Category: Virginia

“Error has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficent antagonist to error.”—Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Religion, 1776.

“The judges should always be men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness and attention; their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests.”—Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Wythe, 1776

As a newly minted oenophile traveling around my home state in the mid-nineties, I discovered two things:

1. Virginia had wineries, many tucked into scenic ruins like the Jeffersonian house at Barboursville.
2. Many of them made wine that only a mother could love.

I was always a fan of Barboursville, but felt the winery did best with its blends and with the lesser-known sweet grapes (Malvasia, for instance), and had a ways to go on its core reds (though its Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc held promise). Other wineries were equally variable: Lisa and I enjoyed our first date at Naked Mountain, but found its chardonnay undrinkable a year or two later as our palates matured. And often the best thing that could be said about tasting wines from other vineyards in the annual Virginia Wine Festival was that it got you out of doors.

An article in Friday’s New York Times suggests that the wines are significantly improving. Might be worth visiting again soon, particularly now that the shipping laws are (might be?) changing.

According to the Associated Press (via the Washington Post), the BRAC axe is finally falling on Fort Monroe, one of the country’s oldest military installations and the coolest one near my childhood home. Here’s my hometown paper’s take, together with some good photos of the fort, its moat, and a reminder of its Civil War past.

Construction on the fort started in 1819, the same year that the ground was broken in Albemarle County for the University of Virginia. According to the official history of the fort, the current fortifications succeeded a series of colonial era defenses on the site, called Point Comfort, including Fort Algernourne, which was built in 1609 by the original Jamestown settlers. The fort was made obsolete by the introduction of long range bombers and aircraft carriers, but survived until this last round of base closings as a training command.

I will always remember Fort Monroe for the community Fourth of July shows, which generally featured live musical entertainment (both jazz bands and military brass), culminating with a brass band performance of the 1812 Overture complete with field artillery and followed by fireworks.

The Unofficial Homepage has some good information about the base (and a lot of broken links). Map of Fort Monroe; satellite image from Google Maps; satellite image from TerraServer.

I may be able to add a celebrity blogger to my HooBlogs register of blogging University of Virginia alumni, now that it looks as though Katie Couric (along with NBC’s other anchors) might be starting a blog (thanks to MicroPersuasion for the link, original story at Yahoo).

Katie, if you need any support or advice about blogging in general or blogging from inside a corporation in particular, let me be the first to volunteer my assistance.

Erm, I mean: On this, the 262nd anniversary of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and founder of the University of Virginia…

…what? That’s how he wanted to be remembered.

…anyway, on April 13, think for a minute about the man and his contributions to mankind, and these words of his, some of which I cited in 2003 and which seem even more relevant today:

• “If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.” (To William Short, 1791)
• “The government of a nation may be usurped by the forcible intrusion of an individual into the throne. But to conquer its will, so as to rest the right on that, the only legitimate basis, requires long acquiescence and cessation of all opposition.” (From Monticello, 1825)
• “The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.” (To Edmond Randolph, 1785)
• “Education is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” (to William C. Jarvis, 1820)
• “Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” (from R. to A. Danbury Baptists, 1802)

And check out this year’s Jefferson Muzzles awards, given by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression to “draw national attention to abridgements of free speech and press” and chosen from “an alarmingly large group of candidates.” Recipients this year, unsurprisingly, include the FCC, both political parties, various high school officials, the departments of State and Homeland Security, and the Virginia House of Delegates (for the “droopy draws” bill).

Charlottesville Daily Progress: Varsity Hall’s small trip a huge effort. Huge indeed: the University of Virginia’s one-time infirmary building, believed to be the first dedicated college infirmary, was picked up and moved 185 feet to make room for the new McIntyre School of Commerce building to adjoin Rouss Hall. The move was apparently broadcast over a live webcam (the picture now shows the new location, which the environmental impact statement describes as being on 15th Street at the site of the former Brugh House).

I’ll miss having Varsity Hall so close to the Lawn. I took a language poetry class from Tan Lin there during my last semester at UVA in a close upper room, and despite the poor ventilation and cramped quarters it was still an evocative space for me—particularly the way the building opened into the East Gardens.

The Crozet Project is an ambitiously titled site that documents a small Virginia town in transition from its industrial and agricultural roots into another pocket of suburbia. With two main features currently—an exhibit of photos centered around the town’s Fourth of July parade and Fireman’s Carnival, and a series of photos, stories, and audio clips from interviews with the town’s volunteer fire department—it appears the site is just at the beginning of something profoundly interesting as a chronicle of a Virginia home town.

A few further notes about Saturday’s Ultimate Frisbee Revival match at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, which I mentioned in my last post. The photos tell part of the story, including the inexplicable appearance of a Presbyterian seminary student in a gorilla suit, infiltrators from West Virginia singing along to John Denver, and some nice action shots against the backdrop of Union’s campus.

The rest? Well, only a Presbyterian would laugh at the cheers of “Let’s go, Calvin, let’s go!” and similar attempts to cheer on the teams with theologians (my own contribution, “Bonhoeffer! Bonhoeffer! Sis Boom Bah!” met with stony silence). But the music (including the incongruous site of a full team of Union players descending for their opening kickoff to the strains of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”); the architecture of the campus, which ranges from the late 19th century chapel at one end of the quad to the campus library (in the converted old Ginter Park Presbyterian Church, and complete with a gargoyle of the long-time librarian); and the overall fantastic light and cheery spectators made for a great day. I’m still recovering from my mild sunburn but otherwise very pleased with the day.

Big congrats to David Paul, who visited us with Esta in January, as well as the other organizers of the match. If I had to pick just sixteen hours to spend visiting Esta and getting to know her classmates, I can’t think of a better way to spend my time.

Cavalier Daily: Rejuvenating UVA. In the middle of an otherwise informative article on various preservation and restoration projects at Mr. Jefferson’s University is this gem: “Seldom visited by University students, the gardens [behind the Jeffersonian pavilions] are undergoing a revitalization process all their own” (emphasis added).

Hmm. Seldom visited by students, huh? Sure… during the day, that is. Where else do you think Lawnies take their dates at night?

Er…

I mean, yeah, no student ever uses the gardens.

Apropos of this discussion, there’s an illustration in one of the bound Pogo books from the late 1980s—I think it’s Phi Beta Pogo—that Walt Kelly executed for the cover of the Virginia Spectator, then UVA’s humor magazine, in the 1950s. It showed a tired-looking Albert and Pogo pushing an ice-cream cart down one of the roads behind the pavilions. From the bends in the serpentine walls (which were of exaggerated depth for effect) protruded pairs of “his and hers” feet—chastely lying side by side, before you ask—suggesting that whatever the kids were up to in the shadows of the walls, it was a lot more entertaining than the ice cream that Pogo and Albert were trying to sell. It’s a hell of a cover. I wish I could find a copy online; my description doesn’t do it justice. Maybe a friend in Charlottesville could look it up in the library?

Daily Press: Hit rapper 50 Cent says ‘Bad News, VA’ isn’t a dis. Heh. Oh yeah it is. But 50’s new song “Ski Mask Way” is hardly the first time my birth town Newport News has been given a bad rap. Not even 30 years after the town’s original founding (before its 1956 merger with the city of Warwick), no less an American literary luminary than Thomas Wolfe was dissing the city (where he spent time helping to construct the airstrip at Langley Field) in Look Homeward, Angel.

Looks like Club Passim thought Justin Rosolino’s gig there was as good as I did. I missed his return to the club in January, but according to his events page he’ll be returning in May as part of the Campfire Festival.

Speaking of Justin, he has quite a street team, judging from this photo that erstwhile Atlanta blogger Greg Greene passed along:

When MetaFilter talks about one of your friends, you link it (even if you’ve linked it several times before). New since the last time I visited Adam “PES” Pesapane’s production company: an inspired spot for Coinstar, a surreal brand video for Diesel, and some pretty good articles. Unchanged, of course: Roof Sex, possibly my favorite Internet video meme of all time.

I posted about my college friend John “JP” Park’s book the other day, but he makes his Screen Savers debut tonight talking about Maya and plugging his new book. See the program listing here—I’ll see if an online version of the episode becomes available later.