ARTS Pick: Aurelio Voltaire

When national gothic icon Aurelio Voltaire isn’t penning one of his popular graphic novels or teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York, he’s on the road playing his unique brand of “dark cabaret” symphonic rock. He is currently on a 30-city tour with special guest Ego Likeness, so if you’re in the […]

ARTS Pick: The Mountaintop

Accomplished playwright Katori Hall left her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee to earn degrees from Columbia, Harvard and The Juilliard School, and then returned artistically in the 2009 London-based production of The Mountaintop to ponder the final hours of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. When the maid arrives with coffee in the Reverend’s dingy, diminutive motel […]

ARTS Pick: Ryan Adams

It may sound strange to call Ryan Adams a music veteran, but it’s been more than 20 years since his first release with the revered alt-country band Whiskeytown. Solo since 2000, the prolific North Carolina singer-songwriter continues to make an impression on critics and celebrity gossip columnists. Adams’ recently released self-titled album has been lauded […]

Clean catering: How to minimize waste when feeding a crowd

Teri Kent runs Charlottesville’s Better World Betty, a non-profit organization and online resource for locals looking to shrink their impact on the environment. Every month, Betty—Kent’s ’50s-housewife-meets-earth-goddess alter ego—answers the most burning eco-questions from our readers about energy use, water, waste and recycling, transportation and green buying. Has Betty got any advice about takeout meals […]

ARTS Pick: The Addams Family

Sure, they’re altogether ooky, but can Gomez and Morticia carry a tune? Find out this weekend when the Albemarle High School Players bring The Addams Family musical to the stage. Based on Charles Addams’ gleefully macabre New Yorker cartoons, which also inspired a TV series and two movies, the show will have you snapping along […]

Just give me a riesling: The ballad of a misunderstood grape

Riesling’s come a long way since the 1970s. After generations of fractured vineyard ownership in the Mosel dating back to Napoleon, the 1970s brought replanting and remapped vineyard ownership. New, sensible roads greatly improved the harvesting process, and many areas planted habitats to attract beneficial birds to the vineyards. Upward creeping temperatures due to climate […]

ARTS Pick: Up the Chain

While Up the Chain has existed in various forms with a rotating cast of Philadelphia’s finest young hired guns since 2009, the one constant at the band’s core has been founder, frontman and lyricist Reed Kendall. And while the self-described purveyors of “neighbor rock” don’t offer explanation of the style, one can surmise that it […]

ARTS Pick: Langhorne Slim

After breaking into Rolling Stone magazine’s top 10 editor’s picks for 2004 with his song “Electric Love Letter,” Langhorne Slim went on to build a solid fanbase through relentless touring with a top-notch backing band (The Law), record an average of one new album per year and earn multiple television and film credits. The heartache is just […]