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 […]
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 […]
The problem that has always plagued adaptations of Stephen King’s IT is that the two halves—kids and grown-ups—are not equally interesting. Nostalgic coming-of-age tales of scary monsters and friendship are inherently more engaging than 40-somethings with bad memories. Chapter One put us in the shoes of teens navigating the treacherous waters of growing up while […]
“The way that a story is told is just as important as the story itself,” designer Walé Oyéjidé told a National Geographic Storytellers Summit audience in January. Oyéjidé, who’s also a director, writer, filmmaker, musician, and lawyer, tells stories by using fashion design to dispel stereotypes and biases. In his ongoing photography project “After Migration,” […]
Most people avert their eyes when the world gets messy: they scrunch uncooperative hair into the safety of ballcaps, kick dust bunnies conveniently under couches, and dunk ugly memories into their mental trashbins. It’s unusual to meet someone who sits down with disorder, shakes its hand, and engages it in honest conversation. José Olivarez is […]
Bite-sized Shakespeare: An abridged version of the iconic Shakespeare comedy, Midsummer 90 drops the Night’s Dream and retains all the humor and wonder of the original script without sacrificing its spellbinding storytelling. By packing the fairies, magic, and fantastical animals into a performance that clocks in under two hours, the play is perfect for children […]