundred extra trees on his hands. He had to offer a buy-one-get-one-free sale (sometimes adding a third tree to the deal).
When he’s not selling trees, Asmellash, who lives in Arlington, runs several other seasonal businesses across Virginia, including pumpkin patches. In the off months, he operates a tax service.
Fir facts:
Asmellash orders about 800 trees per year for his spot at the Fashion Square Mall
His trees come from Whitetop, Virginia, and Sparta, North Carolina
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the price of Christmas trees has gone up about 10 percent nationwide, due to limited supplies of Christmas trees—caused by hotter weather, too much rain, and the ripple effects of the 2008 recession that cut demand for trees (and led to less trees being planted)
_____________________
Quote of the week
“We should declare ourselves as a sanctuary city, as some other communities have done…We should declare ourselves a sanctuary city against monuments, statues, and memorials that glorify slaveholders, that lift up racists and rapists and traitors.” —Rev. Don Gathers, addressing City Council at its final meeting of the year.
_____________________
In brief
No go
Five months after James Fields used a gray Dodge Challenger to mow down dozens of people at the Unite the Right rally, killing Heather Heyer, the Charlottesville Police Department added a gray Dodge Challenger, which also featured “thin blue line” decals, to its official fleet. Though the car was purchased in January 2018, the department told C-VILLE last August that it had been “designed and purchased” well before the attack. Asked to explain this discrepancy, spokesman Tyler Hawn called it “a misunderstanding.” Last week, the city announced that the car has been removed from service in response to community feedback.
CPD purchased a Dodge Challenger in January 2018. PC: Staff Photo
Borer war
Charlottesville’s ash trees are dying, thanks to an infestation of the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that arrived from Asia in 2002. The Charlottesville Tree Commission has mapped 107 ash trees in the city, and anticipates that 99 percent of them will succumb to the borer. Last week, representatives from the Tree Commission asked the Planning Commission for money to fight the bugs, but it remains to be seen if there will be enough space in the budget.
Tragic loss
The Charlottesville community mourns the death of St. Anne’s graduate Tessa Majors, who was fatally stabbed in a botched mugging in Manhattan’s Morningside Park on December 11. Majors, 18, was a freshman at Barnard College. A musician, Majors had just released a new album and had a series of local shows scheduled. A 13-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with her death.
Put it in “D”
It’s not just your imagination–Virginia really is home to some of the country’s worst drivers. According to a nationwide study by insurance company QuoteWizard, Virginia drivers earned a “D” grade, losing points for distracted driving and frequency of accidents. The worst city in our driving hellscape of a state, per the study, is Manassas.
Winemakers around the world have adopted the méthode traditionnelle to produce excellent sparkling wines that can rival Champagne in quality and often are more affordable. The same is true in central Virginia, where the caliber and recognition of locally grown sparkling wine is on the rise. Photos: Max March
By Paul Ting
living@c-ville.com
It’s hard not to love sparkling wine, and consumer trends reflect that: Its sales shot up 51 percent from 2008 to 2017, according to industry statistics.
Reflecting the trend locally, Virginia Sparkling Company, an affiliate of Afton’s Veritas Vineyard & Winery, announced in late October that it would invest $590,000 in a Nelson County facility, exclusively to produce bubbly. CEO George Hodson says the new venture’s mission is to “expand the adoption of traditional method sparkling.”
His specification of the traditional method is important, because it’s a reference to Champagne. The French—who object to the popular use of champagne with a lowercase “c,” because the word denotes the famous wine region in France—will tell you that what makes Champagne so good is the unique character and high quality of the grapes. But the wine’s production technique also plays a major role. It used to be called méthode champenoise (or “Champagne method”) but today is more properly called méthode traditionnelle, or traditional method.
The crux of the process is that the wine undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle. The resulting carbon dioxide is captured in the sealed bottle, creating the sparkle of sparkling wine. It usually also remains in the bottle for extended aging in contact with yeast and other sediment (known as the lees). This process allows for the development of greater flavor complexity and structure.
Winemakers around the world have adopted the technique to produce excellent sparkling wines that can rival Champagne in quality and often are more affordable. The same is true in central Virginia, where the quality and recognition of locally grown sparkling wine is on the rise. We owe this largely to Claude Thibaut, the “father of Virginia sparkling wine.” Thibaut hails from Champagne, where his family grew grapes and has produced sparkling wine since the 1950s. In 2003, the Kluge Estate Winery (the predecessor to Trump Winery) brought Thibaut to Virginia to establish the initial production of Virginia sparkling wine, using local grapes but classical techniques. A couple of years later, Thibaut partnered with childhood friend Manuel Janisson to open Thibaut-Janisson, which quickly gained recognition for high quality Virginia sparkling wine made utilizing méthode traditionnelle. From the early 2000s to this day, Thibaut has either produced or consulted on much of the sparkling wine coming from a rapidly expanding Virginia wine industry.
Other local wineries and have also brought sparklers to market, and with the Virginia Sparkling Company beginning production in the next year to 18 months, we’ll all have the opportunity to sample more effervescent local wine. That’s certainly the intention of Hodson, who is also general manager at Veritas and incoming president of the Virginia Wineries Association. “This project is consistent with the most Virginian aspect of Virginia winemaking, and that is a cooperative effort to benefit the region,” Hodson says. “A rising tide floats all boats.”
We recently sampled a bunch of local sparkling wines and are happy to recommend a few to grace your holiday table and ring in the New Year.
Thibaut-Janisson Blanc de Chardonnay Non-Vintage
100 percent Albemarle County chardonnay, $29.99
Readily available in local wine shops and even a supermarket or two (try Wegmans), Thibaut-Janisson has become the best- known traditional method sparkling wine coming out of Virginia. The nose is light
with elements of lemon, white flowers, and a hint of limestone. On the palate, flavors of green apple, lemon peel, and white grapefruit predominate with just a hint of nuts. The finish is bright with citrusy acidity and a hint of the stone first evident in the bouquet.
Thibaut-Janisson Xtra Brut Non-Vintage
100 percent Albemarle County chardonnay, $32.99
This is the higher-end expression from Thibaut-Janisson and will certainly satisfy those who prefer a traditional dry Champagne style. It utilizes the best juice from the pressed grapes, a higher percentage of oak-aged wine in the final blend, and less added sugar. The result is a wine that’s livelier in acidity and delivers a fuller and more powerful body. The flavors here are precise but of a slightly higher volume. Fresh citrus and stone combine with flavors of dried fruits and layered creaminess, suggesting brioche with lemon curd on top.
Veritas Vineyard & Winery Scintilla 2015
Chardonnay with either merlot or cabernet franc, $45
Veritas normally releases Scintilla as a non-vintage product, but 2015 was an exceptional year so they kept it pure. This example spent two years aging in the bottle and expresses an aroma of yeasty bread and lemon. It pleases the palate with very forward citrus fruit flavors, refreshing acidity, and hints of an almond croissant. The lengthy finish is full of green apple
and pear.
A beautiful pale salmon color in the glass, this lighthearted wine is all about strawberries. The nose is bright and lively with aromas of the fruit and a hint of watermelon. This is not an overtly sweet wine but there is enough sugar to highlight and elevate the fresh fruit flavor, again of strawberries. The finish lingers and brings to mind strawberry soda as it fades. Easy to drink and a sure crowd-pleaser.
Afton Mountain Vineyards Bollicine 2015
70 percent chardonnay, 30 percent pinot noir, $35
Winemaker Damien Blanchon, a native of France, crafts this traditionally inspired sparkling wine from two grape varieties used in the Champagne region. The wine ages for two years in the bottle, resting on the lees in the winery’s caves. On the nose there are hints of lemon-lime, green apple, pear, and a bit of kiwi. The palate is direct with classic citrus, apple, and brioche flavors. A very slight touch of bitter lemon on the medium length finish sets you up for a bite of food or another fruit-filled sip.
Early Mountain Vineyards 2018 Pétillant Naturel Malvasia Bianca
100 percent malvasia bianca, $30
Something quite different, utilizing a grape variety not widely seen in Virginia and applying the very of-the-moment pétillant naturel technique. “Pét-nat,” as it’s called, is also known as méthode ancestrale, which predates the traditional method. For pét-nat, carbon dioxide from the end of the first fermentation, rather than the second one, is captured in the bottle. The wine is made to be consumed young, so aging on the lees is not a goal. The Malvasia creates a nose that is sweet and honeyed, full of apple and pear and even a bit of banana, along with distinct floral notes such as rose and elderflower. The wine is only mildly effervescent, lightly coating the tongue with a fine layer of bubbles. Flavors of sweet clementine, white lilies, almonds, and the same hint of banana may surprise those expecting flavors of traditional sparkling wine. A long sweet finish reminiscent of a lime cordial completes this fun, inviting break from routine.
Guitarist Jordan Perry will perform his solo work at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative on November 8. Photo by Amy and Jackson Smith
Jordan Perry’s been here before. He doesn’t mean physically here, at The Pie Chest on High Street, where we meet for an afternoon coffee—he means he’s already done this interview.
Last night, he had a dream about it. While he can’t recall the full content, Perry remembers, “in no weird dream terms,” telling me the detailed story of how he got his first real guitar.
Perhaps it was a premonition, I tell him, because the first question I prepared for him is, When did you first pick up a guitar?
“That’s hilarious. Oh, that’s great,” he says, chuckling and setting his coffee cup down as he launches into the story.
Perry spent many summers in Blacksburg, Virginia, with his grandma, an enthusiastic pack rat who kept just about everything; most rooms were treasure troves of junk and family relics. When he was about 9 years old, he was digging through her attic and came across a 1960s Kimberly electric guitar with a black and red sunburst body, a “super ornate” pickguard, and “an obscene amount of switches.”
Perry rushed downstairs and asked his grandma if he could have the guitar. “I’ll have to call [your uncle],” she said.
“Can you call him today?” Perry asked, eager to make the instrument his own. He’d played violin, and even had a toy guitar when he was a toddler, but with the Kimberly slung around his shoulder, he says he “definitely felt cool.”
And it made him feel like writing music. Perry’s been composing on guitar ever since (another dream turned reality, if you will), and he’ll play some of those original pieces at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative on Friday night.
It’s difficult to label Perry’s solo material. Experimental instrumental guitar is perhaps the closest classification, as Perry says the music comes out of “literally experimenting…following curiosity.” But that doesn’t completely describe what Perry’s written for his two solo records so far, both his 2016 eponymous debut and 2018’s Witness Tree.
In high school in Harrisonburg and later while living in Philadelphia he played music both on his own and in bands with friends. He played in grungy bands, a pop punk band, and a series of punk and hardcore groups (like Eat Forever and My Mind) that occasionally also drew inspiration from the baroque pop-rock of acts like The Kinks. Simultaneously, Perry got into traditional folk music, particularly music from the English folk revival of the 1960s, artists like Shirley Collins and The Watersons. Then, while formally studying music at Shenandoah University and later Temple University, Perry got really into classical guitar while also playing in a riff-y stoner rock band, Heavy Sons.
The physicality of classical guitar’s fingerpicking resonated with Perry, and he started writing solo material informed by the technique—early versions of what he’s playing now (though he kept playing in rock bands, playing guitar and writing lyrics for Charlottesville twee-boogie group New Boss).
“There’s a lot of stuff at work” in his instrumental guitar compositions, he says, and not just because of his myriad musical influences (experiences like living abroad in Palestine for two years come into it, too, he says). But Perry hesitates to say what this music is or is not. He prefers to talk instead about how he makes it.
Photo by Amy and Jackson Smith
He comes up with “musical gestures, impressions,” and strings them together “in kind of a narrative way.” Perry’s interested in “the little bit of movement there,” and in “the kind of extraneous friction sounds that can happen on the guitar from some less consonant intervals rubbing together and creating this kind of throbbing sound that comes through sometimes and sometimes doesn’t.” He’ll create fret-hand finger pattern loops over a melody to encourage that.
Perry often composes based on the feeling he gets from the place he’s in at that moment. It’s later, once he’s practicing or performing, that the depth of those impressions comes into focus. A composition created amidst the smell, the sound, the scene of tidal flats in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, can end up containing—in its atmosphere, and Perry’s use of tension and release—symbolism about rising sea levels.
On his first record, Perry says he created “a basic compositional vocabulary” for himself, and within that vocabulary, he came to “a realization of some kind of voice” on Witness Tree. As he begins to tug at the thread of his next record, he says he plans to use that voice to explore and expand his singular compositional vocabulary.
“Someone said there’s a textual aspect [to the music], and that feels kind of right,” says Perry before taking a sip of coffee.
Now I’m the one with a bit of déjà vu—in a previous article for C-VILLE, I described the experience of listening to Witness Tree as “not unlike reading a series of related short stories.” We laugh about it for a moment before Perry ruminates a little further on instinct and music.
“What happens if you trust a little bit in this meager language that you’ve created for yourself?” he asks. “I’m interested in pushing it, becoming more fluid about that idea.”
Guitarist Jordan Perry will perform his solo work at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative on November 8. The Ambient Eye and WolfRavenTagCloud share the bill.
Dr. Jalane Schmidt and reporter Lisa Provence outside the courthouse. Photo by Jenny Mead
Case dismissed
Judge throws out defamation lawsuit against C-VILLE and UVA prof
On October 28, the Albemarle Circuit Court ruled in favor of C-VILLE Weekly and former news editor Lisa Provence, concluding that a defamation claim brought by Edward Tayloe II lacked the legal basis to proceed.
Judge Claude Worrell also ruled in favor of UVA professor Jalane Schmidt, whom Tayloe also sued for defamation, citing comments she made in C-VILLE’s story.
The story at issue, “The Plaintiffs: Who’s who in the fight to keep Confederate monuments,” published in March, profiled the 13 people and organizations suing the city to keep the statues in place. Tayloe’s entry noted his lineage as one of the First Families of Virginia, and included information about his family’s history as one of the largest slave-holding dynasties in the state, a matter of historical record published, among other places, in the 2014 book A Tale of Two Plantations. Schmidt is quoted observing, in respect to Tayloe’s ancestors, “for generations this family has been roiling the lives of black people.”
In May, Tayloe sued the paper, Provence, and Schmidt, alleging that the story and Schmidt’s statements were defamatory because they implied that he was racist, and seeking $1.7 million in damages.
As lawyers for C-VILLE argued in their reply in support of their request to dismiss, Tayloe “does not contend that C-VILLE Weekly got any facts wrong in the article at issue. Instead, he is aggrieved by the truthful, if perhaps uncomfortable, presentation of his family history in connection with an accurate report on a subject of public concern.”
Attorneys for C-VILLE and Schmidt characterized the lawsuit as a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), and ACLU attorney Eden Heilman, representing Schmidt, warned of the “chilling effect” that such lawsuits could have on public discussion.
Before giving his decision, Judge Worrell noted that the “political discourse has gotten pretty rough and tumble” and that it “requires all of us to have a pretty thick skin,” except if one has been defamed or libeled. He went on to declare that neither Schmidt’s statements nor C-VILLE’s story as a whole were defamatory or libelous.
The ruling means the case is dismissed and will not go to trial.
Quote of the week
“It’s both the right and the smart thing to do.” —UVA PresidentJim Ryan on the university’s decision to expand its living wage plan to include contracted employees.
In brief
Firing back
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held oral arguments on October 29th on a case to block Dominion Energy from placing a 54,000-horsepower compressor station, fueled by fracked methane gas, in the historically black community of Union Hill in Buckingham County. The Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board—comprised of members appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam, who owns stock in Dominion—issued a permit for the facility in January, inspiring uproar over what supporters call environmental racism.
Land grab
The City of Charlottesville has purchased 142 acres of land adjoining the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, which will be used for trails, environmental education programs, and forest protection, the city announced last week. The city paid $600,000 for the property, most of which was covered by a federal Community Forest Grant, and landowner Louisa Heyward donated the remaining value of the property (roughly $500,000).
Going bagless
For “both budgetary and environmental reasons,” the City of Charlottesville is swapping bagged leaf collection service for vacuum trucks. Starting October 28th, residents can rake their loose leaves to the curb for collection three times a season. Those who insist on bagging leaves can bring them to 1505 Avon Street Extended on Saturdays from 8am-1pm.
Pay raise
UVA announced on October 24 that its major contractors will be paying their full-time workers at least $15 an hour, fulfilling a promise UVA President Jim Ryan made when he raised pay for all full-time UVA employees. The new policy will lift the wages of more than 800 workers, including food service and janitorial staff, and will go into effect January 1.
Showing the receipts
Days after city residents at the October 21st City Council meeting expressed the need for policy transparency, Mayor Nikuyah Walker has announced that the Charlottesville Police Department will post all policies and general orders to the city’s website, starting in January. At the meeting, speakers said the Police Civilian Review Board should be able to review all CPD policies. Council will vote on a proposed ordinance and bylaws for the CRB on November 4th.
