ARTS Pick: The Saturday Giant

Columbus, Ohio native Philip Cogley plays innovative art rock via his one-man project The Saturday Giant by using live looping and intricate multi-instrumental layers of indie pop-rock to craft hundreds of unique performances each year. Cogley’s strong belief in the relationship between freedom and imperfection steers his music clear of pre-recorded samples and results in […]

Big Air’s Rob Dobson rises from the ashes of The Fire Tapes

As the line-up of the excellent local rock band The Fire Tapes disintegrated last year, bassist Rob Dobson began looking for a new musical outlet for his songwriting efforts. He found a collaborator in drummer Greg Sloan, who currently holds down the kit for Ha-Rang and Dwight Howard Johnson, and the duo formed Big Air (which […]

ARTS Pick: Richmond Symphony Lollipops

Introduce your little ones to the beauty of classical music with the Richmond Symphony Lollipops during an hour-long experience designed for young ears. Associate Conductor Erin R. Freeman breaks down the orchestra into bite-sized nuggets of sound in order to develop an understanding of how instruments work together to create compositions. An instrument “petting zoo” […]

ARTS Pick: The Big Lebowski

Don your bowling shirt and pony up for White Russians at a screening of the 1998 Coen Brothers’ classic The Big Lebowski. Jeff Bridges stars as L.A. slacker “The Dude,” who seeks recompense from his millionaire name-twin when angry thugs mistake his identity and urinate on his rug. The laid back bowling enthusiast becomes enmeshed […]

Film review: Love blooms awkwardly in a hostage situation in Labor Day

The story told in Labor Day, about Adele (Kate Winslet), a divorced and depressed mother to young teenager Henry (Gattlin Griffith), and their long holiday weekend with stranger Frank (Josh Brolin), is absurd. See, Frank is an escaped convict who politely but firmly takes Adele and Henry hostage. Then somehow he changes their lives for […]

Charlottesville teen sits center stage at South African festival

It’s December 7, the height of the South African summer, and the excitement is palpable as the gates open at a warehouse-turned-music-venue in the popular tourist getaway of White River, Mpumalanga. Concertgoers gravitate to the largest of three stages at the Route 40 Music Festival, as the drummer of the newly formed band Cosmic River […]

ARTS Pick: Avers

Relaxed roots influences tinged with psychedelica mark the sound of Richmond, Virginia’s Avers. The collaborative quintet is derived from various musical projects including HyperColor, Farm Vegas, Mason Brothers, The Trillions, and The Head and the Heart. Despite its impressive indie pedigree, the group hardly considers itself a side project as it tours in support of […]

Rita Dove talks about a new film on her life and work

Poetry might be the least ostentatious of the arts. It’s a private affair conducted between a writer and a blank piece of paper. Michelangelo was said to seek out the hidden shape within the stone when he was creating a sculpture. What reserves of patience and focus do you need to find the hidden words […]

ARTS Pick: United Nations of Comedy

Lots of funny things happen when the United Nations of Comedy brings its talent-filled lineup to a local stage—and most are courtesy of Funnyman Skiba. The Washington, D.C. comic has become a repeat player in the UN of C’s effort to promote diversity through the common ground of laughter. He returns along with the “Taiwanese […]

Deerhunter’s manic dance with praise and punk

Deerhunter’s second album, Cryptograms, made it a household name in indie rock circles. Released in early 2007 by the legendary and long-running Kranky record label, the album features an appealing mix of sprawling and dreamy guitar sounds, anchored by slow-building, bass-heavy grooves and distorted, distantly cool vocals. It sounds almost as if the Atlanta-based quintet […]