From the old-time fan favorite “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” to the latest platinum single “High Hopes,” Panic! at the Disco serves up another album full of soaring vocals and punk-tinged brass orchestrations. Pray for the Wicked is the sixth record by the emo pop forefathers whose tumultuous membership finds frontman Brendon Urie as the […]
By Jonathan Haynes Jaffray Woodriff, who made a fortune using data science in the investment world, has bestowed upon his alma mater its largest donation ever to create a School of Data Science. It will build on the university’s existing Institute of Data Science, which was created with a $10 million donation from Woodriff in 2014. […]
The award-winning Charlottesville High School Orchestra String Ensemble breaks out of an academic setting to put a new twist on a classic fairy tale. Directed by Laura Mulligan Thomas (right), the ensemble’s rendition of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is accompanied by narration from filmmaker and author Jamie Bernstein (daughter of the legendary Leonard […]
New birds on the block A red-breasted nuthatch in central Virginia? You gotta be kidding! Turns out that an unusually large number of irruptive bird species—or species that normally breed in northern boreal forests and sometimes migrate south when their food supply runs out—are wintering in our neck of the woods this year, according to […]
Dubbed by peers as the “godfather of Americana music,” singer-songwriter Kieran Kane’s roots-oriented bluegrass blends seamlessly with Rayna Gellert’s Appalachian-inspired fiddle playing to form a groovy twist on traditional folk music. The duo released its first album, The Ledges, in 2017, and for its follow-up due in March, listeners can expect more of Gellert’s sultry […]
Knock, knock. Who’s [not] there? Sears. Sweethaus. Performance Bicycle. And Brown’s Cleaners, just to name a few recent local closings that left community members shocked, and in at least one case, without their clothes. The closing of Sears at Fashion Square Mall heralds the demise of one of America’s most iconic retailers, known for its mail-order […]
By Sabrina Moreno If you ask Kelly Lonergan, he’s not a figure painter. The figures he paints on 48 by 60 inch canvas—a scale that excites him—are slightly awkward, clunky. But to him, that’s the best part. It gives them a sense of personality for viewers to cling and relate to. In his show “And […]
Driver’s license suspensions under siege A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction December 21 and ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. The judge said they are likely to prevail in […]
By Jonathan Haynes Despite the controversy over the University of Virginia’s revisions to its right-to-assemble policies, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has awarded the university its highest free speech rating. FIRE, a group that defends the constitutional rights of students and faculty in higher ed, ranked UVA as a “green-light” university, along with […]
Perriello’s Sierra Leone rescue A desperate mother needed to get her 5-year-old daughter out of Sierra Leone in 2003, and asked a stranger at the airport to take her child to her grandmother in the U.S. Fifteen years later, Zee Sesay learned that the man who brought her daughter to safety was former congressman Tom […]