cVillain as we know it may soon fade into a distant memory, but its heart and soul will live on!

Join your fellow ‘villains in celebrating the past three years of live, local, and uncensored news, gossip, and reviews brought to you through the hard work of all the Spicy Bears, especially Kyle and Francesco.

The festivities will begin at 8pm at Escafe this Monday, July 13. All villains, lurkers, and yes, even stalkers are welcome.

Optional attire: dress as your favorite villain!

We hope to see you there! Escafe is located on the Downtown Mall at 227 W. Main Street. If you have any questions, please contact me.

[Pic from Spicy Bear]

This video has been making the viral rounds and it brings up an interesting debate. I know at least 5 friends who have started to shave the male bush.  Is this a new trend started by this ad or is it something that people are cooler talking about because of the video. It’s an important debate we must have.

If you want to be part of the future of cVillain, this is an important time to make sure it carries on.

The gym is located on the back side of the UTZ/Linen building at the intersection of Meade and East Market.  We are across from the cemetery place and Jinx’s BBQ.   Take your first right on East Market once you cross Meade.  Go around back for parking.

The design of the sandwich board signs is not finished, however. On July 14th, Charlottesville officials will finalize the design for the new permanent sandwich boards on the Downtown Mall with input from side street store owners. They’re expected to be on the Downtown Mall by the end of July.

Downtown mall business owners are def happy.
[pic from Spicy Bear on flickr]

The event, a two-day wine festival, competition, seminar, and all-around bacchanalian celebration of oenophilia was originally scheduled for late January of 2009 (if memory serves). It was unexpectedly postponed; rumors in the ether suggested due to poor ticket sales. The site is still up, but no new data has been added about tickets for the rescheduled event. Data appears to be updated for the new Friday-Saturday schedule of events, available here.

The Neoskeptic knows at least one member of the local media has tried to contact them to find out if new details are available for ticket sales, and to confirm that the event is on as scheduled. The office phone for the IFWEOC appears to no longer be in service, and the mobile number for the group’s president plays a canned network recording saying the customer is not available, and offers no voicemail options.

I don’t know how they expect to have an event if they’re not selling tickets three weeks out.

Piedmont Council of the Arts (PCA), The Bridge | Progressive Arts Initiative, and Siteworks Studio collaborate on a unique public art project for Charlottesville Parks and Recreation’s Summer Camp. The StoryLine Project will join local artists and designers with young people (grades 4-6) in the Parks and Recreation Summer Camp to creatively explore and interpret the places where they live.

PROJECT OVERVIEW
The project centers on a walking expedition of the neighborhoods of downtown Charlottesville, during which participants will learn to use close observation and creative expression as a means of understanding spaces, places, and the stories that enrich them. During the StoryLine walk on July 9th, four teams of young people and artist mentors will gather information and ideas about their neighborhoods through personal interviews, poetry, sketching, photography, journaling and more.  The project will culminate with the creation of a collaborative mural on the Community Chalkboard on July 16th.  The mural will illustrate the young participants’ layered visions of their StoryLine walk and the neighborhoods it explored.  A micro-exhibition to share and celebrate the project will take place in August at the Bridge | Progressive Arts Initiative.

PROJECT SCHEDULE
The StoryLine Project will take place between July 7 – 16, 2009 through four morning sessions led by project leaders Greg Kelly from The Bridge PAI and Pete O’Shea from Siteworks Studio, with support from Parks and Recreation camp counselors and community volunteers.  Community members and press contacts are invited to visit and observe any of the projects sessions, which are as follows:

DAY 1: July 7, 2009: Project Intro with Campers
9:00am – 12:00pm at Tonsler Park
Summer campers are introduced to the project and activities through a video, slideshow, and discussion led by project leaders Greg Kelly and Pete O’Shea. Campers learn about exploratory walking, documentary photography, and the poetics of gathering experiences; are given an Urban Explorer’s Backpack; and breakout into 4 teams with leaders to take a short intro walk.

DAY 2: July 9, 2009: StoryLine Walk - An Expedition of Downtown Charlottesville
9:00am – 12:00pm at Tonsler Park & throughout downtown
Local artists Damani Harrison and John Casteen talk with campers about poetry and storytelling – or how to “see with words.” StoryLine teams embark on a 2-mile neighborhood expedition and document the walk with words and images, using poetry, interviews, photography, drawing, and more to record and enhance their experiences.

DAY 3: July 14, 2009: Intro to Mural Making
9:00am – 12:00pm at Tonsler Park
Greg Kelly and Pete O’Shea lead a discussion and slideshow on mural making, with guest appearances and demonstrations by local artists Jeremy Taylor, Allyson Mellberg Taylor, and Patrick Costello. Campers learn how to tell a story with images and split into teams to design and plan the collaborative StoryLine mural on the Community Chalkboard.

DAY 4: July 16, 2009: StoryLine Mural Creation at Community Chalkboard
9:00am – 12:00pm at Community Chalkboard and Podium
StoryLine teams are joined with local artists and designers to create a mural of their walking expedition experiences on the downtown Community Chalkboard. Throughout the creation of the mural, campers read poems and share StoryLine experiences at the Community Podium.

STORY|LINE EXHIBIT & CELEBRATION
To celebrate and share the StoryLine Project with the campers’ families and community members, The Bridge | PAI will host a micro-exhibit from August 22-23, 2009 in the gallery at 205 Monticello Road in Belmont. The exhibit will show drawings, photographs, studies and ephemera from the StoryLine project. An opening reception and celebration will be held from 3-6pm on Saturday, August 22nd, and the exhibit will be on display from 12-3pm on Sunday, August 23rd or by appointment.

For more information or photos from the StoryLine project, contact Maggie Guggenheimer at director@charlottesvillearts.org or 971-2787.

The Charlottesville Fire Department would like to remind city residents that all fireworks are prohibited in the City of Charlottesville.

Nationally during the 4th of July holiday over 10,000 injuries occur each year from the use of consumer purchased fireworks. “Consumer purchased fireworks are not only illegal in the city but also just too dangerous to be used” said Charlottesville Fire Department Operations Battalion Chief Robert Bragg. It is also one of the busiest days of the year for the fire service with over 32,000 fires reported last year half of  which were caused by illegal fireworks according to the National Fire Protection Association. “With the density of the city and the dry summer weather, fireworks are a major concern of the department. Fires caused by fireworks put both citizens and fire fighters at risk for unnecessary injuries” said Bragg.

The Save the Fireworks citizen committee, with support from the City of Charlottesville, will be providing a free fireworks display to celebrate the 4th of July, at McIntire Park shortly after dark on Saturday. In addition on Saturday, the public is welcome to join the community at the main firehouse on Ridge Street for the annual fourth ceremony at the liberty bell replica that has a home in Charlottesville.  The ceremony featuring local children from the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts begins at 2pm.

The Charlottesville Fire Department encourages everyone to have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend.

For further information contact PIO Robert Bragg 434-531-3531 or Fire Marshall W.A. Hogsten 434-970-3325

If you loved the Taco Truck, then you may be sad that the owners of Michoacana have decided to sell it.

Christian’s + better

I walked in and thought I was at another Christian’s outpost, except a little more seductive and prettier.

I was even more confused when I looked at the pizzas and saw what appeared to be Christian’s replicas. Or is it the other way around? According to fellow cVillain, Danpri:

The owner of Christians sold the biz to the guys at Vita Nova then walked away with his cash and 3 year no complete contract. At about 3 years and 1 day he opened Christians just down the mall.

I cannot verify the accuracy of this anecdote, but I have heard it from a lot of people in town, so it could be true. Lets assume it is. Vita Nova’s pizza is basically the same in every way to Christian’s, except their crust is crispier and they had a vegetarian offering (pictured above) which I have never seen at Christian’s. I would say this makes the owner of Christian’s look pretty lame. Starts pizza joint, sells it, starts a rival to the one he sold that sells basically the same thing. Three years and you couldn’t come up with anything better/different? Shame on you. Even that piece of barbecue chicken pizza I had above tastes the same as the one at Christian’s, if not slightly better.

Yes this is a ridiculously short review, only because we have reviewed Christian’s and talked about it in posts hundreds of times before. Why do people talk about Christian’s so much? Well, it is right next to the main “entrance” of the downtown mall as well as right next to the movie theater. High school kids out on hot Friday night date’s can grab a slice before catching Zack Efron’s latest attempt at acting. All of you must have noticed by now that the further east you walk on the downtown mall, the less people there are. So as far as Friday night hot spot goes, I can see why Vita Nova wouldn’t be that popular. Lunch is another issue. The place had a huge line and pizzas flying out of the door like a supermodel that just ate an entire chocolate cake.

Conclusion
If you like Christian’s pizza you will like Vita Novas. If you do like Christians, and you try Vita Nova and decide you don’t like it (or vice versa), something is seriously wrong with you. I suggest you break the townie/hipster complacency thing and walk a couple of hundred feet east and give it a try. As far as the best pizza in Charlottesville? Are you kidding me? Definitely not. Since so many of you haters think Dr. Ho’s is no longer cool and great tasting, it is my mission to find as good tasting, or better (gasp!) pie. One down, many more to go.

[pics from spicy bear on flickr]