ARTS Pick: Michael Clem Trio

Folk lure According to the bio section on Michael Clem’s official website, he doesn’t take himself terribly seriously. The self-conducted interview posted there provides plenty of wit, and plays off of the overt self-promotion that permeates the business side of music. He hardly touches on his vast musical accomplishments—a long career with the popular folk-rock […]

ARTS Pick: RAW Road to Wrestlemania

Slammer time In case the new Die Hard flick didn’t cut it and you still need your fix of action with little to no plot, World Wrestling Entertainment brings us RAW: Road to Wrestlemania a great one. All the big names, from the perpetually shirtless John Cena to the cleverly named The Miz and the mysterious Kaitlyn, are bringing […]

ARTS Pick: Emily Dickinson After Party

Modern English Because Emily Dickinson could not stop for death, she’s making an appearance to celebrate her own work. This is excellent news for the poet Paul Legault, the man behind translating Dickinson’s 1,789-poem collection into modern, one-liners in The Emily Dickinson Reader. At the Emily Dickinson After Party commemorating his book’s publication, Legault takes the surreal opportunity to […]

Film review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Magically funny: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone exceeds low expectations The advertisements for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone make it seem like it will be the least funny, most egregious, and patience-trying movie of Steve Carell’s career. A movie comedy about Las Vegas performers and street magicians? News flash: The David Blaine jokes stopped being funny the moment […]

We cannot live without books: Festival hosts 200+ events over five days

Of the festival’s myriad non-fiction topics, one of the hottest will be Thomas Jefferson. This is Charlottesville, after all. Three separate programs focus on T.J., including Jefferson’s Legacies with Henry Wiencek and John Ragosta (Friday at 4pm at CitySpace). Wiencek’s Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves received much attention for its highly-charged topic. “There was so much about Jefferson I didn’t understand,” Wiencek said. “There’s a saying among authors, ‘I write to find out.’”

ARTS Pick: Mostly Cyrano

Nasal passages: Although Edmond Rostand’s theatrical classic Cyrano de Bergerac needs no other proof of success beyond the introduction of the word “panache” into the vernacular, the folks over at Play On! have done him another favor. In local playwright Peter Coy’s take, Mostly Cyrano, a troupe of actors prepares to tackle the gargantuan piece only to have its themes […]

ARTS Pick: Golden Banshee

Celtic couture King Golden Banshee is mysterious in the vein of traditional Irish folklore. With a limited presence online, the only information gleaned from the band’s Facebook description is a collective interest in Guinness. The five-piece counts flutes, fiddles, banjos, the bodhran, and tin whistles among its instrumental repertoire and uses them skillfully to recall […]