Best hiking trail 2013: Humpback Rock

Humpback Rock Runner-up: Monticello Trail “Humpback” is a bit of a misnomer, because hiking actually exercises almost all parts of your body—legs, knees, ankles, arms, hips, butt, abs, shoulders, and neck —instead of leaving you with a, well, humped back. Most folks can climb the four-mile trail in two and a half hours, which is […]

Best golf course 2013: Birdwood

Birdwood Golf Course 410 Golf Course Dr. 293-4653 boarsheadinn.com/golf Runner-up: Old Trail Golf Course 4594 Golf Dr. (Crozet) 823-8101 oldtrailgolf.com “Hit it. Hard.” That’s a simple enough instruction for Birdwood’s finishing hole, but the 18-hole course at the Boar’s Head is anything but simple. A par-72 course, it recently received a 4.5-star ranking on Golf […]

Best martial arts studio 2013: Hiromi T’ai Chi

Hiromi T’ai Chi 609 E. Market St. (877) 880-2479 hiromitaichi.org Runner-up: Charlottesville Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 601 Concord Ave. 825-6202 cvillebjj.com T’ai Chi Ch’uan is Chinese for “supreme ultimate fist.” We can’t help but think that sounds pretty intense. But the practice is actually quite pensive. Readers turn to Hiromi T’ai Chi for strength-building in both mind […]

June ABODE: The Scene

(Photo by John Robinson) ABODE NEWS I’m your density Plenty of people live on the Downtown Mall, but for the entire month of May, Stephen Balut took that notion to an extreme when he took up residence in the front window of Chroma Projects. A painter who’s been represented by the gallery since shortly after […]

From the inside out

For weekly newspaper writers, commenting on the news is generally limited to an occasional jab or quip. And even in subjective columns and reviews, sweeping ideas that come more from the heart than the mind are left by the wayside. That's all well and good. But for the first issue of 2008, we wanted to do something different: a year in review with a completely personal touch.

Behold! Life after local politics

By Will Goldsmith and Scott Weaver When the dust clears on November 6, we’ll have somewhere between two and six new leaders on the biggest local offices, Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors (bear with us, we’re writing this on deadline). Here at C-VILLE, we stepped back to look at councilors […]

Glass acts

It’s easy to forget they’re there—after all, you can see right through them. But make no mistake: There aren’t many parts of your house more important than the windows. They affect the way it feels to be inside and the way the place appears from outside—so keeping them looking sharp is a must. They’re a […]

Design, living and trends for home and garden

“As wood grew scarce in England and France, laws were decreed limiting its use among commoners…In the mid-1600s, the British authorities decreed that Virginians who owned a hundred acres or more must build in brick.”—James Howard Kunstler, The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-made Landscape Kansas City, come to meHow one […]