Downtown Boys Cost of Living (Sub Pop) “A Wall,” the opening track on Cost of Living, winds up like it could be a punk Springsteen cover—then vocalist Victoria Ruiz bursts through with the righteous, insistent bellow of Dog Faced Hermans’ Marion Coutts or holy Poly Styrene. Downtown Boys calls itself a “serious band from Providence,” […]
First the Loyal White Knights of the KKK July 8 and now the Unite the Right rally August 12. Charlottesville has become quite the magnet for white nationalists since City Council voted in April to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee and rename two Confederate general-monikered parks. Oh, and the mayor declared the […]
Little more than 40 years ago, former Charlottesville mayor Nancy O’Brien received an unexpected letter. Sent from Poggio a Caiano, a tiny, two-square-mile municipality in the Italian province of Prato, the epistle recounted the tale of a very special—and very old—friendship. “We were preparing to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and […]
For the better part of 25 years, Kurt Krueger has harbored a vision. “I remember learning to swim as a kid at a YMCA in St. Louis,” says Krueger, a UVA School of Law graduate and downtown attorney, and a long-time supporter of the local Y’s satellite youth sports programs. “I knew that a full-service […]
A single pink rose lies at a diagonal across the quartz headstone that has become two-toned with age in the last 125 years. The rose covers part of the inscription on Carrie Brown’s headstone, which is different from others from that time period. The Buckner family’s clustering of graves, which lies to the west of Brown’s—all […]
One thing Judge Richard Moore and Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s attorney agreed upon: “If it was possible under the law and there was one person who should pay on this meritless claim, it would be Jason Kessler,” said Pam Starsia, who represented Bellamy when Kessler petitioned to remove him from office for offensive tweets Bellamy made before taking […]
Inside this year’s Outdoors Issue, you’ll learn about eight different jobs that celebrate being outside—and all the tricks of the trade that a few local workers employ. From geometry calculations to determine where to cut a tree limb to avoid hitting a window or power line to how best to move a rattlesnake from a […]
A Charlottesville native whose keen intellect and deep foreign policy knowledge led her to become the first female director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Anne-Marie Slaughter has never forgotten her roots. She is one of this year’s Tom Tom Founders Festival Founders Summit keynote speakers, as well […]
Thursday 3/23 & Friday 3/24 George Eliot’s novel arrives on stage as Middlemarch in Spring, a chamber opera that premiered in 2015. The musical treatment (part of the Virginia Festival of the Book) offers humor, passion and political upheaval, while serving to commemorate Ash Lawn Opera’s 40th anniversary as it relaunches as Charlottesville Opera. “We’re […]
Small businesses make up 99 percent of all businesses nationwide—a percentage that carries over to our local economy. A study completed by the Virginia Employment Commission in the third quarter of 2016 revealed 2,477 Charlottesville businesses had 499 employees or fewer—the standard definition of a small business is one with 500 or fewer employees. In […]
The first thing Steve Rubin heard was not the wailing sirens of a fire truck, but the shouts of his house guest, actor Bob Costley, alerting Rubin his car was on fire. Rubin had expected this—he routinely checked underneath his car for a bomb before going to his teaching job at Louisiana State University New […]
Becky Blanton became invisible 10 years ago. She shared her story—how she went from working as a newspaper editor to living out of her van and eventually identifying as homeless—with her fellow entrepreneurs in a Community Investment Collaborative program in the fall of 2015. CIC runs a 16-week program for local entrepreneurs in Charlottesville, as […]
In honor of saying good-bye to 2016, here’s a rundown of the 16 most-read stories published on our website in the last year. Sole mates: Anthony Gill will rock Jordans for the big day Heroin overdose: Friends grieve 25-year-old’s death Sunny Ortiz of Widespread Panic on what’s next after 30 years Concealed-carry rattles some ACAC members Serve-yourself bar […]
So here’s the thing: There’s always going to be a worse year. 1347, when the bubonic plague erupted across Europe, beginning a pandemic that would eventually eliminate at least a third of the existent human population, is right up there. 1862, when the devastating charnel house of the American Civil War reached a destructive peak, […]
Brookville Restaurant will serve its final meal—a brunch—this Sunday, December 18, from 10am to 2pm. “Every restaurant has a lifetime and Brookville has come to the end of its,” chef Harrison Keevil wrote in an e-mail shortly after making the announcement. He and his wife, Jennifer Keevil, opened Brookville, known for its farm-to-table comfort food—egg […]
“The most interesting faces generally oscillate between charm and crookedness,” writes Alain de Botton in his Essays in Love. Replace “crookedness” with “quirkiness,” and you’ll have a fair description of why we’re drawn to this listing in Ivy: It it isn’t intimidatingly perfect. It’s lovely but not bland, and it feels real. Sited at the […]
Elizabeth Valtierra was nervous. Like many across the nation, the Charlottesville High School senior spent election night with her family, gathered around a television in the living room. As the earliest states were called for Donald Trump, her family made jokes and tried to laugh it off. They thought Hillary Clinton would pull ahead, as […]
For many artists, the act of promoting their own work can feel counterintuitive, a business that necessitates turning outward to the public after so much time spent turned inward in order to create. For this reason, local author Carolyn O’Neal says with some surprise, “I’ve become, oddly, a marketing guru.” Her firsthand experience with marketing […]
On a recent day, Cristine Nardi, executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, was working with four different nonprofits on a variety of challenges: a succession plan for an executive director; how to handle a potential sexual harassment issue within the organization; how to do a 360-degree evaluation for an executive leader; and coaching […]
Breweries have been popping up around Charlottesville like mushrooms after a rain. About a dozen beer producers are now located within an easy drive from town. But curiously, only four breweries are actually located within the city’s limits: Champion, South Street, Three Notch’d and—the newest addition in September—Random Row. In the middle of a regional […]
When several vacancies in the Charlottesville Fire Department opened at the same time, Fire Chief Andrew Baxter (who’s been chief for a little more than a year) decided to institute a new hiring process. The in-depth application, which included a personal history questionnaire, was meant to find candidates who were not only qualified to be […]
It’s been 11 years since Carrie Underwood became the fourth “American Idol” winner and arguably the show’s most successful contestant—she’s sold almost 15 million albums. Her best-selling track to date, “Before He Cheats,” is a catchy, bared-soul retaliation fantasy that put nine awards, including two Grammys, on Underwood’s shelf. But she might be best known […]
“I love the way an empty pie crust shell looks like an opportunity,” says local food writer and amateur baker Jenée Libby. “Are you going to make a sweet pie? A savory one?” Libby recently made a sweet pie—a sweet potato speculoos pie with a gingersnap crust, to be exact—to nab top honors at this year’s […]