Touring the Transit Center

What a remarkable day March 26 promised to be. A press release announcing the opening of the much-awaited bus transfer center popped into e-mail in-boxes across town like a bud blooming among thorns. The anticipation of years of planning, redesigning, overestimating and underestimating had finally given way to this fateful moment: The city was ready […]

“Idol” speculation

Chris Daughtry might not have caught any of his successors on “Idol”’s sixth season (“I haven’t had a chance, but I’ve been dying to see it,” he told C-VILLE), but we’ve been diligently tuning in. Here’s our take on the remaining nine finalists. Melinda Doolittle Here’s what Melinda’s got working against her: She looks about […]

Let's get ready to rumble

Links to previous C-VILLE coverage of Biscuit Run appended Where’s Michael Buffer when you need him? The Biscuit Run rezoning will get its official public hearing in front of the County Planning Commission on Tuesday, March 27. Anticipation has been building during a half dozen public meetings and work sessions prior to this one, but […]

Correction from previous issue

In “Beebe to serve 18 months” [Courts & Crime News, March 20], it is stated that William Beebe pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault in an incident at a 1984 UVA fraternity party. In fact, Mr. Beebe pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual battery, as is stated later in the piece.

Clash of the titans

As many irate readers of this column have pointed out, after two months on the job, we’ve had very few kind words for politicians of any stripe, and have been particularly vicious toward pols of the Republican persuasion.

A county by any other name?

Dear Ace: What’s an Albemarle anyway? How did the county get its name?—Al B. Marlow Al: If nothing else, it’s certainly a mouthful for outsiders: Ace has heard every pronunciative variation on our fair county’s name from the common “Al-Burr-Marle” to some unholy, mush-mouthed amalgamation involving albums, Arlo (Guthrie, Ace presumes) and marbles. But lest […]

“Landscape at the Limit”

art If landscape means nature through a human lens, “Landscape at the Limit” should be required viewing for anyone with a Sierra Club calendar at his desk. Instead of those pristine, perfectly framed vistas—the environmental equivalent of rose-colored glasses—this six-artist show asks what landscape looks like when it’s invisible, ignored, taken for granted or unrealized. […]

God of War II

game Consoles, like newspaper reporters and offensive lineman, tend to merit lousy send-offs as their careers hit twilight: Nintendo gave Gamecubers a watered-down version of Wii A-lister Zelda: Legend of Twilight Princess, while the words “quality software” disappeared from the Xbox lexicon a good six months before its death rattle ceased.  The PlayStation 2, however, […]

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

cd Fourteen years, countless drunken concerts and six albums later, Isaac Brock and his band, Modest Mouse, are one of the few surviving pre-Strokes indie rock bands that still matter. On their new album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, much of what made them matter still thrives: Brock’s feral, coyote-on-fire voice, the […]

Whose e-mail is it, anyway?

Two years ago, 40-year-old William Beebe sent a letter of apology and subsequent e-mails to then-38-year-old Liz Seccuro for a sexual encounter he had with her in 1984 when she was a 17-year-old UVA student. He was making penance per his Alcoholics Anonymous program. An already traumatized Seccuro eventually took one of his e-mails to […]