Nearly a decade ago, a traveling troupe of musicians was midway through its set at the now-demolished Random Row Books in Charlottesville when the power went out. While darkness settled over the crowd, the band continued its performance undeterred, with no noticeable change in sound. That’s because the group’s set-up was running on a bike-powered […]
Nearly a decade ago, a traveling troupe of musicians was midway through its set at the now-demolished Random Row Books in Charlottesville when the power went out. While darkness settled over the crowd, the band continued its performance undeterred, with no noticeable change in sound. That’s because the group’s set-up was running on a bike-powered […]
Seeing purple: As the Cold War and McCarthyism were dominating headlines in the mid-20th century, another cultural persecution was taking place covertly in tandem with the Red Scare. Jefferson-Madison Regional Library and the University of Virginia’s LGBT Committee present a screening of The Lavender Scare, a documentary narrated by Glenn Close that tells the story […]
Listen to the wind: When considering Mozart’s vast body of work, the clarinet may not be top of mind. Yet, in 1789 the composer “had the wonderful idea of combining a clarinet with a string quartet. The result was one of the greatest musical masterpieces of all time,” says David Shifrin, who will perform the […]
Moving through it: Edwin Roa of Zabor Dance is not letting the coronavirus get in the way of getting together. The dance instructor is, from a distance, teaching couples who are distanced from other pairs at Zoiree. Partners can move to salsa, bachata, cha-cha and tango in a safety-minded outdoor setting with limited numbers. $40 […]
Ida Mitchell Puffenbarger wasn’t an artist. If she had any inclination, she likely didn’t have the time. With the bulk of her days spent cleaning, cooking, caring for her family, and attending church, she also didn’t mix with people outside her religious community of Old German Baptist Brethren. She dressed plainly and, like the other […]
Stepping back: It’s been 25 years since Riverdance busted Irish dancing out of a Dublin arena and hooked the world into its Vegas-style showcase of step dancing to infectious Celtic rhythms. Filmed in February 2020, Riverdance in HD brings us back to that pre-masked time when arm-in-arm high kicks were taken for granted, and sweaty spins […]
Musical mash-up: Tired of your quarantine playlists? Then it’s time to spice things up with some samba, funk, soul, blues, bossa nova, jazz, and Spanish flamenco—the livestreamed Save the Music with Beleza embodies it all. Madeline and Berto Sales take you to a Brazilian paradise with their musical and marital harmonies: Madeline sings in Portuguese, […]
A Charlottesville trio with literary inclinations has released a catchy new LP. But none of the three band members are sons of Bill Wilson. Mouzon Bigsby, which dropped its debut full-length album, Kino, on August 24, formed after a 2015 Christmas party when UVA English professor John Parker met JMU English professor Brooks Hefner over […]
About halfway through Get Duked!, there comes a moment when you realize this silly little comedy about a group of city-dwelling teenagers in the Scottish Highlands became a bold experiment in instinctive filmmaking. Right when it seems like things are about to fly off the rails, it’s clear that it was slowly evolving into a […]
A. D. Carson i used to love to dream (University of Michigan Press) A.D. Carson has made a career out of breaking boundaries. As a Ph.D. student at Clemson University, his dissertation was an album called Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics Of Rhymes & Revolutions. Across the project’s 34 tracks, he examined identity politics, and […]