Film Review: Fast & Furious 6 is big, dumb summertime fun

Wow. Where does one begin? The insipid dialogue? Paul Walker’s non-presence? A plot that makes almost no sense? Stunts that defy the laws of physics? Nah. Let’s start here: I can’t believe how much fun I had watching Fast & Furious 6. Don’t get me wrong. It’s so absurd and stupid that it doesn’t really […]

ARTS Pick: Jason Ring

Known around the state as a one-man, country-bluegrass-blues band, Jason Ring improvises fiery, intricate loops on the guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, and bass. Ring grew up in Galax, Virginia, a town that echoes with tunes from the world famous Galax Fiddler’s Convention, and at age 5 he started picking his own brew of bluegrass, Piedmont […]

Live Arts hits home and heart with full force in August: Osage County

Beverly Weston, aging poet and professor, sits among overstuffed bookshelves and reflects on the sum of his life: a marriage bound by whiskey and pills, a career lost in the shadows of tortured art. He quotes T.S. Eliot—“life is very long”—to his newly hired, live-in housekeeper, a young Cheyenne woman named Johnna, and admits it […]

ARTS Pick: Holly Renee Allen

Singer-songwriter Holly Renee Allen (left) plays enchanting, vibrant, and lyrically intelligent music that captures the soul of the South. The Shenandoah Valley native has logged hours on the road, collaborated with some of Nashville’s heavyweights, and has the guitar string calluses to prove that hard work pays off with Big Love, the title of her […]

ARTS Pick: The Search for Good Tour

Josh Urban is on the search for good in the world, and this Friday, May 31, he’ll be looking for it in Charlottesville. His stop is part of  the Josh Urban Rail Tour, also known as “The Search for Good Tour-finding those who rock the world,” which involves playing music (a mix of blues, rock, and […]

ARTS Pick: Turnpike Troubadours

If you like to get down, the Turnpike Troubadours’ raw, blue collar energy is sure to speak to you. The Oklahoma quintet, featuring fiddle and bass, has become well-known in America’s heartland for its passionate authenticity and dynamic live show. Currently promoting a third studio album, Goodbye Normal Street, the rowdy and quick-witted Troubadours’ flinty genre-melding […]

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 […]