Construction on UVA’s new $12.7 million music rehearsal hall will begin in January 2010.
Rendering by William Rawn Associates

Artists may starve for their art, but UVA’s Arts Grounds project doesn’t appear to be starving for cash.

Another piece of the ambitious project took shape last week, as UVA’s Board of Visitors gathered in the Board Room of the Rotunda to approve the design and $12.7 million budget for a new music building across from Ruffin Hall, the $25.9 million, 42,000-square-foot “village of workshops” for the studio arts that was completed last year, along with a new $12 million, 540-space parking garage.

As if that weren’t enough, a $2 million renovation of the UVA Art Museum was just completed, $8.4 million was spent renovating Fayerweather Hall, home to the art history program, and there are plans for a new (more)

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Lara Blake and Ashley Florence eat your delusions in Brian Wimer’s Buddhist horror movie Mantra.
Photo by Sallah Baloch

Local audiences will finally get a taste of Mantra, a Buddhist-themed horror movie, and Eat Me: A Zombie Musical featuring original compositions by Lance Brenner of The Falsies fame. Both films by Charlottesville director Brian Wimer brought home awards from the the Fright Night Film Fest in August.

In Mantra, the director transformed peaceful 4-H Camp Albemarle into a den of mental terror after a guru dies.

“It’s mind boggling,” says 22-year-old Lara Blake who played a spectral character based on Kali, the Hindu goodess of time and death.

Blake says the multi-armed Kali was reduced to just her own two arms due to budget constraints but that the resulting feature film still lets the theme of internal demons run wild.

“It’s like a David Lynch movie,” says Blake. “You have to see it for yourself to figure it out.”

Both films will screen at Vinegar Hill Theatre at 220 W. Market Street. Mantra will screen Wednesday, September 30 at 9pm (with an after party at the Tea Bazaar), Saturday, September 26th at noon, and Saturday, October 31 at midnight. Eat Me will screen Sunday, October 18 at 9pm (with an after party with live music from the Falsies, location TBA) and again on Friday, October 30 at midnight.

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UVA’s Lambeth Field area was the site of the aggressive fox attacks on August 26.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

It turns out that the little grey fox captured and sacrified for a rabies test died in vain, as the test that claimed its life appears, according to published statements from a health official, unable to provide a clean bill of health.

“It was a decision that was not really made rationally,” says local wildlife author Marlene Condon. “Just because it was the first fox to get into that cage doesn’t mean you can condemn to death without having good reason to do so.”

Statements by Dr. Lilian Peake, director of the state Health Department’s Thomas Jefferson District, indeed suggest that if the test were to help the bite victims or provide firm evidence about the absence of rabies, than it was as doomed as the captured animal.

Peake was quoted in a Daily Progress story after the fox’s death as saying that (more)

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Halsey Minor speaks in happier times.
FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN

Halsey Minor says he was merely trying to warn Bank of America that it was getting a bad deal when it agreed to buy troubled investment bank Merrill Lynch, the firm that’s now audaciously demanding that Minor return the $24 million or so that he borrowed. But in the spiral of litigation that followed that warning, he’s now been hit with a court order that would prevent him from harassing parties to the litigation and those who would try to collect (more)

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The old Mall clock was a familiar, if innaccurate, timepiece on a kiosk, which the City discarded.
FILE PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

“Hey, meet you at the clock,” could be a phrase on the lips of Downtown Mall visitors next year, as the city recently announced plans to sponsor a design contest for a $25,000 urban timepiece that would honor Charlottesville’s relationship with its three sister cities.

“The idea for a clock came from research and visits to great urban spaces around the country and world,” says Neighborhood Development chief Jim Tolbert. “Many have a clock as a key feature, and usually there is some theme to the clock.”

It’s not the first time the city has sponsored a design contest for something that may or may not get built. Last time, it was a $150,000 design contest to generate ideas for the development of the Water Street parking lots, a contest that attracted firms from as far away as Spain, but has so far convinced no developers to take the plunge.

This time the contest is open to (more)

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“Somebody’s gonna make a good living out of doing a company and offering this service,” said Fenwick Friday.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

After years of talk, someone has finally taken action on dredging a water body in Albemarle County. Only it wasn’t a County citizen; it was Charlottesville resident and City Council candidate Bob Fenwick.

“This is not rocket science,” said Fenwick September 4, on the shore of Loch Leigh, a private lake in the West Leigh subdivision. “This is engineering, and this is a basic application of mechanical equipment,” he said.

A former member of the Army Corps of Engineers, the folks who oversee many of the world’s biggest dredging operations, Fenwick has turned his sights to what might be the world’s (more)

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Despite healthy-looking fur, the grey fox captured on Wednesday was euthanized.

After UVA’s recent bout of small mammalian terror, in which two students were bitten and a sweater was swiped, both the university and Charlottesville community can safely say they’ve seen an animal reined in as officials announced the capture and subsequent euthanization of a fox Wednesday. But was it justice? The capture has some people questioning the actions as rash and cruel, and wondering if it was the right fox— or merely an innocent animal unjustly handed a death sentence.

“It’s a shame to kill this animal to make it look like the authorities are doing something to protect the public,” says Crozet nature writer Marlene Condon, who was horrified (more)

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