A few news tips for you folks on a fine Thursday morning.
- UVA football fans have been waiting for the moment when they’d turn on the TV to see Ashton Kutcher jump out of a Cav Man suit and tell the University of Virginia that it had been punk’d. With the UVA football team’s new 18-part series—"Virginia Football: The Building of a Program"—that dream is one step closer to reality. The show’s first episode aired 9pm on Monday on Comcast SportsNet, and gives a behind-the-scenes look at what’s up with the squad under new coach Mike London. The trailer (scroll down) is compiled quite nicely, complete with heroic string music and vintage footage that give it an NFL films kind of vibe. The $300,000 project falls within the department’s advertising budget. Scroll down to see the trailer.
- There was a nice article in the News Leader today about songwriter Jesse Winchester, who lives in town, and whose story is just about as good as his music: His career began when he was dodging the draft in Canada, and found himself in good songwriting company with guys like Todd Rundgren and the Band’s Robbie Robertson. He only returned to Virginia in 2002, where he’s kept a relatively low profile—emerging only to retrieve prestigious awards alongside Elvis Costello and Sheryl Crow. The show next week at Staunton’s Mockingbird is a good chance to see a living legend perform locally.
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I checked in with the Mary Beth Aungier, GM of the Paramount, in advance of the theater’s fifth anniversary celebration next month. Before starting there, Aungier spent years as a tour manager for Mary Chapin Carpenter—who will perform next month at the theater’s (sold out) fundraiser. (She also has a new record out.) Read some staff reflections on the history of the Paramount, how things have changed, and how things will continue to change there in next week’s Feedback column. A note for my chamber music lovers: The cellist Steven Isserlis, who was scheduled to headline next week’s Virginia Chamber Music Foundation concert at the Paramount, cancelled due to personal reasons. But the show goes on, and it looks like they’ve even found suitable replacements.
The trailer for the new TV show about UVA’s football team looks like…a real TV show.
Correction: An earlier version of the above caption suggested that tax and tuition dollars support the athletic department. In fact, the athletics department is a self-sufficient entity that receives no tax or tuition money.
