ARTS Pick: Aurelio Voltaire

When national gothic icon Aurelio Voltaire isn’t penning one of his popular graphic novels or teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York, he’s on the road playing his unique brand of “dark cabaret” symphonic rock. He is currently on a 30-city tour with special guest Ego Likeness, so if you’re in the […]

ARTS Pick: The Mountaintop

Accomplished playwright Katori Hall left her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee to earn degrees from Columbia, Harvard and The Juilliard School, and then returned artistically in the 2009 London-based production of The Mountaintop to ponder the final hours of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. When the maid arrives with coffee in the Reverend’s dingy, diminutive motel […]

Reimagined: PCA finds new direction under Gram Slaton

“I take broken things and fix them,” explained Gram Slaton. This conjures images of fixer-upper houses or rusted-out bikes, but he’s not a repairman in the traditional sense. In fact, one of the main things that Slaton fixes are non-profit organizations. And as the new executive director of Piedmont Council for the Arts (PCA), he is […]

Film review: The Water Diviner finds beauty through tragedy

Nearly a century after the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915-1916, the national consciousness of both Turkey and Australia remain intertwined. The lingering effects of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) campaign led directly to the rise of the Turkish Nationalist Movement, while Anzac Day is considered a commemoration of a defining moment in Australian […]

ARTS Pick: Ryan Adams

It may sound strange to call Ryan Adams a music veteran, but it’s been more than 20 years since his first release with the revered alt-country band Whiskeytown. Solo since 2000, the prolific North Carolina singer-songwriter continues to make an impression on critics and celebrity gossip columnists. Adams’ recently released self-titled album has been lauded […]

May First Fridays Guide

First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many Downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. Listings are compiled in collaboration with Piedmont Council for the Arts. To list an exhibit, please send information two weeks before opening to arts@c-ville.com. First Fridays: May 1, 2015. City Clay 700 Harris St. Suite […]

ARTS Pick: The Addams Family

Sure, they’re altogether ooky, but can Gomez and Morticia carry a tune? Find out this weekend when the Albemarle High School Players bring The Addams Family musical to the stage. Based on Charles Addams’ gleefully macabre New Yorker cartoons, which also inspired a TV series and two movies, the show will have you snapping along […]

Historic lens: Gundars Osvalds rediscovers the Vinegar Hill neighborhood

Last summer, life-long photographer and Maryland-based software engineer Gundars Osvalds decided to hunt through his basement for old family pictures—and found a mystery. “In the last 12 years, I’ve taken more than 50,000 photos,” he said in a recent interview. “I have 10 terabytes of digital data. I don’t throw things away.” Amid the stacks […]