Pick: Bass and Beethoven

Ace of bass: Feeling strung out? Relax with some strings: This weekend, you can bask in the mellow, sultry, resonant reverberations of the double bass with soloist Peter Spaar and the Charlottesville Symphony in Bass and Beethoven. The performance features Grammy-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli’s twisting and timeless Dark with Excessive Bright, George Gershwin’s bluesy and […]

Galleries: November

November Shows Artisans Studio Tour Various locations in central Virginia. Local artisans are opening their studios for two days of self-guided tours. Featuring ceramic, fiber, jewelry, wood, glass, and metal artisans. November 13 and 14.  The Barn Swallow Artisan Gallery 796 Gillum’s Ridge Rd. “Movement Color Light” brings together a collection of large-scale works by […]

Pick: Poe for Your Problems

Poe knows: Darkly funny with a dash of the macabre, Catherine Baab-Muguira’s debut book, Poe for Your Problems, depicts Edgar Allan Poe as a self-help guru. Baab-Muguira walks readers through Poe’s life, in tandem with self-reflection that allows you to say “nevermore” to your problems, and discover the difference between positive and poe-sitive thinking. Saturday […]

Pick: Witch’s Ball

Magic gathering: Halloweekend fun awaits at the Witch’s Ball, a late-night soirée full of occult oddities and chilling curiosities. Ships in the Night celebrates a new album, Latent Powers, along with performances by Synthetic Division and Solemn Shapes. DJ Cadybug provides nonstop dance tracks, accompanied by witchcrafted cocktails and unearthly delicacies from a variety of […]

Pick: A Most Beautiful Thing

Oar stories: During the ’90s on Chicago’s West Side, Arshay Cooper became captain of the first all-Black high school rowing team, an experience he claims saved his life. A Most Beautiful Thing, the humorous and inspiring documentary based on Cooper’s award-winning memoir of the same name, chronicles the team’s journey and a reunion 20 years […]

All fright

This month, we asked you to scare us silly with your spookiest horror stories. Here’s the catch: They had to be just two sentences long. Below, we’ve printed the 10 most frightful submissions, which will be performed by the actors at Live Arts. (Look out for the video later this month on our social media.) […]

In brief: Redistricting delayed

Redistricting commission on brink of collapse   Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting committee is coming apart at the seams. The bipartisan commission—composed of four Democratic legislators, four Democratic citizens, four Republican legislators, and four Republican citizens—was supposed to create fair, even maps. But the commission can’t agree on anything, and it missed its October 25 deadline to […]

Crash into November 2

By Kristin O’Donoghue Virginia’s November 2 gubernatorial election is rapidly approaching, and the two campaigns are ramping up their efforts to energize voters. Last Sunday, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe hosted a star-studded get-out-the-vote rally at the Ting Pavilion. Voting rights activist Stacey Abrams spoke alongside McAuliffe and DNC chair Jaime Harrison, while Dave Matthews played […]

In brief: Zoning talks, melting monuments

Map moves ahead   The process of rewriting Charlottesville’s Comprehensive plan—and, subsequently, reevaluating the zoning for the entire city—took a major step forward last week, when the Planning Commission unanimously recommended that City Council approve the most recent draft of the Future Land Use Map.  The Future Land Use Map shows which areas of the […]

Pick: Patrick Costello’s “Ceding Ground II”

Brick by brick: Transformative, collaborative, and rooted in intersectional and queer feminism, Patrick Costello’s “Ceding Ground II” is more than meets the eye. A slim, snaking wall reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson’s serpentine walls that were designed to hide enslaved workers at the University of Virginia, each brick is an earthy amalgam of native perennial grass […]