UVA alum Sasheer Zamata gets serious on ‘Saturday Night Live’

Comedian Sasheer Zamata was a teenager when she realized that she wanted to make people laugh. All it took was a joke about a janky elevator. “When I was in high school [in Indiana], I did a government camp where students ran the government; we had to elect our officials and run for office,” says […]

Q&A with Gleason director Clay Tweel

Director of new documentary Gleason, Clay Tweel returned to his hometown of Charlottesville last week to debut his new film. Tweel, hailing from the Greenbrier neighborhood, currently lives in Los Angeles and has worked on two other major motion pictures, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) and Print the Legend (2014). Both […]

Music nonprofit wants to help locals unite in song

Rappity rap, rappity rap. A 13-year-old tapped out a beat on a metal folding chair. Rappity rap, rappity rap. Dressed in black jeans, black untied high tops and a black Michael Jordan jersey over a white undershirt, he slumped forward, his restless fingers wandering over the edge of his chair, his gaze wandering up to […]

Found letters put C’ville at the heart of a German opera

Since its debut in 1911, opera-lovers have considered Der Rosenkavalier a masterpiece of the repertoire. The German comedy follows the story of the Marschallin (Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg) as she decides to end her affair with a younger man and save another woman from an unhappy marriage. More than a century later, on the […]

WriterHouse Fiction Contest Runner-Up

Aim By Claire Rann I see a pale circle of flesh. He is holding me toward the side of her neck, a few inches away. The skin looks tired and freckled. It quivers. He did not take me out until a few seconds ago. His hand had been curled tightly around my grip in his […]

ARTS Pick: Emmylou Harris with Lyle Lovett and his Large Band

The stars align for a special evening when legendary country sweetheart Emmylou Harris, whose massive career includes collaborations that span 48 years, teams up with Lyle Lovett and his Large Band to benefit the Charlottesville Free Clinic. Expect the unexpected during a show filled with Lovett’s Grammy Award-winning, quirky Americana flair and Harris’ “shimmering, yearning […]

ARTS Pick: Forlorn Strangers

The five songwriters who make up the Nashville-based American roots outfit Forlorn Strangers carefully blend their distinct styles into a cohesive sound that’s driven by danceable rhythms, upbeat instrumentals and tight harmonies. The band celebrates its first full-length, self-titled album, produced by Grammy Award-winner Phil Madeira, and is queued up for a debut on this […]

ARTS Pick: Advanced Anatomy

Who knew that our great state of Virginia had a favorite stripper doctor? Dr. Ophelia Derriere claims the title while taking a break from her medical residency to examine a few bumps and grinds in the burlesque show Advanced Anatomy. Derriere, who gets backing from the New Orleans jazz act Soggy Po’ Boys, says that […]

Diet Cig’s Alex Luciano dances to a DIY beat

Don’t hang out with Diet Cig if you’re not willing to risk arrest or have your exploits immortalized in song. That’s not to say that every night the self-proclaimed “slop-pop” duo spent on the road over the past two years ended in flashing lights. It simply means that as in life, anything can—and will—happen. “I […]

Film review: Suicide Squad’s cast of characters fail to impress

David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is DC’s first attempt at unshackling its Extended Universe from Zack Snyder’s hollow style and unrelenting gloom, with an eye to demonstrating that building a franchise around the Justice League is a worthwhile endeavor on its own and it’s not just piggybacking on Marvel’s formula for The Avengers. On both counts, […]