The phrase “calm like a duck” comes to mind. It is late September, 11 days before the announcement of the lineup for this year’s 25th Anniversary Virginia Film Festival, and festival director Jody Kielbasa and his staff are scrambling to pin down films and featured guests. Kielbasa is a pretty high-octane guy. Former Virginia Governor […]
The phrase “calm like a duck” comes to mind. It is late September, 11 days before the announcement of the lineup for this year’s 25th Anniversary Virginia Film Festival, and festival director Jody Kielbasa and his staff are scrambling to pin down films and featured guests. Kielbasa is a pretty high-octane guy. Former Virginia Governor […]
Award-winning vocalist Natalie Cole has refreshed standards out of the Great American Songbook from Sinatra and her own father, Nat King Cole. With boundless vocal dexterity and a wealth of soulful emotion behind her lyrics, Cole is on tour supporting 2009’s Still Unforgettable, which harkens back to her ’91 Grammy Award for Album of the […]
Country megastar Eric Church operates in threes. Hat, sunglasses, and stubble are his distinctive on-stage accoutrements. Blood, sweat, and beers are not only a lifestyle for the devout Church-goers who come to his concerts, but the name of his record-breaking arena tour. Chief, his recent platinum album, is his third studio output. Church seamlessly weaves […]
Stanley Ann Dunham falls in love and marries a Kenyan student in the early ’60s. She struggles through a second marriage to a corrupt civil servant in Indonesia, and comes through it to work in anthropology and assist poverty-stricken women in third world countries. All the while she is raising the 44th President of the […]
The Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra has more than doubled its original 23-member size since its debut performance in 1996. This increase in membership has brought with it nothing less than musical growth and a series of memorable performances. Led by Music Director Dr. Peter Wilson, former conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, the group celebrates the […]
There’s a moment near the end of Alex Cross when the titular hero (Tyler Perry), while chasing a hit-man known as Picasso (Matthew Fox) through an abandoned theater, steps on some old 35 millimeter film.
The first thing I sensed after stepping inside Vacanti Violins on Fourth Street was a hush like I’d entered a shrine or a place of worship. The walls are lined with gleaming, caramel colored violins and the workshop area appointed with knives, planes, gouges, and scrapers of every shape and angle. Essence of varnish, wood, […]
When Kristin Gundred released her first home-recorded demos as Dum Dum Girls in 2009, she was part of an ongoing (and welcome) trend of young bands combining the dreamy pop of ’60s girl groups with the fuzz and grit of ’80s underground rock.
The Avett Brothers have enjoyed a trajectory of success since the indie-Americana crowd picked up on their album, Emotionalism in 2007. Known for energetic live shows and musical versatility, the brothers from North Carolina and their band of ace players can incite the audience into a frothing mosh in one song, and then break their […]
Landscape photographer Stacey Evans loves maps. She loves how they represent geography, the way they look, and the linear connections feed her interest in elemental design. “I look at maps quite a bit and I’m fascinated with maps,” said Evans.“I love knowing if I’m going north or if I’m going south. I don’t use GPS […]