First Fridays: November 4

First Fridays: November 4 First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. Brielle DuFlon enjoys making textured work that she says “stirs our basic responses and impulses,” and her exhibition “We Made You This”—a series of composed collections of curated, […]

Album reviews: Wilco, The Limiñanas, Vulfpeck

Wilco Schmilco (dBpm) Wilco has always been a welcome sight, but I’ve never particularly invested much in Jeff Tweedy and his buds—Wilco’s ninth album, Star Wars, came out last year and I totally missed it. So here’s the 10th, and I’m feeling like a fool and a pushover, because Schmilco’s a total pleasure. Tweedy’s voice […]

ARTS Pick: Jackie Greene

Highly regarded guitarist Jackie Greene returned to his own writing and recording after years of gigging in the big leagues with The Black Crowes, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Gov’t Mule—to name a few. Greene, who has been on the road promoting Back to Birth since its release in 2015, says: “I wanted to make a […]

Lucius doubles down on sound and style

By the 1960s, American artist Mark Rothko had risen to prominence for his color field paintings, which featured two solid rectangles hovering just shy of the picture’s borders. With a small painting, the viewer is acutely aware that he is on the outside, looking in. Music was deeply important to Rothko, and with his color […]

ARTS Pick: Frank Turner

While making his sixth album, Positive Songs for Negative People, British folk-punk rocker Frank Turner thought a lot about debut albums. A debut is a band’s introduction into the world, and Turner says he wanted to “try and make a record that had that young, exciting feel, full of piss and vinegar” that truly captures […]

Jack Reacher sequel hits the wall

No one expected a sequel to 2012’s Jack Reacher, a somewhat successful yet not terribly memorable franchise starter for Tom Cruise. Even more surprised by the announcement of a sequel, evidently, were the filmmakers and cast, leaving Jack Reacher: Never Go Back as one of the most rushed, slapdash, confusing and arguably unfinished movies with […]

ARTS Pick: Bumper Jacksons

Swinging from New Orleans big band to Appalachian folk is all in an evening’s set list for the Bumper Jacksons. With frontwoman Jess Eliot Myhre jamming on clarinet and her homemade washboard, the group nails traditional numbers from jazz greats such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Toss in the clever originals […]

Telegraph Comics grows in size and diversity

Telegraph Comics co-owner Kate DeNeveu loves watching first-time customers walk into her store on the Downtown Mall. They’ll wander in, eyes scanning the bookshelves near the door. They’ll take a few more steps into the shop and suddenly, their faces will change, says DeNeveu. They almost always ask, “Are all of these…comic books?” Yes, all […]

ARTS Pick: Kamalakiran Vinjamuri

Not only has Kamalakiran Vinjamuri been mastering the Carnatic approach to violin since age 7, he’s also composed a ballet, earned a black belt in karate and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for participating in the largest Kuchipudi group dance with more than 5,000 others. The young classical musician from northern Virginia […]

ARTS Pick: Charming Disaster

“People bring me casseroles and pray for his immortal soul / They think I’m in widow’s weeds, but pity’s the last thing I need,” Ellia Bisker sings on “Ghost Story.” She’s a woman who’s lost her lover, but not for good—she’s living with his ghost, who caresses her hair and wraps his arms around her. […]