Bar keepers: Cocktails we couldn’t get enough of in 2018
By Carrie Meslar The house cocktail menu is a bar team’s magnum opus. Hours of research, experiments, and tweaks can go into a single drink, only for it to be erased from record with the printing of a new menu. But some drinks refuse to leave: A bartender creates a cocktail that is the perfect […]
ARTS Pick: Sarah Shook & the Disarmers
The brutal country-rock quartet Sarah Shook & the Disarmers plays with a display of defiance that embodies the outlaw era—and such a biting reputation is not undeserved, but it pays off. The group’s spiteful LP, Years, is full of raw undertones inspired by Shook’s personal life. It received high marks from Rolling Stone as “a […]
ARTS Pick: Love Canon
In the spirit of tipping the cap to 2018, Love Canon kicks off the new year with a retro-bluegrass bang. Since 2010, the band has pumped out ’80s tunes in the style of Americana and traditional roots music. The group aims to begin 2019 with a touch of nostalgia, and create a musical rewind revolution […]
ARTS Pick: Billy Strings
With lightening fingertips and a devotion to American roots music, Billy Strings plays the acoustic guitar with a fury akin to a hurricane. His passion for traditional psychedelia inspires the electric country vibes of his 2017 album Turmoil and Tinfoil, on which Strings echoes tradition, then tears into it with his own zeal. At age […]
ARTS Pick: Tonia Ray and the T Ray Band
Vocalist Tonia Ray and the T Ray Band bring joy to the season during An Evening of Neo-Soul. With a range of influences from jazz, funk, hip-hop, and electronic to pop, fusion, and African music, the group promises a high-energy set of holiday-themed favorites that will get you moving, while helping others, at this benefit […]
ARTS Pick: Sarah White
Sarah White had a banner year with the release of a new album, High Flyer, in August that included a duet with Dave Matthews, caught the attention of Rolling Stone, and spurred a round of festival appearances. In planning her 15th annual Sarah White’s Country Christmas, the songstress says to expect the usual non-traditional holiday […]
ARTS Pick: Nutcracker
When young Clara’s beloved godfather brings her a peculiar Christmas gift, the simple act of holiday spirit inspires a midnight war on mice, and a journey to alternate realms. Charlottesville Ballet’s Nutcracker is magical and enthralling, as it follows Clara and her wooden friend—now a mysterious prince—deep into the Land of Snowflakes and Sweets to […]
Mapping inequality: Innovative project will track housing discrimination
By Jonathan Haynes “If you look at Charlottesville in-depth, you see racial disparities at every juncture,” says local freelance journalist and C-VILLE contributor Jordy Yager. “Health care disparities, disparities at police encounters, employment.” For his latest project, he will trace inequality in the Charlottesville area. “I started thinking about how people get to where they […]
In brief: City complaint app, UVA sexits, bus fires and more
Got a complaint? The city has an app for that. MyCville. Ever heard of it? We hadn’t, either, until the city encouraged residents to digitally report their delinquent neighbors who hadn’t shoveled sidewalks following the recent dumping of about a foot of snow on Charlottesville. There’s nothing like a (mostly) unexpected snowstorm to put the […]
ARTS Pick: Lone Rangers ’80s Rewind
Hot stuff: It’s a great time of year to ward off chilly winter nights with a cozy fire at home—or how about a sizzling evening of ’80s cover tunes by party band the Lone Rangers. The evening’s proceeds will benefit Market Central, an organization that connects local food to local people. Saturday 12/15 $5, 8pm. IX Art […]
ARTS Pick: Ryley Walker
Pity party playlist: Chicago indie musician Ryley Walker (right) brings sand to the beach when he arrives to play from his latest release—a full cover of the unreleased Dave Matthews Band album The Lillywhite Sessions. The recordings gained cult status after getting shelved by the band in 2001 for being full of “sad bastard songs” (according […]
ARTS Pick: Christmas at the Paramount
With joyful ring: Michael Slon conducts a 90-person chorus for Christmas at the Paramount, which features traditional holiday music and selections from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat. One of Bach’s most popular works, it celebrates the season through an uplifting expression of joy and humility. Children’s Choir of Central Virginia and the First Presbyterian Church Handbell Ensemble […]
ARTS Pick: Dave Matthews Band
Home stretch: Charlottesville’s history is built on many difficult stories, but the formation of the Dave Matthews Band is one of our city’s happy tropes. Formed in 1991 by the band’s namesake, the group quickly emerged from gigs on the jazz bar scene to weekly sell-outs at Trax nightclub. The band’s national fame escalated quickly, with […]
Justice: Fields found guilty on all counts in car attack
BY Lisa Provence and Samantha Baars Last Friday evening, almost 16 months after white supremacists invaded our town, many of the same counterprotesters who were there on August 12, 2017, were once again gathered on Fourth Street. It was the spot where James Alex Fields, Jr., a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi from Maumee, Ohio, had rammed his […]
In brief: Awkward trial moments, machete murder, Toscano challenger and more
Awkward moments: Fields trial edition When we crammed more than two weeks of trial proceedings into a 4,000-word story, some of the finer details didn’t make the cut. So we’d like to take this opportunity to share a few of the not-so-fun facts of the James Alex Fields, Jr. trial, in which he was found […]
ARTS Pick: Let There Be Light
In the shorter days leading to the solstice, things can get gloomy, but for the group of artists featured in Let There Be Light, the darkness offers inspiration. From glowing jellyfish constellations to the hidden world of woodland creatures, the art installations and performances at the annual event are a testament to the bright artistic […]
ARTS Pick: The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
When Martin, a 50-year-old husband and father, confesses his love for a goat, it sets off a wild chain of events in the architect’s successful and seemingly perfect family life. Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? reflects on moral judgment, crisis management, and sexual psychology, in an absurdly harrowing story that is subtitled […]
Start it up: What’s the climate for entrepreneurs in Charlottesville, and how could it improve?
Mike Appleby figured he’d keep his big city job when he moved to Charlottesville. Appleby’s Boston-based employer kept him on to run a development team when he moved to C’ville to get married. But Appleby quickly came to love the area—“it’s the nicest place I’ve seen anywhere,” he says—and five years later he hatched a […]
ARTS Pick: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the Herdman kids—a bunch of foul-mouthed smokers, thieves, and drinkers—are uncontestedly the worst choices to cast in their church’s annual Christmas play. Other children are shocked at the news of their involvement: There’s no way these six unruly delinquents can lead the production to success, short of a miracle. Released […]
ARTS Pick: Rufus Wainwright
When Rufus Wainwright’s second album, Poses, came out in 2001, the singer-songwriter extraordinaire was in the throes of critical adoration, collecting awards and accolades, but lacking commercial success and struggling with addiction. Good pal Elton John helped him into rehab, and Wainwright quickly got back on track, defining himself over the next 15 years through […]
Staying downtown: Albemarle and Charlottesville finally resolve court’s future
After a couple of years of contention over Albemarle County’s threat to move its courts from downtown Charlottesville, elected officials in the two jurisdictions have finally decided to jointly locate their lower courts in a downtown building both localities purchased together in 2005. “We have reached agreement on the expansion and renovation of the Albemarle […]
In brief: Take it or leaf it, when racists call, Facebook reprimand and more
Drawing lines in the leaves It’s that time of year, when the natural cycle of trees becomes a source of controversy, lighting up Nextdoor. One neighbor’s decision to let them lie to decompose and enrich the soil—either through environmental conscientiousness or sloth—is another’s annoyance when leaves drift into a meticulously raked yard. Some go the […]
ARTS Pick: Tartuffe
Orgon and his wife Elmire face a disastrous spiritual crisis, and the swindler Tartuffe is definitely not helping. Orgon’s children understand the truth: that the supposedly pious man doesn’t actually possess divine ability, and when a wounding announcement takes the stunt too far, the family must dislodge the impostor before more damage is done. Tartuffe […]
ARTS Pick: Steve Earle & The Dukes
It’s been 30 years since the release of Copperhead Road, an album that revived the gritty rebelliousness founded in the early days of country music. Steve Earle & The Dukes pay homage to his Austin, Texas, roots with a special anniversary set that, in addition to celebrating the album, offers a retrospective of Earle’s career, […]
ARTS Pick: Chatham Rabbits
Southern duo Sarah and Austin McCombie have a bright soulful love for old-time music. It’s the reason they formed Chatham Rabbits, a name inspired by a string band out of their hometown of Bynum, North Carolina. The couple crafts lively melodies and lyrics ripe with metaphors—picking through the U.S. as they live a musical life […]
ARTS Pick: Soweto Gospel Choir
From African gospels to American pop songs, the uplifting music of the Soweto Gospel Choir has something to put a smile on anyone’s face. Formed in South Africa in 2002, the group is praised for its international reach, and has earned two Grammys. The singers aren’t in it for the fame, though: all they aim […]
YOU issue: Why Not VRS?
Here’s what readers asked for: Charlottesville is fairly unique in having its own pension plan. Just about every other jurisdiction in the commonwealth uses the Virginia Retirement System, which offers employees the ability to transfer retirement accounts to any other VRS jurisdiction. [Does] the fact that the city has its own plan discourage experienced employees […]