The first thing you notice is the noise. A constant stream of stuttering engine rattle, like the choke of a stalling lawnmower: the very sound of internal combustion. And then down on the asphalt, a foot drops and the rumble whips into a roar, the kind that hits your solar plexus first and then shoots […]
The first thing you notice is the noise. A constant stream of stuttering engine rattle, like the choke of a stalling lawnmower: the very sound of internal combustion. And then down on the asphalt, a foot drops and the rumble whips into a roar, the kind that hits your solar plexus first and then shoots […]
Stellar Hoax, the first full-length album from Borrowed Beams of Light, is loosely based on the Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious 15th century text that has yet to be deciphered. Don’t worry, though—this record isn’t esoteric or contrived. It’s a glistening and catchy collection of tunes that have arrived just in time to serve as a […]
Much like the Hollymead Town Center development, the new project at the intersection of Hydraulic Road and U.S. Route 29 North will displace significant amounts of soil and vegetation to make way for 1.2 million square feet of retail, commercial and residential space. But unlike Hollymead, Edens & Avant, developers for The Shops at Stonefield, […]
For most of the year my commute to work is uneventful. I see a bookstore, a hamburger joint, lots of people, a coffee shop, some restaurants, and then my office. Then summer comes. There’s a wet, dusty blast from Daedalus Bookshop as its owner sets up shop for the day. The choking trek past the […]
In February, UVA President Teresa Sullivan wrote to the nearly 5,000 Academic Division staff members and asked them to participate in a job satisfaction survey. Participation in the survey, which covered areas such as “the adequacy of your work environment” and “opportunities for advancement,” was anonymous. Overall, more than 3,000 salaried staff members completed the survey by the March 18 deadline. The results, released last week, showed that 86 percent of UVA employees had positive overall feelings about their employer, and four out of five employees said they would likely still work for the University in three years.
There are times when a reviewer is taken down a peg. Admittedly, the outstanding quality of the Heritage Theatre Festival’s season opener, My Fair Lady, was one of those moments for this critic. As Henry Higgins transformed Eliza Dolittle from a screeching Cockney “guttersnipe” to softspoken lady, my “citified” theater snobbery—I hail from New York, […]
Last week, in a lawsuit filed against Charlottesville, five homeless men claimed that City Council’s soliciting ordinance unlawfully restricts panhandling on the city’s Downtown Mall. With the support of the ACLU of Virginia and local legal representation, the plaintiffs claim that the ordinance violates their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights—free speech and equal protection. […]
German painter Anton Sattler was invited into the homes of some of America’s most renowned families to restore old rooms to their youthful beauty—to revitalize them, give them new lives. “Auchincloss, Roosevelt, Rockefeller,” lists the website for his company, founded in 1891. Anton Sattler, Inc., worked such magic on Gloria Vanderbilt’s former dining room, where […]
In politics, there are basically three kinds of travel: business, pleasure, and of necessity. And there’s nothing that lawmakers love more than combining the first two types (as a group of General Assembly members did on a recent, all-expenses-paid “fact-finding” trip to Paris—sponsored by a company that, coincidentally, wants to extract vast quantities of uranium from Pittsylvania County).
It’s hard to quantify just how goddamned unpleasant the Battle of Waynesboro is. I slept poorly the previous night, skipped breakfast, and arrived late and underdressed. I want socks. I want coffee. I want a funnel cake from the vendor across the road from the battlefield, but I’m stuck firmly on the 19th century side. […]