ARTS Pick: The Men

The Men are a Brooklyn-based quartet of rockers who, since 2010, have cranked out an album a year for the esteemed Sacred Bones label. While their earliest efforts sounded like a raw Joy Division bootleg, the band has quickly grown and expanded its palette, adding eclectic influences, its vocals softening and becoming lazily anthemic as […]

Film Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

A great trick director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman pulled with Star Trek (2009) was to shake the Etch-a-Sketch and start over. After all, how does one deal with the monster that is the Star Trek universe? One doesn’t. Abrams destroyed, on screen, nearly everything that came before him. It’s disheartening […]

ARTS Picks: Charlottesville SOUP

Dig in to tasty, homemade fare, mingle with influential thinkers and makers from the local art scene, and help launch a new creative community project. Based on the successful Detroit Soup micro-granting dinner party model that was created by The Garage co-founder Kate Daughdrill, the first Charlottesville SOUP raised over $1,000 for the Textile Cooperative and turned away 200 hopeful […]

First Annual Day of Dance makes moves on Saturday

The streets will sound with tapping and twirling, leaping and jigging this Saturday, May 25, as the first annual Charlottesville Day of Dance takes over the Downtown Mall. This family-friendly event features an international array of dance forms and fitness practices, from Ireland to India, ballet to Nia. Megan Hilary, the festival’s founder, says the […]

ARTS Picks: The Steel Wheels at The Southern

Entertaining audiences across the country with a heavy brew of original music, The Steel Wheels roll strong with influences from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and old-time musical weaving of four-part harmonies, upright bass, fiddle, and mandolin. Saturday’s show opens with a set by Ana Egge and serves as a sneak preview of the upcoming […]

Warm welcome: Group show at McGuffey invites colorful observations

If you’re in need of an instant mood-elevator, I suggest you head straight over to the McGuffey Art Center where dazzling light and vibrant color (and some pretty nifty painting) is on full display at a group show featuring the work of Karen Blair, Jessie Coles, Priscilla Long Whitlock, and Krista Townsend. Still lifes, landscape, […]

ARTS Picks: George Melvin Tribute at Fellini’s #9

It’s been four years since we lost George Melvin, but the mark he made on the local jazz scene remains indelible. An accomplished touring musician, bandleader, and all around entertainer, Melvin delighted audiences for over 40 years. Matty Metcalfe kicks off the George Melvin Tribute, followed by performances from Sammy Horn, Skip Haga and the Bees […]