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 […]

Hollymead developers outflank Places29 plans

“Put on your white hat,” developer Wendell Wood told business partner J.P. Williamson moments before a March 5 work session on Hollymead Town Center, a proposed development that will sit behind the Harris Teeter and Target stores on Route 29N, looming high on a hill above it all. Convened to address a request to rezone […]

Doubletree Hotel sold

First there was “Pimp My Ride,” now there’s “pimp my hotel.” Purchased last week by Denver’s Richfield Hospitality, Inc. from Hotel Fund Ltd., the Doubletree Hotel (off Route 29N) will

This road stays put

Early on in a March 6 work session, Albemarle Planning Commissioner Eric Strucko was stuck on an issue put forward by a planning staff report on a proposed 476,335-square-foot shopping center sandwiched in between Fifth Street and Avon Street: Should a critical slopes waiver be processed as part of this rezoning? The big-box retail project […]

Red dirt alert!

First there were trees, then there was…red dirt. Next there will be the Country Green Cottages: Sixteen single family detached houses on four acres located off Country Green Road near Old Lynchburg Road. The land is owned by Dale Ludwig of Palmyra, who also has significant holdings in the city. Ludwig purchased neighboring parcels for […]

Cops investigate 1984 Rape

Michael Andrew Nicholaou lived in Charlottesville only a short time. He drove a cab, worked as an undercover drug informant for the Charlottesville police and opened a porn shop called The Pleasure Chest. He wanted to become a police officer, but couldn’t pass the background check, former Charlottesville Police Chief John “Deke” Bowen recalls. Despite […]