Ranked amateur: Homebrew for Hunger winner brings wares to market

Amateurs are making some darn good beer in this town. Amateurs, dude. Anyone who had the opportunity to attend the Homebrew for Hunger event at Fifth Season Gardening last fall knows about the quality of ale-shine C’ville has to offer. The only problem, assuming you’re able to get past your hang-ups about drinking unregulated beer […]

Lake Street Dive eyes stardom through a vintage lens

Pop-soul throwback Lake Street Dive’s music is kind of like all these Spiderman movies, to loosely paraphrase drummer Michael Calabrese. “There is this whole thing right now in our culture of reaching back and trying to do something new with old ideas and make sense of them in our modern time,” he told C-VILLE Weekly […]

Interview: Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow finds humor in rock band drama

Lou Barlow has been involved in some of the quaintest rock ’n’ roll feuds of all time. In an industry where grudges are common and time seems only to deepen rifts between once-close bandmates, the Dinosaur Jr. bassist and Sebadoh frontman has pretty much made up with everyone he’s ever crossed. The lo-fi legend was […]

Sound the alarm: What you need to know about fire safety

In the wake of the January Keswick fire that took the lives of a woman and her two children in mid-January, Charlottesville Fire Department Batallion Chief Rich Jones said CFD’s goal is never to have another fire death in the area. It’s a lofty aim, he admitted, but through education and preparedness, it could be […]

Strategic storytelling: UVA prof says parents can help children edit life’s narratives

What story do your kids tell themselves about why they do the things they do? It’s a question that’s critical for children’s wellbeing, according to UVA psychology professor Tim Wilson. Wilson, a social psychologist, says people can improve their lives by controlling and editing their internal narrative. For example, if a new college student tanks […]

Modern master puts his spin on ancient instrument

Sometime in late elementary school, you learn about the didgeridoo (occasionally spelled didjeridu). It’s a funky instrument played by half naked Aboriginal people in the Australian bush. It’s more than a thousand years old. It doesn’t actually sound all that great. Then, while attending a Phish show, you come across another didge. It’s pressed to […]

Pig picky: At the table with the Kansas City Barbecue Society

When I received an e-mail about a bunch of barbecue competition judges getting together in January to taste some ’cue because they were “missing the competition smoke in the dead of winter,” I was skeptical. “You realize this could be the most awkward hour of my life,” I told my editor. A dozen strangers, around […]