ARTS Pick: Jack White

Jack White may be one of the last real rock stars on the planet. While the swaggering old guard have all but been replaced by skinny jean-clad hipsters playing banjos and Macbooks, Mr. White’s a study in musical progress. His stripped-down garage days with the White Stripes led into new bands, movie roles, and collaborations with the likes […]

Matt Pamer design gets approved for West Main Street mural

The Charlottesville Mural Project, launched by Ross McDermott in 2011, has taken on the task of beautifying the city through a series of public murals, with the goal of producing two a year. They’ve already brightened Monticello Avenue with Avery Lawrence’s colorful mural of interlocking hands on the north face of the Ix Building, as […]

Comedienne Margaret Cho talks “30 Rock,” songwriting, and being Asian

Margaret Cho is a dragonslayer of sorts. She’s had showdowns with drugs, alcoholism, weight, racism, and sexual discrimination which in turn resulted in activism, recovery, and a successful comedy career. Fearless and offensive behind the microphone, she crafts smart, shocking, sexually and politically charged humor that makes the audience squirm while they nod, cheer, guffaw, […]

ARTS Pick: Cate Le Bon

Cardiff, Wales native Cate Le Bon burst onto the international scene as the opener for Gruff Rhys. She has since released a pair of critically acclaimed albums, become the darling of experimental folk-pop, and is currently on a 21-date, one-month tour of Europe and the U.S. With her soft accent and dark proclivities, she’s spooky, haunting, outright […]

At Madwoman, lunatics are running the asylum with love

If you’ve been on the Mall much recently, you’ve likely come across The Madwoman Project. It’s hard to miss. Fifteen minutes or so before the show gets started, a pink-haired girl (Opal Lechmanski) can be found methodically sweeping the square created by the Third Street intersection. The subtlety of her peculiarity, her cobbled-together skirt, her Sisyphean […]

ARTS Pick: King John

Here’s a neat idea: If your theater is running a modern classic and getting great turnout and lots of buzz, why not run the sequel? And heck, since the first cast was so good, just let them play the same roles in the sequel, and show them both in rep in case people didn’t see the […]

ARTS Pick: David Gray

Full of sweet, lonely sentiment, made all the more accessible by his unique vocal delivery, David Gray is the perfect kind of pop singer, free of phony pretense and no pretender to the throne–as the arena-filling superstars begin to age themselves out of the vocation, he steps comfortably into the void. Sarah Jaffe opens. Thursday 9/20 $35-59, […]

Film review: Finding Nemo 3D

The 3D re-release of Pixar’s 2003 undersea saga may or may not be a bid from director Andrew Stanton to make back some of the cash his John Carter lost at the box office. Or it may just be de rigueur for controlling partner and distributor Disney to slap a 3D stamp on its most […]

ARTS Pick: Ben Arthur

The college rock scene has no shortage of acoustic guitarists, so it is required of any polo-shirted crooner to bring something unique to the table—which is exactly why UVA alum Ben Arthur is getting some real buzz. His approach is two-fold: a mature process that has resulted in a poignant, experimental sound and a dogged […]