Sweet dreams

By Alana Bittner, Brielle Entzminger, Will Ham, Ben Hitchcock, and Susan Sorensen It’s been one heck of a sweltering summer. The best way to beatthe heat? Ice cream, gelato, popsicles…you name it. Lucky for us,Charlottesville’s got more than its share of frozen delicacies.   Chaps It’s hard to be grumpy when your hand’s wrapped around a […]

Dead ahead

By Jedd Ferris Joe Russo juggles a lot of projects. The versatile drummer, a fixture on the New York City jazz and jam scenes, is an in-demand studio player and a prolific live collaborator. When reached by phone in late July, he was preparing to play two different sets at the renowned Newport Jazz Festival, […]

PICK: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram was born in 1999, the same year that northern Mississippi’s area code changed to 662. Ingram spent his first 22 years mastering blues guitar, and his debut album, Kingfish, earned him a Grammy nod, as his face graced multiple music magazines including Rolling Stone, which compared him to B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, […]

PICK: All in the Timing

Perfect Timing: Back with its first theater production since the start of the pandemic, Four County Players is making up for lost time with a smorgasbord of mini plays taken from David Ives’ collection All in the Timing. These bite-sized comedies link wit, intellect, and satire to create fantastical storylines—from a conversation between monkeys tasked […]

PICK: Vibe Riot

Bursting with sophisticated musicianship and intelligent lyricism, Vibe Riot makes a scene with its bluesy funk. Fronted by Brooklyn-born and Virginia-raised J. “Jaewar” King, the group’s percussive music awakens the mind and soul, bringing diverse genres together with socially conscious messaging that draws comparisons to Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak. Friday 8/13, $10, 6pm. Rivanna […]

In brief: Youngkin declines debate, Good against vax

Youngkin declines debate, again  Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for Virginia governor, declined an invitation to debate Democrat opponent Terry McAuliffe this week. Youngkin and former governor McAuliffe were invited to square off in Hot Springs in an event organized by the AARP. McAuliffe has said he’s up for as many as five debates between […]

Growing together

By Matt Dhillon In the staggering summer heat, Kendall King digs her fingers into the dark topsoil of a new garden bed. She’s kneeling on the back lawn of Visible Records, a gallery and studio space in Charlottesville’s Belmont neighborhood. In the garden, three tall tomato plants climb out of their cages between shoots of […]

PICK: Heather Land

Landing the joke: In 2017, Heather Land picked up her phone, swiped to the big-mouthed Snapchat filter, and began posting snarky commentary about the trials and tribulations of single motherhood in the South. More than 300 million views later, she’s on the road with The Age Gap Tour, holding court with her Tennessee drawl and […]

PICK: The Sopranos Sessions

Don’t stop believin’: Television changed forever when “The Sopranos” premiered on HBO in 1999. The complex storytelling and raw humanity of the show about New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano was a huge critical success, and paved the way for a new culture of TV series. Italian gangsters became hip again, tough guys considered going […]

PICK: Earthish Uncle Angelica X

What on earth? The band’s name is Earthish Uncle Angelica X. That’s got to spark your curiosity, right? Fronted by Charlottesville wunderkind Will Evans, EUAX’s music ranges from avant-garde jazz to indie-rock, with influences that include Ornette Coleman, Frank Ocean, and Sonic Youth. The group’s rotating cast of characters most often sees Evans on trumpet, […]