On Saturday the Virginia Film Festival will screen a selection of short comedies starring Charlie Chaplin in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the legendary actor-director’s first appearance as the Little Tramp. Accordingly, the festival program eschews Chaplin’s better-known features in favor of five early short comedies. “The program illustrates perfectly his progression as a […]
John Lindaman hasn’t lived in Charlottesville for years, but he’s fondly remembered by many for his seminal late-’90s band True Love Always, a regular on the old Tokyo Rose stage (more recent Charlottesville transplants may recognize Lindaman for his central role in The Parking Lot Movie). Over the course of three albums (and one singles […]
For Americans seeking a good introduction to the appeal of martial arts films in general, and the talents of Bruce Lee in particular, the obvious starting point is usually Enter the Dragon. By 1973, action movies had already dominated the Hong Kong film industry for decades, but Dragon – an international production by Golden Harvest […]
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 […]