ARTS Pick: Wild & Scenic Film Festival

The beauty of the Blue Ridge is an unparalleled testament to nature’s splendor, and the Wild & Scenic Film Festival showcases that magic through a dazzling collection of documentaries from around the region. The festival dives headfirst into the wild, capturing breathtaking moments while examining its delicate relationship with humanity. Wednesday 4/16 & Thursday 4/17. Wednesday: $10, […]

Interview: The ongoing innovation of jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter

Like most great jazz musicians, guitarist Charlie Hunter never gets complacent in his craft. Since emerging from California’s Bay Area in the early ’90s, the innovative ax slinger has defied convention by expanding the parameters of a guitarist’s role. The versatility starts with the ingenuity of his instrument, a custom-made, seven-string guitar that allows Hunter […]

Music Resource Center lines up a big-name bluegrass show

Larry Keel, Virginia bluegrass legend, has lost it. Fortunately, he thinks he can find the old magic anytime he wants. “My beard and I have recently become separated,” Keel said. “But it will be back.” Over the years, Keel has sported a number of facial hairstyles, perhaps none more recognizable than the salt and pepper […]

ARTS Pick: Scooby Doo Live!

The curious group of unlikely pals and their tongue-tied talking dog have made the leap from screen to stage in Scooby Doo Live!, a classic caper played out in song and dance. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and of course the eponymous pooch arrive in the Mystery Machine to help solve a serious ghost problem. Tuesday […]

If We Shout Loud Enough

Three graphic designers decide to start a band… It sounds like the beginning of a joke about Brooklyn, but is actually the basis of the inspirational documentary If We Shout Loud Enough about Baltimore’s now defunct trio Double Dagger. Started as a concept band, Double Dagger gained a passionate following and reinvigorated the Baltimore music […]

Horse Feathers celebrates 10 years of fluctuation

Bandmates come and go. It’s just a fact of the music business, according to Justin Ringle, who’s been fronting the Portland, Oregon-based indie folk outfit Horse Feathers since 2004. Most break-ups are under the radar—just musicians going about their professional lives, rather than the splashy teeth-gnashing feuds the media eats up. “I used to hate […]

The abundant, accessible art of Warren Craghead

“I recently saw a book of Picasso’s work where they published everything he did, and between two awesome paintings were about a hundred that weren’t so great.” Warren Craghead laughed with what sounded like relief. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, right. This is the real world. I shouldn’t feel so bad about myself.’” The Charlottesville-based cartoonist […]

ARTS Pick: Danny Brown

It may be the shrill voice of Danny Brown that catches the ear of rap enthusiasts, but it’s the lyrics that make him a modern hip-hop icon. The Detroit legend is brutally honest with his music, offering audiences the chance to view life as it occurs in an impoverished neighborhood. The versatile nature of his […]

Film review: The latest from Marvel Comics is the best yet

One of the surprises about the glut of movies based on Marvel comics is their consistency. All of the movies are at least watchable—there are no duds like the Marvel movies from the 1980s (anyone remember 1989’s The Punisher starring Dolph Lundgren?). Even the movies that aren’t great (Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 2 […]

The Bridge dots the landscape with ‘Public Artists’ habitats

Apart they are a solitary beehive, a rogue bicycle stand, an enterprising greenhouse, a living gramophone, a micro library, a community gallery, an artist studio, a school garden shed, and a different kind of waiting room. Together they are Habitat City, a microcosm of Charlottesville culture embodied in nine 6’x 6′ sheds. The project, led […]