Charlottesville Breaking News
Prose flows: Gatsby's over the top, but book shines through
Publicity photoBy RICHARD ROEPER
Given the wretched and sometimes wonderful excesses of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge, not to mention a trailer that gave the impression Luhrmann's interpretation of The Great Gatsby would be one extended anachronistic music video, it turns out Luhrmann's Gatsby is first and foremost F. Scott Fitzgerald's Gatsby.
Fitzgerald's heartbreakingly poetic prose wins out. Sometimes his work is literally right there on the screen– deceptively simple strings of a dozen words or so, as powerful and relevant now as they were nearly a century ago.
This is not to say the 2013 version of The Great Gatsby isn't a cinematic hot mess most of the time. It's big and bold and brassy, filmed in crisp tones dominated by blues and reds (and, of course, a certain green light), and it fills every second of its 142-minute running time with images designed to take your breath away, whether you're marveling at the overhead shots of Manhattan circa 1922 or appreci...
Freshening the Forester: Wife's car lacks inner beauty
Publicity photoDear Tom and Ray:
My wife has a 1999 Subaru Forester with low mileage (85,000), but the interior is not so good. She lets the kids eat in her car, and, as such, the seats are getting ruined, the floor mats are gone, the cup holders are broken, and the list goes on. I'd like to replace the broken items in her car and replace the seats and the carpet, but I don't know where to get those items at reasonable prices. Of course, the local dealer can get some of those parts, but at a nice premium, which I'd like to avoid. Any ideas where can I find OEM parts or replacement interior parts at reasonable prices? – Jaime
RAY: Sure. At a junkyard. Also known these days by its society name, the "automotive recycling center."
TOM: There are situations where a car will get in a wreck of some kind, and the car is totaled but the interior is still fine.
RAY: Or the car is sent to the junkyard for some kind of catastrophic engine failure, even though the cup holders are still working like they're brand new.
TOM: In fact, you even can buy an entire interior for your car at a junkyard if you want to. Or, if you're looking for a hobby, take the engine out of yours and put it into one of those junkers!
RAY: Most junkyards are connected el...
Un-carceration: Prosecutor candidate Deaton talks jail reform
"We need to stop the prison-industrial system and start something new," says Charlottesville commonwealth's attorney candidate Steve Deaton. " I think we can make much better use of our money."photo by dave mcnairSteven B. Deaton is gunning for the Democratic nomination for Charlottesville commonwealth's attorney– again– and on a rainy Wednesday, May 8, under the protection of the Pavilion's roof, he made his case.
"We have filled our jails and prisons with nonviolent offenders–it's time to reverse that trend," said Deaton, speaking directly about race in the matter by recommending the 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, which points out that the United States incarcerates 25 percent of the prisoners in the world, and that the majority of those in jail are African-American men.Deaton is challenging current Commonwealth's Attorney Warner D. "Dave" Chapman, who unseated Deaton in 1993. Deaton says there's a need to scale down prison growth, an issue he says Chapman hasn't taken up.
"Some people don't want to talk about this," said Deaton, who is now in private practice. "We need to stop the prison-industrial system and start something new. I think we can make much better use of our money."
As Deaton pointed out, the state has built a new $100-million prison in Grayson County, despite declining crime rates locally and nationally.
"The goal of the criminal justice system," said Deaton "should not be to fill up as many jail spaces as we can, but to see how many can be left empty. And we should strive to see how many jails and prisons are...
Brick fix
Roger VoisinetNearly a year after the Main Street Arena General Manager sent the city a letter complaining about the condition of the crumbling bricks along the building's east side, the walkway has at last been repaired by the city. But who's responsible for paying for the repair is up for dispute.
"We're waiting for the final figure and will be sending a bill to the Arena," says Deputy City Attorney Richard Harris, who expected to receive that information from the Parks and Recreation Department this week.
Arena owner Mark Brown maintains that the City is responsible for maintaining that stretch of bricks and promises to put up a fight.
Stay tuned...
Death to Death: June turn-out could help
Earl Washington, shown here in Charlottesville in 2006 after a jury awarded him $2.25 million.File photo by Hawes Spencer
Joseph Jesse Dick is one of the Norfolk FourVIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; U.S
Eric Wilson is one of the Norfolk Four.VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; U.SBy David Swanson
Most of the world's governments no longer use the death penalty. Among wealthy nations there is one exception remaining. The United States is among the top five killers in the world. Also in the top five: the recently "liberated" Iraq.
But most of the United States' 50 states no longer use the death penalty. There are 18 states that have abolished it– six in this new millennium, including Maryland earlier this month. Thirty-one states haven't used the death penalty in the past five years, 26 in the past 10 years, 17 in the past 40 years or more. A handful of Southern states– with Texas in the lead– do most of the killing.
The progress is slow and painful. Mississippi is right now having trouble deciding whether to spare a man just because he might be innocent. Maryland has perversely left five people waiting to be killed while banning the death penalty for any future cases. In Virginia, we hold second place behind Texas and continue to kill.
Virginia electrocuted a man named Robert Gleason in January. Since then, Texas has killed four men, Ohio two, and Florida, Oklahoma, and Georgia one each– all by lethal injection. Since 1973, there have been 141 exonerations from death row nationwide, including an innocent Virginian who came within days of being killed.
If you're convicted of killing a white person in Virginia, you're over three times more likely to receive the deat...
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