We have the (non)meats

By Carrie Meslar As I’m putting the finishing touches on this article in the San Diego airport, I’m also having a breakfast sandwich … when it hits me. This thing tastes like bacon. An uneasy feeling creeps in as I peel the sandwich apart to reveal a strip of the pig stuff. It tastes like […]

Sound choices

Kingdom of Mustang Into Beautiful BlueKool Kat Musik Kingdom of Mustang delivers its fourth album, Into Beautiful Blue, as a power pop slice of nostalgia. The band is a musical collaboration between members of the popular ’80’s-era UVA group The Deal—Mark Roebuck  and Michael Clarke—along with Tim Ryan, and Rusty Speidel. Stacked with decades of […]

Pick: Sierra Hull

Heart of the matter On her fourth record, American bluegrass singer-songwriter Sierra Hull sheds light on the beauty, chaos, and sorrow of growing up. And after spending over half her life in the music industry, Hull has plenty of stories to tell—she played the Grand Ole Opry at age 10, Carnegie Hall at 12, signed […]

Pick: The Glass Menagerie

Memory lane Keep your wits about you during Four County Players’ production of The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’ famous memory play. Cole Edwards stars as the narrator Tom Wingfield, a merchant marine reminiscing about the Depression years he spent with his overbearing mother and shy sister. The lyrically potent and intensely personal play examines the […]

Pick: Alexander Malofeev

Classical act Russian piano virtuoso Alexander Malofeev performs a program of classical compositions for the opening concert of the 2022-23 Tuesday Evening Concert Series. The 20-year-old will open the show with two works by Beethoven—the ethereal Moonlight and the dark and stormy Tempest—before the evening crescendos with Medtner’s rhapsodic Sonata in G Minor, and closes […]

In brief: CHS student protest, and more

CHS students protest Youngkin’s proposed transgender student policy Several hundred Charlottesville High School students walked out of class in protest of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed transgender student policy on September 28, emphasizing the harmful impacts the guidelines could have on the health and safety of transgender students across Virginia. The controversial policy would force transgender […]

In brief: Local schools on lockdown, and more

SOL scores drop Four Albemarle County elementary schools—Greer, Mountain View, Red Hill, and Woodbrook—have been accredited with conditions for the 2022-23 school year, meaning their Standards of Learning exam pass rates in one or more student demographic groups did not meet state standards, according to a statement issued by the school district on September 22. […]

A more humane approach 

By Ezra Maille Julie, a 21-year-old UVA student, was at a bar with her friends when she was physically assaulted. A stranger grabbed the baseball hat off her head, and when she attempted to get it back, he struck her in the face, before fleeing the scene and being apprehended by university police. After the […]

Pick: Gary Clark Jr.

Landing it Gary Clark Jr. tells it to you straight on his third studio album, This Land. “Fuck you, I’m America’s son. This is where I come from,” he sings on the titular lead single, a song that arose from an encounter with a racist neighbor at his ranch “in the middle of Trump country” […]

Pick: Love and Information

Full speed ahead Someone’s up to something in Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, a thought-provoking play that explores the mysterious complexity of human connection at breakneck speed. Comprised of over 50 tantalizingly titled playlets portraying fragments of life, Live Arts’ production sees 10 actors bring more than 100 characters to life over the course of […]