Honoring Blue Ridge music
Took a ride down the Blue Ridge Parkway recently to the Blue Ridge Music Center at Milepost 213. OK, it was a nice weekend day and I needed an excuse to put some miles on my motorcycle. The center was well worth the effort.
Inside the display hall, you can find information on Southwestern Virginia music groups, including the Floyd County Ramblers, who gamed some fame in the music world with a song about a local tragedy.
If you haven’t visited the Center, the trip is worth it for both the scenery along the Parkway and the tour through the area’s musical heritage. The concert season is finished for the year but the fall colors are starting to come in on the Parkway, which provides another reason to go.
Update: Citigroup takes over failing Wachovia
Citigroup today assumed the assets of failing Wachovia Bank, marking the latest failure among financial institutions with bad mortgage loans.
Reports The Associated Press:
Citigroup agreed Monday to purchase Wachovia’s banking operations for $2.1 billion in a deal arranged by federal regulators, making the Charlotte-based bank the latest casualty of the widening global financial crisis.
The deal greatly expands Citigroup’s retail franchise — giving it a total of more than 4,300 U.S. branches and $600 billion in deposits — and secures its place among the U.S. banking industry’s Big Three, along with Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
But it comes at a cost: Citigroup Inc. said it will slash its quarterly dividend in half to 16 cents. It also will dilute existing shareholders by selling $10 billion in common stock to shore up its capital position.
In addition to assuming $53 billion worth of debt, Citigroup will absorb up to $42 billion of losses from Wachovia’s $312 billion loan portfolio, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. agreeing to cover any remaining losses. Citigroup also will issue $12 billion in preferred stock and warrants to the FDIC.
Is Wachovia the next bank to fail?
Struggling banking giant Wachovia is on the ropes and on the market, hoping a deal with potential buyers.
If Wachovia fails, it will be the largest area bank to go down the tubes. Some who have dealt with the bank say the collapse is well deserve.
Wachovia is saddled with thousands of foreclosed properties, some from its own questionable lending practices and others from its foolish acquisition of troubled mortgage lender Goldenwest.
Reports The Associated Press:
At least two major banks were reportedly in talks Sunday to buy Wachovia Corp., the latest U.S. bank to be the focus of investor anxiety over mounting losses tied to toxic assets.
The New York Times reported on its Web site that Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. are bidding in a possible emergency takeover of Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia.
The Wall Street Journal also listed Spain’s Banco Santander SA as a possible bidder. Both papers cited people familiar with the talks who they did not name.
Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown declined to comment on the reports, as did Citigroup spokeswoman Christina Pretto. Wells Fargo spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment.
Wachovia’s shares fell 27 percent in regular-session trading on Friday, and shed another 15 percent in after-hours dealings to end the week at $8.50, as investor worries heightened.
We have friends who had to walk away from their home after Wachovia reneged on a commitment to a bridge loan to help them sell the home after real estate values plummeted in Northern Virginia. Last year, we were bombarded by calls from a high-pressure Wachovia mortgage rep, trying to con us into "leveraging the equity" in our mortgage-free home into a 30-year loan. We finally had to block Wachovia’s number to stop the calls.
Wachovia is counting on the $700 billion taxpayer bailout make make the sale possible, hoping the government will save it from its own stupidity.
Remembering Paul Newman
I met Paul Newman in 1977 during a sports car race at Mid-America Raceway in Wentzville, Missouri, just outside St. Louis. He came to Wentzville late in the Sports Car Club of America racing season to try and qualify for the runoffs later in the year.
But his car lost a clutch and Newman gained no points that day. As both a media photographer and a race official for SCCA, I was able to get past the guards that surrounded his compound and spend some time with the movie star and acclaimed actor.
Newman was gracious, funny, witty and tired. His blue eyes sparkled with humor and vigor that belied his age. We chatted for about 30 minutes before I had to go out and work another race.
Amy met Newman in 1984 when we attended the pole qualification weekend for the Indianapolis 500. We were leaving on the Sunday following pole day qualifying and she was struggling with a suitcase at our hotel. A short, wiry man stepped up to help with the door. It was Newman, part owner of Newman-Hass racing.
When she got to the car where I was packing the rest of the luggage, her mouth was still open.
"My God," she said. "That was Paul Newman. He’s almost as short as I am."
Newman was short in stature but tall in the eyes of his fans. The 83-year-old legend died Friday after a long bout with cancer. Reports The Associated Press:
Paul Newman never much cared for what he once called the "rubbish" of Hollywood, choosing to live in a quiet community on the opposite corner of the U.S. map, staying with his wife of many years and _ long after he became bored with acting _ pursuing his dual passions of philanthropy and race cars.
And yet despite enormous success in both endeavors and a vile distaste for celebrity, the Oscar-winning actor never lost the aura of a towering Hollywood movie star, turning in roles later in life that carried all the blue-eyed, heartthrob cool of his anti-hero performances in "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
The 10-time Academy Award nominee died Friday at age 83, surrounded by family and close friends at his Westport farmhouse following a long battle with cancer, publicist Jeff Sanderson said Saturday.
Full fall foiliage? That depends…
The experts who know about such things say a full fall foliage this year could be iffy, given the three-year-long droughout and the cooler weather lately that has fooled some trees into dropping their leaves ahead of schedule.
Still, there’s hope for a lot of color:
Chris Thomsen of the Department of Forestry says there is some evidence of stress on the trees, but the nearly four inches from Faye slowed that down. However, it’s still unclear whether this year’s fall foliage will make a full comeback.
"The moisture may be the critical thing this year, and I’d say right now we’re kinda in limbo as whether it’s going to affect the fall foliage colors severely or not," says Thomsen.
Some of the trees in the woods on our properties began dropping leaves three weeks ago.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
(Photo from last year on the Blue Ridge Parkway)
Galex? What the heck is Galex?
According to the Blue Ridge Parkway tour guide, the free book you can pick up at Mabry Mill and many other stops along the scenic drive, the Galex lies just north of the Parkway shortly before you reach North Carolina.
Galex? Isn’t that supposed to be Galax?
Yep, but the map in the center of the guide misspells the city’s name, calling it Galex.
Elsewhere in the guide, Galax is spelled correctly, but the map shows it as "Galex."
You’d think the folks who run the Parkway would know better. At least they spelled "Floyd" correctly.
All in the family, Part III
We dated briefly in high school and I she came to visit my studio when I moved back to Floyd County in 2004. We had lunch and talked about old times. She married shortly after graduation from high school and they remained in Floyd County.
She seemed happy…until a phone call last week asking to meet for lunch, not in Floyd, but in Christiansburg.
I noticed the big, goggle-sized sunglasses when I walked into Cracker Barrel. She wore them at the table.
"What’s with the sunglasses?"
She lowered them just enough for me to see the swelling and bruises around her right eye.
"Who did this?"
"He did," she said, referring to her husband, a man I’ve also known since high school.
"Has this happened before?"
"Yes, many times."
"So, why do you stay?"
"I love him."
After sexual abuse, spousal abuse is one of the most unreported crimes in America. According to the Take Back the Night project at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte:
Between 1/3 and 1/2 of all adult women are beaten by their husbands or lovers at some time in their lives. 14% of American women acknowledge having been violently abused by a husband or boyfriend.
92% of women who were physically abused by their partners did not discuss these incidents with their physicians; 57% did not discuss the incidents with anyone.
In the U.S., every 9 seconds a woman is physically abused by her husband.
Within the last year, 7% of American women (3.9 million) who are married or living with someone were physically abused, and 37% (20.7 million) were verbally or emotionally abused by their spouse or partner.
Too many women stay with men who beat them. They become dependent on their abusers. They use love, children or dozens of other excuses for living in fear in their own homes. They feel trapped and unable to leave.
Sometimes they reach out, as my childhood friend did recently, because they finally realize they need help. We discussed options. I made some phone calls and found her a bed at an abused women’s shelter out of the county, away from her abuser. I found a lawyer to file divorce proceedings. I urged her to file charges against her husband. She isn’t ready to do that yet but, with the help of counseling, she may soon.
I visited her husband and gave him a short lesson in non-verbal communication, letting him know the lesson would be repeated tenfold if he ever went near her again. Let’s just say he felt her pain and got the message.
With help, and luck, she may escape the horror of living with a spousal abuser. But how many still live among us, trapped in a cycle of violence that never ends?
All in the family, Part II…
If your family tree doesn’t branch, you might be a redneck…
If you go to family reunions to meet girls, you might be a redneck…
They have a new law in West Virginia. If you get a divorce that’s OK. You’re still brother and sister.
–Comedian Jeff Foxworthy
Jokes about inbreeding among country families have been around for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, like many jokes, they have some basis in fact.
In high school in 1962, I remember a female classmate who started to gain some weight and suddenly "went away" to take care of a sick relative. She wemt away because she was pregnant by an uncle. She was 16. Another got pregnant from her father.
In Floyd County Circuit Court two years ago, I listened as a local grandfather, convicted of sexually molesting his granddaughter, tell the judge: "Your honor, I love my granddaughter. I guess I just love her too much." In the sentencing hearing of another case, an 18-year-old boy convicted of sexually molesting his younger sister, a relative told the judge: "He’s just going through a phase that all teenage boys go through."
Incest is a sad fact of life, not just in Floyd County but nationwide. The National Center for Victims of Crime reports:
Father-daughter and stepfather-daughter incest is most commonly reported, with most of the remaining reports consisting of mother/stepmother-daughter/son incest. Prevalence of parental child sexual abuse is difficult to assess due to secrecy and privacy; some estimates show 20 million Americans have been victimized by parent incest as children.
But even that number may be low. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) reports that 60 percent of incest cases may go unreported.
Over the last four years, I’ve covered more than a dozen cases of incest in Floyd County Circuit Court. Too many of those guilty of incest went free because of the poor prosecution record of the previous Commonwealth’s Attorney Gordon Hannett. Most of the 19 sex offenders who live in Floyd County and who are listed in the Virginia Sexual Offender Database are there because of sexual crimes against family members. Some who went to prison are back on the street. I saw the grandfather who loved his granddaugher "too much" eating breakfast in the Blue Ridge Restaurant the other day.
Current Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Shortt won her job by promising, among other things, to put sexual offenders away. For the most part, she’s delivered on that promise although she did cut a deal earlier this year that let one walk on probation. She said didn’t want to put the victim on the stand in open court and that might have done more damage than good.
But Shortt and the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department cannot put these animals away if people keep incest hidden as a dirty little secret that no one likes to talk about. For too many families, the shame of incest is too embarrassing to reveal. They live with the secret and hide their shame.
So they keep it all in the family…which is where the problem starts.
All in the family…
A Floyd County mother brought her two teenage daughters into my studio one day and said she wanted "model portfolios" produced for each.
The oldest — 16 — wore way too much makeup along with short shorts and a bare-midriff blouse, revealing a navel ring and a tattoo. The youngest — 13 — wore a t-shirt that read: "Jailbait and worth the risk."
I told the mother — as politely as my rising anger could permit — that I didn’t do that sort of thing.
"Your daughters are under 18," I added.
"That’s OK," she anwered. "You have my permission."
I tried to explain that no one’s permission would be adequate to allow me to take such photos.
"Well," she replied, obviously upset. "Can you recommend someone who does?"
"No," I said. "I can’t and I won’t." I explained to her that the kind of glamor photography that she wanted to get her daughters into was is a shady business. Just ask Radford’s Bob Shell — convicted of involuntary manslaughter and other charges for his role in the death of a 19-year-old "glamor model" in his studio.
She left and I sat for a long time, trying to calm down. My God, I thought. I went to high school with this woman’s mother.
More than a dozen area mothers have brought their underage daughters into my studios since 2004, wanting me to produce "model" portfolios for their children. They want to place these photos, featuring 12-to-17 year old girls, on "teen model" web sites that feature underage children modeling minuscule swimsuits, lingerie or other scanty attire. One wanted nude photos of her 17-year-old, saying the girl "could be in Playboy some day."
This kind of thing happened more frequently when I lived in the St. Louis and Washington metropolitan areas but I never expected to run into it in Floyd. When I mentioned this latest incident to a friend who has a daughter in high school, she said: "I know who you’re talking about."
Like many photographers, I’ve done my share of nude photography. My subjects have been adults who are free to make thier own decisions and most were professional models. One 25-year-old in Floyd County wanted a "glamor portfolio" to give to her fiance as a wedding gift.
But I cannot understand parents who want to exploit their children in such a way. It makes me want to vomit…and then take a shower.
(Photo above for illustrative purposes only. The model for the photo was 22 when the photo was taken.)
On a roll…
Floyd County High School’s varsity football team pulled off another come-from-behind victory to beat Fort Chiswell Friday night, raising their record to 4-0. It’s the best start for the Buffaloes in four years. A fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Luke Harris to Christian Rodrique gave the team a 28-25 lead with 6:54 left.