Interlocken announces Neil Young & Crazy Horse among other big names
Interlocken Music Festival announced part of its line-up today with a promise to confirm additional acts. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Further, Zac Brown, The String Cheese Incident and The Black Crowes will anchor the new festival in Nelson County. Early bird tickets are scheduled to go on sale on Thursday, May 23. Check out […]
Birds in TREES: The annual LOOK3 Festival Of The Photograph begins
One of Charlottesville’s most anticipated springtime events began today with the hanging of the LOOK3 TREES exhibit. The installation has kicked off Charlottesville’s LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph since it began in 2007. “It’s really our coming out party,” said LOOK3’s managing director, Andrew Owen. LOOK3 attracts an estimated attendance of 25,000 artists and observers […]
Phishing for details: New Interlocken Music Festival spurs line-up rumors
Facebook postings and various message boards have announced that permits are in place and are fueling speculation about who will headline the Interlocken music festival’s two stages. Possible performances by Neil Young, Widespread Panic, Phish, and his purple highness, Prince have all been bandied about, but remain rumors.
ARTS Picks: The Institute
Street art, anonymous messages and cryptic interactions are all clues in the reality game documented in the indie pop-psych documentary The Institute.
ARTS Pick: Quidam
Sleight of head The story of a neglected child who seeks solace in a fantasy life, Quidam is the ninth Cirque du Soleil production to take to the road after its inception in 1996. Originally branded by the image of a headless man holding an umbrella, the show is filled with extraordinary characters whose tricks […]
Circus trained: UVA drama’s Steven Warner prepares students for the big time
The romantic’s notion of running away with the circus was Steven Warner’s real life for almost four years. He lived in a train car, learned everyone’s role, and immersed himself in every aspect of production, even handling the animals.
ARTS Pick: Joshua James
Higher plains Nebraska musician Joshua James strums his guitar and lets out the crushing ache in his voice, calling to mind long roads through the expansive Midwest beneath a boundless sky. His folksiness embraces the tradition of the genre, the familiar longing coupled with a unique taste of melancholy, and it is in these blends that James’ […]
ARTS Pick: Into the Woods
Broadway has a knack for re-telling classic children’s stories, and one of the early big ones was Into the Woods. Four County Players is mounting Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s multiple Tony Award-winning show in the continued celebration of its 40 seasons.
Live review: Yo La Tengo at The Jefferson Theater
Yo La Tengo has set the DIY standard for a subset of indie music listeners for more than 20 years, innovating, experimenting without compromise—with a unique ability to recognize its own art form—and the critics’ darlings can still deliver the goods.
ARTS Pick: Sally Rose Band
Led by the vivacious, talent-packed Miss Rose, and held tight by the high lonesome harmonies of her classically trained cellist momma, The Sally Rose Band is a band of versatile influences that comes to play.
Stand-up comedian Sheng Wang derives the oddball from the ordinary
Comedy in plain sight Approaching the ordinary as absurd, Sheng Wang tells relatable tales laced with oddball observations within his own striking distance. “There’s a restaurant near my house called Sheng Wang. It’s spelled exactly like my name,” his deadpan delivery begins. “All my friends tell me I have to go and eat there, and […]
ARTS Pick: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the latest gem in a long line of family-pleasing productions from the Black Box Players and its founder/director MaryAnne Thornton.
ARTS Pick: The Other Side of the Ice
To travel from Newport, Rhode Island to Seattle, Washington with your family–who are all together for the first time since an emotionally wracking divorce a decade-and-a-half ago–most people of sound mind would tackle the 3000 miles in an airplane, or a car, or a train. Emmy award winning documentary film producer/book author/decorated journeyman Sprague Theobald […]
Boyd Tinsley’s film debut is a distinctly Charlottesville experience
When Boyd Tinsley set out to make Faces in the Mirror, it was more of a calling than a choice. After years of plotting out film projects in casual conversation, the ideas that formed his first feature came fast and furious. “Making a movie is something that I’ve thought about doing since the mid-’90s,” said […]
Years in the making: The silent thrill of being a luthier
The first thing I sensed after stepping inside Vacanti Violins on Fourth Street was a hush like I’d entered a shrine or a place of worship. The walls are lined with gleaming, caramel colored violins and the workshop area appointed with knives, planes, gouges, and scrapers of every shape and angle. Essence of varnish, wood, […]
Stacey Evans captures the American landscape by train in “Passenger”
Landscape photographer Stacey Evans loves maps. She loves how they represent geography, the way they look, and the linear connections feed her interest in elemental design. “I look at maps quite a bit and I’m fascinated with maps,” said Evans.“I love knowing if I’m going north or if I’m going south. I don’t use GPS […]
ARTS Pick: MUTEMATH
The once upon a time indie art rock darling MUTEMATH has moved from obscurity to hawking Hondas and iPods. Still, it remains a truly worthy band, adept at navigating occupational circumstances, from label battles to member loss, and holding the ground necessary to outlast the onslaught of today’s 15-minute hitmakers. The New Orleans-based group is not only surviving […]
The Festy Experience works to redefine, well, the festival experience
Every music festival has an identity of its own. Names like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, and Coachella may have been head scratchers at first, but now they’re branded destination festivals where dozens of acts spread out across multiple stages and throngs flock to make the scene and play their part against a backdrop of music, celebrity […]
Virginia Film Festival announces programming with more to come
On Tuesday afternoon The Virginia Film Festival announced the bulk of its programming for the November 1-5 event with special attention to the commemoration of its 25th anniversary. While a few of the choice feature films and special guests are still waiting for final confirmation, festival director Jody Kielbasa announced an impressive list of highlights […]
Comedienne Margaret Cho talks “30 Rock,” songwriting, and being Asian
Margaret Cho is a dragonslayer of sorts. She’s had showdowns with drugs, alcoholism, weight, racism, and sexual discrimination which in turn resulted in activism, recovery, and a successful comedy career. Fearless and offensive behind the microphone, she crafts smart, shocking, sexually and politically charged humor that makes the audience squirm while they nod, cheer, guffaw, […]
Maverick or pirate—Girl Talk wants to take you on a ride
Gregg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, is unapologetic about his art. The former biomedical engineer spends hours, days, months listening, capturing, and cataloging the work of other musicians—storing up thousands of samples that he then repurposes into new genius like some mad scientist digital composer. As Girl Talk, he puts on aerobically charged, frenetic, live laptop […]
ARTS Pick: Charlie Mars
The seductive croon, skilled guitar, and catchy lyrics of Mississippi folk rocker Charlie Mars would be enough to establish his talent and sex appeal. Tack on the devilish good looks, designer threads, and longtime relationship with “Weeds” star Mary Louise Parker to emphasize his stylish mystique. Mars passes through to promote the release of his […]
ARTS Pick: Yhonnie Scarce
Using glass to tell the story, Australian Aboriginal artist Yhonnie Scarce confronts the ominous history of her people and the role of colonization. She conveys a fragile legacy of violence and oppression through personal memories and abstract representation in works such as “The Day We Went Away,” a found suitcase filled with blown glass. On […]
ARTS Pick: Picasso deconstructed
UVA art history professor Lydia Gasman spent countless hours studying, annotating, and deconstructing Modernist artwork and was a leading expert on Pablo Picasso. She was known for her unrivaled vision into the artist’s world, and amassed an enormous collection of analytic works. “Picasso, Lydia and Friends” pays tribute to Gasman’s passionate contributions with an exhibit and launch […]
ARTS Pick: John Cage Mushroom Walk
Wednesday 9/5 The sound of shroomin’ The work of John Cage can hardly be categorized. A revered audio experimentalist, sound pioneer, writer, and insightful painter, he is lesser known as a mycologist. The Bridge PAI’s Audio September series pays tribute to Cage’s posthumous centennial with a walk in the forest and an unintentional “natural concert” composed […]
ARTS Pick: Final Fridays
Friday 8/31 Finals begin According to the UVA art scene, a final during your first week is the ideal way to ease back in to college life. The Final Fridays series kicks off with four special exhibitions at the Fralin Museum of Art. “Ancient Masters in Modern Styles,” “The Valley of the Shadow,” “Jean Hélion,” and “Making Science […]
ARTS Pick: Ralphie May
Friday 8/31 Bust a gut Having built a comedy career around fat jokes, Ralphie May’s Too Big to Ignore tour follows suit. Beyond his notable physique, May grabs wanted attention on the gossip wire along with his comedienne wife Lahana Turner through punchy sarcasm and eye-popping antics—from the marginally famous marijuana arrest and the release […]