The second annual Roanoke Arts Festival, re-timed this year to help celebrate the opening of the new Taubman Museum of Art, will be held Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 8-9 with free and ticketed events and activities to appeal to a wide range of audiences.

The 2008 Roanoke Arts Festival will complement the museum’s grand opening weekend and once again pay tribute to arts of the region and beyond with a host of rich offerings capped by a performance by Country-music legend Crystal Gayle. The Festival will include a free downtown rock ‘n’ roll concert, great Bluegrass music, a musical puppet show, an exposition of the culinary arts, theatrical performances, classical music and more.

The Festival will also serve as the grand finale to “40 Days and 40 Nights,” a celebration of arts and culture with daily activities and exhibits coordinated by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.

“This year’s Festival – timed for the museum’s opening and this historic moment for the arts and culture for our region – is a great way to celebrate all facets of the arts,” says Susan Jennings, Roanoke’s public art coordinator. “The 2008 Roanoke Arts Festival will extend this excitement onto the streets of downtown Roanoke and into venues in Roanoke Valley.”

“With the Taubman Museum opening its doors as one of the most impressive museums of its kind, we felt the Arts Festival should tie into that spirit and welcome visitors to explore not just the visual arts, but music, drama, film – even the culinary arts,” adds Festival manager Rick Salzberg.

As the final touches are being made to this year’s schedule, planning already is under way for the third annual Roanoke Arts Festival, scheduled to be held next fall.

“With strong interest and broad audience appeal from our inaugural Festival last year, we’ve heard from fans of the arts from throughout Virginia urging us to offer even more choices in years ahead,” Salzberg says. “That’s why we’re already looking ahead to next year, when we will resume a four-day Festival.”
The 2007 Arts Festival was recognized as one of the year’s best festivals by the readers of City Magazine, and even nationally renowned performers lauded the Festival.

Visit the website for more information: www.RoanokeArtsFest.org/

What can Jack do for you?

I just received a press release from the tba: Thomas Becher Agency about the upcoming Roanoke festival and want to pass it on to you.

Highlights of this year’s festival include performances from Judy Collins, Grammy Award winner Ramsey Lewis and the Ramsey Lewis Trio & Little Feat.  Also there will be literature and poetry reading from the faculty and students of Hollins University Graduate Program in Creative Writing (which is a real treat if you’ve never attended a Hollins reading) and of course the Downtown Living Tour.

See more things to do here.

Here are some photos from the install!

svgallery=kiosk-install

More kiosks coming soon to-

Tanglewood Mall
Smith Mountain Lake
New River Valley Mall
River Ridge Mall

The policy will require anyone under the age of eighteen to be escorted by a parent or guardian on Friday and Saturday evenings after 6:00pm.  Valley View Mall advises ID will be required at mall entrances.

You can read Valley View Mall’s announcement here.  I wonder how many extra security guards and Roanoke City Police officers that’s going to take?

You can read more from the Roanoke Times and this Botetourt County blog.

It’d be nice if Roanoke City, Roanoke County and other surrounding police departments did the same.  It’d be a real service to home buyers who want to check out the crime stats in the neighborhoods they’re looking to buy real estate in.

You can check out Vinton’s crimes here-  http://vinton.va.crimeviewcommunity.com/

It’s also being reported that the Yankees will play an exhibition game against the VT baseball team next spring somewhere near the Blacksburg campus.  The Salem Avalanche stadium in Salem, Virginia has been mentioned as one possibility.  That would be pretty cool!

In an effort to address the needs of the changing population and increase the quality of life of residents and visitors, a program to aggressively seek and attract retailers to Roanoke will be rolled out on February 6. The City of Roanoke will announce a new Web-based program, MyRetailRoanoke.com, to assist in economic development efforts focused on attracting new retailers and service providers to Roanoke. Join Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris and City Manager Darlene Burcham on February 6 at 11 a.m. at Valley View Mall’s Marble Court on the 1st floors adjacent to JC Penney. We encourage all local bloggers to attend.

I’ll see you there!

The 1st Annual Roanoke Holiday Career and Lifestyle Fair, sponsored by MyHometownJobs.com, will be held at the Roanoke Civic Center Exhibit Hall on Thursday, December 28 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fair is targeted to people who return to Roanoke for the holidays to visit family members. The purpose is to showcase employment, lifestyle and entrepreneurial opportunities in the region. Admission is free.

And here’s the story in the Roanoke Times.

Hokie Bird statues (a map of their locations [pdf])–

“That I May Serve – Nick Brantley Memorial” by Sarah Meadows of Bedford honors the life of Navy Lt. Nick Brantley, a Virginia Tech alumni and previous commander of the Virginia Tech Corp of Cadets.

“Hokie Kopia” by Michael St. Germain

“Word Bird” by Kathleen Lunsford

“Motion Technology for Sea, Air, Land and Space” by Phil Stevens

“Everything is Coming Up Roses” by Senior Center art class

“Hokie Bird Paints the Town” by Senior Center art class

These people on Flickr love their Hokie Bird statue!

(I will add more as I have time, and feel free to add links in the comments and I’ll add the bird here, thanks!)

An article ran in the paper today: Roanoke Firefighter filing a grievance against the city over job transfer. The article speaks of how Mike Banks, a 31 year veteran and Captain of the Roanoke Fire-EMS Department, has filed a grievance over comments made about his website during a cluster meeting with the Chiefs of the department. Captain Banks hosts a website: www.roanokerumormill.com. The site enables firefighters, or anyone for that matter, to post comments on a message board anonymously. The firefighters have left a wide array of comments over the past 2 years on the site. During a cluster meeting last year, Banks states that he was told to take the site down by the Chiefs. The cluster meetings are held at various stations in the City so that other Companies can meet up and the Chiefs can speak to more firefighters at once. I was at the meeting that Banks speaks of and worked for Banks at the time of the meeting. I also heard that the same remark was made at other cluster meetings that day.

I do not think there are too many firefighters in the City who would disagree that there is retaliation in our work place. I am not saying it happens every day, but it happens. Most of the firefighters are not willing to stand up for even the smallest things because of the fear of retaliation.

From Roanoke.com, Roanoke City management responds and comments from the judge considering the case–

“Absolutely not,” said acting Fire-EMS Chief David Hoback.

On June 26, City Manager Darlene Burcham ruled that Banks had no legal grounds for a grievance.

Judge Charlie Dorsey listened to evidence Monday but did not make any rulings. Attorneys on both sides said they will file written arguments within the next few weeks.

Dorsey said in the hearing that the city has no right to order Banks to take down the Web site, but also noted that rights of free speech and rights of the workplace “are not always completely separate.”

The tractor-trailer was carrying sodium hydrosulphite…a hazardous chemical that produces fumes when in contact with water.

Firefighters evacuated about 80 homes within a half-mile of the incident Thursday night before entering the burning trailer…

My parents were among those evacuated from their Hollins homes and spent the night with us!

Oops the errant snow monkey is officially captured according to this story by The Roanoke Times. He was spotted by a resident of the Garden City area behind her home in the Mill Mountain Estates neighborhood, about one mile from the zoo. After about two hours of following the monkey through the trees, the zoo staff and Roanoke City animal control officers tranquilized Oops and returned him home to his cage. The monkey will be quarantined for about thirty days to make sure it didn’t contract any diseases during its weeklong sojourn in the woods of Mill Mountain.

A week just doesn’t seem like enough!

Crazy snow monkey! Someone should adopt him!

On a whim, I searched to see how far this story has gone, the AP picked it up and it has been reported in–

• British Columbia, Canada
• Washington, DC
• Cayman Islands
• Cleveland, OH
• India
• South Africa
• Connecticut
• and many more places!

A. newvaCONNECTS is a new organization devoted to uniting young professionals in the Roanoke region.

For all you 20 and 30-something professionals out there, Roanoke now has a professional organization with you in mind. Check it out at – http://www.newvaconnects.org/.  There will be a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 at 6pm at the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce for those interested.

It’s about time too, I’m looking forward to the benefits this can bring the Roanoke Valley and NewVa region.

My conclusion- there must be some sort of El Niño effect over the Roanoke Valley now causing mass confusion and hysteria amongst the animals. If you’re furry and you crawl around on four legs best take shelter for a few days until this is over!