ARTS Pick: The Rocketeer

The record-breaking success of 1989’s Batman green-lit a wave big-budget retro-adventure films, including the outlandish, neon ensemble piece Dick Tracy; the brash, moody grotesquerie of The Shadow; and the feather-light, straight-faced camp of latecoming entry The Phantom. Nestled amongst them is 1991’s The Rocketeer; though it was considered a modest disappointment upon release (Disney thought […]

Showtime, Charlottesville: Japandroids are in town

Let’s get this out of the way: The name Japandroids doesn’t mean anything. Both members of the Vancouver-based rock band happened to come up with two-word names before their first billed show. Neither of them liked the other’s suggestion, so they combined them. The result is a play on words that Brian King and David Prowse expected to change before […]

A Recipe for Success

On March 1, 2013, Justin Drew Bieber tweeted that he had just experienced the “worst birthday.” It was later revealed that the vague message had something to do with a club’s owners throwing Bieber and his pals out because they suspected some were underage. Bieber disputed this, and I dispute that this qualifies as a “worst” […]

ARTS Pick: A Night at the Museum

After hours Your childhood dream of sneaking past the museum guards and playing among the art can finally come true. Spend the evening at UVA’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection with friends, Devils Backbone brews, musical accompaniment by the Judy Chops, Downbeat Project, and The Hill and Wood at A Night at the Museum. Explore the new exhibition, “After theDreamings: 25 […]

Album reviews: Slim Loris, Eluvium and Eisley

Slim Loris Future Echoes and Past Replays/Record Union Swedish indie Americana rock group, Slim Loris, has made one of 2013s most surprising albums thus far. Euphoric, humorous and bittersweet, Future Echoes and Past Replays is a success. The band ensnares you with the lively and whimsical “Fear of Flying,” or the subdued and contemplative “While I Breathe,” […]

LOOK3 Pick: Nick Nichols

Michael “Nick” Nichols’ years of work for National Geographic have taken him around the globe, providing an up-close look at some of the few corners of the world that remain untouched by human civilization. His recent work in the Serengeti uses state-of-the-art advances in photo technology to investigate lions, documenting their world and their behaviors […]

Slumber Party Massacre: A Screaming Good Time

For the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph, Rich Tarbell and Brian Wimer have created a series of charming and nostalgic narrative photographs. The series, “Slumber Party Massacre,” is essentially a remake of the 1982 film of the same name. Tarbell and Wimer have obviously altered the story and how we view it by shooting photographs rather than film. This […]

LOOK3 Pick: Martha Rosler

Though Photoshopping and digital retouching have become common practices in both journalistic and creative photography, Martha Rosler’s recent work foregrounds the process, creating deliberately artificial digital collages that create jarring juxtapositions of familiar imagery. Her 1960’s collages combined imagery from the Vietnam War with domestic images from advertising, and her recent work continues that same theme, […]

Adjusting the lens: Photographer Lola Flash deconstructs stereotypes

The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center encapsulates the seminal role played by the quest for and the denial of public education in the history of African-Americans. Promoted by Thomas Jefferson as key to the success of democracy, education was denied to black people in Southern states between 1800 and 1835. Despite this, African-Americans managed […]