John Ford directed almost 150 films. Many of them were Westerns, and more than a few are masterpieces. The Searchers is arguably the best, and easily the most iconic; a stone-cold classic from its breathtaking opening shot onwards, and ultimately an influence on everyone from Akira Kurosawa (one of Ford’s greatest admirers) to George Lucas […]
I first heard Stephen Steinbrink in a suburban basement, around 4am. The evening’s wild, drunken revelries were dying down, a guitar was being passed around the small circle of musicians, and he was begged to play. He played two songs (one cover and one original) which were so simple, direct, delicate, and great, that it […]
This Friday, volunteers from Community Bikes will be distributing Valentines via bicycle, as part of an annual event called Bake ‘n Bike. It’s the tenth anniversary for this annual Valentine’s Day tradition, in which the lovestruck and the lonely alike can send a box of fresh-baked choclate-chip scones and a letter-pressed card to a sweetheart or […]
After appearing on a pair of reverb-soaked and long sold-out cassettes, Angel Olsen made a proper full-length debut in 2012 with Half Way Home. Simple, confident, clear, and cohesive, it’s an instant classic. The album is an arresting record in the tradition of cult ’70s folk artists like Linda Perhacs—though Olsen’s aesthetic is far closer […]
As the line-up of the excellent local rock band The Fire Tapes disintegrated last year, bassist Rob Dobson began looking for a new musical outlet for his songwriting efforts. He found a collaborator in drummer Greg Sloan, who currently holds down the kit for Ha-Rang and Dwight Howard Johnson, and the duo formed Big Air (which […]
Deerhunter’s second album, Cryptograms, made it a household name in indie rock circles. Released in early 2007 by the legendary and long-running Kranky record label, the album features an appealing mix of sprawling and dreamy guitar sounds, anchored by slow-building, bass-heavy grooves and distorted, distantly cool vocals. It sounds almost as if the Atlanta-based quintet […]
If you were a cinephile or an aspiring filmmaker in 1994, the influence of Pulp Fiction was impossible to ignore—especially if you were a 13-year-old boy. Throughout that year, Tarantino’s sophomore effort became more or less gospel in the worlds of independent film and popular culture, which were fast becoming synonymous in the mid-’90s. This endlessly […]
When the Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers held its first match in the back room of the Blue Moon Diner in February of 2008, few dreamed it would become a nationwide movement. CLAW began as an all-women’s arm wrestling competition, initiated by Jennifer Tidwell and Jodie Plaisance, in which the stereotype of women as weak is […]
This Thursday, the Library of Congress provides an opportunity to see a film by one of cinema’s masters, the legendary Akira Kurosawa, on glorious 35mm film. 1962’s Sanjuro is a deeper cut in the Kurosawa catalog; a sequel to the previous years’ acclaimed, beloved, and oft-imitated Yojimbo, in which Toshiro Mifune reprises his role as […]
Local artist Victoria Long has curated and participated in art shows all over the world since graduating from UVA in 2006. Long returned to Charlottesville in 2011, and while she’s actively made and shown work since then, this month’s “Surprise” marks the first gallery show she’s assembled here in many years. “Surprise” opened on January […]