The rank file

Dear Ace,What’s up with the ranking of Charlottesville as the #4 best city in America? Is that number completely arbitrary or have we been doing something wrong since we were ranked #1 in 2004?—Sly Down Dear Sly, Part of the superlative discrepancy has to do with the different parties crunching the numbers. This year Kiplinger’s […]

Virginia Quarterly Review; Spring 2009

There’s no question that the title of the latest Virginia Quarterly Review, “The End of Ice,” is meant to be taken literally. In travelogues that chronicle experiences as divergent as ice hunters blasting away at errant icebergs in Newfoundland’s White Bay to adolescents following the chaddar, or frozen river-highway, out of a village in the […]

Richard Spurzem lawsuit spurs 'em

Last October, developer Richard Spurzem of Neighborhood Properties decided that going through Albemarle County’s approval process for preliminary site plans was no longer an attractive plan. Having had his plans for 187 townhouse units (part of the North Pointe megadevelopment on 29N) rejected twice by county planners, and facing the prospect of a third review, […]

Rock music

Dear Ace, Who made that fabulous soapstone guitar erected in the front of the Music Resource Center on Ridge Street? When did it go up and why did I just start seeing it?—Sculpture Lover Dear Sculpture Lover, Ace can’t account for why you just started seeing the sculpture, but he can tell you that it’s […]

Twenty years of local news and arts in the spotlight

When you’ve been around as long as we have—20 years, as we’ve reminded you every week for the past 22 weeks—you’re bound to see some things come around again. And again. Steve Earle, for instance. The troubador returns to the Paramount for a night of pill-popping tunes about a year after his last visit, and […]