Labor Day is a bittersweet holiday, a day off for many but also the occasion to bid summer goodbye. Out with the cool of ice cubes on the tongue, in with the earthiness of pumpkin in the belly. So long, head-in-the-clouds; hello, nose-to-the-grindstone. But before we all break out our flannels, remember that summer’s end […]
Why do you think they call it work?
Since its birth on September 5, 1882, Labor Day has provided every workingman and woman at least three crucial with things: an excuse for a picnic; a chance to sit in shore-related traffic; and an occasion to complain about work. For the al frescolunching and OBX traveling this Labor Day, you’re on your own. But […]
Hazy Days
Once upon a time, Virginia had clear air. From the northern end of Shenandoah National Park, people often say, you could look east and see the Washington Monument, more than 65 miles away. Today that almost never happens. Average visibility from Shenandoah has decreased from 115 miles to just 25. Shenandoah perennially appears on lists […]
The Art of Noise
The urban symphony Asleep like the dead in a womblike curl of blankets, the silence is perfect. Snoring is the only sound, like a tree falling in the woods over and over, except no one is awake to hear it. Then at 6am my alarm clock honks, honks, honks, prying my eyes open. I go […]
We’re with the bands…
Fall. The leaves change colors. The sleeves get longer. And enduring sad girls with guitars replaces tubing on the James as the recreational activity of choice. The new cultural season is almost here, and C-VILLE has selected the best bets in music, art, stage, film and more to keep you busy from now until December. […]
Is it good? No. Is it better? No. Is it best? YES!
Happily, a couple of months ago, hundreds of you answered our call to fill out ballots (that Vespa giveaway sure helped, huh?). Then, our crack team of accountants from Price Waterhouse (O.K., our intern) tabulated the ballots. Now the results are in. Some winners are predictable (Christian’s, Chaps, C-VILLE) and some are more surprising (McDonald’s, […]
Saturated Fat
Hazardous waist Super-sizes and not-so-super exercises have born one nation under lard It’s a fat, fat world. More than 60 percent of all American adults are categorized as overweight or obese. And Virginia is expanding right in line with the trend. According to the Virginia Department of Health, 36.7 percent of adult Virginians are overweight […]
Global Crossings
For a small Southern town, Charlottesville’s looking mighty international these days. Locals can taste chicken souvlaki, examine a Panamanian carving, sip Indian tea, and watch a weaver repair a Persian rug—all within a couple of blocks of the east end of the Downtown Mall. In fact, the area is growing into an enclave of internationally […]
Dirty Secret
All that separates Tina Awkard’s front lawn from a chemical graveyard is a few hundred feet and a chain link fence. Yet Awkard, who moved here with her children three months ago, wasn’t aware that the “waste and lagoon treatment center” next door is a toxic dump with a file at the Environmental Protection Agency […]
What is it about this town? You can check out, but you can never leave.
These are interesting questions, but earlier today, I was copying a file to disk and the computer ate it. Now the computer will neither open the file nor read the disk. How can Charlottesville expect you to write encomiums to its greatness when your computer files are being eaten? Not that you care. No one […]
Brawl on the mall
At the height of its short career, Danielson and Rolph’s company, D&R Development, held more than $10 million in Mall property. Onlookers credit two of their projects in particular––the Charlottesville Ice Park and the Regal Cinema building––for catalyzing the Mall’s evolution from a shell of empty buildings to an urban streetscape where people live, work […]
Tim and Vincent’s Excellent Culinary Adventure
The clock is ticking. A dishwasher furiously scours knives as the grill chef checks the fryer by his station. Amidst the loud intermittent clank of utensils and pans against stainless steel countertops, Tim Burgess, co-owner of Bang and chef for the night, swiftly dices mint in preparation for the many Thai carrot salads and peanut-sesame […]
Hidden Charlottesville
Riverview Park Chesapeake Street Woolen Mills Neighborhood A few hundred yards beyond Riverview’s parking lot the Rivanna curves into sight, past the playground equipment and a stretch of grass. There’s something beautiful about that murky brown snake. During the American Revolution, the City’s most prominent river provided an indispensable transportation route, and Thomas Jefferson’s moniker […]
War no more
“CCPJ provides a way for those in our community who care about peace and justice to join with kindred spirits,” says CCPJ steering committee chair Bill Anderson, above. “As our name suggests, we in CCPJ believe that peace and justice are inextricably intertwined. When we work for one we promote the other.” Twenty years ago, […]
Booty Call
Who you are They call him “Bugs”: Mostly those of you willing to discuss your sex lives with complete strangers are young, single, straight and horny. And, as is true for the general population, slightly more than half of you are female. Seventy percent of survey respondents are between the ages of 21 and 35 […]
Cancer sells
Last year, local hospitals treated more than 53,000 patients for cancer. From prostate and breast cancers to melanoma and pediatric lymphoma, these numbers show no signs of abating. In 2003, the American Cancer Society estimates, cancer will strike 32,800 more Virginians. The State-wide death toll this year is estimated at 13,700. It’s hard to obtain […]
Here’s the story of a man named Brady
That’s an excerpt I like from “Whitman in 1863,” a song on local folk musician Brady Earnhart’s new album, Manalapan. In a way, it’s only fitting that the enterprise contains a tribute to America’s bard. Earnhart wrote his dissertation on the man many consider the country’s first original poet, and his songs, while the product […]
Weed whackers
They say that in Charlottesville, the guy who serves your coffee probably has a PhD. Increasingly, the coffeeshop where he works likely serves another function too: art gallery. In the past several years, all over town, new art spaces have proliferated—in restaurants and boutiques, and as cooperatives and nonprofits. The town’s concentration of visual art […]
No sex please, we’re married
Our sex life first took a hit seven months ago when we brought home an 8-week-old attention-hogger named Gauss. By the time we mustered up the courage to throw his doggy ass out of the bedroom, my husband landed his dream project at work. Ever since, Shaili has taken to stumbling through the door at […]
Best local coffee
After water, coffee is the world’s most popular beverage. For most, it’s also a way of life. “Long before the great coffee craze, I was born and raised in an era when it was totally natural for my family to serve us kids espresso after dinner,” says Tony LaBua, owner of the Java Hut and […]
UVA Inc.
They called it an incubator: the upstairs of the Charlottesville Tomorrow building on West Main Street, space leased to University faculty whose ideas no longer quite fit the contours of academia. To move into one of the six offices subsidized by UVA’s Patent Foundation signaled progress for a new biotech company. It meant that early-phase […]
Pooling Resources
There’s a truck with a trailer driving in the deep end!” says Pat Healy, looking out from a window in the clubhouse at Fry’s Spring Beach Club at the crater where a 100-meter swimming pool used to be. On this bright February day, it looks more like a giant, muddy hole, shored up with remnants […]
Take a Message
Since the first cave dwellers plunked a rock against a wall for purely expressive reasons, music has been social—even sometimes political. Like any art form, music offers an individual’s take on the surrounding world, one that is in turn absorbed and cast back into the world by an audience. Every song, no matter the subject, […]