On
Anderson Gallery’s newest exhibit, “you, your sun and shadow,” opened Friday Jan. 20.
Photoby Amber-Lynn
TaberThe power struggle between Republicans and Democrats in an evenly divided Virginia Senate boiled over Tuesday in a dispute over the election of judges, leading to a stalemate that briefly shut down the chamber.
After nearly two hours, the Senate was able to resume its calendar without resolving the dispute when the House of Delegates and the Senate agreed to postpone consideration of the legislation until Thursday.
At issue is the proposed election of two new judges – former Dels. Clifford L. Athey Jr., R-Warren, and Clarence E. “Bud” Phillips, D-Dickenson – added to a group of judges who were up for re-election Tuesday.
Senate Democrats said they informed their Republican colleagues that they were willing to vote for the re-election of all the incumbents included in House Joint Resolution 246 but wanted to hold off on the appointment of the new judges. Democrats stood firm, and Republicans refused to remove the names of the two prospective new judges.
Because each party has 20 members – and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is not authorized to break a tie vote on the election of judges — the issue became an impasse played out in pointed floor speeches.
While postponing the issue to Thursday allowed the Senate to continue with its calendar, it did not necessarily mean the time will bring a resolution.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Add bulls to the list of Virginia’s growing list of agricultural exports.
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s office said Monday that the state’s first direct export of Holstein bulls to Russia has been completed.
The shipment involved less than 50 bulls from Vistar Farms of Mechanicsville. The exact number of bulls and the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed for competitive reasons.
The deal is the first for Virginia since Russia started to allow the importation of U.S. cattle in 2008, when the two countries reached an import protocol agreement.
U.S. exports to Russia now account for about $10 million of the live cattle business there, McDonnell’s office said.
Russia was Virginia’s ninth largest agricultural export customer in 2010 at just under $60 million.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
A Richmond jury recommended 39 years in prison for a Henrico County man who murdered another man after a dispute that seemed to stem from a posting on Facebook.
The panel of six men and six women deliberated about 75 minutes on Tuesday before recommending that Kareem Tillar, 21, serve a sentence of 34 years for the second-degree murder of Jamel Cobb, 19. Tillar also must serve a mandatory five years for a related firearm conviction. Formal sentencing was set for March 2.
The jury found Tillar guilty of the two charges on Monday after a daylong trial in Richmond Circuit Court. The sentencing phase of the trial was held over until Tuesday.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Two years ago, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom joked in emails with his new neighbors in New Zealand about his bad-boy reputation before telling them his criminal past was behind him and he was coming to the country with good intentions.
“I am a former hacker” who was once convicted of insider trading, he wrote, before going on to say “In all seriousness: My wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and ‘We come in peace.’” Dotcom’s emails came to light Wednesday, the same day a New Zealand judge denied him bail following his arrest on U.S. accusations of copyright infringement and a U.S. official confirmed the arrest of a fifth member of his company.
Judge David McNaughton in Auckland denied Dotcom bail pending a hearing Feb. 22 on his possible extradition to face trial in the United States, saying Dotcom poses a flight risk. Dotcom, 38, insists he is innocent and poses no flight risk.
New Zealand police arrested three other Megaupload employees last week on U.S. accusations they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. McNaughton is expected to make bail rulings on the three later this week or early next week.
Brief by the Associated Press
You’ve read his leaks. Now watch his show.
Cyber-transparency activist Julian Assange says he’s launching a career in television, hosting what he’s billing as a new brand of talk show built around the theme of “the world tomorrow.”
The show’s guests haven’t been disclosed, but Assange has promised to give viewers more of what he’s been supplying for years: controversy.
The WikiLeaks secret-spilling site said in a statement released late Monday that “iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders” would be brought in so that Assange could challenge them on their vision of world affairs and “their ideas on how to secure a brighter future.”
The world of television talk shows is a new one for the 40-year-old Australian, whose group has orchestrated the biggest mass-disclosures of secret documents in U.S. history. But the statement argued that Assange was uniquely qualified for the role given his past as “a pioneer for a more just world and a victim of political repression.”
Brief by the Associated Press
A former investigator with the city of Los Angeles claims Atlanta police rejected his job application solely because he has HIV, a decision he said breaks the law and perpetuates stereotypes about people with the virus.
Atlanta police argue hiring the man poses a threat to the health and safety of the public, setting up a legal fight that is being followed closely by gay rights groups and police agencies.
A federal appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Wednesday, and judges will have the chance to pepper both sides with questions.
Brief by the Associated Press
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In this section:
Campus environmental group plans community garden • 4 VCU Police implement Text-a-Tip program • 4 Crime log • 5
2012 University
Transportation Centers (UTCs) Grant Recipients
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Marshall University
- Mississippi State University
- Portland State University
- Rutgers University
- University of Idaho
- University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign
- University of WisconsinMadison
- Virginia Tech
- San José State University
- University of South Florida
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- City College of City University of New York
- Pennsylvania State University
- University of Florida
- Purdue University
- Texas A&M University
- University of Nebraska
- North Dakota State University
- University of CaliforniaBerkeley
- University of Washington
Mechelle Hankerson News EditorVCU Student Government Association hosted the State of the Union Town Hall event with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood Wednesday afternoon after President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union Address Tuesday night.
LaHood fielded questions from students ranging from America’s war on drugs to the definition of the American Dream, but focused on the progress of Americas’ transportation systems.
LaHood met with Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones and other state transportation officials to review current construction projects on I-95 before coming to VCU.
“Since we were here, we wanted to meet with the students and talk about the president’s vision for transportation but also kind of see what’s on their minds,” LaHood said.
“One thing we’ve tried to promote at the Department of Transportation during this administration is getting college students involved as interns (or in) career-type programs,” he said.
According to LaHood, although the U.S. Department of Transportation typically works with states, universities like VCU can also be helpful in bettering the nation’s infrastructure.
The Department of Transportation recently granted $77 million in grants to 22 university transportation programs to help fund studies that would address critical transportation issues.
“We really think that a lot of the thoughtfulness and a lot of the creativity is at the universities,” LaHood said. “We’ve really gotten more universities to collaborate with one another so that we can spread the money around a little but more.”
Virginia Tech was the only school in the state to receive money from the grant, but LaHood said it wasn’t too late for a school like VCU to get involved with the Department of Transportation’s efforts.
“(Universities need) to be able to come to Department of Transportation and reach out to us for a research grant,” he said. “That’s an added advantage for the students.”
The grant will fund studies that will focus on topics like rail corridors, bridge
inspection methods and ways to reduce roadway fatalities and injuries.
“Safety runs across everything we do at the Department of Transportation,” LaHood said. “Hundreds of people got up and got in their car or got in the motor-coach or got on a plane and didn’t think much about safety so we really take our safety agenda as one that is our top priority.”
SGA president Asif Bhavnagri said there was about a week to prepare for the event, but he said he was pleased with the outcome.
“I thought it was a great opportunity for all the students that came,” he said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, (and) the questions really showed the character of VCU.” CT
Liz Butterfield Contributing Writer
The Green Unity club is building a new community garden on the east side of the Larrick Student Center on VCU’s MCV campus, soon to be open for students, faculty and staff this spring.
Gardeners will be able to grow their own fruits, vegetables and herbs on personal or shared plots. Volunteers are also needed to help grow food for donations at local food banks.
Green Unity is hoping to break
ground on the garden in February. The plot itself is 20 feet wide, 200 feet long and can be divided into as many as 26 separate plots. Four of the plots will be wheelchair accessible, and at least two are designated for volunteer growing.
One of the goals for the garden will be to put people in better touch with their food and each other, said Alex Little, a Green Unity member and soonto-be garden manager.
“A lot of people don’t know where their food comes from,” she said. “It is important to have a connection with
their food, and then they have a connection with their environment as well.”
For the spring season, Green Unity will grow cold weather crops like herbs, spinach, kale, broccoli and cauliflower. They hope to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, small melons, squash and potatoes this summer.
All of the crops grown on the volunteer plots will be donated to organizations like Campus Kitchens or a local food bank, such as FeedMore, the umbrella organization that includes programs like Meals on Wheels and the
Central Virginia Food Bank.
“We’re trying to increase our percentage of fresh, healthy, non-processed vegetables whenever we can,” said Kathryn Erhardt, director of strategic gifts at FeedMore. “It’s not only just community gardens; it’s local farmers and people who donate from their own gardens.”
Last year, FeedMore distributed over 19.1 million pounds of food.
Both FeedMore and Green Unity share in their initiatives to bring fresh, healthy foods to the community.
“I think this is a good thing to be doing; food banks have a hard time getting and distributing fresh foods, instead of things like cans and processed foods,” Rachel Elves, president of the MCV division of Green Unity, said.
The club plans to hold free or lowcost workshops to beginning gardeners who want to contribute to the garden.
“The great thing about community gardens is you are never on your own; there is always somebody around to help you out. It’s a gardening community,” Elves said. “You’re not just thrown out there with a trowel and some gloves.” CT
You can read more about Green Unity and their plan for the new community garden on their website, http://green-unity.blogspot. com/p/vcu-community-garden.html. Registration for all plots ends Feb. 2.
As the spring semester unfolds, VCU Police are taking initiative through text programs to establish communication between students and police.
The program, Text-a-Tip, launched in February 2011 and creates an interactive initiative between students, faculty and others in the VCU community, that allows for tips to be sent via text message through their cell phones.
Text-a-Tip allows students to directly contact the police. In a digital world where students are constantly on phones, the department felt that
it would be a convenient and easy way for them to receive feedback from students.
So far, the program has led to the department gaining information about alcohol use, drug use and sales, broken street lights and loud houses.
Mike Porter, liaison for the VCU Police Department and public relations specialist at VCU, said he wants to make it clear that every text or tip is important and meaningful.
“(Chief of Police) John Venuti acts on them personally, investigates, commends the good service and checks into the bad (tips),” he said.
The simple system involves tipsters texting “VCUtip” to the number
274637, which then opens up a dialogue with university police. The texts are sent directly to Venuti’s phone, as well as a few other officers in the department. The system responds with an identifying number, and it is the only identification the police have for the informant so students can send a tip. All tips are anonymous.
The focus of Text-a-Tip is to provide information that will help solve crimes already committed or to prevent crimes that could happen in the future. Students are discouraged to use the program for crimes that are in progress. Cash rewards are offered to those who provide information that can lead to an arrest or conviction.
Along with Text-a-Tip, another initiative program, Service, is provided to allow students, faculty and staff to provide feedback on the customer service they are receiving from the police department. Due to the high volume of security personnel in the area, academic, residential, escort drivers, etc., texting a tip about an experience is the easiest way to get the information to the police.
“I wanted to make it easy for you guys to let me know when we are doing really good or fall short,” Venuti said. “Customer service has been a really important initiative, and I want my people bending over backwards for you and the students.” CT
Thursday, Jan. 19
Trespassing Cary and Belvidere Commerce, 301 W. Cary St. – A female visitor was arrested for trespassing.
Grand larceny Siegel Center, 1200 W. Broad St. – A male visitor was arrested for grand larceny.
Assault offense At the corner of North Belvidere and West Main streets – A female student advised that an unknown person(s) assaulted her.
Fraud offense Siegel Center, 1200 W. Broad St. – Two male visitors and one female visitor were arrested for scalping tickets to public events.
Friday, Jan. 20
Assault offense At the corner of West Grace and North Laurel streets – A male student advised that an unknown person(s) assaulted him.
Grand larceny 7-Eleven, 1003 W. Grace St. – A male student advised that an unknown person(s) removed an item from an unsecured location.
Vandalism of state property Oliver Hall, 1001 W. Main St. – A male employee advised that an unknown person(s) damaged a vending machine.
Alcohol violation Rhoads Hall, 710 W. Franklin. St. – A male visitor was arrested for underage possession/ consumption of alcohol.
Saturday, Jan. 21
Trespassing Cary and Belvidere
Retail Area, 301 W. Cary St. – A male visitor was arrested for trespassing.
Petit larceny Cary Street Gym, 101 S. Linden St. – Change in case disposition.
Petit larceny UU Lot, 1200 W. Broad St. – Change in case disposition.
Robbery/Assault offense/Vandalism 1110 W. Cary St. – A male student was arrested for robbery, assault and battery, and damage/ vandalism to personal property.
Sunday, Jan. 22
Drug offense At the corner of North Belvidere and Cumberland streets – A male visitor was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Alcohol violation Broad and Belvidere Dorms, 700 W. Broad St. – A male student was arrested for underage consumption of alcohol.
Monday, Jan. 23
Trespassing/alcohol violation
ABC Store, 1217 W. Broad St. – A male visitor was arrested for being drunk in public and trespassing.
Petit larceny Cary Street Deli, 301 W. Cary St. – A female student advised that an unknown person(s) removed items from an unsecured location.
Assault offense Rhoads Hall, 710 W. Franklin St. – A male student advised that he was assaulted by a known person.
Possession of burglarious tools/ petit larceny At the corner of West Cary and Lombardy streets – A male visitor was arrested for possession of burglarious tools and petit larceny.
Alcohol violation/drug offense
Rhoads Hall, 710 W. Franklin St. – A male student was arrested for underage possession of alcohol. A second male student was arrested for underage possession of alcohol and possession of marijuana..
Compiled by VCU Police Reports
In this section:
Rams riding wave of six-game winning streak • 7 Brandenberg buries sophomore slump • 8
Towson, Md. — Entering Wednesday night’s game against VCU, a depleted Towson men’s basketball program had lost 40 straight games, an ongoing NCAA record.
VCU, on the other hand, was straight rolling. The Rams had won five straight games, their self-entitled Havoc defense was playing at an all-time high, and they were finally starting to get back into their deadly shooting rhythm.
But for VCU, the blueprint wasn’t laid out to be a walk in the park.
“It didn't enter into our mind at all,” sophomore guard Rob Brandenberg said. “Coach (Shaka) Smart, right once we started to scout, he was just telling us they may have lost all their games this season, but they can beat us if we come and we're not ready to play.”
Smart’s message was short and effective. VCU (17-5, 8-2) picked up right where it left off on both ends of the floor and avoided the ultimate letdown game by hammering Towson (0-22, 0-10) 67-42 in front of a small crowd of 974.
The Rams battered, bruised and flat out beat a down – but not out – Tigers team with an offense that was on point and a defense that was even better.
For just the third time in school history, VCU held a third-straight opponent to under 50 points. The Rams made it difficult for Towson to get up the floor, forcing 24 turnovers, including 14 steals.
“They feast on teams that don't dribble and pass it well,” Tigers coach Pat Skerry said. “That's what they do,
and we certainly don't do that well.
“That's like throwing a match in gasoline.”
Brandenberg exploded off the bench with a team-high 16 points and four steals. Entering Wednesday night’s game, he had missed 37 of his last 45 shot from the field. Against an undone Towson defense, Brandenberg moved a step towards avoiding his own version of a sophomore slump – a name coined to describe second-year players who exceeded in their first year but struggle a year later.
“It felt good, I've been slumping the last couple of games, everybody knows,” a chipper Brandenberg said. “So it felt good to get into the swing of things and knock down shots.”
VCU got more than half of its scoring off the bench from a couple of unlikely names. Treveon Graham scored 13 points, Jarred Guest added eight points and Teddy Okereafor chipped in four.
“It was nice to get contributions from a lot of guys off the bench,” Smart said. “Our young guys, our freshmen, came in and all did some really good things.”
The third-straight double-digit victory capped off a stretch of six games in 14 days for the Rams, who visit Georgia State Saturday.
At the end of the day it was just another road-win for a streaking VCU team progressing by the minute, and another loss for a Towson program searching for its first win in 41 games.
“We didn't want to be that team's first win; we didn't want that to be on us,” Brandenberg said. “So we took a lot of pride in that.” CT
The tough losses VCU suffered to Drexel and Georgia State in early January feels like ages ago as we approach February. The Rams have now reeled off six straight wins after their 67-42 win over Towson Wednesday to give them an attractive 8-2 record in the CAA.
While their record looks pretty nice, their opponents’ were far from it over that stretch, minus a gritty home win against fourth-place ODU. VCU did, however, do what it had to: get their Havoc brand of defense back on track while getting victories in the process.
Because let’s face it: with a scary upcoming schedule looming in the
distance, they needed those wins to help cushion their record.
The Rams may have played down to the competition in a few of those games, but the defense is in good form with a vital rematch at Georgia State on Saturday on the horizon. No team in the six-game span since VCU’s trip to Drexel scored more than 60 points in regulation, thanks in large part to an increased intensity level on the defensive end.
The offense, on the other hand, is still going to need some tweaking in order to feel confident the rest of the way. While head coach Shaka Smart still insists that senior Bradford Burgess is
the “best player on the team,” he has yet to find a groove on the offensive end. In the past six games he has made only 15 of his 55 shots from the floor.
Luckily for VCU, Burgess hasn’t been dragging the team down with him. The Rams have the luxury of having several players who can be the leader for a certain game. It’s only a matter of time before it’s more than one guy who shows up offensively and the team shoots cohesively.
The most important breakthrough performance over the span may have been Rob Brandenberg’s game against Towson. After last season, most fans figured that Brandenberg might be the team's most consistent player on the offensive end, next to Burgess.
That shows how much predictions are worth, huh?
After a few terrific scoring outputs and clutch shots down the stretch at the start of the season, Brandenberg just hasn’t been able to find much of a rhythm since then, perhaps due to an injury he suffered prior to the Akron game. If he can build upon the teamleading 16 points he scored last night, then he might find himself back in the starting line-up.
More importantly, it would give VCU one more shoulder to lean on when they need it.
If Smart wants a spark offensively, then having one of their most intense players on the team in Brandenberg on the floor more often wouldn’t be such a bad idea. CT
Towson, Md. — If anyone other than the Towson Tigers needed to put an end to a streak Wednesday night, it was Rob Brandenberg.
The sophomore guard had gone eight games without posting double-digit points and had not done so since Dec. 29 at Akron until dropping a game-high 16 points against Towson.
“It felt good to get back to the type
of basketball I play," Brandenberg said, "which is making shots and attacking the rim.”
The Ohio native went 6-of-11 from the floor on Wednesday, which included 3-of-7 from three-point range, and scored VCU’s first eight points of the evening. He also matched a season-high with four steals in just 22 minutes of playing time.
Prior to the shooting slump, Brandenberg had gone for 10 or more points in six of VCU’s first nine games and had
performances of 17 and 18 points earlier in the season. Since the beginning of conference play however, his numbers began to plummet. He was in an 8-of-45 cold streak since his last double digit game, but Brandenberg said his teammates have kept him loose and confident.
“They tell me, ‘Rob keep shooting, you gonna make a shot.' You know, little jokes like that. but my teammates always pick me up no matter what’s going on, so I’m thankful to have them as teammates,” Brandenberg said.
Brandenberg also said that the big game against Towson should help him get back in the swing offensively after what was the worst stretch of games of his career.
“It’s the first time in my whole career that I’ve been through a slump like this,” Brandenberg said. “Coach keeps
telling me to just know I’m going to get back to it.”
Smart said he and Brandenberg had talked a lot about this game being the start of the second half of the season, and therefore a new beginning for the sophomore as one of the team’s primary scorers.
“It’s a fresh start for him, a new opportunity,” Smart said. “We really want to judge him from tonight moving forward. I think it’ll help him move on from the last several games.”
The
next few games will be all about picking up steam for Brandenberg, who has a well-deserved reputation for being a streaky player. He said that he hopes to continue the positive momentum beginning on Saturday when the Rams play Georgia State. CT
“ ”
Brandenberg: The Ohio native was 6-of11 from the field versus Towson including three shots from 3-point range.
Curator discusses new Anderson Gallery collection • 11
Interesting People: Uggs: boots on trial (seriously) • 12
Dance students petition for studio space • 13
Those blood sucking demons which we have all come to either love or hate over the past few years are a frequent topic of discussion in one VCU English class.
Vampires were first written about in English in John William Polidori’s 1819 short story, “The Vampyre.” Later examples of vampires in literature include the classics, such as “Carmilla” and “Dracula,” all of which are read and analyzed in John Brinegar’s English 215 class.
Brinegar has taught English at VCU for 13 years, although most of those classes did not stretch far beyond the classic Shakespeare and Chaucer.
Brinegar's course, entitled Monsters and the Monstrous, discusses the various monsters within literature. Monsters and the Monstrous has been
offered occasionally since 2009.
The class’s exact title has changed several times to meet its ever-changing curriculum. Last semester, the course was entirely focused on vampire literature. This semester, the class tracks many different types of monster literature, as well as the vampire.
“The ‘Twilight’ books are very popular, and yes, we have read those, but then we also read more classic literature,” Brinegar said.
The class was inspired out of a desire to attract people who would not normally be interested in analyzing pieces of literature. Vampire and monster books are excellent ways to get people interested in 19th century English literature, Brinegar said.
“(The students) are reading great 19th century novels,” Brinegar said. “They are reading ‘Dracula’ and ‘Carmilla,’
and you can talk about the same sort of things with a Dickens novel.”
“I get people in the class who are interested in vampire books, and I get a lot of people who didn’t know or didn’t care about vampire books, but leave saying ‘Hey, I didn’t know that there was so much to learn about vampire books’,” Brinegar said.
“Analyzing texts is the most amazing thing ever,” said freshman theater major Jessica Skiles. “I find it very fun, and when I saw this class I thought that sounded badass.”
Within the class, monsters are defined as being “Other with a capital ‘O’,” Skiles said. This is those who do not fall into social or human norms. A monster is also described as being superhuman, preying on humans and not living among humans.
Vampires, though, have recently taken on the connotation of being strong, sexy,
having eternal life and being sparkly.
“I dropped a lot of the more popular vampire books, like ‘Twilight,’ because not a lot actually happens in ‘Twilight,’ Brinegar said. “It’s a 600-page book, but there isn’t a lot of event. It’s a lot of teenage angst.”
Despite the very recent rise in the popularity of vampires, they are already beginning to fall out of style, Brinegar said.
“They are no longer new and exciting. They have been around too long,” Skiles said. “Ask anyone who has never read a ‘Twilight’ book, and they will tell you they hate it. The cool thing to do is to dislike ‘Twilight,’ and ‘Twilight’ is synonymous with vampires.”
With the vampire vogue fading, the question becomes what the next monster will be. For Skile's guess: “the wolf man.” CT
When director of the Anderson Gallery Ashley Kistler introduced Michael Jones McKean, curator of the gallery’s latest exhibit “you, your sun and shadow,” at 5:30 last evening, she literally had to speak down to a majority of the audience, the members of which sat crosslegged on the floor, due to a lack of available seating for the massive crowd that was in attendance.
The idea for the show, Kistler told listeners, was conceived more than two years ago and actively worked on for about 18 months, according to McKean, with the group meeting for at least an hour every week to give the exhibit an appropriate amount of planning.
“It was just kind of like a rap session,” McKean jests of the process. “We’d just … get together and kind of freestyle about ideas.”
The title of the show, according to McKean, has something to do with “the triangulation between the evidence that the object exists … and the most basic way you can tell an object exists (without actually seeing it) is its shadow.”
Many of the works McKean selected for the exhibit deal with “something very basic about sculpture, but it never gets old … (and) never goes away.”
“The show came together in a way, for me, (that was) more eccentric than other curators might go about it … (and) I didn’t want to hide that. I’m an artist that’s curating a show – not a curator that’s curating a show. In some ways (it was) very selfish … to put together works I enjoy.”
The show consisted of the works of 10 artists ranging a spectrum of ages young and old and included those both new and seasoned.
In a little over an hour, McKean was able to touch on every piece included in
“This concept of valence … has to do with the way things are attractive (and) hold each other together,” McKean explained. “I wanted a show (where the pieces) held each other together in some special way … with some sort of tension.”
the exhibit, each of which he enforces is absolutely essential to the energy and cohesion of the show – the way that the pieces were attracted to and held one another together in the space.
“This concept of valence … has to do with the way things are attractive (and) hold each other together,” McKean explained. “I wanted a show (where the pieces) held each other together in some special way … with some sort of tension.”
Choosing to work in the order that the viewer would encounter the pieces rather than their chronology, McKean began with Tony Matelli’s “Josh,” a hyper-realistic sculpture of a young man who appears to be levitating in free-fall, head first, just inside the entrance of the Anderson Gallery. The piece has to with gravity and humanity’s attempt to overcome the invisible source, as well as a sense of intangible magic.
The sculptures of Pan Lins occupied the room across the hall from Matelli’s and featured several panel-built boxes, among various other materials.
“Your brain … is constantly predicting the future,” McKean explained. “Your
brain registers (the object as) a cube even though you didn’t see the other sides.”
Lins’ work plays with this quality of the brain, leaving some sides of the cubes incomplete or cut away, painting some sides in wacky geometric patterns, and adorning others with amoeba-like sculptures.
“At War With The Entropy of Nature 1,” a piece by Dario Robleto that claimed its own room on the second floor, features a cassette tape that was created from compressed dust from every bone in the human body and combined with trinitite, which is “glass produced from the first atomic test explosion from Trinity test cite, circa 1945,” according to an artist’s statement. The audio on the tape is “an original composition of military drum marches, various weapon fire and soldiers’ from battle fields of various wars made from E.V.P. recordings.” CT
“You, your sun and shadow” will be on display at the Anderson Gallery from now until March 11. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., with the gallery closed on Mondays. Catalogues will be available in mid February.
Local entertainment magazine RVAMag, in an online post Friday, Jan. 20, published statements expressing distaste for a cornerstone of the collegiate wardrobe.
A vague aversion to Ugg boots — unisex sheepskin boots and Australian imports, so named for the general verbal reaction to their appearance (“ugh”) - is not uncommon among armchair fashionistas. Arguments for the boots tend to revolve less around their visual appeal and more on their wearability and comfort.
But many readers found opinions expressed by Britt Sebastian, RVAMag contributor and designer of fashion brand Hollywood Cemetery, a bit too personal.
“These boots are designed with a small amount of whoredom in mind,” Sebastian wrote. “The pathetically uncreative styling of this boot was specifically designed by Ugg to match a pair of black spandex, a North Face fleece jacket and a shirt with some Greek symbols on it. Ugg originally intended to call these boots 'Open for Business,' but they eventually settled for the less egregious name, 'Sorority Slut.'”
“If you have recently been with a girl that wears anything off the list above,” the post concludes, “save the trip to the doctor's office; you have chlamydia.”
The backlash against the article from readers, as well as from such publications as New York Magazine (“Magazine removes 'humorous' article that links Uggs to chlamydia, prostitution”), was such that RVAMag had taken the article down from its website as of press time.
“I just really want to thank RVA magazine for supporting such excellent content,” one online reader commented on the original article. “I don't know how I went about my day not knowing that girls who wear Ugg boots have sex lives I should judge them for and maybe even shame them for!”
R. Anthony Harris, RVAMag publisher, referred to Sebastian as a “comedian” and said his comments, “are not to be taken seriously. He made an observation and decided to pick on Ugg Boots. He has had some really funny articles in the past ... a few like this one ... cross some invisible line and upset people.”
“Too bad some of this firestorm couldn't cross over to supporting local music and art,” he continued.
In the firestorm's afterglow, CT reporters took to the streets to gauge the opinion of real, offline VCU students on the fuzzy boots we all love, or love to hate. CT
“They are really ugly and expensive. I don’t know why anyone would spend that much. I think that’s taking it a little far. (Prostitutes) wear pumps and stilettos. When there is a platform Ugg boot, then I’ll believe it.”
“Well, I didn’t buy them because I didn’t think they were particularly attractive, but then I tried a pair and they are so comfy. I’m pretty sure I’m not a prostitute. I’m in a relationship, and I’m faithful.”
“I think that they are ugly, hence why they are called Ugg boots. I think it’s funny, but inaccurate.”
“I hate Ugg boots. I hate the girls who wear Ugg boots with Soffee shorts. It’s not sexy. I’d say half of them are sluts.”
“Those are the boots with the fur, right? 'Boots with the fur, with the fur
The whole club was lookin’ at her She hit the flo’
She hit the flo’
Next thing you know
Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low'” *
“They just don’t look good, but they are soft inside. I don’t think I would call them prostitutes.”
“I think Uggs are ugly. Maybe girls buy them because they are fuzzy. I think (the article) is ridiculous. I mean, little girls wear them.”
“I hate them. They may be comfy and cozy, but I think they are bulls--- and I hate them. They are a stupid trend, and I hate them. I do not get at all the fashion, but then again, I am a straight white male, so my fashion sense is limited.”
*(quoted from Flo Rida's "Low.")
“I don’t like them, and I think they are expensive. I wear old people shoes. I am not a big name brand kind of person. (The people that wear Uggs) are brand name people. They are materialistic, but I wouldn’t call them whores.”
“They are expensive shoes, but there is a reason they’re expensive. They are good quality. I’m not a prostitute.”keLSey mangham chemicaL & LiFe Science engineering SoPhomore LeSLie gaLeS BioLogy Junior Samantha Foster Staff Writer Nick Bonadies Spectrum Editor
A petition requesting the expansion and renovation of the VCU Dance Center has received nearly 250 signatures in its first six days.
The building, located at 10 N. Brunswick St. behind Crossroads coffee shop, is nearly 100 years old. It’s used by more than 100 dance and choreography majors and students enrolled in nonmajor dance classes.
Sophomore dance major Sanchel Brown started circulating the petition last Friday on Facebook, Twitter and through email. Brown said the petition is backed by students, alumni and faculty, including VCU Dance chairman
James Frazer.
“It’s been an amazing space for a long time, but we’ve grown by leaps and bounds in the last ten years and we are past capacity,” said Lea Marshall, assistant chairwoman of VCUDance. “While it’s a cool old building, we can’t grow anymore without access to new space.”
The petition voices student and faculty concern about the lack of studio space preventing dance and choreography majors from graduating on time.
Because of limited studio space, the dance and choreography department operates on a different schedule, and dance classes often overlap with normal university time-slots. For this reason, dance majors have trouble scheduling,
Brown said.
“The space is swallowed up. We don’t have enough space to support all of the artists that want to come in,” Brown said. “Even the non-majors that come in to take Pilates or Hip hop dance have signed the petition because they have to practice for their classes and they can’t find space.”
A new dressing room, more spacious bathrooms and a fresh coat of paint are among Brown’s requests; her concerns are not solely superficial, though. Brown said she thinks the support beams in the studio located in the building’s basement are unsafe for the students.
Associate vice provost and dean of student affairs Reuben Rodriguez toured the VCU Dance Center on Monday and visited with students who voiced similar concerns to those in the petition.
Rodriguez said the potential for renovations to the dance center could be considered as an addition to VCU’s Master Site Plan when the Board of Visitors convenes in the fall.
The department of dance and choreography’s comparatively small enrollment does not make the students’ requests less of a priority, Rodriguez said.
“There is no denying the fact that these students feel like they don’t have enough space to practice or that the
classes don’t have enough room to do what they need to do,” he said. “There are a lot of factors that go into determining whether or not to renovate a building, and (the number of dance students) is just one of them.”
Brown said she hopes some of the changes, like the bathroom renovations, can be made this summer when no one is using the building. She understands the petition is one part of a long process to make the renovations and expansion happen.
“(The petition) is not just for me or the people who are there now; it’s more so for the future of the program,” Brown said. “Of course, I hope something happens, but I don’t expect it to happen overnight.”
Brown said she intends to meet with Rodriguez about the petition as soon as possible. CT
Earlier this week, tobacco smokers in Virginia were attacked by two pieces of legislation. The first (HB120) would increase the tax on cigarettes by 383 percent, and the other (HB 114) would raise the fine for littering a cigarette butt to $100 with mandatory community service hours.
While state Republicans soundly defeated both measures, it would behoove us to take a closer look at the implications of these bills.
On the surface, the legislation was obviously an attempt to raise state revenue to help fund state programs, including Medicaid and tobacco cessation programs. Concerns about the environment, particularly the affect
of cigarette litter flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, undoubtedly played a part in its introduction.
Prior to the bill’s defeat, the delegate that proposed HB 114, Patrick Hope, expressed an acknowledgement that the bill probably wouldn’t pass.
It’s a waste of time and taxpayer money for Democrats to purposefully propose legislation they fully expect to fail. How undutiful and sophomorically lazy is it to make no realistic efforts to pass legislation you proposed?
Virginians would have been better off if the two parties had worked together to serve the public’s fiscal and environmental issues. This could be done by drafting legislation that better aids the enforcement of current laws already in place to punish litterers or legislation that imposes a more
reasonable tax on customers purchasing cigarettes and the tobacco companies producing them.
Therein lies the real issue that concerns me. As a non-smoker, I’m opposed to the legislation on principle. It’s a form of regressive taxation, plain and simple. The legislation taxes the consumers at such a high rate that it effectively either forces them to stop smoking or punishes them for smoking with an aggressively high tax.
To impose such a blanket tax on the consumer ignores the realities of the situation, particularly the fact that smokers are disproportionately poor and the fact that nicotine is a severe and complex addiction.
Although the proponents of the legislation likely would fund tobacco cessation programs with the increased
revenue, I highly doubt the small, initial revenue boost would balance out the numbers of participants in these programs.
Why not instead levy the tax against the tobacco companies who produce cigarettes? While we’re at it, why not pass legislation that mandates they make their cigarettes biodegradable and less harmful to the environment? Perhaps the tobacco companies would even need to hire more employees to help meet this mandate.
Make no mistake, I’m all for helping people quit smoking, but legislation like this ignores the realities of the issue, while displaying the blatant lackadaisical attitude and disdain that some politicians actually hold towards their constituents. CT
In this section: Legislation meant to curb smoking indicative of a trend • 14 Addressing controversial comments on race in the 2012 election • 15
With Republican party candidates launching vitriolic attack ads against one another, sniping the others’ personal lives and engaging in general political cannibalism, I imagine it must be difficult to be a Republican this election cycle.
But as hard as that may be, it’s doubly so if you happen to also be an African-American Republican. Without leveling charges of racism, the view that the top Republican candidates have towards blacks and the unique issues Black Americans face is skewed and insensitive, to say the least.
Take the Republican frontrunner of the week, Newt Gingrich, for example. Gingrich, a man so committed to “traditional” marriage that he’s had three of them, is so committed to an outdated and offensive perception of blacks that he still believes that black households are the number one recipients of food stamps.
To put that into context, a few weeks ago, he urged blacks to choose “paychecks over food stamps,” and later referred to President Obama as
by Andy Kay“the Food Stamp President.” In reality, the Supplemental National Assistance Program’s 2009 fiscal report found that the majority of food stamp recipients are white, at 34 percent, compared to blacks, at 21 percent.
Rick Santorum made an odd comment that he didn’t want to “make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” The next day, however, Santorum backed away from that statement, saying he was misheard.
But what he and so many other Republicans have tip-toed around is an erroneous perception, that black people, and anyone, on welfare is a drain upon the system and has no motivation to find work that pulls them out of the poverty they face.
As a child of parents that were formerly food stamp recipients and a current relative of a food stamp recipient, I’m indignant and frustrated by the implications being made. No one aspires to live on the $200 a month that the SNAP food stamp program provides.
And while I would never call any of the Republican frontrunners “racist,” I
would highly suggest that Republican politicians reevaluate their views on issues that affect the black middle and lower class.
To that point, of the 535 members of Congress, 44 representatives are black; all of them are in the House of Representatives. Black Americans, particularly those of the lower to middle class demographic, would greatly benefit from a more realistic representation; not because white politicians are out of touch with what it means to be black in America, but because all politicians are out of touch with what it means to be black in America.
What I think is the real issue that Republicans are trying to strike here, either by accidentally or purposefully being controversial and raising the attention of black voters, is the fear that blacks will vote for Obama just because he’s black.
But in reality, the manifestation of that fear in the form of insensitive and ignorant rhetoric perpetuated by Republican candidates, thereby distancing black voters, will lead to the re-election of President Obama. CT
Opinions expressed are those of individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Commonwealth Times or Virginia Commonwealth University. Unsigned editorials represent the institutional opinion of The CT.
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