ARTS Pick: Mary Chapin Carpenter

On Sometimes Just the Sky, Mary Chapin Carpenter takes measure of her 30-year career through fresh renditions of songs from her original studio albums. Carpenter curated gems from her catalog that reflect her soul and trace the evolution of her songwriting, from award-winning country music to the intelligent folk-pop and orchestral collaborations that currently define […]

ARTS Pick: In the Forest, She Grew Fangs

Lucy knows about the sharpness of teeth and claws—years of high school torment have left her hollowed and unseen, even in the eyes of her concerned grandmother Ruth. After new friend Jenny rescues her from near-death, sudden dreams of howls and gore lead Lucy to a darkness she’s never known. Stephen Spotswood’s In the Forest, […]

Writing past wrongs: Author Jocelyn Johnson looks for new American truths

When local author and teacher Jocelyn Johnson started receiving Twitter direct messages from literary giant Roxane Gay, she thought to herself, “Something good is going to happen.” Just like that, a series of emphatic pings announced her arrival into a rarefied sphere: Johnson’s story, “Control Negro,” was hand-selected by Gay to be featured in Best […]

ARTS Pick: Keith Urban

Keith Urban’s latest project, Graffiti U, is a versatile album, deeply rooted in the country music of his youth. While Urban is known for infusing guitar chops and hard rock into his music, this album stays stylistically true to the songs of Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, and Merle Haggard, which he discovered in his father’s record […]

ARTS Pick: moe.

Early to the jam band party, moe. rose quickly on the hippie festival circuit of the ’90s, firing up crowds with its intricate percussion and ripping guitar riffs. Three decades of touring and 24 albums later, the Buffalo, New York, quintet is still playing to massive audiences—in May, its 17th annual Summer Camp drew more […]

Lost and found: Victory Hall Opera explores boundaries in The Forgotten

The story of “Hansel and Gretel” is a familiar one: the hungry children of a poor woodcutter are lost in the woods when they stumble upon a house made of gingerbread and sweets, enticing to their eyes and empty bellies. The house belongs to a witch who lures the children inside and captures them, intending […]

Fresh blood: An all-new Halloween sheds the plague of sequels

We’ve had Halloween sequels for decades. What’s different this time? The same thing that’s different in found footage, possession movies, even the Amityville franchise: fresh blood, literally and figuratively. For many of the slasher sequels and remakes of the ’80s and ’90s, it was difficult to tell what the filmmaker disliked more, the audience or […]

Arts Pick: Old School honors black educators everywhere

With Caruso Brown’s Old School, The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center gives a nod to Charlottesville’s black leaders, educators, and students. The play reflects Brown’s deep interest in Charlottesville’s black narrative and the lasting impact that these people, past and present, have had on the city. In the first act, an English teacher attempts to dissolve […]