Parental misguidance: When a pair of 11-year-old boys get into a fight at the park, one leaves with two less teeth. God of Carnage begins after the violent incident, when all four parents of the boys gather for a discussion of the matter over drinks. What begins as civil discourse devolves into a rum-soaked screaming […]
Savory hooks: When he’s not on tour or performing at the Super Bowl with Maroon 5, keyboardist PJ Morton can be found playing his own gigs to promote the recent Grammy-nominated album Gumbo. Accompanying Morton (who is fresh from the 50th annual NOLA jazz fest) on his Keys & A Mic Acoustic Tour are Jakiya […]
A quiet place: Gentleness is a way of life for Lowland Hum, the highly successful duo that founded the #SupportQuietMusic movement. Daniel and Lauren Goans “maintain that among our society’s insufferably growing volume, quiet is the most powerful offering one can make.” New album Glyphonic (out May 10) is another masterful exploration of lyric and […]
Promise to the world: The Oratorio Society of Virginia rounds out its season with MaySong featuring Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem). The large-scale work is a “true choral blockbuster” says Executive Director Rowena Pinto Zimmermann. Christina Pier (soprano) and Trevor Scheunemann (baritone) appear as guest soloists, and an encore of The World Called, […]
Truth in scheduling: Progress joins City v. Civilian Review Board fray A Daily Progress reporter was a topic of discussion during public comment at the May 6 City Council meeting, following Nolan Stout’s story earlier that day that police Chief RaShall Brackney’s calendar seemed to contradict claims that she was unavailable to meet with the […]
By Karen L. Mulder What do Clinton’s secretary of health, the founder of Netflix, a prominent African American sculptor, and one host of “This Old House” have in common? Each served in the Peace Corps: Donna Shalala in Iran, Reed Hastings in Swaziland, Martin Puryear in Sierra Leone, Bob Vila in Panama—and don’t forget Jimmy […]
Learning IRL: Want to learn how to build a robot? Would you like to jazz up your cooking prep with chef-level knife skills? Or maybe you’re interested in the medicinal properties of the herbs in your kitchen spice rack, learning to ride a unicycle, or caring for goats? The How-to Festival trumps YouTube, advice columns, […]
Playing well with others: Genre is meaningless in the best way for locally based rock-soul group Wild Common. After collaborating informally for a fundraiser gig in 2017, the talented friends—including vocal powerhouse and former member of The Wailers Davina Jackson; Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention prodigy Nate Leath; accomplished reggae drummer Rob Hubbard; jazz bassist Dhara […]
Stark vision: Tennessee Williams arrived as a playwright when The Glass Menagerie premiered in Chicago in 1944, and then quickly moved to Broadway where it won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1945. Williams’ semi-autobiographical story of a struggling family, set in a St. Louis apartment, gets a stripped-down black box treatment by […]
Speaks volumes: Todd Snider has an impressive history with legendary musicians—his discovery by a member of Jimmy Buffett’s band led to a long kinship with John Prine (and helped shape Snider’s smart, witty folk tunes). So it’s perfectly natural that he would dream about Johnny Cash after a co-writing session with Loretta Lynn at Cash […]