Got a match?

Yo Ace, Whatever happened to Yente the Matchmaker? I’m tired of the bar scene, personal ads don’t work, and now I’m the president of the Lonely Hearts Club. Where’s a matchmaker when you need one? Doesn’t anyone understand?—Anna Tevka Anna: Ace had always assumed that all of you out there in reader land understood Ace’s […]

What price history?

History matters a lot in this town, where people speak of “Mr. Jefferson” as if the third president were still running the show up at Monticello. This reverence for the past is perhaps most fiercely expressed in the debate over how Charlottesville ought to balance preservation of the old with construction of the new.    The […]

The long and winding road

Ace: Jefferson Park Avenue maintains the same name even though it makes two sharp turns to the left. Can you help decipher why JPA runs as it does?—Street Cred Cred, confusing street maps have long been a contentious issue for Ace, who has often found himself lost when trailing a case down Main Street, which […]

Funny pages

Ever since the first cave dweller lifted the first flint to chisel an image onto a cave wall, there’s been a critic standing behind him saying, “That’s not funny.”    Here at C-VILLE, we understand the impulse to second guess other people’s work. In sympathy, we’re turning the choice of our new comic strip over to […]

Bombs away

Ace: I was tooling around on Water Street the other day when I noticed a sign for a fallout shelter on the back of the Bank of America building. What’s up with that? Part of our homeland security strategy?—Ducken Cover Ducken: Wait, we have a homeland security strategy? Ace thought the government was just engaged […]

VIRGINIA’S NEWEST BATTLEGROUND

David Toscano is in for a change of pace. Until now, the former City mayor has mastered the art of compromise in Charlottesville, Virginia’s haven for left-leaning, latté-drinking, Volvo-driving Democratic voters. This week, however, the new 57th District delegate is one of 140 legislators in Virginia’s General Assembly. While the General Assembly is in session […]

Eye cannondy

Hey Ace: What, in your opinion, transpired to make patrons of the Court Square Tavern the focus of the cannon in front of the courthouse? Don’t mean to stir up any trouble, but it does seem to be rather odd that a Southern city would have its courthouse cannon facing south. Is there something we […]

Brokeback Mountain

 Based on a short story by E. Annie Proulx (she of The Shipping News fame), screenwritten by Larry McMurtry (The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, “Lonesome Dove”) and directed by Ang Lee (The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Brokeback arrives on the big screen with the sort of pedigree that all but […]

Finding Nirvana

Dear Ace: Soon after I moved to Charlottesville in 1988 or ’89 I went to eat at an Indian restaurant on the Downtown Mall called Nirvana. I am having a debate with a friend about the location. We both remember that it was in a basement. I clearly remember it being under the Jefferson Theater. […]

Something for nothing

O.K., so you\’re broke. It doesn\’t matter why. Maybe you make minimum wage putting those infernal plastic seals on CD cases, or maybe you\’re too busy writing experimental theater pieces to go to work. What\’s important is that you live in Charlottesville, one of the pricier small cities in America, and you\’re tired of seeing the horse farmers and pop-music moguls have all the fun.