Lyndon Larson has cooked at fishing lodges in Alaska, on a yacht, and now serves it up on the Downtown Mall.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Street burritos and tacos have joined the offerings out of wagons on the Downtown Mall. L’s Burrito & Juice Company moved into town today in front of Derrière de Soie, and owner Lyndon Larson promises a northern New Mexican experience not found around here, except maybe Chipotles– and which is not to be confused with Mexican.

The difference? Hatch, New Mexico, “Chile Capital of the World,” inspires Larson, who lived there for 10 years.

An achiote & Hatch green chile rub seasons the chicken burrito. The pork is slow-roasted in an ancho chile, cider and cherry marinade. And the beef is “slowly braised and perfectly seasoned,” promises the simple menu. Burritos are $6 and tacos cost $2.50 and come with marinated cabbage.

And the “juice” in its name is fresh-squished (more)

Comments(0)

Chiropractor Dolly Garnecki with patient Kayla Lisa, a 19-year-old Radford University student seeking to reverse her scoliosis through uncoventional care.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

Judy Blume’s 1973 book Deenie plunged a generation of girls into panic over scoliosis, an all-too-common spinal curvature. But some Charlottesville area girls– unlike the book’s 13-year old title character– are opting for a therapy that controversially skips the notoriously bulky back brace and, as Deenie found, the cruel taunts of classmates.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” says local chiropractor Dolly Garnecki, who denounces braces and surgery as ineffective treatments that put scoliosis sufferers, typically teenage girls, through unnecessary pain.

Kayla Lisa was 11 when her parents learned that she (more)

Comments(4)

Three years after Sprint-Nextel spun it off to focus on wireless, landline carrier Embarq has been purchased by CenturyTel in an $11.6 billion deal. The two carriers will become CenturyLink, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, and serve 7.5 million customers in 33 states, according to a release. (And we remember the days when the local carrier was called Centel!)

Comments(1)

Have you seen this man?
PHOTO COURTESY ALBEMARLE POLICE

Police are looking for a man who went on an $8,000 Nikon-camera-buying spree June 12 using stolen credit cards lifted earlier at Farmington Country Club.

The cards were used at Wal-Mart, Sears, Ritz Camera, Finish Line, and at Best Buy, where police retrieved security video. Police describe the person in the two released images as a white male between 5′4″ and 5′6″, about 150 pounds, and between 40 and 50 years old.

“Within a couple of hours of the theft,” says Farmington GM Phil Keister, “$8,000 was charged before the victim even realized the theft.”

After a call to the credit card company, the camera equipment spree was halted.

“The credit card company shut them down,” says Keister of the cards, noting that they were presented at a couple of additional locations.

The country club had hosted a golf tournament that day for members and guests. Is it possible the thief is a member?

“It’s entirely possible,” says Kiester. “The only people we can eliminate are women.”

It appears to Keister, however, to be at least a two-man job because no one who has seen the pictures recalls seeing that individual at Farmington.

“We looked at security photos from Best Buy,” says Kiester. “I would guess the person who stole the cards is not the person in the video.”

Keister says he thinks the thief is someone who would feel comfortable walking around the Farmington locker room and notes theft at the club is “pretty unusual.”

In 2002, Farmington locker rooms made the news when a naked man allegedly strolled into the women’s locker room and pretended it was an accident, the same M.O. that allegedly was used across the street at Boar’s Head Sports Club.

–last updated 11:31am June 29

Comments(0)

I-64 shooter Slade Woodson listens to testimony in court Tuesday.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Explosive testimony Tuesday afternoon rocked the sentencing hearing of Slade Woodson, the young man whose shooting spree terrorized a Central Virginia highway a year ago and who pleaded guilty in March.

“He told me he did stupid things when he got drunk,” testified Matthew Kurdziolek, a former jail roommate of Woodson, the teen whose shooting spree shut down Interstate 64 and Albemarle County schools a year ago. “He told me he wanted to kill somebody that night.”

The Albemarle Circuit Court was quiet as the convict who shared a room with Woodson at Middle River Regional Jail described what he allegedly learned about the evening of March 26-27, when Woodson, then 19, and Brandon Dawson, 15, fired into five cars on I-64, injuring two people, and into two occupied residences in Albemarle, as well as one in Waynesboro.

The two even had a plan, according to the inmate, that exploited (more)

Comments(8)

The old stone Albemarle County Jail stands behind an 18-foot brick wall that surrounds the structure.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Now that the $20 million renovation of the old Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court is almost finished, another historic building in need of repair stands in sharp contrast to the new construction, boxed in as it is by a brand new parking garage: the old Albemarle County Jail. Although the J&DR court project was a joint venture between the County and the City, the price tag did not include any work on the old jail, and now it’s up to the County to figure out what to do with it.

According to Marc Wagner at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the deteriorating jail is of far more historical significance than the nearby J&DR court house.

“The courthouse is interesting,” he says, ” but the jail is really unusual.” Indeed, with its huge block stone walls and thin barred windows, it looks like something out of the Middle Ages. But believe it or not, the City was still using it to hold prisoners in the 1970s.

“I used the wall as a backstop for hitting tennis balls when I was taking YMCA lessons at the McIntire Tennis Courts, since reborn as a skateboard park,” says Antoinette Roades, a local preservationist and historian, whose family lived right next to the jail in the 1960s. “If I hit a wild shot over the wall, a prisoner would throw it back.”

The Albemarle County Jail No. 5, as it was originally called, was built by George Wallace Spooner in 1876. Spooner, who also happened to be city manager, also built the Mount Zion Baptist Church on Ridge Street and was tapped to rebuild the Rotunda after it burned in 1895, a job he would eventually lose to architect Stanford White. In 1886, Spooner added the brick jailer’s house that stands today.

Clearly, Spooner wanted his jail to send a message. In addition to three-foot thick stone walls, reinforced steel doors, and an 18-foot brick wall surrounding the prison yard, the jail also featured an iron “cage” on the ground floor (more)

Comments(14)

Author Carol Lemons and Illustrator Holly Smith will be signing copies of their book Matisse and the Boy Who Loved to Draw at the New Dominion Bookshop on Saturday, June 20 from 10am to Noon. There will be art activities for children

Press release: Matisse and the Boy Who Loved to Draw tells the story of artist Henri Matisse in his later years as he created his “cut-outs” or collage paintings and as he designed the small Dominican Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France. A young boy named John Paul who also wants to become an artist, befriends Matisse and embarks on an adventure.

John Paul wants to draw everything he sees in his l940’s South of France world.  When he discovers that a famous artist, Henri Matisse, lives in the hotel where his mother works, John Paul comes up with creative ideas for befriending the busy artist.  But will he get to see the great artist’s final masterpiece?

Ms. Smith and Ms. Lemons traveled to southern France to research and develop the book. Carol Lemon, a former kindergarten teacher, has written a text that is historically accurate and set in Nice and Vence, France. The two teachers used the book in the lower school classrooms at the Collegiate School to introduce Matisse to young students and present art projects in the Matisse style for them to do.

Comments(0)

Pianist Emanuel Ax, recently praised by the New York Times, heads to The Paramount in November.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

The Paramount Theater released its fall 2009 season lineup April 20 to a downtown arts community that is still reeling from the larger impact of the economic decline. Despite a growing general trend of slashing arts from a typical family budget, the Paramount remains optimistic about its upcoming season which pares prices and features some lesser-knowns.

“Of course we’re worried about the economy, the Jane and John Does not having enough money to give back to the arts,” general manager Mary Beth Aungier says. “As a not-for-profit organization, we are of course very worried. The first thing that is cut out is the arts.”

The season will include such niche acts as Patty Loveless (September) and Rhonda Vincent (November) for the country lovers, Complexions Contemporary Ballet (January) for the various local dance organizations, and Emanuel Ax (November) for classical music patrons. Even with the threat of lower ticket sales, Aungier and marketing coordinator Katharine Vlcek look forward to high attendance throughout the fall.

“I think Patty Loveless will do really well— we’ve already started getting calls a month ago for her,” Aungier says. “Emanuel Ax just performed at Carnegie Hall with YoYo Ma, and literally the review in the New York Times was (more)

Comments(7)

Michael McGurk, “Curvaceous.”

It’s no secret that I like my art “new.” Give me artists who wrestle with ideas, who rework the expected into something startling, or who experiment with surprising media. When it comes to more traditional fare, such as figure studies and still lifes, more often than not I glaze over and take a pass (yawning as I go).

But occasionally, the sheer competence of an artist yanks me out of my been-there-seen-that slouch of apathy. Which is the case with Michael McGurk, whose oil pastel works are on display at the New Dominion Bookshop.

The 12 realistic still lifes— each 12 x 17” and presented in a gilt frame— break no new ground in terms of content, but they are nevertheless compelling, thanks to McGurk’s accomplished hand and passion for color. In “Curvaceous,” a simple tabletop composition of vegetables and fruit becomes lush via McGurk’s deft approach to pigment.

At the show’s First Friday opening, I asked the artist about the background of  “Curvaceous,” wondering if he began with black paper. He said, “No,” and excitedly explained he combined blue, brown, and black to create the velvety color. McGurk’s enthusiasm for manipulating his medium to create precise hues and effects is what elevates his otherwise mundane images out of the ordinary. An eggplant becomes subtly more saturated and an acorn squash more luminous than in real life.

Such skill only results from years of practice. Thousands of strokes, some evident, some not, power each painting. Another central component of McGurk’s work is his ability to convey light. Whether creating a convincing shadow from violet with a tinge of royal blue or using a bit of green and lilac to capture a reflection in a martini glass, McGurk revels in confronting lighting challenges.

In “Screw Can,” a label-less coffee can with a red plastic lid stands near an array of tools. McGurk uses purple and white (and, no doubt, other colors) to persuade the viewer of the circular indentations on the metal can. Meanwhile, the primary-colored handles of the tools— blue wire snips, a yellow box cutter, and a red vise— are not as straightforward as they initially seem. Yet the overall result is satisfying, with the right-to-left diagonal of the composition— sloping from the can across a funnel to the tabletop tools— carrying the eye through the composition.

Willfully not cutting-edge, McGurk relies on color and old-school skills to turn heads.

Michael McGurk’s exhibition of pastel paintings is on view at New Dominion Bookshop through April 29. 404 East Main St. on the Downtown Mall. 295-2552.

Comments Off

Painting by Anne de Latour Hopper.

Art Upstairs shows the paintings of Anne de Latour Hopper in the exhibition, “Real or Faux.” A First Friday opening, featuring live music by harpist Virginia Schweninger, is scheduled for March 6, 6-8:30pm. 112 W. Main St. (York Place) on the Downtown Mall. 923-9300.

Comments Off