Derek Brown’s sculpture is all about fun. The Palmyra resident started making quirky clay figures because he wasn’t having fun at his day job. He wants people to see his pieces and think, “That’s fun.” And if he stops having fun making the tchotchkes, he’ll give it up. “Basically, I hated my job so much—being […]
John Kelly is a writer. Sometimes, he’s a songwriter. And with “Three Bright Stars,” he proves he’s a pretty damn good one. Best known for his work as the Virginia Film Festival’s PR pointman, Kelly has been writing for decades—penning reams of corporate communications along with songs. Before moving to Charlottesville in 2001, Kelly started […]
Zach Snider and Dan Zimmerman have been trading design ideas since the beginning. As co-owners of Alloy Workshop, they’ve been constant collaborators since they started out. But when the longtime colleagues launched their own home renovations last year, they took different approaches. Where Snider went the way Alloy sends its clients—fully designing the renovation before […]
With culinary delicacies stretched across white linen in the comfortable outdoor space at Belmont’s Southern Crescent restaurant, giddy gastronomes arriving to the first dinner hosted by Taste of Home in 2018 may not have realized the spread was organized by college undergrads. One of the University of Virginia’s more than 1,000 student clubs and organizations, […]
Restaurateur and locally renowned musician Jay Pun is 100 percent Thai. But he still thinks a lot about authenticity. In 2016, Pun traveled to his ancestral home and visited an open-air market in northern Thailand. He was on the hunt for a native lute known as a phin. He’d owned one years before, but it […]
Ryan Jones bought Pro Camera on West Main from Bill Moretz just a few months ago, but he’s been helping put the place in the national flashlight for several years. Jones, who studied media and photography at the University of Virginia, has turned himself into a go-to resource for analog camera repair. He’s been entrenched […]
It wasn’t love at first sight for Brian Tuskey and the split-foyer, two-story house that would eventually become his home. But now, with a recent reno that modernized and maximized space especially in the kitchen, the local architect has made the house his own. “It was this ugly tan brick, the split foyer turned me […]
Charlottesville-based wellness guru Renee Byrd was a successful influencer before being an influencer was cool. Byrd launched her blog, Will Frolic for Food, in 2012. The goal was to “provide free tools for living well … recipes, advice, yoga videos, and entertainment to sensitive souls.” In a few short years, she was working part-time hours […]
Jordan Rock’s big brother has been a household name for the comedian’s entire life. That’s certainly had a significant effect on his still-burgeoning career as an actor and stand-up artist—but the Rock clan’s youngest member tries hard not to let Chris’ outsized influence define him. “It’s definitely a balance. I’m still trying to figure it […]
With a prime-time Virginia film fest screening at the Paramount Theater, the movie Stay Awake has made longtime Charlottesville resident Jamie Sisley an indie-festival darling again. Sisley first produced Stay Awake, which chronicles a family’s struggles with a mother’s addiction, in 2015 as an award-winning short. After securing Best Narrative Short honors at the Slamdance […]