My Fair Lady; Heritage Theater Festival; Culbreth Theatre at UVA

 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, […]

Down, but not out

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.   […]

At all costs

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 […]

Movin' on up

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).

Back to the land

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. […]

The Power Issue

 Time, suggested Thomas Jefferson, often turns the powerful into tyrants—a curious remark from a person whose legacy still dictates the culture and image of our city’s largest employer. But as C-VILLE assembled its new Power Issue we learned that, in the two years since we last ranked our mightiest locals, time can turn the powerful […]

Votes of confidence

Did you people compare notes? C-VILLE recently asked 11—well, 10 (see page 13)—City Council candidates to respond to the same question: “What is Charlottesville’s most valuable resource, and how do you propose to protect it?” A majority responded, “people.” Granted, there were a few variations on the theme—“children,” “the individual citizen,” “community,” “the Charlottesville resident.” […]

Eminent domain revisited

On July 3, 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt manned a microphone at Skyline Drive Milepost 51 and christened Shenandoah National Park (SNP) as he marveled at its restorative powers.

The sweetest thing

Charlottesville’s School Health Advisory Board (SHAB) is trying to improve nutrition in schools by limiting the amount of sugar, as well as sodium and hydrogenated oils, in students’ lunches and snacks. To that end, SHAB—a group that guides the School Board on matters of student health—has significantly revised the school district’s 2006 Wellness Policy, and […]