While You Were Gone…


Emily Becker '27 
Staff Editor 


FOMO got you down? Feel like your winter break was a little less than fabulous? For all of you who spent more time than you care to admit poring over job listings, waiting for grades to drop, or puttering around your hometowns out of sheer boredom, this article is for you. I have harvested a few tidbits from a variety of local sources just to show you that everyone, even those living it up on the most lavish vacations, missed some fun stuff in our very own Charlottesville. 

PS: For any of you who stayed here and miraculously caught all these events, I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing for you. But on the bright side, you must’ve had an interesting break.

Without further ado:

1.  The storied ‘Robinhood of Jazz’ played his final notes on Grounds: I could not pinpoint exactly when this happened, but rumor has it that sometime between finals and now, the venerable UVA jazz director John D’earth’s trumpet rang out across Grounds for its final time (at least officially). They say the truth reads like fiction, and that can certainly be said of D’earth’s career. Raised on opera and jazz, he dropped out of college to play professionally, later attaining the now-coveted directing appointment for UVA’s then-nascent jazz program. His band, Cosmology, inspired Dave Matthews. Countless students have, in D’earth’s words, surpassed him, played professionally, and come back to record with him—hence his ‘Robinhood’ moniker. D’earth has experienced multiple rare types of success, and in considering his trajectory, he has acknowledged that his career lacks the teleology that so many of us chase.[1]

2.  Monticello Country Ballooning’s famous sunrise and sunset rides: maybe you caught a glimpse of a colorful blip on the horizon as your train peeled out of town after finals. That may have been one of Mandy Baskin’s hot air balloons. Baskin, Charlottesville’s beloved veteran balloon pilot, offers an oft-overlooked means of taking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As breathtaking as Thursday night sunsets at Carter Mountain are, that’s nothing compared to a balloon ride.[2]

3.  UVA Architecture students made their annual trek to Alaska: okay, this isn’t exactly local Charlottesville news. But it’s too good to exclude. Two professors at the Architecture School led a trip to study climate resilience in Alaska, particularly from a landscape architecture perspective. To quote one student, “It felt like something monumental happened every day.”[3]

4.  UVA Health launched what looks to be its first mobile care unit: setting aside the humor for a moment, I think it’s important to appreciate that while students come and go, local residents and UVA staff work year-round to serve the wider Charlottesville community. The mobile unit will visit the Fifeville and Southwood neighborhoods twice a month.[4]

5.  Last but not least, the snowstorm: I mean, where do I even begin? Sure, many of you probably got snow where you were. But did you get in a snowball fight on the Lawn? Did you roll around in the snow in front of the Law School like a puppy? Did you ski down the Rotunda steps? Didn’t think so.


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ejb6zt@virginia.edu 


[1] UVAToday, John D’earth, the ‘Robin Hood of Jazz,’ Retires.

[2] Charlottesville Daily Progress, Hot air balloonist Mandy Baskin is building community in the clouds.

[3] UVAToday, Why Cavaliers Are Chilling in the Urban Tundra.

[4] CBS 19 News, UVA Health launches mobile care unit to improve accessibility.