Roland Wiggins taught his first music lesson when he was in elementary school. He was about 10 years old, and his music teacher, Helen Derrick, had written a series of notes and chord intervals on the chalkboard. As the lesson progressed, Wiggins noticed that Derrick had made a mistake. “Excuse me, Ms. Derrick. You’ve made […]
Roland Wiggins taught his first music lesson when he was in elementary school. He was about 10 years old, and his music teacher, Helen Derrick, had written a series of notes and chord intervals on the chalkboard. As the lesson progressed, Wiggins noticed that Derrick had made a mistake. “Excuse me, Ms. Derrick. You’ve made […]
One of the most refreshing things a film can do is focus on characters who need no introduction but have never been in the spotlight themselves. Strip clubs and strippers are everywhere in popular culture, but it’s hard to think of any film or series that fully appreciates and understands their work as deeply as […]
Sonia Nazario knew she wanted to be a journalist when she was a teenager. Growing up in Argentina in the 1970s, she witnessed the country’s “dirty war,” during which a terrorist military tortured and murdered 30,000 citizens. Nazario remembers asking her mother why the dead included reporters. “My mom said these reporters were trying to […]
Nina Frances Burke really hates titling her pieces. So when she had to settle on a name for her solo show at McGuffey Art Center, she turned to her tried and true method: “I’m an obsessive Radiohead fan. And when I need a title and I can’t come up with one, I just comb through […]
Humor mill: Stand-up comedian Tom Segura dishes out deadpan takes on everything from family matters—the key to marriage is “intimidation and fear;” his “stupid cousin” wants to invent a way to drive his car with a cell phone—to getting older and “confusing words like conscious and conscience.” The Netflix and Comedy Central regular finds the […]
Lucky strike: North Carolina blacksmith Riley Baugus was a craftsman by day and a master musician by night, playing his self-made banjo with friends in old-time string bands, when he got the call from Hollywood. A friend assisting with music direction for Civil War epic Cold Mountain had recommended him to T Bone Burnett, who […]
Digital strings: Reflecting on the 20 years since he co-founded the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, violinist Tim Summers hosts a discussion about the shifts that classical musicians and composers face in the digital age as streaming, electronic amplification, and computer-generated music take hold. Summers will play selections from Bach and Berio, and field questions about […]
Live cast: The popular podcast “Welcome to Night Vale” launched in 2012 as “A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overheard while we all pretend to sleep…” Now with millions of downloads, and four illustrated published volumes, the show is on the road. “A Spy […]
Escapism or activism? Should a work provide respite from pertinent problems, or is it art’s duty to provide commentary on these political and social issues? More and more, this seems to be the debate among artists and patrons. While it’s limiting to think that the two approaches are mutually exclusive, the conversation surrounding them seems […]
By Benjamen Noble When Rachel Monroe began writing Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession, she had a driving question that fueled her—why are we, as a society, so enthralled by stories of true crime? “The book started with my own curiosity about myself, to be honest,” says Monroe of her literary […]