16
OCT2008
INSIDE
the art of bonsai 10 VT power plant 14 a new hope 16 DIY theater q & a 17
NO. 11FREE
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NO.11
O C TO B E R 2 0 08
10 14 16
1 6 Blo c k s A m e ditativ e c r a f t g iv e s trees an air of ancient beauty
young
Arts and Culture Magazine October 2008 Issue #11 Contact us for subscription rates, general questions, corrections, if you’re interested in submitting short stories for our Logos Section, letters to the Editor, or if you just want to say hey. 16blocksmagazine@gmail.com www.16blocksmagazine.com www.myspace.com/16blocksmagazine
What goes on under that smokestack? Here’s how the orange and maroon gets its juice.
Check us out on Facebook! P.O. Box 279 Blacksburg, VA 24063 No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.
C ov e r Illustration by Danny Phillips
Members of Curious Strange, Bitterhill, and Sol Creech Band unite with MC EZ to form the already popular band, Hope Hop
sta f f
Hart Fowler
Editor in Chief, Publisher
16blocksmagazine@gmail.com
17
David Franusich
Head Print Designer, Co-Art Director
16blocks.graphics@gmail.com Christina O’Connor
A Virginia Tech Alum returns to town with the improvisational comedy group Second City at the Lyric
Director of Photography, Co-Art Director
16blocks.photo@gmail.com Amy Splitt
Editor / Writer
asplitt@gmail.com David Williams Webmaster
dtw@vt.edu WILL BOYAR
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16 Blocks is for full moon-howlings, ghosts in the closets, and bumps in the night. 16 Blocks is for creepie crawlies, heebie jeebies and the hair raising on the back of your neck. 16 Blocks is for “Don’t dream it, be it,” Rocky Horror and Transvestite Transylvania. 16 Blocks is for Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff. 16 Blocks is for the monarchs Mexican bound. 16 Blocks dresses up for Halloween. 16 Blocks is for The Thriller, the dead and the undead, and the arm-raised zombies who never rest.
04 Ethos: Health Care 06 Politics: Len’s Rant 08 Artist Spotlight: Peter Sforza 09 Artist Spotlight: Doug Wiegand 11 Super Computer! 12 Sweatshop Effect ‘08 18 Beer & Wine 20 Restaurant Review: Poor Billy’s 22 Logos 24 Support Our Advertisers 25 To Do List 26 Idle Minds
CO NT R I BU TOR S
Tuan Pham Photographer Al Fayez Photographer Danny Phillips Illustrator Whitney Waller Illustrator Pris Sears Features Writer Garrett Bobb Features Writer Robert Humphreys Features Writer Len Comaratta Guest Ranter John Boyer Guest Writer Danny Flad Guest Writer Brian Zickafoose Guest Writer Peter Sforza Featured Artist Doug Wiegand Featured Artist Chuck Ronco Chess Guru Sindy Huang Graphic Designer Angie Moran Graphic Designer John Healy Ad Designer
c o n c e p t s .
r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s .
a n a l y s i s .
Medical Workers, Religion, and Access to Treatment
by Pris Sears
T he
US Department of Health and Human Services thinks that there is a big problem, and they’ve come up with some big solutions. The HHS document entitled “Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices In Violation of Federal Law”explains that, while often health service providers have to sign forms stating they will not discriminate “on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, handicap, age, drug abuse, and alcohol abuse or alcoholism,” those same forms fail to point out that the provider has the right to discriminate after all, as long as it is framed as “conscience.” The “Church Laws” that were passed in the 1970s have long protected doctors from being forced to provide abortions, and from being discriminated against for their refusal. There is no evidence of an epidemic of health care workers facing discrimination because they
won’t perform abortions. Even so, the HHS says they need $44 million to make more people aware that the conscience clauses exist, and that they apply not only to doctors, but to every person involved in health care: from the person that sterilizes the instruments, to the person that draws your blood, to the person that disposes of the medical waste. It appears, though, that at least according to HHS’s latest opus, “conscience” refers specifically to a worker’s objection to the prevention or termination of pregnancy. This point is inarguable, as the only conscience-related medical procedures mentioned by name in the entire 40+ page PDF file are abortion and sterilization. An earlier version of this document had language that included all birth control but those parts were eventually removed. How the existing rules allow doctors to withhold legal medical services isn’t clear. The legislation of the right of
04 1 6 B L O C K S
doctors to refuse abortions could be interpreted to be discrimination against patients, but that is not how the law is currently applied. The proposed rule expands on this idea of conscientious objection. It is to apply to all “individuals and entities with moral objections to abortion and other medical procedures.” That “other medical procedures” part is really interesting. One could claim practically anything offended one’s conscience. One could grimly envision doctors refusing emergency contraception and appropriate counseling for rape victims. Significantly, there is no burden on any health care worker to declare in advance what procedures he or she finds objectionable. The proposed rule simply states outright, “The Department seeks to avoid judging whether a particular action is genuinely offensive to an individual.” This could lead to all kinds of scenarios. Can we look forward to doctors refus-
ing to treat patients because they are gay or transgender? A pharmacist who joins Scientology and refuses to fill Zoloft prescriptions? A Christian doctor who refuses to treat atheists? An antiwar nurse who won’t draw blood from politicians and big-business tycoons that profit from war? A radical feminist emergency room doctor who declines to treat pimps or pornographers? Perhaps people should start preparing special cards to keep in their wallets for emergencies. They could detail religious beliefs, criminal records, job histories, and voting records in addition to blood types and insurance status. Then the entire hospital staff could peruse them and determine whether treatment would offend anyone’s conscience, hopefully in time to save the patient.
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LEN’S RANT: “Spite with just a smidgen of bile.” by Len Comaratta illustration by Danny Phillips
I
haven’t had much to rant about until now. However this election is giving me plenty to bitch about. Rather than just go on and on, spiraling into a long-winded, blowhard diatribe that leaves the original message behind (much like this sentence), let me just list out a few of the things that make me hate this election. The Media – The media would rather report about how lipstick is an obvious distraction distracting us from things we should not be distracted from but can’t help but be distracted from because the media is distracting us with their distracting coverage of how a distraction has become the main news item. Now the media has taken to reporting on how the media is failing at its job. This is what happens when the majority of ALL media outlets are owned by four companies. Sarah Palin – If you tell me she has management experience because of governing Alaska, you are simply grasping at straws because you know she is not competent enough for the job. There are twenty MAYORS in the United States who govern populations larger than her entire state! Far more qualified Republican women were available for the choosing, like Christy Todd Whitman and Kay Bailey Hutchison. When you look at the issues, the only other reason why she was picked (and why the far more qualified Tom Ridge was not) is her stance on abortion – a non issue. Hillary Supporters for McCain – Are you serious?? I hope you get left out in the cold. I can understand your disappointment but get over yourselves. Why would you ever support someone who is 100% ideologically opposed to the woman you hold so dear to your hearts? IGNORANCE and spite pure and simple. McCain’s choice of a VP should offend you on principle once you examine her record on issues that affect women. That and the fact that she called Hillary a whiner.
Cries of Sexism – NO ONE on the Republican side can claim sexism against Sarah Palin, especially the suddenly pro-woman misogynists who told Hillary to get out of the kitchen if she couldn’t handle the heat of the boys’ club (Dick Morris, Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity, etc.).
McCain ’00 vs McCain ’08 – Where are you, old McCain? I used to love McCain – back when he beat Bush in New Hampshire. Ah, those were the days – before the Straight Talk express went in a circle. If this were a Star Trek episode, McCain ’08 would have a goatee and get his ass kicked by his earlier self. “Why?” Because the bearded one is always the darker, more sinister one. “But McCain doesn’t have a beard.” I know this, it’s a metaphor. In the future remember that anyone who starts a sentence, “If this were a Star Trek episode…” is probably not speaking literally.
It is not sexist to ask legitimate questions of a potential leader, especially one no one has ever heard of and who has little to no experience in anything that matters. It’s like trying to shoot someone with a bb gun only to have it ricochet back, hit you in the eye and then crying that someone shot you. Single Issue Voters – Single issue voters often have no idea what their candidate actually stands for overall. This is because they don’t care or are too lazy to research complex issues. They simply want to know where the candidate stands on a single issue. Gay rights and abortion are the top two of the day. Many voters don’t seem to realize that the the candidate that agrees with them on these particular issues (more often simply for political reasons) usually works off a political platform that does more harm than good to those particular voters. Look at the Midwest and much of the South. Red states if there ever were any, voting for the right half of the ticket more often than not regardless. The same half of the ticket that favors sending jobs overseas, stifling farmers subsidies and generally just stomping over the middle and lower classes with much of their policy, increasing the debt and putting the burden on future generations of taxpayers, etc. This blows my mind.
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Disenfranchising Voters – The Republican Party did this in the last two elections and they have begun to do it in this one. In Michigan, Ohio and Mississippi the Republican party is trying to collect information on people whose homes have been foreclosed, saying that anyone who has been foreclosed upon does not have an address or residence in that district and therefore is not allowed to vote. The Obama campaign has filed counter suit preemptively, showing a little bit of balls. Why would they not want people who lost their homes to vote? Why oh why would that be? Don’t the conservatives do well during a depression?
Abortion – A non issue. Since legalization, the Republicans have elected 5 presidents to the Democrats’ 2, many of whom made appointments to the Supreme Court. Roe vs. Wade still stands. Basically, abortion is a tool that both sides use to organize and manipulate their political base. There are not many issues that can single handedly galvanize a group of people the way abortion can. One side claims murder; the other side claims civil and personal rights. Protest groups on both sides rally and cry. Politicians use it to get support from fringe and on-thefence voters. And once the election is over, abortion is quietly put away for more pressing issues such as war, the economy and of course, getting reelected. It is a means for obtaining and or maintaining power. The Politicians know this and they also know that voters do not. That is why this is a nonissue this November 4th. Not because it is not important but because it is not important in the short term. And that, my friends is as far as most politicians can see. The Democrats in Congress – Led by deer-in-the-headlights Pelosi and the equally ineffectual, incompetent Harry Reid (and to some extent, Howard Dean), the Dems have done nothing but try and play the blame game in a quest for sound bites rather than live up to the promises of change that got them elected in 2006. And now we are worse off than we were before. If I had my way, most of them up there in that swamp would be sent packing come November.
“Oh there’s more to complain about. There always is. There always will be. Like my father always said, “I’m not happy unless I’m bitching.”
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O C T 2 0 0 8 07
Peter Sforza is a creative technologist who is too busy to write a proper artist’s statement. He is currently working at Virginia Tech on collaborative efforts to develop a 3-D deep-media Blacksburg, night-time lighting for safety and sustainability, and a “Satellite imagery as Art” workshop. “Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.” -Francois Voltaire, from a time and place long ago. Top: The Nile River as it passes through Sudan Bottom: MODIS image of hurricane Katrina as a dragon
08
My
paintings are an expression of existential crises and cynicism that often end up being softened and/ or coped with by my wacky sense of humor. Dark nooks and crannies of the psyche are my forte. I am inspired by life’s mundane aspects, oddities, and hardships, and like to look for humor in all of it. I am also inspired by el Dia de los Muertos, punk rock, various theories in psychology, personification, irony, and taboo. I paint in acrylics, which make me smile. Selected works will be displayed at the “Trick Art Treat” show at XYZ Gallery (Blacksburg, VA), October 27, November 3. Recent works can be viewed at www.myspace.com/mnkymnd. Contact and pricing inquiries can also be made via darkwater43@gmail.com. DWIEG is a Virginia Tech alumnus (Ph.D./Psychology/2006) and faculty member. His day job involves safety and health. He lives in Christiansburg with his lovely wife, daughter, and four-legged companions. Clockwise from top: “Losing a Pet”, “Telemarketer”, “Commuter Bus”
by Hart Fowler
T
he shoulders of the stone Buddha are relaxed, his gaze and overall bearing downward, not burdened, but poised in contemplation. Miniature trees rest in ceramic containers nearby. Their branches also slope gently downward, reflecting the bodhisattva’s meditative pose. “With bonsai, you start with something young and make it look old,” says Jerrie Pike, who has been shaping bonsai trees for forty years. “They’re from a culture where old is good which is something we’re utterly alien to here.” It’s early autumn in pastoral Ellett Valley. Pike stands in the part of her garden known as Higo Garden Bonsai where she keeps the majority of her trees for the summer. The greenhouse where she grooms, repots, and stores
the trees in the wintertime is twenty paces uphill. Many of her bonsai are for sale, and she also offers instruction in bonsai methods for a fee. The garden is situated between the house where she resides with painter Ray Kass, and the guest house and larger garden which contains a pond, stone walkways, and Japanese structures designed and built using ancient methods. She describes bonsai, a technique approximately 2,000 years old originating in China, as “the messy interplay between art and nature.” She grooms trees in the informal upright tradition, which means if you drop a plumb line from the crown of the tree, it will be centered in the base of the trunk. The outshooting branches have an asymmetrical balance. The trees are designed to look both natural and grace-
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photos by David Franusich and Christina O’Connor
ful, and never artificial, even though the tree’s growth is not random, but manipulated, or “trained”. “You use the trees natural growth patterns to enhance its shape,” Pike says. “You change the position to a horizontal one. If you look at [large] old trees, the thing you notice is they are horizontal and drooping. They carry a certain weight and gravitas.” Many people do not know that Bonsai trees can come from anywhere. Some trees are better than others (“evergreens do not regrow shoots; deciduous grow back like crazy”). One of the trees Pike prefers is the Eastern Red Cedar (Virginia Juniper) because it grows locally and can form “majestic” bonsai. Trees that were once twenty feet tall can be cut for seedlings and trained to be bonsai. Repotting is a ne-
cessity: tree roots need to be groomed because they will “girdle” in the pot and the tree will die from lack of nutrients. As for training the trees, copper or aluminum wire is wrapped around branches. By bending the wire you train the branch to bend itself rather than bending the branch, which can cause it to break. Standard scissors and concave cutters are used to cut the branches and leaves. “[John] Cage used to say that it’s all between you and this little branch. It’s like a mantra.” Pike said of the composer who used to visit Kass. “Then you back off of it. It’s all process and that’s what I love about it.” The art form of bonsai painstakingly trains a tree’s growth to fit an ideal of natural beauty, allowing us to contemplate the illusion of time’s passage.
by WiLL Boyer photos by Tuan Pham
Revisiting System X, a top three supercomputer, five years later
I
t hums: 1,100 nodes of supercomputer power rest loudly at the depths of the Andrews Information Systems Building (AISB) in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center. “The thing about supercomputers,” says Kevin Shinpaugh, Director of Cluster and Research Computing at Virginia Tech, “[is that] they can have pretty long life spans, because even though the technology has passed them by, they’re still very useful because people are getting work done on them.” The supercomputer is System X (pronounced System Ten) and the work Shinpaugh talks about spans a broad range from computational fluid dynamics and network simulation to bioinformatics and quantum chemistry. System X made headlines when it was first constructed over five years ago. Srinidhi Varadarajan, the mastermind behind the idea, was pictured in all the technology publications and mentioned on most of the geek blogs. His initial idea to expand a relatively small cluster of computers ended with System X: An off-the-shelf component, self-made supercomputer, constructed from 1,100 Apple PowerMac G5’s, which use a processor similar to the one found in your Xbox 360. When it first debuted, the supercomputer ranked as the third
fastest in the world. It now lies in 280th position on the Top 500 list (as of June 2008). Was the System designed with power efficiency in mind? Shimpaugh says,”No, not really, the technology is older now… Green computing has become big nowadays.” Shinpaugh explained, “System X uses 330 kilowatts of power, Google’s been looking at building [data] centers which [can drain] 30 or 40 megawatts.” Compare those stats with the annual power load of New York City, 5 gigawatts. Juxtapose that with the power-surge of the state of California in a year, 265 terawatts, and it’s a small wonder why the US has such a large carbon footprint. The price of research and technology is much greater than the mere time and labor scientists and engineers put into developing and maintaining these types of projects. We pay a fiscal price for the fossil fuels that supply the power to run these monolithic machines ($150,000 per year in System X’s case). We also pay an environmental price. For more information on the technical details of System X and additional information about the Advanced Research Computing group, please visit www.arc.vt.edu.
O C T 2 0 0 8 11
g? in r ea w e ’r u o y t ir sh t a h t e d Who ma by Garrett Bobb
On
September 17th, a clothesline was strung across the drillfield. No, the dryers in the dorms didn’t all break at the same time, and it wasn’t time for Take Back the Night. The Global Justice Alliance, a new student organization begun this year, was trying to raise awareness of where Virginia Tech’s licensed apparel comes from. The Kathy Lee Gifford and Nike labor scandals in ‘96 and ‘97 caused many corporations to make token alterations to their policies to calm public outcry. The problem was and continues to be that most of these companies don’t own the factories. Instead they subcontract the jobs out and have little oversight of what goes on there.
wage… they take no account of women’s rights... and of 18 board members, 6 are corporate,” said Katz. So the FLA has representatives of the corporations it is designed to oversee actually doing the overseeing. That’s like giving a prescription pad to an addict. The solution, according to Katz, is a simple switch of oversight organizations, from the FLA to the Worker’s Rights Consortium. Katz says they have “what we see as better monitoring of the factories... they investigate
“like giving a
made in sweat shops.” Regardless of whether it can be proven that Tech products are made in true sweatshops, the switch is a no-brainer. According to Katz, Tech has a termination clause in their contract with the FLA that allows them to back out at any time. The WRC asks for %1 of royalties as a fee, the same rate that the FLA gets. Also, “Tech is one of only four ACC schools that haven’t signed on (with the WRC),” said Katz. Consider the fact that it is cheaper for the clothing companies to have the clothes made in poorer countries and then ship them across the world rather than to have them made close by: this means wages so low that it is unimaginable to most of us. In a sweatshop, workers endure unfair and sometimes abusive labor practices while earning little.
prescription pad
In 1999, Tech made a decision to hire a labor monitoring organization. “I don’t see any controversy,” said Larry Hincker, Associate Vice President for University Relations: “Virginia Tech has long had a Code of Conduct for its suppliers... We worked closely with... Students Against Sweatshops... They advised us and assisted us in our eventual affiliation with FLA [Fair Labor Association].” The problem, according to Meredith Katz of the Global Justice Alliance, is that the FLA isn’t doing its job like it should. “They don’t guarantee a living
to an addict.” worker complaints, support women’s rights... and use community members as experts in determining what is a living wage.” Katz also says that the WRC does not have any corporate representatives on its board. Hincker says, “We are happy to work with students from the GJA to evaluate our licensing practices as they relate to this issue.” He also adds, “No information has been brought to our attention that would support assertions that VT licensed products are
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Those garment workers are never going to have anything near the standards of living that most Americans currently enjoy. Though it is easy for us to turn a blind eye to the living conditions of people who we will never meet, the least we can do is to try to ensure that the money we spend does not support companies that abuse their workers.
Check out the websites of the FLA and WRC: www.workersrights.org www.fairlabor.org If you really want to feel good about your clothes, you can shop at the thrift store, or a fair-trade store such as Home Body in downtown Blacksburg. At the thrift store, all of your money is going to a good cause, and at a fair trade store you can rest assured that the workers who made the products were treated fairly. And if you MUST have some of that Orange and Maroon apparel, contact President Steger, Vice President Hincker, or Tech Licensing Director Locke White (you know how to use Hokie Stalker) and tell them you want to feel good about what you wear.
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O C T 2 0 0 8 13
From the coalfields of Kentucky to the big furnace on Turner Street: an inside look at the VT Power Plant. by Robert Humphreys photos by Tuan Pham
14
Nothing frosts Mr. Byron Nichols like the sight of an empty building with its lights still on. For the past 26 years, he has been responsible for keeping VT’s wires hot and its people warm and cozy when it’s cold outside. He runs the power plant.
M
uch has changed in the past quarter century both beneath and within the towering stack on Turner Street. Analog dials and flip-switches have been replaced with slick touch-screen computer controls. Every part of the facility is monitored in realtime; the building is thick with instrumentation. Other things haven’t changed. The boiler burns continuously 24-7 with the same sun-orange glow. The turbine spins such that its steady vibration can be felt in the metal stairs and railings which snake alongside the equipment. Coal arrives daily, water is recycled and boiled, and the product is heat and light. Creating steam here means a lot more than boiling water. The water itself must be perfect – at the temperatures and pressures the plant needs to generate, even the slightest contaminant in the water could gum the works with disastrous results. The water coursing through the plant is tested every four hours for purity. Put a gallon of water on the stove and turn the burner on long enough to raise its temperature by one degree Fahrenheit. That amount of energy is one British Thermal Unit or BTU. One pound of steam contains about a thousand BTU’s, and a window air conditioner will burn through about 6000 BTU’s. Virginia Tech hums along at an average rate of 250 million BTU’s every hour, and growing…. The Virginia Tech Power Plant (VTPP) is a cogeneration facility – its boilers produce the steam that heats the campus while using part of the steam to generate electricity. The University purchases 90 percent of its juice from the Appalachian Electric Power grid. The rest is made on Turner Street, by two coal fired and three natural gas fired boilers, each over fourstories tall. They continuously boil 500 gallons of water every minute into steam which in turn is blasted into a turbine, spinning it at 3600 rpm. The result: 6.25 megawatts of electricity. Eighty percent of the water used is recaptured as condensate and recycled through a closed-loop system. By fall, the plant will produce the steam which heats the campus – 200,000 pounds of steam every hour. The fires that keep the juice flowing require plenty of fuel: the power plant varies its burn between natural gas and coal to maintain efficiency. For a typical September day, the plant will burn 75 tons of coal. A typical winter burn will require 35,000 tons, supplemented by 200,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The plant keeps a quarter million gallons of fuel oil on hand as a back-up. The natural gas is brought in through an underground pipeline from its source in Louisiana. Coal will freeze in a box-car come winter, so VTPP stockpiles a summer delivery at the Radford Arsenal; it is brought there by rail from mines in Kentucky and then delivered by truck to the plant each day. Not all coal is created equal – VTPP prefers the Kentucky coal which is a very high-grade, low sulfur bituminous coal which burns more cleanly than other varieties. And it burns continuously, keeping the furnace at 2400 degrees Fahrenheit, more than enough to melt steel. Natural gas may burn cleaner, but coal remains forty percent cheaper. To reduce emissions, VTPP installed a sophisticated scrubber system – a five-million dollar investment which took a year and a half to complete. Emissions filter through 1600 pipes, each six inches in diameter and sixteen feet long; filter bags of lime trap noxious pollutants. The lime is recycled in a
continuous flow. Thirty thousand pounds of it pump through the system every hour. The lime comes locally, from a mine down the road in Stoney Creek. The result: a ninety percent reduction in emissions and a smoke stack that hardly seems to smoke at all. By industry standards, an emissions opacity of ten percent is considered good. VTPP’s opacity hovers between two and three percent, a level of smoke invisible even in broad daylight. The scrubber system was built to emissions standards which Virginia’s politicians have since rolled back. Virginia Tech can easily claim to have the cleanest coal fired boilers in all of Virginia. Every power station generates more capacity than its service base needs. Extra capacity ensures that if a boiler fails, the plant can still provide enough juice and steam to keep things running smoothly. The systems are designed with multiple back-ups and redundancies. VTPP typically operates at sixty percent of its total capacity in winter; by spring VTPP will need only fifteen percent of its muscle. But Tech continues to grow. As far as heat and light are concerned, dormitories and classroom buildings are pipsqueak consumers; VTPP’s challenge is to fuel the myriad of power-hungry research buildings the University plans to build. When Mr. Nichols arrived at Tech in 1982, the University’s summer load required 18,000 pounds per hour of steam and the winter peak required 100,000. Today, Tech requires 50,000 pounds per hour in the summer and upwards of 250,000 per hour by Thanksgiving. With spare capacity factored in, Tech’s projected expansion will require 440,000 pounds of steam per hour by 2020.
photo by David Franusich
VTPP has responded by installing new burners into existing boilers with plans to fire them up by November first, producing an additional 80,000 pounds per hour of steam. A second turbine generator is in the works. An energy audit has been carried out. Newer buildings are being planned to make them more energy efficient. For the foreseeable future, VTPP’s light and heat will continue to come from Kentucky coal. The search for alternative and renewable fuel sources continues. It is mind-boggling to think of the amount of chicken poop it would take to produce the energy equivalent of 75 tons of coal daily, never mind the number of chickens necessary to produce it, but Tech has done just that in a detailed study which also considered burning wood chips and other renewable combustibles. None yet generate coal’s bang for its buck and each is fraught with logistical problems of gathering and delivery. Until these problems are solved, VT’s power requirements will have to be constrained on the demand side through conservation and more efficient use. Flip those lights off when you leave…
15
HopeHop [ Fresh sounds, familiar faces. by Brian Zickafoose
photo by Christina O’Connor illustration by Whitney Waller
A
humble garage just off of Progress Street is where the Blacksburg’s freshest group, HopeHop, meets to rehearse. Emcee “EZ” Eddie McClain steps just outside to greet me with a handshake and I ask him how he feels. With enigmatic smile in place he replied, “Man, I’m happy to be here.” HopeHop began when McClain, a solo emcee, teamed up with bassist Nick Kalen and guitarist Chad Florstedt from the recently defunct local jam band Curious Strange, and then recruited local Rhodes and piano player “Razor” Ramon Zabala and power-skin veteran “King George” Penn to make it a five-piece. The goal: to crush the mold of the typical live hip hop “band” while redefining each other’s sound. With ten minutes of tuning up and plinking around on various warm-up grooves, the fellas gel over a funky rendition of “Ain’t Nothing but a G Thang.” Keeping the beat hot, they eagerly pounce into original material, only relenting occasionally with the expected start and stops of a practice session to iron out transitions. One thing is clear: when they lock it in the pocket, the neighbor kids playing out front stop to listen, and the lounging heads on surrounding porches start to bob in unison.
16 1 6 B L O C K S
A week prior, the guys played underground at the Lantern to a packed house for what was only their second public performance. The crowd was already salty from the VT football victory earlier in the day and sweating in beer. When the first note dropped, the multitude jumped alive and hips began to sway. HopeHop brought a fresh air of intensity to the stage unmatched by many veteran stage-splitters almost as though their mantra was give it all or nothing. Steadily leaping across genre boundaries from moody, space vibe interludes into deep funk-flavored raga chops, Nick rhythmically locked with George, then George with Ramon while Chad caressed the guitar strings in the upper sonic layers with wahfrenzied scratch grooves. EZ stood poised downstage, hair blown back; delivering conscious lyrical cadences over the intermingling ebb and flow like a skateboarder systematically cutting up a sonic half pipe. HopeHop is EZ’s first live band but onstage his presence felt natural in the mix. His song, “Never Give it Up” rang in the moment clear: Never let it rest Til your good becomes better And you’re better than the best
Rhyme implanted in my head And imbedded in my chest That’s why I’m flowing Just going Don’t know when to take a breath. The HopeHop live performance was inspiration in motion and a notable vibe of grandiosity throbbed in the epicenter of their sound. “I think it’s our chemistry,” said Penn. “I’ve been working with bands for 20 years and I have been in situations where the music was good but the chemistry wasn’t quite there. I think the chemistry with HopeHop is there and we work well with one another and talk openly about the direction of the music.” EZ closed: “Our message is positive… one of hope.” HopeHop is playing at the Lantern and surrounding venues through early December. They plan to record their freshman full-length in Jake Dempsey’s Red Room Studio during the months ahead. Folks interested in grooving hard to HopeHop live can check for future show dates and see video clips of performances at www.myspace.com/hopehopmusic or www.youtube.com/hopehop
VT Al um Ma rk Ra and h ow to terman o n beco intervie start w by A my Spli ming a y tt our o c wn im prov omedian group There’s a ton out there there had been improv. . 1 6 B: in terms of viral vidSo you’re saying people eo and other broadcast stuff. And just didn’t come support you travel around with people doing live performances. What potential does that sort of stuff still have to spread itself around? Why should people come to a live performance? MR: Well, it’s like the difference between listening to a CD and hearing a band at a venue. This is kind of a stock answer, but there’s nothing like being in a room full of 500 people and sharing a laugh together, or sharing a musical experience... those forms, I think, are going to last forever, whether they make a performer millions of dollars or not. Maybe not. But people are still going to have the desire to leave the house and share an experience in public! That’s one of the joys of laughter, sharing it with friends or even strangers. 16B: The reason why I ask that is, have you been to Blacksburg before? MR: I graduated from Virginia Tech [in ‘99]. 16B: No way! Well, then you understand, Blacksburg and Tech host this huge, somewhat transient population of young people, mostly from NOVA and the OB. There’s one club, Attitudes, that has a Tuesday standup night, but overall, comedy seems to be unrepresented here. For example, there used to be an improv group in 2001 that folded after about a semester. But, you mentioned you did sketch comedy in college here? MR: I used to do a group called Ground Zero, and we did video sketch. They would put us up on VTTV, and I think they were running some of our videos for years after I left. Maybe they didn’t have any programming. Anyway, it’s cool that there was improv. I wish that
it? 16B: Maybe someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend would come out, and that was about it. But this ties into an earlier point, which is, it seems that there’s more of an outcry in Blacksburg now for live performance and we have this burst now of venues showcasing live music. So I’m wondering how underground comedy and theater could be revived in Blacksburg as well, and I’d love to see it happen. What I want to ask you is, if this were your world, and you were starting a comedy group, kind of in, well, a cave... MR: I think that’s it -- to start, you might have to do it in a cave. You have to do it with the people who are passionate about doing it, and you gotta keep doing it as long as it’s fun, and then you gotta perform for the boyfriend and the girlfriend and the random guy off the street. And you hope it catches fire, and you hope that more people come in looking for that sort of thing, and once they find it, they help it out and push it forward. In order to get out from the fringe, it’s gotta become the cool thing to do, so then people want to join up in droves. 16B: Just keep doing it even if only the neighbor and his dog show up. MR: Sure, and marketing may help somewhat, but also, just try to get better amongst yourselves. Call in people from Chicago or DC or ... wherever you can where you know that people are doing it on a professional level or a higher
photo courtesy of Second City
amateur level and try to take workshops... see what you can learn from them. Go off to festivals as a group, there are festivals in NC, Chicago, NY, DC has a festival every year, colleges... there’s an entire community that’s grown up around improvisation that probably started in Chicago and spread to other places, like Upright Citizens Brigade in NY and LA now, they came out of Chicago. There are message boards online [like] Chicago Improv Network. There are great resources to find out about the greater community. That’s really it. Try to perform all branches of comedy too. ... All that stuff can bring in new blood. 16B: How long did it take you to get into Second City? MR: Well, I moved to Chicago in 2003 and I was hired by SC in 2006, so 3 years. ... I actually moved to Chicago just to get better at improv. ...I’d started do-
ing it in DC and I fell in love with it there, and I knew in order to get better I had to go where all the best people were, and at the time it was Chicago, so that was it. I moved just to see what would happen. ... I wanted to find like-minded people that I would be able to laugh with and put on good shows with, and I found that, and it’s been great. Second City was just a by-product of me doing good work, I think. I’ve learned more in 5 years in Chicago about comedy. I was just surrounded by the funniest people in the entire world. It’s pretty amazing. 16B: I really appreciate your time, and I’m looking forward to writing about the October 4th Second City performance at the Lyric for our online edition. MR: Yeah, I hope you’ll come say hi. Wait a minute... argh! Sorry, I’m getting my pants pulled down. 16B: ...
O C T 2 0 0 8 17
OKTOBERFEST!
On c e
upon a time, there was a handsome prince who married a beautiful princess. Everyone turned out to toast the bride and groom and a special beer was commissioned to celebrate the occasion. So great were the festivities that to this day people from all over the world still come to fill their mugs and partake in the revelry that marks the anniversary of this spectacular event. It sounds like a fairy tale but it’s all true. The prince was Ludwig of Bavaria, the princess was Therese of Saxony-Hildurghausen, and the festival that marks the anniversary of their union on October 12th 1810 is known the world over as the Oktoberfest of Munich, Bavaria. Over six million people attend this event annually and over five and a half million liters of beer are consumed! The “Oktoberfest” beer traditionally served at this event is a German style of lager known as Marzen (German for March). It was originally brewed
in spring (hence the name) and kept in cold storage during the summer. Marzen is known for its deep copper color and rich, malty flavor. It is easy to find in Blacksburg this time of year and you’ll find it the perfect compliment to a cool autumn evening. Here are some classic examples: Hofbrau Oktoberfestbier – Staatliches Hofbrauhaus – Munich, Germany The famous Hofbrau Oktoberfest has a brilliant golden hue and a light fluffy head that fades quickly. It is lighter in color and flavor than most other beers of this style but retains the rich, malt-forward taste of an Oktoberfest beer. It has a fruity aroma tinged with notes of hops and a hint of banana. The sweet taste of lightly toasted malt is well balanced by a slight hop bitterness and a pleasant, bubbly finish that lingers on the tongue. Rating: B
by Danny Flad
Spaten Oktoberfestbier UrMarzen – Spaten-Franziskaner – Munich, Germany If you’re looking for Oktoberfest beer on draft here in Blacksburg, Spaten is your best bet. It is a rich, caramel-colored beer with a slim head that fades almost instantly. Its malty flavor and aroma are exactly what you’d expect from a good Marzen beer and it is sure to leave a satisfyingly sweet and starchy finish on your tongue. While Spaten Oktoberfest is well worth savoring, it sometimes seems overly sweet and lacking in complexity. Rating: B-
again! Plaid Avenger here, returned from multiple missions abroad, partying with heads of state and raucous rebel leaders from around the globe. And whenever international figures of intrigue convene for secret meetings on the Plaid Avenger’s home turf, I of course have to oenologically entertain them to the best of the ‘Burg’s ability. From German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minster Putin to UN secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, all require wonderful wines to placate their perceptive palates. Hence, I decided to dedicate this diatribe to the spots in the local scene where the Plaid has had the most—and most positive— wine experiences. The ‘Burg is particularly blessed by Bacchus in that they possess a stellar little wine shop known as the Vintage Cellar, which easily contains the largest and most diverse domestic and international wine selection on this side of the state. Pair that with a staff that possesses encyclopedic knowledge, and the VC makes it almost impossible to not find a wine that is up your alley. When entertaining at the hacienda, they are the go-to guys: the VC crew will help pair a
wine to any meal you are creating and any size pocketbook you are carrying. Bonus: every Saturday they do a free wine tasting of anywhere from 6 to 10 wines, across the spectrums of styles, varieties, and price. And since they are juxtaposed to the liquor store, it’s almost perfect one-stop shopping! Did I just actually use the word juxtapose? But on to meals you don’t cook yourself… Italy lies close to the heart of any wine imbiber, and Zeppoli’s has a simply magnificent selection of Italian wines to pair with their menu as well. Bellisimo! Since they are a restaurant and wine store, you can get a wide selection of Chiantis, Brunellos, Barolos, and a ton of other lesser known Italian wines, to complement their classic cuisine…or to take on home. Que bella! They also do a wine tasting twice a month for a nominal fee -- check that out too. It seems to me that they don’t mark up the prices of their wine as much as most eateries do, so when at Zeppoli’s I strongly urge you to skip past the wines by the glass and select a bottle. You can thank me later for saving you money and making you
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This October, be sure to grill up some bratwurst, put on your lederhosen, crank up some good oom-pah music and (if you’re of drinking age) sample one of these beers and raise a glass to Prince Ludwig and his lovely wife Therese. Prosit!
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen – Brauerei Aying – Aying, Germany This five-time gold medal winner at the World Beer Championships is the color of dark honey and pours out with a frothy head of huge bubbles. As the head fades, one can’t help but notice
wine in the 16 blocks
G r eetings
the wonderful bouquet of toasted barley with a hint of brown sugar. What really sets this beer apart are the complex layers of flavor that cascade over the tongue when you take a swig. Notes of caramel, brown sugar, and toasted bread seem to hit the tongue from all sides building into a crescendo of malty goodness and fading into a clean satisfying finish just before the flavors become too overpowering. Rating: A
by Plaid Avenger
drink better wine. Speaking of saving you money, I would be remiss to leave out what is perhaps the best on-site wine deal in town: ‘Wine Wednesday’ at Boudreaux’s. My favorite cajun dishes here demand the palate-cleansing abilities of lighter white wines like the Riff Pinot Grigio, however, they do have quite the eclectic selection in sippable reds too, especially Pinot Noirs like the Louis M. Martini. What’s the deal on Wednesdays? Just this: half-off the listed price of wines by the bottle. Damn! Pass the crawdads on hump day! That said, without reservations (literally and figuratively) Poor Billy’s Seafood Restaurant has recently set the bar higher for local establishments by actually suggesting a particular wine for each item on the menu. Wow. From surf to turf, they do it right, and the wine pairings are always on the mark. The Altosur Malbec with their stuffed filet is righteous. In addition, during my many years of kendo training in Japan I picked up a soft spot for sushi, and PB’s Santa
Ines Sauvignon Blanc or Meilen Riesling with just about any of Poor Billy’s rolls is kamikaze-on-target. Other taverns that present interesting but more limited wine tipples include The Cellar. Go straight to the ‘by the bottle’ list for good pricing and better quality; Penfold’s Rawson Retreat and Biagio are solid reds. I hear that Gillie’s is mixing it up and diversifying into wine as well, so I look forward to sampling some organic wines from there soon too. And I cannot in good conscience end this local wine rant without mentioning a couple of stellar places just out of town: The Bank in Pearisburg and The Metro in downtown Roanoke are both insanely good for food and equally endowed with vino. When you really want to impress, and desire the five-star treatment, those places are as money and metropolitan as it gets…ha!... thus, their names! Let me point out that this is not an exhaustive list, not is it meant to be an promotion of any particular bar or brasserie. At home or out and about; if I’ve excluded a good one, then give me a shout. I will investigate immediately. Party on.
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O C T 2 0 0 8 19
by Amy Splitt photos by Elizabeth Spencer
W he r e
can you get everything, from a made-to-order Rainbow Roll to a 12ounce filet in a fancy French sauce, presented with verve and a fancy cocktail? Since it replaced the salon below Big Al’s Sports Bar and Grill in the summer of 2000, Poor Billy’s has long been downtown Blacksburg’s goto place for seafood of any kind, from raw oysters to filet of salmon. Add an imaginative crew of grill cooks and top-shelf drinks and a kitch-and-casual atmosphere. Although it’s not the only downtown hot spot with a raw bar or serving a banging martini, customers from back in the day keep coming back. Full disclosure: I have a “date night” with a good friend at the back bar of Poor Billy’s on a pretty regular basis, and I know a lot of the staff reasonably well. So, although unbiased review is impossible, if anyone has further comments or questions, they know where to find me. This September Poor Billy’s revised its menu. The star of the new appetizer list is the lobster and leek cake fried in panku breadcrumbs. Entree prices have jumped due to the rise of food costs, however you can still find some reasonable bargains. My favorite is the giant serving of steamed mussels, served in a garlicky white wine sauce: a meal in itself with hot bread on the side. After 4 years of offering an increasingly
ambitious fine dining menu, with much fanfare Poor Billy’s hired a sushi chef and introduced a small test menu with only a few rolls and nigiri options. This past summer, the vacant salon next door was repurposed into an all-sushi place to keep up with demand. Its tranquil atmosphere is a charming foil to the bustle of its parent restaurant, which still retains its own sushi bar. Many items from the 2004 menu, like the “Very Veggie” and the Tofu Roll are still around, but the list has spiraled into a grab bag of rolls along with sides like seaweed salad and steamed edamame. Try the spicy yellowtail roll with radish sprouts and the Chili Roll which adds grilled pineapple and jalapeno sauce as counterpoint to the fish. Of course there’s still an all-sashimi platter for protein purists. If sushi’s not your thing, entrees from Poor Billy’s hot kitchen are always great. Linger over a double top-shelf cocktail and consider the suggested wine pairings. Before you go in, though, always check the chalkboard for specials. If you see cioppino up there, just cancel your plans. Get a friend to share the dish. Another occasional special which would be a great addition to the regular menu is the filet of locally-farmed buffalo. Poor Billy’s Seafood Restaurant is located at 201 N. Main St in downtown Blacksburg. Postprandial cigars are allowed at the back bar, and after-dinner drinks and coffee are encouraged.
SUSHI IN THE ‘BURG
F o r t h o s e w h o w o u l d scoff at the idea of a sushi restaurant in downtown Blacksburg with an American staff, keep this in mind: even in Baltimore or San Francisco where fresh seafood is plentiful, you don’t normally find totally authentic Japanese sushi. The maki rolls and flavor combinations we have come to expect from sushi bars were invented in L.A. in the mid-’70’s by expat Japanese chefs who couldn’t find the kinds of ingredients they were used to in Japan. The humble California roll is the cornerstone of the American sushi industry. Spicy tuna roll? As American as a cheese and pepperoni slice to go. And as for freshness, if you’ve eaten raw salmon, you had best hope it was previously frozen, since contrary to urban legend, tapeworms are not recommended as a weight-loss device.
20 1 6 B L O C K S
There are advantages to eating sushi American style -- The results
include flamboyant, fun combinations of raw and cooked seafood, vegetables and fruit, and fish roe. You can also order your favorite salmon or hamachi sashimi yearround. This is not really done, say, in the Japanese port-town of Hokkaido, where the catches are seasonal and presentation is more dignified. Many newly trained sushi preparers have never selected or cut a whole, fresh fish before. In the case of bluefin tuna, where fish sold to restaurants in Japan can weigh in at 600 pounds, there’s no way. There’s a whole art to that process that many who enjoy making maki rolls and arranging a sumptuous sushi boat have never experienced. Nevertheless, American sushi can be enjoyed for what it certainly is: a light but satisfying combination of intense flavors, with emphasis on exciting presentation and the chef’s individual style.
Your Fairy Godmother 540.552.0729 Renting formal dresses in the New River Valley www.your-fairygodmother.com
O C T 2 0 0 8 21
speech. word. reason.
short fiction by Lydia Fales
S
ometimes people get my name wrong. When this happens I just let it go, figuring I’ll never talk to them again anyway. Plus, I hate my name and it’s fun to think someone could believe I’m something different than I am. It’s like losing weight or becoming a vegetarian or taking up smoking except you’re not actually doing anything. When I was in high school I took a job as a cashier in an auto parts store. I have no idea why they hired me. I knew nothing about cars and I still don’t. I didn’t even have a driver’s license. The day I started I was coming down with a cold and when I said, “Misty,” everyone thought I said Miss D. Miss D. sounded a lot more intriguing, so I didn’t correct anyone and I put on my smock. After I got over my cold and went back to ringing up air filters and wiper blades they had already made me a name tag. Miss. D. And a get well card with flowery writing spelling out my new name. Someone’s wife must have done it since I was the only one with even remotely feminine handwriting unless you count Micah, the light in the loafers (but didn’t know it yet) stock boy. My sister accused me of stealing the card from the illustrious Miss D. It seemed too difficult to explain, so I didn’t. Anyway, when I’m sick like that I lie in bed and can’t sleep and I think these things: 1.What if I’m dying? 2.If I’m dying, is there a hell? 3.Am I going to hell for all the commandments I’ve broken? 4.Am I going to hell for all the bad things I’ve done, not including the normal bad things? 5.Is there even a god? 6.Who makes the decisions? 7.Is my boyfriend jacking off in the other room? 8.Do I care if he is? 9.He should anyway because I’m too sick to be fucking anyone in the first place. 10.Why is it so fucking cold in here? 11.Maybe if I masturbate I’ll be able to sleep. 12.Jesus Christ, I’m going to hell. 13.God damn it, I hate being sick. 14.I’m going to be miserable for the rest of my life, I just know it. And then I usually just fall asleep in a little ball of content that I’ve figured out the meaning of it all in my dumb, fevercrazed brain. Sleep is a strange thing. Have you ever not slept for days? Not from drugs or something fun, but because you are taking care of someone
who is dying or because you just can’t. It turns you into a zombie. Really. Not the kind that’s after brains like in the movies, but one that just loses all hope and doesn’t care about anything. Especially if there’s a hell or not and what might happen if you get there or not. Sometimes it’s nice to feel like that, but if you do it too long, well-meaning people you don’t know will ask you things like: 1.Are you OK? 2.What’s wrong with you? 3.Can I help you? 4.Why are you standing in the middle of the street? So it’s none of my business if you’ve done this or not, I’m just warning you if you’re thinking of giving it a shot. I just recently moved to a new city. I’m not exactly sure why, but now that I’m here it doesn’t really matter anyway. Because I don’t know anyone, my apartment is exceptionally clean. Lately I’ve been throwing a magazine on the coffee table and leaving a couple of plates in the sink when I go out just in case someone breaks in while I’m gone. I don’t want them to think I’m one of those people where everything has to be just so. They’re clean plates in a clean sink, so when I get home I just put them back in the cupboard. It’s not really a hassle at all and it makes me feel good.
ISM by Ed McClain Winter 83 out of the womb I came And upon my arrival met a man with a curious name I am ISM he said because I Separate Men You are my rival I replied and I’ll fight you to the end Those simple words were a battle cry For a war I planned to fight til the day I die I sparred ISM day and night with no end in sight Like day battles night and dark battles light All the while sure that I was wining the fight With no measure of youth truth wrong or right My naïve confidence convinced me of my dominance Fighting a war that seemed to be more about prominence Between rounds we exchanged glares and jeers Both so very sure that victory is near You are no obstacle I shouted And you are nothing to fear This fight seems hardly fair Just to make things clear The only thing we share Is time space and the air we breathe I battled ISM over mountains and under the seas From the start From the furthest reaches of my subconscious To the deepest crevice of my heart And ye even in the dark I would try to see Until one day he shouted something back at me He said
Today I watched the mud turtle my sister gave me for an hour. I said the word “lethargic.” Then I thought, what if someone is watching me watch the turtle and thinks the same thing?
I Shant Move
My sister said I should get out, so I went downtown and bought a pair of high heeled wooden sandals. I’ve never bought a pair of shoes like this, but the heel isn’t too skinny, so I think I’ll be able to figure it out. I wore them out of the store with my old shoes in the box like a dead hamster waiting for an appropriate burial. When I was making my way home I passed a coffee shop. Everyone inside looked so happy and nice that I went in and ordered a cappuccino. I don’t drink coffee, but this is what people do. I got a newspaper. I crossed my legs. I smiled. The people were talking and laughing. I laughed. I laughed just loud enough for people to know I was having a good time. I raised the cup to my lips and pretended to drink it like they do in the movies. I looked at my new shoes. It all seemed to be going pretty well. New town. New shoes. An almost new habit.
Ignorance Strengthens Me
To be continued.
22 1 6 B L O C K S
Cause
And yes I Spread Malice Because It Suits Me I struggled through a war while concealing my fright I guess W.A.R. stands for we are right we fought under that premise for all my life yin and yang fighting with all our might cause it might be we both cant be hated myself after years cause I begun to see that ISM was just his name because ism is in me ISM was just his name because ism is in we
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Choices and Challenges
Taking it to the Web: Political Participation in the Internet Age
Oct. 30th
Thursday, October 3oth 8am—4pm A FREE Public Forum
Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown and The Lyric Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA The rapid development of new information and communication technologies over the past three decades has brought new ways of participating in collective decision-making. This year’s forum will explore the implications of these developments and the new forms of political participation they make possible.
Presented by the Department of Science and Technology in Society
www.choicesandchallenges.sts.vt.edu
Contact: CHOICES@VT.EDU
Welcome back students! ��
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24 1 6 B L O C K S
Y
BLACKSBURG A: The Lantern (Ad on pg. 19) B: Armory Art Gallery (Ad on pg. 7) C: Awful Arthur’s Seafood Company (Ad on pg. 7) D: Long & Neylan Attorneys at Law (Ad on pg. 21) E Cabo Fish Taco (Ad on pg. 23) F: Mish Mish (Ad on pg. 5) G: Chantilly Lace (Ad on pg. 7) H: The Cellar Restaurant (Ad on pg. 5 ) I: Wireless Zone (Ad on pg.27 ) J: Ceritano’s Restaurant (Ad on pg. 13) K: Big Al’s & Poor Billy’s (Ad on pg. 5) L: Kent Jewelers (Ad on pg. 7) M: The Inn at Virginia Tech (Ad on pg. 13) N: Matrix Gallery (Ad on pg. 19) O: PK’s Restaurant (Ad on pg. 5) P: Gillie’s (Ad on pg. 13) Q: The Lyric Theater (Ad on pg. 21) R: Mad Dog (Ad on pg. 23) S: D’Rose (Ad on pg. 21) T: Zeppoli’s Restaurant (Ad on pg. 19) U: YMCA (Ad on pg. 23) V: VT’s Play Hard (Ad on Back Cover) W: John’s Camera Corner (Ad on pg. 19) X: Bohemian Trading Co. (Ad on pg. 27) CHRISTIANSBURG Y: Inside Out Salon (Ad on pg. 19) ROANOKE Jefferson Center (Ad on pg. 13)
: 16 BLOCKS PRESENTS
Lantern Halloween II: The ad) 9:00 1 (The Day of the De er lomb ve No Saturday this year and come see ice ar your costume tw We as ! , ly set On ad es he dio um Ra st Co an entire Egodeaf performing llerRo V NR the d an cals Lee Street Riots, is, Elv nces by Buddy Holly, ses well as special appeara ite a few spooky surpri qu d an s, an org ie eer s, ine ch ma oke Sm girls. are in store.
N: MORE HALLOWEEN FU
n Carnival for ALL AGESNew this year- 10/31 -- Hallowee painting lot. NEEDED: Jugglers, face 5-8pm in the Farmer’s Market park ers. rtain ente r othe any and performers, ers, singers, musicians, street chants Mer n ntow Dow at re emo Blak Interested? Please contact Laureen of Blacksburg. - 5753 W. Main St, Salem DIXIE CAVERNS Haunted Cave y -- no this one’s supposed to be scar k Every Fri/Sat in October. I thin . info e 2085 for mor refunds for crybabies. Call 540-380 nsTIVAL - 3020 Riner Rd, Christia SINKLAND FARMS PUMPKIN FES for fair est harv ntry 6, 10AM-6PM Cou burg - Sat and Sun only, Oct. 11-2 e. maz 5-acre corn the whole family. Check out the urg- Friday 31st Oct Halloween in Downtown Blacksb and under 4-6pm age ry enta Elem Trick or Treat for
MUSIC:
Friday, November 7. Awful Arth ur’s in Blacksburg is following up a hot month of music (The Wailers , Urban Sophisticate) with Tim Reynolds and his band TR3 Reynolds rich and virtuoso guitar-playing earned him fame playing alongside Dav e Mathews. Tickets $15, openers Groovascape. 16 Blocks welcomes new music writ er Brian Zickafoose in this issue. He’s also putting on a free show at The Lantern October 18 featuring Boo mbox. Opening the night is Cougar Magnum. Sunday, Oct 26 @ the Lantern: 8pm $TBA the Bastards of Fate Mose Giganticus The Emotron 300 lb. Pidgeon JJ’s birthday with Cheatwood and the boys and others... October, 11 2008 at The Lantern w/ Deral Fenderson, The Visitatio ns, Weird Paul Petroskey, The Bastard s of Fate: 211-B Draper Road, Blac ksburg, Virginia 24063b(tune in to the Local Zone on October 8 @7 pm to hear Deral live and just plain wro ng in the studio) .10/15 Jumper K.O. live on WUVT
16
To Do List
art ExHIBITS: Fri, Oct 3rd thru Nov. 8th - Per spective Gallery, Squires Studen t Center -- FREE Day of the Dead exhibiti on - Members of the local art com munity build beautiful ancestor altars buil t in honor of this traditional Mex ican celebration of family, community, and remembering the dearly dep arted. October 18, 2008 - January 26, 2009 O. Winston Link Museum , 101 Shenandoah Ave Roanoke - “Th e Outline of Metal Against the Sky: -Fine art train and industrial pho tography by Kevin Scanlon of Pitt sburgh, PA - Reception 7 PM $5 (Membe rs Free) Wed, Nov. 8th TAUBMAN MUSEU M OF ART, One Market Sq, Roa noke Compared to a flying nun’s hab it and a train wreck (or perhaps a daring piece of modern architecture??), the newly constructed museum has been the subject of heated discussion. The long-awaited opening could be one of the most significant steps towards the growth of a fine art corridor in the region. Contact the museum for more info at artmuseumroanoke .org.
THEATER:
@ VT: Theater Arts Productions : atre The io Stud ires Squ ge nsta Mai A SKULL IN CONNEMARA Oct. 13-18, 7:30 PM. village. Dark comedy set in a quaint Irish 204 Performing Arts Building The Burial at Thebes Oct. 23-25, 7:30 PM, FREE of Seamus Heaney’s 2004 version Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet big of ium enn mill new the in a l dram Sophocles’ Antigone sets classica ia. med LIVE @ THE LYRIC Box of Light Theatre Sunday, October 26, 3 PM icipation. Giant puppets and audience part NEW RIVER STAGE Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg “I Hate Hamlet” October 18-19: The Hamlet revolves around a disconPaul Rudnick’s 1991 comedy I Hate st of Rally who is visited by the gho tented TV actor named Andrew re. ymo Barr n rious drunk Joh theater past: stage icon and noto
Local Zone 7 PM 90.7 FM
November, 5 2008 at The Lantern - Dynamite Club -- This band from NYC has been a rare sight since their lead guitar/shrieking guy in underwear had to go back to Japan, but they are invading the Lantern , so hold on to your tidy whities. Plop house All-Stars? Consider yoursel ves summoned.
DONT FORGET!
Blacksburg Bicycle Co-op is back -- want to fix your bike yourself, or challenge yourself to build one? Need used parts and want to learn the ways of the peaceful 2-wheeled warrior? The place is 710 Tom’s Creek Road and the time is every Monday and Thursday, 6-9 PM. Every Monday night, 7-10 PM Radford Fiddle & Banjo Jam The Coffee Mill, 1144 East Main Street, Radford Every Friday night, 7-11:30 PM Floyd Country Store Friday Night Jamboree, $3 206 South Locust St, Floyd
OTHER EVENTS: Oct 21, 3-6:30 PM, Old Dominion Ballroom, Squires Student Center, VT 2008 Chocolate Festival -- fundraiser for the NRV Free Clinic $12 at the door. Three words: Silent dessert auction. Tues Nov 4, 2:30-4 PM in Haymarket Theater, Squires. “THE BATTLE OF THE BEAST” -- Free lecture by mad scientist/engineer Theo Jansen (www.strandbeest.com). Through simple mechanical principles Jansen creates gigantic, uncanny skeletal and insectile “beach animals” out of pvc pipe that move, flap, and run as if they were alive. Lecture does NOT include a full-size demo that would crush Squires, but he might show you how to build your own.
25
Solution 1: 1. Qa7+ Kxa7 2. Bd4+ Ka8 3. Nb6+ Ka7 4. Nxc8+ Ka8 5. Nb6+ Ka7 6. c8=N+ Kb8 (if 6. c8=Q?? Qe6#) 7. Be5+ Nc7 8. Bxc7# Solution 2: 1. Qh1+ d5 2. Qh6+ Kb7 3. Nc7+ Bb5 4. Rxb5+ Ka7 5. Qb6#
Across
1
1. Used to be 4. Hallowed 9. Gold coin 14. 401(k) alternative 15. Lofty nest 16. All together 17. Bargain 19. Belief 20. Quit 21. Former Russian rulers 23. Additional 24. Graduated glass tube 27. Word that can succeed dance, foot and door 30. Five year period 32. Genetic messenger 33. Inspectee 37. Rigel's constellation 39. Lease holders 40. Religious retreat house 42. Liquid waste component 43. Maternal or paternal 44. Decease 45. Wiry 48. Creamy-beige color 50. Little bits 51. Side 55. Home of the Black Bears 57. River of Ghana 58. Like ears 60. Cunctation 64. Ignore 65. Lyric poem 66. Corp. honcho 67. Furnishings 68. Apparel 69. Light brown color, common to pale sunworshippers
Down
1. Flinch 2. Staggering 3. Long stories 4. Restrain 5. Wreath of flowers 6. Division of geologic time 7. Make a lap
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43. Casino area 8. Move unsteadily 46. Metal, often used as a 9. Group of individual facts container 10. Software buyers 47. Firmly implanted 11. Shrink 49. Hives 12. Hydrocarbon suffix 51. Unit of weight 13. Vietnamese New Year 52. Choose 18. Sugary suffix 53. Baffled 22. Actor Erwin 24. It's laid down on a diamond 54. Person who dresses stones 56. River in central Europe 25. Employs, consumes 57. Competes 26. Hwy. 58. Spearheaded 28. ___ Gay 59. Corrida cry 29. Discussion group 61. Spring mo. 30. Queues 62. Future fish 31. Medium of exchange 33. Piece of music written for a 63. Driller's deg. solo instrument Solution on pg. 24 34. Adapted to a dry environment 35. Absence of oxygen 36. Floor covering where the cat sat! 38. Hurried 40. Injectable diazepam, in military lingo 41. Energy units
Crossword Puzzle provided by Bestcrosswords.com, used with permission
Chuck Ronco’s
CHESS PROBLEMS
NO.1: “Uninvited guests”
NO.2: “Neighbors”
White is in a nasty situation. Black has an extra queen, and mate next move. Black’s king seems to be pretty snug in that corner. Perhaps there is a way to forcibly evict him?
White has a lot of attacking forces around the black king, but black’s entire army is surrounding him. One false move, and black could turn the tides. In order to win, white must get a little closer, and don’t be shy...
White to move and mate in eight.
White to move and mate in five.
Solutions at top of page.
Calling all players!!! The Second Annual Hokie Memorial Chess Open will be held in Squires Student Center on November 8th. Registration begins at 9:00AM, please contact chessman@vt.edu for details. Open to all ages and levels of play, USCF rated or not! Come one, come all!!!
26 1 6 B L O C K S
+ Ka8 #)
F-5802 BusinessAdBlacksburg.qxd:Layout 1
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