The track list for the new two-disc Dave Matthews Band �Greatest Hits� CD, entitled The Best of What�s Around � Vol.1 is out, and fans everywhere can begin pre-ordering the CD for its November 7 release.

As the hook.net reported in August, the DMB had asked fans for input on track selections via an online poll on their website. Remarkably, the collection �compiled by fans� features two studio tracks from each album on disc one, and no live tracks recorded before 2000 on disc two.

According to Waldo Jaquith, who runs the DMB fan-favorite website, nancies.org, there have been some fan complaints about both discs.

�There’s been a run on people complaining about the studio disc,� says Jaquith, �particularly that there are simply two songs from each CD, which seems a bit of a simplistic approach.� Fans are also wondering why a DMB greatest hits CD would ignore live tracks from the first half of the band�s existence.

�There’s the crowd that says post-2000 shows are overrated,� says Jaquith, �and the crowd that says they’re better than ever.� Then there�s the �it�s all good� crowd, says Jaquith, who points out that it�s only �volume one,� and that more good stuff will follow.

Fans are also debating whether the �greatest hits� CD amounts to a big sell-out, a debate the band itself has weighed in on.

�Clearly, the band is opposed to this release,� says Jaquith, �or at least they want fans to think that. They�ve emphasized in all public communications that they’re only doing this because their record label is making them.�

However, as Jaquith points out, when DMB re-negotiated their record contract two years ago, they were hardly begging. �They got a great contract,� he says. �They were able to get the rights for all sales outside the United States. That�s amazing. They were basically able to get anything they wanted. Who wouldn�t want them on their label?�

Jaquith suspects the �greatest hits� release was the result of a deal that allowed the band to release more live material, a deal that might have had a bit of the devil in it. Still, fans seem to be generally happy with a collection of DMB’s best on one CD, and odds are the disc will be a big seller.

Here�s the track list: (more)

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When actor and Parkinson’s disease sufferer Michael J. Fox appeared in two powerful ads for stem cell research and Democratic Senate candidates who support it, the Hook wondered whether the actor would make a similar appearance in Virginia. It now seems we will soon find out.

On November 2, five days before Election Day, Fox is slated to appear at a rally for Democrat Jim Webb at Arlington’s Clarendon Ballroom.

No word yet on whether Fox has prepared an ad similar to those for Missouri’s Claire McCaskill and Maryland’s Ben Cardin, but in a race where the latest Mason-Dixon poll shows Webb only four points behind Senator George Allen– who opposes government sponsorship of embryonic stem cell research– such an ad would undoubtedly stir some debate.

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Book of Revelations, UVA med center gets off probation, Huja: still shaping the city?

FROM THE NEWSROOM OF THE HOOK NEWSPAPER ON THE DOWNTOWN MALL IN CHARLOTTESVILLE VIRGINIA, THIS IS THE HOOKCAST FOR THE WEEK OF… Thursday, October 26, 2006.

ON THIS WEEK’S COVER:
Book of Revelations
This week’s Hook is 100 pages long– thanks to a big array of stories about the Virginia Film Festival. We interview famed actor Robert Duvall who tells the Hook about his worst cinematic experience. Plus, Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker’s heavily tattooed modern-day-preacher son talks about the new reality TV show he’ll preview here in Charlottesville. Charlottesville-bred filmmaker Derek Sieg looks for a distributor. And, Narnia teen star William Moseley looks (more)

 

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A putting green. A movie theater. A billiards room. Three swimming pools with babes in bikinis… It sounds like a resort, and it is– a resort for students who can afford the many upscale amenities of Woodlands, a new 300-unit paradise that makes it unnecessary ever to leave its gated grounds near Old Lynchburg Road– except for those pesky classes.

Dovetail Companies apparently has done this before in Athens and Statesboro, Georgia; College Station, Texas; and Knoxville, Tennessee; and decided Charlottesville was ripe for the most luxurious accommodations a UVA student could ever wish to throw up on.

French doors open to a balcony in every unit, perfect for undergrad hijinks. Kitchens boast granite counters just the setting for whipping up a perfect mojito. And the 7,000-sq-ft clubhouse holds the stadium-seating movie theater and state-of-the-art cardio studio, according the the Woodlands of Charlottesville website. There’s even a tanning bed. And for parental peace of mind, besides controlled access, some units have solid wood doors with insulated glass. Try kicking that in, frat boy.

So our question is: do you have to be a student to live there?

How much for all this opulence? We’re still working on getting that information at blog time. Located on Sunset Avenue near Azalea Park, Woodlands is available for summer and fall 2007.

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Could a Hollywood actor win the Virginia senate race for Jim Webb? That’s what some are wondering now that a pair of ads featuring actor and Parkinson’s disease sufferer Michael J. Fox advocating for Democratic senate candidates have made a big splash in close senate races in Missouri and Maryland.

Fox’s ad for Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill first began airing Saturday night during Game 1 of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers. In it, Fox, visibly shaking from the effects of Parkinson’s, tells viewers, “Unfortunately, Senator Jim Talent [R] opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope,” before imploring voters, “What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans– Americans like me.”

Of that ad, UVA professor and political pundit Larry Sabato says, “That’s a powerful ad and it’s the kind of ad that could tip the balance and win McCaskill the election.”

Now, it appears Fox’s impact may not be limited to the Show Me State. Today, Maryland congressman and Democratic candidate for senate Ben Cardin unveiled an ad of his own featuring the actor. In that ad, Fox claims “George Bush and [Republican candidate] Michael Steele would put limits on the most promising stem cell research,” before concluding, “I support Ben Cardin, and with so much at stake, I respectfully ask you to do the same.”

With Republican senator and opponent of government-sponsored embryonic stem cell research George Allen leading Webb by only four points according to the latest Mason-Dixon poll and with nationwide fight for control over the Senate as heated as it is, could it be that the Webb campaign has a Fox ad of its own up its sleeve?

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Authorities want another Shifflett, a man police believe may want to exact revenge against law enforcement officers for shooting his little brother. The City Police Chief said today that officers now seek 5′9″, 235-pound Jeffrey Wayne Shifflett, the older brother of recovering would-be girlfriend shooter Elvis Gene Shifflett.

Wanted on burglary and grand larceny charges in Madison County and suspected of the same in Charlottesville, 39-year-old Jeffrey Shifflett should be considered armed and dangerous because unspecified “intelligence” indicated a threat to “law enforcement,” according to City Police Chief Tim Longo.

The younger Shifflett was arrested following his shooting by two Charlottesville police officers Friday night, Police Chief Longo said today at a City Hall press conference. Longo declined to be more specific and refused to say whether Shifflett was shot with an M16, deferring to the Virginia State Police investigation. He also declined to name the two officers who shot Elvis Shifflett out of concerns for the officers’ safety.

The trouble began on October 13 when Elvis Shifflett allegedly intended to shoot his long-time girlfriend after she emerged from juvenile and domestic relations court in downtown Charlottesville. According to Longo, the unnamed girlfriend saved herself by getting the “webbing” of her hand between the handgun’s hammer and the firing pin (more)

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