The student housing scramble: Two roommates find a good fit off-Grounds

By Shrey Dua In Charlottesville, one of the largest populations of apartment dwellers can be found in the roughly mile-wide radius immediately surrounding the University of Virginia: students. Every year, waves of UVA students abandon Grounds in favor of their own apartments, a process that quickly spirals into a mad dash to find the best, […]

ARTS Pick: Washington Balalaika Society Orchestra

Folk forward: Award-winning soprano Olga Orlovskaya performs as part of the Washington Balalaika Society Orchestra, with more than 60 musicians playing music from Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe on traditional instruments. The balalaika is a three-stringed instrument of Russian origin with a triangular body that varies in tone depending on its size. Though it’s been […]

Arrest made in online threat against Charlottesville High School minorities

By Samantha Baars and Lisa Provence As thousands are celebrating literature at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, a less-exalted missive from the nether regions of the internet, threatening ethnic cleansing at Charlottesville High, has closed all city schools for a second day Friday. Around noon Friday, Charlottesville police announced they had arrested […]

ARTS Pick: The Currys

Staying on the tracks: In January, the Charlottesville-by-way-of-Florida act The Currys announced: “After years of writing, rewriting, arguing, rewriting again, arguing again, performing, recording, traveling, and recording some more…we are finally able to announce the release of our third full-length album.” The group celebrates This Side of the Glass with a performance that includes opening […]

ARTS Pick: The Public

Mighty pen: Emilio Estevez didn’t take his father’s stage surname because he wanted to honor his Spanish heritage—and make his own way in the film business. Being the son of Martin Sheen, the brother of Charlie Sheen, the husband of pop star Paula Abdul (for two years), and labeled a member of the Brat Pack […]

ARTS Pick: Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman

Headstrong monarch: Political conspiracy, abuse of power, personal vanity, and madness dominate playwright Dario Fo’s Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman. Over a period of 12 days, the Virgin Queen dwells in her boudoir, preparing for her lover’s arrival, and undergoing beauty treatments while stressing out over the similarities between herself and characters in William […]

Novelist Don Winslow offers insight into the drug trade

Crime author Don Winslow has spent nearly the past 20 of his career writing about the Mexican-American drug trade. “My number-one job and my first priority is to tell a good story, and a good crime story,” says Winslow. Winslow first became interested in the Mexican-American drug business in 1998, after hearing of a massacre […]