Winging it

Dear Ace: I was running through the UVA campus recently and passed a statue of a naked man with wings I’d never noticed before. What’s his story? —Marc U. Ray Dear Marc: While Ace admires your commitment to fitness, he must say it’s a pity you didn’t stop! The particular bronze you breezed by is […]

Branching out

Deliver Us from Hollywood: Previewing the Virginia Film Festival When it went down back in 1993, the standoff between U.S. gov-ernment forces and David Koresh took 51 days, and immediately added the terms “Branch Davidian” and “Waco, Texas” to the national lexicon.     In Waco Resurrection, one of the most bizarre and thought-provoking computer game […]

ARTS CENTER STALLED OVER donor’s $22 MILLION

An arts center planned for the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road won\’t include a 1,600-seat theater originally slated and the project overall may come later than expected. The reason? A $22 million gift from now-deceased big-dollar donor Carl Smith\’s estate is “on hold,” says UVA Architect David E. Neuman.

School violence on decline

With national attention focused on several school shootings across the country, it’s easy to assume schools are less safe than ever before. But researchers such as Dewey G. Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist and professor of education at UVA, say just the opposite. Cornell, who has written on psychology and education for over 100 publications, […]

New Coach wants more fans, titles

New wrestling coach Steve Garland, at 29, has taken over a program that went 12-5 last year but hasn’t won a team ACC title since 1974.    “All that matters in wrestling is how many All-Americans you have, how many guys you’re bringing to the big dance, and did you win ACCs or not,” says Garland. […]

Bits and pieces get renamed

On October 5 UVA’s Board of Visitors passed a resolution to rename a new road and an architectural detail in honor of University Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Leonard Sandridge. What was formerly the North Grounds Connector Road between the 250 Bypass and Massie Road will be called Sandridge Road and the entrance […]

Allen, Webb bicker in final debate

Many political experts will tell you debates don’t matter (“It’s all about the ads, baby”). But incumbent George Allen has seen a double-digit lead in the U.S. Senate race melt away in the months following his “macaca” remarks. And it was obvious Allen’s advisors weren’t taking any chances with the final debate between the Republican […]

Know your house candidates

So you think you know all there is to know about the Virgil Goode-Al Weed race for Virginia’s 5th U.S. Congressional district. You’ve heard their spiels, you’ve seen their signs, you may have even shaken the hand of one or both. You’ve seen it all before—literally, since the dudes ran for the same seat two […]

Fight for your right to a third party

The unenviable third party spot on American ballots pretty much demands some sort of quirk of its candidates. After all, you have to be at least a little, um, eccentric to run against not only two popular candidates, but also the entire two-party system itself.    So this year, in addition to their Gail “for Rail” […]

Big-box project deferred

Does the area want more big-box retail? Such was the gist of a contentious public hearing at the Albemarle County Planning Commission at their October 10 meeting, where commissioners considered, but deferred, rezoning 87 acres of county land to accommodate almost 400,000 square feet of commercial development on the southern side of Charlottesville.    Representing developers […]