http://www.readthehook.com/blog From the Hook newsroom Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:37:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en New parkland (shown dark green) will be kept wild to buffer Meadow Creek. CITY MAP The County's 1,200-acre Biscuit Run has been getting all the attention lately, after its would-be developers sold it to the state for $9.8 million plus an undisclosed number of tax credits. But Albemarle is not the only ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/21/green-acres-city-grows-park-system-for-just-10000/ Despite the gray scale, experimental rock quartet Gang Gang Dance sees color in sound. PUBLICITY PHOTO Dreamy Manhattan experimental rock quartet Gang Gang Dance fits nicely in the lineage of New York blog bands like the Black Dice and definitive 2009 critical darlings Animal Collective, but just a few years ago they ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/20/interview-gang-gang-dance/ Spring shows in the form of Stonehenge Avenue daffodils, or jonquils as some like the call these floral harbingers (but technically called Narcissus), in the Belmont neighborhood. Saturday's weather will continue sunny, but clouds are expected Sunday with showers Monday as a front moves in. (photo by Don Neuland) http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/20/snap-spring-in-belmont/ Brightman arrived at UVA in December, 2004. HAWES SPENCER PHOTO; UVA PHOTO INSET Christopher Brightman, the man at the helm of UVA's investment arm--- which lost a billion dollars during the 2008 market turmoil--- has suddenly resigned for "personal reasons" unrelated to the group's operations, according to a published report. Brightman, who, a ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/20/personal-reasons-uvimco-chief-brightman-inexplicably-departs/ John Yoo was in Charlottesville to explain the torture memos-- and talk about his new book. PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE The Miller Center of Public Affairs has a long tradition of luring influential people to speak to engaged citizens, but this genteel practice degenerated on Friday, March 19, at an appearance ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/uncivil-discourse-protesters-disrupt-yoo-at-miller-center/ Rex Bowman of the Roanoke Times has the story of the German embassy's quest to bring home Jens Soering, the UVA Echols Scholar convicted of double murder in 1990. http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/new-twist-germans-press-for-soering-release/ Patricia "Pat" Jones Edgerton, daughter of eponymous foundation founder W. Alton Jones and wife of renowned UVA plastic surgeon Milton Edgerton, died March 16 at age 87. She had Alzheimer's disease, according to her obituary. For more than 20 years, she chaired the philanthropic foundation with a $400-million endowment that ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/w-alton-jones-heiress-dies/ Will Texas push Jefferson back to Monticello? FILE PHOTOS BY HAWES SPENCER Because one influential education board is swayed by Christian fundamentalists, all American students may soon receive a smaller dose of the Sage of Monticello. That's the concern, after the Texas Board of Education voted Friday, March 12, to replace Enlightenment-guided ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/kod-in-texas-why-new-textbooks-may-shun-jefferson/ John Casteen's two decades in the presidency of UVA have been honored with an invitation to serve as the 2010 Commencement speaker. According to a release, the speakers committee usually forwards a list of ten prospective speakers, but this year, they forwarded only Casteen's name. Last June, the man ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/casteen-to-be-uvas-commencement-speaker/ Charlottesville area resident and SNL Financial reporter Nick Gorski appeared on--- and nearly won--- the March 15 airing of Jeopardy! He was in the lead going in to the final round: "In 1875, she wrote, "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe." "I recognized ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/snl-worker-goes-on-jeopardy/ A February sunset over Fashion Square. FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER Two of the bolder allegations in the recent brawl-at-the-mall that temporarily shut down Charlottesville Fashion Square were that brawlers arrived ready to rumble and traveled for that purpose via public transportation. However, a schoolmate of some of the alleged fighters claims ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/brawl-overblown-teen-disputes-fashion-square-claims/ New signs, such as this one on Market Street at Lee Park, have just begun to dot the area surrounding the Downtown Mall to keep hapless visitors from circling for hours. The budget for the new "wayfinding" program--- which reaches out beyond the Mall--- reaches nearly half a million dollars. http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/snap-wheres-the-mall/ Frosh Congressman Tom Perriello spoke candidly/cynically about a Congressional tendency to spend, and that won him a headline Thursday--- "Dem Congressman: 'If You Don't Tie Our Hands, We Will Keep Stealing'..."--- on the heavily-trafficked Drudge Report. (Conservative radio host Rob Schilling takes credit for the video.) http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/19/perriello-candor-draws-attention/ Patrick Crider, 18, the former Western Albemarle High student who was arrested January 14 for allegedly threatening on Facebook to kill four other Western students, was released on a $5,000 bond March 8. As a condition of his bond, he's ordered to stay away from those students, schools, weapons, the ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/18/western-albemarle-teen-out-on-bond/ No one told Maurie Sutton her street would be no parking when she bought a lot there in 2007. PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART The neighborhood already reeling from getting declared a no plow zone in December just got another unhappy surprise when residents learned that they can no longer park at ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/18/hiking-hood-no-plow-street-now-loses-parking/ The March 17 kickoff of the Virginia Festival of the Book means more than wearing o' the green to local fiction writers: It's also when the winners of the John Grisham-judged Hook short story contest are announced. Megan Alix Fishmann, Michelle Damiani and John Davidson took home checks for third, ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/18/snap-o-the-day-and-then-there-were-3/ "Someone knows something," says Dan Harrington, pictured here with wife Gil on March 17 in front of John Paul Jones Arena. "They need to come forward." PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART Her parents desperately wish it weren't so, but they say they're convinced: Morgan Harrington suffered before she was killed. On the five ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/17/shattered-bones-harringtons-say-morgans-killer-is-violent-sadistic/ The Battle Building will transform West Main's streetscape. Odell & Associates “Building, but not sprawling” was the headline of a recent UVA Magazine story on the school’s $308 million build-a-thon this year--- in the face of a recession and UVA budget cutting. But next year one massive project will dramatically alter West ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/16/tricky-thing-battle-building-merges-with-west-main/ To some music fans, March 16 means a John Mayer concert, but to many others--- including the 40 radio station contest winners who gathered upstairs at The Sound studio on Prestion Avenue earlier in the day of the main event at John Paul Jones Arena--- its all about the opening ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/16/snap-michael-franti-in-the-corner-lounge/ So long, Larry. PHOTO COURTESY POLLSTAR John Paul Jones Arena officials announced March 16 that Jason Pedone, assistant general manager for the venue since 2007, has replaced Larry Wilson as general manager. Wilson, who has been GM since the arena opened in 2006, has taken a loftier GM position for SMG--- the ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/16/new-gm-for-jpj-wilson-exits-pedone-takes-over/ Unshoveled sidewalks like this one on Water Street were common this winter. PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE Even though snow blocked sidewalks all over town for weeks following major snowstorms in what was a record-breaking winter, no one has been convicted under Charlottesville's ordinance requiring snow removal from public sidewalks. Police declined to issue ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/16/unenforcable-unshoveled-sidewalk-cases-thrown-out/ Medical personnel attend to the victim, whose pelvis was shattered in the incident. PHOTO BY REID DAVISWORTH The monster truck emcee struck and rolled over by one of the trucks in the Friday, March 12 show at John Paul Jones Arena remained hospitalized in serious condition at UVA hospital on Tuesday, March ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/16/monster-miracle-injured-emcee-should-make-full-recovery/ Virginia Foundation for the Humanities president Rob Vaughan will not have to announce the demise of the Book Festival this year. PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities escaped a House of Delegates proposal to eliminate its state funding the same week its most widely known program, the Virginia ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/15/vfh-sliced-but-survives-state-budget/ The Philadelphia-based duo Pattern is Movement brings brawny "cabaret indie rock" to town. PUBLICITY PHOTO Two childhood friends who grew up in evangelical families--- and even attended Jesus camps--- have now placed their faith in something called "cabaret" indie rock. And they're heading to Charlottesville's Tea Bazaar fresh off a southern tour ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/15/interview-bearded-and-boisterous-philadelphia-duo-continues-pattern-of-strong-local-shows/ UVA's athletic facility known as The Park got some unwanted attention late last year when it became the reason that a man gained an additional felony charge for selling drugs too close to a school, with "school" being defined as any part of a campus, even an assemblage of ... http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/15/snap-the-park/