Carl Anderson plays Charlottesville with familiar company

Countrified singer-songwriter Carl Anderson no longer calls Charlottesville home. He’s not planning to record his next album locally at White Star Sound, like he did his first one. And he no longer tours with a hometown band behind him. But for one night, he’ll make an exception. When Anderson takes the stage at The Southern […]

McGuffey’s life drawing sessions turn perspective on its head

On a recent Saturday morning, C arrived at McGuffey Art Center to pose for a life drawing session held in an artist’s basement studio. She knew to expect a challenge. Robert Bricker, the artist running the session, posed C (not her real name) and another model together in a box with uneven walls jutting out […]

ARTS Picks: In the Shadow of Women

Philippe Garrel’s In the Shadow of Women, the Virginia Film Festival’s third installment of its year-round series, portrays work, home and love lives colliding. The veteran French new wave film director uses stark black-and-white cinematography to contrast a male versus female perspective on the dissolution of a marriage wrecked by mutual infidelity. Exploring the gray […]

Chroma pop-up show brings the life of bees into focus

Artist Elsabe Dixon doesn’t remember how she learned to raise silkworms. But after she successfully encouraged 8,000 of them to spin silk in the hollows of her experimental living sculptures, the South African native began to wonder. “I did a little bit of research and realized that I’m a descendant of the French Huguenots, and […]

Album reviews: Parquet Courts, Sonny and the Sunsets, Summer Flake

Parquet Courts Human Performance (Rough Trade) In a “Kids in the Hall” skit, a sarcastic- sounding partygoer struggles to explain that his vocal tone is just a tragic defect, haplessly sneering, “Oh, no, I really want to be your friend!” Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage might know the feeling. His deadpan declamations are easily labeled ironic—and […]

Live Arts closes its anniversary season with Dreamgirls

Right now, there’s a debate raging about the American dream. What does it look like? Who is it for? And what will we sacrifice in order to achieve it? The debate itself isn’t new. Art has always asked these questions. And Live Arts offers a poignant example with Dreamgirls, which caps off the theater’s 25th […]

Film review: Money Monster takes a swing at the financial industry

If you’ve so much as surfed past CNBC on your way to something actually worth watching, you’re no doubt familiar with the smugness of what might be called the financial entertainment industry. The most visible of this ilk is Jim Cramer of “Mad Money,” the apoplectic insider with his sleeves rolled up, surrounded by props […]

ARTS Pick: Allen Stone

Self-labeled as “a hippie with soul,” artist Allen Stone draws on personal experiences in the church choir and inspirations such as Stevie Wonder for his latest album, Radius, which emphasizes tight instrumentation of funk, pop and R&B influences with an air that is simultaneously introspective and inquisitive. Stone shares the stage with Phoenix-based folk-rockers Jared […]

ARTS Pick: David Tewksbury

Rock poet David Tewksbury has worked the Charlottesville singer-songwriter circuit for years and issued a series of EPs. Now, with the help of longtime DMB collaborator Butch Taylor, he’s pulled together a band for his first full-length album, Sun is Rising. While composing the tracks on acoustic guitar, Tewksbury envisioned more than a solo album. […]

The UVA Issue: The final words

As excited fourth-years take their final walk on the Lawn and up the portico steps of the recently refurbished Rotunda, they will no doubt be reflecting on their years at the University of Virginia. Just in the last school year, UVA has made headlines for scientific discoveries, Olympic athletes who have roamed Grounds, and improving […]