Perched on a wooden stool inside her McGuffey Art Center studio, Megan Elizabeth “Mae” Read looks around the room at her sketches—a roughly defined nude male figure, a sequence of grayscale charcoal portraits including one of a little girl with butterfly face paint—clustered together near the floor. “You know,” she says before taking a pause, […]
Perched on a wooden stool inside her McGuffey Art Center studio, Megan Elizabeth “Mae” Read looks around the room at her sketches—a roughly defined nude male figure, a sequence of grayscale charcoal portraits including one of a little girl with butterfly face paint—clustered together near the floor. “You know,” she says before taking a pause, […]
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? This is something that Jeff Gregerson has thought a lot about as he’s made music throughout his life. Gregerson, 33, played first in high school rock and jam bands, and more recently as one half […]
It’s easy to reduce your identity to before and after you have children when your whole life feels like one long haze of sleepless nights and diaper changes. But what happened to the person who came before? Do they cease to be? How do you reconcile who you’ve become with who you were when your […]
In a world where the touch of a finger delivers a meal, a song or a new pair of shoes, the passing down of traditions to make these things from scratch sounds quaint. But when experts and students come together for the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcase, crafters, makers and legions of DIY hipsters find plenty […]
Part puppet show, part musical, Avenue Q is about a recent college grad named Princeton, who moves into a rundown apartment in New York City. Written by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, and based on the book by Jeff Whitty, the audience goes along for the ride as Princeton discovers that his nice neighborhood friends […]
Alternative four-piece Swimming With Bears is on a mission. The Austin-based group has been tirelessly honing its groovy sound since releasing its self-titled debut EP in 2016. Energy and style, from smooth lead guitar riffs to driven bass lines held steady by slick rhythms, are the keys to SWB’s feel-good soul. The new single “French […]
With a blend of American folk and styles rooted in Latin America, Calexico, named for the southern border town in California, has a distinctive, playful sound. Vocalist/guitarist Joey Burns and John Convertino use Tex-Mex indie rock to approach current issues through melodies and lyrics. The band’s impassioned ninth album, The Thread That Keeps Us, is […]
Cutting right to the chase, Avengers: Infinity War is pretty damn good and may even be unpredictable for the Easter egg-hunting, online theory crowd —but how the hell do you even begin to describe a movie like this? Installment to installment, the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies work more or less as individual stories with just […]
Dave Moore believes in the sensuality of painting. “I want my paintings to look like paintings,” he says. “I am not trying to fool anyone into believing that an object is on the canvas. The painting is the object and the experience, whatever the subject may be.” A self-described “art history nut” who loves “all […]
When you imagine a mother, what do you picture? A woman up to her elbows in soapy dishwasher with a baby strapped to her chest or a toddler clinging to her ankle? A woman who wheels and deals like a boss until she sprints off to daycare? Or do you think of your own mother? […]