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PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Wild animals have taken over the Downtown Mall! Well, sorta. Yesterday, volunteers with “Look3: Festival of the Photograph,” put up 25 banners– 50 giant photographs in all. As detailed in a recent Hook cover story, the nearly 7 x 10′ photographs– wildlife images by Festival founder and National Geographic photographer Nick Nichols– are designed to whet appetites for pictures. But they almost didn’t.

“The delivery was lost by the shipping company for about two days,” says Festival co-founder Will May. “We received it at midnight the night before.”

May led a small team of volunteers who spent about seven hours climbing ladders and swinging from trees yesterday. And the outdoor exhibition was just one of three exhibitions (more)

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This morning an outgoing City Councilor issued the first endorsements of the upcoming election, but already his statements have come under fire from a former councilor.

Incumbent Kevin Lynch, who isn’t seeking a third four-year term, taps newcomers Jennifer McKeever and Holly Edwards to join mayor David Brown as his picks. “Both want the best for their young children and have translated this into a desire to be advocates for all of our community�s children,” Lynch wrote in an email sent out earlier this morning.

Conspicuously absent was any mention of former school board chair Linda Seaman or of Satyendra Huja, the retired city planner who oversaw construction of the Downtown Mall and myriad other large civic projects during his 31 years in City Hall. (more)

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A group of heretofore mysterious artists have finally been revealed as the painters of the masterful faux brick design that has covered the east side of Beta Bridge for the past month. Impressive in its own right, the project is also remarkable for its apparent role in the preservation of the orange and maroon “Hoos for Hokies” message painted on the bridge on the day of the Virginia Tech massacre. ‘Hoos for Hokies’ has remained unpainted-over longer than any other message since Beta Bridge became a daily-altered canvas in the 1970s.

Nine UVA undergraduate students and their professor, Sara Brown, painted the brick trompe l’oeil as a final project in their Scenic Painting class this past spring semester. “We’ve done this kind of thing as a final class (more)

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Congressman Virgil Goode (R-Rocky Mount) got himself into a bit of national controversy in January when he wrote in a letter to constituents, “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies I believe are necessary.” Now our man in Washington is talking immigration again and it’s gotten the attention of America’s favorite fake newsman, Jon Stewart. Well, not so much what he said, but the way he said it.

In a segment during last night’s Daily Show, part of a series of Republican soundbites expressing opposition to the new immigration reform bill, Stewart aired a clip of Goode, in his trademark Southside Virginia twang, saying, “It’s a destruction of our sovreignity.”

It seems that Goode’s voice was enough to provoke a laugh from the studio audience as a grimacing Stewart remarked, “I guess that was Leghorn-esque.” To hit home his point, an image of Looney Tunes cartoon chicken Foghorn Leghorn appeared to Stewart’s left as he mocked, “I say, I say, I say, I say, I say we gotta respect my sovereign-TAH!”

For the record, Leghorn is not Goode’s favorite animated pullet. According to the Hook’s 2002 HotSeat feature, he’s more of a Donald Duck man.

Speaking of Charlottesville’s association with famous cartoons, our fair city recently found its way into the 400th episode of The Simpsons. As reported by Waldo Jaquith, while ordering the types of toppings he wanted on his ice cream, Homer Simpson listed a series of fictitious knock-offs of famous candies, including “Charlottesville Chew,” which was pronounced CHAR-lottesville instead of the usual SHAR-lottesville, an obvious homage to the Charleston Chew.
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In addition to inspiring local fiction writers recently, local author John Grisham has inspired one local anti-war activist to begin a 5-day walk tomorrow from the Rotunda to the White House in protest against the Iraq War.

During his Sunday commencement speech at UVA, the author spoke of the “fifty-eight thousand boxes” that returned from Vietnam, and had this advice for outgoing students: “When politicians get the itch to go to war, don’t believe what they say.”

“I’ve been against this war for a long time,” says Nicholas Kimbrell, who co-founded UVA’s Students for Peace in Iraq. “And it finally just clicked while I was listening to Grisham. Anti-war people need to make sacrifices for their cause, just like soldiers do, and this is a way to make a symbolic statement myself after graduation.”

Kimbrell says he’ll begin his trek tomorrow at 9am in front of the Rotunda, and that he’ll be carrying a sign on his back that says, “Bring Our Troops Home: Memorial Day March, Charlottesville to DC.” For safety reasons, he’s let the State police know he’ll be walking up Route 29 and will be keeping his cell phone on.

In addition to Grisham, Kimbrell also credits his Mom, a civil rights activist back in the day, with inspiring him to make the march.

“I think it will be a good summation of my years in Charlottesville,” says Kimbrell.

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A classic classified scam is back, and a rising third-year UVA student trying to sublet an apartment on craigslist was bilked out of $3,500 over the weekend.

The playbook was standard: The student received a response from someone purporting to be from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, [warning sign #1] wanting to rent the apartment unseen. They sent a $5,000 check [warning sign #2, usually a fake cashier’s check] for the $1,500 rent [warning sign #3– the amount is way over the rent or sales price]. The student was asked to deposit it and write checks from her account for the overage, in this case to pay for airline tickets and storage, says Charlottesville police Officer Phil Wauple.

The young woman deposited the bogus check Saturday, May 19. She sent out checks from her account May 21, and on May 22, her bank said the check was no good and asked, “Hey, where’s our dough?” says Wauple. And by then, the victim’s checks had already been cashed. (more)

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