The-Burg.com - Central Virgina's Arts, Culture and Entertainment Weekly

The cliff looms 40 feet tall.

The path to the top is a test of strength and endurance. The wrong move leaves you dangling in the air, suspended by ropes to catch your fall. The right move elevates you one step closer.

LOS ANGELES - Harry Potter pulled a disappearing act from Hollywood’s fall and holiday schedule, his sixth big-screen adventure bumped from this November into next summer.

That leaves a little more room to roam at the box office for the likes of James Bond, a vampire heartthrob, the “High School Musical” kids and all those talking cartoon critters studios are about to unleash.

During the past few months, all Monnie Steele wanted was rain.

“I have prayed for rain more in the past two months than I have in my entire life,” says the Rustburg resident, who has spent the summer preparing to open a corn maze in Campbell County.

But she and her family, who helped in the endeavor, were often felled by a lack of rain.

“This was not the year to do it,” she says. “The weather has not cooperated.”

NEW YORK (AP) _ Never mind all those questions about who will win the election: The more pressing concern for many viewers is whether Tina Fey will return to play Gov. Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live.”

One the one hand, Sweet Briar President Betsy Muhlenfeld feels obligated to advocate that no underage drinking happen on her campus.

That’s the law.

On the other hand, she knows that a majority of students drink, oftentimes excessively, even though most don’t turn 21 until their junior or senior year.

That’s the reality, she said, and it causes quite the dilemma for college presidents.

It’s an old story: artists flock to rundown neighborhoods, lured by cheap rent and quaint architecture. Before long, a new bohemia is born, a center for all things hip.

Whatever you call it - revitalization, renaissance, gentrification - it’s happening in Lynchburg.

Lower Rivermont Avenue is emerging as the Soho of the Burg, a frontier where old school tradition meets the avant-garde. For First Friday, six galleries will be open in a two-block radius that runs between Belmont and Bedford Avenues, a gritty area with a reputation for crime.

The pioneers of Rivermont are undeterred. 

Last season was a weird one.

It felt like we were just starting to get to know those crazy kids on “Gossip Girl” or, say, the death-defying work of Ned on “Pushing Daisies” when the writers’ strike swooped in and took them all away.

Some shows returned briefly after the strike, while others - including “Daisies,” “Chuck” and “Heroes” - are returning this fall, after about nine months off the air.

The strike also impacted the networks’ development of new series. Many didn’t have enough time to come up with a full slate of newbies and are rolling out fewer shows than usual. ABC has only one new drama, compared with the eight scripted shows they debuted last year, and CBS has the most, with five.