If you’ve never heard of music industry legend Don Was, don’t beat yourself up. Born Don Edward Fagenson, Was has been making music for nearly 50 years. But until now, he’s never released a record under his own name. He has produced music for The Rolling Stones, Elton John, and Ringo Starr. He’s played bass […]
UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy hosted its first Democracy360 event during what seemed like a politically charged time. It was fall 2023, and the ever-lengthening presidential election cycle was ramping up for a 2024 showdown between the Dem incumbent and GOP nominee. Democrats were still hopeful about President Joe Biden’s prospects in the coming election. […]
Ryan Calonder has a simple vision for something that’s become a sprawling enterprise: a music festival, but limited to two days and featuring nothing but bands from Charlottesville proper. “From where I’m standing, this town has so much good, original music coming out of it,” he says. “But over the last 10 years or so, […]
Yoshihiro Tauchi doesn’t speak much English, but he knows the language of sushi as well as anyone. “He started from the bottom,” says Sana, Tauchi’s daughter, who acted as a translator for a recent interview. “That helps him understand—when he is making sushi—the whole process.” After years in the fish business, doing everything from product […]
The Guild, a new concert venue inside Vault Virginia, does nothing by the standard promoter’s playbook. Meticulously planned schedule with regular shows? No. Big marketing push? Also no. Optimized seating for maximum occupancy? Definitely not. “The most common term people used was ‘intimate,’” says promoter Michael Allenby of audience responses after The Guild’s first concert. […]
The cult classic coming-of-age movie Napoleon Dynamite turned 20 last year, but the main characters—Napoleon, Pedro, and Uncle Rico—are still kicking around their old stomping grounds. About five years ago, the film’s core ensemble of Jon Heder (Napoleon), Efren Ramirez (Pedro), and Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) hosted a Dynamite film screening and post-movie conversation with […]
The Tom Tom Festival is doubling down on inclusivity while the rest of the country seems to be betting against it. The theme of the 2025 festival’s opening day is “civic futures,” and the idea, according to organizer Paul Beyer, is to bring the most influential local minds together to talk about their “big vision” […]
The snowstorm brought bad news. Tuesday’s varsity basketball game, which would decide whether the Blue Ridge Barons or Miller School of Albemarle Mavericks would land the No. 1 seed in postseason play, was postponed to Thursday. For Blue Ridge seniors like Colby White, a 6’3″ guard, the snow delay meant two things. One, White and […]
Clemson University was proud of its doctoral student. It was 2017, and the university announced the achievement with fanfare: A.D. Carson had produced an original piece of music as his dissertation and successfully defended it to receive a Ph.D. Carson went on to receive tenure in the University of Virginia’s music department. At UVA, he’s […]
Donuts have been on a certain trajectory for the last two decades: bigger, more toppings, more creativity—an arms race of candy, cookies, and fried pork. After several years working with semi-traditionalists Jason Becton and Patrick Evans at MarieBette Café & Bakery, Melissa Sbrocco went in a different direction when she opened her namesake donut shop […]