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 […]

ARTS Pick: Up the Chain

While Up the Chain has existed in various forms with a rotating cast of Philadelphia’s finest young hired guns since 2009, the one constant at the band’s core has been founder, frontman and lyricist Reed Kendall. And while the self-described purveyors of “neighbor rock” don’t offer explanation of the style, one can surmise that it […]

Album reviews: Ivan & Alyosha, Josh Garrels, Danny Schmidt

Ivan & Alyosha It’s All Just Pretend/Dualtone Records “If freedom is where we are standing/Something is desperately wrong.” This line from the opener “Something Is Wrong” sets the tone for the dynamic sophomore release from the Seattle quintet in more ways than one. Much of the album explores the tension between what makes us free […]

ARTS Pick: Langhorne Slim

After breaking into Rolling Stone magazine’s top 10 editor’s picks for 2004 with his song “Electric Love Letter,” Langhorne Slim went on to build a solid fanbase through relentless touring with a top-notch backing band (The Law), record an average of one new album per year and earn multiple television and film credits. The heartache is just […]

Dream life: Fielding Pierce Biggs’ glamorous runway celebration

Fielding Pierce Biggs was 12 years old when he got his first dress form mannequin. He picked it out while on a family trip to St. Louis and began draping fabric over it while still in the store. “I remember draping the fabric and having my mind blown. I felt like I could do anything,” […]

ARTS Pick: John Lilly

Long lauded as a lighthearted Hank Williams, award-winning singer-songwriter John Lilly strums original country compositions on acoustic guitar and mandolin that would satisfy any folk lover’s Americana thirst. Chicago-born and West Virginia-based, Lilly has six albums under his belt and tours internationally both solo and with the band Blue Yonder. This intimate concert with Lorie […]

Film review: True Story tells it a bit too straight

There is a sliding scale of effectiveness for movies based on true stories. At the upper end are films like Lawrence of Arabia, Goodfellas or City of God, where gifted artists at the top of their game have found meaning and inspiration in someone else’s life and have bent the facts in order to get […]