Charlottesville radio host and autism parent Coy Barefoot not only scored an interview with presidential candidate Barack Obama a couple of days ago. He also got the Illinois senator to elevate the plight of autistic children, now estimated at one to six per 1,000 births.

“We are desperate,” said Barefoot, “for a political leader to stand up and say, ‘We have a national crisis, and we are going to help these children.’ Are you that guy?”

“I am,” Obama replied.

Last month, Barefoot, who has an autistic six-year-old son, helped push controversial autism doubter Michael Savage off WINA radio. The five-minute interview with Obama originally aired on WINA, where Barefoot hosts an afternoon drive-time show called “Charlottesville, Right Now.”

Comments(11)

Derek Sieg
PHOTO BY JAKE MALONEY

The locally filmed Lukas Haas/January Jones vehicle, Swedish Auto, has finally gotten a release– on-demand TV through IFC Films. And even though Comcast cable doesn’t carry the Independent Film Channel, not to worry. The cable company will have Swedish Auto available on demand August 27 through October 28.

Swedish Auto, filmed here in 2005, was written and directed by Western Albemarle High grad Derek Sieg, and produced by his UVA frat brother, Tyler Davidson. After a Charlottesville premiere at the 2006 Virginia Film Festival, the movie languished and never saw a major theatrical opening.

The on-demand release through IFC’s new platform, Festival Direct, which festures indies that have been on the festival circuit, will be followed by DVDs three months later, and that’s better than straight to video, says Sieg. “I’m most excited being on the IFC label,” he says. “It’s very well-respected in the independent film world. I would prefer this over a small theatrical release then trickling out on DVD. This will give us more exposure.”

Swedish Auto made the rounds of film festivals in 2006, including the Los Angeles Film Festival. Sieg notes that of the independent movies shown there that year, only one got a theatrical release. “Just having anything released, I feel very fortunate,” he says.

Swedish star January Jones has gone on to the smokin’ hot AMC TV show, Mad Men, and Haas has appeared in several movies and last year’s Dirt, the television show starring Courtney Cox as a tabloid editor.

Reached in L.A., Sieg says he has several projects in the works, including a film he’s writing about John Brown, and a political thriller set in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

For those who want to see local scenery like Mel’s, West Main and the Lawn on the big screen, be not dismayed. Sieg doesn’t rule out a theatrical release for Swedish Auto in Charlottesville.

Comments(7)

The Cavalier Marching Band has been getting some pre-season help from members from David Letterman’s house band.

Lead trumpeter Al Chez, for instance, shown here at left chatting with Marching Band director Bill Pease, has been part of the Late Show with David Letterman for twelve years. But he’s been here all week while Letterman’s on break during the Olympics, coaching some of the now 260-strong Marching Band members. Why?

“I grew up doing marching band,” Chez said this morning in a sideline interview. “And it gave me a career.”

Pease hopes that students will be inspired by Chez, who didn’t major in music. “It’s not about a degree,” says Pease. “It’s about passion.”

Eight days from now, Chez’s bandmate Sid McGinness will give a special guitar performance during the half-time show at UVA’s first home football game, against the University of Southern California at Scott Stadium. Each fall football game, Pease notes, will feature a fresh half-time show.

#

Comments(7)

Nervous residents around Meade Park can breathe easier three days after the Daily Progress reported that a loose pit bull had attacked a woman walking on Fairway Avenue on Sunday. She was bitten, it seems, just not randomly.

“It was a false report,” says Charlottesville Animal Control Officer Bobby Durrer. “It was her own dog.”

According to Durrer, the woman, who reportedly suffered minor injuries and had said she would be receiving rabies shots, called him yesterday after she saw the story in the Progress to tell the truth. Durrer says there’s no record that her dog, a pit bull, has ever bitten anyone else. Durrer also believes it’s up-to-date on its vaccines. However, the woman, Durrer says, does have a history of allowing it to roam.

Durrer says he spent time looking for the dog up and down Fairway and Caroline avenues following the incident. Now, he says, the dog’s owner could be charged with filing a false report.

#

Comments(4)

Last Tuesday, the Board of Architectural Review approved the plan to use new 4″ x 12″ brick pavers to replace the existing 4″ x 12″ bricks as as part of the recently approved $7.5 million Downtown Mall renovation.

Just two months ago, the MMM Design Group, the Norfolk-based design firm contracted to guide the work, as well as chief city planner Jim Tolbert, had been arguing strongly against using the 4″ x 12″ bricks, saying they would not be stable when set in sand, the preferred method for laying them. Besides, said Tolbert, the 4″x 12″ bricks were uncommon, made only in a factory in Nebraska, and would be prohibitively expensive.

Tolbert and MMM recommended using 5″ x 10″ bricks, which they said would be more stable and were available locally from Old Virginia Brick, a Roanoke Valley-based company acquired in 2006 by “a private Charlottesville-based investment group that also has holdings in banking, real estate development and building materials,” according to a 2006 article in Virginia Business Magazine. Even after Mall designer Lawrence Halprin urged the City not to change the brick size, saying that the ground level pattern the bricks created established the character of the Mall, Tolbert said he’d choose the 5″ x 10″ over the 4″ x 12″ if it meant they would be stronger, more functional, and less expensive.

However, following a ground swell of criticism from preservationists and Halprin enthusiasts, who argued that this was no way to “preserve the original Halprin design,” as City Manager Gary O’Connell had promised when the project was announced earlier this year, suddenly three manufactures of the 4″ x 12″ bricks were found, one of which had even been mentioned in the Master Plan for the project as a source for the bricks. (more)

Comments(3)

In his own words, for nearly 15 years Boston Deputy Fire Chief Jay Fleming has been on a “one man mission” to change the type of smoke detectors used in American homes.

Not anymore. Last week, nearly 300,000 troops joined Fleming’s battle when the International Association of Fire Fighters became the first major American fire organization to formally endorse photoelectric smoke detectors and, in the process, to formally condemn ionization detectors, which Fleming argues are responsible for at least 10,000 fire-related deaths since 1990.

“We’re making progress!” Fleming says of the resolution– co-sponsored by Fleming’s Boston department, Local 718, and the Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont– that passed unanimously by voice vote last week at the IAFF’s annual convention in Las Vegas.

Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont president Matt Vinci is also thrilled that the resolution passed. “It’s an issue that firefighters (more)

Comments(4)

Angela Hucles won her first gold medal in 2004 in Athens.
MARCOS BRINDICCI/REUTERS

For the second time in as many Olympics, UVA alumna and former Cavalier midfielder Angela Hucles has won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. Women’s National soccer team. This morning, the Americans beat Brazil in a thrilling defensive showdown, in which neither team allowed a goal until the 98th minute, when Hucles’ teammate Carli Lloyd finally put the ball in the net to give the U.S. a 1-0 victory.

While Hucles didn’t score in this match, she does end her Beijing games with four goals in six contests, leading all scorers on the U.S. team.

The win also brings the final medal count for Team UVA to four. In addition to 2000 grad Hucles, Lindsay Shoop ‘03 won gold as a member of the U.S. women’s eight rowing team, Wyatt Allen ‘04 won a bronze as a member of the men’s eight squad, and Melanie Kok ‘07 won bronze as one half of the Canadian women’s lightweight double sculls team. At the time of this post, that’s more medals than (more)

Comments(1)

Last Tuesday night, the always ebullient developer Oliver Kuttner breathed some life into the normally staid proceedings of the Board of Architectural Review, floating an idea to “make cars disappear” on South Street.

“I want to show the City what can be done,” said Kuttner, “and make cars disappear in Charlottesville.”

No, there’s no David Blainesque magic trick involved. Kuttner simply wants to build an apartment building behind a house he owns at 226 South Street over a parking garage with a entrance that passes under the house. Since there is no room for Kuttner to put in a driveway to the rear on either side of the house, he said he wanted to “make the cars go through the house,” which would include a “traffic light,” as the under-house entrance would be one-way.

“Would the City let you do that?” BAR vice-chair Syd Knight asked about the traffic light.

“I don’t know,” said Kuttner.

“Good luck,” said Knight, chuckling.

Kuttner wasn’t seeking approval from the BAR, and said he just wanted to know if they might support such a thing before he decided to “throw a bunch of money at this.”

“The single biggest construction error I’ve made was not putting parking under the Terraces,” said Kuttner, referring to the building he developed on the corner of First and Water Streets. On that note, Kuttner said he thought that cars going underground would be the future of the Mall because “people don’t want to live without their cars.” He also called the City lot where the Farmer’s Market is held a perfect candidate for an underground parking facility.

Though some BAR members appeared to be charmed by Kuttner’s proposal, board member Brian Hogg wasn’t buying it.

“I think this is a total non-starter,” he said. “It’s just not an appropriate intervention….it is clever, but not sympathetic to the historic house.”

However, some board members appeared to be open to the idea of exploring the idea, including Eryn Brennan and Amy Gardner, who said, “I would be open to looking at something…there’s a precedent for more modern structures on Water Street.”

Expect Kuttner to return with his magic act.

Comments(2)

Commissioner Emory
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Bill Emory is possibly the only person appointed to the Planning Commission who’s ever sued the city. The Woolen Mills shutterbug and gadfly found out he’d been named to the Charlottesville Planning Commission Monday night as he watched the City Council meeting on public access channel 10. “I didn’t even get interviewed,” he says, although he concedes that he tried twice before to get on the advisory body.

Earlier this year, Emory withdrew his lawsuit against the city for a clerical error that removed a historically protected designation off most of a parcel in Woolen Mills, a botched rezoning case that came to be known as “taking by typo.”

Long an activist in Woolen Mills, he also was instrumental in getting the composting of sewage at the nearby Moore’s Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which he called “the mother of all outhouses,” moved. Earlier this year, he got the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority to commit an additional $5.2 million to contain the stink. Emory quietly supported the breaching of the Woolen Mills dam, and worked to get the old mill community listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.

Now Emory will be sitting on the other side of the table. “I really feel like it’s where the rubber meets the road,” he says, vowing to be guided by “good zoning principles.”

He takes the seat of Hosea Williams, and his four-year term starts September 1. “I go to all the meetings anyway,” says Emory. “I have a lot of respect for the people on there. I travel all over on a bike. I love this town. Charlottesville is a unique and wonderful place and could certainly use some planning.”

Comments(14)

Less than two months after an ATV accident on his Charlottesville area farm, Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore has died from unexpected complications stemming from his injuries, according to numerous internet reports. On June 30, Moore was seriously injured while riding his all terrain vehicle on his farm outside Charlottesville. Initially listed in critical condition, Moore was released from the hospital several weeks later, only to return to UVA medical center on July 21, reportedly with complications from a collapsed lung.

According to a release from the Dave Matthews Band publicist on TMZ.com, Moore died unexpectedly today in Los Angeles at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he had recently returned “to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.”

The Dave Matthews Band was scheduled to play a concert at the Staples Center in L.A. tonight. At posting time, the status of that concert is unknown.

Comments(22)

Bloomberg looks presidential to Greenies.
PHOTO COURTESY OFFICE OF NEW YORK CITY MAYOR

With all the speculation over whether Virginia would go red or blue in the November election, a ticket of a different color has crashed the party. The Independent Green Party of Virginia has secured 70,000 signatures (seven times the requisite 10,000) to put their dream presidential ticket on the ballot: New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg (I) with Texas congressman and one-time presidential hopeful Ron Paul (R) as his running-mate. The New Republic reports the campaign happened without Bloomberg’s knowledge or consent, though the CEO-turned-politician has so far refrained from doing anything to prevent others from campaigning on his behalf.

Who’s that just down the Indy Green ticket from Bloomberg and Paul? That would be Glenda “Gail for Rail” Parker, who’s making a second run for the U.S. Senate on a platform of bringing light rail transportation to the Commonwealth. In 2006, faux-conservative blowhard Stephen Colbert posited on his show The Colbert Report that Parker’s campaign was responsible for handing that year’s Senate race Jim Webb (D) by way of her catchy radio jingle.

#

Comments(1)

Adam Gottschalk’s Midnight Barbecue is an Internet hit.
PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN

UPDATE 8/25/08: Adam Gottschalk takes to the airwaves at WKAV today from 3 to 5pm on his show, newly dubbed “The 4th Quarter with Adam Gottschalk”. Next week, the show moves to the more primo drive-time slot of 4 to 6pm.

Three weeks ago when the Hook spoke with Adam Gottschalk, former UVA play-by-play guy with the Virginia Sports Network, he predicted that his next job would not be in sports. Yesterday, Gottschalk inked a deal with Monticello Media’s WKAV Sports Radio 1400, a Fox radio affiliate, and will be on the air up against his former colleagues at WINA.

“For the longest time at WINA, we didn’t consider them competition,” jokes Gottschalk about his new employer, which is one of six former Clear Channel station purchased in 2007 by Monticello Media (along with WCYK-FM 99.7, WCJZ-FM 107.5, WSUH-FM 94.1 and 102.3, WHTE-FM 101.9 and WCHV 1260 AM). “It’s the chance to do something totally starting from the ground up.”

“He’s been in this market a long time,” says his new boss, Dennis Mockler, who also was Gottschalk’s old boss when Mockler was Charlottesville Radio Group’s general manager. “He’s got an understanding of a wide variety of sports and he’s good on the air. He’s got a lot of experience and he can talk on his feet.”

Starting Monday, Gottschalk will host WKAV’s afternoon drive show, Sports Wrap, which currently runs from 3 to 5pm, although the time slot could shift, he says. “My show is not going to be all sports,” he adds. “I’ve got to (more)

Comments(1)

Angela Hucles has four goals in five Olympic matches.
MARCOS BRINDICCI/REUTERS

Prior this year’s Summer Olympics, UVA alumna Angela Hucles already had one gold medal around her neck. She was a member of the U.S. women’s soccer team that took the top prize at the Athens games in 2004. However, Hucles was mostly confined to the bench on that squad, and heading to Beijing this month, she had yet to score an Olympic goal.

Now, Hucles has four.

Two of them came yesterday in a 4-2 semifinal win over Japan, launching the American team into the gold medal final against Brazil on Thursday, August 21 at 9am EDT.

Hucles has had the hot foot as of late, scoring in three of the five games she’s played in, including the game-winner in a 1-0 victory over the Japanese in the preliminary round, and another in (more)

Comments Off

In what has recently been a hot issue, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors agreed in its public meeting Wednesday, August 13, that, contingent upon some additions to the original resolution, they will support lighting the tennis courts at Darden Towe Park.

The public meeting heard support from several tennis groups, including the Charlottesville Tennis Patrons Association, while various neighborhoods from Forest Lakes to vocal Towe neighbor Clara Belle Wheeler expressed opposition.

“Once lights are there, it’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger,” Wheeler cautioned the Board. “The city and county gave an assurance to never have lights at Darden Towe Park.”

Dave Emmitt, of a nearby subdivision, echoed that sentiment. “The community,” he said, “put trust (more)

Comments(12)

PHOTO COURTESY ALBEMARLE POLICE

The man accused of abducting his wife from the Dairy Queen in Crozet Saturday night was denied bond today in both Albemarle General District and Juvenile & Domestic Relations courts. Kevin Lee Stone, 36, of Crozet picked up six felony charges– abduction, child endangerment, malicious wounding, eluding, possession of a firearm by a felon, and use of a firearm during a felony– and a DUI when he allegedly left the ice cream spot with his wife and a gun.

A witness at Dairy Queen observed a woman being forced into a car and called 911, according to Albemarle police Sergeant Amos Chiarappa. Police arrived at 7:48pm, and while they were interviewing the person who called, the witness saw the 2002 gray Honda Accord carrying Stone, his wife, and a two-year-old child drive by.

A brief pursuit ensued, and at one point Stone momentarily lost control of the car on White Hall Road and hit an embankment. But he kept on driving, according to Chiarappa. Stone stopped on Clark Road in White Hall and was taken into custody.

He has two previous convictions for domestic assault, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Darby Lowe told a judge in juvenile court this afternoon.

County records also show that Stone has a prior conviction for grand larceny and DUI. In 1999 and 2000, he amassed six charges involving illegal hunting, including spotlighting and hunting out of season.

On a video monitor, Stone told the judge that he’d just gotten out of jail in December and was taking classes on Tuesdays that he’d like to finish. The judge said bond would be inappropriate at this time, and he scheduled a September 15 preliminary hearing. Stone has a September 11 hearing in Albemarle General District Court.

#

Comments Off

Charlottesville native Lindsay Shoop hadn’t picked up an oar until her third-year spring at UVA.
ALY SONG/REUTERS

Charlottesville’s colors may be the orange and blue of the University of Virginia, or perhaps the red brick and white trim of Monticello, but last night, native and 2002 UVA grad Lindsay Shoop added a little gold to the mix. She and her teammates on the U.S. women’s eight rowing team took the gold medal at the Olympics, with a time of 6:05.34, surpassing teams from the Netherlands, and Romania. It’s the first time the American women’s eight team has won gold since the 1988 games in Seoul, Korea, when Shoop was six years old.

Moments later, 2004 UVA alum Wyatt Allen added to UVA’s overall medal tally, when he and the rest of the American men’s eight team won the bronze medal, with a time of 5:25.34, edged out for the silver by Great Britain by 22 hundredths of a second. Canada won gold with a time of 5:23.89.

And if that weren’t enough to cheer Wahoo hearts and warm Wahoo blood, a third Cavalier ascended the medal stand yesterday. Rower and 2007 UVA grad Melanie Kok won (more)

Comments(1)

After Hours Video owner Rick Krial (right) received a $2,500 total in fines for the obscenity conviction. The jury found his employee Tinsley Embrey (left) not guilty.
PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

At the conclusion of a trial unlike any Staunton Circuit Court has ever seen, it seemed oddly fitting that the jury would come back with an equally unusual verdict. After deliberating one hour and 44 minutes, the jury in the Staunton obscenity trial found Rick Krial, owner of After Hours Video, guilty of only one of two misdemeanor counts of obscenity, deciding that the first of the two DVDs they watched— Sugar Britches— was not obscene, but the second— City Girls Extreme Gangbangs— was. For his crime, the jury fined Krial $1,000 and his company $1,500. Cashier Tinsley Embrey was found not guilty.

Krial declined comment after the jury rendered its verdict, except to say, “We’re going to place our appeal.”

Embrey told reporters that while he was happy to be exonerated of the charges against him, this was not a completely happy day.

“I’m very happy to be acquitted, but I don’t agree with the decision,” he said. “I do not agree that Rick Krial or the company are guilty.”

Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Robertson, who has received much criticism as a result of his dogged prosecution of this case, touted the ruling as a victory for “decency and morality.”

“I’m elated,” said Robertson, “that the people of the City of Staunton have spoken on behalf of their friends and neighbors and spoken out about how they feel about this stuff.”

Paul Cambria, the Buffalo-based defense attorney and former Hustler counsel representing Krial, says he’s never seen anything quite like this.

“It’s a surprise that it’s a split,” says Cambria. “I’ve never seen a verdict like this when the acts in the movies were so close in context.”

Just what was the big difference between the two movies? While (more)

Comments(7)

With Starr Hill Music Hall and the Satellite Ballroom now closed, and with the opening of the Jefferson a year away, Coran Capshaw and company have been busy trying to find a temporary space for a music hall. Project manager Kirby Hutto says they thought they had found one between Reid Super-Saver Market and the railroad tracks at 608 Preston Avenue (behind the King Lumber building, pictured left), but as he learned at a recent Planning Commission meeting, folks from the 10th and Page neighborhood were not keen on the idea.

“I have to give props to the 10th and Page neighborhood,” says Hutto. “We were surprised by (more)

Comments(5)

More than two years after music mogul Coran Capshaw bought the Jefferson Theater, major construction on the future music venue is finally scheduled to begin the last week of August.

“We’re on the verge of full bore construction,” says project manager Kirby Hutto, giving August 25 as the date that Martin Horn Inc. will set to work on the $5 million restoration project. Hutto also gives September 1, 2009, as the opening date for the venue, boldly adding, “That date is fixed in stone.”

Apparently, Capshaw’s plans for the theater have been anything but “fixed in stone” for the last few years since he bought the building from Hook editor Hawes Spencer, who ran it as a second-run movie theater for 14 years. Putting a positive spin on the time it’s taken to come up with a working design plan, Hutto says, “We’ve taken so much time to study the building, that it will help us out in the construction phase.”

According to Hutto, that construction phase will be complex, as the old theater will have to accommodate both divas and rock stars.

As previously reported in the Hook, Capshaw has partnered with the Ash Lawn Opera Company, which will help fund the project and occupy the space during the summer opera season. The other nine months of the year, Hutto says, the space will be a music hall/night club presenting between 12 and 18 shows a month. He also says the space will be available for rent and will serve the book, film, and photo festivals. (more)

Comments(4)

Without calling any witnesses, renowned obscenity defense lawyer Paul Cambria rested his case today at 9:09am in the four-day misdemeanor trial against After Hours Video owner Rick Krial and cashier Tinsley Embrey in Staunton. The jury should get their instructions at 10:30am, according to Hook reporter Lindsay Barnes, and then deliberations about whether Sugar Britches and City Girls Extreme Gangbangs are obscene will begin.

Comments(1)