Vince Staples FM! (Def Jam) Long Beach rapper Vince Staples’ third album is 22 minutes long—sadly. Staples sounds great, his humor veering from malevolent to nerdy on a dime; producer Kenny Beats offers a bunch of satisfying trunk rattlers; and guest spots—from E-40, Earl Sweatshirt, and Kamaiyah among others—are all on point. “FUN!” rides a […]
Vince Staples FM! (Def Jam) Long Beach rapper Vince Staples’ third album is 22 minutes long—sadly. Staples sounds great, his humor veering from malevolent to nerdy on a dime; producer Kenny Beats offers a bunch of satisfying trunk rattlers; and guest spots—from E-40, Earl Sweatshirt, and Kamaiyah among others—are all on point. “FUN!” rides a […]
“No matter what her subject, whether it’s her own yard, landscapes, or those magnified close ups of the viburnum or hydrangea,” says Les Yeux du Monde Gallery Director Lyn Warren about Annie Harris Massie, “They’re all bathed in light that unifies them, abstracts them and de-materializes them.” In addition to her virtuosity at capturing light, […]
The classic heist movie gets a stylish, topical treatment with Widows, cowritten by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) and Steve McQueen (Shame, 12 Years a Slave), who also directed. It could be seen as a gender-swapped caper flick, but with McQueen’s philosophical eye and Flynn’s take on societal expectations, Widows turns into an examination of gendered […]
Viewed purely on its own, Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind is a masterpiece by one of the world’s greatest filmmakers, proving to us that even long after death, he is not out of new ideas. It joins the ranks of Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ and Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz as a […]
Through a collaboration between faculty and students, the UVA Department of Drama’s annual Fall Dance Concert offers a variety of works that explore sound, space, and movement. In Benevolence, guest choreographer Chien-Ying Wang examines communal bonding by “investigating the effects of a dysfunctional family, community, congress, and so forth,” she says. Other pieces look at shifting […]
Bluegrass’ roots grow deeper with Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen, whose instrumental finesse has won acclaim from a 2015 best bluegrass album Grammy nomination to International Bluegrass Music Association’s Instrumental Group of the Year awards in 2014 and 2016. Monster mandolinist Solivan and company promise another simmering set of tunes with the release of If […]
After months of involvement with SURJ and Charlottesville Resistance Choir, author Adam Nemett saw the statue debate become a community catalyst during the events of August 11 and 12, 2017. “I have tremendous respect for the anti-racist and anti-fascist heroes that were out there on the streets putting their bodies on the line to protect […]
In Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, Dean Cindy Wreen is fed up with a lot of things: her tiny college’s financial difficulties, plans to close an obscure natural history museum, and monogamy, to name a few. While her New England town battles to save a historically inaccurate woolly mammoth exhibition from a dark fate, […]
Susannah Hornsby heads the locally assembled bluesy supergroup Susie & The Pistols for a PACEM benefit that also includes Rob Cheatham, Chlöe Ester, Andrew Neil, Rusty Speidel, and Justin Storer. The roots-tinged, Americana-laced lineup is part of Jason Burke’s Six Pack Songwriter Series, and a testament to the spoils of living in a talent-rich music community. […]
When New York-based comedian and actress Ashley Gavin met Jerry Seinfeld, she asked him when he last bombed a show. Seinfeld’s answer? “At a party last New Year’s Eve.” “I bombed a show last week. Everybody bombs,” Gavin says. “People think it stops happening.” She feels less likely to fall flat when performing stand-up comedy […]