Tonight is still occuring as I’m typing this. We’re all on the RV. And by ALL I mean Framing Hanley, Endeverafter, some of Trapt and their crew, and some of Fuel’s crew. There are TWO tour buses on this tour. And they choose my RV to party. SAMRT. (yes, I know that’s misspelled). Tonight was crazy and ridiculous and stupid and fun. Tonight’s our last night out with Trapt/Fuel/Endeverafter. Everyone gets attached. They make friends. I don’t like last nights.

We drove straight in from State College, PA last night. Stopped by the bank, got lost, even witnessed a car accident right in front of us. AND we made it on time! And The Color Fred played upstairs from us at the same venue tonight! We talked to Fred, who used to be in Taking Back Sunday. That wa snuts. Not a whole lot of people at the show dressed up tonight. It was kind of disappointing. Also, I stood out like an ass, seeing as I was wearing a big yellow banana costume. But people tonight we’re all about talking to me and hugging me and all kinds of crap that never happens. Must have been alchohol? I met a bunch of people tonight! If you’re reading this and I wrote my website on your arm or typed it into your phone, leave a comment! I can’t remember everyone’s names. OR if you have pictures/video of me from last night! Email em to me! brian.stowell@gmail.com

Except for Kari. She has a pink Sidekick and a really hot Alice from Alice in Wonderland costume:

& Michael from Endeverafter

click the pictures for larger views!

Oh, and I guess that I should mention that I went on stage and danced in my banana suit during All In Your Hands AND Hear Me Now. I videoed both, but my camera killed the All In Your Hands file which was probably way cooler. But instead you get to see a very shaky, very epileptic, very hilarious video of Hear Me Now where I act like an ass and everyone else tried to disassemble Chris’s drum kit. Everyone LOL with me:

Yeah….yeah. Sometimes I’m epic and made of win and hilarious and I love my band to death. Tonight was fun. And now we have two days to drive to Baton Rouge, LA. And we’re stopping in Nashville along the way to pick up our new soundguy/tour manager as well as some gear and supplies. It’s nearly 1500 miles. And it’s going to be stupid…so please someone, anyone…leave comments, add me on myspace, add me on AIM, keep me entertained for the next two days.

OH AND CHECK THIS SHIZZ. Not only was I featured on Buzznet yesterday under “Featured Member Media”, but Miss Breesays loves me enough to make me FEATURED PHOTO OF THE DAY!!!!! ON HALLOWEEN, at that!!!!! Holy shnikes!!

click for a larger view!

This time she featured one of the Halloween macros I made this morning cause I was bored and addicted to photoshop. This is nuts!! Maybe she’ll have some influence in that Buzznet contest I entered.

This blog has been very user inclusive.

It’s officially November, bitches. FIFTEEN DAYS TILL I TURN 21.

Mitchell Wade and the boys at MZM have agreed to pay FEC fines of $1 million as punishment for their illegal campaign contributions to our very own Rep. Virgil Goode and former Rep. Katharine Harris.

The fine is for reimbursing employees at his firm MZM for $78,000 in contributions they made to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and ex-Rep. Katharine Harris (R-FL). Another MZM exec, Richard Berglund, got hit with a $42,000 fine. Both of them have already pled guilty to criminal charges for the scheme. Berglund was sentenced earlier this year to a year of probation and $5,000 in fines. Wade continues to cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation of his bribery activities, recently testifying against fellow contractor Brent Wilkes at his trial.

Although Jim King, formerly an aide to Michael Hayden when the CIA chief ran the National Security Agency, was also under investigation by the FEC for his contributions at MZM, the FEC did not to fine him.

The FEC makes a point of saying that it uncovered no evidence that either Goode or Harris knew about the scheme. Wade wooed both of them in order to get earmarks for MZM facilities. In both cases, he was successful -- only Harris bungled the job and failed to land the $10 million she was seeking. Goode requested a total of $9 million for the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center in his Virginia district, which MZM was hired to run. Unfortunately, the center folded after Wade pled guilty, sticking the town, Martinsville, with the bill.

http://www.tpmmuckra... 

I have been feeling wishy-washy about my relationship to technology and that all came to a head tonight when I broke my cell phone by dropping it by accident.

The thing is, I've broken three cell phone in the past and each time I've been really upset at the thought of losing my cell phone, but besides feeling momentarily inconvenienced, I wasn't upset this time. Partly it's because circumstances are different now; I have a landline and I can get a pay-as-you-go cell phone for emergencies. Partly it's because I just don't want a cell phone anymore, for the same reason I've been having trouble with the internet lately.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with cell phones or the internet. In fact I think the internet in particular has brought a lot of amazing things into my life and does a lot of good. Lately, however, I've been really frustrated with aspects of the internet or maybe just how I use it.

I think I may use this kind of technology to spend less time alone with myself and my thoughts. When I am always reading about other people's opinions, I never really have time to form my own. It's the same with the cell phone. Instead of walking by myself and thinking or waiting and thinking, I can just call some one up and chat. There are good aspects to both of these things, of course, I stay informed (or get misinformed) with the internet and I reach out to my friends with my phone. But it seems like (and I don't think I'm alone in this) I am unable to use the internet or my cell phone in moderation or for the "right" reasons.

Besides stunting my ability to form my own opinion, I think the internet has had other negative effects on me. When I read blog comments or visit youtube and look at the comments, I inevitably end up angry or depressed. Some days, being on the internet can be like watching the failure of communication over and over again. I do not understand why strangers feel compelled to try to convince one another that the other person is wrong. I do not understand why I feel compelled to do this. I would not feel compelled to do this if someone on the bus started telling me about their conservative view points, so why do I feel the need to shove my viewpoint down someone else's throat on the internet?

I am not very good at wrapping things up, so I thought I would just end with a thought from Radiant Mind: Essential Buddhist Teachings and Texts. Jon Kabat-Zinn writes,

Where to start? Why not with your own mind? After all, it is the instrument through which all our thoughts and feelings, impulses and perceptions are translated into actions in teh world. When you stop outward activity for some time and practice being still, right there, in that moment, with that decision to sit, you are already breaking the flow of old karma and creating an entirely new and healthier karma. Herein lies the root of change, the turning point of a life lived.

Jamlai Garden has everything (seriously, everything) you need for floral design…and lots of it. Vases and pots in all colors, sizes and materials, ribbons, wreaths, garlands, fillers,ornaments, etc. They have a great selection of holiday (yes, get ready for Christmas!) accessories right now as well.

Identifying and communicating a clear vision is one of the most important functions a business leader can perform. All business leaders should understand the basic elements of visioning and all marketers should know how to communicate that vision to all stakeholders and how to leverage it in brand strategies.

Creating a clear and effective vision delivers many benefits to the business. Not only does a clear, shared vision help define the values of the company and its employees, but it also helps guide the behavior of all employees. A strong vision also leads to productivity and efficiency.

Companies and organizations everywhere invest enormous resources in marketing and selling their products and services. Many of these organizations have a strong sense of who they are and why people should want to conduct business with them. Sadly, however, many organizations fail to have a strong sense of their own guiding principles and cannot clearly articulate their vision or communicate unique aspects of their brands in a way that compels customers and prospects to develop emotional attachments and buy their products and services.

Linking the vision and values of the organization to the brand promises made by the organization can propel the value of those brands into a whole new realm of business performance.

The following two articles expand.

Crash course in visioning

Linking vision & values to brands

Mitchell Wade must pay $1M in FEC fines for straw contributions to Reps. Virgil Goode and Katherine Harris. Notably, the FEC says that they have seen no evidence that Goode knew the contributions were illegal, though due to the FEC’s famously limited investigative powers that can be said to be true only within their scope.

Right this second, I am so furious I can barely breathe. Why is it that our families are really the only people who have the ability to achieve a mortal blow to the very fiber of our souls? My brother, the righteous one, who we have always made allowances for - he's just absent minded, he just is really busy, he just doesn't understand our reality, blah blah blah - has with one comment become the very face of evil to me. There are no excuses left for that kind of blind ignorance and lack of honor of our family's loyalty, even within its dysfunction.

I'm not quite sure I will ever get over it...

Saw this on a car in my dentist's parking lot yesterday:

"If you don't like gay marriage, blame straight people. They're the ones who keep having gay babies."

Classic.

Six of the candidates for the Charlottesville School Board spoke at a forum at Charlottesville High School on Monday night. They answered questions about their ideals, the school budget, the focus on standardized assessments, and making school exciting for both students and teachers. The questions were posed by Charlottesville High School Seniors, and organized and moderated by CHS Government teacher Jim Daly.

Questions posed to the candidates:
1. How will you deal with the achievement gap among the different elementary schools in Charlottesville?
2. Is it possible for 100% of kids to pass the SOLs?
3. What would you do to make schools more environmentally friendly?
4. How is the administration chosen/hired, and how do you decide who is qualified?
5. How do you plan to appropriate funds towards teachers?
6. Do you plan on increasing teacher salaries? By how much?
7. If you could change something in the community to benefit the schools, what would it be?
8. What would you do to decrease the dropout rate?
9. What could an effective board member do to make change?
10. Book Buddies [a reading program for 1st graders] has been losing steam. What would you do to support the Book Buddies program?

Candidates that appeared were Colette Blount, Grant Brownrigg, Llezelle Dugger, Kathleen Galvin, Sean McCord, and Lynette Meynig.

I apologize for the quality of the audio here - the venue was being cleaned during the forum, and the microphone setup was less than ideal. The entirety of the forum is provided here, however, for those that do not mind the background noise.

Albemarle Place’s developers say the project is still underway, but the folks who have loudly touted every little feature of the development now won’t say a word about it. They claim they’ll start construction next year.

i am a very unhappy girl right now because i have a horrible case of poison ivy. i have awful itchy red welts on the back of my thighs, calves, behind my knees, on my arms, chest. . . i have not done anything in the yard in weeks (months?) so i know that it must be from my cat. he's been extra snuggly lately, which is generally irresistible. but i have seen him wading around in patches of poison ivy, and with the recent rainfall, he has probably been dripping with urushiol, the volatile oil in the plant that causes the awful reaction in those that are sensitive to it (that would be ME).

when i'm busy -- walking, cooking, cleaning the house -- i'm less likely to feel so tortured. but as soon as i sit down -- to read, to work, to rest -- i find myself strung out in a frenzy of itchy annoyance.

typing helps. when my hands are typing, they can't be itching.

and so, on to other topics.

The Waynesboro News Virginian has, very unusually, endorsed Libertarian state senate candidate Arim Sime. They selected him over the incumbent Republican and the Democratic challenger.

Crazy amounts of people. Plenty of dogs. Lots of candy. There were juice boxes and books offered as well. A few groups were selling glow sticks to raise money for something. Our local delegate, Rob Bell, had his own door stoop for handing out candy to the kids. Interesting campaigning on his part. We saw neighbors, friends, and a family who lives in Boston. That’s a long trip for Trick or Treating.

The Dude: Walter, what is the point? Look, we all know who is at fault here, what the fuck are you talking about?
Walter Sobchak: Huh? No, what the fuck are you… I’m not… We’re talking about unchecked aggression here, dude.
Donny: What the fuck is he talking about?
The Dude: My rug.
Walter Sobchak: Forget it, Donny, you’re out of your element!
The Dude: Walter, the chinaman who peed on my rug, I can’t go give him a bill, so what the fuck are you talking about?
Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you talking about? The chinaman is not the issue here, Dude. I’m talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT… Also, Dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
The Dude: Walter, this isn’t a guy who built the fucking railroads here. This is a guy…
Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you talking about?
The Dude: Walter, he peed on my rug!
Donny: He peed on the Dude’s rug.
Walter Sobchak: Donny you’re out of your element! Dude, the Chinaman is not the issue here!

I know that I should never read things on the Daily Kos? Why? Not because I can’t deal with opinions that conflict with mine. No. Because the writers demonstrate that they have intelligence and that they absolutely refuse to use it. And I’m Nobrainer?

Case in point, this post: Doing what Detroit says is impossible.

The short run down is that some high school drop out mechanic is doubling gas mileage with off-the-shelf parts. This gets Kos all worked up.

Remember — Detroit tells us it’s impossible to increase gas mileage without taking a hit on horsepower. Yet here’s Goodwin — with an eight-grade education — able to design motors that blow the doors off the conventional (and obviously bullshit) wisdom.

The problem with Detroit isn’t the laws of physics, it’s the fact that a guy who never even went to high school can do things — with stock parts — that Detroit’s auto executives and their armies of engineers claim is impossible. Good ol’ American know-how and ingenuity is alive and well, just not where we need it.

These two quotes tell us a lot.

For one, it isn’t just Detroit who says some of these things are impossible. The Germans aren’t designing these things. Neither are the Japanese. I’m really fucking sick of Americans who blame all of the problems of the auto-industry solely on Detroit. I no longer have a particular love for the Big 3, but let’s realize that many of the trends in the industry are global and not attributable to Detroit.

And looky here, Kos says that Goodwin is designing motors, but then says that Detroit is selling the damn motors, which of course means that Detroit, in this case GM, is actually designing, building, and assembling the motors (actually engines). Goodwin isn’t designing motors or engines. He’s just assembling his own drive trains. That’s a huge fucking difference.

For another thing, Kos doesn’t even get into any of the technical details. I can think of only 2 reasons. Either he/she/it has no concept of the details and is wholly out of his/her/its element (which one can believe based on the point I made in the preceding paragraph), or he/she/it is intentionally omitting information to mislead. In other words, Kos is not someone you should be reading, at least with respect to energy and energy policy, and probably not ever.

So what are the technical details? First, the guy is basically swapping out the gasoline engines in Hummers with diesel engines. And those would be Detroit’s diesel engines (not to be confused with Detroit Diesel engine, Detroit Diesel being a specific company). That’s the major step. He’s just putting in diesel engines. That’s it. Although he goes on and makes some other modifications. He does add electric motors and makes hybrids. That’s great. But guess what? GM has been marketing and selling (very poorly) hybrids for years. Other modifications include adding hydrogen and/or natural gas to the fuel mixture. This last point is important, and is often one used by no-good liars and/or no-good idiots. They substitute some other fuel that isn’t diesel or gasoline and then go on and on about their “miles per gallon” without hardly mentioning all the other energy required to get to that final MPG calculation. These people are usually also the ones who think that everyone should use only ethanol or biodiesel without taking it account where all that biofuel would have to come from.

And keep in mind, too, that this guy is basically making a few workshop-quality vehicles. There is a huge difference between something that works for several thousand miles for a mechanic who can fix the vehicle at any time and something that will be reliable for at least a hundred-thousand miles. Maybe Goodwin’s designs are robust. Or maybe they’re not.

You know what they say: if it sounds to good to be true, idiots will demand it and politicians will promise to deliver it.

Belmont is hands-down the best trick or treating neighborhood in Charlottesville. Lots of fun decorated houses--some people put on quite a show. Loved the "dead" guy crawling through the leaves on Belmont Ave. The strobe light really made him look unearthly.
Here's our house:

We got a decent number of trick or treaters this year, although the family that was driving house to house in their minivan skipped us. I guess our long driveway is too much of a hike. That is so lame.

Off to party at the neighbors.

you may remember how much i have enjoyed halloweens past. (other doozies include the year i was a pencil and the year i was a fish tank. i am afraid i do not have digital pictures of those years. alas. b/c they were good stuff. as you would expect from someone who has made a ladybug costume out of a child's sled, a permanent marker, and some rope, and who has weaseled her way into a costume designed for those under 70 pounds).


anyways. i was mucho worried about halloween this year b/c i did not have any candy, but i also did not feel like staying late at work. but i did not want the children to knock on my door and think i was a horrible person for not having candy for them. (as a side note, the last time i was in DC, i was made very upset on halloween by all the teenage hoodlums showing up, sans costume, at my door and complaining about my candy. little bastards.) anyways. i literally spent an hour with all the lights out in the front of my apartment and hiding in my bedroom, lest the children knock on my door and think me a terrible person when i broke their little hearts.

only then i remembered! i had candy!

leftover penis pops from lexi's bachelorette party!

just the kind of tasty delicious treat i'm sure any parent would be pleased for their child to receive on halloween!

our first CONGRATULATIONS to lexi and aaron, who got married this past weekend and are currently escaping the rigors of law firm life in paris on their honeymoon. huzzah for lexi and aaron! wishing you years and years and years and years of joy and happiness together!

and a further WHAT WHAT to lexi for her rousing rendition of "don't stop believing" at her own wedding. awesome.

our second congratulations to the thousand odd now-lawyers who managed to pass the bar and make the trek out to richmond on monday to be sworn in by the VA supreme court.
it was not much of a to-do, but for those of you who are interested, here is the virginia supreme court.

This weekend is another edition of the Virginia Film Festival. The theme this year is family, which is fitting for us with our daughter's first birthday fast approaching. I'm hoping to catch Dirty Dancing this Saturday, but at the very least we'll get out to the Downtown Mall for people (and hopefully, celebrity) watching. Hope to see you there!

November 1, 2007

The newspaper reports that we are not, by a long shot, out of the woods with respect to water supplies, in spite of the four inches of rain we got last week. And we are not alone. At Chesapeake Climate Action Network conference held at Clark Hall last weekend, it was reported that 100 water systems in North Carolina and Tennessee have less than 100 days of water available for their customers. More alarming is that the Naval Postgraduate School, which has been studying the rate of loss of sea ice at the North Pole for many decades, is predicting that by 2013, there will be no summer sea ice at all. And, that as the polar ice shrinks, the jet stream and the moisture it holds are pulled north, which is exactly what we’ve seen this summer and fall.

So on this crisp, bright Halloween Day, I drive up to the Sugar Hollow Reservoir to see for myself. Noontime, weekday, it is quiet up as I pull into the parking area at the top of the dam. The water mirrors the soft changing colors of the turning trees in the headwaters above. The reservoir itself is with rimmed with dry, hard clay and rock. According to the Water & Sewer Authority’s online record, it is down 12.2 feet. Below the dam, a stout hose is spewing a wash of water into the shallow pool below, a small concession to the Moormans River and the ecology of downstream needs.

I walk down through a grove of pines and hickory, the hardened brown leaves tapping out a rhythm on the bark as they wave in the slight breeze. Past the trees, I sit down in the sloping intertidal zone, between the line of “lots of water” and “not enough.” The reservoir is at 86% capacity, but the view from here does not look so encouraging.

Others have been here before me. A large rounded boulder protruding from the slope next to me has a flattened top and must have been a tempting target, for it is strewn with broken glass from shattered beer bottles. Gold metal tabs from bait cans glint in the high midday sun. I feel like I am witness to the barrens that will be left behind when drought forces masses of us to live in other places or, possibly, to live in other ways. At the water’s edge, stubs of tree trunks emerge from the water, testament to the staying power of the anaerobic environment, preserved as they have been since 1947 when the dam was built and the reservoir filled the valley.

The longer view is more reassuring. Across the reservoir, the soft tree line slopes towards the mountains, along the course of the South Fork of the Moormans River. The wind’s fetch over the reservoir makes it look like the water is flowing back upriver. A lone bird sits on the elbow of a tree limb bent up and out of the water. As it turns its head, I see a patch of light gray that reminds me of cormorant, but it’s too far to see. High in the noontime sky, the waning moon sits above the Blue Ridge. A raven calls from a ridge beyond.

I have been struggling to find my own core of optimism since attending this weekend’s conference. All the feedback loops -- atmospheric, hydrologic, ecological – forces that help maintain life in a delicate but dynamic equilibrium on this planet -- are now presenting themselves in ways that have been mostly underestimated with consequences that are unavoidably stark. Even a modest sea level rise will inundate 3000 miles of shoreline in the Chesapeake Bay region, impacting all the major cities along the fall the line and hundreds of thousands of people.

Across the reservoir, I see the former high water line, incised into the bank and scribed across a large boulder with a dark line of weeds that divides the upper and lower halves as though a mirror reflection. Like the glass half empty, it reminds me of the dry times ahead. But maybe the other half is what I cannot see, but can feel as sure as I am this human body warmed by the sun and touched by the light breeze. This half is the hope, vision, resolve, and commitment that we are all being called to bring forth and contribute. May this reservoir always be sufficiently full.

I took the time this evening to read the City election guide I received in the mail from cover to cover. What a G R E A T service to the community - a big shout out to the folks at Charlottesville Tomorrow! Please read your own copy (or find it online) to get a good feel for each candidate and then V O T E next Tuesday.

Statements that jumped off the page to me (one for each candidate, to be fair):
David Brown
Q: What do you see as the primary responsibilities of City Council?
A: "One is setting policy and providing direction to the City...But secondly and just as importantly, is being sort of the conduit between staff and the public. I think that - sometimes I think people feel inhibited from bothering City Council when they have a problem or an issue or they think there's a neighborhood issue or a neighborhood problem or something they think needs to be addressed and they're inhibited from contacting City Council. I actually feel like that that's our big role, a big role for us..."
Comment: I watch City Council meetings and I don't see a whole lot of inhibited residents coming to speak, do you??? If you do not FIRST ask residents if they've taken their concern to the appropriate City staffers, then the message residents get is that endruns around staff are the way to get things done in the City. The clear message you send is that your staffers must not be competent or attentive enough to handle resident's concerns directly without your assistance. Is it any wonder that other candidates talk about City Council micro-managing? Sounds incredibly disfunctional to me!!

Holly Edwards
Q: What are your overall transportation priorities for the City of Charlottesville?
A: "...the bottom line, I think, is that the goal should be to revolutionize the transportation system. Reduce the barriers for people that do have cars and increase the incentives. For example, sometimes the scheduling can be a disincentive for people. Create pedestrian pathways, and I like the sound of having biking boulevards and to create commuter lanes."
Comment: AMEN.....bring on the revolution!

Barbara Haskins
Q: What do you see as the primary responsibilites of City Council?
A: "It's sort of an obvious thing that we have disparate constituencies in the city and so City Council is supposed to represent all of them...I think the tension and the responsibility for City Council on the one hand is to do this right and to trust their advisors. On the other hand, though - and this is the subtle part and the judgment part - there're also dialectical forces of business as usual, protecting sacred cows, protecting turf, and so there are going to be recommendations that appear that in fact are not so much based on expert opinion as inertia or turf protection, so City Council has to somehow have the collective wisdom, or the emergent wisdom, to figure out when it's one and when it's the other, because they're very, very different and you end up wasting a lot of money for the latter but not for the former..."
Comment: Very sage analysis of how things really operate.

Satyendra Huja
Q: What are your overall transportation priorities for the City of Charlottesville?
A: "My most important priority is to improve the transit system...another thing I also support is a streetcar on the corridor from downtown to the [Route] 29 North through the University and Barracks Road, because I think it will provide a good way for high-density corridor development."
Comment: You get props from me for understanding that the streetcar is primarily a catalyst for denser development and secondarily a cool transit mode.

Peter Kleeman
Q: What is your top priority for action by City Council if you are elected?
A: "I think we really need to refocus. City Council needs to look inward and say, 'What is our appropriate role in guiding the City?' We really need to, I think, take on that role of being the board of directors, redefining what it is that City Council should be considering, how it brings issues forward, how it spends its time, basically, and how much it will delegate to professional staff...City Council has recently been evaluating how well a particular project fits our vaguely defined comprehensive plan...Now clearly, council has a role in that. But I think it really needs to take those conversations as a way of refocusing what the guidelines are for the Planning Commission or the Board of Architectural Review and say we shouldn't have to be reviewing each and every one of these things. We should be setting better guidelines. All the people that we appoint or hire to do the primary decison making in those areas and then come forward and defend why it is that this is a good idea and if there's no good reason to the contrary, I believe council needs to have the confidence that the people that they hire and they appoint are doing a professional job; and if they're not, they could be replaced. But if they are doing a professional job, their judgment should be taken into serious account."
Comment: Sounds like leading through empowerment to me, good for all parties involved.

So, there appears to be some strange goings-on at an abandoned house near my Grandfather’s place in Buena Vista, Va. Pumpkins have been appearing, moving around, and disappearing, black cats prowling, and Ravens flying overhead - all in the weeks immediately preceding Halloween. Well, my Grandfather, being the inquisitive one, has challenged the family to solve the mystery and report our findings. Theresa and I, having consulted UVa’s foremost paranormal expert Dr. Spookenstien and researching the history of Buena Vista, wrote this solution:

THE VIRGINIA PUMPKIN WITCH
Randal and Theresa Miller

Daniel Hartson is usually a very obedient student. But after attending Elder Cottle’s Eternal Marriage class at Southern Virginia University, he has become desperate to get married. So desperate, in fact, that all the girls at his school have become weary of his multiple advances and he cannot find anyone to accompany him to the harvest ball. Undeterred, Daniel checks out a book on the dark arts from SVU’s library, and goes about learning a spell that will allow him to summon the spirit of one of SVU’s former students, so that he may take her to the ball.

Sally Crumpkin was the heir to the Virginia’s largest pumpkin empire, Crumpkin Pumpkins. She was a buxom young lady with curly orange hair and a friendly smile who attended Southern Seminary (SVU’s predecessor) for almost a year before her mysterious disappearance in 1907. Of the school’s many activities, Sally enjoyed most the croquet matches she played with her friends, which was the very activity was doing the last time anyone ever saw her. During that fateful match, her friend struck her ball and sent it rolling down a hill and in a dark thicket of trees. Sally entered the forest after it.

The Buena Vista Witch was the town’s most feared resident since she first arrived in 1897. After a full 10 years of terrorizing the neighborhood, she concocted a plan to gain immortality. When she was ready to cast her immortality spell, she set up her cauldron in a dark thicket of trees, added various ingredient (including one large pumpkin) to the brew, and begun chatting. The spell was nearly complete when a small red ball entered her sanctuary, followed by a beautiful young redhead. The commotion proved disastrous: the witch mispronounced a critical part of the incantation, which altered the spell. Both the Witch’s and Sally’s spirit became trapped in the pumpkin forever.

Daniel Hartson carefully reads aloud the words from his book, keeping in his mind the image of Sally Crumpkin, whose painting he saw in the school lobby. As he finished the spell, smoke filled his room and the sky above SVU darkens considerably. Brilliant flashes of lightening are the only illumination seen for some time. Daniel faints from the smoke and his classmates run out of their dorms in a panic. When he finally awakes, the school had calmed down. Daniel was disappointed to see in his room, not a beautiful girl, but a large and ominous pumpkin.

Little did Daniel know, he had succeeded in summoning summoned Sally Crumpkin. Her spirit, along with the Buena Vista Witch’s, is inside the pumpkin that had appeared in his dorm. The BV Witch, who had already subdued Sally’s spirit, immediately used her magic to overcome Daniel’s will. Under her influence, he took the pumpkin and moved into the abandoned house that was once occupied by his foe. Once there, BV Witch began to gather her strength for All Hallows Eve, when she will escape from her prison. Meanwhile, because of Daniel and Sally’s mutual captivity, they are able to communicate and soon fall in love. If only there was some brave soul who could defeat the Witch and free the lovers from her spell before it is too late.

The End

Band of Horses played a terrific show at the Satellite Ballroom Tuesday night. All the comparisons to fellow Northwest bands The Shins and Built to Spill are accurate, with shiny up-tempo guitars and plenty of time-signature changes. Just like the studio albums, the vocals were reverb-drenched but the instruments sounded rather different. I didn’t recognize a few tunes until the singing started. The set included most of the just-released album Cease to Exist, and a lot of songs from 2006’s excellent Everything, All the Time. The band seemed really relaxed and despite a few flubs they had a good time. I’m looking forward to their next visit to C’ville.

The revelation of the evening was opening act The Drones, from Melbourne, Australia. They came on and from the first song just slayed! I thought they sounded like a louder, heavier version of Pink Floyd, maybe because the singer’s voice was reminiscent of Roger Waters’ spluttering rage on The Wall and The Final Cut. Their sharply-dressed lead guitarist coaxed a variety of sounds from his vintage guitar (a Fender Telecaster?) with music that ranged from psychedelic-tinged to U2-like harmonies to driving proto-punk rhythms. The one constant was the crashing intensity that went into every song. I could feel my clothes vibrating during their set and in hindsight earplugs would have been a brilliant idea - my ears are still ringing as I type this. The Drones are definitely worth checking out, either live or via download.

As a sidenote, one of the songs on the PA between sets was AC/DC’s “Let Me Put My Love Into You Babe”. In their heyday in the early 80’s, did any band do a better job of following the rock n’ roll playbook to perfection, creating note-perfect, head-bobbing, foot-tapping, crotch-grabbing rawk anthems? They descended into parody in the 90’s but damn those guys could blow it up.

Videos after the break…

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The Albemarle County Planning Commission has voted 5-2 to recommend rejection of a rezoning that would further expand the Glenmore community. The applicant has requested several parcels of land southeast of the existing Glenmore development be rezoned as Planned Residential Development.  KG Associates seeks to build an additional 110 homes  on the property.

The item was first reviewed at a public hearing on August 21, 2007. While the Commission recommended approval at that meeting, a second hearing had to be held because a discrepancy was found in the legal advertisement. One of the tax parcel numbers had been omitted from the ad, and others were incorrect.   
After the first public hearing, the Planning Commission made three specific recommendations:

• the applicant should make cash proffer contributions  and or construct affordable units
• the applicant should  amend the plan to show a pedestrian connection
• the applicant should proffer an area for a greenway

County Planner Elaine Echols said the recommendation of staff was to approve the rezoning if the developer met those recommendations. But, at the October 30 public hearing, the applicant had not  made the first two changes, though Echols said she had been talking to the developer’s representative, Don Franco, about the cash  proffers. 

“There were changes to the proffers, but there were not changes to the plan,” Echols told the Commission. “But the proffers were just changed in some ways to make it clear what they were proffering and certainly to provide the greenway information.”

The applicant’s representative, Don Franco, told the Commission that the requested changes to the plan were graphical in nature,   and that he would be taking up the affordable housing proffers issue when the item goes before the Board of Supervisors on November 14. The developer wants to base the affordable housing contribution on 76 units, and feels that a credit should be granted for environmentally-sensitive design.

Planning Commissioner Eric Strucko (Samuel Miller) said he could not support the rezoning because he was concerned about the extra density in the location, which is within the County’s growth area. “Given the fact that we don’t have rural preservation policies in place, I cannot support this,” he said. He also said he was opposed to the applicant’s request for any credits.

Commission Chair Marcia Joseph (At-Large) said she was disappointed that nothing was changed on the plan.  “I feel as if it doesn’t really matter what we say or what kind of approval or what kind of recommendations we give to the Board,” she said.  “We needed all 110 units within the proffers.”

Assistant County Attorney Greg Kamptner said the applicant wants the chance to explain why they feel they need a credit to the Board, and that’s why they’ve not made the change.

Commissioners Cal Morris (Rivanna) and Duane Zobrist (White Hall) voted for approval, while Commissioners Joseph, Strucko, Bill Edgerton (Jack Jouett),  Pete Craddock (Scottsville) and Jon Cannon (Rio) voted against.

Another expansion at Glenmore, the Livengood parcel, was approved earlier this month.

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OAKLEIGH FARM

The Commission also recommended rejection of a rezoning of 8.82 acres of land off of West Rio Road from R-6 the Neighborhood Model District. The owner of the property, George Ray, wants to build a mixed-use community called Oakleigh Farm that would feature 109 housing units arranged as well as 28,000 square feet of commercial retail space.

Two of the buildings fronting Rio Road would have the commercial space on the first level, with residences located on upper floors. Behind that, the development would open up into a series of multi-family units arranged around a grove of trees, as well as two single family cottages. The property is bordered by the Berkmar Crossing, Heritage Hall and a business called the Garden Spot. Fifty-three percent of the project would be either open space or some other amenity, according to the applicant’s attorney, Valerie Long.

County Planner Claudette Grant told the Commission the proposal meets with most of the principles of the Neighborhood Model, and that the applicant will preserve 39 existing mature trees.  However, she also listed several factors that are unfavorable to rezoning. For instance, she said the impacts on public facilities are not appropriately offset through proffers, a buffer with Heritage Hall has not been finalized, as well as several issues with the plan identified by the Architectural  Review Board. Grant said the applicant has agreed to resolve the issues and is working with staff.

There are no affordable housing provisions in the plan, but Grant said the developer may change this before it goes to the Board.  If not, Oakleigh may pay an additional cash proffer to meet the County’s affordable housing.

Long said the applicant is requesting proffer credits based on two provisions in the County’s recently adopted cash proffer policy.  First, she said the policy allows states that the Board of Supervisors “has the discretion to give credit for existing lot yields if the application provides substantial upgrade over current design development standards.”  Second, she says the policy allows for credit to be given “if there are unique circumstances about a project that mitigates the development’s impact on public facilities.”

Long said Oakleigh  qualifies for both of those credits because it would build a mixed-use community in Neighborhood Model, and because the County will receive tax revenue as a result of the commercial space.  The developer could build between 52 and 78 residences by-right, and Long estimates that the project will generate $ 65,000 per year in tax revenues. She asked the Commission to consider granting a proffer credit of $325,000 based on five years.

Commissioner Pete Craddock said he thought it was up to the Supervisors to answer the proffer question. Commissioner Cannon lauded the project for taking tree preservation seriously, but said he did not feel it’s the Commission’s role to make exceptions to the “strict terms” of the proffer policy.

“I don’t understand how they expect us to exercise their discretion,” Cannon said.

Commissioner Edgerton said he could not support the project because not enough had been done to push for a buffer between Oakleigh and Heritage Hall.  He also said he felt it was not appropriate for the Commission to weigh in on cash proffer credits.

The Commission voted unanimously to recommend rejection. The item will go before the Board of Supervisors on December 12, 2007.

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LIBERTY HALL

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to amend a previous rezoning of the Liberty Hall project, 8.01 acres that were rezoned in June 2006 to Neighborhood Model District. The change allows for construction of a total of 51 residential units off of Radford Lane in the Crozet area. The language in the original rezoning did not include language that would have allowed the developer, Weatherhill Development, to rent out the 8 proffered affordable housing units. The amendment now includes that language.  No other changes were made to the rezoning, and the project is nearing final site plan approval.  Valerie Long, who represents the developer, says the amendment was requested to provide flexibility once the units are built. The item goes before the Board of Supervisors on December 12

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OTHER COMMISSION ITEMS

The Commission also held a work-session on the rezoning of Downtown Crozet, as well as a work-session on a proposal to rezone a parcel of land to the south of Liberty Hall to Highway Commercial to accommodate a landscaping business. Charlottesville Tomorrow will publish stories on those topics in the near future.

Sean Tubbs

This is an old picture of our foster cat Thomas but it is one of my favorite pictures of him.

...for Sheriff (Larry Claytor), Commonwealth's Attorney (Denise Lunsford), Board of Supervisors (Lindsay Dorrier, Ann Mallek, Marcia Joseph), and City Council (David Brown, Holly Edwards, and Satyendra Huja). It's under "community forum". http://www.nbc29.com...

So far, mainly Republicans have been voting.

If Long Road Out of Eden turns out to be The Eagles swan song, I think their fans will be left satisfied. True to form, LROE is a great body of work. Their first studio album (double CD actually; 20 new songs) since 1979’s The Long Run, LROE is a wonderfully eclectic collection. From the Country-flavored “How Long,” to new signature love ballads, in-your-face political rockers, and other styles mentioned in the next sentence, it is impossible to slap any single genre label on The Eagles. Joe Walsh has a Jazzy tune called “Last Good Time in Town” that is reminiscent of classic Steely Dan. They finish the album with a decidedly Spanish piece called “It’s Your World Now.”

Having only listened to the album once (I just got it yesterday), I have two absolute favorite tracks. The title track, “Long Road Out of Eden” is a 10-minute powerful, poignant, rock ballad that, to me, is basically a post-millennium version of Hotel California’s "The Last Resort." And what would an Eagles album be without at least one ass-kicking satirical piece. “Frail Grasp on the Big Picture” fits the bill nicely. To wit:

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

According to a story that just rolled on the AP, Roy L. Pearson Jr., the administrative law judge who lost his $54 million lawsuit against a Northeast Washington dry cleaner, lost his job yesterday and was ordered to vacate his office, sources said.

Pearson, 57, who had served as a judge for two years, was up for a 10-year term at the Office of Administrative Hearings, but a judicial committee last week voted against reappointing him.

The panel had a seven-page letter hand-delivered to Pearson about 3:30 p.m., directing him to leave his office by 5 p.m. Pearson's term ended in May, at the height of his battle with the dry cleaners. Since then, he has remained on the payroll, making $100,000 a year as an attorney adviser.

A source familiar with the committee's meetings said Pearson's lawsuit played little role in the decision not to reappoint him.

Instead, the committee said it had reviewed Pearson's judicial decisions and audiotapes of proceedings over which he had presided and found he did not demonstrate "appropriate judgment and judicial temperament," according a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.