Volume 37, Issue 1

Growing up in a non-traditional family can be a little strange at times. Holidays are notable only for the seasonal candy selection and sales on the stuff I can buy myself. For example, Christmas means it’s cold, and people are freaking out about money. Easter means there are fake bunnies everywhere, and people pretend to give a shit about Jesus. Halloween is the time of year when kids around the country put masks on their faces so they can collect enough candy to make themselves puke everywhere later that night. Birthdays mean I’m one year older—and that’s all.Read more...

The Orion Soundbook is the debut LP from Michigan folk band Frontier Ruckus. Matthew Milia, lead singer and songwriter, creates the mythical "Orion Town" through his overly descriptive lyrics. The bluegrass harmonies between Milia and female vocalist Anna Burch help to invent the imagery of a rural town on an overcast autumn day. Milia’s voice is one of those love it or hate it voices, shaky, but powerful in his exuding confidence.Read more...

Long-distance relationships are hard enough. But when the couple is separated by time as well as distance, things get even tougher. That’s why no one could have predicted the success of throwing together the work of a sixty-years-dead Bolshevik artist and a contemporary Japanese-American born after the death of his muse. El Lissitzky’s work consists of two lithograph portfolios. Hideyo Okamura has transformed a one-room gallery at the U.Va. Art Museum into a recreation of a 1923 Berlin exhibit of Proun-one of Lissitzky’s portfolios.Read more...

ANDREW VAN DER VAART

If the Dec is doing things right, then hypothetically, if people were to talk about the Dec then they could call it “edgy.”

People throw around the word edgy, about tattoos or MySpace haircuts or Scandinavian death metal bands (the ones that break up because all the members eat each other)—but what do people mean when they say edgy? This is a hypothetical question for the hypothetical people.Read more...

Expectations projected a serious lack of productivity last Friday morning. A 7:30 a.m. wake up is usually detrimental to the alarm clock’s cogency, especially after a Thursday night open bar. Despite the hangover, my Friday morning at Hope Community Center on 11th Street turned out to be more productive than ever. Hope is a place where homeless Americans in Charlottesville can grab a handful of granola for breakfast or take a quick shower.Read more...

The profession of urban planning is adapting to the new sustainability craze with enthusiasm, which it views as a way to regain prominence in the face of powerful architects and landscape architects. One target of urban planning’s sustainability campaign is infill development, and U.Va. is no exception. As reported last week by the Office of the Architect for the University, U.Va. has unveiled a new Grounds Plan that focuses on keeping Thomas Jefferson’s rural ideals while allowing room for the University to grow.Read more...

The recession has hit home. Last week the Dec received notice from the Student Appropriations Com­mittee of our budget for Spring 2009. The news was bad. Though it might appear to run solely on internal momentum and the propulsive force of a steady supply of hot air, the Declaration is a dependent CIO like many others.Read more...

Aries (March 21—April 19):
Donate your parents to Toys for Tots. That’s what those kids really need.

Taurus (April 20—May 20):
Tell the one about Rudolph at the Christ­mas party. It’ll sleigh everyone!

Gemini (May 21—June 21):
Your dad will take “making the yuletide gay“ to a whole new level when he intro­duces you as his “other daughter.“

Cancer (June 22—July 22):
Jack Frost is coming to your town. But bring some cash, cause this snow ain’t free.

Leo (July 23—Aug. 22):Read more...

Dear Dec,
I’ve been up all week preparing for my exams because I take 37 credits and I have five exams on Monday and my professors won’t let me switch the exam dates so I’ve just been pulling all-nighters and drinking entire cases of Red Bull and dumping ice water on my head and my hands are kind of shaking a lot and I’m totally freaking out and could you pretend to be me and just sit in on a few of them, thanks?
Sincerely,
Totally Wired

Dear Too Worried,Read more...