Zombies race past City Hall and MORE PHOTOS.
PHOTO BY JEANNE NICHOLSON SILER

When director Brian Wimer first conceived of the zombie-laden running race as a guerrilla marketing tool for his new film, Danger. Zombies. Run., he figured he might get a hundred people or so willing to don deathly makeup to run after willing victims through the streets of downtown Charlottesville.

Apparently, the director of the award-winning Mantra and other horror fare tapped an unrecognized demand for zombie-related athletic events, as approximately 500 runners, some who traveled from out-of-state, participated in the inaugural “Zombie 5K” on Sunday, October 17. They filled the streets with staggering— or sprinting— undead hot on the trail of human runners.

“Everybody had a good time,” says Wimer, who expressed relief that his biggest fear was not realized. “No one got hurt!” he exclaimed.

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While some might have believed that Wimer sponsored another zombie-related event the night before the race– the decidedly adult-themed “Sexy Zombie Jello Wrestling” at R2 nightclub– Wimer says he did not, but he did film it as a possible DVD extra for his film. He does hope to hold a family-friendly zombie bake sale at the City Market before the Saturday, October 30 premiere of the new film at the Paramount. (It will screen again on Friday, November 5 during the Virginia Film Festival.) (more)

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Oliver Kuttner and his Edison2 team cheer following the announcement of their X Prize victory.
PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Oliver Kuttner and his Edison2 team won the $5 million top prize in the Progressive Automotive X Prize on Thursday, September 16, for their Very Light Car. Click photo for slideshow.

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Lady Gaga dons a fan’s home-made UVA shirt during “Telephone.”
PHOTO BY TOM DALY

Update: Check out the SLIDESHOW from Lady Gaga’s Glitterway.

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The premise that Lady Gaga is the Madonna for Gen Y — the sex appeal, the pop, the choreography— is accurate, but it’s lazy at best. Gaga goes deeper than she gets credit for, decades beyond just cone bras in the ’80s, taking inspiration from rockers whose fans probably can’t stand her— from Elvis Presley’s scandalous hip-wiggles to Bowie’s androgynous glam. As a revolutionary, Gaga surpasses them, if only because they laid the groundwork.

“I love Gaga because she’s a combination of Madonna’s sexuality and Michael Jackson’s morbidity that she brings to a new level,” said fourth year UVA student and Gaga follower Tasha Nadasdi. “Everyone else plays it safe with standards. She says, ‘F*** it.’”

Hordes of sparkly, scantily-clad, slightly intoxicated UVA boys and girls flooded the John Paul Jones Arena last night, along with greying but fabulously energetic middle-aged adults, all of them shouting out Gaga’s name and waving (more)

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Over 200 climbed aboard Monday. Click for a SLIDESHOW
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Dozens of folks were wheeling luggage along snowy Main Street Monday morning and then falling or climbing down the large staircase to the Amtrak station, so a reporter went by to see what was up. The train inaugurated on October 1, the Northeast Regional, had been canceled the previous day due to some sort of problem confronting its origination, Lynchburg, said a person familiar with the situation, so there were travelers particularly eager to get moving.

“I’m a regular,” said Russ Perry, who strolled up to the counter just 10 minutes before the 8:49am departure time to buy a ticket. He prefers Train #20, the Crescent, which heads north an hour and a half earlier, to commute to his job running a 200-person architecture and engineering firm in Washington; but the Crescent was all booked up.

Across the crowded waiting room, Christy Strick was glad the train was on time, as she’d just spent two nights in a hotel when she couldn’t get back home to Crozet, and she didn’t want to do that again. She was eagerly (more)

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Click photo for slideshow!

How could a plane go missing over American land? How could one man survive? The 50th anniversary of the last flight of Piedmont Airlines Flight #349, which hit a mountain west of Charlottesville and was the subject of the Hook’s October 8 cover story, took place Halloween morning near Crozet.

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The City put up a new traffic pole the day after the August 7 accident. [More photos]
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

A stolen car speeding down Rugby Road Friday morning went airborne and plunged through a garage and then a house before shearing off tree limbs and coming to rest crumpled and upside-down in a suburban back yard— sans driver.

The August 7 wreck has perplexed bystanders. But neighbor Lucky Stone, who was awakened by what he first thought was 2:30am thunder, thinks he figured out what happened after the car took out a utility pole and pulverized a concrete curb.

“He smashed into the roof of the garage, and I guess that (more)

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