Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall doesn’t really need to be “reviewed” in the traditional sense. It’s a dumb movie about monsters invading medieval China and the brazenly anachronistic army tasked with staving it off, like someone fell asleep during The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and attempted to recreate the Battle of Helm’s […]
Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall doesn’t really need to be “reviewed” in the traditional sense. It’s a dumb movie about monsters invading medieval China and the brazenly anachronistic army tasked with staving it off, like someone fell asleep during The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and attempted to recreate the Battle of Helm’s […]
Ben Hardesty is roaming Charlottesville. The frontman of indie folk- pop act The Last Bison moved to C’ville last August. Since then, the musicians that once comprised the band in its former home base of Chesapeake have scattered. Only six months on the new terrain, Hardesty is still trying to discover where he can get […]
The 2013 documentary The Punk Singer chronicles the rise of the riot grrrl movement in the ’90s and focuses on the revolution’s central figure, Kathleen Hanna. During a highlight of the film, Hanna discusses how she and her bandmates decided to form Bikini Kill even though none of them could really play an instrument. For […]
Tenor sax legend Houston Person counts Charles Brown, Lena Horne and Lou Rawls among his long list of collaborators, but for a large part of his career he was best known for his partnership with vocalist Etta Jones. Their musical pairing lasted for more than 30 years, included extensive touring and accounted for many of […]
Using photography, film, oil, acrylics and embroidery, “Empowering Women of Color” showcases women both as creators of, and prominent subjects in, art. “It came together in a natural, organic way,” says artist and organizer Emma Brodeur who graduated from UVA in 2015. Six months ago she was embroidering a portrait on a friend’s jacket and […]
In September, WVTF ’s “Roots Down” host Luke Church gathered four area songwriters—David Tewksbury and Willie DE of Charlottesville met Roanoke’s Phil Norman and Corey Hunley in a live show that united the performers through instant chemistry. In a musical equivalent of finishing each other’s sentences, the session found the musicians harmonizing, swapping verses and […]
While passing through southeastern Wyoming on tour, Lowland Hum’s Daniel and Lauren Goans borrowed a friend’s car to drive the short distance to Vedauwoo, a place known to the Arapaho as “Land of the Earthborn Spirit” in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. The Goans drove past Vedauwoo’s hoodoos and outcrops of billion-year-old Sherman granite. They […]
Not only does Funnyman Skiba keep things rolling between bits during the annual United Nations of Comedy show, he cultivates new talent while maintaining a stand-up career of his own. Skiba has shared the stage with Martin Lawrence, Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart, and is referred to by peers as a comedian’s comedian. The Washington, […]
Feeling bored with, and restricted by, his instrument, classically trained bassist Mark Silverman traded his bass for a homemade rig he calls The Magic Pipe, and started slapping out and looping bizarre, futuristic, psychedelic funk songs with titles like “The Moon is Disgusting,” “Buttmachine,” “Suckatash” and “Laser Beans.” Silverman, who performs as That 1 Guy, […]
How do you possibly improve on the grace, skill, class and economy of John Wick, the film that wrote the book on making impeccable filmmaking technique appear totally effortless? Strange as it may seem, the answer is do exactly the same, only better. John Wick: Chapter 2 contains all of the typical downfalls of modern […]