Charlottesville Blogs

Seminole Weather Update: June 15, 2013

Tom McCrystal — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:10:34 +0000

While today’s rain has cleared, the past few days of rain have rendered the fields at Darden Towe Park unplayable; Albemarle County has closed the park. Tonight’s opening practice for the Seminole League Girls division is canceled for this evening.

PCA & Vinegar Hill Theatre Present Summer Film Screenings

info — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:09:44 +0000

PCA and Vinegar Hill Theatre are teaming up to present a pair of classic old films starring the iconic Cary Grant this summer.

The first screening is His Girl Friday on Thursday, June 27 at 7:30pm. The second screening will take place on July 18 and feature the stylish caper Charade.

His Girl Friday is an American screwball comedy famous for its rapid fire dialogue between Walter Burns, an hard-boiled newspaper editor, and Hildy Johnson, his ex-wife and star reporter. His Girl Friday was #19 on American Film Institute’s “100 Years, 100 Laughs” list and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Tickets cost $10.50 ($7.50 for seniors; $8 for children and students with valid ID). Come on out for an evening of great film and support your local independent movie theater!

Helmut Rilling Personal Selection: Indeed the best of the best

Ralph Graves — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:10:00 +0000

Helmuth Rilling Personal Selection
10 CD Set
Hänssler Classic

Conductor Helmuth Rilling has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with the Hänssler Classic. To celebrate Rilling's 70th birthday, Hänssler released this 10-CD set, Rilling's hand-picked favorites from the over 240 recordings he's made with the label. With that much material to choose from, it's safe to say this set is indeed the best of the best.

Rilling is perhaps best known for his traversal of Johann Sebastian Bach cantatas and oratorios. That cycle is well-represented in this collection. In addition to the St. John Passion and the "Peasant" Cantata, there are also some shorter works by Bach in the set.

Rilling takes a straight-forward approach to Bach. He tends to keep things moving briskly along, with tight, clean ensembles that make the counterpoint easy to follow. Rilling lets the music speak for itself, and in these recordings, it has a lot to say.

That same type of unadorned, no-nonsense direction is equally effective in Rilling's recording of the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten.

The collection includes many works by romantic masters, and Rilling adjusts his style appropriately. César Frank's Les Béatitudes shimmers with a soft glow. Rilling lingers lovingly over each beautiful turn of phrase in Schubert's Gesang der Geister. His performance of Bruckner's Te Deum is emotive, with just the right amount of gravitas and portent.

Also featured in the collection is Haydn's Harmoniemess in B-flat. Rilling's precise interpretation captures the classical era's ideal: the perfect balance between form and emotion. Mendelssohns' Heimkerh aus der Fremde is full of good humor. The work was written for private performance (to celebrate an anniversary), and Rilling maintains a light hearted and casual mood throughout this seldom-heard work.

Hänssler's crystal-clear recording techniques perfectly match the style of this remarkable conductor. If you're not familiar with Helmuth Rilling, this collection is an excellent place to start. It spans a good portion of his time with Hänssler, and shows a remarkable consistency of quality throughout.

Question – What Modern Homes Would Sell in Charlottesville?

Jim Duncan — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:30:54 +0000

What do you think?

I think there’s a real, untapped market for modern homes in Charlottesville. Latitude 38′s homes tend to look great and sell very well, for example.

I really like this home; this one, too. (not taking a photos from their site as I don’t have permission … despite it’s being “on the internet”).

The very first RoehrSchmitt Architecture creation, the Wall House is a 2,000 square foot urban infill home that was a great collaboration between the owners, architect and builder. The budget was tight and the expectations high, but working closely together the team was able to achieve the owners’ objectives in a crisp, modern package for less than $150 per square foot. The design is efficient and easily adaptable to other sites and contexts. We see it as a prototype for an affordable modern house on a typical urban lot – a loft with a yard.

As my research has evolved, I’ve finally found a reason to use Pinterest. Really. I’m saving my favorites both in Pinterest and Evernote, but Pinterest just offers a simple, efficient, clean way to save and display these homes.

I’m thinking a modern home like this would be more desirable …

Photo courtesy

… than something like this (although I am sure that this type of home would sell here – to the right buyer)

Photo courtesy

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Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you like this post, please, visit RealCentralVA.comwhere this was originally posted.

Question – What Modern Homes Would Sell in Charlottesville?

potatoes, photography, and papa

zoe krylova — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:19:00 +0000

the weekend started on friday with a playgroup potato harvest. i made a fine batch of homefries and a table serving of mashed potatoes from our small but impressive haul. friday evening brought a lovely night on the lively downtown mall, among look3 festival goers.

tristan and i had a lot of fun checking out "the short happy life of the serengeti lion," a photography/video exhibit by michael nick nichols at the haven. tristan was very excited to check out more exhibits afterwards, but none measured up to the bigger than life images of lions in action.

we also discovered that tristan has a lot more fun going from place to place downtown if he can do it on his balance bike. here he's collecting a little reading material.

if friday was a good opening to the weekend, sunday was an equally good closing, with a very special papa in house. i made a big breakfast and tristan and i handed out some books, a print, and some dark chocolate.

in the afternoon we went to pollak vineyards where we checked out irish music
by king golden banshee, had a small picnic, and a refreshing bottle of white wine.

it is very pretty there.

it was the kind of weekend that makes me feel so incredibly proud of
where i live and who i live with!

even more shows you should see this week

Joy M. — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:32:38 +0000

I would apologize for all the posts recently, but at least we have something to read? I guess I should be condensing everything, but I barely had time to dash off this morning’s post before leaving for my “real” job. I also don’t really know what day it is and have just glanced at the calendar and realized that there’s a lot going down this week.

And here’s what I recommend:

Night Beds, Caveman and Jenny O. at the Southern, Tuesday at 7 p.m. I’m not one for soft, country-tinged rock, but if you are, you would like Night Beds a whole lot. If you still are listening to Fleet Foxes, you would really like this show. Like if strumming acoustic guitars, slight reverb on the vocals, and solid harmonies get you excited, please go to the Southern tomorrow. Here, here’s their song “Ramona.” I’m listening to it. It’s catchy. I don’t know much about Caveman or Jenny O., but I think both of them are in the same vein as Night Beds.

And, on Thursday the 20th, Japandroids at the Jefferson. I will never pass up an opportunity to see them play, because I think they do everything a touring band should be doing. I saw them last year in DC at the Rock and Roll Hotel, and they closed their set with their cover of the Gun Club’s “For The Love of Ivy.” They actually had to take breaks in between choruses because they were so tired. And every night, they play just about every song they know (if they have the time) until they can’t play anymore. And no bullshit encores. They love playing live; they made their last album (Celebration Rock) pretty much just so they could tour as much as possible for the next two years. And it’s just two dudes, one on drums and one on guitar/vocals making music as loud and fun to listen to as possible. I also recommend learning the words to “The House that Heaven Built” so you can shout along with the band, all the Japandroids bros, and me.

Crocodiles is opening for Japandroids. They honestly have not been on my radar, but I played part of their newest album about five minutes ago and this one really reminds me of Jesus & Mary Chain. I mean, who are you fooling with a song called “She Splits Me Up” containing sunny, fuzzed-out guitars over chiming pop melodies? It’s worth pointing out that their earlier stuff is a bit noisier/shoegaze-y-er, and they’ve been touring with Dum Dum Girls for awhile.

Here’s everything else for the next few days, if you don’t feel like staring at the calendar over on the sidebar there: on Tuesday, Last Call Gospel Choir is playing at Blue Moon Diner. On Wednesday, Southern Belles at Rapture/R2, and Jim Waive at Blue Moon Diner. On Thursday, MALC D at Rapture/R2, Jamie Dyer, Dan Sebring and Cathy Monnes at Blue Moon Diner, and Tall Tall Trees with Prypyat at the Garage.

Also, maybe hit up the Scottsville Batteau Festival on Wednesday the 19th, including Charlottesville folkies Red & The Romantics and Rockfish Gap.

Feedly vs. Bloglovin

Jeannine @ Small and Chic — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:44:00 +0000

I've been using Feedly for a few months now and have been frustrated that I can't search my feed for words. What's more, as I'm reading, if I decide I want to comment on a post, I have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the entry to get to the blog and comment.

I've heard that Bloglovin is a better reader and am trying it out tonight. Any thoughts from those who have tried both?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Albemarle County Seeks to Facilitate Crozet getting a Hotel

Jim — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:37:58 +0000

Crozet needs a hotel. The County of Albemarle, recognizing this, “Albemarle County will take steps to make itself eligible for a state financing program that could support the construction of hotels.”

Catlin said the county’s economic development team is supportive of having a small hotel, one that keeps the character of Crozet intact, while filling the critical deficiency for adequate lodging. She estimated a future hotel would have between 30 to 60 rooms.

Introducing The Diabelli Project

Ralph Graves — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:08:00 +0000

Even composers can have writer's block -- and that's exactly where I was a few years ago. After a long dry spell, I decided to do something about it. Ira Glass' talk on the Creative Process inspired me to get over my writer's block and start posting to this blog daily (that month-long experiment started in 2011 continues to this day). (click on images to enlarge)

My first flash composition from 2011. You'll see a legible version
of this in next Monday's post.

I always enjoy attending our church services; the time before the service invites contemplative thought. One Sunday I had a modicum of inspiration, and scribbled the opening to a canon on the bulletin. It was the first thing I'd written in quite a while. The next Sunday I did it again, and over time it's become part of my Sunday worship routine.

It's starting to work. Without the pressures of needing to complete a work, or even worry overmuch about the quality of the piece, I find I can dash off little ideas on a regular basis. It's sort of the equivalent of flash fiction -- save that I don't complete the work because I don't want to limit myself to a 4-bar composition week after week.

Over the past 2 years, I've accumulated a lot of church bulletins with these little musical sketches on them. And it's been interesting to see how they've developed over time.

My most current offering. I went from pencil to pen
as I gained confidence.

The Diabelli Project

In 1819 the publisher and composer Anton Diabelli wrote a short theme that he sent out to all the leading composers of the day -- Franz Schubert, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, et al. -- to write a variation to be published in a collection. Ludwig van Beethoven took the idea and ran with it. His 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120 is considered one of his masterworks.

So here's the deal. I'll be Diabelli, and you can be Beethoven (or Hummel, if you prefer). Each Monday I'll post one of my Sunday sketches. And you can use them as you wish. Write your own theme and variations, or fugue, or whatever. It doesn't have to be a classical work. Think there's a catchy melodic hook buried in there somewhere? Use it.

I just ask a few things:

1) If you use any of these sketches, just let me know.
2) If possible, please send me a recording or notated score.
3) Please credit me appropriately if you offer your work to the public

That's it! I'll post the first excerpt next Monday. And there's another personal challenge in this for me. I used to be a professional music copyist -- another skill I've neglected over the years. I'll be writing these sketches out by hand to bring back those chops.

second-to-last show at Utopia

Joy M. — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:04:37 +0000

Not only are we losing Random Row to hotel developers, we are also losing another great venue, Utopia. There’s a show out there tonight; their second-to-last before the lease runs out:

Special Events, hip-hop from Tennessee feat. Neil Fridd. They’re on David Byrne’s label, Luaka Bop Records.

Younger Siblings, lo-fi romantic pop from Birmingham, Alabama.

gGarageband, hip-hop from RVA.

and two Cville experimental/electronic artists, Ming Ming (John Mingsley) and Nu Depth.

Come at sundown. Check the Facebook event here. Don’t get lost in the woods (400 Stribling Ave., follow the gravel road, turn left before the tunnel).

Would you like to hear about our house search?

Jeannine @ Small and Chic — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:08:00 +0000

I've been trying to decide how to tell you about our home search. So, maybe I need to see if anyone really cares to hear about details or if you just want me to get on with it and tell you the results.

In a nutshell, our search was abnormal and our buying experience was been extremely unusual. Our realtor has said or written "this hasn't happened before" several times during this process.

To pass the time, I've been tending to my Pinterest boards, dreaming of the day when I'll get to start some new projects. For some reason, I've been on a pink kick lately.

From House & Home Magazine, April 2011

From Better Homes and Gardens

By David Collins (from his portfolio)

Anyone else share my love of pink? And are you in any way interested in hearing about our home search?

how to paint stripy steps without loosing your marbles: a tutorial

Gillian — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:25:00 +0000

It's been a long time since I've written a tutorial. Not because we haven't been up to lots of things around the house but, well, they haven't been very tutorial worthy. What can I say about a wallpapered piece of plywood other than, um, wallpaper a piece of plywood? For the most part our projects these days involve either planting veggies or flowers in the yard or painting. We're on our second round of painting. In theory, all the rooms that didn't get painted last fall will get paint now. Except for Briton's room. Which we are not allowed to change. Whatever. If he likes half painted walls and a rug over plywood, so be it.

But the stairs. They took some serious thinking and planning. So I thought I'd share. Plus I love them. It makes me smile every time I look at them.

Our stairs are, barring the you may not change this floor in Briton's room, the only raw floors left after the great carpet removal of last August. The living room floor is painted, awaiting hardwood flooring someday, and the upstairs is bamboo floored. But the stairs were a little bit of a problem. At some point we'd like to put new treads in. Nice, solid hardwood ones that will match out kitchen floors. Except man, treads are expensive. Plus since the rise of the steps is also rough plywood, that will have to be replaced as well. Which makes it a big, expensive project. And not really one at the top of the priority list. I've had this stripy steps idea in my head almost since we moved in and the plan has gone through lots of possibilities. Carpet? Too expensive. And also too hard to find in stripes we liked. And also I hate carpet. Canvas runner? Too trippy. I can just see one or all of us falling down the steps when it gets worn and baggy. I almost went with the kind of tape they use on gym floors. Bright, colorful and practically permanent, but in the end, paint seemed the easiest option. And as a result of our many, many painting projects, and painting ideas, we had lots of little cans of different paint colors. Blue from the kitchen, pink that almost was in Evie's room, yellow from the bench, green from, actually, I have no idea where that green came from.

The big challenge, however, is how to get nice, neat, straight lines without going nuts. As it turns out, it's not as hard as it looks but I'll warns you, it is tedious. This is not a one day project. There is much sitting around waiting for things to dry, and then adding another coat, and then waiting some more. But that's good, Because while one stripe is drying you can still walk on the other parts of the steps. Which, unless you have two sets of stairs in your house or you don't need to get up them, is necessary.

So, here's how you do it.

First paint the edges of the steps with your base color. I used the white trim paint we are using all over the house. Sebring White from Benjamin Moore if anyone is interested. It's our go-to white for flat and glossy paints. I decided that I wanted the border to fall 8 inches from each side of the steps and used a ruler to mark that out, then painted about an inch over that mark. After the third coat had dried, it was time for.....another coat. Except this one is special and it's the secret to really neat and clean stripes (I wish I'd figured this out long ago)

Using regular masking tape, no need for the fancy painters tape here, I taped off the line at the 8-inch mark and then painted over the tape with the white. Why? Well, if you've ever tried to use tape to make a perfect line you know that, inevitably, no matter how much you smooth it down, paint is going to leak under. By painting the stripe line first with the white the paint that leaked under is the same as the base and the tape line is sealed in. Once the white was dry I added yellow on one side and dark blue on the other, painting out, again, slightly further than I wanted that particular stripe to go.(It's easier to see on the yellow, but obviously I did the white first)

Again with the paint several coats, tape, paint another coat (hint, don't just paint on the raw side of the tape, otherwise you'll have a weird line in the middle of your stripe and have to go back and touch it up. Lesson learned) then add a new color, until you've filled the space.
There is a lot of dry time needed here but since I chose not to use floor paint (too expensive, takes too long to dry and, in our experience, didn't hold up any better than trim paint) it wasn't too painful. I will recommend shutting your animals in a bedroom or outside each and every time you start to paint and leaving them there till that stripe is dry. Unless you want little yellow kitty footprints on your kitchen floor.

Just sayin.

A little note on cleaning. Because we've lived with painted plywood floors for almost a year now, I've had plenty of time to try out different cleaning methods and have finally struck on something that works. Most of the time my painted floors just get a good sweep and vacuum and then a once over with a Bona mop and wood floor cleaner. But about every three weeks I use a long handled bristle brush and give it a scrub with a mixture of hot water and just a little washing soda. Just a little. Otherwise there is a white film when it dries. I use an old pan and put about a teaspoon of soda in with the water. I follow up with a dry towel to wipe up the water (no standing water on wood floors!) and the floors look almost new. Since the part of the stairs people tend to walk on are stripy and not white, the steps stay pretty clean and have, so far, just needed sweeping.

So there you go. Stripy steps. Not the craziest thing we've done. Probably not even in the top ten (not even close to the time we took a bus and then a train and then another bus to that sketchy IKEA in London when Briton was a toddler. Geesh that was one long, slightly frightening day. )

Found Objects

Patience_Crabstick — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:43:00 +0000

Jon had to work this weekend and we missed a family wedding in Boston. (He hasn't started the no-weekend job yet.) We were at a friend's wedding last weekend, and Richmond the weekend before, so I had a lot of catch up cleaning to do. I also went to the Alderman library and got a huge stack of books. Due date: May 10, 2014! (At 23:59)

My sewing machine is fixed! I used to sew so much that I had a dedicated sewing space, where I could keep my machine set up at all times. In this house, my sewing room was demolished in 2006 for a renovation and in its place now is the dining room.

My old sewing room, mid-demolition

I packed up my sewing machine--an unchic Janome Decor Excel 5018 and haven't used it since. Everybody who is anybody has a Bernina, or a 1938 Singer Featherweight 221 that they found at an estate sale for $6 on which they make couture gowns. My Janome isn't sexy, but it has served me well and was a vast improvement over the entry level Pfaff I'd had before, or my grandmother's 1970's Sunbeam, which I had before the Pfaff. In 2006, after years of heavy use the Janome's tension was off and it wasn't performing well. This weekend I picked it up from the repair shop. All I've done so far is sew a Paris hem into a pair of jeans, but it sews like a dream! Repairs cost $65.

The sad thing is, I've completely forgotten how to use it. I sewed my jeans with the thread the repair lady left in it, because I can't even remember how to thread it or change the bobbin, much less how to use the specialty feet or the buttonholer.

Thus began a whole house search for the manual, which I eventually did find, along with other assorted oddments, such as this woolen chicken.

I ought to give the poor thing some eyes.

And these toe shoes.

Here's the pain in the ass thing about toe shoes. They're very expensive and they have to fit perfectly. There is no such thing as buying toe shoes a little large to grow into. The age at which girls start dancing on pointe is also the age at which their feet grow exponentially. So a pair of toe shoes will have almost no wear at all, and already be outgrown. You don't want to throw away something that cost $120 and lasted exactly six weeks, so you stash them away in different places so that forever more, every closet, box, basket, drawer, and random plastic bag will have an old pair of toe shoes lurking in it.

Pinterest (naturally) has a few ideas on how to reuse them.

This cross stitch Santa.

Part of a garland that spells out Merry Christmas. I made it years ago. This "S" has been missing forever!

This fake thumb.

True story: This thumb almost got us kicked out of Maya, a restaurant in C'ville. It has a little red light inside that lights up with pressure. Our nephew was visiting, and he and Seamus were adept at doing magic tricks with this thumb, and were playing with it while we waited for someone to take our order. They had just put it away when the hostess came marching over to our table with an angry look on her face. She didn't say anything, just circled our table several times, staring hard at each of us. Clearly we were in some kind of trouble. One of the servers came up to stand with us and they both stared at us some more and conferred. Seamus took out the thumb again and something seemed to dawn on the hostess and she walked away. I realized that someone must have mistaken the red light for a lit cigarette and complained that we were smoking, which is idiotic because the first thing you notice when someone is smoking is the smell, not the glowing cigarette ends. Kind of an asshole move on their part. They could have just asked us what we had that was lighting up, rather than being deliberately intimidating.

Also found: a very nice Swiss army knife, a trial size packet of Oxi-clean, (guess I'd better clean something) and Jon's certificate for ten years of service to UVA, five years out of date, since he just got his fifteen year certificate.

Google Maps and Google Earth MOOC – lots of new things to learn!

RuthK — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:21 +0000

This is fun! I am finishing up the first week of Google’s Maps and Earth MOOC. Here is the link to the map I am working on for the Week 1 assignment:

Vinegar Hill Cafe – the HEART of Charlottesville

This map highlights the Vinegar Hill Cafe in the Jefferson School City Center and shows the available parking and the nearest CAT bus stops. The map will change as I edit it, so (just for the fun of it) I am adding some other interesting Charlottesville PLACES that I have mentioned in this blog. This will be an ongoing project for some time!

Filed under: Lifelong Learning, MOOC Storytelling, MOOCs Tagged: Charlottesville, Google Maps, MOOC Storytelling, Vinegar Hill Cafe

The End of an Era – Arch’s Goes Self-Serve

Jim Duncan — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:07:48 +0000

I’m sure I’m late to the news …

A staple of Charlottesville, Arch’s frozen yogurt has evolved – “Just recently, Arch’s on Ivy Road closed and Arch’son the Corner and Arch’s on Emmet St. renovated and converted operations to the newest craze in the frozen yogurt industry….”SELF SERVE”..

As said on Twitter –

Remember the popularity of TCBY in the ’80s and then all the copycats? Reminds me of how that fad came & went.

Yes.

Berry Berry, Sweet Frogs, Bloop … here’s hoping the evolution continues.

As the HooK noted last month –

… another New Jersey and New York-based eatery called Cups, yet another one of those self-serve yogurt places a la Sweet Frog and Bloop that have been capitalizing on the fro-yo fever over the last few years. Indeed, counting Arch’s, the home-grown frozen yogurt place with locations on Ivy Road, Emmet Street, and on the Corner (which recently went self-serve to keep up with the trend), as well as the soon-to-open Spoon and Berry at The Shops at Stonefield, there will be eight places in town to get the stuff, including Berry Berry on the Corner.

I’m not sad necessarily, but I do lament the loss of something that I perceive to make Charlottesville Charlottesville In high school, I spent way too much time at Arch’s before being local was cool.

As an aside:

1 – The new Google Maps isn’t yet updated with the new imagery showing the business that has replaced Arch’s
2 – The new Google Maps is amazing.

Search the Charlottesville MLS

Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you like this post, please, visit RealCentralVA.comwhere this was originally posted.

The End of an Era – Arch’s Goes Self-Serve

You Know You’ve Been Blogging for a Long Time When

Jim Duncan — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:26:11 +0000

You know you’ve been blogging for a long time when about a tenth of the links to which you’ve pointed over the past 8 years are now bad/broken ones. I installed the Broken Link Checker wordpress plugin last week and was a bit surprised at the results.

Real estate blogs, Charlottesville blogs, local news sources, real estate companies that came and went … Now to find the time to go through each one and fix/delete ….

Search the Charlottesville MLS

Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you like this post, please, visit RealCentralVA.comwhere this was originally posted.

You Know You’ve Been Blogging for a Long Time When

Go Mad My Son

Velky Al — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:41:00 +0000

Yesterday, Mrs V, myself, and my parents went up to DC for a day trip. It's only a couple of hours by car from our house to the parts of Northern Virginia that have a connection to the city itself through the wonders of the metro, and so we parked up and rode into the District of Columbia.

Having bimbled by Capitol Hill, strolled along the National Mall, sauntered around the National Air and Space Museum, we were all well and truly foot weary. Earlier in the day my mother had mentioned that my parents would like to treat us to a good meal. Not being all that knowledgeable about the DC area, and the fact that our car was out near Falls Church, I suggested trying out Mad Fox Brewing.

I have only ever heard good things about Mad Fox, so it was with some excitement, and not a little trepidation, that we took our seats. I say trepidation because so often when a place is praised to the heavens it fails to live up to my expectations.

Mad Fox would be different. From the moment I looked at the beer menu I knew what I wanted to drink. Mason's Dark Mild, a 3.3% English style mild, served on cask, that could not have been any more spot on had it tried, and yes, it was served as cask ale should be, sparkled. I tried a few samples of other beers, a kölsch, both filtered and keller style, again excellent, an English Summer Ale, superb, and a porter which was entirely magnificent.

The beer was just one part of the deal, as there is traditionally food involved in dinner, and the food was as good as the beer. Whether is was my burger with caramelised onion jam, or my mother's fig and balsamic pizza, there was a general consensus that the food was delightful. Oh, and did I mention yet that the service was absolutely wonderful?

It's fair to say I have become a fan.

The Summer List

Meredith Montague — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:37:37 +0000

Evangeline at Blue Ridge Swim Club, Ivy, Virginia, June 9, 2013

A couple of years ago in July my friend Maggie Stein and I were driving through the mountains of western Virginia, making our way to and from a wedding, and somewhere along the road she mentioned her summer list. The conversation stalled there for a little while as I picked her brain about this "summer list" (imagine my fingers making quote marks in the air around the steering wheel). What was this thing?

To be perfectly honest, I cannot remember exactly how Maggie explained it, but it was, rather obviously, a list she had made of summer activities that would help her embrace and enjoy the season.

Why wasn't I doing this? I wondered.

I should start doing this! I decided.

I've already explained that last summer was kind of a bust for me. I did give birth, which was great, and I started a long-term relationship with my local coffee shop, which deserves a blog post of its own, but I did not exactly enjoy last summer. I survived it.

Summer in Virginia pretty much overwhelms me with the landscape's ridiculous display of fecundity, the hot heaviness of the air, the night sounds of peepers... I think I'm made for summers in Maine. But, hey, it's the season of my birth, I'm in the land of my people, and this year I've got a list.

Here it is, and may I blog my successes along the way:

Go off the diving board at Blue Ridge Swim Club
Take the girls peach picking
Complete the Women's 4-Miler training program
Run the Women's 4-Miler race
Go to a Nats game
Read a few books (perhaps this and this and this)
Take a night hike to a high meadow to look at stars
Go to a music festival; eat festival food
Enjoy LOOK3
Sleep in a tent as a family (try, at least)
Daytrip to the beach
Take lemons; make lemonade (literally/figuratively, perfect this)

What are you doing this summer? Share your list.

Restoration Restaurant at Old Trail

Jim — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:09:01 +0000

In a sentence – we’ll go back. On a father’s day lark, my wife and I went to Restoration and were impressed with the menu and the fact that they have only local beers on tap.

The latest entry in the Old Trail clubhouse restaurant space is Restoration. The renovation is a nice one; next time I stop in I’ll go for dinner and get some pictures.

The Crozet Gazette noted in April:

Local restauranteurs Andrew Watson and Kelley Tripp, who have been involved in six successful restaurants including Boylan Heights and Mellow Mushroom on The Corner in Charlottesville, will launch a new restaurant at the Old Trail Golf Club later this spring. The restaurant is designed to serve golfers, host weddings and events, and welcome families from Crozet and beyond.

Restoration’s phone number is 434-823-1841.

Search the MLS for homes for sale in Crozet, also known as the 22932 zip code. :)

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Restoration Restaurant at Old Trail

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The Crozet Triathlon Was a Blast

Jim — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:42:59 +0000

Thanks to Todd Barnett of the Field School/Field Camp and his team of volunteers and all the kids for today’s Crozet Triathlon. It was a great experience, just the right number of participants for the first year, and something I hope continues.

See a few more pictures at flickr.

Search the MLS for homes for sale in Crozet, also known as the 22932 zip code. :)

Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you like this post, please, visit RealCrozetVA.comwhere this was originally posted.

The Crozet Triathlon Was a Blast

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Bullshittery and bad candidates.

Waldo Jaquith — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:48:47 +0000

There’s something about an election that turns people into liars.

Once upon a time, there was a relatively small cohort of people who had a public stake in an election. Those people would insist that their candidate was great—totally perfect, if the truth be told—no matter how lousy that they really thought that the candidate was. Election day would come and go and, if their guy lost, they’d say to their peers, quietly, “I never really liked the guy anyway.” And in retrospect, their bullshittery would be described as “spin,” a polite way to say “lying by people who are already known to be liars.”

Today, thanks to social media, we have millions of people who have a chosen political candidate, a desire to promote that candidate, and an audience of hundreds or thousands of people to whom they can spread their message. Unfortunately, bullshittery has accompanied this growth, meaning that we have more bullshitters than ever. But now they have a credulous audience, people who are not aware that what they’re saying is bullshit. (I’m using here my very specific definition of “bullshit”: a false assertion that both the speaker and listener know to be false.) I do not include in this group people who are paid to promote a candidate or a party, provided that they have the good sense to leave their friends and family out of their bullshitting.

E.W. Jackson, the Republican Party’s train wreck of a lieutenant governor candidate, is Exhibit A. No rational person could look at his candidacy and think this is a good idea. This is not a debatable point. Anybody rational who would debate that point now would concede privately that they’re bullshitting, and is liable to do so publicly come November.

We have a word for people who say things that are blatantly untrue: liars. And this is how these folks are perceived by most folks in their audiences when they make foolish claims about candidates, and especially when they recant post-election. If you think a candidate sucks, say so, or say nothing at all. To do otherwise is to support the continuation of a broken political system and to broadcast to your friends and family this message: I am a liar.

CCC 075 – Pascal Bentoiu

Ralph Graves — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:11:00 +0000

Romanian composer Pascal Bentoiu is this week's subject of the Consonant Classical Challenge. Bentoiu (b. 1927) has had a long and successful career as a conductor, educator, and a composer. Among his accomplishments, he has created performing editions of Georges Enescu's symphonies. And it seems he's absorbed some of Enescu's style as well.

Bentoiu is a modernist. The forms he casts his music in are only loosely based on earlier models. His music can be highly chromatic, with some strong dissonances and aggressive sounds. Bentoiu has collected Romanian folk music, and composed a number of art songs, choral works and operas. His affinity for lyrical melody extends to his instrumental works as well.

The Prelude to his opera Hamlet is a good example of his compositional style. The wordless chorus effectively sets the scene for the drama to follow.

Bentoiu has an impressive catalog of major works. He's written eight symphonies, six string quartets, and two piano concertos. His second piano concerto may appear somewhat thorny, but there's a strong tonal underpinning that keeps the work on track.

Te slavesc pe Tine is a setting by Bentoiu of a traditional Romanian chant. It shows how effectively Bentoiu can work creatively within the constraints of tradition.

Within Romania, and throughout Eastern Europe, Pascal Bentoiu is a well-respected and influential composer. I wish he were better-known in this country. I'd especially like to hear his symphonic output. Unfortunately, there are no recordings available of his music (at least that I could find). So for now, Romanian concert-goers have the advantage over us. Based on the few examples here, I would say that our concert programs are much the poorer for the omission.

Updating

Jen — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:33:03 +0000

When we planned our house five years ago, we tried to be flexible about the functions of the spaces. At the time, our daughters were 7 and 9, and while we knew they’d need a toy room then, we also knew that they would eventually outgrow it and would instead need more of a rec room.

Accordingly, the toy room has morphed into a teen hangout space:

For more information on this project, see this post I wrote on my main blog.

Bike Jumps in Bike Lanes

Jim Duncan — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:29:13 +0000

Come on, Charlottesville and Albemarle – let’s be truly progressive and encourage having some fun!

Presumably, Canadians are less litigious than Americans.

Because this. Is. Awesome. Read more at the Atlantic Cities.

Search the Charlottesville MLS

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Bike Jumps in Bike Lanes

corsair SATURDAY, plus the rest of the weekend

Joy M. — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:18:39 +0000

Corsair have been getting a bit of attention these days after signing to Shadow Kingdom Records and reissuing their debut EP. They’ve garnered comparisons to classic metal bands like Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden. I highly recommend seeing the band play live– their guitarist Marie Landragin RULES. Come check out their show with Nashville psychedelic stoner rock band All Them Witches at the Southern on Saturday at 8pm.

Tonight (Friday), check out Le Feb at Rapture/R2, Chris Amsler at Blue Moon Diner, or Kathryn Caine & The Small Band and Sally Rose at the Pavilion.

And, because I’m not sure if I will be able to post again before Sunday, PUNK RETURNS TO MAGNOLIA HOUSE. A Brazilian grindcore band, Days of Hate, will play there Sunday night along with Richmond group Suppression and Harrisonburg crust punks Thrones of Deceit. Yeeeeeah. It’ll be sludgy and wonderful.

reading on the go

Gillian — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:54:00 +0000

I have a slightly embarrassing admission to make to you. One of my all time favorite book characters is not Emma or Elizabeth Bennet or someone from a serious and seriously depressing Oprah Book Club book. It's not even a character from an adult book. It's Henry Huggins. To be fair, he's probably my second favorite. My favorite favorite is and always will be Anne Shirley. But Henry is close behind her.

I read, and loved, all of the Ramona books growing up. How could I not? Ramona lived, like me, in the Northwest. Her family, like mine, didn't have a lot of money but did have a lot of fun. She didn't like to brush her hair, neither did I. She had a fixation over one of her classmates perfect ringlets, which she longed to tug with a great big boooiing and I had a similar fixation with the perfect blond braids of one of the two Emilys in my grade. It wasn't until I was a teacher that I read the Henry books and it wasn't until I was the mother of a boy that I really got them.

Henry is a boy after my own heart. In part because Henry is very much like the boy who has my heart. Briton is exactly the type of boy who would try to bring a dog home in a box on the bus or end up with hundreds of guppies in mason jars on the floor of his room. I totally identify with all the times his mother says "oh Henry!" in reaction to his antics. We've read and re-read the Henry books. We have them on tape and CD and MP3. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the house we lived in when he was born was one block over from the real Klickitat Street, or maybe it's just that Beverly Cleary is a genius at understanding real kids. But they have held steady for a long time as some of our favorite reads.

At almost 11, Briton has, in a way, outgrown the books. They are far too easy for him to read, really. He wouldn't want to be caught carrying one around in his backpack when everyone else is reading the Warriors series or The Hunger Games. But he's very willing to read them aloud. Because that doesn't quite count as the same thing as reading them.

The one thing I dislike about living here is that there is an enormous amount of driving. Enough driving that, for the first time since we started dating, Will and I have separate cars. Things are just far apart and not at all walkable. So between to-ing and fro-ing to school and the grocery store, which is in the next town over, and the bank and soccer and basketball we spend a lot of time in the car these days. We've tried listening to books on tape, but they don't seem to hold their attention the way they do at night. Instead, Briton has been reading to us in the car. Reading Henry Huggins. It's just the right combination of still-fun for him and young enough for Evie. And I doubt I'll ever grow tired of Henry. We're about halfway through Henry Huggins, with Henry and the Paper Route queued up as our next read-in-the-car book. And it's sparked a whole new renewal of love for Beverly Cleary in general. All her books are stacked together in the book nook, in order (roughly) because Evelyn would like to read them all this summer please and thank you. We're reading Ramona the Brave currently. And just as an FYI, I think Ramona may fall as number three on my best book character list. Clearly I'm hopelessly immature when it comes to book love.

After the Hospital: Supporting Breastfeeding Moms

Amy Marshall — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:00:01 +0000

I will never forget what it was like going home from the hospital after the birth of my first child. It was a bit of a shock to be alone and clueless in my house after the comforting environment of supportive, experienced nurses who helped me care for and feed myself and my infant. That [...] Related posts:

Pink Ribbon Polo this Weekend – What Else?

Jim — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:36:05 +0000

From King Family –

“Pink Ribbon Polo is this Sunday at King Family Vineyards !! Bring Dad out for a great afternoon!!”

What else is happening fun in Crozet this weekend?

We might go to Chiles to get some peaches and cherries.

Search the MLS for homes for sale in Crozet, also known as the 22932 zip code. :)

Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you like this post, please, visit RealCrozetVA.comwhere this was originally posted.

Pink Ribbon Polo this Weekend – What Else?

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Friday Reading Assignment: A Royal Affair

Patience_Crabstick — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:55:00 +0000

Stella Tillyard is a first-rate writer of approachable, non-scholarly histories. A Royal Affair: George III and his Scandalous Siblings is an interesting look at the British Royal family in the mid-1700's. George III was not the son of George II, but his grandson. His own father, Prince Frederick, died young and his mother, Princess Augusta, chose to raise her nine children sheltered from worldly influences. It's implied that this upbringing may have made some of the children turn out to be a tad rebellious. Not George himself, who was kept strictly under the thumb of his mother's advisor, but each sibling who lived to adulthood was involved in scandals of various magnitude.

Edward, Duke of York

William Henry, Duke of Gloucester

Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland

Caroline Matilda: Queen of Denmark

Much of the book is about the youngest sister, Caroline Matilda, who married Christian VII, King of Denmark and had an affair with his physician. The physician was executed, Caroline separated from her young children and exiled. There's a Danish movie about this that I haven't seen yet. If your interest in history is based on fashion and romantic stories, then this book might be a good choice for you.

PS Stella Tillyard also wrote The Aristocrats, about the Lennox family. I wrote about it for an earlier reading assignment. It was made into a fantastic miniseries for Masterpiece Theater.

Seminole Weather Update: June 13, 2013

Tom McCrystal — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:20:07 +0000

It appears the severe storms impacting Charlottesville have cleared the area and will be well out of the area by 6:30. The Seminole League Clinic will be held as scheduled this evening.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO PARENTS!
The Seminole League takes safety very seriously. As in most days in June, there is a chance of thunderstorms through the evening, so PLEASE do NOT drop your child off at Darden Towe Park and then leave! In case of unexpected severe weather, Seminole will temporarily suspend the clinic, ask participants to seek shelter in their vehicles, and hopefully restart the clinic as soon as conditions warrant.

Weather conditions can change very quickly, so be sure to check for any updates before leaving for Darden Towe Park. Updates will be made to this post, as well as on the @lax_weather Twitter Feed.