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Schnitzel king: Gerstl returns to his roots
Published on Oct 2nd, 2003
0 comments In a world of fusion cuisine and halogen-illuminated sushi bars, one local restaurant has just gotten a blast from its past. Literally. Ludwig's Schnitzelhouse has returned to its Schnitzelroots. New...
Channeling Faulkner: Sperry Marine scribe takes prize
Published on Sep 25th, 2003
0 comments FACETIME- Channeling Faulkner: Sperry Marine scribe takes prize What does William Faulkner's confounding prose have in common with a user's guide for navigation software? Aside from some arcane...
Jack in the box: You can't keep Smith down
Published on Sep 18th, 2003
0 comments Five years ago, Jack Smith owned a web design company and considered himself in good company. Now, however, the dot-com landscape has changed, and Smith is a rarity. "I'm kind of the last man...
Girl, interrupted: Hoffman: 'I was just too young'
Published on Sep 11th, 2003
0 comments The lip rings are gone. So are the dreadlocks, although her hair is Parisian black again following a blonde whirl. At 26, musician and songwriter Lauren Hoffman has returned to her native...
Something's Stu-ing: Rifkin gives good restaurant
Published on Sep 11th, 2003
0 comments On Sunday nights, legions of TV watchers tune in to The Restaurant, the reality TV show that follows the efforts of Rocco Despirito as he launches his latest hip Manhattan restaurant. Stu Rifkin,...
Belmont life: filmmakers shoot for the hip
Published on Sep 4th, 2003
0 comments Who would think that the characters passing by a Belmont porch on any random summer evening could rival the characters in the street scene of a town as famously wacky as San Francisco? Mark Edwards...
Bauer's trimmers: Give her your tired, exploited
Published on Aug 28th, 2003
0 comments Here's how naïve Mary Bauer was at age 21: "I thought people went to law school because they wanted to work for justice." Now older and wiser, Bauer still hasn't succumbed to cynicism about her...
Father Mulcahy: New pastor speaks out
Published on Aug 28th, 2003
0 comments Needless to say, the last two years have been trying times for many Roman Catholics. Endless reports of priests involved in sexual abuse and the ensuing cover-up by the Church hierarchy have caused a...
Spinning gold: World is Slezak's loom
Published on Aug 14th, 2003
0 comments Suzanne Zito Slezak is not the Brothers Grimm image that one imagines when they think of the traditional art of spinning– a wrinkled old woman bent over a wheel churning out thread from flax....
Early riser: Anne Williams makes mornings musical
Published on Jul 31st, 2003
0 comments If Anne Williams decides to play the lottery, it's likely that nine and one will be among her picks. Those numbers have been significant in her life since her days as a student at Williams College in...
Ask Emmett: Boaz knows whereof he speaks
Published on Jul 17th, 2003
0 comments Who the heck is Emmett Boaz? That's the question on every lip this week, after the July 10 issue of the Hook catapulted the Greene County Renaissance man to prominence as Central Virginia's resident...
All heart: Children's author loves her work
Published on Jun 26th, 2003
0 comments "To live as a children's author, you have to do multiple things," Alice Leonhardt says, adding "unless you make it big. Unless you're J.K. Rowling in your castle." Clearly it's not as easy as the...
24 years: And 69 movies for young filmmaker
Published on Jun 19th, 2003
0 comments John Johnson looks like a normal 24-year-old, munching cheese nachos in a local Mexican food joint. But underneath his mild demeanor is a driven man. In his short life Johnson has filmed 69 movies,...
Ryal Thomas: more than just a happy stripper
Published on Jun 12th, 2003
0 comments Have a chipped coffee table? Ryal Thomas can help. Have a chip on your shoulder? Ryal Thomas is still your man. Thomas is a renaissance man of sorts, with a Belmont-based furniture restoration...
Take two: Starsia savors victory
Published on Jun 5th, 2003
0 comments Being national champions makes almost anything bearable. So Dom Starsia, head coach of the NCAA lacrosse champion Virginia Cavaliers, says his traditional celebratory soaking by his ecstatic team...
Allard's anguish: Illuminating the 'untouchables'
Published on May 29th, 2003
0 comments Bill Allard spent a morning with a proud man slathered in human excrement. The man, resigned to his life as sewer-cleaner, was born as one of India's "untouchables," the subject of Allard's...
Toshi's imports: The wedding planner-- from Japan
Published on May 22nd, 2003
0 comments Charlottesville has long topped "best of" lists as a vacation destination or place to live, but Toshi Sato has won Charlottesville unexpected acclaim: as a wedding hot spot for Japanese couples....
Stone man: Toru Oba rocks
Published on May 15th, 2003
0 comments Toru Oba's fingers are short and thick. At each fingertip there's a wide, square fingernail, and at the joint just above where thumb meets wrist, a round callous like a quarter set on his hand. He's...
Gauging the guerillas: Braun explores Colombia's bad boys
Published on May 8th, 2003
0 comments "Almost all of us who grew up in the '60s," says UVA professor Herbert Braun, "took it for granted that the guerillas were the good guys." Decades later, many Latin intellectuals still admire Manuel...
On the ball: Revived rugby club lures "old boys"
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments Thirty years ago, there was no Scott Stadium to house tens of thousands of loyal UVA football fans. But that was okay, because tens of thousands of University of Virginia football fans didn't exist....
Lady Jane: Portrait of a peacenik
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments Jane Foster lives with her husband of 50 years in a white cottage with yellow trim, nestled in a woody grove. You'd expect her to be on the local neighborhood association to preserve this serene...
Alchemy: Brown trades metal for classics
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments The audiences for classical guitarist Greg Brown may have difficulty imagining Brown as a metal band rocker. But he's proud to defend his metal history. "I learned more through metal music than I did...
Foot in door: Cordell's skill fills his classes
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments Garden Ecology isn't full; nor is Trees of Central Virginia, although Culture and Romance of Western Europe has been canceled. Introduction to Screenwriting, on the other hand, is maxed out with a...
Uncorporate: Social worker as rapper
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments At 14, Rob Hull was already something of a handful. He had a very-late-night radio show on WTJU that caused so much trouble that he's not sure longtime station boss Chuck Taylor would appreciate his...
Big Ray: He and his Kats go nationwide
Published on Apr 3rd, 2003
0 comments Ray Caddell, owner of Charlottesville's Century 21 Real Estate Office, leads a double life. Most days, he's the "hard-working nice guy" of the realty world. But sometimes, when called on, Caddell and...
Rebel with a pen: Author leaves the jungle
Published on Mar 27th, 2003
0 comments Bob Anderson is a spirit of the rain forest, and the only rule he bows to is the law of the jungle. "I had nothing but contempt for people who are into discipline. I would do outrageous things and...
Anarchist of Love: The conviction of Andrew Holden
Published on Mar 20th, 2003
0 comments Imagine this: A self-proclaimed anarchist chains himself to an Omni Hotel elevator to protest the corporation's failure to pay its employees a "living wage." Police arrest him. A few months later,...
Sweet story: May's book preserves traditions
Published on Mar 20th, 2003
0 comments Like many folk traditions, the process of making sorghum molasses the "old fashioned way" is labor intensive. It takes the whole community to harvest the cane, press the thin green juice from the...
Saving the city: Novelist has hopes for his craft
Published on Mar 13th, 2003
0 comments  Here's more evidence that Charlottesville is a powerful literary incubator. Peter Skinner­ actor, painter, sculptor, and heir to the largest fortune ever made in Washington state until the...
Designing fellow: Sam Johnson takes Museum helm
Published on Mar 6th, 2003
0 comments Mister Rogers. It's the first thing I thought of when I first laid eyes on the new exhibit and outreach coordinator at the Virginia Discovery Museum– and that was well before the icon of...