Tommy Jr., the robotic car set to compete for the $2 million prize in an upcoming Defense Department competition in California, can be tracked on the internet on his way to the big race (he just passed through Little Rock). Presumably, Tommy– who got a Starr Hill send-off on October 6– is currently driven by a human as he utilizes the Interstate Highway system. That’ll change in California!

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The anonymous tip came in late last week. Big news. Orange stripes on K-Mart. “They’re painting it as a Home Depot,” said the tipster. “It looks like they’re sneaking it in.”

Considering Home Depot’s history with Albemarle County, a City of Charlottesville location like K-Mart’s could conceivably be considered ideal. But what of the blue light specials? What of Martha Stewart paints, Kathy Ireland pantsuits, Jaclyn Smith casuals?

A trip to Hydraulic Road was in order. Snooping in the parking lot, a Hook reporter confirmed orange stripes had indeed been painted– seemingly sloppily– on the front (more)

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Only four years after opening its doors, Charlottesville’s multi-million dollar recording facility Crystalphonic Recording Studio has declared bankruptcy and will sell off much of its contents at an auction on Thursday, October 11, according to a classified ad that’s been running in the Daily Progress. Reached for comment, Crystalphonic CEO Dave Spence would say only, “I am not at liberty to say anything.”

It’s a state of affairs that’s a far cry from the fanfare that accompanied the studio’s 2003 opening in the old Monticello Dairy building, when it was purported to be on par with the best studios in the world, but in a setting far calmer than the hustle and bustle of New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville. “People live there for the industry, but they hate being there,” explained Crystalphonic founder Kevin McNoldy in 2002 adding that many a musician with whom he had worked had said of Charlottesville, “Man, if I could live there and work, I would.”

But as of 2005, that steady stream of rock stars coming to town had yet to materialize (save recording sessions by jam rockers O.A.R. and former-next-big-thing Blue Merle) and well-established recording studios on both coasts were closing their doors as at-home recording technology got cheaper. So, in an attempt to stay ahead of the curve, Crystalphonic made the switch from analog to digital recording. At that time, McNoldy said of the transition, “When things get low in the industry, that’s when change can really happen, and you should invest in the things you believe in because it can only go up from there.”

As he made those comments, McNoldy was sitting in his new home in Florida, and intended to work with the studio exclusively via the Internet. At the time, he didn’t see a problem with such an arrangement. “In the same amount of time it would take to send a file upstairs to downstairs,” he explained, “I can send a file from here to Virginia.”

“My involvement with the studio ended shortly thereafter,” McNoldy tells the Hook today. “I’m afraid I can’t offer much help to you.”

Jack Gray had worked as Crystalphonic’s chief engineer until March, and moved to Atlanta soon afterward to pursue greener recording pastures. “I love Charlottesville, but any career move I could have made would have been a lateral move,” he says.

Gray expressed shock at learning of Crystalphonic’s demise and says that, based on his experience, the studio’s financial problems weren’t due to a lack of clients. “I was working 90-hour weeks there,” he says. “It’s not like I was sitting around with nothing to do.”

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In a feat that would impress even those venues with many more resources, the Gravity Lounge appears to be booked solid for the next few months. The small upstart club has found an eclectic mix of local, regional, and national artists to stay busy through November, and includes everything from an academically minded klezmer ensemble (10/22) to Old School Freight Train’s first local show in ages (10/25).

On Monday nights through October, Gravity will partner with UVA to host a world music series in which performers conduct an educational program for students during the day and then follow up with an evening concert open to the public. Performers include locals like Beleza Brasil (10/8) as well as more exotic visitors: Burkina Electric (10/15), for example, is an ensemble that blends traditional West African music with (more)

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Charlottesville-based Crutchfield is ranked the #1 online electronics store, beating Amazon, Costco, Circuit City, and BestBuy, in the November issue of Consumer Reports. Although Amazon and others offered lower prices, Crutchfield got top marks for customer service and ease of returns (the latter providing us locals with groovy deals on returned merch). The survey was based on 33,171 purchases of audio and visual equipment– including TVs, stereos, and camcorders– from January 2006 to June 2007.

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Nearly two months ago, Todd Hawkins found out that his employer could no longer fund mortgages and was belly up, leaving him and his wife– and eight other local employees– out of jobs. This week, he reports he’s back in the mortgage biz and will be opening a local branch for IndyMac Bank.

“I’m looking for office space and the people I want,” says an upbeat Hawkins, who shot to fame in the 1990s as a sportscaster for NBC29.
Unlike his previous lending employer, American Home Mortgage, a former national powerhouse that laid off thousands and declared bankruptcy August 6, the new company is not totally dependent on mortgages. IndyMac is a savings and loan.

“Charlottesville is one of the places they wanted a footprint,” says Hawkins, noting that IndyMac previously didn’t do retail loans. “They’re the leading provider of reverse mortgages. With all the baby boomers retiring,” he explains, “it’s tailored to people who have their houses paid for or have a lot of equity in them.”

Less successful in recovering from the mortgage morass are homeowners caught in the squeeze that’s made mortgage money hard to find– and buyers sometimes rarer still. For instance, Charlottesvillian Maurie Sutton found out about the time of the American Home collapse that the buyers for her condo backed out of their deal two weeks before closing. That prevented Sutton from closing on a new house she had under construction, and she still doesn’t have a contract on her condo.

“They don’t tell you in loan officer school how to tell a client, ‘Sorry, we’re no longer funding,’” says Hawkins.

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