ARTS Pick: Salad Days

Back in the 1980s music scene, the West Coast was all about the glamour of “hair metal,” while the embryonic stages of rap and DIY punk rock were taking shape in New York and Washington, D.C. A new documentary, Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, D.C., examines the movement and takes a look […]

Sewn together: Quilting fosters growth in the juvenile justice system

The vibrant color hits you first—long swaths of it—before your brain can synthesize the spectrum as quilts, bright fabrics cut and pieced together in geometric patterns and draped against high walls and room dividers. Then you notice the buzz—the palpable warmth of the gallery’s attendees. Three of the exhibited artists, young men in suit jackets […]

Down but not out: Local singer-songwriter Clarence Green stays on the beat

Downbeat Project, a local fusion band with a rainbow of influences, is technically broken up. Last year founder Clarence Green and his “core guys,” Zack Blatter and Gerald Soriano, decided to put things on hold. The band’s third album, begun in 2013, still hadn’t materialized, and to paraphrase Green, life got in the way. But […]

ARTS Pick: Hip Hatchet

Jack-of-all-trades Philippe Bronchtein crafts rustic, witty Americana as the one-man folk band Hip Hatchet. His years on the road have fueled earnest lyrical examinations of classic folk tropes like hard life lessons and the trials of romantic love. While he currently roots himself firmly in the singer-songwriter tradition, Bronchtein’s style also shows traces of his […]

Film review: Fury Road takes the Mad Max series to new greatness

There have been plenty of good/above average blockbusters in recent years that leave you thrilled, invigorated, entertained and properly conditioned to buy the eventual mega-deluxe Blu-ray special edition. But Mad Max: Fury Road is no ordinary blockbuster. You won’t just be entertained. You’ll wonder why anyone has ever bothered to make a movie that isn’t […]

Fiction contest alert!

Deadline extended to noon on Wednesday, June 17! Fiction writers, fire up your laptops (or sharpen your pencils, if you’re old school)—it’s time for the C-VILLE Weekly and WriterHouse short fiction contest with renowned author Jill McCorkle as final judge. One adult and one youth winner will receive a one-year membership to WriterHouse and a […]

ARTS Pick: Nick Vatterott

The L.Y.A.O Comedy Showcase has made Charlottesville a more frequent option for smaller tours featuring up-and-coming comics. Nick Vatterott is one of them, and though you may not recognize him by name, chances are, you will soon. Vatterott’s comedy is quick and sharp, and he utilizes his improv experience on stage, acting out stories and […]

Album reviews: Hannah Miller, Andrew Osenga, Mumford & Sons

Hannah Miller Hannah Miller/self-released Hannah Miller is one of the most atmospheric singer-songwriters around. Her penchant for mixing dusty, molasses-thick vocals with stark imagery is evident on her new record, as well as the understated fashion in which the songs play out, making for a nice dichotomy. The slow-burning roots rocker “Help Me Out” mirrors […]

Velázquez to Picasso: Russ Warren channels Spain in the Blue Ridge

“The landscape around my Charlottesville home is remarkably like that of Oaxaca, Mexico,” muses Charlottesville-based artist Russ Warren. It has “a spirituality emanating from the atmosphere and the mountainous landscape that seems magical.” To be honest, despite having spent much of my life in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this is not a comparison I’ve heard […]