PICK: The Festy

The fest of us: The Festy made its name by pairing killer music with killer views, and this time around the organizers have reinvented it in a beautiful setting where strict COVID safety measures can be taken. The musical experience is spread out through socially distanced small-group seating and a series of show dates, with […]

PICK: John and Chris Kelly

Plays together: The Front Porch continues its Save the Music series with an all-in-the-family edition featuring John and Chris Kelly. The father-son team appeared together on John’s recent release In Between, a collection of rock and folk songs that reflect on social justice issues as well as the importance of family bonds. Chris’ six-member, alt-rock […]

PICK: The Life of William Faulkner

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 […]

PICK: Blue Ridge Mountain Maze

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 […]

In brief: Bob’s not so good, COVID’s on the rise, and more

Tossing it around Bob Good, the 5th Congressional District’s Republican candidate, released a bizarre campaign advertisement this week. In the spot, Good draws on his experience as a wrestling coach—everyone’s favorite kind of authority figure—and shows how he’ll “put liberal ideas in a headlock.” As Good grapples on the mat with his son, the candidate […]

PICK: The Lavender Scare

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 […]