Blue Ridge Outdoors owner Blake DeMaso says hard times for business are great times for the outdoors.
FILE PHOTO BY LINCOLN BARBOUR

Times are tough for publications these days. Just ask Creative Loafing, the alt-newspaper chain that filed for bankruptcy last month, or read any number of articles on declining circulation among even the biggest names in news.

But all this doom and gloom doesn’t have Blue Ridge Outdoors owner Blake DeMaso down. In fact, he’s so optimistic he’s launching a new monthly magazine to cover outdoor life in Colorado. Based in Boulder, Elevation Outdoors will hit stands throughout Colorado in February, and DeMaso is confident the time is right.

“Historically, outdoor markets do well during recession times,” says DeMaso. “People tend to go outside instead of taking bigger vacations, they’ll go hiking or biking.” Because Elevation will, like Blue Ridge Outdoors, be a free publication, “we’re well positioned (more)

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UVA president John Casteen has sat on the Wachovia board since 2001.
PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

On Monday, September 29, the day banking giant Wachovia was in the depths of its monumental stock free-fall and then-pending sale to Citigroup, UVA president and company board member John Casteen was cutting the ribbon on a new dorm at his university. When the Hook asked if he had anything to say about the malaise of the bank he’s paid to govern, his response was brief.

“It’s very sad,” Casteen said, “but you’ll have to talk to them.”

At that point, before the Hook could ask a follow-up, an aide said that Casteen “really has to go.”

This day a year ago, Wachovia stock traded for $52.27 per share. When the market opened this morning, the stock’s value had plummeted to $5.74. According to one analyst, board members like Casteen— who earn six-figure sums for their board work— can’t completely wash their hands of this nosedive.

“The board failed,” says SNL Financial banking analyst Sebastian Hindman, “because (more)

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Obama campaign volunteer Adrienne Ghaly (left) registered voters outside the Lucky 7 on Market Street this morning. Fortunately, Michelle McSherrey was already registered. “I’m voting on November 4,” she says.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

Today at 5pm is the deadline for voter registration in Virginia, and the Obama campaign has volunteers positioned at convenience and grocery stores throughout town.

The effort has paid off, says volunteer Adrienne Ghaly, who in the last two days has assisted 17 voters– some new who were unregistered; some who simply needed to update their addresses. This morning, she was camped in front of the Lucky 7 convenience store on Market Street, but, she says, not all stores have been welcoming.

Management at Reid Super Save Market on Preston Avenue has asked several volunteers to leave the property, says Ghaly, who says the Reid’s manager kicked her off the property yesterday.

Reid Super Save Market is the closest grocery store to several primarily African American neighborhoods, including 10th and Page and Starr Hill.

“I am shocked,” Ghaly says, “that he would take the community’s money and not allow people to enfranchise that community to vote.”

But Reid’s manager Charlie Wood says that’s not the case– he doesn’t mind voter registration as long as its nonpartisan.

“They’re wearing a campaign button,” he says of the Obama volunteers. Wood says (more)

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Can’t get right indeed! Wrecker driver Chris Hening, who rear-ended a Hook reporter’s car today.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Here at the Hook we’re not big believers in karma, but when a Cavalier Wrecker truck, formerly Lethal Wrecker, rear-ends the car of a Hook reporter, we have to wonder. Over the years, the newsroom has reported on the towing company numerous times, including when they overcharged and when their drivers have been repeatedly indicted for reckless driving. (For a collection of Lethal Wrecker stories, click here.) Not surprisingly, the company changed its name to Cavalier Wrecker last year, though the owner of the wrecker in today’s accident was listed as Lethal Wrecker in the police accident report.

Fortunately, Hook reporter Lindsay Barnes and the two other drivers involved were uninjured at the time of the accident, though a two-month-old baby in one of the cars required some observation by paramedics on the scene.

According to Barnes, he was driving along Emmet Street South, right in front of the UVA tennis courts, when he slowed down for traffic. Suddenly, Cavalier Wrecker driver Chris Hening rear-ended him with enough force to (more)

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And men aren’t excited about this. Why?
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

If the reaction of Hook newsroom staffers is any indication, the news that a Sephora store is opening in Fashion Square Mall on October 17 will be greeted by men and women in markedly different ways.

“Oh my God!” squealed one female reporter (okay, this one) after Fed Ex delivered a large-ish black box bearing the black and white logo of the make-up emporium whose closest current location is Richmond’s Regency Square. Indeed, the bribe kit (ahem) press kit contained a bevy of beauty products that each XX-chromosomed staffer pored over with glee. Purity “high foaming facial cleanser” anyone? How ’bout “Buxom Lips” lip gloss? Bliss brand “triple oxygen instant energizing mask”?

Whoo-hoo!

Reporters with the XY chromosome’s response?

“Uh, what is wrong with you?”

Men.

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Jay-Z’s set will be the first time a non-student promoter has ever brought a hip hop show to John Paul Jones Arena. In 2007, UVA’s student-run University Programs Council booked rapper Common to play an April 11 show at the JPJ.
PHOTO BY NRK P3/FLICKR

For Charlottesville’s hip-hop fans, life just got a little less hard knock. For the first time ever, a non-student promoter has booked the John Paul Jones Arena for a hip-hop show, and the christening will come from none other than the best-selling rapper of all-time, Jay-Z. Opening will be Atlanta MC T.I., who has sold 6.65 million albums of his own. The show will take place Saturday, October 25 at 8pm. Tickets go on sale this Friday, October 3 at noon. No word yet on how much cheese fans will have to spend to see the show.

Since making his debut in 1996, the man born as Shawn Carter but otherwise known as Jigga, Hova, the CEO of Hip Hop, or just plain Jay has sold more than 26 million copies of his albums in the United States alone— more than Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Buffett, Nirvana, or Frank Sinatra. That’s not counting the other 24 million records he’s sold worldwide.

Jay-Z’s beginnings in life may not have been auspicious (born into Brooklyn’s Marcy projects, abandoned by his father, shot his brother at age 12, dropped out of high school) but (more)

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