Monthly Archive for July, 2009

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“The Charlottesville Bicentennial Ballad”

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 10, 2009 in History and Music. 47 Comments

Fun fact: Art Garfunkel backed the recording of a song commemorating Charlottesville in 1976. But how did that come to be?

First you have to know that Art Garfunkel lived in Cobham back in the 70s. Paul Simon’s musical partner had been hounded out of his prior home by the media, and had moved to Albemarle for some privacy. The estate of Beau Val was his new home—now Keswick Vineyards—and it worked out, in that the media left him alone.

The second thing to know is that 1976—the bicentennial—was a Big Deal in Charlottesville. That’s when the Rotunda was restored to Jefferson’s design from Stanford White’s redesign, Queen Elizabeth visited (for whom half of the municipal band accidentally played the national anthem, rather than “God Save the Queen”), and President Gerald Ford was the speaker at Monticello’s citizenship ceremony on Independence Day. History was in the air.

Album Cover

Local sign painter and banjo player Arthur Stubbs had written a song about Charlottesville that he wanted to record. Garfunkel—through what connection, I have no idea—served as the silent backer for the production, which was done at Carl Handy’s Monticello Records. The resulting record was “The Charlottesville Bicentennial Ballad,” the cover of which portrayed a soldier in a tri-corner hat, playing the banjo, standing in front of Monticello. Handy’s nephew, David, related this story on an Art Garfunkel fan website last year, where he explained that he’s been unable to find any evidence that anybody else has a copy of this record (though surely somebody must), and provided an accompanying letter from Garfunkel to Stubbs expressing his enthusiasm for the resulting recording.

Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that Garfunkel’s enthusiasm was matched by sales—years of pawing through the bins at Spencer’s, Plan 9, and Distraxshuns never turned up this little gem. So I don’t have an MP3 to present here, although I am hoping that a reader will be familiar with this—perhaps somebody old enough to have done the same pawing at Back Alley Disc or Band Box.

What’s in The Daily Progress’ Future?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 7, 2009 in Business and Meta News. 32 Comments

Katherine Ludwig has an important feature in this week’s C-Ville Weekly about what lies ahead for our newspaper of record. There’s a genuine danger that the Daily Progress will cease to exist because of the unfortunate synchronicity of Media General being run by dart-throwing chimps and the severe recession. Media General’s stock is in the tank, they seem to make the worst possible decision at every turn, and they’ve shown a willingness to hack away at the Progress in the name of profitability. Though the company doesn’t reveal the profitability of individual newspapers, the Progress is almost certainly strongly in the black, but Media General is looking out for their entire portfolio of hundreds of newspapers and other media properties. They don’t have Charlottesville’s best interests at heart, and if they can bring up their stock price by taking the Progress down to a thrice-weekly paper, or eliminating it entirely, don’t doubt that they’ll do it.

Ludwig talked to some Progress alumni (Bob Gibson and Wayne Mogielnicki, notably) to get their take on what lies ahead. Mogielnicki makes the important point that C’ville isn’t exactly lacking for media outlets, and that’s a considerable change in the past few years. A decade ago we had NBC-29, C-Ville Weekly, The Observer, The Progress, and WINA. Now we’re practically drowning in media outlets, although I’d argue that the most valuable work—investigative coverage, FOIA work, etc.—is coming from our two weeklies and (decreasingly) The Daily Progress, with the rehashing of press releases and the show-up-and-record-something coverage of the others being shown up by Charlottesville Tomorrow. As the Progress withers, the weeklies are muscling in, and impressively.

The big question, one that Ludwig never gets into seriously, is the one with no answer: What would Charlottesville media look like without the Progress? What functions does it perform that would need to be replaced? Is any media outlet prepared to take that on? Do we need a daily print publication, or can an online-only outlet fill that role? These are tough questions without clear answers, but this town has had a daily newspaper for most of its history, if we suddenly find its tasks undone, we might quickly come to regret not having collectively planned ahead.

Finally, Ludwig (and C-Ville Weekly) deserves credit for writing a snark-free, fair analysis of the state of a major competitor. It would be easy for the paper to have argued that a daily is unnecessary, or taken shots at the Progress for some of its lower moments, but instead they published an even-handed analysis that should start a community-wide discussion about what lies ahead for the Progress.

Glenmore Pres. May Be Dodging Audit

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 6, 2009 in Crime. 31 Comments

Missing Glenmore president Michael Comer may be dodging an audit of Glenmore’s finances, or so it appears based on Kim Saltmarsh’s coverage at NBC 29. Prior to serving as president, Comer was the country club’s treasurer. You wouldn’t think that would put much money in play, but they’ve got an annual budget of $700,000. According to a press release from Glenmore, Comer had a meeting scheduled with a couple of board members to talk about why he hadn’t made all necessary financial data available to an auditor—that was the day that he disappeared. Right now Glenmore is only saying that “sufficient funds are available to continue normal operations and maintenance,” rather than saying that no money is missing. They’re in the midst of the first-ever audit of their finances (which is surprising for a $700k organization).

Obviously the suspicion here—which nobody wants to voice directly—is that Comer was skimming off the top; the audit was going to reveal theft, so he split town, presumably with a big chunk of Glenmore’s change. That’s nothing more than speculation, of course, with solely circumstantial evidence. But that’s bound to be where the investigation goes from here.

07/07 Update: As folks have brought up in the discussion, Glenmore the country club is a different legal and financial entity than Glenmore the homeowners association. Hawes Spencer explains the relationship in The Hook, but the important bit is that Comer is (was) involved with both.

Glenmore President Missing

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 2, 2009 in General News. 4 Comments

Mike Comer, president of Glenmore Country Club, is missing after taking a walk at Wintergreen, CBS 19 reports. He owns property at Wintergreen, and left on a walk at noon yesterday. When he didn’t return by early evening, his wife contacted the police. Search crews have checked the thirty miles of trails that web Wintergreen, so presumably they’ll now start checking off-trail.

10:10 PM Update: Police have called off the search for Comer, Liz Nagy reports for NBC 29, and they say that they don’t intend to resume it. The Nelson sheriff is a bit cagy in his description of the matter, implying that Comer has disappeared of his own accord.

Scottsville Votes Down Meals Tax Increase

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 1, 2009 in Business, Government, Politics and Taxes. 3 Comments
The Dew Drop Inn's sign.
The now-defunct Dew Drop in, on Scottsville’s main drag, the iconic restaurant of the town. (Nannette Saunders / CC)

Scottsville Town Council has voted down a plan to hike their meals tax, Jason Bacaj writes in today’s Progress. In a 3-3 vote they decided not to increase the tax by 1%, to 5%, with one councilor saying that it “sends a bad signal” while they’re “trying to get new restaurants to town.” The increase would have brought in an estimated $20,000 annually. The price of gasoline is high enough that I can’t see that it would have made a difference from the perspective of a customer; if you live in Scottsville, it’s not worth the drive to C’ville, and if you don’t, then the cost of driving there is going to exceed significantly the additional pocket change that the tax would run you.

Bacaj, incidentally, is a recent hire new intern at the Progress. He’s a newly-minted graduate from rising senior at Washington & Lee University, where his bio at the school newspaper indicates that he was a member of their football team, he’s a skier, he double-majored in biology and journalism, and he hails from Morgantown.

07/07 Update: Matthew Rosenberg points out that Bacaj is an intern, rather than an employee.

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