Rewarding harvest: A salad of autumn lettuces and herbs, Asian pear, toasted pecans, and Surryano ham crisp with nectarine vinaigrette. Empanadas made from Caromont chevre, butternut squash, and heirloom apples. It’s harvest time in the Blue Ridge, and the menu for Food From Our Farms: 2020 Edition features the bounty of the season while honoring […]
A Renaissance man as well as a Renaissance scholar, David Summers uses his vast knowledge to explore light physically and from a philosophical standpoint. “David Summers: Nothing but Light” at Les Yeux du Monde examines the artist’s continued preoccupation with the visual topic that has been at the center of his artistic output for decades. […]
The difference between a nice story and a beautiful one is in the way it’s told. When a retired opera director starts losing his memory, and his son creates a play about a child who invents a time machine so his father can relive great moments from his past, that’s a nice story. When the […]
Writer’s digest: Notable biographer Carl Rollyson has covered a range of remarkable lives in his work, from Marilyn Monroe, Lillian Hellman, and Norman Mailer to Susan Sontag, Sylvia Plath, and Walter Brennan. He completes a two-part bio with The Life of William Faulkner Volume 2: This Alarming Paradox, 1935-1962, and celebrates Faulkner’s birthday with a […]
Way to unwind: It’s an amazing maze of maize, and it only gets cornier. The Blue Ridge Mountain Maze is five acres of corn stocks that are organized into a new and cornfusing design every fall (this year’s theme is “get outside”). Navigate by day or try a spooky challenge, and take on the night […]
Lasting laughs: Before he hosted “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and dueted with superstars in his Carpool Karaoke series, Corden was a comedy writer for British television and an award-winning stage actor. He stars as Francis Henshall in National Theatre Live’s HD rebroadcast of One Man, Two Guvnors, a role he reprised on […]
Who is the city of Leesburg, Virginia, named after? If you answered Robert E. Lee, you may need to study up. If, however, you said the city is named for Thomas Lee, an ancestor of the well-known Confederate general, you’d be a good candidate to play Triviappolis Treasures, a travel-based trivia app created by University […]
Seeing purple: As the Cold War and McCarthyism were dominating headlines in the mid-20th century, another cultural persecution was taking place covertly in tandem with the Red Scare. Jefferson-Madison Regional Library and the University of Virginia’s LGBT Committee present a screening of The Lavender Scare, a documentary narrated by Glenn Close that tells the story […]
Listen to the wind: When considering Mozart’s vast body of work, the clarinet may not be top of mind. Yet, in 1789 the composer “had the wonderful idea of combining a clarinet with a string quartet. The result was one of the greatest musical masterpieces of all time,” says David Shifrin, who will perform the […]
Moving through it: Edwin Roa of Zabor Dance is not letting the coronavirus get in the way of getting together. The dance instructor is, from a distance, teaching couples who are distanced from other pairs at Zoiree. Partners can move to salsa, bachata, cha-cha and tango in a safety-minded outdoor setting with limited numbers. $40 […]
Foodies rejoice! Charlottesville’s high-end dining circuit just got a little larger with the reopening of The Pink Grouse, the signature restaurant at the Quirk Hotel. Initially unveiled along with the hotel in March of 2020, The Pink Grouse’s launch was short-lived due to widespread shutdowns in April. The extra time was used to fine-tune the […]
Stepping back: It’s been 25 years since Riverdance busted Irish dancing out of a Dublin arena and hooked the world into its Vegas-style showcase of step dancing to infectious Celtic rhythms. Filmed in February 2020, Riverdance in HD brings us back to that pre-masked time when arm-in-arm high kicks were taken for granted, and sweaty spins […]
Sowing the seeds: Take your faith in mother nature to the next level in 2021 with perennials such as rattlesnake master, globe thistle, and Virginia bluebells, courtesy of the Monticello Fall Plant and Nursery Sale. The popular annual event is taking safety precautions that include pre-registration, limited occupancy, and time limits that allow each guest 45 […]
Musical mash-up: Tired of your quarantine playlists? Then it’s time to spice things up with some samba, funk, soul, blues, bossa nova, jazz, and Spanish flamenco—the livestreamed Save the Music with Beleza embodies it all. Madeline and Berto Sales take you to a Brazilian paradise with their musical and marital harmonies: Madeline sings in Portuguese, […]
A Charlottesville trio with literary inclinations has released a catchy new LP. But none of the three band members are sons of Bill Wilson. Mouzon Bigsby, which dropped its debut full-length album, Kino, on August 24, formed after a 2015 Christmas party when UVA English professor John Parker met JMU English professor Brooks Hefner over […]
Once upon a time, the apple was king in America. There were thousands of specialized varieties, home orchards were widespread, and cider was the most commonly available beverage. These days, we’re used to a very different reality: Most Americans are familiar only with a handful of commercial apple varieties, bred for shelf life and looks […]
About halfway through Get Duked!, there comes a moment when you realize this silly little comedy about a group of city-dwelling teenagers in the Scottish Highlands became a bold experiment in instinctive filmmaking. Right when it seems like things are about to fly off the rails, it’s clear that it was slowly evolving into a […]
A. D. Carson i used to love to dream (University of Michigan Press) A.D. Carson has made a career out of breaking boundaries. As a Ph.D. student at Clemson University, his dissertation was an album called Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics Of Rhymes & Revolutions. Across the project’s 34 tracks, he examined identity politics, and […]
Little looks: The biggest little show of the year returns when “Teeny Tiny Trifecta 3” begins this week. The juried group exhibition is a collection of three pieces, all measuring nine inches or smaller, from over 100 area artists who work in a variety of styles. The show also celebrates Second Street Gallery’s 47th season, […]
Among the vines: The last weeks of summer are always bittersweet, marked by the start of school, cooling temps, and a surplus of garden veggies. Chef Ian Rynecki helps make sense of the season’s bounty at Shenandoah September Sizzles, a celebration that begins with a garden tour to harvest fresh produce, followed by a grilling/smoking/cooking […]
Bubble wrapped: Kendall Street Company is leading the local return to music festival gatherings with its Company Picnic. The fun-loving jam band will perform four sets outdoors over two days, while guests watch from a distance in “safety bubbles” of two-, four-, and six-ticket groups. Patrons can have concessions delivered to their bubble, and the […]
How does a community arts organization react to an ongoing pandemic that requires the restriction of in-person gatherings? It gets creative. “We’re still dreaming big,” says Alan Goffinski, director of The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative. “One thing that I think we’ve always prided ourselves on as an organization is our ability to shift gears, respond […]
With current temperatures and humidity remaining high, many of us are likely still enjoying crisp and refreshing white, rosé, and sparkling wines, and the thought of drinking something heavier seems impossible. However, soon it will be autumn, and the cooler weather will bring crisper evenings, more time outdoors on porches and decks, and food from […]