Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

Page 491 of 549

Council Is A Mess

Today’s Progress reports on City Council, the proposed changes in the date of the election, and the fact that 3/5 of Council intends to run for Senate this fall. It turns out that, if a Council seat is vacated, Council is supposed to appoint a replacement rather than hold an election. Councilors David Toscano and Blake Caravati, who are interested in Senator Couric’s former seat, believe that the members of Council should choose a candidate from themselves informally. Councilor Meredith Richards, also interested, doesn’t favor that approach. Amidst all of this, Council members are now saying that it would just be too confusing to move the election from May to November, and that they may put off that decision this time around.

Film Fest Opens

Charlottesville’s annual Virginia Film Festival opens today, and will run through the weekend. With the usual packed schedule and the timing with leaf season (ie, tourists in town for the weekend), this is likely to be the sell-out success that it has been for the past decade. This year’s theme is Masquerades, and consequently includes films like Phantom of the Opera, Some Like it Hot, Tootsie, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Senate Elections in December

A special election to fill Emily Couric‘s seat for the last two years of her term will be held on December 18th. This is for Emily’s new 25th District, which covers Albemarle and Nelson all the way to the West Virginia border. Potential Democratic candidates include City Council members Blake Caravati, Meredith Richards and David Toscano, plus Susan Payne of Nelson County and Delegate Creigh Deeds of Bath County. Republicans include Kenneth Boyd and Sharon Jones. The story is in today’s Progress.

Kesmai Goes Bye-Bye

Electronic Arts’ on-line gaming division, EA.com, has laid off a third of their employees, including nearly everybody here in Charlottesville. Electronic Arts purchased Kesmai a few years ago and ramped things up quickly, gobbling up office space and tech employees left and right. But in the past year or so, fear of layoffs have been looming large, and now it’s finally happened. Good luck, Kesmaites. Reuters has the story.

Hugs for All

Yesterday the first of two days of filming took place for Dave Matthews Band‘s “Everyday” video. Actor Judah Friedlander wandered from the pink warehouse on South Street down First Street to SNL, providing hugs to extras and strangers alike as he went, all the while being record by a film crew. Afterwards the crew moved down to a home named “Breasthaven” on 14th Street (where else?) before finishing up for the evening. Today they intend to film at the band’s studio out of town, off Route 20, before Dave leaves tonight for his Thursday show in London. The story is in today’s Progress and the Cav. Daily.

Sideblog