Monthly Archive for March, 2006

Page 5 of 9

Two Movies Set in Our Fair City

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 17, 2006 in Entertainment. 1 Comment

Two newspaper articles today describe new movies that take place, at least in part, in Charlottesville.

The San Francisco Chronicle writes about “Don’t Tell,” an Italian-language film:

In a chilling foreshadowing, the distress Sabina feigns in a sound studio later turns out to be all too real when she travels to Charlottesville, Va., to see her brother, Daniele (Luigi Lo Cascio), a college professor. She’s hoping to glean some understanding of her recovered family memories. But Daniele is more inclined to be a tour guide, going on at length about Thomas Jefferson’s neoclassical buildings, than sympathetic kin.

And Newsday writes about Donald Sutherland’s “American Gun”:

Avelino said that during their two-day shoot at the gun shop owned by Sutherland’s character (the story takes place in Charlottesville, Va., the Oregon suburbs and Chicago), Sutherland had to do a crash course in pistol assembly.

I wonder if either of these were actually filmed here. I imagine it would be difficult to fake UVa.

Blogging Round Up

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 16, 2006 in Blogs. 1 Comment

Here are some of my favorite Charlottesville blog entries from the past week.

Laura found some great classifieds in a 1997 issue of Christianity Today. Anne Metz is “officially in love with Coran Capshaw”. Ryan is in love with Jack Abramoff’s tricked-out BMW. Joe thinks everyone should have a personal FedEx account. Some guy drove clear from D.C. to go to Spudnuts, only to get there fifteen minutes late. Cory has advice for people with ADD. Zoe visited Richmond for the day and really enjoyed herself. Eric just retired from diving, and is trying to figure out what to do with his life now. David Murray says Morrissey saved his life. “The Doctor” thinks cyclists should be ticketed if they don’t follow the rules of the road. Lexi went to Miller’s and the service was so bad that she left and went to Marco & Luca’s. Dellis feels real good about the Redskins for the coming season, and is prepared to defend that position in great detail. Anoop’s Sprint DSL service sucks, but he wrote a few lines in Ruby to fix the problem. Jim Duncan feels good about the competition from the three other Charlottesville real estate blogs. Bob Gibson promotes the first meeting of “Left of Center,” a new group for young Democrats and the Dem-curious (I was there, it was fun). Rick Sincere is a mugwump. Elizabeth has returned from her week in Spain, and it was super fantastisch. Virginia Quarterly Review (my employer) is hyperventilating over their six nominations for the 2006 National Magazine Awards. Both The Hook and Outskirts offered near-real-time coverage of the semi-nude PETA protester on the Downtown Mall. Duane Gran spoke to IT Academy students about careers in tech. And Patience finds that the reason her neighborhood swarmed with cops this morning was because cows escaped from the Belmont stockyards.

I want to call particular attention to a series that photographer Bill Emory has been doing on his blog about the Woolen Mills sewage treatment plant. Bill called for the sewage composting facility to be enclosed, what with the terrible smell, posted the comments of resident Victoria Dunham at the Woolen Mills Neighborhood Association meeting with the RWSA, and mapped the change of the area from rural to industrial, complete with audio of one woman’s childhood recollections of the Woolen Mills area. I love seeing people blog about Charlottesville, particularly Charlottesville history.

I think I’m going to keep doing this round-up every week. If you’ve read or written a particularly great blog entry, please feel free to e-mail me about it sometime Wednesday or Thursday, and I’ll include it in the weekly blog carnival (as they’re known).

Area Fires Break Out; Court Square Tavern Burns

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 16, 2006 in General News. Closed

The lack of rain has made conditions perfect for brush fires which, when combined with recent indoor fires, has made for a spate of blazes in the past few days, David Hendrick writes in today’s Daily Progress. Particularly noteworthy is the fire that broke out at Court Square Tavern at 5am yesterday, evacuating 500 Court Square and shutting the business down for at least a few months; the condos only suffered smoke damage.

What’s interesting about the Court Square fire is that Sean Tubbs, of the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, tends bar at Court Square on the weekends. Sean has an extensive and introspective blog entry about the fire, about Court Square Tavern, and its role in his life — it’s well worth reading.

Media General Earnings Up

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 16, 2006 in Business and Meta News. Closed

Media General, owner of the Daily Progress, has announced that their February revenues were up 4.2% over February 2005. Unfortunately for them, it seems to be a one-time hit, courtesy of ads during the Olympics on their NBC affiliates. Their publishing division is up just 0.8% for the period, and their on-line division is up by 36%, but 36% of nothing isn’t much. Classified advertising was up 9.3%, but the Craig’s List effect doesn’t bode well for that as a long-term revenue source. The Progress‘ is said to have had a “high single-digit increase” in retail advertising. The bad news comes in their outlook, in which they report lower-than-expected growth for Q1 2006.

This means the same thing for the Progress that it meant six months ago, last time Media General reported bad financial news — cost-cutting. And there are only two way to cut costs at a paper — reduce pay or reduce employees. The Progress has instituted a hiring freeze, leaving two staff positions unfilled and the existing staff stretching to make up for the shortfall. I have to wonder if The Hook or C-Ville will be able to take some market share from the Progress (to the extent to which they compete) if the daily falls much further, or if the Progress, by virtue of being our only daily, can lower their standards all that they want and not take a hit in circulation or, consequently, ad revenue.

Man Shot in First 2006 Homicide

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 15, 2006 in Crime. 3 Comments

In the first Charlottesville homicide of the year, 18-year-old Gerald Washington was shot five times yesterday morning on Sixth Street SW, near Cherry Ave, Bryan McKenzie reports in today’s Daily Progress. Police aren’t naming the perpetrator yet, who immediately telephoned police to turn himself in. In his comments to WINA yesterday, Chief Timothy Longo indicated that it appeared to be self-defense on the part of the shooter, as a part of a dispute between a tenant and a landlord, after Washington brandished a knife.

10:45pm Update: A commenter points out that this is, in fact, a “homicide,” not a murder. It’s a fair point, so I’ve changed the terminology.

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