Whether hanging on the walls of a Charlottesville hotspot or on display on the Downtown Mall, paintings by Kris Bowmaster are immediately recognizable. Not only does Bowmaster create pieces with distinguishable vibrancy and wistfulness, but he paints with a purpose that speaks. Bowmaster’s upcoming show “Predator/Prey,” was inspired by photographs of animals attacking and consuming [...]
Inspired by the joys, perils, and emotional trials that continuous travel can impart on an individual, Langhorne Slim shares the crazy soul that has become a product of his many adventures in life. He keeps it real (along with his band The Law) playing hard-drivin’ folk rockers and ’50s-style rock ‘n’ roll ballads that speak [...]
Take Bach lunch. Lunch breaks appear to be a dying ritual, as indicated by the chip crumbs around the wheels of your office chair. It’s time to mark your Thursday calendar for a noon date with J.S.B. and a change of the workday pace. Bach’s Lunch features uplifting 30-minute musical performances by the area’s classical talent [...]
06/20/2013 10:00 pm Live Band Karaoke Fellini’s #9, Charlottesville VA
I’ve been thinking a lot about weddings and marriage recently. This is mostly because as a husband I’m required to say that I’m pondering my marriage (in a good way, “Hi honey!”) at least once a month, but also because I attended a friend’s wedding at Pippin Hill last weekend. Also, “The Bachelorette” just returned [...]
For more than 27 years, musical outlier Primus has been creating some of the most unique, boundary-pushing music since the early days of Zappa and Pink Floyd. Its first album in 11 years, Green Naugahyde is another experimental project that pays tribute to the band’s earlier days. According to Primus’ leading man, Les Claypool, “We’re [...]
Guided By Voices is one of the most prolific and beloved rock bands of the past 30 years. The Dayton, Ohio group fronted by Robert Pollard has released dozens of albums, EPs, singles, and three boxed sets of original material, frequently changed band members, broke up and reunited, splintered off into various solo and side [...]
Under the direction of Michael Slon, The Oratorio Society of Virginia is filling an afternoon with choral masterworks that express “the best of the human spirit.” The Gems of the Baroque Era includes Bach’s Orchestral Suite #3 in D Major, and Handel’s Coronation Anthems, originally commissioned for the 1727 coronation of King George II and [...]
Wow. Where does one begin? The insipid dialogue? Paul Walker’s non-presence? A plot that makes almost no sense? Stunts that defy the laws of physics? Nah. Let’s start here: I can’t believe how much fun I had watching Fast & Furious 6. Don’t get me wrong. It’s so absurd and stupid that it doesn’t really [...]
Known around the state as a one-man, country-bluegrass-blues band, Jason Ring improvises fiery, intricate loops on the guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, and bass. Ring grew up in Galax, Virginia, a town that echoes with tunes from the world famous Galax Fiddler’s Convention, and at age 5 he started picking his own brew of bluegrass, Piedmont [...]
Beverly Weston, aging poet and professor, sits among overstuffed bookshelves and reflects on the sum of his life: a marriage bound by whiskey and pills, a career lost in the shadows of tortured art. He quotes T.S. Eliot—“life is very long”—to his newly hired, live-in housekeeper, a young Cheyenne woman named Johnna, and admits it [...]
Josh Urban is on the search for good in the world, and this Friday, May 31, he’ll be looking for it in Charlottesville. His stop is part of the Josh Urban Rail Tour, also known as “The Search for Good Tour-finding those who rock the world,” which involves playing music (a mix of blues, rock, and [...]
If you like to get down, the Turnpike Troubadours’ raw, blue collar energy is sure to speak to you. The Oklahoma quintet, featuring fiddle and bass, has become well-known in America’s heartland for its passionate authenticity and dynamic live show. Currently promoting a third studio album, Goodbye Normal Street, the rowdy and quick-witted Troubadours’ flinty genre-melding [...]
Champion Brewing and the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative are collaborating with residents in the Belmont neighborhood to produce and brand a summer beer. Throughout June, local artists and designers will be invited to submit designs that will be used to market the beer and, in the future, will inform the label for its bottles. Artists [...]
Josephine Foster sings in a high, witchy whisper with an operatic lilt. Her wild, ethereal flightiness grounded by her prim enunciation and classically perfect pitch. She occasionally collaborates or plays with a backing band, but usually accompanies herself on solo guitar, harp, or ukulele. Her style is both baroque and bizarre, suggesting music from decades [...]
The Men are a Brooklyn-based quartet of rockers who, since 2010, have cranked out an album a year for the esteemed Sacred Bones label. While their earliest efforts sounded like a raw Joy Division bootleg, the band has quickly grown and expanded its palette, adding eclectic influences, its vocals softening and becoming lazily anthemic as [...]
“The Civil War was a uniquely visual and literary war,” keynote speaker, Dr. Charles F. Bryan, explained Wednesday night at the Bradley T. Arms Detachment 1256 in Shadwell. The program, “Civil War Artist, Diarist, and Prisoner of War,” was sponsored by the Marine Corps League and featured the collection of Robert Knox Sneden, a Union [...]
A great trick director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman pulled with Star Trek (2009) was to shake the Etch-a-Sketch and start over. After all, how does one deal with the monster that is the Star Trek universe? One doesn’t. Abrams destroyed, on screen, nearly everything that came before him. It’s disheartening [...]
The streets will sound with tapping and twirling, leaping and jigging this Saturday, May 25, as the first annual Charlottesville Day of Dance takes over the Downtown Mall. This family-friendly event features an international array of dance forms and fitness practices, from Ireland to India, ballet to Nia. Megan Hilary, the festival’s founder, says the [...]
Entertaining audiences across the country with a heavy brew of original music, The Steel Wheels roll strong with influences from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and old-time musical weaving of four-part harmonies, upright bass, fiddle, and mandolin. Saturday’s show opens with a set by Ana Egge and serves as a sneak preview of the upcoming [...]
If you’re in need of an instant mood-elevator, I suggest you head straight over to the McGuffey Art Center where dazzling light and vibrant color (and some pretty nifty painting) is on full display at a group show featuring the work of Karen Blair, Jessie Coles, Priscilla Long Whitlock, and Krista Townsend. Still lifes, landscape, [...]
Vicious but mesmerizing, The Duchess of Malfi tells the story of one of the stage’s greatest women and two of its greatest villains. The widowed Duchess disobeys her two brothers by secretly marrying her household steward. When they reveal her sham, a slew of dreadful events are planned that ultimately result in a tale of [...]
Throughout her career, Beyoncé has been universally adored. But next month, when the extremely successful singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and lady with fantastic hips brings her tour stateside, I imagine things will be different. It has been almost taboo—up until this point—to say you don’t like Beyoncé. She’s never given us any reason not to. But now [...]