Year in review: The best and worst of 2011
December 22, 2011 Since the Hook started doing a year-in-review issue 10 years ago, we've always wanted to say that this is the best year ever: The economy is on a roll, employers are hiring as fast as they can, partisanship is passé, elected officials value compromise to make our country a better place to live, people feel optimistic about their future, and that of their kids. Alas, that would not be 2011.
December 22nd, 2011 issue #1051
Unclouded: Sabato predicts for 2012
Political pundit and Crystal Ball-meister Larry Sabato is the go-to guy in an election year, but as much as the Hook tried to lure him into some early prognosticating, Sabato likens any predictions at this point to flipping coins. He did give us some dish about the 2012 election, but where we really got the dirt was about fireplaces in pavilions on the Lawn– and whether the world will end.
Year in music: Avett Brothers twice, Lucinda Williams, and the Civil Wars
Despite its small size, Charlottesville has long held its well-deserved reputation as a music town. For its size and scope, the sheer amount of musical talent that resides (and stops through) town is unrivaled, and 2011 saw a rejuvenation of all that made Cville a haven for musicians and music fans, as fresh talent broke out onto the scene, while big names making waves across the world dropped in to enjoy Central Virginia audiences. In these photographs and capsule reviews, we look back at an excellent year.
News
Child un-support: State agency blames parents for flawed deposit
Every month, Charlottesville resident Sherry Nist gets a child support payment of $1,500 when her ex-husband writes a check to the state, which then moves the funds into he...
Halfaday holiday: Candidate's election fraud case continued
The trial of former City Council candidate James Halfaday on four counts of address-based election fraud has been continued until January 26. Outside the courtroom on Thurs...
Last stand: The Charlottesville Occupier who died
She didn't come to Lee Park to protest. She was just looking for a safe place to sleep. Now, friends and family are mourning the death of Linda Doig, a former international...
You have to scrape a few trees to build something, and nowhere is that more evident than at Stonefield, the 65-acre mixed-used development at the corner of Hydraulic Road a...
Transcript-gate continues: Spy-cam found in registrar's office
His modeling pictures show Joshua Peter Gomes as a man comfortable in front of a camera. Now, according to a search warrant, Gomes appears at ease in front of a camera even...
Verdant Parkway: County's part likely to open in January
With no opposition– only advice– from Charlottesville City Council and with the Albemarle Supervisors having resolved to open the Melbourne-to-Rio Road portion,...
VQR rising? Lit mag hires new publisher, deputy editor
On Monday, December 12, about fourteen months after the award-winning Virginia Quarterly Review might have appeared on the verge of extinction after an 86-year publishing s...
The Dish
Hungry for stories: The 2011 food round-up
The past year was a rough one economically, but that didn't stop some brave souls from opening up restaurants and eateries. We counted 28 new places that opened this past y...
Essays
I got word this morning, December 16, that the most iconoclastic journalist of his time, Christopher Hitchens, died yesterday. I thought you might like to hear of my one in...
Question of the Week
Real Estate - $old
The triumphant return of the under-$100K house
11/15/11 Albemarle Sean Ruday & Clare Corson to David Thomas, 119 Mill Creek Drive, $256,000 Salvatore Cangiano to Trump Vineyard Estates Lot 3 Owner LLC, 94.26 acre...
Real Estate - On the Block
The year in Charlottesville-Albemarle real estate
As the New Year approaches, questions about the future of the housing market are more abundant than ever. Has the market hit bottom? Are hopes of recovery realistic? Will ...
Real Estate Property auctions
December 28 at 9am at the Albemarle Courthouse Property: 216 Barnsdale Road Debtor: Gloria R. Allen Original amount owing: $166,500 Bidder brings: $10,000 Info: Nectar Proj...
Art Features
In 2011, the art world continued to quake in fear at the effects of economic climate change, leading to extended show runs and shuttered gallery doors. Charlottesville, how...
DR. HooK
Get a move on! Keeping active keeps us oldsters alive
Silver in your hair, gold in your teeth, and lead in your buttocks— that’s the “Metallic Age.” As a middle-aged man, I have gold in my teeth. Before I highlighted m...
Movie Reviews
In 2011: The ten or eleven best films
Making lists is not my favorite occupation. They inevitably inspire only reader complaints. Not once have I ever heard from a reader that my list was just fine and they lik...
Mission accomplished: Fourth film 'cruising' for success
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a terrific thriller with action sequences that function as a kind of action poetry. The best one has Tom Cruise hanging more than 100 ...
The Brazen Careerist
Good management: Take every chance to tout successes
I got a book deal. I got a big advance for it– big enough to buy a nice house and big enough to stop fights with my husband about money.Yet for all my recent success,...
Strange But True
Tweet Santa? System might crumble under demand
Q. What if all the world's couple of billion kids tweeted Santa at the same time? Could the social network bear up under the weight? What if the Jolly Old Gent also had a F...
Online only
A Hook photographer was out (along with other light-savvy photographers) on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 23, the day before Thanksgiving, when the afternoon light s...
Six boys celebrate on top of a burning brush pile at an undisclosed location in Western Albemarle.
COVER Year in reviewIf 2012 is where it all ends, as some fear, at least we can say our last year here on earth wasn't boring! From Occupy movements to natural disasters, m...
Under wraps: VMFA has bodies in the basement
A small pewter lion reclines on my desk. It’s a souvenir from the British Museum’s traveling exhibition, “The Treasures of Tutankhamun,” which sparked Egypt-o-mania...
Letters
Essayist misunderstood Occupy and its fingers
I don’t mind criticism of the Occupy movement except when it is based on misrepresentations of the sort in the essay ["Great people? Steve Jobs, the Occupy movement, and ...
Thanks for disinfecting the Biscuit
Thanks for the reporting on Biscuit Run shenanigans. [November 10 cover story: "The flip that flopped: Biscuit Run men want $20 million more from taxpayers"]. I sincerely a...
Black and White
I visited the Rotunda to see the doomed magnolias that have occupied the gardens flanking that structure for a century. The fate of the trees appears sealed.~Commentator Bi...
Cultural preview
FunStuff: December 22 and beyond
Night lights
