Code red, white and blue

Dear Ace: On a recent trip to Richmond, I noticed that all the state buildings were flying the Commonwealth flag at half-staff while the U.S. flag was at full-staff. Isn’t this a deviation from flag-display protocol?—Fannie Flagg Fannie: No offense, but prior to receiving this question, when Ace heard phrases like “deviation from flag-display protocol,” […]

A sorry state

Let it never be said that we here at Odd Dominion HQ (hidden deep beneath the streets of Belmont, with just a modem, a cable-news feed and a donut-delivering pneumatic tube from Spudnuts to sustain us) refuse to acknowledge when our fine Commonwealth’s elected representatives get something right for a change. So kudos to our […]

Neon Bible

cd The Arcade Fire’s actual music can get lost in the unusual media frenzy that has surrounded the band over the past three years. On the eve of the release of their second album, Neon Bible, both The New Yorker and The New York Times ran lengthy profiles. (Not to mention the adoration that extends […]

Gulag Orkestar

cd In the quest for authentic world musics, few labels support young white teenagers eager to re-live other cultures. Not all traditions (so they assume) have a universal code that can be broken without living the history embedded in the lyrics. Beirut channel the spirits of gypsies, tramps and thieves on the worldly debut, Gulag […]

A Weekend in the City

London’s Bloc Party offer a classier celebration on their second album, A Weekend in the City. Not on the guest list: hipsters. cd Bloc Party avoids the sophomore curse by doing what too few alternative bands do well—improving their original energy level while finding the delicate point between its core sound and the need for […]

NCAA 07 March Madness

games As anyone who regularly saunters into the JPJ on a Saturday in March knows, college hoops is all about the atmosphere—the crowd, the mascots, the madness. And, unfortunately, Dick Vitale. If Electronic Arts’ first next-gen version of its NCAA March Madness series was only about bottling the supercharged experience of a home game against […]

James Richard “J.R.” Reynolds

Position: GuardYear: SeniorAge: 22Height: 6′ 2.5"Weight: 188 pounds Points per game: 18.0Points per game in ACC: 20.0Field goal pct: 42.6Free throw pct: 82.3Assists per game: 3.9Min. per game: 32.3Min. per game in ACC: 34.8Career high: 40 pts (vs. Wake Forest, Jan. 21, 2007)Career points: 1,618 (ranks 12th all-time for UVA scoring) High school: Oak Hill […]

March Madness: a glossary of terms

ACC: The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) boasts historical dominance in the game of basketball. Splitting from the Southern Conference in the 1950s, the ACC is home to UVA, but also two teams that have dominated basketball since the 1980s—the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Duke. The conference recently expanded to 12 from nine teams, […]

Can J.R. Reynolds make it happen?

Make it happen UVA is down 69-64, and there is less than three minutes to play against Georgia Tech. If they lose, it would be the second straight going into their rivalry match with Virginia Tech. All that the Cavaliers worked for—their improbable standing atop the ACC, their favorable seed in the NCAA tournament—is at […]